Jing-reed's Musings from Thailand

The Soundscore of Inception

 

Hans Zimmer and Johnny Marr talk about the sad romance of 'Inception'

The following video is a live performance at the Inception premiere in Hollywood.

The track is "Time" from the Inception soundtrack.  Hans Zimmer (piano) and Johnny Marr (guitar).  And if you listen carefully, you will notice that the score had its 'inception' in the 1940's with Edith Piaf's - Non, Je ne regrette rien.  Clever trick!

   Hans Zimmer & Johnny Marr LIVE at the Inception Premiere 

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And the original..........

   Edith Piaf - Non, Je ne regrette rien 

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Pastor Scott Lively, Obsessive Lowlife

 

"More savage than natural men!"

"One of the more contemptible anti-gay activists is Reverend Scott Lively, a true liar for Jesus who considers it his sacred mission to rid the world of homosexuals. He was proud to have inspired the Ugandan death penalty for homosexuality law (although in the face of the outrage that generated, he backed off, claiming they should give them the choice of prison or gay conversion "therapy").

His other claim to fame is that he is a holocaust revisionist. He has written a book, The Pink Swastika, in which he claims that Hitler and his entire inner circle was gay, that the atrocities the Nazis committed were driven by the immoral impulses of the gay Nazi elite, and that the well-known anti-gay laws and mass murders of homosexuals in the Third Reich were just a cover, a distraction to conceal the fact that Nazis were all gay. Oh, and also that the reason they were murdered is that gays are intrinsically violent, anyway. ......

Scott Lively reveals to Jason Jones of the Daily Show that Adolf Hitler was a homosexual, and Nazis used to meet in gay bars. Also he reveals to the world what a truly dispicable human being he really is.

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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Gay Reichs
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

"French Roast"

 

French Roast is an exquisite animated short created by Fabrice O. Joubert. It is Joubert's first short film but managed to get itself nominated for an Oscar in 2010. 

The animation is set circa1960 in a Parisian cafe.  An uptight and snobbish businessman makes the horrifying (for him) discovery that he has forgotten to bring his wallet.  Mortified, he bides his time by ordering more coffee - to admit that he has no money is by far the worse option. He turns away a rather hirsuite and smelly homeless man who asks him for money, but finally, because of a more than curious turn of events, it is the homeless man who is unselfish enough to pay the businessman's bill thus saving him from embarrassment.

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BREAKING NEWS — New Date for the Rapture

 

....and the news is that the Rapture will occur on 21 May, 2011, and the world ends on 21 October 2011.  Harold Camping has figured it all out.  Seems that he had figured it all out for the 1994 Rapture [though an elaborate process of passages from the Bible, numerology, and mumbo-jumbo, which in case you haven't noticed, never occured.  Slight miscalculation, but NOW he has the real date.  

Harold Camping and the End of the World

"I was sitting in the covered dining area, outside of a Sonic a few weeks ago, eating a burger. For those of you who may not be familiar with Sonic, their gimmick is that they are supposed to be a traditional 1950's drive-in burger and malt shop, with servers who deliver food to your car. It's not the best burger in the world, but hey, they serve banana-chocolate malt shakes, so I'm good.

My meal was interrupted when this old woman with a cane walked up to me. She must have been close to 70 years old, with white hair, wrinkled apple cheeks, a slow walk and a very big purse.

"Excuse me, can I talk to you about God?" she asked sweetly. . . . . "

Someone really ought to take the time to make a list of all the many failed Rapture dates and all of the nutcases that believed them.  

Subjective Opinion . . .

 

"The one thing you can never be wrong about is your own opinion. It's when you start giving your reasons  that you lay yourself open. Many years ago there was a critic in Chicago who said "The Valachi Papers" was a better film than "The Godfather." "Phil," I told him, "film criticism is a matter of subjective opinion. Only rarely does it stray into objective fact."

Now THIS is why I adore Roger Ebert.  He recognizes the value, and indeed the fact, that nearly every time we express an opinion it is based on 'subjective opinion'. No matter how much objective data we may have amassed on any subject, we eventually express a personal, 'subjective' opinion.  This posting is not just about appreciation of films, but rather a reflection on nearly all of human behavior.

Whole lotta cantin' going on

[Roger's review of 'Inception' and how others have reviewed it.  Excellent reading.]

"Can a film be great without question? Is it demented to find fault with "Inception?" Or "Citizen Kane?" Not at all. Scolds have emerged in recent days to smack at those critics who disapproved of "Inception," but as a fervent admirer of the film I can understand why others might not agree. In fact, the reasons cited by David Edelstein in his much-attacked negative review seem reasonable. I don't agree with him, but that's another matter."

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A favorite reader comment:

"I confess that I often fall into the habit of showing disdain and contempt for people who dislike movies that I believe are obviously great and beyond reproach. How can someone not see the value in a work that is so obviously, to me, brilliant.

But then I calm down after exhausting all insults about their taste and intelligence and try to probe into what it was they didn't like about the film. And while unfortunately most people can't speak coherently about what it is about a movie that rubs it the wrong way or confess that they just don't "get it" every now and then I come across someone who is able to succinctly and effectively criticize something that I hold quite dear in a way that while it doesn't in anyway dim my passion for the work in question, does force me to look at it in a different way that more often than not eventually yields greater appreciation. And therein lies the subjective beauty of art.

But, like I said, most fall into the latter category and leave me dismayed and saddened that not everyone can be as enlightened as I. ;) "

Jon Stewart on 'Wikileaks'

Jon Stewart Mocks Media For WikiLeaks Reaction

The release of over 90,000 secret military documents  on the war in Afghanistan has woken the media up to how the war is really going, and last night Jon Stewart got to weigh in on the scandal himself. As any sane person would think, Stewart speculated that a security breach of this magnitude must have been carried about by highly efficient, almost ninja-like informants who used stealth tactics to obtain the information and leak it to the site WikiLeaks.org.

Oh, how wrong he was. No, these extremely sensitive documents revealing the Afghanistan war's many problems were leaked by none other than an Army intelligence analyst with the screen name "BradAss87." And his stealthy operation revolved around downloading the intelligence to an erased Lady Gaga CD, all the while lip syncing to the songs while it saved. This led Stewart to ask, "How does a soldier sit around lip syncing to Lady Gaga all day, and not run afoul of 'don't ask don't tell'? That has GOT to be a substitute for telling, no?"

While Stewart sat in disbelief over the new intelligence, including information on suicide bombings, civilian deaths, and even how Pakistan is helping insurgents in Afghanistan, what really set him off was the media's nonchalance. Stewart showed clip after clip of pundits essentially saying the information is "nothing new." Stewart fired back; "I'm not responding to the 'newness' of the reports - I'm responding to the 'fucked-upedness' of it!"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Best Leak Ever
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Carl Sagan And His Legacy of Wisdom

                   The earth as seen from space. 

Wisdom in the words of Carl Sagan with some insightful images.

     Carl Sagan: Consider Again That Pale Blue Dot 

Intelligent Design on Trial

 

"Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial", PBS/Nova, captures the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pennsylvania in a landmark battle over the teaching of evolution in public schools. 

In 2004, the Dover school board ordered science teachers to read a statement to high school biology students about an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution called "Intelligent Design" [proved to be Creationism in a new package], the idea that life is too complex to have evolved naturally and so must have been designed by an intelligent agent/ creator/ god. The teachers refused to comply, and both parents and teachers filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the school board of violating the constitutional separation of church and state. 

This is the trial where Prof. Behe, of the Discovery Institute, admitted that if the definition of science was broadened to allow ID, it would also sweep in Astrology. This is the trial which saw Prof. Kenneth Miller completely dismantle Behe's "Irreducible Complexity". This is the trial where Buckingham and Bonsell went from saying "we don't know where the books came from" to the revelation that Buckingham had taken up an offering in his church, banked the money, wrote a cheque to Bonsell, Bonsell gave it to his father and his father bought the ID books. They had comitted perjury in court denying that they had anything to do with the purchase of the books. This is the trial where a number of key witnesses from the upper echelon of the Discovery Institute pulled out at the last minute and therefore would not defend the claims of intelligent Design under oath.

This PBS/Nova documentary is also about how the good christians of Dover were capable of deception, lying and issuing death threats to anyone not in favor of their cause, and even threatened the federal judge of the case.

Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial 1of12 

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Honda meets U Haul

 

We all need an occasional chuckle.  Another exceptional video of what happens when human [in this instance, American] stupidity is given free reign, or "Honda meets U HAUL'". Be prepared to hit the 'Replay' button.  

brians honda EPIC FAIL 

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My favorite comment about this video:

"Ugh, when the camera is pointed at the grass it looks like there's a stroller laying there. These people have reproduced... what a depressing thought."

Stephen Fry

 

Stephen Fry reveals new BBC TV series

"Planet Word, a five-part series, will cover language – but it's 'a bit of a secret', Fry tells 14-year-old interviewer

He's used to people hanging on his every erudite word. Now Stephen Fry – actor, author, quizmaster of QI, enthusiastic tweeter and celebrated brainbox – has announced that he is to make a series for BBC2 about language.

"It's a bit of a secret but the BBC have commissioned me to do a five-part series on language, called Planet Word," he said. "Language is my real passion. So, I'm going to Beijing to interview the man who invented Pinyin, a phonetic version of the Chinese language. He's 105 years old … if he dies on me I'm going to be so annoyed."

Fry revealed details of his highbrow new project to 14-year-old Eden Parris in an interview for a Radio Times feature that enabled young readers to meet their TV heroes.

In a conversation that ranged from Harry Potter to Wagner, darts and porridge oats, Fry said: "I haven't seen a good documentary about language, where it comes from, how we speak it, the variations of it, whether languages are dying, whether we are better at speaking than we were. There are so many questions."

Fry – voted most intelligent man on TV in 2006 by RT readers – said his favourite words were Anglo-Saxon, "like bundle – what a lovely word", although followers of his Twitter feed are used to a livelier, more playful turn of phrase; last week he used "wowser", "brokenated" and "selfspank". A devotee of Oscar Wilde, he has presented two series of Fry's English Delight on Radio 4, discussing grammar and idiom. ...."