Culture and Warflicks

I heard an interview with Walter Murch, the editor on Apocalypse Now, about revisiting that film as "The village attack scene" otherwise known as the "Ride of the Valkyries" scene as it was incorporated into the recent film Jarhead. When Apocalypse Now" was made it was thought to be an anti war because of "The horror...the horror". In the movie (and the book) Jarhead the troops get riled up by watching Apocalypse Now and huming along to the Ride of the Valkyries.

Recently I got the soundtrack to Jarhead, on the recomendation of a friend. I was looking around the net for more information about the sound track when I came accross this enigamtic comment on a review page of CD Universe.
Looking for something more
It had some of the main titles on there, but not all of the songs that I was expecting were on the CD.
Submitted by megamp in Kandahar, Afghanistan

Going Out of Print

A long account about how copyright laws are being hijacked for the benefit of large multinationals or what can be worse an author's ex-spouse's step-grandchildren by her third marriage.

From Boingboing

Fly Swatting Frog Game

On Newgrounds is a new game called Bughunt . In this game you swat flies with your tongue.

Hamas and other non-democratic parties

The terrorists won big in the recent PA election continueing to put paid to the idea that elections are the neccessary part of democratization. Hamas like other non-democratic parties has lots of parts that are not found in mature and stable democracies. Hamas like the PLO, ANC, and the IRA has its own flag and army. Like the others it is described as having an armed wing. They are terror groups with political wings as some sort of figleaf of legitmacy.

There are two compenents to well functioning modern "western like" societies. There is democracy and the rule of law. The problem is that if societies go directly to democracy with out improving their rule of law the result is anrchy. Multiparty democracy results only multi-army states.

Here is Hamas supporters waving the Hamas Party Flag. When will Hamas change the PA flag from the PLO party flag to their party flag.

Don't Be Evil Part n

It is good to see that Google is refusing to comply with a fishing expedition by the dirty minded US Dept of Justice. The sexually obsessed lawyers have put more resources in cracking down on "legal" pornography then on other more pressing concerns. Americans haven't charged anyone with employing illegal immigrants in the last five years.

Google resistence is in sharp contrast to the kowtowing that Yahoo made to the ChiComs. Yahoo turned over the name behind an email account to the "chinese authorities". Would you turn over a name to the gestapo, chinese commies killed more than the Nazis and they are still in power.

Ted Rall's View of Cultural Evolution

Ted Rall's view of cultural evolution from print to screens. He describes the internet as something you have to create crap for. I am trying to do my part of adding to the net by creating crap.

Star Trek Recipes

Years ago at a storefront improv theatre down on Queen Street I had Romulan Ale. It was a fan version of the Star Trek drink.

While watching Star Trek:DS9 last night I was looking around for details of something called a "Black Hole", an eye opener, I looked around for for Star Trek recipes. The great thing about the web is the more nerdy a subject is the easier it is to find. I found a trove of Star Trek recipes, now offline but which can be replaced with K'Tesh Klingon Recipes. Gagh and Bloodwine are listed as well as non-Klingon potables such as Romulan Ale. A cocktail recipe is listed for Bloodwine which seems more than a little booze and Everclear. Next time I'm watching Klingons I'll try a glass of port

Great Blues Lyrics #1

I was listening to a boxset of BB King, King of the Blues, when I heard a great line. The song was Recession Blues from 1958, the same late 50's recession that killed the Edsel. Blues lyrics cut and pasted from Harry's Blues Lyrics.

Yes, I can't afford no liquor,
all I can buy is beer and wine

The History of Brass Technology

In a recent Early Music program , January 7 2007, was devoted to horn technology. Here is a screen scrape from the page for this program. This lecture/concert answered a lot of my questions as a long time brass player.

Here is a link to the program.

The History of the Horn

Saturday 7 January 2006 13:00-14:00 (Radio 3)

Roger Montgomery describes and demonstrates the progression of the Horn from Cave to Concert Hall, taking in a Tibetan Monastery and a Swiss Alp on the way.

Music to include Va taciti from Handel's Julius Caesar, Mozart Duet for two natural horns, Dauprat Duo and a Divertimento by Gallay for the Clagget patent horn - every home should have one.

More Bad Taste from Ted Rall

More disturbing satire from Ted Rall.

Jesus is a popular figure for statirists and comics. In TV series South Park Jesus, the son of God and the host of a cable access program has a boxing match with Satan. The entire town bets on Satan over Jesus. Satan in the red trunks 7'8" weighing over 500 pounds fought Jesus in the white trunks 5'8" 150 Pounds. Satan took a dive and won everyones money.

A newspaper in Denmark published some cartoons about big Mo'. Now the Muslim world is very upset.

Click on cartoon to enlarge.

Christmas Flash, tastseful and otherwise

There alot of anusing and diverting seasonally themed flash cartoons and games. That are also alot of horrible disgusting crap hacked up maladjusted siocopaths. You know people with sick minds who can't spel.

Christmas: a Documentry:
This is a little mocumentry about the working conditions at the north pole. The animator of this peice says he influenced by "the Office" there is a little bit of Aardman here as well.

The Twelve Pains of Christmas:
This flash is a negative version of the the Carol. The first verse is "buying a tree" with several different trees being offered.

Santa's Army:
A standard nice positive carol plays while Santa leads his troops into battle against all of the world. Nice use of fascist iconography.

Suicide Santa:
Suicide Santa resembles oneof those early arcade games. Actually alot of flash are retreads of earlier 8 bit games with some additional creepy feature. In this case Santa(s) is trying to kill people.

Finally one Christmas flash without any creepy sophpmoric humour.

Cluck of The Bells:
a choir of chickens sing.

Jedi story in SHWI

Recently all over world people are listing their religon as Jedi in census forms. Here is a little post from SHWI suggesting that Dick Cheney as well as being unpleasant in normal ways is also a Sith Lord. Here is way tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much information on the Sith from Wikipedia. Which kinda of proves the point that the web in general and Wikipedia in particular are very good sources of nerd knowledge.

Update: Here is the story of the guy who politely requested that Cheney commit a anatomical impossibility.

Straving Terrorists

When the Israelis withdrew from Gaza they left a world class commercial farming sector. The greenhouses of Gaza were very productive, they produced 3/4 of Isrealis vegetables and exported $100 million worth of produce. The greenhouses were bought and paid for. Unfortunately as the Isrealis left the Gazans reverted to traditional Arab wealth creation, theft. The Greenhouses were trashed and looted.

Now according to a blog I follow, Dhimmi Watch, the Gazans are begging for the Israelis to come back.

Ha Ha

Cool New Ads

Lately I have been regularly checking out an ad site called Bestadsontv. This site is from the antipodes and is focused on ad industry. There are many sites online that have the occasionly witty and amusing ad like IFilm. There is an American TV ad archive that hosts ads from past decades that you can access after paying stiff fees. Bestadsontv is ad industry site that gives credit to all the various creatives involved.

Here are some recent notable ads. There was a recent ad from Space, the scifi channel from ChumCity. A school teacher is shown teaching Klingon language, grammer and the batleth. Here is an AIDS awareness ad from Nike in South Africa. what is interesting about this ad is way that it is both a PSA and recognizable Nike Ad.

Complete Bach

BBC3 is celebrating christmas by playing every thing that JS Bach wrote. There are going to spend the next 214 hours on Bach.

Here is the main page for BBC3 Bach Christmas.
Here is the schedule for BBC3 Bach Christmas.
here is a link for BBC player.

Countering the Jihad in Sydney

In the reporting of the recent unpleasantness in Sydney there was a lot of emphasis on the "racism" of Australians. The riots were said to be against "persons of middle eastern appearance" who happened to be moslem. All the coverage focused on beastliness of unhyphenated Aussie.

Very little of the coverage focused on the inability or unwillingness by the moslem rapists to understand and accept western culture. A society that needs the chador and purdah to restain its men does not will prepare its members to spend any time on a beach. Then there is the problem of moslem crime generally. Here is an interesting and alarmist report about moslem gangs in Sydney by a retired cop. The report comes from a literary magazine.

George Frederick Handel

I listened to an interesting program about George Handel and his favorite charity, the London Foundling Hospital. It was on a program on BBC3, The Early Music Show. The program dealt with the music that Handel wrote for the benefit of the orphans.

This gets to one of my pet peeves. At what point after long decades of occupation does an artist, musican, scientist or whatever begin to identified with his chosen country. Handel spent most of his life in England. Listz, French-Polish, spent his entire adult life in France, shouldn't he be considered a French composer rather than a Polish composer who never composed anything in Poland. Whistler painted in England, and Madame Currie spent her productive years, the last 43 out of 67, in Paris.

The Plight of the Terrorist Refugee

On the Current I listened to a sensative interview with a PLO refugee. She was a non combatant member of a terrorist organization. Her lawyer, Barbara Jackman, kept talking about "popular" organizations, which equates murderous cabals with fan clubs. The Terrorist Refugee is here without her husband because the husband was caught using forged documents.

At this point the refugee can return to the hellhole of Gaza. A lawless slum where the ammunition has fallen as food costs have gone up. A consequence maybe of the orgy of looting of the greenhouses of gaza. Allowing stonethrowers to attack the already purchased greenhouses was not wise.

The terrorist refugee should be happy that her life goal of self government of palistinians, or was that conquest of Israelis, has been fulfilled in the Chaos of Gaza.

Tasha Kheiriddin and the future of the rebranded Conservative party

I was disappointed to hear angry spitter Tasha Kheiriddin on Sunday Morning. Whenever I hear or see her on public interest shows she always seems to be angry at the mere concept of "public interest". Her most appalling slur was how politics and policies that concentrate on the public good are "statist". Conjuring up images of police states when what she really means that private wealth and their interests are not sufficiently indulged.

The problem with the new Conservative Party is that the old Progressive Conservative Party was killed so that the Reform Party could wear its skin as camouflage. If the Conservative party was composed of people like Hugh Segal and Joe Clark they would be the government now. Instead they are composed, like the Reform Party, of angry cranks, with a split between angry religious cranks and angry economic cranks. Only the occasional leavening of old PCs allow for an impression of a party with fitful sanity.

Onetime supporter of Progressive Conservatives, longtime opponent of the Reform Party.

Star Trek and its Base

I came accross this Promo for Star Trek: Enterprise. It plays with the strerotype that trekies, or trekers are a bunch of loners living in basements. After posting this I an going to watch star trek, in my basement apartment.

Bit Torrent link for No More Star Trek.