I am too lazy to sort
Illuminating love falls from the skies
To water the illusions in our eyes
All that we desire and all we fear
All our aspirations grow unclear
We feel endlessly
Beyond all gravity
Who are we? What we see? O, I can’t comprehend
Who are we? What we see? Woah, I can’t comprehend
Thievery Corporation, “All That We Perceive”
Link of the Day [9.16.08]
You would think a blog titled, “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” would talk about plenty of other things except naval battleships. You would be wrong. Robert Farley, while also an excellent political blogger, done a series of posts on battleships of various navies of the world. He wrote good historical information into those posts. He compares various navies use of the battleship, he writes of the glory days of the battleship, and he got me interested in building little scale models of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
I have the Yamato waiting to be built. I just need some paint.
http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2006/11/sunday-battleship-blogging-hijms.html
After their Oscar winning triumph, No Country For Old Men, the Coen brothers come back with a dark comedy, their bread and butter. Some will note that the overtones of the movie resemble Fargo in its pitch black humor of money, murder and mayhem. Of course, you wouldn’t know with the ridiculous ad campaign on tv. It’s not a comedy, but a thriller with very light comedic touches.
What some would also note is how closely it also resembles one of their worst works, The Ladykillers. The archly dark comedy is there and the laughs seem forced from the setup to the letdown. It’s not a comedy, but a thriller with hamminess that’ll raise you cholesterol level.
It is mainly about money, and how that affects everyone. The lack of it drives two of the sillier protagonists. Having too much seems to be the wife’s and Clooney’s excuse for sack diving. John Malkovich is uptight because of being a rich, white guy of the intel branch. And every one is paranoid and acting wrong on misinformation.
I did not like it one bit. Because it reminded me too much of their later earnest comedies, The Ladykillers, especially. I was hoping for their early slapstick: Raising Arizona or Hudsucker Proxy. They’ve really evolved and matured. Now if I can get to understanding them again I’d be happier watching them in the theatre.
2 of 5 stars.
Everything that’s real and everything unrealized
All infinity starts falling from your eyes
We are fluid dreams, vivid memories
All uncertainty leads to eternity
All that we perceive in every mystery
Who are we? What we see? Oh, I can’t comprehend
Who are we? What we see? Whoah, I can’t comprehend
Thievery Corporation, “All That We Perceive”
Link of the Day [9.15.08]
Pressed for time. I don’t know what to link. I think you’re on your own today. How about you link in something good today? Put them in the comments.
O, by the way, here’s an article about Apple’s exlcusionary policies that may begin to annoy the development community.
“We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.”
Brian Rogers, McCain spokesman
(ht talkingpointsmemo.com)
How do we think? What are emotions? What makes my personality different from yours? How is it that I am an individual with particular tastes, particular beliefs, and particular obsessions? Why are mine different than yours when you, like me, are flesh and blood, skin and bones, mind, body and heart?
The other day, my co-worker brought up the topic of OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. She related a story of a friend who she thought had it. I thought it strange. She thought it strange, too. All I could come up with is the physical imbalance of chemicals in her friend’s cranium causing a short circuit in the way this person thinks. This imbalance causes the friend to think obsessively on one thing even though they know it too be a curious way to behave. I found my self saying that it is inexplicable to understand what makes this imbalance of chemicals manifest itself as a thought to keep obsessing about a particular thing.
Pointing out the chemical imbalance is something my mom, a psychiatrist, would say. I don’t think that is all there is too it.
Our body takes in nutrients: protein, electrolytes, amino acids, and uses it to make our bodies function properly. Not only our muscles, but our mind and nervous system of which the brain is the primary organ. We all get them. Our brains and body convert them in a similar fashion. Yet, we turn up as individual personalities. How does this happen? And is it a matter of the difference amongst us at the quantum level?
I’m sure scientists have been searching for the answer. I’m also sure that this is a philosophical question too.
We are all human, but we are all different.
Link of the Day [9.14.08]
Is liking anime sexy girl figurines a strange sexual fetish? Or does this article not get the otaku culture from which the figure collecting hobby arises from?
I get the feeling that the author is attempting to assume a provocative stance on the strangeness of a foreign culture being brought to our shores by the manga and anime industry in order to criticize it. He wants to point out how ugly it can be or how very strange the fetishism found in the otaku culture is. While he does make a point on how slack the censorship is in the Japanese culture, he makes it sound very prurient which I don’t think it is.
I don’t know. At times, it is strange, and at times, it is rather sexy. Yet, pornographic it is not. Unless you look at all the hentai manga and anime.
I bet you wondered how I knew
About your plans to make me blue
With some other guy that you knew before
Between the two of us guys
You know I love you more.
Marvin Gaye, “Heard It Through the Grapevine”
Link of the Day [9.13.08]
I’ve got nothing so far today, and it’s early morning. Or late at night, for those night owls.
So here’s a junk link for you to read. I haven’t read it, but the article title, “The Problem with Biking in America,” pretty much says it all.
There are many problems, the first being that we don’t take the bicycle serious as a form of transportation. We don’t think about using to commute to work or school, or to go shopping or out for the evening. It’s seen as a fitness equipment, and when was the last time we loved our fitness equipment. Hopefully, we can change our perceptions and make the bicycle a good, reliable transportation mechanism.
http://bygonebureau.com/2008/08/25/the-problem-with-biking/
(ht kottke.org)
