Sights and Sounds From the Past and Present

That time of year again.

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It shouldn't make any difference, but I'm really irritated by The Sight and Sound magazine top 10 best movies ever. It's the list that only comes out every 10 years, the one Roger Ebert stewed over. Citizen King was the top film for 40 years running until it was replaced by vertigo in 2012. This year Jeanne Dielman replace both of them. What movie? Yeah, I never heard of it either. The list of people who could vote expanded from 800 to 1600, and apparently enough of them had an artificial quota of at least one film directed by a woman, doesn't film that nobody ever heard of his number one. And frankly, it sounds unwatchable to me. It's a problem that not enough films have been directed by women over the years, but that doesn't mean one of them gets to be considered the consensus best movie ever made. Or rather, I guess it does, but it cheapens the whole thing. It can't be taken seriously anymore can it? Films are being judged according to something other than the actual film, namely the genitalia and melatonin of the director. Anything we watch, we should pretend we don't know who it was directed by. Films can stand on their own, and should. This has really haunted me, and yes, it shouldn't!

December 3, 2023

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I'm watching Edward Scissorhands with my kids. I just looked it up and Johnny Depp only says 185 words the whole film. That wasn't the most impressive thing on the list though... Ryan Gosling only spoke 116 words in Drive. Two of the greatest performances in film history as far as I'm concerned. When accepting his lifetime Oscar Charlie Chaplin famously said, "Words seem so futile." True.

December 3, 2021

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Vincent Price's daughter picked out Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.

December 3, 2021

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The Myth of Fraud, and the Reality of Fraud Fraud

Trump recently said this about Barr, on his statement that he's seen no proof of massive fraud that would change the election: 

"He hasn’t done anything, so he hasn’t looked. So, they haven’t looked very hard. Which is a disappointment, to be honest with you, because it's massive fraud.”

If Trump's still saying that there's massive fraud, with no proof for fraud, that's the "Fraud Fraud"- a fraudulent case for fraud. You see Fraud Fraud everywhere these days.

All through this transition I've see people accepting as a starting point that there is massive fraud. The lack of proof is only seen as evidence that the fraud that exists just hasn't been discovered YET. 

The lack of any proof should only be seen as a reason to not believe it exists to begin with.

Trump is simply lying, to protect his brand, and if he undermines the integrity of the election in the process- so be it! What does he care??? Remember when he claimed that there was fraud when Ted Cruz won the Iowa Caucus in 2016? The guy doesn't care, this is just what he does.

It's a problem though. People take this stuff seriously. They feel disenfranchised, and they have guns. Just yesterday someone threatened to take me out... their words... for pointing out that Barr sees no evidence, so there's no chance that Trump has better evidence. 

Barr would be the one to give him the evidence. It would only be in Barr's best interest to share the info, if it existed. He'd get to remain Attorney General! So there's no reason to believe it exists. 

Or to put it another way, "Oh come on! I mean, DUH!"

I've seen supporters today saying that they knew Barr was part of the Deep State all along. Really??? Could have fooled me! Look how far they've fallen. The current loyaly test is- will they support Trump remaining in power despite any evidence that he won?

If not, to hell with them, doesn't matter how much they respected them yesterday. Or "pretended to respect" them would be more apt. All that matters is their subservience to Trump.

Of the 70-some million who voted for him, I believe half would support him no matter what. If he executed someone on 5th Ave., they'd think he must have had a good reason to do it.

What percentage will feel so disenfranchised, and believe Trump so perfectly, that actually take up arms to defend an election they truly believe he rightfully won? Maybe 1%? If so, that's 700,000. That's an army. That guy who threatened me will do it gladly. Like I said, it's a problem. 

It's moral test after moral test these days. 

John Stuart Miller said, "Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

It's often paraphrased and misattributed to Edmund Burke as, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Hannah Arendt said, "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil."

You see the picture I'm painting. People and societies who have disregarded these principles aren't well-regarded by history. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones whose blind obedience to the leader trumps all, so to speak.

I don't know the next loyalty test but all of my money is on- will they follow him to Jonestown? Maybe they already did and are just awaiting their orders. Time for those still holding on to this Fraud Fraud nonsense to recognize they're following a false god and scramble into the woods.

December 3, 2020

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My car seat belt alarm now goes off at random times even though I have my seatbelt on. This gives me the incentive to drive around without a seatbelt then get the alarm over and done with. 

Why is it so satisfying to discover a perfect irony like that? That's weird. How could evolution explain our appreciation for discovering irony?

December 3, 2018

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I see... so after a million idiotic tweets, one finally crossed the line by admitting obstruction of justice. "Oh no no no, that wasn't me, it was my lawyer who sent it out." Wow, smart lawyer! Or perhaps a lie??? Nah...

December 3, 2017

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Apparently the US government will pay you to live in the ghost town of Garnet, Montana. Trouble is, you have to work in the gift shop sometimes. Oh, and ghosts wander around at night, particularly during the winter months when it gets snowed in. Emma and I visited back in 2000.

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Hunter S. Thompson, Hell's Angels- “Some people will tell you that slow is good – but I’m here to tell you that fast is better. I’ve always believed this, in spite of the trouble it’s caused me. Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba…”

No thanks!

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People who think facts aren't as important as what people believe might want to try a thought experiment- imagine jumping off a cliff and believing you won't die.

Dan Rather: https://www.facebook.com/24085780715/posts/pfbid02Y6mnXgbDPVVwVMCv2okuuRa8uqHVWg5X47KcZMBn99vM5TtsXRvuhJDQq2fQwyZQl

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You want to know what's difficult- burying a fish in the rain, holding a shovel in one hand and a baby in the other.

December 3, 2014

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Tickling my month-old daughter until she pees: cruel, unusual, or hilarious? (Poor thing can't even laugh yet, she can only wriggle.)

December 3, 2013

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Just ran a m/13 and I'm beat! You never heard of an m/13? You know, a thirteenth of a marathon. Two miles. What did you say? No big whoop? Yeah, I guess you're right. You people are hard to impress.

December 3, 2011

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Beard and mustache championship in NYC tonight. If there's a tornado, imagine the knots.

December 3, 2011

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I dreamt of a children's toy similar to the one where you turn the dial, pull the string and it makes an animal sound. This toy would play George Carlin monologues and randomly stop. To get it started again one had to yell a curse word into it. Now to call up Hasbro and become a millionaire.

December 3, 2011

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My Darling Clementine was released on this day in 1946.

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On this day in 1968- THE ELVIS COMEBACK SPECIAL!

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On this day in 1979, 11 fans of The Who were suffocated in a rush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati.

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A soil sample was taken from Times Beach, Missouri on this day in 1982, that was later found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.

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On this day in 1984– the Bhopal disaster, one of the worst industrial disasters in history. A leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others, some 6,000 of whom later died from their injuries. 

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In a meeting off the coast of Malta on this day in 1989, Bush and Gorbachev released statements indicating that the Cold War would end.

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Joseph Conrad was born on this day in 1857. From Hearts of Darkness:

"No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone."

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Ingmar Bergman's cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, joined us on this day in 1922.

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Ozzy Osbourne joined us on this day in 1948. Do you know what he wants played at his funeral? In My Life by the Beatles.

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Amanda Seyfried was born on this day in 1985, Twin Peaks' Becky Burnett.

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Al Strobel left us today, Twin Peaks' One-Armed Man.

Through the darkness

Of future past

The magician longs to see

One chants out

Between two worlds:

Fire walk with me

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Robert Louis Stevenson left us on this day in 1894, at the age of 44.

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."

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Madeline Kahn left us on this day in 1999.

Elizabeth, to The Monster:

"Honey, did you see I put another hamper in the bathroom? This one's for your shirts, the other's just for socks and poo-poo undies."

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Other notable birthdays- Ferlin Husky (1925), Julianne Moore (1960)

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Stanley Kubrick's black and white photos of New York

http://flavorwire.com/235494/stanley-kubricks-black-and-white-photos-of-new-york

December 3, 2011

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The Onion- Rumors Of Extramarital Affair End Campaign Of Presidential Candidate Who Didn't Know China Has Nuclear Weapons

http://www.theonion.com/articles/rumors-of-extramarital-affair-end-campaign-of-pres,26801/

December 3, 2011

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On Jeremy Scahill's Dirty Wars

Great film! A must-watch. (If I must fault it for something, it's that Jeremy Scahill is a dead ringer for Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, so sometimes it's almost hard to take him seriously.)

http://www.democracynow.org/special/jeremy_scahill_and_dirty_wars_on

December 3, 2013

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Who’s Really to Blame for Fake News

Look in the mirror, America.

BY NEAL GABLER 

"One thing’s for sure. On this as on so many issues, Trump and his people don’t mind simultaneously holding conflicting positions—in this case, “there was massive fraud and also there shouldn’t be a recount”—and they expect voters not to mind, either."

http://billmoyers.com/story/whos-reallyto-blame-fake-news

December 3, 2016

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Jean-Luc Godard, 90 years old today.

https://youtu.be/SqOJaGM-wQg

December 3, 2020

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Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God, Vol. I: Primitive Mythology:

"Mythology––and therefore civilization––is a poetic, supernormal image, conceived, like all poetry, in depth, but susceptible of interpretation on various levels. The shallowest minds see in it the local scenery; the deepest, the foreground of the void; and between are the stages of the Way from the ethnic to the elementary idea, the local to the universal being, which is Everyman, as he both knows and is afraid to know. For the human mind in its polarity of the male and female modes of experience, in its passages from infancy to adulthood, in its toughness and tenderness, and in its continuing dialog with the world, is the ultimate mythogenetic zone––the creator and the destroyer, the slave and yet the master, of all the gods."

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Ernest Hemingway- “Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.”

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David Hume- "When I hear that a man is religious, I conclude that he is a rascal."

Haha!

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Voltaire:

I should like to know which is worse: to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgarians, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley -- in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered -- or simply to sit here and do nothing?'

That is a hard question,' said Candide.

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

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Jon Stewart- "People's senses of humor tend to go about as far as their ideology."

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Garry Shandling- "Dogs lick themselves and then we let them kiss us on our face. Why don't we just lick the dogs for them and skip the middle man?"

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Sarah Silverman- “Someone told me that carrots are good for your eyes. What they failed to tell me is that you have to take them orally.”

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Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were your wife, I'd put poison in your coffee."

Winston Churchill: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."

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Twain- "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well."

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Woody Allen- "Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television."

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Sagan- "You see, the religious people — most of them — really think this planet is an experiment. That's what their beliefs come down to. Some god or other is always fixing and poking, messing around with tradesmen's wives, giving tablets on mountains, commanding you to mutilate your children, telling people what words they can say and what words they can't say, making people feel guilty about enjoying themselves, and like that. Why can't the gods leave well enough alone? All this intervention speaks of incompetence. If God didn't want Lot's wife to look back, why didn't he make her obedient, so she'd do what her husband told her? Or if he hadn't made Lot such a shithead, maybe she would've listened to him more. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why's he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He's not good at design, he's not good at execution. He'd be out of business if there was any competition."

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Vonnegut- "Enjoy the little things in life because one day you`ll look back and realize they were the big things."