Saturday, June 11, 2005
the evolution of comedy...
And now, for no particular reason at all...
A sneak peek at my luminous thesis on comedic cinematography - its gems and its sour grapes... *lol*
"How could we go from THE DIRTY SHAME SALOON in 1948's Bob Hope routine little masterpiece "The Paleface" - straight to THE FILTHY WHORE HIGH SEAS FREIGHTER SHIP in that odd 1990s Chris Elliott vehicle that was supposed to make him a star; "Cabin Boy". Something must have gone horribly array in between these two... hmm?"
And I am saving today's crop of talent - the Adam Sandlers, Jim Carreys and Will Ferrells - for later... indubitably! ;)
A sneak peek at my luminous thesis on comedic cinematography - its gems and its sour grapes... *lol*
"How could we go from THE DIRTY SHAME SALOON in 1948's Bob Hope routine little masterpiece "The Paleface" - straight to THE FILTHY WHORE HIGH SEAS FREIGHTER SHIP in that odd 1990s Chris Elliott vehicle that was supposed to make him a star; "Cabin Boy". Something must have gone horribly array in between these two... hmm?"
And I am saving today's crop of talent - the Adam Sandlers, Jim Carreys and Will Ferrells - for later... indubitably! ;)
quote of the day
"Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible." - Anonymous (Whoever you are, anon - my hat's off to you!)
The Three I's... as they were supposed to be!
(Of course, that damnable Kurt Angle could not be trusted with his* version of it... *lol*)
The Three I's... as they were supposed to be!
(Of course, that damnable Kurt Angle could not be trusted with his* version of it... *lol*)
Verse of the Day
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”- Psalm 46:10
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
And... no - that is not me pretending to be God... others play being God routinely - not me! ;)
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
And... no - that is not me pretending to be God... others play being God routinely - not me! ;)
Friday, June 10, 2005
freaky friday: curses
55 other teams out there are, apparently, just as cursed as the Red Sox used to be - one has but to see the facts on the ESPN link below... to believe! *lol* The top seed on the curse carousel nowadays is, of course, the Chicago Cubs lamented (I wrote lamented - not lamentable!) franchise... surprisingly, the curse of the bambino lives on - upon the shoulders of another team ; although just barely and repeatedly broken (5 times, 5 times, 5 times, 5 times, 5 times... almost as Booker T would say it!) over the years... Seems like our dear bambino - Babe Ruth - actually played a little while alongside Eddie Shore and the Boston Bruins and then was told to stick to baseball... so he surely cursed the team in retaliation, as per his habit, only he forgot all about it with his focus on baseball, the Yankees and the Red Sox... The Yankees make it as the no. 55 cursed team actually - no, not cursed with appalling rabid but uncivilized fans... Rather, they are cursed since 2000 because of some Luis'... gum? And they dare make fun of Billy Goat... No, really, if you will estimate someone cursed, especially since the year 2000, you can afford the luxury of being obvious - and blaming it on the Y2K bug! (I know - the bug was a bust... apparently not for the damn Yankees though!) *lol* A luxury that also brings just a tiny iota of credibility to it all - and it is sorely needed! Curses are for real though... folks! Evidence is here...
Curse Central
The game is being played right now as I type this - the first confrontation between Red Sox and Cubs since 1918! So much shared history... Two Cubbies who used to be Sox... Two Sox who used to be Cubbies... Ominous signs like black cats and dark clouds all around Wrigley Field, where the games will be played... Even though it is NOT in the friendly confines of Fenway Park, my money is on the Red Sox!
Curse Central
The game is being played right now as I type this - the first confrontation between Red Sox and Cubs since 1918! So much shared history... Two Cubbies who used to be Sox... Two Sox who used to be Cubbies... Ominous signs like black cats and dark clouds all around Wrigley Field, where the games will be played... Even though it is NOT in the friendly confines of Fenway Park, my money is on the Red Sox!
quote of the day
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is a beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is life, fight for it! - Mother Teresa
Verse of the Day
“ Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ”- Colossians 3:13
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
sadness...
Veteran actress Anne Bancroft just died of uterine cancer at age 73. Most people remember her for the part of Mrs. Robinson... She wanted to be remembered mostly for the part of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker - arguably her greatest role indeed. For *my* part, she was the best actress to ever take on the role of Mary Magdalene in the classic Jesus of Nazareth - a movie that could have / should have won a ton of Oscars and didn't get a single one of them... Hmm - borderline paganistic Oscar, the god of tinseltown, would not like competition on his big night, eh? But I digress...
Hollywood now has no Annes of any worth - Anne Baxter long dead, Miss Bancroft (Mrs. Brooks really) now gone... who is left? Anne Archer? She is reduced to cameo on The L Word! Anne Heche? She should be next on the show... Anne Hathaway? Puh-leeeeeze... And, also, please refrain from making any mention of Anne Rice as well... (ran out of thespian annes already - *lol*).
Queen Anne is dead - long live the queen - as she will live on in her long and illustrious flurry of roles preserved on celluloid... thankfully!
Hollywood now has no Annes of any worth - Anne Baxter long dead, Miss Bancroft (Mrs. Brooks really) now gone... who is left? Anne Archer? She is reduced to cameo on The L Word! Anne Heche? She should be next on the show... Anne Hathaway? Puh-leeeeeze... And, also, please refrain from making any mention of Anne Rice as well... (ran out of thespian annes already - *lol*).
Queen Anne is dead - long live the queen - as she will live on in her long and illustrious flurry of roles preserved on celluloid... thankfully!
Verse of the Day
“ [The Narrow and Wide Gates ] "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. ”- Matthew 7:13,14
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
wednesday weirdness version 5.0
More Bollywood bull today - their movie makers oppose the ban of smoking in their crappy wastes of celluloid... mayhaps the Indian government was inspired by their local frankensteinish eye doctors who called for a ban too - the ban of a movie that gives a bad rep to their repulsive cornea transplant business! DONORS and patients alike are apparently scared away from collaborating with the docs by a movie starring "Bollywood bombshell Urmila Matondkar" (a new age version of Ursula Andress...?) in which the heroine starts seeing ghosts AFTER a cornea transplant... Instant sixth sense... an interesting bonus to the transplant, if you ask ME... but then, that is just me - such a smart consumer, I always get more bang for my buck... more stuff for my hardly-earned cash... *lol* But I digress...
In other weird news...
* the Chinese fight corruption all the way to the bedroom...!
* speaking of crappy wastes of celluloid... and the Palme Dog goes to...
* a lawyer shows off his true colors... (at least one of them is honest - sort of)
* and... police busts... and busts up Brazil real estate in the process too!
In other weird news...
* the Chinese fight corruption all the way to the bedroom...!
* speaking of crappy wastes of celluloid... and the Palme Dog goes to...
* a lawyer shows off his true colors... (at least one of them is honest - sort of)
* and... police busts... and busts up Brazil real estate in the process too!
Verse of the Day
“ The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments. ”- Habakkuk 3:19
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
two for tuesdays ; double dubya
Dubya Double Bill today only (hopefully! Slow news week... *lol*)
George W. Bush is making all the wrong moves - on so many fronts all at once... it boggles the mind that no one is speaking the words "impeachment" or worse yet... Oh well... everyone is likely seeking comfort in the thought that he cannot get re-elected now - no matter how blind voters are.
George W. Bush is making all the wrong moves - on so many fronts all at once... it boggles the mind that no one is speaking the words "impeachment" or worse yet... Oh well... everyone is likely seeking comfort in the thought that he cannot get re-elected now - no matter how blind voters are.
quote of the day
The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. - Helen Keller
Monday, June 06, 2005
fuming over smoking... grrrrrrrrrrrrr
Nothing worse than people in the WRONG actually daring to complain... smokers, who basically commit suicide at the slowest rate of all AND one might argue commit MURDER too at the same rate - with their secondhand smoke being, in fact, noxious, poisonous and proven to be harmful by anybody with a brain...! But, of course, smokers are quite the brainless lot - aren't they?
Brainlessness breeds disrespectfulness - and to impede thy fellow man from breathing pure fresh air is truly people being totally disrespectful! It is, one could say, the most insidious form of aggression of all (as foolhardy, for kamikaze-like in essence - the smoker is harming himself first and foremost in that process). And there are smokers who think that they have "rights"... sure... our flawed judicial system gives rights to convicted murderers too...
It is just like I heard on CNN earlier today - a murderer is going to be set free... through some loophole in the system - seems like his rights were infringed upon - when he was rightfully found guilty of taking a woman's life - so he is going to be free! The most glaring loophole in the clean air topic is that PUBLIC PLACES are "protected"... and RESIDENCE BUILDINGS are NOT?!?!
Hmm... where does one breathe the most... home or wal-mart?!? LOL
The widespread practice of smoking in buildings exposes nonsmoking occupants to combustion by-products under conditions where airborne contaminant removal is slow and uncertain. Over the past two decades, medical science has shown that nonsmokers suffer many of the diseases of active smoking when they breathe secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke can aggravate sinusitis, rhinitis, cystic fibrosis ...
among MANY OTHER THINGS...
Another insidious crime that goes unpunished in today's blindfolded society - blind to many things, even when they are staring them in the whites of their eyes!
So, in the light of all this, to see smokers throw a fit over anything is simply... an aberration! Such as Bollywood filmmakers who have denounced an Indian government plan to all but ban smoking from movie and television screens - sheesh... does the Hindi James Bond (if they have one - I think they do) really have to smoke to be tough? What an insignificant as unworthy "cause" to clamor about... SHEESH!
Brainlessness breeds disrespectfulness - and to impede thy fellow man from breathing pure fresh air is truly people being totally disrespectful! It is, one could say, the most insidious form of aggression of all (as foolhardy, for kamikaze-like in essence - the smoker is harming himself first and foremost in that process). And there are smokers who think that they have "rights"... sure... our flawed judicial system gives rights to convicted murderers too...
It is just like I heard on CNN earlier today - a murderer is going to be set free... through some loophole in the system - seems like his rights were infringed upon - when he was rightfully found guilty of taking a woman's life - so he is going to be free! The most glaring loophole in the clean air topic is that PUBLIC PLACES are "protected"... and RESIDENCE BUILDINGS are NOT?!?!
Hmm... where does one breathe the most... home or wal-mart?!? LOL
The widespread practice of smoking in buildings exposes nonsmoking occupants to combustion by-products under conditions where airborne contaminant removal is slow and uncertain. Over the past two decades, medical science has shown that nonsmokers suffer many of the diseases of active smoking when they breathe secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke can aggravate sinusitis, rhinitis, cystic fibrosis ...
among MANY OTHER THINGS...
Another insidious crime that goes unpunished in today's blindfolded society - blind to many things, even when they are staring them in the whites of their eyes!
So, in the light of all this, to see smokers throw a fit over anything is simply... an aberration! Such as Bollywood filmmakers who have denounced an Indian government plan to all but ban smoking from movie and television screens - sheesh... does the Hindi James Bond (if they have one - I think they do) really have to smoke to be tough? What an insignificant as unworthy "cause" to clamor about... SHEESH!
quote of the day
"Do not condemn the judgement of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong." -Dandemis
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Verse of the Day
“ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ”- John 3:17
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
People like 3:16 so much - even lowlife wrestlers do and are "inspired" by it; but that is another story - but, for my luminous money, 3:17 is the most hopeful message of all for all the lowlies down here... *lol*
Today's passage is from the New International Version.
People like 3:16 so much - even lowlife wrestlers do and are "inspired" by it; but that is another story - but, for my luminous money, 3:17 is the most hopeful message of all for all the lowlies down here... *lol*
Statistics Sundays 6 - sixpence none the richer - lol
A plethora of feline facts - once again! A cornucopia of cat kudos...?!? Anyway... no wonder we are none the richer for it - poor scaredy cats are always that, primarily - POOR! In the wild and fending for themselves as best they can... OR in captivity - and that is as rotten as it can get... eh?
On to the FACTS... Jack!
Pride lionesses frequently enter the breeding season together andlater give birth at the same time; this allows them to share nursing and other maternal duties.
Although only one out of four hunting events is successful, dominant males always eat first, lionesses next, and cubs scramble for scraps and leftovers.
A tiger can consume as much as 40 kg (88 lb.) of meat in one feeding.
Tigers may drag their prey to water to eat. They are commonly seen in the shade or wading in pools cooling off.
Since white tigers have pigmented stripes and blue eyes, they are not albinos.
It is estimated that there are less than 3,000 Bengal tigers left in the wild.
The jaguar is the largest cat of the Americas, and the only living representative of the genus Panthera found in the New World.
More than 85 species have been recorded in the jaguars diet.
Jaguars are the only big cats that regularly kill prey (especially capybaras) by piercing the skull with their canines.
Deforestation rates are highest in Latin America (FAO 1993), and fragmentation of forest habitat isolates jaguar populations so that they are more vulnerable to the predations of man.
While the puma cannot roar, it is capable of a variety of vocalizations. Both sexes have a distinctive call, likened to a womans scream, which is probably associated with courtship.
Widespread and uncontrolled hunting, which has the potential to remove animals from viable habitat in which they would otherwise be present, is an active threat to big cat species.
The larger a cat, the larger its home range.
The cheetah appears to have suffered a series of severe population bottlenecks in its history, with the first and most significant occurring possibly during the late Pleistocene extinctions, around 10,000 years ago.
Cheetahs are considered by some to be a threat to peoples livelihood; governments struggle to prevent the destruction of cheetahs on private lands by owners who own livestock and fear cheetahs will prey on their herd.
According to K. Sevrin (pers. comm. in Eaton 1974: 24), a captive cheetah was accurately clocked at 112 kph over a short distance.
Three races of tiger - virgata Caspian, balica Bali and sondaica Javan tigers -- have become extinct since the 1950s.
Stripe patterns differ among individual tigers and from one side of the cats body to the other.
A tiger cub taken in Rewa, central India, in 1951, was the last record of a white tiger in the wild. Named Mohan, this tiger became the progenitor of most white tigers now in captivity when bred with a daughter, proving that the albinism is the result of a recessive gene.
Black tigers have been reported occasionally (Burton 1933, Perry 1964, Guggisberg 1975, Mazák 1981), but the only physical evidence rests with a skin recovered from illegal traders in Delhi in October 1992, which has deep black on the top of the head and back extending down the flanks to end in stripes (P. Jackson pers.comm.).
The name bobcat is an abbreviation of "bob-tailed cat", which refers to its short, dark ringed tail
Unlike many other cat species, tigers readily enter water.
On to the FACTS... Jack!
Pride lionesses frequently enter the breeding season together andlater give birth at the same time; this allows them to share nursing and other maternal duties.
Although only one out of four hunting events is successful, dominant males always eat first, lionesses next, and cubs scramble for scraps and leftovers.
A tiger can consume as much as 40 kg (88 lb.) of meat in one feeding.
Tigers may drag their prey to water to eat. They are commonly seen in the shade or wading in pools cooling off.
Since white tigers have pigmented stripes and blue eyes, they are not albinos.
It is estimated that there are less than 3,000 Bengal tigers left in the wild.
The jaguar is the largest cat of the Americas, and the only living representative of the genus Panthera found in the New World.
More than 85 species have been recorded in the jaguars diet.
Jaguars are the only big cats that regularly kill prey (especially capybaras) by piercing the skull with their canines.
Deforestation rates are highest in Latin America (FAO 1993), and fragmentation of forest habitat isolates jaguar populations so that they are more vulnerable to the predations of man.
While the puma cannot roar, it is capable of a variety of vocalizations. Both sexes have a distinctive call, likened to a womans scream, which is probably associated with courtship.
Widespread and uncontrolled hunting, which has the potential to remove animals from viable habitat in which they would otherwise be present, is an active threat to big cat species.
The larger a cat, the larger its home range.
The cheetah appears to have suffered a series of severe population bottlenecks in its history, with the first and most significant occurring possibly during the late Pleistocene extinctions, around 10,000 years ago.
Cheetahs are considered by some to be a threat to peoples livelihood; governments struggle to prevent the destruction of cheetahs on private lands by owners who own livestock and fear cheetahs will prey on their herd.
According to K. Sevrin (pers. comm. in Eaton 1974: 24), a captive cheetah was accurately clocked at 112 kph over a short distance.
Three races of tiger - virgata Caspian, balica Bali and sondaica Javan tigers -- have become extinct since the 1950s.
Stripe patterns differ among individual tigers and from one side of the cats body to the other.
A tiger cub taken in Rewa, central India, in 1951, was the last record of a white tiger in the wild. Named Mohan, this tiger became the progenitor of most white tigers now in captivity when bred with a daughter, proving that the albinism is the result of a recessive gene.
Black tigers have been reported occasionally (Burton 1933, Perry 1964, Guggisberg 1975, Mazák 1981), but the only physical evidence rests with a skin recovered from illegal traders in Delhi in October 1992, which has deep black on the top of the head and back extending down the flanks to end in stripes (P. Jackson pers.comm.).
The name bobcat is an abbreviation of "bob-tailed cat", which refers to its short, dark ringed tail
Unlike many other cat species, tigers readily enter water.
The evidence:
Labels: music video
quote of the day
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
