<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!-- generator="wordpress.com" -->
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>spielberg &amp;laquo; WordPress.com Tag Feed</title>
	<link>http://wordpress.com/tag/spielberg/</link>
	<description>Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "spielberg"</description>
	<pubDate>Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:21:57 +0000</pubDate>

	<generator>http://wordpress.com/tags/</generator>
	<language>en</language>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[TenTen'i 2 Usta Yönetmen Çekiyor]]></title>
<link>http://behlulkula.wordpress.com/?p=56</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:05:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
<guid>http://behlulkula.wordpress.com/?p=56</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
Çizgi romanların sinemaya uyarlanması sonucunda getirdiği büyük gelirler yapımcıları bu al]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://behlulkula.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/tin-tin.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-57" title="tin-tin" src="http://behlulkula.wordpress.com/files/2008/09/tin-tin.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="302" /></a></p>
<p>Çizgi romanların sinemaya uyarlanması sonucunda getirdiği büyük gelirler yapımcıları bu alana itmişti.Şuan da en çok beklenen uyarlamalardan birisi olan TenTen dünyaca ünlü 2 usta tarafından sinemaya uyarlandı. Filmin ilk bölümünü <!--more-->Steven Spielberg yönetirken, 2. bölümü Peter Jackson tarafından çekildi.Yine söylentilere göre eğer 3. film çekilirse iki usta bu filmi ortak yönetebilirmiş. Senaryosu Steven Moffat tarafından yazılan filmin çıkış tarihi ise henüz belli değil.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[a noite promete]]></title>
<link>http://blogdoalt.wordpress.com/?p=627</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:59:19 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>oniodi</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blogdoalt.wordpress.com/?p=627</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
E parece que equipe ALT gosta mesmo de reunir-se nas madrugadas de sexta-feira para sábado. Coisa ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/Z-8Ik27_6Uw'></param><param name='wmode' value='transparent'></param><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/Z-8Ik27_6Uw&rel=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' width='425' height='350'></embed></object></span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">E parece que equipe ALT gosta mesmo de reunir-se nas madrugadas de sexta-feira para sábado. Coisa de louco. Coisa de maluco, mas acontece. A edição 29 está quase-nada pronta. A noite promete. Sorte a todos.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Hoje faz 36 anos do Massacre de Munique, durante os Jogos Olímpicos de Verão daquele ano. O Episódio foi retratado pelo filme de Spielberg <em>Munique </em>de 2006, criticado e desdenhado pelos governos da Alemanha e Israel.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Setembro Negro daquele ano ficou marcado pela morte de atletas da delegação israelenses. Dois atletas foram mortos quando os seqüestradores palestinos da invadiram a Vila Olímpica e nove foram levados e mortos posteriormente. O massacre foi visto pos mais 900 milhões que acompanhavam o os jogos que simbolizavam a paz e a união, ironia. Os três seqüestradores foram libertados dois meses depois pelo governo alemão e perseguidos pela Inteligência israelense. A tensão aumentou e resultou no trágico massacre que terminou 21 horas mais tarde quando o jornalista Jim McKay, da rede ABC, pronunciou as terríveis palavras: "Estão todos mortos". Falando em tragédia, estamos a seis dias do 11 de setembro, também cicatrizado na memória coletiva.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Fica de sugestão <em>Munique </em>(Spielberg, 2006), acima o trailer.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Saudações Oniodi.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen]]></title>
<link>http://thehumanshow.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/42/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:57:21 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ilsilenzio</dc:creator>
<guid>http://thehumanshow.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/42/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Titolo originale: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
 Nazione: U.S.A.
Anno: 2009
Genere: Fantasci]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://thehumanshow.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/poster_transformers-revengeofthefa4.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-46" title="poster_transformers-revengeofthefa4" src="http://thehumanshow.wordpress.com/files/2008/09/poster_transformers-revengeofthefa4.jpg?w=213" alt="" width="213" height="300" /></a><span style="line-height:1.3em;font-size:xx-small;"><strong>T</strong></span><span style="line-height:1.3em;font-size:xx-small;"><strong>itolo originale:</strong> Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen</span><br />
<span style="line-height:1.3em;font-size:xx-small;"> <strong>Nazione:</strong> U.S.A.<br />
<strong>Anno:</strong> 2009<br />
<strong>Genere:</strong> Fantascienza<br />
<strong>Sceneggiatura:</strong> Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Ehren Kruger<br />
<strong>Cast:</strong> Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Isabel Lucas, Rainn Wilson<br />
<strong>Produzione:</strong> Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks<br />
<strong>Distribuzione:</strong> Warner Bros. Pictures<br />
<strong>Data di uscita:</strong> 26/06/2009 (USA) (cinema)</span></p>
<blockquote>
<h6 style="text-align:justify;"><em>Il film inizia partendo dalla fine del primo film di Transformers. Dato che l'Allspark è stato distrutto, e con esso la possibilità di rigenerare il loro pianeta d'origine, gli Autobot superstiti (Jazz è stato distrutto da Megatron) decidono di restare sulla Terra come guardiani dell'umanità e per rifondare qui una nuova Cybertron: scelta saggia, dato che come mostra una breve scena all'inizio dei titoli di coda Starscream è ancora vivo e potrebbe richiamare altri Decepticon da un momento all'altro. Di conseguenza gli Autobot e Sam sono costretti nuovamente a lottare e il pianeta diventa ancora una volta un campo di battaglia.</em></h6>
</blockquote>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Kung Fu Panda]]></title>
<link>http://ilsarcotrafficante.wordpress.com/?p=684</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:30:47 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ilsarcotrafficante</dc:creator>
<guid>http://ilsarcotrafficante.wordpress.com/?p=684</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Kung Fu Panda
Non starò qui a smaronarvi sulla trama del film in questione. Ma andate a vederlo in ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="303" caption="Kung Fu Panda"]<img src="http://www.mymovies.it/cinemanews/2008/3227/1.jpg" alt="Kung Fu Panda" width="303" height="330" />[/caption]
<p>Non starò qui a smaronarvi sulla trama del film in questione. Ma andate a vederlo in massa. Odio i cartoni animati (eccetto Shrek), ma questo merita. <strong>Mi ha fatto tornare piccolo, quando ancora sputavo a chi mi sedeva davanti al cinema o ridevo quando vedevo i morti sull'autostrada.</strong></p>
<p>Film illuminante.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Episode XIX: 'Explorers']]></title>
<link>http://natsukashi.wordpress.com/?p=154</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:47:36 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>usesoapfilm</dc:creator>
<guid>http://natsukashi.wordpress.com/?p=154</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
Title: Explorers (1985)
Rated: PG
Directed by: Joe Dante
Starring: Ethan Hawke as Ben Crandall
 ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://None"><img class="size-medium wp-image-176 aligncenter" src="http://natsukashi.wordpress.com/files/2008/08/explorersposter.jpg?w=196" alt="" width="196" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>Title: <strong>Explorers </strong>(1985)<br />
Rated: <strong>PG</strong><br />
Directed by: <a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&#38;friendID=156242732"><strong>Joe Dante</strong></a><br />
Starring: <strong>Ethan Hawke</strong> as Ben Crandall<br />
              <strong>River Phoenix</strong> as Wolfgang Muller<br />
             <strong> Jason Presson</strong> as Darren Woods<br />
Tagline: "You don't need a driver's license to reach the stars!"</p>
<p><em>By: Bo from </em><a href="http://frightflicks.blogspot.com/"><em>Last Blog on the Left</em></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;"><strong>Pre-screening memories</strong>: Ah, <em><strong>Explorers</strong></em>, I hardly remember ye.<span>  </span>When a buddy mentioned the movie, I had to freeze in place a moment as synapses not fired in years began to reconnect and offer up flashes of spaceships and a young <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hcAkyeZ9Bw">River Phoenix</a>.<span>  </span>And, then, more came.<span>  </span>I remembered the <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Tiltawhirl.JPG">spaceship</a>, looking much like the riders’ car from a Tilt-a-Whirl at a local fair, and the thing that drew me to the movie in the first place: adventure.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Ever a fan of the kids-on-their-own adventures like <a href="http://www.thegoonies.org/"><em>The Goonies</em> </a>(who are, indeed, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQBQlFZyZ-c">good enough </a>for me), and of the sci-fi flicks of my earlier years, such as <em>Star Wars</em>, this seemed like two great tastes that taste great together.<span>  </span>So why has <em>Explorers </em>fallen off the pop culture radar while others achieved ubiquitous reverence?<span>  </span>Who knows?<span>  </span>Prior to viewing again, I thought perhaps it was too fluffy, the <em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZZg5jHKsBM&#38;feature=related">Spacecamp</a></em>-like entertainment that is immediately engaging, but has no lasting value; the cinematic equivalent of the Milky Way bar.<span>  </span>And those films have their place, the Saturday afternoon movies that you don’t feel guilty for falling asleep on, and no lingering urge to seek them out, to see what it is you missed while drooling on the arm of the couch.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><em>Explorers </em>is the tale of three kids who start having dreams of <a href="http://vectronicsappleworld.com/appleii/articlepics/appleitoappleii/image8.jpg">circuit boards</a>, which they actually build.<span>  </span>Needless to say, it’s a fantasy.<span>  </span>The circuit boards turn out to be a method of traveling to the stars via some sort of electric bubble.<span>  </span>When they begin to receive strange messages while journeying in their makeshift spacecraft, they follow the signal into the stars and meet irritating aliens.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This is a movie that is more heart than brain by a long shot.<span>  </span>The spirit is so willing, too.<span>  </span>The themes of the outcast kids banding together to do something unexpected and wonderful hits all the right notes.<span>  </span>The first act of the movie hums along, introducing its characters well, and even treating the viewer to some post-<em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m52ST93YG44">Tron</a></em> graphics that have managed to become quaint by today’s standards.<span>  </span>The whole thing goes off the rails, though, once the trio makes it to the aliens’ ship.<span>  </span>There are several too-long sequences that bog down the film as the kids investigate the strange alien vessel, but that’s nothing compared to the out-and-out trippiness of the aliens themselves.<span>  </span>Apparently, they’ve had access to <a href="http://www.xoteria.com/OLDIESTV.html">Earth television</a>, which has, in fact, rotted their brains.<span>  </span>They are schizophrenic and the scene overstays its welcome with a weird intergalactic talent show that’s about as entertaining as you remember every talent show you’ve ever seen.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Times New Roman;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><strong>New memories</strong> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">I was happy to learn that I was correct on the Tilt-a-Whirl memory, but that was about the only solace I gained from this mess of a third act.<span>  </span>There are hints of frivolity, such as the school named after Charles M. Jones (or good old <a href="http://www.coldbacon.com/jones.html">Chuck Jones </a>of <em>Looney Tunes</em> fame to you and me).<span>  </span>There’s even a “Hey, wait, where’s the ground?!” <em>Tunes</em>-style joke here, but it feels so ridiculously out of place.<span>  </span>And what about the somber kid, Darren, whose father is apparently occasionally abusive?<span>  </span>What happened with him?<span>  </span>Eh, I just wanted it to be over.<span>  </span>There’s an hour’s worth of fun in <em>Explorers</em>, but the slop that ends the film makes it hard to suggest revisiting it.<span>  </span>This is probably one better left in the memory banks, where time has erased the irritation.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;margin:0;"><a href="http://None"><img class="size-full wp-image-175 aligncenter" src="http://natsukashi.wordpress.com/files/2008/08/explorersalien.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" /></a></p>
<p>Listen to Bo's recollection of his re-entry into space with 'Explorers below or download it <a href="http://www.archive.org/download/NatsukashiEpisodeXixExplorers/explorersfinal.mp3">here</a>.<br />
[audio http://www.archive.org/download/NatsukashiEpisodeXixExplorers/explorersfinal.mp3]</p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Spielberg ainda confirmado na direção do primeiro "Tintin"]]></title>
<link>http://desenhomania.wordpress.com/?p=95</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:35:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>odindaniel</dc:creator>
<guid>http://desenhomania.wordpress.com/?p=95</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
Uma pequena confusão em uma declaração da Hergé Studios colocou em dúvida sobre quem da dupla ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.cinemacomrapadura.com.br/noticias/img/12947-2008-08-26-19:45:59_1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="291" /></div>
<div>Uma pequena confusão em uma declaração da <em>Hergé Studios</em> colocou em dúvida sobre quem da dupla <strong>Steven Spielberg</strong> e Peter Jackson iria dirigir o primeiro filme da trilogia "<strong>Tintin</strong>", que entrará em produção ainda este ano. No entanto, o site <em>The Hollywood Reporter</em> confirmou que o longa do jovem repórter será o próximo filme de Spielberg, seguindo o recente sucesso de <em>"Indiana Jones e o Reino da Caveira de Cristal"</em>.</p>
<p>Enquanto Spielberg comanda o primeiro filme da série, Jackson atuará como produtor da fita, enquanto concede os retoques finais em seu novo filme, <em>"The Lovely Bones"</em>, e parte para escrever o roteiro das duas fitas baseadas em <em>"O Hobbit"</em>, pré-continuação do maior sucesso do cineasta, a adaptação da saga literária de J.R.R Tolkien <em>"O Senhor dos Anéis"</em>. Assim que terminar tais trabalhos, ele já começará a trabalhar na direção da seqüência de "Tintin".</p>
<p>O personagem é protagonista de dezenas de aventuras desenhadas e roteirizadas pelo quadrinista belga Hergé. Suas histórias contam com coadjuvantes extremamente carismáticos, como seu companheiro canino Milu, o beberrão e ousado Capitão Haddock, os atrapalhados detetives Dupont e Dupond e o avoado (e quase surdo) Professor Girassol.</p>
<p>A trilogia será uma mistura entre animação 3D e filmagens com atores reais, em um processo similar ao recente <em>"A Lenda de Beowulf"</em>, buscando alcançar um resultado próximo ao visual dos quadrinhos. Por enquanto, apenas dois atores foram confirmados no elenco. O jovem de 18 anos Thomas Sangster (<em>"Simplesmente Amor"</em>) será o protagonista-título, enquanto Andy Serkis (o Gollum da trilogia <em>"O Senhor dos Anéis"</em>) viverá o Capitão Haddock.</p>
<p>Esta primeira fita tem roteiro de Stephen Moffat (da cultuada série <em>"Doctor Who"</em>) e o texto é baseado em dois álbuns do personagem, <em>"O Tesouro de Rackham, o Terrível"</em> e <em>"O Segredo do Licorne"</em>, ambos originalmente lançados no início dos anos 1940. O longa deverá chegar aos cinemas no final de 2009.</div>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Verwarring rond verfilming van Kuifje]]></title>
<link>http://hetkippenhok.wordpress.com/?p=126</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:46:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>superkiek</dc:creator>
<guid>http://hetkippenhok.wordpress.com/?p=126</guid>
<description><![CDATA[De laatste dagen was er nogal wat verwarring ontstaan rond de verfilming van Kuifje. Het was reeds e]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:1cm;">De laatste dagen was er nogal wat verwarring ontstaan rond de verfilming van Kuifje. Het was reeds een tijdje bekend dat Spielberg deze reeks films zou regisseren en dat Jackson hier ook bij betrokken zou worden en dat de regisseur van de <em>Lord of the Rings</em>-trilogie ook één van de delen van de reeks zou regisseren. Enkele dagen geleden werd echter het bericht de wereld ingestuurd dat Jackson ook het eerste deel zou verfilmen en dat Spielberg dus opzij zou worden geschoven. Dit gerucht bleek echter niet waar te zijn, aangezien nu zowel van de kant van Spielberg als van de kant van Jackson wordt bevestigd dat Spielberg nog steeds het eerste deel zal regisseren en dat Jackson voor dat deel de producer zal zijn, zodat hij zich ook nog steeds kan richten op zijn co-schrijverschap van de twee verfilmingen van <em>The Hobbit</em> voor New Line en MGM.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:1cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;">Bron: <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3icaabfeb875c91a9ea2aa8044d64695df">http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3icaabfeb875c91a9ea2aa8044d64695df</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;">
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Recordando Trailers de Antaño: “Juegos de Guerra”]]></title>
<link>http://cinefagos.wordpress.com/?p=3943</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:19:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Swanson</dc:creator>
<guid>http://cinefagos.wordpress.com/?p=3943</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
Puede dar la impresión de que mi compañero Snake y yo, nos hayamos puesto de acuerdo para rendir ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align:center;"><strong><img src="http://www.thefakelife.com/blog/uploaded_images/WarGames2-703418.jpg" alt="" /><a title="wargames.jpg" href="http://vitruvianmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/wargames.jpg"></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Puede dar la impresión de que mi compañero Snake y yo, nos hayamos puesto de acuerdo para rendir un homenaje o algo parecido al actor Matthew Broderick,</strong> ya que ha coincidido que lo mencionemos en tres post diferentes en los últimos días, pero no, nada de eso, simplemente, casualidades de la vida, y que aunque no sea un actor tan afamado como otros, si que se ha prodigado por la gran pantalla, y ha trabajado en films que merecen ser reseñables.</p>
<p><strong>El que he decidido recordar ahora, lo dirigió John Badham en 1983,</strong> un año después de la excelente “El trueno azul”, protagonizada por el recordado y recientemente fallecido<strong> </strong><a href="http://cinefagos.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/roy-scheider-murio-el-jefe-brody/#more-2560"><strong>Roy Scheider</strong></a>, protagonista de “Tiburón” (1975), de Spielberg.</p>
<p><!--more--></p>
<p><strong>“Juegos de guerra”, una película de corte juvenil, cuya historia se desarrolla en los albores de Internet,</strong> no será una de las películas más famosas de su década (aunque fue aquel año una de las mas taquilleras), pero el tema en el que se centra, sigue tan actual ahora como entonces, o quizás más.</p>
<p><strong>El que el adolescente protagonista</strong> (Matthew Broderick), adicto a los juegos de ordenador (por entonces todavía una rudimentaria máquina), e incipiente hacker informático, buscando nuevos juegos,<strong> aterrice en el sistema operativo militar de U.S.A, y desencadene lo que puede significar la Tercera Guerra Mundial</strong>, lleva a la reflexión de hasta que punto se puede confiar en que un programa informático pueda distinguir la realidad de la ficción (los expertos en informática estaréis mucho mas al corriente de este tema que yo, que siempre lo he visto preocupante).</p>
<p><strong>La película, ágil, resultó atractiva y entretenida, destacando sobre todo</strong> por su temática,  aunque estaba por debajo de la calidad que solía ofrecer su director.</p>
<p>Para los que la vimos en ese tiempo, puede aguantar una nueva revisión, pero reconozco que la gente más joven talvez no la encuentre interesante. Aunque por si acaso un remake (es raro que aún no se haya hablado de ella), no estaría de más que le echaran un vistazo.</p>
<p><strong>"¿Que tal una partida de ajedrez?"</strong></p>
<p><strong>El trailer, como siempre, amplía un poco más la información sobre la película.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Trailer (en inglés)</strong></p>
<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/-OyoNR4kiJ0'></param><param name='wmode' value='transparent'></param><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/-OyoNR4kiJ0&rel=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' width='425' height='350'></embed></object></span></p>
<p><strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>Swanson   <a href="http://cinefagos.wordpress.com/author/swansoncine/"><img class="avatar avatar-swansoncine avatar-48" src="http://a.wordpress.com/avatar/swansoncine-48.jpg" alt="" width="48" height="48" /></a></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[ELEPHANT GNOSIS BOOK ONE, PART FIVE: FIREBALL.]]></title>
<link>http://elephantgnosis.wordpress.com/?p=49</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:07:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>kerobomb</dc:creator>
<guid>http://elephantgnosis.wordpress.com/?p=49</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
FIREBALL.
 
Excerpt from The End Times, 00/201/0998/01
…Spectators in Fiji first saw a blinding w]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="Section1">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;" align="center"><span style="font-size:16pt;">FIREBALL.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;" align="center"><span style="font-size:16pt;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--></span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;"><strong>Excerpt from The End Times, 00/201/0998/01</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">…Spectators in Fiji first saw a blinding white-hot fireball "like a giant spotlight shining in your eyes" pass directly overhead trailing blue smoke. Then the evening sky lit up for around ten seconds as it broke into four "breathtaking gold and silver fire-balls" and a swarm of smaller pieces beneath the clouds. Another re-entry. Film crews and newspaper correspondents were on hand to record mythic history in the making…</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;"><em>The Memoirs of Buffy Strangelove</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> (excerpt):</span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">…But trust no-one with a camera in his or her hand. The famous faces blur, running incontinently into spectral canvases, road movies played out at 12 frames per second, convoys of limo-trucks becoming one meta-truck. They’re out on the freeways, on the lookout for dipsomaniac celebrity truckers, cutting swathes of destruction through lives, innocent families carved up in the hot metal holocaust. Life just isn’t valued as it once was. They are raged up road hogs, out for fun whatever the cost. But the rubber-neckers are out in force to see <em>this</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> spectacle.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">As I plummeted, a soviet-type spy ship (or that’s what was officially reported) in freefall, the premonition of my impact on the unquiet waves was available to those reporters present who were already susceptible to the vibes. A total of 1.617% of assembled reporters caught it on film <em>before it happened.</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> My light shone even brighter than usual in anticipation of the impact. The dream catchers, celluloid conjurors and baseball-hatted ur-Spielbergs, trim bearded and technology obsessed, armed with the very latest technology, were jostling for position on the shingle. Parody documentary makers, their tripods lined up like an army of only semi-benevolent Martians, their cameras potentially as explicit as weapons, potential witnesses before and after the fact. But most of them were not aware of the impact before it happened. The snappers too engrossed with the technology to see what it was they were photographing, the hacks themselves were minutely concerned not with the unfolding divine spectacle itself but with the elegant phrasings with which they would frame their empty experiences. Techno-vampires, energy geeks and ghouls, an unwashed army of F-stopping lens magicians and focus pullers, they lacked the essential animus, the divine spark, the pre-cogging talent that might in another universe have made them artists. Only those clear-eyed enough to use the camera, not to mention the tripod, as weapon, could see what was going to happen. </span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">Not even with the assistance of the schools of humpbacks and sperm whales, behemoth outriders preternaturally aware of the incipience of divinity, a colossal mammalian entourage singing their songs of devotion, were these cameramen capable of seeing the event before it happened. The impact, when it occurred, caused a wave as big as a suburban street, the houses filling and re-filling, emptying themselves back into the ocean, the spume a rabid animal. As the fireball disappeared beneath the water a supine and disarranged figure on the rocks beside the previously limpid waters, who was obscurely apparent to just a few of those present, also disappeared. Music was heard all around, crashing power chords of atonal bombast, during which the whales were seen by the same 1% of observers to maneuvre the capsule away from the cameras. The event didn’t even make the mainstream news, so ashamed were the assembled hacks and snappers of having missed the essential moment. But the magic didn’t go altogether un-reported. The disappeared figure and the missed satellite re-entry initially assumed for the world’s media the status of UFO, became an X file oddity. Whispers begat rumours, heads were scratched, rumours then hardened into clandestinely constructed conspiracy fables. Wires were tapped and film was minutely examined and found to be faked footage. There never was a re-entry. The capsule had never existed. There had never <em>been</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> a scheduled re-entry. Thus was the public soothed and flattered into acceptance of the sub-divine version of events. The mainstream media fabricated a narrative according to whose elements nothing untoward had happened. Certain semi-mainstream hacks promoted the fiction that the capsule (which </span><em>did </em><span style="font-style:normal;">in fact exist) had emitted a light so bright that all cameras were temporarily rendered inoperable, thus explaining the lack of footage. They got that bit right at least. Readers and viewers of this output of course swallowed it whole. And why not? In the absence of any corroborating evidence to the contrary, habit had engendered in them a tendency to believe anything at all that they were told. Truth is of course uniquely mutable in these end times, most of all where Buffy Strangelove is concerned.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">The obscure media didn’t of course swallow it whole, but were nonetheless powerless to discover what in fact had happened. Their morbid theorizing and paranoid ranting, comprising as it did the usual gibbering incontinence about world governments, hybrid lizards in human form, satanic masonic plots to rape the world and steal its resources, served only to placate the more mentally ill sections of the community, who also were prone to believe anything they were told. Speculating with or without data was 2<sup>nd</sup> nature for the practitioners of conspiratorial overkill, a readymade model of pre-ordained reality. Conspiracy is as conspiracy does. They satisfy themselves with mental pictures that correspond to their innermost fantasies, their morbidity a dysfunction of a dislocated worldview. Broken down eyes, a misdirected sense of nature, a misreading of natural stigmata all around. Anyway…The bleeding sod, the hole in the ocean, the cracked earth. They all missed it. It goes without saying of course that these people are the least likely of all to be capable of seeing elephant metaphor as hard wired fact, let alone whale or dolphin emanations.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">When I say I’m a divinity, a household god, an avatar of fecklessness, a boozed up idol of lasciviousness and adultery, an arched-eyebrow deity of sublime and irresistible charm, I don’t want to be taken too metaphorically, but on the other hand a metaphor goes a long way in explaining things in the weightless state. I really am a god, of my own making. And elephants really are my familiars, they really are a conduit to the divine, <em>really</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> a living cosmology. Unless my assertion can be disproved…by me. And now, is anybody there to deny it? Elephants have this </span><em>awareness</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> of their meta-capabilities. I am divine by virtue of the electrical power harvested from elephant tracks laid down millennia ago. I stumbled on them. But they didn’t trip me up. These numinous trajectories enable me to escape through back doors, away from angry husbands, through time holes. If a better explanation is available for my incessant womanizing and ability to sneak away undetected, by all means find it.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">I’ve enlarged for you. I’m large in the snake pit. Belly tied down, feet at right angles. I coil and re-coil at improper interrogations. Large mammals are <em>indeed</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> my familiars. I’ve graduated. 2<sup>nd</sup> raters use things like cats, bats and snakes. Depending on the nature of the emission, I shine bright, specifically to delineate the vectors of my intent. Elephants are the </span><em>imperative</em><span style="font-style:normal;">. Their presence in the here and now is now miraculous, they evince preternatural delicacy, and thus possess the ability to melt into the background when required, a very special endowment. They can exist outside prescribed time environments. They confound ecological space proscriptions. I have found that many people are unable to see them, except fleetingly, and even then only in peripheral vision. Many people miss the spiritual elephantine element altogether. Speculating with or without data was and is my original method of extrapolation. Finding the right pieces to fit together, a jigsaw of my own making, is an undertaking based partly on random selection and partly on determinist self-exculpation, to ward off the evil eye of evolutionist scientist technicians. The sort who know jack shit and who have to be bought off. They’re the ones who control the broadcasting rights and whose power bases are the most corrupted. Bags are filled with cash, technical knowledge is stowed in carrier bags. Their silence is a sine qua non of my ability to live and breathe my feral magic on the earth. TV crews are primed, technicians have been engaged at non-union rates. I reveal my secrets piecemeal, bit by bit, only for the empty cameras.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">I found the natural world disease free. Some ecologists and animal behaviorists of course confused my interest in nature with altruism. Art for art’s sake. Of course my intent was, in their terms at least, somewhat more sinister than that. No sooner had I hidden myself away in the fridge than I was seeing things from the perspective of the humdrum prism of selected household goods. Once trapped in the electricity flow, it’s difficult to stay awake for any length of time. My concealment in the coked up rock god’s fridge was a kind of hibernation. I deep slept, saving energy until I could re-enter the commonplace world. Holed up in a domestic appliance. In a desert trailer. Not the most advantageous of perspectives you’ll have to admit. Of course events could have been affected, could even have been subverted, but in the end I realized that although people thought they knew what they wanted in terms of a divine being, I was, although intrinsically inconsistent with their mono-theistic theology, an adequate enough household god for any of these feckless therapist broadcasters to be going on with. The divine needn’t be Divine if you get my drift. Not for a society in turmoil and in autodestruct mode…a society whose primary cultural mode has become hyper-irony, a culture which has accelerated through the detritus of compromised identity, accelerated through and beyond history, so that history itself has ruptured, so that irony is now an incontinent force, a hyper accelerated meme…<em>this</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> kind of society needs a </span><em>decelerated</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> divinity. A retarded numen if you will. A devotional life lived at elephant pace. What we actually have is a </span><em>joke</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> society, a </span><em>standup dystopia</em><span style="font-style:normal;">, one which </span><em>cannot expect</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> divinities that stand on ceremony. What I do is </span><em>get things done</em><span style="font-style:normal;">, pronto. Like, yesterday! It’s a slowly softly can-do divinity. A switched on, by numbers, lugubrious numinosity. Remember…I am a boozer. I’ve slowed down. It takes me time to wake up in the mornings. Especially in other peoples’ beds. I am known as a distributor of cuckold’s horns, a guilt free Lothario. I need to plan my getaways with precision. I am not the horned beast but I might as well be. I am the horny beast. Post-hangover horn, that’s me. Let’s leave it at that. I need my shut-eye, and then I’m out of the gates like a rabbit. You have to remember that I’m hippocampus led. Meaning I have advanced motor efficiency, a 6<sup>th</sup> directional sense. I have the Knowledge; I know where to go. I can be out of the bedroom and down the drainpipe practically before I’ve heard the front door latchkey in the lock. I’m over the hills and far away. I lead and they follow, down the elephant trails. I have an unusually </span><em>large</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> hippocampus, as I’ve already explained, encompassing perhaps a third of my whole brainpan. I can </span><em>be</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> places almost before I’ve </span><em>thought</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> of them. The Elephant of course, needless to say, has the most enlarged hippocampus of all, even proportionally. They are the exemplary species of peripatetic DNA, nomadic DNA. Elephants know where to go. They are nomadic. And I learnt all I know from them. Keeping on the move is the essential thing. Of course, knowing how to get somewhere and knowing what to do once you get there are two </span><em>very different things</em><span style="font-style:normal;">.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height:200%;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Dr. Abrahams’ personal journal, as taped during therapy sessions with fruit ‘n’ veg man Nobby Wyse</span>:</p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;"><em>(Nobby) Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! You! You! You! You! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Collective, family, therapy Bffy……My thoughts, consider me a madman, am I less parodic of reality than bland reality itself? Or is bland reality beyond parody? I take the descriptions of building love described in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili at face value. Of course I’m attracted. Who wouldn’t be? But is the whole of semi-divine life beyond me? My curators, Ahab the most open to parody and most laughable, are always advancing little puzzles like that to keep me amused. They think they’re one up, but they’re the ones who are stabbing in the dark. Is my numinosity apparent only to me? I suck at the breasts of the statue before me. My wife was, they keep saying to me (as though I’ll somehow disapprove), sexually attracted to the Berlin wall and was devastated the day it was torn down even as the rest of Europe erupted in a frenzy of celebration. If only they could see. If only. If only. It’s all about Breathwork. All stress evaporated, all angst dispersed. I breathe regularly and deeply, and in a minute I rebirth, just like that. I sleep soundly at first, as long as I breathe deeply. The amount of oxygen taken in is crucial. My brain literally becomes flooded with oxygen. I start to trumpet, at first silently, then building up a momentum. Breathing is the key, and you need oxygen in unimaginable quantities. Meanwhile, the building fuckers are at large again…</em></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;">This is corroborated by contemporary TV reports as follows:</p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;"><strong>“They’re……..<em>mounting</em></strong><span style="font-style:normal;"><strong>……..the buildings……they’re literally </strong></span><strong><em>fucking</em></strong><span style="font-style:normal;"><strong> the buildings. They’re actually attempting to impregnate the stones. They must have heard the trumpeting. I’m hearing….I’m hearing….the elephants are, yes, they’re in heat. They’re now in extremis. </strong></span><strong><em>The elephants are now in extremis.</em></strong><span style="font-style:normal;"><strong> There must be a couple of hundred or so, attempting this most dangerous and arcane of rituals, even now. They’re mistaking these formidable fortresses for something bigger. 4 kilometres away, on Hampstead Heath, a herd was sighted in the early hours, grazing and rumbling, trumpeting a low key chorus of intent. Large cows displaying distended rumps, trumpeting their mating summonses to all surrounding areas. The fabric is now torn. As I stand here on top of Broadcasting House, reporting these amazing scenes, hundreds of would be re-birthers are mistaking geometrically arranged slabs of Portland Stone for herds of elephants. So desperate are they, so hyped up, so keen to escape this realm that they seem to be hallucinating. They are weeping openly for the torn fabric. A procession has just borne a huge banner with a weeping elephant head down Regents St. They don’t seem to need or to want to adhere to the 7 sacraments; they’re just going hell for leather. I’ve never seen this sort of thing before. We’re witnessing what might be the first actual mass hallucinatory devotional jazz happening, the first mass rebirth, ever to have occurred in this country. This apparently profane happening is absolutely unprecedented in this realm.”</strong></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;">The building fuckers were indeed moving fast, in a kind of frenzy. Jim Shitkicker, Infallibility Correspondent of Reality Corps, was atop Broadcasting House, casting an expert and experienced eye over the figures below. But he’d never seen this sort of thing before. Not in a whole career that had seen most other things. Cash dispensers became overloaded, subject to autoerotic vibrations, the digital displays reading out apparently crazy and seemingly random and cabbalistic streams of numbers, secular blueprints of account details. Office jocks and orifice chasers looked on, bemused. The re-birthers, somnambulist zoologists excavating the occult meanings contained in the stones of London’s vast edifices, looking for leaden import in the grain of the stone, effecting strange rituals within the doorframes and window jambs, were gathering strength and re-doubling their autoerotic onslaught. Swipe card entry systems presented no problem, the low range trumpeting frequencies that emanated from Hampstead Heath and all points south rendered the electronic security utterly useless. Alarmed city workers were at a loss to explain to their line managers the events that were unfolding, and were equally unable to construe the gnosis taking place within the open plan offices. Line managers were, as always, equally befuddled. Befuddlement hard wired in line management DNA. Water cooler gossip was suspended in panic as pin-eyed pen-pushers and masked deities over-ran executive washrooms. It was access all areas. TV crews jostled for space, the corporate saps glad for once that Portland Place was at the actual epicentre of events. Camera crews maneuvered for space, frustrated by eddying clusters of asian tourists. Big haired porn correspondents re-arranged their décolletages by stealth as the techs got the cameras rolling. Tempers started to fray as the black suited and masked re-birthers began to lash out blindly, wildly asserting their primacy in the face of the pauperized and downtrodden commuter trash. The roadway was littered with discarded film cans, and balaclavas were now openly dispensed with. Shitkicker was aware of a hard-nosed presence at his shoulder. It seemed to him that it was God, but in 3 persons, who had come to receive him.</p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;"><strong>“Yapp……Yapp, is that you? You look different somehow! I can see…is that some sort of trick? I can see three of you…Here, have a snifter, have a drink old boy…I’ve never seen anything like this before. What happened to you anyway? I haven’t seen you since, uh, since the last celebrity crash…you still on the wagon then? Here, have a drink…”</strong></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">Before I could answer, he’d lost his footing. He stumbled on the mass of twisted cable and he was over, a man falling out of the sky. Down down down he went, dusting the stones on his way past. The cameras again didn’t catch what had actually happened, the technology once again unequal to the presence of the Godhead, although there were, as usual, a few precognizant witnesses. The building shuddered as the crazed revivalists below redoubled their assaults on the modesty of the Portland Stone. The elephants were now multiplying as they renewed their circuits of the Marylebone streets.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;" align="center"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <span style="font-size:16pt;"><!--[endif]--></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;" align="center"><span style="font-size:16pt;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;" align="center"><span style="font-size:16pt;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--></span></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[ELEPHANT GNOSIS BOOK ONE, PART ELEVEN: THE ANTI-GRAVITY MAN/LONDON, MY LONDON.]]></title>
<link>http://elephantgnosis.wordpress.com/?p=32</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>kerobomb</dc:creator>
<guid>http://elephantgnosis.wordpress.com/?p=32</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
THE ANTI-GRAVITY MAN/LONDON, MY LONDON.







In the rundown lobby, I sit on a couch upholstered i]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="Section1">
<p style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;" align="center"><span style="font-size:16pt;"><strong>THE ANTI-GRAVITY MAN/LONDON, MY LONDON.</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;" align="center">
<p style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;" align="center">
<p style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;" align="center">
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">
<p style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;" align="center">
<p style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;" align="center">
<p style="text-align:center;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;" align="center">
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">In the rundown lobby, I sit on a couch upholstered in drab gray wrinkled fabric and wait as patiently as I can. I know that I’ve swum oceans, that I have come 10,000 miles on this far-fetched, far-flung pilgrimage - at which point a man in a navy blue duffle coat and sneakers walks purposefully into the lobby.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">This is Eugene P. He’s come to explain the situation to me, and to the publishers. The word is our work is beyond the scope of these types. It’s nothing but local gossip though, we assume. Servants, postmen and the like; and the occasional long haired gent from London. There is nothing you can put your finger on though. But Eugene is the self styled superconductor of bad intent, a florid and exuberant household god, yellow pages advertised. Usually, although not today, he affects theatrical cape and walking cane, and is a levitator par excellence. He’s the anti-gravity man and therefore has trouble appearing before the skeptics at immigration in civilian garb. Consequently we’re in another waiting room, a soviet style Holiday Inn conference room…Maybe he can put in a word for Dionysia as well, adding scientific ballast to her claims of torsion field disturbance in surplus-charged tourist destinations. The gray drabness of the couch finds an echo in the coarsely rutted complexion of my elephant mask. Meanwhile, an overhead projector scrolls text of Dionysia’s latest book - a tourist guide to London written circa the last celebrity crash, the numinous funeral of James Shitkicker esq. - at pedestrian speed and we all fix our attention on the characters, aided by soft piped jazz…</p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left:0;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">London My London/Dionysia Triantafillou: A Numinous Account of Pre-Birthed London. </span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left:0;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;"><em> You’ll want to know this. Why it is you get prickly. Get hot and frustrated, suffer underground languor, heavy sky torpor, grey sky ennui, sheer underground terror, <strong>and</strong></em><span style="font-weight:normal;"><em> why no-one listens to you. People don’t even see you in London. Tunnel vision is the perspective of choice for the citizenry. London skies, grey and overbearing, are not conducive to thought. It’s murky, muggy, even when the sun shines. Winds don’t blow, excepting of course the electrical winds, minor disturbances in the torsion fields. The obscure unseen pressure fields, electricity, sap the energy of the most resolute</em></span>…</p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left:0;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;">---The projector stops, the electricity having failed. It’s my experience too. We agree on everything. Virtually everything. Virtual unanimity. It’s as if we are all as one…and the projector hums once again into life---</p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left:0;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;"><em>…even natural athletes are reduced to sucking in oxygen in desperation. Fat men gulp and stumble. There’s muggy electricity everywhere, blowing wild into the wind vortices, the streets aflutter with thoughtlessly discarded refuse, the winds sucking vital energy away from the crepuscular hordes. Many first time tourists are literally disgusted every time they step outside. The citizens of the city move to and fro like reclaimed dodgems, bump into each other, the crackle and hiss of electricity horribly tangible. There’s no air here, just bleeding streets, tumescent tourist piles and scabby residential hutches accumulating lifelessness, fetid dormitory streets evincing a cultish village ambience. Dross appears to accumulate in extrinsic as well as intrinsic appurtenances, established behaviour patterns. Litter is everywhere. London is, in fact, for the life affirming, a lifeless cesspit kept afloat only by energy input from twittish media apologists, a kind of continual civic ECT, itself a cause of torsion field disturbances.</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> (Dionysia, as you can see, doesn’t exactly mince her words) </span><em>We know these apologists are just lifting their skirts to the city’s occult energy (money) gods. To the pyramid atop Canary Wharf…that’s where the energy is produced, where it’s at. Now triple pronged, the plan is almost complete. Tourists are generally guided away from these baleful erections, their phallic audacity considered by the authorities as just too sacred for extended perusal. It’s the pinnacle of money worship, Satan brow beating the whole city, flashing his gleaming smile every 5 seconds. His acolytes doing deals that keep them in energy credit. The over stated tourist destinations meanwhile are crawling, notwithstanding the uncomfortable fact of the degree of difficulty in approach, the methods of transportation thereto being distinctly understated. Running on empty.</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span><em>Railway termini spewing out cashcow whores. Transport to the money centers is ironically, trouble free. </em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span><em>Civic chaos is what it is.</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left:0;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;">(She has a way with words eh? A kind of fiery civic outrage fuels her contempt, something I’ve always worshipped in her…Anyway, my money’s on the whole thing going tits up. The provinces would hold the key without me. Lucky I’m back eh? Lucky for me and for some. London My London. Back in the driving seat, a mythic rejuvenessence, elephant tracks staled through under use. My work’s cut out for me but with God’s help…Meanwhile Eugene, who has been eyeing us quizzically, has started murmuring his own catechism of intent, his voice co-mingling with that of the voice synthesizer giving tongue on Dionysia’s behalf)</p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-left:0;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;"><em>…Normally there are two spheres and a spark jumps between them. Now imagine the spheres are flat surfaces, superconductors, one of them a coil or O-ring. Under specific conditions, applying resonating fields and composite superconducting coatings, we can organize the energy discharge in such a way that it goes through the center of the electrode, accompanied by gravitation phenomena - reflecting gravitational waves that spread through the walls and hit objects on the floors below, knocking them over…the second generation of flying machines will reflect gravity waves and will be small, light, and fast, like UFOs. I have achieved impulse reflection; now the task is to make it work continuously…</em></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;margin:0 0 0.0001pt;">He sounds completely sober, serious, matter-of-fact. Between the two of them, their voices achieving an elliptical rhythmic tension, a new liturgy is hammered out flat. But it occurs to me that the need is because we’ve all got our own problems. This again is Dionysia’s angle. God bless her. I see what she means when she says that the sky shelters its own, heaving lugubrious static charges over the cityscape. Languid strolling in the dank underbelly is right out. Not an option, except for the darkly obsessed. Anyway back to Dionysia…</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;"><em>Pedestrians, enraged by car fumes and other irritants, walking static charges, are just boiling with rage. Shop fronts jostle with over excited punters bearing cell-phones as heraldic insignia, txting obtuse messages to each other. Doormen flex their insecure status in your face. Restaurants are full of pipe cleaner types, or power- lunchers loading up at the trough, unpleasantly coiffed city slickers and their frog-like girlfriends/boyfriends. Celebrity chefs do time here on TV, fat tongued boys pretending to a gaucherie that’s more than enough to put you off your dinner, anxious lest their credibility is shot to shit by a too overt display of contrived anger, nervous lest their real clients get a whiff of their bombastic need for cheap celebrity. No one wants to be associated with some loser who just wants to be noticed…some pre-gnostic simian with bad teeth and a thick tongue…</em></p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent2" style="text-align:justify;">All delegates generally agree over the iced water and hors d’oeuvres, as we dance a subtle conga of deference to the man who holds our destiny in his gravity free hands, that noticing, seeing, is more than ever the primary contemporary currency. Seeing is the default mode, the consensual lingua franca. We’re all lookers, more than listeners. Eyeballs take it all in. Eyes everywhere, actually just too many eyes taking you in. Eyes that notice you in peripheral vision, glances are shot surreptitiously. Obsessed eyes in a line, offering baleful challenge, misplaced eyeballing. Synapses shudder and spit in sympathetic overload. The eyes track like smart weapons with the didactic import of laser beams. No one, least of all schools, teaches the meaning of looking. People gawp unreflectively and idly. Looking is now an almost completely vapid activity, disguising clandestine intent. People fail to acknowledge the meaning of under-contextualized scrutiny. Eugene’s point, readily agreed on by the rest of us, is that people literally cannot see in front of their noses. He therefore posits levitation as survival technique. Snowblind, they see, but they fail to see. And there’s a configuration more suited to modern journalism, to the sappy look-at-me-ma me-me-me effusions of the journo. The projector rolls on…</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;"><em>Everyone wants both to notice, the all seeing London Eye a metaphor literally dumped from heaven in the heart of the Capitol, and to be noticed. You can’t get a slice, even a small piece, of pure privacy for love. It’s Rip off city, ripping off your time as well as your money, London’s a stand up act from hell. Every gormless dolt is a comedian, eyes gleaming, eyebrows arched. Everyone’s funny. Everyone’s a comedian. It’s grueling and it’s wearisome. The glimmer in the eye of the standup skewers any attempt at laughter. There is no comedy, as all our best comedians instinctively know. Just the hacks and attention seekers remain, tugging at your nerve ends, begging your indulgence. Non-Personality passes un-remarked as prime currency. No one cares that London’s comedians and cabbies are no longer funny, least of all the city authorities. They actively encourage a weary fatalism in the tourist body, a long-suffering acceptance. Laughter is pyrrhic for the authorities. Therefore funny is something of a faux pas in this city. Unfunny comedians with their sponsored personalities may be enough to pull in the out of towners and the truffle hog cultural tourists, but even the sly, smug commentators who know they’re above it all see that they’re all in the game together.</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span><em>It’s a</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span><em>seamless feat of blind sighted robbery.</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;">Suddenly Nobby Wyse the cabbie (and sometime fruiterer) our courier, is up on his club feet. He’s overwrought. The effects of the flight are still with him. He needs more water. And sandwiches. My need to love, on the other hand, outruns the otherwise overwhelming urge to mime muscular strength for the docs. And my shaman (Abrahams) tells me he’s only trying to further his own career, to make me his cause celebre…I am the main atomic threat in his arsenal of delusionals. This is what I need to hide from Eugene P. I need him on board and so I’m happy to act out for him. My need for levitation techniques and good character references is primary. Once he’s on board it’s a matter of irrelevance that my delusions (as he terms them) show Ahab in a good light. My very presence on the streets, appearing in reflection in shop windows, is an affront to his so-called professional integrity. So, he asserts, I need locking up, restraining. An assertion that of course I endorse. Anything for the career of a friend and fellow witch doctor, a shamanic colleague. My double bluff as usual disconcerts the old fraud.</p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;">And so I show him, and therefore myself, in a very good light. I have first to be seen about town, with a girl on each arm, so that he can show the world how he copes with the likes of me. I show off with abandon at paparazzi events, celebrity parties, falling with charm and distinction into gutters as the night wears on. I am obliged for the sake of his camera to literally fall out of nightclubs, legless, punching and kicking out at photographers and insulting passers-by, so that he can seem to pick up the pieces. A recklessly laughable pantomime, but it gets me out and about. And in the papers. It’s all character ballast. My character as a reckless devil-may-care, but also as a dangerous delusional, is by degrees thus established in the public mind. I appear in the gossip pages as proof that he knows what he’s doing. I have obligatory gay escorts as well, so my appeal is literally all encompassing. If I weren’t some sort of auto-shaman I’d need an agent, just to protect my own interests. Just to reap the rewards for him. To guard against abuse, as you’d ensure the safety of children. But I am my own agent. I do all my own bookings, and I pay myself 10% of everything I earn. I make smug appearances with Ahab on TV, browbeating unruly hacks who dare question our impeccable and above board professional relationship. I have sex on a more or less consistent basis. People pay me just to look at them. I touch them where it hurts.</p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;">I now warm to my theme. I hope to convince Eugene of my bona fides. I’m angling for credibility…now, sex. No one has sex at 40. Even 20’s pushing it. At one stage, he observes, the gay Mr. Massive reportedly considered having a baby with the lesbian actress Jackie Chunder. He remarked that the advantage of being in a mutually incompatible relationship, sexually speaking, with procreation in mind is that at two removes, the sexual partner actually <em>becomes</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> the object of desire. Gay man + gay woman is the perfect sexual combination in anyone’s book. Or at any rate I affected to see things his way…we are still, as a species, obsessed with sex in </span><em>any</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> form. People only need to think about it. To reiterate obsolete, forgotten obsessions. But it is, for most people, all over now. Thinking, in many cases, has to be enough, because even though sex doesn’t discriminate, perfidious consciousness does. The terror of rejection coupled with the terror of body penetration. Rubs both ways. But Sex is for everyone. The tabs, the heavies, the glossies, the rags are all filled with </span><em>SEX</em><span style="font-style:normal;">. It’s fucking everywhere! Sex as gardening, and as kitchen culture. Mediterranean culture grafted on, so the industry can lie through its teeth that London is </span><em>SEXY</em><span style="font-style:normal;">. The very airwaves hum with words of protestant obloquy. We may be obsessed by it, but that doesn’t mean we can do anything about it. The obsession itself renders the action virtually obsolete. The obsession can only be tended, orchid like in the fetid heat of desire, if you don’t get enough of it. Obsession gets us off, hence the sex-porn industry. Actually doing it ruins the mood. But nonetheless, sex is in the buildings, objectum-sexuality. The Oxford Circus building fuckers were in this reading of events responding to an objective need. And then, from the overhead…</span><em>when did you last re-examine your life?</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span><em>Never?</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span><em>Why not? It doesn’t come knocking.</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;text-align:justify;">Ignoring the interruption I develop my themes. My life is pre-ordained narrative. When fame beckoned, or when real people became the norm as providers of vicarious obsession on TV. Do I really care about 10 people shacked up in a media safe house? 70 grand is nothing, but to be gawped at by outsiders for 10 weeks…is it worth it? I’d say so. I’d say it’s worth it for us. Further, I’d go further. So nothing happens? That's the point. People's real insecurities/weaknesses/dysfunctions revealed minutely, by degrees. It's a slow death, but better than actually executing people, as other cultures do in other contexts. Anyone who can argue against the spectacle of random image generation revealing inner vacuity <em>FOR THE BENEFIT OF MILLIONS</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> just doesn't have any sense of fun. I must see these people through. It’s me they’ll look to in post-celeb desperation. Just to be looked at, pored over, it’s enough. Not for us though eh? We have other, higher standards. I’ve shacked up with Dionysia, with destiny. We’ve our own moral imperatives haven’t we? No relativistic weasel words or concepts cloud our outlook. We know knowledge is useless, unless gleaned from TV. We </span><em>know</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> expertise is over rated. We’re </span><em>aware</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> that destiny is there for the taking. We still have obsession. Still, I walked down streets clogged with sex rubbish. And people images. Random images, generated from the central image banks, images of profane sex-rubbish. I fall silent, breathing heavily, a spent force…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">Back to Dionysia…<em>Destiny for London would appear to exist in the interstices between the serious and the not so serious. The broadband spectrum of modern life in which everyone has an angle, all humourous bases have been covered and every Tom Dick and Harry is a comedian. Visitors to the city should be acutely aware that all pathetic exhibitionists have been green lighted, offered carte blanche to advertise their personal cravings for attention in all media, all the time.</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> </span><em>We’ve reached actual meltdown here. Laughing’s no longer the point. Rumour is the point. Cliquey internet discussion groups are smug and self congratulatory in getting the joke, not realizing they ARE the joke. Needless to say, London is heaving with internet geeks. More and more internet cafes are receiving unconditional planning permission.</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">Yes yes…I know it was always going to go that way. There are precedents; the ennobled talentless making pushiness an end in itself…and these crimes were perpetrated, or conceived at any rate, well over 40 years ago. But still, you might think, might you not, that we should have all got a bit wiser, a bit more clued up, instead of merely cleverer, in the meantime? Did we view it as a warning, a nuclear alarm? No, we didn’t think it mattered that much. Everyone sitting here…in this room before me now…even now you probably harbour a certain sneaking, grudging admiration for the chutzpah of the talentless, a certain suspicious contempt for the really talented, those rare individuals who you’d never in a million years be able to emulate. Inane pushiness, allied to a will of steel, is what gets you further now; it’s the motor of our essential contempt for quality. We are, as you know, all potential stars now. Come on in, the water’s lovely. We are constantly bathed in paradoxical cathode ray light. My sphere of influence is massive. I <em>am</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> a political heavyweight. I </span><em>am</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> a TV chef. I know the correct temperature both at which to boil eggs and to fry public figures. My earpiece still crackles and hums with immoderate laughter as yet another public servant is tickled up for ridicule. I look on scornfully, down my nose, as public figures appear ridiculous in attempting to appear serious…but Wyse is now falling asleep, and rather than interrupt my flow and wake him, I decide to press on with the rest of my testimony…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">My putative sphere of influence is something that’s potentially more or less boundless. I’ve given birth, in gravitational extremis, to at least 2 million new clued up citizens. All media savvy. We all star…all the time. I am not renowned for my modesty, so I’ll say it. I did it. My technical surveillance was all that was needed. I operated my own camcorder. I directed my own movies. They’re all in the movie. I took the star system, and made it accessible, relevant to the denizens of the Thames Valley, the inhabitants of the Hertfordshire corridor, the fauna of the Essex badlands. All those clubbers, commuters, were stars of their own movies. I directed them. They owe their fame to me. We’re always in convoy now. Out on the shingle, awaiting the moment of re-entry. But the logistics of movie making are enough to make your eyes water. You cannot insure a movie these days unless it’s underwritten with new mafia money. Money laundered through Paris and Rome and all points east. It’s East of Hollywood. Private jets sear the skies, snake through the ether carrying Spielbergs and Geffens to impossibly mundane locations. Servants and lackeys live expansively. Dine out on anecdotes about the habits of celebrities.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">The serious/not serious paradox, by which the joke needs contextualising, needs to be allowed room to breathe on different levels, has been allowed to become entrenched. Words that tend to drift in and out of focus are suddenly <em>funny. </em><span style="font-style:normal;">Far from becoming wiser, better able to contextualise, we have drifted. We’re in the backdraft. Creativity, in London, is at an </span><em>all time low.</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> Sloppy crud…less wise, more stupid, we’re less able to make non-relative value judgments, more inclined to assume that any old rubbish is acceptable. We have become bed wetters. Our snaky fantasies find expression in incontinent dreams. We are, at best, collusive in the process of attempting to evade the moral consequences of our actions. We are </span><em>obsessed</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> by sex, ignoring the uncomfortable truth that sex is unlikely to be the very first of our worries. And ignoring the fact that obsession is merely a cancerous form of disgust. My pride is hurt. These cokeheads and bitches are less wise, less inclined to wisdom. It’s not what we want is it? We need more not less hopeless personalities clamouring for attention. Don’t we? Now of all times? And despite the advantages of growing up wise, or wise capable, we give these bastards houseroom. What’s going on? Destiny is in our hands. I didn’t create this system for another man, the fertile conditions of celebrity for these ends. It was meant to be a leveling up, not a leveling down. Warholian schtick times 10. All beautiful people star in their own movies, or not at all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">Elephant images are now ad-mixing with the text on screen: <em>But instead, it embraces the speeded up world of longer working hours, elongated spasms of debauched stupidity, alternating with head wrangling sessions at the terminal wank bank, the spam filled bandwidth streams. All pretty much redundant conceits. Only wankers, it seems, fetid fantasists in the City precincts, need to get that much money that badly that they’ll buy into these damp dreams. No necessity to work now that survival is assured. Why bother working, when the fruits of that labour are so unworthy of possession. But “work” they do, for share options, packages including dismal self-disgust. City boys in loafers are revealed as the worthless descendents/progeny of space/time filled hippies of 30 years ago, children of debased and unworkable fantasists, hedonistic access/excess merchants. One off the wrist meat jockeys. Girls in offices are now just wanking machines. No office orifice that can’t be filled with cheap dayglo condom. Five-knuckle shuffle, into the cavernous machinery of the cyber sphere, digitized crypto porn. Spaniel men slither around the streets, and are fawned over in excessively flattering magazine portrayals as worthy of aspiration. Big over emphasized opinion pieces suggesting, in the very act of analysis of what was wrong, what was right about it all. The tourist trade cannot, I venture, stand up under much more of this pressure. Tourists look down their noses, already look to points further east. London can’t grow, there’s no room. London is, in psychological terms, stuck at a stage of development that we must identify with the adolescent.</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">And I think, how right she is. My beautiful wife, claws out, eyes blazing. The machine is now spitting, humming, emitting autoerotic sparks, controlling the room. Righteous anger. She’s a better writer than she’s given credit for eh? She can really dish it out. She has nailed it. The city avidly consumes profane myths when I’ve already provided better, <em>realer</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> myths. Pre-crash myths that invoke a falsely historicized crypto-biography that doesn’t pay heed to reality. Profane myths that don’t even mention elephants, or gravity disturbance. So the streets just </span><em>fill up</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> with dead mythic matter, accumulated ennui and depreciated electricity. Real myths involve Gods, and conflicts between Good and Evil. Good coffee/bad coffee, the cappuccino culture express, young professionals, IT ingénues who can’t tell you what they </span><em>really </em><span style="font-style:normal;">do for a living. Where they fit in the great pan-glottal-stop of globalised yob culture, with Englishness at its epicentre. They don’t know. They just read up on their destinies in magazines. Burnished heritage yobs, St. George the Angevin on dragon slaying benders of corporate excess. English yobs are central, the boiling core of fractured alienation, hedonism. They are now on the march. Round the orbital fuelled by E-type jaggedness, over the hills and far away. To some crazy field…back then…specious template…ravers with club blindness and hearts full of spacey altruism. The blissed out togetherness…a soothing lie. When I can supply lies that are </span><em>real</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> fun. Re-entry lies. Smoothed down, accessorized, playful gender games, no gender, and no gender specificity, attractive to those who no longer have any idea how to be men, or indeed women. Just a playful mass of spaced out keyboard tappers, moving money and rumour from A to B and back again. Headspace now uniquely, in the context of history, empty. Literary gents just squabble, up and at ‘em, city boys ruck in east end pubs. Grotesque wannabe thespians, wielders of power close to the 7<sup>th</sup> circle, polished…still…ex-schoolboys, nervous of your millions, jealous of your influence… </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">I pause for breath. This is all leading back to the 70s. I see in Eugene a man who appreciates the importance of dressing up, of cutting a dash, of showing off. Everything leads, like roads to Rome, back to the 70s. The first and last explosion, the last redoubt of my previous re-entry, the apotheosis of my frivolous intent. Unbeknown to their dads and in some cases granddads, the grand-dada Glam experience had been the apotheosis of this sort of blissful playfulness 25 years earlier. If only the old goats, multi-coloured satyrs of comic excess and over statement, had realized it at the time. The kiddies’ dressing up box, envisaged by my cohorts, gave birth to and green lighted the insane and fetishistic infantilism of grown men in make-up, wizard capes and platform boots, men who truly made that dazzling epoch the brightest and the richest and the most immaculately realized of times. Before oil prices dropped the bottom out of the world’s self-satisfaction, and even allowing the 60s hangover, the 70s were the best of times. The city’s energy fields at that time weren’t silted up with rogue electricity, it was too expensive. Just too expensive. Not enough to go around. And the glitter and tinfoil/spandex acted as great conductive material. We made our own entertainment there, in the darkness of the 3-day week. We dressed up out of boxes and then stood on boxes. We strapped on extravagantly designed guitars like sci-fi accoutrements and we rocked. Those lucky enough to have grown up in the 70s were forever reminding themselves, the first warless generation…no fighters…strikers and football players, would-be boozers and non-contracted out council refuse men, that they were the pioneers, the first anti-radical snakes out of the basket, the primary and pre-eminent tricksters in pre-ironic schtick. The first makers of anti-history. Growing up in the 70s meant never having to grow up <em>at all</em><span style="font-style:normal;">. Free of electricity. The main players in the fall out from mawkish idealism and misplaced eco-optimism, they knew things were shit, and rejoiced. Anti-radical!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">I turn to my wife…</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">Dionysia, you need to know this. You need to know this. You already know this. I had it good. Anti-radical. That’s why I <em>am </em><span style="font-style:normal;">good. That’s why you love me. Everyone loved an aspect of me. You are the best advert for this country, for me. I am a living template, a tourist magnet. I initiate the uninitiated; I inaugurate marches around the orbital and all divinely consecrated elephant trails. Everyone was in on it. I put this show on for you. And you understand. A fabulous anarchy, 6 years before…public inclusivity …punk…hyper realized, publicized anarchy. The revolution in taste was, as you know, over by ’72, the taste for serious consideration of life’s many and manifold ills out of date. All the earnest pipe suckers and rock critic academics were hatched in the 60s, cultural imperialists, “I claim this cultural movement for the highbrow”…actions without consequences, the misuse of the word ‘liberal’, the misuse of words generally with impunity…these chic revolutionaries, documenters of history’s slipstream where “secret” histories are played out…history which is parodied to distraction by men in glitter capes and spandex. Former plumbers, postmen, furniture polishers, firemen, removal men, Hendrix look-alikes, groovy fuckers, pimps, agents, moustachioed civil servants, embryonic androgynes, all took a look at their groovy elder brothers, laughed up their sleeves and decided that the appurtenances of frivolity were more appropriate as an enduring metaphor for newly mythic life. And then, as life itself. Incantational frivolity, as men in tights looked around for the exit door. The door to the reckless age of mutual consent. Suddenly everyone’s equally grown up. Kids are sagely regarded and regard their elders sagely. Kids more wised up than the parents, in the same non-consequential vortex. Parents, fellow travelers, sentimental for an orthodoxy they were, luckily for them, never subjected to. They never had to take the consequences of their rhetoric. I look around, surveying the post frivolous generations, and those younger than me seem somehow the same age as me. Older even. Immeasurably older. I cannot see the young at heart any more. The young are prematurely old, but without the wisdom that age brings. Fertile ground, feckless to a high degree. They just don’t have the balls that we did. We died in vain for them. In the trenches of attritional camp warfare. We fought for the right to be frivolous. They merely are frivolous. (Wyse stifles a yawn, blinks, looks meaningfully at the screen…of course, I see what he means. I now espouse the essential inconsequentiality at the very heart of mythic life). I am a corporate dragon slayer for cheap thrills. No more, no less. My kids think I’m a groovy bastard. Which I am. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">Eugene, I now live alone, because no one will put up with me. Except Dionysia. And the magic’s gone out of it now. When she was Frank’s it was kind of exciting but…what am I saying? Dionysia is <em>everything </em><span style="font-style:normal;">to me. Everything. All frivolous avenues have been closed. My children, all 2 million of them, need the cheque, but not the company of the account holder. It’s been ages since that moment occurred. The moment when you realize you’ve already thought something, an intangible, the thing just beyond your mental field of vision, that need not be thought of again. The desperate near recall of what it was that showed you the answer. It’s gone. It ain’t coming back. My children, all two million of them, I pretend to relate to. They know me, but only as a shell of a figure in their peripheral vision. Doc Abrahams knew. He knew something I didn’t. I wear the mask both out of deference to him and as emblem of my reborn, re-mythologised status. (I’m hoping here that Eugene doesn’t look to closely, below the surface, below the elephant mask).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">Anyway, back to the 70s. Again. That moment of recall. Party time for the young at heart. Never before had the mechanics of fun been so overtly demonstrated. Mirror hats and outré guitar shapes kept company with primary colour face paint; candy riffs and bubble stomp conspired to keep the nation’s pre-birthers in a spin. Dance floors that had been initially weakened in wartime became compromised to a dangerous degree during Slade concerts. Guitarists strummed in overt parody of the act of onanism, without for a moment doubting the unironic content of mechanical repetition. Wankers, guitarists, straightforward tautology. Real/hyper-real. Platform boots, foolish haircuts, eye shadow. We dressed up like dogs’ dinners, slapping on the rouge and grease paint. Meta-levels of artlessness were paradoxically attained. No need for spurious sexual context, or unambiguous commentary. Animated looning, postulating a metaphysics of braggadocio. They were all yesterday’s parties. My children and those still to come will never now dance like they danced. Of course it couldn’t last. The paper thin culture, translucent and brittle, illuminated by excess, couldn’t stand that much frivolity without going into a tailspin of over concerned, over actualized context, message, and social context. Contextualised to death by academics, meaning was imposed from without by the newly educated, the undergraduates of pop theory. Red bricks literally spewed out pop theses, while Oxbridge still supplied bespectacled junior moguls, and the glum suburban satellites of major cities acted as cultural midwives to a new breed of hipster journos, manqué class warriors, fat birds from Bristol, Cuban-healed tossers, bedroom onanists and writers of letters to the rock press. And also to the new rock stars themselves. No longer ex-postmen, these sweaty, pallid creatures were devotees of Oscar, would be Huysmanses, decadents in training, languid effete aesthetes, trainee geniuses in polo necks, be-quiffed and shimmering with self regard, speccy geniuses, somehow <em>different</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> from their peers. No girlfriends or boyfriends for the new pop aristocracy, taking pop music out of the disco and into the bedroom. Single beds, sweaty socks, dreams of pop stardom, at once dragging the meaning out of dreams…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">They see I’m flagging. Billy, Nobby, Sapper, they look at their watches, yawn, stretch with comic exaggeration. They melt into the functional seating. I’m priapic, striding back and forth, like a tiger. They need to know this, these tie-dyed morons, that life eventually, without the mythmakers, becomes too heavy to escape from. Escape velocity becomes impossible. Them up there beyond the orbital, up in Bletchley, way <em>way</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> beyond the orbital, those mythical code breakers, encryption experts literally won the war. Single-handed. Or mob handed. Credit where it’s due. Now, the multifarious tribes of neo-hippies and bankers grow large on the proceeds of 55 years of peace in their time. Land usage was not the issue. Huge lapses in perspective were the issue. Raves were for wankers right? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">10,000,000 words expended, Eugene is struggling to remain conscious, and they’re running into each other and away with the meaning. I haven’t prepared my presentation in anything like as professional a manner as has Dionysia. She’s the pro’s pro. An A-list personage. My dreamlover. Still no meaning…Abrahams back yet? Gone away, holidaying on the continent. 3 holidays a year. At least. In this fractured age, nothing will mean that much <em>ever again</em><span style="font-style:normal;">. Holidays from meaning. He doesn’t trust me. I’m just a showcase. In my mask. The tank’s almost empty. We’re inter-political. I’ve had my fill of it. For now. I’ve become truly concerned that the young at heart will never ever have to face their own mortality. They’ll all live forever in cyberspace. But anyway, this is linear time. I’m talking about the other sort. Time’s out for the young. There are no more boundaries, no border controls. Across the universe there are currents to be ridden, fantasies I wish to indulge, parties at which I intend to get drunk. The young at heart know they’ve got it made. They’re in love with the future, because the future is theirs. They live for the future, the green light. Nothing’s a problem for future generations because they have it all on tape. Ambitions are taken as read; the world is my oyster, my personal biosphere, my zone of control. I’ve taken out cultural leases in all major control centres; faked birth certificates, passports. The capitals of the world are under one metaphorical roof. It’s now, with Eugene’s help and with God’s blessing, my city. </span><em>MY</em><span style="font-style:normal;"> London. I take it, all of it. The energy fields, silted up with unused electricity, are key. If I haven’t yet made my meaning clear to the unseen energy vampires who we’ve been assured are behind and beyond the projector wall (which is still playing tunes and spontaneously re-mixing Dionysia’s epochal words concerning London’s problems) I take electricity away from the earth, where it can do harm. London is dead. And all points east and west. Deader than dead. All cities need re-invention. Re-mythologising. A latter-day reverse Columbus, re-tracing his steps through history, must sail down the Fleet in a tea chest…re-discover the source. A new John (or Simon) Dee must scry alternative futures. I’m opening the gates. The electricity is being channeled at last. We only have one chance at this. The inhabitants must of course all die, figuratively, to be re-born. Die or leave in giant arks. Sail away down the Thames, out into the channel and away. Or on planes bound for Eldorado. Air stewardesses will have their work cut out, what with air rage all the rage, for the Exodus must be mythical and epic. Great tribal movements, populations on the move on devotional repetitive forced marches, in train around the ex-bus lanes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:200%;">Now, with Eugene P’s (forged) endorsement and character reference in the bag, I have to re-discover the unexceptional in time. My mission, to re-energise. I must discover the <em>good</em> if not the exceptional in me. My forebears were not aware of it, they never are. Parents know jack shit. That’s the point of them. Not to know things, to be unaware. I’ve gone around the world, racking up the air miles. I have interests all over, businesses to attend to. On brogued feet, quietly dressed, thin pencil moustache and slicked down hair, I enter the departure lounge, checked in and boozed up. I see my own sort as eminently avoidable. I don’t wish to be involved in any sort of competition. I have my own TV crew with me, recording every telling detail of my progress. My thoughts and ruminations exhaled in considered and urbane tones, barely whispered, are minutely calibrated in the passengers’ minds as unscripted observations, and of course grist to the microphone’s mill. These utterances, which become by degrees more portentous and exclamatory, though at the same time deeply human and affecting, are the key to my ability to bring the plane down in mid-flight. Confidences are gained and then broken. Trust is misplaced. Close-ups aren’t required to expose the real me. I’m naked. In flight I’m stripped bare, a numinous presence, ready to be reborn. I slough off the old skin over Asia. Crashing to earth, drunk as a bastard, I must achieve humility and an acceptance of the mistakes I’ve made. I must become my own therapist in double quick time. Like hell. Left to my own devices, checking my portfolios, my investments, I see that I have never made a mistake in all my life. I am beyond error. I am electricity proof. I am a household god, God of Inconsequential Fecklessness <em>and</em> I fuck my own brother’s missus. My <em>dead </em>brother’s missus. How bad is that! Time for a word from Frank probably….</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[George the Turd.]]></title>
<link>http://illtellyouonce.wordpress.com/?p=4</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:02:34 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mfinlin</dc:creator>
<guid>http://illtellyouonce.wordpress.com/?p=4</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Ok. My first post. I gotta start with this. You know who made my childhood totally awesome then ruin]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:85%;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:small;">Ok. My first post. I gotta start with this. You know who made my childhood totally awesome then ruined it? George 'the turd' Lucas. Yeah 'the turd'. That's what I said. I like that word. There are probably a million or so articles debating Lucas's Episodes 1-3 so I'm not going to go on how he fucked the whole thing up....ah I take that back. This man has wronged me. I need to vent. </span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">
<p style="text-align:left;">
<div></div>
<p><span style="font-size:85%;font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></p>
<div>Jar Jar goes without saying, but Yoda bouncing around with a light saber? JEE-ZUS. I could go one forever. Come on George. You might be saying, "This dude is totally wrong and behind the times. Episodes 1-3 were like 6 Comicons ago!" F yourself. Go to another blog. OR you might be saying "Yeah man! How did he mess those films up so bad??" Continue reading.</div>
<div></div>
<div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:small;">It really does baffle me how someone who created a fantastic trilogy that inspired millions can mess something up so bad? Last week I sat down and watched the original trilogy in it's original form after 6 or so years and I was just blown away by the magnificence of it all. Empire. Check it. Why is it that these production companies can't make a good film these days? I can't let George take all the credit for messing up things though. With Stars Wars it just hits home more ya know? </span></span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </span></div>
<p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></p>
<div><span style="font-size:85%;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:small;">The Onceler.</span></span></div>
<p style="text-align:left;">
<p style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:85%;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:small;">The Short 'Jedi Gym'. Hilarity.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:85%;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/RPsDDr0n9AE'></param><param name='wmode' value='transparent'></param><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/RPsDDr0n9AE&rel=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' width='425' height='350'></embed></object></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:85%;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:small;">Such a brilliant puppet. No bouncing lightsaber nonsense here. Praise Irvin Kershner and Leigh Brackett.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:85%;font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/g-zD-RohzNY'></param><param name='wmode' value='transparent'></param><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/g-zD-RohzNY&rel=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' width='425' height='350'></embed></object></span></span></p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Facebook delle mie brame, chi è il + scemo del reame?]]></title>
<link>http://ilsarcotrafficante.wordpress.com/?p=119</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:37:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ilsarcotrafficante</dc:creator>
<guid>http://ilsarcotrafficante.wordpress.com/?p=119</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
Non so come stiate messi a Social network, ma io piuttosto imbrigliato.
Da un bel pò, però, mi so]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://ilsarcotrafficante.wordpress.com/files/2008/08/facebook.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="112" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-132" /></p>
<p>Non so come stiate messi a Social network, ma io piuttosto imbrigliato.<br />
Da un bel pò, però, mi sono concentrato totalmente su <a href="http://www.facebook.com" target="blank">FACEBOOK</a>; gli altri profili li lascio vagare nel cyberspazio senza curarli più di tanto. Dopo 1 mese di FB, avevo già ricontattato: tutti gli amici delle elementari, medie e liceo; gli amici del camposcuola di quando avevo 14 anni (si, ahimè, facevo il camposcuola CATTOLICO..non è il massimo per un ebreo, però ci si drogava bene); i miei parenti dell'australia e dell'argentina (scroccherò sicuramente qualche viaggetto); i miei ex colleghi di lavoro di Madrid. Insomma, ho rimpiguato la mia rete di amicizie in modo tale da rimanere sempre connesso.</p>
<p>Facebook è un ottimo strumento per una serie di obiettivi.</p>
<p>1. Ricontattare gli old friends,<br />
2. Trovare lavoro (sto cercando di contattare Rocco Siffredi),<br />
3. Rimorchiare (amore, non è il mio caso! Mi dicono così..)<br />
4. Fare nuove amicizie (non rimorchio-oriented),<br />
5. Organizzare eventi pazzi (tipo l'incendia-lucchetto party a Ponte Milvio),<br />
6. Trovare oggetti introvabili (il vibratore Rabbit è ormai introvabile!),<br />
7. Controllare il partner e i propri figli (amore, non lo faccio. Credici.).</p>
<p>Peraltro, Facebook <a href="http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Economia/?id=1.0.2416886028" target="blank">ultimamente</a> ha superato anche myspace come contatti mensili, per cui è diventato decisamente più cool da utilizzare. Anche se m'iniziano un pò ad insospettire quelle pubblicità che mi appaiono al lato del profilo, perchè sembrano TROPPO dirette a me. Insomma, mi sembra di stare nel film, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn2sLUJ-eLk" target="blank">Minority Report</a>, dove i cartelloni pubblicitari animati ti chiamano per nome. Non a caso, FB <a href="http://newscontrol.repubblica.it/item/486250/contro-facebook-causa-collettiva-per-violazione-privacy" target="blank">recentemente</a> ha avuto parecchi problemi legati alla privacy; ed il fatto che Microsoft gli stia <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/italy/stampa/comunicati_stampa/nov07/facebook.mspx" target="blank">ronzando attorno</a> non fa ben sperare.</p>
<p>Insomma,<br />
Facebook: cool o presa per il cool?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Getting Your $10 Worth (Movie Reviews)]]></title>
<link>http://patrickscullin.wordpress.com/?p=130</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:24:50 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Patrick Scullin</dc:creator>
<guid>http://patrickscullin.wordpress.com/?p=130</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ 
What movies are worth your precious Hamiltons?
Hollywood&#8217;s upped the ante to $10 for viewin]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
[caption id="attachment_209" align="alignright" width="300" caption="What movies are worth your precious Hamiltons?"]<a href="http://patrickscullin.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/ist2_349974-eyes-of-hamilton-10-bill.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-209" src="http://patrickscullin.wordpress.com/files/2008/08/ist2_349974-eyes-of-hamilton-10-bill.jpg?w=300" alt="What movies are worth your precious Hamiltons?" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]
<p><em>Hollywood's upped the ante to $10 for viewing one of their precious little "movies." Add $54 for a medium popcorn, medium beverage and a box of Milk Duds ("The Blockbuster Bellybuster Valu Combo") and we're talking a pretty pricey couple hours. I'll scribble a few lines to tell you which movies I believe are worth seeing and which ones aren't worth your Hamilton.</em></p>
<p><strong>"Pineapple Express"--</strong> I suppose if one's <em>really</em> baked this movie lives up to the hype. Then again, smoke enough goof and staring at a brick is pretty funny. I was not terribly amused by this film so I guess I was obviously too sober.</p>
<p>Oh, it's got a few laughs and some fun bits, but this is hardly a great comedy or action movie. Clocking in at almost two hours, this film could certainly lose some unsightly celluloid. It gets hyper-violent at the end, but it's not hyper-amusing as it goes on and on and on some more. Then goes on some more, and a little bit more for good measure.</p>
<p>The movie's not awful, it's just awfully disappointing. I wanted more laughs, more amusement. Apparently the idea and the script were created by Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg when they were 16 or so. It feels like it. Guess I' m just not on the Seth Rogen bandwagon.</p>
<p>I have a little system I use to rate just how much I don't like a movie. If in a week, someone said I could see the same movie for free, would I? No, not this one. Then how much would they have to pay me to see the movie? $5? $10? $15? $20?</p>
<p>Keep the bidding going on this one. Save your Hammie for something else.</p>
<p><strong>"The Dark Knight"</strong>-- Take that ten spot you banked not going to Pineapple Express and treat yourself to this big honking action/adventure extravaganza.</p>
<p>Yes, Heath Ledger's as good as you've heard (shame he never heard the great reviews but his performance is probably a lock for an Oscar nomination). Yes, Christian Bale can raise some hell against people who <strong>aren't</strong> his family members. And yes, Christopher Nolan succeeded in following up the high cinematic bar he set in "Batman Begins".</p>
<p>Gotham City looks gorgeously gloomy, ably played by the up and comer city of Chicago with some heavy make-up and dour disposition. The plot is intricate and the supporting cast superb. Aaron Eckhart is suave and de-boner (albeit a bit two-faced), Maggie Gyllenhaal delivers the goods along with Morgan Freeman playing the standard Morgan Freeman character–- the wise one who enlightens the way for heroes while dispensing sage advice. But the movie is owned by Ledger who scowls, grimaces, laughs diabolically behind make-up that wears away throughout the film (the classic symbolism for one losing his mojo). </p>
<p>Perhaps the best performance belongs to Ledger's tongue: darting, licking and smacking about like an animal struggling to be restrained. It's a tongue performance for the ages.</p>
<p>Sure the movie could shed some weight at two and a half hours long, and some of the sub plots don't work completely, and it just seems a waste to have an incredible talent like Gary Oldman play a milquetoast character like Gordon, but "the Dark Knight" is a hell of a ride and a visual spectacle throughout.  Pony up the Hamilton, pay some more if you're able to see it in IMAX, but by all means see what the buzz is about.</p>
<p><strong>"Iron Man"-- </strong> Another from the comic books, this is one of the best films of the year with great special effects, casting and performances all the way around. The script is tight. The first 20 minutes packs an incredible amount of background into an easily digested and fun to watch appetizer that sets up the hearty banquet ahead. From the opening frame on, the film catapults forward and keeps you interested, engaged and amused.  Sure, the climax is a bit strained, but what do you expect from comic book characters? Robert Downey, Jr. is terrific. Thank goodness he's clean and sober because his talent would have been tragic to waste. Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard have Downey covered for a fun show that's worth seeing at least once, if not twice. Director Jon Favreau kicked out the jams on this one. Strap on a seat and keep your arms inside the car.</p>
<p><strong>"The Incredible Hulk"--</strong> Yet one more movie from the comics (makes me wonder if the <em>Comic Book Store Guy</em> from "The Simpsons" is running the studios these days).</p>
<p>This movie didn't get its due. While not in the same league as "Iron Man" or "The Dark Knight", this film is pretty damn good and worth seeing. Edward Norton does what Edward Norton always does: own every scene he's in. His Bruce Banner is one conflicted cat, just don't anger up his blood.</p>
<p>The problem is giving Norton a lightweight heroine in Liv Tyler. She disappears in the scenes they share.  The rest of the cast is O.K., Tim Roth serves a hefty dose of evil, and the story moves along at a healthy clip with some cool effects. Not a great film, but certainly worth seeing if it comes to a buck-a-rama near you. Definitely rent and watch when it's out on DVD.</p>
<p><strong>"Mamma Mia!"--  </strong>Yes, I am a heterosexual male and yes, I saw "Mamma Mia!". In fact, I've seen it twice, once on the stage and now on the screen. I really liked the stage production, I really didn't like the movie version. The reason is simple: the voices didn't serve the musical. I think they let ABBA down (it's never ever a good idea to let Abba down, people-- ABBA <strong><em>must</em> </strong>be served, it is a palindrome for Pete's sake!).</p>
<p>Yes, Meryl Streep is a very talented actor, one of our best (can <em>anyone</em> cry better than Meryl cries?), but she is not a top drawer singing talent. Respectable, yes-- she <em>can</em> carry a tune in a bucket. But phenomenal? Hardly. Her daughter, played by Amanda Seyfried, fares better in the singing department but she doesn't bring much charisma or magic to the role. Pity, that.</p>
<p>As for the three papa bears in this Goldilocks tale, well, here's where Mamma Mia! goes way off the tracks. Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Pierce Brosnan are likable enough but ill equipped to sing and dance. In fact, we all feel the shame when Pierce opens his mouth to warble. One wishes Daniel Craig as 007 would enter stage left, throttle him soundly and exit stage right.</p>
<p>Nope, the sad thing is this movie does a big disservice to the stage production. It forgets that a musical is about the music. Voices first, voices always.</p>
<p>Save your money for a first rate stage production of "Mamma Mia!". This movie's a letdown... and still it's a blockbuster hit. Guess it shows what I know.</p>
<p><strong>"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"-- </strong>Take the two 800 pound gorillas of Hollywood, Lucas and Spielberg, add a proven bankable star (Harrison Ford) and a rising bankable star (Shia LeBeouf) in a franchise that's grossed ten bazillion trillion dollars worldwide (Indiana Jones) and what have you got?</p>
<p>A terrible waste of a lot of talent.</p>
<p>The script's goofy, the action ho hum and the adventure M.I.A. One can almost sense Spielberg yawning from behind the camera as he goes through the motions. This fourth installment of Indy should put him to rest, if there's any justice. It's already spawned a new expression for the venerable <em>Jump the shark; </em>in this case it's called<em> Nuke the fridge. </em></p>
<p>Fonzie, thank Indy. You're off the hook for the near future.</p>
<p>The set design of the ending scenes are obviously fake and cheesy. It's hard to believe so many big names collaborated to make such a forgettable turd. Please don't enable this people with your money-- they may just do it again.</p>
<p><strong>"Get Smart"... </strong>and skip "Get Smart". It's nothing like the TV show (which had a little something called 'humor', or 'humour' for British readers). What a waste of Steve Carell, time and money.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Back to the Future]]></title>
<link>http://iknowthebest.wordpress.com/?p=15</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:25:48 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>iknowthebest</dc:creator>
<guid>http://iknowthebest.wordpress.com/?p=15</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
Robert Zemeckis&#8217;in yönettiği ve Steven Spielberg&#8217;in yapımcısı olduğu efsane film ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://iknowthebest.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/back_to_the_future.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-17" src="http://iknowthebest.wordpress.com/files/2008/08/back_to_the_future.jpg?w=193" alt="" width="185" height="294" /></a></p>
<p>Robert Zemeckis'in yönettiği ve Steven Spielberg'in yapımcısı olduğu efsane film serisi Back to the Future'ı bilmeyen, duymayan yoktur heralde.</p>
<p>Çocukluğumda benim en çok hoşuma giden bölüm ikinci filmdi.  Konu olarak gelecekte geçtiği için heralde bana çok fantastik gelmişti ve izlerken inanılmaz keyif almıştım.  Ama tabii serinin diğer filmlerini de es geçmemek lazım.</p>
<p>Kış sezonu gelirken, uzun soğuk kış gecelerini evde geçirmek için bu seriyi baştan sona seyretmek eğlenceli olabilir.  (Yüzüklerin Efendisi serisini arka arkaya seyredenler olduğunu biliyorsak bu film de tabii ki seyredilebilir =) )</p>
<p>Tavsiye ediyorum...</p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[What's the fuss about?: GitS 2.0  ]]></title>
<link>http://thewisemartian.wordpress.com/?p=26</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:17:19 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>thewisemartian</dc:creator>
<guid>http://thewisemartian.wordpress.com/?p=26</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In a recent post, Sean from Film Junk.com says:
&#8220;It’s official… live action remakes of ani]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In a recent post, Sean from Film Junk.com says:</p>
<p><span style="color:#33cccc;">"It’s official… live action remakes of anime films are the next big thing...Last year we heard that Production I.G. were looking into a live action adaptation of their own smash hit animated film Ghost in the Shell; this week we have news that Dreamworks has acquired the rights and are moving forward with the project. This film joins the growing list of anime adaptations in production that includes Akira, Speed Racer, Dragonball and James Cameron’s Battle Angel. Taking another cue from James Cameron, it looks like Dreamworks will also be doing Ghost in the Shell in 3-D."</span></p>
<p>That's pretty much the substance of it. On the surface, this seems like an innocent little announcement (I know that I certainly didn't think it threatening) but when one looks at the blogosphere as well as discussion boards and forums everywhere, one find almost incessant discussion and debate going on. So, what could the fuss be about?</p>
<p>One issue that seems to be uppermost in most anime fans' minds is the faithfulness of Dreamworks' rendition of the beloved classic. As diehard fans, we all are supposed to be 'worried' about this; in fact, I've seen some people even say that they need to 'keep vigil' on the studio to see how they create the movie. What's worse, this kind of thing is actually being taken seriously.</p>
<p>Again, some other discussion boards are actively promoting independent studies and 'reviews' of the movie. In all, this paranoia is creating a very hostile environment for the movie to come out.</p>
<p>But some people don't even want this to happen. Some posters that I've talked to on most DBs are coming up with amazing theories on why GitS 2.0 shouldn't come out. Some interesting ones are: "Why waste so much money on 3D and CGI when the original anime is still around?", "GitS has ended in terms of storylines; there's nothing more to do in the story department," or even "Who's gonna play the characters? There is no actress good enough to play Motoko Kusanagi!"</p>
<p>All bs, IMO.</p>
<p>Here's my piece: let the movie come out. Sure, it's a 3D movie, and a Hollywood version at that. I'm also aware of Hollywood's horrible track record when it comes to live-action remakes of anime (Speed Racer made me cry in sheer frustration). But we trust Spielberg with a lot of things; surely the guy who made <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083866/">E.T.</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/">Schindler's List</a> has enough brain cells to make this a success too.</p>
<p>And please. Just stop with the argument about money. That's totally disingenous. The anime versions took as much money to make, especially <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_2:_Innocence">Innocence</a>, with its cutting-edge graphics and animation techniques. Also, when you're talking about an industry which spends millions of dollars on animation techniques every year, the statement about money sounds totally childish.</p>
<p>As for character selection, here's a little quote from a respondent who commented on the post quoted above:</p>
<p><span style="color:#33cccc;">"I can’t see why they can’t pull it off. I could picture Erika Sawajiri, or some girl like her, maybe a little older as Kusanagi. Thats what I would do, if they don’t want to do it right, then they should leave it alone!!"</span></p>
<p>So...there are actresses who can play Motoko Kusanagi, don't worry! A cast in a remake doesn't always have to be faithful to the original, especially if the original is a work of animation. And don't forget: the Major is only as real as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atsuko_Tanaka">Atsuko Tanaka</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masamune_Shirow">Masamune Shirow</a>-sensei could make her. So stop with the worrying!</p>
<p>The story angle is also similarly unimaginative. There are thousands of storylines out there, just waiting to be picked. For example, after GitS 2nd Gig ended, what happened to the rebels at Deshima? Also, what was the real history between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Kuze">Kuze</a> and the Major? These, and many more, stories could well qualify for fuller treatment in the movie.</p>
<p>Therefore, I say, just wait till the movie arrives in theaters. Then you and me and all of us GitS fans will know whether the live-action 3D really hits the spot or not. All our questions will be answered, and all doubts put to rest. Until then, please don't encourage panic reactions and knee-jerk reactions. And above all, keep the Net flowing without spam and flaming. That way, we can all enjoy GitS our own way-as well as the rest of the anime phenomenon.</p>
<p>Till then, enjoy the trailer:</p>
<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/-jJfDvhxDf8'></param><param name='wmode' value='transparent'></param><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/-jJfDvhxDf8&rel=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' width='425' height='350'></embed></object></span></p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Spielberg por Spielberg]]></title>
<link>http://documentalesonline.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/spielberg-por-spielberg/</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:15:49 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>correuweb</dc:creator>
<guid>http://documentalesonline.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/spielberg-por-spielberg/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
  
       

]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><!--more- Veámoslo&#62;--></p>
<p><span style="display:block;width:425px;margin:0 auto;">  [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.662907&#38;w=425&#38;h=350&#38;fv=]
<div style="font-size:10px;">       </div>
<p></span></p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Notas em quatro doses]]></title>
<link>http://otransedosmisticos.wordpress.com/?p=98</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:46:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Rodrigo Cássio</dc:creator>
<guid>http://otransedosmisticos.wordpress.com/?p=98</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
Para o bem ou para o mal, encontrei-me duas vezes com Spielberg nas últimas semanas. Na primeira, ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://otransedosmisticos.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/contatosimediat.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-99" src="http://otransedosmisticos.wordpress.com/files/2008/08/contatosimediat.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="166" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Para o bem ou para o mal, encontrei-me duas vezes com Spielberg nas últimas semanas. Na primeira, coloquei para rodar o dvd de <em>Contatos Imediatos do Terceiro Grau</em> (1977). Meu interesse maior era conferir a atuação de François Truffaut, cujo nome, nos créditos de abertura e de fechamento, aparece em letras garrafais. Sinal de reconhecimento do diretor francês, que dirigiu filmes muitos melhores que qualquer produção spielbergiana, inclusive quando mais se distanciou da linguagem original da <em>nouvelle vague</em>, como em <em>Fahrenheit 451</em> (1966) ou em <em>A Noite Americana</em> (1973).</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;"><em>Contatos Imediatos</em>, junto com <em>Tubarão</em> (1975), fez de Spielberg um dos pioneiros do novo cinema hollywoodiano. Grosseiramente, isso significa: efeitos especiais aos montes e narrativas empobrecidas. A última parte do filme, comprometida excessivamente com o impacto imagético das naves espaciais – que chegam e roubam a cena, as personagens, a ação, tudo – aponta para o que viria a ser a tônica do cinema americano, lançando as bases de uma estética denominada pela teoria contemporânea de <em>high concept</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">O segundo encontro com Spielberg veio ontem, com a exibição de <em>Guerra dos Mundos</em> (2005) na TV Globo. Atestado de sucesso, 30 anos depois. Sai Truffaut, entra Tom Cruise. Permanece a fórmula “efeitos especiais-narrativas toscas”.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Em um certo momento, a personagem de Cruise e sua pequena filha está no meio de uma batalha de guerra sem precedentes, envolvendo máquinas extraterrestres mega-poderosas e a força máxima do exército americano. Caos. Uma multidão de civis corre pelo campo de batalha. De repente, um bom senhor, interpretado por Tim Robbins, aparece da porta de um abrigo, acenando para Cruise. Levando a filha, desesperado, a personagem se dirige para o abrigo, onde não havia mais ninguém. Entra. Com os olhos esbugalhados, como quem não sabia o que se passava do lado de fora, o bom senhor pergunta, bisonhamente:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;"><em>- Vocês estão bem?</em></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Se, por um lado, o contraste entre a cena da multidão e a da entrada de pai e filha no abrigo favorecem a caricatura desta personagem de Tim Robbins, Ogilvy - uma espécie de norte-americano que se recolhe em um mundo paralelo, tipo que também aparece em <em>Contatos Imediatos</em>, e que oscila entre a crítica e o auto-elogio, em face das soluções do filme - por outro, o mesmo contraste transfere para a instantaneidade da imagem a construção da personagem. A arma de fogo nas mãos, o semblante que ganha destaque no movimento da câmera, até um plano mais próximo. Entre as infinitas seqüências "de efeito", não há muito tempo para desenvolver o interior de Ogilvy, o "dentro" da personagem, que só vem à frente na medida necessária para que a ação continue, em sua abundância, devidamente justificada.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Afinal, uma cena "de efeito" não é necessariamente "de efeitos especiais", detalhe que, no <em>high concept</em>, optando pelo segundo tipo, parece ser decisivo para que a dimensão narrativa tenda a ser anulada pela imagem. Em <em>A Dama de Shangai</em> (1947), clássico do <em>film noir</em>, toda uma trama típica dos anos 1940-50 é resolvida com um duplo assassinato em um parque de diversões, no interior de uma <em>casa de espelhos</em>. Sem um ponto fixo de visão, os disparos de revólver não têm rumo certo, de modo que personagens e espectadores são acometidos por uma mesma dúvida, uma mesma expectativa. Eis uma cena de efeito, rigorosamente falando, que pontua um trabalho de construção das personagens mais efetivo, realizado desde a primeira entrada em <em>off</em> de Orson Welles, como personagem. E é uma bela cena.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Repetindo o que disse em um grupo de discussão da internet: saudade de quando Welles e Hitchcock eram os grandes do cinemão (saudade do não-vivido, é verdade, mas tá valendo). Além disso, nada a declarar sobre Spielberg.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">***</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Diálogo entre Claire Parnet e Gilles Deleuze, no vídeo <em>O Abecedário de Deleuze</em>, quando a pauta era a letra C, de cultura:</p>
<p>Claire - Mas o filme, por mera distração, não existe?<br />
Deleuze - Isso não é cultura.<br />
Claire - Não é cultura, mas não há distração?<br />
Deleuze - Minha distração é...<br />
Claire - Tudo está em seu trabalho.<br />
Deleuze - Não é um trabalho, é a espreita, estou à espreita de algo que passa dizendo para mim... isso me perturba. É muito divertido.<br />
Claire - Mas não é Eddie Murphy que vai te perturbar?<br />
Deleuze - Não é...?<br />
Claire - Eddie Murphy é um...<br />
Deleuze - Quem é?<br />
Claire - Um ator cômico americano, cujos últimos filmes são verdadeiros sucessos. Nunca vai ver...?<br />
Deleuze - Não conheço. Só vi Benny Hill na TV. Benny Hill me interessa. Não escolho, necessariamente, coisas muito boas, tenho razões para me interessar.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Uma bela imagem (o que é diferente de uma imagem bela) não se propaga apenas como imagem, mas também em palavras. Que o diga Thomas Mann, descrevendo uma <em>tosse</em>, em <em>Montanha Mágica</em>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align:justify;"><em>Hans Castorp falou pormenorizadamente da tosse do cavaleiro. – Deves considerar – disse ele – que nunca ouvi coisa semelhante; tudo aqui é completamente novo para mim. É natural que me impressione com isso. Há muitas espécies de tosse, tosses secas e tosses soltas. Diz-se geralmente que as soltas são mais benignas do que aquelas que nos fazem ladrar. Na minha juventude – ele disse mesmo “na minha juventude” – quando tive tosse convulsiva uivava como um lobo, toda a gente se sentiu aliviada, quando a tosse se tornou mais solta. Lembro-me ainda muito bem. Mas uma tosse como esta nunca se viu, pelo menos eu não tinha idéia de que existia uma coisa destas. Já não é uma tosse viva. Não é seca, mas também não se pode chamar solta. Não encontro, nem de longe, a palavra adequada. É como se se descortinasse o interior do homem, e tudo é lodo e vasa...</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Por sinal, o livro de Mann, com sua personagem Hans Castorp, é a referência de uma das boas músicas da banda goiana <a href="http://www.violins.com.br" target="_blank">Violins</a> (a música se chama <em>Hans</em>, e está no disco <em>Grandes Infiéis</em>, de 2005). O Violins é um dos melhores grupos de rock do Brasil, e, infelizmente, está prestes a encerrar as atividades.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">***</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">O <em>I Colóquio de Estética, Cultura e Imaginário</em> ocorrerá na Universidade Federal de Goiás, de 25 a 29 de agosto. <a href="http://www.proec.ufg.br/extensao/coloquioestetica" target="_blank">A programação está no site do evento</a>. Dia 29, às 16 horas, apresentarei um trabalho de introdução aos princípios da linguagem clássica. Para ilustrar o texto, pequenos filmes de Edwin Porter, George Méliès e David Griffith, da fase Biograph. Fica aqui o convite.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Indiana Jones 4 (si ultimul, sper)]]></title>
<link>http://iulianfira.wordpress.com/?p=38</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:32:37 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Iulian Fira</dc:creator>
<guid>http://iulianfira.wordpress.com/?p=38</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Indiana Jones 4 mi s-a parut atat de inept, incat singura chestie care imi vine in minte cand ma gan]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Indiana Jones 4</em> mi s-a parut atat de inept, incat singura chestie care imi vine in minte cand ma gandesc la el e ca s-a nascut dupa o banala discutie pe messenger intre Steven Spielberg si George Lucas:</p>
<p>steevy46: BUZZ!!</p>
<p>geo_luc: sal... ce faci?</p>
<p>steevy46: ma pliktisesc shi dau buzz la lume... ii dadui shi lu' Scorsese da' ma baga la ignore bulangiul!</p>
<p>geo_luc: park aveai nishte treaba cu un film despre preshedintele ala al nostru kre nu shtiu ce kkt a facut...</p>
<p>steevy46: Lincoln?</p>
<p>geo_luc: da, ala</p>
<p>steevy46: merge konform planificarii... n-are niciun haz</p>
<p>geo_luc: mai fa unul intre timp</p>
<p>steevy46: ce?</p>
<p>geo_luc: cum ce?</p>
<p>steevy46: ce cum ce?!?</p>
<p>geo_luc: un film, bah!!!!!</p>
<p>steevy46: da, bah, sa shtii k e o kestie... shi despre ce sa fak?</p>
<p>geo_luc: io shtiu, fa despre Intalnire de gradul III 2:)))))))))</p>
<p>steevy46: bine k eshti tu deshtept...</p>
<p>geo_luc: loooooool</p>
<p>steevy46: fii shi tu serios o data in viatza!</p>
<p>geo_luc: bine bah, uite itzi dau murah in gurah... ce serie kre ai facut-o tu a ajuns la 3 shi n-ai mai scos nimik de mult?</p>
<p>steevy46: aaaaaaahaaaa... Indiana Jones</p>
<p>geo_luc: exat</p>
<p>geo_luc: exakt*</p>
<p>steevy46: sa shtii k iese shi banu la asta</p>
<p>geo_luc: da, da' e musai sa il bagi pe Harrison Ford in rol principal</p>
<p>steevy46: pe ala?... pah tu shtii ktzi ani are??!??</p>
<p>geo_luc: nu conteaza, in Bulgaria e unul pe nume Sergiu Nicolaescu de vreo 70 shi, care a fakut un film in kre joaka tot shi sare pe acoperishuri, alearga, trage cu pistolul... dak pot comunishtii aia de bulgari, putem shi noi in cea mai avansata demokratzie din lume sa bagam nishte efekte sa il intinerim pe boshorog</p>
<p>steevy46: trebe shi o gajika... in primul film era una cu fund klumea</p>
<p>geo_luc: da, mi-o aduk aminte... shi avea shi tzatze mishto</p>
<p>steevy46: ::::)))))))</p>
<p>geo_luc: :::::)))))))</p>
<p>steevy46: da' in mod sigur shi asta e o babaciune akum...</p>
<p>geo_luc: nu-i nimik, amorul lor peren ii va atinge pe conaisseuri</p>
<p>steevy46: cone-ce?</p>
<p>geo_luc: lasa</p>
<p>steevy46: hai sa bagam shi un kopil</p>
<p>geo_luc: al kui?</p>
<p>steevy46: al celor doi babalaci</p>
<p>geo_luc: mda... e o idee, da' sa nu dezvaluim asta de la inceput</p>
<p>steevy46: orikum se prinde toata lumea</p>
<p>geo_luc: fa tu k mine k te invatz de bine</p>
<p>steevy46: k</p>
<p>geo_luc:altcineva?</p>
<p>steevy46: bah, sa shtii k io am pik pe Kate Blanchett shi pe John Hurt... hai sa ii luam shi sa ne batem jok de ei</p>
<p>geo_luc: tare:)))</p>
<p>steevy46: pe Kate o tundem shi o vopsim bruneta, iar pe Hurt il imbrakam in nishte trentze shi il punem sa bolboroseaska tot filmu'</p>
<p>geo_luc: ce tzaran eshti, da' imi place... merge</p>
<p>steevy46: apropo... ku cine se bate Indiana Jones?</p>
<p>geo_luc: ku rushii?</p>
<p>steevy46: de ce?</p>
<p>geo_luc: pt k ne permitem:)))</p>
<p>steevy46: k... shi pe ce se bat?</p>
<p>geo_luc: bah, da' eshti kulmea, mai gandeshte shi tu, ce numa io?</p>
<p>steevy46: are fiu-meu al mik un craniu cashtigat la o tombola la Disneyland... e urat k dreaq, da' merge</p>
<p>geo_luc: k... da' sa nu fie de om</p>
<p>steevy46: da' de ce?</p>
<p>geo_luc: de ALIEN!!!</p>
<p>steevy46: eshti bolnav... de knd ku Star Warsul numa' asha ceva visezi</p>
<p>geo_luc: uite cine vb...</p>
<p>steevy46: hai mai repede k ma saturai sa gandesk</p>
<p>geo_luc: shi io</p>
<p>steevy46: deci, unde plasam actziunea?</p>
<p>geo_luc: pe undeva ku jungla... are soacra-mea in apartament nishte plante mai mari... filmam akolo shi zicem k e in Peru</p>
<p>steevy46: k</p>
<p>geo_luc: niskaiva efecte speciale ai?</p>
<p>steevy46: sa ma uit prin arhiva... kre k mai am nishte piramide, nishte rotzi zimtzate uriashe, nishte portzi gigantice...</p>
<p>geo_luc: vezi k au fakt ashtia un film de-i zice Mimuia... mai ia shi de-akolo niste faze, k nu se prind fraierii</p>
<p>steevy46: k... thxs</p>
<p>geo_luc: hai te-am pupat</p>
<p>steevy46: p apa<img class="aligncenter" src="http://thisisyogic.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/indiana-jones-4-8.jpg" alt="" width="292" height="197" /></p>
<p>Si astfel a iesit <em>Indiana Jones 4</em> pe care, daca va hotarati sa il vedeti, o faceti pe raspunderea voastra.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>
