Recently, noted film critic Roger Ebert declared his disdain for 3D and I am completely on the same page with him there. We disagree strongly on the point of video games as art--he declared, in an absolutist, Sith, blog post that video games will never be art. (If you want to here the sound of man exploding, ask The Engineer what he thinks about that Ebert essay. I caution you with the knowledge that The Engineer works in the video game industry.) However, I think you O Constant Listenerz/Readerz, will appreciate these 3D adaptations of classic art.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
P Zed Myers' "Sunday Sacrilege: Imagine no Heaven"
P Zed Myers is coming to Montréal and we heretics are most excited. I will most definitely be there. Athée Sans Frontières, brilliant!
He has also started a series on his blog called "Sunday Sacrilege" which I have been enjoying. The latest installment is my favourite. Here's why:
Similarly, what woman would want a Muslim heaven? And what use is a bunch of virgins... you deflower them, yay, no sexual agency, but if that's your fetish doesn't it get old? Please don't tell me that the hymens grow back so you hurt them anew. That shit's high misogyny. What woman could possibly look forward to that?
The pointlessness and meaningless of eternity is nicely touched upon. Boredom and abject destruction of the self must really be appealing to some people, but a rational mind would either cease to be itself, or even the most servile would have doubt after AEONS. Bliss after bliss is nothing remotely appealing; it would indeed become torment of the damned.
So who's in with me? Let's take some tea with PZ.
He has also started a series on his blog called "Sunday Sacrilege" which I have been enjoying. The latest installment is my favourite. Here's why:
Heaven. The funny thing is, for all my inability to imagine a viable vision of Hell, what probably comes closest is most people's version of Heaven. Who would want to even visit Puritan Heaven, with all its smug and judgmental inhabitants praising God non-stop with pursed lips suspicious eyes? What woman would want to live in Mormon heaven, and what man could dwell there for long without developing a smidgen of guilt?
Similarly, what woman would want a Muslim heaven? And what use is a bunch of virgins... you deflower them, yay, no sexual agency, but if that's your fetish doesn't it get old? Please don't tell me that the hymens grow back so you hurt them anew. That shit's high misogyny. What woman could possibly look forward to that?
The pointlessness and meaningless of eternity is nicely touched upon. Boredom and abject destruction of the self must really be appealing to some people, but a rational mind would either cease to be itself, or even the most servile would have doubt after AEONS. Bliss after bliss is nothing remotely appealing; it would indeed become torment of the damned.
So who's in with me? Let's take some tea with PZ.
FIFA in a Galaxy Far Away
Featuring in addition to the standard cast of A New Hope, Daft Punk, Liam Gallagher, Snoop Dogg and some soccer peeps.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
How is this even possible?
Can someone please tell me what kind of a world we live in where this shit takes decades to sort out?
Indian court convicts 7 in Bhopal gas disaster
Leads to two years in prison. SRSLY. This is abhorrent. Read it about it here.
Indian court convicts 7 in Bhopal gas disaster
Leads to two years in prison. SRSLY. This is abhorrent. Read it about it here.
W o t W: diegetic (S)
The Word for this Week is:
diegetic
I had a long struggle trying to remember this adjective and use it properly in a conversation last night. Diegesis is a fascinating concept in our era where musical soundtracks are standard because we have little to no conception of television or film without music cues. The ubiquity of music cues has left us finding it shocking when they are absent, when there is no audio or musical track. Buffy the Vampire Slayer used this very effectively in "Hush" and "The Body". It was once used well in a Wikipedia article about The Wire--which brilliantly illustrated the narrative style of the programme and the interplay of diegetic /non-diegetic music, but alas in various iterations of the page that bit was cut and I could not find it again.
Tarantino used the diegetic/non-diegetic dichotomy wonderfully in Kill Bill: Vol. I. In the opening scene Elle Driver whistles what then would go on to be soundtrack music.
I am very fond of this succinct definition:
diegetic
I had a long struggle trying to remember this adjective and use it properly in a conversation last night. Diegesis is a fascinating concept in our era where musical soundtracks are standard because we have little to no conception of television or film without music cues. The ubiquity of music cues has left us finding it shocking when they are absent, when there is no audio or musical track. Buffy the Vampire Slayer used this very effectively in "Hush" and "The Body". It was once used well in a Wikipedia article about The Wire--which brilliantly illustrated the narrative style of the programme and the interplay of diegetic /non-diegetic music, but alas in various iterations of the page that bit was cut and I could not find it again.
Tarantino used the diegetic/non-diegetic dichotomy wonderfully in Kill Bill: Vol. I. In the opening scene Elle Driver whistles what then would go on to be soundtrack music.
I am very fond of this succinct definition:
Diegesis
The denotative material of film narrative, it includes, according to Christian Metz, not only the narration itself, but also the fictional space and time dimension implied by the narrative. (I found it here.)
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