Now watching a sneak preview of Ken McCarthy’s “The Katrina Myth: The Truth about a Thoroughly Unnatural Disaster.” Sandy Rosenthal of levees.org introduced it. 0 comments #
Ultrabrown reports that Loins Of Punjab is coming stateside this September. Unfortunately, the closest the film will come to a showing down here is in Houston. Starring Shabana Azmi, Ajay Naidu (of Office Space fame) and up and coming stars, what I’ve seen and heard of this film reminds me of Four Rooms and Best In Show. Or as the film’s website puts it, “think Monsoon Wedding meets Annie Hall, in a diner in Queens, for a masala omelette.” 3 comments #
Day 1061: Links For 2008-07-23
July 23, 2008 - Filed Under computing & internet, desi / india, digital rights, football, green bay packers, louisiana, movies/tv, music
* Favre Allegedly Used Packer Cellphone To Call Vikings
Nothing but forthcoming and cooperative with us, huh, Brett? You’re still under contract with the Packers and it is dimwit moves like this that make a whopping 200 people desire your return and relegate you to a simple link and not a whole post on this blog. Please go fishing.
* Raw Story | GOP cyber-security expert suggests Diebold tampered with 2002 election
When a consultant working for the Republicans serves you up for election-machine-related wrongdoing, you must have done something really bad.
* First an album, now Radiohead open sources a music video
Plus, the video for House of Cards uses computer rendering and visualization techniques.
* Bolly-Hinduism: Not Only For Jessica Alba But Also Natalie Portman
Devendra Barnhart and girlfriend, Natalie Portman, created and starred in this Spanish-language music video which has nothing to do with the Ramayana but uses it as the basis for the video’s set, costumes and makeup. I agree with Ultrabrown’s take that “the whole shambolic shebang is highly exoticist.” Then again, the East has yet to let go of its assessment of the West as being overrun by bikini girls with machine guns.
* D points out that former governor Edwin Edwards is waiting to learn if his sentence will be commuted. Edwards Now More Than Ever!
Day 1060: WWL TV Investigates NOAH
July 22, 2008 - Filed Under movies/tv, new orleans, recovery
Back at the beginning of July, this blog lamented numerous inconsistencies and the lack of transparency in the City-sponsored New Orleans Affordable Housing program, as investigated by Karen Gadbois of Squandered Heritage. Last night, Lee Zurik of WWL TV presented the results of his own investigation into the matter. Interviewees include Karen and Recovery Czar, Ed Blakely. As usual, the principal architects of New Orleans recovery wash their hands off the matter while City Council promises to investigate shortly. Go, Karen and Lee, for this wonderful example of cooperation between online activism and traditional media!
Click for video:
Day 1055: A Superhero For New Orleans
July 17, 2008 - Filed Under crime, movies/tv, new orleans
Batman is my kind of superhero - dark, reclusive and inherently good. Forget Superman and Spiderman, who are goody, britches-wearing Archie Bunkers when compared to The Dark Knight. Last night, I watched Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of the Dark Knight on the History Channel. What I thought was going to be a shlocky dissection of the man behind the mask turned out to be a rather good comparison of Batman and his evil counterparts with the fight between good and evil in our daily lives. There were the occasional hip shots like one psychologist who considers Batman to be obsessive-compulsive because in one comic he stopped a business meeting to watch the sun go down - um, no, that’s not obsessive-compulsive behavior, he just wanted to watch a beautiful sunset and then leave to conduct his nightly affairs. Overall, however, the show explored nicely the Batman vs. Evil Villain situation and reduced it to one simple fact that can be applied to people and places that have suffered horror, abuse and indignity: after Bad has occurred, one has the choice to go forward in life and work to ensure that Bad happens as little as possible to others or to marinate oneself in the Bad and inflict it on the world.
Ever since moving here, I’ve wished a superhero on New Orleans. One who, like Batman, does not kill, but hunts down perpetrators of wrong all the way from murderers and thieves to corrupt white collar people and politicians, and beats the living tar out of them in dark alleyways. One who will find the murderers of Dinerral Shavers, Helen Hill and everyone on The List and bring them to justice while NOPD and the DA cannot. Besides, in this city of costumes and voodoo metaphysics, a person flying from building to building dressed in spandex and wings is unlikely to receive public disbelief or derision.
Gotham hasn’t become bright, gay and safe because of Batman and his crime-fighting buddies and the doors of Arkham Asylum are monitored worse than that of OPP, but at least they have Batman. Whom do we have?
The Spirit would be a perfect fit. He is “rookie cop Denny Colt [who] returns from the beyond … a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces in Central City.” Dead cop, ghost, Central City - hand, meet glove. How about a partnership with Super Muse who has “the power to lift tons of debris, super boots [that] give her the ability to fly over BS and red tape and she can even read the minds of politicians.” Along with Po’ Boy, their little yet scrumptious sidekick, they take on the mean streets of Louisiana delivering Pow! and Zap! to the likes of Mighty Mouth Nagin, Vitterman and Jindal Boy. I thought about adding Supa Saint to the ensemble but the bad guys would see his gold cape and blond jheri curls coming from a mile away, and his powers may wane outside the Dome Party District.
The situation here is absurd, so don’t scoff at a New Orleanian superhero unless you have better ideas for solving this city’s crime problem. One can’t help but dream. Who would you like to see out there? The Golden Lantern? Bucktown Banzai? The Roach? Nominate away for the New Orleans Justice League.
Day 1051: Have You Ever Had Breakfast With A Geologist?
July 13, 2008 - Filed Under funny, geology, movies/tv
Thanks, Julie!
Day 1047: Hollywood’s Run By …
July 9, 2008 - Filed Under big easy rollergirls, government, movies/tv, new orleans
The military? Boy, won’t my father-in-law be surprised.
L.A. Times | The Iraq war movie: Military hopes to shape genre
After the Vietnam War, movies like “Apocalypse Now” and “Born on the Fourth of July” helped cement an image of psychologically damaged Vietnam veterans.
… With the country now enmeshed in another long, unpopular war, [Army Lt. Col. J. Todd Breasseale, who is deployed to Wilshire Boulevard] is hoping to influence a new generation of filmmakers in order to avoid repeating the experience.
… With military assistance, moviemakers get access to bases, ships, planes, tanks and Humvees. Military leaders also offer script advice. And unless a filmmaker agrees to address any problems, the Pentagon generally opts out.
Hmmmm.
The military has also been involved in a local production recently - that of the 2009 Big Easy Rollergirls calendar which is currently in the works and coming soon to a finer establishment near you. One of the shoots for Rollergirls Through Time took place in the World War II museum, where a Rollergirl/model was taught how to salute by a museum volunteer. (You’ve got to love a Gal in uniform.)
Day 1040: WALL-E
July 2, 2008 - Filed Under culture-society-history, environment, movies/tv
What did you think the right would say about Pixar’s WALL-E?
I’ll never understand why resource parsimony cannot be a tenet of conservatism. It’s ok to mine the earth, create waste and expend energy as long as we do it in moderation. If we want ourselves and our children to live long, healthy lives with a respect for the fact that the earth is limited in what it can make and handle and that the waste has to go somewhere on this planet, why is this then an evil, liberal agenda and not a human agenda? Waste bothers me (even and especially when I create it) because I measure capitalism in efficiency and waste is not efficient. If the point is to make money now, irreducible excess and the future be damned, it will come to bite you in the butt in this lifetime, in the form of increasing pollution, crime and disease and decreasing health and quality of life. What’s the roadblock to comprehension here?
It all became clear to me on reading this post at the Culture War Blog. You see, eco-friendly movies will cause mindless drones like us to put environment over humanity which will then lead to “the devaluing of human life and the worship of creation rather than the Creator.” Yeah, ok then. Let’s just ignore that crucial fact that the environment includes humans and ruining ourselves makes us a sad lot of worshippers of the Creator. “I’ll go further and bet you a hundred bucks” that logic wasn’t the aim here.
Moving along. Despite that he dislikes the movie for its eco-friendly theme and will not purchase WALL-E products specifically and not Disney junk in its entirety, Greg Pollowitz over at National Review makes a good point.
All this from mega-company Disney, who wants us to buy WALL-E kitsch for our kids that are manufactured in China at environment-destroying factories and packed in plastic that will take hundreds of year to biodegrade in our landfills.
And so it goes.
* SPOILERS AHEAD *
The movie had me at Hello, Dolly! As dear, departed friend, computer artist and the best professor ever, George Cramer, always said, “Animation without a compelling story is a waste of pixels.” All the way from the rendering of grit and Soderbergh-esque lighting of WALL-E’s earth to the robot’s expressions, from the boundless wonder that WALL-E was allowed to express by his creators to his dance in the ether with Eva, the film was joyous and full of awe, reflecting WALL-E’s innocence and kind nature. I admit doubts. The kitschy, anthropomorphic love affair between two robots troubled me through a large part of the film until I realized that, 700 years in the future, artificial intelligence can be as intelligent and expressive as it wants to be. If HAL is a murderous paranoiac in a projected 2001, why not a robot who dances with a hubcap as a hat and who seeks true love in 2708?
Go watch WALL-E. The film succeeded in making me uncomfortable about how much junk we collect and dump out over the course of a lifetime, but also did not force me to disavow all plastic, shun my car and not get Chinese food in to-go containers after the final credits rolled. Just go watch the film for what it is.
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