29/04: Sir? You there on fire...
18/04: Street scene
So I hear the pope’s in DC. Guy in a hat, talking to some other guy, ‘bout ‘the faith they share’…
Hmm.
Coincidentally, at about the same time as this more well-publicized meeting, on a narrow street a few blocks from the national mall, a homeless man with a serious and diagnosed but of late untreated psychiatric disorder—now strung out on several controlled substances and hallucinating wildly—encountered another denizen of the streets, the latter now midway through his erratic course across the city in search of bottles to return for booze money.
“Are you not right with the moon, are you not right with the moon!?” asked the former. Loudly. It was half a yell, half a growl.
“Praise be,” muttered the latter. “Praise the moon.” And sifted through a litter bin, looking for a bottle, hoping the former would recognize his piety and leave him alone.
So the conversation was roughly as coherent and as meaningful as was that down the street at 1600 Pennsylvania. But got slightly less coverage.
(Yes, this is cribbed from my comment at a certain other blog. Figured I’d like to keep it ‘round.)
Hmm.
Coincidentally, at about the same time as this more well-publicized meeting, on a narrow street a few blocks from the national mall, a homeless man with a serious and diagnosed but of late untreated psychiatric disorder—now strung out on several controlled substances and hallucinating wildly—encountered another denizen of the streets, the latter now midway through his erratic course across the city in search of bottles to return for booze money.
“Are you not right with the moon, are you not right with the moon!?” asked the former. Loudly. It was half a yell, half a growl.
“Praise be,” muttered the latter. “Praise the moon.” And sifted through a litter bin, looking for a bottle, hoping the former would recognize his piety and leave him alone.
So the conversation was roughly as coherent and as meaningful as was that down the street at 1600 Pennsylvania. But got slightly less coverage.
(Yes, this is cribbed from my comment at a certain other blog. Figured I’d like to keep it ‘round.)
18/04: No particular reason
08/04: No PR is bad PR?
Well, then again…
The Stop Uwe Boll petition (mentioned yestereve) is now getting mainstream press coverage.
Seems 100,000 signatures* counts fer somethin’.
The Stop Uwe Boll petition (mentioned yestereve) is now getting mainstream press coverage.
Seems 100,000 signatures* counts fer somethin’.
*Yes, online petitions are notoriously easily spammed, so sure, that’s probably not quite the real number of aggravated fans who’ve gotten ‘round to signing. Still, if it’s half of that (which it probably is, at least), damn.
… an online petition asking you to stop making movies accumulates 70,000 signatures.
Yep. That’s the count right now on the ‘Stop Uwe Boll’ petition. And I kinda suspect by the time you read this, it may have risen a bit. Seems like it’s a popular cause.
Now, full disclosure, I’ve only seen about maybe ten minutes of one Uwe Boll movie in my entire life. That would be Bloodrayne—I briefly lingered over it once while changing channels past the Space channel. And most of that ten minutes was me sitting there thinking: what the fuck happened here!? I’d mercifully never heard of the man. I didn’t stick around to find out who’d been responsible. Determined that this was below even the usual after dark Space channel fare (this is saying somethin’), and it was time to move on. Heard elsewhere later of the legend of Boll—a man who seemed for years to make quite possibly deliberately bad films and finance them through a weird German tax credit thingy.
Anyway, via Slashdot comes this longer story of the horror that is Boll, if it so happens you haven’t heard of the guy yet. His MO was, generally: buy adaptation rights to a video game—frequently an older one—make a really, really bad film from it, and, oddly enough, make money doing so…
This is, now that I think about it, sorta sad. I’d mentioned a few posts ago the potential that may lurk in videogames—indeed, potential that in fits and starts is being realized—and having an opportunistic hack like that turning out cinematic garbage adapted from those works probably isn’t helping.
Anyway. The always colourful Boll has allegedly responded to earlier news of the petition (when it was at around 10,000 signatures) by saying he’d need a larger number to retire. Like maybe a million signatures…
Cue the sound of many, many angry video game and film fans firing up their browsers…
All of which brings me to the point of this post: Whether you sign the petition or not, I really do have to recommend, as a man who appreciates really, really sarcastic reviews, that you take a minute or two at least to review the comments folk who have signed have made. Kinda entertaining on their own, really. Considerably more so that most Boll films, probably, too… But then, I guess, that’s not saying much.
A brief sampling:
Yep. I’m thinkin’ most of the merely sane would see that as a sign mebbe it’s time for a career change.
Yep. That’s the count right now on the ‘Stop Uwe Boll’ petition. And I kinda suspect by the time you read this, it may have risen a bit. Seems like it’s a popular cause.
Now, full disclosure, I’ve only seen about maybe ten minutes of one Uwe Boll movie in my entire life. That would be Bloodrayne—I briefly lingered over it once while changing channels past the Space channel. And most of that ten minutes was me sitting there thinking: what the fuck happened here!? I’d mercifully never heard of the man. I didn’t stick around to find out who’d been responsible. Determined that this was below even the usual after dark Space channel fare (this is saying somethin’), and it was time to move on. Heard elsewhere later of the legend of Boll—a man who seemed for years to make quite possibly deliberately bad films and finance them through a weird German tax credit thingy.
Anyway, via Slashdot comes this longer story of the horror that is Boll, if it so happens you haven’t heard of the guy yet. His MO was, generally: buy adaptation rights to a video game—frequently an older one—make a really, really bad film from it, and, oddly enough, make money doing so…
This is, now that I think about it, sorta sad. I’d mentioned a few posts ago the potential that may lurk in videogames—indeed, potential that in fits and starts is being realized—and having an opportunistic hack like that turning out cinematic garbage adapted from those works probably isn’t helping.
Anyway. The always colourful Boll has allegedly responded to earlier news of the petition (when it was at around 10,000 signatures) by saying he’d need a larger number to retire. Like maybe a million signatures…
Cue the sound of many, many angry video game and film fans firing up their browsers…
All of which brings me to the point of this post: Whether you sign the petition or not, I really do have to recommend, as a man who appreciates really, really sarcastic reviews, that you take a minute or two at least to review the comments folk who have signed have made. Kinda entertaining on their own, really. Considerably more so that most Boll films, probably, too… But then, I guess, that’s not saying much.
A brief sampling:
- Stop it. Just stop it, for the sake of mankind.
- Seriously… just stop.
- You couldn’t direct traffic.
- Please, for the sake of film: stop.
- Ohh god I want him to stop.
- Happy retirement Mr Boll.
- Uwe Boll, I hate you and I hope a dog rips your balls off.
- Please stop now, for the love of all that is decent and beautiful in this world.
- Please stop making movies. You are ruining the integrity of the cinematic arts. Animal porn is better than what you do.
- Every movie you’ve made makes me hate life.
- You ruined my childhood.
- Go to hell and take your movies with you.
- Mate, give it up, it ain’t your thing.
- Seriously dude. Please.
Yep. I’m thinkin’ most of the merely sane would see that as a sign mebbe it’s time for a career change.
Update: As of this morning (8 April, ‘round 10h30 ET), I see the petition has hit 100,000 and change. Damn, but there’s some PO’d fans out there.
05/04: What she said
Ophelia:
… yeah. Enough of that trope already, thanks.
Re Blair’s ‘rescuing religion from extremism and irrelevance’, well, whatever. Nice idea, I guess.
Some of us, tho’, would be happy if said systems of superstition would get on with that whole becoming irrelevant thing, thing is.
Irrelevant? Ya mean: no pointy-headed pontiffs nor sour mullahs hearing voices in their heads and taking instruction from them on what people shall wear, how they shall have sex, and what they shall eat? Nor, for that matter, no more mealy-mouthed ‘moderates’ who still talk such trash as does Blair to skeptics when he’s called on his transparent BS, nor new agey slush-fer-brains types declaring ‘chelated water’ ‘n crystals can heal AIDS? None of that lot generally dumbing down discourse and convincing the impressionable that’s actually a sane way to think? (Yes, junior, today’s moral lesson is: if you can convince yerself a disembodied voice actually wants you to do something, you shouldn’t let anything so profane as mere reason dissuade you from this. Yer brains aren’t what it’s about. Obedience is, thanks…)
Or do we mean irrelevant as in: at the very least, no one would take them particularly seriously when they do? No more idiot mediaeval prince getting column inches in the NYT every damned time he feels like declaring he’s had a relevation on the ethical ramifications of NRTs?
I’d be down with that. Sure. Go get irrelevant already, the lot of them. And don’t anyone go ‘saving’ ‘em from that, either, thanks.
Militant secularism yourself. We’re not the ones who resort to violence when people don’t agree with us, so don’t be so free with your adjectives, not to mention your mindless clichés.
… yeah. Enough of that trope already, thanks.
Re Blair’s ‘rescuing religion from extremism and irrelevance’, well, whatever. Nice idea, I guess.
Some of us, tho’, would be happy if said systems of superstition would get on with that whole becoming irrelevant thing, thing is.
Irrelevant? Ya mean: no pointy-headed pontiffs nor sour mullahs hearing voices in their heads and taking instruction from them on what people shall wear, how they shall have sex, and what they shall eat? Nor, for that matter, no more mealy-mouthed ‘moderates’ who still talk such trash as does Blair to skeptics when he’s called on his transparent BS, nor new agey slush-fer-brains types declaring ‘chelated water’ ‘n crystals can heal AIDS? None of that lot generally dumbing down discourse and convincing the impressionable that’s actually a sane way to think? (Yes, junior, today’s moral lesson is: if you can convince yerself a disembodied voice actually wants you to do something, you shouldn’t let anything so profane as mere reason dissuade you from this. Yer brains aren’t what it’s about. Obedience is, thanks…)
Or do we mean irrelevant as in: at the very least, no one would take them particularly seriously when they do? No more idiot mediaeval prince getting column inches in the NYT every damned time he feels like declaring he’s had a relevation on the ethical ramifications of NRTs?
I’d be down with that. Sure. Go get irrelevant already, the lot of them. And don’t anyone go ‘saving’ ‘em from that, either, thanks.
23/03: Dr. D has a few words
… on a certain apparently abysmally trashy, dishonest, ‘n generally vile propaganda film by a certain apparently abysmally trashy, dishonest, ‘n generally vile buncha propagandists, latest fallout from that wild night in Minnesota, late last week, apparently…
Y’know, it’s not bad, this piece of Doctor D’s. I’ve previously opined a good negative review of a seriously bad film can be entertaining enough almost to make up for the sheer badness of the film, and Dr. Dawkins makes a respectable effort in that department. Sure, maybe he’s no Pauline Kael, but he gives it that college try, absolutely…
But still, my first thought reading this is: damn, doctor, but I’m almost embarrassed…
I mean, embarrassed for our species that there are still people that tell whoppers like the one the makers of Expelled have tried to tell, and so shamelessly. Embarrassed that such a trainwreck of a film was ever made. Embarrassed, for that matter, that such a trainwreck of a cheap con as ‘intelligent design’ was ever visited upon this world.
It almost seems… wrong. I want to say to Dr. Dawkins: you shouldn’t have had to do this. You shouldn’t even have had to be involved. It should have been possible just to let Expelled sink to the bottom of the video store remainder bin, without comment and without lament. Perhaps, one day, to be dusted off as the Reefer Madness of the early 21st century. Hysterical and unintentionally hilarious, as a consequence… Biology freshman of 2050 would someday grab bootleg copies offa whatever the net has become by then, smoke up, watch it, and laugh. Or, as the divine Ms ERV suggested at Kristine’s blog, make a drinking game of it… throw one back every time the word ‘paradigm’ is uttered…
That embarrassment, where it leads. I gotta tell you: my current wish is that I could just find the wankers who made this festering mound of idiocy, get in their faces, and gently shake ‘em. Ask ‘em: what the fuck is it with people like you, anyway? Don’t you have anything better to do with your lives than waste people’s time with this crap? Life is too short for such bullshit as this. You owe Dr. Dawkins a few hours of his life back, seems to me…
Ah well. It’s entertainment, anyway, I guess…
Or, at least, it became that sometime ‘round last Friday.
Yep. And that’s pathetic, but there’s a certain poetic full circle about it, really. Best thing this lot ever did for the world was to fuck up the particular way they did. They may suck at screenwriting, suck at directing, and generally suck at pretending even to have an argument, but damn, they do the fucking up hilariously thing with true, inimitable style, no argument there…
Guess everyone’s got a talent, after all.
(Via Pharyngula, natch.)
Y’know, it’s not bad, this piece of Doctor D’s. I’ve previously opined a good negative review of a seriously bad film can be entertaining enough almost to make up for the sheer badness of the film, and Dr. Dawkins makes a respectable effort in that department. Sure, maybe he’s no Pauline Kael, but he gives it that college try, absolutely…
But still, my first thought reading this is: damn, doctor, but I’m almost embarrassed…
I mean, embarrassed for our species that there are still people that tell whoppers like the one the makers of Expelled have tried to tell, and so shamelessly. Embarrassed that such a trainwreck of a film was ever made. Embarrassed, for that matter, that such a trainwreck of a cheap con as ‘intelligent design’ was ever visited upon this world.
It almost seems… wrong. I want to say to Dr. Dawkins: you shouldn’t have had to do this. You shouldn’t even have had to be involved. It should have been possible just to let Expelled sink to the bottom of the video store remainder bin, without comment and without lament. Perhaps, one day, to be dusted off as the Reefer Madness of the early 21st century. Hysterical and unintentionally hilarious, as a consequence… Biology freshman of 2050 would someday grab bootleg copies offa whatever the net has become by then, smoke up, watch it, and laugh. Or, as the divine Ms ERV suggested at Kristine’s blog, make a drinking game of it… throw one back every time the word ‘paradigm’ is uttered…
That embarrassment, where it leads. I gotta tell you: my current wish is that I could just find the wankers who made this festering mound of idiocy, get in their faces, and gently shake ‘em. Ask ‘em: what the fuck is it with people like you, anyway? Don’t you have anything better to do with your lives than waste people’s time with this crap? Life is too short for such bullshit as this. You owe Dr. Dawkins a few hours of his life back, seems to me…
Ah well. It’s entertainment, anyway, I guess…
Or, at least, it became that sometime ‘round last Friday.
Yep. And that’s pathetic, but there’s a certain poetic full circle about it, really. Best thing this lot ever did for the world was to fuck up the particular way they did. They may suck at screenwriting, suck at directing, and generally suck at pretending even to have an argument, but damn, they do the fucking up hilariously thing with true, inimitable style, no argument there…
Guess everyone’s got a talent, after all.
(Via Pharyngula, natch.)
Okay… so maybe it doesn’t quite have the ring of ‘fear of a black planet’, but still…
Fuck, but this makes me laugh.
Fuck, but this makes me laugh.
17/03: St. Patrick's Day
In honour of the guy who drove the snakes out of Hollywood*, I’m a havin’ a shot of Bushmills.
* Yes, the legend is he drove the snakes out of Ireland… ‘cept that there apparently never were any snakes in Ireland. So I figure my myth makes about as much sense. Seein’ as yes: there are still snakes in Hollywood…
… well, it made sense after the first shot of Bushmills, anyway. And probably also makes about as much sense as does havin’ a Bushmills on a Catholic holiday.
… well, it made sense after the first shot of Bushmills, anyway. And probably also makes about as much sense as does havin’ a Bushmills on a Catholic holiday.
16/03: Still 'round
Yep. Nother one of those posts.
Busy month. Work stuff mostly. So this is just a random ‘cool stuff I’ve been sticking my nose into real recently’ post:
1) The Bad Astronomer has a piece up on a recent paper suggesting there might be a biggish (or big for that neighbourhood) object way out beyond Neptune—as in Earthish/Marsish-sized. Sounds like a pretty theoretical simulation-type thing, but sorta cool to imagine. Might explain a phenomenon called the ‘Kuiper cliff’—a spot way out ‘round 50 AU where you stop finding large objects—notion is the as-yet unfound Earth/Mars thingy has been sweeping them up.
2) I finally got through Gibson’s Pattern Recognition on a plane, a few days ago. Recommendable. Nice, haunting ‘shadow of September 11’ subtheme, and a pretty typically Gibsonian intriguingly/slightly messed-up, slightly alienated but far from crippled protagonist. Maybe a little more likeable than usual, actually, now that I think about it. Found the scenery of it generally a much more immediate and real-world effort than usual, too, at least as Gibson goes. Twenty first century novel with the twentieth still looming appropriately.
… and that’ll have to do for now, I guess.
Busy month. Work stuff mostly. So this is just a random ‘cool stuff I’ve been sticking my nose into real recently’ post:
1) The Bad Astronomer has a piece up on a recent paper suggesting there might be a biggish (or big for that neighbourhood) object way out beyond Neptune—as in Earthish/Marsish-sized. Sounds like a pretty theoretical simulation-type thing, but sorta cool to imagine. Might explain a phenomenon called the ‘Kuiper cliff’—a spot way out ‘round 50 AU where you stop finding large objects—notion is the as-yet unfound Earth/Mars thingy has been sweeping them up.
2) I finally got through Gibson’s Pattern Recognition on a plane, a few days ago. Recommendable. Nice, haunting ‘shadow of September 11’ subtheme, and a pretty typically Gibsonian intriguingly/slightly messed-up, slightly alienated but far from crippled protagonist. Maybe a little more likeable than usual, actually, now that I think about it. Found the scenery of it generally a much more immediate and real-world effort than usual, too, at least as Gibson goes. Twenty first century novel with the twentieth still looming appropriately.
… and that’ll have to do for now, I guess.
