Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Something/Someone Old
I know a person is not a thing, but that lady is so cool-looking I had to post her picture.
I just discovered the Gainesville Old-Time Dance Society (GODS).
This video is from 2007, but they're still going strong today. More of this, and less of people out to dinner in a restaurant, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM STARING AT THEIR PHONES AND NOT TALKING TO THE OTHERS, would be helpful. My hometown is still alive, people! There's still an actual culture here.
Something New
The World Wrestling Federation has crowned Jinder Mahal, an Indian-Canadian wrestler, its champion. This is notable not simply because WWE has chosen someone neither white nor Samoan for their champion, but because the Roid Rajah--
(And here is why they call him that. The picture on the left is Jinder as he was when he was with the 3 Man Band (more on that later). The picture on the right is Jinder as he is now.)
Anyway, Jinder Mahal was not exactly given a narrative trajectory that leads effectively to the championship. CNET gives us a pretty accurate history of Mahal's career up till now:
Mahal debuted in 2011, then after a year of doing little, he was put in the 3 Man Band faction, a comedic trio of three wrestlers who couldn't play instruments or sing (but insisted they were great musicians) and were beaten on TV each week. He was essentially used as enhancement talent, wrestlers whose job it is to lose to the more popular stars, in order to make them look good. He was let go in 2014, rehired in 2016 and until earlier this month you could count on one hand the matches he'd won.
This used to be known as being a jobber.
jobber
* A professional wrestler who frequently and deliberately loses matches.
In other words, he's been positioned as anything other than a star. On WWE's programming, he's been closer to an extra than a leading man.
Yes, a jobber.
And yet, with no foreshadowing he became a top contender for what's arguably the company's most prestigious title. Since then, he's found devious ways to beat everyone he's encountered (his character is written as a bad guy) and on Sunday he won the WWE Championship.
CNET claims that this has happened because WWE is lusting after that sweet, sweet burgeoning Indian internet user population, and wishes them to sign up for the WWE Network, and I see no reason to doubt that. Certainly, there's no narrative reason why Jinder (who actually was born in Canada, not India, but who cares, am I right?) ought to be champion.
And, as usual, the people tend to want actual stories that are either reasonable or cathartic or satisfying or some combination of the three, but not none of the above, and, as usual, the wealthy want whatever's going to give them mega-bucks right now. This moment.
"It is because we say so. We don't need no stinkin' reason."
Fan reactions:
For those of you who think professional wrestling is unimportant, watch out. You might have Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a presidential candidate someday:
http://www.gq.com/story/dwayne-johnson-for-president-cover
Something else new: "Anne with an `E'" the new Anne of Green Gables miniseries on Netflix.
The intro is exquisite, and is based on animations done over six original paintings of the lead actress.
I found this miniseries tantalizing and a bit disappointing. At first I thought the characterizations were spot-on and the writing and acting excellent. Anne is absolutely Anne, Matthew absolutely Matthew, Marilla pretty damned close to the original, Rachel Lynde flawless, Gilbert perfect. The show is filmed, in part, on Prince Edward Island (a welcome bit of authenticity).
So what's the problem?
The problem is that the producers apparently didn't want to keep all that strictly to the book's plot. This would be OK, except that they are diverting from the original plot for two reasons:
1)To let everybody know how bad it was to be an orphan in the 19th century. Beatings, serflike conditions, inappropriate knowledge of adult sexuality, Dickensian horrors. This is what Netflix, and others, are calling the "darker" tone of the series. A lot of it wasn't in the original story.
2) To ramp up the dramatic oomph of the show. This is what I call the Peter Jackson mistake. You think it would be a very dramatic thing to have a Nazgul on a winged fell beast confront Frodo while he, completely in the Ring's grip, holds the Ring up to said Nazgul. And it is a great shot, and it'll make a great movie poster.
But then you have to deal with why the wraith doesn't just grab Frodo and fly away with him. Then you have to do something dumb like have one ordinary Gondorian soldier whom we don't even get to see properly shoot one ordinary arrow at this horrifically powerful evil thing--and it just flies off. Because obviously you want people to think the horrifically powerful evil thing can be driven off if you fire one arrow at it and graze its wing.
But it's even worse when you make the Peter Jackson mistake in a way that messes up, not the plot, but the characters. That's why his treatment of Treebeard is widely regarded as the clunkiest, worst part of his magnum opus. Treebeard, who is basically a big, ancient, sentient, walking tree, whose name is synonymous with the name of the forest he inhabits, whose job is to be a shepherd of the trees--doesn't know that Saruman has been clearcutting his forest.
This is the kind of mistake "Anne with an `E'" makes. We need to ramp up the drama, so when Marilla thinks that Anne took her brooch without permission, she sends her back to the orphanage (in the book she forbids her to go to the church picnic). The fact is, that once Marilla made the commitment to raise Anne, she would never have reneged on it. It's out of character, and because it generates a long, dramatic sequence of scenes, we get a lot of time to think about how out of character it is.
We need to ramp up the drama, so we invent Anne talking about how the woman she used to work for used to "pet her husband's mouse," and showing an obviously inappropriate level of sexual knowledge for her age, which then results in her basically being shunned. The original Anne did not have that experience. Nor did the husband of her last employer die of a heart attack while beating Anne for all he was worth.
We need to ramp up the drama, so we make Matthew Cuthbert attempt suicide. This one really got me. It's certainly in character for many farmers to kill themselves when they lose a whole year's crop, or when they are in danger of losing their farms; suicide as an attempt to relieve a burden on the family by getting life insurance money for them is also quite believable. But not for this character. Matthew Cuthbert would never attempt suicide, certainly not after he became a foster-parent to a child.
So the excellent character-driven, accurate-to-the-book foundation of the show is constantly being fiddled with in pursuit of a bigger emotional reaction. Either that, or the people producing the show want to use Anne as a way of talking about child abuse and the plight of farmers, and are willing to somewhat distort the characters in order to do so.
The problem with all this is that, in the constant need for more drama, a more intense emotional jolt, stories cease to elevate the smaller and quieter things and make them worthy of being told.
Nonetheless, the series is still well-acted, well-written, and beautifully filmed. Watch it if you don't need fidelity to the original tale, and you'll love it.
Something Borrowed
Apparently Justice Democrats are borrowing politicians from the establishment and running them as, er, something new.
"He used to take corporate money by the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but he knows better now! Now he only takes donations from wealthy individuals, and what's wrong with that?"
Well, possibly nothing, but if you make the argument that money in politics is the One Great Evil we must conquer and that all other concerns, like, for instance, election-rigging, are of marginal concern, a candidate who takes a lot of money from wealthy individuals is unlikely to increase your credibility. Also, if you are purporting to do Something New in electoral politics, it's probably a good idea not to have someone with a political history like this:
Khanna intended to run for the House in California's 15th congressional district in the 2012 election, hoping to succeed Democrat Pete Stark after Stark's eventual retirement, though stating he would not challenge Stark directly.[25] He raised $1.2 million, receiving support from Governor Brown, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo, and businessmen Vinod Khosla and John W. Thompson.[25] Khanna's fundraising total for the fourth quarter of 2011 exceeded that of all but two House candidates nationwide.[12] Eric Swalwell defeated Stark in 2012.[26]
Nancy Pelosi? Jerry Brown? Zoe Lofgren?
My, how anti-establishment.
Of course, I'm sure it's all different now. I'm sure Mr. Khanna wants to end Nancy Pelosi's pro-corporate neoliberal reign right fucking now. That was five whole years ago, after all, meaning that, like most of the past, it doesn't mean anything.
But then there's this:
Although Khanna took no donations from PAC's or corporations for his 2016 campaign, Khanna raised $480,500 from individuals associated with the securities and investment industry and $170,752 from individuals associated with the the electronics manufacturing industry.
Wait a minute. "Securities and investment industry?" You mean, like Wall Street? He just took 1/2 a mil from Wall Street? to unseat a candidate who opposed the TPP and defended Social Security?
Please understand that I'm not saying Mike Honda is a saint. But, um, somebody who takes half a million dollars from wealthy individuals in the securities and investment industry to take down a politician who defended Social Security and opposed the TPP didn't used to be called anti-establishment. If this is a revolution, it's only in the sense that we're continuing to revolve around the same old shit.
What really gripes me about this: even if you believe in reforming the Democratic party, even if you believe in an electoral solution, Ro Khanna arguably represents a loss of ground from where we were when DFA and Wellstone Action were training and recruiting people to run for office ten years ago and more. I mean, sure, we backed Obama for Senate and other establishment candidates as well as new faces and anti-big-donor figures like Donna Edwards, but at least we didn't pick somebody who took half a million dollars from Wall St and say that they were an anti-Big Money Justice candidate.
For goodness' sake.
If anybody from TOP sees this, I bet I will be accused of harboring anti-Indian prejudice because I support neither Ro Khanna nor Jinder Mahal.
Something Blue
I gotta get to this place:
People who aren't from Florida do not understand how far the Keys are from North Florida. It's easier for me to get to Atlanta.
But I gotta get to this place.
Apparently Ernest Hemingway used to referee boxing matches in the building.
Let's all drive down, grab Alphalop on the way, and treat ourselves to some shrimp and beer.
Comments
Good morning...
The same is true for Michigan. From the southern border with Ohio to the tip of the rabbits ear in upper peninsula, it is 628 miles. From the rabbits ear to the rabbits foot, the upper peninsula alone is 325 miles across.
Hillary Clinton's staffers are running for office. Gee, aren't we lucky. If they list the Clinton campaign anywhere in their resume, they won't get my vote.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Wasn't Governor McAuliffe a key part of her 2008 campaign?
Most of Obama's 2009 White House was full of Clintonites, starting with Chief of Staff Rahm "I need the finger" Emanuel.
Clintonites are like mold. Often unhealthy and almost impossible to get rid of.
That's why God made wikipedia and ballotopedia.
McAuliffe is a long-time FOB and useless,
witless party hack, the architect of sweeping Democratic losses over multiple elections.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
@HenryAWallace Terry McAuliffe-
Terry McAuliffe--another one that won't just go the fuck away.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Don't forget project vote smart (votesmart.org)
as an info source on these people.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
@enhydra lutris they're still around?
they're still around? awesome!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Still around and keep getting better - go
check out their website.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
@dkmich I saw some of this in MD;
I saw some of this in MD; politicians being called "progressive" by national organizations when I knew they were establishment guys who never met a rich person they didn't like. But I've never seen anything as, well, baldfaced as this. You've got an organization based on the idea of getting money out of politics. You run somebody for Congress who takes half a mil from Wall St and wins.
This era is not a happy one for those who value reason.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
This is such a pet peeve of mine.
I'm on Brad Schneider's email list. (I don't live in his district, though I am in IL.) Pretty much every email he sends out refers to him as a "strong progressive" or mentions his "progressive voice" or something similar. This all sounds lovely until you look at his actual voting record and see that he's actually one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress and votes with Republicans much more often than he should. Nice try!
A truly delightful essay. Thank you!
"Heaven on a fork" is literally my kind of metaphor as well as my kind of morsel. I call gazpacho a vegetable garden in a bowl, which is the same kind of metaphor. (As I make it, it is because I get as many vegetables into it as I humanly can, omitting the bread. BTW, New Jersey's nickname is the Garden State, but only because that sounds prettier than the Truck Farm state. It's about the produce, people, not the flowers.)
I want to know why an older woman in a fur coat is wearing a bramble(?) helmet over her hat.
I wish Alphalop would post more. I miss his posts.
I think same old, same old Democrats are trying to steal Bernie's thunder, from Justice Democrats to Hillary, allegedly leader of the resistance to something or other. The goal just may be to make sure the Party does not change.
Many great artists, such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Fats Domino and Norah Jones, recorded My Blue Heaven, starting, I think, with Gene Austin in 1927. His version is just pure, sweet and simple, like the domestic bliss portrayed in the song. Sort of form follows content.
@HenryAWallace I love it--"Hillary,
I love it--"Hillary, allegedly the leader of the resistance against something or other."
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@HenryAWallace Ah--that's my favorite
Ah--that's my favorite version too!
I don't know a lot about it, but it's interesting to listen to the difference between crooners of the different eras. Gene Austin sings in a different style, to my ear at least, than Crosby and Sinatra do.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
OMG
That key lime pie looked truly heavenly!!! The texture looked perfect...creamy.
I have been to Key West just once in my life. It was a long, long drive from Tallahassee. People do not realize just how big a state Florida is. Key West is over 600 miles from Tallahassee and over 800 miles from Pensacola. Atlanta is about 250 miles away as a comparison. Cedar Key is a lot like Key West, just not as Bohemian.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
@gulfgal98 Me too. Just once. The
Me too. Just once. The radiator overheated and we got orange juice and milk out of the cooler and poured it in so we could limp our way to civilization.
Ah, the 70s.
But I've really been wanting to go back. And the Key Lime Pie does look perfect.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I live
about 35 minutes from Cedar Key. The wife and I will be having breakfast there and picking up a bag of clams Friday morning to start the holiday weekend.
@crbngville Wow, you're not far
Wow, you're not far from me. I live in Gainesville. Just went to Cedar Key for my birthday a month or so ago. Was rather distressed that my favorite restaurant is still a wreck from the hurricane and apparently not going to be rebuilt...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
CRB in G'ville
Now, is it more obvious? Lol. We just moved to Levy County a few years. My wife and I were long time residents of G'ville and both of us still work in town.
Maybe we could try for a C99 Florida get together? Seems we have several Floridians here.
@crbngville We really should.
We really should. My lack of furniture is basically why I haven't volunteered to host one long since. Though it depends on where everybody is. If a lot of people are in South Florida, we should aim for somewhere more centrally located.
Lunachickie, who's another one of our lost ones, along with Alphalop and Dallasdoc, lived not too far away, I think.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I had a vacation scheduled
to go to Key West, but a hurricane blew that plan away. I switched gears, planned a trip to the Bahamas. Another hurricane blew that plan away.
I will get there one day.
Thanks for the essay.
I miss Alphalop, Dallas doc, OPOL, and wish jamess would shed TOP and post here.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@on the cusp jamess was on my original
jamess was on my original list of invites, once we had the idea
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal I can't imagine the
I can't imagine the topics he would explore if he could write without censorship.
It would be all epic, all the time.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
10 pts for hating on Peter Jackson's complete
lack of understanding of
A the story he was trying to tell
B the characters whose story he was telling
Jackson and his two lady friends are very accomplished mechanics: formulaic hacks completely enthralled, not by Tolkien's epic, but by the conventions they rotely learned in film school.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
PS: The real crime with Treebeard isn't that he didn't
know Saruman has been clearcutting the forest -- it's that he only finds out because a barely-of-age hobbit dupes him into going the "wrong" way. The oldest, wisest, most-careful-thinking being in Middle Earth: "Hmmm, that doesn't seem right to me, but hey, if you say so ..."
Worse than Treebeard was rewriting Faramir to be exactly what Tolkien precisely created him to not be. It is fundamental to Faramir's character -- it is the mythological function of Faramir's character -- that he does not try to bring Frodo and the Ring back to Minas Tirith.
I imagine that an evening spent drinking beer with Peter, Fran and Philippa would be an exercise in limitless unwittery.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
@UntimelyRippd As you'll see below, I
As you'll see below, I have a problem with Faramir's (temporary) corruption by the Ring as well. This is one of the few places where I strongly disagree with them, but also understand why they did it. They were frightened, through the whole film, that the absence of an obvious villain would make it a difficult sell; Sauron is the villain, but he's not someone you see and fight. That leaves the Ring, which means that your villain is an inanimate object. For a filmmaker, dependent on the visual, that's a challenge, to say the least.
Therefore they were constantly worried that people wouldn't take the Ring seriously, and they kept hammering it home that Yes The Ring Corrupts People and Kind of Controls Their Minds. It's BAD.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@UntimelyRippd And then he makes a
And then he makes a hasty decision! Ah, nuts. See below. I practically wrote another essay about this in the comments, LOL
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@UntimelyRippd You're right that
You're right that Pippin tricking Treebeard was also fairly unbelievable.
Motivating all this mess: the deep-seated need to give the actors something meaningful to do rather than having all of the meaningful action come from a CGI figure.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@UntimelyRippd I'm not as adamant as you
I'm not as adamant as you are, UR; I actually very much like the movies. I own them. I think Fellowship, despite a few flaws, is an excellent adaptation. But they are NOT without flaws, some of them very serious.
Among them:
Treebeard's lack of knowledge of the clearcutting Uh, what?
Treebeard's "hasty" decision in response to the clearcutting. Also, Treebeard's ability to just order all the other Ents to do what he says, which renders the Moot, well, moot.
The death of Denethor, which was rendered ridiculous. The screenwriters did not respect him. Tolkien did. He would never have given him a coward's death. I am NOT saying this because I like Denethor, one of the most hatable characters in the book.
A fell beast being driven off with one ordinary arrow.
Saruman's death. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Though it did give us this:
Faramir being actually tempted by the Ring. I do understand their reasoning on this one, I do. But I really think moviegoers could handle a subtler treatment, where you don't have to bash people over the head repeatedly with the fact that The Ring Is Bad and It Can Control Your Mind. Corruption, See?
Aragorn decapitates the Mouth of Sauron. This is a shitty reversal for no reason which makes Aragorn, temporarily, less moral than the Mouth of Sauron. You have one of the moral centers of your film break the moral code--and get nothing for it, narratively.
Inventing a mystical illness for Arwen, in which she waned as Sauron grew strong. I didn't like this in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith either. Mystical illnesses to beautiful young women with no sound narrative preparation for the fact seem gratuitous to me. If you need to use a mystical illness in your movie, go watch Excalibur (1978). They do it right.
But then again, that was one of the four points of the Arthur story in the first place: the king and the land are one. (The others are: nothing lasts, but everything returns, there will always be a snake in the garden, and unification brings peace.)
EDIT: In retrospect, there is one more point to the Arthur myth: hold yourself to a high standard, because civilization is preferable to barbarism.
Oh, also, should be mentioned separately, Arwen's pendant shatters. This one is massively egregious, perhaps the most egregious of all, because it directly conflicts with storytelling invented by Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens. Arwen is heading to the sea to take the boats to the West (doesn't happen). Arwen has a vision of her son by Aragorn running to his father. This vision makes her choose to be mortal and live in mortal lands over immortality and bliss overseas. It's pretty damned important, and it was invented by them, not Tolkien.
In the vision, the child has Arwen's pendant around his neck.
Yes, the same one that shatters later, for no fucking reason.
Oh, and by the way? In the written story, Arwen gives that pendant to Frodo when she gives him her place on the ship to the East.
OMG. Gollum frames Sam.
What makes this one so particularly egregious is that the frame-up wouldn't even work. You can't use the idea of Ring influence on Frodo as a catchall reason why you don't have to come up with a good, believable storyline. FFS, if Sam had been taken by the Ring, he would have slit Frodo's throat and taken the Ring from him, or, at best, would have taken the Ring from him and, when challenged to give it back, have slit his throat afterwards. Like Smeagol and Deagol. We know how this goes. The idea that he would, instead, eat the lembas bread is farcical, and Frodo would know it.
Oh, and this may seem a small point, but
Bree is supposed to be cool, not spooky. It has one shitty person in it, it's not a Hogarthian thieves' camp with one nice innkeeper.
I'm not a purist. I don't get pissed off at every deviation from the text. I don't mind that they make it the story of a young man going to war as opposed to a middle-aged one. I don't mind, much, that they left out Bombadil and the Old Forest. I don't mind that they invent a stronger argument between Elrond and Aragorn over Arwen; I don't mind that they add a lot of love scenes so Arwen can be a real character. I don't mind that they bring the Elves of Lothlorien to battle at Helm's Deep. I don't mind that they have Arwen meet them, pick up Frodo and outride the Ringwraiths. I don't mind that she, as Elrond's daughter, is now given the power to raise the river. There's a lot of things I don't mind. I'll even go along with giving most of Gandalf's cool lines in Edoras to Eomer instead, having Gandalf be afraid of going into Moria rather than Aragorn--hell, there's lots of things I don't mind.
But there are some serious mistakes in Jackson's storytelling, which, IMO, do not invalidate the whole, because there is so much good in his storytelling as well. I never expect to see a better movie version of LOTR. But these are flawed gems, no question; and the places I get most irritated are the places where it seems like they've diverted from the story for no damned good reason.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i'm also "okay" with some of their alterations.
and i think people who complain about Legolas being present in the Hobbit are idiots. he obviously would have been there, you know? where else would he have been? riding about the wilderness, an elf knight errant?
however, on this we differ strongly:
There is simply no imaginable narrative that gets the Elves of Lothlorien (are they the Elves of Lothlorien? One of them is, but if I recall the movie correctly, it seems to me that it's implied that they've been sent by Elrond -- just more sloppy storytelling by the triumvirate of sloppy storytelling, more interested in their set-pieces and their film-school formulas than in creating a believable narrative ...) to the battle at Helm's Deep in time. They would have had to start marching around the time that the Fellowship was disintegrating on the banks of the Great River (actually, it's not clear that an army could have made it in time from Lothlorien to Helm's Deep if they had left immediately after seeing the Fellowship off), they would have had to march all the way down Rohan without anybody noticing or caring (or if they were in fact coming from Rivendell, all the way down past Isengard), knowing in advance that they needed to be marching to Helm's Deep, etc etc. And if Elrond/Galadriel were going to send an army anywhere, they would have sent it to Gondor, not to Rohan. It's just inexcusably ridiculous.
I can pick the films apart piece by piece by piece, and in almost every case the essential difficulty is simply that Kukla, Fran and Ollie just aren't smart enough, well-educated enough, and imaginative enough to handle the task they've given themselves, which you summarize well enough in your other comment:
Yes, a challenge to say the least -- and they failed the test, repeatedly. Most significantly, I think, Jackson has the patience of a toddler, and cannot accommodate any meaningful passage of time into his film-making. Thus everything gets hurried up, for no good reason -- other filmmakers have found ways to convey the passage of days/weeks/months/years without dragging down the narrative -- and to the detriment of believability. In the Hobbit, the dwarves make it from Laketown and to the hidden door in an afternoon. It's ludicrous -- you can only row a small boat 2 or 3 miles an hour MAX, and you can only hike up a mountain with full gear at about 2 miles an hour, MAX. For the timing in the movie, Laketown would have had to be within about 10 miles of the mountain, at which distance it wouldn't have been a far-off rumbling concern of foggy legend, it would have been the dominating feature of the landscape.
I think there will be a better version made, though possibly not in my life time. The stories are not going away, they are a permanent fixture in our culture, and eventually it will occur to someone in the entertainment industry that the copyrights have expired and that Jackson's production is technologically dated, that his annoying winks at contemporary popular culture -- pardon me while i suspend your suspension of disbelief, folks, har har fart -- have lost their currency, and that Mistakes Were Made.
I mean ... who thought there would be a remake of Dune -- yet eventually there was, a TV miniseries that did much better justice to the novel than any single theatrical release could hope to do.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
@UntimelyRippd I want to be
I want to be absolutely clear.
Nothing in my previous comments applies to the film version of The Hobbit,, or as my family calls it The Life and Times of Azog the Defiler, starring Thorin Oakenshield, also starring Tariel the Elf, guest starring Smaug the Great and Terrible, with Bilbo Baggins. Sort of like Bilbo was Tattoo from Fantasy Island.
The Hobbit was wretched, and that's sad because Martin Freeman was a fine choice for Bilbo. It was wretched. They fucked up Bard the Bowman's attack on Smaug. How the hell do you fuck that up. How.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@UntimelyRippd Oh, my God. They also
Oh, my God. They also fucked up the naming of Sting. How. How. How.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
they fucked up the entire mirkwood sequence, because
it had to happen in 3 days instead of 3 weeks -- can't use valuable screentime to carry the narrative, we need those minutes for the next battle scene! (and the dwarves were imprisoned by thranduil for ... what, maybe a week, if that ... rather than for months.)
On jackson's timescale, it can't be more than a hundred miles from the eastern slope of the Misty Mountains to the Throne of the King Under the Mountain, when by Tolkien's own calculation (and apparently to his dismay, because it meant his own map was wrong), it would have been more like 400 miles: after all, the party damn near starved to death hiking down the forest trail. From Laketown to high up the slope of the Lonely Mountain was more like 40 miles as the crow flies -- a few days' journey at minimum.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
@UntimelyRippd Yeah. The whole
Yeah. The whole issue of getting there was very much downplayed. But if you're talking about those movies' sins, the fight on the frozen lake....oh, god. And the re-do of Thorin...totally unlike the Thorin of the books...and the incessant keeping the focus away from Bilbo...and OMG the stupid-dumb of the dwarves' running battle with Smaug in the Lonely Mountain...and Bard the Bowman's attack on Smaug...and Azog, who wasn't even alive during The Hobbit, would, I hope, if he had been alive, not been a completely lame villain who always send second-rate thug employees to do his dirty work...
I'm done now.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
just remember:
what jackson wanted for RotK was an epic climactic mano y mano throwdown between Aragorn and Sauron.
?????
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
@UntimelyRippd Are you
Are you kidding? Oh dear. Tell me you're kidding.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
No joke, alas
For once, saner heads prevailed, and the giant troll was pasted in instead.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Damnit all! Now I need to re-read the Trilogy
since I read them at 9 or 10 and a few years have passed (ahem). All that is left with me now are feelings about certain characters. More night time reading. No prob.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
@riverlover Do! It's great stuff.
Do! It's great stuff.
When I was a kid, the third book was a little heavy for me, a little thick and dry in the prose (more epic language), but as an adult, it's awesome.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Good morning, folks!
It's raining here! RAINING!!! Whoo-hooo!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
it's been raining here for days.
it's become a bit tiresome, actually.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
@UntimelyRippd We were in a drought.
We were in a drought.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Every drip counts then. Good luck.
We went from drought to floods and the rain keeps coming. But you will appreciate. Do a rain dance in the rain.
edit: I hate when I screw up the subject line!!!
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
“We’ll dance in the garden in torn sheets in the rain”
— “The Deadbeat Club” by the B-52s, on the album Cosmic Thing.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXy0XnzTQuc]
@lotlizard Wow. A kindred
Wow. A kindred spirit!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
What Californians are saying about Trump’s budget plan
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article152229017.html
Isn't it standing where it always stood? Never mind. I did notice he said "rapid growth of 21st century industries" not "21st century jobs", because robots. Don't say brick and mortar right now.
Cant wait for the emanuel consultancy results: "fifty states of screaming values", or "we listen to retards now" tour.
peace
@eyo ROTFLMAO
ROTFLMAO
"Fifty states of screaming values!"
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Ro Khanna's $1 trillion dollar tax credit
well if you thought that was funny, speaking of robots...
Ro Khanna Wants to Give Working-Class Households $1 Trillion
Did he just say that? Right there is where I wanted to stop reading. "what they think they deserve" is effing corporate psycho-bubble talk, it is how big tech (and other) employers brainwash workers to think they're autonomous or somehow not tools of the corporate hive mind. No worker solidarity, no Card Check needed, anywhere on earth ever. "That's the system." Tax credits instead of worker co-ops, because of course. And who is the "virtual reality" boss he speaks of that will actually allow "you to stay in Paintsville and work for a company in Michigan"? Please point to the successful companies currently doing that to scale, telecommuting has been around forever. Thanks
@eyo There's also
There's also something else ugly lurking in what they think they deserve. Why wouldn't he just say what they deserve? does Mr. Khanna have a disagreement with these workers as to what a living wage would be?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
When was the last time you remember a President's being
criticized or dog-whistled repeatedly for his choice for Ambassador to the Vatican?
FYI, I just heard someone in Rome say CG has many ties to the Vatican and is beloved there, especially by the North American College (whatever that is).
Crikey, Presidents make people with zero experience ambassadors just because they were big campaign donors without getting flack about it. But, suddenly, ambassador to the Vatican is a controversial posting because Trump?
Love the charades and kabuki that = US media.
Good Morning, CSTMS, congrats on the rain.
Back at TOP, Glen the Plumber used to routinely annihilate Khanna. I wonder where TOP stands on him now. Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good Morning - what about Jared Kushner ?
this:
MAY 23, 2017 BY SUBIR GREWAL - Jared Kushner uses lawfare to extort money from poor tenants in Baltimore
How do you protect yourself from your bank accounts being wiped out? Does this work putting all your money in a trust fund and be your own trust fund manager? I am so tired to figure all that out.
All of it sucks. Haven't even read the article to the end, was just so pissed off.
Most of the media are too terrified
to criticize Jared, I'm glad to see someone is doing it.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I read more good writers now comparing Trump
to his perception of a Godfather. He fired Comey for not wanting to be a good capo like Sessions. Kushner is his bagman. He is just not a good Godfather.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Is Jared the Trump administration equivalent of Rahm Emanuel?
Say what you will about Rahm, he’s a genuine tough guy with proven killer instinct. Rahm Emanuel volunteered for, and served in, the Israeli military twice. Jared Kushner has far to go if he wants to measure up.
Blue Heaven
There used to be a brothel in the building, too! They still have peep holes on the doors. It's a fantastic place, DFHs, artists, excellent grub, too. The highlight of otherwise Disney-fied Key West.
@TB mare Um, Disneyfied?
Um, Disneyfied?
I haven't been there in over 30 years. How bad is it?
I assumed, since it's an island, there was a limit to how much they could develop it.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Blue Heaven
My first visit was in February of this year. I imagined sandy roads, vast beaches, lots of hippies and artists, writers, etc. What I found was a congested city complete with Pizza Huts and CVS's along with tourist trap type shops (t-shirts, flip flops with Key West themes). There was precious little natural beauty to behold. Obviously I was hugely disappointed. We were lucky though, in that we were there at the invite of a friends whose generosity knows no bounds and who put us up in their guest house which allowed us a fenced in bit of tropical peace. That's the only reason we'd return.
Sorry for the delayed reply. I have no idea how to know when a comment of mine has a reply! For some reason today I decided to look in "my account" to see if I've ever gotten a reply to one of my rare comments. Hence, here I am!
My first look at real
Key Lime Pie. Subjected to numerous fakes here out west. Wonder what it tastes like.
Just had our rainiest season in decades, complete with 140% snowpack. And yet a brushfire evacuates 120 homes near Leavenworth, Wa. Bizarre.
On a lighter note, going camping on the flanks of Mt. Hood for the holiday weekend with all the family and friends. Won't be able to hike in to Ramona Falls because the river crossing is to fast and furious. But there's plenty of other trails.
Leaving tomorrow morning, so y'all have a good and safe holiday weekend.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
@earthling1 Have a great time! I
Have a great time! I would love to be able to visit your end of the country--the Pacific NW is something I'd love to see.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
It's going to be a great summer.
Lots and lots and lots of roaring rivers and brim full lakes. This is the year to visit.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
“we’re the climate champions and yet we’re not doing anything"
It really pays to bust out of the bubble once in a while, observe the wildlife in their natural habitat so to speak. "You mean there's gambling going on in this establishment? I'm shocked!" heh
Gov. Brown tours polluted L.A. neighborhoods to see firsthand where progress lags
That is pretty pretty close to home but not L.A., I mean I live about 200 ft. from Highway 101 and my neighbors idle diesel clouds each morning, their engines need warming. It only took four years for my cat to get lung cancer out there on the tiny deck. After a decade of feeding her groovy organic food and kitty grass, it was the air that killed her. I wish I knew better, but wtf? Sonoma County just won "Best Air Quality" so what I do I know? Yuge vet bills and a dead cat, that's all.
And another thing! lol Why the transparency fail? OIC, because abuela's tortas, maybe there wasn't enough to go around. lol it's funny but I am not kidding.
peace
Having driven from just below
Atlanta to the Keys, I'm very aware of how big both Georgia and Florida are. We went all the way down to Key West but stayed on Key Largo at the Key Lime Sailing Club where you get to sail a small cabin day-sailer with your accommodations. Unfortunately the weather turned ugly on us after only a couple of days, but we still enjoyed seeing the keys where orchids can grow in trees rather than a greenhouse.
LOTR was fine, but Jackson must have decided that what it lacked was more senseless action and put that into The Hobbit. sigh
I hate when films contort their characters' actions to get whatever plot twist/direction they want. I'd noticed that in some things I'd been watching lately. It reminds me of an eight-year-old kid playing with plastic army men, who gets bored with the way he had things going and just veers off in a completely different direction because it feels good.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
@Lily O Lady Yeah, it's happening all
Yeah, it's happening all over the place. I'm contemplating the end of my lifelong association with visual media. It may come to me not watching anything new, and just collecting old stuff I like.
But I'm not there yet.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Bopping people upside the head with the obvious isn't new
There are some fairly cringe-worthy bits in a number of old movies, if you stop to think about them. One of my favorites is from the otherwise splendid The Pride of the Yankees, which is an explicit biofilm of Lou Gehrig. There was really only one person in all of Hollywood who could convincingly portray the positive "Goodness" of Gehrig's character: Gary Cooper. But Cooper not only didn't know anything about baseball, he was right-handed - and Gehrig was a lefty. The studio worked around that through various means - BUT the screenwriter could not resist putting in, and nobody had the sense to cut, a scene where Papa Gehrig goes ape because the bakery delivered a birthday cake with a right-handed batter. Way to Lampshade the very situation you want to keep hidden!!!!
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
@Lily O Lady If we end up doing a
If we end up doing a North Florida gather of C99ers, perhaps folks from around Macon on down could come. Like you!
Not really sure whether it would be best to do one in G'ville or locate it south so as to pick up folks in South Florida.
My boyfriend and I may drive up for a baseball game this season. If so, maybe we could meet!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
It would be good to meet you. I've sworn off going
to that section of Cobb County due to the insane traffic compounded by the new Braves Stadium. However, I would make an exception in your case.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"