Speaking of LOTR references, there was an article in the New Yorker (I think) basically asking, Did anyone else notice how LOTR rips off Wagner's Ring Cycle? The book, not the movie. The idea being, everyone acts as if LOTR sprang full-blown from Tolkien's head, when it has an obvious (and mostly ignored) precursor in Wagner's Ring.
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How strong are the similarities? There's the fundamental one: Wagner, too, is talking about an all-powerful ring everyone wants to capture. Then there's the incidental ones; the presence of the gods in the fighting, the departure from their old home at the end, even the power of the ring to turn its owner invisible (and, perhaps, the personification if evil in non-Aryan forms). Tolkien, naturally, claims not to have been influenced by Wagner's Ring cycle at all, but the article unearthed a couple of approving references from before the time of his authorship and wondered, with so many similarities, can it really be a complete coincidence?
One of the interesting points of similarity between the two works is, beneath the mythical dross, they're both talking about an essetially modern problem. Why didn't anyone worry about an all-powerful weapon in olden days? Because you were either born with power or you weren't; no 'ring' could make you into a king, much less some kind of world-dominating juggernaut. In Wagner's time, the writing was on the wall; it was already possible to imagine technology giving some lowly peon god-like amounts of power. The Ring has more in common with today's atom bomb, in other words, than it does with ancient swords and axes.
I've always thought opera gets a bad rap. It was the first art form to attempt the integration we all think of as exclusively modern — music + prose + action is a reconizably movie-like dynamic, even down to the 2-3 hour running length. The fact that it's in a different language adds a barrier to our understanding, but of course in the original listeners this barrier did not exist. Opera, like movies, are also trying to create an total immersion experience, one that both works are famous for creating.
In this respect it's interesting to consider why Wagner's cycle today exists under a dark cloud. Like Tolkien, Wagner dreams of a time when the European gods existed and the people, by the power of the One Ring, fought them off. It also, like Tolkien, seems to set up a (perhaps unintentional) equation between evil and the dark-skinned races. If you think people worry too much in complaining about that, it's worth noting that this association is exactly what tainted Wagner's Ring, because the Ring Cycle was later embraced whole-heartedly by the Nazis and employed as a kind of national myth story, with lavish productions being put on at Nazi expense. In some ways I think the Cycle was a victim of its own success; Wagner's work was so powerful, and like all great art so malleable, that it made the perfect target for Nazi hate. In this sense the Ring Cycle is an interesting exception to the usually inviolable rule that we don't usually hold art accountable to later misappropriations.
As the article notes, the LOTR music even sounds kind of proto-Wagnerian, so in some ways the movie builds on those similarities. If you are a great lover of the LOTR books and movies, than the Ring Cycle story — and its place in history, at the hands of the Nazis — provide some interesting food for thought. Since, in some ways, Tolkien's Ring story is almost like an updated version of the Wagner Cycle, you have to wonder if a German-authored version of LOTR would not have undergone the same treatment.
British writer Mark Simpson, credited by the New York Times for fathering the 'metrosexual' -- the moisturised, image-conscious male the global media has gone ga-ga for in recent months -- has apologised.
"I had no idea what I was starting," he said, speaking exclusively from his home in London, England. "If I'd known that metrosexuals would take over the world and make everyone wear fake tan and use glutinous hair care products I would have written about baseball instead."
Read Original News Article
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Insert Fun Facts Here....
As you sit back in your chair this Christmas:
(the biggest holiday of the Ancient Roman World called Saturnalia and the birth of the Persian Sun God Mithras was named the birth festival of Jesus by Pope Leo the Great in 885 A.D. December 25th was also the Feast of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun, a cult popular to Romans like Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Modern estimates based on the census records of Augustus calculate Jesus' actual birth in July although Christians had started to use the Saturnalia as the birthday feast as early as the 300's A.D.)
by your yule log:
(pagan German custom),
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wrapping your presents in pretty paper:
(Roman Saturnalia custom)
with your house all decorated with lights:
(Roman New Year custom)
under your mistletoe:
(Druid custom),
drinking from your Wassel Bowl:
(Anglo-German hot beer with toast floating
in which is why we "toast" with the words "was-heil" -- here's to ya).
You're looking at your Christmas tree:
(besides the Celtic tree worship, the 24th of December was the feast day of Saints Adam and Eve
when Medieval Churches act out the Genesis story and set up a tree representing the "tree of life" with glass balls representing the fruit. This custom was later associated with Christmas and was taken from Germany to England by Prince Albert and to America by Hessian soldiers and later German immigrants)
(In an 1883 editorial about the newfangled custom the New York Times called the Christmas Tree -- "A rootless, lifeless corpse -- unworthy of the Day..."),
And you dream of a visit from Santa Claus
(a hybrid of anglo-dutch customs appearing in it's modern form in New York in the late 1850's.
The English form was St. Nicholas, a big jolly Bishop in a red suit and the Dutch had Kris Kringle, the elf who dropped down your chimney and was also known as "Klaus-in-the-Cinders" or "Cinder-Klaus'". The first image of him was drawn in 1859 in the New York Sun by cartoonist Thomas Nast for the Clement Moore poem (Nast also created the Democratic Donkey and Republican elephant). The modern image was created for a 1930's ad
campaign for Coca-Cola by illustrator Haddon Sundblom.)
(A Welsh friend told me the Druid priest who distributed magic mushrooms wore a red robe with white fur trim. The reindeer had a habit of eating these mushrooms which gave you a high when you drank their urine.}
So here's wishing you hopes for a "White Christmas" (song written by Russian-Jewish composer Irving Berlin)
and a very Happy New Year:
(courtesy of the 12 month calendar reformed by the Hellenic-Egyptian Sosigenes for Julius Caesar and modified by Pope Gregory in 1582, else we'd be celebrating in March.)
Merry Christmas, Freylich Chaunnakah, Happy Solstice, Happy Birth of Mithras, Io, Saturnalia, Joyeux Noel, Bozego Narodzenia, Frohe Weinacht, Happy Birth of Sol Invictus the Sungod, Happy death and rebirth of Baldur son of Odin, Happy beginning of the rise of Porsephone back from
Hades to her mother Demeter, and pass the reindeer pee!
1) Use "so" more often than "because" so that you emphasize that the process should be evidence then conclusion, not the other way around
2) People think you're smarter the slower you speak. So speak slowly.
3) Stop lisping.
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Reading this article about how men are becoming metrosexual, getting exfoliations and caring more about their appearances.
Though, I do have to remind that at some point, the upper-class males would wear powdered wigs, suits, and socks that were effeminate, Victorian, etc.
But my bigger question is, are gender roles so flexible that females could be generally more masculine than males? That would be interesting.... men, get your lipstick ready..
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Time really flies then you don't know what you're doing. (from slashdot)
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So I googled "true love" and guess what I got? Russian woman.
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Doesn't this scene looks similar to a screengrab from a floating level from the isometric perspective game Diablo.
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Some bodies (pro pitcher) were not meant to move this way.
Nuanced poor designs - The best way to learn is from mistakes--just hopefully they are the mistakes of others
Steve Martin - How I Joined Mensa
I started with the phone book. Looking up "mensa" was not going to be easy, what with having to follow the strict alphabetizing rules that are so common nowadays. I prefer a softer, more fuzzy alphabetizing scheme, one that allows the mind to float free and "happen" upon the word. There is pride in that. The dictionary is a perfect example of over-alphabetization, with its harsh rules and every little words neatly in place. It almost makes me never want to eat again.
We here at Book-A-Minute Classics have come up with a solution. We've taken all kinds of great works of literature and boiled them down to their essence, extracting all the filler (and believe me, there's a lot of it sometimes). In just one minute, you can read entire books and learn everything your teachers will expect you to know.
Introducing 50 Shekel... Jewish Hip-Hop (darkOS)
nomenclature for the wannabe cool - uhm... this is like what I speak w/ all the time. damn.
This Shock Absorber sports bra was designed especially for Anna Kournikova, because only the ball should bounce. Available exclusively at Amazon.com, for a limited time.
This girl.. yeah. Here, watch Vanilla Sky, print out These Lyrics to Radiohead's "Go To Sleep", and watch the video here.
(From moby's journal. Yes, I know moby's a tool, but some of his posts are good, like this one)
"President Bush is supporting Arnold. But a lot of Republicans are not because he is actually quite liberal. Karl Rowe said if his father wasn't a Nazi, he wouldn't have any credibility with conservatives at all."
Bill Maher
"President Bush is on a 35-day vacation, and before he left he had his annual physical, and it turns out his cholesterol now is lower than his approval rating."
David Letterman
"Yesterday, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would run for governor of California. The announcement was good news for Florida residents who now live in the second flakiest state in the country."
Conan O'Brien
"Apparently Arnold was inspired by President Bush, who proved you can be a successful politician in this country even if English is your second language."
Conan O'Brien
"They're saying Arnold will get 95% of the vote. At least according to his brother, Jeb Schwarzenegger."
Craig Kilborn
"President Bush has been silent on Schwarzenegger. Of course, he can't pronounce Schwarzenegger."
David Letterman
"Here's how bad California looks to the rest of the country. People in Florida are laughing at us."
Jay Leno
"As you know, President Bush is on his 29-day vacation, which is three days longer than last year. Well, can you blame him? Have you ever been to Crawford, Texas? You can't squeeze it all in in 26 days."
Jay Leno
"Well, we're all excited because President Bush has started his 35-day vacation. He's down there in Crawford, Texas; and on the first day of his vacation he went fishing. He didn't find any fish. But he believes they're there and that his intelligence is accurate."
David Letterman
"Some good news for the economy. President Bush went on a month-long vacation."
Jay Leno
"The White House released a videotape of President Bush meeting with his cabinet, and today Iraqi officials say they believe the tape is authentic."
Jay Leno
"The United States is putting together a Constitution now for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It's served us well for 200 years, and we don't appear to be using it anymore. So what the hell?"
Jay Leno
"President Bush held his first full press conference in over five months this week. He announced that the war on terrorism is continuing, much, much more work needs to be done on the economy, and Saddam Hussein has not yet been captured. And then he said, 'I'm going on vacation for a month.'"
Jay Leno
"President Bush is leaving to go to Crawford, Texas, for a 35-day working vacation. This should go over big with all the people taking a can't-get-work vacation."
David Letterman
"The White House says that the vacation in Texas will give President Bush the chance to unwind. My question is, when does the guy wind?"
David Letterman
"If you add up all the time he's spent on the ranch, he's spent more time in hiding than bin Laden and Hussein put together."
Bill Maher
"President Bush's economic team is now on their Jobs and Growth bus tour all across America. I think the only job they created so far is for the guy driving the bus."
Jay Leno
"President Bush has refused to declassify portions of the congressional 9/11 reports about the Saudis, because he says it will help the enemy. Not Al Qaeda, the Democrats."
Jay Leno
Steve Job's Resume (From Tim Swanson's Blog)
What's In Your Name - Dictionary of Last Names
Hah, dictionary.com's word of the day is defenestration. Such a long and silly word defenestration is. The defenestration of prague is the only situation I remember it being used. It means the throwing out of something. No wait, not just throw out, but to throw out of a window no less.
In 1618, protestant burghers of Prague went to the HRADSHIN, overpowered the guards, grasped the royal representatives and threw them out of the window - the DEFENESTRATION OF PRAGUE. This was a coup d'etat, symbolizing the deposition of the Habsburg King. The Estates of Bohemia elected ptotestant Frederick Count Palatinate their new king, and thought the matter to be over. The king's representatives had survived the defenestration, for they had fallen into a stack of hay. They had reported the events in Vienna.
Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Ideas / The president and the assassin
Just as Islamist terrorists stalk us now, so the communist specter haunted our parents and anarchists ambushed our grandparents. We have lived with this dread for as long as anyone can tell....
If, as the British philosopher John Gray claims, "Al Qaeda's closest precursors are the revolutionary anarchists of late 19th-century Europe," then we may learn something from the strategy Roosevelt used to quell that radical threat. Let's hope so.
Yeah, I felt like I've been sold on the idea that terrorism was a modern phenomenom. I don't remember at all being taught about an anarchist spectre in high school. Maybe they didn't want to give teenagers the wrong idea. Hah, and I used to think that propoganda didn't reach into the classrooms.
What's interesting is to go to hotornot.com and try to guess what the population is going to rate these ppl. But wait, you already do that. What's even funnier is to change the settings so you can view women or men of a different age group, there it gets much more challenging, and revealing. It's like, I can't believe that middle-aged men think that this girl is a 9... crazy... I'm glad I'm not there yet, age-wise.
The O'Really Line by The Register
Summer of 1969, moved to San Francisco for the Summer of Love. Vague memory of meeting John Wayne.Autumn of 1969, moved to Darien, Connecticut to live in a big suburban house with grandparents, Myron Warner and Jeanette McBride Warner. Attended Royle Grammar School from 1970-1975. Strange fact: best friend in 1973 was Robert Downey Jr. Parents used to smoke pot together, haven't seen him since.
Interesting exceprt from Moby's Journals (moby.com).
Blackout Questions
8/17/2003 - New York City
another blackout related journal entry...
some questions that we were pondering during the blackout:
1-how many people were getting root canals done when the blackout happened?
2-how many people were cheating on their partners when the blackout happened and will now be faithful for life?
3-how many people took psychedelic drugs 40 minutes before the blackout happened and thus felt that they caused it or were involved somehow?
4-how many people had visited nyc on september 11th, 2001 and were also visiting for the blackout? do they feel responsible, somehow?
5-how many instantaneous/synchronous events happened as the power failed, like: deaths, little league home-runs, broken windows, spilled milk, etc. it's safe to say that everyone who experienced a synchronous event will attach some degree of significance to their event and the blackout.
Unfortunately, not all his posts are enlightening, this is rather depressing-annoying
Yuppified Journal Entry
8/20/2003 - New York City
now that i've stopped touring for a while i think that you'll be able to expect increasingly domestic and yuppified journal entries from me.
like this one.
i was upstate for a few days, and it was great.
monday morning in particular. i woke up very early (6 a.m) and watched the sun come up, and as it came up it illuminated the fog that had collected in the valleys, so the fog in the valleys was pink and the tops of the mountains were bathed in this reddish light.
it was amazing.
and now i'm being a fully fledged, dyed-in-the-wool, bron-y-aur, yuppie. ('bron-y-aur', i'm sure it means something in welsh, but i just know it as a hyphenated led zeppelin song).
i'm being a yuppie cos i'm on my roof and it's dusk and really breezy and i'm sitting up here with my laptop and it's great and i know i'm a stinky yuppie with a penchant for run-on sentences.
and hyphens.
and-hyphens.
i'll stop.
thanks
moby
When playing God is fun... Funny Breeding
Bezos and Kournikova... sitting in a tree... K.I.S.S.I.N.G. lol.
What has the opening of trading become? It's like another ad. I can't wait till Schwarzeneggar gets to go up there and do a ding on Wall St.
Now that Uday & Qusay have been eliminated, a lot of the lesser-known family members are coming to the attention of American authorities.
Among the brothers:
Sooflay ..................the restaurateur
Guday................... the half-Australian brother
Huray.................... the sports fanatic
Kuntay & Kintay.....the twins from the African mother
Sayhay....................the baseball player
Ojay........................the stalker / murderer
Gulay......................the singer / entertainer
Ebay.......................the Internet czar
Biliray......................the country music star
Ecksray...................the radiologist
Puray.......................the blender factory owner
Regay......................the half-Jamaican brother
Tupay......................the one with bad hair:
Among the sisters:
Pusay.......................the 'loose' 22 yr. old
Lattay........................the coffee shop owner
Bufay.........................the 300 pound sister
Dushay......................the clean sister
Phayray.....................the zoo worker in the gorilla house:
Sapheway..................the grocery store owner:
Ollay..........................the half-Mexican sister:
Gudlay........................the prostitute:
Let's not forget Decepticon
'99 Lipstick
'98 Skyblue Dice
'97 Red Snake
'97 Black Fin
'00 Blue Devil
'00 Blue Shark
'00 Black Plain
'98 Lowered Lipstick Hatchback
'95 Racer Blue + White Stripes
'99 Cruel Blue
And don't forget this:
Souped-up Odyssey
For your visual pleasure.
"'Sacred cows make the best hamburger.'
Mark Twain"
If there are any film script writers out there, I have an idea for a movie. Make a mix between Alice in Wonderland and Tommy.
For those not familiar with the movie Tommy yet, here's a short synopsis. A young Tommy becomes psychosomatically blind, deaf, and mute upon witnessing his real father being killed by his stepfather. What proceeds is a strange journey of stumbling through life. He gets abused by perverts and his parents suggest numerous quacks (Jack Nicholson) to help him. Eventually, he is cured spontaneously, and becomes a sort of messiah figure.
I think it would be cool to make an inverted Tommy film and throw it some Alice in Wonderland stuff. First we start with someone who is born blind, deaf, and dumb. Her parents claim to be frustrated because of their child but are really frustrated about themselves.... Alice is apparently happy the way she is. Fortunately, or unfortunately, because it's the 21st Century, the parents are able to rush their kid around from doctor to doctor until they eventually cure her disabilities. Unfortunately, as she goes through life, she starts to realize that the world is not as great of a place as she imagined it would be when she was unaware. She stumbles upon calamity after calamity, a la Alice in Wonderland. You can update the characters to represent many faults, such as hypocrisy of both the pro-war, and anti-war movements or disillusionment with modern technology. Etc. Until eventually, Alice gets so upset that she maims herself blind, deaf, and dumb because she can't take the world anymore.
Teh Onion put an article out there four years ago, Klingon Speakers Now Outnumber Navajo Speakers. And now, MSNBC is reporting that Portland is looking for Klingon Speakers to deal with the mental patients it has that speak exclusively in Klingon.
Just saw the movie Tommy for the first time. Yeah.
Retail Alphabet Game: 3rd Edition Fun stuff for the kiiids (mrshahehe)
Amazing Geek Toys "The orbiTouch creates a keystroke when you slide the two domes into one of their eight respective positions. You type the different characters by sliding the domes to create letters and numbers. The orbiTouch has an integrated mouse, so once you've mastered the layout, it's even easier to use than a traditional keyboard.
And the winners are:
- Madagascar for 21
- Paraguay for 12
Climber amputates arm to free self A climber who amputated his own arm with a pocketknife to free himself from a narrow, remote canyon in Utah was described as a “warrior” with a strong will to survive as he recovered at a hospital.
If you try searching for "American Life" on KaZaA you get one of three mp3s. One that's a loop of the chorus of "American Life." A Second that's some crazy song that sounds like a Latina dancything. And Third, Madonna speaking "What the Fuck do you think you're doing" followed by minutes of silence.
Upon first hearing the third type, I thought, wow, Madonna's embracing high art now. If her version of America was a "WTF" followed by emptiness, that would be something special. But alas, just another anti-music piracy ploy. Looks like I'll have to buy your album Madonna.
