Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Earth to Doris/Robot Girl



We were listening to some Was (not Was) on the drive back from the cabin, and I really wanted to hear this song ("Earth to Doris", not "Robot Girl"), but unfortunately it wasn't on my uncle's ipod.

kids

Monday, July 20, 2009

Nabokov on "Lolita"

I saw this on boingboing - Nabokov on tv from the 50's discussing "Lolita" with some chums.

Part 1:



Part 2:

Friday, July 17, 2009

Bob Hope and the Hopeless Five

I'll trade anyone a couple bags of Twizzlers and some Taco Bell gift cards if they'll send me this comic.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Helllloooo Nurse!



Looks like Natalie Portman has been case as Nurse Jane Foster for the Thor movie. Lots of blogs talking about it, but here is Marvel's release. I'm pretty happy about that, since it'll add extra insurance that the movie will have a big budget, plus I think Natalie Portman is pretty great. It sounds like the movie's going to be an origin story (in the sense of the origin of his link to Earth, getting stuck inside Don Blake for being impetuous, etc.). I can't wait until May 2011!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Strange Tales To The Max!



This looks pretty cool - Marvel characters drawn by indie artists. Got this image here. This one is Spidey done by Jason (never heard of him, but he's referred to just by one name?). One blog pointed out this looks like a response to Wednesday Comics (which I thought was awesome!). Maybe - it looks pretty cool, regardless if it's a ripoff.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Sin Titulo; Web Comics; etc


I'm not a big web-comics reader, but I really like Cameron Stewart's (Seaguy artist) "Sin Titulo"

http://www.sintitulocomic.com/

I also read Warren Ellis' FreakAngels for awhile and liked it, but stopped reading at some point (I should really go back to it.)

http://www.freakangels.com/?p=23

What web-comics do you guys read? (if any) I'd like to find some more good ones.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Why I Make Films


"Right at the center of a seemingly incomprehensible world , at the age of 32, the question 'why do I make films' seems unanswerable. I don't know.

All I know is that I can't make films if people don't let me. If I don't receive trust and funding I feel like I don't exist. The last one-and-a-half to two years of my life went by in just such a state of apparent futility-I was given no opportunities to realize my plans through the official channels. Two courses of action were left open to me: to gradually suffocate or search for some alternative. Then followed a terrible year of begging for money and trying to discover whether it's even possible to make a different type of film in Hungary, one that doesn't depend on the official and traditional sources of funding. And once the money's finally all there and I've managed to create some small opportunity, kidding myself that I'm 'independent,' that's when it hits me that there's no such thing as independence or freedom, only money and politics. You can never escape anything. Those who give you money also threaten you. All that remains is obligation. The film has to be made. Then you desperately clutch onto the camera, as if it were the last custodian of the truth that you had supposed existed. But what to film if everything is a lie? All I can be is an apologist for lies, treachery and dishonorableness.

But in that case, why make films?

This also leads to internal conflicts, as my self-confidence wanes, the crew start to leave because the venture appears uncertain and I can't pay them enough. And I am left with a general feeling of anxiety. So I flee from this form of desperation into another-the film.

Probably, I make films in order to tempt fate, to simultaneously be the most humiliated and, if only for a few moments, the freest person in the world. Because I despise stories, as they mislead people into believing that something has happened. In fact, nothing really happens as we flee from one condition to another. Because today there are only states of being-all stories have become obsolete and cliched, and have resolved themselves. All that remains is time. This is probably the only thing that's still genuine-time itself: the years, days, hours, minutes and seconds. And film time has also ceased to exist, since the film itself has ceased to exist. Luckily, there is no authentic form or current fashion. Some kind of massive introversion, a searching of our own souls can help ease the situation.

Or kill us.

We could die of not being able to make films, or we could die from making films.

But there's no escape.

Because films are our only means of authenticating our lives. Eventually nothing remains of us except our films-strips of celluloid on which our shadows wander in search of truth and humanity until the end of time.
I really don't know why I make films.

Perhaps to survive, because I'd still like to live, at least just a little longer...."

-Bela Tarr 1987

(anywho, i just got my copy of werckmeister harmonies in the mail and can't wait to watch it again. this quote is from the director and was in a booklet that came with the dvd.)

Know Your Meme



This edition of Know Your Meme is about Keyboard Cat. Check out http://www.rocketboom.com/ for more 'Know Your Meme' videos, plus other fun science and tech news. It's fun, and you learn something!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Feynman on the World



Nice interview with Richard Feynman about how a reasonable person views the world.