November 29th, 2007 by Max
My tooth hurt. It worried me. I spent two days with the shits which was either from worry or from the leftover turkey and stuffing. Close call. Yesterday I went back to the dentist and he checked it all out and said the filling and the tooth are good. To me … I’d rather be waterboarded than have a root canal. So this was good good news.
So I went to Montezuma. The bad news is that the birds were all gone. The good news is that I finally went into the Montezuma Winery. I wish I could remember who told me this was good wine. (It is. At least the Cranberry Bog is.) Its like high class Boones Farm. I know… But I meant it as a compliment.
Today. Sun AGAIN! So I went to Cooperstown. Combined with my trip to Massachusetts and Thanksgiving – despite the results of the leftovers – I guess it could have been a worse vacation. Can’t believe its almost over.
Should I could this upcoming weekend? I would have had that off anyway.
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November 26th, 2007 by Max
Below I’ve presented an adaptation, from a song Graham Nash wrote in 1968 after the Democratic Convention and in response to the Chicago 7 trial. The song displays a raw emotion voicing a plea for justice that is scary in its absence today. It does not take a lot of changes to hear how this is still relevant to today. Here is the original as pulled from the web. It really works just as it is. Imagine the phrase “Won’t you please come to Chicago” as any metaphor that you think fits, ie Won’t you please speak up for justice, or Won’t you please help fight the fascists, or Won’t you save the Constitution – You get my drift:
by Graham Nash
So your brother’s bound and gagged
And they’ve chained him to a chair
Won’t you please come to chicago just to sing
In a land that’s known as freedom how can such a thing be fair
won’t you please come to chicago for the help that we can bring
We can change the world rearrange the world
It’s dying – to get better
Politicians sit yourselves down, there’s nothing for you here
won’t you please come to chicago for a ride
don’t ask jack to help you `cause he’ll turn the other ear
won’t you please come to chicago or else join the other side
We can change the world rearrange the world
it’s dying – if you believe in justice
dying – and if you believe in freedom
dying – let a man live his own life
dying – rules and regulations, who needs them open up the door
Somehow people must be free I hope the day comes soon
won’t you please come to chicago show your face
From the bottom of the ocean to the mountains of the moon
won’t you please come to chicago no one else can take your place
We can change the world rearrange the world
It’s dying – if you believe in justice
dying – and if you believe in freedom
dying – let a man live his own life
dying – rules and regulations, who needs them open up the door
Drums & Tambourine: Johnny Barbata
Bass: Chris Ethridge
Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Organ & Tambourine: Graham Nash
Whiskers: Larry Cox
Lead Vocal: Graham Nash
Background Vocals: Rita Coolidge, Vanetta Fields, Shirley Matthews, Clydie King & Dorothy Morrison Now here’s my version:
Though your brother’s bound and gagged
And they’ve chained him to a chair
Won’t you please come to Impeach them
because its right
In a land that’s known as freedom
How can such a thing be fair
Won’t you please come to Impeach them
For the fight that we should fight
We can change the world -
Re-arrange the world
It’s dying – to get better
Politicians sit yourself down,
There’s something for you here
Won’t you please come to Impeachment
Take a side
Don’t ask Dick to help you
Cause he is the other ear
Won’t you please come to Impeach them
Or else join the other side
We can change the world -
Re-arrange the world
It’s dying – if you believe in justice
It’s dying – and if you believe in freedom
It’s dying – let a man live his own life
It’s dying – laws and Constitutions, we need them
Open up the door
Somehow people must be free
I hope the day comes soon
Won’t you please come to Impeach them
Show your face
From the bottom of the ocean
To the mountains of the moon
Won’t you please come to Impeach them
No one else can take your place
We can change the world -
Re-arrange the world
It’s dying – if you believe in justice
It’s dying – and if you believe in freedom
It’s dying – let a man live his own life
It’s dying – peace and justice is all that we need then
Open up the door
We can change the world
Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »
November 14th, 2007 by Max
Just wanted to throw a post out there.
Posted in Changes in the World In My Lifetime, Photos | No Comments »
November 13th, 2007 by Max
So … John Howell http://www.wamajama.com/wamajama/ hands me this CD for my car. He’s written on it in marker. It has two stories on it from Escape Pod
http://escapepod.org/2006/01/12/ep036-connie-maybe/.
One is an interesting SciFi morality story, guns and leaders. The other one is linked above. Connie Maybe. The best story ever. John has burned them to CD from a podcast he listens to on the way to work. EscapePod.
Now I don’t have an MP3 player so I start burning Escape Pod stories to CD and listen to them. I have a stack of them. One of my favorite Escape Pod stories is My Friend Is A Lesbian Zombie. The second best story ever. http://escapepod.org/2006/02/02/ep039-my-friend-is-a-lesbian-zombie/.
This is read to us by a woman who calls herself the Word Whore. The Word Whore does a podcast called Air Out My Shorts.
http://www.airoutmyshorts.com/shorts.html.
Air Out My Shorts is very different from EscapePod. Steve Ely does EscapePod in an organized professional manner. Regular. Not all the stories are good. Some are kid stories. One in particular, a dragon story for kids, is like nails on a blackboard. But most of these are quite compelling, thought provoking and they linger – which is a good thing. The backing music is from Daikaiju – which is a good thing.
http://www.myspace.com/daikaiju
Steve’s trying to make a go of this podcasting thing and I hope he succeeds. Its the original for me. Kinda like home.
Air Out My Shorts, is unprofessional, irregular, drunkish, lewd, silly, stupid, bawdy and a whole lot of fun. Yay Preston Buttons! Yay Word Whore! They read bad stories from their listeners, while they drink. Yay!
Word Whore talks about other podcasts that she listens to. She likes TTN Total Talk Nonsense. So I listened to Jon and Scott at TTN.
http://totaltalknonsense.com/.
This is currently the show I most look forward to listening to (Excuse me I dangled my participle).
Now I’m burning CD’s and they’re stacking up like cord wood. John gives me his old MP3 player. Yay John!
Soon I began looking for Podcasts to listen to and taking long drives in the car while I listened. Jon and Scott and the Whore like Punky Radio, but it didn’t do it for me. Tony Hearn and Paully B are ok, but I can’t deal with the music.
But I explored further.
But wait. Back up. Steve (The General) E Ly always was talking about Mur Lafferty. Soon I began to listen to her books and shows.
http://geekfuactiongrip.com/.
GeekFuActionGrip turned into the GeekFu Morning Show. Mur also does books as podcasts:
http://www.murlafferty.com/heavennovel/ and the I Should Be Writing Podcast
http://isbw.murlafferty.com/
which I need to catch up with…. Mur has a new book starting. Chapter 1 was great.
http://www.playingforkeepsnovel.com/.
Mur’s busy. She’s also at
http://www.lulu.tv/?p=12066.
Mur, or was it John, I think it was John, put me on to Podiobooks.com http://www.podiobooks.com/title/singularity/feed/.
This book, Singularity really wow’d me and now I go back to Podiobooks whenever I run out of podcasts.
http://www.podiobooks.com/title/ancestor/feed
where I downloaded and listened to this book.
I also really liked
http://www.podiobooks.com/title/brave-men-run/feed/.
Somewhere around here I bought my own MP3 player. I’ve passed John’s on to another friend. Podcasting grows! I’m in the car with my MP3 player listening to podcasts and driving all over the freakin’ state!
But back I went to Podcasts. I heard at work, that Bill Maher does a podcast of his tv show on HBO. I don’t get HBO. I LOVE this podcast
http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/.
I’m not sure how I found Wait Wait
http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/ .
Now I’ve got so many podcasts that I can’t listen to them all. THIS one, I make time for. This is funny, topical and it has Carl Castle doing jokes! Really. No, really. Listen to this one.
So there I was, just the other day, listening to TTN and they mentioned The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe. Not so much funny. But rational. http://www.theskepticsguide.org/
I was already listening to the Skeptic’s Guide from the time I started listening to Singularity. In fact. If I go back and listen to an episode I can tell you where I was when I heard it.
They do an hour which goes by really fast. And when Jon and Scott mentioned them, I knew the podcasting circle of life was complete. And the Earth was once again spinning in greased grooves
Now I’ve started listening to my podcasts right on the computer. With the price of gas going so high, I can’t afford to listen to all this content in my car anymore!
Posted in Arts | 2 Comments »
November 11th, 2007 by Max
To say that Jack Synder’s 300 glorifies war is, in part, to miss the point. Drawn from what we used to call comic books, but what have morphed into graphic novels 300 portray’s the true historical event known as the battle of Thermopylea where 300 Spartan soldiers indeed did hold off many thousands of warriors who fought for King Xerxes of Persia.
300 extends a cinematic legacy advanced by Quentin Tarantino in several of his movies but most notably in the Kill Bill series. Stylized violence that deliberately attempts to make the graphic into the beautiful. In Kill Bill Tarantino overtly shifts between the comic form and the cinematic form to point a clear arrow toward the root of his inspiration.
300 also owes a style debt to A Scanner Darkly (Phillip Linklater 2006), which takes the generations old cinematic technique of rotoscoping to a new and even more stylized level where it never devolves back to reality. Rather it flattens the images in order to sharpen the point.
Into this cinematic historical process – and with other influences mentioned hereafter – comes 300. As Leonidas is molded to become a leader, a king and a warrior, by his childhood Spartan training, his life and love of Gorgo, queen of Sparta, the ‘history’ unfolds to the visit from Xerxes emissaries through the battle itself the look of the movie slides effortlessly between simplified real life images to polished graphic reality to animation without making it obvious where the lines are drawn.
This gives the movie a seemless impressive and indeed beautiful visual style. Add to this the physical beauty of the characters, indeed we don’t know what the historical figures looked like, but a strong case is made through the film that they must, in some ways, have been nearly perfect specimens of humanity.
But its this beauty and perfection that give us pause. This style so grand tells a true tale of glory and courage so as to move the souls of men to war.
Though the language is not as stirring as Henry V’s “band of brothers” speech, the look is more glorious than Kenneth Branagh’s Henry (1989) which also tells a true tale of historical heroism.
But its the beauty of 300 that is its most compelling and most troubling feature. Though indeed Leonidas did desire glory, indeed did inspire, perhaps really had no doubt or second thoughts about what his choices meant, this telling suggests that war is not only glorious, but that death in battle is desirable. Perhaps it is so, but we are never completely immersed in the real horrors of war, aware always, that this is a cartoon. A beautiful dramatic stylish glorious graphic novel of a movie.
This is not to say that the film is without gore. Rather that the gore is polished. Everywhere arms and legs go flying as blood spatters and splays across the image. And the chopping and splattering of blood is often in slow motion, the actors statuesque and at the moment of impact, always posing, always perfect. Perfect style. Perfect glory. Even perfect gore.
As the slow motion spins the actors are often turned away from the camera. Their faces rarely close. The pain that must be involved in having a limb removed glossed over. Stop action on the lances piercing clean through a Spartan, a Persian, a monster. Even as the gore is highlighted, it is glossy.
And we hear the sounds of the slashing and the piercing. And there is much of it, but its still shiny somehow.
As a history this movie was rescued, by the features on Herodotus and the histories. In “Fact or Fiction” we learn more detail about Gorgo and the women of Sparta. We learn that the traitor Epiphialtes was a shepherd and that the director made him a hunchback. One cannot help but think of Gollum when one sees this beast/man as portrayed. The true story is that the emissaries of Xerxes who were pushed into a well but a generation earlier than told in the movie. We learn that the story of the wolf was made up “out of whole cloth” by the director as an allegory of the “Hot Gates”. The pass where Leonidas made his stand.
The story of Leonidas and his 300 Greeks is true as told by Herodotus to the best of our knowledge.
300 takes an ancient historical event and shines a glorious light upon it. As a work of cinema it should be held in the highest regard. As a work of history it, hopefully, extends our curiosity about the past as well as reflecting light on the world as it is today for Leonidas words about freedom ring fresh in our ears.
However we should not forget the look of war delivered to us by a man whose words ring harshly now. And harsh was HIS image of war. Mel Gibson’s portrayed violence and war as well as heroism and love and romance with a little less stylishness. The story of fighting for freedom is the same, however Braveheart (1995) was much more gory, more realistic and a little less beautiful.
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November 9th, 2007 by Max
CSApodcast.blogspot.com
So we podcasted tonight. Started slow, got going, got broke and ended ok. I think. Last week’s interview with Mark Twain was excellent. Incredible. This week. Kermit. Sea change. Kermit was good. But we ran like a car with water in the gas.
I’m a little stress-decompressing. But then … I left work that way.
Can’t wait to hear the podcast though. I think this one was more even and overall better. Except for Samuel Clemens. Can’t get much better than that was.
Posted in Max's Theories | No Comments »
November 8th, 2007 by Max
The three rental movies that I saw this week portrayed conflict with differing levels of reality.
The Good Shepard – 167 minutes – Directed by Robert Di Nero staring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie described a realistic portrayal of a former Anti Nazi spy who became a key figure in the CIA of the fifties and sixties.
The story is played straight down the middle showing the importance of having a national security surveliance system and the intrinsic perils of the same.
Damon as the lead character is stoic to the extreme as he plays the honorable Edward Wilson doing all that is required to secure his country.
In Hidalgo – 136 minutes – Starring Viggo Mortenson we get to know a character doing all that is required to find his soul. This is a “base on the life of” true story of Frank Hopkins and his horse Hidalgo who ran long long distance horseback races.
The story considers the journey as a metaphor for the Hopkins journey to find his true self. Split between his Indian and Cowboy sides he travels a long distance in search of himself. Along the way he has many fantastic adventures in a life of courage and adventure. Mortensen portrayal is subtle and right on and we are never distracted by the threats and tempations he faces on his journey.
Zuleikha Robinson as the Sheik’s daughter is a worthy distraction.
In Four Brothers – John Singleton’s urban adventure starring Mark Whalberg, Tyrese Gibson and Andre’ Benjamin is the least of the three movies when it comes to approaching reality. This fun adventure in Detroit is filled with self righteous violence and shaky diaglouge. Only the strong acting of the stars keeps this one above water.
All three work on some level, but the further they get from reality, the less compelling they are.
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November 7th, 2007 by Max
The testimony of the Director of the Centers for Disease Control was redacted by the US Administration, down from 14 pages to 6!
She was prepared to testify to the health impact of global warming.
The administration claimed executive privilege, the same claim that Richard Nixon made for not releasing the Watergate tapes!
Really? Really?? Come on. Where is the outrage!? They’ve already censored one Surgeon General into resigning. This administration is as paranoid as Nixon.
Just a reminder. They REDACTED the testimony of the Director of the Centers for Disease Control, ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING!
I’m lost for words…
Posted in Politics | 2 Comments »
November 7th, 2007 by Max
- Ftang is that quailty of “it”. You can’t describe it. You might have it. And you want to be around other people that do. Is it a state of mind? Is it a state of being? The beautiful, even the gorgeous may have it, and yet they may not. The disfigured and deprived might have it too! Do you have it? Do these people?
- Always I think of Andy Warhol when I think of Ftang. He had it. Can you have it when you’re dead?
- Does Martha Stewart still have it? Did ever really?
- Wesley Snipes?, Angelina,? Brad?, Sawyer from LOST?, The Doc?, Evangeline Lilly? Anna Friel???
- Hilary?, John Edwards?, Borat?, Tazer guy?
- Write to Shim@8minutesonhigh.com and tell us who has Ftang!
Posted in Social Commentaries | No Comments »
November 4th, 2007 by Max
So here’s the thing. I go for the last two days, up the hill on Franklin Mt, freeze my hohokas off and get this:
Not so much…
So I’m freezing and disappointed, and while I am on the ramp at the Sidney exit, I see this … 
So …. I don’t know. I guess you never know. I took 302 pictures of this bird sitting here. This may be the best one. Is it a great picture? Nah – but its good.
How about this one? Which is better?
Posted in Photos | 3 Comments »
November 4th, 2007 by Max
Ok. Here’s the thing. I’m not a dyed in the wool Democrat. I tend to vote that way because they tend to think the way I do.
This year – Next January … Next year – YOU MUST VOTE DEMOCRAT!!! Not Independant. Not for Steven Colbert and not Republican. No. Not Green either.
I wrote a thing way back almost 7 years ago that said, whatever happens in the next 4 years, blame the Republicans. They had it all. The Supreme Court which put this clown in the White House, the entire congress. Whatever happened, it would be their doing entirely, since they controlled the US Government, entirely!
They are responsible for the condition of the country and our place in the world. And its a MESS!
Well, hopefully (unless the Republican Supreme Court gets a chance) this next election we will get a chance for not only a Democratic Congress, but also a Democratic President.
We must have a new party in the White House. We must have change. We must!
A few years ago, Hillary was going to run against Giuliani. I was totally open to voting for Rudy. Hillary was a carpet bagger. Rudy had been a great mayor.
Now I hear Rudy lying about national health care and I can’t even believe Rudy. Et tu Rudy?
Fred Thomson is a nice man. John McCain is a maverick and an independent thinker, Mitt Romney looks nice, Mike Huckabee is nice, and Ron Paul is actually interesting.
It doesn’t matter.
They had their chance. They fucked up!
Hillary is cynical. Barak isn’t saying much. John Edwards may actually be a populist despite the haircut which will actually hurt him. (That’s another rant). Joe Biden has TONS of experience. Chris Dodd exists on the material plane. Mike Gravel IS actually interesting, heroic and patriotic. Bill Richardson wants to end the war now…
It doesn’t matter if all of these people were on the same plane and it crashed. You must still vote for Dennis Kucinich!
Why? Because Dennis Kucinich is a Democrat. Dennis Kucinich wants to have a Department of Peace! That’s a big idea. And why not? The big ideas of John Kennedy got us a reputation around the world as an idealistic nation of achievers and peacemakers. Remember he started the Peace Corps.
Even then it doesn’t matter. He has one thing going for him that ALL the Republican’s don’t – he’s a Democrat.
And that means he is at least, different! We need a change.
(And we need to give him at least 60 Democratic Senators)
Posted in Politics | 4 Comments »
