Overturning a similar decision in Indianapolis, Federal Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner noted: "Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low. It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware." Posner adds, "To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it."
Krümmel Monster mit Ich Esse den Keks a la Rammstein Cookie Monster with "I Eat the Cookies"
Winnie the Pooh - again, in German - Ich Will was removed by youtube I guess Disney didn't like being coopted by Rammstein. sigh ... it was really good.
Kingdom of Heaven was a visually . beautiful movie. Now that Orlando Bloom is no longer riding the LotR / PotC wave, I suppose it might be easier to watch it without seeing Legolas in the Holy Lands. The biggest visual draw-back of the whole movie is Eva Green. Jeeze... can't she ditch the over-done icky eye makeup that's in all her work?
This is the Crusades done to Eyes Without a Face, Billy Idol. At least the focus on this isn't so bad, as long as you don't make it full-screen.
Yes, this is a simplistic summary of the Crusades. It is also much, much better than the 6th Grade history textbook I looked at a few years ago. At least it mentions a) that there were more reasons than "for the glory of god" b) the Children's crusade c) other consequences of the wars beyond "Europeans got their ass kicked by the Muslims"
and, if you want Kingdom of Heaven on screen - watch in on a big-screen if possible. The big battle scenes and the long shots of Jerusalem/surrounding lands are better big. The costuming and visuals are really impressive. It's Ridley Scott, a.k.a., Gladiator, in his historian (and unfortunately not Alien) mode. Balian's "rise a knight" speech is Hollywood-esque overdone "ain't the little peasant peon really the center of all that is Right and Good, who are the True Good Guys". It's one of those "sort-of-based upon a story we think the scriptwriter once read", but at least they didn't hire a WASP to play Saladin.
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1418789145/ sorry, can't figure out how to imbed it from IMdB.
We're out. Germany is out. Jr.Gopher#1 is in tears. Mr.Gopher is disappointed. I'm resigned. It's not as if I expected the USA to get to the finals. No one is surprised that we qualified, nor are they surprised we made it out of the Group round. I would have been surprised for the to make it to the semifinals. No one, on the other hand, is surprised that Germany made it to the semi-finals; and once you get that far, I think it's simply a shot in the dark who's going to make it to the finals.
Bastian Schweinsteiger bekommt das Trikot von Andrés Iniesta. Er legt es sich um den Hals wie ein Handtuch, spricht lange mit Philipp Lahm. Dann geht er als letzter vom Feld wie ein Kapitän von einem sinkenden Schiff.-Der Spiegel Bastian Schweinsteiger received the jersey from Andres Iniesta. He draped it around his shoulder like a towel, spoke with Philipp Lahm for quite a while. Then he left the field as the last one, like a captain from a sinking ship.
Not every year can be a miracle. Not edited well, but highlights of the '54 finals:
St. Johns Abbey & University is just a bit north of here in Collegeville. The main chapel there is rather pretty. We stopped to see it on the way home from the Gopher Family Annual Independence Day Camp-Out. This is a video of them trying to get their 20 foot tree through the front door, which is 8 x 10 feet. Sideways? Of course. But, a 20' tree is going to have a diameter larger than the door. Hmmmmmm......
... and waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting ...
The Hennepin County Library, which recently merged with the Minneapolis Public Library, serving the most populous count in the state of Minnesota (1,140,998 ~20% of the population), with two dozen branches, has 3 copies of the Lion King.
Go figure: They have 3 dozen Bob the Builder videos (at least 5 of which are at the Ridgedale branch).
We are currently #71 of 134 waiting for one of those 3 discs.
Apocalypse Meow is a graphic novel story of a unit of American soldiers in Vietnam. While not specifically mentioned, it's set during the height of the war. It's interesting. STFU&GBTW posted it on his blog that he was intrigued by a video clip posted on (of course) YouTube, see below.
The different nationalities are different species. American Bunnies (they're cute, therefore they're not rabbits), Vietnamese Cats, Russian Bears, French Pigs. The video is updated to today, so the enemy soldiers are camels. This is not for children. The events span the experiences of American soldiers there, guerilla warfare, never knowing who to trust, not knowing when you'll get out, "American military advisors" in countries that you haven't gotten around to invading yet, corporate interference, believing you're there for some Holy cause ... holy cat shit, Batman! It's actually the Middle East!
It's a quick read in 3 short volumes.
Gopher Rating: 3 - borrow it from a friend/library (unless you're into military history, in which case, I'd give it a 2)
video for Cat Shit One
The soldier-bunnies in the books were the unit Cat Shit One (the original title of the books, no doubt modified for American sensibilities).
The trailer, below, is intriguing in a way the 2-D comics can't be. The violence is more vivid. And it twists one's perception about the application of violence. Do we emotionally respond to torturing or shooting or executing cute plush bunnies in the same way we do about humans? Well, as an editorial ... we can't respond the same way, since the American Government censors out ability to do so. Perhaps that alone makes this worthwhile, to force some emotional engagement in the gov't dictated vacuum.
I'm really looking forward to seeing this. The author's website presents information about Cat Shit One, the original title of the books. Says 'coming soon early 2010'.
Courtesy of Auntie STFU&GBTW, the boys have a rather large tractor/trailer. It's big enough for a 2 year old to sit on to "drive". It has 2 proportionally large cars: one red (Jr.Gopher#1) and one yellow (Jr.Gopher#2).
This is their current favorite video. Don't bother to turn the sound on - it's just repetitious electronic dee-de-dee-ta-dee. (ed. Mr. Gopher recommends leaving the sound on, to let the rhythm help drive the excitement).
I was told this disappeared off my blog. Then the more I thought about it, the more I think I emailed it to a select audience. Anyway, here it is for public consumption. "It's a send up of the chord combination us music-theory dorks would refer to as I V vi IV"
I admire the scope of the comparison. Although i think the only reason A-ha got such a long segment was to show off the singer's falsetto range. I can only sing that high after warming up. If you got this as an email, the clip here is a "live" version, which is much funnier to watch.
Now, that said ... the options that pop up at the end of the video (scrolling across at the bottom), the poster obviously has an interest in music theory. One of the automatic YouTube suggestions, however, is in a similar vein. This is g.damned funny.
And, in case you're fond of instructional, how-to videos, the band (in the 1st video) also has: How to Kill a Hooker How to Bake a Scone How to Catch a Duck
[April Fool's] >>Why have the olympics in Ely, Minnesota? Sarajevo. >>What? Sarajevo. No one had ever heard of it before the olympics. And it's a lot easier to pronounce Ely.
Now ... Ely is on the list of "You know you're a Minnesotan when you can pronounce the following cities: Wayzata, Bemidji, Mille Lacs, and Ely. (the list is longer & none of which is pronounced the way you'd think. No, not even Mille Lacs, regardless of whether you're a francophone.)
Holy, cow - the DCHS class of 1983 was 93 people. Down right metropolitan compared to Ada-Borup High School. Ada and Borup, Minnesota are north of Moorehead/Fargo (i.e., where it's really wet right now). The joint high-school has 179 students, close to half of whom play in the school's pep band. I only know this because they're playing in the state boys' basketball play-offs today. A clip from their pep band indicates their unique style....
Is stultification a real word? I know stultifying is.
There's a video from a NASA astronaut, explaining where problems in innovation occur. Where good ideas go to die. This is fantastic - if you don't recognize any of these scenarios, it's because you're self employed.
