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Sunday, February 1st, 2009
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9:11 pm - In response to burly_curly...
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Apparently “The Big Read” assumes that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Of course, I can't turn down a challenge.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ
( books )
Commentary: What an awful list! I was torn about books I've only half-read, and in the end, decided that they didn't count. But why don't the series listed (Narnia, Tolkin) count for multiple books? Why is "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" listed separately? What idiot complied this list?
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| Saturday, December 8th, 2007
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5:47 pm - This should come as a surprise to no one.
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Why would you be executed in Nelson's Navy?
Article 24. Try not to light the ship on fire. Seriously."Every person in the fleet, who shall unlawfully burn or set fire to any magazine or store of powder, or ship, boat, ketch, hoy or vessel, or tackle or furniture thereunto belonging, not then appertaining to an enemy, pirate, or rebel, being convicted of any such offence, by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death."
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| Sunday, December 31st, 2006
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3:56 pm - ...And a Happy New Year!
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Tonight I've watched
the moon and then
the pleiades
go down
the night is now
half-gone; youth
goes; I am
in bed alone.
-Sappho,
trans. Mary Barnard
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, June 6th, 2006
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5:08 am - Do not underestimate my love for Sailing Ships
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Another post about song lyrics. I know!
I couldn't find my tape of Steeleye Span's Tempted and Tried, so I thought I'd finnaly listen to my tape of sea shanties (Victory SINGS at Sea.) "Sea Shanties are just like British folk songs," sez I, "It may not be the Span, but sea Shanties are okay too." I was WRONG. Sea shanties are AWESOME. A sample lyric:
Oh Lord above
send down a dove
with beak as sharp as razors
to cut the throats
of them there blokes
what sells bad beer to sailors
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4:44 am - Another post that is not about Batman
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Sadly, X3 turned out to be mostly lame. I think it was a mistake
watching the first two movies the day before, because they were
obviously superior.
Noted, It had some good ideas and a couple of great scenes. It
started well. There's a funny danger room sequence (the movie is
sadly lacking in funny). All of the early Jean-Grey-as-Phoenix are
very creepy and neat. But the story they set up leads to predictable,
dumb conclusions. By the time we go to the inevitable denouement, I
was shaking my head at the stupidity of it all. (There are literally,
six X Men versus Magneto's ENTIRE ARMY OF MUTANTS. Cmon, people.)
It's possible that the movie was even more frustrating because it had
a couple neat ideas, and completely flubbed them.
It's brutal movie, too. It knocks off (or out) many a beloved main
character. But it isn't as if you can tell who's going to bite it
about ten mintues in. I think that Katy and I got pretty hysterical
when one of the main X Men dies and NO ONE CARES. They literally move
on to the next scene without blinking. The rest of the characters get
little screen time and NO character development. It made me feel
gyped, because the first two movies were thoughtful, and gave us time
to love these X men. Not so here.
And the movie actually contains the line "You must not know who I am,
I'm the Juggernaut, BITCH." Nuff said.
Is it sad to say I had a better time at the Da Vinci Code?
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| Friday, June 2nd, 2006
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6:25 am - "It's like CSI, with God!"
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The Da Vinci Code would have been much more entertaining if Ian McKellan had just played everybody.
But honestly, I had a great time at the Da Vinci Code (My viewing was inhanced by the fact that Katy and I snikered through the whole thing together). It's kind of a dumb thriller, but an entertaining dumb thriller. I knew that all the "historical" mumbo-jumbo would be bullshit, but I was kind of amazed at how brazen the bullshit was. He just makes stuff up! History, smistory! We don't need no stinkin patches! I think it would make a great double feature with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. All your Grail hooey in four hours!
I can’t help thinking that Jesus would have been a much happier guy if he had just married his boyfriend John and retired to the Bahamas. They could have even made a movie about it! Jesus and John Have Tea, Starring Ian McKellan as Everyone.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
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5:21 am
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Good Night and Good Luck is a great little movie. It is interesting and brilliantly acted. It is, however, one of those movies that I have a hard time reccomending to most people. It is very slow, and filmed in black and white, which may not appeal to everyone. It is practically a documentary, and it is a "documentary" about a single incident: CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow standing up to Sen Joseph McCarthy, by way of his TV program "See It Now". And that's all there is to the movie. There's no big dramatic climax; it is a movie of quiet moments. (There's maybe one subplot, a minor story about a husbend and wife that both work on the show.) If you know know nothing about the McCarthy witchhunts, then the movie may be utterly confusing. I didn't know very much, and don't think I could really appreciate the movie's historical commentary. That being said, I enjoyed it.
...Though I did spend the movie entirely awestruck at how much public smoking that people did in that era. It was horrifying. But then, those were the times. If I lived back then, I probably would have smoked, too.
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| Sunday, May 21st, 2006
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7:09 pm - What about the Jesus fish?
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I'm sort of sad to hear that the Da Vini Code is getting lousy reviews. I was hoping that it would be a nifty little thriller (I couldn't care less about the silly religous trappings). I'll still go an see it, of course. I hear it has pretty castles and Ian McKellan, so hopefully it won't be a complete wash.
When I was visiting my sister at SOU, I picked up a pamphlet titled "The Da Vinci Code: A Companion Guide to the Movie." It 's published Campus Crusade for Christ. I find religious propaganda pamphlets pretty damn funny, and this one is fairly amusing.
My favorite exerpt:
Every now and then something comes along that's difficult to classify. It's rather bizzare, for example, that a whale is classified as a mammal. Something that lives its life in the ocean should not wear the label of a mammal.
In the world of religious leaders, Jesus is a whale, often lumped into the same phylum with other great religious leaders, including Moses, Muhammad and Buddha. But frankly, he doesn't fit. On the surface, he looks like a fish (a wonderful religous leadeer who has helped shape the world of faith and morals), but he has taught something that, when analyzed, makes him a different species altogether. He claimed to be God.
Jesus is... a whale. Good to know. I don't find it bizzare at all that whales are classified as mammals. That's just what they are; dolphins, otters, and seals are all mammals too. Declaring that these animals "should not wear the label of a mammal" sounds ignorant and downright bossy. But then, I've spent way too much time with marine biologists, so I'm a little more familiar with marine life than the average joe. Does the average joe have a problem with marine mammals?
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| Saturday, April 29th, 2006
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6:38 pm - "He longed to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral."
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My father is my favorite correspondent, bar none. If I ask him to elaborate on a topic (most likely on a pet historical peroid), he will respond with an email that is funny and entertaining, and no less than two pages long. I recently asked him about Teddy Roosevelt, a historical figure whom we both admire. His reply contained this highlight:
"Teddy was the acknowledged expert of his time on North American bird calls. He popularized bird watching as a hobby and was invited to teach ornithology at Harvard. In the White House he liked to entertain visiting foreign dignitaries by imitating bird songs of birds from their native land. (Most thought him insane)."
Remmber, this is on top of being: At various times: he was a cowboy, a sheriff in North Dakota (famed for capturing several notorious bad guys); a rich New York dandy, man about town; a congressman; a police commissioner; naval historian; columnists for several magazines and newspapers; a soldier and war hero; explorer; youngest man ever to be President, and always a politician and shameless self-promoter, etc. He won the Congressional Medal of Honor; he was the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize (the first American to win a Nobel of any kind); and oddly, as a young man, he became the first American to climb the Matterhorn! What a guy!
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lil_termagant's journal
