You know how sometimes we make random sounds that SOUND like a specific foreign language, but aren’t? Think Eric Cartman in “The China Problem”, or the Swedish Chef, or anytime that PaulC cooks French food. See here’s the thing, English is “foreign” to a LARGE majority of the worlds population, so what does English sound like to non English speakers?
Thankfully in 1972 some Italians recorded a music video that answers this exact question. They are NOT singing English in this video, they are making sounds that they interpret as sounding English. Wild. Just, wild.
Sooo, its gibberish, yet the video seems to fit the “song” perfectly. I feel like if they WERE singing actual words that it would be about cars, I have no idea why.
So Qik just updated their Android client to fix a few bugs and add Chinese language support; this caused it to to bubble to the top if the TeamPaulC information pile. Its basically a service that allows you to upload streaming video files and share them on the Qik site as well as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. They even have a live url that shows what the user is currently streaming (mine is here).
My initial reaction was “who cares” but having played with it a bit, its starting to grow on me. You can live stream and people can watch it live, and then you can save it for future viewing. The video can be private, or private and shared with your friends, or public. And of course you can post the video to all of the popular services.
This is my live channel embedded, if I am not streaming now, it will be blank. :D
[UPDATE] Actually, the below embedded video shows my most recent video, which MIGHT be live, but if I am not streaming right now, then its my most recent canned video.
My tests so far have been with my Droid, but they support quite a few phones. PaulC gives it two thumbs up.
No, seriously, I kid you not. The Russian actor's group "Big Difference" (Bolshaya Raznitsa / Большая Разница) did this short video that features a Charlie Chaplin type character as Neo. Pretty dam funny.
Or her full name Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini has three seasons of “Green Porno” videos over at Sundance. What, you ask, is Green Porno? It is a series of short, factual skits where Isabella plays the part of an animal as she teaches us its sexual behavior. Is it funny? Hell no, its hysterical. And of course we love Isabella Rossellini, and not because she is beautiful (she is), but because she is smart and funny.
My favorite is the bumble bee “… but I would die, without my penis I would bleed to death.” Uh, yeah, I can’t really argue with that.
I would not call “Dune” the worst movie ever, but to me it was certainly the biggest let down ever.
I just (re) read “Dune”, and was halfway through “Messiah” when Andy let me borrow his “Dune” DVD. Its been years since I saw the movie, and thought that with the book fresh in my head, now would be a good time to watch the movie again.
So before I review the movie, let me just hit some highlights of the book, this will help you understand why I don’t like the movie.
In Frank Herberts “Dune” universe there is a feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen. The Atreides represent “good” and “fair” and “beauty”, while the Harkonnens represent the opposite. A classic battle between the light and the dark.
In this universe, gender roles are not what we would expect in some ways. Yes, its true that bloodlines follow the father (patriarchal), and House heads have wives AND concubines, both with legal rights, but this is all a facade. In war and politics women are considered equals, they are not frail creatures that need men to protect them. In truth, the women are in control of the Universe, and the men don't know it. The Bene Gesserit (a female order) have been surreptitiously influencing the House bloodlines for hundreds of generations for their own hidden motives. The Bene Gesserits train young women to be members and make them stronger in the process. They teach them to be stronger both mentally and physically.
In the book, Jessica is a Bene Gesserit that has been wed to the Duke of House Atreides, Leto. Well, not “wed” as she is a concubine. Their love is so strong that she defies the Bene Gesserit leadership and gives birth to the Dukes son (the hero) instead of a daughter as she was ordered. Thats right, Bene Gesserits can do that.
So, on to the movie…
First, what I liked about the movie.
They made it. I love that there is a Dune movie, its a great story and it had great potential as a movie, and in fact as a franchise.
They cast Sting as Feyd-Rautha. My initial reaction was “ho hum”, but Sting did a great job of capturing the character.
What I don't like about the movie, in no particular order…
The Harkonnens represent the bad guys. Yes, I get it. Every time you show the Harkonnens the scene lighting is dark. The Harkonnen Duke is clearly insane, this all points to “he is bad”. Is it really necessary to make his face be covered in sores? Really? It was just over the top. I kept thinking of Jar Jar Binks, as in “stop clubbing me with the stereotype, I GET IT.”
The Atreides represent the good guys. They value human life over property. In one scene Duke Leto is more angered at the near loss of 12 workers than he is at the loss of a harvester; ok, he is a “good guy”. The Duke loves his son (Paul, the hero) and his son loves him, this is very clear in the book. But in the movie you wonder “Is Leto a pedophile?” Seriously. They portray him as a crazy eyed zealot. It FEELS like their intent was to show Leto as a strong, but fair leader, as he is in the book, (think Jean-Luc Picard) but they missed, miserably. In the movie he comes across as a pompous, hot headed, weirdo. When Leto and Paul talk they give each other awkward lovers smiles. Weird. I will chalk this up to “bad acting”.
And speaking of bad acting… The entire movie is just one huge pot of bad acting, lightly sprinkled with the occasional scene that doesn’t make you cringe.
In the book, Jessica (the Duke Leto’s true love) is a strong Bene Gesserit, do yourself a favor, DO NOT MESS WITH HER. She will hurt you. But in the movie she is a weak simpering woman that cries a lot and needs protection. :| What the frak!? (The only story spoiler coming up…) In the book when Leto dies both Jessica and Paul are pretty devastated, I mean for good reason right? But they are on the run from the Harkonnens and don’t have time to mourn. At one point Jessica breaks down for a short time (measured in single digit minutes) and allows herself to mourn and cries for her dead Leto while they are resting. She then composes herself and continues being the strong matriarch and future reverend mother. In the movie she is ALWAYS crying or on the verge of crying. She is a weak, frail person that needs protection. Why would you do that to her character? What purpose does that serve? I can only imagine that the director just fell into stereotypes rather than create a faithful reproduction of her character.
The first time we meet the Fremen, they are in the desert, under the hot Arrakis sun, in robes. ROBES, and sandals. Now, if you haven’t read the book you may be thinking “So what, they were dressed like Arabs, what's the problem?” Well in the book, no Fremen would go out at NIGHT into the desert without a stillsuit, let alone during the day. This was a huge error with no purpose.
While I have lots of small things that annoyed me about the movie I will bundle them all up into two criticisms:
1) This should have been a multipart movie. There is no way that you can fit the entire story into a single movie AND do it justice.
2) The special effects should have been better.
ok, maybe three things:
3) The acting. OMG the acting. The problem is that many of the actors in the movie are considered to be good actors, I can only blame David Lynch, the director. What a tool. Producer De Laurentiis hoped that Dune would be the next “Star Wars” and it COULD have been, but not with Lynch at the helm.
So is the movie worth watching? Yes, very much so. But its just not all that it could be. :(
Ok, FINALLY a video of the RIM Blackberry Storm 2 that explains the new screen! First, is it Surepress? Yes, and no. :) NO, its now apparently going to be called “TruePress”, but “yes” it has the same philosophy, only better.
Surepress uses a standard touch screen with a single switch under it. This allows you to select an icon, then push slightly harder and the screen will press the button and now you have activated the icon. So touching the screen is like a single click and pressing down a bit is like double clicking. Very nice, but there is a problem. There is only on button under the screen, so if you try to type fast, you get screwed waiting for the button to bounce back. No big deal, but still… Also, that button under the middle of the touchscreen means that sometimes the presses in the corners of the screen don’t register.
Enter “TruePress”. TruePress is the same concept. You touch an icon to select, and press it to activate. BUT, there is no switch under the screen! Instead TruePress uses piezo technology. So a touch screen senses you touching it and sends the coordinates to the operating system, but with TruePress there is ANOTHER layer (under? over?) that you have to push a bit harder to activate, and when you do, those coordinates are also sent. One cool thing about TruePress using piezo means that you still get the feedback! The feedback is not as aggressive as SurePress, but near the end of the video he types on the Storm2 and you can hear it when he presses down harder. AND… (drum roll please) TruePress is multitouch! (“did he say multitouch?”, “you know Gladys, I think he did!”) That's right, multi touch! So now when you get really flying on the typing it wont get all wonky, and of course this means all sorts of cool possibilities for new user interfaces.
When I got my Storm with SurePress I fell in love with it, I thought “THIS is how a touch screen should work.” I was wrong, based on what I know about the Storm2, TruePress is how a touch screen should work.
p.s. Don’t be thrown by the CDMA vs GSM crap, the Storm2 on Verizon will still be a world phone.
The same school produced a 6 year old that performed “Folsom Pwizon Blues”. He clearly has no idea what he is singing, but really, doesn't that just make it cuter?
Seriously, is Bill retarded, or just so evil that he will spew any lie to get his way?
I mean WTF? Really Bill? A larger population causes life expectancy to go down? REALLY? I mean you COULD say that a small sample size can give misleading results, I mean right? THAT must be what he means. Let me just check the Google here… Hmm, Canada has a population of ~31 million, seems “statistically significant” to me. Its official, Bill O’Reilly is a moron.
I can’t POSSIBLY talk about Vince Offer Shlomi (thats his real name) aka “Mr. Shamwow” of late night infomercial fame without doing a little history. So Vince was a Scientologist, yup, he believed in a religion that was made up on a bet by a science fiction writer. Scientology is a religion that is steeped in stupidity, you should Google it, it’s SUPER funny.
SO, Vince is a Scientologist, he gets into a fight with his “church” for whatever whacky reason, they basically throw him out. Vince counter sues, in the Church’s court. Pretty lame. So Vince is living large doing Sham wow commercials and loving life. This is Vince loving life:
THEN Vince hooks up with a hooker and gets arrested, but not for soliciting a woman for sex, no he goes to jail for assault. It seems that Mr. Shamwow, sorry “Mr. Shlomi” was kissing the hooker (eeewwwww) and she bit his tongue, and wouldn’t let go. Why, oh why would she DO such a thing? I mean for the love of Xenu, let his tongue go you ho! Which I am sure is similar to what Vince was trying to scream at her, but she couldn’t understand, as a ho’ had his tongue. So when she wont let go of his tongue (with her teeth) Vince starts throwing punches at her. I wonder if Vince’s attorney will plead “self defense”? All in all pretty dam funny. So here is Vince after a night of beating hookers.
BUT, that’s all old news and is not why I called you here. That was just something that I felt like I had to get off my chest. The real reason that we are here today is to enjoy the work of DJ Steve Porter and his remix of Vince’s late night infomercials, he calls it “Jam Wow”.
Enjoy.
And of course, the “Rap Chop” also featuring Vince.
As you know, Leonard Nimoy will be on Fringe next season, which clearly means that Fringe has been renewed for another season. This commercial for the new season features Walter and some of his “Walter-isms”, they are ALL awesome, but my favorite by far is “gooification”, which I assume means “a process that yields goo”.
They removed the video, but this is a good one too... :D
Welcome to the first, and almost certainly last, article on “Yet Another Reason To Love The Swedes”.
There are many reasons that we love the Swedes, Sverker Lindbo, Martin Alsen, ABBA, Nobelpriset (Nobel Piece Prize), pickled herring (I can’t prove that pickled herring originated in Sweden, but work with me). Well we can now add another item to the list.
This clip from Knäckebröddansen Talang 2009. Now keep in mind that this is from a show that was televised in Sweden. ON THE AIR. Can you imagine the cries of outrage that would ensue if this was ever on network television in the U.S.? Never happen. Seriously, what a great clip. I can not imagine the uptight American population ever allowing this on TV. <sigh>
OR "Why we need the economic stimulus package NOW!" If this guy had a job he would not have time to (almost) kill himself. Well, at least he had the common sense to video tape it...
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