From the "You have got to be kidding me!" files: a remake of the 1960s TV series The Prisoner is being worked on by Sky One over in Great Britain. It doesn't sound as if it'll be much like the original show though as "liberties" are being taken. My opinion: this one won't fly. The original The Prisoner is by far THE most bizarre thing ever done for television. If you want some seriously nutty watching just check out its final episode. And what the heck was that "Rover" thing anyway? I could see a The Prisoner movie being done in the tone of the original though, maybe starring George Clooney and featuring special effects by ILM. But without the strangeness quotient anything new for television will get stale fast.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Bush betrays Chinese Christians: Is state-sponsored church a real "church" at all?
CNN is reporting that President Bush attended services at a government-sanctioned church in China today. Which is odd because Bush does not attend services at any church while he is home in America, but I digress from the point of this discussion...
There are two kinds of churches in communist China. There are the "approved" state-allowed churches, and the only real reason that the Chinese government has lately tolerated any Christian churches at all is that it wants to improve its image in the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. There are three "movements" making up the state-run churches: the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the China Christian Council, and what passes as Catholicism in China. And guess what: all of them owe their first loyalty to the state, which has absolute control over the congregations. The government taps the pastors (it can even install priests in the Catholic churches without Vatican say-so), decides what will and what will not be preached, keeps everything pertaining to them on a tight leash. If you want to worship in a church in China without fear of reprisal, you have no choice but to enter the doors of a state-sponsored congregation.
And then there are the underground "house churches". Which from my perspective are the ONLY real Christian churches that exist in China. This is the true persecuted church in this world. Worshipping in a house church is an offense that can get you arrested, imprisoned, and sometimes even executed. Just a few days ago several Chinese "house Christians" were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for running an underground church and distributing illegal copies of the Bible.
The underground church in China is one of the most brutalized and hunted-down religious movements in world history. And yet the adversity is causing growth: the house churches are widely considered to be the most active and thriving churches in China, in spite of the threats facing it. Nonetheless, most Christians in China still face dire consequences if they are ever caught practicing their faith without license from the government.
By attending a state-run church, Bush has effectively thumbed his nose at those Christians who live by faith in God alone, instead of kow-towing to what other men would have them do. He even dared suggest that the state churches are smiled upon by God when he said at the service that "The spirit of the Lord is very strong inside your church."
Christians are supposed to be baptised in the name of God, and not in the name of any government. The moment they seek counsel from worldly authority as to how they are to approach God, they cease being of God and fall back under the spiritual jurisdiction of this carnal realm.
If President Bush wanted to act like a real leader - and especially a Christian leader - he would have rebuffed the state-sanctioned churches entirely. He would have readily understood that the church can not be an institution that acts with the approval of temporal government.But once again, the "leaders" of this country have shown a willingness to demonstrate that they seek to honor the god of this world, instead of honoring the God of Heaven. It is more important to Bush and too many other politicians that the Chinese government be placated for the vast market it controls, instead of made to answer for its harsh treatment of those who merely wish to serve and worship God as their consciences - and not their own politicians - would so lead them to do.
And some people wonder why it is that I am so disgusted with so many professing "Christians" in America.
Scientology gets destroyed on South Park this week
This was getting so much word of mouth that I had to track down a copy and see it for myself. Dear Lord this week's episode is hilarious... and I hardly ever watch South Park at all. Titled "Trapped in the Closet", Matt Stone and Trey Parker showed they got brass ones for taking on the most ridiculous "religion" of all: Scientology. Stan spends over two hundred dollars getting an "e-meter" reading from the church and pegs the thing as an OT-9, leading the church to believe that Stan is the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard. Funniest moments: when Scientology's "secret doctrine" is shared with Stan, we watch a depiction while "THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE" is overlayed atop it. The thing is this really IS what Scientologists believe! If you've ever read Xenu.net or know anything about "Scamintology" at all you'll understand why this episode is such a big deal. There's no way the Church of Scientology will sue Parker and Stone for doing this, and that's partly why I love this episode so much. Scientomogy has the episode in RealVideo format if you'd like to take a gander.
Saturdays just won't be the same again: Kyle Williams signs off from WorldNetDaily
I don't know WHAT I'm going to do first-thing every Saturday morning from this point on. It had become an ingrained ritual that before anything else I would turn on the computer, point the browser to WorldNetDaily and read the newest column from Kyle Williams. I need to say this too: Kyle is not just an amazing writer, he is a truly wonderful young man that I have been immensely humbled to have the honor of having as a true friend. For four years he has been a wunderkind of the first order to behold. Today marks his final column at WorldNetDaily before taking his unique intellect into pursuit of other projects. He'll still have his blog though, which he better update often 'cuz some of us need our "fix" :-)
Kyle, good luck and God speed. And thanks for the lil' nod at the end of your column today: it seriously made my weekend!! :-)
Friday, November 18, 2005
She won't last two months
Rugged individualist extraordinaire Claire Wolfe is cutting herself off from the Internet for one year. I'm thinking of doing this for one week, but for a year?! Here's hoping that she comes to her senses: we need her. But if she comes out better for doing this, then nothing but best wishes for her.
Superman Returns teaser has been online since last night...
...and in the 24 hours since it debuted I've watched this, probably twenty times at least. This is the time of the year when the "teasers" for the next summer's blockbusters start appearing, giving us a taste of what's to come. Last year I especially remember the one for Revenge of the Sith and that downright disturbing one for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Well, after seeing the one for Superman Returns, I don't think I've been this jazzed about an upcoming summer release since the one for Spider-Man 2 a couple years back.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire review
They just keep getting better and better. And darker and darker.
I hooked up with Darth Larry, his wife and several of their compatriots (a lot of 'em from UNC-Greensboro's music program) last night about 11 over at the Carousel Grande in Greensboro. Lots of youngish (i.e. 10-14 year olds) people. Plenty of folks in costume, including one girl who came as Moaning Myrtle, complete with toilet bowl lid around her neck: wish I'd brought my camera to get a pic of that. Otherwise it was mostly generic Hogwarts students/witch getups. Theater manager came out about five minutes before the show and asked everyone not to take pictures while the movie was playing. At 12:01 a.m. on the dot the promo slides ended and the trailers began.
The only two that really come to mind were the teasers for Happy Feet out a year from now (it looks like March of the Penguins on steroids) and Hoodwinked, which looks funny enough that I might have to check this out next month. Carousel Grande DID NOT HAVE the teaser for Superman Returns playing in front of Goblet of Fire as it was supposed to, which is a real darn shame because, I caught this trailer just before leaving for the theater and it is epic. Woulda been great to see it on the big screen :-(
And then came the movie...
Folks, it must be said early on that there is considerably much detail in this movie that went missing from the book. The opening chapters with the Weasleys arriving at the Dursley home to pick up Harry are gone, which I hated 'cuz that would have been a really funny thing to have seen on film. Prominently missing also is the entire "House Elf Liberation Front" subplot, which would have given Hermione much more to do in terms of her character. So too is the resolution of the entire Rita Skeeter thread. Maybe a few other things like that. Otherwise, if you can overlook those things, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is one heckuva good ride.
It basically does start out with the book's very first chapter, then jumps to the Quidditch World Cup, which was VERY well done: easily the most special-effects filled sequence in any Harry Potter movie to date. I'm wanting to see this movie again just to try and take in EVERYTHING that happens in these scenes. One thing I happened to notice that elicited a smile: when Minister Fudge is opening the ceremonies, take a look at Barty Crouch sitting behind him and to the right-hand side of the screen. The seat next to Crouch is empty. That detail isn't delved into anymore in the movie, but readers of the book will understand the significance of it.
Right after the World Cup final comes the Death Eaters attack. It's as scary as you might imagine it, but I'm making note of it because it's here that I first took notice of Patrick Doyle's score. The music that plays during the attack is malevolent and sinister... part of me wants to say it sounds positively Lovecraftian. This is just the first of many great pieces that are in this movie, including the later themes for Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, the music for the Triwizard events, and especially what is used for the Yule Ball. Doyle had a mighty baton to pick up after the work John Williams did for the previous three entries, but he really came through here. The Yule Ball music, that alone is going to drive me to purchase the soundtrack (assuming it has the piece by the Weird Sisters on it).
One of the real strengths of this movie is that all the characters, without any notable exception, are almost exactly as they were portrayed in the books, including the new ones. Whatever you envision as you read Goblet of Fire, that's how they will likely appear to you here. The one everyone is going to be talking about is Brendan Gleeson's portrayal of Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, which was DEAD-on from the original novel, except I always envisioned him looking even more torn-up/brutalized. Barty Crouch Sr. is precisely how I saw him in the book: right down to the icy stare he gives as he disowns his only son and sentences him to Azkaban. And speaking of Barty Crouch Jr., David Tennant does a wicked job bringing him to life: he's sort of like the Charles Manson Family member of the Voldemort crew. This is really going to be Tennant's season to shine: he takes on the role of the Doctor full-time during next month's Doctor Who Christmas special, and I'm seriously looking forward to what he does with the character.
Richard Harris was a great Dumbledore in the first two movies. And Michael Gambdon did a pretty good job taking over after Harris died. But here in Goblet of Fire, Gambdon comes into his own completely. He is Dumbledore, Lord willing now and forever, and he brings an incredible combination of both tenderness and ferocity to the role.
This is the best Hagrid that Robbie Coltrane has been since the original. It's an absolute delight watching the romance blossom between him and Madame Maxim.
Fans of Neville Longbottom: this is your movie. He has come a long way as a character, and a deeper one than most might have suspected at that. The scene in Moody's class, where we see Neville recoil in anguish at seeing use of the Cruciatus curse: we're never told why it is in the movie that he reacts this way, though if you've read the books you know better. Terrific, subtle set-up for future movies, that is. But most of all I really had to smile at how of all the leading young male student characters, it was Neville who had the best time at the Yule Ball.
Speaking of THAT, the Yule Ball might be my favorite scene in the whole movie. It's just fun to watch. Except for poor Harry and Ron, who look so wasted you'd think they're smashed on booze. Ron looks particularly horrible: that tuxedo looks like it was stolen from Liberace's corpse. In stark contrast Emma Watson looks positively STUNNING as Herminone in this scene. She has really become a very lovely young lady.
Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour... apart from Krum's appearance at the World Cup and their competing in the tournament, there wasn't nearly enough time given to these two. Or to their schools for that matter. I was looking forward to seeing more from the other two wizarding schools out there. But it's a long book and there's only time to show so much. Clémence Poésy is really sweet as Fleur in the scenes she's in though, and Stanislav Ianevski's Viktor Krum... well, he just rules, man. Of all the new characters, he's the one I would have loved to have seen more of, especially at the World Cup. There's a REASON Krum is so well renowned in the books, and we didn't really see why in the movie. But based on Ianevski's portrayal of him, I'll trust that it's there.
Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. If he had more screen time he would have out-uglied Emperor Palpatine as the year's most evil villainous creep. We see Voldemort in two forms: "Baby Voldemort" before Wormtail throws him in the reviving cauldron, and then "Mega-Gollum" full-size Voldemort. I can now finally believe in Voldemort as being the supreme bad guy of this story. We didn't see enough of him in Sorceror's Stone and that wasn't really the full-bore Voldemort we caught in Chamber of Secrets. Like so many other characters in this chapter, Voldemort has come into his own, and Fiennes brings every ounce of his ability at playing pure evil to the role. Can't wait to see what he does with the character in the Order of the Phoenix movie.
As for Harry, Ron and Hermione, the trio that this story has revolved around: they are maturing quite nicely if aging a little too quickly. Harry is maturing especially. Daniel Radcliffe is letting Harry become more and more edgy, by the end of the movie he's definitely on the path toward full-tilt grim that we know he's embarked upon by the end of Order of the Phoenix. It is going to be excruciatingly painful to watch what he does when Half-Blood Prince comes around. I'm almost dreading it, knowing the storm of you-know-what that he's yet to face.
Sirius Black is given one brief scene. In a fireplace. And that's it. I wanted to see seriously more Sirius this go-round. Especially after knowing what happens to him in the next chapter. I wanted to see more of Viktor Karkaroff and Severus Snape. Come to think of it, apart from maybe two scenes Snape has hardly anything to do in this movie. Oh well, Alan Rickman's time is coming soon enough...
The effects work in Goblet of Fire are sensational. Maybe even more beautiful than those used in Revenge of the Sith. The arrival of the two schools' contingents is exactly how I thought it would look like, and the tournaments trials - especially the dragons and the mer-people - were pure eye candy.
Geez, what else is there to say about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?
How about that it's dark. Not as overwhelming as Revenge of the Sith was, but there is real tragedy that comes into the story here. We see a really wonderful character introduced, Cedric Diggory, and he's made out to be every bit the nice, upstanding young man. The kind of young man that any father would wish his son to grow into. And he gets taken away without any damned reason why. Folks, I gotta tell you: the movie made Diggory's death hurt more than how it was done in the book. And that's saying a lot. There's a horrible sense of foreboding by the end of the movie, but a kind of hopefulness as well. I'd say that Goblet of Fire is The Empire Strikes Back of the Harry Potter saga: it ends on something of a cliffhanger in that the bad guys have apparently won this round, but it's not a horribly *lingering* cliffhanger. There's still hope to be found yet. It is here that I thought Dumbledore had his best scene in the movie. And it ends on good terms - or at least as good as you can expect things after the tragedy - for Harry, Ron and Hermione.
What else can I say about this?
Well, as I said before, it doesn't have EVERYTHING in the book that I'd wished it had. But given the constraints of time, the movie is still a very elegant dance to behold. Definitely worth catching at least twice in the theaters. I'll give it 9 stars out of 10, if I were ranking it on that kind of scale. And I'm absolutely looking forward to watching it again.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Goblet of Fire midnight showing tonight
I'll be catching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at midnight tonight along with Darth Larry (who word on the street has it is playing a mean cello in a production of H.M.S. Pinafore today at UNC-Greensboro). He called about it the other day and I said "sure" way before it registered with my brain how long this movie is going to be. At more than three hours this'll put us WAY into the morrow's dawn, definitely territory I haven't been in since the last Lord of the Rings movie. We'll see if my system can still hold up after teaching all day today, then something else that won't have me back home 'til 8, then the flick and then back teaching again tomorrow and possibly seeing Goblet of Fire again tomorrow night with my wife. Nice to know that even with added responsibilities I'm still up for crazy stunts. We're also hoping to catch Walk the Line this weekend, so expect maybe a double-barreled movie review coming up in a few days.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Clips from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe soundtrack hit online
SoundtrackNet has clips from each track from the soundtrack of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that you can listen to. Know this though: listening to these demands that you have absolutely the latest version of Quicktime on your system. I installed a new version just a few weeks ago, and I still had to upgrade it tonight to get this to work. You also may need to refresh the pop-up window that has the clip. And even then, it was extremely slow to begin playing. But from what we heard so far (clips from "The Blitz, 1940" and "The Wardrobe") it sounds pretty good. Not as resonating as the music from the 1979 animated version though, which I'm especially thinking of the score that plays during the stag hunt: undoubtedly one of the most hauntingly beautiful compositions I've ever heard in my entire life. Believe me, it would be well worth buying the DVD of this just to listen to that one track. But this is just a tiny portion of the entire score from the 2005 version: I'll reserve full judgement until I can listen to it all, accompanying what transpires onscreen. In the meantime, whet your appetite on these snippets!
We watched The Jerk tonight on AMC
Lisa had never seen this before until tonight. I'd last caught it maybe ten years ago and had forgotten how funny this is. It's sort of more uplifting now for some reason. Lisa likes to tell me that I'll probably look like Steve Martin in another ten years or so: that's an encouraging thought I guess :-) Anyhoo, pretty good comedy in case you've never caught it before.
Getting geared up to start teachin' again
Had a brief orientation this morning at the place that I'm going to be teaching at. Oh yeah, WHAT will I be teaching? Much like my last educatin' gig: teaching computer and Internet skills, but also things like basic keyboarding. Anyway, this place I'm going to be at is really great: I'm gonna be working alongside a lot of neat people, and one thing that I learned today that abounds at this place is a strong sense of humor. Also was delighted to learn that there's several other people who went to Elon there, including one who was there right when I was. Will be reporting on how this all goes down as the weeks and months (and years?) progress :-)
Monday, November 14, 2005
Did the original Christians worship the military?
Found a compelling piece by Laurence M. Vance at the LewRockwell.com site. Titled "The Early Christian Attitude to War", it's a look at how Christian believers toward the beginning of the church viewed military and political power. And, it's a pretty damning case against modern "Christian" virtues like worshipping our armed might or status in the world. Vance begins thusly...
Were the early Christians warmongers like too many Christians are today? Did they idolize the Caesars like some Christians idolize President Bush? Did they make signs that said "the emperor" similar to the ones we see on cars today that refer to Bush as "the president"? Did they make apologies for the Roman Empire like some Christian apologists make for the U.S. Empire? Did they venerate the institution of the military like many Christians do today?Mash down here for plenty more.C. John Cadoux would say no.
Remember: These guys are President Bush's very bestest friends
A teacher in Saudi Arabia will spend 40 months in prison and receive 750 lashes by public flogging... for talking about the Bible and saying good things about the Jewish people.
Lest we forget how close "Christian" President Bush is to those who rule Saudi Arabia...
The funniest graphic I've ever made
So last night I was talking to a friend on the phone about some things, and one thing was leading to another, a couple of crazy connections going on across the ol' synapses... and one of the funniest ideas I've ever thought of popped into my head.
I've been working on it for most of the night. This was just one of those things that once the notion of it possesses you, you're on fire for it. This was something like Forcery was, but it's a heckuva lot easier working with Photoshop than it is to make a film. So most of the past several hours I've spent hunched over the keyboard, scouring the 'net for certain visual elements (which were surprisingly hard to find, but the perfect one did turn up) and a new font or two, to match up with the ones used in the original. And apart from some very minor tweaking, I think I achieved the final form of the thing a short while ago. And it's really hilarious.
"So where is this thing?" Well, that's the bad news: I can't show it right now. Even though I'm dying to share this with the world. If I posted this graphic now it would - not "might" but "would" - cause a helluva lot of confusion that I would be scrambling to clarify. There would be wild rumors flying all over the place because of it. And it would just totally ruin the moment that this is really meant for.
So for the time being I'm going to sit on it. I've passed it along to a VERY few friends, just to see what their reaction is (so they'll tell me if this is going too far, but I think I'm pretty safe :-) But otherwise this is going to stay confined to my hard drive. I'm going to say that probably this time next year, or maybe a bit before then, is when the season will be ripe to share this with everyone. Gotta get a few other things lined up in the meantime. If/when I publish this I'll make a permanent link to it in the Recent Hightlights section on the right so nobody will miss it.
Trust me, I ain't joshin' y'all: this will probably make you honk with laughter. Find out what it is... sometime in 2006!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Disney has gone to the dogs
Was doing a random traipse through the blogs and found this one-sheet posted at The Hollywood Blacklist:
BTW, the original The Shaggy Dog is a pretty funny movie. I saw it years ago, and not long afterward I happened to catch its sequel The Shaggy D.A.. The original stars Fred MacMurray, who played the scoutmaster in that movie Follow Me, Boys! that I wrote about awhile back. Good, classic Disney fare that doesn't need any mangling by Michael Eisner.
Hollywood Blacklist is also reporting that the trailer for The DaVinci Code is going to be attached to Peter Jackson's King Kong next month. That'll probably be the closest I ever get to anything relating to The DaVinci Code. For my thoughts on that - and some info on a MUCH more intriguing story regarding that kind of stuff - read this post from this past January.
Bill Gates gets DOOMed
What you are about to see has never before been witnessed by the general public. Until now.
Windows 95 had been out for barely two months when Microsoft held their Judgement Day event on October 30th, 1995. Hosted on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, it was a massive showcase of Windows 95 as a gaming platform, and an opportunity for third-party game developers to hawk the products they would soon be rolling out. Microsoft's garage and cafeteria were converted into a "haunted mansion", with each attendee given their own section to decorate. It sounds like it was a pretty wild time...
...Among the attendees were LucasArts, Activsion, and of course, iD Software. Outside, 12 massive guillotines were set around the exits. Activision created a small jungle section to promote the new Pitfall for Sega Genesis. A company called Zombie created a big metal sphere that shot out blue electricity. iD, however no to be outdone (much to Microsoft's dismay) hired the shock-rock band G.W.A.R. to create their set. It was an eight foot tall vagina with dildo teeth. Inside, two members of G.W.A.R. dressed in fur and raw meat attacked passerby's with rubber penises.Alex St. John - one of the creators of Microsoft's DirectX - had something that would upstage even the boys at iD. Here's what went down, as described in the book Masters of Doom:
As the lights fell, a video screen lowered above the stage; It was time for the main event. The crowd cheered as the Doom's familiar corridors began to roll. But it was not the Doom soldier chasing the demons, it was... Bill Gates! Microsoft's fearless leader was superimposed running inside the game in a long black trench coat and brandishing a shotgun. Gates stopped running and addressed the crowd about Windows 95 as a gaming platform: A platform that could deliver cutting-edge multimedia experiences like Doom. But no sooner that he begun that an Imp monster from the game jumped out, through voice over, asked Gates for an autograph [sic]. Gates responded by raising his shotgun and blowing the beast to gory chunks. 'Don't interrupt me while I'm speaking', he said, then finished his speech. At the end, the screen went black with blood, only to be replaced with the familiar Microsoft phrase 'Who do you want to execute today?'.
