Archive for the ‘Media’ Category
Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden?
I love the title of this movie, from the director of ‘Super Size Me’.. Watching this is certainly better than trying to study for my exam tomorrow, for which I don’t know what to do as my lecturer is the worst I’ve managed to have in the three years of my college career. Anyway, enjoy the clips & I love that the trailer has Gogol Bordello’s ‘Wanderlust King’ as the soundtrack:
Stephen Colbert at the White House dinner
I remember this video as being one of the first times I was ever exposed to politics in a meaningful sense. While its probably an odd thing to say, this was one of the first times that politics became ‘real’ for me and remains one of the best ‘take-downs’ of the Bush Administration I have seen. What’s impressive (and kind of horrifying) is that a large number of the comments made by Colbert still apply…
‘Grindhouse’ - possibly the best cinema experience?
As I’ve already talked about a bit, I went to see ‘Grindhouse’ last night. Now I know the film didn’t do brilliantly as a double feature, but the only thing that proves is that people are fucking idiots. I cannot remember the last time I was at a movie where the audience burst into applause at various points during the films. Now personally I can’t recommend both films enough, though ‘Planet Terror’ is clearly the better of the two and you really need to watch the whole thing as the single film experience, and preferably in the cinema to get the full value of it. There are a few things that I should mention though:
Man, I really want to see Mike Gravel as U.S. President
This video is absolutely insane but is quite entertaining - love the ‘military-industrial complex’ speech bit at the end too.. It seems to be quite legit given that Gravel has it on his webpage:
Fitna (English Language version)
Ideologically rather corrupt and shallow, this film doesn’t really make much of a point beyond ‘extremists are bad’ which one would imagine is rather self-apparent. While it has some impact, mainly through using footage from some real-life executions, any person with a brain should be able to see through the blatant racism and short-sightedness of Geert Wilder’s film. There’s an intersting article about it on the BBC here and it certainly shows what the BBC is talking about in terms of his ability to generate interest - as I write this, the film has been seen 410,211 times on the host website alone. And that doesn’t take into account other language variations.
Just to be clear, I’m posting this out of interest in the topic and the controversy it has generated. Not out of any belief in Mr.Wilder’s ideas. I’m also doing this because I think that silencing talk becuase religious extremists don’t like the content of a video is a bad thing and should be opposed on principle if nothing else.
‘The Word’ on Obama’s ‘Race Speech’
Cian’s already talked about this, but Obama does it funnier (sorry Cian) (Also, I apologise for the fact that ‘funnier’ isn’t correct English)
‘Pax Romana’ #1 online for free
Jonathan Hickman produced one of the best comic books and general pieces of entertainment I saw last year with his book ‘the Nightly News‘. Thankfully he isn’t resting on his laurels and has got several works in the pipeline. The most recent of which being ‘Pax Romana’. Here is a link to the first issue online. It’s very very good, maintaining the impressive design sense that the ‘Nightly News’ had, while still not seeming too derivative of that work. Granted, the story sounds derivative to those of us who have read too much science-fiction but it’s still done better than a lot of those stories. As a final aside, in an era when many 22 page comics take 5 minutes to read a book like ‘Pax Romana’ is very much value for money in terms of time spent:
PAX ROMANA tells the tale of 5000 men sent on an impossible mission to change the past and save the future. It’s the end of the world: Will they succeed, or will they fail?
Also of great interest is his talking about the first issue in depth here. What he says that I’ll pass on in it is that the internet doesn’t really do his art style justice as the two page spreads are designed to be read as one image rather than two seperate pages. Anyway, I really recommend taking a look and if your that impressed there’s a preview of the second issue here
Mock the Week the banned clips
I’m not sure if this clip was banned but there’s some good links to some banned clips here:
Does Snuff Exist?
Surprisingly good documentary on horror movies and supposed ’snuff’ movies. Granted, at the start it’s more of a history of certain types of ‘video nasties’ than about snuff itself but as it goes along it shows how there have been ‘possible examples’ of snuff. Interesting also is the ‘chicken or egg’ question. Does demand creaty supply or supply demand? The moors murders example was one I hadn’t heard before.
Just some quick thoughts on the BBC interview with George W. Bush
It’s a pretty good interview and you can see the whole thing here.
Just a few things that I found interesting -Bush has a very utilitarian ‘end’s justify the means’ view of a lot of his policies. It just comes across in a lot of the things he says and the language he uses, especially relating to Iraq but also to Africa. There’s also the oddest echoes of Jimmy Carter in terms of how he talks about the ‘higher realism of helping Africa’ in the sense that securing African well-being safeguards America’s national interest. What’s also interesting to see is how surprisingly affable Bush is. Nearly too much at times such as when he off-handedly refers to the ‘Dali Lama crowd’ & uses the word ’suicider’ which is just .. awkward. Anyway, I still think he’s a horrible excuse for a President but it’s worth a look.