Saturday, August 16, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Olympics
wow....just...wow.
Michael Phelps, man. I know everyone is writing about him, but omg. he won his /7th/ GOLD MEDAL!! tonight by 1/100 of a second. The coach of the man he beat put in a formal protest to the olypmic committee. Truely nailbiting.
Not to mention the relay earlier this week.
Seriously, people....watch tomorrow for Olympic and World history, with the potential of Phelps winning his 8th Gold in a single games, which would surpass the record.
The other race to watch tomorrow is going to be the 50m (thats one length of the pool...) Free, i think is the right category. Anyways, its Torres swimming, the 41 year old mother. You know what was awesome watching her tonight in the semi-finals? The girl who finished second was 25 freaking years younger...
I'll admit, part of me thinks this has to be doping. Its the sad state of affairs that a decade of steroid use in sports has left us. We continue to wonder, "well, is it really them? did they really work that hard? i bet they probably just took the 'roids." and i think thats sad. I yearn for the days when we can move past that distrustful impulse, and appreciate the games for what they are: a struggle for dominance that is built upon peace.
Thats what the Olympics is about. Not politics, or world-power, or elections, or humanitarian records. Its about the best athletes in each nation - who, by the way have /nothing/ to do with their respective nation's national or international policy - struggling against one another for the unmistakably human desire to WIN.
The One who Lives with Me hates the Olympics, which i don't understand. He calls them the Tony's of the sports world. Maybe he's just more cynical than I...
naw, that'll never happen. Even when my cynicism is tempered by romanticism.
"The Name that can be Named is not the Name. The Way that can be walked is not the Way." - Tao de Ching
Michael Phelps, man. I know everyone is writing about him, but omg. he won his /7th/ GOLD MEDAL!! tonight by 1/100 of a second. The coach of the man he beat put in a formal protest to the olypmic committee. Truely nailbiting.
Not to mention the relay earlier this week.
Seriously, people....watch tomorrow for Olympic and World history, with the potential of Phelps winning his 8th Gold in a single games, which would surpass the record.
The other race to watch tomorrow is going to be the 50m (thats one length of the pool...) Free, i think is the right category. Anyways, its Torres swimming, the 41 year old mother. You know what was awesome watching her tonight in the semi-finals? The girl who finished second was 25 freaking years younger...
I'll admit, part of me thinks this has to be doping. Its the sad state of affairs that a decade of steroid use in sports has left us. We continue to wonder, "well, is it really them? did they really work that hard? i bet they probably just took the 'roids." and i think thats sad. I yearn for the days when we can move past that distrustful impulse, and appreciate the games for what they are: a struggle for dominance that is built upon peace.
Thats what the Olympics is about. Not politics, or world-power, or elections, or humanitarian records. Its about the best athletes in each nation - who, by the way have /nothing/ to do with their respective nation's national or international policy - struggling against one another for the unmistakably human desire to WIN.
The One who Lives with Me hates the Olympics, which i don't understand. He calls them the Tony's of the sports world. Maybe he's just more cynical than I...
naw, that'll never happen. Even when my cynicism is tempered by romanticism.
"The Name that can be Named is not the Name. The Way that can be walked is not the Way." - Tao de Ching
Saturday, August 9, 2008
The New Mummy and Bad Movies
Just saw, for fun, a really, really, really bad movie: The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
omg. But hey, its in keeping with the China-ness.
The best part of the movie was the prologue part, the part without the god-awful actors! I mean, Brenden Fraiser did his best (i'll get to that phrasing in a bit), but Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh were the best in the movie. Oh, and Jon Hannah (Jonathan in the movie) too.
There were two big problems with the movie - and would you believe it? The plot isn't one of them. We'll start with the Script.
It was problem #1. The plot was ok, but the lines they gave them were just shit.
Now onto problem #2, the actors.
Rachiel Weis won an oscar, so didn't do the movie (or at least, thats the reason i assume), and got replaced by Maria Bello. She did her best, but her face was kinda odd, and her performance flat. I mean, flat. But she was nowhere NEAR as bad as Luke Ford (playing Alex) and Isabelle Leong (playing love interest and ninja, Ling). omg. awful. flat. terrible.
Here is my thing: there are talented actors out there. Actors that can take crap lines and, while not making them brilliant, making them less cringeworthy. And yeah, the lines were bad but John Hannah made these lines work! And Branden Fraiser to a lesser degree. There are actors out there that can make these lines work. So who the hell cast this movie?
Here's another question: do directors who make POS movies realise, when they are watching the final screening of their movie, that it sucks? or do they say, "wow, i made a great work of art"?
"The Condemned convict climbs the highest peak without fear" ~Chuang Tsu
omg. But hey, its in keeping with the China-ness.
The best part of the movie was the prologue part, the part without the god-awful actors! I mean, Brenden Fraiser did his best (i'll get to that phrasing in a bit), but Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh were the best in the movie. Oh, and Jon Hannah (Jonathan in the movie) too.
There were two big problems with the movie - and would you believe it? The plot isn't one of them. We'll start with the Script.
It was problem #1. The plot was ok, but the lines they gave them were just shit.
Now onto problem #2, the actors.
Rachiel Weis won an oscar, so didn't do the movie (or at least, thats the reason i assume), and got replaced by Maria Bello. She did her best, but her face was kinda odd, and her performance flat. I mean, flat. But she was nowhere NEAR as bad as Luke Ford (playing Alex) and Isabelle Leong (playing love interest and ninja, Ling). omg. awful. flat. terrible.
Here is my thing: there are talented actors out there. Actors that can take crap lines and, while not making them brilliant, making them less cringeworthy. And yeah, the lines were bad but John Hannah made these lines work! And Branden Fraiser to a lesser degree. There are actors out there that can make these lines work. So who the hell cast this movie?
Here's another question: do directors who make POS movies realise, when they are watching the final screening of their movie, that it sucks? or do they say, "wow, i made a great work of art"?
"The Condemned convict climbs the highest peak without fear" ~Chuang Tsu
Friday, August 8, 2008
Btw....
when i said China had invented a few things...just look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_inventions
paper, compass, printing, gunpowder, the fork, tea, stirrup, rudder, /Resturaunt Menus!!/, Pi, Playing cards....dear lord, its thats like, 11 of many, many more.
public knowledge announcement, as it were =P
"Being a good listener spares one the burden of giving advice" - Lao Tzu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_inventions
paper, compass, printing, gunpowder, the fork, tea, stirrup, rudder, /Resturaunt Menus!!/, Pi, Playing cards....dear lord, its thats like, 11 of many, many more.
public knowledge announcement, as it were =P
"Being a good listener spares one the burden of giving advice" - Lao Tzu
Well, we have the people...
That was the answer of the man who directed and created the Opening Ceremony for China and the Olympics. He was asked about the scope of the 15,000 performers in the ceremonies (no one repeated), and he replied, deadpan, "Well, we have the people."
Odds are, my next few posts are going to be China-centric and Olympic-centric. As anyone knows me know, I have a bit of an obsession with Chinese culture, history, and philosophies. Hell, I may be an athiest, but i consider myself spiritual, and if there is a spiritual philosophy to which i most adhere, it would be Taoism. I believe that there is much still in modern China that reflects a grander, more elegant time - something we in the West have moved on from.
Say what you will about China - and there is much to decry - it comes from their history and their culture. And never deny what they have given the world: Paper, Printing, the Magnetic Compass, to name a few. We may decry them for not being a real democracy...but of all the nations and cultures in the world, the one with the culture least suited to be a Democracy or a Republic would be China (and to a lesser extant, Japan).
So i'll probably be signing off the next few posts with a quote from Chinese philosophy.
"A virtuous life is lived as water - flowing easily; moving away from resistance or collision; always delicate, graceful, and calm." - Taoist saying
~M
Odds are, my next few posts are going to be China-centric and Olympic-centric. As anyone knows me know, I have a bit of an obsession with Chinese culture, history, and philosophies. Hell, I may be an athiest, but i consider myself spiritual, and if there is a spiritual philosophy to which i most adhere, it would be Taoism. I believe that there is much still in modern China that reflects a grander, more elegant time - something we in the West have moved on from.
Say what you will about China - and there is much to decry - it comes from their history and their culture. And never deny what they have given the world: Paper, Printing, the Magnetic Compass, to name a few. We may decry them for not being a real democracy...but of all the nations and cultures in the world, the one with the culture least suited to be a Democracy or a Republic would be China (and to a lesser extant, Japan).
So i'll probably be signing off the next few posts with a quote from Chinese philosophy.
"A virtuous life is lived as water - flowing easily; moving away from resistance or collision; always delicate, graceful, and calm." - Taoist saying
~M
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