[insert sarcastic comment here]

Well, isn't this a depressing chart. From a recent University of Maryland survey, that asked respondents in several countries how high a priority the government should place on climate change.

Please note that China and India are sky high (8.86 and 7.52 respectively). Granted, those countries are the ones whose governments are resisting action on climate change...

Where are we? oh, that's right...4.71. Who else couldn't get or barely got a majority?

Iraq and the Palestinian Territories.

-sigh-

~M

Auto tune the news rocks....

So the new Auto Tune the News was released a few days ago. #7!! if you haven't seen them, do yourself a favor and set aside a half hour to do so.

Musically, its not as good as #s 6 and 3, but thematically...wow, the meta ironies abound.

The lyrics they interject are for the most part about or a comment about the disparate treatment and conidions of whites and blacks. From there, they go into race relations.

Race relations!

oooh, the ironies.

Firstly, the Gregories and their friend are rapping, which is steeped in Black American cutlture: from the funk rap of Grandmaster Flash, to the East Coast, West Coast rivalry, to Topac to Biggie Smalls, to P Diddy, Lauren Hill, to Kanye West, and on and on. Whats more, its an auto-tuned electronica rap, a style popularized by T-Pain and Kanye West.

This is the musical genre a bunch of white kids chose to talk race relations.

ooooh, and it gets better.

They then feature Congressman Dan Lungren, and his speech on the house floor in which he rewrote the lyrics of "Trouble" from the Music Man. This is an - probably unintentional - homage to white's rap roots, and a time when Meredith Willson profited from the popularization of an early form of rap.

And to cap it all off, the end with setting Katie Couric on auto-tune and letting her run wild. (remind me, next time i need a melody for something, to just auto-tune Katie). Whats her topic? Texting. A Millenial mode of communication. Go figure...i saw a Gen-Y connection and i pointed it out =p

And yet...

this discussion ends playing on a Gen-Y matter/device. And when seen through the prism of the Millenial's Laissez-faire multiculuralism, the three white kids rapping - dressed in their rap/hip-hop finest and spouting "Shawty" - doesn't seem out of place at all.

I swear, this thing is an unintentional college thesis on cultrual integration and race relations waiting to happen.

~M

A follow-up to Police Abuse of Disorderly Conduct Arrests

1st Amendment Rights vs. the Police. Who wins?

The Police, apparently.

More people should have a problem with this. Cops have dangerous jobs. I get that and i appreciate them keeping the peace.

But are they really so thin-skinned as to stoop to using their very measurable power to arrest those who simply insult them? That's sad. In the words of Amy Poehler as Hilary Clinton: "Grow a pair. And if now, i will lend you mine."

Srsly Birthers? wtf? Are you moronic, or just pretending?

So, i waited a few days to say anything about watercooler-talk-de-week...indeed, The One Near Colombia, The One In Brooklyn and I talked about it over wings and beer on monday at Barrow St. I'm talking about the whole thing with Henry Louis Gates, the professor who was arrested in his own home. oh, i'm sorry...on his porch.

(heh, you thought i was going to say the Birthers, huh? well. i got nothing to say on them. My forehead hurts with the number of times i've facepalmed over them. well, i'll say that they and Lou Dobbs are freaking morons, and should come back to the reality based community)

I just had one gut reaction to this whole thing: umm...Gates was in his own home. it had been established he was in his own home. established. Crowley had been told and had it confirmed that the home was indeed Gates'. Once the police know that it wasn't a break-in, that Gates had just been locked out and had to force his way in, they have no further reason to be there.

none.

Here's a thought. I pay taxes. Gates pays taxes. Policemen and women are public servants...we pay their salaries. Crowley had no grounds - whatsoever - to arrest Gates. I don't care if Gates was being annoying and yelling at the cops (a point that is, in fact, disputed by the tapes of the 911 calls). Its called the first amendment. These are public servants, and we have a right to let them know exactly what we think of them.

And we have the right to do it without fear of being arrested. Insulting an officer is not a crime, and not an arrestable offense.

So, in the words of Obama...yeah, the police acted stupidly.

Now, you'll notice i have said nothing about race. Do i think Crowley is racist? no. But i think there were racial influences.

lets be honest. the transcript of the 911 call shows that the caller said nothing about the two people "breaking in" being black. That was an assumption on the part of the police when they reached the scene.

Now, i don't think that's racist. that was, partly, them suspecting who was at the scene when they arrived. however, i do think its an underpinning of race relations in this country. Is that sad? eh. buts also reality. And thats where we live.

Unless you're a Birther. Then there's just no hope for you.

Ricci and Godwin's Law

ok, this is a little dated, but i felt like posting something, and this has been in my thoughts for a while.

Have you ever heard of Godwin's Law? Basically, it says that the longer an online conversation goes on, the probability of an analogy involving Hitler or the Nazi's approaches 1. It is the ultimate way to win online, hands down. If the other side makes an inappropriate or nonsensical analogy to the Nazi's/Hitler ("well you know who was a failed painter? HITLER!!"), you just claim Godwin's Law and you win. done.

I feel we need something like that in political discourse for 9/11.

When the Ricci case first came to national attention (i offer no opinion on it only because the Supreme Court has ruled on it, and i am of the opinion that once they rule....well, thats that. They've been wrong before, but lets be honest. They rule, we follow. its the way we go.) when it first came to attention, i was watching Hardball with Chris Matthews and he and his guests were discussing it. If you don't know the Ricci case, go ahead and learn something. the internet will wait patiently for you to return.

It was a good conversation, with, ya know, interesting points being made. but at the end, Chris said something to the effect of "And lets not forget that many of the guys who rushed into those buildings on September 11th were Irish." And he said it as if he was making the ultimate point in the world.

i'm sorry...what? What the hell does that add to the conversation? Say what you will about him, Chris is a pretty smart political talker. how the hell does 9/11 fit into a conversation about reverse discrimination? It was an out of left field comment that had cursury - at best - influence on the conversation.

And i think we need a Godwin's law for 9/11, so someone could have called it right there and put Chris and his ludicrous comment in his place. Done and done.

So in honor of Chris and Sarah Palin and most politicians, i propose the following:

"The longer a political discusion continues, the probability of a reference to the Troops or 9/11 approches 1."

enjoy.

~M

Oh Billy Elliot, How Did You Win the Tony?

oh right. its fixed to give increased sales.

So, i saw Billy Elliot last night with my Uncle and a few others. It was good, i'll admit that freely. I enjoyed myself, i felt for (some of) the characters, i liked the dancing.

oh, and there was a plot and a backdrop, too.

Ok, that last statement is a bit unfair. But perhaps the biggest flaw in the show was its length...it was just too long! I like long shows, but when they deserve it. The first act had a movable plot, things happened, characters changed, etc etc...but the second act could have been 30 minutes shorter and told everything it needed to. Especially a few completely useless scenes, but i'll get into that.

First, what i liked!

Like Chicago i found myself enjoying aspects of the show, rather than the whole. Like the dancing, and a few of the songs, and part of the plot.

The Angry Dance? In context, its a little bit devastating. (Though, out of context and as a matter of form, the Electricity Dance is better suited) And Tommy Batchelor dances really, really well. Does he dance better than me? umm..yeah, he does. that should be obvious. But there was always a feeling i had during, and looking back on, Billy's actual dances where i just felt like i wanted him to let loose and go crazy, ya know?

But he's 13, and that may not exactly be something one can ask of him. And in the end (to use the shows vernacular) he is one sodderingly talented kid.

The other dance (and one that i felt got short shrift by the audience) that i truely enjoyed was the Grandmother's "don't lift a finger." "We'd go dancing." [thank you, anonymous and insulting commenter for correcting the title of that song. i didn't have the program in front of me] Its a hazy, smoke-filled, memory driven song, in which you can barely make out the 10 or so dancers faces. The dance uses the vastness of the stage to great effect, slowly shifting chairs to each other and making their entire journey over the course of the song one in which they simply cross the stage. Just breathtaking.

I'll also note that that particular song was...oh, 20, 30 minutes into the show. it was the 3rd listed song, and the first one i found the least bit interesting. Bad sign.

And then came a chorus of policemen (whom i half expected to break out into Pirates of Penzance) and the song "Solidarity." And i thought "oh, so the music gets better as it goes along. i can swing with that." yeah, that was wrong.

Anyways, the dance for Solidarity was one of the highlights of the show. Billy in the ballet class full of girls looks out of place. and then he starts to improve. As the song goes on, the police and coal miners start dancing as well, i ntheir own world. But they are dancing ballet...and they look extraordinarily out of place. And when the kids - including Billy - join them in the ballet, they look even more awkward. And Billy, who a moment before seemed out of place, looks quite natural, like he was supposed to be there all along.

it was a nice bit of staging and juxtaposition.

One last positive thing i would like to highlight. And this is something i don't think i've ever said about a show before but...the lighting. omg the lighting was genius. Making use of the ample bare wall at the back of the stage, two low spotlights shone up onto Billy, casting 2 huuuge shadows behind him as he danced. And moments when billy was trapped in boxes of light in the Angry Dance or elsewhere. Or backlighting so Billy is only a sillohette. Or no lighting at all, just lights on mining helmets as they slowly sink undergroud for the final time. Well deserving of the Tony.

And the Negative...

Ok, now that i've got my positives out of the way...Look, the show didn't deserve a Tony for best Musical. Plain and simple. 1/3 of the show was brilliant, but thats not enough. Thats enough to be on Broadway, but not enough to be called this year's best new show. 1/3 was brilliant, 1/6 was just good, and 1/2 was just boring. the show dragged! a lot! especially in the second act.

I've never seen the movie, but i didn't have to. Was there any doubt, ever, in my mind, if Billy's father would come around? That they would take the scab money to get to London? That Billy would be accepted? that his father would end up being proud, and that Billy would leave in the end? NO!! None whatsoever! And while Billy's dad sure as hell acted his ass off to make it interesting, thats just not enough. The plot moves all of 2 feet in the second act, and it takes forever to do so.

oh ho, but thats not the most mystifyingly bad part of the show.

Look the play was basically realism (as realism as you can get with, ya know, a music with people breaking out into song). But it was when the show left these broad, realist strokes and indulged in gay-fantastical flights of fancy that the show really just got weird.

You're going, Ok, realism yes, i'm with you, i'm with you...oh, how cute. the little friend is a cross dresser and is getting billy to do it too. the song is kinda cute, in a "you gotta have a gimmik" kind of way....wait....why are there vaudeville lights on the stage now? waIT!! WhY iS there a shimmer curtain now!? WHY ARE PEOPLE DRESSED AS DRESSES DANCING ONSTAGE!??!

ugh...and why is the audience clapping for that? though i will say, for an understudy, the kid who played Michael sure knew how to milk that applause...

And then in the second act, with Billy dancing with his older self? that was a 6 minute useless segment that could have been cut, and then i would have has a little less time to think about the dinner i just had and how i should go back there.

Finally, i'll just say that it was an overall...weak cast. Maybe i just didn't see the right Billy. But the Father and Grandmother weren't enough to bring the show along, and i just felt the power of the cast is definitely lacking.

Oh, and the ending was obviously supposed to make you feel something as Billy walks down the aisle and away from his old life for good. But i swear, by that point i was screaming Monty Python at them: "Just get on with it!"

SO! to Sum up...

Dancing = good, but makes for a slow plot in which there is no suspense. 1/3 brilliant, but the rest was just too lackluster to make up for it. And a seemingly weak cast didn't help that much. The Angry Dance is a little devastating on context, but looking back i can't help but want to see it a little more wild, or maybe in the hands of a more experienced, older dancer. "Solidarity" and "Finger" "Dancing" are the highlights of an otherwise forgettable score, including a few songs that should have been cut. And don't delve in to kid's imagination in the middle of a show you are protraying as gritty realism...it just doesn't flow.

And he's 13 years old...wow can that kid dance.

But in the end, N2N deserved the tony. Bubble? you've been burst.

a pair of pieces

The One in Kentucky asked for these, and i realised that i never posted these online. So i figure i'd post 'em, and ya'll can make fun of me for it =P

they're meant as bookends, fyi

"To Fall"

The sky, like lips, opens wide
to take our breath
and rain down its promise:
a kind of weeping kindness
in which the heat is rent.

A little hope is found; rebounds,
resounding in the dark and empty hall,
filled with trunks and unhung lights.
We stand - tiny taped off boxes mark the spaces.
We stand - tiny, empty, taped up boxes.

A flash of light, like rain laid out
in words upon a novel.
We fall: to feel the breeze.

No more. We shall unlock the door.
We shall not be afraid



"The Breeze Ends"

The sky, as lips, closes again
reclaiming its bounty and promise.
No more the storm, again the dry.
There is peace in rain, a great release
that sweeps away the pieces of sand
that play in little boxes.

So long it took, so long.
The rain still in the air, and the ground
had yet to dry.

But now the rooftops shimmer
as forgotten, secret places -
more the one than the others.
The heat returns - no longer
rent by rain.

We fall: to feel the breeze.
It is a lesson, taught and learned.
No more afraid, but again the way is locked.
And yet, i beg the storm to come again.

About Commercials...

So, the funny thing about being in the entertainment industry (because i have to throw the net wide open to include all my friends, who would not necessarily be in theatre)... is when i watch commercials.

I'll just put it this way. Serious ad, serious music, something about medical bills leading to bankruptcy. And i was kinda into it (i pay attention to commercials now. ya know, to learn). it was all different faces, flashing one after another, narrating different parts of the story.

suddenly...

wtf? i think i know her.... -TiVo back up sound- yep! awesome! Hi Juliet!

sorta ruins the point of the commercial......

Gustav

to everyone in the New Orleanes area and all around....our thoughts are with you. there is nothign else to be said, and anyone who makes this political deserves to be run over by a bus.

Phelps Rules

i don't even have a quote. good freaking race....

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

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

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

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

heh..hehe...haHAHAHAHA

omg, i'm about dying of laughter a bit. this is just a little too much.

So, as of this morning, the RNC launched a vaguely clever anti-Barack site called BarackBook.com, which is meant to function as a Facebook app. Go ahead and click. Its a little funny, if a bit banal and asinine.

Here's the thing though. The story was up almost immediately on major news websites (i saw the story on Politico), and the youth of the internet descended upon the Facebook app's main page. Starting such topics as "Leaders Lead, this just sucks," "This site is lame," etc

and i even started one of my own. "By adding this application...." and my first post was something like "you're more tech-savy and computer litterate than McCain." Got a fair amount of comments as i argued with people. And i posted a few other places as well.

ok, but here's where it gets good. Remember, that site was launched this morning! As of this evening...well, not so much. They basically took it down!! HAHAHAHA....They disabled all sorts of non-RNC controlled posting. No threads, no wall posts, nada. Just an ability to review, and those ain't so pretty.

when i realised, i started laughing so hard, i was crying. The One that lives with me and his Girlfriend had no clue what was going on.

funny, funny stuff =)

~M

About that whole "liberal-bias" in the MSM...

Per Politico, regarding a story from the LA Times.

'graph:

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

...

when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.

More coverage most certainly doesn't mean better coverage. Food for thought.

p to the s, anyone know how to do the LJ break thing in Blogspot? i've been looking all morning...I have several really, really long, fun things to post, and would like to put them under a post link...

Anyways...

~M

This is what i get for going away for a while....

I don't end up checking my blog. Anyways, someone asked for the relevant studies and articles regarding the effect of oil drilling on the price of gas.

Turns out my 10 cents was actually a bit generous...

First off, here is the abstract from a study, commissioned by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), run thru the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress:

"The recent run-up in the price of crude oil has prompted new calls for the Federal government to increase its petroleum production by allowing exploration and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) along the northern coast of Alaska. While there is a strong incentive to provide much needed relief to American families who are currently struggling with high gasoline prices, analysis of ANWR’s projected contribution to crude oil markets suggests that relief will be neither substantial nor timely in its effect. Based on Energy Information Administration (EIA) projections of the effect of ANWR on crude oil prices, we estimate that opening up ANWR will reduce gasoline prices by just one cent, starting in 2018." (bolding mine)

And HERE is the link to the study itself. Now true, thats just ANWR. So what about the off-shore drilling itself?

That can be found HERE, a study regarding the impact of drilling on the so called "Lower 48 Federal Outer Continental Shelf" (fun name, huh?)
important 'graph:

"Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant. ... In 2030, the OCS access case projects a decrease of $0.13 in the average wellhead price of natural gas (2005 dollars per thousand cubic feet), a decrease of 250 billion cubic feet in imports of liquefied natural gas, and an increase of 360 billion cubic feet in natural gas consumption relative to the reference case projections. In addition, despite the increase in production from previously restricted areas after 2012, total natural gas production from the lower 48 OCS is projected generally to decline after 2020." (again, bolding mine)

What people miss when talking about drilling is that its not like we get to keep all the oil we drill. it goes into the international market, where it becomes the proverbial drop in the ocean. We're talking 20 years, and around 10 cents difference in the price of gas.

We're in a hole. And when you're in a hole with a shovel, the first thing you do is stop digging. (coincidence, actually, that the metaphor fits so well...)

So whoever you were who commented to my last post...there ya go.

~M

And Now there are 10 things....

I liked this article in Time...it was sort of a Freakenomics, unintended consequences look at the rising price of gas.

From my economic background, the one i found the most interesting was the story told in #2. The article doesn't quite say it in these terms, so let me explain a bit.

Over the past 50-100 years, growth in technology has changed economic models in many ways, put in one particularly important one: the cost of transporting a good became nil, negligible. There used to be expediency costs, or costs of storage on a boat so it could be shipped down river, paying the handler...all those things still exist today, but the efficiency of technology ensures that the price of transportation is so low, we don't factor it into our business and economic models.

But with $4 soon to be $5 probably soon to be $6 gas, this assumption will no longer hold true. It sucks, but its sorta fascinating that we have to regress to an earlier economic model.

oh! and i've been wanting to say this for a while...for all those idiots who say we need to drill in ANWAR or off-shore right now so we can lower gas price, quite whining and SHUT UP! at best, in a generation (the year 2028) if we opened all areas to drilling, the price of gas would be lowered by a whopping...10 cents. Meanwhile, we'd spend billions building the drilling apparatuses, prolong our addiciton to oil, and not do anything for short term relief.

And if you don't believe me, just ask, and i'll find the relavent articles and studies for you.

~M

Wall-E is like, awesome!

You know, one of these days, Pixar is going to make a bad movie.

but not today.

GO SEE WALL-E!!!!

It was...you know, people throw about the phrase "a movie has heart," but dear lord, does this movie have it in spades. Its funny and heartfelt, and so full of life that i swear to god, i kept forgetting i was watching an animated movie. Given the rise of CGI these days, that may not be as surprising, but still...to have an animated movie make you forget its animated?

But the problem is that, no matter what people say, you can't understand until you see it. I put this movie on the level of Finding Nemo. Granted, Nemo was funnier...but you always new it was a movie, ya know? it had a story, but it wasn't a story. the points of emotional realism that Nemo had were great...but they are things that Wall-E takes and runs with.

Like, Nemo had the story in mind, went for the humor, and the emotional moments were sort of there, almost thrown away towards the end of the movie (read: Dorie and her epiphany about her memory). But Wall-E has those same moments of poignancy from the beginning and keeps them without. Every moment is full, and true...and at the same time, still full of humor.

Never underestimate Pixar's ability to make a movie. or to make it funny. because dear lord is this movie funny.

i can't even count the number of times people in the audience clapped...or yelled out "wall...E!" in the middle of the movie at a good moment.

Thats one of the marks of a good movie. go see it. please =PPP

Benefits as a byproduct

I know, i know, I live in NYC, so i don't feel the full brunt of $4 gas. But i'll tell you this (as will any other economist or social science major): people react to incentives, which will mean either a) more drilling (boo! not the answer! only feeds the addiction), or b) new fuel technologies.

Turns out there are some other unintended benefits as well.

5 reasons to like $4 gas