Thank you Stephen

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Dammit Bobby! (Draft)

http://cfn.scout.com/2/1174826.html

http://cfn.scout.com/2/1174873.html

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Layne Staley: Ten Years Gone

Meshuggah: Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion

I'm really glad they chose this song to do for a video.  Its a great song and one that both is and isn't Meshuggah all at the same time.  The start/stop choppiness of the main rhythm is new for them, but they make it as much their own as Helmet.  Also very nice display of their arhythmic style and the intensity of their songs comes across well with the vocals even though for them, this is a slower song than is the norm.  I really like the way the video is shot as well, its almost in negative, with everything surrounding the band members all blacked out except for their instruments.  Very cool.  They continue to raise the bar with everything I see or hear from them.  Only wish they would come somewhere close so I could see them live.


Sorry for the commercial at the beginning of the video.  Couldn't get around it.

Stephen Colbert Quote

From The Colbert Report, 4-3-12

"Tonight could be a make or break night for Rick Santorum...not that he would ever consider quitting, because we all know that God does not approve of pulling out"

Big Poppa Returns

Almost there...

Targets

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The Tragedy of Hannibal

Perhaps nobody else in history seems as tailor made for a Shakespearean tragedy than Hannibal, or more appropriately, a Greek tragedy--a soldier who has spent his entire life perfecting his skills until they are perfectly conditioned, who has taken a blood oath to defeat his father's nemesis, and meets that enemy in battle time and time again, always victorious.  And yet for all his skill, all his victories, no matter how many times he cuts off the head of his enemy, it simply rests a while and comes back again, stronger than before.  Meanwhile, even in victory, he gets a little weaker.  He is never able to defeat it.   Until finally it grows a head smart enough to defeat him.  Tragic and yet romantic at the same time, romantic in the way that all underdogs are for we all want to believe that it is possible to take on and defeat the machine, if our cause is just and our faith is strong.  And even if the war is lost before it even begins, as Hannibal's was, we always hope that even in defeat some change will come of it, some legacy that will let the world know that we fought and stood for something, and in some cases died for that which we believed was right.  And as the ultimate irony of this tragedy, so it was here.

"Arguably the events of this August day either initiated or accelerated trends destined to push Rome from municipality to empire, from republican oligarchy to autocracy, from militia to professional army, from a realm of free holders to a dominion of slaves and estates."

"Rome had lost a great battle and needed a scapegoat.  Rather than blame the strategists and commanders who had planned it, the powers that be turned on the survivors.  But these ghosts of Cannae would live to haunt the republic.  For one day, legionaries would look to their generals and not Rome for a future and that perspective would spell civil war and absolute rule.  This more than anything else was the battle's legacy."

"To rid itself of the succubus of Hannibal, Rome required a general as good as he, and a truly professional army.  Both were to be found among Hannibal's victims at Cannae, but in taking up the the general and the professional army, the republic drove the first few miles down the road to republican ruin."

"From beginning to end, Scipio's career betrayed a restlessness with the norms and constraints imposed by Roman politics and senatorial domination.  When confronted, he inevitably--if grudgingly--acceded, but in establishing this pattern, he set a precedent of personal ambition that led eventually to Caesar and the collapse of the republic.  So, it seems that in order to save the state from Hannibal, it was necessary to generate the very type of individual who would ultimately destroy it."

All quotes taken from The Ghosts of Cannae by Robert L. O'Connell; Easton Press; Norwalk, CT, 2010.

Let Them E'splain: The Teenage Brain

So it turns out that our brain, even though it reaches 90% of its full size by the time we are 6, undergoes a major reorganization from the time we are 12 until we reach about 25.  The purpose of which is to make it more efficient, better able to integrate our memories with cognitive thinking, and most importantly, producing a being better able to leave a safe environment and take their place in the world in which we live.

Happiness is like a butterfly

"Happiness is like a butterfly:  the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder."  Henry David Thoreau

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Movie Review: Drive

I've been trying to figure out why I enjoyed this movie so much.  Normally, I'm all about the story...does it keep me guessing, is it somewhat original, does it have something to say.  Drive does none of these things.  Lars...has a thing for cars...meets a woman with emotional scars...tries to help her husband just unbarred...ends up having to go to war...guy turns out to be The Scorpionaaar!  Its as simple as that.  What works so well for this movie is the way the story is told. 
Each scene or sequence is very well constructed and acted.  From the opening sequence that introduces us to the main character, to the scene when they go for a drive (only someone who looks like Ryan Gosling can take the words, "Wanna go for a drive?" straight from the mouth of Butthead and make it work), the scene where Albert Brooks makes a visit to the car shop(my favorite scene of the movie).  The dialogue is sparse, to say the least, particularly between Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, forcing the viewer to follow their story thru their actions or lack thereof.  Connecting it all together is a Michael Mann, Miami Vice, 80's vibe, which can be a little off putting, especially when the music kicks in, but it works and works brilliantly.

Rating:  5 stars

Movie Review: Anonymous

Anonymous is a movie based on the idea that Shakespeare was a tool and is not the author of the works credited to him.  The particular theory being espoused is what is known as the Oxfordian Theory of Shakespeare Authorship with the role of the Bard being assumed by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.  As laid out in the movie, it is an interesting enough theory to keep the viewer engrossed for the duration of its length, competently acted, with great visuals of Elizabethan London.  It is a task to follow however, with the narrative taking place within three different times.  Being neither a Shakespearean nor a British history scholar, I cannot attest to the accuracy of the events portrayed, but I have a hard time thinking Elizabeth being the naive and trusting and sometimes downright foolish monarch in which the movie portrays her.  Being a woman at that time, in that position, a position in which not only she thrived, but England as well, was not for the foolish.  The only one portrayed worse than Elizabeth is Shakespeare himself, who is shown as a conniving, womanizing drunkard who could not even write the letter "I" when told its a straight line.  So in this case, the less known about events the more enjoyable the movie becomes. 

Verdict:  2.5 stars

The Danger of Becoming Unbalanced

The search for balance

Wa is a Japanese word meaning harmony and peaceful...being in harmony with one's surroundings and at peace in one's mind, balanced internally and in tune with your surroundings. 

This is one of my favorite quotes and it comes from the book Immortality by the Czech-French author Milan Kundera:
"Path:  a strip of ground over which one walks.  A highway differs from a path not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another.  A highway has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points it connects.  A path is a tribute to space.  Every stretch of path has meaning in itself and invites us to stop.  A highway is a triumphant devaluation of space, which, thanks to it, has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.  Before paths disappeared from the landscape, they had disappeared from the human soul; man stopped wanting to walk, to walk on his own feet and enjoy it.  What's more, he no longer saw his own life as a path, but as a highway, a line that led from one point to another, from the rank of captain to the rank of general, from the role of wife to the role of widow.  Time became a mere obstacle to life, an obstacle to be overcome by ever greater speed."

So this is about striving to find the harmonious balance of positive and negative within and without.  Too much positive results in a lack of drive or desire to improve.  Too much negative results in Leaving Las Vegas.  And yet, that process does not lead to any destination on a map or box which can be checked, it is the journey itself, the path, that is the reward.

Plus some dumb shit and whatever else I decide.