Unleashing the geek

I unleased my inner geek this weekend and bought online advance tickets for the 12:10am first night showing of King Kong at the Arclight Theatre in beautiful Hollywood, CA. The early reviews of King Kong have been too positive and the allure of doing the midnight showing of a huge film (the last time I did this was for the first Lord of the Rings film) was too strong.

Besides the Arclight is a great theatre. Assigned seats KICK ASS (especially for a sold out show, no more waiting for three hours just to get a decent seat).

So, going to a 12:10am show for a three hour movie (Uggh).

That's why coffee exists.

(and for the sake of clarity, I'm not seeing the film on the Dome screen (it's the 12:01 show), bought tixs too late to get a good seat, but love the pictures of the place, glad they didn't tear it down when they added the multiplex to the lot)

UPDATE: I'm not the only one. (Well if the erudite, cosmopolitan, and ever so urbane Victoria (and my tongue isn't anywhere near my cheek, honest) might be going tonight, then my geekitude might be less than originally thought. Will post a review in a separate post)

Looks like she already has her Golden Globes

Click Here.

(thank me later)

(the ladies at Go Fug Yourself missed the obvious pun, so I did it for them)

Friday Funk Lyrics

All the cool people do it, A weekly feature. I miss Juan Non-Volokh's Sunday Song Lyrics at The Volokh Conspiracy, so since I'm doing this blog thing, why not start one of my own.

For the first installment, Funkadelic's Free Your Mind (And Your Ass Will Follow).

{G Clinton, Eddie Hazel, Ray Davis}

Free your mind and your ass will follow
The kingdom of heaven is within
(x3)
Open up your funky mind and you can fly
Free your mind and your ass will follow
The kingdom of heaven is within

Freedom is free of the need to be free

Free your mind and your ass will follow
The kingdom of heaven is within(x4)

Free your mind and your ass will follow (your ass will follow)
The kingdom of heaven is within
Free your mind (will you free your mind?)
And your ass will follow (and your ass will follow)
I have never, never never never in my life
Have this given to me

Free your mind and your ass will follow

Not like you
You are as free as you want to be (your ass will follow)

Well, I discovered that this life that was gettin' to me
Is not really mine (Free your mind and your ass will follow)
If it were mine, I would have fun all of the time
I'm very disgruntled now
Now, I want a way out, now
I have to find a way
I have to find some way out
Free your mind and your ass will follow (x2)

Give it up, give it up (free your mind and your ass will follow)
Give it up and give it to me, baby

I'm calling you love
Love
?from my heart

Free your mind and your ass will follow

Wowww!

Free your mind and your ass will follow (x2)
The kingdom of heaven is within
Free your mind and your ass will follow (x3)

Get it on!
Free your mind and your ass will follow
The kingdom of heaven is within
Free your mind and your ass will follow
The kingdom of heaven is within (x5)

The kingdom of heaven is within (free your mind!)
The kingdom of heaven is within (free your mind yawl)
The kingdom of heaven is within (x6)

The kingdom of heaven is within (are you satisfied?)(x4)
The kingdom of heaven is within
(I wanna know! Free your mind and your ass will follow)
The kingdom of heaven is within (I Really care)
The kingdom of heaven is within (x2)

The kingdom of heaven is within
I'm so confused about it all (x2)
I'm so confused about the whole thing
I don't understand
I don't understand nothin'
I don't know what I feel
I can't feel me, I can't live me, I can't be me
My mind, it does not belong to me
I'm so confused (x2)
I can't hear myself
I can't hear myself calling for help
I can't free my mind
So my ass can't follow
Someone help me
I got to get help
Here's my arm
Help me escape
I don't want to (x3)
I can't free my mind
No, no, no, They won't free me
I can't run
I can't get out
I can't free my mind (x3)
I'm so mixed up
So mixed up
What time is it? (x3)

Resurrection, free of charge
I can't hear me (x2)
Free your mind and your ass will follow
I can't
Free your mind and your ass will follow
The kingdom of heaven is within (x4)
Free your mind and your ass will follow

And to be serious for a moment, this is a very Buddhist philosophy (at least in my imperfect understanding of same). One of the goals on the path towards enlightenment is to reach a point of single-mindedness. Training your mind to the point where as the song says the reality that "The Kingdom of Heaven is Within" effuses your soul and washes away thoughts of the world, thoughts of the body, and even thoughts of the mind (the hardest concept of all to wrap around, thought without mind is a paradox, but central to enlightenment), only after succeeding in this training will "Your Ass Follow".

Of course this song is mostly just drug fueled faux deep meandering, and the song itself is a fuzzy psychedelic mess. But that's why I love early Funkadelic so, and why George Clinton is a Boddhisatva (he'll accept his enlightenment and move on once he's freed enough asses and minds, till then enjoy his albums, and buy his latest Masterpiece/Total Mess)

Blame Canada (and BitTorrent)

Doctor Who: The Complete First Series will be released in the USA (in Feb '06). Yaaaayyy!

That BBC is releasing this even though it's never aired here fascinates me.

Two reasons I can gather. First, Region 1 includes USA and Canada, and the new Doctor Who aired there, so if they wanted to sell it there they might as well market it down here as well. Second many American Who fans probably tasted the forbidden fruits of the torrents that proliferated after each week's show (The Christmas special should be available by Dec 26th, not that anyone would download it).

It's a great show, if a bit British (filmed in beautiful Cardiff, Wales), why no US outlet picked it up is beyond me. (I'm talking to you NBC/Universal owners of the SciFi channel, it would have been a perfect fit).

Series Two begins in March, with many old friends and foes appearing (K9!) and a new Doctor. Plus in the summer the Spin-off Torchwood (featuring Captain Jack) kicks off.

Since it would have been illegal and a copyright infringement for me to have downloaded and watched all the episodes from Series One, let's just say that judging from the recaps online that the new Doctor Who are great fun, Rose (played by pop singer Billie Piper) is sexy and plucky, Chris Eccleston made a great Doctor, and if you like this sort of thing, buy the DVD so as to clue in the management at the various media conglomerates that SciFi can be fun, literate, kid friendly, yet with a hint of menace. (and that Americans aren't afraid of real British accents)

OK, it has lasers. . . .

OK, it has lasers, but where are the freakin' sharks?

(maybe they can come out with a Dr. Evil edition, with freakin' sharks, that would be epic)

Just when you think it could not get worse. . . .

This world is filled with misery. Famine, pestilence, wars, Fear Factor, but this news only suggests that more misery is on the way from the dream factory.

(Why make new dreams? The old ones have ready made marketing hooks)

Our Postcanine Future?

In light of this article, will Francis Fukuyama need to write a sequel to his book, Our Posthuman Future?

My votes for the first three postcanine alterations.

1. Add just enough brain power so that they have a concept of time.
2. Alter their digestion enough so that they can survive eating anything we can eat.
3. Give them a rudimentary voice box, (making sure that when they learn to speak they sound just like Astro, I prefer him over the Scooby paradigm of cute canine speech)

Geneticists will go to town on the doggie genome, and given the degree of selective breeding dogs have undergone in such a short timespan, the job of understanding what each section of DNA controls will be much easier to study, and then to experiment upon, and finally to manipulate.

More Narnia

The Washington Post covers the controversy regarding C.S. Lewis and his intentions on how The Narnia Chronicles should be read.

The effects this will have on the film should be interesting. James Lileks (towards the bottom, after the usual descriptions of contented domesticity) pointed out that Entertainment Weekly chose to go with Brokeback Mountain rather than Narnia as it's cover this week. Narnia has far wider appeal, but Brokeback Mountain has all the heat.

The usual Disney push for a huge Christmastime kid friendly film does seem muted, but maybe not.

If this movie becomes another battleground in the continuing Red v. Blue culture war the outcome could be as likely positive as negative for this film series. Disney's hiring of a media firm to push the film at evangelical churches seems crass and likely the result of 'Passion' envy. And if the films are perceived as being 'too Christian' then the reviews are more likely to be negative and the press coverage muted.

The inclusion in the Washington Post article of speculation about C.S. Lewis' sexual history have no seeming relevance to the overall point of determining how important Christianity is when viewing the movies based on his fantasy series. Do I detect ulterior motives? (Hey, Christians he was a freak, don't go see this movie!)

What's Next?

What's next, after Coke Blak, Coke Coke?, or maybe call it Coke Whyte (for that extra jolt, now with real Cocaine!, and you can't spell things correctly and be 'cool')

December 7th, Just another date on the calendar?

It's been 64 years since that bright and shiny Hawaiian morning that changed the course of American foreign policy irrevocably.

On their websites I couldn't find a mention of the date in the NYT, WaPo, LAT, USA Today, and I bet if I kept looking, I'd continue to find no words, no memories, no perspective, just silence.

President Roosevelt's speech before Congress the following day began with these words:

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

I guess infamy doesn't last as long as it used to, who knew infamy had a shelf life. (Click the link, read the text, and listen to the mp3).

I still like this film best of the Pearl related pictures (don't even utter Michael Bay's name in conjunction with the events of that day).

Will September 11th, 2065 be just another day on the calendar as well?

What the world needs....

What the world needs, a wife of a leader of the Conservative Party in the U.K. who has 'street cred'.

She also boasts some interesting street cred. Press attention has focused on her friendship with hip hop star "Tricky" during her Bristol University days - and the fact her ankle is adorned with a dolphin tattoo.

Later in the same article they also imply that she's related to Charles II. I don't know if this article is meant to credit her or discredit her, maybe it's just meant to be amusingly informational.

Dave Chappelle hates black people.

From a recent WaPo article on Comedy Central's decision to unleash the four episodes of material not yet aired:

Chappelle told Time he took that first break because he felt the show had moved from sending up racial stereotypes to reinforcing them.

When he returned, however, that had not changed, according to his writing partner at the time, Neal Brennan. Brennan told Time that Chappelle would like an idea; it would be shot, but Chappelle would then say, "This sketch is racist, and I don't want this on the air."

"He was calling his own writing racist," Brennan said.

I can't help but thinking of his blind black man who joins the KKK sketch when reading that quote.

But, it's such a great show, all I have to say to Dave Chappelle is, Get back to work, Biiiiyyyaaatttccchhhh!

Defeatism doesn't sell, Whodathunkit?

Heh........

(how does Glenn Reynolds do it, I could never just leave a simple "heh" up without comment and expect people to follow the link, and why the hell do I follow those links when he does that annoying thing that he does)

(heh......, searched, "heh" on his site here's the list of results)

(and why comment on the WaPo article? It's so self evident that you'd think the Democrats would have figured it out before they opened their yaps, but the polls......., the polls........, the polls.............(sigh))

The first novel I ever read

The movie of the first book I ever read happens to come out this week.
It was assigned reading for the accelerated readers (they had tracking at my school then) in my third grade class. We were assigned two of the books from the chronicles that year, two others I read on my own, as of yet I still haven't finished reading the rest.

I can't imagine these books being assigned in a public school in Santa Monica any more. I'm surprised they were assigned then frankly, but as third graders we focused on language mastery and following the story rather than the thinly veiled Christian message C.S. Lewis embedded in his fairy stories.

I'm actually kind of looking forward to the films, they look like they will be well done and the source material has promise for the basis of epic filmmaking.

That and the many tonned gorilla (looked all over the 'net, couldn't find a data sheet on how much bigger than an 800lb gorilla the big guy is supposed to be) got me feeling a touch geeky for films for the first time in a long while (I saw Revenge of the Sith out of duty, not geekdom, Kill Bill, Vol 1&2 probably the last geeky movie moments I've had).

A sad day for Vikings everywhere

"In the end, Santa Monica High students submitted nearly 1 million votes out of the 5 million cast."

Back in my day this wouldn't have happened (by gum).