Click on the image to view the comic full-size at Salon.com.
Some Projects by Hester Goodman
Hester Goodman as Mary Poppins
Last month, Hester Goodman of The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain posted videoclips on her YouTube channel promoting a couple of non-ukulele based projects she has worked on in the last few years. Here’s one for “The Film Noir Show“; here’s one for “The Mary Poppins Experience.” Each project mixes cabaret with elements of street theater, including guerrilla communication‘s refusal to notify the audience that what it is witnessing is a performance. Notice the parts of “The Mary Poppins Experience,” about 2:09 and 2:55 into the video, where she’s on the steps of Saint Paul’s Cathedral and the crowd is looking around uneasily, as if they hope a police officer will come soon. “The Mary Poppins Experience” is extremely funny; “The Film Noir Show” may be as well, though it’s harder to judge by the video promotion. It certainly is striking, at any rate.
Posted by acilius on October 13, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/10/13/some-projects-by-hester-goodman/
How to remember the future
Stuart Klawans reviews Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass, in which the 87 year old master filmmaker returns once more to his great theme of memory and desire. Resnais excels at depicting characters who cannot quite tell the difference between the past and the future. In this film, two middle-aged Parisians think about flirting with each other. Confused as to which of their feelings are hopes for the future and which are regrets for the past, they struggle to see each other as they are and their relationship as it might be. Successful lovemaking, apparently, requires us to find a way to distinguish between the future and the past.
Many have said that the purpose of philosophy is to teach us how to die. This line always reminds me of what John Silber said in 1990 when he was running for governor of Massachusetts and a voter asked him what the public schools should teach children: “Teach them that they are going to die.” Silber was not elected, needless to say. A review essay considers the idea of philosophy as a preparation for a good death. There are some interesting quotes and paraphrases along the way. For example, Freud contended that such teaching is pointless, because we cannot imagine our own death. Thinking of Resnais’ films, we might add to Freud’s argument an appendix that although it may be certain that our future will end with death, there is nothing like it in our past. We cannot envision death, because we cannot remember it. Nor can we accept it as long as our hopes for the future pervade our minds. To accept death, we would have to break from both the past and the future, and feel only the present instant as real. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross saw this, and at times preached a Buddhist-inspired doctrine urging us to emulate death in life by emptying ourselves of ego, and to see only the present, unaffected by memories or regrets, hopes or fears. But she could not follow this through; as she neared death herself, Kubler-Ross clung to Hollywood-inspired fantasies of indefinitely long life. Dying, like lovemaking, requires us to distinguish between the future and the past.
Posted by acilius on October 12, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/10/12/the-nation-26-october-2009/
US bombs Moon; US president wins Nobel Peace Prize
People interested in space-based warfare often talk about the “kinetic missile.” If developed, this would be a type of bunker-buster, that is, a weapon designed to destroy underground facilities. The concept is simple. Put a metal rod, mounted with rockets and controlled from the ground, into earth orbit. When you choose, you can aim the rocket at a target on the ground and drive into that target at orbital velocity. This has the same effect as a meteor strike. The destructive potential of the kinetic missile is so great that the common nickname for them is “the Rod from God.”
Today NASA drove a rocket into a target on the Moon. The stated purpose of this operation was to find water under the surface of the Moon. It also showed the world that the USA is ready to deploy kinetic missiles at any time.
Who would be frightened by this demonstration? Some feverish minds have speculated that the US may be planning a kinetic missile strike on Iranian nuclear facilities in the near term. Official US sources have fed this speculation by acknowledging that the Defense Department is trying to develop a new generation of bunker-busters specifically to have available against facilities like that at Qom.
Whether the Iranians are frightened, we don’t yet know. The Norwegian Nobel Committee certainly seems to be; they responded to the test by immediately awarding Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. The Committee’s official announcement gives the reason for Mr O’s selection as “that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman.” I suppose that sounded better than, “We didn’t want to be the next ones he bombed.”
Posted by acilius on October 9, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/10/09/us-bombs-moon-us-president-wins-nobel-peace-prize/
Let your mind be blown !!
Enjoy these “mind-blowing” images: frozen water, configured into a baton of incalculable power ..
Posted by lefalcon on October 8, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/10/08/let-your-mind-be-blown/
Neoliberalism as water balloon
Here’s a video that is intended to make a political point.
Posted by acilius on October 8, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/10/08/neoliberalism-as-water-balloon/
David R. Eustace
Click on the pic for more paintings by David R. Eustace. He is not the same person as the famous photographer David Eustace.
Ukulele Two Step, by David Eustace
Posted by acilius on October 8, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/10/08/david-r-eustace/
But why is she winking at me?
Via haha.nu:
Posted by acilius on October 7, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/10/07/but-why-is-she-winking-at-me/
A useful flash app
Do you wonder whether your computer’s mouse is worn out? Do you wonder whether the color is set correctly on your computer’s monitor? Do you wonder whether you might be partially colorblind? Do you wonder whether you have a tendency to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? Here is a flash app that can answer all four of those questions in one minute.
Posted by acilius on October 7, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/10/07/a-useful-flash-app/
The Proust Questionnaire
Thanks to our friend Al Wood for mentioning “The Proust Questionnaire” on Ukulele Hunt. The questionnaire looks like a good conversation-starter. Or perhaps a good conversation-preventer. Either way, it might come in handy.
Posted by acilius on October 7, 2009
https://losthunderlads.com/2009/10/07/the-proust-questionnaire/
Who writes this?
acilius
believer1
lefalcon
losthunderlads
vthunderlad
Panther Red 