video – Page 27 – Wis[s]e Words

All her Children Fought

Published on February 12, 2015Leave a comment

Proof you can tell a science fiction story with only three actors and one, not entirely convincing special effect. Based on the story by Tobias Buckell, who has the story of how it came to be up on his blog. It’s an excellent example of how much you can convey with just a bit of subtle incluing, by working within genre expectations. I can’t be the only one to watch this and be reminded of Ender’s Game, can I?

Some comments: I wonder if the choice of accents for the three actors was deliberate or just a coincidence, but it works in contrasting the boy and his minder with the main character. I’m not sure the premisse of the movie is valid, the reason why it’s young boys/children being sent up there rather than adults, but it makes emotional sense.

Kill Me (Ce Soir) — Golden Earring

Published on February 6, 2015Leave a comment

As a kid growing up in the eighties Golden Earring was just one of those old pop bands that had been around forever, who had a couple of hits everybody knew and of course there was that deeply scary video they did in 1984. It’s only later I knew how influential they could’ve been had they been British or American rather than Dutch. Even so, no one other than Iron Maiden covered this song; it turns out Steve Harris is a fan.

Terry Riley’s In C Mali

Published on January 29, 2015Leave a comment

This is rather good. Via.

Charlie Hebdo, Before the Massacre

Published on January 13, 2015Leave a comment

A short video of an editorial meeting at Charlie Hebdo, back in 2006, when they were first debating to run Mohammed cartoons. It shows where Charlie Hebdo was coming from quite clearly. These were not, are not, Islamophobes even if their cartoons were sometimes trading in that territory.

WALL-E: thriumph of the nice guy

Published on December 31, 2014Leave a comment

So seeing WALL·E over Christmas again got me thinking. That love story between WALL·E and EVE, that’s pretty much the nice guy fallacy in a nutshell, isn’t it? WALL·E falls in love with EVE and pesters her while she’s doing her job, not taking no for an answer. He keeps hanging around and bringing her gifts she doesn’t need, isn’t honest about his feelings for her but seems to think that if only he brings the perfect gift she’ll like him. That by accident he does bring her just the thing she needs doesn’t alter anything. After this he stalks her to her home, interferes with her work again, makes her an accomplish in his jail break from the mental hospital for robots, keeps her in trouble with lawful authority and finally guilts her in loving him when she sees how he took care of her when she was incapitated. All that’s missing is the negging.

Yes, this may be tongue in cheek