From an article in Swarthmore College's campus paper:
Natural law’s antagonist is secular humanism, whose founder and namesake David Hume famously wrote: “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”
Considering how big a hero David Hume is in liberal American philosophy departments, you'd think they'd be giving students more accurate information about him. You'd also think they'd do a better job teaching secular humanism, since it is the philosophical strain nearest and dearest to their hearts.
Humanism is a lot of things, but its name is not derived from "Hume".
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
American Comics Need a "Stimulus Package"
After 8 years of mocking Bush, why are they suddenly all tongue-tied about the new guy?
Some guy from the New York Times postulates that, well, since most of the late night talk show hosts are white, it's kinda awkward to make fun of a black guy. It's kinda stupid, since there are more things to make fun off about The One other than what pigment his skin happens to be. But, the second major reason for the lack of Obama jokes is just absolutely pathetic.
What? Little humor? That can't possibly be right. Obama may not have Bush's "creativity" with the English language, but he's a gaffe machine in his own right.
Have they forgotten Obama and the receding oceans? Obama seeing dead people? Obama and the 57 states of the US?
Oh, wait....
Jimmy Kimmel, the host of the ABC late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” said of Mr. Obama, “There’s a weird reverse racism going on. You can’t joke about him because he’s half-white. It’s silly. I think it’s more a problem because he’s so polished, he doesn’t seem to have any flaws.”
There it is. These creatively impoverished, overpaid celebrities think The One is the absolute pinnacle of perfection.
Witness "The View" co-host and professional harpy Joy Behar on CNN recently:
BEHAR: Yes. And all I can say is thank you for Joe Biden, because he is going to always give us some laughs. He'll say something crazy and out there, and it will be fun. And Sarah Palin, you know, we can always rely on her to come back and give us some material. But it is really not easy to make fun of the Obamas, because they're really -- they're kind of really perfect, aren't they?
When celebrities do celebrity-worship, it's just plain ugly. Perfect? Obama is an intellectual lightweight; every bit the lightweight the media portrayed Bush to be. Why is he getting preferential treatment? Are these celebrity morons afraid of making their Dear Leader cry?
Perfect?
This sort of personality worship bodes ill for everybody in Obama's path. The scary part is that these people are freely submitting themselves to this dimestore messiah. Totalitarian countries often have to work very hard to obtain this kind of slavish groveling.
Perfect? Really?
I guess 8 years of visceral, irrational hatred can leave an entire class of people deprived of creative currency.
Looks like a creativity crash. Time for another bailout.
Some guy from the New York Times postulates that, well, since most of the late night talk show hosts are white, it's kinda awkward to make fun of a black guy. It's kinda stupid, since there are more things to make fun off about The One other than what pigment his skin happens to be. But, the second major reason for the lack of Obama jokes is just absolutely pathetic.
But there has been little humor about Mr. Obama: about his age, his speaking ability, his intelligence, his family, his physique. And within a late-night landscape dominated by white hosts, white writers, and overwhelmingly white audiences, there has been almost none about his race.
“We’re doing jokes about people in his orbit, not really about him,” said Mike Sweeney, the head writer for Mr. O’Brien on “Late Night.” The jokes will come, representatives of the late-night shows said, when Mr. Obama does or says something that defines him — in comedy terms.What? Little humor? That can't possibly be right. Obama may not have Bush's "creativity" with the English language, but he's a gaffe machine in his own right.
Have they forgotten Obama and the receding oceans? Obama seeing dead people? Obama and the 57 states of the US?
Oh, wait....
Jimmy Kimmel, the host of the ABC late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” said of Mr. Obama, “There’s a weird reverse racism going on. You can’t joke about him because he’s half-white. It’s silly. I think it’s more a problem because he’s so polished, he doesn’t seem to have any flaws.”
There it is. These creatively impoverished, overpaid celebrities think The One is the absolute pinnacle of perfection.
Witness "The View" co-host and professional harpy Joy Behar on CNN recently:
BEHAR: Yes. And all I can say is thank you for Joe Biden, because he is going to always give us some laughs. He'll say something crazy and out there, and it will be fun. And Sarah Palin, you know, we can always rely on her to come back and give us some material. But it is really not easy to make fun of the Obamas, because they're really -- they're kind of really perfect, aren't they?
When celebrities do celebrity-worship, it's just plain ugly. Perfect? Obama is an intellectual lightweight; every bit the lightweight the media portrayed Bush to be. Why is he getting preferential treatment? Are these celebrity morons afraid of making their Dear Leader cry?
Perfect?
This sort of personality worship bodes ill for everybody in Obama's path. The scary part is that these people are freely submitting themselves to this dimestore messiah. Totalitarian countries often have to work very hard to obtain this kind of slavish groveling.
Perfect? Really?
I guess 8 years of visceral, irrational hatred can leave an entire class of people deprived of creative currency.
Looks like a creativity crash. Time for another bailout.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Anatomy of a Successful "Christian" Movie
Ahh, Christian movies....
Like Christian Rock, Christian Pop, Christian Rap (!) and Christian Reggae (!!), Christian movies are often (rightly) perceived to be the trying-hard uncool cousins of their secular counterparts. Here in good old Manila, Christian pop alternatives are so out of the loop that we don't have a local Christian pop alternative industry. After all, our inbred literati that compose the top of our film and music industry food chains often lack the religious imagination, not to mention the balls, to go through this route, and their equally inbred "indie" contenders are still at that adolescent phase wherein they still get their jollies off of looking down on religious rubes. Looking at the American version of Christian pop alternatives, I don't blame them. So many in the US do it so badly, very few can look at that horrific landscape of heavy-handed kitsch and say "I can make this work".
But someone did. His name was Mel Gibson.
The Passion of the Christ changed the Christian movie landscape. That movie, unlike any other Christian movie before it, made a fortune at the box office and saw success even beyond the targeted groups. In an increasingly post-Christian West (the earlier gospel flicks that gained some success played to a radically different audience and culture), the "Passion" phenomenon was nothing short of a miracle.
Since then, several mainstream American studios have tried, and failed, to replicate what Mel Gibson did. The most visible failure was the much-hyped "Nativity Story", about the birth of Christ. Because of this manifest failure in recreating the "Passion" phenomenon, many of the new religious movie divisions are floundering.
Then, from out of nowhere, a Southern Baptist congregation in Georgia puts up Sherwood Pictures, and produces two successful Christian flicks in succession, "Flywheel" and "Facing the Giants". "Facing the Giants" in particular was a moving success. With a budget of $100K, just enough to pay for small professional crew (all the actors and the director were church volunteers), the movie pulled in a remarkable $10 million in its theatrical run, with an additonal $20 million more in DVD sales. That may be chump change to a mainstream studio, but that number represented a return of 10,000%. Most studio execs would strangle their own mothers for that rate of return.
Sherwood Pictures is far from done. This year, they released another Christian flick in "Fireproof", a movie about a fireman trying to save his rocky marriage through faith. The movie looks every bit its small $500K budget (once more, just to pay for the crew, as all the actors and the director were volunteers, including Kirk Cameron), but it still made $30 million in the box office for a return of 6,000%. So, your average Hollywood suit once again lifts his head off of the line of cocaine he's been snorting long enough to ask..."Wha...? How...?" Execs who would rather treat the Christian market like a cranky girlfriend who refuses token flower offerings suddenly discover that this particular girlfriend can be very generous when properly treated. But how?
In this case, there are two halves that make or break a Christian movie. The first consists of production value and professional quality. That vast wasteland of Christian cinema that sprawled before onlookers prior to Mel Gibson's daring leap of faith suffered from a distinct lack of this half. Most were clunkers produced by good-hearted people who simply did not have the money and talent to make films. The few good ones suffered from being in a barrel full of bad apples.
But after Mel Gibson, Christian flicks with more professional polish and significantly higher production values came out. But none could replicate the Passion's rousing success. The "Nativity Story" looked polished and professional, but it bombed royally and nobody knew why. At least, until outfits like Sherwood came along.
This brings us to the second half of the successful Christian movie. Unlike the first, this second half consists of something intangible. In a word, it is sincerity. But one can dig up a whole host of words to clarify it. "Heart", "Faith", "Theological Seriousness", and so on, would probably describe aspects of this second half.
This is where the slick new Hollywood Christian flicks fail miserably. Modern Hollywood can never do sincere, especially where matters of faith are concerned. The best Hollywood can do is use its vast array of IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications *ahem*) trickery to get people to watch their well-polished but half-hearted products. The problem is, no amount of focus-grouped market research can remove the stench of phony. And the Christian market, like that hard-to-woo girlfriend who refuses the token flowers, can smell a phony a mile away. They smelled it in "Nativity Story" just as they smelled it in "The Last Temptation of Christ".
How did they smell half-heartedness? Contrast the dramatization of 'Fireproof" and "Nativity Story". "Nativity Story" is safe and hits all the right focus group points and avoids all the potentially politically-incorrect red flags. (Multi-ethnic cast? Check. Arab Muslim playing the angel Gabriel? Check. Likeable female lead? Check. No "triumphalism"? Check. And here comes the cash flow...wait...) "Fireproof" had just enough polish to make it acceptable to mainstream cinemas, but not by much. Its dramatization is brutally close to its Christian origins, and is at times schmaltzy and over-the-top. But this refreshing honesty and fearless adherence to its Christian message, political correctness be damned, resonated with the Christian market despite its abysmal showing among the critics. (Rotten Tomato has it at 39% among pro critics, 88% among casual viewers.) Contrast the leads of "Fireproof" and "Nativity Story". Kirk Cameron is an evangelical Christian who did "Fireproof" in exchange for a small contribution to a camp for sick kids he and his wife runs. All the company paid for other than the contribution were his airfare and lodging. Kiesha Castle-Hughes was pregnant out of wedlock during the publicity tour of "Nativity Story", and constantly opined against "judgmentalism". Little details like that matter to a Christian audience, because it is the difference between something done with sincerity and something done just to get access to their hard-earned money. The auteur has to believe, or the audience will not believe him. Or her, as is the case for "Nativity Story". One can say that the Passion had abortion activist and former softcore goddess Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene, but the heart and soul of the Passion were Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel, both of whom are ardent believers. Mel Gibson even took a lot of flack for his faith in the media, including dubious charges of anti-Semitism laid against the Passion by professional sensitivity-mongers. This probably only further solidiefied the Christian market's resolve to watch his work.
The ultimate Christian movie, as shown by the Passion, combines both professional polish and heartfelt sincerity. While Hollywood has all the polish in the world, it will never replicate the Passion unless it learns how to make films with true sincerity and respect for the Christian market. Good luck with that, Hollywood.
Personally, I can see the potential of the Christian movie in the Philippines. We may lack professional polish, but this is nothing that cannot be learned. The more immeasurable, intangible aspect of sincerity is here, and here in abundance. (Check out "Tanging Yaman", for example.) All it takes is for someone to do what Mel Gibson did, and say "I can make this work".
Like Christian Rock, Christian Pop, Christian Rap (!) and Christian Reggae (!!), Christian movies are often (rightly) perceived to be the trying-hard uncool cousins of their secular counterparts. Here in good old Manila, Christian pop alternatives are so out of the loop that we don't have a local Christian pop alternative industry. After all, our inbred literati that compose the top of our film and music industry food chains often lack the religious imagination, not to mention the balls, to go through this route, and their equally inbred "indie" contenders are still at that adolescent phase wherein they still get their jollies off of looking down on religious rubes. Looking at the American version of Christian pop alternatives, I don't blame them. So many in the US do it so badly, very few can look at that horrific landscape of heavy-handed kitsch and say "I can make this work".
But someone did. His name was Mel Gibson.
The Passion of the Christ changed the Christian movie landscape. That movie, unlike any other Christian movie before it, made a fortune at the box office and saw success even beyond the targeted groups. In an increasingly post-Christian West (the earlier gospel flicks that gained some success played to a radically different audience and culture), the "Passion" phenomenon was nothing short of a miracle.
Since then, several mainstream American studios have tried, and failed, to replicate what Mel Gibson did. The most visible failure was the much-hyped "Nativity Story", about the birth of Christ. Because of this manifest failure in recreating the "Passion" phenomenon, many of the new religious movie divisions are floundering.
Then, from out of nowhere, a Southern Baptist congregation in Georgia puts up Sherwood Pictures, and produces two successful Christian flicks in succession, "Flywheel" and "Facing the Giants". "Facing the Giants" in particular was a moving success. With a budget of $100K, just enough to pay for small professional crew (all the actors and the director were church volunteers), the movie pulled in a remarkable $10 million in its theatrical run, with an additonal $20 million more in DVD sales. That may be chump change to a mainstream studio, but that number represented a return of 10,000%. Most studio execs would strangle their own mothers for that rate of return.
Sherwood Pictures is far from done. This year, they released another Christian flick in "Fireproof", a movie about a fireman trying to save his rocky marriage through faith. The movie looks every bit its small $500K budget (once more, just to pay for the crew, as all the actors and the director were volunteers, including Kirk Cameron), but it still made $30 million in the box office for a return of 6,000%. So, your average Hollywood suit once again lifts his head off of the line of cocaine he's been snorting long enough to ask..."Wha...? How...?" Execs who would rather treat the Christian market like a cranky girlfriend who refuses token flower offerings suddenly discover that this particular girlfriend can be very generous when properly treated. But how?
In this case, there are two halves that make or break a Christian movie. The first consists of production value and professional quality. That vast wasteland of Christian cinema that sprawled before onlookers prior to Mel Gibson's daring leap of faith suffered from a distinct lack of this half. Most were clunkers produced by good-hearted people who simply did not have the money and talent to make films. The few good ones suffered from being in a barrel full of bad apples.
But after Mel Gibson, Christian flicks with more professional polish and significantly higher production values came out. But none could replicate the Passion's rousing success. The "Nativity Story" looked polished and professional, but it bombed royally and nobody knew why. At least, until outfits like Sherwood came along.
This brings us to the second half of the successful Christian movie. Unlike the first, this second half consists of something intangible. In a word, it is sincerity. But one can dig up a whole host of words to clarify it. "Heart", "Faith", "Theological Seriousness", and so on, would probably describe aspects of this second half.
This is where the slick new Hollywood Christian flicks fail miserably. Modern Hollywood can never do sincere, especially where matters of faith are concerned. The best Hollywood can do is use its vast array of IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications *ahem*) trickery to get people to watch their well-polished but half-hearted products. The problem is, no amount of focus-grouped market research can remove the stench of phony. And the Christian market, like that hard-to-woo girlfriend who refuses the token flowers, can smell a phony a mile away. They smelled it in "Nativity Story" just as they smelled it in "The Last Temptation of Christ".
How did they smell half-heartedness? Contrast the dramatization of 'Fireproof" and "Nativity Story". "Nativity Story" is safe and hits all the right focus group points and avoids all the potentially politically-incorrect red flags. (Multi-ethnic cast? Check. Arab Muslim playing the angel Gabriel? Check. Likeable female lead? Check. No "triumphalism"? Check. And here comes the cash flow...wait...) "Fireproof" had just enough polish to make it acceptable to mainstream cinemas, but not by much. Its dramatization is brutally close to its Christian origins, and is at times schmaltzy and over-the-top. But this refreshing honesty and fearless adherence to its Christian message, political correctness be damned, resonated with the Christian market despite its abysmal showing among the critics. (Rotten Tomato has it at 39% among pro critics, 88% among casual viewers.) Contrast the leads of "Fireproof" and "Nativity Story". Kirk Cameron is an evangelical Christian who did "Fireproof" in exchange for a small contribution to a camp for sick kids he and his wife runs. All the company paid for other than the contribution were his airfare and lodging. Kiesha Castle-Hughes was pregnant out of wedlock during the publicity tour of "Nativity Story", and constantly opined against "judgmentalism". Little details like that matter to a Christian audience, because it is the difference between something done with sincerity and something done just to get access to their hard-earned money. The auteur has to believe, or the audience will not believe him. Or her, as is the case for "Nativity Story". One can say that the Passion had abortion activist and former softcore goddess Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene, but the heart and soul of the Passion were Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel, both of whom are ardent believers. Mel Gibson even took a lot of flack for his faith in the media, including dubious charges of anti-Semitism laid against the Passion by professional sensitivity-mongers. This probably only further solidiefied the Christian market's resolve to watch his work.
The ultimate Christian movie, as shown by the Passion, combines both professional polish and heartfelt sincerity. While Hollywood has all the polish in the world, it will never replicate the Passion unless it learns how to make films with true sincerity and respect for the Christian market. Good luck with that, Hollywood.
Personally, I can see the potential of the Christian movie in the Philippines. We may lack professional polish, but this is nothing that cannot be learned. The more immeasurable, intangible aspect of sincerity is here, and here in abundance. (Check out "Tanging Yaman", for example.) All it takes is for someone to do what Mel Gibson did, and say "I can make this work".
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Culture War's American Branch of the Rebel Alliance
Last Friday, Mr. Obama fulfilled his sacred oath to the bloodthirsty gods of modern culture by revoking the Mexico City Policy, essentially allowing US government funds to go to abortion efforts around the world. (Rep. Lagman just had a mini orgasm. More money for his initiatives.)
However, there are signs that Mr. Obama's dance with intrinsic evil will not go unopposed. Say what you will about arrogant Americans, but at least they are still a people who can recognize a grave evil and give voice against it. High and mighty Europe won't even discuss abortion, assuming it some god-given right. (What a hellish deity that must be....)
On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court decision that, like Dred Scott more than a hundred years before it, took away the humanity of an entire group of human beings, several hundred thousand people converged on Washington DC for an event called March for Life. It was just a few days after that orgiastic inauguration, but the sight of several hundred thousand (usually under-counted) people marching against a cornerstone of Obama's laundry list of promises ought to tell him that the abortion wars are not going away in the age of Hopenchange.
As usual, much of mainstream media ignored the huge rally. After all, the magnates of mainstream media have been licking Obama's almighty boots since he first announced his candidacy. (Days like this I thank God for Fox News and alternative media.)
But, even if they must fight under shadow, it is glad to see that the Rebel Alliance is alive and well in the US. Hopefully, the looming silhouette of cultural collapse can convince the Europeans to form some of their own.
Obama: "We will outlast you... We will not let you threaten our way of life!" (Inauguration Speech, Jan. 19, 2009)
However, there are signs that Mr. Obama's dance with intrinsic evil will not go unopposed. Say what you will about arrogant Americans, but at least they are still a people who can recognize a grave evil and give voice against it. High and mighty Europe won't even discuss abortion, assuming it some god-given right. (What a hellish deity that must be....)
On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court decision that, like Dred Scott more than a hundred years before it, took away the humanity of an entire group of human beings, several hundred thousand people converged on Washington DC for an event called March for Life. It was just a few days after that orgiastic inauguration, but the sight of several hundred thousand (usually under-counted) people marching against a cornerstone of Obama's laundry list of promises ought to tell him that the abortion wars are not going away in the age of Hopenchange.
As usual, much of mainstream media ignored the huge rally. After all, the magnates of mainstream media have been licking Obama's almighty boots since he first announced his candidacy. (Days like this I thank God for Fox News and alternative media.)
But, even if they must fight under shadow, it is glad to see that the Rebel Alliance is alive and well in the US. Hopefully, the looming silhouette of cultural collapse can convince the Europeans to form some of their own.
Friday, January 23, 2009
A Good, Bad and Ugly Week
Here's my world in a nutshell this past week...
1. NFL "Championship Monday" (Sunday, EST)
The Good: Excellent football games all around. Both my picks won. Steelers vs Cardinals for the Superbowl, baby!
The Bad: Who the hell do I root for come the Superbowl?
The Ugly: I've been a Steelers fan for several years now, but I cannot help but root for Kurt Warner. Here's a 37 year old quarterback who has a life story that can make "The Rookie" and "Seabiscuit" look like "Air Bud". If he and the Cardinals lose after coming this far, there's no justice in this world, and I'm probably going to cry like a little girl. But...the Steelers, man....
2. I Got Sick
The Good: I got a full day's rest, and got to miss what was, by many accounts, a horrid class session.
The Bad: The headache was one nasty bitch.
The Ugly: One of the supposed causes of my headache was my high blood pressure. So, that means all that makes eating good must end (or just severely curtailed for now). Imagine, me, on a fucking diet!
3. I Got To Watch a Filipino Adaptation of One of My All-Time Favorite Satires: Animal Farm
The Good: Umm...it was for free?
The Bad: It has got to be the most god-awful translation of Animal Farm in existence. "Hacienda Animal" is a title more fitting for a Mexican soap (and translates to "Animal Estate", which the farm manifestly wasn't).
The Ugly: The ending is the epitome of stupidity among all the other stupidities inflicted by that moron of a translator (if it was the director's addition, then that moron of a director). Read the Wikipedia page, and you will see that "Napoleon" is an allusion to either Napoleon Bonaparte or, more credibly, to Joseph Stalin. The ending of the adaptation (which still retains the original names for characters, places and things) has a female "Napoleon" prancing around as "madame President" (was Stalin ever "president"?) before being overrun by "migrating" animals. So, the poignant satire which was "Animal Farm", in the hands of a most incompetent translator, becomes a blunt, poorly-written exercise in mocking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. All nuance and irony are crushed under the heel of political point-scoring. It's V for Vendetta the movie all over again. I know GMA is not the best president, but to compare her to Stalin is to minimize what a monster Stalin truly was. I pray this translation is burned in a bonfire of vanities somewhere and never comes to international attention. If it does, then I hope the estate of Orwell sues the pants off this UP prick Jorge Himenez for crimes against literature. I am willing to add an amicus brief for the prosecution.
4. The Inauguration of "The One".
The Good: A black guy is now US President. All those Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock comedies have not gone to waste!
The Bad: Different pigment, same politician.
The Ugly: There is this whorish cult of personality surrounding "The One". If I wanted to see a people openly prostituting themselves with such ecstasy and in such magnitude, I would simply watch Leni Riefenstahl's masterful Hitler documentary "Triumph of the Will". At least, that was better shot than HBO's love fest for The One. You should also see this compilation of Hollywood celebrities conveniently finding their civic spirit and openly declaring their love and servitude, not to the country they spent the last 8 years hating, but to The Dear Leader himself (praise be upon him). Watch it til the end to get to the "Children of the Corn"-like part.
Yo, buck-tooth Michael Strahan, wouldn't it have killed you to consider yourself an unhyphenated American when Bush was in office? Or even Clinton? And Red Hot Chili Peppers guy, "I pledge allegiance to Barack Obama"? WTF?
This, my friends, is an example of a bunch of free serfs begging for tyranny. Looks like they've found the right tyrant. We'll see.
5. The IMC "Rally" for those who passed phase I of the application process....
The Good: Everybody seemed giddy with joy.
The Bad: It was sort of like that classroom chanting scene in Animal Farm ("Four legs good! Two legs bad!") combined with a reality show opening.
The Ugly: We don't get to see them fight each other through a bunch of menial corporate tasks with special twists. Yes, folks, I've seen one episode of Stylista....
1. NFL "Championship Monday" (Sunday, EST)
The Good: Excellent football games all around. Both my picks won. Steelers vs Cardinals for the Superbowl, baby!
The Bad: Who the hell do I root for come the Superbowl?
The Ugly: I've been a Steelers fan for several years now, but I cannot help but root for Kurt Warner. Here's a 37 year old quarterback who has a life story that can make "The Rookie" and "Seabiscuit" look like "Air Bud". If he and the Cardinals lose after coming this far, there's no justice in this world, and I'm probably going to cry like a little girl. But...the Steelers, man....
Suggested Movie Title: "If 'Rudy' Was More Successful and Not a Dick: The Kurt Warner Story"
_______________________2. I Got Sick
The Good: I got a full day's rest, and got to miss what was, by many accounts, a horrid class session.
The Bad: The headache was one nasty bitch.
The Ugly: One of the supposed causes of my headache was my high blood pressure. So, that means all that makes eating good must end (or just severely curtailed for now). Imagine, me, on a fucking diet!
Not even a pair of exposed PETA boobies can make this appetizing...
_________________3. I Got To Watch a Filipino Adaptation of One of My All-Time Favorite Satires: Animal Farm
The Good: Umm...it was for free?
The Bad: It has got to be the most god-awful translation of Animal Farm in existence. "Hacienda Animal" is a title more fitting for a Mexican soap (and translates to "Animal Estate", which the farm manifestly wasn't).
The Ugly: The ending is the epitome of stupidity among all the other stupidities inflicted by that moron of a translator (if it was the director's addition, then that moron of a director). Read the Wikipedia page, and you will see that "Napoleon" is an allusion to either Napoleon Bonaparte or, more credibly, to Joseph Stalin. The ending of the adaptation (which still retains the original names for characters, places and things) has a female "Napoleon" prancing around as "madame President" (was Stalin ever "president"?) before being overrun by "migrating" animals. So, the poignant satire which was "Animal Farm", in the hands of a most incompetent translator, becomes a blunt, poorly-written exercise in mocking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. All nuance and irony are crushed under the heel of political point-scoring. It's V for Vendetta the movie all over again. I know GMA is not the best president, but to compare her to Stalin is to minimize what a monster Stalin truly was. I pray this translation is burned in a bonfire of vanities somewhere and never comes to international attention. If it does, then I hope the estate of Orwell sues the pants off this UP prick Jorge Himenez for crimes against literature. I am willing to add an amicus brief for the prosecution.
Didn't Stalin have a killer 'stache?
Isn't GMA supposed to be smaller, and without that genocidal twinkle in her eye?
____________________________4. The Inauguration of "The One".
The Good: A black guy is now US President. All those Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock comedies have not gone to waste!
The Bad: Different pigment, same politician.
The Ugly: There is this whorish cult of personality surrounding "The One". If I wanted to see a people openly prostituting themselves with such ecstasy and in such magnitude, I would simply watch Leni Riefenstahl's masterful Hitler documentary "Triumph of the Will". At least, that was better shot than HBO's love fest for The One. You should also see this compilation of Hollywood celebrities conveniently finding their civic spirit and openly declaring their love and servitude, not to the country they spent the last 8 years hating, but to The Dear Leader himself (praise be upon him). Watch it til the end to get to the "Children of the Corn"-like part.
Yo, buck-tooth Michael Strahan, wouldn't it have killed you to consider yourself an unhyphenated American when Bush was in office? Or even Clinton? And Red Hot Chili Peppers guy, "I pledge allegiance to Barack Obama"? WTF?
This, my friends, is an example of a bunch of free serfs begging for tyranny. Looks like they've found the right tyrant. We'll see.
Nope, no creepy cult of personality here. Move along. Remember, he sees ALL!
__________________________5. The IMC "Rally" for those who passed phase I of the application process....
The Good: Everybody seemed giddy with joy.
The Bad: It was sort of like that classroom chanting scene in Animal Farm ("Four legs good! Two legs bad!") combined with a reality show opening.
The Ugly: We don't get to see them fight each other through a bunch of menial corporate tasks with special twists. Yes, folks, I've seen one episode of Stylista....
Dean: 59 contestants, 20 slots...who will be the next batch of IMC students? Who's gonna cry? Who's gonna be an ass? Stay tuned!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Addendum
Since its supposed to be historical and all, I suppose I should have marked it down.
January 19, 2009: Black guy now US President
For whatever that's worth.
Not that I think it worth much. Same politician, different pigment.
Update:
This is blasphemy.
Fuck Obama. If this was the mood during his inauguration, I'm glad I missed it.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us morons.
January 19, 2009: Black guy now US President
For whatever that's worth.
Not that I think it worth much. Same politician, different pigment.
Update:
This is blasphemy.
Fuck Obama. If this was the mood during his inauguration, I'm glad I missed it.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us morons.
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