(no subject)

[cleolinda]

Yesterday's Horoscope of Eerie Aptness: Confusing dreams you had during the night could leave you feeling moody today.

Okay, now I'm just freaked out, because I had some superweird dreams the other night.

So we saw The Fountain, and I loved it. I mean, I didn't think it was Teh Best Movie EVAR, and I can see why it might not have been to everyone's taste. But it was pretty, and I liked the parallel imagery, and Hugh Jackman was wrenchingly good, and I loved the score, and it was pretty. (WARNING: There will probably be spoiler discussions in the comments.)

(Just for you: the best track on the soundtrack, "Death Is the Road to Awe." It's a bit long, but stay with it until the end. And if you go to an odd little offshoot of the movie's official site, Clint Mansell has donated the full version of "Stay with Me," plus each of the instrumental layers as a separate track.)


British police arrest man over prostitute murders; 2nd arrest in Britain prostitutes' case.

Gates: Failure in Iraq will haunt U.S. "On his first day as defense secretary, Robert Gates warned Monday that failure in Iraq would be a 'calamity' that would haunt the United States for years."

Norovirus eyed in Olive Garden sickness.

Publisher allegedly cited 'Jewish cabal': "In an explosive telephone argument that led to her firing, publisher Judith Regan allegedly complained of a 'Jewish cabal' against her in the book industry and stated that Jews 'should know about ganging up, finding common enemies and telling the big lie.'" I told you "macaca" was so five minutes ago.

Marijuana top US cash crop, analyst says.

Foreign medics sentenced to die in Libya HIV case. "A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death on Tuesday for deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the virus that causes AIDS, provoking a chorus of Western condemnation."

Egg-toss prank turns deadly in Ohio.

Suspected Smart kidnapper yells at judge: "The man accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart from her bedroom in 2002 and holding her for nine months was again declared unfit to stand trial Monday after screaming at a judge to 'forsake those robes and kneel in the dust.'"

Yogi Bear creator Joe Barbera dies at 95.

New Orleans writers struggle to pen rebirth story.

Runner fails gender test, loses medal.

Why Teens Do Stupid Things.

TV offers competing Yule logs on Dec. 25.

Online vote says Spears worst dog owner.

Re: The Perez Hilton suit: X17 schools the LA Times.

A new still from The Other Boleyn Girl. If I had to guess, I'd say this is during one of the Henry Percy scenes.

From particle_person: New Stardust stills.

discogravy: "The Christmas Kraken, a holiday...thing... that I can't imagine you wouldn't want to know about."

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I'm conflicted in my feelings for Stardust. I'm not sure whether to like it or hate it. I'm particularly conflicted about the costuming. Conflicted as it "what the heck party store did they raid for that" kind of conflicted.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah... so far it's not half as pretty as the Vess illustrations.

[bunnymonkey.livejournal.com]

I absolutely loved The Fountain. I agree with you completely, though -- not the most top #1 movie ever in existence, and definitely not something everyone is going to like. That said, I had a very emotional reaction to it, and I cried into my scarf a couple of times.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there were a few moments that--I don't know if I'd call them flaws or not, because I was mostly okay with them. Like, the scene with the bathtub, which was totally hot by the end of it, but started out not making a lot of sense. "I'm choking!' "Heat the sponge for me!" "I didn't want to tell you I was losing sensitivity because, you know, YOU'RE A DOCTOR AND MIGHT ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT." And then the part where he, like, meditates on into the temple in his intergalactic soap bubble and the Mayan priest is like, "Forgive me, First Father!" It was ridiculous, but I liked it anyway.

I managed to not actually cry, but I have no idea how.

[bunnymonkey.livejournal.com]

Flaws is a fair description -- the whole bathtub thing was shaky, and the temple thing, yeah. There were a few other points where I was like, "Oh, this whole thing is about to fall apart," but then it came back together. Naturally I can't remember them right now.

I loved, though, how the whole movie is simultaneously hokey and profound. (As all profundity should be.) Aronofsky even said that the "message" in the movie is... recycling.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

See, exactly. I loved the part where he actually got to the Tree of Life and the sap, because--as bizarre as it was--it was like, 2006!Izzi was right the whole time: there's immortality, but it's not the kind you're thinking of. And I loved that "Finish it" essentially meant "plant a tree over my grave," because that actually made sense given what she had told him previously.

[bunnymonkey.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly! And there was an interview, which I will never find again, where they're talking about the gulf between the experience of a young person who's dying and the experience of the bystander who loves that person. The dying person can come to terms with what's happening and even have these moments of grace, but the bystander just can't get there -- it's too hard, and you're fighting to keep the person with you, in some ways depriving them of that grace, blah blah blah. So basically it takes eleventy billion years to cross that gulf. And a really pretty dying star.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, seriously. I thought they did such a good job of illustrating that--the way that the book wasn't a professional writing effort so much as a fantasy of Izzi's to help her--and eventually him--come to terms with death. Because the idea of an inquisitor going after Queen Isabella is so ridiculous until you realize that she's not trying to write anything serious or accurate--she's playing on her own name to come to terms with it.

And I loved the way they used parallel imagery, the way Isabella had these ornate screens and then Izzi had them in their bedroom, and the lamps that looked like stars, and all of that.

[bunnymonkey.livejournal.com]

Oh man, don't even get me started on the visual connections and how lovely everything was. The white and the gold, snow and stars, the jungle and space. Guh!

And the inquisitor vs. Isabella was so right on for what Izzie was doing too -- the way that Isabella got to say right out, "I reject his culture of death." Can you tell I adored the movie? I'm going to have to see it again.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, for real. I loved the Queen Isabella/conquistador part once I realized the role the story was playing for them. I'm so taking my mother to see it when she's off work at the end of the week, too--I showed her both trailers a while back and got her all sucked into it.

[bunnymonkey.livejournal.com]

I thought about taking my mom, but it might be a little sci-fi for her. She was intrigued by my raving, though.

Man, how awesome would it be if you, me, and Em could go? Stupid giant country! Where is my private jet?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee! Brett and I went; Em had a Christmas party to go to, so she didn't even get to see it. And it was only at the tiny Brook Highland and probably won't even be there much longer, so I'm going to have to get my mom over there as fast as I can. (She loves sci-fi, so that shouldn't be a problem.)

Let me know when you get that jet, though.

[saint-kat.livejournal.com]

Aw. I liked watching a lot of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons when I was a kid, watching Nickelodeon and such.

I read about the news surrounding the arrest of the first suspected Yorkshire prostitute murderer on BBC and I couldn't help but to feel a bit creeped out about the guy.

Just hearing about a second possible suspect arrested in the case? Really suprising.

[jaded-lady.livejournal.com]

what's...going on with ScarJo's face in that picture? is it just me or does she look kind of strange?

still irked about the casting choice for that part. :l

[adoresixtyfour.livejournal.com]

The Christmas Kraken would go so well with my Christmas Cthulhu...

I sense...

[theintrospectre.livejournal.com]

....we should hook them up. Set up a play date? How do you set up near deities, anyway? Ah, you know what I mean.

Thought you'd enjoy this:
http://blog.introspectre.com/node/296

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

Seriously, Jewish Cabal made my YEAR. I'm getting such a strange joy from that phrase. If only there were some way to combine the Kraken and the Jewish Cabal, that would be the most ultimate thing ever created.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I feel like the Jewish Cabal hangs out with the Gay Mafia sometimes, also.

[metonymy.livejournal.com]

Sure, Thirsty Thursdays down the pub. *authoritative nod*

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

You... I... buh.

You just made my brain explode with utter delight.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

The Liberal Media are our flunkies.

Creepy Christmas Trifecta!

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

First the evil 'doctors' who bare sick resemblance to those responsible for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, then you have CRAAAAAZY Mel Gibson Judith Regan (when in doubt, blame God's chosen...), then you have the icky "celebrity" bloggers bitch-slapping each other over who has the right to profit from photos of Britney's crotch and outing gay celebs... I think I need a shower... A lot of today's linkspam was creepy people!

Re: Creepy Christmas Trifecta!

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

The headline is kind of misleading... everyone outside Libya agrees that the doctors are actually innocent. The epidemic at that hospital started before they ever arrived in Libya.

Re: Creepy Christmas Trifecta!

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

It definately sounds shadey to me (in my own journal I paralleled the treatment of the doctors with the treatment of detainees at Gitmo) but I'm also not willing to entirely discount the legal system of another country, especially since we know people do these sorts of things, and not all parties may be innocent. Just look at the Tuskegee Syphillis "experiments".

Re: Creepy Christmas Trifecta!

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Work published in Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/444836a.pdf) shows that those strains of HIV and hepatitis C were circulating among the hospital's patients before the foreign nurses & doctor even arrived. There have been other studies that found the same thing; all these people did was go to work in a country that needed a scapegoat and/or a ransom.

[by-motorways.livejournal.com]

The whole Ipswich murderer case is still terrifying because, well, it's where I live! Glad they seem to be getting somewhere, though, and I just hope that the murderer's one of the guys they've arrested so that nothing else happens =/.

Horrible place to live at the moment.

[dramedy.livejournal.com]

So, I keep finding The Other Boleyn Girl in the shops I go into. It seems like signs point that I should read this. And yet, I'd kind of rather wait for the version where Scarlett and Natalie are dazzling my eyes with breasts and great acting. Oh, and the costumes look smashing.

Re: Gates - at least he's honest. Man, I can't wait until I'm old and have little children ask me what it was like living during the Iraq War. Or, possibly, World War 3. Time will tell.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I find the book to be engagingly trashy, myself.

[phoenixforhire.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHA!!

Cat Scratch. x]

I saw that episode when it came on TV. SO FUNNY. *snort*

[sucrelefey.livejournal.com]

The Libya case is frustrating because it shows what happens when real science is ignored for religion and politics. Can we say witch hunt scape goats boys and girls. A sign of what could easily come to be over here.

I am so smart... I am so smart.. s-m-r-t... I mean s-m-A-r-t!

[pugfantus.livejournal.com]

McKrazy to Judge : "Kneel before Zod!"

[greyduck.livejournal.com]

"On his first day as defense secretary, Robert Gates warned Monday that failure in Iraq would be a 'calamity' that would haunt the United States for years."

If by "would be" he means "is," I suppose.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

That Libya case is just depressing. I imagine a lot of people aren't going to go beyond the intial shock of "deliberately infecting hundreds of children with HIV" but with further reading shows that what Libya has created here is basically a hostage situation "Dear Bulgaria, give us $2.7bn* or we'll kill these doctors. Love, us". These doctors have been turned into scapegoats for the real problem, the poor hygiene in Libyan hospitals that most likely caused the infections in the first place, and several international experts on the virus have stated so. Luc Montagnier (co-discovered HIV) being one of them. Of course if these doctors do get executed not only will it do nothing to solve the problem, but make matters even worse as fewer foreign medical workers will want to visit, and people will continue to get infected and die.

Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/aidsmedicslibya/index.html) has a section collecting their news articles and editorials related to the case, including a study released this December showing that the HIV strains that infected the children were already present in the hospital prior to the foreign medical staff's arrival. It's all full access right now, so you don't need to pay to read them. The BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/4761131.stm) also have a Q&A section that summarizes the situation and has links to their previous coverage at the bottom.



*Which, by the way, is the same amount of money that Libya paid in compensation to the families of the victims of the PAM 103 bombing. Odd, that.

[redmapletree.livejournal.com]

I like the Stardust stills. Something quite lovely about them.

[artemis-archer.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about movie costumes and though I love the Tudors and company I don't know a ton about their clothing either. So is it just me or do Anne's and Mary's headpieces look kind of cheaply made? I saw some other stills where they looked to be wearing fancier ones but these ones look like they were made for a high school project using felt and hot glue. Is that how those kinds of headpieces usually looked?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You know, the tailoring and shaping looks reasonably accurate, but... yeah. Something about the fabric just looks kind of cheap and shiny. Maybe it'll look better on film? Maybe as the outfits get more elaborate they'll get better?

teehee

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

Something about the fabric just looks kind of cheap and shiny. Maybe it'll look better on film?

Heh- at first I was wondering if you were talking about Eragon again... but no, nothing could make that cheap, shiny film look better.

[purpleivey.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that The Fountain is good - I've read about it and would really like to see it. Plus I'm on a Hugh Jackman kick at the moment (which is partly your doing, actually ; )

[edda.livejournal.com]

Christmas Kraken/Flying Spaghetti Monster/Cthulhu = OT3!

[baldere214.livejournal.com]

Very informative post.

I saw the movie “The Fountain” and I loved it – the visuals were outstanding, although there are times when the movie seems very complex to understand and gets your mind really going – you have got to listen to the dialogue carefully, so that you won’t loose track of the story. I found “The Fountain” a movie with a very deep meaning about love, life and death in a very unusual plot - it intertwines 3 stories, each set in a different time, the past, the present and the future. Ultimately, “The Fountain” is not about a quest for youth rather how to face and deal with death, the death of someone you truly love in particular.

Yup, definitely not a movie for everyone. My friend complains that he finds the movie difficult to follow.

Balder Edwards
http://www.gogetmypayloan.info