O.K. So...With What Few Neurons I Have Left Firing...
O.k. O.k. Another term paper down.
One more to go, plus all three classes are essay finals.
Tell me again how the humanities are the "Easy Majors".
:P
And double :P.
How Not to Handle School Violence Here in CA
There’s nothing on the national news about it, but violence in and around schools here in the greater Los Angeles area has been building to a crescendo in the last few months. Kids have been shot and stabbed and yesterday in Woodland Hills 9th grade students watching a concert in the gym broken out into a brawl that burbled on the edge of turning into a riot. Cops were called in and the entire school shut down. Even protests against school violence have been getting violent as students tangle with cops.
Of course the first explanation for all this violence offered by the media is that such acts are ethnically and/or gang motivated. Are they, or is this an extension of the same Columbine-type violence that we saw in RedLake earlier this year? Or is it something else?
Our spiffy new Mayor’s idea? More cops.
Right. Like that’s going to guarantee the safety inside a school.
If we really want to stop the violence, we need to sit these kids down, listen to them, talk with them, get them to listen and talk with each other. If it’s a private tiff, then we need to do it privately. If this is group motivated, whether ethnic or gang, then the schools need to have assemblies where the two factions sit down in a moderated discussion. Let them both be heard and then show them how to resolve the argument without violence. These kids take their cues from us, we teach them. We teach them more than literature and algebra, we teach them how to be contributing members of their society. Locking them down in a police state for 6 hours a day does nothing to teach them how to conduct themselves as adults when the shackles are off.
In any case, we need to figure out what the hell is going on in our schools.
Shutting Down Bases.
So much for Homeland Security. The government has essentially just announced that their holdings in Iraq are more important to them than the safety of the American public, while jacking over military personnel and their families once again.
Bright guys, reeeeal bright.
Blaming Newsweek for the Afghan and Iraq Riots.
While Newsweek fucked up, majorly, I think that blaming them solely for the anti-American riots that rippled across the Middle East is just a handy excuse for the Neo-Conservatives to use. The truth is if the Islamic people had not been pushed so far by our foreign policy in the region, by the abuses at Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay, perhaps flushing a Quran down a toilet might not have been the straw that broke the camels back.
Seems the Muslims are justly skeptical. Smart People.
Where Are We? What Are We?
Violence at home and Violence abroad. What the hell is happening to the U.S.? All evidence points to the fact that History moves in cycles: Like some great cultural karmic wheel great nations rise and fall. The Egyptians, the Romans, The Chinese, the Islamic world, the British. All these nations held great sway over the world...for a little while before self destructing and collapsing back into obscurity. Why does so many of the American public think that we will be any different when we are not doing anything different than the many empires before us? How can they possibly believe that the role of America as the worlds 800 lb gorilla will last forever? How can they be so fucking short-sighted? Are our belligerent attitudes towards foreign nations and opposing political parties trickling down to our children? How long before we figure out that the prevailing attitude in the country towards others is fucked up? Like so many powerful empires/nations before us, are we simply retreading the same path towards self destruction leaving nothing behind but civil unrest and international resentment? As powerful as the U.S. is, why can’t we leave something more positive behind us than the same imperialism that plagued the 19th century?
Can't we do better than this?
Moments of Deep Geek-ness
As has been made obvious, I’m a geek. As a teen and into my early 20’s one of my many forms of geekdom was comics books, specifically Neil Gaiman's mind bogglingly incredible Sandman series and the X-Men and their spin offs. I started a year or so out from the Phoenix Saga, at the tail end of the 2nd Group: Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, Cyclops. Rogue had just joined. I went back and collected the older ones mostly thought “Classic X-Men” reprints, and kept going with it pretty solidly the first year of the great split: “Uncanny X-Men” and “X-Men”.
When the movie came out I had my trepidations going in but found them to be quite satisfactory, with the exception of the horrible piece of casting of Halle Berry as Storm. Ororo Munroe is a 6 foot tall ex-local African Goddess. Her connection to the elements through her power gave her great empathy towards the earth and heightened her experience of the deep and powerful earth-centric spirituality she had. She was literally worshipped and ended up one of the X-Men’s more effective leaders. That role should have gone to someone like Angela Bassett, a beautiful woman with great depths that you really, really wouldn’t want to mess with. But the rest of it was fine (Framke Jamsen) to inspired (Hugh Jackman) to fucking brilliant (Ian McKellen). The first film was really just a setup for the non-geeks and the second film really got the ball rolling.
BTW-The second film is loosely based off an incredible graphic novel named “God Love, Man Kills” in which Stryker is a famous televangelist and religious fanatic using the same methods in the film to “cast out Satan’s spawn from humanity”. He had killed his wife and child with his bare hands after she gave birth to an obviously mutant infant. In short he was a seriously sick fuck. And the story is much more chilling when it simply isn’t some quiet little black ops, but mobs of tens of thousands of people whipped up into religious zealotry.
Now, the word has been out on the net for months that they would be bringing two of the original team to the screen for X-3, The Beast and Angel.
Now, I’m not usually drawn to the dark tortured characters in literature and film, so characters like Wolverine don’t really grab me. It was the ones that actually acted like people that I enjoyed. The ones who didn’t take themselves too seriously, actually enjoyed the fact that they had powers, had a sense of humor, had some perspective and some rationality. This amounted to an entire whopping three X-Men: Nightcrawler (you just haven’t seen that side of him yet), Banshee and the Beast.
The Beast, otherwise known as Henry (Hank) McCoy, is a not only a huge, strong and supremely agile guy, he is also a genius in organic chemistry, extraordinarily well read, well spoken, rational, witty and upbeat in a slighty surrealist/random kind of way. He can roll with some pretty heavy stuff, if you know what I mean.
In short, he’s really cool.
Yesterday the Head of Marvel Studios announced that they had cast the Beast.
Kelsey Grammar.
Kelsey frickin’ Grammar.
First let's just look at the character difficulties. Yeah, Kelsey sounds smart, but other than that the personality is waaaaaay off. Grammar’s humor is embittered, cynical and sarcastic filled with a high amount of dignity and dudgeon, whereas Hank McCoy is a highly rational, upbeat, self depreciating, ranging from elegent bon mots to flat out monty-pythonesque goofy. As someone observed “As long as he eats twinkies reading “Faust” while hanging from the ceiling, it’s all good.” I just can’t see Grammar pulling that one off.
Then there is the issue of the physicality: The Beast is 5’11”, about 370 lbs, blue and furry. He’s massive and massively agile. Marvel Studios say that Grammar will be using a combination of make up and prosthetics and CGI…in short, he’s going to look like a blue version of Mr. Hyde from “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.
*smacks forehead*
No, No, No. The fans had this one worked out ages ago: There is no way to do Beast, to capture his size and agility, except through CGI. The perfect actor, one who reflect the same intelligence (with it’s accompanying slight neurosis), self depreciation, upbeat nature, common sense and humor is Jeff Golblum.
CGI Beast, Jeff Golbum’s voice. Perfect.
I had a bad feeling what would happen to the series with Bryan Singer walking way from it. Now I know. :(
Oi! These things matter damnit!
*chuckle* ;)
Forensic Geeks.
This is a cool article for those of us addctied to the CSI's.
One more to go, plus all three classes are essay finals.
Tell me again how the humanities are the "Easy Majors".
:P
And double :P.
How Not to Handle School Violence Here in CA
There’s nothing on the national news about it, but violence in and around schools here in the greater Los Angeles area has been building to a crescendo in the last few months. Kids have been shot and stabbed and yesterday in Woodland Hills 9th grade students watching a concert in the gym broken out into a brawl that burbled on the edge of turning into a riot. Cops were called in and the entire school shut down. Even protests against school violence have been getting violent as students tangle with cops.
Of course the first explanation for all this violence offered by the media is that such acts are ethnically and/or gang motivated. Are they, or is this an extension of the same Columbine-type violence that we saw in RedLake earlier this year? Or is it something else?
Our spiffy new Mayor’s idea? More cops.
Right. Like that’s going to guarantee the safety inside a school.
If we really want to stop the violence, we need to sit these kids down, listen to them, talk with them, get them to listen and talk with each other. If it’s a private tiff, then we need to do it privately. If this is group motivated, whether ethnic or gang, then the schools need to have assemblies where the two factions sit down in a moderated discussion. Let them both be heard and then show them how to resolve the argument without violence. These kids take their cues from us, we teach them. We teach them more than literature and algebra, we teach them how to be contributing members of their society. Locking them down in a police state for 6 hours a day does nothing to teach them how to conduct themselves as adults when the shackles are off.
In any case, we need to figure out what the hell is going on in our schools.
Shutting Down Bases.
So much for Homeland Security. The government has essentially just announced that their holdings in Iraq are more important to them than the safety of the American public, while jacking over military personnel and their families once again.
Bright guys, reeeeal bright.
Blaming Newsweek for the Afghan and Iraq Riots.
“Newsweek's bad mistake is very good news for the Bush administration. The commander-in-chief is playing editor-in-chief. Instead of answering questions about what is really happening in Iraq, the White House is asking what happened at Newsweek.
Newsweek published a mistake; get angry about that, if you like. But the Bush administration went to war over a mistake -- the alleged existence of WMD -- and a deception -- the never-proven link between Iraq and Sept. 11. So far, 1,623 American soldiers are dead and another 15,000 are wounded. Insurgents continue to slaughter Iraqis; nearly 500 have been killed since the April 28 announcement of a Shi'ite-dominated government.”
While Newsweek fucked up, majorly, I think that blaming them solely for the anti-American riots that rippled across the Middle East is just a handy excuse for the Neo-Conservatives to use. The truth is if the Islamic people had not been pushed so far by our foreign policy in the region, by the abuses at Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay, perhaps flushing a Quran down a toilet might not have been the straw that broke the camels back.
Seems the Muslims are justly skeptical. Smart People.
Where Are We? What Are We?
Violence at home and Violence abroad. What the hell is happening to the U.S.? All evidence points to the fact that History moves in cycles: Like some great cultural karmic wheel great nations rise and fall. The Egyptians, the Romans, The Chinese, the Islamic world, the British. All these nations held great sway over the world...for a little while before self destructing and collapsing back into obscurity. Why does so many of the American public think that we will be any different when we are not doing anything different than the many empires before us? How can they possibly believe that the role of America as the worlds 800 lb gorilla will last forever? How can they be so fucking short-sighted? Are our belligerent attitudes towards foreign nations and opposing political parties trickling down to our children? How long before we figure out that the prevailing attitude in the country towards others is fucked up? Like so many powerful empires/nations before us, are we simply retreading the same path towards self destruction leaving nothing behind but civil unrest and international resentment? As powerful as the U.S. is, why can’t we leave something more positive behind us than the same imperialism that plagued the 19th century?
Can't we do better than this?
Moments of Deep Geek-ness
As has been made obvious, I’m a geek. As a teen and into my early 20’s one of my many forms of geekdom was comics books, specifically Neil Gaiman's mind bogglingly incredible Sandman series and the X-Men and their spin offs. I started a year or so out from the Phoenix Saga, at the tail end of the 2nd Group: Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, Cyclops. Rogue had just joined. I went back and collected the older ones mostly thought “Classic X-Men” reprints, and kept going with it pretty solidly the first year of the great split: “Uncanny X-Men” and “X-Men”.
When the movie came out I had my trepidations going in but found them to be quite satisfactory, with the exception of the horrible piece of casting of Halle Berry as Storm. Ororo Munroe is a 6 foot tall ex-local African Goddess. Her connection to the elements through her power gave her great empathy towards the earth and heightened her experience of the deep and powerful earth-centric spirituality she had. She was literally worshipped and ended up one of the X-Men’s more effective leaders. That role should have gone to someone like Angela Bassett, a beautiful woman with great depths that you really, really wouldn’t want to mess with. But the rest of it was fine (Framke Jamsen) to inspired (Hugh Jackman) to fucking brilliant (Ian McKellen). The first film was really just a setup for the non-geeks and the second film really got the ball rolling.
BTW-The second film is loosely based off an incredible graphic novel named “God Love, Man Kills” in which Stryker is a famous televangelist and religious fanatic using the same methods in the film to “cast out Satan’s spawn from humanity”. He had killed his wife and child with his bare hands after she gave birth to an obviously mutant infant. In short he was a seriously sick fuck. And the story is much more chilling when it simply isn’t some quiet little black ops, but mobs of tens of thousands of people whipped up into religious zealotry.
Now, the word has been out on the net for months that they would be bringing two of the original team to the screen for X-3, The Beast and Angel.
Now, I’m not usually drawn to the dark tortured characters in literature and film, so characters like Wolverine don’t really grab me. It was the ones that actually acted like people that I enjoyed. The ones who didn’t take themselves too seriously, actually enjoyed the fact that they had powers, had a sense of humor, had some perspective and some rationality. This amounted to an entire whopping three X-Men: Nightcrawler (you just haven’t seen that side of him yet), Banshee and the Beast.
The Beast, otherwise known as Henry (Hank) McCoy, is a not only a huge, strong and supremely agile guy, he is also a genius in organic chemistry, extraordinarily well read, well spoken, rational, witty and upbeat in a slighty surrealist/random kind of way. He can roll with some pretty heavy stuff, if you know what I mean.
In short, he’s really cool.
Yesterday the Head of Marvel Studios announced that they had cast the Beast.
Kelsey Grammar.
Kelsey frickin’ Grammar.
First let's just look at the character difficulties. Yeah, Kelsey sounds smart, but other than that the personality is waaaaaay off. Grammar’s humor is embittered, cynical and sarcastic filled with a high amount of dignity and dudgeon, whereas Hank McCoy is a highly rational, upbeat, self depreciating, ranging from elegent bon mots to flat out monty-pythonesque goofy. As someone observed “As long as he eats twinkies reading “Faust” while hanging from the ceiling, it’s all good.” I just can’t see Grammar pulling that one off.
Then there is the issue of the physicality: The Beast is 5’11”, about 370 lbs, blue and furry. He’s massive and massively agile. Marvel Studios say that Grammar will be using a combination of make up and prosthetics and CGI…in short, he’s going to look like a blue version of Mr. Hyde from “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.
*smacks forehead*
No, No, No. The fans had this one worked out ages ago: There is no way to do Beast, to capture his size and agility, except through CGI. The perfect actor, one who reflect the same intelligence (with it’s accompanying slight neurosis), self depreciation, upbeat nature, common sense and humor is Jeff Golblum.
CGI Beast, Jeff Golbum’s voice. Perfect.
I had a bad feeling what would happen to the series with Bryan Singer walking way from it. Now I know. :(
Oi! These things matter damnit!
*chuckle* ;)
Forensic Geeks.
This is a cool article for those of us addctied to the CSI's.
posted by KiplingKat | 2:57 PM
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