Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006
dir. Paul Robertson

This Australian cat named Paul Robertson made this badass animation that looks and feels like a video-game crossed with a horror film.

Pirates, monsters, blood, guts, nudity, Big Lebowski references... it's 12 minutes of pixelated (not "pixilated") perfection.

BAD-MOTHA-FING-ASS!!!!

Download the film here:

http://www.selectparks.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=442

Check out Paul Robertson's artwork at Deviant Art:

http://probertson.deviantart.com/

and his Live Journal:

http://probertson.livejournal.com/

Prominent British evolutionary theorist Richard Dawkins host BBC Channel 4's two-part documentary The Root of All Evil?

Dawkins examines how religious faith infects the human mind and deludes people into believing in the absurd.

Dawkins interviews distinguished believers among the major faiths, Christianity, Judasim and Islam, and he politely challenges their denial of science and rationality.

It one remarkable interview, Dawkins chats with anti-abortionist Rev. Michael Bray, a friend and supporter of convicted (and executed) murderer Rev. Paul Hill. During the chat, Bray is cordial and well-spoken, but he condones the killing of doctors who perform abortions as justified by the Bible, and the fact that he smiles sincerely while spouting hate causes Dawkins to remark afterwards that he "quite liked" Bray, but then he quotes the Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Steven Weinberg:

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion."

And this notion that religion motivates people to commit morally reprehensible acts is the punchline to Dawkins' message.

Dawkins argues that religion, through its suppression of rational thinking, is downright harmful (especially to impressionable children) and we, as highly evolved being capable or rational thought must not passively tolerate the evil caused by faith.

I should note that Dawkins does NOT think that religion is the root of ALL evil. He repeated several times in an interview with the Center for Inquiry's podcasted radio show "Point of Inquiry" that he protested against the name of the series, but only managed to get the producers to add a question mark to the title, as if the show was asking, "Is faith the Root of All Evil?"

As a former Christian turned staunch Atheist, I wholeheartedly agree with Dawkins that faith is not the only thing that drives people to act immorally, but it is certainly a "root of evil" in this world.

Americans are notorious for proclaiming religious tolerance (especially among the faithful who are ironically often the most intolerant of religions that differ from their own), but as an American (and as a member of the human race) I will NOT tolerate religion whenever it is defies logic and reason.

I am frustrated and angry that Atheists are often accused of being intolerant whenever they question a person's faith, and yet the faithful rarely cry foul when science is ATTACKED outright.

Lenny Bruce: Swear To Tell The Truth
dir. Robert B. Weide
1998

'Life' is a four-letter word. -- Lenny Bruce

Robert B. Weide (executive-producer and frequent director of Curb Your Enthusiasm) wrote, directed and editted this Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary about comedian-turned-First-Amendment-martyr Lenny Bruce.

Through archival footage, including unaired TV routines and Lenny's homemade films, and new interviews with Lenny's friends (like Nat Hentoff), family (like his mother Sally Marr and daughter Kitty Bruce) and even his enemys (Richard Kuh, the lead prosecuter in Lenny's New York obscenity conviction), Weide masterfully tells Lenny's story, from his "guiltless" childhood as the son of a vaudeville dancer to his tragic death from a drug overdose.

Lenny Bruce made America laugh at itself by forcing Americans to confront the things they considered too "obscene" or "sick". But not everyone was laughing. When the Catholic Church and morally-righteous politicans targeted Lenny for his jokes about religion, he became depressed and paranoid. His routines took a serious turn as he replaced his jokes with readings of transcripts from his legal proceedings. Lenny explained, "I'm not a comedian anymore. I'm Lenny Bruce."

--------------------
Current Mood: )-o Tired
Current Music: Eating's Not Cheating by MC Chris

Good Night, and Good Luck.
dir. George Clooney
2005

[watched with Sam, James, Régis and Donna]

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
dir. Nick Park & Steve Box
2005

[watched at the AMC Century City with Matt Flynn]

Corpse Bride
dir. Tim Burton & Mike Johnson
2005

Corpse Bride is clearly the product of Tim Burton's twisted imagination, but many other equally talented artists made unmistakable contributions to this well written, beautifully animated and designed, musical/horror/comedy.

First and foremost, the credit for the film's genesis goes to the late great Joe Ranft. A master storyteller himself, Ranft initially introduced Burton to the original 19th Century Russian folktale about a man who unwittingly weds a corpse over 10 years ago.

Though Tim Burton is listed as a co-director, the man truly responsible for the eye-popping stop-motion animation is Mike Johnson, who created the award-winning stop-motion video for Les Claypool's cover of The Devil Went Down to Georgia.

Long-time Burton collaborator Danny Elfman makes his usual (extraordinary) musical contribution and even lends his voice to the skeletal character Bonejangles.

Spanish artist Carlos Grangel took Tim Burton's rough sketches and turned them into stylized character designs.

It probably won't be quite the merchandise cash-cow like it's predecessor The Nightmare Before Christmas (a film often misattributed to Burton even though it was actually directed by Henry Selick ), but Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is destined to become a classic.

[watched with Sam, James, Ashley, Rob and Michelle]

--------------------
Current Mood:
Current Music: Yanqui U.X.O. by Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Lost
Season One

I'm a bit allegic to hype, so when the hype machine kicked into high gear in the weeks before the series premiere of Lost, I'd pretty much decided that I'd avoid the show at all costs. I'd change the channel or the radio station whenever I saw or heard promotion for the show throughout the first season.

After the season finale, however, my friends started asking me if I saw it. They all told me how great the show is and how they couldn't wait for the next season. Now I don't believe hype, but I do believe my friends, so I figured I've give the show a chance if the opportunity arose.

Then, on Tuesday, Sam brought home the Season One DVDs that her boss lent her. We popped in the first disc over dinner and I was immediately hooked.

A day later, just a few minutes ago, I finished the entire first season and all I can say is "WOW!"

The show is so well written. Among the amazing writers is Paul Dini, who is the story editor for the series and co-writer of episode seven, "The Moth" (one of my favorites). As far as I can tell, Lost marks the live-action debut of Paul Dini, who has made a career of writing for animated TV shows, dating all the way back to Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and including some of my all-time favorite animated shows like Tiny Toon Adventures and Batman: The Animated Series.

The best part about holding out to watch Lost until now is that I only have to wait a week for Season Two to start (Wednesday Sept. 21, 2005).

4 8 15 16 23 42

--------------------
Current Mood:
Currently listening to: Forty Licks by The Rolling Stones

The Simpsons
Season Six

Season Six features some of my all time favorite episodes of the The Simpsons:

Bart of Darkness
Itchy And Scratchy Land
Tree House of Horror V
Homer the Great
Homie the Clown
Bart vs. Australia
Two Dozen and One Greyhounds
Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part 1)

--------------------
Current Mood: :]
Currently listening to: I Am The Messiah by MC Honky

Extras
Season One

"I'd love it if you stuck your Willy Wonka between my Oompa Loompas... I'm playing with my dirty pillows... I'm aching for your big purple-headed womb-ferret... Get round here 'cause I'm fudding myself stupid and I'm bloody loving it."

After the much-deserved success that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have enjoyed thanks to their brilliant BBC mockumentary, The Office, I'm not really surprised that they were able to get world-famous celebrities to play self-depricating parodies of themselves on the new BBC comedy, Extras.

The first season of six episodes boasts guest stars like Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson and Patrick Stewart, but the most hilarious moments of the season belong to Kate Winslet as she lists off foul-mouthed 'classics' and pantomimes titty-licking phone-sex, all while dressed as a nun.

"Background artiste" and wannabe actor, Andy Millman, is still a bit of prat, but he's much more sympathetic than Ricky Gervais' previous character, David Brent. Though Andy manages to sabbotage his gigs as an extra quite well on his own, he finds plenty of unwanted help getting kicked off of sets from his best friend and fellow extra, Maggie. His agent, however, offers no help at all, good or bad.

I so glad Stephen Merchant gave himself a bigger part in this series as the agent, because he and Gervais have such great comedic chemistry, as demonstrated in the Behind-the-Scenes footage of the The Office.

I'm very very excited that HBO, which co-produced Extras with the BBC, will start airing the show on September 25th. It's frustrating that British shows run for such short seasons, but I'm sure the second season is going to be absolutely hilarious, especially considering [SPOILER ALERT] the first season ends with Andy Millman in development of his own show, which sounds suspiciously like The Office.

--------------------
Current Mood:
Currently listening to: Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens

My Sassy Girl
엽기적인 그녀
dir. Jae-young Kwak
2001

I'm not really a fan of romantic comedies, but My Sassy Girl is as hilarious as it is cute.

Speaking of cute, Ji-hyun Jun is adorable as the hot-headed easily-intoxicated alpha-female title character.

[watched with Sam, Lisa DelVillar, Angela & Randy]

--------------------
Current Mood: :wave:
Currently listening to: Rubber Factory by The Black Keys