Man is the one animal that can't be tamed. He goes along for years, peaceful as a cow, when it suits him. Then when it suits him not to be, he makes a leopard look like a tabby cat. Which goes double for the female of the species.
Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well.
Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.
Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.
I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.
Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.
Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns he must die and accepts his sentence undismayed.
Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.
An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
The meek shall inherit the earth, a 6 foot plot above them.
Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free.
TANSTAAFL - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
Peace is a condition in which no civilian pays any attention to military casualties which do not achieve page-one, lead-story- -unless that civilian is a close relative of one of the casualties. But, if there ever was a time in history when "peace" meant that there was no fighting going on, I have been unable to find out about it.
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
#7
That does sound like The Man Who Sold the Moon. One of these days I'll have to buy that again -- the pages fell out of my childhood copy long ago. I've always been partial to Mike (?) taking the dead fly in with him to talk to the computer, and defining funny jokes from a print-out.
#8
"I pray for one last landing,
On the globe that gave me birth.
Let me rest my eyes on the fleecy skies,
And the cool green hills of earth."
___________________________________
#11
"Everything to excess! Eat, Drink, and Be Merry. Moderation is for Monks". Lazarus Long.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/08/2007 20:34 Comments ||
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#12
I've always been partial to Mike (?) taking the dead fly in with him to talk to the computer, and defining funny jokes from a print-out.
That would be, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". It, too, has its own hilarious scene when the lunar colony announces its intent to make a demonstration of might against earth and specifies the coordinates with a date and time for when they will lob down an iron jacketed boulder to prove it.
Earth's government refuses to take the proclamation seriously and a carnival sprouts up at the intended impact site from all the tourists who've clustered up to view its arrival.
The ensuing megaton strength impact event kills thousands on the ground and a shocked earth declares war on the moon.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has refused to pardon prisoners on Bastille Day - breaking with a traditional gesture on the 14 July holiday. Mr Sarkozy told French media he objected to using his powers of pardon as a way to relieve overcrowded jails.
Last July, Mr Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, freed some 3,500 inmates in a Bastille Day amnesty. French prisons house about 61,000 prisoners but were built to accommodate only 50,000. Mr Sarkozy, who has a reputation as a law-and-order hardliner, said he was asked to release 3,000 prisoners. "There will be no mass pardon," he told the Journal du Dimanche. "Since when has the right to a pardon been used as a way of managing prisons?"
The president said he would only consider granting clemency in special circumstances. "Someone jumps in the Seine River, and saves three drowning children. It turns out he has a criminal record. The presidential pardon could play a role here," Mr Sarkozy was quoted as saying.
Prison officers said they were concerned that Mr Sarkozy's decision could lead to disturbances among inmates. "The reduction of sentences are much anticipated and have a real psychological impact at the heart of the prison population," the SNP-FO prison staff union said in a statement. Bastille Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789, which launched the French Revolution.
Posted by: John Frum ||
07/08/2007 15:57 ||
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#1
"Prison officers said they were concerned that Mr Sarkozy's decision could lead to disturbances among inmates."
What's the downside?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/08/2007 16:34 Comments ||
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#2
Deporting all the Car-B-Q'ers in prison would solve some of the overcrowding. Win win.
#3
How many of them are in prison? I got the impression that only a few were arrested, and the very limited followup articles suggested that youth were entitled to leniency. Can one of our French friends suggest a site where one could learn about the CarBQ situation and the followups?
Posted by: James ||
07/08/2007 17:36 Comments ||
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#4
"The reduction of sentences are much anticipated and have a real psychological impact at the heart of the prison population,"
exactly Sarkozy's point. Maybe he should hire Joe Arpaio as a consultant concerning the overcrowding.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/08/2007 18:19 Comments ||
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In the latest episode of a saga that split Frances last conservative government and threatens to divide the new one, Michèle Alliot-Marie, the interior minister, is to be questioned over what she knew about a plot to smear Nicolas Sarkozy three years ago in an apparent attempt to prevent him from becoming president.
A retired spymaster, General Philippe Rondot, claimed last week that he had revealed to Alliot-Marie, who was then defence minister, the details of the alleged conspiracy to blacken Sarkozys name. Loyal as she then was to President Jacques Chirac and the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, who both loathed Sarkozy, she allegedly failed to warn him that he was the target of an effort to discredit him.
The claim came at the end of a dramatic week in which a power struggle won long ago by Sarkozy over de Villepin culminated in raids on the former prime ministers office and home, prompting speculation that he might be charged with a criminal offence in spite of his insistence that he had done nothing wrong.
The story has gripped France with its insights into Machiavel-lian intrigue in high politics. The conspiracy centred on false accusations in 2004 that Sarkozy, among other politicians and businessmen, held secret offshore accounts through the Clearstream International bank, based in Luxembourg. Bank records were forged to suggest they had received large bribes over the sale of French warships to Taiwan.
#3
I'm glad to see that the US is not the only country having problems with weaselly ex-intel chiefs blabbing to the press and stabbing their govenment in the back...
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has said she is determined to return to Pakistan because her country needs her. Ms Bhutto said in an interview with The Independent that she was not deterred by the threat of corruption charges, nor by constitutional amendments that bar anyone from being elected for a third term. I intend to go back before the years end and contest the elections. And if my people wish, they will lift that ban to enable me to then serve them as prime minister for a third time.
Charges of corruption have been brought against me for more than a decade and nothing has come of them. I believe that these charges were politically motivated, just as they are in the case of the chief justice of Pakistan, Ms Bhutto said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/08/2007 00:00 ||
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That thing on her head looks like pink innertube for a truck tire.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/08/2007 0:24 Comments ||
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#2
By that time there won't be enough for her BB and her crooked husband to steal.
June 21 2007: 2302, Pennington, Nigeria. A tanker undergoing cargo operations at a SBM was attacked by armed pirates. The pirates boarded the standby tug at the stern of the vessel and contacted the ship via VHF demanding to be let on board or they would sink the ship. The crew mustered, cargo operations were stopped and the vessel disconnected from the SBM. The tug was cast off and the ship proceeded at full speed to sea. All attempts to contact the authorities and the Nigerian navy were futile.
June 25 2007: 1820, Dep Tanjung Ular Port, Palembang, Indonesia. Around eleven pirates, armed with long knives and shotguns boarded a tanker underway. On sighting the pirates, crew ran inside the accommodation and closed all doors. On taking the head count, master realised one oiler was being held hostage. Master contacted the shore authorities. The pirates opened fire but there were no injuries to crew. The pirates escaped in a small speedboat. Coast guard arrived to investigate. No stores missing.
June 23 2007: 2145 LT: Pulau Lima, Kota Tinggi, Malaysia. Six robbers armed with long knives and pistols boarded a product tanker while she was alongside. One of the crew was hit on the head with the machete. Another crewmember stood up to the robbers. In the struggle, he fell overboard but managed to swim to the shore and contacted the police with assistance from the local fishermen. The robbers spent around 30 minutes ransacking and robbing the crews personal effects before escaping. The injured crew were sent to the hospital.
JAKARTA - Indonesia is taking steps to ramp up its Islamic banking sector, which some financial analysts believe has the potential of creating the largest sharia finance area in the world. Oh, joy!
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the recently completed World Islamic Economic Conference in Kuala Lumpur that his government intends to push through the regulatory change necessary to support the industry's development, which still only accounts for about 2% of total Indonesian banking activity. I wonder why.
Sharia banking conducts modern business while adhering to Islamic laws regarding financial transactions. Sorta like NASCAR, but with chariots.
Nonetheless, the industry has grown rapidly in recent years, as banks tap deeper into one of the world's largest Muslim markets, where 87% of the country's 240 million people follow Islam. Worldwide, Islamic finance currently represents less than 10% of the total global Muslim market of 1.5 billion people. Maybe thats because most of them dont have a pot to piss in.
Some financial analysts believe, based on current market trends, that the global Islamic financial-services industry, including banking assets, could grow from US$1 trillion now to $2.8 trillion by 2010. We're talkin' about those high-yield ransom, extortion and skimming operations.
US-based international credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's estimates that the global potential for Islamic financial services could be closer to $4 trillion. Especially when it comes time to service those Global Caliphate Bond Issues.
Much of that growth could come from Indonesia and its $300 billion dollar economy. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia still trails its smaller regional neighbor Malaysia, where the regulatory environment has already been modified to attract foreign Islamic investments. But financial analysts say there is huge potential in Indonesia to attract not only local money but also petrodollars and sharia-compliant funds from the Middle East, as has happened with Malaysia. All they neglect to mention are the sort of activities that attract such investment. Untapped C-4 distribution networks, demolition of Christian Church sites, conversion of Infidel assets and a host of other innovative growth opportunities await the eager Muslim investor.
Central to Islamic finance, which offers products and services akin to conventional financial products, is its "zero interest" concept and emphasis on profit-sharing. Yesiree Bob Omar. The profits, they come out of nowhere. Whisper Inshallah and the money, it rains down from the sky. Your capitals perfectly safe with the Inshallah retirement plan.
Based on sharia law, which forbids the collection of interest on loans and debts, including bonds, the system relies on asset-backed, contract-based, profit-sharing. Cuz everyone knows that profits dont rely upon interest, markups, points or any of that icky Infidel capitalism.
For instance, so-called murabahah-based finance is concerned with lending for consumer goods such as motor vehicles and housing, but under the current regulatory regime is uncompetitive vis-a-vis conventional Indonesian banks. Now why would that be?
Sharia banks finance the purchases on behalf of a customer for an agreed fee, but these transactions incur a 10% value-added tax (VAT) because under current taxation laws such a fee is not categorized as interest, which would exempt it from VAT payments. VAT? Smells like teen spirit vig to me.
Despite the regulatory hurdles, the industry is experiencing a mini-boom. Really, really poor choice of words.
Indonesia's first Islamic bank, Bank Muamalat, was founded in 1992 and has forecast that its profits will double year on year because of surging demand for its innovative, sharia-based Shar-E product. Last year nearly 664,000 customers applied for its Shar-E products, surging from the 132,669 customers it had in 2005. Thats only because they finally decided to accept goats as collateral.
As of the end of 2006, Bank Muamalat had been joined by 23 other Islamic banks and 456 conventional bank branch offices that provided sharia banking services. According to Bank Indonesia, the central bank, the share of sharia banking assets of total national banking assets was a mere 1.6%, up slightly from the 1.4% recorded at the end of 2005. Still, when asked, no one acted as if they even understood what the word halawa meant.
Yet Islamic banks reported a 79% year-on-year increase in business volume in 2006, to Rp8.76 trillion ($1.36 billion). The amount of leasing business, known as ijarah, grew by a whopping 164.7%, and sharia mutual funds grew in asset value by 17.6% last year, with a total net asset value of about Rp663.7 million.
By the end of last year, there were about 20 sharia funds, representing about 5% of Indonesia's total number of mutual funds but only 1.3% of the industry's value. At least 17 companies listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange have issued sharia-compliant bonds, representing 10.5% of the total number of listed companies that have issued debt instruments, with a total issuance value of Rp2.2 trillion. Lemme know when Wall Street dumps several billion into this farce. Then Ill be sure to sell all of my stock.
Increasingly, Indonesian banks are not only looking to add Islamic products to their loan portfolios, but are sounding out possible acquisitions to enhance their Islamic banking potential. Gaza & Qassam LLP, Qom to Tomb Health Care, Tehran Gasoline Futures, theyre all just screaming, Buy me now!
For example, Bank Central Asia (BCA), Indonesia's second-largest lender by assets, plans to buy two small banks, and one of the acquired institutions would be transformed into a fully sharia-compliant lender. (BCA is 74% owned by a consortium of Singapore's state-run investment arm Temasek Holdings.) Just dont chew gum or betel nut when you visit them.
The only foreign bank currently licensed to conduct Islamic banking in Indonesia is HSBC, which offers Islamic banking services through its HSBC Amanah Syariah unit. HSBC = Holiness Secured By Crapulence
Last month the unit arranged a $50 million international sharia financing syndication for state-owned Krakatau Steel, Indonesia's biggest steel producer. Krakatau predicts explosive growth.
That followed on two previous deals it arranged for state-owned oil-and-gas company Pertamina to tap the global Islamic finance market, including a $322 million Islamic international syndicated loan in 2004 and a similar $200 million deal in 2006.
Still, the lack of sharia-friendly regulations has, in places, held the industry back. According to Jakarta's governor, Sutiyoso, the lack of clear rules and regulations for sharia finance was behind the decision by a Dubai-based Islamic Bank consortium to shy away from funding Jakarta's multimillion-dollar monorail project. Nothing that issuing a few death fatwan cant cure.
The consortium had agreed early this year to invest provided that the central government and the city administration would guarantee to cover half of any potential losses incurred by the project's operations. Sutiyoso managed to get the guarantees in place by April, but the sharia deal nonetheless proved to be incompatible with current Indonesian law. Not to mention reality, but whos counting?
Government planners hope that regulatory change will pave the way for both government enterprises and private corporations to attract Islamic investors worldwide through the issuance of Islamic bonds. Toward that end, three draft laws related to sharia banking, tax and securities transactions are expected to be enacted this year.
And they are looking to Malaysia's recent successful experience, particularly in relation to Malaysian corporations' issuances of foreign-currency-denominated Islamic bonds. Malaysia also gives tax breaks to foreign banks that set up Islamic finance operations, and several Persian Gulf-based Islamic banks have recently been awarded licenses to open branches there. Once Indonesia's new sharia-friendly laws come on line this year, Islamic banking could provide a valuable new source of foreign investment for Indonesia as well. Goat futures, camel options, sheep securities why, the prospects are only limited by Islamic imagination!
Posted by: Zenster ||
07/08/2007 02:43 ||
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#1
For a long, long time commerce and finance in pretty much all of southeast Asia has been Chinese turf. These are ethic Chinese many generations removed from the homeland but still tied to their homeland families as if by steel cable. A lot of these families have tended to operate more like Mafia familes than like John-Boy and the Waltons. I'm not sure how keen they will be to losing their business - I guess what will happen will depend on how well-connected their home families are in the Chinese government.
#3
Indonesia is taking steps to ramp up its Islamic banking sector, which some financial analysts believe has the potential of creating the largest sharia finance area in the world.
#4
I don't quite understand. They call it a fee instead of interest and it is OK? How do you get profit sharing from a loan to buy a car? Zenster I googled halawa and got recipes for sweets and Hawaiian sites, do you mean it's sweet?
Indonesia worries me because it's close to where I live - only PNG stands in the way and half of it has already been taken over by Indonesia. Plus I plan on moving to Bougainville when I retire.
#5
On the whole, the Muslim world currently gets failing grades on human rights but there is no reason why they cannot excel in commerce. Some of the Saudi princes (I forget which) have shown good financial judgment in buying hard assets like properties and investing in major companies like Citibank.
Forging stronger business ties with these parts of the world may be an underutilized asset in the War on Terror. Remember, at one time Japan was an enemy but today our economic interdependence helps to cement our alliance.
#6
Gladys, it's a simple misspelling. Try this instead: hawala. As far as I can understand it (and anything to do with money besides the spend/don't spend decision is beyond my expertise) Hawala is an informal money transfer system undertaken within certain Muslim families scattered around the world. You give your money to Achmed in your village, and your mother back in the old beduin encampment can pick it up from Achmed's cousin Mohammed three tents over... less a handling fee, of course. There are no records, no taxes, and upfront fees instead of the forbidden interest. The hawala families also make loans, although they call it something else, and again they charge upfront fees (that somehow work out to what the interest would've been had they actually charged interest). It's a lovely way to get lots of money to terrorists and criminal gangs without a ripple in the official world.
#7
I can't wait until the clerics start making Fatwas against the fees themselves.
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
07/08/2007 9:54 Comments ||
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#8
ODA---It's all semantics. If you can justify to yourself that lying to infidels is kosher sanctioned, then you can bridge the gap between what is a fee and what is interest. And you can play the game of "fool yourself" forever.
You see, Delusion is the Solution and you can have a clear conscience when you go to Ablution.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Kahl-ee-forrn-ya ||
07/08/2007 12:26 Comments ||
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#9
If you really researched it, I'm sure that you would find compound interest at the root of what is keeping the doors open at every wahabi mosque.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/08/2007 12:40 Comments ||
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#10
AP - In places run uncer islamic rule, what you will get is that eventually, the most strict applications are applied. New Fatwas will be issued when convenient for one sector of clerics to gain dominance over another restricting freedoms even more. I would fully expect a rival cleric sevt to eventually equate the fees to interest charged in order for that sect to gain power over its rivals that allow it.
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
07/08/2007 13:19 Comments ||
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#11
Thank you for the catch, trailing wife. I did indeed mean the hawala network. It is a terrorist financing operation that desperately needs to be shut down in order for America to become more secure and Muslim unfriendly.
Some of the Saudi princes (I forget which) have shown good financial judgment in buying hard assets like properties and investing in major companies like Citibank.
The question remains as to just how much of that money has been diverted from proper dispersal to Saudi Arabia's poor and needy. Disregarding any redistribution of wealth, there also stands the issue of how those enormous investments are not being made in any industrialization or technical universities. Saudi Arabia shortly would cease operating if it were not for foreign expertise in almost every critical sector like petroleum and their military. It is a pattern of corruption endemic to the MME (Muslim Middle East) that impoverishes the entire region to near stone-age levels.
I find it extremely difficult to praise the business acumen of a family who reaps ill-deserved profits and then funnels them into spreading Wahabbist filth and Sunni terrorism throughout the world.
If you can justify to yourself that lying to infidels is kosher sanctioned, then you can bridge the gap between what is a fee and what is interest. And you can play the game of "fool yourself" forever.
Islam is a violent fantasy of sexual domination and appropriating unearned wealth or territory. It simultaneously ignores reality and absolves itself of any wrong in doing so. Delusion and cognitive dissonance are its stock in trade. Non-believers are made to bear the horrific brunt of Islam's abject refusal to be on speaking terms with the truth.
#13
Statistically speaking, there's always potential, WolfDog. ;-) Where exactly that probability lies between zero and one requires cleverer calculations than I'm capable of, though.
#14
#11: "The question remains as to just how much of that money has been diverted from proper dispersal to Saudi Arabia's poor and needy."
That would be ALL of it, of course, Zen.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/08/2007 19:07 Comments ||
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#15
That would be ALL of it, of course, Zen.
Never one to mince words, eh, Barbara? Quite the endearing trait of yours, although I'm sure more than a few would argue that with me. As Oscar Wilde said:
"It is best to mince one's words very finely as it makes them so much easier to eat afterwards."
At any other time, the film would not have been made. Imagine the pitch: "Let's steal time and funding from our other projects so we can go way over budget making a cartoon with no jokes, and no real gags. The score will be a German opera. Kids won't get it. Most adults won't get it, but I don't care because I think it's funny."
Fortunately, the time was 1956, the director was Chuck Jones, and the place was the Warners Bros. backlot animation studio dubbed "Termite Terrace." The result released 50 years ago this week was "What's Opera, Doc?," voted by animators in the 1994 book The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals to be the greatest cartoon of all time.
It is the antithesis of the routine cartoon. In place of snappy one-liners we see Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny singing their parts with complete sincerity and commitment. The backgrounds are beautifully textured paintings. The score is powerful and moving. Bugs cuts a striking figure in a metallic brassiere before Madonna was even born. It's audacious and decadent and beautiful and bold and everything the vast majority of cartoons would never dare to be.
Years later, it was my immense pleasure to meet Chuck and spend several hours with him. Never before, and never since, have I encountered someone as smart, funny, passionate and wry, all rolled into one delightful and charming package. I can only imagine the magic at work as he and fellow geniuses Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, Mike Maltese, Maurice Noble, Mel Blanc, Carl Stalling and a host of others created thousands (yes, thousands) of cartoons featuring history's greatest ensemble cast.
Chuck told me he and his team of writers and animators never saw themselves as making cartoons for anyone but themselves. Months, and sometimes years, passed before their work ended up in theatres, and by then they had made so many new cartoons public reaction just wasn't on their radar. It was because they made cartoons to humour themselves, and because studio executives didn't much care what they did so long as they stayed on time and on budget, that "What's Opera, Doc?" was possible.
The key was placing it between two Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons in the production schedule. Formulaic by design, those ones could be done fast and cheap. Knock off the Coyote films ahead of schedule and under budget, reallocate the time and money to "What's Opera, Doc?" so the overall budgets remained intact, and voila! A masterpiece created right under the noses of studio executives who would have vetoed the idea long before Elmer Fudd could have raised his spear and donned his magic helmet.
A few years ago, when I staged a tribute to Chuck and his incredible body of work, showing 15 of his greatest cartoons on the big screen as they were originally meant to be seen, it wasn't "What's Opera, Doc?" that got the biggest reaction, initially. The nearly 500 people in attendance gave their most enthusiastic reaction to the opening credits of "One Froggy Evening" featuring Michigan J. Frog, and "Rabbit of Seville," the famous Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd barbershop ditty. Both great cartoons, to be sure, and both on any animation historian's top 10. The interesting thing was that for weeks afterward, people told me how moved they were by "What's Opera, Doc?" Some had never seen it before. Others had seen it on TV, but absent the big screen and big sound, they had failed to fall under its spell. Seeing it that day, the way audiences first saw it in 1957, they were enthralled.
That's what makes "What's Opera, Doc?" the greatest cartoon ever, and that is why a piece of such grandeur will never be repeated.
That's not to say good work hasn't been done in recent years. The laughs are plentiful with The Simpsons in its heyday, Family Guy most of the time, and South Park when they find that sweet spot between satire and absurdity. On the big screen, Pixar tells stories as captivating as the greatest Disney epics of the past, and pulls the viewer into spectacular and compelling worlds.
They are all great in their own way, but they are to be expected. Animated sitcoms are supposed to be funny and irreverent and mildly scandalous. Feature films are supposed to have rich character development, radio-worthy songs, and captivating storylines. Bugs Bunny cartoons are not supposed to feature a lisping Viking rabbit hunter enthusiastically professing his operatic love for a bunny in drag.
These days, cartoons are made for the small screen, for syndication, for licensing, for Happy Meal toys and theme park rides. Gone are the days when someone like Chuck could trick the system and go on a flight of fancy to animation immortality with such a hugely impractical and absolutely beautiful film.
No one who knows and loves "What's Opera, Doc?" will ever hear Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" without hearing, in their own minds, "Kill da wabbit ... kill da wabbit." While classical music aficionados may be offended by that fact, I'm okay with it. More than okay with it.
#1
Still my all-time favorite -- and it introduced me to classical music, which has been a life-long love. (Though I usually can't stand opera, ironically.)
Posted by: Jonathan ||
07/08/2007 14:25 Comments ||
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#2
RetOOOIIIN, my LOOOOOOVE...
What I liked about that cartoon (apart from the music, the singing, the fat horse, the lightning, the end, and the very end) were the backgrounds -- they were very minimalist, with just enough detail to suggest what was supposed to be back there. You saw that in a lot of Chuck Jones shorts. I think of it as a futuristic look, but I suppose in this case they just wanted to suggest stage backdrops.
I can't find the still I want but this one is similar: the trees have become an unbroken ring of leaves on sticks.
Posted by: Bruce ||
07/08/2007 14:33 Comments ||
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#3
The Warner Brother cartoons will go down in history as some of the absolute finest animation of all time. While Chuck Jones and his crew of zany artists deserve a lot of credit, I still believe that Mel Blanc was key to the success of these animated gems. Legend has it that when Warner Brothers took out an insurance policy on Mel Blanc's voice box it was required that he visit a speech pathologist to be examined for any pre-existing conditions.
This same doctor had also examined the famous opera singer Caruso. Upon scanning Blanc's x-rays the specialist was stunned to find that Mel's voice box was larger than any he had ever seen in his years of practice. I believe this is what enabled Mel Blanc to produce so many varied and authentic voice characterizations.
The backgrounds are beautifully textured paintings.
The unique nature of "What's Opera Doc?" does not end there. Review the cartoon and you will notice that the background scenery is "out of character" in that it is often painted in surreal colors. Also note the abstract renderings of Corinthian colums, forests and other visual props. This was an immense departure from the sincere realism that makes so many of the Warner Brothers cartoons such works of art.
a cartoon with no jokes, and no real gags
This is patently false. While not larded with the usual double entendres, ribaldry and puns, "What's Opera Doc?" has its share of gags. When betrayed Elmer's Siegfried scales the heights to summon down destruction upon deceiving Bugs' Brünnhilde he commands nature's elements to appear:
"... typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes, smog!"
While a cute literary allusion to the mythical dragon Smaug, it is incorrect nonetheless as the Ring Cycle's resident reptile is named Fafnir. Needless to say, (then why say it?), air pollution at that time was already a common feature of the Los Angeles basin's skyline. So it is no far reach that this was a purposefully planted howler for the literary set, as are so many of the obscure references in these works.
As to no jokes, I leave you with Bugs' parting shot at the very end as a tearful Elmer trudges off into the sunset carrying the rabbit's limp body:
"Well what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending?"
Here is a link to the full footage: http://one.revver.com/watch/109858
#6
It's funnier if you know the music... which brings up another point... that popular culture fifty years ago was much more literate. That is, the ordinary audience was presumed to be much more familier with so-called "high culture". Bits and snatches of classical music and the more accessible operas, from the classics and modern literature showed up in all sorts of things... hell, there were even opera singers on Ed Sullivan!
I mean, would What's Opera Doc? be made today? Like for kiddy television?
#7
High culture has a serious problem in that it never succeeded in keeping up with the times, though it tried.
I typically think of the 1812 Overture, which was created as kind of soundtrack to the second Napoleonic War. When it was written, it was current events, and needed little explanation. It had context.
But the only way it could popularly connect today would be if it was accompanied by video that would explain the story.
In a way, this was what Disney tried to do with the animated movie Fantasia. To give the audience a context for the music.
Why not have classical music videos? Pop music is very intertwined with its videos. Most people can't even hear the music without thinking of the visuals.
#8
High culture has a serious problem in that it never succeeded in keeping up with the times
I'd like to think that high culture is so lofty specifically because it doesn't keep up with the times. Classical music especially has a certain timelessness and emotional ouvre to it that few other art forms possess. Nearly 200 years later, the tempestuous nature of his 4th movementthe F minor allegro Gewitter (Storm) passage of Beethoven's Opus No. 68 in F majorin the "Pastoral" 6th Symphony, is still every bit as clear and interpretable as it was back when it was first penned in 1808. The Act II adagio of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" wordlessly evokes a magical Christmas visitation far better than many Yuletide carols ever will.
It is only a loss of appreciation that makes such work inaccessible. So few people today play a musical instrument that the magnificence of a philharmonic orchestra working through its paces is simply lost upon them. They cannot even conceive of the mastery and virtuosity required to compose or perform works of such elegance and depth.
Pop music is very intertwined with its videos.
And for that very reason popular music has sold its soul. MTV (pronounced "Empty Vee"), has almost destroyed modern music. With the importance of photogenic aspect and physical attractiveness thrust to the fore, musical talent has taken a permanent back seat to appearances. Truly, a another Hollywood victory of style over substance.
There are classical music videos being made but without the greatest attention to detail they are just as frequently a distraction from the actual performance. Perhaps that is so for me because I derive such great pleasure from performing music myself.
#9
The problem with classical music videos (the extended versions being PBS thingies, I suppose) is that so rarely is the sound quality of a television system equal to that of a reasonable stereo, expensive home theater surround sound set-ups excepted. But how many people can/want to afford those?
Once upon a time what is now classical music was the performance option to folk tunes. Johann Sebastian Bach composed court music, yes, but he was required by contract to provide music for several church services a month -- and not for his ruler's private chapel. Mozart's Requiem is as fine as his Magic Flute, if very different... and the film Amadeus showed the latter was practically a vaudeville piece, much like Shakespeare wrote as much to sell tickets to the groundlings as to the lords and ladies in the boxes. Chopin was as much a rock star as the Beatles, presumably not just for his composing. By contrast, so much of current classical composition is as deliberately unreachable for the untrained listener as is current fiction writing. I happened to hear the original composition from one of the recent BBC proms, and it was to me simply unlistenable. But it wasn't aimed at me, who grew up listening to classical and Disney record pretty exclusively, and played bad violin through high school; it was aimed at the composing professorate, who recognized all the references and currently fashionable affectations. On the other hand, both The Three Tenors and the Three Mo' Tenors sell out every booking, which certainly indicates audiences are not completely lacking.
And yet in the 1960s Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts were beloved by everyone who watched, and hard a large television viewership. The DVDs have been available for a while. I hope a successor can be found.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/08/2007 23:42 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has said she is determined to return to Pakistan because her country needs her. Ms Bhutto said in an interview with The Independent that she was not deterred by the threat of corruption charges, nor by constitutional amendments that bar anyone from being elected for a third term. I intend to go back before the years end and contest the elections. And if my people wish, they will lift that ban to enable me to then serve them as prime minister for a third time. 
June 21 2007: 2302, Pennington, Nigeria. A tanker undergoing cargo operations at a SBM was attacked by armed pirates. The pirates boarded the standby tug at the stern of the vessel and contacted the ship via VHF demanding to be let on board or they would sink the ship. The crew mustered, cargo operations were stopped and the vessel disconnected from the SBM. The tug was cast off and the ship proceeded at full speed to sea. All attempts to contact the authorities and the Nigerian navy were futile.
