Ahh Lego and Super Mario Bros, and Lego and Pacman… Gold.
Pacman arrives about a minute in to this one…
Category: Culture
Questions from answers
No, this isn’t a post about Jeopardy. Have you ever seen a billboard that just didn’t make sense? Have you ever seen one of those billboards that came from a Christian organisation? Well, here’s one. So now you can answer “yes” to both those questions… It makes no sense to me at all – perhaps you can explain it to me.
Answers in Genesis even made this into a video advert on YouTube. I think they’re suggesting that if you’re not a Christian you’re likely to shoot people because you don’t really care about them – or that people who don’t believe in God are more likely to shoot you because they don’t care about you.
It’s just odd and pretty screwy. Though I’d expect that from these guys. They’re Christianity’s Richard Dawkins.
There’s a “backfire” pun here somewhere
Malcolm Turnbull’s tenacious UteGate attacks were a serious miscalculation. It seems that it’s not a case of the public “not caring” about the issue – but rather caring that they had to continue putting up with an issue that nobody but Turnbull cared about.
He’s now a less popular leader than Costello (who has announced his retirement) and Joe Hockey. As usual, Peter Hartcher’s SMH analysis is worth a read.
No laughing matter
You know what’s not funny – and hasn’t been for weeks – every time someone mentions the fact that they have cold or flu like symptoms somebody in the audience will invariably make reference to Swine Flu.
It’s not funny because Swine Flu is a serious topic – it’s not funny because when everybody comes up with the same lame joke the joke is dead.
There are funny Swine Flu jokes around – look them up. Suggesting that a cough is indicative of Swine Flu is at best derivative – you’re also at least a month behind the curve of public opinion if you think it’s still interestingly or topically humourous.
Please stop.
Dead celebrities society
The dead celebrity news cycle is so predictable it has been provided in cartoon form.
Reviewing History
I’m a little behind on my unread items queue in Google Reader. So I was shocked at first when I read this story – but then I realised it was written on the 24th.
“I am sure fans of Michael Jackson would know that he wore a dress or jacket or gloves worth much more than the one million pounds he is going to spend. I would say, wherever you are in this world, don’t miss to go and attend his final mind blowing concert!”
This is no doubt of real comfort to the millions of people grieving his passing. Knowing that he was going to wear a million dollar coat.
Odd, as I was writing this I was watching a recording of “Talkin’ about Your Generation” from last Tuesday that opened with a Michael Jackson joke.
Is it still funny to make jokes about the previously living Michael Jackson?
Japanese cultural convergence
The Japanese – famous for a love of baseball, over-exaggerated television programming and Samurais.
Transformers 2
We saw Transformers 2 last night. It lived up to all my expectations. People (critics) who complain about Transformers movies forget that the movies are based on action figures – and Revenge of the Fallen replicates just about ever Transformer battle my imagination ever produced when playing with the toys. There’s a slight spoiler in the third paragraph – don’t read it if you don’t want to.
The plot was a bit bumbling – it really was just a vehicle for bringing the vehicles together into gravity defying alien robot Wrestlemania. Some of the fights copied the WWE’s playbook – there were submission moves, power moves… it was awesome. If wrestling involved robots I’d get cable TV and watch every week. It felt a bit like watching a National Treasure movie just with awesome robots. Really awesome robots.
The basic plot (without spoilers) involves the reluctant “messiah” Sam having the typical “central character doesn’t want to undertake the task they’ve been pre-ordained to perform” identity crisis – popular since Gethsemane. If I wanted to Christianise this review I’d say isn’t it great that there’s such a powerful allegory – Sam even “dies” at one point only to meet the Robot gods in heaven and be flung back to earth. There’s a bit of messianic confusion because Optimus Prime also dies and is resurrected.
Go see it though – you won’t be disappointed the explosions are bigger and there are more robots and more robot fights than the first one (and a few laughs along the way). I gave it an 8/10 because I’m capable of ignoring the stuff that critics look for in awesome robot carnage fests.
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (Final Theatrical Trailer) from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.
Piper on movies
John Piper has an interesting take on consumption of culture – particularly trivial culture – similar to Philip Jensen’s thoughts that I posted a while back, and quite different to Mark Driscoll’s. Mark Driscoll should get a comission from Tivo he talks about it so much… Piper says he doesn’t watch TV because it’s trivial – but if he does he takes the following position…
I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.
I’ll put it bluntly. The only nude female body a guy should ever lay his eyes on is his wife’s. The few exceptions include doctors, morticians, and fathers changing diapers. “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1). What the eyes see really matters. “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Better to gouge your eye than go to hell (verse 29).
This is one of those points where I come down on the Driscoll side of the equation – I think understanding culture involves understanding what people are filling their minds with. But I tend to feel the same way as Piper. Violence and swearing don’t really bother my Christian sensibilities.
Open letter to Queensland
Dear Queensland,
Poking fun at people from outside the state because of the result of a football game they had no control over is not clever. It’s not really funny either – unless you’re a funny person.
I did not play football for New South Wales last night. Neither did 6,889,983 other New South Welshmen… ignoring that part of that population statistic are migratory Queenslanders. Nor would I have picked 70% of the chosen players to represent me on the Rugby League field.
To pick on me because of that result is ludicrous. It’s also pretty close to the dictionary definition of racism:
1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
Just something to think about next time you insult me on the basis of having been born interstate.
That is all.
Regards,
Nathan Campbell,
Townsville
Critic critique
Some of my friends are movie buffs. The annoying and condescendingly superior type. I like them. But they are movie snobs. I imagine I come across the same way when I’m talking about coffee or bagging out U2.
Critics are never happy. Well not until everything is 100% correct. This annoys me in every aspect of life except coffee (and when I’m bagging out U2). I find it particularly annoying when it comes to movies and reading movie reviews. Movies, in my mind (and this touches on the recent Wonderland discussion) are about entertainment and appreciation of execution. Both don’t have to be perfect for me to walk out of a movie feeling like I got my moneys worth. When both are perfect – ala the Godfather 1 – it’s a more satisfying experience obviously… but here are two examples of the problem…
An SMH review of Transformers 2…
“Michael Bay thinks that movies are a sandbox and, to some extent, they are. The trick is to create something meaningful from the tools in the sandbox. The first film did that; the second is a sandy imitation.”
Here’s the problem with this review – Transformers is a movie based on a series of action figures. It’s made primarily for an audience of males who like having stuff blown up. By all accounts Transformers 2 has bigger, better explosions with bigger and better fights between the alien robots. Reviews that take plot and stuff like that into account are missing the point. Nobody cares. It’s going to make bucket loads of money.
Point Two is just a continuation of my conversation with Ben… he said that Tim Burton should relinquish some control of his movies in order to produce compelling visual spectacles with nice Burtonesque aesthetics.
I like to think of Tim Burton’s movies as a vehicle for his aesthetics – and I’m happy to enjoy them even if the plot makes no sense. Like in Mars Attacks.
Blocktastic
I’ve written about Pacman, I’ve written about Rubiks Cubes, I’ve written about Super Mario Bros, and I’ve written about art. That’s a lot of topics to converge in a single post. But I’ve done it. Well, more correctly, somebody else has – I’m just here to show you the fruits of their labour. Art made from Rubiks Cubes… not just art… geek art. I would have thought a Tetris inspired design would be appropriate – but perhaps too easy…
YouTube Tuesday: Come Play
Kudos to Tim for posting this today. If World Cup bids were judged by production of the bid video then we’d be in with a shot.