True to themselves, the Monty Python have set up their own youtube channel with plenty of their videos, which can now be watched properly in high quality. Instead of engaging in stupid anti-piracy wars in the hopes of getting more money, which would ultimately harm viewers and people who genuinely like a certain artist or artists, the Python have decided to share their own work for free. One has got to admire them even more for this.
"Give up, just quit, because in this life, you can't win. Yeah, you can try, but in the end you're just gonna lose, big time, because the world is run by the Man. The Man, oh, you don't know the Man. He's everywhere. In the White House... down the hall... Ms. Mullins, she's the Man. And the Man ruined the ozone, he's burning down the Amazon, and he kidnapped Shamu and put her in a chlorine tank! And there used to be a way to stick it to the Man. It was called rock 'n roll, but guess what, oh no, the Man ruined that, too, with a little thing called MTV! So don't waste your time trying to make anything cool or pure or awesome 'cause the Man is just gonna call you a fat washed up loser and crush your soul. So do yourselves a favor and just GIVE UP!"
Dewey Finn, School of Rock
With this amazing quote, Dewey Finn aka Mr. S aka Jack-Fuck her gently-Black summarizes the fundamental human need to defy authority. School of rock, which theoretically sounds such a naff-seen it before kind of movie (inspirational teacher with unconventional methods helps stuck up/shy rich kids to find themselves through - dah - music) is actually amazing. And not least because of Jack Black who is perfect in the role of wannabe-stuck in the past-loser rocker who creates a school band to compete in the battle of the bands, delivers lines like the above with amazing poise.
I guess what really makes SoR so much better than all other movies of a similar kind, is that it is so honest and because it manages to find space for optimism (through art and creativity) within the most pessimist of situations-loserism. Viva la loser, then!
“If our gods and our hopes are nothing but scientific phenomena, then it must be said that our love is scientific as well” Villiers de L'Isle Adam, L'Eve future
There are so many movies, books that deal with the quintessential philosophical questions, that of the relationship between the body and the mind/soul. Some do it greatly (ghost in the shell, blade runner/do androids dream of electric sheep, the first matrix, never let me go, brave new world etc) some others not so well (I, Robot). It's not that they fail tragically, but they just don't have the subtlety and the depth of the ones I just mentioned.
The idea that life, soul can spark from an empty shell, that consciousness in people stems from material cell connections in our brain is old. I guess what makes it timeless in a sense that it will always create interest and debates is at the source of our existential questions as human beings: what am I? Where do my feelings come from? Does it necessarily mean that if my feelings are not real, then I can suppress them better? Do I have a role in life?
Even more interestingly, this questions are, I think, ultimately unanswerable. The 'evidence' provided, feelings, is part of the debate itself and in the end the only thing one can rely on, in order to make a decision about all this, is one's intuitions.
Intuitions that are a kind of feelings in any case.
In our normal day to day lives people close to us do not constantly show us their appreciation. Much as we love each other we usually just get along, each of us minding our own business.
But there are some days that change that, and birthdays as such days.
Birthdays are great not because we get many gifts (although that helps!)
Birthdays are great not only because we get to indulge and go out and not work for the day.
Birthdays are great because this is the one day that people in your life make a point in telling you that they love you, that they are thinking of you, that they are there for you. It is the day that people call you from afar, send you gifts or throw a party for you.
I am very emotional today and in a sense I didn't expect that. The elections are not in my country and I am not black, but Barack Obama's win was, I think, overwhelming.
In times like ours, when Chomsky quotes Thycidides, saying: "The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must", it is amazing to have someone make you believe that you don't have to suffer just because you must. In a country whose first 16 presidents (as a journalist on TV put it yesterday) 'could have owned Obama' (as a slave), for this country to elect him, it's amazing.
People and especially young people do not believe in politics, this is no news. Cynicism is our weapon of choice. Before the war against Iraq started, I had another optimism crisis, mainly because of the demonstrations in London. I was reading about it, I was getting interested, in short I believed that this time, arbitrary power would not stand. But I was wrong.
This time, I feel optimistic again because I believe in this man who smiles so sincerely and says he wants to close Guantanamo. I really hope he does what he promises.
After the longest, tightest and most interesting campaigns in recent history, this time tomorrow we will definately know.
We will know whether the world is ready for a black American president. We will know whether people are willing to take a chance. We will know whether inspirational rhetoric matters. We will know whether it is an unforgivable sin to be educated, eloquent and polite. We will also know whether pitbulls with an appetite for hunting are appreciated. We will know whether patriotism can be measured. We will know whether Nam veterans stand a chance (and therefore Oliver stone should make some more movies for them).
But most of all we will know, whether people can accept and respect the other man's right to be different.
There are three days I can safely say were the happiest days of my life. The day Saramago won the Nobel Prize of Literature was one of them. I remember I woke up and turned the TV on and there was news in every channel about Saramago. It wasn't clear to me he had actually won. I thought, 'leave the man alone, for Christ sake. He's been nominated for years, we already know he never wins, no need to rub it in!'. When I finallly realised that the reason why everybody couldn't stop talking about him was because he had actually won the Nobel, I felt immense gratitude and admiration. For me, Saramago receiving the Nobel was a victory for the Portuguese language itself and for all the other great Portuguese writers who turn their language into art with every book they write. I will always be thankful and happy for that.
I generally feel very detached from my country. I hate this feeling and I struggle every day to make myself feel connected to this land. However, I've always felt extremely close to the Portuguese language and I think I can safely say that the only Portuguese thing I truly love and would be sorry to live without is the language. It's a funny, sad, sweet, strange, strong language full of consonants and hardly any open vowels which sounds harsh, ugly, wrong (I'm told it sounds slavonic or russian or polish, so on and so forth) and it has just got this amazing strong personality that I simply love. I'm always amazed at how one can feel so detached from the country, but so close to the language. When Saramago won, I felt my language was winning as well, a language not many people speak, not many people know, not many people care about (not even Portuguese people themselves). But for those who do love Portuguese literature and language, the Nobel felt like a great victory.
This video shows Saramago crying after having seen a special screening of Blindness, the film based on his book, which was directed by Fernando Meirelles (the one from Cidade de Deus) and which is supposed to be quite bad, although I don't really care whether the film is good or bad, I'm still going to see it when it opens. Saramago tells Fernando he is as happy after having seen the movie as he was after he wrote the book, and that's when Fernando kisses him in the forehead, saying he is very happy Saramago feels that way. José Saramago is old and soon he will become a memory. A strong memory - he won the Nobel, his books are already studied at school, he has already received his accolades - but a memory nevertheless. It is nice to know that, while he is still alive, people read his books and comment on his books and make movies out of his books. Ultimately, it is also a celebration of language, and that is really nice to know.
