Obama is the backfire of an experiment(used body parts and haunting graveyards), designed as a booster shot for Skillary, that explodes in the face of the mad doctor.....what a crock of shit election you are trying to discuss, Jeff-Find friendlies on yer blog, muckracker.......chip off the same block, blogger-boy!

Re Heinlein. I'm re reading my dads collection, so have only recently read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Tunnel in the sky. Just finished Glory Road. His views are interesting, but are not as clear cut, just as Farhad shows, as he tends to explore things in his books. It's possibly they are/have reflections of his true feelings, and their apparent evolution/revolution/subtle changes reflects his views at the times of writing of each book. i've noticed how "sex" is often almost completely ignored as a human trait, when exploring some of the stories with an adolescent male protagonist (anything up to 25 ish) and his female characters have a lot of consistent traits (although to be fair, his male chars are often very samey too). I'll get around to stranger in a strange land again in a bit, but The one i finished last night was Glory Road. It tackles the relationship/cultural aspects of sex obliquely, considering how different parallel universes (interconnected) allow utterly diverse and somewhat isolationist evolution of culture. How very different attitudes and norms can be seen as moral, given an appropriate context. Just as TMIAHM allowed the moon penal colony context to justify exploring stable and appropriate social adoptions/human relationships, Glory Road presents the idea that there are as many possibilities as you can come up with.

He also shows a strong hint of a dislike at the sexual culture of America at the time, and an acknowledgment that "enlightenment" as to their unreasonableness is not the same as being free form it's influence. He condemns earth pretty harshly, by declaring it to be the only place that had invented Prostitution, in any form, with all other places considering Sex to be High Art, worthy of much study and respect. The concept of Prostitution, or of sex being a commodity, had so pervaded the culture that it influenced every aspect of relationships, referencing examples of dowry, and men paying for dates, as cultural transaction. However, the lead female is almost fearful from the start, that her promiscuous nature and past will cause the Hero to see her as a slut. At the end, he makes the following point:

"The typical American female is sure that she has genius as a couturiere, as an interior decorator, as a gourmet cook, and, always, as a courtesan. Usually she is wrong on four counts. But dont try to tell her so.
Unless you can catch one not over twelve and segragate her, especially form her mother -- and even that may be too late.
But don't missunderstnad me, it evens out. The American male is convinced that he is a great warrior, a great statesman, and a great lover. Spot checks prove that he is as deluded as she is. Or worse. Historo-culturaly speaking, there is strong evidence that the American male, rather than female, murdered sex in your country."

"What can I do about it?"

"Slip over to France now and then. French women are almost as ignorant but not nearly as conceited and often are teachable."

But he also mentions: ".. is where they tried to outlaw sex entirely. I had seen enough of that dreary graveyard in ..." which i think was referring to the UK, but cant be certain. Almost certainly somewhere in Europe. So his disgust at our attitudes and behavior regarding sex is world wide, and not just at America of the time. (its dated 1963 for ref)

I think he had strong practical, anarcho, very small government, butt out and leave it alone views about organization, with an acknowledgment that a sizable portion of the populace have opinions too ill educated to be considered as needfully relevant to the organizing body/government, whomever.

I'm reading The Star Beast now. thats fun.

>> kronosposeidon:
Seriously, has anyone besides dystopia and me thought about euthanizing all those Simpons/Family Guy/Futurama clips in the dead pool? Or how about this: If any video has been dead for over a year how about automatically * killing it quietly in its comatose sleep? After a year it's probably suffered irreversible brain damage anyway, so pulling the plug on it is probably the only humane thing left to do at that point. Maybe that's something to consider for VS 3.2 or later. Let's not let this end up in the courts, people.

I disagree. Maybe we could have a graveyard or something to put the kinds of dead sifts that are constantly cluttering up the dead pool, but there's no reason to remove the sifts altogether.

This film got me fired from my job.
I was working graveyard shift in the video department for Bass Pro Shops at their corporate headquarters. I had the run of the place, all to myself. A buddy of mine had just been accepted to The American Film Institute, mainly from a short he did, which inspired me to do one. So with a warehouse room full of video equipment (and the blessings of my boss) I set off to make my first short film.

After it was complete I created a website (from the perspective of the stalker, with creepy journal)
http://www.archetype-productions.com/think-about-you/
and sent it off to film festivals. I actually had the dvmagazine film festival call me to make sure it was "just" a film (idiots??).

The film did really well and i got into about 15 film festivals, even winning about $10k worth of equipment from Sony (& AFI film festival)

But my good luck was not to last, cause somehow, one of the higher ups at work got wind of the website and film. The next thing I knew they had setup security sign ins and check points and I no longer had a job.

You didn't watch 'til the end, ant. Those trumpet pitchers are practically an ant graveyard.

I really think there should be a longer video burn out for videos in the dead pool, because some of them can be eventually fixed but many are snippets of rarity that I don't see coming back anytime soon or ever.

The Dead Pool would only get larger.

Maybe they could be taken out to like a VS graveyard.

Tombstone hand and a graveyard mine,
Just 22 and I don't mind dying.

Who do you love?

I'm like a flippin rabid badger when it comes to keeping things clean choggie. I have videos that have no replacements on any video site. I don't see why I can't get rid of them. Especially if I can't even fix the URL. I don't mind keeping a graveyard but dang it, let me raise a few zombies every now and then.

MINK-Caligraphy, is a balm, an obsessive distraction, and so many wonderful things.....welcome to history, become your passion!



Gorgonheap, well, yer a go-getter!


"First two initials followed by last name. K. A. Raidl. (Raidl pronounced Ray-dull.)"

[Rayden, rather, suck yer head off inna minnit!]..never give yer name on the internets....in case you wanna run for the office!!!]

I enjoyed the books and always had a good laugh from the Zifnab/Fizban characters so I started using Zifnab as my online handle and it kinda stuck"


[thank the fucking stars, a reader!]

My avatar notwithstanding, my name is not from the bug, but a type of encryption ke....[all we need to know, thank Bob for insects]

"Also there was this small swamp behind a graveyard down the road from where I lived in some woods where my friends and I braved as kids"[swampthing, can prob'ly cook up a mess a greens, too]

This
http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/eric.boix/Koan/Hekiganroku/index.html
[indecipherable: -adj. Having many talons and gifts. 2. lush

"based on the bird, snipe, rather than sniper."
[pigeon and you'd gedda long]

"I found a toque in my parents attic when I was younger and it simply said "fedquip", I had that toque for a long time, it's now my user name."

goddamn we have a lot in common....(*lights bowl)

My name is Farhad.

The 2000.....is because he could die before will ever stop posting before I hit 2000]......(....fahad's ever-presence..)

dag, -For all ya' toilet flushing-wankers it's Dog, in Aussie, and pikey....


so.....anyone else need a Fresh-queued roast????....Microwave or conventional???

Oh, I've used variations of "swamp" in a screen name for 15 years. There are a few influences for that I suppose.
I grew up on this road named after Francis Marion (The Swamp Fox). Everything in the area is named after him, even the University.
Also there was this small swamp behind a graveyard down the road from where I lived in some woods where my friends and I braved as kids. Later it became a hangout area where our folks weren't monitoring our ..uh activities .
But ultimately I'm a southern girl and it just fits that vibe.

Officially for my online persona, I'm adopting this story:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Swamp-Girl-1971-Trailer

When Ryan was an old man fretting over his life at the graveyard was the most heartwrenching scene of the film.

Hey Farhad, have you heard of a Russian film called "Psy" (Dogs)? It's supposed to have footage of the ship graveyards of the Aral Sea, I'd be really interested to see it but so far haven't found it anywhere.

It isn't the members' fault that a vid goes dead. If someone tries to watch a video that isn't working then it gets flagged as dead. It happens to all of us, sure isn't worth whining over you nerd.

And for the first time, I think so anyway, there is a compiled playlist of dead vids. Take one look at it and the sift graveyard is freakin' vast. I've been deading some vids, not meaning to offfend anyone because it is nothing that someone should be so fragile over that they do get upset by it. The older members typically have the most dead links because the videos themselves are older and the lawyers and harpies have been reigning down on youtube for the past year.

Theo,

I watched "Night of the Living Dead," the first time while I was alone. I was in my parents house and they were gone for the weekend. It came on about midnight or one o'clock. It was totally great. Very unsettling for impressionable young minds.

Sc

In reply to your comment:
“You'd think the movie would seem campy and outdated by now, but it still scares the crap out of me; especially that first scene in the graveyard.

There's still something to be said for tone and simple imagery, I guess.”

You'd think the movie would seem campy and outdated by now, but it still scares the crap out of me; especially that first scene in the graveyard.

There's still something to be said for tone and simple imagery, I guess.