Pontius Pilate: You're a funny guy Judas, I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you last.
(later)
Pontius Pilate: Where is she, Judas?
Judas: Kiss my ass!
Pontius Pilate: I can't hear you!
Judas: I'll say it a little louder, get fucked!
Pontius Pilate: [holds Judas upside-down over a cliff by his leg] Listen, loyalty is very touching. But it is not the most important thing in your life right now! But what IS important is gravity! I have to remind you Judas, this is my weak arm!
Judas: You can't kill me Pontius Pilate! You need me to find your daughter!
Pontius Pilate: Where is she?
Judas: I don't know. But Jesus knows, I'll take you to where I'm supposed to meet him!
Pontius Pilate: But you won't.
Judas: Why not?
Pontius Pilate: [holds the hotel key he stole from Judas that Jesus is staying at] Because I already know. Remember, Judas, when I promised to kill you last?
Judas: That's right, Pontius Pilate! You did!
Pontius Pilate: I lied.

minorly *nsfw due to some nudity.

This didn't really work for me. The Moonlight Sonata just didn't mesh with Hotel California, and the imagery just felt like a random early 90s video by Marilyn Manson or Nirvana or . Not that those videos are bad, it's just been done before.

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Coolest Wall Clock Ever!! (Ham Yard Hotel) has been added as a related post - related requested by newtboy on that post.

Up until I saw my fellow countrymen (including many I respected) fawning like chimps at a tea party during that whole "jubilee" thing I might have agreed. There seems to be a huge cognitive dissonance for most people when it comes to the royals.

On the one hand most don't really take it very seriously, on the other many (maybe even most) appear to have a sub-conscious desire/need to submit to their natural betters. Our whole national identity is built on the myths of Kings and failed rebellions and I fear for many the Monarchy represents a kind of bizarre political security blanket. We claim to not really care but deep down I think many of us secretly fear loosing our mythical matriarch.

One might liken it to celebrity worship backed by 100's & 1000's of years of religious mythology. The Royal's aren't really human to us, they are more like some closely related parent species born to a life we could only dream of. I realise that when asked directly most people would consciously acknowledge that was silly, but most would also respond the same to say Christian sexual repression. They know sex and nakedness when considered rationally are nothing to be ashamed of, but they still continue to treat their own urges as somehow sinful when they do not fall within rigidly defined social parameters.

We still haven't gotten over such Judeo-Christian self policing because the social structures built up around it are still with us (even if we fool ourselves into thinking we are beyond the reach of such sub-conscious influences). I don't think we will ever get over our master-slave culture while class and unearned privilege are still built into the fabric of our society. Having a Royal family, no matter how symbolic, is the very living embodiment of this kind of backwards ideology.

It's like trying to quit heroin while locked in a room with a big bag of the stuff.

It's true to say most don't take the whole thing very seriously but that to me is almost as concerning. Most people when asked don't believe advertising has a significant effect on their psyche but Coke-a-cola still feels like spending about 3 billion a year on it is worthwhile. One of them is clearly mistaken!

Our royal family here, is to me working in the same way as coke's advertising. It's a focal point for a lot of sub-conscious concepts we are bombarded with our whole lives. Naturally there are many sides to this and it wouldn't work without heavy media manipulation, state indoctrination etc. but it's an intrinsic part of the coercive myth none the less. Monarch's, Emperors and wealthy Dynasties are all poisons to me. No matter the pragmatic details, the sub-conscious effect seems significant and cumulative.

"Dead" symbolisms IMHO can often be the most dangerous. At least one is consciously aware of the devils we see. No one is watching the one's we have forgotten.....

The above is reason enough for me but I have bog all better to do this aft so I'll dive into the rabbithole a bit.....

(We do very quickly start getting into conspiracy theory territory hare so I'll try to keep it as uncontroversial as I can.)

A. The UK is truly ruled by financial elites not political ones IMHO. "The city" says jump, Whitehall says how high. The Royal family being among the wealthiest landowners and investors in the world (let alone UK) presumably can exert the same kind of influence. Naturally this occurs behind closed doors, but when the ownership class puts it's foot down the government ignores them to their extreme detriment. (It's hard to argue with people who own your economy de-facto and can make or break your career)

B. The queen herself sits on the council on foreign relations & Bilderberg group and she was actually the chairwoman of the "committee of 300" for several years. (and that's not even starting on club of Rome, shares in Goldman Sachs etc.)

C. SIS the uk's intelligence services (MI5/6 etc.), which have been proven to on occasion operate without civilian oversight in the past, are sworn to the crown. This is always going to be a most contentious point as it's incredibly difficult to prove wrongdoings, but I have very strong suspicions based on various incidents (David Kelly, James Andanson, Jill Dando etc.), that if they wanted/needed you dead/threatened that would not be especially difficult to arrange.

D. Jimmy Saville. This one really is tin foil hat territory, but it's no secret he was close to the Royal family. I am of the opinion this is because he was a top level procurer of "things", for which I feel there is a great deal of evidence, but I can't expect people to just go along with that idea. However given the latest "paedogeddon" scandal involving a extremely high level abuse ring (cabinet members, mi5/6, bankers etc.) it certainly would come as little surprise to find royal family members involved.

Points A&B I would stand behind firmly. C&D are drifting into conjecture but still potentially relevant I feel.

But even if we ignore all of them, our culture is built from the ground up upon the idea of privilege of birth. That there are some people born better or more deserving than the rest of us. When I refer to symbolism this is what I mean. Obviously the buck does not stop with the monarchy, England is hopelessly stratified by class all the way through, but the royal family exemplify this to absurd extremes.

At best I feel this hopelessly distorts and corrupts our collective sense of identity on a sub-conscious level. At worst....Well you must have some idea now how paranoid I'm capable of being about the way the world is run. (Not that I necessarily believe it all wholeheartedly, but I'm open to the possibility and inclined to suggest it more likely than the mainstream narrative)


On a pragmatic note: Tourism would be fine without them I think, we still have the history and the castles and the soldiers with silly hats etc. And I think the palaces would make great hotels and museums. They make great zoo exhibits I agree, just maybe not let them continue to own half the zoo and bribe the zoo keepers?


Anyway much love as always. You responded with considered points which is always worthy of respect, regardless of whether I agree with it all.

Small Hotel room. Oh, He drinks what and how he wants to drink. He's the damn captain.

I found Grand Budapest Hotel to be thoroughly brilliant and enjoyable from start to finish, but maybe because I haven't seen Wes Anderson's previous films. Try not to compare it to his other films. which can be hard because of his style, but I think you'll find it a lot more enjoyable and much better than "not bad".

As for Cappin Murica Too, I did like it, but compared to and still coming off the high of The Avengers (as I had watched it again not long before), where the characters, dialogue and action was just so great, especially the action. So well choreographed, so well paced, so well shot (no shaky cam BS) and such interesting stunts and if memory serves me, no stupid slow-mo. After that, CA2 didn't quite compare.

Which is why I want to see it again, where Avengers wasn't so fresh in my mind, and where I hadn't been put in a different state of mind after watching GBH

It was a fun, well made action flick with decent characters. It wasn't Citizen Kane but it was an excellent example of what it wanted to be.

Grand Budapest Hotel though, was very overrated IMHO. Not that it was bad, but it wasn't nearly as good as The Life Aquatic.

I need to watch it again. I didn't find it as amaze-balls as everyone made it out to be (still enjoyed it though), although when I saw it, it was right after seeing The Grand Budapest Hotel.

I also found it interesting they highlighted the Ryugyong Hotel (the huge pyramid building). It's been under construction for 25 years, largely halted since the Soviet Union collapsed and the slush fund train ended. While the exterior is done according to wikipedia, the interior is not and it's always be unoccupied.

China's metropolises feed a similar misconception. They are similarly impressive that it's easy to forget that the country as a whole is still very poor. China's GDP per capita is half of Brazil, a quarter of South Korea and a tenth that of the US.

While China is obviously not as repressive as NK, the hukou dual citizenship system has a similar effect of segregation rural and urban dwellers. While rural workers may be able to move to work in the cities, they will enjoy none of the social benefits and protections that local citizens do. This has a lot to do with China's disparity of income and accretion of wealth to the large cities.

*dead removed by user ... guess he got discovered. From King 5 News in Seattle July 24, 2014:

Seattle's iconic Space Needle is still standing after police received reports of a drone crash at the popular tourist attraction Tuesday night.

The Seattle Police Department Blotter says witnesses reported seeing a small drone buzz around the top of the Space Needle and possibly crash into an observation deck window. Witnesses said the drone - described as a white quad-propeller unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a camera - then glided to a nearby hotel, where it landed inside a fifth floor room.

Police said no damage was found at the Space Needle.

Investigators tracked the drone to a guest staying at the hotel. The man told police he flew his drone past the Needle, but claims it didn't hit anything. He showed video from the drone's flight, which showed people waving from the observation deck but no collision into the Needle.

The man told police he was an Amazon employee visiting from out of state and had bought the drone at a hobby shop. After police educated the man about Seattle's recent drone-related controversies, the guest agreed to not fly his drone again during his visit to Seattle.

Your video, Lamps Everywhere!!! Hotel Furniture Liquidators Ad, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

No one should have to suffer your abusive, filth laden attacks and drivel. Some here do not. Others here suffer in silence. I will not.

Art? What some call art. Smearing filth on Greybar Hotel walls is not art and clanging on rusty bars and wailing is not music except to the most challenged or deranged, Felonious Monk.

As to your many offers...back to the porcelain mirror Swirley.

I'm pretty sure the future intentions for this technology is to have a printer you can move to the site, and it would build the entire house structure over several days.

But of course this still needs a lot of work... those walls look terrible and rough as hell, and they're almost completely hollow, so unless they filled it with insulating foam, the thermal properties of the building must suck.

IF this type of technology reaches the point where it can build houses as good as a regular one, AND it can also reduce the price by a good chunk... then it will have a huge impact on construction. This and also the pre-built structure format. Let's not forget the chinese built a 30 story hotel in just 15 days, two years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdpf-MQM9vY