May 31, 2009
May 30, 2009
I have decided not enough of you followed that link to the Brett Domino Trio cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It"
BRETT DOMINO: Live in London.
Glukoza: Schweine
The Lord of the Rings pastiche is classic.
English lyrics below the fold.
English:
Flow of cars, I arrived peacefully
Without control and with obstacles in my head
I'm going home
Step, step, step - I ended up in the dark again
For the third time I was completely deceived
Already by you
I won't forgive, and the head goes*
I want to choose the words for them
One, two, three
Swanky-swanky pigs
Oh-oh
One, two, three
Swanky-swanky pigs
Quid pro quo - now a strike for the honest**
I'm in motion top center
Now you aren't mine
Piggy boy, I in no way expected
That I'm flying into a bum deal again
Now with you
Chorus
[Man speaking Russian in background:]
Attention! Attention!
To all cheaters of girl's hearts,
You are ordered to gather together and go on...
Or try to turn from pigs into people
And not cheat on those who love you.
[Woman speaking German in background:]
Attention! Attention!
This is for all liars who broke the heart of a woman,
You are given the order to stick close together,
and, erm, oh-oh, or try to turn from pigs into people
and never lie again to the ones who love you.
May 29, 2009
Brett Domino Trio: I Kissed a Girl
There cover of Beat It is classic.
We call that one Mua'dib
Ever watchful lest I relent and agree to a pet, the Girlfriend of the Flea is now angling for a Greater Egyptian Jerboa.
Or possibly a Long-eared Jerboa.
And thanks for all the fish
Three families of beavers have been released into a Scottish forest, reintroducing the creatures to the UK after a 500 year absence.
Nothing to worry about then. (Canadians will detect a note of sarcasm.)
What has no heart, bones, eyes or brain, is made up of 95% water, and yet is still a remarkably efficient ocean predator?
The answer is the jellyfish.
Red squirrels are such beautiful, mystical little creatures. The greys are not. They are destructive.
Up with the Red!
Down with the Grey!
Something that rhymes!
Eat the Grey!
May 28, 2009
James Doman: Everything's gonna be alright
Mock me as you will. Traffic doesn't generate itself.
May 27, 2009
Hermione for Lagerfeld
Banzai
We have no one but ourselves to blame. We did not live up to our end of the bargain with Japan.
A vampire lives there
I am jealous of Guillermo del Toro's home in Los Angeles.
77 Million Paintings
Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings is spectacular against the Sydney Opera House (trust me, follow the links). The man still rocks a synth pad.
The following two embedded videos are from a time lapse recording of a different performance of the same piece. Click through to Vimeo if you would prefer to see the HD version; the embedded version will play here after a 30 second delay. Haunting and beautiful - as one would expect from Eno - but for the irritating hang ups in the audio I am getting at my end.
7 Hours in 77 Million Paintings (2008.03.08) from Pitch Bend on Vimeo.
7 More Hours in 77 Million Paintings (2008.03.16) from Pitch Bend on Vimeo.
May 26, 2009
Throttle an environmentalist. But take care to wash your hands when you are done.
As of June 1, the people of Toronto enact out our latest stupidity; an environmental kabuki at the check out counter. Paying five cents a bag to carry home the shopping will be vexing and pointless, I had thought, but mostly harmless in comparison with a plethora of other statist fads that have been imposed upon the Canadian people by our betters (allied with our own ignorance, indifference and self-satisfaction).*
Not so. It turns out the reusable grocery bags of our green masters are a rich source of food poisoning. Also skin infections such as bacterial boils. And allergic reactions. And asthma attacks. And ear infections.
And, in my case, dangerously elevated bile levels.
It is almost as if disposable plastic shopping bags were a miracle product from the future; a product of science and industry meant to save us from all manner of contagious nastiness. In our all too immanent green future, we will be quite literally forced to eat shit and like it.
(via Celestial Junk)
* Excepting those residents of Toronto on a fixed income. As ever, the poor will pay the highest price for the virtue of the Canadian Establishment.
May 25, 2009
What we are dealing with
In light of North Korea's latest atomic weapons test, a reminder of what we are dealing with.* I almost wish I could unsee image No. 4.
* Of that with which we are dealing.
Related: From the documentary film A State of Mind, "The story of two North Korean schoolgirls and their families in the lead up to the Mass Games – the biggest and most elaborate human performance on earth."
That's what people are paying for - to be terrified and disturbed
Two stars: One strikes fear into the hearts of millions by offering up serial misogynistic caricatures of femininity as a form of low brow mass entertainment. The other is Eli Roth.
Step 1 - Create bitchin' horror movies.
Step 2 - Get second billing to Brad Pitt.
Setp 3 - Profit!
Related: While not an auteur a la Roth, Paris Hilton has her own terrifying Tarantino ambitions.
Yet more related: Agent Bedhead offers an exceptional rant.
Death defying Update: Inglourious Basterds star cheated death (hat tip to You Know Who).
Appropriate military dress
No, I have not seen the new Star Trek film. Or the the Terminator movie. Or that other thing that came out recently that I was supposed to have seen. I have no good excuse as it is summer term but it is a scheduling problem nonetheless. I expect I shall see the new Harry Potter in a timely fashion.
May 24, 2009
Kylie wears dress
Eats cherry. In related news: Blogger awaits comp tickets to Kylie Minogue Toronto show.
Still awaiting.
No reply from Walrus re my forwarded link/ticket hint, btw. My working assumption is arts magazines can't get comp tickets to real concerts.
What if they held a Monroe doctrine and nobody came?
Information Dissemination hosts photos from China of recent work on former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag. Also an important scoop lifted from a Portugese language defense, strategy and intelligence site: Brazilian Minister of Defense Nelson Jobim has announced a deal whereby PLAN pilots are to train for catapult operations on Brazilian carrier São Paulo.
For the uninitiated: Wikipedia entries for CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take Off But Arrested Recovery) and STOBAR (Short Take Off But Arrested Recovery).
May 23, 2009
Crush your enemies. Drive them before you. Hear the lamentation of their women.
How Sri Lanka's military won:
Ban the international press.
Ignore the "international community".
Defeat the enemy.
I prefer Sri Lanka's approach to bringing about a ceasefire.
May 22, 2009
And he is right
Tom Tancredo says it is time to consider legalizing drugs (via Hot Air).
Gingerbread haka
Because today I am thinking there are plenty of folks who need a good ass kicking.
May 21, 2009
Enrich yourselves
American Thinker reprints a letter from a filthy kulak unfit to sell the people's automobiles. RTWT.
(Severe blood pressure warning.)
Excluded
A friend of the Flea - let's call him "Ben" - is an ardent flâneur, gadabout and people viewer who enjoys attending... let's (charitably) call them community events around Toronto and on occasion I tag along. "Ben" is not always the most forthcoming chap with the details and - as I regard the asking of pointed questions as a form of cheating - it was not unusual for me to turn up at last night's event without knowing quite what it was I was attending.
Which is how I ended up at a community party for the Centre for Women and Trans People (UofT) at the Gladstone. The theme? "Policy and Performance" or something to that effect. I am afraid I was not dressed appropriately. In fairness to "Ben", I can imagine how the promise of lesbian musicians, a puppet show and drag acts was too tempting to ignore. Well, we got none of those. Nor did I get an event flier. The be-caped/nebulous character handing them out took one look at us and gave our table a miss.
The nerve of it. The little twerp's social act is predicated on feeling "excluded" and there was I with no clue whose slam poetry I was hearing.
May 20, 2009
Lizard lady
I take back anything snarky I have had to say about ABC's forthcoming V reboot. Morena Baccarin is in it.
Sherlock Holmes trailer
Fun, fanciful and Flea-ish but I am having trouble with Downey's horrendous attempt at an accent.
Victory for the legions
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is set to acknowledge defeat in his battle with common sense, common decency and Joanna Lumley (bless). This is good news for the UK, as well. Soon enough, the British are going to need every Gurkha they can find handy.
However, Mr Brown has decided to give all Gurkha veterans an entitlement to live in this country.
That could open the door to 36,000 veterans, plus roughly twice as many of their family, although campaigners say the number of arrivals is likely to be no more than 10,000 as many will stay in Nepal.
May 19, 2009
The mother of broken windows
Greenwich Village residents are shocked by an alarming 43 percent increase in violent crime so far this year relative to the same period in 2008. If only there were some difference between 2008 and 2009 that might explain why violent criminals* now feel they have license to do as they please. Oh well; I expect it will always remain a mystery.
Other hot Manhattan neighborhoods tainted by the crime wave include TriBeCa, with a nearly 17 percent jump, and Gramercy, which has seen a 24 percent increase in assaults. The danger zones also include the East Village from East 14th Street to Houston Street and the East River to Broadway, which has seen a 27.7 percent rise, from 47 to 60 assaults. The Lower East Side has experienced a whopping 30 percent hike in assaults.
* Be they foreign, domestic or Congressional.
Deadliest Warriors: Doc Martin vs House
House would use his sarcasm which would bounce right off Doctor Ellingham because he could not care less, is impervious to sarcasm and would treat anything House said as a genuine question. This in turn would only cause House to increase his sarcasm at a geometric rate.
Advantage: Doc Martin.
May 18, 2009
Svetlana was robbed
Jeff makes an excellent point vis a vis Ukrainian Eurovision hopeful, Svetlana Loboda.
Aesthetics are a moral imperative
Ten year old Natalie Okri is bullied at school for her hard work and her natural talent. Such is today's England on a Leveller's path to ruin.
May 17, 2009
It's (not quite) my time
Eurovision 2009 featuring Dita von Teese and Russian cops misdirecting their aggression.
And the winner: Alexander Rybak of Norway.
May 16, 2009
Kate Bush: The Big Sky
Rainy afternoon in Toronto. Something to cheer me up.
Performing the Fourth Amendment
Now they have incorporated a TSA-style metal detector into their stage act, Penn & Teller give Americans something to think about every time they are waiting on line at an airport security-checkpoint.
Once it's established that the metal detector is working, the always-innocent-looking Teller walks through it and sets off no alarms. But then, from somewhere inside his coat pocket, he pulls out a metal pan that's on fire. Next, he produces a fire extinguisher and, after that, a full-size shovel. "The point we're making," says Jillette, "is that if two goofball magicians can slip this stuff by with full lights shining on them and the full attention of the audience, then what could a really bad person do?"
Elena: The Balkan Girls (Romania)
Time to find out if the HQ button works on an embedded video.
Monkeyspace 2030
Charles Stross considers the future of gaming and challenges for video game designers in light of coming augmented reality applications, prosthetic memory and the internet smeared all over the world around us. The post is too detailed to summarize adequately; best read the whole thing.
Frankly my dear
The top five ways classic pieces of literature would be different if written by Robert Heinlein.
Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus
Allahpundit calls it "the 'Citizen Kane' of giant octopus movies."
May 15, 2009
The Torment of Saint Anthony
The words "prodigy" and "genius" are most often used lightly. Which is a problem.
Sometimes we need these words to do their job.
Big Design
Kay Hymowitz considers (at considerable length) the new Design Economy, a world where information technology has enabled and democratized the design process such that it is no longer an add-on but integral to the products and services we use including virtual ones such as this weblog.*
What does this suggest for designers of all stripes given our wider economy's current straightened circumstances?
Design anthropologist. I like the sound of that.
* Or "blog".
Brinck: Believe Again (Denmark)
Poking through this year's Eurovision entries I am forced to conclude the first language of most "European" countries is English and that crap dance music serves the transcendent function once intended by the Tower of Babel.
This is quite nice though.
May 14, 2009
Christina Metaxa: Firefly (Cyprus)
I am geeky enough to read this as a tribute to the lost works of Joss Whedon.
Inconceivable reality
Commander of US. Pacific Command, Admiral Timothy J. Keating discusses a sea change in relations with India. Well intentioned PR fluff for the most part but with the following point of interest.
Don't ask me what his office meant by "inconceivable reality"; could be some new buzz-term that has yet to escape into the private sector.
Dark Void
Battlestar Galactica composer, Bear McCreary talks about scoring for television, scoring for video games and his signature accordion.
My problem isn't piracy
Harlan Ellison takes a hard line on protecting his intellectual property: "If you put your hand in my pocket,” he said, “you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump.”
Fair dues. Though I tend toward Cory Doctorow's line of thinking on the subject.
May 13, 2009
May 12, 2009
Polysics: I My Me Mine
We were not doing anybody any favours by not nuking folks on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. If we had, large parts of the world could be almost a decade closer to awesome by now.
May 11, 2009
It was the seventy-seventh richest country in the world. And it didn’t even exist.
After yet another querulous note from The Walrus I am throwing them a link (but not to the sidebar). Game Theories by Clive Thomson is a piece from several years back. It remains of interest; first, as a comment on virtual economies and; second, as a rags-to-riches tale of academic excellence. The latter is heartening as it suggests it just may be possible to succeed in higher education without signing away your soul.
To fill his evenings, Castronova did what he’d always done: he played video games.
Far too much to summarize; I shall leave the rest at the link.
Urban Symphony: Rändajad
Estonia's entry for Eurovision 2009 at Moscow is disappointingly listenable. Spain's hopeful, Soraya, by contrast, has got the attractive lampshade constituency locked down.
All very well and good but the Flea shall be rooting for Ukraine this year: Svetlana Loboda for the win. Let's face facts.
It is worth the trouble to click the "HQ" button.
May 10, 2009
May 09, 2009
It's like a dog meowing
Greg Pritchard - Britain's Got Talent: For the Flea's many enthusiasts of British reality television.
Oh hell, I'll post Mr. Methane too.
By hand and ingenuity
Robert Hardman celebrates the Royal Navy's field gun race.
The men of the Naval Brigade removed six guns from their warships and placed them on hastily-constructed gun carriages. These were moved inland first by rail, then by mule and, ultimately, by hand and ingenuity. Once in action, they brought down enough withering fire to drive off the Boers and liberate the diseased and starving garrison.
Queen Victoria was most impressed and dispatched a congratulatory telegram to the Naval Brigade, who returned home to a euphoric welcome. They were soon re-enacting their heroics at the Grand Military Tournament which, in due course, became the Royal Tournament, the annual celebration of the British Forces.
The owner of the Castle replies with YouTube documentary evidence in case I had never seen such a race run.
Margaret Thatcher on Socialism
Will remember the bit with the hands for all future conversations related to this subject.
Margaret Thatcher: Free Society Speech (1975)
I want that feather duster.
May 08, 2009
God bless Joanna Lumley
Jay Currie calls it a hand-bagging.
Coup latest: Joanna Lumley to lead Government of National Salvation.
May 07, 2009
Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
Heavy weather for the indoctrination of British students as 40 schools watched the eco-friendly Fleur* run into trouble on its 5000 mile renewable voyage to Greenland. Taking on water and with wind and solar generation ripped from the yatch by high winds, it seemed the tiny ship was lost...
* A French word meaning "We speak French".
9.7" DX
I have hundreds of books in txt form that I am most likely never going to get round to reading at the computer. Maybe, just maybe, it is time to think about an e-book reader... I cannot endorse the product as I find the concept an abomination but I confess I am tempted by the new, larger format Kindle DX
So much for civilization; try stashing this lot in an Irish monastery through the coming Dark Age. The auto-rotating screen feature would probably get right up my nose too.
By contrast: While I have yet to read it, I am sufficiently convinced of its currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose to endorse Hairy Pothead & the Marijuana Stone
May 2009
Robert Jago updates his ranking of Canada's top 25 political blogs by Alexa traffic rank and Google page rank.
No. 4, you say? In honour of another unaccountably popular figure who enjoys graphic, beautiful lines: Lady GaGa on MySpace Fashion.
MySpace Presents: The Fit with Lady Gaga
A modern fairy tale
I have very little to say about Warren Kinsella especially after the mini-debacle exiting a Porter flight last weekend. He was traveling in the other direction and dropped something right next to me as he exited the ferry but was on his way before I could yell "Punk sucks!"
Such is the spirit of the stair.
On a brighter note from the Pre Raphaelite Files, the story of Sophie Merry (Part I).
(And Part Deux.)
May 06, 2009
A moment in film making
Neutral Hills Stills / Words considers an exceptional fan film, state subsidies for art and the concerns of Sarah Polley (RTWT).
Polley is NOT an artist. Artists create art. They find a way around obstacles. They go into debt. They take a third mortgage on their home. They find volunteers who share their vision. And they create.
Whores, on the other hand, won’t hop into bed until they negotiate a price first.
May 05, 2009
The Land of No Smiles
Documentary photographer Tomas van Houtryve entered North Korea by posing as a businessman looking to open a chocolate factory (via).
Please consider supporting van Houtryve's work:
The true face of Leonardo Da Vinci
To quote from the comments: Very impressive and persuasive short speech.
J-XX
The PRC's top admiral Wu Shengli claims a supercruising fighter aircraft - the J-XX or an advanced J-10 - is a priority for the PLAN. Sounds like a great time to cancel the Raptor.
Importantly, Wu lists a supercruising fighter among a series of technological demands that all look quite achievable for the Chinese navy over the next decade or so, suggesting that he does not regard such flight performance as a pie in the sky.
May 04, 2009
The Hunt for Gollum
Mother of all fan films, The Hunt for Gollum is now on-line at DailyMotion; full screen HD all the way (hat tip to various).
Beautifully, beautifully done.
May 03, 2009
This government is commited to destroying this country and nothing less
In yet another misguided shift to an all irregular warfare military, Britain has stopped producing its own tanks. Future armour will rely on a Swedish chassis and - for pity's sake - German guns.
'Are we saying it could never happen again, that we will not be drawn into a war where we will need a full range of forces and equipment?'
In Weimar England, the government surrenders for you.
Communicable
Wesley Pruden considers the White House' brush with hoof-in-mouth disease.
Zing!
Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.
Sue Son has no friends; only a master, her talent.
Etc.
Also, she was the hot one.
The betrayal: Best friends in better days. Also featuring: Legs.
May 02, 2009
33 Minutes
The Heritage Foundation presents an HD trailer for an argument in favour of ballistic missile defense.
"More warning than our sailors got on the morning of December 7, 1941"
In fairness, Mr. Whittle, our Prime Minister Churchill did his best. The Americans were not the first not to listen. As to the rest, a brilliant summary. Bill Whittle discusses Jon Stewart, war criminals and the true story of the atomic bombs which ended the war in the Pacific.
A further note to Jon Stewart: The war criminals were running Japan.
May 01, 2009
No. No no no.
Universal to remake "Videodrome".
They got the scarequotes right. Videodrome is not a large-scale sci-fi action thriller. I hope the videodrome signal infects all of these vandals. Long live the New Flesh.
Fritz Lang's The Indian Tomb
You ever have that thing where you dream you are a Hindu priest doing some sort of initiation thing beneath a pneumatic idol and before you go all 2nd edition Player's Manual cover and make for the jewel you realize you are speaking German
Yeah, like that.
The Ferris Bueller Fight Club Theory
Blindingly obvious once it is pointed out (via Agent Bedhead).
Further explication at the link.