Blog-In Theater

You know you are part of the peripheral masses when the only exposure you had to classical music was through a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

It's weird. In my household jazz was a must along with all sorts of afrocaribbean music. Classical music? Nil. So growing up the only frame of reference I had for classical music was cartoons like The Bunny of Seville.

Ah good times.

Enjoy.

This email was sent to users with the following roles: member

Just a quick heads up.

Thanks to Mary Hunt and everybody else who let me know about the design problems in Internet Explorer and it's satanic-spawn, the AOL browser. I've switched back to the old design. If you are a Firefox user and want to switch back to the new-yet-undebugged version, rea this post. It also has information on how to contribute to our site by switching to Firefox.

The second request is a bit more involved. I urge you to watch Hacking Democracy on our site and invite others to do so as well. Use the send button at the bottom of the post, to spread the word about Diebold's voting machines.

People need to be ready to fight for their vote not after but BEFORE they go to the polls.

That's it, at least for now

Hacking Democracy on Google Video

UPDATE!
A major hat tip to Prometheus6.

Our own Michael is upset that I have published these because he feels they will scare people away from voting. I see the issue differently : Better to go armed with a heavy dose of skepticism and information than to go blinding trusting the current system to protect your right to vote.

What do you think?

Welcome to our first ever Blog-In theater.

Thanks to the treasure trove of public domain movies I have found on Video.Google, I am going to make it a point for us to have a culturekitchen Saturday Matinée; followed up by a Sunday afternoon chat.

This is the original eco-terrorist and nuclear mutant-freak Godzilla; not the saviour of Japan reinvented in the 1960s. It has a very young Raymond Burr as, Steve Martin (the irony!) the American documentarian of this iguanadonian catastrophe. It oozes post-WW2 cheeziness through each reel hole.

What is most interesting about this first Godzilla is how it was made. There is a 1954 Japanese original. This is the 1956 American adaptation; which may well be the first successful film mashup ever produced in this country:

The adaptation process consisted of filming numerous new scenes featuring Raymond Burr and others, and inserting them into an edited version of the Japanese original to create a new film. The new scenes, written by Al C. Ward and directed by Terry Morse, were photographed by Guy Roe with careful attention to matching the visual tone of the Japanese film, while Burr's on-screen character appeared to interact with the original Japanese cast through intricate cutting and the use of doubles for the Japanese principals, in matching dress, shot from behind in direct interaction with Burr's character. (This same technique was used 29 years later in the film Godzilla 1985, with Raymond Burr reprising his original role of reporter Steve Martin.)