the First Blog of March 2010
Attacking Killer Whales, Dick Cheney's Socialist Heart, and the Olympics
Welcome to another week in Bogworld. Its been a pretty eventful week again. Lets get right into it...
Dick Cheney’s Socialized Medicine Heart
Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney was hospitalized...again... For heart problems. I drew a cartoon last week that I think perfectly captured the essence of the hypocrisy. Cheney enjoys government run, tax payer paid health care. The same kind of health care he tells the rest of us is a Democratic socialist plot run by death panels. Oh it keeps him alive... Hell it has saved his life numerous times... But its not the right answer for the rest of us.
Its this sort of open obvious hypocrisy that drives me crazy about this health care debate.
Its all about the money.
This week I was reading an article about AVATAR in Business Week magazine. In the article FOX News owner and Conservative powerhouse Rupurt Murdock praised Avatar for rejuvenating the movie industry. He boasted how James Cameron’s vision is bringing millions and millions of viewers out of their home entertainment center equipped living rooms and back into the theater where they are willingly paying a 30% up charge to sit in a dark auditorium wearing 3D glasses (not to mention the overpriced tub of popcorn and soda). Rupurt should be happy, AVATAR came out of the FOX movie studios.
This made me pause for a moment. If you listen to Murdock’s news channel, you would have thought Avatar was nothing more than a left wing socialist anti-military tree hugging propaganda movie that should be ignored by any right thinking people. FOX News HATES AVATAR. They despise its message and they call Jim Cameron the king of the Liberals.
This cracks me up. It supports my theory that if it were not for FOX entertainment, FOX news would have nothing to complain about. But perhaps the deeper truth is this: To the powers that be pulling the strings behind the Conservative movement, they would throw their so-called core values out the window if it made them a ton of money.
The End of the Olympics
I am kind of sad to see the Olympic flame extinguished in Vancouver tonight. It was a pretty entertaining collection of games to watch. Once again NBC did an outstanding job telling all the human stories behind the athletes and their families. And because of that its easier to connect with the stars of the Olympics. For the most part, they’re just like you and me. They remind us that a lot of hard work and a willingness to risk failure in order to rise up and succeed next time can lead to amazing things.
We all need to be reminded of that now and then.
That being said, I’m also sort of glad my favorite shows will resume new programing this week. I miss Community, 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, Modern Family and Cougar Town. All have either been displaced by the Olympics or in reruns.
Life After AVATAR
This is it. For more cimema-plexes, this is the last week to see Avatar. If you have not seen this movie yet you are really missing part of movie history. Avatar truly is a phenomenon. It might be the first time in history when presentation technology and special effects film making was so perfectly married together at precisely the right moment in each other’s development.
Think about it.
Computer animation rendering techniques, motion capture technology, the development Cameron’s new 3D camera technology, the advent of really good digital and film 3D projection systems all combined to make this motion picture spectacle. Its pretty amazing in just the technical achievements.
But Avatar has a soul too. Some folks complain about its simple romantic adventure story being too close to Pocahauntus or Dances with Wolves.
Me? I think there is a certain elegance to a well told simple story. And I think there was a certain necessity to keeping things simple in such a beautiful complex imaginary world.
I’m a projectionist so I got to see Avatar dozens and dozens of times. And it never stopped being a treat. As someone who truly loves movies, its wonderful to be a witness to something truly special.
The line up for 3D IMAX is pretty good this coming year. But will anything approach the experience this movie brought us?
The Name is KILLER Whale After All...
Now I love the shows at Seaworld as much as the next person. I’ve been to Seaworld in Orlando and San Diego multiple times. Its great fun and you learn a lot about marine life along the way. But lets be honest. Killer Whales or Orcas are not designed to live comfortably in a swimming pool no matter how big or deep that swimming pool might be.
These are, for lack of a better example, the Tigers of the open ocean. They are built to patrol thousands of miles of seas. Putting them in a man made pool in an amusement park is a little like asking you to live in one of those dog carrying cases. Its just not right.
While there is no doubt that Orcas are super intelligent creatures. And its amazing how well they adapt to human handling. However one cannot get past the fact that these are much more powerful creatures too and if they get mad, they might act out in very non-friendly ways.
Dick Cheney’s Socialized Medicine Heart
Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney was hospitalized...again... For heart problems. I drew a cartoon last week that I think perfectly captured the essence of the hypocrisy. Cheney enjoys government run, tax payer paid health care. The same kind of health care he tells the rest of us is a Democratic socialist plot run by death panels. Oh it keeps him alive... Hell it has saved his life numerous times... But its not the right answer for the rest of us.
Its this sort of open obvious hypocrisy that drives me crazy about this health care debate.
Its all about the money.
This week I was reading an article about AVATAR in Business Week magazine. In the article FOX News owner and Conservative powerhouse Rupurt Murdock praised Avatar for rejuvenating the movie industry. He boasted how James Cameron’s vision is bringing millions and millions of viewers out of their home entertainment center equipped living rooms and back into the theater where they are willingly paying a 30% up charge to sit in a dark auditorium wearing 3D glasses (not to mention the overpriced tub of popcorn and soda). Rupurt should be happy, AVATAR came out of the FOX movie studios.
This made me pause for a moment. If you listen to Murdock’s news channel, you would have thought Avatar was nothing more than a left wing socialist anti-military tree hugging propaganda movie that should be ignored by any right thinking people. FOX News HATES AVATAR. They despise its message and they call Jim Cameron the king of the Liberals.
This cracks me up. It supports my theory that if it were not for FOX entertainment, FOX news would have nothing to complain about. But perhaps the deeper truth is this: To the powers that be pulling the strings behind the Conservative movement, they would throw their so-called core values out the window if it made them a ton of money.
The End of the Olympics
I am kind of sad to see the Olympic flame extinguished in Vancouver tonight. It was a pretty entertaining collection of games to watch. Once again NBC did an outstanding job telling all the human stories behind the athletes and their families. And because of that its easier to connect with the stars of the Olympics. For the most part, they’re just like you and me. They remind us that a lot of hard work and a willingness to risk failure in order to rise up and succeed next time can lead to amazing things.
We all need to be reminded of that now and then.
That being said, I’m also sort of glad my favorite shows will resume new programing this week. I miss Community, 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, Modern Family and Cougar Town. All have either been displaced by the Olympics or in reruns.
Life After AVATAR
This is it. For more cimema-plexes, this is the last week to see Avatar. If you have not seen this movie yet you are really missing part of movie history. Avatar truly is a phenomenon. It might be the first time in history when presentation technology and special effects film making was so perfectly married together at precisely the right moment in each other’s development.
Think about it.
Computer animation rendering techniques, motion capture technology, the development Cameron’s new 3D camera technology, the advent of really good digital and film 3D projection systems all combined to make this motion picture spectacle. Its pretty amazing in just the technical achievements.
But Avatar has a soul too. Some folks complain about its simple romantic adventure story being too close to Pocahauntus or Dances with Wolves.
Me? I think there is a certain elegance to a well told simple story. And I think there was a certain necessity to keeping things simple in such a beautiful complex imaginary world.
I’m a projectionist so I got to see Avatar dozens and dozens of times. And it never stopped being a treat. As someone who truly loves movies, its wonderful to be a witness to something truly special.
The line up for 3D IMAX is pretty good this coming year. But will anything approach the experience this movie brought us?
The Name is KILLER Whale After All...
Now I love the shows at Seaworld as much as the next person. I’ve been to Seaworld in Orlando and San Diego multiple times. Its great fun and you learn a lot about marine life along the way. But lets be honest. Killer Whales or Orcas are not designed to live comfortably in a swimming pool no matter how big or deep that swimming pool might be.
These are, for lack of a better example, the Tigers of the open ocean. They are built to patrol thousands of miles of seas. Putting them in a man made pool in an amusement park is a little like asking you to live in one of those dog carrying cases. Its just not right.
While there is no doubt that Orcas are super intelligent creatures. And its amazing how well they adapt to human handling. However one cannot get past the fact that these are much more powerful creatures too and if they get mad, they might act out in very non-friendly ways.
Attacking Killer Whales, Dick Cheney's Socialist Heart, and the Olympics
Category: Bog Blog
Posted by: joe
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