US Idiots... idiots in general

Sometimes I swear I understand why the rest of the world automatically think US citizens=idiots. The ones who represent all of us are in the news, and it’s mostly about celebrities that act all screw up or a regular person doing something royally stupid that gets everyone to notice them. Just look in the last week and there will be news about a handful of celebrities that have made the rest of us look bad, but now a lawyer from Atlanta came back to the states when he was infected with the deadliest strain of tuberculosis! Gah! I’ll admit that no one can be truly a genius. I’m stupid. You’re stupid. We’re all stupid! But there are those that might as well not have been born considering the amount of good sense wasn’t given to them when they came into existence. Even some of the smartest people I know usually put their foot in their mouths when they know they have no tact. I hate having to be polite with them when I just want to tell them to shut up! Shut up and actually think before opening your goddamn mouth!!!

Sighs

My friend is one of the closest to me and at times they’re like the sibling I always wanted, but it seems that a lot of times I really want to smack or strangle them!

Art Posting 01: A First Taste!

Contemporary art…

I’ve been looking at examples of contemporary artist and I honestly can’t see anything extraordinary that is also original (i.e. hasn’t already been done before). I did find some artists that I like but they still can’t beat the quality of work done by artists before their time. Only two artists shined through to me with their originality and fine quality of their work; Daniel Merriam and Jenny Saville.

Daniel Merriam - Flight of Scarlet - original watercolor - 30 x 22 inches

Jenny Saville - Brace - 1998-99 -
oil on canvas - 120 x 72 inches

These two are very different artists but due to my eccentric and varied taste I love both their works!

Another contemporary artist that I also like but not as much is Stephanie Pui-Mun Law since her work is similar to Daniel Merriam but she lacks a certain je ne sais quoi; she uses preexisting myths from both eastern and western influences while he seems to pluck straight from his own dreamscapes, and his watercolors has a crispness of lines while her work tend to be fuzzy as most watercolor work tend to be.

I think I’ll do critique reviews of artists from the past and present. I’ll include my overall opinion of their work (like it or don’t like it), analyze their use of design elements, etc. I feel that everyone should have at least one artist they like whether they’re contemporary or not! Also I know how some of my friends find all the different movements, styles, and mediums more than a bit confusing. Educating everyone with an elementary understanding of some art fundamentals will be enjoyable for everyone! The research will help build up my knowledge-base of art history while I teach others to appreciate the visual arts! If anyone is curious about something in particular then just leave me a message somewhere and I’ll get right on it! In addition, I’ll include any quotes by I find, I personally think some of the best philosophers are also artists!

My first critical review will be a more in-depth look of Daniel Merriam and his works of fantasy done in beautiful watercolors.

Another great one passed on...

James Doohan, who portrayed Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, from the original Star Trek series recently passed away. I didn’t find out until I decided to look up info for an episode of Voyager I taped, found out about the memorial service being held in New Mexico, on one of my two favorite sites to look up Trek information. I’m always caught unawares when I find out one of my favorite old actors has passed on, and it saddens me when I know there won’t be many like them in the future. It also takes their deaths apparently for me to learn more about them; Doohan was originally Canadian, served in the military forces during WW II, and lost a finger during said war. He died July 20, 2005 at the age of 85, and this later memorial service is for the fans he accumulated over the years.

Book Review 01: Barbara Michaels

The latest book I just finished reading is by an old-time favorite author of mine, Barbara Michaels. The first book I read written by her was The Dancing Floor, and I at least reread it a handful of times in the last few years. Under this pseudo name she writes mostly gothic/historical romances sometimes with a touch of horror; the book I just finished, Ammie Come Home, which won’t top my all time favorite by her but it definitely charmed me! From most of the books I’ve been reading I came to a personal realization after reading this book; Irishmen are hot!!! Okay, I already thought they were attractive but I think it would be totally ideal to get romantically involved with an Irishman. They’re just so passionate, masculine, and…. I just got sooooo off track! Barbara Mertz a.k.a. Barbara Michaels and most likely known under the pseudo name Elizabeth Peters which she has written some popular sci-fi/ fantasy series which she’s still continuing in her 80’s! She earned a PhD in Egyptology so she’s very familiar with history, and has a natural talent to spin stories filled with characters that have moved me to tears of joy and sadness. My second favorite book by Barbara Michaels would be A Stitch in Time, and I’ve read at least four other titles that equally made me want to get swept off my feet!

Not all mathematicians are geniuses!

One of the few movies I remember going to see in the recent years in the theatres and enjoyed was A Beautiful Mind in 2001. I saw it in my senior year of high school and if it wasn't for the fact I had to explain it to the guy I was going out with it would've been one of my most enjoyable movie theatre experiences. It's about a Noble Prize (Economics) winning mathematician, John Nash. I found out that it was loosely based on a biography by Sylvia Nasar in 1998. As I've said before in my latest rant that most of the good movies that are coming out are based on books, and the brilliance of them are all thanks to the authors who wrote them. Putting that aside, I'd still recommend this to anyone, but try not to question others about what's going on in the movie, it can be quite annoying for the ones trying to enjoy it! I also learned from watching the movie that even an aspiring mathematician would be lost in trying to interpret a movie about a mathematician!

Rant 02: Current Movies Suck

To say I’ve been very disappointed with most of the products being currently churned out of the movie industry would be putting it mildly. If you ask me what some of my favorite movies are then I’ll have to say anything that was made before the mid to late 1990’s, since just about everything thus far have been mediocre at best. Ask my opinion about any movies I’ve seen that were made recently and I’ll tell you that I hated it outright, could only stand to see it once, or totally apathetic about it. I don’t know if this is due to the people behind the movies (creators, writers, producers, and directors) have become lazy or the newer generation have been getting continual mental farts. If it’s the latter then I guess that means the majority of movie watchers are becoming lazy and getting continual mental farts since they’re the ones that these movies are being made for. Of course I also have to question the so-called critics of the big-name magazines, newspapers, etc seeing as that always give a movie a good review even when it’s a total flop. Here are some of the trends I’ve seen:

1) Movies based on books; most of the best movies have been based on books but in almost all cases the books are still better! Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, etc. In the case of the second series it was already made into a set of live-action movies for all the books in the saga!

2) Movies based on comics; except for Blade, Blade II, and Blade III I’ll have to say I was sorely disappointed with the recent productions based on classical characters from Marvel, DC Comics, etc. They keep on doing it even though most of the recreated characters can’t live up to the originals.

3) Remakes of classics; Disney is a big instigator of this, making remakes of some of their most classic works, and using one of the worst actresses possible :cough: Lindsey Lohan :cough:. One of the movies she did was actually the 2nd remake of Freaky Friday since Disney already did a TV adaptation in 1995! I also can’t stand to watch Tim Allen in anything since he participated in the atrocity when he did The Shaggy Dog, which also the 2nd remake of a beloved classic since there was a TV adaptation in 1994.

4) Sequels of more beloved classics; Disney is also guilty of this by making sequels (in some cases multiple sequels) of their classics. All I know is if they ever make a sequel of Sleeping Beauty I will write a scathing letter to them describing that their lack of creativity makes their evident stupidity prevalent to everyone.

5) Its not necessarily a sequel but there was a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie which stunk to high heaven! Trying to take a spin on a franchise to further revive it but only using the characters that everyone is familiar with everything else was new and awkward. I hate how they’ve been trying to revive franchises like TMNT without regard to the original flavor that made it so irresistible to the die-hard fans that first fell in love with the first animated series and three live-action movies.

6) Another reason why I think that last aforementioned movie sucked eggs was due to the abandonment of the beloved foam rubber suits and replaced them with computer animated facsimiles. I think the constant usage of computer graphics in movies sucked the life out of most movies. Before the computer replaced most of the special effects, cool make-up, and animatronics took away the art and passion that was put into it by the creativity team. It’s like they sucked the life blood out of it.

I’m just glad I was always more of an Anime and book fan since they’ve actually gotten better over the years in my opinion! Maybe its just American movies that have been downgrading in quality, but I guess this rant has been based on the byproducts of American culture! Or lack of… further note on that at another time.

Rant 01: Of the Idiocy of So-called Therapists & Parents

I’m a big fan of dramas like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and you notice certain issues that are common amongst them. One of the issues I noticed in at least 2-3 of the shows was re-birthing therapy or coercive therapy. I know that in most shows they tend to dramatize the facts but I found an article documented by the American Psychiatric Association that reflects the validity of the portrayal of this particular “therapy”. I’ve only taken a basic psychology class but I feel that I’m an emphatic individual and can grasp concepts of psychology from experience. I agree that anyone that practices this and still claims to be a professional therapist then they’re full of crock! For those of you not aware of the concept of ‘re-birthing therapy’ then go to the aforementioned article. I understand that trying to raise children that are ‘normal’ is hard enough but when they are born with RAD would seem just about impossible. However, I think it would take a very callous parent to even consider a treatment that the APA wouldn’t condone due to the fatal risks involved. The fact is when I see the reasoning involved I don’t see the logic of it; they’re suppose to be giving the child back to the parent ‘reborn’ so that they can reinitiate the attachment children have with their parents that they currently lacked. Nonetheless, they can’t accurately recreate the situation of the child being in a womb; in an actual pregnancy there would be an open canal for the child to exit or one will be created via a c-section, but in this recreation the child is swathed completely and forced to fight against at least two full grown adults weighing them down. Also in a successful pregnancy the mother is suppose to time the pushes when it’s in time with her contractions, also while the baby is in the wound they would feel safe until the initial delivery. While they’re waiting to be brought into the world they’re still connected to their mother with the umbilical cord and able to breath in their environment since their initial conception. I don’t see how smothering a child in a blanket while they’re being smothered and possibly hurt (bruises, asphyxiation, etc) would simulate “re-birthing”. After the experience I would think the child would have clung to anyone, whether it’s their parent or not, in reaction to a traumatizing experience! A parent is supposed to protect their children from having to feel such unwanted terror and possible pain. Isn’t it enough to love the child, but to expect the emotion returned equally when it’s not possible is entirely selfish of them! They shouldn’t expect an instant miracle with a method such as this, and the therapists who support such an unproven theory should be smothered themselves to see what they put their ‘patients’ through!