FlaSoxxJim

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 28, 2009 -> 07:26 PM) To be fair, he was alive then...Shut up, that's why! One thing I forgot. The use of the RKO pictures newsreel team to do the opening "News on the March" sequence — a perfect take on the movie house newsreels of the time.

QUOTE (LosMediasBlancas @ Sep 28, 2009 -> 02:12 PM) HOLY CRAP I agree with the Milkman. Very few people can explain it or go into detail as to why it supposedly is so great. Most people just feel like they have to like it because they've been told it's the greatest film of all time. I'll take a stab at this, but you have to take yourself back to 1941 and the technical limitations of cinema at the time to fully appreciate how innovative Kane was. Subject matter: The film is a thinly-veiled critique of the life and legacy of William Randolph Hearst, who was a very powerful newspaper magnate of the day, and who prohibited any mention of the film in his publications upon its release. That's a pretty daring target to satirize/criticize, and it is roman à clef at its best as far as American cinema goes. Narrative device: The use of flashbacks to tell Charles Foster Kane's story was inspired, because it allows us to see each of the contributing storytellers (Leland, Bernstein, Raymond, Susan, etc.) both as they were when they interacted with Kane and as they are in later life after his death. The duality of Kane (social crusader and idealistic newspaper publisher versus ruthless power monger and megalomaniac) is fully explored and is reinforced by the conflicted opinions that each of the main characters has about the man. The use of "Rosebud" as the vehicle by allowing Reporter Jerry Thompson to track down Kane's acquaintances, ostensibly to solve the mystery of the man's dying words is easy to giggle at as a film world inside joke, but it was genius. It did not matter at all the Thompson never figured out what Rosebud was, didn't matter that it was boy Kane's sled that got incinerated in the last scene (other than to reassert the lost childhood aspect of Kane's tragic character, with the wealthiest man in America keeping this seemingly worthless possession all those years). What mattered was that the need to solve a mystery propelled the story by giving the reporter a reason to track everybody down. Tragic Story: The idealist who loses everything he loves as a result of his own blind ambition is not a new story at the time teh film was released, but it is a timeless tale of a tragic hero that is told to perfection here. Cinematography: Citizen Kane marks the first time deep focus is used to any extent in cinema, and that is the accomplishment of cinematographer extraordinaire Greg Toland. Toland also used in-camera matte shots and also an optical printer to create the appearance of deep focus in those scenes where he couldn't actually achieve it with lighting and lenses. Layering film was done by others at the time to achieve specific special effects, while here the filmakers are doing it just to achieve the visual they want in an average scene. Additional touches like extensive use of low-angle up shots and contrasting light and shadow scene compositions were used to better effect than any other film of the day. The use of miniature models (Xanadu, the opera house rafters, etc.) were seemless to the rest of the film. Music: The use of the same theme — "There was a Man" — throughout the film but in so many different modalities was brilliant. Played vaudeville-style by a live band when he was on the campaign trail, contrasted with the slow, non-diagenic bombast at the beginning and end of the film, and performed differently according to the mood of the scene throughout was not necessary to tell the story — and it's never even noticed by 98% of the viewers. But it's one of the extremes the filmmakers went to to make a perfect film. That's it off the top of my head. Great film. Period.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 27, 2009 -> 08:55 PM) Just as surprising is that it isn't me! Know what? ou don't need any help. Then again, neither does Tex.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Sep 27, 2009 -> 03:04 PM) Yeah okay, it's never funny when a 50-year-old blind man with a heavy interest in s*** videos wants you to record yourself taking a dump for him and then asks you to describe not only the process but what the turds look like and how many there are. That's never funny at all. Sounds like something out of a vintage John Waters film. No stomach to actually click the link tho. . .

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Sep 26, 2009 -> 11:31 AM) Trumpets and violins I can hear in distance I think they're calling our names Maybe now you can't hear them, but you will If you just take hold of my hand Oh, but are you experienced? Have you ever been experienced? Not necessarily stoned, but beautiful... It's very far away Takes about a half-a-day to get there If we travel by my uh. . . Dragonfly

Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro. Matty told Hatty 'bout a thing she saw. Had two big horns, and a wooly jaw. Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully. ... Wooly Bully. ... Wooly Bully. ... Wooly Bully.

QUOTE (G&T @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 08:10 AM) BTW, we were way up in northern Wisconsin and they just built a tiki-bar. Calm down, Jim. It's still northern Wisconsin and it's fun, but not authentic. However, for $5 they mix up a bucket of Cruzan and a bunch of ice and juice to make something delicious. After I was a bit tipsy I asked for the finest rum they had, which was some kind of Rhum that I could only pick out if I saw the label. I tried some on the rocks since just to see if I'd be blown away by what good rhum might taste like (if it even was good, which I don't know). Tasted like cognac. While I was impressed that it tasted like cognac, I was also reminded that I don't care for cognac. So, in very un-Finer Things fashion, I swallowed my pride and had it made into an awesome daiquiri. They put plenty of parasols in it and I think they called me a nancy. I didn't care. Outstanding!

QUOTE (G&T @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 08:01 AM) The style that created Icehouse (eisbock) is pretty interesting. Brewers used to store barrels of wheat dopplebock outside during the fall, and, if they weren't attentive, the water in the beer would freeze leaving a highly alcoholic beer (one of the most authentic offerings, Schneider, hitting 12%) that was also very rich. For Schneider, this "problem" occured during transportation before climate control. Eisbocks are sippers to be sure. Unfortunately, Icehouse carries none of those attributes forward. I can't imagine there is much else other than water in the beer, so I don't know what they froze. The ABV is 5.5% as opposed to about 4% for Miller Lite. So...I guess that's something. Authentic eizenbock is wonderful indeed — the Saxon equivalent of good old American porch barrel apple jack. There was a huge explosion of crappy North American ice beers about 10-12 years ago, they were all over the place. Unbalanced, oversweet, too much alcohol with no body to hold it up. Interestig thing about the 4% Miler Light. For cost savingsg purposes (ie, reduced need for lagering space), Miller actually brews and ferments this beer to double its market gravity and then cuts it with an equal part water at packaging.

Queerly a fan favorite.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 24, 2009 -> 11:48 PM) Wait a second, health insurers have an anti-trust exemption? Why? So they can make assloads of money without having to compete in a free market for it?

QUOTE (Rooftop Shots @ Sep 23, 2009 -> 05:56 PM) It's not wierd, just uncommon. That depends on what the local laws and moral standards are in the state where the act was committed. Oh, wait, you were just talking about names, weren't you?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 24, 2009 -> 11:43 PM) So tell me the finer things about Icehouse... The aluminum cans are recyclable? Yeah, that's all I got.

Yeah, my drinking has been pretty light for a couple weeks (huge event coming up at work on Saturday that's all on me), and with you and bmags on walkabout the Finer Things thread got ignored for a little while. Let us not speak of it again. Man, I'd love to try some of those New Glarus brews — it's been way too long. What little tippling I've done has been mostly rummy, but I've snuck a few festbiers in as well. I think this year's Sam Adams O'Fest is pretty good, malt-accentuated like it should be and with some Munich character for sure. I've mostly had bottles and one marginal draft that I think got manhandled somewhere because it was not all that good. Seeing as my big work event is now looming and I'm stressed, I'm doing some drinking tonight. Couple Spievak Zombies with minor tweaks. The current iteration uses Barbancourt 8 Star (how can you go wrong with Hatian rhum in a zombie?) as one of the 4 rums, and is served up in my angry Maori tiki mug complete with and extra 1/2 oz of Gosling's 151 in a half lime shell and set aflame to spectacular effect. Damn thing burned for almost 10 minutes. I think I need to get some of those long metal straws you sometimes see for sale by the Slurpee machine at 7-11 so I can actually drink my drink whilst it's still flaming.

There is a great 1-minute show on my local NPR station that could put this Geography Throwdown into motion. A geography professor from the local state college does it and about half of the shows are done in quiz format. Sometimes he does "Can you name this country?" and he'll give clues like the capital, the population, and the land area. Or he'll give clue-form descriptions of three places or global geological features that all begin with the same letter and you have to guess them. I rarely get all three, often get two, sometimes only one, and if I don't get any I cry.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Sep 24, 2009 -> 04:58 PM) Woman Delivers 19-lb Baby That baby will eat all the other babies in the nursery.

Martini, very dry, and a garter belt.

Killer-Diller when I'm dressed to the hilt.

I can totally pull that look off.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 23, 2009 -> 03:38 PM) The "rain forest" of Curitiba. Just ribbin you. Pretty far from the rain forest. Sao Paolo state sees much less rain it seemed than does Parana. Here's a view from where I live!!!!! http://twitpic.com/iuqey Maybe you are a Rain God and rain clouds love you and whant to be near you and you just don't know it.

~ 221 people with my name, "1 or fewer" with my wife's name, daughter's name, or son's name. The "1 or fewer part" has me a little scared. Do you think I should call my wife and kids to make sure they are still alright?!?

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 22, 2009 -> 03:38 PM) http://benmagnuson.blogspot.com/2009/09/an...lluminated.html first weekend in Curitiba Really great writing, very engaging and entertaining. Thanks for letting us live vicariously through you.

Nothing to do in Salt lake City. . . are you nutz?? The Great Salt Lake is the largest hypersaline lake in the entire western hemisphere and one of the largest endorheic basins (terminal lakes) in the world. With an average salinity ranging from 2 to almost 10 times that of seawater, the lake is home to a handful of extreme halophiles such as brine shrimp (Artemia salina) and brine flies whose larvae can reach summer numbers of 370 million per linear mile of shoreline. Now who still thinks Salt lake City is boring??

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Sep 21, 2009 -> 11:35 PM) No way. Why would I do that? That's totally no fun. Hell, I was agreeing with you that Beck's an idiot. Don't I get a bonus brownie or something? How about a Heckuva Job Brownie?

Each and every one of you is probably better off with pants. Only Porky Pig could really pull of Porky Pigin' it.

Congratulations Jason!