FlaSoxxJim

Welcome aboard.

Alright!! I tunde in at just the right time I see! Way Miguel!

Fair enough, but until we think we can use a veteran like you, maybe you should be posting over at the Newark Bears site, Hmm?

Yes, funny. And a solid argument against bringing Raffi music into the house too.

You saved me from having to say that.

The above points notwithstanding, I like Moore. Both sides need their vocal curmudgeons, and this one has a pretty good, black sense of humor.

It will be very good to see the film when it comes out, hopefully in the summer to help along the US regime change slated for November. The Shining Excalibur distribution analogy from the article is not completely apt (but I get the point), as the issue with "Kids" was a ratings issue and all major studios are MPAA signatories to their rating system. That's why Indies can put out unrated films rather than getting saddled with the NC-17 kiss of death, but major releases cannot. Here, it's not a ratings issue, but depending on who owns the rights to the film, sure, some distribution arrangement can be worked out. And I don't know the ownership details and that worries me. If Miramax actually owns the film and Disney is pulling the Mirimax strings, then they can keep the film from being released, at least until after the election. It sounds like the heads at Mirimax are on Moore's side so that part is good. Mirimax and Moore's agent may well have been informed a year ago that Disney would keep Mirimax from distributing the film. But you have to make the film before you worry about its release and a story about a company blocking the release of a film that may or may not get made is not much of the story. And the timing would not have been as good, from the standpoint of getting the film in the press before Cannes. I'm sure it will do very well there, hopefully it does. As far as Moore's mudslinging, it is obvious that he's a Bush-basher. There can never be enough of those. I'd personally have rather seen this film project been a closer approximation of "Dude, Where's my Country," because I'm more interested in a lot of that than I am in the Saudi/Bush and Bush/bin Laden connections. But, if Moore's mudslinging amounted to nothing more than a pack of unsubstantiated lies aimed at Bush and others, he'd be getting his ass sued left and right over it. It's not happening. So far the only libel suit against him I know of was brought by Terry Nichols' brother because Bowling For Columbine 'portrayed him in a bad light.' But as far as fact-checking, Moore and his team do a much better job than, say, the CIA, or this Administration. Moore is not an intellectual, he does smoke-and-mirrors stuff with statistics I dislike (no worse than anyone who's selling you something, but not exactly rigorous application either) in order to use them to make a point, and he is a master of cheap shots. As a documentarian, he's no Ken Burns. But he doesn't have to be. Hopefully his film gets out this summer. Bush backers will stay away from it and it won't change their minds. Bush bashers will see it and our minds are already made up. Hopefully a lot of fence-sitters see it and it swings them away from Bush, so if the film accomplished that it will have served its purpose.

You asked for it... Tex, I have said pretty much what you just did about the medium format change altering the way we experience music and likely also the way artists create it. It does not originate with the mp3 revolution, as you half pointed out. The simple transition from vinyl to CD was the beginning of the change in the way the listener hears the music, and maybe not quite as the artist intended. Tommy and Pepper are good examples, and something like Abbey Road or Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick even more so. The cacophony of "I Want You/She's So Heavy" that just stops dead at the height of it at the end of Abbey Road side 1 loses its tension on a CD that plays all the way through, and the deep breath/resetting of the world at the beginning of side 2 (the single best/cohesive-cyclical rock album side ever according to many) is lost on the CD. The Beatles would not have ordered the tracks or likely even arranged the songs on the album the way they did if the medium of the day was CD. Thick as a Brick is similar, and the disjointedness and weird heartbeat fadeout on side 1rejoined directly with the odd meandering that initiates side 2 don't make sense when you hear them on the CD. That is the only non-cohesive point in the album (which is essentially a single song), and it's there precisely because of the technical limitations of the vinyl medium at the time it was created. The very amount of music that could fit onto two sides of an LP dictated track lengths and the number of "strong" cuts you had to have before you had a viable album, a potential double-album, etc. As far as 8-tracks, they never supplanted the LP and frankly did not stick around long enough to force people to record with that medium and its limitations in mind. The fact that LP sequences converted to 8-track usually meant that songs were literally shopped in the middle as the tape switched programs (as all you oldsters will recall). That was the beginning of the end of the medium right there, along with the fact that the tape was thin and the programs would bleed into one another after multiple listenings. Since the two sides of a cassette mirrored the LP format well enough, there was no big need for artists to rethink track orders and arrangements (although the extra time allotted on a high density cassette allowed the inclusion of 'bonus tracks' not on the original LPs. Beyond the music itself, not having a visual canvas the size of an LP jacket and inner sleeve, the visual art element of rock also took a serious hit with the move to CDs. Roger Dean, Neon Park, etc., only gained a following through their album art, and would not likely have had the same careers if they were doing postage stamp-sized illos for CD covers and inserts. The art has adapted to fit the medium and the CD booklets tend to be pretty good now, but I miss my big album covers. As far as the mp3 thing, and most people really never getting to hear an album the way an artist intended it to be... I think it would have been devastating if that technology came out 20-30 years ago when cohesive rock albums were something artists still strived for. 40 years ago, of course, it would not have made a difference, because it was all geared toward that number one hit single 'with a bullet.' We're largely back to that I think, so mp3s are not as detrimental to the artist's intent. Moreover, attention spans of the teen/young adult main consumer of music being short and very soundbite-geared, the mp3 format where everything is a single is probably apt. Also, given our modern penchant for wanting everything tailored to our precise specs, downloadable, mixable, playlistable mp3s are again an appropriate medium for the masses.

Wierd. That is usually the kind of error message you get when trying to burn a CD-R at too fast a speed for the hardware. I do not know what it means outside of that context, but it sounds memory related.

Ach, that's probably true. I haven't used that effect for a couple of versions. I'm sere there are other equivalent plug-ins out there, or you can do things the hard way like Mr. Showtime.

Try the plug-in, although you probably have all that scripted into an action now...

I don't know what others here are using, but there is a good thrid party plug-in called 'Horzontal Grain' in this free 10 pack that I use to get that interlaced video effect.

I stumbled onto this site completely accidentally while I was surfing for websites describing how to have sex with dolphins. I found this group here that was way more depraved than anything else out there, so I stuck around. I've told a few friends about the site, but having flippers instead of hands they have thus far been unable to log on...

Of course I do not either. I just know there's a hot and cold to PA like there is a hot and cold to Brando, etc., and the post likely reflected that. Of course I'm the only one here who is gyroscope-steady and lets no one get under my collar... Hmmm... the board needs a greener shade of green...

That's the way to do it.

What do you think has kept him around for so long?

I'm not so sure. Suggesting I have a desire to humuliate someone because he/she is a person of faith is a bit extreme, and I was taken back by that more than his reference to the dong I may or may not be liking. What, did his computer run out of GREEN?!

Truly sorry to hear of your loss. I have a 19 year old cat who is starting to go into systemic failure, and we lost a 16 year old to mouth cancer a couple of years ago as well (with a vet office euthenasia story eerily similar to yours). We lost another old timer a couple of years ago to a %$&*# redneck family's pack of pit bulls that came onto our porch and tore him up, so I feel your pain and commend you and your wife for giving a good animal a good, long and happy run. Here's to cool cats no longer here.

I realize this thread was initiated primarily because of me. I do think that school violence is at a crisis level, but that it is symptomatic of the larger issue which is a broken school system. I won't dwell on that other than to say that if kids were held accountable for actually knowing what the standards say they were truly required to know before passing onto the next grade (regardless of how many times a grade had to be repeated), a lot of other problems would begin to get fixed. If students know they can get away with doing nothing and still passing each year, they already think they can get away with anything. They have no respect for teachers, administrators, or their peers, realize non-accountability is the norm, and they do what they want to. In the long run, all the kids and all of society is better served by making them work to earn a passing grade and actually learning something while they're in school. As far as the violence thing... I'm going with 'other', not because I'm patently against increased fees but because I think increasing surveilance is a secondary concern. What needs to happen is adopting a zero tolerance policy on school violence in much the same way as zero tolerance on drugs has been pretty much universally adopted. Suspensions, expulsions, and police intervention need to be utilized with consistency and the policies should be clearly stated. Extramural club, athletic, etc. priveleges should be forfeited. Ditto for student athletes guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct. Verbal and emotional abuse needs to be cracked down on with equal severity. And teachers can't be forced to buckle under to pressure from parents (who can't be bothered until it's time to fish their kid out of the fryer) or from administrators who would rather ignore problems anf hope they go away quietly. I don't think federal legislation is the answer here. The states have to address these issues on their own, with federal support.

Cool beanz, thanks. Just in time for a slightly late Mother's Day surprise too. She buys me the Extra Innings package, I buy her a Friends DVD. It all works out, doesn't it?

ZING!

Mrs. Flaxx will have it on, and will probably have it taping on two different VCR's just to make sure she gets it. With no Sox game tonight there will be no fight over the tube so it doesn't matter. I will most likely be wasting my time duking it out here on SLAP (and I still take credit for pointing that out, natch) trying to get the world to see things the right way (my way).

Agreed. And I know there are times when students have been singled out and rebuked, even suspended, for passive religious affectations they were wearing. I don't think anyone on here has said that should have happened in those instances.

Was this response supposed to be directed at PA? If so, you are firing shots across the bow of a likely ally in this. I'll leave my concerns about the gay-bashed kids out of this then. It was only brought up by way of suggesting that I think there are more pressing matters than freedom of religious expression in school. I will say that I think it is incorrect (and unethical) to shoulder-shrugging away any kind of violence in schools and say 'well, what are ya gonna do.' These are the kids that take it and take it and take it and.... then there is another Columbine. Then you will likely agree that there is a problem with violence in school (caused by Godlessness, no doubt), though you were unconcerned by the precursors to this culminating violent act which were somehow seen as unavoidable. Last week I had my 6-year old girl's assistant principal tell me about one of those 'unavoidable' things happening to her at school. She was assaulted on the playground by a 4th grade boy and girl – the girl tried to pull off my daughter's clothes while the boy fully exposed himself to my daughter and a classmate. Just good old schoolground fun and 'what can you do about it?' according to the assistant principal. Well, she is wrong and there is actually quite a bit that can be done about it – if the administrators care to do it. There is supposed to be a police report filed when something like this (or kid on kid violence in school) happens in our county and one was not, of course. Turns out there have been a lot of things like this where the appropriate process has been ignored. Parents have a reasonable expectation that they are sending their kids into a safe environment every day. I think this is as pressing a concern as any in the school systems today. [/end tangent] Cut to the chase: students in public schools should be allowed to wear jewelry depicting the crucifix, Jewish star, ankh, wiccan forest diety, etc., so long as it is not universally offensive or hateful (e.g., swastika). They should be allowed to bring the Bible or any age-appropriate literary work to school to be read during their free time, study hall, lunch hour, etc. (again barring hatemongering material). They should not be given a formally recognized chunk of time during the school day to make a public display of their faith in the form of prayer. This holds for all kids, all faiths, all denominations, There is a lot of other time in the day.

Spot on, as usual.