After the last post, I’ve got Blade Runner on the brain, so here’s part of Vangelis’s music for the film.
And I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this before, but here’s the Love Theme from the film.
(Sequels and prequels, my ass. Ye Gods!)
No. Please oh please, No.
Sequels and prequels to Blade Runner. Come on. What are we gonna do now? See Deckard and Rachel on the run? Or go back in time so we can see what attack ships on fire off Orion’s shoulder look like? Now, I’ve never been as enamored of Blade Runner as many are — visually it’s a staggering achievement, but narratively I’ve always found it oddly uninvolving — but really, Hollywood, No.
I really think it’s only a matter of time before somebody actually makes Brazzaville, the first installment of the ongoing adventures of former bar owner Rick Blaine and his friend, the ethically-challenged Police Prefect Louis Renault.
Share This Post
Union
Kevin Drum, in a post from last week that I’ve been meaning to link:
Every single human institution or organization of any size has its bad points. Corporations certainly do. The military does. Organized religion does. Academia does. The media does. The financial industry sure as hell does. But with the exception of a few extremists here and there, nobody uses this as an excuse to suggest that these institutions are hopelessly corrupt and should cease existing. Rather, it’s used as fodder for regulatory proposals or as an argument that every right-thinking person should fight these institutions on some particular issue. Corporations should or shouldn’t be rewarded for outsourcing jobs. Academics do or don’t deserve more state funding. The financial industry should or shouldn’t be required to trade credit derivatives on public exchanges.
Unions are the most common big exception to this rule. Sure, conservatives will take whatever chance they can to rein them in, regulate them, make it nearly impossible for them to organize new workplaces. But they also routinely argue that labor unions simply shouldn’t exist. This is what’s happening in Wisconsin: Gov. Scott Walker isn’t satisfied with merely negotiating concessions from public sector unions. He wants to effectively ban collective bargaining and all but do away with public sector unions completely.
Nobody should buy this. Of course unions have pathologies. Every big human institution does. And anyone who thinks they’re on the wrong side of an issue should fight it out with them. But unions are also the only large-scale movement left in America that persistently acts as a countervailing power against corporate power. They’re the only large-scale movement left that persistently acts in the economic interests of the middle class.
Couldn’t agree more.
Share This Post
Answers, the ongoing!
Wow, I gotta start getting the lead out with regard to Ask Me Anything! 2011. So here are a couple of sports-related questions!
Andy has this to ask:
Do you think changing up the Buffalo Bills uniforms will do ANYTHING for the team or do you think they will continue having the top five draft pick selections for the next several years?
I don’t think uniforms really have any effect except for in the local sports apparel stores, where lots of fans will undoubtedly spend quite a bit of money to get the new jerseys and whatnot. Sometimes teams change uniforms and then get good pretty quickly thereafter: the Patriots in the 90s did it, and the Broncos changed to their current uniforms and almost immediately won two Super Bowls later the same decade. But usually these types of uniform changes don’t result in a good team; rather, a good team results because of a new management team that changes the uniforms at the same time that they are installing a better approach to team-building.
I think that it’s more likely that this year’s draft will determine whether or not the Bills are drafting in the top five for years to come. If they can get at least four or five solid players out of this draft, including at least two real playmakers, then they should be able to improve fairly quickly. But if they tank on the draft, then the long years of suffering will continue. It seems kind of odd to think about it, since a typical NFL team will draft between six and nine players in any particular year via the Draft, but if you tank an entire Draft class (as the Bills did in 2007, only one player from which Draft is still on the team), it can set you back for multiple seasons.
I look forward to seeing the Bills’ new uniforms — while I didn’t hate the uni’s of the last ten years, I wasn’t wild about ’em, either — I’m looking forward to them drafting well even more. (I do hope that their new uni’s are either their current “throwback” uni’s, or just going back to the uni’s of the 1990s Bills!)
Roger asks:
When will the Pittsburgh Pirates play .500 ball, and what will it take? Will they ever be truly competitive again? Has the management oversold the “we’re a small market team” issue? And any comments on the passing of Chuck Tanner, manager of the we Are Family ’79 WS winners?
I have zero idea of when the Pirates will be good again. None whatsoever. It truly astonishes me that a person who was born the last time the Pirates had a winning season is now old enough to drive, vote, serve in the military, see Kill Bill without a parent being along…everything but buy a beer. The Pirates have been losing longer than most people have had Internet access. Last time the Pirates won, George Bush was President. The first one.
Major League Baseball has long needed some form of revenue sharing that’s more rigorous than the odd, Rube Goldberg system they have now, but after eighteen years of sucking, the Pirates don’t have that as an excuse. They’ve been simply mismanaged for all that time. Bad scouting, bad personnel decisions, and ownership that refused to spend money…ugh.
The Pirates will need to build their farm system and develop good, young players to construct their major league club around. That’s the only way they’ll win again, being in a small market as they are. But it’s not an impossible task; other teams have done it. (Oakland and Minnesota are prime examples; so is Tampa Bay, which has built a fantastic franchise in a town that heartbreakingly doesn’t give a shit.) Small market is part of it, but the major part of it is that the Pirates’ management and ownership has been resoundingly, staggeringly horrible.
More answers to come!
Share This Post
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
Let’s go antiquing!
Over the last year, the Orchard Park Antique Mall has become a favorite place for The Wife and I to spend a few hours. The Sunday before last, we had a couple free hours…and we still ended up rushing through the back parts of the store because our time started running out.
I’ve decided that what I love most about the antique thing is that, while there are familiar things that are always there (several booths of action figures, for example, heavy on the Star Wars), there is always something new, something that’s really pretty unique, something that I’ve never seen before or something that I have seen before but maybe wouldn’t mind buying. You really, truly never know what you’re going to find in antique joints.
Like…a sombrero!
(Yeah, finger on the lens. No idea how I did that. Sorry. But notice the print of comic art down there, next to the sombrero: “But I had to kill her! We wore the same dress!”)
No, I didn’t buy the sombrero. Nor did I want to. It’s the principle of the thing, folks!
Nor did I buy these Toby mugs, although I gazed wistfully upon them for quite a while:
They’re the Three Musketeers, although I’m not sure which is Athos, Porthos or Aramis. Toby mugs are always expensive there…which breaks my heart because I want to own some, really badly. I think that Toby mugs look absolutely awesome. There are always quite a few available at the Antique Mall, but they always go for upwards of $50 or more. Someday!
This bust of Richard Wagner wasn’t there last time:
It had no price on it, oddly. This might have tempted, had it been cheap.
Of course, there are books:
I bought both of these…Phantom for The Daughter, who is hugely into The Phantom of the Opera, and the omnibus of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels for myself. Huzzah!
And for all the “OMG, I really want that!” which you’ll find in an antique joint, there are also the items that are remarkable in other ways. Such as…this handbag!
Hand-made, never used. French in origin. All the puzzle pieces fall into place!
The Antique Mall is a brightly-lit store of modern look; no dark and dusky alcoves containing items of unknown origin here. But that doesn’t mean that grim things don’t reside there:
AIEEE!
And if you want furniture with mirrors, well, the Antique Mall is the place for you. The mirrors seem faulty, though; every one of ’em seems to be showing some dork in overalls. Buy with caution.
Yeah, I am slowly getting bitten by the antiquing bug!
Share This Post
Mellon!
This is where I was when I sat down to read more Lord of the Rings yesterday. Those who have read the book will recognize the artwork there as the inscription upon the Doors of Durin, which lead into the Mines of Moria if one knows the password.
Today, I got up to the Mirror of Galadriel.
God, I love this book.