The Vineyards

Yesterday, back to school. “Pick a project”, they said. “Choose an original from those boxes to do it yourself, or join one of the permanent projects.”

By the gods, I will not choose an original, read it, determine if it is good or bad, call the author, speak to him, ask him to rewrite what needs to be rewritten, read it again, proofread it, do the graphical project, prepare it, deal with the author all through these, and when hopefully it is reay to ship, sometime in the next year, call the paper sellers and printing companies to find the best prices, deal with the school department to get the funds, ask the printing company for its PDF profile, close and distill the document, send them it, call them constantly regarding it, have the book shipped here, and whatever else comes after this, or I missed.

Therefore, I will probably join the comics magazine team. It may be more work in the end, but at least I will have someone to turn to other than the teachers when something goes wrong and/or I do not know what to do next (nor how to do it). And comics are probably more fun to deal with than raw text from amateur authors.

That more or less out of the way, I was pulled aside to the parking lot where a devious trap had been set for me. One big gift with my name on it; one digital camera; one really big and fluffy and adorable and cute and huggable plush sheep in the bag. The eventual publication of those pictures will result in deaths. But until then, my sheep is sooo adorable and huggable it is absurd. The biggest in my flock now. More many thanks to those who set the devious trap.

(And yes, the guy who supposedly runs the Vineyards actually is fonder of sheep than of grapes. But back then the “Shepherd of Loures” just did not sound noble enough. For those who have no idea what I am talking about, I will explain sometime soon.)

Another subject. I do not like Mp3. I mean, of course I have lots of them, find them useful, et al. But I usually only download songs I already know (and would not buy the album for, mind you). Usually, then, the process goes like this: radio on, nice song; “Oohh, nice song!”; keep some part of the lyrics in mind, since they never say who the singer is; Google for the lyrics, if a match is found download the Mp3.

It goes like this, then. I heard a song on the radio I was very sure I knew, but it was making no sense to me. “If you go away, then you might as well take the sun away”, etc. It was very cute, but I was confused, for I was sure I knew the song, but not with those lyrics. Until the singer saved the day, by singing on the original lyrics, “Ne me quitte pas”. “Aahh, that is the one!” I had no idea anyone would make an English version of that old French song. I went to look for the lyrics. Okay, this is the one. P2P: “If you go away”. I was very impressed by the range of singers that recorded it in English – even Bobby Goldsboro! But I was after the one I heard on the radio, and had no idea which female singer that way, so I downloaded nearly everything I could find.

Among them, I found the one from the radio. Great. I also found one by a completely new name. When she said the first verse I thought, “The filename and tag are wrong! This is Bjork!”. It was not: I quickly found out the comparison is often made. Emiliana Torrini was the name. Very impressive. I got curious, threw her name into P2P. First song that came up was “Gollum’s Song”. That surely was unexpected. That is the last song in the “The Two Towers” soundtrack, amazing how I did not link the two (both by “the girl who is not Bjork”). Either way, a list of songs by Emiliana Torrini popped in front of me. And I threw out half an online lifetime of belief and just downloaded random songs by her, having no idea what to expect. After a half a dozen songs, I must confess I really liked her – even if it meant doing something I had not done since “Jewel – Who Will Save Your Soul” was uploaded to the BBS I used; it was its first Mp3 file.

Yet another subject. After lunch yesterday, I went to see “Treasure Planet” a second time. Yes, twice in the theatres to see the same movie. And I hope to see it again before it is gone. I thought of a tremendous lot to write here about it, and about Disney in general, but not right now, this post is long enough already. Maybe some other time.

Okay then, no talking about left and right today.

I came across this thing here: The four faces of Arnold. I would ask you to “Take a look! But come back here when you are done, I am not finished.”, but the link broke, so just stick around.

For no particular reason I decided to go after some AMVs last week. AMV stands for Anime Music Video – someone with lots of free time takes scenes from an anime and makes them fit with a song. Some are beautiful, with image and music in perfect synchrony. If you are willing to download a good few megabytes, I suggest hopping on some P2P (WinMX or Overnet are better for anime) and looking for…

Ahh! My Goddess – Queen – Who Wants to Live Forever
Tenchi Muyo – No Doubt – Don’t Speak
The History of Anime
Ranma – Carl Douglas – Kung-fu Fighting
Rurouni Kenshin – Carl Orff – O Fortuna
Rurouni Kenshin – Goo Goo Dolls – Iris

Notice two things: by saying these AMVs are great I do not imply the songs in them is great as well, just that the sum of all things involved is beautiful. The first two in special. And you probably will not find them with these names, but any Googler will know what to look for. On with it.

Of course, there are also very bad AMVs. One attracted me, “Evangelion – The Ride of the Valkyries”. I avoid Evangelion AMV, because I never saw Evangelion (yes, I know, big hole in my anime life) and because they all look the same. But this one was especially bad. The guy saw that the music had M minutes, ss seconds; so he chose a scene and cut a slice of M’ss from it. removed the sound, put the Valkyries on top. That is all. So I saw a full battle scene for Evangelion and got annoyed at a tune I really like. No sync, no meaning, no nothing. Like playing a random CD on the stereo while watching the anime on a muted TV. Same applies to “Saint Seiya – Tina Turner – We Don’t Need Another Hero”. I got it out of curiosity, seeing as Saint Seiya almost rivals Dragon Ball in number of episodes and OVAs, and that is the only AMV of it I ever came across. Waste of time. No sync. At least this guy tried to do something, you can see it is not just one scene. But, really, if you cannot find the matching visual sequence for that musical phrase, do not spoil the anime and the song.

On the other hand, bad AMVs have a crucial point: seeing my dear Ride of the Valkyries so horrendously misused, I felt this great need to make an AMV myself and use this song. But it will probably be for Escaflowne instead – enough of EVAs and Angels, the Guymelef is my armored suit of choice! In fact, any Zaibach ‘Melef would do, or even Scherazade; I ask for nothing big and complicated and all pompous as the Guymelef of Ispano. Looking like Allen or Van would surely be a plus, too.

Back to the point: somehow, the idea of making an AMV found a warm corner in my mind, settled down and built a home. But to make the one I want I would need to download the entire Tenkuu no Escaflowne series in Raw format (no subtitles), which I cannot do right now for a number of reasons. Then there is the problem of actually making the video: I think I forgot my bag of “Effort” somewhere. Or maybe I am a prophet of some sort and am saving as much effort as I can because I, and I alone, know the future will be a very perilous struggle and only those with the most determination will reach the end and raise above all others as the new leader of… you get the idea.

I would write about my recent attempt at programming, but it contrasts too much with the current line of the post. No more than the link up there, of course, but that is a small interlude, a break, to part completely with the political mood of the last two posts before going into something a bit more fun. I consider myself excused.

Among the messages from Edit-usp yesterday there was one about political persecution of some students in the university. They have a point, I agree with their position and regret the situation. So far so good. The message was the third or fourth forwarding of an original. All the past signatures were still in the document.

One of them said “Communist Greetings”.

So I thought I could write about it. Maybe some pondering on the subject – does this guy know how things were in the USSR? [American propaganda!] Has he been to China, North Korea or Cuba? [If you haven't either, you can't say a word!] Has he read anything from people who have been there? [Just more propaganda for Capitalism!] Maybe spoken to any Cuban refugee? [Bunch of ungrateful people!]

Of course, there is the possibility he does not consider USSR, China, North Korea and Cuba as Communist countries. The Marxist ideas were never indeed implemented in any of them. But Marx once said he was not Marxist. (“What have these insane people with the red flags done to my name?”, he must ask from his hole in Hell.) Which leads me to the conclusion the only differences between Vladimir Lenin and a “Communist” who does not take Marx to heart and by the letter are the degree of dellusion and the number of followers.

But maybe, maybe he does indeed take Marx’s words to heart and is the last true Communist in the world in the sense that old Karl meant them to be.

If that is the case, though… He is tremendously silly in using that polluted term to describe himself. It would be a parallel to wearing a swastika (the cross of thousands of years now immediately associated to Nazism) in your clothes thinking you are carrying a symbol of the cycle of life.

In conclusion, no matter how I look at it, “Communist Greetings” is a very improper way to sign a letter.

And now I wonder… To get into USP you need a certain high level of education, which is rare (but not impossible) to get without money. Therefore USP is (contradictory as it may be) filled with people of upper-mid class families. How come, then, the concentration of left-wing extremists, left-wing dellusionals, left-wing fundamentalists, left-wing anarchists, and everything else left-wing, is so high in USP? Did I miss some clausule saying “You agree to be of left alignment upon signing of this document” when I joined?

Back to school next week, by the way. I wonder how my classmates will receive me now, considering I never give many signs of my position in the political spectre in person. Problem is: now it is obvious I do not share the left-wingism (and that I did not vote for Lula). So, by definition, without further questions, I am right-wing. Oh, bah. In the worlds of Aristotle, “Each extreme sees the middle as being as bad as, if not worse than, the opposite extreme.”.

But wait a minute! I must not be unfair. Take this post as is it, and do not attribute to it what I have not said. I do not think all those who believe in the ideals of Socialism are dellusional et al. No no no, I do not. In fact, even within a declared Communist there can be reason. I understand, in essence, it is a matter of opinion on very basic things. “Will John Plow be happier owning a farm or working on the government’s farm?” Very simplistic question, but surely you can expand on it yourself. The premise, then, is obvious: I think John Plow will not be too happy working for the government for fixed pay, so I think he will produce less and I think this will lead to stagnation. But I think it because I have facts showing this has happened. If Kostia the Communist thinks John Plow will be happier as part of a community that shares all goods, very well, my right is no more special than his, and with proper discussion we might reach an agreement. But if Kostia the Communist thinks that way because he finds Communism cute (ie, he has no opinion on the processes and the consequences in a global and individual level), I waste none of my time with him.

That applies to everything. Especially to the few million who voted on Lula based on “mudar tudo isso que está aí” (“change all this stuff that is around”, in a stupid translation). Change what, why, to what, how, and again, why? “Because the people can no longer tolerate the situation as it is!” What situation, and who asked the people (and forgot to ask me)? “…” Well? “…” Anything? “…” Thank you.

Bottomline: I respect you and your opinion if you base it on anything more solid than empty generalizations. If you cannot point a few facts to show X would be better in red than in blue, you are nothing but steering mass, space filler, number, cattle. And arguing with that is not fun or rewarding.

Two messages in my archive for Edit-usp, the mailing list for Editing students in USP, speak of the same subject. One is from weeks ago, a forwarded message originally written in Spanish announcing the occurance of many manisfestations against the possible war, on the 15th of February. I found it cute and amusing.

Yesterday I was watching the local news, they said the UN inspectors were just beginning their report. So I switched to CNN to watch the original without any horrible on-the-fly translation voice-over. Interesting report, “They are very cooperative, we found nothing, we will keep searching”. Somewhere along it I remembered that e-mail announcing the manifestations. “The US cannot fight against these facts, it is obvious they will not do anything for a while. Any reasonable person will stay home tomorrow.”

This morning there was a message with exact schedule and location for a number of manifestations throughout the country. “So they are really doing it. Figures. Kids of all ages with too much time in their hands.”

News tonight showed some of these manifestations. Some had a purpose and were by those reasonable people that I hoped would stay home. Others were by those who would not do it if the inspectors said Iraq changed their national anthem to “Give Peace a Chance”. These are what I am talking about. American flags on fire, banners saying “Out Bush!”, among other less unkind portraits of dishonesty.

Dishonesty because the manifestations were against the possible war, not against the United States and the stupid guy running it. The American attitude is wrong: hold your banners saying that, and that alone. What these people do is not even funny. “You want to attack? No, we are against the attack, and you suck, your father sucks, your mother sucks, your country sucks, your people suck, your neighbors suck, you are ugly, stupid, you have a silly face, you talk funny, you have poor taste is hats, and… and… you can’t attack them because UN said you can’t! And you are very ugly and stupid, too. With poor taste in hats.”

Of course, when they do something like that they open way for people in the average evolutionary stage of human beings to say they are worth less than the flags they burn and banners they write (at least flags and banners can pass a reasonable message without being openly destructive) and serve only to waste Earth’s supply of oxygen, water and proteins.

If war is really going to happen, they really should take their time to fly a B1 down here and fire three or four well placed missiles in the middle of these manifestations and/or (hopefully and) on buildings of the extremist left-wing parties.

Just giving human evolution a hand.

For no reason today, I came across the page for “The Ring” in IMDb (no link today). The MPAA says “Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, disturbing images, language and some drug references”. One civilian reviewer says “Rated PG-13; Adult Themes, Disturbing Images, and a little bit of Profanity”.

Thematic elements, disturbing images, language, drug reference, profanity.

HAH!

8 o’clock news: That is your drug reference.
6 o’clock news: Help yourself to the disturbing images and language.
Anything else: Take your piece of profanity and make good use of it.

Shut up, you cynical hypocrites.

I was astonished to see “Treasure Planet” was rated PG. “Parental Guidance”.

“See, Tim, this guy was thrown into the black hole. He went to a very nice place, and the other nice guys will see him when they go into the black hole, too.”
“But daddy, why don’t they go fetch him now, or go visit him?”
“Because if they do, they would not want to come back, and they still have things to do here, Timmy.”
“Oohh. And what are all these little babies, where did they come from?”
“Ah, you see, Timmy, when a man and a woman love each other, the dad buys a seed and gives it to the mom, who plants it, and then a cabbage sprouts with a baby in it. That is how you came to be, that is how all babies came to be.”
“Aaahh, I get it now, daddy! And why did the big spider try to kill the boy?”
“Because he is evil, Tim, and the boy is good.”
“Why is he evil?”
“Because he only wanted the gold. Wanting only the gold is evil. And evil people are always out to kill good people.”
“Aahh, right. But that fat guy who wanted all the gold just escaped and the good boy let him. Is that the right thing to do?”
“More or less, Timmy. They were friends, and he was not really a bad guy. Just a little.”
“So if you don’t try to kill anyone you are not really evil?”
“That’s right.”
“Daddy, if I build a skateboard and go rolling in dangerous off-limits areas, will I end up as a soldier?”
“It is not so simple, Tim. The boy got lucky, and…”

Oh, I wish…

“Daddy, why did he let the bad guy go?”
“Sometimes you have to make decisions based on lots of things, son. He was greedy, and betrayed the boy, but he gave up on the gold to save him, and they were friends. Of course, he was a criminal, so the right thing to do would be to take him to justice. But can you do that to a friend? It is a hard decision, Tim.”
“Aahh.”

This world is in serious need of a Captain Amelia – or a thousand.