Saturday, October 22, 2011
A Look Back @ The Goonies
The Goonies is one of my all-time favorite films. It is also a film I have railed against for a number of years. The version shown in the early 90s by a pre-commercial break Disney Channel included several scenes that greatly enhance the film's characters, plot, and narrative cohesion. The absence of these scenes cause glaring plot holes and gaps in characterization that leave the film disjointed in parts and nonsensical in others. For clarity and posterity for you fellow Goonies aficionados, enjoy the following scenes including an encounter with Troy at the shop, a pop-loving giant octopus, and an accidental introduction of Data's patented pinchers of peril. I know. It turns out it's not pinchers of power, but pinchers of peril. You can sit down for a minute, I just found out too. Watch the 'outtakes' below as they are definitely worth a look back. The Goonies are still good enough.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Joe Hisaishi - Ano hi no Kawa e {Spirited Away Image Album}
The image albums for Hisaishi’s Miyazaki scores are often as entrancing as the scores themselves. Featuring alternate soundtrack arrangements as well as songs inspired by the films, these image albums are perfect companions to the official soundtracks. Take for example, this vocal rendition of “One Summer Day” on the Spirited Away Image Album under its original title “Ano hi no Kawa e”, Japanese for “Day of the River”. Instant relaxation.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Doctor's Orders - Poe Tha Dah
Dr Bendel, I Presume?
Today we feature an international edition of Doctor’s Orders, as the good Dr Bendel is currently abroad, but let’s let him tell it.
“I have been in Southeast Asia for the past few weeks, working at a medical clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, roughly 3 kilometers from the Burmese border, in a town inhabited by UN & NGO workers, drug & human traffickers, guerilla warlords, mercenaries, missionaries, monks, medics, amputees, and, of course, the people that have drawn them all here - Burmese civil war refugees, thousands of them (and hundreds of thousands in the 2 nearby refugee camps). Mostly belonging to the Karen ethnic group, they have been bravely and fiercely fighting the Burmese for over 60 years. The Karen in Thailand (and in Burma) have no rights, little education, and almost no access to health care, so the Mae Tao clinic at which I’ve been working is a true godsend for the Karen people. Most of their staff - including its Nobel Prize nominated director - are Karen refugees themselves, as is one of my close friends here in town, having spent a good portion of his twenties as a guerilla resistance fighter in the Burmese jungle.
“He's keen on video editing, and has made a variety of music video home movies of his family, complete with Karen pop music. The song featured is a reggae-ish Karen song called “Poe Tha Dah” (Little Child) and will give you a glimpse of my friend's family (he's even instructed his 2 children to call me Didi Kalawa, literally, Uncle White Guy), his single room tenement in which I've shared so many meals, seated on the floor and often eaten with our hands, and a little bit of the outskirts of town and its fields and rice paddies, where the refugees all must live. You will also see the flag of Kawthoolei, literally, "land without evil", the name of the Karen state.”
Today we feature an international edition of Doctor’s Orders, as the good Dr Bendel is currently abroad, but let’s let him tell it.
“I have been in Southeast Asia for the past few weeks, working at a medical clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, roughly 3 kilometers from the Burmese border, in a town inhabited by UN & NGO workers, drug & human traffickers, guerilla warlords, mercenaries, missionaries, monks, medics, amputees, and, of course, the people that have drawn them all here - Burmese civil war refugees, thousands of them (and hundreds of thousands in the 2 nearby refugee camps). Mostly belonging to the Karen ethnic group, they have been bravely and fiercely fighting the Burmese for over 60 years. The Karen in Thailand (and in Burma) have no rights, little education, and almost no access to health care, so the Mae Tao clinic at which I’ve been working is a true godsend for the Karen people. Most of their staff - including its Nobel Prize nominated director - are Karen refugees themselves, as is one of my close friends here in town, having spent a good portion of his twenties as a guerilla resistance fighter in the Burmese jungle.
“He's keen on video editing, and has made a variety of music video home movies of his family, complete with Karen pop music. The song featured is a reggae-ish Karen song called “Poe Tha Dah” (Little Child) and will give you a glimpse of my friend's family (he's even instructed his 2 children to call me Didi Kalawa, literally, Uncle White Guy), his single room tenement in which I've shared so many meals, seated on the floor and often eaten with our hands, and a little bit of the outskirts of town and its fields and rice paddies, where the refugees all must live. You will also see the flag of Kawthoolei, literally, "land without evil", the name of the Karen state.”
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