1000 Frames Of Hitchcock

Reblogged from Edenborough:

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Essential viewing for fans here.

A very interesting, and potentially useful collection of stills from Hitchcock films.

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Thomas Pynchon Reads Trailer For Inherent Vice

Reblogged from Edenborough:

You probably will never see his picture but here is an opportunity to hear one of the greatest American writers reading from his own work!

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Tweeting The First Page Of Finnegan's Wake

Reblogged from Edenborough:

Just had to try this to see what it would look like on Twitter when Twitter was kind of new and seemed to have certain unusual potential such as  making the most unreadable book in the English language even more difficult to read. I am convinced Joyce would have liked twitter, if only as a way of making communicating with imbeciles even more far fetched a concept :)

And there is someone out there who is tweeting Finnegans Wake

in it's entirety  though he seems to have stalled on page 183.

https://twitter.com/_FinnegansWake_

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Do Not Call

Reblogged from Edenborough:

Reblogging some old posts from other blogs before I dump them.

We are in a senior's residence until we die

so take us off your goddam list

Did some telemarketing between 2007 and 2012 mostly business to business  but spent a year and a half calling people at their homes and this is what I felt summarized the whole deal, this is what was out there. This is why my heart could never really be in it. It paid the bills for awhile is all.

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Dream of Life: An Elegantly Impressionistic Portrait of Patti Smith

Reblogged from Et Cetera: Publick and Privat Curiosities:

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Patti Smith: Dream of Life, directed and mostly shot by Steven Sebring, is an elegantly impressionistic portrait of the punk godhead, Patti Smith, which was created over a heroic period of 11-years. The film has barely begun before Patti has offered forth a life’s worth of headline news, a strategy that allows Mr.

Read more… 647 more words, 2 more videos

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Bless You: Setting the Hungry Cat Amongst the Pigeons

Reblogged from Et Cetera: Publick and Privat Curiosities:

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Bless You is a delightfully humorous animated short film by Philip Watts. The little film tells the story of an urban architect, who decides his architectural model needs to be spiced up quite a bit. Bless You ends up being a very cunning mix of traditional animation, tilt-shift photography and something pretty much like Flash.

Read more… 23 more words

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A Human Caused Methane Avalanche

Reblogged from Sustainability Hub:

About This Video: One of the most feared of climate change "feedbacks" is the potential release of greenhouse gases by melting arctic permafrost soils. New research indicates a critical threshold of that feedback effect could be closer than we once thought.

Related Story: Siberian Caves Reveal Advancing Permafrost Thaw

Related Post: Permafrost Explained in 90 Seconds

The World is being led by sober madmen who want to dig for gold below the permafrost.

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Rick Mercer Rants – Mike Duffy, The senate

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I Don’t Support The Troops

 

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  Michael Moore

  I don’t support the troops, America, and neither do you. I am tired of the ruse we are playing on these brave citizens in our armed forces. And guess what — a lot of these soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines see right through the bullshit of those words, “I support the troops!,” spoken by Americans with such false sincerity — false because our actions don’t match our words. These young men and women sign up to risk their very lives to protect us — and this is what they get in return:

  1. They get sent off to wars that have NOTHING to do with defending America or saving our lives. They are used as pawns so that the military-industrial complex can make billions of dollars and the rich here can expand their empire. By “supporting the troops,” that means I’m supposed to shut up, don’t ask questions, do nothing to stop the madness, and sit by and watch thousands of them die? Well, I’ve done an awful lot to try and end this. But the only way you can honestly say you support the troops is to work night and day to get them out of these hell holes they’ve been sent to. And what have I done this week to bring the troops home? Nothing. So if I say “I support the troops,” don’t believe me — I clearly don’t support the troops because I’ve got more important things to do today, like return an iPhone that doesn’t work and take my car in for a tune up.

  2. While the troops we claim to “support” are serving their country, bankers who say they too “support the troops,” foreclose on the actual homes of these soldiers and evict their families while they are overseas! ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/29/bank-of-america-illegal-foreclosures_n_1118471.html

   

  ) Have I gone and stood in front of the sheriff’s deputy as he is throwing a military family out of their home? No. And there’s your proof that I don’t “support the troops,” because if I did, I would organize mass sit-ins to block the doors of these homes. Instead, I’m having Chilean sea bass tonight.

  3. How many of you who say you “support the troops” have visited a VA hospital to bring aid and comfort to the sick and wounded? ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172_pf.html

   

  ) I haven’t. How many of you have any clue what it’s like to deal with the VA? ( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/us/veterans-wait-for-us-aid-amid-growing-backlog-of-claims.html

   

  ) I don’t. Therefore, you would be safe to say that I don’t “support the troops,” and neither do you.

  4. Who amongst you big enthusiastic “supporters of the troops” can tell me the approximate number of service women who have been raped while in the military? Answer: 19,000 (mostly) female troops are raped or sexually assaulted every year by fellow American troops. ( http://public.cq.com/docs/weeklyreport/weeklyreport-000004169541.html

   

  ) What have you or I done to bring these criminals to justice? What’s that you say — out of sight, out of mind? These women have suffered, and I’ve done nothing. So don’t ever let me get away with telling you I “support the troops” because, sadly, I don’t. And neither do you.

  5. Help a homeless vet today? How ’bout yesterday? Last week? Last year? Ever? But I thought you “support the troops!”? The number of homeless veterans is staggering — on any given night, at least 60,000 veterans are sleeping on the streets of the country that proudly “supports the troops.” ( http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/background_and_statistics/

   

  ) This is disgraceful and shameful, isn’t it? And it exposes all those “troop supporters” who always vote against social programs that would help these veterans. Tonight there are at least 12,700 Iraq/Afghanistan veterans homeless and sleeping on the street. I’ve never lent a helping hand to one of the many vets I’ve seen sleeping on the street. I can’t bear to look, and I walk past them very quickly. That’s called *not* “supporting the troops,” which, I guess, I don’t — and neither do you.

  6. And you know, the beautiful thing about all this “support” you and I have been giving the troops — they feel this love and support so much, a record number of them are killing themselves every single week. In fact, there are now more soldiers killing themselves than soldiers being killed in combat (332 suicides in 2012 through November vs. about 210 combat deaths). Yes, you are more likely to die by your own hand in the United States military than by al Qaeda or the Taliban. And an estimated eighteen veterans kill themselves each day, or one in five of all U.S. suicides — though no one really knows because we don’t bother to keep track. Now, that’s what I call support! These troops are really feeling the love, people! Lemme hear you say it again: “I support the troops!” Louder! “I SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!” There, that’s better. I’m sure they heard us. Don’t forget to fly our flag, wear your flag lapel pin, and never, ever let a service member pass you by without saying, “Thank you for your service!” I’m sure that’s all they need to keep from putting a bullet in their heads. Do your best to keep your “support” up for the troops because, God knows, I certainly can’t any longer.

  I don’t “support the troops” or any of those other hollow and hypocritical platitudes uttered by Republicans and frightened Democrats. Here’s what I do support: I support them coming home. I support them being treated well. I support peace, and I beg any young person reading this who’s thinking of joining the armed forces to please reconsider. Our war department has done little to show you they won’t recklessly put your young life in harm’s way for a cause that has nothing to do with what you signed up for. They will not help you once they’ve used you and spit you back into society. If you’re a woman, they will not protect you from rapists in their ranks. And because you have a conscience and you know right from wrong, you do not want yourself being used to kill civilians in other countries who never did anything to hurt us. We are currently involved in at least a half-dozen military actions around the world. Don’t become the next statistic so that General Electric can post another record profit — while paying no taxes — taxes that otherwise would be paying for the artificial leg that they’ve kept you waiting for months to receive.

  I support you, and will try to do more to be there for you. And the best way you can support me — and the ideals our country says it believes in — is to get out of the military as soon as you can and never look back.

  And please, next time some “supporter of the troops” says to you with that concerned look on their face, “I thank you for your service,” you have my permission to punch their lights out (figuratively speaking, of course).

  (There is something I’ve done to support the troops — other than help lead the effort to stop these senseless wars. At the movie theater I run in Michigan, I became the first person in town to institute an affirmative action plan for hiring returning Iraq/Afghanistan vets. I am working to get more businesses in town to join with me in this effort to find jobs for these returning soldiers. I also let all service members in to the movies for free, everyday.)

  Michael Moore

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Idle No More in Calgary

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New Mural In Ville Emard

Murale de l’Arche Montréal : un projet inspirant qui réunit
des graffiteurs et des personnes ayant une déficience intellectuelle

New mural at 6115 Jogues, looks to be on the side of the presbytery of St-Jean-Damascène.

Before

And After

And here is the city blurb.

Montréal, le 6 novembre 2012 – « Quand différentes personnes travaillent ensemble, qu’elles mettent en commun leur passion et leur talent, de petits miracles peuvent survenir. » C’est en ces termes que le maire de l’arrondissement du Sud-Ouest, Benoit Dorais, s’est réjoui de la réalisation d’une murale sur un mur du bâtiment de l’Arche Montréal situé au 6105, rue Jogues. La fresque vient souligner les 35 ans de cet organisme qui offre des services aux personnes présentant une déficience intellectuelle. Elle est inspirée de dessins des participants aux ateliers d’art de l’Alizé à l’Arche.

Pour souligner la concrétisation de ce projet, les principaux acteurs se sont réunis pour une photo : le maire Benoit Dorais, la conseillère de Saint-Paul–Émard Huguette Roy, le directeur de l’Arche Montréal, Alain Ouedraogo, des résidents de l’Arche et les graffiteurs professionnels qui ont réalisé la murale, Arly Padan, résidant du Sud-Ouest, et Tyson Hampton.

L’arrondissement a octroyé un montant de 3 000$ à l’Arche Montréal pour la création de cette murale. « Ce projet rassembleur touche plusieurs enjeux fondamentaux soit l’intégration et la reconnaissance des personnes ayant une déficience, le soutien aux créateurs du Sud-Ouest, l’embellissement ainsi que la gestion des graffiti par des moyens préventifs. De plus, cette fresque inspirante s’intègre harmonieusement au quartier et offre un repère visuel attrayant pour les promeneurs et les usagers du parc Ignace-Bourget situé à proximité. On mise sur le respect du travail de ces graffiteurs pour garantir l’intégrité de l’oeuvre et par le fait même régler un problème récurrent de graffiti sur ce bâtiment », a déclaré le maire Benoit Dorais.

« L’oeuvre met en lumière le talent et le plein potentiel de deux groupes en apparence distincts. Elle permet aussi au grand public d’être mieux sensibilisé au savoir-faire des résidants de l’Arche et à leur place en société. Elle donne de plus l’occasion à des artistes graffiteurs d’exprimer leur talent dans un cadre légal », a ajouté Huguette Roy, aussi présidente de la table de sécurité urbaine de l’arrondissement.

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Branding Makes Us All Subservient, Passive, Contolled

Red squares being worn in Quebec these days had me thinking of branding lately. When you place a red square on your clothing you are using an abstract symbol to communicate a critical idea to an entire culture, society. When you wear branded clothing you are simply approving ideas completely outside of your self that have been created for mass  consumption.  The first is an expression of individuality that may require some courage, while the second one is an expression against individuality that requires conformity.

Saw this image on wikipedia earlier today.

It might be easy to get the idea that those apparently well dressed men standing on the rails are from the office checking out the daily goings on, but they are most likely foreman congregating over a certain problem or idea. It was fashionable for foremen to wear suits at even the dirtiest of jobs, a uniform that would remain popular in some workplaces until  the second world war. It was a way of separating the real grunt workers from those with middle class aspirations, pro company men. And the photo also creates the illusion that there were more suited men than those up to their knees in cattle manure.

Can you imagine shoveling cow manure all day with the word ARMOUR dominating your viewpoint? And getting paid not even enough to feed a family of 4, thus forcing your spouse and children to work as they became able?  Would you love the company?

Corporation hated unions then and they still hate them today.

Today we would wear ARMOUR t-shirts and and running shoes and whatever other products they would brand without paying any attention to what the company is really all about. We would wear them because other’s do and we desperately want to fit in, to pass for normal by the world around us.

“In its early years Armour sold every kind of consumer product made from animals: not only meats but glue, oil, fertilizer, hairbrushes, buttons, oleomargarine, and drugs made from slaughterhouse byproducts. Armour operated in an environment without labor unions^{[citation needed]}, health inspections^{[citation needed]} or government regulation. Accidents were commonplace. Armour was notorious for the low pay it offered its line workers.^{[citation needed]} It fought unionization by banning known union activists and by breaking strikes in 1904 and 1921, employing African Americans and new immigrants as strikebreakers. The company did not become fully unionized until the late 1930s when the Meatpacking Union succeeded in creating an interracial industrial union as part of theCongress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).” From this wiki page.

It would be monumentally naive to believe that the corporations of today deal in better faith than those in operation before the advent of labour unions. The only reason unions exist today is because of laws. The Right Wing in the United States has been breaking unions, slowly but surely, for over 30 years. The rise of WalMart as a business model and union breaking is not a coincidence, because WalMart, for example, couldn’t work without cheap foreign labour. So the corporations are not on our side at all, they just want our money. Still, we allow ourselves to be branded, we wear the logo as if confirming our presence, as if all is well in the world, as if we LIKE demonstrating how superficial, shallow, and hopelessly uncritical we have become. And we dress our kids with brands that imply middleclassness. We accept wearing company names on our bodies and we accept what the corporations tell us through their political representatives. And we vote for the corporation that appeals to our sense of security, the one that promises to protect the middle class while actually eating away at it’s foundations. Look there! screams the thief while he picks your pocket.

We don’t just love Big Brother, we want to wear his clothes.

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Casserole in Verdun – June 6, 2012

Just a small group tonight. Also hear it is thinning out around the city, just lousy weather or are people getting tired? Meeting the group coming down from The Monument (Verdun Metro) was very energizing.

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Major Downpour in Montreal

Water being pressured up through manhole cover. 1st and Wellington.

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Casserole In Verdun – Monday

There has been at least 60 people on all 6 nights yet I can say there are only 7-8 people, including myself, who have come to Wellington and De l’Eglise each night, so there is quite a bit of circulation going on. Tonight the march went up to the Verdun Metro to join another group there. You will see a couple of guys addressing the crowd but they are not making speeches, just trying to get a route together, democracy in action. The group then left to go to Cote Saint Paul to meet another group at Jolicouer Metro.

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