Sex and Star Wars

Now Revenge of the Sith is out it maybe time to pop on those Freudian glasses and watch the original Star Wars film:

By now, everyone's so familiar with the familiar song and dance about Star Wars being the Woodstock of our generation, about how Joseph Campbell and the power of myth powered the most comprehensive comparative religion fable rolled into one tell-all amazing sci-fi epic of epic proportions that you could probably just puke. The truth is, that crap just sells more tickets to pseudo-intellectuals who need to rationalize going for the eleventh time to see a movie about their most deeply rooted fear: impotence and premature ejaculation. Star Wars is one big cock tale about one and only one thing, the ability to get and keep it up all the way to the end.

Review from Metafilm

Warning: May frame images of a fondly remembered childhood film in a wholely unpleasant sexual nature.

!SR

The D'oh! of Homer

Of course there had to be a book on philosophy and the Simpsons. I read a book on Winnie the Pooh and the Tao a few years ago.

The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer

No doubt Aristotle just rolled over in his grave. An essay called "Homer and Aristotle" would appear to be a treatise on two ancient Greek thinkers; in this case, it's a depiction of Homer Simpson's Aristotelian virtues.

But there seems to be a whole market for books linking to the Simpsons:

The Gospel According to the Simpsons: Leaders Guide for Group Study

From a customer review:

People are really amazed that a "wicked, evil" cartoon can be so enlightening! I would recommend this for any church considering it.

The Simpsons And Society: An Analysis Of Our Favorite Family And Its Influence In Contemporary Society

From a review:

In short, it's about as smart as Ralph Wiggum. However, while Ralphie is amusing, this book isn't.

"Me fail English? That's unpossible!" - Ralph Wiggum


!SR

The Unrequited Text Message

Sometimes the universe has a way of connecting things that you wouldn't normally see a link between.

This post kinda links together with the WFMU playlist for Mike Lupica for 23 April 2005, "The Unrequited Text Message".

I got back from the pub on Sunday after watching Celtic scrape a win against Hearts. About 9 o'clock my phone rang. I was surprised to see a number I didn't recognise and a lassies voice on the other end. "Emmm, I think you have the wrong number" I said. "No this is eh right one" she said. I don't usually get calls from lassies I don't know, and she didn't want to tell me all of her name, just "Amy", or how she got my number. I knew that some lassies usually go round to my mates flat, and thought she might be one of them.

She wanted to meet the next day, but didn't show up in the pub. When I txtd my mate Aa* he said that he didn't give anyone my number, but Amy was playing a game on his mobile phone one night. He thought it was a wind-up. I kinda agreed. She said that she was playing football and couldn't manage to meet me. I thought it was a lame excuse. Turned out in the end to be true. (She's a winger).

I knew that she lied about her age, and was getting a bit hacked off with the wind-up. When I got a text from her friend (Who I called Bug) coming out with the same stuff as Amy I had had enough. I texted her back saying that my fiance had returned from visiting her mum's and had found out that I was texting Amy. My fiance was going to through me out of the flat, and that they should never text me again.

I got a surpised message back saying that they never knew I had a fiance (I don't) and sorry for the hassle. When they went round to visit my mate Aa*, I think they now know who got the last laugh.

!SR

Ref:
Title - sums up my last week
Bug - nickname for 2nd anonymous text message girl / track 2 of playlist
Track 9 for obvious reasons
"Reality used to be a friend of mine"

New Robert Anton Wilson book

A new book from the old master. I've been rather unimpressed by his latest books, but how can I be critical of the guy who wrote Promethus Rising, Masks of the Illuminati, and (co-wrote) the Illuminatus Trilogy.

EMAIL TO THE UNIVERSE

Robert Anton Wilson

The range of Bob's interests is truly astonishing. In this book he covers such diverse topics as: The Passion of the Antichrist; The Celtic Roots of Quantum Theory; Paranoia; Black Magick & Curses; LSD, Dogs & Me; Left and Right: A Non-Euclidean Perspective; The Relativity of "Reality"; Sexual Alchemy; Cheerful Reflections on Death and Dying and a whole bunch more.

!SR

A cretinous post

A few of my mates work in a factory. Due to government subsidies etc it is convenient for the company to hire workers from Poland. Some of the local workers talk to the Polish workers and there is some interchange of Polish and English words. Apparently the word "cretin" gets used a lot, and also "schlipko" [?spelling] which means slowly. Some time ago in the pub there was a conversation that went something like this:

A: Did you know that Cretin means the same in english as it does in Polish?

J: Cretin is a Polish word!!

I began to wonder where exactly the word cretin originated. Hell, it's Sunday and I have nothing better to do. Funnily enough after mentioning my love of Take Our Word For It a few posts back, and then the Landover Baptist Church (*cough*) in the last post, how much of it is it fate to combine them both in this post?

Take Our Word For It's origin for the word cretin.

English borrowed cretin from the French word cretin in 1779. It comes from an earlier word, cretin, which meant "Christian" in the (French) dialects of Valais and Savoie (compare the standard French word, chretien). Its ultimate source is the Latin christianus, "Christian".

!SR

It's funny what you gind when Googling

When doing a Google for the terms origin "Russian Roulette" (see previous post) one of the results was

Oral Sex: A Dangerous and Deadly New Trend!
... Creation Scientists are beginning to believe that the talk around the water
... Oral sex is like playing Russian roulette, but instead of holding a ...
www.landoverbaptist.org/news0504/oralsex.html - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

Clearly intrigued, I decided to give it a shout. Now the Good News is that I'm converted.

CLick the link for the main page and join the crusade! Landoverbaptist

!SR

Enter Sandman

A sandstorm in the west of Iraq in April 05. The photo's copied from Snopes, but it was a hard choice as the rest of them are pretty good too.


!SR

Russian Roulette

Last night's pub conversation brought up the subject of Russian Roulette, and why is it so called.

The excellent Take Our Word For It provides the answer.

[Russian Roulette] made its first appearance in written English in 1937. It was used at that time by Georges Surdez in a short story he wrote for Collier's magazine entitled 'Russian Roulette'.

Take Our Word For It is one of my favourite sites on the internet.

!SR

Star Wars Holiday "Special"

A long time ago, in a time slot far, far away ...

"The Star Wars Holiday Special" debuted on CBS on Nov. 17, 1978. It aired just one time, and then nearly vanished from memory.

"Up until the mid '90s, there was really no evidence that it had even existed," says Scott Kirkwood.

Maybe that wouldn't have been such a bad thing.

The special became 90 minutes of "Star Wars" history that many fans aren't aware existed, and those that do would like to forget.

Could it really be that bad? Let's just say it makes "The Phantom Menace" look like "Citizen Kane."

The production values were low, most of the cast looked embarrassed and it ended with Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) singing a Life Day song to the tune of the "Star Wars" theme.

And why haven't I seen this before?

Joplin Globe

Star Wars Holiday Special website


!SR

Disney's "Education for Death - The Making of a Nazi"

One of Disney's anti-nazi propaganda films now collected on the compilation "Walt Disney Treasures - On the Front Lines"

A rather depressing story as Little Hans, a young German youth, is indoctrinated into the Nazi way of life, with tragic results.

Education for Death

!SR

Naturally Nuclear

This is one of the most fascinating stories in the history of Science and especially in the even shorter history of Nuclear Physics.

In 1972 the very well preserved remains of several ancient natural nuclear reactors were discovered in the middle of the Oklo Uranium ore deposit.

Since their discovery the Oklo reactors have been studied by many scientists around the world.


Oklo Link

Answers.com

SR

Sumo Sized Price

Sumo

While checking how my purchse of At Swim Two Birds was going with amazon shop the_book_depository I came across this book.

Currently priced at £3,938.45 I don't think I'll be in any hurry to buy it.

"Bringing an entirely new slant to the concept of the coffee-table book". Yes, quite.

!SR

Baking Mexican Style

There are two Mexicans who have been lost in the desert for weeks, and they're at death's door. As they stumble on, hoping for salvation in the form of an oasis or something similar, they suddenly spy, through the heat haze, a tree off in the distance.
As they get closer they can see that the tree is draped with rasher upon rasher of bacon. There's smoked bacon, crispy bacon, life-giving juicy nearly-raw bacon, all sorts.
"Hey, Pepe" says the first bloke, "Ees a bacon tree!!! We're saved!!!"
"You're right, amigo!" says Pepe.
So Pepe goes on ahead and runs up to the tree salivating at the prospect of food. But as he gets to within five feet of the tree, there's the sound of machine gun fire, and he is shot down in a hail of bullets.
His friend quickly drops down on the sand and calls across to the dying Pepe.
"Pepe!! Pepe!! Que pasa hombre?"
With his dying breath Pepe calls out...."Ugh, run, amigo, run!! Ees not
a Bacon Tree!"
"Ees... a.... Ham bush"

From How It Happened

!SR

Zombie Hypnosis

Derren Brown's show on Channel 4 on 6 May 2005 totally blew me awa!

The highlight was where DB had designed an arcade game that would put the right person (apparently 1 in 3 people are susceptible) into a catatonic trance.

The poor sucker who played it was firing a gun at the screen, then after a few strobe flashes from DB and the system programmer, hidden in the next room, the guy slumped over. His friends thought at first he was joking. Then DB came out and put him on hospital trolley. He pushed him along the street and into a building that the game had been based on! It was all lit the same as the game, with an errie, ghostly feel to it. DB then gave him a gun and after hiding himself and the guy's friends in a room, brought him out of the trance.

The look of surprise on his face was nothing to the look of terror when actors dressed up as zombies started appearing!

I was freaked out myself at how "into" it the guy was. AS he fired the gun, special effects made it look the the zombies were really being shot. Unfortunately for him they would get up after a few seconds and go after him again. Eventually he backed himself into a room. Then DB called an end to it, and put him back in a trance. He popped him on the trolley, and whisked him back to the pub where the arcade game was.

His friends stood where they were when the guy went into a trance, and then when DB was hidden away he brought him out of the trance!

A camera crew asked the guy what he thought of their new "proto-type" game, before DB revealed what had happend and showed the guy footage of what he had done!

Easily the freakiest bit of telly I have seen in ages.

Derren Brown's Channel 4 website

and is own site

He's not so popular with Simon Singh

!SR