Posts by Simon Grigg

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  • Field Theory: Handle the Scandal,

    And JR's mother no less

    You're thinking of Mary Martin

    So I am...whoops. I stood in an elevator next to Larry Hagman once..does that make up for it?

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Handle the Scandal,

    I'd have to disagree. Sure, it's a spectacle, but it's not as if values and ethics and politics don't enter into it, .

    Sounds like Andrew Lloyd Webber to me...

    given the broader significance of the event that is being introduced

    I think the opening ceremony has long since left that behind..the primary driving force for decades has been to out spectacle the previous opening. Production companies with such a brief work for years to do just that. Myself, I found the young girl's song cloyingly twee but the opening ceremonies are full of such twee-ishly grating moments, coupled with slightly gruesome nationalistic bravado.

    Give me honest imperfection anytime.

    Marni Nixon

    And JR's mother no less

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Hard News: I've been hybridising for a…,

    whose

    who's

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Hard News: I've been hybridising for a…,

    It would be remiss not to praise Colin Espiner for his willingness to debate with his commenters.

    And too one of my favourite bloggers, Glenn Greenwald on Salon (where he went when headhunted from a blogspot site), whose always found in the comments section taking to task or, often too, admitting a shortfall. And I love the relentlessness and precision of his calling the MSM to task over bias, misreporting and factual dishonesty.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Hard News: I've been hybridising for a…,

    You've got new media and technology (and not just blogging/internet) remaking your profession under your feet, then you're going to see some people adapt (however reluctantly), other decry it as the apocalypse (and either adapt or die), and others jam their finger and their ears and start screaming "I can't hear you! I can't see you! GO AWAY!!!"i

    As above, but spoken as only Craig can. Giovanni correctly said the discourse used to be so limited. Pre-Net 2.0 it was often confined to a small television panel whose verbal to and fro-ing was defined as, well, definitive in some way, or reporters who were asked nightly 'what that really means'. We were told things and that was it, by experts. Clifton was a big part of that and it must be terrifying for the likes of her and Ralston to see that slip away so much as it has.

    Simply put, they don't matter as much anymore despite their self perceived importance.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Hard News: The newest neocon catastrophe,

    Tony, this may be of interest to you..but then I'm guessing that you knew large parts of this already.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Handle the Scandal,

    But what the Chinese have apparently chosen to do is present a fantasy cutey cutey girl singer who conforms with Western notions of what pretty Chinese girls should look like. How dare they?

    Sounds pretty much like half the pop 'acts' on the radio at any given time. You don't actually think that voice you see in the video is theirs. Their original may be in the mix, or it may not. Which major rock acts have musicians, vocalists or sequencers filling in the sound back of stage..answer: far more than you'd guess. And the same applies to many voices in Hollywood musicals. That's showbiz and it has been for generations. And the opening ceremony is always showbiz..it's a production, pure and simple and should be treated as such.

    I'm not sure it had much to do with trying to conform with Western ideals, as much as the showbiz requirements of the production.

    The irony is that one of the biggest industries in China, and across Asia are the whitening creams and other ways of westernising female faces. Those, sadly, for many, are the Chinese notions of what a cute girl should look like.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Hard News: The newest neocon catastrophe,

    Russia has been an empire for centuries. The last 15 years or so were not the new reality, but simply an aberration that would be rectified. And now it is being rectified.

    Sure but I don't think at any time soon you'll see the Russians roll into any of the CIS states and formerly annex again. But there is little doubt that the Russian Empire, call it what you will, still sees the region now called the CIS as it's exclusive and legitimate zone of influence and resents any mischievous interference in a zone that it has dominated and ruled for half a millenia.

    Either the US administration is intentionally trying to prod, and I think the rest of NATO, who are at best wary of Bush anyway, are very concerned about this, or, simply, almost too simply to believe if it wasn't for events of recent years, their grasp on the history of the region is not strong.

    Both ways, Rice's claim to be a Russian expert looks increasingly shaky...it would've been hard to have mis-read the situation more from a US perspective, and be more impotent. I thought Steve Bell was good today.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Hard News: The newest neocon catastrophe,

    Just to clarify James...if that is your position on the Ukraine...that the US should perhaps stop interfering as it's simply destabilising with mischief, then we agree.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Hard News: The newest neocon catastrophe,

    Poor darling, did I upset your delicate senses? How sad. Don't take life so seriosuly, its tedious.
    BTW we are in agreement on the Ukraine. Very strange, but there it is.

    Don't talk such twaddle again James. Narrow cartoonish and quite racist barry obambi and vlads type comments do nobody any favours especially. They just give you an aura of ignorance. Like your 'now he has invaded a country with the apparent intention to take it over' thing..which one in particular? If you are refering to Georgia, outside fruit loop central, it's pretty much accepted that Georgia, for whatever ill advised reason, pulled a trigger. To date, no-one has taken over anything.

    But you said that, then earlier you said "I did not, nor has anyone of which I am aware suggested or implied Russian tanks will be rolling over Eastern Europe."...then you say exactly that????? Which one is it James? Make your mind up.

    And no we don't agree on Ukraine. Ukraine has a deal with Russia to lease out the navy base in the Crimea. They are making noises about taking it back with US encouragement. Russia, at the moment seems to want two things: that deal to be upheld, and the US to stop interferring with nations on it's front door. a bit like the US with Cuba and Central America in the 1980s. So I'm guessing the US is okay with Cuba taking back a little bit of their sovereign territory despite a treaty.

    That last part of your post was just bizarre paranoid ranting..quite odd..swinging once again at the 'libs': it's Roosevelt's fault, it's Carter's fault.....I keep thinking of that old 50's movie with Americans running around the desert in a mad panic screaming "them! them!, them!" your view of past events is so blinkered in your narrow, goodies and badies, libs and the like it seems to be a vacuum once you move beyond those parameters.
    Everything in your 'history' is black and white, but the world didn't and doesn't work work like that..sorry.

    You washed that blood off your hands from Iraq yet James? Because no matter who you try and shift the blame to, much of the world looks at people like you and still sees it. They think of you and your ilk as the contemporary 'horrid bastards'.

    You are throwing swings from inside a moral vacuum, with rendition, torture, tens of thousands still in prisons without charge..and you have the nerve to accuse 'vlad'.....

    Thank god your time is passing.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

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