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Showing posts from October, 2009

Avatar, the Trailer

Slashfilm has the new international trailer for James Cameron ’s Avatar . Still looks meh , but now complete with horrific, cliche-ridden dialogue in a trailer that seems give roughly 90% of the story away. Hasn’t this sort of story been done to death already? I hope I’m wrong. I always want a film to knock me out of my socks, whether in subtle or explosive ways. I’ve noticed that Cameron’s best films have music by Brad Fidel , while his very good films are scored by James Horner , and his crap is scored by someone else. Well, this one is scored by James Horner, so maybe there’s reason to hope.

Recalling Naomi Wolf’s 10 Step Program…

For no particular reason, I found myself reminded of Naomi Wolf’s article Fascist America, in 10 easy steps . The 10 steps? Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy. Create a gulag. Develop a thug caste. Set up an internal surveillance system. Harass citizens’ groups. Engage in arbitrary detention and release. Target key individuals. Control the press. Dissent equals treason. Suspend the rule of law. While she was speaking specifically of the Bush administration, she did make clear: History shows that any leader, of any party, will be tempted to maintain emergency powers after the crisis has passed. With the gutting of traditional checks and balances, we are no less endangered by a President Hillary than by a President Giuliani - because any executive will be tempted to enforce his or her will through edict rather than the arduous, uncertain process of democratic negotiation and compromise. She names Hillary and Giuliani becaus

Buell, RIP

Harley-Davidson is shutting down its Buell Motorcycles division. Not selling it, not letting it spin off as its own entity. They are killing it. Silly wabbits. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, or re-stating the facts and arguments, I defer to Hell for Leather : Cutting through the [excrement of the male bovine], it seems you can boil Harley's plan down to this: cut costs by streamlining production and lowering output, thereby alleviating dealers of stock they can't sell, then hope that the loans carry the company through to a projected return of middle-class solvency and credit availability. All this sounds startlingly similar to the business practices that got Harley into so much trouble in the first place. It'll continue to rely on the same demographic buying the same motorcycles and, since a large proportion of those customers don't have enough money to buy either the bikes or the accessories, it'll continue to give loans to people that can't