Amentep

I liked the recent Ghostbusters film. Then again I didn't think the original Ghostbusters was the greatest film of my generation either and I also didn't become apoplectic at the thought of either (a) the Ghostbusters not including Murray, Ramis, Ackroyd or Hudson or (b) the Ghostbusters being women.

Reads to me as the law is intended to keep people from interfering with Alligators unless otherwise proscribed by law (like, say, someone who is licensed to capture and relocate them). Its unlawful to "feed, entice, or molest an alligator"; in this case I suspect that it was intended to stop people from alligator wrestling or harassing the animals (like throwing things at it, trying to make it angry by poking it wit sticks, etc).

Modern comics Supergirl was at one time portrayed as 'stronger' due to not having grown up having to suppress her powers like Clark did as she arrived as a teenager. Not sure if that applies to the episode as I'm not watching the show.

According to data from the Joint Center for Political and Economic studies, African American voters had been voting overwhelmingly Democrat in US Presidential races at least as early as 1936. Anecdotally I've heard that this can - at least partially - be attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt making sure New Deal legislation applied equally to whites and blacks and her outreach to African Americans, but I don't know if there's any hard data on that. No Republican Presidential candidate has - since 1936 when the Joint Center started compiling data - carried more than 40% of the vote; the closest was in the 1956 election when incumbent Eisenhower pulled just under 40%.

Eh...Picasso's sister died of diphtheria when he was a boy which greatly effected him; his blue period started from depression triggered by the suicide of a friend. If you look at any artist you'll find shares of highs and lows...not because they're artists but because most of the famous artist are typically being looked at years after they've passed on and you can catalogue their experiences of a type. Everyone's life has success and tragedy.

I confess, I'd buy it again. Already have it for PS3 and PC. But it is such a fun game to just run around in. Would love a solid sequel.

I've been watching the Saint myself. I'm already watching The Saint - started the 3rd season a couple of weeks back.

Final trailer for VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS:

With the passing of Roger Moore, I re-watched some episodes of The Persuaders! the short lived Roger Moore / Tony Curtis adventure comedy series. Reminded of what an awesome theme John Barry came up for it:

Sad news about Roger Moore. I've been rewatching his run on THE SAINT, one of the better ITV Adventure series. RIP

Yeah, it is sad. Thoughts to his family in this tough time

Alien: Covenant Regarding timing: I admit to - like Floride - I left the theater somewhat disappointed. Its not all bad, it is tense, set design is awesome, direction is solid, cast is great but I feel like it could have been better. In particular there's a lot of things that seem to go nowhere. Some questions seem to imply a larger aspect of the universe which might be neat if they follow-up on it -

Charles Grey's Blofeld? Yaphet Koto's Mr. Big?

I'm okay with them letting it stand alone. If they want / need to do a cross-over once the show is established, they still can.

People made the same argument against the removal of the Battle Flag of the Army of North Virginia during the Confederacy from the Georgia flag. Problem is that was added to the Georgia flag in the 1950s as a reaction to rulings that schools were to be integrated in the South; until that time that flag had never flown for Georgia (its possible that Confederate ships may have had a similar flag while at the port in Savannah as the Confederate naval jack is a similar design). Short of being the state flag for 45 years, was the flag really historic in such a way that it needed preservation outside of a museum or texts discussing the flag of Georgia?

Given that most of the 'confederate' statues that I've heard of came out of the 1880s Jim Crow era or the post-"Birth of a Nation" Klan revival period, its hard to argue that their existence wasn't intended as a pro-Confederate south statement, and therefore - like the 'confederate flag', aka the Battle Flag of the Army of North Virginia, are hard to ignore in the timing of their creation with respect to what they symbolize I'm against the destroying of art pieces. But moving them to museums where they can be provided a context that sitting around the city or on a state capitol lawn isn't a bad idea where possible, IMO.

Intellectually I get the argument for the Readymades. And in a way I kind of buy it which is why I'm not necessarily against Duchamp even if he's probably not one of my favorite artists. But in another way that's kind of the problem I think Duchamp and the Readymades fostered on us. Anything is art provided you can make a story to explain why its art. Add to that the "and if it doesn't make sense then its the fault of the plebeian who doesn't understand art" and you pretty much have the sort of the art student pretension that, IMO, Clowes was poking fun at with "Art School Confidential". I kind of agree that something like the Readymades was going to happen in some form or fashion; there'd been too long a stranglehold on art that had narrowed 'art' to certain things accepted by the "intelligencia". There were already earlier rebellions in art prior to Dada but they kind of rebelled (to greater or lesser degree) while remaining in the box that they were rebelling against. It was inevitable that someone would realize that they needed to break out of the box that art had been put in (or as Duchamp put it, to break away from "retinal" art).

I'd agree he's hit or miss, but I've liked some of his stuff and the Manga (what I read of it) was solid

Takashi Miike's 100th film is an adaption of the manga Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura

The Mummy Trailer #3:

CW posted a first look for Black Lightning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=172&v=RZpJeuXo2CY

When we've hired people its always been whether they were enthusiastic about the right aspect of the job to align with their potential job satisfaction. For example, we had some positions that were often required to ensure rules were enforced without exception. Candidates who were overly enthusiastic about the advocacy side of the job were usually disappointed in it since the desire to strongly advocate for the individual you were working with would almost assuredly butt heads with immutable rules at some point. So we had to weed through and find the people who were understanding that the advocacy part of the job was done in a metaphorical box of "da rulez".

So the main character is half human half vulcan, who has a bad dad. Everything else in the trailer was a mess. I have absolutely no idea what is going on. Perhaps that's the reason why they removed the trailer? Main character is a human who was raised on Vulcan. Discovery is an exploration vessel and it looks like they're going to come into conflict with the Klingons as they try to map space. Trailer seemed pretty clear to me.

I would also agree, but I'm curious as to what bad ideas you think Duchamp fostered. :D I think that Duchamp's Readymades (and to a certain degree, the Dadaists in general) are the source for the type of pretension in artists that "Art School Confidential" pokes fun of. They foster the idea that anything slapped together and backed by a rationale is art. But the Readymades (IMO) generally fail any sort of test regarding transformative nature of art. If you put a bicycle on a stool it is, ultimately a bicycle on a stool. I get that Dadaism was 'anti-art' but I'd argue that parts of it was art and helped re-expand the boundaries of art after so many years of formalism. But to me most of the Readymades I've seen fail in the effort to actually be art. To be fair, I'm not sure many people care about the transformative part of art, but to me this is the role of the artist. Whatever they've 'found' - whether its canvas and paint or a bicycle - needs to be transformed by the artist to really be art. Its part of why I think Lichtenstein's early "pop art" work isn't transformative at all and therefore doesn't qualify as art to me. Its a shame that he appropriated the art of others and made millions off of them, to be honest. YMMV.

Its in the press release that Owlcat is owned by My.com.