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lebovaryste says...

Quand j'ai vu les palmarès présentés dans mon post précédent, j'ai pas totalement accroché. Celui de la Cinémathèque Ontario, bien que je ne doute pas de la pertinence des oeuvres en lice, est un peu obscur, et les films en tête (selon moi, évidemment!) n'ont pas la qualité essentielle à un bon palmarès de décennie : ils ne laisseront pas leur marque sur la décennie de films à venir. Le Paste, quant à lui, offrait un palmarès américo-centré : même les films étrangers qui y figuraient étaient ceux qui se rapprochaient le plus de la culture américaine. Pour ces raisons, j'ai décidé de vous faire ma sélection des trois meilleurs films de la décennie. Probablement que mon palmarès comporte des défauts. J'assume. Quel est le vôtre?

3- Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008)
Film d'animation historique extrêmement complexe et ingénieux, Waltz With Bashir n'a sans doute pas eu toute l'attention qu'il méritait. D'un réalisme vif, cru, dérangeant, il explore les méandres d'une mémoire qui a voulu oublier, mais sur laquelle le passé a laissé d'indélébiles marques. Waltz With Bashir est un film subtil, touchant, à l'animation d'une beauté inouïe.

2- Dancer In The Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)
Notre décennie aura débuté avec un film qui révolutionnerait la comédie musicale. Histoire tragique d'une martyr banale, Dancer In The Dark nous plonge dans une spirale toujours accrue de douleur et de souffrances. La crudité des images, la lumière omniprésente, l'interprétation grandiose de Björk rendent l'oeuvre blanche, pure, tristement brillante.

1- Un Conte de Noël (Arnaud Desplechin, 2008)
Je sais d'avance que plusieurs réprouveront cette première position. Je l'explique par le symbolisme incroyablement fort de cette oeuvre pourtant si sensuelle; la religiosité omniprésente; les inspirations bergmaniennes géniales. Un Conte de Noël est tellement français et pourtant rejoint indéniablement une universalité. Que ce soit à cause de l'écriture sans faille; des histoires entremêlées d'une famille à l'apparence normale mais à la dynamique particulière; du rythme parfait, lent et rapide, comme on danse. Je m'en fous.

lebovaryste.

Filed under: Culture

vizeumcph says...

By Daria Radota Rasmussen

"Rather be dead than cool" (Kurt Cobain)

Trends, hypes and crazes are still alive but "there are just too many styles around, and they keep mutating too fast to assume that kind of dominance." writes Brian Eno in his essey The Death of Uncool

That's a good news. The notion of uncool is maybe not entirely dead but it importance is diminished as we get exposed and acustomed to different cultures. We mix and blend creating our versions of cool that are far away from the worn out skater or street type as the ultimative expression of coolness.

Those "stylistic tropics" have a big impact on communication, on the stories we tell and how we tell them. We should reconsider searching for cool behaviors and styles to use them in the communication, but focus on how we change and adapt the cultural context, integrate various cultures to create an experience people can relate too.

Filed under: culture

vizeumcph says...

by Daria Radota Rasmussen

The changing workplace: culture, demographics, technology.
Lots of interesting global stats about the evolving workforce. We have the huge opportunity of breaking the silos in terms of hierarchy, disciplines, cultures...will we manage to set us free and improve the work quality both as an experience for stuff and as an work outcome?
Letting silos go isn't easy but we can see at Vizeum that integrating insights, online and offline work and impacts our work radically. It makes it more exciting and better!

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far go, go with others"

Filed under: culture

Kim says...

No matter what where you fall on climate change issues, it's an undeniable truth that polar bears are not surviving the loss of their sea ice habitat. A fact I'm reminded of each time I see this ill-conceived image - so far, one billboard plus these London Underground platform posters.

To the creative/s who came up with this marketing campaign - great job. These are the best global warming propaganda posters I've seen yet.

 

Filed under: culture

Roger says...

This evening, we continued a 12 year tradition of our Feliz Navidad dinner where we go out to a nice Mexican Dinner.

 We went to our favorite Mexican Restaurant, Toreros in Renton.  We had a great time with our family.  The owner, Ted Rodriguez has been serving some of the best Mexican food for 30 years.  As an aside, Mr. Rodriguez serves as a Deacon in a local church.  He's one of the nicest, most caring people I have ever known.

After we ate, we had some time before the show, so we went over to the SBC aka; Seattle's Best Coffee.  I have always liked their espresso and they seem to have better handle on the Christmas merchandising then so many other coffee chains.  Hard to believe that they are owned by Starbuck's, who don't do the Christmas Spirit half as well, IMHO.

Then it was Showtime.  The play was a comedy called "The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge". A new production by the Renton Civic Theatre.  This is the second production we have seen at this theatre it was top notch, like the last.  We all agreed that it was a great show. It was fun, hilarious, original and they paid attention to the details.  I loved the juxtaposition they used with two other characters, to Scrooge and Bob Cratchit. - I won't delve into that too much but I'll give you the synopsis from their website:

The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge
By Mark Brown
December 4th – 19th 2009

The Trial of the Century! A year after his miraculous transformation, Ebenezer Scrooge is back to his old ways and is suing Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future for breaking and entering, kidnapping, slander, pain and suffering, attempted murder and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. One by one, Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's nephew Fred, solicitor and philanthropist Sara Anne Wainwright, and the ghosts themselves take the witness stand to give their account of that famous night.  "A delightful new holiday tradition" - Talkin' Broadway. "A sequel worthy of Dickens' approval" - The Seattle Times.  Bill Huls, RCT's Artistic Director, will direct this soon to be Christmas classic.

--from the Renton Civic Theatre Website
http://www.rentoncivictheater.org/
 
It was so good I'm thinking seriously about going back to see it one more time before Christmas.  I recommend this play to everyone.  J wants us to purchase season tickets next season.  I will think about it.

I think it's important to support our small local theater groups right now.  In this tough economy, it's one of the best entertainment values.  Much better than the CRAP coming out of Hollywood these days.  So much more fulfilling to get your culture on.

As another aside, RCT is on a mission to complete the purchase of thier theater building.  They received a grant from 4Culture for $50k and they used it to pay down their mortgage.  That inspired their "Burn The Mortgage" fund raising campaign.  I purchased some raffle tickets to help them out.

Check it out and Merry Christmas!

Filed under: culture

mid0 says...

The 39 Beirut39 authors

The meeting of these 39 authors is the result of a widespread call to readers, publishers, literary agents and authors all over the Arab speaking world to put forward their own candidates. The event is also a perfect occasion to read and debate over contemporary narrative in the Arab world. More...

The ‘39 authors under 39’ were chosen by a jury of four well-known and respected Arab writers, academics and journalists: Abdo Wazen, Saif al-Rahbi, Alawiya Sobh and Dr Gaber Asfour.

Hay Festival announced the 39 selected authors at Frankfurt Book Fair on 16 October 2009. More information at: www.beirut39.com

Nice composition of 39 most interesting writers of Arab heritage under 39 years of age.

Filed under: culture

lostmoya says...

Our massively complex society relies on the ability to plant crops knowing that they will grow, and build cities and infrastructure in places that won't be flooded by incoming tides or washed away by torrential rains.

Without these certainties, Homo sapiens would still be living in caves. When they fail even briefly – during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, say, or in Cumbria just last month – we know the consequences. What if these certainties failed more, or even most, of the time? We are more vulnerable than we think.

Back when I started this blog I had in mind to write a post explaining why I called it "Lost Threads". I never did get round to writing it, but suffice to say it's named after the superb but ultra-grim 80s BBC film, Threads. That film is all about how our fragile modern society is ripped apart by nuclear war and the resulting fallout.

There's a sequence at the start of that film where the narrator is talking about fragility with an image of a spider weaving a web. The many connections that weave our society together make it strong, but they also make it vulnerable.

That vulnerability is what this article is about, and it's brought out nicely in the quote above. It's what climate change as a whole is about, as well. And peak oil. And the multitude of other shocks that are waiting in the wings for our oil-based society.

As a species we've had tremendous good fortune - you might call it blessing - but we're really bad at seeing how good we've got it, and we've managed to paint ourselves into a very tight corner. Let's hope we've got the collective foresight to step out in time...

Filed under: culture

vijay says...

You just might be a social networking addict if..

  1. You ask hosts at a dinner party what their foursquare privacy policy is
  2. You go ahead and check in anyway
  3. You check in on any of the following google latitude, fring, facebook, booyah, citysense, brightkite, gypsii, mobiluck, loopt, plazes, whrrl and IPling
  4. You actually know what any of the sites in bullet 3 are and/or actually use them *Bonus points* if you know and track which of these have received recent VC funding
  5. You get upset when a work colleague unfollows/unfriends/blocks you. You can no longer DM them. They happen to sit two cubes down from you
  6. You engage in riveting debates on the pros and cons of using twitter vs. yammer for work. *Corollary* You frequently engage in social networking proselytizing at work
  7. You ask at a work meeting if there are hashtags for any of the action items
  8. You are deeply vexed on whether to make a particular link public or private on your delicious site
  9. You are a mayor on foursquare and make it a point to tweet about it
  10. When doing something remotely fun - You must check in, see who else is around, view their profile, friend them, tweet/yam/fb about it - other than enjoying the bloody thing you're doing

 

Even if none of the above are true, you are a social networking addict anyway - that's the only way you would have gotten notified about this post :)

 

Filed under: culture

kmportal says...

xmel 8 грудня в приміщенні телерадіокомпанії "Поділля-центр" відбудеться галла концерт  учасникі.. http://bit.ly/6P0bd4
culture

Filed under: culture

domin8 says...

Women are exploited
So these women in these movies, they are there to get men to spend money on DVDs or websites subscriptions. The whole industry functions on the need most men have to be stimulated by sight. The money comes from these men and goes into the pockets of the people who make and act in the movies. It's like vampires complaining that they are being exploited by all that blood that living human beings have.

Perverse” and “unnatural”
In what sense? As long as there have been orifices people have wanted to stick things in them. It's an instinct. If a penis can fit in it somebody is going to try to get one in. People have genitals. This is natural. Healthy genitals, when handled properly provide pleasure. People hook up for casual sex all the time. Right now there is somebody near you getting laid and they are probably doing it with somebody whose last name they will forget within a week. There are also people with cameras filming stuff. Neither one of these things is odd. Even when you take the position that casual sex is wrong or bad, it's hardly new or rare.

Causes crimes against women
Supposedly men look at women as “sex-objects” because of porn. They dehumanized and thus are open to being used. The problem is that even in places where there is relatively little pornography women are dehumanized. The same crimes that are committed against them ostensibly as a result of the pervasiveness of pornography have always, and will always, be committed against them until they all become genetically engineered cyborgs with vaginas molded from surgical steel.

Harms relationships
Only relationships that were teetering on the brink anyway. Who seriously gets threatened by somebody on a screen? I'll tell you who, women (and, occasionally, men) who are looking to make you the scapegoat for their unhappiness and insecurity, that's who. Porn comes with a social stigma, even among its most ardent consumers. You say your husband watches porn in certain company and he will be tainted for life and you, poor, frail female, will get to look like the victim of a disgusting pervert.

Desensitizes
You get desensitized to the nudity of somebody you see naked every day. Thee are lots of women who appear in porn. Until you get tired of each one of them you won't be desensitized to them. You can lose the sense of shock you had as you were getting your cherry busted to the first anal sex scene, yes, but is shock really why you watch porn? If it is then maybe you are addicted to an adrenaline rush rather than actual erotic depictions. I could be wrong but I don't think sex is supposed to be “shocking”.

 

Filed under: culture