casting

Posted on Saturday, 2004 July 24 by Anton

“I wonder how often Angela Lansbury has played somebody evil” (as in The Manchurian Candidate which is on KQED now).

“Not nearly often enough.”

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at the pictures, 1951

Posted on Saturday, 2004 July 24 by Anton

I’ve just seen An American in Paris, whose supporting cast includes the pianist Oscar Levant, who also said:

My psychiatrist once said to me, “Maybe life isn’t for everyone.”

Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember.

I envy people who drink. At least they have something to blame everything on.

The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.

Last night I watched (for the second time ever) The Man in the White Suit, one of the famous Ealing comedies – though perhaps it’s called that only by association. Like the crime farces Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers, it was made by Ealing Studios and stars Alec Guinness, who here plays Sidney Stratton, the crank chemist whose indestructible polymer threatens to ruin the textile industry.

A super-fiber has uses beyond clothing and thus would in all likelihood increase the demand for fiber rather than ending it. (Never mind that no single fiber can replace all existing fibers, even if it does last forever.) This never occurs to any of the characters in TMitWS, and much unhappiness results. I call that a tragedy.

Posted in cinema, economics, psychology | Leave a comment

what you do on your own time . . .

Posted on Saturday, 2004 July 24 by Anton

Seen on a van on Shattuck Avenue today:

I’D RATHER BE
BITING MY MACAW

The van was also adorned with a wheelchair symbol, but that did not make the declaration any more transparent for me.

Posted in California | Leave a comment

“Democrats For Guns”

Posted on Friday, 2004 July 23 by Anton

Ted Rall, of all people, on Why Kerry Should Stand Up for the Second Amendment

Posted in politics, weapons | Leave a comment

you had to have been there before 2004 October 18

Posted on Thursday, 2004 July 22 by Anton

I’ve resigned myself to the thought that without comments my blog is never gonna make the big time like Boing Boing, Scripting News, Instapundit, Doc Searls, Andrew Sullivan, Jason Kottke, Salam Pax, USS Clueless, James Lileks or The Volokh Conspiracy. (Examples selected from myelin.)

Posted in blogdom, California | 1 Comment

disconnecting the dots

Posted on Tuesday, 2004 July 20 by Anton

Strange phosphenes: Pressure on the eyeballs normally produces ripples of dark and light, often in expanding squares, in my experience. But today as I pressed a towel to my face I saw many perfectly round dots of red, yellow and dark blue drifting up at about two o’clock, with bigger stationary blue dots. Perhaps that is what the Matrix really looks like; it’s more plausible than a green cascade of backward Japanese characters.

In completely unrelated news — I’m looking around at temporary employment agencies’ websites, and find one that apparently has no jobs, only “careers”. I haven’t sought a “career” since 1987; how about something to pay the damn rent?

Posted in me!me!me! | Leave a comment

am I subtle? am I a Machiavel?

Posted on Tuesday, 2004 July 20 by Anton

20 Questions to a Better Personality (cited by Travis)

Wackiness: 30/100
Rationality: 46/100
Constructiveness: 46/100
Leadership: 36/100

You are an SEDF–Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well–even those you have known a long time–because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

Changing one of the marginal scores, I get this, somewhat more comfortable:

You are an SECF–Sober Emotional Constructive Follower. This makes you a hippie. You are passionate about your causes and steadfast in your commitments. Once you’ve made up your mind, no one can convince you otherwise. Your politics are left-leaning, and your lifestyle choices decidedly temperate and chaste.

You do tremendous work when focused, but usually you operate somewhat distracted. You blow hot and cold, and while you normally endeavor on the side of goodness and truth, you have a massive mean streak which is not to be taken lightly. You don’t get mad, you get even.

Posted in me!me!me!, psychology | 1 Comment