Random Thoughts

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:25 pm

More pretentiously portentous, really.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:25 am

London 2012 Olympic logo. What a total clusterfuck.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 10:38 am

I just saw this and thought it was a jigsaw for a swastika.

I think Lord Coe is saying "Come on guys. Are you taking the p..?"

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 10:42 am

Someone I know thought it looked like Lisa Simpson giving someone a blow job. I can see it.

oily slick · Post by **oily slick** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 12:44 pm

Twister is more painful than it used to be.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:21 pm

Who Shot Sam? wrote:....it looked like Lisa Simpson giving someone a blow job.

a midway contender for EC Fan Forum quote of the year

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:42 pm

Who Shot Sam? wrote: I can see it.

Sadly, so can I now. Thanks a lot.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:45 pm

Hard to believe they spent 400k to get that. My daughter could come up with something better.

Lord Coe: "We don't do bland, this is not a bland city.

â€œWe weren't going to come to you with a dull or dry corporate logo which will appear on a polo shirt and we are all gardening in it in a year's time.

â€œThis is something that's got to live for the next five years and we believe this will do exactly that."

WTF!? It's just a logo, for chrissakes. A clear case of people trying to be too clever about something that should be really simple. This is why people dislike folks who work in advertising, marketing and PR.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:39 pm

I too am stunned, and the Lisa quote is a classic. I hope that joke catches on and that smarmy, Tory bastard has to consume the shit from the ugly grin on his face. All it needs is a dab hand with Photoshop to actually superimpose Lisa over the shapes, and after a couple of days of mailing it around the world, a replacement will be essential.

It's got to live for 5 years and everyone agrees it's complete crap?!?!? How about coming up with something that actually looks attractive? What's the message here? We haven't quite rebuilt London after the Blitzkrieg? The animated bits of it trailing along behind people and dancing in multi-coloured fashion on their clothes, etc. just look naff music videos from the early days of MTV.

Modern life is rubbish! Some of it, anyway.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 5:28 am

Who Shot Sam? wrote:Hard to believe they spent 400k to get that. My daughter could come up with something better.

I think this was a project shoved to the back of the To Do Tray and then the deadline was coming up. So Marketing Guy 1 (because it's bound to be a balding man with a ponytail) says "Christ - we need to get that Olympic logo out". So he sends someone out to buy Â£399,000 on hallucinating drugs, Â£950 on Chinese food and Â£50 on crisps/potato chips.

After about an hour the drugs kick in and he devises this art.

His boss looks at it, takes some drugs himself and "totally gets what he's trying to do". They then engage a spin doctor to write the wonderful words as spoken by Lord Coe.

By the time Seb sees it it's too late to do anything so they "run with it".

If this is the cost for the logo, heaven help us for the cost of the Games themselves...

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:02 pm

Over 31,000 signatures here, including mine (and, allegedly, Seb Coe's!):

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/signatures.php?petid=12539

And it's simply unbelievable that so much could have been spent without anyone thinking of this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6724245.stm

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:14 pm

I'd be just as worried about traumatizing all the Lisa Simpson fans out there. If I were Matt Groening, I'd sue.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:39 pm

Will probably go down as one of the all-time marketing disasters. A friend of mine who works in the ad/branding business in London was recently headhunted by the firm that was responsible for this campaign. Needless to say he's lost interest in the position.

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 6:58 pm

In other news, I just walked my dog and it turns out that up the block there are TEN fire trucks, more police cars than I can count, including 2 prisoner transport wagons, two bomb squad vehicles, a half dozen ambulances, and six parked cars cordoned off with police tape.

Ahh, city life.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:12 pm

Christ, what had your dog done?

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:14 pm

Let's just say I'm glad she didn't do it in the house.

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:20 pm

PS, the funny thing is, this all happened maybe 15 minutes after I changed my board location to what it reads right now... I'll be more careful in future.

Post by **BlueChair** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:33 am

I'm really excited about the new Coen Bros. film. It got a really warm reception at Cannes, and many are calling it as an instant classic. Nice to hear this after the mediocre remake of The Ladykillers and the only so-so Intolerably Cruelty.

Gillibeanz · Post by **Gillibeanz** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:54 am

Got dragged to the cinema to watch the new film 'Paradise Lost'. Should have gotton a clue from the number of people in the cinema - 4 including us 2!! Needless to say it was shite and we left halfway through and Â£12 out of pocket!!!

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:35 pm

You mean "No Country For Old Men" Blue?

Im hanging out to see THIS!

http://www.coenbrothers.net/thelatest.html

ROMANCE & CIGARETTES is the new project from actor, writer and director JOHN TURTURRO. Set in contemporary America, ROMANCE & CIGARETTES is a modern day musical, a dark and passionate comedy which tells the story of one man's journey into infidelity and redemption. It stars JAMES GANDOLFINI as our hero Nick Murder and revolves around the repercussions of his adultery and doomed fascination with the flame haired seductress Tula (KATE WINSLET). For Kitty (SUSAN SARANDON), Nick's long suffering wife, his treachery is the final straw. With faith in her husband shattered she surprises even herself with the ferocity of her anger as she struggles to cope with his betrayal. It is only through a tragic twist of fate that Nick finally understands the extent of the pain he has inflicted on his family. With time running out he discovers the essential value of Kitty's love and respect.

In ROMANCE & CIGARETTES Turturro has crafted a gritty, exhilarating and intense script. He describes the film as a savage musical. "When the characters can no longer express themselves in words, they break into song, lip-synching the tunes that are lodged in their subconscious. It is their way to escape the reality of their world: to dream, to remember, to connect to another human being" says Turturro. The film combines sharp snappy dialogue worthy of David Mamet at his most brilliant with the visual flare and exquisite originality of the Coen Brothers.

"This is a project that we're proud to be a part of" say JOEL and ETHAN COEN Executive Producers of ROMANCE & CIGARETTES.

Employing a fabulously eclectic mix of contemporary and classic songs, and featuring such diverse artists as James Brown, Nick Cave and Bruce Springsteen, ROMANCE & CIGARETTES is a unique tale of sex and mortality that will mesmerise audiences.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 6:23 pm

Quote from W B Yeats. Bollocks, what poem is it. Something about it being no country for old men and yooung lovers in each other's arms. September 1913? too full of Japanese sake and beer to be arsed to find out. You tell me.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 6:25 pm

Bugger me if it isn't the opening of Sailing to Byzantium:

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees -
Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

RedShoes · Post by **RedShoes** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:34 pm

This is the coolest thing I've seen in awhile:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs. ... do-they-do

Check out the photos!

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:21 pm

cool! I'll have to figure out how to make a Speck-cam. I'm sure he goes interesting places.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:22 am

I will have been married for four years on Thursday.