Justification for Money
This is kind of both an update on my current financial state and also a deep dive into philosophy and the ethics of money itself. As you maybe know I am struggling with even basic necessities at the moment. And I might get kicked out of the house. I have a lot more hope now than I had before that. I still don't exactly know how I will pay the rent this months. But judging by my father's tone when he spoke to me about it. It seems like it should not be a problem. I will probably write a proper update ones I get out of this mess.
Stallman Report The Irony Of Conservative Leftists
Theories of conspiracy were proposed to explain the baffling re-surfacing of previously debunked criticisms of a man. A man who is by opinions of many is on the same side as those criticizing. But perhaps either those criticizing, either don't know about the man's true motive, or lost their true motive themselves, or, which isn't too far fetched of an idea, never had the motive that they claim to have had in the first place. The man is Richard Stallman. The criticism is of the man's apparent lack of conformity to the norms of sexuality. The norms which were significantly challenged, and subsequently re-established by those criticizing him. By those who had lack of conformity in the first place. By those who's lack of conformity was strong enough to establish a new conformity. A new conformity which Stallman deems not enough. A new conformity which Stallman isn't conforming to.
A Haunting In Venice
Sir Kenneth Branagh! That's the end of the review. Just kidding. A Haunting In Venice is the new picture directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Kenneth Branagh which is a kind of a sub-genre of films of it's own. Branagh started his directorial career by directing a movie where he played the main role. And continued directing movies where he played the main roles ever since. Of course sometimes he might make a movie where he plays not the main character, like the 1992's Peter's Friends where Peter is played by Stephen Fry. And Branagh just has a very big role in it. And sometimes he plays in movies where he is not the director. Like in Dunkirk, Tenet and Oppenheimer all directed by Christopher Nolan. Of course lately he got himself directing jobs where he didn't cast himself what so ever. Like in Marvel's Thor ( where the actor was cast by Marvel ) or Disney's Cinderella where for obvious reasons a middle aged man cannot play the main character. But most of the time he plays the main character in the films he directs. It kind of became a meme at this point that if Branagh directs a film, most likely he plays the main character.
Little Naomi
In 2020 I had a lot of spare time and not a lot of what to do. This is when I started the Moria's Race project. And this is when I wrote Little Naomi. An album that should be listened in whole in the right order, since each song is a scene in a tragic love story.
Forcing Cashless
This article will be strangely related to something I had experienced just recently. And quite frankly somewhat related to the Moria's Race project. I will talk about means, or in this particular case, a mean, that governments sometimes use to push people into doing what the governments like people to do.
Challengers
I was skeptical of Luca Guadagnino's films like Call Me By Your Name until I saw them. It felt like Luca is making high brow dramas that are designed solely as tear-squeezers that appeal to contemporary politics. But then I saw his movies. From Call Me By Your Name to instant horror classics like Bones And All he proved time and time again that he is truly great. His movies are insanely visceral emotional roller-coasters that are not afraid to be sincere, while every other movie these days cannot take anything seriously. But then came a trailer of Luca Guadagnino making a movie about Tennis.
Bootstrapping Publicity
Whether you are reading this article from my personal website or anywhere else it doesn't matter much, since I was able to post it in such a way that allowed you to find it and read it. But what if I couldn't do that? Imagine a very simple situation: An editor of a magazine writes an article that the owner of that magazine doesn't like. So he doesn't publish it. Of course that's not the end of the world. The article could be published elsewhere. But what if nobody wants this to be published?
Quarantine
It was the beginning of 2020. The model of Neonspeedster for Moria's Race was already done. I was sitting at home on the Quarantine. It was the beginning of the corona-virus mayhem. Everybody was locked at home. I was bored. And so I made a MIDI album.
School Shootings: More Or Less Guns
It seems like United States of America has a unique problem related to guns. I certainly don't remember being taught at school in Israel or earlier in Ukraine about how to survive a potential gun shooting by a rouge student or other kind of terrible person. Here in Israel they do point us to the direction of a bomb shelter. So we would know where to run when a siren is heard. But that's about it.
Vampire's Kiss
Francis Ford Coppola, a director behind things like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now did not direct Vampire's Kiss. It was directed by Robert Bierman. A director who did mostly work for TV. And who's directing style is not necessarily bad. I don't think he is bad. The movies do not feel terribly directed. It's just it seems that as a director he is not necessarily exciting.
Moria's Race
An adventure of a little girl ( Moria ) that is so obsessed with racing that she throws her caution out of a fast racing car's window.
May December
Natalie Portman is an interesting figure in the world of cinema. And the movie May December is a meta-analysis of Natalie's psychological journey through Hollywood. It is not a surprise that her first movie Leon: The Professional caused some levels of controversy. It was mainly an action film, so there was not that much controversy. But the dramatic elements of the film were questioned a lot by American audiences. Even Natalie Portman herself, being half-American described Leon as "cringe". And it seems like the growing obsession with all kind of sexual misconducts in Hollywood together with growing feelings of cringe from Leon made her into needing a movie like May December to evaluate everything and understand the phenomenon better.
What Lies Beneath
Have you ever wondered what would Alfred Hitchcock do in the age of CGI and VFX? What kind of strange insane shorts he would come up with? Well Robert Zemeckis set out for himself a challenge to find out. He is notorious for using visual effects creatively. A lot of people might be familiar with the mirror shot he did in the film Contact. So something like trying to make a Hitchcockian thriller of the 21st century was just about the right kind of thing for Zemeckis.
Are You Sure That You Remember
Unfinished book about future where freedom is established much better than today. If we look few hundred years into the past, people had less freedom than people have now. So optimistically in future people will even more freedom. Thought, it doesn't mean that the characters will live a care-free problem-free life. Quite the contrary. With freedom comes responsibility. With freedom comes a huge amount of strange situations. And of course, there is the obvious question. How the hell people sell things in the future?
Please Help Me Debunk This Theory
I know that philosophy is not a science. Because it is about what we cannot know, as some smart people out there say. But I've got here a philosophical theory which I want you to debunk. The theory is something I truly believe in, and therefor I'm biased towards it. So I suppose you could be better at debunking it, since you are not me.
The Psychopathy Epidemic
Psychopathy - a lack of empathy, a lack of remorse. A fascinating topic. Not so long ago an Ultimate Hacker @Troler sent me a video about psychopathy. A normal video basically just explaining what it is. I thought it would bore me. I know what it is. But instead it made me think.
Overworked And Underpaid
We all heard by now that the situation in Hollywood is not very good at the moment. A lot of Visual Effects artists are overworked and underpaid resulting in some atrocious CGI like in The Flash 2023. Studios even considering replacing those overworked and underpaid VFX artists with AI technology. Because it can make better images and complain less about its conditions at work.
Baby Driver
If you expect Baby Driver to be anything like Hot Fuzz. Don't! If you expect Baby Driver to be anything like Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. Don't! If you expect Baby Driver to be anything like Last Night In Soho. Don't! The director of Baby Driver, Edgar Wright set for himself a challenge to make every next movie he does in a different genre. Therefor you get absolutely different effects from his movies. Even though there are obvious Edgar Wright tropes in every one of his movies.
Paternalistic Laws Make Very Little Sense
There are 3 types of laws: Freedom laws; Power laws and Paternalism laws. Freedom laws are those laws we actually like. Free Speech and things like that are all freedom laws. Some freedom laws are less obvious than others. But if the law makes your freedom stronger, it is a freedom law. Power laws are similar. Some people confuse power laws with freedom laws. Power laws are those that give people power. Most obvious examples are laws about censorship. Or laws that state that you can't criticize the government, some countries have that. Those give power to the government over the people. Power laws are any laws that give anybody power. Taking away somebodies else freedom in the process. But then there are paternalism laws.
