French

Quite unexpectedly and inexplicably, I am starting to have a bit of interest in French. Technically I had it in school, but it was the first subject where I did not do well. So I have a long way to go to get to any half-assed level of decency.

Who knows a good online French course (with sound obviously)?

Who can recommend good French films? Comedies are preferred, or other big canvas typie thingies, as mentioned I am not much for "human drama" stories. ("Subway" is one of my old favorites.)

"Walk the Line"

Am I really the only person on the planet who found Walk the Line to be boring? I was so looking forward to it because everybody is raving about it. But I have tried three times to watch it now, and it just doesn't keep my interest.

I am wondering if it not about this specific film, but just because I am getting less and less interested in "human drama" stories.

About censorship, laws, and agreements

(The first film they wanted to ban, Edison's The Kiss.)

Here is very interesting article about censorship in movies. Please read it.
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Have you ever thought about that laws are simply written rules of what the majority thinks is right? When we have laws about theft and murder, which maybe 99% of the population agree is wrong (at least when it happens to themselves), then they are not disputed. But when we have laws which a sizeable minority disagree with, such as laws about abortion, drugs, or censorship, then we have ongoing fighting about it.

But this is only an issue of agreements and majorities. What the majority can agree is wrong in the USA is a very different story to what they can agree is wrong in Denmark. (I doubt they would ever consider outlawing abotion in DK for instance.) And this is again a world apart from what they agree on in Lebanon or in Singapore.

I think many people, including sometimes myself, have this idea of laws as being natural law and immutable, because they feel so real. But they are nothing of the sort, they are just solidified agreements. And the greater the majority, the more solid the agreement seems, but it is still just an agreement.

One might for instance imagine a society where even theft is not illegal. This could be (in a very rough society) because criminality is so overwhelming that it can't be fought. Or it could be in a utopia where everything can be manufactured by machines (like nanotechnology) instantly and for free, so there is no reason to be upset by losing anything, and no reason to steal anything. (Such a society might even be less than a century away, but very hard for us to imagine.)

Update:
Some people challenge my idea that laws are from the people, saying that laws are made by small minorities. See, I stopped believing in this a while ago. I think that apparent rulers (dictators or not) are not at all masters, but puppets of the collective mind of the people. The funny part is that neither the "rulers" or the people realize it! The people rule themselves with an iron fist, and complain about their plight!

Blak

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Oh, I have been asked if these drawings are some I have made. Yes indeed they are. And usually made the same day.

Pastels

One dimension, three dimensions, multi-dimensions.
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By the way, blogger converts graphics to PNG files. I am not sure why, because it seems to me that those files are usually larger than my JPGs or GIFs. Anybody in the know on this?

On thinking

What's the difference between how leaders and followers think?

Fraulein Gurli

Fraulein Gurli goes shopping, like always meeting the world on her own terms.

Dharma forever!

Dharma and Greg season one is FINALLY out on DVD!

You know this already if you are a paying member of the Jenna Elfman fanclub like me, but just in case you let your membership lapse, I hereby inform you. Go get it.

Dharma and Greg was one of the very best sitcoms of the nineties, and that is not an idle statement. And of course Jenna Elfman at the worst of times is wonderful, and in that part she was just irresistably funny, charming, and ssssssexy. (Jenna, call me.)

New art, Eye of the Desert

The Sikorsky S-38

In The Aviator there is a great scene with Hughes and Kate Hepburn flying in Hughes' private plane in the night over Beverly Hills. After some painstaking research, I found out that the airplane they are flying is a Sikorsky S-38. It is really beautiful and graceful.

I have just decided that when I get a house I will also get an airplane like that. Battling it out on the ground with other drivers of cars doesn't appeal to me a lot. But flying high above them does!

I am just hoping that there is a modern plane which is as beautiful as this one. I think airplanes and cars from the early twentieth century are much more beautiful than modern ones. I wonder why this is?

Martin Scorsese's The Aviator

Martin Scorsese's The Aviator is a fascinating film about a fascinating man. Beautifully filmed and acted, and feels much shorter than its 2.5 hours.

Cate Blanchett especially is amazing as Kate Hepburn. I have much renewed respect for her. And, er, desire. She was smoking hot.

Same could be said for DiCaprio. (Uh, minus the desire part.) "The Beach"* did nothing to enamore him to me, but he really is good.

The visuals is a story onto themselves, just gorgeous.

As is Howard Hughes of course. Just like van Gogh, who in the popular mind is "the painter who cut off his ear", Hughes is mistreated by the small attention span of the popular mind. He was not just fabulously rich and extremely neurotic. He accomplished a fantastic amount of stuff, and the film industry as well as aviation was changed forever because of him.

* (To be fair I did not see it. I really don't want to. If I ever go to hell I am sure The Beach and Titanic are on the screens there 24/7.)

Big Tree