Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Yurkos song of the day: The Thrill is Gone- by B.B. King

"A day job... in an office?! My worst nightmare!"

Hey folks, felt like post time so here i be. This is most likely going to be the last one i put up prior to when i begin the "fun" that will be university. Fitting that its at post number 90. Not sure what that fits but meh its a nice round number and seems importaint so why not. Mostly a reply to comments post but meh still read if your bored like i am. First though there is the all importaint retellings of my recent occurances so feel free to sleep through this part cause its not all that interesting.

Finally got my computer for next yr, had to tell dell to stuff it and bought one from futureshop but meh it works rather well so im happy. On that note doom 3 is rather fun, if predictable but meh its nice to play when bored. Hooray killing the denzies of hell. Also found (finally, Hooray!!) my police box set which also makes me very happy. Gives me something to listen to up in edmonton. Also got a new watch, not the massive expensive omega that would have been great (if not a total waste of cash at this point in life) but its very nice and i like it so all is happy there. Yes i did pass over the whole mention of my birthday, mostly cause well it was rather uneventful which was the way that i wanted it. Never been a huge fan of the big party myself so i was content, esp since now i have my kick ass Bender action figure mascott which is coming with me to u of a and to your question jenn no bars/clubs yet but like i told victor im in no rush.

Yeah tahts enough of that, on to the replys. Firstly glad you agree neil; you also seem to be the only person who actually read that first paragraph correctly. Keith and Jenn what you said was basically the exact point i was saying. I dont take The Daily show that serious because it is a comedy program and im not complaining about comedians saying what they want political or otherwise because otherwise it wouldnt be funny. Yes Keith i did catch the episode with the republican guy and yes i do agree, the statement about Kerry etc was more of a end note to a discussion that Neil and I were having a while back. Granted Keith he might say that about his films but he doesnt seem to have any complaints with allowing the studios that distribute them to market them otherwise even to the point that they win awards classified as a documentary (of course the whole acadamy awards is politically motivated but thats another discussion entirely). So yeah thats more or less it, noted i wasnt commenting on the films entertainment value cause i must admit i did like bowling for columbine and Canadian Bacon but its moreso the way the guy carries himself etc etc and im pretty sure i went into all of that in more than enough detail.
Vell this brings to a close the last calgary edition of my crummy little blog and well Mars is calling and who am i to deny the hordes of hell a good shotgun blast in the head?

Till Next Ramble

The Amazing, Boring Yurko




Wednesday, August 25, 2004

"A man with 6 good books is content, A man with time to read those books is in bliss"

Hmm well it would appear that i was bored enough to make this second post. So that being the case if this looks too long/boring for you well then just feel free to ignore and scroll down to the shorter one on the less political thoughts; aka my usual ramblings. If not well feel free to read and comment on this and hey reading the other one wouldnt hurt either. Anywho..

I was going to intially start this off talking about late night talk show hosts etc as a continuation of the last part but i came to a few realisations since then. Just to start it off id like to just say that whatever impartiality John Stewart used to hold just got tossed out the window when he had Kerry on as a guest. If that doesnt cement his political bias i dont know what does. Meh hes still a funny guy so ill let it slide. Really though this brings me to my point. In my last ranting/ramble i talked about how much it bothered me that the media doesnt seem to be able to remain unbiased when reporting the news and fails to use the editorial as the sole means of expressing ones bias as it should be with the media. Now my initial plan was to comment on how a great deal of late night hosts/comedians have been blasting there political views etc through comedy. Putting more thought into this i realised that esentially a comedic monolouge, routine etc is nothing but an editorial put in a more skillfull and amusing style than most of us can manage. You cant really expect a comedian to be completly unbiased otherwise well for one it wouldnt be all that funny and would end up being incredibly unentertaining. So i cant fault a comedian for stating his/her opinions through there jokes and i dont think that anyone really can. Its not like jay lenno is trying to pass himself off as a credible news source and hopefully no one is expecting anything otherwise.

This being the case i now reach what is the focal point of this ramble, why it is that i hate Micheal Moore. Well where to start? hmm not sure really. Damn writers block. Well if there is one thing that you can say about the guy is that he really doesnt try to hide his political leanings, not that im faulting him for that. Nothing wrong with expressing your opinions cause if i was to say that well then it would make me one of the larger hypocrites to walk this here earth. What bothers me about him is that he has such an overbloated ego and is such a blowhard that he feels that not only everyone wants to hear his point of view but appears to refuse to accept that there are other opinions that deserve to be heard. On top of that he then had the nerve to come on canadian tv during the federal election to tell us, the canadian public who we should vote for. Oh yes im sorry, clearly the opinion of an egotistical moron who doesnt live in canada, cannot vote in canada and for all intensive purposes should not give a rats ass who gets elected in canada is far superior to my own opinion. Thank you Mr. Moore for pointing out how i was wrong, ill be sure to call you up for you help with every other decision that doesnt effect you at all.

Moving on from his public actions though, i come now to what pisses me off about him the most. This of course is his films. Now just for the record my politics dont factor into this. There is some stuff that i do agree with that he says, such as gun control etc and some that i do not. That doesnt however have anything to do with my thoughts on his films. My trouble comes with the way that he packages his thoughts. Since his career started, Micheal Moore has marketed his movies as documentary films. Now a documentary is supposed to be a clear, intelligent and most importantly unbiased and uncontrolled telling of events, history etc. A documentary is supposed to bring light to the facts and show you what happened. The filmmaker might bring out his own opinions but the point of documentary film-makings is so that they state there own opinions so long as the real facts are not modified allowing you to draw your own conclusions from the film. There was a rather good article in the Herald back when Fahrenheit 9/11 first came out which first brought this train of thought to my attention and i totally agree with what it said. So yes a documentary is supposed to remain an unbiased viewing into a portion of history etc.

Why does this then bother me when discussed with Micheal Moores films? Well for one thing like i said he markets all of his works as a documentary. If you ever take a look at one of his films, not based on your own personal views but looking at his film techniques its pretty obvious that his films do not try to remain unbiased. Throughout ever one of his films Mr. Moore takes various bits of truth and half truths and arranges them such that they express his own personal opinion. He utilizes humour to esentially make fun of those who he feels are the enemy within his selected topic of that particular film and takes one or two tiny bits of information that are most likely taken out of context and adds them in to make it seem realistic. Hmm dressing up opinion within shreds of facts in order to convert people to your opinion isnt a documentary but it sounds alot like another type of media, rather popular in the 30's and 40's in fact. Whats it called again... oh right! Propaganda! Moore has got the system so down pat that he would put Goebbels in awe. Not only do you have major film studios competing to give him funding for his propaganda movies but as fahrenheit showed has people willing to throw down large amounts of cash to watch. This would boggle Goebbels mind! A society that prides itself on its freedom is happily and enthusiastically lining up to watch some good old propaganda, and all without the threat of a gestapo investigation. Not only that, you now have "credible" awards panels giving what is clearly propaganda awards for being a documentary. Of course im sure that if he came out and admitted what he really was producing that sales wouldnt be as stellar but the fact remains the guy is lying about his predominant source of fame (or infamy whichever you prefer). Granted being an egotistical blowhard is probably keeping him in the spotlight as well.

The fact that he lies so bad throughout his films, and then in the subsequent marketing of the films makes him a rather large hypocrite. Constantly he rants about how Bush lies, how he is a "fictitious president" etc. and yet the guy cant stick to the facts in his own films. Clearly he utilizes just as many lies and half truths as he claims Bush has but because of the rather appearant left bias of the media within the united states no one calls him on this or those who do are seen as a minor newsblip, nothing more (which in my opinion is all that Micheal Moore should be himself but sadly he has seen to it that people think otherwise). This is incredibly appearant within the entertainment based media that seems to have there political leanings shoved so far up there respective rectums that they cant stop heaping praise on moore based just on his opinions that they are unable to take a step back and really look at his film making techniques. You get a scant few reviews that have actually said wait a second and realised that the guy doesnt make the documentaries he claims he does and scores accordingly. So all you get is the happily politically biased media heaping praise on there star propaganda machine so that the american consumer happily pays to have Moore shove his opinion down your throat. Ahh God Bless America. Sadly i cannot see this cycle ending any time soon but at that ive basically ran out of things to rant on. This being the case i urge you people to like neil brought up, next time you watch the news or go and see a film/documentary/propaganda disguised as a documentary take a second to think about the bias the reporter etc has coming into it and view/read accordingly. If everyone did this i think our political system would be for the better but then again thats just my opinion.

Till Next Ramble

The Amazing, Boring Yurko





Yurkos song of the day: Love is the Seventh Wave- by Sting

"She had heard it said that humans are supposed only to use about a tenth of their brains, and that no one was very clear what the other nine-tenths were for, but she had certainly never heard it suggested that they were used for storing penguins."

Yes yes I know, long time putting up a new post, yadda yadda yadda. Not going to bother apologizing cause well it seems that only maitland and neil are reading this and if you think im apologizing to you two well your morons. Great quote, a little bit of Douglas Adams for you people. Really good author of whos books i reccomend. Same goes for the song, yes i know another sting song; nice and original there Chris but meh new cd and i like this song so suck it. For the sake of the way it looks etc im going to post the trivial stuff and my opinion on the egotistical blowhard known as Michael Moore in separate posts so comment on which one you care about, or dont cause i dont care.

Finally saw the Bourne Supremacy, really good film. Jason Bourne runs a very close second in the kickass movie assasin category, bested of course by tom cruise in collateral. Now if only they could get the guy from the Transporter to play Code 47 in a Hitman movie i would be one happy movie patron. Speaking of movie and to add to my list of oddball indie films that ive seen/enjoyed i went and saw Garden State today in a packed theatre of 6 total people. Good film i must say though, bit quirky although has a much more uplifting ending than Lost in Translation which i still think is a better film but overall it was rather well done.

Picked up the Futurama season 4 and currently watching all of that. Such a good show cut down in its prime. Really a shame but well nothing you can do about it other than enjoy watching it. Still yet to watch all the seasons of Angel that i own but it is my goal to get done by the fourth and if not meh life will go on. Added a few good books to the old collection, so it should give me something to do till september and long into the coming "fun" of university. Blogger tells me that the annoying random A's should be gone now, but i wont know till i publish this. This being the case i tire of this, typing for no one doesnt really have much appeal. Might put up my thoughts on micheal moore sometime tonight, chances are i wont till tomorrow.

Till Next Ramble

The Amazing, Boring Yurko



Saturday, August 14, 2004

Yurkos song of the day: Signs of Love- by Moby

"Oh, look, Arthur, it's a completely rehabilitated villain. She's comfortable with herself. Comfort, commitment, marriage, what do these things have in common? The letter 'C' except for marriage, and if people get all British whenever they get knocked on the head, what do British people get? I know... comatose! Another 'C'."

{Added note: Welcome to Version 3 of my crappy little site. The old template; as good as it was; had begun to get on my nerves. Something about all that black on orange, plus with blogger adding that confounded titlebar thing it threw the layout off. Regardless I went and found a new and i might add extremly snazzy template (it being tuesday as i type this) so feel free to comment on the new look, i really like it and i hope you do as well. This being the case dont forget about the poor post below cause it wants you to comment on it as well. Enjoy!}
(GAH disregard the bloody Â's that have for some reason cropped up around this template, everything looked fine when i previewed but after publishing went all wonky, Trying to fix it so just ignore them if possible)

Felt like another one, mostly cause i was finally able to see collateral today. Hot damn thats a good movie. Different pace than Heat, definely a faster pace but it fit the film. Heat still stands as my favourite work by Micheal Mann but this was still a very good film. Tom Cruise made for one kick ass villian and i must say that I personally was rooting for him at the end, although im guessing no one else was or ever will. Hmm im not a psycho, its just that his charachter was so slick i couldnt help but root for the guy. Regardless i was pleasntly suprised with Jamie Foxx in a serious role. Overall really good movie, not Micheal Manns best but still very entertaining, fully reccomended by I.
Rather different song today, somewhat more modern. Good one though, slow one but well its good stuff. Speaking of songs, hooray for random CD buying, finally got The Joshua Tree by U2 which is widly regarded as there best album and thus far im tending to agree. Also got The Dream of the blue turtles by Sting, very good CD as well, alot of jazzy. calypso influences which i must say is nice and refreshing not to mention makes for some good listening.

Ahh Left wing US media, how you bother me. Correct me if im wrong but is not the purpose of mainstream media, especially news networks to be unbiased in there reporting? Especially with this up coming election in the us? Hmm maby im just crazy. I must say that i would absolutly hate to be an undecided voter in the united states. All you ever see when watching the US news nowadays is Bush did this wrong, or he messed this up etc. Now im not saying that i support the guy or not, my problem is that i am unable to get enough info on both sides to properly make a decision. Which is never a good thing in a democracy. The media, and all of its happy left wing friends are so hellbent on getting bush out that you get next to no information on John Kerry. So far the only bad thing that i have heard about the guy via the media is that he flip flops on decision making, and this came via a bush ad not CNN or anything like that. To me this is a very scary thought because, as history will attest to, there has never been a sqeaky clean perfect politician. Never has, never will be so somehow i doubt this perfect image that the media would love you to have. Comon people, in order to make an informed vote you have to know quite a bit about the candidate, his track record etc not just what the john kerry campaign would love for you to hear. Media has done a good job at showing the downfalls of Bush so at least they have that covered but somehow i doubt that he has done nothing at all in the slightest of merit while in office. But hey if you listen to CNN or MSNBC this would seem to be the case. Very fustrating indeed.

Now im guessing while you read this your thinking im some hardcore right wing republican loving person but this isnt the case. I still think that Clinton was an extremly good president, one of the best the Democrats have put out in a long time. What i just dont like, and the point im trying to make is that the point of the media in a democracy is to show an unbiased critique of both canditates demonstrating both there good and bad to the voting public. Its the campaings job to make there candidate seem god like compared to the other one, not the medias. Im sure the Kerry campaign fund is extremly happy considering that they dont have to spend as much what with the constant ads for him being shown via the "news". Democracy cannot work well if you have your supposed unbiased sources spewing biased material. Thats what editorials are for, so the rest of it should be opinon free. My friend neil did point out the fact that US news radio is extremly right wing and that well something needs to balance it out. I say that having the TV news networks become left wing is not the answer. When an undecided voter wants information they are more likely to turn into something like CNN which the expect to be unbiased instead of a known biased source such as talk radio. Plus when it comes down to it who listens to the news on the radio all that much anymore anyways? Sad state of affairs i must say.

Well thats enough from me, to much talking and not enough brining my point across makes yurko tire. Keith i have heard that yes Doom 3 is a demanding mistress but see i wouldnt know cause the morons at dell have (yet again, Grrr) failed to ship my computer by the date that they promised. Damn them and there smelly hides! Ahh well hopefully ill get it before the UofA experience begins. Tune in next time for part 2 of my rant, also known as why i hate Micheal Moore

Till Next Ramble

The Amazing, Boring Yurko




Monday, August 09, 2004

Yurkos song of the day: Secret Journey- by The Police

"Life was easy when it was boring..."

Felt like putting up another post here today, why? well mostly cause im rather bored. Good quote today, of course im not saying that my life has become hectic and interesting all of a sudden, im just saying that i agree with the sentiments in the quote. Life is a great deal easier, and to some extents better, when its boring. What can i say, that pretty much sums me up in one nice and convenient line.

Sticking to a theme, life has been rather boring since the last post. Nothing really at all to talk about here in that regard. Went to the Stamps game on saturday, still havent seen The Bourne Supremacy nor Collateral (although if i dont see collateral in theatres ill be very sad indeed). Appearantly my computer is supposed to show up sometime this week but then again i have very little faith in Dell so who knows if this will actually occur.
Wow, brief side not here, but man that sounded crazy. While typing this up i had some def leppard playing and then someone logged on msn (and with msn plus you can attribute songs to certain people logging on) so yeah needless to say the combination of the opening of Blondies "Dreaming" with Def Leppards "Switch 625" resulted in something that sounded pretty damn cool. Aannywho
Something thats rather neat though is when you go back and listen to a CD that you havent listened to in a very long time. Its almost like listening to the CD for the first time again and for me anyways its a very fun experience re discovering these songs. Todays song of the day being a great example of that. One of the cooler and more atmospheric tunes by the Police and up until listening to the CD again i totally forgot about its existence. Good show all around.

Good to hear that you got the army men Keith, too bad that you already had them but meh its good that they got though. My biggest fear was that i would write the adress on wrong and that would be 15 bucks down the drain in postage. Ah well good show, and im assuming that the walrus made it jackie in all its stupid pointless glory. On that note, thats the last time i ever do anything like that. Far far too much work involved.

Thats enough for today, although i basically sat here and wrote at the least a page about a grand total of nothing. Meh thats life, and more or less the point of a ramble. What with the trying to keep the lenght down and all ill get into my rant about how Left wing biased the media in the US is and how its ruining democracy in the united states.

Till Next Ramble

The Amazing, Boring Yurko



Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Yurkos song of the day: People are People- by Depeche Mode

"Roof-pig! Most unexpected."

Yet another quote that is only amusing when you know its context but hell its amusing to me so here it is. Hooray for the Tick. Anywho August is now in full swing, which is a rather startling fact to think that ive been doing my big load of nothing for an entire month. Ah well im enjoying it so who cares. Although the fact that university is fast approaching is not a very happy thought. Ah well what ya gonna do? On that note i think that im changing my official motto from the previous statement to a much more efficient and versatile "No Worries". Has the same basic underlying message but the it also ads in my current laidback mood. Lots of stuff happens but meh, no worries.

Mailed out your prizes jackie and keith so expect them sometime within the next 2 buisness days, could have been there tomorrow but im far to cheap to pay the extra 40 cents for priority post. Damn things were exepensive enough as it is to ship but meh the contest was my invention so i stand by its purpose/prizes. Have fun in the total absurdity that those packages bring. Speaking of total absurdity did you know that according to the Encarta Dictionary (via that scrabble esc game on MSN messenger now) that a Ho, contrary to popular belief, is not a Prostitute but in fact a cross between a Cow and a Yak? I know i sure didnt, you learn something new every day.

Rather good, if not very different, song today. On somewhat of a New Wave kick right now, seems to fit my mood cause i dont know something bout all those synthesizers etc makes for feel good music. Well for me in any case. Regardless its a good song, good message too what with racism being stupid and all. Give it a listen if you get a chance and dont hate me too much if you well hate it. Speaking of music ive decided that along with the SCTV DVD set im going to go out and get the Police Box set for mein birthday. Hooray for 6 CD's packed with virtually everything the group ever recorded. And hey theres 6 slots on my vehicles cd changer, Neat! So yeah i should be more or less set musically for a good long while. Go team

Doom 3 i must say looks fucking amazing. Wont be able to play it for a while though, due to the fact that well its esentially sold out city wide and that i wont have a rig capable of playing it till the 19th. Still though once i can i am sure that ill be happily amused. The next Metroid Prime game looks very cool as well, cant wait till that comes out. That reminds me though i still need to go and beat the first one (bloody last boss, what a pain in the ass), same goes for Legend of Zelda: the wind waker. Hmm ah well ill just add it all to the list of stuff to do by the end of the summer which i am sure i wont get done but no worries.

Last comic standing is on again tomorrow night, last night being my only allocated reality tv watching (Last Comic and The Amazing race, only two i watch). My picks are Gary and Alonzo so hopefully the make it to the final 3. If Jay London makes it i will be so pissed. The guy is just not funny, same goes for the 2 chicks and i must say my old favourite john was kinda dissapointing. Ah well if Gary and Alonzo make it ill be pleased. Amazing race i hope those bloody cousins get kicked out in the next stage, damn midget cheats soo damn bad its not funny. Gah! ah well its just tv and i can see why they have kept them in the race (get people thinking much like i am) regardless its fun to watch so waht can i say.

Well thats pretty much it for me today, cant wait till friday what with the release of Collateral and all. Man that movie looks kick ass. Of course like i said before i have much faith in Tom Cruise now after Last Samurai and well im a big fan of the director (Heat is still one of my top 10 movies of all time) so going into that movie with very high hopes. Granted the way stuff usually works out for me i wont end up seeing it in theatres or if i do ill end up being severly dissapointed. Regardless it gives me something to look forward too.

Till Next Ramble

The Amazing, Boring Yurko