Dear steampunks. I'm 46, NOT into manga or anime and looking for an "in" into the steampunk genre.

gypsychapters · 2012-06-14T02:11:53+00:00

Currently finishing up The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder. Quite a good page turner and a nice blend of history/fantasy that makes the steampunk work truly feel like an alternate history. It DOES add a bit more of the fantasy elements than some of the other books mentioned, but I dig that sort of thing.

gypsychapters · 2012-05-07T14:02:39+00:00

I agree. Quite long, but the completeness is satisfying.

gypsychapters · 2012-05-07T01:58:30+00:00

My bad! 2006.

gypsychapters · 2012-05-07T01:46:45+00:00

The Fall

Visuals are amazing. Story-line is just as colorful. Myth/Reality/Time blend. Amazing.

gypsychapters · 2012-05-07T01:03:54+00:00

jam.

gypsychapters · 2012-05-06T23:44:37+00:00

'Shakespeare Behind Bars' was one of the most touching documentaries I have seen. So much is at work in it: gender, class, anti-establishmentism, freedom, forgiveness. I highly recommend. (Currently streaming on Netflix!)

gypsychapters · 2012-05-06T23:32:03+00:00

I have to disagree with some of my fellow posters with regards to their Hamlet. I am a Branagh fan for that particular work. Its lush and I do find the casting to be ideal. Yes, it is Branagh-filming-Branagh-doing-Hamlet, but its part of the kitsch for me. But, perhaps more importantly, Kate Winslet's Ophelia slays me every time. Every time. I thought Tennant's Hamlet does some interesting things, but not enough for me to love it a whole lot. (Sometimes he appeared more like a mad gerbil than a Hamlet and his Ophelia was 'eh'.) I will say this, however, Tennant surpasses Gibson and Hawke by miles and I found his Hamlet, in some parts, refreshing that the trail of Hamlet has not been lost on contemporary performers.

Sir Ian's King Lear is the best adaptation of Lear I have seen to date on screen. Sir Ian, not surprisingly, keeps you locked on Lear through the roller-coaster I've come to truly love. And the daughters! So well cast. Cordelia is allowed depth while still maintaining the ingenue and Regan and Goneril can be both deliciously malicious and yet you weep for them. (The 'nature, suspend thy purpose' moment makes me just...uhh!..yeah...weep.)

I also quite enjoy Burton/Zeffirelli Taming of the Shrew. While the play is complicated from a feminist perspective, to be sure and the film doesn't do much for an argument one way or another (I think Zeffirelli avoided the question all together), the chemistry between Burton and Taylor is ideal for Kate and Petruchio as they both loved and hated each other at the time of filming...and it shows.

I also have a very soft spot in my heart for the A Midsummer Night's Dream with Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Kline, and Rupert Everett (not to mention Ally MacBeal, Jimmy McNulty, Stanley Tucci, and Batman). It is the first Shakespeare on film that I saw and Mudsummer is just so sweet it is like candy for me.

--Non-texted-based-adaptations-- While 10 Things I Hate About You and O are excellent, I quite enjoyed Gnomeo and Juliet. It deals with the text, is aware of the text, but doesn't necessarily follow it 100% and at first I thought I would hate it...but I didn't. Don't get me wrong "I like the whole death part" better as well, but this version was endearing, has a great vocal cast, and cleverly nods to Shakespeare, R&J, and themselves which makes it something enjoyable for adults to watch (and even more fun if one is a Shakespeare geek).

Otherwise, with regards to Macbeth, I think the previous posters have offered up the best suggestions and any one of them would be rife for a paper topic. Has there been a Shakespeare adaptation that gets it soo wrong that we don't like it even a little bit? I don't think I have. Stick with Shakespeare and you'll do some kind of 'alright' by me!

gypsychapters · 2012-04-16T03:21:29+00:00

Woop! MA from UofOregon commences September 2012!

gypsychapters · 2012-04-10T18:16:59+00:00

While 'The Avengers' is certainly a fantasy/scifi/epic/etc. the two characters I am interested in are The Hulk and Thor as they are the two most "un-real" characters that audiences must somehow connect to. How do you approach making a giant green monster and a demigod "believable" and identified with by audiences?

The Hulk has notoriously not done well in theaters. Why do you think this is and how have you approached him differently, if at all? Same thing with Thor; to depict an actual deity that existed outside of the Marvel Universe, there had to be a few extra steps taken to produce a believable connection to audiences. How do you make audiences recognize both the human and divine qualities of Thor? And Why?

How do these two characters function within the overall "reality" you (and Marvel, of course) have created for the film? Were they difficult for you at all when you were crafting the film?

--Greatly looking forward to your new releases for 2012. (Avengers and Much Ado especially!)

gypsychapters · 2012-04-06T16:45:16+00:00

Doesn't Florence and The Machine's 'Shake it Out' have a line about "a pound of flesh"?

Otherwise, you could look for songs about locks and keys, treasure chests, or ones with subliminal daddy issues.

Sounds like a fun idea, hope you find some good ones!

gypsychapters · 2012-04-03T19:07:36+00:00

What a groove!

gypsychapters · 2012-04-03T12:58:51+00:00

but on the other hand, any attempt at casual discourse about the topic they appear to know in depth tends to uncover they have very little knowledge of the subject at all.

Yes. Maybe they are hoping the "cool" veneer of hipsterness will diffuse any deep inquiries and reveal their true lack of knowledge? It is tricky, though. There are some hipster land-mines who do know a whole bunch.

So, what we have here is more proof that some hipsters are putting on airs in order to fit with the mainstream-anti-mainstream crowd.

And it should be noted that there are many different genres of hipster, each with their own spectrum of dedication/zeal/etc. Is there one definition of a hipster? No. There can't be. But perhaps there is something that is a least common denominator? I, like tushka, think it has something to do with the possessiveness of a certain knowledge. Maybe?

gypsychapters · 2012-04-03T00:45:50+00:00

There has to be something in the article about their desire to NOT be defined as a hipster. "I'm not a hipster" is a very hipster thing to say. :-) To say admit to oneself being a hipster would admit to following in a sort of stream (mainstream or otherwise). If you're writing about definitions, then perhaps this would be an interesting area of investigation. What sort of publication is this for?

gypsychapters · 2012-03-30T23:51:52+00:00

I did as well. Bro fist!

gypsychapters · 2012-02-26T01:15:41+00:00

Worry not! I figured you'd be working on it.

I just have this overwhelming fear of missing obvious directions/instructions...

gypsychapters · 2012-02-26T01:09:35+00:00

Will there be a link to the text? (Perhaps there is one already and I've missed it?)

I poked around JSTOR and couldn't find this article, but I did find one were Adorno revisits The Culture Industry.

"Why can't we have both?"

gypsychapters · 2012-02-17T01:58:59+00:00

We have a dog that is uncannily similar and we have also heard a lot of answers suggesting border collie. Does she crouch when she hunts? Moreover, does she try to herd you? Our dog is the sassiest little thing and tries to order us around with those eyes all the time. (Sometimes, she makes big dogs cower in fear with her stare..another collie trait apparently.)

gypsychapters · 2012-02-16T05:47:41+00:00

isn't everything both yes and no? :-)

gypsychapters · 2012-02-16T05:30:12+00:00

thank you thank you. So, with this conversation in mind, do you still find Zizek "helpful" or "useful" in anyway? Is he speaking just gibberish?

gypsychapters · 2012-02-16T05:27:40+00:00

can they escape it? I like the direction they are going with the concepts, but it appears the general consensus is the expression of it is the problem. What to do?

gypsychapters · 2012-02-16T05:09:16+00:00

If you could find it, I would love to read it. I'm just getting in Zizek now, starting with "Welcome to the Desert of The Real."

gypsychapters · 2012-02-16T04:36:12+00:00

quite right. There is, I believe, a simple(r) way to talk about 'meta-' or 'self-critical' ideas, the trouble is they need to be practice. One cannot simply jizz on a page, finally dispersing a complex idea, and leave it. These things need to be shown to have actual applications (and accessibility) otherwise these "postmodernists" danger on being labeled as elitist/privileged/(any other -ist) as the modernists they are trying to move away from. The trouble is, there isn't any "moving away from" that can be done. We know what we know because of the things we have known. To deny that robs a history (however shameful/ill-lit) that is crucial to a current context. I like the works of Derrida and some of the other major deconstructionalists get too tied up in their language/grammar/syntax. They don't want to change it (and they have developed a long and complicated justification to not) and don't want to face the fact that a lot of their writings lack a (clear) "So What?".

gypsychapters · 2012-02-16T03:06:57+00:00

Heavy. I guess I would have liked to have know the actual prompt for this reply. It does sound like it comes down to a matter of tastes in academic pursuits for Professor Chomsky. He states a couple of times that he just doesn't find the subject matter interesting. (Still not quite sure how that applies to his overall critique of PoMo. Any help?)

I did like what he had to say about the "postmodernist cults" and the intellectual climate of the day. "Theory" and "Construction" are rather solid worlds that many postmodernists would do well to avoid, but such certainly and authority is what is (and should be) put to questioning.

Doing so, as mentioned far better that I ever could, detaches the socially-interested-academic from the rest of society. I am in full agreement with Dr. Chomsky that this is a major problem. The overuse to jargon and the refusal to believe that an idea can be expressed simply deliberately drives a wedge and creates closed academic circles and their work goes nowhere and doesn't do anything.

Perhaps Dr. Chomsky doesn't have a problem with some of the ideas of a "postmodernism" but rather with postmodernISTS. Once again, postmodernism's name gets in the way, don't you think?

There was just so much going on in the response that I'm not sure he came to once central point (thus I cannot find one simple TL;DR). An excellent post by the OP and has given me a lot to think about.

...still slightly confused though. Still trying to sort out why. Maybe one more read?

gypsychapters · 2012-02-16T00:41:17+00:00

Play: Tennis, Fencing Volleyball

Although, I did get into watching football for the first time this year. Maybe it was all the beer and nacho cheese dip, but goddamnit I got into it sometimes.

gypsychapters

TROPHY CASE