Aside from Hero With A Thousand Faces (one of Campbell's books on myth which was an strong influence on Lucas), there is also The Writer's Journey which is a less-technical interpretation of Joseph Campbell applied to writing. The author breaks down Campbell's theories and applies it to film structure. (I just saw the author speak at a Barnes & Noble in Burbank last week)...
And also check out Bill Moyer's PBS interviews with Joseph Campbell himself, which you'll find at many video stores, usually in the documentary sections. They talk about many of the themes and stories that appear again and again across cultures... I believe the series was called The Power of Myth.
The official wing commander site links to reviews of the film, including this one which begins as follows:
Remember that scene in A Clockwork Orange where the government tried to modify Alex's brutal behavior by forcing him to watch those ultra-violent film reels? It's possible that a similar approach could deter computer or video game designers from directing movies--just make them watch the extremely lame Wing Commander, an embarrassing effort from first-time helmer Chris Roberts, the same man who created the CD-ROM on which the film is based.
This is the ONLY actual review of the film (the other articles are about the film coming out...)
If nothing else, THIS outta tell you something!!! W -------------------
Even though I'd seen the Phantom Menace trailer like 20x on quicktime, I found myself standing in front of a theater on Friday thinking "What the hell.."
The trailer was good. Ever notice how sometimes CG shots look a little grainy? The whole trailer had that grainy look that you couldn't really see in Quicktime. I hope the whole film isn't like this!
Then Wing Commander started.
This is the biggest piece of shit I've seen this year. It makes Lost In Space look like 2001.
After about 15 minutes, most of the audience was laughing at it and yelling lines at the screen.
How much more explicitly can I warn you all: It was a huge tub of crap-- from the star wars ripoffs ("I fought with your father in the XXXX wars") to the star trek rip offs ("Half-breed!" they call the half-human, half-"Pilgrim" hero) to the cheesy, flat acting, & horrible generic sets... The editing was INEXCUSABLE. The CG special effects were ok technically I suppose, but not outstanding and mostly consisted of the same type of shot over and over again-- the kind you're used to seeing on Deep Space 9. (If I see another zoom-from-a-spaceship-into-a-window shot again I'll kill myself. This movie does it like six times)
You should see the submarine-like space fights-- no, they're not "proton torpedoes" They're ACTUAL spece torpedos and they suck!!! Maybe they're from the game, but in the film the sub thing looks ridiculous, esp. when the enemy is "pinging" at them and they all have to be quiet so that they can't be found while they're hiding in a crater.
Ugh. After seeing this film I had a headache that lasted three hours. This film ruined my Friday night. The old Buck Rogers & Battlestar Galacticas on TV are more dramatic and had more interesting plot and characters than this.
Oh, and there's a crazy French guy in this film, who for some reason has to have his face two feet from the camera lens in every shot.
You've now been warned. Proceed at your own risk. W -------------------
Three years later, when Empire came out, the cover story on Time magazine was Empire -- the cover illo was George Lucas surrounded by movie characters; I forget the caption.
I was six when the original came out but I remember it well-- Even before I saw the movie I'd already ironed one of those decals from a Cheerios box of C3PO & R2D2 onto my shirt. You know, One of those cheap ones with sparkly stuff in it that smelled funny when you ironed 'em on would peel off REAL quick.
I don't know about the Time cover from '80 but had a Time cover from '83 (Jedi) similar to the one you describe hanging on my wall for a few years-- Lucas, surrounded by Star Wars guys and the caption was something like "Lucas Wraps It Up"
Ok, now that I've reminisced, I guess I need to say something relevent about computers. Uhhh... Boy, Lemonade Stand was fun on the Commadore PET, wasn't it?
Man... if their so-called "bug" doesn't lead to a class-action lawsuit...
I get steamed just thinking about it. Yeah, ok, the bug some years back about Word files including random data, that could have been a legitimate bug I GUESS. But associating a unique ID # with a user's personal info AND building a database of that information is no "bug." And the justifications I've been reading (tech support, etc) are totally bogus.
I mean, even if they say that it was supposed to be a "checkbox" or whatever that toggled sending that info, they should have been clued in when 100% of their users were "choosing" to send their unique ID, right?
Where's the outrage in the mainstream press?! This is scary stuff! W
At one point Linus puts up some kind of slide with a bunch of questions on it that causes everyone to start laughing. He says something like "I'm not going to read these out loud" and "these are jokes, but they're serious at the same time"
Yeah, I remember his gifviewer program (Was that what it was called?) for DOS like ten years ago had a sample GIF of him in front of the red rocks of Sedona and in big blocky letters it said something like
1. For those who wanted to know, SAP is this HUGE client/server package (millions of lines of code built over like 20 years) which many big businesses use to run their entire organization. SAP is a german company (I think they're still debating what "SAP": stands for) which oversees all kinds of aspects of a big business-- inventory, shipping, ordering, financial stuff, billing, payroll etc. It's kinda the big monster that runs the whole show. Because running a company (like say, a manufacturing plant, or MicroSoft or Avid) is so complicated, having a good internal system can save a company millions per year.
Installing SAP for a client usually takes several months (if not more) and involves a team of consultants who custom-install SAP through the SAP scripting language, which if memory serves, is called OB-OP or something like that. OB-OP programmers generally make a ton of money per/hour to write and test code for a particular company's installation.
2. The fact that SAP is being offered for Linux says a lot about Linux's technical merits (rather than the fact that it's free). To people who install SAP, the cost of an OS is NOTHING-- a typical installation can be tens of millions of dollars so linux's price isn't an issue-- my guess is (and this has been discussed on/. before) that it's the stability and scalability which is creating demand for a Linux port.
Congrats!
W
PS-- the info above is to the best of my knowlege. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong about something.
If I'm running IE on my mac, does that make me running a "core component" of Windows in MacOS? My computer must be schizophrenic running 2 os's like that.
Weird that they would give peices of their OS away free to non-Windows platforms. Hmmm
It seems to me that anyone can make changes to English. If the change is understood and accepted it may become "standard protocol" and soon may become part of the commonly accepted language.
Question: Does the dictionary TELL us how to speak properly? Or does it merely DESCRIBE and CATALOG how we speak? Ie, which came first, the words or the dictionary? It seems that the dictionary definations are a reflection of how we use words, FOLLOWING language usage-- not an authority on how we SHOULD talk.
Language wants to be free. (unless you're trademarking "you've got mail" of course) W
I wanted to offer my feedback about the whole veronica.org controversy-- it seems bizarre and even a little paranoid to think the public could confuse a web site about a little toddler with your strip.
Couldn't the money you're using to pay your lawyers be used for something more constructive-- maybe contribute it to the little girl's college fund or something? A little now would go a long way in her future. It could be a nice project maybe, to show solidarity and support for a real-life Veronica rather than try to take something away from this family.
What the fuck is this all about?!! Tell me it's a hoax...it IS a hoax right? "mail" is a totally common, non-company specific thing. They want to assert the sole right to tell someone they have mail??? (as Unix already does...) Not "You've got AOLMail(TM)" or "You've AOL-got(TM) mail" But the simple "You've got mail"?!!!!! And "Wardial"??!!! Christ!
Whomever said the comment about "Press any key to continue" is right on. Ok, that's it, I'm going to have to trademark "CTRL-ALT-DEL", the "File menu" and "Establishing Connection..."
W
PS THIS is the AOL that's just bought Netscape, everyone. The new "enlightened," open source embracing, freedom loving AOL. Ya right. I still say that deal is the worst thing to happen to the net so far.
Weren't there rumors swirling around on/. (and elsewhere) not too long ago that the $150 mil stock thing was a secret resolution to Apple's lawsuit against Micro$oft asserting that M$ had stolen Quicktime code and deliberately fucked w/ Windows 95 so Quicktime wouldn't work?
Someone clear this up for me cuz I've always wondered what happened with that story...
Slashdot Mirror
Scientology has this belief about aliens that are attached to you. They're called "BTs" or Body Thetans.
Sounds kinda similar.
-------------------
I read a review online where Lucas actually calls himself an independent filmmaker. Kinda jumping on the bandwagon if you ask me though.
I wish I had the URL for that... It was one of the Lucas interviews linked from slashdot, I think.
W
-------------------
yep, with marla gibbs... who has a cameo in "Lost & Found" which I recommend you all avoid.
W
-------------------
Aside from Hero With A Thousand Faces (one of Campbell's books on myth which was an strong influence on Lucas), there is also The Writer's Journey which is a less-technical interpretation of Joseph Campbell applied to writing. The author breaks down Campbell's theories and applies it to film structure. (I just saw the author speak at a Barnes & Noble in Burbank last week)...
And also check out Bill Moyer's PBS interviews with Joseph Campbell himself, which you'll find at many video stores, usually in the documentary sections. They talk about many of the themes and stories that appear again and again across cultures... I believe the series was called The Power of Myth.
W
-------------------
The official wing commander site links to reviews of the film, including this one which begins as follows:
Remember that scene in A Clockwork Orange where the government tried to modify Alex's brutal behavior by forcing him to watch those ultra-violent film reels? It's possible that a similar approach could deter computer or video game designers from directing movies--just make them watch the extremely lame Wing Commander, an embarrassing effort from first-time helmer Chris Roberts, the same man who created the CD-ROM on which the film is based.
This is the ONLY actual review of the film (the other articles are about the film coming out...)
If nothing else, THIS outta tell you something!!!
W
-------------------
Even though I'd seen the Phantom Menace trailer like 20x on quicktime, I found myself standing in front of a theater on Friday thinking "What the hell.."
The trailer was good. Ever notice how sometimes CG shots look a little grainy? The whole trailer had that grainy look that you couldn't really see in Quicktime. I hope the whole film isn't like this!
Then Wing Commander started.
This is the biggest piece of shit I've seen this year. It makes Lost In Space look like 2001.
After about 15 minutes, most of the audience was laughing at it and yelling lines at the screen.
How much more explicitly can I warn you all: It was a huge tub of crap-- from the star wars ripoffs ("I fought with your father in the XXXX wars") to the star trek rip offs ("Half-breed!" they call the half-human, half-"Pilgrim" hero) to the cheesy, flat acting, & horrible generic sets... The editing was INEXCUSABLE. The CG special effects were ok technically I suppose, but not outstanding and mostly consisted of the same type of shot over and over again-- the kind you're used to seeing on Deep Space 9. (If I see another zoom-from-a-spaceship-into-a-window shot again I'll kill myself. This movie does it like six times)
You should see the submarine-like space fights-- no, they're not "proton torpedoes" They're ACTUAL spece torpedos and they suck!!! Maybe they're from the game, but in the film the sub thing looks ridiculous, esp. when the enemy is "pinging" at them and they all have to be quiet so that they can't be found while they're hiding in a crater.
Ugh. After seeing this film I had a headache that lasted three hours. This film ruined my Friday night. The old Buck Rogers & Battlestar Galacticas on TV are more dramatic and had more interesting plot and characters than this.
Oh, and there's a crazy French guy in this film, who for some reason has to have his face two feet from the camera lens in every shot.
You've now been warned. Proceed at your own risk.
W
-------------------
Three years later, when Empire came out, the cover story on Time magazine was Empire -- the cover illo was George Lucas surrounded by movie characters; I forget the caption.
I was six when the original came out but I remember it well-- Even before I saw the movie I'd already ironed one of those decals from a Cheerios box of C3PO & R2D2 onto my shirt. You know, One of those cheap ones with sparkly stuff in it that smelled funny when you ironed 'em on would peel off REAL quick.
I don't know about the Time cover from '80 but had a Time cover from '83 (Jedi) similar to the one you describe hanging on my wall for a few years-- Lucas, surrounded by Star Wars guys and the caption was something like "Lucas Wraps It Up"
Ok, now that I've reminisced, I guess I need to say something relevent about computers. Uhhh... Boy, Lemonade Stand was fun on the Commadore PET, wasn't it?
W
-------------------
Man... if their so-called "bug" doesn't lead to a class-action lawsuit...
I get steamed just thinking about it. Yeah, ok, the bug some years back about Word files including random data, that could have been a legitimate bug I GUESS. But associating a unique ID # with a user's personal info AND building a database of that information is no "bug." And the justifications I've been reading (tech support, etc) are totally bogus.
I mean, even if they say that it was supposed to be a "checkbox" or whatever that toggled sending that info, they should have been clued in when 100% of their users were "choosing" to send their unique ID, right?
Where's the outrage in the mainstream press?! This is scary stuff!
W
-------------------
Just wondering if now was the right time... I could see arguments for it, considering Linuxworld and all...
W
-------------------
At one point Linus puts up some kind of slide with a bunch of questions on it that causes everyone to start laughing. He says something like "I'm not going to read these out loud" and "these are jokes, but they're serious at the same time"
What did they say?
W
Yeah, I remember his gifviewer program (Was that what it was called?) for DOS like ten years ago had a sample GIF of him in front of the red rocks of Sedona and in big blocky letters it said something like
GIF-- It's prounounced "JIF"!
W
GNOME (pronounced guh-NOME),
Damn, I didn't know that
But Red Hat is prounounced REED-hawt, right?
W
A few things--
/. before) that it's the stability and scalability which is creating demand for a Linux port.
1. For those who wanted to know, SAP is this HUGE client/server package (millions of lines of code built over like 20 years) which many big businesses use to run their entire organization. SAP is a german company (I think they're still debating what "SAP": stands for) which oversees all kinds of aspects of a big business-- inventory, shipping, ordering, financial stuff, billing, payroll etc. It's kinda the big monster that runs the whole show. Because running a company (like say, a manufacturing plant, or MicroSoft or Avid) is so complicated, having a good internal system can save a company millions per year.
Installing SAP for a client usually takes several months (if not more) and involves a team of consultants who custom-install SAP through the SAP scripting language, which if memory serves, is called OB-OP or something like that. OB-OP programmers generally make a ton of money per/hour to write and test code for a particular company's installation.
2. The fact that SAP is being offered for Linux says a lot about Linux's technical merits (rather than the fact that it's free). To people who install SAP, the cost of an OS is NOTHING-- a typical installation can be tens of millions of dollars so linux's price isn't an issue-- my guess is (and this has been discussed on
Congrats!
W
PS-- the info above is to the best of my knowlege. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong about something.
So, ok, there's no Quicken port. BUT...
As pointed out, there is GnuCash, which I guess is an open source quicken-like project.
W
And that Mystery House game? I loved those games where you could tell what objects to pick up because they were the last things drawn on the screen...
Sigh... "sneakers" for Apple II is still one of the best games ever. H-wings rule.
And what about "Lemonade Stand?" That rocked.
Ok, enough reminiscing...
W
And that Mystery House game? I loved those games where you could tell what objects to pick up because they were the last things drawn on the screen...
Sigh... "sneakers" for Apple II is still one of the best games ever. H-wings rule.
W
If I'm running IE on my mac, does that make me running a "core component" of Windows in MacOS? My computer must be schizophrenic running 2 os's like that.
Weird that they would give peices of their OS away free to non-Windows platforms. Hmmm
W
What was so bad about 4.x for the Mac? I sure appreciate the threading so I don't have to sit and wait while mail is coming in...
Anyone know how the features of Eudora compare to the Mail client mozilla is implementing?
W
It seems to me that anyone can make changes to English. If the change is understood and accepted it may become "standard protocol" and soon may become part of the commonly accepted language.
Question: Does the dictionary TELL us how to speak properly? Or does it merely DESCRIBE and CATALOG how we speak? Ie, which came first, the words or the dictionary? It seems that the dictionary definations are a reflection of how we use words, FOLLOWING language usage-- not an authority on how we SHOULD talk.
Language wants to be free.
(unless you're trademarking "you've got mail" of course)
W
Dear Archie Comics--
I wanted to offer my feedback about the whole veronica.org controversy-- it seems bizarre and even a little paranoid to think the public could confuse a web site about a little toddler with your strip.
Couldn't the money you're using to pay your lawyers be used for something more constructive-- maybe contribute it to the little girl's college fund or something? A little now would go a long way in her future. It could be a nice project maybe, to show solidarity and support for a real-life Veronica rather than try to take something away from this family.
Just my feedback.
W
What the fuck is this all about?!! Tell me it's a hoax...it IS a hoax right? "mail" is a totally common, non-company specific thing. They want to assert the sole right to tell someone they have mail??? (as Unix already does...) Not "You've got AOLMail(TM)" or "You've AOL-got(TM) mail" But the simple "You've got mail"?!!!!! And "Wardial"??!!! Christ!
Whomever said the comment about "Press any key to continue" is right on. Ok, that's it, I'm going to have to trademark "CTRL-ALT-DEL", the "File menu" and "Establishing Connection..."
W
PS THIS is the AOL that's just bought Netscape, everyone. The new "enlightened," open source embracing, freedom loving AOL. Ya right. I still say that deal is the worst thing to happen to the net so far.
>it isn't the exploding of the whale that is funny
Well.... c'mon. that's pretty funny too.
W
Weren't there rumors swirling around on /. (and elsewhere) not too long ago that the $150 mil stock thing was a secret resolution to Apple's lawsuit against Micro$oft asserting that M$ had stolen Quicktime code and deliberately fucked w/ Windows 95 so Quicktime wouldn't work?
Someone clear this up for me cuz I've always wondered what happened with that story...
W