People frequently confuse plot for action. And in today's shootout/car-chase/everything-that-crashes-explode s-in-a-brilliant-gas-fueled-explosion heavy films people think that action is composed mainly of these three events.
Plot is what happens and action is how it happens. The plot of LOTR is pretty simple: Frodo must get rid of an evil ring. But how this happens is done very imaginatively, so the action is done well. Action is not just the sword battles.
Also plot is not background. The plot of LOTR is not about a hobbit named Frodo who lives in a place called the Shire in Middle Earth and whose unlce Bilbo stole a powerful ring from a creature named Gollum, etc. That's background.
The formula for box office success was discovered long ago. Check out "How to Write Screenplays that Sell" by Michael Hague.
We here in Texas used to hate yankees because they won the Civil War. Now we hate them because of their prejudicial views of our state. In New York they've made Urban Cowboy into a musical.
In case any of you see it, let it be known that Gilley's burned down 15 years ago, and in order for that show to reflect the Pasadena of today it would have to be re-named Vaqueros Urbanos.
I've lived in Houston my whole life (31 years so far) and have seen a horse on average about once every two years. Ten years ago, I paid 15 bucks to ride one on the beach in Galveston.
About that time a soap opera sent people here to hold auditions for a part on one of their shows. I got my degree in theater so of course as an aspiring actor I went to the audition. There were hundreds of GQ guys looking their soap-opera-best who showed up hoping they might get a boost into the biz with out making the life altering gamble of moving either to L.A. or New York. The casting crew picked the one guy wearing a cowboy hat and stuck him in the show. That's so insulting. If we ever secede from the Union again it will be over crap like this.
One good thing about yankee obtuseness is that it ticked three-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee off so much that he moved to Houston, which allowed me to ferther my edukayshun when I wuz abel to take dat fine man's klass at da Unaversaty of Houston. So I reckin dat Texas edukayshun taint all dat bad.
This rant isn't aimed at all yankees because I know all northerners don't look down on Texas. But the ones who do... man, y'all really chap my hide.
What Sinjoro Virto failed to mention was that this questionable neighborhood is in part of the Houston metroplex which is rapidly being invaded by the ultra-wealthy (and therefor occasionally better educated) members of our society. The neighborhoods surrounding the one in which his house resides all have outlandishly high real estate values, and BMWs and Mercedes are constantly driving through his neighborhood with people prospecting for new land deals (or looking for cocaine).
He also failed to mention that the lady believing that we're sending mice into cyberspace is a crackhead.
I say all of this because, one I do not think that Houston sucks, and two, because of the prejudices that Houstonians have to fight with. I know that at least half of you who read what Virto wrote imagined that his house sits in a prairie and there's a Beverly-Hillybilly's-esque lady driving around on a tractor wearing a cowboy hat yelling, "Y'all are sendin' dem mouses into that thar cyberspace." This same prejudicial thinking probably led you, upon hearing that she's a crackhead, to believe that she is black. She is not. But Virto's neighbor is. Virto's neighbor is also from Cuba.
This city has over 4 million folks and a lot of them come from all around the world. Houston is (or was last year) also rated as the number one city in the US for quality of life for African-Americans by some black magazine (can't remember which). These African-Americans must be wealthy because my biggest gripe about Houston is that so much of it is geared towards the wealthy and hyper-materialistic. Which is also probably why Virto thinks it sucks.
But where he sees lameness, I see opportunity. The hip hop and Tejano communities are the only artistic communities which are booming in Houston because of the prejudice most artists have against this city and many take off to Austin thinking it's suppose to be all artistically friendly. The rock music scene here is still sluggish but the theater and art scene has always been way out there and seems to be getting edgier. So come one, come all to Houston, the Bayou City! It does not suck!
ps. I sent a mouse into cyberspace this morning.:)
I checked out some websites about Lojban and from experience in trying to promote a constructed language, I must say that one thing that will hinder Lojban are the difficult to follow lessons. Is it a language for the intellectual elite only or for everybody including Joe Sixpack? A true universal language will be spoken by both the Stephen Hawkings and Pauly Shores of the world. It's an interesting concept. Make easier more comprhensible lessons and you might attract more speakers. But probably not since Esperanto rocks!:) Any genius or idiot can learn Esperanto.
Fek! It only seems awkward because it's foreign. Cussing in English is very awkward to those who don't speak it (or just learned it).:)
Esperanto estas fikante esprima.
(Esperanto is -bleep-ing expressive.)
Seemed natural to me.:)
Esperanto is easily the greatest overlooked invention in human history.
And if you think Esperanto is dead, type it in a search engine and see what little results you'll get.
The webpage I master has over 100 links to Esperanto groups and organizations around the world (a quarter of which are in English speaking countries, so if you don't speak E-o yet, you'll still be able to read parts of those sites)
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People frequently confuse plot for action. And in today's shootout/car-chase/everything-that-crashes-explode s-in-a-brilliant-gas-fueled-explosion heavy films people think that action is composed mainly of these three events.
Plot is what happens and action is how it happens. The plot of LOTR is pretty simple: Frodo must get rid of an evil ring. But how this happens is done very imaginatively, so the action is done well. Action is not just the sword battles.
Also plot is not background. The plot of LOTR is not about a hobbit named Frodo who lives in a place called the Shire in Middle Earth and whose unlce Bilbo stole a powerful ring from a creature named Gollum, etc. That's background.
The formula for box office success was discovered long ago. Check out "How to Write Screenplays that Sell" by Michael Hague.
We here in Texas used to hate yankees because they won the Civil War. Now we hate them because of their prejudicial views of our state. In New York they've made Urban Cowboy into a musical.
In case any of you see it, let it be known that Gilley's burned down 15 years ago, and in order for that show to reflect the Pasadena of today it would have to be re-named Vaqueros Urbanos.
I've lived in Houston my whole life (31 years so far) and have seen a horse on average about once every two years. Ten years ago, I paid 15 bucks to ride one on the beach in Galveston.
About that time a soap opera sent people here to hold auditions for a part on one of their shows. I got my degree in theater so of course as an aspiring actor I went to the audition. There were hundreds of GQ guys looking their soap-opera-best who showed up hoping they might get a boost into the biz with out making the life altering gamble of moving either to L.A. or New York. The casting crew picked the one guy wearing a cowboy hat and stuck him in the show. That's so insulting. If we ever secede from the Union again it will be over crap like this.
One good thing about yankee obtuseness is that it ticked three-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee off so much that he moved to Houston, which allowed me to ferther my edukayshun when I wuz abel to take dat fine man's klass at da Unaversaty of Houston. So I reckin dat Texas edukayshun taint all dat bad.
This rant isn't aimed at all yankees because I know all northerners don't look down on Texas. But the ones who do... man, y'all really chap my hide.
What Sinjoro Virto failed to mention was that this questionable neighborhood is in part of the Houston metroplex which is rapidly being invaded by the ultra-wealthy (and therefor occasionally better educated) members of our society. The neighborhoods surrounding the one in which his house resides all have outlandishly high real estate values, and BMWs and Mercedes are constantly driving through his neighborhood with people prospecting for new land deals (or looking for cocaine). He also failed to mention that the lady believing that we're sending mice into cyberspace is a crackhead. I say all of this because, one I do not think that Houston sucks, and two, because of the prejudices that Houstonians have to fight with. I know that at least half of you who read what Virto wrote imagined that his house sits in a prairie and there's a Beverly-Hillybilly's-esque lady driving around on a tractor wearing a cowboy hat yelling, "Y'all are sendin' dem mouses into that thar cyberspace." This same prejudicial thinking probably led you, upon hearing that she's a crackhead, to believe that she is black. She is not. But Virto's neighbor is. Virto's neighbor is also from Cuba. This city has over 4 million folks and a lot of them come from all around the world. Houston is (or was last year) also rated as the number one city in the US for quality of life for African-Americans by some black magazine (can't remember which). These African-Americans must be wealthy because my biggest gripe about Houston is that so much of it is geared towards the wealthy and hyper-materialistic. Which is also probably why Virto thinks it sucks. But where he sees lameness, I see opportunity. The hip hop and Tejano communities are the only artistic communities which are booming in Houston because of the prejudice most artists have against this city and many take off to Austin thinking it's suppose to be all artistically friendly. The rock music scene here is still sluggish but the theater and art scene has always been way out there and seems to be getting edgier. So come one, come all to Houston, the Bayou City! It does not suck! ps. I sent a mouse into cyberspace this morning.:)
I checked out some websites about Lojban and from experience in trying to promote a constructed language, I must say that one thing that will hinder Lojban are the difficult to follow lessons. Is it a language for the intellectual elite only or for everybody including Joe Sixpack? A true universal language will be spoken by both the Stephen Hawkings and Pauly Shores of the world. It's an interesting concept. Make easier more comprhensible lessons and you might attract more speakers. But probably not since Esperanto rocks! :) Any genius or idiot can learn Esperanto.
Fek! It only seems awkward because it's foreign. Cussing in English is very awkward to those who don't speak it (or just learned it). :)
Esperanto estas fikante esprima.
(Esperanto is -bleep-ing expressive.)
Seemed natural to me. :)
Esperanto is easily the greatest overlooked invention in human history.
And if you think Esperanto is dead, type it in a search engine and see what little results you'll get.
The webpage I master has over 100 links to Esperanto groups and organizations around the world (a quarter of which are in English speaking countries, so if you don't speak E-o yet, you'll still be able to read parts of those sites)
Lernu Esperanton!