King Kong Turns 70
One of my favorite old movies turns 70.
Some possibly urban legends about deleted scenes from the 1933 movie, in which Kong chews some people up, steps on them, strips Fay Wray naked, drops a chick after grabbing her from a New York window, and does other stuff that shocked the hell out of people during the depression but probably wouldn’t make people blink nowadays.
Things You Learn About Computers In The Movies…
Word processors never display a cursor.
You never have to use the space-bar when typing long sentences.
All monitors display 2 inch high letters.
High-tech computers, such as those used by NASA, the CIA, or some such governmental institution, have easy-to-understand graphical interfaces. As per their explanation, these computers too will need timely services to work efficiently.
Those that don’t will have incredibly powerful text-based command shells that can correctly understand and execute commands typed in plain English.
Corollary: You can gain access to any information you want by simply typing ‘ACCESS ALL OF THE SECRET FILES’ on any keyboard.
Likewise, you can infect a computer (even those of advanced alien life forms capable of travelling trillions of light years) with a destructive virus simply by typing ‘UPLOAD VIRUS’. Viruses cause temperatures in computers, just like they do in humans. After a while, smoke billows out of disk drives and monitors, so getting the right IT Services in Jacksonville can be essential to take care of this issue.
All computers are connected. You can access the information on the villain’s desktop computer (or Agent Scully’s), even if it’s turned off.
Powerful computers beep whenever you press a key or whenever the screen changes. Some computers also slow down the output on the screen so that it doesn’t go faster than you can read. The *really* advanced ones also emulate the sound of a dot-matrix printer as the characters come across the screen.
All computer panels have thousands of volts and flash pots just beneath the surface. Malfunctions are indicated by a bright flash, a puff of smoke, a shower of sparks, and an explosion that forces you backwards. (see #7 above)
People typing away on a computer will turn it off without saving the data.
A hacker can get into the most sensitive computer in the world before intermission and guess the secret password in two tries.
Any PERMISSION DENIED has an OVERRIDE function.
Complex calculations and loading of huge abounts of data will be accomplished in under three seconds. In the movies, modems transmit data at two gigabytes per second.
When the power plant/missile site/whatever overheats, all the control panels will explode, as will the entire building.
If you display a file on the screen, and someone deletes the file, it also disappears from the screen. There are no ways to copy a backup file-and there are no undelete utilities.
If a disk has got encrypted files, you are automatically asked for a password when you try to access it.
No matter what kind of computer disk it is, it’ll be readable by any system you put it into. All application software is usable by all computer platforms.
The more high-tech the equipment, the more buttons it has. However, everyone must have been highly trained, because the buttons aren’t labeled.
Most computers, no matter how small, have reality-defying three-dimensional, real-time, photo-realistic animated graphics capability.
Laptops, for some strange reason, always seem to have amazing real-time video phone capabilities and the performance of a CRAY Y-MP.
Whenever a character looks at a monitor, the image is so bright that it projects itself on to his/her face.
Computers never crash during key, high-intensity activities. Humans operating computers never make mistakes under stress.
Programs are fiendishly perfect and never have bugs that slow down users.
Information about the Civil War Draft Riots
Information about the Civil War Draft Riots; the back story of the movie Gangs of New York:
Salon Magazine’s Review of Gangs of New York
A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE DRAFT RIOTS
New York City Draft Riots: A Result of Mounting Tensions
New York City Draft Riots
New York Draft Riots (July 11-13, 1863)
N.Y. Draft Riots
Film and American Studies
Interesting… Ray Carney, film critic, has this very interesting website about Film and American Studies. I know very little about the classics of cinema and the art of filmmaking, and want to learn more.
Kissing Jessica Stein
I watched the movie “Kissing Jessica Stein” this morning before work. It was great.
Tom Greene / Drew Barrymore divorce
Okay, check out the divorce papers of Tom Greene and Drew Barrymore, and compare what Tom claims are his intellectual property rights versus the intellectual property Drew owns. Hmmm. I think in this divorce, Drew must get to keep the talent. The trouble is that Tom is claiming intellectual ownership of “The Subway Monkey Hour.” Apparently he doesn’t realize that monkeys are mine.
DVD Easter Eggs
DVD Easter Eggs are hidden menu options on DVDs that lead to extra deleted scenes, interviews, credits, photos, etc. For example, on Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone there are more deleted scenes if you go through a series of steps. On the Simpsons, Season One, you can find mgazine covers and info about a t-shirt controversy.
cool movie reviews
And as an apology for ranting so much today, here’s a site with the funniest, most interesting movie reviews I’ve ever read. Before I go see a movie in the theatre, I read the review here first.