So you think you’re cultured?

Cheap and nasty? No way.

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?, totally absurd

Reading the ads for Mothers’ Day I was once again stunned by the cheapness of electrical goods from China and S.E. Asia. At a time when a meal in a restaurant is rarely less than $50 you can buy an electric wok for the same price. An electric rice cooker sells for as little as $29. Such appliances are so inexpensive that when they break down the manufacturer doesn’t even bother repairing them. It wouldn’t be worth his while. Instead, the manufacturing company replaces any faulty appliances in the first year.

Can anyone ask for better than that? Continue reading →

Scorpions are scorpions.

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?, totally absurd

I have often wondered why the West insists on trying to come to some understanding with Islamic fundamentalists. It’s as if they believe that if they just sit down and have a nice chat with these terrorists, everything will turn out all right. That is truly naive and Martin Luther King would support my view completely. Continue reading →

Nicole Kidman as Marilyn Monroe?

liligans Films, So you think you're cultured?, totally absurd

I did a double take when I read an article which suggested that Nicole Kidman may star as Marilyn Monroe in the remake of “How to Marry a Millionaire.”

Who in the world would look at Nicole and think of Marilyn? Marilyn was voluptuous, an icon of the Fifties at a time when women were admired for being soft and curvy. Think of Jayne Mansfield, Diana Dors, Marilyn Maxwell and Brigitte Bardot who would all be described by Sam in “Silent Witness” as being “well-nourished.”

Nicole Kidman had to wear a ridiculous proboscis in her unconvincing portrayal of Virgina Woolf in “The Hours.” As Monroe she would have to get some breasts, hips and bottom and she would have to stand in one of those holes to look shorter. Kidman is tall and thin as a reed. She is a very “modern beauty”, less of a sex symbol than a clothes horse, with that lean and hungry look of Cassius which Shakespeare was not very partial to. Marilyn oozed sexuality. Let’s face it, if someone wants to give Nicole a good time, they would have to take her to an all you can eat buffet.

Unless the film makes use of special effects and don’t we need more of those in today’s movies, Nicole is not a perfect choice for the role of our most famous blonde bombshell. If the producers want to cast a more ample actress then perhaps the ever elastic Renee Zelweiger could be chosen, but then, what would they do about that screwed up face of hers?

As for the title for the remake, shouldn’t it be “How to Marry a Billionaire?” A millionaire is hardly worth the effort, nowadays.

Go ahead and jump!

liligans So you think you're cultured?, Society, totally absurd

There are some young idiots who have taken to jumping into a lake at a quarry site. They leap into water that is full of acid effluent and other noxious chemicals.

In order to reach the water they have to pass jagged rocks in the quarry on their way down into the muck. Sometimes they even ride their bicycles off the edge and over the cliff.

We know that they do this because they have videotaped themselves in the act.

A doctor from the emergency unit at the hospital has come out and said that this is very risky behaviour because these daredevils could get hurt or even, gasp, perish. Do we really need an expert for this sort of prophecy?

When I learn of such behaviour it really doesn’t shock me because I feel no sympathy for them at all if they do injure themselves. In fact, I regard them as a species from the lower end of the developmental chain, which makes me wonder about Darwin’s notion of the survival of the fittest. Or perhaps what they come from is even more moronic than they are.

The question is, for the sake of mankind’s future, do we actually want them to survive, or worse still, do we want to pay for their medical treatment should they get hurt?

If they do survive then won’t that lower the average I.Q of Australians in general? Do we really want them to pass on the stupid gene to their offsprings?—pun intended.

If they wanna jump they should jump, like lemmings into the muck. It’s no loss.

Up to their necks in it

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?

How full of hatred can you get? The Palestinians in Gaza have been flooded by their own raw, smelly and foul sewage this week. Apart from the symbolic meaning of such an event, lives have been lost, people taken ill and there is a danger that disease will spread.

Israel has offered help.

Haven’t heard yet if the Palestinians have accepted the offer but they were quick to blame Israel for the “tsunami” of effluent . Why am I not surprised? It’s so easy to blame someone else for your troubles. The Middle East could have been at peace by now had it not been for the sheer stupidity of the Arab nations who are only united when they have a common enemy like Israel. Let’s face it, they aren’t kissing cousins in Iraq, are they?

I wrote in a previous blog that global warming is going to be blamed on little Israel in spite of its lack of natural resources and in spite of the fact that most of its emissions are brainwaves.

I remember when the Iranians suffered a massive earthquake a while ago and many people were waiting to be rescued. Israel offered help then and was refused. The Iranians would rather see their families die than have to be grateful for the Israeli aid.

It is in this respect essentially that Muslims differ from Jews. Jews value life and will do their utmost to save it. Muslims are the antithesis of this. They would rather see their children suffocate under heavy rocks than accept humanitarian help from an enemy.

In the end this sort of fanaticism can only cause further suffering for the Muslims and much misery for the rest of the world. And if they think that it is more dignified to refuse help, well, wallowing in your own shit doesn’t sound so superior to me.

Pity about the dialogue

liligans Literature, So you think you're cultured?

There are some writers whose work is timeless, but Ernest Hemingway’s writing was so contemporary to the first half of the Twentieth Century, that its main relevance is in its depiction of events around World War I and the period between the Wars.

Apart from “The Old Man and the Sea” for which Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, his work seems to be extremely journalistic rather than literary. He was proud of that style and was praised for it, but I find it unimaginative, especially in the dialogue sections.

Perhaps it’s because I can’t relate to Hemingway’s pseudo macho personality which could be the result of his mother insisting on calling him “Ernestine”. Reminds of the Johnny Cash song, “A boy named Sue.” Poor Ernie spent his entire life trying to prove he wasn’t Ernestine. Continue reading →

Commentary on “The Master”

liligans Literature

Isn’t it intriguing that after reading an entire novel based on the life of Henry James one is left wondering what it was all about. That was my reaction to Colm Toibin’s, “The Master”.

Had it not been for my deep admiration of James’ work and had it not been for the fact that Toibin’s book was to be discussed by our book club, I doubt that I would have persevered with it.

I have purposely not read any reviews of “The Master” so that I can offer my gut reaction. Continue reading →

Name calling

liligans So you think you're cultured?, Society

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while now, but finally decided to write a post on the subject because of an article concerning Joseph Fiennes, who starred in “Shakespeare in Love.”

Unlike his older brother, Ralph, (or Rafe-how pretentious can you get?) Joseph is the actor who manages to keep his pants on during flights unless it’s to pee or as the French say “to evacuate”. Don’t you just love the way the French express it? Continue reading →