New Testingstan

Oxymoron wrote:I just watched / listened Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" videoclip

And is it just me or does the video contradict the theme of the lyrics in a big way ?

Could you expand on this plz?

evilsoup wrote:I think most people here (especially the ones going 'lol smugtheism') are various forms of atheist (and also vaguely leftish), so when other atheists are being assholes it feels... disappointing?

Yeah, TBH

The worst parts of the Christian mindset are extra-hilarious to me when I see it coming from antitheists because these are people who often seem to pride themselves on being NONCONFORMISTS who TOOK THE RED PILL and SEE THROUGH THE BULLSHIT and are totes RATIONAL

Which makes the lack of self-awareness involved extra hilarious

Kinda like, with a religious person at least you can say they were raised in the bullshit and maybe haven't thought about it too much or kind of feel obligated to follow it because of the way religion works, but you're somebody who claims to have actually thought about your beliefs and not believe in dogmatic codes, so what's your excuse?

I found Attack of the Clones in particular to have a very padded story that had no real beginning or ending (just a middle), overused effects that a decade later haven't aged well in places, that abominable romance, and stilted directing. However I didn't find RotS and even TPM to be especially confounding plotting wise, despite their faults.

I have gotten a bit more colder towards JJAbrams' Star Trek after re-watching it recently: not terrible but seemingly an unbroken stream of contrivances and coincidences. I hope JJAbrams' take on Star Trek gets a bit more mature and coherent with Into Darkness.

Big Orangutan wrote:I hope JJAbrams' take on Star Trek gets a bit more mature and coherent with Into Darkness.

Only marginally. There's less lens flare though, so that's a plus

Stofsk wrote:

Big Orangutan wrote:I hope JJAbrams' take on Star Trek gets a bit more mature and coherent with Into Darkness.

Only marginally. There's less lens flare though, so that's a plus

I liked it quite a bit.

Stofsk wrote:

Big Orangutan wrote:I hope JJAbrams' take on Star Trek gets a bit more mature and coherent with Into Darkness.

Only marginally. There's less lens flare though, so that's a plus

I just watched it. I'd put it in the popcorn movie category but it's enjoyable enough as that.

The main thing that struck me about it was the pretty obvious attempts at being topical wrt the "War On Terror".

Losonti Tokash wrote:Doesn't one of you bastards live in Texas?

Yeah, why?

Jung wrote:

Stofsk wrote:

Big Orangutan wrote:I hope JJAbrams' take on Star Trek gets a bit more mature and coherent with Into Darkness.

Only marginally. There's less lens flare though, so that's a plus

I just watched it. I'd put it in the popcorn movie category but it's enjoyable enough as that.

The main thing that struck me about it was the pretty obvious attempts at being topical wrt the "War On Terror".

Yeah, but that's classic TOS.

the villain really should have been Harry Mudd

I'd watch that.

He'd never tell a lie!

And that's the truth!

The Spartan wrote:

Losonti Tokash wrote:Doesn't one of you bastards live in Texas?

Yeah, why?

I'm going to be in San Antonio this August for a convention but didn't know if anyone actually lived there.

Losonti Tokash wrote:

The Spartan wrote:

Losonti Tokash wrote:Doesn't one of you bastards live in Texas?

Yeah, why?

I'm going to be in San Antonio this August for a convention but didn't know if anyone actually lived there.

REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

Flagg wrote:Yeah, but that's classic TOS.

Classic Trek, really. TNG and DS9 and even Voyager always had that degree of 'let's be topical'.

I was a bit mean to Into Darkness above. It's not without its problems, but it also has its charms too. It just annoys me that they get a lot of things right but then get other things wrong.

Jung wrote:

Oxymoron wrote:I just watched / listened Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" videoclip

And is it just me or does the video contradict the theme of the lyrics in a big way ?

Could you expand on this plz?

The lyrics theme is about body-positivity, accepting yourself for what you are without trying to conform to others' standards of beauty.

The video, on the other hand, is a dance number with lady gaga in sexy underwear showing off a model's body, surrounded by standardized "crowd dancers" which all look more or less the same.


Superficially at least, there seems to be some kind of dissonance in my eyes, at least between the kind of message it's trying to send and the one it effectively send.


(note that I have note watched the video's four minutes long introduction and choose a video with only the musical number, so maybe I'm missing something. But on the other hand, I doubt MTV would show the entire thing either.

From what I can tell, I think the song's actually about speaking out against homophobia, racism, and sexism. Just from a glance at the lyrics.

I haven't seen the video, admittedly... so whether it fulfils that is unknown to me.

That too. But this only make the video seems even more disconnected from the lyrics.

Right or wrong, that's an interesting point of view on the use of drone strikes.

Losonti Tokash wrote:I'm going to be in San Antonio this August for a convention but didn't know if anyone actually lived there.

Ah. I don't know of anyone who lives there. I think that Chardok lives there, but it's been so long since I've heard anything from him I'm not sure anymore.

Come to think of it, I've not even been out that way in, wow, probably four years now.

Did the Marvel thread get swallowed by the autodelete or something? Didn't think it had been around that long.

Anyway. Saw Iron Man 3. And no matter what people say about its wonderful themes. It still doesn't track for me thematically or stylistically from IM2 or The Avengers. (OK, Iron Man 2 was crap anyway...)

Stofsk wrote:The only way I'll watch TPM again is at gunpoint

*cocks gun*

You're on.

I think I've just found the most perfectly beautiful thing in the whole world

The anime club is dead

question for the car conscious among us. I got my Malibu back from the body shop today, and i'm noticing an almost whistling sound. Kind of like I've got my window cracked a little bit. I talked to some people at work and they say it's possible that when they put the new door on it didn't seal up right or something.

How serious is this? I'm taking the vehicle back in to the body shop as soon as they open on monday, and I'm wondering how long it would take them to fix.

Pretty common I've noticed when cars get body work done. It's not a big deal really, though I've never known anyone who bothered to get it fixed so can't help you on the time estimate.