Topic: WCDT 9-13 May 2011 (1921-1925) (Read 87425 times)

Akima · « **Reply #300 on:** 14 May 2011, 21:14 »

Quote from: Deadlywonky on 14 May 2011, 14:59

Skew, to the best of my knowledge (one of my lecturers at uni), the nausea is caused by a form of travel sickness: if you are standing, facing the direction of spin, and you rotate your head 90 degrees to the left, your eyes tell the brain that the body is stationary, but because one ear is accelerating into the direction of travel, and the other accelerating away, the perception is that the head is tumbling forwards, as this is not backed up by the eyes, the nausea results.

The nausea is actually primarily caused by gyroscopic coupling upsetting the vestibular system of the inner ear (someone inside a rotating space-station has become part of a gigantic gyroscope). Lots more here: http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/artificial_gravity_and_the_architecture_of_orbital_habitats.shtml

Skewbrow · « **Reply #301 on:** 14 May 2011, 22:16 »

@Deadlywonky: Thanks for the bit. Sounds like it is actually the same effect I was trying to describe: one ear is experiencing a different acceleration than the other. Much like if the dweller would do the hamster treadmill routine, then he/she would experience a lift or extra weight due to Coriolis all dependiing on whether the direction of running matches with the rotation or not. Except this time his/her head experiences opposite effects on opposite temples ...

@Akima: Thanks for the link!

ysth · « **Reply #302 on:** 14 May 2011, 22:30 »

Quote from: Carl-E on 14 May 2011, 05:24

EVERYONE needs to see Citizen Kane. Also The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The Third Man.

And for a second tier of cultural references, The 39 Steps, Kind Hearts and Coronets, and the original Psycho.

Top of my list of everyone-must-see are Office Space and Rustler's Rhapsody.

SJCrew · « **Reply #303 on:** 14 May 2011, 22:49 »

Shocked Hanners is getting just a liiiiiitttle overused.

akronnick · « **Reply #304 on:** 14 May 2011, 22:54 »

Quote from: ysth on 14 May 2011, 22:30

Top of my list of everyone-must-see are Office Space and Rustler's Rhapsody.

Folks are talking about great films like Casablanca and Citizen Kane and you're bringing Office Space?

Really?

Really?

Don't get me wrong, Office Space is funny but...

Really?

Really?

And I'm adding The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to the great flicks list.

Carl-E · « **Reply #305 on:** 14 May 2011, 23:23 »

There is a difference between the "everybody" must-see list and my (or your) must see list.

Mine includes things like Buclkaroo Bonzai and The Wizard of Speed and Time.

But films like Casablanca (the most quoted film of all time) are cutural touchstones, and really should be part of everyone's experience, just so you can get the damn references when they inevitably come up!

Method of Madness · « **Reply #306 on:** 14 May 2011, 23:24 »

I don't know Rustler's Rhapsody, but I have absolutely no issue with Office Space being on the must see list. At all. It's that good.

Emperor Norton · « **Reply #307 on:** 15 May 2011, 00:45 »

I think sometimes older films get built up to more than they are.

Don't get me wrong. There are some amazing classic films that I love, such as The Bridge on the River Kwai and Seven Samurai, but we get this kind of build up where people act like "NOTHING CAN EVER BE THIS GOOD AGAIN."

I'll be honest, some of the big classics, such as Citizen Kane, are probably really interesting if you are studying film, due to all the things it pioneered, but honestly it bored me half to death.

On the other hand, movies like Dark City and Moon which are more recent (1998 and 2009 respectively) are in my opinion amazing films that shouldn't be overlooked just because they happened to not come out in the 40s.

Skewbrow · « **Reply #308 on:** 15 May 2011, 01:50 »

Movies? For the most part I plead ignorance, but when Casablanca was shown on our national tv, the movie critic of the local newspaper gave it a rating of 6 stars (on a scale from zero to five). I agree. So did my Slovenian housemate in the 80s.

Rio Bravo is the western that would be on my list. Hell, if I can stomach and even enjoy John Wayne's mannerism, then the movie has to be pretty darn good. Some Hitchcock films would also make it to my list.

It does sound like my taste is close to that of the Emperor. Glad you brought up Kurosawa. The movie fanatics in my high school class would have probably given the nod to Dersu Uzala instead of Seven Samurai, though. And when watching Citizen Kane I was expecting a larger than life experience, and can't help saying that I was a bit disappointed.

Also it is kinda pointless to compare movies produced in different eras. The changes in technology act as divides. The first movie ever was mostly a feat of engineering. Similarly, when sound, color, <missing steps here>, computer animation,... were added to the technical repertoire, it took (will take) a while before the great artists master them. Same thing happens in the history of music. We shall never know what kind of pieces Bach or Mozart would have composed for piano, or ... electric guitar.

akronnick · « **Reply #309 on:** 15 May 2011, 01:53 »

Mozart did lots of stuff for piano, but his piano probably didn't sound like ours.

Skewbrow · « **Reply #310 on:** 15 May 2011, 02:41 »

Yeah he did, but I have this recollection that Beethoven was (one of) the first great composers, who had access to anything like the modern grand piano capable of producing the full range of sound (both dynamics and pitch). The technology was not mature at Mozart's time, and this placed some constraints on his pieces.

I'm no expert on this, so the usual caveats apply.

Edit: Ok, something like the above seems to be true. See a Wikipedia article on pianos for more historical details.

jwhouk · « **Reply #311 on:** 15 May 2011, 05:51 »

Remember: a lot of the stuff the Beatles did was on what we would consider "low tech" equipment. The Beach Boys were famous for emptying out an entire swimming pool just to get the right "echo" sound for a song.

pwhodges · « **Reply #312 on:** 15 May 2011, 07:04 »

The piano reached essentially its modern form and sonority around 1870, I'd say. But a major essence of it, variable dynamics by throwing hammers at the string, was invented by Cristofori around 1700. JS Bach is known to have shown no interest in the instrument in earlier life, but it is now thought that in the 1740s he might have had it in mind at least as a possible instrument for some of his music.

None the less, the harpsichord remained dominant pretty much until the end of the 18th century. In the British Library's National Sound Archive, if you hunt really hard, you will find a recording from 1968 of me playing, among other things, Haydn and Beethoven on a harpsichord that was built close to the time the music was written. (There is an account of this recording, with a photo of me at the harpsichord, halfway down this page.)

~~Schmorgluck~~ · « **Reply #313 on:** 15 May 2011, 10:41 »

As always, for space matters, the very best source or, at least, hub for casual (and not so casual) informations is the Atomic Rockets website. For example, the Artificial Gravity page usefully links to the convenient SpinCalc.

Quote from: Skewbrow on 15 May 2011, 01:50

We shall never know what kind of pieces Bach or Mozart would have composed for piano, or ... electric guitar.

I personally think most Bach pieces already sound great on electric guitars. So yeah, what if he had actually one available?

DSL · « **Reply #314 on:** 15 May 2011, 16:35 »

Quote from: Skewbrow on 15 May 2011, 01:50

Also it is kinda pointless to compare movies produced in different eras. The changes in technology act as divides. ...

Maybe not "pointless," but worthwhile being mindful of the context in which a movie was made: Novelty of the medium or a given technique, technology available, how well resources and talent were used in making the movie (contrasted with what resources were available) ... What have you. Just to offer a personal (and pedestrian) example: One of the reasons I much prefer the original three Star Wars movies is that the Luke Skywalker story arc pushed the limits of technology and compensated with creativity. The prequels, though, had much more available in terms of moviemaking tech and seemed to think that's all that was needed (I thought the ship designs, for example, were much less quirkily creative). That's just IMHO and offered as an illustration.

Akima · « **Reply #315 on:** 15 May 2011, 16:37 »

Quote from: Schmorgluck on 15 May 2011, 10:41

I personally think most Bach pieces already sound great on electric guitars. So yeah, what if he had actually one available?

I've always felt that Bach would have been more of a keyboard/synth kind of guy. There's a reason Switched-On Bach was so successful even back in the Dark Ages before I was born...

Tergon · « **Reply #316 on:** 15 May 2011, 17:48 »

Yeah, Bach would have been much more into keyboards and the like. Now, Mozart, I can see rocking out with a theremin and a beatbox generator...

Grantzilla · « **Reply #317 on:** 15 May 2011, 23:26 »

CLASSIC MOVIES TO WATCH:

Aguirre, The Wrath of God
El Topo
The Seventh Seal
Night of the Hunter

Dust · « **Reply #318 on:** 16 May 2011, 01:26 »

Way late to the thread with this, but it occured to me today at work so I had to do an archive dig to check..

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1399
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1925

Maybe I'm too tired to note the finer details, but I'm seeing the same guy. Just saying.

Deadlywonky · « **Reply #319 on:** 16 May 2011, 03:01 »

Except that the stranger in the first panel is trying to flirt with Hanners, and Elliott isn't

Tiogyr · « **Reply #320 on:** 16 May 2011, 05:11 »

Quote from: Grantzilla on 15 May 2011, 23:26

CLASSIC MOVIES TO WATCH:

Aguirre, The Wrath of God
El Topo
The Seventh Seal
Night of the Hunter

Colossus: The Forbin Project.

AKA, the inspiration for The Terminator.

Edited for proper title and Amazon link.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #321 on:** 16 May 2011, 12:23 »

For better searching, the "Forbin" project.

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Author Topic: WCDT 9-13 May 2011 (1921-1925) (Read 87425 times)