I couldn’t care less about the World Cup … unlike most of the rest of the World.
But I love inspiring video. The TV ads are fantastic.
Here’s an epic by Beats by Dre, the recent $3 billion Apple acquire.
The five-minute spot opens with Brazilian superstar Neymar having a heart-to-heart conversation with his father before a soccer match, set over footage of favelas, coastlines and the team bus. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
(via Mashable)
People ask me why I’m so agitated by the Tea Party and other right wing gasbags. And not nearly as much irked by soft-headed, left wing muddled thinkers.
What makes me mad is disinformation.
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth. Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, information that is unintentionally false.
The left wing often spreads misinformation. Poorly.
In the USA (but not in Canada) people make money in the right wing media echo chamber.
In media, an echo chamber is a situation in which information, ideas, or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission and repetition inside an “enclosed” system, often drowning out different or competing views. …
One purveyor of information will make a claim, which many like-minded people then repeat, overhear, and repeat again (often in an exaggerated or otherwise distorted form) until most people assume that some extreme variation of the story is true. …
I love seeing Jon Stewart and Colbert call out the disinformers.
One of the worst is Glenn Beck, “with his violent rhetoric, his frequent and absurd fear-mongering, his nasty vitriol, his “jokes” about assassinating government officials, his baseless conspiracy theories, his race-baiting, his flat-out, bald-faced lies, his many hypocrisies … ”
Well said.
Beck left FOX in 2011. But is worth about $90 million today. The more he lies, the more money he makes.
Rush Limbaugh makes around $66 million / year.
The main motivation for those two, Bill O’Reilly and others, is money. I don’t trust a word they say.
FOX and the echo chamber endless repeat daily “talking points“. It’s incredibly boring to count the repetitions of the talking points of the day.
related – NY Times opinion piece 2013 – Suffocating Echo Chamber
A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin.
Martin began the first volume of the series, A Game of Thrones, in 1991. He published it in 1996.
It’s a massive, sprawling, confusing tale. If you are still deciding whether or not to read the series, I’d advise against.
Watch the TV series instead.
If you insist on the book, I’d say book 1 Game of Thrones is the best. Book 4 the worst.
If gratuitous sex and violence turn you off, avoid both the book and TV show.
Like many others, I’m waiting on book 6 — The Winds of Winter — and have no idea when it will finally be released.
Erik Francis Schrody (born August 18, 1969 in Valley Stream, New York) – stage name Everlast – is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Everlast’s music ranges from blues to hip hop and rock. His influences include N.W.A., Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill, Ice-T, Gang Starr, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Run-D.M.C.
A perfect way to end the NCAA Gymnastics Championships weekend in Birmingham, Alabama.
Sipping the red, savoring a Baby Rack of Jim ‘n Nick‘s ribs. And — tragically — watching the very last episode of Friday Night Lights.
Baked beans and cole slaw.
Weepy.
related – ‘Friday Night Lights,’ the final farewell (a review)
Fantastic. This is definitely one of my favourite TV series ever.
Season 4 focused on the reopened East Dillon High School and the East Dillon Lions football team.
Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.
On to the fifth and final season.
Lara Zarum:
The brilliant minds at Screen Junkies have made one of their signature “Honest Trailers” in anticipation of Game of Thrones’ fourth season, which premieres on HBO this Sunday, and this one doesn’t disappoint. “It’s the abusive show you keep watching, no matter how many times it hurts you,” …
The trailer covers the first three seasons and skewers everything from Westerosi nomenclature (“Travel to Westeros, a place where everything is the [thing] of [nouns]”) to, perhaps inevitably, its tendency to offer naked ladies as eye candy while old men with beards deliver monologues. It’s more or less safe for work, despite all this, but those who haven’t caught up with the show should beware: Spoilers abound.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
___ Meanwhile, I’m about half way through reading – A Feast for Crows … meh
A Feast for Crows is the fourth of seven planned novels in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by American author George R. R. Martin. …
In comparison with the previous novels in the series, A Feast for Crows received more negative reviews. … many critics felt that this novel consisted of characters that people were less interested in.
Agreed.
I had very little interest in:
The Iron Islands:
• The Prophet, The Drowned Man: Aeron “Damphair” Greyjoy, and the rest.
• The Kraken’s Daughter: Princess Asha Greyjoy, daughter of Late King Balon of the Iron Islands
• The Iron Captain, The Reaver: Prince Victarion Greyjoy, Captain of the Iron fleet
In Dorne:
• The Captain of Guards: Areo Hotah, Captain of the Guards to Prince Doran Martell of Dorne
• The Soiled Knight: Ser Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard
• The Queenmaker, The Princess in the Tower: Arianne Martell, daughter of Prince Doran and heir to Dorne
… there was also a sense in A Feast of Crows that Martin had lost his way. The characters whose stories he did tell wandered back and forth across a landscape devastated by war and
oncoming winter, but didn’t seem to be headed anywhere in particular. …… “sprawling and incoherent” …
It sounds like A Dance With Dragons (book 5) is better.
9-minute recap of Game of Thrones, seasons 1-3
Fourth season starts Sunday April 6th.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
(via Boing Boing)
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
via Mashable
The viciously-cutthroat protagonist of Netflix’s hit political thriller House of Cards often breaks the fourth wall to provide viewers with merciless advice.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick McCharles 