Mel Gibson and the Passion movie again...

Grok Headline matches for Mel Gibson and the Passion movie again...

Gibson Defends 'The Passion of the
Christ' (AP)

Gibson Defends 'The Passion of the
Christ' (AP) 02/14/2004 09:09 PM
AP - Mel Gibson said the graphic depiction of Christ's crucifixion in his upcoming film "The Passion of the Christ" was meant to make viewers realize the extent of Christ's sacrifice.

Gibson Defends 'The Passion of the
Chris' (AP)

Gibson Defends 'The Passion of the
Chris' (AP) 02/14/2004 07:52 PM
AP - Mel Gibson said the graphic depiction of Christ's crucifixion in his upcoming film "The Passion of the Christ" was meant to make viewers realize the extent of Christ's sacrifice.

Net Pirates Show Passion for Mel Gibson
Film (Reuters)

Net Pirates Show Passion for Mel Gibson
Film (Reuters) 05/12/2004 12:45 PM
Reuters - Mel Gibson's box office smash "The Passion of the Christ" broke the ignominious record as the most-pirated movie on Internet file-sharing networks in April, an online piracy tracking firm said Wednesday.

Chinese Movie Industry Recognizes Movie
Watching Is A Social Experience

Chinese Movie Industry Recognizes Movie
Watching Is A Social Experience 03/22/2005 05:03 PM
Yesterday we noted that the MPAA and movie theater owners were whini ng about how much people coming in an taping movies was hurting their business. The obvious response, we pointed out, is to recognize that going to the movies is a social experience. It's not just about the content (though, that is important), but the overall experience. If they improved that, then people would want to go -- even if they could score the same movie off the internet or a cheap DVD bought off the street. While the folks in Hollywood refuse to entertain this idea, someone (anonymously) in the comments to that story pointed to an article in China noting that this is exactly what Chinese movie theaters have done. After years of declining attendance, they finally shaped up and made going to the movies cool again. They improved the overall experience, putting in better equipment and more comfortable seats. They improved the sound and the lighting as well. It sounds like they also made some theaters to be more like bars, to help attract young adults away from traditional bars. Yet the supposedly "creative" movie people in Hollywood insist "nothing can be done" to get people into the theater.

William Gibson

William Gibson 12/26/2004 06:48 PM
William Gibson Cyber Claus

williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2004_12_01_archive.asp#11039159083 7685350
track this site | 3 links

And now, a word from Mel Gibson

And now, a word from Mel Gibson 03/31/2005 07:23 PM
Fox News digs deep for expert commentary on the Schiavo case

Gibson: Cyber-Claus

Gibson: Cyber-Claus 12/26/2004 04:44 PM
Xeni Jardin: On William Gibson's blog, a holiday-themed short which was originally published as "Cyber-Claus", in The Washington Post Book World in 1991. Snip:

In the night of 12/24/07, though sensors woven through the very fabric of the house had thus far registered a complete absence of sentient bio-activity, I found myself abruptly summoned from a rare, genuine and expensively induced examples of that most priceless of states, sleep.

Even as I hurriedly dressed, I knew that dozens of telepresent armed-response drones would already be sweeping in from the District, skimming mere inches above the chill surface of the Potomac. Vicious tri-lobed aeroforms that they were, they resembled nothing more than the Martian war machines of George Pal’s 1953 epic, “The War of the Worlds”.

And while, from somewhere far above, now, came that sound, that persistent clatter, as though gunships disgorged whole platoons of iron-shod mercenaries, I could only wonder: who? Was it my estranged wife, Lady Betty-Jayne Motel-6 Hyatt, Chief Eco-Trustee of the Free Duchy of Wyoming? Or was it Cleatus “Mainframe” Sinyard himself, President of the United States and Perpetual Chairman of the Concerned Smart People’s Northern Hemisphere CoProsperity Sphere?

Link

William Gibson interview

William Gibson interview 02/18/2004 10:53 AM
Here's a great interview with William Gibson, who is on the road promoting the paperback of his brilliant novel of apophenia run wild, Pattern Recognition (see my review, too).

"When you write a science-fiction novel set in some sort of recognizable future, as soon as you finish it you have the dubious pleasure of watching it acquire a patina of quaint technological obsolescence. For instance, there are no cell phones in Neuromancer. I couldn't have foreseen them. It would have seemed corny, like Dick Tracy wrist radios."

And he never set out to predict how we might be living a few decades hence. "I always assumed that social-science fiction - anything set on Earth in a not-too-distant future - is just a mutant version of the present. But the easiest hook to hang on me was that I was a futurist. I had always maintained that I was squinting at the present in a certain way."

Link (via Futurismic)

comments on the Mel Gibson/Haiti posting

comments on the Mel Gibson/Haiti posting 03/08/2004 11:03 PM

Hmm... this Manila software that Harvard runs seems to have mislinked all the comments posted.  I'm cutting and pasting some manually and please feel free to use the comments button underneath this posting to comment on the original (below).

From Zoran Lazarevic:

Two hundred years in a history of a nation is a short time to change human behavior without force. For one example, think that slavery was abolished in the U.S. in 1865, but the first black generation that grew in freedom and equality was born in 1970s.

Compare today Serbs living a couple of miles away: across the river Danube which marked the border between the Austro-Hungarian empire (north) and the Ottoman empire (south). In the north, they live in neatly painted houses lined along geometrically straight roads, behind tall walls keeping the privacy of their property. Villages just south of Danube are hectically built around worn-out curvy roads, having short transparent fences displaying property in slight disarray. The north prides itself with culinary craft and the taste for fine arts from Austria and Hungary. The south takes pride in warriorship and macho attitude, and jokes about its own widespread bribery.

Serbia proper was liberated from the (Turkish) Ottoman Empire in the early 1800s, and united with the north in 1918.  There is absolutely no question, that if separated, the two regions would have very different economies. Just like there are vast differences between other ex-Yugoslavia states. And that is all after a century of common life, mostly under communism which tried to kill out (pun intended) all differences in religion and nationality.

From Fazal Majid:

You could blame Lazare Carnot (d. 1823) for fathering Sadi Carnot (d. 1832), the inventor of thermodynamics, and thus leading to global warming...

'Violent' review for Gibson film

'Violent' review for Gibson film 02/11/2004 01:43 PM
A film critic calls Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ "brutal", saying it dwells almost entirely on pain.

MSNBC - Mel Gibson says his wife could
be going to hell

MSNBC - Mel Gibson says his wife could
be going to hell 02/12/2004 06:26 AM
MSNBC - Mel Gibson says his wife could be going to hell .. Read article .. Hell

msnbc.msn.com/id/4224452
track this site | 6 links

William Gibson on John Shirley

William Gibson on John Shirley 03/20/2003 06:37 PM
Here's William Gibson's introduction to John Shirley's proto-cyberpunk novel, City Come a Walkin'.

Shirley made the plastic-covered Sears sofa that was the main body of seventies sf recede wonderfully. Discovering his fiction was like hearing Patti Smith's Horses for the first time: the archetypal form passionately re-inhabited by a debauched yet strangely virginal practitioner, one whose very ability to do this at all was constantly thrown into question by the demands of what was in effect a shamanistic act. There is a similar ragged-ass derring-do, the sense of the artist burning to speak in tongues. They invoke their particular (and often overlapping, and indeed she was one of his) gods and plunge out of downscale teenage bedrooms, brandishing shards of imagery as peculiarly-shaped as prison shivs.

Link Discuss

Mel Gibson Muzzles Unfriendly Clerics

Mel Gibson Muzzles Unfriendly Clerics 01/23/2004 02:21 PM
A friend clipped, scanned and e-mailed me this item from a recent edition of the Orlando Sentinel (the article seems to have disappeared behind the paper's paid firewall). The short piece mentions actor Mel Gibson's visit to a religious convention in Florida, where he was promoting his upcoming movie about Christ's death. (I haven't seen it, but some critics have called the picture anti-Semitic, a charge Gibson has denied.) As the clipping notes, a screening for some of pastors was arranged, with one proviso. They had to sign a document in which they agreed to say only nice things about the movie if they talked about it. Gibson is free to pull such tricks, but no pastor with any integrity should have gone along with this.

Gibson tops celebrity power list

Gibson tops celebrity power list 06/18/2004 04:52 AM
Actor and director Mel Gibson is named the most powerful celebrity in the world by US business magazine Forbes.

William Gibson short: Cyber-Claus

William Gibson short: Cyber-Claus 12/26/2004 11:21 PM
Xeni Jardin: On William Gibson's blog, a holiday-themed short which was originally published as "Cyber-Claus", in The Washington Post Book World in 1991. Snip:

In the night of 12/24/07, though sensors woven through the very fabric of the house had thus far registered a complete absence of sentient bio-activity, I found myself abruptly summoned from a rare, genuine and expensively induced examples of that most priceless of states, sleep.

Even as I hurriedly dressed, I knew that dozens of telepresent armed-response drones would already be sweeping in from the District, skimming mere inches above the chill surface of the Potomac. Vicious tri-lobed aeroforms that they were, they resembled nothing more than the Martian war machines of George Pal’s 1953 epic, “The War of the Worlds”.

And while, from somewhere far above, now, came that sound, that persistent clatter, as though gunships disgorged whole platoons of iron-shod mercenaries, I could only wonder: who? Was it my estranged wife, Lady Betty-Jayne Motel-6 Hyatt, Chief Eco-Trustee of the Free Duchy of Wyoming? Or was it Cleatus “Mainframe” Sinyard himself, President of the United States and Perpetual Chairman of the Concerned Smart People’s Northern Hemisphere CoProsperity Sphere?

Link

Report: Gibson Expands 'Passion' Screens
(AP)

Report: Gibson Expands 'Passion' Screens
(AP) 02/19/2004 07:39 PM
AP - Mel Gibson is adding 800 theaters to the debut of his controversial Crucifixion drama, "The Passion of the Christ," next Wednesday.

William Gibson interviewed by Moira Gunn

William Gibson interviewed by Moira Gunn 12/31/2004 12:49 PM
Mark Frauenfelder: IT Conversations has an 18 minute audio interview with William Gibson, from Moira Gunn's Tech Nation program. Link

William Gibson on his Tech Life and
Latest Novel

William Gibson on his Tech Life and
Latest Novel 02/19/2004 07:40 PM

Shifting Gears: Gibson to Head Tech, Ops
at NYLIM

Shifting Gears: Gibson to Head Tech, Ops
at NYLIM 04/03/2005 01:12 AM
Wall Street and Technology Apr 3 2005 4:51AM GMT

ABCNEWS.com : Gibson: 'Passion' About
'Faith, Hope, Love'

ABCNEWS.com : Gibson: 'Passion' About
'Faith, Hope, Love' 02/16/2004 11:54 PM
ABCNEWS.com : How Despairing Gibson Found 'The Passion' .. preview of Mel Gibson's interview .. in this article

abcnews.go.com/sections/Primetime/Entertainment/mel_gibson_p assion_040216-1.html
track this site | 4 links

Gibson Guitars Prepares Digital Network
Platform

Gibson Guitars Prepares Digital Network
Platform 01/08/2004 07:20 PM

Friars Petition Mel Gibson to Make St
Francis Film (Reuters)

Friars Petition Mel Gibson to Make St
Francis Film (Reuters) 04/21/2004 10:02 AM
Reuters - Franciscan friars in New York loved Mel Gibson's hit movie "The Passion of The Christ," so much they are petitioning him to follow-up with a film biography of the order's founder, Saint Francis of Assisi.

Mel Gibson, the Jews, Haiti, and blaming
it all on people who died 175 years ago

Mel Gibson, the Jews, Haiti, and blaming
it all on people who died 175 years ago 03/08/2004 11:03 PM

People are blaming all of the Jew-hatred in Mel Gibson's new movie on the visions of a German nun, Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824).  According to this article from Newsday:

The bedridden visionary, who is said to have borne the stigmata and the wounds of the crown of thorns, is a particular source of contention for Gibson because of her depictions of Jews as bloodthirsty and venal. In The Dolorous Passion, for instance, she "sees" Jewish priests passing out bribes to get people to offer false testimony against Jesus and even tipping the Roman executioners. She also describes seeing Jesus' cross being built in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem.

And Emmerich's 19th-century biographer, the Rev. C.E. Schmoe'ger, wrote about how she had one vision of an "old Jewess Meyr," who confessed to her "that Jews in our country and elsewhere strangled Christian children and used their blood for all sorts of suspicious and diabolical practices."

Gibson, who carries a relic of Emmerich in the form of a faded piece of cloth from her habit, vehemently rejects characterizations of the nun as anti-Semitic.

In other news... I was listening to NPR news a couple of days ago.  All of Haiti's current troubles were being blamed on things that the French did in 1825 and this proposition was discussed seriously for 15 minutes.  Haiti does seem to be in rather tough shape, at least going by the CIA Factbook page:

"About 80% of the population lives in abject poverty.  ... The economy shrank an estimated 1.2% in 2001 and an estimated 0.9% in 2002.  Literacy rate is 53%."

Despite an HIV infection rate of 6.1% and a lot of deaths from AIDS the population is still growing at an annual rate of 1.67%, i.e., there are an ever-increasing number of Haitians to share an ever-smaller pie.  (cf. Malthus)

Perhaps there are more problems in our world of 2004 that can be blamed on those French and Germans who died circa 1825...  Anyone care to suggest some dead Europeans to blame in the comments section?

The Passion

The Passion 02/10/2004 10:33 AM
Richard Roeper tells it like it is: Catho lics are being persecuted. "And no other religious group gets bashed with such frequency."

passion of the peeps!

passion of the peeps! 04/11/2004 12:00 PM
Just in time for Easter, peeps in diarama-rama from the Twin Cities newspaper.

Decisiveness and Passion

Decisiveness and Passion 11/25/2003 10:31 PM
In Heidegger's Children, Richard Wolin quotes Hans Jonas on why he should have seen Heidegger's Nazism earlier: it's embedded in Heidegger's talk of "resoluteness" and "decisiveness." Says Jonas, whereas Heidegger accused idealist philosophy of being a step removed from the world, one could accuse him of something much more serious: the absolute formalism of his decisionism, where decision as such becomes the highest virtue." (132) If this is right (and it's been too long since I read Being and Time to be sure), it means Heidegger gives us no way of distinguishing a "resolute decision" to support the worst of...

Balanced Passion

Balanced Passion 01/16/2004 11:33 AM
What is more important in business today: Spirit or sobriety?

The passion of the Rudy

The passion of the Rudy 08/31/2004 09:52 AM
The GOP's Monday night moderates try to fire up the convention's far-right true believers. But Michael Moore is more successful.

The Passion of the Krishna

The Passion of the Krishna 09/10/2004 02:56 PM
There appear to be many similarities between the lives of Krishna and Jesus Christ. Exploring the linkage between the two does make one wonder whether the similarities are coincidences or for a very good reason.

The Passion of the Painters

The Passion of the Painters 04/13/2004 06:15 PM
Thema: Passion Very good German site with depictions of the Passion of the Christ in the history of the art, from El Greco to Anton ello da Messina, from Il Guercino to Botti celli. And there also, among many others, Rembrand t and Schie le and Ruben s and Carav aggio Plenty of other good links here. As Bernard Berenson wrote, "A painter’s first business is to rouse the tactile sense, for I must have the illusion... (more inside)

A Passion for Pizza

A Passion for Pizza 07/05/2004 11:02 AM
I have decided that pizza is the perfect food, loved the world over. Done correctly, it includes most of the food groups according to Apache Pizza; cheese, meat, veggies and bread. Someone once said of pizza, "Pizza is a lot like sex. When it's good, it's really good. When it's bad, it's still pretty good." Being USian , I'm without time to create my own dough, squash my own tomatoes, or kill my own cow to create a truly mad pizza. There are alternatives in the quest for the pizza of world domination, though.

Unrequited passion

Unrequited passion 06/08/2004 09:07 AM
He is in every other way a great husband but he refuses to have sex with me.

The passion of Elvis

The passion of Elvis 07/15/2004 08:26 AM
Watching Presley's "'68 Comeback Special" is a total religious experience, proving once and for all that the King was no false idol.

Kreiten's Passion

Kreiten's Passion 12/04/2003 02:43 AM
On September 19, 2003, the world premiere of Dutch composer Rudi Martinus van Dijk's Kreiten's Passion was held at the Tonhalle in Duesseldorf, Germany. The symphonic piece, written for orchestra, mixed choir and baritone, tells the story of Karl Robert Kreiten, a young German pianist who was imprisoned and executed by the Nazis in 1943.

Passion of the iPod

Passion of the iPod 03/08/2004 11:03 PM
iGod: an iPod ad parody that speaks to the Mel Gibson Vanity Project zeitgeist. Link (Thanks, bturner!)

The Passion of the Comments

The Passion of the Comments 09/17/2004 10:07 AM
Now that Maury Povich has forsaken us, true believers will be heartened to find that Mel Gibson is taking requests at a random weblog entry from 2003.

Passion for the story

Passion for the story 07/06/2004 05:14 AM

In my opinion, a reporter should be thirsty for information, and passionate about conveying it. It should bother you that you got the story wrong, and one should put aside pride or ego when the object of your story tells you you got it wrong. Get out the notepad and get the real story.

I think this is so basic, perhaps it should be a third tenet of real reporting, along with 1. Disclose your interests. 2. Never knowingly say something that's not true.

In the last flamefest, this is what separated the real reporters, professional or amateur, from the space-occupiers. Did they care what the actual story was, or were they just bloating the blogosphere with more uninformed crap. Mostly, unfortunately, it was the latter.

Lots Of Passion, Not So Much Profit

Lots Of Passion, Not So Much Profit 03/08/2004 11:04 PM
I was having a discussion recently with someone about the challenge of selling "TiVo-like" products - by which we didn't mean other PVRs, but products where (a) the product's benefits are difficult to describe but (b) the early adopters who sign on can't imagine living without it. It's a challenge a lot of companies face, and no one seems to have a very good answer. Some people think you just focus in on one differentiating aspect of the technology and pitch it relentlessly. Others try to build up word-of-mouth buzz. Still others try to get as many "trial" users as possible. It really depends on the actual product, but venture capitalist Kevin Laws is look ing at these types of companies and wondering what it takes to jump that hurdle. Is it just a question of letting the companies grow slowly, instead of pushing for the mass acceptance right away, or is there something else to it? It seems to me, that the examples he cites of companies that have made it over that hurdle were less revolutionary than those that haven't. That is, while the iPod and the Treo 600 have done things right, both were actually smart updates on previously failed products in that space. The examples he mentions of companies that have struggled (TiVo, PayTrust) are companies that have spent more time trying to invent and define the space themselves. The real question, then, is whether or not companies that create a space can successfully hang on and remain relevant until the market actually takes off. In many cases, I wonder if those companies have trouble because they're so focused on their own product and defining the market that they miss out on the one big feature that catapults a competitor into market dominance.

passion chokes the flower

passion chokes the flower 01/27/2004 06:24 PM
When she accepted her much-deserved Golden Globe, überhottie Charlize Theron thanked the director of Monster, and said said, "There's only so much you can do, but if somebody doesn't give you a chance there is nothing you can do." . . .
Grok Description matches for Mel Gibson and the Passion movie again...
GrokA matches for Mel Gibson and the Passion movie again...

Mel Gibson and the Passion movie again...

The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry: