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I’m In an Infinitely Reproducible New York State of Mind

By on December 18, 2009 2

Image removed under threat of state violence

The papers for the Molinari Society’s upcoming IP symposium at the APA are now online. (For those planning to attend, I’ll announce the session location here as soon as I can wrest the information from the APA’s bony fingers at registration.)

I notice that the Ayn Rand Society session at the APA is also devoted to intellectual property. So hours of libertarian IP debate await us in New York! (Well, using “us” loosely; something else I’m committed to conflicts with the Randian meeting, so I will have to miss it. But, y’know, them us.)

Addendum, 9-30-2010:

Ironically, this very post announcing our panel opposing the form of censorship known as “copyright” has today been victimsed by the form of censorship known as “copyright.”

You Complete Me!

By on December 16, 2009 1

This trailer for Iron Man 2 looks promising – especially the first half with Downey dissing the Senate and doing his likable-asshole shtick.

But as for this trailer for the Clash of the Titans remake, although I can tell the filmmakers have seen Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, and 300, I can’t actually tell whether it’s any good.

Blizzard Blues

By on December 16, 2009 2

In her song “Put the Blame on Mame” from Gilda, Rita Hayworth (actually lip-synching to Anita Ellis) mentions the Chicago fire of 1871, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and even the “Dan McGrew shooting” of 1907. (The following two clips feature different parts of the song.)

But what about that Manhattan blizzard of 1886? A number of online sources have “corrected” the song, pointing out that the great Manhattan blizzard was actually in 1888.

Well, yes, the great blizzard of Manhattan, New York, was in 1888; but the great blizzard of Manhattan, Kansas was indeed in 1886, and so songwriters Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher are vindicated. (I don’t know how much traffic there was to get “tied up” in the Little Apple in 1886, but we can pass gently over that point.)

Most later versions of the song are inferior imitations of the version from Gilda (or, if they depart from the Gilda version, they tend to be even worse); but here’s a version, by the Canadian band Po’ Girl , that’s completely original and excellent:

That’s pretty much all I had to say, but here are some more clips of Rita Hayworth lip-synching – another from Gilda (voice: Ellis again), two from Affair in Trinidad (voice: Jo Ann Greer – and Glenn Ford is back glowering in the audience again), and one from Miss Sadie Thompson (voice: Greer again).

That last performance of “The Heat Is On” has been both condemned and praised as a “filthy dance scene” and “one of the most blazingly erotic dance segments to be put on the screen” respectively, though both claims, I’m sorry to report, seem rather exaggerated.

And finally, here are some more performances from Po’ Girl:

War Games Eagle

By on December 15, 2009 5

I plan to stay away from campus tomorrow morning, since it sounds like I wouldn’t be able to get into my office anyway:

Auburn University will have an “active shooter” emergency preparedness training exercise the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 16, so university personnel and local first-responders can practice dealing with a campus emergency or disaster. Sultans of SWATPerimeters will be set up around the area of the Student Center and Haley Center for a drill that will include role playing and emergency response by public safety agencies. “We’ll have agencies from across the Auburn area participating in the drill,” said Chance Corbett, associate director of Auburn University’s Department of Public Safety and Security/Emergency Management. “We need to ensure that the university and public safety agencies are prepared and ready to respond to an emergency or disaster on campus.” Participating agencies will include Auburn University, Auburn Police Division, Auburn Fire Department, Lee County Emergency Management Agency, Auburn University Medical Clinic and East Alabama Emergency Medical Services. In addition, a joint information center will be activated on campus that will allow the university’s Office of Communications and Marketing to test its effectiveness in gathering and disseminating information. “In the event of a large incident or an event that attracts national media attention, our department must be prepared to provide the public with timely, accurate information,” said Mike Clardy, director of communications. University officials selected Dec. 16 for the exercise because classes will have ended for the fall semester and activity on campus will be scarce. The exercise is set to begin at 7:45 a.m. and should last until about noon.

I wonder whether the deadline for faculty to submit grades will be extended by an extra half-day to make up for the half-day that we won’t be able to have access to our Haley Center offices? (Okay, I don’t actually wonder that.)

A People’s History of Pandora

By on December 15, 2009 4

Apparently the statist Right is exercised because Avatar is an “America-hating, PC revenge fantasy,” a “thinly disguised, heavy-handed and simplistic sci-fi fantasy/allegory critical of America from our founding straight through to the Iraq War.” So hey, another reason to see it.

The Change I’d Be Tempted to Make …

By on December 15, 2009 12

mystery man

… if I were rewriting Atlas Shrugged, or adapting it to movie form.

Sacrilege, I know. But here’s the idea: “John Galt” is just a pseudonym for Francisco d’Anconia.

Advantages:

  • It switches out a character that readers find hard to relate to and switches in a character that most readers love.
     
  • It doesn’t require us to suddenly transfer so much of our emotional investment to a character that isn’t introduced until the third act.
     
  • It simplifies the love quadrangle to a love triangle.
     
  • It gives added tension to Francisco’s friendship with Rearden.
     
  • By having Dagny end up with Francisco, it makes Francisco’s story less sad.

A disadvantage, from a left-libertarian standpoint, is that now the revolution is being run by two aristocrats (Francisco and Ragnar) rather than by the proletarian Galt. But maybe that problem could be ameliorated by boosting the role of the Brakeman, making him one of the triumvirate, and giving him some minor bits of Galt’s role. Who better to help stop the motor of the world than a brakeman, anyway?

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