The Shotgun Blog
« The Lazarus Tory | Main | Goodbye Alberta -- hello Saskatchewan? »
Friday, October 26, 2007
Open the pod bay doors, HAL
"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. "
"I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen."
(crossposted at halls of macadamia)
Posted by Neo Conservative on October 26, 2007 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515b5d69e200e54f1323398834
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Open the pod bay doors, HAL:
Comments
I bought the new 2001 DVD this week for my Blu-ray player. It rocks! Well worth it.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-26 11:31:58 AM
Lot of people think this was Kubrick's masterpiece, but I still think his "Paths of Glory" is his best film. Saw 2001 about forty years ago at it's Canadian Premiere -saw it again in London UK 1993
-it remains one of the world's greatest films - MacLeod
Posted by: jackmacleod | 2007-10-26 1:56:38 PM
I was always partial to Strangelove, which hasn't lost its power after all these years. Full Metal Jacket is the same way, as are Barry Lyndon and the Shining. I even like Spartacus.
I cannot dispute the genius of Paths of Glory, but picking the one best of Kubrick's films is nearly impossible. It is easier to count his less than successful films like Eyes Wide Shut.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-26 2:23:03 PM
Clockwork Orange is an inspiration to several generations. It's possibly the most timeless story ever.
By the way, what's this post about anyway?
Posted by: dph | 2007-10-26 2:39:42 PM
Much like the plotline of 2001, I haven't a clue - but it looks and sounds awesome.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-26 3:04:32 PM
This Post is about the pivitol scene in 2001 where HAL the Super Computer takes over. At the University of Illinois Champagne Illinois which in Kubrick's screenplay is the birthplace of HAL there is a special Plaque indicating that the Science and Advanced Mathematics Building is "indeed the place"
One of our partners was the senior scientific advisor to the Dr. John Von Neumann Centre for Scientific Computing at Princeton U NJ -he is a Halifax boy who earned his PhD at the Imperial Technical College London UK, where Kubrik's famous film has a place of honor -brilliant movie making
MacLeod
Posted by: Jack Macleod | 2007-10-26 3:19:03 PM
The picture on one of the links was from a scene in Pink Floyd's The Wall. Its a bunch of faceless school kids being marched into a meat grinder.
The Wall was a great film, but it was a blatant copy of The Who's Tommy. Just like Alien was an LSD induced copy of 2001. The strange thing about this post is there is no connection between these stories. Furthermore, neither connects with the big brother theme of the NDPspeak.
The Wall (and Tommy) spoke of the aftermath of war, and it's affect on the next generation. That war spawned the greatest advances in music the world will ever see.
2001 told a tale of what happens to individuals versus the greater mission.
Maybe this post should have used an Orwell quote instead, but you're right, it is fun
Posted by: dph | 2007-10-26 3:23:33 PM
dph,
You'd better taze yourself bro, you have those dots all connect wrong. And some of them aren't even dots.
Posted by: John | 2007-10-26 3:59:08 PM
Of course not. I was kidding. You had to be there John. I guess you didn't recognize acid party wisdom.
Posted by: dph | 2007-10-26 4:10:18 PM
2001 was shown in Canada for the first time at the Odeon Theatre West Bloor Toronto -the film from the opening day in Toronto was very controversial even
top film critics like the late Clyde Gilmour had
probelms reviewing it. I remember after we saw the film, we all went across Bloor for a drink. It was
agreed that none of us truly understood Kubrick's message, even Arthur Clarke who wrote the novel on which the screenplay is based. To this day the great film remains controversial. Kubrick's beautiful and compelling Barry Lydon also opened in Canada at the Bloor West Odeon, MacLeod -they don't make films like Kubrick made any more, although having read Cormac McCarthy's "No Country For Old Men" opening in NYC next month looks like a winner and compelling film. MacLeod
Posted by: Jcak Macleod | 2007-10-26 4:52:54 PM
Kubrick was awsome in some flicks, like A Clockwork Orange, but in 2001 I coulda fallen asleep and should have.
Posted by: scrounge | 2007-10-26 6:24:57 PM
There's always something lost in translation isn't there Jack?
I watched an old interview with Robert Frost when some English majors gave him their opinions on the message in his most famous work. Even though he totally shot down their ideas, they weren't convinced he understood the work.
I saw The Exorcist when it first opened in a nice old theatre in Halifax. We decided to drop acid. That was interesting. We had green icecream cones after.
I saw Full Metal Jacket after smoking some nasty hash oil. That was fun. If nothing else, that movie put the John Wayne image of war to bed once and for all.
I saw Apocalypse Now, wasted in Edmonton. It's still the greatest film achievement ever. Even though it wasn't really about Vietnam, it fit the subject matter.
So drinks across Bloor, or pizza on the waterfront, it's the discussion that makes it worthwhile.
Posted by: dph | 2007-10-26 6:32:46 PM
Sorry, but I'd NEVER have any kind of "discussion" with anyone not in full control of their faculties - which nowadays includes all university presidents.
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-26 6:37:04 PM
"The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle. It is your killer instinct which must be harnessed if you expect to survive in combat. Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and strong you will hesitate at the moment of truth. You will not kill. You will become dead Marines. And then you will be in a world of shit. Because Marines are not allowed to die without permission! Do you maggots understand?"
-Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann
Full Metal Jacket
Posted by: JP | 2007-10-26 7:10:35 PM
"Anyone that stands still, is a well-disciplined VC!"
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-26 7:35:30 PM
"God has a hard-on for Marines
Because we kill everything we see
He plays His games
We play ours
To show our appreciation for so much power
We keep Heaven packed with fresh souls
God was here before the Marine Corps
So you can give your hearts to Jesus
But your ass belongs to the Corps
Do you ladies understand?"
Hartmann's Christmas prayer
Posted by: JP | 2007-10-26 7:49:48 PM
"Dai-sy, dai-sy, give me your answer, do..."
Posted by: Larry | 2007-10-26 9:01:39 PM
Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, EH?
Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-26 9:05:48 PM
"Clockwork Orange is an inspiration to several generations."
It gave new meaning to "Singin' in the rain" ;)
Posted by: Larry | 2007-10-26 9:45:24 PM
I just bought Lindsay Anderson's movie "If..." - now that movie would never be made today. Not with its school rampage ending. Still a disturbing film.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-26 10:21:01 PM
Kubrick made films which feature visual effect -
he was lucky with 2001 because the controversial film actually made money and filled a lot of seats in the big city theatres of the day -Geoffory Unsworh
OBE who photographed 2001 used the techniques he created for 2001 for his award winning Superman Films
which really were designed for the pot heads of this world, many of whom lurch along the streets of Toronto seeking a polling booth to cast their votes
for the socialist hordes. Full Metal Jacket despite some acceptable "acting" is of course nonsense just like Wayne's The Green Berets. Kubrick never let a screenplay stand in front of visual effects, knowing his market and the response to his full screen extravagances. It is doubtful that Kubrick could ever attract sufficient investment to make some of the works he planned. The fact that his films were distributed by the British Company Odeon defines the lack of support in Hollywood, which more or less terminated his film making - Macleod
Posted by: Jack Macleod | 2007-10-27 12:05:48 AM
More like: "Open the pod bay doors, Hil"
"Hillary Clinton Accuser Claims New Evidence of Fraud in Documentary"
WASHINGTON — One gift that Hillary Clinton is unlikely to enjoy on her 60th birthday Friday is the premiere of "Hillary Uncensored," a scathing documentary whose 13-minute trailer has been No. 1 on Google Video since Oct. 10, with more than 1.1 million views to date.
The film's first full-length showing is scheduled for Friday night at Harvard University, followed by viewings at universities through the weekend and a wrap Tuesday at the Metropolitan Club in New York City.
Among the allegations summarized in the documentary:
— Bill and Hillary Clinton solicited cash from Peter F. Paul, an international lawyer and businessman, even after Hillary Clinton's campaign manager told The Washington Post she would not take money from him;
— FBI agents and U.S. attorneys colluded with the Clintons to keep Paul, who was convicted of cocaine possession and fraud, tangled up in the criminal courts for years;
— The Clintons later made sure Paul was kept in a Brazilian prison for 25 months, including 58 days in a maximum security cellblock nicknamed the "Corridor of Death," while the Justice Department waited to extradite him;
— Hillary Clinton still hasn't filed reports to the FEC enumerating Paul's excessive contributions to her 2000 Senate campaign.
Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign spares no kindness about its view of Paul, whose long arrest record, officials say, demonstrates his inherent deceit.
"Peter Paul is a professional liar who has four separate criminal convictions, two for fraud. His video repackages a series of seven-year-old false claims about Senator Clinton that have already been rejected by the California state courts, the Justice Department, the Federal Election Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee," Clinton's campaign said in a statement to FOXNews.com.
While it's a coincidence that the film about the New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate is being released on her birthday, the movie's producers say it is no accident the film's trailer is getting such attention.
Douglas Cogan, a businessman-turned-associate producer and researcher for the film, said he's made it his mission to expose what he calls "the greatest campaign finance fraud that ever has been committed."
The Clintons think "they are truly above the law," Cogan said. "My country has never seen anyone like Hillary Rodham Clinton."
The allegations in the film are not new, although much of the video is. The film resurrects claims made by the thrice-convicted Paul that he unwittingly agreed to violate election-funding laws in exchange for a pledge from Bill Clinton to work with him in his new venture, Stan Lee Media, after Clinton left the presidency.
The documentary revisits Paul's claim that, in exchange for Bill Clinton's promise to promote Stan Lee Media overseas, for which Paul said he was willing to pay $17 million, he also agreed to produce an August 2000 fundraising gala in Hollywood for Hillary Clinton's 2000 New York Senate campaign.
"My interest in supporting Hillary Clinton was specifically to hire Bill Clinton," Paul told FOXNews.com in a telephone interview, noting that Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign "concocted" the whole idea of the fundraiser.
Paul said he believed that in exchange for organizing the gala, "I had accomplished the hiring of the president of the United States to work with me when he left the White House."
The gala cost $1.2 million, which was under-reported to the Federal Election Commission and led to the arrest of Clinton's then-Senate campaign fundraising chief, David Rosen.
Rosen was found not guilty; a co-host of the gala, Aaron Tonken, was sentenced in a separate case to more than five years in prison for misappropriating funds for charity to pay for fundraisers featuring Hollywood celebrities.
Paul never got to work with Bill Clinton. Stan Lee Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2001, long after it became apparent to Paul that Clinton wasn't going to join the company and, Paul alleges, had stolen one of Stan Lee Media's chief investors.
Paul writes off his convictions in the 1970s for cocaine possession and defrauding Fidel Castro of $8.7 million as part of an international anti-Castro effort gone wrong. He adds that the securities fraud plea that he agreed to cop in March 2005 was to get out of jail after 43 months in Brazilian and New York prisons. He still is awaiting sentencing on that plea despite being under house arrest since then.
As for the Rosen case, he calls that a farce aimed at getting a Clinton crony off the hook. The accompanying civil case, he said, also set a legal precedent Hillary Clinton later used to get out of being a defendant in his case against her and her husband.
"I am not the one-dimensional villain that I am portrayed to be, but I am the victim not only of the Clintons" but of their associates, who Paul says tried to steal his assets and wrap him up in a corrupt court system.
"Not only was the indictment and the trial (of Rosen) a scam, the judge ... turned it into a referendum on the credibility of Peter Paul," Paul said, also faulting the prosecutor for not objecting to Judge Howard Matz's characterization of Paul as a con man during his instructions to the jury.
"You conclude either that the prosecutor is incompetent or, worse, that the prosecutor is dogging the case."
Paul claims that while he has been prosecuted and marginalized by the Clintons, his video evidence proves his case against them — that the power couple defrauded him by falsely pledging the former president's post-White House services in exchange for footing the bill for all the gala's expenses.
That video documentation, however, may be worth only the revenue from copies sold. The California Court of Appeals last week upheld, 3-0, a lower court's ruling to excuse Hillary Clinton as a defendant in that suit. The court also noted that the new video isn't new evidence.
"In his motion to admit new evidence, Paul also seeks to admit the videotaped recording of the July 17, 2000, telephone call to demonstrate Senator Clinton had sufficient knowledge of Paul's business enterprises and the president's involvement with Paul such that it would not have been a 'fishing expedition' to depose her. While the recording itself may have only been recently obtained by Paul, the substance of the conference call is not new evidence," reads the ruling written by Judge P.J. Perluss.
Nonetheless, the conference call with then-first lady Clinton is among the most compelling moments in the new documentary. The video, taken in Paul's Beverly Hills office a month before the gala, shows on one end of a teleconference, Paul, Tonken and their business partner Alana Stewart, Rod Stewart's ex-wife. On the other end is Hillary Clinton.
Clinton can be heard saying: "Whatever it is you're doing, is it OK if I thank you? ... I am very appreciative and it sounds fabulous. I got a full report from Kelly (White House adviser Kelly Craighead) today when she got back and told me everything that you're doing and it just sounds like it's going to be a great event. But I just wanted to call and personally thank all of you. I'm glad you're all together so I could tell you how much this means to me, and it's going to mean a lot to the president, too."
Paul's attorney, Colette Wilson, argues that Clinton's conversation proves she was in violation of campaign finance rules preventing candidates from personally having a hand in coordinating fundraising events in excess of $25,000.
The appeals court's ruling to dismiss Hillary Clinton as a defendant is flawed because "my evidence showed that this gala was coordinated between the candidate and Peter Paul," Wilson said. "The whole basis of (Clinton's motion to dismiss) was her right to solicit campaign contributions, so she admitted" she knew about the gala planning.
Wilson said that the appeals court also erred when it cited the lower court's claim that they were on a "fishing expedition" by demanding to depose Clinton about her knowledge of the gala.
"I would attack that by saying that the case is defined as too broad [when it] is asking to take a lot of people's depositions. A fishing expedition means you don't have a clue whether the person has any evidence or not," she said.
But Wilson acknowledged that it's the court's discretion to admit new evidence or not.
"They don't have to allow it in. The cutoff is what was available during the lower court submission," she said.
Wilson contends that several of the videotapes, including the would-be smoking gun, weren't available to Paul because they were confiscated by the FBI when the securities fraud investigation began in 2001 and were withheld from Paul until April of this year, long after the lower court heard the case.
"They still have the originals," she noted, adding that the FBI sent the videos to a vendor to be copied and sent to Paul.
Wilson said she's not certain she wants to appeal for an en banc hearing of the entire appeals court or to ask the California Supreme Court to take the case because it could mean a delay of two years before they can return to the underlying case — the alleged fraud committed by the Clintons in pledging that Bill Clinton would work for Stan Lee Media.
Of that, Wilson and Paul claim to have plenty of evidence and still are able to depose Hillary Clinton as a material witness.
Paul said he also is prepared to keep open the case against the Clintons through other means. He is filing a new complaint with the FEC and is requesting that when Michael Mukasey is confirmed as U.S. attorney general, he investigate how the government could have prosecuted Rosen when authorities knew he did not commit a crime.
Cogan said he hopes the film also shines light on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
"Hillary can no longer feign ignorance in what went on here," he said. "I think she is absolutely an unthinkable commander in chief."
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-27 5:39:53 AM
This guy Paul "defrauded "Fidel Castro and he's still alive - in the words of the Great John Wayne, "That'll be the day" What has this bullshit got to do with Stanley Kubrick and his famous film 2001 -
answer, nothing. This stuff won't cause a problem in the steamrolling Clinton Campaign for more than a nano second. Clinton is expected to be elected President of the United States as reported in the real Media around the world. Her Husband Bubba is the most popular Democrat since President John F. Kennedy -Americans will not elect a Republican again for many, many decades. Americans we know are sick and tired of their seemingly endless and costly wars, and will reflect this in the Election
-Macleod
Posted by: Jack Macleod | 2007-10-27 6:34:45 AM
This harridan hag must not be entrusted with the powers of the Commander-In-Chief, or the entire free world will be sold out for her interests in power & money.
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-27 7:01:53 AM
Why don't you write to the Clinton Campaign and tell them that if you've got the guts to use your real name -anybody who posts using three obscure initials
is suffering from lack of moral fibre -the long established Commonwealth description of a Coward
Macleod in tiny perfect Moncton New Brunswick Canada
Posted by: Jack MacLeod | 2007-10-27 7:36:53 AM
And have then sic their minions on me, like all the others on their enemy list starting with Don Imus?
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-27 7:51:11 AM
Jack,
I don't know about OBC, but my name is unpronounceable in the languages you have on this planet.
Posted by: John | 2007-10-27 10:31:50 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.