2011.354 Radley Metzger

Radley Metzger is one of the rarest moviemakers there is: he sits on the top rung of softcore writer/directors and (as ‘Henry Paris’) on the top rung of hardcore writer/directors.

And his movies are funny and fun to watch, too.

— Eartherean
2011.354

2011.354 Streaming Movies

One nice thing about streaming video is the chance to check out a movie instantly. Hear about a movie, star, writer, director, surf to streaming site, enter search term, find entry, click on ‘play’ – and you’re watching. This is not a substitute for seeing it in 35mm or high quality but at least you can get a good grasp of what it is all about. Another nice thing about streaming is the chance to see a movie unavailable to you by any other means. There is no home video version and it isn’t shown in any theater anywhere nearby.

That’s how i got to see Don Siegel’s The Gun Runners (pretty good, really) and Wolf Larsen (not directed by Siegel alas) – both indie remakes of 1940s Warner’s pictures set on the sea – To Have and Have Not (Gun Runners) and The Sea Wolf (Wolf Larsen) – and both from the same year 1958 – and both featuring Swedish hottie (and ‘jet setter’) Gita Hall (her only English-language pictures it seems). I doubt if either of these minor or forgotten pictures was deemed worthy of mastering onto VHS or DVD but long ago they were sold off for TV rights in some giant Late Movie package so why not toss them into the giant streaming video package?

As for checking something out, there was The Lickerish Quartet from Radley Metzger (whose career is pretty dam’ interesting in and of itself) – this is a flick I always wanted to see since I was a lad and saw the ad in the newspaper. So I watched it. Another good one. And so I checked to see what Netflix had for the rest of Metzger’s movies. They have The Image and others on DVD so I watched The Image. And oh, the shock (and the erotic shock value) when this softcore Euroflick, 30 minutes or so in, turns hardcore! Yeah, they are not supposed to be doing that in a softcore flick! I am not supposed to be seeing this either! Wow!

— Eartherean
2011.354

2011.352 Borrowing and Debt

Industrial civilization has become enslaved by the financial sector. There is only one way out but it will be hard to achieve.

The simple rule is,

never borrow again.

Pay off all debts, restructure or renounce them. Then

never borrow again.

For sovereign (and not-so-sovereign) governments that need to borrow just to keep running, there is a way to keep on borrowing but escape from your banking slavery:

Only borrow directly from your own citizens

Sell bonds in small denominations directly to your citizens through postal offices, public transportation stations, municipal halls, and any other government buildings. Advertise them as a civic responsibility and pay low interest rates. Make up for the low rates by declaring the interest free of taxes. And raise the tax rates on all other interest paying instruments.

We used to do this in America. They were called US Savings Bonds. We also offered War Bonds in the 1940s.

We can do it again.

— Eartherean
2011.352

2011.352 GOP and Environment

Yesterday (17 December 2011) the Associated Press reported on delays the American Republican Party won on a ban on 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. The original law was created to save energy, money, and the environment. The GOP opposes these goals. The article's sub-headline reads,

“Republicans want consumer demand and markets to drive change, not government.”

But it also might have read,

“Republicans want to ruin the environment.”

Or even,

“Republicans won't be happy until every child in America has cancer.”

— Eartherean
2011.352

2011.351 AP Quote: French Recession

“France, the second-largest eurozone economy after Germany, warned that it faced at least a temporary recession next year.”

 

So is that opposed to the permanent recession France usually gets?

— Eatherean
2011.351

Dismantling, Part 1

When you look at a city, you think of the people in it, their achievements, sorrows, struggle and joy.

But when you look at a city, if you think not of the buildings or the people but of the earth, then all you can think of is death.

Every city is nothing but the tombstone of the ground that lies beneath it.

— Eartherean
2011.350

2011.349 NFL Broadcasting Rights

So the NFL has just renegotiated its contracts with 4 networks, to the tune of over $4 billion per year.

Makes you wonder how much the federal government could get if it auctioned off licenses to all the commercial radio spectrum every 5 years. At least a thousand times as much as the NFL gets, I reckon.

Or $1 trillion per year.

That could make a big dent in the federal budget deficit…

— Eatherean
2011.349