The Four Horsemen – Dennett, Dawkins, Harris & Hitchens

The four mainstream champions of anti-theism around one table. Hitchens is clearly the odd one out here, and is possibly out of his depth. Its as interesting to watch that, in itself.

Running time: Part 1 or 2 (41 mins)

21 comments religion

The Dessau Bauhaus

Documentary about the second Bauhaus.

Running time: 27mins

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Primal Therapy (FEBL media)

Watch the first clip for as long as you can stand it – I lasted 3 minutes, then watch the one below it. Even better, hit play on them both at the same time.

Like much cultish nonsense, primal therapy makes a case that sounds consistent (mad, but consistent), and then assumes that this equals the truth. What I like most about this, is that the woman above (who has all the left-bank, professorial moves down: using glasses as pointer; snapping her fingers for answers; nodding sagely; genuine French accent) is actually talking about the stuff below.

Remember folks, established cults do this stuff even more strangely.

4 comments FEBL, pseudo science

Eurovision Song Contest 1973

In order to persuade anyone that any kind of institutionalized event is a bad idea, all one needs to do is say “imagine x run by the DMV”. The Eurovision song contest is what it would be like if the music industry were run by the DMV.

To commemorate Eurovision’s biggest winners, the Irish, who have just blown the European Union treaty and the last time oil buggered up the global economy, here is the 1973 Eurovision song contest, held in Luxembourg – which is a bit like a country run by the DMV.

Following the terrorist attack against Israel at the Munich Olympics, and Israel’s debut in the competition, the floor manager strongly advised people in the audience to remain seated while clapping, to avoid being shot by security forces.

Belgium’s entry at 8:15 is pretty special, and if you have a history of hallucinogenic flashbacks, I’ve no idea what’s going on at 1:05, but you might not want to watch it. Beyond satire.

9 comments comedy, music, nostalgia, world

The Story of Abba – in Swedish

The fact that this is in Swedish (a language which I cannot understand) makes this absolutely perfect. Its like having the Muppet chef narrate it, I can make up all sorts of inappropriate things that I can imagine him saying. For the world’s most impossibly white band they were unbelievably good.

1 comment music, nostalgia

Foie Gras

As the ban is lifted on Foie Gras, a piece in the New York Times points to two videos: tabloid enfant-terrible light, Anthony Bourdain (is it just me, or are celebrity chefs this decade’s equivalent of the equally vacuous, contrived fame of the Super Models of the previous one), who claims mock disbelief that “fanatical stealth vegan extremists believe that the force feeding of ducks to plump their livers is actually cruel”. vs a fake promotional ad for French foie gras produced by an animal welfare group. I’ll post them alongside each other, so you can hit play at the same time, on both.

1 comment society

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power

An exhaustive and information rich series of documentaries made in 1992 when oil prices were low enough for a level headed look at the history of oil. Based on a Pulitzer Prize winning book, of the available documentaries on the subject, this is the one to blow the dust off and insert into the virtual VCR.

Part 1, running time: 50 mins.

3 comments history, series

Commanding Heights

A mammoth 3 part series on the globalization of the world economy, made by two Frontline veterans Greg Barker and William Cran. This is an example of a great documentary that has the same instinctive appeal as conspiracy theorist nonsense like Zeitgeist. In which case, Commanding Heights is possibly a perfect vaccination against such viruses of the mind. Perfect, healthy, brain crack.

Part 1 here: 115 mins.

7 comments politics, series, world

The Death of Yugoslavia

This is the first part of six in a documentary series about the Yugoslav War. Made in 1995, the year that Bosnian-Serb General Mladic’s troops marched 8,300 Bosnian men and teenage boys out of Srebrenica, and executed them, some burned alive and tortured. Armed UN Peace Keeping soldiers watched them pass.
Despite the demands that Serbia should turn over Mladic as a precursor for eventual entry into the European Union (token efforts at complying including a 1M euro reward, were made by the Serbian government), in 2008 the ratification process was started anyway, although nobody seems to know the status and Kosovo’s independence has flared up bestial Serbian nationalism again. The whole story is making a farce of the EU.
There has been some criticism about the accuracy of translation, however, this series would be in my list of top ten documentaries of all time, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It unravels the mechanism of the sordid path of human conflict, from nationalism to genocide, like no other film before or since. It is the film that was never made about the holocaust.

Wikipedia entry.

Running time: 50 mins.

6 comments history, world

Japanese Science Fiction

Made in the style of “Eurotrash”, the Japanorama series is always great fun.

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