Profile
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A Little Artsy | º° Weed Porn °º
322 days ago | Comment
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The Dreamers
322 days ago | Comment
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Borat Pahor
1 year ago | Comment
Ljubljana - Borut Pahor je poleg naziva Barbika dobil še svoj satirični lik imenovan Borat Pahor. Lik je mešanica svetovno znanega Borata iz Kazahstana in slovenskega premiera v legendarnem modelu kopalk.
Spletna stran www.borat-pahor.tk je namenjena vsem, ki se zabavajo ob cvetkah slovenskih politikov.
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Perez Hilton: You're Fired - Finally!
1 year ago | Comment
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Amazing Northern Lights Time Lapse
1 year ago | Comment
The Northern Lights are one of nature's most spectacular visual phenomena, and in this time lapse video they provide a breathtaking display of light, shape, and color over the course of a single night in Norway.
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The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (2006)
1 year ago | Comment (2)
Viewer, voyeur or prey? Slavoj Zizek navigates the ominous waters of Bodega Bay, Calif.
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: January 16, 2009If you embrace the notion that Hollywood is literally a “dream factory,” then Freud stands as a proto movie critic who taught us how to decipher the hidden meanings of its celluloid fantasies. In “The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema,” the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek subjects more than 40 mostly classic films, by directors ranging from Chaplin to Hitchcock, to psychoanalytic scrutiny. We need movies because they hold the clues to our true selves, Mr. Zizek argues in a wildly entertaining, digressive lecture packed with juicy clips that illustrate his points.
Thus the Marx Brothers are the superego (Groucho), ego (Chico) and id (Harpo). In “Psycho,” the three levels of the Bates house — top floor, ground floor and basement — embody the same unholy trinity. In Mr. Zizek’s view, the raging male monsters of David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” and “Lost Highway” personify pure phallic aggression released from the shadows of the unconscious. It is no coincidence that the song that encapsulates “Blue Velvet” is Roy Orbison’s eerie, impassioned “In Dreams.”
Because “the ultimate object of anxiety is a living father,” Mr. Zizek declares, Mr. Lynch’s walking nightmares are manifestations of “the father who doesn’t want to die.” Anakin Skywalker’s transformation into Darth Vader in “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” he says, illustrates the same principle.
The clips from Hitchcock and Lynch films are so numerous and Mr. Zizek’s comments so incisive that after watching “The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema,” you may never see these directors’ movies the same way again. It is almost as if those filmmakers received instructions from Freud himself on how to visualize his ideas.
The use of “pervert” in the movie’s title is a bit of a come-on. Although there is kinky behavior in a number of clips (especially those from the Lynch films), this is not a textbook in Krafft-Ebing. The word merely refers to the Peeping Tom aspect of moviegoing. In the darkness of a theater we can unashamedly gape at bodies and fantasize without being observed, and in doing so we confront our demons in a safe environment. The movies of Hitchcock, who was obsessed with emotional manipulation, repeatedly toyed with the notion of the viewer as voyeur.
In this globe-trotting documentary, directed by Sophie Fiennes (sister of Ralph and Joseph), Mr. Zizek, a blustery, excitable lecturer, is often filmed speaking on the actual locations of the films he discusses, or on recreated sets. We find him riding on a motorboat in Bodega Bay in northern California, the site of “The Birds,” and prowling around the locations of “Vertigo”; those are the two Hitchcock films besides “Psycho” to receive the closest scrutiny.
Like Freud’s division of the psyche into three parts, the movie unfolds in three loosely overlapping sections. The first examines how the movies arouse our desires and allow us to channel unconscious drives into entertaining thrills and chills. The shower drain in “Psycho” and the toilet bowl that backs up in Francis Ford Coppola’s conspiracy thriller “The Conversation,” he says, are vehicles for transporting evidence of our brute animal selves to a safe distance.
The second part examines sex and fantasy in movies and reaches some major conclusions: that sex is impossible without fantasy; that anxieties are the most authentic emotions we feel; and that fantasies, and by extension the movies that address them, are defenses against anxiety.
Part 3, which contemplates appearance versus reality in movies, explores the paradoxical scene from “The Wizard of Oz” in which the all-powerful Wizard is discovered to be an old man pontificating from behind a curtain. Even when the illusion of the Wizard’s omnipotence is exposed, Mr. Zizek theorizes, there is something more real in the illusion than in the reality behind it. And so when the old man hands the Scarecrow a diploma to prove he has a brain, the Scarecrow is convinced he is smart.
Mr. Zizek is a little bit like the Wizard. If he is a compelling speaker (despite his thick Eastern European accent), he is also an academic magician and master of intellectual sleight of hand. Many of his statements, especially those rooted in contradiction and paradox, have the ring of brainy hocus-pocus.
The teachers we remember most fondly are often the ones who entertained as they enlightened, through hyperbole seasoned with grains of salt. Mr. Zizek belongs in that company.
THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA
Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
Directed by Sophie Fiennes; narrated by Slavoj Zizek; directors of photography, Remko Schnorr (in studio) and Ms. Fiennes (on location); edited by Ethel Shepherd; music by Brian Eno; production designer, Ben Zuydwijk; produced by Martin Rosenbaum, Georg Misch, Ralph Wieser and Ms. Fiennes; released by Lone Star Productions. At the IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas at Third Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 2 hour 30 minutes. This film is not rated. -
Photos: Iraqi journalist throws shoes at Bush, misses
1 year ago | Comment
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As the Rich Get Poorer, Teenagers Feel the Crunch
1 year ago | Comment
Youngsters from well-to-do families seem to have found a new work ethic as their parents’ finances are squeezed.
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Fears of New Ethnic Conflict in Bosnia
1 year ago | Comment
Even as Sarajevo appears to be enjoying a renaissance, talk of the prospect of another war is creeping into conversations across the ethnic divide in Bosnia.
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How to smart seduce a girl: Presuppositions and other mind-tricks
1 year ago | Comment (2)
Presuppositions
Presuppositions are some of the most widely used "mind-tricks" in making it easier for the girl to realise, what it is that she really wants (and then go with the flow:). They shift attention from something (seemingly) unimportant as it has somehow already been agreed upon to the (seemingly) important as it needs yet to be decided upon. In order to understand the question and answer it ("would you like tea or coffee?") she has to accept the presupposition that accompanies the question ("…before we go to my place":).- "Would you like (something to drink) before (I take you home)?"
- "Would you like (another coke / whiskey) before (I take you home / we go to your place / we go to my place)?"
Presuppositions can also be used in ordinary sentences to help her decide… or rather, decide for her:) If you'd like to take a shower together with her after spending the night together, instead of asking "Wanna take a shower? How about… um… we… together… um" say "I'll ready the shower for us:)".
Here are a few more examples of how a simple sentence can help a girl sway towards the right decision:) …or simply not leave her with much choice:) Use these to construct your own "decision-swayers".
Binds of comparable alternatives
- "So do you want to meet me again tomorrow over lunch, or over coffee? (keep talking!) e.g. Either way, the most important thing is that we can carry on this conversation. Sound good to you?"
- "So do you want to dance now, or wait until the next slow? (keep talking!) You're looking as if YOU CAN'T WAIT to dance now. Let's go!?"
Cause & Effect
- "You won't get the most out of the music just thinking about it, since the best way to experience it is to dance with me."
- "As you sit there, you know you have to dance before the night is out. Come:)"
Resistance-breaking patterns
Two mini-patterns using time distortion, binds of comparable alternatives and humour to break a girl's resistance to getting together with you:- "Won't it be great AFTER we've gone out and laughed and felt really comfortable together? Then you can just look back at it all, smile that smile of satisfaction, and think to yourself: that was one of the best times, I've ever had!"
- " I don't know, when we go out, whether it will be a wonderfully fun adventure or just an incredibly enjoyable good time, but it sure will feel great to laugh that much, won't it?"
An example of using a combination of the above techniques and thought binding:
You: You know, I can tell you are a woman with great taste!
Her: How do you know?
You: Because you laugh at what I say. And the more you laugh, the more you'll recognise just how attractive you find that... and the more you'll look forward to being with someone just like that / the more you'll LOOK FORWARD to having the best time when we go out!
Her: (laughter)
You: See...just like that:)
You: Seriously...haven't you ever met someone, and you just knew you were going to like this person (point to yourself), cause you could just STOP, and IMAGINE BEING TOGETHER, feeling totally comfortable, and absolutely connected, for all the right reasons?
She: Yeah
You: Well, see? So, as you think about it like that..."...then just keep chatting, transition to IC pattern, whatever.
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No title
1 year ago | Comment
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The Stocks The Buyers Forgot: 6 Left Out Of The Rally [Voices]
1 year ago | Comment
By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily
You have to search pretty hard to find tech stocks left out of today’s rally. But they’re out there. Here’s a half-dozen companies that were not included in today historic rally, which took the Nasdaq Composite up nearly 12 percent:
- Palm (PALM): This is how ugly things have become for Palm: on a day in which RIMM (RIMM) rose 15.5 percent, Apple gained 13.9 percent and Nokia (NOK) climbed 8.8 percent, Palm fell 15 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $5.22. Embarrassing.
- MOVE (MOVE): The provider of online real-estate listings fell 4 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $2.21.
- Powerwave (PWAV): Shares of the wireless chip provider slumped 14 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $3.05.
