WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE I: WINTER 2022
Hello People of the World;
Here we are in the first month of Twenty, twenty-one and we are nearing another lockdown. Sheesh. Why can’t we learn anything? Maybe because idiots like me would rather foolishly do anything rather than challenge those trying to wreck us.
Anyways, more importantly, it snowed finally in January. I am writing this on February 2nd. So, I am late once again because the world insists on itself, rather than let myself be the center of the universe. Again!
As always: Stay safe. Stay home.
All right, let’s get going:
1:[ This virus really showed how stupid we all really are: we will never crawl out under this pandemic unless we mask up and vaccinate. But we are so stupid we care more about politics rather than helping others. We are stupid.
2:[ I cannot find the interview now, but I remember George Lucas predicting casting from cell phones. It was press for Attack of the Clones, where it was the first major studio film to use 24fps digital cameras. I have it on VHS somewhere, I am sure but it was with Leslie Stahl, so it was a 60 Minutes piece.
She stated that he “invented” modern special effects with the first Star Wars and its multi-pass photography process, then, upgraded audio mixing for movie theaters with the THX system, and ushered in the era of digital, non-linear editing with his EditDroid program, also, his Lucasfilm developed the Pixar computer that rendered graphics much faster and went on to become the great Pixar Movie studio.
Stahl than asked him what was next. She offered 3D? Lucas said Nope. We’ve done 3D before and since and it still wasn’t working. The best they would do with 3D is make the picture clearer. Then what is the next big film technology, she pressed.
Lucas stated that he thought that households would be able to watch movies that come from a tiny device. Since television pictures were improving in their pictures and sound, watching films from a device would be the next step. Unbelieving, Stahl asked, would anyone even go to movie theaters? Lucas said, I think, that we still would, but with this technology, homes could have their own theaters. I have to find that interview. I clearly remember this. I could be wrong. Does anyone else remember this?
3:[ My little sister commented on an app in which she can watch more movies now, saying, “So now, I can watch ‘Ghostbusters: …uh, Whatever’.” When I heard that, it summed up the series for me.
4:[ Why are movies now three hours? Simple. People are now enjoying 3-hour movies. It’s basic business: the shorter the movie, the more screenings a movie theater can show in a day. That is the baseline reason for the standard 75-minute movie – more screenings, means more ticket sales, meaning a studio can make its budget back. Basic economic. Now, with this pandemic, folks are at home more and a 3-hour feature, or a 16 episode K-drama, or 100-episode anime are no big thing.
5:[ Banning books is bad and you are evil if you support it. Freedom of the Press and Speech and all, and if you’re against that, well, you’re the bad guy here.
6:[ I am not surprised by our nation’s creep toward fascism. White people would rather become Nazis than treat people of color fairly.
7:[ One of the funniest interactions at the school I work at as a teaching artists. The classroom teacher was having a discussion with a student about archeology;
Teacher (trying to give a starting-point media example of the idea of archeology) “Do you know who Indiana Jones is?”
Student: No. Is that a lady?
Funny. The student was a young lady herself.
8:[ We cannot go back to “Normal” all after this: we cannot go back to thinking that our political parties have our best interests in mind.
9:[ Here we are acting all surprised that we are this far into a pandemic when there has been a consistent anti-science bias in almost everything since the start of the concept of the sciences. So much so that we are now turning a pandemic that has killed over a million people, into an endemic. How messed up is that? Anti-science bias is built into our media. Mad scientists, scientists “playing god”, even in such stupid dribble of the “Kong v. Godzilla”, it was scientists looking to create monsters. I would like a movie or two where science solves things. But the only time that happens is when it is masked as pro-nuclear weapons.
10:[ With the banning of teaching Critical Race Theory in many states, many are advocating for teaching history using movies. For the love of god, this must not happen. Do you know how horrible examples of history movies are? Just look at the representations of Native Americans….
That is it for this month.
As always, I invite you to comment, correct, or contradict anything I write here. I am open to a critical debate. Thanks for taking the time to check out what I write here and I will see you in a month.
February is a short month, so hopefully, I will get the next episode out on time. Maybe.
Until next time, remember “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
2022 Ernest M Whiteman III
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