Watch, While Seated

i could do this but i just don’t feel like it.

 Fuck yeah!  - This is what happens when Tim Pratt forgets to feed his cats.

Basso & Ulrich, standing alongside Sir Lance, have since been implicated in doping scandals.

“Finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the skeptics. I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles. But this is one hell of a race. This is a great sporting event and you should stand around and believe it. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I’ll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. So Vive le Tour. Forever.”

Amherstians protest honorary degree of Andrew Card at UMass this weekend. Fun begins at 2 minutes in.

My friend’s blog Be Still Please pointed me to The Long Take, which has become a clearinghouse for cinema’s best long takes, though that entire 90+ minute Russian film (”Russian Ark”?) doesn’t exactly fit onto gootube.

I always thought the Keitel entry-scene from Mean Streets was the best, but the end of Antonioni’s “The Passenger” is its own kind of phenomenal. Here’s another, from Gus Van Sant, channeling Bela Tarr. The film speed changeover mid-dog-jump is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. (Looks too choppy on gootube, though.)

I like to be visually surprised, so I didn’t look at these trailers before seeing these films. We saw both this week though; the first one’s great, and the other strives for great, and gets there in bits.

This is “Lives of Others”.  It’s the best film I’ve seen this year, by far.

This is “Little Children”. It’s problematic, but it succeeds where most (American) movies fail. It’s brave and stumbling and definitely worth the watch.