It's Saturday Night! It's Merengue Time!!!

From: Boing Boing

Comment ouvrir une bouteille de vin sans tire-bouchon

(Contribution de: Bernard -  Merci, Bernouille!)

Now You Know Enough to Enjoy Metal Music

And now you're ready to enjoy Alexi Laiho and Roope Latvala  from Children of Bodom.  From Wikipedia: Children of Bodom is a heavy metal band from Espoo, Finland, formed in 1993. The band consists of guitarist and vocalist Alexi Laiho (vocals, lead guitar), Roope Latvala (rhythm guitar), Janne Wirman (keyboards), Henkka Seppälä (bass), and Jaska Raatikainen (drums).  

The band's third studio album, Follow the Reaper, was their first album to receive a Gold certification in Finland, and since then, all six of the band's studio albums have reached the same status. In Finland, Children of Bodom has released three consecutive albums that debuted at number one on Finnish album charts, and has also seen chart positions on the United States Billboard 200.

The band has incorporated many different musical styles, leading critics and fans to label them as melodic death metal, black metal, thrash metal, and progressive metal.



No, I'm kidding. Here's their real regular music: 'Follow The Reaper' and 'Every time I die'

Lions, Britons and Gorillas, oh my!

You remember a few years ago the story of Christian the lion who was brought back to Africa after being raised in England.  His owners went to see him after a few years and here's the clip of their reunion that made millions of viewers cry (including me):

Well, prepare to cry again.

Can't wait to see "Inception"

It looks like a mixture of 'Nightmare Detective' and 'Dark City'.

The usual Western Cultural Imperialism

I read in today's NY Times an editorial about the Chinese government's campaign to convince Shanghai residents to stop wearing pajamas in public, in view of the 2010 World Expo (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/opinion/17gao.html?ref=opinion). I can't help but get angry (again!) because the idea behind the campaign is not to shock and disgust foreign visitors to the Expo.

Although the article says that it is a habit typical of Shanghai, anyone who has been to other South-East Asian countries knows that "pajamas" are worn in public elsewhere as well. When I was young(er) and living in Saigon, there was really no distinction between what you wear to bed and what you wear to go outside. Unless you work in an office or go to school, most people on the streets wear clothes that are considered as "pajamas" by Westerners. The peasants working in the fields would be described as "black pajamas clad" by American soldiers and Newsweek or Time Magazine. 

The thing is, contrary to Western countries, where different activities call for different clothes, people in Third World counties cannot afford to have too many sets of clothes and tend to wear the same type of clothes all the time, indoors or outdoors. In Vietnam, there usually are three types of clothes: formal wear (ao dai for example), everyday wear (bà ba, "pajamas", etc.) and Western clothes.

So once again, Asian countries are bowing to foreign tastes and biases and forcing their populations to give up their traditions, so as not to offend Westerners' sensibilities.

Funny Doggie

Hitler Is Back!! (Achtung: Trilingual Post)

From Numerama:
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/15681-la-scene-d-hitler-entierement-rejouee-pour-que-les-parodies-continuent.html

Nous l'avions qualifiée de "décision la plus stupide qu'un producteur puisse prendre", mais sur le plan de la création artistique, la décision du producteur de La Chute de supprimer les célèbres parodies d'Hitler pourrait devenir grandiose. Alors que le genre semblait perdre du souffle, elle pousse les internautes à regagner de l'imagination.

Brandon Hardesty est un acteur américain légèrement déjanté, qui s'est fait une spécialité de rejouer des scènes entières de films en interprétant lui-même tous les personnages. Pour sa cinquante-sixième vidéo, il a choisi de réinterpréter la fameuse scène d'Hitler que les internautes n'ont plus le droit d'exploiter pour leurs parodies. Un véritable tour de force, d'autant qu'il a dû apprendre phonétiquement ce que prononce l'acteur allemand Bruno Ganz dans l'oeuvre originale.

Pour sa propre vidéo, Hardesty a sous-titré ce que disent les personnages en respectant fidèlement le script du film. Mais pour faciliter les parodies qu'il encourage, il propose une version sans sous-titre que les internautes peuvent reprendre à leur guise. De quoi générer un nouveau mème dérivé du premier.

Certes, Constantin Film pourrait toujours user de ses droits d'auteur sur les dialogues allemands pour obtenir le retrait de la vidéo de Brandon Hardesty, et de ses futures parodies. Mais ce serait alors un abus caractérisé et indéfendable du droit d'auteur.

I Still Love You Without Your Car

I'm a sucker for any video with dogs.