Thriller 2009

Two years ago, I found out about an organization called Thrill the World which is dedicated to organizing groups around the world to dance the choreography of Michael Jackson's video Thriller together on a certain date at a certain time. They provide the music and teach the choreography step by step. Since my lifelong dream was to dance like Michael Jackson (isn't that everybody's lifelong dream, anyway?), I tried to form a group to do that dance, but it was a miserable failure. I have to show you the video, one of these days, you’d piss your pants laughing at my pathetic efforts . Here's how it should be done.

Last year, I tried again, but couldn’t even rustle up enough people. This year, now that Michael is dead, I guess it is even more important for me to do the dance, before something happened to me as well and I would die regretting not having done it.

Anyway, go to the Thrill The World site (http://www.thrilltheworld.com/) and try to get your own group to learn the steps. This year, the event will be held on: Sunday, October 25th at 12:30am UTC / GMT.

To encourage you, here is a YouTube clip showing Michael Jackson and his crew of dancers rehearsing the piece. You’ll find that even Mr. Moonwalk himself makes mistakes. So I’m not too embarrassed to make a fool of myself yet one more time, a bit like the hippos in Fantasia trying to dance the Nutcracker ballet.

And of course, one cannot mention Thriller without showing the other two famous versions:

The Indian version (with subtitles from Buffalax)

And the Philippines prison inmates version



I'll see you in October!

Summer Holiday

Summer is finally here. Elsewhere in the world, summer has started a long time ago, but for us Montrealers, we couldn't be sure until now. Yesterday, we even hit 30 degrees celsius and we had our first thunderstorm, with hail to boot!!!

In celebration of summer, B-Boy went and bought his first pair of sandals (see below) of the season. It's THE SANDALS OF THE NEXT GENERATION!!1!!11! In short, they have a metallic edge in the sole, so that you can open a bottle of beer everywhere you go. Patent pending. You'll notice they cost him 40 bucks, discounted from 60 bucks. There's a sucker born every minute or something.





Bonus Cliff Richard retrospective: The Young Ones

Michael Jackson, I Will Always Love You

Divas ou Salopes?

Interprètes à Eurocontrol

J'ai réussi à me libérer pour quelques heures et je suis allée manger à midi avec une amie interprète de la cabine chinoise. Malgré nos promesses mutuelles de ne pas parler métier, on a fini quand même par aborder les mêmes sujets.

Je me suis plainte du traitement que j'ai reçu récemment de certaines collègues. Cela faisait longtemps que je n'ai pas fait d'interprétation et maintenant que je reprends graduellement le collier, je constate que le marché de la pige est rempli de nouveaux visages. Toutes ces petites jeunes louves qui défendent leur territoire avec une férocité choquante.

Premier exemple: J'entre en cabine tôt le matin et je trouve deux collègues déjà installées au micro. Je dis "Bonjour!". Silence total. Je répète, plus fort: "BONJOUR!" Elles ne daignent pas se retourner. Je demande: "Je vois d'après la liste des affectations qu'on sera quatre interprètes. Est-ce qu'il y a une autre cabine?". L'une d'elles se retourne enfin et me jette: "Ben non! Vous avez déjà vu deux cabines françaises?" Avant que je ne puisse répondre, la seconde se retourne et décrète, sans daigner me regarder, "Puisqu'on est quatre, on fera chacune 20 minutes, au lieu d'une demi-heure." Voilà, elle a décidé. Résignée, je leur demande: "Dans ce cas, je prends le 3e tour?". Silence méprisant. Je sors prendre un café. Quand je reviens, je les écoute: fautes de grammaire, syntaxe boiteuse, contresens, etc. Je fais mes 20 minutes et je m'en vais. Le lendemain, je rencontre par hasard la 4e interprète qui me confirme qu'elle a été traitée tout aussi grossièrement par les deux divas. Elle m'explique que ce sont des débutantes qui se sentent menacées par tout le monde. Je dis oui oui, mais à mon avis, la grossièreté n'est pas une stratégie très habile quand on débute dans un métier.

Deuxième exemple, plus récente. Encore une conférence où il y a deux équipes de quatre interprètes. Cela semble être une nouvelle tendance, parce que normalement, on est seulement deux ou trois en cabine. Comme je suis débordée de travail, j’ai apporté avec moi mon portable (qui pèse trois tonnes) et quand j’ai fini mon tour, je m’installe dans un coin et je tape mes traductions. Le chef d’équipe me dit que notre équipe a fini pour la matinée et qu’on ne reprend qu’à 13 heures. Entre temps, l’autre équipe est arrivée et va prendre la relève jusqu’à 13 heures.

Je m’installe devant mon portable et je me concentre sur mes traductions lorsqu’une des interprètes s’approche et me demande : «Est-ce que tu vas rester la matinée ici ?» Je réponds, naïvement : «Oui, je ne reprends qu’à 13 heures, mais j’ai des trucs à faire, alors je vais rester ici à les faire.» «Ben, le problème, dit-elle, c’est qu’il n’y a pas assez de chaises pour tout le monde. Il y a juste 4 chaises et tu en occupes une et il ne reste que 3 chaises et nous, on est 4. Il va falloir que tu sortes.» «Oui, mais après chaque tour, vous avez une heure et demie à attendre. Vous allez rester toutes les quatre en cabine en même temps? Et votre quatrième collègue n’est même pas arrivée encore.» «Ouais, mais si jamais elle arrive et qu’elle veut s’asseoir, elle n’a pas de chaise.» Bête et disciplinée, je commence à fermer mes fenêtres et mes fichiers pour partir, lorsque je reprends mes esprits. Je me suis dit : Wait a minute, pourquoi est-ce que je lui obéis comme une conne? Si la quatrième arrive et qu’elle exige ma place, je négocierai avec elle, mais je ne vais pas me trimballer partout avec mon machin de trois tonnes, simplement parce qu’une inconnue me l’ordonne.

Je suis restée. Et pendant tout le temps où je suis restée en cabine, l’autre équipe a toujours travaillé à deux.

Mon amie l’interprète chinoise m’explique : Your problem is what we call «interpreting while Asian», it’s like «driving while black». Tu as une tête d’Asiatique alors que tu travailles dans des combinaisons de langues occidentales. Les gens n’aiment pas ça. C’est comme toi, quand tu vas dans un restaurant chinois ou vietnamien et que tu vois plein de clients Blancs, tu te dis que la bouffe ne va pas être bonne. Le pire serait d’aller dans un resto où le chef sushi est un Blanc ou un Pakistanais.

Console d'interprétation

Les dessins sont de Mox (http://mox.ingenierotraductor.com/).

L'amour arrache

This is B-Boy's latest piece, performed a few weeks ago, at the end of his school year. He's dancing with Isabelle.



In case you're interested, here's his website: http://www.wix.com/wdforty/portfolio

Let A Thousand Chadors Bloom

People in the West, and especially North American liberal bloggers, are all excited by the events in Iran. They are excited because they think that they are witnessing the unfolding of a historic revolution: Bad Guy I'm-A-Dinner-Jacket rigged the election to prevent Good Guy Mousavi (who has the decency to have a name that can be pronounced by Americans) from taking powers, so the Good Iranians are going to the streets to protest and try to force Teheran to respect the popular vote and declare Mousavi the winner. Their weapon? Twitter! At least that's the story we read in the Western media.

From Associated Press: TEHRAN, Iran - In a massive outpouring reminiscent of the Islamic Revolution three decades ago, hundreds of thousands of Iranians streamed through the capital Monday, and the fist-waving protesters denounced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim to victory in a disputed election.

From MSNBC Nightly News : Defying efforts of the state to block the Internet and cell phone use, Iranians used Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to transmit information about the protests taking place in Tehran.

I am personally very, very skeptical whenever I see big crowds of demonstators or mobs, because I know there are always puppeteers behind the curtains. According to David Seaton (http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/):

"Have you noticed that you can read all these Iranian "tweets"? Are you aware that the language of Iran is Farsi, not English? Does this piece of information suggest anything to you? Perhaps, the world is like in Hollywood movies where all the exotic character speak English, albeit with charming foreign accents? Or maybe, the dial on a person's bullshit meter might tremble a bit?

But, unlike the run up to the war in Iraq, this time some amateurs have take the trouble to do the homework that the "professionals" seem too understaffed to do themselves.

A financial website, "Charting Stocks", has taken the trouble that the MSM can't be bothered with and has exposed a very effective Israeli psy-op.

So, whatever is actually happening in Tehran, we now know that the Israelis are manipulating our perceptions.

Sit back and read this:

Proof: Israeli Effort to Destabilize Iran Via Twitter #IranElection
Right-wing Israeli interests are engaged in an all out Twitter attack with hopes of delegitimizing the Iranian election and causing political instability within Iran.

Anyone using Twitter over the past few days knows that the topic of the Iranian election has been the most popular. Thousands of tweets and retweets alleging that the election was a fraud, calling for protests in Iran, and even urging followers hack various Iranian news websites (which they did successfully). The Twitter popularity caught the eye of various blogs such as Mashable and TechCrunch and even made its way to mainstream news media sites.

Were these legitimate Iranian people or the works of a propaganda machine? I became curious and decided to investigate the origins of the information. In doing so, I narrowed it down to a handful of people who have accounted for 30,000 Iran related tweets in the past few days. Each of them had some striking similarities -

1. They each created their twitter accounts on Saturday June 13th.
2. Each had extremely high number of Tweets since creating their profiles.
3. "IranElection" was each of their most popular keyword
4. With some very small exceptions, each were posting in ENGLISH.
5. Half of them had the exact same profile photo
6. Each had thousands of followers, with only a few friends. Most of their friends were EACH OTHER.

Why were these tweets in English? Why were all of these profiles OBSESSED with Iran? It became obvious that this was the work of a team of people with an interest in destabilizing Iran. The profiles are phonies and were created with the sole intention of destabilizing Iran and effecting public opinion as to the legitimacy of Iran's election.

I narrowed the spammers down to three of the most persistent - @StopAhmadi @IranRiggedElect @Change_For_Iran

I decided to do a google search for 2 of the 3 - @StopAhmadi and @IranRiggedElect. The first page to come up was JPost (Jerusalem Post) which is a right wing newspaper pro-Israeli newspaper.

JPost actually ran a story about 3 people "who joined the social network mere hours ago have already amassed thousands of followers." Why would a news organization post a story about 3 people who JUST JOINED TWITTER hours earlier? Is that newsworthy? JPost was the first (and only to my knowledge) major news source that mentioned these 3 spammers.

JPost, a major news organization, promoted these three Twitterers who went on the be the source of the IranElection Twitter bombardment. Why is JPost so concerned about Iranian students all of a sudden (which these spammers claim to be)? I must admit that I had my suspicions. After all, Que Bono? (who benefits).

There's no question that Israel perceives Iran as an enemy, more so than any other nation. According to a recent poll, more than half of Israel's population support using military force against Iran if they do not cease from developing nuclear energy (which they have the legal right to do as per the NNP treaty). Oddly enough, this comes out of a country which is not a cosigner to the NNP treaty and has no right to develop nuclear energy, yet posses an arsenal of nuclear BOMBS.

Of course, Mousavi himself plays an important role in causing the social unrest within Iran. How often do you see a candidate declare himself the winner before any votes are counted and then, when faced with defeat, call the entire election process a fraud? As obvious as it was in our own 2000 election, Al Gore would not touch the topic of voter fraud. No major US politician goes near the subject. They know full well that such an accusation would shake the entire foundation of our democracy and threaten the political structures that are in place.

These twitting spammers began crying foul before the final votes were even counted, just as Mousavi had. The spammer @IranRiggedElect created his profile before a winner was announced and preformed the public service of informing us in the United States , in English and every 10 minutes, of the unfair election. He did so unselfishly, and without any regard for his fellow friends and citizens of Iran, who don't speak English and don't use Twitter!"



Go read the rest at Seaton's blog.

If You Still Don't Understand What Sexism Is, Here's The Explanation

I found this powerful post by Riverdaughter (A picture says a thousand words) at her blog The Confluence (http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/a-picture-says-a-thousand-words/#comments) and I am reproducing it here, for your education:

Anti-semitism

Racism

Torture

Culture

Any questions?

Blue Ribbons of Recognition

(Sent by Olga - Thank you Olga!)



This is passed along on the internet as a true story, but is it? From Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/glurge/difference.asp

Critique des critiques

Cette image m'a été envoyée par plusieurs de mes amis. Apparemment elle circule beaucoup sur l'internet. Je la reproduis ici, parce qu'elle illustre une tendance dans la pensée critique moderne que je trouve particulièrement débile.

Je n'ai pas d'opinion personnelle sur le Président Sarkozi, mais je constate qu'il n'est pas très aimé des médias. La France étant la plupart du temps une démocratie, les citoyens ne sont pas obligés d'aimer leurs dirigeants et ne se privent pas pour les critiquer. Mais se moquer de quelqu'un parce qu'il ne correspond pas aux canons de beauté du jour? Comme si c'était de sa faute et qu'il pouvait y changer quelque chose? Bon, Sarkozi n'est pas aussi grand de taille qu'Obama? Et alors? Obama n'est pas aussi pâle de teint que Sarkozi. Qu'est-ce que ça prouve d'un côté ou de l'autre?

Les critiques de Tom Cruise, incapables de l'attaquer sur le plan artistique, se vautrent dans des remarques narquoises sur sa petite taille, surtout comparée à celle de son ex-femme Nicole Kidman. Même chose pour les chroniqueurs américains qui, pour attaquer Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, l'actuel président d'Iran et bête noire du moment de la Maison Blanche, se moque de son nom ("I'm a dinner jacket"). On se croirait à la cafetaria d'une école secondaire.

Tout ça vole bien bas. Que dis-je "vole", tout ça rampe bien bas, et ce genre de "critiques" en dit plus long sur le moqueur que sur le moqué.

Save the endangered US CEOs

Trailer/Teaser for Michael Moore's new movie:

Always giving it to the CEOs at http://www.michaelmoore.com/

2009 Peony Show @ The Montreal Botanical Garden

Today, Mr. Cheong and I went to the Montreal Botanical Garden with a friend of his from Singapore, for the 2009 Peony Show. This is the first time I actually get to seriously try my new Leica camera that I got for Christmas, from my generous Ex. The battery died right in the middle of the photo session, but I managed to take enough shots to realize how great the camera is and what a pleasure it was to use it.

Here's a photo essay, called "Peonies" (What, did you expect "Peanut Butter Sandwiches"?)

Charlie Chaplin And The Kid, v.2.0

From: Canine Freestyle Federation Inc: (http://www.canine-freestyle.org/)

Canine Freestyle [Obérythmée en français] is a choreographed performance organized with music, illustrating the training and joyful relationship of a dog and handler team. Freestyle is an excellent discipline to illustrate the conformation and movement of the dog. The reach, drive and beauty of an athletic, trained dog moving to music can take one’s breath away. 

Here's one of the better performances:

Too Sexy For My Isotopes

Context: Canada is/was the main producer of medical radioisotopes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_isotopes#Source_of_radioisotopes) but a few months ago, it had to shutdown its main reactor at Chalk River in Ontario because of a leak, creating a world wide shortage. The Harper government has now decided to just close up the plant and throw away the key, because it cannot be economically viable. In the middle of the shitstorm that ensued, the Minister of Natural Resources was accidentally caught on tape calling the issue "sexy" and commenting on how it could be beneficial to her ministry and her party. Of course the tape went public (would you believe the tape recorder was left in a public toilet?) and the Minister had to issue a tearful apology.

I would like to comment, not on the wisdom of forgetting a tape recorder in a public place (the guilty party was promptly fired), but on the media reaction to the use of the adjective "sexy". People are shocked, shocked I say, that the minister would choose such a word because it was so disrespectful of the seriousness of the problem and the predicament of cancer patients.

The thing is, in this specific instance, the word "sexy" is used in its journalistic sense and is completely neutral. People in the media and public relation industry would call "sexy" any issue that would attract a lot of attention or interest and would guarantee lots of reporting and editorials.

To me, the outrage over the use of that word is yet another example of the general aversion to anything unpleasant called political correctness, compounded with linguistic ignorance. Because of the speed of communications in this modern age and the «excessive» democratization of Western society, anybody and his uncle can (and probaly will) declare themselves shocked, insulted or outraged by any word or expression. Their sensitivity will be taken seriously and deferred to, even if it was based on stupidity or ignorance, and that word or expression will be avoided in polite conversations and replaced with some euphemism. Any word, no matter how inoccuous, can be a trigger word because there will always be someone somewhere who will be "hurt" from hearing it.

As a linguist, I wish people would just use words the way they were supposed to be used, i.e. with their straitghforward dictionary meaning. Of course, poetic license and humouristic play on words would always prevail , thank G-d, but most of the times, why can’t we use negative words like «fat», «deaf», «ugly» instead of trying to sugarcoat them with euphemism like «something-challenged»? If I were fat, deaf and ugly (OK, I can hear you thinking : at least she’s not deaf) and I know it, I wouldn’t try to make you use other words to describe me, because a new terminology wouldn’t do shit to change my condition.

Teenagers and young people like to have their own language, and that’s fine, but just like baby language, it’s discarded as one grows older. As a society, shouldn’t we be grown up about the way we talk and have the courage to call a spade a cat (my contribution to bilinguism) without having some delicate flowers recoil in horror, clutching their pearls and looking for their fainting couch?

No Reservations in Vietnam

"Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" is an ongoing American travel and food show on the Travel Channel; it also airs on the Discovery Travel & Living channel around the world. Host Anthony Bourdain visits overseas countries, cities worldwide, and places within the U.S., where hosts treat him to local culture and cuisine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=3415409)

In 2005, Bourdain came to Vietnam and it was love at first sight.  His Season 1 Vietnamese episodes are shown on YouTube in 5 parts. Here is the first one. You can view the rest by going on YouTube yourself, you lazy bums!

There is another episode about Vietnam in season 5. No YouTube clips yet.

Saigon 2009

Via Michael Sieburg' s blog (http://michaelsieburg.wordpress.com/) , this is a YouTube clip of a documentary by famous former war correspondent, Peter Arnett, who recently returned to Saigon. Here's the description of the clip by poster-film maker Othello Khanh: 

"Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Peter Arnett takes a nostalgic trip around Saigon half a century after his coverage of the War from 1962 to 1975 with the Associated Press.

The documentary captures candid insights from Arnett and Saigon denizens as they survey old and new landmarks in Ho Chi Minh City. It is made in association with the whats on publication, The Word Ho Chi Minh City and Créa TV.

Saigon 2009 with Peter Arnett is a preview of "Vietnam 2020", a film by Othello Khanh set to document the Nation's road to modernity."

I Dreamed A Dream of Roast Chickens

The other day, I was watching B-Boy wolfing down a whole roast chicken that was in the fridge, when suddenly I  had a "madeleine moment" à la Proust. A flood of recollections from my tender youth went through my head like a tsunami, bringing back long-forgotten memories.

I was about 7 or 8 years old. My two brothers and I were watching a black-and-white Disney cartoon, with Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck being Robin Hood and his merry men. One of the scenes that mesmerized us then was the banquet scene, where Mickey and his men were sitting around a big table piled up with food. There was a plate filled with whole roast chickens, and Mickey took his bow and an arrow attached to a cord and shot one chicken then pulled it back to eat it. I loved that scene!

And I remember how later on, my brothers and I discussed about what we would do if we were super rich, you know, like some bad guys plotting a bank robbery and they would ask each other: And what would you do with your share of 30 millions dollars? And there would always be someone who says: I'll buy ten mansions and fifty sports cars! And another one says: I'll go to Las Vegas and rent me some hookers, etc..

When my brothers asked me what would be the first thing I'd do if I were a zillionnaire, I answered: I'll eat a whole roast chicken like Mickey Mouse!

I told the story to B-Boy and he laughed so much he spit out some of his roast chicken. But to me, at the time, eating a whole chicken was the epitome of a life of luxury. It was so inconceivably decadent and wasteful that even now, when I can afford to buy and eat a whole chicken, it just wouldn't seem right to do it. During the time when I was working as a freelance translator, I would sometime receive a check for 12 or 15 000 dollars, then nothing for a few months, then another cheque for 7000$, then nothing for another 3 months, etc.. Since I had no discipline or budgetary sense, the boys and I would gorge ourselves on lobsters and truffles and fancy restaurants for a week or two, followed by months of macaroni and cheese. So it's not like I don't know how to indulge myself. But eating a WHOLE chicken? Who do you think I am? Bill Gates?  

I couldn't find the Mickey-Mouse-as-Robin-Hood cartoon on YouTube, so here's something similar:

Leaked Shot From Upcoming Saw VII

Synopsis: A young beautiful French tourist is lured into an empty mansion in Washington where squats a family of cannibals...

Sunday YouTube Video

From Miss Cellania, this weirdly feminine but strangely compelling dance by a Korean Guy. I don't know how he did it, but he's all four guys in the same frame.



Bonus, from Miss Cellania:

The Beatles: Rock Band -- Finally!!

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_(video_game)

The Beatles: Rock Band is a music video game being developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts. The game will consist of songs by and virtual depictions of The Beatles, from their first album, Please Please Me, to their last recorded album with record label EMI, Abbey Road, as well as previously unreleased material, according to Dhani Harrison, son of the late George Harrison.

The game will be released internationally on 9 September 2009, coinciding with the release of the remastered versions of The Beatles catalogue. The game will be shipped as a bundle with themed instrument controllers and as a standalone game for which all existing Rock Band and compatible music game accessories can be used. The game will incorporate many of the gameplay features of the Rock Band series;however, the game will not be an expansion pack for the Rock Band series, as Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos has stated that this game "...is a new, full game title production built from the ground up."