I just watched Kill Bill

I get DVDs to watch while I'm folding laundry and doing other such chores, and I just watched Kill Bill, both parts.

I feel rather ambivalent about it. On the one hand, I'm thinking, "Wow. That was totally self-indulgent regurgitated tripe -- why do people let Quenton Tarrantino even MAKE movies if all he's basically going to do is make film-school-student masturbatory material?" and the other half of me is going, "WOW! THAT WAS COOOOOOL!!!!"

(no subject)

People are posting favorite lines and scenes from Shakespeare. Dunno why, but, okay.

So, the background here

Titus Andronicus, Act 4, Scene 2, the second half of it.

Background: the characters are Aaron the Moor, who is Evil But So Damn Cool, and ought to be played by Samuel L Jackson, Chiron and Demetrius, Queen Tamora's more-or-less interchangeable sons, who are also evil but nowhere near as cool, and a nurse carrying a baby.

Queen Tamora was Queen of the Goths, which is when she had these two sons, and, more recently, remarried to the Emperor of Rome, making her the Empress. And, as the scene starts, people have been waiting for her to give birth to the brand new heir to Rome.

Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child in her arms

Nurse
Good morrow, lords:
O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor?

AARON
Well, more or less, or ne'er a whit at all,
Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now?

Nurse
O gentle Aaron, we are all undone!
Now help, or woe betide thee evermore!

AARON
Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep!
What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms?

Nurse
O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye,
Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace!
She is deliver'd, lords; she is deliver'd.

AARON
To whom?

Nurse
I mean, she is brought a-bed.

AARON
Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her?

Nurse
A devil.

AARON
Why, then she is the devil's dam; a joyful issue.

Nurse
A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue:
Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad
Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime:
The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal,
And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point.

AARON
'Zounds, ye whore! is black so base a hue?
Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure.

DEMETRIUS
Villain, what hast thou done?

AARON
That which thou canst not undo.

CHIRON
Thou hast undone our mother.

AARON
Villain, I have done thy mother.

(no subject)

People have been talking about that story in which world-class violinist Joshua Bell plays a world-class Stradivarius playing world-class music for forty-five minutes in a Washington Metro station and most people don't notice.

And I've been thinking about it, and it doesn't bother me as much as it bothers some other folks.

It was mentioned in the transcript of an online chat that the author did that similar things have been done with other artists in various locations around the world, with similar results.

To me, this means one major thing. Busking is a skill-set. Buskers don't just have to play good, or even world-class, music -- they need to do something else as well. What exactly that is, I'm not sure -- I've never really successfully busked. But there IS something else there -- virtuosity isn't enough; you need personal charisma, as well.

In a lot of ways, it's an example of this experiment, with the basketballs. You know this one, right? Watch it, and count how many passes the people make. Every time someone throws and catches the basketball, that is one pass. It can be bounced, or thrown, or whatever -- just count the number of passes.

Then, answer the following question, which is ROT-13: Qvq lbh frr gur tbevyyn?

I think it's the same thing. If you're concentrating on one thing, such as getting to work, or counting basketball passes, you miss other things, like violinists and gorillas. It's just how the brain works.

And the part of the brain which allows you to do that is the prefrontal lobes, which are not fully developed in children, which is why THEY notice the violinist.

And then, one final thought hit me. $32 is actually pretty damn good for a busker for 45 minutes. People actually DO recognize and reward quality.