After having seen the newly restored, authorized version of Fritz Lang's science-fiction masterpiece, "Metropolis" (1927), on DVD, I can say, at the very least, that I am stunned by its cinematography, its social criticism, and everything that made it the inspiration for films such as "Blade Runner" and "The Matrix." The first time I watched the film was, too, on DVD, but the digital transfer was terrible; the titles were blurry and somewhat illegible, and the music used was not the original score, and did not synchronize at all with the action.

However, Kino Video, in association with the Murnau Foundation, restored the classic German silent to its former glory (as much as possible). That is, it is the closest possible version (restored in its full length) to what people saw in 1927. And no, this is not hype. In fact, the restored version of "Metropolis" has been selected as the VERY FIRST FILM to be entered in the "Memory of the World" databank, alongside Beethoven's 9th Symphony and the Gutenberg Bible.

Aside from what is said on the back cover of the DVD keep case, the film, which has been cleaned up, removed of scratches, dust, and other "artifacts," is absolutely incredible, in both its scope and context. In fact, I was inspired to make a remake of the film* after first seeing it on the other DVD version of the movie, which is, by the way, (as virtually all versions of the movie are, until now), "shortened and truncated." Now, after seeing the restored Kino version, "the definitive version," apparently, I am convinced that a remake would be wholly unnecessary, and the movie, as it now stands, is in of itself a complete masterwork.

Finally, several scenes that were originally in the movie when it premiered have long been lost, so the people at Kino Video and at the Murnau Foundation took their time to insert new title cards, explaining what occurred, so that there are no plot holes.

*By this, I mean that that I actually began to write out what the look of my version of the movie would be like, a paraphrasing of the premise, and so on. After having seen the new version, I think I will delete those notes, for they are no longer needed; there does not need to be a remake, at least by me.

Apparently, North Korea and South Korea have begun firing rounds of ammunition at each other along the Korean DMZ. Oh, shit.

I don't know about you, but Quentin Tarantino's new film, "Kill Bill" looks pretty cool.

Q: How can you tell when Bush is lying?

A: When his lips move.

The 4th of July is coming up, and I have brought along some patriotic slogans to my site:

"Real patriots ask questions." (Carl Sagan)

"Where there is doubt, there is freedom." (Ancient Latin Proverb)

"Political interest can never be separated in the long run from moral right." (Thomas Jefferson)

"The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty." (Abraham Lincoln)

"Repitition does not transform a lie into a truth." (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." (Harry S. Truman)

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."

-- Ronald Reagan

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."

"Senator Strom Thurmond led an extraordinary life."

-- George W. Bush

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that's doing it."

-- Dan Quayle

"I would have made a good pope."

-- Richard Nixon

"I will never apologize for the United States of America . . . I don't care what the facts are."

-- George Bush

"I am a Ford, not a Lincoln."

-- Gerald Ford

According to this list, several U.S. corporations as well as several corporations in foreign nations sold chemical, biological, and conventional weapons as well as rocket and nuclear weapons programs to Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s. Check it out!

I think I'll run for President in 2024.

Thai food = good stuff.

Hello, all. If you wanna know when the U.S. is going to war with North Korea and Iran, check this out.

Although I must admit that this blog is in no way shape or form as good or better than any other blog you see, I can say with some confidence that this blog is one shitty blog. Like, for instance, this one, which is way better. I mean, I have owned (well, not really owned, per se) this blog since February something, and I have hardly gotten any hits at all from people other than myself. Except, of course, for my immediate family; and, for some reason that I cannot explain, I have gotten a hit from Ireland, a hit from the Netherlands, and a hit from Japan. Perhaps, in order to increase my traffic or noticeability in this great expanse of billions upon billions of sites on the Internet, I should probably opt for owning a site on this server (instead of using it for free), get a domain name of some sort (like, e.g., www.itsfunnywhenithappenstothem.com, www.hahahahaha.net, or www.gimmesomemoney.org), or actually learn . . . watchucallit . . . HTML. As Strong Bad once said, "The Internet is a place where absolutely nothing happens." Whatever. Well, until then, later.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 42% of the U.S. public (that is, 18 years and older) think that Saddam Hussein was somewhat responsible for the September 11 attacks. This is what I have to say to the (approx.) 117,600,000 that have been either misled, misinformed, or outrighted brainwashed by the Bush Administration: According to my knowledge as well as that of the (approx.) 61,600,000 that have avoided the deceit disseminated from the propaganda machine, the United States was attacked on that date by terrorists under the direction of al-Qaeda (established and directed by Osama bin Laden, who has referred to Saddam Hussein as a "secular infidel"); the majority of them (15 out of the 19) were Saudi Arabian, and the funding for the attacks came from Saudi Arabia. But I may be wrong; I mean, what do I know?

Got Radiohead's new album, Hail to the Thief. It's quite good, I must say.

"Maybe you'll be President,
But know right from wrong"

Hey, all, I haven't posted for a really long time. In the meantime, I've written this song here. Hope that you like it (my email is tamujin39@hotmail.com or gnomeslayer@comcast.net). Here it is:

(V1)
I’m so sick of this world
Slow down, you’re gonna kill someone
Nobody cares, nobody gives a fuck, the hate’s unfurled
I don’t wanna know/what you think
I don’t care, no one does/For
it’s all gone, it’s all dead/There’s no more hope
Left, I see it all clear now/The world’s gone to hell

(Chorus)
I don’t know anything, don’t ask me
Anything/I’m so sick of these questions
Because I don’t have the answers
Don’t tell me what I don’t know/What
I don’t know, don’t know

(V2)
Please tell me why we got to go, and
Fight a war for nothing
Please explain to me why we gotta act so goddamn arrogant/So
damn oblivious to the hatred
Just shut the fuck up and drop the leaflets and the bombs/’Cuz
we gonna liberate the oppressed and install our ideology
After all, oil’s more important than civilians

(Chorus)
I don’t know anything, don’t ask me
Anything/I’m so sick of these questions
Because I don’t have the answers
Don’t tell me what I don’t know/What
I don’t know, don’t know

(V3)
All I see is what appears to be
The end of world nationality/And yet I see
the projections of irrationality in the powers that be
I can’t see the wrong, for the right has blinded me
What good is freedom when it’s being taken away
I’m tired of this ambiguity
No answers

I WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH, DAMMIT!

If anyone gives a flying fuck, Daylight Savings Time will commence at 2:00 AM tonight.

Well, eventually I did get Meteora. Awesome album. Just fuckin' great. My personal favorite track would be "Nobody's Listening." That or "Faint." The debut solo, "Somewhere I Belong," is pretty good. It comes with a nice DVD, at least the one I got, showing the making of the album. The CD itself is an enhanced CD, so it has all of these cool features, including this 30-minute video "Art of Meteora". Just, all around, a great sophomore album by one of my favorite bands.

Well, as long as these people are here, I guess I won't be able to get Linkin Park's new album, Meteora.

I gotta buncha shit to tell ya: (1) the Washington Gas Co. has dug a huge hole in my street, looking for a leaking gas line, (2) my iPod hasn't been working for some reason (it's not the battery) and that's pissing me off, and (3) I'm in the middle of reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (in fact, I'm on page 320, I think).

Hey, if you wanna convert your own text into binary, check this out. It's pretty cool!