tom moody

hat tip maxlabor

Was watching Senator John McCain, the "foreign policy grownup" who appears regularly on talk shows advocating a more muscular U.S. military presence around the globe, when suddenly the LED screen "glitched" and for a few brief seconds I... saw his true face. Fortunately I had enough time to do a screenshot.

hat tip aoifeml

Here's a homemade clip of the end credits of Godzilla: Final Wars.
This could be Jean-Luc Godard doing Leni Riefenstahl, as interpreted by Junior in his mom's basement, using a phone to film a laptop. As the camera shakes and struggles to stay centered (difficult when filming widescreen in "extreme portrait" mode), Mom can be heard off camera yelling at Junior to pay attention to her.
The credits are a series of "money shot" clips of monsters flying, fighting, and screaming in rage, close-ups of anxious human faces (that you saw earlier in the movie), people fighting in space suits, and choreographed explosions.
This exciting montage (rolled over by credit-text) is accompanied by a rather haunting symphonic synthesizer score by prog rock titan Keith Emerson. (He said in an interview that only a portion of the music he wrote for the film was used, but this is intact, apparently.) The scale-climbing classical crescendos, in an earlier era, might be written with the same intensity by a composer such as Tchaikovsky to commemorate a major battle. The sound quality on Junior's phone is good enough to pick up most of the musical bravado while the action mayhem is being savored.

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) is an almost note-perfect continuation of the '60s Japanese monster tradition of Destroy All Monsters. There's almost nothing in it to tell you it wasn't made in 1968.

Thanks to all who listened to or purchased Molecular Exercises, my latest musical release on Bandcamp. (Above, "Marble" gives it critical scrutiny -- thanks to Ryz for the photo.)

The photo reminded me to mention that the music has bass parts that will vary in audibility depending on the playback device. Molecular Exercises wasn't too bad on my lightweight laptop but a set of those Dr. Dre headphones or the full PA I know you have in your homes is recommended.

modified Google streetview photo

Via Google images. Top: Charles Marville, Rue Champlain (Paris 1850s). Bottom: Chavez Ravine before leveling to make way for... Baseball (Dodger Stadium, LA).
I saw Marville's photo and a view similar to the Chavez Ravine photo on a recent trip to Washington DC museums. Was thinking about the similarities of terrain, socioeconomics, etc.

hat tips GucciSoFlosy and "flaming text"