Feb. 4th, 2005

theladyrose: (Default)
My ever-brilliant Hungarian friend whose name I still don't know how to spell submitted this ever-insightful joke to me:

Cows & Politics Explained

A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor.

A SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.

AN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what?

AN AMERICAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office who tax your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money and buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous.

A COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk.

A FASCIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and sells you the milk. You join the underground and start a campaign of sabotage.

DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead.

A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create clever cow cartoon images called Cowkimon and market them World-Wide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

A BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. They are mad. They die. Pass the shepherd's pie, please.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.

A BRAZILIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You enter into a partnership with an American corporation. Soon you have 1000 cows and the American corporation declares bankruptcy.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship both of them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported on them.

AN ISRAELI CORPORATION: There are these two Jewish cows, right? They open a milk factory, an ice cream store, and then sell the movie rights. They send their calves to Harvard to become doctors. So, who needs people?

AN ARKANSAS CORPORATION: You have two cows. That one on the left is kinda cute.
theladyrose: (Default)
Happy happy joy joy! My Secret Agent/the Saint and the Appointment soundtracks came in today. The Edwin Astley compilation has some wonderfully retro lounge/action/atmospheric music, and I adore the electric harpsicord on "High Wire." The version of "Secret Agent Man" is a really odd arrangement, though; it sounds like the Red Price Columbo instrumental titles for season 1 of Danger Man somehow got arranged into the traditional SA Man song with another singer who I don't recognize. But "Mio Amore Sta Lontano" is sung by a magnificent Italian alto instead of that Angelique person. And I simply adore the legato flute on "Mainly On The Plain."

The Appointment is lovely beyond belief. Michel Legrand, John Barry and Don Walker, and Stu Phillips's scores are all on here. Well, actually, you hear Legrand's most interesting excerpts of his rejected score, Barry's work with additional music and orchestrations by Walker, and Stu Phillips's score for the American TV broadcast of the film. Legrand and Barry's monothematic approach is highly effective; without seeing the movie (I should, I will someday!) one already gets the impression of Omar Sharif's character's single-minded obsession with Carla. I'm not as fond of the pop music aspects of Phillip's score, but the instrumental variations he uses on "The Beauty of Beginning" (the love theme) and "Solo e Triste" (Frederico's theme) are highly effective, especially with the guitar and flute solos. Barry's main theme has the lush, epic romantic feel, vaguely haunting and operatic and with hints of Hanover Street and Out of Africa. I rather prefer Legrand and Barry's scores overall to Phillip's mostly because Barry/Walker and Legrand comment on the subtly tragic, veiled operatic nature of the film while Phillips emphasizes the action in the dramatic scenes. Lucas Kendall's production of rereleased John Barry scores always includes the best liner notes I've ever seen, though Legrand's remastered Thomas Crown deserves an honorable mention in terms of combining commentary on the film, its context in pop culture, and a few comments about music and film scoring in general by Legrand.

My God, I must sound really pretentious there. I'm still attempting to learn some more musical terminology and identify instruments better. I still don't know what exactly a vibraphone sounds like, which drives me crazy because it's used a lot in 60's and modern soundtracks.

Ended up watching today's episode of Monk. I adore that show! "Nature doesn't clean nature!" And the bit when Monk ties Captain Stottlemeyer's foot to the bunk bed...priceless. *SPOILER* I figured out the fortune cookie scheme with the first fortune, though. Damn those evil Tong Chinese groups that inhabit San Francisco! */SPOILER* I tell you, Chinese(-American) women in the media are evil intelligent beautiful criminals, kick-butt martial arts princesses, and/or high-profile businesswomen/lawyers/doctors who are highly conflicted about their cultural backgrounds and had troubled childhoods.

But I don't get to merrily analyze the Appointment some more or work on my creative writing piece this weekend because I shall be leading the FOMF library group to Green. Ah, microfiching, how I've missed you! If you're not doing FOMF, please stop by for just a few hours because we can really use all the help that we can get.

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theladyrose

June 2010

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