Issue 131

News: Atheism is, in fact, rational.
Random websurfing led me to find an article somewhere, I forget where, exactly, but it was an Apologetics page which claimed the following: "Since nobody knows everything, even if one assumes that one has 1% of all knowledge in their brain, it is possible that God could be in that 99%, therefore atheism requires as much faith as theism." (This is a paraphrase by me.) However, there are two major flaws to the argument. The first is that, if one looks up the word "God" in the dictionary (any dictionary), one often finds definitions which specify that God must be omnipresent (in all things). So, therefore, if a person finds only one place where God does not exist, then he does not exist anywhere. Of course, the problem is trying to find out how to know God when one sees him, and Carl Sagan's parable of the dragon highlights the problem particularly well. However, even if we deny God his omnipresence to save our apologist's argument, his conclusion is flawed. For instance, to any parents who read this blog (besides my own), you have probably told your kids that Santa Claus has given them presents, while you are the ones who give them to the kids. Of course, you most likely don't know all the other parents in the world, so does it make sense to believe that it takes as much faith to not believe that a real Santa brings presents to many children besides their own as it does to believe that there isn't a real Santa? Of course not. At least, that's the way I see it.

Band Name of the Day: The Retardlings. From an episode of Li'l Bush, as one of the minorities that the leads lead to the Mexican border.

Film Idea of the Day: Nothing this week.

Film Review of the Day: From Dusk Till Dawn. I recently saw this movie, and I must say that it is very much a Quentin Tarantino movie in all but an actual "directed by" credit (although the fact that half of the movie is set in Mexico does give away the fact that it is, in fact, directed by Robert Rodriguez.) Either way, it is certainly better than many of the movies that Quentin actually directed.

Quote of The Day: "To answer your question, yes, I do believe in God, yes, I do believe in Jesus. But do I love them? No."
____________Jacob Fuller/Harvey Keitel, From Dusk Till Dawn.

Link of the Day: Here is a forum I'm currently trying to populate with people who'd want to get into.

Issue 130

News/Review A: Amadeus: The Play.
Last Wednesday, I went to see the play version of Amadeus, which was a film I had been frequently watching over the last few months. I must say that this play version was much better of a version of the story than the film was. Of course, the movie was certainly one of the best films of 1984, if not the 1980s. I must note that one of the major things is that this version effectively makes Salieri an unreliable narrator, thus excusing the poor history (justifiable as it is for the purpose of the plot). The reason the unreliable narrator excuses the poor history is because, unlike in the film version, Salieri admits that his claim to have killed Mozart was a ruse to make people remember him forever, since by this point, Salieri's music will forever become subordinate in virtually every way to Mozart's music. Interestingly enough, the people who hear about his claims seem to entirely reject it, at the end, thus making his last plan towards his proverbial immortality another failure for the time being, at least until poets from Pushkin to Schaffer find the entire plan makes great literature. On another note, I'm not sure whether it is this production of the play, the movie, or the article about Ken Branagh's practically unreleased film version of the opera, but my curiosity towards getting into Mozart's Magic Flute is now peaking. Perhaps this will help me get into the man's music in addition to the man himself (despite the fact that about 70% of my classical music intake is from German composers, Mozart has yet to become one of those I listen to, although Glenn Gould may have something to do with this). In conclusion, I must say that the original play version of Amadeus was much better than the film version. Maybe the Powers That Be at Great Performances should do a TV special of the play version as a complement to the film version, but until that happens, let's just be content with the film, and the occasional performances of the play.

Film Idea of the Day: Desolation Revisited. A man ends up in an affair with a physically scarred preacher's wife and slowly gets insight into the desolate lives of the people in her area that could have ended up making enough material for several Eugene O'Neill plays.

Film Review of the Day B: American Beauty. A decade ago, many critics were saying that this film could very well become one of the greatest films of all time. After it won the Best Picture Oscar, however, this praise ended up abating... Until Now. I must say that the movie has actually managed to live up to the ten-year old hype I either forgot about or never heard until after I actually saw the movie for the first time last week. Definitely one of the best films of the 1990s.
And this isn't just because it is revealed at one point that it takes place in my general area (due to the shared area code).

Quote of the Day: "I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint."
__________Antonio Salieri, Amadeus.

Link of the Day: Witch's Brew: A Dadaist webcomic about whatever the artists feel like.

Tract Review: First Bite. A strangely Alfalfa-like vampire named Igor is born of a woman named Vampyra. Every lame Vampiritic cliche aside, this ends in a way that few vampire stories, but virtually every Chick tract, winds up ending; Igor gets saved. One wonders if he still would retain his bloodlust.