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Discuss Anything / Separating art from the artist

« on: November 02, 2017, 11:43:57 PM »

On episode 71 of Maddox's podcast,  the question was raised on whether or not we should be able to separate art from the artist.  According to the poll that was used, most people were willing to separate art from the artists.  However, what I want to know is, what do you people think of this?

I'll give you guys some examples of my own to work with here:  Would you  be able to watch a movie starring Kevin Spacey?  Would you be able to separate Spacey the actor from Spacey the person?  For instance, would you be able to enjoy his portrayal of Jack Vincennes in the movie L.A. Confidential or John Doe in the movie Seven (or perhaps some other film or show he's been in) or would you not be able to because of what he's done in real life.  Another example is Miramax.  Would you be able to watch a Miramax film such as Sex, Lies, and Videotape or Pulp Fiction or some other Miramax film even though Miramax was founded by the Weinsteins?  Or, would you think, "these are still decent films and I'll still watch them."

Do you think that people like Spacey and Weinstein should even be eligible for awards?  Or do you think that the awards should be based on talent and not moral integrity? 

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Discuss Anything / Canada Style

« on: July 04, 2017, 01:03:23 AM »

Recently, Canada celebrated its 150th birthday and I was wondering, what would a Canadian version of Satan Ninja 198X be like? I know that in this comic the characters are named after American actors and actresses, ie. Matthew Broderick, John Cusack, Ally Sheedy, Kelly LeBrock.  Well except there's one named after Canadian actor Corey Haim (I think) and there's also Patrick Hyser, whose looks resemble another Canadian actor,  Rick Moranis, but I digress.  Anyways, the characters would obviously be named after Canadian actors and actresses, like most of the cast from SCTV for instance. And of course you have others like William Shatner,  Allan Thicke, Kiefer Sutherland, Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman, Leslie Nielsen, Michael J Fox, Michael Ironside, Margot Kidder, Rae Dawn Chong, etc.  You could also throw well-known directors like David Cronenberg, Norman Jewison, James Cameron and Ivan Reitman (born in Czechoslovkia in 1946, but moved to Canada in 1950).

As for singers and bands, you could have fictionalized versions of Rush*, April Wine, Neil Young, Bryan Adams, Bruce Cockburn, Kim Mitchell, Tom Cochrane & Red Rider, Glass Tiger, Prism, Helix, Anvil, The Northern Pikes,  Loverboy, Honeymoon Suite, Doug and the Slugs, Men Without Hats, The Jeff Healey Band (they performed several songs in the movie, Road House), etc.  *Rush is already referred to as Surge in Satan Ninja 198X, so I guess they'd have to called something different in the Canadian version. 

In regards to films you could include stuff like Prom Night, Heavy Metal, Scanners, Porky's, My Bloody Valentine, Class of 1984, Videodrome, Strange Brew, Anne of Green Gables and The Care Bears Movie.

Finally, you could include TV shows like You Can't Do That on Television, Fraggle Rock, Night Heat, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, Inspector Gadget, Beetlejuice and so on. 

I could've added more stuff, but I think this is long enough, eh?

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Discuss Anything / Miroslav Satan

« on: October 17, 2016, 09:51:21 PM »

We all know that Halloween is this month, but it's also hockey season as well.  That's why I've decided to sort of combine the two elements by talking about a former National Hockey League player from Slovakia with a spooky looking last name: Miroslav Satan.  Even though his last name is pronounced shah-TAN, I still think it's pretty interesting that he has a last name like that.  As you can imagine, a lot of people like this guy have had a lot of  fun joking about his last name.  Unfortunately for a lot people, he never played for the New Jersey Devils (it's a hockey team named after the Jersey Devil).  Fortunately for them though, he does look a bit devilish:

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Discuss Anything / Movie Remakes

« on: August 13, 2016, 07:53:27 PM »

I recently read that there's plans for a remake of the 1983 Scarface movie which itself was a remake of the 1932 film of the same name.  So basically they're planning on doing a remake of a remake.  I've also heard that there's going to be a remake of Splash, Cannonball Run, Jumanji and possibly Big Trouble in Little China.  I've already seen the terrible Total Recall remake and I absolutely refuse to watch the Robocop and Ghostbusters remakes.  I realize Hollywood has been churning out remakes for decades but it seems like it's happening more and more in recent years.  It just seems like Hollywood is out of ideas and are basically saying, "Fuck it, let's just put out another remake and call it a day."  However, Comic Book Girl 19 has an interesting take as to why there's so many remakes, etc.

In addition, I realize that not all remakes are bad (for example, the 1982 version of The Thing is considered to be much better than the 1951 version).  But generally speaking more thought needs to be put into what should and shouldn't be remade.  They shouldn't just be made willy-nilly.  There has to be a good reason why the remake is being put out.  The remake has to in some way, shape or form find a way to improve upon the original, otherwise there's no point (The 1998 version of Psycho is a good example of a pointless remake).

On another note, one that bugs me besides all these incessant remakes, is when people say you can't judge a movie that's in theatres until you watch it.  So basically you want me (or someone else) to pay to watch a film just to see if I'll like it.  The problem is that by doing so you're potentially enabling Hollywood hacks (i.e. Michael Bay) to make more shitty movies.  If I know that I'm not interested in something, I'm not going to pay or have someone else pay for me to watch it.  For instance, I have no interest in watching the planned Big Trouble in Little China remake.  James Rolfe also mentions the concept of not paying to watch a movie you know you won't like.

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Discuss Anything / After School Satan Clubs

« on: August 02, 2016, 01:18:10 PM »

Here's something interesting that I'd like to share with you all:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/31/thanks-to-christians-after-school-satan-clubs-may-be-coming-to-an-elementary-school-near-you/

I watched the promotional video for the after-school program and it's really quite odd.  Basically I think it's a tongue-in-cheek reference to how people view Satanists.  There's also a link in the article that leads to the After School Satan website.  If you go on to the website, you'll not only see that odd promo video I mentioned earlier, but also a book called, "The Satanic Children's  Big Book of Activities".  What I found interesting is that the book is a major antithesis to the video.  The video is all creepy and shit, but the book looks completely innocuous. 

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Discuss Anything / Danger 5

« on: July 31, 2016, 11:31:41 AM »

I was just wondering if anybody here has ever heard of or seen Danger 5.  At any rate it's an Australian action comedy TV series which involves five international spies that try to kill Hitler.  Series 1, which came out in 2012, is a campy 1960's interpretation of World War 2.  Series 2, which came out in 2015, is based in the 1980's.  Danger 5 can be seen on Netflix in case anyone's interested.  Anyways, I've seen all the episodes and I have to say that I liked Series 1 more than Series 2.  Series 1 is silly yet comical, but Series 2 is just totally bizarre.  I'm not saying I outright hate Series 2 because it does have its moments, but overall the quality isn't nearly as sharp.

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Discuss Anything / You guys rock!

« on: July 29, 2016, 11:14:47 PM »

Hey Adam and Jessica!  Greetings from Canada!

I've been checking out this site for a while and I've finally decided to stop being a lurker and actually become a member.  I just want to say that I love what you two are doing and I always look forward to seeing new pages.  I understand that sometimes putting out new pages can take a while, but rest assured I'm not going to lose patience and give up on you guys.  I plan on sticking around for the long haul.  I can really tell that Satan Ninja 198X is a true labour of love and I appreciate all the effort that you two put into it.  Keep up the great work!