Good Production Design v. Script

I'm sure a few of you have seen by now, the early release teasers for the latest Bond movie 'Spectre.' Spectre was originally created by Kevin McClory not Ian Fleming, but we shan't hold that against anybody.

I have to say that from what I have seen this is the first time in the new era of Bond that I have seen excellent production design qualities in one of the newer iterations of the Bond story in film.

Craig finally looks right

And, the action sequences involving Daniel Craig are much more advanced, complex and sophisticated than all of that silly train-top running and just general running that seemed to be the vogue at the time for all of the action stars from Cruise to Matt Damon and everyone in between including Jackie Chan!

But that doesn't mean to say they aren't going to once again completely stuff up the film due to a dreadful script and story-line. However, it is a good sign that the early production design is so good. For once at last in these recent years, Bond appears in a certain glimmer-shadow of elegance, wearing clothes that actually fit the actor and not the actor attempting to fit some fixated concept and image of 'James Bond.'

As far as remaining faithful to books, if you put a stopwatch on the amount of time the Bentley Continental was actually seen in Casino Royale I don't think you'd get more than a few seconds, not even. And yet, for all the claims that the recent directors are sticking to the books, they jump-cut the Bentley into this same old flash-flash pseudo-drama visual scam that modern directors appear to believe will pass for excitement and thrill.

'Spectre' is not exactly any Ian Fleming story or book as such, although it featured as the main 'villainous thing' in a short story and a number of books.

What will it - the movie - turn out to be in the end?

Fleming's idea of dinner

You have some great actors there - Bellucci, Craig... And some average ones and some complete unknowns for the present. A vast budget. Really great production design, from all indications. 

But these people behind the production have never shown any respect for writers at any time in the past, everyone knows real writers get paid nothing - even Eszterhas had to use camera angle tricks to get a professional money-earning reputation!

A real fictional villain - smash his face, James,
take his watch off him! Shoot his ass with your Walther PPK.

We were all lucky that Fleming's wife came from the literary family who owned the London Daily Mail. Fleming was not a good writer but he still was one.

Make me a believer, Sam Mendez. I'm giving you a big chance. But don't think you're a writer, because you aren't one. Get one. The production design deserves it.

Writers, real writers are more powerful and mysterious than you know... Think the Bhagavad-gita, Ulysses, the Gospels, the fucking Koran for godsakes! Buy a writer, Sam. It will be worth it.

The Substance Of Ideology

An ideology is a system of ideas. A system.

There is often a misconception or confusion that ideas in the hands of people - especially well-known or respected people - are necessarily logical or derived from correct observation and analysis. In fact, usually, they are ideologies and not simply ideas - based on a particular characteristic system that is recommended by the individual. And it is the system, thus, which is paramount; not 'ideas' as such.

I think this is a scene of human ideas at their best.

Ideas, are particular discrete (as in, consistent describable or categorize-able) conceptions that the human mind has inside of the instruments and chemical and neural structures of the human's brain and extended 'brain-space' you might call it (or 'mind,' in this vague label we have to use). When a person is said to be 'of sound mind,' typically, one expects these 'conceptions' to come from some process of relational logic - and if dependent on the data and its quality, sometimes we say the process is only rational and not guaranteed to be always deriving a correct conclusion in the absolute sense.

An insane person may still have 'ideas,' yet they will potentially have disconnections from function, from actuality, and from true logic based on quality data and the necessary relational connections that make them 'sane' ideas. But once a system has been formed in the mind of the crazy person, that person becomes ideological.

Many ideologies are functionally useful, even though they rely on definitions that are extremely vague. Mathematics, or perhaps modern mathematics is one of these systems of ideas with vague but necessary definitions.

For example, all real integers have square roots... except (now here's the 'definition' and exception because of the 'definition:') for 1 (one), and 2 (two) the latter of which is an 'irrational' number and the former of which is, is, is... well they don't say, but it is an 'exception' to the rule about ALL REAL INTEGERS.

Oh and of course '0' (zero). And there is some other fanciful 'definition' that 'explains' what the problem is with 'zero;' it's not a number, or not a real number, or not er er er er, et cetera.

The true 'problem' with the ideology of modern systems of mathspeak is that it deliberately or maybe even just accidentally by habit, doesn't understand the definition of 'boundary.' A thing is not some other thing, because of the boundary concept.

Michelin 3-Stars is a system,
Robert Parker's wine rating is a system,
but genuine self-assurance is cultural and functional.

Sure there is some lip-service paid to boundaries in physics and Riemann space and things like that - but this already is in the upper reaches of weirdo (or at very least nerd!) maths and physics and not the commonplace maths taught in most schools.

You see the problem of the current financial and banking world and the economics obtaining there, is that 'definition' maths is iterative, and not generative; it relies on someone else having previously created something new and valuable, and then copying this endlessly using a process and a systematic plan of undermining inputs including time even to the extent of producing a counterfeit or substitute product and accepting that.

'Idea' maths - or logical idea maths, uses function as the means of ultimate proof, and defines difference through another, separate, discrete idea, namely - 'boundary' or 'boundaries.'

When difference is defined too vaguely, you can get into 'systems' becoming the substitute for logic - and then you have the presence of 'ideologues' in your midst.

And then you get this modern cult-ish nonsense of litanies (text books/'bibles'/platforms/ manifestos/manuals/extensive lists) of iterative slight changes with technical terms like you would find in the vocabulary of a separate language - but that are meant to cover 'everything' so that the 'system' becomes the universal; able to enclose all things.

Unlike a functional cultural memory of things that happened, this 'language' is theoretical but it's also like a fanatical religion. It doesn't work or function but one cannot argue against it or try to contradict the priests of the system.

But the main point is, it doesn't work.

The Invisible Slippers

Unless you have actually ever been to and lived in, one of the truly exotic places of the world, you will remain convinced that a modern academic codifying of ancient myths and legends is sufficient to understand how the world of human society works.

Today, Disney will tell us about 'Cinderella' and her glass slippers.

A magical boat, to the magical castle

Aarne-Thompson will tell us that this story falls under that category of the academic codex of world myths to do with the 'oppressed heroine.' Disney bills the story as the fabled lesson of 'the purest heart in a cruel world.'

I can hardly do justice to any of the things I learned growing up among Tamilians from South India... I might be able if you had a digital printer that was able to re-molecularize for you a tamarind soup and a fish murgh-thani.

The ancient Greeks had a story about some beautiful Thracian courtesan actually living at the time of Sappho, whose brother (IE. Sappho's) in fact, ransomed her from some tyrant or other.

And the Italians had a fairy tale about a certain 'Angelica, Pagan Princess of Cathay,' which is the same basic story - lost footwear, beautiful, pure-hearted and so on, falls in love with a prince... And there's plenty of magic in this version - magic fountains from which one can drink and immediately fall in love.

The modern Cinderella story has the heroine wearing glass slippers.

At night, the magic is in full force

If the heroine were a princess of Cathay - which would have meant India as well, at the time - and were she an Indian princess, she might easily have been wearing 'invisible' slippers!

There are many rationalists who like to dismiss Eastern and otherwise certainly quite ancient accounts of the effects and consequences of magical forces, or the employment of magical forces, to create kingdoms, amass wealth, gain an enchanted power over ordinary people's minds - usually, they like to explain things in terms of modern psychology. 

In the end, the carriage turns back into a pumpkin, and the brave chargers into mice.

Here endeth today's lesson on the magical kingdom... Do you know or have you heard of any magical kingdoms? Created from out of some dismal, and worthless swamp perhaps?

The Torturing of Billionaires

I am not going to linger on this subject because it is very distasteful to me, and in particular because of the sheer weight of public spin-doctoring of history that results in a kind of 'wastefulness' in raising these issues to a new and modern generation in any terms other than as a lesson to learn about what some humans are capable of doing and to what lengths they will go to put up a facade of respectability.

But, as in Plato's account of the fall of Atlantis, sometimes clues - albeit that they are very small ones - are to be seen in names and simple words and signs that survive the otherwise all-consuming flood.

Take a look at the name of the original founding political party of the Nation of Malaysia following its independence from the British Empire: 'The United Malaysian National Organisation.'

Take particular note of the word 'United.' 

This is different from the ideas that today's common and popular press and media is using to proliferate what are essentially deliberate lies used to aggrandize the memory of Lee Kuan Yew. The BBC has even shown an old film clip of Lee crying crocodile tears when he says that the Malaysian Prime Minister had told him to take Singapore with him and 'get thee out.'

If you go by what you see on the usual news, apparently, Singapore was an undeveloped swamp, and the Malaysian Prime Minister - in Lee's own deprecating words 'a backward-looking, non-modern, parochial person who had an opinion of himself as some kind of aristocrat.'

The BBC does not have the guts to explain to you, that in World War Two, methods of torture, were a little different than the tame bullshit that Dick Cheney sneeringly espouses can be used on other ignorant village idiots suspected of something vaguely anti-Coke or Pepsi.

But I will tell you one time, and one time only, what torture meant then.

Lee Kuan Yew, even during his lifetime, had the hide and audacity to say that he had indeed been an interpreter for Japanese wartime interrogators - of ethnic Chinese, of course; Lee was certainly no Malay.

Nevertheless, beforehand, there are things you need to know about the times of which I speak.

Here is a photograph of a car very similar to the one owned by then leader of the United Malaysian National Organisation, Tunku Abdul Rahman:

An Aston Martin of 1958

I know it is like it, because my uncle kept the car in his townhouse in a hidden garage at the back, since a lot of the locals thought at the time of the Prince as something of a playboy. My uncle was head of Shell Oil Far East.

Anyway, perhaps I'm wrong and it was only a sampan that was paddled after all through these famous 'swamps...'

Much much later on, a very wealthy property owner in Singapore called Tang Liang Hong, was sued by Lee and his government with the result of Tang leaving Singapore forever to live permanently in Australia.

Lee ended up taking all of the Tang families properties including the world famous Tang Department Store, even though this was partly owned by the rest of the Tang family in Shanghai.

Now, by 'Tang' we really mean 'Deng' as in Deng Xiao Peng. Or Deng like the Beijing way of saying the 'Tang Dynasty.'

And so, when I tell you that a certain Chinese Doctor by surname of Deng or Tang and his family were interrogated under torture by the Kempetai during WWII, we are talking about a HUGELY WEALTHY and aristocratic Chinese person.

The remnant of that particular family also went to live in Sydney, Australia shortly after WWII, and because the son (who was a very successful dental surgeon) married a blonde Swedish woman, the children actually have blonde hair and unusually not-very-Swedish eyes. And they today speak with extremely strong Australian accents too.

Now Lee says that the Tunku kicked him out of Federation. The reality is he was using a vast amount of money from some mysterious source to foment, behind the scenes, acts of race violence and he, and not anyone else, created this idea of ethnic and racial divisions in Singapore and Malaysia - and that is why, in the first place Rahman called his party 'United,' and it gained over 80% of the popular vote, whereas Lee, created the Chinese People's Action Party, demanding a special voting right for ethnic Chinese, although ONLY those of his party (because he said those NOT in his party MUST have been Communists).

This is the guy who in recent times, sucked up to the new Beijing, somehow changing the way he looked upon their 'spots.'

Malaya - is not an Arabic, nor a muslim or islamic word; it is Tamilian Indian. China and India had colonized various parts of the isthmus and islands since 100 AD. All of the Tunkus, are from Rama Rajah kingdoms and empires - and Tunku Abdul Rahman's Chief Minister was a Circassion.

If there was one single person responsible for the ethnic divides in this part of the world, above anyone else it was Lee Kuan Yew, and he did it, riding on top of other Chinese that he envied, despised, or was extremely callous towards.

Tunku Abdul Rahman, an
aristocrat, a Cambridge scholar,
and a gentleman.

Lee called Tunku Abdul Rahman an aristocrat, and that he was. And he was a Cambridge University graduate, and, yes, another one of these colonial era sultanic playboys. He spoke impeccable English. Unlike the clipped lingo of the street thug Lee, which Lee bequeathed his slave population.

And yes, the Tunku was a muslim, and he did have several wives, and children. But you will never, ever find anyone say anything against him, EXCEPT FOR LEE, who unwisely spoke his mind openly about the ways he thought about Rahman.

Rahman, says Lee, with tears rolling down his eyes, 'in his aristocratic manner, told me, get thee out.'

Now this is how the Japanese Secret Intelligence Division tortured people: they found some thickets of bamboo near the famous swamps that Lee tells us about, and they cut slivers of bamboo and inserted them under the fingernails of young girls. And then, they pulled out the fingernails altogether. And then, with the young girls watching, they inserted chopsticks into the ears of their fathers, and clapped their hands together, killing the men gruesomely. And there are other things too.

And that, is what Lee interpreted for. As he says, himself.

And that is what I wish you to know.

And do not tell me that any critic of what I say, or any modern government, or any press or media, or anyone either has the guts, or the brains, or the integrity to deal in any way honestly, openly, truthfully, or justly with anyone short of having some kind of heavenly finger pointed at their heads from some divine hand. And on this line, you may adduce more about today's ideas of academic science, financial regulation, legal justice, and social behaviour, following from the conclusion that with money, whether stolen from someone under extremes of torture, you can get away with absolute blue murder, and hang the odium of it onto 'political correctness.'

Rahman never sought an islamic nationstate in Malaysia and Singapore.

He never Arabicized the Malay language, or the Malay people - who are of many different ethnic sources. And as a well-read, aristocrat, he knew every well what he meant when he used the phrase: 'get thee out!'

And as a king, his words have indeed been prophetic as king's words are, since Lee is now in that very place for which he had been consigned by Rahman, after, Rahman, in Lee's own words again, 'had considered everything from A to Z and from Z back to A,' and finally come to his conclusion about where Lee should go.

Honest, Upright, and Truthful.

Even the BBC finally couldn't get away with it any longer - at last, in today's Obit. column for Lee Kuan Yew, the BBC says that he 'worked for the Japanese Propaganda Department during the War and was involved in the black market...'

The reality is, he was interpreting, actually physically present, during Japanese torture of wealthy Chinese professionals and businesspeople, including of their very young children, and he suddenly and mysteriously became extremely wealthy himself after the war, whilst being despised and ostracized by the general Chinese community not from his own extended family itself, and including the Hakka tribe of which he made been a 'black sheep.'

Socony building with
the Chrysler Building behind it

And as for the island of Singapore being a lowly and isolated and backward place before his 'reign,' here is a photo of the Standard Oil Company of New York's head office building in New York, built on the wealth of its major refinery in Singapore before and after the War. Not to mention that Singapore held the prime Asian and Southern-to-Northern hemisphere's shipping routes preferred port location due to its strategic position.

The world's first refrigerated air-conditioned department store was in Singapore BEFORE the War and dozens of major global corporations were located there: Unliver, Fraser and Neave, Palmolive, Dunlop's Tyre Company,  Shell and Socony, Castrol, Wrigley's, Union Carbide, Vestey's Shipping and Refrigeration, and many many more.

Singapore was hardly the Third World swamp that Lee and his cronies like to make out, and never the backward joint that the BBC stupidly has recently also claimed on behalf of the money that is doing its talking - especially since Churchill had the audacity to want to defend it from the Japanese and even worse, the foolishness to regularly go stay at the suites named after him later in Raffles Hotel, and that Somerset Maugham and even that drunken sot Anthony Burgess also stayed in to write their books and short stories. 

Every time you see some big-headed, self-opinionated, and obstinate political leader using heavy-handed tactics, it is always to cover over something wicked they themselves have done, and to intimidate others into shutting up. Always. And remember that, as you watch today's political leaders too - they are no different and they will never be any different and it is useless to bet that they are, due to 'new and different circumstances' or any other 'new' thing. It's always the same. Thieves, get into their positions, by thieving, and then creating drama to obfuscate on the truth of it.

"I GUARANTEE you, the Congress of the United States, that if you get rid of Saddam now, ALL of the problems of the surrounding Middle Eastern countries will be resolved!"

Who said that, and had the audacity to go back and do it again just the other day? Diebold machines. Diebold machines...