Posts About Sterling

-Poor MTV...they've gotten more paranoid. I say this because of what has recently happened to the video for "This Love" by Maroon 5 (which is a pretty good song, actually). The video has scenes of the lead singer (who is a guy) shirtless, with a woman who also has no clothes on her upper body. The original version of the video features no nudity anyone would find objectionable. Even though the girl is topless, you only see her back. And of course, most people don't have a problem with shirtless guys (unless they are fat and hairy, of course). However, MTV is now showing a different version of the video where the scenes with the guy shirtless are obscured by images of flowers (which is part of the motif of the video). Yep, you read that correctly...MTV actually obscured a shirtless guy. It doesn't matter what time you see the video...it's the same. This version of the video is also now showing on MTV Hits as well. VH1, however, is still showing the original version of the video. I guess you could consider that a victory for people who feel that men get off easy for being able to walk around with no shirt on without being censored. At the same time, though, it's kind of a double standard as MTV will continue to show videos that have women's booties all in the camera. My sister and mother complain about that all the time. But I think that I can say that the obscuring in the Maroon 5 video is no great loss...except to the teenybopper fans the group may have.

-I watched the film Memories last night. It's an anime anthology film of sorts, overseen by Katsuhiro Otomo (the guy who created Akira). I've heard a lot of great things about the film, but in all honesty, I think it's a little overrated. All of the segments have stories by Otomo, but he only directs one. The best segment is the first one callled "Magnetic Rose." Directed by Koji Morimoto (who did the short "Beyond" forThe Animatrix) with the screenplay written by Satoshi Kon (who directed Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress), "Magentic Rose" is a beautiful and dark sci-fi short. I could definitely tell that Kon wrote the screenplay since it deals a lot with fantasy versus reality (as does both Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress). Frankly, "Magnetic Rose" is the only short that could have been a film in its own right. The second short, "Stink Bomb" features a man who accidentally becomes the ultimate biological weapon. It's an action-packed, darkly humorous short that suffers from being too predictable. It reminded me a bit of Roujin-Z, another action-packed darkly humorous film that Otomo had something to do with. The last short, "Cannon Fodder" is the one directed by Otomo, and it's by far the most unique of the three. It deals with a city whose sole purpose is to shoot cannons at an unknown enemy. The style is decidedly different from the other two shorts (it looks more like animated sketches and illustations than traditional anime). It's interesting mainly because of the animation. However, storywise, it's the weakest of the three. As a whole, I enjoyed the film but I must again lament the lack of a dub. It's not because I don't like subs, but because the lack of a dub limits the audience. I've shown my mom a good amount of anime, and since she isn't a big fan of subs (because of her sight), I'll show her the dub. I'm not sure she would've liked Memories, but I think she might have enjoyed Millennium Actress...if there was a dub. If smaller anime companies can afford decent dubs, why can't bigger companies like DreamWorks and Sony??

-For the second presidential election in a row, Illinois basically has no say in who the Democratic presidential nominee will be. Our primary isn't until March 16th, weeks after John Kerry has basically already won the nomination. I firmly think that IL should move its primary up to at least Super Tuesday. Now, the only reason I have to vote in the primary is for Barack Obama to win the Democratic nomination for US Senate.