Butterfly Wreck

A small tragedy. 

See it? Hanging onto the leaf? A butterfly wreck. And here’s part of a wing. Bird strike I think.

What makes you blame a bird?

Cats can’t climb up there. My hypothesis is that the butterfly was feeding on the flowers, and a bird swooped, but didn’t like the taste. Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, very alkali. Predators don’t like the taste.

Didn’t help that one.

No, the attacker didn’t like the taste, spat him out, but by that time the damage had been done. Death of a butterfly.

__________

Voice-over

A small tragedy in nature. Pity the butterfly was mistaken for food.  A death in vain. Needless. Not easy persuading everyone that the decline in beautiful species is bad for the planet.

Some butterflies escape with only damaged wings. These can be repaired. There is an instructive video showing how to repair monarch butterfly wings at live monarch.

Not everyone feels butterflies are inconsequential fluttering ephemera. Some attach symbolic significance to them. Others regard them as important scientific phenomena. 

Long live monarchs! Butterflies that is!
...

Needless to say...

The manager speaks…

Let me begin by saying (1) that there may be a problem. That said(2), I feel sure it can be solved. Needless to say(3), there are sacrifices(4), we must all pitch in to overcome the issue, think outside the box on it, and run it up the flagpole to achieve a paradigm shift, so at the end of the day, we will all come out of it better people and ready to go forward(5).
_____________

Voice-over

Suggested rewrite:
We need to make cuts in spending (what). A meeting tomorrow for everyone (who), 8 am sharp, (when), in the multipurpose room (where), to figure out a way how to pay this year’s tax (why).

1. A declaration doesn’t need an introduction. Declare it.
2. Giving reassurance is not necessary before a solution.
3. If it is needless to say, it is needless to say.
4. A warning followed by an exhortation is better replaced by details of the plan.
5. Summarizing the "who," "when" and "where" is more effective than stringing transitions together.

White April Fools Rabbit

White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit

White April Fools Rabbit has a cautionary tale…

White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White….?

April Fool!
If you were expecting a White Rabbit, it being THAT time of the month again, then you may at first glance believe April has brought you a rabbit.

Expectations can fool you into thinking you really saw a rabbit. Appearances can be deceiving.

___________________

Voice-over

A rabbit in kangaroo’s clothing? A wolf in sheep’s clothing? Appearances can deceive. You think this moral comes from Aesop? This may not be quite right. There are claimants saying it comes from the Bible and that writers like Nikephoros Basilakis and Laurentius Abstemius adapted parts of Aesop fables to tell the wolf in sheep’s clothing story.
...

Butterfly Effect, Chaos and Catastrophe Theories

Lorenzo Monarch and Tiger Moth discuss theories

Lorenzo: You’ve heard of the butterfly effect?

Tiger Moth: You’re telling me that Monarchs rule the world? That one flap of your wings here in Mexico and you set off a maelstrom in Mauritius?

Lorenzo: Chain of events sets off a crisis far away. Chaos theory.

Tiger Moth: And you’ll be aware of catastrophe theory?

Lorenzo: A steady state that suddenly experiences change? It’s a branch of chaos theory.

Tiger Moth: Have you thought about how these apply to us? Today we choose to sip nectar from this bush, the bird misses us and we live. Tomorrow, we sip nectar from the next bush, the bird sees us and we’re dead. Catastrophe.
____________

Voice-over

Lorenzo Monarch is good at giving definitions. An abstract ability. Tiger Moth excels at giving examples. And makes it personal. But can either of them solve non-linear equations?

Edna Excoriates Ecclestone

Is Edna too OLD for Formula One?

Edna: Yes, Possums, I’m leaving it all. Going back to my roots. Moonee Ponds. One last fling with Les and that’ll be it. Timing it to arrive when all that Formula One nonsense is over. Last time in Adelaide, I said to Eckie, “Why can’t you have your little races somewhere else like Wagga Wagga?” so he plumped me in a driver’s seat and I had the thrill of my life, Possums, believe me. Oooh! All that vibration! I couldn’t say a word, could I?

I had the thrill of my life, Possums.

But this year, I said, “Eckie, I’d like some peace and quiet, can’t you have your little cars run quietly? They sound like whining mozzies and you can hear them all over Mellie, even in Moonee Ponds.” And you know what he said? “Can’t. Shan’t. Won’t.” Cheeky Eckie. So I said, “Eckie, if you can’t keep your cars quiet, I won’t turn up at your tent to open your event. No matter how many gladdies you give me. I’m going on a tour with Les. When you’ve cleared out, then I’ll come back to Melbourne.”

________________

Voice-over

Ozzie English which Dame Edna captures so well in the monologues that she is so good at, can be caricatured with cuddly Ozzie address terms like “Possums,” euphonious aboriginal place names like “Wagga Wagga,” and chopping nouns and adding “-ie” as in “Eckie,” “Mellie,” “gladdies,” and “mozzies.”

Edna also is a very effective storyteller. Briskly she answers the wh5: what, who, where, when and why, often through reporting the conversations she has and preceded by "You know what he said?" or "So I said..."

Edna turns DIALOGUES into MONOLOGUES. She excels as a MONOLOGIST.
...

Finger-wagging as a diversion?

Sean challenges George.

Sean: Why did you get yourself arrested?

George: Draw attention to the issue. To make a point about Sudan.

Sean: And I believe Scotland should be independent but I don’t wag the finger at the English. There are other ways.

George: You’re wagging the finger at me now. Another reason is that I don’t wear makeup in movies or in public and it’s starting to show. I needed a diversion. I wagged a finger.

Sean: And I want to become old with a good face, like Picasso.

___________

Voice-over

Finger-wagging, denoting disapproval, admonition, perhaps shame on you, also expressed in smiley code as [-X. It’s usually to emphasize a point than divert attention. Unless you happen to be an aging actor.
...

Méliès and Hugo

If you lose your purpose... it's like you're broken.

Jeanne and Georges talk about Hugo

Jeanne: The kids don’t say much.
Georges: The writer didn’t give them much to say.

Jeanne: Best line they gave Hugo was, “Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do... Maybe it's the same with people. If you lose your purpose... it's like you're broken.”

Georges: But the cinematography, the visuals, the sound, Jeanne.  Brilliant. As magical as Méliès.
Jeanne: You were always a vision person, Georges. You gave them icons. But I was an actress. In silent films. I always wanted to say something.

________________

Voice-over

Scorsese has given us Hugo. Beautiful film. Jeanne wishes there had been more dialogue. But Méliès’ films were silent, accompanied by music. Hugo is almost a silent film with music, punctuated with snatches of dialogue. Perhaps Scorsese intentionally reduced the dialogue as a tribute to Méliès.

...

Fieldwork and Theory: Indiana Jones meets Charles Darwin

Paths cross...

Indiana Jones: Great theories, sir.

Charles Darwin: Comes from careful fieldwork.

Indiana Jones: Always have this feeling to be a good archaeologist, I gotta get out of the lab.

Charles Darwin: But in the end you have to spend most of your time in the lab to analyze the data and construct your theories.

 __________

Voice-over

Aside from Darwin being a naturalist and Jones being an archaeologist, they left different discoveries, different legacies. You can run around cracking a whip, collecting specimens, and collecting good stories. But in the end the theories are the greatest goal. Discovering an ark, a phantom symbol of people’s superstitions, doesn’t seem quite as compelling an achievement as divining the origin of species.

Yet it seems to be easier to make a film about a lost ark than creation.

And it seems Indiana Jones was more comfortable immersed in fieldwork than in the library.

...

Dyslexic Storytelling

Walt receives this postcard......

WHITE RABBIT?  BLAM!

Walt: He warned me. He said, “Don’t say it this month!”

Clint: Say what?

Walt: You know. It’s the first of the month. Sent me this postcard. He gets irritated when I say it every first of the month.

Clint: Sorry, I’ve lost you. What is this thing you were warned not to say?

Walt: White Rabbit.

Clint: Ah, the monthly good luck routine! Who said, “Don’t say it?”

Walt: Fox. Last month he warned me. He said, “White Rabbit? BLAM!” Then I get this postcard from him. A posse of rabbit shooters. And a running board draped with ten dead rabbits.

Clint: Unkind.

Walt: But I said it anyway. White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit.

___________________

Voice-over

Walt is one of those people who begin their stories in the middle. Neglects to say who originally did what to whom. Needs prompting: “Sorry, I’ve lost you.” 

Like a dyslexic reader whose eye movements are uncontrolled, a dyslexic storyteller doesn’t process the events coherently.

...

Elephant as Eco-friendly Papermaker

Lunch munched...

At the elephant orphanage…

Neil: Process. First, the trees are cut down. Next, they are cut into chips at the mill. Then, the chips are mixed with water and chemicals to become pulp. After that, the pulp is spread on a wire mesh. Finally, it is heated and dried and pressed to become paper.

For scratch pad

Anil: Elephants are more eco-friendly. First, they eat leaves and branches. Next, we collect their dung and wash it to reduce it to fiber. Then, the fiber is mixed with water to become pulp. After that, the pulp is spread on a wire mesh. Finally, it is dried in the sun and pressed to become paper. No fossil fuels, no electricity, no chemicals.

________________

Voice-over
Neil’s five-step “First, Next, Then, After that, Finally” process model involves oil-using saws, trucks, and factories.

Anil’s five-step “First, Next, Then, After that, Finally” process model involves no fuel-driven machinery, only elephants and sunshine.

A sustainable Sri Lankan solution.

…

Tintin: Comic to Film?

Tintin and Haddock ponder their migration from book to screen.

Tintin: What would Hergé have thought of us?

Haddock: Turning in his grave likely.

Tintin: Wish we had better lines to speak.

Haddock: Too right! It’s getting boring saying “Billions of blue blistering barnacles” over and over again.

Tintin: Think we should have stayed home in the comic. Everybody applauded us there.

______________

Voice-over

What’s not to applaud? Why did the movie drag for so many people? Why did so many of us get restless and not even grin? The movie begins well, it looks good. Give it 50% for looks?

The flaw. Pragmatically, the dialogue is stilted and wooden. Sure, a movie should be action, and too much talk will slow it down and clutter it up. But in TinTin and the Secret of the Unicorn, too much action clutters it up, and talk drags it down (e.g. when Thompson and Thomson stumble on the wallet pickpocket). Hergé’s light lilt doesn’t migrate across the media.

Action movies can be elevated by decent dialogue. Some comics should stay comics. At least until a dialogue doctor checks out the lines. Sorry.
...

Three-liners from the Big Three of science fiction

Best Three Sci-Fi Writers’ Best Three-Liners

Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov, meet at a conference.

Isaac: How about a competition? See who can come up with the most memorable quote.

Arthur: You think there will come a time when people will remember us by our one liners, not our books?

Robert: Even politicians can do one-liners.

Arthur: How about three-liners?

Isaac: I can see where this is going. Problem, alternative hypothesis and null hypothesis?

Arthur: Well, just three lines that reveal a story. Like, “New ideas pass through three periods: (1) It can't be done. (2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. (3) I knew it was a good idea all along!”

Robert: Bravo! OK, how about this? “Theology is searching in a dark cellar for a black cat that isn't there.”

Isaac: Three concepts, but only one line, Robert. Sorry. How about this to control robots? “Law 1: A robot may not injure a human. Law 2: A robot must obey human orders, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Law 3: A robot must protect itself as long as this protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

_____________

Voice-over

So, the Big Three sci-fi writers have a three-liner competition! Arthur C. Clarke’s quote hints at his ability to prophesy. Robert Heinlein reveals his fondness for philosophy and metaphysics. Isaac Asimov dazzles with his mathematical logic. Who wins? Perhaps Asimov in this case eschews wit to attempt wisdom.

... 

Logo of Zorro

The Mask of Zorro (1998)

(1) Montero: I'm sorry that I have to leave you without a husband. [to his guards] Arrest him.

(2) de la Vega (indicating the sword): Do you know how to use that thing?

Murrieta: Yes. The pointy end goes into the other man.

de la Vega: [sighs] This is going to take a lot of work.

(3) Murrieta: The great warrior known as Zorro was gone. The people gave him a hero's funeral, but your grandfather will live on. For there will always be a Zorro. We will see him again... riding like the wind, his sword blazing in the sun... leaping, jumping, swinging through the air... Fighting like a tiger.

_________

Voice-over

Zorro’s logo, the letter “Z” (tilted 65 degrees) is also a metaphor for Zorro’s reincarnation. He rises, he falls, he rises again. Montero's “Arrest him!” triggers the fall, the exchange “pointy end goes in the other man,” marks the rise, and the storytelling, “There will always be a Zorro,” signals the climax where de la Vega passes Zorro’s mask to Murrieta.

He'd kill us if he got the chance

He'd kill us if he got the chance.

Take 3 …

Ann: This film we’re in, it’s a metaphor. Those six microphones they’re pointing at us.

Mark: Yeah. Metaphors for guns.

Ann: They’re having a hard job recording us.

Mark: Don’t be too sure. It’s hi-tech gear. Shotgun mikes, super-super cardioid.

Ann: Shotguns? See, I told you. He’d kill us if he got the chance.

Mark: You’re obsessing about him killing us. We’re just actors.

CUT!

________

Voice-over

Harry Caul is a surveillance expert, who contracts to record people’s conversations. He’s good at his job; he takes the craft of deciphering incomprehensible speech to the level of art.

Significantly, The Conversation, (1974), a Francis Ford Coppola film, owes much of its acclaim to the editing of Walter Murch, the sound designer. Harry collects sounds, filters out the distractions, and constructs his eavesdroppings. A sound editor like Walter Murch works like this too. Harry, in the way he works, is a metaphor for a sound editor.

But Harry’s job takes him into other people’s private spaces. Then Harry becomes obsessed that his own privacy has been compromised, in his apartment.

And so it has. Just as ours is by the internet, by Google, by FaceBook. We are never alone now.

White Wabbit

The Puppet Rabbit tells why…

Pinocchio: "White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit." Where did that come from?

Rabbit B: It came from a Puppet Wabbit. Long time ago. He told kids, you say “White Wabbit” three times soon as you wake up on the first day of a new month, you get good luck for the west of the month.

Pinocchio: My family had natural good fortune. We bent the truth a little at times, it is true, but we were all lucky. Our master Gepetto told us.

Rabbit B: An ancestor puppet wabbit was told by his master you have to make your luck happen. Saying “White Wabbit” every first day of the month is an affirmation.

Pinocchio: If you don’t my asking, why do you puppet rabbits call yourselves “wabbits”?

Rabbit B: That was my Uncle Bugs. He started it. He was a glider.

______

Voice-over

We might add that it was Uncle Bugs’ puppeteer Elmer’s voice-over that began this. Gliding the “r” into a “w” may be a little condescending to kids, but  if it were a genuine disorder, perhaps a palatologist could have sorted him out.

Cartesian Duck

A Discussion brought to you by the Letter “D”.

Donald: I think I am a duck. Therefore I must be a duck.
Douglas: You mean, you walk like a duck, quack like a duck, so you must be a duck?
Donald: Is there a difference?
Douglas: There is. You look like a duck. You quack like a duck. Therefore, it is possible you belong to the Anatidae family. But it doesn’t mean you can think.
__________
Voice-over
Donald’s identity problem can be explained by…
(a) Cartesian logic.
(b) Cartesian linguistics.
(c) Cartesian diving.
(d) Cartesian coordinates.
…

Reductionist definitionism

Zhi questions Jiang on his character over mah jong.

Zhi:You must read Malcolm Gladwell.
Jiang: Tipping point? I have. I liked it.
Zhi: So which are you: a connector, a maven or a salesman?
Jiang: Meaning?
Zhi: Connector, meaning people who carefully keep up even casual social connections. Maven, meaning someone who has lots of information about products and deals. Or salesmen, who persuade people of something they are doubtful about.
Jiang: I’m an extreme form of none of them. I know a few people, I know something about my job, when needed I can persuade someone to do something.
Zhi: You’re a generalist?
Jiang: I’m a reductive definitionist. I can explain things simply.
__________
Voice-over
Jiang has a talent for summarizing in a few everyday words. The skill might be called reductionist definitionism. He calls himself a reductive definitionist.
But Jiang is not only this. His whole is more than the sum of his parts. He is also a professional mah jong player.

...

On FaceBook everyone knows you're a cat

Sketch of a General Cat    

Jerry: You Photoshopped your photo into a sketch?
Tom: What do you think?
Jerry: You’ve gone from being You The Cat to being merely a Generic Cat.
Tom: I needed a new avatar. I stuck with being a cat because, in the end, on FaceBook, everyone knows you are a cat.
Jerry: You got that from somewhere.
Tom: Maybe. Who cares? Everything these days is a derivative. A mixture. A mashup. OK, so the structure came from somewhere but the words are mine.

____________
Voice-over     
The deep structure generates a variety of sentences:

Location + Entity + Verb + Personal reference + Copula + Entity

On the internet + nobody + knows + you + are + a dog

On FaceBook + everyone + knows + you + are + a cat

Look forward to more quotations like this sheep in wolf’s clothing!

Chomsky might agree the surface structure is creative. A little.

...

Cabinet reshuffle backstory

The politics behind the politics
Reshuffle already? After only four months in office?
Officially, he’s doing it because two ministers messed up. Opposition says he’s doing it to cause a diversion to push through the tax increase.
And the word on the street?
Word on the street is this: One: He’s made his rival Okada deputy PM. Two: Then he announced that Okada will oversee the tax increase. Three: This tax reform will cause an outcry and is sure to fail. Four: The public will crucify Okada. Five: Noda stays as PM. That’s the back story. Set up a rival to fall on his sword.

__________
Voice-over
Political analysis is never simple, but here there are at least three versions:
(1) The official announcement: cabinet reshuffle.
(2) Opposition takes the opportunity to shine a light on the hidden agenda: tax increase.
(3) Back story: conspiracy theory.
...

Rhyming as a signal of verbal intelligence

GM likes to rhyme responses.    
wh5: Robert only had 40 friends on Facebook a couple of months ago. Now he’s got over 200.
GM: Friends? What means friends?  I saw George’s profile. He claims 500 PLUS “friends.”
wh5: Well, maybe such people just collect people. Like stamps. Or insects. Grab them. Pin them. Display them. Label them “friends.”
GM: So is all this connecting to “friends” becoming a competition?
wh5: Seems so. And what is a “friend”?
GM: Someone you spend time with, send messages to, lend things to.
wh5: And an acquaintance?
GM: Someone who you glance at, meet by chance, then exist in an expanse.
wh5: And is this “competition,” you allude to, coming from people competing, or companies wanting growth?
GM: It’s froth. It’s growth. Both.

____________
Voice-over    
In structure, this is a cooperative conversation of question and counter-question to reach consensus.

Stylists sometimes caution against peppering our prose with alliteration, puns or rhymes. But there can be fun in it. Some like Geoffrey Miller go so far as to say rhyming is difficult to do, that a speaker has to try harder to make a rhyme, and likens it to a peacock display, or in a human context, a signaling of verbal intelligence.

A win-win retribution: Wall Street II

Narrative Profile: Wall Street I (blue) & Wall Street II (red)

Wall II follows Wall I’s narrative… with a twist…
Saturday night was a good night to stay in and watch a movie. Except I watched two.
Two?
Two the same. Well a prequel  followed by a sequel. Wall Street the original and…
Money Never Sleeps?
The very pair. And they are so similar.
Because of Michael Douglas?
That but more than that. It’s the narratives. They have an identical narrative profile. But with a twist in II.
Ah. Bad old guy vs innocent newbie?
Bad old guy corrupts innocent idealistic newbie who then outwits bad old guy. Bud in Wall I gets a confession on tape of Gordon Gekko and Jake in Wall II derails Gordon with a movie of his grandson on CD. Media denouement, both times.
You’d think Gordo would have learned not to trust media.

___________
Voice-over
Media. You can imagine Oliver Stone thinking, “Bud wore a wire and taped Gordon to get him put away for twenty years. But in Wall II, I’ll have Jake give Gordon a film of his grandson’s ultrasonic scan (a representation of a representation) to reel him back into the family and give back the 100 million.

Wall I: Young idealistic newbie (Bud) uses medium of sound recording tape to attack Gordon. Destructive retribution.
Wall II: Young idealistic newbie (Jake) uses meta-media to subdue Gordon, defeat him, win the money back, and bring him into the family. A win-win retribution.

White Rabbitism

A DOUBLE greeting for a new month! And a new year!

It's the first of a new month so ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce, our new religion:

WHITE RABBITISM!

And a religion needs a leader.

What better leader for the WHITE RABBIT religion than   ...

The Cultural Rabbit.

None other than BUGS myself.

HAPPY NEW YEAR for 2012

And, since it is the first of a new month, shout …

“WHITE RABBIT WHITE RABBIT WHITE RABBIT!”
as soon as you get up in the morning and good luck will follow you for the month.

_______________
Voice-over 

You can worship the head of a sardine if you wish. But a white rabbit has more class. And a white rabbit offering a month's worth of good luck in exchange for saying  "White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit" as soon as you wake up on the first day of a new month sounds a good deal and more economical than attending church on four Sundays a month. It isn't flaky, it has has some culture, some tradition, some history. If it gets enough worshippers, White Rabbitism could be very BIG! 

...