It's a spoiler, of course, but the main character in "Titanic" has died and is entering the afterlife:
Eerie!
January 30, 2010
"This reminds me of the final scene in the movie Titanic."
Lefauxfrog leaps over the mental block I had when I saw that picture on the White House Flickr page:
It's a spoiler, of course, but the main character in "Titanic" has died and is entering the afterlife:
Eerie!
It's a spoiler, of course, but the main character in "Titanic" has died and is entering the afterlife:
Eerie!
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58 comments:
Well, it didn't make me sorry I never saw that movie!
One is a final scene in a story of a disaster, the other is the opening scene.
so who is the former lover waiting at the top of the steps for a romantic embrace of the President ? and why arent those people standing their clapping, trying to shake kate's hand ?
Ann, why do you post these things ? what is eerie ? what is the point you are trying to make ?
the only sense i can make of this is that you really are secretly working on a career in fiction, and that imaginative work is just spilling over onto your blog.
danielle,
Are you married to a guy named Jeremy?
wv: bralace= new stuff at Lee Lee's Valise
[climbing an on-deck staircase to the stern as the ship is about to sink]
Male Passenger: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...
Jack: You want to walk a little faster through that valley there?
(TItanic, 1997)
I find your musing amusing, Ann!
Fire the Flickr stream manager!
What is the image being promoted here? "Witness the adulation! See the outpouring of appreciation through the eyes of The One."
The Flickr stream manager is a fanboy. Get him out.
Find someone who knows how to pick pictures that make the President look as impressive as possible. Only the most flattering, image-building photos should be in that stream.
The problem isn't only that whoever picks the pictures is a fanboy. He also seems to think that the WH photo stream should be a gallery of artistic expression as selected by him.
No.
The stream is marketing. It should be marketing an ideal image of the President and his office. Use artistic photos that do that. But do not put in photos just because you think they look cool.
Captain of the Titanic, Edward Smith, to the head shipbuilder, Thomas Andrews, who was on the maiden voyage and checked the damage:
"What do you think?"
Andrews: "We're going to sink."
peter, i missed the meaning of your snark. please explain. thanks.
It is a surprising photo because it is showing off what it is like for Obama to receive all of the Glory. We will see many more photos just like it. They please the boss , even if Michelle cannot stomach seeing any more of them.
Note Alito's look (or non-look)
Ann, why do you post these things ? what is eerie ? what is the point you are trying to make?
Think of it as 21st century 'metaphisical' poetry.
The word "metaphysical" means using words with their ordinary meaning, but are describing something by means of an image or symbol.
Tuch'n innit.
* dabs tear *
Wait. Where were we?
I wonder, though, is the photographer in front of Obama, is he holding the camera over his shoulder or what? I always thought it strange the way Washington photographers scramble around trying to stay below table height, get out front for the best shot, trying and failing to be unobtrusive.
I don't see any deck chairs.
I don't see any deck chairs.
They were folded pending the appointment of a deck chair commision to recommend how and when the deck chairs will be rearranged
Justice Alito: Hey Chief, do you know the difference between Bill Clinton and the Titanic?
Chief Justice Roberts: No.
Justice Alito: Only 1500 people went down on the Titanic.
The Duke of Norfolk: Oh confound all this. I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not but dammit, Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!
Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?
Uh, sure - truly eerie...
I always thought that was just a dream, not the afterlife.
Ann, why do you post these things ? what is eerie ? what is the point you are trying to make?
It's because this is one big pro-Marijuana blog. Pro-LSD too. She just can't come out and say it because she's a law prof and a respectable upstanding member of the legal community.
When you are high you see the connections much more clearly.
A President's heart is a deep ocean of platitudes.
Don't be silly! Obama is unsinkable. That's why his team never thinks up contingency plans; they're like lifeboats, they hurt moral.
Tea parties? Scott Brown? Rush Limbaugh? Ignore them, we've got to pass our agenda as fast as possible so our poll numbers shoot up. Full steam ahead!
Brazil
Alito is Sam Lowry.
Swamp Thing!
Alito is Adrienne Barbeau.
Scalia is the midget.
It's safe to say that Obama is a ghost of the man who campaigned for the office of President of the United States.
Alito is the manikin that became a real person. (maibe ;)
Well I never did see the movie but one helluva comparison. Just short of three years now until the final chapter in OUR American drama/nightmare.
"so who is the former lover waiting at the top of the steps for a romantic embrace of the President ?"
Saul Alinsky? Maybe Cloward or Piven.
A topical photoshop.
The scene may be Titanic, but the monologue would have to be this:
Folks! What can I tell you about my next guest? This cat allowed himself to be adored, but not loved. And his success in show business was matched by failure in his personal relationship bag, now - that's where he *really* bombed. And he came to believe that show business, work, love, his whole life, even himself and all that jazz, was bullshit. He became numero uno game player - uh, to the point where he didn't know where the games ended, and the reality began. Like, for this cat, the only reality -- is death, man. Ladies and gentlemen, let me lay on you a so-so entertainer, not much of a humanitarian, and this cat was never *nobody's* friend. In his final appearance on the great stage of life - uh, you can applaud if you want to - Mr. Joe Gideon!
Almost perfect, with just two alterations:
"matched by failure in his political leadership bag"
"In his second appearance on this great stage of life"
Andrews: [as the ship starts sinking faster, Andrews sees Guggenheim and his valet dressed in their most formal clothing] Mister Guggenheim... Your lifebelt...
Benjamin Guggenheim: It was uncomfortable. We have dressed now in our best, and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.
I'm still at work, so I can't see the photo:
Lem,
You beat me to a description of the word "metaphysical", though I would've thrown a "dumbshit" or two in there.
Chip,
I had/have (not sure any more) a friend who's a bigshot photographer - Newsweek, U.S. World News, etc. - and watching him, and his collegues, work filled me with awe: there's actually a kind of ballet going on, that everyone involved understands, for getting position. The guys who can't "disappear" are relative newbies, and seniority counts.
Henry,
That's one of my favorite speeches in film.
I was reminded more of the opening scene in Gladiator, where the camera tracks from Russell Crowe's perspective as he walks through a trench lined with his Roman staff officers preparing to attack the German tribesmen.
It's repeated later in the film, when the now disgraced Maximus rallies his fellow gladiators before they go out to see what horrors Emperor Commodus has organized to meet them in the arena.
The film is the story of both a tragedy and a triumph. Which, in a way, Titanic is also.
daniellle,
The commentariat here just displayed why she does this, and they did it quite well, as usual, high or not.
Maybe, I'm just a rube or a young girl rube with a graying beard, but I liked "Titanic". Not the love story part, but the bigness, the tragedy, the reliving it as well as is possible without a time machine. It's an incredible story that puts fictional ones to shame.
I'm not gay, NTTIAWWT.
Something about Geithner gives me the creeps. I don't know what it is. He would scare the hell out of me as the manipulative plotting murderous husband in a horror film. It's unfair, since I really know nothing of him personally but, he just looks very untrustworthy and relentless.
I think some see Dick Cheney the same way, but I don't. I think I could just outrun him and he does not look very stealthy.
Jason wrote:
A topical photoshop.
I think the original is actually quite topical, especially given the relative number of theoreticians the president has on board (click to the last link to the data comparing Presidents and the number of real world experience people in their cabinets).
btw, I loved that last scene in Titanic.
"I always thought that was just a dream, not the afterlife."
Chris -- when the movie was out, there was a big debate in my office about whether that was a drem seqence or a death scene. I thought it obviously was a death scene, but some really smart people (including my then-future husband) thought it was a dream.
SteveR wins the thread.
@Freeman...exactly and fanboy is definately the WH curator of Obama's metrosexual image. Becks can pull it off, as does Sting, Obama? Not so much. He'll always be Urkle.
btw-I'm not dyslexic, but every time I see SOTU on a page it registers STFU; which is disconcerting, yet amusing. It adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the topic at hand.
@bagoh20 9:19
I've always thought Geithner's large forehead, odd hair and grimaces are right out of Berke Breathed's sketchbook.
The end of the Titanic is so haunting because it happened just two years before WWI. The confidence of the passengers in the safety of their vessel was mirrored by their confidence in the ability of their leaders to wage a quick, successful war. There were over a million casualties in the Battle of the Somme alone. Western Civ was quite sinkable....I wonder if Obama's buoyant smile isn't like that of the Captain, greeting passengers on the first night out.
We could never share more than one brandy together, William.
I've long ago given up both fear and crying.
And I see the worthless seattle maggot, gary locke.
I served with his cousin. Most of the family would like to toss him in the Duwamish with concrete blocks tied to his feet.
It appears that walking in front of the POTUS is a camerman. There is a 24 hour hype of this man. And that's all there is, is hype.
I'm agnostic about whether that scene is the afterlife or a dream. But I'm certain it should have ended with a fistfight between Jack and the guy she married later on.
Or it could be like any one of a number of Sopranos' clips where Tony recollects the crew around him laughing at his jokes in slow motion while he silently questions their loyalty.
3:51
"I think some see Dick Cheney the same way, but I don't. I think I could just outrun him and he does not look very stealthy."
Yeah, but could you outrun his shotgun?
Honestly, I think still shots of human reactions are prone to wild misinterpretation - especially if the shutter speed is high enough, which must be common given the higher quality of modern digital cameras. There are an infinite number of motions one's face could go through when transitioning from one position to the next and what looks like one, easily discernible reaction in all likelihood is simply too quickly shot to reveal a subject's true response.
The distinct and interesting facial reactions captured here can easily prompt discussion and even analysis, but it's probably best to resist such temptations.
I guess we are all characters in Obama's fantasy. It does feel that way sometimes.
that Secret Service guy behind Geithner is giving the G-man a hard stare ...
I wonder if he knows something we don't ?
I think it's Goodfellas.
Obligatory Photoshopped version of Ann's Titanic idea here.
Does Geithner wear a toupee? That sure is a funny looking mop he has.
As opposed to terrorists getting their 72 virgins, is there where a dead president goes to? A large room containing over 600 douche bags?
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