Yeah... actually you can.. I know there is a reconding on Kazaa right now of a 4th of July concert we did on the Capitol lawn in DC. If you search Washington Symphony and Night on Bald Mountian it should still come up. I can email you a listing of some of our other recordings if you are interested in looking them up. I would be curious to see how many have made it to Kazaa. Most of my recordings were before CD's became big, but some of them have made it to CD now.

Dont be impressed.. it was a great job that I loved to have... Pretty much got to live my life long dream.

Your generalizing and lack of REAL knowledge of Americans (as opposed to the stereotype) is staggering. EVERYONE I know has seen at least half the films JeremySF mentioned. A lot have seen them all. And I do not study film or hang in high-brow pretentious asshole circles. The big blockbuster movies you so deride Hollywood for making are not just for Americans. They are sold all over the world and the fact is the big action movies are huge in other countries.

English Patient won how many Oscars? And it made more than $50 million. Also, doesn't Lord of the Rings have English accents? Again, easily 50 million plus.

4 weddings and a funeral...again more than 50 million.

I think Snatch was pretty close to $50 million. Those Merchant Ivory films also do pretty damn well. And, I don't know how much Amelie did, but it did pretty well......





No doubt! Hey, I get very uncomfortable when people agree with me.

:drinkup :drinkup

I'm sure....I usually bow out once they're not fun anymore. I'm a very sarcastic and cynical person, so it takes quite a lot to actually offend me.

Shit, JoeSixPack spews anti-American shit all day long, but I don't take offense. I'll give him shit back, but it's all in good fun. How boring it would be if everyone agreed?

But, all those people who take things way too seriously, scare me......

Let me explain something to you first of all.

The films that Jeremy mentioned:

The English Patient
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Snatch
Amelie
Like Water for Chocolate
Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down
El Mariachi
Boys in the Hood

are mainstream releases. All of them... with the possible exception of El Mariachi. All of them recieved a decent release. They ARE foreign films but they are still mainstream releases. That you and your friends have seen them does not surprise me.

But I'll bet you saw most on video or DVD.

And yes, blockbusters are made for worldwide release. So? I knew that. I never denied that. But McDonalds is sold almost everywhere but it's still shit food. Hollywwod cinema, by and large is still shit cinema.

I stand corrected.



That?s not true. I like to hear you talk!

Cool, I?m going to check it out. I?m yet another one cultured muthafuckin? pornographer!

How can you take the Oscars seriously? Come on man, Titanic won Best picture! :1orglaugh I bet those awards is the sole reason The English Patient made over $50 million though. I'd still be ineterested in checking the actual box office figures.

And come on, Lord of the Rings, although directed by a Kiwi is a big studio film. Anyway, I preferred Peter Jackson when he was making Bad Taste, Heavenly Creatures and Brain Dead. True classics.

L e t m e t a l k r e a l s l o w f o r y o u J o e.


My point is that you continually paint us into a culture less box. You paint yourself as this highly educated, world traveler that that frowns on anything and everything that is not from Australia

You also called me ignorant which without knowing me in the slightest is an ignorant statement in itself.

You?re right... I know more about classical music then you do... That being said... it is safe to say I know more about every type of music then you do. You might know a bit about film and that?s very exciting for you.... I can tell.

Keep in mind Joe.... studying an art does not an artist make. You can talk to me about your "art" in about 28 years... That?s how long I have been practicing mine.

You can bash our culture all you want man. Only ignorant people bash something they covet or don?t understand.

I agree...McDonald's fucking sucks! Thank god I live in Cali where we can eat In-N-Out Burger, which is actually food, not processed dog shit.




btw....Joe, are you on ICQ? If you are, add me to your ICQ....

Added.

:)

yikes. you might even remember the Atari 400. even my keyboard today isnt spillproof...

http://www.oldcomputers.freeserve.co.uk/atari-400.jpg

I'm not going to defend the Oscars. My point was accents!! That's what we were talkin gabout.

And, yes, Heavenly Creatures, I'm sure was ten times Lord of the Rings. Heavenly Creature was a great film!!! :thumbsup

1. I do not frown on anything and everything that isn't from Australia. I love art from all countries.
2. You know more about ALL types of music than me but I only know a "bit" more about film than you. How very patronising.
3. I'm not bashing your culture. I'm bashing those who equate popularity with artistic value.
4. If I called you ignorant it's because I believe you made an ignorant statement. I may have been pissedoff at the time.
5. It's true that studying art does not an artist make. I never called myself an artist. But studying art did give me an undertsanding of film technique/film theory/film history that most will never have.
6. I understand your culture more than you understnd mine. This I guarantee you. Aside from spending six months in your country I was married to an American for 9 years.

Yes but they were very Hollywoodized English accents.

VERY easy to understand.

If they were Cockney accents, well that'd be another story! :1orglaugh

That's the point I was making. Those films received decent releases and did well in America. We are not all a bunch of cultural yahoo morons waiting for "Pearl Harbor II" cuz that first one had some grat fuckin' explosions,man! And yes, I gotta cop to seeing a lot of movies on DVD. I mostly go see movies with my son. Which is why those crappy blockbusters make so much money. They appeal to that low common denominator the world over and can simply get more butts in seats. Even parents who would rather not be there. Like you said, good movies are being made. Just indepedently. The Hollywood studio system is not really the way to judge Art In American Cinema. The reason I fell in love with HK cinema about 8 years ago is because it was so much fucking FUN to watch stuff that did not always follow the formula I had become used to with American films. We HUNGER for this stuff!

Well, if they were Cockney accents, mate, do you think any American (or Brit for that matter) could actually understand it?

Which brings me to yet another $50 million + movie, which was less difficult than Cockney to understand, but challenging for most Americans nonetheless.....Trainspotting.



The point is simple. You said Americans don't like foreign accents in their films. I am demonstrating that that is not true. I don't care if the movie was "commercial", your contention was that we don't like accents in movies and I disagree.

Well... Let me be the first to tell you Joe... Our "culture" does not center around Blockbuster and McDonlds. I hate to disapoint you.

Joe... people become artist so they can entertain and for teh love of there art.. I did not give a rats ass if the people who came to hear us perfom knew anything about my craft. My only hope was that they were entertained and maybe even moved by our performace. Most of them had no idea the years of effort and the mechanics that went into our performace. They just wanted to hear the music and to be entertained.

Thats how I view movies... I dont care about all the years of training or the writing or the "artistic" value of the film. I want to have a huge tub of popcorn and a Pepsi and enjoy the movie. Its called entertainment and I like it.


Joe.. come on man.. Are you saying you learned as much about film while studying for "three" years as I know about music in my 28 years of study? If you can learn everything about film in three years it would explain the crap that us Americans are putting out! :1orglaugh

Six months.... wow man!! LOL I have been here forty years.. Also.. I had a Chevy Impala for 11 years.. I was with it everyday.. I drove it, changed the oil, waxed it on the weekends and fed it gas everytime it wanted it. You might say I was "married" to my Impala. However... Chevy did not call to offer me a job because of my extensive experience with one of it's models. :Graucho

I'll watch a movie with an accent if there's some explosions and titties to make up for it. Throw in guns and monster trucks and hell, I might even read subtitles.

Joe, are you saying that you can understand an entire culture by having been married to one? One person is representative of a 280 million person country? One could easily contend that you are projecting the unresolved tension between you and your ex on all americans.....

if it's porn, I don't even care if they include the subtitles.

My "three" years studying film is only the time I spent studying it in an academic institution. I have been "studying" it most of my life.

What were you playing? Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi? I bet you weren't playing something that was put together by a bunch of money-hungry executives whose job security is based upon how well their next film/piece of music does financially. I'm sorry mate but art and commerce DO NOT mix. Never have, never will.

Of course there are American film artists. The Coen Brothers, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, P.T. Andersen, Hal Hartley... and many others. But these guys are writer/directors. Their body of work makes sense as a whole. Just like looking at Van Gogh's work as a whole makes sense in the context of his life. Or Mozart's.

You can call Hollywood films what you want. Entertainment? Sure. I might disagree. But when I go to the movies, I probably see films a little differently than you. That's not to claim superiority, that's just because that's where my interest and my knowledge lies. I'm sure you hear a classical concert differently to me because you understand music theory to a greater degree than I do. But Hollywood films are very rarely art. Mostly, they're products, put together by people whose job it is to make money for the studio. There's no artistic process. There's simply commercial concerns.

Your comparison doesn't quite make sense to me. You claim not to care about "years of training" but surely you can tell the difference between a musician who has been playing his instrument for a year and one who has been playing it for thirty? It's all in the craftsmanship, the artistry, the subtleties. You claim not to care about the "writing" but isn't this just "composition"? Surely you can tell the difference between something ordinary and something inspired or magical when it comes to musical composition? You claim not to care about the "artistic value" of films. So why is art important at all? You called music an art and I agree it is an art. If you don't care about a film's "artistic value" then you are saying you don't care about art at all. Or maybe you just put your art above all others. What would you think if some guy said to you after one of your concerts "Yeah man, it was okay but i can't dance to your stuff." That's what you are sounding like to me. Don't denigrate film as art because you don't understand what makes it artistic.

Living standards in Canada are better then the US, and I love asian pussy so being in Vancouver is great for me.
I have zero interest in living in the US.

Except I'd consider moving to is Hawaii. Very beautiful place, and lots of Japanese girls vacation there.
So Hawaii is good, the rest of the US I wouldn't want to live.

ahhhh.. the the thorn in joe's side is revealed.. lol.

Actually it isn't what you think. She has nothing to do with any anti-Americanism I have. She was actually very intelligent. Most of it has come from this board!

just taking the piss dude.. :)

America is a gun happy, selfish, ignorant, unloyal, my dick is bigger, kill the black man, bullshit country. I would never want to live in america. I think "Bowling for Columbine" explains my views on america nicely.

I'm Australian and there's plenty that pisses me off about popular American culture and the USA's arrogant and introspective perspective of the World. But frankly I don't think that Joe Six Pack's shit-stirring posts make him look any better than those he seeks to criticise :2 cents:

However, if I read one more wise-crack about Fosters (a beer we don't drink!), the Crocodile Hunter (a show we don't watch!) or another US/AUS economic comparison based upon gross totals instead of per-capita stats, I might just join Joe's shit-stirring crusade! :winkwink:

'new energiza - it'll surprise ya'! oi!'

Hehehehehee... no worriez :glugglug

LOL! Is that Jacko?

Never saw his US TV series.

Here he was known as an Aussie Rules football player...

And battery salesman :winkwink:

didn't know he had one. energizer battery commercial from years ago :)

Well, the majority of your girls is really fat !

I'm from sweden and I love it.
Been in US, it's ok, liked the weather in florida and LA.
Cool with famous people alittle but that should be it I think.
The values about freedom is the same as in EU and so is
most of those laws.

I don't like this issue at all actually because US people seem
to think that it's only in US they are free and they have such
great country even thought there are so many poor people,
really high crime stuff, schools with gards and if you don't have
money you are nothing.

Apparently, though I'm not sure it was ever broadcast in Australia. You'll be pleased to learn that Jacko's now stepped up in the World and makes a living out of Weight Watchers commercials, just like Fergie! :thumbsup

Joe Sixpack - This board is different from reality.
Alot of people talk smack about various countries but when I was in the US (many times) not one person insulted me, Canada, or had the "my dick is bigger then your dick attitude".

Either all the Americans I ever talked with in real life were too spineless to say whats on their mind, or this board has a lot assholes, that don't represent the average American.

Basically I wouldn't judge a country based on a few posters online.

It seems to me that many people think their country is the best to live. Usually one can cite reasons.

US citizens may cite the strength of it's military or the size of it's economy.

Puerto Rican citizens may cite the beauty of the countryside.

Someone living in Paris may cite it's culture.

Someone living in Amsterdam may cite it's freedoms.

That should not surprise anyone.

I think Americans that say people are "jealous" of America are getting the reasons confused. It is accurate to say that America has the world's largest economy and the world's most powerful military. Most people in the world are aware of that. That the US plays a significant role in world affairs is also true.

A US citizen often reasons that if the US did not have a powerful military and the world's leading economy that no one would care what it did. Well, that is only partly true because as we can see, most everyone cares one way or another about what Iraq is doing yet they have neither.

Historically, countries with a powerful military are particularly meddlesome in protecting their interests. The US has been willing to flex it's military and economic muscles in order to do so. I think Americans should realize that the US does this and that people that live elsewhere might be annoyed and consider there to be an "American arrogance". On the other hand, I think that the US has been no less meddlesome in world affairs than any other country that has had the top military in the world or the largest economy. In fact, one might say that it is been surprisingly less meddlesome than most (consider 19th century Britain, for example). There is an element of Imperialism in US policies but it is very weak.

Also, a comment for Joe. You always ask people that say "I think America is the best place to live" where they have travelled to assuming that if they have travelled elsewhere they would have a different opinion. The fact is that many of us have travelled outside of the country and still feel this way. I have been to more than a handful of countries and yet America is still my home and my favorite place. If I felt differently, I would move.
I am not surprised that anyone would find their homeland to be the best. I don't think you should be surprised that I find mine to be the best.

There is no such thing as a BEST country - there is only "a best for me".

Once upon a crime
By Andrew Hornery with Ben Wyld
March 6 2003

Chopper ... ask him questions nicely.


What's this? Celebrity criminal Mark "Chopper" Reid doing five shows at the Enmore Theatre?

Strange but true, though there'll be no singing or dancing when Chopper treads the boards in April.

He'll be telling stories about his life and providing an opportunity for curious members of the audience to ask questions.

During the 1970s Chopper became a crime commando in Melbourne who terrorised drug dealers, pimps, thieves and armed robbers on the streets and in jail.

But, he boasts: "I've never hurt an innocent member of the public."

Promoters say his new show, billed as an opportunity to "experience the wit and wisdom" of Chopper, will not glorify the crime scene of the '70s.

"Absolutely not," says publicist Marina Saraceno. "It's anti-crime. He's not encouraging people to go out and shoot people or break the law. Mark's done his time and learnt his lesson."

Joining Chopper on the road, in what could only be described as a truly bizarre double act, is former Aussie Rules star Mark "Jacko" Jackson. Jacko will be providing a bit of comic relief, doing skits based on Chopper's blood-curdling stories.

Having flicked through Chopper's fairytale book Hooky the Cripple: The Grim Tale of a Hunchback Who Triumphs, launched last year, we reckon audiences could be in for something special.

"You dirty, filthy rotten cripple. You bring bad luck on the whole village of Catania! You and your hag witch whore of a mother, you both have the evil eye!" writes Chopper.

The charming book, set in 16th-century Italy, is about a young hunchback named Hooky, born to the most beautiful woman in the small seaside village of Catania. Hooky is beaten down by Manuello, the butcher, but triumphs with a rash of violence and legal pageantry - just the thing for bedtime reading.

Tickets for Chopper's five shows are $44.90 each and we hear the first two shows are almost booked out at the 1600-seat Enmore Theatre, which should boost the coffers of Chopper's retirement fund.

You've allowed a few porn webmasters to make you into an 'anti-american"? Sheep.

Goes both ways, Joe. Everyone carries their local habits with them.

When I was in Barcelona, my lunch experience was always that - a seemingly two hour long experience. It was difficult to become accustomed to. Service was slow by the standards I was used to. No one ever came and asked me if I wanted another drink. It took me half an hour to get my check. I realized I was not in the US and shouldn't expect things to be the same. When in Rome ...

Yet, American waitresses often complain that European or South American customers never tip or tip poorly. Some visitors don't realize that the waitresses pay IS the tips. Those same visitors have poor reputations here as tourists for the same reasons that you cite above.

I dont claim to know why you quoted this but let's just look at those figures a little more analitically... compare the total population as well... 20mil versus 200mil... kinda evens out the figures. :2 cents: