Boasting 440+ hours of work, LegoMatrix proudly presents the scene that made The Matrix what it was (well, aside from the one where Trinity jumps in the air and kicks the shit out of a guard early in the movie).
It’s short, but definitely sweet. In the asskicking kind of way.
(via Kineda)
For its 20th anniversary, Empire reunites actors and actresses with their iconic Hollywood film roles. The gorgeous portrait and set shots include Mel Gibson as William Wallace, Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator and Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, among others.
Very cool.
(via Mo Twister)
So I just finished Modern Warfare 2 last night, and I was totally blown away by everything – the gameplay, the action, the story and the music.
Kudos to Infinity Ward. Man, they really know how to make an epic experience.
Modern Warfare 2 for action game of the year – believe the hype!
This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen. See more at skinnycoder’s Flickr set.
The Burj Dubai, currently the tallest man-made structure in the world. See, before I read about what was really happening there, I would have looked at this picture and be wowed. Now it just looks like Orthanc during Saruman’s reign.
(via Ziked)
Pearl of the Orient, where did you go? I never got to know you. No more pristine blue waters. No more uncongested roads. No more litter-free surroundings. No more unobstructed blue skies. No more dignified politicians. Lesser artists which are truly admirable. Lesser people hopeful for the following day.
All I’ve ever seen of you is but a shadow of your former glory. All I have known are dead rivers. Smoke-filled avenues. Decaying buildings. A steel sky of billboards. Politicos which quibble amongst themselves. Personalities willing to sell mind and body to the highest bidder. A people mired by poverty and hopelessness.
I can only relive you now through old pictures and memories of other people. But I’m grateful for that, at least. It gives me resolve.
We need to revive you, Old Philippines. You had a better future than the one we face now. Where do you think we can start?
New York is one of those magical places that I’ve never seen, but feel so swayed over by (see also Turkey and Greece). Now I realize nothing is ever what it seems, but this city has had its own fair share of trials and it stands still.
Aside from the gorgeous black and white photography of the city streets and the sweeping shots of the night skyline, the beat in this track is sick.
After a long time of dilly-dallying about, I finally managed to nail down some time to finish this blog’s layout as I promised myself I would. This place is now running on the excellent Cutline theme by Chris Pearson.
It’s still a little rough around the edges as I haven’t polished everything to what I want yet, and some more pixels will be pushed around before I can really say I’m through. But the major look and feel I’m going for (i.e., white and black, clean and simple) is here already.
Finally, sound sleep will come!
I came across this link earlier, telling of the real story of what’s been happening in Dubai, the so-called city of One Thousand and One Arabian Lights, and I got so disturbed by the fact that something like this can happen at this time in human history. For all of our advances, some of the things we do as a human collective are still ass-backward.
The following are excerpts from the article, the ones that really hit me.
“The thing you have to understand about Dubai is – nothing is what it seems,” Karen says at last. “Nothing. This isn’t a city, it’s a con-job. They lure you in telling you it’s one thing – a modern kind of place – but beneath the surface it’s a medieval dictatorship.”
…
If you take the Big Bus Tour of Dubai – the passport to a pre-processed experience of every major city on earth – you are fed the propaganda-vision of how this happened. “Dubai’s motto is ‘Open doors, open minds’,” the tour guide tells you in clipped tones, before depositing you at the souks to buy camel tea-cosies. “Here you are free. To purchase fabrics,” he adds. As you pass each new monumental building, he tells you: “The World Trade Centre was built by His Highness…”
But this is a lie. The sheikh did not build this city. It was built by slaves. They are building it now.
…
As soon as he arrived at Dubai airport, his passport was taken from him by his construction company. He has not seen it since. He was told brusquely that from now on he would be working 14-hour days in the desert heat – where western tourists are advised not to stay outside for even five minutes in summer, when it hits 55 degrees – for 500 dirhams a month (£90), less than a quarter of the wage he was promised. If you don’t like it, the company told him, go home. “But how can I go home? You have my passport, and I have no money for the ticket,” he said. “Well, then you’d better get to work,” they replied.
…
The work is “the worst in the world,” he says. “You have to carry 50kg bricks and blocks of cement in the worst heat imaginable … This heat – it is like nothing else. You sweat so much you can’t pee, not for days or weeks. It’s like all the liquid comes out through your skin and you stink. You become dizzy and sick but you aren’t allowed to stop, except for an hour in the afternoon. You know if you drop anything or slip, you could die. If you take time off sick, your wages are docked, and you are trapped here even longer.”
…
Is he angry? He is quiet for a long time. “Here, nobody shows their anger. You can’t. You get put in jail for a long time, then deported.” Last year, some workers went on strike after they were not given their wages for four months. The Dubai police surrounded their camps with razor-wire and water-cannons and blasted them out and back to work.
…
Sure, the flooding-in of expats can sometimes be “an eyesore”, Ahmed says. “But we see the expats as the price we had to pay for this development. How else could we do it? Nobody wants to go back to the days of the desert, the days before everyone came. We went from being like an African country to having an average income per head of $120,000 a year. And we’re supposed to complain?”
He says the lack of political freedom is fine by him. “You’ll find it very hard to find an Emirati who doesn’t support Sheikh Mohammed.” Because they’re scared? “No, because we really all support him. He’s a great leader. Just look!” He smiles and says: “I’m sure my life is very much like yours. We hang out, have a coffee, go to the movies. You’ll be in a Pizza Hut or Nando’s in London, and at the same time I’ll be in one in Dubai,” he says, ordering another latte.
…
And then he smiles, coming up with what he sees as his killer argument. “When I see Western journalists criticise us – don’t you realise you’re shooting yourself in the foot? The Middle East will be far more dangerous if Dubai fails. Our export isn’t oil, it’s hope. Poor Egyptians or Libyans or Iranians grow up saying – I want to go to Dubai. We’re very important to the region. We are showing how to be a modern Muslim country. We don’t have any fundamentalists here. Europeans shouldn’t gloat at our demise. You should be very worried…. Do you know what will happen if this model fails? Dubai will go down the Iranian path, the Islamist path.”
Sultan sits back. My arguments have clearly disturbed him; he says in a softer, conciliatory tone, almost pleading: “Listen. My mother used to go to the well and get a bucket of water every morning. On her wedding day, she was given an orange as a gift because she had never eaten one. Two of my brothers died when they were babies because the healthcare system hadn’t developed yet. Don’t judge us.” He says it again, his eyes filled with intensity: “Don’t judge us.”
…
It is an open secret that once you hire a maid, you have absolute power over her. You take her passport – everyone does; you decide when to pay her, and when – if ever – she can take a break; and you decide who she talks to. She speaks no Arabic. She cannot escape.
In a Burger King, a Filipino girl tells me it is “terrifying” for her to wander the malls in Dubai because Filipino maids or nannies always sneak away from the family they are with and beg her for help. “They say – ‘Please, I am being held prisoner, they don’t let me call home, they make me work every waking hour seven days a week.’ At first I would say – my God, I will tell the consulate, where are you staying? But they never know their address, and the consulate isn’t interested. I avoid them now. I keep thinking about a woman who told me she hadn’t eaten any fruit in four years. They think I have power because I can walk around on my own, but I’m powerless.”
…
Dubai is not just a city living beyond its financial means; it is living beyond its ecological means. You stand on a manicured Dubai lawn and watch the sprinklers spray water all around you. You see tourists flocking to swim with dolphins. You wander into a mountain-sized freezer where they have built a ski slope with real snow. And a voice at the back of your head squeaks: this is the desert. This is the most water-stressed place on the planet. How can this be happening? How is it possible?
…
I ask the Filipino girl behind the counter if she likes it here. “It’s OK,” she says cautiously. Really? I say. I can’t stand it. She sighs with relief and says: “This is the most terrible place! I hate it! I was here for months before I realised – everything in Dubai is fake. Everything you see. The trees are fake, the workers’ contracts are fake, the islands are fake, the smiles are fake – even the water is fake!” But she is trapped, she says. She got into debt to come here, and she is stuck for three years: an old story now. “I think Dubai is like an oasis. It is an illusion, not real. You think you have seen water in the distance, but you get close and you only get a mouthful of sand.”
As she says this, another customer enters. She forces her face into the broad, empty Dubai smile and says: “And how may I help you tonight, sir?”
I feel so angry about this even if I’m not directly affected by it. Everything about the situation is tragic and bleak: from the socio-political to the socio-economic, all the way to the environmental. Dubai is a testament to how well man can lay waste to what nature has given.
Now if only the rest of the world can be moved into action.
