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| Watching Any Good Serials? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,290 Views) | |
| LaneCarson | Jul 5 2010, 09:58 AM Post #2011 |
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Charter Member
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Another batch of GGCs have been dispatched - PMs have been sent to the relevant people Sorry to bore the reader here - but I do have to repeat this message from last month ... This is just a quick note about my gratis offer of Gordon of Ghost City I have had several PMs requesting same .. But a number of requests are not addressing the two conditions under which the offer was made, namely: One must explicitly agree to both of the following: 1. Not to copy the DVD (except for one's own archive purposes) nor allow it to be copied 2. To advise when the DVD has been received Until I get an agreement to these terms within the PM, then provision of the serial is just not possible As indicated in my earlier message: "please feel free to contact me at any time by Personal Message through this Message Board - just agree to both conditions (mentioning both) and provide a postal address - thats all" I have replied to all PMs but it appears that some are not checking their PMs for my reply If you have PM'ed me, then please check out my PM reply to your contact (its in the top right of your screen - at least it is for me) It sets out dispatch dates etc and whether or not you've addressed the criteria Trev |
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| Laughing Gravy | Jul 5 2010, 10:40 AM Post #2012 |
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Of course it's offensive. I mean there's nothing inherently offensive about being called a LOT of words, but it's not nice, is it? "Jap" is certainly a prejorative. Batman is of course a problematic serial, to say the least. I hate seeing racial, religious, or ethnic groups links smeared with one broad brush (except, naturally, for Mormons and Armenians*) so the narrator's comments, and spoken dialog, referring to "yellow-skinned gangsters" and the fact that our "wise government" shipped all of the denizens of "Little Tokyo" off to concentration camps bothers me, as it should bother all of us. Of course, we all understand that these films were products of their time, and we have to accept them for that - while we regret their shortcomings in that regard. I understand that a serial produced during WWII was going to present material we wouldn't present today in family entertainment, and salute Sony for releasing this serial in its unedited form. *That's a joke. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Jul 5 2010, 12:31 PM Post #2013 |
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Mouth Breather
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No, seriously. What's the problem with the word "Jap?" Is it degrading? Demeaning? Does it unfairly attack a person's physical appearance or cultural heritage? No, no, no, and no. Why is it anything worse than an abbreviation? Maybe it mattered once -- maybe -- but since nobody uses the word today what's the difference? As for "yellow skinned gangsters" and all such, another story, but we weren't talking about that. The internment camps were a shameful episode from a dreadful period, but we weren't talking about that either. Can't we play fair? You cannot put words in somebody's mouth, refute those words, and claim moral superiority. Rush Limbaugh does that -- 'nuff said. . |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| mort bakaprevski | Jul 5 2010, 01:20 PM Post #2014 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Well, it certainly was a "dreadful period." It was the last REAL war.... where a foreign country actually attacked U.S. soil. You might cite 9/11, but those were terrorists and NOT a whole country declaring war on us. It was a very scary time.... & there aren't really that much of us left who actually remember it. And, I'm not even sure I count as I was a very young child!! |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| Laughing Gravy | Jul 5 2010, 04:48 PM Post #2015 |
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I think you're thinking of "IS NOT. IS TOO." Partaking of it, too. Hey, my dictionary says "Jap" is "demeaning and offensive". Go argue with my dictionary. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| Fantomas | Jul 5 2010, 05:18 PM Post #2016 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Shameful, demeaning, offensive to us, but not to the Stooges: Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gja2sM0f3zg Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iECsswXJxaY&feature=related I remember having seen this one on TV as a kid, and always thought it was about escaped Japanese soldiers, but they are clearly identified as escapees from an relocation center, which means they were Japanese-Americans. |
| "For life is short, but death is long." | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Jul 5 2010, 07:31 PM Post #2017 |
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Mouth Breather
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Mr. G, arguing with your dictionary would be as fruitful as arguing with you. Neither one can listen. I am perfectly aware that some academics say the word "Jap" is offensive. I'm just asking why, and I'm not getting an answer because there ain't one. It's just sloppy, illogical thinking by hand-wringing bedwetters. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Jul 6 2010, 08:00 AM Post #2018 |
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Mouth Breather
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I'm two chapters in to Federal Agents vs. Underworld, Inc., and it's about the best Fred Brannon serial I've seen. My heart sank when the lead (Kirk Alyn) and the heroine were introduced in a two-shot where both were facing mostly away from the camera, but things livened up after that. You see, there's this bad lady from one of the "istan" countries, I forget which. She's a bit of a sorceress, and if she gets hold of these two golden hands and allows them to shake (no, honest!) they will somehow give her the power to organize all the criminals on earth (Underworld, Inc, get it?). So what does she do but adopt petty criminal Roy Barcroft as her #2 man (though he thinks he's an equal partner, we know she's going to dust him in the last reel)? She already has one of the gold hands, and then two chapters later not only is she no closer to the second, we don't even hear about it any more. Barcroft's just robbing warehouses as ever, trying to raise money for, for (gulp!), for more handhunting, I guess. Anyway, there's a lot of shooting at crates, and it seems like things are always catching fire. At one point through the magic of stock footage Alyn lands in a fire net. Tom Steele says a line out loud in Chapter 2, with disastrous results. This is not one of the late Republics with a tiny cast, and comes from the two-climaxes-per-episode period, so it's plenty entertaining. The rotation also includes Mystery Squadron, one of the better Mascots even though Chapter Four is a recap chapter. It doesn't hurt that Bob Steele is the hero, and Big Boy Williams is his sidekick. Nice to see them in flying gear for a change. The Columbia is The Sea Hawk, an OK Sam Katzman product with, thank God, Buster Crabbe. Then our Universal was Gordon of Ghost City, but I'm retiring it for a week or so to wait for Trev's update. Will replace it for now with the first few chapters of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, which I haven't seen in about 25 years. That should be fun. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| Sgt Saturn | Jul 6 2010, 11:49 AM Post #2019 |
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Charter Member
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Words become offensive because they become associated with offensive usage. Why is the N-word offensive? It derives from a Latin word meaning 'black', and that word is the one one most currently used where the other would once have been. Maybe in a generation or two these words will have lost this association and become neutral, again. For example the term "sci-fi" is/was offensive to many old guard science fiction fans. (Don't use it if you ever get the opportunity to interview Harlan Ellison, for example.) Most post-Trek, post-Star Wars fans use it as their primary name for the genre. Usenet used have have almost constant flame wars between the proponents of "sf" and those of "sci-fi". I adopted the use of "stf" (the abbreviation for "scientifiction") as a way of saying to both groups, "A pox on both your houses." |
| The Ol' Sarge | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Jul 6 2010, 06:27 PM Post #2020 |
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Mouth Breather
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Sarge, I think the couple of generations have already passed for the j word. The n word is a different story because there are still black and white people who give a shit. I don't know a single Asian who makes a fuss about old time racism. I knew a half-Korean guy who grew up in a redneck town in the Carolina mountains who said that racism was a problem for him growing up. It wasn't about words though, and it was a present-day problem involving the dumbest people in a town full of dumb people. These days the place is full of meth labs, and the Darwinian priciple is hard at work making sure his kids don't have the problem. If anybody out there knows Asian people who are concerned about The Batman serial, let's hear what they have to say. While you're at it, find me an Irishman who cares what people called his great-great-great grandparents. There must be at least one out there, and we'd better all be damn careful not to offend HIM. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| toddgault | Jul 6 2010, 09:05 PM Post #2021 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Since watching the trailer for Seth Rogen's Green Hornet I have been watching The Green Hornet and The Green Hornet Strikes Again just so I can erase the stoner image of Rogen's supposedly modern interpretation. |
| Todd Gault..........Serial Buff | |
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| Sgt Saturn | Jul 7 2010, 07:04 AM Post #2022 |
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Charter Member
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I suspect that it's below the radar for most. But I wonder what the Asians who are upset about Charlie Chan would think about it if they stumbled across it... |
| The Ol' Sarge | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Jul 7 2010, 07:40 AM Post #2023 |
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Mouth Breather
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According to former posts on this site (not by me), the anti-Chan faction seems to be a tiny minority of unsuccessful fundraisers. Again, this language policing is yesterday's issue, and I see no reason why we have to be stuck in the past. What exactly does it accomplish? Does it make people more sensitive? Well, some young, impressionable people. Older and denser people seem to get their racism exacerbated by this sort of thing. Years ago, when Political Correctness first came into fashion, I wrote that in the house where I grew up, nobody ever used derogatory generalizations because they were considered bad manners. But can you pass laws against bad manners? I don't think so -- people with bad manners are already confused, and giving them orders they don't understand makes them crazy. When people are crazy they do crazy things. Blowing things up, stuff like that. Bottom line: it may feel good to take the "I'm better than other people, so I must teach them to think like me" appoach, but it's just pride, and does nothing but damage. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| LaneCarson | Jul 7 2010, 10:43 AM Post #2024 |
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Charter Member
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BobWilke - if you are reading this please check your PM replies (top left of screen) Trev |
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| LaneCarson | Jul 7 2010, 10:43 AM Post #2025 |
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Charter Member
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Sorry - thats actually top right of screen Shucks Trev |
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6:52 AM Jul 11