A Little Here, A Little There

Hollywood equals Historical Accuracy?

It's been kind of funny to see the reaction of various Iranians and other folk concerning the film '300' and the worry about how it is negatively portraying Persian history. I find it absolutely hilarious and ridiculous all at the same time.

Do movies + television shows equte to real history? NO!! It's Hollywood for god's sake. Hello?! Hollywood = not historically accurate most of the time. If I want to know about the true history of a place or people, I'll immerse myself in the history books and speak with people that have extensive knowledge on the subject (i.e. professors at universities). Even books and actual people aren't accurate about history because we did not live back then in that time period so even we can't be sure if what's written in historical books, etc is true.

I have no doubt that Persia was at one time a very powerful and amazing empire and this movie will not skew that view for me. I saw this movie purely for artistic and entertainment value and if I want historical accuracy, I'll look elsewhere outside of the movie and TV scope. It's funny how people have to find something to bitch about these days even with so much going on. I think that if Iranians and other people are bashing this movie for it's historical inaccuracy, that they should focus their energy on present-day Iran and other issues surrounding our world today.

Inuit Throat Singing

Sorry for my lack of writing. It's been an interesting couple of weeks. Anyways, I won't bore you with details but I wanted to let you know about something cool I stumbled upon the other day. I was looking into Iceland and all that it offers as far as tourism, then stumbled upon Bjork (naturally!). Then, from Bjork's website, I stumbled upon an Inuit Throat singer called Tanya Tagaq. I have never heard Inuit Throat singing before nor even knew it existed. I have to say it's one of the most amazing, primal, cool, and exotic forms of music I have ever heard. Check her out: http://www.ccca.ca/inuit/english/tanya1.html and http://www.tanyatagaq.com/.

It's just amazing what you can find on the internet. Although the internet doesn't beat actual adventures to new places, it's a great way to find amazing new things in between vacations.

Excellent New Entertainment

Sorry for my tardiness in posting; I've been up to my eyeballs with work! I now digress and want to tell you about some great new albums coming out. The first one is Bat Out of Hell 3 by Meatloaf. You can check out the new video It's All Coming Back To Me Now. Meatloaf has one of the best voices I've ever heard in rock'n roll. I remember when I was very small and dad and I used to sit and listen to all his different records of Meatloaf, Queen, The Moody Blues, Led Zepplin, Iron Butterfly, etc. Then, of course, we would switch to music like The Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison and then switch to Mozart and relax ourselves with classical music and opera. My dad was awesome in making my sister and I appreciate and love ALL kinds of music! I remember singing to the Meatloaf song Bat Out Of Hell from one of his earlier albums - what a great singer! I get teary-eyed thinking about my youth and having fun with my family. When we get together now we still listen to great music but you still miss being young and seeing the excitement on your dad's face when he introduced you to the favorite songs he grew up listening to. Now it's my sister and I introducing new music to mom and dad.

The other artist coming out with a new album is Evanescence. I absolutely love her voice. It's surreal that there are musicians out there that have amazing voices without the help of digital technology. I feel that anyone can become a singer these days if Paris Hilton could. It's ridiculous.

Okay, on to movie news. There is this FANTASTICALLY AMAZING movie coming out next March called 300. Check out the trailer. It's based on Frank Miller's (think Sin City) graphic novel that he based on the Battle of Thermopylae. I love ancient history and especially seeing ancient battles on TV. It has a great cast and Gerard Butler plays King Leonidas (and looks sexier than ever). You'll also notice that all of the men in this movie (especially the Spartans) are fit as hell (this is not digital touch-up folks). I sometimes wonder if the ancient sculptures and pictures and today's movies are correct in depicting that the ancient peoples were very fit. It's hard not to believe that. Too bad we live in such a lazy fat society. Another reason this movie is going to be absolutely thrilling is that it's made in the similar manner to Sin City, which I thought was an absolute masterpiece in filmography. I also get excited watching battles in ancient times. Call me weird but I find the use of shields, arrows, and swords beautiful and elegant. Speaking of swords, I need to sign up and learn fencing one of these days. I've been eaching to learn how to fence for ages.

Anyways, I'm actually going to try and find some literature on the Spartans and ancient battles since it's been a long time since I read up on all of that kind of stuff. Once I get the book, I'll just have to figure out when I'll have the time to read it! Oh hum...