Tag Archives: video

Knight, DeJesus and Berry: A Statement (and a Message Obscured)

July 9, 2013Commentary, Metaphysical, NewsAmanda Berry, Ariel Castro, Cleveland, Gina DeJesus, God, Michelle Knight, videoSean Curnyn

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were held captive in a house in Cleveland for about a decade. A man named Ariel Castro faces trial for their kidnapping and abuse and also for aggravated murder in the death of a baby which one of the women conceived during that time. I think it’s reasonable to say that most of us can only imagine in our worst nightmares what these women experienced during that decade of captivity. Most of us would also maintain that we’d rather die than face such an ordeal. Today, a video was released which features these three brave women thanking the public for the help and support that they’ve received since being freed.

Aside from being a compelling story on its own merits, it is also interesting to see how their message is being summarized in much of the media, for those who do not stop to watch the full three and a half minute video. In a portrayal that I’ve found typical today, TIME.com has this:

In an inspiring, yet heartwrenching statement, Michelle Knight, who went missing in 2002 at age 21, said:

“I may have been through hell and back but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face and with my head held high and my feet firmly on the ground … I will not let the situation define who I am. I will define the situation.”

What’s interesting to me is what is left out by means of those three dots in the middle (and the same words were left out by USA Today and the BBC and others). Read just as it is there, it seems that Michelle Knight is crediting a personal sense of pride and self-regard for her strength and her survival. But there’s a little bit more to it than that, if you listen to her full statement (embedded at the bottom of this post). Here is the bulk of it, as transcribed by yours truly:

I just want everyone to know I’m doing just fine. I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face, and with my head held high, and my feet firmly on the ground, walking hand in hand with my best friend.

I will not let the situation define who I am. I will define the situation. I don’t want to be consumed by hatred. With that being said, we need to take a leap of faith and know that God is in control. We have been hurt by people but we need to rely on God as being the judge.

God has a plan for all of us. The plan that He gave me was to help others that have been in the same situation I have been in. To know that there’s someone out there to lean on and to talk to.

I’m in control of my own destiny, with the guidance of God.

Continue reading Knight, DeJesus and Berry: A Statement (and a Message Obscured) →

“The Next Day” – David Bowie Video Controversy

May 12, 2013Commentary, Musiccontroversy, david bowie, Leonard Cohen, The Next Day, videoSean Curnyn

The video for David Bowie’s new single, “The Next Day,” has aroused considerable controversy due to its portrayal of Roman Catholic clergy-folk in a rather negative light, associating them with decadence, perversion, meanness, and sundry ills. The video also features some degree of “explicitness,” and climaxes (if you will) with one of the featured young ladies spewing great quantities of blood from holes in the palms of her hands. Bowie himself performs in the video dressed in robes that some say are intended to evoke a Jesus-Christ-like figure; I can’t say I disagree with that assessment. The video features actor Gary Oldman playing a priest and was directed by Floria Sigismondi. YouTube briefly pulled it due to the “explicitness,” but it’s been restored and can be viewed at this link.

What can one say? Aside from that which seems so obvious; i.e., that this is exceedingly boring territory. Attacking Roman Catholic clergy for sexual sins and hypocrisy is hardly groundbreaking stuff in 2013. Is David Bowie feeling so oppressed that he just had to make this kind of statement? The Roman Catholic Church, and Christianity generally, is waning to such a degree in Bowie’s native Europe that this seems an egregious case of kicking someone when they’re down. However, I think that one will notice, when observing mobs, that kicking someone when they’re down is a kind of primal urge that many people feel helpless to resist. Continue reading “The Next Day” – David Bowie Video Controversy →

Dogs Driving Cars, for Real (with video)

December 5, 2012Dogs (etc.)cars, Dogs, driving, videoSean Curnyn

You can’t blog about dogs and not do a post about this. Yet, there’s little point writing about it; you have to see it. Watch the whole video below, which covers exactly how these shelter dogs in New Zealand have been trained to drive cars. Hilarious and amazing. Continue reading Dogs Driving Cars, for Real (with video) →

The (snuff) video for “Duquesne Whistle” by Bob Dylan

August 29, 2012Dylanosophybob dylan, duquesne whistle, song, videoSean Curnyn

The video for Bob Dylan’s new song “Duquesne Whistle” has been released today and is embedded below. A little commentary is below that.

…

The video was directed by Nash Edgerton, and as you can see features a guy trying to woo a girl, having some misadventures and ending up beaten to a pulp. Dylan himself is in it but separate from the main action.

The video doesn’t appear to have been inspired by the song at all (although it’s never impossible for people to come up with massive interpretations). The thinking behind a video like this must be that the song and record stand up by themselves, so why not just create something completely independent? Then you splice them together and maybe you’ll have an interesting interplay. You can see Dylan being into this approach; he loves taking advantage of the accidental. However, I have to say I just don’t dig the fruits of it in this case. The song and the video seem to be fighting one another, and so the combined result is (for me) laborious to watch. I guess I’m old fashioned. I figure if you want to promote a record with a video then the video ought to complement the song rather than essentially relegate it to background music. But to each his own. Continue reading The (snuff) video for “Duquesne Whistle” by Bob Dylan →

Pint-size North Korean Segovias

April 8, 2011Shortschildren, DPRK, guitar, North Korean, videoSean Curnyn

Thanks — I think — to Jay for forwarding me the link to this video clip, of some young North Korean children performing in a guitar ensemble. Continue reading Pint-size North Korean Segovias →

Reflections: Ronald Reagan et al

February 3, 2011Shortsreflections, Ronald Reagan, video, youtubeThe Cinch Review

And lemme tell ya, al is gravely mistaken.

The video below via YouTube is just over two minutes long, and well worth a gander.

Ted Williams and his golden voice

January 5, 2011Commentary, Newscleveland cavaliers, gift, golden, homeless, radio, ted williams, video, voiceSean Curnyn

I was a born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice

So sang Leonard Cohen in The Tower of Song, and effectively that’s what an apparently homeless man named Ted Williams wrote on a cardboard sign, before standing at a busy intersection in Ohio and asking for help. Within 24 hours, via a bacterial [I can’t stand clichés] YouTube video, the guy has all kinds of lucrative job offers, and at the time of writing is said to be accepting one from the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA franchise, along with a house to live in.

And I say: Please let the story end here. Fan-bloody-tastic! Continue reading Ted Williams and his golden voice →

No Pressure

October 1, 2010Shorts10:10, carbon, emissions, global warming, reduction, videoSean Curnyn

Via Iowahawk, via Tim Blair, the video below was seriously made to promote the idea of British citizens reducing their carbon emissions as part of a so-called “10:10” campaign.

Men, women and children: step right up to be blown to graphic and bloody smithereens if you dare be skeptical of the global warming narrative as dictated by your betters. Reduce your carbon or die.

As Iowahawk correctly emphasizes, when you think of the time and effort and resources that went into making this quite elaborate clip, and all the people along the way who must have thought it was a good idea … it oughta be frightening.

It could be funny only as a parody of the perverse insanity of global warming extremists. But since it’s not intended as a parody, but rather as propaganda boosting that point of view, it is utterly bone chilling. Like fascism with a wry smile.