And The Most Inspirational Speech Is...

For our 250th here (already, 250 posts in the comparative games launched just a few short years ago - wow! Time flies when you're having fun, indeed! For it is still not fair and it will never be fair to compare - but it is undeniably much, much fun! Indubitably! But we are digressing already...) we therefore thought to make it extremely interesting and especially *actual* and current, as the topic chosen already indicates...

So then...

Who has made such an impact with their oratory abilities as to inspire -truly inspire- and motivate the masses to finally act? Who delivered such moving words that it left absolutely no one cold, unshaken and apathetic? Who bolstered everyone into action as if there were, literally, no tomorrow as it was? There have been a lot of great agitators and a lot of great speeches historically recorded through whatever means - but which one was undeniably the greatest one of all?

I immediately disqualify myself 

-of course- 

sorry, fans...!!! 

These guys will not be under 

consideration or contention, either:

(...)

ONWARDS 

TO THE NOMINEES: 

So, was it the alleged "Greatest Speech Ever"...


Or was it the O.W.S. (Occupy Wall Street) movement-inspiring speech given by an actor molded upon a very real broadcaster, back in the day...?


Unless it is this one given 2000 years ago...

(But, really, you ought to click here instead - and fast forward to 3:00 for an even greater approximation of Jesus...)

The Miracle Coach (coach Herb Brooks, 1980) speech...?

(A speech given in 1980 as the Americans defeated the mighty Russians - but one that is also applied oh-so-very-well to 2011 as the Bostonians defeated the mighty Canucks!)

Coach Al here...?

(Something else than Pacino's speech here - and certainly much better than this stuff over here - but those were very different roles too...)

The Braveheart Coach...?!?


Severn Suzuki


Steve Jobs at Stamford?

(At least we won't recommend Oprah, at the very same institution...!)

JFK - at a college noted for knowledge...?

("In an age of both knowledge and ignorance"...!)

Matt Damon and His Mommy...?


How about the sunscreen speech...


And how about some consideration for V right here...




So - who gets the nod here?
Who delivered the greatest speech of all-time?

Dictator Charlie/Emperor Chaplin?
Network's Walter Cronkite pastiche, as portrayed by Peter Finch?
The Son of God?
The Miracle Coach?
Al Pacino, motivational coach large and in charge?
The Braveheart Champion Coach?
David Suzuki's Daughter In Brazil?
JFK?
Matt Damon (and Mom)...?
The Sunscreen Queen?
V For Vendetta?



You can bet that you know what *our* pick is here:
J-C... that's right!
No, not this guy - but the Saviour Himself,

Jesus-Christ!

Nobody does it better!

+++

Reel Creativity, I'd say!

Henry Jackman can create such wonderfully inspiring music - indeed.

Just have a look at what it inspires!

It is undeniable that great music creates great things; it has great side-effects, it inspires greatness! A great soundtrack enhances the average movie from the bowels of mediocrity onto a level of respectability it had little hope of attaining otherwise - not that I am totally and completely of the opinion that it is the case with this latest X-movie - but you can figure out what I am really screaming out loud here - albeit all in writ!

And so, with all that in mind, let us see the results, compare them and rate them!

Is it not what this very blog is all about, after all?

The first clip is taken from the end credits of the movie itself: inspired by the overall production, and the music of course, the crew concocted something magical based upon the genome code, the theme of the film and old-style James Bond credits that were 007's trademark, really - and why not, since X-Men: First Class harkens back to the days of the Cold War, is set in the swinging sixties, features (quite heavily too) that British factor *and* truly stars a mutant version of Bond (in his "gotta get Blofeld" mode) in the Erik Lensherr character! Although some fanboys see other things in it... We will not get into that! (Or, maybe, we will..! Read on!)

From that end credits magic another creation was made - animation that, quite simply, supercedes the first! Don't believe me? View the evidence, on the second screen below:








After Jackman's inspirational notes, during the end credits of this film, there is yet another somewhat surprising musical piece that rounds things up for the muties, in unorthodox fashion, really: the British all-grown-up boyband Take That were commissioned to add their two cents and their contribution is an anti-hatemongering, anti-prejudice universal love message that gets to be misinterpreted left and right... Hence the reason why it is a surprising and odd choice, although some of the scarce lyrics written for the piece actually do touch upon the subject matter of this flick - still, it is not quite enough...
But that is another story, really...

However, since we're on the X-case, why not pick a winner between these as well:








It's ridiculously easy to see something else into these lyrics, and images - but, really, there is nothing more than the overall message of acceptance of the wretched mutants and freaks of this world - really!

The temptation is always too great to resist when one wants to see something they so desperately would want to see there but that just isn't there: but if one wants to see it there, one will, no matter what! However, perverting a friendship (or, in truth, an uneasy collaboration) when all that is there, in general, is a fable about the intolerance of the masses and the Establishment - and the original intent was to create a parallel with teenage angst, the Cold War and mankind's traditional fear of the "unknown" - which may include several types of outcasts of society, sure, but never any sort of "recruitment drive" in the sense that the GLBTA would have it...
The "LoveLove" here is Universal Love, morons - not ramming it up you know where!
No, there are no "go gay" vibes in this X-First Class - WHATSOEVER!
Anyone who sees that in there is just a queer wishful thinker...


But I sense they won't give up, so, in closing, I challenge them all to see a gay message in this one too:

Music: two steps from hell: Heart Of Courage 

two steps from hell: Protectors OF The Earth

Lego: nothing gayer than that, right?

(Kidding!)

Tout Est Dans Les Chiffres... *SPÉCIAL EN FRANÇAIS*

Tout est dans les chiffres - enfin, dit-on!
Il est difficile d'argumenter avec les faits, c'est indéniable, surtout lorsque le tout est appuyé sur des quantifications bel et bien vérifiables - ou que l'on arrondit au plus gros chiffre près, juste question de ne pas verser trop personnel...
Nombre d'artistes font de même, question d'arrondir leurs chiffres bien personnels, et d'atteindre le maximum de gens dans un auditoire jamais assez vaste, semble-t-il... D'autres le font parce que leurs chansons sont axées sur les chiffres - cela impressionne, cela rehausse l'ampleur et l'envergure, autant de la star que de la portée de la chanson elle-même...!

Et il est toujours bon de voir les choses en grand - ou dans leur ensemble, en fait - puisque nous ne sommes pas seuls sur cette fichue de planète après tout et, qu'on le veuille ou pas, on s'affecte tous les uns les autres, à chaque fichue journée qui passe...!

Les "chansons à chiffres" les plus optimistes auront, bien sûr, à coeur de présenter le tout sous le plus beau jour - loin, très loin du concept de surpopulation qui sévit de nos jours!

Et puis - les "stars" de la chanson d'hier n'avait rien à foutre de ces préoccupations - plus de fous sur la planète ne voulait dire qu'une seule chose pour eux: plus d'acheteurs potentiels pour leurs disques!

En 1974, le spectre de la surpopulation n'était pratiquement pas envisageable, en plus, alors...

Et c'est là que nous commencerons notre survol, avec chiffres à l'appui...!



Mireille Mathieu avait une certaine fixation sur les nombres -

Ça commence tout d'abord avec un MILLIER de COLOMBES...

Puis ça monte en crescendo vers un MILLION d'ENFANTS...
(Elle avait le sens des priorités au plus haut de sa carrière, La Mireille...! Faut le dire...)

Plus bonasse (beaucoup plus) le Québécois qui chantait presque en même temps que la Mathieu -mais à l'autre bout de l'Atlantique- parlait, lui, tout banalement d'un million de GENS - pas juste des enfants, mais les gens en général. Bof.




Nicola Ciccone parle, pour sa part de DEUX contre SIX MILLIARDS...
Ça ressemble à une histoire farfelue du Capitaine Bonhomme - ou à une aventure rocambolesque de Bob Hope? Peu importe...




Le mot de la fin (du monde?) revient à Daniel Bélanger ici - car s'il nous ressasse les SIX MILLIARDS encore, il le fait dans la bonne perspective: non pas dans une pseudo-opposition romantico-euphorique à la Ciccone mais plutôt solidement ancrée dans la réalité de la SOLITUDE:



SIX MILLIARDS
SIX MILLIARDS DE SOLITUDES -
SIX MILLIARDS, ÇA FAIT BEAUCOUP...


BEAUCOUP TROP de chiffres -
et d'âmes qui languissent...


Mais, Daniel - c'est SEPT MILLIARDS maintenant!

A.A.'s Versus The Phone!

A.A.'s - African-Americans, not Alcoholics Anonymous!

Yes, African-Americans! For some odd reason, and for the longest time, African-Americans have experienced the strangest of relationships with that time-honored apparatus

Whoopi Goldberg is one particularly striking case in this rather bizarre affliction. Here she is illustrating the odd rapport towards the ear piece in a scene that consists of little else than a long diatribe from her movie that was little else than an overtly long, long-winded, repetitious and tiring, sketch titled... "The Telephone."



She continued to experience trouble with the thing even when it wasn't hers at all but a public one in a booth - and here is the evidence, from another long-winded, full of hot air balloonesque flick called "Jumpin' Jack Flash" - simply because there was a classic song of the same name performed by an African-American singer already well-engrained into the public's collective consciousness - but that is another story...




And speaking of classic songs...







The one that takes the cake though is a classic of another form - that of extremely cheesy, tacky and perhaps even icky since it is a boy band hit, after all...

Here it is:





So - what is it with African-Americans and Telephones, eh?

Well... I have not the slightest idea!

Next time, we'll tackle the shoddy case of the Asian and the Blackberry...

And, perhaps, after that we'll delve into the sordid dynamics going on between the Caucasian and the symbiotic Notepad by its side...!!!

Who knows...!

Cartoon Fight!

Russia's (or rather the old USSR's) Soyuzmultfilm was effervescent with creativity, talent and initiative for the better part of the Cold War - and it produced many great cartoons, among other things, during that time. Their production truly rivals anything ever put out by their American counterparts (or European ones as well) at the same time, and thus, it is only natural and fitting that it all winds up here... at last!

Let's start the unfair game of comparisons now...



Zayats and Volk versus Tom and Jerry









Cheburashka versus Colargol








"Крошка Енот" versus Gédéon









The Funky Chicken Song versus La Danse Du Canard!





Granted "Funky Chicken Song" sounds just about as bad - if not worse! Try "Danse Ciranda" then - you'll get that translation if you translate the following into Portuguese, with Google Translate:
Ансамбль фольклорной музыки Владимира Назарова - Танец маленьких утят.
Танец маленьких утят - детская песня 1950-х годов швейцарского аккордеониста и игрока на губной гармошке Томаса Вернера из Давоса (Швейцария) и соответствующий танец.

Современная версия песни может быть ассоциирована с записью 1982 года музыканта Боба Кеймса

Песня известна во всём мире, в т. ч. и в СССР/России, русские слова к которой написал Юрий Энтин. Uploaded by presnia on Aug 25, 2009




In any case and in all the cases presented here (and just like the case of the Russian and original version of the little matchbox girl - and its Disneyfication) - the better material is obvious and the clear-cut winner is... русский



;-)