All Discussions - Liminal Nation

Documentary Films/Shows

freektemple — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:22:36 -0500

Some are trash, some are brilliant; some are relevant, some are mere products - I thought I'd like to start a thread about documentary films and shows. Whether they are attempting to be unbiased and "pure", or blatant infotainment, documentary films have the potential to reach, teach or preach about any conceivable subject.

I'm a big fan of the genre when they are done right - I was brought up my entire life with David Suzuki's "The Nature of Things" (Running strong since 1960!) which has covered almost everything in it's run, and was huge in voicing environmental concerns in Canada way before the average person had any idea that it was an issue. David Suzuki is a National Global treasure. I know there was a link to one of the Nature of Things episodes about the Intelligence of Crows in another thread, and for those who have watched it, it's a good example of the quality of this show.

Recently I was impressed with Morgan Spurlock's "Greatest Movie Ever Sold" which, in a nutshell, is a movie about making a movie about product placement where the movie is funded by product placement. The film is not well received on IMDB, especially in the review and comments section, but I found that it was well done, and I don't find Spurlock's personality as grating as many others do. Thanks to this film, I now want to visit Sao Paolo Brazil, which I learned has banned all outdoor advertising; It's a stunningly brave and beautiful concept. The film shows the mechanics behind product placement in films and tv shows, and is critical about the process for the most part, but also shows some potential benefits, such as providing funding for projects which may or may not get made without the revenue from product placement. Still, the film is slyly slanted away from the positive and maybe I liked it so much is because it mirrors many of my own thoughts on the subject, which is that most advertising is pretty sleazy, and is becoming more so with new technologies.

On the less impressive side, I also recently watched a doc called "Modify", about body modifications. My issue with the film is that I think it went out of the way to show extreme examples of body mods (3D implants, tongue splitting, etc...) for pure shock value. The most redeeming feature of the film is showing the gorier side of cosmetic surgery and presenting it as being no different in principal from "Modern Primitive" style body mods (Of course Jim Ward and Fakir Musafar were showcased in the film). I enjoy and admire many body mods, but if this film would have been my introduction to the subject, I might not have been so attracted to the concept of body modifications as I had been by other sources.

Well, this is just a start - What docs have left impressions on you, for good or bad? Can or should docs strive to be objective? Are there unwritten responsibilities for documentary filmmakers as there is supposed to be for news outlets?

Bleach (Manga)

Shin — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:01:31 -0400

This is the thread for discussing the manga series Bleach by Tite Kubo. SPOILERS.

As several people here are fans of this series it seems appropriate to continue the conversations we've been having on other sites that start with B and F. Apologies to people who may be at an earlier stage in the series and not caught up, but this thread begins as at the current Chapter 455 ('End of the Bond: 1') and will, once again, be laden with SPOILERS.

Weird words, jarring jargon, language lectures

EmberLeo — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:19:52 -0400

This thread is for all those pedantic language discussions. Have opinions on the proper spelling of "Kether"? Trying to pronounce ancient names of Netjer? Can't tell Seidh from Sidhe? Bring it on!

--Ember--

John Michael Greer's work

wonderland — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:19:42 -0400

The Archdruid Report is a blog which is gathering up some folks interested in culture and future. He discusses themes related to peak oil, energy conservation, and strategies for economic survival and energy descent. He usually puts something up once a week, and there are often a hundred (moderated) comments each week, many of which he personally answers, so the discussion threads tend to be interesting too. This is a thread to discuss his ideas.

That other musical genre

Evan — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:43:01 -0500

This is for everything that doesn't have its own musical topic. So we don't have to decide if The Waitresses, for example, are Punk, or New Wave, or something totally different.

So here they are:

And the equally uncategorizable Romeo Void.

And maybe a singer-songwriter.

Still kills me every time.

And here's another.

Beautiful.

And one more from the 70s.

And for a total change of pace, one of the most kick-ass theme songs of all time:

(Admittedly without having done a thorough survey of every theme song and objectively determining each one's kick-assedness.)

And another:

And yet another:

The 2012 election for President of the USA

Epona — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 02:49:58 -0500

t'was very strange typing that. i think a part of me never thought i would see the coming year.....

i asked in the 'complain about current events' thread if there was one for whining about the coming political theater. grotto of nolte reminded me that this does indeed affect all of us around the globe, so here it is.

i hate it. i can't bring myself to vote for obama again, he's disappointed me SO HARD. i could slap him. there is no one else remotely worth voting for. it's like a circus show of the the worst mix - stupid +crazy.

let's make a list of the most lefty mcleftersons? is there anyone indeed worth rooting for? i wish the occupy movement was more established as a political party and was running a candidate.

also, every time there is a presidential election i am reminded of how much i despise the electoral college. democracy in america = false advertising.

Supplements and dietary tweaking

Mordant Carnival — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:39:55 -0500

This is a thread to talk about the various vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements we are or were taking: why, what for, what works and what doesn't.

Strictly speaking, if you are a healthy person getting three squares a day you are unlikely to need any extra help in the form of supplements. It's also possible to to overdo it, going into vitamin overdose. That being said, supplements can and do help with various conditions.

I take a daily calcium pill for the good of my bones, and also because it greatly relieves muscle cramps (especially at that time of the month). The ones I'm taking right now include a dose of vitamin D, which is implicated in mood and intellect issues. A daily high-strength cod liver/fish oil pill tops up the vitamin D; it also, in theory, helps my manky joints and mood with EPA and DHA goodness. I experimented with glucosamine for my arthritis but it seemed, if anything, to make things worse, so i jacked it in. I will soon be adding some extra magnesium to the heap one way or the other.

I also take a daily multivit w/iron, as I get anaemic very easily. Because I don't eat a lot of meat, I tweak my diet with B-vitamin-containing foods, especially yeast extract.

I've begun taking a couple of l-arginine caps before and after exercise, to support my very slow muscle rehabilitation after spending most of last year on my back, an abreaction to some meds having wrecked my muscle tone. This has been helpful, but I may switch up to nitric oxide.

Herbs: I am always looking for things that will alleviate my chronic clinical depression; I'm less interested in the low mood aspect than in fixing my low energy levels and damaged concentration/cognition. St. John's wort had a lacklustre effect on me, although a sufficiently high dose of a particular brand seemed helpful for a while. I tried, and quit, ginko biloba some years ago; it seemed to lower my fit threshold and increase the number of seizures I was having at the time. I may try it again now that i am largely seizure-free.

I think I may at last have found some that work for me. I've been taking rhodiola rosea (aka Aaron's rod, goldenroot, rose root or arctic root) for about a week and Sceletium tortuosum (kanna) for rather less than that. I've experienced a definite lift in mood; remains to be seen if they will do what I hope they will do, which is fix my productivity. (Something that just wraps me in a warm blanket of smug contentment while getting fuck-all done is basically useless). I also take a lemonbalm/skullcap tincture before bed, which wasn't my idea but which seems to do... something.

I also drink megabuckets of coffee for its antidepressant effect. Coffee is magic and makes you be a superhero. It's true.

What are you on? What are you not on?

The Rap Thread Yo.

al gremlin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:39:51 -0400

From Wu Tang mysticism to kabbalistic horrorcore, from braggadocio invocations to profound meditations on language, rap has an incredibly high instance of "occult" content - some is undoubtedly affected and there because, yknow, it sounds really cool, but equally there seems plenty that comes from an authentic engagement with something of substance. I'd love us to share our favourite beats and raps onna mystical tip.

One of the things I love about rap is the ability to impart a lot of information. Here's an example to kick this off.

(Basically a rundown of The Golden Bough in rhyme.)

Gamelan and Balinese music

entity — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:10:27 -0500

A close friend is working on this project and I feel personally invested in seeing it succeed.

Pak Terip, a gamelan teacher of (I'm told; I don't have much context for comparison) incredible skill, is having produced a professional CD of his gamelan troupe's music for the first time. My friend, a student of his, is helping get the word out—they're trying to pre-sell CDs to cover costs of production. Please also listen to these SoundCloud tracks to get more of an idea of the style of music. And if you feel inspired, please spread the word.

Thanks! Anyone else interested in Balinese music, or want to talk about it? I honestly know nothing other than what my friend has told me.

The Deep

Mordant Carnival — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:05:58 -0400

A thread for everything to do with the deep ocean. Reflections on the fact that the vast majority of our world is as alien to us as the voids between the planets (and yet we're still finding exciting ways to fuck it all up down there). Volcanic vents. Marine snow. Abyssal gigantism. Facts, theories, pictures of weird deep-sea fangly-fish.

STARS.

entity — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:38:08 -0500

My sweetie and I went out to look at stars last night, and we saw Eta Persei for the first time, and I saw Castor(I, II, and III) through a telescope for the first time.

Eta Persei are, to my eyes at least, an orange and purple binary star. That was nifty. The colors are pretty cool looking.

Castor are THREE binaries in one star system—two binaries that are very bright stars very closely orbited by dim red dwarfs and one binary that is two dim red dwarfs orbiting each other. In the telescope it looked like three stars, two close together and bright and one further away and dimmer. If you've got a telescope turn it on Castor at some point in the near future. It's appropriate that Castor is made up of so many twins, since it's in Gemini. They're all actually gravitationally bound, even... although the pair of dim red dwarfs appears to have been added to the system later. And in answer to my agog speculation, my sweetie gently suggested that probably the system is too gravitationally chaotic for a planet to form a stable orbit.

What've you been looking at lately?

Published! Performing! Now Showing!

freektemple — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:57:02 -0500

It came to my attention that some Liminal Nation members have just been published in an anthology.

Personally, I like the idea of reading a book or article written by someone I may interact with. I also think that Liminal Nation is a community and it's important to support people in one's community...

Maybe it's seen as spam, or maybe it's crass, but I believe that if you are proud of your work you should toot your own horn a bit.

So if you have published a book, written an article, released a CD, made a movie, are producing a play, or anything similar: POST IT HERE!!! because I'd like to know and support you if I can.

African Diasporic Traditions 101

Princess — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:28:12 -0500

So, some people are interested in African Diasporic Traditions. Some people don't know much about ADTs. Somepeople fall right in the middle of that Venn diagram. This is the thread for asking questions about ADTs so that clever people can answer. If you've got questions about Vodoun, Santeria, Candomble or other similar religions come ask them here. Hopefully our humble ignorance will entice workers in these fields to aid us.

Ember, very kindly, helped set me straight about some stuff in the the Ritual-a-tron thread. I've still got questions about a relationship between a Power and it's paths. If there is a Legba, the Legba and my Legba, how do these three things interact? I've seen people write about their own individual spirit x and a generic spirit x. What's the relationships between these entities? Is it similar to Wicca, where one Goddess has many pictures/aspects? Or are there multiple similar spirits sharing a name? Or is it a third something?

Fantastic Sci-Fi and Fabulous Fantasy Books

quantum — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:09:07 -0500

Recommend me a really good SF or Fantasy book. A Wizard Of Earthsea is my favourite fantasy, Citizen of the Galaxy is my favourite SF, I really enjoyed A Song of Ice and Fire and the Culture stories, this thread is a counterpoint to the Fantasy Book Disappointments thread and related to the Odious Author thread too.

Let's include borderline cases like Anathem by Neal Stephenson or Gibson's recent thrillers like Pattern Recognition, and genre stuff that's not strictly SF/F like Soon I Will Be Invincible and stuff like that. This is a good place to mention classics too in order to make sure everyone has read them, in the other thread it turned out Nolte had never read Gemmell and Grant had not read the Earthsea books, so I consider the thread a success for getting them to experience some of the best fantasy ever which they otherwise might have missed out on.

Cult TV

genlob — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 06:22:07 -0400

As a companion to Cult Movies, here's a place for your favourite cult TV clips.

I wasn't impressed with the remake.

Lots of sci-fi and spy shows when I was a kid. Some okay, some rubbish and some great. Most of them had fantastic opening sequences.

This badly dubbed and quite violent Japanese version of a Chinese tale used to be on BBC2 after school.

And I remember being both fascinated and disturbed by this East German fairy tale. This quote on Wiki - "Imagine a fairy tale conceived by Wagner and directed by Fritz Lang, with nods in the direction of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari and German expressionism, and you'd be close.

Soul music thread

Gef — Tue, 17 May 2011 05:56:36 -0400

Hesitating about whether to designate this the 70s soul thread, leaving room for a separate 60s/Northern thread - oh well, we can alter this if the need arises.

Anyway, kicking things off is a 1972 tune by the fabulous Dramatics:

Wait till around 2:35 and it starts to get a little weird, psychedelic even...

Teach me Kabbalah.

grant — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:55:21 -0400

OK. I'm over 40, I'm married, and I've been seeing a lot of pokes about this everywhere I turn lately.

So, I want all of you to teach me Kabbalah.

I have little time to actually read books lately, but spend hours every day in front of the computer. And I have a suspicion that things will come to light through an online format that wouldn't be immediately obvious if I started picking and choosing one source or another.

My background: kind of sketchy on this. I'm familiar with tarot. I've read... well, lots of different things that touch on or use the kabbalah in some way (including the first few books of Alan Moore's Promethea). I once went to a pitch by some Kabbalah teacher (not affiliated with the Kabbalah Centre, Inc.) who didn't really impress me, and have covered some of the antics of the Kabbalah Centre in the yellow press. I'm also acquainted with the Bible and various ways of reading it, if that matters.

So. Where do I start? Will you teach me?

Climate Change and Weather Witchery

entity — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:26:17 -0500

Who's better at predicting the future: A meteorologist, or a mage?

As is probably obvious to most people, climate change is already happening (in the really real world), average temperatures around the world are rising (although this doesn't always mean your local temperature is rising), rainfall patterns are shifting, and things the scientific models have been predicting are occurring usually with greater rapidity than previously expected.

Here is a thread to collate climate-related news and scientific modeling and stir in divination, intuition, guesswork, predictamancy, geomancy and (un)informed speculation.

To kick us off: Stuart Staniford has been posting a series on drought modeling for the future. I think my own imagination had stopped at "most places will get hotter"; I knew droughts would likely become more common in many places while flooding was likely in others, and I didn't know how to start speculating about which would be more likely in what localities. Through Staniford's post I learned about this paper (pdf) which suggests even within my lifetime widespread droughts of a severity essentially unprecedented in human history, and most of the populated world to be several times drier than the worst of the US Dust Bowl years by 2070. Staniford, not himself a climate scientist but a physicist, is attempting to figure out whether this makes sense using his own intellectual resources and background. I thought it might make sense to do the same with ours.

Part of what's stymieing me in terms of understanding these models is the use of PDSI, which is a relative scale—that is, a -3 PDSI in, say, Seattle, WA might well be pretty similar in terms of absolute moisture to a +1 in Baja California. If that's the case, it's hard to take a look at the maps and imagine what different regions will be experiencing in comparison to one another rather than the present conditions in that region.

My own speculations are running perilously close to converging upon the interests of my own neck, and I find myself looking speculatively at Vancouver, BC (45.5 inches a year on average)—a severe drought there would probably not be as bad as a severe drought in my own SF Bay Area (20-25 inches), right?

The converse is also not something Stanford has spent much time dwelling on—that is, what if you do live in Alaska or Norway or right around Lake Chad and instead you are looking at something like four times the amount of precipitation your region has been accustomed to? That can't be great either.

Cult Cinema

Evan — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:52:42 -0400

Clips from your favorite cult cinema classics. Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movies. Sean Connery in a loincloth in Zardoz. Hammer horror.

And this, one of my favorites. Along with Taxi Driver and Midnight Cowboy, the ultimate "NY in decay in the 1970s" movie. And a retelling of Anabasis.

Liminal Band, take 2.

Grotto of Nolte — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:36:58 -0400

BUMPITY BUMP!

So, I've been meaning to get back into music for a while after all the fun we had last year. And lo and behold, just a few days ago one of my good friends came over to lend me her acoustic guitar. Not just out of the goodness of her heart, rather so that I can practice for my musical duties at her upcoming wedding.

Any which way, this reminded me that we kinda got started on talking about the next Liminal Band working. So here's a thread for that. I'll try and past over some of the chat from the previous thread, so that we can refer back without crossing threads all the time.

But first of all I'd like an informal show of hands. I'm in, WHO'S WITH ME?