- The musical cue used to warn the dreamers of an upcoming kick is "Non, Je ne regrette rien" by Edith Piaf. In English thats "No, I regret nothing," a fitting theme for the film, and Marion Cotillard who played Cobb's wife Mal won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Piaf in "The Passionate Life of Edith Piaf".
- Hans Zimmer uses the Edith Piaf song, and the time distortion from the dream state as a key to the films musical score.
- The Ellen Page character is named Ariadne, after he daughter of King Minos of Crete in Greek mythology. In the story, she gives a sword and a ball of red fleece thread to Theseus so he can find his way out of the maze of the minotaur. In Inception, she wears a lot of red, in addition to her maze making and hero leading.
- Christopher Nolan reuses imagery from his Batman movies. Posters from both Inception and The Dark Knight are painfully similar.
Also Cillian Murphy does seem to spend a lot of time in the back of vans with a bag over his head.
- The stolen kiss between Arthur and Ariadne is the kernel of a thousand works of fanfiction.
INCEPTION - Tilt by *YoukaiYume on deviantART
Showing posts with label Top 5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top 5. Show all posts
Saturday, August 07, 2010
5 things about Inception you probably already know
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Top 5 Fastrack Training Moments
There comes a time in an adventure story where the young and isolated hero-to-be must learn how to fight with a sword. This usually has to be accomplished in a very short period of time, so later on in the story he can show up the villains who have been using a sword for years. Sometimes this calls for a montage.
Here are my Top Five occurrences of this, presented in no particular order.
Order of the Stick:
Captain Scoundrell trains Elan. Set on the pirate's airship, this is a glowing homage to fast-track training needed by would-be heroes. The hows and whys of training are highlighted best here. [Part I] [Part 2]
Star Wars:A New Hope: Obi-Wan trains Luke. On a different kind of pirate's airship, the novice Luke learns to wield his sword of light. More importantly it is another opportunity to describe the nature of the force to the audience.
Heroes episode "Landslide" : Kaito trains Hiro. No airships this time, but the plucky Hiro must learn the way of the sword, and more importantly the way of the warrior.
Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Ring: Boromir trains the Hobbits. A tall mountain stands in for the airship here, as Boromir give the little ones a refresher in dodge, turn, parry and thrust.
Stardust: Captain Shakespeare trains Tristan. The pirate's airship again becomes the centre for training, as shopkeep Trisan learns swordwork, dancing and fashion sense.
Here are my Top Five occurrences of this, presented in no particular order.
Order of the Stick:
Captain Scoundrell trains Elan. Set on the pirate's airship, this is a glowing homage to fast-track training needed by would-be heroes. The hows and whys of training are highlighted best here. [Part I] [Part 2]
Star Wars:A New Hope: Obi-Wan trains Luke. On a different kind of pirate's airship, the novice Luke learns to wield his sword of light. More importantly it is another opportunity to describe the nature of the force to the audience.
Heroes episode "Landslide" : Kaito trains Hiro. No airships this time, but the plucky Hiro must learn the way of the sword, and more importantly the way of the warrior.
Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Ring: Boromir trains the Hobbits. A tall mountain stands in for the airship here, as Boromir give the little ones a refresher in dodge, turn, parry and thrust.
Stardust: Captain Shakespeare trains Tristan. The pirate's airship again becomes the centre for training, as shopkeep Trisan learns swordwork, dancing and fashion sense.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Top 5 worst ideas for television
Although I support the writers, I'm a little worried that the strike will cause network television to digress further into reality shows and high concept game shows.
Here are some awful ideas for shows that may be around the corner:
Here are some awful ideas for shows that may be around the corner:
- So you want to be a Mailman
- Celebrity Duck-Duck-Goose
- Wheel of Veal
- Waterboarding for Dollars
- Find the Cocktail Onion, with Regis Philbin
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Top 5 Pumpkin Chuckers
For Halloween, here is a seasonal list of Top 5 Pumpkin Chuckers.
- Green Goblin
- The Headless Horsemen
- The Kids in my neighbourhood
- Trebuchet Builders
- The Smashing Pumpkins
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Top 5: Most interesting "365 Days" photos
Using the unknown and nebulous flickr algorithm, here are the top 5 most "interesting" pictures I took during my year long self-portrait project.
1: Day 121
2: Day 78
3: Day 107
4: Day 339
5: Day 210
Project Links
1: Day 121
2: Day 78
3: Day 107
4: Day 339
5: Day 210
Project Links
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Top 5 Dragoncon 2007 costumes
Part challenge, part scavenger hunt I like listing costumes I would love to see at Dragoncon.
So here is are my top 5 costumes for 2007, starting with the group costumes:
The Guitar Heroes: The motley group of guitar playing demi-gods from the excellent game series make for fantastic cosplay. It has been done, (see here) but I want to see a whole group at Dragoncon.
Scandal - The Warrior video: One of the great songs from Guitar Hero 80's is "The Warrior." The video is pure 1984 gold which has yet to be mined for all its costuming treasures. (see below)
Futurama - "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" : Holophoner Fry with Robot Devil Hands, Lela in the evening dress with Calculon's Ears, Bender with a Megaphone nose, and Hedonism Bot.
For individuals, I think a character, wearing a costume should provide a suitable challenge for the masters who attend DragonCon. In that vein, I would like to see...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rafael as the "Night Watcher" would be big, tough and very intimidating.
Bicentennial Man - Andrew in the tuxedo. I think the subtlety of this one would make for a hot looking outfit.
Previously on Slashboing:
So here is are my top 5 costumes for 2007, starting with the group costumes:
The Guitar Heroes: The motley group of guitar playing demi-gods from the excellent game series make for fantastic cosplay. It has been done, (see here) but I want to see a whole group at Dragoncon.
Scandal - The Warrior video: One of the great songs from Guitar Hero 80's is "The Warrior." The video is pure 1984 gold which has yet to be mined for all its costuming treasures. (see below)
Futurama - "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" : Holophoner Fry with Robot Devil Hands, Lela in the evening dress with Calculon's Ears, Bender with a Megaphone nose, and Hedonism Bot.
For individuals, I think a character, wearing a costume should provide a suitable challenge for the masters who attend DragonCon. In that vein, I would like to see...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rafael as the "Night Watcher" would be big, tough and very intimidating.
Bicentennial Man - Andrew in the tuxedo. I think the subtlety of this one would make for a hot looking outfit.
Previously on Slashboing:
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Top 5 Suggested Book/Band Hybrids
The Coudal Partners contest to mash-up the name of a book with the name of a band generated a lot of really creative entries. Here are my top at-a-glance favourites:
(via Commonplace Book)
- Everything but the Girl Is Illuminated (Meredith Payne)
- Chicken Soup For The Collective Soul (John Brassil)
- The Sun Also RZA (Anne Holub)
- Green Day and Ham (Mike Everett-Lane)
- Paddy Clarke Hot Hot Heat (Tracie Bedell)
(via Commonplace Book)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Top 5 nighstand books
Part Rorschach's inks, part turn-your-head-and-cough, the books on my nightstand serve as a measurement of my mood, temperament and state of mind.
First up:
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town -Cory Doctorow. Honourable Mention
I just finished it and I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure which one of his to read next. The new "Overclocked" or the classic "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" ? Tough call. This book only gets an honourable mention because it is on its way off the table to make room for...
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson.
I just started it and am liking it so far. I always had high hopes the Cyberpunk genre, but thought William Gibson was over rated. So far Snow Crash is living up to my expectations.
The Wandering Stars #2 - The Davidge Cousins
Written by James and illustrated by Jesse Davidge, The Wandering Stars tells of the supernatural adventures of a crack team of histories best mathematicians. Alan Turning, Georg Cantor, Maria Agnesi, Brahmagupta et all, have gathered to fight threats to the many dimensions folded and layered within time and space. What is not to love?
The Velocity of Honey - Jay Ingram
An informative everyday science book which answers some everyday questions regarding topics as diverse as Honey, mosquitoes, or the aerodynamics of Maple tree seeds. It really is the best kind of guide to being the most annoying guy at a party.
The Areas of my Expertise - John Hodgman
Complete world knowledge, volume 1. Matters historical, matters literary, matters cryptozoological and Hobo matters are all here. Also a great guide to being the most annoying guy at a party.
Wired Magazine (Hodgeman Cover) - Feb 2007
My love of John Hodgeman (I'm a PC) led me to get the issue of Wired with his interview. I used to love wired when the typography and graphic design was crazy and the main thrust of the publication was a love of tech, and tech culture. Then it went through this phase where it seemed more focused on which tech companies you should invest in. It now has gained a bit of a pop-culture slant to it, so I'm starting to read it again.
Previously on Slashboing
Books on my Nightstand (May 2006)
First up:
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town -Cory Doctorow. Honourable Mention
I just finished it and I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure which one of his to read next. The new "Overclocked" or the classic "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" ? Tough call. This book only gets an honourable mention because it is on its way off the table to make room for...
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson.
I just started it and am liking it so far. I always had high hopes the Cyberpunk genre, but thought William Gibson was over rated. So far Snow Crash is living up to my expectations.
The Wandering Stars #2 - The Davidge Cousins
Written by James and illustrated by Jesse Davidge, The Wandering Stars tells of the supernatural adventures of a crack team of histories best mathematicians. Alan Turning, Georg Cantor, Maria Agnesi, Brahmagupta et all, have gathered to fight threats to the many dimensions folded and layered within time and space. What is not to love?
The Velocity of Honey - Jay Ingram
An informative everyday science book which answers some everyday questions regarding topics as diverse as Honey, mosquitoes, or the aerodynamics of Maple tree seeds. It really is the best kind of guide to being the most annoying guy at a party.
The Areas of my Expertise - John Hodgman
Complete world knowledge, volume 1. Matters historical, matters literary, matters cryptozoological and Hobo matters are all here. Also a great guide to being the most annoying guy at a party.
Wired Magazine (Hodgeman Cover) - Feb 2007
My love of John Hodgeman (I'm a PC) led me to get the issue of Wired with his interview. I used to love wired when the typography and graphic design was crazy and the main thrust of the publication was a love of tech, and tech culture. Then it went through this phase where it seemed more focused on which tech companies you should invest in. It now has gained a bit of a pop-culture slant to it, so I'm starting to read it again.
Previously on Slashboing
Books on my Nightstand (May 2006)
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Top 5 "Dodge the Laser Beams during a Heist" scenes
As is the film tradition, when a heist has to be perpetrated, the thieves will inevitability have to navigate or disable a protective grid of laser beams. This is another lie that films need to tell. Never mind the fact that laser light is invisible to the naked eye. Forget that although airborne aerosols or powders can make the beam visible, it is only momentary, and will likely set off the alarm. Ignore the reality that infrared sensors are cheaper, easier to implement, harder to bypass and quite ubiquitous.
Our hero is stymied, and it will take some wit, cunning and dexterity to proceed. More importantly however, it will take style.
5) Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny
In the clearest farce of this convention, The Pick of Destiny has Jack Black and Kyle Gass break into a Rock and Roll museum. After the obligatory crawl through the air vent and dodging the overly inept night guards, the only thing standing between Tenacious D and the Pick is laser grid. Jack Black somewhat awkwardly shuffles and skips through the beam grid in his expected tongue in cheek style. The real bonus points come at the end when he can't reach the off switch with any traditional limb, so he has to use a more unorthodox appendage and some tremendous will-power.
Add to that a soundtrack with the self-referential song "Break In-city"
4) Mystery Men
The second class heroes of Mystery Men (1999) have to by pass two laser based roadblocks set for them by the flamboyant Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush). First is the "laser eye" that will disintegrate those who pass through to the "Disco Room." This is a job for Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell). The lad strips naked, and walks unseen towards the off switch. His job done and visible again, the snarky and lovable Bowler (Janeane Garofalo) drops the line:
3) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
While filming Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) , Kevin Smith clearly had a checklist of things he always wanted to do in film.
Chrissy, Sissy and Justice (can you spot the turn-coat?) run, backflip and gyrate past a hallway of danger beams to get to the diamonds.
2) Oceans 12
Initially I thought this sequel was unnecessary, but it does grow on you after a while. Oceans 12 ( 2004) is fairly charming, and a clear love letter to the kicky and fun crime films of the 60's and 70's.
It is not until the final half hour of the film to we see the laser obstacle. The entire movie is a series of misdirections and failed attempts at the big job. The grid here is a randomly moving field of visible blue movie lasers. Here we learn that evil Frenchmen only need to dance their way to victory, if he has a suitable euro-trash techno soundtrack.
1) Entrapment
The trailer for Entrapment (1999) had its offering up front for the viewer. It featured a nubile Catherine Zeta-Jones weaving her taught buttocks through yet another hallway of danger beams. A leering Sean Connery looks on in obvious delight, creeping out many a viewer.
While not the centrepiece of the film, we get to see Catherine go through these manoeuvres twice. Once in training with yarn replacing the beams, and once with the real thing.
Our hero is stymied, and it will take some wit, cunning and dexterity to proceed. More importantly however, it will take style.
5) Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny
In the clearest farce of this convention, The Pick of Destiny has Jack Black and Kyle Gass break into a Rock and Roll museum. After the obligatory crawl through the air vent and dodging the overly inept night guards, the only thing standing between Tenacious D and the Pick is laser grid. Jack Black somewhat awkwardly shuffles and skips through the beam grid in his expected tongue in cheek style. The real bonus points come at the end when he can't reach the off switch with any traditional limb, so he has to use a more unorthodox appendage and some tremendous will-power.
Add to that a soundtrack with the self-referential song "Break In-city"
"Ninja style, samurai (Storm the gates)Not for the faint of heart, faint of butt, or easily offended.
Metal pole, climb that shit (Storm the gates)
...
Two air-vents on the roof,
thats what the guy was talkin a- Shit! Electric Eye
Infiltrate (Storm the gates)"
4) Mystery Men
The second class heroes of Mystery Men (1999) have to by pass two laser based roadblocks set for them by the flamboyant Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush). First is the "laser eye" that will disintegrate those who pass through to the "Disco Room." This is a job for Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell). The lad strips naked, and walks unseen towards the off switch. His job done and visible again, the snarky and lovable Bowler (Janeane Garofalo) drops the line:
"Maybe you should put some shorts on or something, if you want to keep fighting evil today."Later another grid of lasers protects Casanova when he grabs Mr. Furious' girl. He is so evil, turning on this trap kills one of his own men, as is noted by an over-the-top and gloating Rush. This calls for the fork flinging finger of The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria), who builds an alternate staircase out of embedded cutlery.
3) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
While filming Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) , Kevin Smith clearly had a checklist of things he always wanted to do in film.
- Orangutan buddy: Check
- Dance with Morris Day and The Time: Check
- Jewel heist perpetrated by pleather clad vixens: Check.
Chrissy, Sissy and Justice (can you spot the turn-coat?) run, backflip and gyrate past a hallway of danger beams to get to the diamonds.
2) Oceans 12
Initially I thought this sequel was unnecessary, but it does grow on you after a while. Oceans 12 ( 2004) is fairly charming, and a clear love letter to the kicky and fun crime films of the 60's and 70's.
It is not until the final half hour of the film to we see the laser obstacle. The entire movie is a series of misdirections and failed attempts at the big job. The grid here is a randomly moving field of visible blue movie lasers. Here we learn that evil Frenchmen only need to dance their way to victory, if he has a suitable euro-trash techno soundtrack.
1) Entrapment
The trailer for Entrapment (1999) had its offering up front for the viewer. It featured a nubile Catherine Zeta-Jones weaving her taught buttocks through yet another hallway of danger beams. A leering Sean Connery looks on in obvious delight, creeping out many a viewer.
While not the centrepiece of the film, we get to see Catherine go through these manoeuvres twice. Once in training with yarn replacing the beams, and once with the real thing.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Top 5 handy driving tips
Whilst driving in Calgary, or anywhere else where humans use automobiles, try to keep these simple tips in mind.
- Slow the fuck down.
- Use your bloody turn signals.
- Let a brother in.
- Stop tailgating.
- Pick a lane and stay there cowboy.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Top 5 movies of personal influence
In no particular order, here are the top 5 movies, that when watched with the right mindset, will give you some insight into who I am.
Is that navel gazing goodness or what?
Technorati Tags:
top5, movies, films, Self-exploration
Is that navel gazing goodness or what?
- Zelig (1983) - [imdb]
- I Heart Huckabees (2004) - [imdb]
- Star Wars (1977) - [imdb]
- Reservoir Dogs (1992) - [imdb]
- ¡Three Amigos! (1986) - [imdb]
Technorati Tags:
top5, movies, films, Self-exploration
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Top 5 Oldest Domain Names
Here is a little trivia about the internet, or teh interwebs as the kids call it these days. Domain Name Systems (DNS) formed in 1984, and began registering domains names. The first five takers are listed here:
Technorati Tags:
Top5, Domain Names, First Domain Names, Internet History
- symbolics.com - 15-Mar-1985
- bbn.com - 24-Apr-1985
- think.com - 24-May-1985
- mcc.com - 11-Jul-1985
- dec.com - 30-Sep-1985
- Symbolics, Inc was a spinoff from the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, founded for the purpose of manufacturing Lisp machines. The "PC revolution" contributed to the decreased demand of purpose-built Lisp machines. The company filed for bankruptcy in the early 1990's. A new privately held company, called "Symbolics" acquired the assets and intellectual property of the old public company and maintains some of its old products.
- BBN Technologies was founded in 1948 by professors at MIT. Some of BBN's developments of note in the field of computer networks are the implementation and operation of the ARPANET; the first person-to-person network email sent and the invention of the @ sign in an email address; the first Internet protocol router; the Voice Funnel, an early predecessor of voice over IP; and work on the development of TCP. BBN was acquired by GTE in 1998. When GTE and Bell Atlantic merged to become Verizon in 2000, the ISP portion of BBN was included in assets spun off as Genuity. In March of 2004, Verizon sold BBN to a group of private investors, and as of writing, BBN is a privately held company.
- Thinking Machines Corporation was a supercomputer manufacturer founded to turn MIT doctoral work by W. Daniel Hillis into a commercial product called the "Connection Machine." Thinking Machines became was the market leader in parallel supercomputers in 1990. After the loss of some DARPA contracts, Thinking Machines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 1994. The hardware portion of the company was purchased by Sun Microsystems, and the remainder re-emerged as a small software company specializing in data mining software for its installed base and former competitors' parallel supercomputers. Thinking Machines was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 1999.
- Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MMC) was US computer industry research and development consortium, formed in response to Japan's Fifth Generation Project, a large Japanese research project aimed at producing a parallel processing computer that would out perform single CPU systems and have artificial intelligence capabilities. The Japanese project ended in failure in 1993, while MMC restructured on July 6, 2000 and ceased operations in 2001.
- Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) made the popular Programmed Data Processor (PDP) and VAX mini-computers during the 70s and 80s. VAX terminals were the defacto industry standard in the 80's and the PDP line was used in many key companies and organizations such as MIT and BBN. The PDP-1 was the original hardware for playing history's first computerized video game, Steve Russell's Spacewar!. The PDP-7, and later models ran the first versions of the "C" programming language and UNIX. DEC was a strong supporter of ANSI standards, especially the ASCII character set, which survives in Unicode. The popular AltaVista search engine was created by Digital in 1993 and launched to the public in 1995. However the company was loosing money in the early 90's, and after rounds of layoffs, and many of the company's assests being spun off, what remained of the company was sold to Compaq in 1998. Compaq itself was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2002.
Technorati Tags:
Top5, Domain Names, First Domain Names, Internet History
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Top 5 Rejected Names for this Blog
Whilst brainstorming for names for my blog I came up with a few ideas that didn't make the cut. I list them here in the interest of full disclosure.
Technorati Tags:
Blog Names, Top 5
- Disgruntled Hippo
- Drhaggis' Blog
- Professor Goodtimes and the Happy-Smile blog machine
- The contents of Trudeau's pockets
- Running with Caesars
Technorati Tags:
Blog Names, Top 5
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Top 5 costumes I want to see
This is a big convention going year for me. With Con-version 22 in August, then DragonCon in September, and Celebration IV next May, I'm set up for the my biggest season yet.
I hope to see some awesome hall costumes this year. Here is my top five list I'm keeping my eye out for.
Technorati Tags:
top5, costume, science fiction, Tilda Swinton
I hope to see some awesome hall costumes this year. Here is my top five list I'm keeping my eye out for.
- Fry and Leela as robots: Futurama, "Fear of a Bot Planet"
- Admiral Spaceship and Nitro: "Laser cats" SNL digital short, April 2006
- Jadis' battle outfit: The Chronicles of Narnia, 2005
- Archangel Gabriel: Constantine, 2005
- Plavalaguna: The Fifth Element, 1997
Technorati Tags:
top5, costume, science fiction, Tilda Swinton
Friday, May 12, 2006
Top 5 Convention Names
It is a little disheartening when people you know and respect won't come to a party you are throwing because 5 years ago someone else threw a bad party with the same name.
Here are some suggestions for the name of next year's Science Fiction and Fantasy Society get-together.
- Awesome Con
- Ret-Con
- Gathering of the Fans
- Fandom United
- Shindig
Any suggestions?
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