Tiananmen Square: The massacre that wasn't

Twenty-five years ago today, every U.S. media outlet, along with then President Bush and the U.S. Congress were whipping up a full scale frenzied hysteria and attack against the Chinese government for what was described as the cold-blooded massacre of many thousands of non-violent “pro-democracy” students who had occupied Tiananmen Square for seven weeks.

The hysteria generated about the Tiananmen Square “massacre” was based on a fictitious narrative about what actually happened when the Chinese government finally cleared the square of protestors on June 4, 1989.

The demonization of China was highly effective. Nearly all sectors of U.S. society, including most of the “left,” accepted the imperialist presentation of what happened.

Bad Boys composed and conducted by Bill Conti

http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8031/.f

Despite the brutal violence of the major set-pieces in the 1983 film Bad Boys starring Sean Penn (as Mick), composer Bill Conti took pains to emphasize the film’s humane side in his score, building around a gentle main theme that serves as the love theme and as a musical reflection of Mick’s humanity as well as his potential for redemption. There are four facets to the score, of which the largest in impact is the austere, clinical sound of high woodwind harmonies, dominated by clarinet choir. A second orchestral device features piano and strings playing the warm and tender love theme. The third features suspense and dramatic action material, while the fourth layer of music is that of Chicago and her streets at night where the story begins. Conti scores for full orchestra, but primarily uses strings, piano and percussion for the love theme, woodwinds for the correctional facility, and strings, woodwinds and French horn for the action. He reserves full brass for his sizzling source music. When heard as one lengthy work, the shades of excitement, color, subtlety and drama are impressive. Michael “Mick” O’Brien is introduced when he smashes a terrified woman’s car window to steal her purse. The only positive thing in Mick’s young life is his girlfriend JC. Mick and his friend Carl plot to rip off Paco, a drug-dealing fellow student, but the caper ends tragically—Carl is killed, and Mick accidentally runs over Paco’s eight-year-old brother. Mick is sentenced to a correctional facility where the brutal inmate “barn bosses” really run the place. Mick uses violent means to become the new barn boss, but the grieving Paco plots his revenge, beating, raping and nearly murdering JC. Paco is arrested and sent to the same facility, where the other inmates bet on who will survive the inevitable confrontation.

In David Lam Park in Yaletown. Autumn of 2019.

Just finished watching Unicorn Store (2017) and Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994)...

Hitler confronts President Trump at press conference

Day Nursery by Boris Vladimirski, 1931.

Dimensions of Dialogue (1983)

Dimensions of Dialogue (Czech: Možnosti dialogu) is a 1983 Czechoslovak animated short film directed by Jan Švankmajer. It is 14 minutes long and created with stop motion.

The animation is divided into three sections. "Eternal conversation" (Dialog věčný) shows Arcimboldo-like heads gradually reducing each other to bland copies; "Passionate discourse" (Dialog vášnivý) shows a clay man and woman who dissolve into one another sexually, then quarrel and reduce themselves to a frenzied, boiling pulp; and "Exhaustive discussion" (Dialog vyčerpávající) consists of two elderly clay heads who extrude various objects on their tongues (toothbrush and toothpaste; shoe and shoelaces, etc.) and intertwine them in various combinations.

Terry Gilliam selected the film as one of the ten best animated films of all time.