Mass Effect… (Flash mobs)

The aim of flash mobs is to assemble a lot of people in a public place in order to make a precise action in a short time before a quick dispersion.


The "inventor" of flash mobs is Bill Wasik. He is a senior editor of Harper's Magazine which is both an old and famous magazine about general interest (literature, finance, arts...).
The first flash mob was planned in May 2003 at Manhattan. This first attempt was a failure since the store targeted by the plan was warned about a meeting in its place. Then Bill Wasik improved the concept for the second flash mob organized in June 3, 2003. This time, the participants were advised to go into four prearranged bars. Then the final information and place were given just before the beginning of the event.
The term flash mob is also used to refer a Chinese practice of buyers who forecast, online, a meeting in a precise store in order to drive a collective bargain.
In France, the first flash mob was organized in August 28, 2003 in the museum of Le Louvre. There a hundred persons spoke with their cell phone, then stopped and fell at the ground then applauded something in the air before dispersion.


These actions are now easier to prepare thanks to the new wireless technologies (internet, texting...). These technologies are also used in political project: in 2001 in Philippines the population made the government of President Estrada fall. However the most of flash mobs are non-political actions.
In Japan, cosplayers (persons who wear a fantastic hero costume) went to the street to perform a synchronized dance:


In some countries (Canada, France, Swiss) a pillow fight took place in 2006. It’s now a worldwide wave!!!

Great film...especially tattoos

Eastern Promises is a 2007 Canadian drama/thriller feature film directed by David Cronenberg, the director of "History of Violence". The screenplay was by Dirty Pretty Things writer Steven Knight. The film tells of a British midwife's interactions with the Russian mafia in London and stars Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. The film has been noted for its unexpected plot twist and for its violence and realistic depiction of the Russian criminal underworld, including its use of tattoos. Criminal mastermind Nikolai (Mortensen) finds his ties to a notorious crime family shaken when he crosses paths with Anna (Watts), a midwife who has accidentally uncovered evidence against them.




Awards

The film premiered September 8, 2007 at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on general release in North America on September 21, 2007. The film was released in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2007. As of January 31, 2008, the film has grossed $51,202,291 worldwide and has received a positive critical reception, appearing on several U.S. critics' "top ten films" lists for 2007. Eastern Promises has won several awards, including the Audience Prize for best film at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Best Actor award for Mortensen at the 2007 British Independent Film Awards. The film received twelve Genie Award nominations, three Golden Globe Award nominations, and Mortensen was nominated for Best Actor at the 80th Academy Awards, losing to Daniel Day Lewis.


The thing that most fascinated me in this film is tattoos and stories that there was around. I wanted to talk about it in more detail :

History of tattoos

For most people, tattoos are a way of decorating the body with images that say something about who they are. In the russian prison camps, tattoos mean much more. Firstly they say where the owner comes in the criminal pecking order. For example a cross in the middle of the chest is the tattoo of the "prince of thieves", the hightest rank of criminal. Secondly they say what the wearer is inside for - for example a genie and a lamp means a druf - related crime.

Other tattoos are worn for more sinister reasons. They can show that a prisoner hasn't paid his gambling debts, or is a stool pigeon. This kind of tattoo normally has a pornographic image that humiliates the wearer, and is applied forcibly, with a beating thrown in too. Tattoos used for humiliation like this are worn where they can be seen, on the forehead. That's why tattoos command such respect in russian prisons. People lie and cheat and they let you down, but a tattoo is forever, and the mark of a tattoo removed from the forehead tells its own story.


Then there is the "grin" tattoo, normally an animal like a fox or a wolf, grinning defiantly at the prison guards and authority in general. It shows a refusal to be beaten by the system. Russian prisons have wall a covered with the slogans of the authorities : grin tattoos are the prisoner's answers to this. They carry their own slogans, like "I'll never be a soviet serf" and "flatten stool pigeons!"

Although russian prisoner tattoos can be elaborate, they're not great works of art. They tend to be bluish grey and the lines are blurred. The materials used for tattoos done in prison are basic - anything that's available. Ink can be made by heating up the sole of a shoe till it is semi-liquid and they mixing it with urine. The tattoo artist's needle is anything sharp to hand - a knife, a pin, a sharp piece of metal.


Wearing the wrong tattoo can upset people. In soviet times it is said that there were secret orders that anti-governement "grin" tattoos had to be destroyed surgically. This procedure was usually fatal. And within the prisoner's community, a prisoner wearing a tattoo that gives him highter rank than is his to claim is a serious insult. In one of the camps a prisoner was told by gang leaders that he had three hours to remove a tattoo : "use sandpaper, aknife, a red-hot poker, anything you like, but take it off". But then he was lucky - most cases like this are punishable by death.



Tattoos have more than just a symbolic meaning for russian prisoners. A body with no tattoos is a body with no identity, its essential nature is not displayed. Michelangelo said that he was not the sculptor of his last creations - he merely used his hammer and chisel to help the forms inside the marble break out. In the same way the tattoo artist's knife brings the prisoner's story, his attitudes, his place in the thieves' family, his true self, to the surface.

Press Forward on Trackmania

Relatively to the article on Trackmania Nations, we are going to talk about one of the ways to amuse themselves on the game and create videos visually impressive on Trackmania Nations or Trackmania United.

The video actually is a series of stunts made by the car in a race, the particularity is that during the course, the player press just on one button or an axe of his joystick : "up", and we called this kind of racing "Full speed Press Forward". The purpose of this race is just to generate a video which is then viewed by the people, there is no spirit of duel or to finish the race in the first place.

On the following video, we observe an incredible fluidity but we also have to imagin the numbers of hours to create a video like that :


The creation of maps like that is long and difficult. Indeed, the creation of a single cascade is easy, but the sequence of sequences of stunts during several minutes is really complicated.
The player have to not only avoid overly repetitive stunts to that the public not weary, but also manage spaceof the different blocks of thegame in the environment for the creation of the map.

It can create the sequence of figures and look where that leads him and put the finish when he think he's blocked or that the duration of the course is sufficient. Another method may be to already have all the ideas of stunts before to create and then to build by creating transitions between simple stunt and stunts more complex. Thus we observe the emergence of continious sequences of pure speed with loopings, wallrides and vertiginous rotative jumps defying any normal gravity.

Various videos of this style are released on Youtube, Dailymotion and other sites hosting streaming videos. They aren't so many like that due to the time it needs to devote it and the creativity to have to create various and impressive stunts.

Have Fun ;)

Marshall Bruce Mathers III...alias EMINEM

I decided to present Eminem, my favorite singer, who is, for me, the greatest US rap artist of all time.


Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage names Eminem and Slim Shady, is an Academy Award and multiple Grammy Award-winning American rap artist. Having sold over seventy million albums worldwide Eminem is one of the highest-selling musicians of the early 2000s, thus making him one of the highest-selling rap artists of all time. Eminem was discovered by rapper and producer Dr. Dre, who later signed Eminem to his record label, Aftermath Entertainment.
Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has praised Mathers for his "verbal energy" and for arousing popular interest in poetry and lyrics.
Rapper Chuck D of the group Public Enemy and columnist L. Brent Bozell III have compared Eminem to Elvis Presley due to their perceptions of Eminem's music being countercultural and antiestablishment. Eminem is infamous for the controversy surrounding many of his lyrics.
With the success of his highly acclaimed album, The Marshall Mathers LP and its subsequent nomination for four Grammy awards including Album of the Year, critics such as GLAAD denounced his lyrics as homophobic and misogynist, while others claimed that it promoted violence.
In 2002, he starred in the semi-autobiographical movie 8 Mile.

This white rapper burst onto the US charts in 1999 with a controversial take on the horrorcore genre. Mathers endured an itinerant childhood, living with his mother in various states before eventually ending up in Detroit at the age of 12. He took up rapping in high school before dropping out in ninth grade, joining ad hoc groups Basement Productions, the New Jacks, and D12. The newly named Eminem released a raw debut album in 1997 through independent label FBT.

His determination to succeed was given a boost by a prominent feature in Source's Unsigned Hype column, and he gained revenge on his former critics when he won the Wake Up Show's Freestyle Performer Of The Year award, and finished runner-up in Los Angeles' annual Rap Olympics.
The following year's The Slim Shady EP, named after his sinister alter-ego, featured some vitriolic attacks on his detractors. The stand-out track, "Just Don't Give A fuck", became a highly popular underground hit.

Discography

• The Slim Shady LP





• The Marshall Mathers LP




• The Eminem Show

• Encore




• Eminem's fifth studio album


Filmography

• Da Hip Hop Witch (2000), himself
• The Wash (2001), Chris
• 8 Mile (2002), Jimmy "B. Rabbit" Smith Jr.
• Have Gun — Will Travel (2008), Paladin


Awards

In acceptance of his Grammy for Best Rap Album (for The Eminem Show) in 2003, he credited his rap influences, saying, "I made me a little list of MCs that I wanted to name off that inspired me to, to bring me where I am today - cause honestly, I wouldn't be here without them.

Fear changes everything

After "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Line", before the highly waited "The Long Walk", Frank Darabont directed a new story of Stephen King, "The Mist", with a consumed talent, becomming the alter-ego on the screen of the master of horror. This time, the movie is more fantastic and looks like the old horror B movies from the 70's.


In a small United States town, David Drayton and his son are trapped in a supermarket with other clients, trapped by thick fog that envelops the entire region (the world?). This freaky mist seems to eat the few who dare to go in here. Darabont sign here a terrifying movie, not advisable for claustrophobic people. The camera is stuck with them, insulation, allowing the viewer to share their fears, their stress, their horrible feeling of isolation and helplessness in face of a phenomenon that exceed, let the viewer even enter the store to live each heartbeat of people trapped. If the trailer suggest a basic story of monsters coming from who knows where, they are quite secondary, the true threat comes from customers in the store. This desperate situation reveals weaknesses and behaviour of men in moments of panic and misunderstanding, the low IQ of crowds and their strong opening to the suggestion even though it's sometimes equally incredible than the present situation. Besides the horror film we can finds a troubling sociological reflection even frightening and quite unhealthy.


The greatest strength of the film is the final scene, disturbing, shocking and surprising at the same time, bathed in an absolute nihilism. This monstrous final, not in the novel but approved by King, is among those who haunt long after the end of the movie while the viewer reflect on the future of the human race.

Brooks was here ... and so was Red

Writing a review about "Shawshank Redemption" of Franck Darabont is a difficult task. In fact, this film was released in 1994 and based on a short story written by Stephen King ("Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" appeared in the book "Different Seasons") take the second place in the top 250 of the best films on the Internet. At the begginning, "Shawshank Redemption" was not really a success. It was not until his VHS output for this cult film becomes immensely known. "Shawshank Redemption" was nominated as best film all time according to the magazine "Empire" in the number of in May 2006 and has also been nominated seven times for Oscar in 1995, Golden Globes and Grammy Awards of the same year.


1947, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a successfull American banker, is judged guilty of murdering his wife and the her lover. For this double murder, he was sentenced of two sentences of life imprisonment one after the other, and ends up trapped in the federal penitentiary of Shawshank. The prison director, Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton), which is an ambitious man with the respect of Biblical traditional values, is supported by a brutal and ruthless chief - guardian, Captain Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), who is not afraid to resort to indiscriminate violence (to the death of detainees if necessary) for the discipline. It's in this hostile environment that Andy will learn how to live for 19 years, binding friendship with the wise and resourceful "Red" (Morgan Freeman), becoming patron with his own resources, dishonest and fighter by necessity, playing this game until he shoot his last card with genius.


This movie is more a film about human nature than prison life, even if this universe is extremely well portrayed, let us think of a death before it happen, and making unbreathable atmosphere. It includes honest people and the lowest rotten species, prisoners disillusioned, institutionalized, destroyed by life imprisonment, wich is a way to get obediently into oblivion, and other unwilling to accept their spells. It is beautiful through speaking and with the music by Thomas Newman, which seeps down deep in the soul. "Shawshank Redemption" is a great movie, with acting skills and a story simply awesome. An american atypical movie you must see and review always with as much fun.

there is a long time ago ...

Sometimes, a music, a picture, a film can be an inspiration source. Be a fan is not an easy way of life. Sometimes, this love isn't rational, with no explanations but unconditional. To explain this subject, we have decided to choice the most popular movement around the world about a saga, the Star Wars Convention.

Star Wars conventions are very popular in United States, because of the movies origins. These rallies are organized by fans. The goals are to share their love for the two trilogy, for the caracters. The principe is very simple, the participants have to disguise in a movie caracter. Two themes are generally very represented, the Force and the dark side of the Force. The Force is composed by Jedis, and the dark side of the Force by Stromtroopers,the Empire army. Siths, the dark Jedis, are less represents because a few number of them in the movies. The most popular and charismatic is Darth Vador.

The Star Wars Celebration began in 1999 in Los Angeles. These conventions are the biggest rallies in the world, and more organized than others. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Gen Con have organized the largest party ever for fans of the saga, the Star Wars Celebration IV. It was taken over the entire Los Angeles Convention Center in May 2007 for five days filled with live entertainment, celebrities from all six movies, special film and video presentations, an exhibit of movie props and costumes, exclusive merchandise sold at a 24-hour-a-day store, costume contests, and scores of additional activities.

For Europe, this kind of convention is beginning to emerge. When will there a Star Wars parade in La Rochelle?

The Shield

How can we talk of police series without talking of The Shield? This series speaks about such variety of subjects, it is virtually impossible not to mention it among the best police series ever. It was created in 2002 by Shawn Ryan and count 6 seasons, the 7th will be diffused soon on the USA on the FX channel. The synopsis is relatively simple, To restore the order in the most dangerous sectors of Los Angeles, Farmington, the Police uses all methods it founds. We see through various persons the way of making reign the order. So, we distinguish five differents types of cops : the simple policemen, the detectives, the captains, members of the internal police and the four members of the Strike Team with the main caracters.

The subjects approached by the episodes are very interesting and varied : shoot, death, police brutality, police corruption, police harassment, criminal investigation, Los Angeles California, police, corrupt cop, California and Mexico, arson, autism, bar, city council, corrupt cop, drugs, immigrant, mayor, murder, serial killer, prison, homosexuality, internal confrontation, racism (mexicain, black, armenian, white, chinese), rape, shoot out, politic, rumours, made for cable, TV, wisecrack humor.

The members of the Strike-Team are the leader Det.Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), Det. Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins), Det. Curtis "Lemonhead" Lemansky (Kenneth A. Johnson), Dét. Ronnie Gardocki (David Rees Snell). They use a variety of illegal and unethical methods to maintain peace on the streets. To resolve their inquiries, they go beyond the law in a lot of case.

The main caracter Vic Mackey can beats, tortures, committs murder, steals drugs or money to come at his ends. Next this things, he's a father of three children (two of whom are autistic), has a wife, is very loyal with his partners. He has the highest number of arrests of his service.
Obviously, with his methods, he has many problems or aventures with his superiors the Capitain David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) or the Capitain Monica Rawling (the famous Glenn Close), his wfe Corrine Mackey (Cathy Cahlin Ryan), the inspector of the internal police Jon Kavanaugh (the famous Forest Whitaker) and some colleagues Det. Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach (Jay Karnes), Det.Claudette Wyms (C.C.H. Pounder), Officier Danielle "Danny" Sofer (Catherine Dent) and the new black Officer Julien Lowe (Michael Jace). All the caracters evolve significantly across the six seasons.

Then we can ask ourselves what's the difference compared with other police series ... The difference is that it is very realistic, with a style very nervous with the camera and the lighting, it gives us a colorful overview of Los Angeles, the way of life among the various ethnic groups, their reports with the police also, the arrests very muscular within the various gangs. For example, the offices are not pretty and clean like in other american series, but very simple as a former neighborhood at risk. The main caracter and his team, even if they are effective and motivate cops, are bent coppers.

It's a series with a incredible dramatic intensity, many pressures in each episod, many developments. The main caracter, Vic Mackey, is very interesting to follow, his decisions, his remorses, his way to resolve investigations and crimes, his way to get out him and his team of the situation of corruption, his way to survive in his hard life of detective. Having to watch the french and english version, I advise the english version which is really more realistic, captivating and fascinating than the french version.

Your destruction is the will of the Gods, and we are their instruments …

With this sentence began the biggest Humanity war ever known. This war is the background for the video game Halo, and the two sequels, Halo 2 and 3. The Halo trilogy recounts events after Reach fall, the last space bulwark before Earth and the escape of the Pillar of Autumn, a space cruiser, with on board the only one Spartan survivor.

With technological progresses, Humanity had colonized space and established colonies and basements through the galaxy. But for some dozen years, contraband and militia growled within colonies. The CSNU, the military earth force, estimated that these movements should be a problem in the future years, and decided to launch the Spartan Project. Kids, with special susceptibilities, were selected to attend a military training, and eradicate the future rebellions. At this time, we got acquainted with John, called with the number 117, one of the subjects for the experimentation. He was chosen, neither for his fixture, nor his strength, but for his luck. During 10 years, Spartans received military education, as Greeks made by the past.

Only, things never go as planned. During an exploration in the outside edge, a frigate met a strange ship, and some seconds after receiving the message “Your destruction is the will of the Gods, and we are their instruments” in human language, the frigate was destroyed. For this moment, Humanity had to face to a threat, more technologically advanced, and decided to exterminate the human existence. To protect Earth, a protocol was established in case of contact with Covenants, the alien conglomerate around a common religion. Any ship in difficulty has to flee in a random path in the subspace not to betray the Earth Position and condemn last chances to win the war.

The video game starts with the Covenant arrival on Reach, a military basement and laboratories, last bulwark before Earth, and the field training for Spartans. During some skirmish against Covenants, Spartans, with their armor MJOLNIR, had showed they can compete and win battles on the ground. Covenants understood, Spartans could be a handicap and decided to resolve the problem. The Pillar of Autumn was the only ship which could escape from Reach, and 117, the last Spartan. When the Pillar of Autumn leaved the subspace, Covenants were already here. Attracted by a huge artifact similar as a ring, a Halo, Covenants opened fire on the frigate which was damaged and crashed on the Halo. The Spartan will lead a guerilla against Covenants, and find answer about Halo, and the terrible truth about its creation and use.

Halo is a million seller game, with a huge success for Microsoft (170 million dollars for the first day in US, and 5 million games since the release). It's a First Person Shooter, so you see what the caracter is supposed to see.

To satisfy fans, some authors have written novels around the game, to tell events before Reach fall, and a film is in preparation, with Peter Jackson as director.

Trackmania Nations

TrackMania Nations ESWC (called TMN), is a racing game which the principle is : races on tracks or maps built by the players, without collisions where the final ranking is determined by his own conduct. This game is totally free, and therefore downloadable via the Internet since January 28, 2006. The cars available are between Formula 1 and buggy, each country has its own color of vehicle. All caracteristics of cars are the same : Speed, dress, size of the car, just the skins or the avatars of players can change.

A solo mod is available but it is on the Internet that the game show us all his interest. The multiplayer mod is meanwhile to play with anyone, in any country, at any time on servers online.
Several sub-modes of play are available :
- Time Attack : The players are trying to make the best time on one or more laps. The time of the party of time attack is determinated by the server.
- Rounds : all players start at the same time, with the aim of achieving the best place, to score as many points as possible until someone reaches the number of points needed to close the party in progress (determined by the server).
- Teams : the game mode usually used for matches between the two teams. It incorporates the principle of the method by rounds, but here is the team that will have the most points accumulated during the lap which won a point for the classification. A match is in 3, 5 or 7 points in the most of cases.

The collisions of the game being absent by choice of Nadeo, players concentrate them only to have the most perfect trajectory and have a management of the drift to do the best time. Players use the graphic motor to win every hundredth of a second by squeezing turns, therefore, final times often
are very closed. We can find on a track, many 90° or 180°, loopings, wallrides, incredible jumps, boost to increase or decrease your speed, also grass changing grip of the car...Many types of tracks are to observate, mains are Fullspeed, Technic, Minitrack, Multilaps.

TrackMania Nations has been developed specifically for the ESWC (Electronic Sports World Cup) 2006 which was disputed Bercy in Paris in the summer of 2006. Qualifications for the ESWC are difficult, specially in France, because most of the best players are french. During the season before the ESWC, players have to participate at many LAN organized and approved by the ESWC to win points to qualified them at the French Cup. It's at this French Cup where the sixty best players of France race to be on the top 2 to be qualified to the ESWC. In other Countries, they are others methods to send players at the ESWC. Many other competitions in the form of leagues or tournaments are organised on the Internet (Nations Cup, Stadium Team Championship, Giant Cup, xG-Cup, TN-Arena). It happens between teams or single player in excited races and with high-level. Like all players knows, the words to say before each match are HF (Have Fun) and GL (Good Luck) and after are GG (Good Game).

Since the start of TMN, the level has increased considerably, and good players are proliferating in an incredible way. Online players are still a ten of thousands on the servers, and as "Hylis" the Director of Nadeo says the February 16, 2008 : "Trackmania gathers on the internet a loyal following [...]. Over 10000000 players, at least 100000/150 000 people who play every day." Around Trackmania Nations, a large community contributes each day at the success of the game : servers, tracks, skins, videos, streaming in live of matchs and many others things.

The success of the game and his selection to the ESWC are his free, the large number of tracks (more than 100000) and a friendly community of gamers.

Links : www.toxmania.com

Halo 26

Hey, just a quick post to say that Trent Reznor just strike again. The new album of Nine Inch Nails is called "Ghosts I-IV" and it's the result of a collaboration between Trent Reznor, Alan Moulder, Atticus Ross, Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew (King Crimson) and Brian Viglione. This new piece distils a totally haunting instrumental rocks throughout its 36 tracks. The album is divided into 4 parts (others will come later) and Reznor describes it as "A soundtrack for daydreams". An album that remain "Still" and the visual identity that goes with it, which means that it's really good. Trent Reznor explains, "I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I'm very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts."

The Halo 26 appears very early this morning and is distributed with an increasingly appreciated way. Indeed, this album marks the breaking of the band with its old major. Now NIN is free and distributes its own discs. We can find on the website the several options to get the album.


First you can download Ghost I for free, which is established under creative commons license (which is really rare in this financial world), you can also download all the parts for 5$. This download lets you choose the format (mp3, FLAC, Apple Lossless, ...) and includes digital bonus. You can buy the double CD for 10$ (also includes the download). Then there is the deluxe packs. The first costs 75$ and contains 2 CDs, a DVD with songs in multiple formats and a Blu-ray of the album in high definition sound. The latest edition, the most expensive ($ 300) contains the first deluxe pack, two vinyls and a book in a beautiful package signed by Reznor himself. This version just exist in 2500 copies.


This opus is really awesome and doesn't cost so much given the market price, I advise you to listen it and maybe buy it.

You can listen this new album here