ziegfeld

Sun, 29 Feb 2004 13:52:11 -0500

Regarding Oscar and the trouble at Disney... The proposed merger between Comcast & Disney brought to mind this exchange between Ned Beatty (Jensen) and Peter Finch (Beale) in "Network" (which earned its share of Oscars in its day): Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal -- that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds.There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds and shekels. It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and A T & T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale! It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war and famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale. Beale: Why me? Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday. Beale: I have seen the face of God. Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale. And to think this script is almost 30 years old! I found this on American Rhetoric. Check it out for other great movie speeches.

Slim

Sun, 29 Feb 2004 11:44:28 -0500

Ques for drinking should include the words "extraordinary" and "amazing". Although I doubt the average participant would be able to drive home if these words were included in the game.

Frankenstein

Sat, 28 Feb 2004 16:46:25 -0500

There seem to be a lot of liquor stores open on Sunday on the Upper West Side. That would suggest to me that people who live on the UWS are inclined to dipsomania. Does Gothamist know anyone who lives up tehre?

Ron Mwangaguhunga

Sat, 28 Feb 2004 15:59:11 -0500

I really hope Bill Murray wins this thing.

Gothamist: Oscar Drinking Fun!

ziegfeld

Slim

Frankenstein

Ron Mwangaguhunga