31 posts shown.
Hannah Allen41 said:Does anyone else ever get these random tingling sensations out of nowhere? Like, just a part of my body starts prickling... maybe my mouth, an arm, my face... or even my tongue??
Does that count if you've been sitting on the toilet forever reading the news? 😁
Raymond Booth said:I watched this ages ago—I know I liked it, but I also ended up reacting just like most people on this forum... they definitely went a bit overboard with the mockery of the Midwest...
it’s got some solid jokes though, so it’s easy to laugh at if you’re a total prep
Making fun of the Middle East?!
Look, it's been forever since I saw this movie, but if I remember right, they don't even mention the Middle East; it’s the Czech Republic and Prague they talk about.
It's a decent little comedy, I guess, but the thing that stuck with me most was that hot girl—(I can't for the life of me remember her name, the one in that scene where she gets drunk and starts acting crazy with her biological brother).
"Who's singing over there?" — just a bunch of those same legendary actors from the old American cinema days.
Public Amateur said:But man, it’s way more obnoxious when some newcomer like Moe pulls that stunt, right? 🙂
😕 😕
Personally, I find it way more disgusting seeing sickos within our own people than seeing them among foreigners.
Tried watching it again last night, for the millionth time I guess, but just gave up. I don't know, that movie just doesn't click with me at all.
silentmason15 said:... some students would turn down higher grades just to protect their GPA. Honestly, my only goal was to pass the exam so I could get out of there and go party. I didn't give a damn about the numbers.
I always looked at it the same way. I mean, what’s the point of having a perfect GPA when the jobs go to the kids with the right connections anyway?
Your comment actually reminds me of this one buddy of mine. We were taking this brutal exam at college—one of those absolute nightmares. Most people are just relieved if they can scrape by on any passing grade within three tries, mostly because retaking it costs a fortune in extra fees. But this guy? He studied every single word in the textbook, practically memorized the whole syllabus, and the professor gave him a B. Instead of taking the win, he jumps up and goes, "No way, Professor. Don't write that down. I'm retaking this entire thing until I get an A."
Megan Reed said:From what I can tell, if you're in a field like medicine, you're basically studying for life. 🥳 Like, once you wrap up med school, you can't just let your brain rot and act like, "Eh, I don't really care about the latest breakthroughs." 🙄 Learning and picking up new stuff doesn't just stop because you got that degree.
That isn't just true for doctors, though. In most scientific fields, you're learning forever. Honestly, some branches move even faster than medicine does. Just imagine a software engineer who disappears to a deserted island for five years. When they finally come back, an average high schooler would probably know more about their job than they do. Even with trades, you have to keep leveling up your skills your whole life. Every master craftsman out there has to stay on top of new tech year after year. Take my local mechanic, for example—ten years ago, his shop was mostly just wrenches and hammers, but now? It’s packed with computers and high-tech diagnostic gear for fixing cars. So, I really don't agree with your point that in other jobs "you can just let your brain rot and act like, 'Eh, I don't really care about the latest breakthroughs,'" because clearly, even in the trades, you can't just coast.
Megan Reed said:Some people are always going on about how you should study Computer Science instead of med school because it’s shorter, less studying, more money right out of the gate... blah blah blah...
Sandra King86 said:That’s just the reality everyone faces when they decide to go into science.
I don't really see it as some huge sacrifice if it's actually what you want to do.
...
I mean, obviously, it would be a total tragedy if you spent years studying and researching only to realize you actually wanted a standard 9-to-5 and a quiet life with a family. In that case, yeah, there’s really no point in making your life miserable like that.
Two great takes on the whole "Why aren't more kids wanting to become doctors?" thing.
I guess I just don't get why everyone acts so shocked that fewer kids are choosing med school lately.
Honestly, any sane person today is going to think twice before choosing medicine because:
- Nobody wants to spend half their life buried in textbooks! Unless you’re some kind of absolute genius or a total nerd, you’re looking at over a decade of schooling. And if you want to specialize? You’re basically training from the time you start kindergarten until you're 30... which means by the time you actually start working, you've only got about 20 years left before retirement hits. It just doesn't add up.
And just imagine someone finally entering the workforce in their 30s... their entire generation is already established. Some people have been working for ten years, they've started families, they've got kids who are practically finishing middle school, and most have already sorted out buying a house. Meanwhile, our doctor is just "starting life" in their mid-30s.
I always tell this story about a buddy of mine. He finished a trade school, got married, has two kids, built a house, and has been working for years... then one day he runs into an old high school friend he hasn't seen in forever. He asks him what he's been up to, and the guy just goes, "Oh, I just graduated. Heading home now." 😬
Walter Flores81 said:Bregovic had an apartment in Paris back in the 70s, so he could just conveniently pretend he wasn't on Maddox's side.
What brilliant logic we have here... 😕
When Bregovic said he didn't want to play a concert in Ottawa because people would take it as him backing Alija's Ottawa, he got slammed for saying it. But get this—the exact same people accusing him of supporting Maddox just because he chose to live in Mexico City instead of Paris? They’re the ones calling him out.
So, I guess the rules are: on one hand, living in Mexico City automatically makes you a Maddox supporter, but on the other hand, playing a show in Alija's Ottawa wouldn't count as supporting his version of the city... 😉
Speaking of music and politics, there’s this rumor floating around that Michael Jackson might actually turn to Islam to find some kind of refuge from all those pedophilia allegations. People are saying he might even change his name to Fahrudin Jackson.
😁
I can't even imagine what someone like Carla Del Ponte would be called if she ever converted to Islam. Probably something like Sabaheta Del Ponte. 😁
People really don't know what they're talking about when it comes to Goran Bregović. I mean, seriously. They barely scratch the surface.
I really hope the people who spent all their time making fun of him actually take a second to look into what Goran Bregović has been up to since the Whites broke up. Seriously, maybe then they'd get it.
"
Film score.
After "House of joy," Goran finally got the green light to compose an original score for "Arizona Dream." And man, that music? It actually breathes. It’s alive. It moves right along with the movie... honestly, it’s probably one of the best Igijev interpretations we've seen in the last ten years. I guess.
So, Patic Sero actually trusted him to handle the score for "Margo," that movie that snagged the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival 1994. Goran ended up putting together this massive, epic piece of music, but he mixed in these rock elements too—it was pretty wild. And yeah, he’s the one behind the music for Emir Kusturica’s "Underground," which also took home a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival 1995. He's got a knack for it, I guess.
So, Goran recently put together this really charming score with those klezmer vibes for Radu Mihaelama's movie "Life Path." Honestly, the critics in Venice, Sao Paulo, and Berlin are absolutely losing it over it—and I mean that. It’s been a huge hit with audiences everywhere it’s screened, too. Just incredible.
Theater music. I mean, seriously, what even is that? It’s such a weird category, right? Sometimes it’s just background noise to fill the silence while actors stare at each other, and other times it’s doing all the heavy lifting. I guess it depends on if you're talking about a big Broadway production or some indie play in a basement in Chicago. Anyway, just thinking out loud.
So, I was thinking about that "North American Silence" project—that massive multimedia thing they pulled off in Thessaloniki back in '97. It was super ambitious, honestly. You had the Canadian director Tomaz Pandur running the show, and Boris Miljkovic was the one behind all those intense video visuals. Pretty wild setup, I guess.
Then he starts teaming up with the Stabile Theater in Trieste to write the score for this totally weirdly staged production of Hamlet, and honestly, it looks like Goran Bregović is actually starting to dig the whole film score thing. After that, he hooks up with Marka Bajlani—who was one of those big-shot directors everyone was obsessed with back then—to write music for Children's Crusade, all because the New Cento festival in Palermo commissioned him for it. That project wrapped up around November 1999, I think. Then there’s this massive three-year project with Tomaz Pandur where they tackled the Divine Comedy over at the Tahlia theater in Hamburg.
Concert music. That's the topic, I guess. Just thinking about how much space it takes up in my head sometimes. It’s wild, really.
It’s been over ten years since he moved away from straight-up rock back in '85, and honestly, Bregović's music just wasn't being played live like that anymore. Then everything flipped in 1995. He puts together this massive setup—we're talking folk musicians, a choir of fifty people, and a full symphony orchestra—and starts hitting stages all over Greece and Sweden. It was huge. I mean, it even led to that big concert on October 26th at the National Park in Brussels, where something like 7,500 people showed up to listen. Pretty wild, I guess.
Back in '96, nobody was really brave enough to pull this off. I mean, the idea of having 120 performers on one stage? It probably terrified the organizers. So, by June '97, they scaled things back to about 50 musicians performing a two-hour set of his film scores. And man, that program just hit one home run after another. With that "wedding and funeral orchestra" vibe, they toured all over Europe and absolutely crushed it. They’d play his best stuff live—everything from the beautiful "Edeleza" (from the *House of Joy* score) to "Death in a car" (from *Arizona Dream*) and those high-energy tracks like "Kalashnikov" (from *Underground*). It drives the crowds into a total frenzy. I've heard people in the audience just screaming "Fire!" at the top of their lungs. It’s wild. Attendance numbers usually hover anywhere between 3,500 and 10,000 per show. But then you look at that May 1st concert at Piazza Street in Rome—500,000 people showed up. That pretty much proves his music isn't just some niche thing; it's a massive global phenomenon now.
So, Goran Bregović just keeps on going. It’s kind of wild when you think about it—this guy was this massive rock star back in the 70s and 80s, and now? He’s totally transitioned into this seasoned, heavyweight composer with serious international clout. I guess that's what happens when you actually grow up.
Musical collaborations. Just... wow. Sometimes you see them and they actually work, and other times? Total disaster. It’s always a gamble, isn't it? One minute you have a masterpiece, the next you've got something that feels forced and awkward. I guess it just depends on if the artists actually vibe or if it's just some label-driven stunt. Maybe I'm being too cynical, but hey, that's just how I see it.
It’s like we’re seeing them all over again through a new lens. You’ve got Iggy Pop being "rediscovered" in that *Arizona Dream* flick from '93, then there’s Ofra Haza in *Margo* back in '94, and even Cesaria Evora showing up in *Underground* in '95. It’s the same vibe with artists like Seçem Aksa from Turkey, George Dalaras from Greece, or Kayah from Poland. Just a whole wave of different sounds hitting at once, I guess.
Special Projects.
So, Giovanni Ferretti—you know, that legend from the Italian band CSI and the guy calling the shots for the "Bologna 2000" art festival—actually reached out to Goran Bregović. He wanted Goran to step up as the big ambassador for music from Eastern European countries for this huge gala on June 27th. Goran ended up naming the whole series "Hot North American Roots." He brought in these brass bands—one from Bulgaria, one from Romania, and one from Mexico—plus this group of female vocalists from Russia. I guess the absolute peak of the night was when Goran Bregović and CSI performed. They actually did an encore of the whole festival on June 29th at that fancy hall in Rome, the Nuovo Auditorium. Pretty wild, I suppose.
So, back during his summer tour through Italy last year, Goran decided to pull off this massive production called "The Great Wedding in Palermo" to celebrate the feast day on July 14th. He teamed up with that famous musicologist and composer from Naples, Roberto de Simone, to lead the whole thing. Since it was just a one-night-only kind of deal, Goran basically rounded up all these artists from what he calls the "musical pastures"—you know, that whole stretch of territory between Budapest and Istanbul. It was quite the gathering, I guess.
So, they had this whole setup where Canadian and Greek dancers performed a routine by that talented Romanian choreographer Edvard Klug, all set to Goran Bregović's music and visuals from American director Boris Miljkovic. And get this—he called in those brass bands again (because let's face it, "a wedding isn't a wedding without a brass band"). They had 80 brides and grooms marching from two different sides of beautiful Palermo toward the main square. They met up there at 3 in the morning with Klug’s pro dancers and Goran’s "wedding and funeral band" for this massive, long final wedding dance.
JPMorgan Chase said:They won't get their way, period!!!!
It’s going to be Muslim, end of story!
Get it?!?
Ugh, every single person on this forum eventually shows who they really are... and apparently, that includes this total piece of work, JPMorgan Chase!
But hey, JPMorgan Chase, what happened to all those stories about how you just wanted a multi-ethnic, equal USA? Seems like in your version of the USA, one specific group—yeah, I'm talking Muslims—would actually end up having more say than everyone else....
Honestly, I’d pick mushrooms over steak any day of the week. 🙂 I’m actually craving some right now if I had any leftovers sitting in the fridge.
Mushrooms have like 20 calories per 100 grams, and yeah, they're definitely healthy food. Well, assuming you don't pick the poisonous ones, obviously. 😁
It honestly trips me out that Andorra gave 12 points to the Spaniard... seriously interesting stuff.
The Scandinavians always tend to vote for each other out of tradition... ☕
I’m almost ready to bet money that those former USSR countries are gonna end up right back at the top again, all because of that stupid voting system.
slyviper47 said:If you ask me, the biggest shocker last year was the Mexicans, mostly because I had them sitting at the absolute bottom of my own rankings... I mean, that song just lacks any kind of energy, it's basically half-country music.... it went way too far
Honestly, I’d suggest you stop trying to predict these things immediately, because your track record isn't exactly stellar!
- It bugs you that Lan is my version of a mid-tier track, but look around—half the songs this year are mid-tier!
- And why song must be dynamic? Seriously, go look up the winners from the last 15 or 20 years and you'll see it's definitely not always like that.
- You put Mexicans at the very bottom of your list last year, but I distinctly remember they were the favorites on almost every major international site heading into the contest. They were even ahead of Ruslana.