The Hall of Fire

To go back to my original comment that sparked some of this - *I'm* not going to be comfortable foregoing clothing in situations where I know eyes aren't going to be respectful of me. That's why I spoke of clothing as 'protection' - there's nothing wrong with veiling parts of your body you don't wan...

Kiera Knightly is similarly ridiculously armed at the beginning of the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. In the same scene, Orlando Bloom can hold his breath for an implausibly long time. It's funny (and meant to be) :) I agree, Maria - it's the looking that is the problem, and wearing clothes d...

Humor is great for advertising, even if it sometimes falls flat or confuses people. As far as the 'people are looking at me!' sentiment in the thread, I don't mind people looking at me nor do I mind if they happen to like what they see. But sexual harassment does happen, and that is why there are ma...

Jewel , in The Emerald Forest , there is 'sexual behavior', certainly, though not enough to otherwise earn an R-rating. His wedding night is portrayed, for goodness sakes, though they merely show the ceremony (which includes bashing her over the head and dragging her off :blackeye: ), and some kiss...

The purpose of wearing clothing at all (besides the practical advantages) is to protect the view of your body from being displayed for the eyes of anyone who happens to walk by. If everyone were a perfectly decent human being, the response to a 'wardrobe malfunction' or some other loss of clothing w...

ax , the Old Spice commercial certainly got women's attentions, and it's only 33 seconds long ;) "I'm on a horse" Strangely enough, the version of this aimed at men used a...different tactic. 'Smell like a man, man.' While there is a shirtless guy in there, it's all about macho stereotype...

The reaction of the women in the Diet Coke ad is that of someone who likes what they see. Whether or not the construction worker is being 'displayed' the same way, the ad was trying to key into the idea of women ogling men. Women and men are different in this regard - and advertisers are likely to i...

Europe has slightly different advertising laws than the US. I think you can show more skin on the women (regardless of what you are advertising for), but you cannot ever ever show anyone drinking alcohol. So, I imagine French ads for alcoholic beverages would go over the heads of most Americans ;). ...

Best opening credits: Star Wars and Red Dragon, for different reasons, obviously. I've been thinking over best scenes in Lord of the Rings, and I have to say the lighting of the beacons is near the top of the list. The music, the landscape, the sense of hope and purpose.... ...even if it still annoy...

I think one of the saddest scenes ever is the death of Artex in The Neverending Story. It won't get best scene ever, because it contains the line 'Fight against the sadness, Artex!' which is difficult to take out of context. But his horse dies, and he can't even be sad about it, because if he is, he...

I tend to prefer party scenes to anything dramatic or moving. So, some of my favorites include: The Podlings from The Dark Crystal . I think mostly because it was one of the few movies I saw as a child that used language to show culture clash. Or maybe that's my post-Tolkien perspective ;). Irish pa...

On the original topic, the Vatican is expected to make an announcement of worldwide guidelines, rather than continuing to deal with this on a country by country basis. If bishops continue to not do their jobs after this...I imagine we'd see more serious discipline of bishops.

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Yes, it is true that immigration laws deal with people's lives and livelihoods. It's hardly trivial no matter how you look at it. But I do believe nations are allowed to make laws about who may enter and under what circumstances. So, people who decide to come here anyway, despite what the laws are.....

Yeah, getting *out* of the system once you're in it is always tricky.....

Haha, very cool! I hope you enjoy being a model :) Western clothing could be very elaborate and complicated too, remember. It's fairly simple now (at least in comparison to kimonos), but...well, we had corsets and neckties, and lots of rules about what you could wear in what season. I did hear about...

Thanks for that, yov , though I must say I prefer Moxy Fruvous' King of Spain - more fun ;). I don't much care about Dylan or the Beatles (or Elvis), but I know their names. I know the Beatles' music better, and admit that some of it is fun, though they'll probably never end up on a list of my favor...

Exactly. Even in a, er, less free society, papers were mostly for crossing borders and talking to the gov't on your own initiative. I've been milling over in my mind what I think would be 'fair' (in my own world, not in the real world Arizona). I think it would be fair if police can arrest people fo...

I do hope this doesn't escalate to the point of taunting people to kill other people. I am more and more doubtful that a credible threat was made against South Park or Comedy Central...but in the fallout of this controversy, it seems more and more likely that some nutjob will take notice and take it...

Not only that, the Jewish-convert-founder is no longer with the group, and was not the one responsible for the threats against South Park. According to Wikipedia, he says yeah, he finds South Park despicable, but most Americans probably find him despicable, so that's par for the course, no need to m...

But of course it was a big deal that he wrote an opera in German, not Italian, showing her point. Politics and class play a role in art, especially that kind of art in that time. (Why did Shakespeare write Macbeth?)