donmac
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Post by donmac on May 22, 2004 14:03:39 GMT -5
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Post by mightyjack on May 22, 2004 15:13:24 GMT -5
Great read. Thanks. Some different stuff there. But I still think "American Beauty" was a work of art. Sorry Mike
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Post by LordKaT on May 22, 2004 16:37:12 GMT -5
Ah ...
If there is one thing I'd want to ask Nelson is what he thought of the comedy on my website. It would be great to get feedback from somone other than my friend from comp. sci class.
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Post by mightyjack on May 22, 2004 18:43:04 GMT -5
One thing that surprised me was how he views things in very "back and white" terms. I knew he was conservative, but there is no gray areas with him.
There are 2 kinds of Amercians? Actually there's a third, I know because I'm one of them (Blaise Pascals writings on "balance" really spoke to me. I beleive we need both conservative and liberal voices to keep us from going off into the extreamism that you'd find with someone such as Musilini(sp?) (Yes the trains ran on time, but at what cost?).
Anyway... not slamming Mike and it doesn't change how I feel about him (he's a comedic genius). I mean, for example, I love John Wayne movies even tho I disagreed with his politics. But I was surprised by Mike's "It's this or that" mindset.
This could be an interesting area of discussion. What do you all think after reading the interview?
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Post by Unsavory on May 22, 2004 19:57:18 GMT -5
I'm not sure I interpreted Mike's words the same way. He didn't strictly say two types of Americans, but rather two types of Americas. It is an oversimplification either way, but I think the statement was just addressing the fact that there are two controlling political parties in the United States and that they have opposite viewpoints.
Certainly there are Americans lying all across the political spectrum, and I don't think Mike denies this.
I personally would consider myself somewhat conservative, but I like to believe that I would vote a democrat into office if he addressed my beliefs and presented himself well enough.
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Post by Ator on May 22, 2004 21:56:32 GMT -5
Was it just me, or did he seem a tad grouchy? Not in every question, but...
Oh, and you really need to ask him about his laughing. Was it all real, or scripted?
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Post by mightyjack on May 22, 2004 22:20:21 GMT -5
Oops, my mistake, your right Josh.
And Ator maybe it was the serious nature of the questions, he did seem frustrated with the state of some things.
Perhaps that's why I was tuning onto this "inflexability" on his part. That's not a bad thing, to stand firmly for what you beleive. But I've always battled with this "What if I'm wrong" thing. You know, all my ideas and opinions being "Sound and fury, signifying nothing". In the great scheme of things how can I possibly know absolute truth.
Despite that, I admire people like Francis Schaffer, Aquinas and yes, even Mike who say this is the truth. No if ands or buts. Even if I don't always agree with certain parts of their beleifs.
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donmac
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Post by donmac on May 22, 2004 22:30:05 GMT -5
I was actually surprised that he's ultra-conservative in his political views.
(As for me, I don't care to align myself with either the tweedle-dee or the tweedle-dum parties. Regardless of their party affiliation, I either vote for a candidate I like, or against the incumbent if I don't like the way the person is doing the job.)
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yousonuva
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Post by yousonuva on May 23, 2004 7:35:10 GMT -5
I'll say the less I know about Mike's politcal and moral views, the more I like him. I mean he berated Pulp Ficton (probably seeing it as glorified violence) and American Beauty. Sure they have racy material but they are well made movies. But I guess he was just seeing it in a more religious viewpoint. I also disagree with everything religous he says. And I agree with MJ about the extreme left and right he seems to see America as. I find the best and most rational people are the ones who don't completey commit to ANYthing as to have a wide view on everything and make assessments from there and there are a lot of Americans who feel the same.
The thing with seeing Mike in this way is what confuses me though. On air you never would've guessed that he's at ALL conservative as his persona is very loose and fresh (almost like radical in a way) so I scratch my head here. But really he must be somewhat middle ground what with the people he's worked with and the huge variety of fans the show has garnered (I'm using a lot of big werds). So I'll just stick to the Mike I'm used to and not worry about how wrong his ideas are ;D
BTW great questions.
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Post by vanhagar3000 on May 23, 2004 10:49:04 GMT -5
Interesting Interview as it dealt, on a vast scope, on subjects of different things. I'd love to see this style of interview with another Best Brainer. Kevin Murphy would be awesome but I'd like to see KTMA questions which were left out of the other interviews. Same with Josh Weinstein who I'm surprised out of him, Joel, Frank and Trace was the one who gave an interview to you guys. I guess because he's done more outside of MST3K it's okay for him to look back.
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Post by mightyjack on May 23, 2004 13:39:57 GMT -5
Why it surprises me is that creative minds, at least the great ones, tend to explore any and all posibilities. There are no limits in that exploration. You put those limits on later, when you put the final polish on your creation (otherwise you might actually think that "Sashay through the sarcasm" is a decent lyric! - but when you first go into it, you turn it upside down, inside out, you say "What if" and see how it works. Who knows, maybe he's got an internal switch he can turn off and on. When he's creating he's more free and explorative. Outside of that world he's the conservative father and husband.
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donmac
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Post by donmac on May 23, 2004 17:19:27 GMT -5
I'll say the less I know about Mike's politcal and moral views, the more I like him. I mean he berated Pulp Ficton (probably seeing it as glorified violence) and American Beauty. Sure they have racy material but they are well made movies. But I guess he was just seeing it in a more religious viewpoint. Yeah, I was surprised that he slammed Pulp Fiction, so I guess he's not much of a Tarantino fan (I would hazard to guess that he hates Kill Bill too). But I sorta agree with him on American Beauty. I mean, I think it was reasonably good for the first part, but then really went off-track starting with the "Three's Company" moment (i.e. the scene in which the military dad mistakenly thinks he sees something that really isn't happening, a lame plot device that happened in every single episode of that lousy sitcom) and the movie was then pretty bad the rest of the way. (The fact that the ending was "fixed" in editing is not a surprise.) Although I don't think it's the most overrated thing ever, not by a long shot, but I definitely do not think it deserved Best Picture, especially in that year (1999) when there were so many great movies. I also disagree with him on the "which has declined most: music, TV, or movies" question. I would go with music has declined the most, then movies, and finally TV. That's because today's popular music has gotten damn close to unlistenable. Movies, on the other hand, have lost a lot of the depth they once had and seem edited by a hyperactive kid, but there's still a lot of good ones being made. TV, though, used to really suck and actually is generally better in quality now than it was, say, 30 years ago (something that's not true for music or movies).
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Post by marytrobot on May 23, 2004 17:22:58 GMT -5
I'd have to say Mike seems to see the two extremes of America, which it is you've got the a side where everyone wants everything legal, (like Holand) cause we're america we're freedom. And the side that wants everything more...I would say closer to the church. But there are lots of people in the middle. For example myself, people would describe me as the most divided on political views I'm right in the middle. Like i'm all for gay marriage, but totally against abortion. Now I don't wanna get in an arguement with someone about that stuff, cause they're sensitive subjects. But Mike was pointing out the extremists who have the most voice. That's all we listen to are the people who want the church or don't want any rules. There never is anyone out there talking about a happy medium. Well I've never seen them anyways.
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Post by KingVitaman on May 23, 2004 17:33:13 GMT -5
I looooved "American Beauty", it's one of my favorite films. The way they presented the idea that this guy suddenly finds that he's been sleepwalking through life and that it didn't go the way he planned. Maybe you need to go through it to appreciate it but I thought it was powerful.
Very glad it won the Oscar.
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donmac
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Post by donmac on May 23, 2004 20:42:40 GMT -5
I looooved "American Beauty", it's one of my favorite films. The way they presented the idea that this guy suddenly finds that he's been sleepwalking through life and that it didn't go the way he planned. Maybe you need to go through it to appreciate it but I thought it was powerful. Very glad it won the Oscar. That part of the movie is the good part - I wish it had stayed with that story of a man trying to get out of his suburban nightmare through a more natural conclusion. But the movie goes bad when the next door neighbor military guy flips out. And I can't forgive a bad ending like that on a movie so easily, particularly a movie so highly praised.
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