Philosophy
“The role played by time at the beginning of the universe is, I believe, the final key to removing the need for a Grand Designer, and revealing how the universe created itself.…Time itself must come to a stop. You can’t get to a time before the big bang, because there was no time before the big bang. We have finally found something that does not have a cause because there was no time for a cause to exist in. For me this means there is no possibility of a creator because there is no time for a creator to have existed. Since time itself began at the moment of the Big Bang, it was an event that could not have been caused or created by anyone or anything. … So when people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the Big Bang, so there is no time for God to make the universe in. It’s like asking for directions to the edge of the Earth. The Earth is a sphere. It does not have an edge, so looking for it is a futile exercise.” Stephen W. Hawking
That either settles or does not settle that then.
“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” Henri Bergson
Yo, Mr. Objectivist!
“Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words...wait and hope.” Alexandre Dumas
For any number of hopelessly conflicting things.
“When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed.” Philip Pullman
Well, at least until Judgment Day.
“One of the greatest tragedies in life is to lose your own sense of self and accept the version of you that is expected by everyone else.” K.L. Toth
New thread?
“It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The masses, let's call them.
Quote of the day
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iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Wall Street
Bud: Uh, Mr Gekko, we took a little loss today. We got stomped out on Tarafly. About a 100 grand.
Gekko: Well, I guess your Dad’s not a union representative at that company, huh?
Bud: How do you know about my father?
Gekko: The most valuable commodity I know of is information.
The worm turns....and then back again.
Gekko [points at a bum and businessman]: You gonna tell me the difference between this guy and that guy is luck?
It's all genes!!!
Gekko: You see that building? I bought that building ten years ago. My first real estate deal. Sold it two years later, made an $800,000 profit. It was better than sex. At the time I thought that was all the money in the world. Now it’s a day’s pay.
Bud: All right Mr Gekko, you got me.
Then, once a year, A Christian Carol, Miracle On 34th Street and and It's A Wonderful Life.
Wildman: …rarer still is your interest in Anacott Steel.
Gekko: My interest is the same as yours Larry. Money. I thought it’d be a good investment for my kid…
Wildman: No. This time I’m in for the long term. This is not a liquidation, Gordon. I’m going to turn it around. You’re getting a free ride on my tail, mate, and with the dollars you’re costing me to buy back the stock, I could modernize the plant. I’m not the only one who pays here Gordon. We’re talking about lives and jobs; three and four generations of steel workers…
Gekko: Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you took CNX Electronics, you laid off what 6,000 workers, Jessmon Fruit about 4,000. That airline you bought…
Wildman: I could break you, mate, in two pieces over my knees, you know it, I know it. I could buy you six times ever, I could dump the stock just to burn your ass. But I happen to want the company and I want your block of shares. I’m announcing a tender offer at 65 tomorrow, and I’m expecting your commitment.
Barbarians at the gate!
Wildman: You’re a two bit pirate and a green-mailer, Gekko, nothing more. Not only would you sell your mother to make a deal, you’d send her COD.
Note to the workers of the world: Let's change all that.
Gekko [awed by the morning light]: Ah, Jesus. I wish you could see this, sport. Light’s coming up. I’ve never seen a painting that captures the beauty of the ocean, at a moment like this.
We know where this is going, don't we? Straight back to Hannibal Lector among others.
Bud: Uh, Mr Gekko, we took a little loss today. We got stomped out on Tarafly. About a 100 grand.
Gekko: Well, I guess your Dad’s not a union representative at that company, huh?
Bud: How do you know about my father?
Gekko: The most valuable commodity I know of is information.
The worm turns....and then back again.
Gekko [points at a bum and businessman]: You gonna tell me the difference between this guy and that guy is luck?
It's all genes!!!
Gekko: You see that building? I bought that building ten years ago. My first real estate deal. Sold it two years later, made an $800,000 profit. It was better than sex. At the time I thought that was all the money in the world. Now it’s a day’s pay.
Bud: All right Mr Gekko, you got me.
Then, once a year, A Christian Carol, Miracle On 34th Street and and It's A Wonderful Life.
Wildman: …rarer still is your interest in Anacott Steel.
Gekko: My interest is the same as yours Larry. Money. I thought it’d be a good investment for my kid…
Wildman: No. This time I’m in for the long term. This is not a liquidation, Gordon. I’m going to turn it around. You’re getting a free ride on my tail, mate, and with the dollars you’re costing me to buy back the stock, I could modernize the plant. I’m not the only one who pays here Gordon. We’re talking about lives and jobs; three and four generations of steel workers…
Gekko: Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you took CNX Electronics, you laid off what 6,000 workers, Jessmon Fruit about 4,000. That airline you bought…
Wildman: I could break you, mate, in two pieces over my knees, you know it, I know it. I could buy you six times ever, I could dump the stock just to burn your ass. But I happen to want the company and I want your block of shares. I’m announcing a tender offer at 65 tomorrow, and I’m expecting your commitment.
Barbarians at the gate!
Wildman: You’re a two bit pirate and a green-mailer, Gekko, nothing more. Not only would you sell your mother to make a deal, you’d send her COD.
Note to the workers of the world: Let's change all that.
Gekko [awed by the morning light]: Ah, Jesus. I wish you could see this, sport. Light’s coming up. I’ve never seen a painting that captures the beauty of the ocean, at a moment like this.
We know where this is going, don't we? Straight back to Hannibal Lector among others.
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iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Susan Orlean
In the universe there are only a few absolutes of value; something is valuable because it can be eaten for nourishment or used as a weapon or made into clothes or it is valuable if you want it and you believe it will make you happy. Then it is worth anything as well as nothing, worth as much as you will give to have something you think you want.
I told you.
I read lots of local newspapers and particularly the shortest articles in them, and most particularly any articles that are full of words in combinations that are arresting. In the case of the orchid story I was interested to see the words 'swamp' and 'orchids' and 'Seminoles' and 'cloning' and 'criminal' together in one short piece. Sometimes this kind of story turns out to be something more, some glimpse of life that expands like those Japanese paper balls you drop in water and then after a moment they bloom into flowers, and the flower is so marvelous that you can't believe there was a time when all you saw in front of you was a paper ball and a glass of water.
Well, yeah, that too.
There were orchids for sale, for one and two and three and five hundred dollars, a madhouse of orchids in every color, in every shape, with wide leaves and skinny leaves and no leaves at all, with fat jutting lips and lips cupped like thimbles, and with blackish-red hoods and freckles, with ruffles, with pleats, with corkscrew curls, big as fists, small as fingernails, smelling of honey, grass, citrus, cinnamon, or of nothing, not a smell at all but just the heavy warm quality that air has after it has been sitting in a flower.
Let's move on?
Okay, fuck the sundial. We'll just go straight and eventually we'll get there. What I mean is that we'll get somewhere. Out of here. I mean, logically, we have to get out as long as we walk straight. I've done this millions of times. Whenever everything's killing me, I just say to myself, screw it, and go straight ahead."
Tell that to the alligators.
Besides, I think the real reason is that life has no meaning. I mean, no obvious meaning. You wake up, you go to work, you do stuff. I think everybody’s always looking for something a little unusual that can preoccupy them and help pass the time.
He wondered if that might be applicable to philosophers too.
Carl Fisher, a Detroit automobile mogul who came to Florida right after World War I and poured three million cubic yards of sand onto an expanse of mangrove swamp and created Miami Beach.
You tell me.
In the universe there are only a few absolutes of value; something is valuable because it can be eaten for nourishment or used as a weapon or made into clothes or it is valuable if you want it and you believe it will make you happy. Then it is worth anything as well as nothing, worth as much as you will give to have something you think you want.
I told you.
I read lots of local newspapers and particularly the shortest articles in them, and most particularly any articles that are full of words in combinations that are arresting. In the case of the orchid story I was interested to see the words 'swamp' and 'orchids' and 'Seminoles' and 'cloning' and 'criminal' together in one short piece. Sometimes this kind of story turns out to be something more, some glimpse of life that expands like those Japanese paper balls you drop in water and then after a moment they bloom into flowers, and the flower is so marvelous that you can't believe there was a time when all you saw in front of you was a paper ball and a glass of water.
Well, yeah, that too.
There were orchids for sale, for one and two and three and five hundred dollars, a madhouse of orchids in every color, in every shape, with wide leaves and skinny leaves and no leaves at all, with fat jutting lips and lips cupped like thimbles, and with blackish-red hoods and freckles, with ruffles, with pleats, with corkscrew curls, big as fists, small as fingernails, smelling of honey, grass, citrus, cinnamon, or of nothing, not a smell at all but just the heavy warm quality that air has after it has been sitting in a flower.
Let's move on?
Okay, fuck the sundial. We'll just go straight and eventually we'll get there. What I mean is that we'll get somewhere. Out of here. I mean, logically, we have to get out as long as we walk straight. I've done this millions of times. Whenever everything's killing me, I just say to myself, screw it, and go straight ahead."
Tell that to the alligators.
Besides, I think the real reason is that life has no meaning. I mean, no obvious meaning. You wake up, you go to work, you do stuff. I think everybody’s always looking for something a little unusual that can preoccupy them and help pass the time.
He wondered if that might be applicable to philosophers too.
Carl Fisher, a Detroit automobile mogul who came to Florida right after World War I and poured three million cubic yards of sand onto an expanse of mangrove swamp and created Miami Beach.
You tell me.
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iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Wall Street
Bud: What about you, I hear you guys are handling the Fairchild Foods merger and it may not be going through. Any surprises I haven’t read about in the Wall Street Journal?
Roger: Come on Buddy, that’s illegal. You wouldn’t want to got me disbarred now would you?
Bud: Who’s listening? It’s just one college buddy talking to another.
Roger: (sarcastic) Yeah, right…
Bud: Relax, Roger, everybody’s doing it…but if you don’t know, you don’t know.
Roger: …and if I did, what’s in it for moi?
Bud: More money than you ever dreamed of.
Reeling them in.
Darien: I don’t want him to ever know, you understand?
Gekko: Mum’s the word.
[after a pause]
Gekko: You and I are the same, Darien. We are smart enough not to buy in to the oldest myth running, love. A fiction created by people to keep them from jumping out of windows.
[laughs]
Darien: You know sometimes I miss you, Gordon, you’re really twisted.
Next up: Bill.
Gekko: [at the Teldar Paper stockholder’s meeting] Well, I appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me Mr. Cromwell as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak. Well, ladies and gentlemen we’re not here to indulge in fantasy but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company! All together, these men sitting up here own less than three percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than one percent. You own the company. That’s right, you, the stockholder. And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.
Cromwell: This is an outrage! You’re out of line Gekko!
Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents. The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.
Yeah, this is sort of true and sort of false. But how does it all hinge together politically in creating the Deep State? And that's leaving aside Gekko’s motivation and intention.
Carl: “There came into Egypt a Pharaoh who did not know.”
Gekko: I beg your pardon, is that a proverb?
Carl: No, a prophecy. The rich have been doing it to the poor since the beginning of time. The only difference between the Pyramids and the Empire State Building is the Egyptians didn’t allow unions. I know what this guy is all about, greed. He don’t give a damn about Bluestar or the unions. He’s in and out for the buck and he don’t take prisoners.
Wow, that actually turned out to be true!
Carl: Of course my son did work three summers as a baggage handler and freight loader. With those qualifications, why should I doubt his ability to run an airline?
Gekko: Fine, if you don’t want us, stay with the scum in present management–dedicated to running you and Bluestar into the ground.
Carl: That “scum” built this company up from one plane in thirty years, they made something out of nothing, and if that’s a scum I’ll take one over a rat any day…
Tell that to, well, Wall Street.
Bud: Look, Dad, save the “workers of the world unite” speech for next time. I heard it too much growing up.
Carl: He’s using you, kid. He’s got your p**** in his back pocket, but you’re too blind to see it.
Bud: No. What I see is a jealous old machinist who can’t stand the fact that his son has become more successful than he has!
Carl: What you see is a guy who never measured a man’s success by the size of his WALLET!
Bud: That’s because you never had the GUTS to go out into the world and stake your own claim!
[Long Pause]
Carl: Boy, if that’s the way you feel, I must have done a really lousy job as a father.
Next up: Martin and Charlie?
Bud: What about you, I hear you guys are handling the Fairchild Foods merger and it may not be going through. Any surprises I haven’t read about in the Wall Street Journal?
Roger: Come on Buddy, that’s illegal. You wouldn’t want to got me disbarred now would you?
Bud: Who’s listening? It’s just one college buddy talking to another.
Roger: (sarcastic) Yeah, right…
Bud: Relax, Roger, everybody’s doing it…but if you don’t know, you don’t know.
Roger: …and if I did, what’s in it for moi?
Bud: More money than you ever dreamed of.
Reeling them in.
Darien: I don’t want him to ever know, you understand?
Gekko: Mum’s the word.
[after a pause]
Gekko: You and I are the same, Darien. We are smart enough not to buy in to the oldest myth running, love. A fiction created by people to keep them from jumping out of windows.
[laughs]
Darien: You know sometimes I miss you, Gordon, you’re really twisted.
Next up: Bill.
Gekko: [at the Teldar Paper stockholder’s meeting] Well, I appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me Mr. Cromwell as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak. Well, ladies and gentlemen we’re not here to indulge in fantasy but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company! All together, these men sitting up here own less than three percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than one percent. You own the company. That’s right, you, the stockholder. And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.
Cromwell: This is an outrage! You’re out of line Gekko!
Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents. The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.
Yeah, this is sort of true and sort of false. But how does it all hinge together politically in creating the Deep State? And that's leaving aside Gekko’s motivation and intention.
Carl: “There came into Egypt a Pharaoh who did not know.”
Gekko: I beg your pardon, is that a proverb?
Carl: No, a prophecy. The rich have been doing it to the poor since the beginning of time. The only difference between the Pyramids and the Empire State Building is the Egyptians didn’t allow unions. I know what this guy is all about, greed. He don’t give a damn about Bluestar or the unions. He’s in and out for the buck and he don’t take prisoners.
Wow, that actually turned out to be true!
Carl: Of course my son did work three summers as a baggage handler and freight loader. With those qualifications, why should I doubt his ability to run an airline?
Gekko: Fine, if you don’t want us, stay with the scum in present management–dedicated to running you and Bluestar into the ground.
Carl: That “scum” built this company up from one plane in thirty years, they made something out of nothing, and if that’s a scum I’ll take one over a rat any day…
Tell that to, well, Wall Street.
Bud: Look, Dad, save the “workers of the world unite” speech for next time. I heard it too much growing up.
Carl: He’s using you, kid. He’s got your p**** in his back pocket, but you’re too blind to see it.
Bud: No. What I see is a jealous old machinist who can’t stand the fact that his son has become more successful than he has!
Carl: What you see is a guy who never measured a man’s success by the size of his WALLET!
Bud: That’s because you never had the GUTS to go out into the world and stake your own claim!
[Long Pause]
Carl: Boy, if that’s the way you feel, I must have done a really lousy job as a father.
Next up: Martin and Charlie?
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iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Wall Street
Carl [to Bud regarding Gekko] : I don’t go to bed with no whore, and I don’t wake up with no whore. That’s how I live with myself. I don’t know how you do it. I hope I’m wrong about this guy. But I’ll let the men decide for themselves. That much I promise you.
Next up: the men decide who killed JFK.
Commercial banker [at Bluestar liqudation]: …look, we have 30 banks ready to participate in a 4 year revolving credit line but we have to have your assurance to pay back most of the loan in the first 6 months, and the only way and the only way we can see this happening is liquidating the hangars and the planes. Can you people guarantee that?
Investment banker: Guaranteed! No sweat…we already got the Bleezburg brothers lined up to build condos where the hangars are, we can lay off the planes with Mexicana, who are dumb enough to buy 'em and Texas Air is drooling at my kneecaps to get the slots and the routes. What’s the problem? it’s done…
Roger: (passing a paper to the commercial banker) This is the pricetag on the 737s, the gates, the hangars, the routes, we got it all nailed right down to the typewriters…
Investment banker:…'course the beauty of it is the overfunded pension fund. Gekko gets the 75 million in there. Fifty million buys him the minimum annuities for 6,000 employees and he walks away with the rest. All in, he’ll net 60 to 70 million. Not bad for a month’s work. (to Bud) Your man did his homework, Fox, you’re gonna have the shortest executive career since that Pope who got poisoned…now he’ll really start believing he’s “Gekko the Great.”
Business as ususal let's call it.
Bud: I just found out about the garage sale down at Bluestar. Why?
Gekko: Last night I read Rudy the story of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey pot. Know what happened: he stuck his nose in that honey pot once too often and got stuck.
Bud: Maybe you ought to read him Pinocchio. You told me you were going to turn Bluestar around. Not upside down. You fucking used me.
Gekko: You’re walking around blind without a cane, sport. A fool and his money are lucky to get together in the first place.
Bud: Why do you need to wreck this company?
Gekko: Because it’s wreckable! I took another look and I changed my mind.
Bud: If these people lose their jobs, nowhere to go. My father worked at Bluestar for twenty-four years. I gave 'em my word.
Gekko (hard): It’s all about bucks, kid, the rest is conversation. [softer] Look, Bud, you’re still going to be president. And when the time comes, you’ll parachute out a rich man. With the money you’re going to make, your father won’t have to work another day in his life.
A happy ending!
Gekko: Buddy, it’s not a question of how much is enough. It’s a zero sum game, sport. Somebody wins and somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another. Like magic. That painting cost $60,000 10 years ago. I could sell it today for $600,000. The illusion has become real. And the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. Capitalism at its finest. The richest one percent of this country owns half our country’s wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It’s bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you’re not naive enough to think we’re living in a democracy, are you buddy? It’s the free market. And you’re a part of it. You’ve got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I’ve still got a lot to teach you.
See, here is where Stone goes right up to the edge. But to call crony capitalism the “free market” is nothing short of preposterous. Is Stone actually oblivious to this?!
Darien: You may find that when you had money and lost it, it can be much worse than never having had it at all!
Bud: That is BULLSHIT!
[throws a whiskey bottle destructively; Darien starts to leave]
Bud: HEY! HEY! You step out that door, and I am changing the locks!
Darien: You may not believe this Bud but I really do care for you. We could’ve made a good team.
Bud: Get the fuck out of here.
Plenty around to take his place, of course.
Gekko: [meeting alone together in Central Park] Hiya, Buddy.
Bud: Gordon.
Gekko: Sand bagged me on Bluestar huh? I guess you think you taught the teacher a lesson that the tail can wag the dog huh? Well let me clue you in, pal. The ice is melting right underneath your feet.
[punches Bud and grabs him by the coattails]
Gekko: Did you think you could’ve gotten this far this fast with anyone else, huh? That you’d be out there dicking someone like Darien? No. You’d still be cold calling widows and dentists tryin’ to sell 'em 20 shares of some dog shit stock. I took you in.
[hits him again]
Gekko: A NOBODY!
[and again]
Gekko: I opened the doors for you! Showed you how the system works! The value of information! How to get it! Fulham oil! Brant resources! Geodynamics! And this is how you fucking pay me back you COCKROACH?
[hits him once again and Bud falls to the ground]
Gekko: I GAVE you Darien. I GAVE you your manhood. I gave you EVERYTHING!
Of course, Trump can always count on just enough chunks of the white working class here himself.
Carl [to Bud regarding Gekko] : I don’t go to bed with no whore, and I don’t wake up with no whore. That’s how I live with myself. I don’t know how you do it. I hope I’m wrong about this guy. But I’ll let the men decide for themselves. That much I promise you.
Next up: the men decide who killed JFK.
Commercial banker [at Bluestar liqudation]: …look, we have 30 banks ready to participate in a 4 year revolving credit line but we have to have your assurance to pay back most of the loan in the first 6 months, and the only way and the only way we can see this happening is liquidating the hangars and the planes. Can you people guarantee that?
Investment banker: Guaranteed! No sweat…we already got the Bleezburg brothers lined up to build condos where the hangars are, we can lay off the planes with Mexicana, who are dumb enough to buy 'em and Texas Air is drooling at my kneecaps to get the slots and the routes. What’s the problem? it’s done…
Roger: (passing a paper to the commercial banker) This is the pricetag on the 737s, the gates, the hangars, the routes, we got it all nailed right down to the typewriters…
Investment banker:…'course the beauty of it is the overfunded pension fund. Gekko gets the 75 million in there. Fifty million buys him the minimum annuities for 6,000 employees and he walks away with the rest. All in, he’ll net 60 to 70 million. Not bad for a month’s work. (to Bud) Your man did his homework, Fox, you’re gonna have the shortest executive career since that Pope who got poisoned…now he’ll really start believing he’s “Gekko the Great.”
Business as ususal let's call it.
Bud: I just found out about the garage sale down at Bluestar. Why?
Gekko: Last night I read Rudy the story of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey pot. Know what happened: he stuck his nose in that honey pot once too often and got stuck.
Bud: Maybe you ought to read him Pinocchio. You told me you were going to turn Bluestar around. Not upside down. You fucking used me.
Gekko: You’re walking around blind without a cane, sport. A fool and his money are lucky to get together in the first place.
Bud: Why do you need to wreck this company?
Gekko: Because it’s wreckable! I took another look and I changed my mind.
Bud: If these people lose their jobs, nowhere to go. My father worked at Bluestar for twenty-four years. I gave 'em my word.
Gekko (hard): It’s all about bucks, kid, the rest is conversation. [softer] Look, Bud, you’re still going to be president. And when the time comes, you’ll parachute out a rich man. With the money you’re going to make, your father won’t have to work another day in his life.
A happy ending!
Gekko: Buddy, it’s not a question of how much is enough. It’s a zero sum game, sport. Somebody wins and somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another. Like magic. That painting cost $60,000 10 years ago. I could sell it today for $600,000. The illusion has become real. And the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. Capitalism at its finest. The richest one percent of this country owns half our country’s wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It’s bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you’re not naive enough to think we’re living in a democracy, are you buddy? It’s the free market. And you’re a part of it. You’ve got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I’ve still got a lot to teach you.
See, here is where Stone goes right up to the edge. But to call crony capitalism the “free market” is nothing short of preposterous. Is Stone actually oblivious to this?!
Darien: You may find that when you had money and lost it, it can be much worse than never having had it at all!
Bud: That is BULLSHIT!
[throws a whiskey bottle destructively; Darien starts to leave]
Bud: HEY! HEY! You step out that door, and I am changing the locks!
Darien: You may not believe this Bud but I really do care for you. We could’ve made a good team.
Bud: Get the fuck out of here.
Plenty around to take his place, of course.
Gekko: [meeting alone together in Central Park] Hiya, Buddy.
Bud: Gordon.
Gekko: Sand bagged me on Bluestar huh? I guess you think you taught the teacher a lesson that the tail can wag the dog huh? Well let me clue you in, pal. The ice is melting right underneath your feet.
[punches Bud and grabs him by the coattails]
Gekko: Did you think you could’ve gotten this far this fast with anyone else, huh? That you’d be out there dicking someone like Darien? No. You’d still be cold calling widows and dentists tryin’ to sell 'em 20 shares of some dog shit stock. I took you in.
[hits him again]
Gekko: A NOBODY!
[and again]
Gekko: I opened the doors for you! Showed you how the system works! The value of information! How to get it! Fulham oil! Brant resources! Geodynamics! And this is how you fucking pay me back you COCKROACH?
[hits him once again and Bud falls to the ground]
Gekko: I GAVE you Darien. I GAVE you your manhood. I gave you EVERYTHING!
Of course, Trump can always count on just enough chunks of the white working class here himself.
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iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Logic
“Consequently, if you believe God made Satan, you must realize that all Satan's power comes from God and so that Satan is simply God's child, and that we are God's children also. There are no children of Satan, really.” Anne Rice
Next up: fitting vampires into all of this. Logically, of course.
“It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.” Franz Kafka
Does it get any bleaker than that?
“I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain.” Rene Descartes
Instead, we're stuck with "I think, therefore I am".
“If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?” Sam Harris
As though Sam could have ever concluded otherwise?
“There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic. The boundary between them is not clearly defined.” Albert Camus
Right, like distinctions of this sort can be defined.
“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.” Jonathan Swift
Tell us about it!
“Consequently, if you believe God made Satan, you must realize that all Satan's power comes from God and so that Satan is simply God's child, and that we are God's children also. There are no children of Satan, really.” Anne Rice
Next up: fitting vampires into all of this. Logically, of course.
“It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.” Franz Kafka
Does it get any bleaker than that?
“I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain.” Rene Descartes
Instead, we're stuck with "I think, therefore I am".
“If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?” Sam Harris
As though Sam could have ever concluded otherwise?
“There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic. The boundary between them is not clearly defined.” Albert Camus
Right, like distinctions of this sort can be defined.
“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.” Jonathan Swift
Tell us about it!
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
The Big Lebowski
The Stranger: [voiceover] Way out west there was this fella… fella I wanna tell ya about. Fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. Mr. Lebowski, he called himself “The Dude”. Now, “Dude” - that’s a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then there was a lot about the Dude that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that’s why I found the place so darned interestin’. They call Los Angeles the “City Of Angels.” I didn’t find it to be that, exactly. But I’ll allow there are some nice folks there. ‘Course I can’t say I’ve seen London, and I ain’t never been to France. And I ain’t never seen no queen in her damned undies, so the feller says. But I’ll tell you what - after seeing Los Angeles, and this here story I’m about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin’ every bit as stupefyin’ as you’d see in any of them other places. And in English, too. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin’ like the good Lord gypped me. Now this here story I’m about to unfold took place back in the early ‘90s - just about the time of our conflict with Sad’m and the I-raqis. I only mention it because sometimes there’s a man… I won’t say a hero, ‘cause, what’s a hero? But sometimes, there’s a man. And I’m talkin’ about the Dude here. Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that’s the Dude, in Los Angeles. And even if he’s a lazy man - and the Dude was most certainly that. Quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin’ for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there’s a man, sometimes, there’s a man. Aw. I lost my train of thought here. But… aw, hell. I’ve done introduced him enough.
I'd say so.
Treehorn Thug [while dunking the Dude’s head in the toilet]: Where’s the money, Lebowski? Where’s the fucking money, shithead?
The Dude: It’s uh…uh…it’s down there somewhere, let me take another look.
Unless, of course, he's the wrong Lebowski.
Treehorn Thug: [holding up a bowling ball] What the fuck is this?
The Dude: Obviously you’re not a golfer.
In fact, he's not really a nihilist.
The Dude: Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not “Mr. Lebowski”. You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.
No, really, what should we call him?
Bunny Lebowski: Blow on them.
The Dude: You want me to blow on your toes?
Bunny Lebowski: I can’t blow that far.
The Dude: [looks at man lazing in the pool] Are you sure he won’t mind?
Bunny Lebowski: Uli doesn’t care about anything. He’s a Nihilist.
The Dude: Ah, that must be exhausting.
Just so he doesn't come here, right?
The Dude: It’s like what Lenin said… you look for the person who will benefit, and, uh, uh…
Donny: I am the walrus.
The Dude: You know what I’m trying to say…
Donny: I am the walrus.
Walter: That fucking bitch…
The Dude: Oh yeah!
Donny: I am the walrus.
Walter: Shut the fuck up, Donny! V.I. Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!
Ah, the Eggman.
The Stranger: [voiceover] Way out west there was this fella… fella I wanna tell ya about. Fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. Mr. Lebowski, he called himself “The Dude”. Now, “Dude” - that’s a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then there was a lot about the Dude that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that’s why I found the place so darned interestin’. They call Los Angeles the “City Of Angels.” I didn’t find it to be that, exactly. But I’ll allow there are some nice folks there. ‘Course I can’t say I’ve seen London, and I ain’t never been to France. And I ain’t never seen no queen in her damned undies, so the feller says. But I’ll tell you what - after seeing Los Angeles, and this here story I’m about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin’ every bit as stupefyin’ as you’d see in any of them other places. And in English, too. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin’ like the good Lord gypped me. Now this here story I’m about to unfold took place back in the early ‘90s - just about the time of our conflict with Sad’m and the I-raqis. I only mention it because sometimes there’s a man… I won’t say a hero, ‘cause, what’s a hero? But sometimes, there’s a man. And I’m talkin’ about the Dude here. Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that’s the Dude, in Los Angeles. And even if he’s a lazy man - and the Dude was most certainly that. Quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin’ for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there’s a man, sometimes, there’s a man. Aw. I lost my train of thought here. But… aw, hell. I’ve done introduced him enough.
I'd say so.
Treehorn Thug [while dunking the Dude’s head in the toilet]: Where’s the money, Lebowski? Where’s the fucking money, shithead?
The Dude: It’s uh…uh…it’s down there somewhere, let me take another look.
Unless, of course, he's the wrong Lebowski.
Treehorn Thug: [holding up a bowling ball] What the fuck is this?
The Dude: Obviously you’re not a golfer.
In fact, he's not really a nihilist.
The Dude: Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not “Mr. Lebowski”. You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.
No, really, what should we call him?
Bunny Lebowski: Blow on them.
The Dude: You want me to blow on your toes?
Bunny Lebowski: I can’t blow that far.
The Dude: [looks at man lazing in the pool] Are you sure he won’t mind?
Bunny Lebowski: Uli doesn’t care about anything. He’s a Nihilist.
The Dude: Ah, that must be exhausting.
Just so he doesn't come here, right?
The Dude: It’s like what Lenin said… you look for the person who will benefit, and, uh, uh…
Donny: I am the walrus.
The Dude: You know what I’m trying to say…
Donny: I am the walrus.
Walter: That fucking bitch…
The Dude: Oh yeah!
Donny: I am the walrus.
Walter: Shut the fuck up, Donny! V.I. Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!
Ah, the Eggman.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Robert Louis Stevenson from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
Want me not to explain that...again?
I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.
Next up: insidiously both.
Or, perhaps, all the more perturbing still, insidiously neither one.
With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.
Next up: truly fractured and fragmented.
All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone, in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.
Anyone here who, alone, is pure good?
I sat in the sun on a bench; the animal within me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed, promising subsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin.
Can't seem to get much beyond this: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... SjDNeMaRoX
You start a question, and it's like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others...
Next up: on top of a mountain, starting an avalanche.
Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
Want me not to explain that...again?
I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.
Next up: insidiously both.
Or, perhaps, all the more perturbing still, insidiously neither one.
With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.
Next up: truly fractured and fragmented.
All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone, in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.
Anyone here who, alone, is pure good?
I sat in the sun on a bench; the animal within me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed, promising subsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin.
Can't seem to get much beyond this: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... SjDNeMaRoX
You start a question, and it's like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others...
Next up: on top of a mountain, starting an avalanche.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
The Big Lebowski
The Dude: Walter, I love you, but sooner or later, you’re going to have to face the fact you’re a goddamn moron.
I'd have dumped him long ago. Donny too.
Walter: I told that Kraut a fuckin’ thousand times, I don’t roll on shabbos!
Next up: posting on shabbos.
Donny: How come you don’t roll on Saturday, Walter?
Walter: I’m shomer shabbos.
Donny: What’s that?
The Dude: Yeah, and in the meantime, what do I tell Lebowski?
Walter: Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don’t work, I don’t drive a car, I don’t fucking ride in a car, I don’t handle money, I don’t turn on the oven, and I sure as shit DON’T FUCKIN’ ROLL!!
Donny: Sheesh.
Walter Sobchak: Shomer shabbos!
Sheesh right back at him.
Nihilist: We believe in nothing, Lebowski. Nothing. And tomorrow we come back and we cut off your johnson.
The Dude: Excuse me?
Nihilist: I said...
[shouting]
Nihilist: We’ll cut off your johnson!
Not to worry. Here your johnson is no less meaningless.
Walter: Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
One of what we might call an "or else" ethos.
The Stranger: There’s just one thing, Dude.
The Dude: What’s that?
The Stranger: Do you have to use so many cuss words?
The Dude: What the fuck you talking about?
The Stranger: Okay, Dude. Have it your way.
He always does, of course. That's the whole point maybe.
The Dude: Walter, I love you, but sooner or later, you’re going to have to face the fact you’re a goddamn moron.
I'd have dumped him long ago. Donny too.
Walter: I told that Kraut a fuckin’ thousand times, I don’t roll on shabbos!
Next up: posting on shabbos.
Donny: How come you don’t roll on Saturday, Walter?
Walter: I’m shomer shabbos.
Donny: What’s that?
The Dude: Yeah, and in the meantime, what do I tell Lebowski?
Walter: Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don’t work, I don’t drive a car, I don’t fucking ride in a car, I don’t handle money, I don’t turn on the oven, and I sure as shit DON’T FUCKIN’ ROLL!!
Donny: Sheesh.
Walter Sobchak: Shomer shabbos!
Sheesh right back at him.
Nihilist: We believe in nothing, Lebowski. Nothing. And tomorrow we come back and we cut off your johnson.
The Dude: Excuse me?
Nihilist: I said...
[shouting]
Nihilist: We’ll cut off your johnson!
Not to worry. Here your johnson is no less meaningless.
Walter: Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
One of what we might call an "or else" ethos.
The Stranger: There’s just one thing, Dude.
The Dude: What’s that?
The Stranger: Do you have to use so many cuss words?
The Dude: What the fuck you talking about?
The Stranger: Okay, Dude. Have it your way.
He always does, of course. That's the whole point maybe.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
The Big Lebowski
Walter: Is this your homework, Larry? Is this your homework, Larry?
The Dude: Look, man…
Walter: Dude, please? Is this your homework, Larry?
The Dude: Just ask him about the car.
Walter: Is this yours, Larry? Is this your homework, Larry?
The Dude: Is that your car out front?
Walter: Is this your homework, Larry?
The Dude: We know it’s his fucking homework! Where’s the fucking money, you little brat?
Walter: Look, Larry. Have you ever heard of Vietnam?
The Dude: Oh, for Christ’s sake, Walter…
Walter: You’re entering a world of pain, son. We know that this is your homework. We know that you stole a car.
The Dude: And the fucking money.
Walter: And the fucking money. And, we know that this is your homework.
The Dude: We’re going to cut your dick off, Larry.
Walter: You’re killing your father, Larry!..All right, this is pointless. Time for plan “B”…You might want to watch out that front window, Larry. Son, this is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!
We might want to watch that ourselves.
Jackie Treehorn: Refill?
The Dude: Does the Pope shit in the woods?
Probably not?
Malibu Police Chief: Mr. Treehorn draws a lot of water in this town. You don’t draw shit, Lebowski. Now we got a nice, quiet little beach community here, and I aim to keep it nice and quiet. So let me make something plain. I don’t like you sucking around, bothering our citizens, Lebowski. I don’t like your jerk-off name. I don’t like your jerk-off face. I don’t like your jerk-off behavior, and I don’t like you, jerk-off. Do I make myself clear?
The Dude: [after a pause] I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.
The Dude in a nutshell: Always says exactly what is needed to be said.
The Dude: Jesus, man, can you change the station?
Cab Driver: Fuck you man! You don’t like my fucking music, get your own fucking cab!
The Dude: I’ve had a…
Cab Driver: I pull over and kick your ass out, man!
The Dude: ...had a rough night, and I hate the fucking Eagles, man.
Does it matter that he's black?
The Dude: You thought that Bunny had been kidnapped and you were fuckin’ glad, man. You could use it as an excuse to make some money disappear. All you needed was a sap to pin it on! You’d just met me! You human…paraquat! You figured ‘Oh, here’s a loser’, you know? A deadbeat, someone the square community won’t give a shit about.
The Big Lebowski: Well, aren’t you?
The Dude: Well, yeah!
Someone is missing the point.
The Dude: Well, they finally did it. They killed my fucking car.
Nihilist: Ve vant ze money, Lebowski.
Nihilist #2: Ja, uzzervize ve kill ze girl.
Nihilist #3: Ja, it seems you have forgotten our little deal, Lebowski.
The Dude: You don’t HAVE the fucking girl, dipshits! We know you never did!
[the Nihilists, stunned, confer amongst themselves in German]
Donny: Are these the Nazis, Walter?
Walter: No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there’s nothing to be afraid of.
Nihilist: Ve don’t care. Ve still vant ze money, Lebowski, or ve fuck you up.
Walter: Fuck you. Fuck the three of you.
The Dude: Hey, cool it Walter.
Walter: No, without a hostage, there is no ransom. That’s what ransom is. Those are the fucking rules.
Nihilist #2: His girlfriend gave up her toe!
Nihilist #3: She though we’d be getting million dollars!
Nihilist #2: Iss not fair!
Walter: Fair! WHO’S THE FUCKING NIHILIST HERE! WHAT ARE YOU, A BUNCH OF FUCKING CRYBABIES?
The Dude: Hey, cool it Walter. Look, pal, there never was any money. The big Lebowski gave me an empty briefcase, so take it up with him, man.
Walter: And, I would like my undies back.
[Stunned, the Germans confer amongst themselves again]
Donny: Are they gonna hurt us, Walter?
Walter: No, Donny. These men are cowards.
Nihilist: Okay. So we take ze money you haf on you, und ve calls it eefen.
Walter: Fuck you…Show me what you got nihilists!
Of course, they're not in the league.
The Dude: Yeah, well. The Dude abides.
The Stranger: The Dude abides. I don’t know about you but I take comfort in that. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there. The Dude. Takin’ 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh. I sure hope he makes the finals.
I might take comfort in it too if I knew what the hell it meant.
The Stranger: Things worked out pretty good for The Dude and Walter. And it was a pretty good story, don’t you think? Made me laugh to beat the band. Parts anyway. I didn’t like seeing Donny go. But then I happen to know there’s a little Lebowski on the way. I guess that’s the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuating itself down through the generations.
Fine. Now, let's get back to Maude...
Walter: Is this your homework, Larry? Is this your homework, Larry?
The Dude: Look, man…
Walter: Dude, please? Is this your homework, Larry?
The Dude: Just ask him about the car.
Walter: Is this yours, Larry? Is this your homework, Larry?
The Dude: Is that your car out front?
Walter: Is this your homework, Larry?
The Dude: We know it’s his fucking homework! Where’s the fucking money, you little brat?
Walter: Look, Larry. Have you ever heard of Vietnam?
The Dude: Oh, for Christ’s sake, Walter…
Walter: You’re entering a world of pain, son. We know that this is your homework. We know that you stole a car.
The Dude: And the fucking money.
Walter: And the fucking money. And, we know that this is your homework.
The Dude: We’re going to cut your dick off, Larry.
Walter: You’re killing your father, Larry!..All right, this is pointless. Time for plan “B”…You might want to watch out that front window, Larry. Son, this is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!
We might want to watch that ourselves.
Jackie Treehorn: Refill?
The Dude: Does the Pope shit in the woods?
Probably not?
Malibu Police Chief: Mr. Treehorn draws a lot of water in this town. You don’t draw shit, Lebowski. Now we got a nice, quiet little beach community here, and I aim to keep it nice and quiet. So let me make something plain. I don’t like you sucking around, bothering our citizens, Lebowski. I don’t like your jerk-off name. I don’t like your jerk-off face. I don’t like your jerk-off behavior, and I don’t like you, jerk-off. Do I make myself clear?
The Dude: [after a pause] I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.
The Dude in a nutshell: Always says exactly what is needed to be said.
The Dude: Jesus, man, can you change the station?
Cab Driver: Fuck you man! You don’t like my fucking music, get your own fucking cab!
The Dude: I’ve had a…
Cab Driver: I pull over and kick your ass out, man!
The Dude: ...had a rough night, and I hate the fucking Eagles, man.
Does it matter that he's black?
The Dude: You thought that Bunny had been kidnapped and you were fuckin’ glad, man. You could use it as an excuse to make some money disappear. All you needed was a sap to pin it on! You’d just met me! You human…paraquat! You figured ‘Oh, here’s a loser’, you know? A deadbeat, someone the square community won’t give a shit about.
The Big Lebowski: Well, aren’t you?
The Dude: Well, yeah!
Someone is missing the point.
The Dude: Well, they finally did it. They killed my fucking car.
Nihilist: Ve vant ze money, Lebowski.
Nihilist #2: Ja, uzzervize ve kill ze girl.
Nihilist #3: Ja, it seems you have forgotten our little deal, Lebowski.
The Dude: You don’t HAVE the fucking girl, dipshits! We know you never did!
[the Nihilists, stunned, confer amongst themselves in German]
Donny: Are these the Nazis, Walter?
Walter: No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there’s nothing to be afraid of.
Nihilist: Ve don’t care. Ve still vant ze money, Lebowski, or ve fuck you up.
Walter: Fuck you. Fuck the three of you.
The Dude: Hey, cool it Walter.
Walter: No, without a hostage, there is no ransom. That’s what ransom is. Those are the fucking rules.
Nihilist #2: His girlfriend gave up her toe!
Nihilist #3: She though we’d be getting million dollars!
Nihilist #2: Iss not fair!
Walter: Fair! WHO’S THE FUCKING NIHILIST HERE! WHAT ARE YOU, A BUNCH OF FUCKING CRYBABIES?
The Dude: Hey, cool it Walter. Look, pal, there never was any money. The big Lebowski gave me an empty briefcase, so take it up with him, man.
Walter: And, I would like my undies back.
[Stunned, the Germans confer amongst themselves again]
Donny: Are they gonna hurt us, Walter?
Walter: No, Donny. These men are cowards.
Nihilist: Okay. So we take ze money you haf on you, und ve calls it eefen.
Walter: Fuck you…Show me what you got nihilists!
Of course, they're not in the league.
The Dude: Yeah, well. The Dude abides.
The Stranger: The Dude abides. I don’t know about you but I take comfort in that. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there. The Dude. Takin’ 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh. I sure hope he makes the finals.
I might take comfort in it too if I knew what the hell it meant.
The Stranger: Things worked out pretty good for The Dude and Walter. And it was a pretty good story, don’t you think? Made me laugh to beat the band. Parts anyway. I didn’t like seeing Donny go. But then I happen to know there’s a little Lebowski on the way. I guess that’s the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuating itself down through the generations.
Fine. Now, let's get back to Maude...
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iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
True Romance
Clarence: In Jailhouse Rock he was everything rockabilly’s about. I mean, he is rockabilly. Mean, surly, nasty, rude. In that movie he couldn’t give a fuck about nothing except rockin’ and rollin’, living fast, dying young and leaving a good-looking corpse.
Then this part:
"United Artists wanted Elvis for the role of Joe Buck [in Midnight Cowboy], a naive Texas hustler trying to make it in New York. True to form, Parker turned down the part on the grounds of its seedy connotations, without even bothering to consult Elvis." The Guardian.
Clarence: I always said, if I had to fuck a guy…I mean had to, if my life depended on it…I’d fuck Elvis.
Uh, sort of woke?
Clarence: I can tell you… that was one of the best times I ever had. It was. But, you know, I knew something must be rotten in Denmark. There was no way you could like me that much. Man, I can’t tell you how relieved I was when you took off your dress, you…you didn’t have a dick.
Uh, sort of woke?
Clarence: I’m not eatin’ ‘cause I’m not hungry. I’m not sittin’ ‘cause I’m not stayin’. I’m not lookin’ at the movie ‘cause I saw it seven years ago. It’s “The Mack” with Max Julien, Carol Speed, and Richard Pryor. I’m not scared of you. I just don’t like you. In that envelope is some payoff money. Alabama’s moving on to some greener pastures. We’re not negotiatin’. I don’t like to barter. I don’t like to dicker. I never have fun in Tijuana. That price is non-negotiable. What’s in that envelope is for my peace of mind. My peace of mind is worth that much. Not one penny more, not one penny more.
In other words, the envelope is empty. You can do that sort of thing when it’s all scripted.
Coccotti: You know, Sicilians are great liars. The best in the world. I’m Sicilian. My father was the world heavy-weight champion of Sicilian liars. From growing up with him I learned the pantomime. There are seventeen different things a guy can do when he lies to give himself away. A guys got seventeen pantomimes. A woman’s got twenty, but a guy’s got seventeen…but, if you know them, like you know your own face, they beat lie detectors all to hell. Now, what we got here is a little game of show and tell. You don’t wanna show me nothin’, but you’re tellin me everything. I know you know where they are, so tell me before I do some damage you won’t walk away from.
I forget...did he know where they are?
And here we go again with Quentin and the N word:
Clifford: You’re Sicilian, huh?
Coccotti: Yeah, Sicilian.
Clifford: Ya know, I read a lot. Especially about things… about history. I find that shit fascinating. Here’s a fact I don’t know whether you know or not. Sicilians were spawned by niggers.
Coccotti: Come again?
Clifford: It’s a fact. Yeah. You see, uh, Sicilians have, uh, black blood pumpin’ through their hearts. Hey, no, if eh, if eh, if you don’t believe me, uh, you can look it up. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, uh, you see, uh, the Moors conquered Sicily. And the Moors are niggers.
Coccotti: Yes…
Clifford Worley: So you see, way back then, uh, Sicilians were like, uh, wops from Northern Italy. Ah, they all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but, uh, well, then the Moors moved in there, and uh, well, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin’ with Sicilian women, huh? That they changed the whole bloodline forever. That’s why blonde hair and blue eyes became black hair and dark skin. You know, it’s absolutely amazing to me to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that, uh, that Sicilians still carry that n***** gene. Now this…
[Coccotti busts out laughing]
Clifford: No, I’m, no, I’m quoting… history. It’s written. It’s a fact, it’s written.
Coccotti: [laughing] I love this guy.
Clifford: Your ancestors are niggers. Uh-huh.
[Starts laughing, too]
Clifford: Hey. Yeah. And, and your great-great-great-great grandmother fucked a n*****, ho, ho, yeah, and she had a half-n***** kid…now, if that’s a fact, tell me, am I lying? 'Cause you, you’re part eggplant.
[All laugh]
Anyone laughing here?
Clarence: In Jailhouse Rock he was everything rockabilly’s about. I mean, he is rockabilly. Mean, surly, nasty, rude. In that movie he couldn’t give a fuck about nothing except rockin’ and rollin’, living fast, dying young and leaving a good-looking corpse.
Then this part:
"United Artists wanted Elvis for the role of Joe Buck [in Midnight Cowboy], a naive Texas hustler trying to make it in New York. True to form, Parker turned down the part on the grounds of its seedy connotations, without even bothering to consult Elvis." The Guardian.
Clarence: I always said, if I had to fuck a guy…I mean had to, if my life depended on it…I’d fuck Elvis.
Uh, sort of woke?
Clarence: I can tell you… that was one of the best times I ever had. It was. But, you know, I knew something must be rotten in Denmark. There was no way you could like me that much. Man, I can’t tell you how relieved I was when you took off your dress, you…you didn’t have a dick.
Uh, sort of woke?
Clarence: I’m not eatin’ ‘cause I’m not hungry. I’m not sittin’ ‘cause I’m not stayin’. I’m not lookin’ at the movie ‘cause I saw it seven years ago. It’s “The Mack” with Max Julien, Carol Speed, and Richard Pryor. I’m not scared of you. I just don’t like you. In that envelope is some payoff money. Alabama’s moving on to some greener pastures. We’re not negotiatin’. I don’t like to barter. I don’t like to dicker. I never have fun in Tijuana. That price is non-negotiable. What’s in that envelope is for my peace of mind. My peace of mind is worth that much. Not one penny more, not one penny more.
In other words, the envelope is empty. You can do that sort of thing when it’s all scripted.
Coccotti: You know, Sicilians are great liars. The best in the world. I’m Sicilian. My father was the world heavy-weight champion of Sicilian liars. From growing up with him I learned the pantomime. There are seventeen different things a guy can do when he lies to give himself away. A guys got seventeen pantomimes. A woman’s got twenty, but a guy’s got seventeen…but, if you know them, like you know your own face, they beat lie detectors all to hell. Now, what we got here is a little game of show and tell. You don’t wanna show me nothin’, but you’re tellin me everything. I know you know where they are, so tell me before I do some damage you won’t walk away from.
I forget...did he know where they are?
And here we go again with Quentin and the N word:
Clifford: You’re Sicilian, huh?
Coccotti: Yeah, Sicilian.
Clifford: Ya know, I read a lot. Especially about things… about history. I find that shit fascinating. Here’s a fact I don’t know whether you know or not. Sicilians were spawned by niggers.
Coccotti: Come again?
Clifford: It’s a fact. Yeah. You see, uh, Sicilians have, uh, black blood pumpin’ through their hearts. Hey, no, if eh, if eh, if you don’t believe me, uh, you can look it up. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, uh, you see, uh, the Moors conquered Sicily. And the Moors are niggers.
Coccotti: Yes…
Clifford Worley: So you see, way back then, uh, Sicilians were like, uh, wops from Northern Italy. Ah, they all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but, uh, well, then the Moors moved in there, and uh, well, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin’ with Sicilian women, huh? That they changed the whole bloodline forever. That’s why blonde hair and blue eyes became black hair and dark skin. You know, it’s absolutely amazing to me to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that, uh, that Sicilians still carry that n***** gene. Now this…
[Coccotti busts out laughing]
Clifford: No, I’m, no, I’m quoting… history. It’s written. It’s a fact, it’s written.
Coccotti: [laughing] I love this guy.
Clifford: Your ancestors are niggers. Uh-huh.
[Starts laughing, too]
Clifford: Hey. Yeah. And, and your great-great-great-great grandmother fucked a n*****, ho, ho, yeah, and she had a half-n***** kid…now, if that’s a fact, tell me, am I lying? 'Cause you, you’re part eggplant.
[All laugh]
Anyone laughing here?
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Epistemology
“You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason---if you pick the proper postulates.” Isaac Asimov
And the proper clouds, of course.
“We look not at the things which are what you would call seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. But the things that are not seen are eternal.” Madeleine L'Engle
Fictional fantasy let's call it. Or religion.
“Where both reason and experience fall short, there occurs a vacuum that can be filled by faith.” Jostein Gaarder
And here of course the sky's the limit. If not the point of departure.
“They don't have intelligence. They have what I call 'thintelligence.' They see the immediate situation. They think narrowly and they call it 'being focused.' They don't see the surround. They don't see the consequences.” Michael Crichton
Thintelligence.
Uh, theoretically?
“What is the point? We assume that every time we do anything we know what the consequences will be, i.e., more or less what we intend them to be. This is not only not always correct. It is wildly, crazily, stupidly, cross-eyed-blithering-insectly wrong!” Douglas Adams
Yo, Benjamin!
“And although I have seen nothing but black crows in my life, it doesn't mean that there's no such thing as a white crow. Both for a philosopher and for a scientist it can be important not to reject the possibility of finding a white crow. You might almost say that hunting for 'the white crow' is science's principal task.” Jostein Gaarder
Next up: swans.
“You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason---if you pick the proper postulates.” Isaac Asimov
And the proper clouds, of course.
“We look not at the things which are what you would call seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. But the things that are not seen are eternal.” Madeleine L'Engle
Fictional fantasy let's call it. Or religion.
“Where both reason and experience fall short, there occurs a vacuum that can be filled by faith.” Jostein Gaarder
And here of course the sky's the limit. If not the point of departure.
“They don't have intelligence. They have what I call 'thintelligence.' They see the immediate situation. They think narrowly and they call it 'being focused.' They don't see the surround. They don't see the consequences.” Michael Crichton
Thintelligence.
Uh, theoretically?
“What is the point? We assume that every time we do anything we know what the consequences will be, i.e., more or less what we intend them to be. This is not only not always correct. It is wildly, crazily, stupidly, cross-eyed-blithering-insectly wrong!” Douglas Adams
Yo, Benjamin!
“And although I have seen nothing but black crows in my life, it doesn't mean that there's no such thing as a white crow. Both for a philosopher and for a scientist it can be important not to reject the possibility of finding a white crow. You might almost say that hunting for 'the white crow' is science's principal task.” Jostein Gaarder
Next up: swans.
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
True Romance
Clarence: That is probably the single best piece I have ever read on Elvis Presley in my entire life. Look. It tries to pin down what the attraction is after all these years. It covers the whole spectrum. Talks to the fans, people who grew up with him, people who love his music. Then there’s the fanatics. Right? I don’t know about you, but they give me the creeps.
The Elvis objectivists!
Drexl: Now I know I'm pretty, but I ain't as pretty as a couple of titties.
Not many as pretty as hers are. Except, perhaps, her sister's?
Virgil [to Alabama after beating her up]: Now the first time you kill somebody, that’s the hardest. I don’t give a shit if you’re fuckin’ Wyatt Earp or Jack the Ripper. Remember that guy in Texas? The guy up in that fuckin’ tower that killed all them people? I’ll bet you green money that first little black dot he took a bead on, that was the bitch of the bunch. First one is tough, no fuckin’ foolin’. The second one…the second one ain’t no fuckin’ Mardis Gras either, but it’s better than the first one ‘cause you still feel the same thing, y’know except it’s more diluted, y’know it’s…it’s better. I threw up on the first one, you believe that? Then the third one…the third one is easy, you level right off. It’s no problem. Now…shit… now I do it just to watch their fuckin’ expression change.
How about it then: the first time you killed someone?
Clarence: [to Alabama, who's apprehensive about his gun] If there's one thing this last week has taught me, it's better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.
Enough said?
Boris: Call me an ambulance. Somebody, call me an ambulance.
Nicky Dimes: Shut up.
Boris: Fuck you, I'm bleeding.
Nicky Dimes: I'll call you a hearse... this is for Cody.
[He shoots him]
Though, sure, sometimes it's just too close to call.
Alabama: Amid the chaos of that day, when all I could hear was the thunder of gunshots, and all I could smell was the violence in the air, I look back and am amazed that my thoughts were so clear and true, that three words went through my mind endlessly, repeating themselves like a broken record: you’re so cool, you’re so cool, you’re so cool. And sometimes Clarence asks me what I would have done if he had died, if that bullet had been two inches more to the left. To this, I always smile, as if I’m not going to satisfy him with a response. But I always do. I tell him of how I would want to die, but that the anguish and the want of death would fade like the stars at dawn, and that things would be much as they are now. Perhaps. Except maybe I wouldn’t have named our son Elvis.
Alabama. Remember her from...Reservoir Dogs?
Clarence: That is probably the single best piece I have ever read on Elvis Presley in my entire life. Look. It tries to pin down what the attraction is after all these years. It covers the whole spectrum. Talks to the fans, people who grew up with him, people who love his music. Then there’s the fanatics. Right? I don’t know about you, but they give me the creeps.
The Elvis objectivists!
Drexl: Now I know I'm pretty, but I ain't as pretty as a couple of titties.
Not many as pretty as hers are. Except, perhaps, her sister's?
Virgil [to Alabama after beating her up]: Now the first time you kill somebody, that’s the hardest. I don’t give a shit if you’re fuckin’ Wyatt Earp or Jack the Ripper. Remember that guy in Texas? The guy up in that fuckin’ tower that killed all them people? I’ll bet you green money that first little black dot he took a bead on, that was the bitch of the bunch. First one is tough, no fuckin’ foolin’. The second one…the second one ain’t no fuckin’ Mardis Gras either, but it’s better than the first one ‘cause you still feel the same thing, y’know except it’s more diluted, y’know it’s…it’s better. I threw up on the first one, you believe that? Then the third one…the third one is easy, you level right off. It’s no problem. Now…shit… now I do it just to watch their fuckin’ expression change.
How about it then: the first time you killed someone?
Clarence: [to Alabama, who's apprehensive about his gun] If there's one thing this last week has taught me, it's better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.
Enough said?
Boris: Call me an ambulance. Somebody, call me an ambulance.
Nicky Dimes: Shut up.
Boris: Fuck you, I'm bleeding.
Nicky Dimes: I'll call you a hearse... this is for Cody.
[He shoots him]
Though, sure, sometimes it's just too close to call.
Alabama: Amid the chaos of that day, when all I could hear was the thunder of gunshots, and all I could smell was the violence in the air, I look back and am amazed that my thoughts were so clear and true, that three words went through my mind endlessly, repeating themselves like a broken record: you’re so cool, you’re so cool, you’re so cool. And sometimes Clarence asks me what I would have done if he had died, if that bullet had been two inches more to the left. To this, I always smile, as if I’m not going to satisfy him with a response. But I always do. I tell him of how I would want to die, but that the anguish and the want of death would fade like the stars at dawn, and that things would be much as they are now. Perhaps. Except maybe I wouldn’t have named our son Elvis.
Alabama. Remember her from...Reservoir Dogs?
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Slavoj Žižek
Not all is ideology, beneath the ideological mask, I am also a human person' is the very form of ideology, of its 'practical efficiency'.
Just out of curiosoity, anyone ever come across his take on my take on Heidegger's take on dasein?
The success of a revolution should not be measured by the sublime awe of its ecstatic moments, but by the changes the big Event leaves at the level of the everyday, the day after the insurrection.
And what insurrection might that be? MAGA?
I affirm myself to be a Lacanian, for fear of being convinced by others that I am not a Lacanian.
So, what's the score today? Given, say, a particular context?
. . . if we only change reality in order to realize our dreams, and do not change these dreams themselves, sooner or later we regress back to the old reality.
Dreams? Don't get me started, right?
Because just as in more confused times, like today, we don’t just need experts. We also need people who will think more radically to arrive at the real root of problems. So the first thing to fight for, I think, is simply to make people, the experts in certain domains, be aware of not just accepting that there are problems, but of thinking more deeply. It is an attempt to make them see more. I think it can be done. I believe this may be the main task for today: to prevent the narrow production of experts. This tendency, as I see it, is just horrible. We need, more than ever, those who, in a general way of thinking, see the problems from a global perspective and even from a philosophical perspective.
And now we have two of them: Lorikeet and Alexis Jacobi.
The Deleuzian philosopher Brian Massumi clearly formulated how today's capitalism has already overcome the logic of totalizing normality and adopts instead a logic of erratic excess: the more varied, and even erratic, the better. Normalcy starts to lose its hold. The regularities start to loosen, This loosening of normalcy is part of capitalism's dynamic. It's not a simple liberation. It's capitalism's own form of power. It's no longer disciplinary institutional power that defines everything, it's capitalism's power to produce variety - because markets get saturated. Produce variety and you produce a niche market. The oddest of affective tendencies are okay - as long as they pay. (...) What happens next, when the system no longer excludes the excess, but directly posits it as its driving force - as is the case when capitalism can only reproduce itself through a continual self-revolutionizing, a constant overcoming of its own limits? Then one can no longer play the game of subverting the Order from the position of its part-of-no-part, since the Order has already internalized its own permanent subversion.
A good thing we don't need any particular contexts to explain this, right?
Not all is ideology, beneath the ideological mask, I am also a human person' is the very form of ideology, of its 'practical efficiency'.
Just out of curiosoity, anyone ever come across his take on my take on Heidegger's take on dasein?
The success of a revolution should not be measured by the sublime awe of its ecstatic moments, but by the changes the big Event leaves at the level of the everyday, the day after the insurrection.
And what insurrection might that be? MAGA?
I affirm myself to be a Lacanian, for fear of being convinced by others that I am not a Lacanian.
So, what's the score today? Given, say, a particular context?
. . . if we only change reality in order to realize our dreams, and do not change these dreams themselves, sooner or later we regress back to the old reality.
Dreams? Don't get me started, right?
Because just as in more confused times, like today, we don’t just need experts. We also need people who will think more radically to arrive at the real root of problems. So the first thing to fight for, I think, is simply to make people, the experts in certain domains, be aware of not just accepting that there are problems, but of thinking more deeply. It is an attempt to make them see more. I think it can be done. I believe this may be the main task for today: to prevent the narrow production of experts. This tendency, as I see it, is just horrible. We need, more than ever, those who, in a general way of thinking, see the problems from a global perspective and even from a philosophical perspective.
And now we have two of them: Lorikeet and Alexis Jacobi.
The Deleuzian philosopher Brian Massumi clearly formulated how today's capitalism has already overcome the logic of totalizing normality and adopts instead a logic of erratic excess: the more varied, and even erratic, the better. Normalcy starts to lose its hold. The regularities start to loosen, This loosening of normalcy is part of capitalism's dynamic. It's not a simple liberation. It's capitalism's own form of power. It's no longer disciplinary institutional power that defines everything, it's capitalism's power to produce variety - because markets get saturated. Produce variety and you produce a niche market. The oddest of affective tendencies are okay - as long as they pay. (...) What happens next, when the system no longer excludes the excess, but directly posits it as its driving force - as is the case when capitalism can only reproduce itself through a continual self-revolutionizing, a constant overcoming of its own limits? Then one can no longer play the game of subverting the Order from the position of its part-of-no-part, since the Order has already internalized its own permanent subversion.
A good thing we don't need any particular contexts to explain this, right?
-
iambiguous
- Posts: 7501
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Re: Quote of the day
Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?
Narrator: Is this a genuine honest-to-god, no-doubt-about-it American masterpiece possibly worth as much as $50 millon? Maybe. But to Teri Horton, a 73 year old former long haul truck driver who bought the painting for $5 in a thrift shop, there’s no “maybe” about it.
God knows?
Teri: Everybody knows that a fairy-tale starts out, “once upon a time”, but a truck driver’s tale starts out, “You ain’t gonna believe this shit”.
First off, here’s where Teri’s head was at the beginning:
Teri: I was in this thrift store and saw this big canvas with just paint all over it. No picture. It was ugly. There was nothing to it. It was just a bunch of different colors all over a canvas. I mean, to me, a painting has to have something that you can look at and say, “oh, that really looks cool”. Like Norman Rockwell or something like that.
She bought it for $5?
Narrator: Aside from thinking it was ugly, the picture wouldn’t fit through the door of her friend’s trailer. So Teri put it in a garage sale where a local art teacher spotted it and told her…
Teri: “you very well could maybe – maybe – I’m no expert, but you might have a Jackson Pollock painting here.” And I said, “who the fuck is Jackson Pollock?”
He's still dead, right?
Narrator: Who indeed? Well, for starters, he’s one of the few artists to have his own permanent room at New York’s MOMA.
The fArt Room?
Narrator: Ben Heller owned both of these paintings [shown on screen] before they were sold to MOMA. He bought “Echo” from Pollock for $3,000. It has since increased in value more than 10,000 times. He bought “One,” spelled O-N-E, for $8,000. It is now worth…
Heller: …Let’s just say north of $100 million and leave it at that.
Supply and demand let's call it.
Narrator: Is this a genuine honest-to-god, no-doubt-about-it American masterpiece possibly worth as much as $50 millon? Maybe. But to Teri Horton, a 73 year old former long haul truck driver who bought the painting for $5 in a thrift shop, there’s no “maybe” about it.
God knows?
Teri: Everybody knows that a fairy-tale starts out, “once upon a time”, but a truck driver’s tale starts out, “You ain’t gonna believe this shit”.
First off, here’s where Teri’s head was at the beginning:
Teri: I was in this thrift store and saw this big canvas with just paint all over it. No picture. It was ugly. There was nothing to it. It was just a bunch of different colors all over a canvas. I mean, to me, a painting has to have something that you can look at and say, “oh, that really looks cool”. Like Norman Rockwell or something like that.
She bought it for $5?
Narrator: Aside from thinking it was ugly, the picture wouldn’t fit through the door of her friend’s trailer. So Teri put it in a garage sale where a local art teacher spotted it and told her…
Teri: “you very well could maybe – maybe – I’m no expert, but you might have a Jackson Pollock painting here.” And I said, “who the fuck is Jackson Pollock?”
He's still dead, right?
Narrator: Who indeed? Well, for starters, he’s one of the few artists to have his own permanent room at New York’s MOMA.
The fArt Room?
Narrator: Ben Heller owned both of these paintings [shown on screen] before they were sold to MOMA. He bought “Echo” from Pollock for $3,000. It has since increased in value more than 10,000 times. He bought “One,” spelled O-N-E, for $8,000. It is now worth…
Heller: …Let’s just say north of $100 million and leave it at that.
Supply and demand let's call it.