Deductive Duo

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opened this past weekend to an underwhelming box-office presence and mixed but positive reviews.  Warner Bros. was already reeling from a horrendous debut of its ensemble holiday rom-com New years eve proving once and for all that no one should ever make ensemble holiday rom-com’s of any kind.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows still ranked #1 at the weekend box office leading Hollywood to believe that people are cramming all of their holiday shopping in rather than seeing movies.  Most criticisms of the film arose mainly from it’s slight affinity for senseless action, and Robert Downey Jr. being an ex-coke-head-hooker-junkie portraying one of the most beloved literary intellectuals of all time.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s most infamous and cunning villain Professor James Moriarty serves as the primary antagonist in the film and does a great job at that.  Indeed the film becomes a very intriguing battle between two powerful intellectuals (Inventor vs. Mastermind), culminating in a deadly chess match.  Despite being a former cocaine addict, Robert Downey Jr. actually does quite well in portraying Sherlock Holmes, as Holmes was actually a bit of a cocaine addict himself.  Downey said he had researched the role much more this time around, further bridging the gap between him being a blazing Artisan portraying a brilliant Rational.  Criticisms aside Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is packed with action, romance, bromance, intellectualism, plenty of pipe-smoking, deadly chess matches, and smelly french gypsies so let’s go ahead and take a look at the dynamic deductive duo of Holmes and Watson.

Sherlock Holmes is a London-based private detective world renowned for his astute logical reasoning, his skills in the art of disguise, and his use of forensic science to solve cases.  Holmes prides himself on his ability to successfully draw large conclusions from minuscule observations.  Holmes is described by his dear friend Watson as ‘Bohemian‘: a very eccentric man “with no regard for contemporary standards“.  “What appears to others as chaos, however, is to Holmes a wealth of useful information.”  Indeed Holmes finds solving complex problems highly stimulating, and has an insatiable hunger for knowledge.  Certainly Sherlock Holmesinnovative attitude causes him to bend the truth and rules quite often, all of course on behalf of solving cases.  While Holmes’ demeanor often comes across as that of a distant or cold intellectual, while in the midst of an interesting adventure Holmes is capable of remarkable passion and can even display a flair for showmanship.  Highly eccentric, extremely intellectual, possessing an innovative attitude and entrepreneurial spirit Sherlock Holmes is the quintessential Inventor Rational.  Indeed Holmes‘ often relies on his talent for improvisation and expedient action, as do most Inventors, a habit that often gets him into trouble.  Not to worry though, as Inventors like Holmes’ entrepreneurial spirit often miraculously gets them out of the jams they put themselves in.  However, so does his dear friend Watson.

Doctor John H. Watson is Holmes’ faithful companion and trusty sidekick, and also Holmesdearest and oldest friend.  Watson chronicles the majority of Holmes’ professional ventures, and is the narrator in most of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s novels.  Watson is described as a capable and brave companion to Holmes, while also serving as a skilled sharpshooter and a talented doctor and surgeon.  Though the two companions have a close relationship, Holmes’ often appears to abuse Watson and take him for granted.  Watson often attempts to solve crimes on his own using Holmes’ method, with moderate success.  Though Watson never masters Holmes’ deductive methods, he is astute enough to follow his good friends line of reasoning.  Watson essentially serves as solid and consistent moral and physical support for his dear friend Sherlock Holmes.  Extremely dependable, highly attentive, and overwhelmingly patient serving as a great source of strength and stability for Holmes Doctor John Watson is undoubtedly an Inspector Guardian.  Indeed Watson puts up with quite a bit from his dear friend Sherlock Holmes, but offers thoroughness, detail, legality, and order to compliment the innovative talents of his esteemed colleague.

Guardians are comfortable with the Rationals’ skeptical attitude and obsession with their work, which seem very much like their own pessimism and sense of duty; they often admire the NTs ingenuity, which is such a reach from their own reliance on by-the-book routine.    Please Understand Me II, p. 227-228

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows can be seen at a theater near you.

Quote1.png When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.Quote2.png

Sherlock Holmes

Quote1.png Holmes was a man of habits… and I had become one of them… a comrade… upon whose nerve he could place some reliance… a whetstone for his mind. I stimulated him… If I irritated him by a certain methodical slowness in my mentality, that irritation served only to make his own flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly. Such was my humble role in our alliance.Quote2.png

Doctor Watson

The Search and the Re-search

“I didn’t have a sense of purpose.”

“You might as well live a lot, really hard, and not give a shit, because you can always walk through that door. So I started to live as if I could die any day.” [Our emphasis, not hers]

But she couldn’t.

She couldn’t live as if she had no purpose. It wasn’t in her nature.

So she had started her search, not knowing why or how, or even where. She didn’t even know that she was searching.

Continue reading The Search and the Re-search

Creative Ecstasy

Be Beautiful, Brilliant, and Bold

Frequenzsprungverfahren

“I’m a sworn enemy of the convention.  I despise the conventional in anything, even the arts”

Hedwig Kiesler, was declared the “most beautiful women in the world,” but she quickly got bored of the sobriquet.  She did not play the Hollywood game.  She spent many of her evenings creating.  But few would know, what she was creating for it was classified as secret for 40 years.

“Any girl can be glamorous — all you have to do is stand still and look stupid”

Six different husbands.  All married her for different reasons.  But not any like her father.  He loved his daughter for her intelligence, not for her beauty.  It was he, who encouraged her to ask how things work, which gave her a supreme self confidence even by the tender age of 15.  “I must make my own decisions.  Mould my own character, think my own thoughts.”

Continue reading Creative Ecstasy

I, too, was once a Human Being

No ashes, no coal can burn with such glow.
As a secretive love of which no one must know.

She was.

But, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…” [Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities]

She began her dark journey into light at the age of seventeen.

In that darkness, he had beaten her ‘on her bare buttocks’ in a ‘special room’ away from the family. In the light, she eventually confessed that she had felt sexual excitement when her father beat her. Her mother had raised her ‘in complete sexual ignorance.’

Suffering – both physical and emotional – with love.

Continue reading I, too, was once a Human Being

Diplomatic Courage

Disney/Pixar’s 2012 project Brave released a full trailer recently and looks to have in droves the charmingly delightful delightfulness that Pixar seems to achieve so well.  Disney/Pixar will be looking for cinematic redemption after its 2011 release Cars 2 flopped hard both at the box-office and with critics.  Brave is centered around a Scottish Princess named Merida, and will be Pixar’s first ‘fairytale’, and it’s first film with a female protagonist.  A brief synopsis tells us that Merida ‘confronts tradition, destiny, and the fiercest of beasts’.  Let’s jump right in and take a look at our red-haired heroine Merida who is voiced by actress Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire).

Merida is described as the impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson).  Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane).  “Searching for the meaning of existence,” and believing in a “world pregnant with possibilities,” Merida indeed seems quite optimistic.  Extremely courageous, highly independent, deeply mystical, and on a search for life’s truths Merida is a classic Idealist.  Indeed Merida turns to an “eccentric old Wise Woman (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish.”  In order to find out what happens I suppose we’ll have to just watch the film!  Brave is slated for a June 22, 2012 release date.

Quote1.png If you had the chance to change your fate…… would you? Quote2.png

Princess Merida

Romantic Diplomacy

The nominees for the 54th annual Grammy awards were announced Wednesday night and Kanye West (middle) leads the pack with 7 nods.  Adele (left), the Foo Fighters, and Bruno Mars followed close behind with 6 nominations each, while Lil’ Wayne and Skrillex both earned 5.  Full list of nominations here.  Squaring off for the award shows top honor of album of the year will be Adele (21), Foo Fighters (Wasting Light)Lady Gaga (Born This Way), Bruno Mars (Doo-Wops & Hooligans) and Rihanna (Loud).  Notable snubs include Taylor Swift‘s Speak Now for Album of the Year, Beyonce in general, and Lady Gaga‘s Born This Way for Song of the Year.  Looking on the bright side however for the Album of the Year award we will definitely be spared one of Taylor Swift‘s infamous over-the-top “oh my god I can’t believe it” speeches that she keeps pulling out of her ass.  Idiocy aside let’s take a look at rising star and hopeless romantic Bruno Mars.

Peter Gene Hernandez a.k.a Bruno Mars is a Filipino-American singer and songwriter who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii into a family of musicians.  Mars began making music at a young age, and after graduating high-school moved to LA to pursue a career in music.  A talented producer with a great voice and a charming smile, Mars drew from a wide variety of styles and influences, and quickly found his place in the music industry.  Using his childhood nickname Bruno, Hernandez added Mars because “a lot of girls say that I’m out of this world, so I was like I guess I’m from Mars.”  Mars’ debut album Doo Wops and Hooligans was released this October and gave him 6 grammy nominations.  The album is riddled with altruism, romance, and intense emotional experiences.   A hopeless romantic, highly in-touch with his feelings, extremely expressive, and fiercely independent Bruno Mars is undoubtedly a Champion Idealist.  Indeed Bruno exudes a kind of “spontaneous personal authenticity”, and communicates such through his unique musical style.  Bruno is characteristically positive in his outlook, and is surprised when people or events do not turn out as anticipated, as evidenced by his somewhat somber ‘trophy song’ Grenade.  Despite seemingly having his heart broken something tells me Bruno is gonna be ok:

Often their [Champions’] confidence in the innate goodness of life and human nature is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Please Understand Me II, p. 156

The 54th annual Grammy awards airs February 12th on CBS.

Quote1.png We just hope that it touched people.  And we can’t wait to work on album two!Quote2.png

Bruno Mars

A Child's Memory

“On the back of the slip was written ‘Read 5.25.34’ and the signature of my father. The file — indeed the whole ‘case’ — gave me a heavy sinking feeling. I kept leafing through the documents trying to understand. Shouldn’t there have been some kind of logic to these stories? Did the Chekists’ machinery really so senselessly gobble up people? Perhaps my life would have taken a different turn if been able to see my father’s file earlier. If I could have been convinced without a doubt of what ordinary, banal horror our industry, our powerful Soviet reality was steeped in.”

“My father never spoke about any of this with me. He blanked this piece of his life out of his memory as if it had never existed. It is forbidden to speak of this subject in our family.”

“I was only three years old at the time of my father’s arrest, but I remember to this day all the horror and fear. One night people came into our barracks room. I remember my mother shouting and crying. I woke up and also began to cry. I was crying not because my father was going away (I was still too young to “understand” what was happening to him). I was crying because I saw my mother and saw how frightened she was. Her fear and her tears were transferred to me. My father was taken away, and my mother threw herself at me, hugging me until I calmed down and fell asleep.”  Continue reading A Child's Memory

Tactician's Vanity

The 2011 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show aired on CBS last night and WOW what quality television programming.  Like seriously.  The $12 million ‘marketing marvel’ is aired in more than 180 countries and features the worlds top models (36) wearing intimate apparel.  The show featured hard-hitting musical performances from Jay-Z and Kanye West,  Maroon 5, and Nicki Minaj.  “It’s one giant PR stunt” that was held in New York, and helps Victoria’s Secret “put our [their] brand in front of millions of people around the world during the crucial holiday period.”  And it works, as Victoria’s Secret raked in $5.5 billion in net sales last year.  Australian model and new mother Miranda Kerr sported the most expensive digs in the form of a $2.5 million Fantasy Treasure Bra—designed by London Jewelers and embellished with nearly 3,400 stones including 142 carats of diamond.  As is the new trend in these Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows, a recent mother was given the honor of wearing the coveted Fantasy Bra, last year being Adriana Lima.  Indeed most of the lingerie giant‘s top models are now mothers including Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, Kate Moss, Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio.  With all that ridiculously good television going on it was hard to catch the fact that there were also musical performances.  Were there?  I had no idea.  Since analyzing the temperament of models wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense let’s take a look at burgeoning dynamic duo Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Shawn Corey Carter was born into poverty on the streets of Brooklyn December 4, 1969.  Today his net worth is estimated at over 450$ million.  An extremely talented rapper and musician, HOVA has 11 number one records, being beat out only by The Beatles.  Music however, is definitely not Carter’s only talent.  Indeed Carter is a very successful and renowned entrepreneur: he was President/CEO of Def Jam Records for several years, he has founded multiple corporations including Roc-A-Fella Records and Rocawear, finally he is co-owner of a variety of organizations including the 40/40 Club and the New Jersey Nets.  Whether it be music, fashion, food, or just cold hard business; Jigga clearly knows how to get sh*t done.  A self-admitted former crack dealer, Shawn Carter clearly will use any means or ‘tools’ necessary to be successful.  A brilliant Crafter Artisan from the streets, Carter knows that the most important things in life are ‘a gift and a curse’.

Kanye Omari West was born June 08, 1977 in Atlanta Georgia.  The Chi-town native is characterized by his flamboyantly loud personality, outrageous fashion sense, and skills as a music producer.  Indeed it was Kanye’s beat-making prowess that got his foot in the industry door.  However once his foot was in the door, his mouth did the rest.  The rapper’s flashy personality may come across as a bit egotistical, but also made him a powerful media darling, and helped propel his career to what it is today.  Kanye’s uncensored attitude has indeed gotten him in trouble: when he claimed that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” or his infamous mic-snatching incident with Taylor Swift.  In fact if at any point during the day you want to hear exactly what Kanye West is thinking about, you can check out his highly utilized twitter account, or even his website.  Although the guy may come off as a bit brazen or overconfident: at the end of the day Kanye West, a blazing Performer Artisan, simply wants to entertain his audience.

Quote1.png Shoot for the stars, so if you fall you land on a cloud.Quote2.png

Kanye West

Quote1.png I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me.Quote2.png

Shawn Carter

Of Complex Character

Gaia is a tough bitch.

Hot Cold Passion: a passion for science.

She was a Scientist, first.

And she was a Character — a very interesting, and complex character.

Having entered the science community as a woman, when men still dominated science, and being charmed by a huge scientific ego, Carl, she luckily had to explore the backwaters of evolutionary biology at the time, bacteria, not getting much support from him or her male contemporaries.  Of course, like all good science, that estuary of knowledge contained biological riches totally ignored by well established conventional scientific community.  Like Darwin before, she was sui generis: a driven, feisty, no holds barred, idea brawler — an intellectual maverick — by necessity and choice.  Initially ignored, she generated a fair amount of hostility from the conventional scientific community when they were challenged.

And intellectual mavericks, with persistence, are the only type to challenge the major ideas of conventional science, and win — somewhat.

Continue reading Of Complex Character

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