Milk Duds / Mozart / Branagh's banned (in USA) "Magic Flute" / Humorless in Seattle / Nestle in Africa / cannibalism / sex-trade slavery etc.

f_minor is a Web list of worshippers of the late Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. (He told an interviewer that F Minor was his favorite musical key.)

More than a year ago, Kenneth Branagh filmed a new movie version of Mozart's opera, "The Magic Flute." And it's never been released, either in theaters or on DVD, in the USA. And I've been getting more and more pissed off about that. The other night I relapsed into YouTube again and found several gorgeous samples of the movie from the French-subtitled release. f_minor had been silent lately, and I was in a goofy mood, so I Shared My Feelings with the List.

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----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Merkin
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Sent: 3/2/2008 2:06:24 AM
Subject: OT: Why has this movie been banned from the USA? Why can't Americans see & hear this movie?

(make sure speakers are ON.)

http://vleeptronz.blogspot.com/2008/03/demand-to-see-this-movie-now.html

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> [Original Message]
> From: Pat
> To:
> Date: 3/2/2008 7:45:09 AM
> Subject: Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie been banned from the USA? Whycan't Americans see & hear this movie?

Just to tease you..I COULD go...

http://www.eventim.ch/portal/de/konzerte/klassik/die_zauberflote/356/

Why is it that you cant see this one ? Not even on DVD ?

=============

----- Original Message -----
From: promonde
To: bobmerk@earthlink.net;F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Sent: 3/2/2008 11:18:21 AM
Subject: Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie been banned from the USA? Why can'tAmericans see & hear this movie?

Nice movie promo. don't understand the BDR part though

===============

> [Original Message]
> From: John DeGood
> To:
> Date: 3/2/2008 11:39:32 AM
> Subject: Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie been banned from the USA? Whycan't Americans see & hear this movie?

US and Canadian residents can easily purchase this DVD from ebay.com or amazon.fr -- search for "flute branagh". It is a Region 2 DVD, so to play it in the US or Canada (i.e. Region 1) requires a region-free DVD player, but those are also easily obtained. Many Region 1 DVD players can be easily unlocked using a "secret" button or remote control sequence.

I suspect Bob already knows this, and is just venting at the motion picture production and distribution establishment, as well as DVD region coding in general. :-)

John

===============

Isn't it obvious? Americans are prevented from seeing this on the Big Screen because of a secret Freimaurerei conspiracy.

Also, unless a movie is a total bomb, first it has to play in the theaters, then it gets released on DVD. "Magic Flute" wasn't nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars, which means it didn't play a single day in US theaters. Not even NYC. (Sometimes to be eligible for an Oscar nomination, the studio arranges a 1-day theater show.)

Packing backpack and buying ticket for Hallenstadion Zurich NOW. Do you people sell popcorn at the movie theater? Oh well, I guess I can get by with Suisse chocolate.

Promonde, sorry, just woke up, coffee only now reaching brain, what means BDR? (When you tell me, I will make the Homer Simpson "DOH!" noise.) Did you click on all 4 links? They're different samples.

Outraged Bob
Massachusetts USA

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I wanna see it on a whomp-arse big theater movie screen. My town has kept alive in loving restoration the gorgeous 19th century Academy of Music (with private boxes and a balcony), great, with spectacular acoustics, for live concerts as well as a perfect venue for movies.

This is my Right as an American. But thanks for the DVD tip.

=========

> [Original Message]
> From: Pat
> To: ;
> Date: 3/2/2008 1:20:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie been banned from the USA?Whycan't Americans see & hear this movie?

32 Short Stories

["Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould", 1993]

was never released on DVD Region 2 for Europe. But have we complained and moaned like Bob ? No, some of us still wait untill this day for a proper release or even re-release (when oh when ? ), the other half (people like me) asked their Gamer mates and got software which can be easily and most of all legally purchased from any vendor for the PS2 and Xbox that will allow you to play DVDs with a different region code.

I just saw an ad in the local paper for Die Zauberflцte at a local concert hall (Hallenstadion Zьrich in April). I actually just might go, just to make Bob green with envy....

Make Bob Happy, give tha man a proper double-double, some valium and possibly a ticket to Stratford [Ontario Canada Theatre Festival, where Gould was once the guest musical artist] for the summer ;)

============

John's extremely helpful DVD advice ... why does it resemble the dark and furtive steps I have to take to buy drugs, or discounted prescription medications from Canada?

And now to see this glorious new movie of my favorite opera -- I have to buy a Sony PS2??? I have to impersonate a criminal or an international smuggler or a teenage boy?

Vent is right. Vent. Vent. Bigtime grossezeit Vent.

Do Swiss theaters sell Milk Duds?

B

==============

> [Original Message]
> From: Pat
> To:
> Date: 3/2/2008 2:33:50 PM
> Subject: Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie been banned from theUSA?Whycan't Americans see & hear this movie?

Milk duds ? No, but you can get Bounty, m&m's Snickers, Twix, Raiders, Mars, but most of all the best bloody chocolate in the whole wide world

(it could even be possible that they will sell Mozartkugeln at the event ;)

As i have said it is perfectly legal, otherwise i would not have been able to watch 32 and the Twilight Zone with my PS2 on my TV

What console are you using ? I think i got something there, but it depends on the console.

I use this one with the PS2. Skip the thing about the codes and scroll further down...

http://us.codejunkies.com/Products/PS2-Action-Replay-MAX-EVO-Edition-16MB---USA__EF000071.aspx

==========

One guy writes a Comment advising me to spend the rest of my pathetic life becoming expert at HTML.

Now you want me to take this moment in my life to learn how to hack game platforms.

We have the original X-Box, [S.W.M.B.O.] displaces her violent anger at her nincompoop college students by disembowling and flame-throwing thousands of human beings on Mech Assault.

Trying to see Zauberflote so strangely resembles what the Dutch hacker did to find the secret hidden Sex Bits in GTA/SA [Grand Theft Auto/San Andreas]. The GTA company, by the way, has just been offered a buyout for more than a Billion USD. To clear up that USA/UK ambiguity over the words "million" and "billion," I mean more than U$1,000,000,000

Some Calvinist moral about Proper Civilized Decent Behavior being the quickest and most certain Path to prosperity and happiness is eluding me right now.

I am lifelong addicted to the Nestle Crunch Bar -- chocolate and crisped rice -- and the big boycott against Nestle for its questionable activities in the Third World broke my heart. So what's so wrong about sending fake nurses to Africa to pursuade mothers to stop breastfeeding and switch to Nestle baby formula? It's not Nestle's fault these places have no sources of sterile water to mix the baby formula powder.

Here, btw, groceries and pharmacies must lock up their baby formula, because petty-crime addicts have learned they can shoplift or snatch baby formula and sell it for quick cash on the black market very easily.

And people wonder why I spend so much time on another planet.

B

==================

----- Original Message -----
From: promonde
To: bobmerk@earthlink.net;F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Sent: 3/2/2008 7:58:04 PM
Subject: Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie been banned from the USA? Whycan'tAmericans see & hear this movie?

BDR= Bush Derangement Syndrome. Or blame everything on Bush. I clicked on the links on YouTube. Are they the same?

==========

Ah, Bush Derangement Syndrome (DOH!), okay, well, he has only 10 months left to Make Mischief, and it wouldn't shock me to learn his White House influenced the mysterious inability to see Branagh's Magic Flute (or buy a US-compatible DVD of it). He and his ex-wizard Rove are creatures of the power of the media to influence people, and nothing keeps the voters well-behaved like blocking incompatible messages from abroad.

Almost not a joke. Though Sarkozy is being described as Bush's new Poodle (Blair was the old Poodle), tempers are still hot in Washington over France's lack of military commitment to the Iraq War.

This English-language review from a Japanese newspaper

http://www.branaghcompendium.com/artic-tmf_herald-asahi2007.html

emphasizes an unexpectedly overt anti-war theme to Branagh's version. Branagh sets his film in the French trenches of World War I, and Sarastro and his Brotherhood are actually trying to end the mindless slaughter. They read and honor the names of the dead in a variety of languages, including Japanese and Arabic. Those nuns are British nursing sisters (and agents of the evil, violent Queen of the Night).

This would not be the first European movie with anti-war themes which received a chilly and unwelcome theater distribution in the US during the Bush years. The Michael Caine / Brendan Fraser film of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" (about the early American CIA phase of
involvement in Indochina) was released a few months after the 9/11/01 attacks in the midst of a tsunami of angry American patriotic xenophobia, and had a very chilly, slow time finding theaters willing to screen it. Eventually it found an audience and earned an Oscar nomination.

Ordinarily I think of music and opera as an evening's pleasant escape from grim reality, but of course great artists refuse to make things that easy, and use art to force us to think hard and deep about reality. I think Mozart, Shikaneder (with their coded ideals of Freemasonry) and Branagh have important -- and very contemporary -- messages for us in this sublime work. It's very possible many people just want the monsters and the happy-go-lucky birdcatcher, and would prefer to skip the messages.

My Vleeptron post has 4 links to YouTube videos, the Trailer, and 3 different samples, all from the French subtitled version.

Off-List, Pat informs me Swiss movie theaters do not sell Milk Duds.

Lefty Peacenik Old Hippie Vietnam-era Vet Bob
(but not a Freemason)
Massachusetts USA

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> [Original Message]
> From: pwaud@juno.com
> To: ;
> Date: 3/3/2008 10:49:16 AM
> Subject: Why are we wasting our time on this garbage. This site is for discussion of GG. Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie been banned from the USA? Why can't Americans see & hear this movie?

You guys need to get a blog.

This site is for discussion of GG and related issues.

Peter in Seattle

_____________________________________________________________
> Click to make millions by owning your own franchise.
>

http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2121/fc/Ioyw6i3m6ePetimipZyUi2LAFl

TYT6juucslPHdEhsIiNB9VlLjJtg/

=============

I have a blog! http://vleeptronz.blogspot.com Thanks for inviting me to whore my blog!

I am sorry you were born humorless. Life must be a horror for you. I guess you don't like pretty music or thrilling operas either.

B

=============

I rarely respond, but I've got to say... Bob, you're one of my favorite people at the moment LOL!

Cheers, everyone!
Leah

==============

Speaking about operas, ahem....a small story. Someone here at work surprised me by offering all of a sudden out of the blue, oh Fred would you like to attend the opera? I checked my pulse. I was awake. I said, why that is so sweet, I've never seen one live. So, two very expensive tickets appeared on my desk. I nearly fainted when I saw how expensive, but this person had them extra from some friends who could not attend and didn't want them to be wasted. So, I made a phone call and a friend said that he would join me. After supper we walked over to the brand new Opera House here in downtown Toronto.....very lovely place, very modern. Anyway, suffice it to say that after the opera was over I was in a bit of a bleary head state. What Opera did I see? Oh, yes, that.....Janacek's "The house of the Dead". 90 continuous minutes of morbid, dreary, depressing reminders about why Joe Stalin's one way ticket's to the Gulag up in Siberia was such an underrated option....the other being hell. Based on Dostoevsky's book, it must rank as one of the most sour and dour musical experiences in the literature. Sung in Czech, with English subtitles up on the marquee, the sets were fabulous, huge cast, some of which were naked as the men frolicked in the steam bath sequence...ok, this is the new age, right?

I left with my heart pining away for Mozart or Tchaikovsky...both of which are coming to the Toronto opera later.....

What a bracing first opera experience.....goodness....

Regards,

Fred Houpt
Toronto

=============

> [Original Message]
> From: Pat
> To:
> Date: 3/3/2008 12:23:38 PM
> Subject: Re: Why are we wasting our time on this garbage. This site is fordiscussion of GG. Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie beenbanned from the USA? Why can't Americans see & hear this movie?

YES ! STRIKE ! LOL !

==========

I actually had to look for something at amazon.de which I was
unable to find at the store today (a game for the PSP). And since i was there I thought i could check the availability of your DVD

Nada

Zip

Zilch

Zero

NULL

Even I would have to get it as an import from amazon.co.uk. it has not even been released, no word about the DVD code yet

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Flute-Joseph-Kaiser/dp/B000YDAJMM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1204565162&sr=1-1

As you may remember that new glenn gould DVD was released as DVD Region 0, meaning that ALL DVD players will play it. Maybe they will do it with that one, you never know....but do not keep your hopes high for now

Now back to my shopping

And no worries about that guy from Seattle, my sister said Seattle is the ugliest city she has ever been to....bloody well deserved it, that humourless git

Pat

==============

This would all make sense if I wanted to be a cannibal or a terrorist or an opium smuggler or a sex-trade slaver.

I just want to see a pretty Mozart opera!

It rains in Seattle about 300 days a year. Makes a feller grumpy I'm told.

But your hunt at the media store today ... now I am beginning to think that maybe there really is a Freimaurerei Conspiracy to keep Zauberflote from me.

Can you find me a recipe for the Mozartkugeln? I will post it on Vleeptronz. Here are the horrible ghastly Milk Duds. It's my favorite movie candy, but it's a good thing the theater is dark so I don't have to see what I'm eating.

B

==============

Now this DVD looks pretty cool...it has PUPPETS in it

http://www.amazon.com/Collection-Marionette-Salzburger-Marionettentheater-Abduction/dp/B000LY23SW/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1204576798&sr=1-17

[the Salzburg Puppe/Marionettes doing Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio]

and this one

http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Die-Zauberfl%C3%B6te-Magic-Flute/dp/B000ASAEQW/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1204576765&sr=1-6

i saw Edita Gruberowa once on TV as Queen of the Night, she kicked a, and I am not even that big an opera fan, but i could go to that performance in Zurich, not a movie, LIVE !!

As for the Mozartkugeln work is in progress, finding the right recipe, translating ingredients etc, Blooy hell, you could even post that at the f_minor list, i for one would like to see what happens ;)

============

[Mary Jo is the List Owner of f_minor]

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> [Original Message]
> From: Mary Jo *****
> To:
> Cc:
> Date: 3/3/2008 6:18:52 PM
> Subject: Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie been banned from the USA?Whycan't Americans see & hear this movie?

No Ps2 needed. No illegal software. Nothing Illegal at all, really. Just opposable thumbs.

Google hint: "hack dvd player region codes" (1st hit:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

With a few hokey pokey moves, and your remote, you can unlock region codes on most DVD players much the way teenage game players unlock super powerful uzis or magic ferry dust.

Enjoy.

-Mary Jo

==========

Thanks Mary Jo! I have opposable thumbs! I can do this! (But I still wanted to see it on the big screen in a nice theater.)

Bob

===========

> [Original Message]
> From: michael macelletti
> To: F_MINOR
> Date: 3/3/2008 8:18:14 PM
> Subject: [F_minor] latest thread

this latest thread of continuing conversations is interesting not so much for the topic causing the interest, but rather for what it shows. and that is simply some pretty incredible minds at work, and also people who really care about something other than money. something that matters. gg. mm

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> [Original Message]
> From: kris_shapar
> To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
> Date: 3/4/2008 9:26:11 AM
> Subject: Re: Why are we wasting our time on this garbage. This site isfordiscussion of GG. Re: [F_minor] OT: Why has this movie been ba

Same here - and thanks to you, Bob, I found out about a very interesting DVD (if anyone has a regionless player, you can preorder this movie from Amazon UK).

AND you introduced me to "BDR" - so that's what's wrong with us - priceless!

Kris