GUELYLAND: December 2011

ABOUT GUELYLAND

"One of the smallest , independent kingdoms in the ciberuniverse. Nothing fancy. Population? Just me, myself and my jaguars, my movies and my books (and, at this very moment, YOU). Hided and secret like Skull Island or Opar, the ancients in Guelyland use to read the scrools of a minor god called Voor-Hes.

Most of the treasures of Guelyland are made of paper, plastic and vinyl.Guelyland dreams with expanding in deep more then in surface. The music of Nik Kershaw has been heard here. There are apes, lots of apes in Guelyland. Woody Allen and Bob Hope visit it quite often. Here we love books (the Kingdoms Library is both celebrated and secret) Here we are atheists but very tolerant and think of god a bit too often and much. Guelyland is, the stuff my dreams are made of..."

Monday, December 5, 2011

GUELYLANDSONG #14 "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond

Frankly I don't remember when was the first time I heard this song. As everybody else I just enjoy it and recognize it. But it touched me deeper and became a favorite when i heard the "karaoke version" (when characters in a movie sing a song as you will sing it normally in any place without being a real singer, at work or in a bar) in that favorite cult film of mine "Beautiful Girls" (Ted Demme, 1996).
Here's the scene and see what i mean:

But the real thing, the original one, was penned, performed and released by the 1941 born, newyorker descended of russian and polish inmigrants, Neil Leslie Diamond, first as a single in 1969 and later as a track of the live double album "Hot August Night" in 1972. It's been covered later, among others, by no less then Elvis an Sinatra.

SWEET CAROLINE (Neil Diamond)
Where it began, I can't begin to know when
But then I know it's growing strong
Oh, wasn't the spring, whooo
And spring became the summer
Who'd believe you'd come along

Hands, touching hands, reaching out
Touching me, touching you
Oh, sweet Caroline
Good times never seem so good
I've been inclined to believe it never would

And now I, I look at the night, whooo
And it don't seem so lonely
We fill it up with only two, oh
And when I hurt
Hurting runs off my shoulder
How can I hurt when holding you

Oh, one, touching one, reaching out
Touching me, touching you
Oh, sweet Caroline
Good times never seem so good
Oh I've been inclined to believe it never would

Ohhh, sweet Caroline, good times never seem so good

Other of my favorite "karaoke moments" (not real karaokes, as i told you before) can be found in The Deer Hunter (Cimino,1978) and Mad Dog and Glory (John McNaughton,1993).

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Matt Dillahunty

Matt Dillahunty

"Faith is a 'give up.' It's the point at which you stop seeking truth and just say 'Ya know, I can't figure out how to get any further, so I'm just going to go ahead and accept this answer because it feels right' or 'I don't want to keep looking.' It's not a path to truth; I would encourage people to actually go around and think about how you find out whether or not something is true in every other aspect... I guarantee you don't use faith for finding truth outside your religious claims."

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Every argument for God and every attribute ascribed to Him rests on a false metaphysical premise. None can survive for a moment on a correct metaphysics. For instance, God is infinite. Nothing can be infinite, according to the Law of Identity. Everything is what it is, and nothing else. It is limited in its qualities and in its quantity: it is this much, and no more. “Infinite” as applied to quantity does not mean “very large”: it means “larger than any specific quantity.” That means: no specific quantity—i.e., a quantity without identity. This is prohibited by the Law of Identity. Is God the creator of the universe? There can be no creation of something out of nothing. There is no nothing. Is God omnipotent? Can he do anything? Entities can act only in accordance with their natures; nothing can make them violate their natures . . . “God” as traditionally defined is a systematic contradiction of every valid metaphysical principle. The point is wider than just the Judeo-Christian concept of God. No argument will get you from this world to a supernatural world. No reason will lead you to a world contradicting this one. No method of inference will enable you to leap from existence to a “super-existence.”

James Randi

"I am frequently approached following lectures and loudly asked if I am a Christian and/or whether I believe in God -- the assumption being that I understand what the questioner means by both terms. My answer has always been that I have found no compelling reason to adopt such beliefs. Infuriated by such a response . . . [they] usually turn away and leave ringing in the air a declaration that there is just no point in trying to reason with me and that I will be 'prayed for.' "I have no need of this patronization, nor of such a condescending attitude, and I resent it. I consider such an action to be a feeble defense for a baseless superstition and a retreat from reality." - From Randi's book The Faith Healers, page 303. Another quote: "I hereby state my opinion that the notion of a god is a basic superstition and that there is no evidence for the existence of any god(s). Further, devils, demons, angels and saints are myths; there is no life after death, no heaven or hell; the Pope is a dangerous, bigoted, medieval dinosaur, and the Holy Ghost is a comic-book character worthy of laughter and derision. I accuse the Christian god of murder by allowing the Holocaust to take place--not to mention the 'ethnic cleansing' presently being performed by Christians in our world -- and I condemn and vilify this mythical deity for encouraging racial prejudice and commanding the degradation of women." -- from Skeptic magazine (1995 Vol.3 No.4 p.11)

BERTRAND RUSSELL

BERTRAND RUSSELL

"Si yo sugiriera que entre la Tierra y Marte hay una tetera de porcelana que gira alrededor del Sol en una órbita elíptica, nadie podría refutar mi aseveración, siempre que me cuidara de añadir que la tetera es demasiado pequeña como para ser vista aún por los telescopios más potentes. Pero si yo dijera que, puesto que mi aseveración no puede ser refutada, dudar de ella es de una presuntuosidad intolerable por parte de la razón humana, se pensaría con toda razón que estoy diciendo tonterías. Sin embargo, si la existencia de tal tetera se afirmara en libros antiguos, si se enseñara cada domingo como verdad sagrada, si se instalara en la mente de los niños en la escuela, la vacilación para creer en su existencia sería un signo de excentricidad, y quien dudara merecería la atención de un psiquiatra en un tiempo iluminado, o la del inquisidor en tiempos anteriores."

RICHARD DAWKINS

RICHARD DAWKINS

"La razón por la que la religión organizada merece hostilidad abierta es que, a diferencia de la creencia en la tetera de Russell, la religión es poderosa, influyente, exenta de impuestos y se la inculca sistemáticamente a niños que son demasiado pequeños como para defenderse. Nadie empuja a los niños a pasar sus años de formación memorizando libros locos sobre teteras. Las escuelas subvencionadas por el gobierno no excluyen a los niños cuyos padres prefieren teteras de forma equivocada. Los creyentes en las teteras no lapidan a los no creyentes en las teteras, a los apóstatas de las teteras y a los blasfemos de las teteras. Las madres no advierten a sus hijos en contra de casarse con infieles que creen en tres teteras en lugar de en una sola. La gente que echa primero la leche no da palos en las rodillas a los que echan primero el té."

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

"Era, por supuesto, una mentira lo que leíste sobre mis convicciones religiosas, una mentira que ha sido sistemáticamente repetida. No creo en un Dios personal y nunca lo he negado, por el contrario, lo he expresado claramente. Si algo hay en mi que puede ser llamado religioso es entonces la admiración sin límites a la estructura del mundo hasta donde la ciencia ha podido revelarnos por el momento". "No puedo imaginarme a un dios que premia y castiga a los objetos de su creación, cuyos propósitos han sido modelados bajo el suyo propio; un dios que no es más que el reflejo de la debilidad humana. Tampoco creo que el individuo sobreviva a la muerte de su cuerpo: esos no son más que pensamientos de miedo o egoísmo de lo mas ridículo".

The Ram

The Ram

"I just want to say to you all tonight I'm very grateful to be here. A lot of people told me that I'd never wrestle again and that's all I do. You know, if you live hard and play hard and you burn the candle at both ends, you pay the price for it. You know in this life you can loose everything you love, everything that loves you. Now I don't hear as good as I used to and I forget stuff and I aint as pretty as I used to be but god damn it I'm still standing here and I'm The Ram. As times goes by, as times goes by, they say "he's washed up", "he's finished" , "he's a loser", "he's all through". You know what? The only one that's going to tell me when I'm through doing my thing is you people here. "