Thursday, February 26, 2009

Swearing in the Sopranos: 27 Minutes!

From the Las Vegas Weekly:

In an act of seemingly pointless but ultimately revelatory genius, Victor Solomon, a movie director from San Francisco, has meticulously mined all 86 episodes of The Sopranos and compiled a montage of nearly 5,000 curse words screamed, spat and muttered on the show. No wonder nobody has time simply to watch TV anymore. (Read more)


The entire montage of curses takes 27 minutes. Enjoy the show!


the sopranos, uncensored. from victor solomon on Vimeo.

In News That Does Not Surprise Us One Bit

The Hartford Courant reports that inmates sometimes bring their potty-mouths to school visits:

WATERBURY: Inmates Allegedly Used Profanity In School Visit
February 25, 2009
Waterbury officials are reviewing a program involving inmates who speak to public school students after complaints about the use of foul language.

City officials say some inmates allegedly used foul language in front of Wallace Middle School students two weeks ago.

Prison inmates are occasionally brought to city schools as part of the police department's Project Safe Neighborhoods program.

The program has police officers, medical experts and inmates speak with children about gangs, peer pressure, drugs and other problems.

A woman complained that her child and grandchild had heard foul and racially charged language from prisoners.

ZOMG! What if they also had tattoos and angry eyebrows? Will the children survive? All the teachers really had to do was keep those inmates in from recess. That would show the kids that swearing's bad stuff.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Every Curse Uttered on "The Sopranos"

If you were to listen to them all, it would take twenty-seven minutes of your life.

$#*@.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Real-Time Curse Tracking

What are all the dirty birds tweeting about?

You can find out here.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Don't Lift a Finger

Not if it's *that* one, anyway...

Middle finger gesture results in arrest

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- A Portsmouth, N.H., man has been jailed on a felony charge of violating a protective order after he allegedly showed his middle finger to the person who filed it. The two were dining separately at a restaurant on Jan. 24 when police said a 42-year-old man made the gesture.

A police affidavit said the man eventually left "with some assistance from restaurant staff."

Police Sgt. Kuffer Kaltenborn said violation of protective order charges can be brought as felonies when the allegations are second offenses. However, he said, the city prosecution office is expected to dismiss the felony against the man on Monday, leaving a misdemeanor count of stalking.

We just have to comment on the name "Kuffer." Anyone with a little imagination can make a hilarious-sounding anagram that would no doubt cause the fine officer to slap the kuffs on.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Book Banned for Profanity

Must be strange for Laura Bush to be on the liberal side of a controversy...

In rural Newman, profanity gets a book banned

By Seema Mehta

February 4, 2009

A Stanislaus County school board banned a celebrated but controversial piece of Chicano literature from its high school classrooms this week because trustees and the superintendent believe “Bless Me, Ultima” contains too much profanity.

The Newman Crows Landing Board of Education voted 4 to 1 Monday night to strip the coming-of-age novel by Rudolfo Anaya from the sophomore required reading list at Orestimba High School. The district review of the book was prompted by a parent’s complaint last year that it was “anti-Catholic” and sexually explicit.

But Supt. Rick Fauss said he had grown concerned by the amount of cursing in the 1972 novel that was spotlighted on former First Lady Laura Bush’s must-read list and is also the literature selection for this year’s state high school Academic Decathlon competition.

“There was excessive vulgarity or profanity used throughout the book,” said Fauss, head of the nearly 2,700-student Newman Crows Landing Unified School District. “The context didn’t . . . make it acceptable.”

English teachers, some parents, the ACLU and the author were outraged. “What are these people afraid of?” asked Anaya, 71. “We have ample evidence throughout history of what happens when we start banning books, when we are afraid of ideas and discussion and analytical thinking. The society will suffer.”

“Bless Me, Ultima” tells the tale of a young boy, Antonio, growing up in 1940s New Mexico and his relationship with a curandera (folk healer) named Ultima. Antonio tries to meet the disparate expectations of his parents and reconcile his Roman Catholic faith with Native American mysticism.

The book has been removed from classrooms across the nation, including in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and elsewhere in California (the Laton Joint Unified School District in Fresno County in 1999), and was No. 75 on the American Library Assn.’s list of top banned books in the 1990s.

But it is also a critically acclaimed piece of literature, is required reading in many English courses (including in some L.A. Unified schools) and is enjoying renewed popularity: It was chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of its “Big Read” program, in which various communities read the same book at the same time.

In California, the Department of Education recommends the novel for grades nine through 12, but cautions: “This book was published for an adult readership and thus contains mature content. Before handing the text to a child, educators and parents should read the book and know the child.”

In rural Newman, about 25 miles south of Modesto, “Bless Me, Ultima” has been part of the sophomore curriculum at the district’s only traditional high school for more than a decade, said Catherine Quittmeyer, chairwoman of Orestimba High School’s English department. Four or five years ago, teachers decided to move it to the summer reading list for honors students and to keep it part of the classroom curriculum for other sophomores.

Now, the novel will remain in the library but will no longer be required reading.

Teachers said the book helped them connect with their Latino students, who make up two-thirds of the district.

“Those kids came alive” when they read the book, Quittmeyer said. “It wasn’t a book by a dead white male. They understood the words, they understood the culture, they would be the ones we would turn to as experts. They felt so empowered by this book.”

Senior Brittney Clark, 17, said the book has value for all teenagers.

“You can relate to the kid because he’s trying to figure out what he should do with his life without upsetting his parents,” said Brittney, the daughter of a teacher.

The controversy began last summer when Nancy Corgiat, the mother of a sophomore, complained about the book to the superintendent.

“She initially complained about the vulgar language, the sexually explicit scenes and an anti-Catholic bias,” Fauss said.

Corgiat, who declined to comment this week, reportedly told board members in January that the book’s themes “undermine the conservative family values in our homes.”

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Christian Bale Has a Pottymouth

The director of photography for walked on the set while Bale was working last summer, and apparently, audiotape was rolling when an angry Bale dropped a shock-and-awe campaign of F-bombs.

Here's what MSNBC says:

Last summer, a report surfaced that days before he was arrested on allegations of assault in London while promoting “The Dark Knight,” Christian Bale had lashed out verbally against a crew member on the set of “Terminator Salvation.”

And Monday, a new tape from the July 2008 incident has emerged, featuring the actor screaming, shouting and using profanity at “Terminator Salvation” director of photography, Shane Hurlbut.

In the tape, posted on TMZ, Bale was recorded as he ranted at Hurlbut, after the DP walked on to the set as the actor was filming a scene with co-star Bryce Dallas Howard.

“I want you off the f---ing set, you pr----,” Bale says at the start of the audio recording, which TMZ reported was sent by the film’s executives to their insurance company in case the actor didn’t finish filming the movie.

“I’m sorry,” Hurlbut replies.

“No, don’t just be sorry. Think for one f---king second,” Bale shouts. “What the f-- are you doing? Are you a professional or not?”

Bale grows angrier as Hurlbut replies to him in a calm tone, “Yes, I am.”

“No, no. Am I gonna f---ing rip your lights down in the middle of the scene? Then why the f---are you walking right through, ‘Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh,’ in the background,” the man said to be Bale, sing-songs. “What the f--- is it with you? What the f--- don’t you understand?”

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28984085/