Kalei Works
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There is a deluge of cinema yet a dearth of quality, and we humans emulate that which we observe. Cinema Aficiona seeks to separate the wheat from the chaff and analyze what speaks to the human soul, fires the imagination, and appreciate what makes a truly good story.
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January 22, 2022
Cinema Aficiona: The Return of The King (2003)

Good Morning Cinema Aficiona! Today is the final installment of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings interpretation with "The Return of The King".
This conclusion to the classic Christian Good vs. Evil high fantasy epic brings our three week presentation to a close.

Cinema Aficiona: The Return of The King (2003)
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September 19, 2022
Video: Primal Retort

Just a meme borne of enjoying watching Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal.

...Birds?

00:00:42
April 02, 2022
Cinema Aficiona: The Trailer

Fantastic video from @BigBlueVA for our weekly Cinema Aficiona meetings! I love this, absolutely wholesome.mp4. Thank you, Andrew!!

00:01:12
November 06, 2021
Cinema Aficiona: Giant Robo (Part 2)

A new month, a new opportunity to upload this monster file of a Cinema Aficiona episode!
Please enjoy the conclusion of our foray into the fantastic 7 episode series "Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still" by Yasuhiro Imagawa!

Part 1 can be viewed here: https://kalei.locals.com/post/1147675/cinema-aficiona-giant-robo-part-1

01:05:48
April 09, 2022
Cinema Aficiona: The Lion King (1994)

Good Morning Cinema Aficiona !

This morning we're presenting the 1994 animated feature "The Lion King" directed by Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers. For the directors, this was a bit of a flash in the pan, as I haven't found anything else in their repertoire worth pointing out, and based off of stories of how this movie shifted and evolved during the production phase, I'd say it's very fair to call this a "lightning in a bottle" scenario, and the last worthwhile animated feature that would be created by the studio.

With a fantastic soundtrack by the incomparable Hans Zimmer, and story supervision at the hands of Ms. Brenda Chapman (fresh off her work on The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast), this weekend's event is sure to knock your nostalgic socks off. And for those who have never seen it, prepare to witness the greatest achievement in featured animation history.

We will be watching an unedited, unrestored, laserdisc version of the movie, as most every modern copy has ...

Cinema Aficiona: The Lion King (1994)
February 12, 2022
Cinema Aficiona: The Iron Giant (1999)

Today we'll be returning back to the animation roots of my analytical posts with The Iron Giant (1999) directed by Brad Bird.
Bird made a name for himself as an animator for The Simpsons and King of the Hill, and working on things like Animalympics, The Black Cauldron, The Fox and The Hound, and Sesame Street, finally gaining enough clout to pitch his first movie: The Iron Giant.
This little known gem has become more popular over the years since it's initial lack-luster release, as all good stories do. It's a fantastic example of how good a story can be when corporate stays out of the way and the creative team is solid.
This movie sports fantastic voice acting from Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, and Christopher McDonald, Brad Bird made sure of it.
I hope you enjoy this discussion about a fantastic sci-fi adventure with some of the best comedy ever rendered in two-dimensions! The editing once again done by the incredibly skilled @Hailo , thank you!

Cinema Aficiona: The Iron Giant (1999)
February 05, 2022
Cinema Aficiona: The Shining (1980)

Today we'll be watching Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" from 1980. This movie is based on the horror novel by Stephen King, but Kubrick clearly makes it his own with a number of liberties in the story and characters. It's a fantastic and horrifying dive into the capabilities of the human psyche when driven to the extreme, and the dangers of ignoring resentment and unresolved conflict between people. This supernatural horror is fantastic for the very fact that if you remove the supernatural elements, the story remains unscathed. I hope you enjoy this discussion around a classic horror that set the standard for decades after.

Big thanks to @Hailo for editing!

Cinema Aficiona: The Shining (1980)
May 05, 2023
Heads Up Locals Crew!

The time has finally come to consolidate my future rants, site updates, blurbs, and general shitposting into one independent location. I have been convinced to move onto Substack which has been integrated into KaleiWorks.net by the fine crew at Patch Digital.
I will be making all future updates, posts, videos, etc. through my mailing list to try to pull all the different branches of my creative works into my personal website's reach rather than splitting my time between Tumbl, Twit, Locals, and the like. I've got a couple dried out husks of Mammoth, Gab, Parler and Truth accounts floating around as well, it's almost like a seasonal migration at this point.
For those of you who wish to keep up with the show, please sign up for my mailing list: https://kaleiworks.substack.com/subscribe
And for those who have been here supporting me through the years, a hearty Thank You for your time and attention, it's been a fantastic ride!

April 21, 2023
Cinema Aficiona LIVE Panel

Good Afternoon Locals crew! Here is the promised video of the MEGACON panel that happened late March, expertly edited and filmed by @KeyBlack https://odysee.com/@KaleiWorks:b/CA-MEGACON2023
A warm welcome to the new Locals crew as well!

March 22, 2023
Cinema Aficiona LIVE at MEGACON 2023 in Orlando, FL!!

Cinema Aficiona is an official panelist at this year's MEGACON in Orlando, FL! Sorry for being AWOL for the last few months, been working hard on things behind the scenes and some of that work has paid off!

https://fanexpohq.com/megaconorlando/

If you are attending MEGACON this year, join me Thursday, 30 March at 6:30PM in S320G on the third floor of the North-South concourse for a live Cinema Aficiona! Since we don't have a full 2 hours to watch a film and discuss it, I will be analyzing a few clips from some past CA classics like A Fistful of Dollars, The Shining, Pirates of the Caribbean, and A Flight of Dragons, as well as discussing the big-picture for why Cinema Aficiona was started in the first place.

Tickets are still available for Thurs! I hope to see you guys there!

December 21, 2022
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A Study in Gaslighting and Disingenuous Academia
“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Accept Atlantis”

First, an apology to all those who followed my Locals thinking it would be artwork and memes; you are about to get some good ol’ analysis. And for those of you who have known me for a LONG time; Huzzah! It’s finally time once again for some good ol’ analysis.

I have just finished Graham Hancock’s outstanding new series “Ancient Apocalypse” which presents very clearly and thoroughly a number of anthropological and historical theories and assertations that have always been at the forefront of the collective consciousness of mankind. These subjects are discussed side-by-side with uncensored and phenomenal site evidence, new archaeological discoveries, and impressive all-source analysis that makes these propositions, in my estimation, self-evident. In simpler terms: Graham said Plato was right about Atlantis and the “academics” are angry about it.

Ancient Apocalypse is the first audio-visual presentation to take concepts such as The Lost Civilization of Atlantis and Catastrophic Destruction of a Human Civilization outside of the realm of myth, and plant them firmly in historical fact. Plenty of people, hinged and otherwise, have made similar assertations in the past, but due to their mocking, censorship, deplatforming, or the exploitation of personal shortcomings by critics, very few public voices have dared to consider these events as something to be taken seriously until now.

I will say now, for those of you reading this who have not yet seen Graham Hancock’s Ancient Apocalypse, please take the time do to so in the manner most convenient to you, which hopefully supports Graham’s financial welfare and future endeavors.

Now that the stage is set, getting to the subject that made me sit down and write my first analytical post in years, I will cop out and simply copy pasta the off-the-cuff ranting I did in a private group chat on this subject as I watched the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast #961 - Graham Hancock, Randall Carlson & Michael Shermer:

You wanna see a master gaslighter? Check Michael Shermer using weasel words and totally irrelevant subjects to sound smart.

This guy is trying to claim because there were no metal tools found at Göbekli Tepe, it can't be an "advanced civilization-made location" when it is self-evident from the dating on the site putting it at 12,000 years ago and the fact that it's BEAUTIFULLY CARVED STONE PILLARS AND ALIGNMENTS TO SIGNIFICANT ASTRONOMICAL MARKERS. He’s acting like that's not from a civilization more advanced than hunter-gatherers that allegedly couldn’t even sustain an agrarian presence, could only build huts and use tents, and couldn't construct large stone buildings. This guy continually moves goalposts and brings up things that have nothing to do with the subject matter to derail or make false equivalences.

Graham: We have, according to the current “accepted” human society timeline, the world's first perfectly north-south aligned building, and astronomical referencing carved in stone.
Shermer: Maybe.
Graham: Maybe?? I'm citing the measurements of the site from the guy who discovered it!

This guy can't even look Graham in the eyes while he speaks. "Because ONE journal finally published ONE article about a fringe theory that disproves any mass attempt to keep alternative theories down." - This Guy

LORD GIVE ME PATIENCE. I jumped ahead to where Graham and Randall were talking, the midwit chimes in again, and says something so absolutely batshit insane that Joe Rogan breaks his usually neutral stance and calls him ridiculous.

Shermer literally compared someone painting on a wall to creating the largest megalithic astronomically aligned stonework site in the world. He claims the level of skill is comparable, and both are impressive. Granted, yes, painting with three-dimensional perspective is impressive. However, it’s nowhere near the cognitive and societal accomplishment of building something like Göbekli Tepe, and even inferring that is asinine at best and nefarious at worst.

The They’s of the world really don’t want the idea that “civilizations just as advanced as our current one were wiped out in a cataclysmic event” to take root. If we are at the pinnacle now, everything is justifiable. All fears of "going too far" and "shouldn't we be more careful?" go away. They get to say "We're the smartest, we know better, we’ve never had these opportunities before, we’ve never had better technology," and conduct whatever evil they want under the guise of progress. Additionally, ANYTHING that points to the Bible being true scares the shit outta these people. Gotta keep it "Haha silly retards think there's a magic man in the sky".

Shills: Plato was a great Historian, we base a lot of ancient history off of his completely provable claims.
Graham: What about him giving explicit and detailed historical account of what happened to Atlantis and its advanced civilization that he got from the Egyptians?
Shills: No no, Plato was clearly a lunatic about that one thing.

Shermer then weasels "There's Graham, he seems so reasonable-" home boy is literally insulting Graham Hancock to his face. Shermer then goes "Graham, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to sound like that" after Graham calls his insult out. Shermer then gives a non-apology in an absolutely sociopathic manner.

Every time Randall Carlson gets his turn to talk he just nukes Shermer’s arguments from orbit.

Ohhhh perfect example of more gaslighting. Joe calls a colleague of Shermer’s, guy named Marc Defant who has misrepresented Graham’s positions in the past to discredit him. They want to set the record straight and they get him on the video call line. Marc starts off with "Well I'm sorry if I disturbed and upset you," when Graham was neither disturbed nor upset, but that statement now tries to reshape the entire interview into "Graham is weak and his feelings are easily hurt". And then when Graham calls him out, he immediately gaslights again and infers that Graham refuting him was "wasting time", to which Joe chimes in immediately going "No no, we have plenty of time."

This is GOLD analysis on gaslighting!

Then when Joe refutes him, he tries to change the subject using weasel words like "Would you allow me to just address *change of subject*?" Then when Joe refutes THAT attempt, he shuts down and throws up his arms going "Well what was the question then?"

After doubling down on misrepresenting Graham’s arguments, it gets so bad that Shermer chimes in going “Marc, we actually did misrepresent him,” because even Shermer realizes how terrible this looks for the both of them.

At this point I stopped watching the interview, it was just too tedious to hear the continual “nuh-uh” level rebuttals to Graham and Randall’s rock-solid info. And for anyone wondering why I consistently malign, dismiss, and mock “academia”, this interview is the perfect demonstration.

While many people will defend the parties involved in this discussion because of the “rational and polite” way in which it was conducted, I say that’s BULL. When you have one party insulting and belittling the other consistently, to which one side has to continually defend not only their argument, but themselves, that’s not a rational or polite debate. It’s exhausting, tedious, and serves to give the illusion of “both sides having merit” to the passive listener.

Graham and Randall’s analyses speak for themselves, so the only argument that people like Shermer can heave at them is one that brings attention to other subjects and other people. They must tie one person’s reputation to another and discredit them both, because the analysis is solid.

Academia has rewarded this faux debate technique along with groupthink and consensus for so long that it has destroyed the very concept of critical thought. Consensus is the opposite of discovery and the antithesis of invention.

“The finest candlemakers would have never thought of the lightbulb. The advances can never be peer reviewed; they come from the fringe.” – Allan Savory, Ecologist

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