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Sunday, December 11, 2016

Marine Life Institute Flag - Finding Dory 2016

Computer generated images are verging on an ability to mimic reality.  In Disney's Finding Dory 2016, the flag of the Marine Life Institute can be seen during a sunset.  It is your standard seal on a blue bed sheet, or SOB flag as professional vexillologists would call it.  In the seal is a kelp bed.

The logo of the Marine Life Institute can be seen in the background on the truck.  Here the Nemo and his dad are frantically looking for Dory.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Officer and a Gentleman - US Flag 1982


Officer and a Gentleman 1982 successfully combined the romantic-military gung-ho patriotic movie.  The balance between career, job, love, and ego is a delicate balance.   The chase between a man and woman is an ancient game, a universal game that all living creatures must play.  The chase is usually overplayed with the ego card: WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME!?  But sometimes the better part of a person's soul can trump the ego and put things right.

Several flags naturally appear in this movie.  Quite frankly, it would be an impossible to make a military movie with out flags.  During one of the classic 1980s training montages, a group of flight officer candidates can be seen running by the group.  This group is more advanced and carries a yellow flag.



Lewis Gossett, Jr. stars as the hard nosed no nonsense drill instructor, getting these recruits in shape for their prestigious military jobs.  Here, he stands on stage ready for martial arts training.  Instead of the bad guy being some alien nation, the antagonist is also the protagonist.




The protagonist of the movie stands at attention in front of the US flag which is in front of the US Navy flag.  This is your classic punch the sky 1980s movie, abundant with grade A acting all around, form the main stars and every person in a supporting role. Officer and a Gentleman is a rich work of art for mature minds only.  Quotable, memorable, and honest.















Saturday, November 19, 2016

Green Day US Flag from American Idiot - 2004


Back in 2004 Green Day released American Idiot.  Before Obama, before Trump, Green Day rocked it loud and clear with this anti-establishment song.  In the background is a classic 48 starred American flag.

The lead singer  Billie Joe Armstrong can be seen here in front of the greenish Green Day US flag from their classic video.  In the video Green Day points out the mass media is agenda driven and out of control.
The stripes of the green Green Day flag are being washed away as the band plays on.  Green Day is the last of the great pre-millennial bands to make their mark on the system.  They advocated a change and put something smart and original on the nearly fully colonized space of rock music.








Sunday, October 30, 2016

Piggy Pennants and Vexilloids - Angry Birds 2016

The Piggies in Angry Birds 2016 use the livery of purple and green.  The charged icons are a fork and knife. Angry Birds 2016 is one of the few successful video-game movies ever made.  Nintendo, Konami, and Electronic Arts are sitting on several touchstone cultural gold mines, yet they let these fertile fields of joy and abundance go wasted.  This is partly due to the rift between the fan-base and cultural non-gamer business-class board of directors.  Finally, a Video Game movie done right.

Piggies at the stadiu, notice flags.  In the grand Piggy stadium flags are along the tops.

The staff of power, King Piggy, with crown.  The staff is in his right hand.  The finial has the lopsided piggy nose snort.


Angry Birds Cross Walk Flag - 2016 Movie


Angry Birds 2016 is perhaps the first authentically well adapted movie video-game to movie in the history of cinema.  Usually video-game movies are horrid and the executives involved have no bearing to the game play, an follow it in name only, marketed to general audiences.  As has been the case with Super Mario Brothers; perhaps in 20 years in the year 2036 we will get a good Attack of the Snapple Snapchat 2036?  

Of vexillological consequence is the crosswalk flag.  It has an orange field with two horizontal yellow stripes.  It was obviously hand stitched as you can see when our hero sticks his tongue out at a passerby.





 

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Island of Stability Flag Ship Cartoon


The island of stability was made popular by one of America's finest scientists, Glenn Seaborg, who got an element named after himself: Seaborgium, element 106. Glenn was also a crew member on the USS Scientific D. Rsc. team that discovered 10 new atoms on the periodic table. 

The cartoon above that shows the Ion Ships attempting to land on the "Island of Stability" are shown.  The mast flags give away the elements that are shown.  A Calcium-Ca Ion ship is closest to reaching the predicted island, likewise a Zinc-Zn ship is in second place.


The periodic table of atoms, or rather periodic table of elements, has reached a full definition and shape for every element has recieved an official name.



Cartoon Image Credit: Island of Stability: https://pls.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/research_and_development/nuclear_science/project_highlights/livermorium/e113_115/island3.jpg

Monday, October 3, 2016

Car Door Greek Flag from My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2002


In 2002 My Big Fat Greek Wedding made a comforting splash in America.  As with any ethnic group in the USA, many Greeks love to display their flag.  The design is fatefully similar to the US flag, having a canton on a field of stripes.  But the field of stripes are blue and white.  In the canton is a white cross. You can also see the US flag hanging properly near the front porch.

The heroine, Nia Vardalos, of the movie comes out of her shell and exposes some of the insecurities of growing up Greek in America.  America has base root love affair with Greece via the study of classics and college social societies.  And every classroom in America dedicates it's classroom time to the Ancient Greeks. The Ancient Irish, English, Scottish, Germans, French, Sub-Sahran Africans, and Native American civilizations hardly get a fraction of classroom time as compared to the Greeks.  Nonetheless Greek civilization is way cool, and remember to eat more Gyros.

Note Gyros are properly pronounced with a hard G as in Greek!  "Ghee-Row"  not "Jai-Row!"  Although "Jai-Row" rolls off the tongue easier.  Most Greeks don't seem to care, it's the non-Greek armchair experts who make an issue of Gyros, who probably don't even know the Greek, or Jreek, Alphabet.

Greece is at the cultural nexus of the Old Word mixed up with elements of Asian, African, and European culture.  Interestingly Greece has a small part of her national territory East of Asia and South of Africa.  Thus Greece is only European Nation that can see all sides of the Old World Rubric.  Greece can look Westward at the East, Eastward to Europe, South at Africa, and North to Africa. 

Like many Asian nations, the Greeks have their own private alphabet.  For example the hallmark of an Asian family group is to maintain a unique alphabet: Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Khmer, Sanskrit, Bengali, Nepalese, Mongolian, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Burmese, and Hebrew.  European nations have borrowed the Latin Alphabet or Cyrillic Alphabet.  There is no original English, German, Spanish, French, Romanian, or Scottish alphabet.  Imagine going to colleges in America and finding fraterneties and sororities with three letter Hangul, Katakana, Arabic, Hebrew, or Sanskrit letters?

In any case My Big Fat Greek-Uruguay Wedding 3- Greeks Down Under in America would be a classic culture clash fun filled original movie. Since Uriguay's flag is the Fraternal Twin of Greece: both flags have 9 horizontal stripes of counter point colours of blue and white; and cross points in the canton.