Category: Entertainment Industry Thingies
When Good Movie Concepts go bad. Terminator 3
In some ways, I still believe there is no sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The action-packed, sci-fi sequel to James Cameron’s The Terminator.
What really bothers me, what explicitly, forcibly bothers me, is seeing some of Terminator 3 lately on HBO and learning the plot of the movie (along with the outcome)… In plot and scope – it’s a good sequel and could have been outstanding as a movie. In dialog? In direction? Horrendous, absolutely horrendous.
I don’t know if they were trying specifically to separate this Terminator machine film from the previous two models that visited the present-day (past to them) in the first movies but you could see Arnold Schwarzenegger was too stiff for his role (even though going stiff was part of the role). His deliveries are too quick and certain catch phrases from the series aren’t inserted when they actually need to be inserted (“Come with me if you want to live,” dense computer-like talk, and of course the killer –“I’ll be back.”). I think they’re as much a part of the franchise, as Arnold as a Terminator.
Ridiculousness kills this movie as well. What is the T-X? A woman liquid-metal model that can make complex machines as weapons? That’s lame.. . Why do I say that? Because Robert Patrick scared the shit out of me as the T-1000 that could run incredible speeds, overcome being shot by most weapons, and stab the shit out of whoever the intended target is. This Termistress just doesn’t do it for me. It’s an attempt to one-up the T-1000, sure, but it seems like a forced-and-limited-planned instance. Gender isn’t to be blamed, it’s the underlying aspects of the machine that just seem poorly planned.
Skynet not being a central computer but every computer connected to the Internet — that was a stroke of genius which gave a good premise for the film.. But it utterly fails with corniness and just sheer corruption from the other two movies. James Cameron is the master of the Terminator universe and this is sadly no James Cameron film.
Drove my Yeti to the Levy…
Matt over at Defective Yeti has yet another hilarious anecdote to share with the world as he talks about X2: E-Men United and he art of cinematic bladder control.
If I wasn’t fondly aware of moments like this at movie houses, I probably would just scoff and move on to something else on the web. However that wasn’t the case. Many people should know about this ridiculously-trying-to-outdo-your-bladder type events in cinema.
The last time I had a situation like the one Matt talks about on his site, I was watching Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Now, that film pales in comparison to X2 so more moments of escape happen during the film… But not knowing the time and knowing about an “incredible fight” between Count Dooku and Yoda… I tried to hold things as long as I could…
Oldsmar Florida gives Michael Moore a Standing Ovation
Fahrenheit 9-11 was a sold out this evening and my older brother attended the showing at AMC Woodlands Square this afternoon…
Now, this isn’t a first hand report, I’m relaying this story because I didn’t attend, but the movie had people in tears and roaring with laughter at other times… It also received a five minute standing ovation upon conclusion of the film.
AMC Woodlands Square 20 caters to a very large range of movie viewers due to it being one of the only movie theaters in North Pinellas County… I can’t say anything about who was in attendance, it it was a college crowd, minority crowd, a general mix of people of all age groups (which I would hope for) or a predominantly retiree crowd (which I would be shocked with — but North Pinellas County does have a large population of retirees here)… But it’s nice to know that liberal or not, people could appreciate the mixed emotions provoked by the movie.
Dr. Jack Ryan or Senator Jack Ryan?
Is this the Jack Ryan we all know? Is this the Jack Ryan we want to have represent our country?
Or is this guy more like it? Oh sure, Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin both played him in the movies (along with Harrison Ford) but that doesn’t make him a bad guy… does it?
Jack Ryan or Jack Ryan — you, Illinois residents, must decide…
(inspired by a post at Defective Yeti. Of course, this had been my thoughts when I hear “Jack Ryan” the last few days but I haven’t blogged it)
The "Lot" Beckons
The casting alone makes em want to catch the remake of Stephen King’s 2nd novel-come-movie, ‘Salems Lot
Rob Lowe playing Ben Meares — I can live with that. Donald Sutherland as Richard Straker? Exact casting that I imagined reading the book. Rutger Hauer as Barlow? Another dead-on casting! James Cromwell as Father Donald Callahan?! Another dead on casting! It’s incredible…
Of course, casting alone won’t make this a great movie – if Mikael Saloman can’t work with the images and provoke fear inside the viewer much like King can do with words and images — this will turn into another King-book-come-movie dud to follow dozens of King books that were turned into movies and fell flat.
Reviews on Google have been mixed while reviews on IMDB sound hopeful. We’ll see just how this turns out tomorrow night on TNT.
Flicking Netflix
As much as I Love movies and I love Netflix service, i had to cancel my account with them.
Why? Well, the fact of the matter is there are a lot of movies in there I am not interested in seeing — in my rental queue I mean. There are classics that I want to see (All the Presidents Men, for example) but there are also things that I just didn’t really care for (Whale Rider and some movies I have seen in the past). It just wasn’t worth 22 bucks a month any more because of how rarely I was renting flix. The last movie I held onto and enjoyed form them was Return of the King.
Don’t get me wrong – I believe Netflix has a ton to offer to anyone who loves movies…. I wouldn’t have seen Equilibrium and a lot of other great movies if it wasn’t for them…. However, at the same time — there might just be such a thing as too much of a good thing (can you believe that? :tongue)
"Song of" The Gunslinger…
Song of Susannah kicked ass.
In my review of the sixth part of the great sage and imminent wordslinger’s (Stephen King) magnum opus – The Dark Tower — I have to say that for the most part Song of Susannah made up for any and all problems that I had with his last entry to the series (Wolves of the Calla) and was probably the most constant and tension filled book in the series for me — probably a bit more than The Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands . Compared to Wolves which I fought at times to finish up, or Wizard and Glass which lost my interest because of how far off course the story ventured, this was an absolute pleasure to read.
“Dude, stop with the praise and give me an idea what happens already!”
OK, I don’t want to play the spoiler but of course in all reviews of anything (movies, books, TV shows) you get an idea of what is going to happen in a review…. In Song, the first gasp of the novel establishes the need for the ka-tet to be repaired… Beamquake. It gives a new idea of the sense of urgency of the mission to the Dark Tower (but of course gives no idea on what they need to do there). Eddie is in shambles because Susannah has gone through the Unfounded door, Father Callahan is going insane because he’s found out he is a character in a book, Jake Chambers is still pissed off at losing his best friend because of “Frank…..Fucking….Tarvery” and of course Roland is…. Roland. A bit rational even when there is pressure afoot.
Only taking place for a short time in the borderlands between Mid-World and Thunderclap, the story spends a good deal of time in New York City of 1999 and Maine of 1977. It puts some explanation of story flaws in past Dark Tower novels and it doesn’t exactly sink with the Stephen King side plot. That was my biggest beef with Wolves of the Calla — King writing himself into the books… But you know what? It works now. You see how it works. King had written in the past about what would happen if he met Roland in person and basically you get to see that for real in this story.
Something really bit at me though and it was something I don’t know if it’s real or not. It’s excerpts from King’s “Diary” between 1977 and 1999… I don’t know how much is fake and how much is real — but if there is reality to his wife telling him not to walk a certain route and the fact he predicted 6/19/1999 (O, Discordia!)… It’s just chilling to the bone. There’s no other way to put it.
Susannah gets a lot of pages in this book — and to some degree things did get boring with her dealings with Mia (the other inhabiting her body) and that might be the weakest part of the story… That or a rehash of the ending of The Waste Lands (and no, it ain’t Blaine the Mono) might piss some people off. But it’s not going to be years until we see the conclusion of the Dark Tower saga. Episode 7 — The Dark Tower — is due out later this year.
Long Days and Pleasant Nights to ya, I beg. Life for your crop and thankee-sai… Song of Susannah is a pleasure to read.
From the man who brought….
From the man who brought idiocy into style
…and I ain’t talkin’ about Mike Moore :wink
Got Type-casting?
So Brian Spilner… er, I mean Paul Walker is being courted to play Michael Knight or whoever the hero character ends up being in a Knight Rider movie…
As if they couldn’t do worse when it comes to finding someone to play the role.
Oh, I don’t mean to put down Paul Walker who I like regardless of the babble of a script that he was stuck with in 2 Fast 2 Furious, and the part he played in another mockery of another Crichton novel, Timeline. Regardless of all that, Paul Walker is the worst casting choice they could make for the movie — for both Walker and the Film itself for that matter.
As I started out this entry, Paul Walker is associated with Brian Spilner – the character he portrayed in the first two Fast and the Furious movies. Not only that, but Spilner’s character is supposed to be undercover law enforcement and a pretty good street racer (but he’s no Dominic Toretto – Vin Diesel’s character). Does he really want to be typecast into another Car flick? I mean, he was in a beat up car for most of Joyride” and the two Fast movies made big on the driving part…
And any role in Knight Rider would force him to further play the driver role. That being said, he’d be smart to turn the other cheek toward the project.
Now, whoever the hell is putting together the Knight Rider film does indeed want to cater a bit to the crowd of car fanatics that made the Fast movies big hits. They also want to distance themselves from the cheese of David Hasselhoff’s career. Fine, you can do that but dear god — if you want to imitate Fast and the Furious, don’t go so far as casting someone from those pictures to lead your film! You do not want Fast and the Furious fans coming into the theater expecting a third installment of the film series, only to find out that the flick is about a crime fighter and his talking, supped up car.
That being said, I still have hopes for a Knight Rider film, but they surely have to brain up unless this is going to be a spoof film all the way.
What is the Purpose?
“I know why you’re here, Neo. I know what you’ve been doing… why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night, you sit by your computer. You’re looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn’t really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It’s the question, Neo. It’s the question that drives us. It’s the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did. ”
“What is the Matrix?”
“The answer is out there, Neo, and it’s looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.”
Night after night? Check. Hardly sleeping? Sorta check… Living alone? No but feeling alone? Check….
Searching for Him? Who Him? It? Her? Possibly…
What is the Purpose is the question that I am asking… and I honestly don’t know.
Just when you thought it was safe….
Just when you didn’t run into Full House repeats every night….
Just when you weren’t coming across their cheesy movies on TV when channel surfing….
Get ready for Olsen Twins porn! Coming soon!
Eating my words…
Blah blah blah… 107 million dollar opening…. blah blah blah
Now if the movie continues to be a hit for a couple of weeks, then I will truly have put my foot in my mouth… I still think the flick looks dumb.
Was I right about Van Helsing?
Maybe it’ll be a popcorn flick that you can’t possibly believe but find entertaining none the less, sorta like The Mummy Returns…
But as it stands right now, I’m starting to feel I was right about Van Helsing with the thought it is going to tank. Or at least the reviews are starting to come in and no one is caring for it much besides Harry Knowles and the fan-boy Ain’t It Cool News crowd.
Yet I am sticking to my guns… More marketing than movie making. More play-toy designs than plot. More potential spin-offs than story. Marketing and the big studios is what kills film. You want a good monster movie? Go watch 28 Days Later which doesn’t use too much CGI to instill fear. If you want a good action/Sci Fi movie? Go watch Equilibrium which hasn’t gotten enough attention. Yes, both of those movies re-touch on subjects explored in other movies… But at least they aren’t films devoted to the almighty dollar and marketing before film-making and telling a story.
What is Real? "Linda" Washowski's gender isn't
I’m writing this post, not trying to slander the co-creator of The Matrix… I write it out fo shock from learning about it.
Larry Washowski… Half of the Directing and Creating team that brought you Assasins and The Matrix saga, is having a sex change operation. That’s right — Larry’s becoming Linda.
All I can say is that I am shocked… really… I mean…well, I haven’t ever really known anyone who wanted to make the gender switch. i still don’t but this is the most famous person I know who is going to go through with it…
Film Quirks
I emailed my older brother Mike the other night after I came across a piece of movie trivia on IMDB that caught my eye:
(From The Matrix Revolutions
All of the crew members of the Hammer (with the exception of Captain Roland) are named after firearms (i.e. Mauser, Colt, AK)
Now most people won’t understand the quirk but I immediately put two and two together on this and thought of The Dark Tower saga and Stephen King. Roland of Guilead is the last Gunslinger and he is normally associated with guns – hard calibers, so to speak. I just had to pass that along to someone as a possible Dark Tower reference.
Of course, Mike could give a shit but you still gotta love him – for some reason :tongue
I also told Mike (after his “I could care” reply to my note) that I have been noticing another quirk lately7y that has been driving me bonkers just because it’s so obvious and so veiled at the same time. I’ve been thinking of The Godfather when I watch First Wives Club on cable. Diane Keaton yells something about “Uncle Carmine” and there is this weird progression that ties that line into the Godfather and Keaton’s role in it. (“Uncle Carmine” is what Bruno Kirby calls Marlon Brando’s character in The Freshman,. His full name is Carmine Sabatini and the character is a caricature of Don Vito Corleone, the character Brando portrayed in the epic Godfather film).
I don’t know, stuff like that has stuck out a lot with me lately. Anyone else have things like that happen when watching movies? Seeing ties to other movies and such?
Repeat Offender
Odd I post this twice in a year.
This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend
The end –
Of our elaborate plans
The end –
Of everything that stands
The end –
No safety nor surprise
The end –
I’ll never look into your eyes again
Can you picture what will be,
So limitless and free?
Desperately in need
Of some stranger’s hand
In a desperate land?
—
This is the end my beautiful friend
This is the end my only friend
It hurts so much to set you free
But you’ll never follow me
The end –
Of laughter and soft lies
The end –
Of nights we tried to die
This is the End
— Taken from The End by James Douglas Morrison
© 1967 The Doors Music Company
Still appropriate a year later. The fact I’m not playing the crutch again signifies the relevance.
Brooding
I got to thinking about certain people and certain things tonight after my last post… mostly because I had the opportunity to think instead of post from my gut…
It would seem Kurt Cobain had a more serious situation with his girlfriend, Tracy Marander, than I’ve had with those I am thinking about… It is sorta reverse in fact… You see, Kurt needed to get a job in order to live with Tracy — or at least that is what she wanted. Kurt would rather live in his car than do that though.
Maybe I just feel taken advantage of and the fact that I only got to talk to someone when they were in need or down on their luck or in need of an ego fluff. At any rate, I can’t be there to get hurt again and again if I am going to be used without someone putting back what they take out… Sorta like someone living in an apartment for free who won’t chip in the rent fr the food or whatever…
About A Girl
(Cobain)
I need an easy friend
(I do) With an ear to lend
(I do) Think you fit this shoe
(I do) But you have a clue
I’ll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can’t see you every night (for) free
I do
I’m standing in your line
(I do) Hope you have the time
(I do) Pick a number to
(I do) Keep a date with you
I’ll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can’t see you every night (for) free
I do
I need an easy friend
(I do) With an ear to lend
(I do) Think you fit this shoe
(I do) But you have a clue
I’ll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can’t see you every night,
no I can’t see you every night…
For free
I do … (x4)
White Chicks
I started looking at my Summer Movie Preview edition of Entertainment Weekly (at newsstands everywhere starting today) and came across a picture I just couldn’t believe… I mean it REALLY had floored me…
On page 52 there is a preview for White Chicks and it’s Shawn “SW1” Waynes and Marlon Waynes done up as white girls… and the thing is — before I saw the trailer, I honestly couldn’t tell these were people in make up… let alone African-American…. Let alone the Waynes Brothers who I have known from various entertainment endeavors for close to 15 years now.
This isn’t the picture in the magazine (which takes place in a dance club) but it gives you a ghist of the two guys in drag… Quite a transformation, no? Not just gender but color too…
Serious Fare in the Funnies
I’ve been paying attention to the Comic Strips in the paper this week out of curiosity… I really didn’t expect there to be anything of note until I looked at Get Fuzzy (growing to be one of my favorites) and Doonesbury…
Get Fuzzy is running a series this week with regards to the main character’s (Rob Wilco) cousin coming home from Iraq — after losing a leg. Today’s post was the one that got me the most. Rob’s at the airport and he’s informed (or has been informed) that the plane doesn’t arrive until 2AM. “Shouldn’t these guys be getting back when people could welcome them home?”
Indeed.
So we actually turn down the amount of social / political issues for Doonesbury which is also an issue with one of the main characters. BD, who’s in Iraq, has been wounded…
Not so funny a time in the Funnies… but I guess this is also to make people more aware that this isn’t a military action of all glory going on in the Middle East.
"The Edge" of Sanity
I decided to spin some tunes and do some writing – which hasn’t come easy the last couple of weeks — today. After some audio bullshit and sound card problems I finally got everything running smooth and I had a re-awakening from a song I used to love in Middle and High School —
Aerosmith’s Living On The Edge
I had written a paper about it years ago for my English class (Ms. Manson always supported us being free spirited and such… And encouraged us with music, poetry, writing, etc) and had taken the song too seriously, in a way, when I stated that one message from the song that could be taken was that we are living on the edge of sanity and sobriety.
Anyone who sees the pop culture and news headlines knows this to be true, so that was one thing that is very true about the lyrics of the song.
But then there’s a refrain that comes up twice in the song that I never really put two and two together with, even though it should be obvious for everyone.
If Chicken Little tells you that the sky is fallin’
Even if it wasn’t would you still come crawling
Back again
I bet you would my friend
Again and Again and Again and Again and a-
“Crawling back again” was the line that first hit me for social reasons when I listened to the first instance of this in the song, but then it started weighing on me about Chickie Little and the Sky falling. It’s talking about those who are determined to say that things are all wrong with the world — they’re too this, too that. Too much pollution, too much taxes, too much drug use, too much sex, too much media, too little intelligence, we’ve strayed to far from the church, we’ve got too much greed, too little oil, too few resour—
Hold it right there.
Something actually happens to be right in the world and even when we throw out politics and politically correctness and religion up to our asses. Everyone on either side off an issue knows the issue is wrong because they are experts on the issue and don’t want you to see the truth if it doesn’t fit into their billing. I don’t want to bring up any of my own political beliefs with this because I believe the song right now more than I believe in politics. More than I believe in government. More than I believe in religion and more than I believe in people.
Livin’ On The Edge
Hudson, Tyler, Perry
There’s somethin’ wrong with the world today
I don’t know what it is
Something’s wrong with our eyes
We’re seein’ things in a different way
And God knows it ain’t his
It sure ain’t no surprise
Livin’ on the edge
Livin’ on the edge
Livin’ on the edge
Livin’ on the edge
There’s somethin’ wrong with the world today
The light bulb’s gettin dim
There’s meltdown in the sky
If you can judge a wise man
By the color of his skin
Then mister you’re a better man than I
Livin’ on the edge
(You can’t help yourself from fallin’)
Livin’ on the edge
(You can’t help yourself at all)
Livin’ on the edge
(You can’t stop yourself from fallin’)
Livin’ on the edge
Tell me what you think about your sit-u-a-tion
Complication – aggravation
Is getting to you
If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin’
Even if it wasn’t would you still come crawlin’
Back again
I bet you would my friend
Again & again & again & again & again
Tell me what you think about your sit-u-a-tion
Complication – aggravation
Is getting to you
If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin’
Even if it was would you still come crawlin’
Back again
I bet you would my friend
Again & again & again & again
Something right with the world today
And everybody knows it’s wrong
But we can tell ’em no or we could let it go
But I’d would rather be a hanging on
….
Livin’ on the edge
Livin’ on the edge
Livin’ on the edge
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Livin’ on the edge
{You can’t help yourself)
(You can’t help yourself)
Livin’ on the edge
(You can’t help yourself at all)
Livin’ on the edge
(You can’t help yourself)
(You can’t help yourself)
Livin’ on the edge
(You can’t help yourself)
(You can’t help yourself)
Livin’ on the edge
(You can’t help yourself from fallin’)
Livin’ on the edge
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, you got to that now
© 1992 Swag Song Music company
Observation of Beatles performance @ Shea Stadium — Kiss and Quiet!
I’m watching part 5 of the Beatles Anthology and they are performing Baby’s In Black… There has been a lot of talk about how many screams were happening at the concerts and how the concerts were being ruined by it – you couldn’t hear the performance.
Well, John and Paul are getting real close to the mic to sing this song and I can’t help but think if those two started making out, it would shut the crowd up instantly.
Just a thought…. However queer it may seem :p
The Artoo – Kenny Connection
I recently saw the original Star Wars Trilogy on film (pirated Version — Han Shoots First, bitch! 🙂 ) and was sorta’ sick because of how corny C3PO and R2-D2 were in the movies… But I can also remember how I was watching the movie and would see Artoo beep-blip-bloop and 3P0 seemingly translate what Artoo said into something rude (his responses told you this) and assumed Artoo was saying something dirty at the time.
I inserted lines of my own too in certain situations… Just for fun. It didn’t occur to me just who this reminded me of until tonight.
I get online and start reading the hilarious 64 Reasons to Hate Attack of the Clones and come across this gem at #25:
Bustin’ on Artoo
There’s this one scene where Padme and Anakin are walking on Naboo and she says she’s a little nervous and he confesses to also being nervous since this is his first assignment by himself. “Don’t worry,” Padme says. “We have Artoo with us.” Then they both laugh about how ridiculous a concept it is that Artoo could be at all useful. Artoo beeps and if Threepio were there to translate it would probably be something along the lines of “Fuck you both.”
The moment I read that, remembering the scene from the movie, I agreed with the above sentiment that Artoo would have been mouthing off here… Not only that, but R2-D2 has got to be what inspired Kenny McCormick of South Park.
Now, not to piss off South Park fans by suggesting this and knowing the full truth to who inspired Kenny, I just see the odd parallels between the two characters.
1) Unintelligible — Be it Artoo’s beeps or Kenny’s muffled statements, both characters almost speak a foreign dialect
2) Ability to piss people off — Be it Cartman or 3P0, Kenny and Artoo’s mouths
tend to have snide responses for others statements
3) Getting in trouble — Artoo gets hit in Star Wars and is severely damaged, Artoo falls in a Swamp and gets eaten in Empire Strike Back, Artoo falls into the Sand of the Dune Sea as well as getting shot during the Battle of Endor during Return of the Jedi… Kenny gets killed during every single fucking episode of South Park.
It’s uncanny, I tell you…
There are probably more similarities that I can’t think of right now, but I swear to you that Kenny and Artoo have to be related somehow with these odd coincidences… If not, Artoo had to inspire Kenny in a roundabout, fucked up kind of way…
Still searching for Tyler Crotty pictures?
I know some people are still looking for pictures of Tyler Crotty behind the president
Others are looking for full video clips — NerdySouth has what you want, NerdySouth has what you NEED…
And of course, here is our hero (he’s my hero because he can fall asleep during a Bush speech when I only get worked up by the bullshit being spewed) on the Late Show…
Kurt Cobain: 10 Years gone
Rest in peace, Kurt.
Dumb
I’m not like them
But I can pretend
The sun is gone
But I have a light
The day is done
But I’m having fun
I think I’m dumb
or maybe just happy
Think I’m just happy
my heart is broke
But I have some glue
help me inhale
And mend it with you
We’ll float around
And hang out on clouds
Then we’ll come down
And have a hangover… have a hangover
Skin the sun
Fall asleep
Wish away
The soul is cheap
Lesson learned
Wish me luck
Soothe the burn
Wake me up
I’m not like them
But I can pretend
The sun is gone
But I have a light
The day is done
But I’m having fun
I think I’m dumb
Letterman vs. CNN resolved — Tyler Crotty to appear on Late Show tonight
Well, CNN has apologized for denying what Letterman aired on TV the other night. Not only that but one of their anchors proposed she appear on Letterman as a “Stupid human trick” in the future :tongue
Personally I find this entire situation from a political standpoint, absurd but not unexpected.
The Letterman vs. CNN
I happened to catch Letterman last night, usually I hold out for Conan O”Brian or am busy surfing hte web and chatting when Letterman is on but last night I tuned into Letterman and what happened?
I caught the best opening of the show in years… Not that he’s had bad openings for a few years or something – it’s that it reminded me heavily of Dave’s first couple of years at CBS which I loved. Not only did it have the eccentric (Schick Quattro’s for the entire audience :tongue ) and Rumpert at the Hello Deli, but also the oddities and the warring-with-those-in power in the media. In this case, CNN:
CBS | Late Show with David Letterman : Wahoo Gazette
Last night we showed a clip of the President giving a speech. Behind him stood a lad who was obviously bored silly. The 14-year-old or so yawned, scratched, yawned, yawned, checked his watch, bent over, stared at the ceiling, and then fell asleep during the President’s speech. It was very funny. So funny, in fact, that CNN replayed the clip Tuesday during their broadcasts. But, but, but, the first time is was shown, CNN anchorwoman Daryn Kagan reported that the White House said the clip was a total fake, it was merely the Late Show having fun with their ability to edit and do TV tricks. Dave says what the CNN reporter said was an out and out 100% lie. A couple hours later, CNN anchor person Kyra Phillips reported that the kid was at the speech but not where the Late Show had him. Dave again makes the claim, “That’s an out and out absolute 100% lie. That kid was exactly where we said he was.” It’s true. The speech was at a Florida Rally on March 20th at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Dave is irked that the White House was trying to make him look like a jerk. But he’s glad he got his side of the story out in the open.
Now, I haven’t seen teh video in question and they didn’t replay it (which would have been nice) but it’s stuff like this that reminded me of Letterman making fun of a woman eating a peach at the US Open, or calling out the new President (or was it CEO?) of CBS…. Funny and ballsy — Old Skool Dave…
The Melody and the Music
Someone close to me once told me that a lot of the current music out there makes you want to get up and dance. They were obsessed with Lenny Kravitz at the time (and remembering a song from High School that Lenny was wailing at the time I broke in, I can understand why) and of course I get to deal with Michelle being a music junkie of a friend too but I just can’t grasp the music and these times.
Why?
I posted on here a couple of days ago the lyrics to God Only Knows by the Beach Boys. I also have been playing the MP3 repeatedly along with some other stuff by the Beach Boys… It’s a good compliment to the Beatles, I guess, seeing that the music is fine and the lyrics can be clearly heard. The melody carries and you get lost in the lyrics.
“An endless refrain of Na-Na-Na’s” is how I’ve described the Beatles (Hey, Jude) and to describe the Beach Boys, it would be something outside of that but the same emphasis on the melody to go along with the music (“Mmmbop-bop,” perchance? Sounds like I am talking about Hanson but I’m just trying to give you a clue that I am talking about some of the backing vocals on Good Vibrations). You hear the name and you start thinking of surf music and I hate that. But even THAT had an emphasis on the melody. The problem was that it was vanilla flavored music.
So I’m thinking a lot about what I like and then I am thinking about what I get to see from music today — I don’t see a lot of innovation, I don’t see a lot of melody. I see a lot of performing and I see a lot of jamming but to find a pop song that is by an original artist, has a good tune, a backing melody… It just seems like it’s not going to happen. That’s my ignorance being re-introduced to sound after years of silence. I won’t totally grasp everything I hear but I know I can enjoy some of it.
One thing I know I like is a clear and concise lyric to a song – and a lyric that isn’t covered with slang in order to add grit to the song. I was reading a thread on Skyscraperpage about favorite lyrics and some of the shit posted is…. well, shit! ” Nigga’ ” “Fuck” “Bitch” — they’re all key words in some of what’s popular with young people today and it’s like these kids never heard MUSIC before… I mean something that blows them away. Something where they can see a couple of layers of music in the music and enjoy the song for what it possesses…. The MELODY, not going-through-the-motions singing. Not a beat box driving a song.
I might be praising songs for being clear but it’s not like I respect the canned-singers that are all voice and nothing else. I’m not a fan of American Idol-like pop where you just sing and have someone else write lyrics for you and someone else perform the backing music for you. Part of the reason I have such an affinity for the Beatles is because they did everything on there own. Brian Wilson was and is one of the Beach Boys and did a hell of a lot on his own but also had help here and there… So they are in the same area. U2 does it on there own. Nirvana did it on there own… But then again, Nirvana played loud and hard. U2 has one clear vocalist…
Good music in general makes you want to get up and dance, get up and sing… SO most of my opinions are worth shit because I’ve had every single type of music want to make me sing and dance… But I know my oldies are easier to touch and appreciate because of there ingenuity and their inventiveness… You can’t find musical inventiveness like this any more and if you can, I haven’t been made aware of it.
Oldies stuck in my head
I have had two songs stuck in my head in recent days — well, more than in just recent days, they’ve been with me for years on and off at times and I couldn’t identify either of them. One was a Top-40 song that I had heard on the he radio in the early 1990’s and another is a song I cannot identify in anything more than where I heard the notes for the song…. Something from the 1980’s that features a piano or an xylophone or something that sounds like one at least…
Well, out of these two songs, I found one of them and dang it, I’m happy… Shanice,. “I Love Your Smile”
Van Helsing = Van Marketing
I haven’t been much of a fan of Universal the last few years. They’ve had some good movies but they tend to be a little, shall we say, over-occupied with franchise building… The same can be said with every major studio right now (Fox – X-Men, Warner Brothers – The Matrix, Sony – Spider-Man, New Line – Lord of the Rings… the list goes on for each studio too) but I feel like Universal tries a little too hard to get into the niche and — well? Overkill.
Van Helsing is a great example of trying-too-hard.
The movie hasn’t even come out yet (which features Universal giants/film character legends of horror in Dracula, Frankenstein, etc) and Universal has not only a sequel lined up but also spin offs and a TV Show… They are planing for Van Helsing to be huge when it is released and from some fanboy buzz I have seen on the web – it will be.
Maybe this is just me being cynical and wishing ill on something I am not very fond of? Last movie that I heard huge money rumblings about before the films ever were made as the “Lord of the Rings” films — and of course I love those now. Maybe Van Helsing is going to be able to do the same thing in the long run (Kate Beckinsdale doesn’t hurt either)?
But, then again? What if the overly-CGI and over-the-top action in the movie and a mixed up plot goes and leads the majority of Americans to stay away? “What happened?” will be what is uttered most on the Universal lot but the truth is we know just what happened — they gave in to marketing before they made a movie worth seeing.
Melody and Regret
A couple of days ago, I was flipping around the tube and came across a Beach Boys biopic I had originally seen when I was younger, called Summer Dreams, which I got lucky enough to turn on just as the British Invasion was beginning (1964).
I got to come across Brian Wilson’s anxiety and his musical genius that I had been aware of from quotes but hadn’t thought of much besides what I had heard and liked as a child — which is odd because some of the music is much more complex an innovative than the Beatles stuff and I had never given it a second thought (example: The introduction to California Girls).
I’ve had a song in my head since I watched the movie and I would love to be able to provide streaming audio of the music to share with everyone because of how beautiful the song can be — but alas, until I figure out how to do that, i can only share with you the lyrics. It’s a stirring and haunting melody with harmonies in multiple layers…. It was part of the Pet Sound album (which George Martin claimed, “If it wasn’t for Pet Sounds, there would be no Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band)…
Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is the song I haven’t been able to get out of my head — or stop pulling at my heart (as was the case with Dennis Wilson in Summer Dreams
God Only Knows
I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I’ll make you so sure about it
God only knows what I’d be without you
If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
If you should ever leave me
Well life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows
God only knows what I’d be without you
Painful to watch, pleasure to have seen
There was a movie I rented before I went in for surgery in August — and it’s also a movie I put off watching… And continued to put off watching after someone told me that they had seen it and it made a profound statement to them.
It’s not because the movie made a difference, it’s because other things and such. Pay no heed to my whining, lets go back to the movie that I am talking about, and that is Michael Moore’s Bowling For Columbine which just about everyone has seen or has heard of and has an opinion about.
Part of the reason I put off watching it was because I felt like shit at the time. Won’t go into the rest of it. Moore’s film brought up a statement or two that I totally agree with. One is a statement that a cartoon tried to underline and another is a statement that Marilyn Manson – Home I am no fan of – made to Moore. There were also plenty of other things (Matt Stone’s thoughts about high school – how I only came to realize that a year after I got out of High School… That’s just one example) but these two statements that were made were what sold the movie to me most.
The first statement I will re-convey is Manson’s statement that we are a nation driven by consumption and fear. Our fear drives our consumption and our consumption is what drives our fear. You see a nation that is over-weight and yet you see commercials telling you to drink beer to get laid. Cause – effect. You see commercials telling you how to act and how many teens and young adults are terrorized because they are not the actors with the polished skin in these commercials? How many are driven to buy products slung by these actors in commercials because they think it will help them fit in?
Goes for smoking too — Peer pressure? Sure… Image conscious is peer-pressure to another degree – the desire to fit in. To be cool. To be popular…
The second statement that made the largest effect on me was a statement Manson already made but a Cartoon illustrated best – we are a nation driven by fear. We’re afraid the big black man walking down the street is going to get us. We’re afraid that if we don’t stop the government from taking our money, they will just blow it on crack-whore welfare and pork barrels, we’re afraid that if we don’t bomb the living hell out of a country, they’ll bomb the living hell out of us. The fear drives us, the fear catapults us to acting without thinking, acting in retaliation before there is anything to retaliate about.
Are we a country with an inferiority complex or insecurity complex?
Bowling for Columbine doesn’t offer us solutions to our problems – it just look sat our problems… That itself might be part of the problem… If we have no framework of the alternative to what we know, there is no reason to look at an alternative. Of course, the alternative to owning a gun is to go with out – scratch one. Then there is the idea of having to have a license and knowledge of how to handle a fire arm to own one… The NRA would never go for that (even though the only thing it is doing is making sure gun owners are EDUCATED). Scratch two.
More of the same is the other alternative that comes to mind and hope society changes it’s ways. Ha! Like that will happen? Scratch three. :sad
Oh so patiently
Mr. Postman, look and see — a couple of packages, packages for me….
I got word Monday morning that my little bundle of joy is going to be returned to me this week. Yes after more than a month I will get my Playstation 2 back. *a warm and contented sigh is issued by John*.
Meanwhile, I also blew a wad of cash on 3 DVD’s — 3 special DVD’s because they are non Special Edition DVD’s. Yes they are PIRATED DVD’s but they are special none-the-less because HAN SHOOTS FIRST! What the hell am I talking about? The original Star Wars Trilogy on DVD which I bought off Ebay. Yes, the Special Edition/ official release of films will be on DVD this fall but I didn’t care for the Special Editions to begin with.
Han shoots first and no girlie screams when Luke and the Emperor fall to their respected dooms. *a warm and contented sigh is issued by John*
:smile
Where have you gone, "In Living Color" cult???
The ultimate skit comedy show that ever aired — outside of the opening seasons of Saturday Night Live — was Keenan Ivory Waynes groundbreaking and hilarious In Living Color which aired on Fox on Sunday if I do recall when it first started out. I was in 5th grade at the time and it was a show quickly banned in my home because of some mature comedy but damnit – the early stuff was classic!
The reason I am going off on In Living Color like this is because I started searching for episode transcripts and translations after thinking about the “Men On Film” segment and their reviews of films… (especially “A Few Good Men” ) I used Google and a bunch of times came up with nil. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Bupkus and such. The few sites that I did find were Jim Carrey shrines (that’s right, kids, Jim Carrey got his big break doing his crazy shit on television — though he had been in a couple of movies that didn’t take before his In Living Color role) or just filed with text tiles of the skits that aired in each episode… not the actual content of the episodes.
Homey the Clown is a cult hero and should be enshrined as so much on the Internet, which is a home to the tacky and humorous. Fire Marshall Bill should be compared and contrasted to George W. Bush (though I don’t think “Lemme…. show ya somethin’!” compares with certain Bushisms… Fire Marshall Bill’s saying was a lot more catchy :smile ) and of course– “Men On Film” and the cast of Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merriwether, should be displayed as the guys who started the Homosexual cultural revolution in America (ok, they were stereotypes and extremely effeminate and therefore actually impairing our perception of homosexuals as butts of jokes, but they were too damn funny to shun their… uh, preferences?). Lets give a giant two-snaps-up-and-booty-twirl to Men On Film! (which was re-spawned for one skit on Saturday Night Live as Chris Farley joined Damon Waynes Blaine Edwards and David Alan Grier made an impromptu appearance as Antoine Merriwether to resurrect the In Living Color — the only ILC skit to air on SNL).
Jamie Foxx, Shawn Waynes, Jim Carrey, Damon Waynes, Jennifer Lopez… This show really started these guys down the career path (yes, Damon was on SNL and had been in movies before this show. Yes Keenan had been a director before this show, yes J-Lo didn’t become a star until after this show, but the point is this show helped them all on their way). It’d due some respect… It’s a conspiracy, I tell you! C-O-N…. spiracy, my broth-a!
It’s time to embrace the kings of early 1990’s comedy. It’s time to embrace In Living Color… For you can do what you wanna’ do In Living Color. :biggrin
My Understanding of Truth… Ok, HIS Understanding of Truth
My Understanding Of Truth
By John M. Chambers*
“I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” – T.S. “BUTCH” ELIOT“My first thought was, he lied in every word.” – ROBERT “SUNDANCE” BROWNING
The gunslinger is the truth.
Roland is the truth.
The Prisoner is the truth.
The Lady of Shadows is the truth.
The Prisoner and the Lady are married. That is the truth.
The Waystation is the truth.
The Speaking Demon is the truth.
We went under the mountains and that is the truth.
There were monsters under the mountain. That is the truth.
One of them had an Amoco gas pump between his legs and was pretending it was his penis. That is the truth.
Roland let me die. That is the truth.
I still love him.
That is the truth.When is a door not a door? When it’s a jar, and that is the truth.
Blaine is the truth.
Blaine is the truth.
What has four wheels and flies? A garbage truck, and that is the truth.
Blaine is the truth.
You have to watch Blaine all the time, Blaine is a pain, and that is the truth.
I’m pretty sure that Blaine is dangerous, and that is the truth.
What is black and white and red all over? A blushing zebra, and that is the truth.
Blaine is the truth.
I want to go back and that is the truth.
I have to go back and that is the truth.
I’ll go crazy if I don’t go back and that is the truth.
I can’t go home again unless I find a stone a rose a door and that is the truth.
Choo-choo, and that is the truth.
Choo-choo. Choo-choo.
Choo-choo. Choo-choo. Choo-choo.
Choo-choo. Choo-choo. Choo-choo. Choo-choo.
I am afraid. That is the truth.
Choo-choo.
*from Stephen King’s “The Wastelands”, part of the Dark Tower saga
Choo Choo and all that jazz… Ya gotta love this 😀
I'm a real….
Nowhere Man
(Lennon/McCartney)
He’s a real nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
For nobody
Doesn’t have a point of view,
Knows not where he’s going to,
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere Man, please listen,
You don’t know what you’re missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command
He’s as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?
Doesn’t have a point of view,
Knows not where he’s going to,
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere Man, don’t worry,
Take your time, don’t hurry,
Leave it all till somebody else
Lend you a hand
He’s a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody
Backbeat
I used to own Backbeat back before I went to DVD in 1998. I started a VHS ban when I bought my DVD player in 1998 and that basically shut me out of watching my Backbeat video. Polygram Entertainment didn’t have the movie on DVD until just last year…
Well, I have it right now — rented it form Netflix.
I can go into detail about the synopsis of the film but that’s not exactly what I want to talk about. What I wanted to talk about because of a scene that just passed was John Lennon and how not only the movie portrayed him but how I know him from what I read… How different he is from myself but how much of the same he is too.
I’m into astrology a bit and I like Libras from what I have encountered. I know I can fight with Aries, I know I can have a good time with Gemini’s and Pisces’s, but it’s Libra’s that I can most identify with… I feel sort of a kinship with them even though we come from different backgrounds and different trains of thought in life – it all comes back to certain underlying personality traits to me.
John’s a Libra — Born 2 days after myself — well, but 39 years before me…
At any rate – there is a rage in Lennon in this portrayal by Ian Hart (who does an absolutely superb job. He looks like Lennon as a teen in the famous Wooten-Fete photograph) which coverts up known facts about Lennon – his insecurity, his troubled past. John’s father left him when he was young, his mother left him as well — dropping him with his Aunt Mimi.. She (John’s mother – who was immortalized in the Beatles song Julia) was later killed when she was hit by a car. John often covered this sense John’s anguish – his loneliness — is displayed well by Hart, especially in the face of the possibility of losing best friend Stuart Sutcliffe to a local girl (world famous photographer Astrid Kirchherr). The slow lose of Stu to love drives Lennon mad.
How many times have we all be jealous of losing someone to the world?
How many times have you been jealous having someone move on in life when you ant very much for them to stay?
I can identify with that quit ewell… But this isn’t the first movie that I could identify with one of the characters….
And to take John’s send off to Stuart and Astrid at the end of the movie:
Love me tender…. Love me sweet…. Never let me go…. Yiou’ve made my life complete, and I love you so…(followed by a “fuck it, lets go” )
Winter's Almost Over
For those of you who are suffering through the frigidness of the north… I post the following just as a reminder that there is a light at the end of the tunnel….
Here Comes The Sun
(George Harrison)
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it’s all right
Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it’s all right
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it’s all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it’s all right
It’s all right
© 1969 Northern Songs LTD / Apple Corp LTD.
Sorry, was listening to it and – damnit, I thought everyone should realize the end of this winter is upon you….
Rented Movie Reviews
So on this post bitter-singles day, I have for you a pair of films I have seen in the past 24 hours:
The Sum Of All Fears: Ben Affleck takes over the role of Jack Ryan from Harrison Ford with this prequel/sequel to the Jack Ryan movies. Personally I never cared for Ford in the role of Ryan, and The Hunt for Red October happens to be my favorite Clancy film (even with it’s cheesey special effects and it’s terrible mock ups of submarines). At any rate, this film moves a young version of Jack Ryan — CIA analyst — into the 21st century which sorta makes things weird. The Hunt for Red October was supposed to have happened around 1985… The other films in the series (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger – two titles, by the way, that George W. Bush has no comprehension of the meanings) I have no clue when they were supposed to have happened but they starred the elder Harrison Ford after Alec Baldwin launched the Jack Ryan series with Hunt
ok, enough of the explaining… what did I think of the film?
Well, not being someone who has read the book, I enjoyed Sum even though the plot was confusing at times. The film is basically a nuclear standoff between the US and Russia as Neo-Nazi terrorists attempt to start war between the two nations. I actually liked Ben Affleck playing Jack Ryan – a mix of every-man instead of super-hero from what Harrison Ford brought to the role. When one watched the original Jack Ryan film, Red October, you saw Jack didn’t want to be there when sent to do something because he was expendable (“Next time, Jack, just write a god damned memo.” ) An all star cast of James Cromwell, Morgan Freeman, Liev Schreiber and Bridget Moynahan — meow! — round out this film. Worth a viewing – even if it drags at points.
Intolerable Cruelty: You know, i didn’t have my hearing device on when I watched this film and I have a strange thing happen every time I watch a George Clooney film — I think of him as speaking in a southern drawl, much like he di din his role in O, Brother, Where art thou? . I guess it’s just his mannerisms — I just can’t believe he would straight talk through this role of Miles Massey when Miles Massey seems totally obsessed with his teeth and white smile.
The film premise is simple — it’s about divorce and Miles Massey is the best divorce lawyer around. Cathrine Zeta-Jones (meow!) is a man eater, looking to get hitched, get divorced and make a ton of money off it. Of course, these two collide and that’s the basis for the entire film. Sure we get lessons on love and such, with a few laughs in between… but I can’t help wondering how gay Miles Massey’s assistant, Wrigley, happens to be?
You have to wonder if someone writing a review, bringing that question up, actually enjoyed the movie? I did, I honestly did… but there was a little comfortableness about the movie. I usually get this with Coen Brother movies but it doesn’t mean there is anything bad with the film. This is worth a viewing and I won’t spoil it with any more talk. :grin
Anyway, I hope to publish my list of movies rented in the past year an a general thumbs up/thumbs down next to each movie. We’ll see what happens…
"Lost in" Understanding
Maybe it’s just me and I understand artsy-fartsy better than others?
Maybe it was because I wasn’t listening as-so-much reading the dialog, but I happened to enjoy Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation starring Bill Murray as an out of place American.
The entire premise of the movie is that – being out of place. Be it physical location, be it where you are in life or whatever – being out of place or not understanding your surroundings and trying to cope is what Lost In Translation basically amounts to.
Now, for those ho can deal with the artsy-fartsy, for those who can deal with less dialog and more imagery — this is a worthy movie for you. For those of you who can’t go on that, who can’t thrive on the social – it’s not a film for you. My father gave a firm thumbs down to the movie before even finishing it. Why? “Nothing Happens” was the excuse given. Indeed – nothing does happen. No slap-stick comedy, no bombs going off, no one liners, no thrills… It’s nothing you would expect Bill Murray to star in, nor is it something that you expect to headline the local multi-plex. It’s hard to understand if you are expecting a show that gets you interested right away with something happening or with a certain image – the image of Murray being driven to the hotel from the airport doesn’t exactly pull you in…. and obviously it didn’t pull my father in….
Lost is certainly Academy Award fodder and I have to hope both Sophia Coppola and Bill Murray can pull in awards for this… Of course, I am also pulling for a certain Hobbit-like director to take home a best-director Oscar, so it’ll be a very interesting finish to this award season.
GROUNDHOG DAY!!
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Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
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Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
Like it or not, this thing will just keep repeating and repeating and repeating until you get it right…
(if you weren’t aware, “get it right” was meant to mean mosey along in your web browsing……)
I continue to believe Editing is a lost art – "Jackie Brown"
Jeez… now I know why Jackie Brown tanked.
It’s playing on the DVD player right now and I can see for myself that there are two key problems with the movie: Editing and direction. Not that Tarantino did bad in directing it – he did bad steering the movie where it is supposed to go. Half of it feels like it’s trying to be another Reservoir Dogs and another Pulp Fiction – stylish, crude, violent… The crude term is what really takes over the movie…
Bobby DeNiro can’t save this movie playing a stoned ex-con, neither can Samuel L. Jackson who’s mouth is filthier than I have ever seen it before in his role as Ordell. Chris Tucker’s talent is all but wasted… Some humor wouldn’t have hurt this movie — it definitely needed a pick-me-up.
Less is more, moviemakers… You don’t have to show everyone the minute details to a seen — you can trim the fat and make a movie a load better…
Shaken (not stirred), rattled, and rolled by The 007 Band
“Simply Smashing! A sound introduction to action, espionage and the music scene!” — Spin Magazine
“In touch with their deft side…..a clever comeback for music….” — Entertainment Weekly
“Double-Oh-Wow!” — Rolling Stone
Ladies and Gentlemen — Introducing Swinging Sean Connery and his Double-Oh-Seven Band!
Author’s Note June 14, 2019: More than 15 years after this post was made, I updated it to include the actual image. The links — the lead in link and the one that you will find on the image – do not directly lead to the image. Worth1000.com merged with DesignCrowd.com and I could not find the original image post on their site. It may very well be there. All Credit goes to the original designer and the photoshop fun from days of yore at Worth 1000.
Wolves of the Calla review
I’m done with Wolves of the Calla for over a month, making reference to it before I went into the hospital and finalizing it the day I got out of the hospital… but I haven’t made mention of that once in this journal.
There, I just did… Once.. :tongue
The Dark Tower V starts with a section of the story that was already published online – an introduction to Calla Bryne Sturgis and their dillema with the Wolves… A band of rough-riders/brigands/harriers who steal children from the Calla once every genereation or so. We then have our hero’s — Roland of Gilead (whom the Dark Tower saga revolves around) and his band of Gunslingers — Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers and Oy…
And what commences is what seems to be author Stephen King’s literary version of a bridge that gets him back to writing the Dark Tower saga after years off.
What I am saying doesn’t exactly shed new light on the story. I could go into detail with each section of the story and give a general synopsis of what happens, but I won’t. I will say that though we are re-introduced to Father Callahan (who is a character in King’s vampire horror novel, ‘Salem’s Lot), I found some of Wolves of the Calla to be a let down… Specifically the end when not only does the climax come off anti-climatic (build up throughout the story and then — fizzle!), and some points that lead us on to the next chapter of The Dark Tower saga (episode VI, Song of Susannah, due out soon) don’t just put a damper on the story, but a damper on the entire Dark Tower saga.
Does that mean Wolves isn’t worth reading? Oh hell, it’s worth reading. Anyone who has gotten immersed into the Dark Tower saga knows that Wolves is a must read for the sake of one’s sanity… The problem is that Stephen King knows how big the Dark Tower is to himself and his fans, and seems to play up that fact and — as an end result – falls a bit flat with regards to telling the tale and furthering the tale.
The wheel of Ka will continue to revolve for me and drive me to finish the saga when the last two novels are published, but for all the build up, for all the intense wait, for all the long stories and tension that drives Wolves Of The Calla, I still feel let down by the end result of the tale.
One actor, two characters, and the Assasin versus the Desperado
I’ve been meaning to type up a few thoughts I have had since Christmas Eve but I hadn’t gotten around to it because I have been feeling… well, you know… Ugh.
Starz was recently airing over and over again one of the Wachowski brothers writing works – one that I happen to like even though Sly Stallone sorta dragged the movie down. The film? Assasins. With the repeated airing of the film, I got to view over and over again the character in the movie that I loved the most — Miguel Bain, played by Antonio Bandaras.
Seeing this film repeatedly got me thinking about Antonio’s other role that I happen to like — El Mariachi, the guitar-case weilding, gunslinging hero of Desperado and Once Upon A Time In Mexico. With the gunslinging, the two characters of Bain and El Mariachi are similiar, but that is about where it ends.
I love Miguel Bain as the cunning, ruthless, cold hearted, quipping assassin that is driven by his desire to be the #1 assassin on the market. What woudl Bain do if he was pitted against El Mariachi?
Personally, I think he would kick El Mariachi’s ass. Bain (come on, Antonio looked cooler with the perm as to the long black straight hair) might not have a full weapons arsenal in a carrying case with him, but he’s calculating enough and — well? Aware of history? Even if he is only using a sniper rifle or a silenced .22 Ruger, I’d put my money on him before the big, bad, Mexcican (El Mariachi)….
Alas, Bain is dead and El Mariachi is forced to live on through Robert Rodriguez home video (Once Upon A Time iN Mexico was described as such)… I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I would have loved to have seen more of Bain in cinema…
Yule Log — Happy Christmas (the War ain't over though)
Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
By John Ono Lennon
(Happy Christmas Kyoko
Happy Christmas Julian)
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let’s stop all the fight
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun
And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now
Happy Christmas
RIP Keiko / Willy
Keiko, star of ‘Free Willy’ movies, dies in Norway
Keiko, star of ‘Free Willy’ movies, dies in Norway
Sudden onset of pneumonia kills famous orca
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
Keiko, the killer whale made famous by the “Free Willy” movies, has died in Norwegian coastal waters where he remained after millions of dollars and a decade of work failed to coax him back to the open sea, his caretakers said early today.
The whale, which was 27, died yesterday afternoon after the sudden onset of pneumonia in the Taknes fjord. He was old for an orca in captivity, although wild adult orcas live an average of 35 years.
David Phillips, executive director of the San Francisco-based Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, said Keiko had been in good health but started showing signs of lethargy and loss of appetite on Thursday.
“This is a long, sad day for us,” Phillips said.
One of his handlers, Dale Richards, said Keiko died quickly. “We checked his respiration rate, and it was a little irregular … he wasn’t doing too well,” Richards told The Associated Press. “Early in the evening, he passed away.”
I was working for Weblink Communications in 1998 when the entire Keiko-to-freedom movement was really coming to a head and he was being moved to not only his new aquarium in the Pacific Northwest but then back to Iceland.
I can remember seeing the streaming video of Keiko (still in the Pacific Northwest) slamming his tail just before being lowered into his new aquarium where he was nursed back to health… There were thousands watching in person – children, Media, others – and they were all ecstatic to see Keiko reacting like this…
I continued following him in Iceland and his escapades there. Then Norway after last summer, when Keiko was “let loose” from his pen in Iceland and swam, on his own, to a fjord in Norway, back into captivity of sorts.
Keiko will always have my imagination and my hope — and though I don’t know when this re-introduction-to-the-wild will be tried again, I hope it does hapen. There are too many animals that live in squalor to entertain us that would be better off free.
More on Brandis
I’m sorta taken aback that my blog was getting any hits at all over my entry on Jonathan Brandis’ death which happened early in November. November 11th, actually. Brandis’ friend called from Jonathan’s apartment to report finding Jonathan attempting to hang himself (or having hung himself). Paramedics responded immediately but Jonathan died the next day.
This is still a shock to me.
I admittedly hated “Sidekicks” which was with Chuck Norris and Jonathan (but Ms. Winney Cooper from The Wonder Years was in it so that made the movie much much better), I liked Ladybugs (who DOESN’T like Rodney though?) and loathed The Neverending Story two (but that wasn’t Jonathan’s fault – terrible movie premise to begin with).
….I liked Seaquest when it started…..
I liked Jonathan – he was just cool in how he came off… I know I didn’t exactly throw a lot of love his way in my last post about him, also implied he was sort of faggy in his presentation…. but I eman… It still didn’t change THAT was the type of guy you wanted to be – this dirty blonde hunk that all the girls seemingly drooled over.
If there is any new insight on the Brandis death, I plan on reporting it here when I hear it…
Jonathan Brandis DOA
Is anyone aware that Jonathan Brandis died?
For the few out there that have no clue who he is at first mention of the name, he was one of the teenage heart-throbs of the early 1990’s. He was a guy who was coveted for TV and movie roles – a tee4n that was coveted for those roles at least – and he was someone who got the BOP covers and stuff like that.
Well, Jonathan is dead.
It came as a shock for me to see this bit of news. I had been wondering whatever happened to him and things like that – he had starred with Rodney Dangerfield in Ladybugs, had some NBC adventures in Seaquest DSV but basically disappeared once he reached that peculiar age of being a teen and a young adult. You know, sort of like Macaulay Culkin and how he disappeared for a bunch of years and stuff like that.
But Brandis, though I haven’t cared to look up details on anything about him since his Seaquest Days, was so down on life that he committed suicide or was believed to have committed suicide which ended his life the week before at the age of 27.
I don’t know why I get chills thinking about that, or why I am so disturbed by this, I guess it’s to see a part of my childhood end his life tragically like this, and with barely any acknowledgment that just…. bothers me. He was bigger than a brief mention in Entertainment Weekly, though he could be poster boy for queer from what anyone growing up around you would tell you… he just looked too pretty boy to believe… but he was the It boy and… Well, I salute him here — Rest in Peace Jonathan. You did have some fans out there and they will not forget you.
**UPDATE** 4-09-04
I’d like to point site visitors to http://jonathanbrandis.org/ I am not sure if they are officially tied to Brandis but it sure as hell looks official while my little rag tag blog has nothing to do with Jonathan besides being a fan who spoke out on Brandis’ death while the media overlooked it
