Episode V
May 2007 – Spring
Hello All;
Once more you come to me. Once again you ask that I may inform you about the world outside your basement walls. Here I am, as always, to regale you with tales of our world and society. Let me tell you a tale of high adventure….
Pretty cool, huh?
Let get this edition started, old school, yo. (Ah, that classic line.)
:[ Good ol’ item #1: Alec Baldwin, screaming, at his own child. Poor, poor Alec Baldwin, a divorced superstar father, too busy, so busy. He’s the victim here. Can’t you all see that? Someone leaked that message and now he’s humiliated. People tend to forget that, well, he was screaming at his own child.
Still, he screamed a threat to “straighten out” his own child. But, we all know that all fathers have absolutely no choice or control in how much time they spend with their children, that it is perfectly justifiable to call your 12 year old daughter and call her a Pig. And let us never forget he screamed at his child. Loudly. With threats. Calling her names. For not simply not answering her cell phone.
As much as I liked Alec Baldwin the Actor in such films as Glengarry Glen Ross and The Departed, Alec Baldwin the human being is really starting to piss me off.
:[ Seven Samurai DVD – Criterion 3 Disc Edition:
I revisited this classic film through the excellent Criterion Collection boxed set. I watched all the documentaries on the influence and making of the film and now this is solidly in my top ten favorite movies.
Everyone knows Kurosawa’s tale of seven ronin samurai hired to defend a farming village from an army of thirty bandits. But people never realize, nor did I until I saw the extras in this set, how big an impact it had on movies in general, more specifically, the samurai genre and the so-called chambra movie of Japan.
Three things I learned from this set was that the original ideal was to have six samurai instead of seven, but Kurosawa wanted a role for Toshiro Mifune. Also, that the story was to be a typical samurai film set in the court of a daiyamo, but after much research Kurosawa and his writing partners decided that samurai must have had a very boring court life and scrapped the idea. And that the impact of the movie was felt not only in Japan, shaking up old conventions of swordplay movies by balancing the action with a great story and memorable characters, but also around the world including the US.
Seven Samurai reminds me of why I want to make movies. I hope that you pick it up sometime and check it out. If you already haven’t.
:[ Bad Girls Club: How can these show continue to exist? All they are about is a bunch of talent-less women who are constantly rewarded for being mean, devious, and duplicitous.
I guess Stephen Colbert had it right when he mentioned that we got women thinking that stripping is a form of female empowerment. Yay, men!
:[ WYOMING OBSERVATIONS - The Riverton Connection to the VT Massacre
As I stated before, Riverton radio is weird. There is a certain Red State bent to the hourly news that is glaringly obvious but people tended to accept it as news.
One of the things that bugged me, and Chicago is terrible at this too, are news reporters placing very tenuous connections to major events, such as “Britain Rail Explosion, the Chicago Connection”. For Riverton, the connection was even more flimsy.
It seems a University of Wyoming student was almost there in the same building, in fact, the very classroom the VT Shooter attacked!
Except, that he would not be there UNTIL NEXT FALL! WHEN HE WOULD TRANFER THERE! GEEZ! And the local news runs a story about how he would be there next fall?
But now, here he is PERFECTLY SAFE! America, f*ck yeah! Thank God for collegiate bureaucracy! Or else Riverton, Wyoming would have nothing to report.
:[ The Thing DVD: I am not much into horror movies. The current resurgent in slasher flicks makes me nostalgic for when movies scared rather than shocked and titillated. This current crop of movies are not horror but shocker movies.
My mom loved scary movies. She watched everything from the best of the best, to the worst of the worst and she loved them all. I am more a fan of a good story or action. I like a very few horror movies, my favorite, mainly because it scares me the most, is “The Exorcist”; the idea that that could happen to a child had me praying everyday until high school.
Up there with it is John Carpenter’s The Thing.
I picked up this movie again from the library recently and was thrilled at how well it still stands in terms of creature effects, acting, creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia, isolation, and paranoia. Excellent movie in all regards.
This movie itself is a remake of the Howard Hughes produced movie “The Thing from Another World” with James Arness playing a limping carrot. Carpenter took his version back to its literary roots, based on the short story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, about a shape-shifting alien invading a remote Arctic outpost.
This movie scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid. It scared me for days on end when I thought about it, much like The Exorcist did. That is what makes it a great horror film to me. It also proved to me that Kurt Russell is a better actor than people gave him credit for.
And the Thing, my gosh, the THING! There has been no creature before or since that makes me cringe with every viewing, that scares me so thoroughly as the Thing of Carpenter’s movie. I was so scared I washed my hands constantly for weeks. It goes along way to show how well on-set practical creatures hold up.
Watching it again, I was reminded how good it still is in comparison to the current crop, and I am glad it found an audience long after its release in theaters and developed a cult following on home video. Much like almost every Kurt Russell/John Carpenter vehicle.
:[ Now, this current trend of remaking old horror movies is nothing more that altering horror movies into the shocker movies that the kids go for these days. It’s like when Streetfighter the video game was turned into Mortal Kombat. Same thing. Adding more shocks, blood, and sex, not because the audience has grown more sophisticated, but to bilk the money from the pockets of teens (Whom have more spending power than previous generations) with cheap, amusement park scares.
:[ The Great Immigration Issue hits the upper middle class!! With all the migrant workers, working here legally by the way, off in Mexico getting their work visas renewed, then working hard to get back into the US, many Lawn Care Businesses have been struggling to stay afloat. Especially, since a lot of these businesses are also migrant-owned.
But with all the workers off taking care of business it has become such a nightmare for their wealthy clientele that they are threatening to have to do the lawn work THEMSELVES!
Oh my God, Alec Baldwin the Victim and now this! What is America becoming!! Only a complete, total, unquestioned, and absolute victory in Iraq will solve all of America’s problems.
:[ Christmas in the Clouds: A review
I have to admit, I was charmed by this movie. It has everything Natives and Lovers-of-all-things-Native could want; two very attractive leads, a story of mistaken identity (Read: metaphor), a series of very odd coincidences, lots of subtle and not-so-subtle jokes on Native identity, and a twisty-type ending. Plus Sheila Tousey and Graham Greene in a role that seems to have been sliced in for his fans.
It was charming and different and the acting and situations were good enough to keep me interested. But what sold me was the humor of it all. Nice little movie.
:[ UPDATE: Three Kingdoms – After the death of Kongming and his literary rival Sima Yi, the book really slows down with the quick introductions and usurpations of kingdoms that I am hard pressed to keep track of the characters and my interest piqued in the quick and numerous battles. I can see why the abridged versions leave these out. I am still really interested in how the kingdom is finally united when at this point so late in the book, they appear more at odds than before. But I will press forward and finish it. If only so I can re-read it from the start once again.
Other Books I’ve read:
Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry - Great, strong female charachter. But why does she have to copulate so much? To let men off the hook and see her as weak in that regard.
Flight by Sherman Alexie (Jerk, stole all my good ideas! Touching. I’ll write a longer review later.)
:[ WYOMING OBSERVATION - Riverton’s Need for Moisture:
As stated before, Riverton has been hit by its first steady moisture in eight years. All the weather reports were on the story. Heavy snowfalls expected, drivers should watch for slick and deadly road conditions, but this front brings much-needed moisture to the region.
Yeah, to hell with the deadly crashes, we need the moisture!
:[ The Last Minute Item: I picked up a Boys and Girls Club pamphlet and saw a picture of Denzel Washington on the back cover. Mr. Washington has been a tireless advocate for the Boys and Girls Club of America for years. He is well known for it.
But on this back cover they had a quote from Mr. Washington. Of all the quotes they could have gotten from Mr. Washington, from his years of advocacy or even from one of his many great movies. The one quote to sum up all his years with the B&G from one of the great actors of our time. Great words to inspire us to support B&G. What do they chose?
“Where’s your card?” – Denzel Washington
As always, that will do it for now. Look for an update on my Presidential Campaign page very soon. I am serious about running for President. How serious? Just look at me, here’s my serious face. Also, that “Flight’ review as well. So, stay tuned to your favorite now-blog site!
Until next time, “Because it’s different from us, see. It’s from outer space!”
May 2007 – Spring
Hello All;
Once more you come to me. Once again you ask that I may inform you about the world outside your basement walls. Here I am, as always, to regale you with tales of our world and society. Let me tell you a tale of high adventure….
Pretty cool, huh?
Let get this edition started, old school, yo. (Ah, that classic line.)
:[ Good ol’ item #1: Alec Baldwin, screaming, at his own child. Poor, poor Alec Baldwin, a divorced superstar father, too busy, so busy. He’s the victim here. Can’t you all see that? Someone leaked that message and now he’s humiliated. People tend to forget that, well, he was screaming at his own child.
Still, he screamed a threat to “straighten out” his own child. But, we all know that all fathers have absolutely no choice or control in how much time they spend with their children, that it is perfectly justifiable to call your 12 year old daughter and call her a Pig. And let us never forget he screamed at his child. Loudly. With threats. Calling her names. For not simply not answering her cell phone.
As much as I liked Alec Baldwin the Actor in such films as Glengarry Glen Ross and The Departed, Alec Baldwin the human being is really starting to piss me off.
:[ Seven Samurai DVD – Criterion 3 Disc Edition:
I revisited this classic film through the excellent Criterion Collection boxed set. I watched all the documentaries on the influence and making of the film and now this is solidly in my top ten favorite movies.
Everyone knows Kurosawa’s tale of seven ronin samurai hired to defend a farming village from an army of thirty bandits. But people never realize, nor did I until I saw the extras in this set, how big an impact it had on movies in general, more specifically, the samurai genre and the so-called chambra movie of Japan.
Three things I learned from this set was that the original ideal was to have six samurai instead of seven, but Kurosawa wanted a role for Toshiro Mifune. Also, that the story was to be a typical samurai film set in the court of a daiyamo, but after much research Kurosawa and his writing partners decided that samurai must have had a very boring court life and scrapped the idea. And that the impact of the movie was felt not only in Japan, shaking up old conventions of swordplay movies by balancing the action with a great story and memorable characters, but also around the world including the US.
Seven Samurai reminds me of why I want to make movies. I hope that you pick it up sometime and check it out. If you already haven’t.
:[ Bad Girls Club: How can these show continue to exist? All they are about is a bunch of talent-less women who are constantly rewarded for being mean, devious, and duplicitous.
I guess Stephen Colbert had it right when he mentioned that we got women thinking that stripping is a form of female empowerment. Yay, men!
:[ WYOMING OBSERVATIONS - The Riverton Connection to the VT Massacre
As I stated before, Riverton radio is weird. There is a certain Red State bent to the hourly news that is glaringly obvious but people tended to accept it as news.
One of the things that bugged me, and Chicago is terrible at this too, are news reporters placing very tenuous connections to major events, such as “Britain Rail Explosion, the Chicago Connection”. For Riverton, the connection was even more flimsy.
It seems a University of Wyoming student was almost there in the same building, in fact, the very classroom the VT Shooter attacked!
Except, that he would not be there UNTIL NEXT FALL! WHEN HE WOULD TRANFER THERE! GEEZ! And the local news runs a story about how he would be there next fall?
But now, here he is PERFECTLY SAFE! America, f*ck yeah! Thank God for collegiate bureaucracy! Or else Riverton, Wyoming would have nothing to report.
:[ The Thing DVD: I am not much into horror movies. The current resurgent in slasher flicks makes me nostalgic for when movies scared rather than shocked and titillated. This current crop of movies are not horror but shocker movies.
My mom loved scary movies. She watched everything from the best of the best, to the worst of the worst and she loved them all. I am more a fan of a good story or action. I like a very few horror movies, my favorite, mainly because it scares me the most, is “The Exorcist”; the idea that that could happen to a child had me praying everyday until high school.
Up there with it is John Carpenter’s The Thing.
I picked up this movie again from the library recently and was thrilled at how well it still stands in terms of creature effects, acting, creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia, isolation, and paranoia. Excellent movie in all regards.
This movie itself is a remake of the Howard Hughes produced movie “The Thing from Another World” with James Arness playing a limping carrot. Carpenter took his version back to its literary roots, based on the short story “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, about a shape-shifting alien invading a remote Arctic outpost.
This movie scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid. It scared me for days on end when I thought about it, much like The Exorcist did. That is what makes it a great horror film to me. It also proved to me that Kurt Russell is a better actor than people gave him credit for.
And the Thing, my gosh, the THING! There has been no creature before or since that makes me cringe with every viewing, that scares me so thoroughly as the Thing of Carpenter’s movie. I was so scared I washed my hands constantly for weeks. It goes along way to show how well on-set practical creatures hold up.
Watching it again, I was reminded how good it still is in comparison to the current crop, and I am glad it found an audience long after its release in theaters and developed a cult following on home video. Much like almost every Kurt Russell/John Carpenter vehicle.
:[ Now, this current trend of remaking old horror movies is nothing more that altering horror movies into the shocker movies that the kids go for these days. It’s like when Streetfighter the video game was turned into Mortal Kombat. Same thing. Adding more shocks, blood, and sex, not because the audience has grown more sophisticated, but to bilk the money from the pockets of teens (Whom have more spending power than previous generations) with cheap, amusement park scares.
:[ The Great Immigration Issue hits the upper middle class!! With all the migrant workers, working here legally by the way, off in Mexico getting their work visas renewed, then working hard to get back into the US, many Lawn Care Businesses have been struggling to stay afloat. Especially, since a lot of these businesses are also migrant-owned.
But with all the workers off taking care of business it has become such a nightmare for their wealthy clientele that they are threatening to have to do the lawn work THEMSELVES!
Oh my God, Alec Baldwin the Victim and now this! What is America becoming!! Only a complete, total, unquestioned, and absolute victory in Iraq will solve all of America’s problems.
:[ Christmas in the Clouds: A review
I have to admit, I was charmed by this movie. It has everything Natives and Lovers-of-all-things-Native could want; two very attractive leads, a story of mistaken identity (Read: metaphor), a series of very odd coincidences, lots of subtle and not-so-subtle jokes on Native identity, and a twisty-type ending. Plus Sheila Tousey and Graham Greene in a role that seems to have been sliced in for his fans.
It was charming and different and the acting and situations were good enough to keep me interested. But what sold me was the humor of it all. Nice little movie.
:[ UPDATE: Three Kingdoms – After the death of Kongming and his literary rival Sima Yi, the book really slows down with the quick introductions and usurpations of kingdoms that I am hard pressed to keep track of the characters and my interest piqued in the quick and numerous battles. I can see why the abridged versions leave these out. I am still really interested in how the kingdom is finally united when at this point so late in the book, they appear more at odds than before. But I will press forward and finish it. If only so I can re-read it from the start once again.
Other Books I’ve read:
Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry - Great, strong female charachter. But why does she have to copulate so much? To let men off the hook and see her as weak in that regard.
Flight by Sherman Alexie (Jerk, stole all my good ideas! Touching. I’ll write a longer review later.)
:[ WYOMING OBSERVATION - Riverton’s Need for Moisture:
As stated before, Riverton has been hit by its first steady moisture in eight years. All the weather reports were on the story. Heavy snowfalls expected, drivers should watch for slick and deadly road conditions, but this front brings much-needed moisture to the region.
Yeah, to hell with the deadly crashes, we need the moisture!
:[ The Last Minute Item: I picked up a Boys and Girls Club pamphlet and saw a picture of Denzel Washington on the back cover. Mr. Washington has been a tireless advocate for the Boys and Girls Club of America for years. He is well known for it.
But on this back cover they had a quote from Mr. Washington. Of all the quotes they could have gotten from Mr. Washington, from his years of advocacy or even from one of his many great movies. The one quote to sum up all his years with the B&G from one of the great actors of our time. Great words to inspire us to support B&G. What do they chose?
“Where’s your card?” – Denzel Washington
As always, that will do it for now. Look for an update on my Presidential Campaign page very soon. I am serious about running for President. How serious? Just look at me, here’s my serious face. Also, that “Flight’ review as well. So, stay tuned to your favorite now-blog site!
Until next time, “Because it’s different from us, see. It’s from outer space!”
