This past July I made a post about the just-then released trailer for V for Vendetta, hopefully conveying the impression of just how eagerly I'm awaiting this movie. If done right, V for Vendetta has the potential to upset a LOT of applecarts all over the place... which I think might be a good thing. A few days ago Harry Knowles from Ain't It Cool News had his annual "Butt-Numb-A-Thon" film festival and the audience he assembled got to be the very first people for whom V for Vendetta got screened. Their reaction? Here's what Harry had to say about it, and here's what another viewer thought about the movie. There's some pretty harsh language here (what you can usually expect from AICN) but these reviews really have me looking forward to V for Vendetta that much more. If you've never read the original Alan Moore graphic novel, do yourself a favor and stop by your local Borders or Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy and prepare for a treat. Here's hoping that the Wachowski Brothers really did nail everything in their movie like the early reports are saying they did.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
They should let Encyclopedia Brown run Wikipedia
You might have heard by now about the recent controversy surrounding Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anybody can edit at any time (here's a story at The Register about it, which Wikipedia users responded to less than an hour later by creating an entry for "moral responsibility"). In theory, Wikipedia is a good idea. It guarantees an ever-increasing body of knowledge to use as a reference. This past week I wound up making two edits - and substantially increasing one article - on the site. I've found myself using it on a regular basis... but only as an introduction to whatever I'm looking up info on. Because as this whole mess regarding John Seigenthaler has proven, there ultimately is no oversight at Wikipedia besides what the users provide. Maybe they should let Encyclopedia Brown run the Wikipedia website.
Needless to say, this just begs to be parodied somehow. It was from the article at The Register that I discovered the existence of Uncyclopedia, "the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit", currently boasting over 16,000 entries. I've spent a lot of this morning already giggling at some of the stuff posted here. Check out their entry on Wikipedia: "a tragic parody of Uncyclopedia, although Wikipedia claims the reverse." I might have to spend some time working on the entries on this now that I know about it :-)
Monday, December 12, 2005
Bush showing his ignorance. Again.
This time he's comparing the "leaders" of Iraq to the Founding Fathers of America. Which shows just how much this "president" appreciates or even really understands the history of the country he's supposed to be governing.
Show me where another country's military came into America to "liberate" her. Point out to me how we had to rely on anyone but ourselves to win our own independence. Oh sure, we had some foreign advisors like LaFayette that helped in the training of our soldiers, but we still kept it a clean fight. We made it stay our fight. The Iraqi people can't boast of that at all: they had an outside government - namely, our own - hand them their "freedom" on a silver platter. They didn't make this happen on their own. And within ten years of our leaving the place, they will have torn themselves to pieces because without having the self-discipline that comes with earning something for themselves, they will lack the wisdom for self-governance.
And then show me where among the Iraqi people is there to be found anyone of the caliber of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, or Thomas Paine. Show me where there is anyone like Winston Churchill or Lech Walesa or Mahatma Gandhi to be found coming out of Iraq? The only "statesmen" that have risen to the task in Iraq are the ones that politicians in Washington allowed to come to the fore. It can't be said that there are any self-made leaders arising from that land to serve her: there are only installed puppets put there to insure that Iraq becomes a vassal state to outside interests. Real "Iraqi independence" is not part of the long-term plan to these people: hence, no real Iraqi leaders rising of their own accord.
Someday, America will - I'm praying so anyway - turn away from the folly of electing very shallow people simply because a political party expects them to. We ourselves aren't even a truly free nation anymore, not when our sensibilities are directed by those with money and power and airtime... so what right do we have to give another people such "freedom"?
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Syriana review
Just came back from watching Syriana. This one is going to take a while for me to really wrap my brain around it: it's been a long time since I've seen a movie so complex, so multi-layered, so cerebral. It's directed by Stephen Gagan and I've heard some people compare it to his 2000 movie Traffic, but I haven't seen Traffic yet so I don't know how accurate that is. Might have to though after today, but not before probably watching Syriana again.The tagline for Syriana is "Everything is connected". I lost count on how many seemingly disparate storylines there are going on in Syriana: at least four, maybe even six of them. In the end, they all come together in cohesive focus on one of the most driving issues of the modern world: Middle-Eastern petro-economic politics. A tired long-time CIA operative, the shady merger of two American oil companies, a young energy analyst looking for profit, a Washington lawyer, unemployed Pakistani oil workers who come under the sway of a radical Islamic teacher, and the struggle between two princes over the dominion of a desert nation... these are what you're going to have to keep track of when you go in seeing this movie. It jumps all over the globe, from the streets of Tehran and the alleys of Beirut, to the upscale posh of Georgetown and rich lifestyle of Texas oil executives. This ain't a "date" movie by any stretch, or even anything fit for casual viewing. Go in to see it if you've seriously got time to ponder it through your gray matter afterward.
What's the meaning of Syriana? I think this is a thought-provoking - albeit fictionalized - tale of American policies among the mega-corporate and the foreign elite. I like to think that this country would not take some of the measures that it does in Syriana to guarantee maintaining the status quo... and yet I'm not all that really assured that our government would not engage in this sort of thing. I mean, we still don't even have a clearly defined end goal in Iraq - we never had that going in - other than being told that we could look forward to incredibly cheap oil after we took the place. In Syriana, as happens in the real world all too often, the value of human life plays distant second fiddle to financial and politicial convenience. It's like what Nasir says at one point: he's trying to bring freedom and an independent infrastructure to his country, but because he chooses not to deal with America he's branded a traitor and a communist sympathizer. Sounds way too much like how the current breed of war-hawks like to condemn those who are against the Iraq war as "un-American", "fifth-column", and too many other nasty things that need mentioning here... doesn't it?
If you're wondering what the word "Syriana" itself means: I've no idea. I thought going in that this would be the name of a fictional Mid-East oil-rich country. There is such a nation at the center of Syriana's plot, but its name is never given. I guess it could be a term for the entire Syria/Iran/Saudi region, but it's a new one on me if it is.
Syriana boasts a solid cast: lots of good faces you'll see here. I already knew that George Clooney and Matt Damon were in it, but I was a little surprised to also catch William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson and Christopher Plummer (even though their names are all over the poster, which only serves to let you know how often it is I actually look at stuff like that, doh!). Fans of the old Star Trek: Deep Space Nine will easily pick out Alexander Siddig as Prince Nasir. Jeffrey Wright is the lawyer caught in the middle of the oil companies merger. Amanda Peet plays the wife of Damon's hotshot oil analyst.
Even though I'm still trying to piece it all together in my mind, I'm glad I caught Syriana on its opening weekend (between this and The Chronicles of Narnia and my coverage of all things classic Kong I've done an awful lot of reviewing the past two days!). If you want something that'll make you actively work to think about it, you can't go wrong with Syriana. Just one bit of caution: the "George Clooney torture scene" is intensely stomach-turning, so don't feel ashamed if you have to cover your eyes.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Richard Pryor has died
Had a perfect day today, and I'm just now reading about this.
He had a Saturday morning TV show on CBS about twenty years ago called "Pryor's Place", that was pretty good. He's mostly remembered for the movies he made back then though, like The Toy and Brewster's Millions (let's just pretend that Superman III never happened, 'kay?). It's also worth noting that he was one of the writers on Blazing Saddles: Mel Brooks once said that everything that Mungo did was Pryor's handiwork.
Well, it's sad to see him go. He fought some serious demons in his life, but he also made us laugh a lot in the time that he was here.
Just saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
I'm going to yield to Lisa and the review she's writing, because she's the REAL Narnia nut in this family. But overall: I liked it for the most part. It didn't yield as much emotional "umph" as any of The Lord of the Rings movies did, and it's because of that I think the movie could have stood to be much longer. But otherwise, this first (I hope) Narnia movie was a darned good thing to catch, especially now during the Christmas season. I will say this about the movie: it has the coolest looking Santa Claus ever (and this one gives you nice toys like real swords and arrows). Will link to Lisa's review when it's up, and tomorrow I'm hoping to watch Syriana, so expect a review of that too.
KONG-SIZED REVIEW: King Kong DVD and Kong: King of Skull Island
Funny thing about A Christmas Carol: you never have to had ever read the book to understand the entire story. EVERYONE knows what A Christmas Carol is all about. But how many of us have actually taken the time to sit down with the original novel and enjoy it the way Charles Dickens wrote it in 1843? I finally did that when I was in college years ago: reading it in Dickens' prose, it was an entirely new experience from what I knew about the story from movies and television.
King Kong 2-disc Special Edition DVD review
Kong: King of Skull Island review
And so ends my major personal activity of the past week: going a little crazy for King Kong, trying to crank out a review that does both of these items their deserved justice. So if you want to get your paws on some good readin' and watchin' in the buildup to Peter Jackson's new King Kong movie this next week, do yourself a favor and get the 1933 King Kong 2-disc DVD set and the Kong: King of Skull Island novel. You'll positively go ape over them!
King Kong is a lot like A Christmas Carol: everyone knows its basic story, even if they've never seen Merian C. Cooper's 1933 classic. Just about any small child will tell you that Kong climbs the Empire State Building and fights airplanes and that there's a beautiful woman he's madly in love with. Those are some of the most iconic images in movie history. Yet how many people nowadays have allowed themselves the pleasure of watching the original film?
I first saw King Kong on the local PBS station one Friday night during my senior year of high school. All I'd known about it 'til that night were Kong and the Empire State Building, something about an island of natives and dinosaurs, and of course Fay Wray screaming like mad. If PBS hadn't shown it I've no idea when I would have watched it: in an age before Netflix, the local video stores only carried the 1976 remake. So I microwaved up some popcorn and settled in for the movie. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, especially given the time it was made in. Since that night I've come to believe that the original King Kong is the perfect marriage of good story and special effects. Look how well it holds up even today, when digital cinema has all but replaced stop-motion animation and clever camera tricks. It made such an impression on me that a little over a year later when Jurassic Park debuted, I found myself comparing that movie against King Kong. And between the two, there's no contest: Kong is still king.
Now you know that the original King Kong is one of my all-time favorite movies. Suffice it to say I was delighted when a packaged arrived from Amazon.com five days ago. In addition to a certain something being reserved for Christmas, there were two items that I couldn't wait to get my hands on: the newly-released and LONG-awaited DVD of King Kong, and the hardback edition of the sumptuously-illustrated novel Kong: King of Skull Island. Since arriving here Monday I've given myself a little extra time to enjoy both the DVD and book, exploring all the features and nuances in them, and basically letting myself get drawn again back to the world that I was first propelled into all those years ago. So while we're waiting to see what Peter Jackson has in store for us with his new take on the Kong myth this coming week, here's my double-barreled review of some stuff that's sure to appeal to any Kong enthusiast: the King Kong DVD and the Kong: King of Skull Island book.
King Kong 2-disc Special Edition DVD review
This just might have tied with the original Star Wars trilogy as the most hotly-demanded DVD for release since the format debuted about ten years ago. Well, a little over two weeks ago it finally came out and if Warner Bros. (which owns the rights to the classic from RKO Pictures) was using all this time to bring forth a DVD worthy of Kong, then it was time and effort very well spent: this is without a doubt the most majestic DVD ever to grace my shelf. Anyone looking to release a movie on DVD in the future would do well to study what went into this edition. Just as King Kong set the standard for all the special-effects movies that followed, this raises the bar on what should be expected of a DVD.
First there's Disc One, which contains the movie. You've never seen King Kong like this before, if the only thing you've got in your head is what Turner Classic Movies and the occasional PBS broadcast have given you over the past few decades.
Disc One also contains a collection of trailers for some of Merian C. Cooper's movies, including King Kong. But what is really going to appeal to fans of Kong – and just about every other special-effects movie ever made – is the option to watch King Kong with audio commentary from stop-motion living legend Ray Harryhausen (Mighty Joe Young, Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans just to name some of the movies he's done) and visual effects guru Ken Ralson (the Back to the Future trilogy, the first Star Wars movie, The Polar Express, dozens of others over the years). Interspersed between Harryhausen and Ralston talking about the work that went into King Kong are audio excerpts of Faye Wray and Merian C. Cooper. I'm a big fan of audio commentary – I've loved the ones on the recent Star Wars DVDs – but this one has really resonated with me a lot stronger than most. It's one that I won't mind coming back to again and again in years to come.
Disc Two is the biggest hoot of a supplementary disc I've yet seen. The first thing on it you MUST watch is I'm King Kong! The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper. I watched this documentary on Turner Classic Movies within this past month and it's great to have it included in the King Kong set. Narrated by Alec Baldwin (yeah I could say something about him but I won't, this is about King Kong), it's an hour-long examination of the action-packed life of the man who created King Kong. From aerial warfare pioneer (he was one of the first to forsee the power of aircraft in a military capacity) to World War I prisoner of war, to freedom fighter for Poland, to filmmaker in the most unrelenting places on Earth, and then on to create one of the most enduring legends of the silver screen, Cooper did it all and lived to tell the tale. Cooper would later go on to help plan air raid missions for the U.S. Army in World War II. In a lot of ways, I came away from this documentary seeing how the U.S. Air Force could owe much of its existence to the creator of King Kong... pretty cool, eh?
You'll want to give yourself the full two hours to enjoy the next offering on Disc Two: RKO Production 601: The Making of Kong, Eighth Wonder of the World. It's a seven-part documentary covering EVERYTHING you can imagine about the production of King Kong, and here again, no expense was spared. The daring life of Merian C. Cooper is once again explored, but we are also given an intimate look at everyone else who worked to bring Kong to life, like Ernest B. Schoedsack, who was partners with Cooper (and with whom shared an intense passion for adventure and filmmaking). Much of the story was credited to Edgar Wallace, and the screenplay was written by James Creelman and Ruth Rose (who accompanied Schoedsack and Cooper on many adventures as Schoedsack's wife!). One part of the documentary focuses on Kong's pioneering use of music and sound, owing to the efforts of composer Max Steiner and Murray Spivack (who shares much about Kong's production in interview segments made before his death in 1994). But for me, the most rewarding part of this documentary was seeing the attention given to the man who gave King Kong his life and soul: Willis H. O'Brien, the stop-motion animator who worked tirelessly to make people really believe that Kong was fighting all those dinosaurs, before wrecking havoc in Manhattan. Some of today's most well-known filmmakers and names in movies and special effects – including John Landis, Phil Tippett and Ben Burtt (the Star Wars sound effects wizard) weigh in during this documentary to talk about the effect that King Kong and its creators have had on movies in the seventy-plus years since its first release. That's one thing I found really sweet about this DVD: how many of today's artists pay homage – with a great deal of humbleness – to a lot of people who may not have gotten a lot of credit, until now. Just one more reason why this DVD works on so many levels.
But right now one name is sure to stand out to whoever watches this documentary: Peter Jackson, who's taken his passion for the original movie to daring new heights, not only with his remake (which is said to be intensely faithful to the spirit of the original) but also with some things that he's done outside of production of his own movie. One part of the documentary deals with the long-lost "spider-pit sequence", that was taken out by Cooper after it was shown to a test audience in 1933. Cooper removed it because he felt it was slowing down the movie, and because it reportedly was incredibly sickening to those in the audience. To date no complete cut of the sequence has been located: only a few photographs are proof of its existence. Well it wasn't enough that Peter Jackson finish his own King Kong: he jokes about having to finish the 1933 one also! So included on this disc is a special "re-creation" of the spider-pit scene that Jackson supervised, using many of the techniques that Cooper, Schoedsack and O'Brien used in 1932. There is a making-of that shows how Jackson and his crew at WETA Digital pulled it off. There is also a stop-motion animated sequence of Kong attacking a human that Jackson created, using an armature (the metal skeleton underneath) identical to the one used for the 1933 Kong model. Peter Jackson is all over Disc Two but instead of coming across as an advertisement for his own King Kong, Jackson seems to be all about paying tribute to the original. To me, it seemed like just one more reason to believe why Peter Jackson really is one of the most – if not THE most – down-to-earth filmmakers in the world today.
Stop-motion aficionados will also be interested to know that Disc Two contains footage from O'Brien's earlier effort Creation, with commentary by Ray Harryhausen. There is also a longer segment about Creation in the RKO Production 601 documentary, including its basic storyline.
The King Kong 2-disc Special Edition DVD is available by itself, or as part of a three-movie collection that in addition to King Kong also has the more "cuddly" follow-up Son of Kong and Cooper's later gorilla thriller Mighty Joe Young. Or, you can spend a few extra bucks and get the King Kong Collector's Edition, which has the 2-disc King Kong but also a 20-page reproduction of the original 1933 souvenir program, movie postcards and a few other goodies in a beautiful collector's tin. I might get this one later, if for no other reason than 'cuz I'm a Kong nut. But if you don't care either way whether or not you have the collector's set or a few extra movies, you still can't go wrong with getting the basic 2-disc set of King Kong. After just a few days this has already become one of my favorite DVDs sitting in our rack, and no matter how much I might well-up at Peter Jackson's take on it (I've heard it's a real tear-jerker) the original King Kong is a movie I'm looking forward to enjoying for myself, and with my future children in the many years to come.
Kong: King of Skull Island review
CARL DENHAM: Here's a long sandy peninsula. The only possible landing place is through this reef. The rest of the shore-line is sheer precipice, hundreds of feet high. And across the base of that peninsula, cutting it off from the rest of the island, is a wall.Ever since first hearing that exchange onboard the Venture in the original King Kong, I've been fascinated by it. It hinted at a lot of back-story that the movie didn't cover: you could say that King Kong introduced the broad strokes of the brush that George Lucas later used to paint his Star Wars saga with.CAPTAIN ENGLEHORN: A wall?
CARL DENHAM: Built so long ago that the people who live there now have slipped back, forgotten the high civilization that built it. But it's as strong today as it was centuries ago. The natives keep that wall in repair. They need it.
JACK DRISCOLL: Why?
CARL DENHAM: There's something on the other side - something they fear.
-- from King Kong, 1933
It wasn't just the tease about Skull Island either: there are TONS of questions raised by King Kong. Who built the wall, and why? And why the heck is there a gate built into the wall that's big enough for Kong to come through? What was that "high civilization" from which its descendants met with the crew of the Venture? How long had Skull Island been inhabited by humans? Whatever happened to the other young women who were sacrificed to Kong? How did Denham bring Kong into New York City without arousing curiosity or suspicion? What happened to Denham and Kong – and Ann Darrow and Jack Driscoll – after the New York City disaster?
And what about Kong himself: What was he? Where did he come from? How did he become the object of worship to the natives of Skull Island?
Right after watching the 1933 movie (but before I began going through the extra features, the audio commentary etc.) I started reading Kong: King of Skull Island, by Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland, with John Michlig. It'd been out awhile (I just noticed that according to its page on Amazon.com that my own review comes exactly a year since it was first published). But after hearing such good word about it for some months now I had to order it along with the King Kong DVD. And I'm glad that I got them both in one shot: this book is the perfect follow-up to – and prequel of – the original movie. It's made for the perfect King Kong experience this past week. I can't imagine going into seeing Peter Jackson's version now after having a better time than the past few days have given me.
I have to say this first: this book was unlike any that I'd read before. It's a real narrative novel, not a "graphic novel" at all (even though it's published by DH Press, an imprint of Dark Horse Comics). But I've never known a novel to be so richly illustrated as is Kong: King of Skull Island. Creator Joe Devito has liberally peppered the pages of his book with beautiful renditions of its characters, paintings of its action scenes, and depictions of Skull Island's unusual wildlife. Some are well-fitting to the accompanying prose. Others are extremely frightening (there is one picture, of something called "Gaw", that especially gives me shivers to look at). All are gorgeous to behold. It's also a huge book: it measures over 11 inches tall by almost 9 inches in width. At 164 pages it feels like it could be twice that length if its dimensions were those of a normal novel. But it also reads pretty fast: I started reading it Monday evening and finished it the following night after spending most of that day at my teaching job. All things considered, it's been awhile since I finished a novel feeling quite as satisfied as I did after reading the last page of Kong: King of Skull Island. For any fan of the 1933 movie, this book is certain to give a Kong-sized amount of pleasure.
And for the Kong purists out there who are wondering about this book’s canonicity, be of good cheer: Kong: King of Skull Island was written with the blessing of the family of Merian C. Cooper. It has received praise from many – including Ray Bradbury – as being a worthy sequel of the original movie. Forget that Son of Kong happened: herein now lies the true story of what happened after beauty killed the beast...
It is 1957: a quarter-century since King Kong went on his rampage through New York City that ended atop the Empire State Building. Within hours of Kong's crash to the ground his body – and Carl Denham – mysteriously vanished. By the late Fifties the Kong incident has been relegated to the status of urban folklore: most people don't even believe that it really happened. The few photographs still existing show an indefinable black mass. In short, there is no physical evidence that Kong really existed, and what memories people had of the event were soon diluted amid the struggles of the Great Depression and the looming threat of war.
Anthropologist Vincent Denham, who was ten years old when his father Carl Denham brought Kong to America, is now searching for answers to the questions he's long had about his long-lost father and his prize capture. A discovery made among his father's personal effects prompts Vincent to approach Jack Driscoll – a little older but on the eve of being a grandfather no less rugged than he was in 1932 – about mounting an expedition to Skull Island. Soon after their ship negotiates the reef guarding the island's peninsula, Vincent is thrown overboard during an attack by the island's vicious wildlife. He makes his way to the beach, is rescued by natives, and comes to be tended to by the mysterious Storyteller. It is she who begins to tell Vincent the tale of Kublai and Ishara: two young lovers who find themselves caught in a power struggle between the island’s two rival factions. What happens to them and the other players that are found on – or make their way to – Skull Island ultimately converge on the central element of this entire story: the magnificent beast-god called Kong.
For anyone worrying that Kong had a miraculous resurrection a'la 1986's disastrous King Kong Lives, you needn't fear: the great ape did indeed die from his fall. But even though he is departed from this world, Kong remains the focus of the tale that began in the movie and continues now in Kong: King of Skull Island. He becomes the device through which is explored not only the wide vista of Skull Island, but the very souls of those entwined in the tale. And it does so with great loyalty to the spirit of the original movie. It also satisfies very well after watching the movie: By the end of the novel, there aren't any questions left from the film that are left unanswered. Everything is accounted for, and given a very believable rationale (yes, including the Kong-sized gate in the wall). If I were to give you two words that describe what happens in this novel, one of them would be "revelation".
The other word would have to be "redemption". On so many levels, this is a story about making an accounting of for past sins... but through forgiveness, not vindictiveness. I'm reminded a lot about the story of Joseph in the Bible: something that started out so horribly wrong ultimately made way for a great good to be done. In fact, this book reads almost like a Christian fantasy/action-adventure saga, with its multiple references to God and how He made His creation, while bringing up the issue of where man's role in all of this is. It’s not a "religious" novel at all, and it's not on a level equal to C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, but it's nice to see a spiritual component in a story – especially a story so rich with metaphor as Kong's is – that is woefully absent in a lot of modern fiction.
To sum up: this is a book that you can assuredly leave and feel that the time reading it was time well spent. I can't think of anything else comparable to it that might bring the same kind of satisfaction for the hardcore Kong fan. Kong: King of Skull Island is available in hardcover, and in a softcover trade paperback edition. If at all possible, go for the hardcover: it's the kind of book that deserves its space on the shelf along with the very best classics in your collection.
And so ends my major personal activity of the past week: going a little crazy for King Kong, trying to crank out a review that does both of these items their deserved justice. So if you want to get your paws on some good readin' and watchin' in the buildup to Peter Jackson's new King Kong movie this next week, do yourself a favor and get the 1933 King Kong 2-disc DVD set and the Kong: King of Skull Island novel. You'll positively go ape over them!
Thursday, December 08, 2005
25 years ago today...
...John Lennon was shot outside his apartment building in New York City.
I remember my Dad telling me about it the next morning after I woke up. I had no idea who Lennon was at the time: at six years old I'd heard of the Beatles but had no idea who made up the band. So I wasn't old enough to know that Lennon was a very famous guy... but I do remember the incredible outpouring of grief that followed.
Anyway, since today it's been a quarter-century since his death, I felt led to make a note about it here. He was a great musician (even though right now I'm hearing "Happy Christmas (War is Over)" about ten times a day now and am coming to grow really tired of it) and if he'd lived a longer life, we would have seen a lot of amazing work come from him, I've come to think.
Didn't the Nazis say the same thing when they forced Jews into the Warsaw ghetto?
The mayor of Riviera Beach in Florida is justifying his abuse of the new eminent domain powers that the Supreme Court gave governments by claiming that he's doing this to "rescue and save" the people who are already living in the areas that he wants to clear out, so that hotels and restaurants can be built there instead. "The America we want to live in is one that talks about personal sacrifices that you and that your colleagues talk about every night," Mayor Michael Brown told Sean Hannity earlier this week.
I said this last week, and I'll say it again: our soldiers in Iraq are dying for no reason at all if their purpose for being there is to protect American freedom. Because there is no more freedom in America, not really. When government can take away something that you own, just to give it to someone else that it favors, there no longer exists any basis for personal rights at all. This mayor sounds like someone out of the Soviet Union, or Nazi Germany, to be believing the kinds of things he's saying here.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
He's the King of the world: New Kong may sink Titanic
This goes hand-in-hand (or should I say hand-in-paw?) with something that I'll be posting, hopefully by tomorrow. Let's just say that Yours Truly has gone more than a little ape over the past day or two. But in the meantime, Drudge Report is saying today that some Hollywood suits are predicting that Peter Jackson's King Kong might break the all-time records for top-grossing movie set by Titanic when it came out in December of '97. "Grown men around me were crying," one insider said: "Yes, I think this will do Titanic numbers. It is going to be a huge movie."
I've been thinking that for about a week now too, wondering if King Kong may surprise everyone the way Titanic did. I remember a lot of people were saying back in '96-'97 that Titanic was going to be a disaster, and look how that turned out: about as perfect a movie as you can get. Well, I'm hoping that King Kong does climb to the top of the heap, and I'll tell ya why: I want to see James Cameron continue the tradition of sending a congratulatory card that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas started. Maybe on his it'll have Kong standing at the bow of the H.M.S. Titanic holding Ann Darrow with her arms spread out a'la DiCaprio and Winslett: He'll be the NEW king of the world!! Peter Jackson's earned that kind of honor, don't ya think? :-)
Okay, back to work. Expect more monkeyshines on this blog later.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Power-mad Xbox 360
CNET.com's Will Greenwald is reporting that the Xbox 360 is a severe hog for electrical power, requiring more than twice the juice that the original needed. There's some neat stats in his post that might interest you.
10 Marines die a meaningless death in Fallujah
10 Marines killed and 11 more injured from a roadside bomb in Fallujah, the Marine Corps just announced.
They died for nothing. Ten years from now it's going to be apparent to everybody that more than two thousand - at last count - American servicemen and women perished for no reason at all. Somebody is probably going to blast back at me for saying that, with the usual "They volunteered!" or "They are defending our freedoms!" or the standard canned answer. Someone is likely to say that I'm "a bitter person" for even saying all of this.
Yeah, I am bitter. Bitter at the old men - the chief among whom never saw real military service to begin with - who send young men to die for their own flights of fantasy. And yeah, those young Americans did volunteer: to do professionally what every American is supposed to be doing anyway, namely upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States of America. They did not volunteer to be pawns and cannon fodder for the twisted games of damaged little madmen. And despite word to the contrary, they are not over there "defending our freedom". For one thing, we don't have that much freedom over here left to begin with (hell, even blogs like this one are now being threatened by Congress). For another, they are NOT being used in a way that defends our freedom and sovereignty here. I could think of any number of ways that they could be doing that: putting them on our border with Mexico would be the biggest among them.
Iraq is a doomed country, no matter what the pundits are saying. It only even really stayed one united country because the government or dictator that was running the place at any given time used military force to keep everyone in line. Without someone like Saddam Hussein threatening everybody to keep the peace, Iraq will go the way of Yugoslavia: another country that was cobbled together from several other nations and cultures. That's not a defense of Saddam by any stretch, just a statement of historical evidence. In fact, I would say that if you want a clear picture of what we have in store for us in a post-Saddam Iraq, study what happened in Yugoslavia after Tito died. Then you'll understand why imposing a democracy in Iraq is going to ultimately fail miserably. Any "good news" coming out of Iraq right now is not much more than a panacea. The only way the place is going to maintain even a semblance of order is if another strong military presence is occupying the country. And that's the United States. We have become like Tito and Saddam, and if we pull out - either now or later - the resulting chaos is going to be on our own heads. It would have been a far better thing if we had not gotten involved at all, and let the Iraqi people solve their own problem, as best as they can, without any outside intervention.
But, we're stuck with it. And there's only going to be more meaningless deaths like these to report. Not out of some "grim satisfaction" no matter what the warhawks might say, but out of horrid loathing as to what's happening to our own. America wasn't intended to be an empire... so why are we wasting lives trying to be one now?
The Nature Boy gets busted
The Smoking Gun has the mugshot photo of pro-wrestling legend "Nature Boy" Ric Flair after he surrendered to the police stemming from his allegedly assaulting a motorist in Charlotte. Chad and I were talking about this the other day and he posits the following observation...
Saw that in the Charlotte paper. His quote in the Charlotte Observer was, "As usual, I will be exonerated." Which begs the question, how often does the "Nature Boy" get charged if it's "usual" for him to beOn a somewhat related aside, after almost twenty years of hearing it boasted about from Flair but never understanding the context, it was only two days ago that it occurred to me just what it was he was referring to whenever he mentioned "Space Mountain". Sheesh... and in front of all those kiddies too! Anyway if you want to know more about the Nature Boy there's a pretty colorful article about him at Wikipedia that includes some classic photos of him.
exonerated?
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Giving them the monkey business
KongisKing.net this evening is making note of a new Flash site guaranteed to make you chuckle. Head over to Kong Kicks Ass and unleash the king of Skull Island on Tom Cruise, George W. Bush, and even yourself. Be warned though: the content is more or less really PG-13 in tone. But if you don't mind that, this is great for a few laughs.
30,000!!!
Break out the dancing chimps: sometime in the past few minutes this blog had its 30,000th visitor since I first installed the counter almost two years ago. Can't believe I've had so many hits in that time. Just a few months ago it was somewhere in the 15,000 range, and now we're all the way to 30,000! To whoever was visitor #30,000, thank you... along with everyone else who's been a faithful visitor or otherwise stumbled onto my humble blog :-)
So Bush is saying that the U.S. won't "run" from Iraq...
...which is kinda funny because Bush has done nothing but run from everything else - especially responsibility - his entire life.
What he really means is that he won't run away from sending more American lives to die needlessly, while he stays in absolute safety and comfort over here. For him to move away from that would constitute "running" in his mind.
See, this is why this blog and those of other independent-minded writers are so important: we're keeping things in their proper perspective, so that future generations won't be convinced that EVERYONE in this era only believed what their politicians told them to think.
Best Buy's dirty tricks latest in Xbox 360 rollout mess
I won't buy top-of-the-line new tech right out the gate for one good reason: the stuff is rarely anywhere near 100% reliable. Better to wait a year or two and let everyone else "beta test" it so the wrinkles get worked out. Well, that reason and because it'll cost a lot less if you wait for it too. Besides, we got an Xbox last year for Christmas, and I haven't yet run out of thrills with that trusty black box. Our Xbox isn't going to be moving over for a successor for a long time to come.
But I can't disparage those that do go gunning for the newest tech first. Seeing the pics of Bill Gates handing out the first Xbox 360 to a customer last week, I couldn't help but smile at seeing how giddy that game player looked to have his grubby lil' paws on one of the coveted systems. That kind of enthusiasm has been dampered in the week since though, first by reports that a lot of Xbox 360 systems have been crashing (seems to have something to do with the power supply overheating, so maybe that's somethinge readily fixable). Then came reports of 360s selling in the thousands of dollars on eBay - I saw one system going for $10,000 - because of the severe shortage of the system (but the good news is that more Xbox 360s are on the way so you may have a good chance yet of landing one for Christmas). Now comes this: word that several Best Buy stores wouldn't let anyone buy an Xbox 360 without first forking over money for extra hardware and accessories... like, a lot of money. From the Inquirer:
BEST BUY HAS ADMITTED some of its employees stepped over the mark when it launched the Xbox 360.Y'know, part of the fun in trying to find something like an Xbox 360 is the hunt itself. And when you find one there should be a sense of accomplishment... but only when everything has been fair and equitable across the board. Best Buy was exceedingly dishonest in following this policy. They ruined the fun for a lot of people as a result. I don't know if I'll ever buy an Xbox 360 but after hearing about this I can assure you: it won't come from Best Buy.
People who queued up in the Pacific Northwest lined up for hours in the cold to get one, clutching adverts promising list price, got a rude surprise.Most of the people who queued up went away empty handed, because the advertised list price was not what they actually had in stock.
Best Buy would not sell them for the advertised price, but only with a bundle that just about doubled the cost. Games, controllers, cables, and other high margin knick-knacks so if you didn't pay $800 you couldn't get an Xbox 360...
An internal Best Buy memorandum seen by the INQUIRER and sent on Tuesday 11/15/2005 at 8:02am to several mailing lists at Best Buy, mostly managers in the Pacific Northwest, instructed stores on what was to be done.
The mail was sent a week before the launch date, and before the ads hit the press.
The memo contained five 'quick notes' and a shorter note at the end.
"We will be selling our units in packages," the memo said. "Each store should hold back three to four units of each model for those customers who put up an argument about being able to only buy the unit. Everything else will be sold in bundles. This keeps us in alignment with everyone's expectations."
Sales managers, the memo continued, would be in charge of the 360 launch and stores should use the "very best" sales people for the launch. It said that stores' future allocations depended on attachment sales "so you need to get it right or you will pay for it in December when new allocations of product are distributed". Best Buy was advertising a nine AM opening time on the 22nd and stores had to stick to that time. Best Buy had such low quantities that it needed to be careful with the advertising. The memo said that if stores opened early and sold all their units before that time, it could be in trouble for false advertising.
Sales people were told to sell up around the Xbox 360 using the "halo effect". Customers wanting 360s would also need HD TVs, and surround systems. It concluded: "Folks, it's like milk and cookies"...
