Of course, there are going to be some who will say that time is going too fast already, but I digress... :-P
Much to my own surprise, I have to say this is a great trailer and it hints at what could end up being a fairly good movie. I'm going to always consider the original series featuring Robert Englund to be the definitive Elm Street canon, but Jackie Earle Haley is looking and sounding very good here as Freddy Krueger.
A Nightmare on Elm Street slashes its way into the waking world on April 30th, 2010.
Has archaeological evidence for the biblical account of Joseph been found? That's what the Middle East Media Research Institute is reporting in a translation from an Egyptian newspaper. Scholars sifting through countless artifacts stored at the Museum of Egypt are now saying that numerous "charms" are actually coins dating to the time Joseph was said to have been in the court of the Pharaoh chronicled in the Book of Genesis. One of the more intriguing discoveries were coins..."...that bore special markings identifying them as being from the era of Joseph. Among these, there was one coin that had an inscription on it, and an image of a cow symbolizing Pharaoh's dream about the seven fat cows and seven lean cows, and the seven green stalks of grain and seven dry stalks of grain."You know what would be really cool? If we found Egyptian coins from the same period depicting the face of Elvis!Some years ago a tomb was discovered dating back to the same supposed period, apparently of a high-ranking official: not only were there no remains but the name on the sarcophagus had been obliterated. Some have speculated that it might have been the tomb of Joseph and that when the Hebrews split the scene, the honked-off Egyptians did what they could to blast Joseph's name out of the history book... errr, scrolls.
(Yes Chuck, I wrote that just for you ;-)
Tonight on his What Does the Bible Say? show on WGSR, Johnny Robertson - the demented cult leader of the Martinsville Church of Christ - has thus far during the broadcast done nothing to discuss and expound upon his own beliefs.
Instead Robertson has chosen to... attack an eight year old little girl.
What the hell is wrong with this man?
"If the Chinese and Japanese stop buying our bonds, we could easily see [inflation] go to 15 to 20 percent," he said. "It's not a question of the economy. It's a question of who will lend us the money if they don't. Imagine us getting ourselves in a situation where we're totally dependent on those two countries. It's crazy."Mash down here for more observations from Mr. Robertson.(snip)
"We're in for some real rough sledding," he said. "I really do think the recession is at least temporarily over. But we haven't addressed so many of our problems and we are borrowing so much money that we can't possibly pay it back, unless the Chinese and Japanese buy our bonds."
I'm still wog-boggled about the idea of basing a national economy, even partially, on the selling of that country's debt.
How did that happen?
Nothing good can possibly come of it.
For a good while today many fans of the Gears of Wars video game series were taken aback by reports that Epic Games president Michael Capps had remarked at the Tokyo Game Show that the next installment in the series would have to wait for the next generation of consoles: putting it around 2011-2014. Which would be an awfully long wait.Happily, it seems that things are more positive regarding the further adventures of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad. Capps has since clarified his statements:
After the event, Capps told Eurogamer that if there is another Gears of War in the the next four to five years, it would appear on existing platforms. If it's based on the next Unreal Engine though, it'll have to be for next-gen hardware: "If we ship a game in the next few years, it'll be Unreal Engine 3. If we ship a game on next [generation] consoles, it will likely be Unreal Engine 4," he confirmed.That makes sense. I could see at least one and maybe even two more Gears of War coming out based on the existing Unreal Engine 3.
And speaking of Gears of War, if you've played Gears of War 2 then you must read Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant by Karen Traviss. It picks up moments after the events of the most recent game, and chronicles what happens to all those people who had to flee Jacinto before it was sunk to flood the Hollow and kill the Locusts. It also answers a lot of questions (like what happened to Dizzy, which can also be found in the Gears of War comic book series). As a hardcore Gears fan, I loved it :-)
Incidentally, she had been the longest-incarcerated female prisoner in California history.
My presentation, "The Dude Who Took Down Viacom: One Filmmaker's Story" was scheduled for 5:45 that afternoon at Artspace. About 15 people showed up to hear me discuss that very bizarre situation that happened two years ago between myself and Viacom. Just before I took to the "stage", SPARKcon's filmSPARK organizer Nene Kalu opened the show...
And then for the next hour or so I went into the tale about the run for Rockingham County Board of Education in 2006, that "Star Wars"-themed TV commercial that I made, how it went way out of control and wound up on VH1 and then the mess with Viacom after I put the clip of that on YouTube...
We had a question/answer session, and then things wrapped up around 7 o'clock. A few of us went to this restaurant down the street for dinner, and then checked out some of the SPARKcon fashion show...
And look! It's none other than fellow blogger Drew McOmber! He came to the presentation and we got to hang out for the rest of the evening at SPARKcon. This was the first time we had actually met in person. It's always awesome to hook up with friends from the 'net like that :-)
Yah, I know: I look horrible. Had been going on like 2 days without solid sleep prior to SPARKcon. Some friends are wondering if I've got Batman's metabolism :-P
Thanks to Nene Kalu and Kathy Justice and everyone at SPARKcon for a great time!
But watching this video shot at B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, New Jersey this past June, I'm reminded too much of young Russian children who got instilled with the belief that Josef Stalin was a god on Earth to be adored and worshiped. Or Kim Jung Il's cult of personality in North Korea...
And here are the lyrics...
Hmm, hmm, hmmAnd there are some other lines in this song too, about "Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!" and "For all your great accomplishments, we all do say "hooray!" and how Obama is "number one!"
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must all lend a hand
To make this Country strong againHmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal payHmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we all must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chanceHmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black, or white,
All are equal in his sightHmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
Yes, hmm, hmm, hmm
Barack Hussein Obama
But the one that bothers me most is "Red, yellow, black, or white, All are equal in his sight..." If you know anything about little kiddies' Bible school songs, then you'll recognize that whoever wrote this crap is definitely equating Obama with Jesus Christ.
I don't know how much plainer I can put it without going too far in violating the mores of polite society: this sort of insanity pisses me off! And I don't care who it is that little kids like these are being made to exalt. I didn't like how those Christian youths were whipped into a George W. Bush-worshiping frenzy in the Jesus Camp documentary (that's the second time I've mentioned that film on this blog in the past 24 hours) and I like it not more or less here either. But it certainly does seem like it's becoming an increasingly public occurrence to bestow upon Obama the quality of apotheosis.
This isn't a "Democrat" or "Republican" thing. This is about whether we will choose to be a people of free mind and good conscience.
"...but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."And anyone else can go pound sand.
Fourteen months ago Mark Millar began his "Old Man Logan" arc for Marvel Comics: the story of Wolverine, now some fifty years in the future, eking out a hardscrabble existence with his wife and children in the countryside of an America gone straight to hell. And in all that time Wolverine - now simply known as "Logan" - hasn't once popped his claws.And then the cataract-plagued Hawkeye approached Logan with a business proposition: one that the former X-Man couldn't turn down because he needed the rent money to pay off the inbred progeny of Bruce Banner. For the next several issues we watched Logan and Hawkeye tear across the remnants of the United States en route to New Babylon. And during the trip we finally learned what happened on the night the heroes fell, when Wolverine was brought down so hard that he forever forsook violence.
But it was all a setup. Hawkeye was killed by agents of the new President: the Red Skull. Logan wound up meting out a cold dish of revenge in the bowels of the White House, before donning Iron Man's old armor and flying back to California with a valise full of cash: more than enough to pay off the Hulk Gang.
And then Logan arrived home.... to find that his entire family had been killed by the Hulks. They "got bored", Logan's neighbor told him.
Do I even need to intimate what happened next, after Wolverine saw the battered bodies of his loved ones?
"SNIKT!"
Well friends, it has been a long wait indeed but "Old Man Logan" finally wraps up this week with the publication of Wolverine: Old Man Logan Giant-Size #1. All I will say about this issue is: get it! It's not terribly deep on character or plot compared to what has preceded it... but hey, we do see Wolverine, uncaged after a half-century of self-restraint, totally breaking bad on dozens of Hulks. It's a mean, ultra-violent sixty-four pages that will have you forgetting that the Comics Code Authority ever existed. But I also have to say that it ends better than I had expected (and I had come to expect plenty after how good the rest of this arc has been).
By all means buy it now on the stands. Or wait for the "Old Man Logan" trade paperback when it comes out in a few months. I'm not much of a regular comic book reader, but I must attest that "Old Man Logan" has been satisfying enough to warrant some bookshelf space. Absolutely to be recommended!
Rubies Costume Company might have crossed a terrible, terrible line with this Jabba the Hutt Inflatable Costume. For seventy bucks (plus shipping and handling) you can finally get to crash the party as Jabba Desilijic Tiure... known more infamously as galactic crime lord Jabba the Hutt!
(And I suppose Star Wars geeks with more imprurient tastes could also fulfill some unhealthily common fantasies by putting this on, then laying on a couch while their wife/girlfriend/female significant other is put on a leash and wearing the Secret Wishes Princess Leia Slave Costume... but we won't dwell on that.)
I'm seeing some very way wrong YouTube videos coming about because of this thing :-P
If you saw Star Trek over the summer then you'll remember that stunning shot of the Enterprise rising out of the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. Diamond Sky Productions has just posted two VERY high-res images from that scene: one of the Enterprise's engine nacelles breaking through the clouds and a second of the Enterprise emerged in all her glory. The image at right is just a small preview of the entire picture. I'd already had a pic of Enterprise with the shuttles arriving as my desktop wallpaper for the past few months, but I've already changed it to this one. Dunno how long these'll be up, so grab 'em while you can!
Even though I already own the Director's Cut (and have recommended it to everyone instead of the original that came out in theaters earlier this year) I am already lusting badly for Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut. /Film has the succulent details about the DVD and Blu-ray releases. Here's what you get on five discs for the DVD...
Remember: this is the cut that is going to incorporate the "Tales of the Black Freighter" animated material (which saw a separate DVD/Blu-ray release at the time the film premiered) within the Watchmen movie itself! I am very stoked about seeing how this is going to play out 'cuz if you've read the book you know how the comic book that young Bernard is reading parallels with the main story. The theatrical release was pretty faithful to the graphic novel (read my review here), the Director's Cut was even better (here's my take on that one) and the Ultimate Cut might be the best of the lot.Disc 1:
- Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Film
- Audio Commentary with Zack Snyder and Dave GibbonsDisc 2: Over 3 Hours of Special Features
- The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics
- Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes
- Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World
- Watchmen: Video Journals
- My Chemical Romance Desolation Row
- Under The Hood
- Story Within A Story: The Books of WatchmenDisc 3: Digital Copy of the Theatrical Version
Disc 4 and 5: Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics
This is going to be a fine addition to my humble DVD collection, right next to my Blade Runner 5-disc set (the one in the snazzy "briefcase" :-)
(And thanks to Phillip Arthur for the heads-up!)
The Nation's website has publishedan excerpt from Blumenthal's new book Republican Gommorah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party. The selection, titled "The Nightmare of Christianity", is about Matthew Murray, who shot and killed four people during attacks at a missionary training facility and then a church in Colorado two years ago. Murray may or may not have had severe problems already that should have been addressed. But to hear Blumenthal describe it, Matthew Murray's struggles were hopelessly complicated by his family's hyper-religious demands and expectations... until finally he snapped and took five lives, including his own.
Here's some of what Blumenthal writes...
But as soon as Murray enrolled at YWAM's training center in nearby Arvada in 2002, he found himself trapped in an authoritarian culture even more restrictive than home. He realized that, as another student of YWAM bluntly put it, the school's training methods resembled "cult mind-controlling techniques." Murray became paranoid, speaking aloud to voices only he could hear, according to a former roommate. He complained that six of his male peers had made a gay sex video and that others routinely abused drugs. Hypocrisy seemed to be all around him, or at least dark mirages of it. A week before Murray was scheduled to embark on his first mission, YWAM dismissed him from the program for unspecified "health reasons." "They admitted that I hadn't done anything wrong, just that they had prayed and felt I wasn't popular/'connected' and talkative enough," he recalled.There's a lot more in Blumenthal's extensive article about Murray and the kind of "Christianity" that he was forced to experience, including this song that students at a south Florida "Christian"-based charter school are made to learn:Two years later, Murray raged at two YWAM administrators during a Pentecostal conference his mother had dragged him to attend. The shocked staffers promptly warned Loretta Murray that her son "wasn't walking with the Lord and could be planning violence." Within days, an ornery local pastor was allowed to burst into the young Murray's room, rifle through his belongings, and leave with a satchel full of secular DVDs and CDs--apparent evidence of his depravity. Murray's mother searched his room for satanic material every day afterward for three months, stripping him of his privacy and whatever was left of his love for her. After the trauma-inducing raids, in which Murray estimated his mother and her friends destroyed $900 worth of his property, he concluded, "Christianity is one big lie."
Obedience is listening attentively,Sounds like something out of the Hitler Youth movement, don't it?
Obedience will take instructions joyfully,
Obedience heeds wishes of authorities,
Obedience will follow orders instantly.
For when I am busy at my work or play,
And someone calls my name, I'll answer right away!
I'll be ready with a smile to go the extra mile
As soon as I can say "Yes, sir!" "Yes ma am!"
Hup, two, three
I wouldn't be bringing this article to anyone's attention if I didn't think it merited some thought. Because I know it does. Matthew Murray obviously had issues that should have been given sincere treatment. But if Blumenthal's reporting is anywhere even remotely accurate, I have no doubt at all that the kind of "Christianity" inflicted upon Murray destroyed his spirit, his mind, and ultimately his life.
I have written about it before many times on this blog: that Christianity is not supposed to be about having power in this world at all. To follow Christ means a putting to death of the old nature with each new day... but because we desire to, not because we are made to. But that is precisely how too many alleged "Christian leaders" have gained and maintained power and control over others.
Don't believe me? Look at this pic that I snapped from the website of Bill Gothard, cited in Blumenthal's article as the one most responsible for the insane regimen that Matthew Murray's parents subjected him too...
They "formed an army" and started a "movement of power"?
How is that anything near to demonstrating the love and grace of Christ to others?!
To follow Christ is to be in this world, but not of this world. It means saving the lost from a dying world, not saving a dying world from the lost.
(And if you can suffer an hour or so of your own blood boiling, I would also recommend watching the documentary Jesus Camp: one of the most disturbing looks at American "Christianity" ever produced.)
When I read stories like that of Matthew Murray as Max Blumenthal is conveying it, I can't help but envision Jesus turning down Satan's offer to give Him all the power and authority over this world. Jesus rejected it... but a countless multitude of men and women instead began screaming "PICK ME! PICK ME!"
Neither can I but believe that Satan smiles and says "Of course I'll pick you. And you will be fine. After all, you are only doing what He should have done. I'll even let you do it for Him."
People like this are not trying to win America for Christ. They are trying to win America for their own "Christianity". For their own religion. But to sincerely follow Christ has never been about something so mere as "religion".
And in the end, Christianity of this sort can only hurt and destroy lives, not build them up. Matthew Murray was but an extreme example.
Am I making too much of this? Folks, I don't know if I could make nearly enough of it. So much grief could have been avoided, and still be avoided, had some among us professing Christ only taken the admonition of Proverbs 3:5 to heart...
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."
The city is choked by a cloud of "red dust" and haze that experts haven't seen before. Hit here for more amazing photos of this curious weather phenomenon in Syndey.
(Special thanks to Father Roderick Vonhogen for the eerie and stunning find!)
That's what GeekTyrant is wondering (and has Twitter-ed that sources are confirming). This does indeed appear to be Nicolas Cage in a costume test for the Superman movie that Tim Burton almost began production of in early 1998. That would make this photo around twelve years old... which jibes with Cage's current age.
And then there's this tidbit that also adds credence to it being real, from a very long article posted in 2005 about the INSANELY bizarre story of the Superman film franchise between Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987 and 2006's Superman Returns...
"Nicolas Cage, having been fighting tooth and nail against Burton and [Jon] Peters' vision of Superman (even though he'd been putting on a happy public face about working with them), angrily demanded that he be allowed to wear the classic Superman costume and fly. So WB relented much to Burton's dismay, ordering up a rubber Superman suit and flying FX tests. (A chintzy, Sam Jones-as-Flash Gordon-type Superman suit was dished up, but it went over like a lead balloon.) However, when Cage tried on the rubber suit, it looked stupid. And when they stuck a long-haired wig on him, it looked even worse."Some are saying this might be a Photoshop job. Personally, I think it fits well with the evidence.
So lemme ask you, Dear Reader, after you have finally stopped hysterically laughing: what do you think? :-)
But there was one piece on display that grabbed hold of my senses more than anything else, because I had never seen something like this before. It was a "painting" made by grinding on a sheet of stainless steel:
Now ain't that cool?!?
Well, it so happened that the artist responsible for this eye-arresting image was on the gallery's premises and at work in a small studio down the hall. Her name is Catherine Thornton, and I was most delighted to meet a lady blessed with not only artistic vision but original techniques and concepts. As it turns out she has done several works in stainless steel, using various grinders and sanders to etch patterns and shapes into metal as another artist might use a paintbrush on canvas. But as Thornton was sure to note, the advantage of her medium is that it will last indefinitely with no fading away of pigment or deterioration of the surface.
Truthfully folks, the photos that I shot do not do justice to Thornton's work. They have to be seen in person and up close to best appreciate. As one who works in metal also from time to time, I thought it was one of the most creative use of steel so far as artistic handiwork goes. If you possibly can, I would heartily recommend a visit to Artspace at 201 E. Davie Street in Raleigh to check it out for yourselves. And Catherine Thornton also maintains a website devoted to her work and artistic philosophy.
