Happy Hogmanay! This is Edinburgh, of course, the fireworks up north are a lot better ! *cough*.
!SR

Foreword to reviewed films

I quite often like having a little peek at the Four Word Film Review Site to alleviate the boredom of reading much lengthier reviews. http://www.fwfr.com/

I seem to remember a similar site regarding books and will look it up for a future blog.

In the meantime these quotes:

Truth! Justice! Weight Watchers?

Elastic wife. Secret life

Bird, plane- Pixar!

give you some idea. They are from reviews of the new Pixar film the Incredibles.


!SR

Rugby is game played by men with oddly shaped ..

When I was studying in Ireland, I took up rugby. As my first season wore on, the boys and I were eventually scheduled to play a team that had a reputation for violent play. Considering that we weren't the most talented outfit to have ever taken the field, we took on the challenge with a "do or die" attitude, hoping things would swing our way. They didn't, and to make matters worse, our star player, Alan, dislocated his hip after a ferocious tackle. We all stood back to watch the medic who, in one swift movement, popped the hip back into its socket. Then Alan let out a blood-curdling scream. To our horror, we realized that one of his testicles had been jammed into the socket, and was now firmly held in place by the hip. Incidentally, Alan ripped a vocal cord with his screaming.
P. Oulet, Roanoke, VA

from http://www.fhmus.com/reporter/truestory/

OMIGOD that's gotta hurt.


!SR

Listening Post

Top Five Toons 4 2day:

1. Os Mutantes - Panis Et Circenses

2. Belle and Sebastian - Step Into My Office Baby

3. Talvin Singh - OK

4. RL Burnside feat Lyrics Born - Someday Baby

5. Brian Eno - Music for Airports


!SR

Slacker backer

Saw a documentary abour Richard Linklater on Channel 4 this week. It reminded me of how much I like the film "Slacker".

I first saw it about a decade ago, given a copy by one of my art college friends.

I marvelled as I watched the strange structure unfold, and the great characters and weird stories.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002DB4ZK/102-3853251-3590511?v=glance

For a list of other slacker movies try

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/7601/list.html




!SR
(" I should have stayed at the bus station! ")

Linked from http://exclamationmark.typepad.com/blog/

to Atlas Comics 12 Dumbest Comic Book Covers at

http://web2.chicagonet.net/~atlas/cover3.htm

!SR

Professional Fossil Dealers Web Ring

http://www.fossildealers.com/webring.html

Umm, yes .. really!

!SR

Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky

I haven't heard thisone for a while, but it bears re-printing:

It seems when Apollo Mission Astronaut, Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, he not only gave his famous "One Small Step for [a] Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind" statement, but followed it by several remarks - -- usual comm traffic between him, the other astronauts and Mission Control.

Before he reentered the lander, he made the enigmatic remark "Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky". Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut; however, upon checking, they discovered no Gorsky in either the Russian or American Space Programs.

Over the years many people have questioned him as to what the "Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky" statement meant. A few months ago, (July 05, Tampa Bay, FL) during a Q&A session following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26 year old question to Armstrong. He finally responded.

It seems that Mr. Gorsky had finally died and so Neil Armstrong felt he could answer the question.

When he was a kid, he was playing baseball with his brother in the backyard. His brother hit a fly ball which landed in front of his neighbor's bedroom window. His neighbors were Mr. & Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball he heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky: "Oral sex, oral sex you want? You'll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!!"

http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~walther/fun/stories.html

This is one of those modern day myths, check out the Apollo 11 Journal at

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.step.html

but then what the hell do they know? ;)

!SR

Mosaic Lizard at Guell Park copied from aviewoncities.com
!SR

The long goodbye

<>

!SR

Caetano Veloso (London London)
!SR

Avoiding death by Megadeath

September 25, 1983, is a date that could have been burned into the history books forever. On that day, against overwhelming odds, a Soviet military officer averted a worldwide nuclear war. What almost happened would have dwarfed into near obscurity any wars or terrorist attacks or natural disasters in memory.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2003/9/prweb81112.php

!SR

Toilet humour

Restaurant
Houston, Texas USA 77025
Men's restroom, 1^st floor

On the floor:

look to the right!

To the right:

look to the left!

to the left:

look up!

On the celing:

damn your an idiot!!

From http://www.thewritingsonthestall.com/men/

Some days you get the feeling you've forgotten something...
!SR

Mmmmm.. Michelle Hicks
!SR

Watching me watching you

The Mirror Project is a growing community of like-minded individuals who have photographed themselves in all manner of reflective surfaces.

http://www.mirrorproject.com/


!SR

It was a textual relationship (1)

After she left we kept in touch mainly by text messaging, e-mail, and one phone call. But mainly text messaging. She gave me such a laugh, and I hope her too. One Sunday we texted each other odd Country and Western Song titles, e.g. "I've put my beer in the boot of my car and I'm driving myself to drink", "I missed you... but my aim is getting better", etc, etc. She was into Alt-Country so she had a better range of songs to draw on.

I enjoyed getting text messages while at work too. I stick music on my PC. One day I texted her that I was listening to Perry Farrell cover the Doors track "Children of the Night" when I got a text from her. She was into the Doors (and would quite happily have been a groupie for the cover band I think). She texted me back saying that she was humming a Janes Addiction track when she was typing the text. Shit like that happens around me the whole time. When I meet someone else that's on the same wavelength I really dig it.

A lassie at work heard my mobile phone go. She said that I probably liked a "textual relationship" because I didn't have to deal with people in "real" life. Looking back, maybe she was right.


!SR

I have just finished reading Asbury's "Gangs of New York". Having watched the film some time ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book bore no relation to the film.

I was slightly skeptical about some of the content in the book, and that he would describe every gang as being the most evilest, worst gang, ever, ever to walk the streets of New York, which got a little tiring as the book went on. Also some of the stories about the criminals were taken from the police officers or criminals own recollections about what happened, and this always leads to "hyping up" or distortion of events.

Because I didn't take on board all that Asbury wrote, it kind of felt like the book was somewhere in the middle of a work of fiction and fact. But it was still a damn good read.

Politcal corruption, murder, thievery, prostitution, drugs, - some things are indeed timeless.

Oh - and gangs - lots of gangs!


!SR

Suspension of Disbelief

One of my friends, C, was leaving the cinema, after watching the first Lord of the Rings film. In front of him were two elderly wifies.

He couldn't help overhearing them discuss the film as they left:

Wifie 1 : "What did you make of that film, then?"

Wifie 2 : "It was fine, .. but a bit far-fetched.."


Jeepers! Far-fetched !!! What did she expect....!!

!SR

What's so wrong with the concept of time travel?

As we sat there watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. She rapped on about how if she went back to the middle ages, she would probably be a witch. In fact she would probably be burnt at the stake or drowned or something.

"What do you mean 'If you go back to the middle ages?'" I asked.

"Well, what's so wrong with the concept of time travel?" she said.

I smiled and let the question hang in the air. As she turned her head she saw me smile, and we both started laughing as she realised what she said.

To my surprise she defended her position, arguing that mankind doesn't know everything about the universe, so therefore it could happen. I didn't expect a science graduate to defend the indefensible - I was caught slightly off guard.

"It's ok", I said, "I already know you're from the future".

!SR

-----------
P.S. afterthought : Maybe she was a member of this Italian cult :

http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/evolution/time-travel/time-travel.html

Hit the rewind

Top Ten Tracks on my stereo this week:

1. Gang of Four - We Live As We Dream Alone

2. Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio

3. Tears for Fears - Pale Shelter

4. Patti Smith - Dancing Barefoot

5. Jim Carroll Band - People Who Died

6. Ministry - The Angel

7. Babe Ruth - The Mexican

8. The Wicker Man Soundtrack - Willow's Song

9. Caetano Veloso - Maria Bethania

10. Easy Star All Stars - Time (Pink Floyd cover)


!SR

That was quite a party...

where's me coffee??...

courtesy of http://www.costa.lunarpages.com/ec/ws_thumb.html

Agent Ferret...?!?

From the University of Rochester News article Under the Surface, the Brain Seethes With Undiscovered Activity:

(An interesting article in itself, but my curiosity picqued with this line

Weliky, in a bit of irony, set 12 ferrets watching the reality-stretching film The Matrix. He recorded how their brains responded to the film, as well as to a null pattern like enlarged television static, and a darkened room.

and to save you the bother of reading on:

“The basic findings are exciting enough, but you can’t help but speculate on what they might mean in a deeper context,” says Weliky. “It’s one thing to say a ferret’s understanding of reality is being reproduced inside his brain, but there’s nothing to say that our understanding of the world is accurate. In a way, our neural structure imposes a certain structure on the outside world, and all we know is that at least one other mammalian brain seems to impose the same structure. Either that or The Matrix freaked out the ferrets the way it did everyone else.”

The full article is at : http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=1898



!SR

Does What it Says On The Tin....

http://www.randomwebsite.com/

Doesn't really need explaining!

And it has a picture of "Bob"!


!SR

Do you know what PHM means?

<> !SR

!SR

The Best Internet Radio Show in the World ...Ever!

I have been a fan of Dan Mackta's WFMU radio show for ages. As I do not live in America the super-duper technology of the internet has brought his track selection straight to my PC.

This show http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/5267

probably best sums up my eclectic choice of music. MMMmmmm, Can, Human League, Elvis Costello, Johnnie Mascis, Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire ....

Other tracklistings have songs that I haven't heard in years, or crazy stuff that I would never have heard before. It was a delight to hear two of my favourite tracks "Maria" and "Willows Song" played back to back on one of his shows.

!SR

Gambling for the cynical

Sometimes you find a website that says what you've been thinking about for a while:

When do you think the Bush administration will finally 'find' Osama and show him off?

http://www.osamasweepstakes.com/

The Book Signing

I heard the full story told by Simon Armitage when he was a guest on Mark Radcliffe's Radio 2 show last week, and it sounded a lot funnier when fleshed out in full:

The book reading/signing is a common venue for humiliation, where victims are subjected to an assortment of difficulties, from flawed PA systems to rude spectators to an audience in the single digits. Simon Armitage, with time to spare before catching his train home after one such disappointing evening, finds a copy of one of his earlier works in the trash, signed in his own handwriting, "To Mum and Dad."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0007170580/102-8624198-2632117?v=glance

!SR

Black Gunn (1972)

If you need to ask why I'm linking to a Blaxploitation film then you know too much already....

Gunfight ensues, bodies all over the place. I really want to see how the two police detectives write this up in their report.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068281/

Future War contains neither a future, nor a war

Is that the best one line movie review ever? (I know I'm quoting a quote, how postmodern of me)

If I were to sum up this film in one sentence, I couldn’t hope to do better than IMDB User Reviewer Hancock the Superb, who notes, "Future War contains neither a future, nor a war." Moreover, remarks can also be found there from the film’s producer, who defends the picture. He complains that the people attacking it never saw the "director’s cut" (really!), and in many cases have never themselves worked on a film. Hey, I’m not a chef, either. Still, if I go into a restaurant and am served a stew made out from urine and rancid skunk meat, I think I’d still be in a position to critique it.

http://www.jabootu.com/futurewar.htm

"vampires have a superb sense of dramatic timing"

http://www.braineater.com/tresor.html

It's difficult to separate fact and fiction in the life of Rodolfo Guzman Huerta. Guzman was born in Mexico in 1917 (or perhaps 1915). When professional wrestling was introduced in Mexico, Guzman, like his three elder brothers, decided to try to make his career in the ring. He spent several years performing under a variety of names, including his own. Then, in 1943, "Rudy" Guzman essentially ceased to exist: that was the year he took on the rôle of El Santo -- "The Saint", the Man in the Silver Mask. For the next 40 years until his death, he was never known to appear in public outside of his masked "El Santo" persona. The only time he was known to have revealed his face to the public was in a single, unadvertised television appearance he made a few weeks before his death.

A review of El Tesoro de Drácula with a short bio of El Santo.

!SR

A Man We'd Like to Hang

http://www.rawilsonfans.com/articles/GreatBeast.htm


This is probably the best introduction to AC. It will also save you a lot of time than reading, say, The Eye in The Triangle. It is also a good read in itself.

!SR

Let's Kick Off

This is the first post (hoorah!). This blog is intended to feature all the crazy stuff that accumulates in the navel of my mind, and deserves to be stuck somewhere.

!SR