Pull them up

"Striped tube Socks became popular in America during the late 1960s and 1970s. This was the time that sports really became popular and Americans starting wearing them like the stars. People would sport these striped tube socks up to the knee. Everyone around America had them on. It was part of my childhood. Skating around town with my tubes on. Yes, Straight from Kmart!

"They kicked rocks in the 80s and disappeared into the 90s. Now here we are in 2006. Skatersocks is all about these sick old school striped tube socks and have been selling them since 2003!"

Marc and Matt Movie Review: Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song

The 1970s brought many welcome changes to the American movie industry: a new realism brought about by the demise of the movie code, an increased role for the director and a willingness on the part of the studio system to invest in good films.

The 70s also witnessed the arrival of a new voice previously unheard in American cinema: that of the African American. And no movie helped to usher in this voice any more than Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.

Novelist Melvin Van Peebles (father of the current actor Mario, who appears in the film and recently released his own film about Sweetback) directed, wrote, scored, edited and starred in the 1971 classic. It was the first major film to come out of the black community, and in it Peebles attempts to capture all the rage of the civil rights movement.

Made in the early days of the ratings system it was rated X (as was another classic - Midnight Cowboy) not because it was pornographic – the X rating only later came to have that connotation – but because Van Peebles refused to submit the film to the MPAA (in fact, the ratings for both films were later revised downward to an R). Using even this to his advantage, though, Peebles labeled the rating a badge of honor, touting the film as “rated X by an all-white jury.” It was a box office hit.

Read more...

The film’s plot involves a taciturn black man named Sweet Sweetback whom the “establishment” hunts after he kills two white cops for brutalizing a civil rights activist named Mu-Mu. On Sweet’s run to Mexico, Peebles uses the camera to explore the world of the inner city black man in Los Angeles. Corrupt cops, poverty and the life of the ghetto are all shown with uncompromising clarity.

The film is quite stark and raw, and employs a documentary style. The opening lines, in fact, are meant to illustrate what Peebles had in mind when making this film: “…these lines are not an homage to brutality that the artist has invented, but a hymn from the mouth of reality….” Every movie should strive to live up to this creed, and critics like Michael Medved should ponder it whenever tempted to write some silly drivel about how Hollywood is trying to corrupt America.

This film left quite an impact upon American filmmaking. While it is a bit too socially conscious to be called “blaxploitation,” one may easily see how Sweetback inspired that genre of film. Indeed, many indeed claim the controversial genre begins with this film, although Van Peebles does not agree. In any case, the sexually potent black male, the corrupt cops trying to brutalize him and the undercurrent of support by the black community – staples of blaxploitation films – are all present in Sweetback.

Sweetback was also influential in the black community of the early 70s. Its production was completely the result of efforts by African Americans, including family-friendly comedian Bill Cosby, who put up money to help create the film (Another source of financing was the Directors Guild - they rewarded Peebles compensation for harm on the job after he contracted gonorrhea from one of the actresses while filming of one of the sex scenes). It was so powerful, in fact, that the Black Panthers mandated its viewing for all their members. Very few films have this kind of social significance.

While Sweetback may be flawed in some areas – it is overly long, a bit pretentious and the acting isn’t the best – it definitely is worth watching for its aforementioned depth of impact as well as an unbelievable toilet scene. And on top of this, it is simply an entertaining film which will make you cheer for the triumph of the underdog.

Hang some art

"Haunted Portraits are great for Halloween parties, haunted houses or for the person that simply loves the unusual. The images change without any electronics or mechanics. Simply frame them, hang them and watch the chaos that follows. Every Haunted Portrait is individually crafted in the USA by Norm Lanier, artist and creator of the Haunted product range."

Watch an interview with Lanier here.

Campy?

Herbert's ecological and religious concerns now seem oddly prescient, but this sizzling update, still filled with crazed women who sexually enslave men, sometimes borders on campy 1950s B-movie parody.

Well, next week the latest installment of Never Ending Story IV: The Dune saga will be released.



This of course means it's time to review the official site and see what it has to say about attacks by pro-father Frank, anti-son Brian true believers which have been dubbed Talifan by Herbert the Younger. (Maybe HerbY would have preferred continuing to schlep real estate on Bainbridge Island than endure/capitalize-on his father's legacy.)

Sadly, without even a hint of irony, you can make a donation through the official site to the World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, or one of those other anti-Sandworm nut jobs. Did these guys even read the original books? Greens kill the sandworms, the source of all progress (and fun) in the universe!

Prescient. Goddamn right.

Selling capitalism out of business

Via Girl who eats a lot of granola: Adbusters continues its campaign to destroy capitalism by...advertising and selling shoes:

"Yes, Blackspot Shoes is a for-profit venture — we wouldn't have it
any other way. Profits let us do what the shoe has always promised. For round one, we'll launch our TV campaign, and if any network refuses to sell us airtime, we'll haul them into court. Then, if this recycled-tire, organic-hemp Unshwoosher really takes off as a new kind of cool in the sneaker industry, we'll use every penny of profit on kick-ass social campaigns and anti-corporate marketing."

Tobacco and Hezbollah

So many jokes, so little time--ah juxtaposition be thy name:

More Than $125-Million Raised for Humanitarian Aid in Middle East (August 10)

Mayor Bloomberg Donates $125-Million to Anti-Smoking Campaign (August 15)

Of note in the Bloomberg one:

Last year he ranked No. 7 on The Chronicle's list of the most-generous donors by making $144-million in donations to 850 charities....

At a press conference to announce the gift, Mr. Bloomberg signaled that he could become more public in his philanthropy in the coming years. He noted his plans to create a foundation, which will bring additional publicity to his giving.

Perhaps, now is the opportune moment to get the Mayor on board with the PoF Millenniumally Challenged Account.

James is hawking t-shirts

James (of Buckwheat Waffle Love Hour fame) just launched a new clothing line that includes the use of the controversial Belarusian "w," which some claim is a symbol of Polish subjugation:

"Designs Pa-Belarusku is the only place to find a unique design integrating the Pahonia, aka The Chase, an ancient piece of Belarusian heraldry now banned in the country by the ham-fisted dictator, Aliaksandr Lukashenka. This design is particularly special because it also integrates the equally banned white-red-white flag design. On the site, you will also find a series of designs in tribute to the humble 'u kratkoye,' a Cyrillic symbol only used in the Belarusian language that is pronounced like 'w.'"

Pandora

I recognize I'm probably way behind the curve on this, but I just started using Pandora. If listening to music you like for free and trying some new artists in the process sounds good to you, it's worth a try.

"Pandora is the doorway to this vast trove of musical information. With Pandora you can explore to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you."

Girls Gone Grabblin'

"Catfish Grabblers is now bringing you the first and only Girls Gone Grabblin' video ever produced. Be one of the first to watch and be amazed as 35 Southern women bring you the thrill of catching catfish weighing up to 44lbs. with their hands and wrestling them to the bank."

Need a Job?

Craigslist-Rome needs a "well spoken...sneezy woman"--for US$5,500 plus expenses. Evidently, telecommuting is okay...

Jihadi-blog

You can be a neanderthal and yet not a technophobe: Ahmadinejad blogs (Credit: Todd)

Thank you, horrorshirts

HorrorShirts.com gives the world a present with their Wilford Brimley oatmeal t-shirt.

Inspired by Klevay.

Hayek behind Wikipedia

Via DoL: "Stacy Shiff, in an entertaining New Yorker article on the history of the Wikipedia project, asks Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales about his influences, and he replies by citing Hayek:

"'I’m very much an Enlightenment kind of guy,' Wales told me. The promise of the Internet is free knowledge for everyone, he recalls thinking. How do we make that happen?

"As an undergraduate, he had read Friedrich Hayek’s 1945 free-market manifesto, 'The Use of Knowledge in Society,' which argues that a person’s knowledge is by definition partial, and that truth is established only when people pool their wisdom."

Good to know

You've heard of a Cleveland Steamer, so what's a Dublin Mudslide?

Isn't This in Revelations?

Isn't there something in the Good Book about the mantle finally collapsing? Maybe it's in the Catholic version...

Barry Popkin asserts:

...the number of overweight or obese people in the world outnumber the starving, with approximately 800 million starving/near starving and 1.3 billion overweight people.

He blames the Juice.

Petey Greene Says Think Twice

Former Washington television and radio talk show host, Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene, explains How to Eat Watermelon.

(via RetroCrush and Steve and The Sneeze)

Fulfill your fantasy

At Rock n' Roll Fantasy Camp, you can "audition alongside celebrity rock star counselors Simon Kirke (Bad Company/Free), Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter (Doobie Brothers), Artimus Pyle (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Teddy Andreadis (Guns & Roses), Gunnar Nelson (Nelson), Spencer Davis (Spencer Davis Group), Fred Coury (Cinderella), Kelly Keagy (Night Ranger), Michael Lardie (Great White), and many others."

What are you waiting for?!?

Smirnoff: Teapartay

via Tom Palmer's blog.

Real sugar water!

Someone aware of my obsession with finding Coke made with sugar was kind enough to bring me back a couple of bottles from the Dominican Republic. We set up a blind taste test, and here are the shocking results:

Favorite: Good old U.S. high fructose corn syrup Coca-Cola
Runner-up: Meijer brand cola
"Tastes like it's generic": Pepsi
"Whatever that is, I don't like it": Coke made using sugar in the D.R.

Fascinating, folks. The real deal had an off-putting citrus-like quality. So, I guess sugar cola isn't all they say it is. Either that, or the corn lobby has me conviced that their product is the real thing.

Drink up!

Via Cruel: "Brighten up your day (and your home) with a Wanted for Worthless Checks in Montgomery, Alabama coffee mug, greeting cards or jigsaw puzzle!"

Stephen King's Terror Diet

"...two things occurred to me as I did my research (well...some people call it listening to the Blasters and surfing the Net). The first was that writers can never completely escape their natural inclinations.

The second was that I hadn't found a single diet that tried to scare people thin. Can you imagine? In a society that's currently going bugwit about anthrax and North Korean missiles? Not one. And that's just wrong. It was a short jump from there to what follows. Here, then, are the high points of what I call (modestly) the Terror Diet."

Go out in style

"If you're a biker, you've probably spent your whole life demonstrating that you are different. Your love for the wind in your face, the open road, and only two wheels between you and the pavement, says that you ride to the beat of a slightly different drum. Why not go out in a manner consistent with your lifestyle?

"Eagle Custom Caskets has a product selection geared specifically to bikers! If you or your loved one are headed for biker heaven, there simply is no other choice."

Marc and Matt Movie Review: Permanent Midnight

Responding to the question “Why do you use heroin?,” William S. Burroughs answered, “So I can get up in the morning and shave.” Well, folks, any film that opens with a nod to the “Gentleman Junkie” is – in our estimation – deserving of a measure of respect right off the bat. Fortunately, the material manages to maintain its integrity throughout the rest of the movie, as well.

Read more...



For those of you who may not be familiar with writer Jerry Stahl’s work on such highly praised sci-fi films as Dr. Caligari (1989) and Café Flesh (1982) – neither of which were mentioned in the movie – you are nevertheless (though perhaps not admittedly) almost certain to be aware of his work on the 80s NBC sitcom "Alf." Boy howdy, that was the golden age of television.

Permanent Midnight is the true life story of Mr. Stahl’s writing days for the network, based on his autobiography of the same name. Starring Ben Stiller of Something About Mary fame and Elizabeth Austin Powers Hurley, the film also sports a decent supporting cast including Maria Bello (Payback), Janeane Garofalo, Cheryl Ladd and even Stahl himself. A memorable cameo includes "Newsradio" star Andy Dick.

The tone of the movie, however, is quite a bit different than the previous roles of either Stiller or Hurley. Hurley maintains the chummy sidekick function she held in Austin Powers, but this time with a far less than jovial hubby who cares a great deal more about his habit than her.

Permanent Midnight is the directorial debut of David Veloz. Besides co-writing this script, Veloz made his name by authoring Oliver Stone’s controversial Natural Born Killers – another film about a somewhat less than healthy romance.

The movie has a slick, polished look to it even in the depths of Stahl’s addiction. Perhaps this is a reflection of the Los Angeles drug culture, evidenced in one memorable scene where Stahl shoots up in the morning and then has some nutritious wheat grass juice before venturing outside for a jog.

If the director’s new hand is to be faulted at all, it is primarily in the weak device he used to introduce the story’s main plot. Perhaps, though, this is less the fault of the director than of the original book.

But in any event, meeting a girl in the first 30 seconds of a film and then jumping in a car with her to visit a hotel room where you begin to explain your entire life story in nifty flashbacks has its problems as far as plot structures go. Every 20 minutes or so, the audience is wrenched back to the hotel room where they are treated to seeing the two characters in yet another position in bed, at which point she basically says, “And then what happened?”

The whole frame could easily have been dropped from the picture and the message would have remained: life sucks, you do some drugs to make up for it, land a sweet deal, screw it up due to previously-mentioned drugs and then wind up back where you started.

Aside from this wee flaw, though, the film comes across as well-crafted, with decent acting and some memorable scenes that can be both disturbing as well as comedic. If Jerry Stahl had his 15 minutes and then lost them in a less than pleasant manner, at least he is still able to cash in on the experience a bit, and we can still appreciate what talent he has left in these various incarnations.

Only Revolutions

House of Leaves author Mark Z. Danielewski's new book Only Revolutions is set to hit the shelves on September 12. Rabid fans can now see sample pages and pre-order at Amazon.

Top Ten Grossest Candies

Candyaddict.com gives us a countdown of the 10 most awful "sweets."

Millenniumally Challenged

Inspired by Norton Juster’s Terrible Trivium character (and my life):

Grant Idea #0001 – Weird is the New Normal
Conduct a survey to ascertain if people describe themselves as “normal” or “weird”. If the majority of a population groups themselves in the “weird” category, what are the implications for normalcy as the community knows it.

Grant Idea #0002 – Paper Clip Migrations
Employing the nano-technology used on Alias, the migrations of mutli-colored, medium-sized paper clips will be tracked from their introduction into the wild until they return from whence they have come. Extensive interviews of the people their lives have touched will be conducted in addition to the commissioning of indigenous folks songs from the communities these paper clips have impacted.

Other ridiculous/pointless/trivial/.../ill-advised/over-advised grants can be found here, here, here,…

France Finally Wins Something

France is the most corrupt country in the developed world, according to a new study published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.

...at the head of the medal table France receives four gold medals, Japan three gold medals and Italy two.

The Two Best Things About Asia

Mangosteens & Pre-Freaky-Anime Japanese Cartoons




“I’ve waited so long for this moment.”
…
“This is like seeing a unicorn.”

World Turned Upside Down

Perhaps the increase in neutral to favorable coverage of traditional VRWC groups by the Mainstream Media should be added to the Rapture Index.

First, a short and sweet piece in Time on the latest iteration of pro-God conservatives and now a decent article on the European renaissance in capitalist thinking in Newsweek!

Luckily Gog (New York Times) and Magog (CNN) have remained seriously out of touch and continue to churn out a hard-whiffing combination of bizarre rantings and hipster reporting.

Interesting Celebrity

Edward Norton is an interesting fellow.

Who's Radiohead?

Are you legendary? Sassy? Egotistical? Completely mad? Take this test to find out which British band you are!

Which British Band Are You?

I jibe more with Aqua actually.

Credit: Misty

Want to Spite Your Parents? Convert to Christianity

So many stereotypes, how is The Media to classify and simplify the Seattle Jew Shooter story?

Haq liked to talk about politics (he was a Democrat and a John Kerry supporter), about trying to find work, sometimes about religion. Haq was raised a Muslim and his father, Mian Haq, works as an engineer for a company that does work at the Hanford nuclear reservation. The elder Haq—who recently built a fancy home outside the Tri-Cities (Naveed Haq took Renner to see it when it was under construction), also helped start the Islamic Center in Richland. But Naveed Haq had fallen away from the faith. Last year, Renner says, Haq told him he had converted to Christianity, but “I don’t think he considered himself anything, lately.” Haq didn’t respect his parents’ religion and would defiantly tell them over the phone that he was not fasting during Ramadan.

“He told me I should convert to Christianity,” Renner smiled. “He said church would be a good place to meet girls.”
…
[Haq saw] United 93, the movie about the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11. “The movie mesmerized him,” Renner said. “[After the movie], he was just running red lights, not paying attention.”

It also goes on to talk about guns, manic depression, unemployment…

Credit: Misty

'Cuz The Hulkster LOVES Pikachu

I have no explanation for this photo posted over at Newsarama, I just think it's great.

Star Trek Successories Parody Posters

Many more available here.

via Newsarama.

Politicking in the post-Ralph Reed era

"The least known, but one of the most eagerly courted, screening committees for the next G.O.P. presidential nominee met recently in Colorado Springs, Colo., amid the panoramic opulence of the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort. The four-day meeting of affluent Evangelicals was billed as a 'summer family retreat,' and the kids rode ponies and played water sports while their folks chewed over immigration and gay marriage.

"The political group, called Legacy, aims for mystique: it has received no media attention and is unknown even on the Web. Yet all the marquee '08 Republican candidates have spoken to Legacy or met with its founders, having come to regard the group as a prime audience in these early days of raising money and trying to conjure momentum. 'If you're running for President,' said a close associate of President George W. Bush's, 'it is the place to go.'"

Oh India, So Smart They're Stupid

It is nice to know that India has become a developed nation and has learned much from Western aid organizations in focusing on the real threats to progress highlighted by this article. While The Economist’s Big Mac Index is of course a useful tool, a better armchair measurement of a country’s development is how much time it spends frittering away time on silly minutia.

Two southern Indian states banned the sale of soft drinks produced by Coca-Cola and Pepsi on Wednesday after an environmental group said it had found pesticides in the global giants' products…The two companies have also published prominent newspaper advertisements to say pesticide levels in their products are below permissible levels and way below levels detected in other food products such as tea, eggs, grains, fruits and dairy products.

Hopefully, the politicians will ensure that soft drinks are as pure as the river Ganges. But in the meantime, maybe they will come to their senses and ban tea, eggs, grains, fruits, and dairy products as well.

Furthermore, the officials are taking a very progressive approach and evidently moving to ban second-hand soft drinking:

…drinks [cannot] be sold in schools, colleges, hospitals and anywhere in a 100 feet radius around them.

Tourists should definitely feel safer and healthier next time they have surgery at a South Indian medical facility.

But the highlight of the whole story is the picture of youth (no doubt spontaneously) showing their anger by stamping on the bottles…











…the GLASS bottles.

Tomorrow, there are plans to splash McDonald’s customers with hot coffee to teach them the Socratic error of their ways.

Do your part

Help prevent global warming by getting yourself outfitted at PirateMerch.com.

Update: Nick Slepko, Global Warming Buccanneer

The Rapture Index

"You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture."

Credit: Brice

A bunch of screaming Finns

"MIESKUORO HUUTAJAT (Men's Choir The Shouters) was formed in 1987 in Oulu, Finland, by a group of young men who clearly had nothing better to do. The idea was to dress ca. 20 men in black suits, white shirts and black rubber ties, and train them to shout some of the most beloved songs in the Finnish song heritage. On the 6th of December (the Finnish Independence Day), the choir were ready for their first performance. The choir shouted several patriotic songs and marches, the national anthem included. The audience was left gaping when the choir departed after a short, but maximally intensive performance. This is how the press reacted: 'HUUTAJAT are quite obviously just starting on their way to magnificent artistic achievements.' One result of this performance was that the choir quickly expanded to more than thirty members."

Listen to their rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" here.

Free Will is an Ugly Thing, Part II

As part of PoF’s continuing series on hip and trendy fashions sweeping the globe, with particular emphasis on Slavdom, we get these insights from the anti-monkey Carpetblog:

"Uh, don't you think that cropped, crocheted sweater is a little Devushka?"

If you can't dress slutty when you're 20, when can you?

Once when I was in Budapest, on Castle Hill, I could identify the Russian tour group before I heard them. Only Russian women can wear those stillettos on cobblestones and not break their ankles.

The Crapistanis also give good links to the stiletto heel races in Russia earlier this summer.

Drink your breakfast

Charles Wells makes it easy with their new Banana Bread Beer.

Just when you thought you were safe

Via The Presufer: "A Dutch documentary about an underestimated lock-opening technique by which a large variety of mechanical locks can be opened quickly and without damage by a relatively untrained attacker.

"This is done with the use of a bump key. A bump key is a key in which all the cuts are at maximum depth. The technique reveals an unbelievable security flaw in locks."

Steve gets randy for a cartoon

"My kids have really gotten into The Incredibles lately. So I feel they're the ones responsible for me thinking about giving it to Elastigirl."

Naked+Machete+Utility Pole+Screaming Obscenities = ???

This photo was posted over at Cruel without any caption. Before clicking on the link, I took a quick guess as to the location. Can you guess it too?

"The young people use it on the computer"

"Pat Niple turned 74 years old on Tuesday. She normally ordered her license plates and renewal stickers by mail. But this year, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles returned her check, accompanied by a letter.

"'The letter stated that I could no longer have my license plate, which was NWTF,' she said.

"Niple's personalized plates are NWTF, an abbreviation of Northwood Tree Farm -- a business she owned with her late husband. It also means something else, officials said.

"'Apparently, the young people use it on the computer,' she said."

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

Ok Go are becoming the kings of synchronized music video dancing. This follows on the heels of A Million Ways.

Time to splurge

Treat yourself to some snazzy new dog corn holders.

Jim's big things

"One thing led to another and next thing I knew, I had a bunch of 'Big Pictures.' Believe me I wasn't trying to do this, it just happened, as many good things in life do. First I had a collection of loose photos. Next I was trying to describe to a customer my penchant. This led to a photo album that I still carry with me all the time. I share these photos with people that I feel reasonably sure will enjoy them. If you are one of those people that have no joy in life I suggest you leave this web site right now.

"Here are my rules:

must be big
must be bigger than life size
must be absurdly big
must have me in the photo (absolute must)

"Well, since you are still here, you either have an interest or you have no life. I welcome you either way, my kind of person."

Marc and Matt Movie Review: Five Easy Pieces

Lost? Lonely? Have your years of education and privilege left you feeling empty and desperate for meaning, or have you ever thought of just throwing it all away because society has nothing to offer but a mild analgesic?

If so, you may be able to relate to Robert Dupea, the character Jack Nicholson plays in the movie Five Easy Pieces.

Read more...

This 1970 film by director Bob Rafelson is an early example of a long-running collaboration between Nicholson and Rafelson, including The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and the well-received Blood and Wine (1996).

Nominated for Best Actor, Picture, and Writing awards, Five Easy Pieces achieves its ends largely without the use of plot.

Dupea focuses his attention on two very different women who provide an interesting dichotomy of class and maturity. It is this contrast – one related to the contrast between his upbringing and his present surroundings – which becomes the central theme of the movie and of Dupea’s psychological tensions. Karen Black (Nashville, Easy Rider) plays a white trash waitress and country music fan, while Susan Anspach (Play it Again, Sam) portrays a cultured classical pianist.

By the picture’s opening, Dupea has grown profoundly disillusioned with and alienated from the family life in which he was raised. Having rejected the social status of his family and the music of Chopin he was trained to play, he becomes a drifter with few attachments.

As the film begins, we see him working at what may be presumed to be just one in a long line of low-wage, high-labor jobs. He has tried to escape his past and his obligations, yet it soon becomes evident that a distaste for this new environment is ever-present as well.

When word comes to him of his father’s illness, he is drawn back into the world of his youth where his already confused values are thrown into further dismay. Part of him is, initially, eager to return, but the suffocating intellectual arrogance of his family and their friends turns his homecoming into a miserable experience.

The film provides a commentary on society, not via the main cast but rather through a highly unstable crash victim whom Dupea and his country-music lovin’ hillbilly girl pick up on their way to his family home. The hitchhiker rambles incessantly about the filth which pervades the world around her. America, it would seem, has become tainted and vulgarized beyond recognition. The only option she feels is left for her is the clean slate of Alaska.

Plot, as mentioned earlier, is not the strength of this movie. The power lies in the inner struggle of Nicholson’s character to reconcile his past and present actions.

Ultimately, Dupea is totally unsuccessful. His family’s happy life is disturbed by the intrusion of a hostile male nurse who seduced Dupea’s sister, and the happy home life presented by his oil-rig co-worker is shown to be illusory when the father is sent to prison for crimes from his past.

Finding solace nowhere, then, Dupea rejects his entire identity and embraces a nameless existence without any direction or purpose.

What's a 1/4 Finn to do?

Browsing this post on Volokh on Israel's statehood and citizenship policy, I run across this fun fact:

Finland: "The Finnish Aliens Act provides for persons who are of Finnish origin to receive permanent residence. This generally means Karelians and Ingrian Finns from the former Soviet Union, but United States, Canadian or Swedish nationals with Finnish ancestry can also apply."

Now if I can just get the same concession from Slovenia, I can easily pull a Slepko and start applying for grant money to support my Finno-Slovene-American Diaspora foundation/book writing/lobby/research project/let's-get-eurotrashed party.

Hellboy 2 on its way

Newsarama reports that Universal Studios picked up the Hellboy 2 project. From Wikipedia's entry on Hellboy: "A sequel to this movie, Hellboy 2, is currently under development by director del Toro, and will feature the returning talents of Perlman, Blair, and Jones. The working title of the sequel is Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. The only plot details given so far have alluded to a shift to more folklore rather than action, with heavy European overtones."

ABC gets confused about Gore spoof

This was originally going to be a post about the YouTube Al Gore spoof "Al Gore's Penguin Army." The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that despite being labeled as an amateur production, it was actually produced by a lobbying organization with ties to Exxon.

Now, though, it seems more timely to make fun of ABC's Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper, who in a rush to be on top of the story got confused and cites a completely different video, "An Inconvenient Spoof," while still using The WSJ's description of "Al Gore's Penguin Army."

According to Tapper, "At first blush, 'An Inconvenient Spoof' seemed like a scrappy little homemade film poking fun at Gore and his anti-global warming crusade.

"In the movie, Gore is seen boring an army of penguins with his lecture and blaming global warming for everything, including Lindsay Lohan's thinness."

Had he actually watched "An Inconvenient Spoof," he would have quickly realized no penguins appear and no mention is made of Lohan.

UPDATE: "Inconvenient Spoof" filmmaker Bob Chipman makes a visit to our comments board to set the record straight, releases a public statement, and gets ABC to correct their story (Tapper gets some help from sidekick Max Culhane).

Best Radio Show Ever

Dot or feather is out. Casino or slurpee is in. Learn other valuable things in the Aug 2 episode of PennFreeFM.

Top 10 ugliest men in heavy metal history

#7 - Ian Hill, Judas Priest

"Ian Hill was, from the very first time I saw him, a creepy, pederast uncle -- the guy who would come to Thanksgiving drunk off his a#$, likely shirtless, screaming about 'that c@$% you call Aunt Judy' and promising to make everyone’s world a living hell."

Appalachian State University is HOT! HOT! HOT!

Via Boing Boing: "Appalachian State University put out this video last year and it instantly became a viral hit amongst the educational community. It's probably THE worst educational recruitment video ever and possibly one of the worst songs ever recorded."

Muslim "Fun Day" Called Off

Britain's biggest theme park has called off the country's first "National Muslim Fun Day" because of lack of interest, the park said Wednesday.

Alton Towers in central England was to open on September 17 for Muslims -- with halal food, a strict dress code and prayer areas.

Music, gambling and alcohol were to be banned for the day and theme park rides such as "Ripsaw," "Corkscrew" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" all segregated by sex.

But the park said the event's organizers, Islamic Leisure, who rented the park for the day and were marketing the event, had called it off due to "insufficient ticket sales."

Sometimes the jokes write themselves.

Word of the Day

accoustooptical

Ways to go

Siobhan Roth weighs in on the fireworks safety debate in this month's issue of National Geographic:

"When and how death will arrive can rarely be predicted, but statistics reveal what holds the greatest chance of ending a life. Riding a motorcycle, for example, is far riskier than playing with fireworks, statistically speaking."

MC Amidala Openin' a Can o'Wookie

First Conan, now Natalie, maybe Harvard students aren't so bad after all...

Mexicans Smuggling in the Metric System

Hopefully, they will also bring us the secret of Celsius too, but until then we Americans must stand in solidarity with Liberia and Burma in our Coalition of the Unmetriculated! We must not be metricked into being crucified on a decimal of gold.

The Smoking Gun’s mug shot collection may well be the first to give us some warning of the impending switch to a system of rational measurements:

Wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin (real name: Steve Williams) pleaded no contest in November 2002 to a misdemeanor charge of assaulting his wife during a domestic dispute. The numbers on the wall apparently indicate the metric system used by the Bexar County (Texas) Sheriff's office. Austin is about 6' 3", or 1.93 meters.

And everyone’s favorite mugshot of my namesake (sad, but true), Nick Nolte, who was booked for “driving under the influence”—undoubtedly, his neo-Ho look will sweep the nation (maybe not this nation, but I bet it will be a metric one…

Even better than the real thing

Via Tokyo Times: "As maid cafes begin to saturate certain areas (almost) as much as Starbucks, conveyors of coffee and cosplay are becoming increasingly hard pushed to come up with new and geeky gimmicks. The people behind the newly opened St. Grace Court in Akihabara however appear to be on to a winner, ingeniously combining morality and maids with these nun inspired outfits."

The soundtrack convinces me

Sci Fi Tech and others are all aflutter over Richard Herron's Skywalker Jet Pack, but they all seem to be ignoring the real breakthrough he's made - adding an endless repeating loop of incredibly inspirational music to his site for the listening pleasure of visitors.

Even Frivolity in Slavdom is Too Hard, Part II

While the world watches (or flips through) the 4-month+ long cage fight that is the Ukrainian parliament, an interesting observation was made:

Another question is how Yanukovich will keep together a coalition made up of billionaires, red-blooded sovoks and crypto-Communists. This should prove to be as difficult as the failed virtual "orange" coalition [of billionaires, populists, and ethnicy pop stars].

Which of course reminds me of an incredibly long and amusing article on the “sovok” courtesy of The eXile:

Any psychologist will tell you that the opposite urge is at work with the sovok: having grown up living in a pile of people, he will for the rest of his life be drawn to human piles, no matter how much inner rage and incoherence this costs him.
...
This tradition of verbal diarrhea, so familiar to foreigners who have worked hard to grow accustomed to it, was what caused such freakish phenomena as the anchorman Yevgeny Kisyelov, a man physically incapable of speaking a simple declarative sentence.

* * * * *

Incidentally, eXile.ru is also home to the finest political/travel-type article ever written (sorry Kaplan, O’Rourke, et al.) War Nerd, I love you!

Even Frivolity in Slavdom is Too Hard, Part I

On the Origins of Tatu

...you know, that hip Rooskie duo that is "'contractually obliged' to be lesbians." Thank you Wikipedia for reminding me why I only lasted a year taking Russian:

The name t.A.T.u. comes from a collocation of "ta" and "tu" (pronounced as 'tuu'), the two forms of the Russian feminine demonstrative pronoun "ta" in its nominative and accusative cases. It can be translated as "that female [does something to, supposedly loves] that female [over there]", or better as "she her". Originally, t.A.T.u. was named ТАТУ (Tatu), in Russia. However, when they planned to sell records internationally, they found out that there was already an Australian band with the name, so they changed the spelling to t.A.T.u. outside of Russia. It can still be written as Taty, or Tatu.