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Location: Illinois, United States

The peaches, apples, plums and pears are guarded by ferocious bears.

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling
My Secret - Frank Warren
Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

31 July 2007

The Devil Is Beating His Wife

24 July 2007

Why Are You Wearing That Stupid Man Suit?

Finally, finally, finally, writer/director Richard Kelly's film Southland Tales has a release date. This is unbelievably cool. Kelly's Donnie Darko is easily one of my favourite films ever, certainly in my top three (alongside Magnolia and Requiem for a Dream). Southland Tales looks like it will be just as weird and wonderful as Donnie Darko. The trailer won't be out until mid-August, though, so I've embedded the Donnie Darko trailer below for the time being. Sigh. It's like Christmas morning.

Kelly's "Southland Tales" Coming to U.S. Theaters in November

Samuel Goldwyn Films has announced the U.S. release of Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales." The company is planning a theatrical debut on November 9 in partnership with Destination Films and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group. The film, which debuted at last year's Cannes Film Festival and has since been completed, stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Justin Timberlake, Mandy Moore, Cheri Oteri, Kevin Smith and Amy Poehler among others, with original music by Moby, a music sequence by Timberlake and a soundtrack that includes The Killers, The Pixies, Muse, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Radiohead, and Jane's Addiction. Set in the near future in Los Angeles, July 2008, the film is described as, "an epic story that takes place over the course of three days, culminating in a massive 4th of July celebration." It features, "Boxer Santaros (The Rock), an action star stricken with amnesia, Krysta Now (Gellar), an adult film star developing her own reality television project, and Roland Taverner (Scott), a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy." "The time and additional visual effects that were added have allowed me to achieve my original vision for 'Southland Tales," Kelly said in a statement. "The fans' response has been overwhelming and I anticipate that moviegoers will respond enthusiastically." The filmmaker will be at Comic-Con in San Diego this Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 to sign autographs and greet fans.


20 July 2007

Snapes On A Plane Redux

So tonight is the big night. Any last minute predictions? Who lives? Who dies? Who finds redemption? What's so special about Harry's eyes? Is Snape really evil? Can I finish re-reading the last two books by midnight tonight? If not, can I successfully avoid spoilers until I've read Deathly Hallows? Stay tuned.

16 July 2007

Dear Abby

Don't get me wrong. I like babies. I like mothers. I like pregnant mothers. I understand that small children can be a handful. I also understand that it can be difficult to find a babysitter. But is there some special circumstance of which I am unaware in which it is acceptable to bring an infant to a movie theatre?

It's a well known fact that babies tend to cry on occasion. And though I can understand the insatiable need to see the newest Harry Potter film on opening weekend, for the love of Jesus when your baby starts crying take it outside.

That is all.

12 July 2007

Assholes For Christ

Earlier today three Chistians were thrown out of the Senate chamber for loudly protesting a Hindu cleric who was giving the morning invocation. For loudly protesting the Hindu cleric while he was giving the morning invocation.

Notes TCMCafe:

The three protesters, who all belong to the Christian Right anti-abortion group Operation Save America, and who apparently traveled to Washington all the way from North Carolina, interrupted by loudly asking for God's forgiveness for allowing the false prayer of a Hindu in the Senate chamber.

"Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight," the first protester began.

"This is an abomination," he continued. "We shall have no other gods before You."

Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), serving as the presiding officer for the morning, immediately ordered them taken away — though they continued to yell at the Hindu cleric as they were headed out the door, shouting out phrases such as, "No Lord but Jesus Christ!" and "There's only one true God!"
No doubt these protesters probably think their removal was persecution. Ah, sweet sweet irony.

The group released a laughable press release commenting on the incident:

Theology Moved to the Senate and was Arrested

Theology has moved from the church house onto the floor of the United States Senate, and has been arrested.


Ante Pavkovic, Kathy Pavkovic, and Kristen Sugar were all arrested in the chambers of the United States Senate as that chamber was violated by a false Hindu god. The Senate was opened with a Hindu prayer placing the false god of Hinduism on a level playing field with the One True God, Jesus Christ. This would never have been allowed by our Founding Fathers.

"Not one Senator had the backbone to stand as our Founding Fathers stood. They stood on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There were three in the audience with the courage to stand and proclaim, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' They were immediately removed from the chambers, arrested, and are in jail now. God bless those who stand for Jesus as we know that He stands for them." Rev. Flip Benham, Director, Operation Save America/Operation Rescue
It's hard to know how to even comment, since this group seems to be completely illiterate about, well, pretty much everything. Ignorance of Christian theology, constitutional law, Hinduism and American history aside, though, I love how they capitalise founding fathers. It's almost like they consider them gods. And insinuating that the world's third largest religion had raped a branch of American government was sheer tactical brilliance. And that bit about backbone and standing on the gospel of Christ? Nice play on words. Poetry really.

Still, this reminds me yet again that Christians in the US aren't concerned so much with loving their neighbour as they are with being right. Which is fine, I suppose. Pride is a fruit of the spirit, after all. Remember kids, nothing converts the heathen quite like three people behaving like complete dicks.

I'm also reminded that, short of strapping bombs to themselves, Christian fundamentalists aren't all that different from their Muslim counterparts.

Milestones

Second best, oh second best. I can learn to live with this. Plus I really need the rest. After all, what's wrong with second best? What's wrong with second best? -- Pedro the Lion

Never let it be said that President Bush isn't good at something. This week President Bush did something many would have thought unthinkable: he tied Richard Nixon's disapproval rating, the second worst ever for a US President. I'm not sure why the liberal media isn't reporting it. They must be busy melting glaciers in the arctic or something, so it appears that global warming is real.

If the President can apply himself just a bit, he'll take home the gold. We know he's an underachiever and all, but surely he can make us proud. Just two more measly disapproval points and he'll be the least popular ever. That's our President, we'll say with a look of triumph. We knew he could do it.

Salon has more:

Amid our nostalgia for the day in 1974 when (Hank) Aaron hit number 715 to pass Babe Ruth, it's easy to forget another race for the record books that went on that same season. While Aaron was hitting for the fences, Richard Nixon was trying to hit bottom – chasing Harry Truman's single-season record as the most unpopular president in the history of presidential polling.

At the time, Truman's record of 67% disapproval – set when Americans were weary of the Korean War and angry over the firing of Douglas MacArthur – had stood untouched for 22 years. Most pollsters assumed that Truman's mark, like Ruth's, could never be broken. Just as the physical wear-and-tear of baseball made 714 homers look insurmountable, the physics of politics seemed to put 67% disapproval out of reach. You could look it up in the Founders' rule book: a two-thirds majority is the threshold for impeachment by the Senate.

But Richard Nixon had spent his entire career being underestimated. By Opening Day of the 1974 season – less than two years after one of the greatest electoral landslides in history – Nixon stunned the political world by reaching 65% disapproval. Like Aaron, then at 713, Nixon began the 1974 season just two away from claiming the mark for all time.

Aaron's persistence paid off with a swing off Al Downing that launched him past Ruth on April 8, 1974. The same day, White House aides told the New York Times correspondent that far from stepping down, Nixon was abandoning his eighth counterattack (dubbed "Operation Candor") and launching his ninth. With such determination, he must have felt certain the record was within his grasp.

Yet when the last Gallup Poll of his presidency came out in August 1974, Nixon would taste the bitterness of defeat once again. His final disapproval rating was 66% -- one shy of Truman's record. By any other standard, Nixon left office the most hated president in American history. But in the record book, he had not even an asterisk to show for it.

In a remarkable historical coincidence, those same two records that were under assault in 1974 are on the ropes again in 2007. The sports world is already dreading the day Barry Bonds will pass Aaron. But the political world has scarcely noticed another milestone in the making: With 66% disapproval in this week's Gallup Poll, George W. Bush just tied Richard Nixon as the second-most unpopular president ever.

Bush has flirted with immortality before. In May 2006 and again in February 2007, he secured third place with personal bests of 65% disapproval. But each time, some random piece of less horrible news and the statistical vagaries of polling intervened to interrupt Bush's quest for the record.

For most of this year, Bush has been mired in the low 60s, unable to sustain any negative momentum. His team tried everything – mounting a hopeless surge in Iraq, botching the immigration bill, standing behind an Attorney General any other administration would have left for dead. But each week, the American people kept handing him the same verdict they gave Richard Nixon – in the words of King Lear, "The worst is not, so long as we can say, 'This is the worst.'"

Can Bush reach the goal that eluded Nixon? Or is Truman's record enduring proof that Dick Cheney is wrong: You can offend some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't offend all of the people all of the time.
(h/t: Streak)

05 July 2007

Live From The People's Republic Of Wasp Jerky

I've added a new feature to my blog. Over in the right column, below the archives, I've added a streaming mp3 player from Streampad. I haven't figured out all the kinks yet, like why a handful of songs that should be there aren't. Still it's pretty cool. Let me know what you think. I'll try to switch out the music periodically.

04 July 2007

George W. Bush Will You Please Go Now

Last night Keith Olbermann delivered what may be his most passionate special comment yet, asking the President to resign. In a more perfect world, television stations would have interrupted regularly scheduled programming to broadcast this instead. Hell hath no fury like a former SportsCenter anchor scorned.



I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.

I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.

I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.

I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.

I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but instead to stifle dissent.

I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.

I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.

I accuse you of handing part of this republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.

And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to Grand Juries and Special Counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of you becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.