Wednesday, June 30, 2010
All Kinds Of Awesome
When I look at this picture I think about how great the casting of these kids were from the beginning. It's amazing that we have been treated to the movie versions of the Harry Potter books all these years. I wish I could go back to be a kid who experienced all this from the beginning.
When the final part of 'The Deathly Hallows' is out next summer, it really will be the end of an era. I still remember driving through the mountains where I only got ONE radio station - CBC Talk Radio - and they had on a group of librarians talking about the best reads of the summer. They all raved about this Harry Potter book (the first one) and how amazing it was that kids would tackle such a large tome. They predicted that it would become a phenomenon and they were right.
I had the 'Chronicles of Narnia' growing up and finally I can enjoy seeing the movies. Harry Potter is similar in the fact that it is magical literature but takes the themes of Narnia so much further than any of us ever dreamed to hope for. I will miss it all when it is gone.
http://eclecticbanana.tumblr.com/
Hee Haw
When I was growing up Saturday meant the same thing to our house. Pizza during the 'Bug's Bunny Road Runner Hour' and then 'Hee Haw'. My Dad was a huge fan of country music and an even bigger fan of cornball comedy. 'Hee Haw' fit the bill perfectly. I knew more of the songs from the country singers of the day than I care to admit but this one skit they did each week was my favorite. The whole family would sing it out loud just so we could give the 'raspberry' at the end.
http://eclecticbanana.tumblr.com/
Big Brother UK Update
I don't know what I am going to do without my Big Brother UK next summer. I just love it so. It's gotten to the point now where the smokers have run out of tobacco and are losing their shit. Never one to miss an opportunity to create tension in the house, BB has offered two pouches of tobacco to the smokers if each housemate gives up one personal item.
Now those who don't smoke will be pissed to lose their item, especially for something so trivial as someone else's addiction. In that house, something as insignificant as a hat or a pair of shorts or an eyebrow pencil can mean everything to the owner of that item. It's like when I taught on native reserves - it just wasn't worth the hassle to ban baseball caps from being worn in class. The hats were integrated fully into the identity of the student. To take that away was like taking a hand or a foot. So I know how much losing her hat will kill Shabby.
Now the people who are smokers and have to choose between their precious ciggies and their beloved items are doubly screwed. They NEED the smokes and now much incur the wrath of their fellow housemates while feeling really shitty for being addicted to smokes in the first place.
It's the little evils that Big Brother throws at housemates that really make things interesting. This is a classic trick to make me come back to watch daily.
Remind you to tell you about the time they rigged the housemates with electric shock suits and gave the power to shock to one person who everyone disliked. Good Times.
Comic Pages Of The Week - Thunderbolts 145
If I had to choose just one title to follow it would be the 'Thunderbolts' Originally it was promoted as a new superhero team to replace the 'Avengers' who were lost at the time. We met these new characters and only on the last page of that first issue did we learn that they were just old villains masquerading as heroes. What a great premise that was.
Over the past 145 issues the team has had many dramatic changes. They have gone from a group of villains to a group of redeemed heroes to being villains again as their ranks changed.
In the past year or two they have served as a special strike force for Norman Osborne (the Green Goblin) during the 'Dark Reign' storyline. Like DC's 'Suicide Squad' the villains were forced to do the will of a greater villain.
Now 'Dark Reign' is over and the 'Thunderbolts' change with the times. They are still villains but now they work for the good guys. Luke Cage is their new handler and while they still can be terminated at will (due to implants) he is trying to turn them into more productive citizens than they had been before. The team also has a few heroes to serve as examples to the bad guys.
How cool is this comic? Well once you are able to shoehorn 'The Man-Thing' into a superhero team then you know you have something special that I want to read. This title has always surprised and kept me interested in it's stories from the fringes of the 'Marvel Universe'. Of course, click to enlarge.
Would You Choose The Bees Over Your Cell Phone?
I never trusted the cell phone. I don't have one because in reality I have no one to call and I am home most of the time so I don't need an entertainment device to carry around with me.
I also was always a bit worried about them after I learned that alot of the same tech that goes into police radar guns went into cellphones. There have been a sharp rise in the incidences of testicular cancer that has been traced back to cops resting those radar guns on their laps. As much as I don't want ball cancer I also don't want brain cancer. The data will take decades of testing to develop but what if it is determined that the cell phones are not safe?
I also have been following the death of bees in extraordinary numbers over the past few years. Whole colonies just collapsed and the reasons had science stumped. Was it a virus that killed the colonies or something more scary. What if, according to some, the cell phone towers that have gone up so quickly during the cell phone boom, have been the cause of the deaths of the bees? Nature has a way of warning us of danger if we can only see the pattern. So goes the bee, so goes all the rest of us.
Bees are vitally important to the pollination of most of our food crops and without them we could find ourselves with shortages unlike anything we have seen before. High food prices take away from disposable income that is necessary to keep the economy running and the economy needs to be strong so that people can work and provide for their families. It's all interconnected and like dominoes can fall apart with only the lightest of pressure. Check out what happened in India when scientists tested out that theory.
"A new study has suggested that cell phone radiation may be contributing to declines in bee populations in some areas of the world. Bee populations dropped 17 percent last year, according to the British Bee Association, and nearly 30 percent in the United States says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Parasitic mites called varroa, agricultural pesticides and the effects of climate change have all been implicated in what has been dubbed “colony collapse disorder” (CCD). But researchers in India believe cell phones could also be to blame for some of the losses. In a study at Panjab University in Chandigarh, northern India, researchers fitted cell phones to a hive and powered them up for two fifteen-minute periods each day. After three months, they found the bees stopped producing honey, egg production by the queen bee halved, and the size of the hive dramatically reduced."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/30/bee.decline.mobile.phones/index.html?hpt=C2
Hell's Kitchen Update - Episodes 7 & 8
"Show the broccoli a little respect." - Chef Ramsey
Well my girl Holli finally got some negative attention from Chef Ramsey and it was such a rookie chicken mistake. Seriously though, how do you know when the duck in perfect? They never cooked duck before as a main entree. Do they have the same rules for duck as they do for chicken? I know they are both birds but one is more gamy and fatter than the other, right? I am not giving Holli and excuse, just asking questions. As a cooking professional she should be up on all her fowl cooking knowledge.
Luckily there were others who messed up worse than Holli did.
Poor Salvatore is really out of his league. He just folds like a house of cards at the least little yelling he hears from Chef Ramsey. Combine that with the language difficulty and his inability to write (and no doubt read) English puts him square in the gun sites. I just want him to go so I can stop feeling sorry for the poor bastard.
I did not agree with the Blue Team winning that night's service. When both sides finish service one person from each team should be up for elimination. No way does Salvatore deserve to be safe when someone from the Red Team has to go.
Holli has never been up for elimination and thus should get to stay.
Getting rid of Salvatore was the best choice. He was the weak link.
I still can't quite get over how ridiculously attractive Holly is. Then they put her in a bikini and my scale to measure her attractiveness cannot handle the input and breaks. Shit, this bitch is FINE and bitch can cook.
Those sammiches looked so good. I am a HUGE fan of the sammich and the Earl of Sammich who first came up with the idea of meat between two pieces of bread. How original and how revolutionary.
I don't feel pity for anyone who got so wasted that they couldn't make a service without puking. I know you all are stressed but dealing with Ramsey, when you have a hangover, is not the way to live your life son. You need ALL your faculties to be clear or you will mess up and he will yell at you. Being yelled at when you have a hangover is the last thing you want. So next time pass on the booze.
Siobhan was the focus of this episode so of course I know that she is going home. I did like how Ramsey wisely made it look like her rejected sammich would have been the difference between a Red team win or a Blue team win. He lit a fire under her (and gave her confidence) to see how she would do at the next service. It was a test of her character which she unfortunately failed at.
That's What You Get For Thinking You Were All That
You may be one of the most bloodthirsty dictators in all of human history with a death tool almost twice that of Hitler's, but in the end the statue of your greatness lies abandoned in a field. Here the statue of you friend and rival can judge you for how much you perverted an ideology that was meant to help the people, but, in the end only added to their suffering.
Ricky added this in the comment section. It's a quote by Shelly that is so appropriate for this image. I can't believe I didn't think of it at the time.
And on the pedestal these words appear: / "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" / Nothing beside remains. Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away. - Percy Bysshe Shelley
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/
Most Badass Greek Orthodox Priest, EVER!
Those religious organizations sure like their big hats. How great a hat is the one this rider is wearing? It fears no wind and only falls off the head when commanded to do so.
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/
Holy Crap
They call it, the 'Skull of the Sneezing Man'. I know of the power of a sneeze and how it can feel like your head is about to explode when you try to block a sneeze coming out. An effect like this is, of course, not possible, but I like the imagery.
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
New Costume And Direction For Wonder Woman
I read this article today and frankly I don't totally hate this new design for Wonder Woman. Jim Lee created it and it still projects a powerful sexy image.
So many female characters are dressed the way they are just to titillate the young boys who supposedly are the majority of the people who consume comics. These days, however, there are so many more female readers and female creators. It only makes sense to tone down the more sexually explicit looks that female characters have and instead try to focus more on their abilities and the positive message they give to girls.
In fact I would love to see a whole new re-imagining for the characters that are in the BIRDS OF PREY monthly. Let's see if it would sell as much if the girls didn't have their panties showing or fishnet stockings. Would Powergirl be any less popular if she didn't have that window to her cleavage taking up the front of her costume?
While some of the X-men characters are pure T&A (looking right at you Emma Frost), characters like Rogue and Shadowcat are nearly fully covered but still are amongst the more popular X-men.
I have mentioned before that I love the character ICE. She is nearly totally covered up because a superhero that creates snow and ice should not be running around wearing the chainmail bikini that RED SONYA does.
I might have been a larger fan of LADY DEATH if she wasn't such an exaggerated stereotype with her large breasts and sexual posturing.
Personally I think I can live with this new look for Wonder Woman. All the elements are there to easily identify her while not objectifying her with her costume. She is a role model I can more easily identify with and little girls, who see enough of their idols putting it all out there, need something like this to balance out the messages about what is beautiful that they are bombarded with daily.
There has been talk that some comics have gone the 'girl in the fridge' route (named for the time a female character was killed by a villain and stuffed in a fridge for the hero to find) in terms of violence against women. If that is the source of this trend away from that and the hypersexualization of female heroes then I for one say it won't take away from my enjoyment of comic books one bit.
http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/06/29/unveiling-wonder-woman%E2%80%99s-new-costume-direction/
From The "You Knew It Would Come To This File"
I don't have to show you the clip because basically the guy just farted with the vuvuzela near his bum. I say to have actually PLAYED the thing, you need to keep the noise coming from the horn (and not your ass) for 60 consecutive seconds. If you can release gas at the velocity necessary to sustain a note, you 1.) must be single because no woman would put up with that talent for long and 2.) really should see a doctor TODAY because that shit just isn't normal.
I won't even go into the science of wet farts vs dry farts. Just play your vuvuzela in the manner it was meant to be played and we will get along just fine. In fact I will jam with you on my didgeridoo and we will make some sweet music together.
"Man Plays The Vuvuzela With His Butt"
More Frank McCarthy Movie Posters
The Caper Of The Golden Bulls
Hatari
Day of Anger
A Distant Trumpet
The Train
Danger Diabolik
The Mercenaries
Kartoum
Hatari
Day of Anger
A Distant Trumpet
The Train
Danger Diabolik
The Mercenaries
Kartoum
Frank McCarthy Art
These first two pieces are from 'Thunderball' and 'Around The World Under The Sea'. McCarthy is also famous for his illustrations of the old West. I love how photorealistic and dynamic that his stuff is.
Oh THIS I Want!
"Every pilot faces uncertain weather, rising costs, and ground transportation hassles on each end of the flight. The Transition® combines the unique convenience of being able to fold its wings with the ability to drive on any surface road in a modern personal airplane platform. Stowing the wings for road use and deploying them for flight at the airport is activated from inside the cockpit. This unique functionality addresses head-on the issues faced by today’s Private and Sport Pilots."
As a pilot myself I would be all over flying and driving the hell out of this car/plane hybrid.
http://stacysaysblog.blogspot.com/
Best Police Artist's Sketch Ever!
"Cat Woman is on the prowl.
A serial stickup artist with a penchant for disguises -- including a cat mask -- has sunk her claws into shoe and beauty stores in Manhattan and Queens, The Post has learned. The last two hits by the sleek, amber-eyed thief took place last week -- targeting the high-end Arche shoe store on Astor Place in the East Village on Thursday and The Body Shop in Forest Hills, Queens, the next day.
In the strike at Arche, which was caught on video, the slick thief donned a cat mask, the source said. According to the source, the lithe 5-foot-6, 115 pound thief, described in a wanted poster as possibly Middle Eastern, strode into the store at around 1:30 p.m. She prowled for about 45 minutes before donning her disguise and pouncing on a sales clerk.
A PURR-FECT DISGUISE: A wanted poster shows a likeness of the masked woman who robbed Arche shoes at Astor Place in Manhattan and The Body Shop in Forest Hills, Queens, last week. "Give me the money. I have a gun," read a note Cat Woman passed to the worker, according to the source. She got her paws on $86 in cash and scampered off, the source said.
A day later, Cat Woman turned into the Burqa Bandit, wrapping a black scarf over her head. According to the source, she strode into The Body Shop on Austin Street and Continental Avenue in Queens at 12:50 p.m. and barked out her order to hand over some cash, the source said. She fled with $500."
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/holy_masquerade_cat_woman_strikes_ogTPl8uVxHCEpDkOPTHKxH
Go, Leave, Shut Up, Tell Us The Truth, You Are A Dude
Fergie (stupid name) wants to leave the Black Eyed Peas? Is she really under the delusion that she is the best part of that group? She definitely is the most manly one. Have you seen her hands...they are like the hands of a steelworker.
This girl was nothing but eye candy (spoiled as it was) and I say to the boys to tell her to not let the door hit her on the ass on her way out. One solo album and she thinks she is Madonna. Hey, stupid, Ace Freely had a solo album too. I may be biased against this girl (you think?) but I never found her attractive at all. Less so when she pees her pants on stage.
This girl was nothing but eye candy (spoiled as it was) and I say to the boys to tell her to not let the door hit her on the ass on her way out. One solo album and she thinks she is Madonna. Hey, stupid, Ace Freely had a solo album too. I may be biased against this girl (you think?) but I never found her attractive at all. Less so when she pees her pants on stage.
HACK AND SLASH RED SONYA!!!
Hack...and...slash! And go for the eyes. Or that bulby spongy head. Just get OUT of there!!
http://dariuswhiteplume.tumblr.com/
Monday, June 28, 2010
WTF Is With This Guy's HEAD?
If you have a melon like this you wear a hat all the time. Or you learn how to get your groceries delivered at home because, Frankenstein, you should not be going out in public least you be chased home by torch wielding villages. I have no idea who this is but his head is both frightening and distracting. He has one of those heads that get written up about in medical textbooks. In another time he could have roomed with the 'Elephant Man'. He would have to get his toques custom made. No way does that guy buy a hat off the rack. That is a special order piece of head gear. Yikes!
(I guess this guy is Louie Gohmert, a Republican congressman. This means that people have SEEN his enormous melon and still voted Mr Macrocephalis into office. Did his opponent have a horn growing out of their chin or something? How does a normal sized head lose to this freakshow?)
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