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Movies that I want to see: Master of the Flying Guillotine
The storyline is fairly routine as these films go but this Taiwanese production rises above the vast majority of its contemporaries, thanks to first rate choreography by Lau Kar-leung and Lau Kar-wing (who also appears as a tournament contestant utilizing the three section staff) and a number of unusual, enjoyable touches. In addition to the thrills offered by The Blood Dripper (which may have some basis in historical fact and is manipulated here in a much smoother and more lethal looking manner than in the previous year's picture), the Indian fighter can extend his arms about a yard out in front of him (like The Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards!) and Fung Sheng can spin his head around 360 degrees, a la Linda Blair in THE EXORCIST. There are also a number of clever touches presented within the fights. The Thai killer does not wear shoes, so The Boxer lures him into a shack with a metal floor. The other Ming loyalists build a fire around the place and prevent the Thai from escaping the building, forcing him to try and fight while his feet are getting scorched. The Boxer's final battle against Fung Sheng unfolds in a coffin maker's shop that Wang's character has fitted with some ingenious booby traps (spring loaded hatchets fly out of coffins the Manchu assassin's weapon accidentally causes to open). While kung fu films from this period often "borrowed" music from Hollywood or European features (with Spaghetti Westerns a popular source) MASTER is unique in that it is scored largely with early German electronica. The main title is from NEU! 2, while the cue heard whenever Fung Sheng makes his appearance is actually another track from the same album called Super 16. There are also cues from Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk albums that I am unable to identify but there is certainly no mistaking them for anything else. This offbeat accompaniment perfectly suits the action and adds considerably to the entertainment value of this much beloved, highly repeatable movie.
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Next time I'm drunk, I think that I shall resist the urge to blog
Tell me about your Christmas loot
Why Blankets speaks to me
Raina: Why do you love me, Craig?
Craig: 'Cuz I do.
Raina:Well, I love you too. But. But--what's that supposed to mean? Where will it lead us?
Craig: Does it matter?
Raine: YES! It matters. It's not just the moment. In a few days you're leaving--I mean, I barely know you.
Craig: So that's...I mean... That's EXCITING. WE've so much to discover.
Raina: I guess what I'm trying to say is that everything ENDS. No, "end" is too graceful a word--everything DEGENERATES--CRUMBLES--So why bother getting started in the first place?
Craig: ... I don't know.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Find Those Weapons:the Hunt for the Real WMD
HOW THE HUNT WORKS
1. You order the treasure hunt
2. You get a CD, a clue book, a matrix, and a map of iraq in the mail
3. You begin solving all the clues using the matrix, map, and CD
4. It will lead you to a place where you can get a certain item
5. That item will be exchanged for the real $5000 golden trophy, a bag of cash, and a barrel of oil. (If you don’t want the barrel of oil, we will send it to George Bush
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We're watching Bad Santa on Tuesday
Anyone that wants to go is welcome. Mike's gonna be there as well as I and possibly the Canadian and Chinese members of Team China.
Saddam held by Kurds, drugged and left for US troops: report
Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British tabloid newspaper has reported.
Saddam came into the hands of the Kurdish Patriotic Front after being betrayed to the group by a member of the al-Jabour tribe, whose daughter had been raped by Saddam's son Uday, leading to a blood feud, reported the Sunday Express, which quoted an unnamed senior British military intelligence officer.
The newspaper said the full story of events leading up to the ousted Iraqi president's capture on December 13 near his hometown of Tikrit in northern Iraq, "exposes the version peddled by American spin doctors as incomplete".
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Hello! My name is Lambuel and I hope that we can be friends. I would like to share with you my love for Jesus. Did you know that Jesus loves each and every one of us? It's true! In the Bible, He says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life"... Isn't that COOL?!
My OBJECTIVE is JUST 4 KIDZ! The "z" is for "zealousness," 'cause Jesus wants us to be hot for Him, not lukewarm. I read in the Bible that He said: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent"... Let's do that!
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Are there ghostly goings-on at Henry VIII's palace, or is that hazy image of a fellow in fancy robes just a bit of Christmas cheer?
Closed-circuit security cameras at Hampton Court Palace, the huge Tudor pile outside London, seem to have snagged an ethereal visitor. Could it be a ghost?
"We're baffled too. It's not a joke. We haven't manufactured it," Vikki Wood, a Hampton Court spokeswoman said when asked if the photo the palace released was a Christmas hoax. "We genuinely don't know who it is or what it is."
Wood said security guards had seen the figure in closed-circuit television footage after checking it to see who kept leaving open one of the palace's fire doors.
In the still photograph, the figure of a man in a robe-like garment is shown stepping from the shadowy doorway, one arm reaching out for the door handle.
More in link. Thanks to Mike for sending this my way.
The Animated Batman: an Unofficial site
If you're like me, you probably have mad love for the Batman animated series from the early nineties (yeah, I know, it's hard to believe that the show is now over ten years old). Like Smallpox, the love for Batman the Animated Series is incredibly infectiously, and thankfully some people deem it worthy of study. Jay Allman, the host of the site has jam packed it with critical essays on the show. Whether it deals with re-occuring themes or how it fits into the large wasteland of pop culture, it's well worth reading.
Tell Rob what you thought of the Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King
Fluevog shoes: the only Satan resistant shoe on the market
Chow down: come on in, The water's fine and Style's no sin. "Fluevog" - some just can't pronounce it; Others, hooked, could not renounce it. Misspell it any way you would: "Fluvog" or Flueflog"*, it's all good. For quality, they can't be beat - and scorn their style? Well, they're your feet. In Vog we trust, all others scram, We are the cure for Fashion Spam, Designer footwear nonpareil, Champion of independent style, And even Open Source Footwear - John's influence is everywhere. Your Fluevogs cast Angelic love (on Earth, dude, as it is Above). Wear boring shoes? No 'Voggin' way! So, Don't Delay - Fluevog Today
More in link. Thanks to my brother Christopher, who also keeps track of the weird.
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny -- a phrase used by leaders and politicians in the 1840s to explain continental expansion by the United States -- revitalized a sense of "mission" or national destiny for Americans.
The people of the United States felt it was their mission to extend the "boundaries of freedom" to others by imparting their idealism and belief in democratic institutions to those who were capable of self-government. It excluded those people who were perceived as being incapable of self-government, such as Native American people and those of non-European origin.
But there were other forces and political agendas at work as well. As the population of the original 13 Colonies grew and the U.S. economy developed, the desire and attempts to expand into new land increased. For many colonists, land represented potential income, wealth, self-sufficiency and freedom. Expansion into the western frontiers offered opportunities for self-advancement.
To understand Manifest Destiny, it's important to understand the United States' need and desire to expand. The following points illustrate some of the economic, social and political pressures promoting U.S. expansion
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First they came for the vibrators...
A Texas housewife is in big trouble with the law for selling a vibrator to a pair of undercover cops, and the Brisbane vibrator company she works for says Texas is an "antiquated place'' with more than its share of "prudes.''
Joanne Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher and mother of three, was in a county court in Cleburne, Texas, on Monday to answer obscenity charges for selling the vibrator to undercover narcotics officers posing as a dysfunctional married couple in search of a sex aid.
Webb, a saleswoman for Passion Parties of Brisbane, faces a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted.
"What I did was not obscene,'' Webb said. ""What's obscene is that the government is taking action about what we do in our bedrooms.''
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Thanks to David for the link.
Ladies and gentlmen, Wesley Clark, democratic presidential candidate.
