Video: Conan The Barbarian; The First Gorey Scene

As opposed just the first normal, opening scene.

Not for the squeamish because its Conan, he a barbarian, there are lots of of swords and axes swinging and, consequently, lots of legs and arms find their way separated from their bodies. So fair warning.



It's a remake but it looks rent worthy.

Sunday Night Movie Trailer Drop

Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows.

The first one was fine as a stand alone movie but had the set up as a franchise. Nice to see it's moving ahead with the sequel.

Who Is Taylor Schilling?

To answer that Rand-esque question, she is the actress who will be playing the role of Dagney Taggart in the long awaited adaptation of Atlas Shrugs.

I can see her at Dagney.

I was halfway through the book when I heard that it was Angelina Jolie who wanted to play her in the movie. After that, whenever I read a line by Dagney, it was Angelina in my mind saying them. But I'm open to Taylor in the role. Too many times the name gets in the way of the movie. See Knight and Day with Tom Cruise for an example.

I shamelessly lifted this video from Donald Douglas. He tipped me off to the news of it being made into a movie. It was about Atlas Shrugs, what would you expect? It's too good not to pass by.



Besides, I still owe him an answer to this and I'm woefully behind on it.

The Long National Nightmare Is Over

Lindsay Lohan is finally out of jail.

For now.

Robert Downey Jr. emailed to say that it's not going to get any easier for her.

Just Another Day In My Life

Save for the part where he is crying at the Disney movie. That would never happen to me. It is allergies that makes my eyes water when watching them.

Top Ten Pick Up Lines To Be Use By Al Gore

Now that he is single and swinging.

10. "Yes sweetheart, I really am a robot and I'm programmed to last all night."

9. "Why yes, you can call me President Gore."

8. [on the phone to the escort service] "What do you mean, you don't take Carbon Credits?"

7. "My delivery isn't the only thing that's stiff, if you know what I mean and I think you do."

6. "Why don't you come over to my place and we can try out some of the tricks Bill Clinton told me about."

5. "If you want to see how big my hanging chad is, let's go to my place & do a recount."

4. "Elected? No, I 'Selected' you."

3. "Excuse me while I climate change into something more comfortable."

2. "Did you know I invented the internet?"

And the number one Pick Up Line To Be Used By Al Gore is: "I promise you a kinky night of passion, I was Vice President after all. I know all about vice!"

Other notable pick-up lines:

My carbon footprint? Why it’s a size 16. And you know what THAT means, right?

There is an inconvenient growth in my pants. Baby,

I'd like to Gore your Bush.

I won't tap offshore oil, but I will tap that ass.

Thanks to Heidi for the help on some of these.

It Goes To Show. . .

. . . That George continues to be the Beatle with the most talent and class.

Family Guy Reaches New Low, Seth McFarlane Proudly Insults Vietnam Veterans

Via Cassy Fiano Chesser's new site, Hard Corps Wife.

Way to insult the men and women who serve this country, McFarlane.



You know what would have been hilarious? If Seth McFarlane would have made his flight on 9/11. Hilarity would ensue. If you find that offensive, then you don't understand Family Guy humor.

This Might Be Worth Seeing

It's queued my interest. At the very least, worth the DVD rental price.

The premise of the movie from Worth Reviews:

Based on a true story of a hermit who lived for forty years in the Tennessee woods. Felix Bush (Duvall) decides it is time to plan his funeral. But his funeral will not be any old macabre occasion. Organized by a local undertaker played by Bill Murray and his sidekick played by Lucas Black, the funeral will be more party than memorial and an event to which anyone and everyone will be invited and at which Bush will reveal a long kept secret.

The Many Wives Of James Cameron

Avatar is released on DVD today. I could go on about the hypocrisy of James Cameron encouraging mass consumerism on a day set aside to pray to Gaia about how to reduce, reuse and recycle, if that's your thing. That's for other blogs to do.

This is more of a warning for his current wife, Suzy Amis. Well, not so much of a warning but notice of James' behavior and mode of operation. Cameron has been married 5 different times. Not quite up there in Larry King territory but more than Steven Spielberg. But there is a pattern here. A method from him jumping ship from the old to the new wife.

Cameron left his first wife, Sharon Williams, the same year that "The Terminator" was made. For the woman who helped to produce that movie.

Gail Anne Hurd. After four years of marriage, they split up too. It must have been somewhat amicalble because she still helped to produce many of his movies after the split. Or at least help insure him to keep working in order for her to receive her alimony payments. He was married to Gail up until he started working with a young, talented new director on who made such movies like "Point Break" and "Strange Days".

Katherine Biglow. If her name is familiar it's probably because she has been in the news lately. She directed "The Hurt Locker". The film that won best director and best picture this year at the Academy Awards. I have yet to see it yet but it sounds as if she has come a long way from "Point Break". Biglow and Cameron stayed together for a blissful two years until he made "Terminator II: Judgment Day" staring his next wife.

Linda Hamilton. The character of Sarah Connor was someone who saw the future and was preparing for it. Hamilton hit the gym in earnest to prepare for the role. Cameron noticed. The same year T2 hit the theaters, he left Biglow and started to date Hamilton. They finally tied the knot in 97 when "Titanic" was released and two years later, he left Hamilton for someone he directed in that movie.

Suzy Amis. His current wife. He's been with her for the longest out of all his marriages. Considering that that his second longest was about 6 years. That's quite a feat to get moss on a rock that liked to roll around. But there has also been a gap of major motion pictures he has directed since "Titanic".

There's been a few documentaries of the oceans where he was at the helm. But at the same time, most of that was milking the Titanic rage for all its worth.

Now that Cameron has made "Avatar", his wanderlust is going to kick in soon. And that can mean only one person who he has his eyes on.

Neytiri. Suzy Amis needs to start worrying when Cameron comes home with blue body paint on his collar.

To Cameron's credit, he does know how to recycle marriages.

If CBS Copies "The View" Would It Be More Of A Clone Than A Competitor?

If CBS copies a show format for format and plays it at the exact same time as the competition, would it make a difference?

CBS President Les Moonves' wife, Julie Chen, could soon be the face of a new daytime panel chat show for mothers. Chen -- who has a son, Charlie, with Moonves -- and "Roseanne" star and lesbian mom Sara Gilbert are preparing to shoot a pilot for the network for a show to rival ABC's "The View."

I think an alternative to "The View" would work. It would need one hell of a mediator however. But set it up as two conservatives and two liberals or even go for the anti-View approach with three conservatives and one liberal. Say Michelle Malkin, Angie Harmon, and Liz Cheney for the conservative side and Kristen Powers as the token liberal. Malkin even toyed around with something like that long ago on Hot Air. And the others are not strangers to doing TV either.

The sad thing is that no other network would touch it other than a channel under the Fox News umbrella.

Or maybe not.

Battlestar Galactica And The Fatal Flaw Of The Series Finale

I know that this write up is way past the air date of the finale but due to lack of access to cable and waiting for the DVDs to move off the new release shelves to the cheaper racks helped to force the delay.  I put the blame on Blockbuster

Like I said here before, what drew me into Battlestar Galactica was that it was dark, fearless and brutal. Especially with the ever declining body count that was tallied at the start of each episode would be a stark reminder of how trigger happy the show’s producers were. But it strove to show the spirit of perseverance against an enemy who believed in the genocide of the human race.

But as Lost and Star Wars have their low points – most of season 2 and all three prequels respectively -- so did Battlestar Galactica.

The New Caprica storyline suffered a bit of a lull with the momentum of the series. Not to mention the fact that the producers were drawing obvious parallels with the War on Terror in Iraq. The humans found a habitable planet and started to establish settlements there. Roughly a year later, Cylons arrive and take over with nary a shot.

In an effort to coexist, they Cylons recruit and train a handful of humans to help police their own. The human resistance talked one man into doing a suicide run with an explosive belt (imagine the odds) to kill Cylons and humans collaborating with them.

Sometimes people can’t leave politics at the doorstep.

Getting past that, it was still an enjoyable show. I even liked the mutiny storyline by Tom Zarek and Felix Gatea. It was about time Zarek made his big power grab. Zarek knowing what needed to be done and needed his trusted acolyte to help him accomplish his means. Gatea, still suffering from having just lost his leg and a long held distrust of the Cylons in general haplessly went along with it.

What really stuck a craw in my cap was how the series was finished. Too much Deus ex machina happened. How were the final four revealed to each other? There was magic music that only the cylons could hear. Who was that piano player who helped Starbuck write the last notes to the song? He was some sort of angel who vanished. And how exactly did Starbuck end up alive and well in a brand new fighter? She’s some sort of angel who didn’t know what she was until it was time for her to disappear herself. I remember reading that Ronald Moore didn’t have a clear story arch and made it up as he went along. That was becoming increasingly clear with how often a ‘Wizard did it’ when it came to the storyline. Instead of a nice, neat puzzle there was a jumbled mess with odd pieces from other puzzles cut out to fit the one he was working on.

The last half of the finale was sub-standard compared to the rest of the series. If there was the lowest of the low, it would have to be that. It did remind me a bit of the Golgafrincham Ark Fleet Ship B in the book 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' with how Galactica found Earth.

The remaining humans and cylons agree to settle the planet they stumbled across. And with a stroke of absolute naivety and ignorance, decide to give up every bit of technology that they ever had in order to live and survive on that strange new world.

Yeah.

New planet with absolutely zero knowledge of what is and isn't poisonous to eat, they ditch the very tools that could save their lives. That's forethought. To add to this point, they could give up all their tools and technology but the very next day, when they need to plant a field or build a hut, they'll be using sticks and stone as tools to get by. And then struggle to make better tools as time goes along. So the lesson wouldn't necessarily have been learned. They gave up a hammer only to use bark and sap to fasten a rock to a stick as a crude replacement.

I’m going to do what I can to talk out of my hat with what little knowledge of history and anthropology I have to be counter balanced by having of played hours upon hours of ‘Civilization’. Terms like settlers, farms and grains are going to be used rather loosely so please bear with me.

When mankind was expanding, be it the westward expansion of the US or pretty much any other colonization that civilizations did, he needed other families and homesteads and communities to help survive, grow and prosper.

Back before the days to tractors and harvesters’ farmers used oxen, donkeys and sometime horses to pull the plow to help plant their field. Worst case scenario, one man can pull the plow for the other. In fact, the term ‘acre’ was defined as the average plot a person could plow with one ox in a day.

The average colonialist would need to know how to plant, harvest, mill and store the grain. For his house and barn he needed to have a working knowledge of carpentry. Even animal husbandry and care for his livestock. He needed to be the proverbial jack of all trades. He had to do it all because no one else was there to depend on.

With the advent of more and more people expanding into the original colonialist’s territory came more and more opportunity for a different set of trades and skills to be used. Eventually someone would be able to set up a mill to help process the grain for the farmer. Making it one less step the farmer would need to worry about. The farmer would work the fields and drop the grain off to be processed for a small fee or portion of the grain.

As more people moved into the community, the range of skills and occupations grew. A carpenter would be available to help build and repair barns and houses and stores. Bakers would make bread and biscuits for the townspeople. Blacksmiths would fashion tools, shoe horses and pull teeth.

People would developed their skills with their chosen trades. Skilled workers turned into craftsmen turned into artisans. A skilled smith could turn his attention to silver to make eating utensils, tableware and jewelery. A carpenter would be able to turn his focus into becoming a cooper and make barrels for storage.

The trades are actually the historic source for many people’s last names. Coopers, Smiths, Fletchers (someone who made arrows) and, obviously, Bakers all were derived from people’s occupations. Joe the Cooper slowly turned into Joe Cooper.

As trades grew so did their tools. Hammers went from a simple rock on a stick of yesteryear to a heat treated mallet to the various hammers that are available today. The ball-peen, the usual claw hammer, tack and even the sledge hammer are ready to be bought in any local hardware store. Homes went from huts to log cabin to steel and concrete structures that scrape the sky. Transportation transitioned from foot to hoof to to wheel to tire to wing.

How this relates to BSG and the last episode is exactly why it would never work. The crew of Galatica vowed to eschew any technology in order to ‘Break the Cycle’. They purposefully marooned themselves in the middle of the Stone Age. Except that they never broke any cycle, only delayed it in happening again. They left themselves with nowhere to go but to begin a brand new cycle of events that they ran from in the first place.

Chuck Norris Turns 70 Today

One caveat. You don't tell him how old he is. He tells you.

I couldn't believe the age myself. The guy looks damn good for his age.



This should help answer the question of who can beat up Chuck Norris. Bruce Lee. Sadly, he's passed away. So that means now that no one alive today can beat up Chuck.

Buzz Aldrin. Pilot, Astronaut, Contestant on Dancing With The Stars?

Apparently so.

The second man on the moon will be stepping out onto the dance floor for ABC's hit reality series.

Other contestants who will be joining him are Kate Gosselin, Shannen Doherty, and Pamela Anderson (seen here without and with makeup. A lot of makeup).

Living In A Frozen Wasteland

Have to appreciate their creativity.

Kickoff!

Colts will win. By a spread of at least 14 points.

Interesting true fact about New Orleans: They are known as the Detroit of the South.

I see Robert Stacy agrees with me about the Colts winning.

With the commercials coming in at 2.6 million each, the real winner is CBS.

Halftime.  What's up with all the CSI music?  Anyway, a song about teenage wasteland (Baba O'Riley) loses it's meaning when the guy who sings it will be on doctor ordered bedrest for the rest of the week.

10 - 6, Colts at the half.

I've noticed a theme of sorts with the commercials.  About Men taking a stand.  Either by being the ones to wear the pants in the family for a pant commercial or about how a guy saying a litany of items he will do for his girl but he drives his Dodge Charger.

There it was.  I helped to pay 2.6 million for that census commercial.

That missed kick will bite the Colts in the ass later on.

Saints just took the lead.  Getting to be a good game.  And they missed the two point conversion.  They're challenging the replay right now.

24-17.  Saints.  The challenge showed that the conversion was good after all.

Odd, the game is almost over and there hasn't been a commercial with a monkey or a gorilla at all. Only one with a over-sized stuffed monkey.

Saint up, 31 to 17. This one is going to cost me a broken thumb with the bookie.

Saints are going to win. 31 to 17.

Colts miss several last chance efforts at a touch down.

Congrats to the Saints on their win.

THIS JUST IN: New Orleans is in flames and riots have broken out.

AT LAST: The game is over and finally, there's a commercial with a monkey in it.

I doomed the Colts, by not only saying that they will win but win by a 14 point spread.

Broken At Last

Susan B. Anthony. Jackie Robinson. Markus.

The 'Glass Ceiling' is in shards in Nevada. The way has been cleared for male gigolos everywhere.

The Shady Lady Ranch successfully won state and county approval to clear the way for the "prostidude," as Nevada's newest sex worker is already being called. After a slow first week on the job, his first appointments are scheduled for this weekend.

"Markus" has quickly become the center of attention in Nevada's brothel industry. He has been criticized by female counterparts for not being willing to have sex with men. And he created a dustup after telling Details Magazine that his pioneering role in the sex business was "just the same" as civil rights icon Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of the bus.

Quite the niche market.

He'll be competing with other guys who will happily offer the same service for free. Thousands of guys offering their services for free. And won't be looking at the clock to see if the hour is up yet.

If the argument is that the woman isn't attractive enough for guys to offer her that service then she isn't looking. There will be a man out there who will be happy to.

Nice publicity for the brothel, however. Better invest in Viagra for Markus. Women can fake their performances better than men. And won't need the downtime either.

Thanks to Matt for the story.

American Idol Shake Up

It looks like Simon Cowell is leaving the show, American Idol. I guess he's tired of doing the same old thing. Traveling the country, listening to some good-- and some extremely bad-- singers to see who has the potential to be a star. Nine years of that would be enough for anyone.

He's bringing his show, The X-Factor, over from England. Fox will broadcast the show where Simon Cowell will be traveling the country, listening to some good-- and some extremely bad-- singers to see who has the potential to be a star.

Yeah, it's a good thing he's not doing the same old thing all over again.

Everyone Needs Something Like This

I found that if you turned down the music all the way, this was much more bearable to watch.



Two more below the fold.


These popped up in the related videos link but where too cool to pass up.

Uhhh - I am speechless

This is just too much - I can't take it!! LOL - Oh - and did you know - Obama voted against this war? LOL!!!!


And she gets paid to say stuff like that.