More than Noise?

Think electronic music is nothing but a bunch of bleeps and bloops?

Yeah, me too.

Nonetheless, Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music gives some pretty good coverage of the genre and its offshoots. Check out the "Downtempo" variety on its own:

Phantom of Porn

Sure, you can read Phantom of Pulp's "The House of Horror Ruled!" for the scary stuff, but it also manages to incorporate some great covers of Color Climax super-8 titles (see: cover 1, cover 2, cover 3 and cover 4). 

Gotta love 1970s europorn!

Re-Opening the Polanski File

Wondering how Polanski's rape case compares with a Yemeni child bride dying during birth?

Uh, maybe not.

Nonetheless, check out Christopher's Hitchen's eye-opening "Save the Children: Thinking about Roman Polanski's Vile Child Rape in a Global Context."

Beaver Meets Its Match

It's amazing how much of an impact the Internet has had on our lives.

Few would appreciate this as much as the Canada's Natural History Society. After all, they were forced to change the name of their 90-year-old official magazine, The Beaver, because "porn filters are stopping it from reaching potential online readers."

A Slight Drinking Problem

A patron was refused a drink in a pub near Plumpton, so he did what any sane, rational man would do.

He went on a  fucking rampage!

A security guard who tried to prevent the manager being attacked was hit in the face with a bar stool by the customer, who threw another stool through a window and left.

"Police went to a home in Kenneth Crescent, Dean Park, a short time later and arrested a 35-year-old man," a police statement said.

"During the arrest police will allege the man kicked one officer in the face while a second was kicked to the head and shoulder.

Sweetin Sour

And speaking of Ms. Sweetin, here's some more articles covering her autobiography.

There's Katy Hall's "Jodie Sweetin's Memoir: Meth, Ecstasy, Plates of Coke After 'Sobriety' " for The Huffington Post, Jenny's "Unsweetined" for TakeMeAway and "Jodie Sweetin: I Snorted Meth at Olsen Twins Film Premiere" in UsMagazine.com.

Tenner for a Tanner

Here's another addition to the where-are-they-now files

Remember Stephanie Tanner from Full House? You know, the one who used to say, "How rude!"

"Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) Gets Her Own Reality Show", What You Do That For?

Well, her actual name's Jodie Sweetin and here's one of her latest claims to fame:

"Jodie Sweetin -- Full Blouse", TMZ.com.

Don't worry, she was only giving a lapdance to her husband. Well, husband of the time, anyway. They took a trip to Splittsville in 2009.

She's since written an autobiography called UnSweetined: A Memoir, which details her descent into drug and alcohol abuse. 

Her IMDb page also reveals she's had a moderate amount of acting work since Full House wrapped up.

Insy Wincy Spider...

Careful where you hang your washing in Atherton.

The residents of a property there, managed to snap a pic of a spider in their backyard. Of course, this isn't newsworthy in itself, except that the Golden Orb Weaver was in the midst of eating a fucking bird:

"Spider Eats Bird", Local Cairns News.

A Chestnut-Breasted Mannikin, to be precise. 

I should point out that there are other spider species known to eat our avian friends. For instance, there's the Australian Bird-Eating Spider, which, despite its name, "rarely eats birds". 

Oh, and there's also the Goliath Bird-Eating Spider, which have been known to feed on "rodents, lizards, and even bats".

Pleasant dreams!

Jarred by the Law

Keith Roy Weatherley, 46, drew police attention after they noticed he was parked in a no-stopping zone before noon, on October 26, 2009. When he saw them, he made a break for it. They also noticed that he was fumbling about with his hands in his lap, and suspected he might have been armed.

Stephen Ryan's article explains what happened next:

The chase lasted five to 10 minutes, with a top speed of just 20 kmh, before Weatherley was stopped at Centenary Drive, Newcastle. He refused to leave the car.

Four officers used batons and capsicum spray to remove him.

They found a 750-millilitre jar around his penis and noted that Weatherley attempted to continue "pleasuring himself in between bouts of wrestling".

Funnily enough, he was caught near a place called Nobbys Beach. And if that wasn't unusual in itself, a search of the car turned up the following items: "pornography, a home-made sex aid, women's stockings and a Jack Russell terrier."

The incident is also covered here.

A Peak Inside My Received Files

I get some pretty strange things sent to me by my mates on MSN.

The following gallery is a teeny sample of the cornucopia of bizarre imagery that haunts My Received Folder. I'll provide the filename of the pics, and the date they were received. And maybe some commentary, where I see fit.

"image001", Friday, 29 December 2006, 1:39:54 AM.

This is definitely one of the more tamer images that appears in the folder, as you'll see from the next pic.
 

"tubmute", Sunday, 7 January 2007, 9:58:19 PM.

I do recall that this one was a piece of Photoshopped tubgirl vengeance against a nasty IRC character, by a friend of mine. I'll print more in another blog entry.

 

"trouser snake anyone", Wednesday, 21 February 2007, 12:23:35 AM.

Going by the re-named title, I'm pretty sure that it's from a mate of mine who likes to send me pics of gals he fancies (or finds amusing) off MySpace, Facebook or other social networking media. Nothing spectacular about this one.

 

"babybottles", Monday, 2 April 2007, 3:37:33 AM.

This one was sent to me by a nurse from Scotland. Don't worry, no babies were harmed in the making of this picture. Just another prank pic meme kinda thing.

"4y7xnc7", Tuesday, 2 October 2007, 1:43:49 AM.

Sent to me by a chat buddy absolutely obsessed with memes and trolling. Looks like he should be in the previous pic, don't it?

Well, that'll do it for now. Stay tuned for further glimpses inside My Received Folder!

Another Freakin' Randomist

I'm not overly keen on my username, i.e., The Randomist. Gotta think of a better one.

However, I just did a Google search to find out if any other mentions of my blog or username are out there (sad, I know) and came across a blog that actually has my username as its title.

Behold Annie's The Randomist.

Yet again, the blogger's use of the name predates mine: her first post is from November 2, 2008. However, she's also allowed it to sit about gathering dust. Her lastest post, lamenting the death of her laptop by an errant baseball, was on February 5, 2009.

To her credit, her blog is at least quite lavishly illustrated, even if it covers annoying teen things like fashion and Twilight. Also, she tends to cover multiple topics (3, on average) within the same post, so I'll tip my hat to her, there.

Jung's Red Book

Influential psychiatrist, Carl Jung (1875-1961) wrote a manuscript between 1914 and 1930, that he dubbed Liber Novus ("New Book").

It was most likely never meant to see the light of day, but is an extraordinarily illustrated tome and insight into one of the most influential people of the 20th century. It was finally published in 2009 and colloquially-renamed The Red Book, due to the original's red leather binding.

"The Red Book by Carl Jung", { feuilleton }.

Sara Corbett charted the book's progress to publication in "The Holy Grail of the Unconscious" for The New York Times. Here's a snippet:

Some people feel that nobody should read the book, and some feel that everybody should read it. The truth is, nobody really knows. Most of what has been said about the book — what it is, what it means — is the product of guesswork, because from the time it was begun in 1914 in a smallish town in Switzerland, it seems that only about two dozen people have managed to read or even have much of a look at it.

Of those who did see it, at least one person, an educated Englishwoman who was allowed to read some of the book in the 1920s, thought it held infinite wisdom — “There are people in my country who would read it from cover to cover without stopping to breathe scarcely,” she wrote — while another, a well-known literary type who glimpsed it shortly after, deemed it both fascinating and worrisome, concluding that it was the work of a psychotic.

Gray's Bibliography

Paul Gray composed a list of "Required Reading: Nonfiction Books" for Time. They include works on economics, psychoanalysis, politics, child-rearing and nature.

Some interesting choices, there.

100th Post

Yep, I've just cracked the hundredth mark.

I wrote the first blog entry way back in October 7, 2009 and, as of this writing, I've achieved a grand total of zero comments and no followers. Hooray! Obviously, no one's reading this thing apart from myself. But, do I care?

Hell no!

To paraphrase a famous line from Field of Dreams (1989), "If you build it, they will come." So, as long as I keep stocking this thing up with the menagerie of topics I skim through, someone will eventually read it, dagnabbit!

Anyway, enough loser talk. Time to cover a few things in celebration of this momentous occasion.

The Yakub-Xenu Parallel 

I'm not sure if you're overly familiar with the Nation of Islam's teachings, but their doctrine on their Satan-figure, Yakub, has bizarre, racist sci-fi overtones:

According to the Nation of Islam (NOI), Yakub (also spelled Yacub or Yakob), was a scientist alive "6,600 years ago", responsible for creating the white race, a "race of devils". The doctrine of Yakub was first proclaimed by Wallace Fard Muhammad and was later developed by his successor Elijah Muhammad.

Yakub created white people by a process of grafting the "black " to a "white" from the original black population of the world. According to the Autobiography of Malcolm X, all the races except the black race were by-products of Yakub's work. However the "black race" included Asians. "Whites" were defined as Europeans and Jews.

It took 600 years for Yakub and his successors to fully whiten his creations. This was achieved under a despotic regime on the island of Patmos. The reasons for Yakub's actions are unclear.

It goes without saying that this is not mainstream Islamic belief. Anyway, now compare this to what is taught about Scientology's "devil", Xenu:

Xenu, also Xemu [...] was, according to the founder of Scientology and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology dogma holds that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm. Members of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story.

Ok, so they're not that similar, both both involve some form of genetically engineering humans. Not to mention sounding utterly looney.

Spider Saga 

When David Thorne, Adelaide, was informed by his utilities company that he owed $233.95, he tried to pay it using this picture:

You can read the e-mail exchange between Thorne and his utilities company here. The story doesn't end there. The spider picture was put up for sale on eBay and attracted an incredible bid.

Thorne was also interviewed by Marketing Magazine for his story behind the affair (part one and part two).

Party! Party! Party! 

And lastly, to get in the spirit of the festive occasion, check out Danny Gallagher's "The 10 Greatest Parties in Movie History" for Film School Rejects for a lil' inspiration.

If you're more interested in something true-to-life, then check out "The Most Extravagant Dinner Parties in History", "World's Best Parties!!" and "10 Biggest Parties Around the World". Olé!

Never Have to Worry About Losing These Shades

A video currently going viral, depicts a bloke named "Matthew" getting sunglasses tattooed to his face.

Idiotic, you say? Well, yes. But, there've already been questions raised about its authenticity:

It has since emerged that the video was posted on YouTube by Ray-Ban through Never Hide Films.

The production company has produced several viral marketing successes for the sunglass brand, including one featuring a man catching shades on his face in a variety of unlikely situations.

I know it's a bit premature, but going on that fact alone, I'm gonna chalk this one up to "hoax".

Dream Still Lingers

Sure, Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was a bit of a sleazebag and questions have been raised over the level of originality deployed in his writings and oratory, but it's still easy to be stirred by his noble cause, which was punctuated by his famous "I Have a Dream" speech of August 23, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Thankfully, the good folk at American Rhetoric have reproduced it for your reading pleasure. Here's my favourite portion:

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Yep, Another Randomness Blog

In "Ooh...Competiton", I discussed my growing awareness of other blogs dedicated to random topics, mentioning that, "I'll cover others I come across at a later time. When I can be bothered."

Well, now I can.

The latest one to garner my attention (to be honest, I've come across it before), is Blog of Randomness by Ruth a.k.a. "Devilish_Jelly_Beanz". Its tagline gives the gist of it: "Exactly what it says in the title :D Jokes,meme's,videos whatever... just random stuff heh".

Just like the last blog I covered, hers predates mine: its first entry (which isn't allowing me to specifically link to) dates from March 27, 2006 and merely features an image of a cat with a halo 'round its head, behind a sign reading, "Nobody's Purrfect".

Although, I'll give her points for sheer volume: at current count, she has posted 184 items against my 97 (including this very blog entry). Of course, I've accumulated my amount since October 2009. Also, hers appears to be primarily composed of YouTube clips, bad jokes and surveys on herself.

Her blog is at least much more up-to-date than others of its type: its latest post is from December 1, 2009.

Appearance-wise, it's horrible. Not that my blog's black, pale green, light grey and purple motif is much to write home about, but it still beats her pale blue background, proliferate ads and brown and pink text:

She also appears to have a spin-off blog called, The Blog of Me, which has the following dictum: "The Blog Of Me.....where you can read my ramblings :) Might be interesting, might be boring, might even be just plain random and silly. But whatever it is, ya free to read it heh".

It includes several posts devoted to cysts (See: "ONly a couple more days...", "No results yet", "And the results are in" and "A quick blog").

The blog's got a much cleaner design (still yucky, though), but's still rank with ads. In her defence, they're probably a stipulation of blog.co.uk, rather than an attempt to gain an (incredibly meager) income.

Caught in the Web

Another article for The Independent by Johann Hari posits an interesting query: "The First Decade: Has the Internet Brought Us Together or Driven Us Apart?". Here's a snippet:

But is it more? Recently, an old friend I hadn't seen for 10 years committed suicide. I instinctively went to her Facebook page, and so, it seemed, had everyone else who knew her, leaving messages of regret and love and loss. I found myself reading over her old status updates. She was clearly trying to communicate pain and isolation – but we all missed it, leaving inane comments and thumbs up and tossed sheep below every plea for help. Could we have known, if we had read it less casually? Or am I projecting backwards?

The contrast between the transitory nature of a Facebook status update and the permanence of death made me wonder if all this social networking is actually a way of keeping people at a distance – a way of having a "friend" but not having any of the commitments and duties of friendship. When the sci-fi novelist William Gibson first put forward the notion of "cyberspace", he described it as a "consensual hallucination", where we pretend we are together, when in reality we are alone. It seemed true that night.

Before the Bubble Burst

I gave some brief coverage of Dubai's gradual decline, but Charlie Norton's "Dubai: If You're Not Loaded and Decadent, You Can't Come In" is a pre-GFC view of this incredibly opulent oasis. It concludes with the typically arrogant voice of a decadent culture:

So what’s the limit to this souped-up Vegas? Will all the sand have to be turned into gold? Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the country’s ruler, says that they must not wait for the future to come to Dubai, they must make history.

Another sheikh is more explicit. "Soon," he says, "every Count of Monte Cristo will be in Dubai. In 10 years, only rich and famous people will live here." Really? Even the thousands of people working to service Dubai’s rich – the chauffeurs and waiters and manicurists and gofers? He is not unduly worried at the prospect. "I would hope robots or clones will do all that by then."

Modern-Day Babylon

Johann Hari wrote a compelling piece for The Huffington Post entitled "Dubai Has Always Been Bankrupt -- Morally and Environmentally", which depicts its incredibly decadent resorts as an economic vacuum built on the back of slave labour. 

Its flagrant disregard for global warming concerns is also quite startling:

But Dubai's bankruptcy does not end there: it is ecologically bust. This is a city built in the burning desert, where everything shrivels up and blows away if it is not kept artificially cold all the time. That's why it has the highest per capita carbon emissions on earth – some 250 percent higher even than America's. The city has to ship in desalinated water – which is more costly than oil. When it runs out of cash, it will run out of water.

You can also read Hari's full report for The Independent, "The Dark Side of Dubai". Hell of an eye-opener.

Nessie on Google Earth?

British security guard, Jason Cooke, 25, was having a browse through Google Earth when he came across a startling object in Loch Ness:

"It's just like the descriptions of Nessie," Mr Cooke was quoted in The Sun newspaper as saying.

The object measures about 20m in length — the same length of a plesiosaur, a carnivorous marine reptile from the Jurassic period which "Nessie" believers say lives in the waters.

There have been naysayers, of course, with suggestions that the object is nothing more than a boat. Here's a close-up of the object, so you can decide for yourself:

"Google Earth zeros in on the 'Loch Ness monster' ", News.com.au.

Funeral Dress

Ah, the things we do for our friends. 

When Private Kevin Elliott, 24, was killed during a foot patrol in Afghanistan, his mate, Barry Delaney, agreed to uphold a pact they made: if one of them died, the survivor would wear a lime-green dress to the funeral. Delaney didn't disappoint:

"Battle Dress: Soldier's Bizarre Death Pact", The Daily Telegraph.  

Not the most dignified scene, but a touching tribute, none the less. Gotta give the guy credit for having the balls to go through with it, too.

E-Mail Goes Awry for Abbey

It goes without saying (but I'm gonna say it anyway), that one should maintain professional decorum when conducting business. This etiquette applies to e-mails, too.

Entertainment Books employee, Abbey Sherwell, found this out the hard way.

That's not to say she didn't gain some support for her erroneous ways, especially as she was consequently fired from her job.

A Breastacular Venture

Shea has a problem. A rather big problem.

Her 36DDD breasts have been causing her chronic backpain. But Shea, 21, didn't take it lying down. Oh no, sir! She set up a site begging for donations to fund breast reduction surgery. The question is, would you want to donate?

"Busty Girl Wants Boob Reduction", ZOO Weekly. 

It's hard to tell whether or not she achieved her goal, as her website is defunct. It certainly existed at one point, as this cached page reveals. As it happens, the page also contains an e-mail address for the cause.

And since I haven't been able to find much else about it, I decided to e-mail her  myself ("Breast Reduction: How's the Progress?", Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 3:58 AM) and get to the bottom of this mystery:

Hi Shea,

Came across a reference to your plight and I was just wondering whether or not you had been successful in raising the required funds?

Also, what happened with your website? The link's dead.

Sinc.,
A Concerned Citizen.

Will she be courteous enough to reply? Did her boobies get the chop? Was it all a big scam? Only time can tell.

Ah, the Kids Today!

Nice to see the authorities doing a plumb job in keeping us safe from those nasty terrorists. Take this kid:

A boy scout is on a US security list and is regularly taken aside and searched at airports ... despite being only eight years old.

Michael Hicks — who is a frequent flyer because his parents live in different states — shares a name with a terrorism suspect and has regularly been subjected to the intrusive examinations since the age of two.

"I don't like getting touched in certain spots," he told New York's CBS2 station.

To top it off, Michael also happens to be a boy scout! I kid you not!

Amitydale

The author of an incredibly sensationalist site dedicated to the Amityville Horror is startling in the links it makes between various personages, geographies, histories and beliefs harboured in the town.

It's a hell of a grab-bag. I mean, how does one connect the late vampirologist Stephen Kaplan with Drew Barrymore's great grandfather, Al Capone, Jim Morrison's girlfriend and Melissa Joan Hart?

You'll see.

The author even proclaims Amityville to be the "scientifically best place to worship Lucifer"!

Amazing!

The town even has a building with a roof...shaped like a witch's hat!

Extraordinary!

This place certainly seems to give Sunnydale, California a run for its money!

That said, I don't think the inhabitants of Amityville would be overly keen on the website. Take this blog entry from Poets Long Island as an indicator:

The quiet village of Amityville, Long Island, has been made infamous by a hoax. It will possibly never be the same. It is Long Island's equivalent to Watergate. None of us would be here today if a responsible publisher and author had not given credibility to two liars, and allowed them the privilege of putting the word true on a book in which in all actuality is a novel. The credibility of the hoax stems from using a charlatan Catholic priest, who has been banned from performing his religious duties by the Diocese of Rockville Centre, the equivalent of disbarment of a lawyer. This charlatan priest has been involved with a complicity to a lie and, therefore, deserves no credibility, and should be dealt with accordingly.

Its author is of course referring to a little incident called "The Amityville Horror" which spawned off an infamous book of the same name in 1977 and movie adaptation (1979) and subsequent sequels.

The debate on the veracity of the story falls into two main camps: its supporters and detractors. Although, most people seem to think of it as a hoax.

You be the judge.

The Creative Australian

Australia: a sunburnt country. A land of sweeping plains, of rugged mountain ranges...and  originator of some pretty innovative concepts and innovations.

Pre-paid postage, refrigerators, the electric drill, feature films and even possibly the first powered flight, are amongst a batch of inventions that originated from a country normally associated with kangaroos, koalas and Steve Irwin.

Penis Blaze Gets Out of Hand

Take one jealous wife, a penis and fire and what do you get? This:

Rajini Narayan appeared briefly in the Adelaide Magistrates Court today, charged with the murder of her husband. 

The mother of three allegedly set fire to the genitals of her husband, Satish Narayan, in December last year. 

Mr Narayan suffered major burns in the blaze and died several weeks later. 

The fire also gutted the family's suburban Unley home leaving a damage bill of $1 million.

She also remarked, "I'm a jealous wife, his penis should belong to me, I just wanted to burn his penis so it belongs to me and no one else ... I didn't mean this to happen."

Whoops!

The Brain Has Good Taste

According to this article, the fat in foods like icecream and burgers goes straight to your head. Literally:

"What we've shown in this study is that someone's entire brain chemistry can change in a very short period of time. Our findings suggest that when you eat something high in fat, your brain gets "hit" with the fatty acids, and you become resistant to insulin and leptin," said lead researcher Deborah Clegg.

"Since you're not being told by the brain to stop eating, you overeat."

Croc Reasserts Itself

Ok, so the croc came off a lil' bad in the previous post. Time for a little restitution to its predator status.

Here's a croc taking on a motherfucking shark:

"Shark vs Crocodile", Exploring the Endeavors of Human Civilization …….

Ok, so the shark's hardly a massive Great White. But still...it's taking a bite out of a motherfuckin' shark, dammit! Hell yeah!

Battle of the Titans

Well, it's not quite Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus, but still pretty epic.

A photographer in Tanzania was lucky enough to capture this startling image after a crocodile "ventured too close to a hippo and its calves while swimming along the River Nile".

The rest of the story is covered in "Hippos Kill Croc in Spectacular Clash":

The crocodile then panicked and attempted to flee over the top of the wall of hippos, but it was soon stopped in its tracks. 

"I couldn't believe my eyes," Mr Silha told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper. 

"It was the worst choice the reptile could ever have made and it was definitely its last." 

The crocodile was crushed to death as the hulking hippos chomped away at the intruder and trampled on its comparatively slender frame.

Despite looking kinda cuddly, hippos are a lot more dangerous than you probably think:

The hippo, found today throughout sub-Saharan Africa, is considered by many experts, explorers and Africans to be the most dangerous animal in Africa (not counting the mosquito). Crocodiles and cape buffaloes are badasses, too, but nobody seems to have kept an actual body count for any of these species and they don't have belts to notch. They've all killed way more people than Africa's lions have. (A few rogue tigers have killed a lot of people too, but they live in India, not Africa.) The hippo is extremely aggressive, unpredictable and unafraid of humans, upsetting boats sometimes without provocation and chomping the occupants with its huge canine teeth and sharp incisors. Most human deaths occur when the victim gets between the hippo and deep water or between a mother and her calf.

There's even some contention over whether or not they'd be more victorious in a fight with another heavyset land mammal:

Rhinos are larger and have stronger casing though the hippo's huge teeth and extendible jaw is a greater asset than the horn. A group of hippos would definitely have the upper hand on their larger friends.

Hippos: watch out for 'em!

I Feel Sorry for Her Tummy

You gotta pity the poor North Sumatran woman who gave birth to this monster:

An Indonesian woman has given birth to an 8.7kg baby boy, the heaviest newborn ever recorded in the country, a doctor said Wednesday. 

The baby, who is still unnamed and is 62cm long, was born by caesarean section Monday at a public hospital in North Sumatra province, a gynaecologist who took part in the operation said.

Just to give you an idea of what she would've gone through, here's a pic of the kid from the same article:

Yikes! Well, I at least know where the kid could get plenty of milk. Heh heh.

Pair of Beauties

Ah, the delectable Sophie Howard.

"Sophie Howard", Loaded.

She's packin' heat alright: a delightful pair of 32F natural lovelies. When I think "jumping castles", I think of Sophie. Swoon.

Keeping My Word

In my first post, I mentioned a few things I haven't actually given coverage to:

Why "Randomness"? Well, there's no real cohesive order to this stuff. From articles on monkeys falling in love, pisstakes of Quentin Tarantino, to the fashion sense of people who shop at Walmart, it covers a whole lotta spectrums.

Wait no longer!

Wanna read about monkeys (well, gorillas, technically) falling in love? You got it!

"Gorillas Ogle Portrait of New Mate", ninemsn.

Wanna read a piss-take on Quentin Tarantino? Then check out The Onion's "Next Tarantino Movie an Homage to Beloved Tarantino Movies of Director's Youth." Here's a snippet:

"I've been a Tarantino fan for as long as I can remember," said Tarantino, who repeatedly referred to his hero as "The Master." "Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown—those movies were basically my film school. I mean, the ability to take a genre or a subgenre, embrace it to its core, and then blow it up and make it your own is something that has to be admired."

And what's this about Walmart and fashion sense? I was actually alluding to People of Walmart, an eye-opening site providing coverage of the sartorially-challenged and bewildering shoppers of one of America's beloved discount department store chains. Here's a coupla samples:

"Ga-Ga-Ooh-La-La".

"Not the Mama!"

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program.

A Christmas Without Gunfire

Amidst the insanity, there were moments of blessed peace. You find yourself wondering: what if they had spread further? Could the horrific loss of life during The War have been averted?

Read Tom Morgan's "The Christmas Truce, 1914" which describes a famous event that occurred during The War's first year:

At Christmas, 1914, there occurred several informal truces at various points along the trench-lines of Northern France and Belgium. It may well be that there were other places where truces took place, but our precise knowledge of events is limited by the amount of direct, eyewitness testimony which has so far been discovered. Nevertheless, there are enough trustworthy reports (and even a few photographs) to convince us that something extraordinary happened that first Christmas of the war, and that it was not entirely an isolated happening.

Warfare 1917: The Real Deal

"There Died a Myriad", Sans Everything.

You've played the game, now have a read of what fighting in trenches was really like. Or, you can read an article on the entire conflict.

It's sobering stuff!

Grim Notes

Despite my seeming aversion to morbid topics, I should confess that I have a teeny bit of a morbid streak.

For instance, on occasion, I scan through Wikipedia's "Recent Deaths" page and one of my "favourite" portions of the Oscars telecast (on the very rare occasion I actually bother to watch it) is their "In Memoriam" montage. 

Oh, and I sometimes check to see if a possible relative (going by surname) has wound up in the local obituaries.

What's the "appeal"? Hmm, hard to say.

One thread I am aware of, however, is seeking out "familiar faces". Or, perhaps better yet, hoping they didn't make the list! Kinda like a vigilance thing, if you will.

Adjusting Labels

I've decided to go for much simpler labels for items previously found in Posteriors for Posterity ("But Where Would You Park It?", "Derriere, Mon Cher!") and Jugs o' Plenty ("WMDs: Found!").

The former'll be "Butts" and the latter, "Norks". 

The new labels are fairly self-explanatory.

And, while we're at it, that calls for a new label thanks to this post. It shall be called "Drawing Board" (as in, "Back to the old...") and mentions any changes to the blog worth noting.

And Now for Something Completely Morbid

While looking up some info on the previous post, I came across more morbidity.

Did you know there's a site dedicated to movie deaths? 

Ok, so that might not be too surprising.

Anyhoo, it's called Movie Deaths Database and bills itself as "a tongue-in-cheek movie reviews site dedicated to documenting deathscenes in films."

Neato!

Skyscraper Follies

Hans Gruber's (Alan Rickman) death scene in Die Hard (1988) was ranked #4 in Total Film's "50 Greatest Movie Deaths" (July 2004).

Here's a snippet for those who haven't seen it yet:

"Die Hard - Hans' Death Scene", YouTube.

The movie's IMDb trivia page has this to say on how Rickman's priceless expression was achieved:

SPOILER: For the shot where Hans Gruber falls from the top of the building, Alan Rickman was actually falling from a 20-foot high model. He was holding on to a stunt man and falling on to an air bag. To get the right reaction, the stunt man dropped Rickman on the count of two, not three.

Sometimes War Can Be Fun

Came across a fun little game today called Warfare 1917.

As you might guess from the title, its a World War 1 strategy game, in which you participate in a campaign mainly involving that classic WW1 standby, trenches.

 Taking on the Tommies in Warfare 1917.

The further you proceed, the more advanced the weapons become. I'm talking mortar bombardment, artillery fire, gas and so on. You also earn upgrade points along the way. 

You can fight for the British or German cause. And, when you've clocked it (it won't really take that long), you can also have little custom skirmishes.

Rollicking good fun.