Some Golden Brown Cagney Coming Up On Dante's Grill!

I hope everyone enjoyed my seemingly unending list of short stories (calm down, it was only 4), but I figured it was time to be getting back down to the seemingly unending story I've had going for almost 2 fucking years now. That's right, it was 2006 when Golden Brown first escaped from my creative semen bag down my artistic phallus (I call it a pencil) and splattered all over a sheet of fertile paper where it gave birth to my chubby little online baby! Its toddler birthday is sometime in April. Anyway, I received a visit from my own little Virgil in the form of Benny Bear Rachel III. Go to BoneDaddy Comics and see what he's got to say.

School's started for me, and I haven't done any assignments yet, big surprise. We'll see how I do with the comic and classes this semester.

What have I been watching?
The Number 23- I like when Jim Carrey goes off on his non-comedy stuff. He always come out with a good character. I suppose when you're that goofy, you r acting can't be very stiff in serious roles. This movie is about a guy who stumbles upon a book written as a murder confession novel. As he reads it, he begins to relate to the main character who is obsessed with the number 23. Every connection remotely numerical adds up to 23. The letters in his name, his birthday, his home address, everything. This isn't one of those movies that tries to convince you that this stuff is real, it's just a look into an unsound mind and how quickly an obsession can cause you to manipulate your own reality into something completely different from what it once was. In reality, the logic connecting all these things together to form 23 is thin and coincidental. My favorite parts of the movie are the stylized imaginings of Sparrow as he reads the book.
Night of the Living Dorks- Weeelll...It's not as good as it sounds. It's a German film about 3 high school dorks trying to catch a break from bullies and whatnot. The bullies in question are the popular kids at school, the teachers at school, parents, pretty much everyone. One guy is trying to get the most popular girl in school, so he enlists the help of his old friend who is into goth and occult crap (and who still has feelings for him) to cast a love spell. One of the goth friends is in possession of an urn containing Haitian zombie ashes, and during the ritual they actually get blown all over the dorks. The dorks get pissed , call it a night, and head home. Unfortunately the bong they are smoking in the car malfunctions and they go careening into a ravine and die. They wake up in the morgue, they're zombies, they become popular kids but must now fight other problems, like decomposing and that nasty little hunger for human flesh. Like I said, not the greatest film. The acting was C-grade, the plot had overly goofy points while trying to be somewhat serious.
All the Little Animals- A young man (Christian Bale) with the mind of a child loses his mother and is bullied by his somewhat sadistic stepfather. After finding out the stepfather killed all his pets , the young man runs away from home. As he is hitching across Europe, he befriends an eccentric animal lover and part-time hermit who takes it upon himself to give roadkill a decent burial. The pair get along very well, but the young man's past catches up with him and he must eventually confront his stepfather in a violent way. The basic premise reminds me of Unleashed, also a decent movie.
Route 9- Made-for-tv movie with Kyle McLachlan (his last name sounds like a wet cough) about 2 cops who stumble upon a grisly drug-bust-gone-bad. They find a suitcase full of money and kill the only living witness, unaware that he is actually an undercover cop with a wire. They bury the money, and spend the rest of the movie trying to deal with another cop who had access to the tape, and with eachother for disagreeing about what to do with the money (don't touch it until this whole thing blows over, or spend just a little every now and then?) I gotta say, I enjoyed the ending. Hint? Everybody gets fucked.
The Time of Your Life- A bar houses a group of patrons with various backgrounds and situations: A lover trying to get ahold of his woman, a tap-dancing commedian (who can rival Gene Kelly) who is funny but can't mak people laugh, a young, starving piano player looking for work, a middle-aged philosopher and his young niave assistant, an ex-burlesque dancer looking for a new life, an old drunken cowboy wandering through (New York?), and a bartender who has to babysit them all. Th philosopher is played by Cagney and done very well. When he begins a long and confusing conversation with the cowboy, you can't help but try to keep up with every word. Various pieces of music come together in this movie like they were always meant to be there. One in particular involves an old man playing on an old chromatic harmonica a song from the "old country". I don't think I've ever heard a harmonica cry, but this guy did it. The humor in the fight scene at the end was funny as hell and well timed.
Strawberry Blonde- This movie has some great feminist moments. A dentist recalls how his former friend took his girl and screwed him over at his job, causing him to go to jail for a few years. It wasn't the greatest movie, but the spaghetti scene is priceless. You don't catch completely silly moments like that in movies nowadays for some reason.

Bit'O'trivia:
In which movie did Cagney utter the famous line "You dirty rat, you killed my brother..."?
Karissa can't answer this one.

What am I reading?
I'm still on Dante, working my way through Paradiso. Unfortunately, it's become a bit boring. No one is suffering, no moaning, no demons. Heaven might be fun, but Hell's got better tabloids.
I recently finished reading a book on the Moundbuilders of North America. I never knew that Joseph Smith was so interested in the Mound builder myths, and that they played a role in his religious beliefs. It's also proof that the Mormon religion at its base is founded on completely fictional research, faulty archaeology, old-world cultural cynicism, known today as racism. This country will slip into its own hell if Romney is elected (not terribly worried about that).
Oh, with respect to the coming visit of Salman Rushdie to the Chester Fritz, I started reading The Satanic Verses. I wasn't ready for it back in high school, I'm much better with it now. I read Fury about a year ago, and I loved it.

Du Hast Heute Geburtstag!

So I thought I'd do a Monday post to shak things up. Lately I've been waiting til Friday just to brighten everyone's weekend with my online presence, but whatever just shut up then.
Karissa, Isabella and I hit Devils Lake Friday evening just in time for supper. It was nice to just chill out that night at my dad's place--one always feels much lazier in his living room than anywhere else. My theory? There's tryptofan in the air, and it's not only getting breathed in, but it's also making the air dense and heavy, making you want to sit down. Makes sense.
On Saturday, Karissa took Isabella to the store to find a present for me. She came back with a toy shotgun which, after a few minutes of being scared of it, she decided to shoot everyone in sight.
I got to bring my homemade beer to Tab & Derek's. Approval ranged from Kevin thinking it was too sweet, to Derek wanting to drink th whole bottle down. Overall, though it tasted pretty good and was accepted. When April & Kevin showed up, thy made me close my eyes, and when I opened them, Jess Strong was standing there! It was an awesome present, even if I couldn't keep her.
Eventually we all wandered to the 11th Frame and tore a ruckus through that place lik you wouldn't believe. I had a blast and had too much to drink. We crammed the Juk box full of our music (except that they didn't have fucking Tool!), and were even able to bring along that creepy squirrel for the ride. Jas made me try clamato/beer and it was disgusting. I described it as how fruit would taste if it popped out a girl's butt--you've seen the videos.
At some point during the night, Karissa decided I was hogging the bed (I wasn't) and kept nudging me and telling me to move. The next morning I managed to get up with Isabella, but I had to lie down a lot. Jas made steaks, which I could barely eat any of despite the fact that they were made to perfection, and Karissa made Brownie pudding, which was also awesome but sucked because I couldn't eat much. I felt better later that afternoon, but even going into work last night, I felt run down.
Give me a few days, I'd do it all over again. I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the fact that since I make a big deal of it, everyone treats my birthday like a holiday. We did miss a few faces (Janelle, Amber & Ben, Butto) but we all took shots in their honor. I tried to get the girls to put their bare boobs into the snowbank afterwards, but that was unanimously shot down. So much for birthday wishes! But at least I got to boss people around and make them listen to my music.

Birthday, Part-ay, Hooray For Eer-Bay!!

It's a little late, but here's me paying respects to a guy who's getting hounded posthumously by the media. I admit that I grew tired of him pretty quickly after seeing A Knight's Tale, but his role in Brokeback Mountain earned my respect. If you see the movie (beyond the rough cowboy sex) you'd see what I mean. I had my reservations about him being the Joker, but pictures like this one and the trailer have completely converted me. I think this movie has been bumped up to a whole new level that other comics movies won't be able to reach. Just listen to his 'Joker' laugh.

On to lighter news, my 8-page comic has been posted on my BoneDaddy blog and is ready for viewing! I've worked hard on it, and am so glad it's finally finished. This leaves me open now for another certain comic that's been on hiatus all this time...but instead of cheering for that one, just enjoy this one for now. Speaking of webcomics, I've signed up on Web Comics Nation, a big webcomics site that gives you a big helping hand in setting up your comics, with possibilities of setting up paying subscriptions. Don't worry, I'm still putting my stuff up for no charge for a while, but you never know...anyway, the comics I put on there have already been posted on the BoneDaddy blog, but if you want to look again, go to THIS LINK to get to mine.

In just a few hours, we'll be on our way to Devils Lake. I'll be bringing my homemade beer with me, and Saturday is my birthday party! The 'party' part starts after 8pm, but really, everybody should decorate with guitars and antique hats and chain garlands, and start out the day singing heavy-metal Doug-mas carols to get in the celebratory mood.

Oh, What am I watching now?

Marty- Did I do this one already? Well, I'll do it again. Ernest Borgnine is a Bronx butcher who wants to settle down with a nice girl, but has no confidence. He takes care of his mom and goes out with a pack of losers who love chasing skirts. He does find a nice girl, and his mom is very encouraging until she talks to her sister and becomes convinced her son will leave her all alone and won't take care of her. Borgnine is very convincing as a gruff-but-nice guy who simply lacks confidence in himself.

Tape- Shoe-string budget indie movie starring only Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Robert Sean Leonard. A firefighter catches up with an old high school buddy who is now a film maker. The firefighter invites an old girlfriend over, and everything goes steadily south as bad memories get brought up and tempers flare. Thurman did an okay job as a confidant assistant to the DA, Hawke did a great job portraying a guy living half in the past and half in the present as he smokes up and provokes the others to the point of yelling.

Cape Fear- I know, I've never seen this movie or the 1962 original. Weird, huh? DeNiro surprised the hell out of me with his southern accent as he sought revenge on the former lawyer who wound up sticking him with prison time for rape. During his stint, he becomes devoutly religious, and carefully prepares his plan to get to the lawyer's family. Religion, or rather self-righteousness, seems to play an important role in this movie. Nolte always could pull off a violent, anguished character, just watch him in Affliction --he's completely in his element. Also, I finally got to hear DeNiro say, "Come out, come out, wherever you are..."

Children of Men- The year is 2027, and humans have somehow lost the ability to procreate. A former activist reluctantly agrees to help protect a girl he later finds is 8 months pregnant. He finds out the people he trusted to help him either double-crossed him or are in danger of being connected with him. This movie has been compared to V For Vendetta, but the similarities are few, really. In both movies, the definition for the word 'terrorism' becomes blurred. There are a couple scenes that seem to last for over 3 minutes without cutting away, and they're done with amazing timing. The battle scenes are also really well-done. The ending reminded me just a little of Titanic.

Delicatessen- Made by the same guys who did City of Lost Children and Amelie. Desolate future movie where a man moves into an apartment building run by a butcher whose shop is on the ground floor. He's hired on to do odd jobs, but the butcher wants to cut him up into little cuts and sell them to his tenants. The ad the guy responded to was in a paper called "Hard Times." Anyway, he ends up falling for the butcher's daughter, which causes more friction as the butcher still wants him to be meat. Dominique works well as a guy who used to perform as a clown with a monkey named Dr. Livingstone. He acts somewhat clownish and wears ridiculously oversized shoes. There is some CGI, but's subtle (like computer animation should be). Many of the rooms in the building have a very dominant color in them, and the whole building works rhythmically, from the creaky springs under the butcher and his girlfriend screwing to the beating of a rug in the stairwell by an old lady. The story comes along smoothly, even when a militant underground group of anti-carnivores is introduced to the mix. It turned out to be a very good movie, which is a relief since I wanted to see it for about 8 years.

That's all for now, wish me a happy birthday, come to my party, and make sure your paddles are wiffled to decrease wind resistance!

Comics News!

Quick little update: I'm pleased to anounce that the final page of Last Night is up this evening. I also lettered my 8-page comic, so that's completely finished now as well. The reason I put up the last page of Last Night is so I can post the 8-page comic in its entirety on Friday 1/25, kind of my little birthday surprise to all of you. You're welcome.
I've started checking out other webcomic sites recently, and saw one called Smack Jeeves that lets you post your own webcomics under your profile. If anyone wants to check it out, I've reposted Sweet Hell on mine to start.

Good Movies Found Here, But a Title is Lost

Here's the second teaser shot from the 8-page comic. It's all drawn, just needs a few words. If you guys liked the Lighthouse comic from last year, then I think you'll enjoy this one. Speaking of which, I posted a new page of Last Night for everyone to read. There will be one more page after this one (which I might post early), then the big 8-pager.

Last weekend we finally made it to the River Cinema in East Grand Forks. I was very impressed with the whole set-up, not to mention that you get your ticket and concessions in one spot. We only used up a third of my gift certificate I got from Christmas, so we get to get a couple more times, as well. The owner himself was there to take our tickets, which was weird, but cool that an owner would actually devote himself that much to his business as to place himself in the position to be able to interact the most with patrons. Seemed like a nice guy, too. I'm posting about the movie itself below, so hold your horses.

School starts for me soon, I'm getting a little nervous about starting everything back up again.

I got out my beer kit over a week ago and got it prepared. All I had to do was mix some stuff into boiling water and try not to get myself all sticky with beer mix & honey. Then I waited while it fermented in its keg. Just yesterday I bottled it, now I resume waiting. If all goes well, it should be ready by my birthday.

What Am I Watching?

Night of the Living Dead 3D- Judging by the IMDB threads, it's apparent that people don't really know what a remake is. This movie is NOT a remake. I won't state it again. It was fucking cool, though. All the characters' names from the original are used, but the similarity pretty much ends there. Barbara and Johnny are trying to find a cemetery where an uncle's funeral is being held. They find the cemetery, but no people. While looking, they are attacked by zombies. Barb runs away and somehow stumbles upon a funeral home. The funeral home is quite obviously crawling with animated corpses, and she is saved just in time by its owner, Gerald Tovar, Jr. (Sid Haig!). She takes off again, and is saved this time at night by a guy on a motorcycle who takes her to a farmhouse whose occupants run a huge pot farm and are reluctant to call police, even after they find her wild sory of zombies to be true. The original Night of the Living Dead is playing on the tv before the cable goes out. Tovar eventually shows up at the house and admits his involvement with the dead coming back to life. This movie was made with some great ideas and should be looked at as a tribute to Romero, if anything. By the way, the version I watched was 2D. And not to worry: This movie was officially monitored by the ARCA (American Re-animated Corpse Association), who can assure us that no zombies were harmed in the making of this film.

Death Race 2000- This was an odd movie. Shown on TCM Underground, it shows us a world of the "near future" with a president who controls the media and religion and wholeheartedly endorses an unltraviolent transcontinental race where the racers can earn points by hitting pedestrians. The movie starts off with the pope sying "Oh, great American multitudes, and sports fans everywhere..." Hmm...oddly prophetic, huh? There racers: Calamity Jane (neo cowgirl), Matilda the Hun (neoclassical Nazi), Nero the Hero (neo Roman), Machine Gun Joe (neo mobster, aka Sylvester Stallone), and Frankenstein (neo...Frankenstein...he's had limbs replaced). As far as the pedestrians are concerned, kids and elderly earn the most points. Strangely enough, many apparently forget a race is on and wander about the streets, giving the drivers plenty of targets. One hospital along the race route even put its elderly out in the middle of the road as a method of euthenasia. The President of the "United Provinces of America" (so we became Canada, then?) seems to be an almost mythical figure who is quick to blame the French when racers begin getting killed off by an underground resistance trying to end the race once and for all. The drivers are all equipped with navigators of opposite sex who not only navigate and perform regular maintenance on the vehicles, but also help release tension in the racers sexually during their pitstops. What a job! The commander of the Resistance is Thomasina Paine. Big surprise there. The ending is a little silly and wraps things up in a neat little package. But the movie overall was very good.

Sweeney Todd- This is the 2007 versio with Johnny Depp--our very first movie at the River Cinema. I will say that I HATE musicals. I refuse to watch them. I saw West Side story once while playing Mushroomhead, and that was as close as I ever came to enjoying a musical, and I had to be drunk to do it. But this was a kickass movie. I mean, it's a Tim Burton movie. Even his musicals are dark and creepy. Plus I love the story of Sweeney Todd. Basically a barber is falsely imprisoned by a judge who wants his wife. 15 years later, he returns from jail to find that his wife is gone and daughter adopted by the judge who put him away. He swears revenge and broods in a way that only Johnny Depp can seem to do. He takes up shop above a woman who sells disgusting meat pies, and they eventually combine their skills and begin killing people, cutting them up, and putting them in the pies, which become the best meat pies in London. The mechanical barber chair is a nod back to a 1936 version directed by George King and starring Tod Slaughter (I posted about this movie a few posts back), and worked very well in this version, as did the sickening thud of the bodies as they tumbled head-first down three stories to the floor of the cellar. The bright red blood was forgivable, given the theatrical aspect of this story. This version ties as my favorite, the other being a 2006 miniseries put out on the BBC that was NOT a musical and was perhaps a more accurate portrait of 19th century London.

Rollerball- Nope, it's not the dorky 2002 version with Rebecca Romijn & LL Cool J, sorry. This one is the original, from 1975 with James Caan. Again, it's the future, and corporations rule the earth. Rollerball is a national pasttime, where virtually anything goes as long as rollerskating men can get a lead ball into a bucket. Jonathan (Caan) is the game's oldest player, and is being pressured to retire by the corporation running it. There is a heavy notion of history being revised and rewritten, and books are "edited" on computer. Again, oddly prophetic, given our country's sense of history (ask how many people think Gone With the Wind was an accurate depiction of the South).

Desperate Souls- Jason, you owe me an apology for making the assumption that this wins the title. Yes, it sucked, but it was bland and hard to follow. Some orphans esacpe their abusive orphanage and use a book to release some kind of evil power. Why? Who knows? Who are they unleashing it on? Apparently, themselves. They all become zombified and attack a group of camping teens. One orphan was left alive, and he's trying to protect people from the zombified ones, which he killed in the first place...This synopsis is just annoying. Jas, the title's revoked. This movie had no "oh-my-Doug-this-is-a-really-horrible-movie" aspect to it, it was just plain annoying. Ankle-Biters had it. Zombie Lake had it. This movie does not.

What's Up, Tigerlily?- Originally a Japanese spy film, Woody Allen bought the rights to this film, took the Japanese audio out, put in English--except he wrote a completely different script, in which the spies are fighting over a secret recipe to really good egg salad. Kung Pow: Enter the Fist must have got their idea from this one. It is funny as hell and I can't believe this movie doesn't get more play. I happened to catch this on accident on TCM.

Re-Animator- Med students conduct bizarre experiments involving reanimating the dead. There is a lot of dark humor in this movie that you kind of have to watch to know what I mean. The reanimated corpses seem almost superpowered, which is silly. There was surprisingly good evidence of bruising in some places, though. The bruise on one guy's head and the ligature marks on a girl's throat after she was strangled are remarkably accurately done. The movie ended on a grim/uplifting note (is that possible? Of course!), and what happened to the main character, Herbert West, is up in the air until 2003.

A Comic Tease, and Movies, Please

Here is a little teaser image of the 8-page comic I'm working on. Yeah, that would be a blurred breast right there. That's all I'm giving you for a little bit. Enjoy!

On that note, go check out the new page of Last Night and start your weekend off with a little suspense.

Updates on the birthday front: Definitely partying 1/26, that Saturday, at the 11th Frame, but not til after 8pm because we gotta wait until after Isabella goes to bed.

What am I watching? Here...we...goooooo!

Monster A Go-Go- Part of a double feature from the "Something Weird" video line. An astronaut returns from space in a capsule but disappears upon landing. People mysteriously die and show evidence of having been burned radioactively. Obviously we haven't been fully educated by 1965 of the cancerous effects of radiation. When the astronaut is found, it turns out he's a 10-foot-tall monster who prefers to prey on beach-goers and couples. The actor portraying the monster was 7'6" in real life. It's mostly narrated, as though this were a driving film from the 1960's.

Bedtime Booga Booga- This was a featurette on the same double feature as Monster A Go-Go. This one was actually pretty good for an amateur short. It's about 10-15 minutes long with no dialogue, just music. A guy gets ready for bed by watching a weird zombie-ish flick (not supposed to watch tv before bedtime!). He falls asleep, has a kickass dream about zombies trying to get him, they get him, then he wakes up to find his throat slashed and some creepy dude with a mask standing over him. Roommate? Stranger? Who knows? Nice effort, unfortunately, no imdb link to this one.

Psyched By the 2D Dot- Also on the same double feature but shorter than the featurette. A couple of nude chicks are being bothered by a black squiggly dot that keeps covering their private parts. If I'm not mistaken, this can be taken as an artsy little jab at censorship. Again, no dialogue, jst music.

Driving Miss Daisy Crazy- Another featurette from the same damned double feature. Since these last three have all been short films, this DVD isn't considered a quintuple feature or something. I don't know. By this point, I'm really starting to like Something Weird Videos. Anyway, in this one a woman is narrating a story about hw her husband is plotting against her through various wacky measures, such as hiring a man to pose as her psychiatrist, keeping tabs on where she goes, and playing on her fears of enclosed spaces (shuts her up in a closet as a joke) and, apparently fellatio (umm...trying to get her to give him head). She begins to think everyone, from her maid to her chauffeur are plotting against her, drugging her, abusing her sexually, photographing her, etc. By the end you can't really tell whether she's the crazy one or not. Not too bad, I'm glad I watch these things sober.

Psyched By the 4D Witch- Isn't the 4th dimension time or something? Anyway, this is the second feature of the double feature...finally! A girl is somehow possessed by an ancestor who happens to be one of the accused witches from the infamous Salem trials, named Abigail. She ends up having psychadelic out-of-body sexual experiences, each one more disturbing than the last, all the while keeping her virginity intact in the process. Abigail finally crosses the line when she tries to force the girl to have sex with the corpse of her best friend, recently killed in a car crash. It turns out to be a revenge plot that's taken almost 400 years to take place. The dead girl's father is ths girl's psychiatrist who comes up with the theory that she is kept prisoner by "Abigail" through "fantasy fucking" (his words), and proposes to release her through real sex. The sex is too much, he dies, she is released. Abigail then turns on her brother, who becomes a vampire with the worst fake fangs I have ever seen. The psychadelic imagery is pretty cool, though, and they managed to camp it up a bit by making her narration of the story emotionally distant and a little silly. This movie also has its own theme song performed by Johnny By the Way called "Beware of the 4d Witch".

Fire and Ice- This is an animated feature done by Ralph Bakshi with a little help from Frank Frazetta. Larn's village is destroyed by a glacier and taken over by the Ice Lord, Nekron. The king's daughter, Teegra, is kidnapped by Neanderthal henchmen (although neanderthals were barrel-chested and these guys looked like they walked out of the rain forest but whatever). Larn, aided by Darkwolf (a cool wolf-masked figure who fights like Batman) goes on a quest to rescue Teegra and defeat Nekron. Despite the kooky fantasy aspect of this movie (and it was kooky), the animation was amazing. The characters themselves had no special details that would have distinguished them from a He-Man character, but the movement and smooth flow of their animation was amazing. When a figure would run or shift in their seat, the movement was very realistic and would have made Disney's brain squirm in its jar in a fit of jealousy. The girls in it were a little scantily clad for the PG rating, but that's not really a complaint.

Skidoo- This was on TCM Underground last Friday. Check out this cast: Jackie Gleason stars as a retired mobster who's called back to work by an old associate and his son (father-Cesar Romero, son-Frankie Avalon) who want him to bump off his old best friend, played by Mickey Rooney. His wife (Carol Channing) and daughter are quickly becoming absorbed in the hippie culture, and his sidekick is murdered when he at first refuses, so he's got little choice. The target is in jail, so he gets himself placed in the klink and ends up in a cell with a rapist and a draft dodger (Austin Pendleton), who is also a technical genius. He decides against killing his old friend, and decides to get out to save his family from the clutches of his boss, God, played by noneother than Groucho Marx. Other cast members include Richard Kiel (big freaky giant), Frank Gorshin (Riddler), Harry Nillson (did that song "Without You"), Slim Pickens (come on, you fucking know who Slim Pickens is), along with others you might find in the 60's Batman tv show or other serials around that time. Jackie Gleason finds his family, but God escapes amid a stupid Carol Channing hippie sing-along and somehow ends up with Austin Pendleton's character, turns into a Krishna, and smokes up. Yeah, Groucho lights himself a doobie. Not only that, but while in jail, Gleason's character inadvertantly takes an acid trip. Despite the horrible ending, it was an alright movie.

The Incident- According to IMDB, this is Martin Sheen's acting debut. Ed Mcmahon and Beau Bridges are in it, too, as well as Brock Peters, though you don't recognize McMahon very well. A bunch of strangers are taking a New York subway home when a couple of ne'erdowells hop on, drunk as hell and looking for trouble. They terrorize the subway riders and keep them from leaving until a one guy, a soldier with an arm in a sling, finally won't take it anymore and confronts them face to face. I'll tell you it will piss you off as you watch the movie. You'll keep thinking "get up and punch the fuckin punks!" It's weird how people get, though. When in a group, Genovese syndrome can prevent people from standing up for themselves to a couple of troublemakers. Something in them must make them afraid the others won't do anything to help them either, and that any action they take will be futile in the face of hostility. The acting is awesome, though, and despite the anger you feel, the ending gives you a 'lesson learned' feeling.

Did you read all that? Wow, good job. Now go read a book or something.

Christmas Done, Birthday's a Comin'

Got pictures down below the post!!

Having three Christmases can be a little draining, but they were a lot of fun. At Karissa's mom's place, there was only 5 1/2 of us, which made things a little simpler, quieter. Her mom got me a Mr. Beer Kit, which I didn't mention last post because at the time April was still looking for one for Kevin. At our place, it was just the three of us, an intimate little holiday for just mom, dad, and daughter. At my dad's place there were at least 10 of us running around the place, shaking things up. We were there the weekend after Christmas. If we had been there on Christmas, our little trio would have made 25 total at my sister's place.
I got a lot of cool stuff, like a reverb pedal (which I've been wanting for a while), bowling shirts, a Tom Waits CD, and the movie Six String Samurai plus soundtrack from Jas. Karissa got her breadmaker and a new toaster oven (trust me, these things are awesome to her).

Last Saturday night, we hit 11th Frame with Tab, Derek, April, Kevin, and Blake, with a visit from April's sis Alicia. We didn't have the opportunity to get started on Derek's cardboard bass, but that'll come soon. We had a lot of fun, and learned what Derek considers a 'prude'. G'head, ask him about it.

This weekend marks the beginning of my last 4-page comic. I like this one much, MUCH more than Red Riding Hood. I have an 8-page comic coming soon, but the good news is that all 8 pages will be posted at once so you can read the whole story right away. That sounds nice.

Holiday news: My birthday is coming soon, and I want you all to think about your schedules. It's January 27, sunday, but I'll be celebrating it the weekend before, probably Saturday, in Devils Lake, probably at 11th Frame. I haven't written anything in stone yet, though, so stay tuned for any possible updates. I'll forgive you if you can't make it, but you'll owe me a spanking.

What am I watching?
Six String Samurai- Come on people! This is an awesome fucking movie! I saw it over a year ago and fell in love with the music of the Red Elvises. Jas bought it for me for Christmas, along with the soundtrack, so we watched it that Sunday before the Vikings sucked all the fun out of that Sunday. He thought it was alright (just alright?), but dad and everyone else who decided to start watching it hafway through missed the backstory and started making comments about stuff they didn't get. My mom must have the memory of a baby when she watches movies, because when a scene with a 4-person metal band only showed 3 members, she became confused and asked where the 4th went. She's not senile or anything yet, she's just used to Mel Gibson movies.
Anyway, the backstory: in the '50's, Russians bombed us, taking out our entire country-except Vegas. Elvis expanded his kingship from rock n roll to government. Zoom to present day (1998): Elvis has died and left no hier to the throne. This news reaches the outlands and causes numerous pretenders to begin their trek to Vegas. The main character, Buddy, is one such pretender, armed only with a 1957 semi-hollowbody gibson and a tattered sword. Death and his heavy metal band are also on the make for Vegas and see Buddy for his awesome skills, so they want him gone. That's really all I'm gonna tell you at this point. It's one of my favorite movies, and the soundtrack is equally fuckin awesome. The Red Elvises rule.
Paradise Now- Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. They're given one night to be with their families (the families have no idea). The border crossing goes awry, and one of the guys goes missing. This movie gets into the mind of these two guys and shows all the conflicts going through their heads from before they're notified of the order, to a pretty wicked ending. It was hard to follow because it's not in english, but it turned out to be a cool movie.
Grand Theft Auto- Not ANYTHING like the game 20 years its junior. This one has Ron Howard! Derek warned me about this one, but I didn't listen. I've been pleasantly surprised by TCM underground before, right? Well, this wasn't very good. A rich girl wants to marry a 'wrong side of the tracks' type boy (Ron Howard), her parents refuse to consent, she steals daddy's car and the two go on a roadtrip to vegas to get hitched. Her dad blows a gasket, contacts his "people", gets them on her trail. The girls real fiance (an arranged thing) gets all whiny and crashes a bunch of cars trying to chase after them and a radio dj follows them in a helicopter and bugs them like a paparrazzo and they all end up in a big derby and everybody dies. No, nobody dies, I just wich they did. Ron howard marries the girl, her dad sees the former fiance for the whiny little momma's boy he is, everyone lives happily ever after, including the dj, who crashes through a trailer into a pool. Yeah, he really does that.
The Goebbels Experiment- I didn't realize at first that this was a documentary. It was still cool, though, because Kenneth Branagh narrated (good German accent), and because since Goebbels wrote EVERYTHING down, there is a lot narrated directly from his diaries. One thing is for sure. Goebbels is a drama queen. He suffered from depression, he was a womanizer, and he was paranoid. He wrote it all down, and apparently thought he was a classical poet.
Doorway to Hell- I accidentally caught this on TCM one night. It turned out to be a cool movie with an awesome ending. Made in 1930, it was James Cagney's second movie (he's in a supporting role). The movie is a bout a gangster trying to get out of the business by rallying all the bosses together and making them play nice, kind of like what Charles Luciano did. Some bosses don't like the "truce", and try to kinap his little brother, accidentally killing him. He gets his own revenge, but soon realizes how futile the whole game is. For 1930, it's an excellently written movie.

Captian Nobeard and her first mate Mr. Poophand...Yarrrr.

This came right before "the jump". We went about a foot in the air and landed hard. Isabella was kind of pissed and didn't want to ride with her daddy anymore after that.

Isabella going down on her belly...

Isabella finally got Mommy on the sled...

Fairy princess...Sorry Kevin, that's the only size they make.

One of Daddy's awesome new bowling shirts.

Brianna, Isabella, Emberly. Everyone wants her in matching clothes.