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!