My favorite color has Marah Carey's great talents well-covered.

Source

Two happiness

Annabel and Keitha, of course. For any of you who don't know, these are two characters I created for a story I've been trying to get produced or published in some form or another for several years.

So far, I consider them the best characters I've yet come up with as a writer, I say so far because I have to hope to surpass them or what's the point? But I'm attached to them in ways that I've rarely been with any of my other characters.

There's so much of me in both of them, something I don't think you'd guess by looking at me. But I believe in them even when I don't believe in myself...which is nuts, but I'm a writer, your point?

Anyway, their voices in my head--they make me happy.

Hello, cupcake.

Kate Winslet in the nude.

No further explaination necessary, I trust.

'Girls Gone Wild,' Summer, 1903

(Click to see full size)

Dick joke, click to make readable

So he says, dad, what's the difference between theory and practice?

I've been meme-tagged by Becca. The rules (which as usual, I've done what I like with):

Theoretical Film Festival

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.

As you'll see, I've added selected short subjects to round off some nights.

Night 1-

Resident Evil Blu-ray Trilogy
Originally uploaded by Saul Leon13

Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction.

Probably as inspired as movies based on elements from video games are ever going to get.

Also, by programming them on night one, I'm making a statement: This festival is not going to be afraid to be stoopid. (Which, you'll remember, is quite distinct from "stupid." The Mummy Returns was stoopid. Tomb of the Dragon Emperor looks stupid.)



Night 2-Gone Baby Gone/Mystic River/The Departed.

Followed by a discussion of whether Ben Affleck will prove to be another Clint Eastwood in the young-actor-turned-old-pro-director sweepstakes.

And whether if Affleck hadn't been the director, more people would've seen Gone Baby Gone than saw the much weaker--in my view--Departed.

And whether The Departed would've won its director an Oscar if he hadn't been Martin Scorcese.

(that Gone and River are both based upon novels by the same author is merely a coincidence, in terms of my choosing them. A nice coincidence, but a coincidence nevertheless.)

Night 3-Three episodes of South Park to make one feature-length festival:

The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers,


Tsst,

Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy
Originally uploaded by hujo27

and Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy.

And Saw II.



What's the theme, you ask?

Unexpected places to find family counseling, of course....

(added bonus: With this and The Departed, you can compare and contrast the brothers Wahlberg as actors.)

Night 4-Madonna: Truth or Dare/Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful

(OK, so this image of Madonna is about five years ahead of Truth or Dare. So sue me.)

First, remember Madonna when you still kinda loved her, before so many cracks started to show through. Then laugh a nasty laugh at Julie Brown's great parody.



But Medusa is less than an hour long, so we'll add an episode or two of Just Say Julie:


Night 5-Ocean's Eleven with the Rat Pack (1960)/Ocean's Eleven with Clooney, Pitt and the boys 2001.




How to remake a movie and make it better: You take a movie that needed to be remade; rebuild it from the ground up.

the texas chainsaw massacre
Originally uploaded by yans mjölk

Night 6:

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre/The 2003 remake.

How to remake a film and make it worse: First, take a film that didn't need to be remade.

Then, try to compensate for the lack of atmosphere by having Jessica Biel bouncing around like she's got tennis balls in her bra.

(It is even more coincidental that two of the films in this festival are horror/suspense movies that have stars of the show Seventh Heaven -which I've never seen-in them. Biel, above, and Beverley Mitchell has a small supporting role in Saw II. She does a nice job.)

I don't think I'm going to tag anyone specific--if you feel like picking this up, by all means, be my guest...

Speaking of teaser trailers, I've been looking for this online for years...

Like, since 1999, when the movie came out. So just watch.

As chance would have it, I was listening to the soundtrack of the original just this morning, in my car

Well I'll be a son of a bitch...I never thought I'd see the day.

Tron 2. It's actually happening and Jeff Bridges is in it.

I'm just a bit of a geek for the original Tron. I know it's all groundbreaking visuals and very little else (although the acting by Bridges and others helps a lot). Normally I turn my nose up at that sort of thing...but in this one case, I don't care, I love it.

The teaser trailer will no doubt be up in hi-res in just a couple of days...but if you're as much of a Tron geek as I am (and if so, hi, Vice-President Gore!), you can see a really crappy bootleg someone shot on a cell phone here.

For your perusal:

At the Open Left blog, Matt Stoller makes a case for Wesley Clark as Obama's VP. I think he gets it pretty much right. If I could have anybody I wanted I'd probably still go for John Edwards, but Clark would be more than OK with me in the VP slot.

I'm a depressive; I could use reminders of the things that make me happy.

So I'm picking up a "challenge" from an occasional reader of this blog, Michael, of Big Orange fame. The idea is that

for the month of August, you were challenged to post something positive or something that made you happy or made you smile, etc. each day in your blog.

Sounds like a good idea to me (for the reason stated in the headline) And anyway, I've wanted to come up with one or two more "daily theme memes" leading up to my birthday. Like the "Women my own age" thing I did last year.

So:

One happiness: Lying in bed on my back with someone I love curled up under my arm with their head on my chest.

He was overheard crying: 'There can be only one!"

Manitoba - Passengers aboard a Canadian bus fled in horror as a fellow traveler viciously attacked his seat mate, repeatedly stabbing him and then severing his head, witnesses said Thursday.

...passenger Garnet Caton said the victim, who appeared to be about 19, was sleeping with headphones on when his seat mate suddenly began stabbing him as the bus traveled a desolate stretch of the TransCanada Highway, a dozen miles from Portage La Prairie.

He said the suspect had the victim on the floor of the bus and "was cutting his head off" with a large hunting knife.

Not if you win or lose, but how you play the game, Senator.

I don't usually pass along the videos, petitions and such I get from being on various anti-McCain, pro-Obama, and general political mailing lists. As I think I've said, I figure most of you already are on those lists or not if you choose to be.

I'm making an exception for this petition, calling on McCain to disavow an ad based on lies.



Anyway, I'm making the exception, not because I think it's the most important issue of the day--it isn't, though it's not the least, either--but for my own pride. Or ego if you like.

See, when I signed the petition, I added a little comment "to" Senator McCain. I'm no fool (not about this, anyway), I know the odds of the Senator ever reading this petition at all are about as likely as his making it out of "crazy base world" without redeeming his frequent flip-flop miles.

But I kind of like what I came up with and wanted to preserve it. So here's what I said.

"It's hard to believe a war-hero like yourself is doing this. Stop lying Senator, and regain the respect of people like me who once liked you regardless of political party.

And, I have to believe, regain your own self-respect as well.

Not if you win or lose, but how you play the game, Senator."

What is this, a Disney movie?

University of Washington researchers say gummy bears containing the sugar substitute xylitol may work as a tool to combat cavities in children.

In a six-week study conducted in Washington state, gummy bears infused with xylitol seemed to reduce cavity-causing bacteria on children's teeth.

Xylitol is a naturally-occurring sugar alcohol approved by the FDA. Gum with xylitol is already on the market, but researchers wanted something more appealing for youngsters.

If it turns out chocolate covered marshmallows are a dietary aid, I may pass out.

Hold all calls.

Anne Hathaway, etc etc, trying to kill me, you've heard it before

Three images

1. Maggie Gyllenhaal: Real person as hottie.

2. Jesus Christ, Alexis Bledel is just shockingly pretty.



(click image to see original size)

3. Alyson Hannigan before she fell out of my favor by getting rid of her red hair. But damn, she was naughty sweet back in the day, wasn't she?

The pride is back.

PJ writes of this moveon commercial,

Is that a rare sighting of Amber Benson? Ben will tell me.

Yes, that is the good-looking Ms. Benson.

Along with (among others) Rider Strong, who is one of the creators of the ad. Strong is known to indie horror fans as the lead actor in Cabin Fever. And as Shawn Hunter of Boy Meets World, to American teenage girls of the 1990s, and guys (who were) in their late 20s, like me, who liked Topanga just a little bit more than we should probably admit.

(But I am not ashamed of that fact, I am proud, proud. Proud, do you hear me?)



and in our defense, can you blame us?

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

I ask this, frankly, with very little real curiosity, because I'm pretty sure I already know the answer and so do you. But do you suppose any of the people who like to go around spouting that liberal entertainers are responsible for disasters and tragedies are going to have anything to say about this?

Knoxville Police Department Investigator Steve Still wrote in the search warrant that Adkisson "admitted to shooting McKendry and several others at the church."

Adkisson went on a rampage at the church, Still wrote, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major media outlets."

Still seized three books from Adkisson's home, including "The O'Reilly Factor," by television commentator Bill O'Reilly; "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder," by radio personality Michael Savage; and "Let Freedom Ring," by political pundit Sean Hannity.

Let's remember, O'Reilly likes to tell people that gangs of brutal lesbians are roaming the streets (I know he says a lot of crap, but that may be my all-time favorite). Then there's Michael Savage, who bullied callers to his own television show by calling them "sodomites" who should "get AIDS and die." And Sean "a Democratic victory in the November elections would be a victory for the terrorists" Hannity.

(As dday says at Hullabaloo,

Assuming causation may be an imperfect science, but these are the same folks who blamed Marilyn Manson for Columbine so I don't have much sympathy.)

Deep And Sexy...well, sexy anyway

Amanda Peet reminds me why I decided to become obsessed with her.


I've never seen any of Anita Briem's movies (either of them), but she bears watching.



Kim Cattrall lookin' cheap 'n' sexy. And I mean both of those as a good thing.



Jennifer Love Hewitt makes out with a crow.



Quick! Which of the Olsen Twins do I think is hotter?



and, Ginger Lynn makes me wonder what kind of a sorry freak Charlie Sheen must be to have let her get away.

people worry about religious fanatics, but no one's ever heard of a faith-based fanatic.

God Help Us

Let's start with faith-based, which was chosen by right-wing holy people to replace the word religious in political contexts. In other words, they've conceded that religion has a bad name. I guess they figure people worry about religious fanatics, but no one's ever heard of a faith-based fanatic.

And by the way, none of the Bush religious fanatics will admit this, but the destruction of the World Trade Center was a faith-based initiative. A fundamentalist-Moslem, faith based initiative. Different faith, but hey, we're all about diversity here.

The use of faith-based is just one more way the Bush administration found to bypass the constitution. They knew Americans would never approve of government-promoted religious initiatives, but faith-based? Hey, what's the problem?

The term faith-based is nothing more than an attempt to slip religion past you when you're not thinking, which is the way religion is always slipped past you.

--from George Carlin's final book.

I'm not meant to find this sweet and juicy, right?

(Photo from the AtrophyAnnie Gallery, by Robb Rosenfeld. Model: Jaime Perkins)

Ok, the TN Church gunman thing

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Knoxville’s police chief says the man accused of a shooting that killed two people at a Tennessee church targeted the congregation because of its liberal social stance.

Chief Sterling Owen IV said Monday that police found a letter in Jim D. Adkisson’s car. Owen said Adkisson was apparently frustrated over being out of work and had a “stated hatred of the liberal movement.” The church is known for advocating women’s and gay rights and founding an American Civil Liberties Union chapter.

Crooks and Liars:

Adkisson is obviously a very disturbed person, regardless of his political views. We will most likely learn more details in time, but the picture that’s developing is one of a typical, uninformed Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Wiener-Savage fan — an angry white male who has been brainwashed into thinking that everything wrong in America and around the world is the fault of the evil liberals.

I've nothing to add, except: What the hell was I doing in Knoxville, Tennessee five years ago?

Hark! A herd of the picturesque!

In one place (the Cartier Polo match in the UK) yesterday, we find the following faces:

Actress Kelly Brook, about whose outfit I have only this to say: When even I go "Man, that's '80s"...it's a sign of something.



Emma "It's OK, she's 18 now" Watson, showing what a sexy bride she'll make someday, as if we didn't know.



Dita Von Teese, pretty in plunging peach.



And actress Rosamund Pike. Who may be the only woman in history ever to have beeen in both a film based upon a Jane Austen novel, and another adapted from a video game.

Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart.

If I wanted to depress the both of us, I'd point out that this song is 18 years old

But I don't, so I'll just say it's by Holly "gay as the day" Johnson, of--

Relax don't do it (love)
When you want to come

--fame.

This was his best post-Frankie Goes To Hollywood song, but I'm not sure it ever charted anywhere.



The house mix by Julian Mendelsohn was even better. Mendelsohn remixed and/or produced many records for and with Pet Shop Boys; there's an obvious resemblance to PSB in this video and song.

The Pets are my favorites and Frankie didn't have enough good songs to fill a best-of (IMO). But I think it's important to remember Frankie pre-dated PSB musically and Neil & Chris were hardly the first Britishers to wear that hat and suit...

DSF_2206

DSF_2206
Originally uploaded by crobart

Denied the chance to participate in any reindeer games, Rudolph could take it no longer.

IMG_2206

IMG_2206
Originally uploaded by burgersfamilyreunion

You've all heard of The Teddy Bear's Picnic, but what of The Ducks Family Barbecue?

think greener

think greener
Originally uploaded by frischmilch

Quick question to my RF-B peeps...how many of you saw this and didn't know I was going to use it?

touch

touch
Originally uploaded by Lara Swift

I've got nothing snarky to say about this one, it's just neat.

IMG_2206.JPG

IMG_2206.JPG
Originally uploaded by carriechan

Damnit...I just know there's a strap-on dildo joke to be made here somewhere...

102_2206-

102_2206-
Originally uploaded by Alinee.

"Ok, everybody freeze! I lost a contact!"

Amazon/Warrior

Just put up two new reviews at Amazon:

Heather Thomas' book, Trophies

And former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's memoir, Wiser in Battle.

My reading tastes are nothing if not catholic.