I'm so happy...

Trailer, we have trailer, captain!

Teaser Trailer For SAW 3D (aka movie 7)
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

It's times like this I'm proud to be a geek from California

Unbeknownst to the dastardly fanatics of the Westboro Baptist Church, the good folks of San Diego's Comic-Con were prepared for their arrival with their own special brand of superhuman counter protesting chanting "WHAT DO WE WANT" "GAY SEX" "WHEN DO WE WANT IT" "NOW!" while brandishing ironic (and some sincere) signs. Simply stated: The eclectic assembly of nerdom's finest stood and delivered.

it's...new Saw movie poster time.

Oh, I don't feel good about this--but it'll probably work to attract a new audience, which I assume is what the producers want, It's that time of year again, kiddies. Funny how time flies, in'it?



BTW, said producers are now telling the mainstream media that Saw VII (we real fans refuse to call it Saw 3D) will indeed be the last of the series. The USA Today item also has a couple of points which raise my ire:

The film was re-edited and submitted six times to the Motion Picture Association of America to bring it from an NC-17 to an R rating.

"I'm surprised we got it," says producer Mark Burg. "It's more violent than any of them. But it's in 3-D, it answers all the questions, it comes full circle. We have the goods on this one."

He couldn't say the same thing about the franchise's sixth installment, which earned $28 million last year, roughly half the take of its most recent predecessors.

While also earning the best reviews since the original; making it on to at least a few "best of the year" lists, and not all at horror-movie sites. I know, I've been coming back to that theme since Saw VI opened last year.

It's because I think VI director Kevin Greutert made a film he can genuinely be proud of, and I hate to see it getting the blame for the downturn in the series' earnings.

...family groups accused the franchise of giving rise to "torture porn" films that relish punishing their victims, especially women.

Sigh...okay, the "torture porn" thing. I refer you, again, to this article:

...the Saw movies actually contain less torture than most horror movies, in that most of the excruciating pain is self-inflicted by the characters. John "Jigsaw" Kramer (Tobin Bell), the bogeyman of the series, places his victims in death traps that are usually fast-acting and can only be stopped by an act of self-mutilation or the murder of another person. These are definitely nasty things to do to someone, but they're quick and are done out of a deranged kind of philanthropy—Jigsaw believes those who survive will be stronger people for it—as opposed to the prolonged interrogations we usually associate with torture today.

As for the victims being especially, women, it should be noted that the first Saw is one of the only horror movies in which not a single woman is killed. And the rest of the films are remarkably fair-minded about which sex is to be tested.

For every woman thrown into a pit of dirty hypodermic needles (which she survives, BTW) or getting her arms stuck in a box booby-trapped with razors (she doesn't), there's a man who has to climb inside a working furnace or gets his head blown off by a gun attached to the peephole in a door.

(All those examples, BTW, come from Saw II...should you want to rent it)

But at least, the article does give franchise star Tobin Bell the last word:

"It's a free country," says Bell, who plays Jigsaw. "If people don't want to look at certain things, they shouldn't go. The people who don't go to films were more upset than the horror fans."

Exactly. I know for a fact that hearing or reading a description of a Saw film (or even looking at the posters) is a lot more upsetting than actually going to one.

The way I know that is that my idea of the films, gleaned from that, upset me a lot more before I'd actually seen them. When I did, I became a fan (you may have noticed).

Those fans, Tobin says, are the only ones who matter. "You can say what you want about it, but Saw fans have loved and supported it every year. We must have been doing something right."

And that's why he is our man...

Lying fink strikes again

Reading the doings of Andrew Breitbart always makes me feel the need for a shower.

Case in point.

Snicker, snicker

Brought to you via the Zaius Nation.

I may have to rethink this whole "Buddhism-influenced" thing

Sign outside Yoga studio today: "Om is Where the Heart Is."

I don't even know how to begin to tell you all the things that are wrong with this

The Travel Channel is running a show called "Most Unique McDonalds."

Oh, well that's just divine

If you follow national politics at all, you may have heard of one Sharron Angle. And if you've seen her on TV you may have come, as I have, to the conclusion that this woman A) Is probably a slow reader, if she reads at all, and B) Is creepy.

I'm not even talking about her positions on the issues, which are a whole other level of hell. I'm just talking about the way she comes off. As for her position on an issue...

Manders: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?

Angle: Not in my book.

Manders: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?

Angle: You know, I'm a Christian and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.

Hear that, ladies? If you become pregnant because you were raped by a close relative, rejoice and be happy, for that is all just part of God's great good plan for you.

This is what you call your eerily apt metaphor for my own mind

Brilliant.

Ever wonder what Steve Martin's contractual tour guidelines are?

Cute overload...

Emmy Rossum holding a puppy...what am I, made of stone?

Ah-hem. BLEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAH.

For Corey.

This is your periodic reminder that Katharine McPhee is a loser

I just like to point that out, every now and again.

For those of you at home, Elton John and Rod Stewart also played Sun City in Apartheid South Africa.

Just so we're clear.

Taking a break from the nerve-wrecking political reality in Israel is becoming even more difficult these days, as a number of well known music artists are canceling their scheduled concerts in Israel. This comes in the wake of last week's flotilla incident that turned deadly when nine pro Palestinian activists were killed after clashing with Israeli commandos.

This week, the US rock band "Pixies" has cancelled their concert in Tel Aviv just two days before the show. The band did not specify the exact reason, but the organizers say the decision was related to last week's flotilla raid. This announcement follows recent concert cancellations by the British dance band "Klaxons" and the "Gorillaz Sound System". Elvis Costello has also recently cancelled a scheduled show in Israel, prior to the flotilla incident, to protest Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.

Others, such as Elton John and Rod Stewart, are still planning to perform in Israel this summer.

Do the words "I never thought I'd see the day" mean anything to you?

Hugh Laurie and Lisa Edelstein shooting a scene for the season premiere of House.

We might've prevented it, but...

Roger Ebert on the oil leak. Excerpts:

What we can't seem to accept is that the oil is leaking and we can't stop it. This doesn't fit the modern narrative in which we can fix anything if we get organized and throw enough money at it.

The difference is, Bush could have done more with Katrina, but I don't see what Obama can do with the Spill. He's instructed: "Take personal command!" Should the President be our go-to guy on oil spills? ... He can try to pass some energy legislation, but both parties are in the pockets of Big Oil. Those few legislators who work for meaningful federal solutions are pilloried as "socialists."

To recap...

In March of 2008, I changed the title of this blog from DiD to "a dragon dancing with the Buddha." I kept it that until early this month, when I decided to change it back again. It doesn't mean much of anything--the blog is the blog, no matter what I call it.

So what I can't figure out is why, now that I've changed it back, all of a sudden I keep turning up on lists of Buddhist Bloggers.

I mean, I don't object to that or anything, I just think it's funny that for the two years this blog had Buddha in its title, AFAIK I made no such listings. As I wrote the other day, I consider myself "Buddhism-influenced," or "Zen-ish," as Life's Charlie Crews would say, but not a full-fledged Buddhist.

I guess it's just a riddle.

By chance, that also happens to be my drag name

Jennifer Aniston Clings to a 'Chastity Pillow' for Sex Scenes

I see this as a clear (and remarkably far-sighted) metaphor

...for the damage done by the Gulf spill and the challenges of cleaning it up.



I mean honestly...what else could it be?

Unadorned.