Friday, June 13, 2008

Friday the 13th jigsaw Part 2: The day you count on for terror is not over

I have here a lettered list of 13 slasher/horror/science-fiction/fantasy/thriller movies, followed by a numbered list describing scenes from those movies-often but not always of killings. Your job: Fit 'em together.

A. The Funhouse

B. Halloween

C. Saw IV

D. A Nightmare on Elm Street

E. A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

F. The Faculty

G. Saw III

H. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

I. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

J. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

K. Saw II

L. The Poseidon Adventure

M. Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI


1. A trampy girl tries to use her very trampiness to escape death. It doesn't work, but you gotta give credit...

2. Giving his life that others might live, a priest drops into the bowels of fire.

3. Having just gotten a machete in his head, the killer falls. When the machete hits the floor, the killer's head slides down it till he comes to a rest.

4. Pretty blonde heroine telepathically uses the rampaging murderers own icon against him, slicing into his skull with it until it (the icon) shatters...

5. The killer decapitates three people with one swipe of his machete.

6. A killer lifts his victim into the air and stabs him through the stomach, pinning him on the wall off his feet, then stands there just looking at the victim for a moment...

7. In one of the most infamously homoerotic slasher-horror films ever made, an ex-Marine coach dies in a high school shower room.

8. The host of "The Daily Show" gets a pencil through his eye.

9. More than two thousand horsemen ride down what seems to be an impossibly high-angled hillside, hitting an attacking army full speed.

10. A man whose first child has already been killed learns that his second child has been kidnapped. She has a limited supply of air; he himself has just murdered the only person who knows where she is, and now there is no way to get her back.

11. A missing person is revealed to have been closer to the people who are searching for him than they could have possibly imagined.

12. The first victim in a series, a cool California blonde, rolls around on the ceiling of a bedroom as she's murdered by a killer no one can see...

13. An abusive husband and father is impaled together with his wife, back to back, by long metal spikes. These are arranged so that the wounds they will leave if removed will be fatal to the husband...but not to the wife. Oh, they'll bleed, and hurt, but if she can find the strength to remove them...

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Rainbow Brite murders of 1984


I wanna be a cowboy/And you can be my...


Easy, stomach. Don't turn over.

Ok. As you may or may not have heard, one of the latest rumors about the Obamas is that there's video of Mrs. Obama talking bad about us white people. Calling us--hide the children's eyes--"Whitey."

Now--no evidence of or direct witnesses to this apparently exists. In fact, the National Review (via TPM Election Central) has suggested that this story actually comes directly from the novel

The Power Broker, published in 2006 by Stephen Frey


And good on the conservative NR for doing that. Sure, they're still all a bunch of Boris Badenovs, but they got this one right.

However, none of the above is what prompted my woozy headline. Sorry to say, the notion that supporters of one's political opponents might spread blatantly false rumors is not enough even to give me a twinge anymore. But this hunk of Stephen Frey's "writing"...hoo boy.

He said, "You know, I had to put up with so much crap from Whitey when I was playing tennis back in the day, it was ridiculous. Real b****** stuff, too. Tennis racquets busted while I was in the shower, no towels, the worst locker, called n***** all the time, even by the help." He looked over at Osgood. "I'm telling you, Clarence, if I get elected president, I'm gonna act the way I'm supposed to act in front of the camera. Smile and dance like a good black man, do what I'm expected to do like a good boy. But behind the scenes, I'll f*** Whitey, and I'll f*** him good, I really will."


Frey's series character is named "Christian Gillette."

"Christian Gillette."

That's not a name, that's a razor given away with Amy Grant albums.

Stephen Frey is a bestselling author.

Oh, the pain, the pain...

(Need I add that this is not the eminently quotable comic Stephen Fry?)

Have I mentioned that sometimes you've just gotta laugh?

Seriously--is it beginning to seem to anyone else as though McCain desecrated a Buddhist Temple when he was in Vietnam, and is somehow cursed? Here's why I bring this up. From AmericaBlog :

14 Republican House members are refusing to endorse McCain


The best part? McCain issued a press release this week bragging that one - count 'em, one - Democratic House Member wasn't supporting Obama. Oops.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

delectable

Kate Moss.



Cindy Crawford.

Kristin Kreuk.


Neve Campbell


Kate Beckinsale.

Jennifer Aniston.

For those who might have missed or come late to the new Terminator series



Fox is giving you another look, by re-running the entire first season over two weeks this August (it's also coming out on DVD the same month; if you're already fan of the series, the special features look good enough for a rental at least).

I was on the fence about this show for a while, but came down on the mostly positive-opinion side. It's not perfect, but it's better than the crappy Terminator 3.

And personally, I buy Summer Glau (seen below looking deceptively frilly) as the sexy, soft-featured, deadly bot-chick a lot more than Kristanna Loken...
Photobucket
...who, granted, I hate to see leave but love to watch walk away.

Also as I understand it, the writers strike meant that while the first season was being shot, no rewriting could be done. Next season, we see if having a full writing staff "on site" helps or hurts...

Is it me, or does this look to anyone else like a scene from Bye Bye Birdie?

Barack Obama popped in on the eighth-grade graduation ceremony of the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago on Wednesday.




"We love you Ba-rack! Oh yes we do! We love you Ba-rack! And we'll be true! When you're not near us, we're blue (state)...oh Ba-rack..."

Julianne Moore talks to Fresh Air's Terry Gross

I wish they talked more than they do about the able-bodied actresses' new film, Savage Grace, which I sort of want to see. Based on the reviews, it looks like it's a wait-for-cable or DVD if there are good bonus features, though.

But the interview (just under 30 minutes) is worth listening to if you think as highly of Moore and/or her films as I do. They talk a bit about the new film, but then on to a kind of anthology of the emotional opportunities afforded by some of her others:

Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Short Cuts (yes, she has to talk about That Scene again. She sounds at peace with the idea it's going to be on her tombstone) , and Far From Heaven.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

You can read my latest review on Amazon...if you're the kind of person who does that sort of thing

I wasn't happy with the new Elizabeth Crane book, tho I still recommend her first two. My Amazon.com review of You Must Be This Happy to Enter posted yesterday.

Okay then.

(click to enlarge)



Thanks to my pal Corey Klemow for tossing me this.

Monday, June 09, 2008

John McCain's gonna get creamed

I find myself in a strange position. As I've said, in previous years I've liked John McCain. In one or two "Would I like to sit down across from him and have a conversation?" ways, I still like him now.

Even though I don't want him in the Oval Office (for more than one reason)...I take no (or at least, very little) pleasure in the beating I think he's going to get. I agree with him on virtually nothing, but you certainly couldn't argue that there's no substance there whatsoever. I wouldn’t, anyway.

I guess...I'm just sorry to see what he's done with it, and sorry for the humiliation I think he's going to endure. And already has. I think every time he sucks up to someone like Hagee, something inside him dies.

That doesn't excuse the sucking, but it does make it harder for me to revel when his hypocrisy is exposed.

I'm also--and I'm not trying to be snide--really beginning to have questions about the health of his brain, whether from age or other factors (PTSD from his service? Is that possible? Seriously). What brings that up? Well...

Friday, McCain was asked about something he said in his speech Tuesday--the one that got so much negative reaction...even though he was standing in front of my favorite color.

He denied saying it.

But of course, he had said it, as can be seen on YouTube.

McCain does seem to be out of his depth when it comes to really getting that in this day and age what you say can't be unsaid just because you wish it so. As John Cole said,
[McCain] is either lying, or he does not remember what he said.


And either way, there's no upside.

It occurs to me that although it must not have seemed like it at the time, throwing the Rev. Wright in Obama's face may have helped him. He and his campaign have ample reason to always try to be smart in what they say and do.

(Of course, we should all almost always try to do that...but you know what I'm saying).

A minute of Obama

For you (yes, you!)--because you've been good today...

I suppose this means I should see the new movie


Which Action Star Are You? Find out @ She's Crafty




I just wish I still had the hat.

(to be honest, the first time I took this I got Neo from The Matrix. I went back and changed a few answers because I've never seen those movies)

I'm a couple of fine chicks.

(Anyway, it doesn't matter who you are, if you're a Buffy girl, Joss Whedon will kill you eventually)


Which Buffy Girl Are You? Find out @ She's Crafty

"Tact is just not saying true stuff."--Cordelia Chase, as written by Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali



Who's Your Inner Buffy Bad-Girl? Find out @ She's Crafty

Well...if there was ever a man whose baby I would carry, it would've been David Boreanaz...

I'm sorry to hear that

Courteney Cox's controversial TV drama Dirt has been cancelled by network bosses at FX after just two seasons.

The second season of the show, on which Cox played a feisty tabloid editor, was shortened by the Writers Guild of America strike, and viewer figures slipped to just over one million per episode, prompting the decision to axe it.



I thought it turned out a better show than it seemed to be at first. I liked it, especially the central relationship between two loving friends, a woman and a man, neither of which would be seen as being in a "traditional" role (the woman had, you should pardon the expression, bigger balls than any male on the show, and the man was mentally ill).

It's true the second season was less satisfactory than the first, but I put that down to the strike. Ah well.

Everybody's a suspect!


Would you survive a horror movie? Find out @ She's Crafty

Eva Amurri wants me desperately, the poor girl

Oh Anne, Anne, Anne, Anne, Anne...

I know I don't know him, and granted, when it comes to The Future Mrs. Varkentine and The Unworthy Swine, I'm hardly unbiased. But this is, like, the fourth or fifth time in just over a year that Anne Hathaway's boyfriend, Raffaello Follieri, has made the news in a bad way.

Clearly, this is a guy with some weird-ass karma. On the one hand, you gotta think if he's dating Anne Hathaway, he must be doing something right. On the other...

In 2007, real estate mogul Ron Burkle sued Follieri for misusing $55 million in a joint venture to buy and resell properties owned by the Catholic church.


In June, the Follieri Group stepped down as managing member of the joint venture with Burkle's Yucaipa Investments, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The young businessman was recently ordered to pay $240,000 to the Washington, D.C., public relations company that represented him in his court battle with Burkle. Additionally, the private jet company that allegedly shuttled him and Hathaway about sued the joint venture for failing to pay $458,852 in chartering nine flights, according to the Post.


In April, he turned himself in to New York police after he was charged with bouncing a $215,000 check.

When Follieri presented himself to police at the Midtown North station house, he was issued a desk appearance ticket for a Class B misdemeanor. Charges were dropped in May after he paid up.


And now...
A children's charity operated by Raffaello Follieri, the boyfriend of the "Devil Wears Prada" star, has come under investigation by New York State Attorney General Andrew Andrew Cuomo, according to the New York Post.


Hey, Anne. Anne? This is a bad guy. Get smart, Anne...

Sunday, June 08, 2008

IMG_1345


IMG_1345
Originally uploaded by coutureleeanne
Much less well-known is The Tomb of the Unknown Hula Dancer.

20070925_1345 Aerialist/_MG_1345

There's something in this about all women, # 18



_MG_1345
Originally uploaded by spiky247
There's something in this about all women, # 19

1345 Greenwich Park


1345 Greenwich Park
Originally uploaded by andy linden
The Giving Tree.

What's sexier than a Texas woman?

A Texas woman in a green t-shirt.

What's sexier than a Texas woman in a green t-shirt?



...A Texas woman making obscene gestures with an adults-only message on her green t-shirt.

Don't, don't, don't, don't...


Which Breakfast Clubber Are You? Find out @ She's Crafty


Who's Your 80s Movie Icon Alter-Ego? Find out @ She's Crafty