Just ran across this crazy Israeli club information website: XTRA. I suppose it's juvenille of me to be so titillated by a garish eurotrash club-scene website just because it's full of flashing graphics, club-girl scenester pics, a legalize pot graphic showing an usama bin laden type lighting up and the entire thing is mostly in hebrew. I have no excuse, it touches a funny bone deep inside. This site has everything a zionist hipster needs. And here's one IDF soldier who could bulldoze my house any day, if you know what I mean.
I was somewhat surprised when I went to Israel/Palestine a couple of years ago to find that Tel Aviv is considered the Sin City of the Middle East. Lots of dance clubs and strip clubs. It certainly wasn't what I pictured in my mind before I got there.
What is up with these nutcases? Herald Sun: Korea's 'lucky' triplets seized
ALL triplets in North Korea are being forcibly removed from parents after their birth and dumped in bleak orphanages.The policy is carried out on the orders of Stalinist dictator Kim Jong-il, who has an irrational belief that a triplet could one day topple his regime.
Sheesh, this is like some bible story. What the hell is going on?!? This is just so -CRAZY-!!! One day, assuming humanity survives the century, we're going to look back at the mixing of government and religious/superstitious beliefs as the greatest single problem that has plagued mankind. Culturally accepted religious irrationality just has to go.
Lady from Shanghai, The (1948)
This is one I added to my netflix queue after watching Gilda a few weeks ago. Unfortunately it was not as enjoyable as Gilda as a movie, but I did enjoy it as a historical document. There were plenty of outdoor shots of 1940's San Francisco that made it fun to spot and identify certain locations such as Empress of China restaurant and Li Po in Chinatown, Sausalito harbor and the old amusement park that used to be at Ocean Beach (torn down in 1972) called Playland (once home of the terrifying Laughing Sal). Despite that fun, overall I would have to say the film is probably my least favoriteOrson Welles or Rita Hayworth film so far.
Atanarjuat (2001)
Also know as The Fast Runner. George Parker sums it up so well in his imdb review that I'm just going to quote his review almost in its entirety here:
The Fast Runner" is a pedestrian story of treachery among a tribe of primitive natives - in this case the Inuits of the arctic region of Canada. On the upside the film has an abundance of raw Spartan arctic beauty; haunting music and percussion; real native actors speaking what is presumably the Inuit tongue; and a fascinating sense of authenticity. On the downside, the film is viscous, long, esoteric, difficult to follow, and plays better as a documentary with the thin story of murder and deceit among peaceful people being buried under ice and snow as we watch the Inuit's simple day-to-day survival tasks and never see the more interesting activities such as a caribou hunt. In short, the film doesn't work well as either a drama or a documentary though it seems to try to straddle both.
I think I may have enjoyed the movie more than Mr. Parker, but his points are quite valid.
My friend Thomas Sullivan, a wonderfully talented and learned musician, has recently become enthusiastic about digital "film" making and has completed his first movie short. A tongue in cheek dramedy called Crying In Public. It's a 3 minute quicktime movie (15 megabyte download) which was completed for a film collective in Brooklyn called Day 60 which gives its members a theme and 60 days to complete a short piece. The theme last month was "crying in public".
Thomas wrote, directed, starred, ran the camera, did the editing and created the original score. I'm really surprised he didn't throw a big passionate kiss scene into the script, because his co-star looks very kissable. Wink wink, nudge nudge.
Warm Water Cove, a forgotten park located where 24th Street meets the bay, is often the scene of free outdoor bbqs with live generator-powered punk rock music. Come on down, a beautiful day for punk by the bay......
--Dav via Danger Hiptophttp://www.danger-island.com/dav/