News Archive - April 2005
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4-28-2005
Net Enigma. All I'm asking is that we not mention lesbian dalliances and bodies in the pool.
Back from a long week in Indianapolis partying and hanging out with friends. I'm sick as fuck, however, and I'm not sure what to blame; 40 degree weather and snow, the rain, less than 15 hours total sleep the whole weekend, the 30,000+ people at the convention or the strippers.
Doesn't matter much because I had a freakin' blast!
I'll get some new stuff up in the next couple of days. Lot's of stuff to catch up on though.
4-18-2005
Net Enigma. Tech support hell.
Still working out some bugs with tech support after a server crash this weekend. I think I have most of the site working as of today, but there may be a couple errors here and there. Especially if it's a file that was uploaded after 4/11 some time.
Plus there are still a few problems that don't really effect regular viewing of the site. Hopefully Lunarpages, my host, will get their shit together sooner, rather than later.
4-17-2005
Net Enigma. Pardon me if I'm skeptical.
Scientists are saying that prisoners given lethal injections feel pain before they die. Since the electric chair and gas chamber have been found inhumane for these same reasons, so should lethal injection.
Newsflash; I don't care. I'm sure they feel no more pain than the person or persons they probably murdered did. I mean, seriously, a few seconds of muscle cramps compared to, say, multiple stab wounds? I think I'd take the injection.
Oddly enough, the same web site that has this article also has one about patients feeling pain when they are in for an operation. Let's see, elective surgery to fix a health problem or lethal injection for being found guilty of a terrible crime against humanity? Hmmm...Nope, still no sympathy for the criminal.
One thing I like about the first article, though, is when they mention that prisoners about to undergo lethal injection feel "anxious" and may have an adrenaline rush that dulls the effect of the anesthesia, causing them to be more aware when the final plunger gets pressed. Again I say; don't care.
As a matter of fact, I'll go out on a limb here and say that I think lethal injection is too nice of a way to go. I'd much rather see an old fashioned hanging. I also can't say enough for other cost effective means such as the firing squad. Surely a $10 box of ammo is much easier on the tax payers than hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars needed for the injections.
I'll take another moment to ponder this....Nah, fuck'em. Death row? Lethal injections all around.
Original Sin
I finally had the chance to go and check out the new film, Sin City. Based on a series of graphic novels by Frank Miller, Sin City is broken into three main chapters following the characters Marv, Hartigan and Dwight. All three intersect, at some point, with characters appearing in all three chapters, but each has it's own arc with it's own climax.
Robert Rodriguez, who has directed Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico among other films, took a bold step and resigned from the Directors Guild in order to film this movie with a co-director, Frank Miller. Quentin Tarantino even guest directs some scenes. Filmed completely against green screen, the film maintains the stark black and white visuals of the novels. Splashes of color appear in spots and stand out in some incredible ways such as characters eyes or the literally-named Yellow Bastard. Filmed almost frame-for-frame from the graphic novels, this film is very interesting to watch. The dialog through most of it is corny and feels sort of like it's cribbed from a 50's serial. Also, since most of the graphic novel is told by internal dialog, the movie relies heavily on narration instead of actual dialog between characters. The action, however, doesn't lack for this style.
The prolog to the movie introduces us to Hartigan, played by Bruce Willis, who's on the trail of a serial rapist and murderer named Roark Jr. (Nick Stahl). The son of a senator and grandson of a powerful Cardinal, Roark Jr. has just kidnapped an 11 year old Nancy, who Hartigan is focused on saving.
Leaving the completion of Hartigan's story till the end, next we meet Marv. A grizzled ex-con, played brilliantly by Mickey Rourke, Marv is shown one night of compassion by a hooker named Goldie, played by Jaime King. While sleeping, someone sneaks into his hotel room and murders her. He wakes to sirens, a dead girl in his bed and revenge on his mind. Helped by Carla Gugino's Lucille, Marv's parole officer, he tracks the killer through the underbelly of the fictional Basin City, beating, shooting and chopping his way to the person that ordered the murder. Clearing his name, however, is not high on his to-do list.
Dwight's story comes next. After becoming involved with a local bar waitress, Dwight finds himself involved in breaking a truce between the women of Old Town, the cops, pimps and dealers. Tarantino's guest direction came during this segment, filming a long dialog between Dwight and Jackie Boy, played by Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro respectively. This chapter of the story also allows us a fun peak at a lot of hot women in skimpy outfits. The climax of this chapter is a showdown between Dwight, Rosario Dawson as Gail and Manute played by Michael Clarke Duncan. Winner takes Old Town.
Finally we get back to Hartigan's story. Eight years after rescuing the 11 year old Nancy, Hartigan is tricked into revealing the location of the now 19 year old Nancy, played by Jessica Alba. Masterminding the revelation is Roark Jr., now known as Yellow Bastard. Deformed from his first encounter with Hartigan, he wants some payback and to finish the girl that got away.
There are no good guys in Basin City, even when they have good intentions. The black and white filming of the movie allows you to overlook a lot of the blood, and trust me, there's plenty of that. The film is innovative for its style and the fact that it was shot all in digital against green screen. Miller's art was faithfully translated to the big screen and even though I'm sure it'll take some heat for it, it's extremely fun to watch. Like I mentioned at the beginning, some of the dialog is campy and some of the violence is so over the top that it was funny in places.
Mickey Rourke turns in, arguably, the best performance in the film. He gets some of the best and most humorous lines, but beyond that he owns Marv. Lord of the Rings fans will be blown away by the psychotic, mute cannibal Kevin played by Elijah Woods. Willis is always fun to watch and Hartigan is an amalgam of characters that he's played before. Not well known in the US till King Arthur and Closer, Clive Owen is turning out to be a top-notch actor, keep an eye on him.
The style of the film, the stark colors and the innovative style bring something new to theaters which is enough to put it over the top for me. The fact that it's also a faithful translation of Miller's comics is something exciting to see from Hollywood (actually, Texas in this case). Mickey Rourke + naked Carla Gugino + innovative digital filming + Frank Miller and Tarantino directing = 4 out of 4 wheels of cheddar in my book.
System Outage
Well, my host was offline last night for several hours. Some hardware failure of some sort. Anyway, they also fucked the backup of my site so I ended up having to restore a bunch of shit this morning. Everything looks good now, but I'll be checking through everything over the next couple of days just to make sure.
4-15-2005
Net Enigma. It's tax day, bitches.
That's right, today is the deadline to either pony up the money you owe or maybe sneak out a refund from Uncle Sam. As I write this you have 23.5 hours left to get your shit post marked.
I put mine off till the last minute but did get it in a few days ago. And I'm even getting some money back from the Fed. Not stingy New York state, though. I almost told them to keep their lousy $18. I can't even buy a fucking tank of gas in this state with that much scratch.
This just in
The library bathroom is a hot spot for gay sex. Surprisingly, it's not TCPL.
Save the Boobs
"The Sun," a UK paper famous for their topless Page 3 girls is campaigning to save Jordan's boobs. The Page 3 model has stated that her inflated 32FF breasts are a "little big" and is thinking about having them reduced.
I have to say that whether she stays with the 32FF or her goes back to her original 32B, you can't deny that she's one sexy babe.
And while we're at it
Let's talk about another hottie, Vida Guerra. Seems she's fallen victim to a Paris Hilton-style T-Mobile hack and what do you know? She likes to keep nude pictures of her best asset as well.
4-12-2005
Net Enigma. Other than the drug bust and the plane crash it was fun.
Note to foreigners, and Canadians, if you are going to visit Washington D.C., don't stand around wearing black and holding onto your suitcases. It might get you tossed in the slammer. This will be your only warning.
Boring
You know, you never really hear about anything bad happening in Idaho. As a matter of fact, that's one of the few states that, off the top of my head, I can't even name a city for. Anyway, it seems that they have pretty much solved all their problems so now the government can get down to passing really important resolutions.
Like this one, praising the creative team that brought us the movie Napoleon Dynamite. It seems they're pretty impressed with how this movie portrayed the state and their love for things like clean air, multiethnic relationships, healthy marriages and, oh yeah, potatoes.
4-11-2005
Net Enigma. Boobs do not factor into this equation...Unless you want to show me yours?
Unless the broad is really horrid, I can't figure out why people get so upset about nudity. If these kids that got flashed were men, and the teacher wasn't completely unfortunate looking, I don't see the problem.
I mean, if they aren't gay, it's not going to be much longer till they're begging for broads to GTO.
4-9-2005
Net Enigma. I think we've already deja'ed this vou.
Looks like the link to the Baltimore Sun article I posted yesterday about Mike Bolesta may not have worked. So, I saved the info to my site and updated the link so, if you missed it, check it out today.
I think I have a solution
For years cops have been shooting suspects when they needed to. Did they ever shoot the wrong guy or was there some controversy behind when to use deadly force? Sure. So with technology advancing they tried to find better ways to subdue criminals; tasers, bean-bag guns, etc.
Well, even those methods can kill someone. My solution, cut the bullshit and just go back to regular guns. Because let's face it, you have a gun, you draw it on a cop or someone else with apparent intent to use it, you lose your right to not be shot dead.
4-8-2005
Net Enigma. You create chaos
Mike Bolesta tried to pay his Best Buy bill using $2 bills. For being a loyal customer, Mr. Bolesta was promptly arrested.
I think Mike's gonna sue somebody. And I hope he wins.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled work day.
4-7-2005
Net Enigma. You're having the time of your life.
I guess I was right the other day when I predicted that OJ would show up at Johnnie Cochran's funeral. And come on, that means the "real" killers were there too. Fuckin' murderer.
Freaks and geeks
If you ever wanted to know why I don't make a big deal of being a fan of Star Wars, I give you a prime example. Actually, they'd probably give any movie fan a bad name...
4-5-2005
Net Enigma. Looks like Bobo has a new job.
Director of Public Access TV programming.
Do I make you angry?
Does all this red typing stress you out? Is your heart racing? Are you panicking? Are you color blind and not seeing a thing?
In the latest round of stupidity, red ink has been deemed "stressful" to students when they see it on their class work. Remember in English class you'd get your essay back and your teacher would mark it up with spelling, punctuation and grammar errors in red ink?
Yeah, I do. And I think they'd have a field day with this web site because I forgot most of that stuff years ago. But I digress.
According to this article purple is the new color of choice for a lot of teachers. It's less harsh and I guess it's the feel-good color of the 21st century. I just hope all those conservative teachers in the south don't find out that purple is the official color of homosexuals. And if a teacher uses purple with one of those arrow marks ( ^ ) to show the student forgot a word? Forgetaboutit!
A purple triangle? I think the Bible foresaw that as a sign of the End of Days.
Speaking of...
The End of Days, $3 a gallon gas prices anyone? How about $4? My boss heard a report that quoted someone-in-the-know as saying oil prices could reach $100 a barrel. Double what it is now, double the gas prices. How much will you pay?
Some
Good News
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Yesterday President Bush awarded the Medal of Honor to Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith. Two years ago Smith held off an Iraqi ambush saving the lives of the men in his unit. He died that day.
His 11 year old son, David, accepted the award from the President. You can read the citation on the US Army's web site here.
Sgt. Smith is survived by his wife Birgit, son David and daughter Jessica.
4-1-2005
Happy April Fool's day, bitches!!
"All right, you guys ain't working as a team. I'm gonna have to shut down the studio. The only way I'll reopen the studio is if you go up to the Bronx, and get me some breast milk from a Cambodian immigrant." - Chappelle
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