John Irving on John Irving

I may be stating the obvious, forgive me if I am. The main characters (including Ruth Cole) in John Irving's A Widow for One Year, are all John Irving. It's the author at different points in his life. Look at the jacket photo of Irving as he describes Ted Cole. Instead of wrestling, which permeates so many of his earlier books, you have squash. Ruth Cole is the Author, Ted Cole is the the present Irving, and Eddie O'Hare is the Young Irving. Of course they all intermingle, and overlap and spread, being parts of the same man and characters in the same writer's novel.

 

Technorati Tags : john, irving, A, Widow, for, One, Year, books, reading, writing, novel, literature, stories, fiction, autobiography, Vermont, Long, Island 

 

Rush Hour

The Rush Hour Movies are entertaining shit. Emphasis on
shit. Dumbass action movies that make up in short scenes
and pointless fight scenes what they lack in plot. Note: not
"plot originality" but "plot", period.

 

Every time I hear something about Rush Hour 3 it has
something to do with Jackie Chan questioning Chris Tucker's
 "professionalism", and rightly so. Chris Tucker is just Martin
Lawrence without the screen time to show what an ass he is.
An untalented ass.  I figure they shoot each scene ten times
and if he improvises something funny they use it. He does
occasionally say something funny, though I can't remember
anything at present. His humor consists of yelling things in
ebonics, which is funny in and of itself.

 

As for Jackie Chan, when he learns English I will respect his
"acting". He is an amusing acrobat, nothing more.

 

So you have an amusing acrobat and a comedian who every
once in a while says something funny. You also get some
crisp action scenes and a decent supporting cast. Not too bad.
The movies don't pretend to be anything more than teenager
entertainment and I appreciate that.

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John Irving

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When I read books like John Irving's A Widow for One Year I get the feeling that I've been missing out, that somehow I
haven't grown up. I have yet to have a relationship as
complex or cold as the relationships he describes. I have yet
to accept the cynical reality of how people are and so I am
still bitter. I still think that there is an ideal to live up to,
places that you don't compromise. Maybe I have an
over-developed sense of entitlement. Maybe I think that I am
obligated to get more than I have any right to expect. Maybe
I look at the normal shifts and changes of relationships and
in people as being wrong because I don't change. 

 

 

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War and the Opposition

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The opposition to war in general, and the was in Iraq in specific, stem from the idea that humanity has somehow "come a long way", that we should be working to put conflict and mass bloodshed behind us. Which is as dumb an idea as you can have. As long as there are human beings there will be war and the necessity for waging it. Of course, all the reasons look questionable in the light of maimed youngsters coming home and crying bereaved families, but it doesn't meant that they are.

 

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Michael Douglas and Hollywood Nepotism

 

 

Is there any doubt that Michael Douglas would never have made it in Hollywood if not for his father's name? Oh yeah, there  are a lot of famous last names who never amount to amount to anything, I'm not saying that that's the only factor, just that the main contributor to his being known is his daddy. Nicholas Cage (formerly Nicholas Coppola) is another child of nepotism, of dubious talent (search this blog you want more on why I know this) and decidedly unappealing looks, he has primarily his birth name to thank for his success. I can say this because I can think of no other reason for him to have been given as many good roles as he has been.

Michael Douglas has made only one movie where is portrayal of a character actually rose above the mediocre and made a difference to the story. Of course, I mean Wall Street. Otherwise he was and is just a bland white leading man thrust into a part because it was too boring for Mel Gibson and too much of a pussy part for Kevin Costner (back in the 80's-90's).

 

 

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The Pink Panther Strikes Back

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From the Pink Panther Strikes Back Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau: Does your dog bite? Hotel Clerk: No. Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau bowing down to pet the dog: Nice doggie. [Dog barks, bites and mangels Clouseau's hand.] Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau: I thought you said your dog did not bite! Hotel Clerk: That is not my dog.

The Church of Oceans's Twelve

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Ocean's Twelve is all about worshipping Hollywood stardom, it's for those millions whose personal satisfaction is humility before idols. This is for those people who can be awed by another human being. This is for those poeple who can be awed by another human being because they are rich and/or famous and/or goodlooking. In short, People Magazine subscribers, this movie was written just for you. Forget about the plot, it doesn't really have one, I mean there something about some piece of eurotrash called the "Night Fox", and something with Andy Garcia collecting his money, but it's worthless and you, the target-audience, don't really care. You do get to see a lot of Brad Pitt's square little head, and you get to bathe in Clooney's smugness, and you get to wallow in Horse-face's "charm" as she reprises most of the characters she has played in movies like Pretty Woman and Notting Hill. Matt Damon is the best thing in this film, I write this reluctantly because it means nothing. Nobody is funny, nothing is clever or interesting, and there is no reason to see this movie except to see the people who play the parts.

Hollywood Makes a Romantic Comedy about Bestiality

It had to happen. I had this worked out ten years ago when I figured out that people would find ways to make pretty much anything they really wanted to do seem acceptable. Society would happily go along, of course. I even had a timetable, first homosexuality would become commonplace on TV and in movies, then it would be incest (between adults at first), bestiality, then the unthinkable one, pedophilia. Everything would be justified, everything would be made easy for people's consciences to digest. After that you would have rape, the conflict of this with women's rights would be done away with by providing the semblance of consent, or ensuring that the victim would be completely unsympathetic (say the rape of a terrorist). Rest assured that sometime in the next half-century you will have movies with sympathetic pedophiles and rapists. People will come out of the closet and openly admit bestiality. You will have movies with adult heroes and their 12 year-old girlfriends/wives, who may or may not be their daughters. It sounds horribly ridiculous now, but Brokeback Mountain would have sounded Horribly ridiculous twenty years ago.

Batman and Robin

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Batman and Robin sucked because Joel Schumacher is gay and intent on making Baz Luhrmann-style musicals rather than an action movie. He has no idea how to direct a fight-scene, they all end up looking more like the old Batman and Robin TV series than like the tighter, explosive Tim Burton sequences. Goth oddball he may be, but Burton can pull of reasonable action scenes, the problem is that he only used a handful per movie. What the Batman Franchise needs is John Woo or John Mactiernan, somebody who knows how to make violent sequences balletic and real, not feeling like a West Side Story revival. Yes, the comic book could be ponderous and pretentiously talky sometimes, but occasionally the series would get an edge that no other mainstream comic book had. Real blood-and-guts storytelling. The movies have none of that, partly because the idea of a guy running around in a batsuit is easy to get over in the pages of a magazine, but hard to ignore when translated to real people. It looks stupid. You have to camp it up a bit to distract, or you could add some real R-rated bone-crunching and gunfire. Joel Schumacher did the easier one.

Technorati Tags : batman, robin, joel, schumacher, george, clooney

Hollywood geishas infuriate Japanese and Chinese public

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Hollywood geishas infuriate Japanese and Chinese public

GeishaThe national pride of Japan is hit hard as a new film by Rob Mashall Memoirs of a Geisha presents Japanese traditions in a very Americanized way.

Technorati Tags : geishas, hollywood, japan, china, japanese, chinese

Se7en Script

Se7en script.

Colin Farrell Sex Tape Transcript

?Below is the transcript of the Colin Farrell sex-tape. Easily the the most hilarious shit I have heard in a long time. I've highlighted a couple of the best parts for you. Nicole: (Giving him the camera) Here, you hold onto that. (She goes to television). Colin: (Pointing camera at own penis) I am putting this...(camera pans to Nicole's crotch)...right in there. (To Nicole) Come here, come here, pretty. N: Pretty! C: God, you're...as I said the other night, man, if a fucking camera could blush it would be fucking red because you are so fucking pretty. N: Really pretty! (unintelligible) Ok, now I'm putting on a video station. Ok. C: What are you watching, man? Judge fucking...? N: No! I'm trying to change the channel. C: Puttin' on some porn for us? N: (chipper) You want some porn? C: (yelling) I FUCKING LIVE ON PORN! What are you talking about? You're so sexy, you are so fucking sexy. Where's the zoom on this fucking piece of shit? You're fucking gorgeous (laughs). Baby, you're so fucking beautiful, man. N: Yes, my love. C: Aw, the battery's dead...so is my fucking cock. N: (coming towards him) Shut up. C: There it is. N: No, it's not. (The oral commences) C: Oh my God. Where's your lube? N: You want lube? C: Nah, you got me cock in your mouth. My God.

(Nicole stops the oral, she has a pubic hair in her mouth)C: Don't worry, we'll get rid of 'em.N: Yeah, you see that there?C: Yeah, okay, don't worry. We'll fucking lose them. (she continues) Whatever princess wants, princess fucking gets, let me tell you. Holy fuck, you're so fucking beautiful.N: (halts again, more pubic hair troubles) Damn you!C: You're just like...it's like you're going fishing for fucking pubes, man. You're just catching every fucking pube I have.N: I don't want to go fishing.C: By the end of this morning we won't need to shave me, there'll be none left...(she continues)...fuck...you are the sexiest motherfucker I have ever met...holy shit, I didn't know they made bastards as sexy as you, man. You are so fucking hot, baby...mmmmm.(She halts yet again, same problem)N: What the fuck? It's drenched in hair, baby.

C: There's so much fucking...(indecipherable Irishness)(She continues)C:...You're beautiful. Wait till you see yourself, how fucking sexy you are.(Heavy breathing/moaning)(Camera cut. Different angle, seconds later)C: (finding her in camera's view) Where is she? Oh my God...hey baby.N: Hi baby.(She gives him yet more oral)C: My God, you're so fucking beautiful, oh...my God.(moaning/breathing)(She pauses)C: Let me get inside of you.N: Okay.C: Get over here on the couch.N: You want me on the couch. (She goes to couch)

C: (indecipherable Irishness followed by his laughter) (Pans camera to own penis) This is for you, my baby.N: I have to take it in me.

C: My princess.N: Ah, God.(Begin La Sex)C: It's fucking in.N: Yeah, baby.C: Aw, fuck.N: Oh, God.(Moaning/Heavy breathing)C: Look at how fucking beautiful...(Moaning/Breathing gets substantially louder)N: Oh God, oh my God...oh...God...baby...fuck, oh shit...oh shit, oh fuck, oh God, oh God, oh God.(Moaning)N: Oh, my God.C: Oh, my God, you're so fucking beautiful. (They pause) (unintelligible)...me again, come here this way. (they change positions, go for gold)N: Oh, my God.(Moaning/Breathing)C: Oh, baby.(Moaning/Breathing)C: This is some of the shabbiest fucking photography in the history of fucking porn, but you know what? I could give a fuck...oh, baby. (They stop, he gives camera to her) Take this fucking...N: (finding Bullseye in frame) Mmmm, there he is. Oh, my God. (He goes down on her) Oh, my God. Here you are, oh, my God. Oh, my God. (moaning)Oh, my God. You're gonna enjoy this. (He pauses)C: I'm not enjoying this already, baby?N: You're gonna enjoy...

C: Holy fuck, man. Breakfast, lunch, and fucking dinner, right here. I'm not even fucking joking.

(He continues)N: Oh, my God.C: Mmmmmm.N: You need some angle shots right now...err...what do we gotta do? Oh, my God, you're gonna make me come. Can we film this? Okay, you know what? We should just set this thing down.C: Give me the fucking thing for a second. (He takes the camera, places it on table). Come here. (He continues his breakfast, lunch, and dinner)N: (unitelligible)...suck...(unintelligible)(Moaning)C: I just want to lick this dry.N: Oh...my God, Colin....your little wicked tongue. (Laughter)(He stops)C: That's the prettiest fucking pussy I've ever seen in my life.N: I hate it.C: Aw, man, you can't fucking say that! (incredulous) You hate it? You can't fucking hate that, girl. She's so beautiful, man. She's fucking gorgeous.N: She's so (unintelligible)C: What would you do? What would you snip? What would you fucking implant? Shut the fuck up.N: Nothing.C: It's beautiful...she's beautiful.N:...no...

C: She's a beautiful little flower.

N: Awwww. (He continues, she climaxes, they stop) You gotta brush your teeth. C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll do that shit. N: But you're just gonna have cum-mouth. (John Smith picks up camera, focuses on Nicole's white cat which is lounging on the floor next to porn magazines) C: I'm telling you, your pussy is just so fucking beautiful. Look at her. N: Let me see. C: Look at her. Look at your pussy, man. (Her obligatory laughter, he pans over) Okay, what do we do with this thing? What do we do with this thing, princess? N: What do you wanna do? You want to watch what we just did? C: Sure, and we can do it again! N: Yeah. C: God, so much fucking fun...alright, stop the...(camera cuts off)

Technorati Tags : Colin, farrell, sex, tape, transcript

Underworld: Evolution

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As one might have guessed, Underworld Evolution is dreadful. The concept of blood drinking in cinema compared to all the available bad-guy horribleness is so lame that you have to juice it up with something else: make the vampire a good guy, like the TV show Angel, or set it in the future, or find some other way to twist it so that you have an edge. Something old and reliable for the less adventurous, but twisted to make it feel new. This is what Hollywood does best. So yes, this movie su- I mean this movie is no good. Not surprising, but people will go to see Beckinsale's ass and it will make money and almost everybody will be happy.

Technorati Tags : underworld, evolution, vampire, angel

Walmart and Racism

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"Walmart.com's item mapping process does not work correctly and at this point is mapping seemingly random combinations of titles. We were horrified to discover that some hurtful and offensive combinations are being mapped together," she said, adding that the company was "deeply sorry that this happened." Their software recommended Black American themed movies to go with Planet of the Apes. Sounds a little bit too thought-out to be "random".

Technorati Tags : walmart, black, dvd, movies, cinema, planet, apes, black, american, software

Below is the cast for the upcoming Zodiac movie

, directed by my favorite director, David Fincher. It's not arranged in order of recognizability so you will have to look down the list to find the big names. Hollywood goes right back to the old serial killer well. At least it's from a director who might actually throw in a few original touches.

It's about the real-life serial killer who operated in SF in the 1970's. More on him/her here.


Credited cast:
Aida Bernardino .... Shopper
Jules Bruff .... Catherine Allen
Al Cacioppo .... Detective
Geoff Callan .... Patrolman Zelms
Brad Carr .... Cameraman
Robert Downey Jr. .... Paul Avery
Anthony Edwards .... Armstrong
Mitchell Fink .... Interviewer #2
Steve Fox .... TV Stage Manager
Ted Garcia .... Anchorman #1
Zach Grenier .... Mel Nicolai
Jake Gyllenhaal .... Robert Graysmith
Ciara Hughes .... Darlene Ferrin
Pell James .... Cecelia Shepard
Patrick Scott Lewis .... Bryan hartnell
Barry Livingston .... Story editor
Donal Logue .... Ken Narlow
John Carroll Lynch .... Allen Leigh Arthur
Lee Norris .... Young Mike Mageau
Bijou Phillips .... Linda Ferrin
Peter Quartaroli .... Patrolman Fouke
June Raphael .... Carol Toschi
Brett Rickaby .... Detective Roy
Mark Ruffalo .... Dave Toschi
Bob S�enz .... The Cabbie
Micah Sauers .... David Graysmith
Zachary Sauers .... Aaron Graysmith
Charles Schneider .... Paul Stine
Chlo� Sevigny .... Graysmith's Girlfriend
Ione Skye .... Kathleen John
John Terry .... Charles Theiriot
Tom Verica .... Jim Dunbar
James D. Weston II .... James

Casting

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There are some books, like Cider House Rules by John Irving that you just can't make into movies. Yes, I know he did the screenplay himself, but the little wretch is an egomaniac . Much as I disagree with his beliefs on abortion, it is an exceptional work, way too big and nuanced a story to pare down. Other, simpler books just got fucked up by the director/casting like Mystic River. Sean penn was perfect, nobody else fit the book's characters though. It's one of those movies where if you have read the book, don't bother watching it. Anthony Hopkins was always the wrong person for Hannibal Lector IMO. He doesn't come across like any real life serial killer I've ever read about, doesn't look like one either. The thing is they don't usually look the way people think they look. Anyway, David Carradine or Michael Caine would have been better choices.

Technorati Tags : casting, movies, anthony, hopkins, hannibal, lector, john, irving, mystic, river, sean, penn, david, carradine, michael, caine

The Alienist by Caleb Carr
The Alienist is pretty exceptional. It's a smart book that manages to not bore with idiot ramblings about the meaning of life or other pointless shit. It manages to tell an actual story and thrill without the basic storyline being particularly original. You won't be surprised by anything except the fact that you are entertained. It's a thriller that thrills, take that Tom Clancy! I would liken it to Tom Harrison's best work (Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs), only less original and much smarter. The setting is what gets you, Caleb Carr knows his history, I mean the motherfucker really knows his history.He gets you with the details of turn-of-the-century New York, that's the main character. Not the Bertie Wooster-like "hero" or the characters even if he does do a very good job of bringing them to life as well. You feel and breath old New York, which is not necessarily a good thing, but he does a very good job. You also learn a lot of psych-history as the team of detectives profile and track their serial killer.

The best part of Caleb Carr's writing, however is the way he twists the narrative. He knows what you are going to think when you read x (because "x" has been done before) so he makes it into xy. He modifies cliches and makes subtle plot points original. In this he reminds me a lot of Chuck Palahniuk. Both of these guys know how to keep the seasoned reader turning the page. The basic serial-killer plotline will also hook your non-readers, who think it's original ("a book about a serial-killer, wow!") and the fact that the history would be interesting even to a simpleton.

Five hottest women in film and TV. Understand that if you disagree with me you are full of shit.

5. Rachel Weisz


4. Jorja Fox (with a little meat on her, like in Memento)


3. Kirsten Dunst


2. Catherine Keener


1. Hillary Swank

Some retired loser

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 starts a blog in his living room with the hope of being noticed, getting some attention. Several times a day he copies and pastes articles, constantly refreshes CNN.com or Newsmax in the hopes of being able to post something relevant. He comments on on every like-minded site he can find. He wants people to know him, to call him by name, he wants to be in a clicque, a celebrity no matter how minor. Hollywood sells ideas, it sells dreams, and part of that is the supposed "glamor" of the actors. The people they want in their audiences are the people who swoon over Orlando Bloom or Viggo Mortensen, or the ones who are dumb enough to envy them. The people with minds and souls so empty that they will spend money to join fanclubs or buy t-shirts or spend hours writing praises on a Blog. They want the idol-worshipper, the soulless rube. The fool and his money are soon parted and it's the job of everyone who is not a fool to part them from their money. Everybody wants to feel part of something big, close to power, a player.

Technorati Tags : cnn, newsmax, orlando, bloom, viggo, mortensen, blog, blogger, blogging

Love is a Crock

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Love is a Crock

The "love" that Hollywood has taught Americans to believe with movies like Ghost, and now, Tristan and Isolde is like Santa Claus, you only believe in it because you are too dumb to know better. It's a myth. One of those bread-and-circuses things to sedate the populace. There are no soulmates, and nobody is "the one" for anybody else, but it sells tickets and it sells books and Valentine's Day cards and compilation CDs. It gets people married and makes money for divorce lawyers. The idea of "love" is big money. It's a psychological comfort too. It gives hope in something that can come at any time. But it doesn't exist. It's just another crutch. Whatever people say in divorce court, their brains clouded by bitter hindsight, they pretty much all believed they had it at one point, they thought they had found the real thing. We get conditioned from the womb to need companionship, to need other people around us, but nobody else can ever make you happy, you know why? They are too busy focusing on making themselves happy.

Technorati Tags : ghost, movie, cinema, review, romance

The Grudge

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The Grudge was another one of those Hollywood works of marketing, as opposed to real film-making art. It was an entertainment product aimed at young girls. Not too scary, not too disturbing, not too bloody, not too original either, because that would only serve to alienate the dumb and young. What Hollywood's critics don't understand is that stupid people need to watch movies too. They are an active majority in every country and have rights, have needs. They need to be catered to, way more than smarter people. TV isn't enough, Jessica Simpson isn't enough. They need big-budget movies with special effects. They need the Olsen Twins and Orlando Bloom. It is the job of everybody who is not a fool to part them from their money, and Hollywood is playing it's part, are you playing yours?

Technorati Tags : horror, movie, movies, cinema

 

Million Dollar Baby

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I believe that the correct term for a movie like Million Dollar Baby is "hokey". It's corny and manipulative and completely unbelievable. It still manages to hold your attention. This kind of movie isn't about the plot. Eastwood acts like he hasn't since Unforgiven, complete with actual facial expressions and emotion. Of course, the character isn't a bombastic profiteering user, hence, not realistic, but it's a good acting job. Morgan Freeman was seriously miscast and plays the smartest, most sensitive boxer ever on planet earth. If you have ever met a boxer, especially a retired boxer, you realize that you can't take his character too literally. Swank is hyper-sweet and hyper-likable, unlike any real woman ever, seriously, the closest thing you could relate the character to would be a really affectionate puppy. She acts with that whole-hearted intensity that real actors get when they see a potential Oscar-role. She also has a nicer ass than I previously thought. To sum up, Million Dollar Baby is more along the lines of fantasy than something relating to real life, and throws up a bunch of characters that exist nowhere in humanity, but they are thrown up very well. The plot is ridiculous, but well told. It also has no message whatsoever, except maybe the old shared-genes-does-not-a-family-make one, or maybe it's the even older love-does-what-it-takes one.

Technorati Tags : hilary, swank, clint, eastwood, morgan, freeman

Heat

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There's this big sidewalk shoot-out scene in Heat, where Al Pacino's character Lt Vincent Hanna is telling all the bystanders to get down. Nobody listens, they continue to run around screaming and get shot. Tom Sizemore takes a little girl hostage. This little girl was standing there frozen with fear. This little girl was in a red, white, and blue outfit. The thing about people who are insulated from violence is that when it happens they go wild with panic. The thing about your average American is that they are insulated from violence. By violence I mean the reality, NOT merely the idea, that another human being is presently willing to kill you, if not deliberately trying to. You have your paranoid Americans who think that you can prepare for it. You can, but not without an idea of what you're preparing for. Real self-defence, when the the person trying or willing to kill you is armed and already firing, so to speak, is very different from what you see in the movies. It involves being desperate to live, and being willing to get hurt if necessary. It's ugly and fearful and nasty.

Technorati Tags : al, pacino, robert, deniro, heat, movies, cinema, reviews, tom, sizemore, val, kilmer

 

Brokeback Mountain

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I am not going to see Brokeback Mountain. I'm way too unenlightened to see two guys swapping spit as anything but two guys swapping spit. Reading the reviews on IMDB.com I am 100% sure that NOT ONE was written by a straight guy. "It has changed my perception, I must confess, about certain aspect of same sex love because I didn't think of same sex when I was watching it, I saw two human beings (amazing performances by both actors)I have the feeling "Brokeback Mountain" will make history, deservedly so." "A love story like no other, told without inhibitions, without cheap shots. With an honesty that is more unique than rare." "Every frame is a moment, the silences are exquisite, the humans are as humans are and we're allowed to dive into their hearts without tricks without illusions. Raw, limpid, poetic and above all, true. " Damn! Hard to imagine a heterosexual male being so adoring of the subject-matter.

Technorati Tags : movies, gay, brokeback, mountain, jake, gyllenhaal, heath, ledger

John Leguizamo cannot act. Lacking in all kinds of subtlety, what he does is perform. Like a trained ape or dancing bear, and for pretty much the same crowd. He has that kind of stupid that New Yorkers have, the one where they think they are tougher than everybody else because they came from New York (!). Combine that with his being short and you have someone who comes across as the same obnoxious person in every role. He completely overdoes everything. Laughs too hard, gets too angry, talks to fast and too forcefully. He needs to ram himself down the audience's throat to be seen. As a stand-up he was/is, forcefully, annoyingly unfunny and struck me as an attention-whore.


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I would never have guessed that the guy under all that make-up in Hellboy was Ron Perlman. That's the guy from Beauty and the Beast, the old cult TV show. My mom loved that show. Hellboy has an interesting premise, from the comic-book, and is more sc-fi (the idea of an escapable hell can be nothing else) than it is anything else. The movie, like others of the genre (Spawn, also with a good premise), however is not particularly interesting. They are all based on the old Ghostrider comics with their theme of getting out of damnation. It has good story touches like a vicious Nazi assassin addicted to surgery, and Rasputin as the main bad guy.

The reason you never let the people you work with know what the address of your Blog is, is that suddenly they have your thoughts, this assumes that you are ever really honest on your Blog. The whole idea of publishing on the Internet is you are anonymous, if you say something that nobody likes all you are is a username. They can get mad at the username, but they can't really get mad at you. It doesn't affect you is what I'm saying. You can assume a personality and write as that personality, you can yell and scream let all out with no consequences. It's our chance to be Spiderman. The Blog is our superhero identity. You let someone into the Circle of Trust, and then you are beholden to that person. You can't say that their favorite movie (in the case of this Blog) is a piece of shit without hurting feelings, even if it is a piece of shit. Somebody knows who is behind that username and you have an editor and a censor. Your mom reads your Blog and you can't say fuck anymore.

The problem is that you can't really keep it a secret either, if someone is a part of your life. They are going to wonder what you're typing if they happen to live in the same house with you.

It may be that there are thoughts in your head that should be just between you and the WWW, things that shouldn't be known by anybody who knows you in real life. I'm still working that part out. Those of you out there who know me in real life, understand this: to your face I might say that I don't like a book you gave me to read, or a CD you gave me to listen to, but on this Blog I will say why. I will write at length about the shittiness. If I really don't like it, I will say this book is a fucking piece of shit, not to hurt you, but because the book really sucks. Saying it to your face would hurt you, writing it here I get to beat the author/singer/director/actor in effigy at least. If I like it, I like, if I don't, I don't. This Blog is not here for any reason except for me to express myself, definitely not to hurt anybody's feelings. If you can't handle me being honest well, you might want to consider not reading UB.

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You have to wonder how much of Andrew Vachss's anger is just fashionable, and how much of it is genuine. Could be this is just a guy making money and getting attention for himself from the justifiable hatred and fear the public has for pedophiles. How much of the murderous anger is just him providing an outlet for anger and looking like a bad-ass hero in the process?
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That fascination with serial killers that America (and thus the world) had a few years ago, there was another reason for it. I mean apart from sensational gruesomeness and the notion of "true evil", with all of their associated thrills. The other reason is that people are stupid and serial killers are easy.

Dumb people like their evil easy to spot. Easy to identify and easy to separate themselves from. There is nothing like a nice easy torturing sex-killer to make you feel like the world is black and white, and you are better than somebody else. The fact that you have never done anything as extreme in your entire life as serial murder, means that you are not evil. The fact that you are equally lacking in empathy, able to relate only to your cats and the stuffed animals on your bed, and the characters in "Lost", that is lost on you. It's lost on you because you are an idiot.

Good ones, not in any particular order (no links since you've already seen these):
Silence of the Lambs
Red Dragon
Se7en
Scream

The thing about Titanic is that as incredibly overblown and overbudgeted and the complete and utter stereotype of the Hollywood Distaster Epic that it is, it's frustrating because you can't ever really dismiss it. It's not bad. Everybody is sincere, especially the supporting cast, and except for Winslett, and that means to dismiss this picture you have to dismiss the disaster. You can't very well mock a serious news-report because one of anchor-people is annoying, can you? Winslett hams a lot here, she has to make sure you know that she's slumming.

As much as I want to piss on any movie that has as big a following of melodramatic airheads who saw it when they were giggly teens and still hold it dear as this one does, I can't. Cameron brings out the best in his actors, as he did in the way superior (to me, anyway) The Abyss.