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Julio 30, 2002

Fire By Monster

Monster snapped these pics of a fire somewhere in Toronto. He has more in this series.

fire1.jpg

fire2.jpg

fire3.jpg

Posted by King at 03:03 PM | Comments (4)

Julio 29, 2002

Mumbleboy

Look at this rocking cool animation. This is why the French are amazing.

Posted by King at 03:11 PM | Comments (1)

Julio 23, 2002

Rocking The World Wide Internet

For the last six days or so, I've been listening to the Hives and the White Stripes. I spent a few weeks listening to the Strokes back in January, and I don't know all that much about the Vines, except that they are being packaged and sold in similar fashion to the other three.

Everyone seems to be already tired of these bands, or entirely convinced that they are here to save Rock n' Roll.

The Hives' energy bleeds through the speakers. I haven't heard the Vines play, except for on their website and it sounded like shit. The Strokes are great, and so far I like the White Stripes, but I think viewing them can help you appreciate them.

As far as the websites go, I like the Hives' the best. It's pretty entertaining to read the diaries and the "g-book", but maybe only because they're Swedish. The White Stripes site is also really good and informative and simple enough -- and they've got guitar tabs, which is fucking great. The Strokes' site is functional and fast, but a little more contrived. I wish The Strokes would ease up on the retro vibe. We know what era of music you're all about, great, just wear your own clothes now. The website keeps the theme going with this big retro-era television that you see everything through. It's just a little too much. I think all anyone really wants out of rock is a little honesty. The music these bands have given us is supposed to be "less" contrived, but it's not. It's equally as contrived, so why are we kidding ourselves. Anyhow, the worst site in my garbage opinion was thevines.com. It just really bored me to tears. I liked that there was a jukebox on there so you could hear the music without downloading it, but other than that it was just boring flash menus and pictur----zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh, hello.

My favorite rock bands right now are still ZZ Top, Black Sabbath and the Stones.

I generally like rock music, so if anyone brags about the latest "rock-saving band" I'll listen to it, eventually.

The best thing about all these new bands is how short all the songs are. The White Stripes' "Fell In Love With A Girl" is only 1:50, and it's a great tune.

The Hives are the hardest of the four newer groups, (and have been around the longest). They are therefore, of the quartet of garage/punk/new rock/rock/rocksaviour/alternative/mainstream/newmainstream/not rap bands, the best morning music.

Posted by King at 03:32 AM | Comments (13)

Julio 22, 2002

Rear Window 1998 (TV)

Lat night Books and I watched the Christopher Reeves version of Rear Window. It wasn't really all that bad. I mean, it wasn't good, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Reeve does a good job, especially considering he can only act with his face. It seemed like they threw a lot of elements of Reeve's own life in there. The way he has to clack his teeth together to alert the nurse during an emergency. He can't cry out sometimes because his throat gets really dry and his respirator cacked out a few times. Actually, the opening twenty minutes of the film looked as though they had shot "The Christopher Reeve Story", and then changed their minds later on into shooting it. It really goes on about this accident the character had, and his rehabilitation, and his search for a cure (no one believes him, but he swears that the latest medical research indicates that a cure exists for paralysis from the neck down). They seemingly shot a lot more of this plot line, but then of course, it reverts to the classic tale of peeping-gone-wrong. The original version that Hitchcock did is a really good movie, so it's understandably a difficult remake.

Reeve himself describes it as more of a "re-telling" than a remake. He says that it's only similar insofar as it involves a disabled man who spies on his neighbours with a camera and concludes that a murder has been committed.

It was weird watching this flick because you do feel bad for Reeve. It would fucking suck to become a quadraplegiac quite suddenly. Suck. But Reeve is fairly righteous. He has more than one line about how expensive/difficult it is to be disabled in America -- but I don't think nearly enough time has passed in the story that he would have really experienced this. Christopher Reeve yes, but not his character, Jason Kemp. Also, someone tells him that he's going to lock a door (for some reason I don't remember). Then Kemp says: "You don't know what I'd give to turn a lock." Okay well, come on, really? I mean how many of us would miss turning a lock? It's not like that in itself is a truly pleasurable experience. It's that attitude of: How Dare You Take Things For Granted. But they're kind of the wrong things.

Books thinks that they desperately wanted to cast Bobby McFerrin as Reeve's sidekick in the movie, because the guy they did cast is kind of a poor man's B.McF.

Since the accident, Reeve's voice sounds a lot more like Ron Howard's.

Reeve's character in the movie, Jason Kemp, is a divorced architect. Naturally Daryl Hannah falls for him by the end and they make out. However, there is little to no, to negative sexual tension generated by these two. I'm sure Christopher wasn't feeling all that sexy at this point. Anyhow, there's a great part where Hannah looks at pictures of Reeve before the accident. There's one of him leaning over a railing outdoors at some cottage, and one of him giving a speech somewhere.

It's just amazing that a bachelor would have two pictures of himself on his kitchen counter. There's no one else in the shots. Just him. He just looks at himself and thinks back to when he went to that cottage alone, or to the time when he gave that speech. Why doesn't anybody consider how stupid this kind of thing is? This is a good indication of why most directors are hacks. The filmmakers have decided that they need Hannah to see what Jason looked like before the accident, so she can get all horny for him. Fine. They probably also decided that they couldn't have a picture of him with another woman, like his ex-wife -- after all, he and Daryl Hannah need to experience sexual tension unencumbered by any other distracting force whatsoever. So now Reeve's character is the kind of guy that has solo shots of himself looking handsome all over his apartment. Retarded.

Here's a long review of Rear Window from a very biased fan.

Posted by King at 03:32 PM | Comments (2)

Julio 18, 2002

D

D was complaining the other day that he couldn't think of what to write, so he squatted on this entry and wrote whatever came to his mind. Read about iBrators and transexual Lego, and all the wonderful things that a bored Sankey thinks about.

This entry belongs to you now D. It is a safe-haven for random thoughts that border on the useless.

Posted by King at 01:53 PM | Comments (5)

Julio 16, 2002

Raging Mail

There's a wicked ass mailing list over at skitfaced now. D built it, and got screwed by the company on it. They made him do it as a short-term contract, since he asked for more money, since he's doing all these extra things now. They wouldn't give him the raise, they're too fucking cheap. They bring in a group of negotiators to play hardball on every contract too. I think D only got like $150.00 and a few bottles of whiskey for the job.

We all signed this contract that gives us whiskey in lieu of benefits. Everyone thought it was funny at the time, but it turned out to be a really bad idea. We had one terrifyingly out of control whiskey party that lasted 23 days, and we'll never do it again. I end up giving most of mine away now.

So sign up for the mailing list. And you may as well save your friends the fucking hassle and sign them up too.

Posted by King at 03:26 AM | Comments (0)

Julio 14, 2002

My Canker

I've had a canker in my mouth for about seven months. I can remember it being there before New Year's Day, because after I quit smoking on the 1st, it went away for a while. Then it came back. Then I started smoking again, and it went away. Then it came back. Then, during a recent string of mindbending arguments with Filion, it peaked in intensity, and I ended up with three at once. They hurt. Bad.

Filion took me to a doctor at a walk-in clinic that weekend. I told him that I had a mouth full of cankers, that I thought they might be stress related, and that I felt like I was falling apart. He didn't look in my mouth, and didn't even make eye contact with me. He was busy writing a prescription for a drug that turned out to be available over-the-counter. The pharmacist who helped me find it said "Why would he recommend that?"

Instead of 'that' I bought this Orabase shit which is supposed to cover the canker so that it's protected or something, and which I never used. Why do I want to protect the goddamn thing anyway? I want it to go away. Somehow I thought it would when Filion and I got new jobs, but we did, and it didn't.

Posted by King at 11:21 PM | Comments (41)

Julio 12, 2002

Let's Go Already

Come on Monster, write something. It's been two fucking days. I know you've been on your computer, because I see you on it whenever I drop by.

Posted by King at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

Julio 10, 2002

Monster

Monster wanted some blank space to bitch. Here you go Monster.

I'll write a question in case you need one to get you started. If not, disregard the following:

Q: What's better? Getting High or Falling Asleep? (Please answer in essay format, citing examples. )

Posted by King at 01:57 AM | Comments (50)

Julio 03, 2002

Bad Zoos

On two recent road trips, I was surprised to see so many signs along the highway indicating Zoos. As you drive the 401 or the 400 in southern Ontario, you see some gas stations, occasionally a mall or a casino, and mostly nothing else of any interest whatsoever.
You also see these blue road signs with graphic symbols depicting giraffes or jungle cats, and it seems weird to think that there might be a giraffe, a tiger, or even an elephant nearby.

Of all the zoos in Canada, Ontario has the lion's share. I guess that's because we have the most people, and therefore the most potential zoogoers.
This site seems to be the political arm of Daniel's Ark Wildlife Preserve near Whitby, Ontario. It's a really crappy site, and what's great is that the owner is named Daniel, and that he decided to call his zoo Daniel's Ark. It's worth reading his ultra-defensive attack on the animal rights groups that have clearly been breathing down his neck. Here's an excerpt:

"I am pointing the finger at money making animal rights organizations that advertise on their web sites to harass and terrorize your local sanctuary zoo or preserve.  I would love to see how dedicated they are to wildlife if they had to bottle raise young newborn wildlife every 2 to 3 hours in order to ensure a child will be able to touch and see a lynx or fox or timber wolf in a safe arrangement."

-- Daniel, from Daniel's Ark Wildlife Preserve.

He's basically saying that if you had to do what he has to do -- which is pretty fucking ultra-specific -- you wouldn't be so dedicated to wildlife, you bastards! How dare you come in here. How will children touch a lynx? How else? There is no fucking other arrangement that is safe! If you had to do this, you'd hate wildlife like I do. Get the fuck off my ark.

Also on that list is the Northwoods Buffalo and Exotic Animal Ranch. The owner of this place tried to sell lions to the Kabul zoo while the U.S. was bombing Afghanistan -- an idea the WSPA called "sheer lunacy". Obviously this guy doesn't understand the zoo business very well, and that's made clear in this assessment of their facilities.

If it wasn't so fucking sad, it would be funny.

Posted by King at 12:41 AM | Comments (60)