Okay, so I'm doing another rare "blog suggestion." I barely have time to read my own, let alone someone else's, but this Lenore Skenazy deserves kudos for "Free Range Kids." This woman caused a sensation awhile back for letting her 9-year-old son ride the NYC subway alone! You know what THAT calls for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs
Anyway, she makes some good points about the fact that the crime rate today is actually LOWER than in 1970, and thus it's actually SAFER for kids today. But because those fewer crimes are broadcast and twitterized 24/7, well...then that explains why people can nod knowingly and/or shake their head sadly and say stuff like, "Yes, well, you know, things are different these days."
Um, yeah, it's safer.
Anyway, Ms. Skenazy just wrote about this community that will not allow children under 16 to even play outside w/o supervision! Somewhere in Florida, I think. Oh God, I just remembered! It's Code Orange! I just remembered from the airport 3 months ago! OMG, WTF, WDWD when it's Code Orange? Is this the one where we take off our shoes and do what with the toothbrush and take a picture for the hotel maid? (google toothbrush, picture, maid if you miss the reference)
And very closely tied to the whole fear FEAR FEAR thing: Is there anything more tiresome now than the word "liability?" You can't INSERT RANDOM SEMI-BIZARRE THING HERE w/o someone warning you about liability--most always in terms of ensuring you understand "they" won't be held liable. The cable guy can't tack the cable, snaking throughout the house and over the river and through the woods to make it from the stupidly placed entry point in your closet to the TV, because of "liability." Our summer campers, for an outdoor experiential environmental camp for God' sake, can't go in the ocean because of "liablity issues." You can't host a party in your own home unless you're willing to ensure that either no one gets drunk, or that if they do, they don't drive--otherwise you'll be held "liable." Roller coasters strap you in like an Air Force fighter pilot to protect the park's "liability."
OMG, random aside: fortunately, the Cyclone still operates on Coney Island. I swear, if you've never ridden this thing, and you're a coaster fan, it MUST be on your MUST list! My friend Brian and I rode it back in '94, and I swear, when we got off, I was literally shaking and slobbering and afraid to ride it again!
Don't make 'em like THAT anymore. Coz who'd be liable?
Humph.
Check out the Cyclone:
http://www.coneyislandcyclone.com/about_us.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajz-tzyp3FQ
Showing posts with label Drama Prairie Dog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drama Prairie Dog. Show all posts
9/17/09
Cruising
WARNING: This blog was done while watching the "notorious" gay serial killer flick "Cruising" with Al Pacino. You may want to skip this if you're, um, "sensitive" regarding gay S&M matters.
Starts right off with some good old fashioned police oppression. Kinda gross, actually. So much for the cop fantasy.
Wow, the first cruise/pick-up was a hoot. "Cool. I never made it with a Martian before."
OMFG the first kill was VERY bloody/graphic. The killer has a creepy, almost unreal voice.
Wow, Al Pacino looks really young.
Ooooh, goin' undercover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs
OMG, it's shopkeeper Powers Boothe explaining the hanky code to Al Pacino. Too. Fucking. Weird. (and this performance is from the same year that "Guyana Tragedy" came out--which totally traumatized me)
Okay, I can't wait to see what the "psychological payoff" is going to be for this stupid sounding, "You made me do that" line. (it turns out there wasn't one--or I missed it/didn't get it! anyone?)
Oooh, Ms, Thing getting into it now - shaking her ass at the leather bar, sucking on an ether-soaked rag, snap snap snap. :) Didn't he also play gay in "Dog Day Afternoon"?
Okay, so Al Pacino was just able to call the Columbia University Registrar, not as a cop, and get the street address of a student w/o even providing a reason. Oh, such innocent, blood-drenched, S&M, gay killing days we used to live in. Sigh.
WTF? Pacino is quite the bossy little sex bitch!
I don't know which is weirder--Karen Allen as Al Pacino's wife, or a young James Remar as the pissy gay dancer neighbor (he's done a million things - inlcuding playing Dexter's dad).
Hmmm, I'm guessing the ending is supposed to be ambiguous.
Well, it's no "French Connection" or even "The Exorcist," but it wasn't as awful as I thought it'd be.
Outrageously fun/creepy fact on the movie/director to end with:
In 1972, director William Friedkin - huge after The French Connection (1971) - is shooting his spiritual/psych-horror The Exorcist (1973) in downtown New York. For a scene requiring mock brain-scans of the possessed lead character, Friedkin films a real-life radiologist and his assistant, Paul Bateson. Flash ahead to 1979. Friedkin is planning an adap of Gerald Walker’s novel ‘Cruising’, inspired by a real-life serial killer carving up leather boys in the city's underground gay-bars and dumping their body parts in the Hudson River, wrapped in black plastic bags. When he learns that his Exorcist radiologist assistant Bateson is currently awaiting trial for the post-coital slaying of gay film critic Addison Verrill, Friedkin decides to pay him a visit to do a little research into the psyche of his cruising killer. Bateson is later imprisoned for life - for the Verrill murder - but not before dropping hints while in custody that he was also the body bag killer. The latter cases remain unsolved, but there's every chance that Friedkin had not only inadvertently consulted the actual killer at the heart of Cruising while planning the film, but had also cast him in a film he made years before it.
Starts right off with some good old fashioned police oppression. Kinda gross, actually. So much for the cop fantasy.
Wow, the first cruise/pick-up was a hoot. "Cool. I never made it with a Martian before."
OMFG the first kill was VERY bloody/graphic. The killer has a creepy, almost unreal voice.
Wow, Al Pacino looks really young.
Ooooh, goin' undercover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs
OMG, it's shopkeeper Powers Boothe explaining the hanky code to Al Pacino. Too. Fucking. Weird. (and this performance is from the same year that "Guyana Tragedy" came out--which totally traumatized me)
Okay, I can't wait to see what the "psychological payoff" is going to be for this stupid sounding, "You made me do that" line. (it turns out there wasn't one--or I missed it/didn't get it! anyone?)
Oooh, Ms, Thing getting into it now - shaking her ass at the leather bar, sucking on an ether-soaked rag, snap snap snap. :) Didn't he also play gay in "Dog Day Afternoon"?
Okay, so Al Pacino was just able to call the Columbia University Registrar, not as a cop, and get the street address of a student w/o even providing a reason. Oh, such innocent, blood-drenched, S&M, gay killing days we used to live in. Sigh.
WTF? Pacino is quite the bossy little sex bitch!
I don't know which is weirder--Karen Allen as Al Pacino's wife, or a young James Remar as the pissy gay dancer neighbor (he's done a million things - inlcuding playing Dexter's dad).
Hmmm, I'm guessing the ending is supposed to be ambiguous.
Well, it's no "French Connection" or even "The Exorcist," but it wasn't as awful as I thought it'd be.
Outrageously fun/creepy fact on the movie/director to end with:
In 1972, director William Friedkin - huge after The French Connection (1971) - is shooting his spiritual/psych-horror The Exorcist (1973) in downtown New York. For a scene requiring mock brain-scans of the possessed lead character, Friedkin films a real-life radiologist and his assistant, Paul Bateson. Flash ahead to 1979. Friedkin is planning an adap of Gerald Walker’s novel ‘Cruising’, inspired by a real-life serial killer carving up leather boys in the city's underground gay-bars and dumping their body parts in the Hudson River, wrapped in black plastic bags. When he learns that his Exorcist radiologist assistant Bateson is currently awaiting trial for the post-coital slaying of gay film critic Addison Verrill, Friedkin decides to pay him a visit to do a little research into the psyche of his cruising killer. Bateson is later imprisoned for life - for the Verrill murder - but not before dropping hints while in custody that he was also the body bag killer. The latter cases remain unsolved, but there's every chance that Friedkin had not only inadvertently consulted the actual killer at the heart of Cruising while planning the film, but had also cast him in a film he made years before it.
8/16/09
Spicing Up The Supreme Court (The Boring Branch)
How many of you know, w/o googling, the names of all the Supreme Court Justices? Stop to think & count before reading further...and then remember your number for a poll at the end.
Now granted, I was stoned when I first asked myself this question--in an e-mail to my friend Brian wherein I shared a fantasy that Sotormayor would actually turn out to be very liberal (in her future rulings).
But then also, suddenly (cue dramatic music like this from Drama Prairie Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs), Clarence Thomas falls in love with her, and in a misguided attempt to court her (no pun intended, but certainly appreciated now), begins voting as she does.
But to make the fantasy complete, Scalia would have to die in a police shoot-out, as he's caught selling crack in DC to his hooker (I almost made this MUCH more NC-17--email me if you'd like to hear my alternate version of what happens to Scalia).
Anyway, I then thought, so if we got rid of Scalia, and had Thomas voting with Sotormayor, that would just leave Roberts as the worst. At least Kennedy is not awful, and we still have Ginsburg. But after those, I couldn't recall the current remaining three.
I found Stephen Breyer's name when I googled Ginsburg to make sure I spelled it right. But even then, in the brief time it took me to write two sentences, I forgot his name and had to go back to the other tab/page to find it again. Even as I'm typing this, I'm thinking, "Wait, is Stephen Breyer really a Supreme Court Justice?" All I can think of is ice cream.
Oh god, Alito! How could I forget him? I just this second asked myself after googling again. And, finally, as for John Paul Stevens, I actually thought of him but then "remembered" he was dead, so...
Which begs the question: Is it "bad" I thought that about John Paul Stevens? Discuss.
Also, let's try another poll to compare how many justices people could recall. Go here:
http://www.micropoll.com/akira/mpview/644733-195149
COMING SOON: Asterios Polyp! (the what you say!)
Now granted, I was stoned when I first asked myself this question--in an e-mail to my friend Brian wherein I shared a fantasy that Sotormayor would actually turn out to be very liberal (in her future rulings).
But then also, suddenly (cue dramatic music like this from Drama Prairie Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjFxJVeCQs), Clarence Thomas falls in love with her, and in a misguided attempt to court her (no pun intended, but certainly appreciated now), begins voting as she does.
But to make the fantasy complete, Scalia would have to die in a police shoot-out, as he's caught selling crack in DC to his hooker (I almost made this MUCH more NC-17--email me if you'd like to hear my alternate version of what happens to Scalia).
Anyway, I then thought, so if we got rid of Scalia, and had Thomas voting with Sotormayor, that would just leave Roberts as the worst. At least Kennedy is not awful, and we still have Ginsburg. But after those, I couldn't recall the current remaining three.
I found Stephen Breyer's name when I googled Ginsburg to make sure I spelled it right. But even then, in the brief time it took me to write two sentences, I forgot his name and had to go back to the other tab/page to find it again. Even as I'm typing this, I'm thinking, "Wait, is Stephen Breyer really a Supreme Court Justice?" All I can think of is ice cream.
Oh god, Alito! How could I forget him? I just this second asked myself after googling again. And, finally, as for John Paul Stevens, I actually thought of him but then "remembered" he was dead, so...
Which begs the question: Is it "bad" I thought that about John Paul Stevens? Discuss.
Also, let's try another poll to compare how many justices people could recall. Go here:
http://www.micropoll.com/akira/mpview/644733-195149
COMING SOON: Asterios Polyp! (the what you say!)
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