Satori in Paris was a short autobiographical book (about a bit over 100 pages) by Jack Kerouac in which he describes as about:

"Somewhere during my ten days in Paris (and Brittany) I received an illumination of some kind that seems to've changed me again, towards what I suppose'll be my pattern for another seven years or more: in effect, a satori: the Japanese word for 'sudden illumination,' 'sudden awakening' or simply 'kick in the eye."

Wherein in "On the Road" Kerouac's brave novel about a cross country trip across the Continental USA he wrote about two characters on search of meaning and friendship stretched across thousands of miles, in Satori, Kerouac dishes out a remarkable narrative of his brief 10 days stay in Paris in his quest to trace his family name's geneology.

The usual drunken spree present in earlier Kerouac novels are almighty present in this book, seems like our favorite writer gets the drive of writing his "spontaneous prose" amid massive hangover. Which to my endeavor i find to be an attractive style of writing and narrative.

In each Kerouac book that i've read, always there's a favorite quote that stands out. In this book i've highlighted this passage:

"My manners, abominable at times, can be sweet. As I grew older I became a drunk. Why? Because I like ecstasy of the mind.  I'm a Wretch. But I love love"

 The romantic side of Kerouac, devious as it may seem infects individuals like me to live such a life amid a grotesque setting and mundane existence but with forever awe at his surroundings, people around him, embracing other's attention in such setting as a semi deserted park, singing or just downing beers and whiskey in pubs.

In Satori, a book Kerouac wrote at the twilight of his life, gone are the reckless years of the era of "On the Road" but effective still in terms of profoundness in how he described a mere 10 day stay in a place where he thinks his name originated.

Did he accomplished his goal in the end? more than what he ever planned in the first place. In the end Kerouac accomplished a "Satori" an illumination, that ironically he never got to display or live through " for another seven years or more" as Kerouac would die early in 1969.

A very heavy, wonderfully acted and brilliantly adapted and directed movie by Ben Affleck. Led by an ensemble cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris.

Set against the backdrop of the inner city of Boston and a harrowing case of child abduction and abuse, Private investigator Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) gets sucked into the world he's never been before. Teaming up with his girlfriend Angie, who is also a private investigator (Michelle Monaghan), the duo became obsessed with the case of a young girl named Amanda who went missing and thus garnering widespread media attention and the eventual false belief that she was killed in a failed ransom exchange puts a strain in their relationship and life as well.

***
Angie Gennaro: We have a good life, right?
Patrick Kenzie: Is that a trick question?
Angie Gennaro: I don't wanna find their little kid in a dumpster.
Patrick Kenzie: Maybe she's not in a dumpster, babe.
Angie Gennaro: I don't wanna find a little kid after they've been abused for three days.
Patrick Kenzie: Hon, nobody does."

***

In the ensuing process of digging up for the truth, Kenzie uncovers a far sinister truth of cover-ups, police corruption and an equally harrowing crime that involves another child in the hands of a known child killer.

It reminds me of other movies such as "Mystic River" and "Zodiac" where the characters were woven together into an obsession by a senseless and brutal crime. Ben Affleck is clearly a better director than an actor and Casey Affleck proves to be the better actor in his family.

Of course with exceptional performances from the rest of the cast like Michelle Monaghan and Ed Harris.

A "leave your brain at the door kind of movie"...It was really stupid but very funny, i laughed out loud like dozens of times and other moviegoers as well. It's a great feeling laughing with other people, the whole cinema was filled with echoes of laughters except for Carrie who was trying hard not to laugh because she wants to watch "Step Up 2".

Semi-Pro is what any Will Ferrell movie should be about, its fun and you don't have to use your brain in analyzing and following the flow of the story, filled with bathroom jokes and funny situation, the "Jive Turkey" scene when they were playing cards was probably the funniest HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell) plays a has been one hit wonder singer who currently is the owner-coach-player of an ABA team called the Flint, Michigan Tropics before the merger of the ABA with NBA in the mid 70's.

Languishing in the bottom of the standings, the Tropics decided to make a run at the top 4 in order to be included in the merger with the NBA thus realizing their dreams in playing in the elite Basketball league in America.

But what you expect with a team filled with misfits, drunks and a tall Lithuanian dude, a player coach in the person of Jackie Moon, a former Boston Celtics bench warmer Monix (Woody Harrelson), Clarence "Coffee" Black (Andre Benjamin), a priest who moonlights as a ref...and the rest becomes pure riotous fun...well as long as you leave your brain at the door this movie will prove to be a fun filled 1 and a half hour.

And as i've said, this ain't a Coen Brothers or Scorcese movie, you can enjoy this movie using only 5% of your brain....

Funny movie, from the jokes on the bearded dude, to "do not drink and bone", flesh of the stars website concept, "I can't have any pregnant bitches running around", the misunderstanding with "just do it already"




Alison Scott: I'm pregnant.
Ben Stone: Pregnant... with emotion?
Alison Scott: Pregnant with a baby.

...this is one very entertaining movie.

I want to have a baby as well...with a Katherine Heigl lookalike girl...

Kind of a depressing movie with a bit of feel good towards the end but depressing still. Which makes it as my kind of movie. He-he

Norah Jones stars as Elizabeth who takes on a self journey after her boyfriend left her for another woman. She first met Jeremy (Jude Law) a small NY cafe owner whom she befriended and kept in constant communication through letters as she continues her travelling across the United States. First stopping in Memphis, Tennessee where she took up a job as a waitress by day and a bartender at night hoping to save up for a car.

She encountered characters suffering from varrying levels of depression namely Arnie (David Strathairn) who is suffering from alcoholism brought upon by the fact that his wife Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz) left him for another man.

After a sad conclusion that befell on Arnie, Elizabeth decided to hit the road again and met up with poker player Leslie who has this love and hate relationship with her father.

The ensuing events taught Elizabeth more about the importance of personal relationship culminating with her return to New York and being reunited with Jeremy who patiently awaits for her return.


****
Wong Kar Wai is known for movies that shows picturesque and postcards like images. This movie is no different, every shot is visually stunning, rich colors, landscapes, colors, lightings...makes you want to take a camera and start shooting scenes for a movie.

Norah Jones with those beautiful eyes, is reason enough to go and watch this movie.

Body Count: Too many to bother counting but according to Wikipedia:

"Rambo holds the record with the most kills out of the entire Rambo series, with 236 kills and an average of 2.59 kills per minute"

My favorite scene:

Rambo sneaking behind the back of a bad ass Burmese soldier, machete swing on the face, blood splatters, Rambo taking control of the kick ass machine gun and spraying bullets on hundreds of equally bad ass Burmese soldiers while another mercenary snipes away with his rifle.

I grew up watching "Rambo" series with my father at Harrison Plaza cinemas, probably the only bonding time i had with my father and this Rambo film is the best of em all in terms of action and of course killing sequences.

Shet man, mangled body parts flying all over, bad ass, malnourished Asian soldiers and a kick ass Rambo who has mastered the art of mass killing.

Of course no Stallone movie will be complete without that "cliche" Stallone dramatic/corny one liners like

"To live doing nothing or to die fighting for something"

Man, I wonder why he isn't nominated for an Oscar...i'm kidding!! haha

But hey, it's an enjoyable movie, kept me entertained and cheering for the good guys (good guys who kills) killing the bad ass members of the brutal Burmese Military Junta.

Somewhere out there Aung Suu Kyi is punching her fist in the air while watching this movie.

Eastern Promises is a film by acclaimed director David Cronenberg and stars Viggo Mortensen (they both teamed up also in Cronenberg's previous film "A History Of Violence") as a driver for a Russian Mob Family, who then got entangled with a midwife (Naomi Watts) in a London Hospital after she found a diary written by a 14 year old girl who died while giving birth.

Now, any movie that features Naomi Watts, I am definitely in. Although it will be hard to top her performance in "21 Grams", Watts is one of the few actress that can play dark female characters that gets all your attention and blows you away.

With the said diary already in Anna Khitrova's (Naomi Watts) possession, she was able to find a business card for a Trans-Siberian restaurant which is owned by a Russian Mob boss Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl). She told him that she got the girl's diary but it is written in Russian and would wait for her uncle to translate it and she asked Semyon if she know anything about the girl's background.

Semyon denied knowledge about the girl's background but volunteered to translate the girl's diary by having Anna bring the journal to him. In the ensuing events through Semyon and her uncle's translation of the girl's journal, Anna learns that Semyon and his crazed and unstable son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), had abused the girl and forced her into prostitution, and that Semyon had raped the girl repeatedly after injecting heroin in her veins.

Enter the Russian Mob driver, the Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen) who also serves as "the cleaner" of the family by helping them dump dead bodies in the Thames River and gaining the trust and friendship of Semyon's son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), after being given a star and finally inducted to the Russian Mob, Nikolai was set up by Seymon and was handed to the Chechens who are after for a revenge brought upon by an earlier hit that Kirill ordered on one of their man.

Seymon arranged a meeting for Nikolai and the Chechens in a bathhouse in the pretense that Nikolai is actually Kirill and with a star already tattooed on Nikolai's body, the Chechen's thought Nikolai was Kirill and attempt to kill him.

And the result was one of the best fight scenes i've seen in recent years, believe me this is the highlight of the movie.

And the rest would be freaking spoilers, no need to write about it....just watch the movie and i'm sure you will be delighted....

Sunshine is a science fiction film directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) from a screenplay written by Alex Garland (The Beach, The Tesseract) about a group of 8 scientists and astronauts tasked to save the world by bringing back to life a dying sun by "detonating a massive thermonuclear payload to re-ignite it".

The year is 2057 and most of the world lies frozen in winter state due to the fact that the sun is dying. The Icarus project was formed that details the plan of sending an advanced spaceship towards the sun bringing along a massive thermonuclear bomb or payload in order to re-ignite it. The first mission called the Icarus I failed for reasons unknown, the movie opens with the members of the Icarus II mission and the future of mankind rest on these eight individuals and their spaceships that has a powerful and gigantic heat filter that shields the whole spaceship from burning from the Sun's heat.

After passing by the planet of Mercury, the Icarus II picks up a floating distress signal from the Icarus I, after further consultations among themselves, Physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy) decided to locate the remains of the Icarus I spaceship in order to get it's payload and ultimately double their chances of re-igniting the sun.

But what soon follows were events that may or may not hinder their survival and their chances of doing their mission.

*****

The special effects are simple and effective, one of the best i've seen in Science Fiction movies, the ensemble cast provided great performances. The Icarus spaceship and the heat shield concept is believable. So far this reminds me of another favorite science fiction movie of mine called "Event Horizon", ...The loneliness of being away from home, the madness that may creep on each individual's mind at that kind of setting are clearly showcased by the actors, by the script of Alex Garland and the direction of Danny Boyle.

Definitely one of the best science fiction movies in recent years.

Loosely based on a short story by Elmore Leonard and a remake of a classic 1957 film of the same title, and it stars Russell Crowe an Christian Bale playing the two leading roles.

Caught in the opposite side are Bale's Dan Evans character, a rancher and a veteran of the Civil War and a notorious leader of a bandit group Ben Wade (Russell Crowe).

Hounded by debt and yearning for respect from his family, in the ensuing events found Chris Evans volunteering to join a small group to take captured outlaw Ben Wade to a far away town to catch a 3:10 pm train that will take Wade to a prison in Yuma,Arizona.

During the journey Ben Wade will make attempts at escape only to have his resistance met by the somber approach of Evans, as they make their way to catch the train while being stalked by the group members of Ben Wade who are out to set their leader free, both Chris Evans and Ben Wade's fate will collide with each other in a surprising climax.

*****
The performances of the cast is remarkable, Russell Crowe is at his best playing both the dreaded, hated bad guy and at the same time showing signs of being human when he's interacting with Christian Bale's character whom he had learned to respect. In his portrayal of the character Crowe displays an assortment character traits of being cool, charismatic and brutally cruel at the same time to Christian Bale's solid character driven by the urge to make things better for his family and earn the respect of his sons by doing such a honorable thing as escorting a notorious outlaw to justice.

The cinematography is wonderfully filmed along the deserts of New Mexico, sets of small towns that depicts that time are shown properly, with enough action scenes and thrills to let the viewers interested aside from the powerful acting performance of the cast which includes Peter Fonda and Ben Foster as Charlie Prince, who plays Ben Wade's next in command and the co-leader of the gang that is out to spring Wade into freedom.

Over-all, i was never into western movies that much, i don't even liked "Unforgiven" but i definitely enjoyed watching this movie.

Someone told me not to watch "Zodiac" its boring as hell...well after I've seen it last night boring is not the word that will best describe this movie, rather i would say the movie is "gripping" or "interesting".

Zodiac is a movie based on a book of the same title, it is about a serial killer in the late 60's to early 70's who terrorizes the San Francisco Bay area and to add insult to his crimes he sent out letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, as if taunting the police and the media for not uncovering his identity.

Each letter is signed with the name "Zodiac". The case will remain open and unsolved and all along it will make at least three men deeply entwined with an obsession about the case mainly SF Chronicle reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), the newspaper's cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and SF detective Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo).

Among the three, Robert Graysmith becomes the more obsessed with trying to know the real identity of the zodiac killer.

"Robert Graysmith: I... I Need to know who he is. I... I need to stand there, I need to look him in the eye and I need to know that it's him. " as he told his wife why he is so engrossed in his obsession with identifying the Zodiac Killer.

David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) is the perfect choice for directing this movie. Although more than two hours long, it does not show as the viewer will be so into the flow of the story that a feeling of empathy and understanding forms over the obsession of the main characters particularly those of Graysmith in chasing every information, leads and evidence in identifying the Zodiac killer.

Which they have, but with only circumstantial evidence against a prime suspect named Arthur Leigh, the Zodiac case will remain unsolved. But in the end of the movie you will get a feeling that they really identified the Zodiac Killer with Graysmith leading the way.

*****
As a non-fiction movie, it never offered some exaggerated conclusions, rather it only presents all the facts gathered in the many years of investigation of the Zodiac Killings that it presents a few suspects and leaves the viewers to analyze for themselves who they think is the real Zodiac killer, as it happens in real life most murders remains unsolved due to lack of evidence but in logic's calling some circumstantial evidence are enough to pin what Graysmith would ask Dave Toschi towards the end of the movie "Don't think like a cop, you believe its him?"

Over-all this is a very effective film that grabs your attention, that is if you're not the type of person who only waits for special effects and some giant robots when watching a movie.

Hunter S. Thompson's groundbreaking novel about his real life experience traveling to Las Vegas under a pseudonym Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo ( Mexican lawyer and activist Oscar Zeta Acosta in real life).

Tasked by Sports Illustrated to cover the annual Mint 400 race that's going to be held in Las Vegas, after haphazardly planning the trip both Duke and Dr. Gonzo ended up with what Hunter S. Thompson describes as

"The sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash, most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs. The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls"

What was supposed to be an easy sporting coverage of the Mint 400 race quickly turned into an frenzied LSD driven "savage journey to the Heart of the American Dream"  and what transpired next is a mixture of mayhem, more drug addiction, hallucinations, booze and pissing every god damn people along the way. Which includes running off from an expensive hotel bill, ditching the Great Red Shark and Lucy the under age girl, and a side job covering the National Narcotics Convention as HST reasons out "the drug people should be rightfully represented".

A classic type of "Gonzo Journalism" that HST have famously invented and practiced throughout his whole writing career. "Fear and Loathing" although lacking in real reportage of journalistic norms or a clear plot, nobody can deny the fact that this book offers some of the best narrative writings only a great writer such as Hunter S Thompson could ever deliver.

From the opening line of

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like, "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive . . ."And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about 100 miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"

to the classic "wave speech" that is for everybody to read out loud and for me belongs in the same league as thet "mad people" quote by Jack Kerouac.

“San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights — or very early mornings — when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”


If those passages does not amaze you then you don't know how to recognize great writing...and for that you need a reality check....

"Fear and Loating in Las Vegas" its more than being the "best book about the dope decade" its a book where words and prose forms this energy high and dry that will catapult one's imagination LSD or non-LSD into a frenzied acid trip, back to reality and make you crave for such wonderful prose that no other writer living in the world today are capable of writing.

Reading a short story collections is like walking through a rain drenched street. You'll never know if its going to be a worthwhile experience or if you wish the sun is up and everything is dry around you.

Same goes with "Fragile Things" it has its wonderful moments and some stories that you wished Neil Gaiman should have just kept in his much talked about attic.

But, Good news is, In this latest short story collections from Neil Gaiman, it is obvious that the good to great short stories outnumbered the bad ones.


From the spine tingling "Feeders and Eaters" which will send scares to any reader, just the thought of having an elderly woman as a next door neighbor eating raw meat and cats is frightening enough and also wonderfully written by Gaiman in this story he said came from an old dream.

In a parallel world setting of a slightly changed streets of London, the world of Sherlock Holmes becomes the opposite of what it was in the "Study of Emerald", and a fitting homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's masterpiece character creation of a great detective solving a crime. It's the first story of the book and mainly sets the bar of expectations of readers for the following stories.

My personal favorite i should say is "Harlequin Valentine" a twisted romantic tale that is recommended for multiple readings, written with such magical prose and character development.

"Monarch of the Glen" a novella which serves as a sequel to "American Gods" here you'll find Shadow two years after the events in "Gods" getting involved with another interesting Gaiman character creations "Mr. Smith" and "Mr. Alice".

In "Keepsakes and Treasures" the narrator details in cold blooded admission his growing up years and his experience hunting down four individuals who may have been his father and how he killed them in the process, the narrator which later turned out to be Mr Smith and how he became the right hand man of Mr. Alice.

The "Sunbird" is also one of my favorite, it tells the story of a club known as the Epicurean Club who shared the same passion of tasting and cooking every known specie on the planet until they realized they haven't tasted a bird called Sunbird which can only be found in Suntown in Cairo, Egypt..but what they found out was a reason why nobody has to eat the Sunbird ever.

"How to talk to Girls at The Parties" involves two coming of age men looking for a party they were invited to, only to end up in the wrong party inhabited by strange but human looking creatures from a totally different world.

"Goliath" inspired by the movie "The Matrix" tells the story of a man tasked to save the world, the real world i mean, not the dream world that he was used to. The last part although saddening shows him living the life he wanted, with a family, home, job only it was only in the dream world as in the real world he was just living the last 20 minutes of his life in a floating spacecraft drifting further into space.

"Closing Time" narrates an effective but mysterious and strange ghost story.

Other notable short stories includes "Bitter Grounds" "Other People" "October in the Chair", an unsolved disappearance in "The Facts in the case of the Departure of Miss Finch".

While the rest, don't worry its just a few, about 4-5 stories and 4 other short poems are just average. With "Diseasemaker's Croup" being the worst inclusion in this otherwise great short story collection.

The Light Fantastic is the 2nd book of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. It's a fantasy tale set in a world consisting of a slightly convex disc atop on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin.

The novel starts where the very first Discworld book "Colour Of Magic" ended, with bumbling wizard Rincewind and the Discworld's first ever tourist Twoflower setting adrift, falling over the edge of the world.

But as the wizards in the Unseen University found out about an impending doom that will cause by the Great A'Tuin walking towards a collosal star, which will set the whole Discworld on fire, the only remaining solution to the end of Discworld lies on one of the so called "eight most powerful spells from the octavo" which turns out to be locked inside the head of Rincewind.

With the help of the magic book, Octavo, Rincewind and Twoflower were saved and found themselves back in Discworld, amid talking trees and giant rocks and being tracked by other wizards led by Rincewind's former classmate Trymon.

They encountered countless close brushes with death (whom Rincewind met face to face in Death's domain) Rincewind, Twoflower with the help of aging superhero Cohen The Barbarian, and the girl they saved from a sacrificial ritual named Bethan and Twoflower's luggage who has a mind of its own described as "half suitcase, half homicidal maniac" and was able to save the duo  in a few occasions.


They all set out for a wonderful and entertaining adventure that only Terry Pratchett and a few writers can provide and as the Great A Tuin gets closer to the burning star, triggering panics by the inhabitants of the Discworld who thinks that the only solution would be for all wizards to die and have their spells and magic completely dissappear.

Rincewind will need to remember the spell and say aloud the great eight spell in order to save the Discworld from a head on collision with the burning star..

It's a short and entertaining read, with lots of Terry Pratchett's trademark humor and lovable characters. It's a must read for everybody.

The sequel to "House of 1000 Corpses", approximately six months after the events in 1,000 Corpses, a Texas deputy Sheriff John Wydell (William Forsythe) is seeking revenge for his brother who was among the many victimes killed, torured and mutilated by the murderous Firefyl family, who would make the Manson family looks like the Brady Bunch by comparison.

After being surrounded by state troopers, the Firefly fought back, end result 6 state troopers dead, Rufus Firefly dead, Mother Firefly in custody but the two most hardcore family members Baby Firefly and Otis Driftwood manages to escape and seek a rendezvouz with another Firefly murdering family member / clown Captain Spaulding in a desert motel wherein they would encounter a travelling musical band and embark on more murderous spree.

As Sheriff Wydell pursues them hard, he hired the services of two bounty hunters known as the "Unholy Two" (one of them is played by Danny Trejo, famous as the knife wielding man in Robert Rodriguez' "Desperado"). Sheriff Wydell manages to capture the remaining Firefly family members and took them back to the deserted farmhouse where most of the Firefly murders were done. In there sheriff Wydell tortures them driven by revenge for his brother and the countless Firefly victims.

Until a surprise twist near the end enables the Three surviving Firefly family members to escape and make their last stand in a highway barricaded by police and state troopers, amidst the background of Lynard Skynard's "Free as a Bird" being the only audible sound.

********

Haha, Rob Zombie has arrived, i mean in the field of making movies. This movie not only succeeds in shocking your inner senses, this movie shows some good acting, photography and i like that freeze frame shots. The violence makes those "Saw" movie series seems like Nickelodeon features.

A movie that stars some of the ugliest actors (excemption of Sherri Moon Zombie, Rob's wife), but great character actors i should say. Sid Haig's portrayal as Captain Spaulding will make you stay away from clowns for a long while. William Forsythe as the revenge seeking sheriff is great also, Danny Trejo and wrestler Diamond Dallas Page makes a scene stealing turn as the Unholy Two.

Anyway, this is not the kind of movie you should go see on your first dvd marathon with your girlfriend haha, it will scare the wits out of her and think that you're just like them...unless they dig horror movies with sick murderous characters and blood spilling out of characters body parts then this is a great movie to sit back and enjoy....not for kids though...

This is my first Tom Robbins' novel, fellow multiplier Karl and Aimee has been recommending him forever. I now know why.

"Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas" as the title would suggest is filled with humor and hilarious situations and most of all extra terrestrials without becoming a science fiction novel.

The heroine, Filipina stockbroker Gwen Mati ( her father being a Filipino, mother an Irish ) thought she just had the worst day of her young career, as stocks crashed and she tries to cover her ass while awaiting the resumption of the trading over the course of a long weekend she encounters strange happenings around her.

First, her boyfriend's jewel stealing monkey but presumed to be a born again monkey went missing, offering her help in trying to locate the damned monkey her bestfriend Q-Jo a 300 pound psychic went missing too after meeting with a fellow who later turned out to be Larry Diamond, a former stockbroker turned financial renegade who just spent a long time of soul searching or should i say searching for the origin of mankind in a far away place called as Timbuktu.

Over the course of the next few days, Gwen Mati will jerk around from one revelation to another (most seemingly crazy) brought on by the eccentric Larry Diamond ranging from the origins of frogs, mysterious African rituals to outer space sexuality.


There isn't much of an in depth character study that most novels had, some will prove great while others tend to bore you. I think it's Tom Robbins' style to write stories like this, with plots twisting and turning until it becomes a real mystery with killer lines and quotes that will make one ran out of highlighter ink.

For the more serious readers who lack a sense of humor they might find Tom Robbins a disappointment, but knowing what i know now, why most of his books have weird titles and the plot are outrageous to say the least, well at least it gives me joy and enriches my imagination with the things he writes and most of the times he writes it real good.

As for me, there are still two Tom Robbins book waiting on my shelf to be read and I'm sure hell looking forward to reading those books and scoring more Tom Robbins novels...

"The only thing more shocking than her crime was his crusade to set her free"

The movie tells the story of the 7th Earl of Longford, Frank Pakenham (played by Jim Broadbent), Lord Longford is a devout Roman Catholic who believes in the power of forgiveness and spends his time visiting prisoners and championing for the rehabilitation of these inmates and for society to give them another chance, "Love the sinner but hate the sin" as he would say.

People admired him for his works, especially visiting prisoners all over England. But the backlash against him started when in 1965 he visited an inmate named Myra Hindley.

For starters, Myra Hindley is the girlfriend of another infamous inmate Ian Brady, together in the early 60's both Hindley and Brady went on a murderous spree of killing little children, raping, abusing and torturing them before burying them in vacant lots.

A murderous rampage that has since been infamously known as the "Moors Murder".

And who wouldn't forget that infamous mugshot of Myra Hindley.



In the process Lord Longford and Myra Hindley developed a friendship, Myra tried to show Lord of Longford her rehabilitation process, which includes going back to Catholicism, meanwhile Ian Brady demanded a meeting with Lord of Longford and told him that Myra is a master manipulator who would do everything just to get out of prison.

And this makes the whole film a great character study as the viewers will try to analyze if Myra Hindley is really sincere in her rehabilitation process or just merely using the kind hearted and gullible nature of Lord Longford in order to get a shot at parole.

As the media found out about Lord Longford's visits to one half of England's most notorious serial killer, a backlash was instituted against Lord Longford. And in the end he may have realized that Myra Hindley was just using him after all.

*******
It was a great HBO movie, that deals with a gruesome crime and tackles forgiveness, if ever one is ready to forgive after such decadent and gruesome act of crime.

Personally i understand the reactions of the English public upon knowing that Lord Longford is campaigning for Myra Hindley's parole from prison.

The "Moors Murders" is probably one of the most senseless and violent crime of the century, but the movie will make you think twice if forgiveness really knows no bounds or sets no barometer for viciousness.

As Lord Longford stated towards his critics when asked in a radio show whether he regretted once championing the release of Myra Hindley:

"If people think that makes me weak... or mad... so be it. That is the path I am committed to. To love the sinner, but hate the sins. To assume the best in people, and not the worst. To believe that anyone, no matter how evil, can be redeemed... eventually."

The shortest so far from the 5 other Sandman volumes that i've read. This volume is a collection of four stand alone stories that explains some aspects about the Endless namely Dream and Death. Although not a continuation of the Sandman storyline, still it offers readers a lot in regards to the over all scope of this monumental Sandman series.

Calliope - a short story about a struggling one hit writer Ric Madoc and his obsession to reach top form again, doing so he receives a present from cult filmmaker Erasmus Fry, in the form of a muse, whom he abuses and rapes after drawing inspiration from her and writing bestsellers, directing movies and unto the peak of success. Until Dream, who is the muse's former flame, escapes from his captor and decided to free up his muse and gives Madoc a lesson or two about not having any ideas at all.

A Dream of a Thousand Cats - an imaginative tale that shows a gathering of cats and their dream of a world where cats are the masters and human as its servants, a frightening possibility that one feline speaks of, if only all the cats in the world will believe that it is the case ever since the beginning of time.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - won the World Fantasy award for best short story, tells the story of William Shakespeare and his wandering theater troupe and it's performance in front of an audience that looks like not any audiences they have played for in the past.

Facade - is a short story related to another Sandman volume, the Kindly Ones. Former superhero known as the Fury, Lyta Hall now lives in almost seclusion. In the end with the help of "Death" her powers becomes the solution to how she will be freed.

Although i really want to read this volume because i was so curious about Midsummer Night's Dream, although it turned out quite well, i can say my favorite is "Dream a Thousand Cats", the artwork is creepy, the theme so dark and the message frighteningly chilling.

While Calliope reminds me of people who would sell their soul, in exchange for a burst of creativity, makes me wonder who among us right now has a muse somewhere hidden in their bedroom whom they keep imprisoned and abused. Yes another creepy tale.

Plus the inclusion of the sample script by Neil Gaiman will teach you a thing or two about how to write and imagine a story that is ought to be written as a comic book.

All the more makes this a must read for everybody.

"9 Songs" is about a British geologist named Matt and an American visiting student named Lisa. Narrated by Matt, the movie shows a period in their relationship before Lisa goes back to America and before Matt went to the Antarctica region to study samples of age old ice.

Suffice to say as a music fan the movie shows 9 live performances by 8 different English bands in its entirety as the characters themselves like to attend concerts and gigs.

And that's not the only thing they like, just like 99% of real life couples, they love to have sex, and sex aplenty...so the movie is composed of a speaking cast of two, live concert footage and lots and lots of "UNSIMULATED SEX" .

Yes, its real alright, this movie gained notoriety for showing the girl's vulva, the guy's penis, real cunnilingus and fellatio. Not to mention a scene of ejaculation.

Yeah, bordering between triple X and rated R.

Rated X in a number of countries i bet my ass movies like this won't be shown here in the Philippines unless of course Maui Taylor becomes the MTRCB chairperson.

All said and done, this film was directed by Micheal Winterbottom, the same filmmaker who made "The 24 houH Party People", "Welcome to Sarajevo" and "A Cock and Bull Story"...so at least it wasn't made by John Stagliano.

The sex scenes are wonderfully made, something you would want to do to your partner, i mean something real life couples do...but as the movie progresses and the sex scene becomes redundant in the end the performance of the band "Franz Ferdinand" becomes sort of the highlight and I'm not even fond of Franz Ferdinand.

Anyway this film ain't "Sex and Lucia" so I'll just give this film 3 stars, mainly because of the ultra hot and superb unsimulated sex scenes which I tell you fits those nights of dvd marathon with your girlfriend or boyfriend hey?.

The nine songs and live performance featured in the movie

* Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Whatever Happened To My Rock And Roll"
* Von Bondies, "C'mon, C'mon""
* Elbow, "Fallen Angel"
* Primal Scream, "Movin' On Up"
* Dandy Warhols, "You Were The Last High"
* Super Furry Animals, "Slow Life"
* Franz Ferdinand, "Jacqueline"
* Michael Nyman, "Nadia"
* Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Love Burns"

This is my first Chuck Klosterman book, I've read it a few months ago and I'm just making the review right now. Don't know what to write whether I enjoyed it or what. It definitely shows some promises and I heard "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto" is the book to read if you really want to discover Chuck's writing talent.

Anyway here's a bit of the rundown about his book "Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story".

It was conceived as a sort of documentary book about death with emphasis on the deaths of rock and roll icons. With this path Chuck Klosterman embarks on a road trip across the United States visiting the places of famous death sites of rock and roll stars. Suffice to say he at least visited some sites particularly the NY hotel where Sid Vicious stabbed and killed Nancy Spungen and Sid Himself died, the highway where Duane Allman died in a motorcycle crash, the site where the plane carrying members of Lynard Skynard crashes, Kurt Cobain's Seattle home, the lake where Jeff Buckley drowned, the club that burned killing a hundred people at a Great White show and of course Graceland where the King died.

Apart from tackling what he perceives as death being more advantageous to these figures, thus citing Jeff Buckley's death made his debut album "Grace" from average to something of a "must have" album. Buckley's drowning made him a rock icon from an ordinary good musician.

But the twist if ever there's one is when Chuck Klosterman becomes sort of Charlie Kauffman in "Adaptation" wherein he incorporated himself to the book, the supposed to be death documentary now becomes a sort of memoir of Chuck's experiences with his present and ex-girlfriends. A development that gets annoying sometimes but to his credit he wrote at the first part of the book

"“Well, the larger thesis is somewhat underdeveloped” and by the end, I had my co-worker telling me, “Please don’t write a book about women you used to be in love with,” and when I asks why not, she replies by saying, “Because that’s exploitative. And narcissistic. And a bit desperate.”

Which is what the book became...Chuck Kloster man at his narcissistic stage, can be very well be humorous at a number of occasions and I think that is the only thing why this book belongs on my shelf. I admire his sense of humor and his writing style is something to envy about.

But still, Klosterman wasted a great opportunity here, I mean road trip, death sites of famous rock and roll stars...too bad all of this ended up in the background as Klosterman ended up writing about himself.

After an injury that he suffered while cutting trees in Boston. Sebastian Junger, a journalist in profession thought about writing a book about the different dangerous occupations in the United States. Living in a nearby fishing community of Gloucester, Massachusetts writing a non fiction book about the events that transpired during the great storm that hit North America in 1991 become the obvious choice.

And the result is "The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea". A narrative account about the preceding moments and the days that followed after the doomed sword fishing boat "Andrea Gail" set out on its fishing journey.

With veteran fishermen who spends more than 10 months on the high seas each year, coming home only to unwind at the local favorite watering destination the Crow's Nest. Junger introduces us to the characters led by Billy Tyne, the captain of the Andrea Gail along with the ship's five other crew members who would suffer a mysterious fate at the very eye of the Hurricane Grace.

Sebastian Junger captured every details about what is life as a fisherman, the rich maritime history of the industry in Gloucester, thematics about fishing and sailing and even the last thoughts that crowds the head of a person about to die by drowning.

Readers will learn to care for the doomed characters to the point that you'll hope for their eventual safety even though its common knowledge that the Andrea Gail was never found and presumed to be swallowed by the sea.

A feeling of abruptness comes while Junger is narrating the events after the Andrea Gail's last radio message, the possibilities of what happened makes it more poignant as it leaves the readers a mystery of the unknown only the real life crew of the Andrea Gail have experienced minutes before their impending death.

The way Sebastian Junger wrote and researched for his material is well applauded, by countless interviews with family members and friends of the crew of the Andrea Gail, he was able to clearly write a narrative that describes each character's life previous to the tragic event and each motivation in risking their life for such a voyage towards the end of the fishing season.

The book also details other close brush with death of other ships and carriers in the region where the Perfect Storm hit. Which involves a heroic cost guard's successful rescue of three crew members from a sailboat.

Over-all, The Perfect Storm is a story that grips the readers about the real life horrors that fishermen encounters each day on their job. The characters are well portrayed without exploiting or sensationalizing each motives and memories of what transpired.

With this book, Sebastian Junger was hailed as the new coming of a writer in the molds of a Hemingway and help usher in a zest for a genre called the "macho non fiction".