When someone asks you if you’re a god, you say yes!
Time decides to hand over notes of reporter facing prison
I’m sad, here, at the end of all things. Journalism has had a good run lately, but I guess the government decided we were all having too much fun. This will have a ripple effect in the world of journalism and the world in general. No reporter can guarantee confidentiality now. The free exchange of information is hindered. Bush and friends can roll up another piece of the Constitution and smoke it.
I rented Resident Evil 4 the other night to give myself something to do. Man, am I glad I did. I might even have to buy the game.
See, this is what happens when a zombie DOES get too close:
Actually, that’s not fair. This is the first RE title that’s made me feel a teeny, tiny bit guilty for slaughtering hundreds. You see, the enemies in this game aren’t exactly zombies. I don’t think they’re even dead. They share many of the same characteristics, for sure, including dirty faces, repetitive motion, horribly deep scary voices, the ability to take a 9mm round to the face and keep coming and above all, a blood-thirsty desire to tear me limb from limb. But these are not the living dead. At least, I don’t think so. They talk to one another. They call for backup when they spot you. They are quick and dodge when you shoot at them. They hunt in packs, and are able to surround you. For all practical purposes, they were probably normal European farmers until they got caught up in whatever sinister plan they are caught up in. But don’t think I hesitate for one second when a woman with blood all over her Amish-style dress is coming straight at me with a sickle. Their heads explode just like they should with a well-placed shotgun round.
But like I said, these people might still be alive. They could have feelings and non-monstrous thoughts. Who knows, maybe they could even be cured of the nastiness with which they are stricken with. These are things I think about now. But none of that matters when a fat bald guy in overhauls just tried to stick a pitchfork in your face.
I haven’t enjoyed a game this much in a while. I highly recommend it, despite the moral implications of shooting only partly zombified people. Check out some other screens here.
Harry Lime (Orson Welles):
Don’t be so gloomy. After all it’s not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love — they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.
I read Graham Greene’s “The Quiet American” in my last semester in college as extra credit for a Vietnam war history class. The novel, set in French Indochina in the ’50s, follows grizzled British journalist Thomas Fowler as he stubbornly holds on to his life in Vietnam. Other characters come and go, but “The Quiet American” was never well known for its love triangle or anything to do with the story. It was the setting. Greene lived in Vietnam, and his book predicted the failure of American intervention in the the southeast Asian country. See, Greene had a knack for knowing which small places in the world were the most interesting.
“The Third Man,” based on another Greene novel which he adapted for the screen himself, is set in Vienna, Austria, immediately following the second world war. Vienna is at the time divided into four zones, a French zone, a British zone, an American zone and a Russian zone. Goods and supplies are short, creating a thriving black market, which the characters in the story get mixed up in. But the real beauty of the film is not the main plot, but the background, a stunning black-and-white postwar Vienna and all the political intrigue that comes with it.
Giving any of the plot away is giving it all away. Suffice to say that Orson Welles gives a ghostly performance in a “star role,” meaning you hear a lot about him in the first hour of the film, but you don’t get to see him.
I recommend it.
I’ve always wanted to watch “Seven Samurai” as I’m a big kung-fu fan. I wouldn’t call this a kung-fu film, but it is a samurai sword-fighting film, and that’s awesome. I’d always put it off, but a series of events led me to get it. First, the library has very little to choose from. Second, I read somewhere that there was an homage to this film in Star Wars III. (It’s when Yoda rubs is head slowly in deep thought.) Third… well, I have little else to do.
Despite being made over 50 years ago, being black and white, and being subtitled, the film does a pretty good job of developing its characters. It does have 3 1/2 hours to do it, though. Most of the grindhouse films I like to watch are pretty heavy on fury, but often light on dialogue and subtext.
Here’s the premise: A small farming village is being terrorized by a group of 40 bandits. The bandits come and take their food and their women and generally cause a ruckus. So the villagers decide to go to the city and beg some samurai to help them out. They find one, a wise old man, who then gathers six companions to go back to the village and help. The samurai do this selflessly. The only reward they get is three squares and a cot and the opportunity to hew heads from bandit shoulders. The samurai vary splendidly. One comes along seemingly only to perfect his skill. One is a jovial sort whose main purpose seems to be bringing lightness to tense situations. And it’s not clear whether another is a real samurai or not. He’s a drunken loudmouth, often funny, who wasn’t even invited to help but went anyway.
When they get to the village, however, they discover that the farmers aren’t so friendly to “samurai on the run.” In fact, they’ve murdered samurai who’ve worn out their welcome before. This enrages several of the seven, but they continue to help the villagers because without them, there would be no hope.
So they prepare by digging moats and building fences. The film builds to a great climactic battle, and the ending is quite satisfying. But I won’t spoil all the fun. Go rent it for yourself.
The movie doesn’t have the greatest fight scenes or anything, but the story and characters are just plain fun to watch.
I hiked the Pilot Butte for the first time today and took some photos. This is one of my apartment from the top. Click on the photo, and you can see all the pictures I took from there. The trail up the Butte is .4 miles long with an ascension of 480 feet. Maybe it doesn’t sound like a lot, and maybe it isn’t, but it was hard on the legs. It took me about 20 minutes to get to the top, and I was going at a steady clip. At the bottom there is a sign with the speed records for running up the butte. The best time is 7 minutes and 20 seconds. Sheesh.
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