Well, apparently I'm not alone in my dislike of Van Helsing. Thanks to Luis for letting me know about Guttervomit's review of the film, who suggests that the filmmaker must be autistic or have mental disorder, that's hilarious. Besides giving me a headache and eyestrain, watching the movie made me jumpy and nervous and a little dizzy. Sort of like the strobe light room in a haunted house...
Honestly, even for a video game type movie, I think the target audience for this film has to be 8 year old hyperactive little boys with ADD. Just watching the characters move around the screen is enough to bring on an epileptic seizure, not to mention the constant shape-shifting and things flying across the top of the screen in every shot. What was that Japanese cartoon that sent sent groups of children to the hospital because of the subliminal strobing effect it had??
Well the port has made my teeth numb and my headache a bit better, which was my goal. I haven't had any alcohol since I re-started the Atkins diet, I feel much happier now :-) I think I may sneak off to bed and read some more on my vampire novel, which is nice and quiet and has no explosions [aahhh]. I want to get her newest Southern vampire installment, but it's in hardback only right now, which really sucks, not so much for just the price, but because I have the first three in paperback.
I found a new vampire/witch novel the other day which looks really great (and has Charlaine Harris's endorsement on the fabulous cover), Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison, which I can't wait to start on. I love browsing at Borders, they don't have the best prices but they have a really eclectic selection of featured books and music.
For more groovy anti-war/Dubya images check out The Peace Pretzel's graphics link page. Print some and put them on your car!
Just found one of the political protest sites I had bookmarked has been bullied into shutting down, gee I wonder who would be offended by a little free speech, hmmm???
A famous local psychic once told me I had been a female French freedom fighter in WWII and was killed by the Nazis to silence me when they invaded France, makes sense to me. I have a fascination with WWII Europe but no real historical interests again until I reappeared in the early 60's here in the US. Supposedely I was a guardian angel in the interim. I really wish I were doing more now, but this is my little corner of the internet and I do hope people at least stop by. Janeane Garofolo, who I really respect, said the other day that at this point a vote for Bush is a character flaw and I think she nailed it right on the head. She said the people that are standing behind Bush are doing it out of spite, which is not as farfetched as it may sound. I've always thought it was stupid stubbornness also that people are still saying they support Bush after he has willfully unleased Armageddon on the world, I mean, really, what the hell do they see in him that's decent and good anymore? As a bumper sticker I sold (I think I have a few left still) says "Lobotomies for Republicans, It's the Law!".
I found a funny UK site the other day with some great commentary on Bush and Tony Blair (I still feel sorry for him being dragged under by us, the "US" actually, he seemed like such a decent guy). And our country never ceases to embarass ourselves, now we're playing fraternity initiation games with Iraqi prisoners. Of course I say this from the state where one of the largest universities accidentally killed some of it's students by building a huge bonfire which collapsed on themselves in order to commemorate a bloody football game, and they want to continue building them. I'm sure the soldiers are going stir crazy over there, but do they have to shoot photos and videos of their crimes? What are we, 13 years old shooting paint balls out of car windows at people?
To the rest of the world, please understand we have to make jokes about the horrible things that have been happening these past few years to keep from going insane. Most Americans truly can't believe the hell we've fallen into (and so quickly and efficiently too!), our rights being stripped away one layer at a time, while our government plays God with us and the rest of the world (it's for our own good, you understand). We have our own Taliban now, it's called the Republican party. So much for separation of church and state, which, not being a fundamentalist Christian, and still being of child bearing age, makes me especially uncomfortable. If I could stand the cold weather, and thought we wouldn't conquer their asses too, Canada would look very appealing right now.
I gave money earlier this week to Howard Dean's revamped site, Democracy for America.com, and just saw that we reached out goal of $250,000, yea!! There is some hope after all for our poor fucked up country. I keep telling Sparky that the entire country really can't all be blind Bush following idiots, but he watches news TV all day and believes all of their insane polls and pundits. I have to believe there are some intelligent people in the US (which ain't easy being isolated in Texas -- we won't be a battleground state this November) or I don't think I could go on. I'm so glad we don't have kids, I see way too many little brain-washed future Republicans, we need a generation of really motivated anit-establishment cyber hippies. I know they're out there somewhere...
Speaking of bullies (or cowards) Disney has refused to distribute Michael Moore's new documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11", gee, I wonder why? I have to admit that Disney doesn't come to mind when I think of revolutionary anti-establishment exposes, but you never know. But, I think this is like the Al Franken/Bill O'Reilly lawsuit, it will only help him and add weight to his film. I can't wait to see it, personally. I just hope people pay attention to the message, this administration is so ballsy it just tries to blow off any claims against it, even with lots of proof. I'd like to think we're seeing the beginning of the great foundation crumbling going on right now, but I don't want to get my hopes up waiting for the impending implosion.
Spoilers aplenty, don't read if you haven't seen the film...
Well, we went to see Van Helsing tonight. Yikes... I knew it would be loud, it was. I knew it would be full of CGI effects, it had so many the film seemed to be animated. I have to confess to not seeing The Mummy except for the bits I've seen on cable TV, so I sort of cringed when my husband told me it was by the same person. I tried really hard to like it, but about 20 minutes in Sparky looked over in the dark and said "You don't like it, do you?". I knew he'd been really looking forward to it, and he liked The Mummy, but the nicest thing I could say was "It's just so dumb!". This was during the Jekyll/Hyde sequence, which just was SO not right.
I watched the entire film without my glasses, and still ended up getting a major headache. If you like comic books on film, where things are constantly exploding and catching on fire for no apparent reason, you'll love this film. Everyone looked great, the costumes were nice, the effects were pretty good (a little jerky), Kate Beckinsale was a good heroine (in a corset, leather pants and high heels in 1889). I liked her a lot better in Underworld, she was deadly serious, angsty and really tough. She wasn't a sissy in this film, but the Young Frankenstein comments just didn't really fit right, especially with her character taking everything seriously, and horrible things happening to her family. Sparky had said to "check your brain at the door and just enjoy it", but I didn't have enough Lorazepam with me, unfortunately and they don't serve mixed drinks at the theater.
Sparky tells me that this is Universal's attempt to recharge their classic monsters, but since they had the three major ones in this film I'm a little confused what the sequels will involve. The vampire offspring plot was too bizarre and over the top even for a comic book, maybe it would fit in an early EC mag, I dunno. Igor looked like he had a rubber mask on, Dracula's brides were interesting, but only when they were in human form, IMHO. And what the fuck were those little Star Wars looking creatures that worked for Dracula??? And then [SPOILER] they go and kill off the only character I like in the film. I felt like I was on a really long, loud amusement park ride... oh wait - they have already made an amusement park ride already at Universal Studios. I couldn't help MST3K'ing the thing, luckily we were sitting in the last row and no one else could hear us.
There doesn't seem to be a Kate Beckinsale action figure, bummer... I'm going to go pour myself a glass of Port, the codeine is not doing anything for my head.
OK, I know I'm a day late, I got distracted last night...
Like everyone else, I sat on my butt for two hours watching Friends and the clip show beforehand. I feel bad because I'd sort of been neglecting Friends the last couple of years, but I've been trying to watch it more often this season. I'm glad they tied everything up nicely, we need more happy endings these days and it pleased me irrationally to see Ross and Rachel finally get together for good. And the twin babies for Monica and Chandler were a nice touch.
On another note, the Friday Five girl (woman really) threw in the towel, which is disappointing but I can't blame her at all. I've thought of doing a weekly meme but I'm in over my head between multiple websites, weblog and two eBay stores. She's also running the Globe of Blogs (which is an enormous undertaking) and lots of other things it sounds like. So I really need to pick some new memes now, if for no other reason than to make sure I put something online at least once or twice a week.
I need to find another Meme, Friday Five has been down for an I'm sure much needed rest and I need inspiration... And to do something other than just list things on eBay, my brain is starting to hurt.
Went by Unconscious Mutterings earlier, got this word association meme to do:
Of course, there's always the Meme List. I really should pick a Wednesday one, hmmm...
The page layout at Wednesday Mind Hump scares me but I like their questions:
Daydreaming on Paper gave me this prompt:
Only I could pick up a piece of paper from my printer and slash myself across the face with it [sigh]. I've always been very talented at strange self-injuries. So now I have a cut on my upper lip that hopefully will not swell up and look nasty. On the good side, I didn't hit myself in the eye...
Sparky wanted spaghetti for dinner. I'm allergic to tomatoes and really dislike spaghetti as a pasta so I decided to make him happy and I would have a "low carb" day. I was thinking of just drinking several Atkins shakes all day, but I ended up drinking two and making myself two sandwiches with my tropical chicken salad, which I'm starting to get a little tired of now. Too much celery. Now my stomach is rebelling and gurgling and I've had to take a Prilosec. We're supposed to go out with friends and have Mexican food tomorrow night, coincidentally on Cinco de Mayo (ya think we'll have to stand in line???), so I figure between the two they'll average out. I just have to watch the chips and tortillas.
I've managed to lose about 7 pounds so far doing the low carb thing (again) and cut my snacking down to next to nothing. I've been living on a diet of salads, liquid yoghurt, chicken salad, Slimfast low carb bars and Atkins canned shakes. Stay tuned to see if I develop an eating disorder in my quest to lose weight and get my cholesterol below 300...
Stumbled across a neat low carb information site today, the whole world has gone low carb now, it's funny. I've been doing it on and off for about 6 years, lost 10 pounds the first time I did it and got my cholesterol below 200 for the first time in my adult life. They're coming out with a low carb Coke, cool! I wish they'd make more things with Splenda, it's the only artificial sweetener I can tolerate.