Yo, Rocky Balboa

I've officially seen three of the Rocky movies: Rocky, Rocky IV, and now Rocky Balboa. I think everyone probably rightfully thought the same thing when we heard of Stallone's plans for a sixth Rocky film. I know my eyes couldn't stop rolling for weeks. However, he seems to have acknowledged all of those notions that would have caused us to doubt.

The first and most obvious of those being the question of both the actor's, and the characters age. How was this addressed? Well, this isn't a story about the greatest fight of his career, but a story about the last fight of his career. It deals with being a has-been but still having a few tricks he can teach to the new kid on the block. The other big issue is Stallone's acting itself. Can the man act? No, not really, but he can play Rocky Balboa and be as convincing as he needs to be so that the audience doesn't realize that this is in-fact a washed-up actor. And I suppose that's why this ended up being a smart move for Stallone. Had he tried to do Cliffhanger 2, our eye rolling would have been justified (We may have to hold that thought for Rambo 4 though).

It's got some sappy moments, it's got some inspirational moments and even some exciting moments. Whats good about it is that it doesn't seem to try to copy verbatim the formula of the other Rocky films I've seen. Sure, it makes it's homages, but tastefully and not to the point where they carry the story.

The best aspect of the character development of the film is Rocky befriending a down-on-herself young woman and her son. Had there been no fighting in the movie what-so-ever, this story could have been expanded into it's own film by itself. The only awkward or confusing thing was the current heavy-weight champ Mason Dixon. We're never really sure if he's supposed to be a cocky asshole, or just a good guy surrounded by the wrong people. In one scene he talks about how he'd rather be respected as a fighter than be the champ, and in a later scene he's asshole trash-talking Rocky. In the end though, he finally learns a lesson and that's the real point of the character.

All in all, this is a film about doing whatever it is you do without bitching about the obstacles in your way. In fact, Rocky makes a speech to his son saying pretty much just that. The story is full of those and other speeches, but they always seem natural, unpreachy and warranted. The best perhaps comes from Rocky's trainer (forgive me die-hard Rocky fans for not knowing the character's name). He tells rocky that he's not fast on his feet, and his reflexes are shot, so he's going to have to win the fight with "blunt-force-trauma", and it's time to start building some "hurtin' bombs".

As tempting as it is to laugh at so-called has-beens, you've got to give respect to actors like Sylvester Stallone, Bill Murray and Jack Nicholson that have managed to stay in the game just as well as they ever were (the later two more so). I say just as much with Stallone, because as I said, the man can't act, never really could, but he's still doing it and I'm still paying to watch, so that's something. Like the movie poster says, "I ain't over till it's over".

*** (3 out 4 stars).

Updates and More

First of all, until I have time to get the new logo to appear up top without the site feed title being the location of the jpg file, It's just going to be text based.

In badass martial arts movie news, Yimou Zhang (writer/director of Hero and House of Flying Daggers) has a new movie coming out called The Curse of the Golden Flower. It stars Chow Yun-Fat and Li Gong.

Lastly, I finally was able to pick up 24 Season 5 on DVD. I was disappointed with the packaging this time. It just seems like they got lazy (using slim-cases instead of the usual gate-folding case with elaborate photo-art). However, they more than made up for it with the design and function of the menus. They look much cooler than in years past, and they finally added a "play-all" feature. Only took the 5 seasons to realize that people might want to watch several episodes in a row uninterrupted.

New Title

As you may have noticed I've changed the name of this blog from "Trevor's Lucid Dream" to "The Lucid". Title doesn't make sense to you? Don't look to hard into it. It's only meant to retain a reference to it's origin while being a more news-like title. I did this because I've decided I much more like writing about external things rather than dear-diary stuff about myself. I'll try to keep my focus on news, science, music, and movies, but who knows. I'm in the process of adding category labels to all my posts. Those categories are listed in the right column. I've also added a "Shoutbox". If you'd like to leave a message on the site not related to a post, there's the place to do it.

CNN

Here is a case and point of why I hate the mainstream media. CNN yesterday was talking about a cruise ship that had 2 "outbreaks" of a virus on board within the last year. They said that they had hired more cleaning staff and doctors for it's next voyage. The "reporter" at the desk was giving tips on "How to Keep Yourself Healthy on Your Next cruise". This same person asked the guy in field how common this virus was. He then responded that this was a very common virus and not at all exclusive to cruise ships. He then went on to say that 1 in every 12 people in the United States contract this virus every year and the symptoms are much like the flu. He was then asked what the ratio of people getting sick on cruises was, to which he responded about 1 in 100. They both then chuckle about how they suppose the media was just blowing this out of proportion because it happened on boat.

So, did you catch that? You're LESS LIKELY to contract this virus if you're on these cruise ships. You're LESS LIKELY to contract this virus if you're on these cruise ships. You're LESS LIKELY to contract this virus if you're on these cruise ships.

CNN having this info before hand, decides to put this shit on the air anyway. Then, the reporters admit that it isn't newsworthy. And yet, it fucking made it on the air. This isn't the first time I've heard of illness on ships cause by virus contraction, and I'm going to go ahead and guess that over the past 18 months that this has been a "story", news organizations have had these same statistics.

So what we have now are people thinking that these ships are just disease vessels when their own kitchen is probably far more unhealthy. I'm gonna bet that the people running the cruises are swept up in the same paranoia hence the added cleaning and doctor staff. Or maybe they are aware of the reality but are just appeasing public idiocy induced by irresponsible "reporting".

The Sudoku Conquest

I did a few in the past and thought they were too easy. Then I came to realize I was doing them wrong. The two puzzles above represent my triumph in doing them correctly (And, of course they were much harder than I thought). I feel smart. Isn't that the ultimate reward of anything in life? Doing something that doesn't make you feel like quite such an idiot. If I could do a bunch of shit myself on my car, that too would make me feel smart; maybe someday.

I've found that doing these mundane puzzles calms me down when I'm depressed, pissed off, or freaking out. Having something else to focus on helps take my mind off of my troubles. Perhaps if I do enough of these I won't need Zoloft anymore.

Titanic, yes I said "Titanic"

Ashley and I watched the entirety of Titanic the other day and when it was over I realized something; I had sat there for over 3 hours and 15 minutes and watched what I still believe is a pretty corny movie. More specifically what finally came to me about the movie was why it was so insanely popular. While I don't care for the plot nor really would I ever go out of my way to see it again I realized that the film is almost perfectly paced. Most other 3+ hour movies will lag in the middle somewhere, have an awkward, drawn-out ending, or have 3 false endings. Titanic, it seems, doesn't fall into any of those trappings. It begins, it middles, and it ends. It tells a big, long story, and yet I sat there and watched the whole thing without being bored. That, along with it's sappy love story and suspenseful finish is why so many people like a movie that before I would have snickered at. So there you have it, I found something positive about a movie I never really liked.

The Cut-throat world of Chuck E Cheese's

Ashley and I took Samantha to Chuck-E-Cheese's the other day. Normally I don't mind the place. Sure it's obnoxious, but it's skeeball and pizza, two things that I happen to like. It was on this occasion that something occured to me. It's something I had realized as a child but didn't really put togeather what exactly what was going on. You see, we went on friday night and as such it was very busy. We've gone with Samantha a few times over the past couple of years but it was usually during the week and not busy at all. What I realized (stay with me...hear me out...) was that Chuck-E-Cheese was a microcosm of the adult world. At first I thought it was just the corporate world that it resembled, but the analogy can apply to all of it really, and I'll explain how. It hit me when I was waiting in line behind some kids to play skeeball. I was polite and patient and I gracefully waited my turn. I should have known that the kids wouldn't behave as such as they kept just walking up and cutting in front of me. At first it pissed me off, but they're kids; I can't exactly scold them for cutting in front of an adult to play a game at what is cleary an establishment for children. But then I saw these kids cutting in front of other kids that, like me, were waiting patiently to play the games (which brought back wonderful memories of my own experiences at the exact same place). The first thing I did in my mind was jump up on my high-horse and think to myself that us adults know how to behave properly and these kids need to be tought a lesson. Then something else happened in my mind...it almost sounded like the laugh track from Three's Company slowly creeping from my sub-counscious into my counscious mind. Us adults don't do that? I can't remember the last time I was at the grociery store or the pharmacy and some jackbag didn't try to muscle his way in front of me in line (it's usually meatheaded men or really old women). Then I noticed other things going on, kids were stealing tokens from other kids cups, they were stealing tickets that other kids had won. One kid even stole some of my french fries (but in his defence he was like 3 and I think he thought his mom had ordered them). All this behavior was rampant, but what was most rampant of all was the blatent cheating. Mostly with skeeball, but with the soccer ball kicking game and others as well. And were the parents there teaching their kids to play fair? I didn't see a sinlge parent correct their children. So, what was all of this lying, cheating and stealing for? Prizes of course. Peaces of crap that they didn't need. How much of this sounds familiar? All of it I'm guessing. This kind of behavior is commonplace in both the working-class and corporate world. Taking short-cuts, lying to employees, customers, and the public . I'm sick of this attitude that something isn't cheating if you don't get caught. I'm sick of it from kids, people, and corporations. I'm sick of children being tought that it's just the way the world works and you better learn to do it better than the next guy or he'll get a bigger house than you. The world is what you make of it, and I don't think the entire world is like this. We've gotten it burned into our culture's psyche that this is the way it is, and that you have to play the game before the game plays you. This isn't ok. This isn't life. I fully submit that it may be in our nature to be this way, but that we are smarter than this. We can be above this. We can take a stand and say no matter what the outcome, no matter what the other guy is doing, that we're not going to be cheater, the theif, or the liar. We can do better.

(It's late, this is a rough-draft...I will spell check and proof-read tomorrow)

Damn straight, fucker.

Scientific Rationalism & Man With Mustache

The first thing I want to mention today is the most brilliant podcast out there right now, it's called Point of Inquiry. It's a science-centric show focusing on, as the host of the show puts it, "Asking the biggest questions of the day through the lens of the Scientific viewpoint". Other than issues directly relating to Science, it also desls with social and political issues, again from scientists' and rational thinkers' points of view. There is a guest each week, what initially brought my attention to the show was the recent interview with Richard Dawkins. So check it out, it's Point of Inquiry, subscribe to it with itunes or download the mp3s directly off of the site.


The other thing I wanted to mention was Entertainment Weekly. A few weeks ago they had a picture of the now familiar character Borat (played by sacha cohen) on the cover with the words "Has this man made the funniest movie ever?". Inside the pages were glowing reviews of movie, interviews with Cohen and so-on. They were kissing Borat's ass basically. Then, this week a rather large article appears in the magazine days before the movie is set to release, slamming the movie and telling everyone that it's going to flop because the studio over estimated the internet-buzz of the movie exactly the way they did with Snakes on a Plane. I'm not quoting exactly here, but it also said something to the effect of "When is hollywood going to admit to itself that internet marketing just doesn't work?". Now, lets review the reviews. Snakes on Plane: 69% on the tomatometer, while still considered "Fresh" 30% of those reviewing it still gave it a negative review with average overall rating being 6.2/10. Borat: 96% on the tomatometer with and average rating of 8.3/10. As many of you might know by now, Borat completely blew out all studio and media expectations and opened with 26m (it was expected to open in the 10-15m range and place 3 or 4th). The reason for the low expected take was that Borat was only opening in about 800 theaters this week, that's about 1/2 to 1/3 of what the other major releases that didn't fair nearly as well opened in. So EW, backpedaling and not wanting to look like asses they way they did when SoaP "Flopped" after they too had gotten caught up in the hype (I put 'flopped' in qoutations because it's a relative term, the movie still made a tidey profit), recanted their praise of the movie at the last second because they found out about the initial low theater count.

Did EW not look at or even care about the reviews of the 2 movies (SoaP and Borat) before shooting their mouth off? Does that not matter any more? Sure, plenty of great films go unnoticed by mainstream audiences all the time, but the usually have one thing in common: They were not made for mainstream audiences. So, did EW think that nobody was going to go see a movie that was obviously targeting the mainstream and had the best reviews of the year(96% has been the best tomatometer score for any film this year)? I don't know what it is about moive-market anaylsts and their gloom-and-doom predictions, but they don't seem to be based on anything like common-sense. Did I think SoaP was going to do a little better than it did? Yes, but not by much, because I saw the reviews ahead of time and they were luke-warm at best. Did I expect Borat to do better than SoaP...honestly, untill EW's article I wasn't really compairing the two, but I expect it to do well considering the reviews.

Future Genetics Mix

Check out my latest incredibly amazing mix. Click on the image to download or click here (192kbps Mp3)

Tracklist:

1. Verse - Sleepless (Renegade)
2. Danny Howells & Dick Trevor feat. Erire - Breathe (Pacific's Vocal Drum&Bass Mix) (Cr2)
3. Easyrollers - Caister (Intercom)
4.Total Science - Badger Eyes (Hospital)
5. Blaze feat. Barbara Tucker - Most Precious Love (High Contrast Remix) (Defected)
6. D Region - The Way it Feels (Furious)
7. Syncopix - 8-bit Blues (Hospital)
8. D Region - Cry Baby (Furious)
9. DJ Andy Milkrob - Main Line (Emotif)
10. Kabuki - Trailblazer (Liquid V)
11. Sketch & Code - Everybody (Sinewave)
12. Total Science - Millenium Lady (Bingo Beats)
13. Danny Byrd - Fresh 89 (Hospital)
14. Logistics - Never Ending Story (Hospital)
15. SKC & Bratwa - Heart of Love (Hospital)
16. Basic Operations - The Great Breakaway (Soundtrax)
17. DJ Marky & XRS - Moments of Lust (Makato Remix) (Innerground)
18. ES9 - Free Your Mind (D-Bridge Remix) (06S)
19. Rollin B - Heatwaves (Form)
20. Funk n' Flex - Flow With Me (Defunked)
21. Jagged Edge - Rock Baby (Stress Level & TC1 Remix) (Liquid V)
22. Blue Mar Ten - Black Water (Exceptional)

My two biggest heroes in the world (Richard Dawkins & Stephen Cobert), togeather at the same table for a "debate"

December 5th, the greatest season yet. Also, starting tuesday, oct 24th, you can check out a preview of season six by going here.

I've decided to post links to mixes every now and again. This one is from a very fine drum&bass producer called Psidream. This is his February 2006 Studio Mix

Download Mp3

Work today was very short and I hope I'm not in danger of going broke. Short as it was, I had 2 awful encounters. The first was with a crackhead 15 year old girl. How did I know she was a crackhead? I've known a few crackheads in my time. The first thing that gave it away was how she was acting crazy like Tony Montana. You know, "fuck you, I'm entitled to everything I see...". Second was her voice. From what I understand, snorting cocaine...even enough of it over a short period of time-erodes the walls of your nostrils and fucks up your sinuses. This girl sounded like someone had stuffed wads of peanut butter up the back of her nose and lit the front of her nasal passages on fire. Like someone with a cold on their deathbed who also got their face beat in like what Ed Norton did to Jerod Leto in Fight Club. The point of this? Just to illustrate what shit I think some people are. I'm not sure if I'm aggravated at her for being fucked up, or at whoever raised her for putting more people like that into the world. I've got some tolerance for people who are drug addicts and who are trying to get better. I've got no tolerance for girls like her who show up on Oprah and says she's gonna do whatever the fuck she wants. I probably should. I probably should have an attitude of wanting to help youth before it's too late and all that, but for some reason when I see a teenager like that I just feel contempt. Again, for them, and for whoever raised them. Maybe it's because I was surrounded by people like that in highschool and they were all assholes to me. Say what you will about comic books being stupid, but they kept me away from a lot of bad shit growing up. Having something to distract me was very much a good thing. I seriously think kids should be introduced to art and music a lot more and a younger age. I think that, along with emphasizing the importance of education, would do a lot to curb teenage drug use. I don't think those are the only factors involved, but the thing is, those are factors we can control. We can't always control what they're shitty parents are telling them. We can't always control what friends they have or the places they hang out. A lot of kids when they get the whole "school sucks" notion, through no direct intention of their own, end up drinking first usually, then use drugs. I know how it is, the more and more it's around, the less of a big deal it seems like. Something as simple as comic books, or drawing, or painting, or singing, can give a kid something to fall back on when they get those "school sucks" notions, as believe me, I did. Another bit of advice should be this: Limit how much time a teenager can talk in a day somehow. I don't mean talk on the phone, I mean talk period. It seems like a lot of teenage stupidity stems from them talking to one another. Also, limit how much their parents can say to them, that way when they can speak, they'll make damn sure it's something important or intelligent.


My other encounter today was with a pile of dog shit. Everyone steps in dog shit every now and again and if this were just an ordinary dog-shit incident, I probably wouldn't even mention it. But this wasn't your everyday dog-shit encounter, this encounter happened in the refridgerator isle of Best Buy. Why was there dog shit in an isle at Best Buy? I have no answer for that, but it happened. And I had to wait 10 minutes standing in one shoe while one of the sales people took my shoe in the back and cleaned it off. This didn't look like someone brought it in from outside and it got on the floor, it looked like a dog took a shit by the Kenmores. I'm really hoping it was a dog.



One last thing, The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman is the best damn comic out right now. I don't care if you don't like comic books and don't like Zombies, go to Borders (or other chain book store) and pick up one of the collected paperbacks.


"How many hours are in a day when you don't spend half of them watching television? When is the last time any of us REALLY worked to get something that we wanted? How long has it been since any of us really NEEDED something that we WANTED?

The world we knew is gone.

The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled, no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV.

In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living."

There was this thing crawling around inside of our bedroom wall last night, needless to say I havn't gotten much sleep, and I want to kill something.

The last couple of days I've spent a little time making a round of improvements to the layout. I think they're neat.

The wind is blowing violently outside and it's unselttling. Here are some pics from my trip up north.

More Fight School video. Officially Fight School Show #1...And why would we take the time to shoot and record an opening for what is ultimately pointless footage? I have no good answer for you.

Watch the youtube version below or download an iPod friendly version (Quicktime) by clicking here (right click, select "Save-As").

Usually I have something or another on my mind. But as of right now everything is going ok. Ashley and I are spending the weekend up north by ourselves, I've got a computer job locked down for the end of the month, and the damn Solar Flare flyers finally came in. So I'm ok today.

Here's list of freeware applications I found (noolmusic.com). I think everyone's sure to find something useful.

Open Office - Free Office Suite (My contribution to the list)
Filseclab Free Firewall Software
Claimwin.com - Free Antivirus For Windows
AdAware - free spyware removal
Adblock for Mozilla
Amaya - Free HTML Editor
AnalogX Autotuner - Tune your samples in batches effectively, a ton of other stuff as well
AnalogX DXMan - manage ur DX plugins - uninstall
Andyware.com - Audio Toy and Analog Box
Anonymouse Filesharing
ASIO2KS - Generic ASIO driver for WDM soundcards.
ASIO4all
Arachnophilia - Freeware HTML editor
Audacity Wave Editor - also open source
AVG Anti Virus Software
Babelfish - free online site translations
Bome's Mouse Keyboard - Use this program to control your midi devices without having a real keyboard
Boy Scout - PC Windows softwaresynth that emulates the GameBoy Advance sound chip
BugMeNot - Bypass Compulsory Logins
Burnatonce.com - Great Freeware CD Burning Utility
Buzzmachines.com - The BEST freeware audio suite - modular sequencer, modular synthesizer and/or tracker ever !
CCleaner - system optimization and privacy tool
Coagula - image synth
Cyclonix - now free
Daemon-Tools - mount those cd images with ease
Delta SP - Synth, Sampler, Sequencer and Wave Editor in one program
DJ Mixing Software - Big listing
DVD Shrink
Email Spam Filter - k9
Email Spam Filter - Magic Mail Monitor 3
Email Spam Filter - SpamBayes
Email Spam Filter - SpamFighter
Email Spam Filter - Spamihilator
Email Spam Filter - SpamPal
Folders Wont Open in Same Window on WinXP
Foobar - nice media player like winamp
Free Documentation for Coders
Free MIDI DIY Projects
Freeware Beat Mixing Apps
Freeware Music Applications
FruityLoops MsgBoard VST Links - Many
FTP Client
Generate a File Listing from a Windows Explorer Context Menu
Grouper - share files privately
Hijack This - Programs Developed by Merijn
Hotstepper
How To Remove Spyware
How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting
Hypography - Science News
JackRack
Jazz++ - midi seq for pc and linux
Joachim Freeware Vumeter.exe
KVRaudio.com - great VST site, information, downloads
Lame - free hi quality mp3 encoder
Mailinator
Media Player Classic
Microsoft PowerToys addons for Windows XP
MidiOverLan
MidiOx - great all-purpose MIDI Utility! - also check out midiyoke drivers
Mozilla FireFox Browser
Mozilla thunderbird - e-mail and newsgroup client
Mp3 Bookhelper - Manage and edit those mp3 id3 titles with ease
MusicBrainz - automatically look up tracks + write metadatatags (ID3 or Vorbis)
Noolmusic.com - Freeware Application Rundown 2006
Official kX Project Site
OGG Encoder - download oggenc.exe from vorbis.com
OpenOffice.org - Down with Microsoft Office
PAPS Direct X
Pearl Dreamkit
Quence
Real Alternative - play real audio files in a different way
Registry Edits for WinXP - Tweaks and Tips
Scala - experimentation with musical tunings - freeware prog
SciTE - free sourcode editor for win32 and X
Forty Six Best Ever Freebies - GREAT article by Gizmo
Skype - Free Internet Telephone Service
Slick Deals on Hardware
SoundFont Tools - SF2Comp is a SoundFont compiler/decompiler program
Speed Up webpage loading with firefox
SpyBot Search & Destroy - Great adware
Spybot
Stationripper.com
Syntedit - make your own vst plugins
SysInternals Freeware Appz - several improvements on existing microsoft windows utilities and great new useful stuff! - including FileMon, DebugView, Handle, List Dlls, Regmon
Torrent - MuTorrent - fast easy to use client
Torrent - BitComet - fast easy to use
Torrent - Official bittorent client
TrendMicro - Free Online Virus Scanner
TWE - cool editor for making looppoints and crossfades
Typo3
VB Audio DxUninstaller - Manage dx plugins
WaveKnife - Audio/CDDA Sample CD Editor
Webspace - Free Website Hosting
Winamp VUmeter
Windows sp3
Xine - Free multimedia player - cd, dvd, vcd, avi, mov, wmv, mp3
Xvid
XnView
Yahoo Widgets
You Send it - Send over 1gb anonymously
Zealey Software - File Inventory and Loop Horse - file management apps
Zone Alarm - Free FireWall Protection

I'm having one ofthese days where I just want to jump up and kick myself in the face because nothing is going right. I'm updating my resume for the second time in as many weeks and I don't know exactly what Joe expects me to add to it. I keep changing around the track I'm working on and every time I do I think it sounds even worse. I've got these goddamn razor bumps on my neck that itch now for some reason. I've got some kind of fungal throat infection I think because for the past 4 days I've had what can only be described as "rot mouth". I want to use my digital camera but I keep forgetting to charge the batteries.

fubar

*Update* I've made some modifications, going to continue to do so and keep the blog this sort of theme.

I came home last night to find the source css file for my blog missing, so I had to get a temporary template for now. This crude looking thing is only temporary.

Iraq war spawned terrorism, radicals: U.S. report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
Iraq war gave birth to a new generation of Islamic radicals and the terrorist threat has grown since the September 11 attacks, according to a U.S. intelligence report cited in The New York Times on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT

A National Intelligence Estimate completed in April says Islamic radicalism has mushroomed worldwide and cites the Iraq war as a reason for the spread of jihad ideology, the newspaper reported.

"The estimate concludes that the radical Islamic movement has expanded from a core of Qaeda operatives and affiliated groups to include a new class of 'self-generating' cells inspired by al Qaeda's leadership but without any direct connection to
Osama bin Laden or his top lieutenants," the newspaper said.

The Times cited more than a dozen U.S. government officials and outside experts with knowledge of the classified document.

It is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by U.S. intelligence agencies since the war began in March 2003 and represents a consensus view of the 16 U.S. spy services.

"According to reports, this intelligence document should put the final nail in the coffin for
President Bush's phony argument about the Iraq war," Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts said.

"... The fact that we need a new direction in Iraq to really win the war on terror and make Americans safer could not be clearer or more urgent -- yet this administration stubbornly clings to a failed 'stay-the-course' strategy."

Some of the estimate's conclusions confirm predictions in a January 2003 National Intelligence Council report that said a war in Iraq might increase support for political Islam worldwide, according to the newspaper.

"It also examines how the Internet has helped spread jihadist ideology, and how cyberspace has become a haven for terrorist operatives who no longer have geographical refuges in countries like
Afghanistan," the Times said.

The National Intelligence Council, the main strategic think tank for the U.S. intelligence community, is in the early stages of preparing a new national estimate on Iraq in response to requests from leading Senate Democrats, including Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) of Massachusetts, intelligence officials said.

(Additional reporting by David Morgan in Washington)

Who's Side are You On? (Civil War Spoilers)

At first, I was sceptical and under-enthused by Marvel's "Civil War" cross-over mini-series, but like with any good story, the further in you go, the higher the stakes, and the darker the prospects. For those unfamiliar, "Civil War" goes a little something like this: TV reality show superheroes The New Warriors pick a fight with a super villian (Nitro) way out of their league and end up getting themselves killed. That wouldn't have been so bad hadn't Nitro taken out half of a town and a school full of 300 elementary school kids with them. This causes a national uproar and soon a Superhero registration act is passed requiring all super-powered people to register with the govornment, give up their secret identities and work for the "man". Needless to say many aren't happy with this, but many in the superpowered community, like Iron Man, think it's long over-due. Unfortunatly, his long-term coleague Captain America disagrees and the battle lines are drawn. Spider-Man, in an cue from Tony stark in an attempt to "set the right example" unmasks himself to the media for the first time. The governemnt backed heroes led by Iron Man (and joined by Spider-Man, amoung others) start to hunt down the rebel heroes led by Cap (Unofficially called the "Secret Avengers")

Whats crazy about this mini-series is how long-standing friendships and alliances are being shattered and relationships redefined. For example, Sue Richards leaves Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four after he becomes obsessed with the hero hunting and she joins the Secret Avengers. Spider-Man's life long admiration of Captain America is thrown a curve when he's forced to fight him or be persecuted himself. Iron Man's (Tony Stark) involvement is perhaps the most fascinating. Events unravel that show the depths of Starks distrust and cynicism over the years. The govornment is now employing super-powered criminals to hunt down the rogue heroes. It's like all these years you've been presented with a certain world (ala the Marvel Universe) and now that world has been thrown into a surreal nightmare.

I think in the end, spider-man is going to be the focal force that brings the story to it's conclusion. He started out only somewhat hesitant of the Act, but in issue #4, after a former Avenger is killed by a maniacal Thor, he says "Is anyone starting to wonder if we picked the right side?"

I thought Marvel was going to bomb in their attempt to out-crisis DC's "Infinate Crisis", but I must say, I've become much more excited about each subsequent chapter of "Civil War". There's something great to be said about the ability to even be able to mount stories this large. The only reason DC and Marvel can do these hugely exciting and complex stories are because of decades upon decades of story and character developement. And while it's silly to suggest such a notion, they succesfully make it seem as though everything that has happened with every character and every book for the last 60 years has all merely been leading up to this one catastrophic story (Infinate Crisis-DC, Civil War-Marvel).

If you're not a comic book reader but you're curious about this mini, wait till the start of 07 They'll have a nice one volume collected edition of the series you can read in one sitting for a fair price (usually 10 to 15 bucks, for what amounts to the collection of the 7 comics with cover prices of 3 bucks each...do the math.)

The highly respected James Cromwell will recur this season as Phillip Bauer, the estranged father of Jack Bauer (Sutherland), while British actor/comedian Eddie Izzard will portray a villainous accomplice, Darren McCarthy. In addition to Cromwell and Izzard, newcomers joining the pulse-pounding thriller include Kal Penn ("Harold & Kumar"), Marisol Nichols ("In Justice"), Alexander Siddig ("Syriana") and Harry Lennix ("Commander in Chief"). Eric Balfour and Carlo Rota will reprise their respective roles as CTU contractors Milo Pressman and Morris O'Brian.

Season five concluded with a battered and bloodied Bauer captured by Chinese government agents and headed for points unknown. Season six picks up 20 months later. Wayne Palmer (DB Woodside), the strong-minded brother of the late President David Palmer, is now himself the President of the United States, while his sister, Sandra Palmer (Regina King), is a determined and powerful advocacy lawyer. After a series of horrific terrorist attacks, Palmer and his team of advisors, Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson) and Thomas Lennox (Peter MacNicol) as well as CTU colleagues Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), Curtis Manning (Roger Cross) and Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) begin an unthinkable, nail-biting day.

Taken from Dark Horizons

What the hell

It drives me crazy when someone refers to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (Or Detroit Movement) the "Tech Fest". It makes me think of two things; First, I think it sounds like a damn power-tools or PDA expo. Second, I think it sounds like "Tech Vest", which brings back memories of the 9th grade, which was not a good time for me...mostly because of all the tech vests. So, for the hundredth time...all electronic music is not called "Techno" (the most important reason not to call it the tech fest). Techno is a very specific form of electronic music originating in Detroit and is characterized by it's minimal beats (but not always) & rhythms and it's very synthetic sound. Other forms of electronic music featured at the Detroit Movement include: House, Progressive House, Drum&Bass, Electro, Acid Jazz...(the list could go on). Ok, I'm glad I got that off my chest.

In related news, I've upgraded my software and sound patch situation and I'm very eager to work on some new tunes.

Also, we had a yard sale at Ashley's aunts house today. I was amused when a guy said that he doesn't wine and haggle over prices like some women do at garage sales, and when Ashley said to him that she sees some guys do that to, he replied, "What, like retarded ones?". I found the man's casual use of the word "retarded" to be funny. It's just not a word I was expecting to hear right then. Also, I found it funny because that was the best rebuttal he could think of. Of all of the things he could have said to reply to Ashleys comment, the thesaurus in his mind chose "retarded" as the best possible word to use in that situation.

Gametap

I signed up for a free trial of Gametap. I love it so far, but I'm interested in knowing how much I will love it once the novelty wears off. If I decide to keep it past the free trial, I think I'll cancel my subscription to entertainment weekly. Yeah, I always read it...but am I really get any interesting information out of it that I'm not getting online...probably not.

I'm writing this slightly motion sick from playing Descent 2. I had the game back in high school and I forgot how stomach turning the game play is. You stear a ship through these 3D 360 degree caves. Stearing those ships more of an art than a science. It's a lot of swirling around in every possible direction trying to fire missles at flying robots coming at you from 6 different caverns on 6 different latteral planes. I'm also happy they have all my favorite sonic the hedghog games. Hydro Thunder has been another favorite. Sassy has become obsessed with Bubble Bobble. Witch is cool cause it's a lot more fun playing that with her than it is playing candy land or hide and seek (She always hides in the same 2 places and I have to pretend I don't know where she is). Lets see...Super Street Fighter II arcade, which is a lot harder than the genesis game cause they originally intended you to keep dumping quarters in the machine. That, and you can't adjust the difficulty. Excuse me, I'm going to go take some pepto-bismol to prevent vomiting.

One of the most obsurd words that I've ever heard has to be "Tapioca" as in the pudding. It just sounds like vomit in a cup. More specifically, it sounds like my vomit in a cup. During the few times I've thrown up in my life, the word "Tapioca" has run through my head at least once for a fleeting instant.

Jerk Flyer

* NOW WITH IMPROVED SPELLING! * It's time for those of us with public courtesy to do something. That's why I have made this flyer. Next time someone double parks in a crowded parking lot, leave this on their windshield. Next time someone's being loud in the movie theater, fold it up, hand it to them and say "excuse me, you dropped this". Next time someone in front of you at in the express lane at the grocery store clearly has more than 10 items, slip this into one of their bags. The reasons someone might receive this are endless. Be creative, it should appear to have come from an annoynmous source as to give them impression that it's a public gripe, not a personal one. Of course, don't hesitate to email this back to someone who has sent out annoying spam. You could also snail-mail it annoymously. Click on the flyer for the full sized version to print. Also here is the URL of the image so you can link to it or post it on other sites without having to re-upload: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6203/180/1600/jerkflyer.0.jpg

Lady in the Water's bad rap

First, let me start by saying yes, I do tend to have a habit of defending movies that I think get a bad rap. The same sort of thing promted my review of "Stay" with Ewan Mcgreggor. Also, yes; I am an avid Shyamalan fan. So based on that you can dismiss this defensive review, or you can hear me out.

Lady in the Water is without a doubt the strangest of M. Night Shyamalan's thrillers (if that's what you would call this). The strangest, and most original; In fact, it's probably the most original movie to see mainstream release this year (I cannot speak for all the strange art-house flix that I'm sure have been put out). That being said, it is also the funniest, and the saddest. I can understand why people don't get this film. I'm not going to pretend like it's a perfectly normal movie that everyone and their brother should like. My only objection to the public reaction is the unwillingness to allow a movie that breaks the mold of what movies are "supposed to be about" to be called "good".

I cannot think of one American movie in the past decade that is as daring as this one. The only thing that remotely comes close to being similar to the theme of the movie is Narnia, in that they're both a story in which a fantasy world and the real world collide. Only in Narnia, I guess they never actually collide, so that doesn't count. We've seen enough movies where the "world of the living and the world of the dead" collide, hell...Shyamalan's most famous movie is about that. The story only focuses on the "what if fairy tails were real" theme to an extent, because truly that's not a story in and of it-self (unlike how most ghost movies focus on this). Instead it focuses on the character's willingness to accept this strange woman who appears seemingly from nowhere from the swimming pool in their apartment complex. Not once do the residents claim she's a fraud or a crazy person, they simply see a girl in trouble and they do whatever they can to help her. I think that this added to the fantasy aspect of the film. In a fantasy, nobody asks "How can that wizard cast spells?", it is assumed as much can happen, and a story based on those basic rules is allowed to unfold.

Many people say that this is shyamalan's most ego-centric movie, and I can see that point of view. Night himself plays a writer who's work will inspire and leader and change the world. It is the title character's mission to unlock his potential and relieve him of his fears and insecurities. There is also a movie-critic who lives in the building who says that there's no originality left in the world and that pretty much every movie sucks. It is his advice about movie cliches later on that will lead the characters down a wrong and dangerous path. Those things being true, I think Night has a little bit of room to be egotistical, especially considering the reaction this movie had. Again, the critic is wrong about how events will play out because he assumes "all movies are the same", ergo this is an original story, ergo the masses don't like it. (It's worth mentioning there's another amusing part where the critic is killed because of his assumtions)

For those who don't know, there's some back-story on trying to get this film made. Long stroy short, Disney didn't like the script. They basically told Night, "We don't get it, and we don't want to make it how it is". And again, another long story short, Night replied "Screw you guys, there's plently of other movie studios that would love to finance my script as-is."

If Night ever reads this, which I doubt he will I'd like to send a simple message to him because I know how famous he is for being neurotic and insecure about his movies (even the ones that do well). My message is this: Don't let it detour you, stay the course. This movie may have not been a commercial or even critical success, and yes it may even end up losing money, but Disney owed you this movie after all you've given them. But they didn't give it to you, and right now they might be patting themselves on the back for it. It doesn't matter, they owed you the risk. I can assure you this however, they'll be kicking themselves in the ass when a future film of yours with WB (or whoever) triples it's production and marketing costs. And will the masses ever come around and see that Lady in the Water is a great film? I'm sure some will, but even if they don't when all is said and done, you'll still be remembered as a great auteur.

Some fight school recording session footage.

Best Buy's store slogan should be "Ask a question, get a stupid answer". I have never asked any question there without getting a question worthy of making me vomit all over the sales person in front of me. Yesterday's conversation went as follows:

Me: "Do you have any IPOD backup batteries?"
Ditzy salesgirl: "Ummm, they don't make those, you can't replace the batteries"
Me: "No, I'm talking about a battery pack that plugs into the bottom, several companies make them"
DS: "Oh, do you have a nano, a mini, or a shuffle"
Me: "I have a regular full sized generation 3 model, 40 gig"
DS: "Yeah, but is it like a nano or a mini?"
Me: "No, it's like one of the white ones...the regular ipod models"
DS: "Oh, so it's one of the shuffles, or the video things...."
Me: "Nevermind"

This girl worked in the section of the store that only sold mp3 players and moble phones. That's it. They didn't have refrigerators or notebook computers and mp3 players were just a limited thing in their department on the endcap.

Also, a few more things for today:



















Why the fuck would you need to haul all of that shit in the back of your pickup truck unless your name was Red Fox?

And finally:



















You're a fucking moron if you buy this. It's got a bucket handle on it.

Sept 12th I thnk, too long...

A Good Picture of Me

Superman III

Didn't anyone at Warner Brothers notice how incredibly zany this poster was?

Save NPR and PBS (again)

Everyone expected House Republicans to give up efforts to kill NPR and PBS after a massive public outcry stopped them last year. But they've just voted to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS—unbelievably, starting with programs like "Sesame Street."

Public broadcasting would lose nearly a quarter of its federal funding this year. Even worse, all funding would be eliminated in two years--threatening one of the last remaining sources of watchdog journalism.

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS again this year:

http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Last year, millions of us took action to save NPR and PBS, and Congress listened. We can do it again if enough of us sign the petition in time.

This would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting. The Boston Globe reports the cuts "could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs." NPR's president expects rural public radio stations may be forced to shut down.

The House and Senate are deciding if public broadcasting will survive, and they need to hear from viewers like you. Sign the petition at:

http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Thanks!

P.S. Read the Boston Globe story on the threat to NPR and PBS at:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1864

-------------------------------------------
And again, here is the message I included with my petetion:

If you are against the proposed cuts, I applaud you in your wisdom. If however, you are in favor of this monumental mistake, I urge you to ponder the following words carefully:

I know conservative leadership has never been a fan of NPR and PBS citing its liberal slant. In light of these new developments I am no longer keeping a tight-lipped, polite stance on the matter. I propose that they do not have a "liberal slant" but an "informed slant"; an "educated slant". I have my personal theories, however I don't have the time or energy to study the conservative mindset to understand why being educated is being demonized in modern America. I don't have the energy for that, but I do have the time and energy to do everything in my meager power to fight for, and spread the word about this issue.

Black plague

Here I am on my 4th official day of being sick. Day 1, Friday...Realized I was sick, Ashley made an appointment for me to see the doctor she works for. He looked at my throat and said "Wow, this looks horrible". He gave me some antibiotics and told me to take robitussin every 4 hours. No can do, if I take it that often I just want to sleep all the time...So I've been stretching it to 6 hours. Day 2, felt even worse, I had to co-host a computer workshop for Solar Flare, fortunately Joe did most of the talking, I just walked around and gave people one-on-one help. Tried to go into work but I was headed off at the door by my boss who told me she already had my shift covered and to go home. Day 3, I was hoping I was going to feel better, but really didn't, went into work and regretted it. Day 4, today...I'm actually feeling a little bit better, my head doesn't hurt as much and my sore throat is tolerable, so I don't think I'll have such a hard time at work today. Sitting in bed right now doing a little bit of design work on my laptop. Have to be at the Hut at 5. We'll see how that goes.

Pictures of my nephews

No air in my car.

More reason to watch the evening news

May 30th, 2006
The Independent
By Andrew Buncombe

USA - Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.

The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.

"We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them," said Diana Farsetta, one of the group's researchers. "I would say it's pretty extraordinary. The picture we found was much worse than we expected going into the investigation in terms of just how widely these get played and how frequently these pre-packaged segments are put on the air."

Ms Farsetta said the public relations companies commissioned to produce these segments by corporations had become increasingly sophisticated in their techniques in order to get the VNRs broadcast. "They have got very good at mimicking what a real, independently produced television report would look like," she said.

The FCC has declined to comment on the investigation but investigators from the commission's enforcement unit recently approached Ms Farsetta for a copy of her group's report.

The range of VNR is wide. Among items provided by the Bush administration to news stations was one in which an Iraqi-American in Kansas City was seen saying "Thank you Bush. Thank you USA" in response to the 2003 fall of Baghdad. The footage was actually produced by the State Department, one of 20 federal agencies that have produced and distributed such items.

Many of the corporate reports, produced by drugs manufacturers such as Pfizer, focus on health issues and promote the manufacturer's product. One example cited by the report was a Hallowe'en segment produced by the confectionery giant Mars, which featured Snickers, M&Ms and other company brands. While the original VNR disclosed that it was produced by Mars, such information was removed when it was broadcast by the television channel - in this case a Fox-owned station in St Louis, Missouri.

Bloomberg news service said that other companies that sponsored the promotions included General Motors, the world's largest car maker, and Intel, the biggest maker of semi-conductors. All of the companies said they included full disclosure of their involvement in the VNRs. "We in no way attempt to hide that we are providing the video," said Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Intel. "In fact, we bend over backward to make this disclosure."

The FCC was urged to act by a lobbying campaign organised by Free Press, another non-profit group that focuses on media policy. Spokesman Craig Aaron said more than 25,000 people had written to the FCC about the VNRs. "Essentially it's corporate advertising or propaganda masquerading as news," he said. "The public obviously expects their news reports are going to be based on real reporting and real information. If they are watching an advertisement for a company or a government policy, they need to be told."

The controversy over the use of VNRs by television stations first erupted last spring. At the time the FCC issued a public notice warning broadcasters that they were obliged to inform viewers if items were sponsored. The maximum fine for each violation is $32,500 (£17,500).

Some Updates

Good news, you can now use TREVORMCKEE.COM to get to this page. http://trevormckee.blogspot.com will still take you to the same place. Frankly, I just got so sick of assholes snatching up good domain names so they can post search-engine links that I took the initiative and reserved my own name. Nobody else can have it, it's mine...forever. Also, you'll notice that I've updated to the links on the side with my Business website (Solar Flare Web Design and Tech Support).

I hope you all enjoyed my food review.

Oh yeah, I also had a dream last night that 2 of my ex-girlfriends died in the nerve-gas attack on CTU that happened mid-season this year on 24. I'm not sure if that's funny or scary.

One more thing; Ugly Fruit...

An ugli fruit is a citrus fruit created by hybridizing a grapefruit (or pomelo according to some sources) and a tangerine, and is sometimes called uniq fruit or unique fruit. Its species is Citrus reticulata x Citrus paradisi.

Native to Jamaica, the fruit was first bred in Brown's Town in 1914. It got its name from the unsightly appearance of its rough, wrinkly greenish-yellow skin, wrapped loosely around the orange pulpy citrus inside. An ugli fruit is slightly smaller than a grapefruit and has fewer seeds. It tends towards the sweet side of the tangerine rather than the bitter side of its grapefruit lineage, with a fragrant skin. The fruit is seasonal from December to April. It is distributed in the USA, UK and Europe between November and April, and is on occasion available from July to September.

Americans pronounce the name "ugly," but in Jamaica, where it is grown, its name is pronounced "HOO-glee."

The fruit is also described by the distributor as an exotic tangelo. UGLI® is a registered trademark of Cabel Hall Citrus Ltd., used as the trade name for the exotic tangelo from Jamaica. As such, it might not be considered strictly accurate to refer to the variety itself as "ugli fruit". This variety of tangelo is believed to be a hybrid of tangerine, Seville orange and grapefruit. It was discovered growing wild in Jamaica in 1924 by a family of brothers named Sharp. The founders bred over the original scion material and eliminated nearly all the seeds from the fruit and spines from the branches. Uglis look a lot like oranges.

Steve's Backroom Hoummos

Today, I bring you a video food review of Steve's Backroom Hoummos

I wanted to post some video from my vacation, but then I thought; watching other people's vacation videos is pretty boring. So what I have for you is the ultra-artsy pit-of-dispair version of what was actually a nice day. (Press the play button below)

Someone, anyone give me an invite for a Writely account. My email is trevormckee@yahoo.com

Buy my Roland MC505 Groove Box on Ebay

A donut discarded in an ashtray...what better symbol for fat, lazy America is there.

This is what I have to deal with every night...

I've spent most of the day so far beating myself over the head with a 1000 + page dreamweaver 8 manual. There are things I want to do with the site that I don't know how to do, but I don't think I'm going to be able to learn everything in the time that I need the website up in.

US president George Bush recieves anti-free speech award

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Jump to: navigation, search

April 19, 2006

George W. Bush, president of the United States of America was awarded the first place Jefferson Muzzle, anti-free speech award for 2006, by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. The NSA warrantless wiretapping that was authorized by a secret executive order by him was cited as the primary reason for this distiction. Acording to their website: "...the Jefferson Muzzles are awarded as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the First Amendment."

To legally use electric surveillance against citizens in the US, the government has to get a warrant from the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The court was established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. However, the US government maintains that they are allowed to under the Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001. "Our position is that the authorization to use force, which was passed by the Congress in the days following September 11th, constitutes that other authorization, that other statute by Congress, to engage in this kind of signals intelligence," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on December 19, 2005 [1].

Joe and I are setting up a web design/tech support business. Right now I'm trying to get the website up and running.

One thing I think I keep forgetting from running rhythmicunrest.com is how much of a nightmare it could be sometimes. I've only been working on solarflareservices.com for a few days and I already want to fucking kill myself.

Could we be here at last?

Why I hate Myspace.com

My Space has to be the most annoying site to use on the internet. Here are my reasons for hating it (in no particular order):

1. People you don't know and have nothing in common with are always asking you to be their friends. I suspect this is just to up their "friends" tally.
2. Porn stars are constantly trying to get you to be their friends. I get nervous opening up myspace when my girlfriend is in the room cause I'm afraid she's gonna think I'm some kind of perv.
3. People change their display names constantly. One day my friend's name is Mike, the next it's "Sarrow and Pain". I don't know who the fuck is sending me messages.
4. The damn songs people put on their pages. You've got no choice but to let them load and you have to click the stop button 15 times before it actually stops. You like My Chemical Romance, I get it...really.
5. The fact that I can't put a comment in my own comments.
6. I have to go to a persons page and deal with their bullshit if I want to send a message.
7. My friends who won't send me email and will only send me messages on myspace.
8. People who put giant graphics in their background making it impossible to read their profile page. Solid colors work people...not fucking mona lisa paintings.
9. The giant singles meeting place ads. Again, with the porn and the girlfriend thing.
10. Can I create my own forum? I have no idea...but I sure as hell don't want to talk to 8 million teenagers in the ones they have set up.
11. That damn Daniel or whoever guy that's a myspace admin who puts himself as your friend so he can show you all the great features. I see him in everyones because they don't bother to delete him.
12. It's organized like a damn maze. There's about 4 places to click to invite people, 3 more check messages, a block or two down here and there showing other people's messages.

There's much more I'll think of I'm sure.

Stay (Spoiler Warning)

The following should only partially be considered a movie review. It should only partially be considered a recommendation. This "article", if you will, should more just be considered my personal reflections and thoughts on the film. You should probably only read on if you've actually seen the film or have absolutely no interest in seeing it. If you want a non-spoiling review I suggest you check out rottentomatoes.com.

Stay is a movie that deserves some thought and perhaps a second or third viewing (and not because it's as confusing as Mulhullond Dr.). Also, I would like to say that this movie is not a supernatural thriller as it's billed as. It can be best described as a abstract examination of the human psyche.

I hesitate to say that this film has a "secret", though I suppose that is one way of looking at it. It's secret only lies in the over-all nature of the events transpiring and why they are transpiring in the way that they are. Of course there are a few instances where it was probably unneeded to give us "clues", such as when Henry accurately predicts Sam's fortune cookie message. At first this film lets on that this is a dual identity thing; you know, when two characters are actually one in the same due to some sort of split personality disorder. As it turns out though, this isn't the case. Sam is very much a psychiatrist (at least from Henry's point of view) and Henry most likely actually is an art student (but perhaps not as good of one as he perceives).

For those of you who haven't seen the film and have chosen to read on, the big mystery of the movie is that Henry is dying, but not in the sense that he is sick. You see, early in the movie Henry tells Sam (his psychiatrist) that he is going to kill himself on Saturday at midnight. The big question then becomes "Why that time?". And the answer is because that was the exact time he was left dying. No, Henry is not a ghost and in all likelihood he didn't survive. Henry is lying on the cement on the Brooklyn Bridge battered and dying after a tire on his car carrying his girlfriend and parents blows out and causes a fatal crash. Sam and woman he doesn't know yet come to the rescue. As Sam seems to be a doctor they do the usual first aid type stuff; prop his head up, check his vitals etc etc. Henry's eyes are open looking at Sam and the Woman and he begins to perceive the events that just occurred in a different manner. This is where the movie actually begins (you of course don't know he's dreaming/hallucinating till the end) He imagines himself walking away from the burning car. He imagines that it was his fault his parents are dead. He imagines that his girlfriend wasn't really in the car and she wasn't his girlfriend at all; just some waitress that was nice to him and he was going to ask to marry. I suspect this last part is a bit more about denial than the rest of it. He imagines that Sam is hit doctor and that the woman is Sam's girlfriend.


Of course because this is a dream, the logic off it all isn't always consistent. Henry meets a blind man named Leon that he swears is his dead father. Sam meets a woman that he swears his Henry's mother even though the local sheriff has told him that she tied 6 months previous. Things happen in repetition (Sam sees a boy lose the same balloon in the same place at the same time a few days later). As the film progresses, these inconsistencies happen more intensify until Saturday at midnight on the Brooklyn bridge. Here we see Sam trying to stop Henry from killing him self and the background is losing it's hold on the setting. At this point Henry figures out whats going on and says "I'm already dead, this is a dream" to which Henry replies "If this is a dream than the whole world is in it". His unconscious is still wrestling with the reality, though the truth seems to be winning now. He puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger.

Now, we cut to Henry in the cement, and we at last learn the true nature of the events. These events are not significant because it was some shock that it was "all just a dream". In fact, the story probably still would have worked had we been told this up front. The events that occur in Henry's dream state are significant because they are a study on someone's last minutes of life. Of course we usually can't know what someone's thinking right before they die from a trauma. If the person somehow survives the incident they typically don't remember what actually happened let alone what they were thinking about or dreaming. That's why this film is worth thinking about. It examined Henry's perception of himself and the perception of the car accident. Blaming himself, being a great artist, Sam the doctor, and so on. Don't let me forget the most interesting part of his dreamstate; his empty apartment with the words "Forgive me" written on the walls thousands of times in tiny handwriting.

The most remarkable technical aspect of the film is the cinematography. Not only are the shots themselves beautiful, but the scene transitions doubly so. These transitions give clues to the nature of the movie, or if you already know the nature of the movie, they allows us to understand Henry's dream-logic process. Something in the background of one scene becomes something in the foreground of another. At one point Henry enters into a room at the end of one scene, and the beginning the of the next is him entering a completely different room. The room he goes into happens to be the viewing room of a tank at an aquarium. At first glimpse we get the impression that he just stepped underwater. There are way too many to point out, and I'm going to need to view it a couple more times to pick up on all of the subtle ones.

Make no mistake, this is a tragic film about dying. This movie is far more tragic than one about a cancer patient laying on his deathbed (though the film "Northfork" sort of combines these two ideas). If you haven't seen it, watch it once and just sort of let it wash over you. If you have seen it and didn't like it, I hope my thoughts on the film will put the elements you didn't like into a new light.