Cartoon Classics

Good Little Monkeys


Somewhere in Dreamland


Ali Baba Bunny


Rabbit Hood


To Spring


I Love To Singa

Horror of Horrors

I saw a great horror movie from Thailand at last week's International Asian American Film Fest called 'The Unseeable'. It reminded me a lot of a story by Alvin Schwartz, from his popular kids book 'Stories To Tell In The Dark'. And that story, in turn, reminds me of one of my most embarrassing moments: It was around Halloween and my fifth grade teacher asked everyone to write an original 'spooky' story which we'd all have to read aloud to the class. Now there's an assignment I could sink my teeth into, I thought. I loved the horror genre. I thought I could scare the pants out of my classmates and come up with the best story. Unfortunately, I was also a notorious procrastinator, and therein lies the tragedy of yours truly. Having spent the entire evening glued to the T.V. (and in truth, having absolutely no original ideas of my own), I resorted to outright plagiarism, pilfering a ghost story from the aforementioned 'Stories To Tell...' book. The next day I got up in front of the class, read my story as quickly as possible, and quietly sat back down, foolishly thinking I'd successfully duped everyone. Wishful thinking, to be sure. Even my pea brain intellect couldn't escape the fact that that book was read a least once, if not many times by every member of the class. But I didn't care–what's done is done. I figured I'd ride out this little embarrassment through the end of class, and everything would be routinely forgotten the next day. Ha. Then to my complete and utter horror, a classmate got up and proceeded to read the EXACT SAME STORY. I still recall the rather loud, collective gasp of the class as they listened to her version of the story, their heads darting back and forth from me to her, the both of us beet red and squirming. I cringe just thinking about it now!

Spring Anniversary

Spring has sprung, and it's been a year ago today that I started this blog. Whoo-Hoo! I'm going to celebrate by either purchasing a new camera (which I am in dire need of) or going to the gym. Booooorrrring. At least it beats drinking myself into a stupor... not that there's anything wrong with that!

DREAM THEATRE Part 5: The End Of It All

This one was particularly disturbing because I've never had a dream this vivid, and so highly involved and finely detailed. It's as if the whole thing came to me fully realized and complete.
It starts off with a friend telling me about a great movie from the 70s, the title of which I'm familiar with but have never seen. I resolve that very day to watch it, so I rent it at the local video store. As I sit in my living room and start the DVD, the dream shifts and I become one of the characters in the movie.
It takes place in a huge compound somewhere off the Eastern seaboard, where the president and his advisors (of which I am one) are in heated talks with another superpower. Success would mean a lasting peace between our nations, and failure, a full scale nuclear war the likes of which would decimate the planet. In the midst of negotiations, the president's youngest child, a boy of 6 or 7, goes missing. He's found wandering around the perimeter of the compound, but as the days go by he manages to wander off farther and farther away from home. He's invariably found at a small town nearby, or at the beach, always by himself, scribbling nonsensical images and words on walls or in the sand. He's finally locked in a room somewhere within the compound, never to escape again.
Then mysteriously, one by one, the president's advisors are systematically murdered, the perpetrator specifically targeting those in the staff in favor of a peaceful resolution to the talks, leaving the war mongers alive. It's then that I find out the horrible unspeakable truth: 1) that the president is the murderer, 2) that he's not acting of his own volition but is, in fact, possessed. 3) That he's not possessed by an evil power, but by God, who has gone mad and wants to bring about the end of the human race by starting nuclear Armageddon. 4) That if the president isn't stopped his power will only increase so that he becomes virtually invincible, and 5) that the president's son was possessed by an angel that was trying to warn us of what was going to happen.
I know that I'll be killed next. By this time the president has become something completely different, something so alien and god-like that to merely look at him would mean your instant death. His thunderous footfalls shake the floors as he pursues me through the compound. I search in vain for a place to hide, and find myself in a basement where my brother and baby nephew are hiding. They're scared and I want to save them but I know they would just slow me down, so I leave them for certain death and escape out a back door. I hear screams and a low growling behind me as I race outside.
I make my way to a neighboring village. As soon as I arrive I notice a boy of about 12 on the street and call out to him. He looks familiar, but for the life of me I can't place how I might know him. I catch his eye and he looks at me in sheer terror, turns and runs away. I chase after him, convinced that he must know something. I finally corner him and he's sobbing, begging for his life. Breathless, I try to calm him down as best I can. I tell him I mean him no harm, I just want to know who he is. He looks me in the eye and says but you know who I am. You forced me to help you kill your friend! It's then that I realize God had also possessed me and who knows how many others to kill people. There's no escape and I know this is the end. That's when the dream ends.

Concrete Blonde - Everybody Knows

I liked Concrete Blonde OK. I thought they were a pretty good group. But I absolutely fell in love with Johnette's voice after seeing this live performance. It's so damn powerful. I think she's one of rock's most underrated singers. CB's rendition is the best cover of this Leonard Cohen song I've ever heard.

Vampyroteuthis infernalis

If I have to be reincarnated as an animal, I'd want to come back as a vampire squid, my favorite cephalopod of them all. Info on the Cephalopod Page and Wikipedia Entry.



Another really good youtube video here.

weirdness

You Can't Always Get What You Want

The cruel Gym Gods aren't letting me slack off. Or I'm just a retard. We'll go with the latter. I was at the supermarket yesterday and they had a nice big Guinness display up front. I couldn't even remember the last time I brought any beer home. Nowadays, it's just red wine for me, and even then I'll imbibe only occasionally. So I figured hell, it's on sale, it'd be a crime not to hoist 1 or 5 for good ole St. Paddy, and goddamn if that beautiful dark obelisk of a display wasn't calling me from the parking lot, so I picked up a case. Fuck you, liver! Yay. I get home, drop off the groceries and head back out to run some errands. Then as I'm heading home a couple hours later I come to the horrible realization that I never unloaded the case from the back of the car. In fact, the case never even made it to the car. It lay forgotten in the bottom rack of the shopping cart as I drove off completely unawares! Some low rent motherfucker's enjoying my brew right now!! Eh, circle of life. Some things just aren't meant to be. And I'm a retard.

Invisible Octopus

So cool.