You Can't Fight Crazy Starring Today's Douchebag

Well, boys and girls, I almost wasn't here tonight to leave you all this post, and it all began this morning , on my way into work. I was driving to my office, coming down the small side street (speed limit 25) and had stopped to make the left turn into the parking lot. This particular side street has a small business that often uses a pretty large delivery truck, and often the truck has to pull across the street into a parking lot, then back into the delivery space. It's a bit of an inconvenience if you are on the side street, because you have to wait for the truck and while he backs up he blocks both sides of the street. The street itself is a basic 2 lane street; you're either in one lane or you in the other lane. This isn't some super highway (or even the garden state parkway, with 4 or 5 lanes and constant shifting.) It's also important to note that the turn into the parking lot must be taken wide, because the entranceway is narrow and the cars exiting the lot often exit with their car placed in the middle of the entrance, thus blocking the person trying to turn in. I've found it's best to make a wide left to allow as much room as possible.

OK, so I am making my left turn, blinker on, no vehicles coming towards me, and the truck that was in the road pulled into the lot across from his loading dock and parked. I begin my turn, and immediately hear a horn blaring!! I stop immediately, basically on pure reaction time, and see a car come barreling down past me on my left! In case I haven't made this clear, that means the car went around me, into the oncoming traffic lane, and blew by me in an attempt to shoot through before I make my turn! Shocked, (and pleased this maniac hadn't smashed into my drivers side door at 50 mph) I honk back and turn into my office parking lot, somewhat shaken. I noticed that the car slammed on it's brakes and had a very strong feeling it was going to turn around and come back into my lot. Wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what it did. A blocky looking woman (term used loosely) jumped out of the car and approached me. I rolled down my window and asked "What's Up?. She approached my car screaming "What's wrong with you?" (Me?) " You're crazy, what's wrong with you" --

"I was making a left hand turn"

"Why don't you look in your mirror?"

There was a lot more ranting on her part, but the mirror comment just blew me away. I realized I was dealing with a crazy individual. I don't mean that as a joke. The way her mind worked, asking why I didn't look in my left hand mirror to make a left turn... when the only other lane is oncoming. I don't need a mirror to see oncoming traffic, cunt! I guess in her world if a cylinder of concrete dropped from a plane in the sky and crushed me it would be my fault for not looking upward. I tried to point out that if police were there I don't think she would be able to convince them that speeding in the wrong lane of oncoming traffic and trying to pass a car making a left turn, blinker on, and crashing into them would bode well with her, but she stopped me at police with a very spanish "Oh, don't you talk about police, I got family in police" (Wow, I feel safer already)

Anyway, I ended the conversation by telling her that I was indeed crazy, if that helps her get through her day. That seemed to make her happy, and she went off to endanger the rest of the world. I wish I could say unbelievable, but sadly it really isn't. The only way to really make the world safer would be for her to no longer exist, and that power is far beyond me. One can really only hope.

Movie Review + Today's Sexy Lady! - Double Indemnity

I went to see Double Indemnity yesterday on the big screen, my second trip to the Big Screen Classics series presented at the Lafayette Theatre in Suffern, N.Y. - www.bigscreenclassics.com

My wife and I went there with out friend Sal to see one of my favorite film noirs of all time, the all time great Double Indemnity. Just listen to the names involved here. Fred McMurray, an actor that isn't typical of the male lead in film noirs. (I always think of old reruns of My Three Sons that I watched when I was a kid). Edward G. Robinson, an enormous amount of talent packed into that little dude, who has delivered in everything from Little Caesar to Brother Orchid, and the always tremendous Barbara Stanwyck. She's today's sexy lady (since hot chick would be a label of great disservice to the classy Miss Stanwyck.) - She is a rare woman, who shouldn't be as damned sexy as she is, but her roles and her great acting elevate her to another level. She's been in a bazillion roles, with some of my favorites being her film noir roles. (Sorry, Wrong Number, Double Indemnity, and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers at the top of the list.)

Lest you think only the acting is top notch, let's not forget the incomparable Billy Wilder directing a script he cowrote with Raymond Chandler! Now that's one hell of a package, and it doesn't disappoint.

I'm not going to recap the plot, since it's pretty by the numbers; guy falls head over heels for sexy femme fatale, gets sucked into some bad dealings because he follows the advice of the little head over the big one, and all parties suffer. God I love Noir!!!!

The only negative part of the entire experience was the Yahoo behind me who seemed to believe that his practice of speaking aloud lines of dialogue to his wife immediately prior to the line being spoken would enhance the experience for me. (God I hate people!!!!) - It was hopeless, because after turning around multiple times, my wife turning around, head shaking, and sighing on our part, he continued. This was obviously a willful act of douchebaggery on his part, and hopefully the great whell of Ka will eventually turn and exact righteous retribution on the asshole.

If you've never seen this flick, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It holds up very well, even though the film is over 60 yrs old. The dialogue is snappy and filled with double entendres, the chemistry between the leads is astonishing, and even though I've seen it 4 or 5 times now I never tire of it.

Beast

Political shenanigans!

Movie Review - Beneath the Planet of the Apes

I am a lifelong fan of The Planet of the Apes Franchise. (It's amazing, really, because the original Planet of the Apes is 40 years old this year, with it's original premiere 2 years prior to my birth! (Original release date April 3, 1968) - Hell, the first sequel (Beneath the Planet of the Apes) was released in May of 1970, still before I was born!

As a kid I loved the POTA stuff; specifically vague memories of hanging out at my friend Dougie's house, sleeping over and staying up late to watch repeats of Planet of the Apes tv show. I found the apes thrilling and a liittle bit scary. (Similar for me to two other frightening yet exciting characters of my childhood; the scary flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz and the Sleestacks of Land of the Lost) Unsurprisingly, Land of the Lost premiered in 1974 and ran from the fall of 1974 until the third and final season of 1976. Thus, it was perched in the Sat. morning line-up for me from the ages of 3-5, enough to remember liking the show, being scared of the Sleestacks, and the opening scene of the raft going over the falls into The Land of the Lost!

A few years ago I taped all 5 Apes films off TCM and watched them through with my then girlfriend, now wife. Recently I purchased a nice box set of all 5 films plus a making of disc for $25 on Amazon.com. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Beneath the POTA. It picks up somewhat after the first film, with another astronaut (Brent) in search of Taylor, (Charlton Heston) who we last saw at the end of the original apes, on his knees in the sand, the tide rising, as he screamed to the heavens in anger and frustration at the Statue of Liberty, ripped in half, lying in the ocean, only the top half still sturdy.

Brent eventually tracks Taylor down in a subterranean lair in the Forbidden Zone, run by a bunch of mutated humans with mind control powers.. The mutants look completely normal until the scene in which of of them pulls off his lifelike mask to reveal a hideously deformed face. (Maybe from exposure to the freaking Doomsday bomb that the Mutated Humans worship?)

The apes, with Zaius along, are on the trail of Brent and track him to the Mutant's lair. In the ensuing chaos of the battle between apes and humans, Taylor is shot, and yet as his dying breath rushes out of him, he falls to his knees and completes the controls for the Doomsday machine, a weapon supposedly capable of annihilating the entire planet with the chain reaction it will set off. The movie ends with a blank screen and a cold voice telling us simply that this planet, in this particular universe, ceased to exist from that point on. The year is 3955, as we on Earth know it.

A very bleak and unexpected ending, and interesting in light of the 3 more sequels to come, and when I review them we will talk a little about the alternate universe theory (with a link or two on some people who have put together some interesting timelines regarding the Apes series.

Not much to watch for me today in the tourney. Siena blew it, so that leaves me basically rooting for Oklahome (coached by ex Duke blue devil player and coach k K protege Jeff Capel) and for someone to knock out Memphis.

Beast out

Good bye to Duke and Today's hot chick

Today is day 3 of the opening 4 day extravaganza that is the opening 2 rounds of the NCAA tournament. I've been indulging far too much, relishing this 4 day excuse to go to excess. (Example, yesterdays food intake consisted of a Bacon, egg, and Cheese sandwich for breakfast, heated up italian food throughout the day to snack on, mostly lasagna and meatballs, went out with my buddy for dinner and had a Cobb Salad, with lots of blue cheese dressing, chicken cutlet, and hard boiled eggs. Add in coffee, beer ,and wine throughout the day, with lots of hoops on tv, comic book reading, and movie watching. (watched Hitman last night, review coming tomorrow)

Today was a bit better, with a bowl of cornflakes, then a turkey/bacon sandwich at The Office, along with some beers while watching the Boys from Durham being sent home by the Mountaineers of West virginia. Disappointing , of course, and worse since my buddy was a WVU grad so I had to hear some crap during the game.

OH, and one other thing to mention; the chick lead from the Hitman is so freaking hot. She's today's Hot chick. Olga Kirylenko. Olga Kurylenko Online • www.olga-kurylenko.net • Home of the new Bond Girl!

Beast out

website for Olga -

2 Days (and a movie review) + Duke escapes

Well it's 2 days since my last post. I wanted to offer up a few thoughts on There Will Be Blood, one of the rare films I see in the Theater these days, and well worth every minute at the theater. It actually worked out well, as I saw There Will Be . on the Sunday prior to returning to work. As you can well imagine, Monday was not an easy day. Imagine your normal Sunday evening blues, compounded with your post vacation blues, and unless you're lucky enough to be a teacher and have the entire summer off, you ain't never experienced blues like the post disability blues. (An d reallyl, it's not that bad, let's keep our perspective on these things. )

Anyway, my buddy Sal and I saw the flick in Rockaway, taking the ride in order to see it on a larger screen. Well worth the trip, as the film pulls you in quickly and never let's go, the cinematography is amazing, the sound score completely sets the tone, and in the middle of it all is Daniel Day Lewis. Quite honestly, it wasn't even worth submitting other names for best actor this year; Lewis blew everyone away!

A challenging film, and not one that the masses will appreciate. Day-Lewis is an actor of amazing nuance and subtext. He doesn't go over the top ala present day Pacino and even Deniro. Lewis emits controlled rage, and his character is almost empathetic for much of the movie, and his redeemability remains in question until the final, shocking frame.

Great stuff, and a worthy contribution to the literature of great films.

The NCAA tourney has started, and holy shit, Duke pulled one out yesterday. Almost losing to the #15 Belmont team hopefully acts as a kick in the ass for Duke. the Sad thing is that Belmont played really well ; it wasn't simply a matter of a Duke Dud. Worrisome

Beast out

Well, It's Been a Week

OK everyone, a week since I last posted. So what's on my mind:

Thunderbolts and Thor are both great comics right now!

I rewatched The Killing last night. It is so amazing what a great freakin film that is. It was Kubrick's 3rd film, (of feature length) and the second chronologogically that i have seen. Killer's Kiss was a nice flick, short, gritty with great cinematograpy. But the Killing is a perfect movie. There is not one wasted frame of film in the entire film. So tightly constructed, and incredibly well acted with Sterling Hayden (one of my favorite actors), Elisha Cook Jr. as the near cuckold of the nasty, trampy, oh youi know she was slutty character of Sherrie Peatty, wife of Elisha Cook Jr. Played by Marie Windsor. This film is one of my favorite films in my favorite genre, film noir. A recent purchase, it has stood as a great decision. Now to get my wife to watch it with me.

It's sort of hard ot explain, but I have such a thing for Christina Ricci. She always had sort of a look that appealed to me, but the Opposite of Sex really sealed it for me. This is a recent pic, showing that she still has it going on. It's also nice that she isn't such a stick now; it was sad to watch her drop from her voluptios The Opposite of Sex Role to her too big head for her starved body look. - She's rebounded nicely

Maybe Bartolo /colon is going to be a nice find for the Red Sox?

George Bush Tap Dancing Fool (Original)

Hang in there everyone, 317 more days to go.

A tap-dancing President

When I first saw Bush tap dancing I couldn't help but think of Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

Get Over It. It's eight years ago!!!!????

Looking like a member of the Sith, Antonin Scalia (good buddy of Darth Cheney, you know, his hunting pal who had a case involving secret meetings with the leaders of big oil, then refused to reveal the content of those meetings to us, the american people, and Antonin saw no need to recuse himself from that case) - anyway, Antonin spoke at Princeton University yesterday in an address on overreaching judicial activism and how it is bad - had this to say.

When a written question from a student asked about the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore decision on the 2000 presidential election, Scalia told the crowd of about 300 at Princeton University: "Oh, get over it! It's eight years ago."

"By 5-4 we decided enough is enough and we put an end to it and I think the vast majority of citizens in the country were grateful that we did that," Scalia said of the court's decision, which ended the Florida recount.

So in other words, exercise judicial restraint, except in the most important decision that will ever face the supreme court, the presidency of our country. Then you need to intervene, thus handing the keys to the country to an undeserving junta, an axis of evil, if you will, and now 8 years later we face the consequences of a war with costs likely to exceed trillions of dollars, oil prices through the roof, United States credibility at an all time low, a recession, record profits for oil companies throughout all of this, and an overextended army, exhausted from 5 years in a foreign country (without need, by the way - a war of choice, really an invasion). Oh, OK, I see.

And the vast majority of the citizens of the country were grateful for that? - really, and what color is the sky in Antonin's world?

I have to go vomit now.

Beast

Jonathan Papelbon Does an Irish Jig in his Underwear

Pap, baby. Closes championships and then dances to victory. That's Red Sox Nation, Hank! (When's the last time the evil empire had fun - oh, that's right, last century!!!!

2006- Geico commercial - Caveman at the airport

I freaking love this commercial. It makes me laugh every time! My wife says that when the caveman steps back, crosses his arms, and shifts his neck in disgust, it reminds her of my physical reactions when I am disgusted. Is that good?

Congratulations, Coach K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to coach K, who won his 800th game today coaching the Duke Blue Devils to a victory over the Wolfpack of N.C. State. It was a classic Duke game, in which Duke shot terribly, trailed almost the entire game, and then in gut check time, made the big plays and pulled it out with a 1 pt. victory.

Coach K. now becomes just the 6th mens college BB coach to hit 800 wins. The best part is that unlike 2 other members of that exclusive club, he hasn't had the recruiting, legal, and alcohol problems that plagued Eddie Sutton. He also had done it displaying class and integrity, clearly a sign that he didn't learn everything from his mentor, Bob Knight. (If you read my blog a few days ago, you know my feelings about "The General".

Here's the really exciting part for fans of coach K and Duke basketball (of which I am one, just in case you didn't get that. ) Coach K's record at Duke is 741-205. Let's remove this years record, since the year is incomplete, and his record is 716 and 202. That works out to an avg. win total of just over 26.5 per year. The current leader in wins in men's college BB is Bobby Knightmare, with 902. That means that Coach K's total win total, including his stint coaching Army, is 800- 264. Assuming he wins no more games this year, (unlikely, with 2 more games in the regular season, the A.C.C. tourney, and the NCAA tourney , it's likely he will pull at least 5 more wins this year, and that's conservative) he will easily surpass Knight with 4 more seasons, at which pt. he will only be 65. It is conceivable that he could win 1000 games. An even more promising scenario is to remove the 9-3 record from 94-95, when he succumbed to exhaustion and back surgery. That bumps his avg. wins per season to over 28, which with 5 more wins this year bringing him to 805 would have him starting his 4th season after this one with 889 wins, in need of only 14 to be the winningest coach ever. That's a half season!

Congrats again to Coach K, Duke Basketball, and winning one for the good guys.