The Triumph of Steel

So I went out and bought me a Manowar album.

I probably don't need to mention the cheese (you can all see the picture) but DAMN! What an album! Totally worth $10! It opens witha 28 minute song about Achilles, and it just keeps going from there! Exclamation point!

So anyways, that's my entire post. I just wanted to check if my new image host worked.

Chee-zus

You saw it - Neb, Sammy.

If you didn't, then msn me and I'll let you know exactly what I'm up against.

I'm not depressed!

I just took my first/last exam this morning! Freedom! We'll see how I do but my prediction is a thrilling "average"!
The new MONDO is out and I've got 4 things innit!
The MONDO party is t'nite!
I got my passport shit taken care of! I'm goin' onna trip wif my dad and sister to California at the end of da month!

By the way, Torontonians, Yerk 2nd Year flim 'n' vidye screenings are on Monday and Tuesday night coming up. Unfortunately, due to time constraints/equipment problems, Gwendolyn and Rufus will not be shown. I'm not sure when each of my projects is going to be shown. I'll try to find out when the worm project I edited is showing, cause really, that's the best thing I've been a part this year.

I am depressed.

But this cheered me up somewhat.

A live action Transformers movie. Oh yes.

And yeah, the Pope was a blowhard and a hypocrite. Good examination of why is here. He did do some good in the world, i.e. got that whole "the Jews killed Christ" bullshit officially taken off the books, and had at least some influence in the whole toppling of the USSR. But his crimes against the world are too much to just whitewash over.

Chef Extraordinaire

What can you make with a garlic wine sausage, garlic, mushrooms, parmesan cheese, pasta and a flat 2/3 full bottle of Kozel? Dinner, I argue in a delicious statement thoroughly convincing only me.


My Newest Reality TV Show - Papacy: American Legend
A group of random Americans from all walks of life gathered in the Ultimate Competition: to decide who will become the next Pope. We have all types of people here: the spoiled WASP, the overworked single mom, the street-talkin' former L.A. crip, the hillbilly, the Asian math nerd, the bookish NYC Jew, the greaser, etc...
The competition involves Apprentice-like contests, but the objectives are always charitable. I.e. whoever can best spend the tsunami relief money to provide maximum relief, or best console the wheelchair kids. Then, if you do the best at the challenge, you're exempt from The Excommunication. If you're not exempt, you go through The Pearly Gates into a room fashioned after a Holywood Heaven. A booming voice asks everyone morality questions (i.e. Would you kill your own to stop him from becoming the next Hitler? Would you give back the too-much change at the store?) Then Americans at home get to call in and vote for who they think should be eliminated from the Papal Race. Of course it goes on like this until we're down to the last 2 where callers vote for who should win.

The theme of the show is that you don't have to be a good Catholic to be a good Pope, you just have to be a good American. It's about bringing democracy to the whole affair. Besides, if the whole thing works to get more people hooked on Catholicism then there's nothing wrong with it.

Pathologising.

My roommate wants to be Woody Allen, I think.

She went shopping today, and bought matzah balls, among other (all kosher) items. But she's not Jewish. Perhaps those of you who have met her have noticed her friends; her (now ex?) boyfriend, the weird lil' one, the whole works: they are Jewish. She goes to therapy, loves to talk about how she goes to therapy, and is constantly pathologising hers and others' actions. She's in creative writing, and all her work seems to be about her mother, who, by all accounts, is actually not a terrible woman, and who seems really nice. And the conversation she's having with her dad right now is sparkling (at least in her mind, I'm sure) with self-deprecating wit, on just this side of whiny.

Fo' sho'. She just wishes.

I got this forward today that normally I wouldn't do but I really didn't want to do work so I tried it and the results were interesting. Or, one result was. It was this numerology site what you put your name in and it tells you stuff. Of particular note:
"Words that embody things that you may be a part of are 'Freemasonry'."

R.I.P. Hideaki Sekiguchi

Perhaps you know him as Bass Wolf. He died of a heart attack on March 31 at the age of 38. Says Guitar Wolf: "I know Billy's up in heaven rocking out, keeping all those mother fuckers up at night. I bet he'll start a band with Joey Ramone and Elvis. He would love that."


Too young; too rockin'.

R.I.P. Karol Wojtyla

This has been a strange day. I was sitting in Harvey's eating my hamburger when I picked up the newspaper and began reading about the Pope's death and the outpouring of emotion from Catholics all over the world. The more I read the more I realized what he meant to me and how much I thought I would miss him.

Don't get me wrong, the Catholic Church has done some evil, vile things it's it 2000 years of existence, but Pope John Paul II was the first to acknowledge churches past wrong doings and attempt to attone for them, by apologizing to the worlds Jews, Africans, Muslims, Galileo and just about everyone else. His positive influence help topple communism is his native Poland and through out Eastern Europe. I oppose the Church's position on homosexuality, abortion and contraception but I do agree with his opposition to consumerism, materialism and predatory global capitalism.

Chrsitianity, like all of the worlds other religions, has been highjacked at one time or another by people who see religion as a vehicle for achieving dishonest goals. I believe that Chistianity at its core is still about humbleness, generosity, tolerance and stong belief in the good of humanity, which are virtues that transcend religious bounds.

I remember when he came to Toronto for World Youth Day in 2002 and came down my street, my sister and I were handing out cookies and bottles of water to the pillgrim who were following him. I waved, he waved back and that was one of the very few times when I felt connected to a greater Catholic faith.


It looks like he's really tearing a strip of some poor schmuck.

This is the first time I've posted a picture, so I hope it's visible.

The Vet, it's a goldmine!

Today Leo and I developed a story for what we think would make a really great movie, it's called The Vet. You may want to be sitting down for this. Okay here's the premise: Tommy Lee Jones plays Sergeant McGarnagle who during the war in Vietnam was captured while on a super secret mission when a crocodile bit his leg and exposed his hiding place. McGarnagle was kept at a prisoner of war camp which was so isolated that nobody at the camp knew the war ended. He's kept there for 35 years until one day a group of tourists show up and say the war is long over. During his time in the camp McGarnagle made friends with Pho Phat, one of the guards, and there is a tearful scene as McGarnagle says goodbye to Pho Phat and tells to come visit America.
McGarnagle returns to America where he sets up a veterinary practice. He makes friends with little blonde Amy-Lou after he saves the life of Schuffles, her Schnausser. He also meets Amy-Lou's single-mom Mary-Anne. Amy-Lou sees through McGarnagle's gruff exterior and helps him over come his post-traumatic stress disorder cause by decades of torture and imprisonment. 35 years in a prisoner of war camp has made McGarnagle rather rough around the edges, he's even forgotten how to use a knife and fork, instead he's adopted eating with his hands or with chopsticks so Amy-Lou and Mary-Anne have to civilize him.

One day McGarnagle is telling Mary-Lou a particularly graphic war story when all of a sudden she bursts into tears and runs away, Mary-Anne explains to him that her husband (played by Vin Diesel) was killed by poison gas in Iraq.

It's a classic fish-out-of-water story a man lost in a world he didn't make and is trying hard to leave him behind. McGarnagle's biggest shock comes the first time he tells Mary-Anne to fix him a drink and give him a foot massage, apparently the world has gone through some sort of wacky "feminist revolution".

Along the way there's all sorts of zany animal antics, like when a bunch of animals escape from the clinic and McGarnagle has to use his tracking and stalking skills from Nam to catch the animals in the "concrete jungle". Leo and I believe this story has a lot of potential.

Assorted

How about that Pope. I'm going to have a reality show to decide who gets to be the next leader of the Catholic Church. Pitch in if you have ideas for contests / show structure ideas.

Jacob, I found you a girl:
Hey hey! Too bad she's in the USA.

Still sick, but almost fine again. I'll be Renny to leave the house tomorrow and go see Hell Boy. Rather, Sin City.

Also, holla if y'all wanna roll wit Salmon Eye and catch Sideways on Monday at fo' thitty at the Bloor Cinema (cheap), y'heard?