Is it wrong?

that I get such a kick out of these pictures? I have no idea what the words say, nor did I bother trying to figure it out, I just find the photos to be really amusing.

James

I recently put some of my old CDs into my iPod, and as I'm sitting here listening to it on shuffle, I'm really glad that I did. The old James song "Sit Down" just came on, followed immediately by "How Was It For You," and I remember now how happy this band makes me feel. I used to have 2 or 3 of their albums, along with a cassette of a live show, and I used to listen to this stuff all the time. Unfortunately, the only CD I seem to still have is the self-titled James, from 1991 (cover pictured above). If you think you don't know who they are, I refer you to the 1993 song "Laid" off the album by the same name. Listen and read a review here.

Into The Wild - the movie

Spoilers ahead.
I read this book years and years ago, and I recall really enjoying it and actually getting something out of Chris McCandless's story. For those who haven't read it or seen the film, here's a quick summary. The book leaves you with a feeling of longing, almost. Everyone at some point, wants to reject the day to day drudgery of daily life and the obnoxious commercialism that is the world that we live in, to just give it all up and run away. We've all felt it at some point or another, and that's exactly what Chris did. And you're left with a feeling that he did some noble thing by going to commune with nature in the Alaskan wilderness, and was unlucky enough to eat the wrong berries and die there. Bummer. Poor Chris. I felt this after reading the book, like a lot of people did. I read the book shortly after it came out, back in 1997. I was 17 or 18 years old, just graduating high school, and holding onto the same sorts of ideals that Chris McCandless lived - and ultimately died - for.

I watched the movie the other night, and I hated it. I hated Chris McCandless for his naivete and stupidity in doing what he did. It prompted me to do more research on the whole story behind Chris's travels and his untimely death in the wilderness. Let me give a disclaimer before I get into this: I mean no disrespect, to anyone involved, to Chris, or his family, or friends, or John Krakauer, or Sean Penn, or anyone else with any kind of stake or interest in Chris's story. It's a heartbreaking story, it truly is, and my heart goes out to all of these individuals. I just feel like maybe there's more to it than was presented in either the book or the film, and some of those conveniently omitted facts are pretty important to the way that the story is viewed by the general public, and the general spin that has been put on the way that Chris lived and died.

So, the little bit of research I did the other night resulted in two really intriguing finds. I came across this website, which provides a pretty convincing alternate view to the one presented by Krakauer in his book and Sean Penn in his movie. I also found this website, which provides a really humorous view on the whole story. Maybe the Terra Incognita site can be seen as sour grapes because Sean Penn made the big Chris McCandless movie before this guy had the chance, but it seems to me that some of the facts presented by these two sites are just that, and you really can't spin them: he had a map and he either ignored it or didn't know how to read it, he didn't seem to know what he was doing in terms of hunting/fishing/gathering food (and this was apparent from his journals, the book and the movie, too), he didn't bring proper supplies, and no one knew where he was. It was just pretty dumb of him to think he could do this just because he was pissed at the world or his parents.

I don't know. Develop your own opinions based on what's out there, this is just mine. I felt something after I read this book, and maybe that was because of my age or level of impressionability when I read it so many years ago, but I held on to that feeling until I just saw the movie, and it sparked me to think about the story again, and to look into it a little more. I'm pretty confident that if I read the book now, knowing nothing about the story, I would've been left with the same feeling that the movie has now left me with. Ultimately, I'm glad I saw the movie and it led me to change the opinion that I had after reading the book; though I'm not sure Sean Penn or John Krakauer would be.

While we're on the topic

Just one more quick link to something pretty funny. This is Patton Oswalt's recent post about Jason Statham, entitled Gay-tham for Statham. Patton Oswalt is funny shit.

Wicked Funny

I just came across this excerpt from a police log while I was blog surfing. Thanks to Robot Bites Man for posting it earlier today. I couldn't resist snagging it and posting it here, it's just too funny.


In other news, I'm trying again, as I'm wasting time this afternoon, to watch this ridiculous Dungeon Siege movie. I just turned it on about halfway through, and I'm still only really able to handle about 10 minutes of it. Ugh. I just don't get what went wrong. Additionally, I've decided that I hate this Helen Hunt look-alike girl - LeeLee Sobieski. She annoys me even more than the movie as a whole. Ick.

PS - My blogging skills are improving - did you notice I learned how to link text in this post? I've impressed myself again. Yay me!

My Bubby

He was the best cat ever. He was born December 4, 1995. His mom was my friend's cat, and she was tiny and skinny. She was an inside cat and one day she snuck out and came home pregnant. We never knew who Bubby's father was. My friend's family named him Bubba when he was a kitten, and when I got him at about eight weeks, I decided to keep the name. I could never have known how he would grow into his name! He was a people cat, and completely different from any other cat I've ever come across. He was the farthest thing in the world from independent, preferring to be where everyone else was than by himself. He would've rather sat on your lap than anything, and would jump on someone's lap to cuddle within ten minutes of meeting them. He used to follow me to bed in the winter, and cuddle under my arm like a teddy bear to sleep. He was the sweetest, most lovable cat you could ever meet.

He lived for thirteen happy and healthy years before he got really sick over this past weekend. He spent one night in the hospital on oxygen and iv medications to help with his breathing and to try and fix the blood clot that was blocking circulation to his right front leg, and he was doing better when we brought him home on Sunday, even if he still hadn't regained the use of that one leg. Unfortunately, he took a turn for the worse around three am Sunday night/Monday morning when his breathing again got very erratic and shallow and he threw another blood clot which blocked circulation to both of his back legs. We did all that we could for him, and just tried to keep him comfortable, but by five o'clock in the morning, he was clearly suffering and in pain, so we had to bring him back to the animal hospital to have him put down.

Our house now feels very empty and lonely. I miss him like crazy, and it really hurts to know that we'll never see him again. While it was really sudden, and that makes it so much more difficult for us to lose him, it's comforting to know that it was better for him that way. At least he was only really sick for two days. I think that he knew how loved he was and how hard we tried to do everything we could for him, even if he couldn't understand what was happening. He made a lot of people very happy for a long time, and he will always be missed. We love you Bubby!

Crank 2 trailer

First things first; here's the video:



So, some advance warning, there's a lot of profanity, nudity and violence in this trailer. If this is any indication of what the movie will be like, it looks pretty sick. I adore Crank for all it's ridiculousness and fast-paced action, and this looks like a lot more of the same. This time Chev Chelios has some kind of electric heart that he needs to keep going by electrocuting himself. I love that the trailer has Linkin Park's Given Up as the soundtrack, and hope to see more of the same in the movie. Plus, Chester Bennington of LP is making another appearance in this installment of Crank - you can see him on this trailer, too.
My favorite line in this trailer = "Is Doc Miles gonna have to choke a bitch?"
Fantastic. I'm so psyched for this movie to come out in April.

Edit: P.S. - this is my first embedded video post. I'm pretty proud of myself for making it happen. Go me!

Edit: 1/9/09 - I just noticed that this video is no longer working, apparently due to copyright issues with Lionsgate. Bummer. I'm trying to find a new one and will replace this video asap.