Probably not what you were expecting.

Maybe I should try, one more time, to learn how to do that Latin dance thing?

There are a couple of movies that ALWAYS grab my attention when channel surfing. If Sergio Leone's 1966 master piece, Buono, il brutto, il cattivo., Il (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) is on, I stop surfing and watch. It's like crack. There's an interesting perspective on the movie ending (shown above) on GameTheory.net.

I think that the final scene in this Clint Eastwood movie is the most outstanding example of game theory. Three men in a triangle -- each with a gun, a rock at the center of the three. It is up to each man to evaluate his situation. All are excellent shots. Who do they shoot?

Clint has supposedly put a message on a rock that holds the key to everything, but do the other two trust Clint to have actually written the correct answer? As the other two evaluate the situation, they realize they can't trust Clint to have written the answer on the rock -- therefore they can't shoot Clint who likely still has the answer. That means the other two can only shoot each other, but only one will likely hit before the other.

What they don't know is that Clint has given one an unloaded gun... Clint can ignore this one. The one Clint has to worry about with the loaded gun will try to kill the one with the unloaded gun. Neither will fire at Clint. Clint will fire at the one with the loaded gun. As the camera passes from one face to the other the audience is meant to figure out what each would do.

The guy with the loaded gun shoots at the guy with the unloaded gun -- Clint shoots the guy with the loaded gun. Game over. As with the hangings in the movie, he has dangled Duco out as bait while Clint takes the money.

The game is decided before it starts.

Clint sets up a situation where each evaluates their possible moves, but in reality, Clint has already won the game. Its a brilliant example of people making the best decisions based on the information available to them...and somebody manipulating the information available to them.

I watched this movie last night, and now Eddie Vedder's incredible voice is haunting me. Oh wait, no. My hubby is watching the movie again to find a couple quotes he liked, and the soundtrack is drifting upstairs to where I'm supposed to be working on revisions. But that voice. Wow.

I actually have made decent progress on revisions today, despite the haunting. But soon my writing time is up: kidlets shall arrive home, and chauffeur duty will commence. But perhaps I can swing by the bookstore and pick up Jon Krakauer's book. (When there's a movie based on a book, I like reading the book first. Too late this time, but I still want to read this one.) Might have to watch the movie again, too. And buy the soundtrack. And the haunting will continue....

Don LaFontaine, voice over dude for around 5,000 movie trailers, has passed away. Most folks I know have tried to "do" his voice at least once in their lives...

• John Belushi as "Joliet" Jake Blues, vocals
• Dan Aykroyd as Elwood Blues, harmonica and vocals
• Steve Cropper as Steve "the Colonel" Cropper, rhythm guitar and vocals
• Donald "Duck" Dunn as Donald "Duck" Dunn, bass guitar
• Murphy Dunne as Murphy "Murph" Dunne, keyboards
• Willie Hall as Willie "Too Big" Hall, drums and percussion
• Tom Malone as Tom "Bones" Malone, trombone, tenor saxophone and vocals
• Lou Marini as "Blue Lou" Marini, alto saxophone and tenor saxophone and vocals
• Matt Murphy as Matt "Guitar" Murphy, lead guitar
• Alan Rubin as Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin, trumpet, percussion and vocals
• Cab Calloway as Curtis
• Carrie Fisher as Mystery Woman
• Aretha Franklin as Mrs. Murphy
• Ray Charles as Ray
• James Brown as Reverend Cleophus James
• John Candy as Burton Mercer
• Kathleen Freeman as Sister Mary Stigmata, "The Penguin"
• Henry Gibson as Head Nazi
• Steve Lawrence as Maury Sline
• Twiggy as Chic Lady
• Frank Oz as Corrections Officer
• Jeff Morris as Bob
• Sheilah Wells as Claire
• Charles Napier as Tucker McElroy
• Steven Williams as Trooper Mount
• Armand Cerami as Trooper Daniel
• Chaka Khan as Choir soloist
• John Lee Hooker as musician on Maxwell Street
• John Landis as State trooper
• Stephen Bishop as State trooper
• Joe Walsh as Prisoner
• Paul Reubens as Chez Paul waiter
• Steven Spielberg as Cook County Assessor's Office Clerk
• Joe Cuttone as Lloyd
• Toni Fleming as Mrs. Tarantino
• Carolyn Franklin, Brenda Bryant Corbett, and Margaret Branch as Soul Food Chorus

As morning surfing would have it, I stumbled across a video on Youtube of a live performance of one of the tunes featured in the movie. Jake and Elwood were on a mission from God and had to put the band back together to save the orphanage. Sam and Dave told the world "Hold on! I'm coming..." I'm not sure what the venue was, but Sam and Dave did it just fine, even if the bass player was white.

The movie Tropic Thunder opened yesterday. There's a bit of an uproar over the the comedy/satire's use of the word "retard". The movie could be viewed as offensive to many, including blacks, Asians, gays, and anyone who cares about panda bears. Ben Stiller has one of the lead roles. In the film, Stiller's character is an aging action hero—Tugg Speedman—attempting to make an epic Vietnam War movie. A running joke is that Speedman's previous role was as an intellectually disabled man—played to every stereotype imaginable—in a box office disaster called "Simple Jack." A fellow actor on the set of the war movie— Robert Downey Jr., is playing a white man who has undergone a pigmentation procedure to become black.

Are we hearing howls of indignation from Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or the NAACP? Nope. A national boycott has been called by at least 22 intellectual disabilities groups. It seems like a funny enough movie. Movies are about suspending disbelief and entertainment or diversion. I watch a movie to "get away" for a couple of hours. Comedy is a favorite niche for my viewing. I have a sneaking suspicion that this movie will be mindless entertainment in the form of Harold & Kumar... As in... if you are taking it that seriously, you are wound too tight. I understand that words have meaning and that some words are offensive to ssome folks. Context is everything.

Written by two Vancouver journalists inspired by their creation of a deliciously local feast scrounged up in the wilds of northern British Columbia, this book took the world by storm with its brilliantly simplistic idea of eating nothing but food produced within a 100 mile radius of their Vancouver home.

Easier said than done obviously but a noble idea none the less. I'm not quite ready to give up French brie, Florida oranges, or prairie wheat, but sampling fresh local products instead of vegetables that have more stamps in their passport than I do sounds like a small way I can help reduce my footprint on our already heavily-burdened planet while enjoying some of the gourmet goods this province has to offer.

It shouldn't be hard either, especially at this time of year when our local farmers' markets (http://www.bcfarmersmarket.org/) are overflowing with greens, herbs, vegetables, and fruits, as well as specialty products like local honey, fresh Saltspring Island goats cheese, and those super tasty Lesley Stowe crackers, yum.

Entertaining and inspiring, the 100 Mile Diet is the perfect summertime read to get you thinking about all the garden goodies to be had this time next year with a little thoughtful planning and a moderately green thumb. If anyone has ever enjoyed a fresh peach off the tree or some sweet raspberries from a back garden then you know the joy I'm talking about when you bite into the fruits of your labour.

Check it out (http://100milediet.org/category/about/) and decide for yourself.

Bon appetit.

I dag läste jag ut en bok som jag fått på rekommendation - Paulo Coelhos "Pilgrimsresan". Det skulle verkligen kunna vara en bok som passar mig eftersom jag gärna läser böcker som handlar om människans sökande efter nånting större i tillvaron eller böcker som tar itu med människans inre. Den här boken, som är Coelhos första, beskriver hans egen pilgrimsvandring till Santiago de Compostela. Han går med en mästare som längs vägen lär honom ett antal enkla övningar för att lämna sina mänskliga begränsningar, inse det stora i tillvaron och till slut nå sitt svärd, som är själva målet för resan.

Boken fångar tyvärr inte mig någon gång. Även om det är en fascinerande berättelse så blir det till stor del lite för konturlöst. Vissa andra läsare (recensioner på nätet) beskriver den som lite för flummig, och det är den säkert för de som tror att det vi ser, hör och kan ta på är det enda som existerar. För den som besitter någon form av personlig tro eller åtminstone har ett intresse för att det kan finnas nåt övernaturligt i vår vardag så innehåller den en hel del läsvärda tankar. Men för att man verkligen ska bli biten behövs nåt mer, nåt som verkligen bär intresset genom hela boken till slut. Nåt sånt finns tyvärr inte.

Författaren är dock en av världens mest läsa (80 milj böcker) och har bland annat skrivit Alkemisten, som vad jag förstår är hans mest uppskattade verk. Jag borde hoppat över den här och och läst den istället.

That's right Bambi Woods' classic 70's porn hit turns 30 this summer (it was made in the summer of 1978). Debbie Does Dallas might not have been a cinematographic tour de force, but it was likely on eof the first porn flicks you saw. The fact that it was re-released on Blu-Ray as the first HD porn is kind of fitting. For the record, I'm absolutely certain that porn is NOT one of those things I want to see in HD.

You can tell a lot about a person by what magazines they read. Especially the ones they read on the "throne". So what's in your bathroom? In mine:

• The Economist - I gave up on the crapola that is Time and Newseek long ago. The news to spewage ratio is pretty darn good with The Economist and they manage to keep their bias where it belongs.
• Garden & Gun - A wonderfully printed jumble of Southern living and the things that make up Southern life. Cocktails, to magnolia blossoms, to lever guns, to fried shrimp.
• Information Week - A weekly that gets skimmed and trashed in less than 5 minutes.
• Double Gun Journal - A quarterly publication of gun porn; mostly stuff that is way out my reach!
• Cooking Light - I love to eat. I love fat. I'm not going to give fat up completely, but this magazine gives me regularly good ideas about tweaking things that I want to eat.
• Reason - Thought provoking libertarian articles. I don't agree with all of them, but many of them manage to get me going...
• Texas Monthly - Why not? Their restaurant reviews are pretty good and I like learning about the state I live in.

I let my subscription to Scientific American lapse because I got tired of all the Bush bashing. I no longer subscribe to any of the food/packaged goods industry trade rags.

Despair is a bit too strong of a word to describe how I am feeling. I finished reading The Dirty Dozen and am keeping watch on the current political farce known as the Presidential election. I'm troubled and depressed. The book made crystal clear that our government has, through the years, taken great liberties with the Constitution. Those liberties have come at the expense of individual liberty. Supreme Court after Supreme Court has paved the way for government expansion that runs precisely counter to the ideals of personal liberty and responsibility. Presidencies have made things up as they go along and their hand-picked Justices have paved those roads in gold. This is not what the framers' of the Constitution had in mind. Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that those old dudes in the wigs wanted to make sure that the People could toss the politicians on their ears if crap got out of hand. Bad news, the People have given the politicians all the latitude necessary to keep us in sheeple mode. And the crap is way out of hand.

Rest assured that the incoming administration will be no better. Democrap or Repukelican, government, and government regulation of our lives, will expand. There will most certainly be an expansion of power. I think that the only thing that we can truly hope for is that this expansion of power results in more people getting busted for abuse of authority.

One of the best lines from the Batman movies was when Jack Nicholson, as the Joker, pronounced that "this town needs an enema!". Make that the whole country. And that enema needs to flush government. Do a little hunting on your own with your friend Google. Find out how many people live in the US. Then find out how many people work for government at the federal, state and local levels. Find out how many cents of every dollar you have goes to government (don't just count your income tax... there's sales tax, gas tax, excise tax...). Then look at all the things in your life and see how involved the government is in regulation.

Enema, indeed! Can you imagine how I will feel after reading The Federalist Papers?

"Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett (are) second-rate actors, serving as the running dogs of the CIA. We need to deprive these people of the right of entering the country," said another party member, Andrei Gindos. Yep, that's right. Some old-line communists are upset about the latest Indiana Jones movie because they think it puts commies in a bad light. It's a movie... as in entertainment. It ain't a history lesson.

"You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning." Wav file.

Mmmm... Latakia.

So I was watching Apocalypse Now last night on the new TV thing. I was going for the full on effect. I finally was able to display the movie in a widescreen format that was big enough to view with comfort, I had the surround sound thing engaged (sub-woofers on stun...), the comfy chair centered, a double Caol Ila poured, a pipe stoked and ready, and the rest of the family banished to other parts of the house while Daddy watched his "war movie". The pipe was by Jody Davis and the tobacco was something that would only invite jealousy, so I'll not paint with that much detail.

So, I'm settled in and it sounds like the helicopters are buzzing me and I can hear rocket fire and small arms going off, and I'm sipping and puffing. There's a thin blue haze that you can see through the light thrown off by the TV in the darkened room. Lt. Colonel Kilgore is squatting on the beach in Vietnam, chaos surrounding him. His cavalry stetson is pristine and perfect and he is establishing his love for the smell of burnt gasoline. At that point, my fragrant pipe sours just a bit. The Latakia and Virginias that have been marrying for several decades turn sour and I could have sworn that *I* smelled and tasted gasoline. In a flash, it was over. HD is really good...

Tonight I went to the movies. I went all by myself as my friends had other things to do tonight and rehearsal was going on. I saw Iron Man at the IMAX.

I couldn't tell you another movie I remember Robert Downey Jr. being in... but I'll remember this one. He was good. I mean really good. Not Oscar worthy by any means be perfect for this role. Gwyneth Paltrow wasn't the annoying chick as she usually is for me. And holy crap Jeff Bridges was a great villain! :-)

I'm not going to spoil anything here (you're welcome Chris) but I can say, from an actor's POV it was entertaining. From a non-comic book person I loved the movie. As a romantic comedy fan that steers away from the action flicks I enjoyed the storyline and the characters and the explosions were awesome. Well... thanks to the IMAX HUGE ASS screen of course.

This serves as my HNT because I am on a quest to be more comfortable with being by myself and being comfortable with me. Not needed to be in a group of people where I know everyone and being comfortable with the environment and atmosphere around me. Tonight was the easiest it's been and the perfect medicine for my distracted brain as of late. Now if only I could get my phone signal to work all would be well! ;)

Cheers and Happy HNT!

Yes, I am one of thosegirls that absolutely LOVES this show! I say LOVES in the present tense because I own all 6 seasons and I watch them as much as possible... I never get tired oh Carrie's questions, Samantha's ridiculous sexual escapades, Miranda's cynicism and Charlotte's optimism. This show is amazing because (1) it's still relevant and will continue to be so because it deals with love and relationships, and those my friends are Universal! (2) each character is unique in their own way and covers the vast personality types us women are known to have thus guaranteeing that there will be a character we relate to, and (3) even men can learn a thing or two about us women by watching, just don't tell your guy friends! ;-)

Last night brought a few finished projects for me... I finished my 4th load of laundry from the massive room cleaning I did Monday night, I finished my stress over technology and figured out how to work my tv and dvd player with one easy trip to RadioShack (M are you proud?? I didn't call you!) and I finished the 4th Season of Sex in the City! ::sigh:: Mr. Big moved! OMG! Miranda had a baby! OMG! Charlotte got divorced and Samantha caught her bf with another woman... ok so maybe not an OMG but still OMG!!!!

Hahahahaha!

The Moviewill be out May 30th... a convient date for us girlies to help make time go faster for a certain wife-to-be! :-)  (who happens to be blogging along the lines of my friend Mr. Snackmissioner... check them both out!)

I'll be up later tonight with more HNT stuff... it's the Spring Cleaning #2 - The Room

::da da daaaaaaa::

Um... yeah... that's all for me now... I'm working on SF Fringe stuff (today is the deadline...eeep!)... building a MySpace for "Tale End".... Mr. NZ got his plane ticket! YAY!... the boy is in town and I'll see him soon! YAY!!!... and yeah rehearsals are starting up, work is going great, and all that jazz! Hahahaha!!

~Ciao!

 EDIT!!!!

Cause I'm a nerd! I have completed my pre-rehearsal ritual... not that I'm superstitious, it's just that I feel better prepared and more open minded when I do these little things... and as a reward for my getting cast I indulge my love/obsession with office supplies:

 Isn't it pretty?!?!?! All recycled materials with a new pencil pouch with new pencils and post-it tabby thingy's and other little do-dads that help me throughout the rehearsal process...

AND at Target I also got this:

I went to see this in the theater, all by myself, and I was all alone... it was like my own private screeneing! :-) And now I have it on DVD!!! Yay!  

He does all his own stunts, has a sense of humor, and gets paid. A very nice compilation...

I går såg jag en klart sevärd film - Stranger than fiction. Handligen är lite för intrikat för att redogöras för här, men jag rekommenderar den verkligen. Och om man gillar Will Farell - missa då inte Anchorman heller. En riktigt ball film med ljuvliga karaktärer från en amerikansk nyhetsredaktion.

I morgon måste jag ta livet av Maxeb.

HITMAN is a movie based on a video game. With the recent successes of the Resident Evil movies this seems like a safe bet for movie producers. I actually really enjoyed this movie, although I've never played the game before. I had no idea what the movie was about or what the objective of the game was, this movie actually answered all the questions and made a non-gamer like myself understand what was going on. There are twists and turns in the film (no spoilers here!) and there was aspects of predictability. An action film with all the right ingredients. There's just something about a man with a shaved head and a barcode tattooed on the back of his head. ;-)

The second movie, REVOLVER was quite interesting. Guy Ritchie's movie, which was released in 2005, but is new to us here in the States.

A movie I got because (1) I love Jason Stathum, (2) Ray Liotta makes me laugh because he's either really good or really bad, and (3) I'm really beginning to enjoy Guy Ritchie's movies (Snatch is a favorite). I realized last night when I put the DVD in that I hadn't even read the back of the movie jacket. I had NO idea what this movie was about. Coming into it blind was a good and bad thing. It was good because I was able to not have any preconceived notions about the movie (other than the actors and the director appreciation) but it was bad because I was playing catch up. To be honest, I didn't understand the subtext/symbolism to the movie until the final credits and the psychologists were talking. Without giving too much away, I can say this movie is about our EGO and how we are either the victim or the opponent in the game of life, it's knowing when you're the victim so you can become the opponent. Chess plays a symbolistic part in this movie and there's a surprisingly amazing performance dolled out by OutKast's Andre Benjamin.

This movie actually made me think, it made me wonder what role I was playing in my own game of life... am I the victim or am I the opponent? Is it my ego that rules me or do I rule my ego? All very interesting concepts to ponder over. I've become very interested in the whole idea of ego because of it and how/why it rules us or we rule it. I'm sure I'll be talking about it more after I read up on some stuff, so I'll leave you with the first rule (according to the movie) in playing any game:

YOU CAN ONLY GET SMARTER BUY PLAYING A SMARTER OPPONENT.