Swedish Toast

a film called Thieves' Highway (1949, Jules Dassin). A good film noir that keeps you expecting an untimely end for the main character Nick, who's thrust himself into the cruel world of apples and other produce, and it's hard to know who is on his side (okay, now that I write it, it sounds silly, but really, the produce provides good drama). Highlights include a game of imaginary tic tac toe played on his chest, Nick's ability to shrug off a serious neck injury, and his half unconscious laments:

"Forget about Mike Figlia"
"Figlia!"
"Don't you remember Ed?"
"Ed!"

Jules Dassin also directed Night and The City (1950). This one is a fantastic film noir that surrounds Harry Fabian's attempts to make a buck; any buck. He tries to control London's wrestling circuit with the help of an old greek wrestling brute named Gregorious. Criterion created a really nice DVD release with this film, offering a short documentary on the separate British and American versions of the same film. Each has a unique soundtrack, one composed for each, and the differences are fascinating. One is traditional melodramatic fare, the other is a jazzier modern soundtrack, highlighting the differences and expectations of both societies in the mid-20th Century.

Anyhoo, I recommend checking out some of Jules Dassin's films.

I've been sick with a bit of the flu. Here are three artist's renderings.

Man, what was she thinking? Adopting a child with the full use of her affluence and influence. Doesn't Madonna know that children need mothers other than her? That's the new thing - find parents for children, but only certain parents. There are activist organisations who at this very moment are uniting to oppose the rampant use of 'just any mother.' Their slogan is "Only the mothers we approve of," and, "Let the children wait in line until everyone goes for the same price."
Whatever. A child has a mother. That seems closer to the goal of helping children than the same child without one.

I'm sorry my posts have been so political of late. I just get riled by the crap that comes out of politics and their -icians, but that has been around for ever.

Thoreau wrote "Blessed were the days before you read a President's message. Blessed are the young, for they do not read the President's message. Blessed are they who never read a newspaper, for they shall see Nature and, through her, God."

Let that last word mean whatever you want it to.

I find it mindboggling that we have to divide ourselves between the group of people who are pro-Israeli and the group who are anti-Israeli. Is this what everything comes down to? Why, if they were indeed accurate labels, would either of those positions constitute an entire world-view? Suddenly this very personal opinion is an indicator of a person's characteristics.
It is ludicrous to equate disappointment with Israeli aggression with an attitude that the country should not exist.
For the last time, shut the hell up.

If North Korea should be ashamed for performing a nuclear test, than the US should be slapped, have its tongue pulled out and have its ass waxed.

(click this diagram to enlarge)

I watched the doc Why We Fight? last night, after watching Click with Adam Sandler. Unless I missed something, the reason Americans keep going off to war is because their President has a universal remote control that allows him to fast-forward past periods of sanity, reason and common sense to the point where he believes he has to go to war.

It does beg the question of why Canadians go to war with Americans, specifically in Afghanistan. If it is the American empire's right to self-determination that Canada is out there protecting and bolstering, then Canada is an idiot. Is there not another step of logic that must flow from this, similar to the logic of that religious nonsense about converting the heathens or killing them? If this self-determination crap is an American-centric policy, then someday Canada will be that heathen, whether tomorrow or in a hundred years.

There was an article in our local-Ottawa-West-poor-excuse-for-a-newspaper (I can't even give you a link to it - it is print only) in which, on the front page no less, there was an article all about how Israel had every right to bomb the shit out of Lebanon since the Israelis were just defending themselves. Seems like the wrong forum for that kind of blame game, which can only ever be narrow and one-sided. Why not accept that there were aggressions on both sides? Unless these cluster bombs are just an advanced form of self-defence.

I guess "an advanced form of self-defence" is the popular term for any aggression. Perhaps we need more advanced forms of other-defence.

The difference between a Harp Seal and Stephen Harper is that a Harp Seal has balls.

I feel I need to make the case for Pootie Tang. There are two types of people, those who have seen it (the happy people) and those who have not (the dwellers of the dark).


COME ON!

Um, Tie Domi and Belinda Stronach. Wait for it. Let it stew... I know, that weird taste just isn't going away.

Apparently, Leanne Domi had been asking for $45,000 a month for child and spousal support. Over half a million a year! I assume she is either raising over one hundred extremely fat kids or she just has a hankering for a lot of gold beef. Or maybe that's what it would cost to make that weird taste go away.

Even at that rate it would still take her 37 years to buy a private flight into space. Makes Leanne look cheap, don't you think?