Month: December 2016

  • ROGUE ONE RAW

    ROGUE ONE RAW

    REVIEWS ARE MOSTLY POSITIVE FOR ROGUE ONE…….

    Except….

    The story goes like this.. On Monday, critics finally got to see the newest STAR WARS film.. the reviews? Most good. Some mixed..
    Some really, really awful..

    The New York Times. A.O. Scott called it a “thoroughly mediocre movie” with “a surprisingly hackish script.”

    “Rogue One,” named for the call sign of an imperial cargo ship appropriated by rebel fighters, is the opposite of that vessel. Masquerading as a heroic tale of rebellion, its true spirit is Empire all the way down.

    In USA Today,

    “Rogue One” feels small in scale, even with its signature heroism and sci-fi action, and its main players mostly lack the charm that made Rey, Finn and Poe in last year’s “The Force Awakens” — or Han, Luke and Leia back in the day — so special.

    Stephanie Zacharek wrote in Time

    “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” will not change lives for the worse or for the better, and it will — or ought to — offend no one. Welcome to the Republic of the Just O.K.

    The New Yorker

    The director of “Rogue One,” Gareth Edwards, has stepped into a mythopoetic stew so half-baked and overcooked, a morass of pre-instantly overanalyzed implications of such shuddering impact to the series’ fundamentalists, that he lumbers through, seemingly stunned or constrained or cautious to the vanishing point of passivity, and lets neither the characters nor the formidable cast of actors nor even the special effects, of which he has previously proved himself to be a master, come anywhere close to life.

    The PUBLIC gets to see the movie this week.. it’s all about to happen. And it will be huge. But how long-lasting?

    We have come a long way since George Lucas.. and in a time far far away, we are bound to wonder if ROGUE ONE holds the interest of STAR WARS fans and makes the cash that recent films have…

     

  • The ‘spirit’ of Christmas: Stop listening to adults. Santa, and Krampus, are real

    The ‘spirit’ of Christmas: Stop listening to adults. Santa, and Krampus, are real

    It’s amazing to consider just how paranormal and creepy a time Christmas actually is! Even a song features the words ‘scary ghost stories and tales of the glory of Chrsitmases long long ago’!
    Let me first begin this way. On Christmas, ever since childhood, I felt magic. I felt like a thing veil between here and somewhere else was lifted. As I matured into adulthood, that same feeling persisted each December 24. Something strange and magical seemingly is felt in the air that night.. 

    Chrsitmases of long long ago aren’t the same as they are now. The peaceful imagery of Santa Claus is relatively new. The older image of Krampus has had some staying power over the centuries.. banned for some time, a resurgence has just occcured for the devilish beast. 


    Some even say, long ago, that Santa traveled with Krampus. Kids who were good got gifts.. those bad? The wrath of Krampus..

    It wasn’t just Krampus, either, that hit on Christmas..

    Here is some good information about ther breasts from a website that wraps things up pretty good in a bow of knowledge: 

    What is even more terrifying is that Krampus is hardly alone in his duties to punish the wicked come Christmas time. There is the legend of Frau Perchta, another Germanic wild spirit that appears during the holidays to punish bad boys and girls during the Twelve Days of Christmas by tearing out their insides and replacing them with garbage. Then comes the Icelandic Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat. This cat is supposed to come and get naughty boys and girls who did not finish all their chores by the coming of Yule. Those who finish their chores are gifted with new clothes while those that do not, are given nothing and the Yule Cat will come in the night, scratching at the door and coming up from under the icy floors to eat those who received nothing for being lazy. From France comes Hans Trapp, a man who was said to actually exist at one point in history. Trapp was a horrid human being, a crazy Satan worshipper who butchered and killed children until he was struck by lightning and is now forced forever to visit children on Christmas, dressed as a scarecrow to remind them to be good…or else (Mental Floss, 2015)

    …and did you know? Caroling in Romania has was used to perform sex prevention? >Some feared in those times that conceiving on Christmas would lead you to having a beast baby. So ….singers would interrupt the Romanian houses for rocking without even knocking..


    These are the amazing truths of Christmas.. 

    I shared this story before, but I will agai for good measure. When I was younger in Catholic grade school, some funny Russian nuns who were in charge of the place had a yearly ritual. Along with religious singing and ceremony, the kids also aligned the shoes in hallways .. we were ushered back into our classrooms and we heard a bell ring. Of course it was just Tarzan the janitor, but what we didn’t know didn’t hurt us.  The bell signified that Santa stopped by .. if our shoes had candy? It was good. If not? ….Krampus time. He was not named. But the tradition goes back to one from Eastern Europe where, if you got something other than candy, your soul was about to be sucked out by the demonic Christmas figure. Good luck.

    There are dark times at Christmas.. our modern life has turned it into a celebration of light.. but the light only comes after the darkness. I think Halloween begins the darkness.. and it is a continuation of bleak and bland until December 25, or so around that date, when the sun’s angle begins to change and the ‘light of the world’ takes on a new meaning.

    Just about everything we do has pagan roots in some respect.. 


    # # #

    This year, when I read the news accounts recently of the boy. who died in Santa’s arms, I grew very emotional. It was immensely sad to hear the man who played Santa his entire adult life describe having a child, filled with joy and love, pass away in his arms.

    To that boy, Santa was real.. Santa came to him before death and gave him a reason to have lived.. and a purpose in dying. The story still makes me very emotional..

    But it also confirms something I have long believed personally. Santa Claus IS REAL. 

    There are tons of reasons I would argue for the reality of Santa.. (And Krampus while I am at it) .. but one of the best reasons to think and consider the reality of the two historical figures: Alternative universes. If a multi-verse that endlessly exists, that just about any reality may be possible.  The timeline we are on gives us a Trump presidency and war torn world. But another may fully be inhabited by Santa and elves, Krampus and devils.. Yes indeed.. in a certain sense, just about every possibility could exist. So Santa equally could be very real. And if timelines can bleed into ours, then why isn’t it at least possible to think that Santa’s sleigh could ride over our houses …

    So … when my son, now 5, stops believing in Santa, I will be the only one in the household who STILL believes.  I do so to keep the magic of Christmas alive.. and because, as explained above, I think there is a very good chance that the fabric of time and space gets thin around this time of year, from Hallow’s Eve to the Yule Log tidings, so …why not. Why not believe ?


    The comfort that the birth of Christ brought the world saved it from darkness. The light from that historical event — if it occurred — is believed to have happened around the world. 

    There is magic in this season. Those who could scoff at my Santa belief don’t look at their own with any critical zeal. Only others..

    So … why not all of them!

    # # # 

    To the boy who died in Sata’s arms, there is no doubt .. Santa Claus was real for that entire boy’s life…until his untimely and sad death. 

    Bring the magic into the season again.. in honor of the nameless and faceless children across this planet who need that miracle.. who need that love.. who need that magic.  Do good deeds that go unnoticed. And do them because this is the season to do them. Make someone’s wishes come true.. bring light into someone’s darkness. Use your words for love instead of hate. And look up to the moon on Christmas Eve and watch for Sata’s weigh…. if you hear the clanging f bells, prepare for your visit with Krampus. It could get messy.

    I believe.

    If you wonder why Christmas doesn’t feel the same as it did when you were younger, it is because you got lost in reality. You lost the magic.. and you lost your life to the mundane nature of things. You can change it. 

    And should, before it’s too late.

  • The wild West

    The wild West

    This year started strange. Was weird in the middle.. and ending in the same style as it began.
     Nothing predictable happened. No ordinary events … all big magnitude, big “yuge” style happenings littered the months of 2016.
     
     And it ends as odd as it began.
     With Kanye West to Trump Tower!
     
     Let me first say, all politics aside, Donald Trump is a media genius. There are countless media organizations focused like a laser beam on the Trump tower elevators… Cameras pointed to catch every guest of honor or deplorable. Trump is eating up the attention.. Yesterday, big news took place in Aleppo, Syria. But the media instead was more concerned with West’s brief meeting with the President-Elect and post even briefer media presser..
     
     


    Later on Twitter, West posted a #2024 and mentioned that he spoke to Trump about important issues, such as violence in Chicago.
     
     And the media was shocked. Stunned faces as West appeared..and the Twitterverse went mad, angry people saying hateful things is a normal course of business on the social network.. but Trump’s daily actions ignite more passion than anything of recent memory.
     
     If this 2016 cycle is any predictor of next year, 2017 is going to be as wild by the day as the latter half of our current calendar was..
     
     The Trump show is a skilled media performance. It is not a circus, as some have deemed. Instead it is an intelligent and formalized media sucker punch each and every day. And they fall for it.
     
     Every news network has tuned into Trump TV. His face is everywhere.. his actions are noted … at some point I expect his bowel movements to be live-streamed and for his colon to have a Twitter following.
     
     Yes indeed. This year as shaped us up for a much different 2017 than many expected.
     
     And some Kanye West sprinkled on top for good measure as this year slips and slides into oblivion just as quickly as it began…

  • Yet another tragic celebrity death.. 2016 has been…

    Yet another tragic celebrity death.. 2016 has been…

    Yet another tragic celebrity death.. 2016 has been unkind..

    Alan Thicke shockingly passed away on Dec. 13 after suffering a heart attack while playing hockey with his 19-year-old son Carter. He was 69 years old and still working as an actor.

  • Santa Claus is real

    Santa Claus is real

    I challenge you to watch this video and somehow not find yourself in a puddle of tears after..

    Eric Schmitt-Matzen spreads Christmas cheer year-round. Recently he answered the call to grant what would end up being an East Tennessee child’s final Christmas wish…

    And the boy died in his arms after feeling joy of seeing Santa and getting a gift..

    I can’t comprehend the emotion …

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8rAy6wjR6E]

    Yes.. this man is Santa.

    Santa is real, and never doubt it.

  • DREAMING OF A BLUE HORDAK FOR CHRISTMAS!

    DREAMING OF A BLUE HORDAK FOR CHRISTMAS!

    DREAMING OF A BLUE HORDAK FOR CHRISTMAS!

    Not sure if anyone is looking for any last minute Christmas gifts for me.. but if so, find this amazing BLUE Hordak *true to the SHE-RA series and now the gray and black colors of typical actual figure paint jobs* … I saw the photograph of the REAL Hordak on the HE-MAN.ORG website..  I would pay to own this and add to my collection.

    When I was a kid in the 80s, I never knew that the REAL types of figures existed. You just had to be in the right country and place to find them.

    I recall the back of the HE-MAN boxes. There was a collect them all message with photos of the other action figures you can get. I always noticed the photos of the figures were just a BIT different than the actual action figures I found at my local KAY B toy store.. IT always upset me a bit that my HE-MAN and MAN AT ARMS didn’t look like they did in the cartoon, and that the back of the box showcased them to look exactly how they should look.. and in my hands was just the normal old boring HE-MAN and MAN AT ARMS.

    But … the blue Hordak? Now THAT is the figure to have..

    I also was checking this out on Amazon. Looks like a really cool book.. ANOTHER amazing gift idea (hint hint

    Looks like a great, great book

     

     

    image

  • ‘Anonymouse’ opens miniature restaurant for rodents in Sweden

    ‘Anonymouse’ opens miniature restaurant for rodents in Sweden

    ‘Anonymouse’ opens miniature restaurant for rodents in Sweden:

    Looks like a quaint little place..

    An art group named ‘Anonymouse’ has opened a new chain of miniature restaurants designed to specifically cater for mice in Sweden.
    The quaint 70cm x 30cm (about 25×12 inch) stores, located in the Swedish city of Malmo, offer everything a modern-day mouse would need, including a wide selection of nuts and cheeses, to notices about upcoming mouse events.

  • The creepy Christmas Carol

    The creepy Christmas Carol

    Last night, I posted a video of my son at his kindergarten play singing. It was a beautiful moment filled with love and joy..

    But when a computer writes a Christmas song, something much creepier occurs..

    Here is the story: Researchers in Toronto taught technology to write ‘neutral karaoke’ .. basically they are reaching into the future early and teaching computers to write music. Create art. All of that stuff. AI is taking over everything else, so why not just let it take over creative institutions too right? (Written in sarcasm if you could not tell) .. Well, the tech they created ‘listened’ to about 100 hours of Christmas music … and we got this as a reward:

    [vimeo 192711856 w=640 h=360]

    Yes, this is very rudimentary. And it’s early in technology, there could be a good chance that eventually hit music will be created by computer technology. However, this song may be one of the weirdest pieces of created music ever.. and quite frankly the creepiest song about the season ever. I can picture it being used in some futuristic horror movie about what happens when robots take over our lives..

    ….since they are taking over our lives, I guess it won’t be long.

    x x x


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  • The story of Nathan on REDDIT that still creeps me out 

    The story of Nathan on REDDIT that still creeps me out 

    From congenitaldisease:

    In 2014, a man called Nathan posted on Reddit that somebody was messaging him from his girlfriend, Emily’s, Facebook account. However, Emily had been dead for two years. At first, he assumed it was a glitch but then Emily began to tag herself in photos. He even received a message which read: “ust [sic] let me walk.” This message disturbed Nathan the most due to the fact that Emily’s legs had been severed in the car accident which killed her. He soon turned Emily’s Facebook page into a memorial page hoping that the messages would stop but instead, they continued and even more alarming, he received a photograph of himself taken from behind the door. He claims nobody was in the house at the time.

    This may be the season for jolly elves.. but it’s cold and dark enough to include paranormal tales..

    This particular creepypasta always stuck with me.. the idea of the electronic world being inhabited by a ghost. And then….the ‘no one was on the house’ card played when a photo of the user ends up being sent..

    This one is meant to be read in the dark..

  • Time to Fly into Christmas!

    Time to Fly into Christmas!

    I am so proud of my son and his entire class.. today was the school Christmas concert.. there were actually moments when I watched them where (thankfully the lights were down) I was brought to some tears.. not weeping.. but just tears of pride and the obligatory ‘passage of time’ nostalgia that sets in during these important moments in life.

    So for the record books.. a song to bring light into your holiday season.. presented by children who have innocence and beauty. To them *(and me–more to come on that)* Santa is very, very real.

     

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-B93EKW6bU]