Ministry of Art

The Greatest Movie Never Made

2008-12-30T06:22:00.016-05:00

For almost two years I've written about arts and entertainment on this blog. I never write about myself, though I have strong opinions about everything. This post is an exception.

Concurrently with my daily job as a journalist I've created something that fits into both categories of arts and entertainment. I've written a screenplay for an American film called 'Kill Sweet Melody'.

It's a thriller about a young sect member talked into killing a girl said to be the devil.

Will Evans lives in a small and poorly furnished apartment in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is a member of the Principles of the Father church, which is run by Janet Bellman.

Janet tells Will about a 6-year-old girl who apparently possesses evil powers. She strongly believes that the girl is the devil, and the devil must be stopped at all costs.

She talks Will into murdering the child in order to prevent her from gaining powers and ultimately taking control over the town.

He tricks the girl's mother to let him into their apartment, but just as Will is about to cut the girl's throat, he's knocked out with a frying pan. The mother and daughter escapes.

Will sets after them, only to find himself struggling with his faith in God and the fact that he's sent out to kill a sweet little girl named Melody.

'Kill Sweet Melody' is still unproduced so don't expect to see it in a theatre soon.

However, the synopsis for the film is online, and if you want to see it produced, please join the page on Facebook. This way I can tell Hollywood that my film is the greatest movie yet to be produced.

Thank you for your support. I appreciate it.

Got a Valium too Many?

2008-11-06T17:48:00.015-05:00

I'm sitting in the dark theater. On the big screen a young lady stands quietly in the kitchen of a fairly large summer home. She's calm, a little nervous, but calm, but not the girl in the seat next to me.

She screams. LOUD!

I realize that a blurry figure with a bag over his head has appeared in the background.

The lady on the screen is actress Liv Tyler as Kristen McKay, and she doesn't know she's being watched. The movie is called 'The Strangers'.

I've seen quite many slasher movies over the time. All the classics, 'Friday the 13th', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'Saw'. Also a considerable amount of horror movies, 'The Omen', 'The Exorsist', 'The Ring', and so on. None of these films are as scary and suspenseful as the slasher film 'The Strangers'.

The story is simple and almost a cliché: A young couple, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt, return from a wedding to a remote summer home, and unexpectedly it knocks on the door. The outline of a young woman asks if Tamara is home. Wrong house, sorry. Then the nightmare begins.

James leaves the house to get cigarettes, and it knocks on the door again... and again... then on the windows and the roof.

Kristen tries to call for help, but the cell disappears and the land line ends mysteriously up in the burning fireplace. Someone is in the house, and Kristen doesn't know it.

The ending has been extensively critized by many, but it actually sums up the beginning and beautifully closes the drama about Kristen not wanting to marry James.

I've never heard so many screaming moviegoers before. Not because of the gore - there is hardly any blood in the movie - but because of director Bryan Bertino's perfectly orchestrated suspense.

The three masked intruders aren't much on the screen either. What scares the audience is that we don't know what's gonna happen, nor when something happens. Also the extreme close-ups and hand-held cameras add to the effect.

However, it is a low-budget movie, and it shows from time to time. The antagonists are human, but they silently and almost ghostly move around in the house and unlock doors from the outside.

The film has cost only $9m, and it features as few as eight actors with the dazzling Liv Tyler as the main character.

Nonetheless, 'The Strangers' may one day be recognized with some of the genre's best films along with 'Psycho', 'Halloween' and 'The Shining'.

If you have a Valium too many and like to challenge a few nights of sleep, don't miss 'The Strangers'.

Fit for Ear Consumption

2008-10-28T13:25:00.014-04:00

'Not Fit for Human Consumption' is the new album from Ant Neely. You may never have heard of him, he was all new to me too.

His music, however, may have crossed your ear. As part of his band, Subthunk, he's been heard on TV series such as 'Boston Legal', 'Samantha Who' and 'Six Feet Under'. 'Not Fit for Human Consumption' is the first album released under his own name, and it's a marvelous piece.

Listening to the album you get a sense of Neely's history in making music for film and TV. The twelve tracks could easily make up the soundtrack of a film.

The album itself is retrospective with straight lines back to Bingoboys from the early nineties, the Drum & Bass genre from the mid-nineties and Moby from the late nineties.

What's most significant about Neely is his use of groovy beats. Whether it's the electro pop song 'Lucky', the jazzy 'What's This Country Needs' or the fast title song 'Not Fit for Human Consumption', the groove is the foundation of which the rest of the tune is build on.

Not two tracks on the album are similar. A real vocal on one, a sample of a weather report on another, and a distorted guitar on a third.

Though a major part of the instruments and vocals are sampled, you can hear that Neely is an experienced instrumentalist, and this is exactly what makes this album stand out.

It's even better that you can download it for free from Neely's website. The album is released under a Creative Commons and if you like it, you can pay whatever you find reasonable. If not, just trash it.

Enjoy!

'Shake that Pig Right Out of Me'

2008-10-14T08:58:00.022-04:00

As with anyone else, I happen to stumble upon new and unheard music. This happened today when I listened to All Songs Considered on NPR.

Antony and the Johnsons was featured on the show, and though the band has been around for several years now, it was all new to me.

One song in particular caught my attention.

'Shake That Devil' is a strange melodic song with an avant-garde instrumental arrangement. Lead vocalist Antony Hegarty sings with his mellow, almost female voice a poetic and somewhat naive text, which consistently reminds me of an old girlfriend.

That pig took everything i had
That pig made me feel so bad
Shake that pig out of the bush, now lets give that pig a push

The song starts off slowly with Antony's vocal and a monotone guitar, which becomes more and more distorted as the song progresses. Halfway a simple but effectful drum beat comes in, and the lyrics repeats from the top. Finally, a saxophone bursts out and pokes to my hate against my ex-girlfriend.

It's fabulous!

To me, Antony and the Johnsons is the most innovative music act for a long time, and I can't wait to hear more. I've even tried to pigeonhole it as pop, jazz and avant-garde, but I can't fit it into either of those genres.

The piece 'Shake That Devil' is a track on the 'Another World' EP, and you might want to have a listen yourself. The song is featured on NPR.org, just scroll down a little and you'll find a link to the song introduced by host Bob Boilen.

Enjoy!

The Many Faces of Bond, James Bond

2008-10-06T20:45:00.000-04:00

October 31, the 22nd movie about James Bond 'Quantum of Solace' opens in theaters around the globe. Daniel Craig is once again sharp dressed as the famous British spy with the codename Agent 007.

EON Productions, the production company behind most of the Bond movies, counts six actors since 'Dr. No' from 1962 in the role of James Bond beginning with Sean Connery, but the real number of actors playing the agent in movie adaptations is a little higher.

Barry Nelson was the first to play Bond, though the character's name was a little different, Jimmy Bond. In 1954, he starred in a one-hour episode of the 'Climax!' series on CBS. The episode was also the first adaptation of 'Casino Royal'. This was the only time, Barry Nelson, played the British agent.

In 1962, EON Productions released 'Dr. No' starring Sean Connery. Connery is often credited as the original James Bond and perhaps it's true. He was at least the first Bond in a feature film. Connery returned as the agent six times including the non-EON film 'Never Say Never Again'.

David Niven played Bond in the second adaptation of 'Casino Royal'. Once again it wasn't an EON film, though it is a feature. Unlike the rest, this film presented a more caricatured version of the agent. This film also features other famous actors like Orson Welles as Le Chiffre, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen.

Along came George Lazenby in 1969, the only EON actor to play James Bond only once. Lazenby starred in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'. He was to play the agent in seven films, but he ultimately refused the contract. Two years after, Sean Connery returned as Bond in 'Diamonds are Forever'.

Roger Moore took over the role in 'Live and Let Die' from 1973. He starred in seven films. Sean Connery also starred in seven Bond movies, but only six of them were EON films. Counted in years, Moore was also the agent for the longest period of time ending with 'A View to a Kill' from 1985.

Timothy Dalton succeeded Roger Moore in 1987. He only played James Bond in two films 'The Living Daylights' and 'License to Kill' from 1989. 'License to Kill' is the Bond movie to do worst in the Box Office including the two non-EON features 'Casino Royal' and 'Never Say Never Again'.

After the two lean Timothy Dalton films, Pierce Brosnan gave James Bond a comeback with 'GoldenEye' from 1995. In 2002, Brosnan played Bond for the last time. He looked aged, and it was obvious he had to leave the role to a younger actor. Brosnan is often mentioned as the second best Bond after Sean Connery.

Daniel Craig debuted in the third adaptation of 'Casino Royal' from 2006. Craig was the first Bond actor with blond hair. Also, he's the first Bond on the EON payroll not to introduce himself as 'Bond, James Bond'. Not to mention the first not to order his Martini 'shaken, not stirred'.

The list also includes a number of actors in radio plays and cartoons, but these are the eight to play the British spy. My two favorites are Connery and Brosnan. Which one is your favorite?

Science Rocks!

2008-10-04T16:39:00.011-04:00

I follow several award shows. The Grammys, the Oscars and the Darwin Awards to name a few, but only one show has got my full attention: The Ig Nobel Prize.

The Ig Nobel Prize is given to scientists who have achieved something extraordinary FUNNY, organized by the scientific magazine, Annals of Improbable Research.

A couple of years ago, two Swedish researchers won a prize for having discovered that herrings apparently communicate by farting.

Though it sounds like a ridiculous award for ridiculous research, scientists are awarded for first making people laugh, then think. It's called improbable research.

Actually, the two Swedish researchers were trying to find out whether Soviet submarines had infiltrated Swedish waters during the cold war. Instead they discovered this disgusting behavior among herrings.

On October 3, 2008, the 18th Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place at Harvard University's Sanders Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ten winners were announced, and here's the four I found the most interesting:

The Biology Prize went to three French scientists for discovering that the fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than the fleas that live on a cat.

The Medicine Prize went to an American scientist for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine.

The Economics Prize went to two American researchers for discovering that a professional lap dancer's ovulatory cycle affects her tip earnings.

The Chemistry Prize went to two similar projects. An American scientist won the prize for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and three Taiwanese scientists won for discovering that it's NOT.

You see, science can be both funny and interesting. Until next year, have fun with past 18 years of Ig Nobel Prize winners.

The Naked Men are Back

2008-10-03T18:32:00.001-04:00

The JBS controversy has come to an end. Apparently, the Danish manufacturer of men's underwear, JBS, has raised the white flag (or some other piece of white cloth) and has gone back to show naked men on its website.

The contentious campaign stated that "men don't want to look at naked men" and showed women dressed in shorts; a few of them even put their nose in the underwear.

Now, it's all history, but worth being remembered here on this blog.

I think it's only fair with a grand finale for those who have followed the controversy with either disgust or with a hand down the crotch. The following ads are the remaining two in a series of 13.

Though JBS has gone back to conventional advertising of men's underwear, men still don't want to look at naked men!

Rugby player:

Shaving girl:

Is 'Kenneth Way' Real?

2008-10-02T14:52:00.017-04:00

I usually don't pay much attention to jokes sent to me on email. Most of the time, people are just forwarding old cracks, and I rarely amuse myself dragging tons of spam and bulk emails to my computer's waste bin.

However, one such email caught my attention today: A scan of an alleged job application submitted to the American chain of department stores, Wal-Mart. The applicant is the 75-year-old Kenneth Way from California, but is he real?

His application is quite something, but not something that usually would pay off. See for yourself (click on the image to see a larger and more readable version):

I googled Kenneth Way, and several blog posts reproducing the same email appeared in the search results. Some of them are posted back in January 2007, making the joke close to two years old.

Nothing about a real 'Kenneth Way'. Though a similar job application submitted to McDonald's by a 'Greg Bulmash' turned up.

So I snoped it instead and got the expected answer:

Kenneth Way is a hoax, but Greg Bulmash is real.

The original 'job application' is dated April 10, 1997 and is a humorous reaction to Greg's own unsuccessful job hunt 11 years ago.

Now, the joke is not even funny anymore. Why? Because it's not a real job application.

What made it funny the first time was the illusion that a gnarly old man from California had applied for a job at Wal-Mart with those ridiculous answers, and got it!

I've stopped laughing, and the worst part is that I once again had to drag yet another unfunny email joke to the waste bin.

Metallica doesn't Like Bloggers...

2008-06-13T01:52:00.020-04:00

...and now they hate me too.

Not so many days ago, a music enthusiast was invited to listen to the upcoming album from Metallica. When he got home, he posted a review of the album on The Quietus - he shouldn't have.

Apparently, Metallica got pissed off and forced him to wipe it off the Internet. So, he did and replaced the review with this message.

It really seems that after Metallica killed Napster, they believe they're the masters of the Internet.

Well, a few days later, Metallica apologized for censoring the blogger. Here's their reaction to the censorship:

WHY?!!!

Those former heavy metal (now scrap metal) dudes are really screwed up, but in the end, this is probably the result of years of alcohol and drug abuse.

If it wasn't for their collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, I would reconsider buying the album when it's released in September 2008.

Here's my advice to Lars Ulrich and company: Shut the f*ck up and record us some music! As with other bands, we might not buy your shit if you keep pissing on your fans.

I'm ashamed of being from the country as Ulrich.

Goodbye, Readers

2008-05-30T04:00:00.015-04:00

100 reporters get a pink slip from Washington Post these days.

The paper is one of the most respected in USA, and it has received several Pulitzers over the years. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of Washington Post's reporters decades ago, unearthed the entire Watergade scandal that lead to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.

However, even the most legendary newspapers sometimes have to let its employees go. This is what's going on at Washington Post.

And how do a reporter say the perfect goodbye to his readers? Linton Weeks knew how.

In his last article 'Updike Reads The Lines in American Art' he simply wrote a coded message. Take a look here.

Let me help you. Read the first uppercase letter in each paragraph.

A reader commented on the article: ...and goodbye to you, Linton.

Damn Ugly Furniture

2008-05-02T02:30:00.019-04:00

Krzysztof Petryk from Poland has just won €5,000 to furnish his home, and the money will be well spent. Petryk is the owner of the world's most ugly furniture, you see.

Danish furniture brand BoConcept recently ran an online competition to name the World's Ugliest Furniture.

Many suggestions came up, including Petryk's ugly couch which won first prize:

Visitors voted for their favorite ugly piece of furniture, and if I had known earlier, I would have voted for this stool:

All the suggestions are still available at the competition website. Warning: The website contains really bad taste in furniture!

I Met Norman Bates' Mom Today

2008-04-19T15:37:00.025-04:00

I've been around Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" before. It's one of my favorites and one of the greatest films ever made.

Stay away from the sequels and the 1998 remake. Only the original from 1960 counts.

If you recall from the film, villain Norman Bates impersonates his mother when he's schizophrenic.

He has a passion for preserving and stuffing birds. Later in the movie, we learn that he also preserved and stuffed his dead mother.

I met Mrs. Bates today.

Or, I met some of her relatives(!) on a museum in Copenhagen, at the "Bodies" exhibition.

The exhibition is very talked about in Denmark these days, because real human bodies are on display. The bodies and body parts are preserved by replacing all body fluids with a speciel mixture of silicone and rubber.

The dead men aren't just corpses. In all its morbidity, they are skinned and to some extend dissected. Stripped to the bones, so to speak.

It sounds horific but it's really not.

The exhibition shows the human body in a beautiful and teaching way. I learned about muscles, veins, brain, heart and lungs today.

The exhibition itself runs in Copenhagen, Denmark until December 2008. If you're around, you should enrich your life by seeing it and experience the human body from the inside and in.

He actually looks rather happy. Doesn't he?

The hunter: He'll skin the animal afterwards.

Lonely Planet, a Big Fat Lie

2008-04-13T05:02:00.017-04:00

Imagine you're standing in the middle of Colombia's capital, Bogotá. You're kinda lost and look up Bogotá in your Lonely Planet travel guide.

There's only one problem: The book is a big fat lie based on information from a chick the author was dating.

At least that's what Thomas Kohnstamm - one of the many Lonely Planet authors - claims in a new book, Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?

Kohnstamm has contributed to more than a dozen books for Lonely Planet, mainly about Latin America, but he never went there.

Apparently, Lonely Planet didn't pay him enough to go to Colombia. So, he stayed home in San Francisco and made the whole thing up.

Think about it for a while; if we cannot believe what he wrote in the Lonely Planet books, how can we believe what he writes in Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?

Kohnstamm has sold his integrity as a writer, and now he can't get it back.

Don't waste your money on a liar. Spend it on a more reliable book instead.

Keep Your Dirty Hands Off of Her!

2008-04-10T03:38:00.009-04:00

When he doesn't mull about switching off the Internet or amuses himself with vulgar arts, sir Elton John hobnobs with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Yesterday, he played a gig at the Radio City Music Hall in New York to raise money for the Clinton campaign. He did, and Clinton earned $2.5M.

Sadly enough, he miscredited the American people, acusing them for choosing Barack Obama over Clinton because of misogynistic attitudes.

The truth is that Hillary Clinton is breathing down Obama's neck.

The fact that she's a woman has nothing to do with Obama's lead. If Obama were behind, would it then be due to racist attitudes among the Americans? No!

Obama and Clinton are two equal candidates, and they've beaten the other Democratic candidates who weren't neither black or women.

Just so you know it, Elton John! This is the 21st Century, even in America.

Clinton herself made it very clear after the gig using a quote from an ancient Elton John song:

"What I want you to know is I'm still standing, and I believe this country is worth fighting for."

Get Me My Showgram Back

2008-04-07T06:00:00.016-04:00

Until recently I listened to the Rocky Allen Showgram everyday on 95.5 WPLJ. All of sudden it was gone without a trace or any notice on the PLJ website.

First I thought Rocky Allen was on vacation, but today I realized that he was fired and replaced by Race Taylor.

Not that I have anything against Taylor, I just like Rocky Allen and his showgram friends better.

I'm wondering when the Showgram will get back on air, and of course on which radio station. Hopefully it will happen soon.

Now I gonna take a shower. I feel dirty and unsatisfied.

More Women in Men's Underwear

2008-02-21T16:12:00.013-05:00

Writing about women in men's underwear is becoming trivial. I do, however, enjoy it though it seems rather twisted.

I have posted several of those infamous adverts from JBS, including the four forbidden pictures, which started the controversy.

So this post is just my next hit in the battle for my rights to drool over women dealing with shorts, panties and whatever a man wears underneath his clothes.

Some of the ads in my blog posts are available as wallpapers at the JBS website. I have 11 of them in size 1280 x 1024. Drop me an email if you're interested in any of them.

The Loudspeaker Girl:

The Bodybuilder:

The Biker:

Women Sniffing Shorts is Sexism

2008-02-21T15:12:00.016-05:00

According to this Danish news article, the Danish consumer ombudsman has ruled that four adverts for men's underwear are derogatory to women.

Apparently, some pissed off feminist nurses didn't like the ads from JBS, because a half-naked nurse holds a pair of shorts up to her nose.

I wrote about the controversy back in October 2007, but just recently came the Danish ombudsman to a conclusion.

JBS quickly removed the much-criticized ads from its website, though my original blog post about the controversy still shows the forbidden pictures.

The ads are actually aesthetically beautiful, and I believe that I am the target of those ads, not some highly sensitive dinosaur nurses.

The truth is that no-one would give a damn if it was a half-naked man sniffing thongs.

This was also the reason I posted the pictures in the first place. Who are they to decide how a clothing manufacturer may tempt me to buy its products? I wear another brand anyway.

The campaign slogan says it all: 'Men don't want to look at naked men.'

Me neither. So, here's another one of those JBS ads with naked women in shorts along with a TV commercial below:

Don't forget to read and watch the 'JBS Controversy, Chapter 2'.

Are You Proud Now, Doctor?

2008-02-19T18:40:00.015-05:00

Some people age with grace. Others don't. Or is it just surgery gone wrong?

I've collected a few pictures of celebrities of whom God wasn't the creator - the plastic surgeon was, and it's more than just a bad hair day. I'm afraid it's discouraging news. These people fought against age... and lost.

The first one is a classic. Rumors said his nose fell of. He claimed himself - in an interview back in the 1990's - that he had only been under the knife twice.

Michael Jackson was once a handsome young man, but I guess his surgeon just screw up:

Back in the 1960's, Cher was a real hottie. Damn, she was beautiful. As time went by she lost her charm, bit by bit.

Now she looks like a sunburned Madame Tussauds figure:

Dolly Parton, the queen of country music, known for her enormous... singing talent.

She can keep some of her artificial body hoisted in something from Victoria's Secret. But not all:

This last one might be the biggest freak show of them all. A genuine spitting image. I can't seem to figure out whether it is surgery gone wrong, or if the surgeon is an artist himself.

The person on the picture is British singer Pete Burns. Once a big star in the 1980's band, Dead or Alive. Believe it or not, Pete Burns is a man:

Muhammad Cartoons in Print Again

2008-02-13T02:35:00.023-05:00

Two years have past since 12 Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammad set the Middle East on fire.

In the fall of 2005, the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, asked some Danish cartoonists whether they would draw the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.

The reason behind the request was that a Danish writer had written a children's book about the Qur'an and Muhammad and wanted it illustrated with drawings related to Islam.

No-one would make the illustrations for the book and having their name under it. Drawing Muhammad is considered an outrage to Muslims, you see.

So, the Danish newspaper took the shot instead, and it received 12 caricatures of Muhammad and decided to print them.

A few months later, Hell broke lose. A diplomacy crisis between several Islamic countries and Denmark began. Muslims all over the world condemned Denmark, some with violence. Pictures of the primeminister and Danish flags were burned in the streets of the Middle East. Two Danish embassies were burned to the ground.

Two years have past, and now the crisis seem to burst into flames again.

Three assumed terrorists were arrested yesterday. They are suspected to plan a murder plot against one of the cartoonists.

Today, several Danish newspapers reprint the Muhammad cartoons, accordingly in sympathy with the life-threatened cartoonist.

This is an unnecessary provocative act now as it was back in 2005. The excuse for printing the cartoons are the same as back then: Freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech means the right to speak what's on your mind, whenever you like and wherever you want. But with rights comes duty. The duty to shut up.

It seems that the Danish newspapers reprint the cartoons just because they can.

When Jyllands-Posten in 2005 wanted to probe whether cartoonists would draw Muhammad and put their name under it, it received 12 caricatures. Point proven, just like that. The newspaper didn't have to print the cartoons subsequently.

Muslims all over the world were unnecessarily offended by the release of the cartoons.

Remember, with freedom of speech comes the duty to shut up. You don't yell asshole at your neighbor just because you can - unless you want to make enemy with him.

Printing the cartoons again - as several Danish newspapers do today - is plain stupidity. Three assumed terrorists got arrested, and in return, Danish newspapers yell asshole at the entire world community of 1.8 billion Muslims.

Does it help the cartoonist whose life is threatened? No. Does it bring us closer to our Islamic brothers and sisters? No.

Does it do any good at all? Yes, it sells newspapers!

Freedom of speech is the right to say what's on your mind, but there are times when it is more appropriate to shut up. This is one of those moments.

Wolfe Eating Wolf

2008-02-12T03:15:00.003-05:00

It was supposed to be so easy for a Canadian literary author to pick a suitable pen name.

Inger Wolfe. It doesn't sound Canadian at all, does it? Who could possibly have taken such a strange name already?

At first, New York writer Sarah Weinman deciced to uncover the anonymous Canadian crime writer. Instead she found another writer with a close name resemblance, Inger Wolf.

Inger Wolf without the e is a Danish writer with a couple of published novels, including two crime novels. In fact, the name Inger is a common Danish name. According to Statistics Denmark, close to 28,000 Danes are named Inger. Her last name Wolf is of German decent.

So, we have two crime writers accidently sharing almost the same name.

Sarah Weinman and the real Inger Wolf received an email from the pseudonymous writer with a fair solution to differentiate the two writers' name.

The fake Inger Wolfe now includes Ash as a middle name.

Mystery solved, except that we still don't know the real name of Inger Ash Wolfe.

Maybe I'm Crazy

2008-02-10T15:08:00.004-05:00

A couple of years have past since Gnarls Barkley conquered the charts with that crazy tune, 'Crazy'. Last year, the song was close to take a Grammy, but Gnarls Barkley got beaten by three country Chicks.

To be honest, I really like 'Crazy'. It's original both in musical concept and composition. The Gnarls Barkley version is easy to screw up and hard to improve, though some have tried to make a decent cover version.

The truth is that it took a cover version of a cover version before 'Crazy' really gave me chills.

Nelly Furtado made an unplugged cover of 'Crazy'. That version inspired a Danish X Factor contestant, who gave it a touch of country music - not unlike how the Dixie Chicks would have done it.

Her name is Lisa Maria Birkekvist and though she was close to being voted off X Factor, she really knocked me out with her performance. She began out of pitch, but she quickly gained control over her voice. Take a look:

Can a Structure be Copyrighted?

2008-02-04T02:43:00.002-05:00

Coming from a nation of islands connected by dozens of bridges, I love those geographical artifacts. Suspension bridges in particular.

A bridge is a marvellous structure beyond anything else. A floating piece of road held up by wires and usually two pylons.

Bridges connect people and, if they're made out of love, they can be beautiful pieces of art. Think of the Golden Gate Bridge or the Brooklyn Bridge:

In Denmark, a dispute over a structural design is on the rise. Last year, the Danish architect Dissing+Weitling designed a number of bridges for Qatar. Instead of regular pillars, the pylons were replaced by a large circle:

Now, a Danish student at the Aarhus School of Architecture has won a competition with a similar design:

The student happened to be an intern at Dissing+Weitling and the architect is accusing the student of plagiarism. That might hold true, but can you claim copyright of a structural design?

I hope not. Otherwise the industrialized countries wouldn't have been where they are today. Also, I would love to see more suspension bridges with this new and different design.

The circle is a symbol of infinity, so don't let it end here.

Goodbye, Stupid!

2008-01-13T04:04:00.002-05:00

One of the things I look forward to each year is the unveiling of the Darwin Awards. The Darwin Awards is given to people who improve the human gene pool by removing themselves from it.

In other words, a person who accidentally kills himself in the process of doing something incredibly stupid is up for an award.

If the person survives, he's still in the gene pool and cannot be nominated for a Darwin Award. This also goes for people who have kids.

The 2007 Darwin Awards have just been unveiled and apparently, some humans still don't deserve to be in the gene pool nor to pass on their genes to the next generation.

One winner is actually a naked couple found dead on a road. The couple's clothes were found on top of a pyramid shaped roof, and the police suggested they have had sex and accidentally slided off the roof.

Another winner is an alcoholic from Texas who liked to have his favorite beverage up his butt. He died after the consumption of three liters sherry through the wrong orifice.

Then there were two teens smoking weed on top of a mostly-empty oil tank... Guess what happened!

The concept of the Darwin Awards has been circulating on Usenet and the Internet since 1985. It is named after Charles Darwin, the father of the evolution theory.

All I Want for Christmas...

2007-12-05T05:18:00.003-05:00

Christmas is here and as always I had to come up with a wish list for family and friends.

The problem is that I usually buy the things I need, when I need them. That leaves me with nothing but a blank sheet as my wish list.

So I figured, why not wish for something I don't need? Here are three unnecessary things I want for Christmas:

1. iPhree
iPhree is a headset, liturally, for the iPhone. I do not yet have an iPhone, but that helmet is so cool, I might be able to mount my SonyEricsson onto it.

2. LED Faucet Lights
This thing is really indispensable. Screw on your faucet and turn on the water. It glows blue when the water is cold, and red when it's hot.

3. Luxeed Color Changing LED Keyboard
I spend a lot of time behind my computer and I rarely go dancing. So, when I can't come to the disco, the disco must come to me. The keyboard flashes in various patterns and colors. You supply the music yourself.

Of course I could always use some new underwear. In the end, I'm a modest man.

How to Hide not being Well-endowed

2007-11-09T06:00:00.002-05:00

I've been told that Japanese men are not as hung as... well, other men.

Whether it is true or not, Dutch designer Meike van Schijndel have made a design that makes any penis look tiny, the "Kisses Urinal":

The "Kisses Urinal" is on display at Tokyo Designer's Week 2007 in Japan.

Photograph not Indecent, the Owner Might be

2007-10-27T09:25:00.003-04:00

Elton John's much debated photograph of two under-age girls dancing is decent after all. One of the girls is naked and is showing off her private parts.

I rarely comment on visual art without showing what it's all about. This time I do. I do not like the photograph by Nan Goldin called "Klara And Edda Belly-Dancing".

However, I will link to it, and you can view it if you please. Another one in higher resolution can be seen here.

The debate was about whether the photograph was considered "child porn" or art. After the police confiscated the photograph, British prosecutors have spoken: The picture is not indecent. But which non-pedophile person would own such thing?

Elton John would.

The photograph may be decent enough, but the owner is certainly an old pig. Shame on you, Elton!

Gorbachev on the Litvinenko Murder

2007-10-25T03:13:00.003-04:00

The Soviet Union's last president Mikhail Gorbachev visited a Danish talkshow last night. Among other things, he talked about his peculiar appearance in a Louis Vuitton ad.

The strange thing about this ad is not that the ex-president is promoting a fashion bag. Neither that he is driving along the Berlin wall. It is the content of the bag:

Take a closer look at the frontpage of the booklet in the bag:

The text is Russian and translates: "Murder of Litvinenko. Treason for $7000."

Alexander Litvinenko, a former lieutenant-colonel in a Russian intelligence agency, was poisened with polonium-210 and died three weeks later in November 2006. Litvinenko was investigating the murder of a famous Russian journalist, and he believed - prior to his death - that the Russian government was behind his poisoning.

The talkshow host asked Gorbachev what the text of the book in the picture meant, but his answer wasn't clear. He just repeated that Litvinenko was dead, and the British and Russian authorities should coorporate and get to the bottom of this murder case.

The myths about the Litvinenko killing are many, and apparently Gorbachev couldn't or wouldn't contribute with any further speculations, other than his own participation in the Vuitton ad.

Why would Gorbachev appear in a picture with a book saying "Murder of Litvinenko. Treason for $7000?"

Click here to see the TV show featuring Mikhail Gorbachev.

JBS Controversy, Chapter 2

2007-10-12T14:38:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I wrote about some pissed off feminists who had luck in censoring an advert campaign for men's underwear.

The complaining women were mainly nurses, and they felt offended by pictures of half-naked women sniffing men's undies.

The Danish company behind the underwear, JBS, eventually pulled the pictures off its website.

Today, three new pictures of half-naked women wearing shorts appeared. Still, aesthetic beautiful pictures, and still an untraditional ad campaign for men's underwear.

I personally like the restroom picture the most. But are these new pictures less controversial than the excised ones? What do you think?

The restroom:

The chef:

The couch:

Nurses Sniff Men's Underwear Controversy

2007-10-11T17:13:00.003-04:00

The nurse's union in Denmark have had luck in stopping an ad campaign for men's underwear. Real nurses does not like half-naked fakes.

JBS have created men's underwear for decades, and lately the Danish company have pictured beautiful ladies wearing shorts in the adverts.

But the recent campaign on JBS's website couldn't stand a crowd of mad feminists. The pictures of a half-naked nurse, maid, secretary and a nun sniffing a man's shorts will be pulled off the web (if not already).

The angry women felt that the fake nurse in the advert damaged the image of their profession. I do, however, claim that at least the male patients would recover quicker with nurses like her in the JBS ad.

Unfortunately, the feminists had luck in censoring the pictures on JBS's website.

It really kills an interesting debate that we can't see what we're discussing. So I've re-published the four ads from jbs.dk in the bottom of this post.

What do you think about of the pictures? And why is a male stripper in a police uniform not as controversial as a sexy lady in a nurse costume?

The nurse:

The maid:

The secretary:

The nun:

Monument Pays Tribute to Ugly Betty

2007-09-07T06:18:00.004-04:00

Nah, not really. However, the World Association of Ugly People has decided to erect a monument for ugly people in the Italian town of Piobbico, Ananova reports.

The monument will be unveiled on September 9, and supposedly the monument will depict an unknown person looking at their own reflection in the mirror.

"The motto of our association is that a person is what he is and not what he looks like", Telesforo Lacobelli, president of the World Association of Ugly People, says.

Though Ugly Betty lives up to her nickname, the intention of the monument is not pay tribute to movie stars or dashing war heroes, but to a person who is beautiful on the inside.

The Chicks Juggling with Letters

2007-08-31T14:15:00.001-04:00

In the aftermath of George Bush being dixie-chicked a few years back, the Chicks wasn't even nominated for an ACM Award this year. That doesn't mean they can't win a CMA Award. Confused?

ACM stands for Academy of Country Music, while CMA is the Country Music Association. This year, the Dixie Chicks are nominated Vocal Group of the Year at the 41st Annual CMA Awards on November 7.

Even though the Academy of Country Music still considers the Dixie Chicks as enemies, the girls sweeped the Grammy awards for as many as five awards with their 2006 album release, Taking the Long Way.

Other favorite artists of mine has received nominations for a CMA Award 2007. Rascal Flatts is nominated in the Entertainer of the Year and Vocal Group of the Year categories, while Keith Urban is up for three awards: Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year.

Pig Knocks Bergeron's Groin

2007-08-30T16:45:00.003-04:00

Being a child of the seventies and eighties, I sometimes miss watching The Muppet Show.

I loved Miss Piggy's perfect knockouts when jealousy over Kermit the Frog came over her. Fozzie the Bear's helplessly unfunny jokes always made me laugh. But my favorite Muppet has always been Animal, the meanest drummer on Earth with a vocabulary like a boxer. Those were the days of sitcoms on TV, until tonight.

Every day after dinner I watch America's Funniest Home Videos (AFV) with my daughter. She's just 15 months old, but she loves home videos featuring animals. As we all know, videos with babies and cute animals are the all time favorites on the show.

American TV shows are always a few months late on Danish TV, AFV a little more. So much were the surprise of seeing the Muppets guest Tom Bergeron on the 100,000 dollar show from 2005. When Kermit and Piggy suddenly showed up on my screen, I turned my daughter's age again.

Everything were the same as the good old days of The Muppet Show. Piggy beat the crap out of Kermit, Statler and Waldorf dissed the show and the audience, and Animal presented a series of home videos with... animals.

Even Miss Piggy showed us her own home video, humiliating herself in hope of winning the 100,000 dollars. When she realized guests cannot participate in the competition, she presented Bergeron with a choice: Head or gut? Incidentally she hit his groin.

Actually, this episode of AFV resembled an episode of The Muppet Show, which could have had Tom Bergeron as the very special guest.

I do miss my childhood in front of my parents' black and white TV. Thank you, Tom Bergeron, for an unforgettable show tonight.

Remember to Wear Sunscreen?

2007-08-22T16:49:00.005-04:00

This year is the 10 year anniversary of columnist Mary Schmich's article "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" also known as "Wear Sunscreen".

Maybe you're too young to remember it, or maybe you do remember it now that I've mentioned it.

The article was first published in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997. Mary Schmich wrote it as an inner graduation speaker dying to get out. Think of it as the graduation speech you never got the chance to hear.

The first lines of the speech is legendary:

"If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience."

The article traveled around the Internet, posted in newsgroups, published on websites and exchanged by email.

One day the Australian movie director Baz Luhrmann got hold of it and put a simple beat underneath the speech, in this case read by actor Lee Perry. In 1999, "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" climbed the charts all over the world.

Now it's time to look back. Ten years have passed. Did you listen to the advice from "Wear Sunscreen"? Read it again.

Take your time, read every word carefully and think for a moment.

At least one advice is still standing. Whatever you choose to do - now or in the future, remember to wear sunscreen.

USA and Denmark Exchange Tourist Attractions

2007-08-15T16:46:00.002-04:00

It's like this: Why can they have Elvis' mansion and we can't? If we get Graceland, they can have Tivoli Gardens.

This was probably not the discussion. However, Tivoli is looking at the possibility of placing a copy of the Danish amusement park on Coney Island, New York, report several Danish news sources.

Tivoli has until recently been involved in a similar copy outside Osaka, Japan, only with little success.

At the same time, a dedicated Elvis fan wants to build an exact copy of Graceland in the Danish town, Randers.

The town already has an Elvis Museum, but apparently this isn't enough for Henrik Knudsen, the Elvis fan. He even convinced Mayor Henning Jensen Nyhuus to support his project of rebuilding Graceland as far away from Memphis, Tennessee as you can get.

Nothing is certain yet.

Maybe Tivoli drops the Coney Island adventure, and maybe European Elvis fans still have to travel overseas to praise the king of rock'n'roll, instead of heading North in the direction of Denmark. We'll see.

Shut Down That Goddamn Internet!

2007-08-06T13:11:00.003-04:00

Last week some dork suggested to shut down the Internet. His name is sir Elton John, and for those who only knows him for making incessant complaints, he once was a splendid pop singer and composer.

But since he sold his soul to the queen of England, his talent for climbing the charts has slowly vanished. In 1997 he rewrote his tribute song to Marilyn Monroe to pay tribute to the deceased Princess Diana instead.

Now Elton John wants to shut down the Internet, apparently because it destroys good music. Does he think that there is an on/off button he can switch? No, mister. It's not that simple.

He is very concerned about good music, I gotta give him that. A few years ago, he named Madonna's "Die Another Day" the worst Bond tune of all time, saying the film producers should have chosen Shirley Bassey - or himself - to write the Bond theme song.

It seems that this ex-superstar is living in another world. He's just bitching, blaming anything but his lack of talent that he's dropping from the charts.

Elton John, wake up! It's a new millenium.

Haunted Forest: Bad Ratings, Good Scare

2007-07-31T17:39:00.003-04:00

Does a movie's bad ratings scare you? Well, it does to me though I watch some badly rated movies anyway. "Haunted Forest" got a 4.0 score on IMDB and I didn't really want to waste money on watching this movie. The experience did turn out completely unexpected.

If you like the americanized versions of Asian horror movies like "The Grudge", "Dark Water" and "The Ring", you might also like Mauro Borrelli's "Haunted Forest".

Sean is an Indian decendent set to investigate a legend his grandfather wrote down in an old journal.

The legend goes that a medicine man and his beloved Satinka were attacked by three cowboys in the woods. The medicine man was shot and the girl was mutilated before the three men sat the forest on fire. Satinka and her dying medicine man found shelter from the fire in an old tree which eventually absorbed Satinka's soul.

Now, the ghost of Satinka takes revenge on everyone visiting the forest, hunting and dragging them down under the old tree to die. Sean's and his two friends, along with two girls they incidentally meet in the forest, disappear mysteriously one by one.

The ghost of Satinka shows up when you least expect it, and she is scary as hell. I jumped my chair several times.

Admittedly, the story isn't highly intellectual nor is it innovative. It is, however, a strong ghost story closely connected to the Japanese equivalents. "Haunted Forest" does have a story after all, unlike the seventies and eighties' slasher films where teenagers are being killed for no particular reason.

So, for all that it's worth, don't get scared of the bad ratings. "Haunted Forest" is an alright horror movie.

Artists Humiliate Dictators

2007-07-24T07:22:00.003-04:00

Myanmar's dictator, General Than Shwe, is a killer. Would you expect that to be written in a state-controlled Burmese paper? Well, it did thanks to Surrend, a group of Danish artists, report several Danish news sources.

The group placed an ad with an encoded message in Myanmar Times.

The ad pictures a palm tree under the sun saying: "Tourists from Scandinavia":

Though it may look innocent at the first glance, a hidden message is just waiting to be decoded: "The Board of Icelandic Travel Agencies Ewhsnahtrellik...".

Take a closer look at the last word and read it right to left. That's right. It spells "Killer Than Shwe".

It isn't the first time Surrend humiliates a head of state in a state-run newspaper. Last year, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was in the firing line. The artists placed an ad in Teheran Times saying "SWINE" under a photograph of the president:

To decode the message, read the first letter on each line from top to bottom.

Hold Back Your Kisses

2007-07-23T17:43:00.002-04:00

Ever thought of kissing Mona Lisa? Don't! That is stupendously stupid unless you are incredibly rich. Recently, a kissing sick woman gave a two million dollar painting a wet smacker. She might wanna regret that.

Sam Rindy, a French artist, is being charged with criminal damage after her lipstick smudged lips met the canvas of a Cy Twombly painting at the Collection Lambert museum in the city of Avignon, France.

Apparently she was so overwhelmed by the valuable painting that she had to kiss it.

"I left a kiss. A red stain remained on the canvas... This red stain is testimony to this moment, to the power of art," she said to a French newspaper.

She was arrested by the French police on her way out of the museum.

Is Bacharach Classical? Is Star Wars?

2007-07-13T02:38:00.004-04:00

These days, wise men in Denmark argues about whether the Star Wars film score and Burt Bacharach is classical music. The conservative Minister of Cultural Affairs in Denmark has been asked for advise, the Danish news site Politiken.dk reports.

The debate started when a complainant summoned DR (the equivalent to NPR) to the Danish radio authorities for not playing enough classical music.

DR broadcasts four different radio stations and one of them is obliged to play at least 62 per cent of classical music.

So they didn't, the complainant believed and DR had to report its playlists to the radio authorities. It seemed that DR had played a lot of both Burt Bacharach and John William's music from the Star Wars movies.

The radio authorities were puzzled and asked scholars at Musicology at the University of Copenhagen for advise. They approved Bacharach and Star Wars as classical, but that wasn't good enough for the editor at Politiken.dk.

He believes classical music is "composition music" like Bach, and the Star Wars film score and pop artist Burt Bacharach is not.

While we await the answer from the Minister of Cultural Affairs, who is a former business man, others may continue the debate about classical music.

If Burt Bacharach is considered classical music, Metallica's recordings with the San Francisco Symphony as well as The Beatles' album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" would also be categorized as classical.

I agree with the editor at Politiken.dk. Pop, rock and rap artists may perform with a symphonic orchestra, but it is still just pop, rock and rap music.

Easy Games, Serious Business

2007-07-09T18:45:00.000-04:00

Easy computer games for adult women are becoming serious business, claims young scientist. The computer industry is moving its focus to the so-called "Casual Games". Casual Games are online games, which are easily accessible, fun to play and aren't time-consuming.

"The games are not to be seen as simple pastime though as a wish to challenge oneself", Jesper Juul explains in a Danish press release. He's an assistant professor in video game theory and design at the IT University of Copenhagen.

Casual Games are relaxing computer games to be played in a short amount of time, unlike well-known strategy games and first-person shooters which can take days to play.

To me it sounds like the good old days with Commodore 64 and Amiga 500. It really takes us back to what computer games originally was about. Shooting some monsters or disarm highly charged bombs and try to survive with three "lives" for as long as possible (usually not that long).

So is Casual Games a new idea, or is it just arcade games in the 21st century?

What really matters is the fact that the target audience is adult women, according to Jesper Juul. This means that gamers aren't just teenage boys with glasses and pimples.

It also means that kids and childish fathers can't have their game consoles for themselves anymore.

Hopefully mom will let us play with her once in a while.

Grandpa's Still Funkin' Good

2007-07-07T19:21:00.002-04:00

When the mothership landed in Copenhagen this Friday, I expected a granddaddy's blues from an old man and his similar old crew of musicians.

What I got was two hours of one-liners and funky rhythms. George Clinton & The P-Funk All Stars still knows how to entertain a small crowd of people from three generations.

The 67-year-old George Clinton has decades of funk behind him, and he might be an old man with a gray beard and artificial red hair, but he still plays it cool with his so-called P-Funk. The old man's voice is a bit rusty, but then again... It has always been like that. Clinton growls out his oneliners to a heavy beat of dragging drums and slapping bass.

The crowd got a series of funky songs from his long career and a long set of jam and freestyle from Clinton's all star band. 14 musicians, singers and rappers were on stage. One was wearing nothing but a diaper, others were wearing pimp costumes in any color, Blackbyrd McKnight had his guitar and Clinton's granddaugther rapped naughty words like Hard as steel and still getting harder and Somethin' stank and I want some.

The orgasmic peak was a medley of rock'n'roll oldies such as "Lucille", "Twist And Shout" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On". This wasn't funky at all, but the shaking was really going on.

Although this was supposed to be family entertainment at Tivoli, the vocals would have been PG-rated elsewhere. Those of us, not easily being offended, had a great night.

George Clinton & The P-Funk All Stars
Copenhagen Jazz Festival
Tivoli, Copenhagen, Denmark
July 7, 2007

George Clinton & The P-Funk All Stars shot with my cell phone.

AFI's 100 Movies

2007-06-24T09:46:00.005-04:00

A few days ago, the American Film Institute revealed the list of the best 100 movies ever, and the number one movie is 66 years old.

Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" from 1941 is topping the list, and though the other top 10 movies are newer, none of them are newer than 14 years. Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" from 1993 ended on number 8.

The list is dominated by a few of the same directors. Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrik, Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock and Francis Ford Coppola all have more than one movie in the top 100.

Of course the list is debatable as we all have different taste in movies. I just don't understand what Spielberg and a lonely "Star Wars" movie by George Lucas are doing on that list. Spielberg is an excellent special effects director, but he has never been a storyteller. The same goes for Star Wars, lots of spectacular effects, no interesting story.

I've tried to make my own top 10 list:
1) Stanley Kubrik: "Eyes Wide Shut", 1999
2) Jonathan Demme: "The Silence of the Lambs", 1991
3) Michel Gondry: "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", 2004
4) Ridley Scott: "Thelma & Louise", 1991
5) Woody Allen: "Match Point", 2005
6) Roman Polanski: "The Ninth Gate", 1999
7) James McTeigue: "V for Vendatta", 2005
8) Henry Selick: "The Nightmare Before Christmas", 1993
9) Marc Forster: "Stranger Than Fiction", 2006
10) Oliver Stone: "U Turn", 1997

The list didn't make room for "Once Upon a Time in Mexico", "Jackie Brown" and several very old movies on my favorites list, not to mention "The Flying Deuces".

What does your top 10 list of American movies look like?

Beeeeeeep

2007-06-17T08:19:00.002-04:00

Admitted! I rarely use YouTube. There are just too many stupid videos made by fools with a webcam.

The other day, however, I found something extremely funny: "The Fucking Short Version". Though the clips probably infringe the copyright law, they might give the screenwriters something to think about.

The concept behind The Fucking Short Version is to take a Hollywood movie and cut everything out but the f-words. Brian De Palma's movie "Scarface" used to be famous for all the f-words. Some enthusiasts have counted as many as 218 fucks in the movie from 1983 starring Al Pacino.

But as The Fucking Short Version on YouTube documents, other movies have their count of fucks as well. Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" from 1994 has been shorten down to two minutes of instant fucks:

So too was Joel Coen's "The Big Lebowski" from 1998:

And while we are at it, Scarface:

One More Elephant

2007-04-26T15:10:00.002-04:00

Ever since a spree killer shot 32 young students at Virginia Tech some weeks ago, I've been thinking about "Elephant".

"Elephant" is a movie by Gus Van Sant about a school shooting, heavily inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. The movie itself resembles a Dogma film, with hardly any music (except of a few sonatas by Beethoven), and with actors improvising or following simple instructions.

It is set at the high school less than an hour before the massacre occurs. The same few scenes happen over and over, but from a different person's perspective.

Two outsiders, not unlike Harris and Klebold, assemble bombs and riffles that same morning. As they arrive, they warn one of the students to stay away. At the school the two boys walk separately down the halls pretending they're playing a first-person shooter video game.

Several young students are killed in cold blood before the two kids end their own lives.

Until recently I didn't really understand this movie. It has no storyline, and it has no main characters. Yet I felt, it was an exceptional movie. Now, I know why!

"Elephant" shows us how meaningless and how sudden a school shooting happens. The lack of film score makes "Elephant" a thrilling movie. You wait throughout the movie for anything to happen, and when it does, it is cold and impotent.

If you also feel sad and compassionate about the Virginia Tech massacre, you should see "Elephant". Do not expect to see a Hollywood movie, but expect to be silently horrified.

The Burqini, a Swim Suit for Muslim Women

2007-03-19T20:07:00.002-04:00

Spotting a Muslim on the beach is almost impossible. At least, was impossible. A new swim suit invites Islamic women to take the plunge.

I am not a Muslim and I am not smart enough to go into details why some Islamic women dress in burqas.

What I do know is, burqas worn on the beach could make the person wearing it dehydrate.

In Australia they have solved that problem.

Several news medias, including hadeseh.com, have recently reported of an Australian clothing designer, who mixed a bikini and a burqa into a burqini.

Mecca Laalaa, a 20 years old Muslim, wears the burqini with great pride. She is one of several life savers with Islamic background working on Cronulla Beach. Now, she has got her 15 minutes for a promoting the burqini.

In my opinion, the burqini fits the female body very well, and hopefully this Australian trend will spread to beaches all around the world.

Freddy vs. Hannibal

2007-03-15T18:22:00.001-04:00

I am still finding new trivia in the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series. Last night I watched "Wes Craven's New Nightmare", and this time I found yet another reference to a legendary horror movie.

After Heather's son gets hospitalized, she reads several books on childhood diseases. We see a few book covers in the movie and one of them reads: "Chilton on Childhood Diseases". Obviously the book doesn't exist anywhere but in "New Nightmare", so how did director Wes Craven come up with the name of the author?

Since it is a book on diseases, the author is presumably a doctor. The full name of the author might even be Dr. Frederick Chilton.

Dr. Frederick Chilton is the director of the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane where Dr. Hannibal Lector aka Hannibal the Cannibal is kept prisoned in the movie, "The Silence of the Lambs".

Yet again this trivia is not to be found in either IMDB and Wikipedia. I guess only Wes Craven knows who Chilton the author really is.

The Chicks Are Still Enemies, Not Nominees

2007-03-07T17:20:00.001-05:00

When the 2007 Academy of Country Music Awards are presented in May, the Dixie Chicks are still left out in the cold.

Though the Chicks sweeped the Grammy Awards for as many as five awards this year, the three girls from Texas are not even nominated for an ACM Award.

The war between the established country music industry and Dixie Chicks are not new. It went into the open in 2003 when the Chicks said they were "ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas".

The 2006 single "Not Ready to Make Nice" is yet another statement in the girl's political controversy. The song won a Grammy for "Song of the Year", and when the girls received the award on stage, lead singer Natalie Maines said: "I'm ready to make nice".

Without the Dixie Chicks among the nominees of the 2007 ACM Awards, the country music industry is clearly not yet ready to make nice.

The war must go on.

The Commodore Necromancers

2007-03-06T17:38:00.005-05:00

For more than a decade Commodore has been deadly quiet. Back in the 1980's the Commodore company had a huge success in producing home computers like Commodore 64 and Amiga 500. None of the successors gained the same success though the Commodore brand has been used for several failed comebacks during the last 20 years.

CommodoreWorld is yet another attempt to make a decent comeback. Commodore is still associated with gaming computers and now also with handheld multimedia devices. But it might be too late for a comeback.

Numerous other gaming and multimedia devices are already huge successes. Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony controls the market for game consoles, and Apple sits almost solely on the market for handheld multimedia devices.

However, it is nice to see such a strong will to let the Commodore brand rise from the grave. The necromancers at Commodore Corporation once did a great job entertaining us big kids. They might be able to do it again.

He Got It!

2007-02-26T02:00:00.002-05:00

After a lifelong career and six nominations Martin Scorsese finally got an Academy Award for "The Departed".

"Could you double check the envelope?", joked Martin Scorsese when he held the Oscar for "Best motion picture of the year" high in the air. Scorsese did also take an Oscar for "Achievement in directing".

Freddy vs. Norman

2007-02-25T06:00:00.003-05:00

During the last couple of days I've had some Krueger nostalgia, watching the first five "A Nightmare on Elm Street". Freddy is definitely back on my TV screen for the first time in a decade.

After each movie I looked through the trivia on IMDB as I do after every movie I've watched. Something came up. More accurate, something didn't come up.

In "Nightmare 5: The Dream Child" I found at least two references to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" from 1960. These two references weren't mentioned on IMDB or Wikipedia.

The first reference is the shower scene in the beginning of the movie. Alice is showering and suddenly the drain stops and the water rises to a level where it almost drowns her.

That's a classic scene reused in several movies and introduced by Alfred Hitchcock in "Psycho". Marion Crane gets stabbed to death in the shower by Norman Bates' alter ego.

The second reference is the meeting between Yvonne and Amanda Krueger. Yvonne finds her in the tower of the old mental hospital. Amanda sits so we can't see her face and when Yvonne turns her around, a skeleton stares back.

In "Psycho" Lila Crane is looking for Norman Bates' mom and finds her in the basement of the old mansion. As Lila turns Mrs. Bates to see her face, a rotten and dried up corpse stares back.

It's almost like a pre-sequel to "Freddy vs. Jason" named "Freddy vs. Norman".