It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the cinema last. I’m fussy about what movies I watch and everyone I know is into action films. They don’t want to watch the same movies (I am a Literature student and prefer to watch something with some kind of sophistication). So yesterday, I figure, because someone asks me, I might as well just go and watch this movie, ‘Harry Brown’. See what all the hype is about.

Read the Story: http://wp.me/PHem7-9m

Did you get a laugh?  A cackle even?  I hope so!  I did!  These were the words my husband greeted my questioning eyebrows with when he came out to my desk while I was checking Twitter.  You’d think after nearly 14 years of it, I’d be used to it by now.  But he still gets me.  He is the master of double entendres and other crafty wordy things.  Seriously – I need to start a log of Chambers-isms. 

So I was trying to decide what my blog post for the day would be about.  I could have posted our recipe ideas, or menu or something.  But I wanted it to be a little more fun tonight.  We’ve been cooking and cleaning up a storm and baking pumpkin pies for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner.  And I just posted my latest favorite funny last night about how to make pumpkin pies.  So all the pumpkin humor led me to a funny pumpkin video that happens to star my favorite Muppety chef!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qj8PhxSnhg

Which from there, led me to another Muppet funny, with an awesome rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody with some of my favorite Muppet characters, like Gonzo, Beaker and Animal.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY&NR=1

Watch and laugh! 

Happy getting-ready-for-tomorrow’s-feast! 

Existe en 1080p sur Youtube.

Com certeza todos aqui se lembram dos Muppets, a famosa série de bonecos comediantes prima do pessoal da Vila Sésamo, certo? Para os jovenzinhos de plantão, não podemos então esquecer do desenho animado Muppet Babies, mostrando estes bonecos quando crianças, todas cantoras, olha que barato.

Apenas para relembrarmos aqueles idos tempos em que ainda assistíamos Star Wars apenas quando passava na televisão ao final dos anos 80, outro presente natalino do Ao Sugo: os Muppets cantam Bohemian Rhapsody, do nosso tão querido Queen. Divirtam-se.

Victor Hugo, vulgo Jingle Jones

It’s AWESOME!!!!

Rati that is.

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Yesterday, at lunch time, instead of strolling around London eating my food and taking in the sights, I venture into the Student Common Room. I don’t know the last time I’ve been in it. The only reason I’m here now is because the forceful wind is blowing me about everywhere outside and spitting into my face with spite… 

Read the story: http://wp.me/PHem7-9f

It’s been doing the rounds on Twitter, but if you haven’t seen it yet…

A rash of the Muppets performing their rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody has infested the internets today, appealing to people nostalgic for The Muppet Show and Queen. I’m glad to report that this is not just a passing fad, the Bohemian Rhapsody video being but a string in the strong presence that the Muppets are carving for themselves in the digital realm. We’ll report more on this development after the jump, but first, the aforementioned cover:

Jim Henson created more than a trademark, developing puppetry into a national hallmark from the dregs that it had found itself, creating family-friendly television that appealed both to children and their handlers. Thankfully, despite his untimely passing, the bar he raised remains high and apparently in good hands, with this coming computer-addicted generation-to-be still capable of getting their hands on good, educational programming.

The Muppets have always married entertainment to education, and continue in this excellence by creating digital shorts that showcase classical works to a new audience in a timely, humorous fashion. Take for instance Beaker’s rendition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement, commonly known as
Ode to Joy :

That video was in fact a response to this video:

which demonstrates that the marketing department for the Henson Company are on their A-game. They’re keeping on top of trends and topics and are adapting their campaign to match not just what people are watching, but what they’re doing too.

Following that same theme, they came out with this video, introducing to many net surfers I am certain, Johann Strauss’ An der schönen blauen, known to the English-speaking world as Blue Danube, via Gonzo and his “Pitch Perfect Poultry”:

Furthermore, the Henson Company is foraying into public consciousness and seemingly attempting to fix other companies’ screw-ups with human culture. Remember MTV’s Carmen: A Hip Hopera? (The audio synch on this video is screwy, but this is probably the best part of the whole debacle, and that’s only because of Mos Def.)

Well, The Swedish Chef, Beaker, and Animal take a shot at making you forget it all about it (sorry to have brought it up again) by taking on Georges Bizet’s most famous aria, Habanera from the opera Carmen:

Now, in closing, I would like to point out the Muppet’s social commentary, which there is a strong history of as well. This is made even more prevalent at the tail-end of those videos, where Waldorf & Statler (the grumpy old men in the box) comment on the videos they have just “watched” via the internet. If you haven’t watched these videos through to the end, go back and finish the Muppet ones, I’ll wait.

Waldorf and Statler continue with their acerbic remarks, but now through the safety of their office chairs, as here:

So not only is the Henson Company utilizing the magnificent tool that is the internet, but they’re also mocking it, gratuitously and defiantly? These guys are the epitome of digital productivity, deserving kudos, accolades, and commendations all around. Not only do they see the future, they’re actively working to make it a brighter place.

So glad that we can still get to see original content from The Muppets. My generation grew up with them and I’d find it very sad if future generations didn’t have them around. This is classic Muppets at their best!

- Jason

I’m fucking obsessed with this. What’s not to love? Puppets? Fucks my shit up. Queen? Freddie Mercury was from Zanzibar, thus awesome.

Hence, I love the Muppets. And Sesame Street, which will be the only TV show my children will be allowed to watch until they’re old enough to understand 30 Rock.

The family decides to go down to Pizza Hut on Saturday night. Three men, two women and a baby. We all drive down to Galleon’s Reach in the same car. At half past eight, the restaurant is practically empty. There’s about two big families there with little kids, sort of like us. The kids are crawling around on the floor, which is strewn with discarded crayons, cutlery and remnants of food…

Read the story: http://wp.me/PHem7-95

When blood letting becomes personal…

Read on: http://wp.me/PHem7-90

I’m headed to Vegas with the wife today.

We’re going to get (re)married by Elvis for our ten year anniversary.

Personally, I hope it’s by a fat, jumpsuit wearing Elvis, but any Elvis will do.

It makes sense.

I love the Rat Pack, she loves Elvis—The movie Swingers was somehow a strange cornerstone of our budding romance so many years ago, it’s soundtrack becoming our own.

Quite frankly, I’m still somewhat amazed we didn’t run off to Vegas the first time around, when we were young and impetuous.

As we stroll down the busy streets, stare in wonderment at the bright lights surrounding us and watch the fountains of the Bellagio dance, I’m going to squint my eyes really hard and try to see the old Vegas—Sinatra’s Vegas.

The martini swinging, mob run Vegas.

Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the new Vegas—quite frankly I’m excited to see that one, too; the lights, the roller coasters, the fountains…all of it.

But…

I just want to catch a glimpse of the old Vegas—the original Vegas, no matter how dusty and dirty it may be.

Though I hear that Vegas is merely a ghost now, hovering over the new, family friendly version, laid to rest in the wake of the Sands.

I’m going to do my best to chronicle my first Vegas experience, from the Elvis wedding, to cocktails in Old Town, to my first attempt at gambling…but I can’t make any promises. I don’t even know if I’ll have wifi where I’m staying.

For you, however, I shall try my hardest.

Though, don’t expect a madcap tale of hallucinogens in the desert and imaginary bats swarming around us.

Maybe a few cocktails, but there is nothing gonzo about this trip.

Aside, perhaps, from vacationing while unemployed.

It was early in the morning and I was still in a daze after administering a big dose of melatonin to myself as I could not seem to fall asleep. I was nervous about the whole situation I had gotten myself into, again; because of desperation for any kind of income, again. Still nervous as I woke up I made myself a cup of tea and wandered around the apartment, trying to calm myself down.

“Hey Lizzie, have you sent them your email yet; telling them to stuff it, in a polite way of course?” She told me she was going to and wrote a simple email stating she got another job and were coming in today with the stuff they had handed to us. “I’m thinking about doing that too,” I told her. I continued with, “they are both with the same company, but at the moment I don’t care if I jeopardise the other job. I can’t stand this crap any more.”
I have been fucked over by so many companies now I couldn’t care less about what would happen. What ever they say or do to me I have heard it or experienced it before. It’s like threatening a bare-knuckle fighter to give him a good old beating if he doesn’t behave well; the one serving the threats will be the one being served the bloody knuckle sandwich.

My phone called and my blood turned to ice for a short period of time. I knew why it was ringing, but I didn’t want to  hear it. The email I had sent stated that I would talk with those responsible when I drop off my things, but assuming that sentence was a waste of seconds and pixels on the screen.
I stood my ground and told them my experience and my point of view of the whole situation. Several times I had to say I wouldn’t do the job at all as they haven’t stepped up to the plate, so I saw now reason for me stepping up to the plate.
I am not a strong believer, nor a supporter, in the ‘you should be glad to have a  job’ attitude.

Again I was asked, “Can you explain why I can’t work this weekend?” I was completely honest and said that, “based on what I have experienced I personally can’t do the job. It doesn’t feel right and as they haven’t met my expectation I have to put my foot down and say no.” Luckily this person was professional, for a change, and was willing to listen to me. Obviously someone who actually cares about the company and wants to learn from previous mistakes, and found out how to avoid future experiences like this.

I think it is fair to say that how I handled this is not just because I have been dicked around so much; but also because I am a Nordic Viking with pride in myself. I remember just from a previous job that the Nordic team was giving our non-Nordic team “manager” a migraine as we had no remorse saying no to new policies that we disagreed with. When a Nordic person says no, it means no.

We were cruising down the road like crazy, swerving side to side in the lanes to avoid people who seem to have ordered their driver’s license from China; and trucks who didn’t know which lane to stay in. It was a miracle we arrived in one piece with our things we had been given. We could have sold the stuff, but we didn’t feel like getting in trouble for something as small like that. If it was literally a truck load we could consider it; or not.
We met with the person we had met the first time and that person was also professional and understanding towards our decision. Meeting people we actually understood, or at least didn’t judge us face-to-face, was very good and made the day a bit easier to handle; would be easier if it were less humid.

After cruising back home like we had stolen the car and skipped for paying for the full tank of gas I got two more pleasant phone calls. They just wanted to have a chat with me, the other team (the professional one), and to remind me to finish my personality test today.
The test was actually fun, but I really hope I will be able to see my result. Hopefully I won’t scare them to death; but they did ask me to be honest.

It was like a hugs rock had been lifted from my squashed body after telling them, in a diplomatic way, to get stuffed; and later get some more positive news to look forward to. To give you an idea how badly this affected me, the only thing I had for breakfast was that cup of tea. I was thirsty like guy that had been wandering in a desert with out water for two days and hungry like a grizzly that was blood thirsty.

Rest of the day we spent sweating and relaxing our great battle with “the-man”.
It kind of shed some light on why I tend to  be turned down for certain entry-level jobs. I am not a 16-year-old who is looking for his first job. I am a thirty something guy who is living in his fourth country and worked in four three of them. Any corporate bullshit told to me I have heard it before; I have experienced most old tricks in the book, and not to mention I tend to know my rights a bit too good.
You can’t con a con.

Even if I don’t believe in superstitious fairytales I can’t help thinking that there is some kind of force not wanting me here in Australia. Maybe Targan is trying to tell me something, but I am too blind to see his words.
The night is old now and it needs some rest so it can harvest the crop tomorrow morning.

Note: Some of the scenarios and what was said might be fiction or not. In this article it’s hard to tell what is true, false or exaggerated.

“Hunter S Thompson is the bad ass intellectual friend your parents don’t want you to hang out with.”

              Have you ever had a friend your parents or peers don’t much care for? I think we have all been there, even politicians and authority figures have had a friend or acquaintance like that. Someone whose lifestyle doesn’t quite measure up to everyone else’s expectations of the social type you should be cavorting with. Well for the certain generation of the rich, famous and powerful that friend happened to be the gonzo journalist, Hunter S Thompson, bubba. (Bubba a reference to Bill Clinton, who’s nickname, as funny as it happens to be is, bubba. In addition, these side notes, like this one, happen to be everywhere in his books. So there’s another little inside joke for your enjoyment.) What I am trying to say is that everyone at some point or another has made friends with someone who is nothing like you but somehow they have a lot in common with you. This special kind of bad ass friend influences you to ditch out on your responsibilities to go behind a dumpster, per say, and smoke cigarettes for a while and discuss current issues; politics, sex, conspiracies and other dumpster talk.  For the politicians in the 1970’s to mid 1990s that friend was Hunter S Thompson. (For me that friend isn’t so much a friend but family, my brother. For the record, he talks about sex and I continuously tell him, I am his sister and don’t care to know about his sick fantasies besides… I’ve had better.)

                Aside, from Hunter Thompson being a total bad ass, he was an incredible writer, he wrote for The Rolling Stone and has at least 10 books published on various subjects. He is the Godfather of a writing style similar to dirty realism, a style known world wide as gonzo. (It is not titled after the puppet created by Jim Henson, that came after his time.) The saying goes, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”. That was Mr. Thompson’s trade mark saying for his gonzo journalism, you can find it referenced in some of his works and it is on the cover of almost every one of gonzo journals.  He also refers to himself as a “political junkie”, a term which sounds derogatory but actually it is negated as a positive term. Essentially it means having an addiction to politics, every waking and breathing moment is devoted to the study and analyses of modern politics. (It’s an insult to real politicians, unlike bloggers who whine about the injustices done to the green party and vegetarian animal loving Liberals’ and baby boomers that were and are hippies.)  

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” – Hunter S Thompson

                I was assigned to read a book by Thompson and the one that really caught my eye was, Better than sex: confessions of a political junkie. This book was one of his later gonzo journals. It basically fallows the election race of 1992, candidates Bill Clinton and George Bush. At this time Thompson had (allegedly) given up the former life of being a political groupie, who moved from place to place with the candidate he was interested in but this election caught his attention and he gave his best efforts not to get involved. (He was so interested due to his burning hate for George Bush and basically his entire family and anyone in cahoots with him. As well as, the fact that he felt it was his main purpose in life to literally shit on the Republican Party and cause as much upset amongst the political parties and the American government as possible, from what I gather at least.)  However, on some occasions he was simply in the wrong place at the right time and got wrapped up in his former mistakes, past articles and publications connected with The Rolling Stone magazine. It was an inevitable situation that he would be a slave to politics for the rest of his life, weather he liked it or not. Once you’re in there is no getting out, that saying goes for any politician or aspiring politician, you have been warned, bubba.

                Mr. Thompson did much more than just follow political scandals and publically criticize the Republican Party. He was a pioneer for the counter culture of the American dream, Here you have the American dream a mythical life where everyone is happy with two kids a house, a healthy relationship with a spouse and the world turns round. WHHOOOPPIIEEE! Hunter Thompson introduced a generation to the darker or opposite side of that dream. This is the underground world of drug addictions, swingers and free living with no responsibility (financially and morally). Here you have a man rubbing elbows with societies finest, who embody and lobby for the progression of the very dream that the guy next to them (Thompson) doesn’t believe in, participate in or generally speaking doesn’t give a fuck about, that’s irony bubba.

“My Beat is the death of the American dream.” – Hunter S Thompson

                So far I haven’t really drawn any finally conclusions from his book but I am getting there. In the light of recent events I have drawn a few conclusions about politics in general, curious aren’t you. I’ll cut straight to the chase and let you ridicule and criticize me, so we can just get that over and done with, because I know that’s the main reason your reading this now. (We all know it, so I’ll put that out there. Besides, if I wasn’t grammatically outrageous and didn’t write exactly what I am thinking at this very moment, I’d end up letting you down and we don’t want that now, do we?)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

 Politics, economics and communication, three things high school student struggle to understand. However, I’ve learned a very valuable trick to help me better understand complicated subjects such as politics. What you have to do is find a similar system that can correspond with the system or subject you are studying. For example, the United Nations resembles to a typical high school, the main powers (China, Russia, England and America) are the popular kids who run the show. Then you have the bad ass kids (Cuba, Venezuela and ominous African Countries) on Sprague Avenue in a back alley talking trash about the popular kids and those countries tend to be communist run or dictatorships. It’s my belief that if you can understand the basic social workings of an average American high school then you should be able to comprehend politics at a very elementary level at least.

Do you remember ever playing a game called, Telephone? This comparison matches the game of telephone and communication between major powers in the world today. Telephone is a game in which a message must be passed from one end of a line to another without changing. Sadly, there is no possible chance of winning because even if your team is determined, there is always one funny guy a real class clown (Media) who thinks it will be funny to purposely change the message to something usually inappropriate. Today, a giant game of telephone is being played right in front of your eyes. From country to country, however, the message is changed viscously from place to place by news networks, radios talk shows, world leaders, and celebrities (Angelina Jolie, Bono and other hippie celebrities, looking for their 15minutes of fame because the acting/movie business has dried up and no one wants to hear their empty words and broken promises to change the world one song/film at a time.) ect. These are vigorous little lessons you can learn from an accesses of TV, paranoia, conspiracies and Hunter S Thompson. 

“Life is about balance, you can only achieve the American dream to a certain extent in this day and age.”

These are just some brief thoughts, which I found entertaining enough to jot down and share with you. All politics are, are vicious rumors, misunderstandings and poor communication.  The time has come again to rap up this rant and move on to a duller topic that has to be completed. If you can learn anything from Hunter Thompson I would say it has to be that life is about balance. You can achieve the American dream to a certain extent, as well as, living free with no responsibilities and swinging from partner to partner. In the end it all comes down to you and the choices you make everyday but if you ask me each life is fulfilling, I grew up in the light of the American dream, I made it through Clinton, Bush and  even the regime of the satanic Christine Gregoire. I have no doubt in my mind I will someday, find where I belong and I know I will be happy no matter where I end up.