No estaba muy segura de hacerlo pero al final, una es madrugadora y ansiosa. Recuperé la bolsa del Gimnasio, me puse cómoda y baje los 6 pisos dando saltitos a lo Flash Dance.

Recordé cuando de pequeña veía la película Flash Dance en el Video Beta. Me encantaba la escena final. Jennifer Beals superandose a si misma. Bailando de manera espectacular delante de los  profesores y jurados. De pequeña soñaba en ser bailarina, actriz, abogada, forense… Lo que no sabía es que lo que me gustaba realmente eran los personajes de la tele o del cine. !  Como recuerdo el what a feeling y la profesora aplaudiendo!… Ahora entiendo que estas escenas son reflejos de la vida adulta. La gran superación. La superación de hechos que te dan miedo pero que tu  y solo tu, eres capaz de afrontar.

Pruebas. Atreverte a hacer cosas sola  y por primera vez. A luchar por una meta. A ser fuerte. !Superación personal! De pequeña sólo quería aprender la coreografía para la fiesta de fin de curso y ya está. La superación vendría con el tiempo.

Hoy hace un día tonto. Gris. Domingo a las 11:00 a.m. Nadie por la calle. Decido dar tumbos y subir por la plaza de la Vila de Gràcia ( antigua Rius i Taulet). Que barrio más bonito. ¿Porque no vine antes?, me pregunto. Hay dos ancianos sentados en un banco y dibujan algo en el suelo con el bastón. Los niños de ayer  dibujaron  figuras con tiza delante del ayuntamiento. El padre compra el periódico. Y él, llega de fiesta y se va a dormir.

Llego al gimnasio y entro. Toalla, taquilla, bañador…

Recibo sms de una amiga que me invita a desayunar en la plaza de la virreina. Le contesto: soy  la nueva Carrie Bradshaw y ya estoy en el gimnasio. Ella se sorprende de mi momento gym, pero estoy segura que apoya mi nueva vida. Y lo ha demostrado. Y estoy contenta que me ayude. Y mucho.

Nado. Como los perros, pero nado.  Voy por el carril llamado: especial- lento. De vez en cuando hago  el muerto. Mi abuelo me enseñó a hacer el muerto  un día en la playa. Hace ya mil años. El vigilante -monitor de la piscina tiene cara de resaca…maldice trabajar los festivos. Le entiendo. Le salpico sin querer y al ver su cara. Me sumergo y cambio al carril rápido…

No hay más que 3 personas. Lo bueno de los domingos me digo a mi misma. Sin gafas y consigo meterme en  la  Sauna. Me gusta la Sauna. El olor a la madera y lo lisa que te queda la piel. Hay un momento que te cuesta respirar y sabes que tienes que salir pero al mismo tiempo estás tan relajado. Busco gafas y  me ducho. Me apunto a Pilates. Hace mil años que no intentaba hacer llegar a la punta de los dedos… El profe ha querido acabar con la vida de las 10 Antonias ( señoras que podrían ser mi madre) y Yo. Únicas locas que un Domingo queremos estirar nuestro cuerpo…

Solo recuerdo: gritos de algunas compañeras. Yo aguantaba en silencio y de vez en cuando miraba al espejo y me veía. Roja, pequeña y poco flexible…

Mi primera clase de Pilates, pienso… la próxima dominarás más el arte de apretar los glúteos y mírarte el ombligo, de estirar la espalda vertebra por vertebra, de dejar las piernas flotando…si flotando al aire mientras apretas el ombligo, notas como tus costillas se alejan de la cadera, haces círculos con tus glúteos, respiras y expiras…, ombros atrás, busca tu centro, busca tu centro…manos presionando el suelo!

He creído morir. Y con dolor, he pensado que Derek Zoolander estaría orgulloso de mí. He pensado, lo cómica, que era la situación. Yo, por primera vez y sin una amiga en la clase de Pilates. Atrevida, con dolor y trabajando el abdómen. Roja, temblando, notando las costillas y mirándome al ombligo. El profesor, cogiendome la pierna y gritando: ¡así  aguanta, muy bien , no duele no duele!…

Duele. Y un poco. Pero en aquel preciso momento me vinieron a la cabeza escenas  de comedia. Y me puse a reír mentalmente. Sobretodo, porque seguía escuchando alaridos de dolor de algunas compañeras de la sala.

Y pensé en :

Buster Keaton, Slapstick, Zoolander,  Charles Chaplin, Ben  Stiller, Young Frankenstein, Monty Phyton, Zoolander, Some like it hot,  There’s Something About Mary, the Young Ones, La Vida de Brian, Flight of the Conchords, Bored to Death…

Pensé en el sentido de humor, en  reírme hasta caer del sofa y llorar.

Aquellos que me conocen reconocen mi risa. La boca bien abierta, tono alto y tiro la cabeza hacia atrás. Y a reír, reír, reír. Fuerte, fuerte, fuerte. Esa soy yo. La que de todo hago un chiste. La que digo tonterias. La que repite las frases de La vida de Brian de los Monty Phyton y no para de reír recordando el momento lapidación. La que adora a Ben Stiller. La que llora con Ben Stiller. La que pasa you tubes de Ben Stiller a sus amigas y se descojona. La que ama a Ben Stiller. La que querría Casarse con Ben Stiller. Esta soy yo. La que hace un chiste de algo tonto que le ha pasado por el camino. La que hace sitcoms de comedia  en cualquier momento.

La vida es cómica. Y no olvideís de dar las gracias por ello.

Slapstick (Steve Harmon) (born October 24) is a Marvel Comics superhero created in the early nineties. He debuted in Slapstick #1, November (1992), created by Len Kaminski and James Fry. He resembles an animated clown and has the abilities of a slapstick cartoon character, such as one from Looney Tunes, including warping reality to match that of an animated cartoon.

Slapstick was originally junior high school class clown Steve Harmon, from New York City. In a plan to get back at his archrival Winston, Steve dresses as a clown to blend into the crowd at a strange new carnival.

Before Steve could enact his plan, Winston and his date, Heather, were kidnapped by several clowns. Steve picks up a mallet as a weapon and follows them. The group enters the carnival funhouse and enters a portal disguised as a mirror. As it was closing, Steve follows.

At the moment of entry, an energy burst races across Steve’s world, alerting the senses of several beings, such as Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, and Howard the Duck.

His molecules stretch across 3741 dimensions and Steve ends up in the realm of the Scientist Supreme of Dimension X (who resembles Groucho Marx). The scientist helps Steve master his new form, a body composed of living unstable molecules dubbed Electroplasm. This essentially makes him a living cartoon character. The scientist, who had been ousted from his position by the Overlord, theorizes that Steve had come to his new form because he was slightly out of synch when entering the funhouse portal.

Using his new powers and a map the scientist had, Steve freed many captive Earthlings from the evil Clowns from Dimension X and their ruler, the Overlord. It is learned that this is what the scientist had intended all long. The Overlord’s plan had been to brainwash Earthlings enough so their belief would be sufficient to give Overlord whatever he desired. The Overlord’s plans were foiled when the belief that held up his castle gave way as the humans regained their right minds. The castle crashes. The captured humans run to the portal, followed quickly by the monstrous clowns. Steve destroys the mirror, eradicating the clown’s influence on this reality.

Minutes afterward, Steve is found by his best friend, who agrees to assist him.

To download issues 1-4 Thanks to Sparkman

Slapstick

Danger of Stepping on Banana

Graph by: JDTemple via Graph Jam Builder

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The same thing can be said for this new comedy.

In the new comedy from Wild Hogs director Walt Becker,  John Travolta teams with Robin Williams as two advertising agents who find themselves on the fine line between being a grandparent and being middle aged.

Robin’s life changes when his ex-wife (Kelly Preston), whom he married in a shotgun wedding years earlier, drops a bomb on him.

She claims her kids are his and she is going to jail for two months on a protest charge and needs someone to look after them.

This complicated plot turns into a version of My Two Dads or The Game Plan with toilet humor and some very silly antics.

The movie had some gut splitting jokes but all of them were in the trailer. The gorilla scenario, the mixed up meds, Justin Long’s psychotic camp guy and Matt Dillon’s butch scoutmaster are all really funny!

I like slapstick humor as much as the next guy. Heck, my favorite comedy of all time is Airplane! But these jokes felt really, really forced.

When they wrote this film I think they wrote the jokes first and filled in the plot to incorporate the jokes. There are just some of the craziest inconsistencies and ill-conceived plot jumps I have ever seen in a movie.

I took my parents to the advance screening of this movie and they laughed hysterically throughout. Maybe this movie is a generational thing but I just didn’t find it very funny.

1.5 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer.

If you want to play along with Random Tuesday Thoughts, go here to get the widget and add your name to Mr. Linky.

We went puttering around the mall on Sunday and came across a dude in a red suit.  So we thought we would see if Monkey wanted to sit on the strange guys lap and take a picture.  Sounds normal right?  HAHA

Monk did GREAT on Santa’s lap.  This Santa was the sweetest man!! Monkey went right to him!  It was really neat.  He wasn’t really dressed for the occasion but I did wipe the pizza off of his face before the picture, so that’s something at least, right? haha

Here is the picture.  I did edit the contrast and saturation a little bit.  You know me, I can’t help myself.  Besides, now it’s gobs better.  Trust me J

I was really surprised that he didn’t cry or anything.  He went right to him.

I am still debating on whether or not I want to tell Monkey there is a Santa.  I have this whole weird issue thing in my head with lying to my kid, even if “all the cool moms are doing it”.  I just want him to like the idea but not think that if he is “naughty” then the dude will show up with coal.  Ya know?

Thoughts?

~~~~~

I am making a Turducken for Thanksgiving.  Anyone ever had one?

I am changing it up a bit and leaving out the duck.  And the chicken.  *grin*

What? *blink*

That was funny.  *pbbbbt*

~~~~~

I think I know why people always say I have slapstick humor. Its because they want to slap me with a stick when I am trying to be funny. *shrug*

~~~~~

Another case of Hubby sleep-talking this week.  It always provides a giggle.  This one is sure to please…

Hubby (eyes still closed): “Throw it in the lake!”

Me (as usual, taken off guard): “Throw what in the lake?”

Hubby: “The beer!”

Me (stifling a giggle): “The beer?”

Hubby: “Yes.”

Me: “Umm… why would I throw beer in a lake?”

Hubby (clearly frustrated): “UH! Becaaaause it failed the breathalyzer!!”

Me (confused): “Wait… who failed the breathalyzer??”

Hubby (suddenly confused and calm): “umm… I dunno, I think the beer did”

Me (pushing for fun, heh): “Why did the beer take a breathalyzer?”

Hubby: “…………”

And he was out.  Lol

Good times.

~~~~~

Military helicopters in groups of six have flown over my house four times since I wrote this.  Why does this give me the heebies?

~~~~~

My dear friend Amanda entrusted me with her Grandmothers Spaghetti recipe.  We had it last night (Sunday night since I again wrote this blog a day ahead) and it was DELICIOUS!  But I really wish she had warned me about the effect it would have on all of us.  It sounded like there were 2 motorboats in my bed last night.  And there was another one in Monkey’s bed too.  I know because I kept hearing it on the monitor.

~~~~~

Speaking of my ass (yet again) it’s healing really well.  You know what happens when you start to heal?  You start o itch.  Like crazy!! I just wanna stick both my hands in my pants and scratch my butt like crazy!!  But that would look funny and mostly likely elicit stares not to mention it would be the 2nd worst thing I have done this week.  The first of course was luring that spider into my pants with my super inviting, sexy fanny.  Hows that for TMI?  Wait, this isn’t TMI Thursday you say?  *grin*

What is random about your day?

Click here to view today’s Daily Photo Blog… Unamused Daily Photo Blog

]]> http://greglandgraf.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/watermelonfall-part-1/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:00:58 +0000 greglandgraf http://greglandgraf.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/watermelonfall-part-1/

Nathan reached into a small compartment underneath his console and retrieved a long blue ribbon, which he tossed to me. “Put this on. Both of you,” he directed.

The ribbon had maybe a half dozen loops knotted off, each a couple feet apart. When Carla and I just looked at it, Nathan grabbed my hand and slipped it through one of the middle loops, and then pulled the ribbon to tighten.

“It is like a leash,” he chirped, as he gave Carla the same treatment. “That way, we shall all stay together.”

The ribbon had a clip on the end, which Nathan attached to one of his belt loops.

“I’m not wearing a leash,” I insisted, but Nathan didn’t hear. He had already spun out of the cockpit and leapt down to the library table, very nearly jerking me over and out of my seat.

“Slow dawww!” I screamed. Nathan moving at full speed and Carla still not moving at all meant that the ribbon had exhausted its slack, and now it was applying what seemed like bone-cutting pressure to my wrist. I grabbed the leading end of the ribbon and jerked it back as hard as I could, which produced a satisfying clang from below.

Nathan staggered back into view. “You just pulled my face into the bathroom door,” he snarled.

“It is rather like a leash, isn’t it?”

I loosened the ribbon around my wrist just a bit, and then grabbed the leading section with both hands so that Nathan couldn’t pull it off. With a nod toward Carla, I sauntered toward the library.

“Hurry up, hurry up!” Nathan urged. Carla and I ignored him, and without speaking, we decided to take the long way around the library.

“Quite the design masterpiece,” I commented. “I suspect all homes will have stairways like this in the future.” Carla could only wheeze in response, but she did so cheerfully.

We, eventually, made our way around the room and followed Nathan out the bathroom exit. He closed the door behind us and took a small black fob from his pocket. He brushed his thumb upwards across it in a practiced maneuver, and his ship thrusted upward.

Knowing where it was, I thought I could spot it, but it was high up and, as Nathan had promised, camouflaged in the sky, and silent enough to not drown out any crickets.

We made our way through the forest, emerging into the oversized and mostly empty parking lot. One man emerged from the store pushing a cart overflowing with bulky canisters. He saw us and changed course to meet us, glaring and not blinking the entire way.

“What the hay-ell are you?” he snarled. At me, rather than Nathan.

I affected a detached air. “Scavenger hunt,” I said with a shrug. “Do you have any buillion cubes?”

The man thrust his arm into his cart and pulled out a small glass jar. He broke the seal, spun open the lid, and a pulled out a gold foil-wrapped cube.

“Good luck,” he wished, as he tossed it to me and turned around to head toward his car, muttering something about “those crazy college kids these days.”

*****

This is a relatively old part of Exile Issues; it comes in the first third of the book and was written pretty early on. I’m fond of it for the leash bit and the related, titular, watermelonfall (which will come in part 2), but it’s also strange to go back to knowing how much is going to have to change in the final version. The whole book is going to be narrated in the third person, for example, and the grocery store that is the setting may not exist in the final cut.

Plotwise, the scene is pretty mundane; Nathan has recently kidnapped Marty and Carla, and having explained his goals and gained their agreement, he’s taking them to a surprisingly large grocery store in the middle of nowhere to buy provisions.

While this is a first draft and its potential isn’t fully realized, it also lays some groundwork for what I think are some interesting character traits. There’s a certain kind of person who puts a leash on another person. (There are also mothers, but—spoiler!—Nathan isn’t Marty or Carla’s mom.)

Al Jahom’s truly excellent post here started me thinking about gender eekwality and a pet peeve of mine.

My guess is that if you’re a man then the picture above might make you wince a little. It might make you clamp your thighs together too. If you’re really sensitive – perhaps you recently had a foot or something else hard like a baseball bat or a lump hammer interfaced with your nutsack – then you might even grab your man fruit, although I’d just advise you to be careful who you do this in front of as you may appear to them to be some sort of exhibitionist pervert – or a really shit Michael Jackson impersonator at best…

If you’re a woman looking at that picture then you might well chuckle. In my experience, many women seem to think that it’s amusing although I can assure you that getting hit in your meat and two veg is a painful experience. Of course, men will laugh too, but it’s in a rueful or nervous way more often than not.

I’ve engaged in extensive research – well, had a chat with Mrs Shark, truth be told – and I’m informed that although a blow to what we British call the ‘fanny’ area is painful, it’s not quite as bad as a bollock blow. In fact, a good whack on the breasts is apparently sometimes more debilitating.

Being a bloke I obviously have no direct experience of getting hit in the lady garden or norks but as a sentient being with pain receptors I know for a fucking fact that getting hit anywhere hard is painful, so I avoid hitting people and getting hit myself whenever possible – I’m that sort of soft new-age cunt I guess. I don’t have to have lady equipment to know that getting hit in it will hurt.

But why is ballsack twattage amusing to women?

There’s been a TV advert  that has actually shown scrotum/hard object collision. It’s a distant memory now, but if I recall correctly it involved a chap helping a lady out, getting hit in the balls and then her finding it amusing.

Certain types of slapstick humour can involve scrotal sac damage and can be relied on to raise a titter or two when shown on TV and in the cinema.

But why is male genitalia cloutage such a fertile (sic) topic for humour?

I don’t really understand it.

I like humour – Lewis Black, George Carlin and Bill Hicks are my comedy gods – but I just don’t find bawsack damage amusing at all.

Not in the slightest.

Sorry.

Over to you…

Main Title_Kenkoo Zenrakei Suieibu Umishou

Official Title_ケンコー全裸系水泳部 ウミショー

Type_TV Series, 13 episodes

Year_04.07.2007 till 26.09.2007

Categories_Boing, Comedy, Ecchi, High School, Large Breasts, Shounen, Slapstick, Sports

Main creators_Hattori Mitsuru, Soutome Kouichirou, Ikeda Mamiko, Nishino Rie, Artland

Resources_ Official page, ANN, AnimeNFO, Allcinema, Anidb

Info_

Based on the shounen manga by Hattori Mitsuru, serialised in Weekly Shounen Magazine.

Kaname Okimura, a student of Prefectoral Umineko Shougyou High (“Umisho” for short), joined the school’s swimming club in order to learn how to swim, but the club is filled with weirdos, let alone teach him swimming. Then, a sunny, happy-go-lucky girl named Amuro Ninagawa who was transferred from Okinawa joined the club. Her extraordinary underwater speed and unorthodox swimming style (plus her personal habit of nude swimming — a powerful magnet to teenage boys) surprised every club member, especially Okimura, because she reminds him of a mermaid-like creature he saw only once in his early childhood.

*taken from AnimeNewsNetwork*

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http://hotfile.com/dl/18156028/20259…01131.mkv.html

Take one smidge of Kathy Griffin, add a dollop of Robin Williams, then a sprinkling of George Carlin. What do you get? A personal mix of madness, and a loopy laugh track based on… what?

I find each of these comedians to be funny, or have, at different points in time. But my sons’ humor? One loves quirky parables and wordplay. The other finds cartoons and mimicry hilarious. How did that happen? What do kids find funny and why?

The arm bone’s connected to the… funny bone…

How to explain the differences in my sons’ humor – that one loves comic strips and physical comedy, while the other goes for more intellectual fare – brain teasers and smart sarcasm? It’s been that way since they were little, yet they were raised in the same household, are close in age, and the same gender. 

I used to think humor was purely learned and cultural, but having my own kids has shown me otherwise. Is humor genetic? Is it nature or nurture? Or utterly inexplicable?

Icons of sixties and seventies sitcoms

Thinking back to my childhood, I recall my dad listening to Mel Brooks and Bill Cosby on LPs (yes, vinyl) and I remember a great deal of affectionate teasing at family gatherings. Humor was part of the household, with heavy emphasis on puns and double-entendres, with more than a bit of bawdier fare by adolescence.

While some of my friends enjoyed the Stooges, I couldn’t stomach them and still can’t. But Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, a curmudgeonly Carl Reiner or Ed Asner – for me, irresistible. I also remember George Carlin, and the late 70s antics of John Belushi, Gilda Radner,  Dan Akroyd and other talents with lines ingrained in my memory. (Landshark!) Then there are a handful of deadpan (word-oriented) French comics who leave me laughing breathlessly.

Where does humor come from?

But I still wonder, where does sense of humor come from?

Cultural influences – family, friends, books, films, schooling – all contribute to our perspectives in everything. And knocking them, mocking them, turning them inside out and highlighting their peculiarities – those form our humor hot spots, and become our humor heritage.

But how do you explain siblings from the same household with dramatically different styles of humor? One who likes slapstick and another who manipulates words? The prankster and the mimic? Is the proverbial funny bone as individual and mysterious as one child’s talent for math and another’s gift for art? Are we  in some way predisposed to find certain things amusing?

Laugh until you cry

In tough times, humor keeps us afloat. All hands on deck, all bodies on board, and there are plenty of styles to choose from. For some of us, our romantic choices are more influenced by funny than money; shared laughter is essential.

Good thing, too. On a bad day, a wacky blog post, great stand-up, or a clever commercial can be just what the doctor ordered, without having to file an insurance claim! As for the funny bone actually being a humor gene? Why not?

Currently unable to pursue this area of research (tipsy or otherwise), I’ll just settle for enjoying those times when my children and their friends fill the house with laughter, whatever the reason, even adult humor – precocious devils that they are. And, um… the fact that I allowed my kids to watch South Park when they were quite young surely has nothing to do with their advanced forays into humoristic realms. Hey – those spunky little characters are equal opportunity offenders… 

So where do kids get their sense of humor?

• Do you have funny kids?
• Do you have funny pets?
• Are they funny with you or with others?
• Can you tell where they get their humor from?
• What fills your home with laughter?

© D A Wolf

Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy

Main Title_Kemeko Deluxe!

Official Title_ケメコデラックス！

Type_TV Series, 12 episodes

Year_05.10.2008 till 21.12.2008

Categories_Boing, Comedy, Ecchi, Power Suits, SciFi, Slapstick, Sudden Girlfriend Appearance

Main creators_Iwasaki Masakazu, Mizushima Tsutomu, Narita Yoshimi, Sugimoto Isao, Takagi Ryuuji, Hal Film Maker

Resources_Official page, ANN, AnimeNFO, Allcinema

Info_

* Based on a manga by Iwasaki Masakazu, serialised in Dengeki Comic Gao.

The high school student Sanpeita dreamed he was engaged to a beautiful girl. Then one morning, a strange homely girl suddenly breaks through a wall in his bedroom to tell him that she is his bride and that her name is Kemeko. In order to escape, Sanpeita fled his house and went to school, but Kemeko follows. And things got only stranger when Sanpeita was targeted by something that looks like a rice cooker on the school’s rooftop. As Sanpeita and his childhood friend Izumi were being attacked, strange little Kemeko intervenes to save them both. Just who is Kemeko? Someone who claims to be Sanpeita’s new steel bride!? Sanpeita is surprised to learn that Kemeko is really a girl-style powered-combat-suit and that the pilot is a cute girl. A heavily armed and violent girl perhaps, but still very cute.

Download_

Julia Jentsch prepares to lick Ivan Bartev clean.

(Sony Classics) Ivan Barnev, Julia Jentsch, Oldrich Kaiser, Martin Huba, Marian Labuda, Milan Lasica, Jaromir Dulava, Tonya Graves. Directed by Jiri Menzel

It is part of the human condition to want more than what we have. Some of us have absolutely no idea how to get it while others have detailed plans on how to attain what we want. Still others will do absolutely anything to get it.

Jan Dite (Kaiser) has been released from a Czech prison (he was set free after serving only 14 years and 9 months of a 15 year sentence) and has been repatriated to a place near the border with the expectation that he will flee over it. However, Dite finds himself a small pub that has been abandoned and decides to restore it and open it for business.

As a young man (Barnev), he had been something of a con artist who amuses himself by scattering coins on the ground and watching wealthy men bend down to pick them up. He dreams of being a millionaire and becomes taken by a vision of a grand hotel in prewar Prague, bull of tuxedo-wearing, white gloved waiters, crystal chandeliers and enough snootiness to put the House of Lords to shame.

He gets a job in one as a waiter and becomes the protégé of the headwaiter (Huba) of the restaurant who is the essence of impeccable service, manners and haughtiness. When asked the secret to his demeanor, he replies “I served the King of England.” It’s the only appearance the King of England makes in the film.

Barnev moves from hotel to hotel, each more prestigious than the last, learning everything that he can so that one day he might own a hotel of his own. He may be small in stature (a running gag through the movie) but that doesn’t diminish his ability to be in control of any situation that comes his way. He also has a taste for beautiful women that he exercises as often as he can.

That is, until the Nazis occupy Czechoslovakia and then, pragmatist that he is, supports the Nazi regime in order to further his ambitions. He even marries a fervent German teacher who forces him to prove his Aryan lineage before she’ll consent to wed him and bear purebred Aryan babies. The marriage is short-lived, however as she is killed trying to retrieve a box of valuable rare stamps she had looted from Jewish homes while she was working in Russia. Dite finds her body and gently removes the box; no sense in wealth going to waste.

And it doesn’t. Dite uses the money from the sale of the stamps to buy one of the magnificent hotels he was formally employed by and becomes a millionaire – until the communists throw him in jail as they did with all the millionaires. As Dite says in voiceover narration at the onset of the film, it is always his luck to find bad luck.

Director Menzel is a veteran of the Czech film industry, having directed the much-revered 1967 Oscar-winning Closely Watched Trains. He suffuses an odd mix of style here, making a kind of silent slapstick screwball softcore sex comedy of manners. The movie was the most popular Czech release of 2007 mainly because Menzel knows what two things are most dear to the Czech man’s heart – beautiful naked women and beer, and there’s a cornucopia of both here.

Barnev moves through the movie with an expression of smug insolence much like a naughty boy who knows he can get away with murder because he isn’t going to get caught and even if he is, he certainly won’t be punished. He is a major component as to why the movie works; while the scenes alternate with Kaiser playing the older version of him narrating the tale and preparing his pub, it is Barnev who captures the attention.

Menzel understand what makes a comedy effective. He examines some of the baser aspects of human nature and allows us to see those flaws in ourselves and shake our heads and laugh ruefully at them. There are some broad slapstick moments to be sure, but there is also a good deal of subtle, gentle humor that is actually quite refreshing. There is a good blend of laughter and pathos; Menzel is wise enough to understand the proper measurements of each to make a compelling brew.

WHY RENT THIS: A gentle sense of humor about class, ambition and lust in pre-war Europe allows us, like all good comedies, to laugh at these elements in ourselves.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: This may be a little too low-key for some who prefer the comedies broad and raunchy, although there is plenty of the latter. It is also subtitled, which turns off some viewers.

FAMILY VALUES: There is a good deal of nudity and sexuality in the movie, but much of it is done in a humorous manner; shouldn’t be too offensive although I’d think twice before letting the kids watch this.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The name “dite” in Czech means “child.”

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: None listed.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

TOMORROW: Push

Soupy Sales dies at 83; slapstick comic had hit TV show in 1960s

The comedian acquired a cult-like following among adults with a show ostensibly meant for children. His signature routine, which he elevated to an art form, was pie-throwing.

Soupy Sales is embraced backstage by Hanne Bork after his 1967 Broadway debut in “Come Live With Me.” (Associated Press / October 22, 2009)

Santa has added Soupy Sales to the Nice list for all the love he has giving children around the world.

Soupy Sales, a comic with a gift for slapstick who attained cult-like popularity in the 1960s with a pie-throwing routine that became his signature, has died. He was 83.

Sales had numerous ailments and died Thursday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, said Kathy O’Connell, a longtime friend.

As the star of “The Soupy Sales Show,” he performed live on television for 13 years in Detroit, Los Angeles and New York before the program went into syndication in the United States and abroad.

Ostensibly for children, the show had broad appeal among adults who found Sales’ puns, gags and pratfalls deliciously corny and camp. His cast consisted of goofy puppets with names like White Fang, Black Tooth and Pookie, and a host of off-camera characters, including the infamous naked girl.

The high point of every show came when a sidekick launched a pie into Sales’ face. Sales once estimated that he was hit by more than 25,000 pies in his lifetime.

The gag became more than hilarious; it evolved into a hip badge of honor. Frank Sinatra was first in a long line of celebrities who clamored for the privilege to be cream-faced, including Tony Curtis, Mickey Rooney, Sammy Davis Jr., Dick Martin and Burt Lancaster.

“I’ve never done a pretentious show; it’s always had a live feeling, the kind of thing that comes across when you don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Sales told author Gary Grossman in the 1981 book “Saturday Morning TV.” “I’ve never done anything simply because I thought I could get away with it. I’ve just wanted to do the funniest show.”

The possibility of humor dogged Sales from the start. He was born Milton Supman on Jan. 28, 1926, in the North Carolina backwater of Franklinton. The Supmans were the only Jews in town. Sales’ father ran a dry goods store that sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan.

The family name was often mispronounced as “Soupman.” To make matters worse, his parents, who had nicknamed his brothers “Hambone” and “Chickenbone,” dubbed him “Soupbone.” Eventually, Milton became just Soupy.

His father died when he was 5, prompting a move to Huntington, W.Va. Sales acted in school plays and in high school was voted most popular boy.

World War II did not dampen his showbiz ambitions. He fought in the Pacific theater in the Navy and participated in the invasion of Okinawa but managed to entertain crew mates with routines broadcast on the ship’s PA system.

After his discharge, Sales returned to West Virginia and enrolled in Marshall College as a journalism major, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1949. He went to work for a radio station in Huntington as a scriptwriter. At night he did stand-up in nightclubs. Soon he became a disc jockey.

In the early 1950s he moved to Ohio, where a Cleveland station manager gave him the professional name of Soupy Hines. That was nixed in Detroit, where his new station manager thought Hines would be confused with an advertiser, the Heinz soup line. Thus was Soupy Sales born.

In 1953, Sales launched a daily live children’s show on Detroit’s WXYZ-TV, called “Soupy Sales Comics.” The show caught on, causing the station to give him a nighttime slot for “Soupy’s On.” Sales created characters such as Wyatt Burp, a belch-prone sheriff, and Calypso King Harry Bella, a crazy-eyed South American with a mop top.

In 1955, the show was picked up by ABC as a summer replacement for “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” and renamed “The Soupy Sales Show.” Its star soon became Detroit’s top-rated daytime television personality.

Sales was joined by White Fang, “the meanest dog in the United States,” and Black Tooth, “the nicest dog in the United States,” of whom all that viewers saw were giant paws. Other characters included his irrepressible girlfriend, Peaches, the vivacious Marilyn Monwolf, and a bloodthirsty neighbor, the Count, who touted an album titled “Love in Vein.”

Every show featured a segment called Words of Wisdom, an opportunity to offer silly sayings such as “Be true to your teeth and they won’t be false to you.”

The highlight of each show, of course, was the pie-throwing, which Sales elevated to an art.

Sales took his first pie in the face in 1950 when he played an Indian in a spoof of the James Stewart movie “Broken Arrow.” That pie was real. Later, he would switch to shaving-cream pies. But he swore that the secret of a good pie was the crust: If it stuck to the face, it was, in Sales’ opinion, no good.

“A pie has to hit you and explode into a thousand pieces,” the expert explained, “so you see the person’s face and see it take away his dignity.”

By 1961, the face that launched several thousand pies in Detroit began to dominate local TV in Los Angeles. Critics were unkind, calling the show “a mishmash of mediocrity” that was meant for “kids with low IQs.” But viewers lapped it up, making it the No. 1 local show by 1962. A survey at the time revealed that more than a third of Sales’ fans consisted of adults. Some of them were hosting pie-lobbing parties in their basements.

One day, Sinatra called. “Hey, Soupy, it’s Frank,” he said. “I want to come on your show on one condition: I get hit with a pie.” Sales was happy to fulfill the legendary crooner’s wish.

The appearance by Sinatra stirred a stampede of stars hungry for the same humiliation. One night featured a triple-header: Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Trini Lopez were all pied together.

In his evening show, Sales also featured jazz musicians including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington. The Ken Burns jazz documentary included a clip from Sales’ show.

Once, the crew played a joke on him by posing a naked woman in a stage door. When Sales opened the door, he gasped and feared his career was over, but the scene was never telecast.

For notoriety, nothing beat the show that aired New Year’s Day 1965, when Sales was producing the program in New York. Told he had a minute to fill, the comic told the children watching on WNEW-TV to find their parents’ wallets and “get all the green pieces of paper with the pictures of guys in beards” and mail them to him. In return, he said, he would send them “a postcard from Puerto Rico.”

Sales had used the same joke in Detroit and Los Angeles. But this time, the prank elicited some $80,000 “in Monopoly money,” as well as a complaint from a viewer filed with the FCC. Sales’ show was suspended, prompting fans to swamp the station’s switchboard with protest calls, mostly from high school and college students who demanded that their favorite television fare resume. Within a week, it did.

On a website devoted to the Sales show, a fan recalled that the first program after the New Year’s episode opened with stock footage of dancing girls kicking up their heels and crowds cheering; the musical accompaniment was “Happy Days Are Here Again.” “It was obvious to all of us that our beloved Soupy was unrepentant,” the fan wrote, “and we repressed youths were behind him. I must dispute the thesis . . . that Froggy from ‘Andy’s Gang’ was the cause of ’60s rebelliousness. It was Soupy who inspired my generation to anarchy.”

Sales called the episode “the most brilliant minute of ad-lib in television history because it proved how powerful the medium is.”

Later that year he invented a dance called “The Mouse,” a loony version of the Twist in which Sales bared his upper teeth, raised his hands to his ears and wiggled his fingers while chewing in time to the music. He performed it several times on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” where he met dancer Trudy Carson. They were married in 1980.

When animation took over children’s programming in the 1960s, personalities such as Shari Lewis and Sales began to lose their appeal. In 1966 his show was not renewed in New York and went into syndication. A new version was produced and syndicated in 1978-79.

During the next few decades, Sales starred in a short-lived Broadway comedy and became a regular panelist on the long-running TV game show “What’s My Line?” He also was a featured performer in the musical variety show “Sha Na Na” from 1978 to 1981.

In the mid-1980s, he emceed a radio show on WNBC in New York, sandwiched between Don Imus and Howard Stern. He acted in several movies, notably in the role of Moses in the 1993 cult comedy ” . . . And God Spoke.”

He once acknowledged that his trademark pie routine hurt his career: “Producers say, ‘Hey, all he does is throw pies.’ It kept me off a lot of shows.”

His authority in pie-tossing even landed him in court — as an expert witness. In 1974 he was called to testify in the court-martial of a sailor accused of pitching a pie into an officer’s face. Noted defense attorney William Smith enlisted Sales to tell how, after launching more than 19,000 creamy missiles, he had never been prosecuted for assault with a pie. Pie-hurling, Sales told the court, was “a harmless joke” designed to “relieve tensions and frustrations.” He offered to perform at the Port Hueneme naval base Christmas show if the charges were dropped but was turned down. The sailor was found guilty.

Sales kept up club appearances through the 1990s, performing before audiences of baby boomers.

“A lot of people grew up watching me,” he told The Times several years ago. “I’ll probably be remembered for the pies, and that’s all right. That’s fine and dandy. I’m flattered.”

He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Trudy Carson Sales; sons Tony and Hunt from a previous marriage; a brother; and four grandchildren.

]]> http://moviedames.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/mysteryoftheleapingfish/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:50:08 +0000 Caroline http://moviedames.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/mysteryoftheleapingfish/ http://pcloeb.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/movie-review-zombieland-2009/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:34:20 +0000 pcloeb http://pcloeb.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/movie-review-zombieland-2009/ http://darknoee.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/3358/ Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:52:20 +0000 darknoee http://darknoee.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/3358/

Nombre Original: Mai-HiME – 舞-HiME
Año de Emisión: 2004-2005
Estudio: Yatate Hajime, Bandai, Sunrise
Paginas Oficiales: Official page, ANN, AnimeNFO
Género: Accion, Comedia, Conspiración, Love Polygon, Romance, Slapstick, Super Poderes, Tragedia
Cantidad de Episodios: 26
Tipo: Tv Series
Fansub/Ripper: Nanikano Fansub
Estado de Episodios: Completa
Idioma: Japones / Subtitulos: Español
Peso p/e: 55 Mb
Formato: Mp4
Calidad: Muy Buena
Hosting: MegaUpload Premium

Sinopsis:

Mai Tokiha es una chica de preparatoria y es la hermana mayor de Takumi, en la que ambos obtuvieron una beca a la prestigiosa Academia Fuuka. Mientras tomaban un ferry como unas mini vacaciones antes de ir a su nueva escuela, su hermano avistó algo… una joven niña que estaba flotando en el mar, y estaba aferrada a una gran espada negra. Entonces Mai fue la única en el ferry en aplicar la respiración cardiopulmonar. Después de resucitar a la chica, Mai se da cuenta que la chica tiene una marca de nacimiento idéntica a la suya. El misterio parece terminar ahí, hasta que la persona que dejó a la chica misteriosa en el mar se acerca al ferry.

[Online][MU] 01.- Grandes problemas para una dama
[Online][MU] 02.- ¿Secretos después de clase?
[Online][MU] 03.- Mai de fuego/Juramento de la estrella
[Online][MU] 04.- Travesuras del Viento
[Online][MU] 05.- Lluvia. Lágrimas……
[Online][MU] 06.- Ardientes 17 años (^^)
[Online][MU] 07.- Gatito Perdido
[Online][MU] 08.- Algo importante
[Online][MU] 09.- Doncellas del mar y el secreto de Natsuki
[Online][MU] 10.- ¡¡¡¡Guerra de Tartas!!!!
[Online][MU] 11.- Batalla entre luz y oscuridad
[Online][MU] 12.- Sonrisa Angelical
[Online][MU] 13.- La noche de Tamayura
[Online][MU] 14.- Objetivo, la academia
[Online][MU] 15.- Chica de instituto a través de la galaxia
[Online][MU] 16.- Desfile
[Online][MU] 17.- Engañoso, Labio
[Online][MU] 18.- Comienzo
[Online][MU] 19.- Laberinto en el Corazzón
[Online][MU] 20.- Danza de fuego/Destino de lágrimas
[Online][MU] 21.- Tú, el oscuro, hora de salir a la luz
[Online][MU] 22.- Derrumbandose……
[Online][MU] 23.- Amor y amistad, insensible
[Online][MU] 24.- El amor es una batalla
[Online][MU] 25.- Hacia la hora del destino
[Online][MU] 26.- Días Brillantes

Comentar es agradecer....!!

The British sense of humour is world-renowned for being, well…different.  You only have to be familiar with Monty Python or The Office to realise that slapstick is not our National style.  And whereas we buy a lot of our dramas and documentaries from the US (some would say ‘most’), we still seem to prefer home-grown laughs to imported ones.

You’d think that would make British humour hard to export, but apparently not.  The Office has gone global (with the original generally more popular than the remakes) and Monty Python is quoted wherever you go (who knows, maybe they even sing the Spam song on the space station, too).

Red Dwarf is a tricky one to describe if you’ve never seen it.  If I said it was set on a spaceship, you might think it’s a Sci-fi series, but most of the humour is really about the people.  Although technically, there is only one person; Lister, a lowly Liverpudlian technician who survived in stasis for three million years after the rest of the crew were killed.  Thankfully, though he also has for company Holly (the ship’s sometimes-chirpy, sometimes depressed, slightly senile computer), Rimmer (a hologram of his hated former neurotic, pedantic boss), Kryten (the mechanoid butler) and Cat (who although he looks human actually evolved over the 3 million years from Lister’s cat).  There you go – I haven’t even described their adventures yet and you’re already either thinking “that’s ridiculous.  I’d rather watch a re-re-re-re-re-run of Friends” or “that’s ridiculous!  I need to see that!”.

And, if you’re one of the latter camp, maybe you can!  Because although Red Dwarf has been off air since 1999, some utter genius has commissioned a three-part special where the Red Dwarf team head back to Earth; and I have three of the DVD’s to give away!

Here’s a sneak preview…containing the non-human ship’s crew attempting a conversation in a Northern dialect (plus a reference to chip butties).

All you need to do to win is leave a comment here and next Saturday, 31st October, I’ll pick three names at random.

Good luck; and happy watching..

Official Title_フリクリ
Type_OVA, 6 episodes
Year_26.04.2000 till 16.03.2001
Categories_Action, Androids, Comedy, Mecha, Parody, SciFi, Seinen, Slapstick
Main creators_ Gainax, Tsurumaki Kazuya, Sadamoto Yoshiyuki, Mitsumune Shinkichi, The Pillows, Production I.G
Resources_Official page, ANN, AnimeNFO, Allcinema

Info_A young boy named Naota is hanging out with Mamimi, the girlfriend of Naota’s absentee brother. Their relationship is an uneasy one, since Mamimi seems to enjoy teasing Naota quite a bit. Suddenly, their time together is interrupted by the arrival of a seemingly insane girl on a motorscooter. She runs over Naota and then whacks him in the head with her guitar…

Download_
Furi Kuri – 1 – Fooly Cooly – [zx](abe499b6).ogm
Furi Kuri – 2 – Fire Starter – [zx](1e7f7d54).ogm
Furi Kuri – 3 – Marquis de Carabas – [zx](2ae54c63).ogm
Furi Kuri – 4 – Full Swing – [zx](2a2ab157).ogm
Furi Kuri – 5 – Brittle Bullet – [zx](52460d09).ogm
Furi Kuri – 6 – FLCLimax – [zx](7c8ea3e0).ogm