Title:
Lionheart (1990)
Rated: R
Directed by:
Sheldon Lettich
Written by:
S.N. Warren (story)
Jean Claude Van Damme (screenplay)
Starring:
Jean Claude Van Damme as Leon
Harrison Page as Joshua
Debra Rennard as Cynthia
Lisa Pelikan as Helene
Ashley Johnson as Nicole

 By Count Vardulon

Pre-screening memories: I was old enough, when seeing Lionheart for the first time, that I can’t call it one of the most important formative movies of my childhood. True, I wasn’t a fan of martial arts films before seeing it, and afterwards I became something of a devotee of Van Damme’s, but the most vital part of the film for my developing fandom was that it reinforced the lesson, first taught by Tim Curry’s performance in the movie Clue, that following an actor from project to project would

A: Never disappoint, because if nothing else, you at least get to see a performance by someone whose work you enjoy, and

B: could possibly lead to discovering something fantastic.

Which is my circuitous way of saying that my passion for the TV show Sledge Hammer! led directly to my lifelong love of watching people kicking other people in the face. Still inconsolable two full years after Sledge Hammer’s cancellation, seeing Harrison Page show up in television ads for upcoming film ‘Lionheart’ made me determined to see the film, which was rated a forbidding R, ensuring that I wouldn’t make it to the theatres.

When I finally saw the film on video it didn’t disappoint. Not only was Harrison Page fantastic in the film, but the action was unlike anything I’d seen in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies that dominated my childhood, or even the occasional episode of Kung Fu. After all, who needed a machine gun when you could just spin really fast and crack someone across the jaw with your heel? A lifelong fan of the genre was born, as well as a devotee of Van Damme’s ‘all downhill from here’ ouevre.

New memories: I’m frankly amazed by how good this movie was. Not having seen it in years, I’d assumed that it was going to be one of those embarrassingly Natsukashi moments (that’s how you use that word, right?) where I’d created an epic action extravaganza in my mind that never actually existed – this was certainly not the case. The action certainly wasn’t up to modern choreographic standards, but everything else about the film was far better than I’d remembered.

That’s right, what impressed me most about the film was that it worked, first and foremost, as a drama. Sounds crazy, right? Van Damme’s a pretty limited actor, especially at this fresh-faced stage of his career, before that personal and professional setbacks that would reduce him to the withered husk of ‘JCVD’, but damn if it doesn’t work in this part, as a simply good, almost naïve man struggling his way through the seamy world of underground fighting. He’s helped on this journey by the even-better-than-I-remembered-it performance of Harrison Page, who provides perhaps the most raw, vulnerable, and downright emotional performance I’ve ever seen in an action film. The way his Joshua starts out sad, defeated and desperate and gradually finds a kind of purpose and nobility in training Leon is a great character arc, and it brings him to a moment, right at the end, which is unlike anything I’ve seen in an American action film.

The other thing that amazed me about the movie (other than the fact that it’s a semi-remake of Midnight Cowboy – Who knew?) was the aspect that likely affected me most as a youngster, and that’s the utter contempt that the film shows for the upper classes who are funding the brutal no-holds-barred fights. If the film’s battles aren’t the most spectacular thing ever, their settings are absolutely stunning, and steeped in subtext. Van Damme’s first professional fight is in a parking garage beneath an office building, literally taking place in the underbelly of New York’s wealth-obsessed establishment. From there the action moves out to LA, but the satirical settings don’t stop – there’s a huge pool in a beachside mansion, a squash court, and a ring constructed from the luxury automobiles of the elite who have come to watch men beat each other nearly to death. This all leads up to the final battle which takes place well within the closed walls of the upper-class, a tennis court around the back of a palatial estate. The entire film works as an attack on the kind of people who commoditize human beings, and if the message gets a little heavy-handed at times (and it does), at least the movie was trying to say something important, unlike just about all of its brethren.

I loved Lionheart as a child. As an adult, crazy as it may seem, I respect it.

Download Natsukashi’s ‘Lionheart’ podcast right here

Or dropkick below and listen on our player

Our featured guest: Harrison Page

Fascinated by film at an early age, Harrison sought the Hollywood dream after serving in the military.

He began, as most starting in the business do, by snagging small roles on television, film and stage. And looking back, has amassed a resume in an astonishing amount of popular shows, including C.P.O. Sharkey, Webster, Hill Street Blues, Fame, 21 Jump Street, The Wonder Years, Quantum Leap (which earned him an Emmy nod), Melrose Place, Ally McBeal, ER, JAG, and Cold Case, to name but a few.

But it was his role in the cult classic series Sledge Hammer! (yes, the exclamation point was in the title) that cemented him into certified pop culture status. In it, he played Captain Trunk, the Pepto-Bismal-swilling, beleaguered head of a police department featuring the titular vigilante office (played by David Rasche). (Ed. note-  If you are not putting this series on your Netflix queue this very moment, we don’t want to know you.)

Harrison spoke about his time spent on the set with a young Van Damme, his fond memories of Sledge, and the wisdom he’s amassed in his four decades of Hollywood. Thanks, Harrsion, from your pals at Natsukashi.

Em uma época em que os filmes policiais e de ação eram os mais populares do cinema, surgiu um seriado para fazer de tudo isso uma piada. “Na Mira do Tira” (Sledge Hammer!) era uma clara sátira de um dos maiores sucessos do gênero, a série cinematográfica Dirty Harry, estrelada por Clint Eastwood.

O inspetor Sledge Hammer (David Rasche), do Departamento de Polícia de São Francisco, era simplesmente maluco. Andando para todo com sua Magnum 44, que fazia questão de usar sempre, além de tratá-la como uma pessoa, Hammer tinha como bordão a frase “Confie em mim. Eu sei o que estou fazendo.”

Logo no episódio-piloto o inspetor ganhou uma parceira, a competente, inteligente e sofisticada detetive Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin). Além de se conhecer o seu chefe, o capitão Trunk (Harrison Page), que odeia Hammer, gritando sempre seu nome.

O humor nonsense de “Na Mira do Tira” estava sempre presente, seja no adesivo no carro de Hammer, escrito “I ♥ Violence” (Eu amo violência); seja no comportamento sádico do policial. Entretanto, as tradicionais risadas de fundo não eram incluídas nos episódios, algo que naquela época era incomum. Mas foi assim que conseguiu conquistar o público.

Apesar disso, o horário em que a ABC colocou “Na Mira do Tira” não ajudou. Concorria com dois grandes sucessos: “Miami Vice” na NBC e “Dallas” na CBS. Ao fim da primeira temporada o canal já tinha praticamente decidido cancelar a série. Entretanto o último episódio acabou tendo uma boa audiência, fazendo a ABC repensar.

Assim, “Na Mira do Tira” acabou renovado para uma segunda temporada e em um novo horário. Entretanto a concorrência não ajudou, batendo de frente com “The Cosby Show”. Ao fim da segunda temporada, a série acabou sendo cancelada.

No total foram 41 episódios, em duas temporadas, exibidas entre 1986 e 1988.

No Brasil, “Na Mira do Tira” foi exibido pela Rede Globo, no fim dos anos 80.

Nos EUA a distribuidora independente Anchor Bay Entertainment lançou as duas temporadas em dvd. Enquanto isso, no Brasil, a série permanece inédita no formato.

Curiosidades

- Quando o episódio-piloto ficou pronto, foi lançada a canção “Sledgehammer”, por Peter Gabriel. A ABC resolveu então aproveitar o sucesso da música e a utilizou nos comerciais de estreia do programa.

- O tema de abertura da série foi composto por Danny Elfman, que posteriormente foi indicado a 4 Oscars e ganhou um Grammy. Além disso é o compositor do tema da série de animação “Os Simpsons”.

- Sledge Hammer é divorciado e com isso, em vários episódios, faz piadas sobre sua ex-mulher. No último episódio da série ela aparece, sendo interpretada por Heather Lupton, esposa de David Rasche.

- Fizeram participações na série os atores Bill Bixby (o Dr. David Banner em “O Incrível Hulk”), Conchata Ferrell (a faxineira Berta em “Two and a Half Men”), Davy Jones (da banda e da série “Os Monkees”), Patrick Wayne (filho de John Wayne), Lewis Arquette (pai dos atores Patricia, Alexis, Rosanna, David e Richmond Arquette), entre outros.

I have always been a fan of 80’s television.  I don’t know every time I reminisce about the old days on the tube, the hair on the back of my neck stands up and seems to cheer. I don’t know what it is about my fascination about nostalgia TV. In this expansion of Blast from the Past we will look at three of my favorite shows from that era. This week we look at Sledge Hammer! 

 SLEDGE HAMMER!

I guess the whole idea of old TV shows on DVD really never hit close to home until it came time for Anchor Bay Entertainment to release one my all-time favorite TV shows. The series was “Sledge Hammer!” and when that DVD hit shelves some little part of me stood up and screamed, “Oh Yeah!!”

“Sledge Hammer” was a mock-comedy inspired by Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry. David Rasche stars as the title character, a police detective who loves his gun, literally. He sleeps with his gun, he talks to his gun. his gun is literally the most important thing in his life. Sledge is a gun-crazy redneck but he also has a sensitive and not so bright side. He is a classic TV character and should be fondly remembered

“Sledge Hammer” was definitely a series ahead of its time. The one-liners, zany humor and social issues hard-boiled into this police detective was unlike anything ever seen on TV. Sledge Hammer (David Rasche) was always talking to his gun, getting in trouble with current social issues and rubbing people the wrong way. But for some reason he was so utterly easy to like as a character.

I have firm recollections of two of my favorite episodes from the two years that Sledge Hammer aired. The first episode was “Witless” which pokes fun at the Harrison Ford drama, “Witness”. I remember Hammer trying to be Amish and it was so hilarious. Probably my most favorite episode from the whole series was “Suppose They Gave a War and Sledge Came!” The writing on this episode reminded me so much of movies like “Airplane!” as Hammer is sent to investigate a murder during a corporate paintball match. It was Hammer at his best and probably the crown jewel of the series.

Series Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Nostalgia Factor: 8 out of 10

Hooi!

Waaauw! Wat een lange tijd niet online geweest, najah ik heb daar een paar goede redes voor & ik beloof meer te updaten. Het voelt goed om soms je gedachten eens neer te zetten.

Waar ben ik mee bezig ?

Op dit moment ben ik bezig met het lezen van Eclipse. Een boek geschreven door Stephenie Meyer. Het is echt fantastisch gechreven en dus echt zo’n aanrader. Eclipse of in het nederlands Eclips is het vervolg op de 2 andere boeken; Twilight & New Moon (Nieuwe maan).

SUMMER.

Woehoe, het was echt een fantastische zomer, en dat kun je niet anders dan een paar keer naar een fantastisch pretpark te gaan. .
En ik ben natuurlijk meteen heel wat negatieve punten tegengekomen, en enkele +’jes.

TYPHOON
Als eerste dé overweldigende Typhoon, dé fantastische attractie.
Maar in feite is er niks aan, “het naar boven hijsen” is het ergste. :p
En dan is het midden ff blijven hangen, maar voor de rest echt NOTHING.

Ik denk dat de Looping Star een betere aanwinst was voor Bobbejaanland, Marja blijkbaar staat deze attractie ondertussen ook weer te koop. BBJ weet niet wat ze moet HOUDEN.

BOBBY DROP
Want van de Bobby Drop moet niemand nog iets verwachten, één van de leukste attracties is zojuist weggehaald. En wat blijft er nog van over. Tjah,.. Kijk zelf maar op de foto. Waarom zou je zo’n fantastische attractie weghalen ? En dan heb ik het nog niet gehad over…

SPEEDY BOB

Een heel deel van deze attractie is weggehaald, en nu heb je niet maar dat “SPEEDY BOB” gevoel. Er ontbreekt iets, niet dat het andere deel nog veel gebruikt werd, maar goed.

SLEDGE HAMMER

Echt een fantastische attractie, het geeft je een fantastisch gevoel. Het ziet er eng uit maar het is gewoon,.. fantastisch echt als ik iets moest aanbevelen zou het dít zijn. Het is echt cool & voor mij een van de beste attracties in BBJ.

Heet geeft een soort van magisch gevoel dat je minstens 1 keer  in je leven gehad moet hebben. Ik hoop dat deze attractie gewoon NIET weg gaat.

UPDATES

• Update van Playlist

www.royaltyfreesoundeffects.co.uk releases new Impact sound effects including the wonderful sound of breaking glass and bottle smashing, metal objects dropping and hard crash sounds in construction situations such as rubble, debris, rocks and dust on a building site with sledge hammer hits and wood thud. Many splat juicy hits and television drop and smash sound fx. We have also added hundreds of Industry sound effects and industrial environment ambience include construction sites, machines on a production line, metal sound effects, plant PA announcement radio voice clips and many tools like ratchet sounds, air gun and bolt cutters. We also have many power tools and electrical sound effects like electric drill sounds, band saw, power washer and chain saw.

The DVD has only been out a week, so no real spoilers, but I have a few thoughts about the two unaired episodes of Dollhouse.

* “Epitaph One” is as ambitious and as amazing as promised—definitely my favorite episode of Dollhouse and one of the top Whedonverse episodes of all time. It is, in every sense, just great, laying out a blueprint for the future of the series that is so compelling I’m not sure we need to actually see any of intervening episodes. (As far as I’m concerned they’d just be killing time before we get to “Epitaph Two,” which is what I really want to see.) Joss and his co-writers have been pretty open with the fact that the episode came out of the assumption that there wouldn’t be any more; people reference “Objects in Space,” but the comparison to the season one finale of Sledge Hammer! seems much more apt. Have they written themselves into a corner? It’ll be interesting to see if Joss & Co. can make the second season work when the real story now seems to be happening in 2019. Will people really sit still for john-of-the-week episodes with the stakes raised so much higher? Or will season two be more like Lost seasons four and five, with flashbacks and flashforwards that meet somewhere in the middle? Honestly I think I’d be most happy if they stuck with the “Epitaph” frame for good and did 2009-2018 just in flashback. It’s not like we’re getting a third season; don’t leave anything on the road.

* Speaking of 2019: Was that a Dark Angel shout-out? The episode definitely had a post-Pulse vibe, and Joss and Dark Angel have something of a checkered past: widely understood as a Buffy rip-off, Dark Angel was unceremoniously canceled in favor of Firefly, which was later (you may have heard) unceremoniously canceled…

* The unaired pilot is, I think, probably a little worse as a pilot than the actually aired pilot—a rare case of network interference not being all bad—but it’s pretty clear that Joss bitterly prefers it. (I haven’t listened to the commentary yet, but apparently he has a lot of thoughts along these lines there as well.) Not only did he make oblique references to the original pilot throughout the season and in Epitaph One *and* bring back the astoundingly unimpressive Chrissy Seaver for “Omega,” but he ended the (aired) season on the same audiovisual image—a whispered “Caroline”—that the original pilot ended on. The implication seems to be that the whole of the first season gets us to the same place the pilot did in just one hour.

* The most interesting thing about the unaired pilot, I think, is the discovery that Eliza Dushku is actually pretty good at doing a series of drastically different characters when it happens in rapid-fire, three-minute bursts. It’s only over the course of a full episode that she really struggles as an actress. The hints toward Future Caroline in “Epitaph One” look like the latest attempt to explain away the one-note-acting; we’ll see how this plays out.

Neulich gab es bei Amazon ein preislich recht attraktives Angebot:

Der gute alte Sledge Hammer in der Ultimate Edition!
Ultimate bedeutet hierbei: 12 Discs – Die Komplette Serie – Streng Limitierte Auflage.

Das Ganze gab es für 24,95€ all inclusive.

Nach ein paar Tagen lag das Paket dann auch an der Packstation bereit.
Natürlich habe ich es direkt ausgepackt.

Die Hülle der Ultimate Edition macht schon wenig her.
Es handelt sich um eine einfache Pappbox. Innen vier Boxen.
Im Regal macht sie keine wirklich gute Figur.

Ich habe Nummer 243 von insgesamt 3000 Stück erhalten – wahrscheinlich aus dem Zufallsprinzip heraus.
Andererseits ist die Ultimate Edition auch noch auf Amazon zu haben.

Die 12 DVDs teilen sich auf in vier Boxen.
Staffel 1 auf 4 DVDs in einer Box, bei Staffel 2 genau das gleiche.
In Box 3 Audiokommentare und in Box 4 nochmal etwas, was sich “Bonus” nennt.
Die letzten beiden DVDs sind ziemlich stark aufgebläht.
Lediglich ein paar Trailer und weitere Audiokommentare sind enthalten.
Streng betrachtet hätte man sich die Boxen 3 und 4 sparen und alles auf die ersten 8 DVDs packen können.

Von der Bildqualität hatte ich in Anbetracht des Alters der Serie wenig erwartet.
Aber selbst dieser geringe Anspruch wurde noch unterboten.

Besonders störend finde ich die Streifen an den Seiten und den seltsamen Balken, der sich über die Hälfte des unteren Randes erstreckt.
Ab und an sind noch schwarz-weiße Balken am oberen Rand zu erkennen.

Das Bild insgesamt ist sehr verrauscht und krieselig.
Hier hätte man ruhig zumindest die Ränder beschneiden können.
Und mit ein wenig Mühe hätte sich die Bildqualität sicher noch verbessern lassen.

Wenig Mühe hat man sich auch bei der DVD-Menü Aufmachung gegeben. Aber darauf lege ich auch keinen gesteigerten Wert.
Im Laufwerk werden die DVDs als “UNDEFINED” angezeigt.

Extrem ärgerlich finde ich die DVD-Befestigungskränze.
Die Silberscheiben stecken so bombenfest darin, dass man beim herausnehmen Angst haben muss, den Datenträger zu zerbrechen!
Das ist echt eine Katastrophe!

An der Ultimate Edition wurde im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes an jeder Ecke gespart!

Wer bereits die “normalen” Sledge Hammer DVD-Boxen besitzt, kann sich dieses Set getrost sparen.
Und für all jene, die Sledge gerne wieder sehen möchten, rate ich auch zum normalen Box-Set.
Erstens ist es billiger und zweitens bietet diese Edition nichts, was man wirklich benötigen würde.

Unterm Strich also ein einfaches Fazit: Finger Weg !

Hi Everyone,

We have a special project coming up and are in the need of two things this week, Also please join us this Saturday from 11am-1pm for our Riverwest24 Bonus checkpoint and check out the garden too! Check out the races website www.riverwest24.com!

We need:

Sledge Hammers

Seeds
Coneflower
Asters
Milkweed
other native seeds that can overwinter

If you have any of these Let me know and I will come and pick them up!
Thanks,
Wendy Mesich

–
wendy@offthegridmke.org
414-241-3069
www.OffTheGridMKE.org

If I had a hammer I’d hammer in the morning I’d hammer in the evening All over this land I’d hammer out danger I’d hammer out a warning I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters All over this land.  Just a thought.

Tuesday

PRaP 07-07-2009

“Where Am I?”

Standing up looking around and not knowing where I am or where I am supposed to be going or what I am supposed to be doing when I get there.  Have you ever been there?  Maybe not in the physical but in the spiritual?  I have been there on several occasions in the spiritual and ok once or twice in the physical I am not getting any younger LOL, right Pastor Mary?  Even when I hit the wall spiritually I have to keep hitting the wall and hitting the wall and hitting the wall until it comes crashing down.  But watch out because sometimes that wall will fall backwards upon you.  Then you might get amnesia from the head trauma of the wall falling on top of you.  Been there too, spiritually speaking of course.  Spiritual walls are built to be knocked down and depending on how you knock it down will then either clear the way so you can see clearly or there could be another wall lurking behind the first wall.  Now some walls are so high and so thick it takes a team of people to knock it down so if you have one of those walls that need to be knocked down don’t try to do it on your own because when more than one come into agreement in the name of Jesus it will be done.  So Jesus we come to you today to help us knock down those walls that block our path to You, Lord we ask that you bring jack hammers and sledge hammers and one of those big wrecking balls to help knock down those walls that are keeping us from following the path that you have laid before us.  Lord help us see, understand, and fulfill Your will and not that of our own so that we can spend eternity with You.  Lord we ask this in Jesus name Amen.  And everyone reading this today say, “I agree in Jesus name”, Amen

Matthew 21

Key Verse:

Matthew 21:22
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Matthew 21:21-23 (in Context) Matthew 21 (Whole Chapter)

Jesus Bless,

Pastor Steve

So, the story goes that we had all of these Hard Drives with old school data that we needed to erase. Do we have 6-year old hardware? Nah. Did we want to 7-pass encode each one? Nah. Instead, we took a different approach. To all of those who’ve seen Office Space, this will probably be worth your while.

Oh yeah, I’m the one with a pickaxe.

As these two clips show some tools that shouldn’t be allowed at work.

Have a great weekend ~ Jim

This title can be taken many different ways but the way I mean it is that everyone was very tired today.  I know for a few of us in Field D it was extremely physically taxing.

I spent the whole day (and by that I mean from 5:30 – after picture taking to 11:30 – get-ready-for-the-next-day-time) breaking a rock.  Now this was not just any ordinary rock, it was a 1 meter x 1/3 meter x 1/3 meter marble-like stone (it wasn’t marble it acted just like it – including the smell, which I unpleasantly discovered, smells like rotten eggs when you crack off a piece – apparently from the trapped air mixed with sulfur).  But I did have a lot of help with it.

To start with, this stone was not even in my square.  It was something that was deemed to have to be moved before I could take out a sliver of a balk that belonged to square 7 but was in the southwest corner of a room that is nearly entirely in my square (square 1).

It was up on the top of the balk  which has a lot of loose dirt and wall stones that falls into my square quite often.  (It is good to take it down, but I just wish it wasn’t me doing it.  I want to excavate!)  This very very large stone was on top of a small cobble wall (either it is from a different phase or the builder didn’t like the people who were living inside because it is certainly a widow-maker).  It had to come out before I went down or I might stay down forever.

First thing yesterday morning we began to dig it out (Owen, Tim, and Chris from field C came to help me).  It turned out to be far larger than we had thought so it had to be pushed into the room below to be broken (the room below is about 12-14 feet below the stone).  We banged on it with a sledge hammer for quite a long time but it wouldn’t break (I had two of the local workers helping me).  But after a few hours I was ready to give up on it because I was tired and there was simply no progress at all.

When I took the sledge hammer down to the Islamic village (which had requested it when we were finished) Thomas (the “Viking”/”Undertaker” – or pick your nickname) volunteered to come help me break it.  He had some techniques that he thought might be useful (from previous work breaking marble in another country).

The idea was to get the large stone off of the ground and onto a smaller rock that would cause the larger stone to fracture.  As it was, the stone had fallen onto soft wall-fall dirt which was acting to absorb the impacts.  That is why we were not getting anywhere.

In one hour Thomas, Owen, and I had that stone down to about 1/5th the size.  After 2nd Breakfast Owen, Tim, and I continued for about 45 minutes to an hour and were able to break it into a removable size.  I was spent.  Still am actually.

I probably could have kept working but thought it best to do paper work for the last hour (looking back – that was probably a good decision).  At one point I had to take a GPS reading and my fine motor skills were gone.   I couldn’t even hold a pencil.  I tried to write and found that I was only capable of scribbling.  I am glad I have Theragesic for my hands.  I used it a lot and will do it again today.

I don’t get tired often but hitting on that stone for about 5 total hours was enough to wear me out.  Owen said his back was a bit sore today.  Tim said he had very little energy.  As for me, today was a day when everything hurt and I had almost no reserve energy.  Wow.

I am sure tomorrow will be a little easier (after all I am only moving dirt tomorrow).  Let’s hope that this wiped out feeling only lasts for one day…

a tired, Mr. Cool (D-1 super)

Randy Orton expects Batista to return to fight Legacy, the ambulance pulls up and Triple H comes out with his sledge hammer to avenge Batista and destroy Legacy.

Randy Orton’s Championship rematch with Batista…

It’s like a devastating tornado. When, the hot air that Rob spews mixes with the ice-cold demeanor of Redneck Barry. I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming. Lately the two have been talking about things they’re experts on like politics, business, & what an “any button,” on a computer is. It makes sense for a social outcast to latch on to someone more socially awkward than themselves, & that’s exactly what Redneck Barry did. Oh, what’s that? Who the hell is Redneck Barry? Well, let me paint a picture for you.

Redneck Barry is retired enlisted from the army. Further elaboration for those of you who don’t know what that is (like myself until I made the mistake of asking Redneck Barry, now I’m an unpatriotic liberal fruity art boy), it’s someone who spent their entire life in the military & now have relatively nothing to show for it. Well that is until he started stealing from government disability.

Barry is one of the scariest people that I know. I assume he planned on dying in some foreign conflict, but that’s the only explanation I can come up with for his blatant refusal to reassimilate into civilian life. He has a fake laugh that sound like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, he uses it to make people feel more comfortable around him, but the end result can make an entire room shudder. One time while I was getting cardboard to cover the top of my cubical (uh… I’ll have to explain that one later), I overheard a conversation he had with one of our supply guys about proper disposal for old hard drives.

Barry “I say you take them suck’rs out back & smash them!”

Supply Guy “Uh, you can’t do that…”

Barry “Of course you can! Tee-Hee! No one would be able to steal our info after you take a sledge hammer to ‘em!”

 SP “Sledge hamm…. No! You can’t do that, there are rules. Proper dispos-“

Barry “You just “dispose” of ‘em in the garbage after a good smashing!”

SP “Look, this company has rules that we need to fol-“

Barry “You! Art boy!”

At this point I just wanted run out of the room & hide under my desk, but Barry had the exit blocked.

“…Me…?”

Barry “Yea’ you! You look young & healthy! Tomorrow you’re going to do some man’s work! You & I’z gona’ to go out back & smash us some hard drives! Tee-Hee!”

Before that I had never looked him in the eye while he fake laughed. It made my skin crawl.

“Uh, I have deadlines that I need to ma-“

Barry “BullSHIT! No one cares about your doodle bops & twiddlie dinks! But don’t tell anyone I’m doin’ this cuz they’ll cut off my disability n’ I’ll have to kill you!” & I believe he would.

After a few more EXTREAMLY uncomfortable minutes I was able to slide, with my back against the wall, out of the room. Then I quickly ran back to my cubical. I never thought that I’d be so happy to see it. Sitting back in my crappy old chair I think about how lucky I am to have gotten out of there in one piece. With my face pointed towards the ceiling I let out a sigh of relief.

*Smack!*

All of a sudden there’s a rubber band on my face, & in the background a very familiar & annoying chuckle.

Rob “Hee hee…. Bulls eye…..”

Aus einer längst vergangenen Zeit, als Polizisten mit ihren Waffen sprachen. Coole Sprüche.

Mulder and Scully clutching hands after being unearthed from the tendrils of a giant killer fungus. Mulder finding new ways to stumble around his soaked apartment as he loops through a terrible version of Groundhog Day. Giant hearts made of ice falling from the sky. Michael McKean and David Duchovny playing each other (and dancing!). Mulder hallucinating that his parents handed his sister over. A wedding ring that looks like a castle and an erased letter. The revelation that Scully has cancer (and oh, that one hurts today). Mulder trapped under chicken wire, the Black Oil dripping onto his face. The origins of the Lone Gunmen. Inbred brothers dragging their armless, legless mother out from under a bed. Roaches, roaches, roaches. Corpses encased in clay. Lucy Householder drowning in the back of a police car to save a kidnapped girl (Jewel Staite!). Giovanni Ribisi and Jack Black watching car wrecks. A Satanic substitute teacher making a small town eat itself alive. And a circus community at the mercy of the Fiji Mermaid.

If you’re an X-Files fan, some of your favorite moments were directed by Kim Manners, who also directed episodes of Supernatural, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr, 21 Jump Street, and Simon and Simon, among others (you can see him directing Gillian Anderson in eating a cricket above). Manners, who died in Los Angeles Sunday of lung cancer, blew open the X-Files world with “Humbug”, expanded the visual look of the show, and guided the actors to some of the best performances of the series. Pull out your favorite X-Files (or Supernatural, or Sledge Hammer!, or even Baywatch) episode, which Manners may well have directed, in tribute, and when you’re done with that one, watch “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’” and enjoy the character named in his honor, the hard-swearing Detective Manners. Just as Jose Chung says about Detective Manners, film crews up and down the West Coast were familiar with Director Manners’ colorful vernacular, too, and they loved him for it. He will be missed.

I would be reassured

Almost

If you took

Some sort of metaphorical

Sledge hammer

To that little part of who you were.

I am no great lover of violence

But I do know that passion is our only hope.

And if, at least there was passion…

If at least there was passion

you might rebuild after you tore it down.

what is coming might be better than what was…

It is too easy.

It is too easy and that is our doom.

I want you to smash the place.

I want you to burn it up.

I want you to be a dervish,

A force of nature,

The epicenter of something tremendous.

There are no metaphorical sledge hammers,

No symbolic tornadoes, here.

It is like you are turning off the flueroescent lights.

Perhaps unscrewing a bulb.  Latching the door. 

The click is a quiet click.

It will fall into disuse and disrepair.

There are things that you can not see anymore.

They will take up residence in this place.

They will fornicate with each other.

They will become this inbred thing.

They will not leave because you will never let them.

Where did all your dreams go?

Where are your passions?

There was this adventure once.  It called to you.

But you closed the door.

And I’m supposed to tell you that it’s not to late.

I’m supposed to cry that it’s never to late.

And I hope that is right.

But when you open the door its eyes will be burned by the sun

It will be a thing that color of internal organs.

We won’t want to recognize it anymore.

If you’d only knocked it all down

Way back then.

It would’ve run free.

And I think maybe

Once it grew strong.

It would’ve come back.

MSNBC reports that members of South Korea’s unicameral parliament have gotten into fisticuffs.  Again.

The chamber of the South Korean National Assembly looks like this when there is no fight going on

This time, the ruling party locked opposition members outside the committee room where the recently signed South Korea-U.S. trade pact will be introduced.  They feared that the opposition would try to oppose ratification of the pact.  Go figure.  Opposition members tried to batter down the door to the room, using a sledge hammer and eventually a power saw to break through—but to no avail, as the ruling party members had piled furniture up behind said door as an additional barricade.

The ruling Grand National Party controls 172 out of 299 seats in the National Assembly and so should be able to push the trade pact through.  The U.S. Congress has not yet approved the deal.

Fights are not at all uncommon among South Korean lawmakers—even on the floor of the National Assembly itself.  Sometimes they even throw chairs and microphones.  Here is a video of a fight that broke out last December: