So Katie Price goes back into the jungle to try and save her flagging public image, attempting to conjure up any form of positive publicity to gain acceptance in the celebrity-obsessed world she once ruled.

However, one too many bush tucker trials later, she realises this ain’t happening. So, what does the media savvy Jordan, sorry, Katie Price do? Leave the jungle, tail tucked firmly between her legs and dump her cage fighting “hunk” live on TV, and see the error of her ways? Absolutely!

With guaranteed millions of viewers, Katie made the announcement, although not the most tactful way of ending a relationship, Katie said she had a lot of time to reflect in the jungle, reflecting that in the last seven months she’s acted like a right ‘twit’ (not my first choice of words naturally). Poor, Katie eh? Or, very clever Katie…?

For her time in the jungle, Katie banked a cool, £350,000; pocket money compared to the millions she is set to earn from magazine and TV deals, not forgetting drumming up that all important public sympathy she so much loves and craves.

PR coup I hear you shout? Of course it was! Katie Price is a girl I love to hate, and although she is about as tactless as a shark in a pool, this girl knows how to play the media and keep them column inches rolling in.

Gordon Brown faces fresh criticism today after admitting on BBC Radio 4’s Today program that he doesn’t actually perform his own stunts.  The Prime Minister was being quizzed by John Humphrys about the number of controversial and politically dangerous moves he has made during his parliamentary career, when he admitted that most of them had been carried out by professional stuntmen from Patterson Danger Management Ltd. 

Trevor Patterson, managing director of Patterson Danger Management Ltd, was first contacted by Gordon Brown shortly after he took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer.  ‘He was planning a major reform of Britain’s monetary policy by transferring the power to set interest rates to the Bank of England.’ Patterson explains.  ‘Such a risky stunt can only be carried out by professionals, so I put my best man on it – Dustin ‘Dusty’ Cochrane.’ Impressed by this work, the PM went on to use Dusty’s services to abolish Advance Corporation Tax relief, wiping out final salary pension schemes throughout the UK without the aid of a safety net. 

Patterson and his team were given further jobs after Gordon Brown’s accession to Prime Minister, with mixed results.  ‘Any stuntman will tell you that stunts can sometimes go wrong, just like in October 2007 when Gordon used us to spread speculation of a snap election.’ recalls Patterson.  To be a stunt professional you need to be part safety expert, but also part showman, so it’s really disappointing when a stunt goes off like a damp squib like that.’

Despite the furore caused by Gordon Brown’s interview, Patterson agrees with a government spokesman, who defended the use of stuntmen for ministerial initiatives by poining out that the practice had been going on for decades.  ‘Anthony Eden made extensive use of Pinewood’s stunt co-ordinator during the Suez crisis, whilst back in the 1840’s the Repeal of the Corn Laws was enacted by a circus troupe of tumbling dwarves.’ he says, ‘And another thing, do you really think it was Norman Tebbit on that bike in the 80’s?’

Patterson claims that George W Bush regularly used the services of Hollywood stuntmen, and contracted the services of television’s Jackass team during the invasion of Iraq.  He also points an accusing finger at former Labour stalwart Alice Mahon, who resigned in disgust from the party recently.  ‘Who is she trying to kid? We all know that that was Dusty in a floral dress, wig and safety harness.’

(Written 20 Apr)

When I first learned about Sherlock Jr. (1924, viewable here), my expectations weren’t that high. I knew little about Buster Keaton, and still wondered how anyone could challenge Chaplin’s mastery of silent pathos and comedy. (Little did I know then that Keaton and Chaplin aren’t comparable so much in form or content, but in the levels of innovation they brought to their work.) The idea of a projectionist entering into a film seemed appealing enough, but nothing too radical. Then I finally saw the film, let it stew around my head, saw it again, and again, and realized that it’s a work of concentrated comic perfection.

I grant that Sherlock Jr. doesn’t quite have the well-developed, back-and-forth narrative of The General, which sustains Keaton’s audacious acrobatics for longer and to greater purpose, but I still feel it’s probably the best showcase for his talents. Buster Keaton’s trademark stunts put every other example of choreographed mayhem to shame; they’re comparable to Busby Berkeley’s dance routines of the ’30s in their uniqueness, surreal logic, and aestheticization of human physicality, but they substitute hilarity for eroticism. And nowhere in Keaton’s body of work are they crammed together as effectively and syllogistically as in Sherlock Jr., where the entire film unfolds like the best-constructed line of dominoes in film history.

The plot’s pretty simple: Keaton plays his usual nameless, stolid sad sack character, trying to win a girl’s love. He works as a projectionist, but aspires to be a detective (hence the title). However, through a series of unfortuitous clues, his scuzzy rival frames him for the theft of a watch, and he retires to the projection booth, defeated. While the girl discovers his innocence, he daydreams himself into the film-within-a-film, and a parallel secondary story takes place. Eventually he awakes, and finds the girl has realized her mistake, leading to one of Keaton’s great, ironic happy endings.

Within this framework, Keaton unleashes his bottomless bag of tricks – bottomless because his resources are the physical laws of the universe. Anyone can take a fall, but Keaton takes falls that defy our beliefs and expectations. He also roots his physical comedy in a romantic plot filled with its own pitfalls, whether they’re jokes at the expense of his protagonist, the girl, her idle rich father, or the rival, who’s depicted as a mustache-twirling cad.

I view the romances in Keaton’s films as somewhat cynical, as flat and unsentimental as the look on his face. In this film, for example, the girl seems willing to be bought off with fancy gifts, and a similar love-for-sale ethic pervades his earlier film Three Ages, which sees competition for mates – and the subsequent mating – as a constant of human nature. Maybe an argument could be made that the romantic urges of his protagonists are as obligatory as their obedience to gravity; after all, romances are omnipresent in his films, but they’re never really dwelled upon for their own sakes. It’s one more curious aspect of his filmography that shows how different he was, and how much he enjoyed sticking a little satirical thorn into the side of formula.

But really, the subtly offbeat romance is just the springboard off which Keaton launches all kinds of verbal, visual, and situational humor: his attempt to scrounge up a few dollars in the movie theater’s rubbish pile, and later his investigation into the watch’s disappearance, when his ultraliteral interpretation of a guidebook’s injunction to “Shadow your man closely” leads to a sequence of prolonged absurdity. This scene, in which Keaton tails his rival very closely, lets him toy with our perception of film, and question whether they’re seeing it in two or three dimensions. (He returns to this trick with even greater effect during the film’s climactic chase.) It also justifies some of his beloved train-based physical comedy (again, see The General).

This segment constitutes a good demonstration of Keaton’s prowess at staging and executing barely believable chains of cause and effect, yet in reality, it’s just a precursor to the meat of the film, which takes place in its protagonist’s imagination. As he projects himself into a stereotypical Perils of Pauline-esque silent melodrama, Keaton engages in some meta-cinematic playfulness; it doesn’t really have a spot in the film’s narrative, but it’s so cleverly staged that it ceases to matter. It rewrites the film’s ground rules: henceforth, this is not a normal comedy. Things will work the way Buster wants them to.

The protagonist takes up his place as “the crime-crushing criminologist – SHERLOCK JR.,” idealizing himself as suave and authoritative, effortlessly outsmarting a villainous pair of pearl thieves. After a pool game that riffs on the very concept of suspense, the film cuts to the next morning, and the remainder is pretty much one long, brilliant, loving exercise in concrete physics. This is the substance of Buster’s greatness, whether we’re talking about this film, or his other masterpieces like The General or Cops: his ability as a filmmaker to construct ridiculous master plans that would make Rube Goldberg balk, and then as an actor to endure them without flinching.

Watching the last third of Sherlock Jr. is both totally enjoyable on visceral and intellectual levels: you’re overwhelmed both by what you see happening, and by any attempt to fully process it, leading inevitably to the question, “How did he do that?” Ashley and I (and anyone else we’ve asked about it) are still completely baffled by a scene in which Keaton appears to leap through his assistant, into a wall. Sources suggest it’s accomplished via something called a “vampire trap” (from its use in a play version of Polidori’s The Vampire), but this doesn’t explain anything.

Kubrick once said that “if it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed”; I’m not sure where Buster Keaton falls on that spectrum. I’m not sure whether his art is closer to trompe l’oeil painting, or to poetry, or to architecture. He’s a beautiful anomaly. The chase scene in Sherlock Jr. seems to espouse a belief in overarching fate, in Newtonian determinism, in the happy conjunction of man’s actions and the physical laws. In the amusement of the gods, to whom we are “like flies to wanton boys,” as Shakespeare’s Gloucester would put it.

I’m not sure which of these viewpoints Keaton would actually agree with, but some blind faith must be in his unexpressive face as he careens along on the handlebars of a motorcycle without a driver – some willingness to leap before he looks. He injured himself countless times, risked life and limb, put himself in severe physical jeopardy in order to produce visual art with the power to make us laugh. To me, that’s saintly – putting yourself on the chopping block to benefit the rest of humanity.

When I watch the climax to Sherlock Jr., my mind keeps coming back to geometry: the circles, the lines, the angles that come together so flawlessly to yield these movements, where Buster is just one little piece in a huge, dynamic system. His influence has been felt everywhere in physical comedy (perhaps most resonantly in Roadrunner and Coyote), but never equaled. He just had his peerless skill, precision, and the bravura necessary to pull it all off. I’ve seen Sherlock Jr. several times (after all, it’s less than an hour long), and I hope to see it many, many more. With its ageless humor, tightly-packed inventiveness, and near-perfect execution, Sherlock Jr. is one of my favorite movies.

In the last few days, the blog world has exploded in controversy with this new Gap holiday commercial. I saw it on TV last night and I thought there was cool dancing, there must be cheer leaders to pull that off, especially the girl who gets tossed 20 feet in the air at one point, nice sound stage to shoot on, good choreography. I also think the lyrics were fine…except that the Gap is showing its PC side. We have seen mostly PC holiday messages for years now.

But now there are groups (well, one actually: American Family Association – AFA) that are all bent out of shape because in the commercial’s lyrics say “You 86 the rules, you do what feels just right.”

I just dont understand the problem with the commercial. What do you think?

I have to run. I am attending a “Celebrate the coming of Winter with this Winter Welcome gathering” at Stapleton’s town center. Now that’s just another PC name for the lighting of the Christmas lights at my town center.  I hope people aren’t upset when they get there to find out Christmas won’t be mentioned anywhere. What a world we live in.

Here are the lyrics for the GAP commercial:
Two, Four, Six, Eight, now’s the time to liberate
Go Christmas, Go Hanukkah, Go Kwanza, Go Solstice.
Go classic tree, go plastic tree, go plant a tree, go add a tree,
You 86 the rules, you do what feels just right.
Happy do whatever you wanukkah, and to all a cheery night.

Go Christmas, Go Hanukkah, go whatever holiday you wanukkah.

Ok so while exploring the underworld of sports, I rolled across parkour. Many people have heard of freestyle walking, but this is freestyle running. I guess people got tired of just plain running and decided to throw in some flips and spins. My take on this sport/discipline…Awesome! I have now been inspired to take-on a new hobby; thats right, jumping off of your car or house for fun. That’s how we do it! If you are interested in this, take a look at www.americanparkour.com. They have everything you need to get started.

Love the look of this thing, haven’t had the balls to try it out myself yet, but I will! Nice collection of inflated spinny stuff from jamesstewart1 – watch it, then go clap in his direction:

Whether you are a seasoned non-union or union set medic, knowing how to work with stunt coordinators and stuntmen is crucial in the motion picture industry. Too many set medics tend to be too relaxed in the area of stunt safety leaving all the details up to stunt coordinators or Fire Safety Officers. The bar has been raised yet again and now medics are being utilized more as eyes and ears for stunt coordinators. When it comes to safety, no chances should taken.

Set Medics must know how to work around stunts which is why Southern California FIRE & EMS is hosting workshops to address set safety. The classes are being taught by some of Hollywood’s biggest names in the stunt arena.

If you are interested, please go to www.socalfireems.com/training_classes.htm

Southern California FIRE & EMS
www.socalfireems.com
800-661-7418

Etter en særdeles kaotisk høst med mye opp-og nedturer sitter jeg nå og reflekterer litt over tiden som har gått. Det viser seg at ikke alt nødvendigvis er hva det ser ut til, og jeg har nå tatt et oppgjør med meg selv.

a)
Jeg er frisk. Føler meg frisk. Mens jeg av gammel vane har “skyldt på” ME’en når ting butter imot, så kan det nå (flere mnd etter) enkelt forklares av andre faktorer. Med en gang jeg tok steget ut av det sorte hullet jeg falt ned i, så kom godformen tilbake! Etter år med nedbryting av kropp og sinn, så er det lett for at små maur kan velte stor tue. Det betyr ikke at jeg trenger å ta alle sorger på forskudd. Jeg ser nå at det siste halvåret har lært meg en hel del, både om meg selv og andre. På godt og vondt! Den som tør å innrømme feil, kan gå videre og bruke erfaringen som en styrke. Hardt, men nødvendig. Jeg har nå begynt helt fra scratch, og skal gjøre alt det jeg ikke har trodd jeg kunne gjøre. Jeg er ikke ME. ME er ikke umulig å bli kvitt. Jeg liker å se på de siste årene som en reise inn i meg selv, og jeg føler meg definitivt sterkere nå enn da jeg var 17, ung og vill. I ettertid kan jeg si at jeg ikke ville byttet det mot noe! Jeg er nemlig ikke en av dem som kommer til å ende opp med midlivskrise. Jeg har allerede hatt min dose.

b)
Jeg må lære meg å leve livet igjen. No more excuses! Det er så mye jeg ikke har fått gjort, så mange sjanser jeg har latt gå forbi. Det er på tide å “grab life by it’s balls” for å si det sånn! Det blir en balansegang, jeg gjør rett i å ikke overdrive med en gang, men jeg kan ikke sitte på gjerdet lenger.
Lenge før jeg ble syk, så var jeg redd for mye rart. Du vet sånn typisk jente-tankegang: “Tenk om jeg ikke er noe flink til dette, nei jeg lar være.” Lav selvtillit og janteloven utgjør et fint par. Så det er ALL grunn til å ta fatt på slike ting nå, i en alder av snart 24.

c)
Jeg skal derfor opprette en liste over ting jeg aldri har turt å gjøre, som jeg egentlig har hatt lyst til. Noen som har sett “The Bucket List”? Noe i den duren, bare at jeg ikke har tenkt å begynne med halsbrekkende stunts helt enda. Sånne ting som å melde seg på dansekurs når jeg egentlig ikke tror jeg kan danse, tørre å utvikle sangstemmen som jeg vet jeg har, men ikke har turd å bruke utenfor dusjen. Gå ut på byen edru, danse og snakke med fremmede folk. Melde meg på diverse kurs alene og rett og slett ta litt hverdags-sjanser!

Som sagt har jeg reflektert, og kommet fram til at jeg ikke er enestående på noe vis i denne sammenheng. At jeg har vært og til dels er redd for å ta sjanser, er jo noe mange sliter med? Det er imidlertid ikke så mange som snakker om sånne ting. Det å synes livet kan være vanskelig å få til, og det og føle seg alene er ikke sosialt akseptert å snakke om, noe som fører til at mange sitter nettopp alene med disse tankene. Selv om man kan ha mange venner, er det ikke nødvendigvis alt man vil fortelle dem. Jeg ser på meg selv som en oppegående og utadvendt jente, og tar meg selv i å lure på hvor mange andre jeg kjenner som har disse tankene?

Det er jo tross alt ikke store halsbrekkende stunts mannen i gata trenger å manne seg opp til. Det er de helt dagligdagse, små tingene som ofte kan fortone seg som store. Generelt sett trenger vi nordmenn å øke selvtilliten vår, og tørre å gjøre ting på vår egen måte. Janteloven er til tider så sterk at den hemmer flotte mennesker i å utfolde seg slik de fortjener. Samtidig har vi alle hovedansvaret for vårt eget velvære, og det verste man kan gjøre er å resignere. Tro at dette er alt man får, og fortjener, og slik er det. Man fortjener akkurat så mye som man prøver å få til, og den grensen strekker man hver gang man prøver. Ergo: Man er sin egen lykkes smed.

Til sist vil jeg bare si: Det er ikke hvordan man har det, men hvordan man tar det! (som teller)

Wow, at last a martial arts fight sampler that is filmed and edited well enough to actually be convincing! SuangLee takes the credit here. Do you know of any others? If so, let me know in the comments below:

No need to think too long or brainstorm with your best talents.   If people are not noticing your product just put a DJ on a truck, ensure that you include as many speakers as can fit on the platform and pump up the volume.  And if consumers are still not noticing just turn the volume up, make it louder and louder and louder.  If only marketing was only this simple.

The idea of going through neighborhoods with music or sound started with ice cream vans and knife sharpening trucks.  In the 60s both would travel through residential areas making their presence known by playing repetitive music or ringing a bell.  When hearing the music children immediately asked their parents for an ice cream, the bell reminded housewives that scissors needed sharpening. 

Large companies took the idea a step further and started to install larger speakers on trucks and took the party to the street.  Carnival was brought up at all times of the year, trucks going through traffic with loud music and, often, skimpy dressed girls dancing on what must be the worst dance floor ever invented.   Driving or walking you can’t miss it.  Most of the time it’s a nuisance competing with your car, radio or conversation and the girls dancing and the DJs don’t seem to enjoy themselves that much, traffic is stopped and it’s just more decibels in an already noisy city.   Yes you do see the brand but you also realize that the Marketing Director, the Agency and anyone involved have run out of ideas and the bottom line must be hurting.

 The problem is “music trucks” are missing the point.  Brands are trying to entertain consumers but unfortunately they have no clues and it’s not by turning the volume up that they’re going to make a difference.  People do like to be entertained; so entertain them.  Bring dancers onto the street, drum troops, jugglers, fire; take the circus to the roads.  Organize a contest or an offer related to this parade, forcing feedback and interaction.  Ensure that your activity fits your brand.  If you’re an Internet provider put computers on a truck and have people try your new USB connections.  If you’re a soft drink distributor provide samples, have people experience your product.  And repeat the experience regularly so that consumers see you more than once; do not disappear.  The ice cream van that went around my neighborhood was always there on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at around 7 PM.  Kids were waiting for the sound of that funny music and, I believe, we must all have looked at our parents the same way at the same time.

It’s time to rethink the “music truck” since the formula is overused and dead.  It’s time to bring real interactive entertainment to the street, something that engages consumers in a dialogue.  There’s no need to shout or turn the volume up, it’s time to impress, surprise and generate a “WOW effect” that will make your brand stand out.

So myself and Jono got up at 6am yesterday to get the train to Dublin. Luckily they re-opened the track between Sligo and Dromod so we didn’t have to get a bus this time.

We got to the RDS just after 10am and our tickets that we won from boards.ie were waiting for us.
As we walked in we had a close encounter with several Stormtroopers! Later in the day Darth Vader (David Prowse) was there signing autographs but at twenty euro a go we gave it a miss.

There was loads to see including Militery Vehicles, a ‘Dream pad’ kitted out with designer furniture, robots (including a dalek), cars, bikes, boats, disco lights and all kinds of things. What was missing were games consoles, computers and mobile phones.

Upstairs was a ‘pamper zone’ for the girls with different stalls selling anything from nail art to palm reading. There was also a fashion show. If I was organising it I would have had a wine bar for the girls, with soft lighting, girly films and chocolates so they could really relax.

The best part of the exhibition for us was the ‘Smoke ‘n’ Rubber show in the Live action arena. This featured:
•Abseilers
•Dancers
•Chain gang
•Quad Bike Stunt Show featuring Niall O’Hanlon
•Trialstar Motorcycle Trials featuring Andy Perry
•Rallycars
•Autotest
•Drifting
•Mini Motos
•Opposite Lock Live Action Display Team
I’ve done a short bit of video of the show.
The smell of burning rubber was mad. I’m so glad I don’t have to buy tyres for their cars.

Outside the main halls there was a wall of death (which we didn’t try!), a rally car simulator and a big inflatable ball which you got into and ran along a bit like a hamster. Jono had a go in this but he forgot to stand up and landed on his head! He was OK though and actually enjoyed it.

All in all it was a great day out and we really enjoyed it. I took loads of photos which I’m am going though and will put up on flickr and pix.ie

Ok, der Platz Nr. 1 der Viral Video Charts diese Woche.

Zwei Spanier(?), Machen ein paar richtig coole Sachen mit ihren Mopeds, bis einer etwas sein Ziel verfehlt.

Edit: Achtet vor allem auf die Lache von dem Kameramann.

mfg camo

A trailer for d-Aces Stunt DVDs, including music from Planet of 9.
Get more trailers and buy the DVDs at www.d-aces.com or www.myspace.com/dacescory …

Shopping store: buy cheap Nerf N Strike & discount

d-Aces Street Bike Stunts

by dacescory (Category: Autos & Vehicles)

Ken Block, dem ich nicht umsonst auf Twitter folge, zeigt sich hier als großer kleiner Junge gemäß dem Motto “Boys don`t grow, they just gett bigger toys”. Da Mister Block gern mal auffällt mit Aktionen wie mit Snowboardern im Schnee um die Wette fahren oder einen Subaru Impreza ans Limit treiben war das hier keine Wunder. Bleibt zu sagen, ich will auch so ein Ding! via bei likecool

Ken Block im Schnee

Ken Block im Subaru Impereza WRX STI mit 530 PS

Taylor Lautner doing his stunts as a werewolf, and behind the scenes shots.

Jacob-Black-

jacob-black-doll-tonner bella swan

jacob black new moon set

jacob black

jacob black wolf

jacob black taylor lautner

taylor swift

This is amazing:

(via yesbutnobutyes)