dah lame nak menulis tapi takde mase. kau, kau dan kau dah tengok the arrival belum? kalau belum, lepas ni kau perlu lapangkan mase tengok. aku tak sedar pasal dokumentari ni sampailah madihah bagi im gitau pasal the arrival ni. kebanyakan kau tengah cuti kan? dah habis exam kan? nah, isi mase kau tengok the arrival ni! sumpah addicted dan sangat2 berilmu, untuk kau buka mata.

aku dah lame habis tengok, cume busy dengan hal dunia yang tak pernah habis, sampai baru ni aku ade mase nak menulis pasal the arrival ni. ianya satu fenomena, dokumentari yang sarat dengan info, yang akan buat kau asyik cakap, “ooo..patutlaa..”  atau “wooo..dasyat gile”. name projek pun wakeupproject kan, so that memang video ni akan kejutkan kita dari macam2 benda sekeliling yang kita perasan kononnya, tapi hakikatnya kita semua tengah tido. dan aku sangat setuju, banyak perbuatan kita sekarang ni, banyak dipengaruhi media. gaya hidup kita sekarang penuh dengan konsep hedonisme, astaghfirullah.

• the arrival : official website – upload video kadang2 lembab, kadang2 laju.
• the arrival : tak tahu official ke tak - takde masalah, upload video setakat aku tengok laju gile.
• the arrival : youtube malay sub -  sebab aku tak paham english sangat.

yang malay sub tu, ade part yang youtube disabled kan audio die, so that kadang2 aku overlap kan video english ngan malay. hehe. aku nak paham 100%, tak nak cicir2. english aku hampeh. kena ade sub jugak. so, dengan ape yang aku dah sediakan, kepada kau yang belum tengok, tengokla. curi2lah mase. aku pasni nak curi2 mase tengok the divine book & phase 3. hee..

1 bende yang aku nak kita sama2 pikir. kau mesti penah dengar yang facebook dibuat oleh Marc Zuckerberg, seorang yahudi yang mane ade bahagian dari pendapatan facebook die tu,  die salurkan ke israel. FAKTA INI BETUL ATAU TAK AKU TAK TAU, tapi ni jugak sebenarnya salah satu sebab la kenape aku tak layan fb sangat selain sebab utama aku yang tak suka benda crowded(aku ade tulis kat sini). kepada kau yang tak penah bace pasal facebook ni boleh google sendiri or bace kat sini.

lepas tengok the arrival ni baru aku sedar, yang kita tau pasal macam2 hal, tapi kita tido. kita tak usaha nak jauhi, tak cipta macam2 alasan untuk tak layan fb. sebaliknya kita cipta macam2 alasan untuk membenarkan kita layan fb. kan? macam yang ade dalam the arrival, mungkin ini zaman yang mane kite nampak “darkness is the light”. nuuzubillah. sama2 a kita pikir.

notakachak : dikalangan kau mungkin ade yang meluat aku macam baik sangat, lepak a dol. aku cume nak cube jadik baik, b’sama2 dengan kau orang jugak. aku bukan baik mane pun. tak payah cuak kat aku. aku cakap kat kau la siti! haha.

update 1: kamil ade share artikel pasal hukum facebook ni kat komen. oleh ustaz hasrizal, kat sini. kau bacelah sampai abes. dan amik pengajaran. thanx kamil! lu mmg best. haha.

update 2: gua baru teringat, moll ade gitau gua something ritu yang membuatkan gua lebih lagi memandang facebook menyokong israel. moll cakap yang kes perdana menteri palestin punye facebook fanpage kena delete. fan die sikit punye ramai gua cakap lu bai. gua pun search pasal ni tadi dan ni yang gua dapat.

• facebook deletes the fanpage of Esmail Haneea-Palestian PM
• facebook deletes the fanpage of Khaled Meshaal-Exiled Hammas Leader

sebab gua kuarkan hal2 ni bukan ape..gua nak kite same2 fikir. cetus dalam otak untuk berfikir, dan timbulkan kerisauan agama. asik risau hal dunia je kan. k bai, chalo.

the confusion, the blur, fear, hope, the fear of hoping, the weight of being carried, sand, the dampness, the ocean, being dunked, the laughter, the detachment, the wonder infused with the consciousness, laughing it off as the thought process was at a standstill for once as the moment was there.. under my control, and enjoying it was in my hands, the log, the rain, the thunder, the umbrella, walking, talking, laughing in the rain, the ride, the journey, the arrival, the pictures, the hugs, the determined over-the-topness, the departure, shivering as it rained, on the motorbike, the chattering teeth and the shaking hands, getting back home, glowing, with the formation of a memory I will always look back on fondly, and no one can take it away from me, and that’s enough, because it’s all I’ve ever wanted, beyond things and opinions, for this can never be taken away from me.

November 8, 2009 is not only Day 8 of DrawMo (and NaNoWriMo), but for enthusiasts of David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest it’s also Interdependence Day. I found an interesting picture of sludge digesters on Deer Island that handle waste from Boston (where Infinite Jest is set) in the book Infrastructure by Brian Hayes. The barely done interloper and offspring behind the digesters in my sketch are there due to my reading The Arrival by Shaun Tan today and having my mind blow by how unbelievably amazing it was.

Grab hands and hold on for Week 2 of DrawMo. We’re all in this together.

Listen to a new The Arrival track “Surrounded” on their myspace here.

Fringe: Season 1: Episode 4: “The Arrival”

Walter examines the beacon.

The (re)appearance of a Mysterious Object has the team puzzled, but mind-readers are on hand. In this post, I’ll be making the usual comments about how much suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy the show.

This episode is debunked at Popular Mechanics, and you can read more about it at Fox, IMDb and the A.V. Club.

That subterranean torpedoes are a little impractical goes without saying (though this is presumably future/alien/other-dimensional technology) – but you can’t have mysterious objects without rotating lights!

I can read your mind

Telepathy seems to be a recurring theme on Fringe, with some kind of mind-reading making an appearance in every episode so far. This week we’re treated to two different displays, from a Hired Goon (Massive Dynamic prefers that personal touch) and The Observer (as he pulled a young Walter and Peter out of a submerged car, does that make him some kind of reverse Lex Luthor?). Anyway, while telepathy itself is a cute sci-fi staple, the transfer of thoughts by simple proximity is not. The mere suggestion that your thoughts, electrical impulses in your brain, can be absorbed by somebody else (through osmosis, no less) is enough to stun the intellect. I’m a little surprised that Walter didn’t mention quantum entanglement by way of pseudoexplanation.

This is the battle version of the original from

]]> http://julieannthailand.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/28th-august-2nd-september/ Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:18:30 +0000 julieannmcg http://julieannthailand.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/28th-august-2nd-september/

So as you all know, I left on Friday the 28th and set off for Thailand. After my arrival at Gatwick airport, and hauling around my 20k rucksack with the 10k hand luggage to the right terminal I found some of the other volunteers. We boarded the Fly Emirates plane and jetted off to Dubai, and we were very impressed with Project Trust at the luxury of the flight, the plane food tasted good and they even had stars on the ceiling to help us sleep!

After the change over of planes and the long immigration que at Bangkok airport we met our two Project Trust representatives who now lie in Thailand, called Peter and Lucy The heat outside the airport almost melted us and we were glad to get into the air conditioned minibuses to take us to our hotel, but it wasn’t as fancy as it sounds! That night all 20 of us took a walk down the street to one of the local restaurants to have our first taste of Thai food. Amazingly, despite its sometimes unappealing appearance, Thai food is really nice!

Ivy, Julie-Ann and Rachel having dinner Thai style!

The next day was free for us to explore the city (aka shopping!) and then the reps took us out for dinner. After much cramming to get the stuff back into my rucksck, the next day we all set off to our individual projects, and for Charlotte and I that was Tha rua. We were told to get off at Tha Ru, so we were looking out for it, but unfortunately the signs weren’t always visable from our seats, and the announcements were all in Thai, and I think you can see where i’m going with this…after 2 hours some of the Thai people on the train started asking us where we were going to, they told us we were the next stop. It wasn’ just one person either, there were many of them, so naturally we got off. Then we sat there for 40 minutes as we both thought that we should take into account Thai time which can be very late. After a while we thought it would be wise to give one of the rep a call, we were at the wrong stop. It sunds funny but it really wasn’t, it was so hot, the bags were incredibly heavy and the Thai people were laughing at us…but we just smiled and got on with it!

Eventually we reached our destination and were glad to do so. We met our host family, who have 4 daughters, sai and sand are identical 18 year old twins, and the younger sister soft is 12, sea does not live at home as she is studying elsewhere. The twins speak excellent english which I really good as the father cannot understand a word of my english no matter how slowly I talk!

Our Thai host family on our day out, this is the 100 year old market

The next day was an early start, as we had to be at school at 7.30am for assembly where we went on stage in front of 1900 Thai students and were presented with flowers. We had to saa waa dee ka (hello) and bow slightly, to every teacher as we are younger than them, and will have to continue to do so everday we see them. We talked with the teachers discussing what we will be doing among other things. We were glad to get home as we were very tired, but we started straight into our Thai language study, aswe are both determined to learn it.

Today our hosts took us out to many places, we got to try so many nice Thai desserts, infact we basically ate all day long. We went to an 100 year old market and my favourite Buffalo village where we got to ride Buffalos. (The  parents don’t need to worry) The Buffalos were much more docile than i thought, in fact i got to ride to ride the king buffalo, the have pink markings and much smoother skin than the rest, and are only found in around 1 in a million! It was a very enjoyable day, but like most good things in has to come to an end and its back to school tomorrow!

At the old houses in Buffalo Village

Me riding the King Buffalo!

we thought she’ll have curly hair!

the moment

Follow The Arrival on twitter (@TheArrivalMusic) and they’ll direct message you a link to download their Michael Jackson cover of “Rock With You” for free!

“A Letter Against The Credulous Fools at Carl Sagan’s Dance Party” is a response submitted to Carl Sagan’s Dance Party by Dr. Sarah Kleinkriegspiel.

Dr. Sarah Kleinkriegspiel is an adjunct professor at Cornell University.  Her field of expertise is in Parapsychology but lately she’s been studying government coverups and hypnosis.

Her response is to a Unified Field Theory of Conspiracy Theories by Carl Sagan’s Dance Party’s expert Nicola Novakowsky.

I have to say that I am not impressed by your conspiracy expert Nicola Novakowsky’s level of analysis. I agree with Novakowsky’s premise that the Federal Reserve controls just about anything but do you really think Reptilians are behind it all? I completely and utterly disagree with his dismissal of Grey aliens as never having existed. I’ve dealt with patients under hypnosis and the fantastic description of the Greys or Zetas is indisputable.

I find this notion of the hollow earth intriguing but distracting. I don’t think there’s ever been any evidence that has indicated a hollow earth. I’m open-minded enough to believe that there is such a thing but I think we should pay a little more attention to the real data: e.g. crop circles, body scars, hypnosis, missing time, and women who go from being pregnant to not pregnant.

Global warming is caused by Reptilians? Where did you come up with that? Reptilians are peaceful aliens, sent to Earth to help us understand seemingly incomprehensible things like the soul and mind.

You really have to avoid these nonsense. The Federal Reserve is definitely trying to control the US and the world. But good honest aliens like the Reptilians could never be behind such a campaign of evil. Some of my patients under hypnosis have given me a clear insight into who the Zetas and Reptilians are. Reptilians side with good always. Zetas are far more powerful but have hidden intentions that my patients are still having difficulty comprehending. We can only hope that Zetas are peaceful in the end.

The 9/11 attacks are still disputable. Look, no one knows who caused them. I’m willing to admit my agnosticism on that. In fact, who is to say that there really were World Trade Towers in the first place? Has anyone ever seen them? I don’t know anyone who I can name that has gone and authentically seen them. And even if people have seen the Twin Towers, did they ever go inside the buildings? It could have been one giant hologram: just waiting to create the appearance of an attack just so the Fed could further control our lives.

I think most telling about Novakowsky’s lack of rigor is his belief in the Twin Towers. Honestly, I think all tall buildings purportedly constructed are just fictions. Not since the Tower of Babel have we built anything significantly tall. And we all know what happened – the tower came tumbling down! It’s a universal truth that what goes up must come down. Every manmade structure will not hold up for more than a couple of weeks. Why do you think there are demolitions? So that the building can be brought down before it would otherwise naturally fall down (basically keeping the illusion that we actually have the technology to keep buildings standing in the first place). Demolitions are always staged. I call on anyone to send me evidence that there is any building standing taller or as tall as the Tower of Babel and that this building has stayed standing for more than a few months!

Sorry, I went off on a tangent with my buildings argument. But I use this principal argument to illustrate just how absurd Carl Sagan’s Dance Party is for having terrible experts like Novakowsky. You guys should be ashamed!

This concludes my critique of Nicola Novakowsky.

If you’d like to submit your own articles and/or ideas, then you can e-mail them to us at carlsagansdanceparty [at] gmail.com and we’ll consider them for future posts.  Before submitting your ideas please go to Submit an Article for more details.

For the topic of international young adult literature there are not very many subject guides, and the ones that do exist are not recent. Hazel Rochman’s excellent guide, Against Borders, only provides suggestions for titles up until 1993; Carl Tomlinson’s related Children’s Books from Other Countries (which includes young adults under the umbrella of ‘children’) was published in 1998; and finally, Susan Stan’s more recent The World through Children’s Books (which also includes young adults under ‘children’) stops at 2000.

A lot has changed since 2000 in young adult literature. Manga, and graphic novels now dominate our shelves, and fantasy and humor have experienced resurgence. Not only this, but globally things have changed too.

Given changes since 2000, what does international YA look like today?

To try and answer this question (on a small scale), I have updated the site with a list of 25 new and recent titles from 2000-Present. Some are award winning, some are popular, and some are hidden gems, but I think they are all worth considering as new and notable international YA reads to add to our bookshelves.

Titles come from all regions (Africa, Asia, Australia/NZ, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East), most are category #3 and #4 selections only (titles originally published abroad in translation or in English), and the list also reflects emerging trends in international YA with selected graphic titles – like Shaun Tan’s The Arrival (below) – alongside a broader range of subjects, like fantasy and humor, than might normally be found on many international booklists.

Each annotated entry includes author, country of origin, country/region of story setting, domestic publisher, a plot summary, recommended age ranges for readers, and, if relevant, a note on format – all graphic novels in this list are marked with a ‘GN’ – like the entry for Tan’s book below.

_____________________________

Arrival, The (GN)

Tan, Shaun. (2007). New York: Arthur A. Levine Books. ISBN: 978-0439895293. 128 p. (12+). Country/Language of Original Publication: Australia; English. Setting: Australia/NZ (Australia)

Winner of numerous awards and accolades in Australian and internationally (including the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award and the New York Times Best Illustrated Book 2007), this picture book describes the story of immigration told through the eyes of immigrants. There are no words in  this work; instead amid the fantastical cityscapes that Tan creates through artfully rendered sepia tone drawings, there are unusual symbols that mirror the initial frustration and confusion upon immigration to a new place. The Arrival beautifully captures the loneliness, excitement, fear, and wonder of moving to a different place that is sure to resonate with any reader.

______________________________

Want to see more titles? Check out International YA Today: 25 New and Recent Titles….

…and for even more titles check out my Retrospective and Expanded International YA (organized by region and country) that goes beyond this list of 25 ‘International YA Today’ titles.

By Our Conspiracy Theorist Nicola Novakowsky

I want to propose a unified field theory of conspiracy theories. Look all us conspiracy theorists know that there is a one world government of 12 people who control anything and everything. We’re just not sure how it works. Well let me dish it out for you guys.

Okay it’s quite obvious that the Fed, you know the Federal Reserve, is not actually controlled by Ben Bernanke. It’s actually controlled by 2 reptilian aliens who clearly control the 10 humans responsible for the 9/11 attacks. These 10 humans and 2 reptilians pretty much explain the Fed take over of the banking system and soon to be our national healthcare. Anyway, the damage has already been done. The Reptilians have everyone confused actually. People who believe that the grey aliens are from Zeta Reticuli are actually confused. There are no grey aliens. These seemingly peaceful grey aliens are actually reptilian aliens in disguise sent to make sure that we never return to the gold standard. Because if we ever return to the gold standard our currency could no longer be manipulated by the evil reptilian Federal Reserve aliens.

What A Reptilian Disguised As A Human Might Appear Like

Look a lot of people think that the aliens arrived on our planet back in 1947 during what is called the Roswell crash. Reptilian aliens were actually discovered there but this has come to be a massive distraction from the real attack. In 1941 the supposed Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor. Unbeknownst to everyone except for the Majestic 12 (which are some of the same people who now control the Fed), it was actually the Reptilian aliens. The confusion is that the Reptilians come from outer space. Unfortunately this could be no further from the truth since they reside in the hollow earth!

The hollow earth explains why NASA is continuously always trying to distract us from our own planet when it keeps focusing on Mars. The more you focus on other planets the less attention you pay to your own and how obvious it is that there are two openings at the North and the South pole into our own planet! It’s funny that NASA now wants us to pay attention to Mars so much when it was just 90 years ago that Mars actually used to be a planet teaming with life that was Eden like. Look at the facts: astronomers were observing what appeared to be canal like structures on the planet and this led them to believe that there was life. Well, there actually was! That was until the Reptilians discovered it just in time to be able to obliterate the peaceful life that once lived there. No one knows for sure what kind of life was on there. I guess we’ll never know. Some suspect that life might exist in the hollow of Mars. I myself suspect that the “face on Mars” is actually one of the Martians’ last monuments right before they were destroyed. The reason I suspect this is because the face on Mars looks sad. I think the monument’s sadness reflects their sadness.

Speaking of NASA distracting us, the whole faked moon landing situation can be entirely explained by the fact that NASA did not want the Russians to actually go to the moon. They wanted the Russians to think we beat them and thus decrease their morale. And do you know why that would be the case? They didn’t want the Russians to discover that the Earth had two openings to the hollow of it at the North and South poles. These openings are so big that they can be seen from the vantage point of the moon! The reason why the Russians can be trusted to give out the truth is that Russia has a colder climate than the United States. Reptilians living on the inside of the Earth are only exposed to the warm air trapped inside the hollow earth thus Reptilians cannot stand the cold Russian climate. Thus Russia is not infiltrated by Reptilians. But this may soon change once global warming (which specifically is caused by the Reptilians) warms up Russia enough for the Reptilians to live there. <–I did not steal this idea from the movie The Arrival by the way. You know, The Arrival, that really cool movie starring the best actor ever Charlie Sheen.

Anyway, the reptilian controlled Fed is just inches away from controlling our healthcare. But most importantly, the reptilian controlled Fed has already infiltrated our lives by using the North American Union outlined in NAFTA. This North American Union and its sister the European Union will control the mass of people and sooner or later grow into a one world government under the auspice of the UN. This is happening as we speak. I am not lying. I’d identify who these people are but I surely would be killed.

I submit to you this unifying field theory of conspiracy theories. I hope you believe me and I hope you pass this information on as soon as possible because I might not be alive for much longer. NASA agents are already following me to my car and harassing me.

The Arrival have an acoustic Michael Jackson cover up of his song “Rock With You”, check it out here.

by The Great White Gypsy

A Perfect Getaway – Written and Directed by David Twohy
Zahn and Jovovich are honeymooning in Hawaii, backpacking to a secluded beach. They come across several other couples talking about a murder, and things get crazy. Twohy directed The Arrival, Pitch Black, and The Chronicles of Riddick, so you can bet it will be entertaining if nothing else. And I’ve heard the plot twist is pretty tight.
Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn, Chris Hemsworth, Timothy Olyphant, Marley Shelton
August 7

Cold Souls – Written and Directed by Sophie Barthes
Paul Giamatti actually plays himself in this metaphysical, cultural commentary where people’s souls are commodities that can be bought and sold. Looks deep, could be my favorite one since Eternal Sunshine, but that’s a huge expectation for a rookie director.
Paul Giamatti, Emily Watson, David Strathairn, Lauren Ambrose
August 7

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra – Directed by Stephen Sommers, Written by Stuart Beattie and David Elliot
Van Helsing was so bad, the only thing Sommers has directed since is the Mummy amusement park ride. Big names and bigger budgets have failed in the past to adapt videogames and old TV shows very well, but Stuart Beattie (Collateral, 30 Days of Night, Australia) and David Elliot (The Watcher, Four Brothers) are pretty good writers, and the cast does look interesting. This summer has sucked for movies so far, but I still have hope for Joe.
Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christopher Eccleston, Jonathan Pryce, Sienna Miller, Arnold Vosloo
August 7

I Sell the Dead – Written and Directed by Glenn McQuaid
A Grave robber confesses his sins to a priest…and for some reason there are zombies. IFC does weird stuff sometimes (almost always involving Ron Perlman), but for the most part I’m a fan. McQuaid’s first feature.
Ron Perlman, Dominic Monaghan
August 7

Paper Heart – Directed by Nicholas Jasenovec, Written by Charlyne Yi and Nicholas Jasenovec
A movie about the filming of a documentary? I’ve never seen that. Ok, I have, but never with Seth Rogen and Michael Cera. It looks simple, funny, heartfelt, low budget; what else could you ask for?
Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, Demetri Martin, Paul Rust
August 7

District 9 – Directed by Neill Blomkamp, Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
You’ve seen those random posters at bus stops all over? “No Humans Allowed”. Well, those are the obscure posters for this “documentary” about an alien race that stumbles upon Earth, and is put into camps and ghettos. It’s like Michael Moore’s very own Cloverfield, but even I have to admit the story sounds intriguing. And, though the writer and director are new, Peter Jackson’s presenting, so I’m assuming he at least watched it.
Nathalie Boltt, William Allen Young
August 14

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard – Directed by Neal Brennan, Written by Andy Stock and Rick Stempson
If Ari from Entourage got fired, divorced, and became a used car dealer, this would be his spin-off movie. However, Jeremy Piven is undeniably awesome, and recognizable faces like Ving Rhames and Ken Jeong will probably outweigh virgin writers and a director from Chappelle’s Show.
Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, Ken Jeong, James Brolin
August 14

Spread – Directed by David Mackenzie, Written by Jason Dean Hall
Could it be? Has Ashton Kutcher actually grown up? Granted, The Butterfly Effect was damn cool, but this looks like a positive departure for him. The story of a guy who makes it big in L.A., then falls for a girl who pulls all his own game on him has been done before, but I like the style of this one. Mackenzie’s done some weird stuff, but I’ll give it a chance.
Ashton Kutcher, Anne Heche, Margarita Levieva
August 14

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Directed by Robert Schwentke, Written by Bruce Joel Rubin
Somewhere between The Fountain (minus the great director) and The Lake House (minus the bad actors) lies this adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s popular novel. Bana’s no Ryan Gosling, but he and McAdams look like they have some good chemistry. I’m not saying it’ll be great, but as far as chick flicks, this might be one of the less painful ones this year.
Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Ron Livingston
August 14

Five Minutes of Heaven – Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, Written by Guy Hibbert
An IRA gunman murders a UVF member in front of his little brother. After serving his sentence, the media arranges for the grown brother and murderer to meet on screen. Liam Neeson is always good, but this has the potential to beat a dead cultural horse with a hazy morality stick. Never seen anything by either director or writer.
Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt
August 21

Inglourious Basterds – Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Besides the Grindhouse segment “Death Proof”, it’s been 5 long years since Tarantino did something that was completely his own (Kill Bill Vol. 2). He returns now with his own style of war film. The Basterds are Jewish soldiers recruited by the U.S. Army in WWII France to basically beat the living hell out of the Nazis. We all know it’s going to be violent as hell, witty, and off-puttingly enjoyable. I am a little skeptical about Tarantino and Pitt, but not enough to save my money.
Brad Pitt, B.J. Novak, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Til Schweiger
August 21

Halloween II – Written and Directed by Rob Zombie
House of 1000 Corpses was ok. The Devil’s Rejects was freaking amazing. Halloween was badass. So it stands to reason that H2 could very well be Rob Zombie’s best film yet. Apparently, he’s not going down the road of cheesy franchises with 14 sequels. He’s finishing up the story in the second one. He may be messing with the mythology, John Carpenter may be completely absent, but Tyler Bates is still on board, and I have goosebumps.
Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell, Brad Dourif, Sheri Moon Zombie, Scout Taylor-Compton, Margot Kidder
August 28

Taking Woodstock – Directed by Ang Lee, Written by James Schamus and Elliot Tiber
This may be the “summer vacation’s over” film this year, but I gotta say I’m opposed to it. Demetri Martin’s show sucked, and they gave him the lead? Not only that, but Ang Lee, who, together with James Schamus, brought us crap like Ride with the Devil, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Hulk (the dumb one), was 15 living in Taiwan when Woodstock went down. I don’t like it one bit, and so many people are going to yell at me for that.
Demetri Martin, Eugene Levy, Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Liev Schreiber, Paul Dano, Kelli Garner
August 28

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN

The Collector – Directed by Marcus Dunstan, Written by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton
The guys who wrote and directed multiple Saw films, and all of the Feast flicks are back with an original horror movie about an ill-timed burglary that traps a man in a house with a family that is already at the mercy of “the collector”. Looks creepy and cool as hell, but the fact that I didn’t see anything about this until yesterday, and they’re already calling the main guy a “horror icon” makes me skeptical.
Madeline Zima, Andrea Roth, Josh Stewart
July 31

Balibo – Directed by Robert Connelly, Written by Robert Connolly and David Williamson
Based on the true story of the Balibo 5, a group of five Australian journalists that disappeared during the invasion of East Timor in 1975. Looks good, the writer and director are experienced in Australia. Just can’t find a solid release date.
Anthony LaPaglia
August 13 (limited)

Taxidermia – Directed by Gyorgy Palfi, Written by Gyorgy Palfi and Lajos Parti Nagy
Watching the preview for this made my head hurt. Visually beautiful, sweeping, and surreal, it’s about three generations of the same family, and their crazy fantasies. It was released in Hungary in 2006, but didn’t get a very limited US release date until last month. You can probably find it online or on DVD, but it looks interesting.
Csaba Czene, Gergely Trocsanyi, Piroska Molnar
August 14 (rumored)

The Marc Pease Experience – Directed by Todd Louiso, Written by Jacob Koskoff and Todd Louiso
About a high school musical star stuck in a high school mind set eight years later. I have serious doubts that a movie with Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman wouldn’t be advertised, but all I’ve found so far is a sketchy release date, so look for it. Directed by the skinny Moby look-alike from High Fidelity.
Ben Stiller, Jason Schwartzman, Anna Kendrick
August 21 (rumored)

Listen to a brand new song entitled “Turn The Page” from The Arrival on their myspace here.

HELLO! So sorry to everyone I have been traveling around europe and have sort of neglected the site. But never fear I have prepared some music for ya….

Introducing one of my favorites, and so happens to be the general public’s favorite, groups of all time.  Atmosphere, a two-man hip hop group formed in 1993 that epitomizes what I love about hip hop. Sean Daley aka DJ Slug provides the lyrical half of the group with words so strong that they strike new definitions of depth for everyone who listens. And of course the other 50% goes to the miraculous producer Anthony Davis aka Ant who provides beats so fresh you can put them in a fruit salad. Long live freedom of speech. Enjoy your lives everyone….

CLICK FOR ATMOSPHERE

DJ Slug and Producer Ant Posing for Album When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold

I have been an avid fan of Shaun Tan since the release of his acclaimed children’s book, The Arrival.  The Arrival is a silent film of a tale, beautifully rendered, which details the surreal journey of an unknown immigrant. An underlying sense of the strange moves though the sepia-toned reality of Shaun Tan’s worlds, which has inspired me to find magic in everyday landscapes. Suddenly, I can hear ethereal music coming from an abandoned radio station outside of New York City or see a galaxy inside a cream tea cloud. The work of Shaun Tan makes see you the potential book inside every person and place. I recently did a review of Shaun’s Tan’s latest book, Tales from Outer Suburbia, for Kids Book Review. Please check Kids Book Review for my future book reviews. Thanks, Tania!