Bangkok Loco - Toronto International Film Festival

For our first movie of the film festival my brothers and I went to see the North American premiere of "Bangkok Loco" a movie from Thailand and directorial debut from Pornchai Hongrattanaporn or his nickname Pink.

The movie is about a drum student named Bay who studied the Drums of the Gods under his professor Tuengpoe (also known as the drum God) but before the professor could teach Bay how to achieve level 10 he is killed in a drum off against the demon drummer.

While practicing Bay gets into a trance like state and the next thing he notices is that his drum sticks are replaced by chef knives and his drum set replaced by a hacked up corpse. Bay flees the scene to meet up with his friend Don (also a student of the Drums of the Gods) and her band. He has to prove his innocence before being apprehended by Inspector Black Ears (who looks like Thailands version of Horatio Sanz , see photo below) and learn level 10 before he has to face off against the Demon drummer in the 10 year anniversary of his professors death.

All that being said the movie is a comedy. (I walked into it thinking it was going to be a very dark movie, but after seeing the opening credits it was clear it was a different kind of movie). It is set in Thailand in 1982 where everyone seemed to sport beatles/ramones haircuts and wear bright polyester clothing. According to Pink (in the Q and A after the movie) all the music comes from a band who was popular in Thailand at the time called McIntosh.

I can honestly say that I've never seen a movie like this before. It relied a lot puns and specifically Thai humor. It seems that this wouldn't translate to a western audience (the director said it himself) but it was still funny even if it didn't make complete sense it came off as completely absurd and bizarre. The movie is visually stunning. There are some many bright and vivid colors and the special effects are really well done and unlike effects we see in western movies. All in all I say its a great movie if you don't mind reading subtitles and are up for a strange yet comical movie experience that may not make complete sense but is fun regardless.

tags:tiff, toronto international film festival, movies, entertainment

The fall fair and KFP

Tonight I spent a few minutes walking around the annual fall fair. What's amazing about the fair is it contains the most bizarre things but what really caught my attention was the food. Probably the worst food (health wise) that there is. I suppose that for the average person its one night out of the year when you can indulge in a little bit of junk food. That brings me to the carnies they DO live on a steady diet of that shit. They spend their days consuming cotton candy, pogo sticks, hot dogs, hamburgers (those cheap reconstituted ones), candy apples, caramel apples, fudge, soft serve ice cream-like-substance, popcorn with various shit coating it, deep fried chocolate bars, funnel cakes, french fries, poutine, onion rings, and crack..... a whole lotta crack cocaine. You may think that I'm making a bad generalization but I had a roommate who was a carnie and he would regale us with tales of smoking crack with his carnie friends.

So the point of this is to tell you about a new invention that I've come up with that may only fly at a place that embraces the worlds most dangerous and unhealthy food. KFP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which stands for KENTUCKY FRIED PIZZA. Its a pizza covered in the KFC breading or skin and deep fried. I don't think anyone can deny how good that shit would be. I don't know how you get your recipe on the carnival circuit or if they are age old recipes handed down through generations of carnies. Anyway I think that if the deep fried twinkie and the deep fried mars bar worked then KFP would be a hit too.

tags: fair, carnie, KFP, food, entertainment

send in the celebs

Yesterday's Oprah was all about celebs who have gone down to the Gulf coast to help out. One of the segments included Julia Roberts visiting a shelter and talking to some of the refugees. I've never seen a more contrived and insincere performance (and she is supposed to be a top actor). It was pretty ridiculous she didn't seem to show any real empathy for the victims. The complete opposite can be said about Chris Rock (who was on the same show). You could tell that he was genuinely upset by the whole thing.

Sean Penn has been taking a lot of flak lately for his rescue efforts (which have been written off as a PR stunt), but I do have to give him credit for actually getting in that filthy water and actually helping people out. PR stunt or not its a whole lot more than most of the celebs seem to do.

tags: hurricane, katrina, celebrities,

Japanese watermelons

Japan really knows how to market things. Here are watermelons that look like Godzilla eggs and a bomb. How cool is that?





tags: Japan, food, marketing, godzilla

we didn't start the fire

Today I made a pot of chili using 3 different types of peppers. Jalapeno's, chili peppers and those light green ones. Anyway I was obviously handling the peppers when cutting them up and everything was fine at the time but about half an hour later my hands started to burn really bad. I washed my hands thoroughly and figured it wouldn't last long. MY HANDS HAVE BEEN BURNING FOR 6 HOURS. I did a little research and found out that once your hands start to burn its too late to wash it off and it has to be treated. Apparently I have to get rid of the capsaicin.

cap·sa·i·cin
n.
A colorless, pungent, crystalline compound, C18H27NO3, that is derived from capsicum and is a strong irritant to skin and mucous membranes.

To get rid of the capsaicin I need rubbing alcohol (none here) or bleach (none here) and then use milk (no dairy in the house) or aloe (none here) to soothe the skin. I think I'm gonna have to wait it out.

tags: food. burn, chili peppers

one star in the black sky

Despite all the death, destruction, looting, property damage, government inaptitude, murder, lost children, separation anxiety, post traumatic stress, starvation, dehydration, disease ridden water, snipers firing at hospital evacuations, stranded elderly and soaring gas prices one good thing has come in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Radio stations have decided to stop playing "New Orleans is sinking" by the Tragically Hip. A shitty song by a shitty band that would no doubt compound the shittiness of a shitty situation.

tags:Hurricane, Katrina, Hurricane Katrina, Music

Spirit photography at the NYC Metropolitan

Here are a couple of examples of pictures from "The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult," opening September 27.
"The Ghost of Bernadette Soubirous," circa 1890, by an unknown photographer.

"The Medium Eva C. With a Materialization on Her Head and a Luminous Apparition Between Her Hands," 1912, by Albert von Schrenck-Notzing (German, 1862-1929).

tags: photography, ghosts, occult, spirits,

Star Wars: Episode 4.5

What I would really like to see is a series of star wars spinoff movies that involve the character's in between the movies. Someone (not george lucas) should make them.

Question: After the first death star blows up and darth vader is flung off into space how long does it take him to get
where he's going? And what happens along the way?

Seeing as he was in a short range fighter that is not capable of light speed I like to assume that it would take him several days to a week to get to the nearest Empire ship or stronghold. Here we have the setting for the ultimate
road movie (but in space). Vader throws on some driving music and cruises for a while, he stops at various gas stations and coffee shops along the way, runs into some strange characters, gets in a bar fight or two and maybe a love interest at some point. There also has to be a scene where the emperor talks to vader over that hologram cell phone thing and is pretty pissed at vader for dickin around, this will probably happen when vader wakes up after a night of drinking tequila and realizes he is broke so he has to get the emperor to wire him some cash.


tags: star wars, movies, entertainment

q without u (or lies my teacher told me)

When I was in grade 3 my English teacher told us that there were NO words that had a q without a u directly after it and challenged us to think of an example. The best anyone could come up with was bbq and the teacher quickly quipped in that it was a abbreviation of barbeque and that it didn't count. For the past 20 years I went about my life believing this lie until recently when playing a game of Scrabble it was revealed (in the documentation provided with said scrabble game) that there are in fact 22 words that contain a q and no u.

# FAQIR - Variation of FAKIR, a Hindu ascetic.
# FAQIRS - Plural of FAQIR.
# QAID - A variation of CAID, a Muslim leader.
# QAIDS - Plural of QAID.
# QANAT - A system of underground tunnels and wells in the Middle East.
# QANATS - Plural of QANAT.
# QAT - Variation of KAT, an evergreen shrub.
# QATS - Plural of QAT.
# QINDAR - Variation of QINTAR, a monetary unit of Albania.
# QINDARS - Plural of QINDAR.
# QINDARKA - Albanian currency.
# QINDARKAS - The plural of QINDARKA.
# QINTAR - See above.
# QINTARS - Plural of QINTAR.
# QOPH - A letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
# QOPHS - Plural of QOPH.
# QWERTY - A standard typewriter keyboard.
# QWERTYS - The plural of QWERTY, see above.
# SHEQEL - An ancient unit of weight and money.
# SHEQALIM - The plural of SHEQEL, see above
# TRANQ - A variation of TRANK (i.e. tranquilizer).
# TRANQS - Plural of TRANQ

I now regard everything I was taught by my third grade teacher as false, especially that you need to learn cursive writing because you will use it later in life. Its a lot later in life for me now and I don't think I need it.

tags:scrabble, q, lies my teacher told me

Hurricane Grief Porn

It happened after 911 it happened after the Tsunami and its happening again. Everyone is glued to the media to see the latest on the devastation of the post hurricane Katrina world. Things seem to be getting worse and worse and its all anyone can talk about . What is it about human nature that makes us obsess over tragedy and almost get off on feeling bad for the victims. I don't think people really feel better about themselves by seeing people in worse scenarios, I know I certainly don't yet at the same time I cant stop watching CNN to find out what has happened.

tags:hurricane, katrina, news