What People Do

(What the Title Said)


Controversial rocker Marilyn Manson has pleaded no contest to charges of disorderly conduct and assault and battery.
The 33-year-old was in court to answer charges after he allegedly gyrated his body against the neck of a security guard who was working on stage during a Marilyn Manson gig.

Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, was ordered to pay fines totalling $4,000 (£2,678). A plea of no contest is not an admission of guilt.

The incident was alleged to have taken place in July 2001 during a gig at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Michigan.

The guard, who has not been named, told police Manson had come up and danced sexually towards him.


Manson is known for wearing his trademark scary make-up
The charge had originally been one of criminal sexual misconduct but this was reduced to disorderly conduct, which carries a maximum 90-day jail term.

Similar behaviour

After the hearing in Clarkston, Michigan, Manson - minus his trademark white painted face - signed autographs for fans before queueing to pay off his fines.

Manson is also being sued by security guards who accuse him of similar behaviour during an October 2000 concert in Minneapolis, and at another show in August 2001 in Long Island, New York.

In a separate case, he is also being sued for wrongful death by the mother of a woman who died when the vehicle she was driving smashed into parked cars.

Jennifer Syme, a former girlfriend of actor Keanu Reeves, died in April 2001 when her Jeep Cherokee crashed following a party at Manson's home.

Her mother, Maria St John, is suing the singer claiming Manson was negligent in "instructing the woman to operate a motor vehicle in her incapacitated condition".

But he strongly denies any involvement in her death, saying he ensured she got home safely but then she took it upon herself to go out again in her car.

Manson, a former music journalist, is one of the most controversial characters in music and his concerts are often picketed by religious and civil rights groups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/2055459.stm retrieved 25 August 2005


and also...


Manson's Croatia gig goes ahead

Manson is perfoming around Europe on his Against All Gods tour
Police in Croatia have allowed a concert by rock star Marilyn Manson to go ahead, despite church protests that the singer "promotes Satanism".
Manson's performance took place in the coastal town of Pula on Monday night with a considerable police presence.

Catholic priests told Pula's mayor that "Manson fans turn the site of his concerts into Sodom and Gomorrah".

"For me it is normal that as an artist I provoke people," the singer told local newspaper Novi List.

"If they think that an artist can destroy their faith, then their faith is rather fragile.

Dark persona

"I don't claim that what I do is suitable for everybody," said Manson.

"I am very disappointed with policies and religions who manipulate people," added the singer, renowned for his striking stage make-up and raunchy performances.

Catholic clerics had offered to pay compensation to the city's authorities to cover any losses incurred by the cancellation of the concert in the coastal city's Roman Amphitheatre.

Protestant organisation Oaza also called for the concert to be banned.

A lone Catholic churchman in Croatia spoke up in favour of Manson ahead of his performance.

Anton Bobas - who has his own metal band - said Manson's performance was "unlikely to turn young people in Satanists", but added that the rock star's persona was rather dark.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4175850.stm Retrieved 25 August 2005

Hmmm...

I was in the library doing some research on a topic not relevant to this blog entry then suddenly something hit me, kinda like a flashback, of my primary school days.

we were told about the NGOs (Non- Government Organisations) and there was this first-aid thingy... it was called the Red Cross Society. we all know how the symbol looks like...



so then i remembered my teacher telling us, that because of the nature of its design, it can be easily related to the Christian Religion, the cross representing..well the cross Jesus died on. the islamic people wernt too happy about that, having such an important society bearing the "symbol of another religion". they believed it had subliminal and propagandic properties to the muslim people in the state/country. so they decided to change the logo.





this is what they came up with....











that leaves us back to the title of this entry "Hmmmm..."

"We're Fucked"

Last weekend was village cinema's promotion week, so i managed to convince my movie budds to go watch a movie. when we got the Crown, there were only 2 movies available - Monster-in-Law, aaaaaand Land of The Dead. i wont wanna watch a movie like monster-in-law in a cinema, so we nabbed tickets for Land Of The Dead.

movie started with a black and white intro. ya know that "universal studios" globe floating around. and to be honest it was phreaky. so i tot, hey not bad. then comes the prologue. it read "some time ago"...and there was a long pause. the screenwritter obviously knew that heading sucked bad so he threw in a couple of seconds to let the dumbfounded audience regain themselves. then faded out to black, then there were flash backs of parts of zombies -mouths, hands, half eaten legs etc etc. also new reportings can be heard on the back ground.

after it was over, you might as well leave your seat and go home. coz thats the only good part of the entire show.

i might as well give you the verdict now -this show sucked. if id rank it in points it would get a negative value.

like all zombie shows, zombie eats people, people die, then people become zombies and eat more people. (where have we seen that before?) now heres a point to ponder on -if zombies eat people, as in...EAT them, whats left of the people to turn into zombies? hmmmm

aside the bad story line, techniques where the production crew tries to cut the budget is apparent, like using the same zombies in every zombie attack scene. we were like "hey wasnt that zombie shot in the head a few minutes ago?" yeah, you gotta shoot em in the head to kill them...wow....thats new...(oozing with sarcasm statement).

there are lots of really clear paradoxes in the movie as well. like, technically the zombies are dead aye? so dead = no body tempreture yet dead in the night, when one of the "leader" zombies roared there was vapor/steam/smoke coming out of his mouth(kinda like breathing in the winter gives out this white breath). "wtf?" Blood in the movie looked edible (and delicious). there was this particular screen where a man got eaten against a glass wall, the blood that "splattered" had lotsa bubbles in it. its also amazing how easily these rotten/rotting teeth can chew off living flesh.

a totally unknown set of crew and cast, some dont even have a dialogue (most of them dont coz 8/10 of the crew are zombies). and the extras are really extras. most of them have the acting skills of a 10 year old kid."aaaa a zombie...aaaa hes WALKING towards me, im scared...aaaa...its got me...aaaa." =.= <--everyones expression

right after the credits rolled out, an aussie guy beside me said in an almight aussie accent -"whot e dizasta!" (what a disaster)

If you had a craving for zombie movies, here are a couple of titles you might consider watching. but seriously, after watching this film, ANY other zombie show would have looked good.

(in order)
1: no doubt the funniest of all zombie shows "Shawn Of The Dead". very Brittish but hey, everyone loves a good brittish comedy

2: different from all other zombies in all other zombie shows "28 Days Later" (finally a zombie title that doesnt consists of the word "dead) zombies in this show kick ass. they dont gravewalk to you, they grave RUN to you, gives a scarry impression nontheless

3: "Dawn of The Dead" a recent re-make, like all zombie shows (except Land of the Dead) this zombie show had one of the best introduction as well, but it kinda dies down after awhile -like all other zombie shows. still, its an okay title to watch. its worth half the ticket you bought.

4: "Resident Evil" is also a worthy title, im talking about the 1st entry, not "Apocalypse". the 1st one focused more on the zombies and all. i personally would say "yeah, i kinda enjoyed it" but no, i mean NO, this is NOT the BEST zombie title made, so back off playstation game freaks.

1079: aaa here it is "Land of the Dead"

Apocalpyse (RE's sequel) is not worth watching. it doesnt even qualify as a zombie movie. but its somewhere between 500-1000 in the list above.

So, nab a box-o-popkorns and goo watch a movie xD

The Better or The Latter?

I am a windows xp user, now losing most of my julian friends i have visited the computer labs more frequently. however, the computers here uses Mac as their operating system. there are a number of features that really came to my appeal and at some point, i even considered getting a Mac myself! but there are certain disadvantages i was able to spot before laying down the cash at the computer store.

we will put these 2 giants together to compare them, side by side.

when you log into a mac, you will automatically feel the modern-ness of this machine. loading screens are designed cleanly and simple, yet carries a complicated touch with it. the interface when you get to the desktop is smooth and interactive. some icons change in size as your pointer scrolls through them. the icons slide into place...

now look at the windows xp, the items are bulky, and clumbersome. when ever you pick something up, it is hard and rigid. almost like the retracable roof-handles on a Proton Waja where they just snap back into place when you release your grip. The Mac on the other hand is like a Mercedes Benz where the handle slowly glides up when you let go.

the buttons F9-F11 on the mac, again smartly (and gracefully) arranges all your opened windows side by side, even hides them past the screen to show your desktop. its a feature i love alot coz i opened 6 million windows at a time and its always hard to find the one i want. Windows lacks this function.

more than half the world uses windows, so automatically its "uncool". but if you think about it, because alot of people use windows, "information" regarding it would be easier to find.

sure thing, its nice and sleek in design BUT, the mouse only has 1 button... this is frustrating as i have to hold a very weird looking key down. looks like an apple and a...umnn...umnn..sign on it... that functions almost like an alt or shift key. this is a no no for gaming. i always believed that since there are 5 fingers on a human hand, there should be 5 buttons on a mouse..2 is bad enough, now a miserable 1?

and the system interfaces, its simpe design is really an eye candy, call me stupid but when i tried to look for the specs of the machine..i was completly lost, then found what seemed to be what i wanted, but got lost again. for its elegant designs, the Mac has sacrificed convenience. maybe because windows has already "patented" alot of the terms, MAc uses different words and terms that can be misleading to a typical windows user.

at some point as well, the mac i was using hung. aaaaaaaaaaaaand i didnt know what to do besides pull out the power cable. if it woulve happened to a windows, what i would do is ctrl+alt+del and that usually solves many problems.

being a fanatical gamer myself, alot of games, dont really work well on the Mac, due to its "one-testicleness".

also, since windows has been around for so long, the versatility of it is amazing, being able to play almost any type of media file or text. its a good machine.

despite the few good features the Mac comes in, i would generally prefer the Windows. being a biased S.o.B that i am, this "review" should not be taken into one's consideration when it comes to choosing between MAc or Windows.

The Island -Biased Movie Review

the name itself sparks no interesting toughts of any kind. i mean, c'mon "The Island"...how cheesy is that?
kinda reminded me of "Dangerous Island" (a movie from late 80s featuring lamely made and finnished godzilla costumes). But, since Ewan Mcgregor and Scarlet sumthin was playing it i went in the cinema with (my ticket of course), a hard chocolate coated vanilla ice-cream, a movie-cant-do-without coke and a carefree attitude, not trying to decipher or detect any foreshadows the movie might give, just to see how the whole thing goes.



I was late so i missed the ads at the start, damn.

the movie started out peace and calm with a fly by shot of a beutiful island shore, then homes in on a luxurious and futurestic boat. on the stern was our familiar jedi and on the bow stood a not so familiar women, aas he reached out to her something happened. (trying not to give spoilers here) but it was so sudden and shocking it jolted me out of my sleep and not to mention- jolted me out of my stoned state. i was more alert than i was before, now attempting to concentrate more on the movie. effective screen play id say. score ONE for The Island

Our Jedi wakes up in a cool pure white room with LCD monitors everywhere, director/scriptwriter threw in a couple more jokes and humour, maybe its just me but i find it sniggly funny. so..score TWO, funny screens do follow later, albeit the toilet jokes the rest are okay.

But right after that, Obi Wan Kenobi wears a white t-shirt with white pajamas, then shoes where the audience can immediatly spot the familiar imprints of a pouncing cat- Puma. we were like "wtf". its almost(exactly) like I-Robot where Smithy pulls out a pair of Converse shoes which has no correlation to the movie!! nor the time and setting, but at least they did explain it was "vintage", The Island never attempted to do the same thing. so MINUS ONE. throughout the movie, audiences will constatly see brand names chewed up and slattered all over the place especially cars. popular brands like Chrysler (however you spell it), BMG, Cadilac, BMW even MSN! if i rememebr correctly there are Aston Martins cruising around the futuristic highways aswell. this is clearly branding tie-ins with the movie producers...annoying

Then comes the fun part-being able to watch all these exotic, pristegious (and definatly $$$) cars get completly SMASHED up and utterly obliterated by Big Ben Buddy and his hot side-kick. the car chase scene totally i mean TOTALLY dwarfed the Matrix's agents+Neo's in scale and action. SCORE THREE for Ze Island! the action sequences and the scale of the destruction was massive by todays standard. cars gettin Artistically destroyed definatly appeals the masses, or at least me. my budds and i were laughing and saying things like "AWWW!! OUCH!! MAN!!!WTF!!!PWNED!!" throughout the movie.(hopefully we didnt piss the other audiences). it was memorable :) sweet memories id call

okay now enough on screen "criticism". overall cast and crew was okay. Ewan was/is one off my favs. the girl stared in one of the shows not so recently made, i still struggle to rememeber what show she starred in, i think it was SIMONE but i cant be sure for sure..i anyone knows please post it as a comment here or anything. Crazy Eyes from that Adam Sandler mvoie, the renegade from Armaggeddon and other numerous popular titles is also in (this makes me a very bad movie reviwer as i dont remember half the casts names) Then we have the Evil Doctor which i cant rememeber his name as well, but i do rememeber him with Christian Bale in Equilibrium (another action must watch). these 2 not so well know stars suddenly came into pictures like Batman and this The Island definatly pushed my buttons. We also have that african dude who speaks in a very funny yet appealing accent( he claimned his crew to be ex-FBI, CIA, SiS, GIGN, SAS and all those military hoo hahs and will do his job with utmost efficiency HOWEVER, no earth-bound marshall organization can take down our off-world Jedi Knight! one by one his men are taken down by Bennie w/o him using his force powers!. all my favourite cast and crews are in, sooo SCORE FOUR.

Despite the cheesy cliche title name, the story-line, plot , cinematography, screenplay, sound effects are well made and presented. and i have to admit, the story was so well written, you cant tell when is the actual climax. the whole movie is just a blast to watch! clever writting and plot progression constatly cultivated my attention. tho there is this lack of dialogues (for the massive mass appeals also to cater for the simple minded people) also the lack of a more complex plot-once you get the idea..well....you just get the idea, nothing more to that... SCORE FIVE

VERDICT from judges -me,myself,my own, my, mine, moi, if you are me-you, me representing you all- you all

we (you all) have reached a unanumous verdict of ****4 out of *****5

do the maths, its simple 1+1-1+1+1+1=4

my "personal" advice (which is a whole lot of them already actually)- go watch the movie, start out stoned like me and let the screen play, play with your eyes. i can almost guarantee you will be at the edge of your seats if not have already fallen off throughout the whole movie. you will walk out the cinema a satisfied customer.

epilogue- DONT BUY THEM DAMN RIPOFF DVDS, YOU WANT SOME MEDIA GO BUY THE ORIGNAL OR WATCH IT IN THE CINEMA god damn rippoffers....