Saturday, 31 July 2010
Dancing With My Soul In Aceh..
bau kopi ini selalu enak, harum yang mengepul membawa jiwa-jiwa di dalam, melayang naik dan menari pelan. dengan chaotic, dengan lembut, dengan sederhana, dengan sepi yang teranyam dari suasana-suasana. aceh kini aku kembali lagi..
duduk menyandar di kursi merah di warung kopi De Helsinki, ini seperti minggu pagi yang lain di jakarta. dari pemandangan di dalam, aku berasa kayak lagi ada di kemang, atau bisa juga membayangkan seperti sedang ngopi di deretan kafe-kafean di barisan jalan tebet utara, atau lebih sederhananya, kayak lagi nongkrong di kedai bu bambang di utan kayu, dekat rumah kontrakanku...
banyak orang yang nongkrong, ada lagu 'aisheteru' dari entah band apa yang kulupa namanya, kursi-kursi plastik warna merah yang berjajar di dalam ruangan, air-air panas yang mendidih dalam tem segi empat dengan teko besi bundar yang di atasnya selalu tertangkup saringan biji kopi, dan tentu saja tangan-tangan itu... tangan abang-abang barista aceh yang tegap bergerak tangkas, lihai meracik biji-biji harum hitam kopi menjadi minuman cair berbau surga di minggu pagi. inilah De Helsinki...
"lima ratusan kursi disebar, dan masih banyak yang belum dapat duduk, waktu itu." bang yan mengenang ketika kafenya pertama kali dibuka awal tahun 2008. "De Helsinki.., dinamai demikian lebih karena waktu itu kita ingin semua orang bisa berkumpul di sini, mau gam, mau nkri. semua bisa sama-sama berada. dulu yang kerja-nya 18 orang, sekarang tinggal 8 saja. banyak sekali warung kopi buka, saat ini. makanya saya menyediakan fasilitas internet gratis juga. saya ni salah satu orang aceh yang bukan asli orang ulee kareng tapi tetap berani buka warung kopi juga. di sini kebanyakan yang buka warung kopi selalu orang ulee kareng," ucapnya.
tanpa harus mengetikkan password, akses internet bisa langsung terkoneksi di warung kopi berwarna dominan merah ini. laptop-laptop terbuka dengan pemilik yang 'bertampang' seperti wartawan (hehe, emang ada tampang wartawan? ;p) atau mahasiswa, menjadi pemadangan lazim di de helsinki ini. pada malam minggu, parkiran mobil warung ini selalu penuh. and me... sejak kembali menginjakkan kaki di aceh lagi tanggal 29 juli kemarin, langsung berasa jatuh cinta sama rasa roti berisi selai srikaya yang jadi teman ngopi di sini. selalu ituyang jadi pilihanku.
vivian ajak aku and nina buat bantuin program putar film anak dan ngisi workshop pembuatan film (tentunya juga) untuk anak-anak, utamanya anak di derah yang kena dampak parah setelah tsunami. di lamjabat - meuraksa, atau yang lebih dikenal sama orang sini dengan daerah uleelheu kemarin workshop itu udah digelar, semalam setelah pemutaran layar tancep, kita langsung cabut ke banda aceh. ada konser lila dan seventeen. dan aku emang pengen tahu banget bagaimana anak muda sini hidup dan bikin deal dengan syariah islam ini.
kita telat, pas sampai stadion harapan bangsa, lagu lila terakhir sedang dilantunkan. jam 10.45 kita sampai. meski crowd udah nggak gitu sesak, tapi jelas kelihatan kalau antusiasme itu menempel di sini. di stadion itu. musik yang bikin 'loncat', lagu yang menggebrak, gairah anak-anak muda yang sama dimanapun itu di seluruh penjuru dunia. yang jadi ciri khasnya: di sini pintu masuk mereka dipisah, dibedain antara yang cewek dan yang cowok, meski pada akhirnya yang terjadi di lapangan..., teteup aja mereka nyampur juga. dengan crowd lelaki yang selalu berada di tempat terdepan. dengan gaya yang selalu sama dengan anak-anak muda dimanapun di penjuru dunia: loncat-loncat jejingkrakan, ngelambain tangan, disiram air ditengah kehebohan, dan semanagt muda itu berkilauan dibawah siraman cahaya ribuan watt dari atas panggung dimana rock star menggelasr aksinya yang (menurut mereka - para anak muda itu) keren...
aku di sini
sendiri saja
melihat semua yang sedang bergerak tumbuh di aceh ini dengan pandangan mata seorang stranger yang mengamati dengan usaha untuk mengerti. usaha untuk paham saat sekelompok anak muda cowok, di depan stadion, ketika aku, vivian dan nina melewati mereka tanpa kerudung, berteriak-teriak dengan nada cemooh yang jelas:
"woy!!! jangan cuma buka rambut atas! rambut bawah juga!"
"ayam kampung!"
dan lain-lain komentar yang sebangsa itu.
inikah aceh?
sekarang rasanya lebih baik aku menari saja.. sendirian...
meluangkan waktu mencari nada-nada untuk mengkhidmatkan jiwa
berusaha berdialog dengan dia
sambil memperhatikan teman seperjalanan
sambil memperhatikan situasi dan eloknya alam
sambil memahami arti bau kopi, indahnya biru laut lampu'uk, serta getar-getar yang datang dari tarikan ombak yang menggulung di pantai pasir putih. ombak yang pecah sebelum tiba di bibir pantai yang berubah menjadi buih..
saya hanyalah salah satu buih
yang awalnya adalah anak gelombang
lalu menyemak putih di bibir pantai sebelum hilang
sebelum tiba saat untuk hilang...
(for now, i'm dancing with my soul, here...)
Brunonian rival / SUN 8-1-10 / Famed Fokker flier / Blew by a drummer / Huggies rival / Scavenger of misery per Shaw
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: "Play Bargaining" — long "E" sound in familiar phrases changed to long "A" sound, resulting in wacky phrases, clued wackily
Word of the Day: Brunonian (80A: Brunonian rival=>YALIE) —
One who attends Brown University
Theme answers:
- 21A: Put a few monarchs on the scale? (WEIGH THREE KINGS)
- 29A: Wrinkly dog holder? (SHAR-PEI PEN)
- 105A: Floral garland for whoever? (GENERAL LEI) — whoever ... wants one? If you're going to leave that in the nominative, it's going to need to be the subject of some verb
- 114A: Indecisive wolf's question? (TO BAY OR NOT TO BAY)
- 15D: Mist from a mall? (SHOPPING SPRAY)
- 27D: Miss who parks cars? (VALET GIRL)
- 33D: In hell? (CHEZ DEVIL)
- 58D: Brawl at a ball? (FANCY FRAY)
- 62D: Leno's necklace? (JAY STRING)
- 56D: Generous carhop's prop? (THE GIVING TRAY)
Bullets:
- 13A: Real-life actor Joe who is a character in Broadway's "Jersey Boys" (PESCI) — Put it in took it out put it in took it out ... all because I misspelled stupid WOOLF! (23A: "Orlando" novelist) (spelled her like novelist Tom)
- 26A: Huggies rival (LUVS) — the idea of diapers as "rivals" is amusing to me. Like Sharks and Jets, only ... more absorbent.
- 38A: Obama whose Secret Service code name is "Rosebud" (SASHA) — OK that's just adorable.
- 57A: Blew by a drummer, maybe (FIFED) — nice clue. Like it.
- 81A: Compromise of 1877 president (HAYES) — I really wish I could say that I knew what the Compromise of 1877 was. Had to have US historian wife explain it to me. That explanation ended with: "The end of Reconstruction, essentially."
- 91A: Famed Fokker flier (RED BARON) — I saw a trailer for "Filthy Fockers" or "Forever Fockers" or "Fly Me to the Fockers" or whatever the new title in that series is when I was at the movies seeing "Dinner For Schmucks" tonight. Never had a desire to see a Focker movie, and nothing about the trailer changed that. "Dinner For Schmucks" was pretty decent, in case you're wondering — except for the fact that the roles for women (*except* the amazing Kristen Schaal) are Terrible. Freaks and ciphers, all marginal.
- 120A: John Mason ___, English priest who wrote "Good King Wenceslas" (NEALE) — one of two five-letter N-names I didn't know today. The other: NANCE (106D: F.D.R. veep John ___ Garner)—a name I'm sure I've not known before.
- 10D: Basketball coach Kruger (LON) — Knew this, but have no idea how, as I couldn't tell you the team he coaches (currently: UNLV). His brother Freddy is Far more famous.
- 43D: "The scavenger of misery," per Shaw ("PITY") — wow, that's harsh/awesome.
- 55D: First player to hit an inside-the-park home run during an All-Star Game (ICHIRO) — one of the very best players in the game, and horribly under-appreciated/underrated. Nobody except Pujols and Rodriguez has had a better 21st century. He has a complete, consistent, outstanding game. And he's languishing in Seattle. Criminal.
- 93D: Mop brand that "makes your life easier" (O'CEDAR) — jingle was Very familiar to me, but somehow I thought it belonged to "Stanley Steamer"
109D: Entertainer born Tracy Marrow (ICE-T) — he and DRE and NAS are the rap rulers of crosswords, and will be for the foreseeable future. Weird that rap hasn't produced a grid dominator since the mid-90s.
Now your Tweets of the Week—puzzle chatter from the Twitterverse:
- @aimeemann 1 Across...you're long, but you're not so hard! So 1 down should be...no...hm...how about 2 down...let's move on to 3 down...OH FUCK YOU!!
- @Ranabananafish Tilda Swinton is doing crossword puzzles at college town bagels. Wtf.
- @JasonEnloe 80% of my self-worth derives from how quickly I can complete online crossword puzzles
- @danaelblack Just used iPhone to cheat at crossword for first time. Have arrived in the future.
- @Its_DT Finally found the last fuckin word on this crossword puzzle! I just stood up and yelled BIIIITCH!! in a room full of ppl...
So it's August now, and it should be an exciting month, both in terms of the blog and crosswords generally. For starters, I'm going on vacation for a week starting Tuesday! OK, that's only exciting for me, BUT I have a diverse array of people filling in for me—some familiar, some brand new. If the place I'm staying has wireless internet, then I'll probably pick up a day or two in there, but otherwise it'll be fresh voices aplenty from the 3rd through the 9th.
Also in August— Ryan & Brian's Lollapuzzoola 3, Saturday, August 14th, in Jackson Heights, NY (Queens). The crossword tournament for people who are afraid of tournaments. The UnTournament. I mean, it's a real tournament, with first-rate puzzles, but ... the emphasis is on entertainment and happy fun times, not (so much) winning things (though people will win things). I went last year and had a blast. Lots of familiar names from the world of crosswords will be there. The august Mr. Shortz has been known to show up. Great atmosphere, including (last year) a bevy of young people who couldn't really afford the annual ACPT but who were more than happy to pay a mere $20 to participate in a smaller but no less entertaining tournament. No idea how many people will be there this year—it's growing. Still, it is bound to be far more casual and intimate than the ACPT. So if you've been flirting with the idea of attending a crossword tournament, really, this is the one for you. Information and registration here. Now. Come on. You'll be happy you did. I promise.
Lastly, as far as August goes: August 17. That date again: August 17. It's important. I'll tell you why ... on August 17.
See you tomorrow before I don't see you again for a week.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]
Barataria and the Mississippi Delta 07/19/10
Link To Album
New photos from the Source
It takes me a while sometimes to edit, and post everything because I work alone. Please bear with me as I am just now getting around to the final edit on some of this.
The BP government claims that all of the oil seen in these photos is now magically gone from our Gulf....
BP =BS
I have another video I am working on for Barataria that will be out soon.
Link to Album
War News for Saturday, July 31, 2010
NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an IED strike in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan of Friday, July 30th.
News reports the death of an Italian ISAF soldier from suicide in Kabul, Afghanistan sometime over the weekend of July 23rd-25th.
The Suffering of Fallujah
U.N. Removes 5 Taliban From Its Sanctions List: The five were hardly viewed as much of a threat: Three of them have already made peace with the Kabul government, and two of them are dead.
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb wounded two civilians when it went off in the Baghdad's western district of Khadra, on Friday, an Interior Ministry source said.
#2: A mortar round wounded a civilian when it landed near a residential area in the Baghdad's northern district of Shaab, on Friday, an Interior Ministry source said.
Kut:
#1: An Iraqi security force seized four rockets ready for firing in the direction of a U.S. military base in western al-Kut city on Friday, according to a local security source in Wassit province. “An Iraqi interior ministry force seized today (July 30) four Katyusha rockets in a farmland in al-Ahrar district, (25 km) western Kut,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The rockets, ready for firing on the Delta military base, (7 km) western Kut, which is taken by the U.S. forces as their headquarters, were defused by a bomb squad,” he said, adding intelligence tip-offs led the force to the site of the rockets.
Latifiya:
#1: Gunmen opened fire in a souk (outdoor market) north of al-Hilla city on Friday, leaving two women wounded, a local security source said. “Unidentified gunmen opened fire on pedestrians inside a souk in the area of al-Latifiya, (60 km) north of Hilla, wounding two women,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Quayara:
#1: Police found the body of an Iraqi soldier which had gunshot wounds in Qaiyara, 330 km (205 miles) north of Baghdad, police said, adding that the soldier had been kidnapped a few days ago.
Tarmiya:
#1: A roadside bomb killed three civilians and wounded eight others when it exploded near a minibus in Tarmiya, 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad, on Friday, an Interior Ministry source said.
Shirqat:
#1: A bomb attached to the car of Daham Hussein, a police brigadier, killed one person and wounded four others, including Hussein, on his way to work in Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, on Friday, police said.
Kirkuk:
#1: Gunmen snatched a Christian man working for a money exchange office in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, on Friday, police said
Mosul:
#1: Seven people, including five policemen, were wounded on Saturday when a roadside bomb went off west of Mosul city. “The blast targeted a police patrol at the al-Zinjeeli area, west of Mosul,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#2: A suspected insurgent was killed when a bomb he was apparently trying to plant exploded in eastern Mosul, police said.
#3: Police found the body of an unidentified man which had head and chest bullet wounds in eastern Mosul, police said.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Taliban militants fighting Afghan government have killed a tribal elder in Kandahar province south of Afghanistan, spokesman for provincial administration Zalmai Ayubi said Saturday. "The Taliban rebels raided the house of Khalifa Hamidullah, a tribal elder in Arghandab district Friday night and took him away and murdered him," Ayubi told Xinhua.
#2: Rioting erupted in Kabul Friday when two US embassy vehicles were set ablaze after one collided with a civilian car, killing a number of occupants, officials and witnesses said. An ISAF official said the vehicles involved belonged to the US embassy. "We don't know yet how many people were killed in the accident," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashery said. Witnesses said four passengers in the civilian car died when it was hit by one of two armoured vehicles moving in convoy. The US embassy in Kabul released a statement saying that "four US contract personnel" had been in the vehicle involved in the accident. "We understand that the other car contained four Afghan passengers. We have also been informed that there were fatalities and serious injuries among the Afghans involved in the accident," it said, without further detail. Police fired shots in the air to quell the violence, an AFP reporter witnessed. It was unclear how the vehicles were set alight, as some security firms torch cars they are forced to abandon as a matter of policy, a security contractor in Kabul said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
#3: The cleanup operation against Taliban insurgents has been continuing in Bagh-e-Shirkat area of Kunduz province in north Afghanistan and four NATO soldiers have received injuries since Friday, spokesman of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Saturday. "Three vehicles of ISAF forces were partially damaged due to roadside bombings and four soldiers have been slightly injured over the past 24 hours in Bagh-e-Shirkat area," Lieutenant Colonel Weber told media. However, he did not comment on the casualties of Taliban insurgents saying Afghan and ISAF forces with the support of locals would continue the operation unless the area is cleansed from the insurgents.
#4: There is a report from Wardag province that some five personnel of NDS, a local US-NATO spy agency were killed in an ambush attack in the province’s Nirkh district on Friday, while a Mujahid was, too, martyred in the operation.
DoD: Lance Cpl. Shane R. Martin
Friday, 30 July 2010
National monument near Flagstaff / SAT 7-31-10 / Uninked embossed stamp / Catcher Fletcher 1990s Expos / First word Sblood
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: TUZIGOOT (37D: National monument near Flagstaff) —
Tuzigoot National Monument preserves a 2 to 3 story pueblo ruin on the summit of a limestone and sandstone ridge just east of Clarkdale, Arizona, 120 feet (36 m) above the Verde River floodplain. The National Park Service currently owns 58 acres, within an authorized boundary of 834 acres (3.38 km2) // Tuzigoot is Apache for "crooked water", from nearby Peck's Lake, a cutoff meander of the Verde River. Historically, it was built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400 CE. Tuzigoot is the largest and best-preserved of the many Sinagua pueblo ruins in the Verde Valley.
This had many different difficulty levels, depending on what section of the grid I happened to be in. Got off to a very fast start by knowing Tim RAINES (18A: 1987 All-Star Game M.V.P.). The fact that he crosses another, much more obscure Montreal Expo is some kind of giant F*^% YOU to all the non-sports-fans out there. Yeesh (9D: Catcher Fletcher of the 1990s Expos=>DARRIN). Anyway, RAINES made that corner very accessible. Dropped OLAY down and SO SORRY across and things got very open very quickly. Went back and did the NE corner, but could only drop WINDCA- down at 12D: National park in South Dakota, as I've never heard of the park *and* did not know JAPAN could be an *adjective* (34A: Like the rarest rhino). I had ASIAN there at first [Ha ha: ERROR—it's JAVAN—oh, the perils of solving late at night, ugh]. In fact, this is the part of the puzzle I finished last. Had to close in on it from the SE (which, once I finally got to it, I finished *very* quickly).
First real thorny part came in NW, where bad guess of REGO at 6D: ___ Park (B'klyn neighborhood) got me the "O" I needed for SO SORRY but screwed me up in every other way. Finally wanted ANAEROBE (15A: Septic tank resident) and figured ANAEREBE was not a real thing, so gave up REGO (real answer is BORO), which allowed me then, finally, to put that corner to bed, but only after waiting out the second part of PIZZA- ... dimensions ended up being *really* important in that clue (1A: It may measure 16" x 16" x 2"). XEROSIS, never heard of it (8D: Possible result of vitamin A deficiency). From WINDCAPE [WRONG: actually WINDCAVE] to XEROSIS to the SW, where the biggest WTF was lying in wait for me. A word that I didn't know, as well as a word that had Not A Single Inferrable Letter. None. TUZIGOOT!? Once I decided RAZE (43A: Word whose antonym is its own homophone) and FIG (53A: Whit) were right, there was nothing left to do but finish the puzzle and then google to see if that nonsense word was, in fact, a thing. And it was. SW was the only corner w/o a complete Unknown, and, not surprisingly, the easiest for me to bring down.
Wait, am I reading this right? "Septic" in the ANAEROBE clue (15A: Septic tank resident) and SEPTIC as an answer at 46D: Infected. Wow, that's a mistake someone should have caught.
Bullets:
- 16A: Accidentally uninked embossed stamp (ALBINO) — I have no idea what this means. Can't even fathom a context. Oh, a *postage* stamp. This is a term from philately. Who doesn't love those?
- 9A: It was sung in Rocky Balboa's neighborhood (DOO WOP) — back when I thought DARRIN was JARRED, I had this answer starting JOO-. I was afraid to finish it.
- 17A: "___ to Power" (Frederick J. Sheehan's exposé of Alan Greenspan) (PANDERER) — don't like fill-in-the-blanks this long. Also, this feels an axe-to-grind clue. Dislike.
- 30A: Traditional gathering place in old Europe (INN) — ??? "old Europe" is pretty vague and INN is pretty common. This clue is trying too hard.
- 31A: Literary character whose first word is "'Sblood" (IAGO) — four letter, Shakespearean English, kind of a gimme.
- 41A: New Age mecca in the Southwest (SEDONA) — didn't know it was a mecca. It looks gorgeous and I want to go to there.
- 52A: Interior designer Aarnio (EERO) — Finnish, four letters, it's Saturday: Ta Da!
- 54A: One of his aliases was Theo. LeSieg (DR. SEUSS) — Just yesterday I was staring at that alias on a book in Barnes & Noble. It was the first time I'd seen it. And now here it is. Hurray, coincidence! (LeSieg is, of course, GEISEL backwards)
- 62A: Philippine port (ILOILO) — Learned this from crosswords. No IDEA what I'd have done at the TUZIGOOT crossing if I hadn't know ILOILO. Geographical cruelty. Surely someone out there got Naticked upside the head by this crossing.
- 26D: The Plame affair, informally (C.I.A. GATE) — Uh, the Plame affair, informally, is called PLAMEGATE. You can look it up.
- 29D: Retired runway model (SST) — not Carol ALT? Huh.
- 35D: Coating of cheese (PARAFFIN) — by which they mean "thing that coats cheese," ugh. Trying Too Hard.
- 42D: Jabber in a mask (EPEEIST) — not sure I like the word, but I loooove the clue.
- 47D: Musical work whose name means "valiant" ("EROICA") — one of the most common musical work names in all of crosswords, so even if you didn't know the info in the clue, a cross or two should've been all you needed.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]
Bun in the oven…
I saw an online discussion on slang terms for being pregnant – things like preggerz, with child, on stork watch, in the family way, knocked up, preggolicious… Well, I am all that.
Yes, it’s official, we are expecting. And we are thrilled! Just had an ultrasound to stage the pregnancy today and our due date is March 15, which means I am about 8 wks pregnant. I am not sure I believe that though because I feel and look way more pregnant than that. I guess I got chunky preemptively, you know, in anticipation of the pregnancy.
We are also apparently going to be geriatric parents. My new OBGYN, who looked way too young to be a doctor, pointed that out to me. My age was a definite risk factor, she said and proceeded to inform me about the increased risk for all kinds of serious problems for the baby if the mother is over 35. I’m 38. I was already aware of the risks and was stressing out about them. Of course, it’s her job to share that information with me but I was hoping for something a little more reassuring along the lines of “Congratulations!” Yeah, didn’t happen…
We have been trying to get pregnant, on and off, for several years now. We didn’t plan to take this long but life can be unpredictable. We had to wait out several periods when one of us was laid off and the insurance situation was less than optimal. Then, of course, there’s the fact that getting pregnant in your thirties is not as automatic as they want you to believe when you are 16. Either that or we should have been trying in the back seat of our car… Anyway, it took us a while and here we are pregnant at an age when some people may be getting close to becoming grandparents. Oh, well…
Be that as it may, we are all thrilled about being pregnant. Nia has been asking for a sibling ever since she learned that we sorta held the key to that particular puzzle. She seems to change her mind about wanting a brother or a sister. Lately, she’s been saying she wants a baby brother, so she can see his pee-pee – can you think of a better reason? My mom has been pleading and cajoling for another grandchild for years as well. She’s beyond happy. We told my dad via Skype yesterday and he cried tears of joy. We also called Paul’s parents and the news totally made their day.
Being happy and excited is part of it. The rest, of course, is being nervous and worrying. With every milestone, I think, “Once I get there, I will be able to relax.” But the truth is, you can never relax because as soon as one milestone passes, there’s another one to worry about. I want to make sure that everything is OK with the baby and all those genetic tests that they say you should take, especially if you are over 35, are making me very nervous. I am particularly scared of the two invasive ones, the Chorionic Villi Sampling and the amniocentesis because while they do tell you whether your child has genetic problems, they carry an uncomfortably high (to me) risk of losing the baby. We discussed those tests when I was pregnant with our first child but opted not to do any of them and were lucky to have a healthy baby. Things are different now though as I am over 35 and the stakes are higher. What has your experience with these been?
MIXED-UP HORROR DADS MIXING IT UP-- PT 2!
“I’m also more sensitive to the reactions of parents in movies now. Not just if they’re experiencing grief but in empathizing with their protective instincts. The remake of The Fog (2005) was shit but it came out the fall after my son was born and I remember liking that Selma Blair’s Stevie Wayne actually left the lighthouse to go after her kid. That seemed right to me. I must have seen the original The Fog (1980) about thirty times and never thought twice about the fact that Adrienne Barbeau stayed on the air but when I watched it again after having my son, I couldn’t help but think that it was a movie clearly made by people who didn’t have kids at the time. I still love The Fog but the idea that Barbeau’s Stevie Wayne would stay on the air no matter what rather than get the fuck back home when the only thing standing between her son and all the shit in the fog is the decrepit Mrs. Kobritz is insane. The hell with staying on the air - get your ass home and protect your kid! For that matter, the old lady could use your help, too!”
That’s horror dad Jeff Allard, one of six panelists (including the Old Codger Speaking Now) sounding off on mixing horror films with the perspective of parenthood, as Richard Harland Smith continues his terrific feature The Incredibly Strange Film Fiends Who Had Kids and Became Mixed-Up Horror Dads Part 2 today over at TCM’s Movie Morlocks.
It was a real honor to have been asked to participate in what I naturally believe to be a pretty fertile subject. How great it is, then, that the feature itself has turned out to be deliciously readable, I think, for non-parental horror fans as well as those of us who have had to evaluate and re-evaluate our passion for the fantastic and the terrifying as the arrival of our little ones changed and continue to change the way we go about life.
So please visit our discussion, which is far more suitable for the Overlook than the Algonquin (but no less fun for that!) and join in with your own thoughts. Part three comes your way next Friday. The Incredibly Strange Film Fiends Who Had Kids and Became Mixed-Up Horror Dads Part 2-- fear not the grue, for it beckons to you… !
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Gallo, Ozon, Reichardt, Schnabel, Hellman, Kechiche, Coppola, etc, Screening at Venice
- 13 Assassins, d. Takashi Miike, Japan
- Attenberg, d. Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece, w. Yorgos Lanthimos
- Balada triste de trompeta [A Sad Trumpet Ballad], d. Álex de la Iglesia (Dance with the Devil), Spain/France, w. Carmen Maura, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Antonio de la Torre
- Barney's Version, d. Richard J. Lewis, Canada/Italy, w. Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver
- Black Swan, d. Darren Aronofsky, USA, w. Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder, Bruce Greenwood, Scott Speedman
- Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame, d. Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China), China/Hong Kong, w. Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Li Bingbing, Tony Leung Ka-Fai
- Drei [Three], d. Tom Tykwer, Germany, w. Devid Striesow
- Happy Few, d. Antony Cordier (Douches froides), France, w. Marina Foïs, Élodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Jean-François Stévenin
- Meek's Cutoff, d. Kelly Reichardt, USA, w. Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson
- Miral, d. Julian Schnabel, France/Israel/UK/Italy/USA, w. Hiam Abbass, Freida Pinto, Willem Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave, Alexander Siddig, Stella Schnabel
- Noi credevamo, d. Mario Martone (L'odore del sengue), Italy/France, w. Luigi Lo Cascio, Toni Servillo
- Norwegian Wood, d. Tran Anh Hung, Japan, w. Rinko Kikuchi
- La passione, d. Carlo Mazzacurati (La lingua del santo), Italy, w. Stefania Sandrelli
- La pecora nera, d. Ascanio Celestini, Italy, w. Maya Sansa
- Post mortem, d. Pablo Larraín, Chile/Mexico/Germany
- Potiche, d. François Ozon, France/Belgium, w. Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Judith Godrèche, Jérémie Renier
- Promises Written in Water, d. Vincent Gallo, USA, w. Gallo
- Road to Nowhere, d. Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop), USA, w. Shannyn Sossamon, Dominique Swain, John Diehl, Fabio Testi
- Silent Souls, d. Aleksei Fedorchenko (First on the Moon), Russia
- La solitudine dei numeri primi [The Solitude of Prime Numbers], d. Saverio Costanzo (In Memory of Me), Italy/France/Germany, w. Filippo Timi, Isabella Rossellini
- Somewhere, d. Sofia Coppola, USA, w. Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Benicio Del Toro
- Vénus noire [Black Venus], d. Abdellatif Kechiche, France/Italy/Belgium, w. Olivier Gourmet
Out of competition, you'll find directorial efforts from both the Affleck brothers. The elder will follow his well-received (but, still, not that good) Gone Baby Gone with The Town, a crime thriller about a Boston-area gang of thieves. Casey's directorial debut is I'm Still Here, a documentary that received a lot of press last year which follows Joaquin Phoenix's retirement from acting to pursue a career as a rapper. In addition to 13 Assassins, Takashi Miike's Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City will premiere, likely as part of the festival's midnight screenings, which will open with Robert Rodriguez's star-and-"star"-studded Machete. Julie Taymor's return to Shakespeare, The Tempest, will close this portion. Below you'll find a selection of the films playing out of competition.
- 1960, d. Gabriele Salvatores (I'm Not Scared), Italy
- The Child's Eye 3D, d. Oxide Pang, Danny Pang, Hong Kong/China
- I'm Still Here, d. Casey Affleck, USA, w. Joaquin Phoenix
- The Last Movie, d. Dennis Hopper, USA, w. Hopper, Tomas Milian, Samuel Fuller, Sylvia Miles, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, Henry Jaglom, John Phillip Law, Michelle Phillips, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, Toni Basil
- Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, d. Andrew Lau, Hong Kong/China, w. Donnie Yen, Shu Qi
- A Letter to Elia, d. Martin Scorsese, Kent Jones, USA
- Lope, d. Andrucha Waddington (House of Sand), Spain/Brazil, w. Leonor Watling, Pilar López de Ayala, Sonia Braga, Luis Tosar
- Machete, d. Robert Rodriguez, USA, w. Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Jeff Fahey, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Rose McGowan, Tom Savini
- Passione, d. John Turturro, Italy
- Přežít svůj život [Surviving Life], d. Jan Švankmajer, Czech Republic/Slovakia
- Raavanan, d. Mani Ratnam, India, w. Aishwarya Rai
- Reign of Assassins, d. John Woo, Su Chao-Bin, China/Hong Kong/Taiwan, w. Michelle Yeoh, Kelly Lin
- Shock Labyrinth 3D, d. Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on), Japan
- Showtime, d. Stanley Kwan (Lan yu), China, w. Carina Lau, Tony Leung Ka-Fai
- Sorelle mai, d. Marco Bellocchio, Italy
- The Tempest, d. Julie Taymor, USA, w. Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, Alfred Molina, Alan Cumming, Ben Whishaw
- That Girl in Yellow Boots, d. Anurag Kashyap (Dev.D), India
- The Town, d. Ben Affleck, USA, w. Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively
- Vallanzasca - Gli angeli del male, d. Michele Placido (Romanzo criminale), Italy/France, w. Kim Rossi Stuart, Filippo Timi, Moritz Bleibtreu, Paz Vega
- Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City, d. Takashi Miike, Japan
The Horizons portion of this year's selection will open with La belle endormie [Sleeping Beauty], another fairy tale adaptation from Catherine Breillat following last year's Barbe Bleue; like its predecessor, La belle endormie was produced by Arte Télévision and employs a cast of unknowns. Hong Sang-soo's Oki's Movie will close the section; Oki's Movie is Hong Sang-soo's second film to premiere in 2010 following Ha Ha Ha, which was awarded the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes in May. Not a whole lot of information was available about the rest of the films (some of them shorts), but I listed below the films from directors I knew. And following that is a selection of the films screening as part of the Venice Days, one of the festival's autonomous sidebars.
Horizons
- The Agent, d. Vincent Gallo, USA, w. Sage Stallone, Gallo
- La belle endormie [Sleeping Beauty], d. Catherine Breillat, France
- Better Life, d. Isaac Julien, UK/China, w. Maggie Cheung
- Cold Fish, d. Sion Sono, Japan
- Guest, d. José Luis Guerin, Spain
- The Leopard, d. Isaac Julien, UK/Italy
- A Loft, d. Ken Jacobs, USA
- News from Nowhere, d. Paul Morrissey, USA
- Oki's Movie, d. Hong Sang-soo, South Korea
- Painéis de São Vicente de Fora, Visão Poética, d. Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal, w. Ricardo Trêpa
- Red Earth, d. Clara Law, Hong Kong/China
Venice Days
- L'amour buio, d. Antonio Capuano (Luna rossa), Italy, w. Valeria Golino
- Le bruit des glaçons [The Clink of Ice], d. Bertrand Blier (Beau-père), France, w. Jean Duhardin, Albert Dupontel
- Cirkus Columbia, d. Danis Tanović (No Man's Land), Bosnia & Herzegovina/France/UK/Slovenia/Germany/Belgium/Serbia, w. Miki Manojlović, Mira Furlan
- Hitler à Hollywood [Hitler in Hollywood], d. Frédéric Sojcher, w. Maria de Medeiros, Micheline Presle
- Incendies, d. Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique), Canada/France, w. Lubna Azabal
- Noir océan, d. Marion Hänsel (The Quarry), w. Adrien Joliver
- La vida de los peces, d. Matías Bize (En la cama), Chile, w. Santiago Cabrera, Blanca Lewin
First Lines...
"On the morning my husband left me, hours before I knew he would, I looked at the bruised March sky and recognized tornado green.
I'd seen that peculiar algae shade before--anyone who grew up in Ohio had--but my intimate relationship with storms was a bit of family lore.
When I was eight, I tried to touch a tornado."
...The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
First Lines...
"On the morning my husband left me, hours before I knew he would, I looked at the bruised March sky and recognized tornado green.
I'd seen that peculiar algae shade before--anyone who grew up in Ohio had--but my intimate relationship with storms was a bit of family lore.
When I was eight, I tried to touch a tornado."
...The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
War News for Friday, July 30, 2010
NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan of Thursday, July 29th.
NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an IED strike in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan of Thursday, July 29th.
2 Britons, 3 Iraqis Killed in Jordan Road Accident
John Prescott doubted Iraq nuclear weapons intelligence
Gunmen attack checkpoint in Baghdad, briefly raise flag of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Dutch troops to withdraw from Afghanistan in August as planned
Taliban says Petraeus killing more civilians in Afghanistan
Taliban Exploit Openings in Neglected Province
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: Militants killed 17 members of Iraq's security forces Thursday in a combination of shootings and roadside bombs that was a bitter demonstration of the dangers Iraqi forces still face. The worst attack came in Baghdad's Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah when 10 members of the Iraqi security forces were killed in what appeared to have been co-ordinated killings by militants in a bold, daylight attack in the neighbourhood that was once an insurgent stronghold, Iraqi police and army officials said. Militants first opened fire at an Azamiyah checkpoint and minutes later detonated three roadside bombs, the officials said. Fifteen people were also wounded in the Azamiyah attack, which appeared concentrated in one street in the Sunni neighbourhood.
Diyala Prv:
#1: A roadside bomb killed four members of a family of a member of the Sahwa, or Sons of Iraq, former insurgents who turned against al Qaeda, when their car drove near Buhriz, about 60 km (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said
Amarra:
#1: A border post was attacked on Friday morning by unknown gunmen in southern Amara, according to a security source. “Unknown gunmen fired a number of missiles on Umm Sa’a post, southeast of al-Kahlaa district, southern Amara, causing some material damage,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Baaj:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed a solider and wounded three others on Thursday in the town of Baaj, 375 km (233 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police said.
Mosul:
#1: One policeman was killed and two others were wounded in a sticky bomb blast in the south of Mosul, a police source said on Thursday. “A sticky bomb went off on Thursday (July 29) morning targeting a civilian motorcade of Brigadier Daham al-Juburi, a police officer, in al-Qayara district, south of Mosul, killing a cop and injuring two others, from his bodyguards,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#2: Policemen in Ninewa found an unidentified body showing signs of having been shot in southern Mosul city on Thursday, according to a local security source. “The police found the body of a man in his 20s and showing signs of having been shot in the head in the area of al-Okaidat, southern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#3: Security forces killed a policeman after mistaking him for a suicide bomber west of Mosul city on Thursday, according to a local security source. “A force from the Oil Pipelines Protection (OPP) shot down a policeman near the Strategic Line in al-Mahlabiya district, west of Mosul, by mistake,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The policeman, who was on a leave of absence from duty, was speedily driving his private car into an OPP post. Suspecting the policeman was a suicide bomber targeting them, the OPP personnel, who were standing in a line to receive their salaries, opened fire on him, killing him instantly,” the source elaborated.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: In Ghazni province, insurgents using small arms fatally shot six civilians building and repairing roads. Three others were killed and one was wounded when a bomb struck their vehicle.
#2: In Paktiya province, one died and another was wounded by an improvised explosive device.
#3: In Kandahar province, a roadside bomb killed three people and wounded two others.
#4: Hundreds of British soldiers have launched an operation against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Operation Tor Shezada began early on Friday morning in Helmand province in the south of the country. Soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, are trying to clear the Taliban from an important stronghold in the Nad Ali district. The Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF) was among the first wave of troops. Under cover of darkness, this small elite unit launched an airborne assault deep into insurgent-held territory. Hundreds of British and Afghan forces are moving by land and air towards the town of Saidabad. It is one of the areas that UK forces were unable to clear during Operation Moshtarak earlier this year. As many as 180 insurgents are believed to use the town as a base; it is where bombs are made, attacks are planned and injured fighters are treated.
#5: AN Australian special forces soldier has been slightly wounded in Afghanistan.
#6: Unidentified miscreants blew up a NATO oil tanker near western by-pass in Quetta, a private TV reported on Friday. Police said that a Nato oil tanker bound for Afghanistan from Karachi reached Akhtar Abad this morning. The driver pulled up the tanker at a patrol pump when after a while the tanker exploded with a loud bang, making the oil spill out.
DoD: Lance Cpl. Abram L. Howard
DoD: Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove
IT/MD: First Marshal Mauro Gigli
IT/MD: Corporal Major Head Pier Davide De Cillis
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Undersize keyboard / FRI 7-30-10 / Rare equine hybrid / User record-keeping device quipu / Sage exiled planet Dagobah / Amanti maker
Relative difficulty: Medium?
THEME: none
Word of the Day: HINNY (41A: Rare equine hybrid) —
A hinny is a domestic equine hybrid that is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey (called a jenny). It is similar to the more common mule, which is the product of a female horse and a male donkey.
Was on phone with my sister (working out vacation details / gossiping) while solving this puzzle, so I don't know exactly how hard it is. Felt pretty Easy, but initial times at the NYT puzzle site seem more Medium. As is typical for a Friday, I had a few moments of "huh?" followed by a slowish hacking away at a small portion of the grid, and then bam: openness. Here's what my grid looked like after the first few minutes:
I've gotten more and more fascinated by *how* people solve—that is, the route by which they get from blank to done. Just watching the finals at the ACPT, where only three people's work is visible, you can see the incredibly different paths different minds take. Combination of special knowledge and luck (i.e. the luck of getting just the right crosses that will let you see a word you couldn't see before).
What's weird to me is how often my initial guess is correct for certain answers. Like today, I wanted SMASH UP right away at 1D: Bad traffic accident, but wouldn't commit to it. Ditto HIVED, which seems like a made-up word and yet is the word I immediately wanted (21A: Joined the swarm). It's tough when you want an answer but can't get any of the crosses to confirm its rightness. Today, my start was pretty pedestrian and cruddy—wrote in the -ED suffix at 21A and then the RE- prefix at 26A: Convened anew. Then put the "T" at the end of that answer because I knew it was either RESAT or REMET. DREARY came easily from there (22D: Overcast), as did ERRS (27D: Goes off). Got THANE with no crosses (30D: Ross, Lennox or Angus, in Shakespeare), and then PESTERER became the ugly-but-unavoidable solution to 29A: Nag. As you can see from the partial grid above, I was able to stake a cross right in the heart of the grid early on, which was a big help in breaking the puzzle open. HARD CLAMS was easy off the "HAR-" (32A: Quahogs), and then off only the "-ARC" I got GREEN ARCHITECTS (8D: Ones concerned with sustainable design). After that, I was able to move methodically through the rest of the puzzle—those stacks of 15 aren't that hard to blow up if you can get a few crosses through them.
The only trouble came at the very end, in the SW, which seemed to me the very hardest portion of the grid. I had two answers I didn't know crossing two answers I didn't know! Oy. Thankfully, I was able to infer ENFANTS (36D: "Jeux d'___" (42-Across [BIZET] keyboard work)) and PIANINO (35D: Undersize keyboard). "F" from ENFANTS made RAFE a virtual certainty (44A: ___ McCawley, Ben Affleck's role in "Pearl Harbor"), but I had to run the alphabet to see the last letter—the "H" in HINNY / SHRIVEL (kicked myself for not seeing SHRIVEL with S-RIVEL in place, ugh). HINNY made me laugh as just tonight, at the dinner table, I told my family something I learned via Katie Hamill on Facebook—that a rare zebra/donkey hybrid was recently born (in GA), and it is called a ZEDONK! Best Animal Name Ever. No wait ... I'm sorry, correction. The best animal name is HONEY BADGER. HONEY BADGER is the best. I apologize for any offense I might have given any HONEY BADGERs out there. Again, that's HONEY BADGER 1, ZEDONK 2.
Bullets:
- 1A: Christmas trifle (STOCKING STUFFER) — great answer. My favorite thing in the grid, right after LAZY SLOB, which is virtually unbeatable (33D: Epithet for an annoying roommate).
- 24A: Actress Edelstein of TV's "House" (LISA) — Do *not* understand popularity of this show. *Do* understand popularity of Hugh Laurie, though. So maybe sentence 2 takes care of sentence 1.
- 34A: Potential game stoppers (SPEARS) — G-r-r-eat clue. Took me a long time to get it, and the surprising answer was totally worth the wait.
- 6D: User of a record-keeping device called a quipu (INCA) — had the last "A" and honestly considered "PARA" (as in "PARAlegal").
- 11D: Japanese salad plants (UDOS) — no idea how I know this; I just do. UDON, UDO, same cuisine.
- 47D: Masur's New York Philharmonic predecessor (MEHTA) — As conductors go, he is kind of a big deal. Got him off the "M." Zubin! There's a name I could stand to see more of.
- 50D: Sage exiled on the planet Dagobah (YODA) — someday I want to compile every YODA and EWOK and ENDOR and other "Star Wars" answers; I'm pretty sure I could come close to reconstructing the plots of at least the first (last) three "Star Wars" movies just from crossword clues alone.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]
Cleveland Fans: "Aaah...that's still tender."
In Zombieland, Bill Murray has what's probably the single greatest cameo of all time. If you haven't seen the movie, you suck. But in the interest of not spoiling too much, there's a scene where Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson) pokes his finger into Murray's gaping chest wound, and Murray says, "Aaah...that's still tender."
Well, Cleveland fans can understand that sensation. Especially the ones who were at last night's Indians/Yankees game. And that tenderness made 'em mean.
From the Associated Press:
A fan wearing a Miami Heat jersey of LeBron James drew the ire of the crowd at a Cleveland Indians game and was escorted out of the ballpark.Here's some footage. The language is not so safe for work.
Fans in the left-field bleachers chanted obscenities and pointed at the man Wednesday night during the sixth inning of the game between the Indians and New York Yankees. Hundreds of fans joined in before security led the man out of Progressive Field.
As he left, some fans followed him toward the gate with more derisive chants.