My New Favourite Time Waster

Every so often I stumble across a blog-based picture website which makes me waste a bunch of time at work (lolcats a while ago - before they got lame - and, more recently, latfh.com)

The latest of these is a work of pure genius. Take a photo of a father and son, photoshop the heads around and voila! Manbabies.

Some of these are on the lame side... but others are hysterical. Its the kind of site you could spend ages looking at (despite having a NSFW-ish title which implies its a site about men who like wearing nappies)

This one has potential to be the next-big-thing - check it out before everyone jumps on the bandwagon and drastically reduces the quality of the site (a la lolcats)

Roger Ebert

Sometimes it shocks me just how out of the loop I can be with some things.

Upon checking my facebook page this morning one of my geeky friends had put a link to an interview with veteran film critic (and writer of Russ Meyer's seminal BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS) Roger Ebert.

I knew that years ago Ebert was diagnosed with thyroid cancer (legend has it that Vincent Gallo had put a hex on him after the unmercifully scathing review of THE BROWN BUNNY... no, i'm not making this up) but, unbeknownst to me, Ebert had surgery which effectivly removed his lower jaw, making him unable to talk, eat or drink.

The part that really got to me, though, was that this happened nearly FOUR YEARS AGO. Where had i been? How did i not know this? How big is the rock I'd been nestled under?

The interview is a great read. It details the history and current status of a courageous, often curmudgeonly man - one of the most influential and outspoken film writers of all time - and his horrible ordeal.

Superstar

Yesterday was the 27th anniversary of the death of Karen Carpenter, one of music's tragic figures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWkOryYF6CI

A few years back a group of us sat around and watched THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY (not to be confused with Todd Haynes' illegal pile of WTF SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY - which we also watched that night) and we were in tears towards the poignant finale.

The official cause of death was complications from Anorexia Nervosa, but it was really the critics that killed her.

Yeah, cos THATS what Haiti needs...

Its a bit old-news now, but for those who haven't bothered to venture out from under their rocks, here's something that made me go "guh?!"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/26/john-travolta-scientology-aid-haiti

Yep, Tony Manero flew his own plane to a disaster-ravaged zone armed with aid. Aid and SCIENTOLOGY MINISTERS.

Not just any Scientology Ministers, however, Scientology Ministers who can HEAL PEOPLE WITH THE POWER OF TOUCH! Jinkies!

The group, which critics say is a cult peddling quack treatments, has received a mixed reaction to the light "touching", through clothing and bandages, of fractures and infection.

And it gets better...

One US doctor, who declined to be named, said it was more a credibility thing. "I didn't know touching could heal gangrene."

Holy crap! Really?! Gangrene you say? I had no idea EITHER!

I've had a morbid curiosity about Scientology for a while now. I become increasingly befuddled with the concept the more I read about it. What is it that drives people with at least some degree of intelligence and sanity to follow a religion that was not only based on the insane ramblings of a SCIENCE FICTION WRITER (I mean, its not like it was his JOB to MAKE UP STUFF LIKE THIS) but one that charges you HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to do so?

Perhaps the most sinister thing about Scientology though is the fact that, like other cults, they seem to prey on the most vulnerable people claiming to be able to "free" or "help" them.

The last thing the people of Haiti needs is an aging Italian-American actor (presumably with Pilot hat and leather jacket from WILD HOGS) explaining to them that an earthquake leveled their country was caused by Xenu.