The Saboteur

The Saboteur is a third person action-adventure video game set during World War II and developed by Pandemic Studios.The game has been called the developer's swan song, since Pandemic Studios was liquidated after its completion.

I'm having tons of fun playing this game which seems like a blend of Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row with all the car jacking going on. However, the setting of Paris during the Nazi occupation means you get to jack classic cars and kill Gestapo and SS instead of street criminals, much more satisfying to say the least. The Frank Miller effect, like in Sin City & The Spirit,uses a great black & white & red look for occupied territory. The music's brilliant too, lots of Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Glen Miller and even Django Reinhardt as well, tres cool, eh, mon ami!

A Christmas Story

"A Christmas Story is a 1983 American/Canadian Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, including material from his books In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark. The film has since become a holiday classic and is known to be shown numerous times on television during the Christmas season..." Make sure you watch it and remember not to shoot your eye out!

Ridley Scott's Robin Hood

Finally we can get a glimpse of the upcoming Ridley Scott epic film Robin Hood. The trailer just became available on Apple Trailers, so I've posted the link here. It looks like it's going to be a really great adventure like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven. Ridley does wonderful period pieces, can't wait to see it. Also I snagged the photo of Russell Crowe skulking through Sherwood forest, no doubt looking for Cate Blanchett who plays Maid Marian. The movie will be released in May 2010.

Anne's First Edition

A first-edition copy of the Canadian classic Anne of Green Gables was sold by Sotheby's New York Friday afternoon for $37,500. This is a live auction record for the famous debut novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery that originally retailed for $1.50.

Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Since publication, Anne of Green Gables has sold more than 50 million books. Also, this book is taught to students around the world.

Anne is really popular in Japan and the influx of tourists from Tokyo I witnessed by the coach-load when I was doing the shrines and theatre production in Charlotetown and Cavendish. Anne crosses all boundaries and is dearly loved worldwide. Wish I had my own first edition!

A Christmas Carol

I got around going to my local theatre to see the latest version of Chucky D's wonderful yarn, A Christmas Carol, and was somewhat disappointed in the anticipated experience. Granted, I did not have the 3-D bells and whistles movie house extravaganza in which to see my all time favourite Christmas story. However, I did enjoy the amazing computer generated eye-candy. Marley and the three others were just brilliant to gaze at. I did not get emotionally moved by the story though. No warming of the cockles of my heart by so much great dialogue spoken by these computer created beings. Give me any of the older movie versions for getting the uplifting glow of the tale itself, this effort unfortunately left me cold. I'll probably view it again when it comes out on dvd though, just to savour some of the immortal lines of Charles Dickens sounding great by Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman. Maybe there's a compact disc reading of the story or screenplay.

Day of Infamy 68th. Anniversary

It's the sixty eighth anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the day of infamy that killed 2,395 Americans and hurled the United States into World War Two. It has been imortalized in films, books, paintings and even excellent video games....it remains a major turning point in twentieth century history. National Geographic has a very good documentary dvd about the event and there are many fascinating sites on the net that keep the memory alive and well documented. This post is a redux version from way back in 2006 when I started this blogsite, I scooped it from my own archives, famous photo and all!

Children In Need

Meet the greatest supergroup ever, featuring the vocal talents and dance moves of (and including many more) Thomas the tank engine, Spongebob, Sooty, the Teletubbies and even the strange Night Garden Crew.....I give you, The Animated All Star Band!
More than one hundred of the best-loved kids TV characters over three generations have been brought together for the Animated All Star Band by funnyman Peter Kay in aid of Children In Need.
The hordes of toys, animated characters and puppets are the stars of a groundbreaking Band Aid-style single and pop video - aired for the first time on BBC1's charity extravaganza last week.
Millions watched in amazement as kiddies' favourites, including Paddington Bear, the Thunderbirds, the Wombles and Bob The Builder joined forces.
In the video, the characters sing and perform dance routines to a medley of songs including Pussycat Dolls' Jai Ho, Take That's Never Forget and The Beatles' Hey Jude.
The ambitious animation project took two years to complete as toys, puppets and models were tracked down and shipped in from all over the world. Where's Noddy and Barney or a Smurf?

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die.
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

Here's another film that I'm eagerly awaiting, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The cast is spectacular and there's lots of speculation about the late Heath Ledger's last role being quite brilliant just like the Joker was. Christoper Plummer is usually always outstanding and Tom Waits too.

Anyways, we've got to wait until Christmas before it's released in theatres. Be sure to check out the trailer on the official site it's really great eye candy!

You May Call Me V

"...V: But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona.
V: Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.
[carves V into poster on wall]
V: The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.
[giggles]
V: Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V...."

Anne Blythe & Co.

The Dark Side of Anne with an E...

"A rediscovered work of fiction by L.M. Montgomery, handed to the publisher on the same day she died in 1942, could change the way Canadians think about the famous author of "Anne of Green Gables" and her writing. "The Blythes Are Quoted" is the last book in a series that began with "Anne of Green Gables," set in Prince Edward Island and first published in 1908. It takes the story of Anne and Gilbert Blythe, and their six children and housekeeper Susan Baker 20 years beyond anything previously published "and some of its subject matter is darker than we might expect," the publisher says.
The intriguing book, which hasn't before now been published in its entirety, is divided into two sections, one set before the First World War and one after." Apparently it's full of surprises...

Tim's Nightmare Revisited

Nightmare Revisited is a cover album of songs from the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was released in September, 2008 by Walt Disney Records. In addition to the album's eighteen covers are two re-recordings by original composer Danny Elfman, of the "Opening" and "Closing" tracks. My favorite song has got to be Marilyn Manson's great rendition of "This Is Halloween". The album also features the last song Korn recorded before entering their hiatus, their cover of "Kidnap the Sandy Claws".

Pumpkins Anniversary

"Fourteen years ago this week: the Smashing Pumpkins released their third album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, on Virgin Records. For the first and only time in the band’s career, the epic multi-disc album debuted at number one on the Billboard Charts. The album earned the band seven Grammy Award nominations, and won best hard rock performance for “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”. Mellon Collie was intended to be a concept album symbolizing the cycle of life and death.

As a whole, the album expanded the band’s repertoire by incorporating diverse musical styles, giving the band multiple dimensions. Upon its release, head Pumpkin Billy Corgan described the album as an interpretation of “the human condition of mortal sorrow”...."

Return of Winnie-the-Pooh

Last week, Dutton Children's Books released "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood," the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne's beloved Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which were first published in the 1920s. Over the years the Pooh Properties Trust has received many unsolicited proposals for a sequel, but it only recently approved British writer David Benedictus as the author of the first new Pooh book in nearly 80 years.I just got my hands on a copy and can't wait to start reading it. Here's a review from the New York Times.

Put A Bullet In The Radio!

"With her third record, Miranda Lambert remains country's most refreshing act, and not just because she makes firearms seem like a matter-of-fact female accessory. The playlist is her most varied yet: "Airstream Song" is a string-band dropout fantasy that includes a nod to fellow "red-dirt girl" Emmylou Harris, while a redneck-surrealist cover of John Prine's "That's the Way That the World Goes 'Round" rocks enough to get the girl booked at Lollapalooza. Lambert's Second Amendment talk goes beyond posturing: "Time to Get a Gun" (by Fred Eaglesmith) is more about working-class powerlessness than being trigger-happy. And on "Maintain the Pain," she shoots her car radio. Hey, Nashville: What d'ya think she's sayin' there?"

Forbidden Fruit

So, what's the best way to get youngsters to read books other than writing splendid ones like Rowling and Pullman? You guessed it, ban them or at least forbid them to be read. Here's an interesting article concerning Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Harry Potter, Huck Finn, Holden Caufeild and Lyra Belaqua have all come under the scrutiny of book banning and burning in recent years and young folks really wanted to check them out for just that reason.Now it's Boo Radley under the cosh. Start screaming about banning Dawkins and Hitchens a bit more, make their names household words, please. You go Boo Radley and get some press!

New Tom Waits cd

"Tom Waits will release a live album of material taken from his 2008 Glitter and Doom tour.
"Yeah, it's coming out at Thanksgiving," Waits revealed to CBC Radio. "A lot of applause, followed by a song, and after the song there's more applause, and then there's a song. And it goes like that all the way through."
The album will join Nighthawks At The Diner and Big Time in the Tom Waits live recordings catalogue.
Glitter and Doom Live is set for release on November 24."

Washington's Apotheosis

This depiction of George Washington is certainly getting some scrutiny because of how it figures in Dan Brown's latest best selling novel, The Lost Symbol.

You don't need to travel to Europe anymore to find ancient mysteries and symbols that intrigue Dr.Robert Langdon. Read the exciting book if you like this kind of thing.

Great Week For Sherraine

What an accomplishment. It seems this is the best ever Canadian result for any fencer in the history of the sport. Really great for fencing in general, eh what! I thought I'd post this photo of the four medalists on my new site here.

Some good media coverage is still around too. The Universal Sports live coverage was the best. It was absolutely brilliant watching the Shutova bout as it was unfolding in Turkey! Way to go SS!

The Great Derangement

Matt Taibbi's new book, The Great Derangement looks like something I'd like to read. I really enjoy Taibbi's articles for Rolling Stone magazine. Makes for a good start to this brand new blog site....actually it's a new template procedure for me...I've been slow in catching up with the inovative folks at Blogger®....this book cover art is cool, eh. Looks like a 60's poster for the Fillmore West. You can access the older version of this site and its archives by clicking on the link on the right.