Friday B-Movie Pick: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
This second outing in the Ghost Rider francise is B-Movie making at it’s B grade average. Shot in Eastern Europe, primarily to keep the costs down, but it also gave some great location shots. Nicholas Cage turned the crazy up a few notches in his deliverance of the cursed and soul tortured Johnny Blaze. The level of bad guy was turned up a few notches as well. Ciaran Hinds can play the bad guy quite well. An OK movie for a rental at home with popcorn and bourbon.
Crazy for Covers
I’ve been a Kate Bush fan for a long time. How long? I’ve got a good chunk of her work on vinyl.
So a cover album of Kate Bush tunes would definitely catch my ear. It’s called I WANNA BE KATE: The Songs of Kate Bush
No big name artists, just musicians tipping their own style of hat to Kate Bush, who, like Sinatra, definitely did it her way.
One of my favorites is The J Davis Trio rendition of “There Goes a Tenner.”
Kate Bush has done just a couple of covers, but my favorites is her version of Rocket Man on this tribute album: Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin
Thank Our Troops Day
Monday Book Pick: Red Shirts
Red Shirts by John Scalzi
Scalzi takes a humorous, and also deadly serious look at one of the most famous themes of Television SciFi. Why Ensign Ricky doesn’t beam back up with the ship’s command crew. At the same time, he has fun with the topic of his earlier book, “Agent to the Stars”, the day to day work of Hollywood. As the author points out in the book, the theme is not new, but he does have an interesting take on it. One thing I did find interesting was that in list of “world as myth” examples, he left out “Number of the Beast.”
Thanks!
Just a shout out to everyone who uses the Amazon links here and else where on my various sites.
It helps to support the running all the sites and keeps me in reading/viewing/listening material, as well as the occasional new gadget.
Let us review the Obama Economy once more
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, economy, Obama Economy, Our Dear Leader, Politics
We’ve take a couple of health checks of the economy under the Obama regime, and they haven’t looked good.
Let’s add this data point: the Obama administration projects $1.2T 2012 budget deficit.
Didn’t our Dear Leader promise to cut the deficit in half? Instead he is taking it to new record highs.
Here is another example of fiscal mismanagement by the Obama regime: GM (Government Motors) ramps Up Risky Subprime Auto Loans To Drive Sales.
Let’s review recent history, it was the federal government policy of forcing record numbers of subprime housing loans that lead to the last fiscal crisis. A policy formed by the so-called “Community Reinvestment Act” that was put in place and defended by the far left wing of the democrat party.
Can anyone see the subprime auto loan market turning out any better than the subprime home loan market?
Quote of the Day
Cars didn’t shape our existence; cars let us escape with our lives. We’re way the heck out here in Valley Bottom Heights and Trout Antler Estates because we were at war with the cities. We fought rotten public schools, idiot municipal bureaucracies, corrupt political machines, rampant criminality and the pointy-headed busybodies. Cars gave us our dragoons and hussars, lent us speed and mobility, let us scout the terrain and probe the enemy’s lines. And thanks to our cars, when we lost the cities we weren’t forced to surrender, we were able to retreat.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption
The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption
This turkey could fly about as well as the one the WKRP staff had shoved out of helicopter. The “name” actors in this were Ron Perlman and Billy Zane. I can only hope they did this because they needed the money for their kids’ braces. Bad script, bad acting, low budget, all the elements of a hack B-Movie are here. The one plus is that they shot in Thailand, so they got the elephants cheap. Just how a the main character and his Germananic barbarian sidekick made from the desert to Thailand is kinda glossed over. Don’t ask how the Roman soldiers , with the overly long swords, made it there either. Really, that is easier to buy into than the Forest Ninja. Yes, I said Forest Ninja. Really, by this point in the film, you’ve given up on any hope of good movie and are along for the ride.They don’t explain why the Book of the Dead was in Thailand either. There are worse movies you could watch, like Cyberjack, but really, do yourself a favor and rewatch old epiodes of UFO, Firefly or Babylon 5. I’m not kidding here, Leonard Pinth-Garnell could do a special on this flick.
History is not a friend of the left
You must have noticed this before, leftists are bad at history. Even when they are “good” with most historical items, they selectively edit history to line up with their political views. Views with tend to run at odds with reality.
An example I’ve listed before is where one leftist accused President Reagan of reinstating draft registration as part of his ‘war mongering.’ He was not happy when I pointed out that it was Jimmy Carter, the worst president of the latter half of the 20th Century, who did that.
Here is a new example, a very smart fellow, whom I know is a more than mildly serious history buff, rattled off a very clear, concise and accurate, summary of the failure of Solyndra. It was however, missing some key facts that didn’t fit his political world view.
The facts missing completely change the narrative, which is what he objects to.
The facts in question are:
- Solyndra applied for federal loans/grants during the G.W. Bush administration, which turned them down. The reason stated was that they did not have a solid business plan that showed a path to profitability, no matter how much money was dumped their way.
- After our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, occupied the White House, Solyndra reapplied, and where quickly approved as part of the Obama regime’s “Green Jobs” program.
- The CEO of Solyndra was a major “bundler” to both the DNC and Barack Hussein Obama.
In the world of the left, Solyndra failure was ‘not their fault’ and had nothing to do with Obama paying off his political donors with tax payer money.
If this was the only case of a company, which happens to be run by a big DNC/BHO donor, receiving millions of taxpayer dollars as part of BHO’s “Green Jobs” program, and then “unexpectedly” went bankrupt, I’d be willing to buy into this particular leftist fantasy. It is a leftist fantasy because there have been multiple other companies that fit this same profile.
How is the Obama Economy doing?
Based on the recent check on economic health, not too bloody good. Here are a couple of data points to add to the pile.
US poverty on track to rise to highest since 1960s
It’s just not the poor getting poorer, the rich are becoming less rich as the Obama regime sucks their money out of the private sector.
Wait! It gets worse!
According to CNBC: Earnings Show Recession May Be ‘Fast Approaching’
Just how is that Hopey Changey thing workin’ for ya?