Shrimp Cake

So apparently, Adolf Hitler made little watercolour paintings of a number of Disney characters. And they just found them. And people are all in a tizzy. And I'm thinking... who the hell cares?

Also, I just started 3 sentences in a row using 'and'. Go on, correct my grammar. Do it. Oh that's right you can't, because I beat you to it.

As you may have noticed, I don't have much to say right now. I've been playing too many video games, or reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series to actually find/do anything interesting to tell you about. But I figured I'd better post since it's been like 2 weeks, and I know the 5 or 6 people who read this blog were worried about me. (I just started a sentence with "but"!)

Oh, I've been looking at funny pictures over at collegehumour.com. That's always a good time, though it makes me regret not going to college. Anyways, if you're bored, go look at funny pictures and have fun.

Web Log No. 13, In Which Videos Are Shared

I Have 2 videos I'd like to share with you.

The first is "What's a Girl to Do?"by Bat for Lashes.



Second, Buck 65's "Devil's Eyes". This is from his album Secret House Against the World, which was more singin' than rappin'.


I wish more videos were like this. I'm more of an "artsy-fartsy music video" than "ass and bling music video" kind of guy.

Enjoy!

Nobody Moves, Nobody Gets Hurt

I've decided to write a novel. I won't get into the details as I'm really just working those out right now. I've tried this before but didn't have the drive to finish. I've actually had better progress with this than any other attempt, though, and it just feels... good. So keep an eye on the shelves at your local bookstore, you just might see something by Zechariah Unterberg. Oh, that's my pen name. No, not really. I just don't feel my name sounds... authorial enough to be on the cover of a book. Time will tell, I suppose.

Whats that? A movie review? Oh, if you insist.

Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
If this film had starred anyone but Johnny Depp as Sweeny Todd, and been made by anyone other than Tim Burton, I probably would have hated it. Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie. It was funny and interesting, and I was never once bored while watching it. There wasn't a performance I didn't enjoy, serious props to the casting directors. I even liked Helena Bonham Carter for once, in her roll as Mrs. Lovett. And Sacha Baron Cohen, where did you come from? Even though it wasn't very serious, that guy needs to play more serious rolls.
It was visually stunning, as is to be expected with Mr. Burton's work. But the songs weren't catchy. At all. I can't imagine anyone singing along to them ever. And I do realize that, in a gothic horror, blood is to be expected (especially in a gothic horror about an insane barber). I just feel there may have been a more subtle way to depict a throat being slashed. We don't need to see it, every single time, to know that its been done. Okay, the blood is a contrast with the dark environment, we get it.
(My Rating - 2.5 out of 5)

Also, I watched Cloverfield a while back. I'm not even going to bother with a critique. As far as I'm concerned it was a protest film, against the war in Iraq. The basic message was, if the US continues to send men overseas, there will be no one around to protect the American people from giant 3-legged monsters with pulsating brains.

Hattie McDaniel 1896 - 1952

Hattie McDaniel was born in Wichita, Kansas, on June 1oth, 1896. Her parents were former slaves, and she was the youngest of 13 children.
Hattie dropped out of highschool to enter showbusiness, joining her brothers Otis and Sam in her father's show, The Henry McDaniel Minstrel. In 1910 she won a gold medal for reciting a poem, in a contest in which she was the only black peformer. In 1920, after the death of her brother Otis, she joined Professor George Morrison's Melony Hounds, becoming the first black woman to sing on the radio.
While working as a washroom attendant at Club Madrid in Milwaukee she was overheard singing and, at the request of patrons, soon became a regular performer on the stage there.
She moved to Los Angeles with her brother Sam and sisters Etta and Orlena in 1931 and, with the help of her brother, once again gained employment in radio. She starred as Hi-Hat-Hattie, an outspoken housemaid on the program The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour. Her salary from the show was so low that Hattie had to work as a maid in real life.
Hattie made her big-screen debut in 1932's The Golden West, in the roll of a maid. She followed up with I'm No Angel, starring Mae West, as (you guessed it) a maid. She continued to star in small rolls until the mid-1930s. When she was criticized by the black community for continually taking the roll of a maid, she replied "I'd rather play a maid than be one"
In 1939 Hattie starred as Mammy in Gone With The Wind. She was barred from attending the premier of the film in Atlanta, Georgia, because of segregationist laws (her co-star and good friend Clark Gable refused to attend without her, until she persuaded him to go). She won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her work in the film, becoming the first black person to win an Oscar.
Hattie continued to act in movies, still quite often as a maid, until her final film Family Honeymoon in 1949. She appeared on radio and televison programs until she became to ill to do so.
Hattie died of cancer on October 25th, 1952. Unfortunately, prejudice followed her even after death. Hollywood cemetery, where she wished to be buried, did not accept the burial of blacks at that time. Her family instead had her interred in historic Angelus Rosedale Cemetery. The current owners of Hollywood Cemetery offered to have her remains moved in 1999, but her family declined. The owners erected a cenotaph in her honour instead.
Hattie was married 4 times. Her will left exactly $1 to her ex-husband Larry Williams.
In February 2006, Hattie was featured on a United States postage stamp, wearing the dress in which she recieved her Oscar.She two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her work in radio and one for her work in movies.

"Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, fellow members of the motion picture industry and honored guests: This is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting for one of the awards, for your kindness. It has made me feel very, very humble; and I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel, and may I say thank you and God bless you." - Hattie McDaniel's Oscar Acceptance Speach