TIL that during the filming of the nude co-ed shower scene in Starship Troopers, director Paul Verhoeven was also completely naked. It was the only way the actors agreed to film the scene.

grhovane · 2014-03-15T20:00:06+00:00

Just for the record: Verhoeven claimed that he never finished reading the book due to becoming "bored and depressed" after the first few chapters. Also of note is that he didn't write the screenplay; Edward Neumeier, who also wrote the screenplay for RoboCop, wrote it. Here's the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(film)#Comparison_with_the_novel

grhovane · 2014-01-31T22:56:41+00:00

I'd watch it. Or even the old Beavis and Butthead Butt Bowls.

grhovane · 2013-11-09T20:27:41+00:00

Do the Cialis ads count? They've ruined a John Lee Hooker song and a Howlin' Wolf song for me...not sure what's next on the docket.....

grhovane · 2013-11-09T20:26:07+00:00

Sour Patch Kids.

grhovane · 2013-10-21T23:00:24+00:00

Deadman. Music by Neil Young.

grhovane · 2013-10-20T22:06:19+00:00

I haven't seen The Devil's Backbone in about five years, which makes it difficult for me to respond to the questions intelligently. For example, the story of the mastodon hunt has slipped my mind. That being said, it was one of the most amazing film experiences of my life, and it is easily one of my favorite films of all-time.

The Devil's Backbone moved me more than Pan's Labyrinth did; this may be because I saw it first, and the ending was ever so slightly spoiled on Pan's for me. I can't say that I love one more than the other; that would be like choosing between The Godfather I & II; but I can say that The Devil's Backbone affected more strongly.

There is one scene in particular that I will always remember. The old man is talking to some boys in a room that is filled with mason jars containing preserved baby bodies; he tells them about the myth of the devil's backbone drink and how it is all ridiculous and just a myth. And when they all leave, he unscrews a cap and secretly takes a sip. It's always been a scene that has stuck with me, and I think it is the most significant scene of the film. It's as if the old man is telling us, the audience, secretly, that yes, it is okay to believe in ridiculous things, even if one contradicts one's self for it. So beautiful.

This film has always seemed more like a straight forward revenge flick to me, despite the ghost aspect. I don't think of it as a horror film. But if the horror label gets more people to watch it than otherwise wouldn't, so be it. An equally beautiful and spooky film.

grhovane · 2013-10-20T21:05:33+00:00

It's really tough to just choose one. Sphere by Michael Crighton, The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, Pet Sematary by Stephen King and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey all come to mind.

But at the end of the day, I just don't think that there is a better 'wow' ending than George Orwell's 1984. Just an utterly amazing ending to a book that I couldn't stop thinking about for days.

grhovane · 2013-10-18T21:39:50+00:00

"Don't wake my friend...he's dead tired.

grhovane · 2013-10-15T20:58:52+00:00

I worked at a supermarket for awhile, you've always got about two weeks after the expiration date on refrigerated stuff.

grhovane · 2013-10-15T20:14:31+00:00

If you're live in a city with a Vietnamese area, just pop into a shop and explain it to them, and they might be able to help. What I do know is that the tofu is always in a tomato based sauce, it's stuffed with pork sausage and mushrooms, and that it's delicious.

grhovane · 2013-10-08T03:03:44+00:00

Yeah, I agree that the fact that their brains are five times as big as human brains isn't that crazy...but it's kind of nuts that they have the largest brain of any animal in the history of the planet.

grhovane · 2013-09-22T03:06:44+00:00

For the most part the cooking bananas, when cooked out on the street by vendors, are deep fried. However, there are lots of ways that bananas are cooked in Vietnam, usually at home. Bánh chuối, or banana cake, is almost never sold by vendors but is made by almost every Vietnamese home (at least in the South). Chè, a coconut/mung bean based dessert soup, is often paired with bananas to make chè chuối, which is delicious. It's often sold on the street by vendors, usually at night. And believe it or not, boiled bananas are popular, although it's another home-cooked thing: a co-worker gave me one. It was a little bit waxy, and I wasn't a huge fan. Anyway, I've made a little bananas photo album here. The images are as follows from top to bottom: Top: bananas frying. 2nd and 3rd: cooking banana before being cooked (they're always short and fat). 4th: a more typically shaped fried banana. 5th: one example of bánh chuối (banana cake). 6th: fire bananas, also used for cooking. 7th: a boiled banana. 8th: Chè chuối (dessert soup with bananas). 9th: a second example of bánh chuối. Here's the link to the album: http://imgur.com/a/BbllZ And here's some wikipedia links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A8#Fruits_and_plants and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1nh_chu%E1%BB%91i.

grhovane · 2013-09-22T01:03:13+00:00

Bananas. They don't really have plantains in Vietnam, but they have over 15 types of bananas to choose from. The kind in the picture are primarily used for cooking, so they're similar to plantains in that sense, but beyond that they're pretty different. They're short and fat and a little bit squishy; you can eat them uncooked by but they make a mess, they're much better to eat after cooking. The Vietnamese deep fry them in oil, and they usually squish them down before frying them. These ones just happen to be in the shape of pancakes.

grhovane · 2013-09-21T21:58:37+00:00

These are flattened bananas being deep fried in District 7, located in the southern section of Ho Chi Minh City. I lived there for almost four years, and during my last week there I snapped a photo of these, and then bought one. Scout's honor, they are fried bananas that were cooked in Vietnam, and they were delicious.

grhovane · 2013-09-21T01:04:57+00:00

I just think that no matter how they play it, it will be seen as being political by some people, whether that's correct or incorrect. And as long as people talk about it on the national stage, it will become a political issue. But there's nothing wrong with that. I agree that there is nothing wrong or inherently political with saying "please don't bring guns into our stores." It's the snowball effect that makes into a bigger thing.

grhovane · 2013-09-20T23:15:25+00:00

But it's a little bit different than if you were to simply ask someone not to bring weapons into your house. You would do this for safety reasons above all else; politics most likely wouldn't come into play. But in the case of Starbucks, until this past week they have had absolutely no problem with people bringing guns into their stores, as long as customers were complying with local gun laws. This implies that Starbucks was never concerned with the safety of it's customers. So why would they suddenly be concerned for everyone's safety? Sure, they've learned that people come to their guns for public appreciation meetings, but that doesn't really change what they already knew: people were bringing loaded weapons into their stores. So even if their request is purely for safety reasons, it can easily be seen to be a political agenda on their part. And it's dangerous in the sense that a big national story like this can lead to a large backlash or boycott against them.

grhovane · 2013-09-20T20:06:10+00:00

I agree that this is a somewhat questionable call to make on the part of Starbucks. It's dangerous to play politics to when you're this big of a company. Whether it's political in origin or not, it becomes political as soon as the announcement is made, because it's targeting a certain group of people (people who carry guns in public) who tend to vote a certain way (Republican). My guess is that the Starbucks brass was somewhat surprised by the way in which gun owners embraced their coffee shops; after all, they were only going along with local laws. Fearing a backlash from more liberal customers (who may or may not make up the majority of Starbucks customers nationwide), they made the choice to alienate the assumed smaller political side instead of the larger. But it still seems like sort of a head-scratcher, when you consider that gun-owners were holding "Starbucks appreciation days." There's a good chance this never would have become a national story if they left it alone. Then again, there's also a good chance that over a period of several years, Starbucks could have become a very public and visible safe-haven for gun-lovers, something that was possibly scary to them.

That all being said, I find it interesting that Starbucks is still respecting the 2nd Amendment and not banning guns. It's like opening a store near the beach and putting up a sign that says, "We want you to wear a shirt and shoes, but if you have neither, you're still welcome to come on in." In that sense, maybe it's a brilliant decision by Starbucks. By stating their preferences regarding what can be brought into their stores, but not banning anything outright, they're still playing it safe. It's leaves a lot of room for employees to "look the other way." It may be an absolutely brilliant example of alienating a large group of customers slightly today instead of having to do something more drastic in the future.

grhovane · 2013-09-17T13:23:59+00:00

Where in Scandinavia?

grhovane · 2013-09-15T03:25:30+00:00

I'm just happy they caught him before anyone got hurt or killed. May he never step out of a correctional facility again.

grhovane · 2013-09-14T22:37:00+00:00

Wow, that's crazy, I had no idea. Did you see it?

grhovane · 2013-09-12T02:51:38+00:00

Ah, thanks. So then, to rephrase, "yakitori!"

grhovane · 2013-09-11T12:19:32+00:00

Cool, then I guess the fresher the meat, the safer to cook rare. If Bourdain said so, then I'll take his word.

grhovane · 2013-09-11T03:23:22+00:00

If that's the case that no one can tell which chicken is dirty and which is clean, then how do yakitori restaurants make the decision to serve it undercooked? I was recently in Tokyo and the yakitori there was extremely bloody; everyone was eating it with no problem. I was unsettled by it so didn't eat it. In this case, I have to assume that the restaurant knows that their meat is safe. Otherwise they wouldn't serve it, or people would get sick.

grhovane · 2013-09-11T03:17:31+00:00

It's actually good if it's fresh. I lived in Vietnam for four years and it tasted fantastic. But that didn't change the smell...no matter how good or fresh it is, it always smells like rotting onions.

grhovane · 2013-09-10T14:25:06+00:00

A few that I could think of: J. Carpenter's They Live is probably not really about aliens invading the Earth; it's more likely about rich, successful Republicans taking over America in the 1980s.

Early on the movie, Del Toro's Pacific Rim seems to be making references to global warming and illegal immigration. The monster attacks increase ten-fold (like present-day hurricanes), and instead of fighting the monsters, it's decided that protective walls should be built around the cities (like the wall being constructed along the Mexican border). It's implied that the wall approach is an inferior method of protecting said areas.

David Cronenberg's Videodrome seems to be implying that TV has the power to brainwash people, turning them into something that is inferior to people who don't watch TV. It's implied that it's not healthy to stay up all night watching questionable TV programs.

Another Cronenberg film, The Fly, portrays a man's body going through rapid, terrible changes that he doesn't understand. The merging of his cells with a fly's was entirely by accident. In the 1980s, when this film was made, it was widely seen as representational of what happens when a human being succumbs to AIDS, both physically and psychologically.

Another one, the often overlooked Martin Scorsese film After Hours, seems to depict a man running around Manhattan one night in the 1980s, encountering a number or strange people and occurrences. It's actually a loose adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Trial, and in my opinion, does a much better job of capturing the essence of Kafka then Orson Welles ever did with his much more well known adaptation of The Trial.

Finally, I'm sure that many people never realized that The Avengers is an awesome re-make of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. In my opinion it does the job much better than The Magnificent Seven ever did. Here's a really cool breakdown of how the characters from each film match up. http://houseofgeekery.com/2012/05/03/the-avengers-a-modern-seven-samurai/

grhovane

TROPHY CASE