U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 4

Girl who lied in essay will miss Hannah Montana show

The Associated Press

Article Last Updated: 12/29/2007 08:43:01 PM PST

A 6-year-old girl who won four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert with an essay falsely claiming her father died in Iraq isn't going to the show after all.

The contest's sponsor, a store chain named Club Libby Lu, withdrew the prize Saturday from a Garland, Texas, girl and awarded it to another contestant. It didn't identify the new winner.

"With this decision, we hope to revive the intended spirit of the contest, which was designed to make a little girl's holidays extra special," Club Libby Lu chief executive Mary Drolet said in a statement Saturday.

Officials of the Chicago-based chain surprised the girl on Friday at a Club Libby Lu store in a mall in the Dallas suburb. Club Libby Lu sells clothes, accessories and games for young girls.

The girl won a makeover that included a blond Hannah Montana wig, as well as the grand prize: airfare for four to Albany, N.Y., and four tickets to the sold-out Hannah Montana concert on Jan. 9.

The opening line in the essay was: "My daddy died this year in Iraq."

The girl's mother had told Club Libby Lu officials that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq, company spokeswoman Robyn Caulfield said. But the mother, Priscilla Ceballos, admitted later Friday that the essay and the military information she provided about her daughter's father were untrue.

"We did the essay and that's what we did to win. We did whatever we could do to win," Ceballos said in an interview Friday with KDFW-TV of Dallas. "But when (Caulfield) asked me if this essay is true, I said `No, this essay is not true."' The Associated Press was unable to find a phone number for Ceballos.

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Quotant Quoatables vol. 6

Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night

Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else.

Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world.

- from Watchmen by Alan Moore.

Happy New Year. Here's Hoping.

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 3

Double You, Tea F. vol. the 13th part 7: the New Blood

We Are the Sprocket Holes vol. 11

more movie ratings;

Grindhouse - it's best if we break it down;

the Fake Trailers - 10/10: just amazing. each one nailed their respective genre, several of which could easily co-exist alongside the genuine articles. i would watch every single one of these if they existed (fingers crosssssed). Robert Rodriquez' Machete and Eli Roth's Thanksgiving were the clear cut favorites (even went out and bought a sweet-ass Machete poster the next day. a Thanksgiving poster was a gift from Eve-Uh. sthmoochesth for u), but Edgar Wright's Don't and Robert Cummings' Werewolf Women of the SS look just as entertaining (the later mostly due to a so nonsensical it's inspired cameo by Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu and Sheri Moon looking like Heidi Klum crossed with Myra Hindley).

Planet Terror - 7.5/10: a solid, fast paced action-horror, with great special fx and memorable characters. the plot is meaningless and mostly inane, but everyone looks like they're having a blast while also taking the material seriously. Josh Brolin was creepy as hell, and this is the hottest Rose McGowan has been since Doom Generation. all in all a fun little number.

Death Proof - 1/10: GODFUCKINGDAMNITNO. what an annoying, obnoxious piece of shit this thing was. Kurt Russel starts out well enough, but he's reduced to a whimpering pussy by the film's end. the rest of the cast is mostly female and mostly retarded. i hated every single one of these women, thus didn't not want to see them get retribution. These are not steely, iron willed women, but infuriatingly macho cunts who never shut the fuck up about how bad-ass they are. it's lame when guys act like that and fucking dumb as a bag of this-movie when women act like that. the film is basically 2 decent action scenes with meaningless hunks of rambling exposition that act more as excitement-anchors than vehicles for plot or character development. one of the worst movies i've ever seen, and definitely the worst film Tarantino has ever made.

Double You, Tea. F vol. 12 (Days of Christmas)

who wants to be the Pied Piper?

Brainmares vol. 2

take a class on post modern aural subcultures (underground music of the late 70s - early 90s). Lydia Lunch is the teacher. she looks and sounds the way she does here. anyway, I've missed several classes (pretty much every class) and am in danger of failing. the mid-term is next class. she talks to me after class and says if i do lousy on the mid-term she'll fuck my brains out.

the rest is a blur.

seriously... fuck waking reality.

Tired of Haulin' Oats! vol. 6

CDs;
Killing Joke - Pandemonium
Milligram - s/t
Die Kreuzen - October File
Rajoitus - Hat Morker Amfetamin
Iskra - Selected Works
Slight Slappers/Short Hate Temper split
Slowdive - Just for a Day
Bjork - Vespertine
Gorerotted - Mutilated in Minutes
Miranda Sex Garden - Madra
Swervedriver - Mezcal Head
Navicon Torture Technologies - Scenes from the Next Millennium


LPs;
the Church - Star Fish
Jonas Hellborg - the Word
the Patti Smith Group - Radio Ethipoia

Tapes;
Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire

DVDs;
A Bittersweet Life
To Sir With Love

We Are The Sprocket Holes vol.10/U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol.2

from Ain't it Cool News:

Did Morgan Spurlock sit down interview with Osama? More importantly - did he whip out a .45 and shoot him?

Harry here... I don't know how likely this is... and with the news breaking today - there's probably a good chance that Morgan Spurlock is on his way to Gitmo where he will not be tortured for days and days until he gives them every detail of this joke or stunning accomplishment. If he did find Osama... if he did interview with him - then this would be the single most embarrassing failure of the entire Bush Administration... when the McDonald's Diet guy can find Osama... and the entire joint world intelligence forces can't... then there's something extremely fucked up. Then again... it could be a horrifying joke... which would end Morgan's career... But frankly - if he did get it - they shouldn't screen at Sundance. They should PAY-PER-VIEW the damn thing after a massive marketing campaign... cuz the second that footage gets out - and the Weinstein company in the past year has had a horrible series of Internet Pre-Release leaks of entire films - and this would be huge, for the short time that it would be available exclusively in their control. What do you people think about WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA bin LADEN?

CreepyThinMan here, I saw this on MSNBC and thought you might be a little interested......

Did Morgan Spurlock find Osama bin Laden?

15 minutes of footage shown at film fest sparks bidding war, speculation

Rumors are flying that filmmaker Morgan Spurlock of "Super Size Me" fame may have done what the United States government has failed to do for the last six years — find Osama bin Laden.

The speculation first began at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where Spurlock showed a select group of potential buyers 15 minutes of footage from his new documentary, "Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?" The film follows Spurlock through the Middle East in his search for the elusive leader of al-Qaida. According to Slashfilm.com, The Weinstein Co. quickly snapped up the picture after seeing the clips.

Adding to the belief, Daniel Marracino, the film's director of photography, is quoted in Variety, saying of the movie, "We've definitely got the Holy Grail."

Whether this is just a genius publicity ploy or if Spurlock actually found bin Laden has yet to be revealed, but the answer should come next year, when the documentary is slated to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

I've Been checking this out and allegedly the Weinstein's have dropped 25 million on Spurlock for the movie based on these 15 minutes alone. Now if this is true then it would be the MOTHER of all Documentaries and will have done what the ENTIRE U.S. Goverment couldn't or wouldn't do. There is some speculation about this all being a cocktease but promising something this big and shafting people is like picking up Heather Graham at a bar, looking the way she did in Anger Management, getting her home and finding out she has a cock.

We Are The Sprocket Holes vol.9

FeaRHAsafaCe

In a vacant office block on the west side of LaSalle street in downtown Chicago - temporary production base of a movie that our press pass insists is called Rorys first kiss, but everyone knows is really The Dark Knight - EMPIRE is shown into a high-ceilinged, wood-panelled room, the kind of place you'd imagine very important decisions were once taken by powerful, polyester-clad men back in the 1970's. We've ostensibly been invited here to observe director Christopher Nolan at work in the street outside and the building opposite via a live feed to a flatscreen TV, but the producers have arranged something else, too.
In a small, windowless side-room stand a pair of costumes. In one corner, hanging from a sturdy, metal frame, is the new-look batsuit, all matte-black mesh and unyielding hard-plastic carapace, the first to allow the moody crime-fighter to actually turn his head. Impressive. But in the corner to its left, draped simply over a headless mannequin, is something far more exciting. Its a tatty, threadbare get-up, a dark-green waistcoat over a grey shirt, with a dark green tie at the collar. Purple trousers hang below and a long, angular purple coat sits on top. The ensemble's completed by a pair of purple gloves and a silver fob chain dangling from the belt. Its part Vivienne Westwood, part Alexander McQueen, part thrift-shop grunge. And its entirely The Joker.
Well, of course, not literally entirely. Later, Heath Ledger, the man who fills the suit onscreen, joins EMPIRE - sadly sans his ravaged,psycho-clown make-up. Ledgers ill-at-ease body language and propensity to mumble suggest a nervousness you might expect from some tackling such an iconic role. But everybody else EMPIRE'S talked with that day, from Nolan himself to Michael Caine, who returns as Bruce Waynes sardonic butler Alfred, descibes Ledger as "Fearless".
"Oh, i definately feared it" Ledger tells EMPIRE quietly, with a half-apologetic smile. "Although anything that makes me afraid i guess excites me at the same time. I dont know if I was fearless, but i certainly had to put on a brave face and believe that i had something up up my sleeve. Something different....."
Christopher Nolan made it quite clear that after he'd completed Batman Begins that he had no intention of making a sequel. But then, while shooting his next movie, The Prestige, something surprising happened : Nolan found himself replaying Batman Begins' final dialogue exchange in his head, the moment when good copper Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) talks of a criminal with " a taste for the theatrics" and hands Batman (Christian Bale) a playing card adorned with the smile-snarl face of a Joker. And Nolan found himself wanting to make a sequel, if only to see The Joker done his way.
"The way Batman Begins ended was intended not so much as sequel bait" Nolan insists, "but to create a level of excitment at the end of the movie. Ultimately, the sequel happened because we got caught up in that process of imagining how you would see The Joker through the prism of what we did in the first film". And how is The Joker seen through that prism?
"Indescribable, really. Not to sound evasive - it actually is quite difficult to explain, but all i can really say is Heaths not doing any paticular thing, He's just inhabiting the character in very much the way i'd hoped from a psychological perspective. He really created something that i think is going to be quite terrifying."
Throughout EMPIRES time noodling about on The Dark Knights set nobody seems confident enough to say precisely how The Joker will be portrayed in this film. A "Prologue" sequence revealing something of this mysterious villains origin (various versions of which have been presented over the years in the comic-books) will be screened ahead of I am legend on its US release later this month, and is likely to appear in the UK, too, come the latter films January release. Even so, Ledger himself quips that "I feel like i'll be assassinated if i tell you something wrong" so when asked how much we'll see in the film of the man who becomes The Joker, he merely says that " Most of the villains in the Chris Nolan style of Batman films are normal people......or once were normal people".
Still, Ledgers more than happy to discuss how he became The Joker - and we're not just talking about an hour in make-up. "Its a combination of reading all the comic books i could that were relevant to the script and then just closing my eyes and meditating on it. I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices - it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath - someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts. Hes just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown, and Chris has given me free reign, which is fun, because there are no real boundaries to what The Joker would say or do. Nothing Intimidates him, and everything is a big joke"
"I think we have that in all of us" Ledger muses, before attempting to describe the physicality of inhabiting his and Nolans vision of The Joker : "Its kind of like eating raw meat. What that does to your mouth and your eyes, simple little visual things like that. I dont know - i guess the rest is just trusting your research."
There is a very specific reason, though, why Ledger - who's never even played a villain before - is considered a brave man to tackle this role. And , as with many things, nobody expresses that reason better than Michael Caine.
"If i put myself in the producers shoes, i think : 'Wait a minute, we are making a movie about The Joker'" the 74 year old actor ruminates. "Now, we have had Jack Nicholson, who is one of the Jokers and one of the greatest characters in this kind of movie. I have worked with Jack and i know him really well. You do not really want to follow Jack into anything. Unless its a nightclub!"
For his part, Nolan had no reservations about "following" Jack (Somewhere other than a nightclub). "None at all, to be honest" he says. "And that was very important to us in deciding to make this film. I certainley knew that story-wise the character was going to be very different, and it was always going to require a fearless performance from someone not afraid to put forward his own interpretation".
"Heath Ledger stunned me" continues Caine. "Jack played The Joker as sort of a benign nasty clown - like a wicked uncle. Heath plays him like an absolutely maniacal murderous psychopath. You have never seen anything like it in your life. He is very, very scary. I turn up very month or so and do a couple of bits, then go back to London. I had to do this bit where Batman and I watch a video which The Joker sends to threaten us. So i'd never seen him, and then he came up on the television in the first rehearsal and i completely forgot my lines. I flipped, because it was so stunning, it was quite amazing. Wait until you see it, its incredible".
Fans of the comic book will realise that what we'll be seeing here is a version more of the original Joker - the pure, cold-hearted sociopath version - and the recent portrayals of him as a deeply insane man. Not the crown price of crime, the rather more harmless prankster-bank-robber of the 60's, the cesar romero version if you like, which the Jack-joker ran with for Burtons Batman.
Indeed, the ratty costume which EMPIRE was introduced to right at the beginning of our day provides some key clues to the contrast between Ledgers Joker and Nicholsons. "Hes certainley not a dapper, dandy gentleman in this film" says costume designer Lindy Hemming. "Whatever is wrong with him, it means he doesnt care about himself at all, really. We were trying to make him sort of a...i dont want to say vagrant, but his look in this film has a much punkier feel. Anarchic feel. Scruffier, grungier, and therefore when you see him move, hes slightly twitchier or edgy."
He doesnt even have 'clown' make-up on, as such. "Hes just somebody who exaggerates tha scar on his mouth" adds hemming. A quick word with Conor O'Sullivan, lead make-up prosthetic artist, gives us some clue as to how The Joker recieves this scar. "I cant say too much because its a major plot point for the movie, but lets just say that The Joker himself is responsible for at least some of the scarring".
"What the director has done" says Caine, "which is so clever, is that the Joker has left the make-up and just let it rot off. It is never renewed. He's got a big, wide mouth and it gradually almost looks like a bad skin disease".
An Antagonist is nothing without his protagonist, of course, and we should not forget that we wouldnt even have The Joker if it were'nt for Batman. Still, with Nicholson stealing Burtons movie away from the frowning Michael Keaton, you could forgive Christian Bale for worring that Ledger would do the same to him.
"Im not worried at all" says Bale. "That was exactly the problem i had with all of the other movies - after i had read Frank Millers Batman : year one and the various other graphic novels, i looked at those films and said "Well, how come its always been that Batmans the most boring character?, ive never found him to be intriguing at all. Whereas these graphic novels depicted him as really being by far the most fascinating character. So i feel like we gained that back with Batman Begins. Now we've made him a character of substance, i have no problem with him competing with someone else. And thats going to make better entertainment and a better movie, which is great."
Bale grins "I dont mind if everybody tries to chew up the scenery!"

hell fucking YES.

as much as i adore Batman Begins, its sequel The Dark Knight seems like it will be the Batman movie i've been dreaming of since i was 10 years old. shit it seems like it will be the comic book movie i've been dreaming of since i was 10 years old. i've been following this movie obsessively, and i love what i've been seeing so far; mostly the Joker. a completely fucking deranged Joker (i say "Joker" instead of "Heath Ledger" because from what i've seen/heard there is no "Heath Ledger", only a rat-tongued clownish grotesque who looks like he sleeps in that purple suit...on a bed of mud-caked dolls that one belonged to sexually assaulted orphans). no Prince-scored dance numbers...no romancing Holly Wood if she Could...just the killing joke.

Double You, Tea F. vol.11