Edshugeo The GodMoor

If you have good taste in music, set your DVRs, VCRs or whatever. If not, please disregard this message.

Source: Housequake

Addendum -
The performance, courtesy of Hulu (hat tip: Undercover BlackMan):

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., music, Prince, tv, youtube and other video

Last week I finished watching Real Kung Fu, a 20 episode TV drama series starring Yuen Biao, Gordon Liu, Leung Kar Yan, Lo Mang, Yuen Wah and Lee Hoi Seng.

The story seemed to revolve around an unambitious middle age man (Yuen Biao, who I assume is playing his age) who gets caught up in a murder mystery. When Leung Kar Yan (who used to be nicknamed "Beardy") appears as an effeminate ex-opera performer (and kung fu expert) with asthma, I figure it's just a nod to a character played by Lam Ching Ying in Prodigal Son. Even knowing that Yuen played the lead in Prodigal Son, I thought nothing more of it, since the lead character here seemed completely different.

It wasn't until an article on Kung Fu Cinema about a newer series called Wing Chun, did I start to make a connection. I was still in the middle of Real Kung Fu (from 2005), when I read that Wing Chun (2007) was a direct sequel to Prodigal Son that re-united Sammo Hung, the film's director with Yuen Biao who played Leung Jan.

Soon I'd figure out that Leung Tsan from the series I was watching was the same, though the story was different.

Leung Chan (spelling varies) was a Wing Chun expert from the 1800's/1900's. He taught the man (Chan Wah-Shun) who taught Yip Man who was Bruce Lee's teacher in Wing Chun, which I guess makes him Lee's Grand teacher. Had I not been a kung fu school drop out, I would have known this and not had to find this out on Wikipedia, but there it is.

Here's the trailer for Prodigal Son:



The opening theme for Real Kung Fu:



and a scene from Wing Chun:



The article says that Wing Chun (a 40 episode series) will be released on DVD in May by Tai Seng for a suggested retail price of sixty bucks, but it's available now from YesAsia for about forty eight bucks. Of course, it can also be found online, *ahem*. I look forward to watching it.

Labels: Awesome, downloads, DVD, kung fu, Liu Chia Hui, movies, tv, youtube and other video

I was rooting for those guys back when there was a format war, but now it's a little bit late for them. They're sounding somewhat optimistic. Perhaps they've simply come too far to turn back. I dunno. I don't care.

I'm waiting for either the price of full profile (2.0) Blu-Ray players to come down significantly, or a compelling reason to buy a PS3 (I already have an XBox 360).

In the meantime, I get my HD fix from the occasionally pixelated fare on Cablevision's Voom HD network, and also from downloading WMVHD encodes of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD releases. These look fantastic, and I've noticed no pixelation at all, watching Mr. And Mrs. Smith and almost no artifacts during Appleseed Ex-Machina. This quells my fear that the pixelation which occurred during fast motion scenes on the HD cable channels were due to a limitation of my moderately priced 37" screen. I now know that isn't the case, based on those downloads and from renting Ratatouille on XBox Live marketplace.

The WMVHD downloads are obtained from usenet (alt.binaries.movies.wmv, alt.binaries.HDTV), saved on a USB hard-drive formatted as HFS+ using Macdrive 7 (I'm not a Mac user), 'cause the 360 doesn't recognize NTFS despite it coming from the same company (Microsoft), and FAT 32 has a 4GB file size limitation (most of what I've downloaded is 8+GBs). The 360 is compatible with HFS+ which is an Apple file system. Hmm.

The only problem I'm having so far, is I can't copy files of folders to this drive if they have Chinese characters in the names, which is the case for some in my music collection.
03/16/08 - easily rectified by right clicking on the drive, selecting "Mac File Names" and "International".

Labels: Anime, downloads, HDTV, movies, music video, PS3, tv, XBox 360

D-Addicts Chinese Series Of The Month for March is the excellent 2006 version of Louis Cha's (Jin Yong) Return Of The Condor Heroes. It's available on DVD in the U.S. as Condor Hero.

I eagerly await the long delayed update of Legend Of The Condor Heroes, which may show up this year.



The Unofficial Wuxia Series Of March are two shows: Young Zhang San Feng and Young Warriors Of The Yang Clan.

Young Zhang San Feng is also known as Taiji Prodigy. This looks promising. Plus, it's Dicky Cheung.




I may skip Young Yang Warriors. I just finished Warriors Of The Yang Clan, and while I thought there was a good story or two there, I was generally annoyed by how badly those stories were told. It was still enjoyable enough to watch and the cast, led by Ti Lung as General Yang Ye were pretty good, as were most of the fight scenes.



The movie Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (starring Gordon Liu and Alexander Fu Sheng) is based on the same legendary family, but was centered around a different son, than that series.





Nah. Actually, I'm gonna check out Young Warriors, too.

Labels: bittorrent, dorama, downloads, kung fu, Liu Chia Hui, movies, Shaw Bros., tv, youtube and other video

Minoriteam

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Saw this at AfroNerd and laughed myself silly. Adult Swim is some sick shit. I don't watch that much of it cuz I don't smoke weed, but every now and then something brilliant happens over there.

Labels: Awesome, comics, funny-ass shit, tv, youtube and other video

February 26th, 2008 - Added another video from YouTube...



I bet she didn't see that comin'.

Labels: Awesome, funny-ass shit, politics, tv, youtube

Spoilers below.





This is one of my favorite television moments. Mandela is questioned (in 1990) about his controversial alliances with the likes of Castro, Arafat, and Qadafi and the possible negative consequences of proclaiming these men to be his comrades. Mandela's answer literally silences Kopell to the point that he has to break the ice to move things forward. Kopell's Adam West like response is a noble, yet ineffective effort to save face, but kinda adds to the hilarity.

Labels: Awesome, funny-ass shit, Heroes, nostalgia, politics, South Africa, Truth, tv, World Affairs

Happy Year Of The Rat. D-Addicts has another series up for torrent download. Genius Physician Ti Ying AKA Miracle Healers.



This in addition to the usual Chinese Drama Series Of The Month. Three Musketeers with Shu Qi (torrent link). As far as I can tell, it isn't based on Alexander Dumas' novel, though that wouldn't be a bad idea.

Labels: bittorrent, downloads, kung fu, tv, wu-xia, youtube

And I almost forgot to check D-Addicts for the Chinese Series Of The Month.
This month, it's Tian Long Ba Bu (Eight Steps Of The Heavenly Dragon), also known as Demi Gods And Semi Devils and also State Of Divinity.

I recently watched an 80's HK version of the Louis Cha novel starring Lueng Kar Yan, Felix Wong, and Shek Kin (Mr. Han from Enter The Dragon). I liked parts of it but disliked others, mostly the first third of the series before Lueng Kar Yan shows up and starts throwin' around beatdowns. This one is a newer production. Looks to be from within the last couple of years. Guess I'll add this to my download list.

Labels: bittorrent, dorama, downloads, kung fu, tv, wu-xia, youtube

Two TV series up at D-Addicts this month (among others) are Drunken Kung Fu, the Chinese Series Of The Month and Fox Volant Of Snowy Mountain.

At the moment, I know nothing of Drunken Kung Fu, but I'll be downloading it for sure.



Fox Volant is a 2007 series based on a Louis Cha novel. This novel is available in English, but has been criticised for a bad translation. Perhaps it will be re-done by Oxford University Press at some point. I hope they're still translating his works. I'm almost finished reading The Book And The Sword, which is absolutely wonderful so far.

Labels: bittorrent, dorama, downloads, kung fu, tv, wu-xia

Pretty much what I've been doing for a while. This is like my theme song. Comes from a relatively recent album by Sparks, called Hello Young Lovers, which is badass in a Bohemian Rhapsody meets Meatloaf, though not really kinda way. I thought those guys were just a new wave group from the eighties, but there's way more to them than that. I vaguely recall an old Saturday Night Live appearance, where I thought the keyboardist was named Roland because of the prominent logo on the instrument. I also recall they had the movie rights to Mai, The Psychic Girl, and they were gonna make it a musical directed by Tsui Hark. The idea frightened me at the time, but now I wish it got made. Wonder if they went ahead and wrote any songs for it.

I'm still digging Bad Brains' Build A Nation. I used to like the idea of Bad Brains more than I did their records. Now they've made a album worthy of a Punk/Reggae band, though now it's more heavy rock, than punk, in my opinion.

Video Games.

Played through Me And My Katamari on the PSP. The controls are painful compared to We Love Katamari on the PS2, but I love the 8 bit version you get at the end. Sorry if that's a spoiler. Also love the theme, Katamari on the Funk. I doubt I'll get the 360 version (Beautiful Katamari) unless it's cheap and I have nothing better to do, which, I guess, is inevitable. Starting Killzone Liberation on the PSP. Demo was cool so I picked this up a week or two ago (I know it's been out for a while).

Still have to finish We Love Katamari on the PS2. I want to be done with all my games on the PS2 and then say goodbye to them. There's a bunch. I'm bad at finishing games, but lately I'm a bit more into it. Having the XBox 360, it would be easy to move on, but I can't. I won't. Grand Theft Auto 3 was a birthday present dammit! So was Dynasty Warriors 2, I think. And I just bought two or three PS2 games like 6 or 7 weeks ago (Shadow Of The Collossus, Socom II - Socom was used - 5 bucks, and one other?) in addition to a few other decent titles just sitting around like War Of The Monsters. So I will finish them and maybe pass them on to friends.

Finished BioShock and Halo 3 on the XBox 360. Bioshock is the better of the two games, though I've yet to try out the online multiplayer function of XBox Live. I actually let my free one month gold membership lapse without trying it out. Wanted to be a better player first. I can barely shoot straight even at this point, but I'm gonna join up next week or so.

I also play various demos, or Burnout Revenge if I want a quick gaming session. I just bought The Orange Box, primarily for Portal, but it includes Half Life 2 and Team Fortress. Looks like fun. Haven't opened it yet.

Movies.

Transformers was fun, but got annoying during the second hour (I think) with the comedy bit with them searching for glasses while the robots try to hide from the parents and the big bad government goons showing up. Turned into E.T. for a little bit. I was never a fan of the cartoon, though the animated Transformers: The Movie was pretty decent.

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang was awesome, though. Picked it up at the supermarket a while back for six or seven bucks and finally checked it out. Funny as a muh-fug. Really looking forward to Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.

Also went to see Jodie Foster's Death Wish movie, The Brave One. I liked it. Not great, but good enough. Really looking forward to seeing Terrence Howard in some kinda armor in Iron Man or maybe it's sequel.

TV?

Finished Heavenly Sword, Dragon Sabre (2003), which finishes up the Condor Heroes Trilogy, though it's not really a sequel, in my opinion. In the order I watched them, this followed the 1983 version of Legend Of The Condor Heroes and the 2006 Return Of The Condor Heroes (simply called Condor Hero in the U.S. release).

After the 2007 Legend Of is released with subtitles (fansubs perhaps), I may revisit the trilogy, following with the anime version titled Legend Of but which is actually Return Of (I have some but not all of this series) and then cap it off with the 1986 New Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre. I also have a few volumes of the comic book adaptations of Louis Cha's novels. Legendary Couple by Tony Wong is based upon Return, and Heaven Sword Dragon Sabre was adapted by Ma Wing Shing. Both were published in English by Comics One, which went out of business before completing either story.

I've got Heroes stockpiled on my cable DVR, but haven't watched any of this season, yet. I will soon.

Audio Books.

eMusic has a audio books subscription service separate from their music downloading site. I joined, but will probably cancel after my second month. Listened to After Dark by Haruki Murakami and started A Briefer History Of Time by Stephen Hawkins. The first was a novel and was a breeze to get through, despite some audio glitches here and there. The second, not so much. Though meant to be lighter reading (listening) than Brief History, it requires a bit more of my attention than I can give it during a morning commute, or while shopping. I have to take a different approach, and will, later.

My previous experience with audio books was limited to Al Franken's Lies and The Lying Liars That Tell Them. A great audio book, but I didn't hold it up as an example of the medium, because it's a collection of funny stories delivered by a comedian who knows well how to perform his work. I've been told that normally, one should avoid audio books read by the authors themselves. Consider Al Franken an exception to this rule.

Comics.

Blood Sword back issues and the new re-translated, digitally enhanced volumes (Chinese Hero - Tales Of The Blood Sword). I'll talk about those another time, but I'll say the new volumes are great, mostly.

My creative endeavors?

All I do now is dick around, but when I get back to recording, I'll use the Vox page to blog about it rather than only using it for audio links and writing a separate blog.

Labels: comics, dorama, DVD, kung fu, movies, music, music video, PSP, tv, video games, wu-xia, XBox 360, youtube

I vaguely recall this being the title of a barely watchable movie from, maybe, the 1990s, but I won't let any such preconceived notions get in the way of checking out a new Wu-xia TV series.

I don't know what it's about except that it's based on a Louis Cha (Jing Yong) novel from the mid 1950s. What's likely are kung fu mayhem, defiance of gravity, romantic complications, and perhaps yet another attempt by some evil bastard to infiltrate the Beggar Clan. Well maybe not the last bit, though it's been attempted in three series I've seen already, Demi-Gods and Semi Devils (1982), Legend Of The Condor Heroes (1983?), and Return Of The Condor Heroes (2006), all based on Cha's works.

The thirty episode series (fansubbed) can be sampled over at D-Addicts via a torrent. The download includes the soundtrack. It's a bit hefty at 16 GBs.

I actually have 2 more eps to go on Return Of The Condor Heroes.
I should be done tomorrow, at which point I continue watching the Anime, Jubei-Chan 2: Counterattack of Siberian Yagyu, before moving on to Heavenly Sword, Dragon Sabre (2003-ish), the third and final (?) part of the Condor Heroes trilogy.

Labels: Anime, bittorrent, dorama, downloads, kung fu, tv, wu-xia, youtube

Reminds me of early 90s cable TV, which had great commercial free channels like Bravo and American Movie Classics. Those channels still exist, but are not commercial free. Bravo which used to showcase foreign films primarily, had become known as the gay channel (no homophobe) for a while due to programming like Queer Eye and some other programming. American Movie Classics still plays classic American films, but also movies that aren't necessarily classic nor American. The real crime, though, is butchering (editing) the movies and interrupting them with commercials.

I bring this up because of the inclusion of the Voom HD channels in my cable package.
Film Fest HD is a movie mix of classics, indies, and curiosities.
World Cinema HD give us an international mix.
Kung Fu HD (previously mentioned) Hong Kong action (subtitled and dubbed), Samurai flicks, and of course some U.S. attempts like Kick Boxer 4.
Monster HD all horror, all the time. Not my favorite genre, but there's some interesting stuff.

The above are Movie channels with films shown complete and without interruption. Great, right? Yeah, but for how long?

Voom started as Cablevision's satellite service meant to compete with DirectTv and other providers, without actually improving cable service (fuckers!). When that plan failed, they fell back on the obvious and added these channels to the cable service at no extra cost. Great, but for how long?

There's a bunch of other channels on the Voom "network" that wouldn't be hurt by commercials. AniMania is mostly short form cartoons, though not enough Anime (Samurai 7 airs nightly).
GamePlay is all video game related programming; Tournaments, interviews, previews and a show (Cinemaddicts) that combine the cut scenes with the game play to produce short films. Like machinima, except these (from what I've seen) seem to follow the plotline of the game itself.
Rave is all music programming. Live performances rather than music videos.
None of these would be hurt by commercials in my opinion.

I like the approach taken by Universal HD (on Cablevision, but not part of the Voom package); they play full length, unedited movies without commercial interuption, and also TV shows with commercials. I have no problem with that.

Labels: good deal, HDTV, tv

I can't believe I have the Kung Fu Channel. In HD even. I'd noticed a couple of new HD stations a couple of weeks ago, but never fully explored what was available. I was flippin' channels a little while ago and found something called The Samurai Saga (haven't watched it yet), an old Japanese film with subtitles. The channel ID puzzled me.

"KFUHD? What's KFU? Wait...

No way! No Fuckin' Way!"

So I check online, and yes Virginia, there is a Kung Fu channel (766 on IO in Nassau County, NY), and I got it (along with some other stuff) without even asking. Me so happy.

I know it won't be perfect. For instance, they're showing The Defender instead of it's original version, The Bodyguard From Beijing. There's sure to be a fair share of crap (sometimes I like crap), but there's also a bunch of flicks listed I either haven't seen, never heard of, or have seen, but never on a decent DVD. Awesomeness.

Shit. Am I gonna have to get a Tivo-like box?

Labels: good deal, HDTV, kung fu, movies, tv

The BBC reports that the last episode of the Hamas "Mickey Mouse" show has their terrorist mascot beaten to death by an Israeli agent.

It's a children's show. I guess they wanted to end with a good triumphs over evil message. Maybe not, but all's well that ends well, or something.

Hope the beating shows up on YouTube.

Labels: bullshit, funny-ass shit, Islam, ripoffs, terrorism, tv, World Affairs

On TV

Craig Ferguson
is what David Letterman was like, about twenty years ago and Conan O'Brien was less than ten years ago (before Andy Richter left). Funny. A guy trying to make the best of what the network will spring for.
Apparently, multiple shows are recorded on the same day (which ruins the topicality of some shows). Also it's not shown in HD, which might be a good thing as Hi-Def has made Conan harder to look at (Dude looks ghastly).

No complaints about Jay Leno's show which is a solid, entertaining late night show in the tradition of Johnny Carson, whom he replaced. I have way more respect for the guy now than I did when he first took over The Tonight Show. I don't really make it a point to watch the show, though. If I think I can stay up, it passes the time till CF comes on.

The Showbiz Show With David Spade
here's where showbiz news belongs, aside from Entertainment Tonight, which isn't quite as funny. He should be on five nights a week.

The Sopranos
Do I keep HBO now that it's done? Hmmm. Maybe, if not, I'll need another HD movie channel. I thought it was a great ending. It won't please everybody, though.

The Daily Show and sometimes The Colbert Report.

House M.D.
I normally come in during the last ten - fifteen minutes. There's no way I'm gonna guess what's wrong with the patient anyway.

On PSP

Return Of The Condor Heroes (2006)
The box set in U.S. stores is simply called Condor Heroes, but it's based on the sequel to Legend Of The Condor Heroes, a serialized novel by Louis Cha. The anime, which is titled Legend Of... pulls the same trick, though in that case it isn't only the U.S. version, but the Japanese version as well that's mis-titled.

Anyway, it may not be completely necessary to see the prequel to enjoy this, but if you don't, you might get the impression that West Venom, Ouyang Feng is simply a crazy, funny old guy as I did when I first encountered the character in The Legendary Couple (only read the first four volumes), a comicbook adaptation of Return from a few years back (It only lasted 8 volumes in the U.S.). It remains to be seen (by me) whether his true colors re-emerge.

Prior to this, I watched the fifteen disc (59 episode) 1983 version of Legend, and decided to follow with the 2006 version of Return, instead of the eighties version with Andy Lau (which I don't have, anyway). I was gonna wait for the 2007 version of Legend, but said eff it, and bought the DVD set of the 80s version instead. Great series, but it didn't need 59 episodes to tell that story.

I downloaded the 2006 Return of... from usenet, and the 2004(?) version of the third part of this story, Heaven Sword, Dragon Sabre, from D-Addicts, which I'll watch next. I also have a 1986 version of HSDS starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, but I'll save that for another time.

I'm up to episode eight (of forty-one). I stopped for a bit, and re-read the first four volumes of the comicbook, 'cuz I remembered some other stuff happening near the begining that didn't seem to be covered here, particularly, Yang Guo's relationship to Guo Jing's and Huang Rong's daughter, the Wu brothers, and his first meeting with Ouyang Feng. I'm seeing some of that stuff pop up in dialog and flashbacks now. Also, I found watching Yang Guo (Yang Gor) as a young boy annoying with all the crying and what not. I thought we'd be past that when he grew up (end of ep 3), but at this point he's still wandering around yelling for his Gu-gu. Otherwise, it's starting to get pretty good, though confusing with all the characters popping up outta nowhere.

I'm concerned about what's gonna happen when he finds out who killed his father, the douche-bag, Yang (Wayan) Kang. Also, that thing that happens to Gu-gu/Mistress Dragon is pretty disturbing both here (ep 6?) and at the end of vol. 4 of the comic.

The effects are very well done, but the action is a bit floaty.

Demi-Gods & Semi-Devils (1982)
TV series also based on a serialized novel by Louis Cha. A few of the episodes I had of Return Of The Condor Heroes were found to be corrupted (particularly the subtitles), so while I searched for replacements and re-read The Legendary Couple (the four volumes I had), and started this series. I now alternate between this and Return.
I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a prequel the Condor Heroes trilogy, but the Beggar Clan figures prominently as well as their two well known techniques, The Dog Beating Stick and The Eighteen Dragon Repelling Palms (passed on to Huang Rong and Guo Jing in Legend Of). It clearly takes place during the Song Dynasty, where Condor is close to the end.
Wikipedia places Demi-Gods at the 11th Century, Legend at the 12th, Return at the 13th, and Heavenly Sword at the 14th.

Initially, I wasn't sure if this show would hold my interest, but now that Leung Kar Yan has shown up (as Beggar chief Master Kiu), things have gotten much more interesting. Especially the fighting.

Tuen Yue who was the focus, up until recently (I'm somewhere around ep 18), is a bit annoying to me. He does have a fascinating dilemma, though; His father was such a player, any girl Yue meets is potentially his half sister. This has only ruined one relationship, so far, but I doubt it'll be the last...

edit: I should mention that the above shows aren't available for the PSP (that I know of). They had to be converted from the DVDs to MP4s using XviD4PSP by Winnydows. There are other tools out there. This is the one I use.

Labels: comics, dorama, downloads, DVD, kung fu, PSP, tv, wu-xia, youtube

Speed Racer movie coming in 2008. Some idiots are upset that this movie, based on a cartoon from the 1960s, is going to be kid friendly.

Labels: Anime, movies, nostalgia, tv

I kinda don't care one way or another. Not a fan. I defend his right to free speech, of course, and see no difference in how he's been exercising it between now and the last three decades. So, why now?

For me, the issue's the FCC and it's need to regulate speech on the public airwaves. I would prefer to do away with it, but that probably isn't happening anytime soon. Haven't listened to the radio in ages anyway.

I was looking for an old TV ad I remembered from the early eighties that featured Imus and station-mate Howard Stern apologizing to all of the various groups they've insulted, a long list that of course included blacks, gays, catholics, jews, etc., etc.

Couldn't find it, but I did find this one which delivered a similar sentiment.

For the hell of it, an eighties profile of Howard Stern, with a guest appearance from Don Imus on local TV station WOR (channel 9) and another channel 9 broadcast made in the aftermath of Stern being fired from WNBC.

For a recap on the recent controversy (including video), I direct you to Bol.

April 14th, 07 - Oops. FCC's got nothin' to do with this. I've mixed feelings about his being fired;
On the one hand, fuck him. On the other, where does this culture of outrage over bullshit end?

Labels: bullshit, civil rights, hypocrisy, media, nostalgia, politics, tv, youtube

I tried out one of my cable provider's international channels over the last three months, iO Chinese. It was a mix of news and entertainment, including movies and dramas. Save for a few episodes of Wu Dang 2, I didn't really watch much. The target audience for these various foreign channels are people who speak English as a second language, so subtitles are rare (I haven't checked out the others: Russian, South Asian, etc.). Since I can easily download Chinese dramas with subtitles with relative ease, there was little this channel could offer me, so I canceled. I considered the Japanese station to supplement my on again/off again attempts at learning the language, but at nearly 30 bucks a month, that just ain't happenin'.

Cable already offers a lot of Spanish stations, one or two are bi-lingual, I think. A few years ago, just before or just after Charlie's Angels was made into a film, there was a Spanish language remake of the old series broadcast on Telemundo or something. Anticipating some crossover interest, the show was subtitled, which allowed me to enjoy a couple of episodes. It seems to me that subtitling Spanish language programing would be a great service to immigrants who should be encouraged to learn to speak and read English, as well as to natives, who could gain some insight into the various South American cultures.

Anyway, I replaced iO Chinese with HBO, for almost the same price (12 bucks HBO vs. 10 bucks Chinese). There's a crapload of HBOs, but I'll only need the Hi-Def one (regular cable sucks on a 38", probably worse on larger screens). The Sopranos are starting back up, so I need to be ready, though I may've missed the entire last season.

Labels: dorama, HDTV, tv

when Anna Nicole Smith's name is mentioned on the news. On comedy shows, I pay attention.

Labels: bullshit, tv

That's the first and last time I'll be caught using that word.

Here's a video (up as of this writing) of Sean Hannity trying to ignite some kind of firestorm by pitting an outspoken NYC Councilman Charles Barron, naturally upset about the whole Sean Bell issue against infamous O.J. Simpson witness, Mark Fuhrman. The results aren't what one might normally expect.



Strange. I thought conservatives normally supported the rights of citizens to protect themselves, not only against crime, but against oppressive police actions as well. This would've been a good opportunity to bring up issues with both New York City and New York State gun laws. Hmmm.

Three of the officers have apparently been indicted. I don't know the details yet, but this simply means a case will actually go to trial.

But Michael Palladino of the Detectives' Endowment Association said the indictments sent a "chilling message to all New York City police officers".

"You can act in good faith and there is no margin for error," he said.

There's a margin, it isn't fifty bullets long, though.

Labels: bullshit, civil rights, funny-ass shit, hypocrisy, politics, right to bear arms, tv, youtube

Some of these were obviously jokes:

"I find it highly unacceptable to have a family watching a sporting event only to find Prince stroking, manipulating and fondling his guitar behind the curtain. This image only made him look extremely large which made the rest of us feel small, and unable to perform this evening."


Some others, I'm not so sure of. Funny stuff, in any case.

These and more at The Smoking Gun.
Thanks Housequake.com.

Labels: bullshit, funny-ass shit, Prince, tv

Alt.binaries.multimedia.chinese has a trio of English subtitled TV series being uploaded. All encoded for the iPod, but should be playable, as is, on the PSP. Official firmware 2.8 and up, or custom firmware 3.02* and up is required. The mp4 file, which doesn't have to be renamed, would be placed in the /VIDEO folder (in the root directory of your memory stick), instead of one of the various folders found in MP_ROOT. I haven't watched these series yet, but a previously uploaded shows that was iPod encoded, Face To Fate, played with no problem, other than three or four episodes (out of thirty) didn't have English subs.

Okay, so what I see being uploaded at the moment are:

The Brink Of Law - Looks like some sort of legal/cop drama. No kung fu, but some action is involved. Here's a YouTube clip.

The Heavenly In-Laws - Weird (to me) supernatural comedy. Yuen Wah's in it (I think that's him), so maybe there's some kung fu. A YouTube clip.

The Devil's Disciples - Here we go! Now, this is more like it. Looks like Eddy Ko as the bad guy. Flying swordsmen and CGI. Hope it's actually good. Preview below:



How does one download the great stuff to be found on alt.binaries.multimedia.chinese and the thousands of other groups on usenet? I'm never good at explaining how it works, so I'll just point towards TimDoc's page, and let him explain it (his downloading guide has been a great help to me over the years). There are other guides on the net as well. You can use a premium server like EasyNews, but your ISP may provide access to usenet at no extra cost, so find out how this whole thing works before paying extra.


*I can't remember if there was a custom firmware between 2.71 and 3.02, but any PSP firmware (official or custom) 2.80 and over would enable the /VIDEO and /MUSIC folders (in the root directory of the memory stick). Not all MP4s work in that video folder however.

Labels: dorama, downloads, kung fu, PSP, tv, wu-xia, youtube

I don't think there's any kung fu in this one, so I'll pass.
If I do download it, I won't watch it in public (PSP).

Info here.
Torrents here (first 10 episodes, with the last 5 coming soon, I think).
YouTube preview below (as of this writing)...

Labels: bittorrent, dorama, downloads, tv, youtube

This series is shorter at ten episodes than most of this genre (Wu-Xia), which tend to go on for about 30-50 eps. Don't know anything about this one (cast, story, etc.) except that it's widescreen, which will look good on my PSP. I also notice it's available (with English subtitles) at quite a few online retailers, at around twenty bucks, which isn't bad.

Speaking of interesting online deals, I noticed a price difference for the 1983 series, Legend Of The Condor Heroes at the global and U.S. site for YesAsia. The global.YesAsia site, which in this case mentions "United States - English" at the top of the page, lists the series at $162.50 for the fifteen disc uncut set. (I get to this site through a link at Kung Fu Cult Cinema).
The US.YesAsia.com site lists the English subtitled set (also as "uncut" and fifteen discs) at $73.50. I normally wouldn't spend $75.00 in one shot on a single DVD series, but this is sounding like a good deal to me. I may have to pick this up...

02/17/07 - ordered it a few days ago. The prices on the global.yesasia.com site adjusts once you setup your location.

Labels: bittorrent, dorama, downloads, DVD, good deal, kung fu, online retailers, tv, wu-xia

The only team I'm rooting for is Prince's band. He better kick ass tonight.
The picture above is of the late Kwan Tak Hing, the actor who portrayed Wong Fei Hong from 1949 'till about 1972 or something (not counting cameos in Magnificent Butcher and Dreadnaught). I put it up because I think he kinda resembles Prince in this photo. Also it's been a few days since I've mentioned kung fu movies.

Labels: kung fu, music, Prince, tv

Gettin' kinda heavy with the guitar, there. Which is good news for long time fans, as well as football fans. Prince gave a "press conference" this afternoon on the NFL network, that consisted of a performance of three songs, Johnny B. Goode, anotherloverholeinyohead, a little bit of a B-52's song (?) at the end of AnotherLover, and Get On The Boat. The latter is one of the better songs on his last album 3121, but didn't come across so good here, in my opinion. Go to the title above to watch the performance. It's at Housequake.com and will probably require you to sign up. It'll show up on YouTube eventually, but won't look or sound as good. Tomorrow should see a new song available for download, called Guitar. Sunday, he plays the Superbowl during halftime. I expect awesome-ness! In addition to the millionth playing of Let's Go Crazy and Purple Rain.

Update: 2/2/07 - Somebody camcordered the event; here's the vid...

Labels: music, music video, Prince, tv

Don't know much about this series, except it has Raymond Lam from Twin Of Brothers, which I liked as well as that guy from John Woo's Heroes Shed No Tears. Eddy Ko (Thanks imdb).

Torrent download and info at D-Addicts. Opening theme below via YouTube.




I've probably got enough of these Wu-Xia series that I could watch an episode a day (on my PSP, of course) and still not be finished in a year. Currently I'm watching Hero In Black AKA Wo Lai Ye (Here I Come), a Zorro like comedy that features Cheng Pei Pei (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Come Drink With Me) as an overbearing mother. I've recently downloaded 35 episodes of a Monkey King series that has Sam Lee in it.

This isn't all I watch. Before starting Hero In Black, I watched the first season of The Wire (My brother hooked me up with the first two) and I'll probably check out the second season next. Also recently bought the final season of Angel, and season one of Smallville, so I'll be looking at those eventually as well.

Update 01/24/07: I finished Wo Lai Ye last week. While not completely bad, it's the worst of these dramas I've seen, yet. I just didn't like the characters or their relationships to each other. Especially Song Dou's affection for the owner of the Top Chef restaurant. It contradicts his hatred for the greed of corrupt officials and the wealthy who live at the expense of the poor in his town.
She appears to share this sentiment, yet also shares the characteristics of Wo Lai Ye's sworn enemies. I found the ending unsatisfying as well.

Labels: bittorrent, dorama, downloads, kung fu, PSP, tv, wu-xia, youtube