Lying (2006)

Rediscovering movies that remind me of home that I haven't seen in years... I just realized that I know someone that is in this movie. How strange.

Directed by M Blash.

On another note, I'm enjoying my visit at my parents' house on the lake and relaxing in the garden with my dog. What I do not like is that the only time I take a nap is the only time I wake up to a spider bitten arm. Two spider bites on my arm to be exact. I'm a little worried, but we shall see in the morning if my left arm looks like it's rotting away. That reminds me of the story of how this paraplegic man who was confined to a wheelchair for 20 years was bitten by a brown recluse spider and started to walk again. I don't know how that relates to my problem, but life is full of strange hidden surprises.

India Singalong

This is so beautiful. Today 160,000 people of Hyderabad joined together to sing Annamcharya's hymns to brake a 72-year-old records for the world's largest choir in the Guinness World Records. This event was to commemorate the 601st anniversary of the birth of Annamacharya, one of the earliest "saint composers" of southern India.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8044406.stm
I wish I could find a longer video showing an actual song they sang.

Voodoo Candles

Whenever I'm bored, especially whenever I visit my parents back on the east coast, I start trying to expand my knowledge on things that interest me. For example the religion of Voodoo. I have always known about it and have studied it. I highly suggest not to play around with it, because once you believe in it things do happen. I would never practice voodoo since nothing really good comes out it and/or it's a waste of time.

Today I decided to refresh my knowledge on it and perhaps learn something new about it. To humor myself I checked online to see what people were posting about voodoo these days and what they're trying to get cash from. And I do have to say, it is pretty ridiculous and quite humorous.

Folks, for just around $15 you can buy a "homosexual candle" that can "bring in a gay lover" or a "black cross candle" that is used in "powerful black magic rites and to cruse or kill someone". Honestly, I think the black cross candle is the worse way for bad karma to come back at you and slap you right up on the head. Also, you apparently can't control free will. So the love spells would never work.



A word from the "Voodoo DePrince"! "Please Note: Not all candles that claim to be "Voodoo candles by others are not real Voodoo candles. All of DePrince special candles are "hand fix" with special Voodoo oils, powders and herbs. All you have to do is to burn them and read the special words that come with them. Each candle is fix and rub next to spirit post in my temple according to Voodoo Lore for stronger powers."

You can also make an online request for Dr. Thessalonia DePrince to do "your special voodoo magic altar request"! Oh wow! $10 per week for "voodoo magic candle work" or $35 per month! Remember, they only take Visa or MasterCard.

Happy Birthday Audrey Hepburn

Today would have been Audrey Hepburn's 80th birthday...

A Random Thought

Whenever I come back home to the east coast to visit my parents, it feels almost exactly like the movie Garden State. Expect my hometown is filled with preppy conservatives in a place that could be considered as the "mini" Hamptons.

Baumhauser from Baumraum | The Modern Tree House

How I wish I could have one of these up in a tree so high off the ground, away from everyone and everything. I won't want to live in one, but to have a place like that in a flourishing forest of oak trees just to get away and to be alone is rather ideal for me. I'm sure to have a private and secluded place will spark my creativity once more as well as be a perfect place for mediation.







"German company Baumraum has taken the concept of the treehouse and literally launched it sky high. A collaborative effort between “an architect, a landscape architect, an arbologist, and a craftsman”, the foursome design natural, modern bespoke treehouses for couples named Annika and Christophe and others. Treehouses can be built in virtually any tree or trees, to any given specification – horizontal, upright, two storey, interconnected – with ropes and stilts often employed to guarantee stability. Built predominantly from larch and Douglas pine, the designers are happy to experiment with stainless steel, textiles and other materials to create truly unique spaces. The pieces are prefabricated and then brought together on site.

What’s more “treespaces can be outfitted with sitting and sleeping benches, storage spaces, a mini-kitchen, heating, glass windows, lighting, as well as a sound system for multimedia”, turning your treehouse into a fully functioning pad. So back to the houseguests, while treehouse maybe an open invitation to any for any teenager to come and stay for an extended period of time, it will at least deter vertigo-ridden great aunts. You win some, you lose some." - gliving.com

MGM's Leo the Lion

It's only been the third day of my visit back home on the east coast and I've already watched a dozen or more movies. The three hour difference can be somewhat brutal when it comes to trying to sleep at a normal time. During this marathon of classic films I kept noticing the MGM lion roaring before the opening credits. The lion has always been somewhat comforting to me since it reminds me of my childhood. As well as how I was somewhat obsessed with lions. And by obsessed, I mean I would wear a lion costume everyday and lay in a pride of 10 or so stuffed lions as I watched movies. I won't be surprised if I tried to hunt down my younger brother as if he was an antelope at the watering hole.

So yeah... I don't know how to use my parent's scanner... so I just took a photo of the photo with Photobooth.

(With my grandmother and my little brother)


(Halloween)

Anyways, I decided to do some research on the MGM lion, the lion that people tend to not give that much thought about. Apparently, since 1924 (when the studio was formed by the merger of Samuel Goldwyn's studio with Marcus Loew's Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer's company), there have been around five different lions used for the MGM logo. There was on lion named Tanner that was used in all the Technicolor films and MGM cartoons (including the Tom and Jerry series), and in use on the studio logo for 22 years. However, when the MGM animation department—which had closed in 1958—re-opened with the Chuck Jones-directed Tom and Jerry shorts in 1963. These shorts used Tanner in the opening sequence rather than the current lion, which had already been adapted onto the studio logo and the 1961-63 Gene Deitch cartoon logos.


The five logos:


Logo 1: 1924-1928

"Slats"

"Howard Dietz designed the original logo which was used by the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation studio from 1916 to 1924. The first Goldwyn Pictures Corporation film to feature Leo the Lion's roar was Polly of the Circus. Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was ultimately absorbed into the partnership that formed MGM, and the first MGM film that used the logo was He Who Gets Slapped). Dietz stated that he decided to use a lion as the studio's mascot as a tribute to his alma mater Columbia University, whose athletic teams' nickname is the Lions; he further added that the inspiration for making the lion roar was Columbia's fight song "Roar, Lion, Roar". Slats was trained by Volney Phifer to growl rather than roar, and for the next couple of years, the lion would tour with MGM promoters to signify the studio's launch."


Logo 2: 1928-1956

"Jackie"


"The second lion that replaced Slats. Jackie looked almost identical to Slats, his predecessor. She was also the first MGM lion whose roar was heard by audiences of the silent film era, via a gramophone record. Jackie growled softly; this was followed by a louder growl, a brief pause, and then a final growl, before looking off to one side. Jackie appeared on all black and white MGM films (1928–1956) and MGM's Happy Harmonies cartoons (1934–1938), as well as the sepia-tinted opening credits of The Wizard of Oz. Despite Jackie's "official" introduction in 1928, the lion had been used on three earlier films: Greed, Ben-Hur, and Flesh and the Devil. The Color variant is ultra rare and can be found on: March of the Wooden Soldiers)."

"Coffee"
"Two two-strip Technicolor variations of the MGM logo were created for the first MGM color films, with two different lions being used. This is depicted in the still on the right featuring the second lion from the 1932 feature Roast Beef and Movies. This logo lasted until 1934, when a colorized (two-strip) version of the black and white Jackie logo was introduced. This was short-lived, as production was switched to full three-strip Technicolor filming shortly afterwards."



Logo 3: 1934-1956

"Tanner"

"MGM began producing full three-strip Technicolor films in 1934, and the logo was slightly modified for color. Tanner was used on all Technicolor MGM films and cartoons. Tanner, whose first appearance was before a Happy Harmonies short was in use as Leo the Lion for 22 years, second only to the current lion (who has been retained for 51 years). It is the Tanner version of the logo that was the most frequently used version throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood as color became the norm. The MGM full three-strip Technicolor short Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove features an extended longer version of Tanner roaring a WHOPPING four times."


Logo 4: 1956-1958

"Bob" or "Jackie 2"


"The fourth lion was more heavily maned than any of the predecessors and the current lion. Two different versions of this logo were used; one with the lion roaring once toward the right of the screen & then roaring at the camera, another version had the lion roaring just twice toward the right of the screen. This logo would have either a black or blue background.This logo is also in black & white. Two of this lion's appearances include in the films The Opposite Sex and The Wings of Eagles."


Logo 5: 1957-present

"Leo"

"The fifth lion was purchased from a famous animal dealer named Henry Trefflich. He had a smaller mane than any of the previous lions. This lion was used on all MGM films from circa 1957 to 1983 and Tom and Jerry cartoons directed by Gene Deitch, 1961. It was during the period 1957-1960 that MGM used two variants of the logo featuring Leo the lion: the standard version is still used to this day, and features the lion roaring twice; the extended version features the lion roaring three times. Although the logo was in use for MGM films during 1963 and 1967, the opening sequence for the third series of Tom and Jerry featured Tanner. MGM's three Camera 65/Ultra Panavision films, Raintree County, Mutiny on the Bountyand Ben-Hur utilized a resized still-frame of the logo, with the lion roar track added to the backing track. However, Ben-Hur did not include the roar; instead, the film score continued underneath the still-frame of the logo. A special black and white version was created for Jailhouse Rock, and was utilized again in 1982 for the Columbia Pictures film Annie during an excerpt from MGM's 1936 film, Camille, replacing the 1928-1938 logo featuring Jackie (which had originally appeared on Camille)."

(My favorite one)

"MGM was revamped in 1968 with a new logo, dubbed "the stylized lion". This particular logo was very short-lived, and somewhat unpopular; the still-frame image (with no roar) was seen on only three MGM films, Grand Prix, The Subject Was Roses, and 2001: A Space Odyssey before the company reverted to the original logo. The logo was revised once again in 2008, with the gold ribbon and drama mask below Leo remade in a more brilliant gold color. MGM had been using a similar logo in print for several years beforehand. The first film to use the new revised logo is the 22nd James Bond film Quantum of Solace."





Sorry for the long, hefty read. Ha.