Showing posts with label Hong Kong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hong Kong. Show all posts

Monday, August 17, 2015

Comic Strip Survey: For the First Time, We Check Out the Baltimore Sun

Greetings to our blog readers in Hong Kong, Turkey, and Germany........

This week for the first time in the eight-year history of this blog, we look at Sunday comic strips from "The Baltimore Sun." We were hoping to see "Zippy the Pinhead," and as it turns out, yesterday Bill Griffith's comic strip was truly a piece of art. Today, he made vintage fun of Donald Trump; even Bao Bao, the panda at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., isn't such an easy target.

Omigosh, we just made a major faux paux as it is considered rude to mention Washington, D.C., when one is talking about Baltimore. Fortunately, when I briefly met John Waters, a cult film director from Charm City, in 2002, I did not make this mistake. But, I only talked to him for about eight seconds, which is how long I spent talking to Willie Nelson backstage at a Farm Aid concert  around that same time.

"The Baltimore Sun" features several comic strips which we don't see in the other newspapers we survey, like "The Washington Post" (whoops again!), including "Mother Goose and Grimm," "The Middletons," and "One Big Happy." All three of those strips made our big list.

First place goes to "Foxtrot," which features the family going out for a Sunday picnic at a state park in a place like The Humpback Bridge State Park in Covington, Va., and they encounters all sorts of natural elements likes ticks (top image), poison ivy, and snakes. Of course, in Florida, they would also have to worry about alligators.

Third place goes to "Speed Bump," in which a judge (center image) tweets his verdict, somehow we can't imagine Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas doing such a thing (ahhh, that's the third D.C. reference).

And, in sixth place, we have "Mother Goose and Grimm," which ironically has a nursery rhyme themed strip (given its title) as Humpty Dumpty falls off his great wall. We actually didn't get the Obamacare gag (and, that makes four), but we liked the strip enough as it is.

Now, let's give this list which you can perhaps read on the Metro after you've come back from seeing that new Woody Allen movie at the Landmark E-Street Cinema...........now, we are up to five!:

1) Foxtrot

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Speed Bump

4) Dilbert

5) Get Fuzzy

6) Mother Goose and Grimm

7) The Middletons

8) One Big Happy

9) Garfield

10) Zits

http://www.baltimoresun.com/

http://baltimore.org/

http://www.visitmaryland.org/

http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Next Ten for Netflix: English-Language Films

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong.......

Here is a look at the next ten English-language films we hope to watch on Netflix even though we will be watching the Scottish film "Gregory's Girl" with subtitles as it can be an accent that those of us here in the United States may have trouble understandings.

The images above are of: 1) A scene from "Taxi Driver" with Robert DeNiro, 2) the late Canadian magician Doug Henning (we are using his image as a play on words for "Before I Disappear," a film which is not about magicians) and 3) "King Kong" for "The Immigrant," though she lived a full life, we still miss Fay Wray.

Here is our next ten to watch via Netflix streaming; the order is in order of ranking by the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), (to the right) for a look at documentaries and foreign films, go to our sister blog http://www.politics.cultureanotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

*-Films we have previously seen before:


*1) Taxi Driver. 1976. Dir: Martin Scorsese.  8.4/10

2) Before I Disappear. 2014. Dir: Shawn Christensen. 7.2

* 3) The Dark Crystal. 1982. Dirs: Frank Oz and Jim Henson. 7.2

*4) Gregory's Girl. 1981. Dir: Bill Forsyth. 7.1

5) World War Z. 2013. Dir: Marc Foster. 7.0

6) The Immigrant. 2013. Dir: James Gray. 6.6

7) Trishna. 2011. Dir: Michael Winterbottom. 6.0

8) The Lifeguard. 2013. Dir: Liz W. Garcia. 5.7

9) HairBrained. 2013. Dir: Billy Kent 5.5

10) As I Lay Dying. 2013. Dir/ James Franco 5.4

http://www.netflix.com

http://www.imdb.com

http://www.filmcomment.com

Saturday, May 2, 2015

The Last Ten Records We've Listened To: New Wave and Soft Rock

Greetings to our blog readers in Hong Kong, Ireland and Israel: Well, we thought finding an image of the Cesar Romero Joker from the '60s tv version of "Batman" with Adam Best would easier to use than one of the late Heath Ledger in the same role for one of the franchise blockbuster movies, but actually the reverse is true!

Here are the last ten records we have listened to........

1. Nick Lowe. The Rose of England. 1985.

2. The Tubes. Now. 1977.

3. The Steve Miller Band. The Joker. 1973

4. Badfinger. Magic Christian Music. 1971

5. Slade. Stomp Your Hands and Clap Your Feet*. 1974.

6. Culture Club. Kissing to Be Clever. 1982.

7. The Plastics**. Welcome Back. 1981.

8. Chris de Burgh. The Getaway. 1982.

9. Sad Cafe. Sad Cafe.*** 1980

10. Squeeze. Cool for Cats. 1979 (pict. top)

*- Album was released as "Old Borrowed and Blue" in U.K.

**- A short-lived Japanese New Wave band.

***-This was actually not the band's first record.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Last Ten Movies We'Ve Seen: Catching Up with 2014

Greetings to our faithful blog readers in Afghanistan (well, maybe), The Bahamas and Poland.

Here are the last ten films we've seen (well, actually as of last week). We are still trying to catch up on the best films of 2014, some of which are listed in the IMDB as 2013 films.....yes, we are confused as well!

1) Night Moves (top image, film is about eco-terrorism.) 2013. Dir: Kelly Reichhardt

2) Palo Alto (center image, Palo Alto is where Stanford U is located). 2013. Gia Coppola.

3) Inherent Vice. 2014. Paul Thomas Anderson.

4) Post Mortem. Chile. 2010. Pablo Lorrain

5) Tabu. Portugal. 2012. Miguel Gomes

6) Drug War. Hong Kong. Johnnie To.

7) And, Now a Word from Our Sponsor. (bottom image, Ipana, originally an American toothpaste now only found in Turkey!)* 2013. Zack Bernbaum. (w/Parker Posey)

8) Museum Hours. 2012. Austria. Jem Cohen.

9) Lfe of Pi. 2012. Ang Lee.

10) Under the Skin. 2013. Jonathan Glazer (w/ Scarlett Johansson)

#- We learned that from Bill Griffith's comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead"


http://www.imdb.com

http://www.netflix.com

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Olympics Lists (9 of 10): Athletes from Asian-Pacific Countries, Including one 'Russian'

We are almost near the finish line! Yes, indeed.

Here is a list of 10 athletes from Asian-Pacific countries as well as some from countries that are located within the vast Pacific Ocean, which I've only seen one time in San Diego, Calif.:

1) Noriaki Kasai. (pictured) 41, Japan. Men's Ski-jumping. Won silver and bronze.

2) Zang Hong. 25. China. Women's Speed-skating. Won gold.

3) Viktor Ahn (Ahn Hyun-Soo). 28. Russia. Short-track Speed-skating. Won gold and silver. Ahn is actually a South Korean who was offered to be in the Olympics representing Russia, and he won!

4) Lee Sang-hwa. 24. South Korea. Women's Short-track Speed-Skating.

5) Michael Martinez. 17. Philippines. Men's Figure Skating. Martinez has become a social media sensation.

6) Katharine Eustace. 38. New Zealand. Women's Skeleton.

7) Pan-To Barton Lui. 20. Hong Kong. Short-track Speed-Skating. He is the only athlete representing Hong Kong.

8) Lydia Lassila. 32. Australia. Free-style skiing. Won bronze.

9) Jossi Wells. 23. New Zealand. Men's free-style skiing. Ouch! (he finished fourth, the event was won by American David Wise).

10) Mao Asada. 23. Japan. Women's Figure Skating. The event is traditionally the most watched event during the games; competitions starts today.

http://sochi2014.olympics.com.au/

http://www.olympic.org.nz/sochi-2014

http://jossiwells.com/


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Reptile Week Cont'd_ The Alligators

Yesterday, we started with the turtles. We forgot to mention that the Minnesota-based folk/rock band Trampled By Turtles will be performing in Buffalo, NY, at the Town Ballroom and The Port City Music Hall in Portland, Maine, on Dec. 2, in addition to their show at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio. The band plays many other days in the northeast during that interval as well.

For those of you in North Carolina, my good friend folk singer Bruce Piephoff will play at the Southern Lights Bistro in his hometown of Greensboro, NC, on Nov. 29 and Dec. 4; I'm not sure if he has ever written a song about reptiles.


Today, we continue with the mighty alligator, which can be found from North Carolina to Florida here in United States. Initially, we were going to post an entry for crocodiles, which were the subject of a kitschy, but catchy Elton John song "Crocodile Rock."

But, we couldn't find a good image of Gustave, the notorious man-eating croc in the central African nation of Burundi to use. Gustave, who has reportedly devoured some 300 people, perhaps some of whom were photographers, was mentioned in a "Mental Floss" article about Burundi within the last year.

That same magazine said that 9:30 a.m. was the best time to post blog entries. It's actually 9:30 p.m. here on the east coast, but it is that time in Beijing, China, right now.  Perhaps, it's that time in Hong Kong too.

The Crocodiles are also the nickname of the Turkish soccer team Bursaspor, located in Bursa, Turkey, in western Turkey; the city is Turkey's fourth largest. This weekend the Crocs' tied Istanbul powerhouse Besiktash 3-3. I suppose taking photographs of the game is less risky than sneaking up on Gustave.

As for alligators, if one is in St. Augustine, Fla.,  then one can visit the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, which is open from 1:00-5:00 p.m.

http://www.trampledbyturtles.com

http://www.brucepiephoff.net

http://www.southernlightsbistro.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.alligatorfarm.us

http://www.bursaspor.net (In Turkish)

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin (3 of 6)_ The Romatik Cuneyt

It is midnight here in New York (not really where I am at), 8:00 a.m. in Dubai, high noon in Hong Kong and 2:00 p.m. in Sydney, where ever you are you are with the Daily Vampire.

Today, we continue our series with a look at the careers of two vintage action film actors, Cuneyt Arkin of Turkey and his lesser-know counterpart (yeah, we are being sarcastic) Chuck Norris.

Arkin, now age 75, who is three years older than Norris, was also known as Cuneyt Baba (Father Cuneyt) in Tukey. He also made a lot of romantic films with Turkish screen goddess Turkan Soray, now age 67. In 1970 alone, they made many films together. One of my personal favorites is "Hayatim Sana Feda/My Life Belongs to You, Feda."

The film is patterned after Douglas Sirk melodramas from the 1950s, such as "Magnificent Obsession" and "Written in the Wind," which usually starred the late Rock Hudson.

In "Feda," Arkin plays Harun whose reckless driving causes him to hit the car driven by Soray's Zeynep, a character who is a lounge singer. She goes blind from the accident, and a guilty Harun tries to make it up to her. They fall in love. Interestingly enough, this film, came out the year I was born, which was also when "Love Story" became a huge box-office hits and one of the most questionable Best Picture nominees.

So, as we always do with these entries, we are asking which actor won the Best Oscar in 1970, the year of the 'romatik Cuneyt' (in Turkish, romantic is spelled with a 'k'). Is the answer:

A) Ryan O'Neal

B) John Wayne

C) George C. Scott

D) Jack Nicholson

E) Robert Redford

Incidentally, it is now 7:00 a.m. in Istanbul, Turkey.


The answer to last week's entry was B) F. Murray Abraham; he won the Best Actor Oscar for "Amadeus" in 1984, when Norris made "Missing in Action."

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr

http://www.chucknorris.com

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Status Update- (A Short Entry Because We Need Some zzzzzzzzzzzzs!)





My status update for 2:45 a.m. on this Saturday night/Sunday morning is as follows:

"I need to get some freakin zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzssss! Thankfully, I am not in an airport though I'd love to go to Hong Kong for some cheap silk shirts!"

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

PSA- Please Don't Drink and Drive









When I co-hosted a Turkish music radio show on 90.7 FM/WUVT in Blacksburg, Va., in 1994, my friend Bahadir and I would have to go over public service announcements that the station required us to mention.

It was a tedious and painful exercise at times, but I would like to think we helped get a kitten to a new home or made someone think about a homeless person in the streets.

With that in mind, I am going to ask folks not to drink and drive this holiday season. Yes, you've heard it before, and I don't mean to sound like an English nanny.

I tried to make this entry more interesting by featuring photos of taxi cabs in Hong Kong, China, and Istanbul, Turkey, but I am hoping this might make one person make a responsible decision tomorrow night.

On this blog and my sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times," we are going to list taxi cab services from Maryland to South Carolina.

This list is of cabs in Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia. Interestingly enough, Mister T, subject of an entry on Monday, was in a dreadful comedy called "DC Cab" in the mid-1980s......well, maybe it's not as bad as I remember!


Baltimore, Md.
Baltimore Taxi Co.
410-732-2600

Washington DC
Yellow Cab of DC
202-544-1212
dcyellowcab.com

Diamond Cab of DC
202-387-2221
dcdiamondcabs.com

Virginia

Roanoke
Yellow Cab Services
540-345-7711

Liberty Taxi
540-344-1776

Richmond
Deb's Taxi Service
804-439-2232
www.debstaxiservice.com

Norfolk
Checker Taxi
757-855-9009
norfolkcheckertaxi.com
857-855-9009