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Showing posts from September, 2015 |
Samsa’s Hair // Kafkaeaque story by Rahad Abir |
One morning Samsa Roy woke up in bed and found himself completely bald. It was not a bald patch or bald spot. It was complete, clean baldness. Sleek, soapy, smooth. He ran a confused hand over his head back and forth. He felt nothing there. Not a single hair. He slept on his right side, as usual, with his right hand under his head. He wondered if he might be having that tormenting dream again. He had been having a recurring dream of going bald. He got so used to it that he began to believe it. |
To read the full text click New Asian Writing |
Do oil companies need help? |
I don’t hate oil companies. Gulf Oil gave my dad a job near the end of the Great Depression. Gulf and 40 years of hard work by my family allowed me to have a wonderful education. |
What I am having a hard time understanding is why Republicans are so reluctant to make big oil pay its fair share. Tax breaks from Texas amount to more than $20 million a year. Some of the refiners in Texas are suing to get even bigger tax breaks. Our U.S. tax system gives British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Shell and others millions more. |
While middle-class Americans are finding it harder and harder to make it, conservatives in Congress, the Tea Party and Republicans in general seem hell bent on making life more profitable and easy for corporate America and the mega-rich. |
Quarterly reports from the oil companies show record profits. This is particularly true for ExxonMobil, whose profit is 40 percent higher than the last report. Its profit for the recently completed quarter is about $10.6 billion. Other oil company reports show similar results. I have trouble understanding how a small tax increase on these companies would be so harmful. Couldn’t ExxonMobil still be a viable company making only $9.6 billion in a quarter? |
Another mystery to me is why the excuse for increased cost of gasoline is always that the cost of crude is up. If the cost of crude requires the oil companies to increase prices at the pump on us, how is it that every time crude prices increase, corporate profits increase? |
There are many reasons for my belief that big oil companies are not paying their fair share. First of all, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence our elected officials. Members of the Tea Party and Republican pundits seem to have an extraordinary fear that undocumented workers from Mexico are ruining our country. I have never heard a Republican express any concern over how many directors or shareholders of corporations are non-Americans. With the Supreme Court ruling, non-Americans through corporate action can have far more impact on our nation than all the undocumented workers. |
Republicans like Rick Perry, in their worship of big money, are ready to not only give big oil tax breaks but also give other advantages to the detriment of ordinary folks. We’re not only gouged at the pump, but our environment pays a dear price by being at constant risk from drilling and production. The quality of our air is certainly not improved by the refining process, making the air we breathe less pure and the water we drink of lesser quality. Recent events with British Petroleum and the Gulf of Mexico demonstrate just how fragile our environment can be. |
Any corporate director will quickly tell you a corporate board’s No. 1 objective is to make a profit for the shareholders. I have never heard a corporate officer mention loyalty to America. |
The Doolittle Raiders |
Doolittle Raid Hits Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya and Kobe |
By Florian Sohnke |
The sudden rupturing of America’s peacetime tranquility on December 7, 1941, owing to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor stirred the soul and sensibilities of the entire nation. |
Provoked by roused Americans endeavoring to fulfill the oldest motive of all, revenge, the White House and those atop the defense pyramid at the War Department hatched a plan to return the discourtesy to Tokyo on April 18, 1942. |
The outlook for an American military victory in early 1942 was bleak: In addition to smashing U.S. naval capabilities in Hawai’i and laying siege to the Philippines, the Japanese Empire had struck European colonial possessions along the entire Pacific Rim, driving French, Dutch and British occupiers from territorial possessions in Malaysia, Singapore, French Indochina and the Empire of the Sun was poised to terrorize India and Australia. |
Similarly, the Japanese had overwhelmed combined U.S.-Filipino forces in the Philippines, seizing Manila, forcing Allied troops to the Bataan peninsula to defend the archipelago from the advancing Japanese army and the Imperial Japanese Navy had thwarted a small American/Allied flotilla at the battle of Java Sea. General Douglas MacArthur was ordered to leave his beloved island for Australia in March and shortly after both Bataan and the island bastion of Corregidor fell to Japan. |
Pressured by President Roosevelt to find a way to batter Japan amid the torrent of discouraging news, from the War Department emerged a most unlikely source to offer an action point with the intent to bomb Japan. |
Captain Francis Low |
American naval officer, Captain Francis Low, theorized American medium-range bombers could be placed on an aircraft carrier to strike at mainland Japan and exact revenge for December 7. |
Jimmy Doolittle |
Tasked with the assignment, one in which he was initially deeply skeptical, was a man of perfect qualifications, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle. A veteran Army Air Force pilot and aeronautical engineer, Doolittle recruited volunteers and proceeded with plans to attack Tokyo. |
Training at Eglin Air Force base completed, Doolittle and his 80-man band were assigned to the USS Hornet for the raid. Initially planning on 24 B-25 bombers participating, the final force would consist of a paltry 16 bombers, each carrying a payload of four five-hundred bombs each, hardly enough to inflict heavy damage, but enough to strike fear into Japan and convince both their government and people they were not invulnerable. |
Largely stripped of armament and armor plating and with extra fuel tanks added, the aircrew were flying planes with little defense against Japanese aircraft. Departing California on 2 April, the USS Hornet shuttling the B-25 crews greeted Task Force 16 charged with escorting the armada of 16 ships to the vicinity of Japan. |
In the early morning hours of April 18, despite remaining 650 nautical miles from the coast of Japan, a full 400 miles from their intended launch point, calamity struck: An alert navy watchman aboard the USS Nashville spied a small Japanese gunboat, which threatened to uncover the force’s existence. Despite being sunk from gunfire from the Nashville, the small craft did establish communication with the Japanese fleet and, after conferring with Hornet’s captain, Marc Mitscher, Doolittle chose to commence the attack forthwith. |
Turning into the wind, the bomb group departed the carrier over a 55-minute period and set course for their four targets inside Japan: Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama, Nagoya and Yokosuka. |
Tokyo, the prime target would be hit by ten aircraft; the remaining planes would hit secondary targets with two cities, Kobe and Yokosuka, fixed by one aircraft each. |
Crew No. 8 (Plane #40-2242, target Tokyo): 95th Bombardment Squadron, Capt. Edward J. York, pilot; Lt. Robert G. Emmens, copilot; Lt. Nolan A. Herndon, navigator/bombardier; SSgt. Theodore H. Laban, flight engineer; Sgt. David W. Pohl, gunner. (U.S. Air Force photo) |
Just two hours into the raid, and not yet over Japan, Captain Edward York’s B-25 was eating gas at such a rate, the navigator determined it would not reach Japan. The crew landed in the USSR and was interned for 22 months. Just slightly over six hours after takeoff, the aircraft appeared over its targets, conducted the bomb run and proceeded along the Japanese coast intending to crash land in China where they would meet Chinese Kuomintang forces to aid them. |
All crews either ditched their aircraft in the sea or parachuted upon reaching China. In sum, 69 of the raiders returned safely. However, three were killed: One aircrew member was killed after slipping off a cliff and two others drown in the East China Sea. |
The fate of ten others remained hidden from the public until 1946: Aircrew of two planes were captured; two men drown and eight others were imprisoned. Of the remaining eight, one died in captivity and pilots of two aircraft, Lieutenants Dean Hallmark and William Farrow, along with gunner Harold Spatz, were executed on October 1942 for “war crimes.” |
It did not turn out well for the Chinese who assisted Doolittle’s raiders: The Japanese army killed over 250,000 Chinese in retaliation for their part in assisting the American airmen. |
Although the raid produced little real damage to any of the targets, Doolittle and the 68 raiders returned home and were honored for a most glorious act of revenge. |
Follow Florian on Twitter @FlorianSohnke. |
And follow FAM on Twitter @firstandmonday. |
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 |
Hellbound: Hellraiser II: Help Me Understand You |
There are many different questions that float around my head every single day. What does David Lynch think about when he's peeing? Why am I the only person who doesn't believe in Lucio Fulci? What business does an owl have eating a Tootsie Roll Pop? Why is my cat's head so small? Questions that have been plaguing me since I first became a woman (I was 11 and it was a rainy day). |
But perhaps the most frustrating of questions, the question that wakes me up in the middle of night and the question that makes me want to shake Jeeves for not explaining it better is---What the hell are you talking about Hellraiser 2? I've seen it about 5 times and every single time I leave the realm of Hell feeling more and more confused. What am I so confused about? I think the better question is why are potato chips so delicious? AND ALSO what am I not confused about? |
The following is an actual transcript from my head while watching Hellbound: Hellraiser II. Some names and places have been changed because I don't remember what their names are. |
Also, please keep explanations relating to "The novella" to yourself. If you can't explain something in the film using the film than newsflash, it doesn't make sense. |
Your Boyfriend Was Meaningless to the Plot So He's Gone! |
Kirsty wakes up alone and sad in the Channard Institute. Visions of what she just went through race through her head when suddenly she wonders---what happened to my boyfriend? |
Don't worry, they sent her boyfriend home hours ago. Say what? How does that make sense? Putting aside the fact that the actor who played that guy either died or decided he had better roles to play---that is the worst explanation for the absence of a character that I have ever seen. |
First of all, he witnessed all those demon shenanigans too and I'll be damned if he wasn't also spitting out "tall tales" of almost being killed by this thing, when he woke up. |
Second of all. Weren't these two just found in the ruins of a major crime scene? Yes, let's let your boyfriend go because he could never possibly be a suspect. Don't these people watch crime shows? Don't they know that when a girl hates her stepmother she always has her boyfriend kill her? Gosh. |
Anyways this is always my first confusion. Kirsty's boyfriend (I'll pretend his name is...Bill.) Bill, where the hell did you go? And why doesn't Kirsty care about you? |
Haven't You Ever Heard of AIDS? |
Here's a good one. Imagine that you lay awake in the Channard Institute alone and upset. Suddenly a heater begins whistling and you see your father. Well it MIGHT be your father or it could be your mean Uncle pretending to be him, whatever. The point is--if you saw your skinless father writing a message to you on the wall in his gooey muscle blood, what would ever possess you to touch the blood.........and then taste some? |
Yuck indeed. What was she hoping to accomplish there? If by tasting it she could magically tell if it was really her father? I guess Kirsty is more powerful than we thought. |
Stop Lying, You Know Nothing |
I have always been so fascinated by how Hellraiser II basically recounts the entire plot of the first movie within 5 minutes. It's so magical that I even saw Hellraiser II first before I ever saw Hellraiser and I don't regret a second of it because Hellraiser II was so thorough. Anyways thanks to this ingenious plot re-hashing device, we now are convinced that Kirsty is a liar. |
She explains things to doctor with a big nose--that we didn't even understand. |
Let's recount what really happened huh? Kirsty thought Julia was cheating on her father. Kirsty found out that Julia had killed the man she was supposed to be having sex with. Kirsty then meets skinless Uncle Frank. Skinless Uncle Frank frightens her, she runs away. Kirsty finds the puzzle box, has no idea what it is, throws it out the window and then faints and blah blah opens the puzzle box, and meets the cenobites. The cenobites tell her nothing. She really should have no fucking clue who these loonies dressed in pleather are. Blah blah blah she goes back to her house blah blah Frank gets nabbed by the cenobites. The End. But guess what? Technically, Kirsty should still have no fucking clue what just happened. |
She tells the doctor with the big nose things like, "Julia brought Frank men to make him stronger" and even name drops the cenobites while meanwhile I'm thinking wait a minute..you don't know their proper names. And somehow she knows that the mattress must be destroyed because Julia could come back? But how on earth would she draw that conclusion from the little information she had? As far as she knew, Frank flew in on a jet plane. How would she possibly know that Frank died in that attic and only came back because blood spilt on the floor where he died? |
Yeah that's what I thought. Lies! Gee Kirsty...you sure know an awful lot about something you don't know anything about. |
Butch Today, Gone Tomorrow |
This always bothers me the most. Remember how awful Julia's hair cut is in the first film? Well if you don't I'll remind you. |
There see it's awful. |
Anyways, after she gets reformed out of the mattress, she magically receives her old skin back. And her hair is long and pretty now. |
Why? Is that really fair? Isn't hell a terrible place? I mean gosh if I knew you could magically get hotter and get whatever hair cut you wanted while there, I would have broken the law sooner. |
We Need a Puzzle Solver to Solve the Puzzle Box! |
Why does it always seem like to me, that the elusive puzzle box is extremely easy to solve? All you have to do is turn the dial thing until the box moves, and then pull it up, twist it and push it down into the corresponding slots. Really, not that difficult. If Frank, Kirsty and Pinhead's former self, could all do it on their own, then I think Dr. Channard---who by the way is a doctor so obviously he's you know...smart....I think that maybe just maybe he could solve it on his own. |
But nope, nope, we need someone who is really good at puzzles to do it! |
It Is Not Hands That Call Us. It Is Desire. |
When Tiffany finally opens the puzzle box and the cenobites come, they ready themselves to rip apart a new soul. That is, until Pinhead says NO NO NO NO. He tells them they will not be ripping Tiffany's soul apart because, "It is not hands that call us. It is desire". |
Hmmmmm interesting. I don't remember Kirsty having a deep desire to see what Hell was like and yet, you were pretty dead set on ripping her soul apart when she accidentally summoned you. Hypocrites. |
Also, aren't you demons of the underworld? You honestly can't locate Channard in your own hell to go rip his soul apart? It's not like he's that far away, he just left like 2 seconds ago, you can catch him Pinhead! |
Queen of the Underworld? |
Apparently between the time of her death and her descent into Hell, Julia became the queen of the underworld? Can anyone tell me why? Why the hell does she get to be queen of the underworld? She had no interest in hell, was killed on a technicality and it just doesn't make any sense. |
In fact this whole journey into hell doesn't make any sense. Apparently according to people that study this movie and pay attention--Julia was sent on a mission to get Dr. Channard down there so he could become a cenobite too. Oh ok, so it was all planned? Interesting. From here on out, the entire concept of hell and its layout completely loses me. I guess hell isn't really scary at all because it's just a giant labyrinth with empty hallways. |
Meanwhile the cenobites turn into wimpy losers that can be killed (?) by the Channard cenobite. |
This is perhaps where I am always the most confused. First of all why are you killing Pinhead? |
Second of all, how is that even possible? As much as I generally enjoy Hellraiser II this part always frustrates me. I don't like this sudden humanization of Pinhead. Sure, it's interesting to know about his origins but do we really have to have him almost protect the well being of Kirsty? |
Can't we just leave him alone? And Channard, can't you just get along with the other demons? Jeesh. |
I mean, I could go on for hours about my confusion revolving around this film. Like, I don't understand how there are different divisions of hell and how Frank has his own little lair. Is he even suffering in there? Doesn't look like it to me. Isn't he suppose to be having his soul ripped to shreds? Why is he still in one piece? Questions, questions, questions. |
Alright look, I realize it may seem like I don't love Hellraiser II. But I do. It for a very long time was the only horror movie sequel that I had ever seen. I enjoy it for its imagery mostly--there are things in this, that at times seem out of place. Like if I did a screen grab contest and used a few of these, you would be very confused. But then there's also imagery that is just so fitting. As confusing and nonsensical as hell is, it most certainly feels like some kind of hell and perhaps that is what I enjoy the most. |
Yes there are plenty of grey areas but who cares as long we can still somewhat enjoy it. And I'll admit that in most of these cases, it's just me being an idiot. I can't help it if I always get confused about whether or not they are actually out of hell towards the end there. I also can't help it if none of it actually makes sense. It's not Hellraiser right? |
Ooh Hellraiser II. There may in fact just be too much going on, but we love you anyways. I think. Who really knows? Not me obviously. |
Superheidi said... |
wow. You have addressed every single one of my hellraiser II concerns in this. |
I do have to say that I enjoy part II better than part I. Don't hit me! There's something about labyrinthine tunnels in the netherworld that really 'get' me. |
M. Hufstader said... |
I've never seen Hellraiser I or II, but now I feel like I have thanks to this review. Great review! I'm convinced that I have to check it out for the cracktastic nightmarishness of it all. |
lazlo azavaar said... |
This made me laugh so hard! You hit every point out of the ballpark! Still, I do love this flick more than any other in the series, even the first. The freaky and fantastic imagery, the M.C.Escher-esque Labyrinth, the Bosch-like Channard Cenobite, the paper-mache halls of Hell... What's not to love? |
S.B. said... |
Don't you see? Hellraiser 2 is like the puzzle box! It must be solved by smart people. It is not the hands that solve it, though, it is the desire! |
Me? I threw mine out the window and just passed out blah blah blah. |
Great post! |
CashBailey said... |
It's been a while since I saw it but I generally remember this being a fairly strong sequel. |
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