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and the winners MIGHT be...

Palme d'Or--IKLIMLER (CLIMATES) directed by Nuri Bilge CEYLAN
Grand Prix--BABEL directed by Alejandro González IÑÁRRITU
Best Actress--Lei Hao, Summer Palace
Best Actor--Brad Pitt, Babel
Best Director--THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY directed by Ken LOACH
Best Screenplay--Pedro ALMODOVAR, Volver
Jury Prize--EL LABERINTO DEL FAUNO (PAN'S LABYRINTH) directed by Guillermo DEL TORO
Camera d'Or--Andrea Arnold, Red Road
And out of competition--the best film of the festival, John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus"

but chances are, none of these will be right!

Go read article on Cannes.

Go make come back on someday soon, look new pictures.
Make good thought, Jon go heal and wellness soon.
Jon make time pass slow like.
Jon run good time sleep pattern, ok.

The Legendary Club-Footed Pigeon of Paddington Station


"see that out there, that's england"


the british riviera


thru the looking glass...


ever complicating the british rail...


Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign, please return to your seats and prepare for the worst landing EVER!

some dude in paddington station.

So the Cote d"azur hasn't changed, but oh yes, the conditions have...

let's just say that some people in certain positions are making other people, in subserviant positions quite uncomfortable with their lack of communication, moneys, etc.

but on the bright side, Rick Linklater's new picture, or one of them I should say--"Fast Food Nation" was pretty darn good. so i got that going for me. hopefully "A Scanner Darkly" will be as good or better. We'll see if Keanu can pull off that magic as only he can. More on this and the other competition film screened so far "Summer Palace," to come. plus pictures. and an assurance of more coherent thoughts.

Signed,

Penniless on the Riviera

The Bush administration, in a last ditch effort to put a band-aid on their plummeting approval ratings, have replaced noted douchebag Scott McClellan with former Bush Sr. administration speechwriter and Fox News Correspondent Tony Snow, who will take on the duties of Press Secretary for the Bush Camp.

While Snow has been known to be "hard on" the President in his journalistic endeavors, by occaisionally regurgitating actual "facts" (which have since been banned on Fox News)--current cabinet members are confident that Snow can easily shed what fragments of credibility he adopted under his journalistic guise and return to his true reptilian form as Ultra Conservative mouthpiece.
out with old...
in with the new...

For a bit of perspective--Bush's latest approval ratings according to CNN were at 32%--historically, that put's him somewhere between Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon on the popularity scale.

Congress prepares the equivalent of the Patriot Act for the Internet


This draft legislation is seeking to set back the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and push the digital world into more chaos. "...created by the Bush administration and backed by Rep. Lamar Smith, it already enjoys the support of large copyright holders such as the Recording Industry Association of America. Smith, a Texas Republican, is the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees intellectual-property law."

As one critic of the ambiguity of the wording of the current legislation put it

Reader post by: Xalorous
Story: Congress readies new digital copyright bill

"Under current law, Section 1201 of the law generally prohibits distributing or trafficking in any software or hardware that can be used to bypass copy-protection devices."

Products which would assist or allow you to reverse engineer or otherwise break copyright protection:

Pencil
Paper
ruler
camera
copier
printer
scanner
computer
programming software
debugging software
scanner software
cd reader software
cd burner software
digital media (all kinds)
etc, etc, ad nauseum

Get real. No way this could be equally enforced.

I will write a haiku, publish it to my website, with a "do not copy" disclaimer, and then sue anyone who has/sells/makes any of the above products on the grounds that they could be used to overcome my copy protection.

So basically, the government would have free reign to wire-tap anyone (through a newly created Copyright unit of the FBI) seize any of the materials associated with the "crime" and could instate 10 year minimum rides to the federal funhouse for absolutely non-violent offenses, which could seemingly be enforced on a whim. So a future scenario: say something bad on the internet--and they could lock you away for a minimum of 10 years for owning a CD burner--if they wanted to. And with a whole new branch of the FBI dedicated to protecting the income of a few multimedia conglomerates--they'll have the time and manpower to enforce it.

Full text of the article.

PDF of Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998

ps: better get rid of those copy machines and scanners around the office in the meantime. who knows what kind of havoc one could wreak with those--if one was so inclined. and don't even think about using any images on your blogs that you don't own the copyright to...

So according to recent surveys, three months of no activity on the internet makes you about as good as dead. So to dispel any rumors that might be circulating on this wild wild web-i am not, nor have ever been dead. So there. Things are about to get interesting though...

Drudge Report Headlines from Sunday January 22--1230EST
(taken without any permission from drudgereport.com)
I've taken the liberty of translating the headlines into what they really mean. You're welcome for this service in advance. TTFN.



"Get ready to get your war on." Whenever it says "Israel," that means USA. They are interchangeable. Without the states, Israel wouldn't exist. And without Israel and our buddies the royal family in Saudi Arabia, we wouldn't have a permanent presence in the region. As for Iran, the powers that be have been preparing everyone for the inevitable for the last few years now--that is, continued US "intervention" in the Middle East. Hold on to your hats, we still have 3 more years of GW left, and a helluva lot of war to bring.



"We want to make new automobiles that will be branded to appease liberal environmentalist ideals while at the same time be aesthetically appealing to the gas guzzling republican archetype--in addition to cutting down overhead and increasing profit margins."I'll believe it when I see it.



Wait...is this news? I loved Johnny Cash, but damn, who really gives a shit? IT'S JUST A MOVIE! GET OVER IT!



It's always gotta be the French, dammit. Wasn't the 'Freedom Fry' thing enough? Now they don't want us to go to Paris because of bird flu--or should I say SARS, part 2. She's probably got a cold anyway. And who is the poor bastard who's job it is to go around testing "bird droppings?" Jeez...



Due to a lack of any original ideas and the inflated costs of producing even the most basic, piece of shit film--the major LA-based film studios will have a less prolific output over the next few years as they attempt to determine how they've managed to permanently scar the greatest artistic medium the world has ever known. In other news--more films are being shot outside of Hollywood than ever before." and ""Bosom Buddies" Alum Tom Hanks will only be receiving a few million dollars to star in "The DaVinci Code," rather than his usual 'several million.'"



This isn't a surprise or news. The funniest bit about Jack Abramoff is the Clooney joke about naming a guy 'Jack' who's surname ends in 'off.' So true.



Ok, I know for a fact this is what Dr. Octopus was working on in "Spiderman 2"...and if I remember correctly, that didn't turn out so well. Do we really need any more evil supervillains running around the world what with all the "terrorists" lurking out there? Ten bucks says that's what Kim Jong il's recent trip to China was really about. In the meantime, maybe somebody should send a Spiderman 2 dvd to this dude.




"Daytona Beach gets even dirtier" I've been to Daytona Beach and it's no Cote d'Azur by any stretch. I like the idea of being naked, and people having the right to be naked, be it at a strip club or at the beach...but the folks I saw during my trip there for Bike Week...I don't want to imagine naked. Ever. Never ever.



Once again, I've been there. I like Oklahoma even less than Daytona. Must've been hard to pick her out, what with all of the beautiful human specimens running around hotspots such as Tulsa! next...




Since when did whatever Harry Belafonte says become news? And who knew he was smart? Good for him! I always thought Homeland Security was more like the SS though...but if Belafonte says Gestapo, I'll bow to his superior intellect.



The aforementioned "new technology," refers to advances in methodology such as "actually trying." We can destroy cars from space and find Saddam in a hole in the ground in the middle of Nowhere, but we can't find the most infamous 6'6'' sickly man on a dialysis machine in the world, who happens to be hiding in the Afghani mountains. hmmmm...



Democrats' nightmare? How 'bout the country's? Now it makes sense why they nominated that unqualified hack the first time, so they could push through THIS slightly more qualified, and exponentially crazier hack. That fox-like cunning is why they are in control...it's like some kind of conservative Harry Houdini-style sleight-of-hand wizardry, that sadly enough, seems to be working.



"FILIBUSTER ALITO! FUCK YES!" That's why you have the power...to use it! If a young Jimmy Stewart could do it in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and I could do it in my 8th grade Mock Congress--then you can too! Bring a thermos and some nachos and maybe a few of those energy bars, oh, and some red bulls...maybe a few adderalls and some pertinent material to read such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, etc. This will eat up some time--but remember to read slow...and one last thing, and this is a tall order, but pick someone smart to do it. We can't get started on a thing like this and have someone fuck up and accidently yield the floor. Capisca?



Well, I could say something to the effect of, I like London less than I like Daytona or Oklahoma--but I won't. Save it's charming residents with their uber sexy accents and cosy climate, the Thames has to be to most wretched waterway in the world. I'm surprised the poor lost whale lasted as long as he did what with all the pollution and rotting corpses plugging up the river. Let that be a lesson to all the whales out there, if you go to the UK, go to Scotland, or better yet-- Wales.



Who are these people and why do we care? They'll come out of the closet when they're good and ready. ;p