This merits its own post

Via Popwatch:

The Jim Henson Co. has launched development of the feature "Happytime Murders," a puppet comedy in the film noir detective genre.



ETA: Totally unrelated to what's above.

Camorra mafia wants author dead

Roberto Saviano, the Italian author of Gomorrah, a hit book exposing the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Camorra (the mob), has been under 24-hour police watch for the past two years. But with the movie version of Gomorrah now also a hit, Saviano is facing more heat than ever — Naples' anti-Mafia squad is investigating a claim that the Camorra plan to have the author and his bodyguards killed by Christmas. It's pretty much as ridiculously cinematic as it sounds: The information came from an informant close to Francesco Schiavone, the imprisoned Camorra godfather known as Sandokan; apparently, the Casalesi sub-clan has moved its assassination plans into the "operative" phase.

I remember watching an interview with Saviano once. Smart guy, really cares for his city.

interesting side note:
If all of this weren't crazy enough, the actor Bernardino Terracciano, who has a part in the Gomorrah movie, was among seven suspected Mafia affiliates arrested over the weekend. Terracciano, who allegedly has ties to the Casalesi clan, plays mob boss Zi Bernardino in the film; he was turned in by fellow gangster Oreste Spagnuolo. Yikes!

by the way, can anyone tell me what happened with the garbage workers' strike in Naples? I know I can look it up, but...I should really get back to homework, though.
(ETA 4: Found a forum on the subject on TripAdvisor. The latest article I found was from May of this year...the strikes start and stop and start again)


ETA 2: more unrelated business.
lol casting crack:
Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (sic) began principal photography last week on location in Germany. The ensemble cast of Inglourious Basterds includes Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Brühl, Eli Roth, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Paul Rust, Michael Bacall, Omar Doom, Sylvester Groth, Julie Dreyfus, Jacky Ido, August Diehl, Martin Wuttke, Richard Sammel, Christian Berkel, Sönke Möhring, Michael Fassbender, Mike Myers, Rod Taylor, Denis Menochet and Cloris Leachman.
lol Ryan from The Office and Cloris Leachman

when the moon hits your eye

Today, on the radio, I heard the Mandarin version of "That's Amore."



Not that songs shouldn't be translated into other languages, but I was amused that this one got the full old Chinese pop ballad treatment - synthesized strings and all.



also, looking for a good pirate radio station? (Pirate as in not exactly FCC approved, though it throws a few ARRR's here and there)

Pirate Cat Radio.
87.9 FM in San Francisco. You can listen to it online, or on the radio itself (although if you can't get the signal, it means that 1) you're out of range or 2) they had to move broadcasting locations again)

ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHSMASH

There was a forest fire on Angel Island.

picture

article

video and pictures

Rains expected to heal Angel Island

the last time I went was at the end of August. I took more than 100 pictures with my cell phone camera, only to find out that one either sends each picture individually to email or gets the pics through a data cord that I haven't found in stores yet. But if I have time, I'll try and put some pictures here.


as for the test...I don't know. I studied since Thursday, barely flisting or doing anything else besides studying and doing other homework this whole weekend, and it's just so hard for me to memorize so many specific dates and numbers and stuff...
and I know for a fact that I was the only one in class who actually read the readings when assigned, so I didn't have to catch up as much as everyone else on the readings, but of course they're going to get better than me anyway because I'm dumb like that and even two readings and summary-taking and reviewing can't get all the number and stat info in my head
on the paragraph answers and essays I just dumped all I knew on the topics, because I know that gets points in scientific exams...I did watch TV on Monday, but that was probably for the better, because on Tuesday I just studied every single moment possible and I got note fatigue...

and, of course, being the secret emo I am, ( I wrote a poem after the test, while riding home on BART. )