John Kramer and SAW

For those of you unfamiliar with this series John Kramer is (was) an engineer, a loving husband and a cancer patient. Coming to terms with his own mortality made Mr. Kramer aware of time, how little of it we have and how some people just squander theirs. To correct this he puts his subjects through a series of tests. If the player follows the rules they come out a better person who appreciates the life that was given to them. If they fail it ends up in a sloppy mess that is really fun for the rest of us to watch.

I just watched Saw V and was impressed. It is strange that in a series of 5 movies the best is NOT the first one. Here is why. The original Saw featured Cary Elwes as the indifferent Doctor who diagnosed John Kramer, that irritating Monica Potter as his clueless wife and Danny Glover as the well-meaning but down-the-wrong-path detective who persecutes Elwes to the point of obsession. The central theme was good and the traps were fantastic but there was just something missing. That turned out to be Tobin Bell, the actor who plays John Kramer aka Jigsaw. We didn't get to know and love him until Saw II, which I think is the best in the series.

Saw II pits Jigsaw against dirty police detective Eric Matthews (played by New Kid Donnie Walberg) who plants evidence and beats confessions out of his "criminals". All the cop has to do is listen to Mr. Kramer and play by the rules and the officer's son will be found "in a safe place". Detective Matthews, however, is too hot-headed for this and spends his time mocking and abusing the ailing, oxygen-taking Mr. Kramer. After enduring an especially brutal beating Kramer declares "game over" and follows Matthews' directions but somehow things don't work out the way the detective planned.

My least favorite was Saw III. I thought it was overly cruel to the people involved in "the game", but it did give us the first behind-the-scenes look at how Jigsaw enacted his games and who helped him to do it. I must admit that I thought the series would end here, seeing that we watched John Kramer die in his make-shift hospital bed shortly after being forgiven by his test subject, Jeff, which I thought was a beautiful touch.

Saw IV took us behind the scenes and showed us how and why Jigsaw set out on his new line of "work", the people he trusted to continue his legacy, and what exactly happened to the characters from Saw II. It was most satisfying to see how Eric Matthews' storyline played out and those fantastic bastards made us wait until the fourth movie to tell us. I was a little skeptical about the continuation of the series upon my first viewing of this one, but after several more run-throughs it really does seem to fit like a glove. They got a really cool guy to pick up where Jigsaw left off.

This brings us to Saw V. Aw, hell, this post is too long-winded as it is. Suffice it to say that Saw V is every bit as good as Saw IV. The thing with these movies is that the good-guys and bad-guys are really hard to sort out. For all the horrific scenarios that Jigsaw creates, he never actually kills anybody. They ultimately make the decision to "live or die" (of course he does drug them, kidnap them and perform surgery to lock them into the traps, but that is beside the point). There are a lot of assholes in this series who get exactly what they deserve. Too often in life we don't get to see the asshole get what's coming to them. With SAW we always do. God bless you creators, writers, directors, producers and all the other crew responsible for giving us this satisfying series!

I would like to leave this post with a question: What is your favorite SAW trap? Which is your least favorite? I would love to chime in on the comments but would prefer others to get the ball rolling.

Contemplating Felicide

It has been nearly 8 months since Musgrave took her leave. The last 5 have been somewhat of a transition.

It wasn't until my mid-twenties that I discovered I was a cat person. We took in a stray, then about a year and a half later I was chosen by Esmerelda (who I dubbed Musgrave), so on and so forth. As far as personality goes, I can be social but in my own time. I am loyal to a fault, but please don't piss with me. I found that cats seem to share these traits, at least ADULT CATS do.

You see above Miss Hudson K Elgarf. She tries me on a daily basis. She is my first AND LAST kitten. While I DO advocate the adoption of stray animals I strongly urge the would be "parent" to go for the older model. These young things can be a bitch!

"I see your hair is burnin'," "Give me my time," "Spork and Omtay"...An Anniversary of sorts

Tonight, during a 4 hour drive back to the homestead the iPod shuffled its way to Jane's Addiction Live on Triple X Records.

"Well the rain came, I said hey, buddy now buddy the street is a snakeskin. I belong out there walking and nobody's stopping to bother me they hide, outside. The ceiling is crying. Listen to the sound of the gutters running, wash this dirty town all fronts and no backs give me my time let me be outside..."

It has been ten years since I first heard these lines. In October of 1998 the world, as I knew it, changed. Many things that I had known (and loved) crumbled around me forcing me to reevaluate everything. I don't really care to relive any of that unpleasantness, it just hit me as I heard those familiar notes that a decade has passed and I wanted or needed to address it.

Thanks for your indulgence.

Sad times...Winning by default

I wish I could subscribe to this wave of "hope" that is sweeping over America. To me it seems like we are in desperate times and need some clear leadership to steer us through it. I DO NOT believe that Barack Obama is capable of turning the tide. I have not heard any proposals that should convince me otherwise. America, once again, appears to be on another page in a different book than the one I have been reading. Remind me of what exactly he has done to garner this great approval and blind faith. I could really use a pick-me-up right now because it seems to me that he will win this election simply because he is the democrat.

Once again I MUST reach out to you, the millions of NEW, ENERGIZED, DISENFRANCHISED voters who are coming to the process for the first time. Remind me, again, of why you have never been politically active in the past. What about this candidate has made you give a damn about this process, and WHY DID YOU NEVER CARE BEFORE??!!! We really could have used your help in 2000 when Al Gore SHOULD HAVE won by default, coming off of 8 years of job growth, prosperity and wars waged only to prevent genocide. We really could have used your help in 2004 when George Bush proved to be the evil, ignorant manipulator we always said he was and John Kerry SHOULD HAVE won by default. Now that the damage is done, you want this inexperienced, smooth-talking snake-oil salesman to take the reins of this nation?!

Alright, the republicans are BAD. They have led us POORLY. There is no question about it. But, just like your messiah likes to keep pointing out that we shouldn't have gone into Iraq, there are many things that the republicans should not have been allowed to do. What has the democratic congress done for the last 2 years but acquiesce to the president? Why is the Bush administration not forced from office and put on trial for war crimes?

On election day I will cast a symbolic vote for president. I do not have any illusion that John McCain will win but I do believe that he is the far superior candidate. You may cast your vote to elect the first African-American president, and I do not snicker at that, these truly are historic times. I, however, do not feel it is his time. He may earn my support after actually accomplishing something, not just bad-mouthing people who voted for the war. What the senator from Illinois doesn't seem to understand is that we are there in Iraq. It no longer matters that we were put there by an out and out lie in order to seek revenge on the enemies of the president's family. I don't care how Hillary voted and I don't care how senator McCain voted. The fact that Obama opposed it does not qualify him to be president. I opposed it. Should I be president? As a community organizer in Chicago Illinois he worked with troubled youth. In my own way I, too, work with troubled youth. Should I be president?

This whole election is preposterous. My only hope is that when things don't fit so neatly into the Obama puzzle that the media is every bit as "fair and balanced" as they have been throughout this decision making process. OF COURSE it is time to elect an African-American president but is this guy the best that community has to offer?

WTF?!?!

Last night the Chief and I met up to see the movie, "Lakeshore Terrace," but that is not what this post is about. We had dinner and then went to a coffee shop to kill some time before the 7:05 show. While the Chief was deciding what fruity little coffee drink he wanted from the menu my eye wandered to the cooler down below. There I saw a bottle of the beverage you see above. I started laughing out loud.

How would you pronounce it?!

Anyway as I was looking up a picture for this post I came across this ad that ran in France. I thought it was just me being juvenile and selective with my pronunciation but now I think otherwise. What do you think they are trying to say?