Archive for 2011

DUTCH PARLIAMENT: DOWNLOADING MOVIES AND MUSIC WILL STAY LEGAL

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

In an attempt to reduce widespread piracy in the Netherlands, the government there recently introduced a plan that would make downloading movies and music unlawful. However, this proposal was binned on December 23, 2011 by a motion from the Dutch parliament due to concerns it would restrict the free flow ...

BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

In Sion Sono's Guilty Of Romance, the dreams of an everyday bored housewife turn to dust when she becomes sexually liberated and ends up as a street hooker and involved in a bizarre murder. Stephen Tan reviews. Alerted by a call from the public, Detective Yoshida arrives at a derelict building ...

THE BigO PLAIN-SPEAKING, STRAIGHT-TALKING NO B.S. CONTEST No. 11

Monday, December 26th, 2011

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE BOYS   Pictures posted on the net. Click on the panels for a better view.     It rained "cats and dogs" in $heep City, $ingapore on December 23, 2011. In $ingapore's main street Orchard Road, with the heavy downpour, the flood barricades at Liat Tower were ...

WHY EURO PLAN IS DOOMED TO FAIL

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

Historian Gabriel Kolko says history has a very important lesson for Europe and the world. Prepare yourself for another crisis of great depression proportions. There are extremely important differences between this decade and the period after the First World War and through the early 1930s. The most crucial is that no fascist ...

SUPERHERO SALAD

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Theseus who? When Critic After Dark Noel Vera wanders into the cinema to watch Tarsem Singh's Immortals (2011), he expected a second-rate Clash Of The Titans but instead found an intensely violent, exuberantly stylish comic-book action movie. Consider poor Theseus. His divine father bequeathed on him godlike strength, but not godlike ...

THERE IS ONLY ONE ISSUE IN AMERICA

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

When Obama hosts rock stars at the White House, it's time for rock stars to talk about democracy. Steve Van Zandt wants everyone to know money and politics don't mix. The people are the boss. I was obsessed with politics in the '80s. I've recovered and I'm feeling much better now ...

SKEWED VISION

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

In Mamoru Watanabe's Tokyo Desire (2004), it's one thing when a young girl has a life-long crush on an older, married man but things get twisted when she ties in bondage into the foreplay. Stephen Tan reviews. Returning home, primary school student Yuka finds her cousin, Reiko, and her husband, Inoue, ...

THE BigO PLAIN-SPEAKING, STRAIGHT-TALKING, NO B.S. CONTEST No. 10

Monday, December 12th, 2011

WHAT MUSIC WILL YOU PLAY ON THE LAST EVENING OF 2011? The year 2011 was one of the worst when it comes to bad news. From a tsunami in Japan to constant, daily rioting in the Middle East, to drone attacks in the rougher parts of the Indo-Pak border to the ...

WHY MANAGED DEMOCRACY ALWAYS FAILS IN A CRISIS

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

Managed democracy is a police state where a dictator rules with an iron hand what he claims, and it is echoed by his controlled media, is a democracy. A common characteristic of managed democracies is to give out as little information as possible. What's clear is that it is easier ...

WALKING ON THE WRONG SIDE

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

On Lulu, Lou Reed's new team-up with Metallica, the former VU man appears to have lost his sense of cinema and one of the album's tracks, Frustration, pretty much sums up the listening experience. Philip Cheah reviews. As much as any fan would like to adore Lulu (Warner Bros/Vertigo), this new ...