Friday,
July 8, 2005
Hosted by: Ahchie
Movies:
Misc from Brother Nature (Myra Breckinridge, Miss America, Miss Universe)
Misc from Ahchie (Doc Rivers, Paul Anka, Hit Me Baby One More Time)
Omega Doom
Breaker! Breaker!
XBox:
Brute Force
Conflict: Desert Storm
Quotes:
"Have you ever seen a robot that needed a splint?"
Diesel
"Hit the ground running with a thong, sweetheart."
Throcksmorton
"I’m the black guy – I thought that was Throck."
Diesel
"I was hauling a barnyard of pigs the day and by the time I got home
I couldn’t smell my own feet."
Crazy Diner Guy, Breaker! Breaker!
"It’s not going to be peaches and gravy all the time."
Brad Miller, while still on the Indiana
Pacers
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Questions:
1. From the top 10, who should finish 1-2-3 in Miss America 2005?
| Diesel | North Carolina, Illinois, California |
| Brother Nature | Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma |
| Throcksmorton | California, Mississippi, New York |
| Ahchie | Mississippi, California, Kentucky |
| ACTUAL | North Carolina, California, Kentucky, Illinois, Florida |
2. From the top 15, who should finish 1-2-3
in Miss Universe 2005?
And who do you elect Miss Buttcrack?
| Diesel | Switzerland, Peru, USA, worst – South Africa |
| Brother Nature | Mexico, Latvia, Switzerland, worst – Indonesia |
| Throcksmorton | Peru, USA, Mexico, worst – Puerto Rico |
| Ahchie | Mexico, Peru, USA, worst – Indonesia |
| ACTUAL | Canada, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela |
3. If you could know one thing about your future, what would you want it to be and why? (from Miss Kentucky)
| Diesel | When me and Brimley have our death match, so I can start eating smart and preparing. |
| Brother Nature | If I will win the death list, so I can place bets in Vegas. |
| Throcksmorton | When the next POA is coming around the bend – just because. |
| Ahchie | The time and date of my death, because it’s the first thing that came to mind. |
4. What famous person does your personality most parallel? (From Miss Illinois)
| Diesel | Tom Cruise (as interviewed by Today Show’s Matt Lauer) |  |
| Brother Nature | Howard Hessman | |
| Throcksmorton | Walter Matthau | |
| Ahchie | Tobey Maguire |
5. If you had to recommend a book to someone, what would it be and why? (from Miss Venezuela)
| Diesel | In the Arena by Richard Nixon, because it is a fine primer on US and world politics. |
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| Brother Nature | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, because it is an excellent look at the experience of being on drugs. | |
| Throcksmorton | Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, because it is just funny. | |
| Ahchie | Watching Baseball by Jerry Remy, because you can’t go wrong with the Rem Dawg. |
Movie Review:
Breaker! Breaker!
Review by Ahchie
Simplistic and mildly compelling story about trucker J.D. Dawes (Chuck Norris), who calls upon his fellow truckers to help rescue his little brother from an extreme and over the top speed trap. Breaker! Breaker! manages to strike that delicate balance between trying to be a real movie and ending up being unintentionally ridiculous. It is not a balance one can purposely try for, because when it has been tried it ends up obvious and forced and thus does not work. Breaker! Breaker! has that certain something that causes a bad movie to be enjoyable and fun to watch.
Breaker! Breaker! actually shares a quality that can also be found in Meet Joe Black, in that this is a movie that you can fall sleep in the middle of and when you wake up you realize you haven’t missed all that much. In Meet Joe Black, you can doze off and wake up to find that Mr. Black is still talking to William Parrish and preparations are still going on for the party and, after a quick nap during Breaker! Breaker! you will find that little brother Billy is still in trouble and J.D. is still preparing for the dramatic rescue. Like watching a game broadcast by Vin Scully, within two minutes you feel that you are up to speed with whatever you may have missed.
The speed trap in question is located in Texas City, California. This town is obviously a fake movie set, as little effort was made to make it look like it was a real town with real buildings that had more than one wall. The town has a look of a visit to Universal Studios where you get to witness a staged gunfight amongst the building facades. Interestingly, the Texas City speed trap resembles a modern day speed trap in Memphis, Texas, and it is likely that they both began operations around the same time.
While Texas City ultimately failed, thanks to Norris and his trucker friends, Memphis has adapted to the times and thrived. In Memphis, after you have been guided to the courthouse by the sheriff, you get to deal with the down to earth Justice of the Peace Tippett, who uses his friendly Texas demeanor to explain to people from out of state how they can get on their way without any more trouble. If you’re lucky, the honorable Tippett will entertain you with stories of shootin’ coyotes while sittin’ on his porch late at night. In keeping with modern day conveniences, Memphis has an ATM machine located across the street from the courthouse, where you can pay a modest fee of $1.50 to use the machine to get enough money to make the whole issue go away nice and neatly. Once Tippett is done with you, you feel that he didn’t want to take money from someone as nice you, and you leave feeling okay about the whole thing, until you later piece everything together and realize that you have just been the victim of the slickest, most efficient speed trap around.
The Texas City sheriff will also guide you to the courthouse, but instead of Tippett, victims get to deal with the drunk and abusive Judge Trimmings. Severe consequences are in store for anyone who does not immediately pay Trimmings, and young Billy is the latest to join the long line of the judge’s victims. After an ill-advised and hot-headed reaction, Billy finds himself locked up in jail.
When the moment is finally right, J.D. and his trucker friends invade the fake town and use their 18 wheelers to herd people like cattle back and forth from one end of town to the other and back again. They plow through building fronts that clearly have no other walls, and soon fires are raging out of control. The obligatory final fight sequence has nothing spectacular – just slow motion shots of Norris jumping with his leg sticking out as he kicks his foe in the chest and sends him flying backwards. Even considering that this movie was made back in 1977, for being what is supposed to be the climactic moment, it is very dull, and therefore highly comical.
The most disturbing scenes were the two too affectionate moments between J.D. and his little brother, Billy. There was one at the beginning, when the brothers are shown rolling around together amongst the dirt bike mounds. And the second is at the end, when J.D. caresses his little brother’s face a little too tenderly.
