>>>>> Remember: I speak my mind here. If you don't want to see it, don't read it. Consider yourself warned. <<<<<


Wednesday, October 24, 2012


Worth More Than A Quarter:

Wreck-It Ralph Philm Review




Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been quite a while since I was on here causing a ruckus, but suffice it to say I've been busy. I'll address that later for whomever gives a rat's ass. So, onward to the real topic!
Okay, so Wreck-It Ralph. A friend and I took in a sneak-preview screening Monday night at Alamo Draft House (Props to my Foodie Wife and Swag Hag Trish! Holla!) and I’ve had some time to mull it over. I’ll do my best to remain spoiler-free, but tread cautiously. Here’s my 25 cents:
I thoroughly enjoyed it! Was it an earth-moving, game-changing (See what I did there?) movie? Nah, but it was a damn good trip and well worth my time and money. I’m a hard one to get to laugh out loud at a movie, but I did quite a few times at this one. That being said, I think a good deal of the laughter came from video game references and fantastic shout-outs that only someone who grew up with video games or is an avid follower might get. Does that mean that your average non-video game player will be bored? Not at all. While they might be lost on the myriad of references, the movie is visually fun ride that touts some great lines and stands on its own. As an added bonus, it’s primary plot is a poignant story that addresses a big issue in society: Being bullied because you’re an outcast.
Some of the voice acting talent chosen for this took me a little by surprise and I didn’t know how I’d feel about it onscreen. I can wholeheartedly report that I thought every choice was superb. Jane Lynch was unsurprisingly great as Sergeant Calhoun and John C. Reilly really made the title role for me (I kept wanting him to talk like Dr. Steve Brule!) Jack McBrayer was wonderful as Fix-It Felix, Jr. (though it was an easy typecast, I mean come on) and Sarah Silverman was an unexpectedly good fit for Vanellope. I almost didn’t recognize Alan Tudyk as King Candy, which is always a plus.
I’d be a liar if I said all I did was laugh throughout the movie. I did, in fact, get a bit teary-eyed at a few parts along the way. The opening short “Paperman” is a beautifully constructed black and white piece of animation that speaks to the love-at-first-sight/happily-ever-after mawkish cornball in many of us. I wasn’t a few minutes in and already I was doing my best to stifle the welling.


 
Rest assured, Wreck-It ralph wasn’t without its emotionally thwapping segments. However, I find myself wondering if the particular points in the movie that resonated so strongly with me on a heart-wrenching level weren’t because of simple nostalgia (Oh, Q*bert! How you and your gameless signs eviscerate me!!!) Your mileage may vary.
 
Lastly, the cameos. How can you do a movie dealing with this topic and not have a million amazing appearances? So many!! Dig Dug, Q*bert, Pac-Man, Sonic, Peter Pepper, Dr. Robotnik, Zangief (Oh how I love you Zangief!) Chun-Li, Princess Peach…the list goes on. Part of the fun of the film is seeing which characters you can identify.
 
So there you are. It’s definitely worth the watch. Will your kids love it even if they don’t get the references? Definitely! It’s an entertaining film with a good mix of funny moments, fast-paced action and a sugary sprinkle of good values. Oh and my personal favorites? The Nicelanders, Sour Bill and King Candy with the best tip of the hat to video games ever.
Enjoy!
Phred Phun Phactor: 8 out of 10

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Adventures in Phredland, 9-16-10

WARNING: If you read it, deal with it. This is unedited and I put most sailors to shame when I’m mad.

We’ve been in Austin for about a year now and I have to be honest, I have met nothing but seriously nice people with only a couple of shitwits in-between. Customer service exists and flourishes here and people are just *really* nice. Apparently, they’ve been saving up to properly welcome me because today I met every last fucktard the area has to offer.

1) So, I go to the doctor for a follow-up today and decide I need groceries as well. The appointment is fine despite everyone on 620 driving like the speed limit is 25 mph. That is, except the hillbilly in his dirty-ass, jacked up Z28 that needs a damn muffler. I’m sorry your penis is small and you feel inadequate, but wash your car. Anyway, he’s doing about 75. Of course, he’s behind me, so when a loser doesn’t use their turn signal on two cars ahead and we all put on brakes, assface fishtails violently as he slams on his to keep from hitting me. Then, whips around and cuts me off. Then whips around and cuts off the woman in front of me. I mean really Buford, where’s the fire? Just keep it up buddy and when I pass you overturned and on fire in a ditch, I’ll stop for a moment to piss in your eye socket before continuing on my merry little way.

2) After my appointment I’m off to the store. I’m putting along and a nominal pace and it’s fairly packed so there isn’t much room next to in front or behind me. We’re all like lovely little smiling grocery cattle, but smelling nicer. So, much like the jackass on the road, this kid decided to dart directly in front of my cart. I have to jerk my cart to a halt to keep from ramming him (which I should have done...with joy) and my eggs go sailing forward in my cart and end up top side down and cracked. Does the kid flinch? Of course not. Does the mother that saw everything say a word? Are you kidding? A parent, actually parenting? Who ever heard of such a thing?

3) I decide, MMMMMMM a salad would be awesome for dinner. One of those make-it-yourself-at-the-fabu-deli ones. So I load it up with sweet hot peppers and sundried tomatoes and alfalfa sprouts and Sweet Butter lettuce and spinach leaves and feta baby portabellas and....as I’m about to treat myself to croutons, this evil, damp, chubby, entitled, little brat of a child in a bathing suit charges toward me as her and her mother enter the store. The mannerless heathen proceeds to stop right in front of me where I am about to take the tongs to get my croutons and she summarily sticks her grubby little paw INTO the bowl of croutons and scoops out a handful as she stares at me. I’m like WHATWHATWHAT?! Then, the little douche waddles back to her mother while stuffing her face with the stolen food items. I look at her mother who has seen this whole thing and I say “SERIOUSLY?!” The mother simply continues on with her general douchery and ignores me. GREAT parenting, dick.

4) I’m intent on finally checking out and go to look for an empty to fairly empty line. I see one, but I also see a woman to my left in beeline mode for the same spot. Being a kind, giving person when I’m not pushed to eating someone’s face, I stopped my cart and smiled to her with a gesture letting her know I was letting her go past me to that line. She nodded curtly and zipped past. I continue on to the next line and see the one up at the front and directly adjacent to the one I gave away is at about empty like the previous. I turn my cart and head to that one. Just before I get there, the woman in the lane next door that I so graciously let have that spot whips her cart over in front of me and into the line I was headed for. REALLY?! I look back at the other line and there’s no difference. Maybe the woman in my line had one less item than the one in the other, but I mean DAMN!

5) Then of course there was the woman with the full cart at the express lane. I mentioned her ass yesterday on my status. I still hate her.

6) So, as I’m leaving, you know, through the exit door? The exit door, for exiting. You know the one, the door you leave through because it says EXIT and not ENTRANCE. That’s the one, yeah I knew you knew which one I was talking about. Well, apparently Crotchety McCocknoggin doesn’t realize that EXIT means DON’T ENTER ASS-HAT. So I’m literally turning my cart to exit and he starts in. Mexican standoff. He stops, looks at me and nods toward the deli area behind me. “I’m going there.” He says. I say “I’m using this exit.” to offer a reply that is also an informative, educational tool to better instruct him in the regard that this door is for EXITING. He stands there. I continue to stare at him, smiling with my cart full of paid for “needs to exit” groceries. He nods to the deli again “That’s where I’m headed.” Seriously? No humility? No “well *I* am the one going in the out door so maybe *I* should be the one to apologize and let the people using the proper flow of traffic to go ahead of me. THEN I can continue to be a douche bag and use the exit improperly.” Nope, not an inkling. He was entitled. So finally I turn my full cart and start heading way down to the other exit. “I’ll just take this other one so you can use this exit to enter!” Of course, he didn’t say a word and just continued in. Your parents obviously died in some freak accident when you were a baby and you were raised by a can of peas. Ass.

7) Finally, I’m leaving. Hallelujah. I’m ready to escape this Supermarket Hell and head back to a sane place. All that remains between me and salvation is a woman with a small cart in front of me. She’s moving along steadily, but we have cars to our left so we’re forced into a single file line of sorts. We cross the main drive directly in front of the store and are about to start walking down the parking aisle to head to our cars when she stops. I, of course, have to stop as well. She pulls out her bags, puts them in her left hand and pops the small cart up into a wheelie so that she can force it up onto the small grass-topped median next to the first parking space in the row. I feel the blood in my temples begin to throb. I look over and there sits a cart corral not ten feet away from us and in the direction she’s walking, but can the woman be bothered to walk it? I mean COME ON! Sure enough, she pushes it up on the grass and begins to walk to her car. I sigh and ask at speaking volume “You seriously can’t take it a few more feet to the corral? What if it rolls of and hits this car?” She turns around and looks at me with this smug expression and says “Why don’t you take it? You could use the exercise.” So here’s where it could take two paths. A) I snap and choke the bitch with the cart and then give her a curbie while foaming at the mouth or B) I keep my composure and eviscerate her verbally. Thankfully, I chose option B. In response to her statement I immediately nod in agreement and smile “I totally agree. I really could stand to shave off a few of these extra pounds. But that’s where I’m lucky,” I continue “I can actually lose this weight. You’ll always be a cunt.” I thought the whore was going to have an aneurism right there. She turned and literally stomped off to her car. I yelled to her “Have a great day!” and continued to my own vehicle.

It’s days like this that make me want to take up smoking again. Not because I want to smoke mind you, but so I have something on fire to stick in people’s eyes when they piss me off.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Woobie Extraordinaire

We love you Ritahead! You'll always have a place in group with us.

/g see you later woobie ;-)

Rita McKinney 4/7/1952 - 7/24/2010



Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Yes. Sarcasm is the air I breathe. This is priceless...

50 Best Reasons Gay Marriage Is Wrong!

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, birth control and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4. Marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all: women are property, matches are arranged in childhood, blacks can't marry whites, Catholics can't marry Jews, divorce is illegal, and adultery is punishable by death

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9. If we look to the word of God, His punishment for sexual immorality is equal to that of murder. Therefore, teaching kids to tolerate homosexuality is equal to teaching them to tolerate murder.

10. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy (insurance, government, tourism, banking, retail, education, and social services), suburban malls, or longer life spans.

12. Gay marriage should be decided by people not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of the minorities.

13. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “seperate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Seperate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as seperate marriages for gays and lesbians will.

14. There is no separation between religious marriage and legal marriage, because there is no separation of church and state.

15. Devout, faithful Anglicans should never accept same-sex marriage, because it is an affront to the traditional family values upheld by Henry VIII and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and his wife, Anne Boleyn, and his wife, Jane Seymour, and his wife, Anne of Cleves, and his wife, Catherine Howard, and his wife, Catherine Parr. They all knew the meaning of marriage and none of them lost their heads over the matter.

16. Married gay people will encourage others to be gay, in a way that unmarried gay people do not.

17. Legalizing gay marriage will lead to legalizing dog marriage. This can be inferred from the history of other political initiatives for gender equality. For example, when American women got the right to vote in 1920, it led to terriers voting in 1925, and when Title IX was passed in 1972 to prevent sex discrimination in any federally-funded school, resulting in the creation of athletic opportunities for girls, it led to Bichon Frises on the basketball court during the Reagan administration.

18. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to legislative change in general, which could possibly include the legalization of polygamy, incest, medical marijuana, and unmuzzled pit bulls. Because we don’t know what might come down the next slippery slope, we should never change any law.

19. Legal marriage will inspire gays to mimic straight traditions, such as spiritual commitment ceremonies and celebratory parties, which is currently impermissible for them to do and which they have never done before.

20. Marriage is designed to protect the well-being of children. Gay people do not need marriage because they never have children from prior relationships, artificial insemination, surrogacy, or adoption.

21. Civil unions are a good option because "separate but equal" institutions are always constitutional. In fact, compared with marriage, civil unions are so attractive that straight people are calling dibs on them.

22. A man should not be able to marry whomever a woman can marry, and a woman should not be able to marry whomever a man can marry, because in this country we do not believe in gender equality.

23. If gays marry, some of straight people's tax dollars would end up supporting families whose structure they may find morally objectionable. Clearly, it is more just to continue taking gay people's tax dollars to support straight families, who are going to heaven regardless of what anyone else thinks of them.

24. Gays should hold off on the marriage question until society is more accepting of them, because they are not part of society.

25. The people's voice must be heard on this issue. Therefore, we must have a vote on a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, because we can't think of any other way to discuss the issue.

26. Each state should decide for itself whether gay marriage will be recognized, because there is no "full faith and credit" clause that requires states to recognize each other's institutions.

27. Gay marriage attempts to replace natural heterosexual instinct with a cultural institution. Morality demands that we subordinate institutionalized commitment to raw, unfettered, biological impulse.

28. Gay marriages could very well suffer maladies like domestic violence and substance abuse. That's why we invented the Quality Control department to pre-approve the righteousness of all marriage applicants.

29. Those who support gay marriage aim to overthrow the dominant culture, as evidenced by their enthusiasm to participate in it.

30. If the state performs gay marriages, Christians might become more liberal and divide into more mutually opposed parties. Since the government is an arm of the church and is responsible for keeping the peace in Christian leadership councils, it should not get involved with gay marriage.

31. After gay marriage was legalized in Scandinavian countries in 2004, more heterosexual couples realized they wanted to live together and bear children without marrying first. Banning gay marriage is a good way to prevent this practice, as is banning independent thought and mandating straight marriage by age 21.

32. Heterosexual marriage was invented in the Biblical book of Genesis. Written somewhere between 1500 and 500 BCE, Genesis came as a great relief to people in many cultures, such as China, who, prior to 1500 BCE, sat around waiting for the Mesopotamians to invent the family unit.

33. Gay marriage would allow more partners and children to sign onto the family breadwinner's healthcare plan. Given that 44 million Americans do not have health insurance, it is safe to say that health insurance is not an American value.

34. The possibility of getting a gay marriage might encourage some married heterosexuals to divorce and seek a gay union instead. These marriages were obviously happy and successful, and the justices who provide gay second marriages should be charged with alienation of affection.

35. Gay marriage may hurl the populace into existential crisis and cause spontaneous divorces. Divorce triggers our moral hemorrhaging, but we will keep it legal. It is easier to seek the criminalization of gay marriage than the criminalization of divorce, particularly because most of us have had a few divorces.

36. Gay marriage is tainted because some of the applicants might be divorcees marrying for the second time. We oppose remarriage, and would like to ensure that no one marries more than once; therefore we will oppose the entire institution of marriage, to ensure that no one ever marries at all. That casts the net wide enough to catch all the would-be second-timers.

37. The people have the right to demand to vote on a Massachusetts constitutional amendment against gay marriage. There is no reason for proposed amendments to go through the state Legislature first, as is constitutionally required, because the Legislature doesn't spend all that many paid hours sitting around discussing the legal ramifications on behalf of ordinary citizens who are too busy with their own jobs to figure out everything at stake.

38. The arguments for gay marriage are flawed because Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has made inconsistent statements about gay marriage, and he is known for his consistency on other issues.

39. Married gay couples will find it easier to adopt children, who might then be bullied and teased by other children for who their parents are. This reflects poorly on the judgment of gays who adopt children with the risk that their child could possibly be teased. It does not, of course, imply anything about the responsibilities of heterosexual parents, whose children only pick up rocks for geological interest and couldn't have been listening when their parents made those comments about their neighbors.

40. Children of married gay couples might suffer bullying and teasing more often than children of unmarried gay couples, because playground bullies are sensitive to the nuances of contract law.

41. It is reasonable and fair to institute "civil unions" that provide all the rights and responsibilities of marriage, but we cannot apply the holy, mystical word "marriage" to this contract. Deriving from the Latin maritare, "marriage" evokes the dignity of the typical Roman man who engaged in licentious sex with both sexes until he reached middle age, at which time he maritared a teenage girl to bear his children.

42. According to the three proposed "compromise" Massachusetts constitutional amendments defeated by the Legislature on Feb. 11 and 12, 2004, the best way to "protect the unique relationship of [heterosexual] marriage" is to institute civil unions that are in every way identical to it.

43. God created the institution of marriage, just after he created 2.9% APR automobile financing, student loans, HMOs, and divorce.

44. We must defer to the President's opinion on gay marriage, since the Republican party was given its authority by God. As it is written: "Republican and Democrat created He them." Paul elaborated: "Democrats, submit to the Republican."

45. In San Francisco, where renegade officials have married same-sex couples for the past several weeks, experts suggest that the city may suffer an earthquake in about ten years. Geological experts, that is. But good Christians don't recognize the opinion of Earth scientists, who falsely claim the Earth is 4.5 billion years old; they get their seismic information from their preachers, who say the earthquake's coming next week.

46. Allowing same-sex marriage could increase gay public displays of affection, because marriage has historically been proven to stimulate couples' interest in sex.

47. Making civil marriage available to same-sex couples could spur the wedding industry, and businesses would sure hate to pay taxes on all that profit.

48. Straight men are opposed to gay marriage because they would prefer that gay men try to be straight and compete with them for access to women, trimming down the pool of eligible dates to make courtship more challenging and exciting.

49. The country can't afford to provide benefits for any more married couples. That's why President Bush would never consider spending $150 million on programs that encourage more straight people to get married.

50. Gay marriage is wrong because children might be led to think that it is right and that would clearly be wrong.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Happy Anniversary

Music at the Moment: Take Me With U - Prince




25 years baby! I can still listen to this CD from beginning to end and jam.



Sunday, June 07, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Music at the moment: Prince - "17 Days"
And a very merry Prince-mas to all!


Monday, May 11, 2009

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Bitch.


Sunday, April 12, 2009

Moving On Up...er Over

It's official. Phred is on the move at last and heading to Austin. I'm slated to be there by no later than May 20th. From there it's graduation, enrollment in Vancouver Film School, a year in Canada and maybe a move there and into the industry. So long Florida, you won't be missed.



HAPPY KEISTER!