There are two constructs of terror in Ireland.  “The boy” and “the man”.  The boy is usually some kid that was stupid that almost got him self killed or severely injured by doing some thing stupid.  I have the ignominy of being one of those boys as I almost had my thumb cut off climbing through the window of a school in Kerry many years ago.  The people of the area don’t remember me, of course, but they still talk about the boy, I only assume that think I must have died of my stupidity years later.

However “The man” is usually used to also keep kids in line.  Put that down of “the man” will find you.  I remember I used to be terrified of running into this man.  It is only as I started to reach adulthood I found out while these creatures do exist they are more to be pitied than be afraid of. They are usually people at the margins of society that end up getting a modicum of power, at which point they try and use it in any way they can.  This is usually while organising the car parking for community events.  There is a brilliant example of this in the D’Unbelieves D’Video from nearly 20 years ago. In case you ever missed it:

I was reminded that “The Man” is still alive in well recently when Tommy Tiernan was on the Ray D’Arcy Show.  In general Ray was Discussing Tommy’s experiences of his around Ireland tour, and was queried if he had any recollections of a place in Limerick called Bulgaden, he did here is what he had to say:

Perfect!

I was watching Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit recently when it was on TV.  I love the Wallace& Gromit series, The Wrong Trousers is probably my favourite.  However I had a great blink and you miss it laugh in were-rabbit.  There is a scene where Lord Victor Quartermaine is talking with the Reverend, the Reverend says all they need to know is contained in a book, however what Quartermaine finds on the table is a magazine titled Pro Nun Wrestling, to which he gets embarrassed.

So I went onto the intertubes to find an image of the cover, sadly no-one had extracted it (or at least google couldn’t find it) so I went off and extracted it myself.

A couple of friends of mine back in Ireland decided to get themselves a TV show together. It is part of a competition up against 7 other shows to see who gets to make the next episode, each round knocks out two competitiors.

“Victory?” is set two years after an alien fleet has captured the majority of the planet and in Ireland , an Inspector for the Ministry of Reason, the Vichy style government that is co operating with the aliens , has been ordered to hunt down the latest threat to the uneasy peace, the resistance network called Victory.

Judging for the first episode closes on Sunday the 19th so please login and vote.

I have covered this before, and probably will again.

I have yet to see the new Underbelly series called Razor which is supposed to be set during the razor gang wars for the 1920s. The Sydney Morning Herald has a review of it, I did like this dig:

Time in Razor is marked by gradual construction of the Harbour Bridge. But you really know it’s yesteryear when they show Sydney with a live music scene.

Ouch!

Bad to the Bone, originally uploaded by Avanaut.

Haven’t shared a flickr pic in a while but I like the atmosphere of this one.

I haven’t seen this clip in years. An aussie guy by the name of Lee Perry does one of the best Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonations. I haven’t seen any work from him in years, I think this video dates from 2004 as least, but I think I have heard him on some ads on TV, Cherokee Jeep maybe?

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.

Dream, in Sandman #60: “The Kindly Ones: 4″

I was reminded of the above quote with the internet furore over the forthright speech of a trader who was interviewed on BBC. He said of all things that the finaicial markets are only in it for the money and that we is looking forward to a recession. People are up in arms about it but don’t realise that he is in no way unique (except that he went on TV and said it). These are the people who profit from our success and failure.

Ok it has been just over a year since Toy Story 3 came out. I went to see it in the cinema, which is not something I do regularly any more.  I loved it, they ending almost brought a tear to my eye (I said almost).  But another scene of note was the first scene.  If you don’t remember exactly it’s more of a prequel to the movie as it has Andy still as a kid playing with all his toys and using a kids imagination to create a story where “The Evil Dr. Porkchop has trapped Rex in a boxcar packed with dynamite aboard a runaway train, and it’s up to his friends to save him! As Woody bravely battles Porkchop on top of the train, Jessie rides Bullseye in hot pursuit and Buzz flies in for a last-second rescue!“.

The scene is excellently executed, but it also worked on another level for me and showed how nothing can beat a child imagination provided it has the time to run wild.  I remember as a kid we used to wait for toilet rolls and yogurt cartons to build bases for out G.I. Joes (well it was Action Force for us) that scene seemed to catch that intrinsic essense of making do with what you have and enjoying it.

Which is why I was slightly appalled to see that Lego brought out a Toy Story 3 range one which is called the Western Train Chase (7597) (the italicised portion above is it product description), it took me a while to understand, construct and verbalise what my problem with it was.  Then a realised they had taken something that was celebrating unbridled imagination a kid putting together cowboys and aliens (huh?) and dinosaurs and evil pigs, boxing it and selling that specific adventure to kids.  It comes with a lego Woody, Buzz and Hamm, but to me it just screams “Don’t use your imagination kids, we’ve done it for you.” See what happens if you click this link: Google “toy story 3 western train chase”

I have enjoyed some of the output from the lego range, I am the prode owner of a lego AT-AT (here is one of my highest rated flicker pics) but it this what we have to look forward in the new generation of kids?  I am waiting for the time when the next big Christmas toy will be “Cardboard Box”™ and there will be news items in the run up to Christmas with parent pummeling the crap out of each other hoping to get a certified  “Cardboard Box”™. and there are kids bawling their eyes out because they parents couldn’t get one. This should be one of the seven signs of the apocalypse. However in this apocalypse we don’t end in some Mad Max Thunder Dome distopia more likely it will be the Aldous Huxley‘s Brave New World taking upper and downers so that we can manage the world (mildly alluded to in Wall-E).  However if that does happen you’ll find me holed up in a lighthouse outside London with some sticky backed plastic and some lolly pop sticks, good luck.