Yes, in a word, badassitude. I don't know much about history, or anything for that matter, but let's face it: If you're a dude wrestling naked with a bunch of other naked dudes, you'd better be Badass Cubed, or you're costarring in prison films for the rest of your life. And these dudes are badasses.
I can only imagine how the casting for this masterpiece of blood, gore, and birth defects went: "Lemme see, I'd be co-starring with that dandy from Phantom of the Opera and that long-haired nancy boy Faramir, and we'll all be naked and hitting each other with sticks? Sounds badass!" Color me skeptical, but I would rather be in a musical. On paper, anyway.
On the screen, however, it's a different story. It's two straight hours of testosterone-filled, pumped-up skull-bashing badness, replete with mutants, war elephants, and hot naked chicks lolling about on drugs, determining the fates of civilizations, as they so often do.
Nevertheless, there are some moments that raise an eyebrow. I noticed a rather troubling tendency of the leading men, and their relationships with their womenfolk. For example:
And later...
Leave it to Spartans to know how to treat a lady. What a bunch of mutants.
And speaking of mutants, Eric seems to see a certain resemblance:
And that big fella with the chains and the filed down teeth?... get outta town…. He reminded me of Velociman at a blogmeet after we’d ran out of vodka….
Since I respect SWG's judgement without question, I've been looking at the pictures. Truth be told, I don't really see the similarites. Here's the big waterhead from the movie:
And here's Velociman at the Wreckyll, right after he finished off the Chatham Artillery Punch:
Well, there might be a superficial family resemblance there, but I think Eric's imagination is running away with him.
All in all, a fine movie to see with a date. For the ladies, there's men in loincloths, and more six-packs than a 4th of July NASCAR race. For the men, well, there's naked chicks and the bodies, they do pile high (literally!).
I guess after the 2006 elections, the Democrats are finally comfortable doing what comes naturally-- Playing Santa with other people's money:
The state is apparently facing a budget crisis--to the tune of $1 billion. On Thursday, House Democrats delivered a spending bill that includes the idea of putting $38 million worth of public funds toward outfitting every student with a digital music player. The plan also included measures to tax soda and satellite TV services, among other things, to raise funds.
...
But, The Detroit News' editorial makes an astute point wondering "how financially strained Michigan residents will feel about paying higher taxes to buy someone else's kid an iPod."
In all fairness, the word 'iPod' wasn't mentioned; still, I have to wonder about state mandates like this. Much like "universal health care" actually means "mandatory health care that costs 3 times as much", this proposally probably actually proscribes "mandatory ownership of a knockoff MP3 player that is indirectly linked somehow to a Michigan lobbyist named Chang".
The Socialists are giving away the store, that they may pat themselves on the back with good warm fuzzy feelings all 'round. But wait a minute; mandating things like digital music player ownership would have certain, erm, multicultural implications, wouldn't it? Case in point, those Michiganders of the Islamic variety. Music is haram. Wouldn't mandating iPod ownership, as well as levying taxes to pay for it, violate their religious rights?
Most multi-cultists forget: Your average moderate Muslim is just beyond Lithgow in Footloose on the wack-o-meter.
Jimbo ponders the big questions, as usual. To wrap, or not to wrap? That is, hygienically speaking, the big question. I personally might put a wafer-thing sheaf of paper between my rosy cheeks and the seat, should it come to that. It's more out of habit than from any hope of erecting a sort of magical barrier, blocking diseases. It is, after all, merely a micrometer-thin sheet of tissue, and not a Trojan.
But it's important a) not to overdo it, and b) clean up after yourself. We had a mystery in our dorm, back in college days. Two or three times a week, somebody would take a dump in the same men's room stall, and leave a protective ring of toilet paper on the seat that was at least 4 inches deep; hundreds of layers of toilet paper, probably weighing 5 pounds. The day or time was unpredictable, there being no obvious pattern other than it always in the same stall.
We pondered often whence the infamous ass-gasket came, and who the builder could be. We were often convinced it was somebody we knew, someone in the clique, and no one was above suspicion. Eventually, every one was cleared with an airtight alibi; Easter vacation, for example, or having failed out of school. Yet the ass-gasket persisted; nay, flourished.
We never found out who had built it, or for what reasons it was piled so high. It remains a mystery to this day, part of the lore of Georgia Tech's Towers Hall for Young Men.
So, the little lady says to me, "Rube, let's go see 300!" And I think, right on! But wha-? She didn't want to go see that last week? Why the change in heart? And then I think, oh yeah:
Oh, and I bet the Spartans did a LOT of sit-ups… I mean, like a LOT of sit-ups…. Like probably a full metric shitload or something….. either that, or their wives woke up sore every morning from being slammed like a screen-door all night long…
The imagery, that is sheer poetry. Well, I know better than look a gift-horse in the mouth. We're off to see 300!
I just got this from my mom, about the Darwin Awards from long, long ago.
The following mind-boggling attempt at a crime spree in Washington, DC appeared to be the robber's first (and last), due to his lack of a previous record of violence, and his terminally stupid choices:
- His target was H&J Leather & Firearms; A gun shop specializing in handguns.
- The shop was full of customers - firearms customers.
- To enter the shop, the robber had to step around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door.
- A uniformed officer was standing at the counter, having coffee before work. Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a hold-up, and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol.
The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, the police officer with a 9mm GLOCK 17, the clerk with a 50 DESERT EAGLE, assisted by several customers who also drew their guns, several of whom also drew and fired. The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by Paramedics. Crime scene investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop. The subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds. Ballistics identified rounds from 7 different weapons. No one else was hurt in the exchange of fire.
AND THE WINNER...
Overzealous zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt (Paderborn, Germany) fed his constipated elephant Stefan 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally let it fly, and suffocated the keeper under 200 pounds of poop! Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded on him. "The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him" said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective Erik Dern.
