Reviews Category
We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.
1967: Manchester City’s Mike Summerbee Demonstrates His Car’s Built-In Record Player
FLASHBACK: Manchester City’s Mike Summerbee demonstrating the built in record player in his new Swedish sports car on 17/03/1967.
Posted: 18th, February 2014 | In: Flashback, Photojournalism, Sports | Comment
8 Reasons Why Every Movie Needs A Theme Song
A LOT of people make a lot of films, but sadly not all those films have kick-ass theme songs. This is a crying shame – AN ENORMOUSLY CRYING SHAME – because in an ideal world every film ever made would either begin or end (ideally both) with a song (not an instrumental, they don’t count) sharing a title with the film in question. Filmmakers, heed this advice. Why? Why, you say? Well…
– YOU MIGHT FINALLY GET THAT KUDOS YOU’VE BEEN AFTER
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Posted: 18th, February 2014 | In: Film, Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comment
Legoland’s Homophobic, Anti-Semitic, Far-Right Muslims-Only ‘Fun Day’ Supports Jews And Israel
THE Daily Star reports “EDL to target Legoland after Muslim HATE preacher hires park for day out – LEGOLAND has been slammed for hiring out the theme park to a hate-filled extremist preacher”. The Daily Express chimes “Far Right targets LEGOLAND after park hired by Muslim cleric for kids’ HALAL fun day”. John Ward’s story of 16th February 2014 was about Muslims hiring a theme park for a day out.
Controversial cleric Haitham al-Haddad is the head of a group that has rented the popular attraction for a Muslims Family Fun Day on March 9… The hardline cleric runs The Muslim Research and Development Foundation (MRDF), which has paid Legoland around £100,000 to open the park in Windsor, Berkshire for the event.
Having introduced readers to Haitham’s views on Jews (reportedly, he called them descendants of apes and pigs, and thus both proof of evolution and tasty) and sex (women and men “should be segregated”), we learn on the MRDF website that the day out will be “a true alternative in which like minded families can enjoy safe and enjoyable time while at the same time conducive to their faith”.
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Posted: 18th, February 2014 | In: Reviews | Comments (4)
Evidence That Cannabis Can Fight AIDS
Marijuana is stored in bins for trimming and packaging in preparation to be sold retail at 3D Cannabis Center, in Denver, Friday Feb. 14, 2014. The marijuana industry breathed a sigh of relief Friday after federal banking regulators issued long-awaited permission for them to access basic banking services.
CAN cannabis counter AIDS – and not just the cachexia, nausea, and neuropathic pain:
The changes that THC produces in the gut a process formally known as “microbial translocation,” isn’t as complicated as it sounds. During HIV infection, one of the earliest effects is that the virus spreads rapidly throughout the body and kills a significant part of cells in the gut and intestine. This activity damages the gut in a way that allows the HIV to leak through the cell wall of the intestines and into the bloodstream.
When THC is introduced into this environment, it activates the CB2 receptors in the intestines to build new, healthy bacterial cells that block the virus from leaking through the cell walls. In other words, the body works hard to keep bad stuff in the intestines and the good stuff out.
Put another way: HIV kills the cells that protect the walls— THC brings them back. Reducing the amount of the virus in the lower intestines could then help keep uninfected people uninfected.
Worth a try, no?
Posted: 18th, February 2014 | In: Reviews, Technology | Comment
Classic Books: Peggy Treadwell’s The Working Couple’s Cookbook
IN this study of 1970s life, we look at Peggy Treadwell’s The Working Couple’s Cookbook (1971). In the go-ahead 1970s of free love and wife swapping parties, the book was aimed at not only wives and husbands but “roomates, soulmates, playmates, or wedded mates”.
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Posted: 18th, February 2014 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Poo-Phoria: Huge Hairy Orgasmic Pooh Found In East Kilbride Sewer
THAT’S a huge pooh down the toilet in Scotland. It’s a massive Winnie the Pooh teddy found lurking in Scotland’s sewers last year. Other items found:
Fax machine
Bicycle
Snake
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Posted: 18th, February 2014 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Madeleine McCann: All Eyes On The Dead Black Man
MADELEINE McCann: Anorak’s look at the missing child in the news. The Daily Star leads with the news “MADDIE COPS AT WAR”. Has the UK finally fallen out with Portugal, her oldest ally?
News is: “Porto police bungling hunt, say Brit tecs”.
Really? The sober and expert British police on Operation Grange say the Portuguese, with whom they are working closely, are fools?
Jerry Lawton never does mention who these tecs are:
Top brass are desperate to liaise with their foreign colleagues after it emerged they are chasing different suspects. UK detectives are worried an “us against them” scenario is developing, and it could hinder attempts to find the missing girl.
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Posted: 18th, February 2014 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment
Those Meddling Scooby Do Kids: Saturday Morning Mimicry
UPON the success of Scooby Doo, a flood of imitations appeared on television screens, all containing the same basic template. This wouldn’t be worth talking about if the formula wasn’t Xeroxed with such wild abandon. It truly is awesome to behold the number of times it was used and reused, with only minimal variation. Those in the business called the formula: “Three Kids and a Nyah Nyah”. Basically, what this means is you have three principle characters each fulfilling a certain trope and a gimmicky creature. Here it is broken down:
The Stud – the beefy, alpha male of the group
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Posted: 18th, February 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, TV & Radio | Comment
Epic Headlines: AP Says Pope Has Massive Week Of Sex Leading To Divorce
THE Associated Press delivers a cracking headline about the Pope. It’s gonna be a massive weekend, guys:
Posted: 17th, February 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Monsters from Yesteryear: Four TV Horror Anthologies That Deserve a DVD Resurrection
ON Tuesday, February 25, Monsters: The Complete Series will be released on DVD. For those who may not remember it, Monsters (1984 – 1988) was Laurel’s second TV horror anthology after Tales from the Darkside (1984 – 1988), and – much like its more well-known predecessor – it was crafted on an extremely low-budget.
In fact, the joke about Tales from the Darkside in the eighties was that its special effects were crafted for $188.00 per episode.
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Posted: 17th, February 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, TV & Radio | Comments (8)
Self-Abuse Challenge: Listen To 10 Awful Songs From The ’80s
WHY subject yourself to ten objectively awful songs, you ask? Even though it will be painful and there will be mental wounds that may take years to heal, it is a worthy endeavor. It will serve as a reminder that, no matter how bad the state of music is today, there were songs in the 1980s that were much, much worse.
Can you make it through all ten? Bear in mind, these aren’t “so bad they’re good”; they’re “so bad they cause cancer”. In fact, the selection chosen from a variety of countries to soften the blame on any one nation. Before beginning, we recommend you have the phone number of a good therapist close at hand. Good luck to you… but don’t say you weren’t warned.
“Neighbours” Theme Song (1985)
Australia
Is it possible for your brain to vomit? You’ll find out when you take a listen to this saccharine Australian TV show theme.
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Posted: 17th, February 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comments (2)
Nine Things You Didn’t Need To Know About Bill & Ted
TODAY marks the 25th anniversary of the original release of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, inarguably the best time-travelling-slackers-in-a-phonebox movie ever. Here are nine wholly unnecessary but non-bogus knowledge-bombs:
A BAND ON THE SOUNDTRACK DOESN’T EXIST
The song Two Heads Are Better Than One, the closing theme to B&TEE (as all the cool kids call it) is credited to a band called Power Tool. The thing is, there’s no such band. The song was performed by glam metal band Nelson, who co-wrote it with Dweezil Zappa. Nelson were in the middle of contract negotiations at the time so submitted it under a made-up name.
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Browse Harry Houdini’s Magical Sprapbooks
THANKS to the digitisation and Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, we can browse scrapbooks owned by the great Harry Houdini (1891-1926). The University has had the archives in its possession since 1958. But only now are they on the web, and free to view.
The scrapbooks are full of adverts, stories, and reviews on Houdini’s twin passions: magic and spiritualism. It’s great to think of Houdini and his peers selecting item for inclusion, then sticking them into place, editing the story of magic and live showbiz in the first two decades of the 20th Century.
Everyone should like collecting and sticking things in books with an artistic flourish. These books create wonderful memories of your life and your view of the world. They reveal what delighted you, what you did and what made you think.
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Posted: 16th, February 2014 | In: Books, Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
How To Succeed With Brunettes And Blondes Prefer Gentlemen: 1967 US Navy Guides To Etiquette And Women
IN 1967, the Us Government taught the men How to Succeed with Brunettes. Produced by the US Navy, the film was aimed at the officer classes. Never agin would they fail in the brunette etiquette tests.
The holiday camp music and voice of paternalistic authority add to the sense of watching a well-played joke wrapped about a firm moral message.
Two things: couple are all boy-girl; and the only black face in view belongs to a waiter. This was 1967. Etiquette came before institutionalised racism. But let’s not spoil things. Let’s get down to the pulling:
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Ten Largely Forgotten Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ripoffs
THIS year marks the 30th anniversary of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and whatever misgivings people might have about the new Michael Bay-produced movie it’ll be massive. We might find ourselves entering another golden age of Teenage Mutant Giant Ripoffs, like when the original cartoon (1987-1996) inspired a whole load of other shows that took the formula of a group of merchandise-friendly anthropomorphized animals with a tendency towards violence and ran with it. Some of the ripoffs were alright, some of the ripoffs were terrible, but none of them are being made into a giant-ass Michael Bay film, and none of them had nunchuks, so the Turtles win. Here are ten of our “favourite” TMNT clones.
BUCKY O’HARE AND THE TOAD WARS (1991)
MUTANT TURTLE SUBSTITUTES: A multi-species spaceship crew
Despite being based on a comic created before TMNT (although published after it), there’s no way anyone would have funded a Bucky O’Hare cartoon without the huge success of the Turtles. As well as the eponymous green pilot hare there was Jenny the cat pilot, Deadeye Duck the one-eyed gunner, Bruiser the baboon, Blinky the one-eyed android and human tagalong Willy. The action figures were amazing, but if you own them and are ashamed of your nerdiness, get in touch and we’ll take them off your hands…
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Posted: 15th, February 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, TV & Radio | Comment
Meet Donny Reagan, America’s Most Racist Pastor?
SAY ‘Jesus Christ’ to Donny Reagan of the Happy Valley Church of Jesus Christ in Johnson City, Tennessee. The American Jesus blog think he could be the most racist preacher in the USA.
What we learn about Brother Reagan wipes his face a lot and believes God was clever to have invented grass for the sheep to eat, it being true that sheep prefer green grass to orange grass, and that god realised the preferences or the ram, ewe and lamb and created the vegetation in their favourite hues and textures. Amen.
Before we get to Reagan, let’s learn more of the church where he channels the prophets of segregation:
Welcome to Happy Valley Church of Jesus Christ. We are a Non-Denominational church but our roots run from the early Pentecostal era making our services more of a Pentecostal type of atmosphere. Our congregation numbers around 600 brothers and sisters of whom many have relocated to our area from Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Washington D.C., Georgia, North Carolina. Also included in our congregation are believers from Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Kenya and the Congo.
The diverse makeup of our congregation offers many different styles of special singing. You may hear contemporary, classical, bluegrass, and some ‘good ole’ Southern gospel singing.
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Posted: 15th, February 2014 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment (1)
Anders Behring Breivik Vows To Commit Suicide By Playstation 3
ANDERS Behring, the Norwegian who murdered 77 in 2011, is suffering. The Playstation 2 in his cell is out of date. He writes in a letter to the prison that such an antiquated machine is akin to “torture”. Video games have always been part of Behring’s life; he used Call of Duty to sharpen his aim and World of Warcraft to conceal his plans.
So. He ‘s going on hunger strike until he gets a newer Playstation 3 “with access to more adult games that I get to choose myself”.
“Other inmates have access to adult games while I only have the right to play less interesting kids games. One example is ‘Rayman Revolution,’ a game aimed at three-year-olds. The hunger strike won’t end until the Minister of Justice (Anders) Anundsen and the head of the KDI (the Norwegian Correctional Services) stop treating me worse than an animal.”
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Posted: 15th, February 2014 | In: Reviews, Technology | Comment
On This Day In Photos: Iran Orders Salman Rushdie To Be Murdered For Writing A Book
Indian-born writer Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, shown in his London study on Jan. 31,1988
ON this day in photos: February 14 1989: Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khomeini sentences British author Salman Rushdie to death. He also sentenced to death the publishers of Rushdie’s book the Satanic Verses. Khomeni said the book is a blasphemy against Islam. His decree introduced many of us to the word ‘fatwa’.
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Posted: 14th, February 2014 | In: Books, Celebrities, Flashback, Key Posts | Comment (1)
Terrible Toys: The 1964 Beatlee Beatles Dolls
In October 1964, all the cool kids could buy these Beatles dolls, seen here at the toy Fair in New York. The Beatlee dolls are being watched over by looked over by 10-year-old Carol Valentine, 10.
Posted: 14th, February 2014 | In: Celebrities, Flashback, Music, The Consumer | Comment
The Valentine’s Day Massacre And A Nightclub Toilet
The bodies of six of the men who were slain in a gang-shooting in Chicago’s North Side, Feb. 14, 1929. Several of the bodies are huddle together on the floor while another is slumped on chair at the extreme left. The seventh body was taken to the Alexian Brothers Hospital. (AP Photo)
AT half-past ten on St Valentine’s Day, 1929 in a cold, unheated brick garage at 2122 North Clark Street, Chicago, six members of the Bugs Moran gang were sitting around waiting for a consignment of illegal whisky due to be delivered that morning. Moran himself was meant to be there too but had slept in and was late.
A Cadillac screeched to a halt outside and three men dressed as policemen accompanied by two men in civilian clothes entered the premises. They told the six gangsters and John May, a mechanic working in the garage, to stand in a row with their hands up against the wall. A few seconds and ninety bullets later the men were left slumped dead and dying on the floor.
Not long after the killings, John Miller, a reporter on the newspaper Chicago American arrived on the scene and wrote:
Sprawled grotesquely at the base of the bullet-riddled stone wall were six distorted bodies; a seventh lay slumped over a wooden chair. One of the officers called out, ‘This one’s Pete Gusenberg, an ex-con and the chief gunner for the Drucci-Moran gang. Here’s Al Weinshank, the North Side booze runner, and Artie Davis from the West Side mob. And this was James Clark, Bugs Moran’s brother-in-law. Here what’s left of Doc Schwimmer.’
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Posted: 14th, February 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts | Comment
