Hitler headless - finally

Did you hear about the man in Berlin who ripped off Hitler’s head 2 days ago?

Doesn’t that sound exactly like the start of a lame joke? But it’s true: 64 years after Stauffenberg botched his assassination attempt some random guy from Berlin managed to finally fulfill the task and rip off Hitler’s head. High time, if you ask me. I am so proud.

Ok, so it was only the head of a wax figure in the new Madame Tussaud’s branch in Berlin - but it’s the thought that counts. When I first heard of it, I thought it was brilliant. I don’t know if the incident made an appearance in the news in your corner of the world, but over here it was in the 8 o’clock news on 2 consecutive days. I really hope the guy will get some lucrative offer for an exclusive interview or something to help him pay the fines.

Of course, this whole stunt was just an empty gesture, and I’m sure the figure will be repaired soon and Madam Tussaud’s will go on making shitloads of money from hapless idiots. And the guy who did it (apparently an ex-cop, of all things) will have ample opportunity to regret his little exhibition of anti-fascist activity when he goes to court for “causing damage to property and bodily harm” (he pushed aside one of the museum employees guarding the exhibit). He will probably have to pay through his nose for the damages - while Madame Tussaud’s no doubt are rubbing heir hands in glee over the welcome publicity.

I never got the appeal of these wax figure exhibits anyway and to call Madame Tussaud’s a museum is just ridiculous in my eyes. So, while I don’t mind them asking exorbitant admission fees for the chance for people to get their picture taken with the wax effigy of their favorite celebrity (whatever that’s supposed to be good for), I have my doubts about including a person like Hitler in this money-making circus. But if you include such a controversial figure, I guess you have to be prepared for something like this to happen.

The only one I am feeling a bit sorry for in all this is the artist who actually sculpted this particular wax figure. Not enough that he had to stare at this creepy visage while he made it the first time, now he will have to do it all over again to repair the damn thing. Not exactly an enviable task…

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This is clearly one of the stupider dogs I have seen in a long while…

But just in case you cat-lovers are thinking about making fun of our poor, addle-brained canine companions now: Cats don’t seem to be any smarter.

Don’t mean to sound smug here, but my dog would never be that stupid. Unfortunately I can’t prove that, because we don’t have any screendoors in our house.

Not only am I addicted to those godawful grammatically challenged LOLcats, I also couldn’t stop laughing when I stumbled over this video on Youtube. It’s called “An Engineer’s Guide to Cats”.

It’s probably not nice of me to be reminded of my mom when I see this picture, but there you are.

Considering the amount of times I Can Has Cheezburger has managed to make me laugh out loud lately, I am considering making up an extra category for their pictures. I still have trouble deciphering their atrocious grammar at times, but that is probably just me being picky again.

Just found a new meme over at A Gentleman’s Domain. Nick took the first 100 of the Top 250 films list from imdb.com and bolded the ones he has seen.
I was surprised at how many movies Nick hasn’t seen yet, so I decided to find out how many of them I have seen already. Although having seen them in many cases doesn’t necessarily mean having liked them.
This list does definitely not resemble my own Top 100, but I agree with it insofar as there are a lot of well-known movies on it that were a part of pop-culture in their time.

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)
5. Pulp Fiction (1994)
6. Schindler’s List (1993)
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
8. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
9. Casablanca (1942)
10. Shichinin no samurai (1954)
11. Star Wars (1977)
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
13. 12 Angry Men (1957)
14. Rear Window (1954)
15. Goodfellas (1990)
16. Cidade de Deus (2002)
17. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
18. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
19. C’era una volta il West (1968)
20. The Usual Suspects (1995)
21. Psycho (1960)
22. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
23. Fight Club (1999)
24. Citizen Kane (1941)
25. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
26. North by Northwest (1959)
27. Memento (2000)
28. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
29. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
30. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
31. The Matrix (1999)
32. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
33. There Will Be Blood (2007)
34. Se7en (1995)
35. Apocalypse Now (1979)
36. Taxi Driver (1976)
37. American Beauty (1999)
38. Léon (1994)
39. Vertigo (1958)
40. Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)
41. American History X (1998)
42. The Departed (2006)
43. No Country for Old Men (2007)
44. Paths of Glory (1957)
45. M (1931)
46. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
47. Chinatown (1974)
48. The Third Man (1949)
49. Leben der Anderen, Das (2006)
50. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
51. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
52. Alien (1979)
53. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
54. Laberinto del fauno, El (2006)
55. The Shining (1980)
56. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
57. The Pianist (2002)
58. Double Indemnity (1944)
59. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
60. Forrest Gump (1994)
61. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
62. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
63. L.A. Confidential (1997)
64. Das Boot (1981)
65. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
66. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
67. Untergang, Der (2004)
68. Aliens (1986)
69. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
70. Raging Bull (1980)
71. Metropolis (1927)
72. Rashômon (1950)
73. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
74. Modern Times (1936)
75. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
76. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
77. Sin City (2005)
78. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
79. Rebecca (1940)
80. Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)
81. All About Eve (1950)
82. Some Like It Hot (1959)
83. City Lights (1931)
84. Amadeus (1984)
85. On the Waterfront (1954)
86. Vita è bella, La (1997)
87. The Great Escape (1963)
88. Touch of Evil (1958)
89. The Prestige (2006)
90. The Elephant Man (1980)
91. Jaws (1975)
92. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
93. The Sting (1973)
94. Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988)
95. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
96. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
97. The Apartment (1960)
98. Braveheart (1995)
99. The Great Dictator (1940)
100. Blade Runner (1982)

If I haven’t miscounted that makes 66 out of 100. But I noticed that most of the ones I haven’t seen were made long before I was even born, or were so new that they haven’t been shown on tv yet (since I don’t go to the cinema very often, tv or DVDs are my only chances to get to see most films eventually).

That just goes to show that I watch way too much tv. Especially when I should be doing other stuff that’s more important in the so-called “real world”. But then I always thought reality is overrated.

But now I am wondering if the percentage of movies I have seen would be the same for the whole Top 250 List, because scrolling down past #100 I noticed a lot more contemporary films…

Just found the idea on a german blog (via another german blog):
A list of 10 things I really would like to do before I kick the bucket for good.

Funnily, first it was quite hard to think of anything at all - and the more I thought about it the harder it got to narrow it down to only 10 things…

1. Write a novel. A good one.

2. Publish it, see it topping the bestseller lists and become rich and famous. (Well, rich would be enough, I pass on the famous thing.)

3. Learn to speak spanish, italian and japanese fluently. (Pure fantasy, as I got my hands full with english.)

4. Build a house, or at least buy one and restore it completely. Preferably, it should be located on some beautiful coast, miles away from any other human habitation, and the only thing that’s really important interior-wise is a huge library. And an open fireplace.

5. Learn to play an instrument, preferably the piano, but guitar wouldn’t be bad either. (Not likely to happen, though, because I am musically challenged to put it mildly.)

6. Design and plant a garden - or even better yet, a park - with lots of trees that will look the way it’s intended to only in a hundred years or later.

7. Lose 40 pounds. (And again: not going to happen in reality.)

8. Have enough money to buy every book that takes my fancy - and enough time to actually read them all.

9. Live in a couple of countries other than Germany for at least a year each. Japan would be one, others are Australia, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, Brazil and definitely New Zealand again. (I think that one has the most potential to actually happen.)

10. Visit a couple more countries for prolonged holidays.

If I could manage all that I could look back on a life well spent and die happily. When I’m 120 at the earliest, because for now I’m still intending to live forever.

So, I’m curious: what are your 10 things? I’m not gonna tag anyone, but if you’d like to play along leave a comment.

Just found this while I was looking for Hugh Laurie clips on Youtube.
Hugh is in it only for a few seconds (wearing a very ugly wig), but the whole thing is hilarious.

Now this is a movie I would actually pay to watch.

Oh, and just as a favour, could you please let me know if this embedded video totally fucks up my page layout on your screen? Because I have just spent 10 minutes trying to make sure that it doesn’t, but I am not sure if it will still behave once I published the post…Thank you.