Jeudi 25 Décembre 2008 -
Aujourd'hui, c'est la Saint Emmanuel...!

Does anyone know what that truly MEANS anymore, though?!?

Not judging by this GIF:





They don't!


Granted, the story of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER is a heartwarming tale or acceptance, maybe even redemption (in the raising of self-esteem area) in this otherwise cold season...!
Like many an ''original'' addition to the now vast Christmas lore (Frosty the Snowman; Jack Frost - I do mean the Michael Keaton movie, mostly here; and 1001 other Christmas time tales in writ and in movie form - and the myriad of tales told through song as well...) RUDOLPH is meant to be a lesson in GOODNESS and the merits thereof...

But really now - all those critters DON'T EXIST.

Only a saint by the name of Nicholas ever truly did - and even if he was the generous type, he never established the impossible record of giving at least one gift to EVERYONE ON THE PLANET within ONE SINGLE NIGHT...!

(I hope you're not learning anything new here...!!!)

What truly did happen is that a great prophet (according to Islam) and a Redeemer, the Messiah (according to us, Christians!) was born sometime around this date - He Did Live, He Did Come to this world and there were astral signs when He Did (The Redeemer, we mean!) and That is all FACT. Moreso, further down the line, there is evidence that He Was Crucified... And He Did Resurrect - but that is best saved for around Easter Time!
(Hey - I'm tackling Rudolph and Frosty right now; the Easter Bunny can wait its turn, like every other year!)

JESUS WAS BORN.
And we choose to celebrate His Coming... today!

So forget about Rudolph!

(And if the GIF image above ever blinks out of existence - I am not replacing it! I'd sooner say "good riddance" - *lol*)




So, really, folks - WAKE UP!

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!
And that is The Truth!


+++

Another All-Hallows' Eve come and gone again...!

Whether you've pulled off the stunning effect

of looking both stunning and repulsive 

all at the same damn time -  

I DON'T GIVE A DAMN...! 

I'll just carry on MISSING 

the good old days 

when you could simply go ahead and  

BURN THEM AT THE STAKE  

- same as I do every Halloween, really!

;)

Thanks but no thanks, celebs...!

Click above
for all the razzle-dazzle and fluff galore
attached to a ton of "celebrities"
that breathe, talk too much and poop
just like *YOU* - yeah!!!
Yet, you place them on such a pedestal
that elevates each and every single one
of their simplest and silliest moves
to the level of "entertainment" in and by itself
if not also the level of RELEVANT *FAIT ACCOMPLI*...!
I've got news for you all -
nothing that these "celebrities" do,
will ever do or have ever done
will EVER truly affect *YOU* -
you only IMAGINE the effects on your lives!
Yes - it's true, it's true!
The BEST that they can EVER do for you
is make you forget, for a infinitely short time,
your personal woes and troubles...
Aside from that -
there is NOTHING *ANY* CELEBRITY
WILL EVER DO FOR YOU...

Unless the celebrity takes "precious time
out of their precious busy schedule"
to speak out for you or your cause
and raise awareness and/or funds for you
and/or it...!
And THAT is a tremendous
LONG SHOT...

None of you really need that anyway -
right?

Some celebs used to sang
that "all you need is LOVE..."
- but that was THEN...!


What did THEY know about ANYTHING - huh?

That goes
probably a HUNDRED-FOLD
for the current crop
of celebs here...!
:!


Trust me -
you don't even need a celeb
to tell you what fashion wear to go with,
what to do with your week-end
-much less your life-
or how to choose
your entertainment fare...!


Trust me on THAT...!
;)

Aye, Aye, Aye, Aye, Aye... Ashlee, Ayoye, What Is THAT?

Ashlee Simpson : Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya) - Remix


A CD release titled "Bittersweet Life"...

A single excerpted from it that has a catchy beat, an off-the-wall video chock-full of weird and extravagant imagery, special effects galore, I tell you (just click on the link at the top of this post and you'll see...) and what an eccentric "story" to tell, too...

A hip blonde hair dye job (to go with the nose job...?)

Extravagance all-around all right...

And all that on a parallel with settling down, tying the knot, throwing caution to the wind and pronouncing those vows with the "mate apparent"...!

But mostly she appears to be finally not only bypassing that inner malaise, the accursed inferiority complex she seemed to have in relation to her prettier, perkier, peskier sister Jessica (darn, I forgot to add "much blonder too" to the short-list there...!) - but beating the tar out of the (un)fair competition as well!

Heck, she's truly surpassing her big sis now: she's just gotten married while big sis Jess is divorced, very much single and looking. Still looking. Looking desperately - if not desperate?

Ashlee - like a phoenix reborn out of its ashes(-lee?)



Laudable, but still...

She acted "as a good minister (would)" - not in good faith!

Agir en bonne ministre

Agir en bonne ministre - népotisme nonobstant!
Répliquant à la demande de démission de Mario Dumont, Monique Gagnon-Tremblay affirme avoir bien agi en taisant les allégations de plaintes pour harcèlement psychologique à l'endroit de l'ex-délégué du Québec à New York.


Ahh - politics! Such a high-stake game for the hypocritical and the rich and blase!

I seem to always pick on the Quebec examples, true - but what can I say; I am closer to those sad examples geographically-speaking, so...

It is all the same everywhere else though; you know so much already!

Only differences, from spot to spot, are what is at stake; and what shape the casualties take...!

Aqua Di Lara... cool, but is it drinkable?

'Tis catwalking time in Toronto, city renowned for that (or desperately trying to be renowned in that field - too) and one of the Haute Couture "griffes" (i.e. labels) that is attracting the lion's share of the attention is one Aqua Di Lara! Now, the fact that this stuff is cool is not in question - for if outright mutant get-ups like those things Gaultier and other designers have their models parade in are "cool", then so is this!
But is "this" digestable in any way, though...?


Semaine de la mode de Toronto : Aqua di Lara
Découvrez les créations de Aqua di Lara à la Semaine de la mode de Toronto version Printemps/Été 2008 presenté par fashionWATCH.


Semaine de la mode de Toronto : Aqua di Lara

As with everything else deemed to be "HOT" - there are imitators, never quite so "duplicators" though, no...


Semaine de mode de Montréal : de grands noms foulent le tapis rouge…


Semaine de mode de Montréal : M Siamo par Marisa Minicucci


Ampleur, volumes contrôlés, retour du court, blousons, bustiers, ambiance coquine, « french kiss »!


Semaine de mode de Montréal : Muse par Christian Chenail


« Glamour » pour la cause : Mitsou Gélinas

« Glamour » pour la cause : le défilé
Athêlia et Andy Thê-Anh présentent un défilé dans le cadre de la soirée « Glamour » pour la cause, un événement au profit de la Fondation du cancer du sein du Québec.


« Glamour » pour la cause : le défilé (partie 1)


« Glamour » pour la cause : le défilé (partie 2)



Perhaps there is truly more than meets the eye here, indeed - perhaps. Me, I tend to immediately think of an Alain Souchon song whenever I see all these zombified catwalkers parading around; and I start singing it in my head too, reciting the chorus line with gusto - "On voit le vide à travers les planches"...!

;)

Wooooooooooo - *cough-cough*

Life will go on, without Flair...
The show MUST go on...
And they're already setting up BIG things, see:
THE GREAT KHALI VERSUS THE BIG SHOW
Y2J... uh, doing something...
ECW CHAMPION - KANE! The Big Red Machine!
But no more Flair in there - no more "wooooooo"

Ric Flair finally retired last night
(no, this is no April's Fool Joke -
or rather "joke" yes; no need to capitalize here!)
No joke, indeed -
we know this had to happen, sooner or later
All the other Horsemen are retired!
So, now, Flair retired too and here is an excerpt of what I think about the way that it all came to transpire - and more
(you know me; there's always MORE with me!)
Read on:

36 years, 16 world championships and several incarnations of the 4 Horsemen later, Ric Flair finally delivered the speech he had meant to deliver months earlier - but I suspect someone suggested to him to go with the "career-threat from Vinnie Mac" plotline instead, at least until the alleged "grandest stage of them all" that is reputed to be Wrestlemania.

And so he did. And, after playing out scenario after scenario of "narrowingly escaping with his career intact" against the likes of "Umaga" (ugh), William Regal, Mr. Kennedy and Vince McMahon (sic) himself (none of which would have EVER been deemed worthy of being "the one" to put the legendary Nature Boy Ric Flair into retirement) SLICK RIC finally did choose the opponent to whom he would "pass the torch" so to speak - Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels. HBK. The guy who idolized Ric Flair and whose only true heartbreaking has always been victimizing his own heart. This is just another example of it - though an allegorical one as it truly doesn't mean a thing to whom Flair lost his final match - he just needed to be pinned for three seconds in order to call it a career; in order to be allowed to walk away from the squared circle - something several fans of his never wanted to see happen. But every other member of the Four Horsemen is GONE already (save one - Sting aka Steve Borden, and he wasn't a Horsemen long. Double J, Jeff Jarrett, was also a Horseman but, according to Arn, he "doesn't count") and so, every other member being GONE already; Flair had to ride into the sunset too. *Space Mountain* had to close down.

The final farewell, the last speech, left something to be desired though.
(...)

THIRTY-SIX YEARS...
Man - and most of that AFTER a plane crash accident that had doctors telling him that he'd NEVER WRESTLE AGAIN...

Thirty-six years is also almost as long as I have been on this EARTH!

No wonder I am a lifelong Flair fan;
as long as I have been aware of him, anyway
and it it definitely possible that I was a Flair fan BEFORE I even became aware of the guy's accomplishments...!

Accomplishments that are all in the realm of make-believe and showmanship though; but that's okay since I myself am but a dream weaver, a scribesman, and, besides, NONE of our deeds, no matter WHAT WE ACCOMPLISH ON THIS PLANET AND IN THIS LIFE, will remain - what will remain, are our SOULS and their worthiness is for Someone Else to pass judgment upon...

But I am digressing again...
Back to wrestling!

Now that Ric Flair is gone - we have, for a few years at the very least, Ric Drasin to turn to! "The other Ric" aka "The Equalizer" is awesome, I tell you: as much as Flair is an improved Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, Drasin is an improved Superstar Billy Graham (and no, Ric D is not to be confused with Dave Sullivan, WCW's wrestler once known as the Equalizer too - just as Superstar B.G. is not to be confused with the televangelist!)
Plus, when Ric Drasin makes a film (the projected "The Midnight Bell" pitting vampires against wrestlers) it will be closer to cult classic material like masked luchadore Santo used to make - not 'Baywatch' crap as Ric Flair participated in (the highlight of which was when he told Kevin Sullivan to lay off Macho Man Randy Savage on the beach, after a sneak attack by the man Flair calls (affectionately?) "the devil"...
(No, folks, that's not quite "classic fare" - not in my book...!
In all fairness to Flair and all that; he wasn't a Shakespearian actor! He played the crowd well (can still do it, in a managerial role, à la Classie Freddie Blassie - if he so chooses) but that is not actual "acting"... But I digress yet again...)

I am proud to count Ric The Equalizer Drasin among my top 40 MySpace friends!
Couldn't find Flair on there though; apparently, "Flair don't do MySpace"...
Well, maybe he will now that he's retired...?

Flair eluded a forced retirement (forced by DEFEAT! Storyline-wise, anyway...) against the likes of Mr. Kennedy, soon-to-be crowned King of the Ring William Regal, Umaga, self-proclaimed legend-killer/reigning world heavyweight champion Randy Orton, Triple H, MVP and everyone's boss himself, Vince McMahon and handpicked the one that he would allow to put him in the retirement home/Hall of Fame - HBK Shawn Michaels.

His 36 years in the business gave him that right - at least.

Still, he was put away by a superkick to the JAW.
Ugh.

Such a business that treats its longest-standing and constantly proven and performing model employees like THAT may not be the "ideal business" at all...

Nice send-off they gave "Naitch", sure...
complete with chants of "thank you Ric"
and clapping aplenty -
but still...

McMahon is happy now: he put away WCW and now Flair too.
Next up: tarnish Rey Mysterio, humiliate Paul Wight and crush every last bit of WCW's legacy and nostalgia amongst the fans the same way they are so "brilliantly" making use of old NWA/WCW footage on WWE 24/7 and Eddie Guerrero's widow on their second-rate brand, Smackdown...
Oh, and abusing old WCW titles and the Cruiserweight division as well.

Again, to read more about how I feel about it,
check out the Lukewarm Blog.

Your Minis, My Minis, Our Time Wasted?

YourMinis.Com enables YOU
(and 1001 corporate entities) to create widgets that will "spread the word" on whatever it is that "rocks your world"... sort of!
Great promotional tool, I am sure...
But it is also a grandiose waste of time -
when one realizes that all that these widgets do, when they finally do download fully and start functioning properly, is, no more no less what we can readily see on any specialty cable channel with a simple flick of the remote!
Case in point: the Rolling Stone widget below...

True, we are in the I.A. (Information Age)
and all the fuss here is justified for THIS sure is INFORMATION!
Indeed, data is flying high and low all over the web here...
But perhaps it is a tad excessive
to create a widget just to countdown to the release of an umpteenth unnecessary (aye, OBSOLETE) video game based upon AMERICAN FOOTBALL... (ugh)

I mean, who needs this stuff
And who needs to buy another MADDEN game - keep the cash
or donate it to the millions upon millions who are dying of HUNGER all around the world! John Madden doesn't need the dough - over there, they sure do.
Maybe they'll make a widget about REAL NEWS - news that MATTER.
Until they do, news that Madden watches and other sports trivialities are the object of (another) 1001 widgets - like the scoreboard widget below...
(How many scoreboards do you NEED - sheesh!)

More entertaining and educative, they also have the AOL VIDEOS widget on their extended menu... Far more entertaining and IMMENSELY more informative than other widgets that they sure do have in spades, all over the place...
(such as the WWE variety I made fun of here!)
At first glance, it is NEWS... hence, it should MATTER.
But then, upon closer inspection, we notice that those
are clearly not world-shaping events there, in these
much-vaunted and lauded AOL videos...

Well, at least I also found a CLIMATE CRISIS widget
Now here is something useful, about what really MATTERS out there, in the REAL WORLD, and that is affecting us all...
Oh wait; it's another promotional tool, is what it is!
For Al Gore's flick - An Inconvenient Truth!
We were had, again! Ugh!

All in all, it is such a pity;
such fine "widgetry" - and it is all wasted
on such trivial, worthless subjects!

WCW's Revenge At Royal Rumble 2002 - 6th Anniversary

Yeah, Flair defeated McMahon in 2002
but this came just a tad too late
as WCW had just lost to the WWE in 2001.

Anyhow - celebrating the anniversary
of this decisive victory over the enemy
seems a trifle devoid of meaning now
as Ric Flair remains in the WWE
(in the EMPLOY of one V.K. McMahon)
and has even been faced with
an ULTIMATUM coming from McMahon;
the retirement ultimatum, no less!
Flair has to win every single match he's in
(now - as he nears 60 - he has to be
really, REALLY like an Ubermensch
as his entrance music,
Thus Spake Zarathustra,
infers him to have always been...)
otherwise - he has to retire
the next time he loses one single match!
(Luckily, that does not apply
to any tag-team matches or
battle royales he might participate in!)

Flair just defeated MVP on P-P-V
(this year's Royal Rumble, yes)
just to keep his career going!
He's avoided retirement so far
half-a-dozen times
(and that is the way they want it
to feel and look like too; Flair
narrowingly avoiding "the end"!)
against such opponents as
Randy Orton, Umaga, Triple H,
William Regal and MVP
(It is a nice gimmick -
I wish it hadn't been used though!
While it generates interest in Flair
-with every match his possible last-
it makes it appear to be that
a legend like him does not get
to choose when he walks away?
That should never be the case!
It isn't the case either -
but that Flair agreed to this
storyline, makes it seem as it is
if only within the context
of "the storyline"...)

Next up will be... Mr. Kennedy -
ironically the guy that I saw as
the heir apparent to both
Ric Flair and fellow Horseman
Tully Blanchard!

And he could instead turn out to be
the man who "puts away" Ric Flair...?!?

Maybe Flair will choose WHEN he retires yet
- and pass the torch to Kennedy, as I'd hoped?

Not quite the way I was hoping to see it happen though.

We shall see!