Guys who rule Vol. 1 : Warren Oates

Warren Oates rules.

Has there ever been a better character actor than Warren Oates? You never once think to yourself that you are watching an actor. You just believe him.

He had done a few films, but got his first real break when Sam Peckinpah cast him in Ride the High Country, one of the best westerns ever, and probably my personal favorite. Oates and Peckinpah struck up a lifelong friendship. When you're the drinkin' buddy of a legendary alcoholic like Sam Peckinpah you really must be a talented boozer.

Oates had a gritty realism about him that was perfectly suited for the shift that was happening in the western genre. Westerns mirrored the social climate of the sixties, and shifted away from unconditional moral positions. Oates personified moral ambiguities. Mostly by being covered in filth.
Check out the guy's resume.

Ride the High Country

In the Heat of the Night

The Wild Bunch (in which he personally takes out a good 75 guys)



Barquero (with another guy who rules, Lee Van Cleef)

Two-Lane Blacktop

Badlands

Cockfighter

And of course, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Although he was a supporting actor in most of his films, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was his film. He reteamed with Sam Peckinpah a final time, and created his best role. A western in every respect outside of time period; this is one booze-soaked journey into hell. Oates plays the ex-pat bartender Bennie. Bennie takes what amounts to a sub-contracting job from gangsters looking to retrieve the head of a man. Bennie's prostitute girlfriend, Elita, goes with him. There is a deep tenderness and understanding between them. When she is killed, Bennie has nothing left to lose except his mind.

There are reports of a missing scene in which Bennie makes love to Elita after she has been murdered. He then buries her remains with Alfredo Garcia in his desecrated grave. This seems pretty reasonable considering the difference in his character's demeanor between holding her body and leaving the graveyard. He seems more disturbed than if he had just buried her.

He now only has one focus : revenge. The film captures the frightening core of the male psyche when every other driving force (love, tenderness) has been stripped away. The only thing left to do is die like a man should die; in a hail of bullets.

The Day Metal United and Saved the World

Hear 'N Aid is the greatest thing that has ever happened.

The 80's were chock full of Aids. Bob Geldof created Band Aid, and kicked off the era with a benefit record featuring superstars like Bananarama, Spandau Ballet, and Shalamar. "Do they know it's Christmas?" they asked. The simple answer to that is, "Of course not." They don't celebrate Christmas in Ethiopia. But they didn't let little technicalities like that get in the way of the lyrics.

Quincy Jones ripped off the format with USA For Africa, and Bob Geldof continued his penance for the Boomtown Rats with Live Aid. They all had one thing in common. Megastars shedding their egos for one night, and coming together to record a lousy song.

Enter : Ronnie James Dio

All of human progress lead to this moment; this one moment where all of the greatest talents of the world met together at their artistic peaks and formed a perfect creation : Hear 'N Aid.

Look at this parade of genius.

Rob Halford from Judas Priest

Iron Maiden

Man 'O War

Blackie Lawless from W.A.S.P. and Kevin DuBrow from Quiet Riot

Eric Bloom from Blue Oyster Cult

Geoff Tate from Queensryche

Geoff's pompa-fro is worth another look

The Nuge

And, uh, Spinal Tap?

And so the fist-pumping began.
Normally at these benefit recordings you leave your ego at the door. You might think it would be a good idea to use some of the lyrics to mention the cause. Not with Hear 'N Aid apparently. They pretty much just repeat "We're Stars" the whole time. They throw in the occasional, "We are magic in the night!" Whatever this benefit was for is anyone's guess.

Guitar solos have always been a useful time filler in heavy metal. How else are you supposed to get to 3 minutes with only 2 verses and a chorus? Just like they pass each lyric to the next singer, they pass each lick to the next guitarist. There's a good 3 and a half minutes of guitar solo hot potato here. All the greats show up.

Yngwie Malmsteen

George Lynch from Dokken

That guy from Quiet Riot and some other guy

Then it's just a weirdo free-for-all starting with this guy.

This dude.

And this anomaly. This guy is like the Dan Aykroyd moment in We are the World.
Ok, so maybe metal can't put together We are the World type numbers, but at least they stand really close together.

Wacky games from Japan Vol. 1 : Poker Ladies

Japan is cool.

Ah, Poker Ladies. The pinnacle in perverted Japanese videogames. Sure, there are newer, more outrageous games out there like Boonga Boonga http://www.sixsixfive.com/229.html but for my money, Poker Ladies stands above them all. The sheer strangeness of the payoffs puts it in a class all its own.

Poker Ladies is just that. It's video poker, but instead of money you play for ladies. The more you earn, the more they reveal. There are nine poker ladies to play for, and each has three stages of undress culminating in an "interactive mode" where you titillate them by pressing the deal button rapidly.

The game sets you up for success. You hardly ever lose a hand. I guess they figure we poor videogame guys need all the help we can get. So it's pretty easy to breeze through the girls. Sigh, if it were only so easy. The further into the game you progress the more you notice things are starting to get weird.

Who doesn't like pixelated boobies? There are a million different boobie games to come out of Japan, but what really sets this one apart are the truly bizarre interactive modes.

Disembodied hands groping boobies. This says quite a bit about Japanese culture. The male prefers to be nearly invisible, acting upon, rather than with, the female. The videogame is a perfect medium for this.

The final WTF?! moment is where another set of bodyless hands squirts stuff out of a syringe onto a girl's butt. The game progression parallels one's descent into perversion. It's a metaphor for the deterioration of the psyche as one delves further into the nether regions of the mind. Either that or the makers had a sense of humor.

Oh Poker Ladies! You once again prove why Japan is so cool.