Who is finding their way to the Thumb Diary, and why?

Out of curiosity, I looked at my traffic stats for this site. This blog has always been largely for my own amusement, and my MO is write what you want, no one's reading it anyway. At times this does lower my motivation to post for a few months, but I get over it and keep churning out the thoughts that bounce around my head, if only for my own benefit.

Turns out there are some people reading after all (granted not many).

So how are those hoards of thousands (well 2000) finding their way here? My travelogue? My cleverness permeating the internet?

The answer is a mixed bag. About 10% of my traffic comes from the fact that my site shares a name with "thethumbsdiary.com", which appears to be a Turkish softcore porn site. The result is that I have a cult following of accidental viewers in Eastern Europe.

A small (but substantive given the low volume of my site) number of people get here from searching the terms most likely to drive you to my site:

1) Aasim Smith is the name of  a defendant on the murder trail I was a juror on. News coverage was limited, so I guess I became the authority.

2) Thumb Diary - I'm thinking this is either people who forgot my URL looking for me... or else the Turkish Porn thing.

3) Tiptoes - apparently the world wants to know about the tiptoes sex scene.

4) Dren, Splice - apparently the only thing that people want to learn about from me as much as midget sex is alien incest.

600 more people wandered there way in searching other terms. Much of this was generated by people looking for images.

30 found my site because it was listed as a "good way to pass time" on a broadband testing site.

10 found it from a link on a Russian home decor site (really no idea on this one).

So it boils down to this - I guess I have become the internet's most disappointing peddler of smut. I am going to set my aim a littler higher. This silly little exorcise has taught me that if I keep churning out readable posts about things that interest me, it will find an audience of some kind... Even if that audience was really just looking for Turkish boobs.

Marwencol - A Strange film that Boarders on Perfect

In the interest of trying something different, I’ve decided to write about a movie I loved. No irony, no sense of superiority – I just really liked this movie. While this is a documentary and knowing the full story is not a spoiler per se, I would advise people who plan on seeing the movie to wait to read this as letting the story unfold cold may be more impactful.

In action movies (and comedies for that matter) violence is something that happens without consequence. Bad guys are thwarted with quick kicks and head shots – good guys bounce back mending bullet wounds with tied off t-shirts or perhaps defiantly spitting out a tooth.

In the world in which we live however – violence leaves lasting scars both physical and emotional. It is between the worlds of action movies and consequences that the subject of the film, Mark Hogancamp lives.

In 2002, Mark was beaten brutally outside of a bar in his small upstate New York town. Mark, a navy veteran and long time alcoholic had told a group at the bar that he was a cross dresser. The group proceeded to beat him so badly that he was hospitalized for months receiving reconstructive surgery and beginning physical therapy. Then his Medicare ran out and he was on his own.

The lingering effects of the attack were devastating. Mark was left with no memory of his time in the Navy, the years he was married or even what it was like to be with a women. In a fortunate twist of fate, it also absolved him of his desire to drink.

Finding himself without a past, physically wrecked and fearful of groups of people Mark began to create a world for himself – An entire 1940s Belgian village inhabited by dolls where World War II never ended. In Marks village (Called Marwencol which gives the film it’s name) each of the dolls is based on someone from Mark’s life. He has the starring role as a rogueish officer who owns a Bar and Catfight club. Like himself Mark’s effigy of himself bares scars on his face.

The film dive’s head first into Marwencol, exploring some of the many, many story lines Mark acts out with the dolls, buildings and vehicles lovingly assembled and customized to bring incredible veracity to the town. Mark has a fascination with death, violence, friendship and most of all women. Mark regularly looks to the real people who have inspired his dolls on how they should react in a story line. With these themes taken from Mark’s life and so much input from friends and co-workers Mark sometimes struggles to keep a firm grip on what is real, and what he has created in his mind. Often we see Mark dressed in full WWII regalia as if he is waiting for the day when he can shrink down and join his imaginary world as more than the puppet master.

 

Moving the film from interesting to amazing is the pictures Mark has taken of Marwencol. The pictures, taken with the gritty realism which evokes the photojournalism from war zones of the last 60 years is immersive and captivating. It also serves as a window into the seriousness with which Mark sees his village.

This movie is incredible, and stands out as the most thought provoking thing I have seen in a long time. It explores heavy topics in a way that engages the audience, by providing a look into our world from the perspective of an outside. Mark may see his creation as a means to recovery, but the audience gets to see it as a reflection of the world.

Resident Evil 4: This one Doesn't Even Have Zombies

From time to time I am compelled to put down my pretensions of having "taste" or "standards" and heed the siren call of the shiny 'splosions and sexy vixens of blockbuster action movies.

The truth is that no matter what I tell myself, I can only watch so many movies about Autistic shut ins, and transsexual teen sheep herders coming of age in the USSR before I lose it and just want to see some shit blow up next to some PG-13 semi-nudity. Last Friday was just such a night.

In fairness, I have seen all of the Resident Evil movies. Yes, this does qualify me as a bad person.

On with it.

The movie opens with a very hot lady getting rained on in the center of Tokyo. The camera works slowly up from this sexy, sexy ladies sexy red heals, up her sexy legs... this sexy slow panning with alternating shots from above seems to last about 10 minutes. The sexy Japanese lady turns out to be a zombie (sad) who bites a homely little Japanese man - for me this raised the important question of whether zombies could really walk in heals. It also sets the precedent in the film of women looking stunning and composed regardless of the situation of being alive. More on that later.

We get some narration which reveals that the last 3 movies can be summed up in 25 seconds. I guess that's what you get for watching movies based on video games.

Next Milla breaks into a secret underground base. She is promptly shot and killed... but wait! She has magically cloned herself! There is no explanation for how this has happened.

The army of Milla's (which is much more disconcerting than hot) tears threw the base killing and maiming in a set of action sequences thoroughly cribbbed from the Matrices movies down to the stupid fucking "bullet time" effect that looked dated in 2004.

We're about 10 minutes in, and having realized what we were in for, Meg and I started hitting the whiskey pretty hard.

So all the Milla's are really pissed and they're out to kill the bad dude. I don't know what makes him the bad dude, other than that he wears sunglasses and he shot a little Asian man in the face for no reason. Will call him Jed.

So Jed is fighting all the Milla's and some of them have psychic powers and are blowing things up with their minds. Oh, and for some reason everyone talks like Batman. Specifically Christopher Nolan's Batman. Everybody. All the time. Even the Japanese extras when were they're talking in Japanese. It's like everyone in the movie went out to a party the night before and made out with a sick girl and then each other... then they spent the rest of the night yelling at each other and chain smoking cigarettes ... then the next morning the director was like "Fuck it, the dialogs all fucking stupid anyway, so just try to sound ominous instead of sick."

I guess you can't have an action movie where everyone whispers and sips soothing tea.

Pretty sure that's what happened.

Ummmmmm...

Oh yeah -

So Jed's trying to get away on a plane, and he blows up the base with all the Milla's in it. He's feeling pretty smug when all of a sudden BOOM another Milla. Jed senses her presence or some shit and sticks a needle in her. He then patiently explains that the needle took away her powers while she glares angrily with heaving bosoms. Frankly this is kind of a relief because the mind powers were already getting old in the first 5 minutes of the movie. Then for some reason the plane crashes (maybe into Mt. Fuji?) and it's all fire and brimstone, but somehow Milla walks away looking really hot.

Milla goes to Alaska for reasons apparently explained in a previous movie. She finds a hot girl who was like 15 in the other movie but is now a more hotness appropriate age, despite the idea that only months have passed between movies. Whatever.... It's Resident fucking evil so continuity ain't its strong suit.

She saves the hot girl and puts her in her plane. Fortunately between when she is found (wearing rags) and when she gets into the plane both her and Milla find time to shower and put on make up. Seriously. I know it's based on a video game, but all actresses look remarkably well made up and conditioned at all times. Even if they're dead. Or on fire. I guess both main actresses have only medium sized breasts, so great strides for feminism there.

They fly to Hollywood looking gorgeous. They meet some happy people who have taken over the LA Prison to live in. Honestly, it's pretty fucking boring from there on out. For some reason EVERY single character talks like Batman. This only get's worse as the movie goes on. It's like the director is just off screen between yelling "Good Milla, but this time with more Batman".

At one point they land the plane on the roof of the prison. Then an evil gay man and his intern steam it (really).

I found this drawing which sums up that part of the movie.

Ummmm.... what else.

It turns out lots of people are trapped on a boat and alive (hurray!)

There's some blatant 5th movie setup (this one made $260 million after all)

Oh yeah, the gay guy get's eaten by Jed for some reason.

And really, there are not really zombies in this. At some point, they were all like "we shit, if fucking Jane Eyre has zombies now, I guess were taking them out of resident evil."

Always With Us

Last night I had a dream about the fall that took Ryan's life. It was playing over and over again in my mind, when suddenly it stopped. I was at the kitchen table from the Pheasant Way house sitting across the from Ryan. Needless to say we were both drinking Long Trail. I talked a little about what had been going on it my life since I'd last seen him but mostly I listened.

He told me he was doing good now where he was and I could tell that it was great by how much he smiled and laughed. He told me how much he missed his family and his friends and how he was sorry to have left us. He reminded me to not worry so much about life's stresses and in true Ryan style, assured me that things would turn out fine. I told him how sad I was about not making it to Reno and he laughed like it had not occurred to him that it was a big deal.

He left with a hug and a "Peace", and I found myself awake and shaking back in my hotel.

I started writing this in hope of being able to write about Ryan's loss, but I still can't find the words I need. For now all that I can say is that not a day goes by that I don't think about him, and look to his spirit for guidance.