OutdoorType

Part I: Last Blood

Clicking to the Style section of the Post today you were confronted with a sort of weird image of the uncredited “Man Dancing in Club” from 1971’s Oscar winning Klute. Don’t remember that guy? Maybe you’ll recall Lincoln Hawk, the struggling trucker trying to regain control over his life and win at arm wrestling?

The arm wrestling gave it away, right? I mean, if I’d said there was a photo of the guy who played Judge Joseph Dredd you’d have known too. And forget about it if I’d mentioned Rocky Balboa or John J. Rambo. Then everybody’d know I was talking about Mr. Sylvester Stallone.

Rambo IV comes out tomorrow and according to the post, The movie…

Written, directed and produced by Stallone, …could be the most graphically violent R-rated movie ever.

It goes on to describe in detail the many different ways the movie depicts the graphic violence and talks about how even Stallone was a little surprised about receiving only an “R” rating.

And maybe I just have my cynical switch in the off position today, but the surprising part of the article was the apparent reason for making such a violent movie. Seems Stallone actually cares about the world and wanted to let people know that atrocities such as those shown in his film happen everyday in crap countries such as Myanmar (aka Burma).

I’ve seen the previews a few times and the amount of violence has just seemed comical. Stallone, Rambo, over the top violence… they seem like a match made in heaven and so I clicked on the article expecting to read a puffy promotional piece.

And while it is no shocking revelation to me that such events occur in the world, I was kind of glad to read that Stallone was making the movie with the intent of possibly broadening people’s world views.

Just maybe a 14 year old kid might walk out of the theater and wonder to himself, “I wonder if any of that shit is true?” If he goes home and checks out Wikipedia he’ll discover that yeah, it is.

Part II: Oh To Have Such Problems (Apparently The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side)

Maybe it was for this story that I was saving my cynicism and snark…

Last fall, KC Reeves, her husband and three children moved to a suburban house that is much bigger than their previous one. The master bedroom is airy and sunny, Reeves says, but at 19 1/2 feet by 19 1/2 feet, it feels large and boxy. Reeves would like a more intimate space where she and her husband can “retreat from the rest of the world.” She envisions a French-country-inspired room where she can read in bed.

Oh poor you! I am soooo sorry that your bedroom is 381 square feet and is filled with light and looks out over a forest and has a french doors leading outside to a deck. I can imagine the settling down to read a book in such a room must be difficult. Whatever.

Here’s a before picture:

And how did you change the look of the room? Why, you swapped a flat panel TV for the pretty painting over the fireplace and then moved the bed so that it longer faced that awful view out the windows. And where does the bed face now? Yup, the TV. That will make for some conducive reading in bed and retreating from the world.