THE WITCH. THE CONJURING 2 DON’T BREATH… So many others.. (And I would even couple some movies from 2015 into this category because they were ahead of their time, films like BABADOOK and IT FOLLOWS) ..
This was the year for horror. So many people analyzing such things are attempting to figure out why.. I can tell you why. There has been a generational shift.. and with it, a newfound burst of creativity and not movies that rely on just the typical and stale forms of scaring people. We had movies this year that dug deep–emotional films with a gritty sense of reality.. and a self-awareness that it was all, thankfully, just fiction. Maybe. You hope.
That is why horror works WHEN it works. When horror does what it is supposed to do, you are scared and have a reason to be scared… you are trapped in the emotional roller coaster along with the main character.. and in the end, the release from the films comes with the self-realizaiton your mind has that you WERE NOT the one in danger. Someone else was. Your brain that release the energy and calm down by closing credits.
There were lots of those very films this year.. and it was a scary year. Don’t think for a second that the reality around you does not play in.. This election was divisive and unkind, sometimes crude, rude, and even scary. Pop culture can be scary. Reality can be scary. That is why horror, again WHEN it works, works well. Because in the end horror is fiction .. horror is just a few hours on a big screen in front of us .. for even the gory films, horror is an escape from the true gore of life. The reality of reality is that it’s plain out dangerous and scary. Your brain often is looking, constantly, for ways to keep your body to surive. At least you know by the end of a film that you did survive.
And quite frankly, this year, movies were better than other years. It all just worked well, it flowed perfectly.. the box office release schedule also seemed to favor horror. The summer–for some weird reason–always works better for horror than the autumn. Especially August and early September. No different this year.
But this year we were delivered classic films instead of rubbish that would have been better going ‘straight to video.’
So thanks, Hollywood, for a change. It was a fun scary year. Here’s hoping that it was not fluke, and that it continues in 17.
Hold on to 16 as long as you can. Changes come around real soon make us demons and men.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the Turkish Army entered Syria to end the rule of President Bashar Assad, whom he accused of terrorism and causing the deaths of thousands. “We entered [Syria] to end the rule of the tyrant al-Assad who terrorizes with state terror. [We didn’t enter] for any other reason,” the Turkish president said at the first Inter-Parliamentary Jerusalem Platform Symposium in Istanbul, as quoted by Hurriyet daily.
I am somewhat surprised that the world media, you know, that reliable ‘mainstream’ crowd that says everything online is fake, isn’t paying attention to the words of the Turkish president. This situation is heating up.. this is getting close to .. well .. warfare..
Don’t forget.Turkey is in NATO. And so are many other nations.. there is a pact within NATO that if one nation is attacked or at war, all of NATO could theoretically be involved. And …. Russia is also in Syria.. and Russia has been pushing against NATO expansion in eastern Europe. And Turkey is pushing into Syria, which is allied to Russia.. and Donald Trump will become president in 50 days..
And….see the pattern? This is heading in the wrong direction for those who want world peace in our time. This is heading to .. a war? I do not want to predict it and if I did say World War III was about to occur I would want to be dead wrong in my tracks.
But … we need to start listening to the words of the Erdogan….who says he is entering the conflict to remove Bashir.
…this story has been developing for several days. Clyde Lewis even did a show on the topic last night.. there seems to be additional evidence that the trending UFO over Turkey hashtag on Twitter was removed for some strange reason…
There are also claims from some UFO ‘experts,’ whoever they are, that the UFO flap is a purposely hoax. ..
Nothing to see here..
But the story has gone viral.. the images look somewhat like the late 90s’ Phoenix lights incident..
And with all of the OTHER news coming from Turkey lately, this just adds to the bizarre mix of other-worldly and paranormal with warfare..
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE 16 AND RETWEETED BY THE PRESIDENT-ELECT (A READOUT OF THE TIME WE DMed WITH A TEENAGER) - Monday evening, as President-elect Trump was tirading against CNN, 16-year-old California high school student Seth Morton tweeted at the network’s Jeff Zeleny, “Pathetic - you have no sufficient evidence that Donald Trump did not suffer from voter fraud, shame! @realDonaldTrump.” As sometimes happens when a teenager demands someone on Twitter prove a negative, the President-elect retweeted it. Morton tells us that it was an “incredible experience” and that when he arrived at school the next day, he was swarmed by classmates. “Before I could say anything, my classmates, along with students that I didn’t know, all congratulated me.” His teachers were somewhat skeptical, many of whom “didn’t believe my classmates until surprisingly discovering it on the internet.” Them and us both, Seth!
The result has been described as ‘unexpected’ and 'exciting’ because most prostate cancer therapies work by depriving tumours of testosterone, because cancer uses it as a fuel.
Other seriously ill men taking part in the same trial showed responses that astounded scientists, with tumours shrinking and the progress of their disease halted.
Roadside America is a quaint little place in eastern Pennsylvania that plays God Bless America every 20 minutes.. their roof is leaking and need some help on a Go Fund Me page
A charter plane carrying 81 people, including players from a rising Brazilian soccer team headed for a championship match, crashed en route to Medellín’s airport in Colombia Monday night, according to authorities. At least five passengers survived and the rest were killed, Colombia’s aviation authority confirmed Tuesday morning. It was uncertain whether that was a final count, however, as the figures had fluctuated during the night.
General José Acevedo, commander of Medellín police, told a Colombian radio station that 75 people had been killed at the site of the crash and six others had been injured and rescued from the scene. One of the rescued passengers died on the way to the hospital, Acevedo said. A local television station, Telemedellín, reported that a sixth survivor was rescued from the crash at about 5 a.m. Tuesday morning.
A horrific and developing story..
A reminder, if you needed one, that game and fortune never matters and sooner or later God’s gonna cut you down..
Nine people were injured when a man ran into pedestrians with his car on the Ohio State University campus, then exited the vehicle with a butcher knife and started cutting victims.
Less than a minute after the attack, an OSU police officer shot and killed the suspect. Despite rumors of a second suspect, police and campus officials say there was one person involved in the attack.
The attack happened outside of Watts Hall at W. 19th St. west of College Road. Earlier in the morning, the building had been evacuated because of a report of a gas leak. It’s unclear if that was related to the attack or if that’s why people were outside at the time of the attack.
OSU President Michael Drake, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, Columbus police Chief Kim Jacobs, the medical director from Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and the OSU police Chief Craig Stone spoke this afternoon outside the OSU hospital. Officials said nine people were taken to area hospitals.
Wexner Medical Center treated five patients: two were stabbed, two were hit by the car and one who hid after the attack and just arrived. The last victim’s injuries were being assessed.
Two victims with lacerations were taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center. Two victims who were struck by the car were taken to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital.
The attack happened at 9:52 a.m. An “active shooter” alert was sent at 9:55 to the campus community urging people to hid in place.
At 11:30 a.m., the university said the scene is secure and that all classes are canceled on campus. The shelter-in-place order was lifted at 11:14 a.m., but more than a dozen buildings remain closed.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, who had spoken to OSU president Michael Drake, reported that a car drove into a crowd and most of those affected appeared to have stab wounds.
“The university appear to be secure now, the students appear to be safe,” said. “What we don’t know is what was the motive,” she said.
Columbus Police, Ohio State police and deputies with the Franklin County sheriff’s deputies rushed to the scene. Students took to social media to find information, and posted video and pictures to Twitter of the scene.
Police were searching the area, and there was intense police and SWAT activity at a garage at W. Lane Avenue and Tuttle Park Place on campus, just east of St. John Arena. Officers with long guns and two armored vehicles were seen there before the threat was lifted.
Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago dust clearing: 8 dead and 58 injured.. the city’s homicide rate at a 10 year high.. this is a crisis of horrid proportions that few in the major media ever even talk about .. That many deaths and injuries, you would think if not for the racism among media elite, would be top story status..
Speaking of MOANA, it was a holiday hit: Box offices for the Disney film was $81.1 mil while ALLIED and BAD SANTA 2 struggled in the family friendly atmosphere.. MORE.. Moana topped the extended holiday box office with the second largest five-day Thanksgiving opening of all-time and the third largest three-day Thanksgiving opening of all-time, leading a top twelve that grossed a combined $173 million. Moana was, however, the only real success story..
Scientists claim: West Antarctic ice shelf is breaking up from the inside out.. // It’s generally accepted that it’s no longer a question of whether the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will melt, it’s a question of when,” said study leader Ian Howat, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State. “This kind of rifting behavior provides another mechanism for rapid retreat of these glaciers, adding to the probability that we may see significant collapse of West Antarctica in our lifetimes.”
Study claims that, yes, time travel IS POSSIBLE.. Dr Michael Hall and Professor Howard Wiseman from the Center say that parallel universes are not science fiction. They explain that if multiple, interacting universes exist, time travelers then could visit Earth… BUT… detractors abound: Other physics experts are divided on the theory. Dr Lawrence Kraus from the Arizona State University is skeptical of the hypothesis. Huffington Post cites a Czech Republic physicist who says the theory is “a hopeless enterprise and a huge waste of time.”
This has been the pattern for years.. My little experience allowed me to surprise this result.. my wife and son and I stopped by a Walmart Thanksgiving night after a family dinner. It was empty.. We had to go get, of all things, groceries on Friday.. and still nobody.. NADA.. Empty.
The facts speak for themselves..
Internet sales rose in the double digits on both days, surpassing $3 billion for the first time on Black Friday, according to data released on Saturday.
Data from analytics firm RetailNext showed net sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell 5.0 percent over the two days, while the number of transactions fell 7.9 percent.
Thousands of people gathered in an Austrian town Saturday for a scary tradition.
Scores of people dressed as the evil companion of Santa Claus, known as Krampus, charged through the town’s streets after dark.
The event known as the “Krampus Run” is based in Germanic folklore.
Krampus punishes bad kids by beating them and putting them into a woven wicker basket on his back.
Over 120 Krampus impersonators charged through the town’s market square.
Some jumped the barricades to cane several of the six-thousand people in attendance.
Little bruises are an accepted side effect of the caning attacks.
But young children usually get away with getting their caps taken away.
Groups from all over Austria and some neighboring countries participated in the event.
This may be one of the highest things to do on my bucket list .. I would so LOVE to be at the Krampus run..
I have written about Krampus plenty of times on here, just search the archives for that information.. The idea of Krampus has been with me since my childhood thanks to Russian and eastern European nuns who taught me in grade school.
My son also knows of Krampus, but we have shielded him from the worst of it all..
Jolly ole Saint Nick needs a rival. Each year, around this time, Krampus rears his head to be the rival who Santa deserves.
Krampus in Austria! I am jealous of anyone who went
This whole ‘fake news’ scandal is starting to bug me.. People are still falling for 'fake news’ just as easily as they did a year ago. Nothing in that avenue has changed..
The concerning part is this newfound approach to dealing with media.. the INTERCEPT is one of my favorite sites, and they back up some of my fears: The shady “McCarthyism” approach to website shaming, by claiming that places like the Drudge Report are Russian-fake news sites.
I get it.. some are alt-right, wherever that term arose from this year I don’t quite yet know.. But there are also some very average ho-hum websites on there.. And suddenly, they are literally blacklisted
On the free web! On the information superhighway.. On a place where I thought everyone had and SHOULD HAVE a voice!?
Yes indeed.. this crackdown on 'fake news’ is going well beyond click bait.
Both sides are trying to brandish the other as fake. Information, in the mean time, is suffering.
The Drudge Report is as perfectly fine as the Raw Story or Buzzflash–I visit all three sites on a regular basis. And in no way do I want them 'banned.’
This rise of newfound 1984-style media shaming is going to become an Orweilian nightmare.
Nakedness quickly becoming the apt way to protest the Trump presidency.. 
7-year-old Tweets (his Twitter run by his mother) showcases the horror of Aleppo and lives of children during wartime.. 
Scientists claim: West Antarctic ice shelf is breaking up from the inside out.. // It’s generally accepted that it’s no longer a question of whether the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will melt, it’s a question of when,” said study leader Ian Howat, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State. “This kind of rifting behavior provides another mechanism for rapid retreat of these glaciers, adding to the probability that we may see significant collapse of West Antarctica in our lifetimes.”
All of the quakes and now this: Volcano erupts and fires three miles into the sky .. and triggers a quake in Mexico.. 
Celebrating the best female graffiti artists across the world .. a new film called GIRL POWER.. 
