Damn! 007 is already taken…
Bonus Music: Sammy Davis sings Bang! Bang!
It’s been a long dark winter of sickness and bad breath over here, just like Uncle Joe predicted. Well, not quite. But it did cut into the search for B-movies. Thankfully I have a significant Tubi backlog I can draw on. This one stood out to me. I do love a good 007 knockoff.
Previously I did the French knockoff series of OSS 117, which was a big hit here. Tonight it is the Italian’s turn. Espionage in Tangiers is not an intentional comedy, but it does fall firmly into B-movie territory. I really do enjoy going back and watching these post the Austin Powers decade. Austin Powers really crystallized the era so well. The heroes are macho sex machines, and the villains are perverse weirdos. Espionage in Tangiers is no exception.
Tonight our hero is search of a madman who has a death ray! He must the stopped before he sells the power to liquidate the world’s leadership to the highest bidder! Wait… Does he really have to be stopped? Maybe he can have a go for a minute first? Oh, alright then. Let Secret Agent 077 save the world from the terror of reduced government. It is a European film after all, and lack of government frightens them. As a bonus to those of you in the states, tonight’s film is dubbed so you English-only speakers can relax and take off the readers. I suspect drunken dubbing is the reason for some of the wackier dialogue.
So watch! Or don’t! Everything is voluntary! I am going to get back to coughing now. And lots of nose blowing. Next week, I am showing a film made of a play which roasts the welfare state – The National Health! I wanted to show it for a while, seems the time is right as we all leave this dark season of sickness.
Help! Tubi wants an account to sign in!
No account or sign-in is required to use Tubi. The only advantage to signing in is you can maintain a queue and save your place in movies you are watching. Follow these instructions to bypass the sign in:
After you click the link for the weekly movie, hit the Play button on the movie and you should get the screen shown below. The guest option may require scrolling up to see. Click the circled guest option to watch the film.
(h/t: The Hyperbole)
*hits play*
I don’t get what is going on with the negative credits. Just an unfathomable design choice.
That map wasn’t so great either.
One of the actors is named Joe Camel.
He was in a lot of sword and sandal movies.
The guy was in 50 or so films and he doesn’t even rate a picture on IMDB. That’s gotta hurt.
Blame the FTC.
Seems to sum up this evening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gw2_li3i4U
we’re just getting this party started, RJ. Don’t go killing the vibes with Ringo Star.
You are right. It’s the cold talking. Sammy Davis is far superior.
I’m here late. I’ll dive in in a few minutes.
Thanks to all who commented on je ne suis pas un Glockboi
It was a good article.
I enjoyed it.
I saw it, but haven’t looked at it yet. I think over the weekend I’ll catch up on my Glibs reading.
I’m not an EDC guy, at least not yet. Enjoyed the discussion, passed it on to my son in TX
A very good article Don, I happened to be busy and read it in hindsight.
Like 4×20, I don’t EDC, but if I did, it would be my Browning HP. Best gun for me, ever.
Very nice grip on those.
Dafuq? Every five minutes someone is randomly murdered.
IKR? Tangiers is worse than New Orleans.
How about DC?
Worse than Detroit?
You really need to do Italian Spiderman some time.
If only as an opening act.
That movie rocks. There is a bunch of Indian superhero films too, all great. I need to find them streaming for post nights.
What’s that Indian horror musical where the guy turns into Micheal Jackson?
I think that is Dr. Satan. Or at least it had a character named Dr. Satan in it.
I’m not finding an Indian Dr. Satan.
https://youtu.be/A2tOlfLEHZI
Well, I shall have to start digging around. I remember, the guy was in all black suit with a red shirt and a big gem necklace. Now I am going to obsess.
Right under your video was one for Indian Batman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1IfV8LWNws
There is also a Filipino Batman, but even Justin Whang can’t find that one.
Evan is not on Suicide Watch, but it would be nice to have some folk to talk to. I’m still fuming from yesterday. Actively scheming ways to vaingloriously get my time back from my captors. This isn’t healthy.
I’m much better than I was before. I’m certainly not out, driving, seen nor heard. (That might play into my descent.)
I think it’s a great idea for me to watch this. It’ll take some time for me to be ‘normal.’. Austin Powers 1 especially. (I never laughed harder than at Goldmember when it came out. I was 15. I can’t fathom enjoying it now. I’m FAR happier w the memory than the Adult Realization it was mostly terrible.) The first was when I was 10. I especially loved Dana Carvey w Myers. Multiple reasons.
Ev: Stop typing so much. This is a bad habit. Well. Often people say too much. Look at me now.
Look, I can’t say that watching discount movie night with me is good for your mental health.
Just don’t try any of this dude’s lame pick up lines.
I don’t mean to affront you nor the flick. Nor go OT.
I’m actively thinking of destroying something to get primate anger out. It’s night out and I don’t intend on hurting myself (I only semi-accidentally do that) nor Puppy.
I’m kinda seeking help. My emergency contact isn’t available. I tried calling. I sure as fuck ain’t calling certain folk.
I am not much good at that kind of help. But I can recommend lamps as decent low-cost breakable items.
I was on suicide watch a little over 3 years ago. That was when I was in the insane asylum. Involuntarily. People I thought were my friends lied to trap me in there. It sucked. Compared to your suffering, it seems like a hiccup.
I try see pain as a comedy, like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj6Mq5t8RQg
I would voluntarily go to an insane asylum. (Again?) It’s where I belong. Back in the day we’d be scribes for The Church. Just feed us and we’re smart. We can write and clean up and do shit. It’s what we’re good at. (We’ll keep our whoring private. Well. I will.)
I have no internal desire to exist. I only do such for the rudeness would be objectionable.
We’d get along well. In many ways, this should be encouraged. I bet we have interesting work to share/edit.
I was thinking the same thing. In medieval times, I’d probably lead the quiet life of a monk and festoon illuminated manuscripts from the ancient texts I was copying.
Whatever you must do, whatever it takes, just find an excuse to win. Keep going. I promise in the end it will be worth it. It was for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in8pgvJfM28
Finding ways to win IS a reason to exist.
Eat or be eaten + We are social primates.
Win, or die. Hate to say it, but I’d rather die on my feet. Not dragged to an ER like yesterday. The Incident would be acceptable. No one else was (physically) hurt.
Have you heard of Floyd Thompson? He spent 9 years as a POW, longer than any other US soldier.
***
Thompson spent the next nine years (3,278 days) as a prisoner of war, first at the hands of the Viet Cong in the South Vietnam forests, until he was moved in 1967 to the Hanoi prison system.[6] During his captivity, he was tortured, starved, and isolated from other American POWs.[7] His captors pressured him to sign statements proving that the United States’ involvement in Vietnam was criminal. He refused and was beaten, choked and hanged by his thumbs. They also tied his elbows behind his back and hung him from a rafter until he passed out. At night he was tossed into a tiny wooden cage, where he was handcuffed and shackled in leg irons.[4] At one point, Thompson did not speak to another American for over five years. In January 1973, Thompson was transferred to Hỏa Lò Prison.[4] He was released with the other POWs in mid-March 1973 in Operation Homecoming.
…
He had difficulty adjusting to a vastly changed peacetime Army. In addition, Thompson’s marriage had been troubled even before his captivity, and his wife Alyce, believing him dead, was living with another man at the time he was repatriated. He and his wife divorced in 1975. Alyce told author Tom Philpott that she believed prison had affected her husband’s mind. She said he suffered from nightmares and was abusive towards both her and the children.[8] Thompson later remarried but divorced soon afterwards. Thompson never formed any kind of a relationship with his children. His daughters were 6, 5 and 4 when he left, and his son was born the day of his capture. Only his eldest child barely remembered him. He eventually became completely estranged from all of them.
Thompson said that one of the things that helped him cope with his brutal imprisonment was thinking of the fine family that awaited his return. He developed a very serious drinking problem and was in several military hospitals for treatment.[2]: 349
In 1977, Thompson attempted suicide with an overdose of pills and alcohol.[2]: 430 His superiors told author Philpott that had it not been for Thompson’s status as a hero, he would have been dismissed from service because of his alcoholism. In 1981, while still on active duty, Thompson suffered a massive heart attack and a severe stroke. He was in a coma for months and was left seriously disabled. He was paralyzed on one side and could speak only in brief phrases for the rest of his life.
***
His retirement speech, as read by a friend:
***
I am honored to receive this award (the Distinguished Service Medal) today but at the same time I am saddened to be leaving active military service. The Army has been my life and I am proud of each of my twenty-five years of service.
Of those 25 years, I spent nine as prisoner of war. Those days were grim, and survival was a struggle. I was able to withstand that long agony because I never lost my determination to live—no matter how painful that became—because I love my country and never lost faith in her, and because I had dreams of what my life would be like upon my return to America. Those dreams were always, unquestionably, of a life that was Army. I found that the dream of continued service gave me a goal that helped me survive my years as a POW.
After my return from Vietnam, the opportunity to serve became the motivating force in my life. Military service has given me my greatest challenges and my greatest rewards. I have worked hard for sound leadership development in the Army and for realistic training. The greatest problem faced by POWs was fear of the unknown. This fear can be reduced, not only for the potential POW but across the awesome environment of the battlefield, by training which is honest enough to address the real issue of combat and which is tough enough to approximate battlefield conditions.
No, I do not now retire freely—there was much I still wanted to do—but circumstances present me no alternative. I leave active military service because I must. But for the rest of my life, the Army will be no less a part of me, and of what I am, than what it has always been.
Colonel Floyd James Thompson
January 29, 1982[10]
***
I’d be best behind enemy lines. Ya don’t wanna waste me up front. I, we, learn locals, their ways and means to survive. I have been paid to hire and assist others through this transition. Fucking pussies, most, can’t understand nor handle the adversity they put themselves in.
We do. And we’re good at it. Shockingly so. We’re best apt to mock the plebes who can’t muster such. To our credit and detriment, I do not encourage folk to exist the way I do. It’s a lonely landscape. Despite all continents I’ve lived in. Who can walk where I have? Not many. I wouldn’t wish them on my brain-damaged journey.
It HAS been exciting. I’ll give it that.
I blow a kiss to every bridge I’ve burned, because I’ve lived in places most people are afraid to fly over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgeIINs1TrQ
Um. I actively want folk to note: I am unwell.
I do not expect this evening to go well. I have much booze. I’m finding help in the Boston NHL comeback.
Let it be known I said something to someone about this.
It doesn’t sound like drinking much would help.
Agreed. Put the booze outside and stop.
Drinking more is what I’ll do! I’ve got 11 more drinks! No! Actually closer to 15. It’ll put me to sleep.
Yes.
My “yes” is agreeing with R.J.
Not waking up seems nice. My plan revolves around fauna eating my corpse long before others find me.
Note to everyone: My titanium is worth a LOT. Like. I’ve got proper hardware in me. So. probably hard to ‘disappear.’
I was really hoping to not need this song tonight, but you’ve forced my hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgXlRr4VLPI
My self-control collapsed during an xmas visit with parents. I got plastered, fell, and ended up with nasty bruise. Fortunately, later I was able to help my mom to her feet after she slipped out of bed and was unable to get up.
The reason obstacle courses are a standard part of military training is the work of a French cop named Georges Herbert. His motto was: be strong to be helpful.
Those are good words to live by. I’ve been trying to turn my scars into souvenirs and my pain into power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IowZqZHJ-cA
***
Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision difficult.
***
The guy who wrote the Hippocratic Oath said that.
I had a rant to myself about why ink is stupid. I can’t think of a single thing I had ten years ago I’d like to preserve. If I wanted preserved then, it’s ongoing. I have no NEW thing worthy of such. Especially not permanently. (Ink mostly is.)
My scars are mine. I have so many. Some are quite large. Others take time to explore in the IV of an ER when you’ve got time. I still have needle marks from yesterday, but I’ve never needled myself. Still such great veins. Many weep for their lack.
It’s odd. You seem like a happier man the me. You’ve certainly had more romantic success. And spent more time overseas.
The words “happy” and “happen” are related. It was a common belief for a long time that happiness was a matter of luck.
Many times when I’ve felt depressed, I reflect on the time Teddy Roosevelt gave a 90-minute speech after getting shot in the chest. And that was one of the easier things he did.
I have had romantic success. I lived/ worked abroad for 13 years.
Luck requires opportunity and skill to take advantage.
Most lack. Ya miss all the shots ya don’t take.
You can’t in if you don’t play. That’s on my listen of rules.
***
At birth, people are almost the same. By habit, they become very different.
-Confucius
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
-Albert Einstein
Religion is regarded by the wise as false, the foolish as true, and the rulers as useful.
-Seneca the Younger
People who try to drag you down are already beneath you.
-Unknown
A journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step.
-Lao Tzu
You can’t win if you don’t play.
-Unknown
If you follow all the rules, you miss all the fun.
-Mae West
Better alone than with bad company.
-Unknown
There’s no point in tiptoeing through life just to arrive safely at death.
-Various
At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.
-Italian proverb
***
Everything that which is not First is a game.
That which is First is life.
To First is to live.
To second is to die.
“The more you first the faster you will die.
If they blow up that magnificent Cadillac for this movie, I will be pissed.
I like the old cars in this movie.
I see the Cadillac.
It reminds me of an interesting sight I saw while walking in Vienna. I left the Wiener Metropol after a concert. I was walking back to the U-Bahnstelle. I walked past a Cadillac with a Fleetwood body parked on the streets of Vienna.
Bob’s Discount Furniture commercials in Spanish. That’s new.
Bonus Music – I prefer Nancy’s song.
And she has her boots on in the event she takes a stroll with Patsy
She um, She’s got very long legs.
Huge tracts…..of….land!
Which one of the guys in this casket shop is Pie?
He’s in the third coffin on the left…
That was an interesting movie. Thanks RJ!
Glad you liked it. See you next week!
Finally, movie time.
Good Heavens. Mayhem and murder.
Nice legs.
+1 Judo-chopping.
At least he’s better at fighting than kissing.
Happy Friday morn!
☕😃
What’s that? Oh, “We were mostly joking about that snow.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oA3pESvUl3I
🎶🎶
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/philadelphia-pa-weather-forecast-snow-january-2024/
❄❄❄
We’re still supposed to get five inches over the weekend here.
😒
Well, time to get on the road and resume griping from the office.
And I know I’ll be getting texts “are we still shooting Winter Syeel in the snow?”
Well, are we?
It will be cancelled only if I am physically unable to get to the range. Which I can walk to.
Good morning, Sean and U!
Is the TV weather report sponsored by the big local grocery chain? Did the forecast cause you to go stock up on bread, milk, and eggs?
Enjoy your French toast!
I’m somewhat miffed that yet again the store was bereft of cheese curds, and had none of my usualy breakfast salads available. I did get a different salad, but its a worse dollar value in terms of real food/price ratio
I’m sorry. The lack of cheese curds really is unforgivable. And I bet it’s the only convenient store on the way to your office. 😒
The others either require going several miles in the wrong direction, or rapidly crossing two lanes of traffic to catch an exit off the highway, then coming back to the same exit and re-crossing those lanes to get where I need to be for the rest of the commute. I don’t even think that one carries cheese curds normally anyway.
Is the TV weather report sponsored by the big local grocery chain?
The locals here are in full panic mode. Managed to cop the last gallon of spring water (for covfefe) yesterday. A few inches of snow = apocalyse.
I find the local response to snow confusing.
Each year, the first flake elicits panic, but after that, we could get feet of accumulation and just shrug.
“Recycle” your Christmas tree.
https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/lehighvalley/have-an-old-christmas-tree-some-farm-animals-in-lehigh-county-would-like-the-special/article_158a57f2-ab52-11ee-961e-034704e7ea4c.html
Morning Sean and UCS
Waiting on the snow here but not very much expected. Nothing on the ground yet this winter.
Good morning, 4(20)! A bit chilly here at the moment – only 19 degrees – but I’m hoping there were enough clouds to keep the frost off my windshield. A little snow here forecast for the weekend, but not much accumulation.
Morning GT, we’re at 22 and the forecast keeps reducing the expectations. Radar shows nothing but forecast says freezing mist right now.
Otherside of the river its 23. Had to scrape a bit this morning before heading into work.
Welcome to winter in the tri-state area!
Brr. 23 here, we should get a bit of snow over the weekend. If tbe storm is a bit farther south/east than expected we could get a lot of snow. A bit off in the other direction, we get rain
Morning.
Paraphrased –
Automated Email: “Your SSL Certificate is expiring in a month”
Me: “Do you have any idea how little that narrows things down?”
Some win, some lose. I’ll take a look back in April and decide but so far I’m a winner.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/warmer-winter-weather-headaches-businesses-rely-seasonal-tourism
Mornin’, reprobates! Mornin’, UCS!
Morning.
How goes it today?
Pretty good. Not bad. Can’t complain.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pawMsxhOjIA
Cousin is in from Idaho, meeting her for breakfast tomorrow. Originally planning on dinner, weather says no to that. She is amused at our reaction to “winter”.
Good morning, ‘patzie!
Until I clicked the link I thought it would be S.D. Jr singing a version of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WMdNzQhYzY
Mornin’ all! No snow here for another few days, although the local forecast is extremely unreliable.
Happy Weekend Eve everyone! First one this year, too 😉
Fridays are awful, I had been blissfully ignoring the fact that another one had snuck its way into my calendar until you reminded me.
You can find a way to be joyless about anything, can’t you? It’s really tiresome.
I really hope it’s just his schtick, otherwise being such a hateful miserable person must be a sad existence.
I see you don’t pay attention. Good to know.
Good morning, Beau!
Apparently Ozzy is now the former Prince of Darkness.
Has he been born again?
Eh? I did find this.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/entertainment-celebrity/ozzy-osbourne-reacts-to-bizarre-death-rumors-as-wife-sharon-s-health-declines/ar-AA1mbjon
Nice Python reference.
Ah, I must have fallen for a hoax article.
Or AI reporting.