I checked twice, and Kong: Skull Island so far is not on the “Leaving Soon” list. So tonight we get a genuine blockbuster! In case you are wondering, Warner Brothers navigated the licensing waters for Godzilla and Kong, et al. and made a whole series of monster films called Monsterverse. I definitely approved, but the Kong side of the equation started off on a slow, serious foot with a Peter Jackson directed movie epic. This movie, on the other hand, plays it just about perfect. It is funny, it is fast and raucous, and if you saw this on the big screen it is beautiful. It is exactly what you think Warner Brothers should be doing – making monster movie roller coasters to help pass the spring and summer days.
There sure seems to be a lot of kaiju films lately. Warner Brothers has continued to crank out these Kaiju/Pro Wrestling movies in recent years, and as those come available for free streaming I will post them. These movies came out in theaters, also on cable oddly enough. Count that as a side-effect of the COVID lockdowns. Meanwhile, Toho reclaimed the serious side of Godzilla with the absolutely excellent Godzilla – Minus One. Prior to that, we had Shin Godzilla (which is getting a remaster and re-release this August!) and Shin Ultraman (posted here), Consider these studios as two sides of the coin. Both are great at what they do and it is nice to be in a new golden age of kaiju films!
So what is Kong: Skull Island about? After the Vietnam War, a monster chaser and a group of soldiers venture into an uncharted island to look for the entrance to Hollow Earth, and they discover Kong instead. Hilarity ensues! The movie poster’s resemblance to Apocalypse Now was intentional. The original script was going to borrow heavily from Apocalypse Now and have a subplot about going to look for a renegade soldier who was still murdering natives after the Vietnam war had ended. That was tossed, but the poster and parts of that subplot stayed. I think the move was better for losing that plot.
So watch! Or don’t! Everything is voluntary until a giant ape sits on your head! Next week, we will be watching an Aussie sci-fi film entitled Sons of Steel.
Is it better than Vogon poetry (I hope?) 😳
Yes!
Also I found an excellent night light to accompany this post:
https://a.co/d/bsJX8Zk
Perfect for the kid’s room!
Would you like me to recite My Favorite Bathtime Gurgles in Spanish?
I had no Google that reference.
“Godzilla – Minus One”
I still haven’t seen it.
Extremely solid. Will recommend.
Excellent movie.
I concur with “the absolutely excellent Godzilla – Minus One.”
I thought the immediate post-war setting was just genius. And so well done.
Me too. It’s apparently fantastic and right up my alley.
*kicks pebble*
“I love the smell of a giant ape in the morning.”
*Inserts STEVE SMITH joke
Shin Godzilla (which is getting a remaster and re-release this August!)
🤦♂️
https://ibb.co/8g3t8w92
That is awesome and fancy!
I crossed off my bucket list watching a Godzilla movie in Tokyo. Awesome. No English subtitles so just puzzling out what was going on (and surprisingly not that hard).
Anyone who can’t stop looking at the movie playing two rows up on an airplane knows that it’s surprisingly easy to figure out things with zero sound.
Guilty as charged.
Tuesday?
Nice. I almost did Kimi no wa while I was there.
Never did a film. My goal is a rakugo performance.
https://youtu.be/JoKwrVmRPZI?si=MpsWH_jO7NXVbhyg
This English version of A Cruel Angel’s Thesis is ichiban genki desu yo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmJ5oBdJTXQ
It amuses me that kampai (cheers!) in Japanese is garbled Chinese for gan bei (empty the cup!)
I heard a story about a non-Japanese who meant to say kampai but said opai (boobs) instead.
Jozu desu neh!
Cruel Angel’s Thesis is like a nationwide Japanese karaoke guilty pleasure. It’s like stuck in the top 100 karaoke signs of all time. I actually know the lyrics to a good bit of it.
I had no idea kanpai was bastardized actual Chinese. It’s usually written in hiragana. Kanji per my dictionary is 乾杯.
Mind you the Chinese for a toast is “chinchin”. I believe it is supposed to be the sound of the glasses clinking.
I always laugh because:
ちんちん, チンチン “chinchin”
noun
1. penis (children’s language)
adverb, と-adverb
2. with a tinkle, with a jingle (mimetic word)
3. with a whistle (of a kettle) (mimetic word)
noun, suru verb
4. sitting up and begging (of a dog)
noun
5. juvenile black porgy (Kantou-ben) (see also: 黒鯛)
6. children’s game in which one hops on one foot (see also: ちんちんもがもが)
な-adjective
7. very hot (e.g. of tea) (Aichi dialect)
noun
8. flirting, fondling (obsolete term) (see also: ちんちんかもかも)
9. jealousy (obsolete term)
Much of my knowledge of spoken Chinese comes from this WW2 manual:
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2024/01/excerpts-from-ww2-era-us-military.html
It came in handy when I actually went to China. Rando westerners were asking me to interpret for them.
There is lots of crossover Chinese in Japanese, but it’s generally the way it sounded to a Japanese speaker when they heard a Chinese dialect roughly 1,000 years ago.
Rarely the words line up exactly otherwise not so much. However, Chinese reading for kanji is known as onyomi or sound reading. Native reading is called kunyomi.
black gospel choir sings about a cruel angel’s thesis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfd_4LHzNHY
Yup. Endless variations.
https://youtu.be/dpE1l7gR1PE?si=ngdV0A1iHN_fVxiB
Just me and the dog tonight, so I’m in! On the big screen, even.
Your wife was kidnapped by ninjas so you need money for karate lessons?
Close – traveling for work. She fled to L.A. to avoid the Boston heat.
Ask her how she is enjoying the lawlessness.
RIP Bill Moyers & Lalo Schifrin
I’m too young to remember him as press secretary & political hack so I first recall him as a PBS series host. Before he returned to political hack.
Saw Lalo Schifrin’s passing mentioned on the dead thread. I’m the geek that reads the credits on films and noticed his name on many a film I like.
Japanese officers in WW2 had Mausers?
Arisaka borrowed some ideas from Mauser.
The IJN also bought VZ-24 rifles from Brno.
Not a rifle, this looked like a broom-handle pistol.
See, that’s the kind of pedantry I come to Glibs for.
OH! Now that I’m in, I see the Japanese pilot has a C96.
There were units in the Kwangtung Army, Korean police, and home guard that used the C96. The Japanese captured a lot from the Chinese. Japanese officers, if I remember correctly, could also purchase their own pistols.
I hope Giganta, https://images.app.goo.gl/KHufSQBYHDKmULgG6
fights Kong.
Hung out with the nephew today and told him about the old (like 15 yrs) DC Universe online. Giganta is in it. We decided we’d each create a character and do some co-op play….3hrs after booting the game and it’s still updating from the last time I played it like 2 years ago. At 26% now. The fun of modern games and slow internet.
That sucks.
Are giganta and gigantor the same thing?
No, Giganta doesn’t have a catchy theme song.
The Dickies covered the Gingator song.
I’m old enough to have seen Gigantor on TV when I was a kid.
She’s got man hands, man.
Looks like my old supervisor. At work, behind her back, we called her “Big Red”. Also, would.
I’m late, but I’m going to dive in.
Meanwhile, Toho reclaimed the serious side of Godzilla with the absolutely excellent Godzilla – Minus One.
That was excellent.
Prior to that, we had Shin Godzilla (which is getting a remaster and re-release this August!)
I’ve heard good things about Shin Godzilla but I have not seen it yet.
After the Vietnam War, a monster chaser and a group of soldiers venture into an uncharted island to look for the entrance to Hollow Earth, and they discover Kong instead.
I’m reminded of D&D.
NO!!!!!!
I got “Content Unavailable”
It is available. You might need to go into Tubi, and search for Kong to get it. It has five days left. It is not unavailable.
I tried searching. Still coming up unavailable.
This is terrible. New Hampshire blackout?
No Mass blackout, at any rate.
Tubi is working for me.
DEG’s issue is solved.
I sent you a direct link from Tubi mobile.
It worked. I had to enable DRM in Firefox.
Thanks!
Unavailable here as well (I’m in Canada, that may be my reason).
I have a special link to try:
https://link.tubi.tv/MRxrjx0NwUb
Alas, ’tis still showing “Content Unavailable” here.
VPN
I took a date to this movie in 2017 when I was at DLI. I liked the part at the end when the old WW2 pilot was finally back home eating a hotdog, drinking a beer, and watching a baseball game, just like he had fantasized about for many years.
***
Floyd “Jim” Thompson was an Army Special Forces Capt. who was held prisoner of war longer than any other POW in American history. He spent 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. During his captivity, he was tortured, starved, and isolated from other American POWs.
***
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_James_Thompson
Principal Skinner, POW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LZlD76DD3M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfxabSYFs88
Wouldn’t a high strung Kong sized ape roast or at least heat stroke out from his own body temperature? Like the space movies with the admittedly cool sounding rocket engines in the vacuum I just can’t quite get past it.
Joy Reid is still alive.
Sick burn
CT from the top rope!
Yes. Mass triples as size doubles. Giant ‘X’ doesn’t work IRL – they’d collapse under their own weight alone, nevermind the heat issues.
I found that comforting as a young land freaked out by ‘THEM’.
*lad
Back when the Internet was awesome
Huh, I miss the old internet. Reminds me of feastofhateandfear.com and a million other sites I guess. A visually appealing but bygone aesthetic.
Ants are exoskeletal, apes aren’t. The largest arthropod is the coconut crab, but there were huge dinosaurs who were very bigly. Many people are saying this.
True, but you couldn’t just scale up an ape. It’d have to look very different.
How about that giant bamboo leg spider?
Heat transfer and bone density is the reason there are no dinosaur-size land mammals. Also, the current oxygen concentration is too low for dinosaurs and giant insects.
Also, there are no vertebrates below a certain size. Exoskeletons have diminishing returns.
“Exoskeletons have diminishing returns”
True, but I think the 02 levels have been constant — existence of charcoal. Too high, everything just burns, but cyanobacteria saved that from that long before animals.
Huh, TIL:
***
Oxygen levels 65 million years ago were much lower than they are today, and reports have suggested that there was only half as much oxygen present in the atmosphere as there is now. Surprisingly, even though there was little oxygen, dinosaurs were quick, agile, and ruled the food chain.
***
***
When insects are reared in a low oxygen atmosphere, they grow to a much smaller than normal size. It is thought that the very high oxygen levels during the Carboniferous and Permian eras enabled the evolution of giant insects. This chart shows estimated oxygen levels over geological time.
***
There are monster dragonflies in Florida today. One nearly flew off with my hat the other day.
***
With single wing length reaching 32 centimetres (13 in)[2] and a wingspan about 65–75 cm (2.13–2.46 ft),[3][4][5] M. monyi is one of the largest-known flying insect species.
***
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura
I am fairly certain that Meganeura is also a Godzilla universe monster name.
When the ‘Bangkok, Thailand’ title card came up on the screen, my brain instantly filled in “🎶 Oriental city 🎶”
I used to have that for my ringtone. I will NEVER get sick of that song. However, I got tired of the spam calls so now my ringtone is Foghorn Leghorn saying, “Go away, boy, ya bother me.”
Jay Mohr and Adam Corolla were recently riffing on that.
Sweet, I’ll have to check in; I have fallen off my podcast listening.
Jay is always, always, a great guest.
Well, I finally decided to go to work today, after nearly calling in last night. I was only 41 minutes late. *punches self* Left hand was extra shaky, but it never crossed to my right hand, and I didn’t have a hallucination, olfactory or otherwise.
I pulled myself from (part of) The Game, telling boss-boss I didn’t think the two-hour outdoor assignment, the ‘easiest task (for me) to screw up, would be advisable. He was amiable and I got set up with something else. That isn’t an easy conversation to begin.
Thanks for letting me vent and spitball with Mo+ on the zoomies yesterday eve. Many big thoughts, and perhaps a bigger decision determined. Eek.
You should be proud of yourself. There are many people using the social safety net as a hammock who have not been hurt nearly as badly as you.
There was a great Penn & Teller episode about the American Disability Act. One of the guests had severe birth defects and ended up in orphanage. Even so, he was determined to be independent and now earns a good living as a tech writer.
When I was losing weight to join the Army, my mom took me to church to hear this wonderful and amazing man, Craig Dietz, speak about his challenges and his triumphs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg1zl1tHcFI
Thank you. I *mostly* am, cuz my phys recovery has been quite remarkable, and I’ve added a few professional accomplishments. Both ended badly, but experience, insight and stories gained. I don’t imagine it will fully go to waste.
Best compliment I’ve received a handful of times, was folk telling me that they’d never have guessed. I’m blessed to have a loving, supportive family, and Medicaid has been good to me.
Largely, I think *I* get in the way of myself, I’m by far my own worst enemy. (Cue Lit song.) To be fair, it ain’t ‘easy,’ but a quick look at Dietz, and damn. Hats off to him. I doubt I could do that and I don’t wanna. I’m glad Dad taught me ‘complaining’ (alone) is a nasty, negative waste. If Dietz can kinda ‘shock’ people into understanding that, he’s done his job. Hard to not listen to that man.
/dedthread: The t-rex soldier is highly reminiscent of one of Calvin’s greatest imaginary playcraft. I remember reading the final C&H strip in the paper in ’95, when I was 8. A tremendous author and illustrator. Highest respect and praise for Waterson.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/candh/images/5/5b/T-Rex_Jet.png/revision/latest?cb=20120718013637
I keep pausing, for $reasons, but this movie suffers from basic monster movie issues – why would you get anywhere near the reach of the giant, aggressive monkey in your helicopter?
You could, you know, just got up, if nothing else.
Also at some point an attractive female will somehow lose most of her clothing.
That’s what usually happens on Thursdays.
What! It does?
Oh. You meant on screen. Rats.
But it’s too late – I’ve seen everything.
You make that sound bad.
Of course it does. Eat some popcorn and try to ignore it. Honestly after the first attack there should have been a full retreat and appraisal. Only an idiot would think a gun would have any effect on that other than to piss it off.
Why .50 cal or the mini-gun don’t significantly damage the monkey? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I mean, shoot a whale with a .50 cal…
(do not, actually, shoot whales with your .50 cal)
Paging Ozymandias to the white courtesy phone….
Yes! I keep thinking, “Ozzy would not approve of this engagement doctrine”.
The 1970s Kong is fought with and killed in a more realistic fashion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6Xbfyz0aXM
Im torn on where to take my next article towards….
Pie in the sky thinking of replacing every radar (600 of them) or what we should be focusing on and fast tracking
How about the benefits of privatizing ATC?
Looks like Kong is in lust.
Sounds like Rule 34.
That was good. The ending was great.
Thanks RJ!
Wait… there’s more after the credits?
huh. Looks like a teaser of more Monsterverse movies.
Tall 607 tumbler!
Back home from my quick jaunt to NYC. Why didn’t I take tomorrow off??
That’s an excellent question.
The answer is I just returned from a long leave and I don’t wanna push it.
Push it. You know slumbrew would.
https://youtu.be/vCadcBR95oU?si=FXCptLLHQYPKJfP-
“I’m pushing it real good.”
/Geico (?) commercial
Rhywun: Nextel.
Yeah, that was short-sighted.
Bree Larson would be the biggest star in Hollywood if she wasn’t so unpleasant IRL – she’s physically lovely and a good-enough actress.
She was beautiful before she became an insufferable cunt.
That sounds right.
I’m tired of being anti-Semitic.
I nominate Song Of The South for next week.
I appreciate the change.
The dead eyes zOMG.
Not to mention the blatant antisemitism. *swoon*
An anti-semitic commie…mayor of NYC. Donald Trump is president and he is doing pretty well. The Terminator is a documentary.
I am not buying this. None of this is real. Someone is slipping LSD into my coffee, aren they?
Whites went overwhelmingly for the guy. I’d presume in NYC that included a hell of a lot of Jews, not that he isn’t anti Jew but it shows that it’s politics uber alles.
Y’all are all sleeping in, aren’t you?
This is why I miss so many good articles….I am asleep by 6pm and up between 12 and 3 am.
So I will type to myself.
Had an interesting conversation yesterday with my son. We discussed something from here…the change in culture from when I grew up to now and the nature of violence in our culture. We got around to talking about the phenomena of ‘The Shoeless People’. Outside the US a lot mores than here everyone has ‘The Shoeless Ones’ or some equivalent phrase to describe people that own nothing outside maybe a pair of pants. These are very dangerous people because they have nothing to lose. In fact, if they commit a crime and are imprisoned they are sometimes better off than just wandering around in the world free. This makes them very dangerous and unpredictable. We discussed the concept of ‘nothing to lose’ and how it shapes behavior and how that kind of violence is more primal than the sort of violence you see in honor cultures.
He made an interesting comparison of the shoeless people to his generation…the participation trophy generation. He claims they aren’t suffering the kind of tangible poverty that a lot of third worlders do but they suffer from a spiritual poverty that makes them feel they have nothing to lose. They own nothing and, in his words, live by subscription. I think I know what he means by that. He also said our incentives were “You have to do this or that to get a home, pension, purpose” and so on but his generation did not. They are the first generation not as well off as their parents and they are very resentful about it. They dont have prospects for those things so they have no incentive to play by the rules or keep propping this system up. He may be exaggerating…after all he himself has done very well. what he is telling me is from his observations of his peers.
One of his employees…an early thirties guy….said “Why should I pay for their pensions and medical care? None of those things are going to be there for me. They (boomers and my generation) want us to pay for their old age but they have looted the system for themselves and left nothing for us. I am not paying that shit.”
It doesnt matter if the guy is right or not. What matters is that that is a common attitude and outlook for that generation. They didnt just make that up out of thin air, they got the idea from somewhere.
I looked just now and cant find it but there is a Youtube channel run by a girl named Erika R. She is still up but her earlier videos seem to be gone. I dont remember why I found her but she stuck in my head. Her first video was a profession that she is 21 and completely adrift in the world without any purpose. Her subsequent videos were a desperate search for hobbies or activities that she could find purpose in. In other words she is the personification of what my son is talking about. I think she stuck in my head because I found her situation unacceptable. Apparently that is common.
It occurs to me now while I am typing there is a subset of that crowd suffering the same spiritual poverty but it comes out differently – the Only Fans girls.
I am going to shut up now and get more coffee. This is depressing me.
Hey, I read it and that’s good. I have thoughts, but time to bounce.
I’m drinking (probably counterfeit) whisky in the China Southern lounge at CAN so I don’t have a great grasp of time right now or whether this thread is still timely.
But “spiritual poverty” is a good way to put it. My own kids are 16-24 and are NOT afflicted, but they definitely have visibility to the world you’re describing. I think if I tried to come up with what it really is, or especially where it came from, I’d have a hard time not pinning it on a few of my favorite hobby-horses. But I don’t think I’m wrong either. That generation was (for the most part) actively and willfully destroyed. The Proggies tore down every single Chesterton’s fence just because they were Chesterton’s fences. It was (and is) nihilistic kulturkrieg.
There’s thankfully some pushback, but what do you do with a generation who know nothing but lies about the world, or even their own history, in a country with a devalued currency occupied by an invading army numbering in the millions, and which they’ve been taught to hate? The answer is “repent and believe”, and then some…
Mornin’, glibblets. Commute begins in 20, and I’m feeling fresh.
Conquer the day.
Good morning to everyone not named John Thune!
🌅😎🌴
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrriKcwvlY
🎶🎶
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/septa-board-votes-cut-service-raise-fares/
SEPTA does the reasonable thing.
PPA says it’s their turn.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/ppa-hiking-center-city-parking-fees-for-first-time-in-a-decade/4219826/
https://www.fox29.com/news/loomis-armored-truck-driver-robbed-while-making-delivery-aldis-police
Everyone likes a good heist film.
“ suspects fled the scene with approximately $1,000 in cash”
Oh. Never mind.
They should have hit them at a high-end grocer.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/06/big-balls-is-back/
Yay! 🤣😂
You like Big Balls and you cannot lie?
Some balls are held for charity, some for fancy-dress.
suh’ fam
yo whats goody
A lot of people seem to be taking Friday off.
yes, I took today off.
Not me. P00p incinerator project is done (for now) so its catch-up office stuff and my 3-hour commute to the (937).
Not I. I ended up working a half day yesterday since my annual physical (plus travel) took way longer than anticipated.
I got shit to do.
Good morning, homey, Ted’S., U, slummy, Roat, Sean, EfE, Suthen and Stinky, and good whatever it is where you are, Piney!
The site made me enter my username and password twice and do math just to log in, then made me enter my password a third time in order to comment. I’m trying not to take it personally.
😯
Are we sure you are really you?
How goes?
I can’t imagine anyone else wanting to be me, so I’m stuck with it.
It goes well, thanks! We got some rain yesterday, which has momentarily cooled things off a bit…but promises quite the steambath when the temperatures rise back into the 90s again this afternoon. 🥵
How are you?
Well, I have to day off. I’m going to try to zero the optic today.
Our weather isn’t any better than yours.
Can you do that in a nice, indoor, climate-controlled range, or will you have to be outside?
It’s covered but effectively outside.
What is the point of Spectrum emailing me telling me my internet is out?
I knew my internet was out at 1am. I can’t get to my email when my internet is down.
You don’t have any data on your phone plan?
Phones have got nothing to do with email.
I’m sorry you don’t want to be able to see your email in an emergency like your home internet being out.
I don’t want someone to be able to make a mess of my life by walking away with one easily pilfered device.
You phone-centric freaks are asking for trouble.
You can’t use your phone as a mobile hotspot?
Only if I pay more.
Car news you can use:
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/stellantis-issues-rare-stop-drive-recall-for-uk-drivers-adbx11x1JNof
Oh no! Anyway…
“Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s A-list wedding guests flee after heavy thunderstorm ruins welcome party”
https://pagesix.com/2025/06/26/celebrity-news/jeff-bezos-and-lauren-sanchezs-wedding-guests-caught-in-thunderstorm/
Ironic.
“I’m ‘Dr. Butthole’ — beware this warning sign that could lead to a scary ‘silent disease’ ”
https://nypost.com/2025/06/27/health/dr-butthole-reveals-warning-sign-that-could-lead-to-silent-disease/
STIJLTH
Is everyone asleep?