Off to La Crosse

Headline News

If you got the chance to catch last night's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart then you probably got to see the segment on the Turkish movie, Kurtlar vadisi - Irak, aka Valley of the Wolves - Iraq. Citing a host of international actors as well as American actors Billy Zane and Gary Busey, the film has long been No. 1 in Turkey, grossing some $5 million in its opening weekend.

According to Time Europe Magazine, "The movie high jinks of a Turkish Rambo who single-handedly takes on U.S. forces in lawless northern Iraq are filling cinemas across Turkey, America's only predominantly Muslim nato ally. Valley of the Wolves Iraq, which is set to break Turkish box-office records, shows U.S. soldiers in Iraq as they raid a wedding, machine-gun the guests, and take survivors to a prison where a Jewish doctor removes their organs for rich people in the West. Subtle it ain't, but Turks are in a frenzy over it. Advance tickets sold out weeks ago; cabinet ministers, businessmen and even the Prime Minister's wife and daughters packed the glitzy premiere in the capital Ankara."

"Valley of the Wolves Iraq opens with a real-life incident. In July 2003, 11 Turkish commandos were detained by U.S. troops in the Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah. Pictures showing the detained men cuffed and with sacks over their heads provoked outrage in Turkey, where nationalist sentiment runs deep. The film proceeds to pile on fiction. Turkish intelligence officer Polat Alemdar heads to north Iraq to seek out the U.S. troops responsible and avenge Turkish honor. There he discovers a rogue unit of U.S. soldiers led by officer Sam William Marshall, played by Billy Zane. After much blood-letting, Alemdar and his men bond with Iraqis and eventually end American atrocities there, killing Zane in the final scene. "I was fascinated by a compelling character who gave a platform to a controversial point of view that rarely gets a forum," Zane told Time." [Continue reading the Time article]

I wonder if Americans are going to get upset over this film. I also wonder if those same people remember how Native Americans, Italians, and Middle Easterners were and are represented in American film as savages, gangsters and terrorists. Stewart was right on the money as usual.

Valley of the Wolves - Iraq Official Site
BBC article on the film
MSNBC article on the film
Article from The American Thinker
Article on CNN.com

Other news

From the New York Times: Illinois student newspaper prints Muslim cartoons, and reaction is swift. An excerpt:

"...Other student newspapers, including those at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Arizona State University and the University of Arizona, have published their own cartoons that comment on or refer to the controversial cartoons.

The issue has prompted letters to the editor, community meetings and public forums. Officials at the University of Wisconsin were organizing a forum in Madison for next week after The Badger Herald on Monday ran one of the cartoons, one that portrayed Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb.

"Universally, we found the cartoon to be repugnant," said Mac VerStandig, the editor in chief of The Badger Herald. "But we believe that there was a certain endangerment of free speech here, especially given the general prudishness of the American press. We believe our readers are mature enough to look at these images..." [Continue reading the NY Times article].

Sports

BARDONECCHIA, Italy (AP) -- Lindsey Jacobellis had the Olympic women's snowboardcross won, and then -- incredibly, inexcusably -- she made one last move on the next-to-last jump and fell.

She lost.

Coasting to what should have been an easy victory, the American grabbed her board on the way to the finish line. It caused her to fall and while she scrambled to her feet, Switzerland's Tanja Frieden sped past and became the first champion in the strange and wild sport of Olympic women's snowboardcross Friday. [Continue reading the SI.com article]

NBA: Some huge blowouts in the NBA last night as Chicago beat Philly 117-84 and Phoenix trumped Houston, 109-75. Don't forget, the All-Star Game is Sunday.

Weekend

I'm heading down to La Crosse tonight, home of my undergrad alma-matta UW-La Crosse, to hang out and catch a Pat McCurdy concert at the Alpine Inn. I'm sure we'll hit up every bar on Third Street if we manage to make it down the mountain afterwards.

Pat McCurdy, who's most famous for the song "Sex and Beer," plays regularly in La Crosse and it's always a great show, full of lots of audience participation and LOTS of drinking songs. Since he plays to a mostly college crowd, a good portion of his songs are about sex as well.

Here's a recent clip of Pat on WKLH:

Pat McCurdy - "Live on WKLH"

Featured Album: Belle and Sebastian's The Life Pursuit (Part 2)

Here's the second half of Belle and Sebastian's The Life Pursuit as promised. Check yesterday's post for the first half of the album and track no. 9.

7. We Are the Sleepyheads
8. Song for Sunshine
10. To Be Myself Completely
11. Act of Apostle II
12. For the Price of a Cup of Tea
13. Mornington Crescent

Veritas Lux Mea's "Return to College" Mix

Here's a bunch of songs that either remind me of college or remind me of that feeling of coming back to a place you never left behind...

Flying Lizards - "Money (That's What I Want)"
Broken Social Scene - "Almost Crimes"
The Decemberists - "16 Military Wives"
Snoop Dog ft. Pharrell - "Drop it like it's Hot"
Franz Ferdinand - "This Fire"
Mars Volta - "Roulette Dares (This is the Haunt)"
Maximo Park - "Apply Some Pressure"
Aqua - "Barbie Girl"
Blonde Redhead - "A Cure"
Iron and Wine - "Jesus the Mexican Boy"
The Unicorns - "2014"
Afroman - "Because I Got High"
Rogue Wave - "Endless Shovel"
Freezepop - "The Stakeout"

That's right. Barbie Girl. You know you miss it.

Song & Girl

The Song: Spoon "I Turn My Camera On"