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1.) The deer snookered me again. It was the first snow. I'd been looking forward to hunting int he snow. It was everything I thought it would be and more. It was stunningly beautiful. There were deer tracks everywhere. I tried following one just to see where it would go, and it went all over the place. I found the track of a very big buck and the track of a doe in estrus. And I just sat and enjoyed the snow (got to wear mys now suit). The "and more" part involved being pelted with snowballs by trouble-making trees. But there were no deer.
2.) Being the "liberal" (admittedly in the liberal use of the word) among my conservative deer hunting friends is kind of odd, but no more so than being the liberal among my redneck relatives. The odder thing is reading some of the more far out stuff written in hunting and gun magazines about President Obama. I expect most of them to be anti-Obama, and that's fine. Even though he's actually expanded gun rights, they see him as a threat because he has said he wants to renew the assault weapon ban (and AR15 style hunting rifles are the fastest growing segment of the sporting arms market). I get annoyed that none of these magazines ever refer to him as "President Obama". They just call him "Obama" as though he isn't really president or doesn't deserve the office. But the sheer craziness really really gets to me. I will never read another issue of Gun Digest again after a columnist wrote one month that President Obama is bent on totalitarian domination of us all and in another implied that if the assault weapon ban were renewed President Obama would face an armed insurrection. This is not only the kind of insane gibberish that preceded President Kennedy's assassination, it is also the inflammatory rhetoric that preceded the Civil War.
3.) And speaking of the Civil War, there has been a movement on lately, with the 200th anniversary of John Brown's birth, to have him pardoned. That is pretty interesting since, as Tony Horwitz pointed out, John Brown was a terrorist, a violent one, who had a lot in common with Kalhid Sheik Mohamad. But others are arguing that the end justified the means and he should be seen once again as a hero as he was during the civil war, before reconstruction undid most of the righteous since of purpose that underpinned the abolition movement. Hero? Martyr? Terrorist? Brown's case proves that these things all a matter of perspective.
4.) I am tired of everything in life. I am tired of working three jobs even though I like them all. I'm tired of never having enough money. I'm tired of being underemployed. I'm not tired of my friends. I'm not tired of New York City. I'm not tired of![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) liadan_m or of alethea_eastrid . I'm not tired of liamstliam or of evilnicola or of talonvaki or of western_duchess or any of the rest. Most of all I'm not tired of chancesports . But I am tired of the republicans.
5.) There's a great cart that serves halal chicken with white sauce for four dollars on the corner. Unfortunately something in it now gives me a headache. And I liked eating lunch for four dollars.
6.) Lots of grading to do.
7.) If you could do any one of the following but no others which would it be? Publish a novel, direct a feature film, write a symphony, perform on Broadway, be elected President of the United states, win crown, live overseas, or win a million dollars. |
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One of the best things about last week was having coffee and cheescake with one of my favorite people j_i_m_r who was in town for the parade. She wore a very silly hat. |
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Thanksgiving break must have been marvelous, because even though I worked two days of it I feel refreshed.
1.) Best part was dinner. Yes, it came from Whole Foods. Yes, I spent too much. Gui came over to dine with us and we were perfectly proportioned. The menu was typical: Sliced roasted turkey breast, cranberry sauce, Brussels Sprouts with pancetta, butter nut squash with what were either currants or cranberrys, don't ask which, vegetable soup (I made from scratch, which isn't a great accomplishment when you have a crock pot, but I'm still proud of doing soemthing I've never done before), salad, crab cakes, scallops wrapped in bacon. Desert was mixed berries with fresh whipped cream. It sounds like a lot, but proportions were small and it worked out perfectly. I wasn't even stuffed. I had a low-carb icecream bar later. There was also football.
2.) People keep underestimating Sarah Palin. The New York Times had an article that said, basically, successful women hate her because she's the air-headed cheer leader who gets all the attention success while having none of the competence of brains. I'm sure that's all very true, but it was also yet another dismissive article lamely trying to explain her appeal off as some big unfathomable mistake, and not what it truly is: a minor populist revolution. It ended by noting her favorables are at below 50% and that she won't get the job. I've been guilty of dismissing her in the past as well, but I look at how many people love her and I say you just can't do that. A lot of people dismissed George W. Bush, and look what happened there. I don't know how smart she is, but I do know that as her favorables are rising the president's are falling, and they are just about to meet, right around 48%. In a polarized nation, that, a rudderless GOP, and a still sour economy in 2012 are the recipe for the prefect Alaskan storm.
3.) The deer were not cooperative this past week. My friend Mike got two this year, including one that was there waiting for him about ten feet into the woods at 7AM yesterday. Oh well. It was a nice day to be in the woods.
4.) A while back a guy walked into the store. He had on 70s short shorts, kahki, a short sleeved olive shirt, and Soloman water shoes with no show socks. His face was ruddy and he had short red hair and beard. I said to him "you look like an African hunter." He stared at me for a second, read my name tag, and said in a thick accent "You've got a pretty good eye there, Mike." Then he gave me his card. He's a professional hunter from Zimbabwe. right out of central casting. I asked him to tell me his best buffalo story. He laughed and then said "I saw one take thirteen rounds of .458 and keep on coming. They'll ruin your day, they will." He bought a pair of Keen sandals (a PH *would* hunt in Keen sandals), and asked where waterproof bags were. I said "you know there's a Holland and Holland gun room in town." He said "don't say that! Your store is bad enough!" Yesterday something similar happened. Three people came in and I went all Sherlock on them. I pegged them quickly as tourists, water polo players, and cadets at the Naval academy. They were a bit surprised, but it wasn't hard from the Met button one had on, the Navy back pack, and the water polo tournament participants pass hanging from it.
Happy holidays! |
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LOLOL
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Nov. 25th, 2009 @ 07:04 pm
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Gakked from albionwood , this made my day:
Oil Company ad from 1962
Oh the times, they have a-changed. . .Current Mood:  amused |
| » for some reason a muse was bothering me |
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One evening
Mid summer
A pale crescent moon
Rises over Manhattan
On a rooftop
High above Hell’s Kitchen
Locked in an impossible embrace
Invisible stars look down
On flesh entwined
Hungry kisses
Cautious probing
A pause to sip a beer
Laughter
Another embrace
Near strangers
About to become
New lovers
Twelve years ago
On a rooftop
I fell in love
With a girl
With Manhattan
With an idea of myself
That could never be
But we are never the person we imagine
And neither was she
Pain
Sex
Pain and sex combined
Desire unquenchable
Need inexpressible
F*cking frantically
Afraid of tomorrow
Afraid it would end
As it had to end
With dawn
And places to go
And things to do
Other than each other
Would it would never end
Manhattan is two million romances
Bodice ripping melodramas
Hastily penned porno-pulp
With dog-eared pages that stick together
All crammed into 23 square miles
That is worth a handful of beads
But every story
Like the one on the roof
Burns with more passion than anything
You can read in a pulp porn novel
Or a Shakespeare sonnet
Nov. 23rd, 2009 @ 09:54 pm
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| » Opening day and the deer won |
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Yesterday was opening day of deer season. I was out, though not as early as I wanted, sitting in my usual blind with 20 gauge slug gun, waiting for deer. There were lots of deer. On the way in Big Mike and Joe, with whom I hunt, had bumped a few deer on the way in. There were some more hunters on the far end of the tract, who shot at them. This was as we were ariving, and we heard the shots.
Around nine o'clock I left my blind to check out a rub. When I turned around and looked toward my blind I said "wow. If a deer comes in from this side he'll see me a mile away. I have no cover." I then went up to check out a bedding area near the creek, then back to my blind. I found a bottle of deer scent in my pocket and said "oh, hell, I'll go spread this around on the trail." I then thought "but don't forget your shotgun." I grabbed my shotgun, stood up, turned around, and there was a deer standing in the very spot where I'd stood saying "if a deer stands here I'm busted." The deer was just looking at me, head cocked to one side, wondering what the hell I was. I said "well, hell, I'm busted, I'd better do something." Attempting to be non-chalant about it, I took my gun off safety, raised it, and took aim at the doe for an off hand shot. She was about twenty paces away, maybe thirty. Just as I was getting ready to fire, the hunters down the hill, whom I kind of knew were there but didn't know they were that close, shot at a different deer that ran in front of them. My finger squeezed a shot off just as the doe I was aiming at turned and bolted. It wasn't like "the deer's moving, fire!" It was more like I was shooting when the other shot went off, but by the time I finished the deer had bolted.
That was my one shot opportunity yesterday.
I did go down the hill and say hi to the other hunters, an old man and his two grandkids. The kids had been shooting at a doe and both missed.
On the way out we busted two more deer and a whole flock of turkeys.
Looking at googlemaps later that night, I realized that the old man was in the best spot, where the property narrowed down and a creek came in from behind him, forming a good bottle neck. Tha would explain why I heard them shoot at least four different times. I'm pretty sure they got two deer. They were alsso cutting off all the deer that might have come up my direction from the creek, which was the way I expected them to be coming. That other doe had snuck up behind me from where Brian, on stand on the other side of the hill, should have spotted her and fired at her.
This morning I hear Big Mike shot a spike.
Next time out probably Wednesay.
Nov. 22nd, 2009 @ 02:39 pm
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| » A day off! |
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And nothing to do with it.
1.) I arrived at BAT practice to discover that Oscad, Gui, and Rav were all working on armor in preparation to head off to Flemington. I'm feeling a bit left out. No fighting for me today.
2.) I specifically decided *not* to go hunting on what has turned out to be a beautiful day in order to show my face at practice. Obviously a bad choice.
3.) Showed the condo yesterday. Got one application. If it works out I may have some Saturdays again.
4.) I got the galleys back for the book.Worked on it yesterday and got about halfway through the text. A lot of stuff to be done on the index. This will occupy my time tonight.
5.) I am still having this feeling of being stuck in a rut that I really don't like.
6.) Life is on the whole good.
Nov. 8th, 2009 @ 01:37 pm
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| » Crime |
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We had demonstration speeches today and I've got a bunch of delinquents. The first three speeches were on how to break the law. One was how to download movies illegally, one was on graffiti, and one was how to make cannibis infused butter.
Nov. 2nd, 2009 @ 05:08 pm
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| » I hads me a fun crown. |
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Crown was great. the fighting was really intense and the day was perfect (including the small bit of rain). the final four were Edward Grey of Loch Levan, Duke Lucan, Duke Gregor, and Count Grifith. Edward beat Lucan in the finals 2-nil. The most savage and beautiful set of fights was Edward vs. Griffith in the semi-finals. They rocked. Also rocking was Sir Kenrick. He was the odd man out when they had to fight a round robin among the last three fighters in the losers bracket (how they ended up with three when they had carefully arranged 37 byes in the first round in order to reach the right number for the list tree I have no idea). He and I had an epic battle in the fifth round, in which I had lost my leg and Kenrick had lost his leg and his sword arm, and he beat me by ducking out of my blow and throwing a wicked backhand. More of my thoughts at www.scafighter.blogspot.com.
Nov. 2nd, 2009 @ 02:21 pm
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| » Yawn! |
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1.) Crown is up in Mass. this weekend. I'm looking forward to it. I live to fight in Crown. But I don't feel well enough prepared. There are seven Dukes in the lists. I suggest a new strategy, R2.....
2.) So far only a couple of people have bought stuff from www.cafepress.com/dogecity, where I am in theory raising funds for my trip to Venice. It's not a pretty picture.
3.) This recession sucks. I am finally making money, and I have to give it all back to float stuff that tanked because of the recession. I'm not coing out ahead.
4.) Isn't it a bout time all my LJ friends started getting paid what they are worth? Really?
5.) Bow season has been open for more than a week now, and I haven't gotten out. Obligations do that to a person. Instead I spent two hours at an open house for the Jersey City apartment on Saturday to which nobody came!! Needless to say we still haven't rented the place.
6.) Maybe Wednesday.
7) It's 9:30 and I'm still at school. I need to stop LJing and go home!!
8.) Go Yankees!!!
Oct. 28th, 2009 @ 09:17 pm
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| » A few things |
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1.) Old politics never die. They just flare up on the internet.
2.) We are still desperately seeking a renter for our Jersey City property. We've llowered the rent to the point where we will be losing money, and we still can't get anyone qualified to apply. We've had to reject two aplications for really bad credit (one in the 400s). Why doesn't anybody want this very nice place??
3.) Got a free ticket for Rock Climbing yesterday. OH MY GOD! What a workout! I was totally wiped. I did ok at it and I had a good time. I was starving by the end. By whole body was burning after my last route.
5.) Today is the Beau Geste tournament. Aparently, half the province will be there. This is good!
6). So far, in trying to raise money for my trip to Venice, I've sold one mug.
7.) I hear Ix went to Semi Finals in Midrealm Crown. Good job.
8.) I am almost finished with Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, which quotes this live journal, and so far I can recomend it. Other than what I've written (due out from Scarecrow Press this winter) it has some of the best observations I've seen on the SCA. Check it out.
9.) Over on Media Grouch, I've been kvetching about Mayor Bloomberg and why I won't vote for him. My mom asked if it was just because of the end-around he pulled on term limits and not also his position on guns (mom lives in Nevada and is furious with him over his "sting operation" which has injected New York City politics into Nevada State politics in a way that justifiably pisses her off). The short answer to mom is, yes. I don't like term limits, but I like even less that the Mayor and the City Council bascially ignored the will of the voters. His actions were wholly undemocratic, and that's why I won't vote for him. The gun issue is moot, because nobody could be elected mayor of New York City without a rabid anti-2nd amendment position, so that's not really an issue. I don't have a reasonable choice in that regard, because most of New York operates under a different paradigm regarding guns than I do.
10.) Go yankees!
Oct. 18th, 2009 @ 11:13 am
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| » It's a good tired |
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Got up at 5am this morning to get up to Putnam County. Avran and I were going hunting at Great Swamp WMA. We go there a lot when we aren't after deer. We've never seen any game there. I don't know why we keep going back. Partially it is because we both like it. Partially it is because they sometimes have pheasants. Partially it is the triumph of hope over past experience.
Avran was an hour and a half late picking me up. I was pretty pissed, but that melted away.
I wanted to go for pheasant and I thought Avran did too, but somewhere along the line he got the idea that it would be better to hunt turkey than pheasants. This made some logical sense, as we had hunted there last year a few days after opening day, and all the pehasants were either shot or pushed off the land. But it assumed the presence of turkeys, which we've hunted there twice without success. You get the picture.
If I'd been hunting hunters I'd have had a shot. It was so crowded! No chance, really. In the morning I saw six hunters besides us and had reliable report of two more off in the woods. All in all we met up with nine other hunters. Adding ourselves and the two I didn't see (well, I saw their car) that makes thirteen hunters tromping the ground. We only heard a bit of shooting during the day. I found out later it was a guy chasing after a single woodcock with his lab. He downed him eventually. He'd shot another one early in the day. So for thirteen hunters the total bag was two woodcock, a species nobody had planed to hunt.
Oh the dog count: two goldens (counting one who lived nearby just out for a walk), three German Shorthair Pointers, two labs, and three beagles (and one more reported off in the woods). It was fun to watch them work.
I'd love to get out there for deer. There are some great spots--and we busted a deer out of there the first time we went turkey hunting.
I am so sore. I walked for five hours, with very little break. My feet are swollen and my body is stiff. I didn't shoot anything. The closest I came to any game was inspecting the dead woodcock. And I feel great!
Oct. 12th, 2009 @ 09:48 pm
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| » Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks |
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Last night I went to a reading of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. It was very entertaining. When Gilford reads it sounds even better. He has a poet, and the rhythm of the language really comes through. There was also a hobit in the crowd. It seems this weekend is a big LOTR weekend in NYC. There is the screening at Radio City of the Fellowship of the Ring with live orchestra, some of Tolkien's original manuscripts are on display at the Fordham Library near Linconl Center, there's an academic conference in conjunction with that exhibit, there was the reading last night (only tangentially related, but he does have aTolkien chapter), and also last night Billy Boyd's band was playing at Joe's Pub. Who knew?
For those into SCA roots literature, the manuscript exhibit sounds particularly cool.
Oct. 9th, 2009 @ 11:54 am
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| » So |
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James Spader dropped into Paragon the other day and I got to help him. The fun part was that he spent over an hour-maybe an hour and a half--trying on boots. He tried on every Lowa in the store. For the first half hour I pretneded not to recognize him (as we are instructed), but after awhile it was a waste, as he was talking about being in town to do the new Mamet play, Race. Understand, I'm a huge fan of his, so playing it cool was indeed an acomplishment. After that we talked a bit about movies and Mamet, but we really stuck to boots. It was the best day I've ever had at Paragon, and Iprobably sold less than I ever have before (for the record he did buy something).
And he talks exactly like Alan Shore.
Oct. 9th, 2009 @ 11:49 am
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| » Live Journal Fame |
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My LJ is now officially famous!
There's a new book out called "Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks" by Ethan Gilsdorf, from Lyons Press. I just got my advance copy yesterday. He has a chapter about last year's Pennsic. To preface the chapter he quotes from my LJ (with permission) where I discussed Pennsic and Konrad's surrender. It is also a pretty good book. I'm enjoying it.
He makes good observations, some of which I agree with. He gets a few things wrong but not too many. He makes the High School analogy (which means my book *won't* be the first one to make it, damn!) and talks about the Pennsic funeral boat, which I think is relly important when describing the SCA to Mundanes. I liked it a lot better than "American Nerd: The Story of my People."
Buy it. Read it.
And it's got a quote from me (pride is a sin, I know......)
Oct. 8th, 2009 @ 10:38 am
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| » Baseball in October |
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is one of life's greatest joys. Yes it is odd that I have more Sox fans on my friend's list than Yankee fans. And some big time Cards fans, one of whom is very special and I hate to cause her grief. So I have to say "sorry":
Here's my breakdown:
Yankees over Twins, Angels over Red Sox,
Dodgers over Phillies, Cards over Rockies
Yankees over Angels (this is the toughest one)
Dodgers over Cards (I am so sad to say)
Yankees over Dodgers in Six.
at first I thought abandoning the old ball park would put a Boston like curse on the Yankees. That still could easily prove to be the case. But That's not how it's shaping up. Now it looks like they will inaugurate the new park with their 27th World Series win.
And, with the Giants once again out of it, the Yanks are my local team. And for those who have never experienced it, there is nothing in the world quite as cool as a Yankees victory celebration in Manhattan.
GO YANKEES!
Oct. 7th, 2009 @ 03:49 pm
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| » Venice, 2010 |
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So I'm going to Venice next year for a conference and I'm raising money. I'm working on a web site devoted to this, but I've set up a cafe press store called Doge City to sell stuff through. So go buy stuff. :)
Oct. 7th, 2009 @ 07:04 am
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| » I hate LJ |
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Ok, I have to get this off my chest, because it's bugging me that it's happening and it's bugging me that I haven't been paying close enough attention. However, I must say, it's pleasing me right now that I am currently living in the East.
One of my best friends was recently banished by my mom because of a disagreement she has been having with another one of my best friends. I love and respect everyone involved. And we are all on LJ. Not only that, but some of this has been playing out on LJ. That is fine and good. I *want* to be privy to what is going on in my friends lives, to offer them a shoulder or even advice (poor though it might be). I certainly don't want to be filtered off of any of their posts or to filter them off of mine. I also believe that anything anybody posts online needs to be taken with a grain of salt, and should NEVER BE HELD AGAINST THEM. But that's my personal idealism shining through. It's not the point of this post.
What I really want is for all of my friends to get along. I know this is often impossible, but if I can believe in a true and just king or in representative democracy or in the probabl existence of God or of Santa Clause, I can certainly believe that in some perfect world all my friends will love each other.
As I love all of them.
Oct. 5th, 2009 @ 05:24 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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So the other night I had an adventure in Kismet. Yesterday I advertised an open house at our Jersey City condo. It's a long way to the condo from our place in Brooklyn. I was actually coming from Manhattan. I took the PATH to Journal Square and then the #80 bus. On the bus I heard the guy sitting behind me saying he was looking for an apartment. I told him I had one. we talked for awhile and I pegged him as a good prospective tenant, and our place fit what he was looking for. But he couldn't come to the open house. He gave me his phone number and I put it into my phone. I jumped off the bus and went inside to prepare.
Nobody came. Worse eyt when I went to call the guy I found I didn't have his number. In my rush to get off the bus I must have closed my phone before hitting save. I was angry. Upset. Frustrated. I waited an hour and a half for nothing. I decided to go to the movies and looked up when Inglorious Basterds was playing at Battery Park and at Court Street. But they were both starting too late. Grr. I was really really bummed. I was totally obsessing.
I left and went to hop a bus back to jounral square. After a wait, two busses were coming. The first was going to Newport Mall, the second to Journal Square. It occured to me that Inglorious basterds was playing at the mall, and that I could just go see it in Jersey and even eat dinner at the mall afterward. At the last minute I flagged down the Newprort bus. The driver was pissed. He berated me for flagging down the bus so late, but it really was a last minute decision. I went back to find a seat and found the guy whose number I had lost, sitting on a different bus going to a different place. Can you beleive it? We traded numbers and he's going to see the apartment tomorrow.
And I enjoyed Inglorious Basterds too. I like all of Tarentino's films. He and I are of an age, and he watched the same movies I did in the seventies. This seemed a bit small to me--like it was all filmed on back lots and in some odd location, and like he hadn't taken as long with it as he had with Kill Bill. But I still loved it. It was a great classic revenge story/wwii pic along the lines of the Dirty Dozen (from which it actually takes its name). Fantastic.
Sep. 28th, 2009 @ 12:19 am
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