I believe you have my stapler...

Stumbled upon this while visiting LOLcats earlier today.

For those not familiar with the reference:

"Office Space"

"I'm Singing in the Rain"

So I made the trip up to Concord Mills earlier today. Had some friends from college come by for the weekend and wanted to show off Cold Stone, Macado's (a Radford University favorite), and the Bass Pro Shop.

Of course part of that trip was to check out the mall's seasonal Halloween store. Always a great selection of stuff. It was like a trip to Toys R Us when I was 10. So much to choose from and so little time.

I ended up walking out with a bowler hat and cane. It's not a complete costume yet but the finished product should look something like this:

Yep, it's the Big Bad from "Heroes," Mr. Linderman. And the man that killed Capt. James T. Kirk on screen 20 years later.

It's Malcolm McDowell and the movie is "A Clockwork Orange."

*And if you've seen it, you got the headline quote*

I first stumbled upon the film in 1998, oddly enough while picking out movies for a Halloween party.

Disturbing as hell. Maybe not scary but very disturbing.

The movie came out in 1971 and was directed, produced, and co-written by the late Stanley Kubrick ("2001," "The Shining," etc.).

From Wikipedia:

A Clockwork Orange features disturbing, violent imagery to facilitate social commentary on psychiatry, youth gangs, and other topics in a futuristic dystopian Britain.

Responses and controversy
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture (it lost to The French Connection) and reinvigorated sales for recordings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It also caused considerable controversy (see below) and was withdrawn from release in the UK. By the time of its re-release in the year 2000, it had already gained a reputation as a cult classic. It was recently placed at number 21 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills and number 46 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies, though in the second listing it ranked in 70th place. Alex De Large was placed at number 12 in the villain section of the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list. In 2008, the film was placed as the 4th greatest Science-Fiction movie to date, in AFI's 10 Top 10

United States censorship
The film was rated X on its original release in the United States. Later, Kubrick voluntarily replaced roughly 30 seconds of footage from two scenes with less bawdy action for a 1973 re-release, rated R. All current DVDs present the original X-rated form, and only some of the early 80s VHS editions are in the R-rated form. [3]
The film was rated C (for "condemned") by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting because of its explicit sexual and violent content; such a rating conceptually forbade Catholics from seeing the film. The "condemned" rating was abolished in 1982, and since then films deemed by the conference to have unacceptable levels of sex and/or violence have been rated O, meaning "morally offensive".

References in Popular Culture
Sound clips of Malcolm McDowell's dialogue is featured in the song "Cassie Eats Cockroaches" by Acid Bath.
The music video of 'Pacifier' by New Zealand band Shihad is inspired by the film.
In The Simpsons episode Dog of Death, Santa's Little Helper is forced to endure a movie that will turn him into a vicious attack dog. His eyes are held open with several probes, just like Alex during his rehabilitation. In the episode Treehouse of Horror III, Bart is dressed as Alex DeLarge for Halloween. A third reference appeared in the episode Duffless, in which a scene depicts Bart having a nervous breakdown after reaching for cupcakes. Other references can be found in the episode A Streetcar Named Marge where Bart tries to avoid going to school by complaining of "a pain in me Gulliver" and episode Homer the Smithers where Burns falls out of a window and later, bedridden and in casts, is fed peanuts by Smithers in the same fashion as the Minister of the Interior fed Alex his steak.
The opening sequence of Robot Chicken features a cyborg chicken who also has its eyes held open in the way Alex's are, while being forced to watch a bank of televisions playing the shows opening credits.
One of the distinctive looking gangs in the underground motorcycle racing sequence of Batman & Robin dress like Alex and his Droogs.
British metal band Grim Reaper has a song entitled Suck It And See, which is one of the "speech bubbles" that Alex had written on the wall of his apartment foyer.
In the TV show Rocko's Modern Life there is a stray dog that has a bowler hat and eye liner like the character Alex.
In Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, JB is attacked in the park by a gang who is dressed like (and talks like) Alex's gang.
British band Blur's single "The Universal" featured a video which was a tribute to A Clockwork Orange.
The music group DeVotchka dubbed their name from Nadsat's devotchka; translating to Girl in Russian.
In the music video "All That I've Got" by The Used there is a scene in which the lead singer is dressed in a similar style to that of Alex in the film.
In the music video of "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)" by Rob Zombie, the band are dressed as Alex and his Droogs, and appear in the Korova Milk Bar and a scene referencing the ride in the stolen Durango 95. The song also contains lyrics based on the film.
Usher's 1998 video for his smash hit "My Way" is inspired by the film.
Brazilian Thrash metal band Sepultura's 11th studio album will be a concept album inspired by the movie entitled "A-LEX". The band had debated doing this for their 10th album, but opted to base it on Dante's Divine Comedy instead.
British punkrock band The Adicts has been inspired by the movie since the beginning of the band. They still perform live dressed up like Alex and his friends. Their logo is practically the same as the logo of the movie.
The song "Hier Kommt Alex" (Here Comes Alex) by the German Band Die Toten Hosen was heavily inspired by the film, It's lyrics commenting about Alex's lust for violence.It even has "Droog" in it.
One of the songs on the first album (Inflikted) of a new project of Sepultura founding members Max Cavalera and Igor Cavalera, Cavalera Conspiracy titled "Ultra-violent" and inspired by the film A Clockwork Orange.
In ep. 17 of Home Movies entitled Business and Pleasure you can see a poster in the background during one of the scenes that says "My Clock is Orange" with an illustration similar to the actual movie poster.
The 2001 video game Conker's Bad Fur Day's introduction sequence was a parody of the film. The remake of the game Conker Live and Reloaded also had the same sequence.
The 1998 SNK Beat'em up Fatal Fury Special: Dominated Mind for the Sony PlayStation included a final boss, White, clearly based upon Alexander De Large. [10]
Mid-West Prog-Metal Band Wait Until August references the film and the technique used on Alex with their song entitled "Ludovico". Lead Guitarist/Vocalist Tony Barrientez ended the song with the lyrics " I was cured all right" a direct quote from the final line of the film. The song is heavily influenced by the film.
In an episode of George the Jungle (the 2007 remake), George and his elephant Shep Are seen strapped to a chair, forced to watch "violent images" on a screen.
In an episode of Pinky and the Brain, Brain straps Pinky to a chair, tapes his eyes open, and forces him to watch several "tear-jerker" film clips to desensitize him, including a parody of The Lion King (this time depicting a tiger cub saying "papa?" as his father lies on the ground after the stampede scene). Pinky, of course, cries; and the test fails after Brain cries, too.

"Don't Fear the Reaper"

It's that time of year again...

I'm flipping the channels and on Fuse (I'm not even sure what Fuse airs, but anyway) is the classic Michael Myers thriller and my favorite all-time horror movie.

Guess it's time to look for a costume? I went with the Burger King last year. I would go with the Joker but you know half the world's population is going to put on that makeup this year.

A few early ideas I've brainstormed for this year:


A panda. Anyone that knows me knows that's an obvious choice.

Michael Cera from "Juno." I was one of the few that thought the movie was annoying but Cera is always awkwardly funny.

Malcolm McDowell in "A Clockwork Orange." Some might remember Bart Simpson donned this getup for one of the Simpson Halloween specials.

So that's what I came up with. Got any other ideas?

"Well you done done me and you bet I felt it..."

Is it already stuck in your head?

I blame our assistant lifestyles editor for this one...

Allison Flynn was sitting at her desk yesterday and complained she couldn't get that new Jason Mraz song out of her head. Of course, at that very moment it got stuck in my head as well.

A few people said they hadn't heard it and one thing lead to another and Allison played it for the whole newsroom to hear.

Day 2 and it's still stuck in my head.

And now it's my turn to get it stuck in everyone else's.

It's called anger displacement : )

"We Can Be Heroes / Just for One Day"

Finally got around to watching the Heroes premiere last night. A whole bunch of people died right off the bat; looks like a lot of fun is to be had this season.

But it appears last year's short season hurt the audience:

From EW.com

The biggest disappointment of the night would have to be NBC's flailing Heroes. The network's 8-9 p.m. recap special drew an un-heroic 6 million viewers. Then, the two-hour premiere reached only 10 million viewers, down about 29 percent from the 14.1 million who tuned in for season 2's premiere. (Last year, NBC was able to get Nielsen to add together Heroes’ ratings for the initial Monday night premiere along with a Saturday repeat to come up with a final number of 17 million.) While DVR playback should boost the Heroes premiere numbers, that lukewarm start could still be a sign that the series' superpowers are weakening

I was among the ones who caught it after the fact on DVR. Hopefully things will pick up.

Here's some Heroes goodness provided by MAD TV.



And some more Heroes goodness, from David Bowie and Queen

Monday's "Must See TV"

Remember "Must See TV"? With Friends and Seinfeld and the crap that was rotated out each season?

Ex: Suddenly Susan, Caroline in the City. Need I go on?

Looks like Monday, at least in my world, has replaced Thursday as "Must See TV" night.

NBC, 8 p.m. tomorrow: "Heroes" Season 3 premieres

Season 2 was an admitted big step down after the initial season. I blame that mostly on the writers' strike which caused the season to end prematurely in January. Hopefully Season 3 turns the momentum around. They're playing it up big with a hour-long pre-game show before the actual episode begins at 9.

Fox, 9 p.m.: "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles"

I'm loving this just as I did Heroes Season 1. Shirley Manson of Garbage as a T-1000? Awesome. Is Summer Glau (above) showing signs of a personality? Even better. As a long-time fan of the movie series, I was worried that it couldn't handle a weekly prime time spot. I'm glad to be proven wrong.

USA, 9 p.m.: "WWE Monday Night Raw"

I like glorified comic book shows, I like homicidal robots, and I like choreographed violence. And any child of the 80s should be able to appreciate a wrestler (CM Punk, right) who has a Cobra, of GI Joe fame, tattoo. Children of the 80s should also get into the fact that a growing group of wrestlers are kids of the musclebound entertainers we grew up with 20 years ago. Million $ Man's kid? Check. Jimmy Snuka's kid? Check. Dusty Rhodes' kid? Check. How long till Brooke Hogan trades in the high heels for lace up boots?

So while I'll be spending today curled up in a ball, doped up on Sudafed, and with a thick layer of Vicks under my nose, at least I can look forward to tomorrow.