You like him or you hate him, Mike Tyson is Mike Tyson. Millions people in the planet are still waiting for his bout no matter the the title about or the outcome. He was the phenomenon and still now.
I remember when I was a kid-to-teenager, watching Tyson fights with my family and neighbors gave much excitements for all of us. He fought all best boxers available. Tyson is definitely one of the all time heavy weight greats, no doubt about that, youngest heavy weight champion, beat all the champions and unified the belts in dominating fashion and ruled the division for several years until knocked out by James 'Buster' Douglas.
Douglas was no journeyman as many people think. I watched the fight. He dominated Tyson from early rounds. He was fast and strong. Despite of Tyson's condition that night, Douglas deserved the winning.
Though Tyson’s official record stands 50-5, his two victories over Orlin Norris and Andrew Golota should reflect 52-5. That leaves us with three options. One, ignore his 50 victories; two, focus only on his 5 losses; or three, look at all of the accomplishments, achievements and attainments in his career, and then objectively evaluate his record. Tyson of course reclaimed the WBC and WBA heavyweight titles by beating Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon, but still gets no credit whatsoever for doing so. This is in spite of the fact that Bruno beat Oliver McCall who beat Lennox Lewis; and Seldon beat Tony Tucker who claimed George Foreman’s vacant crown for refusing to fight his mandatory challenger. Simply put, Tyson was not responsible for having not beaten Foreman who was the technical ‘lineal champion’. He simply beat who he faced for the titles he won.
For those who miss Mike Tyson, you can see him in action again. Well I lie, not really action inside ring but only an interview. Mike Tyson spoke his heart out on a documentary movie about him, 'Tyson' directed by James Toback. Tyson seems like an open book here, willing to explore every aspect of his life, his painful and embarrassing missteps along with his extraordinary triumphs. The extent of the man's thoughtfulness, self-awareness and hidden fears will surprise many, most of all non-fans who thought they had him pegged.
Interviewed from multiple angles and in different settings, Tyson early on reveals how, as a little kid on Brooklyn's meanest streets, he was robbed and humiliated by older boys. At the time, he was too scared to fight back, and admits, "I'm afraid of being that way again."
Not long after, however, he was so infuriated when a thug gratuitously killed one of his pet pigeons that Tyson went wild and beat the kid up. He was introduced to boxing at age 12 in juvee, Tyson had the great fortune to be taken care by legendary fight trainer Cus D'Amato, who became the father the boy never had.
D'Amato helped Tyson master the mental side of the game. Whatever private fears Tyson may have harbored, one notices in the fight footage that he always psychologically dominated his opponents from the moment he stepped into the ring. Even now, Tyson chokes up when speaking of what D'Amato meant to him, which is just one of several moving interludes the picture delivers.
D'Amato passed away in 1985, a year before Tyson demolished Trevor Berbick to become, at 20, the youngest man ever to win the heavyweight championship.
Tyson has lead a colorful life in and out of the ring. He ran into trouble when he was arrested for raping Miss Black America contestant Desiree Washington in her hotel room. He was convicted and served three years in prison for the crime. After he was released from prison in August of 1995, He defeated Peter McNeely in a fight lasting 89 seconds. Then on June 28, 1997, Tyson fought Evander Holyfield in a rematch, and after being 'head butted' by Holyfield, He bit off a chunk of the boxer's ear. This event basically ended Tyson's professional boxing career.
In the course of the film, Tyson moves from someone you might think you'd want to steer well clear of to a man you might actually want to meet and speak with.
However, the message from the movie, like other docu-biography movies; Mike Tyson is a human being with ups and downs in his life. He might have many enemies but who doesn't?
One thing I respect most from Tyson, and this never got proper publication from medias, he hugged every opponent he beat, in short time after referee made decision. He had sympathy in his heart, not vengeance nor arrogance. I rarely saw this thing on other great boxers.
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If you like Marvel Comic, Iron Man could be an entertaining movie for you. It has full action, high-tech show off, heroic scenes and, you might not like it, propaganda about stereotypical evil Asians so US must use 'necessary action' to deal with it.
It's easily understood according to American (Bush administration) campaign about with-us-or-against-us counter terrorism obsession. It's not first time Hollywood portrayed Asians in negative ways, there have been so many times, countless, actually.
For example, high award-nominated movie The Deer Hunter in 1978. The Deer Hunter which took home 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Then, and since, however, the movie has been ridiculed by antiwar critics for the way it turned history on its head in its use of reversed iconic images that seemingly placed all guilt for death and destruction in Vietnam on America's enemies.
Most famously, it appropriated a then-unforgettable Pulitzer prize-winning photo of Lt. Colonel Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam's national police chief, executing an unarmed, bound prisoner during the Tet Offensive with a point blank pistol shot to the head. In the film, however, it was the evil enemy which made American prisoners do the same to themselves as they were forced to play Russian Roulette for the amusement of their sadistic Vietnamese captors. That was something that had no basis in reality.
No need to mention some Rambo series, some James Bond series, parody Hot Shots series and many other series and single movies.
Iron Man starts on Afghanistan Battleground. A convoy of equipped-armor Humvees carrying an ultra-rich man, Tony Stark, ambushed by Taliban Militias. Since Tony is not only a businessman but also engineer who can design and make weapon, he is forced to make a deadly weapon for Taliban.
What happen next, you can guess. Instead of giving the weapon to Taliban, he slaughters his captors and back to US, offers help to authorities to destroy Taliban with his prototype super-suit he built at Afghanistan cave. You can guess the rest of story after it. It's an easy plot.
Iron Man full of such reversals The Deer Hunter had, beginning with the obvious fact that, in Afghanistan, it is Americans who have imprisoned captured members of Al Qaeda, Taliban and many innocents sold by North Alliance in exceedingly grim conditions, not vice-versa. Again, how Evil Asians on Hollywood movies.
In reality, US military has been deeply involved in Hollywood industry since Silent Era. But now the temporary arrangements of the past have changed into a full-time, sitting on a floor in a Los Angeles office building. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and the Department of Defense itself has established entertainment liaison offices to ensure that Hollywood makes movies the military way.
It's a mutualism. Military grants access to high-tech and unavailable gears. As return is usually the right to alter or shape scripts to suit their needs, propaganda as Pentagon's agendas. It's like, don't bother to read military journals to get to know its latest equipments, just see some movies.
Interesting to see what Roger Ebert wrote:The world needs another comic book movie like it needs another Bush administration, but if we must have one more (and the Evil Marketing Geniuses at Marvel MegaIndustries will do their utmost to ensure that we always will), "Iron Man" is a swell one to have. Not only is it a good comic book movie (smart and stupid, stirring and silly, intimate and spectacular), it's winning enough to engage even those who've never cared much for comic books or the movies they spawn. Like me.
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The Turkish has a proverb for coffee, ‘black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love’. Coffee was originally from Ethiopia. In Ethiopia the main coffee production is still from wild coffee tree forests. Now, coffee grown in over 70 countries. As commodity, coffee is number 2 in world trading money volume, only lost to number 1, oil.
Coffee trees produce their best beans when grown at high altitudes in a tropical climate where there is rich soil. That zone lays between latitudes 25 degrees North and 30 degrees South. There is a zone with tropical climate and has rain forests.
Besides location, other factors affect the quality and flavor of coffee. These include the variety of the plant, the chemistry of the soil in which it is grown, the weather, particularly the amount of rainfall and sunshine, and the precise altitude at which the coffee grows. Combined with the way coffee bean processed, coffee comes in so many taste and aroma. The combination of factors is so complex, that even from a single plantation one finds variation in quality.
World Largest Coffee Producers
Brazil is the largest coffee beans producer for decades with an average output of 28% of the total world production. Colombia is in second place at only 16%, with Indonesia less than half that at 7%.
In Brazil, with a seemingly infinite space for its production, coffee plantations cover vast territories, the need for hundreds of people to manage and operate them, and produced in large quantities of coffee. A Brazilian coffee is 'soft'. Arabica and robusta are grown in Brazil in different locations for each types. A fine cup of Brazilian clear, sweet, low-acid coffee.
Colombia takes position as world's number 2 seriously and works hard to maintain high standards of excellence. The result is consistently good coffee grown carefully and with great pride in thousands of small family farms coffee throughout the country. Extremely rugged landscape provides the perfect environment for the growth of coffee. But a very rugged terrain also made historically difficult to transport the grain of coffee harvested for production and shipment centers. Even today, this is often done by mule or Jeep. Such care and attention on results consistently good, mild coffees, with a well-balanced acidity. Colombian Supremo, the highest level, has a delicate, aromatic sweetness while High Grade could be a little more smooth and acid.
Indonesia still handles coffee production traditionally. Indonesia is composed of thousands of islands. Several larger islands; Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi; are known throughout the world for the fine, quality coffees which grow there. Hundreds of 1-2 acre farms in those three islands combine to secure the country's third place position. Indonesian coffees are noted for a pronounced rich, full body and mild acidity.
Indonesia is also known for its fine old coffees. These are the coffee stored at warehouses for long time. During time, warm and damp climate make coffee has deeper body, less acidity and also stronger. It is a process which cannot been matched by any modern technology.
Types of Coffee
There are several species of coffee trees, but most commercial growers use mainly Arabica and Robusta coffee species. Arabica trees are believed to produce the highest quality beans. However, Robusta trees are more economically viable for their heartiness. Coffee rarely are designated as Robusta and Arabica beans. The soil and environmental conditions which play a significant role in flavouring beans, that all coffee beans are classified according to their geographical origin. Kilimanjaro coffee comes from Tanzania feet near Mount Kilimanjaro, for example, while Java coffee comes from the Indonesian islands.
Espresso, made by brewing espresso roasted beans at high pressure, is a strong black coffee. Machiatto is espresso with a touch of steamed milk. Cappuccino is still thirds of espresso, steamed milk, and a cap of frothed milk. Cafe latte is a third of espresso and two-thirds steamed milk. The favorite drink French, Cafe au Lait is made with strong coffee (espresso), and generous servings of hot milk. With flavored coffee; hazelnut, walnut and maple raspberry, is produced by adding oils flavored beans during roasting. Depending on the manufacturer, the flavors can be natural or artificial.
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Chevolution is a documentary film directed by Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez. It was funded by Red Envelope Entertainment, the distribution arm of Netflix. The film examines how the famous photograph of Che Guevara had became an iconic image of rebellion and political engagement. Not just that, the photograph had also evolved into a pop icon. It beat the famous picture of Colonel Sanders, logo of Kentucky Fried Chicken. You can see now all over the world, Che's photograph is on flags, t-shirts, jackets, emblems, etc wore by young college girls.
Che Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1928. His real name was Ernesto Guevara. He got a name 'Che' because of an Argentinian like him used to say 'che...' while talking. Some part of his life, while he was young described on film The Motorcycle Diaries.
After studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires he worked as a doctor. While in Guatemala in 1954, he was a witness to the socialist government of President Jacobo Arbenz overthrown by a US-backed military coup. Disgusted by what he saw, Guevara decided to join the Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, in Mexico.
Chevolution starts there, after Che met Fidel. It explains how Che expressed concern over Fulgencio Batista rule in Cuba, how he saw Castro as the rebels' medic and and how, as if taken from a chapter of 100 Years of Solitude, a string of poorly lost battles somehow culminated in victory that brought the Cuban government as we now know it to power.
At the time the photo was taken, Che was in a deep state of sadness and anger over the La Coubre explosion, a counterrevolutionary terrorist attack that killed at least 75 people and injured some 200 more in March 1960. At the funeral service, the photo journalist from Havana, Alberto Korda snapped his picture. It was not published until 1967 but then an Italian mogul came through and scooped it up to use on posters for profit. Then an Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick made a seemingly subtle rendition in graphic art form that eventually became the sole standard by which all other variations of the image of Che are created.
Korda's family has been fighting for the royalty of the photo while Fidel Castro would not allow a copyright on the photo because he didn’t believe in copyrights though he used Korda as his personal photographer for 10 years.
The film contains interviews with actors Gael Garcia Bernal, Antonio Banderas, as well as political and cultural personalities from Cuba, South America, the United States and Europe. It also contain interviews with some regular people about Che; from a young guitarist in England who thinks Che was the savior against right-wings, to a Cuban-American student who thinks Che was no more than a savage communist militant.
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Nothing about Robert Rodriguez is conventional. His first movie is El Mariachi in 1992 where he was the director, writer, editor, director of photography, and music score. To finance El Mariachi, he took volunteer as laboratory rat. For more than a month, a local research hospital paid him to ingest an experimental cholesterol drug. Combined with his own money, he spent $ 7,000 to make El Mariachi. Originally, the film intended for the Spanish-language low-budget home-video market but then Columbia Pictures invested in it as distribution company. Fortunate for him, the movie won the Audience Award at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival; at the time, it was the lowest-budget film ever released by a major studio.
Even after Rodriguez got backing from Columbia for his next projects, he didn't go by the book. When studio executives wanted to bring in an outside editor to work on Desperado, his follow-up to Mariachi, Desperado, starring Antonio Banderas, Rodriguez demanded to do it himself and won. Desperado itself was not actually a sequel of El Mariachi. It was much more a remake. Also while making From Dusk Till Dawn, he insisted on using a non union crew.
His stubborn head not always successful. While directing Sin City (2005), Directors Guild of America (DGA) forbid Frank Miller's name for co-director in movie's credit. DGA stated that only 'legitimate team' can share co-director credit, which is same rule doesn't apply to Wachowski or Hughes brothers. Rodriguez insisted that Miller direct the film with him because he considered the visual style of Miller's comic art to be just as important as his own in the film. By DGA's force, Rodriguez resigned from DGA and back to work outside major studio once again. He had to lose his next big project in Paramount Pictures.
The breakout film for Rodriguez was Spy Kids (2001). A film that grossed more than $ 110 million in domestic box office and earned him the confidence and cash to settle in Austin, Texas, with his family. One of his son is named Rebel. He rented two soundstages and turned his garage into a series of post-production. He named it Troublemaker. The following films, Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over was shot entirely with HD cameras and edited at Troublemaker.
At the Toronto International Film Festival in 1992, Rodriguez met his next partner in crime, Quentin Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino was earning rapturous praise for his thriller Reservoir Dogs. Robert Rodriguez had recently made an even bigger splash, selling his $7,000-budgeted debut feature El Mariachi to Columbia Pictures and signing a two-year deal with the studio. As the story goes, they spent ninety minutes talking in a hotel lobby. Back in Los Angeles, the upstart directors discovered that they both had offices on the Sony lot.
They also discover that they had same similarity; out of the book, out of mainstream style. Quentin appeared as cameo in some Rodriguez's movies and gust directed one scene in Sin City. Tarantino is not a typical director. He collects rare 35-mm prints and doesn't even use monitors on set while directing. After work together in Sin City, Tarantino now says he'll shoot his own digital feature.
Rodriguez's movies are not about narrative but about style. He is master in editing and digital visual effect. As Rodriguez refines the tools of digital filmmaking, and the liberty that comes with them, others are slow to follow. Hollywood purists tend to dismiss the geeks in the business as more interested in technology than storytelling.
Rodríguez not only has the usual credits of producing, directing and writing his films, he also frequently serves as editor, director of photography, camera operator, composer, production designer, visual effects supervisor, and sound editor on his films. This has earned him the nickname of "the one-man film crew."
Alone in his austin garage, he is preparing his next project and learning more digital movie making.
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Two Dutch radio stations is making a documentary about Chinese in globalization era. As a race with biggest number in the world, Chinese are everywhere. There are more than one billion Chinese in China only. Since I can meet a Chinese everywhere I go, any city I've been and any market I was; I can assume that almost a billion Chinese and Chinese descents out there outside of China. Two billions people, wow, that's one-third world population.
China has long history. When European thought that Earth was flat; Chinese had been sailing oceans. When Columbus arrived in America; Chinese had been digging gold there. They are now spreading from Siberia to Cape of Hope, South Africa.
'Looking for Mr. Li' is a documentary series co-made by VPRO and RNW. The name Li/Lee is associated to a Chinese just like Jose to a Spanish or Ahmed to an Arab. Mr. Li is the face of the fastest growing power in the world: China. He closes oil deals, build hospitals and highways, sells merchandise, or businesses on oil pipelines explains.
In the series Looking for Mr. Li, four reporters cover about the sun and shadow of globalization. With the Chinese expansion as red thread. In Zambia, Venezuela, the United States and India, those reporters looking for Mr. Li. They follow key persons on the spot and tell their stories. Reporters are establishing long time - five to six weeks - in a country and do deep digging report of the daily lives of the people they take in their path.
The key question is whether globalization a curse or a blessing. And with the Chinese as an example: what does the rise of China stormy for countries where Mr. Li active? Provides a higher prosperity? More hospitals and schools? And what does the advent of Chinese know-how and expertise for local traditions?
The Looking for Mr. Li documentary consists of weekly radio broadcasts, a website with blogs, photos, movies, articles and expert comments. You can find full report and coverage at its official site weblogs.vpro.nl/lookingformisterli/ but unfortunately no English option.
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Rob Bredl aka The Barefoot Bushman has been playing with animals for more than 34 years. He grew up in Renmark in South Australia, the second youngest of four brothers. With his father, he started Australia's first successful crocodile farm in Cape York Peninsula for the aboriginal community at Pormpuraaw. He spent 10 years here with the Aborigines chasing crocodiles and pigs.
He wants people to share his love for animals and the jungle. Their philosophy seems to work and was highlighted by an uncanny ability to handle the most dangerous animals. He has been bitten twice by taipans. Miraculously both times snakes did not inject venom.
Despite handling crocodiles almost every day of his life, has only been biten twenty six times so far. He calls them love bites. Rob Bredl has learned more about crocodiles than most people. He even swim with that fourteen foot giant.
Can be said that Rob Bredl is a character would be the understatement of the decade. Regardless who is a recognized expert in his field and, despite their fear, zany escapades with dangerous animals is a real pleasure to be with.
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