Sammo Hung created the hopping vampire in movies?!

I did not know this.

From Sammo's Wikipedia entry:

Hung also created the hopping vampire genre with two landmark movies - Close Encounters Of The Spooky Kind (1981) and The Dead And The Deadly (1983). Both movies featured vampires who, as stiffened corpses, moved by hopping, and Taoist priests who were able to quell these vampires (and at times, each other) through magical spells and charms. These movies melded Chinese folk beliefs with special effects and breath-taking kung fu to create a genre that was uniquely Chinese. Hung's movie would later pave the way for movies such as the highly-popular Mr Vampire (1985).


I'm going to have to check into availability on these! I've never seen hopping vampires in Chinese cinema, I'd heard about them, but never seen them.

Cowboy U

I don't really listen to country/western music, though I do have a soft spot for some oldie stuff like Marty Robins and Johnny Cash. And I deplore reality TV.

Well, there's a program on the CMT network called Cowboy U. They bring a bunch of city slickers to a working ranch in Oklahoma. They train them in various cowboy skills and it's interesting to watch. I happened to catch the first episode just doing a bit of random surfing (it's rare that I surf) and was impressed. It started with eight people, the final is that four of them will be going and competing at a cowboy rodeo.
( Read more... )

Our poodle eats celery.

I was rather surprised! I was cutting up stuff for some monster salads, and Celeste, being more than a bit of a mooch, was interested in the celery. So I gave her a bit.

It looks like poodles like celery! Russet said her previous poodle, Daniel, was a huge fan.

The salad came out quite well, but Celeste didn't get any of the red onion or green leafy stuff.