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Thursday, October 19, 2006 |
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From Africa to Asheville
I am planning a much longer post about my travels through Africa (including our brush with the King of Morocco and adventures on the set of The Hills Have Eyes 2) but having reached the golden shores of the US, two and a half days in advance of my bag, I thought I would check in and say what's up.
Now I am off exploring the family farm and the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina (recently touted as the "number one hippie destination" in the US though all I seem to see around here are lots of coffee shops, bookstores, and trustafarians) staying in a tiny cabin with Alison overlooking the color-exploded leafy valleys below. Then, we are heading to an arts and music festival in Lake Eden called LEAF for the remainder of the weekend.
Things I am missing about IGN Los Angeles:
1. Reading the sites, of course.
2. That particular smell in the bathroom near Stax.
3. My Culver City peeps Peer, Matt, Mark, Eric, Dan, Carle, Jess, Stax, Gerry, Justin, Kyle, and Todd.
4. Our proximity to Best Buy.
5. Talking 24-7 in the Borat voice.
See you soon with lots of pics!
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Tuesday, October 10, 2006 |
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Horror in London
Currently on set of 28 Weeks Later in London. The sets are looking awesome and there are gallons and gallons of blood. Sweet. We can't say much now, but I suspect we'll get a ton of cool shit over the next few days. The film follows-up about six months after the end of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, after the infected have mostly run their course throughout the British isles.
If you have any questions about the project, post here and I'll see if I can get the filmmakers to answer.
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Monday, September 25, 2006 |
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Broken Bones
Apparently IGN TV editor Eric Goldman was drunkenly riding his mountain bike through the mountains of Vancouver on a Smallville set visit and took a spill, breaking his SHOULDER. Being a veteran of a back surgery due to a nasty mountain bike crash, I feel his pain.
Got me thinking about how many bones I have broken in my life:
1. Broken left arm: Fell off top of jungle gym
2. Broken left arm: bit the curb skateboarding.
3. Broken left arm: speed skating and fell.
4. Broken right arm: skiing and hit ice patch.
Each of these must've looked awesome as they were happening, as I am sure Eric's did. Can you imagine? Breaking your arm in a foreign country surrounded by smokin' hot publicists? Indeed.
By the way, Eric will be back soon after he undergoes surgery. He is very drugged up now, so don't expect his usual razor-sharp wit on IGN TV. In the meantime, he sent us a photo from the hospital:
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Monday, September 25, 2006 |
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Taliban Redux
Remember the cute and cuddly Taliban? They won my heart over when they blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan, artifacts that many archaeologists claim are the best surviving examples of fifth-century Greco-Buddhist sculpture. Awesome. Thanks assholes. Now, after presumably being undermined and driven off into the hills by allied forces, the Taliban are back. Read about the new documentary coming to PBS below.
PBS' FRONTLINE presents RETURN OF THE TALIBAN Tuesday, October 3, 2006, at 9 P.M. ET.
In the lawless tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Taliban is gaining control. In a video obtained by FRONTLINE, the Taliban demonstrate their brutal brand of justice. After executing 17 people, said to be thieves, in front of a crowd of hundreds, they hung the bodies on poles for three days. "We have killed these people and sent them to God," a Taliban gunman says to the camera. "God will bring them to justice."
FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith returns to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and presents a rare look inside this secret sanctuary in RETURN OF THE TALIBAN, the FRONTLINE season premiere, airing Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings).
After 9/11, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pledged his country's support to America's fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, but he has struggled to control his own military and intelligence services. For Pakistan, the benefits of cooperation with America have been clear. As President Musharraf tells FRONTLINE, "Defense cooperation has increased between the United States and Pakistan, and ... the debt relief that we got will account for about $4 to $5 billion."
The tribal areas are inherently difficult to control because of terrain and the fierce autonomy claimed by local leaders. "We used to call them the no-go area[s], or the inaccessible areas," says Gov. Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai, the Pakistani political chief of the tribal areas. "We had maps, but they were not very accurate. The borders are unguarded." Culturally, there are also great sympathies for the Taliban cause. According to Steve Coll, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars, "when the Pakistan army is fighting the Taliban, they're fighting cousins. They're fighting brethren."
Even under government pressure, some tribesmen continue to provide money and resources to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. After prodding from the United States, in 2004 Pakistan launched a major military offensive against a joint force of tribal militia and Al Qaeda fighters in an effort to take control of an area where Al Qaeda training camps were located. But the offensive failed, and Pakistani authorities turned to negotiation. The army demanded that tribal leaders give up all foreign fighters taking refuge with them, stop cross-border raids against U.S. forces in Afghanistan and lay down their arms. In return, the government agreed to pay the tribesmen more than a half-million dollars.
According to sources familiar with the agreement, the money was destined for Al Qaeda. "This was part of the deal because some of these commanders had ... borrowed money for logistics, for support," says Ismail Khan, an editor at Dawn, Pakistan's largest English-language daily newspaper. "They wanted the money to pay their debt to Al Qaeda."
An uneasy truce followed. The army is largely confined to its barracks, the Taliban exercises control over much of the area and foreign fighters continue to launch cross-border raids. President Musharraf concedes that his strategy of negotiating with the local militants in 2004 has failed. "We thought if we reached an agreement, that would be the end of it," President Musharraf tells FRONTLINE. "Well, it proved wrong." Nonetheless, President Musharraf's government signed a new deal on Sept. 5 with tribal leaders who control another part of the lawless border region, but observers report that the terms are even less favorable to the government and signal a further strengthening of the Taliban's grip on the area.
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