Northern Monk Guava Have Faith
Categories: [ Beer ]
Categories: [ Beer ]
Categories: [ TV/Cinema/DC ]
As a child, Diana participates in a competition that she almost win by cheating, only to be stopped before the finish line by Antiope, who explains that anything worthwhile must be obtained honestly. In 1984, Diana works as the Smithonian Institution and befriends Barbara Minerva, a shy geologist and cryptozoologist with whom she tries to identify stolen antiquities by request of the FBI. They notice a Latin inscription on a large yellow crystal, claiming it can grant one wish. Barbara wishes she would be more like Diana and soon gets more self-confident, noticed by other people and develops super powers. Diana, yearning for Steve Trevor, discovers that her dead lover has resurrected in the body of random man; he seeks her and they are reunited. In the meanwhile, failed businessman Max Lord steals the crystal and wishes to become it. He thus can grant anyone else's wish and take something from them in return. This soon results in worldwide chaos, destruction, and instability. Diana and Barbara discover that the crystal was created by the God of Lies and grants exactly what is asked, but in a way that is always detrimental to the wisher, and has caused the downfall of many civilisations throughout History; the only alternative would be that all wishers renounce their wishes, but neither Barbara nor Diana are willing to do so. Max then visits the US President who wishes to have many more nuclear missiles than the USSR; in exchange Max gets access to a US satellite system that allows to broadcast to anyone in the world. Max thus plans to steal the wisher's life force to compensate for his body's decay due to granting wishes. Diana tries to stop Max, but Barbara sides with him and they escape together. Steve then convinces Diana to renounce her wish, which restores her full strength. She then flies to the island from which the broadcast system is controlled and again battles Barbara, who is turning into a humanoid cheetah. Having won, Diana confronts Max and uses her Lasso of Truth to communicate with the world through him, persuading everyone to renounce their wishes. Seeing a vision of his son searching desperately for his father, Max realizes his error, renounces his wish, cancelling most of the changes that occurred due to people's wishes.
Categories: [ Beer/Marble ]
Categories: [ Books/Roger Rabbit ]
Roger Rabbit, a toon, hires private investigator Eddie Valiant to get him out of his contract with the DeGreasy brothers, where he plays second role to Baby Herman in a comic strip shot by photographer Carol Masters. Rocco DeGreasy is soon after found shot dead at his desk and Roger is found shot dead at his home, with evidence pointing at his estranged wife Jessica. Eddie is then hired by Roger's doppelganger (which toons can create at will for a limited time) created just before his death to solve the mystery of his death. The police quickly concludes that Rocco has been killed by Roger and that the latter by Jessica. But as the investigation progresses, DeGreasy's brother Dominick, Jessica and Roger mention a teakettle that all three claim belongs to them. Eddie discovers a parallel plot where Rocco's son has had perfect duplicates of Carol's strips' negatives made, to sell multiple “originals” to various collectors. Carol has witnessed part of Roger's murder, seen the kettle fly out of the rabbit's home and taken it. Tracing the origin of the kettle, through a prop master who bought it for cheap for a set where Roger was acting to Roger stealing it as a souvenir, Eddie discovers that the kettle is in reality a magic lantern containing a genie that grants wishes only to toons. The kettle had first been used by the DeGreasys, originally toons, to turn them human and give them a comic strip syndicate. Eddie leaves Dominick alone with the lantern as the remaining brother needs his third wish to remain a human, but he gets shot by the genie who, embittered by thousand of years of imprisonment has decided to kill the toons that call him. Eddie then talks to the genie who explains that Roger accidentally activated the lantern when wishing that he could marry Jessica, as the required words are part of a song that he sings often. Getting a contract with Rocco was his second wish, twisted by the genie so that he would only ever be a second role and would not be able to get out of the contract. Roger's marriage was also made to last only for a year, explaining why the marriage ended as inexplicably as it had started. Salt water being the genie's weakness, Eddie coerces him to grant him a wish of finding a suicide note from Dominick confessing to both Rocco's and Roger's murders. The detective then drops the lantern in the salt water fish tank. Eddie however concludes that the original Roger has killed Rocco, whom the rabbit believed had stolen Jessica from him, using his doppelganger as an alibi and planning to plant the murder weapon at Valiant's office to make him the fall guy but was shot by the genie after accidentally summoning it. Roger's doppelganger finally disintegrate.
Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]
Wealthy and ruthless San Francisco investment banker Nicholas Van Orton receives from his brother Conrad for his birthday a voucher for a “game” organized by Consumer Recreation Services. Intrigued, Nicholas decides to visit their offices and take the irritatingly long psychological and physical examinations. He later receives a phone call informing him that his application is rejected. Upon his return home in the evening, he finds a wooden clown outside and receives instructions from CRS through his television, telling him not to try and figure out the object of the game. The next day at the restaurant he gets a waitress, Christine, fired because she spilled wine on his shirt, only to be handed a message to not let her out of his sight. Following her outside, they both help a man who just collapsed, are ushered into the ambulance by the police and driven to what looks like the ER's entrance. There they find themselves suddenly alone, manage to take a locked lift thanks to a key found earlier in the clowns mouth, discover they are in CRS' offices and are chased by security. They manage to escape and go their separate ways. Later Nicholas receives a message about a hotel room where he is supposed to have spent the night and when going there finds drugs and erotic polaroid pictures. He's convinced that he's being setup by an investor he just fired, but finds out it's not the case. Nicholas is then contacted by Conrad who tells him that CRS is trying to kill him despite having played their game over a year ago. They part on bad terms when Conrad finds CRS-marked keys in his brother's car. Later Nicholas escapes a murder attempt by a taxi driver throwing the locked car into the harbour thanks to the crank found earlier in his attaché-case that allows him to open the window. Nicholas manages to find where Christine lives and visits her there. He noticed her apartment is fake, and she tells him that they have to flee and are soon shot at by men coming out of a CRS van. Christine reveals that CRS has profiled him and has stolen all of his company's money. Nicholas calls his Swiss bank, giving his password over the phone, and the bank confirms the balance is zero. Nicholas is later drugged by Christine and wakes up in Mexico. He manages to go back to San Francisco and discovers the man who welcomed him at CRS in the beginning is an actor. His home is foreclosed and most of his possessions removed, but he gets a gun from a hidden place. Nicholas then manages to trace the actor through his agent, takes him hostage and forces him to help him enter CRS's premises. He is shot at, and ends up on the roof with Christine who tells him it was all part of the game, but notices that his weapon is a real one. When the roof's door is forced open, Nicholas shoots Conrad who is standing there in a tuxedo and with a bottle of champagne. Desperate because he has shot his brother, he jumps from the roof, crashes through a skylight and lands on a giant airbag. All his friends are there for his birthday party.
Categories: [ Books ]
Sixteen-year-old Hazel is resurrected by a mage. First held by the Inquisition she is released thanks to the influence of the king and invited to join Alistair the vampire, Lara the werewolf and Lyvaelan the dark elf warlock and become the new special members of the Evenfall Vigil, dedicated to protect the kingdom from nocturnal supernatural threats. They first investigate the disappearance of bluecap workers, extremely fast moving, small fae creatures participating to the construction of the city walls. They soon have a first encounter with aufhockers, creatures made of shadows that seem to swallow the bluecaps without killing them. Hazel, despite being the target of the cult of Semeleme the goddess of death, is not a conventional undead as she has premonitory dreams and, thanks to the guidance of Lyvaelan she develops psychic abilities and the capacity to communicate with plants and make them grow. Mortally wounded during the encounter with the aufhockers she manages to heal herself in a few minutes, and when burned alive by the cult of Semeleme she heals in a few days. Hazel also announces a prophecy about a lich of half a day that deeply troubles her colleagues. While investigating, they discover that the aufhockers work for the Alchemist, a person rich enough to have handsomely paid a dozen men to attack them with the help of a blue potion that makes one of them very fast. Pursuing that line of investigation they talk with the head of the university of magic who introduces them to a professor of alchemy. The latter makes a list of alchemists who could be the Alchemist. The professor also advise them to visit Paxton Averly, a very nice alchemist who helps then narrow down the list of suspects. The eventually find a pair of suspects, but it is an obvious setup. Hazel is then set up to notice dead bluecaps in Averly's laboratory, giving him the excuse to attack the team with the support of his aufhockers. Averly's bluecap potion makes him almost invincible, and they manage to vanquish him only because Lyvaelan's warlock side concentrates so much magic that he is close to killing himself while destroying the whole city (a risk of which he is well aware and causes most people to fear warlocks).
Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]
A young couple prepares to rob the diner where they are eating. Earlier the same day, Jules and Vince, two hitmen dressed in a black suit and working for Wallace retrieve a briefcase containing something shiny and kill most of the young people who were hiding it in their shared apartment. Later, Vince appears alone at Wallace's night club with the briefcase, wearing a grey t-shirt. Wallace is giving money to Butch, a boxer, to lose his next match. Wallace then tells Vince that he must take Mia, his wife, out to dinner the same evening. The dinner, at a 1950s-themed restaurant goes well, they even win a twist contest. Mia asks Vince to come back with her to her place. While Vince is not looking, she mistakes heroin found in Vince's jacket for cocaine and overdoses on it. Vince takes her to his dealer's place, they fumble with an adrenaline kit but manage to save her life. In the meanwhile, Butch not only wins his match but kills his opponent. He then joins his girlfriend Fabienne in a motel and they plan to flee by train the next morning. But Fabienne has forgotten to pack his gold watch, inherited from his great-grandfather. Butch does not want to lose his watch, so he goes back to his apartment where Jules is waiting to kill him on Wallace's order. Butch manages to kill the hitman and then drives away. By pure coincident, he's seen by Wallace, whom he runs over. Both can still run and chase each other on foot; Butch finds refuge in a pawn shop whose owner, Maynard, kidnaps them. Maynard and his accomplice rape Wallace, but Butch manages to escape his ties and kills them, freeing Wallace, who tells Butch to keep quiet about the incident and leave Los Angeles. He picks up Fabienne and they drive away. Earlier, at the apartment where they are retrieving the briefcase, Jules and Vince take one person hostage, but Vince kills him in the car by accident. The find refuge at a friend of Jules' and as they don't know what to do but have to do it before the friend's wife comes back home from her night shift, they call a fixer for help that tells them how to clean and hide the gore in the car. They change their bloody black suits for t-shirts and shorts and take the car to a junkyard. On their way back to Wallace's they have lunch at the diner. Jules wants to give up his life as a hitman. He manages to convince the couple to take his own cash, give up on the robbery and to go away.