The Departed movie review
From Robert Shamlin... Sent in by Bob Younger, contributor:

[Movie Review]
The Departed
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen Directed by: Martin Scorsese
2006 Warner Bros. Pictures

Review by Bob Younger

One day this mysterious package came in over the transom containing a stack of slick magazines. In it was the following periodicals.

Cult Movies, “We Remember Forgotten Films” number 41, cultmoviesmag.com
A thick, slick, color-cover zine, with black and white photos on newsprint pages that exploits the horror, sci-fi, teen exploitation flicks of yore. Articles include features on Godzilla, 70’s “road movies,” and expose unflattering to the Kennedys on “The Making of PT-109,” reviews of cheerleader movies of the 1970’s, among many others. This is a must have for enthusiasts of the genre.

Scoot! #39, “Our Biggest Scooter Buyer Guide Ever” scootquarterly.com
Glossy mag full color about the scooter culture with a fun looking La Mesa (San Diego) scooter rally review of Scutoberfest X, which was sponsored by “Secret Society Of San Diego” and held during Octoberfest, October 6-7, 2006.

Varla vol 1 issue 13 winter 2007, varla.com Great T-and-A glossy color mag with photo layouts of various fetish models from the indy music scene. An article is included in this issue with big tyme honktonk hellion Hank Williams III from his 6/6/06 tour date on page 13. Centerfold two-page girlie pull-out on poster grade stock paper.

Virtual Instruments Dec./Jan. 2007 - vol 2 no. 6, virtualinstrumentsmag.com Hi-tech product review mag for the electronica and syth-music industry. This issue has a cover article on the Akai EWI 4000m Electric Wind Instrument.

On the package’s return address was only: RCS, 3700 Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90065.

I like the vanity/schlock-movie, hot-rod and glamour-fetish publishing niche as much as the next nerdy guy with Godzilla vs. the Michelin tire man spectator aspirations. But I really wish some of these big-money print backers would put some of their cash they skimmed off the top of hedge funds or whatever into some real worthy journalistic endeavors. Let’s see a titty-and-ass mag that details the tax-returns and corporate-contribution record of the right wing crooks that want to censor us, that want to fire government prosecutors that actually dare to investigate the Randy “Duke” Cunninghams and the I. Scooter Libbys. Who are the ones that brought down the middle class and set up out whole economy for the coming financial apocalypse that’s going to happen in the next 5 or 6 years when the whole sub-prime market bites the big one? You know they only dangled those low interest rates in front of Joe Dufus average American and his oompla-loompa wife starting in 2000 to get all you greedy suckers distracted long enough to go for all that mid-east oil. And guess what? You all had to lie about your earnings to get those lucky liar’s loans, didn’t you. Yes, yes you did. So when the interest rates adjust to market standards and you don’t have the income to cover your payments and you lose that $400,000 fixer-upper or half-a million dollar condo you’ll be asked, “Well what do you mean that you can’t afford $3000 per month in mortgage payments? According to the loan docs you said you made $186,000 per year when you got this loan…” Suckers. Used to be that if you didn’t have a deposit of 20% and a decent job that paid OK you couldn’t get a 15 to 320 year loan and you couldn’t buy. This kept prices at realistic ownership levels. This was of course until the hookers got sly and turned a few tricks. Hookers are people who do things for money that most people consider immoral, and what’s happened in the sub-prime mortgage industry is pretty shady. The first thing those shady loan officials and mortgage fraud specialists and real estate hookers in high heels were taught in scam-artist school was “When you scam someone you should always get them into an illegal act first so they have a guilty conscience.” And of course this whole collapsing real estate mortgage fraud debacle has gone completely unrecognized by law enforcement. All those crooks lying their asses off for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in loan money… all those crooks goading them into it for their commission… our society hasn’t seen such widespread criminal activity in the financial sector, ever before. But it’s not really big news, at least not news you’ll read in the paper or see on the 11-o’clock news, because it’s nothing compared to the lie that America bought when this current White House resident convinced us to let him have his White House. They harassed Bill Clinton into near ineffectiveness with accusations of moral turpitude while he was preparing a medical patient’s Bill Of Rights affordable health care for all (THAT was his first real crime) and still our economy was at its strongest it’s ever been during his two successful terms. Hell, let him get his fat girl blowjob in private; At least there were plenty of decent jobs, crime was low, gas was affordably about $1.50 per-gallon and our country wasn’t hated everywhere in the world. Isn’t it amazing that this was less than 8 years ago?

Jack Nicholson’s gangster character in the movie The Departed got it right when he said the problem with the “niggers” is that they expect a free ride all the time, well almost right, they demand it. Whitey owes it to them, they think, even though it was their own people who sold them to the slavers, not the whites. Then there’s the “beaners!” Like the Mexicans aren’t going to repopulate what was once their home land. Isn’t California a Mexican word? Ever wonder why Hollywood has several negro leading man actors and no Mexican ones, while Los Angeles is more than 50% Mexican? It’s because the Hollywood hierarchy feels threatened by them. Mexicans have a country they can truly call their own, one that doesn’t need 50 billion dollars in US military support and, unlike Israel, is a country that is recognized as legitimate by the whole world. If Hollywood were to legitimize the Hispanics in Hollywood all their domestic help might start asking for real pay. When Hollywood portrays gangsters they like to make them look like some kind of working man’s hero, like Ben Gazzara’s character Luigi in the Spike Lee Joint film Summer Of Sam. He helps the cops find the psychotic killer terrorizing the neighborhood, and that’s all well and good, but wasn’t it his dope being put out on the street that pushed the killer over the edge in the first place? And wasn’t it the local law enforcement that allowed him to do business? Isn’t most modern law enforcement really about resource protection, the protection of the assets of the wealthy, and not really about the enforcing of laws? If it were, how would have home prices risen to the economy crippling levels they have risen to? And if they hadn’t then local property tax coffers wouldn’t be in for a tax windfall. Better get it while they can since no one can afford to keep their homes and rent is pretty tough to make too. No one can rent out any recent purchase for what their mortgage payment is. We still have the TV, and magazines like this to forget our troubles with. RS