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0 minutes before Incident.
8: 05 A.M Local time. The local residents are coming out of morning prayers. In a rather innocuous street in the city of Tal Afar, members of the U.S. Army’s 1^st Calvary are doing a routine patrol in their High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle. Otherwise known as the humvee. They approach a crowd of people exiting a mosque. Among the crowd is an elderly man, a few children, a group of young men and some women dressed in the traditional headdress and garb.
The lead humvee passes the crowd. The second humvee passes the crowd. The third humvee passes the crowd. An explosion tears through the first two humvees. The third one drives through it and stops. The remaining 3 humvees grind to a halt. Soldiers dismount. There is shouting. Shots are fired. People are running. There is more shouting.
“Looi, man the machinegun.”
“Stop, stop”
“Don’t move”
“Shit, gunman, 5 o’clock.”
More gunshots ring out through the distance…

5 Minutes from Incident
Captain Danny “Don’t Worry” Waltz of the 1^st Calvary of the U.S. Army was riding shotgun in his humvee on a routine patrol. Next to him, Sergeant Jimmy Sanders was taking the wheel. In front of him were the two lead humvees. From where Waltz was sitting, he could see young Corporal Ian Lloyd in the turret seat, hands around the grip of the M248 Squad Automatic Weapon. Finger on the trigger. Behind Waltz is Corporal Sam Looi, being interviewed by embedded journalist Cassandra Armitage from CNN. There is also a cameraman named Manuel Delacroix.
“Being an Asian-American, is it difficult being in the Army?” Armitage asks
“Nah. No way. In the army, we’re all red, white and blue.” Looi answers.
Waltz sees a crowd of people exiting a mosque ahead. An elderly man, a few children, a group of young men and some women dressed in the traditional headdress and garb.
“What is your position on this war?”
The humvee approaches the crowd. Waltz sees a child wave to him.
“I think it’s great. We’re giving power back to the people of this fine country. But I dunno. Sometimes I wonder what’s the point of helping someone who doesn’t want to” Looi was cut off by a large explosion which rocked the humvee.
“Fuck! IED. Keep moving!!” Waltz screams to Sanders. The humvee speeds through the wreckage of the two lead humvees, destroyed by a roadside bomb.
Waltz picks up the radio “Alice, you see that?”
“Fuck yeah. Our crew’s gonna hold back and check for survivors.” Captain Jimmy Alice says over the radio.
“Roger that. Me and Sanders are gonna secure the area.” Waltz replies. He grabs his M4A1 Carbine and dismounts from the humvee as it stops. Sanders does the same from his side. Waltz runs towards a group of people fleeing.
“Stop!!” he shouts in Arabic. He fires several warning shots into the air. “Don’t move” he shouts again in Arabic. “Looi, man the machinegun.” he yells in English to Corporal Looi.
Waltz sees Armitage and her cameraman trying to follow him.
“Ma’am. Stay in the humvee!!” Waltz returns to the people running. He fires more shots into the air. “Stop, stop. Don’t move” he shouts in Arabic.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees an AK-47 in someone’s hands. That person raises the AK.
“Shit, gunman, 5 o’clock.” Waltz yells towards Looi.
As the bodies fall, Waltz runs to where he saw gunman was. When he gets there, he looks down at the gunman and aims his M4A1 at the body. He looks at the gun on the ground and at the corpse. He swears.

3 Minutes from Incident
“Ok roll tape” Cassandra Armitage tells Delacroix
“Tape rolling” Delacroix replies.
“Being an Asian-American, is it difficult being in the Army?” Armitage asks Corporal Looi.
“Nah. No way. In the army, we’re all red, white and blue.” Looi answers.
“How is Tal Afar different from Baghdad, where you were stationed before?”
“Tal Afar is very different. It’s extremely peaceful, despite it being a mixed region of Sunnis and Shiites”
“What is your position on this war?”
“I think it’s great. We’re giving power back to the people of this fine country. But I dunno. Sometimes I wonder what’s the point of helping someone who doesn’t want to” A huge explosion shakes the humvee, startling Armitage and her cameraman. Both of them are wearing navy blue, ill fitting and heavy Kevlar vests and helmets. Everything becomes black because of the smoke.
“Fuck! IED. Keep moving!!” she hears Captain Waltz scream. She feels the humvee drive through something hard and heavy in the darkness. When they drive through it, the brightness of the sun hurts her eyes. She hears Waltz say something into the radio. As the humvee stops, Waltz and Sanders, her driver, exit the vehicle.
Armitage peeks out of the bullet proof window of the humvee and sees Waltz and Sanders fire warning shots into the air. She also sees a group of frightened people fleeing. She spots a child being huddled away by his father. Delacroix is still filming.
“Ma’am, please stay back.” Corporal Looi advises her.
“Looi, man the machinegun.” Armitage hears Waltz yell
“Roger” Looi replies as he gets up and positions himself at the machinegun on top of the humvee.
Armitage and Delacroix take this chance to get closer to the events unfolding. They creep out of the humvee with the camera still recording. As they get out, Waltz turns around.
“Ma’am. Stay in the humvee!!”
Armitage sees Waltz fire warning shots into the air and shouting in Arabic. Then he shouts something to Looi. The loud thumping sound of the machinegun mounted on top of the humvee roar in Armitage’s ears. Then she sees something shocking. Against all warnings, she and her cameraman run towards where the shots we’re fired to. As she gets there, she spots Waltz getting there first, his weapon aimed at something on the ground. She hears him swear. As she gets there, she sees what Waltz was looking at.
“Jesus Christ” Armitage breathes out.

10 Minutes from Incident
11 year old Khallid was just finishing morning prayers with his grandfather, father, mother, uncles, aunties, brothers and cousins. As they wait around for their bus to arrive, the women stand around to discuss life and the men to discuss politics.
“Life was better under Saddam. Before we didn’t have all these bombings and shootings”
“Easy for you to say. We were Sunni. What about poor Ahmed. They took his parents away in the middle of the night, leaving him alone.”
“Blah. At least we had peace.”
“Yes. We had peace. I still think Bush was right. Saddam was not a good person”
“Bush is an idiot”
While that was going on, Khallid and his cousins had begun to play a favourite game of theirs, Police and Insurgents. They ran over to their usual hiding spot and pulled out their plastic toy AK-47s that they had bought from a market earlier in the week. As they each collected their weapons, they chose their sides. Khallid, his brother Muhammad and their cousin Abdul decided to be police while the rest played insurgents. While the police stayed put, covered their eyes and counted to twenty, the insurgents ran and hid. When they reached twenty, Khallid decided to go back to the street where his parent were standing, believing the insurgents to be there. When he got there, he saw a procession of 6 American humvees driving along the road. Immediately Khallid drops his toy gun and waves to the Americans.
As soon as the third humvee passes him, a huge explosion knocks him to the ground. Khallid gets up to see some burning wreckage and some soldiers get out. One of them is running towards them and says something that he can’t hear because his ears are ringing. The soldier shoots into the air. His father picks Khallid up and huddles him away. He sees the soldier turn around and saying something behind him. Khallid then remembers his toy AK-47 and breaks out of his father’s arms and runs back. He picks up his toy gun and sees his father running back towards him.
Suddenly he feels something hot pierce his body. Then another and another and another. After that, he falls to the ground. He sees his father fall to the ground next to him. Khallid feels a burning sensation in his chest. It hurts to breath. So he stops.

Early last year, I was asked by a friend “Want to make some money?” and naturally I said yes. I mean, in this materialistic world, who doesn’t want money. When I asked as to how I would make this money, I was told through blogging and I was shocked. Make money from blogging? It was unheard of. Well…I’ve never heard of it. I mean…I blog constantly on my personal website. I had no clue that those blogs could be worth something in value. So I followed my friend’s advice and signed up for payperpost, the source of the money I was hoping to make. And it was so simple to start making money. All you need is a blog, a month and ten blog posts in that blog. Its as simple as that and once you have all that you’re set. Just need to wait for Pay Per Post to approve your site and you’re done and ready to make millions. Well…maybe not millions but close enough.

What I was surprised to find when I browsed through the available opportunities (posts you can make that earn you money) was that they’re worth quite a bit. Some were over $100. A blog for $100. That is…incredible. Makes me speechless. However it must be said that those opportunities are generally reserved for those with high credentials, so it may be a while before you reach a stage where you can make that sort of money. Nonetheless there are still plenty of opportunities available which can earn you money so it’s not pointless. So if you have an existing blog, then you have potential space to earn some money. I know I did and with that money, Im planning on repaying some debts I owe and hopefully fund a trip at the end of the year. That is how great Pay Per Post is. It can fund a holiday. Amazing.

To say that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is unique would be an understatement. It is more than unique. It is something so different and out of this world, that I am going to find a hell of a hard time reviewing it because there aren’t many things to compare it to, save for the musical and the television movies produced and the “various English language works starting in the mid-19th century” which they were all based upon. It would also be difficult to review simply because it’s so damn different. It is unlike anything I have ever seen before. Almost alien. So to do this review, I will take a similar approach as our good friend Zero Punctuation over at The Escapist Magazine. Indulge me if you will, and read this review with a pomp English accent and quickly as though you’re hyped up on crack and steroids.

Right. Picture High School Musical. Replace Zac Efron with Edward Scissorhands with the homicidal tendencies of Freddy Krueger. Then take away Vanessa Hudgens and in her place, put in the Corpse Bride. Change whoever the bad guy is to Hans Gruber and set it all in the twisted world of Tim Burton and you practically have Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This latest invention from long time collaborators Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is a beautifully crafted and wonderfully acted (and sung) musical that maintains the quirkiness of Tim Burton and never has a dull moment. Johnny Depp stars as the lead, Benjamin Barker, a man who has been sent away to Hard Labour in Australia on a false charge for fifteen years and returns as Sweeney Todd, hoping to be reunited with his family. Instead, he finds his wife Lucy had poisoned herself after being raped by the corrupt Judge Turpin, the man who sent Todd away. He also finds hat his daughter Johanna had been adopted and raised by Judge Turpin. In a quest of revenge against Judge Turpin, an angered Todd reopens his Barber shop, hoping to give the Judge the closest shave he will ever know.

Being a musical, the most important thing is the music, which is simply superb in this film. Every note hangs in the air, keeping you in your seat, with every change in sound drawing you in deeper and deeper. The music remains consistent throughout, maintaining uniformity so none of the songs seem out of place. Much of the plot is moved along through the songs that are sung, and they are not just there for the sake of making it a musical. And as such, the actors have done a fantastic job of moving the plot along. Depp is perfect for his role as Sweeney Todd, utilising the eccentricity he had gained while starring as Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean Series. His singing is no less than perfect, striking every note with a tinging that that reverberates through out your body. The same can be said about Helena Bonham Carter, her high voice matching perfectly with Depp’s baritone voice. Their duet My Friends is one that must be heard and is probably my favourite song in the whole movie. Alan Rickman seems to have spent too much time as Professor Snape in Harry Potter, as his performance seems to carry heavily into this film, not that Im complaining much mind you, his performance in this is no less stunning than that of the other actors. A person I would have seen much more of would have been that of Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony Hope, the sailor who brings Todd back to London and is in love with Johanna, his voice and singing beyond superb. An amazing thing in this film is the make up. Not many people in the world are capable of making Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter look hideous. Also, the special effects are beautiful, looking realistic, without making it over the top. The blood actually sprays like blood.

Janson Says: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is an absolutely splendid film musical, whose stars appear they have been singing all their lives. Johnny Depp’s performance is phenomenal, and makes it clearly why he won the Godlen Globe. The songs are great which bring this classic tale to life, and the duets are simply the best and are the ones to look out for.