Wednesday, December 30, 2009

OMG U Guyz!

Kevin Greutert is the man who edited the first five Saw movies; directed Saw VI (and did a much better job than the box office, unfortunately, reflected).

He looked at my blog today!

Ok, it was just because he was tracking back a link I'd placed to his blog back in August, and he spent less than a minute here, but nevertheless!

I feel like a 14-year-old girl who's just been smiled at by the captain of the football team.

Come on, January 26!

Photobucket

Our problem was, we forgot they were Democrats

Silly, really, how so many of us thought if the Democrats won in 2008, that it would be a victory for progressives. We forgot--when the Republicans stamp their feet, Democrats run for the middle of the road.

The middle of the road is notable for the yellow line running down....

A little something to keep handy

...for the next time you're feeling defiantly hateful of your parents or conversely, feeling guilty about the mistakes you made with your kid or kids.

Or, you think your family was weird?

The Worst Celebrity Parents of the decade.

Personally, I'd have put Charlie and Denise a little bit higher (like at least in the top half). But that's just me. And I can't argue with their number one.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Interview: You are Number Six



Jen took up the gauntlet of being "interviewed" by, and then "interviewing" me.


1. What do you like most about libraries?


Seems kind of obvious, but: All the books.

A writer used to say, "Beware he who writes more than he reads." Which means, put metaphorically, if you want to hear the music, you've got to listen.

I also have relatively little formal education but am heavily self-educated in this way. Actually, the same man who said that* about writers used to say he was "A self-made man--which demonstrates the horrors of unskilled labor."

*It was Harlan Ellison, if you want to know.

And I just like that if I have some enthusiasm I want to pursue--which happens, like, once a day--there's almost always at least one book I can get at the library with information about it.

2. If you could meet any fictional character (not created by you), who would it be, and why?


Someone from The West Wing. As for who, I'd have to flip a coin between Sam or Toby.

Sam, because he says things like this:

"...education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic changes. Schools should be palaces; the competition for the best teachers should be fierce, they should be making six figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet."
--Sam, "Six Meetings Before Lunch."

And Toby, because he says things like this:

"If our jobs teach us anything it's that we don't know what the next President's gonna face. If we choose someone with vision, someone with guts, someone with gravitas who's connected to other people's lives and cares about making them better, if we choose someone to inspire us, then we'll be able to face what comes our way and achieve things we can't imagine yet." --Toby, "20 Hours in America."


And because they say things like that, we know they feel things like that, and because they feel things like that, we know they think things like that...and we know they write things like that.



Alternately a Pixar character, like Wall-E, Eve-A, or Remy, because they give me hope, love and inspiration.

3. What was your favourite board game when you were a kid?




I want to play a game...

...oh right, sorry, board game, when I was a kid...I don’t know.

When I was a real little kid, Candyland and Chutes & Ladders. Photobucket
A little later I have fond memories of the Rescuers movie game.

I liked Monopoly like everyone else (for the record, my piece of choice was the car). Also a game called-

-that had cool shark fin pieces.

By the time I was like 11 I was hanging out in arcades (ah, Tron) more than I was playing board games at home.

4. Your favourite nickname for you?


To coin a phrase: Photobucket

I can't tell you, but I know it's mine.

(In other words: It's something an ex-girlfriend used to call me; I also had something I called her. I've never said what it was to anyone, I don't know if she has)

5. Which is better: to have loved and lost, or never to have loved at all?


Well, let me put it like this:

You and I won't lose our heads the way some lovers do

Saying "This will last forever" when it's just a year or two

You and I won't be the fools that other lovers are

Thinking every silver bottle top potentially a star

still...


All the world loves lovers.

All the world loves people in love

Don't forget it. - LOVE

Don't forget it. - LOVE

Love whatever the price.

Great.

Terror suspect’s online posts detail ‘loneliness’


The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an American airliner apparently turned to the Internet for counseling and companionship


Maybe I should just have myself put into prison now...

Monday, December 28, 2009

From where I sit, they left one or two out

The Huffington Post is conducting one of their polls, this time to determine The Biggest Political Disappointments of 2009.

When I voted, two of the top three were The Senate Health Care Bill and the poor quality of the debate which preceded it.

I'm a little put out that "Republican filibusters" is the third. Because to me, the desperation of the Democratic senate and President Obama to pass any bill at any price is a lot more disgusting than Republicans acting like Republicans.

(They stand for nothing. They stand in the way of everything).

Rounding out the top five are the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the destruction of tapes by the CIA recording torture sessions.

Again I question the later of the two. Because surely "disappointment" implies a failure to live up to expectations--and did anybody really expect the CIA under the Bush administration not to obstruct justice?

Anyway, go and vote if you like.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

What will happen when my New Romantic synth pop fandom runs into my love of Saw

Help me.

I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really trying not to go for an easy "time of the month" joke here. But, well, look at these two pieces of information.

Do you remember when former Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said there hadn't been any terrorist attacks on the US while he was president? No one could believe she'd said anything that blatantly revisionist, right?

Well, today...almost exactly 31 days later...another Bush woman (and believe me, I'd much rather be using those words in another context) decided to put her own little "spin" upon the truth:


Mary Matalin claims President Bush ‘inherited’ the September 11th terror attacks
Now, I've heard how when gals spend a lot of time together, their periods tend to synch up.

So you can see my problem, I'm sure.

Oh no you don't, lady

Look: Probably much like you, I hoped that the only "Palin" I would be mentioning here for the forseeable future would be that nice chap who used to work with John Cleese and Terry Jones. But...

You've probably heard that (sigh) Sarah Palin's "death panels" thing was named "lie of the year" by the non-partisan FactCheck group. I haven't said anything about it because frankly, I'm trying not to promote her. (Yeah, like my little blog makes the difference)

However, this week, I learned that, backpedalling furiously, Mrs. Palin now says she was using a "metaphor" for reduced access to and quality of health care when she spoke of "death panels."

That does it. Mrs Palin, I don't expect you to be substantive. I don't even expect you to stop dropping hints that you're going to run for president. Though I'm reassuringly convinced this is just something you're saying to sell your book to teabaggers.

However, I will thank you, kindly, to stay away from things which writers use.

Thank you so much. Have a good day.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Pictures from Christmas


This is me with my nephew and his grandmother.



I say "his grandmother" because she is not my mother.

Long story.

What looks like the beginnings of a bald spot on my head doesn't bother me at all.

(cut to Ben sobbing in a corner, "My hair! My beautiful hair!")

The blanket on her lap was her present from him which he picked out himself, and yes it is a baby blanket, but a very soft and cuddly one and she adored it.

Silly faggots--the GOP is for people

I just think it's so cute when homosexuals act as though Republicans will ever, ever, ever treat them as though they were human beings.

I mean, if you're gay and a Democrat, you have every right to be pissed off because it sure looks like, down deep, the President you voted for and/or contributed money to thinks you're really kind of icky. Hell, I'm straight and a Democrat, and that pisses me off.

But you went with the GOP, and you're suprised that they took your money and then treated you like you were a fleck of snot on their shirt?

Cry me a river.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Just in time for Christmas, the right goes and picks on some sweet little bears

The bears fold.

Via Think Progress:

Until recently, the Build-A-Bearville website (part of the Build-A-Bear Workshop) featured online videos telling children about manmade global warming and the dangers it holds for the North Pole. In the videos, little animals learn about the problem and teach Santa Claus about it. The right wing has been outraged over the antics of these bears and penguins. One conservative called for a boycott of Build-A-Bear, and another said the the videos amount to “indoctrination.” In response to this right-wing pressure, Build-A-Bear has taken down the educational videos.


The scientific consensus remains as strong as ever that manmade global warming is real. In the past, conservatives have also attacked the popular movie “Wall-E,” saying that it was filled with “leftist propaganda” and taught children that “human beings are bad for planet earth.”

Yes!

Say what you will about Lady Gaga, but if she's making the inside of the Reverend Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church's heads explode...then damnit, she works for me.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Cool Canadian Questions

Kal plays turnabout:

1. Who would you change places with in this world if you could?


This is a trickier question than it may appear. 'Cause first I was thinking of a musician like Vince Guaraldi in the 1960s (in other words, a really good piano player).



Or one of Jack Benny's writers during the late 1940s. This is probably my second-favorite decade after, of course, the '80s.

This brings up the possibility of my being a sequencer/synthesizer programmer in 1985...
...However, I digress.

Then I thought maybe this should be somebody in the world today.

And then I further went on to think: Change places? So this isn't just about whose life I'd wish to step into, it's about who I'd wish my life upon. Which means that I could choose a crazy asshole like Inhofe, but do I really want to be the Republican Senator from Oklahoma? I think not.

Or I could just be cute and say "Summer Glau's boyfriend," but that sort of thing is going to come up in the next question...


2. With the love you show for all the ladies, who would you most like to be attached to on a daily basis.


What an odd way to phrase it. Presumably you mean, of all the lovely ladies who populate my blogs past and present, who would I most like to have a real relationship with if I could?

Well, it would have to be somebody who is of a similar frame of mind to me politically. Carville and Matalin aside, I just don't think mixed-party-marriages work.

Sexy goes without saying.

And it would be cool if she was an artist, too, only maybe I wouldn't want her to be another writer (we're terribly untrustworthy).

She should be bright.

She should like at least some of the same movies I like (the Saws, though again it would be nice, would not be a deal breaker).

Oh, and she should be gay-friendly and have a good sense of humor.

Put 'em together and what have you got?


...Anne Hathaway.

What were the odds?


3. What would you design as a saw trap for you most hated enemy. Who would that enemy be and why so specific at death?



Forgive me, I feel a Saw-geek moment coming on. The work of Jigsaw is not to design traps for hated enemies, it's to give people who were wasting their lives a test to see how much they value that life, and what price they will pay to keep it.

It's to help people detach from the negative emotions that are keeping them from advancing. The aim is not death, but a newly-cherished life, and the most vengeful thing about a good Jigsaw trap is that it rubs your nose in the flaws of your own life or perspective.

That said...I did come up with a trap on the Saw board I read, last month, that I kinda love. It's a variation on this test in VI:

In the second test, Jigsaw's puppet informs William that he must choose to save either his file clerk or secretary, named Allen and Addy (Shawn Ahmed and Janelle Hutchison) respectively, and let the other die. In the end, William chooses to save Addy, and Allen is hanged by a barbed wire noose when his platform retracts.


In my variant, the test subject is one of those "I'm not a bigot, BUT," or "I don't hate (minority X), BUT" types. In other words: Someone who is a hateful bigot but won't admit it.

He or she must choose to save either a straight, white criminal (let's say it's something REAL hard to forgive, like a child molester) or a successful, law-abiding member of the minority group they despise.

4. What moment in your life, knowing what you do now would you most like to redo? and why?


Ah...I'm afraid I have to choose not to answer this. I do have an answer, and a few people know what it is (and actually, there's an element of a previous answer which relates to it), but it's not something I really want to get into here on a public blog and all.

5. Who would you most like to have lunch with that is living today? What would you ask them?


Who?

Shannon Marie Woodward and Liza Weil.

What would I ask them?

"You wanna read a script?"

“I could've been someone,” “Well, so could anyone!"

For a lot of people this is their favorite Christmas song ever. I don't say it's mine...but it's definitely up there.

My Questions

Calvin o'th Canadian Cave answered them.

That's the problem, Senator.

Via Think Progress:

Senate Republicans have agreed to end their filibuster of health care reform “early Christmas Eve morning, allowing for a vote on the package at 8 a.m.” Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) told the Oklahoman that “the vast majority” of Senate Republicans supported ending the filibuster in order to go home for the holiday. “We’ve had all the fun we’re going to have” debating the bill, said Inhofe.


The people who are suffering and dying from something you have the power to end weren't having any fun. You crazy asshole.

Gotta love that title.



The movie looks like it has a 50/50 chance, it could either rule, or it could totally suck. Still, you gotta love that title.

Oh, Christ, Facebook is a scary thing.

So, yeah, I'm finally on Facebook as one or two of you know. I'm in a group for graduates of my high school, and a guy I knew has gone to the trouble of posting pages from our yearbooks. Prepare yourselves...

This is 1986, and the last time for many years to come that my hair would be that small.

See? (1987)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

I love Terry Gilliam movies, this is a recording

Fresh Air on NPR interviews Gilliam.

(note: For some reason, the player lists the time as about 45 minutes, but it's really more like 20)

Traurige neue Welle/Elektroweihnachtslied

Monday, December 21, 2009

Oooooooooooooooooh....

Ok. Let's say you were a woman desperate to get away from the fact of your aging. Let's say you were Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan, or I don't know, just for the sake of argument...Demi Moore. Yeah, that's it: Let's say you were Demi Moore.

And let's further say that your face and/or body had been botoxed and chopped up so much, that underneath it all you probably look like the remnants of a Jigsaw trap. All purely hypothetical of course.

And let us go on to say that your desperation extends to having your image Photoshopped to within an inch of its life when you appear on a major magazine cover. Now suppose someone were to notice this, and comment on same, publicly.

You protest. Your lawyers send a letter. Well, before you do either of those things or anything like them...you should make damn sure there aren't certain photos in existence. Photos that would make it obvious to an idiot that for this cover, they put your head (and possibly your limbs) onto another woman's body (a younger woman, it goes without saying).

I'm just saying if you ever find yourself in that situation, you know.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

I want to be interviewed

So I'm reviving a meme from a couple of years ago. Here's looking at the rules, sweetheart:

Do YOU want to be interviewed?

Interview rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the
questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview
someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them [me] five questions.

My Top 10 Contemporary American Films

(a very biased list)

About a month and a half ago Jeopardygirl--who thinks I don't have symbols of childhood innocence--made an entry to her blog, of her Top 10 Contemporary Canadian Films (she's Canadian). I thought I should come up with an American version.

I made a rough list or two, but never got around to actually writing the post until about a week ago when I wanted to try to write something, started this and have been hoping to finish it up.

First of all, you may notice, I have played it a bit fast and loose with what constitutes an "American" film, which is my wont. For the record, my rule of thumb was: At least 50% of the financing had to have come from America.

(That is why Fellowship of the Ring is on the list, representing the whole Rings trilogy--the second two were split three ways between New Zealand, the US, and Germany.)

Jeopardygirl defined "contemporary" as within the past 20 years, my list cuts it down to between 10 and 15 (not for any particular reason, it just worked out like that).

If you've been reading this blog long I don't think many of my choices will surprise you, insofar as to what movies I like. But I hope I've said more a few or more new things about why I like them. You be the judge.

(You'll also notice there are no numbered rankings. This is deliberate)

Hellboy.

There have been a lot of great comic-book films these past years--Spider-Man 2, Iron Man. But in my heart I think this is the best.

Unlike the rest of the illustrations in this post, this isn't an image from the film:
Photobucket
But come on--how adorable is that?

Maybe it doesn't hurt that it's the one whose comics I was least familiar with.

It's a story about faith (despite the name) and imagination.

I didn't like the Golden Army sequel as much as most critics (neither did most moviegoers), because I felt it failed to build on the possibilities of the first.

Good Night. And, Good Luck.


good night and good luck
Originally uploaded by
Ginalan


Exquistely shot through with historical context.

Lost in La Mancha. Really representing all Terry Gilliam movies of the past 10 years including Tideland, and probably Doctor Parnassus once I see it.

See, here I have a problem. I'll get to it in a minute.

If I'm talking about movies, I have to talk about Terry Gilliam. He is my favorite director, what else do you want to know?

Like the makers of the Lord of the Rings films, Gilliam knows how to have size without sacrificing acting--or writing.

According to every report I've seen, he respects writers and their role in creating his movies.

I have always assumed that coming up with five writers and performers as contentious as his Python workmates had something to do with this.

Getting back to my "problem," with including any of his recent films on this list, it is simply this: Although he was born and raised in America, he emigrated to Great Britain in the '60s and has lived there ever since.

(A few years ago he even became a British citizen, giving up his US citizenship. I think George W. Bush was the last straw).

Even so, by that rule of mine (50% financing), some of his films from the '70s through '90s might count as American. But the last one that did was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, in 1998. Since then his movies have been heavily or wholly financed outside of the States.

(And to me, that's not one of his better films. It's not bad--I put Terry Gilliam movies in the category of things where there is no such thing as bad, there's good and there's better, but there's no bad. This was not one of his better films.)

So, taking all of the above into account, how can I rationalize putting Tideland, or any of his movies, on a list of top contemporary, American films?

Like this.

A continuing theme of Gilliam's movies has been his response to growing up in America in the '40s, '50s and '60s. He was driven to create fantastic worlds in response to the catastrophe he saw in the ordinary world around him.

It's why it's so incredibly fitting that his attempt to film a story of the man who tilts at windmills, as we see in the Lost in La Mancha documentary, should've been the one to fall apart on him like Humpty Dumpty.

Gilliam, I believe, wanted to escape into "fairy tales," but he also knew that could never totally work, and so he left himself notes in most of them. (When he forgot, or tried to, he made The Brothers Grimm, which is also merely a "good" film.)

Tideland, no matter how "twisted" it was proclaimed by some--ok, most--idiots at the time of its release, was a love letter to childhood innocence. Where exactly was Gilliam an innocent child?

My point being: No matter where he lives, where he pays taxes, or where the money to make his films comes from, Terry Gilliam's eyes are American.

And I couldn't be prouder.

Now...

You knew we'd get here sooner or later:

Saw; including all sequels.

PhotobucketI am a fairly unabashed lover of most things Saw, because at their best they've asked more of their writers, actors and audience than any other comparable series.

They did this (among other ways) by giving their central character John Kramer, sometimes known as Jigsaw, just that: Actual character. As opposed to, say, the vicious dog on two legs that is Jason Vorhees.

What's weird is, by the filmmakers own admission, a lot of that has been luck. Actors like Shawnee Smith and Tobin Bell, who have become important to the series (in Bell's case, damn near indispensible--he plays John Kramer), were cast before anybody had any idea what would be asked of them in the sequels.

These movies, when they're written by writers and played by actors who take their work and their craft seriously, have actually let us see the effect that the Jigsaw character has on others.

Some of this is arguably for good, most of it for evil, but they let us see it--and they let him see, and be affected by that as well.

For these and other reasons, at their best, the sequels have actually built on each other rather than just turning into bloodier and bloodier rehashes. Even the least of them.

Although, this--along with a lot of what I've praised above-did start to slip a little by Saw IV. And a lot in Saw V, which is the least creatively succesful film in the series to date (good start, good ending, one good scene in the middle--whooooole lotta filler).

VI was a much better, even choice in many ways, film; as I've noted previously, it received the best reviews since the original. Still, I'm not exactly sorry to say that word is next years Saw VII will be the end.

BTW...this is another place where you could question the status of these movies as "American" films. Saw was created by a couple of Australians, and after the first movie (which filmed in LA), all the sequels have been filmed and co-financed in Canada.

(until VI, which actually split its money between four countries...which might explain why VII was fast-tracked: Less risk, to more financers...plus the fact that no film in the series has been unprofitable)

Moving on (I heard those of you who said, "Thank god...")

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Okay. I granted up front, including this as a contemporary American film is arguable--roughly half of the stars are from England or Australia, the director and co-writers are from New Zealand, where it was also shot.

But, it was co-financed with American money. And come on, what was I going to do, leave it out?


This is a movie that schooled Lucas--or should have--on how to make an epic without sacrificing storytelling. (I've regained much of my interest in Lucas' contemporary films-the prequel trilogy-thanks to seeing them again through my nephew's eyes. But, you'll notice that none appear in this list.)

I gotta give Fellowship mad props.

Now I want to talk about my two "animation directors of the decade-plus," Brad Bird and Andrew Stanton. Bird made The Iron Giant, Ratatouille and The Incredibles. I like The Incredibles and love Ratatouille, but Iron Giant is better than either of them.

It's a film about which I always tell people: If you read comic books when you were 10...you're gonna cry when you reach the end of this movie.

Andrew Stanton made Finding Nemo and Wall-E (as well as co-writing the Toy Story films and Monsters, Inc).
Nemo is still, for me, the high-water mark (tee hee) against which all other are judged, and Wall-E made confident strides in animated storytelling whilst (and at the same time) never, ever losing heart.

(Strange to say, I didn't realize until just when I was writing this draft of this long-in-the-works post how much the broad strokes of Stanton's Wall-E resembles Bird's The Iron Giant, another fun movie about a robot, with heart.)

As I say, I liked both The Incredibles and Ratatouille when I first saw them in the theater, but on subsuquent viewings I've cooled on The Incredibles while my affection for Ratatouille has only grown.

It's some kind of genius.

Animation is one of the few things in which I actually have a lot of national pride. I feel the best animated cartoons are and have always been made right here in America.

For the past 10-15 years or more, all the best American animated cartoons with but one exception have been made at Pixar.

As for that exception, it was Iron Giant (good guess) and Pixar themselves liked it and Bird's other work enough to bring him over to work there. It's top of the list; I consider it the last great "2D" animated film. (I hear good things about Princess & the Frog, but I haven't seen it)



Gone Baby Gone

For the love of god, see this movie.

It is the story of one man's struggle to do what he thinks is right, within a moral nightmare, and it is a good fucking movie about people, including us, who have lost their way.

I hate to think people didn't see it because Ben Affleck directed it.

He made a heartbreaking film that's at least as good as Mystic River and even better (yes, better) than The Departed.

Sideways.

I think Sideways is a good movie despite (because of?) the fact that it is at times a very uncomfortable film for me to watch. It's uncomfortable because, like Paul Giamatti in the movie, I like to close my eyes to reality.

My standard line, tho, is that it could've been made for me: I'm a frustrated writer who's been in love with Virginia Madsen since 1985.

And she's wonderful in it.

As an aside: Madsen is one of I don't know how many actresses, but it can't be more than a few, to succesfully "graduate" from the sexpot roles she was doing 20 years ago.

Not that she's not still hot (look down). Actually, she should be a role model in how to use things like Botox sensibly.

But in the mid-'90s, you could've been forgiven for thinking she was going to have-well, the career that Sharon Stone's had in the past decade....

I haven't seen Avatar, so I can't say whether or not I agree with this review of it

However, it does speak to several suspicions I have that are why I haven't seen it, and at the moment, have no plans to.
Avatar plunges into the Uncanny (Unimaginative) Valley


Let's dispense with the story, the characters and the dialog. Cameron certainly does...
The CGI canvas is larger, but there's little you haven't already seen in better Cameron movies.

How sad.

The actress Brittany Murphy has passed away unexpectedly at the way-too-young age of 32.

I can't claim to have seen all her films or to have liked all of those that I did, but she could be charming and beautiful, and she had legs that went all the way up to her neck. I'm very sorry for her family, friends and fans.

Attn: Corey Klemow

This clip is of the Bee Gees. It is not, I repeat, not Marvin Gaye. I know how you get them confused.



Bee Gees or Marvin, though, it's pretty great.

Friday, December 18, 2009

I wish.

David Axelrod And Howard Dean To Duke It Out On Meet The Press

Who is Dr. Parnassus?

Most if not all of you know by now how much I love Terry Gilliam movies. I've actually been working on a post for about a week on "My Top 10 Contemporary American Films," where I was confronted with a couple of depressing facts:

Not only was his most recent film, Tideland, ridiculously underrated, but his movies haven't had US financing since the 1990s. Don't even get me started--Twilight and Robert Zemickis' latest trip to Uncanny Valley make 7 million, and Terry Gilliam's films can't get financed?)

But, anyway, CNN has a piece on the making of Gilliam's new film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, with a lovely, emotional interview with the director and writer.

If you follow that link there's a shortened video version of the interview with shots from the film, as well as the longer text. If you love his films as much as I do you have to watch/read them both, but I thought I'd offer you these snippets (not included in the video).

CNN: Who is Dr. Parnassus?

Terry Gilliam: ...he's there to enlighten the world nobody's paying attention to.


Now I have to go around and tell the world to treat my child kindly. Learn to love it.


I'm depressed most of the time. Despair is a whole different animal.


I'm pretty good at making films, and if I wasn't making films, what should I do? I think the film is beautiful and I think it's wonderful.


It's a combination of a lot of people responding to tragedy and not letting the tragedy win.

Like, duh.

Remember a little over a week ago when I posted a quote on the insurance companies--

Did you know that in the Far East, people pay their doctors when they're healthy. When they're sick, they don't have to pay. So basically, they end up paying for what they want, not what they don't want. We've got it all ass-backwards, here. These politicians, they say the same thing, over and over and over again. Healthcare decisions should be made by doctors and their patients, not by the government. Oh, now I know they're not made by doctors and their patients or the government. They're made by the fuckin' insurance companies.

--and asked you if you knew where it was from?

The answer was, of course...




Honestly, I thought one or two of you would've gotten this on sheer probability...

As a special added bonus, here's the scene from which the quote was taken.

(No gore, just a good dose of drama).

Final, clinching proof that Canada has better air and water than we do

Per Think Progress, an Ontario hospital, for reasons I can only assume had something to do with the much-vaunted Canadian sense of humor, had been going to pay $200,000 to Sarah Palin for a fundraising speech.

"Had been" being the operative words. See, when word got out that a hospital evidently in need of funds would be paying (again, $200, 000! In Canadian money!) a mud-slinging, conservative know-nothing...the good residents of Hamilton rose up as one and said, in so many words,

"My ass you will!"

Meanwhile, here in the US, too many newspapers and television continue to take her seriously, and some people seem serious when they opine that she should run for the highest office in the land.

Oh, Canada.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Briefly noted

Actress Leelee Sobieski recently gave birth to a baby girl. Clearly I haven't been tuned to her frequency, as I didn't even know she was pregnant, much less engaged (to the baby's father). But that isn't what I wanted to briefly note.

I thought about making some joke along the lines of "If you thought her breasts were big before (which, for the record, they were)"...but that idea was stopped in its tracks when I saw that at the article linked above, someone ("Joe Snuff") has commented,
she looks like helen hunt


...making "Joe" officially the 165,001st person to make this observation...

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

All together now: She kissed him?

The brilliant Rachel Maddow was spotted having a chat with awful human being Roger Ailes at a White House Christmas party. However, asked later what the two discussed, the liberal dream girl demurred, saying:

"I've never been to a White House party before, so I'm not sure about protocol," she said, "but I'm guessing it's a breach of that protocol to kiss and tell."


Ewwwwwwwwww.

Forget the seven words, these are...I don't know how many words that we'll never hear on television again

Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket? For the answer, let's go to George Carlin around 1991...



Rest in peace, oh genius.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Joe Joe Joe

Via Think Progress, Joe Biden discusses Joe Lieberman on the Joe Scarborough show:

BIDEN: ...I think Joe [Lieberman]’s judgment is wrong on this. But you’ve seen it across the board. You know Joe [Scarborough], you and I both served in the Congress. Great big bill coming up, everybody figures their maximum point of leverage is right before the deal’s made. So, you’ve got everybody lining up out there saying, “if I just am willing to hold out now, I’ll get everything I want.”


Asked about Lieberman’s flip-flop, Biden quipped that “if we held flip-flops against everybody in Congress, we probably wouldn’t have many people there.” He added that he was “confident” Lieberman would ultimately vote for the bill.


Who gives a fuck, Joe, there's nothing left in the bill.

Times like this, I really don't know why I don't drink more

Rep. Capuano Tells Fellow Dems: 'You're Screwed'

Monday, December 14, 2009

You know how I've been saying that Joe Lieberman is a two-faced boob?

As it turns out, I may have drastically underestimated things. Here are three items from today's news.

1. Via Think Progress:
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) “in a face-to-face meeting” yesterday “that he will vote against a health care bill that includes a public option or a provision that would expand Medicare.” Democrats had “thought they had secured Mr. Lieberman’s agreement to go along” with a compromise, leading a Senate Democratic aide to call Lieberman’s announcement “a total flip-flop.”


2. Oh, and by the way, the Democratic rank-and-file (as opposed to those spineless wimps in the White House) have noticed:
More than 80 percent of Democrats say they believe Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn) should be stripped of his powerful chairmanship in the Senate if he ends up supporting a Republican filibuster of health care reform, according to a new poll.


Dear Mr. President: You want your approval rating (currently at 44%) to go back up? Gee, if only there was something you could do that would be immidiately popular within your party. Something like, oh I don't know, cutting Joe Lieberman off at the knees.

And finally, 3. The New Republic argues that the way to understand Joe Lieberman is to come to realize two things.

One, he's a boob.
I think one answer here is that Lieberman isn't actually all that smart.
Two, the only reason anybody thinks that he's not a boob:
I suspect that Lieberman is the beneficiary, or possibly the victim, of a cultural stereotype that Jews are smart and good with numbers.


Personally, I'm Gentile, smart and bad with numbers, but even I can tell the difference between more than 80 percent and 44...

And On the 11th day of Christmas, Corey K. sent to me:

The Ninth Doctor*, nicely:








*If you don't count McGann, which I don't.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

She made me some kind of laughing stock, because I dance to disco and I don't like rock...

Another one of those mixes I like...

So, to recap: When the president said...

...that he was a "strong advocate" for gay folk, he didn't mean that he thought they should be able to get married or serve in the military or anything uncomfortable like that. However, he is willing to go out on limb and say that he doesn't think they should actually be killed for being gay.

If that's a strong advocate, I shudder to think what a weak-ass one might've been like.

Friday, December 11, 2009

I seem to need to post this song about once a year*

But I try to vary it up by posting different versions.



*Why? Because it's fucking awesome, that's why. You got a problem with that?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Oh, dear.

I'm close, are you close?

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Sometimes I can't get my mind around things

For example: I've written before about how I just couldn't figure out what Disney was thinking sending Anne Hathaway to promote Princess Diaries 2 on the filthy (in the best way) Graham Norton show.

I can't really complain about that one too hard, of course, as this was where I got my first good, long look at Miss Hathaway, whom I subsequently decided to stalk and marry (it's been five years. The best-laid plans...).

More recently: Let's say that you had written one of those books that say that homosexuality is unnatural and gay people can be "rehabilitated" like drug addicts.

Why, unless you were severely fucked in the head, would you agree to go on the television show of a brilliant lesbian?

At the very least, read that article, but I heartily encourage you to watch the embedded video therein as well.

I mean, how could he not have known she was going to nail him to the wall using his own words as proof that he's really stupid?

Oh right, because he's really stupid...

Source this quote

So I'm reading again about how, apparently to placate two-faced boobs like Joe Lieberman, the Senate has "compromised" the public option down to the point where:
...an insurance industry insider who has been deeply involved in the health care fight emails to declare victory.

"We WIN," the insider writes. "Administered by private insurance companies...
I think about how this thing, instead of starting out great and ending up good, now seems to have started out good and ended up...absolutely nowhere.

It makes me think of a quote that suddenly seems all the more sane, sensible, and far-seeing...and I think that none of you reading this will be able to tell me where it comes from.

Let's see if I'm right.

Here's the quote.


Did you know that in the Far East, people pay their doctors when they're healthy. When they're sick, they don't have to pay. So basically, they end up paying for what they want, not what they don't want. We've got it all ass-backwards, here. These politicians, they say the same thing, over and over and over again. Healthcare decisions should be made by doctors and their patients, not by the government. Oh, now I know they're not made by doctors and their patients or the government. They're made by the fuckin' insurance companies.


Well?

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

To support this proposal, please observe the following

Proposed: Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) is of questionable sanity, and unquestionably an asshole.

Support: Here is a segment from liberal dream girl Rachel Maddow's show last week all about Sen. Inhofe:



Inhofe not only admits that everything said about him in the piece is true, he's proud to the point of smug condescension about it.

What's more, he thinks (or maybe I should say believes) that
"...The things she says she doesn’t like are contrary to the beliefs of 90 percent of the people in America.”


...which of course, if read by someone who actually cares about things like sentence structure and good grammar, would mean...

Sure is good to be in the majority, isn't it?

The Senate would appear to have made a deal to get rid of the Public Option.

It's not often I think that I missed much being born two years after the end of the 1960s. One thing, though, I think I get when I watch television programs/movies, read books, or listen to music from or about the time:

There were, like, a couple of years there where people seem to have thought it really was the dawning of the age of Aquarius, that they could take a sad song and make it better.

Those days are gone forever...that is, if they ever really existed.

I think I know why John Lennon withdrew in the latter half of the '70s.

I've said it for years: More often than not (certainly more often than I'd like), the difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans are evil; Democrats are incompetent (Bush the miracle baby was both).

Remember that jackass mayor from Tennessee last week?

The one who said President Obama deliberately planned his speech to block the Peanuts Christmas special on account of he is a Muslim? Well, that mayor would like us to believe, whoops I mean know, he's sorry, and he was just trying to be funny.

So you want to see an Israeli cover band interpret about a dozen '80s songs in six minutes



Kind of great, isn't it?

Sometimes I really like her...

(Via Think Progress)

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) stepped up and drew a parallel to help the amendment’s male co-sponsors better understand its repercussions. Since Nelson’s measure forces women to purchase special abortion riders — which require women to plan for unplanned pregnancies — Boxer challenged “the men who have brought us this” to “single out a procedure that’s used by a man or a drug that is used by a man that involves his reproductive health care and say they have to get a special rider”:

BOXER: There’s nothing in this amendment that says if a man some day wants to buy Viagra, for example, that his pharmaceutical coverage cannot cover it, that he has to buy a rider. I wouldn’t support that. And they shouldn’t support going after a woman using her own private funds for her reproductive health care. Is it fair to say to a man you’re going to have to buy a rider to buy Viagra and this will be public information that could be accessed? No, I don’t support that. I support a man’s privacy, just as I support a woman’s privacy.

In retrospect, it's kind of amazing how quickly President Obama has moved most of us to Missouri

To the point where I considered headlining this post "Obama administration shows it can actually do something."

From an author and law professor named Peter M. Shane:

The White House this morning released a long-awaited Open Government Directive that follows up on the President's promise - memorialized on his first full day of office - to usher in a new era of transparent, participatory governance.

The Directive, issued over the signature of OMB Director Peter Orszag, explains: "Transparency promotes accountability by providing the public with information about what the Government is doing. ... Collaboration improves the effectiveness of Government by encouraging partnerships and cooperation within the Federal Government, across levels of government, and between the Government and private institutions."


But don't worry, folks, we're still screwed.

If transparency is truly to promote accountability, then the public needs journalists to help discover, gather, compare, contextualize, and share the new information becoming available.


Uh-oh.

In recent memory, "journalists" in this country tend to roll over for Republican presidents. Then decide they've been too gullible and fancy themselves "truthtellers" just in time to be an obstacle to the progress of any Democrat. Then they start all over again when the GOP is back in.

That is, when they're not covering the whole thing as if it were a horserace where who wins doesn't actually matter.

This does not bode well (and President Obama knows it).

These journalists may be citizen journalists.


They may be our only hope. I mean, seriously, can you name me five professional, trustworthy journalists in this country not counting Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart?

It is skillful engagement with information that turns greater transparency into deeper democracy.


"Skillful"...yeah, we're still screwed.

Of course, for me, the '80s clothes and dancing only make her look cuter...

In the little "more info" box on the YouTube page for this video, this girl says
Obviously, I exaggerated the 80's clothes and dancing. This is not a serious video and I'm not trying to dance well nor am I trying to look attractive.


Trying to or not...

Monday, December 07, 2009

Get well soon, kid.



I wish I could muster the energy to be surprised by this...

Sam Tanenhaus' New Yorker review of Sarah Palin's book, as well as another book about the former governor, contains this nugget:

Palin, though notoriously ill-travelled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. “Hawaii was a little too perfect,” Palin writes. “Perpetual sunshine isn’t necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls.” Perhaps not. But Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to [Scott] Conroy and [Shushannah] Walshe [authors of 'Sarah From Alaska']. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: “They were a minority type thing and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.”


Via The New Republic. Some right-on comments, too.

You're killing me, Mr. President, you're absolutely killing me

Via CommonDreams.org, here's an article from the Nation called "Six Smart Progressive Complaints about the house health bill."

The Affordable Health Care for America Act was approved by the U.S. House Saturday night with overwhelming support from progressive Democrats who serve in the chamber and from a president who was nominated and elected with the enthusiastic support of progressive voters.

But that does not mean that informed and engaged progressives are entirely enthusiastic about the measure.


The complaints are:

1. "This Bill Will Enshrine in Law the Monopolistic Powers of the Private Health Insurance Industry"


2. This Bill Fails to Control Costs


3. "This Bill Obliterates Women's Fundamental Right to Choose"


4. This Bill Embraces Religious-Right Extremes


5. This Bill Worries About the Health of Wall Street, Not America


And
6. The Bill Does Not Cure What Ails Us

On the 19th day of Christmas, Corey K. sent to me:

A 904-year-old Time Lord...

Sunday, December 06, 2009

The Republicans are still in charge

Hey, America! Remember that election we had last year? The one where we said, and I thought, pretty clearly, we wanted to go left because (if for no other reason) the incompetence of the extreme right Republicans in control (for eight years) had left our country FUBAR?

Remember that? Yeah, heh heh, that was cute, wasn't it?

Fortunately, it didn't actually mean anything.

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Sentences that offend me both morally and from a linguistic POV.

I regret all the tragedy that has surrounded Phil [Spector] in recent years.


From:

Paul Shaffer's memoir, pp 275

Why it offends me morally:

Because Phil Spector was the tragedy.

Why it offends me from a linguistic POV:

"Surrounded" makes it sound like he was fallen on and acted upon by outside forces; we're talking about a convicted murderer here.

Dude, you cannot possibly be serious

Via the TP Wonk Room:

Orrin Hatch: If Republicans Controlled Government, We Would ‘Get This Country Under Control’


!

Is it any wonder I've gone totally mad?
Which character from Alice in Wonderland Are You?

Caterpillar

The Caterpillar is very laid-back and calm. ...How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail. And pour the waters of the Nile, on every golden scale. How cheerfully he seems to grin, how neatly spreads his claws. And welcomes little fishes in, with gently smiling jaws!

Personality Test Results

Click Here to Take This Quiz

As god is my witness, I have no idea how I feel about this either

Disney is going to "reboot" The Black Hole.

Few would confuse the original with the best of what Disney or the science fiction genre has to offer. Robots on strings, hammy actors, and a script that didn't know where it wanted to go. But it is the kind of movie which has lodged in the brains of those of us who were about eight years old when we first saw it.

Largely because of those robots (strings, schmings, they sure were cool-lookin') and hammy actors (Roddy McDowall chews the most scenery as a bitchy robot who makes C-3PO look like a Brooklyn car salesman, even though he's only a voice).

And because when you're a kid, you don't care as much about where a script is going, as long as you have a good time in the getting there. (Or not getting there...)

And personally, I'm a big fan of John Barry's music for this film--maybe the most phenomenal he wrote for any non-Bond flick.

So as I say, I have no idea how I feel about this.

I will admit upfront, however, to absolutely loving this sentence in the item to which I've linked above:

The details of the update are being kept secret, though the take does involve grounding the story in the science of a black hole, much more so than in the original.


This will not be difficult...

Friday, December 04, 2009

There's nothing like a Tennessee public official making an ass of himself to put a smirk on my face...


Arlington Mayor Russell Wiseman posted a racist rant on his Facebook page about President Obama -- apparently triggered by President Obama's Afghanistan speech interfering with the annual broadcast of the "Peanuts" Christmas Special.


Oh, there's more.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Nooooooooooooooo!

Why...why, god...

You know how Marilyn Manson is insane, and thinks Evan Rachel Wood is his clone?

Well, apparently, that's what she likes.

She's back with him.

Nothing much to add to this, but good on 'er for courage

Meredith Baxter, familiar as the mom on Family Ties, has come out of the closet.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Oh, now that really hurts.

If you were reading this blog earlier this year, you know how often exciting and sometimes brilliant I thought Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles was.

I suspect the fucking Terminator: Salvation movie that followed was pretty weak and charm-less, esp. in comparison.

But I must be fair and admit I didn't see it. I have very little interest in seeing it, except maybe to mock that self-important nutball Christian Bale.

I mention the film here now only for reasons that will become apparent shortly.

I'd more-or-less "come to terms" with TSCC having gone away.

I'll admit I had some residual resentment that Joss Whedon's Dollhouse remained on the schedule (albeit only for a while). Rightly or wrongly, I have it in my head that Fox chose between the two.

(I feel the same way about Jay Leno taking up five hours on NBC a week with his no-longer-funny simpering, when I could've had a third season of Life.)

(Whether that's true or not isn't the point.)

But I digress.

I accept the reality that TSCC never got the House-like ratings it deserved. That's the way it works: People don't watch show, show go 'way. When this show was on, though, I joined a message board or two to talk about it. I'm still on at least one mailing list.

...which is how, this evening, I received a message offering me a chance to enter into a competition to win...a DVD of Terminator: Salvation.

Irony is really kicking my ass tonight.

I can't accept that.

Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" has received a Grammy nod for "song of the year."

This is obviously some strange usage of the word "song" I was not previously aware of.

("Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car"...now that was a song...)

Dude!

Ok--you know how my feelings on Natalie Portman are, shall we say, a tad mixed? Sometimes I think she doesn't really try as an actress (the Star Wars movies), but she can also be really good (Garden State).

Based on her public statements and such I suspect she's really a very silly person, but that's not a crime (or even rare) among actresses and anyway, I may be wrong.

But what's long been undeniable is that she was cute as a button with a curvy bod of the kind that makes men want to father children.

Even if she mostly chooses to keep it covered (which is certainly her right).

So I'm left to wonder: HTF do you conspire to make her look as creepily photoshopped as she does on this cover?

A good thing to read if you're worried about recent "revelations" that global warming is a fib

Climategate (or "Swifthack").

Not that anyone asked me, but...

...for the record (?) I would describe my reaction to President Obama's newly-made plan for Afghanistan as "apprehensive...but not without hope." I think he's trying to be all things to all people, and this may be a laudable goal, but I fear it's going to leave him ending up nothing to nobody.

Dear Rupert: Shut the fuck up, won't you, there's a good chap.

You may have noticed that one of the things with which I really have a problem is people who don't...heh, I think I just realized another reason why I'm in love with the Saw movies...don't appreciate their blessings.

Men who have beautiful girlfriends and treat them like shit (emotionally and/or physically).

Filmmakers who make Academy Award-winning and/or box-office blockbuster movies and still stamp their little feet and throw temper tantrums if anybody doesn't like them.

People whose circumstances of life make available to them chances that I and most likely anybody reading this (sorry) will probably never, ever get and use them to keep themselves stupid.

And most recently: Shallow actor/writers * with 40+ films to their credit (and who are even on the masthead at Vanity phucking Fair, forcrissake), complaining that coming out has just ruined their career.

Any actors and/or writers out there (straight or gay, closeted or open) who, like me, would be willing to open a vein for a career as "ruined" as Mr. Everett's?

*I feel justified in the "shallow" tag, being as I've read his memoir.

I could die from all this irony, again

You know who the only people that still believe the Democrats in power have any interest in advancing "the homosexual agenda"* are?

The KKK connected, anti-gay Family Research Council, that's who.

*This "agenda" consists of the radical notion that homosexuals are people.

Monday, November 30, 2009

I honestly don't know which I find more insulting

That this blog is the 81st answer (only 81st?) if you do a Comcast Web Search for "nubileteen?"

Or that in the entry which comes up, I'm not talking about Emmy Clarke or Evanna Lynch like a normal person.

No, I'm defending Jigsaw from the charge that he "luridly dismembers" young girls like them.

I think I have a problem...

Friday, November 27, 2009

Where does one go?

There is going to be a summit meeting of they-who-are-beloved-by-the-stupid-and/or-logic impaired. I know, you think I'm making a Twilight "team" joke, but I'm talking about women. And not Jessica Biel, either.

I'm talking about Michele "Barack Obama is anti-American" Bachman and--oh be still my heart--crazy Sarah "And he pals around with terrorists!" Palin. Both are scheduled to attend the first National Tea Party Convention next year, Mrs. Palin as the keynote speaker.

Now. Be with me, as we consider, at leisure, a wonderful question. We have time--this will be just over a week before Valentine's Day (and I think I'm in love). The question is: Just where one does one go to find people willing to pay over $500 for this privilege?

(Please note: The price does not include any costs for lodgings.)

Not just willing, nay eager, to hear humans (of any sex) with the intellectual weight of plastic give their thoughts and discuss their ideas?

Where does one go?

Give yourself time. It's going to come to you.

Brace yourself.

Are you ready to read some of the most stomach-churning bullshit you've ever seen in your life?

Are you sure?

Are you really sure?

Okay, don't say I didn't warn you. Now go read Cameron and Zemeckis, Bold Visionaries.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow!

...he actually compares them to Lennon and McCartney...

Ain't it cool what editing can do to your perception?

It's times like this I'm glad I don't watch morning television.

ABC just says no to man-on-man kissing, but when it comes to a man beating up a woman, why, that's an entirely different matter...

The scary thing is, I don't think I can just dismiss this

Courtney Love says that Britney Spears' father molested her.

(Britney, not Courtney).

Things to be thankful for, 2009 (part three of three)

The other two parts are posted in my other blogs.

And now, in no particular order:

House. Still that rarest of things: Something popular with the general public that I like, too. Thus far even though I may not always like what the characters are doing, I can usually believe that it is what the characters would do. At least as far as the characters I care about, which is basically House, Wilson and Cuddy, that is. The others are pretty much interchangeable.

The promise of new Aaron Sorkin-written TV series and screenplays. He's still got more hits (American President, West Wing, Sports Night) on his stats sheet than misses (Studio 60)

Vladek Sheybal, the Terry Hall of Polish new wave;





Bob Marley of white Reggae:





Now that you're wondering WTF that really is, read this.

I may be wrong about this (though I hope not), but I think more people are coming around to my conclusion that Joe Lieberman is a two-faced boob, and the more we treat him as anything more than that, the more undeserving dignity we lend.

On balance, I am still certainly thankful that President Obama is in the White House instead of Senator McCain. It's just that, as Mark Evanier pointed out not long ago, the pass Obama gets for not being George W. Bush is not going to last forever.

If he sells out real change for cosmetic in health care, if he chooses political expediency over the lives of our soldiers threatened in Afghanistan...god help him.

Getting back to things I'm thankful for, of course, those suspicious Canadlians.

And last but you know not least, my man Jigsaw. saw v dvd Pictures, Images and Photos

Most likable gangster/corpse/family counselor in film history...

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Children bringing pie never looked so creepy



For reasons that have never been sufficiently explained to me, I'm on Amy Ephron's "One For The Table" mailing list.

I think the images she chooses for her E-Cards are generally pretty nice, though, so I don't pick.

This one, however, kinda gives me the creeps.

It's just got a certain The Omen quality to it...

I don't even know what to say about this one, either

Former Bush administration spokesperson and current Fox analyst Dana Perino ...made this astonishing statement:


"...we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term."

A classic Jack Benny routine, performed with a v. young Johnny Carson

Monday, November 23, 2009

That is flagrant false advertising

On the TV menu tonight, it said John Cleese was to be a guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Just now, however, Conan announced his second guest as Jon Lovitz. Nothing against Lovitz...but come on.

How quickly they forget

Just now on the Bonnie Hunt show, she was talking about how in the new Twilight movie, the only way the teen heroine can get the attention of the vamp she loves is by hurting herself. Bonnie was metaphorically clucking her tongue about this, for understandable reasons.

But then she further went on to compare this with her experience of the movie Grease when she was a teenager, how she and her friends just went home singing all the songs and so on, and what a shame it was that Twilight couldn’t have had a more...smiley, I guess, message.

Now, I hold no brief for the Twilight movies or books one way or the other. I know many people enjoy 'em, and god bless them. As a lover of most things Saw, who am I to tell other people what they can or cannot appreciate?

But the central message of Grease is, as the wonderful Mad Magazine satire at the time pointed out: In order to get the boy you want...you have to be a slut!

Then again, I know a lot of women thought of Pretty Woman as a fairy-tale romantic comedy, and the message of that film is clearly: A woman is a whore, until a rich man validates her...

Saturday, November 21, 2009

I'm a prophet.

From my Amazon.com review of Michael Palin's Diaries, 1969-1979: The Python Years:

Can we have 1980-1990 soon please Mike?


Apparently yes, yes we can.

And you all thought I was a dead loss...

Crazy question.



Is it me, or does Khalid Sheik Mohammed, here, look like a Muppet version of Captain Jack (Johnny Depp, not John Barrowman)?

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Is it wrong that I'm in some ways sexually aroused by this news?

Six words:

New. Aaron. Sorkin. Written. TV. Show.

Up there with the big boys, but not in a good way

Remember last month when those lists of best-value-for-money movie stars came out, based on how much their films make vs. how much they get paid? Well, the other shoe had to drop sometime, and here it is: The Most Overpaid Stars in Hollywood.

Something to observe: I confess myself to have been kind of delighted to see that there are so many more men on the top 10 list (nine) than women (one).

That's because, at first blush, it made me think that movies centered on women are a better risk than movies centered on men. So maybe we'd see more of the former, especially since there were so many women on the money-making list.

On second glance, however, I wonder whether it might just say something about how much more even an unprofitable male movie star makes compared to a female...

Waist deep in the big hilly

Recommended reading: Dan Froomkin on the dilemma President Obama faces in Afghanistan. Excerpts:

As it happens, in this case political reality actually diverges quite markedly from public opinion. The public overwhelmingly opposes the war -- 57 percent to 39 percent, according to the latest Associated Press poll. And disengagement from Afghanistan -- even though it's not even being discussed as a serious option in political circles -- is considerably more popular with the American public than escalation, which is almost all anyone in Washington can talk about. The latest CNN poll found that 49 percent of Americans favored reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan -- with 28 percent saying they should all be withdrawn immediately -- compared to less than 40 percent who want to send more.


And while our nation's most predictably superficial media figures are jumping all over Obama for taking too long to make up his mind, the quality of the debate -- not to mention the existence of the debate itself -- is a tremendous improvement over the heedless rush to war in Iraq by the Bush administration.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Okay, I admit it...

For all that I've had my differences with President Obama this first year, seeing these images of him visiting the Great Wall really makes me feel...what's the opposite of disdain? It's been so long since I felt this way when looking at our Commander-in-Chief...

Ever see someone that you know is trying to look hot but instead they give you the creeps?

Leighton Meester.

(In her defense, it's not entirely the fault of her outfit and makeup. It's just that combined, they make her look like one of the underaged girls I used to see round the lobby before The Rocky Horror Picture Show...and that's just spooky.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Carrie Prejean truly is the gift that keeps on giving

To recap:

She's an embarrassment to my home state.
She's a hypocrite.
She's unbelievably stupid.

How unbelievably stupid?

...this unbelievably stupid:
The former Miss California said she learned a lot while doing pageants, and described her introduction to Donald Trump:

He meeted us!


It's true. I've seen the clip from the Today show where she said it.

PS: The link above takes Prejean at her word that she was 17 years of age when she made the tape(s) of herself expressing her sexuality in a healthy and natural way.

But per Countdown, the ex-boyfriend for whom she made the tape(s) says she's lying, that she was 20, and that she asked him to lie to back her up.

Apparently, I didn't create my new blog a moment too soon


My post about Jessica Simpson from earlier today was "tweeted" on a Twitter feed (I think that's the correct vernacular) called "sexycurvybabes."

I'd be in a better humor about this, were it not for the fact that by my rough estimate, 50% of the other tweets to the feed are things like (and for once I'm going to "censor" myself simply because I don't want to pick up certain kinds of traffic):


H()rnv blond fvck!ng outdoors: K!nkv chick fvck!ng really hard in all her holes

Being Catholic, on the other hand...

A preliminary report commissioned by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops to investigate the clergy sex abuse scandal has found no evidence that gay priests are more likely than heterosexual clergy to molest children, the lead authors of the study said Tuesday.


The fault, Dear Catholics, lies not in your stars...

The question has been raised repeatedly within and outside the church because the overwhelming majority of known victims were boys. As part of the church's response to the crisis, the Vatican ordered a review of all U.S. seminaries that, among other issues, looked for any "evidence of homosexuality" in the schools.


"What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse," said Margaret Smith of John Jay College, in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now."


But don't worry, any Catholics who may be looking in. Your church is still homophobic and generally sex-negative.

In a separate move on Tuesday, the bishops adopted a pastoral letter affirming the church's definition of marriage being between one man and one woman, and that sex is meant for procreation.