Wednesday nights at eight would be great. Come on, American Idol is dropping in the ratings anyway.
(I'm in denial.)
Friday, February 27, 2009
Do you suppose John McCain's wife holds him at night as he cries with the knowledge that this is his legacy to the American people?
Joe the Plumber sez (via Think Progress):
Thank you, Senator McCain. Thank you for Joe the Plumber and Sarah the lightweight. Thanks for taking the country you wanted to lead so seriously that you gave pathetic fools such as these pulpits and mikes.
Thanks a lot.
Now go away now.
Back in the day, really, when people would talk about our military in a poor way, somebody would shoot ‘em. And there’d be nothing said about that, because they knew it was wrong. You don’t talk about our troops. You support our troops. Especially when our congressmen and senators sit there and say bad things in an ongoing conflict.
Thank you, Senator McCain. Thank you for Joe the Plumber and Sarah the lightweight. Thanks for taking the country you wanted to lead so seriously that you gave pathetic fools such as these pulpits and mikes.
Thanks a lot.
Now go away now.
Archived; gratified
Purely by chance I just stumbled across a site called Uber Etc. It describes itself as
I only ever wrote a couple of fan fics, both about Willow & Tara, and this was by far the best received. The other is much more "fannish," being A) Narrated by a cat and B) A Doctor Who crossover.
Witches Moon is also significant to me because it's where I began thinking about many of the themes I would eventually work with in my beloved but unsold short novel, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend.
a place to find links to alt f/f fan fiction on the web.Among the works they've collected is Witches Moon, a Willow/Tara fan fic I wrote in 2003 and posted to
I only ever wrote a couple of fan fics, both about Willow & Tara, and this was by far the best received. The other is much more "fannish," being A) Narrated by a cat and B) A Doctor Who crossover.
Witches Moon is also significant to me because it's where I began thinking about many of the themes I would eventually work with in my beloved but unsold short novel, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sean Penn doesn't care about the truth?
In the Media Matters Daily Summary today, there's an item about how, when Dennis Miller was a guest on Bill O'Reilly's program, they claimed that Obama supported Proposition 8.
Their conclusion being that therefore, Sean Penn was foolish to evoke Obama as "An elegant President" in the same Oscar speech in which he spoke against Prop 8. Except that Obama did not support Prop 8.
But that's not what made me say "What?" It's not news to me, or likely to any of you, that Bill O'Reilly is a pissant or that Dennis Miller regularly exhibits the maturity of a sulky adolescent.
But sometimes, they make me scratch my head in wonderment. Like for instance, if you scroll down the MM transcript of that segment of O'Reilly's show, you get to this little tidbit:
Excuse me?
Ok, granted, I'm an admirer of Penn's. First of all, he's a phenomenal actor by any decent standard. Anyone who needs proof should look at the two films for which he has now won Academy Awards, Mystic River and Milk.
Not just because they're both great performances--although I certainly think they are--but because the characters are two completely different men, and Penn embodies them both. Or rather, he allows them to embody him.
I've come to admire him also as a man (inasmuch as you can know him from his public statements). He's one of the few actors exempt from my "actors shouldn't talk" rule.
He can even write a bit--I say "A bit," because I don't think I've read (or seen) enough of his writings to make a blanket statement.
Also I've just recently read a book about him. And all these things together make me feel safe in saying you cannot be an artist of the caliber that Penn is, and not care about truth.
Such an artist is, in fact, always looking for truth. You may not like what he finds or how he looks for it, you may not even agree that what he comes up with is indeed truth.
But to say that he doesn't care about it...well, honestly, that offends me much more than just O'Reilly flapping his gums again or Miller's latest desperate attempt at relevance.
It offends me. Particularly coming from the author of Those Who Trespass and the star of Joe Dirt.
Boys: Leave the talk of truth to those who not only care but actually know something about it. You know. Artists. Grown-ups.
(In some cases, they're not mutually contradictory.)
Their conclusion being that therefore, Sean Penn was foolish to evoke Obama as "An elegant President" in the same Oscar speech in which he spoke against Prop 8. Except that Obama did not support Prop 8.
But that's not what made me say "What?" It's not news to me, or likely to any of you, that Bill O'Reilly is a pissant or that Dennis Miller regularly exhibits the maturity of a sulky adolescent.
But sometimes, they make me scratch my head in wonderment. Like for instance, if you scroll down the MM transcript of that segment of O'Reilly's show, you get to this little tidbit:
O'REILLY: ....But, look, Penn doesn't care about the truth. You know that.
Excuse me?
Ok, granted, I'm an admirer of Penn's. First of all, he's a phenomenal actor by any decent standard. Anyone who needs proof should look at the two films for which he has now won Academy Awards, Mystic River and Milk.
Not just because they're both great performances--although I certainly think they are--but because the characters are two completely different men, and Penn embodies them both. Or rather, he allows them to embody him.
I've come to admire him also as a man (inasmuch as you can know him from his public statements). He's one of the few actors exempt from my "actors shouldn't talk" rule.
He can even write a bit--I say "A bit," because I don't think I've read (or seen) enough of his writings to make a blanket statement.
Also I've just recently read a book about him. And all these things together make me feel safe in saying you cannot be an artist of the caliber that Penn is, and not care about truth.
Such an artist is, in fact, always looking for truth. You may not like what he finds or how he looks for it, you may not even agree that what he comes up with is indeed truth.
But to say that he doesn't care about it...well, honestly, that offends me much more than just O'Reilly flapping his gums again or Miller's latest desperate attempt at relevance.
It offends me. Particularly coming from the author of Those Who Trespass and the star of Joe Dirt.
Boys: Leave the talk of truth to those who not only care but actually know something about it. You know. Artists. Grown-ups.
(In some cases, they're not mutually contradictory.)
Rush Limbaugh wonders why women don't like him
Seriously (via Think Progress).
BTW, you know who Limbaugh's started to remind me of? Sgt. Major Dickerson from Good Morning, Vietnam.
BTW, you know who Limbaugh's started to remind me of? Sgt. Major Dickerson from Good Morning, Vietnam.
I thought you were a little crazy. But you're not crazy. You're mean. And this is just radio.
nostalgia
INXS with Michael Hutchence. I saw 'em on the Kick tour in '88, this was about five years after that and a few years before that poor, dumb bastard Hutchence committed suicide .
They were great.
They were great.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
For once, I think Chris Matthews said it best...
Deliver us from elephants.
But seriously...Jindal’s speech following Obama's last night was outrageous. Just to name one thing, as Paul Krugman asked in his blog on the NY Times.com...
leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action?
I gotta admit, I kinda like this
Not only is Conan O'Brien taking over "The Tonight Show"...he's bringing Andy Richter with him.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Doctor...the Master
This almost certainly won't mean anything to you unless you're a Doctor Who fan, but I am, and it's my blog.
The video uses scenes from one of my best-loved season finales.
The video uses scenes from one of my best-loved season finales.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
Evan Rachel Wood and shock rocker Marilyn Manson may have reignited their romance,
He's only out to drain you of your youth and vitality, Evan.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Final, absolute, clinching proof that the republicans are about 15 years out of touch.
Remember earlier this month when I said the state of the Republican party was reminding me of the early years of Michael J. Fox's sitcom, Spin City? Well, it's happened again.
In the pilot episode of that series, Barry Bostwick as the bumbling mayor is asked by an interviewer,
"Mr. Mayor, would you consider marching in the Gay Pride Parade this week?"
And he replies, "What are you, drunk?"
Meanwhile, today (via Think Progress),
It's like watching people dig their own graves...
In the pilot episode of that series, Barry Bostwick as the bumbling mayor is asked by an interviewer,
"Mr. Mayor, would you consider marching in the Gay Pride Parade this week?"
And he replies, "What are you, drunk?"
Meanwhile, today (via Think Progress),
When Asked Whether He Would ‘Consider’ Gay Civil Unions, [Michael] Steele, [chairman of the Republican Party] Replies, ‘What Are You, Crazy?’
It's like watching people dig their own graves...
I repeat...
Karl Rove is asking to be put in prison. He wants to be put in prison.
Guess what I think we should do.
Guess what I think we should do.
It's times like this I'm glad I prefer to spend money at Burger King
So, there's this guy working at McDonalds. One day, he sees a customer beating a woman. He goes over to stop it, and gets shot for his pains. He has now
So what would you do?
Well, if you were McDonalds, you'd deny him any claim to workers comp, on the grounds that he was never supposed to raise his head from the McNuggets, and if he was going to play a hero he was doing it on his own time.
Yes, really.
undergone three abdominal surgeries and has incurred over $300,000 in medical bills.Now: Let's say you're McDonalds. How do you respond? By putting a picture of this guy up in your restaurant, perhaps? Think for a second of how you could--legitimately--pimp the fact that your employee knew the right thing to do, and did it, at risk to himself.
So what would you do?
Well, if you were McDonalds, you'd deny him any claim to workers comp, on the grounds that he was never supposed to raise his head from the McNuggets, and if he was going to play a hero he was doing it on his own time.
Yes, really.
Oscar yuk
It's times like this I remember that Reese Witherspoon is from Tennessee.
Sorry, Dita, but even you don't have enough style to pull off yellow.
Sorry, Dita, but even you don't have enough style to pull off yellow.
It is to laugh
From the "On Faith" section of the Washington Post/Newsweek site:
Hold everything. First of all...
My own bad feeling about Bill Maher aside, Religulous was in profit as of its opening weekend.
Hamlet 2, I think had that beat by being in profit before it even opened (it sold at Sundance for a lot of money).
Wanted has made $134,294,280 and a sequel is being prepared.
And oh yes...Saw V. Even as the least financially (and, frankly, creatively) successful film in the Saw series to date, it has made almost 10 times its budget, in theaters alone.
Now, a couple of these were, undeniably, bombs. The Love Guru just swept the Razzies, and fell far short at the box office. Like most people, I haven't seen it, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that was all because it wasn't very funny, not because it had "anti-Christian, secular, nihilistic, and atheist content."
On the other hand, while it's true Stop-Loss was a bomb financially, it got mostly good reviews---and deserved them. It's a very well-made film. It didn't lose out at the box office because it was nihilistic or any of the rest of those things, I believe. But rather because the country has a terrific sense of Iraq fatigue.
Some of those other movies it's not fair to say were "rejected" by the public because the public never got a chance to see them. I don't think Adam Resurrected or Bloodline were even released in this country, and Save Me only received limited release, but got good reviews.
Good or bad, Hounddog never got past its rep as the "movie where Dakota Fanning gets raped," so we'll likely never know if moviegoers would've "rejected" it if it hadn't starred The World's Child Star.
But I do know this: I hope to god, if I ever do manage to get any of my movies made, please let the public reject them...like they did Saw V.
Americans Want Movies with Morals, Christian Values
As we will see during Sunday's Academy Awards, last year was no exception. Six of the most successful movies of the year -- "Wall-E," "Iron Man," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "Prince Caspian," "Gran Torino," and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" -- contained strong redemptive content with positive Christian references.
Not only did moviegoers prefer heroic movies with very strong moral virtues, they also rejected movies with anti-Christian, secular, nihilistic, and atheist content like "Religulous," "Adam Resurrected," "Save Me," "Wanted," "Hounddog," "Bloodline," "Hamlet 2," "The Love Guru," "Stop-Loss," and "Saw V."
Hold everything. First of all...
My own bad feeling about Bill Maher aside, Religulous was in profit as of its opening weekend.
Hamlet 2, I think had that beat by being in profit before it even opened (it sold at Sundance for a lot of money).
Wanted has made $134,294,280 and a sequel is being prepared.
And oh yes...Saw V. Even as the least financially (and, frankly, creatively) successful film in the Saw series to date, it has made almost 10 times its budget, in theaters alone.
Now, a couple of these were, undeniably, bombs. The Love Guru just swept the Razzies, and fell far short at the box office. Like most people, I haven't seen it, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that was all because it wasn't very funny, not because it had "anti-Christian, secular, nihilistic, and atheist content."
On the other hand, while it's true Stop-Loss was a bomb financially, it got mostly good reviews---and deserved them. It's a very well-made film. It didn't lose out at the box office because it was nihilistic or any of the rest of those things, I believe. But rather because the country has a terrific sense of Iraq fatigue.
Some of those other movies it's not fair to say were "rejected" by the public because the public never got a chance to see them. I don't think Adam Resurrected or Bloodline were even released in this country, and Save Me only received limited release, but got good reviews.
Good or bad, Hounddog never got past its rep as the "movie where Dakota Fanning gets raped," so we'll likely never know if moviegoers would've "rejected" it if it hadn't starred The World's Child Star.
But I do know this: I hope to god, if I ever do manage to get any of my movies made, please let the public reject them...like they did Saw V.
It wasn't just me, then.
Roger Ebert calls last night's Oscars, "the most entertaining and innovative Oscarcast I’ve seen."
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Not a lot of surprises, but I thought that was kind of fun
So...um...was it me, or were the Oscars kind of wonderful? Not just because
"my" Katie finally won, (tho it is great to see her with one in her hand...as the bishop said of the actress).
On a more serious tip, her asking her dad to whistle so she'd know where he is, and then him doing it immediately, was both touching and funny.
Sean Penn for Milk, you gotta love his speech's opening line: "You Commie, homo-loving sons-of-guns..."
It was just, for once...a pretty darn good show, I thought. There were some shaky moments, but on the whole I found the evening quite charming.
One shaky moment: The idea of having the acting nominees saluted by five actors who had previously won in their category. These came off best when the speaker had some personal connection to "their" nominee, and could speak as a friend.
Again, Milk seemed to bring out the best in people. I also loved Robert DeNiro's line: "How did Sean Penn ever get all those roles as straight men?"
When there wasn't such an evident connection, this seemed just an opportunity for some actors to choke up some "emotion," (which actors need to be kept from with a whip and a chair). Or to remind young folks that they had once won the Oscar, their subsequent careers notwithstanding.
(Aside to Cuba Gooding Jr: "Brothers" don't need to work. You need to work. Don't think we don't know what you were saying.)
And the montages of previous winners were clearly unnecessary. Especially when they were followed by a second montage just to introduce the presenters. One or the other, please.
Another jarring moment: Bill Maher reminding me why I've never warmed to him or given him much credence as a political commentator: He just cannot seem to get his own dick out of his mouth.
Let me explain what I mean. Maher gave the award for best documentary, which was scheduled right after best supporting actor which, to the surprise of absolutely no one, went to the late Heath Ledger. Ledger’s father, mother and sister had accepted on his behalf.
It was a genuinely lovely moment, even if you're not deeply familiar with Ledger's work, which I'm not. So then Maher walks out and passes a remark about how "Everybody's crying and now I have to come out. Great."
Hey, Bill: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!
Oh, and speaking of non-surprises, Wall-E won for best animated feature.
This means that the Academy of Motion Pictures now has a better sense of the art than the "Annie" awards.
(Kung-Fu Panda, for cripes sake...)
Can we talk about the musical numbers? How they were--again, for once--sort of a joy to behold? I enjoyed Hugh Jackman's "homemade" opener (methinks I heard the voice of Vilanch) maybe even more than he clearly enjoyed performing it and yes, Anne Hathaway's turn "as" Richard Nixon.
Even if I am filled with a deep and abiding hatred for Hugh Jackman when I look at the below photo.
If Nixon had looked like that, David Frost would be a tea boy today.
I also liked the tribute to musicals--but wish Jackman hadn't seemed so desperately to be trying to justify it.
You're a gifted singer and dancer, Hugh, and you had others such with you. That's all the justification you needed.
None of this nonsense about how, "The musical is back."
Anyway, surely that happened when Chicago won for best picture...I'm not saying I agree with that win (I don't), but you'd think...
And Will Smith? Your little crack about action movies having something films in other genres do not--"Fans"--made no sense. If you'd said "ticket buyers," maybe. But every kind and style movie has fans. Tyler Perry has fans, animation has fans, romantic comedies have fans.
Hell, even a movie as thin and unfunny as Wild Wild West has fans...I assume.
As long as I'm being a complete bitch here, I'd like to ask a question about Robert Pattinson. This question is for the prepubescent girls of the world, and the question is: Seriously? This, by you, is a hunk?
I mean, I've gone for the pretty ones in my day, too, but at least Jamie Lee Curtis seems to have a definite personality and can actually, y'know...speak words. Hell, even Sharon Stone...but I've drifted from my original question, which again, was: Seriously?
Speaking of those we'd like to see naked, I haven't seen Penelope Cruz's now Oscar-winning performance in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but I liked what she said about roles for women.
It gives me hope, I tells ya--at least a very little bit. Sometimes that's all you need, to get up in the morning.
BTW, it's Cruz I'd like to see naked, not Woody Allen (but you got that, right?).
Mentioning Woody Allen brings me to Jerry Lewis. I have no problem with his winning the special Oscar, but I just wish they'd shown more of the entertainer alongside the Great Humanitarian stuff.
And one last observation, at least for tonight: Natalie Portman's gown was hot. But she didn't know how to move in it.
PS: That was the last observation except for this--I thought Tina Fey and Steve Martin were sexy and funny...respectively.
"my" Katie finally won, (tho it is great to see her with one in her hand...as the bishop said of the actress).On a more serious tip, her asking her dad to whistle so she'd know where he is, and then him doing it immediately, was both touching and funny.
Sean Penn for Milk, you gotta love his speech's opening line: "You Commie, homo-loving sons-of-guns..."
It was just, for once...a pretty darn good show, I thought. There were some shaky moments, but on the whole I found the evening quite charming.
One shaky moment: The idea of having the acting nominees saluted by five actors who had previously won in their category. These came off best when the speaker had some personal connection to "their" nominee, and could speak as a friend.
Again, Milk seemed to bring out the best in people. I also loved Robert DeNiro's line: "How did Sean Penn ever get all those roles as straight men?"
When there wasn't such an evident connection, this seemed just an opportunity for some actors to choke up some "emotion," (which actors need to be kept from with a whip and a chair). Or to remind young folks that they had once won the Oscar, their subsequent careers notwithstanding.
(Aside to Cuba Gooding Jr: "Brothers" don't need to work. You need to work. Don't think we don't know what you were saying.)
And the montages of previous winners were clearly unnecessary. Especially when they were followed by a second montage just to introduce the presenters. One or the other, please.
Another jarring moment: Bill Maher reminding me why I've never warmed to him or given him much credence as a political commentator: He just cannot seem to get his own dick out of his mouth.
Let me explain what I mean. Maher gave the award for best documentary, which was scheduled right after best supporting actor which, to the surprise of absolutely no one, went to the late Heath Ledger. Ledger’s father, mother and sister had accepted on his behalf.
It was a genuinely lovely moment, even if you're not deeply familiar with Ledger's work, which I'm not. So then Maher walks out and passes a remark about how "Everybody's crying and now I have to come out. Great."
Hey, Bill: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!
Oh, and speaking of non-surprises, Wall-E won for best animated feature.
This means that the Academy of Motion Pictures now has a better sense of the art than the "Annie" awards.
(Kung-Fu Panda, for cripes sake...)
Can we talk about the musical numbers? How they were--again, for once--sort of a joy to behold? I enjoyed Hugh Jackman's "homemade" opener (methinks I heard the voice of Vilanch) maybe even more than he clearly enjoyed performing it and yes, Anne Hathaway's turn "as" Richard Nixon.
Even if I am filled with a deep and abiding hatred for Hugh Jackman when I look at the below photo.
If Nixon had looked like that, David Frost would be a tea boy today.
I also liked the tribute to musicals--but wish Jackman hadn't seemed so desperately to be trying to justify it.
You're a gifted singer and dancer, Hugh, and you had others such with you. That's all the justification you needed.
None of this nonsense about how, "The musical is back."
Anyway, surely that happened when Chicago won for best picture...I'm not saying I agree with that win (I don't), but you'd think...
And Will Smith? Your little crack about action movies having something films in other genres do not--"Fans"--made no sense. If you'd said "ticket buyers," maybe. But every kind and style movie has fans. Tyler Perry has fans, animation has fans, romantic comedies have fans.
Hell, even a movie as thin and unfunny as Wild Wild West has fans...I assume.
As long as I'm being a complete bitch here, I'd like to ask a question about Robert Pattinson. This question is for the prepubescent girls of the world, and the question is: Seriously? This, by you, is a hunk?
I mean, I've gone for the pretty ones in my day, too, but at least Jamie Lee Curtis seems to have a definite personality and can actually, y'know...speak words. Hell, even Sharon Stone...but I've drifted from my original question, which again, was: Seriously?
Speaking of those we'd like to see naked, I haven't seen Penelope Cruz's now Oscar-winning performance in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but I liked what she said about roles for women.
It gives me hope, I tells ya--at least a very little bit. Sometimes that's all you need, to get up in the morning.
BTW, it's Cruz I'd like to see naked, not Woody Allen (but you got that, right?).
Mentioning Woody Allen brings me to Jerry Lewis. I have no problem with his winning the special Oscar, but I just wish they'd shown more of the entertainer alongside the Great Humanitarian stuff.
And one last observation, at least for tonight: Natalie Portman's gown was hot. But she didn't know how to move in it.
PS: That was the last observation except for this--I thought Tina Fey and Steve Martin were sexy and funny...respectively.
For all I've said about Summer Glau, it's time she spoke for herself
Summer Glau probably won't see this entry...
...as according to this interview she doesn't follow what people say about her online. But her mom, she says, does email her nice things that she finds. Excuse me for a moment.
(Clears throat)
Mrs. Glau? Your daughter is not only lovely, she is kickass in Terminator. She makes Cameron both strangely beautiful--ok, maybe not so strangely--and mechanical, which is as it should be. Plus if I wasn't already a fan, her coming out to support the writers during the strike would've sealed the deal.
Please feel free, Mrs. Glau, to pass this on to anyone you might think of, this person or that...
...as according to this interview she doesn't follow what people say about her online. But her mom, she says, does email her nice things that she finds. Excuse me for a moment.
(Clears throat)
Mrs. Glau? Your daughter is not only lovely, she is kickass in Terminator. She makes Cameron both strangely beautiful--ok, maybe not so strangely--and mechanical, which is as it should be. Plus if I wasn't already a fan, her coming out to support the writers during the strike would've sealed the deal.
Please feel free, Mrs. Glau, to pass this on to anyone you might think of, this person or that...
Good lord, lady...just walk away.
Sigourney Weaver says she'd be willing to make another Aliens film.
FWIW, as far as I'm concerned, the only way this could possibly work is if they do some sort of "retcon" so that Alien3 and Alien Resurrection never happened, and most specifically: Newt didn't die.
There's no other way of getting back from that "JTS" moment.
FWIW, as far as I'm concerned, the only way this could possibly work is if they do some sort of "retcon" so that Alien3 and Alien Resurrection never happened, and most specifically: Newt didn't die.
There's no other way of getting back from that "JTS" moment.
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