Good kitty!

Oh sure, now you have a spine.

Harry Reid says that he isn't going to bend over and take it up the ass screaming "More! More! More! Harder!" for Obama, the way he did for Bush.

I'd say this was cheesy...but I like some things that many consider cheesy

Married...with Children, for instance. Queen's score for the Flash Gordon movie. The Flash Gordon movie itself. The Archie comics of my youth. Saw IV & V. Many great '80s hits (But if you call those cheesy around me, you better be prepared for a fight). The Back to the Future movies.

You get the idea. All (arguably) cheesy to greater and lesser degrees, but I like them all, to greater and lesser degrees. So, faced with the supposed lyrics to a song John Mayer wrote for Jennifer Aniston...

You’ve brought luck to love/ I’ve been hit by a truck in love.”

"Cheesy" doesn't quite cut it.

This just stinks.

Okay, it just turned sad

Would somebody please get granma, here, a quilt?

Dude.

Ok. We've already established how nerdishly anxious I am to see the upcoming Tron sequel, yes?


Well if you're like me, you might want to read this short talk with co-star Olivia Wilde. Quotes...

Wilde: Jeff Bridges is going to be in this one, too.

And Bruce Boxleitner?

Wilde: And, yes, Bruce Boxleitner. He's so fantastic, Bruce. He's been telling us all about the process of making the first one. And it's just great. Like, they were on an entirely black velvet set, wearing white bodysuits that they weren't allowed to sweat in, even though there was a bank of lights so powerful that they caused a brownout in Burbank. So they weren't allowed to sweat. They're running around in white suits on black velvet with these lights. And they were saying terms that for the time had no meaning for them. They didn't know what a "program" was. Bruce was saying they were ... pulling these things out of, like, sci-fi dictionaries. I mean, they had no idea. And actually, they were saying a lot of the technology now that is going into the new film and going into films of today, to them was like a dream at the time, was sort of complete fantasy while they were making Tron 1.

Will you be shooting against green screens?

Wilde: They're going to build a huge amount of the set. The director, Joe Kosinski, has made some unbelievable commercials. People can check out his Web site. He's just a really talented guy. And he's a really big fan of using as much sets as you can, because he's an architect as well, so he likes to build these worlds. And with something like Tron, I think it helps to create the environment as much as possible without too much green screen so that these characters can exist within this world, ... with the feel ... as real as possible.

Updates

...on a couple of stories I've been following.

Two men and a teenager were charged Tuesday in the alleged gang rape of a lesbian in the San Francisco Bay area.

Humberto Hernandez Salvador, 31, and Josue Gonzalez, 21, were charged with kidnapping, carjacking and gang rape in the attack last month in Richmond.

They face a maximum sentence of life in prison if found guilty, prosecutors said.

Darrell Hodges, 16, was charged as an adult with similar offenses Monday. A 15-year-old boy whose name has not been released was also arrested last week on suspicion of participating in the attack.

And:

The nation's largest government-run utility ignored two small leaks that could have provided a warning years before a coal ash pond collapsed, flooding a neighborhood with a billion gallons of sludge, a former federal regulator contends.

Three homes were destroyed and 42 parcels of land damaged when one such pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Steam Plant collapsed Dec. 22.

Also on Tuesday, a coalition of environmental groups including the Sierra Club notified TVA it plans to sue the utility on behalf of 40 families, arguing TVA broke federal law by not fully disclosing the extent of spill contamination. A TVA spokesman said the utility would respond in court.

Ok, the Panetta thing

What Art Brodsky said.

Obama comes into office with a clear election mandate, and the last thing he needs is the public view of a bunch of squabbling Democrats (see: Burris, Roland) doing the GOP's work for it.

Once you're born, you're on your own

It seems that the "pro-lifers" are concerned that Barack Obama will not be forwarding their-- entirely humane--agenda.

Two things. First of all, here's 10 minutes of George Carlin (RIP) on the inconsistency of "pro-life."



And second, the GOP thinks--they actually think...they're going to back Obama into a corner by pushing the Terry Schiavo thing again.

Good luck with that.

Do they really not remember what a mess that turned into for them?

This may be the most adorable, coolest thing I've ever seen

"We like to be the strangers at the party, two rebels in a shell."

I'm 60% freak!!

This just in...

Apparently, Hooters isn't very feminist.

Yes, I was shocked, too.

Bill Cunningham is a sore loser

Cunningham, a b-list radio host, said this yesterday:

"poor people were not and are not poor because they lack money. They're poor because they lack values, ethics, and morals."

Found via Media Matters. Where one poster calling themselves "shadow8pro" wrote in a comment:

because obviously Paris Hilton is among the most moral Americans, and say, Mother Theresa (though obviously not an American) is among those lacking morals, values and ethics.

Suck it up, Bill. Obama won. Stop being such a sourpuss and accept it gracefully.

This is an interview with Sean Penn...

Which suggests to me that Mickey Rourke is full of shit.

Then Again, Maybe I Won't

Funny--just the other night I was saying to my friend Jennifer on the phone that I thought I was pretty much done with "Scrubs." Over the years it's been very spotty, to me--sometimes I'll catch an episode that I think is really good, sometimes I wonder why anyone ever kept it on the air.

So I wasn't all that hard over its switch to ABC. After reading this Q & A with series creator Bill Lawrence, though, I'm not so sure. I like the way he describes the end of the series.

Exclusive: 'Scrubs' boss (sorta) spoils series finale!

I may give it one more chance after all.

What could you do with $235 k?

Take a second. Really think about it. Think about the health care visits that could pay for, the education.

Or hell, think about the new car that could buy you, or if you already have a good car, the work you could have done keeping it up. Got it? Fine.

Now think about this.

Via Think Progress:

The Washington Post’s Al Kamen reports today that outgoing Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne recently spent about $235,000 in taxpayer funds to renovate the bathroom in his fifth-floor office. The renovations included “installing a new shower, a refrigerator and a freezer and buying monogrammed towels.” An internal investigation by the department’s inspector general, however, found no wrongdoing on Kempthorne’s part “because the GSA had approved the project“:

The General Services Administration approved and partially funded the project, an Interior Department official said. The GSA paid about half the cost to refurbish aging plumbing, which needed to be replaced within four years.

But department officials say much of the money was spent on lavish wood paneling and tile.

You know...I was gonna toss this one away with a little "It's too easy...make up your own joke here" thing.

I was thinking, something about Kempthorne having misunderstood the meaning of Secretary of “the Interior,” ha ha, ha ha, ha.

Then I took a second look at the numbers.

$235 k on a bathroom in an office.

Are you kidding me?

I feel a really childish joke coming on...uh-oh...

Kate Beckinsale shows the range of her talents.

A question.

Am I the only person who wants to see Kate Winslet in a live show version of Grease 2?



Apparently, I am not.

This is one of the Looney Tunes that just missed my list of the 10 Greatest

It's so funny that if you don't laugh, it's your failure, not the cartoon's.

GHWB, master of understatement.

Via The Washington Monthly..

George H. W. Bush, after conceding that he'd like to see Jeb run for the Senate, added, "I'd like to see him run, I'd like to see him be president someday." After Fox News' Chris Wallace expressed some surprise, the former president added, "I mean, right now it's probably a bad time. We've had enough Bushes in there."

Ex-President Bush...remember Nixon's "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more" press conference? That's where your clan should be taking it's lead from right now. Yes of course, Nixon eventually made a comeback--and look how well that worked out for him.

You've done all the damage you can do. Either volunteer to put the whole family into one of those charity booths where people can line up to hit you in the faces with balloons filled with white paint...

Or better still, just go. The fuck. Away.

The blogosphere just got a whole bunch sweeter

Rosie O'Donnell has quit her blog.

I mean, it's not like I didn't know that Steven Moffat knows what he's doing...

Especially vis-à-vis Doctor Who. He's won Hugo Awards for it and all. Still, I like this quote from Moffat, who's takng over as head writer and executive producer for 2010, about Matt Smith, who'll be playing the part of the 11th Doctor*:

"The Doctor is a very special part, and it takes a very special actor to play him. You need to be old and young at the same time, a boffin and an action hero, a cheeky schoolboy and the wise old man of the universe. As soon as Matt walked through the door and blew us away with a bold and brand new take on the Time Lord, we knew we had our man. 2010 is a long time away but rest assured the Eleventh Doctor is coming - and the universe has never been so safe."

ETA: Here's a "coming out" interview with Smith:



He looks a bit goth, but I can see this working (and of course, the way he is now is not necessarily the way he'll be as the Doctor).

On the other hand, something just sank in as I was watching it. This Doctor actor is younger than me.

I may have to stop watching the series.



*If it were up to me, 10th, as I'd really rather not count McGann...but it's not up to me, and I suppose that's OK.

Oh my god, Jennifer Aniston is a wolverine.

Think of another explaination

Hmm...

We all know I think Summer Glau is as cute as cute can be, but I'm not so sure about this dress. You?

Eyes Wide Shut

If Only You Heard Her
Originally uploaded by Mikayla The Meteor

eyes_wide_shut_
Originally uploaded by MeganKS

Oh, she tells me tears are something to hide
And something to fear
And I try so hard to keep it inside
So no one can hear

(verse from Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry")

We better shut up...
Originally uploaded by missteree

Just a quick update

The fourth suspect in the gang-rape of a lesbian actually turned himself in.

It's happened again

One of my reviews being cited as a source for a Wikipedia page, I mean. In this case it's the page on Don Henley's song "The Boys of Summer."

And now, let's chart Lindsay Lohan's growth and evolution as an actress

You'll like this.

I dunno how much low-class midriff blouses and tacky pumps can do in a case like this, but I wish her the best of luck

Erin Brockovich is coming to Tennessee. Seriously, I hope she can help.

A take-me-to-the-movies meme for the new year

(Sort of as a balanceweight to the Watchmen post)

Real simple. Name six comic book, fantasy or "shocker" movies you're looking forward to (or at least mildly curious about) seeing in 2009, and say why.

Mine are (in no particular order):

Race to Witch Mountain. I think the odds are probably better than even that this movie is going to suck. There's an outside chance that it might not, though, and the original movies were so big when I was a kid, so how could I not be curious?

Wolfman. I have the feeling this may turn out to be a guilty pleasure. I thought director Joe Johnston brought some much-needed young blood to the Jurassic Park franchise with his III.

Coraline. Now this one, I have full-on high hopes for. It's based on a bestselling book by Neil Gaiman (which I haven't read); I saw the trailer for it before seeing Bolt with my nephew, and it looks good.



I'm also glad to see director Henry Selick getting some credit for Nightmare Before Christmas, sometimes called "Tim Burton's" Nightmare Before Christmas, despite Burton's neither writing the screenplay for nor directing it.

Up. One word: Pixar.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I follow the movies, not the books...not purely because the books don't have Emma Watson, but...

And G.I. Joe. Sort of like the Witch Mountain re-launch, wherein I can't help being curious because of how big the originals were in my childhood, in this case it's because I played with the toys.


With "honorable mentions" to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and of course...Saw VI.

I'm tagging Alan Coil to see if he's out there, anyone else who wants to play is welcome.

One of my favorite mystery writers has died

Donald E. Westlake, a prize-winning author and Oscar-nominated screenwriter, has died in Mexico, apparently of a heart attack, his wife said. He was 75.

Westlake, who won three Edgar awards for his novels and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1991 for the screenplay for "The Grifters," died Wednesday night as he prepared to go to dinner, his wife, Abigail Westlake, told The New York Times.

Westlake was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of American in 1993.

The 1999 Mel Gibson movie "Payback" was based on a Westlake novel, and he wrote the screenplay for the 1987 thriller "The Stepfather." The 1972 Robert Redford action comedy, "The Hot Rock," was based on one of Westlake's series of crime novels featuring one of his most popular characters, the small-time criminal John Dortmunder.

Born July 12, 1833, in New York, Westlake attended several colleges but did not graduate.

Hup! Hup! Heads up!

As you may have heard, the release of the "Watchmen" film, which was planned for March, has been delayed thanks to a lawsuit by Fox about the distribution rights.

There's a possibility--I dunno how good it is, but there's a possibility--it won't be released at all.

Some fans feel, not entirely without reason, that Fox is being rather "dickish" about it. For myself, though...I don't say I wouldn't go to see the film, especially if it gets good reviews (assuming it is ever released).

See, like many of you, I loved the original comic book. But I've always been (extremely) skeptical about filming it. And when I learned of comic book creator (with Dave Gibbons) Alan Moore's dark feelings on the subject...

Well...I'm not exactly displeased by its hitting this stumbling block. More amused. Anything that gets a bunch of comic book/fantasy fans to start acting as their civil rights will be violated if a movie isn't released...now that's funny.

Read this.

This is lengthy--and in two parts (fair warning) but it's rather wonderful. At Pam's House Blend, a diarist calling themselves "Stuffed Animal" has written an essay taking off from Dr. King's famous Letter From A Birmingham Jail.

They make a point-by-point comparison with the grievances, suffering and oppression of African Americans then, and lesbian, gays and bisexuals now.

Part One

Part Two

I feel like a dumb joke (or two)...join me, won't you?

Ahem. From an Usmagazine.com post on Stars' 2009 New Year's Resolutions...

EVA LONGORIA PARKER
"To give up meat."

Lindsay Lohan might be able to help you with that, Eva.

CAMERON DIAZ:
"I have always had the same New Year resolutions: to stop smoking, to start wearing a bra and to stop shopping."

Don't feel you have to do all that, Cameron.

(Read the post and if you think of any other dumb jokes, send 'em in)

Jesus Christ.

Well, here's a little bit of good news and bad for the new year.

The good news is, three arrests have been made in the case of the Northern California lesbian who was gang-raped. If this leads to convictions, I hope they're thrown underneath a jail for the next 20-25 years.

The bad news is, two of the arrestees are teenagers, 15 and 16 years old.

15 and 16 years old.

One man and two teens have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month in the San Francisco Bay area while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian, police said Thursday as they searched for a fourth suspect.

The 45-minute attack started when one of the men approached the woman in the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her with the help of the others, according to detectives.

When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building. She was raped again inside and outside the vehicle and left naked outside the building while the alleged assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car, police said.

15 and 16 years old.

So young to do something that should be so unthinkable.

Balanced, well-acted, entertaining but never glib

Mickey Rourke has been going around saying that Sean Penn is a homophobe. I don't really know why. If Penn is, privately--and I'm not aware of much evidence, certainly in the last 10 years, to support that, in fact rather the opposite--I don't really care.

Unless you can show me that Penn has been using his stardom to promote intolerance, all I'm really interested in is him as an actor. And he is an extraordinary actor.

I think of him in Mystic River, for which he deservedly won an Oscar, as the man who turns his ferocious anger against a friend he thinks has killed his daughter.

And I try to tell myself that the same man gave the exquisitely human performance--though that's the wrong word, as it didn't feel like a performance at all--I saw tonight in Milk. Let me back up a minute.

The film itself succeeded with me where other films about gay men and/or politics have not for three main reasons.

It didn't seem stuffily to be trying to Teach Me A Lesson.

I think most of you who have read this blog for even a day know my feelings on civil rights for homosexuals. Nevertheless, my tolerance threshold for screen or stage dramas where the theme seems to be "But honest and truly, gays really are people too!!" is remarkably low.

I just think we should be past the point wherein that kind of statement arouses any reaction other than "Well...duh." I understand that we're not; you can make an argument that we need such works to play in more conservative parts of the country than those in which I've lived. But I don't think I'll ever have respect for them creatively.

Milk, on the other hand, I don't think sets out to Teach A Lesson. It sets out to tell a man's story. Since he was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in America, the story does inherently have some historical and even educational value.

But all praises to Jesus, it's about a man who was gay, not just a Gay Man.

(This is not to say that the film denies his sexuality in any way--which would be hard to do in the first place, tho' not impossible. But it makes it a part of the picture, not the whole thing.)

It didn't get thrown off by movie stars.

Apart from Penn, James Franco as Milk's longtime partner (later friend) and Josh Brolin--who we won't count because he's unrecognizable as Dan White, Milk's assassin--there aren't any.

I don't know if it's what a film student would call "cinéma vérité," but those are two of the words that came to mind. As I understand it, that means the sort of film which opens up a door upon real life, and that's what this felt like to me.

You almost never catch any of the cast acting. Penn's an actor, not a movie star first; in this movie, Franco shows signs for the first time (at least that I've seen) he might be one, too.

Like them, Brolin disappears into his character. And inhabiting White, he makes him full bodied. The performance, and the movie, does not take the cheap shot of presenting him simply as a belt-suited bigot, rather as someone who was messed up.

When we get to the (beautifully terrible) ending, you hate him for what he's going to do and does, yet you don't, not completely. (And yet I was glad to know, and the film reminds us, that White eventually took his own life.)

Just as White, though a villain is not a caricature, Milk, though a hero is not a plaster saint. We see his blind spots and his weaknesses, both personal and professional, and get an idea of his flaws.

Aided by Gus Van Sant's direction and Dustin Lance Black's screenplay, Penn and Franco--both straight AFAIK--convincingly portray something I've seen too little of in movies: A loving, intimate gay relationship.

It has its ups and downs--but that is because relationships have their ups and downs, not that this one is somehow false.

(They even kiss innumerable times, something that was beyond certain other acclaimed movie stars who shall remain Tom Hanks.)

The movie is smart and funny, but that is because Milk and his friends were smart and funny, not because a writer is trying to make them (and thus the writer) appear so. At least, that's the way it played to me. Which leads me to:

It didn't work too hard to entertain us.

This relates to my first reason in that it's kind of the flip side.

Political dramas, when they aren't solemnly trying to Educate The Public, can sometimes err in the other direction and become so "audience friendly" that they lose sight of whatever they might have been trying to say.

Milk unquestionably has something to say, but it says it the way drama says things best, by showing us part of the life of a person. Making us care about him; not just because we care about the same things he does.

Despite the fact that it's a tragedy, it's moving (honestly so) but not depressing. And it has dignity. It doesn't beg for it like some Lesbian Series for the Showtime network (I could mention) does. It just has it.

This is a great biopic.

I'm saying, I really think you should see it.

A bigoted one?

President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation drew one kind of protest. Whether the evangelical pastor offers the prayer in the name of Jesus may draw another. At George W. Bush's 2001 swearing-in, the Revs. Franklin Graham and Kirbyjon Caldwell were criticized for invoking Christ. The distinctly Christian reference at a national civic event offended some, and even prompted a lawsuit.

Warren did not answer directly when asked whether he would dedicate his prayer to Jesus. In a statement Tuesday to The Associated Press, Warren would say only that, "I'm a Christian pastor so I will pray the only kind of prayer I know how to pray."

The Bush hawks: They love war like Christopher Walken loves cowbell

John Bolton sez: Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran....

URheL

(click to see punchline)

Just when you thought I couldn't find any new reasons to worship Summer Glau

I mean as if it's not enough that she's as cute as it gets; that she moves like the dancer she is. That her acting as the almost-but-not-quite feeling cyborg deserves more respect than it's thus far gotten.

And now I find this photo--



--of her and other members of the Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles cast showing their support for the writers of the show during the strike earlier this year.

Sigh. Could she possibly be any more wonderful?

You'd think they'd deliver

Britney Spears reportedly snuck out of her home in disguise for a secret sex session.

The 'Womanizer' singer apparently defied her father Jamie's ban on men to enjoy the saucy rendezvous with a mystery friend - and even bragged of her romp when she got home.

A source said: "She's been a prisoner in her own home and began to crave affection and attention from someone other than her parents, which is only natural.

Actually, I think if she'd gotten affection and attention from her parents, her whole personality could have been avoided.

So you say you want to see a hottie fake-beating some guy's brains in

What good luck that I just happen to have one, then.

Your spine isn't going to grow back, Rather

Via Pam's House Blend:

A $70m lawsuit filed by Dan Rather, the veteran former newsreader for CBS Evening News, against his old network is reopening the debate over alleged favourable treatment that Bush received when he served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war. Bush had hoped that this controversy had been dealt with once and for all during the 2004 election.

The story originally broke two months before the 2004 election, CBS went on to retract the story and Dan Rather was fired after the election. The conservative media went ballistic claiming the documents had been falsified.

Dear Dan:

CBS were idiots. Everybody knows it.

Trouble is, you were an idiot, too, and CBS did a good thing for a bad reason when they "allowed you to resign." Or maybe you thought we forgot about your going on the Letterman show after September 11, getting down on your knees and sucking Bush's cock on national television.

I believe you were a good reporter once, Dan, but that was yesterday, and I think it went to your head.

This lawsuit isn't about doing anybody any good except your ego, Rather, and there's much more important things than that. It isn't going to change the fact that Bush was elected (not re-elected) in 2004. It isn't going to make CBS News any smarter.

The time of network news is over, Dan, and you helped it come to a bad end.

Go the fuck away.

Mightier.

A little late, but I only just found out about this and wanted to say something about it here: Larry Gelbart, the playwright, screenwriter; personal hero and inspiration was

presented with the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Literary Awards Festival gala dinner (LitFest) Dec. 3.

PEN USA is the West Coast center for the renowned writers' organization International PEN.

"In a salute to the range of his accomplishments in multiple genres, award-winning television writer, screenwriter, playwright and author," two-time Tony Award winner Gelbart ...received the PEN career award from award-winning writer and producer Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing," "Charlie Wilson's War," "A Few Good Men").

Emphasis mine, of course.

How fitting is that?

Thasright!

Say what you will about Seattle...and I have...but we are one of the two most literate cities in the U.S. Tied with Minneapolis for first place.

Los Angeles? Not in the top 10.

That's all I'm saying.

Corey.

To quote The Smiths: "because you're evil, and you lie"

Via Think Progress:

Only 29 percent of Americans approve of the job Dick Cheney is doing as Vice President. In an interview with his hometown Wyoming newspaper, The Caspar Star-Tribune, Cheney expressed his bewilderment over his low approval numbers:

QUESTION: How do you explain your low approval rating?

CHENEY: I don’t have any idea.

I intend calling this guy "R.G."

Via TPM Election Central (where there's two or three other good links), here's an ABC News story about incoming Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Known as a bit of a political knife-fighter on Capitol Hill for his work as something of a rogue operative after he left Sen. John Kerry's campaign amid a staff shake-up, Gibbs became a close adviser to Obama in the Senate and took an even more prominent role in the senator's 2008 presidential campaign.

Now, however, he is preparing for the actual act of governing, which can be even tougher. Is he prepared for the intense scrutiny of his every word? Is he ready to serve as a media piñata? And, given that he could likely have served as a senior adviser to the president-elect, why would he want the gig?

What's the buzz? Tell me what's a-happening...

The PopEater web site counts down the top 30 celebrity news stories of 2008. Among them:

Jennifer Anistion's Photoshopped GQ cover
Kate Winslet's not retouched GQ photos

Lara Logan becoming a parent
Tom Cruise not being a parent (oh please, let this one be true!)

And the death of Heath Ledger.

A Minute in (what I wish was) America

This is the final scene from another of the strongest episodes of The West Wing, the two-part "20 Hours in America."



As you see, the person who posted it to YouTube wanted you to associate it with Obama. I'm not so sure about that. Still...it's a dreamy speech.

big mess, i mean a really big mess, a big big mess, he was all mixed up and a big mess! he was a big mess!

Ok, back to feeling bad for Tennessee. Why?

Because that disaster is now being called almost 50 times worse than the Exxon Valdez.

And balance has been restored to the universe

Remember yesterday when I posted oddly sympathetic thoughts (for me) about some residents of Tennessee? You knew that wasn't going to sit right for long.

Sure enough, this morning I come across this video of a college student missing the very first question on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?



No points if you guessed from which state this idiot dumbass hails.

"Marley & Me" set a Christmas Day record with an opening-day gross of $13.9 million

As one or two of you probably know, I dreamed about Jennifer Aniston recently. Clearly, showing up in my dreams is good luck* because

her latest film, "Marley & Me," beat out ex Brad Pitt's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" at the box office.

Brad's film is more critically acclaimed than Jen's and will certainly be a big hit, but we're betting that Jen is highly unlikely to care much about that on her way to the bank.

Personally, I have no plans to see either, but "Marley" might get a look-in when it plays cable. Acclaimed or not, "Button" has "We really, really, really want Oscars" written all over it to me.

*I thought of trying to put some kind of joke together here, about how Jennifer found it was good luck to push this Benjamin's button...maybe even working in some sort of ungentlemanly aside about her tail (get it, huh, because her movie's about a dog).

I think fortunately for all of us, I decided against it.

Oh, bloody hell

...as I read this item, I found myself reminded of Nik Kershaw's song "Roses"...the post maybe best read listening to it:



Even I don't think that Tennessee deserves this:

It looks like the surface of the moon. The black sludge that poured out of a Tennessee coal burning plant now covers entire neighborhoods.

"It's just scary," said Chris Copeland, a resident of Harriman, Tenn. "I have two young girls, and I'm afraid for their health."

This stuff is a witch's brew of toxic heavy metals that needs to be contained and controlled," said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

But have no fear, the TVA is here!

we've just come from a meeting
and we're sure you'd like to know
there'll be deep blue skies and clear blue waters
everywhere you go

"The water is safe," said Amanda Ray of the Tennessee Valley Authority. "The environment is safe. And we're going to clean this up."

(BTW...is it just me, or if the water and enviroment was safe--meaning Free from foreign matter or pollution; unadulterated--would they not need to clean it up?)

The Copeland family doesn't know who to believe.

"People tell you all the time things are safe, and later down the road you find out that they aren't," Copeland said.

but it's an awful price we pay
believing everything they say
here tomorrow gone today

Pop Goes The World

Bubble (wrap) Calendar

!

You'll never guess who sent me this image of Santa on a train

Somewhat puzzlingly, I've ended up on the newsletter mailing list for Amy Ephron's One For the Table site and now I've gotten a Christmas E-Card from her. It's even "signed" XOX Amy.

This is strange because in my sole E-Mail exchange with Ephron, she hardly left me feeling bathed in her warm embrace. Actually she threatened to sue me for libel.

Still...nice, innit?

the fun has just begun; So don't you mess around with me, you won't know what to do, 'Cause I'll put on my cha cha heels and walk all over you!

Eartha Kitt died. So here's a little three-part tribute.

First, this is a teaser trailer from The Emperor's New Groove, a film I'm a big fan of; in which she was the voice of Yzma.



This is some interviews with Kitt and Bronski Beat about their 1989 collaborative single "Cha Cha Heels," followed by the video.



And this is a great montage that a YouTuber called privatedancer74 put together to Kitt singing Stephen Sondheim's "I'm Still Here." If you watch only one of these, this is the one to watch.

Ah, the Star Wars Holiday Special. It was pretty bad.

It will never receive a proper DVD release, and I think (even) if I showed it to my nephew, who loves Star Wars, he would burn his Star Wars Lego video game.

But it's a strange memory in the minds of those of us who grew up in the '70s playing with the old Kenner Star Wars figures that are now worth a lot of money.

It's generally reckoned to be the most ill-conceived Star Wars product ever made. Worse than the (not-so) "special editions," worse than the dialogue in Episode III...well, no...Nothing is worse than the dialogue in Episode III :

[After the massacre at the Jedi temple]
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Not even the younglings survived!

But it was so bad, in fact, that many of us have oft-times wondered...just how did it get so bad?

Vanity Fair wondered that too.

Excerpts:

Although Lucas has subsequently had the special disappeared from American television—it has never again been officially aired or released in any video format—Star Wars geeks have not let the world forget that, even more than Jar Jar Binks, this is the one true embarrassment attached to the mostly superlative Star Wars universe.

While flipping through a book of production stills, [writer Bruce] Vilanch says, the Star Wars creator came across a particularly provocative-looking creature. “Lucas, who had been pretty stolid the whole time, turned to me and said: ‘Oh yes, we call him Cuntface.’ And that’s what it looked like, actually. I noticed in a later movie”—Return of the Jedi—“that Lucas had, like, a huge vagina in the desert that sucked things in. So, I think this is one of his leitmotifs.”

Twenty-eight years later, [writer Lenny] Ripps says he still hears from fans and fanzines that want to know about the special. “I think in a bigger sense, it’s nice to know that Star Wars does have feet of clay,” he says. “Ultimately, when all is said and done, it’s an outer-space movie. It’s not sacred. And what has amused me the most is that somehow people think the special discredits the image of this sacred text.”

Thanks hâi jor nôk dtam-raa yiw, Corey Klemow.

A Pause To Remember

Harold Pinter, dead at 78.

All Bing Crosby samples and cash-register sounds

“Eye Of A Needle,” The Art Of Noise.

This is a live version. The original is a rather obviously “satiric” look at the commercialization of Christmas, but so well arranged that I like it both because and in spite of that.



If there is such a thing as rockin' genially, this is it.

"This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole."

Speaking of The West Wing, here's the penultimate scene from the season two Christmas episode, Noël, one of the best of the series. If you don't know the episode, here's the backstory. And here's the scene.



Brad Whitford won his Emmy for this episode.

"Abigail! Your breasts are magnificent!"*

Stockard Channing is a former star of The West Wing, for which she won an Emmy, and an Academy Award-nominated actress who's been in such films as Twilight, Smoke, Six Degrees of Separation, Staying Together, Grease and The Hospital. As if that weren't enough, she also won the 1985 Tony Award for a revival of Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.

I mean, she knows what she's doing up there. So you might like to see what she has to say about it in this Q& A piece.

Best part (IMO):

What’s the best piece of professional advice you ever got?
It’s [from] John [Guare], and it’s in the text of Six Degrees. I’m paraphrasing, but the character Flan asks why paintings in the second grade are clear and beautiful, and then by third grade they all look like mud and camouflage. And the teacher says, “I know when to take their paintings away from them in the second grade.” John and I went out to dinner one night and he equated those lines to acting, where you have to know when to stop. There has to be a point where you say, “The painting is done.” There’s a real temptation in acting to always fiddle with it, and sometimes you ruin the color balance when you do that.

* British Ambassador Lord John Marbury, "Dead Irish Writers," The West Wing.

Songs of the season

This is "Little Bit Of Snow" by Howard Jones. All I want to say about this acoustic (basically just Howard singing and playing piano) song is that it saved my life.

And this is “The Christmas Waltz,” by Frank Sinatra. Maybe not the most inspired lyric ever written, but a nice holiday song. And I liked the classic Capitol visual on this.

Why do we only ever hear from these dykes when they're sticking up for gay-bashers?

Say...who remembers Tammy Lynn Michaels? She's the partner of Melissa Etheridge. Michaels (and Etheridge) are now defending Rick Warren.

Remember her now? Uh-huh. She's the one who also stuck up for Isaiah Washington. No bad poetry this time, but she's still just as unmusical.

I'd ask how any musician (let alone a gay one) can stand to be partnered to such a woman. But all Etheridge's songs sound alike to me anyway.

Further on the subject of Mr. Warren...looks like somebody forgot the commandment against lying.

I have to say, I've come around to really enjoying this controversy. Because it's putting the civil-rights-for-me, but-not-for-thee homophobic positions of this bigot into a national spotlight and forcing him to have to defend them.

This of course, cannot be done, unless you’re an idiot.

Further to the story that made me tear...

I wonder where those men would've gotten the idea that being a lesbian made this woman less than human?

Oh wait. Now that I think of it, no I don't, really.

Avy Skolnik, of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, told the AP that "anytime there is an anti-LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] initiative" -- like the recent anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives -- "we tend to see spikes both in the numbers and the severity of attacks." He added: "People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice."

Ok, so I'm sort of ashamed of myself for this joke

Alec Baldwin Posted in Huffpo:
The Inauguration Cannot Come Quickly Enough

And somewhere, Kim Basinger is saying "And if anyone knows about coming quickly..."

Oh, god.

I've got nothing else to say except that this brings tears to my eyes.

A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said Monday.

Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.

"It just pushes it beyond fathomable," he said. "The level of trauma — physical and emotional — this victim has suffered is extreme."

Yeah, that's great, Joe.

Via TPM Election Central, Joe Biden defends the selection of Rick Warren:

Barack Obama said you've got to reach out. You've got to reach a hand of friendship across the aisle and across philosophies in this country.
We can't continue to be a red and blue country. We can't be divided like we have been.

Uh-huh.

Say, Joe...you know what would be a really great way to promote inclusion?

Showcasing a progressive person of faith with a message of inclusion.

As opposed to, say, Rick Warren.

Just a thought.

Wow.

"If the president does it, it's not illegal.”

Richard Nixon to David Frost, 1977?

Neh-eh.

Dick Cheney, to Fox's Chris Wallace.

Today.

Michael, I can't blame you for not believing in evolution, but as for the rest of us...

Mike Huckabee says it's ridiculous for people to be upset at Rick Warren.

Oh, there you go.

Being called ridiculous by Mike Huckabee.

Mike "Evolution? What evolution?" and "The bible, not the Constitution" Huckabee.

Right.

That's like being called mentally ill by Michael Jackson.

It's like being called short by Mickey Rooney...

Coming soon to a theater near you...

Eva Amurri is Iggy Pop!

Save a Prayer

I've responded to this ad.

Rick Warren says being gay is a sign of immaturity

He really does, I swear it.

Ahem.

Colley says "Well, he's got a point."

Keitha smacks him upside the head.

"...danger at every turn." "I eat danger for breakfast!" "You hungry?" " Starving!"

I saw Bolt this afternoon with my nephew.

I liked it--and liked it a lot--but he loved it, leaning forward in his chair to watch (as opposed to Wall-E, wherein he was a brat) and the first thing he said when it was over was

"Can we see this again?"

I would say it's not the work of art, (nor quite as sophisticated) as say, the best Pixar films have been. But it is full of a great deal of simple pleasures, like fun and excitement; especially if you are (or are with) a child.

It has a lesson, too, but doesn't beat it to death, and some pretty well-developed characters for an animated children's movie.

Also it genuinely has...noIcan'tbelieveI'msayingthiseither...heart.

Some of that heart comes from a featured song by Jenny Lewis called "Barking at the Moon." I loved this song much more than I've liked most of the new songs I've heard in animated films in the past 10 years or so.

I never warmed to Randy Newman's Toy Story songs. "Beyond the Sea" at the end of Nemo hit me pretty good, but of course, that's not a new song.

(Speaking of Nemo, there's an inside-joke reference to that movie in this one.)

Anyway, I don't know how long this will last, but with luck you should be able to hear the Lewis song below.

Barking at the Moon - Jenny Lewis

I'm hoping it'll get a Academy nom for best song.

John Travolta and especially Miley Cyrus (it must be said) do good work as Bolt the dog and his person, Penny. But both are bettered by Susie Essman as the cat Mittens, a really honest performance, and Mark Walton, a Disney story artist (!) as the manic hamster Rhino.

And the hamster rules. Driving away, my nephew was "clawing" at the back passenger-side window, making believe he was the hamster in his ball.

Speaking of rules, it occurs to me that Bolt is also an exception that tests one of my rules, which is this: Animated movies that bill their celebrity voice cast, as this one bills Travolta and Cyrus, are usually a sign of a movie pretty bad. It means a movie that can't be sold upon it's own entertainment, humor or charm.

Not here, tho. Not by a long shot.

Here's a TV spot.

(after clicking "Play Now," click on "Widescreen" to get rid of those annoying little boxes in the corner)

Help highlight the top 100 Warner Bros. Cartoons

Just like it says.

And for the record, here's the ones I chose:

1. What’s Opera, Doc?
2. Porky In Wackyland
3. Bully For Bugs
4. Operation Rabbit
5. The Dover Boys
6. Duck Amuck
7. Birds Anonymous
8. 8 Ball Bunny
9. Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
10. Long Haired Hare

Second thought

It's hard to be civil when people keep trying to take your liberties away.

But Chris Durang does a really good job of it.

ETA further: Salon asks the very good question: How the hell did Rick Warren get inauguration tickets?

BTW, I know I'm hitting this a lot. It's because I'm truly disappointed in Obama and his staff here.

A thought

It's hard to have faith in God when humans keep using him to take freedom away from others.

Personally, I think I would've gone with "pathetic" or "impeachable."

But "incompetent idiot" works, too. And those are two of the words the public chose to describe Bush in a new poll.

Defending the indefensable

Obama defends choice of homophobic bigoted idiot to deliver the invocation at his Inaugural Ceremony.

Solar paths

Obama chooses homophobic bigoted idiot to deliver the invocation at his Inaugural Ceremony

Via The Washington Monthly...

Obama has chosen Rick Warren.

Warren is opposed, on religious grounds, to abortion rights, gay rights, stem-cell research, and euthanasia. In 2004, he described these issues as "nonnegotiable" and "not even debatable."

What's more, just this month, Warren supported* Prop. 8 in California for absurd reasons, and offered an incoherent theological rationale to Sean Hannity's assertion that the United States needs to "take out" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Nice thinking, Barack.

It's times like this I'm glad I'm on medication.

And it's over.

The days of Evan Rachel Wood looking like a real woman again, I mean. That was nice for a while.

(Seriously, what is Marilyn Manson, some kind of vampire that instead of sucking a person's blood, robs them of their sexual identity?)

Things you don't get to say often

"Lady, get your ass off that car. You're bringing down the resale value."

Dust yourself down

This record is a terrific collaboration between Junkie XL & Dave Gahan. I like to play it when I need it. The video was made by a Depeche Mode fan on YouTube.



Superb.

Signs of Life?

"Life" has been named one of AFI's Top 10 TV Shows for 2008. I'd be more excited about this, except that it didn't do anything to save "Veronica Mars."

It's still pretty cool, though.

(Among their movie list, "Iron Man" and "Wall-E.")

"Life" actually made it into NBC's top 10 the first week in Dec.

Film news that doesn't suck

1. James L. Brooks (who I want to be) is writing a new movie.




Reese Witherspoon--who I don't seem to have quite as much of a crush on as many do, but still probably have a little one-- has been signed to star.

2. Olivia Wilde has gotten a role in Tron 2.

In a geek sense, this is amazing.

Not that Wilde has a role...



(still), that Tron 2 is actually happening!

This just in...

Bush is a liar.

Yes, I was shocked, too.

There's a joke in here about how females are always trying to take your nuts

But I'm too cool to make it.

I think it may be time to start the countdown to Danielle ‘Topanga’ Fishel appearing in Playboy

Lord knows, she doesn't seem to have a whole hell of a lot else to do...

Oh, no.

Peter Falk has Alzheimer's, according to his daughter.

"As you wish," Lt.

Must not...revel in...failures of...others...must not...

About 3.4 Americans per 1000 filed for bankruptcy over the 12-month period ending in September. Tennessee saw the highest per-capita filing rate in the country, with 7.3 residents per thousand filing.

I need this.

The first pop/rock act I ever saw live was Greg Kihn. Which seems appropriate given how much of my identity has turned out to be wrapped up in growing up in the SF Bay Area.

This is the video for the first single from his '85 solo album. If memory serves, the woman in it later became his wife, but still later they divorced.



Greg's a DJ now and also an author. I remember being struck by how different his speaking voice sounded to his singing. I also remember looking at one of his books in a bookshop and not being impressed, but admittedly I've never actually read an entire one of his.

In retrospect, I think future historians are going to be spending a lot of time deciding exactly when it was that George W. Bush began drinking again

Personally, I think he's been bagged for most of both terms.

Most recent evidence.

Not content with selling her getting you drunk, Anne Hathaway is now selling advertising space on her tummy

Psst! Anne! You're gorgeous and rich! You don't need to do this!

Note to self

When next you fly somewhere over an ocean, rather than purchasing insurance, rent Jessica Simpson to fly with you.

Because if the plane goes down, you know she'll keep you afloat.

Also, she could probably use the money.

Ahem.

The "mid-season finale" of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles airs tonight at 8:00pm ET/PT on FOX. Therefore this is my last chance to try to bludgeon you into watching until mid-February, when it will move to Friday nights.

It's a good show, damnit. Show some support.

Psst! Sam!

There's an "e" at the end of my name...

I never tire of it

I will never know/ cause you will never show/ come on and love me now

I will never know/ cause you will never show/ come on and love me now
Originally uploaded by .furia

I've heard of the other shoe dropping, but this is ridiculous*

Via McClatchy:

An Iraqi television journalist hurled two shoes at President Bush on Sunday during a joint news conference Bush was holding with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to mark the signing of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement.

Bush had just finished his prepared remarks in which he said the security agreement was made possible by the U.S. surge of troops to Iraq last year, when the journalist, Muthathar al Zaidi, pulled his shoes off and hurled them at the president. "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog," Zaidi shouted.

"This is a goodbye kiss, you dog."

I love it.

*(Do you suppose I beat anyone to that joke?)

The fact that my favorite comes from Paris Hilton says something about the state of Notable Quotables in the world

The Top 10 quotes of 2008, as compiled by the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations.

Really.

John McCain sideswiped the Republican National Committee on Sunday for the intense focus it has placed on Barack Obama's relationship (however thin) to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Saying he was confident that information would be made public regarding the president-elect's contacts with the embattled Illinois governor -- who is accused of putting up Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder -- McCain urged his Republican colleagues to keep their political priorities in order.

How nice. A lecture on keeping political priorities in order from the man who put Sarah Palin on the national stage.

Go back to bed, John. It's OK.