I'm sorry. Something involving Dita von Teese should not possibly leave me this cold.

Maybe it's because the song is such cheesy crap, not even Dita in a corset can save it.

Completely random observation

Can I just say, New Zealand has the prettiest money I think I've ever seen?

Two directors

1. Director "McG," on Terminator Salvation:

After a lengthy courtship, he cast Christian Bale, “the most credible actor of his generation”, as John Connor, the leader of the human resistance in its war against the all-conquering android Terminators.

I can't accept that.

Apparently McG's forgotten about Donnie Wahlberg.

2.

Unsettling his audience comes naturally to [Terry] Gilliam, but it’s a high-risk strategy. His frustration is still raw that Tideland (2005), a twisted portrait of childhood innocence and a movie Gilliam regards as “one of the better films I have made” failed to find an audience. “Nobody went to see it!” he rages. “I was hoping people would get angry about it but those that saw it didn’t want to talk about it. This is the world we’re living in, people don’t want to discuss things that are actually worth discussing.”

For what it's worth, Terry, I talked about it.

And again.

R. Ebert, on Change

I look around this town or every town I know, and it's as if architectural shape-shifters have been operating overnight. No wonder "Dark City" rang a bell. Low becomes high, old becomes new, quaint becomes crass, tradition becomes the future of Tomorrowland. It's getting to where the oldest thing you can find is a monorail. Disney World may tear theirs down and replace it with traffic congestion. On the pedestrian market street in Cannes, I want that little rubber stamp store to still be there. You never know. I may have to buy some more rubber stamps. I got a handsome stamp there once in the shape of an upturned thumb. In those days I sent out snail mail. I rubber-stamped my envelopes with the thumb up, and they were all Returned to Sender. Funny. That's what thumbs down means.

In which I begin to understand just how vast is this Twilight thing, really

It's connected to everything. Here we find teen hearthrob Robert Pattinson walking with actress "gal pal" Shannon Marie Woodward, AKA the woman I'd like to get to play my character Keitha.

Worthy of note

Leonard Maltin on the passing of Dom DeLuise:

Seemingly all of older show business was in attendance [at the memorial service] (after all, Dom worked on stage and television as well as movies for the past forty-five years) but what struck me most was that three of the funniest men on the planet —Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, and Larry Gelbart—all spoke of Dom as the funniest man they knew. That’s really saying something.

Not even my favorite color can save this dress

I blame Marilyn Manson, clearly, he drove Rose insane.

There's always room for a good Bugs Bunny cartoon

...and this is one of the best-animated (dig especially the scene where Bugs rolls his own cigarette) ones ever.

Bugs Bunny Rides Again
Uploaded by Channel_Zero - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

PS: A bit of trivia: The punchline to Yosemite Sam's joke upon his first entrance was originally "And I ain't Mahatma Gandhi!" It was changed to "namby pamby" after Gandhi's assassination.

Okay, the Wanda Sykes thing

Holy shit.

As you've probably heard by now:

While entertaining before a group including President Obama at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, comedienne Sykes took a couple of shots at Rush Limbaugh that were, pretty objectively, low blows.

Even Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann--no amateurs at taking shots at Limbaugh themselves--have raised objections on their respective television shows.

Stewart also pointed out that the same people who have their panties in a bunch because of something Sykes said, are perfectly all right with everything Bush & Cheney did. Quite right.

But that's not the Holy shit part.

As someone on the Aaron Sorkin mailing list just reminded me, in a second season episode of West Wing, "The Drop-In," the c-story was:

A comedian who kills in front of an audience including the President, but there was a joke the White House isn't happy with.

But that's not the Holy shit part either.

The Holy shit part is...the comedian's name on the show?

Sykes.

Aaron Sorkin is Jesus.

Speaking of House...

Serious spoilers for the season finale, but if you don't watch the show, this won't mean anything to you anyway. If you do, it's way-cool.

Actor Thomas Dekker, who was brilliant as John Connor on Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, leaves a message for his fans...

In a jovial mood.

I wish I could forget...

(Fair warning: This post contains spoilers, however vague, for the season finale of Bones (and House, but mostly Bones.)

That's it. I am so done with Bones. The season finale was not just an hour-long "fuck you," it was an hour-long "fuck you" that, by the end, made absolutely no sense at all.

They made mincemeat of a character trait of Brennans--she's supposed to be a bestselling writer, but now we know she's actually not a very *good* one. Not that you have to be good to have a bestseller, but it's depressing to know this about her: As a scientist, she may be world-class, as a writer, she's a hack.

This was before leaping head-first into one of the biggest soap-opera clichés in history. Amnesia? I mean c'mon, really, amnesia?

They are officially out of ideas.

At least on House, the "it was all a dream (or hallucination)" ending worked because of how good an actor Hugh Laurie is, and because it didn't violate the series or the character. Here...

Oh, I think I'm going to hurl.

Jay Leno: A company man to the bitter, fucking end.

Fascinating, Captain

I haven't seen the new Star Trek movie, and probably won't until it hits cable, so I can't say whether or not I agree with Jennifer Weiner's take on it. But it certainly is--well, y'know. Excerpted:

Honestly, I didn't have a problem until about midway through the film...at which point I realized that every single lady on screen was either a mother, a ho, or an intergalactic hood ornament.

We begin with mama Kirk. As the film opens, she screams and grunts her way through labor, pops out young James T., bids her doomed husband a weepy farewell, and is never seen or heard from again. How does she feel when her reckless son runs off to join Starfleet? We don't know. The movie doesn't ask.

Finally, there's Uhura...and what Abrams and company do with the Enterprise's communications officer will not be warming the cockles of any feminist hearts.

We are told, rather than shown, that Uhura is an extraordinarily capable linguist. We are told, rather than shown, that she's intercepted an important transmission, the plot device that jump-starts the film's action...as soon as Kirk tells Captain Pike about it. But Uhura's primary function isn't professional. Her job, in this brave new universe, is to look cute in a red dress, and to humanize (and by "humanize" I mean "mack on") her coolly logical, eminently reasonable mate.

In other words, she's Michelle Obama in outer space.

I gotta say...I think Jennifer looks very natural with a kid in her arms here

On-location shots of Ms. Aniston shooting a new film in which she'll play a mother.

I knew something was up!

You know, for whatever problems I may have, one thing I can say is that I never got into drugs. Or so I thought. Because...

Cheerios Are a Drug, FDA tells General Mills

Hey watch out, baby who's that, don't look now there's a monkey on yer' back...

Maybe that's why I find the show more depressing than funny

The whiff of failure makes Party Down the flipside of that other Hollywood series, Entourage, whose ordinary guys get to live large — cool cars, hot chicks, fancy restaurants. Where that fizzy HBO series was an almost perfect expression of a bubble economy, Party Down seems just right for an economic downturn in which people still harbor oversized American dreams but know they need a job to survive. And though the show has fun with the characters' foibles and limitations — they're all slightly deformed by their ambitions — it avoids what we might call Day of the Locust Syndrome. It doesn't look at them as Little People or treat them with fear and disdain. It's affectionate.

NPR reviews Party Down. I wish I could say I thought they were right. If I wasn't waiting for Mr. Klemow's appearance (god, I'm a good friend), I'd have stopped watching a few episodes ago.

But the show NPR describes sounds like one I'd like. I wish I could see it.

Everything turns around Henry, who, as episodes spin out of control, remains the show's still center. Beautifully underplayed by [Adam] Scott, he reveals himself in bone dry quips and almost imperceptible inner crumples that betray his mortified sense of his place in the world. Alone of the six, Henry has abandoned his hopes of the bigtime, but what's great is that this has made him humane, not cynical: Even when his coworkers are being foolish, he never looks down on their dreams. Wised up and sad, he's Party Down's hero and melancholy heart. He knows that he's not an actor. He really is a bartender.

Oh yes...There will be milk.

Jazz Dancing Girl with Cows | Viral | SPIKE.com

Ok. This is um...this is twisted, is what this is.

I've got to cut out the You-Tube before bed...

To shock of all, torture may have been medically unsafe

A CIA inspector general's report from May 2004 that is set to be declassified by the Obama White House will almost certainly disprove claims that waterboarding was only used in controlled circumstances with effective results.

But there is no need to wait for the report's declassification. Information from its pages was already made public in the footnotes of the Office of Legal Counsel memos written by Steven Bradbury in 2005 and released by the current administration less than one month ago.

And the conclusion seems pretty clear: Not only did interrogators, for a period of time, use waterboarding that was deemed by U.S. officials to be more frequent and intense than was medically safe, it did so to apparently limited results.

Medical personnel at the detention facility protested the use of the waterboard in that form, stressing that "there was no a priori reason to believe that applying the waterboard with the frequency and intensity with which it was used by the psychologist/interrogators was either efficacious or medically safe.'"

I'm as surprised as you are...

To quote the immortal Simpsons...

Ha-ha!

Miss California Pageant Officials Pick An Alternate Miss California!

The Miss California USA pageant heads held a press conference at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills to discuss the issues surrounding the current Miss Cali embarrassment, Carrie Prejean.

The pageant officials claim that Carrie is no longer doing events with the Miss California officials and has not made herself available to them. So, in response, the heads have chosen Tami Farrell, the 2009 Miss California First Runner-Up, to be the new Miss California Ambassador.

Quote of the Greek

"Last weekend, I kissed a girl. And I liked it. Does that make me a lesbian?"

"No, it just means you can write a pretty crappy pop song."

-Dilshad Vadsaria, Paul James - Greek

This one's for the ladies!

Although, I have the feeling posting a video that includes scenes from Pretty Woman, A Lot Like Love, Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd and When Harry Met Sally will keep me out of heaven when Christ comes back...

Roger Ebert neatly sums up why I have no particular interest in seeing the new Star Trek movie

“Star Trek” as a concept has voyaged far beyond science fiction and into the safe waters of space opera, but that doesn’t amaze me. The Gene Roddenberry years, when stories might play with questions of science, ideals or philosophy, have been replaced by stories reduced to loud and colorful action. Like so many franchises, it’s more concerned with repeating a successful formula than going boldly where no “Star Trek” has gone before.

I understand the Star Trek science has never been intended as plausible. I understand this is not science fiction but an Ark movie using a starship. I understand that the character types are as familiar as your favorite slippers. But the franchise has become much of a muchness. The new movie essentially intends to reboot the franchise with younger characters and carry on as before. The movie deals with narrative housekeeping. Perhaps the next one will engage these characters in a more challenging and devious story, one more about testing their personalities than re-establishing them. In the meantime, you want space opera, you got it.

Mr. President: It's time to do the right thing.

Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and officer in the Army National Guard who is fluent in Arabic and who returned recently from Iraq, received notice today that the military is about to fire him. Why? Because he came out of the closet as a gay man on national television.

Obama has been praised for delaying efforts to get rid of "don't ask, don't tell," and some major gay rights groups are actively lobbying to delay consideration of the issue. They seem to believe that Obama should focus on other gay-rights issues first, and that he shouldn't spend his precious political capital trying to ram a repeal bill through Congress.

This misses the point. Obama could sign an executive order today. With roughly three-quarters of the public, including a majority of republicans, in favor of open gay service, a meaningful public backlash is unlikely. A slight majority of service members prefer that the policy be left in place, but polls also show that only a tiny minority of them care strongly about the issue, and that the vast majority of service members are comfortable interacting with gays.

Gentlemen...

The veteran character actor David Ogden Stiers has come out as gay. Good on 'im. He's best known as Major Charles Emerson Winchester on M*A*S*H, of course, he's also in a neat little favorite movie of mine, Creator.

Hey, PJ, if you're out there, score one for your side (o'the pond!)

Britain for the first time has published a list of people barred from entering the country for what the government says is fostering extremism or hatred.

The list includes popular American talk-radio host Michael Savage, who has called the Muslim holy book, the Quran, a "book of hate." Savage also has enraged parents of children with autism by saying in most cases it's "a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out."

The list Tuesday also includes Americans Stephen Donald Black, a white supremacist, and anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps.

Cops in Lincoln Park, Michigan* have lost their minds

Ok, follow me on this. Teenager calls 911 when her father suffers a seizure. Officer who picks up the call...instead of, oh I don't know, responding to this emergency, picks that point in time to harass her (calling her "a buffoon") for her use of curse words.

He actually hangs up on her. Repeatedly. Then when she runs to a nearby Police station to get help for her stricken father, who does she meet but, yes you guessed it, the same joke of a cop. Who promptly arrests her. Not that he had any law to, you know, charge her with breaking. But I guess all that cussin' isn't very ladylike.

Now: The aftermath is that the girl's father...finally...did get help and is OK now. In his honor, and that of his daughter, but especially in honor of Officer Dickerson, here, I quote George Carlin:

Shit
Piss
Fuck
Cunt
Cocksucker
Motherfucker
Tits

*Yeah, I know. I was hoping it was gonna be Knoxville, Tennessee, too...

Somebody made a movie named after (and shot in) my hometown

Palo Alto - Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

Sad to say, it doesn't seem to reflect the experience of growing up there as I remember it...

Great headlines in criticism

NBC takes the 'Life' out of the network

It was never actually on the air, just more likely to be on the air than to not be on the air

As expected, NBC has cancelled Life officially. As you know, I'm sorry to see it go. It was a good show.

At times like these I try not to rend my garment and curse the names of the television executives (especially when they have the same name as me, like NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman) too much. First because I also try not to expect television executives not to act like television executives (second, because if I did that, I couldn't mock the Whedon-zombies. I like doing that). Life needed a couple of million more viewers a week, and that's all there is to it.

However, where I do feel I have an area of complaint is that from what I saw NBC did almost nothing to promote the series. And Life was a quirky show much more about characters than about procedure which needed a certain amount of, if I may, tending and gardening in the media and press.

In a way the title was a problem--it doesn't exactly tell you what you're going to get, in the way that, say, Dancing With The Stars does--although I suppose you could debate the use of the word "Stars" on that one (and come to think of it, "Dancing").

But at the same time, I can't think of a better one.
And that's what the show was about. Life and how to deal.

The show was "Zen-ish," and part of being "Zen-ish" is to not be attached to things. So how can I be attached to this show?
At least the show existed, and exists, the first season already on DVD (and on my shelf--thank you, Jen) and the second scheduled for release.

It introduced me to Damian Lewis, an actor I'll be looking out for in the future. Lewis's Charlie Crews combined a willful, almost childlike innocence with a Terminator-like search for vengance.



The series showed me that Sarah Shahi, besides being just smokin' hot, could do some really rich acting work as Crews skeptical partner Dani Reese, wracked with troubles of her own.

It missed a few steps this season, but by the end it had found its feet again and landed gracefully. I'm sad to see it go, but at least I have an abiding image to go with it, or that it left me with. It's the two partners looking at each other, as we hear the words on a Zen tape:

'We even have a word when you plus another equals one.
That word is love.'

So if I'm not attached to it, I hope I'm not attached to it, why do I think it's going to stay with me?

A little over four years ago, in a "public service announcement" on my old blog, I said this about CBS’s 1985 revival of Twilight Zone:

I believe you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of television series that were actually important to you. Important, meaning they strongly affected you, changed your conciousness one way or another, even, god help us, taught you lessons.

I've been thinking in recent days about how Life is likely to be another one of those series for me. It's the show that planted the seeds for what I now refer to as "my Buddhism-influenced spiritual inner life." It had an impact on me.

Just how deep that impact goes remains to be seen (check back in 20 years), but it's already deeper than most.

All right!

You are Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a bit too brutally honest. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately!

They should be back

Barring a "miracle" (if that isn't too hoity-polloi a word to use when discussing the success or not of TV shows), tomorrow I expect the news that Life has officially been cancelled. And damn if that isn't a Gilliam-esque thing to have to type.

I'll have more to say about that when and if it happens.



Weeks to come will also probably bring similar news about The Unusuals and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

So, I just wanted to point out here that all three shows made TV Guide's "endangered series we hope will survive" list, and Terminator won E!'s "Save One Show" poll (Life came in fourth). I'd like to stay positive, but...

I like to think it was the cost of the tickets for me and my nephew that put it back

This almost never happens that I can remember, but after having previously dropped out of the box office top five...

Monsters vs Aliens continues to hang around with $5.8 million good enough for a bump up to #5 in its sixth weekend of release.

Blasphemy! I won't have it!

They're remaking Clash of the Titans.

My inner 10-year-old just died.

Everything I've heard about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made him sick, but this killed him.

I really like this picture

Via BAGnews:



I think because, even though I don't always get all warm-and-fuzzy at the "PCness" of it all...something feels very right and good about looking at a picture of the President of the U.S. and his Secretary of State, and having it be a black man and a woman.

2009, muthas. It's about time.

For Jason, who's been over there in Saudi Arabia just a little bit too long

Click here (and scroll down) Jase...

I always suspected that had something to do with it

Mad magazine on the beating of Rihanna

Click to see full size.

I took my nephew Tristan to see Monsters vs. Aliens yesterday.

The reviews are accurate--not the best animated movie I've ever seen, but a lot of fun and the 3D was way-cool.

Susan "Ginormica" Murphy--well-voiced by Reese Witherspoon--effectively carries the film; to such an extent I think something like "The Powers of Susan" would've been a more-apt title (if considerably less marketable).



She bestrides the film like a Colossus.



(See?)

The other monsters all have their cute bits but they're definitely supporting characters, and there's really only one alien.

On another subject, I hope you won't find this too creepy, but I thought Susan was the sexiest animated heroine since Princess Jasmine in Aladdin.



That's not too creepy, right?

I would actually love to see this if it's real

Via ohnottheydidn't, it's being reported that...

HUGH JACKMAN is trying to persuade his Oscars dancing partner ANNE HATHAWAY to join him on the CAROUSEL.

The Aussie star has developed a script for the beloved Stephen Sondheim (sic) musical and he wants Hathaway to play Julie Jordan opposite his Billy Bigelow.

Now--being famliar with Jackman and Hathaway's unquestionable talents and gifts, as well as with Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, I can see how they could kick ass in those parts; they'd get to sing some stunning songs.

But I have my doubts--especially since the paper that reported it thinks Stephen Sondheim wrote Carousel...

Well, at least my mother will be happy

What Magical Creature Are You?

Unicorn You are the mysterious unicorn! You prefer to be by yourself most of the time because you are surrounded by your many friends. You are very fond of everything that is beautiful and pure (or shiny). You are a person who is easy to get along with but you sometimes can be a little stubborn. You are the symbol of love and kindness and you never hesitate for those in need.

How do you compare? Take this test! | Tests from Testriffic

A question for our Canadian friends

Republicans including John McCain, Karl Rove and Neil Cavuto have been putting it about that President Obama's health care plan amounts to "socialized medicine." Such as I believe you have there in your lovely country.

Now--putting aside for a moment that this is false--let's just say it was true.

Is there some reason I should be anxious about this?

Looks like President Obama's going to have a chance to appoint a justice

Justice David Souter plans to retire from the Supreme Court when the current term ends, according to multiple reports.

Someone had a funny idea in the comments there:

hey lets appoint Anita Hill, that'll drive old Clarence Thomas to fidgit like HELL on the bench....

You knew someone had to get to it eventually

Certainly you know about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles being one of my top-rated shows. But wouldn't you just know someone would put a "new wave" spin on it?



Love it.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one

If you, the Zap2it readers, were in charge of network scheduling for next season, then all the talk about "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and "Chuck" being on the bubble for renewal would disappear.

The two series have emerged as the overwhelming favorites in our Keep 'em or Kill 'em polls of 27 series that we think could go either way when the networks announce their 2009-10 schedules over the next few weeks.

Other shows enjoying heavy support include "Castle" (69 percent yes), "Dollhouse" (64 percent), "Life" (62 percent) and "Samantha Who?" (60 percent).

Not as much support for the underrated (in more than one sense of the word) "The Unusuals," but I continue to want more.

Kelly McGillis comes out, straight world says "So?"

To shock of all...

Kelly McGillis, the 51-year-old star of acclaimed films including Witness, The Accused, and Top Gun, has come out on SheWired.com.

You go, 25 years ago!

Still (to be fair), you gotta love this headline:

Top Gun Star Comes Out: Not Tom

I knew it.

Um...no, Sean.

Sanctimonious Catholic scold Sean Hannity invited noted porn star Kim Kardashian on his show last night, and—literally—called her a "role model" for young girls.

Hannity almost certainly has no idea who Kardashian is. He told her some girls look up to her because, unlike Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, Kardashian doesn't drink. Then he asked her about her Playboy spread in a concerned, fatherly way: "Why Playboy? That's the only thing I didn't understand in your bio. That didn't make sense to me."

-Gawker

If Kim Kardashian is a role model for a young girl, I think we can assume that at the very least, that girl needs a hug or two.

Great headlines in sports

Putz blows lead for Santana, Marlins beat Mets 4-3

Even with a rebuilt bullpen, the Mets blew another one for Johan Santana. Cody Ross hit a two-run single off J.J. Putz in the eighth inning, Jorge Cantu cracked his third homer in two games and the Florida Marlins rallied to beat New York 4-3 on Wednesday.

Putz (1-2) entered in the eighth and walked his first two batters before Ronny Paulino's sacrifice advanced both runners. Ross then lined a single up the middle, sending Florida (13-8) to its second consecutive victory following a seven-game skid.

Just know...that it's coming.

Saw VI was shot in Toronto under the direction of Kevin Greutert from a screenplay by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (the writing team behind Saw IV and V). The film is produced by Twisted Pictures' Mark Burg and Oren Koules.

The cast includes Costas Mandylor as Hoffman, Mark Rolston (Saw V, The Departed) as FBI Agent Erickson, Betsy Russell as Jill, Tobin Bell as Jigsaw, Shawnee Smith as Amanda, and Peter Outerbridge (ReGenesis, Land of the Dead) as William.

That's right, baby...

Thrilled to have you, Senator.

Via news from me:

Sunday, March 21, 2004
This morning on Face the Nation, Senator Arlen Specter insisted, "The Bush administration never made any claim that there was a connection between Saddam and al-Qaeda."

Today:

The president was handed a note, the aide said, that read: "Specter is announcing he is changing parties."

Seven minutes later, President Obama reached Specter to tell him, according to the aide, "You have my full support" and that we are "thrilled to have you."

Thrilled.

A new Democrat who wants to help make sure Bush keeps getting away with it.

Thrilled.

Speaks for itself

Jumping Apples

Jumping Apples
Originally uploaded by Haggis Chick

Dear Alexis Bledel...

I love you, but, no. That's all. Just no, honey.

Suri Cruise makes a break for it

To find her real parents, no doubt.

"Blame Canada"--It's not just a song in a movie

John McCain says 9-11 terrorists came from Canada

John McCain is the latest high-profile politician to repeat the diehard American falsehood that the 9-11 terrorists entered the United States through Canada.

Just days after Janet Napolitano, the U.S. homeland security secretary, sparked a diplomatic kerfuffle by suggesting the terrorists took a Canadian route to the U.S. eight years ago, McCain defended her by saying that, in fact, the former Arizona governor was correct.

"Well, some of the 9-11 hijackers did come through Canada, as you know," McCain, last year's Republican presidential candidate, said on Fox News on Friday.

"You think it's all over, but..."

Andrew:

...there is a difference between good faith mistakes and a criminal conspiracy to violate and make a mockery of the rule of law. That's why a real investigation of all of it - including the alleged results - needs to take place and take its time. Give it two years to report, to allow emotions and tempers to cool. Then and only then make a decision on prosecution, so that there is no scintilla of haste or heat.

One more suggestion: ask Patrick Fitzgerald to run it.

Or barring that, we could always go back to my "Bush vs. Jigsaw" idea.

The games have just begun.

Save an Unusual Terminator's Life

The Zap2it site is running a "Keep 'em or kill 'em?" poll for 28 "on the bubble" TV shows, including "The Unusuals," "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and "Life."

As you see over to the right, I've embeded the relevant polls there as widgets, or you can click on the link above if you want to see all the possibilities.

All "my" shows were ahead when I voted and left a couple comments just now. Who the hell knows if this'll do any good, but it's taking positive action, and I think Zap2it does tend to be one of the sites that the networks do pay attention to...

A silver lining?

The Star suggests that one or two

low-rated shows [like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles?] might get a reprieve this season due to the downturn in the economy. It costs less to keep an existing show on the air than to try and launch a new one.

Get yourself for this one, god

Golden Girls star Bea Arthur dead aged 86

Arthur, the star of television shows Maude and The Golden Girls has died, aged 86

Arthur's apokesman Dan Watt told AP the actress had died at home early on Saturday. He said she had cancer, but e declined to give further details.

The tall, deep-voiced actress won Emmy Awards for The Golden Girls


and Maude


as well as a Tony Award for her role in the musical Mame.

And if they gave awards to best voices for femputers...

Just cute & dreamy...or AMAZING?

You make the call.

George Lucas shows he either doesn't understand his own characters, the Bush administration, or both

Maureen Dowd liked to refer to the former vice president as "Darth Cheney." She recently asked George Lucas if that comparison was a mischaracterization:

Anakin Skywalker is a promising young man who is turned to the dark side by an older politician and becomes Darth Vader. "George Bush is Darth Vader," [Lucas] said. "Cheney is the emperor."

Amy Davidson, at the New Yorker's News Desk, is having none of it:

Other than being the father of twins, Anakin Skywalker, born a slave, with extraordinary abilities (the "best pilot in the galaxy"), has almost nothing in common with Bush, born to privilege and not much of an advertisement for the notion of a natural aristocracy. Is Jenna going to be Luke and bring him back from the Dark Side? If we are going to play this game, Bush has more in common with Count Dooku, the Jedi dropout turned warmonger, or, better yet, Jar Jar Binks, who, after a buffoonish youth, improbably rises to a prominent political position and obliviously fronts for the soon-to-be emperor in getting the "Star Wars" equivalent of the Patriot Act passed.

Via scanners.

Well, I'm glad to see someone is finally speaking up.

Via The Daily Dish:

Peggy Noonan, chief worshipper at The Church Of Ronald Reagan, on the value of being a nation of laws; not a nation of humans:

...the pursuit of justice is the business of a great nation. In winning this point, they caught the falling flag, producing a triumph for the rule of law, a reassertion of the belief that no man is above it, and a rebuke for an arrogance that had grown imperial,"

Of course, she was talking about Clinton in 1998.

In 2009, on the subject of the president committing war crimes, she said (infamously),

Sometimes in life you want to keep walking.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Peg.

I suppose it wouldn't have been right if they'd just pretended to treat him...

Man pretending to fall off bridge actually falls

Police said a 23-year-old man is in stable condition after he pretended that he was falling off a bridge over the Minnesota River, then actually fell off the bridge. Police got a call just before 5 a.m. Sunday from a 21-year-old man who said his friend fell off the Highway 77 bridge and into a marshy area about 30 feet below.

For number one, I went with Limbaugh, which seems to be a popular choice

Media Matters is conducting a poll to name the worst "media moment" of President Obama's first 100 days. Among your choices (with some commentary where appropriate):

Limbaugh on Obama: "We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black"

(This is the one that I decided on...when I voted, it was leading the pack by some 12%)

Beck has car idled outside of studio during show to "do our part for global warming"

In CNBC host Cramer's "U.S.S.A.": "Comrade[]" Obama is a "Bolshevik" who is "taking cues from Lenin"

I had to do a double-take on this one...it means CNBC host Cramer is taking his ideas from Adam Ant lyrics. There have been times when Ant is one of my favorite pop stars...but that's just crazy (to be fair, so is Adam).

Limbaugh on EFCA: "One day Tony Soprano will walk in with a lead pipe and he will start beating people upside the head to vote to unionize"

Morris: "Those crazies in Montana who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the U.N.'s going to take over' -- well, they're beginning to have a case"

Glenn Beck mocks Obama's aunt's "limp"

Beck imitates Obama pouring gasoline on "average American"; says: "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire? ... We didn't vote to lose the Republic"

Beck: "You can't convince me that the founding fathers wouldn't allow you to secede"

Enjoy!

If they throw in an Ann Coulter sodomy booth, they might have something

Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity (By Charles Grodin!)

Oh, well. This is, I believe, a "golden moment" in the history of televised media. Sean Hannity had actor Charles Grodin on his show tonight, and the two men actually had some genuinely good natured sparring with each other over the news of the week.

GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?

HANNITY: Sure.

GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?

HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.

Or the third option...

Hilzoy sez:

I do not want a world in which members of my government can break the law with impunity. I do not want a world in which some people are above the law. In a perfect world, we would not need to prosecute people to achieve these results. But the past eight years have shown us that we don't live in that world.


As I said, I don't care about the prosecutions of the CIA officers. But I care immensely about prosecuting Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Bybee, Bradbury, and people like them. And I care precisely because I am looking to the future. We can choose to be a nation of laws in which criminals of any station are held accountable, or we can just hope that no one like George W. Bush is ever elected again.

It hasn't been on long enough for me to attach to it the way I did to, say, Life.

But The Unusuals is my latest proof that the best shows don't do well in the ratings. ABC aired a special Tuesday episode last night (as opposed to the usual Wednesday timeslot). It was in place of the recently revived Cupid, which I've given up on, along with most viewers and (I imagine) soon enough, ABC. Something I only discovered in the last 5-10 minutes.

Fortunately, here in the 21st century, television network shows have websites and those websites have full episode players so you can catch up, which I have. First of all, let me say that having tried Fox and NBC's players, ABC's is by far the best. The reason I say it's the best is because it let me watch the episode without having to wait through a long connection process like the others do.

Also I liked this third episode more than last week's second, it was funny and surprising.

The show's probably never going to dominate the ratings like Law & Order: CSI (those are the same shows, right?) but from my selfish POV, that's a good thing. On the few occasions when I've tried that show (seriously: It is the same show...?) I've found it boring and dull and oppressive; a sterile wasteland.

The Unusuals probably won't prompt much more from me than a "tsk-tsk, that's a shame," if and when it gets cancelled, which seems to be the road it's on.

But it's a good show. I like it.

Oh, and Miley, I forgive you for that "Alice in Wonderland" crack, too

I basically have no use for Miley Cyrus. Frankly, wouldn't it be creepy if I did? She did do good voice work in Bolt, tho, it must be said. And now she's spoken out on gay rights. So while I still expect to have little or no use for her, she's ok by me.

As a LiveJournaler put it:

...when the most popular teen star in the world says something like this, millions and millions of LGBT rights supporters are born."

It's raining gays. Hallelujah.

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

For Jason, lest he forget

His wife will thank me when he returns...

Yes...yes they will

Via The Daily Dish, the Republican NRO on why they cannot lose "the marriage debate."

After gay marriage, the most religiously committed Americans will be effectively marginalized as a public force—because they cannot act or support the idea that gay unions are marriages. Such people will, if we lose the marriage debate, be treated the way we treat bigots who oppose interracial marriage.

I'd say this one has a 50/50 chance

There's a few people in it who I like--Kristen Bell, Danny DeVito, Anjelica Huston--but they don't always have the eye for a good script.

The director is Mark Steven Johnson. Now, I happen to have liked Ghost Rider but that, along with the rest of his filmography (Elektra, Simon Birch) doesn't eaxctly fill one with confidence in his romantic comedy skills.

Neither do the credits of the screenwriters (Evolution?). One of the producers is a producer of Wedding Crashers, though, which I'll bet you they mention in the ads...

Caption this photo Again

"Swanee! How I love ya, how I love ya. My dear old swanee..."

There's only one way to go out...

Good times, good times...

Sigh...it really is too late for a third season, isn't it?

But a man can dream though, oh yes, a man can dream...

The most thought-provoking and engaging of the new narratives is the “Terminator” TV series, which just ended its second season last week. ...only “Terminator” has built a truly diverse community of machines — with multiple agendas, multiple desires — without resorting to some type of spiritual mythology to explain their existence.

I know I use this word a lot; I might as well admit it, I'm trying to bring it back.

Awesome.

Books is the drug I'm thinking of

'Nother Amazon review:

Love Is the Drug: A Novel
by Sarahbeth Purcell

Join us, Megan...join us...

Megan McCain is too sane to be a Republican.

All together now: Aw, cute...

As you may have heard, a few weeks ago actress Alyson Hannigan gave birth to her first child, a daughter. She and husband/sometime co-star Alexis Denisof have named the girl Satyana Denisof (cool name!)

A photograph was released to the press today.

Tea Hee (updated)

Or, OK, the "tea bagging" thing.

As you know if you've been watching Countdown, The Daily Show and so on, the likes of Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart have been having the time of their lives.

They've been playing with the double-entendres inherent in the allegedly anti-tax, but really anti-Obama, allegedly nonpartisan, but really GOP-dominated "tea parties," you see.

A writer named John Lillpop noticed this too. Among other places, Lillpop writes for the Canada Free Press.

(You'll remember the Canada Free Press. They're the (allegedly Canadian, but really awfully interested in what we're doing down here*) conservative wingnut paper among those taken in by a fake Michelle Obama interview, last October.)

Writing about a recent appearance Janeane Garofalo made on the Olbermann show in an Op-Ed for a site called "News Blaze," Lillpop accuses her of

"Racial Profiling, [and a] Gay Slur in Attacking Tea Parties"

By racial profiling, he means that Garofalo said the protests were racist in nature, which she did--as it happens, I saw the appearance.

I wasn't sure about that statement of hers myself (I go back-and-forth about Garofalo). I am quite sure that racism played its part (if you doubt that, look at these), but whether it was the motivating factor for all, or even a majority, as opposed to the fringe whack-jobs, I'm not sure.

But regardless, unless you think Garofalo's point was that white people cannot protest against the actions of a black person without it being racial in nature...it wasn't racial profiling.

And I don't think that was her point. I think she was arguing that since the protests don't make sense politically, financially, or historically....

This is not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea party was about. They don't know their history at all.

...then the conclusion she draws is that

It's about hating a black man in the White House," she said.

As I said: I'm not sure about that, but I think it was her point.

Now, what about the gay slur? I've usually got a pretty good ear--considering that I'm straight--for that sort of thing, and I didn't remember anything Garofalo had said hitting me that way. So what is Lillpop talking about? This:

Any reasonable person (white or not) would study the facts and ask some probing questions before accusing millions of strangers of engaging in tea bagging, which is actually a homosexual practice not understood very well by straight Americans, a condition Barney Frank hopes to correct with tens of billions of "education" dollars in the next stimulus package.

Emphasis, need I add, mine.

Ah heh. Ah heh heh. Ah heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh...

So, this guy--who lives, would you believe it, in San Francisco--thinks "tea bagging" is "a homosexual practice," and to "accuse" someone of it is to hurl a gay slur.

Now, I'm quite sure that none of you, my gentle readers, have ever done such a thing in a straight partnership (neither have I...). But I feel I can say with some confidence it is a sexual (not homosexual, not heterosexual, just sexual) practice understood perfectly well by sexually healthy Americans straight, gay, or indecisive.

And to have it suggested that you engage in it--well, I don't see where that's a slur, gay or otherwise. Hell, in some circles, that would be a badge of honor...I imagine.

Of course, no one has been seriously suggesting all these protestors engage in the practice anyway (though many of them assuredly do). Some have just been having fun with the fact that the GOP organizers of these events, apparently unknowingly, left them open to the double-entendre.

Is it sophmoric? Of course. But it's not a gay slur.

"Morning, faggot!" is a gay slur.

Saying Rep. Barney Frank wants to include teachings about this practice, as part of a stimulus program...because Rep. Barney Frank, as you may know, is gay (shudder)...is a slur.

Just so we're clear.

*No play on words intended.

I think...I feel good about this

I'm quite pleased, actually, and thankful to the girl who made it...

Wolves rule.

That is all.

I know you know this, but: I'm really gonna miss this show.

I hope the new movie sucks.

(Bitter? A tad.)

Artwork by MikEvil .

Is it just me, or when looking at this photo promoting the "Weeds" television show...

...does anyone else find themselves thinking of the "Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" segment of Creepshow?



It is just me, isn't it?

A bee; dalek, dancing with a dragon and the Buddha

Just a random image I liked

I actually like this more than the movie

Sad to say, I didn't like most of the new Futurama movies (the exception was "Bender's Game") as much as I've come to like the series. But I like this video somebody calling themselves Playhard put together to a remix of the theme; using clips from the first movie, "Benders Big Score."

FUTURAMA REMIX by Saturn Smythe

Mother of god, the Death Star is real

"A montage of distant images of the small inner satellites of Jupiter taken by the Galileo spacecraft's Solid State Imaging camera in November 1997. The top two images show the moon Thebe."

That's no moon...

"Darwin's theory of evolution and survival of the fittest, based on his little trip to the Galápagos, no longer applies on this planet."

On his director's commentary for Saw IV, Darren Lynn Bousman observes that the actor who plays John/Jigsaw, Tobin Bell, is so "gangster" that he can always appear disturbing. Even when dressed, as he is in one scene in the film, in a black velour v-neck shirt.

He's right. Which leads one to the conclusion that no matter what you put Tobin Bell in, or what music you put to him, if he wants to, he can still scare the shit out of you.

This next video, tests that little theory...

(click it. Don't be squeamish. There's not even much gore.)



Still compelling. Gotta love it.

This happened last year, but it's pretty cool

First pictures of new planets. Be sure to check out all the photos.

Robert J. Elisberg is in love with Michelle Obama

Not that he's alone.

...what's remarkable about Michelle Obama's popularity is not how popular she is (72%-17%), but how popular she is only eight months after being demonized by the Republican Party. Barely half a year later, she's almost double the then-43% approval. And this didn't occur through any significant event that changed peoples' opinion of her. It's that after eight months... people got to see her with their own eyes, unfiltered by right-wing talk radio and Fox News. The American public didn't know her before, they only had reports on how they were supposed to feel about her. But seeing her in action, seeing her grace, charm, intelligence, kindness and warmth -- seeing how incredibly well-raised her children were -- seeing someone who tells children in school, as she did those girls in London, "I liked getting A's... I thought there was nothing cooler than being smart" -- Americans saw for themselves, got to know her themselves, and made up their own minds.

Goddamnit.

Fox set to terminate 'Sarah Connor Chronicles'

"It's done," maintains a source close to the show. "Everyone has pretty much known for a couple of weeks." Adds a network insider: "Consider it canceled."

The one bright spot? Despite horrific ratings, Fox isn't ready to declare SCC dead and buried -- at least not officially. "No decision has been made yet," insists a network rep. "We will be announcing our fall schedule on May 18."

Not like this is unforseen, but: Goddamnit. A smart show with strong women that I loved (the show and the women). And I don't know if this'll show you why, but because I loved it, here's the season 2, and now apparently series, ending.

Goddamnit.

She also once offered to do Larry King between segments of his radio show, but they don't mention that

Marilyn Chambers dies at 56

Okay, Efron, I'll give you this one

No longer being a teenager and never having been a girl, I don't really care that much about Zac Efron one way or the other. "High School Musical 3" beat Saw V at the box office, however, and as you can imagine this just sickens me.

However, I will say this: He doesn't suck in this SNL sketch, which itself, doesn't suck...with the exception of Darrell Hammond who pretty much always sucks.



MTV wonders if Efron will ever work for Disney again after this sketch. I'm thinking yes. If they looked past the Vanessa Hudgens photo scandal...

Dear Miley: Don't be hatin' on my Alice...

Disney's 1951 adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland is not considered to be wholly successful by most critics and historians but in its way, it's one of my favorites. So you can well imagine my reaction when reading (via ONTD)...

Despite being the studio’s reigning teen idol, Miley Cyrus isn’t a fan of Disney’s 1951 animated classic Alice In Wonderland.

“It’s such a perverted movie,” the Hannah Montana star says in the May 2009 issue of Teen Vogue. “It’s all about Ecstasy. I swear! Look it up online.”

The fantasy film–which was released several decades before ecstasy use became popular–is based on the 1865 book by Lewis Carroll.

Sigh. It's called an imagination, Miley. Maybe you'll have one, one day...

Well. This is upsetting (and something to keep an eye on) EDITED WITH ADDITION

From the blog of the Seattle PI:

Amazon under fire for perceived anti-gay policy

Users are angry about a perceived anti-gay policy that removes lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender books from appearing in sales rankings.

a response from Amazon.com Advantage member services...says:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Why yes, I have one or two questions. First of all, since when does "gay, lesbian, etc" translate automatically to "adult," meaning (in the context you're using) porn; sex?

I'm hardly an expert but I feel comfortable saying that in gay books, yes there are some porno sex titles but I can't imagine there are more than there are in straight books.

Should you exclude Stephenie Meyer from your lists because someone anonymously hacks out the kind of novel in which buxom redheads with names like "Wylde" are captured by scruffycool pirates; tied to the mast and ravished?

(Of course, for all I know, the books Stephenie Meyer writes are that kind of novel...I just named her because she's near the top of the Amazon lists at the moment and AFAIK, writes "straight" books)

Finally: I was going to say that as someone who's written a "lesbian" novel that couldn't possibly get a higher than "PG-13" rating if it were ever filmed-

Created by OnePlusYou -

See?

-I objected. But then I realized. This is exactly how the MPAA works. They assign ratings with an apparent lack of rhyme or reason, with no consistency and often to fit a political agenda. And famously, violence and killing is acceptable (do you think Grisham or Kellerman are being knocked off the lists?) while gay and lesbian sexuality is not.

Good role model, Amazonians.

ETA:

A "glitch" on Amazon.com has caused the sales rank to be removed from gay- and/or lesbian-themed books by James Baldwin, Gore Vidal and others.

"There was a glitch in our systems and it's being fixed," Amazon's director of corporate communications, Patty Smith, said in an e-mail Sunday.

As of Sunday night, books without rankings included Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room," Vidal's "The City and the Pillar" and Jeanette Winterson's "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit."

Apparently, word getting around that your movie presents a rapist as the hero not so good for the bottom line

NYTimes:

It was a disappointing weekend for Seth Rogen. His “Observe and Report” opened in fourth place with an estimated $11.1 million. The movie, written and directed by Jody Hill, may have suffered from poor word of mouth. Reviews were sharply mixed, with some critics arguing that the picture, from Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures, made light of date rape.

Theatre People

E-mailing with pal Corey Klemow reminded me that I hadn't written about Party Down since its premiere. The show's been uneven in the way that many loosely-written shows are uneven to me: A tendency to resemble a bunch of actors all standing around in a circle jerk.

This Friday's episode was stronger (and funnier) than the last two or three, however. It was also the first to have its screenplay credited solely to my sometime hero Rob Thomas, who looks ahead to Kristen Bell's appearance here.

There will be a "marathon" of the first four episodes this Thursday night.

I'm definitely liking it more than the revival of Thomas' Cupid. Bobby Cannavale, I knew Cupid. I watched Cupid. Cupid was a favorite of mine. Bobby Cannavale, you're no Cupid.