I've been blogging about personal stuff lately, and it's theraputic to get that stuff out. It helps.

But I realize that things could be much worse for me. I could be as dillusional as Fred Durst:

The Limp Bizkit frontman, no doubt all too aware that his band's rap-rock sound is dead and gone, is once again propping himself up on the one thing he figures people will remember, his alleged fling/relationship/whatever with Britney Spears back in 2003...

"It just became a fiasco of madness," Durst, 38, tells MTV News about the alleged fling and subsequent story breakup. "(But) I always stay true to my heart and true to everything I did and my intentions, and I am in no way a liar..."

"I look back on it as very interesting (in terms of) how things have been sort of unraveling for her since," he says. "(But) it is what it is. I can sleep at night knowing I made decisions that I wanted to make. (Still) I'm a supporter. I was then, I guess I am now. ... "I just guess at the time it was taboo for a guy like me to be associated with a gal like her," he adds.

What a peckerhead.

Labels: Entertainment, Music, News

... all the canned laughter. These are the only shows left that still rely on canned laughter.


My step-daughter loves these shows. For the most part, the rest of us endure them. God knows I love my kids, man, but the one and only good thing about Wendy and the kids moving back to New York is that soon I'll only have to watch these shows during summer visitation.

Just out of curiosity, Liam and I took a count while Hannah Montana was on. There were 29 instances of canned laughter in the brief bit of show-prologue BEFORE the opening credits. By the first commercial break there had been 118 fake laughs. By closing credit we'd counted a grand total of 189 completely fake audience laughs and one totally fake "Awwwwww."

Since the average episode, not counting commercials, is 23 minutes ... that's like, what, one burst of totally fake, canned laughter every 7 seconds? Holy friggin' crap.

Man, these shows are so bad. The writing is the worst there is. The acting is even worse than that. And all of these shows feature original music that makes the songs from Scoobie Doo chase montages seem like the Beatles. Why does Disney insult kids' intelligence like this?

It's just evil, man.

Labels: Entertainment

I've had a YouTube account for ages. I mostly use it to post short clips of family video and occasional funny montages, etc. I only recently started clicking the "subscribe" button so I'd get updated when some of my favorite "vloggers" post new stuff.

I'm glad I finally did. I enjoy seeing the updates and watching these videos. None of these are anything special visually, these are just monologues from smart guys with interesting ideas. I suppose they could have been written and posted at regular blogs, but hearing and seeing these fellas express themselves makes it all the more personal, immediate and interesting. Here are a few recent examples...

Penn Jillette, as a rule, doesn't do reviews. Here, he breaks that rule to offer his thoughts on The Wrestler, a movie that I loved. You can watch Penn's video without worrying about plot spoilers. If anything, this clip may simply make you want to see the movie more than you already might:

I love the way Penn feels forced to describe what's so wonderful about the movie with such simple terms: "very real," for instance. And I like the way Penn often simply shakes his head, unable to come up with words. The Wrestler is really that kind of movie.

This next one is from my favorite vlogger, Zo Rachel. Here, Zo takes on global warming, Hollywood, and race, as per: politics:

Drinking With Bob is another YouTube vlog I watch from time to time. Bob usually cracks me up with his manic urgency. And I usually agree with his core points. Here, he talks about the Blago scandle:

Labels: Entertainment, Movies, Politics, You Tube, Zo

A look back at the year as it closes ... each of the thumbnail pictures below is clickable. Click one and it'll take you to the relevant post.

This is 2008 as I followed it at the blog. The political, the cultural, the personal and the trivial. Mostly the trivial.

Labels: Blogs, Entertainment, Links, Movies, Music, Personal, Politics

(Note: I promise, the brief political bit here is played entirely for laughs. I'm laying off politics for a while in a desperate, flagrant, obvious attempt to get my four-or-so readers back.)

David Blaine is probably the world's greatest magician. Well, maybe he's really more an alchemist than a magician. He's figured out a way to turn nothing interesting at all into money, power and fame. And that's real magic.

In 2005, Forbes called Blaine the the 98th most powerful celebrity in the world. That's not quite as powerful as that Malcolm in the Middle kid, but clearly more powerful than Amanda Bynes.

David's most recent spectacle involved hanging upside down for a long time and then pretending to drop. Apparently, most people who saw the trick responded with boos/yawns. Something must have went wrong, and David Blaine says that it's all Dubya's fault. The emphasis below is mine.

Magician David Blaine pulled a string of excuses out of his sleeve to explain why his latest high-profile stunt went wrong - even blaming President Bush's Wednesday night prime-time speech.

A day after finishing his latest "trick" - hanging upside down over Central Park for 60 hours before taking a "Dive of Death" from a 44-foot-high platform, a TMZ.com cameraman asked Blaine why the stunt went awry...

"...because of the president's speech, my show was delayed 15 minutes and all of the wind picked up," he said.

The (hanging like a) bat thing lost some luster when Blaine started taking breaks every hour to stand on his own two feet.

Shortly after 11 p.m., Blaine nodded and smiled to hundreds of fans watching the stunt as they screamed, "Jump! Jump!" and, "Do it!"

The screams for Blaine to "Jump! Do it!" might not have been related to the trick.

I've really got to say, this is the last straw with Dubya, as far as I'm concerned.

First he stole the 2000 election, probably by dropping in on a wire like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible ...

... then he started a fictitionous war in the desert paradise of Iraq by telling a bunch of vicious lies ...

... then he borrowed the Sorcerer's hat and conjured up Hurricane Katrina ...

... and I've always suspected that Dubya kidnapped the Lindburgh baby.

But now he's gone too far. Ordering his cabal of fascist Neocon cronies to sabotage David Blaine is just beyond the pale. Dubya MUST be impeached. Impeached, severely scolded, hosed down with cold water and beaten with a rake.

Of course, Dubya is far too stupid to have pulled it off by himself. This smells like Dick. Dick Cheney, of course, must be responsible.

Blaine's magic is amazing. I'm not even sure how to describe some of his acomplishments. But I'll try.

David Blaine has:

• Laid in a box for a long time.


• Stood on top of a pole for a long time.


• Sat inside of a box without eating. As Chris Rock said, "That's not magic. That's life in the projects."


• Stood inside of a container of water and breathed through a tube for a long time.

Future stunts he's considering include

• Not changing his underwear for six days.


• Sitting on a couch and watching all 48 Hours of Nick-At-Night's Car 54 Where Are You? Marathon, sustained by nothing but root beer and Fritos. (I've tried this and it's very hard to do. Without dozing off.)


• Sitting in his car, in his driveway, and listening to all 100 songs of WXLZ 104 FM'S "100 Greatest Rock Songs Of The 70's". And get this ... he's considering singing along with Stairway To Heaven. So don't miss the final ten minutes.


• Playing Halo 2 nonstop for six hours without a bathroom break.


• Watching all 172 minutes of Beloved* without once rolling his eyes. Not even during the scene where Oprah pees in the backyard.

Personally, I can't wait. If anyone is capable of actually doing all of this nothing and getting paid for it, it's gotta be Blaine.

---

*Totally unrelated, extremely obscure sidenote about Beloved... next time you go to the fridge and find nothing to pour on your cereal, the best way to react is to put on a huge frowny-face and say, in your mopiest voice, "They took my milk. Them boys, they took my milk."

HT to Rey, although he might prefer to be unacknowledged, for getting me thinking about the ridiculousness of Beloved. I hope I've tied the topic into this post in a spurious and confusing way, as is befitting that particular movie.

Labels: Blogs, Entertainment, Humor, Links, Movies, News

"It's not about the money. It's about sending a message."

So says the Joker in the latest Batman movie. But what exactly is his message, and to whom is he sending it?

If you've seen The Dark Knight you might agree with me that the movie is complex and smart enough to work on a number of levels. Sure, it's good fun as a comic-book action movie ... but director Chris Nolan and his cast have crafted a film with a serious philosophical subtext. Especially with regard to the Joker. The film's villain, brilliantly portrayed by the late Heath Ledger (and yes, I've come to enjoy the taste of crow) is just as thought-provoking and challenging as you might want him to be. There's a lot to think about. And there's a lot to discuss, if you're of a mind to do so.

A number of bloggers and writers are up to the task:

• RC at Strange Culture draws parallels between The Joker and the Anthrax killer, Bruce Ivins:

  There is a significant amount of circumstantial evidence of Ivins' craziness, including his obsession with a sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and his poem version of I'm a Little Teapot.
  
  This mentally unstable poetry to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot with a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde nature sounds like it could totally come out of a Super Villain movie:
  
  "I'm a little dream-self, short and stout.
  I'm the other half of Bruce-when he lets me out.
  When I get all steamed up, I don't pout.
  I push Bruce aside, then I'm free to run about!"
  
  And I find myself drawing this correlation, and wonder if anyone else does?

  I think that correlation is unavoidable. I mean, that twisted nursery rhyme sounds exactly like the kind of thing the Joker might gleefully sing while carrying out one of his crimes.



• Jason Lee Steorts, writing for the National Review, looks at the Joker through the prism of Frederick Nietzsche:
  

  ...the Joker doesn’t do just anything. What he does is destroy. He is not chance, for chance might treat you well. He is, rather, a vandal. Why he wants to vandalize is not clear. Beyond question is that he thinks there is no such thing as right or wrong...
  
  ...“moral relativism” is the regnant doctrine among the most important shapers of popular opinion: Hollywood, the music industry, the media, and the otherwise übercool...
  
  ...In these parts, people like to kick (Nietzsche). Some kick him because he wrote in metaphors, a few of which sound anti-Semitic or bellicose when taken literally. A whole lot of us kick him for three little words he wrote about God. But we rarely bother to look at the pictures that went with those words. We get so carried away in the kicking that we ignore the answer he gave to the problem of God’s death (and it was, for him, a problem). That answer was roughly: “Yes, all is permitted; now go make something beautiful.”

  
  Read the whole article, it's very good.



• Mark D. White and Robert Arp think about the Joker in terms of terrorists and torture at Boston.com:
  

  ...if we say that Batman should kill the Joker, doesn't that imply that we should torture terror suspects if there's a chance of getting information that could save innocent lives? Of course, terror is all too present in the real world, and Batman only exists in the comics and movies. So maybe we're just too detached from the Dark Knight and the problems of Gotham City, so we can say "go ahead, kill him." But, if anything, that detachment implies that there's more at stake in the real world - so why aren't we tougher on actual terrorists than we are on the make-believe Joker?




• There are a number of people you might compare the Joker to ... but Ghandi? Well, before you dismiss the idea, consider what the blogger at A Layman's Philosophy has to say. For all his violence and insanity, the Joker does believe, deep down in his broken mind, that he's making the world a better place:
  

  To the Joker, his scars are important because they remind him of his ideals. He is an anarchist. He doesn’t believe in the conventions of the world, only the conventions that will distract people from the illusions of the world. The joker, despite his trickery, at least makes an attempt to change the world for the better...
  
  If the Joker could find a different way to make the changes he desired in the world, perhaps he would have been likened to Gandhi instead of an insane criminal with issues. The Joker sees the illusion of polarity in the world, he simply tries too hard to help others and not himself. The outcome is violence, torture, pain, and suffering.

  I'm not going to lie to you, I don't share this perspective about the Joker at all. But I was happy to stumble across this blog and find an utterly unexpected idea about the movie.



• I enjoyed what Father Raymond J. De Souza had to say about the Joker and his ideas about good and evil:
  

  “I choose chaos,” the Joker confesses. There is no order built into human nature, no moral law written on the heart. There are rules of common agreement. But they are only manufactured rules, entirely arbitrary, without enduring value. They do not correspond to any truth — and they cannot, for there is no order or design at the heart of reality. There is only chaos, and the Joker embraces it...
  
  Richard Dawkins, call your agent: As a sworn enemy of Godly design, you should be getting royalties...

  
  The only problem with that is that Richard Dawkins is utterly humorless. Whereas the Joker enjoys a good chuckle. Come on, Richie ... let's put a smile on that face!

Personally, I see The Dark Knight's Joker as sort of a Jim Jones figure. The Joker and Jones both used a certain dark charisma to captivate both their followers and those who oppose them. Both of them are nihilists. Both Jim Jones and the Joker are flashy attention-hounds. Both of them pervert innocent symbols to convey their own warped world view: The Joker dresses up as a clown to mock his victims, Jim Jones employed a demented version of Christianity to control his followers. Both of them prey on the weak and emotionally unstable. And both of them are egomaniacs.

Oh, and both of them have high-pitched, odd-sounding voices.

The Dark Knight is an outstanding film; much better, I think, than any of us expected it to be. And how cool is it that a movie this big and loud and gaudy and flat-out entertaining also has interesting, considerable ideas at it's core? Each of us who enjoyed it ought to make an effort to see it in the theater again. Movies like this, with this much to offer, come along maybe once every twenty years.

Labels: Entertainment, Faith, Movies

OK, first a qualifier, I'm not Andy Stitzer, I'm not one of those grown men who amasses action figures and has a huge collection of them setting around the house. I'm a nerd, I admit that freely, but I do draw the line somewhere.

Having said that, I just found out about a line of action figures that I would actually buy (if I had the expendable income) and proudly display in my living room for all to see.

I mentioned the other day that I'd been enjoying a Twilight Zone marathon on the Sci-Fi Channel. I tivo'd some of my favorite episodes and burned them down to DVD and a little while ago I got curious about who wrote some of those episodes. (The best ones are usually credited to Serling himself, but the legendary Richard Matheson penned most of my favorites.)

Anyway, I was reading some stuff on the net about various episodes (this website is outstanding) and Googling more info, and I came across these guys:

That's right, a collection of action figures based on characters from the original Twilight Zone series. As you can see above, the set includes the gremlin from Nightmare At 20,000 Feet, one of the astronauts from The Invaders, the medical team from Eye of the Beholder, and Kanamit from To Serve Man.

Gnarly! As much as I like 'em, though, I don't think I should try to buy 'em. Most of the sites that sell them have very expensive prices ... and I don't think I could handle the embarrassment when someone finally busted me playing with them.

I'd write more, but I'm gonna go hide and play with my imaginary toy doctor and nurse. ("Conform! Comform! Ugliness is treason!")

Labels: Entertainment, Trivial Matters

So the number of people in our family who own musical instruments that they can't (yet) actually play is now three.

I have an acoustic guitar. It sits in a corner in our bedroom and mocks me. Every time I walk past it it quietly snickers and occasionally whispers "Psssst! Hey! When was the last time you actually picked me up? You might as well have bought a rocket launcher the day you bought me."

My son owns an electric guitar, and to his credit, he does take lessons. I have to wonder, though, if he originally wanted a guitar because of a deep drive to create music or because of another time-honored reason: chicks dig guys who play guitar.

Today Liam became the first person in our family to pursue a future as a bass player. He started talking about wanting to get a bass guitar quite a while ago, but Wendy and I quietly discouraged him. We were afraid that he thought that playing bass would be as easy as playing Guitar Hero, a video game he's actually very good at.

But Liam persisted, and made up his mind that if we wouldn't buy him a bass, he'd by-God buy one himself. So for months every dollar he received from the Tooth Fairy or for a birthday or a holiday, whatever, went into Liam's bass fund. And whattaya know if he didn't eventually save enough money to buy himself a bass. Fed Ex brought it today and he spent some of the evening studiously watching the included instructional DVD and plucking away.

That bass is bigger than he is. But he seems pretty serious about it. Good for him.

Liam got me thinking about bass guitar today, how much I enjoy good bass guitar and how important a good bass player can be in a band. So I did what bloggers everywhere do when confronted with such a topic. I made a top-ten list and even put together a YouTube video.

You can watch it here, a two and a half minute tribute to my ten favorite kings of the bottom end:

Just a bit of explanation ... here's how these ten guys ended up on my list:

• 10: Steve Harris
  Steve was the first bass player I ever really noticed. Iron Maiden was my favorite band when I was 14, and like many other 14 year olds, I was initially drawn to my favorite band due to their gnarly lyrics and cool guitar solos. But one day I realized that Steve's galloping bass lines were a big part of the reason that Iron Maiden was so cool.



• 09: Roger Waters
  He's probably best known as the primary song-writer and lyricist in Pink Floyd, but Roger's bass playing was a big part of what made up the Pink Floyd sound. Roger's bass sound was thick, though rarely in the forefront of their music. And the more you listen to Pink Floyd, the more you find to enjoy about his playing.



• 08: John Paul Jones
  Drummer John Bonham and bass player/keyboard player John Paul Jones were (in my opinion) the best part of Led Zeppelin. I know that Robert Plant's singing and Jimmy Page's guitar work are the things that most Zeppelin fans talk about, but what keeps me coming back is the drums and bass.



• 07: Doug Wimbish
  Doug wasn't the original bass player in Living Colour, but I think he was the band's best. His work on the album Stain just blows my mind.



• 06: Robert Trujillo
  Fans of Infectious Grooves, Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne were well aware of Robert Trujillo's talents long before he joined Metallica. I remember thinking that he'd be my dream-pick to replace bassist Jason Newstead when Newstead left Metallica. I was thrilled when he got the job, although it remains to be seen if my hypothesis was correct. That hypothesis being that Trujillo's stellar musicianship would force the rest of Metallica to step up a notch.



• 05: Mike Gordon
  For a long time I resisted Phish's music because I find the band's fans so repellent. But I was only able to hold off for so long, thanks to the great musicians in the band. Trey Anastasio (guitar) and Page McConnell (keys) are awesome, and they usually distract me from paying attention to Mike Gordon's bass. But when I do pay attention, Gordon always impresses me. It was probably Mike's incredible groove on the song Weekapaug Groove that got me into Phish in the first place.



• 04: Allen Woody
  The late, great Woody was a big part of Gov't Mule's original sound. The band has carried on without him since he passed away in 2000, but Woody's presence is still a big part of the band. His bass lines in songs like Thorazine Shuffle and Rocking Horse are some of the first things that really hooked me and turned me into a rabid Gov't Mule fan.



• 03: Simon Gallup
  I think that Simon is the only member of the Cure (besides founder and front man Robert Smith)who's been in every incarnation of the band. But I'm not sure, to be honest. The Cure has had so many line-up changes that it's hard to keep track. During the Cure's early days, when the band was a three-piece, Simon's bass playing was a defining part of their sound. In fact, the best thing about some of those early albums (see Faith) is Gallup's bass playing.



• 02: Adam Clayton
  I can't imagine U2 without Adam Clayton's moody, melodic, haunting bass sound. Now, granted, Bono and The Edge are the keys to what makes U2 such a good band. I won't deny that. But Adam Clayton's bass playing is always outstanding. His bass parts are tasteful, understated, never showy ... but they're often the best part of any given U2 song. Can you imagine With Or Without You without Clayton's mournful rumble giving the song all of it's weight?



• 01: Vic Wooten
  Wooten is godlike. He's amazing. He can do anything with a bass guitar. ANYTHING. His regular gig is the bass player in the Flecktones, but Vic has played with a great many other bands and he's done solo-work, too. I hadn't heard of him eight or nine years ago when Wendy first mentioned him to me, and she encouraged me to check out his bass-solo take on the hymn Amazing Grace. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was when I heard it. Since then Wooten has totally won me over with his versatility and virtuosity. He can do it all; funk, rock, jazz ... Vic Wooten could make a bass guitar stand up and go outside and wash his car if he wanted to.

So there's my list. Keep in mind that it's just a list of MY favorite bass players. And I know that bass fans everywhere could look at my list and take offense. I've left off legendary players like Charles Mingus, Flea, Stanley Clarke, Les Claypool, Sting, Phil Lesh, John Entwhistle, Roger Glover, and Geddy Lee. I'm not trying to knock those guys. There's nothing wrong with any of 'em and they're all good at what they do. But the ten guys listed above; well, that's my list.

Labels: Entertainment, Gov't Mule, Metallica, Music, You Tube

Writer and director David Mamet has done some brilliant work over the years. He's the playwrite/screenwriter behind one of my favorite films, 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross. Even some of his lesser efforts, such as Spartan (from 2004) haven't been bad films. Now he's written something ... an essay for the Village Voice ... that might be his best work yet!

What follows are a few favorite selections from Mamet's essay, entitled Why I Am No Longer A Brain-Dead Liberal:

Here, Mamet writes about an instance when he became aware that he'd left liberalism behind as he and his wife listened to NPR in their car:

" I felt my facial muscles tightening, and the words beginning to form in my mind: Shut the fuck up. "?" she prompted. And her terse, elegant summation, as always, awakened me to a deeper truth: I had been listening to NPR and reading various organs of national opinion for years, wonder and rage contending for pride of place. Further: I found I had been — rather charmingly, I thought — referring to myself for years as "a brain-dead liberal," and to NPR as "National Palestinian Radio."

On abandoning the principle liberal conceit:

I'd observed that lust, greed, envy, sloth, and their pals are giving the world a good run for its money, but that nonetheless, people in general seem to get from day to day; and that we in the United States get from day to day under rather wonderful and privileged circumstances—that we are not and never have been the villains that some of the world and some of our citizens make us out to be, but that we are a confection of normal (greedy, lustful, duplicitous, corrupt, inspired—in short, human) individuals living under a spectacularly effective compact called the Constitution, and lucky to get it.

I think my favorite passage in the whole essay is when Mamet mentions some of the writers who've influenced his thinking as of late ... and he calls Thomas Sowell "our greatest contemporary philosopher." YES! As a blogger who's refered to Sowell as "the smartest commentator on America today" and as "America's greatest living thinker," I literally laughed with delight at that line. Sowell is a genius; his work infinitely readable, enjoyable and enlightening. If more people read him we'd have far fewer "brain dead liberals" in the world today.

PS - I've always assumed that Mamet had a bit of a conservative streak, given his participation in the writing of Wag The Dog, easily the sharpest piece of satire to lampoon the Clinton administration that I've ever seen:

Hoffman: This President will be a hero. He brought peace.

De Niro: But there hasn't been a war!

Hoffman: All the greater accomplishment.

Labels: Entertainment, Politics

Synopsis

A bad storm brings a super-spooky mist across the lake. The residents of Anytown, USA end up trapped in a grocery store as unspeakable, huge monsters come out of the mist, looking for people to eat.

Pros:

• Thomas Jane and Andre Braugher are both decent in roles that don't ask much of them.


• Cool mutant spider thing.

Cons:

• Corny, cliched characters.


• Predictable plot developments.


• Bad ending.

Generally:

two on a five scale. Just watch Shawshank again.

Extended Review:

The Mist is the kind of loose, undemanding b-movie that allows your mind plenty of time to wander while you're watching it. My mind wandered, and I ended up asking myself questions like, for instance, why is it that when a guy catches on fire in a movie, he'll always run around, flailing his arms, setting other things on fire as he goes? Doesn't anybody stop, drop and roll like they taught us in school?

And why is it that when nefarious government scientists open a portal to another world, it's always a far worse world than ours? Why can't our world be the worse one for a change? Why can't the other world be a lovely, blissful Eden full of beautiful creatures that come into our world and teach us how to cure cancer, play piano and make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich?

I even had time to wonder about the physics that allow an insect to walk on a glass window. How would that process be effected if the insect were twenty-five pounds or so? Would the sheet of glass have to be extraordinarily thick for it to work?

I read the short Stephen King novel that The Mist is based on some twenty years ago, and I remember enjoying it. I remember thinking that it was like a comic book without graphic art. It wasn't "literature," it was bubblegum for the brain, and pretty good bubblegum at that. The movie isn't nearly as good as the source material, and that's a shame since it comes with a pretty good pedigree.

This film stars Thomas Jane and Andre Braugher, actors who've done work I've enjoyed in the past. Then there's Marcia Gay Harden, who's been nominated for two Oscars and won one of them. Frank Darabont scripted and directed The Mist, and he's done great work bringing Stephen King to the screen in the past. The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are both wonderful films and each of them rises above the sum of it's parts. Unfortunately, this time out, the movie gets bogged down by it's own lesser elements.

Sometimes b-grade sci-fi can transcend the genre and end up fun and thoughtful. This isn't one of those instances. The Mist is stocked full of standard b-movie devices; characters that are clichés, predictable plot elements and special effects that don't quite deliver the chills they aim for. The actors all perform as well as the script will allow and the direction is fine, it's just that this movie never quite got going and ended up taking two hours to not go much of anywhere.

A bit more about those cliched characters: I was really surprised to realize that Marcia Gay Harden was in this movie. Doesn't she usually do headier stuff, movies designed to provoke critics into using words like "lyrical" and "atmospheric?" Yeah, she does. So how'd she end up in a sci-fi b-movie? Well, turns out that her character is one of those cartoon Christians. The kind that Hollywood loves to shove down our throat as examples of what they think all Christians are. As though everyone who doesn't embrace abortion on demand is a Westboro Baptist congregant. By the time the movie was over I'd become convinced that Harden took the part so she could get paid to show her contempt for religion in general.

You know, now that I think about it, King might have some kind of fixation on religious women. Carrie's mom was a self-righteous nutball, too. So was the mother of Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone. Maybe King had one hell of a mean Sunday School teacher when he was a kid.

The worst thing about The Mist, though, is it's ending. King's original story had a real humdinger of an ending, sorta like the end of The Birds, but to the tenth power, scale-wise. This version of the story, however, continues past the point where King ended his version. Now we're handed an ending that's supposed to be ironic and powerful but simply comes off like a vulgar joke. I call BS on that.

No, The Mist isn't a terrible film, and Jane and Braugher were both fine in their roles. Some of the special effects were OK, although most fell flat, and I did have a couple of genuine jumps during scarier scenes. But ultimately this mist evaporated, leaving nothing behind but a disappointing residue.

Trailer:

Labels: Entertainment, Movie Reviews, Movies

I've just watched The Last King Of Scotland and thought it was very good. My intentions when I logged on were to write a review of the film, but first I decided to read about Amin a bit and I ended up finding a short documentary on YouTube that captivating me.

So, in short, I won't be reviewing The Last King Of Scotland just now, other than to say that the movie was a bit too long and I found some of the violence to be very hard to watch, but I felt that Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy both gave performances that were strong and compelling. I suppose I'd give the movie three and a half out of four possible stars and recommend it to film-buffs, modern-history-buffs and Forest Whitaker fans ... with that qualifier that, yes, it is a bit long and, yes, it has some disturbing violence.

Anyway, the three YouTube clips that make up the short documentary that I enjoyed:

On a personal note: I'm a huge fan of imported gourmet coffee. Kenyan coffee, for instance, is a favorite of mine. I enjoy Tanzanian Peabery, too. During the documentary, when the narrative mentioned Amin's control of the Ugandan coffee trade, I thought about my taste in coffee and the imported beans I buy. By buying the coffee, am I doing more good than bad or more bad than good? I can't help but wonder about the role my purchases play in African economies and lives. I looked around on the net and read a bit more specifically about that topic, but you know how it is. Every bit of information you find is spun one way or another by someone with an agenda.

Typically, the word "boycott" never crosses my lips. I think boycotts are silly. I will occasionally make an effort, though, to avoid certain purchases for moral reasons. I've become aware, for instance, of the role that gum arabic plays in the stability of a murderous regime in Darfur. (Read this) No, I'm not suggesting a boycott. But I will admit that I've lost my taste for Coca Cola lately.

Of course, gum arabic is in everything for soft drinks to shoes ... sigh. It's complicated.

So, anyway, what I'm saying is that I really hope I don't stumble across a reason to stop drinking my African coffee!

Labels: Entertainment, Media, Movies, News, Politics, You Tube

• What's Up With Hillary Clinton's apology extravaganza?
  
  Hillary Clinton isn't known for apologizing for anything ... so I suppose that her current whirlwind apology tour is a sign of just how desperate she is to hold on to whatever chance she might have of being the Democratic Party's nominee in November. Hilary has apologized for remarks made by Geraldine Ferraro and then apologized for remarks her husband made in South Carolina. She'd do well to apologize for her husband's hideously irresponsible eight years in the White House, but I don't see that happening.
  
  Look, I'm no fan of Hillary Clinton. I've made that clear. But the more I learn about Barack Obama, the more I realize that I was foolish to think of him as a slightly better choice than Hillary. I guess here's where I stand on the two of them now: We're going to have to deal with Obama as a presidential contender at some point. There's no getting around it. The guy has a huge fanbase among the many, many people who don't really understand anything, and it's probably enough to get him elected. So I hope he goes ahead and gets the nomination and effectively ends the Clinton-era of national politics forever. I hope he doesn't win the Presidency, but I really think he's going to be President eventually, so maybe the sooner we get his term in office over with, the better.



• What's up with the upcoming Metallica album?
  
  The band has been pushing the release of this album further and further back, and now it's tentatively scheduled for release in September. Metallica doesn't have a title for the album yet. I call it Chinese Democracy 2 because I'm starting to doubt that it actually exists. And I'm kinda dreading it's release. I can't wait to hear it, I'll get it the day it comes out, and I'm sure I'll be totally disappointed in it for one reason or another. I've said before that for the past few years I've come to feel like Metallica's battered wife. They mistreat me, they never live up to their promises, but I stick with them because they used to be soooooo good to me! If you could only see what they're like when nobody else is around! Really, they're not who you think they are. Besides, we've been in therapy.



• What's up with Eliot Spitzer's call-girl?
  
  Hey, not for nothing, but the girl really isn't all that hot. And I wouldn't make mention of it, except that in her role as a call-girl I'd say that her looks were entirely relevant. It's not that she was ugly, it's just that she kinda reminds me of a poor man's Daisy Fuentes. And that can't have been worth it. If I'm the Governor of New York and I'm gonna risk losing everything and spend ... what was it? $5,000? On one night with a call-girl? Come on. She's gonna look a whole hell of a lot like Rhianna or Katharine McPhee and not a little bit like some washed-up former VJ from the '80's. (Preferably Rhianna ... 'cause ... damn.) This is gonna have to be a memory that'll last a life-time for my five-large. You know what I'm sayin'?



• What's up with the fruity-looking new five-dollar bill?
  
  OK, call me old-fashioned. Call me a troglodyte. (Please ... I like being called names.) Call me a curmudgeon .... but I like my five-dollar bills the way they were when I was a kid. Ugly. Green and wrinkled and marked with that simple, thumb-sized picture of Abe Lincoln's ugly mug.
  
  Ever since the government started messing with the money ten or twelve years ago I've had this vague feeling that we're all walking around with wallets full of pretend currency. And the newest version of the five dollar bill is the worst offender yet. It has purple on it. PURPLE! What is that all about? Can we please go back to real money and come up with a better way to discourage counterfeiting? Like maybe the weekly televised beating of counterfeiters. I personally would volunteer to beat a counterfeiter with a rake for ten minutes every week. Or maybe we just catch them and force them to wear purple.
  
  You know, if we all did our parts, we could probably get the government to go back to printing real money. Call or write to your congressman now and say "Yes! I'll beat a counterfeiter with a rake!" Tell them Darrell at SouthCon sent you.



• What's up with Edward Norton and Marvel?
  
  The promotion of ... and possibly the release of ... the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie is being pushed back because of Edward Norton feuding with Marvel over the final cut of the movie. Partly, I blame Marvel. Norton has had a reputation as a real S.O.B. for years ... and as the old Indian story goes, they knew he was a snake when they picked him up. (I'm assuming that Somebody at Marvel had final approval of the cast.) Either way, Norton is a brilliant actor when he gets it right, but Keeping The Faith indicated that, behind the camera, he ain't no Stanley Kubrick. My two cents: Norton needs to shut up and back out. He's done his job, now let those who handle the movie from here do their jobs.



• What's up with black political figures throwing the n-word around?
  
  Two recent instances, one right after the other, really jarred me. One instance involved Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who's being investigated for corruption and lying under oath. Now, to fend off the charges against him, Mayor Kilpatrick has dropped the N-Bomb and started talking about lynch mobs:
  

  
  Woah! Hey, hold on there a minute, pal! Who's been launching racist attacks on your family? Should't those people be prosecuted for making threats and/or for harassment? And what's that got to do with the charges against you, Mayor Kilpatrick?
  
  And then, right on the heels of that, there's this from Barack Obama's minister:
  

  Hey, wait, woah, WHAT?
  
  If I started listing things that are wrong with that I'd have to write for another three hours. And that's only the beginning of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's recent wacky remarks. And, make no mistake, this guy is an official member of Obama's campaign.
  
  Let me specifically mention the use of the n-word by these guys. Can we just stop with that? Please? For ages and ages that word was used by arrogant, ignorant white people as a way to keep black people down. Now we're having instances of certain black guys throwing that word up as a way to shut up scaredy-cat whites, to avoid the real issues, and to cancel all debate. What good does that do? Who benefits from that? Can we please grow the f*&# up, maybe? It's 2008, fer Pete's sake. When white-on-black racism is the actual topic, let's deal with it. But let's not use it as a way to avoid dealing with anything else. Not for nothin', but too many good, honest black people have really been victimized by racists for their struggles to be trivialized as a political bargaining chip.




• What's up with Spitball Politics?
  
  Well, I'll tell ya what's up with it. Spitball Politics is a new political blog that features the writing of (among others) Scott, the Spiritual Tramp in my blogroll. Stop by, check 'em out, leave a comment or two.

Labels: Entertainment, Media, Metallica, Movies, Music, News, Politics, Trivial Matters, You Tube

Hat tip to Brooke, who linked to one of the videos below in a comment at Cube's blog.

Penn and Teller's Bullshit! is a darn good show. I don't always agree with the perspectives that Penn and Teller share on their program, but they always make their points extremely well and usually come up with rock-solid arguments.

Here's an instance where I do agree with them. Conspiracy theories are total bullshit. There are no alien corpses in Roswell ... The moon landing was not faked ... JFK was not assassinated by a cabal of Cubans, FBI agents and military-industrial-complex goons ... and, most importantly, 9/11 was NOT a government conspiracy. And (I do not make this statement lightly) if you disagree with any of that, then you are probably a f*&^%g moron.

The three YouTube videos below comprise the entire episode of Bullshit! that was dedicated to shooting down conspiracy theories. Especially the 9/11 troofers. The language is often harsh, but in this instance, I think that's appropriate.

Penn sums it all up pretty succinctly: The same government that couldn't successfully cover up a break-in in a DC hotel could NEVER manage to cover up any of the crazy crap that the conspiracy theorists believe.

Watch. Learn. Think. Remember. Don't be a f*@$%g moron.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

And hey, for what it's worth, here's what I think: People don't believe in God anymore. They just don't. Something like ... what, 80% of Americans ... claim to be Christian? The claim is nominal. People don't got to Church, don't pray, and really don't think much about God. But we're still hardwired to believe in something bigger than us. So people believe in an all-knowing, all-seeing, omnipresent government that really controls everything. Sure, these conspiracy theories seem silly to most of us, but it's a lot easier to swallow than the notion of a loving God. Right?

Labels: Entertainment, Media, News, Politics, You Tube

Nine Inch Nails has finished a new album, an all-instrumental effort called Ghosts: I-IV, and the band is giving some of the music away for free over the internet.

You can download the first quarter of the album for free at the NIN homepage, and if you like it, you can buy the whole thing for just five bucks.

According to Trent Reznor, the musician who basically is Nine Inch Nails, this album is a direct result of his having finished his last recording contract. From Billboard.com:

"I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point," says Reznor, who collaborated on the music with Alan Moulder, Atticus Ross, Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. "This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective -- dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I'm very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference."

Demand for the free/cheap music has been tremendous, causing the NIN webservers to crawl to a halt as fans download the project. Reznor says he's trying to get more servers up to meet the demand ... meanwhile, if you check around, you'll find other places to download the free content.
I'm downloading the free tracks now and look forward to giving them a listen.

In my opinion, Reznor has done some brilliant work in the past. The NIN album The Fragile is easily the creative high-watermark of the industrial rock era. Almost ten years later, The Fragile holds up as a highly entertaining and compelling listening experience. However, more recent NIN efforts have been fair to lackluster, with last year's Year Zero ultimately turning out to be a real disappointment.

I'm glad to have a chance to hear a sizable chunk of NIN's new material before I commit a dime of my own money to it.

Labels: Entertainment, Music, News

I intended to do an Oscars post today, even though I'm generally ambivalent about that whole dog-and-pony show. I thought I'd write something this year, though, because I actually saw a number of the nominated films this year ... and because I thought that the big Oscar-sweeping movie this year really was the best movie I saw in 2007.

But it ain't gonna happen (the post I'd planned) and I'll tell you why:

For one thing, I decided for some reason or another to sit here tonight at the computer and listen to Bruce Springsteen ... and it seems that the Springsteen songs that I enjoy most (like this one and this one, by far my two favorites) all come off like suicide notes if you actually pay attention to the lyrics ... which I don't recommend because it'll really throw a wet blanket on your good friggin' mood.

And for another thing, we bit the bullet and got a new computer and it runs Windows Vista, which is clearly an operating system that was created by crack-addicted, satan-worshiping monkeys. Rather than write a whole blog post about how much I hate Vista, I'll just cut and paste from the haphazard e-mail I sent to the Governor and Jamie earlier today:

I just want to say, totally off topic, that WINDOWS VISTA SUCKS. That calls for all caps, too. We got a new PC yesterday and I've spent the past twenty four hours trying to use Windows Vista and it is the worst OS I've ever used. Windows ME was better. This damn thing locks up every couple of minutes. This compuer came with three gigs of memory and it's like I'm trying to run Doom 3 on an old 32 mghz system. Plus, for some damn reason, It will only allow file names that are fewer than a certain number of characters. This TOTALLY f--ks up my MP3 file naming system. I really despise Vista after one day of use and I'm thinking about going to get a copy of XP and installing it on this thing. This PC has three gighz of memory and a 320 gig hard drive, it would absolutely HUM with XP. Vista seems to be far more trouble than all it's pretty little bells and whistles are worth.

Thank you, Bruce and Bill Gates, for screwing up my evening. Clearly I'm the victim of some sort of Redmond-via-Asbury Park conspiracy.

So I guess what I'm trying to say, as I do this time every year, is screw the Oscars.

Labels: Entertainment, Microsoft, Music, News, Personal

Clear Thinking About Obama

• I started saying that Hillary's PotUS campaign was coming apart back in July, 2005. As of now that's pretty much the consensus. Everybody has abandoned the Clintons. The Kennedy clan. The unions. The left-wing celebrities. The Democratic Party rank and file. They've all dropped Hillary like yesterday's leftovers and made the Obama switch.
  
  I've generally been happy with this since I despise the Clintons and I've thought for some time now that Obama seemed like a decent guy. But since it's become clear that he really is going to get the nomination, I've decided that I better take some time and learn a little more about him.
  
  Here's some of what I've learned:
  
  
  • When a baby actually survives a late term abortion and ends up alive and crying in the operating room, Obama wants the baby to be murdered. As a legislator he's cast three votes to have physicians kill children who survive abortion.
    
    Even Barbara Boxer thinks that goes too far.
    
    It's no wonder that Planned Parenthood loves the guy.
  
  
  
  • His image as a moderate who's tough on crime is … well, a crock:
    

    He voted against a bill that would add penalties for crimes committed as a part of gang activity and against a bill that would make it a criminal offense for accused gang members, free on bond or probation, to associate with other gang members. In 1999, he was the only state senator to oppose a bill that prohibited early prison release for criminal sexual offenders.

  
  
  • Obama has become the darling of the anti-war crowd by reminding us over and over again that he opposed the war in Iraq from the very start. But his opposition to the war wasn't because he saw things more clearly than the Bush administration. This is a passage from his book The Audacity Of Hope:
    

    "Like most analysts, I assumed that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons and coveted nuclear arms," Obama wrote. "I believed that he had repeatedly flouted UN resolutions and weapons inspectors and that such behavior had to have consequences. That Saddam butchered his own people was undisputed; I had no doubt that the world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him."

    
    Before the war, Obama believed the same things about Saddam as everyone else, and yet he still opposed taking action. What the hell would it take for this guy to be willing to take military action against someone? I think he'd actually be a more limp-wristed leader than Bill Clinton was.
    
    Is this the guy you want in office if Iraq and/or Pakistan fall to al Qaeda?
  
  
  Some of the rumors going around on the net about Obama are simply untrue:
  

  
  Thankfully, his voting record as a legislator is easy to verify. And the more I learn about him, the more I find out what his principles really are, the more I realize I've been naïve to simply see him as a nice guy. This is a man who stands for a great many things I disagree with adamantly.
  
  Even his most loyal supporters sometimes have to admit that they don't really know what kind of man he is.
  
  I guess I better start getting more energized about McCain.

In Other News

• My friend The Governor hails from Wichita, Kansas. So he keeps me up to date on all the news in that part of the country. The Governor was the first person who ever mentioned BTK to me, and today he filled me in on the latest big story from the Air Capital Of The World:
  

  WICHITA, Kansas, Feb. 20, 2008 -- Wichita police say they’re working a case they don't often see: a man accused of having sex with a dog. And it’s not the first time the man’s been in this type of trouble.
  
  Twenty-year-old Joshua Coman is now in jail accused of having sex with a Rottweiler.
  
  “We don't see any cases like this,” said Lt. Sam Hanley with the Wichita Police Department. “I’d never seen any cases like this and I hope we don't see any more.”
  
  Justen Tracy says Coman lived with his family for a short time.
  
  Tracy says Coman called Wednesday night to say he was coming over to kidnap the dog. Shortly after that, the family caught him in the garage.
  
  "He's doing foul things with the dog and my mom flips on the garage light and he stops,” said Tracy.
  
  Coman was already on probation for similar charges in Reno County. Last September he pleaded no contest in a case involving a Rottweiler in Pretty Prairie.

  
  
  The first thing I thought while reading that story was "He did WHAT to a dog?" Then I read further and found myself thinking "It was a friggin' ROTTWEILER?"
  
  Like somehow that makes it worse. Like, sure, I can see sodomizing a Poodle or a Shar Pei, but not a Rottweiler, man.
  
  Then I read that he'd been in trouble with another Rottie before and I thought "This guy is really specific about what he's doing."
  
  And then I realized how much time I was spending thinking about this and I got a cold chill and felt nauseous.



• Earl Simmons goes by the nom-de-hip-hop DMX, and he's well known for being a pet lover and responsible citizen. Now comes news that he's working on a gospel record:
  
  

  Swizz Beatz recently revealed that DMX has linked up with Neptunes producer Pharrell to work on the gospel portion of his upcoming album.
  
  As reported earlier, DMX's upcoming album will be a double CD titled Walk With Me Now and You'll Fly With Me Later.
  
  Walk With Me Now will be his typical street themed album while Fly With Me Later will be a gospel album with no cursing.
  
  Swizz, who made the revelation to MTV News, will also be a part of X’s double project.

  
  
  Personally, I can't wait to hear DMX soliciting for Jesus. I've thought that he'd make a great gospel vocalist ever since I heard his song X Is Coming, in which he intimates the following:
  
  

  If you got a daughter older then 15, ima rape her
  Take her on the living room floor, right there in front of you
  Then ask you seriously, whatchu wanna do?
  Frustratin, isnt it? when they kill me, but ima kill you
  Now watch me f--k just a lil while longer, please, will you?

  
  
  Earl Simmons …. this generation's Mahalia Jackson.

Labels: Entertainment, Links, Media, News, Obama Watch, Politics, You Tube