Life
Dick Tracy (1990) a Flop?
Jun 22nd
Slate.com has a story on the disappointment that was DICK TRACY (1990).
I remember being so psyched to see this when I was a kid. I was living in Florida at the time…I made friends with this younger kid in the neighborhood (I was 11, I guess he was probably 8?) who was excited to see it too. But he was too hyperactive. Annoying even. My mom and I were set to go, and he showed up at the last second wanting to go too.
I remember having my Dick Tracy watch and my Dick Tracy hat and my Dick Tracy shirt on before leaving. I had all the McDonald’s collectors cups and I saved all the scratch off game pieces with the characters and a scene from the story. (I still have those in storage somewhere).
Disappointing film, no doubt, but it was an exciting time as an 11 year old who was obsessed with all things Dick Tracy.
I came home that night and played Roger Rabbit on Nintendo into the early morning hours. Good times.
BBC Life DVD In Stores Today (Tuesday June 1)
Jun 1st
BBC’s new epic nature series, LIFE, is available today (June 1) on DVD. It follows after the wildly successful series, PLANET EARTH. It’s 11 episodes of wonder, plants, animals, and much more…all about life on the planet. I have a copy and have been watching parts of it (it’s VERY long, over 11 hours!), and it’s fantastic. The photography and epic nature of the thousands of hours of footage is mind boggling. They apparently shot the series over a period of 3, 000 days.
Check out some of the photos below that go along with the series…
click pic for full-sized graphic
Order your copy today, you will not regret it.
click pic for full-sized graphic
The Infidel (Movie Review- Tribeca Film Festival 2010)
May 27th
Just finished THE INFIDEL, one of the selections from the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. FANTASTIC movie. Hilarious, sweet, touching, well acted, all of the above and more.
Omid Djalili plays the liberal-minded British muslim, Mahmud. He drinks every now and then, he swears, he doesn’t go to the mosque very often, he seems to be pretty laid back on the subject of religion. From the opening scene of Mahmud watching his favorite singer, 80′s glam rocker, Gary Page (a spoof on the metrosexual 80′s rock stars), it’s clear that this is going to be hilarious. Mahmud’s young daughter walks around the house spouting what sounds like terrorist rhetoric (it’s cute when the kids do it), and his wife seems to have the same laid back attitude about islam. Their son seems to be a bit more into the whole religion thing, if only to marry his sweetheart, whose mother has just married a muslim extremist and whose blessing they need to get married.
Mahmud’s mother has just died, and while going thru her house to pack things up, he sees adoption papers with his name on them. Through a very funny argument with a records clerk played by Miranda Hart (Not Going Out, Miranda), he discovers he was actually born jewish- adopted by muslim parents. He soon learns who his birth father is (by wrestling away the records from Miranda Hart, whose character is in a wheelchair), and is on his way to see him. Turns out, he’s on his deathbed and papa’s rabbi demands he be more jewish before he can see him. This leads to a very funny series of events where Mahmud befriends a jewish cab driver played by Richard Schiff, a rather non-committed jew in some aspects, though very religious in other ways. He tries to teach him the basics, from the dancing to the proper way to say “oy.” The two men become close friends, leading up to Mahmud attending a bat mitzvah where he’s forced to tell an old fashioned comical jewish story. All the while, he’s dreading the arrival of his son’s girlfriend’s new stepfather (the possible terrorist supporting cleric.)
I’ll leave the plot there, needless to say we get most funny for the first 3/4 of the film, some touching moments mixed in, and at the end it gets a bit serious with the film’s message that, well- we are who we are. We’re not all perfect religiously, we’re not all perfect people in general even, but we should embrace the various aspects of ourselves and do the best we can with it.
Great acting here by everyone. Djalili is hilarious as usual. He’s genius just standing in the shower scrubbing himself and yelling “jew, jew, jew,” as if he can clean the jew off him somehow. Schiff is nice here, also playing the funny man but doing his best to let Djalili shine throughout. And he does.
There’s a scene in the mosque, Mahmud is going to tell the imam that he’s jewish, but instead the imam presumes he’s going to tell him that he’s gay. No problem, the imam says…the koran is VERY strict on this subject, but islam is about interpretation no? The koran says the punishment for this is for brimstone to rain down from the sky, but I believe that brimstone has already rained down inside of you. And that should be good enough for allah, right? That’s satire at its best, my friends.
Very nice directing here, and the look of the film is fantastic. There’s a scene after things have gone a bit downhill for Mahmud, where he’s walking through the stalls from vendors that have been taken down, a piece of cloth is whipping in the wind as the vendor pulls it down for the day, it’s as well done visually as any scene from any number of epic films in history.
The music is brilliant throughout the film, the couple of songs from fictional rocker Gary Page are actually really catchy…I’ll admit it, I found myself trying to find these songs online. There’s some great stuff in the score that punctuates the little acts of jewishness, and those pieces scream “jew!” all over the place…the clarinet and all, it’s wonderful.
Highly recommend the film. It was a hilarious adventure they may have needed to be edited down a bit, but the pacing is nice, Djalili is perfect, you get some touchy feely stuff, you get comedy, you leave the film feeling great about life in general, 9/10 all the way. Maybe even 9.5.
You can watch The Infidel and many (all?) of the 2010 Tribeca film festival movies online or OnDemand.
http://www.tribecafilm.com/
Jon Stewart’s Absurd Comparison of a Public Healthcare Plan with the US Military Healthcare
Jul 27th
Jon Stewart interviews Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard tonight…he asks Kristol if the American people deserve the same healthcare as the US military. Kristol, since he has common sense, says, “no. No, the general public should not receive the same healthcare the military does.” We give them top notch healthcare because of their service to our country. Stewart, and his zombie audience with him, “ooooohhhhh” over this comment.
Kristol, in the process, says that the military healthcare is run by the government, and that it’s top notch. Stewart then argues that Kristol admitted the federal government could run public healthcare and do a great job at it.
Seriously, Jon?
Let’s take a look at the stats. Wikipedia shows 3 million active members of the US military. Let’s assume that half of them get healthcare and use it. That figure is probably much higher than the actual number who use the government healthcare. So, 1.5 million people use a public healthcare plan that the federal government runs. Thus, that’s proof that ALL Americans deserve the same deal for doing nothing for the country, and on top of that the government could run this program for ALL Americans expertly.
The current US population according to the US Census Bureau is 305 million people. So, Stewart is trying to argue that because there exists a system that covers, at most, 3 million military men and women, and more likely less than half of that, the federal government could easily and efficiently run a system to cover 305 million people. On top of the raw numbers, think about it- military men and women are, generally, in great shape. The public, at large, is fairly out of shape for the most part. The general public would cost, we can assume, twice as much at least and probably much more than that.
What’s worse than this absurd comparison is the socialist-sounding demand that we cover ALL Americans with the same care that military men and women receive. Why would this argument ever make sense? Do Americans, just for being born in this country, deserve free healthcare that is, in no way, truly free? Taxes will go up across the board. The current plan touted by Obama will raise the budget deficits to levels never seen in our nation’s history according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Kristol didn’t defend his comment well, but Stewart made little, if any sense, to begin with. Comparing a system for the military with the general public is laughable, and the demand that we give to all Americans the same service we give to military officers who risk their lives is just plain dumb.
Stewart would fit in well with the Obama administration. I wonder when he’ll leave his place as a “newsman” and join the Obama team? His analogies make about as much sense as Obama’s own plans.
ADDENDUM: The system clearly covers retired members of the armed forces, so the total number would be over the 3 million currently active or reserve, but we’re talking different systems here. The VA would cover those retired members, and there have been some fairly large complaints about the VA system, so I don’t consider that in Kristol’s talk of wonderful care received.
911/Dispatch Calls Released Shows No Race Mention in Prof Gates Arrest
Jul 27th
As suspected by any rational, sane human- the woman who called 911 to report, what looked to be a possible burglary at the home of Professor Henry Louis Gates, never mentioned anything about the two men barging in being “black.” She did mention, when asked about the men, that one MAY have looked hispanic, but that’s all. There’s not a shred of evidence to think race played any role in sending police to investigate.
Listen to the 911 call here:
Also released was the police dispatch conversation. You can clearly hear race is never mentioned in the conversations between police and dispatchers, and that the officer on scene mentioned that the man who owns the house (Gates) was “not cooperative.”
Listen to that audio here:
It was obvious from the start that Gates, a man who has made his career obsessing over race, was never a target of any racial profiling, and there was never a shred of evidence to suggest racism on part of any of the officers involved, dispatch, or anyone else BESIDES Professor Gates himself.
Police investigated a possible crime that was called in through 911, they ran into instant resistance from a man filled with anger at whites, and they told him to calm down. When he refused to calm down (all officers involved, including a black officer himself) back the account that Gates was ballistic and refused to calm himself), they arrested him, took him down, booked him, and let him go. Charges were dropped, and that should have been it. Gates, however, like other race hustlers (Jackson and Sharpton, and even Obama’s own spiritual mentor, Rev Jeremiah Wright), turned it instantly into a racial issue, and the president stupidly followed suit by attacking police.
This story is finished, Gates needs to publicly apologize. If he refuses, he needs to immediately resign his post at Harvard University. President Obama needs to finally make a public apology to Officer Crowley and the entire Cambridge Police Department. He needs to admit he acted stupidly and move on. He also needs to stop pushing his way into issues of race altogether, as his own past sins of being a part of a virulently anti-white church for 20 years renders him ineligible to even speak to the subject.
Newsweek’s Evan Thomas: Obama is Just Like God
Jun 6th
Creepy. The Obama cult members sure would love this one.
Does Chris Matthews realize that he’s officially a joke of extreme magnitude? I bet he got a massive thrill up his leg when Thomas compared him to God!
My Favorite Dave Matthews Band Songs (Through the Years)
Jun 6th
I was listening to the new Dave Matthews Band CD- Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. Not loving it really. It’s okay, but there aren’t any really catchy tunes. Which is really what I’m all about with DMB. Been a fan since high school.
Picked up Under The Table and Dreaming and listened to it a million times on my CD player on bus trips to marching band contests. Ants Marching is my favorite from that album, and it’s probably my favorite Dave Matthews Band song overall. I remember the first time I saw the video- I remember being a sophomore in high school, I got up early for once, my mom was getting ready for work, and the video came on MTV. I was feeling good all day thanks to that wake up. It’s catchy, it’s really light and whimsical, and it’s just plain fun.
What Would You Say? (also a very fun video) from the same CD was their big radio hit, and I like it a lot. The Best of What’s Around is fun and catchy, but nowhere near as fun to listen to as #34 which is nothing but an all instrumental track and is dominated by what I assume is Leroi Moore on saxophone. It’s fairly slow, and slow is what I never liked about the band, but this one works being mostly sax and not the slow folksy guitar stuff Dave does. On the actual CD, it is an odd addition- it’s actually on track 34…so I didn’t realize it even existed my first few listens. Not until I left the CD player go through tracks 11-33.
Remember Two Things has a slow live version of Ants Marching. It’s an extended cut, which is nice, but it’s way too slow to enjoy too much. The snappy and quick Beauford backbeat just isn’t there at this slow speed. The CD also has a live cut of Tripping Billies, which was anoither favorite.
Their five track CD, Recently, has the interesting song Recently on it. I could do without the rest of it.
Their next album, Crash (after Dreaming), has the great tracks (and radio hits), Too Much and Tripping Billies…as well as the funky So Much to Say. I remember first seeing the video for Too Much on MTV at Ethan Jones’ house and loving it. Had to record it the very next time it came on. #41 starts out with instrumentals, but Dave’s smooth vocals join the party pretty quickly. It’s a nice track, but it can’t even touch Too Much and Tripping Billies- the latter track is infused with latin sounding percussion, bluegrass-laden fiddle, and the soulful Moore sax. Beauford’s drumming is filled with lots of staccato crash cymbals and snappy hi-hat. This is one of the songs I could get into with just the percussion track by itself. Crach Into Me was a big radio hit, but it was too slow for me. The video had some original visuals, but outside of that, I’m sort of just, ‘eh.’
I have the Live at Red Rocks 2 disc set, and it’s okay, but the tempo and tone of some of the live tracks just differ too greatly from the studio versions I came to love so much. I do love the very funky #36 from this one (mainly Carter’s intro solo, not so much the almost drunk-sounding vocals from Matthews), and Ants Marching here is good. The tempo is actually a bit faster than the studio version, and it’s very full with Tinsley’s violin and Moore’s sax in the beginning. Carter gets extra time on the drums as the song seems to almost start over when Matthews thanks the crowd for coming out.
Before These Crowded Streets was their next album, and the intro Panatala Naga Pampa (41 seconds long) alsways sounded tropical/african-inspired to me. Rapunzel is light and quick, but the best track on the CD is Stay (Wasting Time). The intro guitar, the bass backing, and the lyics here are all just happy and laid back.
Listener Supported, another live album had a nice version of Too Much (what I’d call the ‘funk’ version). Most of the rest of it is just average- Dave’s live vocals are just too weird for me most of the time. His pitch, his inflection, and his odd pronunciations sound mostly like drunk nonsense. On most of the tracks, if you even make out half the words, you’re already doing much better than me.
At this point in the band’s history, I pretty much checked out. They had no really memorable tracks after this, seemed to do nothing but live CDs every other year or so, Dave went solo and got all dark. The band did a nice live version of the aforementioned instrumental track #34 on their CD Weekend On the Rocks.
What Would You Say (one of my favorite DMB songs) made it on their live CD Live At Piedmont Park. It’s decent, but it’s nothing to get too excited about. The vocals aren’t all that great, and there are too many muddled instruments in the background (some weird guitar riffs that sounds almost Woodstock-esque to me.)
Onto another live CD (or 4 or 5 or 20), and we’re back to Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. Maybe I’ll listen to it some more, and I’ll find a song (or a few) that get stuck in my head, but I don’t hold out tons of hope. The last original song that did that to me was from These Crowded Streets, and since then it’s just been a rehash of live versions of the songs I loved from before, but none pulled off anywhere near as well as the originals.
So, 16 years worth of CDs, a bunch of cherished songs both in the studio and in various live performances. Not too shabby overall. Even if I don’t find another new catchy Dave Matthews Band song, I’ve got a whole cache to play with already. I think I’m okay with that.
Pres Obama Does Women in muslim World Disservice with Speech
Jun 4th
Obama and other liberal “progressives” (anything goes morality is “progressive” apparently) made a fool of himself today in Cairo with his sometimes ridiculous and sometimes downright offensive speech there. Here is a section I take umbrage with:
“The U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”
Yes, we know that women in islam are second class citizens. The koran itself states that women are lesser than men. Thank goodness they have the “right” to be second class and allow men to dominate them like this.
“I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous.”
Huh? Why is it okay to support some arbitrary misogynist rule to cover your head and face because it’s a religious idea, but it’s not okay to support the religious idea of denying women education? Why is one somehow okay but not the other? This is the why liberals are nancies. They refuse to take a firm ideological stand on anything…for fear of not having every single person and every single thing be “equal,” no matter how little right something has of ever being “equal” to logical and reasonable traditions.
“Now let me be clear: issues of women’s equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, we have seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead. Meanwhile, the struggle for women’s equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world.”
Does it? Women in the US ARE equal. You just finished a campaign that included a woman in the number 2 spot of the dem nomination! Enough of this bullshit that women are still fighting for equality in the US, it’s just not true, and to compare the US to muslim-majority nations where women are raped, beaten, and stoned to death for merely not having a penis, is absurd and offensive.
“Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons, and our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity – men and women – to reach their full potential. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. But it should be their choice. That is why the United States will partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams.”
Pipe dream. There’s no evidence that most muslim-majority nations hold anything but extreme contempt for their mothers and daughters, so let’s stop with the idiotic platitudes about how islam is so great and so wonderful, and by-golly it’s a great place for women to succeed.
Obama and most other progressives are wimps. You’ll never change the horrible situation for most women in the muslim world unless you man up, grow a pair, and start being honest. Not all religions are equal, and not all religious demands are equal. Just as not all nations are equal. Don’t you dare compare this land of freedom to any muslim-dominated nation, Mr. President, and don’t dare try to fool anyone into thinking islam is anything but a big bag of suck for women of all ages. It’s stupid, it’s pointless, and it’s just the pattern of liberal nonsense that never makes any true progress. The rights of women is an issue that needs to see progress in the muslim world. Unfortunately, when you follow a religion started by a mass murdering madman, that progress is sort of hard to come by. Obama would be wise to stand up and say so.
UPDATE: Pundette over at HotAir.com notices the absurd nature of Obama’s comments as well.
Signs of the Endtimes: Why Can’t I get This Jonas Song Out Of My Head?
May 28th
Okay, my journey into 16 year old girl land is taking a bad turn here. Check out the video 9:05 in…there’s a song that they play part of, but apparently all the music for the show (outside of the theme song which was on the 3D experience album) is original to the show. I want this song “keep it real” (I assume that’s the name of it). Guess who’s buying the soundtrack to Jonas when it comes out?
Listen to the snippet of the song, and if you find it utterly horrible and not one bit catchy, I’ll each my shoe. And a hat. And maybe a sock.
Barack Obama Should Have Had the Decency to Reject Notre Dame’s Speech Offer
May 17th
Barack Obama- the one thing people often say about him, seeminly more than anything else, is that he’s a mystery. You never know where he truly stands on many issues. He seems to take the position that stands to gain him more power in his very very short pursuit of the highest office in the land. This is why people from both sides of the aisle sometimes say they like him- it’s so easy to project onto him your own personal views, mainly because he’s seemingly so wishy washy on his own views, and he often refuses to take a firm stance on much of anything.
We do, however, know where Obama stands on abortion. He is radically pro-abortion, despite his insistence that we have fewer of them. In his time in the IL State Senate, we know he voted “present” several times on state bills to help infants born alive after botched abortions. Infanticide is a very radical stance, even among most liberals, but Obama had no problem, again refusing to take a firm stance with a vote. We know that his first couple of acts as president reversed federal rules in place to limit abortions and the use of stem cell lines. Thanks to Obama, your tax money goes to fund abortions overseas now, a rule put into place under George W Bush.
Obama’s radical stance on abortion is why he should have rejected Notre Dame’s offer for him to be their commencement speaker. Notre Dame is arguably the most important Catholic institution in the West. It’s a sacred place for the Catholic Church, and with Obama’s background on abortion, he should have had the decency to politely decline the offer to speak. His address to the students was a slap in the face to Catholics across the nation. Notre Dame’s administration should also be ashamed for its actions in this whole ordeal. Honoring a man whose views contradict basic Catholic teachings with an honorary degree from the nation’s premiere Catholic institution is a disgrace. It shows that some among the university’s administration easily toss basic doctrinal issues aside. One has to wonder what other core beliefs Notre Dame will ignore for political points?
The fact that many of the students chanted, “yes we can” is, in itself, a disgrace to the university as well. Apparently, young people are out to prove the stereotype- to hell with rules, I’ll make them up as I go along. Forget what the Bible teaches, we can ignore the parts we don’t like as long as it makes us feel good. This do-whatever attitude is at the root of our nation’s moral breakdown. Embracing a president whose values completely contradict the very basic values that all life is sacred will, no doubt, lead to the downfall of Notre Dame as a premiere Catholic institution, and as well it should. When even many of the administrators toss aside doctrine on a whim, you know there are serious foundational problems. Obama should have had the decency to thank Notre Dame for its offer and politely said, “no.” Unfortunately, that’s just not the kind of man our new president is.
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