Sep 30, 2010
But this is
Real cool. That Roy Williams/Chris Simms play is one of the greatest in football history, pro or college.
It is v obvious (OU/Texas)
To me that the Longhorns were looking past a, let's face it, not so good UCLA team. And the Sooners, though undefeated, have played just one good game and have not looked v good themselves. Do not get me wrong about winning, though. (I have a game that I play w/ my sweetie every college football Saturday, in which I ask the all-important question, "What ya gotta do on Saturday?" And Renee replies, "Ya gotta win!") And the Sooners had not won a road game in eons, so I'll take the Cincinnati win (but I'm not thrilled w/ the Sooners' performance.)
The OU/Texas series runs in cycles. It has ever since the Sooners got good in the 50s (before then a Sooner victory was nearly always seen as an upset.) We are currently in a UT cycle, they have won four out of the last five. The century started in an OU cycle, incl a five game winning streak, 2000-2004, which was the longest winning streak for either school since the Switzer days when the Sooners also reeled off five straight, 1971-1975. Occasionally, a school will win a game against the run of play, as it were. The best example of this would be the Marcus DuPree show where OU beat a ranked Longhorn team 28-22. It was OUs only win against the 'Horns in a six-year stretch.
Also, considering that the 'Horns generally get the benefit of the doubt re turnover questions, penalties, etc, whatever, I do not see the Sooners winning this game. UT will not turn it over like they did last week, Landry Jones will. The Sooners should have some success running the ball but UT will not be shredded again like they were against the Bruins. UT is ready for this game (so ready they forgot about last week!) and the Sooners are still struggling w/ their identity, and a new defensive co-ordinator, and serious defensive issues, particularly in the secondary, and will Jones become a great OU QB, like Bradford, White, Heupel, yada yada yada, ...
The Sooners certainly can win this game, and they are favored by about a FG right now, but, as much as I hate the Longhorns, UGH! I'm calling it here, now:
UT 31 OU 23.
The OU/Texas series runs in cycles. It has ever since the Sooners got good in the 50s (before then a Sooner victory was nearly always seen as an upset.) We are currently in a UT cycle, they have won four out of the last five. The century started in an OU cycle, incl a five game winning streak, 2000-2004, which was the longest winning streak for either school since the Switzer days when the Sooners also reeled off five straight, 1971-1975. Occasionally, a school will win a game against the run of play, as it were. The best example of this would be the Marcus DuPree show where OU beat a ranked Longhorn team 28-22. It was OUs only win against the 'Horns in a six-year stretch.
Also, considering that the 'Horns generally get the benefit of the doubt re turnover questions, penalties, etc, whatever, I do not see the Sooners winning this game. UT will not turn it over like they did last week, Landry Jones will. The Sooners should have some success running the ball but UT will not be shredded again like they were against the Bruins. UT is ready for this game (so ready they forgot about last week!) and the Sooners are still struggling w/ their identity, and a new defensive co-ordinator, and serious defensive issues, particularly in the secondary, and will Jones become a great OU QB, like Bradford, White, Heupel, yada yada yada, ...
The Sooners certainly can win this game, and they are favored by about a FG right now, but, as much as I hate the Longhorns, UGH! I'm calling it here, now:
UT 31 OU 23.
She claims (O'Donnell)
Through her 'people' that the nefarious GOP did evil things to her profile on LinkedIn. Really? The nefarious GOP would add two universities to her CV?
The profile has been yanked, natch. But nothing really vanishes from the internets.
And the IRS is interested in her anti-wank crusade group, SALT, now, too.
The profile has been yanked, natch. But nothing really vanishes from the internets.
And the IRS is interested in her anti-wank crusade group, SALT, now, too.
Sep 29, 2010
Had to do it.
The Malcolm Tucker appearance is worth the price of admission alone. The David Brooks stuff is just gravy (but really good gravy, ... )
Here you go, folks.
Sep 27, 2010
Hullo! (Headphones)
I have a bunch of things to talk aboot but I am going to do it in multiple posts. So, here we go: I walk a lot. A lot. I do not drive, you see? So, headphones are essential to my life. This is a post aboot headphones. I cannot tell you how many headphones I have gone thru in my life. Only 2ce have I shelled oot the big bucks for headphones. Both of them were Bose products.
Do not get going aboot evil private company Bose. Neither of these headphones were ultimately successful for me but it had nothing to do w/ the sound quality. I have a 3-2-1 home system currently, which I love. And I used to hook everything, incl TV/DVD thru a wave & that was fab, too.
I am not an audiophile. And after reading numerous reviews, w/ many Bose haters amongst them, I ne'er want to be an audiophile. Bose is famous for 'lifelike' sound. I imagine it is some sort of reverb thing they do to achieve it. I also imagine that they are messing w/ the sound (through compression, & the aforementioned reverb) to create that 'lifelike' effect.
Fine.
The only sound I have heard in home systems that comes close to satisfying me is Boston speakers. Or the Yamaha multimedia speakers I own now. (The best speakers I have e'er heard.)
Am I being duped? Is Bose 'creating' that sound as opposed to reflecting it? I do not give a fuck. I love my Bose home products. The thing that kills me aboot the Bose haters is that they always bitch aboot the price. Yet, every time I check oot some amazing audiophile home system that the hater suggests, it costs THOUSANDS of dollars. Thousands.
Smacks of jealousy to me.
Anyhoo, I did a spell using some Bose noise canceling earphones, but they were bulky, made me look like an idiot on the street (everyone does does earbuds in our ipod days) and were way too delicate for the expense. They sounded good but not great and were not loud enough for me. I like very very loud. I got sik of the crazy looks on the street & bought some Bose earbuds. They were almost loud enough, sounded pretty good, but my cat, Molly (above) ate right thru the cord. (She loves headphone cords.)
So, since then I have been going through earbud after earbud, ne'er paying more than twenty bucks, and once, most recently, only paying three. Molly ate the cord for the three dollar one, and I was left stranded. I dragged oot my old Sony MDR v300 which I prob bought back in the nineties when I was still making tapes to seduce chicks.
I am using them now. They sound so fucking good that I do not give a shit if I look like a lame ass on the street. They're plenty loud enough & they sound way better than any Bose headphones I have used, noise canceling be damned.
Do not get going aboot evil private company Bose. Neither of these headphones were ultimately successful for me but it had nothing to do w/ the sound quality. I have a 3-2-1 home system currently, which I love. And I used to hook everything, incl TV/DVD thru a wave & that was fab, too.
I am not an audiophile. And after reading numerous reviews, w/ many Bose haters amongst them, I ne'er want to be an audiophile. Bose is famous for 'lifelike' sound. I imagine it is some sort of reverb thing they do to achieve it. I also imagine that they are messing w/ the sound (through compression, & the aforementioned reverb) to create that 'lifelike' effect.
Fine.
The only sound I have heard in home systems that comes close to satisfying me is Boston speakers. Or the Yamaha multimedia speakers I own now. (The best speakers I have e'er heard.)
Am I being duped? Is Bose 'creating' that sound as opposed to reflecting it? I do not give a fuck. I love my Bose home products. The thing that kills me aboot the Bose haters is that they always bitch aboot the price. Yet, every time I check oot some amazing audiophile home system that the hater suggests, it costs THOUSANDS of dollars. Thousands.
Smacks of jealousy to me.
So, since then I have been going through earbud after earbud, ne'er paying more than twenty bucks, and once, most recently, only paying three. Molly ate the cord for the three dollar one, and I was left stranded. I dragged oot my old Sony MDR v300 which I prob bought back in the nineties when I was still making tapes to seduce chicks.
I am using them now. They sound so fucking good that I do not give a shit if I look like a lame ass on the street. They're plenty loud enough & they sound way better than any Bose headphones I have used, noise canceling be damned.
Sep 26, 2010
Sep 24, 2010
Carey Mulligan
Plugged Whole Foods again. She did it in Vogue Magazine. She says, "Whole Foods is the nicest thing about America."
I think she looks great on the cover and I love her story on Leno about the cover shoot where she said her arse was too big and she could not fit in to the dress. They wrapped a towel around her arse. Which is oot of the shot, natch. I think she looks uncomfortable in the interview spread, wearing all couture things. She's not really that type of person, but, hey, maybe that is just me.
She has two films to promote. I am more excited about Never Let Me Go than Wall Street 2. Though, Keira Knightley is in Never Let Me Go. (Not a big fan of hers.)
I think she looks great on the cover and I love her story on Leno about the cover shoot where she said her arse was too big and she could not fit in to the dress. They wrapped a towel around her arse. Which is oot of the shot, natch. I think she looks uncomfortable in the interview spread, wearing all couture things. She's not really that type of person, but, hey, maybe that is just me.
She has two films to promote. I am more excited about Never Let Me Go than Wall Street 2. Though, Keira Knightley is in Never Let Me Go. (Not a big fan of hers.)
Mildred Pierce
About a year or so ago, there was an interview in a stuffy, but still good, film magazine with Todd Haynes, one of my favorite directors. After discussing Superstar, Poison, Dottie Gets Spanked, Safe, Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven, I'm Not There, Haynes' let on to what his next project might be. He sed he had just seen (or re-seen) Berlin Alexanderplatz and was v taken with it. Haynes expressed a desire to work in television, busting the 120 minute barrier.
Fast forward aboot six months later: I am fooling around on imdb.com and, lo and behold, there listed is Haynes' new project, a cable TV mini-series for HBO, starring one of my all-time favorite actresses, Kate Winslett. It is a remake of Mildred Pierce, the old camp chestnut, starring Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Zachary Scott (gosh, he is good in this), Jack Carson (he is great, too), and, Heck! We gotta have a wisecracking second fiddle to Joan, right? So, the (early career) Ginger Rogers/Joan Blondell/Aline MacMahon part went to the fabulous Eve Arden. Kate Winslett will play the Crawford role. Evan Rachel Wood will be doing Ann Blyth's part and Guy Pierce will be Zachary Scott. I was v excited to learn this. If anyone can do a remake of Mildred Pierce it is Haynes. And it really is the type of story that deserves five hours.
Anyhoo, HBO, promoting their new series, Boardwalk Empire, (a show I could care less aboot, notwithstanding Aleksa Palladino being in it) finally showed the trailer. Here is the trailer. So, excited as I was, I decided I had to watch the original on Monday, two days ago. Renee has ne'er seen it, & I had not seen it start to finish in years. My strongest memory of Mildred Pierce was seeing it with my Mum at a cool rep movie house in Dallas when I was a kid.
So, for $2.99, I purchased it OnDemand.
Michael Curtiz, the Hungarian Hollywood Auteur, who actors (stars) sed could never be understood on the set, who is always criticized for his non-flashy/storytelling camera style, and the director of these films: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Sea Wolf, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Passage to Marseilles, Night and Day, The Will Rogers Story, White Christmas, We're No Angels, King Creole, and of course, arguably the greatest American film-entertainment of all-time, Casablanca, delivered Mildred Pierce to Warner Brothers in 1945. (And I bet you dollars to doughnuts it was on-time and under budget.)
Before we watched it Renee asked me what type of film it was. I told her it was a combination of genres. Mildred Pierce is a melodrama, a murder mystery, a "woman's picture", a film noir, a weepie, and a Camp Classic that plays v well at the Castro. Then we talked about gays, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, etc, ...
Mildred Pierce is much much better than I remembered it. It is based on a James M. Cain novel and his seediness and cynicism seep through the screen, coating the audience in ick. Only two of the main characters are even remotely likeable (though Bert does redeem himself by the end): Crawford's Mildred and her daughter Kay. (Kay dies in the third reel, natch.) Mildred does a have a fatal flaw, though. Despite her toughness, smarts, and olympian-sized work-ethic she cannot seem to pick the right man. Of course you could argue, she could do v well without a man at all. Mildred's life is dedicated to her oldest daughter, and she marries for a second time just to bring her estranged daughter back in to her life.
There are three available marriage candidates for Mildred in the film. She marries two of them. The first ends in divorce, he is broke & cheating on her and the second marriage ends v badly, indeed. I will leave it at that. But before you think that the third candidate, Jack Carson, a real-estate agent, club impresario (though his clubs are dives that serve cheap liquor as a matter of course), and business partner in Mildred's restaurant chain, is the one 'who got away', amplifying her tragedy, consider this: He's disgusting, too. To wit, On what should be one of the happiest days of her life, the opening night of her restaurant, Zachary Scott has brought Mildred some orchids. Carson is instructed to deliver them to a v busy Mildred. Carson throws them in the trash. Carson and Blyth (daughter Veda) then work a scheme to blackmail Veda's rich rich boyfriend for ten grand. Veda makes up a pregnancy that does not exist. When Mildred finally gets all the facts, she tears up Veda's check and chucks Veda out of the house. Mildred goes to Mexico for a long vacation but finds out upon her return (thanks to Bert) that Carson has hired Veda to be a 'singer' at one of his dives. Finally, Carson sells his hefty portion of the business at a point when Mildred is over-extended financially, trying to keep Veda happy and close at hand, meaning she will lose the business and have to start all over.
That is the amazing thing that stung me about this film. Basically it is a Jerry Springer episode on film. But it was made in Hollywood! So all these reptilian slimeballs are lit to look like movie stars. They do look like movie stars. They are movie stars, with gowns by Irene and fantastic forties suits with the wide ties. DP, Ernest Haller does some phenomenal work, pretty much laying the patent for how Crawford would be shot the rest of her career and achieving a high art type of seediness that you just never saw in noir films. (Except maybe parts of Double Indemnity.) The Curtiz version is set in Southern California and I do not know where Haynes' (looks to be a period setting) is set but this subject just screams Oklahoma or Texas to me. Come on, a name like Veda! That is the most perfect white-trash daughter name, evah! Can you not just picture Homecoming Queen Veda of Midland, Texas or Ada, Oklahoma?
In terms of just gut-level engagement, or film entertainment, this film is in the top one percentile. Renee was like an old drag queen, yelling at the TV, to "Throw her down the stairs!" or "Get a job, bitch!" I love the (prob unintended) irony of glamour laid atop a white trash melodrama. I love how everyone is just so awful. And mean. And small.
Good stuff.
Fast forward aboot six months later: I am fooling around on imdb.com and, lo and behold, there listed is Haynes' new project, a cable TV mini-series for HBO, starring one of my all-time favorite actresses, Kate Winslett. It is a remake of Mildred Pierce, the old camp chestnut, starring Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Zachary Scott (gosh, he is good in this), Jack Carson (he is great, too), and, Heck! We gotta have a wisecracking second fiddle to Joan, right? So, the (early career) Ginger Rogers/Joan Blondell/Aline MacMahon part went to the fabulous Eve Arden. Kate Winslett will play the Crawford role. Evan Rachel Wood will be doing Ann Blyth's part and Guy Pierce will be Zachary Scott. I was v excited to learn this. If anyone can do a remake of Mildred Pierce it is Haynes. And it really is the type of story that deserves five hours.
Anyhoo, HBO, promoting their new series, Boardwalk Empire, (a show I could care less aboot, notwithstanding Aleksa Palladino being in it) finally showed the trailer. Here is the trailer. So, excited as I was, I decided I had to watch the original on Monday, two days ago. Renee has ne'er seen it, & I had not seen it start to finish in years. My strongest memory of Mildred Pierce was seeing it with my Mum at a cool rep movie house in Dallas when I was a kid.
So, for $2.99, I purchased it OnDemand.
Michael Curtiz, the Hungarian Hollywood Auteur, who actors (stars) sed could never be understood on the set, who is always criticized for his non-flashy/storytelling camera style, and the director of these films: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Sea Wolf, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Passage to Marseilles, Night and Day, The Will Rogers Story, White Christmas, We're No Angels, King Creole, and of course, arguably the greatest American film-entertainment of all-time, Casablanca, delivered Mildred Pierce to Warner Brothers in 1945. (And I bet you dollars to doughnuts it was on-time and under budget.)
Before we watched it Renee asked me what type of film it was. I told her it was a combination of genres. Mildred Pierce is a melodrama, a murder mystery, a "woman's picture", a film noir, a weepie, and a Camp Classic that plays v well at the Castro. Then we talked about gays, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, etc, ...
Mildred Pierce is much much better than I remembered it. It is based on a James M. Cain novel and his seediness and cynicism seep through the screen, coating the audience in ick. Only two of the main characters are even remotely likeable (though Bert does redeem himself by the end): Crawford's Mildred and her daughter Kay. (Kay dies in the third reel, natch.) Mildred does a have a fatal flaw, though. Despite her toughness, smarts, and olympian-sized work-ethic she cannot seem to pick the right man. Of course you could argue, she could do v well without a man at all. Mildred's life is dedicated to her oldest daughter, and she marries for a second time just to bring her estranged daughter back in to her life.
There are three available marriage candidates for Mildred in the film. She marries two of them. The first ends in divorce, he is broke & cheating on her and the second marriage ends v badly, indeed. I will leave it at that. But before you think that the third candidate, Jack Carson, a real-estate agent, club impresario (though his clubs are dives that serve cheap liquor as a matter of course), and business partner in Mildred's restaurant chain, is the one 'who got away', amplifying her tragedy, consider this: He's disgusting, too. To wit, On what should be one of the happiest days of her life, the opening night of her restaurant, Zachary Scott has brought Mildred some orchids. Carson is instructed to deliver them to a v busy Mildred. Carson throws them in the trash. Carson and Blyth (daughter Veda) then work a scheme to blackmail Veda's rich rich boyfriend for ten grand. Veda makes up a pregnancy that does not exist. When Mildred finally gets all the facts, she tears up Veda's check and chucks Veda out of the house. Mildred goes to Mexico for a long vacation but finds out upon her return (thanks to Bert) that Carson has hired Veda to be a 'singer' at one of his dives. Finally, Carson sells his hefty portion of the business at a point when Mildred is over-extended financially, trying to keep Veda happy and close at hand, meaning she will lose the business and have to start all over.
That is the amazing thing that stung me about this film. Basically it is a Jerry Springer episode on film. But it was made in Hollywood! So all these reptilian slimeballs are lit to look like movie stars. They do look like movie stars. They are movie stars, with gowns by Irene and fantastic forties suits with the wide ties. DP, Ernest Haller does some phenomenal work, pretty much laying the patent for how Crawford would be shot the rest of her career and achieving a high art type of seediness that you just never saw in noir films. (Except maybe parts of Double Indemnity.) The Curtiz version is set in Southern California and I do not know where Haynes' (looks to be a period setting) is set but this subject just screams Oklahoma or Texas to me. Come on, a name like Veda! That is the most perfect white-trash daughter name, evah! Can you not just picture Homecoming Queen Veda of Midland, Texas or Ada, Oklahoma?
In terms of just gut-level engagement, or film entertainment, this film is in the top one percentile. Renee was like an old drag queen, yelling at the TV, to "Throw her down the stairs!" or "Get a job, bitch!" I love the (prob unintended) irony of glamour laid atop a white trash melodrama. I love how everyone is just so awful. And mean. And small.
Good stuff.
Sep 23, 2010
Sep 22, 2010
Sep 20, 2010
Sep 19, 2010
Watched Casino Jack
Starring my boie, Thomas Frank. (I loved how he used the f-word, sweet, ... ) Basically the documentary aboot film mogul, Jack Abramoff is Frank's delicious and spot-on book, The Wrecking Crew, put on film. Before I get all riled-up, and pissed-off again, thinking aboot these assholes that want to truly wreck the United States (that is, the United States that is not uber-wealthy and oh, so white) here is the trailer for the splendid (so good it infuriates you!) Casino Jack and the United States of Money.
The film ends with Tom DeLay's "Wild Thing" appearance on Dancing with the Stars. Dana Fucking Rohrbacher, "Freedom Fighter", has no apologies for his pro-apartheid trip to Angola supporting Savimbi, or pissing off the establishment GOP, including his idol, Reagan, by doing so. He has no apologies for the travesty that is Saipai, the Marianas Islands. You know, it is funny, real funny, how the view from the five-star Saipai Hyatt, or the view from one of its' five scintillating golf courses does not show the $1.00/hour Chinese garment worker chained to her sewing machine. Well, fuck, I mean, after all, The Hammer, talked to a priest there and (although DeLay cannot remember the priest's name) he said everything was hunky-dory. Rohrbacher will not even apologize for Abramoff!
DeLay, natch, is even worse. He sees the Marianas travesty as Liberal meddling. Everything to The Hammer's perspective was fabulous until George Miller showed up. George Miller (D) investigated the working conditions in the GOP's beautiful Southern Pacific No-Reg Capitalistic Paradise and was asked by a worker, through a tearful translator, Would Congressman Miller please buy his kidney so he could pay off his indentured servitude and go back home to China! DeLay (& Rohrbacher) did interviews for this film! The Fucking Hammer laughs aboot how he thwarted Democratic efforts to make Saipai a better workplace, and clean-up the sex-trade there. DeLay rues what happened to Saipai. Saipai is a dump now that all the big garment factories have moved on to greener, more exploitive pastures. All of this for a Made in the USA label.
But it gets better. If we have not truly fucked up the Native Americans enough, why not do it some more? Abramoff enlisted Ralph Reed, Satan himself, and the Christian Coalition, to defeat Indian Gaming in Texas because the Jana Tribe's casinos in Houston would have competed with the Coushatta Tribe's gaming interests in Louisiana. They were successful. Congrats all around. Except part of the collateral damage of that was closing down a v successful casino in El Paso. (An aside, hey! my friends in Texas, did you know what you were voting for? Did you vote for the asshole John Cornyn, the AG of Texas at the time, who shut down the El Paso casino? Asshole John Cornyn is now Senator Cornyn and much of his Election Bankroll came from, Who? Jack Abramoff.) Anyhoo, Abramoff w/ his lifeguard buddy, and former DeLay staffer, Michael Scanlon, proceeded to hose the El Paso tribe for millions of dollars to earn back the Texas state Gaming License the tribe needed through Congress. It dint work. Some unnamed Republican in the House screwed up their plans. I would like to think it was b/c they had a conscience but I strongly doubt it. Meanwhile, back at the Reservation, the Tribes finally started to call Bullshit!
But, of course, it was not until white folks were affected that the House of Cards finally fell with the SunCruz deal in Florida. (Man, it is always Florida & Texas, hunh?)
Bob Ney, who saw jail time (Ney was the fall guy in this Such a Maverick [asshole, also] Senator John McCain, running for President in a couple of years Senate Investigation Production.) and his former COS, Volz are at least contrite, apologetic, feel compunction for their heinous actions in their extensive interviews for this film.
Casino Jack got four years. Four fucking years.
And Abramoff and Baywatch Scanlon pleaded the fifth on every fucking question at Maverick (asshole) McCain's led Senate investigation.
You know, every time this shit happens, the GOP always screams about rotten apples. Bush feigned knowing Casino Jack (despite the dozens of photographs they had together, or the whole Karl Rove, Grover [asshole, also] connections.) But ...
This is what the GOP want. Saipai is truly what they want the United States to become, a nation of indentured servitude, a place with absolutely no labor laws, and a bidness environment with no restrictions or regulations, period.
Grover, Rohrbacher, Rove, Cornyn, Gubner Haircut, Bachmann, Palin, O'Donnell, DeMint, Newt, even fucking former Mods like Huckleberry and Pawlenty are still working today to make our nation one of slavery.
Is that what you want come November? Cause that is what you'll get if you if you vote for the GOP. I would like to think we are better than that but we will have to work for it.
Fuck you Casino Jack & Baywatch Scanlon. & all the disgusting GOP horses you rode in on!
The film ends with Tom DeLay's "Wild Thing" appearance on Dancing with the Stars. Dana Fucking Rohrbacher, "Freedom Fighter", has no apologies for his pro-apartheid trip to Angola supporting Savimbi, or pissing off the establishment GOP, including his idol, Reagan, by doing so. He has no apologies for the travesty that is Saipai, the Marianas Islands. You know, it is funny, real funny, how the view from the five-star Saipai Hyatt, or the view from one of its' five scintillating golf courses does not show the $1.00/hour Chinese garment worker chained to her sewing machine. Well, fuck, I mean, after all, The Hammer, talked to a priest there and (although DeLay cannot remember the priest's name) he said everything was hunky-dory. Rohrbacher will not even apologize for Abramoff!
DeLay, natch, is even worse. He sees the Marianas travesty as Liberal meddling. Everything to The Hammer's perspective was fabulous until George Miller showed up. George Miller (D) investigated the working conditions in the GOP's beautiful Southern Pacific No-Reg Capitalistic Paradise and was asked by a worker, through a tearful translator, Would Congressman Miller please buy his kidney so he could pay off his indentured servitude and go back home to China! DeLay (& Rohrbacher) did interviews for this film! The Fucking Hammer laughs aboot how he thwarted Democratic efforts to make Saipai a better workplace, and clean-up the sex-trade there. DeLay rues what happened to Saipai. Saipai is a dump now that all the big garment factories have moved on to greener, more exploitive pastures. All of this for a Made in the USA label.
But it gets better. If we have not truly fucked up the Native Americans enough, why not do it some more? Abramoff enlisted Ralph Reed, Satan himself, and the Christian Coalition, to defeat Indian Gaming in Texas because the Jana Tribe's casinos in Houston would have competed with the Coushatta Tribe's gaming interests in Louisiana. They were successful. Congrats all around. Except part of the collateral damage of that was closing down a v successful casino in El Paso. (An aside, hey! my friends in Texas, did you know what you were voting for? Did you vote for the asshole John Cornyn, the AG of Texas at the time, who shut down the El Paso casino? Asshole John Cornyn is now Senator Cornyn and much of his Election Bankroll came from, Who? Jack Abramoff.) Anyhoo, Abramoff w/ his lifeguard buddy, and former DeLay staffer, Michael Scanlon, proceeded to hose the El Paso tribe for millions of dollars to earn back the Texas state Gaming License the tribe needed through Congress. It dint work. Some unnamed Republican in the House screwed up their plans. I would like to think it was b/c they had a conscience but I strongly doubt it. Meanwhile, back at the Reservation, the Tribes finally started to call Bullshit!
But, of course, it was not until white folks were affected that the House of Cards finally fell with the SunCruz deal in Florida. (Man, it is always Florida & Texas, hunh?)
Bob Ney, who saw jail time (Ney was the fall guy in this Such a Maverick [asshole, also] Senator John McCain, running for President in a couple of years Senate Investigation Production.) and his former COS, Volz are at least contrite, apologetic, feel compunction for their heinous actions in their extensive interviews for this film.
Casino Jack got four years. Four fucking years.
And Abramoff and Baywatch Scanlon pleaded the fifth on every fucking question at Maverick (asshole) McCain's led Senate investigation.
You know, every time this shit happens, the GOP always screams about rotten apples. Bush feigned knowing Casino Jack (despite the dozens of photographs they had together, or the whole Karl Rove, Grover [asshole, also] connections.) But ...
This is what the GOP want. Saipai is truly what they want the United States to become, a nation of indentured servitude, a place with absolutely no labor laws, and a bidness environment with no restrictions or regulations, period.
Grover, Rohrbacher, Rove, Cornyn, Gubner Haircut, Bachmann, Palin, O'Donnell, DeMint, Newt, even fucking former Mods like Huckleberry and Pawlenty are still working today to make our nation one of slavery.
Is that what you want come November? Cause that is what you'll get if you if you vote for the GOP. I would like to think we are better than that but we will have to work for it.
Fuck you Casino Jack & Baywatch Scanlon. & all the disgusting GOP horses you rode in on!
Badfinger Boogie
More later on these guys. The Badfinger story is a brutally sad one. But I was listening to them yesterday, to & from work, and they were so amazing, particularly their later work, they were maturing marvelously.
Sep 16, 2010
This is some
Good stuff. &, it sure did not take v long for Rove to start walking his Hannity appearance back, hunh? Maybe Rove will apologize to Rush!
Sep 15, 2010
More Random Poop (w/ Bullets)
But no lectures aboot Susan Sontag.
- The Guess Who has got to be one of the worst groups in the history of humans. Look, I understand the studio/hit version of American Woman. I have never particularly have liked the song but I understand why it was such a big hit. It sounds like a hit, the lyrics are kinda punkish, they've got attitude (even if it is stupid) & it does have a good beat, if you know what I mean, but their other (modest) hits, especially No Time Left For You, or whate'er the fuck it is called are so painfully bad that it is not e'en worth discussing. (But, of course, I will.) Listening to No Time today at work it was plain that the singer was just stretching rhymes together. "Watch and chain"? Really? And the singer's 'plea' for peace is so lethargic, stale, and insipid that it shows in great big bright lights just what the singer is really singing aboot: Another Hit Single. Ugh! Where is Bill Hicks when you need him? Oh, here he is. Play from your heart. And I am not even going to get in to the whole Lester Bangs Live Guess Who review. It is in this book. Buy this fucking book. If you do nothing else with your paycheck this Friday, lay down fifteen measly dollars and buy Carburetor Dung this weekend. It will change your life.
- Man, the Dems are starting to win some news cycles, right after Labor Day. Shocker! What is it aboot us cynical, Question Eevvvvvvvvvrything! Liberals, so afraid to stand up to the Fucking Naked Reagan Emperors? Where are the guts for our Dem Public Servants? Where did it all go wrong? It started to go wrong in November 1984. Reagan had backtracked on most of his biggest aims (he actually did raise some taxes) and he 'cut and run' when the Libyan bombing happened. (Plus, there is that whole 1980 October Surprise, dealing for hostages with Iran.) Still, the 'Image' of tough Cowboy Reagan reigned supreme. (Poor Mondale, he prob would have been the last true Liberal Prez. Instead, it is the truly awesome, yet crushingly vilified Jimmy Carter who fills that role.) And then 9-1-1 happened. And the Dems have been running scared ever since. The O'Donnell victory is the icing on the National Cake that the Dems need. That, and the Obama Tax Cuts Measure (which should be voted on RIGHT NOW!, both bills.) Let the GOP run on the Bush Tax Cuts and vote on it. And let the Dems run on the Obama Tax Cuts and vote on it. It is a frickin' no-brainer, here, really. Yet, despite the news cycles going our way for once, the USS Teabagger taking on water, I have serious doubts our CongressCritters are going to do the Right Thing.
- You know what? I want you to watch a couple of videos. Watch all of them, do not cheat. I used to spend aboot a month of my young Summers w/ my Grandparents, two weeks each. One Summer, my program was interrupted for this amazing, prescient speech by our President, Jimmy Carter. Natch, I moaned and bitched, as a child, "I want to watch baseball, yada yada yada, ... " My Gramps, Charles Lewis, sed, (not a Liberal, a Union Democrat, eschewing Big Time Religion in Evangelical Oklahoma, and a thorn in the Love of His Life's Rightist wife) "No, Michael. That is the President of the United States. He has taken the time to say something to us, it is important we listen to him." Please watch the speech in full. Carter was right. He has been right over and over again. I cannot link to Hunter S Thompson's Come To Jesus Moment re Carter, but it is magical. Watch Gonzo. It is all in there.
- Anyone else do Silent Sundays on TCM last Sunday? They showed The Student Prince by Lubitsch. You know, you can take your Passion of Joan of Arc, and your DeMille, and your plainly, unforgivably racist, reactionary asshole, "History written with lightning" D.W. Griffith and flush 'em down the toilet. Eisenstein, Murnau, & Lubitsch were the true masters of the silent cinema (& any lucky-ass soul that was directing Garbo.) I've always preferred Lubitsch but am now leaning towards Murnau. (My fave Murnau, who Hollywood certainly understood was gay, quote is: "I hire my drivers based on their looks." Tragically, young, he died in a car accident.) Student Prince is a comedy, really, a musical comedy (without sound) as only Lubitsch could do. It is smart, hilarious, and already (1927) shows the famous PR slogan: The Lubitsch Touch. (Like the Beatles, Lubitsch actually lived up to his ludicrous Headline Slogans.) The Student Prince, an extremely nominal picture on the face of it, a romcom for the silent era, absolutely shimmers with wit and invention and attitude. The 'Touch', as it were, is visible in the first reel, with all the citizens simply lowering their hats in deference to the King. It is a joke repeated over and over that through his artless style does not grow stale but, yet, gets funnier and funnier, and richer, and richer, and more touching until we are in a new set-up. (It is a shame Lubitsch chucked drama in the late 20s, because his Revolutionary War drama, Passion [made before he blessed us here in the US] is an absolute popcorn-muncher, on the edge of your seat nine-reel Dickens book set to life, and SILENT. The crucial 'Marie Antoinette' beheading scene is some of the most riveting cinema I have ever seen. I saw it at the Castro, a German Film Fest Thingy, and my 'date', as it were, made a sound unlike I have never heard when the head was shown to the mob. It was an equal blend of delight for the rabble and horror for the blade and skull revealed. Hell, we ALL cheered when the head was shown. What does that say about us?) Lubitsch, more than any other master, and he is one of my beloved masters: (Hawks, Bunuel, Welles, Frears, Lubitsch, Linklater, Powell/Pressburger, Hamer, Murnau, Huston, Polanski, Hitchcock, Curtiz, Busby Berkeley, etc, ... ) knew how to make life fun through films. And unlike Warner Brothers in the 30s, he did it with no overt political message. Sure, he is making fun of the Bolshevik bitching aboot the handbag in (The greatest film e'er made: ) Trouble in Paradise but that is all it is, sweet bitching. Lubitsch was like Busby Berkeley in that way. He both subverted and rose above the common, topical poiltical message of the times, by saying: There is glitz, glamor, high-life avaiable to all those that truly want it. And it has nothing to do with money. It has to do with TASTE, an appreciation for the those things that might be considered beyond your reach. He asked his audiences to reach for the stars, in a glossy, flimsy, lacy, gauzy, sexy, ironic, winking sort of way that could ne'er (sadly) play well today. It astounds me how irony and satire have died in the cinema (and Rock.) Nuance is dead, a wink means naught as another Apatow Blockbuster careens thru the Mid-west. Sex, money, cynicism were the true Themes of our pre-War Puritanical Heartland, yet those audiences were amongst the most savvy & smart audiences e'er, resembling, perhaps, but smarter, prob than a Piedmont Art-House crowd today. And no one expressed that better thru art, cinema, than an-expat Jew/German, comedic star/auteur legend than Ernst Lubitsch.
- The Rangers will likely clinch on Oakland soil. I mean no disrespect. Jules knows what I am talking aboot (& Meghan, too.)
- Jesus, some one returned a bottle of The Prisoner (Ugh, an over-extracted, high-alcohol, super-ripe FRUIT MONSTER that I hate) b/c they said it was 'corked'. They had not even opened the Fucker. The top of the cork was halfway red and smelled like cooking wine. I gave it to nick, he LURVES them big Napa wines. Yuck.
- For the novices oot there: If the top of the cork is blonde/tan (White) or ruby/rust (Red) and smells like cooking sherry or even displays the slightest, tiniest whiff of vinegar, you have got a WINNER! It is a wine well-stored. Decant that mofo and share it w/ your hated in-laws. You'll earn super-mega-family points.
Sep 13, 2010
Here Is Some Ranger Fun
Here are some box scores from some of the first MLB games I ever saw. Here and here. That is my first major MLB/Ranger memory. I went with my folks to Arlington at the end of June, 1976 to see a doubleheader against the White Sox. We actually only wanted to watch the evening game and just as we settled in to our seats Toby Harrah hit a walk-off Grand Slam to win the first game 8-4. I had remembered the second game as a massive White Sox blowout of the Rangers but apparently it was not quite as bad as my childhood memory. The Rangers lost 14-9, but had a lead as late as the 5th inning. Hall-of-Famer Gaylord Perry benefitted from Harrah's Grand Slam, got the win, a Complete Game 8-hitter. (Bucky Dent was with the White Sox back then. Chet Lemon, Jorge Orta in the White Sox OF. Sundberg catching the Rangers, natch, and Tom Grieve a PH.)
Sep 12, 2010
The Rangers
Sweep the damn Yankees in Arlington for the first time since 1996.
A's lead 3-0 currently.
Neftali has unveiled a wicked curve ball & struck out the side in the 9th, Granderson, Tex, & Bergman, earning his 36th save (2 saves away from setting a Major League record for saves by a rookie.)
Magic Number is thirteen, could be twelve if Red Sox come back and beat the A's.
A's lead 3-0 currently.
Neftali has unveiled a wicked curve ball & struck out the side in the 9th, Granderson, Tex, & Bergman, earning his 36th save (2 saves away from setting a Major League record for saves by a rookie.)
Magic Number is thirteen, could be twelve if Red Sox come back and beat the A's.
The Red Zone
Is back! I'll be checking in on Sam Bradford all season long. (I am not expecting big things from the Vikings this year.)
I love Frenchy's
Quote: "When I tell my kids, it will be a double in the gap. If they want to look up the boxscore when they are older, that's fine."
Sep 9, 2010
Sontag, Kael, Rangers, Wright, GOP, DEMS GET OFF THE LEDGE, It is okay, ...
dedicated to Michael Barnes
Man, I have so many random things I would like to write about today that I believe I am going to do one of those annoying Notes posts (with bullets.) Let me stress that I do not think Notes essays, columns, whathaveyou are annoying. I love them. But I can understand why people would not like them. I figure lots of folks see them as an example of the author's laziness, or the reader starts to suspect the author cannot write well. (Disclaimer: I am lazy & I am not much of a writer.)
I discovered the beauty (and how they should be used effectively) of Notes after reading the greatest Notes essay in the History of Humans, the exhilarating, inspiring Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag. Notes on Camp is so rich yet so spare, so effete yet lively (and oftentimes v funny, not something Ms Sontag has ever been known for.) Notes on Camp embodies Wilde's famous quote (nicked by Chrissie Hynde in Message of Love): "We are all of us in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars." Sontag dedicated Notes on Camp to Wilde, natch. Notes is a perfect blend of 'street', gay romantic, and spare high style. It is the essay that got me interested (& obsessed with) criticism in the first place, well, that and all those awful John Simon books I read in the early 90s. (I loved whenever Spy Magazine would skewer Simon, what an indulgent prig he is.) Speaking of Spy Magazine, the other big thing that got me obsessed with criticism was Spy's Review of Reviewers column. (I remember trying to explain my adoration for Spy Magazine to my Mum [late 80s?], especially Review of Reviewers. She had ne'er read Spy to my knowledge, said, "You don't live in New York.")
You know, I am tempted. I am tempted to link to Amazon. But I will not. Go to your local used bookstore and buy Against Interpretation (1961) for yourself and soak up the blissful, sickly sweet moldy smell of old treasures.
Craig Seligman says it best (in his critical assessment of Pauline Kael & Ms Sontag, Opposites Attract Me.):
Man, I have so many random things I would like to write about today that I believe I am going to do one of those annoying Notes posts (with bullets.) Let me stress that I do not think Notes essays, columns, whathaveyou are annoying. I love them. But I can understand why people would not like them. I figure lots of folks see them as an example of the author's laziness, or the reader starts to suspect the author cannot write well. (Disclaimer: I am lazy & I am not much of a writer.)
I discovered the beauty (and how they should be used effectively) of Notes after reading the greatest Notes essay in the History of Humans, the exhilarating, inspiring Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag. Notes on Camp is so rich yet so spare, so effete yet lively (and oftentimes v funny, not something Ms Sontag has ever been known for.) Notes on Camp embodies Wilde's famous quote (nicked by Chrissie Hynde in Message of Love): "We are all of us in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars." Sontag dedicated Notes on Camp to Wilde, natch. Notes is a perfect blend of 'street', gay romantic, and spare high style. It is the essay that got me interested (& obsessed with) criticism in the first place, well, that and all those awful John Simon books I read in the early 90s. (I loved whenever Spy Magazine would skewer Simon, what an indulgent prig he is.) Speaking of Spy Magazine, the other big thing that got me obsessed with criticism was Spy's Review of Reviewers column. (I remember trying to explain my adoration for Spy Magazine to my Mum [late 80s?], especially Review of Reviewers. She had ne'er read Spy to my knowledge, said, "You don't live in New York.")
You know, I am tempted. I am tempted to link to Amazon. But I will not. Go to your local used bookstore and buy Against Interpretation (1961) for yourself and soak up the blissful, sickly sweet moldy smell of old treasures.
Craig Seligman says it best (in his critical assessment of Pauline Kael & Ms Sontag, Opposites Attract Me.):
I'd brought along two of her (Kael) books for her to inscribe-her most recent, When the Lights Go Down, ... and my ratty old paperback of I Lost It at the Movies, in which she wrote these perfect words: "Craig-I'm touched by how worn it is."So, you are on you own. But I trust you.
- Right now, my palate loves spare, clean, practically clear-colored white wines that are high in acidity, refreshing, fun, and for the lack of a better word, taste grape-y. The best examples I have of this are: good sur lie Muscadet (which I have always loved), Mason Cellars Three Pears Pinot Grigio, Honig Winery Napa Sauvignon Blanc, and Frog's Leap SB.
- Two weeks ago: Gallup, GOP up by 10 points. Most recent Gallup: Dead even, GOP & Dems. Gallup has been all over the place all year long. To those Dems who obsess about politics it looks like two Halloweens this year. I am not buying the big gloom and doom meme. I do not think Dems are gonna be drinking Champers, feasting on steak frites come Nov 3, but I do not think it will be nearly as bad as the TradMedia is portraying it.
- As much as I have been freaking out lately about the Rangers (& their inability to win a freaking game away from home) it is comforting to see Ranger leadership keep a v level head and get the club healthy and ready for (yet another) playoff series with the Damn Yankees.
- I do not have anything to back this up with but I think 'getting hot' right before the playoffs is overrated. There are the near (robbed) Mavs champions some years back, the glorious Viking run in 1987, the Stars' conference falter to the Wings (of course) a few years ago, the Sooners near Final Four appearance in 2009, the Mavs amazing sprint to the conference finals in 1988, ... Wow, I just realized I dint list a single baseball club. But, I can take this to the bank: The Cardinals won the whole thing, just a few games over 500.
- Gosh, I would love to talk about The Kids Are Alright, it is so fucking great, but I do not wanta spoil a single frickin' minute for anyone. I will say this: It contains my new fave 'comeback/insult' evah!
- What happened to Republicans?
- Watching the idiot Jan Brewer in a debate & then seeing polls like these, 60-38!, honestly! Arizona is fucked-up!
- Edgar Wright is still the master auteur presently. Scott Pilgrim is a flop right now, dying prob more than Hot Fuzz (one of my all-time fave motion pictures) did. Yet, Wright (& Pegg when they are together) continue to make cultist, midnight movie, dvd, rental monsters, that change the comedy/action genre. And Wright (& Pegg) do this with such aplomb, and panache, without ever 'winking/telegraphing' their love for genre to a bored, ADD crowd.
- I am going through a huge Wire thing right now.
- Herr is some Wire pour vous.
- What he sed: Those that bitch aboot Social Security are those that which want to destroy it.
Sep 6, 2010
Sep 5, 2010
Sep 4, 2010
In Texas Things Stay the Same
Polling booths in Houston burned to a cinder. And here I was thinking White had a chance. Those ashes smell like Rove's Austin Clements for Governor office in 1986. And I am sure Rove has hooked Gubner Haircut up with some crack FBI agents who will investigate this and discover that the Democrats burned those booths down themselves!
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