Category: Entertainment Industry Thingies
I'm doing something wrong, aren't I?
So I’m on Pandora — I have been here a few times in the past trying to find similar music to what I love as a way to introduce myself to new music.
The problem is more times than not I get introduced to stuff that doesn’t sound at all similar to what qualities I like in a song.
For instance, tonight I started with the Doors and Moonlight Drive — The deep baritone vocal from Morrison, coupled with the trance like bridge section from Manzarek and the jazz style drumming from Densmore make this song a classic to me. Those are the qualities I am endeared to in the music.
What I get are songs that are probably comparable in structure but not too comparable – to me – to what the song invokes with the mood. A song that invokes the pace. A song that simply makes me do a double take that I want to hear again.
I tried You’re Going to Lose That Girl by the Beatles next. Again, the genome project picked up on the structure of the music and not so much the mood that’s set. The pace of the song doesn’tseem to carry over in the suggestions, nor does the vocal harmonies, nor the rhythem bae of the song that doesn’t overstep it’s bounds… But mostly it’s the vocals that are most catchy with the song.
And wasn’t catchy at all with the suggested songs that followed. I know, I am asking for a tough act to follow with bands that can compare to the Beatles or songs that can compare to the Beatles but there has to be something out there. This is a 43 year old song for god sake…
I did have a better time when I tried surfer instrumental rock (Walk, Don’t run gave way to soem great music) but that’s instrumental all the way. That’s how Pandora is supposed to work.
Maybe I’m just too picky with music…? Or maybe I am just doing this wrong.
Beatle-izing Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven
I dunno… Making a pop song out of Stairway to Heaven? 8 minutes condensed into 2:40? If you’ve never heard Stairway before, you might actually buy this as the standard.
You be the judge:
Do us all a favor, Media General…
For the umpteen-hundreth time, the Tampa Tribune / WFLA / TBO mothership is trying to cut corners and cut costs in order to boost the stock price of Mother Corporate.
So, Media General, here is my suggestion to you: Sell the Tribune, sell WFLA, sell TBO.
The Tribune has been butchered for decades now – decades – because Mother Corporate wants to boost stock price and cut costs. I have heard nothign for years upon years about an expansion of coverage. I’ve only heard fo cutbacks “in order to serve you better”.
The fact is, Media General can’t afford their media trifecta, their “Crown jewel”. The evidence is that they keep cutting corners and further contract these two mainstays of the Tampa Bay area (and their online counterpart) in an effort to please Wall Street.
Jacked In
So I’ve had my artificial means of hearing hooked up and running for more than six years now… I don’t brag about it much or talk about it much because every time I get confident in something audio-wise, I then get into a social situation and end up getting sent back to feeling outside the hearing world again because I can’t understand the conversation.
Of course, I can revel in the fact that I can enjoy music again. I have been able to for some time as I think it’s been a tool for me to adapt back to the hearing world in one way or another. Sort of like a personal configuration utility for my brain — I remember how certain songs sound or certain tones I should be listening for — a cymbil crash perhaps, maybe the backign orchestra section jumping in during the refrain to “Hey Jude” — and press myself to hear these things. I use it as a gauge to see how well I am doing.
That took on a new dynamic last month as I had two cords, termed as Personal Audio Cables – sent to me by Cochlear Corp. These two wires — for personal media players or hi fi stereos/TV’s/computers — let me connect my body-worn speech processor directly to the aforementioned objects so I hear the tones or the music directly instead of trying to sort things out through a set of speakers.
But lets dispense with the technical crap. I got these things in January and I unpackaged one of the cables. I connected it to my PC speakers and then turned on iTunes… pulled up a song and started to play…
You seen the Matrix?
That scene where Neo gets combat training information uploaded to his head by Tank? It was kind of like that.
“Hey, I think Mikey likes it. Want some more?”
“Hell Yes!”
Now, nothing beats hearing and feeling music coming through the air and through the speakers. Nothing beats listening to smething in surround sound (for example) where you feel the sound waves and it adds to the effect of whatever you are listening to.
That aspect is lacking. But the aspect of having music beamed directly to my head? I’ll take it any day of the week. It’s been so awesome that I bought an iPod Nano and am experimenting with music I’ve never listened to before – which I wouldn’t try much when I was relying on the speakers alone.
like, duh!
For whatever eason it possessed me to, I decided to read an article from CBS News about the McCartney-Mills divorce… (Paul McCartney and Heather Mills for those living under a rock)
British divorce proceedings are closed to the public, making it tough for journalists to report on what’s going on. Paul’s got a high powered lawyer, Mills is representing herself. That’s good, that’s fine…
But the Beatle fan and general pop-culturist that I am just rolled my eyes when an attempted deduction was made:
However, Sir Paul has been spotted going into the court in apparent high spirits, observes CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.
…This is news?
This is something that is supposed to be a tell on how things are going? I ask because if it is, CBS has been living under a rock for 45 years (no offense to Walter Cronkite or the late Ed Sullivan). When has Paul McCartney NOT been seen in high spirits? (Leave Linda Eastman out of it) I mean, shit — he was teh cute one, he still draws them in and it’s partly because fo his attitude.
There will be a day in the future when McCartney’s behind-the-scenes face is presented – after he passes on. This will probably be a mix of fiction and fact. What we do know about Paul — and it’s well chronicled — is that you can expect him to be in public in high spirits and shining a good attitude even if the chips are down.
Die Already: A review of “Live Free or Die Hard” (Die Hard 4.0)
(Personal note — I haven’t written movie reviews on the site in quite a while with thanks to participating at times in a forum discussion at Skyscraperpage.com about movies that were last seen. The following is an elaborated version of the post I made on the forum thread)
I had one question every time I saw positive reviews this summer for Live Free or Die Hard. It’s a rather basic question that no one would really answer — or would give aloof answers to: Does this film live up to the Die Hard franchise standard? I’ve posed this question directly to professional movie critics without an answer
| Die Hard, in general, was built on an ultra-simple principle: a situation at a location with a reluctant hero caught in the middle of whatever the hell was going down. It’s part of a generation of action movies where everything was Die Hard on a…; Die Hard on a bus, Die Hard on a plane, Die Hard on a train, Die Hard on a battleship…
The original — 1988’s Die Hard — set the standard for the genre and began the franchise with out-of-place NYPD officer John McClane – barefoot, out-manned and outgunned, with the cops outside working against him. The second film (Die Harder) was Die Hard in the airport. Not as good but it was still the story of John McClane in the wrong place at the wrong time… Same character but with some graveness to his dialog which made the movie weird. Instead of a tower, it was Dulles Airport that was under siege. |
 “Live Free or Die Hard” aka “Die Hard 4.0” — the official poster. |
Die Hard: With a Vengeance elaborated the setting. It wasn’t a fixed location but all of New York. It still worked if you ask me because you had McClane, you had a semi-fixed setting on Manhattan Island (and around New York)… You had deep links to the first movie with references to the past, and yet this time it wasn’t John out of his element but thrust into things in his home. Oh, and John McTiernan directed (who filmed the original Die Hard). You can see the resemblance to the original with the cinematography employed, and McTiernan’s trademark directly-behind-the-actor light shots. Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson played well off each other to boot. It’s not as highly regarded as the first but it beats the hell out of the second film.
Then you have this… this… this piece of shit that they pushed on moviegoers this summer.
The balance of good-guy, bad-guy (on screen time) is too even — that’s the first sign this doesn’t stand up. Less is more. It’s also hard to feel intimidated by “ready the video uplink”, “start the download”, etc…
Then you have McClane himself — it’s not the fact he’s older or his head is shaved: He’s a caricature of himself while playing a minimalist role. John McClane traditionally has been a rambling, sarcastic, insulting, sometimes arrogant, belligerent asshole. That isn’t the character portrayed on screen by Bruce Willis this time. Oh, sure, he’s got his moments but this isn’t McClane. This doesn’t feel like McClane. This felt like The Terminator — especially with all the shit McClane is put through, where he’s tossed around like a rag doll, falling several floors and bouncing off blunt objects and he still gets up and keeps going with seemingly no damage. That’s not John.
I mean, come on! The every-guy, mortality of John McClane was one of the things that made him great. Who can’t remember McClane running around barefoot in Nakatomi Tower? And what happened — he got shot, he got tons of glass put through his feet, and you saw him suffer that and doubted he’d survive. You had less of that in Die Hard 2, but you had more of it (except the jump-off-a-boat absurdity near the end) in With a Vengeance. This time? No — he’s got some cuts but he’s too much like the energizer bunny (which he mocks in With a Vengeance) to be hurt. He wheels around Matt Farrell (the Mac guy, Justin Long) and who do you think of but Ah-nold playing the Terminator, wheeling around Eddie Furlong in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (all of this helped along by that minimalist dialog that I talked about).
Oh, and the location isn’t fixed. If the first three films can be directed at exact settings (“Die Hard. Die Hard at the Airport. Die Hard in New York”) this film can’t. (Die Hard America? Die Hard in Cyberspace with real-world consequences? Die Hard avoiding Traffic?)
This might have been a great stand-alone movie but it sucks as part of one of the biggest action movie franchises in film history. It doesn’t fit. It’s odd that the original movie was conceived as an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle… Because Live Free or Die Hard plays exactly like one.
A passable substitute, take two: Bridge to Nowhere
So the Writers Guild remains on strike and what do we have in the mean time but reruns of shows, YouTube clips of the writers showing solidarity (and humor) and heavy sighing as we miss late night mainstays that are not broadcasting right now — like the Daily Show.
I was watching Current TV again and an InfoMania segment came on… In this instance, they were going to actually show you about the famed Bridge to Nowhere that didn’t get built and the effects on the locals…
This is as good as any Rob Corddry (gone from TDS), Sam Bee, John Oliver or other past and present Daily Show contributor’s “investigative reporting”. Mocking, humerous, yet informative in it’s absurdity.
Current: Jesus hates coffee and absurd protests
I saw this last week on Current before it aired on TV:
This brought back memories of sorts — cuz I had come across a ridiculous protest online in the past… I ended up commenting at Current about it:
This reminds me of the faux protests of Star Wars through the The Force is a tool of Satan web site. It landed on the web sometime before the Prequels started and has been a rallying point and a laughing point since.
I know that the over-consumerism in reality is a noose around our necks (suffocating us from truly enjoying the season or any holiday – because some SALE has been inspired by it! Or some greeting card, etc)… but a protest like this with an animate pastor/reverend who seems like a caricature of TV Evangelicals everywhere? Laughing point, not rallying point.
That’s just me though.
So what’s the hubub? Current contacted me yesterday and asked if they could read my comment on air. W00t! That will be (I THINK) 2:26 PM this afternoon.
Edit: Didn’t air at the 2:26 PM airing. Maybe later today?
A passable substitute
Decidedly not the Daily Show, but a pro-writer parody:
Usually when I have to deal with work stoppages, it’s putting up with pro sports: fighting between billionaires and multimillionaires. It’s not people taking care of their families or picketing arenas — it’s guys trying to figure out how to pay for the 3rd house in the Hamptons.
The works of these people entertain millions and make billions… Asking the corporate masters for a bit more cash isn’t a crime… Especially seeing these are the people doing all the work in the end (making shows, movies, etc watchable).
Just in time for the weekend
…an ode to Suburban Hell:
Pleasant Valley Sunday
Gerry Goffin and Carole King
The local rock group down the street
is trying hard to learn their song
to serenade the weekend squire
who just came out to mow his lawnAnother Pleasant Valley Sunday
(Sunday)
Charcoal burning everywhere
Rows of houses that are all the same
and no one seems to careSee Mrs. Gray, she’s proud today
because her roses are in bloom
And Mr. Green, he’s so serene
He’s got a TV in every roomAnother Pleasant Valley Sunday
(Sunday)
here in Status Symbol Land
Mothers complain about how hard life is
and the kids just don’t understandCreature comfort goals
they only numb my soul
and make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray
to places far away
I need a change of sceneryAnother Pleasant Valley Sunday
(Sunday)
Charcoal burning everywhere
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
here in Status Symbol LandAnother Pleasant Valley Sunday
(Ahhhh Pleasant Valley Sunday)
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
(Ahhhh Pleasant Valley Sunday)
(repeat X times)
Upon further review: Stephen King’s top 24 rock songs ever
I like reading Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly (side note, Uncle Stevie — sorry but I let my subscription run out after 15+ years as a subscriber. Too much tabloidism now in the magazine and not enough industry coverage) and a couple of months ago I read Stevie’s Wonders which was King’s top 24 rock and roll songs.
The thing that got me was when I read the following paragraphs…
”Best rock songs of all time,” he says. ”That subject always starts arguments, especially if you don’t put ‘Stairway’ on there.”
I realized he was right. Especially since the idea of putting ”Stairway to Heaven” on such a list grosses me out. So I decided to take my biker buddy up on his idea. Twenty-four great songs, one for every hour of the day, picked by the Infallible Me.
I began by throwing out most of those Internet lists, because they’re full of ballads (”Tears in Heaven” as rock & roll? Oh, really?), soul (”When a Man Loves a Woman” is a great song but it’s not rock), and tunes that have been played to death. There’s also an amazing number of draggy songs on the lists, like ”Hotel California.” When would I like to hear that one again? Uh…how does never work for you?
Slowly, Her Name Fades Away
Well, the daylight slips away,
And I start to forget her name
She loved me for such a long, long time
Unlike any other lover of mine
She was so different,
But in the end, the same
Slowly, her name fades away
Our time just passed,
I thought it’d last
But my mistake …
She’s one and the same.
Well, she couldn’t cope,
A lover on a rope
So I must say,
Her name fades away
It’s guaranteed
That her and me
Would have run away some day
But as time went by,
That thought did die,
And our love passed on a Wednesday
Miracles forge —
and also disrupt
Slowly, her name fades away
What she meant to me,
I now can’t comprehend
I thought it was love everlasting,
At the end, it was just make pretend
Our love was once a fantasy,
A tale that I did once believe
But it’s sad to say, she’s gone away
Slowly, her name fades away
©1998 John P. Fontana
A month later
So it’s exactly a month since surgery-eve and I’m doing ok physically… Aches and pains still but I’ll manage. Not wanting to go out in public much due to my eyes not being tip top, nor my hearing, or my hair for that matter. I’ll live though.
There are some things starting to get to me though. I guess I was spoiled rotten during my hospital stay and my recovery and now I feel like I’m socially in a black hole. Limited reach outs from friends, limited shout outs and more, and less.
There’s also a lack of focus I am experiencing right now that un-nerves me. For the past 2 weeks I’ve been spot on with focus. On the ball. I see something that needs to be done, I do it. If someone else has something that needs to be done and isn’t sure of steps, I consult. I consult when not requested (and not in a rude way, it coincides needed productivity for a dormant product). I was all over the friggin’ place. AND I was hitting the ball out of the park on this shit! It was incredible, it was a rush…
…It was temporary?
I’m procrastinating more right now — with incoming emails, with to-do projects and what not — than I have at any time since I went to the hospital. There’s just this… social dread? I dunno… Part of me wants to get it done, knows I gotta get it done, knows I NEED to get it done.
The other part of me wants to chill out and surf the web and wait for someone to distract me. The people I want to distract me get credence while the people I don’t drive me back to work.
How about that? “Test your worth to John! Send him an IM during anti-social/anti-productivity hour and if he drops you for a project, you know your value!”
Newest skill test at the state fair, ya’ll. :-p
Oh, one other thing that is getting to me lately… Why can’t I enjoy movies any more? I feel a horrid pain when I watch Superman Returns (who hasn’t?) due to Bryan Singer’s epic scoping of the film and lack-of-editing to make Superman seem more likable. I saw The Two Towers before surgery and thought it (again) a disaster of editing proportions. That’s what I am seeing everywhere — edit, voice-over, edit, edit, chop, dissolve, blah, blah, blah… And these aren’t action sequences where I see them (most of the time)! Is it just heightened perception or should I burn my DVD Collection, get rid of my cable box and renounce Speilburg?
DVD play revisited
More than three years ago I wrote about the end-of-life of my original DVD player. It was a pretty sweet machine and I was sad to see it go.
Especially sad when I’ve tried the competition.
My first replacement player was a Toshiba progressive scan blah-blah-blah that was purchased in 2004. The player was slow, annoying and overheated easily. I started looking for a replacement for that sucker (casually) last fall and mentioned to family how I’d like a new DVD player for Christmas.
My older brother obliged me. I wish he hadn’t.
While I was looking at the new systems and thinking there was a chance I could buy a player from either side of the current format war, my brother went out and bought me a DVD Recorder. Pretty nice, right?
Yeah, it’d be real nice if it wasn’t a bottom-of-the-line Memorex player which cannot even send closed captions to my TV in a timely fashion during standard DVD playback. Movies end up being somewhat like watching dubbed karate movies with captions being displayed well after someone speaks.
Just a little annoying for this hearing impaired movie fan.
Factor in a poor remote control that focused on recording aspects instead of play (as well as additional captioning lag, if not dropped captions, if you paused or fast forwarded through a portion of a DVD) and you have all the makings of a gift that counted for the thought — nothing more.
So for the last several months I’ve been watching movies on my computer instead of on my DVD player which is bothersome as well (17″ monitor replacing a 27″ TV will do that) and I finally decided enough was enough. Twice now, I have had equipment purchased for me by my elder sibling (who’s motto sometimes is “I don’t care” — he’ll get the job done but getting the job done is more important than doing it well sometimes) and both times I was fed a shit sandwich. Enough is enough.
I went shopping on Amazon yesterday.
The only thing that guided me on my search was the quality I had found in my original DVD player. Panasonic had won me over in it’s simplicity and quality (you know, what companies are supposed to do with their products instead of winning you over by being the lowest priced object on the “clearance” rack at Wal-Mart). I didn’t want tons of bells and whistles (no DVD-R this time, no Blu Ray or HD-DVD) and ended up choosing a highly-ranked unit that costs a little more than a fifth of what I paid for my original player back in 1998).
The only down side is having to wait for it to arrive.
There is just something wrong with this
No offense to Anthony Kiedis, Flea or the rest of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers but I just can’t get my head around their slightly funked-up version of the Beach Boys classic, “I Gget Around”
Found it on YouTube just tonight while looking for a better live performance of the song than what I have on my machine by the original band. To his credit, Anthony is a hell of a sight better than Mike Love… Yet Flea being a little too abrupt with some bass work (or blunt instead of smooth) hurts things.
But then again, what do I know? I’ve listened to the original for almost 20 years now… It’s so engraved in my mind I thought I heard Brian Wilson’s high-pitched singing during the RHCP’s performance. Ah well.
Entourage — Season 4 questions
So Vincent Chase, Eric “E” Murphy, Johnny “Drama” Chase and Turtle are heading to Columbia (all of them? I wasn’t clear on that watching the finale of Season 3-B) where they’ll be filming Vinnie’s passion project: Medellin with Billy “Wally Balls” Walsh directing and E and Vinnie producing.
Yet there are some questions left unanswered that are looming around Entourage and I’d like to see some infill on it…
Firstly, how did Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Bay do with Aquaman 2? You do remember that Bay was set to take over the directing helm and Kevin Smith was tabbed to write the sucker. This, in part, led to the series of events that snowballed into the close of season 3-A with Vinnie out of work. It is possible it’s gonna’ happen because you found out about the action movie that Vince was offered at the begining of season 1 (Matterhorn) having been shelved due to an injury to Colin Farrell… So hearing about A2 tanking could lead to an interesting future plot, or hearing about A2 swimming will be a great way to keep beating down the try-as-they-might quartet.
Secondly, will Seth Green and Sloan get back together while Eric is away? You DO recall Seth giving E shit about Sloan all the time — because the two used to be a couple. Now Eric and Sloan are on the rocks (as the season 3-B finale made it apparent) as Eric is chosing his career and Medellin over Sloan. While we’re at it — is there a chance the object of E’s desires, Tori, will rear her head in season four? You do recall who Tori is, don’t you? If not — read the “Entourage: Let’s blog it out” entry about it.
Is Turtle’s name going to get revealed?
Is Drama’s “Five Towns” going to get picked up for a full season so, ya know, he has the money to pay for his condo that he bought? Or is there a chance “Viking Quest — the Motion Picture”, is on the horizon?
Is Mrs. Ari going to get more face time on the show? Being the yang to Ari Gold’s ying always puts Mrs. Ari in an interesting position on the show.
There’s a lot more to ponder (is I want to be Sedated truly buried? How about Queens Boulevard — will it ever grace a cinema? And with Vinny sleeping with all those women — who’se going to show up with his kid? Shit happens when you party naked after all 😉 ) yet I’ll leave it be to see what happens.
Are they going to write
Badda Boom; “The Sopranos” swan-song
OK, just HOW is “The Soprano’s” going to end? Steve Silver offers a few ideas…
Hat tip to Eric at Off Wing
Hapri, Hapri, Joy Joy
Not only can this guy cover multiple artists (see below with his rendition of U2’s One) but he also looks way too much like me circa 1997 (or if I aged without having anything bad happen to me):
Speaking of Harry Potter…
Has anyone else noticed how similar the Daily Kos logo and the cover to the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows” look?
Kos:
Potter:
I noticed it just this weekend and now I can’t un-notice it.
EDIT: Edited the Kos picture so the BANNER was the focus, not the sponsor.
Stand alone Pottermania
Ever since Chris Columbus left the Harry Potter movie franchise I’ve found the films to be both entertaining and thrilling. I had read the first book (Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone) and was totally aghast when I saw how incredibly lame it came off.
It compelled me not to read another Potter book to avoid similar disappointments… at least until after I had my curiosity piqued by way of the film adaptations of Prisoner of Azkaban and the Goblet of Fire.
The latter film had enough of a hook to make me want to know what was going to happen next… It nagged at me. I didn’t care for the film as much as Prisoner of Azkaban when I first saw it because it ran so long and had so much going on… But it grew on me. Repeated viewings made me appreciate it more and the ending compelled me to return to Potter literature.
Cal it a Wrath of Khan/Empire Strikes Back negative closing and how it makes you ponder where the story goes from there. Goblet of Fire pulled it off (even if the film lacked the multiple side stories that J.K. Rowling worked into the book).
So I picked up Order of the Phoenix and read it through – finding Rowling’s narration exquisite and the story compelling just as I found the first book to be. While I’ve read about the new movie (due out this summer) through Entertainment Weekly and about which side stories are shelved (Ron playing quidditch, Dobby the house-elf making a return, etc) there is enough going on to keep you interested.
And after seeing the International trailer for the film — I’m dying to see this adaption:
ye gods!
I have little to no doubt that Roland Deschain, aka The Gunslinger from Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga, would have absolute convulsions if he took one good look at the Burj Dubai under construction in the U.A.E.
Deductable "Prestige"
Last year, there was a bit of a hoopla made out for Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige… A tale of dueling illusionists at the turn of the century. The castings of Christian Bale and Michael Caine made me think Nolan was tied up with his Bat-crew. Hugh Jackman being cast gave my fan-boy heart a lift. Wolverine vs. Batman! In turn of the century London! Bloody good show!
So when I read Stephen King lauding the film in Entertainment Weekly late last year, it just refreshed my desire to see this film and it’s “outstanding twist of an ending”.
(EDIT NOTE: King lauded The Illusionist. I suspected this and had rented the movie specifically because of it. It was my brother who made a big deal about The Prestige‘s twist ending)
A few weeks back, I watched The Illusionist with Edward Norton and after my older brother watched it — he told me it wasn’t shit compared to The Prestige. “There is a surprise ending. It’s awesome. I saw it in theaters, you have gotta get it when it comes out on DVD.”
Me and Michael usually can enjoy the same movies so I thought I would be in for a real treat by the time I got to see the film on DVD.
I’m still waiting for that “surprise ending.”
Maybe it was because of the tip offs that the ending had a twist, but more likely it was a failing of craftmanship by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan (superb filmmakers, I’m just a blogging critic with no credibility) in trying to hide the ending. Hell, maybe they didn’t set out for it to be a surprise at all? Never the less, I wasn’t floored by the “fooling” that took place.
While I loved The Illusionist specifically for it’s cinematography (19th century Vienna done gorgeously), I loved Prestige more for it’s actors as I had said above. Jackman, Caine, Bale — a superb threesome at the top of the bill. Yet as the movie unfolds, the pairing of Caine and Jackman’s characters over and over again don’t seem to properly balance with Bale. In fact, Jackman and Caine came off like antagonists at times, while Bale’s character’s shroud of mystery was both too revealing and too charismatic. You knew things would turn around for him at one point and all you had to do was wait. Wait. Wait.
They didn’t really turn around but lets just say he won in the end, and the fact he did wasn’t a secret or a surprise ending. Anyone watching can deduct what was going to happen by simple banter between Bale and Jackman before the two illusionist trainees had their falling out.
Nolan’s tale is worth checking out even without my little clue listed below. It reaches across two continents and has a grand mixing of characters and incidents. But from the get go you could see enough to know the hook….
***SPOILER WARNING (vague but a Spoiler) ***
A total devotion to ones craft is mentioned early in the film, and like any mystery it’s the line that should stand out. In fact, this is something that should easily be deduced even before the film starts. Any magician has to put on a charade for the public. A grand charade both on and off the stage in order to convince people.
Dual personalities, dual physical characteristics and conditions, dual memories. Dual memories.
While someone forgetting what knot they tied around the hands of an assistant who gets killed tragically makes sense — the grief, the horror, the shock all taking it’s tole on the psyche — it makes more sense if you weren’t there at all when it happened. You need to make an excuse and your other persona needs to employ that excuse in order to keep your character believable.
***END SPOILER ***
Yeah, that’s not a clear revealing of the “surprise ending”. The movie is good enough to watch that you should. Just pay attention.
The prudes didn't catch this, did they?
Saturday Night Live was a must see for me last night cuz Hugh Laurie was on. While I love House M.D, it’s his comedy that made this a must-see broadcast. An appearance by Borat on the show was an added perk (along with Beck as the musical guest).
Of course, Borat did what he could before SNL went off the air to add some controversy.
I don’t have a picture, but at the veeeeeeeeeery end of the SNL broadcast last night — while everyone was congregated on stage and the end credits were rolling, Baron Sacha Cohen (AKA Borat) got down on his knees in front of Hugh Laurie and imitated giving head. I was sure the prudes and the FCC would be all over NBC for this (needlessly) but am happy to report nothing is listed on Google News pertaining to this little item…
…but if it pops up somewhere this week in the news, you heard it hear first.
The most powerful ad of the campaign season
You know, there are ads out there right now that can be looked at as low blows. There are ads out there that can be looked at from either side of the fray as “the truth”.
Lemme submit another one to you — Michael J. Fox:
If you’re like me — you grew up with Michael J. Fox as a hero. Marty McFly, Alex P. Keaton, Brantley Foster and all his roles from there on in. This one ad showing how bad his Parkinsons condition is getting puts every attack, slander and general mudslinging ad to shame.
You can’t look past something like this… You just can’t.
birthday observations
OK so today is my birthday (October 7th)…
It’s also the birthday of Shawn Ashmore who plays Bobby Drake/Iceman in the X-Men movies.
Coincidentally — the character Bobby Drake and his birthday is also supposed to be October 7th.
“For Better or For Worse” Continued end chorus?
I talked about For Better or For Worse’s swan song last year and there seems to be more wrapping-ups going on if that’s the case:
- Grampa Jim had a stroke this week in the strips. You could see something dreadful was coming when Elly was on her way to visit him.
- Becky seems to have made a sort of peace with April, and though April still resents the snide sentiment, I still think it may lead her to soemthing with hitting it big with music. April also showed her love of animals this summer — Vet School anyone?
- Elly sold Liliputs like she was foreshadowing last year. Her and John have both made “final arrangements” over the past few months as well as looking at smaller houses
- Michael is writing a book in his “spare” time.
- …and while Elizabeth is in love with a cop from the North, it looks like she is going to end up with her High School sweetheart, Anthony, in the end
Elizabeth is really the only character that doesn’t seem to be set up for something big. Maybe nothing will come for Michael, April, Elly and John (though I am pretty sure about Grampa Jim taking a dirt nap soon) but of all the Pattersons — Elizabeth is going no where. Living at home again, love life in flux…
Man, how can I be wrapped up with a comic strip like this…?
A little strange…
I laughed my ass off over this because I’m a sodding American who never saw Hugh Laurie performing comedy…
Another day, another rant: Defending “The Daily Show”
There was an editorial story about the Daily Show with Jon Stewart that was published in the St. Petersburg Times on Monday. In this little article they suggested the Daily Show was actually hurting the country because of it’s cynism was discouraging America’s youth and convincing us that we shouldn’t vote.
HA!
Everyone I know — young and old — make the Daily Show with Jon Stewart part of their daily regimen (or at least catch it as often as they can). Are they turned off to voting? Hell no. Are they turned off to politics? Hell no.
The Daily Show isn’t enlightening, but in it’s cynical and ironic takes on the news, it does something that the major media outlets fail to do — it asks questions and shows the obvious flaws of those in control of the country (and sometimes the colorful nature of the country itself). It also shows the gullibility of our leadership and the failings of those in power to reach out to America’s youth as well as inspire us.
Johnny got pissed off so Johnny wrote a letter to the Editor. It was published today.
Daily Show’ is not a detriment’
Re: Is “The Daily Show” bad for democracy?
What’s this now? Jon Stewart and his crew of reporters are turning off youth with their irony, cynicism and sarcasm concerning the antics of our elected officials?
I find it hilarious that the article in question thinks so little of the youth of America. We’re a generation of people whom elected officials tend to ignore and brush off. We’re a generation of Americans who have grown up through scandal after scandal (Iran-Contra, the S&L fallout, Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, 9/11 failings, Valerie Plame, etc.) and the article in question thinks that a TV show with a humorous take on the sorry state of affairs in this country is detrimental to democracy?
No, sir. What’s detrimental to democracy is how little the older generations – especially the one in control – inspire the rest of us. It’s detrimental that the Daily Show, which bills itself as “fake news,” has been more biting and investigative than the mainstream media for the past six years.
John Fontana, Palm Harbor
Jon Stewart, Rob Corddry, Samantha Bee, Ed Helms and Jason Jones would have a field day with this letter — not one zinger, not one barb and not one instance of inserting the out-of-place-question-for-the-sake-of-humor that the Daily Show does so well.
Six years later, President Gore addresses the nation
Crooks and Liars has the President’s addres.
Three cheers for Baseball commissioner George W. Bush…!
Britney Spears preggo again!…Why is this news?
What has Britney Spears done lately to deserve all the attention she is getting about having another baby except for providing examples time and again of how not to raise your child?
Listen, I can deal with TomKat and Suri, I can deal with Lindsay “I was hotter as a Tween” Lohan and even the Eurotrash inspired heiress Paris Hilton. Spears, on the other hand, had her 15 minutes and they are up. Please cease and disperse, people! Nothing to see here! Please disperse! Nothing to see! Keep moving!
But, alas, the media keeps her in the spotlight like they do with so many other things that don’t matter worth a damn (even in the entertainment industry)… Oh well.
Universal Home Video DVD's suck…
Yeah, they are filled with bonus material. Yes, the movies tend to be really cool or funny…
But is Universal Studios and Universal Home Videos able to CLOSED CAPTION a single DVD? Noooooooooo.
Instead, what Universal does is SUBTITLE films, thinking this will cover the hearing impaired just fine and dandy. In some cases — things are indeed fine. But white text on a bright or white background (any given movie image) makes Subtitles a pain in the ass and impossible to read. It’s quite possible to entirely miss out on certain scenes from films because the text subtitles blend in to well.
The above is an example image of a CLOSE CAPTIONED broadcast… See how the text is laid against a black screen?
This is an example of a Universal DVD with subtitles. Notice the location of the titles? On the picture with absolutely nothing to contrast the text with. It’s easy for the text to become illegible depending on the scene.
Of course, most computer DVD playing programs let you change the subtitles around a bit — make them different colors, different fonts and so forth… You don’t have that option on stand-alone DVD players…
Universal prefers subtitles to keep things on teh cheap. It doesn’t matter if hearing-impaired fans have a hard time (or can’t access the bonus materials — a common problem from all Home Video companies). It just comes down to their financial bottom line. Cheap bastards.
I can't impress upon you how true this is…
The title of Northwest Leftists post is “The Most important book for Progressives”… He’s talking about Crashing the Gate and I must stress how true those words are.
If you read political books to be outraged instead of informed — trash like Michael Moore or Al Franken and their self-obsorbed writings — this book can and should replace that type of reading in your bookcase. While Crashing shows you reasons to be outraged at both the left and the right, it keys you in how things must change and how you must be part of the political process too.
It’s the Red versus the Blue.
The Old versus the New.
It shows you what’s wrong with the Democrats and how we can go about fixing it.
Please, if you’re a Democrat — this is required reading material.
The Many Sides of Nathan Fillion
I’m watching the Joss Whedon TV Series Firefly on DVD at current… This was after having to plain give up on the Serenity movie after 7 minutes of confusion while watching it. Serenity definitely needs to be watched only by those who have some clue about the Television show and the characters involved.
That being said, I’ve also been trying to grapple with all of the characters and people Nathan Fillion‘s captain Malcom Reynolds reminds me of while I watch.
When you first watch the series and see that it’s a space opera, this is a sarcastic, treacherous scoundrel who is living and flying job-to-job… You think of what any Sci-Fi fan would think and find Reynolds to be Han Solo‘s reincarnations….
But hold the phone, folks… There’s the earth-bound loyalty, no-holds-barred “we gotta get through this situation” type aura to Reynolds as well. He can be witty while relentless, he’s a soldier and a schemer in the same breath… But that loyalty to his crew – however pissed off he is at them or not – reminds me squarely of Tommy Lee Jones portrayal of Deputy Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive and US Marshalls.
Then there is Fillion himself. He’s joked about being given roles time and again to play a man of the cloth but the actor he reminds me most of in his mannerisms is Dennis Quaid — or Captain Tuck Pendelton from Innerspace to be more exact.
Pretty well rounded character if you ask me. Just don’t ask me to comment on “Animal Mother IN Space / Jayne Cobb” played by Adam Baldwin.
KONG!
This is part of the reason I am not dying to see King Kong.
The other par happens to be the fact I am not overwhelmed with what I am seeing in the trailers. The fanboys have been oohing and aahhing on Ain’t It Cool, but what I am seeing is the exact reason why I didn’t jump on Van Helsing a few years ago: CGI to the extreme and marketing tie ins galore.
This isn’t wishing ill on Peter Jackson who is awesome, this is saying that Universal may have coughed up another turkey by trying to re-interpert an old piece of their property. I hope I’m wrong for Jackson’s sake though…
Fifty Years To the Day
It’s been 50 years since Doctor Emmett Brown discovered time travel…
Just noticed the date and had the memory of Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd)Â talking to Marty (Michael J. Fox) about “the Red Letter Date in the history of science, November Fifth, Nineteen Fifty….Five… Yes, of course, November Fifth, Nineteen Fifty-Five… Hah!”
One of the greatest movies of all time, and even in fiction – it’s hard to just overlook the day for pop culture sake
Missing Piece of History — Jim Morrison in Clearwater
I’ve read a couple of books on Jim Morrison and the Doors (favorites? Riders on the Storm by John Densmore and No One Here Gets Out Alive by Danny Sugerman, Jerry Hopkins) and I’ve been enamoured by Jim Morrison’s poetry and lyrical artistry. I’ve always been curious and captivated about his time in Clearwater, Florida after his parents sent him to live with his grandparents and go to St. Petersburg Junior College.
I’ve finally found more than any book would tell. I’ve found more than some books have speculated.
In all of these books, the writers have simply thrown a quick mention to Jim Morrison’s girlfriend for 3 years, Mary Werbelow, and then dismissed her as nothing much but a sideshow to Jim’s life of excess and glamour. The problem is that Mary held a bigger piece of Jim within her than many – including me – are able to comprehend. I’ve been taught that Pamela Courson was supposedly everything to Jim and this Mary girl was just a quick fix before the main course was served in Venice Beach (meaning the Doors formation).
That’s not the case.
Mary has refused interviews for 40 years up until now. His connections to Tampa Bay are further shown and his connections to Mary as well (The Crystal Ship was for her, The beginning and end of The End were talking about her). I’d also say The beginning of Stoned Immaculate is a reference to meeting Mary:
One summer night, going to the pier
I ran into two young girls
The blonde one was called Freedom
The dark one, Enterprise
We talked and they told me this story
The article by the Times talks about how Jim met Mary at Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach while she was with another friend (also named Mary).
At any rate, I’m just real excited about this for no other reason than more information being made clear. Much like Deep Throat finally coming out – some secrets aren’t left up to imagination….
I'm Down
You telling lies thinking I can’t see
You don’t cry ‘cos you’re laughing at me
I’m down (I’m really down)
I’m down (Down on the ground)
I’m down (I’m really down)
How can you laugh when you know I’m down
(How can you laugh) When you know I’m down
Man buys ring woman throws it away
Same damn thing happens everyday
I’m down (I’m really down)
I’m down (Down on the ground)
I’m down (I’m really down)
How can you laugh when you know I’m down
(How can you laugh) When you know I’m down
We’re all alone and there’s nobody else
You still moan: “Keep your hands to yourself!”
I’m down (I’m really down)
I’m down (Down on the ground)
I’m down (I’m really down)
How can you laugh when you know I’m down
(How can you laugh) When you know I’m down
Don’t you know that I’m down (I’m really down)
Don’t you know that I’m down (I’m really down)
Down on the ground (I’m really down)
Don’t you know that I’m down (I’m really down)
Down, down, down
The Martyr's of Rock and Roll…
I was taking a Zogby poll the other day and a question surfaced within the poll that actually made me freeze and think long and hard before I cast my vote. It’s something that can come up in idle conversation at any time and you might throw out an immediate answer but I took this question real seriously…
What dead rockstar best epitomizes the spirit of rock and roll
Jim Morrison (The Doors)
John Lennon (the Beatles)
Janis Joplin
Jimi Hendrix
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Freddie Mercury (Queen)
Duane Allman (The Alman Brothers)
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
Jerry Garcia (The Grateful Dead)
Frank Zappa
Buddy Holly
Ronnie Van Zandt (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Elvis
It really made me stop and think. I’m not sure why… I mean, the first thought I had was Lennon but John — for all the good he gave to the world as a musician just didn’t feel like the guy who represented Rock in life and death. One could say Elvis but he didn’t live fast and die young…
I thought of Jim Morrison and his glory days that people remember him for and Jimi Hendrix and how he was the genius on guitar that everyone strives to be. I thought of Kurt Cobain who wrote and sang, lived fast and died young leaving the beautiful corpse — and how his insecurity (a trait with almost all musicians) was a profound attribute to his personality.
Just who best epitomizes Rock?
Edit April 24, 2019:Â This was written so long ago and without giving my own conclusion for a very deliberate reason: Reaction and response from potential site readers. A lot of my personal blogging early on with this site has the habit of doing that.Â
I also must say that I didn’t give depth or seemingly truly admit with some of these:Â
John Lennon did live in excess and glamour like rock stars are known to do, but his fast-life was different with thanks to his marriages and children.
I never mentioned Mercury, Joplin, Allman, Vaugh, Garcia… Janis best fits what’s known as The Stupid Club — live fast, die young. Mercury died of AIDS, Garcia was around and I don’t know Allman or Vaughn well enough to have concluded by voting for either.
And Holly? ‘The day the music died’ was his passing (with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper); what could he have brought to music if he hadn’t left in such a tragedy?Â
There are so many stories with all these acts, and the title of this blog post does accurately fit: They ruled music, they embodied what Rock was known for on and off stage… And their end made them kings and queens in musical martyrdom.
Thanks for proving me wrong, Mick
Flipping around the boob-tube, I’ve seen the Ameriquest commercials featuring Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones… I sigh and contemplate that there is another sell-out rock group, conforming with the Man to make money.
Well, conforming only a little bit.
When you think of politics and British rock, you think of the Beatles and there mantra of Peace and Love and all that jazz (and John and Yoko telling us the War Is Over — if you want it), or Radiohead for that matter… You don’t think of the Stones, do you?
Enter Sweet Neo Con
I haven’t heard the song yet or read all the lyrics except for the stuff in the news but I am itching to see what Mick and Keith Richards are up to in this number….I don’t get like that with most protest songs…
PING PONG, GAME MATCH!
James Stockdale — Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 election — has passed away.
My title reference pertains to a Saturday Night Live skit with Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman playing Perot and Stockdale respectively. That’s basically most of what I know about Stockdale which seems a travesty. Me and the neighborhood kids would do parodies of Phil Hartman’s parody all the time…
PING PONG, GAME MATCH! OUT OF AMMO! ARE WE THERE YET?!
Light My Fire — no, put it out. Please.
It’s been a while since I decided to read any non-ficiton. Usually it’s biographical works on icons of the Entertainment industry (ie: Beatles or the Doors). Keeping with that trend, I decided to pick up Ray Manzarek’s Light My Fire, it’s a Doors autobiography I’ve been meanign to read for some time.
And yet, as I’m still in the early areas of the book, I’m trying to understand why I thought it was a must read? Probably because of all the positive reviews of the book when it originally was released. Can’t be bad at all then, can it?
From a writing standpoint, it can be all that bad. And worse. Though Manzarek has a unique perspective on his tail…. He’s not a writer.
The book comes off much like a personal journal would, I guess… Reporting the mundane as well as the gripping, life-altering events of Ray’s life… But Manzarek loses focus and direction on any given topic quite easily. At one moment he’s about to discuss finding a live performance of the Blues in the south side o fChicago, and the next moment he’s rambling about attire he wore to graduation from the 8th grade…. One moment he’s about to get into his first exposure to Beat poetry, the next he’s laying the smackdown on facism and intimidation of the California Highway Patrol. He goes off on the broadest tangents and does not focus on the event that inspires the tangent thought.
Another instance of Ray veering wildly is a recounting of Jim Morrison’s UCLA film school student film… While trying to detail Jim’s non-linear movie that Rya found “poetic”, he begins recounting Oliver Stone’s version of the student film that he made as part of his feature film on the Doors. Ray goes off on Oliver for makign an innocent film into something with anti-semitism and Nazi inneundo. He attacks Stone (as he has since the film came out in the early 1990’s) and lets the UCLA film school experience vanish from the story.
It almost comes off like a conversation — one that varies wildly as those who partake in the conversation ramble on into the night. Yet, having to read this conversation is painful… Especially with gramatical errors of repeated run-on sentences, short sentences that woudl be better combined, repetition of adjectives, etc….
Ray’s book, while from the heart, has nothing on John Densemore’s Riders on the Storm autobiography.,
Oh that silly media!
Anyone else a little sick of the media hype of Tom Cruise (and others) romance? Yeah, I figured the other 290+ Million Americans (and how many around the world?) just might be.
Matt Baldwin over at Defective Yeti flashes some humor over the latest People Magazine cover.
Movie Trivia – Round 7
I’ll make this one Reaaaaaaaaaally simple for you folks….
Who wanted Smoochy the Rhino dead?
Fontana MD
So I’m sitting down, watching the opening minutes of House last night on FOX and end up going hysterical over the fact that House drugged his former lovers husband and called the paramedics before he even arrived… It just seemed so funny and prick-ish and just perfect for Greg House (Hugh Laurie, who hath erased the mockery of his abilities that was his role in the Stuart Little movies were).
My older brother walks in on me to see why I am laughing so hard, and once i explained to him his face lit up a bit and he started relating to me how he loves the show… and so do his friends who call him House when they see him….
Mike’s always been weird in one way or another and I started thinking about the comparison between him and Greg House. House is distant, he’s bitingly sarcastic, shrewd, genius, cold… Mike is… Well, Mike is all of those things, except he’ll smile more often than House, he’ll joke more often than House (for the good of humor, not out of sarcastic desire).
Mike IS Greg House.
I’ve known women who’ve wanted to grab the mystery for themselves with Mike. You can’t quite imagine women wanting House but the mystery about him is there…. Helping to drive Dr. Cameron unsuccessfully towards him.
It’s odd, first my brother happens to look like David Duchovney… Now he happens to be like Greg House. What’s next? He starts making as much money as (insert movie star here)?
