That’s Entertainment! – Page 4

Memo: Telling Stories

13. August 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Ain't That America?, General, History, Literary Good Stuff, sarcasm, That's Entertainment!

To: Professor Denise Spelburg,
From: Sgt Mom
Re: Clarifying Matters Literary and Beyond

1. According to the story here (which may need registration to complete the link – sorry!) you are painting yourself in colors of victimhood, now that you are being righteously criticized on line and have received a ton of so-called hate-mail, for your part on kicking up an all-mighty fuss about a bodice-ripping historical novel about the youngest wife of Mohammed. (Or would that be a burka-ripping historical novel?) Welcome to the real world, professor… it’s that place that extends somewhat beyond academia, where reactions to words and ideas can sometimes get wild and woolly.

2. In this real world, we have writers – sort of like myself, as a matter of fact – who like to tell stories to people, sometimes quite lengthy stories based on historical characters, facts and incidents. This is a whole genre out there, loosely known as “historical fiction”. At one extreme, the best of them are carefully researched and stray no farther from verifiable and researched historical fact than anyone in your own university department. Then there is the other extreme, in which practically anything goes. In either case the operative word is “fiction”… which means, my dear Professor… that stuff is made up. Created out of whole cloth. Imagined. Clear so far on that concept?

3. At least, you are well-enough acquainted with enough of that world to know that provoking the adherents the so-called religion of peace can have occasionally fatal consequences. I am cynically amused to note that in your academic world Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” is worthy of defending against threats of violence because he can, according to the story “…claim he was raising an existential, theological query, however impertinent. Jones’ book is a mere burlesque.”

4. Ahh, we see – some ideas and authors are more equal than others. A piece of light and fluffy historical fiction is not worthy of the protections afforded to the heavyweights of the intellectual world. Duly noted, Professor. You are a self-important snob, as well as being a tattle-tale and a bit of a coward. If doing a nice little blurb for “The Jewel of Medina” was beneath the dignity of a heavy-weight intellectual and scholar such as yourself, then wouldn’t a polite note to the management at Random House, declining to comment have been sufficient, with or without the back-up from your lawyer. You didn’t want your name and credentials attached to Ms. Jones’s book in any way. I – and hardly anyone else has a problem with that.

5. The breathless warning to your friend at the altmuslim discussion group was in the long term, neither helpful or necessary. In fact, it seems rather malicious; “Ohhh, she is talking such trash about you… and what are you going to do about it?” is the way that it comes off to those of us who remember junior high school pretty well. Professor, we didn’t like that kind of nasty, passive-aggressive manipulation then, and we like it even less now. Perhaps that is how the game is still played in academia these days – but again, in the real world, it doesn’t go over well. Take note.

6. Finally, I can’t help wondering if this is a little bit of unseemly possessiveness about the subject on your part. I would assume that you have a great deal invested in your visualization of Aisha, and did not take very well to another writer picturing something different. There is one other historical researcher who has done a great deal on the Stephens Townsend Party, the subject of my own historical novel. I got a very odd, hostile vibe from him, when I communicated with him – it was as if their story was his exclusive property and I was trespassing on it by imagining something different. I am grateful that I did not ask that particular researcher for a blurb for Truckee – at least he did not sic the forces of the Oregon-California Trail Association on me for my trouble!

7. I do think Ms. Jones ought to be grateful to you, however. “Jewel of Medina” will now probably sell in quantities several times over what it would have, if you had just quietly given a pass on blurbing it to begin with.

Hoping you will find these remarks helpful
I remain the unrepentant scribbler of historical fiction,

Sgt Mom

I Don’t Think So Froggy

11. August 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Ain't That America?, That's Entertainment!

I have to say that watching the Men’s 4X100-Meter Relay was one of the most satisfying bit of sports that I’ve watched in a very long time.

Apparently, one of the members of Team France, Alain Bernard, was quoted as saying, “The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came for.”

He was wrong. American Jason Lezak started creeping up on Bernard at about the 75M mark and by the end of the race, Lezak was first to the wall.

A Frenchman talking trash and the Americans stuffing it back in his face. I’m not sure which was more satisfying, the Americans rejoicing or the looks of absolute disbelief on the French team.

That was fun…let’s do it some more…you know, that winning thing?

The Dark Knight

06. August 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

I really can’t add to what thousands have already written and said about it. See it. It’s worth it. Ledger deserves every bit of talk about an Academy Award, dead or alive.

I’m not sure which is my favorite of the summer though. I really liked Iron Man.

Bizarre Monday Musical Medley

04. August 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Fun and Games, General, That's Entertainment!, The Funny, World

For your delectation and delight on this Monday – first, a performance of “Smoke On the Water” by classical Japanese musicians…

and if that doesn’t peg your strange-meter, how about the Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Chorus in concert?

Enjoy… especially the tractor.

Writing the Range

01. August 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Ain't That America?, Domestic, General, History, Old West, That's Entertainment!, Working In A Salt Mine..., World

In a fit of boredom, as we flipped through the cable channels looking for something new and/or interesting, we stumbled across the Hallmark Channel. Hey, Hallmark – how bad could one of their movies be? – and wound up watching “The Trail to Hope Rose“. The premise interested us for about twenty minutes, and then we realized that although whatever book it might have been based upon may have been a very good read, the movie was a bit of a painful watch. We stuck it out, just to see if any of our predictions made in that first fifteen minutes came true. (They did – all but the kindly old ranch-owner who befriended the hero being killed by the villainous mine-owner. He didn’t – but he was deceased by the end of the final reel.) It was just a generic western: generic location, generic baddies, card-board cut-out characters and a box-car load of generic 19th century props from some vast Hollywood movie warehouse of props and costumes used for every western movie since Stagecoach, hauled out of storage and dusted off, yet again.

It wasn’t a bad movie, just a profoundly mediocre one. Careless gaffes abounded, from the heroine’s loose and flowing hair, her costumes with zippers down the back and labels in the neckline, and the presence of barbed wire in 1850, when it wouldn’t be available in the Western US for another twenty-five years, neat stacks of canned goods (?), some jarringly 20th century turns of phrase – and where the heck in the West in 1850 was there a hard-rock mine and a cattle ranch in close proximity? Not to mention a mine-owner oppressing his workers in the best Gilded Age fashion by charging them for lodgings, fire wood and groceries, as if he had been taking lessons from the owners of Appalachian coal mines. It was as if there was no other place of work within hundreds and hundreds of miles – again, I wondered just where the hell this story was set. It passed muster with some viewers as a perfectly good western, but to me, none of it rang true. Whoever produced it just pulled random details out of their hat – presumably a ten-gallon one – and flung them up there. Hey, 19th century, American West; it’s all good and all pretty much the same, right?

Me, I’ve been getting increasingly picky. Generic, once-upon-a-time in the west doesn’t satisfy me any more, not since I began writing about the frontier myself. It seems to me that to write something true, something authentic about the western experience – you have to do what the creators of “The Trail to Hope Rose” didn’t bother to do; and that was to be specific about time and place. The trans-Mississippi West changed drastically over the sixty or seventy years, from the time that Americans began settling in various small outposts, or traveling across it in large numbers. And the West was not some generic all-purpose little place, where cattle ranches could be found next to gold mines, next to an Army fort, next to a vista of red sandstone, with a Mexican cantina just around the corner. No, there were very specific and distinct places, as different as they could be and still be on the same continent. 1880’s Tombstone is as different from Gold Rush era Sacramento, which is different again from Abilene in the cattle-boom years, nothing like Salt Lake City when the Mormons first settled there – and which is different again from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s small-town De Smet in the Dakota Territory – or any other place that I could name, between the Pacific Ocean and the Mississippi-Missouri. Having writers and movie-makers blend them all together into one big muddy mid-19th century blur does no one any favors as far as telling new stories.

Being specific as to time and place opens up all kinds of possible stories and details. Such specificity has the virtue of being authentic or at least plausible and sometimes are even cracking good stories because of their very unlikelihood. For example, Oscar Wilde did a lecture tour of western towns. If I remember correctly, the topic of his lecture was something to do with aesthetics and interior decoration, and he performed wearing the full black-velvet knickerbockers suit with white lace collars. He was a wild success in such wild and roaring places as Leadville, Colorado, possibly because he could drink any of his audience under the table. Anyway, my point is, once you have a time and a place, then you can deal with all the local characters and the visitors who came to that town at that time, have a better handle on the technology in play at the time. Was the town on the railway, who were the people running the respectable businesses – and the unrespectable ones? Who were the local characters, the bad hats and the good guys, the eccentrics and the freaks? What was the local industry, and for how long – and if not long, what replaced it and under what circumstances? What did the scenery out-side town look like? Even such details as what were the main buildings in town made of and what did they look like, over the years can be telling. Where did the locals get their food from? Their mail? Who did the laundry, even! What kind of story can a writer make of a progression from canvas tents over wooden frames, from log huts and sod huts, to fine frame buildings filled with furniture and fittings brought at great expense from the east. I had all those questions while watching this movie – and I’ll probably have pretty much the same, if I ever watch another one like it. It would have been so much a better movie if someone had given a bit more thought and taken a little more care.

Above all, if a writer can be specific with those underpinnings, of time and place and keep the story congruent within that framework – than it seems to me that you can tell any sort of story, and likely a much more interesting and entertaining one. As near as I can judge from some of the western discussion groups and blogs, like this one, writers are moving in that direction. Eventually movie producers may move in that direction as well; supposedly Deadwood makes long strides in re-visualizing a more specific west.

But they will absolutely, positively have to get rid of those costumes for women with the very visible zippers down the back.

Burning Questions of the Moment

31. July 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Domestic, Fun and Games, General, Media Matters Not, My Head Hurts, Rant, sarcasm, That's Entertainment!, Veteran's Affairs

How come Oprah Winfrey is on the cover of every issue of her own darned magazine? I mean, even Martha Stewart gives it a rest.

Why does it have to be so bloody hot in Texas in the summer? And how long will summer last this year? How many more months of running the AC night and day will we have?

How come we were supposed to be moving beyond race with the nomination of the Fresh Prince from Chicago… and yet here we are again, having the same old discussion! But with the added frisson of being called a racist it we don’t vote for him. (Oh, yeah, and can we have a break from his entitlement-addled BAP of a spouse moaning about how hard it is to get along on a yearly salary of more than I will ever make in the next decade? Or two or three? Thanks.)

How deep are major media in the tank for Obama, actually? Deep enough to need a snorkel? A deep-sea divers’ suit and something to pump down oxygen to them?

How come anyone cares what celebrities think? About anything other than their next professional appearance, that is.

Who the hell cares about Paris Hilton? And why?

Which one of the dogs or cats threw up a strangely reddish patch of vomit, and please god, let the red color be from the reddish chunks of stuff in the dog food.

What’s Madonna’s new remaking of herself going to look like? Anything age-appropriate? She’s pushing 50, you know.

Will the price of gas go down? Would it be a little cheaper to run the car on milk? It’s at about the same price per gallon this week. How soon will the owners of all those big honkin’ SUV and pick-up trucks replace them with something smaller and fuel efficient. I remember the 70s, people – I remember this happing once before, and yes, I’d like to be able to see past the vehicle waiting next to me at a stoplight. Instead of looking at the step that allows them to climb into the cab of their big honkin’ SUV, which is at my eye level, thank you very much.

When those SUV’s and pick-ups get to expensive to run… will they wind up in the hands of people, who… I don’t know… live out in the country and really need a big, sturdy, 4WD vehicle with space to stuff a couple of Angus cows in the back?

How badly am I going to hate the part-time and regular job that I start next week at “Enormous National Call-Center Which Shall Remain Unnamed” by the next of six months? One year? Can I stick it out long enough for some of my books and on-spec writing jobs to pay off… so that I can turn in my employee badge of servitude and shake the corporate dust off my feet… again.

Stay tuned – we’ll know the answers to most of these in a couple of months. Or a year, tops. All but the one about Paris Hilton. That’s a mystery for the ages.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

25. July 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

So back when the writer’s strike was going on, Joss Whedon and family put together a little three act thing called Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog available only on the web. I’ve heard about it for awhile and with the i-Tunes “Season Pass” it was only four bucks.

How is it? Well, if you liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s musical episode, “Once More with Feeling,” you’re going to love Dr. Horrible and crew. Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Nathon Fillon as arch nemisis Captain Hammer, and the too cute for words Felicia Day as their mutual love interest.

It’s laugh out loud funny.

It’s also Joss Whedon. If you don’t know what that means, well, let’s just say you may not love the ending.

Looking at the Past

20. July 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: General, History, Media Matters Not, Old West, That's Entertainment!, World

I belong to a Yahoo discussion groups for fans of Westerns, and one of the curious things is how very passionate some of the members are about their favorite authors, and western series, some of which are well known, like Elmer Kelton and some quite obscure like Amelia Bean, who wrote about the Fancher party, of the Mountain Meadows Massacre fame. Old western movies are also mad faves, everything from the acknowledged classics like “Stagecoach” and the original “3:10 to Yuma” to obscure B-movie features and movies made for television that have since sank like a stone. Generally the older stuff is held in higher regard. Oddly enough, many of the members of the group are English – at least to judge from the frequent laments about how little there is in the way of ‘Westerania” to pick through on the other side of the pond.

Like it or not, this is how we begin to visualize the past, through books and movies, first seeing these things, as if through the prism of how a writer, movie producer or TV director visualized them. The trouble with this is that the farther we are in time from the events pictured, the more of the milieu of the time that such things were created seeps in around the edges. Look at a movie like “Gone With The Wind” – it practically screams the date of it’s premiere. But as hard as the various creators might have tried to banish every scrap of inauthenticity in trivial things such as women’s hair-styles, interior decoration or weaponry – contemporary sensibilities and habits of thought are even harder to root out. Movies like “The Patriot” and “Dances With Wolves” took especial pains to superficially and physically appear authentic – but then fell apart when it came to things like the likelihood of a village of escaped slaves being out in the open, and a Union officer in the 186os going over to the wall, metaphorically speaking, to join the Sioux Indians. But never mind – it’s a story. Like “Gone With the Wind” we can overlook anachronisms and accept gaps in logic in service to a riveting and entertaining story. Well, sometimes – depending on how much of a fuss-budget we are for strict authenticity. If something that feels to us like authentic sensibility is present, though – who wants to quibble about details?

But this gets harder to do with a great many more recent movies, and not just Westerns. Something went out of our movies when many producers and directors began to think more about a ‘message’ and a movie as a personal statement of belief… not strictly as something that a great many people would plunk down the price of admission in exchange for being entertained for a couple of hours. The old studio system turned them out assembly-line fashion, good, bad, indifferent and superb, A-list, B-list, genre, serials, bios, epics, musicals and all. As one of my former bosses was fond of saying – it’s a numbers game. The more there is of any one thing, be it sales calls or movies, the better the odds that more of it will pay off… or be really, really good. The old studios diversified their releases. If a movie bombed… well, there were three or four more in the chute, so who cared but the accountants and maybe not even them, very much. Some of them which bombed, or did indifferent business at the time of release later made a better showing, farther on down the track. And some of those are beloved by website discussion groups, so here I am circling around to my main point… which was that there were Western movies made after the 1960s (to pick a date at random) but few of them seem to attract much of the same degree fanatic devotion.

Why? I wondered if the reason might have something to do with the fact that watching this show a couple of years ago on PBS left something of a sour taste in my mouth.

(To be continued)

Shit,

23. June 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits.

I apologize for having offended any of you, but I just found out that George Carlin died tonight and I know of no better way to honor the man than to rattle off the words that got him arrested on more than one occasion…which quite frankly, simply proved his point.

There was not a single person in my group of high school friends who couldn’t recite those words from memory. Many of us had most of the routine down pat. (For obvious reasons YouTube doesn’t have the original version, the first link is to an updated version from a cable performance.)

He played with words like Tiger plays golf. Naturally.

At some point in the 90s I watched one of his HBO specials and he just sounded like a bitter old man, but even then, he had some routines that would catch me off-guard and get me laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. I’m not sure if I outgrew him or he just never grew up. I’m sure he couldn’t care less.

So rest in peace you cocksucking motherfucker. I hope for your sake that you were wrong about God being just an imaginary friend…and that He has the sense of humor that He gave you…otherwise…well…you’re fucked.

Journey, Revelation

15. June 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

So Dashing Son-in-Law (DSIL) and Gorgeous Daughter (GD) came over for their regular Saturday afternoon/evening. This usually includes dinner and some movies, either rented through NetFlix, or from either of our extensive collections. This week, DSIL, who’s a rabid Journey fan, brought over the DVD from their latest release, Revelation. (Link takes you to the WalMart site, it’s exclusively available there.) His take on their latest singer, “You’re not going to believe the voice on this guy.”

Now I need to fill you in on my take on Journey. Back in the 70s when I went to every concert event I could go to, Journey showed up at just about every multi-artist event in Chicago. A Day in the Park? Journey was there. Summerfest at Navy Pier? Journey was there. WLUP presents…Journey was there too. You get the picture. By the end of 1978, I was so tired of Journey that I would literally start to cringe when the beginning of “Wheel in the Sky” would come on the radio. And watching Steve Perry sing during his solo career? I’m sorry, a singer shouldn’t look like they’re in pain when they’re performing (and it was a couple years later we all found out that he was). So I’ve been sort of avoiding Journey over the past 30 years or so. Okay, not avoiding, I don’t lurch to turn them off when they come on the radio, but they’re just sort of background, not band I turn up and sing loudly off-kee with. I was cynically amused when “Don’t Stop Believin'” started selling big again a couple years ago. But DSIL wanted us to see and hear the latest Steve Perry sound-alike and so we popped it into the Bose and gave it a look and listen.

Oh. My. God. First of all, I completely forgot how freaking good Neil Schon is on guitar. DSIL reminded me that he played with Santana when he was just 16. And it’s been 30 years since I’d seen them live…so I was happily reminded of his guitar riffs and bridges. It’s like Joe Perry from Aerosmith. Good on an album, much better live. I don’t know enough about the rest of the band to fill in their backgrounds, but I seem to remember that drummer Deen Castronovo had been with The Babies and keyboardist Jonathon Cain had been with Schon with Bad English and I think bassist Ross Valory has been with them all along…no, wait, Randy Jackson was the bassist at some point…but no, Valory was there at the beginning…anyway, not important. To say the band was professional and tight? Understatement. Did some of those old songs sound old and tired? Not. One. Bit. The songs sounded fresh as the day they came out.

And then, there’s that voice. Arnel Pineda looks like he might be a tenor rock star in some lounge in Vegas. He’s about five foot nuthin’ and he’s got long black hair, and he’s Philipino. Played with a band in the Philipines called “The Zoo.” Spent most of his life there, doing cover songs and some originals. His bio says he’s 40 but he’s got one of those faces that you just can’t tell how old he is. To call him a Steve Perry sound-alike is insulting. While Arnel Pineda does sound like Steve Perry, Steve Perry never had the tonal clarity that comes out of this man’s mouth. Okay, maybe not never, but none-the-less, great pipes. He’s freakishly good and sounds like Perry before he trashed his vocal chords.
The new songs they’ve recorded with Pineda at the mike? Of course there are ballads, and they’re sweet. And there are some harder rock songs that make me think that they’re going to have some hits on the rock stations this summer as soon as the DJs get past the idea that it’s not Journey without Steve Perry.

Quite honestly, if I have a lil extra money, I’ll be buying the two CD set with the DVD this summer. If you ever liked Journey, but thought, “No Steve Perry, no way.” please think again. With Arnel Pineda handling vocals, they sound better than ever. I even made it through “Wheel in the Sky” with nary a shiver.

On Ellen via YouTube.

Summer Finale, Battlestar Gallactica

13. June 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

The first half of the final season of BSG came to a close with a resounding thud.

First of all, when you’re in the middle of what should be one of the most dramatic scenes of the season, do you really want want to get all “creative” with the editing? No. It just made me go, what the hell?

Secondly, was I the only one who wasn’t practically screaming at the TV, “Duhhhh! Check the Nav Computer!!!! Don’t you people READ Scifi?”

And lastly. The final scene? Really? You pick NOW to go all Planet of the Apes? This was your choice?

I appreciate the various homages made during this season, but come ON.

Dollhouse

12. June 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

Coming in January 2009 to Fox.

Joss Whedon and Tim Minear directing and writing, starring Eliza Dushka? Yeah, I’m geeking out here.

Note to Fox…try not to mess this one up.

Say Goodnight Dick

06. June 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

Dick Martin, Director, `Laugh-In’ Co-Host, Dies at 86.

What can you say?

Goodnight Dick.

Bo Diddley Died…And I Missed It

04. June 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Memoir, That's Entertainment!

One of the weirder parts of growing up is what stops being important as you grow older. Once upon a time in my life, I could tell you who was in what band in what year and if I didn’t know, I wouldn’t rest until I found out. Rock’n’roll took up a huge part of the data storage space in my head. Debating over which was a better album, “Greetings from Asbury Park” or “Born to Run?” was my version of, “who was the better player, Jordan or Pippen?” Some folks are into sports in a maniacal way where they can recites seasons and stats, I was good at bands and songs and who wrote what and what was happening when they wrote it.

Bo Diddley died on Monday and I didn’t know about it until this morning. I found out while surfing more blogs that I haven’t visited in awhile. Apparently he’d been ill for a good while. I didn’t know that either. I may have heard about it, but it obviously didn’t stick with me.

I’m sad about his passing. His shave and a haircut rhythm was stolen by just about everyone who tried to play the blues or blues rock. I’ve got four different versions of “Who Do You Love?” in my iTunes collection. I was relieved to find out that his original is among them, my favorite being from The Band’s “The Last Waltz.” I can’t begin to tell you how many songs I have that use shave and a haircut.

What hits me even stronger is the fact that it took two days for me to notice. There was a day when I’d be so tuned to what was going on in music that if I didn’t know about from the radio station I was perpetually listening to, then I would have found out because a friend would have called me to commiserate about the loss.

I’ve become one of those, “it’s just music” people. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t consciously think, “I don’t have time for all this music stuff. I’m going to listen to less music as I get older.” It just happened. And while the grownup I’ve become acknowledges that it’s only natural for such things to go by the wayside as “real life” takes up more of my time, my inner rocker is terribly disappointed in me.

RIP Harvey Korman

30. May 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Memoir, That's Entertainment!

Harvey Korman passed away last night.

Some of my fondest family television memories are of watching Harvey Korman and Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show. The best sketches? The ones where Conway cracked Korman up.

I remember my whole family, from my Gramma down to lil me laughing so hard we cried as those two clowns performed.

And can anyone forget the delightfully degenerate Heady Lemar (That’s Headley!).

Thank you for the laughs Sir. You will be missed.

On a side note, there’s just no television show that the whole family can sit and watch and have THAT kind of belly laugh together with anymore. I think CBS could play those old shows in primetime today and get a HUGE audience.

MCain on SNL

20. May 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Politics, That's Entertainment!

Senator McCain showed up on SNL this weekend, dropping by Weekend Update and spoofing a political ad. Apparently, some on the far right have determined that “it’s beneath the dignity of the office he aspires to.” He’s pissed off Ingraham? Point John McCain.

This is just me, and I don’t claim to be a conservative, other than I’m more conservative than most in the “mainstream” left, but I think that appearance can’t do anything but help and I’ll tell you why.

Back in the fall of 1996, AFTER the general election, Bob Dole appeared on SNL. I remember looking over at Beautiful Wife and asking, “Where the HELL was THAT guy when the election was going on?” Bob Dole on the campaign trail, wooden and lifeless. Bob Dole on SNL, relaxed, smiling, having a good time, with a vibrant personality. McCain on the Campaign trail; not able to tell the difference between Iraq and Iran, kind of stuffy, taking shots at Obama’s war policy, not paying a lot of attention to Clinton. McCain on SNL; Giving “advice” to the democrats, urging them to not pick a nominee until the last possible second, relatively good timing, sporting something resembling a genuine grin.

Like it or not, the Presidential race is mostly a personality contest. And yes, I hate agreeing with Bill O’Reilly but even a broken clock etc.. How else do you explain eight years of Bill Clinton? How do you begin to explain Jimmy Carter? How did George W. Bush defeat Al Gore? Actually, Al Gore defeated himself by being such a condescending shmuck during the debates…as spoofed by…you guessed it…Saturday Night Live. John Kerry? Well, he’s John Kerry and I think I would have voted for Bill Clinton again before I voted for John Kerry, but that just proves my point.

Once the dems finally get around to picking their candidate, which I’m assuming will be Senator Obama once Senator Clinton gets dragged away kicking and screaming and trying to gnaw through her leather straps, Senator McCain is going to need all the personal goodwill he can get. Senator Obama is like-able, he’s a superior speaker, he looks young and relaxed on television, and I’m guessing he’s going to slaughter Senator McCain in any debates. Senator Obama may very well be wrong on every important issue that this country is facing, and I don’t concede that sweeping of a statement but he’s going to look and sound magnificent. Senator McCain needs to have something in his personality account. Is SNL enough? Nope. Is it a good start? Yep. Do I think he’s going to be our next President? I don’t know…which makes this all the more fun.

Review: Iron Man

09. May 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

Now THAT was a good movie. It wasn’t a good comic book movie, it was a good movie. Just go.

I have to confess, one of the reasons I liked it so much is that Iron Man flies exactly the same way I fly when I have flying dreams. I know, sounds weird, but true.

Oh, and if you want to know what possible sequels may be coming out, stick around until after all the credits have rolled.

Update: While I was watching BSG last night, I had a brilliant flash of the obvious that Iron Man is a good Science Fiction Movie. That’s what makes it better than some of the other comic to screen stories that have come out recently. Plausible story, realistic human interaction, and current technology pushed to heightened capabilities. I also remembered thinking when I was in high school, that Iron Man’s armor was directly “borrowed” from Robert Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers.”

Okay, I’m done geeking out for the week.

Sci/Fi Vocabulary

30. April 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

Words/Phrases you’ll start using after watching certain Sci/Fi Fantasy Shows:

BSG: Frak. Fraking, Get Fraked. Skin job. Toaster.

Firefly/Serenity: Shiny. Gorram. It’s broken…can’t be fixed. You can’t stop the signal. I aim to misbehave.

Buffy/Angel: That would be wrong. Gives me the wiggins.

Farscape: Frell, Frelling, Get Frelled.

Star Trek: Beam me up.

Those are just off the top of my head. Add any that you use or have heard used and I’ll keep building on this.

Inspired by this post over at Rachel Lucas’

More Lifted From The Comments:

Stargate SG-1: “Indeed!”

Stargate: “I have no idea.” “Unscheduled Gate activation!” “Cree!”

X-Files: “Disturbing on many levels.”

Dear David Cook

23. April 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

(If you’re not following American Idol, this will make no sense, carry on.)

How in the name of all that’s holy can you take on Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber and NOT do something from Jesus Christ Superstar? You’re the rock guy! “Heaven on Their Minds?” “Simon Zealotes?” “Damned for All Time?” I’d have been highly amused if you’d have tried “Herod’s Song.” Or maybeeeee, I dunno, “The Rum Tum Tugger” or “Mr. Mistofelees” from Cats? There’s at least a rock beat in those.

“Music of The Night?” Really? The Phantom? I mean you pulled it off but come ON!

Well, at least you performed a song written for a male lead. I thought Jason and David were a tad confused but tonight absolutely proved it. A man…singing “Memory?” I had to listen to the original Broadway cast version just to get that baritone version out of my head. It’s just…wrong.

But dude…seriously, you’re the rock guy. I was counting on you.

The Producers – Euro-Style

12. April 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: European Disunion, Fun and Games, General, Good God, That's Entertainment!, The Funny, World

So my first reaction to this story was a jaw-dropped five minutes of boggle-eyed amazement. The second was to double check – this wasn’t an intricate send-up by the Onion, or Iowahawk? April Fool’s day was almost two weeks ago, admittedly… but no, it appears to be a completely straight – in the sense of being accurate, not in the sexual sense – news story.

Third reaction – wow, what a horrible thing to do to a poor unsuspecting little Verdi opera. That rumble you hear for south of the Alps? That must be the great maestro himself, revolving in his grave at a couple of thousand RPMs. Hook him up to an electric generator, you could probably power a couple of good-sized American suburbs, or maybe all of North Korea with the resulting output. This is just the latest manifestation of a depressing and currently fashionable penchant for staging operas and incorporating trappings and conventions taken cafeteria-style from an assortment of sources, to include gangster movies of all ages, S&M porn flicks and bloody violence a la Peckinpah or Tarantino…no matter how unsuited the opera is to that sort of artistic vision, or how much violence it does to the plot, or the characters. (more here)

It seems to be the ultra-trendy thing in Europe, apparently; it doesn’t seem to have caught on much in the States, where an opera house actually depends on appealing to the subscribers, season-ticket holders and the audience in general. We’re… umm, kind of traditional, that way. Generally the people who want to revel in gangster movies, S & M porn flicks or whatever, can get their fix somewhere else than the stage of the Met or the Houston Grand.

You’ve got to hand it to the director of this 9/11 Masked Balls-up, though – for sheer Teutonic thoroughness in including every single stupid, tired and overworked anti-American trope in the eu –repertoire: ugly naked people in Mickey-Mouse masks, same old anti-capitalist political posturing, Uncle Sam and Elvis impersonators… the whole ugly collection, calculated to demonstrate American vulgarity and European cultural superiority and creativity. I’m imagining the creative types sitting around, brainstorming and shouting out their ideas for every element and laughing their asses off the whole time at the credulity of their audience. It would be reassuring to think this was some kind of ‘Producers’ type scheme, to deliberately create a production guaranteed to go down in flames on opening night, but apparently not. According to the linked story, it’s sold out, or near to being so.

Ah, well – the next time I read of some euro-snot looking down his artistic nose and condemning Americans for being crass and vulgar and generally uncaring of our artistic heritage, I shall think of this production… and laugh, and laugh and laugh.

Dear Telivsion Networks

04. April 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: General, That's Entertainment!

Thank you so much for putting my favorite shows online. Once I found out my cable company was charging me $20.00 a month for the “convenience” of a DVR I dropped it like a sammich with a roach for a garnish. I work nights. It’s nice that I can watch a show after it’s run without having to set up an old VHS recorder.

American Idol 2008

25. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

I know I’m exhausted so I’m “altered” but I’ve got to say that kid David Cook is one hell of a singer. I hate the song Billy Jean with a passion, but what he did with it? That was sweet.

Ebony and Ovary

13. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Ain't That America?, Fun and Games, General, Politics, Rant, sarcasm, That's Entertainment!, World

Oh, my goodness gracious me, the presidential-race politicking is just betting more and more engrossing, in that tacky drive-by on the high-way and slow down to take a look at the interestingly arrayed wreckage sort of way. Honestly, as an independent-tending-to-the-Republican side of the political side of the scale for the purposes of this particular race, I am a mere interested spectator to the machinations of the Democratic Party side of the houseï¿½ rather in the sense of a spectator in the seats of the ancient Roman Coliseum was to a show on the sands down below to a match pitting a team with nets and tridents against a team with swords. There will be blood. Just not sure at this point who will be left standing, to receive the thumb-up or thumbs-down at the end of it all. Or how many corpses will be left strewn across the sand.

Yeah, well – I’ve beaten that imagery into the ground – ooohh, now we have a comic interval, with the Spitzer-fest. A prominent crusading New York DA, who made his political bones (and strewed his path lavishly with the bones of others, through strategic leaks to a compliant media) on prosecuting crime! Prostitution Rings! Wall Street White Collar Insider! Hoist on his own petard, stewed in his own juice! Great heaping plates of just desserts, just entrees, just salad course! All the way to the governors mansion on his record (and his family money) but wow – usually my dread is that someone this spectacularly big of a hypocrite and all around a-hole is a Texan. Thanks, New York – this one is all yours! Is he any sort of relation to crusading DA Mike Nifong of infamous Duke University rape case memory? Pity the wife doesn’t have the nerve of some wronged Texas wives- she just appears to be too lady-like to kick him out of the house, loot the bank account and run him over a couple of times in the parking lot with her BMW.

Eh, well – the political season is young, yet. Iï¿½d have had a lot more respect for Her Inevitableness – er, Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton if she had done something along those lines to demonstrate her displeasure after The Big He had confessed to his extra-curricular antics in the Oval Office. Sorry, it’s not a shock to me to learn that big men in high political places might be tempted to play hide the salam with women not their legal spouse. I just wish that if they must, they would have better **$#^!#!!! judgment about who they do it with. And that perhaps their spouses might be just pissed off enough about being paraded out for the big ‘stand by your man’ finale. Sorry, I don’t mind sex – it’s the stupidity that I canï¿½t make allowances for.

So, the Fresh Prince of Illinois has for two decades attended a church and accepted the spiritual guidance of a minister who is given to saying things like this in the pulpit of a Sunday morning. Hooo-kay – is he some sort of weird kin to Fred Phelps? So much for the appearance of having moved beyond race in this happy shiny 21st century America. At this point, the great insert-whatever-here just looks like Al Sharpton with nicer suits and a bit more polish to him. Note to Sen. O-B.: the clue to being the first ‘black’ whatever in America, is not to be ‘black’. It’s to be – American. Any message, any person in your campaign that counters that impression does not play well, outside whatever bubble you may have been playing in heretofore.

Let the games begin. It’s gonna get very interesting, if this week has been any indication.

(link courtesy of Roger Simon, and practically everyone else who has been linking to the ABC report all day. Note â€“ this intelligence about Sen. Oâ€™Bamaâ€™s church has been kicking around for a bit in the conservative blogosphere, so it shouldnâ€™t be too much of a surprise)

I Was Sad to Hear

23. January 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

…that actor Heath Ledger died yesterday afternoon. Of course the press was salivating over how he died and whether or not he died of an overdose. Were Ashley and Mary Kate involved? Seriously, i could care less.

I was sad because I liked him in everything I saw him in. From “10 Things I Hate About You” to “A Knight’s Tale” to “The Patriot” to “The Brother’s Grimm” I simply thought he did some good work and I’m bummed he won’t be doing more. I’m looking forward to his take on The Joker in the next Batman movie. It takes serious balls to take on a role that Jack Nicholson has put his stamp on.

I never regretted seeing one of his movies. That says a lot.

American Idol Season 7

16. January 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

I don’t know why I expected more actual talent on the first night…but I did…and now all I can say is that I’m grateful as I can be to the inventors of the DVR. I was going to record all of the episodes and just ff through the bad ones but I think I’m just going to skip the sucktitude all together and wait until they get to the actual competition where there’s at least a chance of hearing more actual singing than seeing some fat guy get his chest and back waxed.

Hey, I’ve got movies, I’ve got some of my favorite shows on DVD. I refuse to let the writers’ strike drag me into reality hell…not as long as there’s Discovery Channel.

Hey, who knows, maybe if this keeps up, America will start turning off the TV and reading more…what? It could happen.

Just Heard From Robert Ferrigno

16. January 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Fun With Islam, That's Entertainment!

Received an email from Robert Ferrigno yesterday. “Sins Of The Assassin,” the sequel to “Prayers For The Assassin,” is due to be released in February. I can’t wait. What I’m expecting is a lot of information on Islam, wrapped in an action packed thriller that will keep me up way too late waiting to see what happens next.

What I liked about “Prayers For The Assassin” was that it showed Islam from all sides. From the whack jobs who want to destroy us, to the good people of that faith that are desperately trying to do the next right thing.

I’ll Be Watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

15. January 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

First and foremost, Summer Glau is playing a major character. To say I have a a bit of a crush on this young lady is to put it mildly. Beautiful Wife has nothing to worry about, but ever since I first saw her in Firefly, I’ve been absolutely fascinated by her. I liked her in The 4400 as well where she did crazy well, but I missed her fighting. In Terminator, she’s back to being a badass. There’s something about a woman who can kick ass with style. If the first and second episodes are any indication of what we’re going to see from her, I want more.

Secondly, they haven’t skimped on the CGI effects. They’re good, especially for network T.V..

Thirdly, I’ve always loved the ‘verse of The Terminator. I think we should be more than a bit worried about what we computerize. You know I love computers and what we can do with them. However, I think that we’re advancing faster technically than we are socially. It worries me. When I think about it though. Humanity has survived under those conditions for centuries.

Fourth. The rest of the characters are fully filled in and follow the story line well. Lena Headey does a decent Sarah Connor. She’s no Linda Hamilton, but then again, Linda Hamilton hasn’t been Linda Hamilton since Beauty and the Beast. Thomas Dekker plays John Connor and since I wasn’t that thrilled with the kid who played him in that Terminator movie, anyone could have played a young John Connor better. He’s got some fighting skills as well so I think we’re going to have some decent sequences as the season progresses.

And lastly, did I mention Summer Glau is in it? I’m a happy man.

The Daily Brief