Movie Mondays!

The Kentucky Fried Movie is one of those films you have to see - why? Well, it’s the first film directed by John Landis, before he did Animal House, the Blues Brothers or American Werewolf in London (or directed Michael Jackson’s Thriller video) and it's also one of the first efforts by the Abrahams/Zucker team that would later go on to give us the Naked Gun series and the Airplane movie. Tame maybe by today’s standards, it was so fresh and topical in its day it became a cult classic. It captures TV and movies from the late seventies so well, it manages to be a bit of a relic because of it. Still there is enough slapstick humor here to enjoy and it should probably best be enjoyed as part of a double feature including that other underground comedy of the decade The Groove Tube.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Sunday matinee.

I just watched this again, I hadn’t seen it in quite some time and I remember catching it on the ABC Sunday Night movie at one point (this very much dates me). It’s a good flick:

The Heartbreak Kid is a 1972 dark romantic comedy film directed by Elaine May, written by Neil Simon, and starring Charles Grodin, Jeannie Berlin, and Cybill Shepherd.

Turns out even if you don’t have NetFlix you can watch the whole thing streaming online, it’s really worth it and beats the remake hands down.

Best movie this year!

So far the best thing I’ve seen in quite some time is a movie I caught a week ago. I am sure this will win an Academy Award because I rarely find something that will appeal to as many ages as this one did.

I’m talking about Tangled

Probably one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Good for all ages, decent story, great voice acting, terrific animation and the 3-D I saw it in wasn’t so much of a gimmick as much as it was an enhancement. Plus there were some wonderful songs too!

Tangled, previously known as Rapunzel, is a 2010 American animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film features the voices of Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi and is the 50th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The story is largely based on the German fairy tale Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm. It premiered in theatres and in 3D cinemas on November 24, 2010. To date, it is the second most expensive film ever made, and the most expensive animated film, with a budget of $260 million.

To the dismay of feminists everywhere.

I post this picture of a model in a Catwoman costume. Aside from my prurient response to the picture (which is considerable), what struck me about the pic when I came across it on Flickr was that this was just about one of the best pics of someone in a Catwoman outfit I have ever run across. I mean, SHE REALLY LOOKS LIKE CATWOMAN!

The whole cosplay/costume thing often goes awry. This is not just for men either, believe me I’ve been to enough cons and seen enough pics online of overweight, dirty looking clowns dressed up like a superhero to have had more than my fill of the whole thing. Ladies though don’t come off any better in this, I’ve seen enough bad Supergirl, Powergirl, Wonder Woman, Phoenix wannabees to last a lifetime too.

When someone does a really good job though, there’s something to be said for it. Although that is rather the exception than the rule.

I guess I always was a Pop lovin’ little f**ker.

Listening to music the other day and I wound up listening to this song (and what’s great is I was able to find a live HQ version on YouTube!):

 

This is one of my all time favorites, I hear it and it can bring tears to my eyes (tears of joy because I like it that much). There is something about it, maybe it was the time in my life when it was released. I can remember it on the radio. Also it probably confirms how much I love a certain kind of pop, top 40 airplay and how there will always be a special place in my heart for some of it.

Wings in particular. Man! There was this period when I was a teenager just a few years where they were HUGE! I loved those albums then and they’re still special to me today.

A week ago today...

I took my cousin to a very special event for his birthday:

Joe Torre interviewed by WFAN’s Mike Francesa at what is billed as a ‘Breakfast of Champions.’

Torre is exactly what you see on screen, in person. He is measured, even and thoughtful in his answers. It turned out to be quite entertaining event even allowing for Francesa’s alternating fawning and braggadocio mien.

Tuesday RSA.

Movie Mondays!

Not bad, just not for me. The classic play is updated, set in present times with a backdrop of the underworld of crime. One must wonder if this isn’t a failed experiment, if certainly interesting to watch. By choosing to give everything but the actual language modern trappings, the film though staying partially true to the original Shakespeare is still a bit inaccessible to its target audience.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Where I’ve been.

So, it’s been quiet around here lately because I haven’t had much of a chance to write. Between work and juggling everything else in life (and failing miserably outside of the work thing) there simply isn’t that much spare time to get anything else done.

Consequently my weekends of late have been spent mainly recuperating from the week.

Still we’re in the headlong rush to the end of the year, I will happily celebrate January 1st (or 2nd) because it signals the end of the insanity (Bah! Humbug!).

In the meantime, there is simply too much other stuff to do to really give the holidays even the slightest notice. I am realizing if I am going to do cards this year, it has to happen in the next few days or it won’t happen (this is a struggle each year).

I also realize why I hate this time of the year so very much...

There simply isn’t enough light for my tastes. Case in point, Friday I got out of work right at 5pm but it was already dark out! Over the weekend, I don’t even start to get going until late in the morning and even then there is usually a nap involved at some point in the day (likely after lunch) and by the time I get up again it can be dark out or almost dark.

I really despise that!

Throw in the cold too and blechhh!

Getting back to matters at hand though...

One of the few things I have been working on and making some kind of remote progress at is getting all my original art scanned, cleaned up and into my gallery over at the Comic Art Fans website. Like a lot of things, it’s been packed away waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. Packing it away is a good thing because things laying about usually wind up getting destroyed one way or another around here.

So, check out the gallery! There’s still a lot more I have to put up (I’m only about halfway through what I have) but some of it is really neat!

As it is some of the pages are so old there has been a bit of deterioration and I discovered you can’t ask sprayment to do rubber cement’s job.

This looks really, really good!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

First, there’s great voice casting but even better still is that they use a favorite song of mine.

Musings on Thanksgiving.

Now that the holiday is past and we have completed the first hurdle in the race to insanity that is the holiday season, let’s talk a little about the recently past Thanksgiving holiday.

I’m not big on holidays at all... as a matter of fact I’m trying to come up with a holiday I like and off the top of my head I can’t think of one. There isn’t a single of those days earmarked on the calendar for some special notice or celebration that warms me to the depths of my being.

If anything there are a bunch of days I get a holiday like feeling from that aren’t holidays. I’m talking here about the day pitchers and catchers report to spring training and the first day of the baseball season.

Other than that, holidays can basically... we’ll let’s just not go there.

Anyway, getting back to the orgy of turkey eating:

Thanksgiving kind of snuck up on me this year, fine in one way.

When the day finally did get here though, I found myself trying to recover from a 30 hour work day. Yes, you read that right, I’ve been fortunate to be working lately and Tuesday I was in the office at 9:30 am only to leave at 3:30 the following day. I’m not at liberty to go into detail other than to say the birth was a difficult one but ultimately the proud parents were well satisfied with the result.

By the time Thursday rolled around, I still was trying to recharge and schlepping over somewhere for a dinner wasn’t high on my list of things to do – napping more, yes. Driving somewhere to idle away an afternoon interspersed with gorging oneself with food, not so much.

I’m also getting to the point where I have come to realize it is time to start some new traditions, especially where holidays are concerned. Thanksgiving is a time for family, a time when we come together if only to see how much we have grown apart.

There are people I love dearly in my family, people I really cannot get enough of and then there are others I could distinctly do without.

Highpoint of the day - playing pool and getting a glimpse of some spectacular art hidden away in the most subtle of places.

Lowpoint - Dealing with the same mewling brats.

There are a couple of things that stand out:

When I hear over the course of the dinner that bringing back public hanging would be a good idea and it is voiced in all earnestness, I find myself choking back words of rebuke and marveling at the stupidity of otherwise educated people. The thing is, in a lot of circles I am very much considered quite conservative and so shocking me takes a fairly significant effort, so this is somewhat amazing.

Also, if I only see your kids once or at most twice a year and they blatantly misbehave while you pretend not to notice, it colors my opinion of you as both a parent and a person. Further there is a certain irony in listening to the litany of complaints the selfsame parent has about having to deal with other people’s misbehaving menaces while ignoring the same thing a bit closer to home.

Perhaps, it is more about dealing with such things when I have my one, raw nerve left after a grueling week. Perhaps it is about restraining myself from screaming at your brats myself because you cannot be bothered to control them but ultimately they are not cute, they are not endearing, they are misbehaving little terrors who you indulge at your own peril as they will one day become self indulgent teenagers.

Some people are at these things but they are absent. I have to figure out how to do that maybe if I want to continue to go to them but, it may well be that their time has past. I can’t go anymore without thinking about the people who are absent, the people who I miss greatly and that magic simply cannot be recaptured. So again, it’s a time to make a change I think.

In the meantime, I think about those people who weren’t at the table... Gerry and Ena (because they were the hosts), Tommy, Pop, Bob, Grandma, Mario and Mildred, Tina and Dan, Walter, Jill and Jerry and even Jill A (who had to work). Thanksgiving isn’t quite the same without them and I have to admit what remains has lost a great deal of its luster.

Tuesday RSA.

Movie Mondays!

I really enjoyed this quiet character piece about a hardcore gambler (Famke Janssen) trying to get custody of her son. Pool and (to a lesser extent) Poker provide the backdrop as Kailey tries to win enough money to realize her dream. Rip Torn mines familiar territory in a supporting role as the proprietor and backer of Janssen’s character. Overall the movie doesn’t break any new ground but is more about performance and dialog than anything else. It’s the kind of film I believe actors can appreciate as well as anyone who is interested the more subtle nuances of film.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

More on screening

On one of the biggest travel days of the year:

Such figures don’t mollify critics. “Nobody should be forced to choose between naked scans and groping by strangers in order to keep our airports safe,” says Laura Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s legislative office in Washington, which is sifting through a torrent of complaints in an attempt to assess whether the new policy is a violation of the Fourth Amendment statute against unreasonable searches. Scientists have clashed over the health impacts of absorbing additional radiation, opponents argue that the bill for the machines - which cost more than $150,000 apiece - outweighs the benefits, and some experts say the extra layer of protection does little to close existing loopholes in aviation security. Still, others deride the screenings as little more than “security theater,” a performance designed to deter terrorists or make travelers feel safe that in fact provides few tangible benefits.

You need to watch this.

And more than anything you need to listen carefully to the conversation going on. This is something that happened recently at an airport because someone decided to decline going through the new totally invasive scanner at the airport.

It’s important you listen to this because what is currently going on is a total abuse of government authority under the guise of making people ‘safer.’ In the days after 9/11, one would often hear the phrase ‘The Terrorists Will Have Won!’

My opinion is that they have.

However the terrorists are our government. They have just used exigent circumstances to deprive us of the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution of our nation. Laws that have in the past made us the shining beacon of personal freedoms the world over. It merely takes us one more step down the road to a totalitarian society.

If you believe this is not another step along the path to the government of Big Brother depicted in Orwell’s 1984, I suggest you take note of the looped audio playing intermittently in the background of the clip.



Security is everyone’s business? If that’s the case, then everyone and I mean EVERYONE! Should be subjected to the same screening if only to lead by example and this includes all our political leaders from the President on down. If they are going to dehumanize our population and tell us it’s not a big affront then they should at least have the smarts to show us by subjecting themselves to the same rules.

Ah, but there’s the rub now?

Because it underscores how there are very much two sets of rules and it’s another reason this bullshit needs to stop and people have to speak up about it.

I don’t care what you call it.

Call it Socialism, call it ObamaCare, call it Communism it really doesn’t matter because at the end of the day everyone in society benefits when there is a solid health care system in place that services everyone without them going into the poor house...

More than 100 million people are plunged into poverty every year by illness or “catastrophic” medical bills, the World Health Organisation said Monday, launching a global drive for universal health care.
“In my view, universal coverage is an admirable goal and a timely one. We have to bite the bullet,” said WHO Director General Margaret Chan, presenting the report in Berlin.
“This year’s WHO report is designed to encourage every country in the world to adopt policies that will extend policies to more people and reduce the number of people who risk financial ruin,” added Chan.

Here’s a funny thing I’ve noticed. There are a lot of opponents to socialized medicine but, in my own sphere of people the thing that strikes me as somewhat ironic is that the people who voice their opposition the loudest, the most vociferously are people who enjoy full health coverage at the behest of the government.

It’s this odd game in the sense that now that they have ‘theirs,’ perish the thought anyone else should avail themselves of affordable, government directed health care. The whole health care system in our country is very, very broken and hearing people go on at length speaking about how the health care system in this country is one of the best in the world usually means they either don’t pay for it themselves or have little problem footing the bill.

I’m tired of these disingenuous arguments and think it is well past time to arrive at some kind of solution and IT WILL COST MONEY. But, the alternative is really a non starter – there is a belief somehow corporate welfare is fine but any other kind of government largesse is anathema and this is just a load of garbage. It’s well past the time for serious reform and the last proposal (the Health Care reform bill) is just the first step down a road that will hopefully take us there.

You’re next!

To all you pseudo anarchist militant cyclists who roam the streets of Manhattan, the clock is now ticking for you as well. Up to now, cyclists have believed they would be able to do whatever they wanted to do when riding their bikes but it may well be times are changing. As the city has installed these pretty little bike lanes, the other shoe is dropping. Cyclists are now viewed as another source of revenue for the city, another target for tickets:

The point of the crackdown, police sources said, is to show cyclists they're not above the law.


Cyclists and pedicab drivers are subject to the same rules of the road as motorists, a source said.


Similar to drivers, some summonses are for traffic court, while others are for criminal court — which means a cyclist or pedicab driver could be issued a bench warrant if he doesn't show for his court date.

Excuse me while I laugh heartily, it’s probably only the beginning. File this under: Be careful what you wish for.

Tuesday RSA.

I think this is only fitting to run around the holidays...

Movie Mondays!

What was once quirky now seems prescient, David Byrne’s collaboration with Jonathan Demme is an amazing commentary on what America has become. Released at the height of the Reagan years, more than two decades past, this film has a timeless quality. Set in mythical Virgil Texas, the stark high-plains mirrors the emptiness the characters seek to escape in a society increasingly focused on consumption. Songs from the Talking Heads album are effortlessly woven through the framework of the movie and Byrne’s understated narrator is the perfect guide to this charming romp into our nation’s soul. John Goodman in one of his first lead roles, Swoosie Kurtz and the sorely missed Spalding Gray round out an interesting cast. Well worth seeing not just for the musical performances alone (which are excellent) but also for what stands up as a gem of independent cinema.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

That’s called a job.

I’ve been so very busy lately, I haven’t had much time to think much less write. The days seem to slip by so readily and I find myself wondering how I am on this treadmill but at the same time thankful to be busy and working.

Often, the only time I will really have for any kind of reflection (if that is what you can call it) is bookended into the day as I walk from Grand Central to the job in the morning and then back again at night. It’s a pretty direct route so there really isn’t any solid reason to take one of the two or three regular routes back and forth.

Not much changes from day to day, over time yes, but it’s imperceptible for the most part... scaffolding goes up, a building gets repaired, another one is built, a storefront goes blank and the windows are pasted over in that white gook until a new tenant moves in but that’s really about it.

Still it’s a nice walk for the most part.

One of the things I have noticed though is how certain spots have been staked out.

If I walk along one side of Park Avenue, I can be assured of passing three people during the course of my travels. When I say I can be assured, I mean to say that it is almost guaranteed each day they will be there rain or shine.

Doing what?

Why begging of course!

It seems these two or three individuals have marked out their little corner of Manhattan to conduct a social experiment and to play upon the generosity of their fellow urbanites. Everyday there is the same woeful pitch as you pass or the same pleading handwritten sign detailing the tale of woe (one of them has the fact that he’s a traveler but interestingly enough he appears stuck to one spot).

You would think I have a very hard heart and in some ways I do, not because I don’t believe in charity but more because I believe these people have suspect motives.

See... think about it in these terms. These people, get up in the morning, go to the same place, spend hours there and all the while trying to make money. I can’t help but think to myself they have another name for that... it’s called A JOB! If you can sit in one place for hours, HEY! You can get a f$%^&ng job and work like the rest of us.

In the words of someone I used to know, “Suck it up!”

Tuesday RSA.

Once a sleaze, always a sleaze.

Seen recently:

Movie Mondays!

Not as good as Raiders, better than Temple and marginally superior to The Last Crusade, the Indiana Jones series is bought to a satisfying conclusion. A decade has passed since the end of WW2, the Nazis are defeated and the new threat (the Reds!) of Russia looms. Doctor Jones is older and carries the bumps and bruises of a life of adventure. This time, he finds himself drawn in to the hunt for another artifact, The Crystal Skull. The film bears less resemblance to the serials of the 40s and more to the scifi/horror films of the 50s, the time period in which it is set. The story is predictable but it’s all about the ride. Even more amazing is the fact Harrison Ford did all his own stunt work for the film. The subtle message here is we all get older but that doesn't mean the adventure has to stop, well done.


I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Farting Friday.

Because farts are funny (and this will have to do until I go through some more old magazines and get a bunch of Photo Funnies scanned)

I started to write about this TWO YEARS AGO! At the time the headlines were full of this story:

“When a nerve fires, it releases a bit of neurotransmitter. Then it fires again, very quickly, and releases more of the neurotransmitter, which is always in reserve and at the ready in large storage pools called vesicles. However, gasses can’t be stored; they diffuse. So every time there’s a nerve impulse, an enzyme must be activated to make it,” he says.

So, if you want to lower that blood pressure... well, you can probably see where this is going although I have to say to I have done empirical studies in the ensuing years and as yet have no evidence that this is in fact true!

Post Halloween scare tactics.

My friend Mark just got back from an extended stay up in the wilds of Vermont. While he was up there, he found the time to do some pumpkin carving as a bit of a gift to someone and after seeing the pictures I really wanted to share them because I found his work just incredible and entertaining:

Because we really can’t.

Ever seem to get enough of Batman and so there continue to be these fan films people produce that raise the bar for movies based around comics. Think about it... if someone can put together something that is suspenseful and well done on a shoestring budget it doesn’t give filmmakers any excuse to give beloved characters the short shrift anymore and this one is actually quite good:

CITY OF SCARS

Uploaded by Batinthesun. - Check out other Film and TV videos.

Tuesday RSA.

It occurs to me I don’t ordinarily point over to the RSA site - lots of good stuff there! Check it out:

For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress.  Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.

Movie Mondays!

I saw the movie during its initial theatrical run and while it was daring in its day, it plays as a wildly uneven effort now. Most of the better bits are available via you-tube and a viewer is better served watching the individual sketches as opposed to sitting through the entire film. While I enjoyed the nostalgia of seeing NYC in the seventies and getting the feel of the period, I can’t see the flick eliciting more than a slightly disinterested yawn from younger audiences. Sure there is the chance to see Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer before they were well-known but it’s not enough of a draw to make watching the whole film a rewarding experience. Good only for those seeking out the nostalgia of the Groove Tube, all others would be better served checking out Kentucky Fried Movie.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Good wishes are in order.

It’s been bought to my attention today is Joni Mitchell’s birthday (thank you Ganesha Girl.).

I‘m not a rabid fan of Joni Mitchell but there is one of her albums I have a particular fondness for. That album is The Hissing of Summer Lawns which was released round about the time I was fifteen or sixteen. It seems odd to me in retrospect that a fifteen year old boy would go out and buy a Joni Mitchell record but it still holds up (for me) and I still think some of the songs are simply amazing.The music has a beautiful haunting, ethereal quality and the lyrics are really compact interesting character studies.

Joni Mitchell is 77 today! It just doesn’t seem possible but here are some live performances of songs off that album I think you’ll enjoy:

And a classic not off that album:

TWINS?

Think these are two pics of the same woman?

WRONG!

In on of those weird coincidences that happen in this world the top picture is of Susan Williams who has been in the news of late for trying to hire a hit-man to off her husband after having an affair with her brother-in-law and the bottom pic is of the infamous Long Island Lolita, Amy Fisher.

Susan and Amy are both attractive women but one has to wonder just what is it in the water or air out their in Long Island that breeds these sexually charged brunettes who have a proclivity towards violence? Tread carefully!

Listen to what the man said.*

I usually get emails from people railing about the President but I have to wonder if the people sending those email actually watch the President. What I mean is, I know they SEE the President but usually this is filtered through the lens of someone with an editorial axe to grind.

So, while I am writing this before the election and I have no idea how the midterms are going to play out (although I have my sneaking suspicion that it will not be the stinging rebuke of the current administration people would have you believe it will be), I think on another level we should here the man’s words directly from the source and then decide if he is deserving of the conempt so readily thrown in his direction:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

* - This is a pointed nod to an old favorite tune of mine which is worth a watch. (CLICK THROUGH! IT’S WORTH IT!)

FILE UNDER: Your child is not a genius.

Today’s parents seem to be overwhelmingly of a mind that their progeny is a special little sunflower or is it the next Einstein? This manifests itself as blind devotion and a failure to acknowledge the little monsters are unformed adults capable of infinitely more transgressions than the parent would believe.

Consequently, children can never be ‘at fault’ and when I say at fault, I mean in the sense they mirror much of our culture today in they cannot accept responsibility for their actions and the consequences of those actions to themselves, people and the world around them.

Whether it’s in school, on the playground or just out and about, children are undoubtedly much more privileged today than in years passed. Gone are the days of the old saw: “Children should be seen and not heard” because today’s parents embrace the popular belief that every issue from their brats mouths is jewel for the ages.

In that vein, I came across this article the other day:

The suit that Justice Wooten allowed to proceed claims that in April 2009, Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, who were both 4, were racing their bicycles, under the supervision of their mothers, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn, on the sidewalk of a building on East 52nd Street. At some point in the race, they struck an 87-year-old woman named Claire Menagh, who was walking in front of the building and, according to the complaint, was “seriously and severely injured,” suffering a hip fracture that required surgery. She died three months later of unrelated causes.

Because...

I’m really bored and even though I’m writing this well in advance, I know the week will be especially brutal and I won’t have much energy or time to post.

A picture:

Election Day admonition.

For reasons I can’t quite explain I was looking through one of my other blogs and I realized two of the posts there are really quite relevant as we stand on the eve of the mid term elections.

Am I prescient?

Not really, I just think I have a higher level of skepticism than most especially when it comes to buying whatever bullshit is being foisted off on the public – the people of this country really need to wise up because if you really want someone to blame you need look no further than the mirror. Stop being angry with ‘the other guy’ or the person who doesn’t fall lock step with your views because while you’re sitting there trying to win your argument, the status quo just keeps being maintained and this country remains adrift in a sea of problems we fail to confront.

Our most current round of anger will be directed at the present administration. Many believe we have been taken down some primrose path that ends with us being socialist paupers, this is in total denial of the fact that wild spending by the previous administration bought us back to a greater and greater national debt.

Also, the cries about government spending ring a bit hollow... first there was this distinction made that throwing money at corporations to bail them out of bad decision making made in absence of any true regulatory mechanism was okay where doing the same thing for citizens was a crime beyond crimes.

Then, there is the complete denial the health care system in this country isn’t working for a lot of people and while what is derisively termed ‘ObamaCare’ is nothing more than a first step down a long road the nation needs to travel to fix a broken system.

Lastly, things have gotten a little better. Not anywhere near where they were during the boom of the nineties but nowhere near as terrifyingly bad as they had gotten in the months leading up to and following the election of 2008. Money the government loaned out in some instances has already been paid back with interest. Our economy is not the smoothly purring engine it should be but there isn’t an easy solution to the issue given the changing needs of the marketplace.

This may be a surprising election because while I had anticipated a swinging of the pendulum back from the left and a Republican victory regaining control of the legislative branch the truth is the lunatic fringe in the form of the Tea Party folks has divided loyalties and may well wind up having the opposite effect on the outcome of the election than was originally desired by those very same folks.

Remember, when you step into the voting booth today, leave your anger and indignation outside and carefully vet those people you cast your vote for because the truth is in some instances you are hiring them for a job they may have for a very long time and you really want to be sure to hire the best possible person you can for the position and that is what a vote really entails.

Statement the second (WRITTEN WAY BACK ON ELECTION DAY 2008):

The Obama Brand.


Or where John McCain missed it.

I started this a few days back and since I am out the door in a little bit to vote I might as well finish it up:

Thankfully we are only a few days out from the election. I say thankfully because I tire of the quadrennial frenzy out nation descends into every time a Presidential election rolls around. If only people would get as excited and as passionate for local elections – where are all you f*@#ers then?

Anyway, watching John McCain flounder through this campaign has been a real wonder to behold. I mean that in the most snarky and sarcastic sense because if ever there was a political candidate who so embodied the character from Animal House it would be Red State John.

Watching the ’08 edition of the Republican Party flail away has been simply amazing as they have tried time and time again to make something stick against Teflon Barack.

The thing is, Barack Obama has positioned his brand so well coming into this election cycle, he made himself almost impossible to beat.

Obama’s campaign from the very start was based around a single premise, a premise his whole brand identity was built upon.

Change.

It’s as simple as that, you can sum up Obama’s campaign in a single word and the candidate has hammered away continually reinforcing it in the electorate’s mind. A single word, which serves a multiple purpose.

First, it plays well to all the people who have been carrying pent up anger and venom ever since the 2000 election. These are the people who have so loudly and repeatedly called for some kind of change in the makeup of our government.

Funny thing is, we had a taste of that change during the ’06 midterm election when the Democrats. The end result... not much.

Six-point plan
Prior to the election in July 2006 Democrats unveiled a six-point plan they promised to enact if elected with congressional majorities. The plan was billed the “Six for 06 agenda” and officially called "A New Direction For America" and compared to the 1994 Republican “Contract with America.” The six-points of the plan include: “honest leadership and open government, real security, energy independence, economic prosperity and educational excellence, a healthcare system that works for everyone, and retirement security.”

People in this country have short memories, plainly put with a Democratic majority in both houses for the last two years and Congress has very little to show for it. This rally cry against one party or another doesn’t address the underlying dysfunction in our government. The government of our nation has been at best a reactionary force in American society and at worst a sterling example of how bureaucracy fails when compromised at the alter of Capitalism.

The dialog in our country especially in regard to the current election has been a fascinating glimpse into the fractured psyche of the American public. Is our government supposed to be a paternalistic entity? If so, how far are we willing to let our government become involved in our affairs? People at once want government to do something about health-care, about education, about business and a host of other issues but how restrictive do we want government to be? When government starts becoming involved in social issues, is it a good thing or a bad thing? We walk a tightrope here, some recognize it but many do not.

Getting back to the current election though, Obama has built the perfect brand... his brand is change.

Are you unhappy? Change.

Not making enough money? Change.

Don’t like our foreign policy? Change.

Worried about government spending? CHANGE!

It’s so broad and generic a term it defies the inherent hazards of specificity.

This is where John McCain has failed because he has been unable to distance himself from the current administration. John McCain’s campaign has tried repeatedly to figure out how to position their candidate - first it was as the ‘experienced guy’ but that didn’t work. Then, it was as the ‘heroic guy’ but that didn’t work either. Finally it was the ‘progressive guy’ (as evidenced by his VP choice) but ultimately that didn’t work either.

In the meantime, Obama has positioned himself as an agent of change. What that change will be, the American people have a vague idea of but it will be change.

I’ve gotten emails about our descent into Socialism, as if somehow this is supposed to raise some specter of fear in me.

Yet, I’m not afraid.

McCain has not been the only candidate frustrated by the Obama campaign’s deft positioning... speak to any HRC supporter and you’ll find a lingering bitterness, a disbelief in how her coronation somehow could not come to pass. How was it possible for the ultimate strategists to be outsmarted so?

Strategy? You must of course realize Barack Obama has not just foiled the plans of the RNC. No, he has also managed to foil the very carefully mapped out plans of the Clinton camp. Plans that included HRC sticking it out through Bill’s many dalliances, HRC taking a senate seat in a state to echo the path of RFK and all the built-up goodwill of stumping for so many Democratic candidates over the last 8 years building chits to be called in during her abortive presidential bid.

In any case, this year’s election has to be one of the best examples of the marketing of a candidate to come along since we started having elections. This has been the perfect example of an election for a media-obsessed society. To the detriment of everything else put on hold as we progress to this one-day.

I’m back and I’ve already taken care of voting. It promises to be one of those elections where there is a big turnout. I was 31 out of 400 registered voters for my polling location and it wasn’t even 7:30! I’m not going to watch all the polling news, I’m not going to stay riveted to the TV over this. Tomorrow, one way or the other it will be settled, we will have voted and a decision will have been made. It’s not a football game, or the World Series where you root for one side or another. As long as people come out and vote... we all win. (1123 Views pre transfer)

Tuesday RSA.

Another great RSAnimate (somewhat fitting for Election Day):

Pre election admonition.

For reasons I can’t quite explain I was looking through one of my other blogs and I realized two of the posts there are really quite relevant as we stand on the eve of the mid term elections.

Am I prescient?

Not really, I just think I have a higher level of skepticism than most especially when it comes to buying whatever bullshit is being foisted off on the public – the people of this country really need to wise up because if you really want someone to blame you need look no further than the mirror. Stop being angry with ‘the other guy’ or the person who doesn’t fall lock step with your views because while you’re sitting there trying to win your argument, the status quo just keeps being maintained and this country remains adrift in a sea of problems we fail to confront.

Statement the first (WRITTEN WAY BACK IN THE SUMMER OF 2008):

Don’t believe in change.

Election day is almost upon us and of course in the next few days the drumbeat will increase to a fever pitch as the very real prospect of one candidate winning and the other losing will become a reality.

I’ve made up my mind who I’m voting for, I still can’t fathom people who say they are as yet undecided. Do these same people need help having someone picking out their clothes for them in the morning or having another person feed them?

Thing is, whoever gets in, people need to be a lot more realistic about what our prospects are.

We are on the cusp of a prolonged recession. The volatility of the market aside, over the coming months there will be decreased consumer spending, higher unemployment and growing deficits.

If you doubt me on this, ask yourself how freely you spend money given the current economy and how secure you feel about money going forward.

The point is whoever wins this election will have a tough row to hoe. There will be very little leeway for any chief executive after dealing with the problems of the economy. Consequently, expect the next year to two years to be a very difficult time.

I don’t want to sound pessimistic but, as caught up as people can get in the frenzy of campaign season, it is imperative to realize January 21st, 2009 if your guy wins, the sun will not immediately come out, birds will not start singing and all will not suddenly become happiness and light. The people who believe that are going to be in for something of a rude awakening.

Likewise, if your guy loses... well, it’s not all the new President’s fault if things suddenly don’t go swimmingly. I would venture between now and round about June of 2010 were going to be having some sobering times. The booms in the last century were in the 20’s, the 50’s and the 90’s it may be a bit of time before another boom comes along. (1334 Views pre transfer)

Movie Mondays!

A roller coaster ride from start to finish Shia LaBeouf as a ne’er do well caught up in a complicated plot threatening the security of the nation. Michelle Monaghan (reminding me of Evangeline Lilly for some reason) is a stranger along for the ride as the two are thrown together inadvertently. Lots of action with strong sci-fi underpinnings. The cast is rounded out by Billy Bob Thornton (doing his best Tommy Lee Jones impersonation), Rosario Dawson and Michael Chiklis. You don’t get much of a chance to catch your breath in this distant cousin to Colossus tFP.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

I’m not big on Halloween.

And I find myself amazed at how much bigger a deal Halloween has become through the years. Part of that is tied into retailers trying to find something to latch onto between the back-to-school retail drive and the Christmas holiday shopping season.

Any day now, actually shortly after today, Christmas decorations will start going up and you’ll start seeing all kinds of urgings to get YOUR SHOPPING DONE EARLY!

Fuck the whole lot of you.

I’m not big on holidays of any kind truth be told. And that’s only gotten to be more the case with each passing year.

As for Halloween, I have little use for it. It‘s not that I don’t think it’s a great thing for little kids and trick or treating and all that. If that was all the holiday was about, which is something I remember it being growing up, I’d be fine with it.

But, unfortunately the jackasses of the world have hijacked Halloween as just another day when they can act out to everyone else’s detriment. Now it becomes more about some deep seated urge to pretend they’re someone else and escape their life or lack of a life by dressing up.

If you’re over say the age of 12 (and that’s right on the cusp), dressing up on Halloween or going out in the streets dressed up is just one indication you have some serious growing up to do. Better still, if the dressing up is also combined with excessive intake of drugs or alcohol then you are a candidate for a future Darwin Award and hopefully will be receiving it soon.

Stupid ain’t pretty and putting it behind a mask doesn’t make it go away.

So, as far as Halloween goes... to all the kids out there be sure to be on the lookout for apples with pins in them because we all know they’re out there. I‘m on the fence whether or not I’ll even buy any candy this year because I wind up overbuying normally, don’t have too many kids coming for trick or treat (a consequence of living in the burbs without a sidewalk in front of the house on a busy, busy street) and then find myself either eating the crap (which I shouldn’t) or bringing it to work and forcing it on my co-workers.

As for all you people over the age of 12... friends don’t let friends make asses of themselves.

Ah... the irony!

Just last week I put up the video of Yankee fans throwing things into the bullpen during the playoffs. On the heels of that comes this little gem:

Perhaps the Rangers’ greatest sales pitch simply was having Kristen sit in the visiting family section at Yankee Stadium during the playoffs. She says there were ugly taunts. Obscenities. Cups of beer thrown. Even fans spitting from the section above.

“The fans did not do good things in my heart,” Kristen says.

“When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it’s hard not to take it personal.”

Who knows if the fans’ behavior will have any affect on Lee’s decision. Nothing ever unravels him, Kristen says, unless something interferes with him during deer hunting season, which starts Nov. 13 in Arkansas. Free agency can wait a little longer.

Yes, Yankee fans just can’t learn what it means to comport themselves with the pride the franchise is supposed to embody. If the Bronx Zoo were written today, it would most likely be about what goes on in the stands than what goes on in the clubhouse because all too often Yankee fans at the Stadium behave like animals.

I went to the Stadium for many years as a fan and truthfully I know what I saw and heard made it a lot easier for me to switch allegiances. Taking in a ballgame across town at Shea was always a better time and more friendly than it ever was a Yankee Stadium.

And the thing about all of this that is really odd is the fact that the Yankees have this pedigree of winning so one would think the fans could at least be somewhat gracious in their success. Instead there is just too much alcohol flowing and far too much rowdiness that is never addressed. I can’t think the organization isn’t aware of it and on some level doesn’t encourage the rabid devotion of the fans (probably because it factors into increased revenue).

And fans themselves know it because I’ve spoken to friends who are fans and they readily acknowledge they aren’t inclined to take their wives or children to a game at the Stadium because of the atmosphere and have noticed themselves how different the experience of taking in a ballgame can be even in the same city.

Yankee fans though are used to the franchise buying the biggest name on the market each off-season, even if it isn’t what will produce a World Champion - Jason Giambi anyone, anyone? Mike Mussina, anyone, anyone? AJ Burnett? Nick Johnson? History is just scattered with names of players who the Yankee paid top dollar for and ultimately didn’t fit in with the overall plan.

In Cliff Lee though, there is something of a proven commodity and while I am sure Lee and his agent want the Yankee in on the bidding (if only to drive up his price), anyone who thinks his wife’s experience won’t factor in somehow in the decision of where to continue his career is really living in a state of denial.