September 4th, 2008 By TONY CAMPBELL, TMV Columnist
As I watched Governor Palin’s speech, I had to make sure that my DVD player wasn’t on by mistake. Her Alaskan accent reminded me of the movie “Fargo”.
Part of that movie was filmed in the Twin Cities. If you haven’t seen the movie in a while, it is a great slice of life in Minnesota and North Dakota. This YouTube video is hilarious…take a minute and check it out. Enjoy!
The other night, James Dobson’s ministry asked all believers to pray for a storm on Thursday night so that the Obama acceptance speech outdoors in Denver would have to be canceled.
I see that You have answered Dr. Dobson’s prayers — except the storm You have sent to earth is not over Denver, but on its way to New Orleans! In fact, You have scheduled it to hit Louisiana at exactly the moment that George W. Bush is to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention.
Now, heavenly Father, we all know You have a great sense of humor and impeccable timing. To send a hurricane on the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster AND right at the beginning of the Republican Convention was, at first blush, a stroke of divine irony. I don’t blame You, I know You’re angry that the Republicans tried to blame YOU for Katrina by calling it an “Act of God” — when the truth was that the hurricane itself caused few casualties in New Orleans. Over a thousand people died because of the mistakes and neglect caused by humans, not You.
August 31st, 2008 By SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
Nalaka Gunawardene, Sri Lanka’s leading journalist, asks an interesting question: “From Chris Rock to Barack Obama: Will electoral life imitate Hollywood art?”
Gunawardene recalls that “while the Democratic Party convention was underway on the other side of the planet, I re-watched the 2003 Chris Rock movie Head of State - and realized how prescient it has been in some respects.
“But where life does imitate art is in how the Washington establishment conspires to keep a young, charismatic black man from ascending to the highest elected office.
“In the movie, deep rooted political party divisions are crossed as power brokers look for desperate measures to stop Mays Gilliam from marching to the White House.
“Now why does that sound vaguely familiar with Obama’s own courageous and remarkable journey so far?” More here…
Barack Obama called out John McCain in his speech tonight. Obama gave a Michael-Douglas-type of invitation to John McCain. In “The American President”, Douglass’ character (President Andrew Shepherd) spent most of the movie getting beat up by his Republican challenger Senator Bob Rumson, played brillantly by Richard Dreyfuss. Towards the end of the the film, Shepherd calls out Rumson by saying “If you want to talk about character and American values, fine, just tell me where and when and I’ll show up.”
The most amazing aspect of this speech was that it was bold and yet humble. Obama deftly handled the national defense issue in a way that was pretty clever; linking the successful Democratic presidents of the past to the two major international incidents of the last 70 years - FDR & WWII / JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The best line of the speech has to be “John McCain says he will follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell; he won’t even follow him to his cave.”
Obama says he gets it. Change doesn’t come from Washington; change goes to Washington. He may be right but if he is able to maintain his unique balance of strength, substance and style…change may be coming to Washington in sixty-seven days.
I’m no actor and I have sixty four films to prove it.
– VICTOR MATURE
If you want to see the girl next door, go next door.
– JOAN CRAWFORD
There is a marvelous scene in the 1956 hit High Society that distills the greatness of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby not as terrific singers, which they of course were, but as consummate movie stars.
It is their rendition of Cole Porter’s swingingly whimsical “Did Ya Evah,” which as film historian Jeanine Basinger writes, required Frankie and Der Bingles to sing, dance, hit their marks, not mangle the lyrics, deliver the scripted dialogue, stay within their characters, act slightly drunk, keep the beat of the orchestra playback, move around a tight set following a specific choreography and all the while appearing to be utterly at ease while never forgetting that they were rivals for the audience’s affection.
This marvelous description of star power comes early in Basinger’s The Star Machine, a thoroughly researched and delightfully written layer cake of a book about a business that Hollywood couldn’t even define but almost always succeeded in through a combination of astute planning, brilliant marketing, understanding its audience better than the audience understood itself, as well as sheer dumb luck.
Basinger deftly and wittily elucidates the steps in making a star:
It may be that much of the world is consumed with the upcoming U.S. conventions and the selection of Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee for Vice President, but in China, it seems, there is another battle raging: Is Barack Obama REALLY Handsome? Read the rest of this entry »
Are you kidding me? Is this the fourth installment of the “Back to the Future” movie franchise? How did Joe Biden get into the picture to be tapped by Barack Obama for V.P.? Over the last forty-eight hours, I have read dozens of stories of how Biden’s foreign policy experience will help Barack Obama overcome the national security deficit he faces against John McCain. The point is not without merit but in the rush to protect Obama’s flank, the cure is worse than the disease. Simply put, Joe Biden will not help Barack Obama win in November. In fact, if one takes a look at recent presidential history, the choice of Biden will ensure Obama’s defeat.
How? Does anyone remember 1988? Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee with little to no foreign policy experience picked Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate. Bentsen, elected to the U.S. Senate in 1970, had won re-election two times and had run unsuccessfully for the Presidency in 1976. The Dukakis / Bentsen ticket only won 111 electoral votes and even lost Bentsen’s home state of Texas.
Obama’s consideration of Joe Biden is questionable, at best. His home state, Delaware, is solidly in Obama’s electoral column as well as most of the northeastern and middle Atlantic states. The geographic and electoral arguments for Biden’s inclusion on the ticket do not make any practical sense, so the only reason for the nod would be for his experience. Unfortunately, there is just one problem; Joe Biden’s sub-par experience as a presidential candidate.
In 1988, Joe Biden made his first run for the Presidency and dropped out of the race before any of the primaries because of a speech that was thought to be plagiarized from a British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. In 2008, Joe Biden was a candidate for the Democratic nomination this year but won less than 2% of the votes in the Iowa caucuses. In my opinion, the choice of Joe Biden will be as disastrous for Barack Obama as Lloyd Bentsen was for Michael Dukakis. Joe Biden is running for re-election to the United States Senate, and therefore, has nothing to lose. It is a win-win for Joe Biden; he is assured of re-election to the U.S. Senate from Delaware or he can become the 47th Vice-President of the United States. Lloyd Bentsen did the same thing in 1988…that did not work out so well for Michael Dukakis.
August 19th, 2008 By JOE WINDISH, Technology Editor
Amid all our talk about VP picks, look what just popped up in my inbox:
Dear Caroline,
We’ve never met, so I hope you don’t find this letter too presumptuous or inappropriate. As its contents involve the public’s business, I am sending this to you via the public on the Internet. I knew your brother John. He was a great guy, and I know he would’ve had a ball during this thrilling and historic election year. We all miss him dearly.
Barack Obama selected you to head up his search for a vice presidential candidate. It appears we may be just days (hours?) away from learning who that choice will be.
The media is reporting that Senator Obama has narrowed his alternatives to three men: Joe Biden, Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine. They’re all decent fellows, but they are far from the core of what the Obama campaign has been about: Change. Real change. Out with the old. And don’t invade countries that pose no threat to us…
What Obama needs is a vice presidential candidate who is NOT a professional politician, but someone who is well-known and beloved by people across the political spectrum; someone who, like Obama, spoke out against the war; someone who has a good and generous heart, who will be cheered by the rest of the world; someone whom we’ve known and loved and admired all our lives and who has dedicated her life to public service and to the greater good for all.
That person, Caroline, is you.
I cannot think of a more winning ticket than one that reads: “OBAMA-KENNEDY.” [DREAM ON]
Being a hard-core fan of classic movies, particularly those with Bogie in them, I’ve long had Casablanca in my list of the top five movies of all time. Today, I will get to indulge one of my greater pleasures as I shall be one of the guests on a panel discussing trivia regarding this timeless film. At 4 pm Eastern, you can join me on Betty Jo Tucker’s Movie Addict Headquarters when she interviews Tom Barnes, author of “Casablanca Film Trivia: Here’s Looking at You, Kid!” We will also be joined by noted film critic Diana Saenger.
“By turning 65 this year, the world’s most revered film qualifies for Medicare, just like I do,” Barnes quips. “Now that Casablanca has reached old age, it is time to reflect on the film’s impact since winning the Academy Award for best picture 65 years ago…What better way to honor Casablanca than a book of trivia about all aspects of the film and its filming?”
Barnes includes 1,130 questions about Casablanca in his fun trivia book, and he’s worked on these questions for the past 15 years. The questions cover such areas as history, actors, script, critics, images, characters, production staff, music, geography, goofs, and clothing. Each of the 33 chapters centers on a specific category or theme, and most of the chapters end with interesting “factoids” about this fascinating movie.
One of the questions I want to cover is everyone’s favorite quotes from this film. What are yours? To add a greater degree of difficulty, you’re not allowed to use, “Here’s looking at you, Kid,” or “We’ll always have Paris.” Nor can you use, “Play it again, Sam.” (Which was never actually said in the film. Some more trivial for you there.) I won’t spoil it with mine, but I will reveal that during the show.
August 15th, 2008 By SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
This month Madonna and Michael Jackson complete 50 years of age. Both Madonna and Jackson have attracted huge controversy, but with very different outcomes, says The Times. “In sheer numbers, both Jackson and Madonna are phenomenal success stories. His credits include the bestselling album of all time, Thriller (1982), with global sales somewhere close to 100 million.
“His royalty rate is notoriously high, his fortune estimated in billions, and his overall record sales of 750 million dwarf Maddy’s 200 million. And yet she may yet prove the smarter long-term investor. With her new Live Nation deal and estimated net worth of $400 million, she is the most successful female pop artist yet, recently surpassing Elvis Presley in the US Top Ten singles league.
“Despite Jackson being a superior singer, better dancer and bigger seller, his career is a shambles while Madonna goes from strength to strength…”
Throughout the primary season, Senator Hillary Clinton has said time-and-time-again that she is a tough fighter who will not surrender until the very end. In about two weeks, we will see how many rounds she will be prepared to go in order to become the nominee of the Democratic Party.
In my columns, I have been consistent in my opinion that this race between Clinton and presumptive nominee Barack Obama is far from over. To this day Clinton has not ended her campaign, it is still merely suspended so she can raise enough money to retire her campaign debt and can be re-organized quickly dependent on what occurs at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
The group P.U.M.A. is having their convention in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Last week, Senator Clinton made the following statement “I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected. I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified.” Here is the translation for those of who don’t speak Clintonese. Senator Clinton’s delegates will vote for her on the first ballot. This has been the plan as soon as Obama overwhelmingly won on Super Tuesday and the Potomac primaries, and Clinton supporter Lanny Davis, back on February 18th, just about assured us that Hillary’s campaign would not be over until Denver.
The title line “At my signal, unleash Hell” is from the movie Gladiator. Senator Clinton has a role similar to Russell Crowe’s character of General Maximus, a very popular leader who commands an army of followers who will support Obama only if she gives the signal. What Obama has to wonder is, on whom will she unleash Hell? John McCain has to be secretly-praying that Clinton’s forces stay focused on Obama until November.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Isaac Hayes, the baldheaded, baritone-voiced soul crooner who laid the groundwork for disco and whose “Theme From Shaft” won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon after he collapsed near a treadmill, authorities said. He was 65.
Hayes was pronounced dead at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis an hour after he was found by a family member, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said. The cause of death was not immediately known.
With his muscular build, shiny head and sunglasses, Hayes cut a striking figure at a time when most of his contemporaries were sporting Afros. His music, which came to be known as urban-contemporary, paved the way for disco as well as romantic crooners like Barry White.
And in his spoken-word introductions and interludes, Hayes was essentially rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show “South Park.”
“Isaac Hayes embodies everything that’s soul music,” Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes — the expression … the sound and the creativity that goes along with it.”
Isaac Hayes greatly influenced music during the 1960s and 70s. He was a true American icon. His album “Hot Buttered Soul” (1969) was played numerous times in my household as boy. His deep, confident voice along with spoken word and wonderful orchestration just moved me. As a musician, I also lament the loss of a musical pioneer. His 18 minute, 42 second song “By The Time I Get The Phoenix” was like a short play. Full of emotion and wonderful musicianship.
And what more can be said about the ultra-confident, ultra-cool “Theme From Shaft” song. I wanted to be Shaft when I heard that song!
(Inspired by a Turner Classic Movie showing of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”)
Minneapolis, Sept 4, 2008–In a Capraesque moment for the 21st century, John Sidney McCain III told a stunned Republican Convention tonight:
“I accept your nomination for president of the United States but, in all good conscience, must reject the tactics that are being used to win that office for myself and my party.”
To the bewildered, buzzing audience, McCain declared, “I take my text tonight from a source familiar to us all but too easily forgotten in the heat of political battle: ‘For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?’
“My friends, I have tried to serve my country all my life with honor, and I will not trade that accomplishment for any office, no matter how exalted.
“In the past months, I have given in to the temptation to allow people who speak for me to paint my opponent as dishonest, deceitful and untrustworthy. From my own experience as his Senate colleague, I know that is simply not true.
“From this moment, all that will stop. In my heart, I believe I am better qualified to lead this country, and I will make my case to anyone who will listen. But I will not be part of a process that demeans others for my own advantage and damages the civilized American dialogue that has been the glory of our democracy for more than two centuries.”
Sources close to McCain reveal that, prior to delivering his acceptance speech, the text of which was not made available in advance, the Republican candidate had dismissed all members of his staff associated with Karl Rove and the Bush campaigns of 2000 and 2004.
Actor Charles Durning has been given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Mr. Durning is a fine actor and certainly deserves this but there is a much more important reason for us to remember and honor him.
During the Second World War Durning was one of the many men who went off to fight for his country. He enlisted at the age of 17 and became a true American hero. He was wounded when he stormed ashore as part of one of the first waves on D Day but later returned to battle to once again distinguish himself.
He was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and was one of the few people to survive the massacre at Malmedy. For his efforts he won three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star.
He is truly an American hero, and that is not just rhetoric
This is a Guest Voice original-report post is by journalism professor and author Walter Brasch who is also an award-winning syndicated newspaper columnist and radio commentator, and president of the Pennsylvania Press Club.
Geo Beach:
A Swamp Yankee in the Last Frontier
by Walter Brasch
When Geo Beach looks you in the eye and says that Tougher in Alaska, his 13 week series on the History Channel, isn’t Reality TV, you believe him.
It might be the sincerity seen in his penetrating blue eyes.
It might also be that not many will challenge a bald-headed 6-foot-3, 225 pound man who looks like he could have been a pro football linebacker, but was really a firefighter/medic, logger, and commercial fisherman.
But, it’s probably because, above everything else, Geo Beach, an award-winning journalist, knows the media. And right now, he knows that his series definitely, absolutely, is not Reality TV.
“Reality TV isn’t real but something that a Hollywood producer has come up with to make money,” he says, with the raspy staccato voice of authority that perfectly depicts the life of a blue-collar journalist.
To Geo Beach, what is called Reality TV is really Orwellian doublespeak.
“This,” he says about his own series with absolute honesty and conviction, “is non-fiction documentary journalism,’ one that puts him into the story to experience the life of the people he reports about.
Tougher in Alaska, an in-depth look at a variety of people, was shot between April 2007 and March 2008.
Once called “Seward’s Folly,” Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the sale of Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million in 1867. The 570,000 square mile arctic wilderness attracted thousands of prospectors, and led to the development of hundreds of settlements and the creation of cities, when large deposits of gold was discovered near Dawson City in the late 1890s.
Appropriately, the first episode of Tougher in Alaska is one that looks at the life of the modern gold miners. With the price of gold going over $1,000 an ounce, there’s been a new gold rush, a new chapter in Alaskan history, says Beach. One of the purposes of the series, he points out, is to show the links between the historical and the present, and look to the future as tied to the past.
In the second episode, Beach went salmon fishing on Bristol Bay, one of several thousand fishermen awaiting the annual run of millions of sockeye salmon to their spawning grounds. In another episode, shot mostly in the summer months, Beach and his crew went into nearly inaccessible forests, steep valleys, and coastal mountains to work alongside loggers who had to build roads to get to the timberlands, and then use trucks, barges, and helicopters to remove the fallen trees, some more than 100 feet high.
In later episodes, Beach traveled with scientists who track glaciers, erosions, volcanoes and avalanches, worked in shipwreck salvage operations, and with postal carriers who could deliver mail only by using hovercrafts.
Unlike Reality TV, there aren’t thousands of people desperately trying to do anything to be on camera and become almost-famous. They aren’t willing to humiliate themselves by eating live bugs, swapping wives, exposing their weak vocals to snippy judges, jumping off buildings, or plotting intricate revenge schemes. To get Alaskans even to agree to be on television often took a bit of an effort, says Beach. He says the people just did their jobs. They didn’t think anything they did was special or newsworthy; certainly not entertaining. Read the rest of this entry »
Cohabiting among older people increased 50 percent from 2000 to 2006, the McClatchy Newspapers report today:
“The total–1.8 million–counts only couples who live together full time and were willing to admit it to census interviewers. Part-time cohabiting–traveling together, sharing a summer house, spending weekends together–is up at least as sharply, according to seniors and people who work with them.”
This news about the growth of “love expectancy” may come as a shock to younger generations, whose sophistication does not extend to the notion that parents and grandparents, despite all the evidence of Viagra commercials, may not be immune to a culture of supersex on TV and in the movies.
For those of you who might wish to read the Pitt-Jolie-certified announcement of the birth of their boy-girl twins, this is the write-thru from the newspaper that the couple selected for the task - Nice’s Nice Matin.
“The most celebrated babies in the world were born just before 8pm last night at the Santa Maria Clinic of the Lenval Foundation Hospital. Angelina Jolie, 33-years-old, has brought twins into the world: Knox Leon Jolie-Pitt, a small boy at 2.27 kilos [about five pounds] and Vivienne Marcheline, also a petit 2.28 kilos. The two were worth over $11 million even before they let out their first cry: the exclusive first-ever photo of the extended Pitt family - now six children - has been sold by the couple to an American magazine to benefit a humanitarian cause.”
No matter how you slice it, this has to go down as one of the most outlandish blunders of any White House press office.
According to this write-through from France’s Le Figaro, A press kit distributed to journalists traveling with President Bush to the G-8 Summit in Japan, contained a biography of one of the President’s closest allies, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, that reads in part:
“One of the most controversial leaders in the history of a country known for governmental corruption and vice” and “A political dilettante who gained high office only through use of his considerable influence on the national media.”
Will Smith’s long awaited movie Hancock opened this week as a box office dollar bonanza, but was received by critics with a disappointed sigh. The film was as bold in its initial concept as it was flawed in execution, but I believe it still merits a look from any true movie fan. The film’s intriguing plot, though, has sent my mind on another of those dangerous flights of fancy. What does society do with a super hero who utterly fails to live up to some chivalric standard as a defender of a perfect society? What should we make of a mythic figure who loses interest in tracking down criminals and, instead, spends his time seeking out the best sale prices on cheap wine? What is there to say when our epic guardian stops using his x-ray vision to ferret out thieves in the bank vault and chooses instead to peer inside the ladies’ changing room at the department store? Perhaps we’re better off fighting our own battles. I suspect that Richard O’Brien had such a scenario in mind when he penned the lyrics for “Super Heroes” from his classic 1975 film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
And Super Heroes come to feast
To taste the flesh not yet deceased
And all I know is still the beast is feeding.
And crawling on the planet’s face,
Some insects called the human race
Lost in time and lost in space, and meaning.
The other problem you get with super heroes, of course, is the need for an adequate supply of super villains. When your omnipotent knight is indestructible and possesses powers of which mortal man can only dream, normal thugs, bullies and brigands simply don’t represent a challenge for him. And in the real world, those aren’t the sorts of problems he would be called upon to deal with anyway. Suppose that a world leader launched a war which nearly everyone opposed and did so on a faulty basis. “Help us, Hancock,” we would cry out plaintively. “Go stop the war!”
But what is Hancock to do? Short of flying over there and killing everyone on both sides, the options seem limited. Brute force isn’t a very useful tool when trying to wrestle with an ethereal concept like peace. You’d have better luck trying to catch smoke with a butterfly net. Economy in a slump and the housing market taking a dive? No need to call Hancock. Aside from possibly providing a brief spike in the sales of alcoholic beverages, it doesn’t seem like he would be much help.
As for the energy crisis, I suppose we could ask him to go crashing through the Earth’s crust to locate and open up some new petroleum reserves. Given his track record in the film, however, he would probably just activate a slew of tectonic fault lines and level half the nation in a rash of earthquakes.
And Hancock wouldn’t dare dip a toe in national politics to try solving any problems. No matter which party he chose to join, the opposition would immediately point out all of the destruction he had previously caused, note how he had never joined the military and probably say he was a Muslim. (And did I mention he’s black?)
No, friends, I fear that we have no room for super heroes in our modern world. They simply don’t fit in with the rest of the picture. We’re stuck here in our lifeboat with naught but our own wits and limited resources to carry the day. And perhaps that’s for the best. I certainly don’t need anyone tossing a stranded whale on top of my sailboat, thank you very much.
In another shocking loss to the American media firmament, George Carlin’s death, in its own way, is just as disconcerting as the recent death of Tim Russert. Carlin was another champion of the common man who spoke without fear or favor to those who hold political power. Read the rest of this entry »
Being a hard-core fan of classic movies, particularly those with Bogie in them, I’ve long had Casablanca in my list of the top five movies of all time. Today, I will get to indulge one of my greater pleasures as I shall be one of the guests on a panel discussing trivia regarding this timeless film. At 4 pm Eastern, you can join me on 
Will Smith’s long awaited movie Hancock 
