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Michael Parker's Journal
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Monday, January 31, 2005 |
I wanted to post this interesting letter I received in my email today:
Dear Michael Parker:
I am writing to you because of your support to our service members. Many Americans, including most serving military members, are not aware that the very United States Constitution they have sworn to serve and defend does not apply to them.
There is a secret unconstitutional law that prohibits military members from seeking final redress for wrongful actions taken upon them while serving. These certain actions may include murder, reprisal, rape, human experimentation, medical malpractice, gross and criminal negligence, etc.
The shameful law is called the Feres Doctrine, named after the young Lt. Rudolph Feres, who died in a barracks fire caused by the negligence of the Army. This doctrine bars constitutional redress of wrongful acts or omissions resulting in injury or death arising from non-legitimate military necessity or decisions.
The Feres Doctrine law was not created by the United States Congress, who makes laws and oversees the military, but judicially created. This law has been in existence for over 54 years, however Congress and the United States “mainstream” media refuse to address and report respectfully. Most of the tax paying public is unaware of the extreme human and constitutional abuses being silenced by this law.
Veterans Equal Rights Protection Advocacy is comprised of true American patriots seeking your support to ensure Military Members and Veterans are afforded equal protection of the United States Constitution. Our Feres Doctrine abolishment initiative seeks to restore constitutional rights to the men and women serving in our military.
Our Congress continues to use American military personnel to provide protection of human rights around the world, yet those very military personnel are not afforded the same protection in the United States due to the Feres Doctrine. At the least, I respectfully request that you contact both of your US Senators and Senator Arlin Spector (PA) who is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Also, please sign our on-line petition.
We owe every freedom we possess to those who have fought for "US" and this Country. For more in depth information please go to www.VERPA.org . Please pass this information on to all Citizens you believe might be interested in this information, especially those who may be affected by the Feres Doctrine.
Very truly yours,
/s/
Leigh E. Wise
VERPA Assistant Public Relations Coordinator
Has anyone heard of VERPA before? I know that I am quite concerned that our soldiers are not receiving substantial benefits while serving and upon returning home. So this caught my eye. I will try to look into it and report back. (So much to do.)
7:17:37 PM  | |
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Sunday, January 30, 2005 |
This year, I'm rooting for Martin Scorsese and his masterful biopic film of Howard Hughes, The Aviator. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I anticipated Scorsese would win all major directing and best picture awards.
Guess what? The Director's Guild awarded Clint Eastwood the best director award tonight for his boxing film Million Dollar Baby.
The DG award is always an indicator of how director's are voting and how they will more than likely vote for the Best Director Oscar. Out of the 56 awards handed out by the Director's Guild, 50 of the winners have gone on to win the Oscar. (Twice in the last five years, however, this has not been the case.)
People.......I'm shocked. I wasn't expecting this.
8:38:20 PM | |
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Thursday, January 27, 2005 |
CNN revealed today (No Oscar battle for 'Passion' partisans) that two Christian groups are up in arms that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was not nominated for Best Picture. (The Passion garnered three noteworthy nominations-- Best Cinematography, Makeup, and Orginal Score.)
Consider the text from the article:
Hollywood has spoken. 'Don't mess with us,' is what they're saying," said Jennifer Giroux of seethepassion.com. " 'Don't mess with us because we will not consider your talent if you do anything that is Christian,' is the message that's coming out."
.....
Patrick Hynes, a married, 32-year-old father and advertising copywriter, collected 25,000 signatures on a petition on his Web site, passionforfairness.com. He sent it to the academy -- but received no response.
Disappointed by the announcement of Oscar nominees on Tuesday, the groups briefly considered boycotting movie theaters and targeting companies that will advertise on the ABC Oscar broadcast on February 27 in hopes of demonstrating some economic muscle.
"I briefly floated the idea of a boycott of Hollywood --- and certainly the Oscars -- but in the end I don't think that would be productive, so I decided against it," said Hynes, who is based in Washington.
These people are like spoiled children who won't eat the dinner you put in front of them because they don't like what you gave them. They want what they want and so they whine and throw tantrums until you've had enough and you send them to their rooms without supper.
Jennifer Giroux and Patrick Hynes, let's talk about unrealistic expectations.
In a galaxy full of potential best film nominations, The Passion wasn't even a planet but an unnamed satellite blip somewhere in the galaxy's nether region. Consider these facts:
1. Of the critics from the major U.S. newspapers, The Passion of the Christ was only recognized in the top ten list of two critics -- the esteemed Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times and Ron Stranger of the Los Angeles Weekly.
2. However, fifty-one (yes, that is 51) films received more recognition on the top ten lists than The Passion.
3. Prior to the Oscar nominations, The Passion only received two nominations from any major U.S. film or critics organizations -- Best Popular Movie (Broadcast Film Critics Association) and Golden Reel Award (U.S. Sound Editor's Association). (And let me remind you that the BFCA has a category for Best Film too, of which The Passion was not nominated for.)
Even an MTV Best Actor nomination and People's Choice win for Most Popular Drama is no cause for belief that it deserves Oscar's recognition.
The Academy Awards is not a high school election campaign. They're not voting the school's (public's) most popular person for the top prize. They are a body of producers, directors, actors, editors, writers, filmmakers, costume designers, makeup artists, and musicians voting for who they feel is worthy of being recognized. Of the 5,800-plus body, the Best Picture nominations and final winners in most categories are decided by the vote of every member.
With this in mind, the fact that The Passion was nominated for three awards, including the prestigious Best Cinematography and Original Score categories indicates that the film was definintely on people's minds.
And don't believe the talk that these nominations were consiliatory gestures for not nominating it as Best Picture. In the nomination process, cinematographers can only nominate in their category; musicians can only nominate fellow musicians for Original Score.
In closing, Giroux and Hynes come across as unreasonable and reactionary. I think there are two possibilities why: 1) they have straw for brains; or 2) they could just be playing that old lamentations card the Christians like to play every year -- "Hollywood hates Christianity." Giroux alluded to this in her comments above.
But Hollywood doesn't hate Christianity. This is just a grand myth. Giroux and Hynes should be thrilled with the nominations the film did receive.
Another point in regards to the myth: What these Christian groups need to realize is that money talks to film executives. Hollywood is market-driven.
A few years ago, an impressively artistic animated film about Moses leading Israel out of Egypt was released. The film, The Prince of Egypt, barely grossed over $100 million dollars. Having employed the assistance of scholars from every facet of the religious spectrum to fact-check the script for biblical accuracy, this film was intentionally created to cater to peoples of all faiths. It was marketed as a spiritual experience and expected to be well supported. It was considered a financial failure.
If religious-minded people support Christian-friendly movies, Hollywood will continue to make them. If not, they won't. And that my dear friends is the gospel truth.
11:02:21 PM | |
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005 |
The Oscar nominations were revealed yesterday by the president of the Academy Frank Pierson and Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody.
While reading through the list of nominees, I was reminded of one real truth--Oscar can give and Oscar can take away.
Case in point: Paul Giamatti (Sideways) who gave us one of the most entertaining performances of the year, was not nominated for Best Actor, an absence that dumbfounds me. His self-loathing, depressed middle-aged white male in search of the next glass of wine was amazing because Giamatti took it past the level of slap-stick routine to an internalized reality. If we saw him on the street, we'd not think of him as Giamatti but as Miles and we'd throw our arms around him and tell him not to worry about his book being rejected. The power of his performance rests not on how his comedic antics roused the belly-laughter out of us but that we empathized with him. Oscar really screwed Lassie on this one.
You ask how? Consider this: Prior to the nominations, CNN online tracked the points for all of the likely actors to be nominated for all acting categories. For the Best Actor category, Giamatti nearly doubled the points of the second actor in his category. (Points were based off of all the nominations and wins received from critics awards. Giamatti had wins for Best Actor from Toronto Film Critics, San Francisco Film Critics, Online Film Critics, and Dallas-Fortworth Film Critics. He had nominations from the Golden Globes, Screen Actor's Guild, Independent Spirit Awards, Golden Satellite, Broadcast Film Critics, and Boston Society of Film Critics.)
In other words, Giamatti's chances were as seemingly set in stone as Moses' Ten Commandments.
But Oscar has his favorites. He has his flavors of the year. Giamatti, unfortunately, is not one of them. (He failed to win a nomination for his acclaimed performance in American Splendor last year.) And this is a travesty.
Martin Scorsese for Best Director
Call it Oscar mojo. You know when you have it. If you are Martin Scorsese, you know when you don't. But times they are changing.
With 11 nominations it looks as if Martin Scorsese might finally win himself a Best Picture and/or Director award. Let me parade before your eyes the names of his films that have been nominated but have failed to win and you will understand what a huge deal it would be for his name to be printed on the innards of that gold envelope: Taxi Driver (1977), Raging Bull (1981), The Last Temptation of Christ (1989), GoodFellas (1991), The Age of Innocence (1994), and Gangs of New York (2003).
Last year, I swear that whenever they showed Scorsese in the audience, he was somewhere in the farthest reaches of the auditorium under the balcony, looking brooding and bored. I don't blame him. Seeing him at these moments reminded me of another truism of the Oscar's: If you are considered a front-runner, if you are "someone" in Hollywood, you sit in walking distance of the stage. If your not a front-runner, your seat is so far away that you might as well be standing in the cloak room or out with the paparazzi and Joan Rivers, listening to her drivel on about the next part of her facial anatomy that’s becoming Tupperware.
I bet you this year Scorsese is sitting nearly front and center, as he should be.
9:45:28 PM | |
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Friday, January 21, 2005 |
I decided long ago that I would have a vasectomy when we were finished having kids. This procedure is far less complicated and painful than a hysterectomy. I didn't want J to have to go through that. Nor did I want her to have to take the pill the rest of her life, as that messes with her hormones.
When word got out that I was considering the big "V", I was surprised to learn that nearly all of my friends have had this procedure too.
Well....today was the day I went under the needle and knife. And though I sit here with ice resting between my legs, the numbness wearing off and being replaced with throbbing pain, and feeling slightly nauseated, I feel quite proud with myself. This seems funny to say but I feel liberated. I've joined the league of responsible gentlemen.
The procedure itself occurred in the outpatient room of my doctor's office. Assisted by his nurse, the doctor injected the vans defrens (mis-spelled?) for each testicle with a numbing medication. The initial shots were the most painful part of the procedure. The pain from one shot hit a nerve that I felt all the way up into my belly button. OUCH.
The only thing I found disconcerting was the sensation of pulling, the sounds of scissors clipping, the smell of burnt flesh from the saudering tool, and the sight of needles.
For recovery: times like this require a weekend long supply of Diet Coke, DVD's, and treats. J's been totally awesome, pampering me like a Roman emperor. I'm all over this.
7:41:07 PM | |
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Wednesday, January 19, 2005 |
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
I saw that the cast of the new Star Wars film are on the cover of Entertainment Weekly magazine. Of course, Lucas is sitting in the middle of everybody. I can be sentimental...as you know.... but when I saw this I scoffed aloud almost to the point of appearing possessed. Lucas has ruined the story now hasn't he?
(And what is up with his hair? Real or rug?)
WGA Nominations
For all of you screenwriters out there, here are the nominations for this year's Writers Guild Awards:
Adapted Screenplay
Mean Girls
Before Sunset
Million Dollar Baby
The Motorcycle Diaries
Sideways.
Original Screenplay
Garden State
The Aviator
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Hotel Rwanda
Kinsey
I'm thrilled to see Tina Fey (Mean Girls) and Zack Braff (Garden State) nominated! Kudos! (Impressive achievement considering these are their first screenplays.)
O'Reilly Update
He accepted Clooney's invite to participate in the telethon. From Entertainment Weekly:
...O'Reilly had accepted the invitation two hours earlier, telling the audience on his radio show, ''NBC has faxed us over information that all of the money that you donate to the telethon on Saturday night is going to the American Red Cross — all of it. I like that. So, I'm gonna go over and do it.'' Later in the day, Clooney's rep told the press that ''George was very pleased'' to learn of O'Reilly's decision.
O'Reilly joins an ever-growing list of stars scheduled to appear on the two-hour Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope. On Tuesday, NBC announced that Elton John, Annie Lennox, and Nelly were joining the list of musicians performing on the show, a lineup that already included such acts as Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Maroon 5, Norah Jones, Mary J. Blige, John Mayer, Kenny Chesney, India.Arie, Tom Jones, Eric Clapton, Gloria Estefan, and Sheryl Crow. Other presenters added Tuesday were Clint Eastwood, Renée Zellweger, Ben Affleck, Meg Ryan, Morgan Freeman, Ray Romano, and Robert Downey Jr. Previously named presenters included Halle Berry, Kevin Spacey, Usher, Uma Thurman, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bruce Willis, Danny DeVito, Tim Robbins, and Clooney.
Saturday's concert airs live at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, Bravo, Trio, USA, Sci Fi, MSNBC, CNBC, Pax, and Telemundo.
Good form O'Reilly.
8:17:11 AM | |
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Monday, January 17, 2005 |
Oscar nominations are revealed on the 25th. Are you ready to make your predictions for which films are going to be nominated for Best Picture?
Here are my thoughts:
Be assured that The Aviator and Sideways are probably already written on the bloomin' ballots.
The Aviator picked up two major awards at the Globes on Sunday-- Best Dramatic Picture and Best Actor in a Dramatic Role (Leonardo DiCaprio).
In another important win earlier in the month, Martin Scorsese picked up the Best Director award at the Broadcast Film Critics Assocation awards. Could this be the year that Scorsese wins his first award, out of seven or eight nominations?
Sideways picked up the Best Screenplay (Alexander Payne) but it is more the fact that it has dominated the top ten lists from the critics that has given it staying power going into Oscar season. Tack on an additional Best Picture, Best Ensemble Acting, and Best Writing wins at the Broadcast Film Critics Association awards and you can get an idea how respected and liked this little-film-that-could is.
The third slot may just go to Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. Baby picked up two significant awards -- Best Director (Clint Eastwood) and Best Actress in a Dramatic Role (Hillary Swank) at the Golden Globes.
The fourth slot, I believe, is going to belong to Finding Neverland. This film seems to have Oscar written all over it, meaning it is the type of film that Oscar loves -- great acting, heartwarming script, beautiful cinematography, and music. Besides, Finding Neverland picked up two impressive Broadcast Film Critics awards -- Best Family Film and Best Young Actor. And it also won the first Best Film award of the year from the National Board of Review.
The fifth slot might be more solid than I think it is. With wins by Clive Owen and Natalie Portman at the Golden Globes for both Best Supporting Actor awards, Mike Nicol's film Closer just might round out the list.
Here come the big buts:
Personally, I would love a nomination for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (You'll find out why when I get around to finishing my top ten list, created in a shockwave interactive application.) Like Sideways, Sunshine is also one of the most respected and loved films of the year.
It is unlikely, but I would also love to see a nomination for the amazingly artistic The House of Flying Daggers. (And the theme song, "Lovers" sung by Kathleen Battle, is one of the most beautiful film recordings I can recall. It wasn't nominated for a Golden Globe, however. Maybe Oscar will be kind.)
The last nomination could also belong to the films Kinsey, The Sea Inside, or even Spider-Man 2.
What are your thoughts?
10:52:10 PM | |
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Sunday, January 16, 2005 |
Continuation of post titled On Deception, 2005.
Note: Excerpts of this bio were gleaned from his bio on the Nobel Prize website and his speech.
The author Alexander Solzhenitsyn understood destiny when his degree in mathematics saved him from death at an internment camp, was his source of livelihood while in exile, and his cover for being able to write.
Solzhenitsyn was arrested in East Prussia in 1945 while serving as commander of an artillery-position-finding company on the front lines of the war. The Office of Special Operations (OSO), the Special Committee of the NKVD, sentenced him to eight years in detention camp based on evidence that he wrote disrespectful remarks about Stalin in correspondence with a school friend during the years of 1944 to 45 and anti-government remarks in drafts of stories and notes that were found in a personal map case.
Solzhenitsyn served the first part of his sentence in several correctional work camps. But in 1946, because of his mathematical degree and skills, he was transferred to some scientific research institutes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of State Security. In 1950, however, he was transferred to "Special Prisons," which were filled with political prisoners. It was here that he would labor as a miner, bricklayer, and foundryman. After his eight-year sentence ended, the OSO exiled him for life to Kok-Terek in Kazakhstan.
In exile, he was cured of cancer after being admitted into a cancer clinic, he taught mathematics and physics, and he secretly wrote poetry and prose-at first, he had to memorize his poetry in order to remember it but he worked on and finished his first manuscript by hiding it under his mattress in his quarters.
In 1961, after hearing the author A. T. Tvardovsky’s speech to the 22nd Congress of the U.S.S.R. Communist Party, Solzhenitsyn decided to come out of the shadows as a writer and find a publisher for his manuscript One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. The manuscript would find its way to Tvardovsky himself, who published it. Shortly after, the book was banned and all of Solzhenitsyn’s writings seized.
Solzhenitsyn was greatly discouraged, fearing he had brought his works out into the public eye too early and it would be to his ultimate ruin. But many of his manuscripts got into the hands of writers, translators, and publishers and were published in other countries. It is with this brotherhood of supporters and some of the world’s most prominent writers that protected him from further persecution and refuge in the even of him being placed in exile again.
Evidence of admiration for Solzhenitsyn can be seen in the plain fact that it was not his own country that nominated him for a Nobel Prize in 1970. His name was advanced by the French Nobel Prize Laureate (1952) Francois Mauriac and other colleagues.
Solzhenitsyn was not allowed to leave Russia to accept his Nobel Award in Literature but his acceptance speech was captured on film. Titled One Word of Truth, Solzhenitsyn uses his prison camp experience to introduce his thoughts on how humankind bears the responsibility of their own awareness of untruth, injustice, and repression and stopping it before it’s too powerful to quell.
"The world is overrun by the brazen conviction that force can do everything, while justice can do nothing," says the author. With governments and citizens subscribing to a double standard of justice-one for themselves and one for "the others," one for the rich and one for the poor, one for the powerful and one for the powerless-it becomes necessary for each of us to stand up and be counted. A Russian aphorism becomes the emblem of this message: "One word of truth outweighs the whole world."
Solzhenitsyn continues to believe that he was spared so that 1) he could write the stories that all of the other exiled writers were not able to print; and 2) represent the souls and voices of the millions of Russians killed by Stalin.
3:34:09 PM | |
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Recent news items such as Robert Scheer's LA Times article questioning the existence of Al Qaida, James Wolcott's commentary on the cancellation of the WMD search in Iraq, the continuing debate over the legitimacy of torture (i.e. commentary by Jack M. Balkin), and David Niewart's (Orcinus) commentary on the rise of eliminationist rhetoric among the right suggest that we are living in an environment of deception in which attitudes and correlating behavior is marching us down a dangerous path.
Note: Thanks to Michael at Discourse.net for the links to a couple of the above news articles.
With this on my mind, I happened to come across a paper I wrote in college on the educational film "One Word of Truth." The film was derived from the speech prepared by the Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn for the Nobel Prize ceremony in 1970, which he was unable to attend because Russia would not let him out of the country. The theme of his speech was a poignant question and it is this question that I wish to explore in the next couple of posts -- "Can art defeat the lie?"
You understand how poignant this question is when you realize where Solzhenitsyn is coming from. So without further adeiu, I wish to introduce you to the author Alexander Solzhenitsyn. We'll discuss his speech in an upcoming post.
Note: If you are interested, I invite you to participate in the discussion. You may find the the educational film at the Media center of your local library. If not, you can read the text of speech at the Nobel Prize > Literature > Laureates > 1970 > Solzhenitsyn site.
3:28:23 PM | |
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Friday, January 14, 2005 |
Stop surfing! Stop blogging! Stop lollygagging!
Grab a box of tissue, gather together all of the people you care about, and get yourselves down to the local cineplex to see Finding Neverland, National Board of Review's best film of 2004.
Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christy, Dustin Hoffman, and a core group of brilliant child actors star in this heartwarming tale of finding peace and solace in the face of death.
I haven't had an experience like this at the movies in a very long time.
So go already. Go!
6:52:31 PM | |
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005 |
You can credit this post to Majikthise, philosopher-blogger extraordinaire. She got the wheels a turning in my head this morning when she posted her favorite films of the 80’s.
Ah, remember when.....
-- leg warmers, polos, and big hair appeared front and center in films such as Fame, Footloose, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and The Breakfast Club;
-- the biggest house-hold names were E.T., Ferris Bueller, Indiana Jones, Mad Max, and any Star Wars character;
-- we split our guts laughing during films such as Airplane!, Arthur, Big, Good Morning Vietnam, The Princess Bride, A Christmas Story, Top Secret, Ghostbusters, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Raising Arizona, and Better Off Dead;
-- Dustin Hoffman could only find acting work as a woman in the film Tootsie, Julie Andrews could only find entertainment work as a man in Victor/Victoria, and Barbara Streisand could only study the holy writ as a boy in Yentl.
-- no one would mess with the gun-toting Sigourney Weaver after seeing Aliens;
-- no one would forget Meg Ryan faking the "O" in When Harry Met Sally;
-- no one would forget Sally Field’s Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech for Places in the Heart - "You love me! You really love me!"
-- everyone wanted to take a trip Back to the Future in that way cool Delorean;
-- any living woman would die to ride with Tom Cruise on his motorbike in Top Gun;
-- Michael Keaton donned the black rubber suit and cape to play Batman and Richard Gere donned his birthday suit to play the American Gigolo;
-- we fell in love with the films (other than those mentioned above) Moonstruck; Witness; Stand by Me; The Blues Brothers; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; Bull Durham, Out of Africa, The Little Mermaid; An Officer and a Gentleman, Field of Dreams; Do The Right Thing, and On Golden Pond;
-- and we jumped out of our skin (or, like me, spent a majority of the film hiding behind our hands) in films such as The Shining, Die Hard, Blade Runner, Aliens, Poltergeist, Blue Velvet, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Body Double, Altered States, and Angel Heart;
Out of approximately 130 films that I could come up with in the few hours I had to think about this, these are the films I found most memorable and impressive, that have lingered in the back of my mind (not in any order):
Gandhi (1982), Richard Attenborough
Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Philip Kaufman
Amadeus (1984), Milos Forman
Au Revoir les Enfants (1987), Lois Malle
Ordinary People (1980), Robert Redford
Das Boot (1981), Wolfgang Peterson
Fanny and Alexander (1982), Ingmar Bergman
Platoon (1986), Oliver Stone
Ran (1985), Akira Kurosawa
Out of Africa (1985), Sydney Pollack
Honorable Mentions: A Dry White Season, Babette's Feast, The Shining, Aliens, Blue Velvet, Full Metal Jacket, The Elephant Man, Glory, Manon of the Spring, Jean de Florette, The Killing Fields, Rain Man, The Year of Living Dangerously, Galipoli, The Bounty, Silkwood, A French Lieutenant’s Daughter, Sophie’s Choice, The Mission, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Reds, Born on the Fourth of July, The Last Emporer, A Room With a View, Chariots of Fire, The Color Purple, A Passage to India, Scarface, On Golden Pond, The Official Story
6:25:29 PM | |
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005 |
You can’t build a house on sand and you can’t build a conservative wing-nut talk show on anything but controversy, heresay, or fear. It just won’t have staying power.
Of course Bill O’Reilly knows all about staying power, or at least, his prowess, as evidenced by harrassing phone calls to a female co-worker revealed late last year. (Remember? Loofah.) All right, so that’s a low blow. But don't you think O'Reilly should be used to it? After all, that's the same type of ilk his own show uses to keep its little heart beating -- lots of false accusations and fear-mongering enough to keep the Right reaching for their pom poms or heart pills, depending on the message coming out of his mouth and the tell-all facial expression he wears while delivering it.
By the way, you wanna talk about open books? This guy is the prima donna of them.
PRODUCER : BILL, THIS IS A SAD STORY SO SHOW ME SAD....I MEAN PUPPY-DOG-HAS-JUST-DIED SAD.
Yes. One doesn’t need to have the volume turned up on the television to know how O’Reilly feels about a subject. Just look at his face and you’ll know everything. (Personally, I think he does the I’m-so-hurt-and-offended-I-just-might-cry-and-die look the best.)
But I digress.
O’Reilly made some disparaging remarks about the upcoming Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope telethon. In his O’Reilly Factor show that aired last Thursday, O’Reilly mentioned that he would be watching to see if the funds raised would actually make it to the victims. "If it does not," O'Reilly warned, "there will be trouble."
George Clooney, the shows top recruiter, came to the defense of the fundraiser and called O’Reilly on it in a letter released yesterday through the actor’s publicist.
"Your report last Thursday was a preemptive strike...NOT to protect the families affected by the tsunami, but to create more controversy for your own personal gain. Because of it, fewer people will donate money to help truly traumatized victims, they'll be afraid that their money will do no good," Clooney wrote.
The suave, politically savvy, humanitarian, and superstar actor closed off his letter with nothing other than an invitation, stating: "I'm booking talent for the tsunami event...and you, Mr. O'Reilly, are now officially invited to be a presenter...you personally follow up on our fundraising."
Last night, in O’Reilly’s segment called "Most Ridiculous Item," O’Reilly stuck to his loofahs stating that he would participate only if they told him the specifics on how the money would be distributed.
Just the fact that O’Reilly addressed his reply in the "Most Ridiculous Item" section reveals it all-O’Reilly isn’t going to participate and anyone who does, whether they perform or pledge funds, is ridiculous.
O’Reilly should get real. If he is going to disparage efforts for assistance, he should pick up his No Spin Zone and set it up squarely in the middle of the Tsunami Disaster Zone; and after interviewing survivor after survivor about how the tsunami took everything they own, he should plead with his viewers to contribute and help.
5:09:03 PM | |
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Thursday, January 06, 2005 |
Directed by Edgar Wright
Written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Starring: Simon Pegg (Shaun), Kate Ashfield (Liz), Nick Frost (Ed), Lucy Davis (Dianne), Dylan Moran (David), Nicola Cunningham (Mary)
(Rated R for language and violence against zombies--impalings, dismemberment, head bashing-- and zombie violence against humans -- biting, gouging, dismemberment, and the ripping out of and distribution of intestines)
In a September post I wrote the following about the upcoming release of Shaun of the Dead : "A zombie comedy from Britain? Can you say cult classic? It is such a whacked premise that it just might work."
Well, my prediction about it becoming a cult classic was as off as Ashlee Simpson singing live. (Note to self: stop reading tea leaves.) Shaun only generated $13.5 million dollars of interest. And that’s a bloody shame, really, cause this campy comedy that mocks the classic Dawn of the Dead works! In fact, not only does IT work but IT is one damn fine comedy that is supported by a well written script with an intriguing sub-plot about a young man stuck in the doldrums who tries to slough off his old self in order to win back the heart of the one he loves.
Yes. I would be talking about the main character, Shaun. Shaun is a very dull boy. His daily routine consists of activities that can be counted up on one hand. He doesn’t alter his routine nor does he even think about altering them. One thing you can count on is that Shaun and his best friend Ed will be at the pub every night.
Enter Liz, Shaun’s girlfriend, Shaun’s true love, stage left. We learn that she has tried for weeks to get Shaun to change or, in the least, be a bit more interesting than the walking dead. All efforts to change him were to no avail so she breaks off the relationship. That’s the first five minutes of the film.
Without telling you the entire plot, let me break it down like this: Shaun mourns. People start turning into zombies. Shaun sees dead people. Shaun decides he is going to save Liz, and his mum, of course. Shaun leads friends to safety-- I bet you can guess where. Shaun and friends destroy lots of zombies.
Shaun of the Dead is one of those films that make me wish I were born a Brit. Hallo, I'd be in hysterics all day. Shaun is one of the best surprises of the year; and one of the best comedies too!
9:33:17 PM | |
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005 |
I recently purchased a new Dell computer. In the Windows Media Player, there is a list of songs they use to demo the computer's sound system. One of the songs supplied is "Love Me Like A Song," a duet from Kimmie Rhodes and Willie Nelson.
I had never heard of Kimmie Rhodes prior to clicking on this song. So I was quite surprised to hear a beautiful melodic voice the likes of Jewel. I do not own anything from Willie Nelson but I have to admit that I greatly enjoy listening to his voice on this track. Their voices compliment each other nicely and their harmony is gentle. Their voices caress each other like lovers discovering one another for the first time.
Both Rhodes and Nelson play the guitar on this song. The guitar work, likewise, is hypnotically melodic and clear. Together with the beautiful lyrics, Love Me Like A Song is a new found treasure.
Here are the lyrics written by Rhodes:
put your arms around me
listen to my heartbeat now
if you want to love me
baby, i can show you how
love me like a song
sweet as a melody
learn all the words to me
and sing along
find the harmony
the rhythm and the rhyme to me
on and on
all night long
love me like song
i want to be the melody
you can't get out of your head
think of me as words of love
a poet might have said
Kimmie Rhodes CD of the same title features 13 new songs, including duets with Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Beth Nielsen Chapman, and Benmont Tench
9:22:13 PM | |
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Monday, January 03, 2005 |
I'm tired so I'm going to leave you with a quote I like from Edward O. Wilson's work Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, page 246:
True character...is the internalization of the moral principles of a society, augmented by those tenets personally chosen by the individual, strong enough to endure through trials of solitude and adversity. The principles are fitted together into what we call integrity, literally the integrated self, wherein personal decisions feel good and true. Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others. It is not obedience to authority, and while it is often consistent with and reinforced by religious belief, it is not piety.
9:13:14 PM | |
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Sunday, January 02, 2005 |
I have never been in a disaster. I don't know what it is like to experience one, to survive something as life-altering as an earthquake, hurricane, or tsunami. I think those of us in America the past seven days have been living the disaster vicariously through those who survived the tsunami. We glimpse the horror through the amatuer videos or photographs. I saw one video of a wave striking the beach and one in which the wave was barreling through palm trees. You know, in that latter video, there was nothing beyond those palm trees but water, no blue sky. That's how much water came out of the sea that day.
And I saw footage from a balcony. The murky, debris-laden, and turbulent water was rushing by and a train of people were holding onto eachother and attempting to pull themselves against the maelstrom to the balcony. One by the one, the person at the end would drop off and disappear from the cameras view.
What haunts me is the screaming and shouting and terrible roar of the water, a hellish orchestra, a terrible din of pain and loss.
I've been contemplating a poem, working off of a few visuals that had stuck in my head from news reports I've read -- the man who lost his wife but thought that he had found her hand "because that looked like her hand"; a woman who had survived with a badly broken leg felt highly uncomfortable going back into civilization (some people did not know there was a disaster and others seemed to ignore her because they knew she was a survivor); and about the myriads of children that were swept away before their parents eyes, as if it were some modern day "passover" and all the first generation of the new millenium were taken from us.
I can tell you now I'll never write it.
I was reminded of a poem by W.S. Merwin this week, titled "Mirage" that seemed fitting because it seems to touch on many themes being heard by those survivors, primarily the pain of the loss, the dying hope in finding missing loved ones, the eerie fact that December 26 started out as a normal day, the guilt of not being able to hold on, to name a few.
Mirage
After a point that is passed without being seen
more and more of the going appears to
be going back but that is another
cloud shadow there was never any such
dwelling place although having once gone away
it seems that there must have been a reason
for setting out and then a reason for
thinking so a first season returning
a new ending a being that the hand
reaches for in the dark and finds and goes on
trying to find this time this time the hope
ringing ringing it must all be the sound
of a mind if only because it could
not be anything else floating down once more
over the vast scars of the butchered land
sinking through every ghost that was murdered in
our name the layers of invisible
intentions the word morning in the plural
its fingers of sunlight on floors its trembling
garments its air of promise that large word
its Europe every inch of it turned over
and over by one kind of life burying
and bringing up year after year looking
for another life until at last a single
crow is flying across translucent June pastures
and mustard fields under high tension wires
in rain and between files of pointed trees
on the empty road into the air small children
are running and falling and I am running
like a small child running with arms raised
falling getting to my feet running on
after all having decided that
I am going to tell the whole story
9:45:20 PM | |
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Saturday, January 01, 2005 |
Congratulations to the Runnin' Utes of the University of Utah! They have just handily defeated Pitt 35 to 7 in the Fiesta Bowl to place an exclamation point on their undeafeted season, the first one since 1930, their first Heisman Trophy candidate, and Urban Meyer's recognition as coach of the year.
The Utah defensive line was ominous and deadly, getting to the Pitt quaterback Pilko 9 times, which set the record for sacks in a Fiesta Bowl game.
This is a HUGE victory not only for the university but for the state of Utah and the Mountain West Conference! This team and this win may have just paved the way for other teams in the conference to be invited to the BCS.
Go UTES!
11:20:01 PM | |
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