'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Sideways
By Baron Dave Romm
Images from another world
Saturn's moon Rhea
Info about the picture taken by the Cassini Spacecraft January 16, 2005
Sideways is a movie that I would like more if fewer people knew about it. It's a lot of fun, sort of like an episode of The Odd Couple with wine and sex. But it's not such a great movie that it deserves all the foofaraw. I'm glad it's a success, but I'd like to think that a good movie doesn't have to be a blockbuster to be seen. Ah well, such is Hollywood hype.
Two guys go off on a tour of wine country in central California. Miles is a locally known wine connoisseur. Jack is a tv actor about to be married and desperately wants a last fling. Why these two are friends is never really explained beyond "freshman year roommates". Hey, I haven't seen my freshman year roommate since sophomore year and I don't miss him. I certainly wouldn't put up with Jack. Or Miles. Still, that's what drives the humor and their interaction usually works. Nice acting by everyone, especially Paul Giamatti as the clueless Jack.
Meanwhile, Sideways sends Pinot Noir sales soaring. One of the hardest things to write is dumb humor about smart people. Miles is clearly intelligent, a middle school English teacher who knows a lot about wine and wine tasting. He has the oenobabble down pat: sipping the wine, swirling the glass, tasting with his mouth and dropping lines like, "quaffable but not transcendent". Jack just likes to drink and pick up women. Jack is perfectly content to let Miles order the wine and plan which vineyard to visit. Miles is not an idiot, but he comes off like one in Jack's world. Jack digs his own hole ever deeper and turns to Miles to get him out of trouble.
On the Shockwave scale of 9 to 23, I give Sideways about an 18. Recommended. A fun movie that will stand the test of time and be remembered fondly by most viewers. Note: There are a couple of scenes that won't make it to television, and they're some of the funnier bits. If you can, see it in a theater with enough people so the giggling is infectious.
Johnny Zero is a pleasant surprise. Tucked in the tv schedule between Joan of Arcadia and Monk, I didn't expect to do much more than check out the pilot. But the twists and turns have kept me going through all three of the episodes so far. Johnny is a newly released ex-con who has to balance a) making it on his own, b) trying not to work for his crimelord ex-boss and c) trying not to work for the Feds informing on his crimelord ex-boss. Gritty and violent with a gentle sort of gansta-rap humor. Odd music and quick-jump editing. None of the episodes have been particularly great, but all of them worked pretty well in setting up characters and situations that were resolved but generally not finished.
The other Shockwave Riders like Battlestar Galactica more than I do. The new tv series is darker than the original (which I didn't like) but that's not necessarily a plus in my book. It seems closer in tone to Space: Above and Beyond but uses the science fiction elements better. Ah well, maybe I'll give it another try or two, but it's opposite Monk and I only have so much tape. The shows are a continuing saga, and this might be another one that's worth waiting for the DVD set.
Finally, a political comment of despair. Recently, on the "liberal" NPR news station, I heard that Ronald Reagan's administration was known for civil rights. That's not merely an Orwellian rewriting of history, it's an out-and-out lie on several levels. Jimmy Carter was known for championing civil rights. Ronald Reagan was known for trampling on them. Under Reagan, FBI agents infiltrated churches that might be harboring Nicaraguan refugees. The refugees were running away from the wars that Reagan was illegally funding in Central America. This was an aspect of Iran-Contra that didn't get much press, but should have. To be fair, ol' Shotgun Wedding Reagan may not have been aware of the crimes committed in his name. If there is any justice in the world, the Reagan administration will be remembered more for training and funding Osama bin Laden than it will for any of the lies being spread by the conservative news media.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E , and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
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Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Roger Hickey: A Battle Progressives Can Win (The American Prospect)
Bush's Social Security privatization splinters Republicans and unites Democrats.
New York court rules in favor of same-sex marriage (The Advocate)
A Manhattan judge declared Friday that a New York state law that forbids same-sex marriage is unconstitutional--a first-of-its-kind ruling in the state that if upheld on appeal would allow gay couples to wed. State supreme court justice Doris Ling-Cohan ruled in favor of five same-sex couples who had filed a lawsuit after being denied marriage licenses by a New York City clerk.
Matthew Rothschild: Dean from the Ashes (The Progressive)
Howard Dean is back.
Ellen Goodman: Presenteeism strikes
Not long ago, a young actor I know was doing a gig as a waiter. Faced with a truly obnoxious customer, he finally leaned over the table and said theatrically, "Sir, do you realize that I'm going to be spending time alone with your dinner?"
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross: Nurses group punches back at Schwarzenegger in TV ad campaign (SF Chronicle)
The 60,000-strong California Nurses Association is firing back at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with a national TV campaign depicting the self- proclaimed reformer as just another tool of the monied interests.
FELICIA FEASTER: Cruel measures (Atlanta's Creative Loafing)
A quartet of little girls flee the forest on the outskirts of their Burkina Faso village where old women dressed in long red robes are performing an act of "purification."
Reader Comment
Re: Tit's 'r us
Hi Marty,
My help was actually with a European goldfinch, I think you went a tit too
far :-}
Paul
Thanks, Paul!
Reader Comment
That picture of Melissa Gilbert
Oh, Marty! There's a snake (or something) eating her boob!
Linda >^..^<
LOL!
Thanks, Linda!
I kinda thought it looked like a fungal growth -
although Mrs. Boxleitner does unintentionally provide
a new meaning to the 'SAG' awards.
Purple Gene Reviews
'The Sea Inside'
Purple Genes' review of the movie "The Sea Inside" ("Mar adentro") (2004) Directed by Alejandro Amenabar:
Imagine that you were a handsome, lustful ladies man around 20 years old…seeing the world through the eyes of a commercial sailor! Imagine that you truly loved women and life itself and one afternoon on the cliffs of a gorgeous ocean expanse you see a bikini clad beauty sunbathing…and you want to catch her attention…..so you run right in front of her and dive off the cliff into the receding tide……….unfortunately the water wasn't quite deep enough and you snap your neck and you lay face down…drowning…unable to move anymore or even feel anything…….you're dead! Then at the last second ..some one pulls you out and saves you……..for a life as a quadrapaligic …..This movie begins almost thirty years later…….And it is a TRUE story…..
Ramon Sanpedro (Javier Bardem "Jamón - jamón" - "Before Night Falls" - "Che") has been fighting the Spanish legal system for the right to end his own life! He has been bed ridden and totally paralyzed from the neck down for almost thirty years. He lives in an upstairs loft with his Father, older Brother and sister in law and his teenage nephew. Even though he is charming and seemingly full of life, Ramon has one single purpose…..he wants to Die with Dignity rather than live without any. This is not "Coming Home" or "Million Dollar Baby" or even "Ironsides"…..this man is nothing but a HEAD connected to a DEAD body that is totally atrophied under the sheetss! Ramon has made contact with a lawyer named Julia (Belén Rueda) who has a degenerative disorder that will eventually put her in a wheel chair and finally kill her. Ramon chose her to represent him on purpose….he felt that only someone with a similar situation would be able to understand….all the way through the rigid Christian/Spanish courts!
Well Julia and Ramon fall in love and make a pact to assist each other in suicide…regardless of the lawsuit against the state…at the same time, someone else enters Ramons' life……Rosa (Lola Duenas) has seen Ramon on the Television and must visit him….she works at a fish plant and is twice divorced with two kids……and is looking for love but also compassion…….She forces her way into Ramon's life and eventually into his heart…….It's hard to imagine this pathetic wasted life having so much genuine love but also selfishness and guilt……Julia and Ramon's plan is to secretly commit suicide together the day his book gets published………..Rosa finds out and things get complicated………
Thoughout this story, one person after another tries to persuade Ramon to give up his quest to end it….legally. His father just can't see his own son going before he does…..His brother feels Ramon is being selfish….the local bishop, who is wheel chair bound goes on television deriding Ramon and saying his family doesn't love him enough… then actually comes to the house to try to convince Ramon to quit….Ramon throws him out on his ear……even Rosa initially because she is jealous of Julia wants Ramon to herself…..
The plan changes on the day Ramon's book gets published….there is a note in it from Julia…she has backed out of the death pact leaving Ramon helpless and heartbroken !
But help is on the way…….Rosa turns out to be the single individual willing to risk everything for Ramon…….The end of this movie is as controversial as it is compelling and compassionate……Roman is in a room by the sea……his final moments are being video taped so that the world will know that his fate is of his own doing…. I couldn't help compare this movie to the Ending in "Million Dollar Baby" and without being specific, I am amazed at how differently Hollywood handles the heavy issues compared to a Spanish movies such as "The Sea Inside". Suffice is to say Amenabar makes Eastwood look like an Amateur…….
Purple Gene gives "The Sea Inside" 10 tears of joy and sadness out of 10 for handling the issue of assisted suicide and compassion for those who are suffering with such beauty.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny.
While we were on our quest for snow, we were listening to Arrow 93.1 - an Infintiy/Viacom oldies station.
Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side' came on, and it was bleeped. The line about Holly giving head.
I've never heard that song censored on an LA FM station before. Other markets, a long time ago, yes, but not LA, and most certainly not on a big ticket FM station.
And while I'm bitching, did SBC buy the entire Eric Clapton catalog? Jeez, what a waste of 'Layla'.
Choose Happiness Over Money
Spike Lee
Filmmaker Spike Lee told a crowd of college students that they should try to find a career that will make them happy, not necessarily one that will make them rich.
He urged students to use their college years to discover what they would enjoy doing during their lives.
"You do not want to be sitting 20 years from now when you dread waking up in the morning to go to a job that you hate," Lee said.
Spike Lee
Leads Carnival Crowds
Gilberto Gil
Hordes of revelers poured on to the streets of Brazilian cities in Carnival jamborees, led by the country's culture minister and musician Gilberto Gil in the northeastern city of Salvador.
Gil, 62, dressed in white and wearing dreadlocks, directed a band blasting rock music and traditional Brazilian tunes from the top of a truck at a Friday night oceanside party that continued into the early hours of Saturday.
A total of 190 such trucks, or "trios eletricos," animated the crowds on a 18 mile Carnival route in the city.
There are 145 registered processions, or blocos, across Rio for the five days of Carnival which ends on Ash Wednesday. City authorities say the actual number may be at least twice as big.
Gilberto Gil
Ethiopia Tribute
Bob Marley
Dreadlocked Rastafarians from around the globe danced alongside tens of thousands of Ethiopians on Sunday at a concert marking the 60th anniversary of reggae legend Bob Marley's birth.
Bass lines from Marley hits like "Buffalo Soldier" and "I Shot the Sheriff" thundered across the city's main square, where a huge crowd waved red, green and gold flags to honor the Jamaican icon who brought reggae to the world stage.
Rastafarians from the United States to South Africa made the trip to remember Marley, who considered Ethiopia the spiritual home of his Rastafarian faith and whose music married revolutionary lyrics with a belief in "One Love."
For Rastafarians the event was an affirmation of their faith, which considers smoking marijuana a sacrament sanctioned by the Bible and worships Ethiopia's late Emperor Haile Selassie, who died in 1975, as a living messiah.
Bob Marley
Son to Join Special Forces
'Dr.' Laura
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, famous for doling out advice on her nationally syndicated call-in radio talk show, shared a little of her own personal life with U.S. Army reservists.
Schlessinger told some 300 people at a 425th Civil Affairs Battalion event on Saturday that her son, 19-year-old Deryk Bishop, will join the U.S. Special Forces later this year - a mission that could take him to the Middle East.
Bishop, who enlisted last year, joined his mother on stage to explain his reasons for signing up. He told the crowd at the Calvary Chapel that he resented the way Americans criticize the war without recognizing soldiers' sacrifices - a theme echoed by his mother.
"I brought my son up to be a warrior," she said. "I feel sorry for the mothers of the bad guys. And I just have a good feeling."
'Dr.' Laura
Florida Hotel Identified
Child Porn
A Walt Disney hotel in Florida is under investigation as the place where police believe pornographic images of a child were taken and circulated on the internet.
Police in Toronto say they tracked down the hotel after releasing photos from a porn site, showing the locations of sex attacks against a girl who was around 12 years old.
Based on tips from the public, police say the investigation is now focused on the Port Orleans Hotel at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
It's believed the girl was from somewhere in Eastern or southern Canada, or the northeastern United States.
Child Porn
Not Told What to Write
Reporters
Journalists were not told what to write when they were assigned articles about Europe for Pentagon-run Web sites, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday. The practice is now under review by the military's chief investigator.
"I'm told that in this case, people were just asked to prepare anything," Rumsfeld said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"They weren't told what to write, it had nothing to do with an agenda. They were asked to take a subject, and if they wanted to, write something on it, which people do all the time," Rumsfeld said.
Inspector General Joseph Schmitz* is reviewing the military's practice of paying journalists to provide articles and commentary for a Web site aimed at influencing public opinion in the Balkans, Larry Di Rita, Rumsfeld's chief spokesman, said Friday.
Reporters
*Joseph Schmitz is the son of
John G.
Schmitz, the brother of
Mary Kay Letourneau, and a brother-in-law of
Jeb Bush.
Davos, Switzerland
Journalists in Iraq
Do US Troops Target Journalists in Iraq?
This fiery topic became a real nightmare today for the Chief News Executive of CNN at what was an initially very mild discussion at the World Economic Forum titled "Will Democracy Survive the Media?".
At a discussion moderated by David R. Gergen, the Director for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, the concept of truth, fairness, and balance in the news was weighed against corporate profit interest, the need for ratings, and how the media can affect democracy. The panel included Richard Sambrook, the worldwide director of BBC radio, U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, Abdullah Abdullah, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, and Eason Jordan, Chief News Executive of CNN. The audience was a mix of journalists, WEF attendees (many from Arab countries), and a US Senator from Connecticut, Chris Dodd.
During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.
Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group). The ensuing debate was (for lack of better words) a real "sh--storm". What intensified the problem was the fact that the session was a public forum being taped on camera, in front of an international crowd. The other looming shadow on what was going on was the presence of a U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Senator in the middle of some very serious accusations about the U.S. military.
For a lot more, Journalists in Iraq
Split After Race Allegation
Racist Records
A high-profile white supremacist record company appears to have gone out of business after one co-owner accused the other of having a Hispanic mother.
Panzerfaust was behind Project Schoolyard USA, which last year distributed thousands of free compact discs to teenagers across the country, particularly in Minnesota.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, reports that co-owners Byron Calvert, 33, and Anthony A. Pierpont, 38, had a falling out after Calvert saw a copy of Pierpont's birth certificate.
Racist Records
Busted In Barstow
Marion 'Suge' Knight
Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was booked on suspicion of violating his parole after police found marijuana in his truck during a traffic stop, authorities said Sunday.
Knight was arrested about Saturday evening in Barstow and held by sheriff's officials pending his transfer next week to state prison, said sheriff's Cpl. Lorraine Riser.
Police said they searched Knight's Ford pickup and found marijuana after pulling him over for making an unsafe U-turn. He was cited for not having insurance.
Marion 'Suge' Knight