Baron Dave Romm
Midnight Cowboy
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater podcasts
Midnight Cowboy
When Midnight Cowboy came out, the producers insisted it have an X Rating. Hence, I didn't see it at the time, and the movie wasn't even on Netflix until recently.
No, this isn't another Woodstock-era column, but Midnight Cowboy came out at exactly the same time: June, 1969, and won the 1970 Academy Award for Best Picture. As they like to brag, the only X-rated movie do so win, following the only G-rated movie to win, Oliver. Times were different then, and while no one wanted little kiddies to see naughty bits, there wasn't the anti-sex pseudo-Puritanism that pervades society now. At the time, sex was sex and you talked frankly about the subject or talked about something else.
And viewed from 40 years later, Midnight Cowboy is pretty mild stuff. You've seen almost as much nudity on broadcast television. it's a dark movie, but counting dead bodies and dissection of sexual issues, you've seen much worse on network television. The language would get bleeped, but very little of it.
Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Marathon Man, etc) puts a lot into Midnight Cowboy, and people take away what they want. Monty Python parodied the use of stock footage as metaphor for sex. Some people liked the Buddy Movie aspect. I just thought it was dumb. Well acted, but all the characters made choices that were self-destructive and stupid.
Maybe seeing Midnight Cowboy outside of historical context doesn't work. Maybe the film blazed enough trails that it now seems tame and familiar. Whatever. I can't recommend this film to anyone except film historians and those interested in seeing New York City circa 1969.
Battlestar Galactica
The last half-season of the new Battlestar Galactica came out on DVD recently, and I finally had a chance to see the rest of the series.
Epic Fail.
I don't want to sling too many spoilers, so I'll be brief. The pilot mini-series was great, and the first couple of seasons had some excellent shows. Then they dug themselves into a hole they couldn't get out of, and didn't try. The 3-part finale is terrible. Just terrible. Nothing makes sense and people act in diametric opposition to how they had acted before.
Some have called Battlestar Galactica the best sf series ever. Instead, it will be remembered as the biggest sf failure, surpassing Twin Peaks for futility and self-indulgence when it had the chance to be brilliant.
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy handled the same situation as the finale, but much better. I won't tell you which version of HHGttG...
Oh well. We still have Eureka, and I've got Deep Space 9 in my Netflix queue.
Should the GOP survive?
The shame of being a conservative has never been greater. I've been saying this for 30 years, and it always is true.
The latest inanity from the right involves President Obama's plan to speak to school children. Predictably, Republicans are flip-flopping like mad: They forget Bush Lite was in a school, reading a children's story, during the 9/11 attack. Bush froze like a deer in the headlights. Other presidents have spoken directly to schools. At the time, the rabid right was very supportive of Bush visiting schools. It's good when leaders communicate directly, and even better if they're good at it. But reality doesn't get in the way of the rabidly inconsistent GOP. Whether racism or politics, they are behaving like spiteful babies and no one should pay attention to them on this issue.
The larger question: Should anyone pay any attention to the GOP on any issue. They've been so wrong for so long. Indeed, all too often they take a stance that is the exact opposite of reality. The batshit insane extremists have taken over a once-proud party. This is the Sarah Palin "base", far different than the party faithful of a generation ago. Even Reaganites, those highly partisan pundits who sacrificed their reputations for big bucks talking only to the faithful, would occasionally have their feet on the ground.
No longer. Republicans are obsessed with birth records, wise women, paying more for poor insurance and being the right-wing equivalent of politically correct at all times.
I'm in favor of the two party system, but increasingly I despair that the Republican Party should not be one of them. They have lost it. Towing the Bush/Cheney/Gingrich line has cost them what remains of their sanity.
Calling the death of a political party is tricky, and rarely happens. So I'm under no illusions here. But it does happen; Republicans pushed aside the Whigs. More recently, the Democratic Party emerged from World War II with change in mind, and purged themselves of racists and demagogues. The Republican party was all too happy to admit them. The GOP today is not the GOP of Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt. Even Eisenhower saw the writing on the wall. To a very great extent, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have switched positions and a party loyalist from the late 19th century would vote for the other party in the 21st.
So... who and when? After Ross Perot's high water mark in the early 90s, no viable third party has come along to push aside the fringe elements in control of the goppies. They don't seem poised to change internally. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is due for a major split, with the progressives and liberals lined up in partial opposition to the centrists and right wingers.
Will either of these scenarios play out? I can't say for sure. But I sense great dissatisfaction with current politics. Obama remains a great hope to many, and it's still far too early to write off any party-building aspirations he has. At the moment, though, he's losing the "post-partisan" middle as he panders to "bi-partisan" extremists. I predict the 2010 elections will shake out a few threads, but we really won't see a major realignment until 2012.
Stories to watch
It's Labor Day, and I'm not going to delve into another area. I'll just point out a few stories to watch, just to see if they have traction:
Mercenaries and murder in Iraq. This article from the Guardian on August 14, 2009, only touches on part of the story. Essentially, over half of the forces in Iraq are not US soldiers, they are mercenaries hired by the US but outside military law and not directly under US authority. A great many of these are service workers: Cafeteria tray washers and barracks cleaners. But many see combat, and many who are technically civilians are dying.
We would greatly prefer to have all the jobs be US soldiers: Better trained, cheaper and subject to US command. But fewer and fewer want to fight Bush's war, and our brave soldiers and National Guard are getting tired. So we're throwing money at the problem. When they money went to Cheney's friends at Haliburton and Blackwater, it was disgusting and corrupt. Obama, by keeping Sec. of Defense Gates, has allowed the situation to continue and get worse... and his campaign contributors are not making money.
I suspect this story will get bigger, as the people who want to get out of Iraq combine forces with the people who want to make money out of the Bush failure.
Major ruling against Ashcroft highlights evils of preventive detention. The ruling was just a few days ago, on the Saturday of a three-day weekend, so avoided the major news cycles. Still, as this story by Glenn Greenwald of salon.com shows (click your way through the ads), the ruling that "allowed a lawsuit to proceed that was brought against John Ashcroft for the illegal and unconstitutional detention of American Muslims" is a major one. Democrats were right to oppose Bush's judicial nominees, so thank heaven a few good ones seem to have slipped past the Federalist Society's judicial activists.
Brett Favre joins the Vikings. This is too funny to bother with a link; you probably know all the background. As of the cut-down on Saturday, the Vikings released their fourth quarterback, David Booty, and kept the two career backups who would have been vying for the starting position until the storied quarterback arrived. I still give my hometown Vikings this advise: Don't play him. Let him start the game (to keep his streak alive) and keep him in until he doesn't score. Then save him up for the playoffs. The Jets didn't do that last year, and collapsed. I suspect this story hasn't had it's last twist yet, but at least the Vikings have a good shot at getting deep into the playoffs.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog maintains a Facebook Page, plays with 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. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Protect Maine Equality (Video)
Will Durst: "Happy Labor Day: an Oxymoron" (huffingtonpost.com)
Labor Day. The Rodney Dangerfield of holidays. Nobody knows why it's treated like the runt of the celebration litter.
Susan Estrich: In Memory of Teddy (creators.com)
It's been a long and ugly weekend, e-mail wise. Ted Kennedy may be gone, but the haters are still out there. Every time I said a nice word, my BlackBerry would start vibrating.
Froma Harrop: Biggest Danger to Democrats(creators.com)
Flip the calendar pages - as they do in the old movies to show passage of time - and stop at Nov. 2, 2010.
Sheila Weinstein: Husband's Illness Forces Her to Encounter Herself (womensenews.org)
Sheila Weinstein was forced to become independent when her husband of 42 years was diagnosed with dementia. In this excerpt from "Moving to the Center of the Bed," she talks about living alone for the first time and having to find herself in her 60s.
Susan Estrich: Who Will Run the Free Hot Dog Stand?(creators.com)
Watching conservatives cheer the demise of the "public option" has left me shaking my head.
George Varga: Music Video Game, Remastered Albums, Reflect Enduring Passion for The Beatles (creators.com)
Yeah, yeah, yeah! Guitar Hero and Rock Band didn't set out to transform the struggling music industry, but they are doing exactly that by letting tech-savvy music fans simulate the experience of being rock stars on stage.
TRAVIS RITTER: Forget Me Not (thestranger.com)
Singer-Songwriter Cass McCombs's Underrated Brilliance.
Alexis Krellenstein: Interview with Andrew WK (thecelebritycafe.com)
Andrew Wilkes-Krier, better known as Andrew WK, knows how to keep busy. Not only is he a musician and motivational speaker, but he also hosts a game show for teenagers on Cartoon Network ...
Kate Aurthur: "Courteney Cox: 'Cougar Town's' really normal Hollywood star"
Courteney Cox has been famous for 25 years. Yes -- Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" video, which caused "who's-that-girl?" attention to be directed toward the blue-eyed, short-black-haired, T-shirt-and-jeans wearing Cox, made its MTV debut in July 1984.
Mikhaela Reid: "Commentoon: Pre-Existing Condition" (womensenews.org)
The Weekly Poll
Next question will be September 8th as I'm taking a 'birthday' week off (and to aggravate my SallyP(al), haha)...
BadToTheBoneBob
What city (and state) was the old TV series Gunsmoke set in (and around)?
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Purple Gene Continues
'Taking Woodstock'
this mini micro review is from Bill Thompson (the manager of the "Jefferson Airplane" he was at Woodstock with the band) ...
HEY BILL
HAVE YOU SEEN "TAKING WOODSTOCK" ??????
I NEED YOUR MINI REVIEW OF IT....
("SOMEBODY TO LOVE" PLAYS OVER THE CREDITS! )
PURP
--- On Thu, 9/3/09, Bill T wrote:
I saw it and I enjoyed it. It brought memories!
Bill T
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Back to sunny and pleasant.
Lifetime Award At Venice Film Festival
Pixar
The Venice Film Festival's red carpet was festooned with balloons on Sunday to mark the lifetime achievement award for director and producer John Lasseter and his crew of Pixar directors.
They were rewarded for their work creating a new generation of childhood memories populated with Nemo, Woody and Sulley. It is the first time in festival history that the award honors not just one filmmaker but an entire studio.
Pixar, founded in 1986 and based in northern California, pioneered digital computer animation and has made 10 feature films to date, four of which have won Oscars since the animation category was introduced in 2001.
Lasseter said he was "tremendously honored" that the festival chose to give the award to the team of five Pixar directors, including Brad Bird ("Ratatouille" and "The Incredibles"), Pete Docter ("Up" and "Monsters Inc."), Andrew Stanton ("Finding Nemo" and "Wall-E"), and Lee Unkrich ("Toy Story 3"). Lasseter directed the first two "Toy Story" movies and "Cars."
Pixar
Frank Sinatra School of the Arts
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett may sing about San Francisco, but he left his heart in Astoria - the working-class Queens community where he grew up during the Great Depression.
When schools open, the 83-year-old singer will be returning to his old neighbourhood to welcome students into the new permanent home of the public arts high school that he founded and named in honour of his close friend, Frank Sinatra.
"It's beyond any dream I could have ever had," said Bennett. "I loved growing up in Astoria and I still hang out there. It's got the most wholesome people I ever met. ... When I was lucky enough to get money from New York City to start a school, I said, 'Let's do it in Astoria because they deserve it."'
Bennett and his wife, Susan Benedetto (his given family name), an educator, will be attending Wednesday's opening of the new home of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts. At a time when school districts across the country are cutting arts programs, the opening caps off a decade-long campaign to develop a public-private partnership to create a model arts high school.
Bennett chose to name the school after his mentor, who helped launch his career that spans seven decades.
Tony Bennett
Blame Shakespeare!
Starlings
The next time the sky darkens with a flock of noisy unwelcome starlings, blame Shakespeare - or, better yet, a few of his strangest fans.
Had the Bard not mentioned the starling in the third scene of "Henry IV," arguably the most hated bird in North America might never have arrived. In the early 1890s, about 100 European starlings were released in New York City's Central Park by a group dedicated to bringing to America every bird ever mentioned by Shakespeare.
Some 200 million shiny black European starlings crowd North America, from the cool climes of Alaska to the balmy reaches of Mexico's Baja peninsula. The enormous flocks endanger air travel, mob cattle operations, chase off native songbirds, roost on city blocks, leaving behind corrosive, foul-smelling droppings and hundreds of millions of dollars of damage each year.
Last year U.S. government agents poisoned, shot and trapped 1.7 million starlings, more than any other nuisance species, according to new figures, only to see them roaring back again.
Starlings
Glove Auctioned
Michael Jackson
A bejeweled white glove Michael Jackson tossed to an Australian fan more than a decade ago sold at auction Sunday for 57,600 Australian dollars ($48,400), almost twice the estimated selling price.
Warwick Stone, a buyer for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, beat out five other bidders for the late King of Pop's glove, said Charlotte Stanes, spokeswoman for the Melbourne auction house Bonhams and Goodman. The estimated selling price before the auction was AU$30,000.
Bonhams and Goodman said it was the first auction of a Michael Jackson glove since his death on June 25 this year at age 50.
Jackson visited Australia in 1996 as part of his HIStory world tour. While in Sydney, he attended the Australian premiere for the film "Ghosts," in which he had a starring role. At the end of the screening, he tossed the glove at audience member Bill Hibble, who has since died, said national head of collectables Giles Moon.
Michael Jackson
Debts Closing In
Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz's artsy, provocative portraits of celebrities regularly grace the covers of Vanity Fair and Vogue, images that have made her as famous as her subjects and earned her millions.
Now Leibovitz risks losing the copyright to the images - and her entire life's work - if she doesn't pay back a $24 million loan by Tuesday. Art Capital Group, a New York company that issues short-term loans against fine and decorative arts and real estate, sued her in late July for breach of contract.
Some experts say filing for bankruptcy reorganization could be the best option for Leibovitz, 59, who has put up as collateral her three historic Greenwich Village townhouses, an upstate property and work. She bought two of the townhouses in 2002, embarking on extensive renovations to combine them into one property. That spurred protests from historic preservationists and a $15 million lawsuit by a neighbor.
Last year, Leibovitz put up her homes and the copyright to every picture she has ever taken - or will take - as collateral to secure the loan to pay off her mounting debt: unpaid bills, mortgage payments and tax liens, ACG said.
Annie Leibovitz
How About Pelican Bay?
Phil Spector
The planned transfer of music mogul Phil Spector to a different prison has been halted as complications continued to surround his imprisonment for murder.
Spector's wife Rachelle said she interceded with a prison official and Spector filed an inmate appeal after it was announced he would be moved to Pleasant Valley State Prison at Coalinga with a group of other prisoners.
The official reason was the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility at Corcoran, where Spector is now housed, needed to clear out bed space for inmates requiring mental health treatment.
But his wife objected, saying Pleasant Valley had a history of outbreaks of potentially deadly Valley Fever.
Phil Spector
German Auction
Paintings
Three watercolours believed painted by a young Adolf Hitler were auctioned off for a total of 42,000 euros ($60,000) in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg on Saturday.
German auctioneer Herbert Weidler said the three paintings were sold to three different phone bidders. Although the exact number of Hitler paintings is unknown, experts believe there are about 720, including sketches, in existence.
The paintings are dated from 1910 to 1911 and originate in Vienna, where Hitler was a struggling artist. He applied to art school in Vienna but was rejected.
"Weissenkirchen in der Wachau" fetched 24,000 euros from a foreign bidder while two other domestic bidders won "Zerschossene Muehle" for 11,000 euros and "Haus mit Bruecke am Fluss" for 7,000 euros.
Paintings
Nuclear And Political
Fallout
Pius Henry fears his adopted government will kill him, that the United States won't live up to a health care obligation to people from Pacific islands where it tested nuclear bombs.
Henry, a diabetic from the Marshall Islands, has received free dialysis treatments three times a week for years, but the cash-strapped state of Hawaii has threatened to cut off him and others to save money.
Like thousands of legal migrants to Hawaii from independent Pacific nations, Henry believes the United States has a responsibility to provide health care to compensate for the radioactive fallout of 67 nuclear weapons tests from 1946 to 1958.
A federal judge's ruling Sept. 1 temporarily prevented Hawaii from halting critical dialysis and chemotherapy treatments to hundreds of migrants from three nations: Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau. His order lasts at least until October.
Those three countries are beneficiaries of the Compact of Free Association, a 1986 pact with the United States granting it the right to use defense sites in exchange for financial assistance and migration rights.
Fallout
Weekend Box Office - So Far
'Final Destination'
The Warner Bros. fright flick "The Final Destination" remained the No. 1 movie for the second-straight weekend with $12.4 million for the first three days of the long holiday weekend. "The Final Destination" raised its 10-day total to $47.6 million.
It came in ahead of Sandra Bullock's romantic comedy "All About Steve," a 20th Century Fox release which debuted in second-place with $11.2 million from Friday to Sunday. Bullock plays a woman who sets out on the road in pursuit of her soul mate.
Among other new movies, Lionsgate's action tale "Gamer" debuted at No. 4 with $9 million. The movie stars Gerard Butler in a thriller about real humans controlled by players in lethal games.
Studios will release estimates for the four-day weekend on Monday.
'Final Destination'
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