Camera Obscura - Best Movies of 2006; Who Is Uwe Boll; Movie News

A top movies of 2006 list is as easy to find as a bluegrass musician in Tennessee. As one friend says, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one.

Last week I offered my picks for the movies I liked the best in 2006, though many were made in previous years, and I tend to see more these days on DVD. So this week, a peek at who will win Oscar nominations, a bona fide list of excellence in horror movies on DVD, and much more juicy and tasty takes on the world 'o movies. Read on!

The nominations from the Producer's Guild point to heavy-duty Oscar contenders - but missing is poor Clint Eastwood. Will the five movies picked by producers be the nominees for Best Picture? I imagine "Babel" will drop off the list, but I think the solid contenders are "The Departed," "The Queen", and "Dreamgirls". Their list is here.

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Once again, I truly like the selections and opinions offered on horror movies via DVDStalk. They note the best horror on DVD releases from 2006, and they make some great selections, many of which I too have mentioned. One I did not mention, since I only saw the DVD was available last week is the deeply underrated "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" from creator/director Tobe Hooper. Aiming for comedy but still keeping the terror at high levels, the movie scores big with Bill Mosley and Dennis Hopper, a kicking soundtrack, and Hooper's goofy nightmare amusement park. And that opening scene will take yer head off!

Their pick for the best horror on DVD of 2006 - "The Descent". On my list to see this week, the movie gets truly high praise from all the fans and critics alike. And I do mean praise:

"I'm telling you - horror freak to horror freak - The Descent is my favorite film of 2006 and easily one of the best horror films of the last ten years. I said it before, and I'll say it again - this is a must see film for any discerning horror fan."

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Two new DVD releases make my mouth water -- both Season One and Two of the David Lynch TV series "Twin Peaks." Loaded with honest-to-pete extras and commentary, this was too long in arriving. Now the bad news -- not all the episodes are here!! For some reason, Warner's will not give the OK to release the 2-hour pilot on DVD. That is just stupid.

Me? I am one of the lucky ones - I have a commercial free copy of the pilot on VHS which ABC sent me in advance to review just before the show hit television and made history. Friends will confirm I eagerly took the tape to many many homes preaching the Gospel of it's Goodness.

The good news about the boxed sets: it arrives with a removable pic of the doomed Laura Palmer and the set is wrapped in plastic, just like Laura. Heh heh.

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"I'm Christian Slater - Paranormal Detective"

That should have been the title of the truly godawful movie "Alone In The Dark" from heinous and infamous director Uwe Boll. I've tried at least 8 times to watch the entire movie and failed each time. Which means it does rank in my book as a movie so bad, it should carry FDA warnings. And yes, I keep saying "that's because I'm Christian Slater - Paranormal Detective" every time Slater speaks.

The movie may be the (so far) masterpiece of awful from Boll -- who is planning a sequel. And people from all walks of life really hate the man. Last summer, he challenged his critics to face him in a boxing ring. The results were surreal. How long will it be before someone makes a movie about Boll, rightly termed the Ed Wood of the 21st Century?

Truth is, I have never been able to watch an entire Boll film. "BloodRayne" (which he has now mapped out as a trilogy) is another choice entry of awful. What is stunning is how the actors involved - Ben Kingsley, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Madsen - NEVER look at the camera, though you know they want to, with a look that says "Help Me!" They exhibit what's known in the biz as "Take the money and walk away ... quickly."

With the $60 million budget (??!!!??) for "Dungeon Siege" (Burt Reynolds?), Boll will surely lay claim to the throne as Worst Director in World History.

Words will never capture the discomfort his movies create in a viewer. Or the boredom. My advice, however, for an excellent time, is to get one or two of his movies, gather your friends, and make up your own running dialog as you watch. That, my friends, is deeply entertaining!

Why Wii Is More Popular Than The PS3

Courtesy of the minds at G4.

Very Unscientific Survey on New Congress

For the first time the U.S. House of Representatives has a woman as Speaker - number two in line of succession to the presidency. She easily has the toughest job in American politics today, though President Bush may be a close second in the tough job category - can he prove his policies and programs have relevance? A question for you, dear readers, follows.

The Democrats elected Pelosi by a slim margin of 29 votes to the leadership position. Democrats are pushing for an ambitious agenda for the first 100 hours of the 110th Congress. Here is a summary of their plans:

* Good Government: Cutting off lobbyist gifts and restoring fairness and transparency in the way laws are passed

* Fiscal Responsibility: Stop recklessly driving up the national debt

* National Security: Implement all of the 9/11 Commission security recommendations

* Fighting Poverty: Increase minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, helping 15 million working families

* Health Research: Increased funding and availability for stem cell research

* Affordable Health Care: Negotiate for lower prices on prescription drugs, passing savings on to seniors

* Education Access: Cut interest on federal student loans in half

* Clean Energy: Cut oil company subsidies and invest in safe alternatives


And you can go here for a more detailed account.

THE QUESTION:

How much - if any - of these legislative plans will be adopted?

Useful Confusion With Hired Interrogators

There is a very convenient confusion available to military forces since the military uses contractors for "intelligence" and "interrogation".

As mentioned in my post yesterday, the use of contractors throughout military operations has been a central part of the Bush administration's policy and strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan. A report in today's Washington Post cites an FBI investigation into events at Guantanamo Bay prisons, again noting the activities of these contractors. Allegations of abuse however, are difficult to confirm in the murky rules of chain of command:

"The disclosures, which are based on a 2004 survey of FBI personnel, do not mention which company employed the contractors at Guantanamo. Many of the incidents dated to 2002, but it could not be learned yesterday what company held the contract for some of that time. In November 2002, Affiliated Computer Systems was awarded a contract to supply 30 intelligence analysts and 15 to 20 interrogators and strategic debriefers to Guantanamo. ACS was acquired by Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's largest contractor, in 2003."

"The allegations are reminiscent in certain respects to charges of mistreatment at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. There, too, contractors who supplied interrogation services were allegedly involved, and some U.S. military personnel said they had mistreated detainees under orders from contractors.

The U.S. attorney's office was assigned to investigate contractor behavior at Abu Ghraib, but no charges have been filed."

Confusion creates opportunities - and cover - for abuse.

In The Future, I Can Talk About The Banana In The Sky

I would hope very much that in the year 2030, I am here at the ripe young age of 90, being sought out by reporters and historians as one of the many folks living in the 21st century yet born in the 20th.

Why?

So I can say things like, "I remember when the idea of a geostationary banana over Texas was just a dream."

Private Police and Anti-Terrorist Training for Malls

It's hard not to notice the rising numbers of private police companies over the last few decades but until I read the report from the Washington Post, I had no idea these private companies and their forces were a booming business.

"What is new is that police forces, including the Durham Police Department here in North Carolina's Research Triangle, are increasingly turning to private companies for help. Moreover, private-sector security is expanding into spheres -- complex criminal investigations and patrols of downtown districts and residential neighborhoods -- that used to be the province of law enforcement agencies alone.

The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. The enormous Wackenhut Corp. guards the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and screens visitors to the Statue of Liberty.

"You can see the public police becoming like the public health system," said Thomas M. Seamon, a former deputy police commissioner for Philadelphia who is president of Hallcrest Systems Inc., a leading security consultant. "It's basically, the government provides a certain base level. If you want more than that, you pay for it yourself."

Today the WaPo had another story about how shopping mall security officers were being given anti-terrorist training.

"The job of a shopping mall security guard normally involves controlling rowdy teenagers, finding lost children and patrolling parking lots. But starting this month, malls across the country will begin training guards for another task: fighting terrorism.

The 14-hour program is being developed by the International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade group, and the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University at a cost of $2 million. It is the first standardized anti-terrorism curriculum written for the nation's estimated 20,000 mall security guards."

Seems clear that the trend for privatizing government is taking us to some new places.

Since private companies also operate prisons, one wonders if soon we can free up a lot of court time and let private companies handle any and all problematic populations.

The Bush administration has truly endorsed (with over 100,000 contractors) this type of change since they handed off chores of both protection of public and private facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, and operations like interrogation to private firms, so the financial rewards continue to grow.

The wisdom of such changes -- unknown.

Using Thomas Jefferson's Copy of the Koran

Irony of the Week Award goes to newly elected Congressman Keith Ellison for his savvy response to some rather heated and mean-spirited taunts from Congressman Virgil Goode.

Goode's remarks made headlines and filled blogs as he wailed and moaned in fearful squirming that Ellison, a Muslim, would be taking his oath to office in an unofficial ceremony using a Koran. The law is rather specific that legislators swear to uphold the Constitution - but there is no requirement that oath be taken with hands laid on a religious book. But most congressman do hold private ceremonies where they do lay hands on a religious book.

After much public hysteria, Ellison truly gets the last word on this idiotic tirade, He decided to use a copy of the Koran once owned and notated by Thomas Jefferson.. Goode's eyeballs/jaw hit the floor, especially since he represents the district in which Jefferson was born.

Reviewing Blogs and 'Blog Wars'

Understanding an experience happens when it has passed, usually, though not always.

People in general and the current news media in particular are grappling with the question of a blog, what is and isn't and who are these darn bloggers anyway?

Last week I mentioned the broadcast of a documentary called "Blog Wars," and CE Petro has a fine write-up on the where the documentary failed and succeded. For me, the most interesting part of the doc was a comment from writer/blogger Andrew Sullivan, who said that blogging is incredibly liberating - to be able to write and publish on a worldwide scale without any editors or publishers or owners peeking over your shoulder. It is an experiment

I expect in coming years (or less) attempts to regulate blogs will markedly increase, even as the medium is still creating itself. Such unfettered freedom of expression is frightening to many.

The function and the form of a blog is solely determined by it's writer and/or creator. BusyMom noted yesterday a debate on whether or not a blog is a blog if it has no comments or discussions.

Old-fashioned print and broadcast media are confused and appalled by bloggers, though no so much as to dismiss them (if they are smart). More and more, the old guard is working hard to stay viable and useful on the internet.

More than once, one or two anonymous commenters here have chided me and this page, wanting to know why I didn't make this page, this blog, behave in a way they thought was best. Well, oh anonymous ones, this blog is not called "The News From _________ " and for good reason. A reader here can read news and news reports about the local area, the state, the region, the nation and even the world - but that's only part of the equation.

A reader here can easily discover after reading a few posts that the topics I write about will be on anything I want.

That's why it's called "Cup of Joe Powell" -- whatever is in my thoughts or whatever I discover reading any and all kinds of other web sites will end up here. Unlike a traditional print or broadcast outlet -- the object here isn't making money, making sales, expanding subscribers or viewers. The topics here are on my opinions, my views, sometimes well-written, sometimes just a link, sometimes all that you'll find here will be just as odd as I am.

News can be found here - and you can scan through all the links on this page to read the news, just as many of the links here are to blogs offering the views and thoughts of other bloggers. Some of that is news-oriented and some isn't. Some links are even (gasp!) blogs about blogs!!

Confusing to some, yes. Experimental at times, yes. This entire blogging deal, folks, is ever-changing. As 2007 gets going, you'll find new links being added and will likely see some layout changes here too.

Perhaps the best way to explain all this is to say that I often spend more time reading other sites of information than I do writing. Some days will bring many posts - some days none. Other opinons and comments are always welcome here as long as you have bothered to actually read what has been written about and as long as ya don't get nasty or insulting. If you find after reading here that I am nasty or insulting then my advice is to move on and do not come back. Admittedly, I will leave comments on many other blog sites expressing my doubts about what they write or my support. I don't expect my comments will change the writer's mind - I like debating/sharing information. It's a learning process for me.

I do know this - I have read and seen far more open debate, far more information, far more news, far more entertainment via the internet and blogs and web-sites that I ever saw via the old-fashioned media. The blogosphere seems to me to be populated by intense and informed readers and writers. In my view, that is incredibly beneficial to all.

Times Square Cam and The Top 25 Cams of 2006

Watch the gathering crowds and keep your eyes on a 16 live web cams in Times Square and around the nation via the EarthCam website.

And, they also have released their top 25 web cams of 2006. I like the monkey cam the best myself, but there are also roaches, tigers and Key West too. Although it looks like all their links are redirecting you to the Times Square page at least until tomorrow.

But who know? Maybe their will be monkeys in Times Square!

A Protest Against The Year 2007

A group has organized in France to protest 2007. They don't want it - no new year, no more years period, and ultimately an end to Time itself.

The group calls itself Fonacon and declared:

"The members of the anti-New Year front, including several otherwise conventional local businessmen and women, dressed up in hoods and masks.

"It is about time that the passage of time ended," said one of the hooded organisers. "We are fed up with getting older. Why should we follow the fashion? The planet is getting older and warmer. Not us. Stop this mad race towards death."

Certainly seems to be a growing problem and resentment with any and all holiday observances, with what they are called and why and how they are observed. I suppose it was inevitable that once there was a "War on Christmas", then why not a War on Time?

Time is an issue for us all, yes. Various cultures say we are on the edge of the year 2007, others say Jan. 1, 2007 is actually Tevet the 11th, 5767 and some say we are currently in the year 4704.

Time could be stopped - but then what do we do? Einstein seems right in saying that the reason we have time is so that everything doesn't happen at once - though I must admit that the more I have traveled through Time, the more it does seem to all happen at once anyway. And I've read enough science-fiction to know that stopping Time usually brings bad results. I mean, somewhere there is an official Atomic Clock and if Time stopped, then I suppose everything would go boom.

I've heard it said that someone is "living in the past" or "living for today", so perception seems to be the key to time. At least that's the way I see it.

One of the most ominous phrases I have ever heard is "There is no Time like the present." That just gives me the creeps.

Perhaps Groucho Marx said it best - "Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."

Camera Obscura - Best Movies of 2006

Before I offer up a list of the best from this year and the disclaimers which go with my selections, there are a few noteworthy movie news items to provide.

I was most happy to see what the first images of comic book legend Silver Surfer will look like in the second Fantastic Four movie out in 2007. He isn't all CGI - actor Doug Jones performs in a body suit which will get some CGI touch-ups and as fan, I am impressed. Here's to hoping they also do a good job creating the Surfer's boss, Galactus. More about the photo and the movie can be found here. And the first trailers are being shown with "Night At The Museum.

On Thursday, 25 more movies were added to the National Registry of Film for preservation and the list covers a wide range of films, as always. Some of the list includes:
Blazing Saddles
Halloween
Groundhog Day
Fargo

The complete list is here.

One of the best things about this year in movies was the stellar and influential collection of films from the Janus Collection. Not only did we get an massive boxed-set of DVDs and extras of the best from the Janus, many cities are hosting mini-festivals to allow folks to once again see these classics in a movie theatre. The Nashville Scene has the info about the festival playing in January 2007 at the Belcourt.

Among my favorites being offered are Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and "The Hidden Fortress, a major influence on Li'l George Lucas, who borrowed much for his "Star Wars" tale -- instead of two robots, the story follows a tall and skinny and short and squat pair of peasants who stumble into a struggle between empires, aiding a heroic samurai charged with protecting an endangered princess. There is one astonishing and very funny scene of the two peasants caught on a massive staircase on a mountainside as thousands either flee or attack in a massive jail break.

Some others in the Janus Festival include "400 Blows", "La Strada", "Gimmie Shelter" and "Walkabout." And seeing these movies in a theatre is sheer bliss.

One of the best columns on the Best of 2006 is from The DVD Savant, whose list is properly titled The Most Impressive DVDs of 2006. His picks are perfection. Just go read it.

DISCLAIMER: My selections of favorites from 2006 are a blend of both new theatrical releases and releases from earlier years which became a regular part of my home viewing habits. There are several films from 2006 I haven't seen yet. And, naturally, the following represents something of my taste for obscurity. Some of these selections are .... aw, hell. I'll explain as I go.

Favorite Movies in No Particular Order:

"V For Vendetta" -- I avoided watching this in the theatres, as I am a massive fan of the Alan Moore graphic novel, so why ruin my memory with a bad movie? I finally caved and watched it this year and was most impressed with how the film kept the language and even the comic-panel style of imagery. Subversive and cautionary and very much a movie of it's time - plus a fantastic performance by Hugo Weaving from behind the mask.

"Grizzly Man" - Werner Herzog once again paints a picture of a madman and a doomed soul. Really more of a found artifact of the videotaped journal of Timothy Treadwell. Impossible to not be absorbed by Herzog's narrative.

"The Proposition" - Yes, a movie from this year makes the list!! Former rocker Nick Cave's script drops you immediately into a harrowing Outback western saga, and makes both a lyrical and ugly story. Add in the haunting musical score and the haunted faces and lives of the characters and this movie is a minor masterpiece.

Satisfying Sequels/Remakes: Two sequels, both hyped to death and big at the box office, actually impressed me this year - "X-Men 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". The only drawbacks to X-3 was the poor Beast performance and Angel, who was lost in all the character threads. In Dead Man's Chest - my favorite performance of the year was from Bill Nighy as Davy Jones, who steals the screen whenever he appears. A remake I thought would be terrible was instead both careful to preserve the intent of the original and to enhance it as well -- "The Hills Have Eyes". The movie is about what it takes to turn a pacifist into a fighter and about the distorted creatures who make that pacifist transform. Just a brilliant remake.

"Pulse" -- No, not the remake from this year, which sucked, but the original 2001 Japanese version finally made available this year in the U.S. Relying on mood and shadow, it created an intense sense of dread for me. I was jumping at shadows for days. Not for every taste, I know, but for me it worked in spades as I watched the characters slip into despair, fear and then disappear into nothingness.

"Slither" - Part homage to horror films of the 1980s and the 1950s, plus part mindless escapism, I watched it several times, laughing often. Add in the hilarious and numerous DVD extras and this was some of the most fun I had with a film all year. Seek it out.

My Favorite of the Year:

This movie came out in 2004, but it was the one most often in my DVD player this year. It is a great comedy, has a fantastic musical score, is loaded with action scenes and has a romance story stuck in as well. The writer, director and star of the movie expertly crafted each frame and every performance is dead-on perfect. It's a kung-fu extravaganza, a Chuck Jones cartoon, and the supporting characters are famous for their previous roles in movies - from Bruce Lee's stunt double to one of the Japanese girls chasing Bond in "Man With A Golden Gun". The movie makes my obscure heart rumble with admiration every time I see it. If you haven't ever seen it, I highly recommend you take the time to watch it. Highest ratings for "Kung Fu Hustle".

Now I know this list is odd, eclectic and may not make much sense to you. That is why it's my list and not yours. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments - or just deride me for mine.

"Blog Wars" Tonight

Pertinent and/or impertinent, those millions of people who take to the internet with a keyboard and become bloggers have been changing both political and personal realities for several years. 2006 especially was their year of political activism.

Tonight a documentary from Sundance and the BBC titled "Blog Wars" will air, telling the political story of how blogging and bloggers have forever altered the media landscape. Starting with the crafty use of the internet by Howard Dean in 2004 and focusing on the Lamont and Lieberman campaign, the documentary attempts to tell a rather complex story.

Info on the documentary is here at the Sundance website. A short mention and clip was made last week at Crooks and Liars.

Details in PS3 Shooting Continue to Emerge

It's likely that items in this post will offend some people. Good. This should disturb most of us.

I've been following the surreal and violent events from North Carolina about the shooting death of 18-year-old Peyton Strickland, gunned down by police in their "investigation" of the theft of two PlayStation 3's. Some previous posts are here and here.

Certainly more tounges are wagging about another news story in North Carolina, the one involving the Duke Lacrosse Team. The story has been getting great ratings.

But let's be honest - all the speculating and pontificating on that case is pretty much a standard story in American athletics. The majority of athletes do not always make the news for drunken, drug-fueled, sexual assaults. However, enough of them do so that we might as well include arrest and conviction records along with the stats kept on the players of pretty much every sport. If anything, the events concerning what happened at Duke should inform most of us that the term "sport" is equitable with the term "justice." It's a game where the win is determined by the abilities of the legal "players" and not by notions of Justice.

The killing of Peyton Strickland does bother me though.

Let's say for argument's sake that the teen was guilty of beating someone up and stealing their PS3. What followed that crime is lunacy. And what the Hanover County Sheriff's office did over the last week to raise money for the now-fired deputy who did the shooting -- raffle off a PlayStation 3 - is a clear indication of these officers sneering at the death of Strickland.

The only reason the raffle was halted - changed to a Plasma TV - was because the public and the media learned of it.

Troubling too are the overwhelming paramilitary tactics waged on a teen who essentially stole a toy.

16 officers, including a 10-person SWAT team, surrounded the teen's home. And as I've said before, paramilitary tactics and weapons are far too common in every town in America. A study from the CATO Institute this summer noted that in the last 25 years, there has been a 1,300 percent increase in the number of such raids on American homes. Standards and training, however, are barely existent, according to Peter Kraska, criminal justice professor at Eastern Kentucky University and author of two other nationwide studies of SWAT teams deployment and tatics:

"There's absolutely no standards or national accreditation or anything a department has to do to establish a tactical team," Kraska said. "So many people have the misconception that because there's a SWAT team, its members are competent and highly trained ... and it's just not the case."

North Carolina, like most states, doesn't set statewide standards for tactical training, leaving that up to individual agencies, Kraska said."

A Grand Jury, which "mistakenly" marked the wrong box and found deputy Christopher Long guilty of second degree murder, and then the next day said, "whoops! we meant not guilty", has also revealed some highly questionable testimony --

As reported by the Greensboro News-Record, here's what was supposed to happen: Long was standing next to an officer at the door who had the battering ram, he would then go inside first and the other 15 officers would follow while a search was conducted. (And yeah, a battering ram? That may be the norm when raiding a home of suspected drug-dealers or in hostage situations, but for the theft of a toy??)

Long's statements to investigators was that when he heard the sound of the battering ram, he thought someone inside the apartment was shooting. Even though he was standing right beside the battering ram. He immediately shot through the door - blindly, not knowing who was on the other side.

Long did knock on the door -- it hasn't been reported if he identified himself as a policeman with a warrant to enter. (Thanks to the Supreme Court decision this year, none of that is even necessary anymore) Instead he fired multiple times through the closed door, one bullet travelling through Strickland's brain, another just missing his heart. Strickland's dog, Blaze, alarmed at the gunshots began to bark and came to the doorway and other officers gunned the dog down.

By this time, according to testimony, Long was in the yard, away from the apartment, freaking out, saying "Oh Jesus Oh Jesus".

The D.A.'s office is continuing a criminal investigation into the case and may attempt to bring other charges before a Grand Jury in January.

Here at this blog, I know I'm just being an armchair detective -- hell, it's a national pasttime, 21st century sport, with it's own celebrities, like Nancy Grace and the entire CourtTV channel or the handsome and sturdy stars of shows like "CSI" and "Law and Order."

But shooting blindly through a door - with no idea who, if anyone, was behind it, is a clear example to me of someone who believes any and all actions are justified.

An editorial in the Wilmington Journal points out some key concerns here:

"This whole sorry episode calls into question the safety of every citizen in this city, county and state, especially our children. Who will be the next officer who recklessly acts alone at the risk of all nearby? How appropriate is it to send in a small militia to a well-populated street when there’s no evidence of violence emanating from the address?

And if it wasn’t for the news media, the grand jurors claim they wouldn’t have known that the wrong box was checked on the indictment sheet. How do we know innocent people haven’t been erroneously indicted in the past? Grand jury proceedings are secret by law and no recording of them is made. So how do we hold the system accountable?

How do we know it works, or doesn’t work?"

More on the rise and the deadly mistakes in the use of paramilitary raids can be read here. Or maybe you're ok with the fact that in the early 1980s there were some 3,000 paramilitary raids per year and by the early 2000's, that number is 40,000 a year.

That's all - go watch your favorite team play a game on TV now.

A Merry Christmas from Old Friends

It was a favorite from the Christmas 2005 Cup of Joe. And since numerous readers requested it again, then here it is, and hope you have as fine a Christmas/Solstice/Whatever for 2006 as this wee fellow is having. Stick out your tounge for Christmas if it makes you feel festive.



As for me, here is a Christmas image from me (well, actually Chuck Jones and a guy named Seuss) to all of you.

Welcome, Christmas, bring your cheer. Cheer to all Whos far and near. Christmas Day is in our grasp so long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be just as long as we have we. Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart and hand in hand.

Camera Obscura - 101 Christmas Classics Free

Never mind scouring the television schedules or the mangled stacks of DVDs in some video store bins looking for the Christmas special or movie or even the hard-to-find parodies of Christmas' past.

Now you can watch what you want, when you want and all for free and online.

The Fanpop Christmas Spot offers 101 favorites all for your holiday pleasure. Yes, 101 classics just for you, dear readers.

There are the obligatory favorites of Charlie Brown, Rudolf, Claymation favorites and even movies like "It's A Wonderful Life" and cartoons galore, from "The Simpsons," "South Park", and even Batman and The Justice League. Plus there are old commercials and the seldom-scene-since-it-aired Chuck Jones and Richard Williams version of "A Christmas Carol."

Music videos are here too, from Bing and Bowie to Judy Garland and much more. Plus TV specials like"Mythbusters" and even Ali G.

But the must-have and must-see entry is one from the late 1970s -- the complete "Star Wars Christmas Special." It is beyond rare and yes, often beyond bizarre.

The links are all here at The Christmas Spot.

Christmas Card Idiocy Redux

The faux shock of the personal Christmas card sent out by Governor Bredesen continues to swirl - much like the swirl that follows when a toilet is flushed and likewise carries a variety of human waste with it.

Truly, people - the intolerance and hate and self-serving partisan dreck surrounding the anger of Bredesen's personal Christmas greeting - has gone on and on and on. Makes me wonder if some Neo-Cons need some time away from staring into The Abyss of Imaginary Woe and perhaps consider instead time spent contemplaing the bona-fide generosity and good will which the rest of us bask in during December.

Since banning all images beyond, beyond --- well, hell, what DO these folk want on a Christmas Card?

Surely not am image of a trio of Zororastrian judicial astrologers from Ancient Persia named Balthasar, Melchior and Caspar riding camels to visit a child in some barn!! There may even have been more such Easterners arriving at the Nativity setting!! Some scholars even say that "Caspar" was a form of the Persian name of "Jaspar," whose real name was Rustaham-Gondofarr Suren-Pahlav of the Suren-Pahlav Clan, the ruler of the eastern-greater Iran, (via WikiPedia). Perhaps we should all just limit Christmas gifts to gold, frankencense and myrrh.

And an image of some snow-covered log-cabin homestead? Obviously that's a reference to anti-materialism and Global Warming.

One *cough* minister, Patsor Maury Davis of Cornerstone Church in Madison has been widely quoted as saying: "Christmas ought to be kept pure," and compared the governor's gesture to sending out a picture of a Klansman on Martin Luther King Day

How about a picture of a decorated Christmas tree? Well .... even that is some kind of non-American European notion which elicited the ire of ministers who claimed the "tree" was anti-God, too. (See here)

Blogger Roger Abramson offers this thought:

"I realize that asking conservatives of the more whacked-out variety to use good judgment in their political discourse is basically asking for the moon, but it kills me how they seem to have dropped the ball here. If they had any sense, then instead of focusing on the religion issue, what they should have said was how great it was that in this period of gloom and doom, in which Democrats are cackling about the failures of the Bush administration's foreign policy, here is a Democratic governor highlighting--and implicitly endorsing--a relative success."

Using Christmas and politics is ... well, it's a common theme. Here's a sample of a speech which occurred last week in Greene County:

"The Rev. Alexander told the audience Thursday night that those in the right wing of the Republican Party would have “all kinds of problems” if they found out that Jesus was a liberal.

“It would remove one half of their vocabulary. They would no longer know what to say about us Democrats because they couldn’t call us ‘liberals’ because Jesus was one,” he said.

Alexander compared the Pharisees of Jesus’ time to many Republicans of this period of U.S. history.

“Who was the party of the rich? ... Who were the people that were guaranteed that nobody ever got onto their turf? ... That wanted to maintain the status quo? ... That didn’t want to change things?” he asked rhetorically.

“They had to do whatever necessary to maintain power. They had to protect the elite. They had to make sure that the rich got richer. They had to make sure that the poor continued to remain under foot and kept out. And they had to make sure that nobody ever did anything that would change anything,” Alexander said.

He continued, “Jesus said to these Pharisees the most scathing words ever recorded in all Scripture. He said, ‘Woe unto you, you scribes and Pharisees — hypocrites.”

Perhaps a better indication of how some people get the whole idea of Christmas - it is not merely a chance to enhace the national economy, as President Bush said yesterday: "Go shopping." The following is from the Mountain Press in Sevierville:

Nikki Presnell, a teacher in grades six through eight who coordinated the upper-grade side of the fair, said she wanted her students to learn that the concept of Christmas is not all Americanized.

"Everyone celebrates Christmas in a different way," Presnell said. "(The students) also learn geography and where each country is. They've done basic research on the country, and they draw maps and flags, as well as find the Christmas information.

"The students also work with partners," Presnell said, "and that was interesting because you had to depend on someone else and show teamwork and how important that was. Some of the (older) groups worked with the younger students and differentiated instructions."

Sixth-graders Kaity Dunn and Kayla Durham worked together on a project about Greece.

"Instead of Christmas trees, they use this," Kayla said, pointing to a frame with holy water and some green branches around it.

"(Students) have been really high on this from the beginning," Ball said. "When we presented this to them, they were excited.

"We've had a lot of parents and community members involved," she said. "Parents found some of the recipes and cooked traditional dishes that they brought in to share with the kids, and they helped make some of the arts and crafts. This is turning into an entire community event, not just a school event."

Almost A Theremin Christmas

How to explain the thought that arrived unbidden in my brain last night -- "I'd like to hear some Christmas Theremin music".

It's not like I'd just been listening to some Theremin music or had been pondering on the odd and weirdly hypnotic sounds of the strange device. The thought arrived in and of itself, fully formed, like a stranger who appears in front of you claiming to be an old friend.

And so there it was - not borne of some distant memory of Christmas Theremin music Past, or a contstant yearning deep within my flabby heart. Just a sudden craving for something which I did not even think existed. (NOTE: see the update at the end of this post for a most important addition.)

The Theremin, true, fascinates me and has since I learned of it way back in my childhood. Others have, like me, from time to time, expressed interest in ordering one of those kits where you build one. But I never have and no one I know owns one. I did once take piano lessons for some years and yet never moved past the playing (and poorly too, even after six years of ill-attended lessons) of "Silent Night". So while I love all kinds of music, playing an instrument or even singing a song isn't something I can do well or at all.

But a Theremin - there is no keyboard, no fret, no touching the device at all, no way to identify how to evoke a note or a sound in a particular key except for the player's ability to find it by hearing or remembering how a tune sounds or is played. It's sounds are made by memory and electrical fields created by your own body - the stuff of science fiction. A wealth of Theremin related information can be found here, if you know nothing of the instrument, made in the 1920s by a Russian physicist named Lev Theremin.

And so the search was on across the internets, starting, naturally, with YouTube. And I did discover a couple of examples of people trying to play a Christmas song on a Theremin - with terrible results. So I went Google Video and even to the vast collection of music on Odeo. The results were meager. (The curious can look here or here, though these attempts are just awful.)

And not only was there no, or just awful, Christmas Theremin music -- good music samples of the Theremin were not to be found in abundance.

However I did find two astonishing examples of exemplary Theremin musicianship. The first I will add here is from Japan - where else - and features 10 musicians playing a variation of the Theremin. It's called a Matryomin and is built to resemble a Russian nesting doll, or Matryoshka. The musicians play a segment from Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, in E Minor, Opus 95, "From The New World." Keep in mind as you watch how difficult it would be for 10 people to play this on key and in synch with each other.



Still, that did not whet my Theremin Desire. Played by a master, the music created is ethereal and beautiful. Luck was with my search as I found the following video of Lydia Kavina - the last student taught by Theremin himself, whose work was featured in the soundtrack of the movie "Ed Wood." Lydia, surrounded by the appropriate amount of billowing fog and mood lighting performs "Claire de Lune". No, it isn't a Christmas song - but it somehow quenched my thirst for .... whatever it was I was seeking. Enjoy.



UPDATE: As noted in the comments below, the ever-intrepid Cinemonkey was able to locate some honest-to-Pete Christmas Theremin music!! Kudos, Cinemonkey. Here are the links. A complete Christmas Theremin music CD is available here, which includes some samples. And a podcast from Theremin world from Sunday, December 17 devotes part of the broadcast to Theremin Christmas, which you can access here.

The Evil Christmas Card of Gov. Bredesen

Some Tennessee bloggers - and a few national ones too - have been angrily deriding the Christmas card created by Governor Bredesen because they do not like the picture it features, which the governor painted himself.

The image is of a woman the governor met while touring Afghanistan, and includes the following thoughts:

"May the peace and joy of this Christmas season be with you and your loved ones throughout the coming year," the card reads.

"While it may seem odd to put a portrait of a young Muslim woman on a Christmas card, this Season reminds us that He loves His children most of all," Bredesen stated on the back of the card. . . The back of the card closes with, "May the miracle of Christmas help bring peace to this young woman and her wounded land."

Yeah, that's just evil - wishing peace at Christmas.

Both the Neo-Conservative bloggers and even the Islamic Center in Nashville share the same outrage at the card - why? Simple. They are all Fundamentalists who seek to destroy and deride all things Not Them.

The rhetoric spewed by these Fundamentalists includes:

"But on the serious side, why couldn'’t Bredesen have just sent out a simple card with a nativity scene, a tree, a door or a wreath, a dove, heck, any number of traditional Christmas cards.No, apparently it'’s not that simple. He just couldn'’t resist shaking it up politically." -- Terry Frank

"Looks to me like he'’s using a Christian holiday to pander to a religion that has nothing to do with Christmas. Why not put a Menorah on the card then? -- Toni

"The way I feel about the Governor's Christmas Card is likely similar to the way African American women feel about rich and powerful black men taking up with white women. -- Kleinheider

"This obsessive kissing of Muslim posterior does nothing except make us look weak in their eyes. Plenty of Muslims feel entitled to having the kaffir bow down to them, and self-aggrandizing idiocy like painting a Muslim girl and putting her on your Christmas card plays right into that belief. They'’re laughing at us, for God'’s sake." -- comments from Powerline

"We know God loves all his children, but Christianity has plenty of its own imagery for the holiday; we hardly need to borrow from Muslims for holiday greetings, especially these days". -- Captain's Quarters

All their whining, deeply rooted in xenophobia and narrow-minded concepts, is yet another proof that Fundamentalists are a bane on humanity.

They despise individualism, or any thought process that exists outside their miniscule reality. When they oppose something, they always couch it in terms of war. The state, the nation and the world suffer from such Fundamentalists daily and the only positive here is that such tirades at least clearly mark these witless and dangerous tyrants so the rest of us can avoid them.

Wonder if it's ok when a Christmas card has a snowflake on it? Or maybe a reindeer? What about those cards that are homemade photos of the family who sends them?

The likely answer is No. Christmas can have no personal meanings. It is the Fundamentalist way or no way at all - or they will declare war on you.

This wasn't the Official State of Tennessee Christmas Card. It was a personal one from the Governor to those he chose to share with. I do like how Brittney at NIT expressed it:

"I honestly cannot believe that people are getting worked up about a Christmas card that WASN'T EVEN FOR THEM. Unless it has your address on it, find something else to get all peeved over."

Link Searches for Cup of Joe, 2006

I used to make a game of entering odd phrases into a Google or Yahoo search engine a few years ago, like typing a nonsense word like "spog" or "frunkle". Today, "spog" could take you to a page for "st. paul's oculomotor group" or to the urban dictionary definitions where spog is now -- uh, meaningful. And "frunkle" is a user-name or something.

It's sort of eerie to see how the search engines of late 2006 try and understand gibberish, and how gibberish isn't gibberish.

It's also most fascinating to track the search words and phrases that will bring visitors here to have a Cup of Joe.

Here's a sample of some recent entries:

1. Robin Wilhoit Naked -- who is looking for nekkid photos of this Knoxville newscaster? Perhaps she is searching herself to make sure "those photos" are NOT on the internets. More likely, there is in fact a sub-culture on the internets who hunt for nekkid pics of local newscasters. Ew.

2. Erotic Pigeon Forge Getaway -- yeah when I think erotic getaway, I think Comedy Barn and discount stores.

3. CSI Facial Reconstruction Toy -- wow, they make those? that's kinda cool.

4. Masterbation for Peace -- um, if you do not know how to spell it ... naw, I guess it doesn't matter.

5. Whale Tails -- this from two places recently - NASA and the U.S. Senate. And they found the post here a legitimate informative one, describing slang for seeing some babe's g-string protruding over the back of her jeans. At least they didn't search for "coin slot."

Of course the hands-down winner this year of our lord 2006 for search entries that have brought readers to this page from single continent, and by reckoning, brought over 7,000 hits since July is "Cats That Look Like Hitler." Best link-post I ever did.

Having It Both Ways

What happened?

Via Christian G.

More Faux News idiocy here. What a load.

Tennessee's Legal Limbo or The Annexation Dance

The wiggly rules about annexation and defined growth boundaries have shown up in two cases in East Tennessee and revealed yet again that property owners' rights are a fading remnant in America.

I admit I am perplexed by the notion, as reported in the KNS story, that only one person was eligible to vote in a South Knoxville annexation proposal on the ballot .... because if only one person was eligible, why place it on an election ballot?? Even more odd is that this Legendary Sole Voter moved into the area which allowed him to vote just prior to the election and rented a home owned by the developer of the annexation site. And after the election, he moved out and the home was destroyed.

The KNS story is here, and R. Neal at KnoxViews also has some questions about this very strange deal.

Meanwhile, in Rogersville - or rather, outside Rogersville - 130 homeowners are suing to prevent annexation of their property. And again, questions arise over whether or nor election laws were followed since this proposal was also on the ballot. The suit was filed by Knox attorney, David Buck, who news reports (via Kingsport-Times News) are eager to describe as:

"...associated with the Knoxville-based anti-annexation group Citizens for Home Rule.

It claims that the people included in the annexation did not want to become part of the city and that the annexation is not reasonably necessary for people living in the affected area.

The lawsuit also makes several claims of technical flaws in the annexation.

For example, it alleges that the plan of services was not advertised for the required 15 days. There is also an allegation that there was not three copies of the plan of services and annexation ordinance available for public viewing at City Hall, the water department and the courthouse, as is also required.

Rogersville City Attorney Bill Phillips was served with the lawsuit Wednesday. He said he doesn't believe there were any technical flaws with the annexation, but if there were they will be corrected."

I love how government can magically go back and revise and re-date documents to make everything legal and correct.

Most notable in both the Knox and Rogersville stories is that these expansions go outside the 20-year growth boundaries which the state demanded cities/counties create. But those boundaries seem to have little meaning -- and worse, the law creating such boundaries also changed the nature of legal actions concerning annexations, so that in legal confrontations, all burden of proof is now on the property owner, and not on cities. The cities no longer have to prove their needs for annexation in court.

Attorney Phillips says with the new law in place, annexation opposition usually fails:

"Under the old law, there were many annexations that were overturned by lawsuit," Phillips said. "Under the new law, the burden of proof has switched to the persons being annexed, rather than the town having to prove reasonableness of the annexation. With that burden of proof being switched, it makes a big difference.

"There are very few lawsuits that have been filed since the new law took effect, probably because it's difficult to win."

NOTE: Citizens for Home Rule is an advocacy group supporting rights of individuals. From their web site:

"CHR is dedicated to the preservation of the legal rights of its members in the matter of unwanted annexation, and provides the legal and financial resources to file suit and block such annexations.

We believe CHR is the most litigious advocacy organization in the State of Tennessee, and we are the City of Knoxville's most frequent and most successful litigant."

im in ur magazine, killin ur n00z.

If you don't understand the headline of this post, then you are not part of the You selected by Time Magazine as Man of the Year in their issue with a faux mirror on the cover.

So instead of You, they should have said Us. Because most of Us know what's what when it comes to the internet, blogs, YouTube, iPod, and other personal computing practices.

Or they could have said Some of You. Or some of Us.

Next year, Time will announce that Them is the winner of their MOTY title.

(oh for the love of -- fine, fine, explanation of the headline on this post can be found here)

Border Wall Company Hires Illegals

I told you this was going to happen. I said it in April about the idiocy of building a Hi-Tech-Mega-Super Wall on the border with Mexico.

A company has agreed to plead guilty for hiring illegals to build the wall to keep illegals out.

"A Southern California fence-building company and two executives pleaded guilty Thursday to knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and agreed to pay a combined penalty of $5 million. The executives could also go to prison.

The penalty is one of the biggest fines ever imposed in an immigration case, and the case represents a rare instance in which prosecutors brought criminal charges over the hiring of illegal immigrants."

Of Toes and Snows

A fine day in December here in East Tennessee, as I can walk outside barefoot still. I know, I know - shades of the barefoot hillbilly.

It's more a matter of deliriously nice weather outside and the fact that last night while taking garbage out to the house-assigned and massive county-sanctioned receptacle here at the homestead, I fumbled my steps in the dark, and stabbed my toe on something far too large for said toe. The result is something not quite broken, but not quite right, a gaping (though wee) wound on the third toe of my right foot.

Socks and shoes make it hurt even more. Yes, I've slathered it with unguents and ointments and various antiseptics, but fortunately it's warm enough to step outside in bare-naked feet to walk the dog around the yard and fetch the mail. Said nakedness won't last, though, as a busy day encroaches and naked feet aren't allowed

The balmy day mocks the agenda ahead - shopping for Christmas items. Sure, the music now playing on the computer is all snow and cold and baby, Santa is coming. Yet sunshine and a high near 70 degrees evokes a tropical Christmas. I love it. Being a lifetime inmate - er, resident - of Tennessee I think of snow and cold as appropriate on two occasions: on Christmas day itself, and only if it dissipates within 48 hours; and on those days in January or February when some wan child has not completed an arduous homework assignment and needs a snow delay for school in order to avoid the wrath of some taciturn teacher.

I subscribe to a myth of my own making regarding snow in Tennessee and the South in general. When the signing of surrender documents at Appamattox in the Civil War occurred, one section of the document included a section stating that from that day forward, if it snows south of the Mason-Dixon line, then that day is clearly designated a holiday. And as long as snow was on the ground, no work or school is mandatory.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Now I am off for some additional salves for the wounded toe and a leisurely search for gifts to give folks for the holidays. A search which will include me finding the perfect gift for me. It relieves pressure from others who might wonder what I'd like and insures a smile on my face when the morning (perhaps snowy) of December 25th dawns.

Six Faces of Bob Dylan

I read some months ago about the "experimental" movie being made by Todd Haynes about iconic singer/songwriter Bob Dylan and that multiple actors were cast to play the man.

A new article talks about the project with one such star-turned-singer, Cate Blanchett.

"Each Bob is filmed in a different style too, as Blanchett described hers. "Mine's in black and white and I think some of them are hypercolored. Todd is a genre defying film director to begin with. If you look back to his film school thing about Karen Carpenter, if you've seen it, with the Barbie dolls, it's amazing. He thinks so laterally, in such a Todd Haynes way. I don't think anyone else could have conceived of the idea. And it's great because the fact that I'm a woman, automatically you have that Brechtian distance between the persona of Dylan and the form of the film liberates it from being a biopic."

Others cast to play Mr. Zimmerman include Christian Bale, Richard Gere (??!!!??!), and Heath Ledger. And Cate. The photo here is from a set that appeared on a French web site.

The movie is set to premiere next year at the Cannes Film Festival.

I'll have more movie and entertainment news in a later post today - but this story deserved it's very own space.

Botched Grand Jury In PS3 Shooting

The strange events surrounding the shooting death of Peyton Strickland by police who stormed his apartment got even stranger this week. A judge has declared that a deputy who was indicted on Monday of a charge of second degree murder is not indicted after all. Reports say the jury foreman accidentally checked the wrong box on the jury form.

"Cpl. Christopher Long was indicted Monday on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the Dec. 1 death of Peyton Strickland. But a judge dismissed the charge Tuesday after the foreman of the grand jury said he checked the wrong box on the indictment form and that members of the grand jury didn't find enough evidence to charge Long with murder.

[County D.A.Ben] David met Wednesday with officials from the Special Prosecution Section of the Attorney General's Office to discuss the grand jury's reversal to determine what to do next. He declined to answer specific questions about the investigation Thursday but said the case would move forward."This case is still open. The investigation is ongoing, and future court action is anticipated," David said.

Outrage has brought death threat's against the deputy, which is sheer nonsense. The family of the 18 year old has been through unimaginable and difficult times. But there are elements in the evidence presented so far that stands out in my mind.

One is the deputy's claim in the grand jury hearing that he mistook the sounds of a battering ram for gunshots from inside the house, which prompted him to fire. Forget that he is outside of the apartment, knowing the door is about to be rammed. He's admitted he fired without reason.

That, plus the fact the coroner says the bullets which killed Strickland came through a closed door, indicate some critical breakdown in the normal course of events in serving a warrant and an eagerness to shoot first and ask questions later.

After all the confusion so far, it looks like incompetence wins the day, at the cost of one young man's life. The authorities involved have done massive damage to their own reputations too.

As for the family, they issued to following statement:

"This is bizarre.

How can an indictment one day not be an indictment the next? How could this happen? Yesterday, our son’s murderer was going to have to answer for what he did. Today, we just don’t know what is going on in Wilmington. We are upset, confused and searching for answers.

We call on the judge presiding over the grand jury to hold an inquiry into what happened here and make the results public. And, if it shows that anyone even attempted to influence the grand jury, we trust charges of obstructing justice will be filed.

Grainger Today Now Online

It's taken some time to construct and it was time well spent. The online version of the weekly Grainger Today newspaper is up and looks great. You can also link to it in the link list to your left.

Kudos to publisher Steve Cason and his staff for maintaining a solid example of good reporting and good writing. More projects from Grainger Today may also be ahead, and the East Tennessee region continues to to be well-served by their work.

Making A Christmas Classic

No one ever thought it would be memorable, but they were wrong.

"What the roomful of executives saw upon the first screening was a shock—a slow and quiet semireligious, jazz-filled 25 minutes, voiced by a cast of inexperienced children, and, perhaps most unforgivably, without a laugh track. “They said, ‘We’ll play it once and that will be all. Good try,’ “ remembers Mendelson. “Bill and I thought we had ruined Charlie Brown forever when it was done. We kind of agreed with the network. One of the animators stood up in the back of the room—he had had a couple of drinks—and he said, ‘It’s going to run for a hundred years,’ and then fell down. We all thought he was crazy, but he was more right than we were.”

Read more about how "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was made, including how the kids were coached into phonetically sounding out their dialog.

Making jabs at commercialism, panic during the holidays, and much more, it also has the best soundtrack I've ever heard for a TV Christmas show. This following is just a wee snippet of the show, but it has The Dance.

Are Men Funnier Than Women?

Are women, as a rule, lacking in humor?

The idea has long been debated among friends, once the old adage was mentioned during one fateful evening, that only men think the Three Stooges are funny. I admit I only know a handful of women who do while men are always fans of the hitting and slapping and sheer violent comedy of the Stooges.

A story in Vanity Fair puts forth the notion that women just don't make with the funny as well as men do, though the article is about as lame a presentation as I've ever read. No surprise that Christopher Hitchens is the author of yet another pitiful proposal, this one titled "Why Women Aren't Funny".

There are nearly 200 comments so far in a post about this story at MetaFilter.

There is agreement that the article in question and it's author are painfully off target. But the question remains - are women, as a rule, just not as funny as men?

It is noted that claiming a man is funny is the equal of the compliment that a woman is pretty. Seems to me that the argument is 'pretty funny' indeed. While I admit that I do know many women who don't seem to be able to tell a joke correctly, that is far different from being funny. Measuring the number of male versus female stand-up comics is no good guide either, as very few really funny stand-up comedians even exist.

I've had the great fun of working with many improv comedy groups and found that the women were just as funny as the men, and in general only a few people excel at improv.

The article in Vanity Fair says humor is just another form of aggression. That is another topic of debate too.

Humorist Robert Benchly once said - "Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people."

A friend in high school often made the following claim - "The only things people laugh at are pain and other people."

Far more instructive, however, is the following comment made by an improv comedy troupe member during one evening's rehearsal - "The thing about comedy is, it has to be funny."

That's the best summation of comedy and humor I know.

Have A Very Buffy Christmas

This past weekend my nephew asked me how I was coping with the ever-dwindling televised opportunities to watch "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" reruns. He has no idea how obsessed a fan can be, or how resourceful, but he's young, so it's no biggie.

There are ways, oh yes, many ways.

Take for example the following video, compiled mostly from the 1998 episode "Amends", wherein young Buff has to battle The Harbingers, some blind and very bad priests, who are holding nefarious rituals underneath a christmas tree lot and channeling much bad mojo into the mind of the vampire-nearly-ex-boyfriend Angel. And it all ends with snow, blocking out the sun so Buff and Angel can spend the holiday together. Awwww ....

Just remember what Buff said in that episode as she imagines the required ingredients for a fine Christmas - "Tree. Nog. Roast Beast."

Oh and just for the record - Season 8 of the series will appear in March of 2007 as creator Joss Whendon tells the continuing story of the li'l vampire slayer in a 20-issue comic book run for Dark Horse Comics.

The video originally on this post has disappeared. But you can watch it all online at this Fancast link. ... or, guess you'll just have to fire up yer DVD machines.

PS3 Shooting Now A Murder Case

Today a grand jury indicted a North Carolina deputy with murder in the shooting death of an 18-year-old, Peyton Strickland, said by authorities to be a suspect in a case involving the theft of the PayStation 3 game console. The first reports are here.

I mentioned the bizarre and deadly incident earlier today. The deputy was charged with 2nd degree murder today for shooting and killing Strickland. However, details of the investigation remain shrouded at this time. When I discover more info, I'll gladly share it.

UPDATE: No indictment ocurred. Yes, that's right. full details here.

Strange Case of Police Shooting Over PS3

A press conference is scheduled for today in North Carolina regarding the shooting death by police of an 18-year-old suspected in the robbery of two PlayStation 3's. The details of the event have been very slow in coming forth, but authorities are hard-pressed to explain both what happened and who was involved and several of the deputies who apparently shot through the door of the suspect's apartment have been involved in other shooting deaths as well. One deputy involved has already been fired, even though the investigation is still in the early stages.

When the warrant for Peyton Strickland's arrest was being served, deputies also brought along a special S.W.A.T. team - reports now say that's because someone found pictures of the suspect and some friends posing with guns on a web site. Friends say the picture was done as a joke.

Reports also recently released say that Strickland was apparently shot several times through a closed door, meaning he was shot while deputies were still outside of his home. Strickland's dog was also killed in the assault and witnesses at the scene say Strickland was not armed, but was holding a game console controller.

Blogs in North Carolina have been tracking the story and shifting of blame.

Strickland's father is a well known wrongful death attorney in North Carolina.

Iraq Study Group No Real Help

I have little support or enthusiasm for the much overestimated report from the Iraq Study Group.

You don't have to be a foreign relations expert, or former Bush the First appointee to know that the situation on the ground in Iraq has been grim and yes, deteriorating for some time.

Counting on diplomatic pressure from the likes of Iran and Syria -- no, wouldn't recommend that. Those countries actively, aggressively oppose democratic goals. And prior to the US war in Iraq, even I could have advised White House officials that a weak Iraq and a weak Afghanistan would create the basis for a very powerful Iran.

Let's be honest - Iran has been the poster child for anti-U.S. philosophy since hostages were taken during the U.S. Embassy seizure in 1979. And Syria is a haven for Hussein loyalists.

Despite hopeful admiration for the report, little attention is being paid to two key problems with the U.S. strategy -- contracting out the training of Iraqis to private companies has been rife with fraud and failure; and likewise failure has been achieved at insuring a stable infrastructure of basics like electricity, hospitals, and even oil production.

Facing the house-to-house battles, soldiers are constantly in harm's way. The policies in place and those being weighed now seem only to pull in directions with little advantage for the U.S., our allies and the Iraqis.

In short, the U.S. is in one hell of a mess and clear decisive policies to resolving the war are still elusive. At the very best, the report may perhaps open the eyes wide shut at the White House -- but I doubt seriously if anyone can achieve that.

Wedding Day

There are some recent events which need/deserve blog attention this weekend.

However, real life is interfering. That means I am going to Chattanooga this morning for the wedding of my niece. And I do wish her much happiness.

The will of the triad of my mother, my sister and her daughter is indeed a mighty thing. So I'm suiting up and going in.

UPDATE: In addition to the wedding in Chattanooga, which was a very nice time and my niece was looking even more exceptional than ever, my extended family grew via the wedding (also on the 9th) in Nashville of my brother-in-law, a most excellent fellow who once made me welcome for a long stay in Manhattan, and is one of the newest and bestest songwriters working the Nashville music scene. And his bride is an aspiring screenwriter. So the family kinda doubled in size yesterday. Yay for all of us!!

Camera Obscura - Classic TV on DVD, Christmas Movie Advent

The complete first seasons of two classic TV series arrive finally, and both are must haves.

One is fascinating for capturing the high points and the low for a show that started out as a kind of underground oddity and has become an international giant of entertainment. I do recall very well that first night when NBC aired a show they called only "NBC's Saturday Night" with the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. Putting together the entire 1st season of SNL (and other season sets will follow) was too long in arriving. The show has forever changed television.


The first few seasons all looked as if it had been made in small nooks and around the edges of the NBC building and it isn't all sheer genius and brilliance. There are clunky skits and odd scenes, but the show was almost a nearly instant hit, a collection of loose cannons wildly taking shots at television and fame, with eclectic music and much self-parody. They were mavericks and outsiders, lumping together college style comedy and outrageously bizarre short films with performers singing musical standards and unknown musicians getting their first national exposure.

It was an evolving show too, from the credits design to the structure of opening monologues and the Weekend Update news satire. Hosts, like Richard Pryor, frightened the NBC suits. If you've read any of the so-called histories of the show, you know too that backstage chaos was constant (as was the drug and alcohol).

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Also new to DVD is the complete first season of "Mission:Impossible" and within that first season are the reasons why the show has remained so popular that almost 40 years later audiences flock to the movies with that title today.

Intense action, serious writing and storytelling made with style and rapid-fire editing. The show made a template still being followed by other shows, like "24" and even "Lost."

Fans and newcomers alike can see that first season headed by actor Steven Hill as Dan Briggs, as the character of Mr. Phelps played by Peter Graves did not arrive until season two.

It was those other actors and characters that made the show most watchable - Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Greg Morris and Peter Lupus. The scam everyone, including the audience, in spy games and disguises with ultra-cool attitude and backed by a music theme which is still a part of the movie franchise today.

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Thanks to the intrepid Cinemonkey, I can point you to a web site which has an Advent Calendar where you can open the li'l doors on the calendar for each day of December and read about a movie to encourage a Christmasy mood.

Check it out here.

Some movies on this list I truly do NOT like however - such as "Home Alone". I thought the whole movie was vapid and dull and, let's be honest, it is also rather sadistic as the Boy Left Alone (not saying his name, sorry) beats and brutalizes some would-be thieves. Just not my idea of 'holiday fun'.



Also - they leave off some movies which I think are great films to bring out that holiday cheer. The 2003 comedy "Elf" is infectious fun with Will Ferrell as the overgrown elf with an addiction to syrup and sugar. Another movie worth the time to watch is "A Christmas Story' -- overplayed to death on TV, I can still enjoy it for many reasons -- Scott Farkus fears and the fishnet hose clad female leg lamp, which the Dad calls "a major award" and the Mom secretly destroys. And where are movie versions of "A Christmas Carol"??

The photo here is via the Tennessee Christmas Tree Growers Association, a site to tell you where you can get the finest in locally grown trees for the holidays.

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Do you have a holiday movie favorite?

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Mention must be made of the dangers of the Wii Game Console, which will be under many a Christmas Tree this year. Be careful with the dang thing, people!

Actually, the danger is in the controller for the game - seems some people using this wireless controller have gotten so intense during gameplay that they have snapped the wrist-loop on the controller and smashed in their TVs and other household items.

A website devoted to such events is here, where they have gotten the attention of Nintendo's executives, who promise a better wrist-loop is on the way.

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On the way for 2008 -- the long-awaited movie version of the Stephen Kind/Peter Straub fantasy novel "The Talisman." The TNT network and producer Steven Spielberg will create the mini-series!

We Have A RoboWinner!

Congratulations goes to a reader here, known as CarpenterJD, whose entry into the Win A RoboReptile Contest was short, sweet and ridden with longing for the new toy. He wrote:

"I would like to win the Robo-reptile because I am a frustrated adult/child that still loves to play with toys. Besides, when I was a youngster it was implied that in my adult years I would be aided by robots and flying cars. I have seen neither & I would love to have just a small sample of what life would be like with a Robo-reptile."

'Nuff said, CarpenterJD. Look for the RoboReptile in your mailbox!

My thanks to the DiscoveryStore and the folks at Wowee Toys and with Buzztone marketing for offering readers here this free electronic robotic marvel.

And thanks to all the other readers who submitted entries, too!