Music for A Sunday In April

FOX Lies and Is Loved. Part 2

Here's yet another example of how FOX news ignores reality and fabricates more fun-filled falsehoods, all in hopes of stirring up those elements of the population prone to hysteria. (Consider this a follow-up to this previous post.)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Big Bang Treaty
www.thedailyshow.com
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Now of course Newt Gingrich is a lion of honesty and purity .... not:

"On the subject of Gingrich, here's one thing I don't understand. John Edwards' philandering has made him a public pariah, understandably so. But Gingrich's marital behavior was probably even more disgusting. He cheated on his first wife and told her he wanted a divorce while she was recovering from surgery for cancer. He subsequently cheated on his second wife with a much younger aide. It's fairly amazing how Gingrich has managed to avoid any stigma from this.

Candidate Mike Clark On Coal And The Recent Coal Mining Disaster

1st District Congressional candidate Mike Clark sent out the following comments via e-mail, focusing on safety and accountability in light of the deadly coal mine disaster in West Virgina.

Clark writes:

"The issues surrounding the extraction and use of coal in this country continues, in a debate that is contentious yet necessary to address the future energy needs of this nation.

But the recent disaster at Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia really has little to do with any discussions of coal mining as part of future energy policy, and everything to do with the willful neglect of a company who's history of infractions grows more legendary by the day.

Upper Big Branch - only one in Massey Energy's large chain of non-union mines - was cited, according to press reports, for 600 violations in just over one year - two delivered to the company the very day of the deadly explosion that killed 25 workers, with four still missing. Many of those previous violations were for inadequate venting of methane - the problem that is widely considered to have contributed to the disaster April 5, the worst in the United States since 1984 and potentially the worst since 1970.

Most coal companies, and especially those represented by union workers, take precautions in the interest of safety. I believe most coal company owners sincerely care about the safety of their employees.

I am not prejudging Massey in this particular case. Perhaps there were system failures of one type or another. But the record is clear. If Massey existed as an individual who had violated law 600 times in one location alone, Massey would be jailed; yet the company is allowed to continue operations seemingly unfazed.

I call on our representatives in Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, to demand and/or initiate a serious and sweeping Congressional inquiry into Massey Energy and its subsidiaries, focusing on safety issues, environmental issues, and exploring all contracts between the United States government and any division of this company - particularly its contracts with the Tennessee Valley Authority, considered to be the largest user of coal in the country; all contracts with Massey should be immediately suspended pending the outcome of this investigation. Six hundred violations in one location alone simply cannot be ignored or left to the normal processes of appeal and adjudication. Twenty-nine families in West Virginia, countless co-workers and friends - and a grieving nation - demand something more.

If, as a result, Massey is forced to lay off employees, unemployment benefits should be fast-tracked to insure workers aren't left in the lurch due to this government action. Any fines or penalties ultimately levied - if so decided by a court of law - should be paid in a timely manner with interest and should at minimum be pegged to the total amount of unemployment payments issued during the investigation process.

East Tennesseans, like all Americans, pay our tax money faithfully, and with the understanding that government will be good-faith stewards of our dollars. In this time of economic distress, we need to insure that our money is spent wisely; TVA, or any government agency, should not enable this company or subsidiaries to continue business as usual. Our tax money and our energy payments directly enable this company to flagrantly violate laws designed to protect its workers; our money should be spent with companies that play by the rules.

We value rule of law; we value the safety of the miners, who walk with danger to power our necessities and our luxuries, who help improve the quality of our lives. We should demand our government spend our money with companies that treat its employees with all the dignity and respect they deserve. Companies are not individuals - they are businesses, subject to local, state and federal government rules and regulations.

In the end, it comes down to what we as a nation value most - the rights of a single corporate entity, or the rights and safety of individuals. No longer should the taxpayers fund outlaws who scoff at regulations designed to protect the very people who work every day to earn that company its profits."

Can One Sentence Shatter Your Religious Beliefs?

A father wants Knox County to ban a biology book in an advanced biology class because of a sentence, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel -

"On page 319 of the text, the authors describe creationism as “the biblical myth that the universe was created by the Judeo-Christian God in 7 days.”

Zimmermann said the useof the word “myth” could “mislead, belittle and discourage students in believing in creationism and pointedly calls the Bible a myth.”

So am I to believe this father's contention, that one sentence can shatter his religious beliefs, those of students or anyone who reads that sentence in one textbook? Is their 'belief system' so delicate? Do they think Tennessee is a smoldering hotbed of demonic science fictions and not a state where you'll find multitudes of churches in every square mile?

KnoxViews has a news round-up of this oft-repeated fearful debate.

And as the Knox School Board was considering how to respond to the request for banning a book, a board member used a 'personal privilege' to delay consideration of the issues for a month ... just long enough for the May election cycle to pass by.

I rather like Jesse Mayshark's article in MetroPulse, which notes:

" ... with an actual motion to ban a textbook, and the national media's Pavlovian interest in all things Tennessee and creationist, the interest level may well go up over the next few weeks."

Groucho Sings About Political Debate in 2010

Political debate in 2010 seems more like this song from 1930s America -- are today's pundits so far behind or was Groucho thinking far ahead?


ALSO SEE:

-- Doctor Hates Health Care Reforms Which He Doesn't Really Know About

-- Tennessee 'Teapublicans'

FOX Lies and Is Loved

Back in the year 2004, veteran TV news anchor Dan Rather was cut loose from CBS for reporting about series of memos about then-president Bush's days in the National Guard, which many believed to be plain old fakes.

Times have changed. The bulk of the entire line-up of FOX News Channel reports on a series of stories - reports which have been proved false and fake - and their ratings go up. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow calls out the lies and the liars:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Camera Obscura: Nashville Film Festival 2010; Who Is The Girl In Hitchcock's Shower?

Some notable movies will premiere at the upcoming Nashville Film Festival which starts April 15 including the opening film for the 2010 festival called "Nowhere Boy", about the teen years of John Lennon in Liverpool. The movie has been gathering strong reviews from the Sundance festival showing -

"Johnson and the filmmakers have based that characterization largely on Lennon's own reflections, particularly in post-Beatles interviews. More broadly, this Lennon is an almost archetypal angry young man or rebel schoolboy of British Isles fiction and drama, a Liverpool cousin of Stephen Dedalus, dreaming of escape from his strangled, provincial environment."

More from the Salon review here, including the tabloid details of director Sam Taylor-Wood dating her lead actor, Aaron Johnson.

Here's a trailer for the movie -


Other features include "Art House", a story about artists on the verge of being evicted from their college home - and it sort of looks like "Animal House", except with artsy folks instead of frat follies. Here's the trailer:


A full list of the schedule and events is here at the Nashville Film Festival web site.

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A truly bizarre true-crime story arrives with the new book from Robert Graysmith, who penned the book "Zodiac" about the 1960s killer which was made into the impressive David Fincher movie. This new book tells the story of a movie fan, Kenneth Dean Hunt, who was so deeply obsessed with the movie "Psycho" he set out to kill Janet Leigh's body double from the movie, Marli Renfro, but actually killed the wrong woman, Myra Davis, in 1988 -- it seems the two women were used as stand-ins for Leigh, a reality Leigh and Hitchcock himself had denied for many years.

Cinematical has more:

"The crime, committed by Hunt went unsolved until roughly ten years ago, and folks confused the two gals so much to the point that even the Associated Press reported Renfro (not Davis) had been murdered when she was actually alive and completely unaware of her apparent death. There was also a report that claimed the two women were actually one in the same."

April Fool's Day Originated in Iran?

Here in the modern now-a-go-go days of the 21st century, one can easily do some online research to explore the origins of April Fool's Day. Which means I Googled the infamous prank day (do I say "Topeka'ed" instead??)

While I am reluctant to believe anything I read on the Internet - especially today - I did learn something I had never known before.

April Fool's Day originated as long ago as 538 BC, when Iranian's marked the end of their New Year's celebration on April 1st, and designated that day as Sizdah Be-dar, the "Festival of Joy and Solidarity". Not exactly the two words I've used to describe Iran before.

Still, the day of pranks seems to start there ... it seems to involve lentil sprouts known as sabzeh. (I always thought the word "lentil" was rather humorous.)

It's just that no one really called that country "Iran" until the 20th century ... or did they? Does that make it a Persian holiday now celebrated worldwide?

Super Web Hosting Deal From DotEasy

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I urge you to check out DotEasy today and use the promo code above. Tell them Cup of Joe Powell sent you.

Mike Clark Runs For 1st District Congressional Seat

In the last few weeks I've noticed the growing presence of a Democrat candidate in the 1st District, Mike Clark, and he's been organizing quietly on numerous social media outlets - but starting today, he's making a more formal series of announcements.

Mike contacted me today via email about his campaign and offered the following comments:

Mike Clark, a Johnson City native, has announced his bid for the First Congressional District seat currently being held by Republican Dr. Phil Roe.

Clark is running in the primary campaign as a Democrat. He is the Editor of The Loafer (a weekly entertainment magazine in the Tri-Cities), and is married and the father of three children - Carissa, Jenna Kay, and Joshua.

"I'm running because this area needs to hear another voice and be given the opportunity to vote for a different philosophy than one which never proposes, but only opposes," Clark says.

Mike Clark for Congress officially kicks off Saturday, April 17, 2010 from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the Carter County Courthouse in Elizabethton. The site was not chosen at random.

"The last Democrat to represent this part of East Tennessee in Washington was Robert L. Taylor, who left office in 1881. We hope to go back to that county and start something fresh - perhaps we can begin a new tradition of voting in the First District," Clark says.

Clark says his focus in the campaign will be on jobs, education and the environment - three things he considers linked when thinking about the future of this country, and especially about the future of East Tennessee.

"Washington thinks its a bad thing to bring money back to districts anymore, especially when it might actually make a difference in people's lives. We need a representative in Washington who isn't afraid to defend the needs of his constituents to leadership in Washington of either party - and I won't feel the need to carry water for people just because I'm a Democrat.

"We need for jobs to come back home and we need new jobs; we need environmental programs that are sane and sustainable, and we need education to teach children - and adults - how to perform these new jobs for fair wages. We need sensible plans that will lift all segments of society - from large businesses to the smallest child."

Clark is also keen on helping veterans. "I have members of my family serving overseas, and members of my family who served in the past - my father in World War II. It is absolutely appalling that any veteran is hungry and homeless. We have a duty to see that veterans always have a home, and if I'm elected this is a fight I will take on ... to ensure that we once again treat our veterans with the dignity they deserve."

Clark knows the path will be rough, and the odds are long. "We're gonna work hard, work the grassroots and send the message out. The response has been tremendous so far, and we're only getting started."

Mike Clark can be found on the internet at MikeClarkForCongress.com and on Facebook, by typing in Mike Clark for Congress.

I've written before on my deep dissatisfaction with Rep. Roe who holds the seat now - and more importantly, that the 1st District deserves more than they've gotten over the last 130 years with only one party - the Republicans - controlling access to Congress. It's especially true now since Rep.Roe's only strategy for governing is to stall and stonewall in Congress rather than working to move our community and nation forward into the 21st century.

In coming days and weeks, I'll have more on Mike's campaign and perhaps an interview as well. Getting the attention of residents in the 1st District is no simple task - local traditional media like newspapers, radio and television must step in to inform the public that a choice exists, that there are issues to be debated and discussed, and that part of the job of the press is to challenge and question our elected officials and to keep residents informed about elections and candidates.

Camera Obscura: Kurosawa's Dog; McQueen's Unseen Pics; Planet Of "Predators"

This past month marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of iconic director Akira Kurosawa and Turner Classic Movies has been airing some of his very best work. As with all great film directors, repeated viewings of their films brings even more chances to dig deep and explore their creations, a task rich with rewards.

While I'd seen most all of the 26 movies TCM has aired (three more of his movies will air on Tuesday) the one I was most eager to see was "Stray Dog", made in 1949 and set in the modern era and not a samurai-filled feudal past, as in "Yojimbo" or "Seven Samurai". Instead we are led into a very palpable and modern post-World War Japan during a summer heat wave which radiates from every frame of the film.

It's the third time Kurosawa cast actor Toshiro Mifune in the lead role, and his performance as a rookie homicide detective whose handgun is stolen is powerful and fragile and speaks to the incredible skills Mifune had onscreen. "Stray Dog" is a bona fide film noir thriller, but goes beyond to capture an intense cultural struggle of the time - expressing the real challenge Japan faced as they sought to move past the war and into an era of peacetime. The nation faced a crossroad - as does Mifune's character and that of the criminal who has the weapon.

Some beautiful shots from the movie and an exhaustive examination can be found here at one of my favorite movie blogs, Cinebeats, where writer Kimberly Lindbergs writes:

"There’s just no getting around the fact that the aftermath of WW2 and its effect on the people who survived it is what really fuels Kurosawa’s film. Tohsiro Mifune’s detective is an ex-soldier but the criminal he is chasing is also an ex-soldier. Both men survived similar circumstances but afterward they followed very different paths. The detective and the criminal are both “stray dogs” trying to find their way in a new and unfamiliar world that has risen from the ashes of war. As a filmmaker Kurosawa’s sympathies seem to be with no one and everyone. You’ll find very few cookie-cutter bad guys or good guys in the movie. I think that’s a reflection of what postwar Japan was experiencing at a very trying time. The examination of their previous alliances and adversaries is mirrored in Kurosawa’s film. The complexity of the characters that populate Stray Dog is something that you don’t often see in crime movies made during the ’40s and that’s just one of the reasons why it’s so rewarding. Stray Dog is one of the most nuanced film noirs I’ve seen but it’s also one of Kurosawa’s most style-conscious efforts.

Read it all. And take every opportunity to seek out all of Kurosawa's work. Also just release, a new book reviewing the director's vast body of work titled "Akira Kurosawa: Master of Cinema" by Peter Cowie.

Master is indeed the best word to describe the director.

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And since I mention Cinebeats, another post worth the read concerns a collection of never before published photos, taken in early 1963, of actor Steve McQueen, who was just breaking out as a major film star. And of course, one of the movies which made his career was "The Magnificent Seven", an American western based on Kurosawa's epic "Seven Samurai".

In these images though, we see McQueen in his real world, cruising Hollywood in his Jaguar, taking his wife and his guns to do some target shooting, scouring his record collection and kicking back in pure 1960s Hollywood style.


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Jump forward now to some unEarthly adventures for the summer movie season of 2010 -- "Predators", starring Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo and many others. The characters, all deadly killers on planet Earth wake to find themselves on a different planet, one used by the aliens called "predators" as a sort of game preserve. In other words, the characters are wild game to be hunted down in a sort of practice mode for the aliens.

Top-notch director Robert Rodriguez turns executive producer for this new movie - and here's the new trailer for the movie:



And here's the other Predator video making rounds on the Internet -- a peek at what a Predator musical might look like ...

Modern @rt?

The Museum of Modern Art announced Monday they have acquired the symbol @ for their permanent collection. Yes, it is an image and yes it did not cost the MoMA anything because it's free. Is it art?

Since the symbol was formally included in the museum's Architecture and Design Department, perhaps the important question should be "Is the image an example of design?"

Here's the thinking according to MoMA:

"It relies on the assumption that physical possession of an object as a requirement for an acquisition is no longer necessary, and therefore it sets curators free to tag the world and acknowledge things that “cannot be had”—because they are too big (buildings, Boeing 747’s, satellites), or because they are in the air and belong to everybody and to no one, like the @—as art objects befitting MoMA’s collection. The same criteria of quality, relevance, and overall excellence shared by all objects in MoMA’s collection also apply to these entities.

In order to understand why we have chosen to acquire the @ symbol, and how it will exist in our collection, it is necessary to understand where @ comes from, and why it’s become so ubiquitous in our world.

Read more of this fascinating history of the use of @, which dates back to the 5th or 6th century, according to MoMA, and was included on the Underwood typewriter made in 1885 but it was electrical engineer Ray Tomlinson, working in 1971 with the ARPA project for the US military who decided to use the symbol (which had no clear purpose at the time) since it has a strong sense of location -- x person "at" this location.

The next time you send an email just realize you are making @rt.

Republicans Failed By Design to Challenge Health Care Reforms

Thanks to a year or more of empty theatrics (call it No Theatre) against any health care reforms, the Republicans in the U.S. and their leaders continue to steer into a wilderness of their own making.

And consider too, before you read further, that I have not been a total supporter of the legislation just adopted by Congress and signed today by the President. I've always considered that the underlying problem in the nation is that receiving medical care is operated as a for-profit business, when it should simply be available to those who are in need of it. That puts me somewhere far outside the realms of current political thought -- which does not mean my ideas are wrong, they are just unpopular.

And the real cost to the Republican leadership is they offered nothing - absolute zero - to solving the problems any and all Americans face in accessing good health care. Instead, loud and angry voices simply shouted "NOOOOOOOOO!!", refused to find common ground, refused to create solutions, refused to respect truthfulness and instead embraced Fear of the unknown as policy. Republican leader John Boehner bemoaned in his final speech against the actions taken by the Democrats as proof the U.S. Congress is a "broken and failed system".

Sir, you are one of the ones who broke the system, a reality shown in recent polling numbers about Congress, which reveals Americans hold Republicans in lower regard than Democrats in a historically-low approval rating of Congress in general.

Still in the mode of No Theatre, GOP leader Rush Limbaugh said Monday:

"They won because they held Congress and the presidency, and therein lies the lesson: We need to defeat these bastards. We need to wipe them out. We need to chase them out of town. But we need to do more than that. We need to elect conservatives.

"So, yeah, preexisting conditions are going to be covered, but who's going to pay for this? Insurance premiums are going to skyrocket in the next couple of years until they are out of business and the government steps in to take over with the...public option. Which is just waiting a couple of months, couple of days, couple years down the tracks. It's just waiting to happen, because this bill mandates the destruction of the private health insurance business."


Funny, I thought a business which lost the ability to compete effectively was simply a loss for a business model and not the End of The World.

Conservative writer David Frum has called the Republican policy failure a "Waterloo" moment, inviting comparisons to the failure of would-be emperor Napoleon:

"We would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing... We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat." Republican legislators who wanted to cut a deal, he notes, were trapped and pinned down by "conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio."

In an effort to show some sympathy for the failed strategy of denial and exploitation of the Great Fearful Unknown from Republicans, I offer the following song from the 1960s as the new official theme song of the Republican party:

Trouble Starts With A 'T' and Stands For Tennessee

Back in the saddle again, dear readers, after a bit more than a month of fast and furiously funny work directing the play "I Hate Hamlet" for the Morristown Theatre Guild.

And yes, there are items aplenty I have led slide right past - so why not a quick round-up of some of the blog news in Tennessee and beyond?

-- Morristown City Council Hates Being Videotaped
(via) (never mind these meetings have been taped by concerned residents for some time now.)


-- Morristown Must Borrow Millions To Pay Bills(also via):
"What's the problem? Not enough cash to pay the bills---especially with debt payments coming up.

Where's the money from the 2008 sales tax increase? The City told you to VOTE YES for the sales tax increase. How's that sales tax increase working out?

Where's the money from the 2007 property tax increase? The City raised the property tax rate by 40-cents, then lowered it by 15-cents after the 2008 sales tax referendum was approved. That's still a 25-cent property tax increase. How's that property tax increase working out?

In less than three years, the City has raised property taxes, has raised the sales tax, has boosted sewer fees out the roof, and has cut expenses (supposedly). And they are still crying for more as they talk about a higher hotel-motel tax and a garbage fee and maybe another property tax hike.

-- SEE ALSO: Morristown City Cash Running Out

-- Racketeering A Way Of Life In Cocke Co. --- "Stealing cars and heavy-duty equipment. Defrauding insurers. Selling stolen vehicle parts. Dealing drugs. Spreading violence. Corrupting law enforcement.

-- Tennessee Wants Guns In Bars, But No Oversight On 'Gun-Fairs'
"WASHINGTON – Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.

Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.

The use of guns that once were in police custody and were later involved in attacks on police officers highlights a little-known divide in gun policy in the United States: Many cities and states destroy guns gathered in criminal probes, but others sell or trade the weapons in order to get other guns or buy equipment such as bulletproof vests.

In fact, on the day of the Pentagon shooting, March 4, the Tennessee governor signed legislation revising state law on confiscated guns. Before, law enforcement agencies in the state had the option of destroying a gun. Under the new version, agencies can only destroy a gun if it's inoperable or unsafe.

AND: "A Tennessee judge ruled last year that a guns-in-bars law was unconstitutionally vague. It made an exception for establishments that serve at least one meal on five days per week and where "the serving of such meals shall be the principal business conducted."Tennessee has no legal definition to distinguish bars from restaurants.

-- FOOD STAMPS - More Americans Using Them Than Ever Before -- "There are many 20-somethings from educated families who go through a period of unemployment and live very frugally, maybe even technically in poverty, who now qualify," said Parke Wilde, a food economist at Tufts University who has written extensively about food stamp usage and policy.

The increase in food stamp use among this demographic is hard to measure, as they represent a cross section of characteristics not specifically tracked by the Agriculture Department, which administers the program.

But general unemployment figures among the group are stark: Between the ends of 2007 and 2009, unemployment among those aged 20 to 34 rose 100 percent, and between 2006 and 2009, unemployment among those with a bachelor's degree or higher was up 179 percent.

AND FINALLY ---

The state wants a law making it legal to have a a fish aquarium in a barber shop.

I Hate Hamlet- Zany Farce Back for One Final Weekend

When your real estate agent, your girlfriend and your talent agent all demand to hold a seance to contact the legendary actor John Barrymore - then a seance will be held. Poor Andrew, the one-time TV star now facing a chance to play Hamlet in Central Park, has little say in the matter in the opening scenes from "I Hate Hamlet" which has only 3 performances left at Rose Center in Morristown this weekend.

While ghosts and glory and all the other challenges of the characters of Shakespeare are a part of this newest production, the first of the the current 76th season of the Morristown Theatre Guild, the show is first and last a comedy of epic proportions.

An expert ensemble cast brings much talent and much laughter to the show -- which pokes fun at live theater itself, at television, at fame, at the 'slings and arrows' of romance, at sword fights, at what happens when male actors have to perform without wearing pants, and so much more. And "I Hate Hamlet" is not just 'in-jokes' for actors - zany farce may be the best description for the show -- a show I have reluctantly dubbed "The Best Show You Never Saw!!"

Only three shows are left - Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 2pm at Rose Center in Morristown. Tickets are available at the door or you can order them online at LakewayTickets.com

Don't miss your last chance to see the funniest live production of 2010 here in Morristown. Drive any distance, bring many friends, and be prepared to laugh from start to finish -- yes, even the curtain call is a once-in-a-lifetime event you'll never see anywhere else.

As director for the show, I prefer to stay in the background often, but I'm breaking a basic rule for this post -- some images from the show taken by photographer Roger Fleenor include a shot of me (Number 234 in the list), your humble narrator, and so here I am, putting my own image online. (it's a shot of me thinking or something during rehearsal)

I'm proud beyond description of this show. Drama is easy, dear readers, while doing comedy is the toughest work of all and which must never appear for one moment to be like work at all.

Many more photos of the cast and show, all taken by Roger Fleenor, can been seen online http://Luxworkphoto.zenfolio.com/hamlet

So turn off the TV, come to Prater Hall at Rose Center, leave the dull world of reality behind and enjoy a world without bailouts or recessions or scandals (well, there are a few scandalous moments here) and just revel in the comedy and the laughter.

And I must offer my tremendous thanks to the board of the Morristown Theatre Guild, to the tireless work of Rose Center and to all the volunteers both on-stage and off who have worked so hard to make magic happen at "I Hate Hamlet."

"I Hate Hamlet" Opens In Morristown

Tonight is the opening of the stage production "I Hate Hamlet" for the Morristown Theatre Guild, a very funny comedy about love, life, art, commerce, television, fame, ghosts, Shakespeare and what happens when actors do not wear pants -- and it has been my great pleasure to direct this first production of the Guild's 76th season.

Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 2 pm this weekend and next weekend at the Rose Center in Prater Hall. And you can order tickets and make reservations here. And there are a couple of things which make this production a real first ... keep reading to learn more.

Here are a few images from Thursday night's dress rehearsal taken by Roger Fleenor

The ghost of John Barrymore listens in as his history is told

Barrymore woos a long-forgotten girlfriend from his past.

Here is a first - this production is the first time I've had to direct while being semi-silenced by some laryngitis, which hit me hard over the last weekend and has made me all wispy-voiced this week. But this cast is so strong and have been eager to collaborate on the production, that the problem has mostly been one of frustration for me. I likes to talk. I likes to talk a lot.

But now the time has come for me to slip into the background and let the players and the play stand on their own -- and truly, they do far more than just stand - they are going to rock your world.

Cows Break Into Home

Four cows decided to abandon the fields and barns and to move into a house instead.

A woman says the cows broke into her house and stayed there. She told her husband over the phone that she was not injured "but I've got cows in my house," according to news reports. As shown above, a photo from the DallasNews of what happens when a cow takes over your bedroom.

And naturally, the woman's home insurance does not include provisions for damages by bovine intruder.

Forward, Into The Past!

Here's a quote for all the posturing and proclaiming which seems to emerge endlessly from the Conservative/Tea Party/anti-Obama crowd.

"Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul." -- Mark Twain

It's a concept they need to learn and live. And what are the current gatherings of Conservatives clinging to in lieu of a policy of action?

- Do not participate in any effort to reform the problems of health care.

- Stall all legislation, lie and mislead on all ideas. Take funding from the 2009 Stimulus package while demonizing it's very existence.

- Claim failure as a victory.

- Cling to the celebrity of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.

So often, these groups claim they want to "take America back" -- the question is, how far back in Time do they wish to take us?

A History of Pretty Much Everything

Courtesy of The Examiner in Jackson, TN

Hamlet, John Barrymore and Me

Posting here has been sporadic and may continue for a bit as a new task now underway is consuming much of my admittedly often distracted energy and time.

The task? I'm neck-deep in directing the comedy "I Hate Hamlet" by Paul Rudnick for the Morristown Theatre Guild as the first show of their 76th season. I have been most fortunate to work with this group of very talented volunteers for many years and this is a show I have been aching to direct some time.

The show opens for six performances only on March 5-7 and the following weekend, March 12-14 at Perk Prater Hall at Rose Center in Morristown and you can order tickets and make reservations right now at the Morristown Theatre Guild website or at Lakeway Tickets.

The show is a machine-gun blast of rapid-fire laughs, one of the funniest scripts I've ever read. The story centers on a famous TV actor named Andrew who is attempting to play the role of Hamlet in New York City, the Holy Grail for actors. However, he's totally terrified and his real estate agent is eager to get him into a very unusual apartment -- a vast space which was once the home of the legendary actor John Barrymore.

On a whim, Andrew and his friends hold a seance to contact Barrymore. And before Andrew can race back to Hollywood and television fame, the ghost of Barrymore does arrive with a single goal: to help Andrew perform one of the most demanding and challenging roles ever written. Still, Andrew refuses until Barrymore also admits that he can help Andrew resolve another problem which is haunting him -- the successful romancing of his girlfriend Deirdre.

Ah, but performing Shakespeare is never simple or easy. As Rudnick writes it, Shakespeare is like "algebra on stage". And just what the heck is a "fardle" anyway??

As Andrew ponders the challenge of creating capital-A "Art", his producer friend Gary from Hollywood reminds him that one does not "do" Art, one "buys" Art with cash earned from doing cheesy TV shows and commercials.

And of course the one thing tougher than Shakespeare is Love.

So it seems that John Barrymore is in fact the coach he truly needs.

For me, digging into the world and the words of Shakespeare and Barrymore is immensely rewarding. I've been a Barrymore fan for some years but I moved from being just a fan to being truly impressed by the man after I saw Barrymore's version of "Moby Dick". In his version of the story, Barrymore plays Captain Ahab, but he is not some demented figure chasing the white whale. He's a lovable scamp who not only kills the whale but returns home by the end to marry his sweetheart.

And yet, for all the history of this actor and the challenge of Hamlet, the play "I Hate Hamlet" never gets bogged down - the laughs and the comedy play fast and furious and the show is great fun for the actors and the audience as well.

The cast:
Robbie Poteete - Andrew
Gislea Eikey - Felicia
Autumn Leming - Deirdre
Kay Flockhart - Lillian
Logan Propst - Gary
John Carpenter - John Barrymore

So ... the work is keeping me very busy and posting is likely to continue to be hit and miss. And you, dear readers, are most cordially invited to attend the show. I'll have some pictures to show off soon (I hope). For now, an image of Barrymore from his 1922 performance as Hamlet. And as Barrymore once said:

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."

Farewell, Nashville Is Talking

Writer Christian Grantham has turned in his notice and on Friday, the Nashville Is Talking blog from WKRN will cease to be. I hate to see NiT go, having been a fan from the beginning of the work writer Brittney Gilbert originated for NiT. For some years, everyone was talking about NiT. I hosted the site on weekends many times while Gilbert was in charge and it was just an amazing experience.

Amazing because there was more to it than just copying links to other TN blogs - I discovered many writers and bloggers whose unique voice made me a constant reader; also I learned how good Gilbert was at her job, how hard she worked to cultivate a community of readers and writers.

WKRN allowed the blog to flourish for a while, not content to simply focus on politics or pop culture, but not surprisingly, Gilbert left Nashville to head a blog for the CBS affiliate in San Francisco. And also not surprisingly, NiT floundered a bit, until Grantham took control and blended the blogging world reviews with other growing social media trends via Twitter and Facebook and through a very user-friendly form where content could be easily uploaded to the site.

As Jack Lail at the KNS says - NiT was a most innovative step for television station, an innovative step into the online world, and hopes remain that innovation continues in Tennessee despite the closing down of NiT.

It's Tea Party Time in Tennessee!

It's being called a political convention there in Nashville this weekend, a "Tea Party" political convention, but they're selling tickets to the deal where you'll hear The Alaskan speak. Local press is banned from attending, but The Alaskan's speech will be shown live on FAUXNews, along with other events from the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

A jumble of political anger, ambition, and alienation, the "convention" was to include West Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, but she bailed last week, declining her chance to introduce The Tundra Temptress (aka The Alaskan, aka Sarah 'youbetcha' Palin) who makes FAUXNews talker Chris Wallace hot and randy.

Hilarity ensues.

(Note to Rep. Blackburn - when you are the third member of a trio including Palin and Michelle Bachman, you are entering Kookytown.)

I totally support government reform. Perhaps after this convention, I'll know what this group seeks to achieve. Other than make money, which I also support, but I tend to spend my time making it for me and not for The Alaskan. As for politics - it makes fools of us all:

"Lost" Starts to End

I have watched the show "Lost" on ABC since it began, though I did drop about half of season two, when they corrected course and decided to aim towards wrapping up the story and not tacking on useless side plots. A five-season run for a TV show as unusually story-centered, meant to actually conclude, is a good experiment I hope is repeated. Three and five season (or just one story per season, as "24" has done) shows should be a staple in network TV and not an exception.

(And yes, I know there are enough side-plots in "Lost" to coat the wide side of a rhino. There's still a main story here of plain old sci-fi time travel and mythmaking, so shut up.)

Here's an image of one character, John Locke, who is now really dead but some other very old and nameless thing now is mimicking him and wants off the island they are all trapped on.


Poor John Locke, the real one, is still alive in another (apparently) parallel time line but is back to being in a wheelchair and looking very unhappy. Yes, there are two of everyone ... or most everyone. I think.

While there will surely be much talk of this last season, folks not yet acquainted might like to start watching old episodes. Here's a few thoughts as to why:

-- The show started in the waning days 2004, end of the first term of president George Bush. Terrifying images of a plane crash begin the show and chaos follows on the beach, one person even is sucked into a still-roaring jet engine which then explodes. Violent stuff - especially for a country still reeling from the sheer shock of four plane crashes in September 2001. The characters don't get along, often fighting about what the next step should be or shouldn't be. They've struck a strong cultural tone on the aftermath and recovery from disaster.

-- Beyond the tone, though, have been fascinating character stories, with an ingenious blending of time used as a narrative device. Ingenious because time travel is at the heart of the mysterious forces on this island. There have been some of TV's best acting and writing here, and it's been pretty smart and complex too. We should have more smart TV shows.

-- And it is fun too, despite all the seriousness. It's almost pulp fiction - jungle intrigue, romance, weird science experiments, psychopaths, ghosts, crime, nuclear bombs, even pirates, enough to fill three or four TV shows.

If you have read this far you're either a fan, or just curious about the show. So allow me to geek out with my current list of questions which might perhaps shape the final outcome of the show:

Can you "sideways flash" through time?

Why does the 'time-door' open into Tunisia?

If, as the current season opens with a shot of the island now underwater, why was there also a genetically engineered shark from the nefarious Dharma Initiative, created on the island now under... wha???

I want more time traveling pirates, because that's just good entertainment.

ET Leaders Want Redlight Cameras Protected By State

Even as the state was promoting a moratorium on new "redlight cameras", leaders in the Tri-Cities told legislators to leave their cameras alone.

"Tri-Cities governments asked Northeast Tennessee lawmakers Friday to oppose legislation hindering development of red light/traffic enforcement cameras.

The request, called the “fun topic of the day” by Kingsport City Manager John Campbell, was among a number of legislative policy marching orders given to lawmakers by elected officials representing Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol, Tenn., during a presentation held at the Millennium Centre.

After the presentation, lawmakers indicated that doing nothing about the cameras is probably not an option this year.

“There are a lot of bad actors out there, a lot of smaller municipalities which are installing speed cameras solely for the purpose of operating their general functions of government. ... These cameras should not be used for revenue enhancement,” said House Majority Leader Jason Mumpower, R-Bristol. “I think potentially, at the very least, we may put a moratorium on the operation of any new cameras before the end of this session.” Mumpower has already filed a number of pieces of traffic camera legislation."

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"Two lawmakers on the House Transportation Committee, state Reps. Tony Shipley and Matthew Hill, have been dead center in the middle of the traffic camera debate.

Shipley, R-Kingsport, is seeking new attorney generals’ opinions on the constitutionality of the cameras.

“It’s not so much the camera. It’s the process and procedures (used by local officials),” said Shipley.

Said Hill, R-Jonesborough: “No one has ever said ‘We’re not for safety.’ The issue comes down to just respect for our citizens. ... We have to find a balance between those two.”

The state is looking into ways to make use of cameras meet the same criteria statewide. A common suggestion is that by extending the time of a yellow caution light, accidents will be greatly reduced. But the Tri-Cities folks want that left alone too.

Complaints and concerns remain as well since these projects are clearly a privatization of a law enforcement function, and once we are comfortable with such practices, then expect more to appear.

Michael at No Silence Here outlines the legislative issues regarding the use of these cameras from Rep. Shipley.

I'm pretty sure if the state can figure out a way to get steady income from cities and towns using such cameras, then expect their use to spread.

Paris and Prince, Dangerous Words and Weird Things In Coffee

I have great sympathy for kids today as they negotiate their way into our strange and sometimes dangerous world. Often the childhood years are intertwined with horrors - ask the kids growing up in Haiti or Ethiopia who face nothing less than starvation and slavery.

And last night I took note of two kids who's lives appear to be part of a bad American novel. Named Prince and Paris, the children of Michael Jackson spoke briefly to the crowd at the Grammy Awards when the group handed out a Lifetime Achievement honor to Jackson. Their lives are going to be tough and likely gain a visage too weird to predict. Might be different if Prince were named, say, Bill or Frank. (And who can blame the child named Blanket for not making an appearance. Blanket?)

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Kids in school in one California school district must be attempting to puzzle out just what the deal with adults is.

One week, adults ban a dictionary because one could learn a definition of "oral sex" in said dictionary. Now, the dictionary is back on the shelf, but students must have a parent's permission slip to look at the dictionary.

A couple of points here - if the dictionary is dangerous, then the Internet must be the center of Hell itself.

And why just ban a dictionary? Every dirty word and perverted idea is usually expressed by just a few letters in the alphabet, so why not ban them too?

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One blogger has created a task few would dare -- put weird things in coffee and see how it tastes.

This is Putting Weird Things In Coffee.

Recent entries include: Eggspresso, Bacon in the Coffee, and putting Salmon in Coffee.

The blogger says "The only rule is that the things I put in coffee must be things that I would tolerate eating on their own. So no, I will not put dog poop in coffee, but you’re right that it would be very weird."

Congressman Roe's Feeble Email on Education In Tennessee

Must be an election year, as for the first time, 1st District Congressman Phil Roe is shooting out an email proclaiming how good it is to get an education. What daring! What bravado!

In emphasizing the importance of a good education, the email from Rep. Roe (who sits on the Congressional committee for Education and Labor) says of No Child Left Behind laws:

"However, the law’s requirement that all schools meet certain standards are faced with severe punishments that are not realistic and are demoralizing our educators in public education."


Rep. Roe seems to need some after-class work on language skills. (Are needing? Are needs work?)

The well-worn (or just plain empty) language he uses in this email trots out some standard (make that bland and incorrect) notions on economic growth and education:

"I believe there is a direct correlation between the strength of our economy and the education that we provide to our young people. The better quality of education we can provide our children, the more opportunities they are afforded in life, and the higher chance they will be able to acquire a job. Economic research has found links between higher levels of cognitive skill—defined as “the performance of students on tests in math and science”—and economic growth. Specifically, Eric Hanushek, Dean Jamison, Eliot Jamison, and Ludger Woessmann write in the Spring 2008 issue of Education Next that countries with higher test scores experience far higher growth rates. In their research, they have found that a highly skilled workforce can raise economic growth by about two thirds of a percentage point every year.

If we create a better education system, I believe we will solve problems like health care and energy because people will simply be able to make the right choices for themselves."

Does that last statement mean "you'll figure it out for yourself one day"? Anyway, these ideas seem to be in direct opposition to the reality in Tennessee, which is that 80% of jobs in this state right now do not require any college experience or degree.

And perhaps Rep. Roe should have taken more notice on the legislation just passed at the state level aiming to increase the number of students who actually graduate from high school. Or take stock of the fact that most Tennessee students heading into college need remedial classes:

"Right now, more than half the students who start college in Tennessee need remedial course work, repeating the same math, reading and writing courses they took in high school. Universities will get out of the business of remedial education.

Instead, students who need remedial course work will be steered into community college, where classes are smaller and tuition is half the price of university courses. Universities, meanwhile, will be able to free their professors and resources to focus on more advanced courses.

This sounds fine in theory to the community colleges, where more than 60 percent of students already take remedial coursework, and the schools have spent years fine-tuning their outreach efforts. But Tennessee is in the middle of a budget crisis, and it will cost money to provide the teaching staff, equipment and classroom space to handle the thousands of new students who will be diverted into the two-year schools.

To make sure Rep. Roe is shoring up his base here in the 1st District, his email also takes time to ask your opinion on "Health Care Reform"(CORRECTION: make that "Health Care Survey" but still, another poorly played political 'gotcha' question) by asking you for your opinion on abortion, and concludes with a few swipes at President Obama.

Pretty feeble stuff - the hallmark of a 1st District congressman.

Local Left Wingers Talk Politics, So Why Do I Think Eisenhower?

I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of political ideas among a pretty diverse group of friends, most of said group would be labeled Left-Wing, or Progressive, or Liberal or other words used to describe folks not on the Right or Conservative end of the spectrum.

I found most of them had a very poor opinion of the first year of President Obama's presidency. The top complaint was that the crimes and misdeeds of the previous administration had not been pursued, the guilty remain unpunished, and warfare in the middle east continued despite the wishes of the majority of those who elected him.

The president should be much tougher, they all said.

Tougher on who or what? Elected and appointed officials in government who used torture, who lied to Congress; contractors with the government who've used the wars in the middle east to line themselves in solid gold and who've been guilty of fraud, abuse and much worse; and the many financial misdeeds from Wall Street and beyond into the banking system who broke laws and then begged for bailout from the Bush administration and the Congress of '08.

Another complaint - attempting to build a consensus in Congress was a bad idea. Congress is a source of trouble, not open to any meaningful consensus or bi-partisan behavior.

In short - The Very Bad Powers That Be are still The Very Bad Powers That Be.

It wasn't that they had lost all support for President Obama, but they expressed some mighty disappointment.

That discussion of course had many forks -- into talk about the recent Supreme Court decision to essentially allow limitless corporate donations to political campaigns, as well as local politics in towns and counties across East Tennessee. My favorite part of this discussion was the reality that there was no Left and Right Wings here - it's all Right-Wing and Not As Much Right-Wing politics. And the current reality in U.S. politics which already allows for foreign-owned nations to create U.S. shell companies which have been donating to political campaigns.

There were such healthy doses of vigilant skepticism of our current system, it seemed to me that, despite any sudden changes, there remains a growing population of very smart folks who have not lost their passion or their will to demand more changes, to call out hypocrisy on the current state of Left and Right Wing tactics and policies.

There were, as well, a strong and growing sense that local media is in a very poor state, with no change in sight, other than a continuing change for the worse.

As for me, I think President Obama and his team have faced more tough challenges than most administrations. It isn't going to get any easier in 2010 either. I do think he has the support of the majority of Americans, but we remain in an economic turmoil created over the last few decades and altering that course significantly is but one of the toughest jobs he faces.

And politically, I remain pretty much all over the political map - I'm very much a less-government-is-best believer, sometimes landing in the Right, the Center and the Left. No single political party holds much weight for me. And it was heartening to me to see a continued belief that real change and activism begins on the local level and grows out from there.

Still, there remains much passionate anger over the disastrous course the Right has been demanding for many years. And I know from talking to those who are on the Right they too are angry, sensing their own forecasts of Left Wing Doom in every situation imaginable.

It is puzzling that the central notion of a government gone haywire is a part of both the Left and Right and among Independents too, but fixing it is where everyone diverges.

As I have opined here on this humble but lovable blog since Day One: Being an American requires constant vigilance.

Oddly, for a long time now, I have often been reminded that today's political landscape was seen and expressed astonishingly well by a World War 2 General and President, Dwight Eisehnower, in his 1961 "farewell speech" which you can read here. Perhaps these excerpts will show why I hold that speech in some regard:


"Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration."

---

"Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow."

Political Notebook: The Vote In Massachusetts and Beyond

It's pretty easy given the current rancorous warfare between Republicans and Democrats to declare that a change to a Republican senator in Massachusetts is a world-changing event, or that it spells out doom for the political goals of the Obama administration.

But I think the reasons are less about Obama and are more easily understandable.

The state of Mass. has, for the first time in over 50 years, elected someone outside the Kennedy family. Since JFK took the senate seat in 1953, it has belonged to a Kennedy (or a Kennedy appointee). So it isn't very surprising and it doesn't hold a secret meaning that the Democrats lost control of the seat - especially since the rest of their entire delegation to Congress are all Democrats.

Both JFK and Ted Kennedy (who served for 46 years) certainly held enormous political clout. And given that the Democrat candidate Martha Coakley who lost in 2010 wasn't very popular, or that women in general seldom are elected in Mass., it boggles the mind to consider her loss some sort of litmus test on Obama. (Congresswoman Niki Tsongas is an exception and she took the job when her husband Paul died.)

Does the loss rattle the Democrats and cheer the Republicans? You betcha. And as Steve Benen writes, there are some key lessons to be learned.

If I were a real pessimist, I would fear that the all-white, all-wealthy panel speaking this week on MSNBC's Morning Joe show might hold some truth: that Mass. Senate winner "looks more American". But when I listen to them and read their words, it evokes some some disgust:

"Donny Deutsch got the ball rolling, suggesting that voters may be "going back to basics" after electing an African-American president and seeing "the female candidates and whatnot." Scott Brown, Deutsch added, "looks like the traditional view of a candidate," which may bring a "visceral comfort" to voters.

Mike Barnicle found value in the observation, saying that "there's something to it."

The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan added that Brown is "a regular guy" who "looks like an American."

None of all-white participants in this discussion explained exactly what "an American" actually "looks like," but apparently it has something to do with being white, male, and handsome. Sorry, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, I guess you don't meet the criteria for looking American.

This is, of course, the same program that told us some months ago that "real Americans" like Sarah Palin and don't live in cities.

Tell me again, media establishment, about how MSNBC is a liberal bastion that's shifted to the left, on par with Fox News being a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party."