Black Friday

It is Friday the 13th after all. This is a fierce and fine song which builds to an impressive jam, and an exceptional video of Steely Dan live. And is it just me, or does Donald Fagen kinda look like a vampire here? Creepy. I've been wanting to post this for a few weeks and so here ya go. Would it be ironic/funny or just tasteless to dedicate this today to Don Imus?

Camera Obscura - More Ultra Noir Movies

My optimism for you fell somewhat last week. Reading that audiences were so dim they left the movie "Grindhouse" after the first feature, failing to see the second one because they did not know "Grindhouse" was two movies -- how the heck did they travel from home to theatre without hurting themselves? And to read other stories that audiences balked at seeing two movies for the price of one likewise makes me scratch my head. I suppose Rodriguez and Tarantino have shown us how impatient people are today. It's like these people stand in front of a microwave oven and yell "Hurry up! Why is this taking so long?"

Whatever. All I know is "Grindhouse" was the most satisfying time at the movies for me in a long time. And the car stunts in Tarantino's "Death Proof" are jaw-dropping. Zoe Bell riding the hood of that car is just amazing. And Kurt Russell's girly screams as he gets his payback are hilarious. Maybe the audiences weren't up for all that for an Easter Weekend. Well, this is Friday the 13th, so haul yourself into "Grindhouse" and thank me later for the recommendation.

Speaking of Friday the 13th, I am both deeply proud and somewhat envious of my brother and his son on this day. They are working as extras in a movie being made in their hometown of Rome, GA -- and not just any old extras. They get to be zombies!!

The movie is called Dance of the Dead and my brother said last week he was pondering a plan to be a zombie-priest with a rig for an altar cross stuck in his chest. Yes, I have asked for photos of the momentous day. This makes the first time anyone in our family has been in a bona-fide zombie movie. Can't wait to see the final product when released next year. And I loved the plot outline on IMDB -- "On the night of the big Homecoming Dance, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance."

While this weekend offers seven (!!) movies opening, I return to my old habits of suggesting some movies now on DVD which bear repeated viewings.

First, the 1999 movie "Payback" starring Mel Gibson as a crook who is assumed to be dead and instead returns to demand his share of a heist that got him (almost) killed. This tough-as-nails noir thriller has some fantastic performances -- the always vile Gregg Henry as the double-crossing partner, Maria Bello as Gibson's sort of girlfriend, and Lucy Liu as a vicious, leather-chaps-wearing hooker.

A new version is out now, and I do mean new. Writer/director Brian Helgeland lost control of the final theatrical version of "Payback" and this week he got his version released on DVD I do like the theatrical cut very much, and usually Director's Cuts offer few changes, but this is truly a different movie. Entire characters are gone, there is a new soundtrack and the final third of the movie is all new. I own a copy of the theatrical release but this new one has been ordered and I'm looking forward to it. If you like lean, mean thrillers, this is a little gem worth repeated viewings.

Still unsure? Then let me add that "Payback" is a remake of the 60s classic "Point Blank" with Lee Marvin and is based on the novel by Donald Westlake, one of America's handful of excellent crime writers. The pedigree for "Payback" continues with Helgeland, who penned the Oscar-winning "L.A. Confidential."

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Another 1990s movie jammed with street-realism I recommend is "Fallen Angels," from 1995 by director Kar Wai Wong. The story concerns a hitman and his manager-partner and a mute young man, whose lives all collide in the neon nights and cramped rooms of Hong Kong.

The movie is deeply indebted to the 1950s laconic thrillers of Jean Luc Goddard, filled with characters who embody alienation and isolation, drifters and oddballs who roam the streets in the wee hours of the morning. Wong's camera work is also a featured player here - hand held shots, often wide-angle, capturing the characters as they sit in blurry reflections of jukeboxes and dirt-streaked windows. It gets the claustrophobic feel of a city packed beyond reason with people whose lives endlessly stream past in the background and the foreground.

The city is a character too, and admittedly the movie often plays out like a student art film. Jagged and rough at times, and at others deliberately as composed as an art student photo exhibit. The movie demands you ride it all out and never wastes time spoon-feeding you with rational narratives. Wong also made another movie I've seen numerous times which is rich in textures and metaphors, "2046" and he's currently wrapping production on a remake of the Orson Welles thriller "Lady From Shanghai."

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From the pages of Cinematical comes a most interesting reader survey, which I'm asking you to consider this week too. Celebrity crushes are one thing but I like this survey better -- If you could date a movie character, who would you pick?

Some of the answers submitted at Cinematical are here, and I must say the choices are - at best - really odd. It's as if no one has seen a movie prior to the year 2000.

Feel free to add your thoughts here. Me, I'll have to think some more on this topic and I'll offer my answers next week.

Goodbye, Methuselah, or Poo-Tee-Weet!

All around the world and especially in America people on this day will be writing to mourn and celebrate Kurt Vonnegut Jr who died yesterday at age 84. I'll bet cash money that the majority of writers today were inspired to write because of Vonnegut. I know I was.

I can recall with much clarity the day I picked up "Breakfast of Champions" in a bookstore in the old 100 Oaks Mall in Nashville in the mid-1970s, read the first page and fell in love with the book and the writer. It broke every rule I had been taught about writing in school and was one of the most powerful tales I've ever read. That book showed me that what I needed to do to be a writer was to believe in whatever writing voice I had, and to love my readers and my characters and to be honest with them and with myself. The rest would take care of itself.

Vonnegut was the best writing teacher I ever had, though we only met each other on the pages he penned. I got drunk on those pages, lost time, got dizzy, and would lift up my eyes from the page and look around to see if anyone had noticed that I had left the world and been ... somewhere else.

I remain astonished at how he could be simple and profound and silly and say so much is seemingly small ways. Little phrases have always stayed with me - So it goes ... diddley-squat ... chrono-synclastic infidibulum .... rented a tent a tent a tent ....

Vonnegut would occassionally provide commencement speeches for college graduations. Here is one he gave to grads at Rice University:

"Have we met before? No. But I have thought a lot about people like you. You men here are Adam. You women are Eve. Who hasn't thought a lot about Adam and Eve?

This is Eden, and you're about to be kicked out. Why? You ate the knowledge apple. It's in your tummies now.

And who am I? I used to be Adam. But now I am Methuselah.

And who is a serpent among us? Anyone who would strike a child.

So what does this Methuselah have to say to you, since he has lived so long? I'll pass on to you what another Methuselah said to me. He's Joe Heller, author, as you know, of Catch 22. We were at a party thrown by a multi-billionaire out on Long Island, and I said, ''Joe, how does it make you feel to realize that only yesterday our host probably made more money than Catch 22, one of the most popular books of all time, has grossed world-wide over the past forty years?''

Joe said to me, ''I have something he can never have.''

I said, ''What's that, Joe?''

And he said, ''The knowledge that I've got enough.''

.....

"Mark Twain, at the end of a profoundly meaningful life, for which he never received a Nobel Prize, asked himself what it was we all lived for. He came up with six words which satisfied him. They satisfy me, too. They should satisfy you:

''The good opinion of our neighbors.''

Neighbors are people who know you, can see you, can talk to you -- to whom you may have been of some help or beneficial stimulation. They are not nearly as numerous as the fans, say, of Madonna or Michael Jordan.

To earn their good opinions, you should apply the special skills you have learned here, and meet the standards of decency and honor and fair play set by exemplary books and elders.

It's even money that one of you will get a Nobel Prize. Wanna bet? It's only a million bucks, but what the heck. That's better than a sharp stick in the eye, as the saying goes.

This speech is now almost twice as long as the most efficient oration ever uttered by an American: Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was murdered for his ideals. The founder of this university, William Marsh Rice, another idealist, was murdered for his money. Whatever! The good both men did lives after them.

Up to this point this speech has been new stuff, written for this place and this occasion. But every graduation address I've delivered has ended, and this one will, too, with old stuff about my Uncle Alex, my father's kid brother. A Harvard graduate, Alex Vonnegut was locally useful in Indianapolis as an honest insurance agent. He was also well-read and wise.

One thing which Uncle Alex found objectionable about human beings was that they seldom took time out to notice when they were happy. He himself did his best to acknowledge it when times were sweet. We could be drinking lemonade in the shade of an apple tree in the summertime, and he would interrupt the conversation to say, "If this isn't nice, what is?"

So, I hope that you Adams and Eves in front of me will do the same for the rest of your lives. When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and then say out loud: ''If this isn't nice, what is?'' Hold up your hands if you promise to do that.

That's one favor I've asked of you.

Now I ask you for another one. I ask it not only of the graduates, but of everyone here, including even Malcolm Gillis, so keep your eyes on him. I'll want a show of hands, after I ask this question:

''How many of you have had a teacher at any level in your educations who made you more excited to be alive, prouder to be alive, than you had previously believed possible?''

Hold up your hands, please.

Now take down your hands and say the name of that teacher to someone sitting or standing near you.

All done? Thank you.

If this isn't nice, what is?

And The Band Plays On ...

Scathing is barely the word to describe it:

"We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore."

That's an excerpt from an upcoming book by Lee Iacocca, "Where Have All The Leaders Gone?"

The full excerpt is here.

Today's news that the White House, attempting to reorganize (again) the running of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is having trouble finding a military official willing to take such a job is another troubling indication that the policies are floundering.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," said retired Marine Gen. John J. "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job."

Thinking Blogger Award

Back when I started this blog, I wanted to expand and explore good writing first and foremost. Sometimes, I know, that I am guilty of plopping prose down here that can be, as a dear and now departed professor of mine used to say, "as dry as mummy dust."

And I know I often veer from topic to topic like drunken fiend fat with cash and bleary-eyed affection for the neon nights. I also know that sometimes having a worthwhile post is a true challenge requiring buckets of coffee and re-writes aplenty. The posts here can require too much time to read, or may ask the readers to go to a variety of other sites to read and review whatever crust of sand got stuck in my velvety-smooth insides which irritated me to the to point of trying to convert it into some pearl. My mom often says the posts are too long and I ramble some. Well, yeah, that'll happen.

So ok, the point of this post - my good friend and tireless web-writer and newspaper maven Newscoma was generous enough to nominate this humble but lovable blog for a Thinking Bloggers Award. Mucho thanko, NC. Your assessment of this page made me smile and maybe blush a wee bit.

In order to properly participate in such a weighty accolade, it falls now to me to nominate 5 blogs which make me think and ask them to join in this process too. As NC says:

"1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote

So be it. For the record - this was not easy for me to do, and I hate not to include all those whose blogs you can link to via this page. I hope you visit them all and I include them because they are fine places to visit and read. Here's my list of 5:

1. KnoxViews -- If you live in Tennessee and you don't read the offerings here, you're missing out. R. Neal and others have been expertly articulating viewpoints on not only local and state topics, but national ones too. Posts are typically well-researched, and also provide some plain spoken responses to much of the political world. Claims that it is a 'liberals only' blog miss the mark by a wide margin. Sometimes the discussions get heated, sometimes they get most hilarious. What I like best about KnoxViews: When a political policy is bogus or botched, it gets called out. When the Emperor Has No Clothes, KnoxViews says "Yo, bub - yer nekkid!"

2. Atomic Tumor -- Some great writing here, whether it's about music, raising a family, politics, culture or the Sunday haiku. I can't write a haiku but AT spins them out with ease and much humor. Some may recall the tragic reality that filled AT's life last fall as his wife suddenly took ill and died within weeks. AT stood like a giant in the midst of that and explored what it all meant with unflinching honesty. Some may have become readers because of that sad time, but I was already hooked on AT. AT can be a prolific writer, makes me kinda jealous. I am constantly enriched and rewarded for reading.

3. Tennessee Jed -- "Trying Hard Not To Make Matters Worse" is a heck of a credo. Others should remember it and act accordingly. All topics are here, and as with all those I am mentioning for this Thinking Bloggers Award, readers can discover a distinctive voice. He amplifies that voice with some great graphics and designs. Be sure to check out his design work page too. And his page has one of the hallmarks of a good blog - I always want more.

4. The Vol Abroad -- Another fine voice here, one that I only discovered in the past few months. But I quickly became a regular reader. A Tennessee gal living in London and awaiting the arrival of a new baby, The Vol writes on many topics too, from gardening to politics both London and U.S. And one of the ones I liked recently was her request for things she can't get in London, like Krystal's and catfish and hush-puppies. Baby Cletus is due to arrive in about 40 days. I hope The Vol still finds time to blog and to parent too.

5. The Coyote Chronicles -- Mack is fun to read, but be careful. You might learn a few things while you are smiling. I like how he does that. His recent post on Don Imus is a good example of his voice and his ability to tell a good story while trying to offer some insights into life in America.

One reason I selected these blogs is not just for what they have already done, but for the expectations I have for what they can do and will do. Yeah, the pressure is on now!

A Different Standard for Imus?

The media again covers a minor story until it becomes a major story, but is reporting on what Don Imus said about the Rutger's basketball team more than a celebrity-gone-crazy-bad story? Is he being held to a far different standard for word choice? If he was so grossly out of bounds, how is that the public, or at least the media, constantly gives a pass and a wink and a nod to the likes of Ann Coulter?

Her career-long nastiness and virulence gets an occasional news report, and she has lost outlets and advertisers in recent months for her lowbrow name calling. Most news outlets, for instance, have said little to criticizer her for her column last week as she bemoaned the idea that the genoicide in Darfur is taking too long. As if some more efficent and quicker efforts were used to kill the millions there would be a better thing.

"These people can't even wrap up genocide. We've been hearing about this slaughter in Darfur forever - and they still haven't finished. The aggressors are moving like termites across that country. It's like genocide by committee. Who's running this holocaust in Darfur, FEMA? This is truly a war in which we have absolutely no interest."

Her take on Imus? According to her, Imus should be praised for being "the only person who watches women's basketball."

Hell, even I watch women's basketball. A massive thunderstorm knocked out my reception for the UT-Rutgers match-up, sadly, but I did watch most of the UT-NC game and it was as intense a game as I've ever seen.

News Hounds reports on the odd disconnect as Coulter goes on (where else) the FOX Network to say Imus is apologizing too much. Others, I noticed this morning, are also asking much of the same questions about the constant media pass handed to Coulter.

I do think that Imus, with his program offered via television on MSNBC, has a far larger audience than Coulter has ever had, so perhaps that's why he is on the roasting spit du jour.

U-Turns and The Iraq Problem

The problems are vividly reported in the media, debated in Washington, and make for even more arguments on the internet. One constant theme emerges - what can the U.S. do to create stability in Iraq and the middle east? Is there a practical, effective solution or are we stuck in a lose-lose situation?

A piercing and grim assessment was offered today in a column by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, as he talks about a new book from Iraqi politician Ali Allawi, called "The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War and Losing the Peace". The bottom line here is that resolving the war and establishing a secure and peaceful Iraq continues to fall well short of success. A sample from the column:

"The book condemns the "monumental ignorance" of American war planners and the "rank amateurism and swaggering arrogance" of the occupation authority. Allawi had previously written that the Middle East is in a "death spiral" and that "another 100 years of crisis are being sown" in Iraq."

"So what's the solution? "I think the time has come for the United States to take the lead, actually, in doing a U-turn," this "adviser" to Maliki announced. "And by a U-turn I mean a fundamental turnaround in thinking in terms of -- strategic thinking in terms of what's important and what's not important in the Middle East. And you have to move from this military fixation to this new architecture."

The Washington Times also reports on the Allawi's book and speech.

On A Code of Conduct for Blogs

The conduct of people writing and commenting on websites and blogs was mentioned in a post today from Mike Silence at his KNS blog. His headline sums up his approach to the topic neatly: "Code of Conduct for bloggers is a bad idea."

There are many ways to allow or not allow comments, anonymous or otherwise. There are sites I go to not only for the info they offer, but for the comments. MetaFilter and Nashville is Talking always have comments that are immensely entertaining to read. Some national sites have informative posts and the comments are pure drivel.

Some folks loooove to pick fights and get nasty in comments. Some don't. Heated arguments, those that don't dip into childish name-calling, can be informative too. What I've found is that you can pretty much determine the standards of writing and commenting just by reading thru a few posts, without ever bothering to read Site Rules page.

So the idea there should be some "standard code of conduct' in place is just inane and also a sign that the person or persons who operate a site are pretty clueless. There have been comments I have deleted myself on these pages, usually when someone decides to get nasty and mean in attacks on other people who leave a comment. You wanna leave a comment that rips me, have at it. I do not worry about it, because I run this site. I have all the power to delete or not delete.

Sometimes folks have used coarse language in comments here which I don't use on this page. I may cringe a little, but I leave those comments in. Usually, they are funny, but if someone were to start hurling invectives at others for no reason -- well, like I said, I run the page and I make the rules. And just like in much of life, the rules are not written down. You cross a line and get smacked, well, you learn from it hopefully.

So if you feel the need to establish a 'code of conduct' for your web site, then do it. Rules on posting can vary from site to site, depending of the person or persons who run the site and that makes sense to me. But to expect others to do likewise is a fool's dream. People create groups of like-minded blogs all the time and there is no reason to demand all blogs fit into one category only.

It's like that old joke when the guy goes to his doctor and waves his arm up and down and says, "Hey doc it hurts when I do that." And the doc replies "Then don't do that." If you are contstanly shocked and dismayed by the comments you read regularly on some site, then maybe don't read them or (over)react to them. If you have something to say, say it. If you can't make a coherent comment, that's your tough luck.

Phone Company Wants It All, Promises Nothing

The lobbyist-sponsored cable franchise bill is bad for everyone and would be a massive benefit to only one group - the phone company. Hollow promises and the elimination of local control of land rights likewise benefits only the phone company. A bill which would negate all local control, HB1421/SB1933 is up for review again in committee meetings in the Senate and House and simply needs to be rejected, not delayed or deferred or handed off to a 'study group'.

Hamblen County Mayor David Purkey is presenting a resolution to the full commission this month to oppose this bill, and he joins a statewide rejection of the bill from cities and counties across the state.

The only group who claims this bill is worthwhile is the group which benefits from it - the phone company. This is no consumer-created call for change, and local residents and government do not want to give up their rights to control land usage, to negotiate with cable providers, to insure continual efforts to expand services in a community.

R. Neal at KnoxViews has been tracking the growing opposition to this bogus bill, showing it is a statewide effort to block the bill. But your voice is needed to end this bill now and forever. Send an email to your representatives. Tell them to vote no on HB1421/SB1933. The committee meetings are set for the 10th of April, so do it today.

A link to the Senate directory is here. A link to the House directory is here.

Even The Candidate Doesn't Vote In Election

In the small town of Missouri City, MO, no one bothered to vote in a city council election. Not even the candidate who was running unopposed. The other race for a council seat, in another ward of Missouri City, did at least attract voters - two of them.

While officials try to determine how, or if, the unopposed candidate can hold office, I wonder if anyone in the town really cares at all. Smart money says, not so much.

The Kansas City paper reports:

"I saw them down at the school” polling place, candidate Joe Selle said of Tuesday’s election, “but it never occurred to me that’s what they were there for."

Sweeping statements about what this event might mean will surely make the news.

Me? I'm rather impressed with the disinterest of the 197 registered voters who spoke by saying nothing.

Camera Obscura: Grindhouse and Movie News

Is it just in the South that thoughts of an Easter Weekend automatically bring vivid memories of Ham?

Speaking of Ham, the biggest Hams offered for cinematic diners this weekend are plated in a 3-hour memory-filled jaunt for "Grindhouse," a bloody love letter to 70s B-movies from directors Tarantino and Rodriguez. Unlike the movies they pay homage to, these are big-budget and full of Hollywood movie stars, and the irony is thicker than the crust of a banana pudding plopped out as dessert for that Ham dinner. None of the dinner can be good for you, but it's the communal good times and the self-indulgence that is being celebrated here.

Let me be even more smug for a minute -- I hope all can enjoy the "Grindhouse" memory lane thrill ride, but I was there when it all happened to begin with. If you weren't there too, then you missed it. It's gone. The time may be remembered fondly in these movies, but it's nothing like being there for the real thing.

While Tennessee had few of the urban, skeezy theaters where the term "grindhouse" was made, referencing the number of bad movies gound out as well as the behavior of amorous adults scattered in the back rows and balconies, we had something else where these movies thrived, once upon a time - the Drive-In.



We went to double and triple features with our dates, knowing the movies were stupid and bad, but full of expectation that our dates, stuck in a confined space and disgusted or bored by the movies, would join in for some other entertainment created on our side of the fogged windows. Hours of quality alone time for just a few dollars serenaded by hollow, mono-sound screams and roars and cheesy music. If the dates got really heated, you shut down the drive-in speakers and listened to your own radio as flickering light from the screen was pushed into the background.

Dateless? Then you usually went with a carload of friends, coolers all fat with ice and beer, and you watched the movies for a while, but again eventually the entertainment soon became the conversations and the laughter of friends. A double bill like "Women In Cages" and "Death Race 2000" was full of stuff you'd never see on a television or in a comfy theatre. You might see the occasional movie of future big name stars or directors, but the big names never, ever went back to the low end to make movies for these venues.

Today, you can see any movie, uncut or unrated, at home. The tainted patina of ilicit movies, banned movies, gory horror and freakish weirdness cannot exist when any and every thing is available via NetFlix or cable to anyone with some cash. You can't ban it, the "too shocking for theater" ads are gone. The drive-ins and grindhouses are gone too, though you can go to sources like Starlite Drive-In DVDs for such movies as "Hustler Squad" and "Wild Riders".



It was strange too, the movies which were jammed together as the 70s wound down. Movies would get jumbled together so you might see the odd double bill of "Macon County Line" and "Logan's Run," or one of my most favorite such nights was when we went to see "Walking Tall Part 2" and "Woody Allen's Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask."

And the best place to go here in East Tennessee was the old Woodzo Drive-In in Newport, where the manager would stop the movie just prior to the final reel for 15 or 20 minutes, his voice echoing through the tinny speakers that the movie would start up again soon, after you all came into the concession stand for to make those last orders of questionable foods. And there were countless times in a movie when the dialog would be interrupted by a drawling voice saying "Billy, yer peet-zer is ready .... Billy ... come to the snack bar ... yer peet-zer is ready ..."

A lasting image I have is of children idly playing on rusty swing-sets in the semi-darkness underneath a giant weather-beaten screen filled with grainy footage of a guy whirling a chainsaw over his head and chasing a half-naked chick.

Good times.

As for the new movie opening today from today's Hollywood bad-boy directors, "Planet Terror" from director Rodriguez is the first feature. It's the story of a tow-truck driving crook and his go-go dancer ex-girlfriend trying to escape from a town overrun with mindless zombies. It even includes a title card for "missing reel" so the whole movie isn't exactly whole.

A batch of wild and crazy Coming Attractions is offered too, with trailers made by Rob Zombie and others, telling of even more bizzare movies headed down the pike.

Tarantino's movie "Death Proof" is next, and it's different from the first feature, not nearly as wildly over-the-top and centered more on characters and dialog, but all building to a manical climax. Kurth Russell has loads of fun playing a sadistic killer named Stuntman Mike who ends up picking on the wrong batch of female victims. Car crashes and surprises, dead ahead. (By the way, up next for Tarantino is his turn as actor, playing the character of Ringo in Takashi Miike's upcoming release "Sukiyaki Western Django." Love that title.)

Reviews good and bad abound on the internet, but I enjoyed this one from Dork Nation and this one from Cinematical. But, really, you don't need or even care for reviews if you have the tiniest interest in seeing "Grindhouse" and no review will change your mind if the movie sounds to you like a horrifying example of America's Declining Culture.

Both the fans and the would-be B-movie makers got the chance to make their own trailers for cheesy movies this year, and the results can be seen here from the SXSW Festival.

And speaking of Cinematical, that site has become a constant read for me. This week included stories on the repeated and apparently failed remakes of "Invasion of The Body Snatchers." Also some very welcome news that the Coen Brothers latest movie, "No Country For Old Men" is set to premiere at the Cannes Festival in May, along with a new concert movie from U2 in 3D.

Cinematical is a new stop on my daily reads for entertainment and movie news.

Now ya'll just dig in this weekend and help yourself to the Ham and 'nanner puddin'.

The Official Tennessee Easter Egg 2007

Each year every state has a decorated egg selected to represent that state at the White House, a tradition that began in 1994.

I have no idea who is on the committee which selects the best, but kudos to them for their selection for this year - or, I suppose I should say "Thank you, thank you very much."

The full list of photos featured in this year's collection is here. The collection is coordinated by The American Egg Board and the photo is by Lynden Steele.

Do we call it Egg-vis Presley?

Mal Sentimiento

What Newt said March 31, 2007:

"We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto."

What Newt says now:

Vampire Catfish of the Amazon

Hey, I do more than just idly pecking away at the keyboard here. I am learning new things from the Internets every day.

Like the discovery in 2005 of a vampire fish in the Amazon. Though really, people have known about this nasty li'l Amazonian critter for some time -- it's been Wiki'd:

"The author William Burroughs encountered stories about the candirú during his travels in South America, and referenced the creature in his book Naked Lunch. Candice Millard's The River of Doubt also presents rumors of attacks heard on Theodore Roosevelt's Amazon trip. The fish is also mentioned in the afterword of author Scott Westerfeld's novel Peeps and in several movies, such as Sniper, The Rundown, Medicine Man, Anaconda, and The Rundown. Novelist Julian Barnes mentions the fish in his book A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, and Chuck Palahniuk references the candirú in Fight Club."

On Ending the War in Iraq

As Congress takes a break and the President continues to assert his will reagarding the continuing use of miliary actions in Iraq, I was pondering some on the nature of the impending clash between Congress and the President over the funding bill regarding the end of war in Iraq.

The President has been plain for his reasons to continue the war, and just as plainly says he'll veto any spending bill that calls for an end to the war.

How, many wonder, can Congress truly challenge him? I expect that much of their strategy hinges on Constitutional regulations of who has the power to do what. Their strategy, based on the Constitution, was vividly and plainly presented by Senator Russ Feingold at the end of January.

The Department of Un-Education

Hardly a day goes by that we do not hear about public education, it's endless funding woes, it's utter necessity for success on any level in a 'global economy' and how the ship of America would founder without it.

But a law requiring that elected officials in Tennessee's city and county government actually have a diploma or GED -- well, that's unfair and the bill supporting it has died in committee. Tom Humphrey writes about the bill and it's demise in the KNS.

"This is punishing individuals who may not, for whatever reason, have the educational level that someone thinks they ought to have," said Rep. Gary Moore, D-Nashville. "A person's education level, in my opinion, doesn't really hinder the ability to serve."

It's rather fascinating that taxpayers would want someone making decisions on how public schools are funded by those who never completed a public education.

I noticed recently a bill moving through the state legislature that would mandate parental approval before a student could join any kind of club or organization at a public school. Maybe we need at least a parental permission slip for someone to seek office in government too.

Cable Franchise Bill Debate Continues

AT&T is continuing their effort - both in Tennessee and nationwide - to rewrite the laws regarding cable TV franchises. I am all for competition and the rules are already in place to allow phone companies to compete for local franchises -- so why rewrite the law and give away control of those fees and contracts and the local control of rights-of-way to the state?

In their legislative wrap-up from last week, state House Republicans had this comment:

"Controversy over the Competitive Cable and Video Services Act has not slowed this week, as representatives from both AT&T and the Tennessee Municipal League addressed members ofthe House Commerce Committee.

The bill, House Bill 1421, would allow providers of video services to obtain a statewide license instead of multiple franchises from cities and counties. Two weeks ago, the Federal Communications Commission issued a report in which new rules will make it easier for companies like AT&T to obtain local franchises.

Opponents of the legislation are now arguing that there is no need for the bill, and any state action at this point would be redundant since the FCC is the governing body.

The Tennessee Municipal League,representing 347 city and town governments, argued that the bill would maliciously expose citizens to higher prices and poor service. However, AT&T and sponsors of the bill are arguing that competition is good for the marketplace, and that implementing broadband in rural areas is a critical need.

They argued that other states have implemented similar plans, and that because control is handed back to the subscriber, cable customers have seen as much as a $22 drop in price. The final argument was that an estimated 2,000 jobs would be the direct result of implementation."

(via the press release)

I've explained my opposition to this bill before and encouraged you to contact your elected officials and do the same.

I was happy to hear back from Senator Steve Southerland on this, who reported he doubted he could support this bill, that he was "still listening" to the debate. State Representative Litz has yet to respond to emails on this issue.

Congressman Davis On His Support for War in Iraq

Speaking to a receptive audience, 1st District Congressman David Davis explains his agreement with President Bush to reject Congressional bills regarding the war in Iraq:

"Applause broke out when Davis told the retired veterans that he was at the White House this past Thursday morning for prayer, and noted, “President Bush says he will veto” the timeline bill, and veto the “pork” that had to be added to it to get the minimum number of votes needed for passage.

“The national media wants us to believe this is President Bush’s war,” Davis said.

----

In this war, he said, our enemies want to “convert us or kill us — that’s them talking — and pulling troops out of Iraq doesn’t change their stated goal.”

Davis said he believes that the global war on terror will continue to be fought “long term, either there or here.”

Is it really a simple matter of letiing the President wage war? Doesn't the law provide that Congress does indeed have the authority to decide when and where the U.S. can wage war?

Are the majority of Americans "sleeping" through this conflict as Rep. Davis says?

"On Sept. 11, “the alarm sounded,” Davis said, but too much of America has since the “rolled over and gone back to sleep.”

Full story here in the Greeneville Sun, As Rep. Davis explains his views on how Walter Reed Hospital is "in great shape ", immigration, and more.

Camera Obscura - 'Lookout'; Neo-Noir; and 'X-Files 2'

I've got a stack of good movies to recommend this week - since last week was all whiney-ranting on a movie I hated. It's far more fun to share the good stuff with you, and there's some to pick from in the theatres and on DVD, much of it based on top-notch writing.

Opening today is the directorial debut of Scott Frank, "The Lookout". Some big-name directors were up for this project, like David Fincher, Michael Mann and Sam Mendes, but writer Frank got to take the reins himself and that was a smart move. This crime-thriller is centered on a young man whose mind has been almost washed away following an accidental brain injury. By the time you follow the damaged and lost Chris Pratt (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to a bank robbery, you're already deeply interested in these characters. Frank is an expert at making fascinating characters and at making solid thrillers.

His past work is part of the best in Neo-Noir thrillers - crime stories grounded in strong characters - such as "Get Shorty", the short-lived TV series "Karen Sisco", and "Out of Sight," all movies based on the writings of one of the best crime writers in America, Elmore Leonard.

Critics agree that in addition to the script and deft direction, the lead as played by Gordon-Levitt is worth the price of admission. He's been turning in gutsy performances in movies like "Brick" and "Mysterious Skin".


The character of US Marshal Karen Sisco created by Leonard and featured in the TV series (played by Carla Gugino) and the movie "Out of Sight" (played by Jennifer Lopez) surely gave Frank good ideas in building and developing stories. "Out of Sight" is a minor-classic -- often funny, filled with realistic and oddball criminals, danger lurking close by which is just as real.

If you haven't seen it - do so. In addition to Lopez, the movie stars George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Albert Brooks, Ving Rhames, Steve Zahn and others who all create vivid characters.

Another book turned into a movie worth repeated viewings is "Children of Men", now available on DVD. Based rather loosely on P.D. James book, the movie is set in London in the year 2027, in a world which has fallen apart, ravaged by terrorism, disease and corruption and where no human child has been born in nearly 20 years. The reason why - or the lack of a reason - shapes the lives of everyone.

Director and screenwriter Alfonso Cuaron fills every frame with society worn down and wasting away, from hatred, from fear, from religious strife, and everyone seems to move in dull inertia. Without children, the world is without hope. The movie has echoes of earlier apocalyptic cinema, like "Soylent Green", but Cuaron and the cast (Clive Owen, Michael Caine, Julianne Moore) have made something very new and very topical.

There's a scene early in the film between the estranged couple of Owen and Moore, just after Owen's character has barely escaped a deadly suicide bomb attack. He complains of a constant ringing in his ears, and she tells him that sound is the sound of cells dying, a frequency he will never hear again. A bit later in the movie, an explosion brings about yet another ringing in Owen's ears, and he and the audience understand he has lost something even more valuable than part of his hearing range. It's a sharp script and another excellent movie from Cuaron.

By sheer accident this week I watched a film I had seen on video shelves for some time, never giving it a chance. Big mistake. So I'm also urging you to seek it out as well. The movie is based on the novel "Doctor Sleep", by Tennessee native Madison Smartt Bell, and retitled "Close Your Eyes."

Bell's story slyly and expertly draws you into a crime scene via the life of Michael Strother, played by Goran Visnjic, working in London as a hypnotist who helps people quit smoking. But his skill includes a more occult ability to see what others see in their own mind. When he counsels a woman who has an image of a drowning child in her mind, he learns she is a policewoman working a case involving children who are kidnapped and murdered in a ritualistic nightmare. Reluctantly, he agrees to help her work the case.

There are many layers of story here, blending crime drama with eldritch religious groups. Bell, in an interview, remarked that "Doctor Sleep" was a culmination of work for him. Much of his previous work used the noirish world of crime and led the reader somewhere else:

"To my mind, Dr. Sleep was the end of a whole trend in my work. The book is basically structured as a prayer, and Stother's internal monologue drives the story. After I had finished it, I realized in a way I hadn't before that all the novels I had written up to that time were spiritual pilgrimages of one kind or another. Though they are by and large couched in the form of thrillers, they're essentially experiments in religion. My model for that is Dostoyevsky, who was basically a thriller writer with a lot of religious obsessions that he was trying to work out. I wasn't completely aware of this strain in my own work until I'd finished Dr. Sleep, or was well on the way to finishing it."

The movie has real scares and chills, created by your own connections to the characters and the maze of storytelling which easily twists you around. A very surprising find -- too bad the project was shelved for some years, barely marketed and dumped without notice onto DVD.

Finally, I have this bit of news for fans of "The X-Files" show and movie. Star David Duchovny says the project for a sequel is almost set and filming will begin soon .... he hopes,

From Vice-President to Charlie's Angel

Boy, when the day turns bad, it really turns bad:

"STRATFORD — A man claiming to be Vice President Dick Cheney led authorities on a high-speed chase through town Monday night, colliding with a patrol car before he was shocked with a stun gun and arrested, police said.

John Spernak, 42, of Meadow Street, claimed during his arrest to be the vice president as well as the husband of Nicky Hilton, sister of pop celebrity Paris Hilton, police said. He was charged with attempted first-degree assault, engaging police in a pursuit, reckless driving, criminal mischief, interfering with police and being in a town park after dark.

While in custody, police said, Spernak admitted he wasn't Cheney, but rather Jaclyn Smith, former star of the television show "Charlie's Angels." He was taken to Bridgeport Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

Police said officers were patrolling Long Beach after 10 p.m. when they spotted Spernak parked in a 1994 Cadillac Eldorado. Officers approached the car when it suddenly took off at high speed, police said. The car traveled along Main Street, exceeding 90 mph. At Blakeman Place, the Cadillac crashed into the driver's side of a patrol car, and then kept going, police said.

Police said Spernak eventually pulled into his own driveway on Meadow Street. But even then, they said, he refused to get out of the car, forcing an officer to shock him with a stun gun so that he could be placed in handcuffs."

via The Connecticut Post