In Which I Am Training Elephants

Yesterday afternoon was spent with a herd of elephants. Or at least elephants in training. Nothing political in the event (thank goodness). No this is something sort of new for me - helping to direct a musical for kids, called "Jungle Book Kids", being produced by the Morristown Theatre Guild, with performances set to begin October 7th at Rose Center.

I haven't really been a part of a musical production since I was in a musical version of "Hansel and Gretel" when I was in elementary school. The scars from that, which included wearing lederhosen, have never healed. (Oh, sure, there was a brief musical number which we created some years back for the Improv Comedy group I worked with, a country music horror tale called "Drac'ler", but that is another story.)

But I am reaching for new things and hoping to learn much, which I can always do when I work with the vastly talented Mr. Horton who is THE director for the show. With two full casts, this show is a massive project, and I most happy to have been invited to help. Singing and dancing jungle creatures (even monkeys!!) moving to some great music is going to be great fun. Professor Horton has skills beyond reckoning and his shows always entertain crowds and educate performers.

So for me, yesterday was day one, working with two groups of youngsters, who will perform as the elephant herd in this musical based on the famous Disney script and music. It must be noted that this show also requires the participation of many parents, schedules, costumers, plus music rehearsals, choreography and giant heaps of coordination. In other words, it involves many people whose talents and responsibilities far exceed mine.

In coming days, I'll share more from this venture and can, I hope, remember all the names of the key players. Most in my elephant herds were forced to correct my pronunciation of names like Mowgli and Hathi.

A constant element of productions is taking the immense journey ahead, starting with a script and a score and a host of backstage and onstage talent, and reaching the moment of live performance. I never tire of such work. although I am sure some exhaustion will occur as the rehearsals gather momentum.

In coming days, I'll try and offer some pics from this event and hope many of you will come out in October to see the show.

Forget Spears, Gimme Carla Thomas

All the ink spilled and binary digits devoted to the dismal performance of a mediocre performer, which I detailed in my previous post, brought to mind a real singer, a stellar performer, a Tennessee girl who has become a national treasure. So some selections from the iconic Carla Thomas to close out this Monday.

She cut her first record at age 17 in Memphis, and in 1961 she recorded the hit "Gee Whiz", a simple love song with tremendous power. And she still can belt it out with astonishing style and talent - as evidence, this performance from 1989 on Dave Sanborn's "Night Music" TV show.



You can also listen to an early classic penned by Isaac Hayes, "B-A-B-Y" at this link.

After 40 plus years, a remarkable singer and award-winning career. In 40 more years, her work will still stand far above and away from all memory of this current pop star.

In Praise of Britney Spears

The public lynching of a minor singer/dancer whose flesh has been mythified since adolescence by managers, producers, record companies and a leering public is underway following a performance by Britney Spears on MTV last night.

I give her credit for all but standing on stage and pronouncing how fake and non-musical Music Television has become. What I saw was a person clearly announcing she is sick of it all. Even her ex-boyfriend Timberlake begged the network last night to actually show some music videos. You can only find them on MTV spinoff networks, while the parent network airs vapid accounts of vapid people engaged in vapid behavior.

Is she biting the hand that feeds her? I'd say she was chewing off the hand, arm and shoulder with intense glee. Who could blame her?

MTV's celebs of the moment - Kanye West, 50 Cent, Fergie, all of them - blow chunks as performers, musicians, writers, and producers. Few of those garnering awards could make a note without the help of hijacked samples of other, better songs.

When karaoke singing, a la American Idol, rules the day, who needs MTV's lip-synching or the endless parade of faux-angry rappers who plaster gold and diamonds on cups and fake teeth?

So yes, yer fave MTV act sucks. No news there.

'Twas video killed the video star.

Music will be found most any place other than MTV.

NOTE: Please take in the video and another song from a real singer instead.

Bad Burger Brings Arrest; Slave Labor and Other Oddities

Let's say you order a burger at your local franchise and after a bite or two, you think "Dag! That's nasty!" Why keep eating? A policeman in an Atlanta suburb eats a bad burger, gets sick, then goes back and arrests an employee.

The strange story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

"Union City Police public information officer George Louth said Saturday that police talked to Bull and other store employees who told them Bull knew the burger "wasn't properly prepared." He said she was charged with the misdemeanor reckless conduct because she served it anyway "without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it."

The department is still investigating the case. Since the officer didn't eat the entire Big N' Tasty, there were samples to send to the state crime lab to find out what was in or on the burger that made Adams sick.

Bull, meanwhile, said she was hiring an attorney as she awaits her day in court.

After that, she said, "I think I'm going back to Texas."

Next up in Weird News, huffing a can of computer cleaner:

"A passenger in Robar's vehicle during the first collision, in which he allegedly crossed the median on I-89 going about 100 miles per hour and collided with a car driven by Varin Ang in oncoming traffic, told police Robar was spraying keyboard cleaner in his mouth while he was driving and as the collision occurred."

Next stop, slave labor to build the US Embassy in Iraq and other seldom-reported stories:

"The Pentagon has been investigating the slavelike conditions but has not released the names of any violating contractors or announced penalties. In the meantime, billions of dollars in contracts continue to be awarded to First Kuwaiti and other companies at which little accountability exists. As Phinney reported, "No journalist has ever been allowed access to the sprawling 104-acre site."

One more stop - is that an alien overlord in the window as President Bush offers a speech on the economy??

A Gas Planned In Bean Station

It is no joke - although suppressing them may be impossible.

The town of Bean Station is seeking help so they can set a Guinness world record for cooking up the largest pot of beans ever. Nearby Bush Brothers - they of much bean fame and fortune - has donated 1200 pounds of pinto beans to be cooked. But building a 600 gallon pot is no easy effort and the town is seeking sponsors to make their bean dreams a reality.

The city hopes the event at their 11th Annual Harvest Pride Days Festival on Oct. 11-12 breaks the old record set in 2002 in Horace, North Dakota.

And yes, why shouldn't Bean Station have the record for Biggest Pot o' Beans? Snuggled into the bends and curves along the lakes and highways, Bean Station is a most friendly place. More info on the festival is here.

Over the many years here in East TN, I have had many a fine friend from Bean Station. And heard more jokes about the wee town than you can imagine.

So don't be deadly silent. Help them if you can. The freshly-made beans will be sold by the bowl, along with some cornbread, with proceeds going to charity. I bet it will all be a gas!

Camera Obscura - Romero's New Dead; Cronenberg's Crimes; Torchwood

Two filmmakers have consistently offered mind-breaking, visually stunning and unforgettable tales of humanity's darkest and strangest days and do so to this day.

First, George Romero provides another terrifying satirical poke at the living and the living dead as his new zombie movie, "Diary of the Dead", gets high profile praise and placement in the Toronto Film Festival. All other would-be pretenders to the Zombie Mythos fall on their splintered bony knees before Romero. From his first zombie film to the present one, the movies are cinematic poems to the best and worst in all of us.

In "Diary", when the movie poster says "shoot to kill", the shooting referred to is done by camera, from the constant filming in modern culture via cell phones to surveillance cameras. USA Today has more on the new movie:

"The action centers on a group of students filming an old-fashioned horror movie for school. The scares turn real when they see shocking TV footage of corpses feasting on the living. The class assignment evolves into a documentary, obsessively shot by Jason (Joshua Close), who is driven to record every terrifying moment of their frantic escape in a Winnebago.

Though the movie might sound Blair Witch Project-inspired, the handheld camera doesn't shake and the background blares with news reports (some of it actual coverage of Katrina and 9/11), radio broadcasts and amateur Web accounts.

"During the shootings at Virginia Tech, people were filming out of the windows," Romero says. "CNN was asking flood victims to send in pictures. We have all this information now, but it's not being managed."

Though Diary is a departure, it also retains much of the lore and the gore from the director's original four-part Dead saga, but with a few tasty twists. Instead of halting zombies by just shooting them in the head, one stalker gets his brains eaten by chemicals. The slow vs. swift zombie debate continues, with Romero making a humorous case for his shambling brand.

And there are cameos. Those who pay attention might recognize voice-overs by Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, Simon Pegg, Wes Craven and Guillermo Del Toro."

I am more than eager to see this one.

The other filmmaker whose movies have been powerfully unforgettable - David Cronenberg. He may have at long last found one actor to be his protagonist who is as twisted as he is, Viggo Mortgensen. Viggo was both riveting and funny and scary in "A History of Violence" and he takes his ragged intensity to the old Soviet nations in "Eastern Promises" with actress Naomi Watts.

Cronenberg stirs together such disturbing images and stories in all his films, and never fails to create a film which embeds itself in your brain. This interview with Cronenberg has all the details about his newest project.

Sci-fi/fantasy fans from all over are eagerly waiting for the premiere of "Torchwood" which arrives this Saturday night on the BBC channel. It's a spinoff from the makers of the current "Dr. Who" series. And yes, the title is is sly play on the words Doctor Who.

Reviews are sketchy, as they usually are when it comes to a spin-off series. This one follows a Time-traveling Captain Jack (not Sparrow) who was in last season's "Who", and who finds a Buffy-inspired Hellmouth in Cardiff, where all things extra-terrestial seem to be congregating. The Cap'n then gathers his goofy but lovable misfit gang of pals to combat the unending parade of the unearthly.

As I said, the reviews range from bad to tolerable to ... well, here's one from the UK and another from the US, and the reviewers at IMDB are about 8 to 2 against it. You can decide for yourself if you have BBC on your cable/dish provider.

Now for the strangest movie story of the week:

I recall reading some years back that one of the Wachowski Brothers, they of "The Matrix" fame, was having some .... ah, um ... well there's no other way to say it - brother Larry was undergoing a sex change. I had thought it might be just weird internet rumors. And this week FOX said it was all untrue.

The oddly black leather androgyny of "The Matrix" aside, this rumor has had legs for two years. Why the sudden attention on it now? Perhaps because the G-rated "Speed Racer" movie from the brothers needs some press attention and internet buzz?

Next Friday, right here on this page, I'll have some freebies to give away from the very funny TV series on FX, "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia," which kicks off it's third season next week. Stay tuned for details!

The Maybe Baby News

Have you noticed the trend in the news to waffle and wiggle away, to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge?

Take this guy. First he hid his arrest, then said he was sorry but not gay, then he was resigning and now, maybe not.

Or here - he was sort of in, he plans to announce his announcement, and another lackluster leader steps forth. Case in point: the ducking and dodging of campaign fundraising laws.

It's a music player, it's a web surfer, it's a phone, it's a web surfer, it's $599, it's $399. It's iNconsistent.

It's a slam dunk. It's a quagmire. It's a battle for the Future. It's a parade of surrender monkeys. It's a work in progress. It's winnable. It's a quagmire again.

It's microwave popcorn. It's a delivery system for lung disease.

It's a child's toy. It's a deadly toxin.

It's a non-nuclear transport. It's an accidental transport of nuclear weapons. Five of them. No, six.

It combats angina. It fights strokes. It treats MS and jet lag. It gives hours of stiffness. Heck, maybe it is a wonder drug.

Is it any wonder this song is stuck in my head?

The Golden Record

30 years ago today, the efforts of a collection of humans sent something fantastic into space, which continues to travel through the stars.

Voyager and it's Golden Record stand as a marvel of human achievement.

"The record represented the idea that science and technology could come together with art,” said Ann Druyan, who also designed the sound essay.. “It’s one of the few totally great stories that we have about humans. It cost the taxpayers virtually nothing, nobody got killed. It was a way to celebrate the glory of being alive on this tiny blue dot in 1977."

“This was the most romantic and beautiful project ever attempted by NASA. It had the sounds of a kiss, a mother saying hello to her newborn baby for the first time, all that glorious music. Remember, this was during the Cold War. Everyone was living with the knowledge that 50,000 nuclear weapons could go off at any time, and there was a lot of angst about the future. This was something positive -- a way to represent Earth and put our best foot forward. That was irresistible.”

Carl Sagan’s son Nick was six years old in 1977 when the Voyager records were being assembled. The records feature a recording of him as a child saying, “Hello from the children of planet Earth.”

“I had no sense of the magnitude of it at the time,” said Nick Sagan, who partially followed in his late father’s footsteps by pursuing a career as a science fiction writer. “Literally it was my parents putting me in front of a microphone and saying, ‘What would you say to extraterrestrials?’”

Sagan said he began to realize what the record meant as he got older, and as a teen he started to realize what a “strange but wonderful honor” it was.

“It’s been a challenge for the rest of my life to live up to that honor. It’s always there in my subconscious,” he said. “My dad inspired so many people to do so many great things -- to not take things at face value and to look at evidence to search for the truth. It’s something that I look to as a beacon.”

Explore the Golden Record for yourself here.

'Twas TN Jed Made Boomsday Boom

Who was it who made the 20th Anniversary Boomsday special?? Tennessee Jed:

"He did a count down over the Nextel and when I flipped the switch I heard the roar of a sea of humans reflect off the Tennessee River. It gave me chills and made my face blush to think I did that, hell yea!"

No ID, No Freedoms?

A writer/blogger details an event that led to his arrest outside a Circuit City in Ohio for refusing to show a rather rude employee his receipt and for refusing to show a policeman an ID. The post was featured here at Boing Boing and both the post and the many comments which follow it are fascinating reads and raise many questions. (Yes, Boing Boing has updated and is allowing comments on posts.) The story has been also featured on Digg, Fark and other sites also with much debate.

In the blogger's version of events his rights and liberties were trashed by business and government alike - if the events follow his account. He was asked to show a receipt on the way out of the store and refused and continued on to his car. When store manager Joe stood so the car door could not be closed, here's what was said:

"Me: “Is there a problem?”

Joe: “I need to examine your bag and receipt before letting you leave this parking lot.”

Me: “I paid for the contents in this bag. Are you accusing me of stealing?”

Joe: “I’m not accusing you of anything, but I’m allowed by law to look through your bag when you leave.”

Me: “Which law states that? Name the law that gives you the right to examine my bag when I leave a Circuit City.”

Then, says, the blogger:

"I twice asked Joe to back away from the car so that I could close the door. Joe refused. On three occasions I tried to pull the door closed but Joe pushed back on the door with his hip and hands. I then gave Joe three options:

“Accuse me of shoplifting and call the police. I will gladly wait for them to arrive.”
“Back away from the car so that I can close the door and drive away.”
“If you refuse to let me leave I will be forced to call the police.”

However, after he did call the police, the officer then challenged him and demanded to see his driver's license - even though he was not driving a vehicle and was instead standing on the sidewalk. When he refused, he was arrested, even though the store officials examined his belongings and admitted he had a receipt for all purchases.

Some will say the blogger, Michael Righi, invited trouble for refusing to comply with the store employee. And more trouble was invited by not showing the policeman an ID. The comments on Boing Boing alone bring up central and related issues that are worthy of debate.

And as I said, since I think Righi is telling the truth, I also agree his freedoms were needlessly challenged and curtailed. The events also highlight the problematic issue that corporations, like Circuit City, are identified as having the same rights as an individual. That fact most often means the rights of the corporation will trump the honest-to-God human's rights every time.

And as we continue on the current legal path where National IDs, under provisions of the Real ID Act, are going to be mandatory each of us will likely be faced with demands that we provide papers to engage in a host of routine activities.

Such requirements are more than lunacy. It's a perversion of our basic freedoms to be required to have papers to simply exist. Righi was not engaged in some unique activity which requires a license - such as fishing or hunting or operating a business.

More and more we have become a society where each of us is perceived as guilty, each of us is a criminal-in-waiting, each of us is forced to agree our rights are subservient to that of our own government and to the needs of business. Dismissing this story and it's implications is perilous for all.

(image from the Hartford Courant, Oct. 30, 2001)

UPDATE (9/5/07): R. Neal at KnoxViews featured this post and thoughtfully added in the comments the law in TN regarding what a merchant has legal rights to do if they think a person might have taken something without paying.

Also worth noting is that Righi was charged with obstructing a police officer, even though Righi is the one who called the police.

Glad to see this story is getting some discussion and thoughtful review in numerous blogs. The willingness to abandon individual rights is a repulsive trend which endangers us all.

Final Words

An obituary notice can be far more than just announcement, as it aims to encapsulate the essence of a life snuffed out by the wisdom of God's time management. Here in the Southern lands, notices and accompanying rituals can certainly make metaphorical mountains.

I have always been amazed by some of the floral monuments friends or family have devised, such as my favorite: a colorific collection of flowers surrounding a gigantic foam desk phone and the foam-carved legend "Jesus Called."

Will we see in the future a giant foam-cell phone with a simple text-message emblazoned upon a foam screen: "U R L8, Home Now -- Jesus"?

I have now in my possession a collection of laminated plastic rectangles which contain copies of the obituaries of friend and family past. I'm not sure what to do with these - using them as bookmarks or dangling them in a tenuous mobile just doesn't seem right. So they reside in a plain brown envelope.

The poet Robert Burns penned an epitaph for his friend William Muir which reads:

"If there’s another world,
he lives in bliss.
If there is none,
he made the best of this."

And there are some who take the time to carve into stone a Final Witticism:

"Beneath these stones do lie,
back to back, my wife and I.
When the last trumpet the air fill,
if she gets up, I will just lie still."

The somewhat unique Southern style obituary gets a jolt from Angie at DeMarCaTionVille, who says the following should be published upon her demise:

"Angie isn’t with us anymore. Last year, after her seventh nervous breakdown, a dark-skinned Jesus pulled up in a red convertible and carted her swiftly off into Heaven with the radio playing loud and her hair blowing in the breeze. And on the back bumper, there was a sticker, which read, “Honk if you love Jesus, Jorge, Isabella and all the other Immigrants!"

Yeah, I like that. Jesus motorvating upon the human plain in a shiny red convertible, maybe with Elvis working the MapQuest of Souls.

Stats on Blogging American-Style

Finding a survey about blogs is as easy as finding a blog, and new surveys, like blogs, arrive almost daily. A new study does indicate that more Americans know what the term blog means, and that bloggers are more likely to be female.

Certainly, I would say that women write or administrate many of the blogs I frequent. I like that they use them as platforms for writing, for offering strongly-held beliefs, and as community touchstones. (Men utilize the media much the same, however.)

WebPro writes about the survey and some findings include:

"Loyalty to specific blogs is relatively strong with 46 percent of blog readers reporting that they visit the same blogs regularly compared to 54 percent who search for new or different blogs.

Awareness and usage of blogs, along with people writing their own correlates to age, with younger people being more active. Close to 90 percent of people ages 25 to 34 know what a blog is, compared to 65 percent of those 65 and over. Seventy-eight percent of those ages 18 to 24 who are aware of blogs have visited a blog, compared to 45 percent of older Americans.

The survey found that there are more women bloggers than men, with 20 percent of American women who have visited blogs have their own versus 14 percent of men.

When it comes to reading blogs 39 percent read them less than once a month, another 28 percent visit them monthly, 15 percent visit them daily and 5 percent read them several times a day.

While blog usage continues to grow, so does its potential as a marketing tool. Forty-three percent of blog visitors said they had noticed advertising on blog sites, increasing to 61 percent among those ages 18 to 24. Around one-third of readers have clicked on an ad while reading a blog.

Even though people are spending more time with blogs they are not replacing other media. Only 13 percent of blog readers said they spend less time with other forms of media (newspapers, television, radio) since they started following blogs.

When questioned about the kind of information they get from blogs, 65 percent said they get opinions, 39 percent get news and 38 percent get entertainment.On the main reason people read blogs, close to half said they find blogs entertaining, and another 26 percent read them to learn about hobbies or other areas they are interested in."

I too tend to visit sites I like often, but also search daily for new sites to visit. As for how often each day I visit and re-visit sites, I am in that smallest percentage. Which means I either have too much free time or am nearly obsessed with creating and reading online content.

Davis Talks Nuclear and Alternative Energy with Alexander, Wamp and Shuler

The headlines this summer about Erwin, TN's Nuclear Fuel Services plant were focused on how the company had used national security concerns to halt even information the public should have known - such as a small radioactive spill. This week, Senator Lamar Alexander and Rep. David Davis toured to plant and said all was well. No mention from them in press reports that the plant may be sold in the near future.

Earlier this summer, stories followed the facts that security concerns allowed company officials to designate all documents as secret, an action going back for years:

"[NRC] Agency commissioners, apparently struck by the significance of the event, took a special vote to skirt the "Official Use Only" rule so that Nuclear Fuel Services would be identified in the report as the site of the uranium leak.

Some 35 liters, or just over 9 gallons, of highly enriched uranium solution leaked from a transfer line into a protected glovebox and spilled onto the floor. The leak was discovered when a supervisor saw a yellow liquid "running into a hallway" from under a door, according to one document.

The commission said there were two areas, the glovebox and an old elevator shaft, where the solution potentially could have collected in such a way to cause an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.

"It is likely that at least one worker would have received an exposure high enough to cause acute health effects or death," the agency wrote.

"We don't want any security information out there that's going to help a terrorist," agency Commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr. said in a newly released transcript from a closed commission meeting May 30. But "that's entirely separate" from dealing with an event that could have killed a worker at the plant.
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"Nuclear Fuel Services Executive Vice President Timothy Lindstrom, a Navy veteran who joined the company in September, said the company had already made "significant progress."
"I think it is important that the public recognize that we do have a very robust safety program at NFS. We live in this community and take our stewardship very seriously," he said.

"I think if we were to have an event like this again, we would push to make it public," he added. "Clearly it would have been better to have this discussion 18 months ago than it is to have it now."

Meanwhile, NFS told its 700 employees this past week it will be "exploring the possibility of a sale" over the next 12 months - not because of the commission's disclosure, but because of the company's increasing value to a booming nuclear power industry."


I have to wonder if safety records and public notification must be on the public record BEFORE a sale could occur. Meanwhile ....


Late this past week Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. David Davis toured the facility, which is Unicoi County's largest employer. They said they think the public needs to be better informed on accidents at the plant and Davis praised security measures at the facility as being as good as those in Iraq:

"Both lawmakers said they believe rules can be relaxed that prohibited letting the public know about a spill of radioactive liquid at NFS last year that did not endanger public safety, and that they will support such a change to loosen the information restrictions. "
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"Rep. Davis, who grew up in Unicoi County near where the NFS facility is located, told the media that his mother-in-law has lived for years within a half -mile of the facility, and still does.

He said, “I don’t think my mother-in-law would live within half a mile if she was worried” about the plant’s safety.

Davis said he also believes the plant, which employs 715 people and has its own large plant security force, is safe from terrorists.

The congressman noted that he recently returned from Iraq, where he saw several military bases. He said he believes NFS’s perimeter and internal security is as good as, or better than, the security at U.S. military facilities in Iraq."

Rep. Davis was making several public appearances this week to talk about (or more accurately listen to others) on the topic of energy needs and costs for businesses in East TN. One stop was made with N.C. Congressman Health Shuler.

Democrat Shuler said he was happy that Republican Davis was willing to "cross party lines to talk about what was right for America."

Another visit was a conference in Morristown , where he was joined by Rep. Zach Wamp and others from the University of Tennessee to hear ideas on alternative fuels, like 'grassohol', which though perhaps full of potentials, is likewise problematic for a wide range of reasons:

"Currently, the market for fuel made from switchgrass is limited, because so few vehicles can burn it. Not enough switchgrass is being grown currently, and transportation of the harvested grass to a refinery is also an issue that will have to be addressed, though plans are in place, [agricultural economist and is director of external operations for bioenergy programs at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Dr. Kelly] Tiller said.

Plans call for $8 million in incentives for farmers to grow switchgrass for the pilot refinery, over a five-year period. As a practical matter, most of those farms will need to be within a 50-mile radius of the refinery, [chairman of biofuels farmer education programs with UT Extension, Dr. Clark] Garland said.

About 92 acres of switchgrass have been grown with Department of Energy funding on five farms in Benton and Henry counties, both of which are in West Tennessee. One acre, on average, can produce enough switchgrass to convert to 500 gallons of “Grassohol,” Garland said."

Camera Obscura - Elephant Fu; Halloween; Most Desired Movie Props

Something you don't say everyday: This movie features Elephant Kung Fu.

The movie is "The Protector" ("Tom Yum Goong") from 2005, and sadly the American version 'presented by Quentin Tarantino' is about half an hour shorter than the original Thai version.

Actor/stuntman Tony Jaa stars in the movie as a young man who is a protector of an elephant, a historical fact in which the royal families did assign people to be the caretakers and protectors of elephants. And of course, evil poachers attack Tony's dad and steal not just one but two elephants and whisk them away to Australia for .... well, I think it was for a crime boss who wanted some mystical elephant power, and because there is a notable Thai population in Australia.

Look, the reason to make and watch such a movie is simple - jaw-dropping action scenes. "The Protector" delivers those in large amounts. And yes, stuntman/actor Jaa is the real deal - no wire tricks of CG shots. He created his own variation of Muay Koshasan, which literally means Smashing Elephant Boxing. It is impressive to see the moves, which rely on grabbing, breaking and stomping on the bad guys with true elephantine glee.

A scene in a parking garage has Jaa facing off against a gang of extreme sportsters on roller blades, bikes and motorcycles and is a reminder of Jackie Chan's movies. Later, a single-shot steadicam tracks Jaa as he goes up the spiral staircase of the bad guys' lair and grabs and stomps them all. It is a real workout for Jaa and for the stuntcrew. Also stuntman/fighter Nathan Jones, who was in Jet Li's "Fearless" appears in two fight scenes which are notable as Jones is about three feet taller than Jaa.

One thing I liked about the movie is that it's focus on the traditional Thai world and the unusual Aussie cities makes the whole thing look futuristic or even science fictionesque. (Sorry, I could not think of a better word.) Also for added strangeness is the fact that the Aussie/Thai crime family stealing the elephants is headed up by one Madame Rose, who is actually a transsexual and is played by one too.

A fine write-up on the movie and the DVD sets which have both American and Thai versions are here. As to why the Thai title is also the name of a shrimp soup ... well, food is a plot point. 'Nuff said.

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It is no surprise the reviews for Rob Zombie's new version of the movie "Halloween" are not full of praise. The movie, opening today, was not screened for critics, usually a sign the movie is not that good. Still, I think many will see the movie this weekend and then it will find it's own cult on DVD.

One thing often missed in the tales of why John Carpenter's original movie was so good: Dean Cundey. Cundey's work as cinematographer is just pure excellence. While he started in low-budget drive-in fare like "Satan's Cheerleaders", he also worked with Carpenter for many great results, not only in "Halloween" but "The Fog" and "The Thing". Later he was cinematographer on the "Back to the Future" movies, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", "Jurassic Park", and "Apollo 13."

In "Halloween" especially, he uses a very fluid and seamless style, far above the B-movie origins, and his framing and scope make the original a true standout. Really. Watch it again and marvel at how the look and style of the movie is hardly ordinary.

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A fine murder-mystery from the 1970s, "Sleuth", is getting the remake treatment too. Kenneth Brannagh takes the director's chair as Michael Caine (also in the original) takes on Laurence Olivier's part and Jude Law plays Caine's old part. Some changes in the set-up are made by writer Harold Pinter, who adapted his script from the original.

Set for a mid-October release, the new version is some 85 minutes, compared to the original's running time of 138 minutes. Will a shorter tale be a better one?

Some tasty takes on this remake and other set for release are here.

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Best Movie Trivia Topic o' The Day: what do you think would be the most awesome movie props which you would like to own? USA Today writer Whitney Matheson poses the question and offers her choices, which include Indiana Jones' hat, Darth's lightsaber and Dude's carpet from The Big Lebowski. Meanwhile, at Cinematical, writer Scott Weinberg notes the best choices from readers, which include Rosebud from "Citizen Kane", the Holy Hand Grenade from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail', a can of Dapper Dan and the glowing suitcase from "Pulp Fiction."

Me? I'd love a Hattori Hanzo sword, the Maltese Falcon, some of that lab equipment from James Whale's "Frankenstein." Oh, and I would love to own Mr. Pointy, Buffy's favorite vampire stake.

The History Mash-Up, or Bush's Vietnam Redux

Five days ago I attempted to corral and correlate my thoughts and those of a few others in response to a brain-twisting speech on warfare and history from President Bush, and ultimately I found my efforts, though accurate, fell short of the mark I was hoping to make.

The overwhelming collision of factual errors, misconstructions and misrepresentations of history itself were not simple to catalog and comment upon.

Thank goodness for the insightful overview and spot-on analysis from Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings. I'll include some quotes from the post below, but I do hope you find the time to read the entire post:


"Before getting to the details, let's consider the overarching premise: that the choice we now face is whether to keep fighting and ultimately prevail, or to withdraw and abandon the Iraqis to their fate. As I see it, this premise is completely false. If we keep fighting, there is no reason whatsoever to think that we will "prevail", and every reason to think that we will simply sacrifice a lot of American and Iraqi lives for nothing. If we withdraw, we will abandon the Iraqis to their fate, and that is a horrible thing. But a lot turns on whether you think that there is anything we can do to avoid the bloodshed that will follow our withdrawal. I do not think that there is. If I'm right, then unless we are prepared to remain in Iraq until the end of time, we will, at some point, have to leave, and that bloodshed will probably follow.

If staying in Iraq will not lead us to "victory", but will only postpone the consequences of our withdrawing at a terrible cost both to us and to the Iraqis, then the decision before us looks very, very different. But Bush does not stop to consider this possibility. He frames the question in a way that ensures that the only possible answer is the one that he wants, and then, surprise, he gets it.

But Bush's fundamental assumption about the nature of our choice is not just false; it's a profound evasion of his own responsibility. I think it would have been very difficult to create a functioning, legitimate government in Iraq, difficult enough to make invading a bad idea even without all the other reasons to oppose it. However, I also think that success was not impossible. That it is impossible now is largely this administration's doing. They never, ever appreciated the magnitude of the task they had taken upon themselves, the care and concentration and resources that it would require, or the consequences of getting it wrong. They dismissed the plans of others, and forbade their own people to plan. They allowed an insurgency to develop and to arm itself from stores of weapons that they never bothered to secure. They did not send in enough troops to ensure basic security to the people of Iraq, and ridiculed those who suggested that this might cause problems down the line. They made catastrophic decisions -- disbanding the Iraqi army that our soldiers are now risking their lives trying to reconstitute, imposing a de-Baathification regime that the Iraqi parliament is now trying and failing to undo -- and they made them in a careless, thoughtless way that still takes my breath away.

And now, when all this carelessness and stupidity is having its inevitable effect, Bush pretends it doesn't exist. The only way we can fail, he says, is if the American people and their representatives withdraw their support -- ignoring completely his own role in making failure inevitable. And he adds that if we withdraw our support, that will constitute a failure of will and an abandonment of the Iraqi people -- ignoring completely both the extent to which his administration abandoned them from the outset, and the extent to which Americans' support of withdrawal reflects a loss of confidence in his administration and its basic competence."

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"If he had any shame, he'd be hiding under a table right now, wishing the earth would swallow him."

If You Can't Cope With The Game of Tag ...

A northern Colorado elementary school system has decided to ban the playing of Tag during recess.

Causes violence, say administrators, who have created a "Trouble-Free Playground" program.

At the risk of being callous and cruel, I can only offer this advice: if an elementary school game of tag is too tough and hard for a kid, then adolescence and adulthood will be shockingly unbearable to you.

Stay at home, pack yourself in cotton-wadding and bubble-wrap and disconnect the TV and the phone.

NOTE: While I did not like the advice at the time, when a football coach told me to "walk it off", the advice was fairly good. Get over it or do not play. (I opted not to play, became an 'athletic assistant' and got to ride on the bus with the cheerleaders and the band, which was waaaaaay more fun.)

Visit The Psychozilla Tribune

Yes, I said Psychozilla Tribune.

Why?

Because the world needs to know there is much in existence which is "far beyond the ken of mortal men."

Plus I am a contributor, and with the other writers, we'll try our best to keep you informed of things Which Defy Explanation and are Slightly Off Center.

Tracking Failure In The Gulf Coast After Katrina

The information and facts reveal little but staggering failure in the promises made to the cities, states and vast populations in the Gulf Coast region following the landfall of a natural disaster called Katrina two years ago.

Thank goodness that writers with Facing South have been covering the details of chaotic response and scant rebuilding with great skill. An assessment on the 2nd anniversary has a truly distressing conclusion - our government has deep structural flaws and has failed far more than it has succeeded.

As noted in this article, pollster James Zogsby says:

"Our polling shows Americans, faced with a major disaster, don’t want the federal government to solve all their problems by dominating state and local governments with bureaucratic dictates from Washington. Instead, they want a nimble federal government that acts as a clearinghouse, an organizer, a traffic cop for all levels of government and other organizations, including faith-based groups and non-governmental organizations."

Americans on the Gulf Coast received the worst after the disaster. And I can't help but notice the wounds in the South are like those in downtown Manhattan at 'ground zero', that no rebuilding has occurred and as late as last week, decaying buildings nearby are still deadly.

What has (or has not) happened in the coastal U.S.? What about the $116 billion meant to aid in the repair and recovery? Some answers in other reports from Facing South:

"Although it's tricky to unravel the maze of federal reports, our best estimate of agency data is that only $35 billion has been appropriated for long-term rebuilding.

Even worse, less than 42 percent of the money set aside has even been spent, much less gotten to those most in need. For example:

* Washington set aside $16.7 billion for Community Development Block Grants, one of the two biggest sources of rebuilding funds, especially for housing. But as of March 2007, only $1 billion -- just 6 percent -- had been spent, almost all of it in Mississippi. Following bad publicity, HUD spent another $3.8 billion on the program between March and July, leaving 70 percent of the funds still unused.

* The other major source of rebuilding help was supposed to be FEMA's Public Assistance Program. But of the $8.2 billion earmarked, only $3.4 billion was meant for nonemergency projects like fixing up schools and hospitals.

* Louisiana officials recently testified that FEMA has also "low-balled" project costs, underestimating the true expenses by a factor of four or five. For example, for 11 Louisiana rebuilding projects, the lowest bids came to $5.5 million -- but FEMA approved only $1.9 million.

* After the failure of federal levees flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received $8.4 billion to restore storm defenses. But as of July 2007, less than 20 percent of the funds have been spent, even as the Corps admits that levee repair won't be completed until as late as 2011.

The fact that, two years later, most federal Katrina funds remain bottled up in bureaucracy is especially shocking considering that the amounts Washington allocated come nowhere near the anticipated costs of Gulf rebuilding.

For example, the $3.4 billion FEMA has available to recover local public infrastructure would only cover about one-eighth of the damage suffered in Louisiana alone. But this money is spread across five states -- Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas -- and covers damage from three 2005 hurricanes, Katrina, Rita and Wilma."
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"Included in the $116 billion figure is $3.5 billion in tax breaks to jump-start business in Gulf Opportunity Zones -- "GO Zones" -- across 91 parishes and counties in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. But many of the breaks have been of questionable benefit to Katrina survivors, like a $1 million deal to build 10 luxury condos next to the University of Alabama football stadium -- four hours from the Gulf Coast."

The critical failures may seem far removed from you or your town or your state. At least today. Who knows what lies ahead and who can you count on? Stacking up loyalists to leaders in Washington only serves that leader and those loyalists. Serving America, protecting American lives, all that seems of little concern.

(hat-tip to R. Neal at KnoxViews for sharing the info at Facing South)

SEE ALSO: video accounts and a Flickr photo petition

Fear

Is it case of nerves so frazzled by fear and fearful warnings? Or perhaps a case of over-stimulated, over-funded police departments? The bottom line is that two members of a running club face felony charges for outlining a running trail with flour:

"Police fielded a call just before 5 p.m. that someone was sprinkling powder on the ground. The store was evacuated and remained closed the rest of the night. The incident prompted a massive response from police in New Haven and surrounding towns."
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"You see powder connected by arrows and chalk, you never know," [Mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga] said. "It could be a terrorist, it could be something more serious. We're thankful it wasn't, but there were a lot of resources that went into figuring that out."

hat-tip to Russ McBee

House Ethics Group Not Done With Davis Aide

It turns out that despite efforts from the 1st District Congressman David Davis, the House Ethics Committee is still reviewing what actions might be taken for Davis' PR Chief Timothy Hill who was caught removing factual details about contributors to Davis from the WikiPedia website.

Hill took the 'ethics training' classes earlier this year, and Rep. Davis said last week it was 'up to him' to decide what disciplinary actions Hill should get, which Davis said would be more ethics classes.

But the committee itself hasn't ruled on the case yet and likely won't until Congress re-convenes next month:

"[Chief of Staff Brenda Otterson said Friday] the committee asked her to clarify her Thursday announcement noting that Davis decided Timothy Hill should be required to take ethics training classes in September for editing Davis’ and Matthew Hill’s Wikipedia entries by using a congressional office computer.

“My communications with the committee regarding the issue at hand have been proactive, but informal and with committee staff, not formally with the committee itself. The committee has not taken any formal, official position on this matter,” Otterson said in an e-mail. “I just want to make it clear that this was an informal inquiry by phone with staff on the committee to see how we should handle this matter, and I sought advice and counsel from them — no formal investigation by them — just our seriously looking into what the precedents were, and to see how we should or could address the issue.”

Davis, during a stop Friday to tour Kingsport’s Holston Business Development Center (HBDC), said he didn’t think the House committee will take further action.

“It’s not worth going through the process. I don’t think there will be another statement coming out of that committee. They left it up to me to decide,” Davis, R-1st District, said before addressing business and government leaders at the center.

The U.S. House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is chaired by U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, who represents a Cleveland area district. Congress is currently in recess and will not convene until September."

Rep. Davis continues to hold the position that the deletion of facts from WikiPedia is no big deal, since WikiPedia is not a reliable source of information:

"This is not uncommon. (Wikipedia) has an edit button. I’m sorry Timothy actually took the word edit literally,” Davis said.

Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia project run by the Wikimedia Foundation (WF), encourages “appropriate participation” from politicians, WF Chairman Emeritus Jimmy Wales said in an e-mail.

“We hope that in the future, this participation will take the form of posting comments and requests to the discussion pages, rather than directly editing articles where people have a conflict of interest,” Wales stressed.

"Nobody pays any attention to Wikipedia,” Davis said. “My daughter is a college student and was told in her college classes ‘If you use Wikipedia, you will lose a letter grade.’”

The facts remain that Hill's work is likely a violation of ethics rules, despite protests to the contrary.

The full report is in the Kingsport Times-News.