Camera Obscura - Top 10 Movie Characters

I found a movie question on the Cinebeats blog which is almost impossible for me to answer -- maybe you can answer it easier than I -- Name your Top Ten Film Characters. Her choices are perfectly eclectic. My brain hurts from trying to make decisions on this one. It is mighty complex given my love of all things cinematic from so many decades of films to consider.

As with naming Top Ten Favorite movies, I can not do it. I could name Top Tens in many genres, but it's tough to do otherwise. Still, I am going to give the character list a shot. Please add your lists of favorites in the comments if you wish, or blog about them and link here - I'm tagging these bloggers to try out this rather tough assignment - Newscoma, Aunt B., R. Neal and Cathy at Domestic Psychology.

These are in no order of ranks, just Ten Characters I really enjoy. (And there will be a preponderance of Tough Guys and Girls.)


Bishop Pike - William Holden in "The Wild Bunch" plays the lead role of the deadly gang of outlaws in this amazing movie. He barks orders like a general, but still is able to make the character very human and very tired, worn away and somewhat lost. He's one of Peckinpah's doomed legions, and one of the best.

Tequila - Chow Yun Fat in "Hard Boiled" plays a police detective nicknamed Tequila. He is the first of the now ever-present sideways leaping shooting movie archetypes. What makes Tequila stand out is a sense of wit and the fact that the man will do anything to save babies during a shootout in a hospital. Think a mix of Bogart, Dirty Harry and Alan Alda in MASH.


Beatrix Kiddo - Created by actress Uma Thurman and director Quentin Tarantino in the two "Kill Bill" movies, she may well be the toughest female character ever on film. And she is a character so steeped in movie history and costumes yet still emerges unique. She's like Barbara Stanwyck in a kung-fu film.


Victoria Chateris - Gene Tierney in "The Shanghai Gesture" is probably my favorite femme fatale in all of noir cinema. This was the first movie I ever saw with her, and she is an awful person and quite vulnerable and sexy as sexy can be. No other female character really ever stood her ground opposite actor Walter Huston ever before and no one else ever could. She'd eat your favorite female soap star alive and you too for even daring to challenge her.


President Merkin Muffley - Peter Sellers in "Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb" also plays two other parts in this movie, but with just a few scenes and lines, his president is the epitome of the modern American president. Deeply unaware of reality, polite and gullible. His phone conversation with the Soviet Premier is sheer genius. Perhaps only Will Ferrell's one-man show of former President George W. Bush is the equal.


Thomas - David Hemmings in "Blow-Up" sees himself as the guru of pop culture, the coolest of the cool, an Artist with a capital A. One of director Antonioni's most fascinating creations, he goes thru the post-modern maze of identity to discover he is the manipulated and not the manipulator. It's unforgettable stuff which lingers with you for days.


James Bond - Sean Connery is the only actor who could have made the first movie work, could have made the franchise of films last for decades, and turn a pulp action story into a worldwide sensation. A snob of brutal strengths and casual living, he's famous for being the right man for the worst jobs - jobs we as the audience never get tired of seeing and never get tired of imagining. Sherlock Holmes meets Hugh Hefner.


Major Motoko Kusanagi - The fictional cyborg from the anime and manga series "Ghost In The Shell" makes the list after much puzzling over trying to decide which robotic/cyborg character to include on this list. I had considered Hal 9000, and R2D2, but had to leave them off in favor of the Major since I have never tired of watching each and every movie and TV episode repeatedly. She heads the squad from the police Section 9, is a brilliant detective in both the physical and metaphysical realms. Sort of like sci-fi Phil Marlowe of the future in female cyborg form. The stories are addictive, fascinating and all held together by the character of the Major. What? I can include animation and cyborgs on this list. Voiced by actress Atsuko Tanaka, I am constantly eager to know more about the character and hungry for her adventures.


Frankenstein's Monster - Boris Karloff in the 1931 horror tale "Frankenstein" makes the list, As a hard core horror fan, it was almost too easy to pick my favorite monster. Vastly different from the articulate creature from Mary Shelly's novel, the character made by filmmakers and Karloff comes to vivid life and expresses so much with never a word being spoken by the creature (in the first film, at least). The way Karloff uses his hands alone makes him the best monster ever - one that still has traces of the human trapped in monstrous flesh.


Ferris Bueller - Matthew Broderick in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" demands that the journey of life be enjoyed not just endured. Wise beyond his years, the trickster of suburbia cautions his friends in the movie " -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself." Sound advice in the 21st century. And his appeal is wide, or as the school secretary says, "Oh, he's very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude."

Edible Business Cards via Crooked Brains

An amazing collection of creative and innovative ideas including edible business cards, umbrella art, green walls and vertical gardens, incredibly cool designs for ice cubes, and art made from cassette tapes, such as:



All that and much, much more at Crooked Brains.

A Daily Awakening of Your Own Personal Tea Bag

I drink some tea each day. I also do something each day to celebrate my sense of freedom as an American. Maybe that something is just as simple as writing and publishing on the Internet, maybe it is deciding not to watch TV but to read a book instead, or share some bit of music or information with friends or strangers which might alter how that person views the world, themselves or just how they view me.

So even though some folks today are waking up to the world of troubles which the majority of Americans already knew existed and voted to change last year, hey, I'm glad you are awake.

Now that you are awake, though, be sure you fight against letting your sleep overtake you again. Try coffee instead of tea. Now that you have the concept of freedom, use it every day - find out what your city councils, mayors, county legislators, state and federal officials are doing in your name.

Tune out the highly paid media entertainers who compete for advertising dollars with contests and kooky novelty acts, found in such places as network programs or cable news shows or newspapers or blogs or Twitter feeds. I mean, you are certainly free to view the world through only one perspective, or you can choose to take a bit more responsibility for yourself and your country and exercise your own ability to seek fair and balanced news and information. Or you can sit on the couch and wait for someone to bring it to you all pre-chewed and easy to swallow.

You might want to actually investigate all those nagging feelings which made you wake up - it is so easy now to dig into histories old and new thanks to the Internet, to learn the meanings of words, to discover who is providing influences on government, what life is like for people not born in your county or your country, and you'll discover the struggle of freedom is a daily battle fought all over the world.

Yes indeed, our nation was founded on revolutionary ideas - and sometimes we make more of those kinds of leaps: allowing women to hold jobs and to vote is a relatively new and world-changing concept, just as the concept of equal rights for all challenges the world.

And even if your think and ponder as hard and as painfully as you can - sometimes you will still be wrong. Sometimes you will be right. Sometimes, there are simply no answers and you have to hold off on emotional judgments and just wait and think some more.

I can share one sure thing I have discovered - if someone tells you that they do indeed have all the answers they are probably just selling something, sort of like human spam-bots constantly pushing amazing deals under your computer door. Now if that sounds like I might be selling something too, well in a way I am - I am pushing ideas, ones that might make you have some new ones of your own.

I know, I know, an awakening is a difficult time. Everything comes at you all at once. Don't panic. It is true that some ideas can take away your freedom, but other ideas make freedom grow. Be a patient gardener. And have a cup of tea - or a cup of Joe - and you'll probably be okay.

We're open all night here, just like it says on the masthead. We can talk about movies or funny stories or whatever is on your mind. Take deep breaths, try to relax, and celebrate your freedom every day.

Phantom Mists Dazzle Conservatives

Conservatives swing away at phantoms and fears like a punch-drunk fighter which sure seems more like a ploy of distractions, a sideshow of a sideshow of a sideshow.

"The same poll found that 61% of Americans believe the income taxes they paid this year are "fair."

This certainly isn't the kind of public opinion landscape Republicans were hoping for. In order for conservative talking points on the economy to be effective, Americans have to believe the current tax rates are never "about right" and anything but "fair." Broad satisfaction with taxes leaves Republicans with very little else to say.

Indeed, the semi-official slogan of the Tea Baggers' events tomorrow is "T.E.A.: Taxed Enough Already." It was hard enough to make this argument shortly after the president signed the largest middle-class tax cut in history; it's even harder in light of poll results like these."

Which Conservatives protested real, actual, verified fraud and abuse like the time in 2006 when a single government agency shelled out $2 billion in fraud and waste, including nearly $70,000 worth of dog booties? Or that the same agency could not verify if 63% of its purchases were even received?

It is simply easier to manufacture and battle phantoms than do the actual work to correct a broken economy, or on how to make health care more affordable, or to foster a culture of honesty in business and government.

... And Sometimes, My Blog Has A Wolf And A Pig Video

Because I can post this, I am.

Landree Brotherton New Hamblen County Democrat Chairman

I've seen no local reports about the newly elected chair of the Hamblen County Democrat Party, Landree Brotherton although the newly designed state party website ran a feature on him and his work for the party:

"Landree Brotherton has been interested in politics for as long as he can remember. However, his first leadership position resulted from being at the right place at the right time. Brotherton recalls, “Our county party saw the need for a Young Democrats group and began the process of creating one. I happened to see the ad in the local paper and decided I would go to the meeting. A couple meetings later, I found myself as the treasurer of the newly minted Hamblen County Young Democrats.” During the 2004 election cycle, he knocked on doors, stuffed envelopes, put up yard signs, and worked the polls for a local Assessor of Property race and for State Representative John Litz. From that point on, Brotherton was hooked on politics.

As a Freshman at Tusculum College, he and a few friends founded a chapter of the College Democrats, was elected Vice President of the Chapter, and later served two terms as President. Brotherton also became involved with the Tennessee Federation of College Democrats (TFCD) and was twice elected as the TFCD Membership Director on the State Executive Board.

During the 2005 Hamblen County Reorganization, he was elected to the Executive Committee, and in 2006, Brotherton served as an intern for Harold Ford, Jr.’s Senate Campaign in Northeast Tennessee. He also worked extensively with Rick Trent, the Democratic nominee for Congress in the 1st District. During the 2008 election cycle, he served as campaign manager for Rob Russell, 1st District nominee for Congress. He also managed the Hamblen County Democratic headquarters and worked tirelessly to elect Barack Obama.

When asked why he is a Democrat, Brotherton replied, “[Because] Democrats believe in equal opportunity for all citizens, affordable healthcare and K-College education, maintaining a strong economy while being fiscally responsible, in protecting social security, and in being stewards of our environment. Finally, I’m a Democrat because Democrats believe in honoring our veterans, in maintaining a strong national defense, and in politics of inclusion - bringing ALL Americans together.”

Brotherton believes he has the energy and the enthusiasm to make a difference in our county by engaging a younger generation of Democrats in the party in various ways. He points to the dedicated core of party activists in Hamblen County as the base upon which to build the party and notes that they don’t “hesitate to embrace change or younger folks coming in.” Though he admits that their weakness, like that of many other county parties, is fundraising (especially given the current economy), he stresses that the Executive Committee is very creative and has already begun working on a number of fundraising ideas.

Brotherton concludes, “Overall, I am excited about the job ahead. I know there is a lot of work to do, and as I said in my acceptance speech, ‘It begins today!’”

Brotherton also mentioned the new county Democrat web site here. (Note: I did see mention of this story on PostPolitics in Nashville too.) Brotherton is also writing the Hamblen Democrat page on the state web site as well.

Others elected in the local party gathering include:

Vice Chair - Dr. Micah Westmorland

Secretary - Andrew Cox

Treasurer - Lisa Litz

Chairman Emeritus - Stephen Bales

Candidate Recruitment Committee - Jack Horner, Chairman

Advertising Committee - JB Elmore, Chairman

Camera Obscura: Dollhouse Still Here; 'The Hangover'; 'Extract'; A Salute to Hank Worden

First some news and then a tribute to one of the great character actors to ever hit the screen.

A Twitter comment from actress Felicia Day caused a mini-storm with a claim the new Joss Whedon show "Dollhouse" was about to be canceled. It is not - though Fox has no love for Whedon's work, the episode Day was in was not meant to be aired but will appear on the already planned DVD set. Of course, since Fox is prepping the set may well mean all we'll get is one season. Holding any decent ratings on a Friday night is tough - but the show is absolutely better and better each week.

Maureen Ryan at the Chicago Tribune has the skinny on the fan furor and the odd episode counting Fox is doing. Plus, she offers some advice to Whedon which I'd like to see him consider:

"My take is this: If "Dollhouse" is canceled, for the love of all that is holy, creator Joss Whedon should get out of business with the broadcast networks.

"Whedon needs to make his next show on cable. End of story."

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Speaking of odd TV decisions, I did watch the season finale of "Life On Mars", as ABC decided to cancel it abruptly. The writers created an ending for the series, which was vastly different from the way the original BBC series ended. The story of the show was about a policeman who is injured in the present and wakes up in 1973 working as a cop there too. He blends right in with everyone, he's trying to figure out what the heck happened and in the last episode he wakes up from a cryo-sleep chamber on a spaceship about to land on Mars. All the folks in his "dream scenario" were his fellow astronauts. That had to blow a few minds of viewers. When the DVD of this show comes out, it's worth a view, plus it has some absolutely fantastic music from the early 70s. And it has Gretchen Mol.

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Here's the most recent nominee for Terrible Ideas for a Remake - Tom Cruise and John Travolta want to remake "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".

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Two new comedies on the way look very promising. In fact, the response to just the trailer for the new comedy "The Hangover" has been so strong they are already working on a sequel. It's from the director of "Old School" and the preview does show great promise. Check it out here.

Also on the way is the new comedy from Mike Judge. If you haven't seen his first movie "Office Space", do it immediately. It's one of the best comedies in the last 10 years. His previous movie "Idiocracy" is worthy of its cult following. His new one is called "Extract" and here's the trailer:


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No other actor has a resume as diverse as Hank Worden. Born in 1901, he turned to acting after a short run as a rodeo rider - in fact some 25 years after he left the circuit and was already a regular in the movies, a doctor notified him that his neck was broken from a fall off a horse during the rodeo days.

Most often, he played cowboy roles, usually in B-features, but when he made friends with director John Ford, he became a staple in all of Ford's westerns. He's likely most famous to movie fans for the role of Mose Harper in the classic "The Searchers". His character goes somewhat mad in the head after an Indian attack and longs for just a rocking chair and a roof over his head. But his dialog and his unusual style of halted speech transforms him into a near-Shakespearean character, a jester who dispenses wisdom and warnings.

As with many character actors in the early 60s, he moved into television work and the list of actors he worked with is astonishing: Brando in "One-Eyed Jacks", Clint Eastwood on "Rawhide", just to name a few. In TV, he was often on "Daniel Boone", "Green Acres", "Bonanza", and "Knight Rider", just to name a few. And he kept plowing away - his face, his voice, his mischievous eyes and grin were unforgettable.

One TV role I remember was an episode of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery". It was a short bit, about a hippie who winds up in Hell, and Hell turns out to be a single room, with a jukebox playing an annoying song over and over. And there in the corner, in a rocking chair, is Hank Worden, droning on and on about odd stories, like the winter the "baby got the croup", or what he's been reading in the Farmer's Almanac.

And Worden kept making movies - he's in the very awful "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Every Which Way But Loose," "Runaway Train" -- and he concluded his career on "Twin Peaks", during the second season where he played a waiter in 4 or 5 episodes (see image below). Who else can boast a career like that? Hank died in 1992 and The Movie Morlocks blog at TCM has a great post about his career you can read here.

Nifty 'Tea Party' Slogan Distorts History

In tough economic times, it's pretty easy to call for the populace to be angry - it's a sport about as challenging as shooting fish in a shot glass. The recent media-induced frenzy (spurred by the FOX News network) however is another opportunity for the angry to show off how little they understand their own nation's history.

Bob Cesca points out the problems in his recent post:

"Let's recap. It began with the on-air rant from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange by the Coward Rick Santelli -- "coward" because he's apparently too afraid to go on The Daily Show and, instead, Jim Cramer went on and took a beating for something that Santelli basically started. Nevertheless, according to one of the official tea bag websites, Santelli is credited as the patron saint of the movement.

And unless I'm mistaken, the basic idea of the tea bag revolution is to protest against government bailouts and in favor of tax cuts for the wealthiest five percent of Americans. Ultimately, the tea baggers (can I call them that?) appear to be against allowing the Bush's tax cuts to expire. Strangely, they also appear to be against President Obama signing into law the largest middle class tax cut in history. They're also against helping middle and working class "losers" keep their homes. (By the way, your neighbor's mortgage is your problem. Just watch your property values plummet as soon as there's just one foreclosure on your block.)

This series of Obama policies, they say, portends tyranny in America. Of course none of the policies of the Bush administration were considered tyrannical by many of the current tea bag leaders. You know the list of Bush trespasses. The illegal searches and seizures, the illegal electronic eavesdropping and torturing. The suspension of habeas corpus, the record deficits, the doubling of the national debt and so on. None of that was tyrannical. But allowing the tax cuts for the wealthiest five percent to expire is absolutely the vanguard of totalitarianism.

So the organizers of the movement have picked up on Santelli's tea party reference and are rebelling against higher taxes for the rich and corporations by purchasing thousands of tea bags and dumping them into various waterways.

To sum up: higher '90s-era tax rates for the wealthy and corporations? Tyrannical. Tax cuts for the middle class? Also tyrannical. Therefore, emulate the Boston Tea Party as a means of underscoring these positions.

Here's the problem.

The Boston Tea Party was ultimately precipitated by a massive corporate tax cut.

In 1773, the only major multinational corporation at the time, the British East India Company, was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. According to that obviously liberal organization, the Boston Tea Party Historical Society, one solution was to bail out the corporation by offering it a government loan. But instead, at the urging of the East India Company's powerful lobbyists and supported by King George III, Parliament passed the Tea Act which almost entirely eliminated the duty -- the tax -- on British tea exported by the East India Company to the American colonies. How do we know this? Well, the actual subtitle of the Tea Act, for one:

An act to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on bohea tea to be sold at the East India Company's sales; and to empower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licences to the East India Company to export tea duty-free.

The rationale was that lower taxes meant lower prices, which meant the East India Company would sell a lot more tea. Your basic free market precursor to Reaganomics and supply-side economics in action. In other words, the British government's solution to the East India Company's financial crisis was, in effect, a tax cut. A big one. Exactly the same economic solution that's been pushed by congressional Republicans and the tea bag revolutionaries 236 years later.

The tax cut was viewed by colonial patriots as another example of British tyranny against smaller merchants whose business would be severely undercut. Consequently, political activists and, most famously, the Sons of Liberty, organized a boycott against the East India Company's tea. And later that year, when the Dartmouth, Beaver and Eleanor were docked in Boston harbor, the Sons carried out their famous protest.

So. Whoops.

It turns out that that the tea baggers, led in part by Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds and the Coward Rick Santelli, are politically more in line with the tax policies of King George than the views of the Sons of Liberty and the colonial patriots. The tax baggers emulating a protest against a corporate tax cut -- but, oddly, in support of tax cuts for the rich and corporations. Furthermore, King George was against a corporate bailout loan. And so are the tea baggers. And I don't think it'd be a stretch to suggest that many of the tea baggers are recipients of the president's middle class tax cut.

Not only that but the tea bag revolutionaries are being urged to buy thousands of corporate tea bags, rather than horking them from Lipton trucks -- Griffin's Wharf style. Sam Adams would be so proud. Then again, to be fair, the revolutionaries are being urged to get the proper government permits for their revolution against the, you know, government. We shouldn't expect that such law-abiding revolutionaries would seek out pilfered tag bags.

So in keeping with a long, embarrassing history of ill-conceived, contradictory or just plain self-defeating marketing ploys, the tea baggers seem to have adopted a concept that completely and utterly contradicts what they claim to stand for. Don't misunderstand me, though, they absolutely have a right to protest or do whatever the hell they want. They also have a right to be ridiculously and hilariously inconsistent. In a strange way, consider this column as helpful advice to the tea baggers. Perhaps it's time to quietly abandon the whole tea bag thing.

Unfortunately, I doubt they'll listen. Last week, with crocodile tears streaming down his punch-me face, Glenn Beck urged his viewers to: "Believe in something -- even if it's wrong. Believe in it!"

The loopy sure seem to hate America - or as Jon Stewart says, being in the minority for a mere 10 weeks is not the definition of tyranny.

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Morgan Keegan Mess Continued - Unanimous Approval By State

More bloggers today take up the NYTimes tale I wrote about yesterday about how one investment bank, Morgan Keegan, was allowed to be both sales force and underwriter for municipal bonds issued across the state (and in other states too), in a world-class example of conflict of interest and how it has damaged communities and individuals.

Andy Axel at KnoxViews
ACK at PostPolitics
Aunt B, at Tiny Cat Pants
Gov. Bredesen via Nashville Scene

And the fiction writers at the TNGOP claim it was all Gov. Bredesen's fault -- despite the fact that the process which gave MK the approval to work they way they did was passed by the state legislature in 1999, with unanimous votes in both the House and the Senate. Bill Hobbs and crew might want to bone up on some history and recall that Republican Don Sundquist was governor at that time.

Morgan Keegan Investment Advice Takes TN Towns Down

Communities like Claiborne County and Lewisburg, TN are finding out the investment advice they received from the Memphis-based Morgan Keegan is costing them far more than they bargained for. Today's NYTimes published a report today on how the firm has been working the state as educator, advisor, and investor all with state approval.

"The municipal bond marketplace was so lightly regulated that in Tennessee Morgan Keegan was able to dominate almost every phase of the business. The firm, which is based in Memphis, sold $2 billion worth of municipal bond derivatives to 38 cities and counties since 2001, according to data compiled by the state comptroller’s office.

After The New York Times made inquiries, the Tennessee comptroller, Justin P. Wilson, ordered a statewide freeze on bond derivatives and a review of the seminar taught by Morgan Keegan and others.

Representatives of Morgan Keegan pointed out that they saved cities and counties money for years by delivering lower interest rates, and that the economic decline that created the turmoil in the bond market was beyond their control. Moody’s credit rating agency on Tuesday issued a negative outlook for the fiscal health of municipal governments."
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"Unlike most states, Tennessee was one of the few where the legislature passed a law intended to regulate the sale of these complicated municipal bond derivatives to local governments. But the profusion of those deals and the various roles of Morgan Keegan have left leaders of those cities and counties furious at both the firm and the state.

In Claiborne County, north of Knoxville, officials said they were recently told by Morgan Keegan bankers that extracting themselves from a municipal bond derivative would cost $3 million, a sum the poor county cannot afford. “I told the Morgan Keegan man here in my office, ‘It seems to me, you are all trying to slip paperwork by us like a small, shady loan company,’ ” said Joe Duncan, the mayor of Claiborne County."
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"Municipal bond experts say they know of no other state where a firm was allowed to wear three hats; several states prohibit a single firm from acting as both adviser and underwriter. In Pennsylvania, which has such a prohibition, federal prosecutors are investigating accusations that investment banks and financial advisers conspired to sell bonds with inflated fees to school districts.

“It’s like the lion being hired to protect the gazelle,” Robert E. Brooks, a municipal bonds expert and a professor of financial management at the University of Alabama, said of the situation in Tennessee. “Who was looking after these little towns?”

Morgan Keegan said local officials were unfairly blaming them for the economic downturn. “People are upset; we’re upset, too,” said Joseph K. Ayres, the firm’s managing director. “We’ve been very successful helping a lot of communities try to weather this storm. Obviously, there are going to be a few disappointments. People are going to look to find a scapegoat. We’re big boys and girls. We understand that.”

Mr. Ayres denied that the firm had a conflict in advising municipalities and underwriting bond derivatives. He said that Morgan Keegan had taught the seminar at the request of the state and that they had offered unbiased descriptions of municipal bond options. He added that the firm had not marketed products during the sessions."
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"In many corners of Tennessee, the first anyone heard of interest-rate swaps was from C. L. Overman, a vice president of Morgan Keegan who assured officials that the deals carried little risk, city and county officials said. “He told us it would be a good thing and there wasn’t much downside,” said Mayor Duncan of Claiborne County. He then laughed, adding, “When everything went belly up, of course, they told us it wasn’t their fault.”

"Earlier this year, Claiborne County officials were told by Mr. Overman that they had only a few weeks to refinance an $18 million bond or pay a quadrupled quarterly payment of $700,000. Mr. Overman declined to comment for this article. In Lewisburg, after Mr. Overman pitched the swap idea for the sewer project, Kenneth E. Carr, a city official, attended the class. “The seminar was dull and boring,” said Mr. Carr, who still has a copy of the book, stamped with the state seal of Tennessee on every page. “I thought, ‘Well, this is approved by the state because they put their seal of approval on it."

Morgan Keegan is also facing an ever-growing number of legal fights with investors:

"One industry source said that level of activity, coupled with the fact that there may be more than 100 pending arbitration claims related to the RMK issue, means Morgan Keegan has still spent several million dollars so far defending itself against the claims, not counting the awards on behalf of claimants.

In Stoltmann’s recent case, he said the Fitzgeralds were brothers who inherited family money and were looking for safe, conservative investments.

Craig McCann, a former economist for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said he believes Morgan Keegan misrepresented the risks of investing in six RMK funds that cost investors $2 billion in 2007. McCann, who has served as an expert witness in some of the arbitrations, released a paper late last year titled “Regions Morgan Keegan: The Abuse of Structured Finance.”

Also the firm has been ordered to repay $267,000 to one investor in California:

"The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered the Memphis-based company to pay a San Francisco-based investor all losses plus interest and court costs, said Chicago-based arbitration lawyer Andrew Stoltmann, who handled the case.

The award – which is the largest arbitration award against Morgan Keegan’s bond funds as of late – set a precedent for pending arbitration lawsuits against the company, Stoltmann said.

“There has been some nefarious stuff that (has) come out in the last two months that has changed the dynamics of these cases and made them better,” he said. “An award like that is a real clear sign that the arbitrators were upset with what they heard.”

The “tide has turned” in favor of the plaintiffs because it has been established that 10 percent to 15 percent of the funds were being misclassified as safer investments, Stoltmann said."

More on the story from Enclave and from KnoxViews and this NYTimes blog.

According to a press release from Morgan Keegan dated Jan. 29, 2009, the firm is ranked among the Top Ten Underwriters of 2008:

"We begin the New Year in a strong position as a top ten national underwriter,” said Rob Baird, president of Morgan Keegan’s Fixed Income Capital Markets division. “Through a continued focus on providing relationship and idea-oriented investment banking services to issuers throughout the country, we expect to further grow our market share and remain a top ten underwriter in 2009.”

Additionally, for the 16th consecutive year, Morgan Keegan dominated municipal bond underwriting in the South Central U.S. The five-state region includes Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Serving as senior manager on 219 issues with a par value of $4.9 billion, the firm’s market share in the region jumped from 15 percent in 2007 to 24.8 percent in 2008.

Morgan Keegan was also the leading municipal bond underwriter, in terms of number of transactions, in the Southeast and Southwest regions of the country. In the 10-state Southeast region that includes Virginia, the firm senior managed 226 issues with a par value of $5.6 billion."

State OKs Guns On The Menu

The new Republican majority in Tennessee's legislature, aided by some Democrats as well, have been hard at work to make sure a person who has a permit to carry a gun can do just that when they go out to eat. Who knew going out for a bite to eat had become an exercise in danger?

The state House voted 70 to 26 to allow folks to carry their weapons into an eatery that serves alcohol - as long as they don't consume any alcohol.

Just exactly how will owners determine if someone who orders a drink or two is carrying a weapon? Will diners have to take a lie detector test? Maybe they'll just have to pinky swear.

Who voted vote for the new law?

Representatives voting aye were: Barker, Bass, Bell, Borchert, Brooks H, Brooks K, Campfield, Carr, Casada, Cobb C, Cobb T, Coleman, Coley, Curtiss, Dean, Dennis, Dunn, Eldridge, Evans, Faulkner, Ferguson, Fincher, Floyd, Ford, Fraley, Hackworth, Halford, Harrison, Hawk, Haynes, Hensley, Hill, Johnson C, Johnson P, Kelsey, Litz, Lollar, Lundberg, Lynn, Maddox, Maggart, Matheny, Matlock, McCord, McCormick, McDaniel, McDonald, McManus, Montgomery, Moore, Mumpower, Niceley, Odom, Ramsey, Rich, Roach, Rowland, Sargent, Shepard, Shipley, Swafford, Tidwell, Tindell, Todd, Watson, Weaver, Windle, Winningham, Yokley, Mr. Speaker Williams -- 70.
Representatives voting no were: Armstrong, Bone, Brown, Camper, Cobb J, Cooper, DeBerry J, DeBerry L, Favors, Gilmore, Hardaway, Harmon, Harwell, Jones S, Jones U, Kernell, Miller, Naifeh, Pitts, Richardson, Shaw, Sontany, Stewart, Towns, Turner L, Turner M -- 26.

Just what was the critical problem this new law resolves?

At the least, you might think the Legislature would create some method for making sure that people who have a court order to hand over their weapons after being cited with an order of protection. Sadly, such a program does not exist.

UPDATE: Some of the current laws which carve out exceptions to gun laws and which point out numerous contradictions here, via R. Neal:

"Commercial Appeal's analysis of problems with TN handgun permit process:

Dozens with violent history have gun permits

But instead of legislators trying to fix it, we get stuff like this:

HB 2081 by Towns: Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, authorizes persons over 65 to obtain a gun carry permit without having to complete a handgun safety course. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

*HB 2157 by Towns: Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, waives handgun permit fees for persons over 65. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

HB 0489 by Tidwell: Criminal Offenses - As introduced, allows person who has permit to carry a handgun to carry gun in place where alcohol is served for consumption on premises if person is not consuming alcohol or is not otherwise prohibited by posting provisions. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

HB 0521 by Rich: Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, allows persons with handgun carry permit to carry in public parks, public postsecondary institutions, and restaurants where alcoholic beverages are being served; allows judges and district attorneys to carry firearms where law enforcement can carry if they have permit or appropriate training. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13 and Title 70.

*HB 0798 by Campfield: Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, authorizes full-time faculty and staff at public colleges and universities in Tennessee to carry handguns if not otherwise prohibited by law. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

*HB 0960 by Tindell: Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, authorizes person with handgun carry permit to possess firearm in local, state, or federal parks. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13 and Title 70.

*HB 1395 by Evans: Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, prohibits employers from prohibiting persons possessing a handgun carry permit from transporting and storing a firearm out of sight in a locked vehicle on any property set aside for vehicles. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

HB 1781 by West: Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, restricts information required to be submitted by a participant in a handgun safety course and corrects reference to federal law; requires that documents required to be submitted for purchase of firearms that must be registered be executed by chief law enforcement within 15 days of request. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 36, Chapter 3; Title 39; Title 40, Chapter 35; Title 45; Title 57; Title 58, Chapter 1 and Title 58, Chapter 2.

HB 1785 by West: Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, requires persons licensed to sell firearms to adhere to the guidelines prescribed by the federal "Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act"; removes state prohibition against sales of firearms to certain persons. - Amends TCA Title 39. (Note: allows purchase of gun if prior felony was pardoned, set aside, or the felon had civil rights restored.)

SB 0554 by Norris: Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, deletes requirement that the purchaser of a firearm give a thumbprint as part of background check process and that the TBI furnish thumbprint cards and pads to firearm dealers. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

HB 1801 by West Handgun Permits - As introduced, provides that "handgun carry permit" may be used interchangeably with "weapon carry permit" where applicable, thereby imposing any rights or duties that apply to persons with a handgun carry permit to persons who carry a lawful weapon. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

State Ignores Own Laws, Demands You Verify Right To Vote

State legislators led by Republican Sen. Bill Ketron thinks you, as a voter, needs numerous checks and verification just to cast a ballot. You just can't be trusted, he says, you must be pure:

"Senator Ketron claims he introduced the bill to “protect and purify” the ballot. And it will do just that - but not in the American “this is a democracy and we should be removing barriers to voting instead of creating them” kind of way.

As Senator Haynes said, we already have laws in place to punish those who commit voter fraud. Why do we need to erect additional barriers. Especially, I would add, when the incidences of voter fraud cases is virtually non-existent?

And if this law disenfranchises one person, then that is one person too many." via Liberadio(!)

Newspaper editorials cheer this legislation, comparing it to getting food stamps:

"Opponents claim Sen. Ketron’s legislation will somehow discourage voters from participating in the political process and unnecessarily stigmatizes those who would have to obtain a free photo ID by signing a pauper’s oath. By that reasoning, the federal government shouldn’t issue EBT cards for food to the needy because it identifies them as being poor.
Indeed, honest, open elections are the best protection society has against those who would try to subvert and steal political power."


So, voting, backbone 'o Democracy, depends on yet another ID, apart from the one you get when you apply to register to vote under existing state rules. And these new IDs are somehow linked to getting food stamps. Bottom line: voters cannot be trusted. Nor can the poor and needy.

Also, requiring a verifiable paper trail on all votes cast in an election is just evil, unnecessary, and Republicans in Tennessee are fighting against such accountability:

"In 2008, the Tennessee General Assembly passed bi-partisan legislation that would require optical scanning voting machines for all 95 counties in the state by 2010. Governor Bredesen signed it into law in June of ’08.

According to that bill, the estimated cost would be approximately $25 million and at the time the bill was signed into law, it was reported that Tennessee had approximately $31.4 million of the HAVA (Help America Vote Act) money available to make this upgrade. For more information on this check out Knoxviews at: http://knoxviews.com/node/10854

But now that the Republicans have taken control of the General Assembly and in turn will have the majority members on the County Election Commissions, and will also have the ability to replace the current Democrat Election Administrators in 95 counties with Republican Administrators, they want to stall the purchase of verifiable voting machines until 2012.

How can anyone who depends on elections to hold a job question the absolute necessity of insuring that every vote is accurately counted? And furthermore, how can those of us that vote stand by quietly and allow anyone to deny us the voting mechanisms that will insure that our votes are counted accurately. I don’t know about you, but if I have an important document on my computer, one that is not duplicated on paper anywhere else, I make a hard copy and file it. Some of us even pay for safe deposit boxes at local banks where we keep really important documents. What is more important then the validity of your vote on Election Day? (Via OpenPen)

The implication is that only voters are guilty of nefarious acts of deceit (though such proof isn't documented), while the state government just needs to herd you into groups easily managed and manipulated. Refusing to implement to already legislative-approved standards of HAVA shows that the real goal of Sen. Ketron's plan is to exempt election officials from creating a system which could eliminate fraud, and instead blame imaginary acts of voter fraud

Camera Obscura: All Hail Clint Howard; Turner Classic Turns 15; New Warren Oates Bio

Trolling through the murky and uncharted oceans of obscure cinema, I came across an animated movie from director Rob Zombie awaiting release which he describes as "like if SpongeBob and Scooby-Doo were filthy". The movie is "The Haunted World of El Superbeasto". Based on Zombie's comic book work, it captured my attention when I noticed actor Clint Howard provided the voice in this R-rated romp for a character called Joe Cthulhu. (Also adding voices to the movie are Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti, and frequent Zombie- actors Bill Mosley, Sid Haig, and Sherrie Moon-Zombie.)

Clint Howard deserves some kind of award (apart from Lifetime Achievement Award given him by MTV) for a relentless longevity in TV and movies, and not just in movies by his bro, Ron Howard. The first time I saw this odd little fellow was when he played an odd little fellow in the original Star Trek series in an episode titled "The Corbomite Maneuver".

And he still kinda looks like he did way back then in 1966. Clint had already entered TV history by that point, if only for playing the sandwich-eating Leon on The Andy Griffith Show. And he has some 200 credits now, playing in many cult and mainstream movies - from "Rock and Roll High School" and "Get Crazy" to providing the voice of Roo in the Oscar-winning "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" to working with Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara in "The Red Pony".
The L.A. Record published this fine interview with the legendary performer late last year -

"With the remakes and film versions of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Star Trek, and Arrested Development currently in the works, have you been contacted to reprise any of your roles?
No, and I’m certainly willing. In all seriousness, I am a working actor. It’s what I do for a living. I’m not a professional celebrity—I’m a professional actor. If any of those directors call and are interested in finding a place for me, I certainly would be interested because I like to work."

Here's to a very long and happy career, Clint.

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Three cheers for Turner Classic Movies which marks their 15th year of broadcasting classic cinema. To help celebrate, the cable network has selected 15 movie fans from across the country to serve as guest programmers, an enviable task as they get to plow through the vast library of movies at TCM and pick their favorites to share with the world.

I am one of the lucky Americans whose first encounter with movies took place in a giant palace, not some boxed up multi-plex of uniformly drab black rooms. Going to a movie meant leaving all trappings of normal life behind, entering an architectural marvel, perhaps based on ancient Egyptian temples or an art-deco opera house, a place where the lobby was bathed in the aromas of real popcorn and real butter, where an usher guided us to our plush seats and we sat in front of a massive stage faced with a deep vermilion curtain which slide back as the lights dimmed and all of us in the audience were drawn into a world beyond imagining.

Happy birthday, TCM.

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Warren Oates was indeed a chameleon - known for so many roles and never one to seek the spotlight in the press. He does finally get some long-deserved attention in the new biography, Warren Oates: A Wild Life by Susan Campo.

This website is devoted to his life and work and is most comprehensive, with essays, interviews and a huge list of his work in TV and film. Nailing down why he is such a memorable actor is nearly impossible, so much of what he did was simply in how he moved, how he did not talk. This essay says it well:


"Oates could glower, furrow his brow and pull in his lip as skillfully as Fred Astaire could dance or Cary Grant could grin. A good ol' boy from the coal-mining town of Depoy, Ky., Oates reached Hollywood by way of the Marines, the University of Louisville and odd jobs in New York. Even in an age of easy riders and easy pieces, Oates' confusion had special resonance. His scowl, which could suggest anything from bereavement to amusement, most often signaled a mixture of anger, befuddlement and defeat in the midst of a modern world that was passing beyond any individual's powers of understanding. Oates said he didn't feel at home in cities and had a strong sense of cultural dislocation, which he used to fuel his work. Rawboned and sturdy, yet fuzzy around the edges, with a malleable face that seemed to have a built-in squint, Oates rarely tried to shake his rustic look. He appeared to slouch even when he was walking tall."

Public Trust Sold To AT&T?

The state of Tennessee has been handing lucrative contracts and taxpayer dollars to AT&T and now the company wants to eliminate state oversight from the Tennessee Regulatory Commission. They've been successful at lobbying the state for a stream of changes in state law, they already operate the eHealth program for the state and their efforts continue to grow.

Last week Public Knowledge published a critical look at Connected Nation, a federal program modeled from Kentucky and Tennessee, and their findings should cause our legislature to exercise great caution before handing off all broadband mapping and tax dollars to this organization.

"As a result of the passage and signing of the new stimulus legislation, there is now up to $350 million available to map the deployment of broadband services across the country. The data collected as a result of this effort will be one of the important factors in the national broadband strategy plan the law directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to construct.

Across the country, states have already begun their own efforts to determine where broadband service is being offered and have already allocated millions of dollars to the effort. As a general matter, trying to figure out the lay of the land is a productive exercise. However, there is a great danger that the process of data collection and, as a result, the national broadband map and plan, will be harmed by an organization known as Connected Nation.

In order to be effective, a national broadband data-collection and mapping exercise should be conducted by a government agency, on behalf of the public, with as granular a degree of information as possible and be totally transparent so that underlying information can be evaluated.

Connected Nation is none of those and represents none of those characteristics."
---
"Let’s take a look at the Connect Board of Directors. There are 12 outside directors, eight of which are directly in the orbit of network operators. They are not small players.

James W. Cicconi – AT&T senior executive vice president-external and legislative affairs

Steve Largent – CTIA – The Wireless Association president and CEO

Joseph W. Waz – Comcast senior vice president, external affairs and public policy counsel

Larry Cohen – Communications Workers of America president. CWA is in frequent agreement with telecom companies on policy issues.

Thomas J. Tauke – Verizon executive vice president for public affairs, policy and communication

Walter B. McCormick – United States Telecom Association president

Kyle E. McSlarrow – National Cable and Telecommunications Association president

Grant Seiffert – Telecommunications Industry Association president. (The members are the equipment makers who sell their gear to the telecom industry.)"
---
"The maps compiled by Connect are inadequate and inaccurate. It is some times hard to discern which definition fits at any given moment. There is a distinct lack of useful information on the maps, such as what data speeds are being offered at what price at any given location.

Indeed, the basic information on the maps, that service of whatever type is available, is open to question because CN, rather than collect granular information by door-to-door canvass, assumes that every spot within a range of a cell tower or telephone company wire center is being served. That is not the case. And it can take dozens of steps and clicks through the cumbersome map interface to reach the inadequate or inaccurate information.

In sum, as a group of municipal utilities told FCC Commissioner Copps in July, 2008, “Broadband data must be collected and delivered in a transparent, verifiable manner. The CK/CN model doesn’t do that: Data is collected, interpreted and reported by a private non-profit entity and shielded from government and public input, oversight and verification.”

The full report is available here.

I'm also gathering more information about upcoming legislative hearings in Tennessee on broadband development and mapping and will post it ASAP.

What's at stake is critical to our economy and to transparency in government.

"The whole point of a legitimate broadband mapping exercise is for the public and policymakers to see where the service is being offered, at what speeds and price and, as importantly, where it isn't. The "why" it isn't being offered is a separate question the map can't answer. The whole strategy of the telecom industry is to keep any mapping from revealing embarrassing information, like low speeds, high prices and spotty coverage and to keep anyone else from verifying the information it does put forward." (Huffington Post)

Glenn Beck's Cheese Slides Off His Cracker

Thankfully, comedian Stephen Colbert takes on the madness.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The 10/31 Project
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

State Republicans: Sex Is Evil and We Do Not Talk About It and Women Scare Us

Mary Mancini reports the obvious as state Republicans rush to remove choice and privacy for women:

"Did you know that although Tennessee is ranked 20th in providing family planning public funding (publicly supported contraceptive services and supplies), we’re ranked 42nd in family planning laws and policies (whether laws and policies are likely to facilitate access to contraceptive services and information), 30th in family planning service availability (how well states meet existing need for subsidized contraceptive services and supplies), and 40th in births to teen mothers ages 15-19.

If the members of the Tennessee legislature wanted real solutions, they would do two things. First, they’d be honest and admit that there are already a number of Tennessee laws which regulate abortion - including parental consent, a ban on late-term abortions and patient informed consent. Then, they would focus on researching and providing the most effective education and resources that would actually, you know, reduce - or completely eliminate - unintended pregnancies."

Education? That's fer fancy folk. Republicans see no need to improve it in Tennessee.

Senator Corker Hates Nose, Loves Face

It's true I have a deeply ingrained skepticism about governmental plans -- a nice healthy American habit. The recent announcement by the Obama administration calling for sweeping changes to the auto industry has some proclaiming how this is some perversion of economics.

No it isn't.

For instance, governmental actions - from free land to free cash and tax breaks for industries - are common tools to encourage private businesses to locate in Tennessee (or most other states). That massive industrial project in Chattanooga would not exist without taxpayers ponying up cash for "development". Can you say "Volkswagen" Sen. Corker?

And a brief review of government taking charge of businesses "too big to fail" turns up several success stories:

"[T]here is a bright shining example from not so long ago of government bureaucrats engineering the revival of an industry easily as troubled as today’s automakers and, if anything, more central to the economy. And it all turned out better than anyone dared hope, with a dazzling return to profitability. It is the story of the railroad industry, and while the parallels with today’s auto industry are not exact, they are close enough to provide many useful lessons. Its example suggests that, as the automakers return to Washington for a second round of assistance, the greatest danger may well be not that government will intervene too much, but that it won’t intervene enough."

Phillip Longman's full article is here.

Sen. Corker, like his party leadership has demanded, is so focused on demonizing the Obama White House he's willing to ignore the need for economic repairs. He's chopping away at his own nose to spite his face. As The Nashville Scene notes, "But whenever the auto industry is raised, he suddenly begins talking from orifices not commonly associated with speech"

Bush Officials Face Torture Claims In Spain Court

The same judge who pursued Gen. Augusto Pinochet is now investigating criminal charges regarding torture at Guantanamo and has named high-level Bush administration officials as targets.

"The officials named in the case include the most senior legal minds in the Bush administration. They are: Alberto Gonzales, a former White House counsel and attorney general; David Addington, former vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff; Douglas Feith, who was under-secretary of defence; William Haynes, formerly the Pentagon's general counsel; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who were both senior justice department legal advisers.

Court documents say that, without their legal advice in a series of internal administration memos, "it would have been impossible to structure a legal framework that supported what happened [in Guantánamo]".

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"The lawsuit claimed the six former aides "participated actively and decisively in the creation, approval and execution of a judicial framework that allowed for the deprivation of fundamental rights of a large number of prisoners, the implementation of new interrogation techniques including torture, the legal cover for the treatment of those prisoners, the protection of the people who participated in illegal tortures and, above all, the establishment of impunity for all the government workers, military personnel, doctors and others who participated in the detention centre at Guantánamo".

"All the accused are members of what they themselves called the 'war council'," court documents allege. "This group met almost weekly either in Gonzales's or Haynes's offices."

Meanwhile, in Britain, police are investigating torture charges as well against British intelligence officers. Torture during the reign of the Khmer Rouge is making headlines in Europe as a new trial against one suspect has begun.

Space Smells Funny, Astronauts Say

Is that funny ha-ha or funny strange?

Of course, NASA warns 'please do not open your helmet to get a big whuff.'

Wonder if there are funny smells inside the space station?

5 Reasons To Watch The New G4 Underground Series

The G4 cable network jumps into the TV news magazine biz on Sunday night with a new series called Underground. I've always enjoyed the network and I'd like to give you some reasons to check out this new show.

First reason to watch: If you read this blog and I amuse, entertain, inform or enrage you, then you must tune in because I'm personally connected to the show. One of the producers is a longtime friend and a most talented producer of great TV. Here's her IMDB listing. She's also a fellow alum from Carson-Newman, once worked as a DJ in Morristown radio, is a sharp-eyed pop culture whiz and is a fine mom and wife too.

Second reason to watch: Two words - Morgan Webb.

Third reason to watch: The stories you'll see here won't be found anywhere else. Take the premiere, which tackles the world on online pornography and porn amateurs, plus a segment on real-life, honest-to-pete people who dress up in costume to be super-heroes. Future reports include exposes on ninja schools and the world of urban spelunking. (NOTE: If you are searching for info on "caseynjennifer", please see the comments on this post.)

Fourth reason to watch: It's better than other news magazine time shows - there's no eyebrow-heavy Andy Rooney and sometimes, the stuff they cover is kinda illegal. More info on those items here.

Fifth reason to watch: If you watch and talk about what you see, your friends and co-workers will know you are on the cutting edge of cool. Don't be left out, people, I'm trying to help you here. Check out this teaser below: