Archive for October, 2005
Well I’m not a fan of those country’s going-to-hell-in-a-hand-basket-and-the-apocalypse-is-nigh-approaching folks, but I thought I’d join their ranks for long enough to make a couple quick comments. ExxonMobil announced $9.8 billion in profits this quarter, just as every oil company on the planet is gouging us for the last of the earth’s dwindling supply. They also announced that they have no plans to seek alternative or renewable energy.
Their spokesman, Dave Gardner had this brilliant explanation for the decision:”We’re an oil and gas company. In times past, when we tried to get into other businesses, we didn’t do it well. We’d rather re-invest in what we know.” That’s the kind of selfless, innovative attitude that led Barry Marshall to prove that Helicobacter plyori is the cause of 90 percent of all ulcers by infecting himself with the bacteria. No wait, that’s not really the same thing at all. Maybe that’s why Marshall was given the Nobel Prize and Dave Gardner cries himself to sleep every night over the shell of a man he’s become.
Last tidbit of joy: The US Senate Energy Committee voted this month to open up the Arctic for drilling. We are hacking away at the life expectancy of this planet with a machete. Who’s up for a trip to the moon?
October 29th, 2005
Billed in the previews as a comedy, The Weather Man is anything but. I’d have to describe it more as a plot-less, slow-paced, depressing type of film. And probably one of the more intriguing flicks you’ll see for a while. Nick Cage has taken a keen interest in "why are we here" scripts, dealing with midlife crises, debilitating feelings of inadequacy, desire for greatness, those types of things. There are definitely shades of Adaptation and The Family Man in this. And like Adaptation, it’s definitely a movie for writers. This is Steve Conrad giving us a peek into his slightly neurotic mind for an hour and a half. And that’s nice, but unfortunately Steve Conrad is no Charlie Kaufman.
Cage is not all that likable as an actor, so this isn’t some root for the lovable loser to turn his life around kind of film. Maybe Nick thinks it is, maybe director Gore Verbinski does, but it isn’t. It’s the story of a disconnected weather man who is so tragically and believably human that his redeeming qualities seem to teeter on the edge of existence. He’s selfish, he’s not quite sane, he’s annoying. But he asks the same questions that everyone else does, and he doesn’t see the answer to all his prayers charging in on a horse-powered chariot in time for Act III. So what’s not to love. His life sucks and by the end of the movie it sucks infinitesimally less. OK, all that aside, 3 more reasons to watch: a handful of piss your pants funny lines, words of wisdom from the beloved Michael Caine and gorgeous cinematography of wintry Chicago.
October 29th, 2005
Well the Republican Party can play hot potato with these scandals until the last man caught knee-deep in shit is the only one who pays. Bill Frist can thank Tom Delay for making his shady stock portfolio all but forgotten, and Tom Delay can thank Cheney, Rove and Libby for sending him and his eleventeen indictments to page 2. And what praytell did the Cheney Gang do? They outed CIA operative Valerie Plame to punish her husband, Joe Wilson for criticizing Bush on the war in Iraq. And by outed I mean revealed her status as undercover CIA agent, and I guess that is you know, frowned upon, and maybe even a tad bit illegal.
Mention this at the next party you go to and maybe you will get some action for enlightening people on the current woes of the Republican Party and using hot potato in the same sentence. Or they’ll laugh uproariously when you say it seems like every Tom, Dick and Cheney is getting indicted. Or maybe they’ll stare at you stone-faced until you leave the room.
October 26th, 2005
The Governator has been losing steam over the last few months, and if the ballot measures fail for this 75 million dollar monstrosity of a special election he’s demanded, his reelection bid could be in real trouble. That is, if the Dems can field anywhere near as charismatic and ballsy a candidate as Ahnold. Um, Warren Beatty? He’s been mentioned in a couple articles recently, we know he’s dying to, and I think he’d be perfect. Beatty has a history in politics much deeper than his college lecture tour during the 2000 Presidential Primaries and recent speeches against Arnie and his special election proposals (most notably his 2005 UC Berkeley commencement address). Beatty campaigned for RFK in 68. He worked closely with McGovern’s campaign manager, Gary Hart during 72 and later advised Hart on his own run at the nomination. Besides a dubious knack for attaching himself to imploding presidential campaigns, Beatty is a born stateman with a willingness to be much more frank and honest than candidates too enmeshed in the political world of fundraising, wining and dining and hitting repeated talking points over and over for a five-second sound bite. If you need more proof, just watch Bulworth. Or read his Berkeley speech. Oh, and if you’re still not convinced, the other celebrity thinking of running is Rob Reiner. Rob Reiner, folks. That’s Meathead from All in the Family. Now if the cranky but lovable Carroll O’Connor were still alive and wanted to give politics a try I’d say maybe we’ve got something here. But Rob Reiner could not beat Arnold in a beauty pageant or a pissing contest. Beatty has a shot at both.
October 25th, 2005
Welcome to the maiden voyage of my blog. This blog will be geared toward keeping readers better informed on things going on in the news, especially in the political realm. I know, I know, who’s ever done a left-leaning blog on politics before? But before you leave me forever, let me also say I will be attempting to keep you up on excellent new movies/books/music you might have missed, as well as giving you tips for living a better life, how to be cool, and other important items such as those. No, I’m serious, our uncool to cool turnover ratio is 1:1. It’s foolproof. So hopefully you’ll enjoy, and if you don’t, hopefully you’ll stay around long enough to stick it to me in your comments to each and every one of my entries. You may notice that I bolden the first few words to every blog entry. A nice little stylized trick I taught Josh Marshall over at talkingpointsmemo.com, back in the day. I choose not to capitalize such words as well, it’s an excercise in discretion and understatement Josh, fyi.
October 25th, 2005