Logopolis

IJMSSMO #1 -- The Tears of My Enemy Can Make Me Sad Too

(What's IJMSSMO mean?)

Up until a few days ago, everybody kept saying Bobby Jindal was the Republican's answer to Barack Obama because "everybody" is typically made up of stupid people who think Barack Obama's success comes because

• he has dark skin  and a hard to prounounce name
• yet can "sound white" and is Christian. 

While the rest of thought better, I still wondered if Jindal wouldn't have some sort of appeal when he got more national exposure, because I never know how my fellow Americans are going to react.

But it turned out  Bobby Jindal proved he's a fool a few of times this month:

1. First by shooting his mouth off saying he wasn't going to accept federal funds when the rest of Louisiana would look like New Orleans three weeks after Katrina as soon as her turned off that tap
2. By agreeing to do the thankless job of "opposition response to which would follow Obama's (not quite) State of the Union Address.
3. Actually showing up to give the speech, delivering a foolish speech like a fool.
   
   As Rachel Maddow said:
   
   
   "um...eee...The... I'm... ah... buh... buh... buh... ba... buh... honestly the Republican respose to Barack Obama's first State of the Union was to invoke government failure during Katrina as a model for how to move forward as a country. I know I'm paid to talk to a living. I am incapable of doing what I'm paid to do right now. I'm absolutely stunned."

So, as we liberal smart asses are prone to do in between all of our pot smoking and recruiting others for the sodomy lifestyle, the "libruls" were enjoying the Schadenfreude of a Republican hot shot looking like a dumbass a little too much, so I decided to rain on the parade of those who were overjoyed that this guy and She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named would be considered viable Republican presidential candidates and said

I can't imagine living in a world where I don't end up voting for the Democratic candidate for president, so, given the two-party system we find ourselves in, you would think that I would find a situation that guarantees a Republican loss a good thing.

But, trust me when I say that I honestly pray that any combination of Palin/Jindal 2012 never comes to pass. A two party system perhaps isn't the healthiest democracy but when one of the major parties becomes an unimaginable joke... that's no good for anybody.

IJMSMMO = New Logopolis acronym

It's Just Me, Shooting My Mouth Off

So sometimes it seems to me like I'm blogging a lot when I'm actually not posting at all.  That's usually because I'm posting comments on other websites and just think that I'm posting here.

So since you can't be expected to stalk me EVERYWHERE I have a web presence, and because I like to keep track of things that I'm thinking, if I go through the effort to put together a couple of paragraphs worth of thought elsewhere, I may just end up cross-posting them here too.

So I may or may not explain the context of these quotes... which will be

quotes that are indented and in blue

and it may mean that my comments on specific issues don't get posted here until they are long out of date... but it does mean I'll be posting more... which will mean I'm happier...and let's you all know I'm alive.

Christ, What a Pair of Assholes

The man installing the bulletin board right next to my cubicle with his potentially-loud aluminium ladder and his much louder power drill has decided that when he is not banging his loud aluminum ladder (fulfilling its noise potential) and drilling with his louder power drill to to fill the time in with a bizarre mix of hum-singing and mouth-breathing which isn't loud but is right below the decible threshhold of speaking normally, so it's like he's doing it just loudly enough to think that he might be making noise or speaking to you because surely no one would be making that much noise vocally and think he's keeping it to himself but you aren't quite sure.

I've never wanted to kill someone to whom I've not spoken more.

Except for Richard Nixon after seeing Frost/Nixon.

[see post title]

The Oscars - Awards Follow The Script...and Some More Thoughts on the Movies

So it seems like, as an outside observer for the first time in years, the Oscars -- in terms of the actual awards -- were more predictable than usual.  As far as the major awards go, I think the only win I heard described as an "upset" as I flipped through the morning programs -- was Best Actor, but I think that was a stretch.  For one, Sean Penn was certainly considered the #2; for another, as much as everybody loves a comeback

a) nobody really wanted to see Mickey Rourke potentially slur his way through a bleeped-up speech, and
b) as touching as what he did on screen and in the ring might have been, awarding Mickey Rourke for this performance would be sort of like giving Tom Cruise the Oscar if he accepts the role in the screenplay I'm writing Scientologists Who Are Dogged By Gay Rumors, Marry a Younger TV Star, and Acts Weird on Oprah.

On the other hand, as PunkAndy noted as he was as surprised as I was by Sean Penn in Milk

Harvey Milk = Likeable Activist
Sean Penn = Hasn't Been Likable On or Offscreen since he played Jeff Spicoli, especially when he was an Activist
Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in Milk = Likeable

Voila, folks, that's acting.  Or at least as identifiable by the Academy.  It's not as safe a bet as playing retarded or a Holocaust movie, but the Academy does like to be reminded, as simply as possible, that you are acting.  (Note the Slumdog Millionaire sweep with no actual acting nods; if more people knew that Dev Patel was a middle class English kid, he may have had more of a chance at, at least, a nomination.)

(commercial break)

So overall, as somebody who watched all five films Saturday but didn't get out to a lot of movies this year, I can't tell you if the best movie of 2008 won. And Slumdog was certainly deserving, and pretty obvious going in if you follow the hype...which is wrong as often as it was right.

But I can't think of a year where the nominated movies, as films, were more evenly matched.  There were things to love, admire, and, actually not like, about all five.  But if any of the five had beaten the others, I don't think it would have been too upsetting.*

What I'm saying here, I'm glad I had an awesome weekend AND saw each of those movies and got some sleep, rather than having any less fun, missed one of those movies, and watched the actual ceremony.

* Though honestly, though Winslet acted the FUCK out of her role in The Reader-- and not in a showy, "Give Me An Award" sorta way and deserved the win AND its underage nudity was tasteful and only made you feel SLIGHTLY dirty for any enjoyment you may have obtained from it AND that even when the clothes were on, it wasn't nearly so much "the boring one" of the day that I thought it was going to be, the entire plot hinges on comparative morality that is so preposterous that I can really see why reactions to it were critically mixed. Though I didn't read a lot of reviews for it, I am certain that critics were mixed about it for that reason.  I will not spoil it for you, though it is obvious when viewing the movie.  Let's just say that all of the drama for about a third of it depends Winslet's now grown young lover realizing that Hannah is X while she's on trial for Y and that if she's fully responsible for Y, she can't be X, but she's so ashamed of being X, she'll admit to doing Y. But on any scale of shame, Y > X nearly exponentially, so Hannah keeping it a secret and the whole plot hinging on it is ridiculous.  Such things work in a "modern fairy tale Slumdog Millionaire" sorta way, but not in a movie with a tone like The Reader.  But everything that came before or after that was beautiful and I bet it's a hell of a book.

And since it's the only one I haven't mentioned, Frost/Nixonwas also much better than expected, and though if Frank Langella would have won it would have been an upset, it shouldn't have been because he totally deserved it. His Nixon, though certainly an impression, was much, much more and his reactions in close-up were lessons in "reacting as acting"; he was brilliant.  And as far as 2008 Oscar nominated villains go, I'd take 8 Jokers over one Nixon any day.  And not just because the Joker's hot; despite his unhinged insanity, at least you knew what you got. Nixon scares the crap out of me because, somehow, even those who hated him, often couldn't help but shake his hand. That's scary.

Oops, I didn't write about Benjamin Buttoneither. Yes, it was long... except it's also very entertaining during its many, many minutes. Yes, you can make parallels between it and Forrest Gump... except even at its most twee, Button is never schlocky box of chocolates... or at least not that I noticed.  What I'm saying is that it manages to give you some speeches about life, death, and the world we live in and may make you think in a blockbustery sorta way but  it's not going to inspire a bunch of t-shirt slogans or posters or  Bubba Gump restaurants.

Oscar Not-Quite-Live Blog

So let's say you and yours spent 14 hours in a movie theater in order to see all the Best Picture nominees before the Oscars.

And therefore your weekend sleep schedule is a little off.

And then around 4:00 on Sunday, you and yours decide to "take a little nap" before the ceremonies...especially since you heard most of the presenters weren't going to be on the red carpet anyway.

And then you wake up around 9:30 and think "oops, guess we're not watching the Oscars live, huh?"

Yeah, that could happen.

Between movies -- Skimming Milk and 2% Fat

So this is the line for folks trying out for The Biggest Loser. Some have apparently been there since 5 am. In the snow. I feel really bad for them -- not because they're overweight and I'm weight-ist but because, despite their determination, none of them seems nearly big enough to make the show.

As for the movies, Milk was first and pretty much what I expected, though more personally affecting than I expected. For that reason, I'll write more on it later.

We were smart enough to get here a bit earlier this year, so we have good seats with the aisle in front of us so we can get in and out AND put our feet up. Last year we were WAY up front which isn't such a problem for one movie, but eleven hours later, your neck feeling like a San Francisco queer in 1978 -- pretty pissed off.

MovieMarathon

Like last year, PunkAndy and I are spending the Saturday before the Oscars watching all 5 Best Picture nominees back-to-back. We've aleady seen 0 of them this year, so we're excited, even though I think, in some ways, we wish we were going to see Fired Up.

I Hate To Say

 

but...

Burris now acknowledges fundraising effort for Blagojevich

U.S. Sen. Roland Burris has acknowledged he sought to raise campaign funds for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the request of the governor’s brother at the same time he was making a pitch to be appointed to the Senate seat previously held by President Barack Obama.

Even if this was okay and not as pay-for-play as it seems, it is still exactly the type of thing Burris SWORE that he did not do. Resign now.

Attention, Democrats running for Rahm Emmanual's seat, if you want my vote, agree with me on this. Pubically. Now.  Not when you take the temperature of the electorate and the party.  Now.

That's all.

Blagojevich shouldn't have been allowed to appoint anyone because even the whiff of scandal would have been amplified by association.  This isn't a whiff.  It's a....whatever the opposite of whiff is.  It's stink stunk stanky.

Delicious Monday Munchies -- Men Who Wear Trunks Present and Past...and a Cult Classic Which Seems To Deserve Neither Title

Michael Phelps won't face prosecution in S.C. drug investigation

Maybe the only ridiculous thing to not come out of this farce of an American outrage. But still, read the idiot sheriff's idiot statement. This guy makes Roscoe P. Coltrane seem like the genius sheriff of the south. "Having thoroughly investigated this matter, we do not believe we have enough evidence to prosecute anyone that was present at the November party." Hmmm, I wonder where the evidence might have gone in the last three months? Up in smoke, perhaps.

The crazy cult of 'The Room' - EW.com

Once something gets an article in Entertainment Weekly, I suppose it goes from being a cool cult phenomenon to being an over cult phenomenon. That said, if I was in LA the first Sunday of a month, I would totally want to see this. And not just because I want to be like Veronica Mars.

'The Room': A Cult Hit So Bad, It's Good : NPR

Same movie, different take

Plan59 :: Sports :: Pro Wrestling Art 1955

Awesome illustration of a simpler time...when men were men, wore the right kind of trunks, and didn't realize how gay they'd seem fifty years later...or they did they thought "happy" not "mustache kissers"

Example

Random 2009 Television Post

• The Simpsons is starting to go HD this week and they've also updated the opening credits.  I mean, except for what Bart writes on the chalkboard, Lisa plays on her sax, and the couch gag.  I'm sick of people ragging on The Simpsons for not being as funny as it once was. You know what, you're not as cute as you were 15 years ago either.  This season's episode "Dangerous Curves" was based on the awesome Audrey Hepburn movie Two for the Road, and it was just as good as any previous show.
• There's only one show that's so old that comes close to being so good so old. 

That's right...

     

Just kidding; I meant...

Seriously though it's

• Anyway, speaking of old shows, I still can't keep up with any continuing dramas these days. The only shows we manage to keep up with are Gossip Girl and a couple of sitcoms and strangely Desperate Housewives which only is because it's on Sunday night and has become a habit for winding down after the weekend. 
• Also, Lost which is still pretty awesome -- wacky time travelling and all.  Any show than manages to rip somebody's arm off and not have that necessarily be the most shocking OR the grossest part (I don't like bones sticking out of flesh) of an episode is definitely doing something right.
• That said, I'm ready to give another show a chance to sit on my TiVo unwatched, so I'm pretty excited for Dollhouse to debut tonight.
• Another show I'd like to recommend is  
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold -- A lighter-than-Dark-Knight Batman hangs with lesser known DC heroes and fights lesser known DC villains for 30 minutes of good action 
  • Wolverine and the X-Men -- When a mysterious explosion destroys the X-Mansio, puts Professor X in a coma, and Cyclops in a Jean-Grey-is-dead whiny bitch funk, Wolverine has to put the band back together to prevent a nasty future from coming to pass (in other words, it's the standard X-Plot #1)

Both shows, though drawing on the rich history of their respective publishing houses, are more original and smarter than Heroes, despite being cable cartoons for children. Just saying.