Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from November, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

With so much to be thankful for, I think I'll keep this short. I am thankful for the health and prosperity of my children. I am thankful for the work my daughter does in the military and I pray she remains healthy and safe. I am thankful for all the members of all the United States armed forces, who stand watch in far places so I can sit and type this. So that I can live in the greatest country the world has ever seen. I am thankful I live in a country that is overwhelmingly a force for good in a dark and cruel world. And I am thankful that the most vicious of the Bush haters were -- again -- proven wrong. We didn't descend into a theocracy. Our republic didn't collapse into a dictatorship. In just a few weeks, my country will -- again -- watch a peaceful change in leadership. So thank you, Lord, for all the above, and for so much more. May your stuffing be tasty May your turkey plump, May your potatoes and gravy Have never a lump. May your

The Alphabet Meme

...as found at Dirty Harry and What Would Toto Watch , as devised by Blog Cabins , with these rules . My list, based solely on the mood of the moment: A pocalypse Now - Because no one film's insanity better than Francis Coppola. B oondock Saints - Guns, Irish accents, Billy Connolly, etc. C owboy Bebop - Sometimes you need a bounty hunter, and who better than Spike? D ie Hard - Yippe kay-yay...! E scape From New York - Why we don't make this reality (i.e., Manhattan as a massive prison) is a mystery to me. F all - An obscure little gem that was recommended to me years ago. Far from perfect, yet hits a perfect note with me. G host in the Shell - Anime can make you think. Really. H ard Candy - Forget Juno , Ellen Page was a star right here. I n Harm's Way - John f'ing Wayne, Kirk f'ing Douglas, big f'ing naval battles. J aws - All other "j" films bow in worship. K ung Fu Hustle - Buddhist Palm! L ayer Cake - Daniel Cr

Jaws is a perfect film

For a while, I've been thinking about a comment Toto made in regards to my review of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull . I had opined that Raiders of the Lost Ark is, arguably, a perfect film, and he stated that he felt Jaws was just that, a perfect film. Well, yes, of course. Maybe I thought that was too obvious a point to make. But just to be clear: Jaws isn't "arguably" a perfect film, it is a perfect film. Peter Benchley 's novel, if you've never read it, is a crackling good yarn, but the film adaptation is better. A galley proof of the manuscript was sitting in a pile at Universal Studios, where a young Steven Spielberg found it, read it, and said, "I want it!" Despite the box office failure of his first big-screen film ( The Sugarland Express ), Spielberg was still riding high on the success of his made-for-TV thriller, Duel . He got his wish. Carl Gottlieb , originally hired to act in the film, ended up co-writing the screenplay (Ben

God bless and keep you, President-elect Barack Obama

I've had 24 hours to contemplate yesterday's election. I had a few things to say, and then I found that Dirty Harry had already said them so well, to his own (left-leaning) mother, no less: While some of my readers are understandably and bitterly disappointed, even at me for not being so, not a single one will ever cross the many unholy lines your side has over the last eight years. We will never summon all the powers at our disposal to advocate for chaos and massacre and defeat in a foreign country. We will never hurl the blackest of  lies to win a news cycle. We will never refuse to grant Barack Obama his humanity. We will never refuse to acknowledge President Obama has done something right when he does something right. And we will never consider a doctrine that would silence your side. For the sake of power, your side went against country, undermined our military, sided with the enemy, and sold the souls they don’t believe in.  Unlike your

Do I laugh or do I cry?

Laugh, because she can't be serious: Bush has transformed America into a police state, from torture to the imprisonment of reporters, to the Patriot Act. Cry, because she obviously means it: Basically, Jong says her fear that Obama might lose the election has developed into an "obsession. A paralyzing terror. An anxious fever that keeps you awake at night." Poor Erica Jong . She's saying this in Italy, and so can comfortably travel abroad. Somehow she escaped the police state, or does she even live in the US? I don't think she's hurting for money. Is she proof that fame and fortune rot the brain of its higher functions? HT Ace of Spades .