Chris Richardson and Simon Cowell on last night's IDOL.

Apparently there's controversy about how Simon Cowell allegedly rolled his eyes after AMERICAN IDOL contestant Chris Richardson mentioned the Virginia Tech tragedy on last night's show during the judges-comments portion.  Simon later issued a statement that the eye-rolling only related to him talking to Paula Abdul about Richardson defending consciously-nasal "country" singing.

And Cowell's sincere mention of the tragedy later on seems to have been forgotten by those looking for more celebrity missteps to complain about.

But it's tempting to roll one's eyes about Chris Richardson seeming to use a sympathetic statement on Monday's tragic killings as a blatant "win the crowd" tactic after being taken to task for a subpar vocal performance.

I hope this isn't being too cynical about someone's motives, but it would have been more appropriate if Richardson had made his statement before performing, rather than afterwards.

Post-Virginia Tech murders.

As expected, the cable news channels are covering the tragic murders of students and professors at Virginia Tech Monday on a 24-hour basis.

And it's likely that the cycle of blaming entertainment product for triggering a disturbed person's uncontrollable fury will begin again.  My guess is that movie advertising won't be in the crosshairs of pressure groups, as it was after Columbine.  Instead, the video gaming industry will take a moderate hit--and perhaps some violent games will be pulled from the marketplace.

On Keith Olbermann's COUNTDOWN, this subject was mentioned: the publicly emotional reaction to mass murders by lone gunmen vs. the relative lack of reaction to military and civilian deaths in Iraq.

My theory: Random deaths are still considered far more horrifying by the American public than deaths during wartime--the latter doesn't provoke much comment due to both the absence of visuals of deaths (and flag-draped caskets) in the media and the acceptance of soldiers' deaths occurring from doing their duty in war, regardless of the degree of support for the war at home.

In the spirit of National Poetry Month.

Here's a chance to read poetry by poets you haven't yet heard of--and contribute an e-book of poetry of your own.  It's the Poetry Super Highway's 3rd annual e-book exchange contest--and here's the link below to the site, run by Rick Lupert:

http://poetrysuperhighway.com/pshffa.html

Three e-books of mine have been entered, among them my new I USED TO BE RICKY NELSON BUT I'M PERRY COMO NOW and HOLLYWOOD POETRY BABYLON, a compilation of poems about movies and the show business Industry.

The continuing saga of Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team.

To be honest, I've seen very little of Don Imus' MSNBC simulcast of his radio show.  I became turned off to Imus' cranky sourness back in 1985 when VH1 was in its infancy--Imus was one of the NYC deejays (Frankie Crocker was another) doing VJ duties on the channel.

Since then, we all know the rest of the Don Imus career trajectory.  Imus decided to separate himself from the shock-jock pack and turn his show into a partial clubhouse for politicians and media pundits to drop by and spin their wares.  And, as a result, the show has appealed to an older, more affluent audience (in a way, one could consider Imus to be Goofus to Charlie Rose's Gallant). 

Yesterday, in the fallout of Imus' racist/sexist remark about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, one could turn on cable news channels and see the media wanting to protect Imus from extended fallout over his remark [CBS radio and MSNBC later announced Imus will take a two-week suspension].

Today, the story has expanded into the kind of racist scandal that, according to the media, is a "Teachable Moment." 

Call me cynical, but future generations will remember this about as much as today's generation recalls the racist outbursts of Jimmy The Greek Snyder and Al Campanis from two decades ago--or the anti-Semitic slur relating to New York City that Rev. Jesse Jackson uttered around the same time period.

Fear, resentment and the temptation to stereotype based on skin color or nationality are sins all of us have to constantly guard against--regardless of what skin color or nationality we are.

UPDATE: One day later, with the Imus simulcast canceled, the NBC News President came on air to talk in a fake-pious tone about the integrity of the news division (while salving Imus' battered ego on the side) and to dodge the truth: advertiser pullout and loss of revenue was the tipping point for NBCUniversal's decision.

If NBCUniversal really wanted a news division with integrity, they'd reverse their current budget cuts and do something really out-of-the-box: have a news division that actually reports news as a public service  AND BE WILLING TO LOSE MONEY BY DOING SO.

It's a step backward to television's long-ago past, and it should be a necessary one in an age of frivolity-gets-higher-numbers-than-substance. 

The Beverly Center--I'm getting older, it's getting younger.

I was at the Beverly Center mall in West Hollywood/Beverly Hills last night to see FIGHTING WORDS; this mall is a place I haven't been to since around 2000/2001.

It was interesting to see that mall management has transformed the Beverly Center into a 35-and-under shopping paradise (realizing that yuppie families and affluent middle-agers are lost to the Grove).  The stores mostly skew young, and there's youth-friendly seats to rest at; one teenage girl was sitting, legs crossed, talking on her cell phone on a chair--giving the impression that the girl was at home in her bedroom catching up on the latest peer news with her friends in the T-Mobile circle of five.

There are no bookstores in the current Beverly Center.  Or immediately across the street, either--Barnes and Noble shut down its BOOKSTAR store in the nearby Beverly Connection years ago .  And once Borders swallowed Waldenbooks, the Brentano's store (which I used to enjoy for its comfortable divan that made reading a pleasure) disappeared too.  I know, I know, younger people allegedly don't read much and if they do, they can walk a couple of blocks south on La Cienega to the large Borders store.

The only place to buy CDs (doom-laden predictions of this music format's death increased in volume the past few days) is the Sony store, where you get nothing but Sony product sold as a loss leader (you're expected to buy high-end HD equipment instead).

One improvement: the food court on the eighth level has al fresco dining with a coin-operated magnifying telescope.  This device is good for playing a simple time-marches-on game: spot the Los Angeles landmarks which haven't yet been torn down by developers or repurposed as trendy hotels/mixed-use apartment and retail properties/lofts.

But that's a game that younger consumers--now the lifeblood of the Beverly Center--may never be aware of.

 

A plug for the film FIGHTING WORDS.

It isn't often that Los Angeles poets are preserved on film (one recent example is DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA, which included, among others, Ellyn Maybe--one of the nicest--and most talented--poets in the local community), but the new slam poetry/romance drama FIGHTING WORDS (opening Friday, April 6th at the Mann Beverly Center) gives audiences not accustomed to the scene a chance to see a few local poets in its cast.

An excerpt from an e-mail by Long Beach poetry legend G. Murray Thomas-

"Fighting Words" [is] opening this weekend at the Mann's Theater at
the Beverly Center. "Fighting Words" is a poetry movie which is
neither a documentary or a biopic. Rather, it is a love story told
about poets. In the process, it incorporates poetry and performances
by many SoCal poets, including Jerry Quickley, Charles Harper Webb,
Charles Ellik, Rives, Doug Knott, Mona Jean, and, yes,
myself. "Fighting Words" will be playing for the entire week of April
6 - 13; check the theater for actual showtimes. Paul Edwards and some
of the poets will be there Friday, April 6, for the 7 pm show [and the Saturday, April 7th 7 pm show as well]

An excerpt from an announcement by poet Rafael Alvarado-

Listen to writer/director E. Paul Edwards and poets

Rafael Alvarado
Conney
Doug Knott
Mona Jean Cedar

on the C. Thomas Howell show on KLSX 97.1 now podcast
at

http://971freefm.com/pages/321794.php

 

 

Freedom of speech on blogs and listserves.

Lately, I read entertainment writer Jeffrey Wells' HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE blog (found at http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com) for information about films being touted for awards, film festival coverage and assessments as to the current state of the Industry.  Occasionally, directors such as Mike Binder (REIGN OVER ME) and George Hickenlooper (FACTORY GIRL, THE MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS) will drop by and offer comments. 

Jeffrey weighed in a few hours ago with an entry on the horrific death of director Bob Clark (who will be forever known for directing A CHRISTMAS STORY like Victor Fleming is now known only for directing GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ) and his son in a car crash last night on the Pacific Coast Highway.  It included a somewhat brutal assessment of Clark's career as a journeyman director--to me, a bit overvehement considering Clark died less than 24 hours ago.  But, at the same time, I'll defend Jeffrey's right to offer opinions that may be unpopular--and allow no-holds-barred critiques of his posts from other posters without threatening them with banishment.

Jeffrey Wells-in believing in almost-absolute freedom of speech-is to be commended.  Because that's a virtue not currently allowed in the Los Angeles poetry community.

In the poetry community, listserves are now kept pure and decorous with miscreants often banned for arguing with other poets.  Sometimes banishment can be avoided as long as you're not criticizing a poet on his/her listserve.  And raucous disagreements of the HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE variety aren't found since some poets running listserves scrutinize every post for evil and perfidy, or the potential for evil, before allowing them--leading to listserves mostly being filled with poets announcing their upcoming readings.

Perhaps the difference between the poetry and film communities is this: the film community is more secure in commenting on an art form that is consumed by millions of people while the poetry community (at least in L.A., counting a few hundred poets who are active) practices an art form that pays very little, if anything, and isn't often heard outside its tribe.  Therefore, a hemophiliac level of hypersensitivity exists, leading people to think that silencing naysayers/stifling dissent is being protective of their brothers and sisters.  If this mania for avoiding "hurtfulness" could be channeled into, say, more intervenue (two readings crossing over to each other's venues--as was done years back with Beyond Baroque and The World Stage) reading events, the community would be better off.  Instead, there's the grim humor of witnessing socially-conscious progressives going into contortions to justify censoring "negativity" of others while complaining when they are censored themselves.

Once again: NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!!!

I'm going to resist the temptation to rant about how poetry only gets the month of April for national recognition--and then, only for upscale chain bookstores to sell "classic" poets to their customers.

Also, I'll resist the temptation to rant about the mass audience not being as brilliant as those poets who prefer the purity of obscurity (only sharing their work with the few people who "get it" and not daring to leave their home cities to go on tour). 

And I'll especially resist the temptation to rant about the literary-world pinata known as Oprah's Book Club.  Say what you will about Oprah's micromanagement, her pompous vocalese (JULIAAAAA ROBERRRTSSSSS!) and billionaire ego, the staff of OPRAH  manage to occasionally select books/authors worthy of a wider audience; the current pick is Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD.

For those reading this entry who haven't bought books of poetry or attended readings, I recommend you give both options a try this month.  If you don't like the poetry you buy or the reading(s) you attend, don't give up.  Remember, poetry comes in different forms and styles; it's worth the time and effort to connect with the poems and poets waiting for your attention and approval.