You may have heard recently about Chris Wallace helping out George Butch Jr. by throwing some "I'm on your side" softball questions at him during a recent Fox News lovefest interview.
Here's a link to Glenn Greenwald's SALON blog re CNN's John Roberts doing the same thing, but with National Security director Mike McConnell, on the subject of telephone companies getting lawsuit protection for aiding the Bush wiretap policy:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/14/cnn_mcconnell/
Just read that the talented actor Roy Scheider passed away earlier today (February 10th).
Scheider, in his best-known film roles (JAWS 1 and 2, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, BLUE THUNDER, 52 PICKUP), was a terrific embodiment of the Everyman character doing his best to cope with out-of-the-ordinary circumstances.
He'll definitely be missed.
Update (2/14/08): Some other Scheider films worthy of note are Bob Fosse's ALL THAT JAZZ (playing the Fosse roman a clef Joe Gideon), William Friedkin's SORCERER (hopefully Friedkin can one day turn his attention to creating a special edition DVD) and Alan Pakula's KLUTE (a noteworthy supporting role as a pimp).
About two years ago, I was at a San Fernando Valley poetry venue when I ran into DN, a poet/translator who used to be a part of the scene when I was a bright-eyed newcomer in 1998.
I said hello to DN. He responded with something like: ARE YOU STILL HERE?
I took DN's comment and tone-of-voice to mean that I should have disappeared from Los Angeles poetry by 2006 and found an avocation more suitable to my limited intelligence and stunted grasp of real art and "craft."
For twenty years, I've lived in the Los Angeles area. I've been actively reading and writing poetry for ten years. I even hosted two readings: one from my townhouse and a "real" one at a coffeehouse which closed in December.
And I've been around the "poetry community" long enough to see it change from roughly 55% elitist 45% egalitarian in 1998 to 90% elitist 10% egalitarian now.
In my opinion, the change began around 2003 when an elitist poet started a thread called "Straight Talk About Poetry" on a Yahoogroups listserve. Not everyone agreed with the elitist poet's exact vision of high standards erasing mediocrity (slam poetry came in for some rather stereotypical abuse), but, like a whistle only dogs can hear, the elitist struck a chord among those poets who loved the notion that they were "special" and didn't need to be shoulder-to-shoulder with their artistic inferiors.
In the late winter of 2008, some local venues that believe in the idea of poetry being a "popular" art form are drawing small audiences. And even those who try to appeal to both the elite and the populists aren't doing much better.
Awhile back, I was heavily criticized for advocating that elites should get out of their comfort zones and appear more often at "populist" (or "community") venues.
In a few cases, that did happen (certainly not because of me). But, for the most part, they only appear when asked to feature and tend to avoid being part of open-mike readings.
At this point, I feel horribly embarrassed by the behavior of some local poets. Shunning venues because they might hear "bad" poets during open-mikes (or disliking the host/hosts for personal reasons) and even turning their backs on making an effort to attract larger audiences (yes, even civilian nonpoets) are accepted ways of getting along in the "community."
So the elite crave "specialness" and, instead of practicing notions of community like The Golden Rule, they (to use a phrase from the final scenes of THERE WILL BE BLOOD) drink each other's milkshakes and step hard on the gas pedal to make sure that audiences are limited and oh-so-insular and the inferior practitioners of verse are killed immediately.
Do you think that John McCain in his recent debate/campaign appearances is what Ronald Reagan would have been like if he had returned to acting in the 90s and co-starred in a WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S sequel?
McCain's voice even sounds like he's channeling Reagan's ghost.
Here I go with the Larry King imitation again:
1. Yes, ROLLING STONE has a black-and-white cover story about Britney Spears, suggesting she's as much a victim as a selfish, thoughtless celeb whirling around in pain and anger because of massive quantities of resentment (at parents, at management, at cops and lawyers, at damn near anyone who won't get her what she wants RIGHT NOW).
And it again must be said that Lynne Spears deserves accolades for being a Bad Parent in excelsis.
2. The man in Missouri who killed city officials (over zoning difficulties) last night is a sobering cautionary tale to anyone who gets furious at people he/she believes are being patronizing and belittling--and, instead of listening, thinking, considering the consequences to his/her family and the families of the people he/she wants to harm, and walking away from anger--picks up a weapon.
3. Do I wish MSNBC's David Shuster could have used a better phrase than "pimped out" to describe Chelsea Clinton being sent out to court superdelegates (basically a Democratic Party attempt dating from 1982--after Ted Kennedy tried to derail Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign--to ensure the party's "establishment" candidate has a chance to "win") and three of THE VIEW's cast members (given Sherri Shepherd's past retrograde views, one would think she'd opt for Huckabee)?
Part of me wants to say yes, but I think that even if Shuster had said something other than the p-word, Hillary and her PR goon Howard Wolfson would have still yelled their heads off at MSNBC and used this as a battering ram to ensure that no "irreverent" coverage of Hillary will occur for the remainder of the year. And it's a really classy touch to threaten to avoid MSNBC-telecast debates, too.
While the "men being sexist" card has also been played against Chris Matthews, consider this recent remark from Maureen Dowd in THE NEW YORK TIMES:
[Even though Hillary reasserted her strength, corraling New York, California and Kennedy country Massachusetts, she and Obama will battle on in chiaroscuro. Her argument to the Democratic base has gone from a subtext of “You owe me,” or more precisely, “Bill owes me and you owe him,” to a subtext of “Obambi will fold at the first punch from the right.”]
If Maureen Dowd were a cable-news contributor, would she--and her network--get the same kind of body-blowsMatthews did?
Here's a better question: How likely do you think Hillary, Wolfson and Terry McAulliffe will threaten to withdraw access to THE NEW YORK TIMES because of a Maureen Dowd column?
Before turning the TV off, I switched to CNBC to see what informercial was airing at this hour of the night.
Lo and behold: it's Peter Fonda, wearing a leather jacket that makes him look more like Fonzie than Captain America, shilling for a TimeLife box set of CDs called FLOWER POWER (collecting familiar counterculture hits from 1966-1974): http://www.TimeLife.com/flowerpower
This reminds me of the semi-forgotten 1990 comedy FLASHBACK, where Dennis Hopper played an aging hippie bedeviling Kiefer Sutherland in a proto-Jack Bauer role as an FBI agent. If you do rent or buy FLASHBACK, you'll never forget the way Hopper reads this line of dialogue re the nostalgic appeal of EASY RIDER for aging boomers:
"And you can get it at your lo-cal vid-e-o store!"
Now that most votes have been counted for "Super Tuesday", I'm still supporting Obama--but if Hillary does take the eventual lead, I would hope both candidates (and the respective Democratic Party entities of the Howard Dean-led Democratic National Committee and the Al From-founded Democratic Leadership Council) would consider uniting on one ticket and delivering this nation from more years of Republican misrule.
You don't read much lately about Burt Reynolds' career--either positive or negative--except for the sad notice taken by film critics that Reynolds (obviously in need of money) took a supporting role in alleged-superbad director Uwe Boll's now-disappearing-from-multiplexes IN THE NAME OF THE KING.
But Reynolds had a good run as boxoffice star/avatar of mainstream "hip" from 1972-1982 and the blog WELCOME TO L.A. will cover the man and his career throughout February.
Here's a link to get started (filled with photos and YouTube trailer/TV footage links):
http://welcometola.blogspot.com/
My choices for Burt Reynolds DVD viewing from the above era: DELIVERANCE, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, HUSTLE, STARTING OVER, SEMI-TOUGH, THE LONGEST YARD (1974), HOOPER, SHARKY'S MACHINE.
Not sure if W.W. AND THE DIXIE DANCEKINGS is on DVD, but it's an underrated B-film (mostly intended for small towns and drive-ins) from director John Avildsen worth seeking out.
