Actual CNN website headlines.

Taken from today's  http://www.cnn.com  homepage :
Should you go to college for Mrs. degree?
Is Colorado getting too high?
Where is 'Obama girl' now?
Meet the SAT tutor to the 1%

No comment.

Emily Nussbaum and Willa Paskin on TRUE DETECTIVE's Season One finale.

More from THE NEW YORKER's Emily Nussbaum and SLATE's Willa Paskin about the final episode of the Matthew-and-Woody arc of TRUE DETECTIVE (which will have different lead characters and storyline in Season 2)--and how integral (or not so) the female characters are to the series:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/03/the-disappointing-finale-of-true-detective.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/03/10/true_detective_has_a_woman_problem_yes_and_that_s_partly_why_people_love.html

New poem: WHAT IS HELL?

WHAT IS HELL?

it’s a question

that rents a room

in my mind these days

is Hell a place

like the current

Beverly Center food court

where almost everything

is closed

and you’re the only one

informally dining there

and the elevators don’t work

and the escalator is broken

so you can’t leave the mall

no matter how much you want to

or is it a chain bookstore

where you’re watching

a powerful blowhard poet

declaiming in body language

turned up to 12:

YOU’RE NOT ME

AND YOU NEVER WILL BE

and you can’t leave the store

no matter how much you want to

or is Hell

that part of one’s psyche

repeating this mantra:

if it happened Before,

it will happen Once More,

and you can’t make a move,

atone for sins,

or try anything new

and you can’t leave your house

no matter how much you want to

COMMUNITY and poetry communities.

Below, I've included a small portion of Todd VanDerWerff's AV CLUB review of the latest COMMUNITY episode titled "App Development and Condiments."  The episode focuses on social media (with a side order of futuristic dystopia parody--including a gag referencing Sean Connery's costume in John Boorman's ZARDOZ).

[The episode is] also, belatedly, about the idea that revolutionaries almost inevitably replace the system they long to overthrow with something that can be just as—if not more so—oppressive, because people are people and have a tendency to overcorrect for past errors (and become corrupted by power).

In Southern California (at least), the "revolutionaries" of poetry overthrew a system which (they believed) brought too many "bad" poets/comics/storytellers to the table in order to create a franchise of readings which mostly pay homage to the defunct Hyperpoets reading at Venice CA's Rose Café.  So, fewer readings, fewer poets--but "better" ones, as the Cultural Commandos see it.

Here's a link to the complete VanDerWerff review:
http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/community-app-development-and-condiments-201914

Blog commenter on Matthew McConaughey's me-tastic Oscar speech.

"Joel" commenting on critic Glenn Kenny's blog SOME CAME RUNNING, had this to say about Matthew McConaughey's acceptance speech for Best Actor Sunday night:
 "Almost nothing on screen last year was as entertaining as Matthew McConaughey thanking all the Matthew McConaugheys throughout history for the success of Matthew McConaughey."

For some more added context, here's comedian/satirist Martin Mull with his 1970s song I'M EVERYONE I'VE EVER LOVED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHJQ-JTR68c

Album cover for the above: http://www.amazon.com/Im-Everyone-Ive-Ever-Loved/dp/B005RAR00G

SUMMARY OF 2014 ACADEMY AWARDS

Re the film MIDNIGHT RIDER, Sarah Jones' passing and crew/performer safety.

From 1988 to 1997, I worked predominately as an extra and stand-in (becoming a member of SAG in late 1991 after being given dialogue on a scene from CHAPLIN that was cut from the final version). 

Between 1998 and 1990, I did occasional volunteer production assistant work on American Film Institute first-and-second-year video and film projects.  One of those projects was a few days on the shoot of a short titled MARILYN HOTCHKISS' BALLROOM DANCING AND CHARM SCHOOL, directed by Randall Miller.

Yes, the same Randall Miller who recently began directing a Gregg Allman biopic titled MIDNIGHT RIDER, where Sarah Jones, a camera assistant, was killed in a tragic accident involving a train and a bed (being used in a dream sequence) on the tracks.

[Recalling the AFI shoot in 1989, I had no real contact with Randall Miller; instead I worked with one of the producers and other crew members.]

This article by Sheelah Kolhatkar for BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK summarizes the MIDNIGHT RIDER tragedy and its aftermath so far: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-27/will-death-on-midnight-rider-set-be-a-reckoning-for-filmmakers

And here's a key paragraph:
Making movies often involves complex stunts and the use of potentially dangerous equipment operated by people who are typically sleep-deprived from 16-hour work days. Film productions are run like the military. If a director arrives and announces that he or she wants to do something that sounds crazy, like dangle the camera from a high rooftop during a windstorm, people are unlikely to object. One film worker and an acquaintance of Jones called for a national safety campaign to be named in her honor.

Now for a true happened-to-me anecdote:
I was a stand-in on a film (shot in Los Angeles) in 1995 (a family comedy which will go unnamed here).  The first assistant director (who will also go unnamed) made it clear to the stand-ins that they would occasionally be required to do production assistant work--making it clear that to object meant being fired.  This was due to the production company's eagerness to cut below-the-line costs when possible.  (Towards the end of the shoot, it even extended to not using all the stand-ins on certain days, even when all the principal cast members were working.)

One day, the first AD had me climb on the top of the set to (as I recall correctly) hold a certain object through a hole (so actors would have an "eyeline" to focus upon).  The scene involved family members in the basement suspecting they were being spied on.

Fortunately for me, the set was well built, I did what was asked of me and I didn't crash to the floor and suffer injuries.

I'll close with a link to the story of another young woman who worked as an extra and was persuaded to drive a car during a scene where stunts were occurring.  This film I'll mention by name: TRANSFORMERS 3.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?id=8674489

[UPDATE 7/3/14: Randall Miller, his wife and co-producer Jody Slevin and Jay Sedrish, unit production manager and executive producer, were charged with involuntary manslaughter in Sarah Jones' death.  Here's a link to an article from the London GUARDIAN:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/03/midnight-rider-film-makers-charged-over-death-of-camera-assistant-sarah-jones]

Critics Emily Nussbaum and Willa Paskin on TRUE DETECTIVE's female characters.

Here are two different takes on how HBO's Season One of TRUE DETECTIVE treats its female characters:

Emily Nussbaum of THE NEW YORKER:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2014/03/03/140303crte_television_nussbaum

Willa Paskin of SLATE:  http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2014/02/true_detective_the_women_on_the_show_are_treated_badly_but_there_s_a_good.2.html