2008 -- The End of an Error

Defiant to the end ... -- Picture captured by blogSpotter

by blogSpotter
In his final State of the Union address, W took some jabs at our Democrat-dominated Congress, vowed to veto new taxes and defied anyone to alter his economic stimulus package. He also touted the surge in Iraq, which is his one arguable piece of good news this past year.

As I looked at his slightly-and-always perplexed face, and listened to his Texas-style butchery of the English language, I thought how defiant and self-righteous the man remains right down to the final year of his star-crossed tenure. He is not a man offering too many apologies or explanations for anything that "went down" (most recently the economy) during his term.

As we look at the wreckage that is America, we have: a needless Iraq entanglement, a sub-prime melt-down, a recession, a housing crisis (fewest new home starts in 25 years), and New Orleans still laid waste with maybe half its original population. We have eroded privacy rights and instantiated torture as an acceptable approach for dealing with prisoners of war. I can think of no particular thing that isn't worse for the wear. No Child Left Behind is arguably Bush's one bright spot and that one is even fairly questionable.

I've wondered if 9/11 would still have happened, or happened differently with Al Gore in the White House. Gore ran a horrible 2000 Presidential campaign so we'll never know. My jaw is still fallen to the floor over American voters reelecting this missing link in the 2004 election. What in the name of God were people thinking? W will go right into the ranks of James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Herbert Hoover as a man dwarfed by the circumstances around him. Many of his actions were refutations directed at his father, George Herbert Walker Bush. Bush 1 is looking more erudite and wise by the day. Bush 2 -- what can we say? 2008 is the end of an error.

© 2008 blogSpotter

Family Guy Redux

Peter and Lois in a musical moment -- Picture courtesy of FOX TV

by blogSpotter

BUT FIRST A QUICK LOOK AT CURRENT EVENTS

There's a lot going on in the news, so I'll make this a combo "current events -- TV review" article. Obama just beat Hillary in South Carolina this weekend. Good for him, but I think Hillary will prevail hereon. Maybe I'm wrong. Rolling Stone has an article this week titled "Blame Pedro". In it, author Tim Dickinson points out that the GOP is shooting itself in the foot by demonizing Mexican immigrants. More than 9 million Latinos are expected to vote in this year's election and there is a conundrum. GOP candidates are bashing immigration to get nominated, but may have to "turn tail" when they actually want to court the Latino vote this autumn. Oh what a web we weave.... I was shocked, like everyone else at the untimely death of Heath Ledger last week. It appears he overdosed on a variety of prescription drugs including Ambien. Ledger, the handsome sought-after star, had the whole world in his hands -- his girlfriend (and mother of his daughter Matilda) only left him momentarily and conditionally; she wanted him to quit using heroin. If ever something called to mind the "Richard Corey" poem it is this tragedy.

OK, this is a wrap on my current headline review.

FAMILY GUY

Back in September '05, I did a review of FOX shows, including Family Guy. I praised the show for its originality but then retracted the "kudos" a month later when Family Guy showed cruelty toward animals. I still do not sanction that, but I must confess that I keep watching the show; its approach to everything else is bold and brash to say the least. Family Guy is now syndicated on TBS as well as other independent stations -- you can probably catch it at least 4 times a night. Something with this kind of presence on the schedule calls for an investigation. What my investigation suggests is that the show has extremely crass, laugh-out-loud gimmicks that should appeal to any frat house. The show takes no prisoners and aims its guns at everything from religion to marriage and all that is sacred. Much of the humor is in the form of pop culture segues that can only be funny to someone who keeps up a wee tad with current personalities and events. The frat that watches this show needs to have some RTF majors to explain some of the jokes.

What do I love about the show? I love the musical numbers, of which there are many. They even did “Shipoopi” from Music Man. I also have to confess to liking Stewie the scheming babie (with a British Mayfair accent) and Brian the talking family dog. Brian evinces the most maturity although in one episode he still needed house training and he has a "bestial" crush on Lois the mother. Chris is the pimply goober son, and Meg is the nerd daughter who is overshadowed by her sexy mother Lois. Many people have likened Family Guy to The Simpsons but the shows are very dissimilar. The only real similarity is that Peter, the man of the house is made out to be a selfish clown much like Homer Simpson. Their antics are different tough -- Family Guy veers wildly off-road doing jokes about aborted fetuses, Jesus and other topics that Simpsons wouldn't touch. Simpsons is your silly uncle that you can laugh with, but don't take too seriously. Family Guy is your crazy uncle that needs to keep taking the Thorazine, talk to him at your own risk.

And apparently many people, particularly college kids, Gen Y and Gen X are willing to risk the crazy, nay, demented humor of the Griffin family. The show probably appeals more to men than women -- they have lots of commercials for Jack in the Box. The "guy" humor includes lots of violence, hitting and occasional cruelty to animals. I don't like that angle but it is cartoon in nature -- it's played "for laughs" and not real. The other aspects of the show will test you in every way. If you have a high threshold for being offended, give this show a look. You'll laugh, be horrified, and laugh again.

© 2008 blogSpotter

Whew!

McCain in Portsmouth -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Normally I don’t do two blogs 1 day apart, but I have to give a giant “Whew!” that Hillary/Romney won in Nevada and McCain won in South Carolina. Let me say I’m not on fire with anyone running for either party. But Obama is inexperienced and comes across to me in some ways as smug. I’ve stated my objections in previous blogs; Huckabee has the religious connection that discomforts me and I’m sure many other non-evangelical voters. Thompson probably split the Huckabee vote, so it remains to be seen how the contest will evolve if Thompson folds.

Romney is a chronic flip-flopper but I swear I’d rather have a flip-flopper than someone like our current president who is reliably, predictably down-the-line wrong. There is at least a chance of corrective adjustability with Romney. You have a possibility other than “with me or against me” -- as was offered by W.

I can only say of Giuliani that his hour may have passed, by waiting for the Florida primary to campaign heavily. It looks like Romney or McCain may have the big “mo’” by that point. You snooze, you lose and Rudy has snoozed thru the whole pivotal month of January primaries. Huckabee could regain steam if Thompson drops out and evangelicals are down to one basic choice. One evangelical was interviewed in S. Carolina; he said he felt patronized by Huckabee’s commercials that only emphasized Christian affiliation and no platform specifics.

Obama may still have life in his campaign if he wins S. Carolina next week. This election is maddening in that front-runners have been obvious much sooner in recent elections. We all get to bite our nails in anticipation of Super Tuesday – it may be more “Super” than it has been in any previous election year.

© 2008 blogSpotter

The King of Cupertino

Jobs holding court at Macworld 2007 -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Watching Apple's Steve Jobs deliver the keynote address at Macworld 2008, I was amazed at what this tall, slender, graying man only two years my senior has accomplished in life. He's the CEO of Apple Inc and the majority share holder of Walt Disney Company.

Born in 1955, Steve was adopted by solidly middle class parents in Mountain View, California. Jobs' biological father is Syrian John Jamdali who later became a professor of political science. As a young adult, Jobs dropped out of Reed College after taking just one semester; his favorite course was calligraphy. As part of sowing his "wild oats", Jobs backpacked through India and even experimented with LSD. Steve was also an electronics whiz and interned at Hewlett Packard as a circuit board designer. Here, he met Steve Wozniak who actually built the Apple computer prototype in 1976. Jobs and Wozniak next created the Apple II which was wildly successful and made them both millionaires by age 25.

Jobs was driven out of his own company in 1985 by CEO John Sculley -- a man he hired. A power struggle developed as a result of a PC industry downturn and slow-selling Macs. Jobs went on to found NeXT computers. NeXT specialized in advanced object-oriented computers which proved to be a niche market. They did innovate things like built-in Ethernet ports and graphic mail with embedded links called "NeXTMail". In fact, the World Wide Web was partly innovated by people using NeXT computers.

Jobs managed to sell NeXT to Apple in 1996 (long after Sculley's departure) and rejoined Apple on the board of directors. He replaced Gil Amelio in 1998 after a boardroom coup, and became Apple's official CEO. The rest "is history" as they say. Jobs rolled out hit after hit starting with the bondi blue iMac, continuing with iPod and most recently with iPhone and Macbook Air. As a "sideline" activity, Jobs nurtured Pixar Studios to a successful crescendo and then sold it to Disney in return for becoming Disney's majority stock holder.

What more is there to add? He's a happily married father of four (the first child was a "love child" from the 70's). He's a California liberal, Beatles fanatic and good friend of Bill Clinton. He dated Joan Baez when she was 41 and he was @ 21. He is said to be mercurial, temperamental and egomaniacal. He had a recent scare with pancreatic cancer but it was a rare type that is non-malignant. What amazes me about this man is that he did more by the time he was 22 than most of us have done in a lifetime. He wasn't just an electronics whiz (recall, Wozniak actually designed their successful Apple I). He was and is an amazing evangelizer and technology prophet.

The only thing I would caution is becoming full of one's own success. There are aspects to "Macheads" that call to mind the cult like behavior of Scientologists. The mantras like "Think Different" and the black tee shirts are just marketing ideas as they stand -- not sacred garb or scripture. Sometimes mindless rites and rituals are the follow-on to such amazing showmanship. I, as a devoted follower of all that is Apple, must be careful not to fall into the trap! :-) May the free market keep things in check; let Windows and Linux also continue to prosper. And then may Apple continue to give us spectacular toys and computer innovations in a thoughtful and imaginative way.

We must give due credit to this Beatles-loving mercurial genius -- the King of Cupertino.

© 2008 blogSpotter

Hillary Meets the Press

Hillary being drilled by Russert -- Picture courtesy of NBC

by blogSpotter
Believe me, I’m not working for the Hillary Clinton campaign. There just happen to be two blog-worthy items in close succession. Hillary was on “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert this morning and survived admirably. She was a scrappy lady who didn’t allow herself to be backed or painted into any corner. Some people might call it dodging the question, (e.g. “Do you think Obama is qualified to be President?”) but I would call it common sense. In this example she said it was up for the voter to decide. Some questions would be political suicide if answered directly or with brutal honesty.

Hillary did not follow my advice from last week’s blog, to emphasize her femininity. In her gray tweed blazer and black sweater she looked almost unisex. My advice last week was really tongue-in-cheek; I actually prefer her serious, senatorial sartorial expression. Imagine if she showed up in a low-cut sweater and lots of rouge -- she and we would never hear the end of it.

Russert tried to take Hillary to task for two issues for most of the hour: her recent comments regarding Martin Luther King and her 2002 vote for the Iraq invasion. The only thing is, Hillary wouldn’t allow herself or those topics to be corralled in any particular way. She actually out-shouted Russert at one point; he was trying to make her clam up so he could finish showing a graphic and she didn’t like the lack of context in which his question was being asked. She overrode him and finished her own caveat undaunted by Russert.

I read the original remarks about Dr. King, and never for a moment thought that the Clintons were dissing the civil rights leader or playing any kind of race card. With regards to Hillary’s 2002 vote, much of the nation including me thought that Sadam was hiding nukes in one of his palaces. We didn’t yet know that “W” was misrepresenting intelligence data and neither could we have imagined that Rumsfeld would allow Iraq to devolve into a fragmented ethnic civil war with his failed concept of “war lite”.

Hillary handled all of it with aplomb and sometimes-crafty answers that reminded me of that other Clinton. These two must coach each other a lot between debates and interviews. She was not shaken or stirred, she was feisty and ready – two qualities I thing would be really good in a President.

As I sign off on this, I’m watching NBC’s presentation of the Golden Globe winners (sans gala presentation). The Writers’ Guild of America has now been on strike for two months. At the end of x-many months, this strike will come to an end. How nice it would be if they could pull that forward and reach the same conclusion today without sacrificing billions of dollars and setting back next season’s programs. Here’s to WGA and Hillary – hoping that both find their appropriate destinies.

© 2008 blogSpotter

Coaching Points for Hillary

Hillary being serious -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Today's blog is being written on the Sunday between the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries. Let's see if we can summarize things succinctly.

HEAVEN HELP US

First let me say that I'm rather horrified at the Iowa results. In previous blogs I've reviewed the problems with Obama -- he didn't pay his college parking fines and he made up stories for his much more recent autobiography. Also, he has no experience. He was buoyed by young, "independent" females who are imbuing him with rock star, glam attributes -- attributes that have nothing to do with effective governing. On the GOP side, Huckabee is an ordained Baptist minister and as such scares the Hell out of me -- especially on the heels of Ayatollah W. Fortunately polls are only giving Huckabee a minor lift; John McCain seems to have been the biggest beneficiary of Romney's shameful, humiliating defeat in Iowa.

However for Democrats, Obama is now the front-runner in New Hampshire having been dubbed the "change" candidate. Hillary Clinton didn't help matters much in a recent Iowa photo shoot that shows her lined up with several gray-haired, 70ish operatives -- she looks positively geriatric. The picture looks like it was taken at a nursing home.

NEW COACHING POINTS FOR HILLARY

I'm going to contradict -- nay trounce the very advice I would've given Hillary 6 months ago. I would've told Hillary 6 months ago to shun anything too feminine. Old advice: Wear square-cut, masculine pant suits in subdued colors like navy, black, gray and brown. Wear minimal makeup. Don't laugh, giggle or toss your hair too much -- it looks girlish and non-Presidential. Wear a sensible hair-do that shows all of the gray. Don't cut up or make light of anything. People will say, "That crazy dame".

Now as it happens in yesterday's NH Primary debate, Hillary had one good moment and that was when she made light of a questioner bringing up her low likeability quotient. She said with a wink, "That hurts my feelings. I'm not all that bad". The room erupted in laughter and for the first time in a long time, people discovered she might have a fun side. Hillary has a lighter side! It was even news to me. The main handle given to Obama is that he represents change. Hillary does too, although she's subdued her femininity and locked it away in the hall closet. Everyone said it was a liability, and she took it too much to heart.

Here is new Hillary advice: Hillary, wear a dress now and then. It's OK to wear turquoise, magenta or kelly green. You can wear things that are form-fitting and even lower the neckline a little bit. A little more makeup won't hurt either -- define the eyes and the lips. Some jangly jewelry will up the Femme factor. Mind you, don't be a big slut -- nobody wants Britney in the White House. Just make sure that people know you're a girl. It's OK to smile, laugh and even giggle. It's recommended that you tell a joke or certainly laugh at someone else's. Flip your hair now then, and I recommend you hide some of the gray. Lighten up and add some color to the equation. You DO represent a change, but one that too many people have pooh-poohed -- "a gurl in the White House". Is this advice superficial? Absolutely – it appears that surface attributes are making a big difference in this election.

At this point, I don't really think Obama is on a "juggernaut". The same young people who have caucused for him are the ones notoriously more likely to skip voting on Election Day. For both Democrats and Republicans, everything is still in play. We should fasten our seatbelts because the next month of primaries will be a very bumpy ride. Stay tuned.

© 2008 blogSpotter

Labels: Elections, Politics

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd, about to give a "close shave" -- Picture courtesy of DreamWorks SKG

by blogSpotter
I went to see Sweeney Todd over New Years break, and I have to say that director Tim Burton's dark, turbulent vision was stunning in almost every respect. The actors seemed to be possessed by their characters, particularly Johnny Depp as the vengeance-addled Todd and Helena Bonham Carter as the diabolical Mrs. Lovett. I had always thought the story of the serial-killing barber was a new idea conceived for the 1979 Sondheim musical -- and what a morbid plot line for a musical. Turns out I was mistaken.

Sweeney Todd is definitely morbid, but the story is an English folk legend dating from the early 19th century. Crime writer Peter Haining has claimed that the story is true, but no records verify that a Todd ever existed or did what was claimed circa 1802. The story first appeared in print in 1846 in The Peoples Periodical; Thomas Prest was the author and it's speculated that he mixed together several crime stories and then embellished what he had. Both in the play and the 2007 movie, the barber's victims are sent by trap door to Mrs. Lovett's butchering basement to be turned into meat pies. This is an urban legend that was later added to Prest's already incredible story of a wrathful barber who slits the throats of unsuspecting customers.

The story has been told so many times that character names and plot lines have branched into competing versions. In the new movie version, a young innocent Benjamin Barker (later renamed Todd) is sent away to prison on trumped up charges by Judge Turpin. Turpin is an unscrupulous man whose aim is to seduce away Barker's beautiful blonde wife while Barker is in incarcerated. Barker comes back from prison to find that his wife is apparently dead from suicide and Turpin has guardianship of Barker's 15 year old daughter Johanna. Barker becomes overwhelmed with rage and a desire for revenge. The story overall serves as a parable for the destructive power of anger. Barker changes his name to Todd and leases a shop above Mrs. Lovett's meat pies, on Fleet Street. He sets about killing unsuspecting customers with his shaving scalpel -- for practice and in anticipation of eventually killing Judge Turpin. Mrs. Lovett becomes his willing accomplice and common law wife. Together, they adopt a waif named Toby who only knows at the outset that his adoptive parents have a successful meat pie business.

Sweeney Todd calls to mind Little Shop of Horrors, where deserving dastards are fed to a carnivorous plant named Audrey. But Little Shop is constructively cynical; Seymour Krelborn is an unwitting accomplice and not evil himself. Only the bad guys die and eventually Seymour understands that Audrey must be stopped. In Todd, the innocent are killed along with the guilty and there is no apparent remorse over innocent blood being spilled. One understands that even if Todd was wronged, his deranged spite has turned him into a monster and he must be stopped.

Speaking of blood, Todd has lots of graphic violence; eight people are shown getting their throats slit in fairly slow motion (once during a rousing musical homage to Johanna). This isn't for the squeamish or small children; I closed my eyes when I saw it coming. There were other items of note. Sacha Baron Cohen plays the fop Signor Pirelli; he is so good in the role and so well made-up I wouldn't have recognized the actor from Borat without seeing the credits. Jamie Bower plays the sailor Anthony Hope, young suitor of Johanna. Bower is so androgynous, I wasn't sure if I was looking at a man or a woman even after seeing him full in the face. His full lips and doe eyes look positively feminine but he sings with a deep voice and at least in the movie's plot line is seeking a lady love. Normally such male leads have appeal to teenage girls; can't imagine a lot of young teens coming to see the Todd carnage unless maybe they're diehard Johnny Depp fans.

In sum, the movie is an awesome bit of story telling. The renderings of London in the 1850's, the monochromatic sepia tones, the eerie music all are important ingredients. Cannot say I've ever really seen a "horror musical" where the violence is so graphic and central to the plot. Never thought I'd recommend one for viewing until I saw this masterpiece over the weekend.

© 2008 blogSpotter