Media – Page 37 – Doug's Views

May 23, 2009April 18, 2020

Weekend Ear Candy: Mozz turns 50!

It was 1987 and I was hanging out at a campus bar in Columbus. The name escapes me but you had to go into a basement and it was as if someone had turned their dark and dingy basement into a bar. Dark and full of smoke. The strobe lights beckoned you to the dance floor except before getting hammered no one danced except the girls. After your first pitcher or bucket of swill light beer you got up to the floor and danced with anyone who looked female in the strobe lights. At some point the DJ would play “How soon is now…” and at this basement bar the song seemed to fit the style and atmosphere.

Then too soon the night was over and the staff donned baseball bats to “encourage” you to leave and if you made up the stairs to the ground level you had a good night. Going home with someone or having a non-fake phone number was better – too few – but better.

Morrissey, from The Smiths and his own great solo career, turned 50 on May 22nd. Here is my favorite Morrissey/Smiths song “How soon is Now”

April 26, 2009April 18, 2020

Weekend Ear Candy: Seal “Crazy”

I will admit that my taste in music has always been mature. While other guys were head banging or playing the latest Rush album when I was a kid, I liked to listen to standards or the music of the Rat Pack – the 1960’s lush lounge music or horn heavy Motown soul. For this week’s weekend ear candy, I am highlighting “Crazy”, the first hit for the singer Seal from 1991. Sure it was a popular song on the radio then, reaching number seven on the Billboard Music Charts, but my friends thought it was a one off novelty song and they didn’t follow his career like I did.

I like his music because of the use of strings and horns on many tunes and the funky electronic sequencing like on “Crazy”. And yes I am jealous that he is married to super model Heidi Klum. Here is a live performance of “Crazy”.

Seal – Crazy

April 24, 2009April 18, 2020

Yes, where WAS the media while the US used torture?

The most ironic thing about this entire torture scandal isn’t that the Bushies and their neo-con lackies are trying to defend the indefensible – which is funny and sad at the same time, but that our mainstream press is now doing their job and asking tough questions and not letting the Bushies off as easy as before. I mean it looks really bad to know they ignored the topic since 2001 when it first came out.

I’m with blogger wmtriallawyer who wrote:

Oh yes, outside of the loons of Hannity, et. al., now many in the mainstream media are showing their absolute indignation (HARUMPH! HARUMPH!) after the Obama administration released the memos to show what we all already knew: the United States of America tortured prisoners, and tried to cook up legal justification for it by calling it enhanced interrogation techniques.
Well, welcome to the club Shep and Norah and whoever else. But you are seven years too late in your outrage.
Where were you this was actually going on? Where were you when the evidence was seeping out? Shoot, where were you when the Bush administration basically admitted they were doing it?
Silent as lambs, you were.
Media Starts Doing Job 7 Years Too Late

So, while I am happy this issue is being treated how it should be – as illegal and un-American – I want to know where the media was seven years ago?

April 18, 2009April 18, 2020

Teabaggers can’t handle the truth

The best part of this past week’s Tea Bag protest sponsored by Fox News happened in Pensacola Florida when a person who agreed to speak told the crowd the truth. That those making less than $250,000 will be taxed less and the blame for the economic crisis we face lies squarely on the Republican party and the Bush administration.

Sinfonian, a blogger at Blast Off!!! blog, has the details:

Seriously — I didn’t realize there would be an opportunity to speak, but they were practically begging folks to come up and say a few words … and I was right there…
I enjoyed the part when I asked, “How many here make less than $250,000 a year?” and there’s a big cheer … then it goes quiet again when I tell them they’ll pay less in taxes under the Obama plan. That’s about when the murmuring started …
My favorite part, though, is as I continue to gripe about the years from 2000 to 2008 (yeah, it’s ’01 to ’09, but you have to “speak to your audience,” y’know), and then I hit them with “place the blame where it belongs: squarely on the Republican Party and the Bush administration,” they pretty much lost their shit at that point. That was fun.
DFH blogger speaks at Pensacola Tea Party … and lives to tell the tale

Here’s the video of the event:

Now we know why the Republican party requires you to sign a loyalty oath before being allowed to attend one of their events. How else to you suppress the truth?

My only other comment about the events on the 15th is that it made me sad to see so many ignorant racist people involved with the protest. I know it will take time to reverse the Alfred E Bush dumbass effect from the past 8 years but it still makes our country look bad.

*Update 4/18/09*

Actually I had planned not to make any more comments about the Fox News Teabag movement until I came across a great point by writer Matt Taibbi:

In other words teabaggers don’t mind paying taxes to fund the salaries of Bolivian miners, Lou Gerstner’s stock options, deliveries of “sailboat fuel,” the Hermes scarves on Sandy Weill’s jet pillows, or even the export of their own goddamn jobs. But they do hate it when someone tries to re-asphalt their roads, or help bail their slob neighbor out of foreclosure. And God forbid someone propose a health care program, or increased financial aid for college. Hell, that’s like offering to share your turkey with the other Pilgrims! That’s not what America is all about! America is every Pilgrim for himself, dammit! Raise your own motherfucking turkey!
Oh, and there’s one other thing. I heard today from Steve Wamhoff of Citizens for Tax Justice. He had an interesting tidbit to offer on the teabagging movement. According to his research, 39% of respondents with incomes below $30,000 told the Gallup agency that they felt that federal income tax levels were “too high.” Which is interesting, because only 32% of respondents in that income category will pay any federal income taxes at all on their 2008 income. You can draw your own conclusions.
The really irritating thing about these morons is that, guaranteed, not one of them has ever taken a serious look at the federal budget. Not one has ever bothered to read an actual detailed study of what their taxes pay for. All they do is listen to one-liners doled out by tawdry Murdoch-hired mouthpieces like Michelle Malkin and then repeat them as if they’re their own opinions five seconds later. That’s what passes for political thought in this country. Teabag on, you fools.
Teabagging Michelle Malkin

I agree with Taibbi. Everyone at those Teabag parties are absolute morons…..

April 14, 2009April 18, 2020

Sarah Conner Chronicles fans can be strange and creepy

I admit that in some rare cases I can lose rationality when trying to be a fan of whatever I am a fan of. Be it football, a film, TV show, or music, I can sometimes seem stupid. That’s what I faced when reading the official show blog of one of my current favs – Terminator – The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Reading some of the comments from the past few episodes left me gob smacked and I hope if I ever act that way, that someone slap me upside the head. Some fans are strange and creepy.

In case you don’t know Terminator – The Sarah Conner Chronicles (aka TTSCC) is part of the Terminator movie franchise started by James Cameron with his movie Terminator in 1984. Basically humans build a defense computer called Skynet that becomes self aware and attempts to destroy humanity. It sends a Terminator (a human like cyborg) back in time to kill the mother of the leader of the human resistance. Her name is Sarah Conner. The Terminator was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What I liked about the story was the future war and John Conner. The films showed a bit of that war and glimpes of John Conner. The TV show follows Sarah and John roughly in the time period between the 2nd and 3rd film although in the first episode they threw in a time shift to 2008, so it is on its own time line.

There are two other supporting characters. One is Cameron – a reprogrammed female Terminator sent back to protect the teen aged John Conner. The other was Derrick Reese – brother of Kyle, John’s father.

Since the story is so layered and complex I sometimes check out the show’s official website. I read the producers notes and on occasion read the blog for each episode.

Although sometimes the comments from other fans bother me.

There are different views of the show and that is okay.

You have some who want more action and less talking. There are some who want more talking and less action. There are some fans who complain about logical holes in the plot – like how did one of the Terminators make it through the time displacement without being covered with living tissue.

Then some of the fans either tick me off or creep me out.

The actress who plays Cameron – Summer Glau – has her own fan base from her previous role in the TV show Firefly and those fan think that TTSCC should focus more on Cameron. They complain if she isn’t doing anything in scenes or doesn’t have a chance to beat someone up. They seem to forget it is called The Sarah Conner Chronicles so it should focus on Sarah and John with Cameron being a supporting character.

The creepy fans are the ones who crave a relationship between John Conner and Cameron. They think the human and robot should hook up. They also complain when John and Cameron aren’t in the scene. One fan even asked when they would be kissing. Ewwwww…..

I like the show and hope it gets a 3rd season but I have to remind myself not to visit the fan site too often.