Bloged in Cinema by Vinnie Vegas Tuesday May 27, 2008
Indiana Jones Does It Again
The suits are still counting all the money that the fourth Indiana Jones film earned in its opening weekend!
Right now, it looks like the total US box office for the 5-Day (Th-M) Memorial Day Weekend is $151 million dollars. On the international front, the suits estimate that the film earned a whopping $160 million.
That adds up to an amazing $ 311 million worldwide for the film’s opening weekend. This means one thing for sure: there will probably be another Indiana Jones film before Harrison Ford starts collecting Social Security!
I’ll see the movie later this week and may post a review. There are several movies I am interested in this summer (Iron Man, Indiana Jones, Prince Caspian, Incredible Hulk, Get Smart, and some more) and I’ll see if I can post thoughts on them as they are released.
“Close cover before striking. I say, Is that heavy?”
Well, it’s no secret that I think PBS sucks. There is very little on it that I find interesting, amd much of the original PBS mandate has been exceeded by the rise of private sector cable television channels that serve educational purposes.
That being said, The History Channel or The Discovery Channel haven’t come up with anything nearly as cool as one of my great heroes and role models, Easy Reader!
Back in the 1970s, PBS had quite a few shows for children - most of which left me pretty cold. I never cared much for Sesame Street (my physical resemblance to Ernie notwithstanding), and even as a young child I never connected with Fred Rogers. PBS did deliver one hip show, though - The Electric Company. Intended for slightly older kids, the show benefited from expecting a longer attention span from its viewer, as well as a very talented cast including Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman.
Well, Morgan contributed one of the classic EC characters - Easy Reader. Easy was one cool cat who bopped around town, and he loved reading so much that he would stop to read any sign he would see. Along the way, he would interact with other EC characters. Indeed, I confess that my lifelong love affair with reading started with the strong example of Easy Reader.
So sit back and enjoy this great clip from the show, featuring Easy Reader singing his theme song, with an assist from the lovely and talented Rita Moreno. They just don’t make them like this anymore!
Obama takes Bush ‘appeasement’ comment as veiled attack
U.S. President George W. Bush lashed out Thursday at those who would negotiate with “terrorists,” calling the approach comparable to the “appeasement” of Adolf Hitler before the Second World War, comments that were perceived by Senator Barack Obama as a personal attack.
“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said in a speech to Israel’s parliament as part of the country’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
No names were mentioned, but it was widely seen as a criticism of Democratic presidential nomination front-runner Obama, who has expressed willingness to meet with leaders of U.S. adversaries such as Iran and Syria.
The Illinois senator was quick to respond by issuing a statement accusing Bush of launching a “false political attack” and stressing that he doesn’t support engagement with terrorists.
White House press secretary Dana Perino flatly denied the idea that the remark wasaimed in any way at Obama.
Bush was referring to “a wide range of people who have talked to or suggested” we talk to such opponents as Hamas, Hezbollah or their state sponsors, said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
The comment also comes after former president Jimmy Carter held talks with Hamas leaders last month and pushed for the militant group to be brought into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Bush’s lengthy speech focused on promoting the strong alliance between the United States and Israel, but during it he also took aim at those who make the case for negotiating with “terrorists and radicals.”
He said that when Nazi tanks had crossed into Poland, an American senator declared that if they had talked to Hitler, the situation could’ve been avoided.
Bush said that such “false comfort of appeasement” has been “repeatedly discredited by history.”
In Obama’s responding statement, he said, “It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel.”
“Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power — including tough, principled and direct diplomacy — to pressure countries like Iran and Syria,” he said.
Since Barry opened the door by insisting that the comment was about him, I thought I’d do a little detective work and see why anyone would think this was about him.
So set the wayback machine to one of those 21 Democrat Party debates for some insight into Senator Obama’s approach in dealing with nutty rogue nations.
To be fair, President Bush’s comments were about negotiating with ‘terrorists’ and in this clip Obama is just referencing terrorist enablers. Close enough, I think, for him to have a guilty mind about this.
PS - That Democrat who uploaded the video of his question must be one of those fertile minds that dominate liberal ranks. He notes that Anwar Sadat had the courage to go to Israel in 1982. That’s quite a trick, since he was murdered in 1981!
The Golden Child himself, Barry Obama, was visiting some autoworkers when crackerjack ABC reporter Peggy Agar of WXYZ tried to ask the presumptive Democrat Presidential nominee a question.
Evidently she caught ol’ Barry with his mind on more important things than her and her question, so he waves her off with “Hold on one second, Sweetie,” and promised to answer the question later, a promise he didn’t keep.
Of course, she didn’t appreciate being called ‘Sweetie,’ and her sisters in arms joined her outrage at the comment, quickly characterizing his word choice as sexist and dismissive.
Senator Obama did call her afterward and apologized to her. Now Peggy Agar has enjoyed her brief national moment, and goes back to an existence where nobody in his right mind would ever refer to her as ‘Sweetie.’
Bloged in Cinema, Music, Video by Vinnie Vegas Wednesday May 14, 2008
Indiana Jones Returns in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Well, every kid on my block is getting ready for the return of Indiana Jones on May 22nd in the fourth film of the series. It’s really something that the first Indy film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, came out way back in 1981, and that the third film, The Last Crusade, came out in 1989, almost twenty years ago. How times flies!
Well, Harry Ford is now older than Sean Connery was when Connery played Indy’s aging dad in the 1989 film. Needless to say, the special effects wizards will have to work overtime to keep things looking decent! Still, for oldschool fans like me there is an excitement in the air.
Instead of carting out one of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull trailers for this post, I thought I would get us all in the Indiana Jones mood in a different way. Over at Youtube, my friend Mario (AKA Goldentusk) puts his classically trained voice to the test now and then in an interesting manner. He takes memorable themes from movies, writes funny lyrics to the tunes, and performs the finished product.
His results are consistently excellent. So sit back and enjoy his latest song, Indiana Jones and the Song of Theme.
Bloged in News by Vinnie Vegas Tuesday May 13, 2008
Well, that’s an easy way to make $35,000
Well back in October we reported about the mannish young woman who caused a fracas in a downtown NYC restaurant bathroom. She was so traumatized by the incident that she decided to follow that American time-honored tradition - she sued!
Well, looks like she settled the case, and the restaurant is forking over $ 35,000. Absurd, really, but it’s the way the law works in the 21st Century.
Lesbian chased out of NYC bathroom settles suit
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 05/13/2008 11:56:18 AM PDT
NEW YORK - A popular restaurant has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a lawsuit with a lesbian who said a bouncer chased her out of the women’s bathroom and forced her to leave because she looked masculine.
The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund announced the settlement Tuesday on behalf of Khadijah Farmer.
The Caliente Cab Company, while denying the allegations, also agreed to add gender identity to its nondiscrimination policy, amend its employee handbook with a section on customer restroom use and adopt a gender-neutral employee dress code.
Farmer said the confrontation at the Greenwich Village eatery occurred June 24 after she attended New York City’s annual Gay Pride march.
“We believe the changes implemented will serve all the members of the community well in the years to come,” the company said in a news release.
The Man of Steel is firmly established as Earth’s greatest superhero. The Last Son of Krypton has faced many challenges in his 70 year career, and each time he has persevered and triumphed.
Which makes the cover of Superman # 261 all the more puzzling. This 1973 comic presents such a striking and startling image that I had to add it to our collection of Greatest Comic Covers.
WOW! I never thought I would ever see such a scene! And I think that’s Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in the lower right, equally astonished!
Needless to say, this cover makes my mind race at about 200 MPH! After a quick drink and cigarette, my wits are usually restored. The baddie is none other than the forgettable Star Sapphire, and she seems to take a perverse delight in getting The Man of Steel to worship her boots. And heaven help us, it doesn’t appear that ol’ Superman is entirely against the concept!
I must confess that Star Sapphire does have lovely long legs and very nice boots! Mother of Mercy!
In any event, I have no doubt that this cover warped the sensibilities of tens of thousands of youth back in the early 1970s. I know that’s how it worked out for me.
When clerics, ministers and businessmen gathered at a forum in Riyadh in April to discuss women in the workplace, there were no women in sight.
Typically for Saudi Arabia, the women who took part were seated in a separate room so the men could only hear them.
Such things are part and parcel of the complex system of social control maintained by clerics of Saudi Arabia’s austere version of Sunni Islamic law, often termed Wahhabism. It is a system called into question by scholar Hatoon al-Fassi.
In her study, Women In Pre-Islamic Arabia, the outspoken rights advocate argues women in the pre-Islamic period enjoyed considerable rights in the Nabataean state, an urban Arabian kingdom centred in modern Jordan, south Syria and north-west Saudi Arabia during the Roman empire.
Most controversially, Fassi says women in Nabataea - whose capital was the famous rose-red city of Petra in south Jordan, and which was at its height during the lifetime of Jesus Christ - enjoyed more freedom than in Saudi Arabia today because clerics have misunderstood the origins of Islamic law. She also suggests some Saudi restrictions on women may have their origins in Greco-Roman traditions.
“One of the objectives of this book is to question the assumption of subordination of women in pre-Islamic Arabia,” Fassi writes. “Most of the practices related to women’s status are based on some local traditional practices that are not necessarily Islamic. Nor are they essentially Arabian.”
You can enjoy the rest of the article at the link above!
The suits are still counting all the money that the fourth Indiana Jones film earned in its opening weekend!
