January 2012
5 posts
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WatchHamell on Trial is one of my role models for geriatric parenting. Look how smoothly he works his son, Detroit, into his Kickstarter pitch.
Open Statement : The Help :: Mountain : Molehill →
I’m dismayed by the over-reaction of opponents to The Help. Their hyperbolic statements trying to suggest that all black experiences of the 1960s in the South (and by extension all white people’s) were exactly the same, are as absurd as the idea that The Help is representative of the era. By rewriting the Jim Crow racism and Civil Rights struggle into an all black versus all white...
“It’s unlikely any of you would have heard *note one* from [the @Kleptones] if...”
– …and they aren’t even from the US.
All of my sites will be on SOPA/PIPA strike just like Hectic City » Blog Archiv » On strike.
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December 2011
11 posts
this. →
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BNAT 13 (Wolf) Wrap-Up
Thanks to @HeadGeek666 for inviting Becky and I to his 24-hour birthday movie marathon, once more. I’m not saying it’s our last one, but next year we hope to be managing a 5 month old at this time. We’ll probably be practiced up on sleep deprivation, but it would be odd if we both skipped out for a dozen movies in a row. We’ll tackle that as we come to it, but here’s...
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“…saying that a Negative X intensifies a Positive Y imagines a fairness and...”
– This isn’t what people mean when they say that suffering exists to provide contrast/context to joy. If I show you a graph that displays how much I enjoyed CABIN IN THE WOODS you’d see a chart with a single line. That’s not terribly useful. If I added to that chart a line showing my...
“…One man rolled to the ground and vomited for a long, long time before...”
– We live in a police state where massive fraud that decimates our economy is rewarded with absurd bonuses or golden parachutes, but peaceful protestors are assaulted under instructions from the people we elected.
Read the whole thing at My Occupy LA Arrest by Patrick Meighan.
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“[PayPal] kept us from helping children at Christmas, which is really the best...”
– PayPal collected fees from all the transactions where Regretsy was trying to do good for Christmas, then locked up Regretsy’s account and made them return all the money (while keeping the PayPal fees.) Read the details at CATS 1, KIDS 0.
(Thanks to a friend with a locked twitter account for...
“I’m very, very, concerned about having U.S. citizens sent to Guantanamo...”
– When Rand Paul and Dianne Feinstein agree on something, we should all pay attention. (And when Lindsey Graham says American citizens ought to be detained without due process, the people of South Carolina should be angry or ashamed.)
Read more at Senate Votes To Let Military Detain Americans...
November 2011
14 posts
3 tags
The full slate of nominees for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards is as follows:
Best Feature (Award given to the Producer)
50/50
Beginners
Drive
Take Shelter
The Artist
The Descendants
Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Mike Mills, Beginners
Jeff Nichols, Take Shelter
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive
Best First Feature (Award...
Table Talk
(↵ REBLOGGED FROM MARJOREE)
My dad: I think Gingrich is looking like the most reasonable candidate.
My dad's friend: Better than Romney, yeah.
Me: I think the most reasonable housewife on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is definitely Adrienne.
Everyone: ...
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Secret Sunshine (2007) - 12/15/2011
With her young son in tow, a widow moves to the village where her husband was born, and life seems to return to normal — until the boy is kidnapped. Average Netflix rating: 3.1
Best Worst Movie (2009) - 12/20/2011
Most people don’t set out to produce a horrible film, so how exactly does it happen? This documentary attempts to answer that...
“It is worth noting that in the Columbia photo, the one without helmets, guns, or...”
– Read what UC Davis professor Bob Ostertag calls “Militarization Of Campus Police”.
“I get why … petitions are starting left and right and why regular,...”
– Another great story giving basis to the OWS protests at How I’m Part of the 99% | Mocha Momma.
Anonymous asked: Want to hear a joke: A dyslexic...
Anonymous:
This joke does not make sense to me. Unless you have dyslexia, in which case this isn’t a joke it’s just a sentence written by a person with dyslexia. I’m rewriting your joke. A man with dyslexia walks into a bar. He has dyslexia not polio, so his walking into places was not affected. However, he did misread “beer” and ordered a “reeb” because when he read the drink menu card thing he...
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Harry Potter the complete set comes out...
“I’m still getting people asking me about the order in which I decided to...”
– @DrewAtHitFix wraps up watching Star Wars with his sons. Great stuff that will become as much a part of the conversation around Star Wars as any extra on the discs. I imagine 100 years from now a culture study class will be discussing the correct order of watching these films, and Drew’s...
Hamell On Trial Visits American Songwriter →
and tells the tale of his guitar. Poet, acoustic, virtuoso, punk. Want more? http://piecr.us/t/rantroll
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“When Joe Homeowner bought too much house…he was an irresponsible putz who...”
– Great article in Rolling Stone that gets to the heart of Occupy Wall Street. Be sure to watch the video near the top, too.
Read Wall Street Isn’t Winning It’s Cheating | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone.
October 2011
7 posts
“With the tagline, “I am the Asshole %,” artist Ryan Casey…”
– almost completely misses the point. Just being wealthy or having a large paycheck isn’t a bad thing. Spending money, in itself, isn’t a bad thing. (Actually, if Beyonce is working on a 2,200 sq ft nursery then she’s putting money back into the economy and putting people to work....
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“Civil disobedience will not be tolerated,” Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told...”
– I think a few civics teachers in Boston need to teach Menino some American history he may have missed during his initial education, then I hope the voters will teach him another lesson next election.
Police Arrest 100 Occupy Boston Protesters | Fox Business (link via billjank)
“…think of the Grover Norquist acolytes who, their government-paid health...”
– This article, “The Job Killers” at Mother Jones scathingly exposes the problems with “starve the beast”. As I’ve said many times, my problem is the dishonesty of the rank and file GOP actively involved in this action against the U.S. government. They won’t even...
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In Midst Of The #OccupyWallStreet Protests J.P.... →
“New York City Police Foundation — New York JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the...
September 2011
16 posts
1 tag
“YOU’RE ALL GETTING LOCKED UP!”. Some of the people on the block had not even...”
– Here’s a first-hand account of the Occupy Wall Street protest. It is exceedingly clear the police were not interested in citizen’s rights. Arrest ‘em all and let the judge sort it all. I hope they find that the cost to the city, and the police suspended and fired as a result,...
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Disc New Releases - 9/20/2011
Top of the Pops: Bridesmaids – The summer comedy that finally let women dominate the funny spotlight. It’s no surprise this was going to happen, nor that it was done by SNL writers/actresses. Possibly the funniest thing I’ve seen this year. I actually had tears in my eyes, I laughed so hard.
Classic Re-Issue: Dumbo – I’ve had issues with Disney’s iron-fisted control over home releases of...
“…big public companies will continue to cut jobs in an effort to prop up...”
– Mark Cuban sounds a little like an As-Seen-On-TV shiller in his blog about how being taxed makes him feel patriotic, but he’s right about a lot of things in that post. This quote is the highlight, though. Tax cuts given to large corporations will at worst just increase stock value with no real...
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"More Growing Up" by Hamell on Trial
I don’t know if any of the previous chapters in any way could have explained the lifestyle choices that led me toThe Psycho Waitress and so many women like her. Child of alcoholic parents, drug and alcohol addiction, a steady stream of brown organic mescaline, the intoxicating allure of danger, people, places and things, blah, blah, blah. I just craved a non-stop roller-coaster ride. Not to...
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"Growing Up" by Hamell on Trial
My first very vague memory is being pushed down a snowy driveway on a sled by my mother. This had to be in Springfield Mass. where I was born. My next memory, I must have been around 4, is arriving at the house in Syracuse where I spent the next 25 years of my life. Snow, as anyone who lives in Upstate New York knows plays a major part of your life. It snows from pretty much October until May....
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"The Kings" by Hamell on Trial
We were always getting the opening slot for some up and coming recording band that was traveling through promoting their new release. They were typically defined as “New Wave’ whatever the hell that was. We were drawing astonishingly well for a band that didn’t play any “covers’ so the agent was making a mint putting asses in the seats and giving us a whopping $100. Suckers ‘til the end. It...
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"As Close As I Could Get" by Hamell on Trial
In 1980 our band opened for Badfinger in Albany New York. I was certainly aware of them because of their hits, and the fact that they were The Beatles baby brother band, they were on their label, Apple, and were heavily touted and influenced by them. I also knew that they were broke and this led to the tragic suicide of one of their founding members, Pete Hamm. It was not a pretty sight.
...
“…the third item said the player could even complete an unassisted triple...”
– The Trenches should be in your reader — or if your one of those luddites who still browses the internet manually, they appear to be publishing every Tuesday/Thursday — even if you aren’t a game player or familiar with the game industry. Just as my dad (who worked his whole career...
“Maybe…the death of a feckless twentysomething is inevitable if we are to...”
– Indecent - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
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Disc New Releases - 9/13/2011
Top of the Pops: Thor – The worst of the Avenger lead-in films, yet still worth seeing in anticipation of (our Geek Lord and Master) Joss Whedon’s upcoming feature. It is also available in nauseating 3D, and in the Best Buy exclusive packaging with a comic book.
Classic Re-Issue: Citizen Kane – While it doesn’t hold up to contemporary standards, it repeatedly demonstrates why it is possibly...
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Disc New Releases - 9/6/2011
Top of the Pops [Contender #1]: X-Men: First Class – Most home movie dollars this week will be spent with this movie. It’s not bad, particularly for comic book fan-boys — although considering my huge crush on Jennifer Lawrence, my judgement is questionable.
Top of the Pops [Contender #2]: Hanna – The best big budget release this week is this one. Sometimes when you have a top-notch director,...