July 12, 2009

Horrors!

I've seen a lot of news stories recently about Barack Obama's approval rating.

Apparently, it is declining.

Historically, this is what tends to happen when a new president comes in.  The people approve of him until he actually starts to promote his policy.  At this point, people start to disapprove because this is the U.S.A. and we're free to express our disagreement with the government.

What's interesting is the shocked tone of these latest stories.

Is it possible, the mainstream media seems to be asking, that there are actually people out there who are not 100% behind President Obama?

It's pathetic really.

July 10, 2009

Love, American Style: Love and the Nice Piece of Ass

As North Korea continues to shoot missile in our general direction, the people of Iran and Honduras struggle to earn the right to exist, and Barack Obama's health care plan stands poised to serve as the foundation for a new America (though not a better America), we find ourselves asking the obvious question.

Was Barack Obama ogling the ass of a shapely French teenager?

The Obama World View 

In the defense of our President, his eyes actually seem to be focused on something other than the backside in question.  (As opposed to the gaze of  Nicolas Sarkozy, who is quickly establishing himself as the coolest European leader since Silvio Berlusconi.)

Also, in defense of President Obama, I would have looked too.

It's a nice ass.

Bill Clinton, have no doubt, would have checked it out.  Warren Harding would have sent an aide to get her name.  John F. Kennedy would have followed her up the stairs and the world would have responded with a sigh of contentment.  Jimmy Carter would have definitely lusted after her in his heart.  And, if Ted Kennedy had ever been elected President, he would have definitely ended up leaving her at the bottom of the English Channel.

It worries me to think that Barack Obama actually wasn't ogling the girl in question.  If he couldn't notice that, what hope is there for him to ever capture the subtle nuances of the presidency?

July 09, 2009

Dizzy Spells At Work

Today's big news:

Around 9 in the morning, while I was at my hated day job, I was suddenly hit by a wave of dizziness.  For some reason, I reacted to this by trying to take a step forward.  The end result was my falling to the floor and staying down there for a couple of minutes.

That, quite honestly, was a rather odd experience though it only became disturbing in retrospect.  At the time, I was so surprised and embarrassed that all I could do was make a joke and move on.

Anyway, I managed to stay on my feet for the rest of the day though the dizzy spells continued to occur at irregular intervals.

If this is still going on tomorrow, I'll make a doctor's appointment to get myself checked out. 

Obviously, I'm hoping it is nothing.

July 08, 2009

Here Come The Horsemen

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse...

The new season of Big Brother starts tomorrow!

It's the return of Television That Makes You Doubt The Existence of a Fair and Just God!

What's truly sad is that, even though I know the show is totally fake and ultimately probably quite detrimental to American culture in general, I will be watching.

I guess I watch Big Brother for the same reason that will lead many people to vote to reelect Barack Obama in 2012.

Even though I know I shouldn't, I'm too lazy to find anything better to do.

July 07, 2009

Triumph of the Will

I watched a bit of the Michael Jackson Memorial Service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  It was a uniquely American spectacle in that it managed to be touching, horrifying, and mind-numbingly predictable all at the same time.

One has to wonder if anyone outside of the world of Media and Media-junkies really cared.

July 04, 2009

Happy Independence Day

As this 4th of July comes to a close, there's a lot of things I want to say about the state of America today.

And I was going to say them all.

But this not the day for partisan bitterness.

This is not the day to be a pessimist.

This is a day to remember what the promise of America is and to decide for yourself whether or not this nation is living up to that promise.

I know how I would answer that question.

I hope you know how you would answer as well.

Whether you agree or disagree with me is beyond the point.

All that matters is that, whatever you may believe, believe it because it's what you know to be true as opposed to what you desire to be true.

Happy Independence Day.

Don't take it for granted.

July 01, 2009

Karl Malden, R.I.P.

Malden

Actor Karl Malden has died.  He was 97 years old.

For members of my generation, our first real exposure to Karl Malden came when he was president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and, as a result, always got to deliver the show-stopping "mission statement" at a handful of Oscar ceremonies.  Even in that somewhat colorless role, he always came across as a genuinely decent, blue collar guy.  If nothing else, he was certainly a good deal less pompous than Arthur Hiller.

(Malden later contributed to one of the biggest Oscar controversies in recent years when he spearheaded the effort to award name dropper Elia Kazan an honorary award.)

Malden, however, had a long career an actor.  For much of his career, he was the urban everyman, an often-overlooked, hardworking figure who, more or often than not, ended up becoming a figure of moral authority simply based on the fact that you could simply look at Malden's face and tell that he had spent every day of his life making an honest living.  Indeed, it was this innate sense of decency that made it all the more devastating when his weak-willed Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire finally ended up rejecting Vivian Leigh's Blanche.  This sense of decency actually tempted one to overlook the fact that his crusading priest in On the Waterfront is essentially used to justify "naming names."  Just try to imagine sitting through Patton without Karl Malden's practical-minded Omar Bradley there to balance out the megalomania of George C. Scott's Patton.

Malden was such a reliable actor that he was also quite often a rather underrated actor.  Though it happened very rarely, occasionally he was cast against type and allowed to show that he had a good deal more range than one might suspect.  A prime example of this came in Marlon Brando's sole directorial effort, the western One-Eyed Jacks where Malden was a chilling and believable bad guy. Legend has it that the film's original director -- the legendary Stanley Kubrick -- walked off the film because he felt that Malden's casting was a mistake and that Brando (who also played the film's lead role) would easily dominate Malden.  (Reportedly, Kubrick hoped to cast Spencer Tracy in the villainous role.)  In the end, however, it was Malden's performance that dominated the final film and Brando who often seemed to be miscast.  

Allow me to mention one final underrated Malden performance.  As an unabashed fan of the old school Italian giallo, this one is a personal favorite of mine. In Dario Argento's 3rd film, The Cat O' Nine Tales, Malden is cast as a blind, retired journalist who -- along with James Fransiscus -- is drawn into a rather complex murder mystery.  It is, admittedly, a rather cutesy role but Malden plays it with just the right balance of genuine pathos and enigmatic menace.  Indeed, by the end of the film, the audience can't help but feel rather ambiguous toward Malden's nominal hero.  The film's finale -- in which Malden, incorrectly believing that his granddaughter has been murdered, ruthlessly kills the bad guy just to then hear his granddaughter's anguished scream of "Papa!" -- is a lot more effective than it has any right to be and this is largely because of Malden's performance.

Like many of the great film character actors of the 40s and 50s, Malden eventually ended up turning to television.  His most famous role was as the lead detective in The Streets of San Francisco.  I must confess that, during the rare times that reruns turned up in syndication, I have never been able to sit through an entire episode of The Streets of San Francisco.  This is through no fault of Malden's.  It's just that the show is as resolutely a symbol of its time as the various CSIspin-offs are today.   As a result, the show has not aged well.  Everything from the theme music to the announcer informing us that the show is "A Quinn Martin Production" has taken on an element of camp.  Everything except for Karl Malden.

A few years back, I read an interview with Malden in which he was asked about his role on the Streets of San Francisco.  Malden reflected on the irony of the fact that this by-the-book cop show starred two of the most resolutely liberal actors in Hollywood.  The reason why I remembered Malden's comment is because it was delivered without apology.  He neither apologized for being liberal nor did he apologize for giving a sympathetic portrayal of a conservative.  In these partisan times, there's something comforting about discovering that there actually were accomplished, professional people who were capable of being politically-minded without succumbing to stridency.

(Malden was, for his entire career, an outspoken Democrat.  Though, it should be noted, he was a member of the Democratic Party that gave us Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey and not the Democratic Party that has since produced Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.)

For me, Malden's best television role was in the true-crime miniseries, Fatal Vision.  Playing the antagonistic father-in-law of convicted murderer Jeffrey McDonald (played, in a truly chilling performance, by Gary Cole), Malden once again embodied something that was both uniquely American and uniquely blue collar.  To his efforts to convict that man who killed his daughter, Malden brought a compelling determination and a palpable pathos that distinguished both this movie in specific and Karl Malden's career in general.

Karl Malden, R.I.P.

June 30, 2009

A Calm, Classy Post About Al Franken

It's official.

Al Franken is now a U.S. Senator and the Democrats are pretty much unstoppable.

What to say about this?

Well, it sucks, doesn't it?

Still, there is a silver lining.

The more powerful you are, the more Americans are going to fantasize about seeing you fall.

As for Al Franken...

Oh, Al Franken can go fuck himself.

June 28, 2009

Rhode Island No More

Rhode Island is on the verge of getting a new name.

If state lawmakers get their way, the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations would officially become just the "State of Rhode Island."

Personally, it seems like a bit of wasted opportunity.

Why go through all the trouble to come up with a new name if Rhode Island is the best you can do?

June 26, 2009

Quick Note

I just finished watching The Way of the Dragon.  It is still odd to see Chuck Norris killed by Bruce Lee at the end of that movie! 

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