Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Crony Jobs - Choice government careers for the taking. No experience necessary.

Recent graduate looking for work? Maybe you'll find something here that you might like.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Movies In Your Future

I love movie trailers. I know that that love comes from that time when there was no Internet or Entertainment Weekly, when the only news a person could get about movies was on the streets or movie trailers. Somewhere along the line, I'd come to believe that movie trailers were actually that, "trailers," something run after the movie to clear the theater between showings. While I've found nothing that disagrees with that believe I did find this little bit of expansion on the subject at Chasing the Frog, which, despite the name is a site devoted to "research[ing] the origins of some of the most popular (and not so popular) Hollywood films."
History of the Movie Trailer: The first movie preview played in 1912 at Rye Beach, New York. "One of the concessions hung up a white sheet and showed the serial The Adventures of Kathlyn. At the end of the reel Kathlyn was thrown in the lion's den. After this 'trailed' a piece of film asking Does she escape the lion's pit? See next week's thrilling chapter!" (Los Angeles Times, 1966).
The first studio to officially release movie trailers was Paramount in 1916, but initially only for their most anticipated films.
From Classic Movie Trailers at CTF. (That link will also allow you access to a number of movie trailers from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz.)

All that serves as introduction to a couple of previews for movies to be on the look out for. First, is Good Night, and Good Luck. I'm looking forward to this movie if only because it might introduce people under the age of forty (or those older who have no idea of where television news came from and how far it has fallen) to Edward R. Murrow. The only interaction I've ever had with a Murrow broadcast was third-hand: Seeing clips of "Harvest of Shame"; hearing about "Murrow's Boys"; and, to me most importantly, as Joseph Wershba wrote, "When this nation was drowning in cowardice and demagoguery, it was Murrow who hurled the spear at the terror," by showing the nation Joseph McCarthy tactics for the bullying they were.

The second trailer is for The Producers. I really enjoyed this show when I saw it on stage and I'm hoping that it transfers just as famously to film. Mel Brooks won the Oscar in 1968 for his screenplay for the original, non-musical version of The Producers and there would be some nice symmetry if the musical version became this generation's My Fair Lady with regards to Oscar wins. One interesting thing about the trailer for the musical version is that it feels a lot like the trailer for the original for the 1968 film (albeit with a little naughtier language). I don't know if that is good or bad, just interesting and I wonder if the trailer for the United States (the link is for the British trailer) will be the same.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him | progresive.org

Maybe Prison Break is on to something with the Sevcret Service.

I'm not saying anything, but given a choice between freedom of expression and the right to bear arms, which do you think the framers would have put more stock in? Considering that they fought a revolution against an armed enemy, I would say freedom of expression, myself.

What was the last thing of any value to come out of the southeastern United States?

Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him | progresive.org

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Trying to Catch Up

Yeah, I know I promised to post more often. Trust me, I want to post more often for myself, to help me get on something that vaguely resembles a schedule and to get over this incredible writer's block that I've come up against since January. However, between looking for a job and studying for the patent bar (which I still haven't started doing with any depth yet; it isn't like the exam isn't five weeks away or anything).

(1) I don't think I can make suggestions as to what to watch for the new season like I semi-promised. One show, Head Cases, has already been cancelled, so who knows what can happen between typing each "e" in "between." However, now that most shows have premiered, I can, at least, tell you what I have made an effort to watch:

Monday
Prison Break. To be honest, I don't care that much about the characters, the sub-plots, or the caper itself. However, I am curious to see how the show can continue after this season, so I hang around semi-watching it, so that I'll basically know who's who come the final episode.

Wednesday
Invasion. I was incredibly underwhelmed by the first episode; it had too much of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel for me to find it interesting. However, I'm hearing good things about the show, so I'll give the episode tonight a chance. If the sheriff telegraphs his alliance at any moment as he did in the first episode, I'm done.

Thursday
Everyone Hates Chris. Enjoyable enough, but I just find it difficult to find a half hour for sitcoms.

I don't watch it, but I need to chime and spread the word that no one should watch Night Stalker. This has as little to do with the original Night Stalker as the Will Smith abomination Wild, Wild West had to do with Robert Conrad's The Wild, Wild West. Had ABC and the person it tapped to bring back Night Stalker actually thought about it, they would have seen that the best way to present this show to a modern audience, would have been to present a mystery that draws in the audience. Start the series off almost like a newspaper drama, with little suggestion of the supernatural. Like in the original movie, start the first episode off with the audience seeing the first victim being killed, but Kolchak doesn't know about that. Once a bigger name, Kolchak is now covering city council meetings and house fires, often without a by-line. He longs to be back on top again, but is his own worst enemy. Finally, the third or fourth episode, Kolchak notices that girls have been disappearing, girls have been dying, but no one sees a connection: In Las Vegas, women come and go and die. Finally, at about episode eleven, Kolchak admits that the killer may be a vampire and that leads into the second half of the season when Kolchak finds he is going to have to do some awful things to stop a monster no one else believes could exist.

For this to work, a truer Kolchak should have been cast. I've read suggestions of William H. Macy in the part and I can't disagree. You need someone haggard and kind of worn down by life, not someone who poses well. Avoid Night Stalker, though the first chance you get, rent the original The Night Stalker, turn off the lights, and be pleasantly surprised to find that you will be scared.

Friday
Threshold has not been treated kindly by the critics, though not as harshly as Surface. I kind of enjoy Threshold and I like the characters. In some ways, it is more like The Invaders than Invasion is and it is a lot more fun in its melodramatic way. Besides, where else can you get to see Roc, the mother for Spy Kids, and Data all in the same scene?

(2) The Muppets and Jim Henson have been in the news more than you may have realized. Jerry Juhl, head writer of many a Muppet project for twenty-six years, just died on Sept. 28. Jim Henson died fifteen years ago and over at the all-things-Disney-news-and-opinon site, http://www.jimhillmedia.com/, Chris Barry writes, in a two-part article, here and here about public memorial service for Jim Henson and the television retrospective that Henson Productions put together. I have always liked the Muppets, but I never liked the Muppets in the way that I like comic books or sloppy joes (or the way I used to like candy corn until the ten pounds of candy corn incident). However, I there are places in both articles that choke me up and I think that speaks to the love people did have for Jim Henson.

(3) More happily, 2005 is the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of the Muppets to the world and as part of the celebration, the U.S. Post Office have issued a set of Muppet Stamps. Go by some today and make paying bills easier.