I'm posting this more or less so I can watch it whenever I want. It's just cool. Provoking the bad guy into making it self-defense...and a clean kill.
Nice.
Joebama American citizens 2024 print
2 years ago
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Culture Mix Much?
Here is that weird and wonderful theme music from JUSTIFIED. I found the whole song...not just the opening credits with a piece of it. It's a fascinating and satisfying combination of rap and bluegrass. Who would a thunk it?
I Heart Sociopathic Bad Boys...?
Okay, I know this is starting to look like a TV review blog, and I don't mean it to go that way, but I'm finding myself being particularly taken by secondary characters in some rather interesting TV.
In Justified, noted below, there is a delicious character named Boyd Crowder, played by Walton Goggins. He was initially presented as a backwoods redneck criminal, but has turned out to be a many-layered character with humor, pathos, hurt, damaged-soul...and a great deal of charisma, and yes, strangely, sex-appeal.
Indeed, while Tim Oliphant's beautiful Raylan Givens is undoubtedly the well-deserved star of the show, I find myself yearning for more screen time for Boyd/Walton. I even find my eyes locked onto him rather than Oliphant when they share a scene.
Maybe it's just me. Am I just attracted to quasi-sociopathic bad boys?
Seems like there may be an argument for that considering my other new favorite is one who can only be described as an unapologetic badass, dangerous, scary and probably certifiably crazy character for whom torture is just another day at the office... his name is Guerrero from Human Target. Played by the great Jackie Earl Haley. The boy can play a crazy. Anybody see the Watchmen?
In it he plays Rorschach. My favorite line...when he finds himself in prison, and the convicts are messing with him, they imagine he is frightened by them. But after he destroys a bully with a cafeteria tray...he shouts/growls:
"I'm not locked in here with you....you're locked in here with ME!"
Dude is scary.
The fact that he's a pretty little guy....yet totally comes across as the scariest guy in the joint definitely adds to the mystique. Anyway. Guerrero in Human Target has pretty much the same vibe...he's just more outwardly in control so he can pass in polite, well, in non-psychotic, society.
Oh...and if you're watching SUPERNATURAL, (like I told you to at least a couple of years ago...but do you listen?) I'm crazy for Soulless Sam. I mean, I love sweet puppy-eyed normal Sam, and really missed him while he was gone, but cold, hard, horny, merciless, ruthless Robo-Sam is....just.....wow! All damned 6'4" of hard-bodied, 20-something of him. And while he's not a secondary character, he is definitely a sociopathic one.
Should I be concerned? It's just harmless fantasies, right?
Too much information? Hey, it's been awhile since we talked. I'm just trying to catch up.
The Gunslinger
Indeed, while Tim Oliphant's beautiful Raylan Givens is undoubtedly the well-deserved star of the show, I find myself yearning for more screen time for Boyd/Walton. I even find my eyes locked onto him rather than Oliphant when they share a scene.
Maybe it's just me. Am I just attracted to quasi-sociopathic bad boys?
Seems like there may be an argument for that considering my other new favorite is one who can only be described as an unapologetic badass, dangerous, scary and probably certifiably crazy character for whom torture is just another day at the office... his name is Guerrero from Human Target. Played by the great Jackie Earl Haley. The boy can play a crazy. Anybody see the Watchmen?
In it he plays Rorschach. My favorite line...when he finds himself in prison, and the convicts are messing with him, they imagine he is frightened by them. But after he destroys a bully with a cafeteria tray...he shouts/growls:
"I'm not locked in here with you....you're locked in here with ME!"
The fact that he's a pretty little guy....yet totally comes across as the scariest guy in the joint definitely adds to the mystique. Anyway. Guerrero in Human Target has pretty much the same vibe...he's just more outwardly in control so he can pass in polite, well, in non-psychotic, society.
Oh...and if you're watching SUPERNATURAL, (like I told you to at least a couple of years ago...but do you listen?) I'm crazy for Soulless Sam. I mean, I love sweet puppy-eyed normal Sam, and really missed him while he was gone, but cold, hard, horny, merciless, ruthless Robo-Sam is....just.....wow! All damned 6'4" of hard-bodied, 20-something of him. And while he's not a secondary character, he is definitely a sociopathic one.
Should I be concerned? It's just harmless fantasies, right?
Too much information? Hey, it's been awhile since we talked. I'm just trying to catch up.
The Gunslinger
The Cowboy Myth
Speaking of good TV, have you seen "Justified"?
Here's a review of it that's worth reading. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it. As the reviewer says, a contemporary Western, which she calls "America's Shakespeare".
Here's a review of it that's worth reading. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it. As the reviewer says, a contemporary Western, which she calls "America's Shakespeare".
Thursday, May 21, 2009
American Idol
I haven't written about Idol this year because, well, I just didn't care much. (Relative to my unrepentant hysterical fan-girlism over David Cook last year.)
But last night the winner was chosen by popular vote, and it wasn't Adam Lambert.
This convulsed the media...who called it an "upset", insulting all the fans that voted for him, had every intention of voting for him, had always planned to vote for him, in the millions...and of course, the man himself, whom they thereby declared has been, in their minds, the likely loser.
Nice guy, humble guy, sweet guy, laid-back guy, nuanced guy, Christian guy, and naturally cool guy Kris Allen took home the coveted prize. He's this year's American Idol.
Even if you don't watch, or don't care about AI, this is a big deal for a couple of reasons.
1) The Media hyped its favorite, believed its own hype, and was shocked....shocked that he lost.
Once again the media, and particularly the "entertainment" media, centered in Los Angeles and New York, decided in their little blue bubble that their man Adam Lambert was God's gift to American Idol, North America and the World.
This is a contest in which the viewers vote for their favorite. The "media" has no power to dictate the results except insofar as they can influence their consumers. Even the producers of the show, and the record companies who must sign the winner and produce his first album can only attempt to manipulate the opinions of the audience, they cannot proclaim the winner. They are, after whatever attempt they might may to influence the viewers, at the mercy of the public's choice. It is final, there is no appeal.
This year, the media, and the entire machinery of the show worked, not very subtly, and with rather reckless disregard for good manners, objectivity, fairness, courtesy, and disinterest, to make American Idol the "Adam Lambert Show". Unfortunately for them both, they were among those who drank their own Kool-Aid, and the results became for them, a forgone conclusion, a prophecy fulfilled in all but the mere formality of the vote.
Until, that is, Ryan Seacrest spoke the "wrong" name from the "envelope please".
The shock on the face of the winner, who was among those who became utterly convinced of the inevitability of the crowning of "The Chosen One", speaks to the effectiveness of the inside-the-AI/media-bubble-full-tilt-boogie-full-on-Adam-Lambert-is-the-best-ever-PR-campaign.
This disconnect will come as no surprise to those of us who are the marginalized, despised, criticized, and satirized majority who live somewhere beyond the horizons and under the radar of the glitterati of LA and NYC. But, damn, its nice to see them trip on their bottom lips in front of God and everybody on national television—on the highest rated program of the year.
Sometimes, life is good.
They, of course, don't understand what happened. They are so convinced of the superiority of their brand, of their boy, it does simply not occur the them that others may simply prefer a different one. And that segues into my next point...
2) American Idol watchers and voters once more chose the cute, clean cut, all-American boy next door as their idea of the symbol and face of American talent...instead of what the media hype (and his fans) were pleased to call their favorite: "edgy", "different", "original", "sexual", "in your face".
In order to understand the contest, one has to describe Adam Lambert and Kris Allen. Perhaps a photo of the two is the best place to start:
This is Adam Lambert, the Presumptive winner:
This is Kris Allen, the Actual winner:
Adam is a 27-year-old theater performer (from age 10) living in L.A. Kris is a newly married 23-year-old student, from Arkansas, with no performing resume to speak of.
Adam is a (very) high-voiced glam-rock screamer/singer who wears makeup, black nail polish, snake-skin boots and terminally hip costumes. Kris is a laid-back, guitar-playing, piano playing, nuanced singer who wears regular guy clothes and tennis shoes - and sometimes has that trendy (admittedly kind of sexy) needs-a-shave whisker shadow goin' on.
Now, to each his own, and all that, but the interesting thing about this year's top two is the cultural issues one side is raising.
Adam Lambert is in my not very charitable opinion, a dated glam-rocker. He's got all the required glam-rock theatricality and overt sexuality of a junior-drag-queen..."not that there's anything wrong with that," as Jerry Seinfeld would say.
I get that this is hot stuff to the unsophisticated and unsubtle tastes of children who think this is what "sexy" means...and to the jaded tastes of old queens to whom subtle flavors no longer give a "lift". He has a very strong, very skilled, very high voice. He can kill all those screamy rock high notes. And he does it with tedious regularity. This is his stock-in-trade. His theater background, his ownership of the stage, his costumes, his bawdy sexuality and his howling soprano convinced the young, the inexperienced, the unwashed and the unsophisticated that he's a "rock god".
And these pseudo-sophisticates are all over the blogs and media columns spitting bile that because Americans prefer Kris Allen, they are "afraid" of someone as "different" as Adam Lambert
"Different" if you've been living under a rock for 30 years.
In any case, Adam's hysterical fans (including the entertainment media en masse) are outraged because the "wrong contestant" won. The vote was an "upset". And they are furious because boring, stupid, white-bread America has proven once again it likes bland and boring beige rather than juicy, exciting and unique "true" talent...and that Adam Lambert is just too "scary" for frightened, uncultured, oatmeal-eating, middle America.
Oh...and that all of us who voted for Kris Allen are just dull, boring, stupid, trembling homophobes. (You HAD to know that was coming, right?)
Once again the idiocy of the Liberal is on full display. How, exactly, does one have an "upset" via a popular vote? The only thing that happened is that the people who were utterly certain Lambert would garner more votes were wrong. Just wrong. There was no "upset". The public voted how it had always intended to vote. It was the Lambert fans who were mistaken in their assessment of his general popularity.
The "right" winner is the contestant that gets the most votes. In a contest decided by popular vote (assuming all votes were fairly counted) a "wrong" winner is a logical impossibility. But they are just like their political allies. They have no doubt that they are correct, that their minority opinion is the right one, and anyone who disagrees with them is evil or stupid.
Starting to sound painfully familiar, isn't it?
And they are all proclaiming that in spite of the stupid (or evil) public, Adam Lambert will be much bigger star than the winner, Kris Allen. They insist that the dullness of the American public in voting for the more or less insipid Mr. Allen will not prevent the glorious Mr. Lambert's soaring success and the rapid fading away of the "coffee-house" singer that actually won.
And they are very content and self-satisfied in their declarations...without a thought about exactly how that can be expected to happen in the real world.
I wonder if these people understand how "success" in music is achieved? I wonder if they understand that if many more people prefer Mr. Allen's music than preferred Mr. Lambert's (which, after all, has been clearly demonstrated by the result of their voting to crown Mr. Allen as the American Idol) it's possible that those same people will purchase Mr. Allen's albums and attend Mr. Allen's concerts in greater numbers than they will Mr. Lambert's.
There's no guarantee, of course, fame is fickle. But it's a likely eventuality I should think.
But it's not the actual eventual fate of either man that is at issue here. At issue, as always, is the smug, superior, condescending attitude and unsubtle tastes of the supposedly sophisticated—but in fact the hilariously parochial and the easily impressed.
Adam Lambert is a big, fast, loud, f/x studded, summer blockbuster Hollywood movie that once seen has revealed all its secrets. Kris Allen is a sophisticated, intelligent indie flick, in which every time you watch it, you find something new.
Adam Lambert is a rollicking bodice ripper romance novel that's pretty much like all the other rollicking bodice ripper romance novels but with different names. Kris Allen is a clever English village murder mystery, peopled with unique characters, that keeps you guessing until the very end.
Adam Lambert is KISS (the band)...whom the American Idol Powers-That-Be chose to appear with him on "results night". Kris Allen is Keith Urban...whom the American Idol PTB chose to appear with him on "results night".
Honestly, I think they got it exactly right...but I'm not sure they understood exactly what message they were sending—silly Liberals.
It did finally occur to me, eventually, that the reason the undue, perplexingly unprofessional and annoyingly obvious favoritism was brought to bear for Adam Lambert is because he's gay. Simple as I am, for a long time I just didn't understand their unwavering and rather slobbering adoration for this slightly bloated, round-faced, serpent shod screamer that would be a perfect fit in Vegas playing to the glam-rock glory-day memories of people old enough to be his parents.
The judges insistence that Adam's 80's showy rock style was "current" was baffled me until I looked at the show with my "political" (conspiracy?) eyes.
I think it's as simple as this: it was important to the Leftist/Media/Hollywood complex that an overtly sexual homosexual win American Idol. One columnist actually said that considering American finally elected a Black president, it's time that America had a gay American Idol.
All the puzzle pieces fell into place. This was a concerted effort to make Adam Lambert, gay guy, the American Idol. He has mad skills...and was a good candidate.
And of course, not a word was mentioned about his sexual preference anywhere near the show. It was the unspoken criterion. So they slobbered and drooled all over his performances, compared other contestants unfavorably to him, recalled praise of him when critiquing other singers. His picture graced most blog and columns referencing AI.
In the final "group song" on results night, the director shot Adam in several close ups...and got not one of the eventual winner...it was typical of the whole season.
In the final analysis, his mad promoters among judges, directors and the entertainment media did Adam a disservice. With all the hype, it's simply not possible that he didn't expect to win. He'd been told as much from his first performance to his last. He was literally set up. He was led to the slaughter by people who had agendas to advance, and for whom his individuality was subsumed by his sexual preference and its usefulness to their politics.
He was, in the end, despite all the apparent drooling affection, treated shabbily.
Kris expected to lose, and was prepared for the inevitable. The win was almost disconcerting for him. He was in shock. But for him, the shock was good.
It would be too much to ask of any young person put in the position Adam was, to expect him to ignore the heaping praise for weeks on end and not harbor certain expectations. Kris' win must have been equally disconcerting for him, even though he handled it with grace. But for him, the shock was bad. And unnecessary. Shame on the "adults" for not behaving more responsibly.
It is, as always, the left who talk of caring for people, but who always sacrifice them, whenever convenient, to their own volcano gods.
We'll see how this plays out. But there is a chance that the artificially and purposefully whipped up extreme expectations for Lambert's win, and the subsequent immense and "shocking upset" disappointment, may serve to tarnish both Kris Allen's legitimate victory and both boys' very real accomplishment of reaching AI's top two.
I hope it's a tempest in a cyber-teapot. But when the Gay-Agenda biddies gets crankin' there's no knowing where that speeding locomotive will stop.
In my opinion the American Idol audience has once again proved that the American people GET. IT. RIGHT.
And Leftists...we're just getting started.
The Gunslinger
ADDENDUM: Here is a hilarious example of the sort of comment on the net about the "upset" on AI:
"It was quite a shocker to say the least. Kris Allen was voted in as the new American Idol, defeating fan favorite Adam Lambert."
Pay particular attention to the italicized bit. Logic is not their strong point.
But last night the winner was chosen by popular vote, and it wasn't Adam Lambert.
This convulsed the media...who called it an "upset", insulting all the fans that voted for him, had every intention of voting for him, had always planned to vote for him, in the millions...and of course, the man himself, whom they thereby declared has been, in their minds, the likely loser.
Nice guy, humble guy, sweet guy, laid-back guy, nuanced guy, Christian guy, and naturally cool guy Kris Allen took home the coveted prize. He's this year's American Idol.
Even if you don't watch, or don't care about AI, this is a big deal for a couple of reasons.
1) The Media hyped its favorite, believed its own hype, and was shocked....shocked that he lost.
Once again the media, and particularly the "entertainment" media, centered in Los Angeles and New York, decided in their little blue bubble that their man Adam Lambert was God's gift to American Idol, North America and the World.
This is a contest in which the viewers vote for their favorite. The "media" has no power to dictate the results except insofar as they can influence their consumers. Even the producers of the show, and the record companies who must sign the winner and produce his first album can only attempt to manipulate the opinions of the audience, they cannot proclaim the winner. They are, after whatever attempt they might may to influence the viewers, at the mercy of the public's choice. It is final, there is no appeal.
This year, the media, and the entire machinery of the show worked, not very subtly, and with rather reckless disregard for good manners, objectivity, fairness, courtesy, and disinterest, to make American Idol the "Adam Lambert Show". Unfortunately for them both, they were among those who drank their own Kool-Aid, and the results became for them, a forgone conclusion, a prophecy fulfilled in all but the mere formality of the vote.
Until, that is, Ryan Seacrest spoke the "wrong" name from the "envelope please".
The shock on the face of the winner, who was among those who became utterly convinced of the inevitability of the crowning of "The Chosen One", speaks to the effectiveness of the inside-the-AI/media-bubble-full-tilt-boogie-full-on-Adam-Lambert-is-the-best-ever-PR-campaign.
This disconnect will come as no surprise to those of us who are the marginalized, despised, criticized, and satirized majority who live somewhere beyond the horizons and under the radar of the glitterati of LA and NYC. But, damn, its nice to see them trip on their bottom lips in front of God and everybody on national television—on the highest rated program of the year.
Sometimes, life is good.
They, of course, don't understand what happened. They are so convinced of the superiority of their brand, of their boy, it does simply not occur the them that others may simply prefer a different one. And that segues into my next point...
2) American Idol watchers and voters once more chose the cute, clean cut, all-American boy next door as their idea of the symbol and face of American talent...instead of what the media hype (and his fans) were pleased to call their favorite: "edgy", "different", "original", "sexual", "in your face".
In order to understand the contest, one has to describe Adam Lambert and Kris Allen. Perhaps a photo of the two is the best place to start:
This is Adam Lambert, the Presumptive winner:
This is Kris Allen, the Actual winner:
Adam is a 27-year-old theater performer (from age 10) living in L.A. Kris is a newly married 23-year-old student, from Arkansas, with no performing resume to speak of.
Adam is a (very) high-voiced glam-rock screamer/singer who wears makeup, black nail polish, snake-skin boots and terminally hip costumes. Kris is a laid-back, guitar-playing, piano playing, nuanced singer who wears regular guy clothes and tennis shoes - and sometimes has that trendy (admittedly kind of sexy) needs-a-shave whisker shadow goin' on.
Now, to each his own, and all that, but the interesting thing about this year's top two is the cultural issues one side is raising.
Adam Lambert is in my not very charitable opinion, a dated glam-rocker. He's got all the required glam-rock theatricality and overt sexuality of a junior-drag-queen..."not that there's anything wrong with that," as Jerry Seinfeld would say.
I get that this is hot stuff to the unsophisticated and unsubtle tastes of children who think this is what "sexy" means...and to the jaded tastes of old queens to whom subtle flavors no longer give a "lift". He has a very strong, very skilled, very high voice. He can kill all those screamy rock high notes. And he does it with tedious regularity. This is his stock-in-trade. His theater background, his ownership of the stage, his costumes, his bawdy sexuality and his howling soprano convinced the young, the inexperienced, the unwashed and the unsophisticated that he's a "rock god".
And these pseudo-sophisticates are all over the blogs and media columns spitting bile that because Americans prefer Kris Allen, they are "afraid" of someone as "different" as Adam Lambert
"Different" if you've been living under a rock for 30 years.
In any case, Adam's hysterical fans (including the entertainment media en masse) are outraged because the "wrong contestant" won. The vote was an "upset". And they are furious because boring, stupid, white-bread America has proven once again it likes bland and boring beige rather than juicy, exciting and unique "true" talent...and that Adam Lambert is just too "scary" for frightened, uncultured, oatmeal-eating, middle America.
Oh...and that all of us who voted for Kris Allen are just dull, boring, stupid, trembling homophobes. (You HAD to know that was coming, right?)
Once again the idiocy of the Liberal is on full display. How, exactly, does one have an "upset" via a popular vote? The only thing that happened is that the people who were utterly certain Lambert would garner more votes were wrong. Just wrong. There was no "upset". The public voted how it had always intended to vote. It was the Lambert fans who were mistaken in their assessment of his general popularity.
The "right" winner is the contestant that gets the most votes. In a contest decided by popular vote (assuming all votes were fairly counted) a "wrong" winner is a logical impossibility. But they are just like their political allies. They have no doubt that they are correct, that their minority opinion is the right one, and anyone who disagrees with them is evil or stupid.
Starting to sound painfully familiar, isn't it?
And they are all proclaiming that in spite of the stupid (or evil) public, Adam Lambert will be much bigger star than the winner, Kris Allen. They insist that the dullness of the American public in voting for the more or less insipid Mr. Allen will not prevent the glorious Mr. Lambert's soaring success and the rapid fading away of the "coffee-house" singer that actually won.
And they are very content and self-satisfied in their declarations...without a thought about exactly how that can be expected to happen in the real world.
I wonder if these people understand how "success" in music is achieved? I wonder if they understand that if many more people prefer Mr. Allen's music than preferred Mr. Lambert's (which, after all, has been clearly demonstrated by the result of their voting to crown Mr. Allen as the American Idol) it's possible that those same people will purchase Mr. Allen's albums and attend Mr. Allen's concerts in greater numbers than they will Mr. Lambert's.
There's no guarantee, of course, fame is fickle. But it's a likely eventuality I should think.
But it's not the actual eventual fate of either man that is at issue here. At issue, as always, is the smug, superior, condescending attitude and unsubtle tastes of the supposedly sophisticated—but in fact the hilariously parochial and the easily impressed.
Adam Lambert is a big, fast, loud, f/x studded, summer blockbuster Hollywood movie that once seen has revealed all its secrets. Kris Allen is a sophisticated, intelligent indie flick, in which every time you watch it, you find something new.
Adam Lambert is a rollicking bodice ripper romance novel that's pretty much like all the other rollicking bodice ripper romance novels but with different names. Kris Allen is a clever English village murder mystery, peopled with unique characters, that keeps you guessing until the very end.
Adam Lambert is KISS (the band)...whom the American Idol Powers-That-Be chose to appear with him on "results night". Kris Allen is Keith Urban...whom the American Idol PTB chose to appear with him on "results night".
Honestly, I think they got it exactly right...but I'm not sure they understood exactly what message they were sending—silly Liberals.
It did finally occur to me, eventually, that the reason the undue, perplexingly unprofessional and annoyingly obvious favoritism was brought to bear for Adam Lambert is because he's gay. Simple as I am, for a long time I just didn't understand their unwavering and rather slobbering adoration for this slightly bloated, round-faced, serpent shod screamer that would be a perfect fit in Vegas playing to the glam-rock glory-day memories of people old enough to be his parents.
The judges insistence that Adam's 80's showy rock style was "current" was baffled me until I looked at the show with my "political" (conspiracy?) eyes.
I think it's as simple as this: it was important to the Leftist/Media/Hollywood complex that an overtly sexual homosexual win American Idol. One columnist actually said that considering American finally elected a Black president, it's time that America had a gay American Idol.
All the puzzle pieces fell into place. This was a concerted effort to make Adam Lambert, gay guy, the American Idol. He has mad skills...and was a good candidate.
And of course, not a word was mentioned about his sexual preference anywhere near the show. It was the unspoken criterion. So they slobbered and drooled all over his performances, compared other contestants unfavorably to him, recalled praise of him when critiquing other singers. His picture graced most blog and columns referencing AI.
In the final "group song" on results night, the director shot Adam in several close ups...and got not one of the eventual winner...it was typical of the whole season.
In the final analysis, his mad promoters among judges, directors and the entertainment media did Adam a disservice. With all the hype, it's simply not possible that he didn't expect to win. He'd been told as much from his first performance to his last. He was literally set up. He was led to the slaughter by people who had agendas to advance, and for whom his individuality was subsumed by his sexual preference and its usefulness to their politics.
He was, in the end, despite all the apparent drooling affection, treated shabbily.
Kris expected to lose, and was prepared for the inevitable. The win was almost disconcerting for him. He was in shock. But for him, the shock was good.
It would be too much to ask of any young person put in the position Adam was, to expect him to ignore the heaping praise for weeks on end and not harbor certain expectations. Kris' win must have been equally disconcerting for him, even though he handled it with grace. But for him, the shock was bad. And unnecessary. Shame on the "adults" for not behaving more responsibly.
It is, as always, the left who talk of caring for people, but who always sacrifice them, whenever convenient, to their own volcano gods.
We'll see how this plays out. But there is a chance that the artificially and purposefully whipped up extreme expectations for Lambert's win, and the subsequent immense and "shocking upset" disappointment, may serve to tarnish both Kris Allen's legitimate victory and both boys' very real accomplishment of reaching AI's top two.
I hope it's a tempest in a cyber-teapot. But when the Gay-Agenda biddies gets crankin' there's no knowing where that speeding locomotive will stop.
In my opinion the American Idol audience has once again proved that the American people GET. IT. RIGHT.
And Leftists...we're just getting started.
The Gunslinger
ADDENDUM: Here is a hilarious example of the sort of comment on the net about the "upset" on AI:
"It was quite a shocker to say the least. Kris Allen was voted in as the new American Idol, defeating fan favorite Adam Lambert."
Pay particular attention to the italicized bit. Logic is not their strong point.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Clarity of Thought
The following is a comment by "UserZero" at American Thinker, in response to an article by Rick Moran, analyzing the psychological journey of Jack Bauer in "24". The indented, italicized paragraph is a quote from the original, upon which UserZero proceeds to comment.
UserZero is my new hero (despite the unfortunate moniker). Here is a link to the Rick Moran piece. UserZero's comment can be found in it's native habitat, there. This is as clear an example of muddled thought & fuzzy thinking vs sparkling clarity of thought as I have ever seen.
The Gunslinger
UserZero responds:
"We are sobered..." ??? Oh do please give it a rest! You may be "sobered". The rest of us have pretty much had it.
Rick, you've conveniently ignored a critical point here in your needlessly wordy and ham-handed attempt to paint Americans with the self-loathing brush 24's producers have chosen for Bauer during this next season. Americans were trained through herculean efforts by the entrenched and discredited anti-Bush media to see things as you describe. That hardly makes such fantasy a reality.
I'd love to see some evidence - outside media polling - to support your assertion that a majority of Americans see Iraq as something we shouldn't have undertaken. Certainly those who had the most to lose and who sacrificed the most in the conflict have expressed, overwhelmingly, that the effort was indeed worth the cost.
If we've lost faith in government, it's not because that government did anything we're ashamed of, personally, as your misguided suggestions imply. It's rather because government has proven itself to be populated in the majority by corrupt individuals whom we wouldn't trust to borrow our car and return it in one piece. It's because the entrenched media, whom you seek so constantly to emulate, has utterly abandoned any pretense of journalistic integrity in efforts to destroy the Bush administration. You completely ignore the effects those efforts have produced.
In this piece you're (once again) doing nothing less than playing along with the left's and the entrenched media's ongoing propaganda war to shame Americans into abandoning what's right. Dave St John is correct. And if art imitates life in any way regarding 24's new direction, it's a reflection of the degree to which Americans have been demoralized by those on whom they depend to govern and those on whom they depend to give them the truth. It's not a reflection of some sudden self-loathing brought on by the "realization" that we shouldn't use every means at our disposal to protect ourselves from nihilistic fanatics who have no rational reason for wanting to destroy us. They simply want to watch the world burn, in the name of their "God". Pretending there's some moral high ground from which the "truly righteous" should aspire to defend itself from that sort of evil is the fantasy of a fool.
UserZero is my new hero (despite the unfortunate moniker). Here is a link to the Rick Moran piece. UserZero's comment can be found in it's native habitat, there. This is as clear an example of muddled thought & fuzzy thinking vs sparkling clarity of thought as I have ever seen.
The Gunslinger
"We are sobered by our experience in Iraq that while apparently winding down to a successful conclusion is nevertheless seen by a majority of Americans as an effort we should never have undertaken in the first place and not worth the cost in blood and treasure. We have less faith in government, more suspicion of what it does in our name. And the belief that we must bring freedom and democracy to the dark places of the world has taken a hit as well."
UserZero responds:
"We are sobered..." ??? Oh do please give it a rest! You may be "sobered". The rest of us have pretty much had it.
Rick, you've conveniently ignored a critical point here in your needlessly wordy and ham-handed attempt to paint Americans with the self-loathing brush 24's producers have chosen for Bauer during this next season. Americans were trained through herculean efforts by the entrenched and discredited anti-Bush media to see things as you describe. That hardly makes such fantasy a reality.
I'd love to see some evidence - outside media polling - to support your assertion that a majority of Americans see Iraq as something we shouldn't have undertaken. Certainly those who had the most to lose and who sacrificed the most in the conflict have expressed, overwhelmingly, that the effort was indeed worth the cost.
If we've lost faith in government, it's not because that government did anything we're ashamed of, personally, as your misguided suggestions imply. It's rather because government has proven itself to be populated in the majority by corrupt individuals whom we wouldn't trust to borrow our car and return it in one piece. It's because the entrenched media, whom you seek so constantly to emulate, has utterly abandoned any pretense of journalistic integrity in efforts to destroy the Bush administration. You completely ignore the effects those efforts have produced.
In this piece you're (once again) doing nothing less than playing along with the left's and the entrenched media's ongoing propaganda war to shame Americans into abandoning what's right. Dave St John is correct. And if art imitates life in any way regarding 24's new direction, it's a reflection of the degree to which Americans have been demoralized by those on whom they depend to govern and those on whom they depend to give them the truth. It's not a reflection of some sudden self-loathing brought on by the "realization" that we shouldn't use every means at our disposal to protect ourselves from nihilistic fanatics who have no rational reason for wanting to destroy us. They simply want to watch the world burn, in the name of their "God". Pretending there's some moral high ground from which the "truly righteous" should aspire to defend itself from that sort of evil is the fantasy of a fool.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Brits Invade
I don't want to make everything about television today, but what's the deal with all these Brits playing Americans in US series?
Hugh Laurie on House
Gabriel Byrne on In Treatment
Rufus Sewell on Eleventh Hour
I'm sure there's more, they just don't come to mind at the moment. Another British Invasion? I don't mind, it's just kind of odd.
The Gunslinger
Hugh Laurie on House
Gabriel Byrne on In Treatment
Rufus Sewell on Eleventh Hour
I'm sure there's more, they just don't come to mind at the moment. Another British Invasion? I don't mind, it's just kind of odd.
The Gunslinger
Monday, August 18, 2008
Television as Film
I just had a random thought.
You know how bummed you are when one of your favorite TV shows ends...or worse, gets cancelled?
It can really bum you out.
I figured out a way to look on the bright side, for what it's worth.
Just rent or buy the series CD's, and think of it as a really, really long favorite movie.
You're not bummed when a movie ends, right? And if you like it enough, you'll watch it more than once, often getting something new from it each time.
Think of your favorite series the same way. A glorious 13+ hour movie!
That's a lot better than feeling bad because the stupid bastards with no taste canceled it, isn't it??
The Gunslinger
You know how bummed you are when one of your favorite TV shows ends...or worse, gets cancelled?
It can really bum you out.
I figured out a way to look on the bright side, for what it's worth.
Just rent or buy the series CD's, and think of it as a really, really long favorite movie.
You're not bummed when a movie ends, right? And if you like it enough, you'll watch it more than once, often getting something new from it each time.
Think of your favorite series the same way. A glorious 13+ hour movie!
That's a lot better than feeling bad because the stupid bastards with no taste canceled it, isn't it??
The Gunslinger
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The Correct "David"
OK...one last thing. There are two "Davids" in the finals on American Idol. You want to vote for the guy who looks like this.
Don't EVEN crack wise about the bed-head. It just makes him cuter.
Trust me.
The Gunslinger
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Guilty Pleasure?
In a complete change of pace, I gotta tell you I'm completely in love with these guys.
I don't know what it is, but they have captured my affection and imagination. I just can't get enough. I discovered them over the Christmas holiday. Their show "Ghost Hunters" has been on for a while, but I'd never watched it.
They're on the Sci-Fi channel on Wednesdays.
I go on genre benders. For a while I can't get enough of "forensic files" type shows, or style/fashion shows, or home decor/renovation shows, or even home shopping channels!
But this one is special. The subject matter is the hook; and the personalities of the "stars".
As I've stated here, I've only recently been convinced that there is, in fact, more to life that the material...and along comes Jason and Grant, doing all this work to find and document phenomena that prove it's true!
The coolest thing about them is they're just regular, blue collar guys; plumbers by trade. They're not goofy "White Light New Agers" or "Fairy Dust Wiccans"...just guys you could have a beer with, and play some pool.
Maybe I'm just a sucker...but I swear these guys are seriously for real.
Check them out. I'd love to know what you think.
Here's the website for their organization, TAPS, The Atlantic Paranormal Society, the investigations of which are chronicled on the show.
The Gunslinger
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