Issue 158

News/Link of the Day: The Republican Moral Event Horizon.
Recently, I just got into a site called TV Tropes. If you can imagine a reoccurring theme that you've seen across television, film, and literature, odds are, it's there. One of the tropes that's on the site is called the "Moral Event Horizon." It is the point at which a character truly ceases to be sympathetic, like Aarfy's rape-murder in Catch-22, the entire third Star Wars prequel film, and on South Park, Cartman has had one every season since the fifth. Earlier in the month, however, it appears that the Republican Party has finally passed this point, after 8 years of the most unpopular administration, and the most ineptly run campaign in years. The point came when Al Franken (now a senator), proposed an amendment to a defense bill that keeps any defense contractors from taking rape cases to court. Yes, there was actually a need to make this bill, but, incredibly, although it was passed, thirty senators (all being Republicans) not only voted against it, but vociferously argued against it. Incidentally, in case you didn't get it before, 75% of the Senate's Republicans voted against it. Seventy-five percent of Republicans chose to uphold capitalism at the expense of Rape victims. And this, from the party which claims to hold a moral high ground. I'm going to let this sink in.

Band Name of the Week: Khairei, Deerslayers!

Film idea of the Week: In the process of writing: A short play in which an opera singer confronts his fear of singing "LArgo al Factotum" in the most cataclysmic way possible.

Film Review of the Week: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I recently decided to check this movie out on hulu, and I must admit that I particularly appreciated it, especially in the wake of recently watching all of Linkara's Atop the Fourth Wall videos on Thatguywiththeglasses.com. I especially liked the music, which was a particular change in pace from the comics presented in Linkara's videos.

Quote of the Day: "It is not the government's business to decide who the government does business with."
____________Jon Stewart.

Tract Review: It's Not Your Fault. "Thank you, unborn baby whale. You were as helpful as you were delicious." Now that I got that Drawn Together reference out of the way, on to the tract. Chick tackles the Rwandan genocide, PTSD, and institutional child sexual abuse in one tract. And apparently, accepting Jesus can rid somebody of PTSD. Jack's drawing has gone beyond simply cartoony to horrendous, and God actually has a face in some panels.

Issue 140

News: Barack and Beethoven?
Recently, around last week, I got two things that I've wanted for a long time: One of them is a copy of Herbert von Karajan's 1963 cycle of Beethoven's symphonies (as heard in A Clockwork Orange), which I've only wanted for about a year or two, and something I've wanted ever since George W. Bush took power (I will not say "got elected," because that implies he achieved power from a mandate of the masses, which his first election clearly wasn't), and that is a president who intends to keep America from going on the same path to ruin it has been taking since 2001. In the latter case, I am, of course, talking about Barack Obama. For as long as I've known that he actually had some sort of chance, I have supported him. I may not have mentioned him much in the past 24 months, but I can only state that I have supported him all the way. I can't quite say that I agree with him so much that my only disagreements with him are in what car to drive (to paraphrase Ted "the Elephant Preacher" Haggard), but still I am sure that there is no way whatsoever that he can do as bad as Bush has, even if it turned out that he was really "The Smiler" from Transmetropolitan, which is, of course, impossible. So what if some people still think he's a muslim? What would even make a muslim less qualified to run this country than somebody who seems to run the world based around the idea that Jesus is coming soon, so we should immanetize the eschaton and make the world worse to ensure he comes back? This is supposed to be a happy occasion, one marked by a day when we can finally celebrate the day when 55% of us decided that the way things were happening in 2008 shouldn't go on any longer, and, for the first time in a long time, Americans can finally actually hear the words to Beethoven's Ode To Joy (at least in Translation), and upon reading the lyrics in translation, can actually appreciate them as freedom actually isn't in Jeopardy. Of course, I'm probably romanticising this too much, but this is certainly very good news, to say the least.

Band Name of the Day: Bam Bam Aram. From the parody of The Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann" contained in the movie Surf Ninjas, reviewed in the link below.

Film Idea of the Day: I am seriously considering ways that Nabokov's seemingly unfilmable novel "Pale Fire" can be made into a film. Here's my idea for the film: the movie is done as a mockumentary about the poet John Shade, who will be played by the same person who plays Charles Kinbote. As the annotations in the original book end up turning away from the poem, the film should end up focusing less on Shade and more on Kinbote's claims.

Film Review of the Day: The Brave One. Simply put, Jodie Foster ends up becoming Bernie Goetz and actually gets away with it. As simplistic as my description was, I still must say that the movie was pretty well done. Considering that I like both the star (Foster) and the director (Neil Jordan), this is much what I expected.

Quote of the Day:
"A conservative and a liberal are walking along the beach when they see a man drowning a hundred feet off shore. The conservative throws him a 50 foot rope and shouts to the victim "You provide the other fifty feet." The liberal throws the man a 200 foot rope...and lets go of both ends."
__________Anonymous. Why Andrew Schlafy decided that this would be a good "Conservative Parable" when it denigrates both liberals and conservatives is beyond me.

Link Of the Day: That Guy With The Glasses. He reviews bad movies, and condenses good movies, with a little help from his friends.

Issue 122

News: Obama Wins!
As long as I had some idea as to what Democrats would be running to finally get Bush out of the White House, I knew who I would be the perfect man for the Job: Barack Obama. Even though Dennis Kucinich may be closer to my views, I always knew that at least Obama had a chance. This was confirmed when I finally went voting for the first time on Super Tuesday of this year, and the choices were effectively between Hilary and Obama. I voted for Obama, as you may have guessed by now, and I certainly intend to do so again in November. I'm surprised that the Clinton/Obama rivalry lasted this long, but surprisingly, Obama only clinched the nomination a few days ago. However, it has taken a few days, but despite the way her speech after announcing Obama's victory seemed, she is, in fact, finally conceding. According to an MSNBC article, confirmed by Clinton's aides, she is, in fact, finally dropping out. She has finally admitted defeat after claiming that the nomination belongs to her due her claim to have the popular vote, which is disputed, especially with one primary in Michigan claiming to have no votes whatsoever for Obama. Now if only Ron Paul finally concedes, despite losing the nomination to McCain (no doubt due to having Dubya's blessing).

Band Name of the Day: Shingami Eyes. The band name today came from a plot device in the anime Death Note, allowing for people to find the names of total strangers.

Film Idea of the Day: An Americanized version of Death Note, adapted into a miniseries, with the setting changed from Japan to Chicago.

Film Review of the Day: Blazing Saddles. Due to my not having a film to otherwise review, and also due to Harvey Korman's recent passing, I have decided to review this movie. It is, in fact, one of my favorite comedies of all time. Indeed, I can see many similarities between my style of comedy that I incorporate in my writing with Mel's style, even more so than in many of his other movies, the fact that my type of comedy is often darker than Mel's notwithstanding. As a matter of fact, even with the obvious anachronisms, I cannot think of anything in the movie that could or should be improved upon, which is something rare for me.

Quote of the Day: "My Shower's seen me naked... what's it Telling the toaster?"
__________________Anonymous.

Link of the Day: TVTropes: identifying all the literary and cinematic tropes you can imagine, and even naming them.

Issue 71

News: Election 08
As you may know, next year will be a presidential election. This will be the first presidential election in which neither an incumbent president nor vice president will be running since 1928, since Bush's two terms will have run out and Cheney has (thankfully) refused to run for presidential office. More importantly, it will be the first election in which I will vote (since I will turn 18 in a few months). As one can imagine, I will vote Democrat (unless the Republican and Democratic parties switch agendae and the Democrats become the more theocratic party). Currently, my family is supporting Barack Obama, for some obvious reasons, like he's a Democrat from Illinois, although some people in my class don't support him, saying that he's too young to have enough experience (my current teacher, who does not support Bush has been saying this) and some students have been disapproving of him because he smokes (which seems to be an extremely stupid reason to disapprove, since the fact that he smokes has nothing to do with whether he can do a better job of running the country than Bush has done, and I believe he can do better, even though I also believe a monkey can do a better job running the country than Bush has done.) Of Course, I do not have much else to say at this time since the election is currently 618 days away.

Band Name: Square Circles. A contradiction in terms.

Film Review: Die Mommie Die. Based on the off-Broadway play by Charles Busch, who also plays Angela Arden in the film, this confirms my suspicion that limited-release films are often better than wide-release films. Ex-singer Angela Arden poisons her husband and when her daughter finds out, she teams up with her brother, and her maid to find a way to help her confess to the crime.

How to Murder Your Wife. Jack Lemmon plays a Hugh Hefner-like playboy comic strip writer named Stanley Ford who lives in a New York Penthouse and learns that he married a woman who can't speak English. With this change, the focus in the strip changes from espionage to married life. Later, he decides to shift the comic strip back to espionage by killing off his main character's wife whilst killing off his own wife in the same ways as described in the strip. Ultimately, his attempts to kill her are unsuccessful, and thwarted when she leaves him. He is arrested for her murder and his comic strips are used as evidence against him. The film's novel twist comes as he decides to claim he actually did kill her and after an interview with his attourney, he gets off on justifiable homicide. Immediately afterwards, she comes back to him.

Quote: "You don't want Teenagers having sex and you don't want them playing Dungeons and Dragons, either? Isn't that like saying you don't want them to get sick but would hate for them to get vaccinations?"
_______Fred MacIntire, Something Positive: 10/08/06

Link: And now for Something Positive.