NDBT

Wow – last night was a friends episode I’ve never seen (Joey and Chandler get the birds). Didn’t think there were any of those… 

 

Some fun stuff and political ranting. I’ll try to upload photos and videos tonight – I’ll post if I manage. 

 

A fun thing from Emily (do you know which award winning actress was actually a gay man?): 

http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2007/08/life-and-times-of-timmy.html 

http://blinditems.typepad.com/dish/2007/08/the-actress-who.html
http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2007/08/timmy-clarifications-and-hints.html  

 

Thank god it’ll be revealed – it’d drive me nuts otherwise. The front runners on the boards are currently Fay Bainter, Teresa Wright, Josephine Hull, Ann Harding, Kay Kendall, Margaret Rutherford, Alice Brady, Josephine Hull, Marie Dressler if slight is a red herring, Anne Revere, Sandy Dennis. Kay Kendall seems wrong to me. The GG/Oscar had to be won after 1957/8 (once they were televised, which rules out Alice Brady. The timeline is from 1930-1985. It’s been guessed correctly at least 3 times. After winning the award, the woman only worked for a few years (as a woman). In total – the career as a woman seems to be less than 10 years. Before being cast in the award-winning role, [s]he starred with and became involved with a closeted male actor. Guesses? 

 

More fun stuff:

From Cinematical: The bond action director is onboard for Bond 22 (yay!) and Larry Wachowski has completed her sex change and become Lana. I guess they’ll just be the Wachowskis from now on…

I can’t currently watch this, but I will when I get home: Rainn Wilson and Angela Kinsey interview each other.

 

Jesse James review (no mention of Sam)

 

Clive Owen

 

Best movies to watch on Labour day (Or The Office…)

And Tash, our full time trainer here, showed me this, which also happens to brilliant segue from entertainment to politics! 

 

I’m reposting this, courtesy of Shari; “Man, check out www.Haleakalatimes.com. What incredible journalism! For example: “August 14, 2007. People complain to me about the mainstream American media on a regular basis. They tell me they’re spineless, corporate lapdogs who want to keep the populous frightened and docile. That they are inaccurate and misleading. Passionless and boring. They tell me these things largely because they know I agree with them. The majority of the media is owned by the same mega-corporations that are poisoning the planet, starving the poor and depressing the hell out of the the rest of us. They convinced the population that the war on terror could justify all manner of torture and annihilation. They’re writing the story of our nation through the eyes of CEOs and war profiteers, and there’s very little any of us can do about it. 

 

Unless of course, we can. This is the 21st century folks. We are the media. I don’t mean we the Haleakala Times. I mean we the people. We the bloggers and the skeptics and the documentary filmmakers and the underground zine makers and the spoken word artists and the citizen journalists everywhere who write letters to the editor and contact their senators and tip off reporters to stories that matter. Anyone who has the courage to speak truth to power can be “the media.” We have never before had more thorough or instantaneous access to information or modes of speaking truth. When, in the 2004 vice-presidential debates, Dick Cheney bragged about some glorious, freedom-inspired military operation in Guatemala. I could go to truthout.org and commondreams.org and follow links to fact-checking websites before Dick had even finished speaking. When, in the state of the 2002 State of the Union address, George W. Bush described the Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction with harrowing precision, I turned to NPR and listened to Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter describe the expiration dates on the alleged weapons and the impossibility of producing powdered anthrax without a processing plant. Do you want to know what’s really happening at community forums and hearings? Flip on Akaku, or catch them on YouTube or open up a copy of Haleakala Times. 

 

Criticism of the mainstream media is important, but it should hardly be a cause for despair. There is no time for despair. If you know the mainstream media is not providing the truth, then you’d better get busy telling the story before someone else tells it for you. The media did not allow Iraq to happen without help from millions of uncritical readers and viewers. It is also worth noting that even within the “mainstream” there are pockets of hope. Progressive columnists are thriving all over the nation. Websites like grist.org, truthout.org and commondreams.org have hundreds of thousands of viewers every day. Fox News might be evil incarnate, but it’s so far from being the only option out there that I have trouble sympathizing with its willfully ignorant viewers. Criticizing the mainstream media without supporting real alternatives is like whining about the government and refusing to vote. Now, write me a letter, send me a story tip, start a website, write a letter to your representative, and start a political discussion around the water cooler. Media can be dynamic and exciting and liberating. Make sure you’re a protagonist and not a spectator.” –Bree Ullman” 

 

Yeah, Bree! (We went to Pomona together) I think she has it totally right. BTW – I unsubscribed from daily grist.org newsletters while I’m traveling, but I highly, highly recommend them if you can get them. They’re frequently quite funny (which is useful when you’re dealing with news about the destruction of our environment). 

 

And while we’re on the subject, the media is misrepresenting the surge. If you subscribe to NYTimes select, you can check it out here. And I encourage everyone to check out the Courage Campaign and what they’re doing to prevent republicans from stealing Californian electoral votes here.

 

While we’re on politics, here are a couple oldies-but-goodies; 

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” -Theodore Roosevelt 1918 

 

[read on]

God I love the office. I finished watching the bonus features to season 2 yesterday (since I have to return the DVD today). So, so brilliant.

Michael: I am … like Superman. And the people who work here are like citizens of Gotham City.
Jim and Dwight: That’s Batman.

Today’s NZ stats are on health. And not as interesting (to me anyways). Although there were a surprisingly high number of self-inflicted injuries (I thought). That’s what surprised me too when they came out with stats about gun violence after VA tech – there were what seemed like really high rates of suicides in other countries. In America, I’m so used to violence centering on homicides.

Kristl passed along this. I get such gleeful pleasure whenever republican congressmen are caught in a sex/drugs scandal. Hypocrites.

Speaking of sex in bathrooms, here’s one of the moments from strangers with candy that made me laugh loudest;

Mr. Noblet: Is there no Mrs. Jellineck?
Mr. Jellineck: No.
Mr. Noblet: Divorced?
Mr. Jellineck: She was murdered.
Mr. Noblet: Sometimes that can be just as painful.

Hahahaha. Ahem. Clearly I’m being productive. But I got most of my work done yesterday. Unfortunately, it’s labor day – meaning not much is on in America. C’est la vie.

Walked into work this morning, which was really nice. It was so clear today that once I got up to my floor, not only could you see the Western mountains, but you could see the ones all the way to ... [Continue reading this entry]

Thank god for the weekend. I need to catch up on sleep. And laptop work. I let beatunes analyze my itunes overnight one night and the bpms all came out totally wrong. Oh well. Maybe I'll try a different one ... [Continue reading this entry]