The Adventures of 100 Day Man & the Senator Formerly Known as R.I.N.O.

As this week marks the end of President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office, every news outlet in existence is trying to find the best way to determine the success or failure of those 100 days. Some are basing their decision on the amount of legislation he has been able to get through congress, some are basing it on opinion polls and others are just looking for people who agree with their already predetermined views.

As far as I'm concerned debate is no longer needed after the following news broke --

Arlen Specter Switches Parties

Rush Limbaugh and his ilk can try to spin it all they want by saying that Specter has always been a R.I.N.O. (Republican In Name Only) and losing him to the dems is no big loss - but it is. As Senator Specter points out in his statement:

"Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats."

Simply put, he's switching parties because his constituents have. To remain a Republican would mean an almost certain defeat in 2010. This is immensely smart politicking on the Senator's behalf. He sees the tide turning. The times they are a-changin'. It is no longer 1980. In the past 8 years the Republican party has drifted too far to the right. As a result views that were once considered right-leaning are now left of the Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly wind tunnel.

The Republican party is like Dennis Hopper & Peter Fonda in Easy Rider - they blew it. They had the world by the short and curlies and lost it all out of sheer greed...and I for one could not be happier. Their loss is our gain.

To conclude

EAT IT SUCKERS!

Now I need to go finish reading Das Kapital before attending a gay wedding in that notorious bastion of socialist values known as Iowa so that I can help the terrorists win.

Sincerely,
Comrade Duffy

JUSTICE!!!

FORMER ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF MIKE CARONA WAS SENTENCED TODAY!!!

INNOCENT!?!

I know star witness Don Haidl is a piece of shit just like his gang-rapist son...

BUT THAT'S NO REASON TO COMPLETELY IGNORE THESE DAMMING AUDIO RECORDINGS THAT HE MADE!

All that and all you could pin on him was one count of witness tampering?

I DEMAND A RE-TRIAL!

UPDATE!

EVEN MORE FURIOUS MAKING

Commentary + Dissent = Dysentery

First off - the above photo has absolutely nothing to do with this post. I did a google image search for "george w bush portrait" and this is one of the images that came up: Miles Davis holding a white baby. Will the wonders of the internet ever cease?

Anyhow. I just got done watching Bush's farewell address. Was it just me or did he look downright creepy when he was talking about Obama and his family. He had that look he gets when he thinks he's being funny. Or maybe that's just the only look he has aside from his "serious" face.

The speech was pretty standard. Just humping the ghosts of his limited accomplishments. I mean I guess the absence of a negative (additional terrorism on American soil) is a positive. But let's not forget that 9/11 itself happened on his watch. We're supposed to remember him as a great president because only ONE massive terrorist attack happened on his watch? And what about Katrina? And torture?

In the end, this speech felt aptly like the end of a horror movie. You know when the killer or whatever comes back for one last scare. Remember there are evil evil people out there in the world and we all need to be afraid. Of all the things I won't miss about the Bush administration, constant use of scare tactics ranks numero uno.

I'm not saying that everything will be rainbow fountains and roller-disco dance parties with Obama. Shit's gonna be pretty tough especially over the next few financial quarters. But at least we have a president who signed up for the job knowing how difficult it would be, rather than one who slid in at the tail end of good times and had to continually play catch-up as things got worse and worse (usually as a result of his own doing or lack there of). For this we can be thankful.

Farewell you faux cowboy ass-hat!

California Über Alles!

Former Governor and current Attorney General Jerry Brown has reversed his stance on Prop Hate. Back in November when the measure first passed, Brown declared that he would defend it against legal challenges. His new opinion...

"...upon further reflection and a deeper probing into all the aspects of our Constitution it became evident that the Article 1 provision guaranteeing basic liberty, which includes the right to marry, took precedence over the initiative. Based on my duty to defend the law and the entire Constitution, I concluded the court should protect the right to marry even in the face of the 52 percent vote."

Some people think Jerry is gonna run for Governor again in 2010. If so, THIS has absolutely put me in his corner.

JERRY BROWN 2010!

Tout Va Bien?

This morning when I first heard about the sit-in at Republic Windows & Doors, the first thing that came to mind was Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin's film Tout Va Bien about a strike at a sausage factory.

I did not think of Karl Marx

I did not think of the Industrial Revolution

I did not think of social justice & worker's rights

I thought about a movie

What is wrong with me?

CHURCH v. STATE

I know that it seems like this is turning into a blog entirely dedicated to the issue of gay rights; but with the passage of Prop Hate and my upcoming nuptials to the greatest woman on earth, I cannot help but have marriage on the brain.

Personally I am going to try and stop using the term “gay marriage”. I believe that referring to it as “gay marriage” continues to perpetuate the idea that it is something “other”. It makes a distinction between “marriage” and “gay marriage”. It’s just a watered down version of the segregation we currently have in place with “marriage” and “civil unions”.

OK. That was all just prologue to what I really want to write about which is the separation of Church and State. Let me also make a disclaimer that the following is just an idea, just food for thought. I myself am not entirely behind it either but it is a very interesting idea and something that I would like to get some response to.

What if Government just got out of the marriage game entirely?

Now I know some of you are probably thinking that this sounds insane but bear with me. It seems to me that the big roadblock for homosexuals being allowed to marry is religion. This is best exemplified by the amount of money the Church of Latter Day Saints and other religious organizations pumped into the various gay marriage amendments across the country.

In their arguments and literature they make all sorts of claims about how allowing homosexual couples to marry would somehow hurt or devalue their marriages. I personally feel this is bullshit.

What it really breaks down to is that they see homosexuality as a sin and feel that were we to allow homosexuals to marry, we as a Nation would be condoning a sinful lifestyle and we all would be headed for hell. This idea of collective damnation is the same mentality that lead to the Salem Witch Trials. But I digress. Back to the key point…

If marriage is such an important and sacred word, let's get it out of all these legal documents floating around our Nation. Religion has no place in politics and vice versa. Here's an idea: If you want to get married you can go to a church (mosque, temple, etc), if you want a civil union (and to be recognized by the Government) you go to a courthouse.

This way religion is not allowing 'Godless sodomites' to 'besmirch' a 'sacred institution', and government can be free to grant all of our citizenry the equal protection they are entitled to under the law.

"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” - Matthew 22:21

Once again this is just a theory. But I’d like to get your thoughts on it.

Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt

Today is Veterans' Day. Today is my birthday. But this isn't really about me. Today is also the late Kurt Vonnegut Jr's Birthday. Here are his thoughts on Veterans' Day as found in the awesome awesome book known as...
I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.

So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

And all music is.

___________________________________________

Man I miss having my birthday buddy Kurt around. This is the second one without him. Here's the obituary I wrote for him:

"We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane."

- Kilgore Trout's epitaph

For much of my early life I hated writing. This was primarily due to grammar. To this day I still hate grammar with a fury often reserved for genocidal madmen. Anyway…Near the end of freshman year I saw an article in the LA Times about how Bruce Willis wanted to make a film adaptation of this novel called "Breakfast of Champions." The article featured a photo of the book jacket: bright orange with superhero font. I didn't even read the article, but on a purely graphic level I was intrigued.

A few weeks later I found myself in the school's library with time on my hands. While roaming the aisles I decided to look for that book from the article. Once I found a copy I began reading it immediately. When it was time to go I checked the book out and continued to read as I walked about campus. I could not put it down.

Within 24 hours I was finished. I couldn't believe what I had just read. It was fun, it was satiric, it was violent, it was dirty - IT WAS A COMPLETE EXPERIENCE. As many know, "Breakfast of Champions" was Vonnegut's answer to mid-life crisis. He was reacting to getting older by writing the most juvenile book of his career, complete with a drawing of his asshole. He was consciously trying to have fun and thankfully that feeling was able to leap beyond the page and infect me.

From that point on, grammar was no longer my master. In the past I would write something to appease the rules of grammar, now I was writing to appease myself. I had finally found my voice as a writer. This became very useful throughout the rest of my educational career. Though my writing was/is not the best thing out there, professors appreciate the fact that my stuff isn't 'paint by numbers' and have continually rewarded me to the tune of As and Bs.

Had I never read "Breakfast of Champions" high school would have been a far more stressful experience. With writing no longer being a chore, I had lots of free time to do as I pleased. It freed me up so that I was able to tech shows, see great films, go to weird places and meet new people. Without such experiences I would not be the man that I am today.

I think it is fitting that Mr. Vonnegut and I share the same birthday because though he and I have never and will never meet, he gave me the greatest gift ever – the written word. For this I am eternally grateful.

So it goes.

Gay Messiah

Disclaimer
The recent passage of Proposition 8 has put gay rights front and center in my brain. Though some might find this weird or even offensive seeing as I am a breeder, I have always felt like a friend of the family. Though I am not one of the chosen, I take the struggle for gay rights very seriously and it is with that in mind that I write this blog.


Why is gay marriage still an issue? This coming June will mark the 40 year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. If you use the Civil Rights Movement as a model, we should have had gay marriage in this country over a quarter century ago.

Many people consider the 1955 murder of 14 year old Emmet Till as the primary catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. By 1964 racial segregation was struck down and in 1967 anti-miscegenation laws were struck down. This is not to say that racism is over (I mean look how long it took us to get a black President) but on a purely legal level, shit got done.

So why hasn’t the Gay Rights Movement been able to follow suit? My theory is that this is because the movement has lacked a charismatic leader. While groups like GLAAD and PFLAG do great work, a highly visible public face for the movement could do even more. A leader helps to keep your eye on the prize. When Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X spoke, people listened.

Now I’m aware that it is much easier to say all of this than to do it. Great leaders are not born every day and you can’t really hold auditions for something like that. Also the diversity of the LGBT(I) community is an issue. Would gay men want a lesbian representing them and vice versa? Some yes and some no probably.

So what’s the point of this blog? I don’t really know. It’s not like someone reading this will all of a sudden change the world. I mean the suggestion it makes isn’t even something you can just go out and do. So why did I write this?

I wrote this because it hurts me deep down in my soul to see people who love each other unable to be joined in MARRIAGE. Don’t even start on, "domestic partnership". How is that any different than separate but equal? God I have so many different swirling emotions and it frustrates me that there is nothing to do about it.

Sure there are marches going on almost daily throughout the southland. But I can’t fight the feeling of, “What good will it do?” 52% of California’s population doesn’t seem to see this as a matter of Civil Rights. How can we make them see? I wish I had an answer. Maybe someone out there does.

I guess I’m holding out for a hero.

The Road

As excited as I am about the Obama victory, there is still great sorrow in my heart today. It comes from the fact that though we as a country chose by and large to break away from eight years of failed policy, we were unable to stop ANY of the bans on gay marriage.

All over the news, people have been talking about what an Obama presidency symbolizes to our Nation and to the world. They talk about how we are now a show rather than tell country. They talk about how now it is truly possible for anyone to become President if they so desire. Well apparently that does not apply to our friends in the LGBTI community.

But there is hope.

From 1924 until 1967, Virginia had a “Racial Integrity Act” which made it a felony for a white person to marry a non-white. This act was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia. What was the deciding factor in that case?

The 14th Amendment states: “No state shall…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

As depressed as I am today, that statement is what gives me hope. It demonstrates our system’s amazing ability to correct itself when things are inherently wrong. As unjust as these bans are, they will lead the way for lawsuits which will in turn lead to Supreme Court cases like Loving v. Virginia. Sure it’s a long road ahead, but I am prepared for the journey.

Also...

Remember, remember the fifth of November
The gunpowder treason and plot
I know of no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night. I recommend watching V for Vendetta. It's relevant to the gay marriage issue as well.

Hasta la victoria, siempre.

VICTORY!

'Nuff Said

Legend of the Sun Virgin & More

Peruvian Goddess Yma Sumac, has died at the age of 86.

While definitely an acquired taste, I think anyone can at least appreciate her stunning vocal range. At her peak it is said that she could cover five octaves. That is INSANE. You will be very greatly missed ma'am and I know for a fact that there shall never be another like her. RIP Yma



In other news...

We have an election going on tomorrow.
The following is your soundtrack for the revolution.

-"Revolution" by The Beatles
-"Kick Out the Jams" by MC5
-"Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan
-"Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
-"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil Scott-Heron
-"New Kicks" by Le Tigre
-"When Ya Get Drafted" by Dead Kennedys
-"B.Y.O.B." by System Of A Down
-"The Message" by Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five
-"Gimme Some Truth" by John Lennon
-"Wake Up" by Rage Against The Machine
-"White Riot" by The Clash
-"Rise Above" by Black Flag
-"Won't Bleed Me" by Melvin Van Peebles
-"Guerilla Radio" by Rage Against The Machine
-"Fight The Power" by Public Enemy
-"Road To Joy" by Bright Eyes
-"Power To The People" by John Lennon
-"Intervention" by The Arcade Fire
-"Street Fighting Man" by The Rolling Stones
-"Bring On The Lucie (Freeda Peeple) by John Lennon

And last but most certainly not least...

5 Days Out

The election is less than a week away and things are not looking too good for Mr. McCain. Don't believe me? Check out the following clips -

Wow even Fox "News" callin' a brotha out. I know it's great to watch and bodes well for our side, but don't let it make you cocky. A lot can happen in 5 days so don't let me catch you resting on your laurels.

Get out there and rock the motherfuckin' vote!

ULTIMATE FAIL!!!

OK everyone. It's time for a special celebrity edition of America's favorite failure based game show...

ULTIMATE FAIL!

Today's contestant is Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin. We now go live to special political correspondent Brian Williams.

Not quite sure where she went wrong?

Read This -

terrorist: noun - A radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities

Now Click & Read -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Robert_Rudolph

OK now.

Everybody say it with me...

ULTIMATE FAIL!!!

I'm sorry ma'am but you just lost the right to even be CONSIDERED for the office of Vice President. Thank you for playing.

Tune in next week for more failure-ific fun.

What have you done for me LATELY?

A brief observation:

Whenever a conservative decides to jump ship and endorse Barack Hussein Obama the immediate reaction is to begin denigrating that person as not a ‘true conservative’. This all hit a fever pitch on Sunday when Colin Powell decided to endorse Obama while speaking on “Meet the Press”.

Colin Luther Powell served as a National Security Advisor to Reagan, Chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush Sr. and acted as Secretary of State to Bush Jr. For most people, a resume like that would buy a lot of Republican street cred.



Oh and let’s not forget the fact that Powell is pro-choice and his mother dresses him funny.

I don’t get it.

Had Powell chosen to endorse McCain the Bill Kristols and William Bennetts of the world would be extolling his virtues as a wise and respected conservative man of principle. He's their negro as long as he's useful. After that -

'To the wolves with you. We have Alan Keyes.'

I honestly believe that if Ronald Reagan were to suddenly rise from the dead and endorse Barack Obama, every dittohead from here to Timbuktu would be decrying him as not a ‘true conservative’ and would repeatedly regurgitate the fact that he was a registered Democrat until 1962.

I sure hope Andy Griffith is ready for the onslaught:

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

A New World Of Gods And Monsters!

Aside from heaps upon heaps of troubling economic news, the other big story of this week was the McCain/Palin campaign's decision to enter the character assassination game. At rally after rally the candidates as well as their surrogates, took every possible opportunity to question Senator Obama's patriotism.

The constant repetition of the Senator's full name (Barack Hussein Obama) by surrogates, combined with repeated accusations of Obama "paling around" with a terrorist, has resulted in many crowds chanting things like, "traitor" and in some cases "kill him".

This is INSANELY irresponsible on the part of the McCain/Palin campaign. Sure most of your rank and file Republicans out there will be content with chanting, blogging, e-mailing and voting to get out their aggression - but what about the others? What about that proverbial "lone nut"? I don't think a cleaning agent exists that can even begin to remove that much blood from someone's hands.

At a rally today, Senator McCain attempted to cool every one's collective jets. But is it too late?



Hate is not a faucet that you can simply turn on and off at will. Has John McCain opened Pandora's Box? Has he given birth to a monster not even he can control?



PS: A bi-partisan legislative council in Alaska just released a report stating that Gov. Sarah Palin broke a state ethics law which prohibits public officials from pursuing personal interest through official action.

Read all about it: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/palin.investigation/index.html

All Of Them

In a series of interviews over the past week, Sarah Palin has succeeded in making milquetoast anchor Katie Couric look like Edward R. Murrow. Most of the interview clips made me laugh and left me with a sinking feeling about our Nation's future but it was the following clip that really angered me:


Look at her try to spin it like cute little Katie was accusing Alaska of being ill-informed. No Mrs. Palin, she's only talking about you.

I don't think that Sarah Palin is dumb by any stretch of the imagination. She knows how to dodge a question, how to spin it and how to mention as many key phrases as possible. That takes smarts and I'm pretty sure she reads. She holds a BS in Communications-Journalism. If she doesn't read then that's just plain sad. So let's just assume that she is an intelligent and literate woman. Why would someone withhold their reading list? Though I have absolutely no way to prove it, my theory is:

By refusing to name specific periodicals, Mrs. Palin is trying to appeal to the anti-intellectual contingent within the Republican party.

Over the past eight years the middle-class has seen increasing hardship. The rich have become richer while average Americans have found it harder and harder to make ends meet. As a result, a great deal of Americans have a strong mistrust towards "elites". This puts the Republican Party at quite the disadvantage.



What is a political party to do? How can they possibly convince the biggest voting block out there (the middle class) that they are not the party of the elite?

*Light Bulb*

BY CALLING THE OTHER GUYS ELITES!

Look at them and all their fancy book learnin'. They don't know what it's really like. They just sit there judging you in their ivory towers. Rowin' boats and eatin' ivy. Let's go race snow machines and watch "The Passion of the Christ".

By not naming specific newspapers and magazines Sarah Palin sidestepped tarnishing her carefully crafted image as "one of us", by mentioning that she reads periodicals which some might characterize as being part of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, eletist - "Liberal Media". Rule #1 of being a VP nominee - do no harm.

Frankly I'm sick and tired of all this shit. There is nothing wrong with being intelligent and informed. Teaching Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago doesn't mean you're an elitist -

IT MEANS YOU'RE SMART!

And that's what I want in a leader. I want someone smart!

PS: Sarah Palin spoke in California today and decided to spout stale talking points from long ago regarding Mr. Obama and former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers. In her harangue Mrs. Palin cited that "old gray lady" of the "liberal media" - The New York Times.

Source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93JSBFO0&show_article=1

On a side note...

Since Sarah Palin claims to read "all of them" here are some titles we must assume she reads:

-The Struggle
-Calling Our Nation
-Nida’ul-Islam
-Al Ansar
-Newcummers
-Savage Male
-Uncut

Of course those last three she only reads for the articles.

Comics and Film: A Dialogue

Here’s a link to the new trailer for Frank Miller’s adaptation of Will Eisner’s “The Spirit”. When you're done come back and enjoy a lively discussion on comics and film.

http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-spirit/26912/trailer?trailerId=2254867

Well hopefully this will be a more successful film than “Sin City”

Oh my God! Did he just rag on “Sin City”?

Yes I did. A little.

But Craig, you own “Sin City” on DVD. The special edition no less!

Guilty as charged.

Then what is this heresy thou speakest?

Don’t get me wrong I enjoy “Sin City” but not as a film. I marvel at what was achieved visually by all those involved. Marv walking through the rain, white silhouettes on black screen, racing cars, etc.

OK. So where’s the problem?

The problem is that I hardly ever feel the urge to re-watch it as a whole film. I’ll watch a scene or even a particular shot, but not the whole film.

Why do you think that is?

I think it’s the result of those involved being too reverent to the source material.

Too reverent? Don’t you geeks get all in a twitter about film adaptations that stray too much from the source material?

Yes we do. We want the film’s creators to be respectful of source material.

Then what’s the problem?

The problem is that if you hold something too tightly you can kill it.

Like a bunny rabbit?

Yes. Like a cute little bunny rabbit. “Sin City” is so fetishistically obsessed with depicting each and every panel of the comic that it loses it’s energy. “Sin City” does not feel alive for me. It feels like an exercise in replication. I came down to the theatre to have a cinematic experience. If I wanted the comic I would read the comic. A film needs to be allowed to be a film.

So then are you entirely against the idea of adapting comics into films?

No. Not at all. Take “Ghost World” for example. That was a very respectful adaptation while at the same time being drastically different from the book. Terry Zwigoff’s visual style complimented Daniel Clowes’ illustrations but is not slavish to them. Also it remained true to the emotional story. The same goes from “American Splendor”.

So then are you going to see “The Spirit” when it comes out?

Probably.

But what if it's missing energy or whatever you accused "Sin City" of doing?

That's absolutely possible but I don't think it will happen.

Why not?

Because this film isn't a slavish recreation of anything. Aside from character names and basic set-up, this film looks to have little in common with the old Will Eisner books. Frank Miller having some fun with Will Eisner's toys. I cannot wait to see what comes of it. Good pulpy fun.

You baffle me.

I baffle myself all the time. See you in the funny papers and at the movies.

PS - Speaking of movies...

Here are two other cool trailers you might like:

First up the Tom Cruise tries to kill Hitler pic "Valkyrie"



And finally the new trailer for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". You'll have to go to the actual site and watch the quicktime trailer cause it's just too beautiful to experience in muddy ol' youtube

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/thecuriouscaseofbenjaminbutton/

And lastly

When I first became politically active and able to vote I registered Green. The first ballot I ever cast was for Peter Miguel Camejo for Governor of California. Sadly Peter died on September 13th at the age of 68. I did not find out about this until yesterday. This brings me much sadness. Camejo was a great man who stood up for what he believed.

Read more about him over at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Camejo

RIP

Just Like Starting Over

Greetings and welcome to today's edition of "Money Talk".

Today we bring you two differing opinions on the current economic crisis. Hopefully they can help you to better understand the situation and come to some sort of conclusion.

First up noted Wall St. shark Gordon Gekko. Mr. Gekko, what are your thoughts on our current economic situation?

http://coleary.com/locust/greed.mp3

Next up we have British Belter Shirley Bassey. What've you got to say Shirley?



Two extremely convincing arguments. I hope that was helpful.

This program has been brought to you by:

Top Ramen - feeding families on a budget since 1958!

Special thanks to:

http://inkhornterm.blogspot.com/2008/09/all-moneys-gone-nowhere-to-go-michael.html

and

http://www.youtube.com/

for granting us access to our expert panel.

That's all for now.

Good night, and good luck.

Banned In The USA & Other Stuff

Recently I posted the hilarious trailer to Kevin Smith's new film "Zack and Miri Make a Porno". So far the only poster out there has been the Canadian poster which was declared inappropriate for American audiences:

Over the past few weeks Smith has been submitting other poster designs, all of which have been rejected. In frustration he submitted the following poster - which was immediately approved:

While I'm glad to see a one-sheet that isn't just "big heads" like oh so many posters out there, I cannot see this poster hanging on my wall.

Now I will grant you that it's a great gag and will definitely drive up box office rev due to the "scandal" element but as a piece of advertising it's just not pretty. Solid white? Really? Judging by the trailer and the footage I saw at Comic-Con the film has a very nice color palette which is reflected in the Canadian poster. Couldn't they have at least incorporated that into this new one?

Sorry. I'm nitpicking. I love Kevin Smith. And apparently so do a lot of other people. The movie showed at the Toronto International Film Festival this week and has been receiving great notices from places like Daily Variety, Time Magazine and Roger Ebert.

Speaking of Roger...

The other day he wrote one of his most scathing reviews ever and it wasn't about a film. Ebert wrote a review of Sarah Palin.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/1156080,091008ebertpalin.article

I heart Roger Ebert so much. Pulitzer Prize winning critic, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" screenwriter, cancer survivor and political pundit extraordinaire.

I guess I'll finish this up with a trailer.

This is the just released trailer for the new Clint Eastwood directed, J. Michael Straczynski written, Angelina Jolie starring "Changeling".

It seems that Clint can do no wrong. I am a HUGE geek for films about the dark side of old Los Angeles like "LA Confidential" and "Chinatown" and this film looks very promising. Hopefully it will not turn into another "Black Dahlia".

Mahalo.