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Friday, July 04, 2008

Around the blogroll and elsewhere
Posted by Jill | 9:07 AM
Today is July 4, and here in NJ it's cloudy, with a threat of thunderstorms, repeat until Monday morning when we all go back to work.

There was a time when this meant that I could freely spend the better part of three afternoons in a darkened movie theater without feeling that I was missing out on Glorious Times in the Sunshine. But in the last three years, my moviegoing has dwindled down to almost nothing, save for the few times a year I meet up with ModFab to take in something over which we can snark over coffee afterwards, or if there's a new comic book movie that Mr. Brilliant wants to see. There was a time when I shlepped into the city to see a movie that would never make it out this way, but now I'm just as happy to miss it.

I don't know what happened. Perhaps I just got burnt out on movies after reviewing them for nearly a decade. Perhaps the movies just suck these days. Perhaps it's just easier to wait for them to show up on the premium channels, especially now that we have the 40" flatscreen. Perhaps I just can't get away from this notion that going to the movies is watching wealthy, impossibly attractive actors pretending to be ordinary people -- a breathtaking level of cynicism and inability to suspend disbelief that means perhaps I'm better off staying away.

But since not everyone is in this state of mind about the movies, let's start with a couple of movie-related links.

My old Cinemarati friend Nathaniel, whose cinematic obsessiveness could almost make me jump back into the Hell Plaza Octoplex, has unearthed an old episode of 21 Jump Street, of all things, to conclusively demonstrate that Josh Brolin is eminently qualified to play George W. Bush.

And Lance Mannion writes about Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

If you, like me, are a Clean House addict, you are no doubt still whiffing the bottle of oil of peppermint, trying to wash the stench of this year's "Messiest House in the Country" winners, Phil and Mindy Wheeler, out of your nose. This show is supposed to be about helping packrats deal with their obsessive clutter, not about helping a pathologically immature couple that seems unable to so much as take out the trash clean up filth that should by all rights have caused their house to be condemned. There's a distinct aura of scam artist about these two losers, and the Four Musketeers of Mayhem and Foolishness seem about ready to quit the whole show during this two-hour trainwreck. If you missed it, you can catch it at 9 PM Eastern time tonight. And you can read about it in a preview that ran in the Washington Post last weekend.

And also on the small screen, ModFab handicaps the Lead Actress race for this year's Emmys.

On to politics and such:

John Cole hates you.

Libby Spencer doesn't care if he does. She says Obama's defense of his plans for the FISA vote just doesn't cut it.

Brad Jacobson on PBS and NBC's sins of omission.

Terrance on new evidence in a 60-year-old mass lynching case.

Doghouse Riley, one of the Four Great Curmudgeons of Lefter Blogtopia* (™ Skippy) agrees with me that it's getting mighty crowded under this bus.

The Minstrel Boy has some thoughts on torture -- and what should be done to those who both did the torturing and issued the orders.

DCap says we all had better make sure we have a good strong Posturepedic, because that's going to be the only safe place to put your worthless U.S. money.

And just to make things confusing, DCup on the loss of yet another blogger.


(*The other three being Ornery Bastard, PhysioProf, and Driftglass.)

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9 Comments:
Blogger The Minstrel Boy said...
thank you very much for the linkage jill.

happy fourth and stuff

dano'ah selwigoh doo iis dah do'o iindii eedihii nanah daagon'iillka'ad

(all the free men are dead or still fighting)

golah kah yeh (geronimo)
7/4/08, 10:35 AM  
Blogger Fran said...
Clean House- my guilty pleasure indeed.

And that messiest house..... yeeeeeech. Yet, like a bad car wreck that was aflame with digusting disaster and I but a moth attracted to the heat and light, watched every filthy minute.
7/4/08, 11:16 AM  
Blogger Distributorcap said...
jill

u r d best as always

on another note
jesse helms died
somehow i just cannot feel one iota of sadness - none, zero

his bigotry and power is one the primary reasons we are where we are

if i remember he "relented" at some point on his bigotry and his fighting AIDs research --- too late jesse
7/4/08, 11:21 AM  
Blogger D. said...
The movies do in fact stink.

And for the price of admission plus popcorn and a soda you can get DVDs (I know people who got a DVD player because the computer screen was Too Small) and watch them whenever you want.

And -- yeah, wait for them on premium cable so you know what DVDs to buy. < g >

Former Senator Helms is indeed dead. And when I do the Unified Field Theory of Conservatism, he will have a place.

Probably in the bathroom.
7/4/08, 11:51 AM  
Blogger Fran said...
As for Jesse Helms, please see this post for a good laugh.

And yes - he really is a priest.
7/4/08, 4:10 PM  
Blogger Phil said...
I only go to the movies to have some time with my Ex's kids, who I raised and call me Dad.
The proudest thing in my whole life, bar none.

Thank you so much for reading and linking to my Blog honey. Now I have another reason to brag, I'm one of the Four Great Curmudgeons. That's some damn good bragging rights in my book but to even be mentioned in the same sentence with Driftglass is an honor I don't believe I will ever deserve.


Thank you.

Busted
7/5/08, 4:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Happy Birthday America.
7/5/08, 7:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Who the fuck you calling a curmudgeon!? I'm not a fucking curmudgeon! I'm cheerful!
7/6/08, 3:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Speaking of Clean House. The wheelers have a myspace page where she lists her income as $100,000 to $150,000. And in her new update to the show, she complains that she can't find anything in the 50 odd bins because everything is mixed up and not organised well - as if the Clean House crew were at fault! My god, these people are delusional. And they want to be parents.

I think the page is http://www.myspace.com/MindyHGP
7/12/08, 8:43 PM  
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