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Showing posts with label Pop Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pop Culture. Show all posts

What is the next goal?

Posted by febry on 8:45 PM

We're into September now, and I am seeing issues everywhere that have me pondering my reflections headed into this month.

MTV Beats Networks . . . Hmmmm? A degradation of society showed its ugly back Sunday night at the MTV “Video Music Awards” in Los Angeles. Looking at the ratings of the “awards show” full of no-talents who are gong-worthy, 12.4 million watched this utter disgrace, with 8.5 million of it from their core audience of 12-34, which evidently shows how a plethora of youth have discarded the timeless masterworks in favour of the hip and trendy, which has pilfered its way into houses of worship today, with the popularity of GIA, Oregon Catholic Press, the major secular publishers, and rock-based services. It outdrew any broadcast network television program during the entire week, but as should be the disclaimer, there were no pre-emptions caused by Hurricane Irene on MTV, while the networks had Irene coverage on the wall where parts of the populus East Coast couldn't watch the NFL pre-season games, Little League baseball, or the Irwin Tools Night Race.

On the other hand, for sports that count, the disgraceful “awards show” promoting raunchy “music” outdrew combined Brad Keselowski's run to the Wild Card at the Irwin Tools Night Race and Huntington Beach, California's Little League sixth-inning heroics combined. How far have we fallen when the hardest and most prestigious tickets are discarded in favour of the fads of the day?

And don't forget that MTV, not Fox News, is controlling how America moves thanks to a President who prefers MTV to FNC.

The Sexual Deviants At It Again. Sexual deviants have successfully replaced our military with a Department of Social Engineering, Special Rights Division, and it was reported that magazines promoting the agenda are now allowed on PX stores. Combine that with the ACLU boasting of the loss of religious freedom under the new definition of marriage in New York, and activists' goals to normalise pedophilia with an organisation attempting to eliminate all criminal codes relating to this disgusting behaviour, we are living in a dangerous era for Christians. Sexual deviants are now being rewarded, and we who live by an inerrant text of the Bible are now being persecuted.

Poor old Lacey Schwimmer! With apologies to David Hobbs, what can this past So You Think You Can Dance finalist do to catch a break? Now it turns out she will be the unfortunate woman paired with a woman who is acting inside the auspices of another form of sexual deviancy on the US version of the Strictly Come Dancing franchise. Same-sex ballroom dancing? Ugh! Cue the Zonk music!

Tougher Journalist? A ten-year old student asked tough questions than the White House Press Corps, according to a recent report on The Fox Nation. Reminds me of that old programme on the telly we must ask the White House Press Corps, “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” You've shown you aren't, press.

Betraying America, Derby Week, and more

Posted by febry on 9:18 AM

Another Mandate of the Social Engineers. The Department of Social Engineering, Special Rights Division has ordered a hit on “military” chaplains as the conversion of the military from a fighting force to the advancer of the Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and Germanotta agenda of sexual deviants continues. DSE-SRD bases will now be an enabler of false “marriages” that churches will not accept. Court-martials and dishonourable discharges (which include prison potentially) can now be imposed on chaplains and even soldiers with the Bible in non-”protected zones” (chapel services) because of the agenda of sexual deviants, all of which were imposed in Public Law 111-321, which converts the “military” to its new purpose of advancing the Gill Agenda. That, and NASA's change from space exploration to Muslim outreach, are two of the most radical changes to agencies under this Administration.

Speaking of Germanotta. I'm reading the wires before a spin class and cannot believe how her Catholic-bashing ditty, named for the man who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, is being unveiled on a popular television programme. She has created severe damage by betraying our military. Now she is betraying people of faith on the National Day of Prayer. What's next?

Trouble on the Anglicans? Considering how many attend church in England, especially in the Anglican side, and the troubles in the Anglican Communion (including a well-known schism currently ongoing with the Anglicans in South Carolina), and in light of the Royal Wedding, some Britons believe the Church of England is on its way to dying out. Albert Mohler has commentary.

Tax Stupidity. With the price of fuel at over $4.40 per gallon of gasoline (remember, “one gallon” of fuel at most places is 115.2 ounces of gasoline, and 12.8 ounces of filler), the President, USDA, and others are wanting more filler and less gasoline in a gallon of fuel. Seriously, what does this tell us about the government's hatred of oil? They stole car companies to reward those that made tiny cars and Chinese cars in Chicago, and now they're trying to ensure gasoline is banned.

From Swaps to Ferdinand. ESPN Classic recently aired a celebration of the late Bill Shoemaker's final Kentucky Derby win, on Ferdinand, 25 years ago. But his first victory was immortalised in William Faulkner's essay that was published by a young publication from Time that has been immortalised over 50 years later as an authority in sport. 

Retro TV Friday

Posted by febry on 8:38 AM

Iit may be Opening Day for baseball this weekend, but today I'm thinking of a different opening day - that of the original Disneyland on July 17, 1955, and as Ed Sullivan might have put it, it was a really big shew. Today it might seem strange for the opening of an amusement park to be broadcast live on national television, but then nobody had ever seen anything like Disneyland before.

Besides, ABC had helped finance Walt Disney's dream, in return for Disney doing a weekly television show for the fledgling medium. (This in itself was a big deal, as movie moguls still thought of television either as light entertainment or a major threat to their livelihood.) So it's no wonder that ABC blocked out 90 minutes on that day for the star-studded broadcast, which attracted 90 million viewers.

Here's part one; the entire broadcast is available on YouTube by following the links at the end of each segment.

On the battle lines

Posted by febry on 7:18 PM

Another Bible Paraphrase. The release of the new version of a popular paraphrase of the Bible, the New International Version 2011 (replaces the 1984 and 2008 "TNIV" versions), and its politically correct "gender neutral" language, inspired PETA (yes, that organisation again) to request the next NIV to feature "speciesist" language.

The rise in paraphrases that are gender-neutral is a disgrace considering the incident years ago when some teens told me that the Bible was changed so many times (mainly because of the paraphrases they are indoctrinated today) it was not God's Word, and they trusted popular culture and books instead. Warrenists are deep into ever new paraphrase invented in recent years, and they are clearly winning the religion war among the younger generation, which is troubling.

Another Activist Group Gets an Easter Egg Hunt Reward. This Administration on an earlier Easter Egg Hunt started to invite members of special-rights activists groups pushing for sexual deviancy, and forced our acceptance. Now they're working on an "green earth" agenda for even White House traditions.

Freedom of Speech, Only for the Left. A leading liberal leader in Washington, who was elected once in a ruse so bad where he replaced a candidate within a few weeks after the primary but before the general election so they could win, now shows the true side of the current Administration: No freedoms for anyone except the Modern Left.

Arresting the Bird Catcher. The United Methodist university in town (there are three in the state, one of them is a women's school, the other is an HBCU, and the other is traditional) is offering a production of Die Zauberflöte this week and also in two weeks. They boasted it is "set in New York City," sung in English with a live orchestra. Oh dear . . . I wasn't fond of Le Nozze di Figaro in English the two times I've seen it (I've seen a third performance in Italian and loved it). May I call the cops to arrest Papangeo?

Washington's cowtow to the Gill Agenda continues. Immigrants illegally "married" to Americans in violation of laws in the majority of the country would not automatically be denied immigration benefits. One immigration lawyer said the decision could also give those facing deportation a free pass for work authorisation thanks to this Administration's obsession with the sexual deviants' agenda. First speech codes, then kill the military and replace it with a Social Engineering department focused on special rights in an Intolerable Act, now give them this? It's clear this Administration wants to push the agenda opposed by the people.

The Songs Are Worse. Two years ago, I sang on my first choral project at the university level at 34 years, 32 days, excerpts from Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten, and last year participated in my first full-length choral project, Beethoven's Mass in C Major. A report erupted on the latest "zonk tunes" in bubblegum pop that today's MTV-infested youth listen on the radio or watch either on Disney or MTV-branded television. A 13-year old was nailed for having "the worst song ever recorded". The only pop star I remember making it at 13 was one country singer who has stayed in the limelight now nearing 30 and having had a trip to the altar (and back). If this is the future of music, I have the Safety Car lights on, since it's time to nail this offender. Kids think this is acceptable, but won't accept the serious material?  

Opinion Digest

Posted by febry on 9:52 AM

Tthe opinions behind this week's headlines:

Michelle Malkin: So Much for Civility.

Oliver North: Obama Inspired Chaos.

Jeff Stier: Celebrities should stick to their song and dance.

Kelly Boggs: America's "religion" -- Pop Culture.

Two columns by Albert Mohler on President Obama's betrayal of the Defence of Marriage Act as part of his continuing push for the agenda of sexual deviants: A Milestone in the Betrayal of Marriage and How Did This Happen?

Corning Leader: Lewis Hamilton for an Exxon Mobil promotion at The Glen, where many British F1 stars of the 1960's kept winning?

Starting This Week in Love . . . Where's Miss Right?

Posted by febry on 2:13 PM

Rock is legal, but Poulenc's Gloria isn't? After attending another South Carolina Philharmonic concert ("Heaven and Earth," with the Columbia Choral Society, Coker College Singers, and Dawn Marie Wolski, soprano), and hearing the strains of Poulenc's Gloria (the piece that I heard but knew years ago I wasn't qualified to sing choral music yet; it took me five more years of vocal training to finally go over the hump and now it's two gigs a year since then, but still no church singing because of the attitude of certain leaders in churches who prefer the dippy junk), I thought about how secularism has run rampant in the country, even in churches.

We have seen secularism run rampant when the odds of Poulenc's Gloria are more to be heard in the symphony hall than in the church, which is dead-set on rock or karaoke (gasp!) settings of (don't laugh) "The Climb," "It's My Life," or the latest hit from a Sony television series (Granger had their congregation vote on which tune from Glee to perform there) in today's Warrenist Life Enhancement Centre every church wants to become.

And oh, by the way: Dawn Marie would lap the entire Grammy field wit that ethereal voice that made me understand in both Mahler's Symphony Nr. 4 and Poulenc's Gloria why I first was hooked on this type of music! Any reason why I've gone classical?

Wait a Minute, I thought NFL Season is Over! During the broadcast of the InBev Shootout Saturday, the strains of a certain piece played -- and it didn't sound prim and proper there, did it? It was the Garrod-Hays-Scheer Fox NFL march. And that's the All Sports theme. Meanwhile, Clay Matthews III is a Grammys presenter, and much to the chagrin of CBS ("Posthumus Zone," from ES Posthumus, 2006-present, but may change with the group's breakup following the death of a member), the Fox Sports Theme Song played. Every pitch and swing and every lap on the track on Fox will hear that. Just wonder if we'll hear it on UEFA broadcasts too. Seemingly, the timeless theme song has now proven to be timeless.

The End of the Beginning. The Heritage Foundation has a report on the Egypt crisis. It's a must-read.

Watson's Time. IBM's "Watson" supercomputer obtains its Jeopardy! shot Monday-Wednesday in the classic two-game, total point format. It will have two opponents -- the great Brad Rutter and the great Ken Jennings. Game show greats versus a computer should be as much fun as Kasparov vs Deep Blue.

25 Grand Here, 25 Points There. The top of the popular music charts have become a place where John Darby would be calling artists to the Oval Office and burnishing huge 25-point penalties along with $25,000 fines for the use of "money and points words". 

XLV Reflections

Posted by febry on 7:06 PM

With a Cheesehead reputation dating back to Sterling Sharpe and Robert Brooks (two Gamecocks; Sharpe's #2 is a retired number at South Carolina), and to learn of Sopranos who are Cheeseheads (a past voice teacher, and a few soprano buddies), I was looking back at listening to the end of the first quarter after my Bible study Sunday night in the truck on the way home (a big reason I enjoy listening to sports with national radio voices is how they are complete opposites of the modern homers and screamers that fill radio today) and Boomer Esiason's description of Nick Collins' pick-six ("playing center field like Bernie Williams of the Yankees") makes you wonder sometimes how storytelling can be deceptive. As I drove in the truck, it was a painting that I could imagine; those moments aren't painted well by homers on today's team radios.

During halftime, while most stayed watching the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLV Halftime with the Black Eye Peas and others, Lt. Michael Haley posted a message that the Black Eyed Peas blocked a hit ditty from being used during the successful campaign of Lt. Haley's wife to become Governess of the state. But earlier in the day, from other reports (remember I was in my Bible study), one of the trio of no-talent "artists" that drew my ire from a "music awards show" that needed to be called to the Oval Office (as it's called today) pulled off a Star Mangled Banner that was worse than anything The Daly Planet reported during last year with bad anthems! From what I have been informed through a wire report, this was on par with current Idols judge Steven Tyler's mangled banner at the INDYCAR* race in 2001 that sent journalists in Charlotte and Indianapolis not too amused (the reaction by Super Tex showed)! I would rather have Dr. Jesse McGuire's rendition on the trumpet or any of my vocal Gran Amistad's performance of it any day over this rotten pop "diva" who showed no talent at Super Bowl XLV.

When I initially heard of the story at halftime, I thought when you sit through sixteen hours of practice in four weeks and bang out more notes on your own just to do a choral piece on the level of Beethoven's Mass in C Major as happened in June, we had to be professional to the nines. Behave, people. When the National Anthem is revered severely, we demand serious anthems, not these jokes that are performed by these no-talent pop hoons.

* The sanctioning body for the IZOD IndyCar Series is referred as INDYCAR in all capitals. Source: Bob Jenkins (Versus)

Rated XLV

Posted by febry on 4:06 PM

Gipper 100! A big cheer this weekend for the birthday of the greatest President of modern time, Ronald Wilson Reagan. Considering what we have in the White House today, we need to flash back.



“(Be)cause you fell, you fat pig! Have Another Doughnut!” In Raleigh, NC, the Krispy Kreme Challenge has runners running a four-mile race with a twist: consumption of twelve doughnuts of the North Carolina chain in the middle of the run.

It's Been There Before. Three fights in four seconds?

Child Pornography. Albert Mother's take on an MTV series that is child pornography. I've known the problems of MTV for such a long time that there's a restrictor plate on the television.

Sanger Exploitation of Children. More clinics of Planned Parenthood (a baby murder mill) are found to help with sexual exploitation of minors.

Attacking Governess Palin: In Mikado, TNT, and the SAG Awards

Posted by febry on 4:31 AM

The bashing of the former Governess of Alaska, Sarah Palin, continues with a trio of inappropriate incidents in recent weeks. In the past month, the Missoula (MT) Children's and Missoula Community Theater featured performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado where a few eagle-eyed and eagle-eared people detected an attack on the Governess in the performance of the musical.

Mikado is set in Japan to attack the British government and institutions of 1885, but Ko-Ko's aria "Lord High Executioner," is where he sings about people on his "list" for elimination. Often, the lyrics are regionalised to refer to local heels, and it was clear that liberals in Montana, a state with two liberal Senators, decided to call for the beheading of Governess Palin in the song. Why is she being attacked in the theatre with the call for beheading? Is calling for the assassination of leaders a federal violation? Or are standards different when the Left goes after the Right still?

This isn't our first go-around on inappropriate themes in the theatre, as we discussed a Hans Neuenfels production of Idomeneo that featured the severed head of various religious figures (and axed only when Mohammed's head was included) years ago. Is Hans Neuenfels behind this Mikado production with the bashing of Governess Palin, who helped push through the Red and Gray of Governess Haley to the Mansion?

And Governess Palin had to do it again with an NBA on TNT incident last week too, when Mr. Tracy Morgan, an alleged “comedian” on Comcast's Saturday Night Live, went into X-rated crude remarks on her during an interview before the NBA match. Mr. Morgan had raunchy words during the TNT broadcast about Governess Palin that we cannot post here because of its X-rated nature, and also to Comcast's E! Network coverage of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, he went on another Palin-bashing soiree.

Whatever happened to civility with a former KTUU anchorwoman? It's clear we have uncivilised liberals who attack any conservative at any time, and with both Mr. Morgan's and the Missoula Children's and Community Theater's attacks of this woman.



References:

http://www.krtv.com/news/palin-reference-causes-stir-in-missoula-mikado-production/

http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_cc99fa98-2aef-11e0-9141-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=8153&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+RightPundits+(Right+Pundits)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703956604576110100251027150.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

Notable Quotables, 2010

Posted by febry on 6:22 PM

The Year in Review time is here, and here we go with some outrageous, and fun quotes from 2010.

“Has feminising of today’s classical music allowed the tackiness of women in concert halls where it’s appropriate to be Henry Ford, and wear anything, provided it’s black, even if it’s a black sweatshirt, black jeans, and sneakers, something that I find inappropriate when the dinner jacket is worn?”

-- On “Beethoven and Blue Jeans”. Later in the year a friend and I attended the Methodist university's concert choir performance of Händel's Messiah and the dress of the choral singers had started becoming sloppy with questionable dresses. What is with the sloppiness of dress in the orchestra?

“Whatever happened to the idea of walking golf? The pros do it, but the country-clubbers who want the revenue ban the simplest of golf fundamentals.”

-- On playing my first full round of golf.

“Eardrum-busting prerecorded music is not church music – ever.”

-- Excessively loud church “music”.

“Hey, it was the 13th marathon on the 13th of February. Something was bound to go wrong.”

-- Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon XIII was canned because of snow on February 12 just eight hours from the gun. The second attempt is in seven weeks, and unfortunately, they will have a course different from the one originally drawn. A user sent me this statement. The 13th renewal of the marathon is February 19.

“It would have been better if McMurray fending off Junior on Lap 208 was at 9:34 PM instead of 7:34 PM where Family Guy would never have aired."

-- On “Family Guy” insulting Sarah Palin, which should have never aired. It also began the Ganassi Triple Crown of the Daytona 500 and both major Indianapolis races (500 and 400). The Harley Earl, Borg-Warner, and PPG Trophies.

"It was a suspicious setting of Psalm 23 (not to be confused with the settings I've heard in various places) from Mr. McFerrin, which was clearly a feminist-oriented theology based on God as feminine. That was highly sacrilegious and inappropriate music to be used, and to be using this feminist tune with 'invented' 'added to this to appease one group' that you do not see in a legitimate Bible translation does not make any sense.”

-- Declining to attend a concert of the Concordia College choir because of a “feminist version of Psalm 23” used by the choir. The Bobby McFerrin arrangement (yes, a pop artist) is notorious for it.

“As the Mark Burnett game show would say to today's generation that learned the false teachings that indoctrinated them into modern liberalism and could not answer that fifth-grade question correctly, these slaves of the modern liberal movement must come to the desk and say, "My name is Student of the Modern Liberal Movement, and we can promise hope and change in our way, but I am NOT smarter than a fifth grader." Instead of little owls being developed in schools today, we have skulls full of mush with only feelings, and not understanding.”

-- On the Passage of ObamaCare, taking a reference to a Mark Burnett Productions - Radio Television Luxembourg (holds international rights) show hosted by Jeff Foxworthy (US), Noel Edmonds (UK), John McManus III (Australia).

“Sorry, but jiggling with your girlfriend (who can't sing in this group which shares its initials with a pop music trio consisting of Oneness Pentecostal ministers) to this song that Caroline (Lewis-Jones) chose should be your punishment.”

-- To Lewis Hamilton, after he was nailed for “actions detrimental to street traffic” in Melbourne. The Oneness Pentecostal ministers are Randy Phillips, Shawn Craig, and Dan Dean. In this part of the country, in the world of popular music, PCD means “Phillips, Craig, and Dean”. Their concert date restrictions are unique in popular music in that they will ensure they are home on Saturday nights in order to preach (their false teachings of this “cult”) on Sundays.

How can dancing to "Spirit in the Sky," a song that violates Romans 3:23, be regarded as church material while an orchestra playing Händel's Messiah or Haydn's Die Schöpfung is regarded as wrong-leveled in our society?

-- Regarding the suspension of orchestras. And yes, I value the two unrelated Hills over Greenbaum any day for music.

"Talk about your sacred music feast at church in Charleston today. Mozart's Gloria (from Twelfth Mass), three from Messiah, Christ the Lord is Risen Today, two Gospel readings (John 20:3-9, Phil 3:10-11), Holy, Holy, Holy, All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, and one from Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge. Beats sappy rock... ANY day for this classically trained tenor. A five-course meal!"

-- Regarding an Easter service.

“Is Steve Matchett writing the Fox Sports Race Trax?”

-- During the Samsung Mobile 500, moved to Monday, I read the Fox Sports Race Trax. The message posted said, “CAUTION 6 - Lap 312: David Reutimann’s engine goes Kablamo. Tough luck for the seventh-place driver. Wow - Lots of fire underneath the car!"

“Of course, musically, 'Brittnee' means Siemon (a mezzo I know well) and 'Lindsay' means Mr. Graham, my Senior Senator often called Grahamnesty by Jason Lewis (who before working in Minnesota had worked at Charlotte's WBT Radio).”

-- In retaliation for a column where an episode of Glee talked Miss Spears and Miss Lohan.

"Glee, (Madonna) Ciccone, and some Stefani Germanotta? For me it's Heintzkill (Suzanna), Hill (Contessa), and Cole (Figaro)."

-- In response to a Madonna-themed Glee that was the dreams of a friend, I reminded myself of personal singing role models when I attended Le Nozze di Figaro in March. Miss Heitzkill was the soprano I referenced in Dancing with the Phil, Miss Hill of course is my long-time voice teacher, and Mr. Cole is the music director at First Presbyterian, and was the bass in Sing-Along Messiah V when his wife Holly was the alto.

“You don't watch MTV, you don't get the time to watch much television save news and sports, and you have ties to classical music organisations. So what time do I have to know the latest pop tunes?”

-- To a friend, on a song played during a workout.

“Is there a curse this year with marathons? We've had weather play parts in canning a marathon entirely and play havoc in cutting another short. Having done six and victimised by the snow, I cannot see what is next?”

-- After the Team in Training Winter 2010 team's second attempt at doing a marathon ended in disaster with a thunderstorm-shortening affair in Nashville's Country Music Marathon, part of the Competitor Group's Rock and Roll Marathon Series.

“(T)he voice we all admire and enjoy listening is literally on a milk carton, and is not in the body of the 51-year old whom I've said is the one artist I haven't seen I'd like to see – but not the voice of this album! “

-- On Dark Hope, from Renée Fleming, where the genre of music being pushed is not what you would expect from a singer of this level.

“I am afraid that the courts are going to let (Conrad Slocumb, convicted of criminal sexual conduct in 1992 at 13 for criminal sexual conduct, shooting a teacher and nearly killing her (30 years for the crime), and then in 1996 escaping a prison vehicle, running into an apartment, and attacking another woman at 16 (sentenced to life in prison after that)) free using an unratified treaty and foreign law. Is Geneva the capital of the United States? If so, they're saying teens have free reign to do anything gruesome since the courts will protect them.”

-- About freeing teenage criminals because their life sentences for heinous crimes were declared unconstitutional because of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child declaring them illegal. At last count, the United States did not ratify this. Why are the courts ruling as if it was ratified?

“This trophy has no business being in a party of an event that glorifies Sodom and Gomorrah.”

-- The Stanley Cup is featured in a Chicago sexual deviancy festival parade.

“Where have we seen it with the big red cigarettes?”

-- In regards to an incident at the Großer Preis Santander von Deutschland where Alonso passed Massa with the radio transmission “Fernando is faster than you are.” I picked up the information on the James Allen on F1 site as I ate lunch, as the race was not broadcast until after the lunch hour, hours after the race was over.

“The more I hear these wonderful pieces from centuries ago (such as Händel's Israel in Egypt, HWV 54), the more I am convicted. Shows what a tenor whose credentials include Haydn, Händel, and Beethoven in choral events enjoys best. No need for WMG, EMI, or Vivendi junk.”

-- On the July 27, 2010 episode of Crosstalk, “Sing ye to the Lord” was played for the final minutes of the call-in show by the hostess to discuss rediscovering serious church music. I am a tenor whose credentials include those three composers in my vocal resumé.

“Harry Reid wants total control to keep his No Debate, No Discussion in order to force as much of the Left's wicked secularist agenda down our throats.”

-- And we saw that in the Lame Duck Session.

“Laws of Spain and Argentina passed by their socialist régimes are now acceptable to this court but not the Constitution is lacking correct thinking, but they seem to want to dig our Constitution into a grave and bury it while allowing other nations to overthrow our government by our court order. But where is their logic in what they do?”

-- On Justice Kagan.

A Bible "study" with Gaia worship violates the first Commandment ("Thou Shalt Have No Other gods Before Me.").

-- A “green” Bible Study was promoted in a Life Enhancement Centre. Instead of God's Word, it was promoting fringe environmentalism.

“But what scares me is (Shaquan Duley) could mingle her way out of a jail sentence by using an unratified UN treaty, the Commission to End Discrimination on All Women (CEDAW), to free her based on psychological excuses. Proper sentences have been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on many sentences based on foreign law and unratified treaties in violation of the United States Constitution. Could we see people being freed on baby murder based on unratified treaties? Too many times we know the Supreme Court will rule foreign law is superior to United States law. Where does it say that Brussels is the Nation's Capital?”

-- On the Shaquan Duley murder of her children.

“So Catholic and Protestant parochial schools are now illegal in California, as they are denied admission to colleges because their textbooks do not comply with the humanist worldview. Meanwhile, we accept the worldview of pop stars other religions?”

-- On the California college admissions requirements.

“Many of the street circuits are full of partiers who may not care about the race but care about the big rock concert the night before or after the race, the big bikini show, or another big event that is more appealing than the race.”

-- On the rise in F1, IndyCar, ALMS, and V8 Supercars to embrace races on city streets instead of closed circuits. For the 2011 season, IndyCar dropped Watkins Glen, NY (permanent 3.403 mile natural-terrain road course) in favour of Baltimore (a street race going around the two sports stadia). Big nighttime party over pure racing bliss is senseless, especially with a concrete canyon.

“(This death) should be a warning to sports officials on gambling. Ban ads in stadia, ban ads in radio and television broadcasts, ban ads in programs, ban ads on uniforms. This is worse than Pete Rose. A life was lost here.”

-- On the death of a Denver Broncos wide receiver and a close friend of Argonauts running back Cory Boyd (the two and I are connected). It was found he was deep in gambling debts.

"Now that the New Bud Man has bought a (vacation) home here, why can't we get the Budweiser Impala replicas to be the support vehicles for the Marathon?"

-- Kevin and Delana Harvick bought a vacation home on Kiawah Island (probably will be used by his golf buddies for the 2012 PGA there; Happy has played in the Pro-Am at the Wyndham Championships) and the Kiawah Island Golf Resort Marathon course (two laps for the marathon runners, one for the half runners) goes past it. Just for the record, I finished in 6:37:36.

“Reality television is a misnomer in some situations. Some shows are game shows (The Apprentice, Survivor, Idols) and not reality shows, where contestants are playing for a prize.”

-- The term by Union University (Memphis area) professor Steve Beverly is “game opera”.

This Just In

Posted by febry on 5:56 AM

Germanotta to be tried for Inappropriate “Music”: Jury Named by Judge Gazaway

(NEW YORK, NY) – In light of the major wins at the MTV Video Music Awards, Stefani Germanotta, known as “Lady Gaga” on stage, was called by officials at the top of Park Avenue Tower for inappropriate behaviour by Bill Gazaway, supervisor of operations at Park Avenue Tower.

The decision to arrest Miss Germanotta came after inappropriate behaviour during the event, including being a bad role model for children, violating the dress code, and promoting X-rated material in front of youth.

Mr. Gazaway sent the following e-mail to Miss Germanotta, which has been released to the public:


From: Bill Gazaway, Supervisor of Operations at Park Avenue Tower
To: Stefani Germanotta and Attorneys
Re: Hearing on Inappropriate Behaviour.
In regards to your consistent problems with behaviour, the examples you are setting for others, and further troublesome actions as shown on Sunday night, September 12, you are to appear in front of Park Avenue Tower court at 65 East 55th Street, 36th Floor in New York City, in the case of Park Avenue Tower v. Stefani Germanotta, on the second of October, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Ten, in a jury trial.

The jurors for this case are as follows:

Walter Cuttino
Gretchen C. Close
Darrell L. Waltrip
Kathleen C. Troccoli
Lawrence J. McReynolds III
Serena D. Hill
F. Marc Rattray
Deborah Voigt
James Morris
David Pryce-Jones
Michael K. Joy (jury foreman)
Laura C. Schlessinger

Our solicitor who will be the lead prosecutor will be Jacob Will. Assistant prosecutors will be Анна Нетребко and Nicholas Smith.

Your hearing is set for Saturday, the second of October, in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Ten, at Ten O'Clock. Failure to attend shall result in an automatic conviction.


Sincerely,

Bill Gazaway
Supervisor of Operations
Park Avenue Tower

This Just In

Posted by febry on 5:27 PM

Oprah™ to Create New Life Form on Show Finale

(CHICAGO -- September 15)--Oprah™ Winfrey, America's talk show goddess for the last quarter century, has something very big up her sleeve for her show's finale in this her 25th, and final, season on the air.

Oprah™ began the season in September by telling 300 members of her studio audience that she would be taking them on an eight-day, all-expenses paid trip to Australia.

How she would end her daytime talkfest reign was a mystery, until now.

Oprah™'s producers have revealed that on the final show, to be aired in the spring of 2011, Oprah™ will create a new life form.

"Giving away cars was big, going to Australia was even bigger," says Jaqui Lacquey, a producer of the Oprah™ show. "But for the finale, after all this woman has done, and who she is, after all, we really needed a topper. And I think we've done it. Or, should I say, she will do it."

The exact nature of the life form that Oprah™ will create is a closely guarded secret. “Animal, vegetable, human, extra-terrestrial, we're just not going to reveal that right now," said Lacquey. "But it will definitely be new and extraordinary and mind-blowing, and we'll have all the details about it on Oprah™.com and a full color-spread in Oprah™, The Magazine, and a special will be prepared for the Oprah™ channel. This will be beyond big."

As to the identity of the final guest on the final show, that too, is a mystery, but some definite hints are being dropped. "Oprah™ certainly wants someone of enormous significance and fame as her final guest," said Lacquey. "She's already had presidents and queens and every A-List celebrity you can think of. Let's just say that we are in negotiations with the people of the only other entity known to have created life-forms. That's all we can say right now."

Foul Play: Late-70s flashback

Posted by febry on 4:59 AM

Written by Cathy of Alex

I was browsing the “On Demand” offerings a while back and turned my attention to the “Free Movies” category. Occasionally, I can find an interesting freebie to select.

Foul Play from 1978 was one of the free offerings. I’ve not seen Foul Play for what must be, at least, 10 years.

I was 10 when Foul Play came out. My parents wouldn’t let me see it. I can’t remember if it was an R. In any event, my parents monitored by theater going pretty closely. The first time I saw it was on an evening movie offering, probably something like “CBS Night at the Movies” a year after it was theatrically released. I watched it with my friend Ann in her cool basement and we sat on her water bed. A typically cool, finished, 70s basement. Stereo, basement rotary phone (green), paneled walls, “Toy in the Attic”.

I seem to remember the movie did well at the box office.

It involves Goldie Hawn’s librarian character, unwittingly (you didn’t think she was playing a rocket scientist did you?), stumbling onto a plot to assasinate the Pope (a fictitious Pope Pius XIII) by a “Tax the Churches League”. There’s an albino, a dwarf, Gilbert & Sullivan, “Stayin’ Alive” and two songs, (yes two songs!) by Barry Manilow (who was hot then like Lionel Ritchie was in the 80s and T.I. today!)

It was interesting to view it again. I thought it was hilarious that the intro to the film “On Demand” was the TCM Movie Classics bit with Ben Mankiewicz. Alec Baldwin must have been out of the country or busy doing the “Marriage Ref”. Seriously, Foul Play is worthy of a TCM opening bit? It’s a classic? It’s even THAT good? No.

It’s a classic in the sense that it’s a cultural artifact. It’s SO 70s. I amused myself with the dialogue, the singles bar, the music (Barry Manilow-you know how down I am with The Nose! Would “Weekend In New England have been a better musical choice?), the reel-to-reel players, the wicker, the ferns, the alka-seltzer commercial plays on a TV in one scene (Plop, plop, fizz, fizz), the John Denver look alike, the big floral couch fabric with matching curtains, the plaid sport coats, the wide lapels, pantie lines, zebra striped sheets, cross hatch head boards, chest hair, and Dudley Moore still can’t get laid.

There’s also the bizarro alternate reality of how a drop dead BLONDE babe like Goldie Hawn is supposed to be believable as a dowdy librarian who can’t find a date in San Francisco(shockingly there appear to be no gay men in San Francisco-another bizarro tidbit). She drives up the coast in a VW convertible with the top UP (probably supposed to be a reference to her seeming uptightness-yet she never wears a bra in the entire movie). Oh, did I mention Chevy Chase (for the love of humanity) is supposed to be sexy cop? (except he looks like a complete doofus with a pseudo comb-over. I thought he was hotter in the National Lampoon films). Also, Hawn lives in an apartment that NO public librarian I’ve ever known could afford. Chase is supposed to be an “on the outs with the sarge cop who lives on a houseboat”, surely “Miami Vice” stole their ideas from Foul Play! Chase’s houseboat bachelor pad, crushingly, lacks a beanbag cushion or an egg chair. Seriously, I’m crushed when I don’t see either of those in a 70s film. I was waiting for Chase to pull out a shag rake and invite Hawn to help him comb his rug! ROFL! See, I should write B movie dialogue!!!.

Foul Play is supposed to be a Hitchcockian homage of some kind. I’ve seen the movie several times and I never picked up on the Hitchcock references. It could be because I was young when I first saw the film or it could be that the Hitchcock references are so subtle. Ok, they are really bad and so obvious that it’s almost groan inducing. Friends, when you are going to do The Master of Suspense you better load for bear not bunnies.

The movie is actually really bad. It’s not even funny overall. However, there are a couple unwitting howlers. “I never knew there was such diversity!”: Hawn about Moore’s blow-up doll collection. The midget Bible salesman was told by Hawn’s PASTOR to go see her? Huh? Never saw that comin’. Hawn’s ultra feminist friend who thinks every man is a rapist in disguise (also very 70s) wears a neon colored, sateen, leotard top to the police station (Remembering that fashion trend I just about died laughing)

Astonishingly, this a film about SAN FRANCISCO in the 70s and no one smokes a joint!! Now, how believeable is that? I definitely think it probably helps to be stoned to view this film. Smoke a big bowl, order some pizza and eat a whole bag of Doritos…ok, where was I? Oh, yes. There is a scene where Chase’s character invites Hawn to smoke a joint with him and she says “No, I don’t do that anymore” Not exactly “Just say no” but we have to know that at some point in her life she was wild and crazy, right?

The Pope in this film is either a dithering idiot or a really kind and gentle man. Like the 70’s he is who he is-no judgement on it! Something for everyone in this film. This/that. It’s by no means an anti-Catholic film. It’s not a pro-Catholic film either. See, like the 70s, it makes no stand. Like the entire decade: not militant like the 60s, not small government, right-wing reassertion like the 80s. It’s just there. In the moment-like this movie.

It is interesting to compare the career of Goldie Hawn with that of her daughter Kate Hudson. Will their early films be their best roles? They both specialize in light, romantic, adventure fare. Neither of them met a foundation undergarment they could stand to wear. Neither of them smoke in their films, curious as Hawn is still a heavy smoker and Hudson smokes as well. Hawn gets caught on camera looking longingly at a pack of Marlboros. I think Hawn has had the same hair style for her whole life.

See Foul Play as a cultural artifact of the late-70s make a party of out it! A drinking game might be fun too! Every time “Ready to Take a Chance Again” comes on either sung or on the soundtrack as an orchestral number take a drink. You’ll be bombed within an hour.

Falsehoods of Global Warming, Bad Christmas Music, and Raunchy Glee

Posted by febry on 12:24 PM

By Bobby Chang

Globull Warming. The Copenhagen Summit on Global Warming is upcoming, and with the numerous charges that the Global Warming Crisis (or as some people call it, Globull Warming) is a hoax, I wonder how much of our economy has been destroyed by this Communist idealism of Gaia worship that has prohibited the manufacture of productive appliances in favour of “energy efficient” unproductive appliances, the prohibition of larger vehicles in favour of tiny cars (and led to the seizure of two US automakers for failure to comply with Chicago Style Policy including contributing to political opponents, and the third caving to the standards requested by other countries after accepting the government’s new standards), the increased mantra of “cap and tax” and “wind and solar energy only”, along with lightbulb bans, television bans (as seen in California), and numerous other types of stupidity brought along by a media and textbook publishers that has provided cover for the numerous activists whose goal is to throw us into a Taliban-like Stone Age in regards to the prohibition of numerous technologies that has provided us extra convenience.

In the excerpts of Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten, the Autumn segment we sang states, “All hail, oh industry from thee brings every good”. The belief system of the Gaia worshipper in the Global Warming hoax feels that industry brings every bad thing and Gaia brings good by prohibiting us from using anything they do not approve. It has turned into a Soviet-style command and conquer with the Global Warming hoax. What industry-killing ideal is the next proposal of this anti-business, anti-industry Administration? Why do we need to cave to the standards of the extreme environmental activists based on their false teachings and not based on safety, logic, or what works best?*

This President and the rest of the ruling Left would envision even if we refuse to ratify any of the hoax, that their transnationalists in the Department of Justice and courts will simply enforce foreign countries’ laws on us in this case.

A Family’s Tragedy, Hope, and An Old Friend. My Bible study teacher’s daughter-in-law is suffering from a recurrence of cancer again, and the opportunity came to participate in her church’s production of Händel’s Messiah this fall as a guest choral member in her honour as she fights this dreaded disease. The irony in all of this was it came as part of visiting her church through a choir soprano who shared the same voice teacher as I had years ago (“The Cheesehead”, who admits she comes from a long line of Packers fans -- not my present teacher which she might call names because she is from the land of the Purple Number Four) as part of not being at my home church on Pink Sunday because of its endorsement of Komen. With just Happy Hour (final practice) remaining, practicing with Suzanne Ringer has been very intense and I admire our entire team as singers and teammates. Happy Hour practice will include members of the Philharmonic, and that just wet my appetite further for great church music from an organization whose concerts I have attended.

Of course, this comes at the expense of the home church, which once again has offered a karaoke programme from Edgar Bronfman Jnr’s Warner Music Group featuring a gaggle of pop tunes accompanied by a $200 karaoke DVD. The music leader turns an AGO organist into a Powerade bottle, punched out, then raising the karaoke disc, similar to a Pepsi product.

But once you’ve paid a pumpkin pie to an accompanist, numerous checks to musicians, and shared in studying music of sound doctrine, what good is it to sing from pop tunes lacking any doctrine or theology and is carried only by the beat of a karaoke machine with the trendy material that fades away?

Not Too Glee-ful. The quality of music in our schools seems to be an issue after I read a few friends were watching the Sony Pictures Television’s Glee. The hit SPT series’ songs have become an issue as I considered how many of these songs sung by the school clubs would be considered appropriate for school use. But again, after we’ve established political correctness by banning the sacred, anything else is now acceptable. Unfortunately, as we see in Glee, the material is highly objectionable.

The list of songs used by the Glee cast include “Jump,” “Last Christmas,” “True Colors,” “Papa Don’t Preach,” “Imagine” (yes, the John Lennon song that envisions a society without God), “Bootylicious,” “Thong Song” (Mark “Sisqo” Andrews), “Gold Digger” (Kanye “I Can’t Stand Miss Swift” West), “Push It” (Cheryl James and Sandra Denton), and other songs that are not appropriate for our schools. Some of these songs are too explicit, yet this generation, watching MTV, BET, and others, think it is suitable for schools, and Sony has placed these songs into the hit show youth watch. Do they know what they are watching?

Jobs or Union Rewards? The “jobs summit” by President Obama was nothing short of the President pushing ahead to spend more taxpayer money to reward unions and states that supported him with union jobs that will not produce but will provide another gaggle of money to his cronies, while the free market dies. Is this another case of this country turning into the USSR this “Dear Leader” envisions for us? No thanks. Unemployment is 20% here and your policies are the problem.

Oh, By The Way. Oh, by the way. Why are we glorifying Festivus and Kwanzaa, but punishing days of faith? Furthermore, what is with the obsession with the Twilight (occult or vampire) series and This Is It (worship of a dead pop star who died of drugs) with their debut nights? In both cases newscasts were showing the long lines of people lining up to see the midnight premieres of both movies. I thought the lines were extremely long from what I saw and seemed to rival those of students lining up at Krzyzewskiville for tickets to a choice games.

* [Ed] Mr. Chang had participated in the University of South Carolina Summer II Chorus production of excerpts of Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten in a five-week period that started in July 2009, with performances August 2 and 4. See the July and August 2009 sections of this blog to read his reflections of all eight practice sessions, the week leading to the performances, the takeoff on classic advertising to promote the concert, and his post-concert reflections.

The List, Part 1

Posted by febry on 5:09 PM

As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
I've got a little list — I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!
There's the pestilential nuisances who write for autographs —
All people who have flabby hands and irritating laughs —
All children who are up in dates, and floor you with 'em flat —
All persons who in shaking hands, shake hands with you like that —
And all third persons who on spoiling
tête-á-têtes insist —
They'd none of 'em be missed — they'd none of 'em be missed!

W.S. Gilbert,
The Mikado


As P.J. O'Rourke once pointed out: Santa has a list, Saint Peter has a list, Joe McCarthy said he had a list. Ko-Ko sang about his list (above), while Richard Nixon recorded his.

And now we've got a list, too.

The purpose of the 2009 Our Word Enemies List is, of course, to be entertaining. But after all the fun, keep in mind there's a serious side to it as well. Many of the names on this list - people, institutions, organizations, and other various flora and fauna - are, as O'Rourke said of those on his list, "useless, politically disgraceful, and downright foolish." For all the good points they may have, they've done at least one thing that merits being denounced, at least by someone. That doesn't mean they're necessarily bad people, although some of them come pretty close. We're not trying to attack them personally, even though many of them have no reservations about doing so. Some of us may even venture a few constructive suggestions as to how our honorees can avoid a repeat appearance on next year's list.

Happy reading - and if you're so inspired, feel free to email us with your list of enemies. As long as none of us show up on it, we'll be glad to share.

*****


If you're a regular reader of Bobby's columns, you'll recognize many of the names he offered. Whether they're from the world of politics, sports, entertainment, or "culture," they all have one thing in common - they've made the list based on merit.

Barack Obama - Chicago-style politics and now the idea of seizing political opponents who contributed to his opponents (see the automakers; Wagoner and Nardelli gave to Romney). The late Peter Tomarken would probably have said to America, (Foghorn sounds) "Stop at an Obammy!"

Leo Hindrey Jnr - Even though he owns the Nelson Bible publishing house, he is responsible for corruption (Daschle's tax situation) and printing bad theology.

Rick Warren - The kingpin of the life enhancement instead of God's Word "churches" that are too prevalent anywhere.

Luc Bondy - What he did to Tosca.

GIA Music, Oregon Catholic Press, EMI, Universal, Warner Music, Kona (Integrity) - For bad church music that has no doctrine or theology.

Nancy Pelosi - For imposing her totalitarian regime that led to Joe Wilson's complaints.

MTV - For causing the demise in morals, standards, and music. Witness the rapid demise in church music.

Title IX - For becoming a Quota Queen, making boys second-class citizens in our schools, and telling boys there is no place for them to play sports because the percentage of boys to girls in the school is not enough.

Al Franken - For helping South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama become irrelevant in the Senate.
Susan G. Komen Foundation - For promoting Pink Sunday in churches to fund them. To declare Pink Sunday relevant and supporting abortion is not a church.

ESPN - For the idea of bad sports coverage, and to make college football for the worse by the premium television package that I believe will lead to pay-per-view BCS Championship Football. And what was with the crazy Monday Night Football gimmick of Bocephus en español during the opening?

*****

Judie's list also includes names from the world of opera and sports. It's short, but to the point. She upbraids:

Peter Gelb, who simultaneously brought thousands of viewers to the Metropolitan Opera thorugh HD transmissions and gave them nothing to see.

Mike Hill, the ESPN announcer who helps each night to ruin the English language with his mispronunciations of words beginning with "ST" by inserting an "H" in between. Got that shtraight?

And, of course, a woman who truly desrves to be denounced - Oprah Winfrey [only Elvis goes by one name around here], for making men believe that she knows what women think.

[Well, Judie, now she knows what at least one woman thinks.]

*****

Are we having fun yet? Yes, we know, too much of anything - even an enemies list - isn't necessarily a good thing. That's why you'll have to wait for part 2. Hope you can stand the suspense. And for those of you who haven't seen your names pop up yet - well, you've still got at least twenty-four hours to mend your ways.

Headline News

Posted by febry on 7:00 AM

By Paul Drew

Mark Steyn loved this headline, and I agree with him one hundred percent:

Andy Williams Accuses Barack Obama Of Following Marxist Theory

No, it's not by The Onion, and no, Andy Williams isn't kidding. Read more about it here. And in the meantime, let's celebrate with one of Andy's biggest hits.

Putting the Stamp on Classic TV

Posted by febry on 5:09 PM

By Mitchell Hadley

Terry Teachout has another nice piece on classic television, triggered (pun intended) by the new Dragnet postage stamp. Teachout discusses the significance of Dragnet in the history of television, and it prompts yet another pang of realization that there are entire generations out there who have no idea what we're talking about when we say, "Just the facts, ma'am"; or, if they do, they think of it as a campy punchline to the 60s revival.

Fact is, as Teachout points out, Dragnet was one of the grittiest of cop shows, presenting viewers with a new, entirely different view of police work - and, as Joe Friday called it, "the city." In watching the 50s Dragnet, it helps to remember that this is from pre-Miranda days, when interrogation methods were a bit more - shall we say - liberal.

As was the case with so many early series, Dragnet began life as a radio series before making the transition to television. One item that Teachout doesn't mention is that Dragnet was also the first television show to get the big screen treatment, in 1954, directed by star Jack Webb and featuring the original cast. The question Warner Bros. faced: would people really pay to see something they could see for free in their living rooms? Their answer: give them something they can't get at home. And so the 1954 Dragnet was shot in color, a fact of which the opening scene (two gunmen walking across a field) took full advantage. Suddenly the city looked different once again.

On a related note, for fans of hard-hitting 50s and 60s cop shows, don't forget Lee Marvin's only television series, the gritty, tough-as-nails M Squad, which was the unintentional inspiration for the hilarious, genre-ridiculing Police Squad. Here's a hint of it for those of you who haven't seen it.

Thug Life

Posted by febry on 6:50 PM

By Cathy of Alex

Recent days have seen an increase in public examples of bad behavior and unwarented outbursts.

We have Rep. Joe Wilson venting his concern during the President’s address to Congress . We have Kanye West grabbing the mic from winner, Taylor Swift, during the VMA’s and sharing with everyone that, basically, he felt someone else, not Ms Swift, should’ve won what she was just awarded. Serena Williams uses profanity toward a line judge at Center Court and it costs her a possible U.S. Open. Roger Federer publicly, profanly claims , also on the tennis court, that he can speak whenever he wants to and if you don’t like it….. Even the President gets caught expressing his opinion towards Kanye West in a non-polite way.

What’s wrong with any of this?

It used to be that people were taught that when someone else is speaking you listen quietly until they are done. No interrupting. You wait for your turn to speak. I know in some cultures what I just said is crazy; in some places its common and acceptable for multiple people to talk at once and loudly. I’ll clarify by saying; in the U.S.A. , it used to be a truth, and well-taught, that when someone “has the floor” it’s their turn to speak. You have the right to shut up and wait your turn.

There is little to no respect for authority anymore. We cheer when authority gets the middle fingered salute. Apparently, even interrupting the President on national television on the floor of a Joint Legislative Session is acceptable. Once that happened, why should Kanye West feel any qualms about interrupting a performance artist on national T.V. during an awards ceremony?

Center Court in tennis (basketball gave up the ghost years ago) is one of the few sport arenas left where civility rules are about as strictly enforced as possible. You don’t talk back on Center Court. If the Ref doesn’t penalize you the crowd will with boos and hisses (Until the Ref calls them to silence too. The crowd is forced to obey, otherwise the match will not continue.). That two of the top ranked players in tennis think they are beyond that is curious but not shocking.

Even threats or actual punishment don’t seem to stop people anymore. Some of us have so much money that financial penalties are sneered at. Others have so much talent that they figure they can regain any points gain lost to a penalty without too much damage done to their careers or sports rankings.

Why do we even need punishments as deterrant? It seems to me it used to be enough to tell people “Hey, don’t do that!” and they listened. There was enough critical mass behind the request that kept people in line. Now, it seems the majority side with the thugs. The voice of civility is the lone voice in the wilderness.

Sure, people with bad manners have always been with us. The days of teachers stopping kids from passing notes in class almost seems quaint these days. Nowadays the odds of kids even carrying paper to class is slim; it’s all laptops and cells phones. Teachers spend a lot of time confiscating electronic devices and/or reminding people that taking a phone call and sending texts during class is not acceptable. I’m curious with all the time teachers spend on discipline; how much is left for actual education?

Remember how funny Spicoli ordering a pizza delivered to class was in Fast Times at Ridgemont High? It was funny because it was so audacious. Who ever heard of such a thing in the early 1980s? It was hilarious because Mr. Hand turned the tables on Spicoli and made him share the pizza with the whole class. As a result, he didn’t get any of his own pizza. Today, not only does Spicoli’s stunt seem possible but you can bet his parents would show up at the Principal’s office in outrage because their son didn’t even get to eat the pizza he paid for.

Is thuggish behavior unacceptable only when it’s perpetrated by people we don’t love or are not related to? Do people that agree with Rep. Wilson think what he did was great? Recently, Republicans were yelling about President Obama addressing school kids on the first day of school. Anyone remember the Democrats yelling when President Bush addressed schoolkids back in 1991? Who’s outraged this time?

Is the breakdown of the family to blame? Is the decline in morality to blame? Is the lack of quantifiable educational standards to blame? Is a lack of education to blame? I don’t know. Maybe some or all of the above. However, the people whose names I listed toward the beginning to this post are smart and well-educated. I respectfully disagree with former President Carter’s assertion that Rep. Wilson outburst was rascist. I don’t think race has anything to do with any of this. Incivility is an equal opportunity.

As Kanye West was already scheduled to be on Leno on Monday night and even Letitia Baldridge was quoted as saying that she hoped Beyonce yielding the floor to Taylor Swift at the VMA’s was not a publicity stunt, you have to wonder why more of us don’t act like thugs; you get such great publicity from it. Look how much mileage the contrition videos on You Tube have given these people? I wonder how well Kanye’s next album will sell? How many tickets will sell for the next Serena Williams match? If Rep. Wilson will gain or lose his seat? If President Obama’s healthcare plan will pass because he’s faced such thuggish audiences and now he may be compelled to admit, thanks to his name calling of West, he’s a Kanye West fan? Nothing sells better than public contrition and reformation.

We may not be a nation of thugs but we are definitely a nation that rewards them. If we quit rewarding them, will they quit doing it?

Coming Events

Posted by febry on 6:26 PM

By Mitchell Hadley

Here's something that might be of interest to anyone who dabbles in television, politics, or both.

In November, the Minnesota History Center presents "The 1950s Sitcom - Guide to American Life." From the brochure: "Classic 1950s sitcoms showcased new ways to 'be American,' fighting the Cold War as the laugh track played. Discover how the makers of shows like 'Life with Riley,' 'The Goldbergs,' 'The Honeymooners' and 'Father Knows Best' bowed to anti-Communist political pressures and influenced the 'Greatest Generation' as well as 21st-century ideals. With pop culture historian Melissa Williams of the University of Minnesota."

Will this be an "ideology-free" lecture, concentrating on the mechanics of 50s sitcoms? Will it turn into a conservative-bashing smirkfest? Will it be a serious discussion of the effects of television on contemporary culture and vice versa?

Only one way to find out. Tuesday, November 10 at 7pm at the Minnesota History Center, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd. in St. Paul.

Television Was Young, and So Were We

Posted by febry on 6:38 PM

By Mitchell Hadley

Terry Teachout is always worth reading, but I feel a particular kinship with him when he reminisces about things such as classic television. We're roughly of the same era, and share a nostalgia (as opposed to a sentimentality) about the "good old days," which as we all know weren't necessarily all good.

In fact, there was a lot of dreck on television in the 50s and 60s. What makes us long for that era, I think, is the variety that was available. I don't just mean variety shows, although they certainly qualify as something from another time. And most people know that television of the 50s was dominated by police shows and westerns, so we're not necessarily talking about a "something for everyone" kind of programming.

No, I think what it is that makes us look back in envy are the sheer number of types of programs that simply don't exist anymore. Besides the aformentioned variety programs, there are shows such as NBC Opera Theater and Voice of Firestone, live dramas like Playhouse 90 and Studio One, children's shows such as Captain Kangaroo, religious programs (Bishop Sheen's Life Is Worth Living), documentaries (ABC's Saga of Western Man and NBC's Omnibus), and more. Now, not all of this was good - the recent Studio One boxed set features some very uneven quality - but ask yourself this: is mediocre live drama better than none at all? Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure there is an answer. (Many would contend that some of today's TV movies top anything previously on television, or in movie theaters for that matter, for dramatic power and content.) The point is, we no longer seem to even try to come up with something new and different. We let the marketplace make our choices for us, without necessarily showing them what all is available.

Today, Teachout blogs about a 1977 CBS documentary, now available on YouTube, entitled When Television Was Young. Look at some of the shows included: Captain Kangaroo, CBS Reports, Douglas Edwards with the News, The Edsel Show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, The Garry Moore Show, The Goldbergs, The Honeymooners, Howdy Doody, I Love Lucy, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, The Mickey Mouse Club, Mary Martin and Noël Coward: Together With Music, Mr. I. Magination, Playhouse 90, The Red Skelton Show, See It Now, The $64,000 Question, Studio One, Suspense, Texaco Star Theater, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, You Are There, and Your Show of Shows. Really, do take some time and check this show out.

Now, a lot of you (hello, anyone out there?) probably won't recognize all of, or even any of, those shows. You might find them slow-paced, silly, naive, or hopelessly outdated. But together, they point toward the possibilities that existed in the early days of television. There was a feeling back then that anything was possible, and everything was worth trying. That's what made it the Golden Age of Television.

As the resident cultural archaeologist, I'm often hearking back to the programs of this era as a reflection of the culture which produced them. Viewed in that sense, they can indeed be eye-opening. But if you get the chance to watch some of these shows (many of which are out on DVD), try watching them for a couple of other things as well. First, as an indication of the creativity to which television aspired; and second, see if you don't find that a show such as Route 66 manages to tell a pretty good story.

The Golden Age was not all gold, nor even all glitter, but it does represent something special, when the executives who ran television thought they just might be able to come up with something more interesting than a warmed-over Jay Leno. These men once dreamt they could show live opera, quality drama, real educational programming. If they fell short, at least they gave it a try.

We often look at (for example) pornography masquerading as popular drama, and ask if TV can possibly go any further. A quick look at the past will affirm for us that yes, indeed, it can. Rather than dragging us down, it can attempt to raise us up. Isn't that even worth the effort?

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