Central Arkansas Confidential

Hmmm, name change?  We'll see, my Central Arkansas Confidential idea never really took off, there was not a lot of "I need help solving this problem" sent to me... well, advice and ears are here, but maybe a name change is in order... we'll see...

Suggestions?

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http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/

I suggest you go to Garfield minus Garfield immediately and brighten your day as just John appears in the original cartoons, they are hysterical, and good for the Earth as they are recycled, leaving untapped raw cartoons in the wild for future generations.  HYSTERICAL.

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So Easy Street Piano Bar is in dire need of some funds (I think the taxman has come a knocking) and will be having an impromptu benefit Tonight from 7:3-ish - ? to try and raise $3,000K to keep the doors open.

Personally, for all its cons, Easy Street has become one of the only alternative performance spaces for local and regional acts and the home of Red Octopus Theater Co., one of the oldest sketch comedy groups in the nation, as well as supporting various causes with benefits, etc.  So I'll be there to throw in some dough and see if they can ever get the thing to stand on it's own two feet.

If you'd like to see Easy Street stay open, head on down tonight and give a little.

- Mr. Rickey.

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Okay, storms are bad, and thankfully it seems it's just damage and not loss of life. 

That being said, I would like to first commend most of the local television news for being on top of the storms and telling people to get to safety.

I'd like to chastise them for telling those same people in on breath, "Please do not go sight seeing, emergency crews need to assess damage..." and in the next saying, "If you have any video or photos send them to us at ..."

Really?  Why are you encouraging people to go out and find things to video and photo, even if it's outside their own home?  There was so much sensationalism last night it was laughable to call it reporting.  Every station had some report or camera man on , in full rain gear and a baseball cap, they must have a room full of "severe weather" outfits, in studio who had just been out in the weather, telling about fire here, or a flash flood there.  And all I can think is, why are we not focussed on what's going to be happening.  At one point they were talking to a woman in Bryant who's neighbor's tree had fallen over, but she was fine and the house was fine and they were just a little shaken up and meanwhile on the map they are showing there's funnel cloud things popping up all over the Conway area, yet they continue to talk to this woman about her dogs... really?  Tracking three possible tornados and you are spending three minutes with some woman who doesn't even have any damage?  And the number of reporters who were out last night calling in about, "all the lights are out, there's cables down, and trees and the police are not letting us through, we're going to try and take some back streets to get in there and see the gas leak area.."  What? Hello, did you just say you are driving a running combustion vehicle into a gas leak area for the sole purpose of calling the station on your cellie to talk about how you shouldn't be there, but you've got to get this story out?  Idiot, I believe you that a tornado messed stuff up, why don't you go do a story on the temporary shelters or how people can donate and help out after all of this is over instead of adding to the stress and danger the emergency personnel are dealing with?  Is there a douche bag class you take in journalism school to learn about this?

Ridunkulus.  In the future, I would like to see one channel, just one, say we urge you not to go out and send us video and pictures, we're going to focus on your safety and not trying to be the first to break the "trailer park inferno" story or the "regional airport disaster" pictures we got from some idiot with a 4X4 and a death wish.  No, our station is going to tell you that there's a tornado a mile from you and you need to get your butt somewhere safe.  We'll take your pictures and videos and show them later, when the storm is over and it's time for clean up. 

Seriously, start acting like responsible adults, geesh.  And for the love of the Lord, don't go sight seeing someone's destruction and loss ya vultures, that's their homes and their live strewn everywhere, they might not want you taking pictures to send into the local news or post on your blog under your picks for the Final Four...

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So I'm driving home, through rush hour, listening to 103.7, The Buzz, and their "Drive Time Sports" and some d-bag caller goes into a rant about the promo for Britney Spears on How I Met Your Mother that ran during the NCAA tourney games.  The caller was hugely offended by this promo and though that the young impressionable children watching these games shouldn't be subjected to that kind of filth.

The objectionable part of the promo, which was cuts from the actual episode, which I watched last night and found not only to be funny but not offensive at all, is toward the end of the episode where Spears' character, who is a somewhat needy, crazed receptionist is talking to Neil Patrick Harris' character Barney, the masogonistic side-kick of the show.  Barney is trying to lure Spears' character back to his hotel room before taking her on a date so the can "do it".  Spears response to Barany's "my bed was broken and I want to make sure they go it fixed" was "can we have sex on it and then go shopping?".  In a wacky, crazy, ditzy, Britney-esque way.

There was no flesh flashin, no touching, I mean nothing that I was like, oh my God, there goes the entire generation.  First of all I'm going to say the NCAA tournament is not the most watched program by kids under 15.  I'm going to say their fathers are watching it for the most part.  I'm also going to say that these parents are obviously not feeling responsible to monitor their children's media intake.  CBS isn't here to make sure your kids are brought up in whatever way you want to bring them up.  CBS is there to provide a product, if you don't like it, turn it off.

The caller and the hosts actually agreed that "those executives up in New York at CBS don't have the same values as we do in the Bible Belt..."  Well thank the Lord for that or apparently television would be nothing but Walton's spin offs and How to catch a predator re-runs.  You have to raise your kids, CBS and Britney Spears are not going to make your son run out and have sex with his girlfriend in the back of the Camry.  Quit blaming big, faceless company's for your lack of interest in raising your kids.  It's insane to think that they're up in some office in NYC going, "hmmmm, how can we make little kids have the sex?" 

That show and that promo are nothing compared to what your kids get on the Internet, from their friends and from your 30 movie channels off your premium satellite package.  If you think for one minute that Spears appearance on that show is what pushes your kid into makin love before their married, you are crazy than Britney is.  It's a commercial for a show, come on.  And what the hell is Drive Time Sports piping up about it for anyway, why don't you try talking about sports and not how good the hot dog at Alltel was or how offensive the CBS commercials were. 

Fist...shake....ah! you make me so angry!  Raise your damn kids, you had them, take care of them.  Ridiculous. - Mr. Rickey

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You know I woke up this morning and said, ummm, no that snow outside is a dream, this is a dream, I'm going to take a shower and when I wake up, dream.

Nope, March 4th, and we have three inches of snow at my house and bread and milk are flying off the shelves.  But there's no such thing as global warming, the environment is not been damage, the seasons are fine... keep telling yourself that when it's 120 degrees this June.

Recycle - Reduce - Reuse it, before we lose it. - Mr. Rickey

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So the Oscars have come and gone.  I thought all in all, not too shabby.  Some of the live performances were badly put together and the sound was off.  And did anyone have a lag between sound and video for awhile?  I hate that.  So here's some quick thoughts, completely biased, I haven't seen all the movies, I don't get paid to watch movies... if only.

Best Motion Picture: "No Country for Old Men."
 YES!  This movie is so good.  You leave going, "What the hell just happened?" And that's a good thing.

Lead Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood."
 YES!  He's the man, I mean, he just is, the rest of the nominees, good actors, but come on
 this guy is a different creature, they were all in a race for second.

Lead Actress: Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose."

 Ummmm, okay.  I didn't see this, but I will.  Until then, good for her.  And she said she  felt sparkles, which I think was a good reaction.

Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men."
 See Best Motion Picture comment.  He was disturbing, not just the hair, but the whole  package, Disturbing.

Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton."
 Have not see this movie, will, but she is always good.  I wouldn't give my agent the Oscar,  but I'd take him out for one hell of a dinner.

Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men."
 Again, what can you do, these guys have Hollywood by the tail. 

Foreign Language Film: "The Counterfeiters," Austria.
 Did not see this... did not...so...

Adapted Screenplay: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men."
 I liked the comment that the only other thing they adapted was the Odyssey so they must  know how to pick good material. 

Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, "Juno."
 She was the best.  Rock that tat girl.  I look forward to what else she brings us.

Animated Feature Film: "Ratatouille."
 Okay.  I'm so sick of the animated films having their own category, it's like their  considered second rate or something. 

Art Direction: "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street."
 Yes, it did look good.

Cinematography: "There Will Be Blood."
 Throwing them a bone much?

Sound Mixing: "The Bourne Ultimatum."
 I have no idea how to judge these tech. categories, but the sound was good in the Bourne films.

Sound Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum."
 Again, no clue, but I enjoyed the work.

Original Score: "Atonement," Dario Marianelli.
 Again, Bone thrown?  Probably not, the music in this is pretty good. 

Original Song: "Falling Slowly" from "Once," Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.
 Who knew, seriously, three songs from one film nominated and this little song that could,  BAM! Oscar.  They had great acceptance speeches and John Stewart bringing the woman out so  she could do hers was classy.  Biggest night of her life and now she has no regrets,  classy.

Costume: "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."
 I'll go along with that, though I think Sweeney Todd was pretty crazy good too.
Documentary Feature: "Taxi to the Dark Side."
 I have no clue, I can't get out to see the regular movies let alone track down this stuff.   Sicko didn't win, which I find surprising.

Documentary Short Subject: "Freeheld."
 See previous comment.

Film Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum."
 There is some crazy editing in this for the chase and fight scenes. 

Makeup: "La Vie en Rose."
 What?  I have no idea.

Animated Short Film: "Peter & the Wolf."
 Okay, yay!

Live Action Short Film: "Le Mozart des Pickpockets (`The Mozart of Pickpockets')."

 This looked interesting from the clip, but again, the odds of me seeing it, not good.

Visual Effects: "The Golden Compass."
 What were the other contenders this year?  Good for it, good for it.

Well, we got our awards show fix, that is the truth.  I thought John Stewart was really funny and the fake montages were good.  I'm going to go ahead and think that they do the In Memoriam in order of death during the year and not order of importance.  Sad losses this year, sad indeed.  I was a little curious why they didn't include Brad Renfro in that, I would have thought he was worthy of some acknowledgement. 

In Memoriam - Brad Renfro

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So you are probably seeing this ad right next to this post, to the right, a guy with a sleeveless shirt, flashing some pale while guns while looking up stuff on his laptop.  See that?

That is an ad for Arkansans for Economic Opportunity, which is an organization that wants to encourage the building and expansion of technological infrastructure to deliver broadband internet, etc. to all areas of Arkansas.  While it looks more like a lobby organization with a subsidized plan to expand access to new customers for many different businesses and profits to those who can deliver them, I'm wondering why they chose this picture.  I just can't wrap my head around it. 

The picture isn't obviously someone out in the "country" getting Wi-Max access to check on dairy futures.  It's not some business type in downtown Little Rock checking his Facebook.  What is it?  What does it represent?  Is it just a collage of various "Arkansan" traits?  Why the red pen?  Is he sitting on a wall?  Is he on top of the barn because that's the only place he can get a signal?  Is it just a poor choice from the stock image portfolio?  I don't know, what I do know is that it thouroughly confuses me and makes me laugh and also, it go me to go to their page, so it's working.

If you have an explanation, let me know.  Hasta La Viesta, Mr. Rickey.

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Well, just in time to make it twice in one month.  Britney Spears has gone to the hospital for a psych evaluation under the behest of her psychiatrist, which is apparently not Dr. Phil.  If you've seen any network news today, you'd know that at 1AM this morning a motorcade of L.A.P.D. and private vehicles transported her to hospital along with L.A.P.D.  helicopter support and a parade of leachy paparazzi. 

I feel bad because this isn't her fault exactly, it's not like she was prepared for this life, it just sort of snowballed on her between 15 - 25, who can blame someone for losing it with that much pressure, fame and wealth coming in during your most boneheaded years?  And now she's crazy, well, I think we all saw that coming. 

I'd like to say it's her parents fault for pimping their daughters out for any entertainment job they could and forgetting they may have needed some boundaries and some discpline, even now.  But that's another story.  What I find so bizarre is that Portfolio Magazine estimates the media circus around Britney Spears contributes an average $110 million dollars to the U.S. Economy......say what?  Here's a break down of their factors to get to this number:

Total Albums sold sind 1999 (that's 8 years people, 8) - 83 million

Value of those albums to JIVE Records - $400 million (one artist)

Touring Revenue - $150 Million, avg. $583,138 per show.

Britney Perfumes total sales: $100 million

"Estimated annual take for recrod company, promoters, licensers, and others: $30 - $40 Million"

Sweet Lord, that's insanity, I mean that one little woman, who is not an especially good singer, dancer, or anything.  But she's been package, re-packaged, primped and molded into a machine that literally makes money.

Apparently when you say, "why don't the paparazzi leave her alone?", it's because she is estimated to make up 15-20% of the entire paparazzi industry.  Really?  Who the hell is buying all this crap? And that's just the tip of it, from magazine sales to internet ad revenue, Spears rules the celebrity news game for all the wrong reasons.

So do we feel sorry for her or dismiss her as reaping what she's sown.  I don't know, I have to think it's sad to see a young mother of two with her resources squander them on trying to relive some missed youth of midnight field keggers and backseat liasions.  I think the parents are definitely getting what they sowed, they forgot about being parents to be managers instead and let go of their children in the process.  One's crazy, the other is pregnant at 16, neither has a bit of sense about how to be a responsible adult and they continue to throw money at their problems and wish them away.

I guess we're to blame too, the people searching for her on Yahoo! and Google, reading all the crappy celeblogs and buying up the gossip rags while we wait to buy our rocky road and Pepcid.  And while I would like you to stop so we can set her free and let her live in relative normalcy, ala Michael Jackson, who had to move out of the country to get it; I cannot, because we're on the verge of a recession and Britney, literally, is responsible for thousands of jobs, directly and indirectly.  So I guess she'll either have to become boring and let someone else take her place or die for us to let her alone.  Sad, sad, sad, this is where our country is. 

Going to google her right now, Mr. Rickey.

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OMG! So one of my friends, (who is 30!) has never voted in an election.  Ever.  Yeah.  Seriously.  I know, it took me a minute to be all like, "What?  I mean seriously?"

Well, that being said and after a long speech in which I chastised for not voting and her duty as an American to be heard, I sent her to the following, which are pretty nice little sites by the Arkansas Secretary of State's office.  Way to go Charlie Daniels and company:

Get out there and vote Arkansas!

CHECK TO SEE IF YOU ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE

HOW TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN ARKANSAS

This post was written and approved by Central Arkansas Confidential. "I'm Mr. Rickey, and I approved this post, because I typed it.  Vote!"

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