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Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 23:41:42
ABC's Charlie Gibson gets in a panic about early voting
Why are so many people voting early, the confused and cranky anchorman asked of George Stephanopoulos tonight.
How can they, how can they, when we still have five days to go?
Oh, the humanity!
They might not have all the facts yet! Charlie maintained stoutly. Oh, really, Charlie? Like what? More fantasies from the McCain/Palin Smear Talk Express?
I guess on Friday he’ll be wondering how it is even possible that any voters could even have their minds made up at all, with four whole days to go till November 4.
Why, anything could happen!
******
Quote of the Day
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - -Voltaire
Ghost Whisperer - Does nobody gossip in that damn town?
Watching Ghost Whisperer, and seeing Melinda Gordon going around her small town of Grandview - no relation to the infamous Fayetteville apartment complex - going up to complete strangers every week and telling them that:
a) she speaks to “earth-bound spirits”
b) one of those “earth-bound spirits” just happens to be somebody who needs to pass along a message to them.
They usually respond with anger, or, more often than not, the acceptance of an empty-headed clodhopper. I keep waiting for for the Bill Cosby/Noah response, when God says He is going to make it rain for 40 days and 40 nights.
“Right!”
More to the point, this must be the only town in America where nobody gossips. “Hey, Gene, this crazy woman come over last weekend, said she had a message from Uncle Bert. We thought he was a crazy, mean old man - turned out all he ever needed was a big old hug!”
After several years of literally thrusting herself into family squabbles, broken relationships and misunderstandings (being dead gets in the way of explaining a lots of things, it turns out), one would think that there would be whispers and gossip every where she goes.
Just once, I’d like to see an episode where she goes into a house and someone says, “Oh, no! It’s her!”
******
There’s no accounting for taste, I suppose
Truth is, Ghost Whisperer will never quite match up to Medium, either in quality or in story-telling. Medium can be considered Varsity, while Ghost Whisperer will never be more than Junior Varsity.
*****
Quote of the Day
"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get." -- Dave Gardner
****
Mangled Quote - apologies to Anatole France
I quoted a line I read in Jo Walton’s Farthing yesterday, not realizing that she had rewritten a famous quote from Anatole France. Here is how the quote should read:
.
“The law in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and steal bread.”
Thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who caught this.
***
The Daleks will kill you, even if they need you . . .
As a kid whose father was stationed in England in the mid-1960s, I was pretty much ignorant of the science fiction series "Doctor Who" until several of my fourth-grade class mates got on the bus one Monday morning, their hands held out stiffly at their sides, all chanting:
"Exterminate! Exterminate!"
Thus came about my introduction to the Daleks, Terry Nation's greatest gift to the world of science fiction. Nation, who also created the cult SF series "Blake's 7," will forever be linked with the malevolent, pepper-pot shaped robot-like Daleks from the planet Skaro. And, of course, they will also be known as the greatest enemy of the Doctor, the time/space traveler
from "Doctor Who."
In 2008, quite a bit of mythology has been built up around the program, and its Time Lord protagonist, but in 1963, when the series made its premiere, little more was known than that he and his granddaughter, Susan, were on the run from their own people, and that he had stolen a time machine in order to explore the universe.
Oh, and that it in the first episode, he pretty much kidnaped two of Susan's school teachers who had followed her home from school one night, for a variety of reasons - not the least of which she was just a strange teenager, even by 1963 standards.
The role of the Doctor was played to crotchety perfection by William Hartnell. The program became so popular that in 1965 Milton Subotsky decided to bring "Doctor Who" to the big screen" - only with some major changes.
The movie, based on Terry Nation's script for the show which introduced the Daleks, was rewritten slightly, making the show more accessible for an audience unfamiliar with the series.
No longer called the Doctor, the character was now called Dr. Who, a kindly eccentric genius (is there any other kind?) who sort of invents the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) - in the shape of a police box - in his back garden. The film version features his two granddaughters, and their friend Ian (one of the school teachers from the show). Barbara, the other teacher from the show, is now one of Dr. Who's granddaughters.
The unkindest cut of all, however, was that none of the actors from the series were asked to play their roles in the movie - not even William Hartnell, who played the Doctor.
All right, they got Peter Cushing. If you have to be replaced, it may as well be with Peter Cushing. Still, I would like to know of the reactions to the cast upon hearing the news that they weren't good enough to make the grade for the movie.
Still, Peter Cushing! The actor who would one day play the Grand Moff Tarkin in "Star Wars" had already made a name for himself in the Hammer series of horror films, and would go on to play one of the best TV versions of Sherlock Holmes seemed an inspired choice for the movie.
Though the BBC series was shot in black and white, this big screen adventure was to be in Technicolor (remember that?) and featured "improved" Daleks that had never been seen on the show before.
The first few minutes of the movie serve to introduce the characters to the audience, and also serve to deviate from the original story, and move us directly into the plot. Said plot involves Dr. Who showing his wonderful invention off to Ian, who clumsily sets it into motion. They land on a
mysterious planet. From that point on, it actually follows the original script fairly closely.
For those who may not be aware, the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental - which means that it is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. The current series (and the 1996 TV movie) have both featured lovely interior sets to show the vastness of the interior of the space/time ship.
The 1965 movie, with a larger budget than the TV show, had an interior pretty much the size of a kid's bedroom. Go figure.
The planet they land on is the home of two races, survivors of a long ago atomic war. The Thals are a peace-loving race given to bad haircuts and silly clothes. The other race, the mutated Daleks, live inside metal casings, and see themselves as the natural rulers of the planet.
Long-time viewers of "Doctor Who" will recognize the planet as Skaro, though it is never identified as such in the movie.
As luck would have it, our stalwart heroes are discovered by the Daleks, and the adventure goes on from there. The Daleks live in a metal city, and intend to use the human visitors to flush out the Thals, in order to destroy them once and for all.
Naturally, Dr. Who and his companions throw in their lot with the sappy, pacifistic humans, who learn that defending that which is important to you does not put you on the same moral level as the Daleks.
To say that the movie was successful would be an understatement; it was to become one of the top 10 British box-office releases for 1965. But as an adaptation of a popular television series, it falls woefully short.
In addition to the fact that the original actors were not asked to reprise their roles, there is the fact that the film TARDIS does not match up to the television version. Perhaps the worst sin of all - for me, anyway - is the fact that the distinctive show theme music was not used in the film, at all. Instead, they went with a score by Barry Gray (Space 1999).
A sequel was filmed a few years later - "Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD" - also based on a television script. This time, audiences were not so taken with the film, though it's a little more elaborate in terms of budget and story-line.
Though the producers had planned to make a third film in the series, the disappointing box office receipts on the second Dalek film caused them to drop that idea. The TV series itself went chugging right along, with a gap in production from the late 1980s until the successful relaunching of the franchise several years ago.
In 1996 a pilot film for a "Doctor Who" series ran on the FOX network, featuring a brief glimpse of the Daleks. Over the years the Daleks have taken their place in the pop culture race, rightfully exterminating many of their competitors.
Now, as then, they have a well-deserved reputation for ruthlessness. In fact, the quote listed at the top comes from an early 1980s episode, "Resurrection of the Daleks."
So while you are checking out "Doctor Who," check out this early adventure, when they where just beginning their climb to the top of the universe's Ten Most Wanted List.
Trivia Note: Realizing that the film was likely to be success, the BBC bought several of the movie Daleks, which were then used in the "Doctor Who" story "The Chase." Ironically, since the TV story came out before the movie, "Dr. Who and the Daleks" is actually the second time these particular Daleks are used. It seems fitting, somehow.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - 08:28:04
Dan Coody: Cancel my subscription, sir!
Well, I’m sure that thousands of words will be written about the NWA Times and Dan Coody this morning. And, like others, I was pretty sure - meaning 100% positive - that the paper would endorse the political train wreck that has become the Coody administration.
It’s sort of like Christmas, I suppose. I can still be surprised early in the morning.
Well, Dan still has Mike Masterson is his corner. And hey, Star Shopper hasn’t weighed in yet . . .
******
Eminent Domain and Renaissance Towers - Christmas comes early for John Nock and Richard Alexander?
Reading about the Off Street Parking Improvement District Board, and the upcoming November 17 discussion of using eminent domain to take the Big Dig away from John Nock and Richard Alexander, and turn the damn thing into a parking lot, you have to think that Nock and Alexander may actually be rubbing their hands together at the possibility.
They may cry crocodile tears in public, but behind closed doors they may well be jumping for joy. At least this way. The whole mess will be out of their hands, and they will be free to do their Jedi mind tricks on a whole new city council/administration, perhaps.
*****
Quote of the Day
There is one law for rich and poor alike, which prevents them equally from stealing bread and sleeping under bridges. - Jo Walton, Farthing.
Railroad Bridge II - Moss grows on what side of the tree?
This segment from my previous blog explains why I am a former Boy Scout. Obviously I meant to say that I walked on the northen side of the street that morning - which is where the crack in the concrete is.
Usually I walk along the southern side of the bridge, but a few weeks ago I changed my routine and - call me crazy! - walked on the southern side.
I got so excited I screwed up the directions.
Mea Culpa
Mea Culpa
Mea Culpa
******
On the other hand . . .
I wonder how many UA buses drive over that bridge every day?
*****
Quote of the Day
It's easier to have the vigor of youth when you're old than the wisdom of age when you're young. - Richard J. Needham
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 10:00:00
Walking along the Parapets: Wondering when this bridge is gonna collapse . . .
I have always enjoyed walking around Fayetteville. As opposed to people who just drive through the city, I have always believed that people who walk the streets, with no particular destination in mind, discover a lot more about their community. Often they will discover things that may have gone unnoticed for years.
Case in point: the bridge over the railway tracks from Gregg Street to West Avenue, along Lafayette Avenue, in Fayetteville. Usually I walk along the southern side of the bridge, but a few weeks ago I changed my routine and - call me crazy! - walked on the southern side.
Sauntering along, I happened to look down to my left, and noticed that someone - provably quite some time ago - had hit the guardrail with their vehicle. No big deal, people do that sort of thing all the time. Except for one thing:
The concrete where the guardrail is twisted is beginning to crack.
Saturday morning a friend and I traipsed along the railroad tracks under the bridge and peered upwards. Sure enough, the concrete under the hit guardrail is cracking.
It probably won’t fall to the ground anytime soon, or even crack loose, but shouldn’t somebody take a look at it, just to be sure?
Why take my assurance that it won’t fall to the ground?
******
Well, I was wrong yet again Department
The other day I wrote that I didn’t have an answer when a friend from out-of-town made the accusation that Fayetteville wasn’t “progressive” any more, because it was no longer working class friendly.
While I will concede his point that it doesn’t seem that way to many people, the New York City of the Ozarks is still the only city in Northwest Arkansas worth living in. Yeah, we screw up, but we try, damn it, and that’s a hell of a lot more than you can say for most cities in Northwest Arkansas. We have lost our way on some important issues in the past few years, but the fact is that this election is as much an acknowledgment of that as anything else.
And it’s still true that others follow our lead, rather than the other way around. With rare exceptions, the passion and eloquence that are at the very heart of Fayetteville are just not seen in other communities in Northwest Arkansas.
That’s what I should have said.
*****
Quote of the Day
By logic and reason we die hourly; by imagination we live. - W.B. Yeats
****
Farewell, Tony Hillerman
Well, no matter what happens today, this puts a damper on things.
Navajo police mystery author dies
The American author Tony Hillerman, best known for crime novels featuring Navajo Indian police officers as their main characters, has died aged 83. His most famous book was Skinwalkers, published in 1987, midway through a 36-year long writing career.
Hillerman said he wanted to change people's views, to stop them thinking of Navajo Indians as primitive people. He had survived two heart attacks and surgery for cancer before he eventually died of pulmonary failure.
His novels were set in the rugged landscapes of Arizona and New Mexico and he once said he was attracted to places that were empty, lonely and had a fierce inhospitality.
To read more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7692887.stm
Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 10:27:56
Fayetteville Mayoral Race: What I hope for from the new mayor - or even if Fayetteville "stays the course"
Each morning I pick up the paper and read the letters columns, reading the endorsements of my fellow citizens for who they would like to see at the helm of our fair city. And, of course, the newspapers will also get in on the act, with their own endorsements.
Well, here is mine - though it’s not an endorsement of an individual, but of behavior.
I have long held that in the worlds of journalism and politics, if you want love, buy a dog. Unfortunately, this isn’t a philosophy that is held in very high regard by our current mayor, who really, really loves being adored, and when he isn’t, he seems to react with all the churlishness of all-too-many other small-town politicians.
But even worse than that, is the fact that Dan whines way too much for a man of his advanced years. But hey, I’ve known Dan Coody for a long-time (never as a close friend - but always as an observer), and it’s the whining - the public kvetching, if you will - that has made him into a semi-comical figure over the years.
Oh, I’ve been savaged in the local blogs!
Woe is me, I’ve been driven mad by the media!
Heavens to Betsy, the alternative media don’t respect me the way they should! “After all, we’re all on the same f******g side!” - Bet you thought I’d forgotten about that little 1991 message on my answering machine, Dan.
To make matters worse, it has filtered down to the staff, whether they whine publicly about how they have been treated in the media or political blogs to refusing to show up at city committee meetings because unpaid citizen volunteers have been “rude” to highly paid “professionals” in City Hall.
In short, Dan Coody has created a culture of whininess in City Hall.
Make of that what you will.
******
Fayetteville: the view from outside
A friend from West Fork told me that he just doesn’t see Fayetteville as progressive any longer, despite our recycling, Code Compliance and our headlong rush into the arms of the new gods Sustainability. He says that in the last few years Fayetteville is less working-class friendly.
It was just real hard to answer that one.
Maybe Mayor Bandana can give him an answer.
*****
On the Air - Mythology and Film-making
Author Chris Ott joins me for a discussion of how mythological themes have played such a large role in American film-making. Naturally we discuss Joseph Campbell, and the (too-much praised, in my opinion) George Lucas, but we also discuss one of the greatest American films ever, John Ford’s The Searchers.
A lot of folks may remember Ott from his stint as Kabin Thomas’s intellectual sparring partner on the series “Sidekicks,” which ran on C.A.T. several years ago.
Days and times:
Monday - 7pm
Tuesday - noon
Saturday - 6pm
****
Quote of the Day
A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 - 11:11:19
Yes, We'll Gather at the River - the sadness of the Route 66 towns
Back in the 1970s, I read a story by Ray Bradbury. “Yes, We’ll Gather at the River,” about the impact on a small-town when a major highway is built, and the old highway that goes through the town will no longer ne used as much. I was pretty young when I read it, so it didn’t have much impact on me.
But in the last few years, traveling around Texas and Oklahoma, Tracy and I have come upon a large number of “Route 66" museums; almost every town or county seem to have one in western Oklahoma. In some towns they may the only real income the town has, I suppose.
I’ve been in a couple. More often than not they are sad little affairs, celebrating a town that once thrived but is now close to being a ghost town. Shamrock, Texas, is a prime example of this.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/TX-Shamrock.html
At one time, thousands of people came from around the world to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day in the small community. Now, the main street is largely bare, and on the outskirts of town - at least on our last visit - there were a number of abandoned motels.
The town is not exactly open to new business. When I spoke to DJs at the local radio station, they told me that some local businesses did not want advertise on the radio, because they didn’t want “outsiders” coming to Shamrock.
******
I wish Arkansas was a battleground state
Maybe it’s just because I want to attend a Sarah Palin rally, so I could mingle with the crowd and get a sense of what might be going through their heads. Or maybe it’s because I wish - despite the lunatic letters in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - that the winds of change might actually blow in our state.
*****
The strategy at the Northwest Arkansas Times - vote for Dan Coody out of pity?
Some odd editorials coming out of the NWA Times lately. One almost gets the feeling that they are saying we should vote for Dan because everybody else is picking on him . . .
****
Quote of the Day
"Comics are just a sort of pumpkin patch growing franchises that might be profitable for the ailing movie industry." - - Alan Moore. LA Times interview on Watchmen. September 19,
2008.
The most grotesque thing I have seen in this campaign season
The Eleventh Hour - Close, but no Cigar
Domestic Terrorists in the Kitchen: My Spice Rack is trying to kill me!
Telecomm Board Resignation
Oh, Leni Riefenstahl, where are you now that John McCain and Sarah Palin need you?
The scoop on Obama: I know this must be true because the guy who delivered the TV said so
Telecomm Board angst
Marvin Hilton asks Susan Thomas a question - in public
Martial law? Isn't this the sort of story the networks should be shouting from the rooftops?
Dispatch from the Forbidden Zone - I want my MTV!
YouTube and debates: Why should Salt Lake City be cooler than Fayetteville?
Just too wonderful for words: Fayetteville - and Dan Coody - to welcome bottled water company?
I know Joe Six-Pack, and you're no Joe Six-Pack
Fayetteville budget impasse: Matthew Petty rides to Coody's defense?
Cash for Cans - who gets paid to do the video work?
Northwest Arkansas Times: The quality goes in before the name goes on
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