http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Mon, 28 Feb 2005 10:50:18 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/02/28/105018.php Stephen Silver(Cross-posted at SteveSilver.net) 8:30- We start with a Dustin Hoffman-narrated clips package. I like this- especially since last year's didn't have one of these. 8:37- Rock's monologue. Pretty mid-level, and not raunchy or "controversial" at all, although the "Fahrenheit 9/11"/"what if there were a movie out that said how much you suck at your job" joke was pretty funny. 8:39- "Denzel's a fine actor, so he wouldn't make 'Pootie Tang.'" In fact, "Pootie Tang" was better than anything Denzel's done in the past 15 years. 8:43- Halle Berry is the first presenter -following a Rock 'Catwoman' joke- and looks GREAT. It's Art Direction, and "Aviator" wins. 8:47: Rock says Renee Zellweger "put on 25 pounds to play Bridget Jones, and will soon put on 80 pounds to play Deacon Jones." I bet anyone a thousand dollars that line was originally "Star Jones" before they made Rock change it. Best Supporting Actor is Morgan Freeman- which is good, because he deserved it. They chose the best clip in the movie for him, too. 8:51: After Freeman's speech, the theme from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" plays for no apparent reason. 8:55: During the Robin Williams routine about botox and plastic surgery, the director makes a point of not panning to any actresses for reaction. Then, his "gay cartoon characters" bit goes on about 2 minutes longer than necessary. "The Incredibles," deservedly, wins for Best Animation Feature. 9:01: They're actually giving out awards out in the audience to save time. One of the Best Makeup winners for "Lemony Snicket" thanks someone named "Medusa." 9:05: If Beyonce's performance proves anything, it's that she's MUCH better at non-English singing than J.Lo is. And that goes for English singing as well. 9:09: It's unrelated, but WABC's "He Is the Champion" promo for gay weatherman Sam Champion is one of the funnier things I've ever seen. 9:10: The camera catches some dude handing something to Rock. Oops. "From the Kodak Theater to the Magic Johnson Theater": it's like a bad Jay Leno bit, where Rock makes fun of people who only like stupid movies. But Albert Brooks singing the praises "White Chicks" was a nice touch. 9:17: The Costume Design award is co-presented by the animated designer from "The Incredibles." Cute, but not as funny as when Beavis & Butt-head assisted Letterman at the Emmys that time. 9:19: Rock mocks Tim Robbins for "boring us to death with his politics." Yea, Robbins sounded like a paranoid schizophrenic on Bill Maher last night. Best Supporting Actress is... Cate Blanchett. I never liked her- she all but ruined "The Life Aquatic"- but I grant that she was great as Kate. 9:26: Great Carson tribute. And just when we thought this was a Whoopi Goldberg-free year, she shows up to give worthless commentary. At least she didn't make any tortured Bush/bush puns. 9:30: It's Best Documentary time, and we're luckily spared a Fat Fat Fatty rant since he elected not to submit "F-9/11." "Born Into Brothels" wins instead. "Aviator" wins Best Editing, though considering how long it was, perhaps it could've used a little more. 9:35: Apparently, Sideshow Bob has replaced Adam Duritz as frontman of Counting Crows. Of the 60 CC songs I put on my iPod this afternoon, "Accidentally In Love" is probably the worst. 9:42: Good to see Sandler and Rock back together, even for a stupid bit like this one. Adapted Screenplay, and it's... "Sideways." Overrated yes, but it did deserve it over "Million Dollar Baby," of which the screenplay was probably the weakest element. 9:47: For Visual Effects, "Spider-man 2" wins, which is good since it was the best Hollywood action film of recent years. And the words "Oscar" and "I, Robot" don't belong in the same universe, much less the same sentence. 9:49: The president of the academy refers to his "sermon," and dedicates the evening to the troops. Red-state pandering, anyone? 9:51: Al Pacino salutes Sidney Lumet; "The Pawnbroker" sounds like "The Pornbroker," in Pacino-speak. Lumet's done some great stuff over the years- is it possible to be a film buff over 25 and not have rented "Dog Day Afternoon" at least twice? But "Serpico" wasn't nearly as good as the theatrical version of same in "Rushmore." We see footage of an in-production Lumet movie with Vin Diesel yelling as a lawyer in a bad wig, which may be the funniest thing I saw all night. I expect so many people to make fun of this in the next few days as to render that film unreleasable.10:04: More Beyonce! In English this time, albeit if Andrew Lloyd Webber has to accompany her, I vote for French. 10:09: Rock refers to "comedy legend Jeremy Irons." Hey, "Dead Ringers" was pretty funny. 10:13: You know it's the Oscars and not sports or politics when the guy who wins says "I am here tonight because of one guy," and the one guy isn't God or Jesus. 10:14: I nominate Kate Winslet as the most beautiful woman in movies. Anyone disagree? "Aviator" wins cinematography. 10:21: Now that Penelope Cruz has demonstrated again and again that she can't act in English or be in a good movie, shouldn't Paz Vega (from "Spanglish") be getting all her roles, and presenting along with Salma Hayek, instead of her? "Ray" wins for Best Sound Mixing. 10:26: Totalitarian fascist Che Guevara is extolled by Hayek. Pretty awful, but still not as bad as Banderas singing. 10:34: This new show with John Stamos could actually be good. A phrase I never thought I'd use. 10:40: "Finding Neverland" wins for Original Score- that'll be it's only award of the evening, I'm sure. The composer's agent's name is "Mr. Greenspan." And when he thanks Harvey Weinstein, people laugh. 10:45: The guy who wins an honorary award for his work on film preservation thanks Ted Turner, the man who- do to his colorization efforts in the '80s- did more to hurt the cause of proper preservation than anyone else. 10:47: Yo Yo Ma! He's here to accompany this year's death montage. Reagan gets some scattered cheers. They spell Carole Eastman's name wrong. Brando and Orbach get the longest applause, even longer than Russ Meyer. 10:55: P. Diddy is a presenter for some reason. He calls the "Polar Express" song "hip," and says it's a way to combat all the negativity going on in the world. But I'd rather just think about Beyonce. She and Josh Groban seem to have chemistry- if she left Jay-Z for him, it may be the funniest scandal in the history of celebrities. And yes, I typed that before Rock made that joke. 11:00: Prince appears to present Best Original Song, and for some reason Kansas' "Carry On My Wayward Son" is his entrance music. I still say Prince should buy the Minnesota Vikings (he has plenty of money, he's local, he's black, and everything on his resume is truthful), but that's another argument for another time. And yuk, "The Motorcycle Diaries" song wins. Though the director singing his entire acceptance speech instead of speaking was a nice touch that more people should try. 11:02: Sean Penn starts his presentation by, uh, defending Jude Law from Rock's joke two hours earlier. Huh? And have you, or has anyone you know, seen "Being Julia"? Too bad they can't show any of the clips of Hilary Swank that actually, you know, will win her the award. Swank wins. And yes, she remembers to thank her husband this time. Swank now becomes the first "Beverly Hills 90210" alum to win two Best Actress Oscars (or win one Oscar, or be nominated, or come to the Oscars, or even sustain a movie career). She also thanks her agent, Tony Lip, who may or may not be the same Tony Lip who played Carmine Lupertazzi on "The Sopranos." 11:13: As "Sea Inside" wins Best Foreign Language Film, I'm reminded of the amusing debate over whether "Bad Education" was denied the rapturous critical and Academy reception of the last couple Almodovar films because it was "too gay." 11:16: Time for my favorite award, Best Original Screenplay." Charlie Kaufman wins for the year's best film, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Which is great, because I'll probably see that 50 more times in my lifetime, while I'll almost certainly never see "Million Dollar Baby" again. Look at the last fifteen years of Original Screenplay winners, and the last fifteen years of Best Pictures- which list has more good movies? Kaufman looks a lot like Seth Green, and is closer to his age. Green probably should've played him in "Adaptation" instead of Nicolas Cage. 11:23: The presentations have been cut down to about five second each, as Charlize Theron does Best Actor. I expect some Fox News pundit to bust out the DiCaprio "don't you talk down to me- you're a movie star, nothing more" clip next time some actor says something about Bush. Foxx wins. And I realize I haven't gotten one wrong yet on my picks. I always assumed Jim Carrey would be the first "In Living Color" alum to win an Oscar, though I knew it wouldn't be a Wayans brother. 11:32: Julia Roberts presents Best Director, and will likely jump into the lap of whoever wins. And it's Clint- damn, sorry Marty. It's a shame, because Eastwood did a much better job acting in that than directing it. 11:36: Hoffman and Streisand give out the Best Picture award, in character from "Fockers." And the winner is... "Million Dollar Baby." Ugh. We got hope early on when "Aviator" won all the technical awards, but then MDB wasn't really a "technical awards" kind of movie. Only four Oscars, but they were for Picture, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actor. Overall, not a particularly memorable year- though, quickly, name two things that happened at last year's. Rock was decent, but this was far, far, FAR from his best work, and the super-rushed tone of the final hour pretty much ruined it. Meanwhile, IFC started a showing of "The Usual Suspects" right as the show was ending. So much better than everything that was honored tonight... Video26115@blogcritics.org Mon, 28 Feb 2005 10:50:18 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/04/02/162257.php Stephen SilverLast night I finally finished Peter Biskind's "indie-film-in-the-'90s" book "Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film." While Biskind's '70s version of the same thing, "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls," is among my favorite non-fiction books of all time, I was less impressed with the new book, simply because it's less interested in telling stories about the movies than it is in prosecuting Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein for the crime of being an asshole. A lot of the book is enjoyable, especially when Biskind goes into the backstories of some of the important films (whether successes or failures) that I spent the '90s watching. But these great stories mostly take a back seat to yet another story of Harvey treating his employees, associates, directors, and actors like dirt, acting in a threatening manner towards (especially female) underlings, being a glutton, and generally behaving like the most rotten, evil individual who ever walked the Earth. I don't doubt most or all of the stories are true - in fact, I have no reason to believe they're not, especially since Weinstein has made no effort to sue Biskind for libel. But in putting together an authoritative account of the very important '90s indie film movement, Biskind should have done a lot more skipping around, and given a lot more space to the actual films than to just Harvey yelling at people. In 'Easy Riders,' there are 50 or 60 main characters and he had access to everyone; the author should've known to not make this book so repetitive.The title is a bit of a misnomer, as about 95% of the book is about either Miramax or one of its offshoots (October Films, USA Films, etc.) and the Sundance Institute is barely covered at all, except for when Biskind bashes Robert Redford with even more venom than he does Harvey. One wonders what's more outrageous - that such loathsome men as Weinstein and Redford enjoy so much power, or that Biskind wasted an entire book ranting about them. There are a smattering of good stories- the "Pulp Fiction," "Clerks," and "Good Will Hunting" backstories, the tale of agents chasing Robert Duvall through a hotel in order to buy "The Apostle," etc. - but 'Down and Dirty' is so fixated on Evil Harvey that it can't come close to measuring up to its predecessor. Books14333@blogcritics.org Fri, 2 Apr 2004 16:22:57 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/01/010942.php Stephen Silver2004 Oscar Diary To start, a few ground rules: We will keep a running tally of how many awards Lord of the Rings wins; on my ballot, it's got nine. Also, I will continue my long-running policy of not talking about what people wear, except for two exceptions: to point out females who look uncommonly hot, and to point out people of either gender who look laughably ridiculous. And what's the over/under on Janet's boob jokes, and/or lesbian kiss jokes? Here we go: 8:30: We start with Sean Connery. "Suck It, Trebek." 8:32: Time for the Billy Crystal-in-the-movies montage- he's a lot better at these than Steve Martin or Whoopi would've been. Billy as Golem, that's cute - and Weinsteins-as-Orcs, that's even better. Crystal dragging out his Sammy Davis, Jr. after two decades is enough to make me forgive the appearance by Michael Moore. Still, it would've been nice if they'd gone with my idea of letting Bill Kristol host, or at least given him and Crystal a song-and-dance number together. 8:37: The musical monologue. Does Crystal look any different today than he did in City Slickers? LOTR had "11 nominations- one for each ending" - hah. I don't know how Crystal resisted the urge to set the Mystic River song to "Moon River." And the Seabiscuit's-head-in-someone's-bed joke sort of wrote itself, didn't it? 8:48: The orchestra this evening is conducted by Marc Shaiman who wrote, among other songs, "Blame Canada," "Uncle Fucka," and "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" 8:49: Best Supporting Actor time - and it's Tim Robbins. After a clip was shown of the most nonsensical scene of the movie, in which his previously dumb-as-rocks character suddenly becomes smart and calculating. In the speech, Robbins reaches out to victims of child molestation, rather than bash Bush; Robbins may practice cockamamie politics, but he's a very talented actor and director, and I'm proud of him for finally winning.9:00: LOTR wins Best Art Direction (1)9:03: Crystal starts into "Quien Es Mas Macho," providing further grist for those nostalgiac for the Saturday Night Live of 1982. Then Robin Williams appears and makes the second Janet joke of the evening; there was one in Crystal's song. 9:06: Finding Nemo wins Best Animated Feature. I liked the beginning and end, though the middle dragged a bit, and Ellen bugged me. 9:08: A JC Penney commercial dusts off Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy." Cool!9:12: Renee Zellweger says "naked people have little to no influence on society." Hasn't she ever heard of Ron Jeremy? Anyway, LOTR wins Best Costume Design (2). 9:18: Chris Cooper presents Supporting Actress ... Renee wins, and I'm five-for-five on my predictions. But I'd have preferred to see Shohreh Aghdashloo win, even though I really didn't like that film. Amount of time it took the director to cut to Nicole Kidman when Zellweger mentioned Tom Cruise - about five nanoseconds. 9:24: Crystal thanks the troops, then Tom Hanks comes out to "Hail to the Chief" - why, he's not the president? Ah, they're paying tribute to Bob Hope. Hanks says Hope hosted the Oscars 18 times, without making a joke about the "18 timers club." For some reason, the Hope montage - consisting entirely of I've-never-won-an-Oscar jokes - is scored with the Forrest Gump theme. 9:32: Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson present Best Live Action Short; I claim no expertise about these as I've never heard of any of them. But whaddya know - I guessed Two Soldiers, and I was right! 6-for-6 now; I really should've entered an Oscar pool. Best Animated Short is Harvie Krumpet - also a correct guess! - 7-for-7!9:38: Liv Tyler looks good - I like the geek-with-glasses look, really fits with the whole LOTR thing.Remember when Sting was cool? He's veering ever-so-closer to Michael Bolton territory every year. Still, I like this "Scarlet Tide" song. Not enough to actually see Cold Mountain, but nevertheless. 9:58: LOTR wins best visual effects - that's three, and I'm 8-for-8. Besides, the most special effect in Pirates of the Caribbean was Kiera Knightley. 10:01: I thought I heard something about separate scientific and technical awards that were given out two weeks ago, but I'm not sure; I'm still staring at Jennifer Garner. Even so, they forgot to show the winners' names. 10:03: Jim Carrey comes out speaking gibberish (or is it Aramaic?) before paying tribute to Blake Edwards. What's that he's saying about his sister having sex?After a montage, Edwards speeds past Carrey in a wheelchair before crashing into a wall. What the hell was that about? 10:15: Here comes Bill Murray to introduce Lost in Translation. If Murray wins, he'll be the first cast member from Saturday Night Live to win an Oscar. Well, guess it was between him and Jimmy Fallon. When Murray mentions that Sofia Coppola is the first American woman nominated for Best Director, the camera cuts to Jodie Foster ... a female director who has not been nominated for Best Director. Ouch. At least they use the "It's Suntori Time" clip. Though the hooker thing might've been better. 10:18: Scarlett Johansson introduces Best Makeup- and its LOTR! That's four, and I'm 9-for-9. 10:21: Time for Sound Design: LOTR. Five; 10 for 10. LOTR is not nominated for Sound Editing for some reason, and it's won by ... Master and Commander! I'm 11 for 11! 10:27: Here's the extremely loathsome Julia Roberts, paying tribute to Katherine Hepburn. At least she's not saying "I love my life - I got to meet Katherine Hepburn."Sadly, I think it's possible the only Katherine Hepburn movie I've seen is The Lion in Winter.10:39: My lord, Diane Lane is hot. And she and John Cusack are presently the documentary awards. I also correctly guessed Chernobyl Heart for Documentary Short - 12 for 12! 10:42: Naomi Watts and Alec Baldwin do Documentary Feature - Fog of War wins. I guessed it correctly (13 in a row!), but I say Capturing the Friedmans wuz robbed, and this award was given only for political reasons. Still, I met Errol Morris once and he's a great director who deserved an Oscar a long time ago.Morris thanks Robert McNamara for participating in the film, before comparing the "rabbit hole" of Vietnam to that in Iraq. Which would be true, if we hadn't pulled Saddam Hussein out of a rabbit hole of his own.10:46: Crystal replies, "I can't wait for his tax audit." Ha. 10:48: Time for a Gregory Peck tribute - damn, there were a lot of celebrity deaths this year. Good thing they'll probably save the John Ritter package for the Emmys.Here's the rest of the memorials: Elia Kazan is shown and no one sits on their hands; everyone immediately stops applauding once they see Leni Riefenstahl's name. Funniest moment of the night. 10:53: This really must be Bill Murray's night - it's the debut of the Tiger Woods Caddyshack commercial.10:56: Sting presents Best Score: Howard Shore wins for LOTR, that's six wins, and I'm 14-for-14. It would've been nice to see Big Fish, my favorite movie of the year, win on its single nomination, but what can you do?11:00: Best Editing goes to: LOTR. 7, and I'm 15-for-15. 11:04: Jamie Lee Curtis introduces A Mighty Wind characters Mitch and Micki (Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara) to sing "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" - this is awesome! Why didn't I know that JLC was married to Christopher Guest?11:15: Will Ferrell and Jack Black do a comedic song to make fun of the "you're cut off" music. It's funny, but nothing compared to their David-and-Liza thing in Entertainment Weekly. The winner of Best Original Song is ... Annie Lennox's "Into the West" from LOTR - it's award number 8 for them, but unfortunately my historic unbeaten streak comes to an end, nearly three hours into the show. 11:20: Here's Charlize Theron, looking great. Which brings up an interesting point: According to today's Hollywood morality, the best thing a pretty actress can do is look ugly in her movie. And the worst thing a pretty actress can do is look ugly on Oscar night. Anyway, the Best Foreign Language Film is ... Barbarian Invasions. I'm back in the win column, baby! 11:23: Uma Thurman looks goofy - she should've just worn the yellow Bruce Lee suit from Kill Bill. She gives Best Cinematography to Russell Boyd for Master and Commander, but that's only because LOTR wasn't nominated for some reason. 11:28: Sofia Coppola and FFC come out together, as Ride of the Valkyries plays. Classy. As a reader of mine pointed out, it would be really funny right now if Sofia got shot, and then said only "Dad" before dying, like at the end of Godfather III.They give the Best Adapted Screenplay award to ... LOTR, for its ninth award of the evening - yes LOTR now has more Oscars than Norah Jones has Grammys. I had Mystic River, knocking me down to 17-2. 11:33: Tobey Maguire introduces Seabiscuit. Anyone who thought that was better than Big Fish really needs to get their head examined. 11:34: Time for what's traditionally the most quality-savvy award there is, Best Original Screenplay, and the winner (presented by Robbins and Sarandon) is ... Sofia Coppola. Making the Coppolas the second three-generation Oscar-winning family (FFC's father, Carmine, won for conducting The Godfather's music). 11:42: Tom Cruise introduces Best Director and a quick cut to Nicole Kidman - gee, why isn't the award being presented by last year's winner, Roman Polanski? (Okay, I know why. But how come R. Kelly gets to go to the VMAs?) Peter Jackson wins, in case you had to guess. That's 10 for LOTR, and my record is 19-2. 11:45: Will Adrien Brody kiss the Best Actress winner? If it's Charlize Theron, I would ... and he makes a joke about it, before spraying Binaca - cute. Charlize wins. The first time I saw 2 Days in the Valley, I knew this day would someday come. 11:57: Best Actor time, the biggest cliffhanger of the night: Penn or Murray? Penn or Murray? It's ... Sean Penn. Damn, Bill Murray deserved that one, he really did. Penn was great, yes - but the film itself was mawkish and insulting. Maybe next year, Bill.12:01: "If there's one thing actors know, other than that there weren't any WMDs..." Good thing it's not up to actors to know that. Penn decides to go without a prepared speech; for the "greatest living actor," he sure sucks at speaking extemporaneously. 12:04: Spielberg's here to present Best Picture. Come back to the nominee list Steven, we miss you! I will eat both my shoes if LOTR doesn't win. They don't even bother with the drumroll - LOTR wins Oscar #11 to tie Ben Hur and Titanic. My final record - 20-3, matching my personal best from '97. 12:10: The show ends 20 minutes shy of 4 hours. A pretty good year - the return of Crystal really helped the show, and it wasn't boring. Not a whole lot of particularly memorable moments, but still much better than last year. Video13262@blogcritics.org Mon, 1 Mar 2004 01:09:42 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/30/021517.php Stephen SilverWe've got another one of those lunatic "Bush is Hitler" pieces making the rounds of the internet- but the difference is that rather than coming from some notorious left-wing website, this one is from the op-ed page of an actual, semi-reputable newspaper, the San Fransisco Chronicle. It's by Harley Sorensen, and he seems to really believe that because the president has pursued policies with which he disagrees, the Fourth Reich has descended on the United States. Even though Bush may very well be out of office a year from now. As someone who didn't vote for Bush in 2000 and probably won't this year, that doesn't mean I consider the president an anti-Christ figure. I'm also aware of the USENET-derived axiom known as Godwin's Law, which states that the longer an argument goes on, the more likely it is that Hitler or the Nazis will be invoked- at which point the debate immediately ends and he who invoved Hitler loses. Regardless, I waive the law in this one instance to bring you this. What do we do with lunatic pieces like this? We fisk them, that's what! Here we go:Are Parallels To Nazi Germany Crazy? Yes. The customers always write. Actually, they're always wrong. I get about 400 e-mails in response to my columns every week, which might explain why I didn't answer yours. Here, slightly edited, is one of the more interesting ones from last week. It's from Herr Moellers in Germany: "Dear Mr. Sorensen, "I have many American friends and used to go on business travel to the U.S. a lot (I stopped doing that after even our European governments have given in to Uncle Sam's appetite for information about individuals traveling to God's Own Country), and I am shocked by the deterioration of democracy in a country that I used to love. This administration is a shame and the destabilization they have brought to the world is scaring the s** out of me. "Deterioration of democracy"? Has she not noticed that there's a friggin' election going on right now? "My father was a Nazi soldier and he realized during the war what he and most of his generation was led into. I have learned from him that a nation can be guilty and that we must stop the arrogance of the powers at the very beginning. To me, America is becoming truly scary and the parallels to the development in Germany of the thirties (although the reason behind it are totally different) are sickening. A nation can be guilty? Of what, liberating Iraq? Is this daughter-of-a-Nazi really serious that she doesn't see the difference between America today and Germany then?Herr Moellers' e-mail is typical of a half dozen or so I've received over the past year from people with intimate knowledge of Nazi Germany. Sorensen says he gets 400 e-mails a week, which figures out to nearly 21,000 a year. And how many of them were from Germans comparing the United States to Nazi Germany? A half-dozen! An overwhelming response, to be sure!I respect experience, so I'm inclined to believe what these people are telling me. Perhaps their memories help explain the attitude of Germans toward the Bush administration these days. Of course, that's why the Germans are against Bush! But how do you explain the French agreeing with the Germans, when they got conquered by the Germans? They've been there, they've done that. They know what a corrupt government smells like. Of all the things Sorensen could possibly say about the Nazis, the best word he could come up with is "corrupt"? Is Dick Cheney fudging on who was on the energy task force now roughly the equal of the politicies of Nazi Germany? But are they "over the top"? Are they overreacting to a normal swing of the pendulum in American politics? The latter. To make a comparison between Germany in the 1930s and America now, I relied on a Web site called "A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust." The passages in quotations below are taken from the site. Quite an authoritative source, a web site that no one's ever heard of. But let's go on..."With Adolf Hitler's ascendancy to the chancellorship, the Nazi Party quickly consolidated its power. Hitler managed to maintain a posture of legality throughout the Nazification process." Whether by chance or design, George W. Bush is the most powerful American president in modern history. Not only does he have both houses of Congress beholden to him, but the majority of the Supreme Court is acting like a quintet of Bush lapdogs. And it all appears legal. But just a wee couple of differences- the Weimar Republic was about a decade old while the American republic is more than 200 years old. Not to mention that America is still a democracy, there have been mid-term elections since 9/11 and, once again, Bush may very well lose the election this year. Hitler didn't have to worry about re-election. And the Supreme Court is Bush's lapdogs? You mean like when they upheld affirmative action and legalized sodomy?"Domestically, during the next six years, Hitler completely transformed Germany into a police state." Civil libertarians insist that this is happening here now, with the USA Patriot Act in force and Patriot II on the table. A few months ago I stumbled into an anti-Patriot Act protest in Manhattan, complete with chants of "Stop the Police State." The rally was attended by no police at all; in a true "police state," such an event would have resulted in arrests/torture/permanent imprisonment. Not to mention that there's no "death camps" or "ethnic cleansing" or "Holocaust" going on America right now. "Hitler engaged in a 'diplomatic revolution' by negotiating with other European countries and publicly expressing his strong desire for peace." Nobody can accuse Bush of being overly diplomatic, but, like all political leaders, he is an apostle for peace, even while starting two wars during his brief tenure. Did Bush not go to the United Nations and gain a resolution for the Iraq war, in the process delaying the start of the Iraq war for months? And Bush did not start the war in Afghanistan; by supporting and sheltering Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban started that war. In 1933, the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building, was burned to the ground. Nobody knows for sure who set the fire. The Nazis blamed communists. "This incident prompted Hitler[,then Germany's chancellor,] to convince [German President Paul von] Hindenburg to issue a Decree for the Protection of People and State that granted Nazis sweeping power to deal with the so-called emergency." The Reichstag fire parallels the Sept. 11 attacks here, and Hindenburg's decree parallels our USA Patriot Act. Is Sorensen, with a straight face, calling the events of September 11, which resulted in the deaths of 3,000 Americans, a "so-called emergency"? Does the precedent of the Reichstag fire mean that no country should ever react to a terrorist attack ever again?Soon after Hitler took power, the concentration camp at Dachau was created and "the Nazis began arresting Communists, Socialists and labor leaders ... . Parliamentary democracy ended with the Reichstag passage of the Enabling Act, which allowed the government to issue laws without the Reichstag." With Bush leading all branches of government around by the nose, there's a question whether parliamentary democracy still exists here. Certainly, concentration camps exist, if we're willing to call the lockup at Guanténamo Bay what it really is. And the USA Patriot Act allows the president to effectively take citizenship rights from any American-born criminal suspect. This is the most nonsensical passage of the piece: Is he actually comparing the Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters imprisoned at Guatanamo to the the innocent Jews of the Warsaw ghetto? Is he not aware of the conotation that the phrase "concentration camp" has, for Holocaust survivors and those descended from them? And in terms of the question of "whether parliamentary democracy still exists," are there not still congressional votes? Remember Bush's energy bill that didn't pass? And, if you've forgotten, there's an election going on in which a Democratic president could undo just about everything Bush has done? And he's wrong about the president having the right to take away citizenship rights- that is part of the leaked "Patriot II" law that has not been passed. But even if it did- is that somehow the equivilant to the slaughter of six million Jews? "Nazi anti-Semitic legislation and propaganda against 'Non-Aryans' was a thinly disguised attack against anyone who had Jewish parents or grandparents. Jews felt increasingly isolated from the rest of German society." How comfortable do American-born Arabs feel in the United States today? They haven't been slaughtered, and there's no reason whatsoever to think that they're going to be. Which is, I'd say, a pretty big difference. While the German concentration camps were being built and Jews were being persecuted, in 1936 Nazi Germany hosted the Olympic Games and put its best face forward to the world. We have the Super Bowl. Huh? Because we have sports, we're like the Nazis? What was Sorensen smoking when he wrote this? In the mid- to late 1930s, Germany was able to annex nearby territories without firing a shot. That was because of the threat of the German military, the strongest in the world at the time. The United States has not "annexed" a single acre of territority under Bush, and hasn't since Hawaii became a state. Iraq has not been "annexed," is not a part of America (although Kuwait was, by Iraq), and there are no plans for it to be. That might be compared with the sudden flexibility of Iran, Pakistan, Syria and Libya, all of whom are aware that Bush will do more than just threaten; he'll do it. Sorensen, without realizing it, is actually arguing in favor of US intervention, as the terrorist nations that he mentions are less likely to be afraid of us if we exercise our military power. But since when is Iran "suddenly flexible"? Last I heard they still wanted to kill us all. When one is comparing then and now, I think the most interesting factor is that most German Jews remained in Germany until it was too late. They just couldn't believe Hitler was as dangerous as some people said he was. The more prescient Jews (most often those who could afford to do so) got out, however. So what's he advocating, mass emigration? Hitler came to power in 1933, but the killing of Jews (and others) didn't begin until five years later, in 1938, with the historic Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") on Nov. 9. On that day, "nearly 1,000 synagogues were set on fire and 76 were destroyed. More than 7,000 Jewish businesses and homes were looted, about 100 Jews were killed, and as many as 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps to be tormented ... ." We haven't seen anything like that here, nor does it appear to be one the horizon, No, it doesn't. So WHAT THE HELL is the point of this piece? If you're not committing genocide, if you're not putting people in concentration camps, if you're not taking over entire continents, and you're not pushing for extermination of entire races, you're NOT JUST LIKE HITLER. PERIOD. yet one must wonder about the hundreds shut away in Guanténamo Bay and in other lockups in the United States and throughout the world. I wonder why they chose to side against America and fight for Islamo-fascism. A Nazi regime would have killed all of them by now, but America has killed none of them. My conclusion is that some comparisons between modern times and Nazi Germany are valid, and some are not. Enough are valid, in my opinion, however, for us to be wary, and as vigilant as humanly possible. No they're not. Because none of the important comparisons are actually apt. Whatever happens in this year's election, I would hope that Congress, the Supreme Court and the president himself start reeling in the power of the presidency. It has been expanding ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt, if not before, and now it is way out of proportion to what the Founding Fathers had in mind for our system of checks and balances. Our current president has the power to turn the world into turmoil with a mere stroke of the pen. No man should have that much power, no matter who he is. As I said already, if a Democrat wins the election this year, he can, "with a mere stroke of the pen," undo just about everything Bush has done in office- except he can't un-liberate Afghanistan or Iraq. Or would Sorensen like for him to do just that? Culture12168@blogcritics.org Fri, 30 Jan 2004 02:15:17 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/12/30/002210.php Stephen Silver1. Fountains of Wayne- "Welcome Interstate Managers" 2 (tie). Led Zeppelin- "How the West Was Won"; The Beatles- "Let It Be... Naked" 3. Dave Matthews- "Some Devil" 4. The Jayhawks- "Rainy Day Music" 5. Damien Rice- "O" 6. Warren Zevon- "The Wind" 7. Barenaked Ladies- "Everything to Everyone" 8. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks- "Pig Lib" 9. Liz Phair (self titled) 10. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog- "Come Poop With Me"Honorable Mention: Brand New- "Deja Entendu"; Outkast- "Speakerboxx/The Love Below"; Jason Mraz- "Waiting For My Rocket To Come"; Alicia Keys- "The Diary of Alicia Keys"; Pete Yorn- "Day I Forgot"; John Mayer- "Heavier Things", Jesse Harris- "The Secret Sun," The Shins- "Chutes Too Narrow"; The Strokes- "Room on Fire," The White Stripes- "Elephant." Music11308@blogcritics.org Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:22:10 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/12/30/001926.php Stephen Silver1. "Big Fish" (Tim Burton) 2. "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (Peter Jackson) 3. "Kill Bill: Volume One" (Quentin Tarantino) 4. "Lost in Translation" (Sofia Coppola) 5. "School of Rock" (Richard Linklater) 6. "Elephant" (Gus Van Sant) 7. "Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World" (Peter Weir) 8. "Shattered Glass" (Billy Ray) 9. "Swimming Pool" (Francois Ozon) 10. "Bend It Like Beckham" (Gurinder Chadha)Honorable Mention: "A Decade Under the Influence" (Ted Demme/Richard LaGravanese); "Fog of War" (Errol Morris); "A Mighty Wind" (Christopher Guest); "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" (Jonathan Mostow); "Old School" (Todd Phillips); "Finding Nemo" (Andrew Stanton/Lee Unkrich). Video11307@blogcritics.org Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:19:26 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/12/29/221613.php Stephen SilverIn no particular order: - Philanthropist Peter B. Lewis donates $8 million to the ACLU for "fighting anti-terrorism measures." As opposed to, say, fighting terrorism measures. - Hoboken's Cadillac Bar has its liquor license suspended 30 days for a myriad of liquor control board violations; the first night it reopens in February, a man is killed in a bar fight. Then, in a fit of magical karma, the building above the bar collapses, shutting it permanently. - PETA introduces a campaign called "Holocaust on your plate."- New York Times reporter Jayson Blair is found to have plagiarized or fabricated countless articles, leading to the resignation of Executive Editor Howell Raines; Blair later receives a six-figure deal to write his memoirs, "Burning Down My Masters' House." - Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy is shot and killed by teammate Carlton Dotson; two days after Dennehy's body is found, coach Dave Bliss is caught on tape encouraging other players to pin false drug charges on the dead man. - "The Matrix" franchise releases not one boring, unimaginative and totally forgettable sequel, but rather two. - The first known female Al-Qaeda operative, Aafia Siddiqui, is caught in Pakistan; she had earlier studied biology at several American universities, including Brandeis. - More than 100 people are killed at a Rhode Island concert by the forgotten hair metal band Great White; indicating Great White's low industry profile, the incident goes completely unmentioned at the Grammy awards two weeks later. - As pointed out by blogger Ken Layne, while millions of Americans gather to protest the Iraq war in mid-February, more Americans, that same weekend, go to see the marsupial comedy "Kangaroo Jack." - Michael Jackson admits in a television interview that he regularly sleeps in the same bed with young boys; to no one's surprise, he is once again arrested for children molestation a few months later. - While the return to fashion of French-bashing is welcome, some take it too far, insisting french fries be called "Freedom Fries."- An aspiring rapper known as Big Lurch, allegedly acting on the orders of Suge Knight, kills and cannibalizes a woman in order to establish "streed cred."- The New Jersey Nets reach the NBA finals, achieving a grand total of four home sellouts at Continental Arena throughout the regular season and playoffs. - The website Friendster.com includes six different fake profiles for Kobe Bryant's accuser. - Presidential candidate Dick Gephardt, despite nearly three decades in Congress, promises in a speech to use executive orders to overturn any Supreme Court decisions with which he disagrees. - Seeking to piggyback on the success of Nike and LeBron James, Reebok signs young hoops phenom Mark Walker to an endorsement deal, even though Walker is only three years old. - Red Sox manager Grady Little leaves Pedro Martinez in to pitch to five batters in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, costing the team the game and Little his job. - In the recall campaign, 12,263 Californians vote for Gary Coleman to represent them as governor. - John Madden appears in a commercial in which an NFL player looks to be paralyzed, but then makes a miraculous recovery when served on the field with food from Outback Steakhouse. - After Bob Hope dies, an obituary is published in the New York Times by film critic Vincent Canby- who himself preceded Hope in death by more than three years. - Sharon Stone stars in a commercial in which she's seen in bed with the animated AOL logo. - Brandeis Justice columnist Daniel Passner calls Cubs manager Dusty Baker by a racial slur, leading to a near-race riot and the resignation of six editors from the paper. - Fox News Channel sues Al Franken- and tries to stop the publication of his book- because he misappropriated their catchphrase "fair and balanced."- The website Evite.com is forced to apologize for including Yom Kippur in a list of "reasons to party" for the fall. - The Staten Island Ferry crashes into a dock, killing 11 people; because it happens 2 hours before a Yankees-Red Sox playoff game, nobody notices. - The rapper C-Murder is convicted- of murder. - Rush Limbaugh, during a short-lived stint as a commentator on ESPN, accuses Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb of being overrated by the media because he's black. Limbaugh is fired, later goes to rehab and is under investigation for violating federal drug laws; McNabb subsequently leads Philadelphia to nine consecutive victories. - Rutgers student and Israel-hating Jew Abe Greenhouse is arrested after throwing a pie at Israeli politician Natan Sharansky; this follows a months-long drama in which a national pro-Palestinian organization withdraws their annual conference from Rutgers to protest the extremism of organizer Charlotte Kates. - The Kermit the Frog character falls into the public domain, leading to such abominations as "Vomiting Kermit" on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" and Kermit calling Justin Timberlake a "douchebag" on "Saturday Night Live." - And as the year ends, American pop culture is ruled by- Paris Hilton, the most undeserving person to ever hold the zeitgeist. Culture11306@blogcritics.org Mon, 29 Dec 2003 22:16:13 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/12/22/183539.php Stephen SilverHBO's adaptation of "Angels in America" is perfect- almost. I've now watched all six hours of "Angels in America," including several of them twice. I've already gone on record as saying that I loved the first half, and there was a lot that I liked about the second as well- great performances (especially by Al Pacino, Ben Shenkman, Justin Kirk, and Patrick Wilson), and wonderfully drawn characters who I would've wanted to spend even more than six hours with. However, there were quite a few things I didn't like about part 2, which sort of dampened my enthusiasm about the whole work. I wasn't as offended by it as Andrew Sullivan (then again, I also don't have a decades-old blood feud with Tony Kushner), but I also can't agree with near-unanimous reaction of critics who thought 'Angels' was the greatest work ever to air on television. Here, a few nitpicks: - The story is supposedly set in 1985 New York. But everything about the city shown in the film looks like 2003- and none of the characters wear clothes or haircuts indicative of 1985. - All the stuff with Emma Thompson as the Angel? Trite, nonsensical, and very very silly. How many times can she scream "eye! eye! eye!"? Which brings up an even larger problem, with the film's theology: while it flirts at different times with Judaism, Catholicism, and Mormonism- and borrows liberally from the iconography of all three- in the end 'Angels' seemingly rejects religiosity all together in favor of secular humanism. Which, if you think about it, is really cheating. - The most interesting character in the piece, the closeted-Alex P. Keaton lawyer Joe Pitt (Wilson), is left with a maddingly unresolved character arc. And as his wife, Mary-Louise Parker is even more annoying than she is on "The West Wing," which wasn't previously thought to be possible. - I don't object to Kushner's leftism on its face, or his depiction of Roy Cohn as an evil, repugnant bastard. But the one thing I can't get past is the sight of Cohn (Pacino) being taunted at the time of his death by an apparition of Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), whose execution he had pushed for three decades earlier. But, history having now all but definitively proven that Rosenberg was in fact guilty of espionage and treason, why would Cohn, after a lifetime of misdeeds, be haunted by her as he dies? Is Kushner arguing that Ethel was innocent, or that she was guilty but we should root for her because McCarthyism is more a crime than selling out one's country to Stalin's Russia? Have the dozens of critics who claimed this the best TV program of the year asked that question themselves?Other than that, yea, great movie. As a postscript, I saw a commercial the other night for Gateway that seemed to (probably unintentionally) parody 'Angels'- we see a couple lying in bed when something begins to crash through their bedroom ceiling. But rather than the angel that drops in on Prior Walter, we see the hind legs of a cow- Gateway's trademark. The cow, however, doesn't speak, or have sex with either of the couple, or lead them into heaven. Video11174@blogcritics.org Mon, 22 Dec 2003 18:35:39 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/12/05/122925.php Stephen SilverThis year's Grammy nominations were announced yesterday and- damn. If even the middle-aged, almost entirely white music academy gives the majority of Grammy nominations to hip-hop and R&B artists, I think we can finally safely declare rock 'n' roll dead, or at the very least in semi-retirement. The four most-nominated artists (Beyonce, Outkast, Missy Elliott, and Jay-Z) are all African-American, while two others with multiple nods (Eminem and Justin Timberlake) are white but produce "black" music- which, from an academy that gave Best Album two years ago to the worst record of Steely Dan's career, can only be called progress. Which isn't to say the Academy's traditional old-white-guy bias is a thing of the past- it can't be good for the plight of males in popular music that the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category consists of two guys who are old (Sting, Michael McDonald), two guys who are dead (George Harrison, Warren Zevon), and one guy who was in 'N Sync (Justin Timberlake). Had Johnny Cash been deservedly nominated instead of Sting, we'd have had the first majority-dead category in Grammy history, although Cash is nominated in several categories, as is the comatose Luther Vandross. I'm going to shock you: my prediction for Best Album is Timberlake's "Justified"- and it's deserved. After years of producing some of the worst pop music of the decade with 'N Sync, Timberlake somehow put together a great record, showing that he'll still be around long after we've forgotten Britney, Christina, and all the rest. So what if "Justified," up against Norah Jones, Bruce Springsteen, and others, likely would not have even been nominated last year. Record of Year? It's between "Crazy in Love" and "Hey Ya." Either one's fine by me. Here, the various absurdities: -With about 100 categories per year, it's next to impossible for anyone to have a pop music career of any length without winning or been nominated for a Grammy at least once. Which is no excuse for the some of the mediocrities up for major awards this year: Train? Matchbox Twenty? Nickelback? -Way to go Coldplay! First you impregnate Gwyneth Paltrow, then you're nominated for Record of the Year, all in one week!-Among those you thought had retired decades ago who are up for Grammys this year: Barbra Streissand, Kenny G, the Eagles, Steve Vai, Earth, Wind, and Fire (!), The Oak Ridge Boys, and Ludwig von Beethoven (nominated for Best Orchestral Performance). -Judging by the nominees, Evanescence is currently the best rock band in the world ("Bring Me to Life" is a good song, but no, they're not). -Fountains of Wayne, who probably deserved a Best Album nod, are up for Best New Artist, even though they've been around for about a decade. -Best Female Rap Solo Performance has three nominees (Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, and Da Brat) who would've been up for the same award had it been given out in 1989; with Latifah also becoming the first Oscar acting nominee up for a rap Grammy. -Hillary Clinton is up for her second Grammy, once again for the book-on-tape version of her autobiography (she won for "It Takes a Village" in 1995). Her competitors include Bill Maher, Don Cheadle, and Al Franken. -The Best Comedy Album category includes "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Cross, Garrison Keillor, George Lopez, and Margaret Cho. It omits the best comedy album of the decades, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's "Come Poop With Me." -There is a Best Polka Album category, though Weird Al is not nominated. No, I'm not kidding. Music10706@blogcritics.org Fri, 5 Dec 2003 12:29:25 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/11/25/235910.php Stephen SilverLooking for a book to read for the four-hour train ride back from Boston last weekend, I stopped into the book store at Boston's South Station and settled on "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," the somewhat controversial new political humor book by Al Franken. After finishing the first half in one sitting and the rest a few days later, I can say that while I've got quite a few objections, I'm glad I read it. I've got a bit of a mixed relationship to Franken and his work. He's from where I'm from (St. Louis Park, MN), I once met him at a Twins game and found him to be quite a friendly guy, I've enjoyed a great deal of the stuff he wrote and performed on "Saturday Night Live," and absolutely loved his 1996 book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot." But on the other hand, my politics have moved rightward as his have lurched leftward, and it's hard to dispute that Franken's humor these days has a mere fraction of the bite his '70s SNL stuff did- much of which certainly has to do with his split with longtime writing partner Tom Davis. And I also find his tactic of rebutting the "shrill and mean-spirited" tactics of conservatives by being shrill and mean-spirited himself a tad hypocritical. But at any rate, I was sympathetic to Franken during Bill O'Reilly's hysterical lawsuit against him (writing about it here), and so I figured I'd give his book a shot. The book starts out with all the easy, deserving targets (O'Reilly, Coulter, Bernard Goldberg, Fox News), winning most of the battles decisively and gleefully tearing their arguments to shreds. On the more difficult stuff, however, Franken punts- he devotes short, unconvincing chapters to the Iraq war and the 2000 election, and has just about nothing to say about either the Democratic presidential field or the current crisis in the Democratic party over the role of liberalism in the War on Terror. Franken's "issue" chapters, as a rule, don't ring nearly as true as his shots at various celebrity pundits. In addition, his chapter on the infamous Paul Wellstone memorial service, while honorable in exposing some of the excesses of the right-wing reaction, leaves out a few major details as well, including Iowa Senator Tom Harkin leading the crowd in a chant of "We Will Win!" Franken also borrows a trick from his enemies on the right by misdefining everything- mistakes in speech, flip-flops, jokes, or deniability-maintaining spin- as "lies." It's dishonest, and only serves to make Franken look hypocritical. Especially since he stretches the truth quite a bit himself, in using every one of those tactics. In addition, the author includes a laugh-free sequel to the Limbaugh book's most tedious chapter, "Operation Chickenhawk," as well as a generally unfunny cartoon about "Supply Side Jesus." For every joke that kills about 6 or 7 fall flat; Franken also borrows from Peter Vecsey the awful-writer tic of writing long paragraphs that start out factual-sounding but end with lame joke punchlines. Which is the book's biggest weakness- Franken shifts between joking and complete seriousness more or less at will. There are some highlights, however, such as a faux visit by Franken and his "son" to Bob Jones University, the author's challenge of masculinity-espousing conservative pundit Rich Lowry to a fight, and the entire chapter devoted to exposing the fraud that is "Hannity & Colmes." The author even puts Colmes' name in a smaller typeface, and jokes that his autobiography should've been called "Back to You Sean: The Alan Colmes Story." If you can get past the absurdity of a book-length polemic arguing that liberalism is always right, Franken's book is all right. "Lies and the Lying Liars" is hardly for hardcore lefties only, which is what separates it, say, from the latest Michael Moore screed. If you're looking for an easy read with a few laughs about the last few years of American politics, it's for you, providing you're willing to take everything with a grain of salt. If what you want is serious, academic analysis of why "Bush is a moron, na na na na na!"; I direct you instead to Paul Krugman. Books10450@blogcritics.org Tue, 25 Nov 2003 23:59:10 EST