Sunday, December 28, 2014
NBC "Meet the Press" talks about satire in media, and police profiling; Zakaria plans more discussion of brain mapping project and fusion power, today preempted by air crash
Chuck Todd interviewed NYC Police Commissioner Bill Bratton,
who attributed many of the tensions in the City over the Garner death and then
the assassination of two police officers in BedStuy, to labor contracts and
politics, and to disparities in wealth in the City, and not to race. Todd showed a brief clipping from the Rodney King beating in 1991 in Los Angeles and summarized the history of that incident. Yet, other panelists admitted having conversations with
their kids on how to act around police.
I recall a coworker telling me that back in the 1990s. And some minority people, regardless of
actual biology, simply look “whiter” than others, and that would even include
the president. On the other hand, many
“whites” find out, if they do the DNA research, that they have ancestors who
were slaves. With the Latino community,
similar ideas occur. In Texas and
California, many “Hispanics” are almost completely European in ancestry. (That
idea occurs in my novel.) Census treats
Hispanic as an ethnicity, not as a race.
Then there was a discussion (including Tina Tey) of satire
and politics, somewhat inspired by the fiasco over “The Interview”. The “Washington operator” has become an
anti-hero in film. They got into the
Bill Cosby fiasco (to which Don Lemon had recently allocated an hour on “CNN
Tonight” and then mentioned that Chris Rock has suggested that audiences not be
allowed to have cell phones at his performances, so he can take more
risks. I’ve actually been to a Chris
Rock performance once, as a substitute teacher at a high school assembly back
in 2007!
On CNN Fareed Zakaria’s Global Public Square was pre-empted,
but his blog entry talks about mapping the human brain, and about fusion as a
power source. He also gives his take on
Sony and “The Interview” here
CNN has been covering the recent plane crash by an AirAsia
airbus over the Java Sea, on the way to Singapore; it seems to have been caused by violent
weather near the Equator this December.
Meteorologists report that this December has been the stormiest ever,
and might be related to climate change.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
NBC airs "Tribute to our Troops" from Fort Benning, GA (by WWE free-style wrestling)
NBC tonight broadcast a WWE “freestyle wrestling” Tribute to
our Troops, live from a huge arena in Fort Benning, GA (in Columbus, GA, on the
Alabama border). The event was heavily
attended by men and women in fatigues from all services, but mostly the Army. Fort
Benning hosts the US Army Maneuver Center (eg, like the movie “War Games”
(1983), sort of).
The “Hulk” gave a rant, and there were a few right-wing
personalities, before the usual show of blob bodies, something my father used
to watch in the 1950s.
I passed through Fort Benning on a May 2012 trip. There is an impressive memorial as you enter the
post on a main public highway, but most of it is off limits to the public, so I
have only a few superficial pictures. I
discovered that Fort Jackson, SC has a Basic Combat Training museum, but it can
only be visited during the week with an appointment, worth doing some day. Fort Gordon, GA (which in 1968 divided basic
with Fort Jackson) now has a big NSA center. I drove onto Fort Bragg once, in 1992.
Friday, December 26, 2014
NBC Dateline: "The Secrets of Cottonwood Creek"
NBC Dateline’s “The Secrets of Cottonwood Creek” Friday
night told the story of who two juries hung on a murder trial in Colorado of
Frederick Mueller for the 2008 death of his wife of 27 years after she fell
into a creek on a winter hike. Typical news
story is here. When is a misstep really an accident? This reminds me of an incident in John Knowles's novel and 1972 film "A Separate Peace", when a teen accidentally injures a rival, who dies later, by jousting a tree limb.
The local sheriff believed that she had been pushed, based
on his own interpretation of the lack of normal blows. Fred would be arrested by Texas Rangers and
brought back to Colorado. After the
first jury hung with 11-1 wanting to acquit, the judge dropped first degree
murder chargers, but a second tril for second degree murder followed in Denver,
in a different venue. This time, more
jurors wanted to convict.
The charges were dropped but the case remains open. He would need to be acquitted to remove the "triple jeopardy." The interviews with the thee adult kids, one
of whom is in the Navy, were interesting.
Wikipedia attribution link for Leadville view I was there in 1973 and then 1994. One scene in my novel happens there, as it is
one of the highest towns in the US, over 10000 feet.
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Now, "Days of our Lives" brings a hypothetical gay major league baseball pitcher into the lives of Will and Sonny
The NBC Corday soap “Days of our Lives” has perhaps made itself prescient, by
bringing in the story of a gay major league baseball pitcher, Paul Narita
(played by Christopher Sean Friel), as covered in “outsports” here, or here in Gay Star News, link. It seems that Sonny (Freddie Smith) dated
him in the past, and Paul is trying to get back into Sonny’s life. In the meantime, Sonny’s husband Will Horton
I(Guy Wilson) has apparently returned from LA and is doing a story on Paul’s
career. Will even has eyes for him. See the love triangle developing. Paul looks to have mixed background, white,
Asian and Latino.
The script suggests that Paul had the best ERA in the Majors
before hurting his shoulder, and that Salem has an MLB team.
In the meantime, racketeers are trying to extort Sonny, who
secretly took money out of his joint account without his husband noticing or being told.
I don’t know if I could go this far into marriage, but I was
raised two generations ago.
Sonny looks so much more manly with his chest and arm hair
back, but he seems to lose it anytime he has to be in an intimate scene, as
part of an unseen ritual. In the
meantime, JJ Deveraux (in the past few months, turning around and becoming one
of the soap’s most likable characters) suddenly breaks down and has sex with
his arch enemy Eve. And it seems that JJ
(Casey Moss) is suddenly old enough to have some chest hair himself. Let’s see if he is allowed to keep it.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Vox Media recalls the 1971 ABC-TV animated presentation of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
Vox Media has tweeted a story resurrecting the 1971
made-for-TV animated short (25 minutes) of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles
Dickens. The film, winning a best
animated short Oscar in 1972, was produced for ABC television and was directed
by Richard Williams, and is narrated by Michael Redgrave. The Vox story by Todd Van der Werff calls
this the best adaptation of the Dickens novel ever made, with link here.
Most of us don’t think of this tale as a “ghost story”, but
indeed it is. Ebenezer Scrooge is indeed
a bit rather schizoid, and he uses his wealth to avoid discomforting
connections to ordinary people. He says “there is nothing as hard as poverty so
I pursue wealth.” The first ghost is
made into a metaphor of indigestion, rather curious (and recalling my own
finicky nature as a boy). That little
ghost introduces the three main one, second of which (the present) wears a cape
and has a rather bizarre paste-on toupe of chest hair. He doesn’t seem very real. Tiny Tim is presented as a kid who will not
have another chance. But the biggest casualties
are the other little boy (ignorance) and girl (need).
Perhaps this particular version of the Dickens story fits
well with Vox’s frequent commentary on inequality.
Labels:
Christmas documentaries,
classic novels,
Vox Media
Thursday, December 18, 2014
"Spies of Mississippi" -- PBS documentary supplements "Freedom Summer"
Dawn Porter’s documentary “Spies of Mississippi”, for PBS
and German television, will make a nice preview for this Christmas season’s
film “Selma”, and complements the film “Freedom Summer” (Movies blog, June 22,
2014).
The heart of the 52-minute film concerns the Mississippi
state “Sovereignty Commission” formed in 1956 to maintain segregation. It would recruit undercover ("Uncle Tom") black “spies”,
eventually leading to the murders of civil rights workers Andy Goodman, Michael
Schwerner (both white) and James Cheney in 1964.
There had been an attitude that segregation produced “mutual
respect”.
The film tells the story also of Clive Kennard, who applied
to a white college, and was then railroaded into a phony felony conviction and
would spend most of the rest of his life at Parchman Prison.
The official site is here.
The film can be watched in instant play on Netflix, or
rented free online on Amazon Prime.
Wikipedia attribution link for Jackson MS picture. I visited it in 1985.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
AC360: "5 Inspiring People of 2014"
AC360 aired “5 Inspiring People of 2014” tonight, link .
Gary Dahler rescued twelve firefighters trapped in a
California wilfire.
Ron Johnson, a Missouri highway patrolman, returned to
Ferguson to help restore peace.
Kevin Vickers downed the shooter at the Ottawa Parliament building.
Vickers had planned a life of service.
Fatu Kekula, a nursing student in Liberia, brought her
father home with Ebola to care for him.
Three other family members got Ebola but no one died, although two
people came close to death with very low blood pressure. This was the most remarkable of the stories. Time
Magazine made the Ebola fighters the “person of the year” (link )
Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder received an award
as most valuable player.
There seems to be a great deal of humility in these people,
compared to the rest of us
Sunday, December 14, 2014
SNL does a skit on with Hobbits working in a modern office
SNL last night did a pretty convincing skit of the “Hobbit
Office”. It showed a countrified scene,
almost Amish, of a wagon crossing a stream, to a low-rise suburban office
building.
Indoors, all kinds of critters did their jobs at computer
terminals with Windows 7 and spoke in their own Tolkien language.
Baggins was pretty convincing, keeping order. What if they were working as debt collectors?
This has to be good PR for WB's "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" to be released next Wednesday. A particular friend always goes to see a Hobbit or Tolkien or fantasy movie on Christmas eve, and reviews it in multiple tweets.
CNN also reports the mock of the Charlie Rose show interviewing contractors for CIA torture techniques, here.
This has to be good PR for WB's "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" to be released next Wednesday. A particular friend always goes to see a Hobbit or Tolkien or fantasy movie on Christmas eve, and reviews it in multiple tweets.
CNN also reports the mock of the Charlie Rose show interviewing contractors for CIA torture techniques, here.
Martin Freeman hosted.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
"Peter Pan LIVE!" -- does it bring Broadway stage to TV? Never growing up isn't funny now
NBC re-aired its television rendition, “Peter Pan LIVE!” of
the live adaption of the 1954 Broadway musical based on the works of J. M.
Barrie. It had been first aired on Dec.
4. Glenn Weiss is the live television
director.
The colors are garish, and the flora in “Neverland”
resembles what you might see on an M-star planet, with lots of use of colors at
the blue and violet ends of the spectrum
Gender bending lets Allison Williams play Peter Pan,
waltzing into the upstairs bedrooms of a London flat as the show opens. It’s hard to tell if she’s a boy at the
beginning. But this is nothing new. In opera, particular Richard Strauss (“Der
Rosenkavalier”) women sometimes played men’s parts.
The comedy toward the end seems rather outlandish given the
problems in the world these days. No,
asking a boy if he wants to be a pirate isn’t even funny (if you’ve seen
Captain Phillips).
The show is narrated by Minnie Driver, and the music, with
several composers, seems collaborative and rather lightweight.
I think that NBC is trying to offer viewers a chance to experience Broadway without paying $200 for a ticket and dealing with the "logistical" hassle. But going to the theater in New York is supposed to be fun, right?
I think that NBC is trying to offer viewers a chance to experience Broadway without paying $200 for a ticket and dealing with the "logistical" hassle. But going to the theater in New York is supposed to be fun, right?
NBC’s link is here.
“I won’t grow up” does describe how I sometimes felt as a
boy.
Friday, December 12, 2014
ABC 20-20 "The Sell Game": how to make a living as a huckster if you can't do anything else
ABC 20-20 tonight featured “The Sell Game”, going into the
field of hucksterism, and of people who make a desperate or good living at
it.
A good salesman is a chameleon. He or she is in combat with
the customer.
I recall the phrase “always be closing” from the comedy
movie “The 100 Mile Rule” in 2002.
ABC investigated the practice of selling changes to home security. One person in Chicago represented himself as
from ADT when he was not. One company
told door-to-door sales reps to ignore “no solicitation signs”. Persons who do so may be guilty personally of
committing criminal trespass and might be prosecuted in some places. People may be less willing to admit
door-to-door because of fear of home invasion, which has been growing.
Robert Herjavec has a video for “Shark Tank” on closing a
sale, link.
My own attitude is that it isn't acceptable any more, for me at least, to go into people's lives to hucksterize someone else's stuff. Of course, there is salesmanship for your own work.
It's really quite remarkable to me, upon reflection, how so much of our workplace used to depend on aggressive personal salesmamship. I found that out last decade as my "career" (in the sense of the last movement of the Shostakovich Symphony #13) as an individual contributor in IT collapsed. and found so many interviews for jobs based on commissions and aggressive behavior (which had been OK for my father a half century ago -- but he sold to retailers, not to individual consumers). In the Internet age, this sort of thing seems no longer appropriate. There are more people like me who don't like to be approached (in public when walking or by telemarketers) so it is getting harder for sales people to make a living. A new kind of cultural divide, with moral overtones, is developing.
I think that instead of just "American Hustle" (with all its legal issues now), we need "American Huckster", produced and directed by Seth Rogen (and maybe James Franco), and released by Columbia Pictures (Sony) as a summer movie.
At the end of the episode, a girl from Detroit shows how to sell for charity.It's really quite remarkable to me, upon reflection, how so much of our workplace used to depend on aggressive personal salesmamship. I found that out last decade as my "career" (in the sense of the last movement of the Shostakovich Symphony #13) as an individual contributor in IT collapsed. and found so many interviews for jobs based on commissions and aggressive behavior (which had been OK for my father a half century ago -- but he sold to retailers, not to individual consumers). In the Internet age, this sort of thing seems no longer appropriate. There are more people like me who don't like to be approached (in public when walking or by telemarketers) so it is getting harder for sales people to make a living. A new kind of cultural divide, with moral overtones, is developing.
I think that instead of just "American Hustle" (with all its legal issues now), we need "American Huckster", produced and directed by Seth Rogen (and maybe James Franco), and released by Columbia Pictures (Sony) as a summer movie.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
CNN airs "Dinosaur 13", where a politicized prosecution overshadows the science
CNN Films is giving an early look at the Sundance
documentary (also owned by Lionsgate for DVD and possibly limited theatrical
relase) “Dinosaur 13”, directed by Todd Douglas Miller. The film is based on materials from the book “Rex
Appeal: The Amazing Story of Sue, the Dinosaur that Changed Science, the Law
and My Life”, by Peter Larson with Kristin Donnan.
The legal documentary follows the discovery in 1990 of the
fossil “Sue”, a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, one of the most complete ever
found, in northwestern South Dakota, on the edge of the Badlands and not far
from the Black Hills.
Most of the film concerns the sad story of paleontologist Peter Larson,
who, with his brother Neal, founded the Black Hills Institute in Hill City,
SD. Larson allegedly removed some of Sue
from “private” land held in trust by the federal government. Later, after some sort of complaint by the
landowner Maurice Williams, the federal government seized the fossil and prosecuted some people,
including Larson, who was also prosecuted for failure to declare some items to
customs and sentenced to two years of prison, which, after 18 months, would be followed by halfway
house and then home detention.
The seizures, prosecutions and convictions seem politically
motivated, and it isn’t real clear from the film how the fibbies or landowners
or tribes gained anything at all (except at the end where Williams gets a lot of proceeds from an auction at Sotherby's). The government (even after a change to the Clinton administration and Reno Justice Department, or maybe because of it) pressed various charges for "theft", "wire fraud", "money laundering" and "false answers to customs" regarding various additional fossil remains takings from several other states into S.D. The
case would probably make for a good “Cato book forum” with Neal (and his brother) at the Cato
Institute (I went to another one today involving a gun case, for Biran D, LAitken),
as an example of prosecutorial abuse or overreach. The Legal Guys on CNN’s Saturday show should
discuss this.
One of the (female) reporters actually married Peter. Yes, journalists aren't supposed to fall in love with their own subjects, A woman originally involved with the 1990 finding (after whom the dinosaur was named) was coerced into testifying for the prosecution. It's all quite incredible.
One of the (female) reporters actually married Peter. Yes, journalists aren't supposed to fall in love with their own subjects, A woman originally involved with the 1990 finding (after whom the dinosaur was named) was coerced into testifying for the prosecution. It's all quite incredible.
This documentary is being compared to others where CNN has
paired with major film distributors to present ethical or legal cases involving
animals, such as “Blackfish” (Moves blog, July 29, 2013) and “The Cove” (Movie
blog, Aug. 7, 2009). This film is shot
2.35:1 and shown that way (cropped on flat screens slightly) on television.
The official site for the film is here.
Sue is now in a Chicago museum, enjoying a certain vicarious
immortality. She was formidable in her own time.
I drove through the area (north of Pierre) near the film in
May 1998, and then again Thanksgiving weekend 1999. I recall a huge power station north if Pierre,
one of the largest in the country. I had
visited the Black Hills earlier in 1974.
Other people I know had done retreats on Sioux reservations at Pine
Ridge.
Wikipedia attribution link for typical western South Dakota
scenery, here. There are relevant materials at the
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington that I can try to add to
the review after another future visit.
Update: Dec. 13
Here's picture of another "rex" fossil, at the Smithsonian, Museum of Natural History. This was found in 1998 in eastern Montana, and I actually made a trip through that area Memorial Day weekend of that year, when living in Minneapolis.
Update: Dec. 13
Here's picture of another "rex" fossil, at the Smithsonian, Museum of Natural History. This was found in 1998 in eastern Montana, and I actually made a trip through that area Memorial Day weekend of that year, when living in Minneapolis.
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
NBC and Tom Brokaw tell "Unbroken: The Real Story" regarding Universal's Christmas Day epic directed by Angelina Jolie
Tonight NBC News presented a preview of the Universal
picture “Unbroken”, with the documentary “Unbroken: The Real Story”.
Tom Brokaw interviews Angelina Jolie, the director, and gets
into personal issues: her decision to
have preventive mastectomy and reconstruction, which has launched a new medical
trend. Now she faces a decision with an
inherited tendency toward ovarian cancer.
I thought, I am solo, and could never get back on my feet if I had to
stop to do something like this when I don’t have symptoms. My momentum keeps me going at 71. In medicine, less is more. Brokaw also asked Jolie if she would go into
politics (“public service”).
Brokaw interviewed book author Laura Hillenbrand (she had
written “Seabiscuit). (The screenplay is
written with Joel and Ehan Coen.) I thought, you have to have your own writing
about your own issues completely done before you can write about others. At least that’s what I find with myself. Hillenbrand, who lives in Washington, DC,
says she has medical issues that make it difficult for her to travel. I have found it more taxing to do complicated
travel in recent years and maintain all my work, but I need to get through
this. I need to “be there” and “experience”
to “report it”. Someday, I really do
need to see Russia and China, somehow.
The show mentioned the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum at
a pier in Manhattan. How about the Rose
Science Center?
The epic film will tell the story of Louis Zamperini, who
entered the 1936 Olympics and was shot down in the Pacific during World War II
and kept prisoner by the Japanese, and actually thought lost or dead for some
time.
Here is NBC Today Show’s link for tonight’s
documentary.
The film starts Christmas Day.
Bill
Monday, December 08, 2014
CNN Heroes 2014: emphasis on animals, kids, wounded warriors
Anderson Cooper hosted “CNN Heroes” Sunday night from New
York City.
The audience gave the top hero award to Pen Farthing (link), who reunites solders with stray dogs that they befriended in Afghanistan. This
reminds me of Gus Kenworthy’s efforts in Sochi, Russia after the Winter Olympic
(NBC Today show story here). Also, actor Reid Ewing appears on the Facebook site for the Best Friends
Animal Society of Utah, at the Pet Adoption Center for Sugar House, here . Another animal rescue theme was from Leela Hazzah, for
educating an indigenous people (the Maasai) into guarding lions rather than
killing them, here. The episode showed some female lionesses
interacting with people. Anthony Bourdain had covered the Maasai on “Parts
Unknown:, writeup Oct. 28. (Sometimes
the tribe name is spelled “Masai”. )
I think one of the most interesting was composer-pianist Arthur Bloom’s use
of music for wounded veterans, forming Musicorps Wounded Warrior Band (link), RIME writeup here. The effort reminds one of music therapy for
dementia or even autism.
Juan Pablo Romero Fuentes formed a community center for kids
in Guatemala, link). This effort would help take the pressure off
of illegal child emigration to America.
Guatemala also has water projects;
a relative who is an engineer worked on one. The most dangerous countries though are
Honduras and El Salvador.
Sunday, December 07, 2014
CNN "Deadly High": how a man rationalized a home business that sold designer synthetic drugs that killed teens in ND
A CNN hour long report “Deadly High” starts with a party where two teenagers in Grand Forks, ND consume “chocolate” laced with a designer drug to get high. One of them goes unconscious and dies a few days later when a respirator is disconnected. He would be the second teen in a short period to die of synthetic drugs”.
In Houston, a family man, Charles Carlton would start a
company at home, “Motion Resources” to import and distribute synthetic drugs for “research
purposes” only. He became an employee of
his own company, filed a W-2 and had a license from the Texas secretary of
state.
Eventually, Carlton would see the story of the teen deaths
on the news. This random broadcast would send his life downhill immediately. And, although he had
believed that what he did was technically legal, he would be visited, prosecuted and
sentenced to 20 years (after pleading guilty) for essentially distributing a “controlled substance
analog”.
What is interesting is how Carlton “rationalized” his innovative
home startup as being technically legal, except for the "analog" idea that swallowed him later. Later Carlton would become
amazingly stoic about how he was going to be severely punished for what he had
done, and even his wife is shown debating whether to forgive him and how raise
the two children.
James Franco, hosting SNL, opens by making fun of Sony hack
James Franco hosted Saturday Night Live on NBC Saturday,
December 6m showing up with a buzz cut.
Franco started out his
monologue by making fun of the hack, apparently associated with North Korea, on
Sony Pictures, which made and will distribute the Chrisrtmas Day release of the
film he made with Seth Rogen, “The Interview” (directed by Evan Goldberg and
Seth Rogen), where he plays a journalist interviewing the North Korean “king”
and is tasked by the CIA to, well, take him out. All fiction, right?
IMDB gives more on his and Rogen's appearance on SNL here. Al Sharpton was also mocked (CNN video). But NBC actually cut one skit from airing ("the white of an egg", etc), here according to CNN.
IMDB gives more on his and Rogen's appearance on SNL here. Al Sharpton was also mocked (CNN video). But NBC actually cut one skit from airing ("the white of an egg", etc), here according to CNN.
I’ve found out in my own
life that sometimes people take fiction as future fact. Look at what happened when I was a substitute
teacher over my 2005 screenplay “The Sub”.
Franco has become one of
Hollywood’s more charismatic figures, hosting an academy awards, and with a
variety of controversial roles, such as the hiker who had to cut his arm off,
yet sometimes directing unusual films, such as one about gay leather bars.
Someday I'll have to get to be in the SNL audience, but it takes real work!
Someday I'll have to get to be in the SNL audience, but it takes real work!
Saturday, December 06, 2014
NBC's "Harry Potter: The Making of Diagon Alley"
There is a full 42-minute NBC special “Harry Potter: The
Making of Diagon Alley”, hosted by Meredit Vieira, on Youtube, on a channel of
Nik Beumer, link here.
The film traces the construction of the new Diagon Alley
replica as part of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Universal Orlando
Resort. The whole concept also includes a Hogsmeade section in Universal’ separate
Islands of Adventure. There is a new
Hogwarts express train connecting the two,
The film shows the entire construction process of the train,
built in Switzerland, and then the building o the Diagon Alley Village, and
area about seven blocks deep and ten blocks wide, behind the King’s Cross
station and London waterfront. The
guests enter through an unmarked broken brick wall. The area has quaint buildings tilted to look
as they do in the film. An important
specific attraction is the Gringott’s Bank, and the ride “Escape from Gringotts” (description ) is one of the main events . The film
concludes with some kids (some of them from Universal families) attending the
preview of the grand opening in July 2014.
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and the Phelps twins (now
grown) appear. The orchestra is shown
rehearsing John Williams’s score.
The whole construction project sounds like grown-ups, with
hundreds of millions of capital from Wall Street, playing with blocks like we
did as kids in Ohio, building model cities with buildings and toy trains and
cars behind grandmother’s house (to be
washed away by weekly Ohio summer thunderstorms) – “baby play” – but not
now.
Why J. K. Rowling's books series became such a tremendous commercial success for Schoolastic and then Warner Brothers would make an essay in itself. Universal would have had to pay WB for the legal right to use this material in a theme park.
Wikipedia attribution link for picture of Honeydukes shop
Update: Dec. 25, 2014
NBC Today Show did a tour of some of Diagon Alley and some of the Orlando Universal theme park rides.
Update: Dec. 25, 2014
NBC Today Show did a tour of some of Diagon Alley and some of the Orlando Universal theme park rides.
Wednesday, December 03, 2014
WJLA Town Hall: "Fallout from Ferguson"
Wednesday, December 3, 2014. WJLA-7 and News Channel 8 (ABC affiliates) in Washington DC aired
another Town Hall episode from “Your Voice, Your Future: “Fallout from Ferguson”,
also called “Ferguson: America Reacts”.
The program opened as Thuman noted that in New York City, a
grand jury refused to indict Dan Pantelo for the “chokehold” killing of Eric
Garner (350 pounds, father of 6) when trying to arrest him for selling untaxed
cigarettes, CNN story and comments by Jeffrey Toobin, here.
Leon Harris and,
Scott Thuman hosted.
The panel comprised Michael Eric Dyson, Benjamin Crump, Jamie
Allman (by Skype from St. Louis), Armstrong Williams, and Gary MclHinney.
Leon Harris noted that the Ferguson Police Department seemed
to be armed like troops in Baghdad. They
regarded the majority population of Ferguson as an enemy.
Mr. Dyson said that police tend to perceive Blacks as more
threatening than Whites, and are more likely to use deadly force. He mentioned
Wilson’s horror movie metaphors.
Allman said that black police officers in St. Louis county
don’t want to work for small suburb police departments, but work for the larger
departments.
Harris said there is no national database on how many people
by race are shot by police. Vox has a chart on this.
Harris also said the cameras are “pre-emptive”. People are less likely to act aggressively
around police if they know police have cameras.
A protester at GWU, lying in a street to block it, asked “What
must we do to change the system?”
Leon Harris noted that the protests don’t seem to be
organized centrally. He spoke of “The
Gesture” (hands up) by the St. Louis Rams.
(It’s not “OGAB”).
Dyson said that Obama himself needs more empathy for those
who are vulnerable, even though the president himself is of mixed race.
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
"Sleepy Hollow" on Fox brings back high school American lit -- with a resurrection
Remember studying American literature in junior English in
high school? Remember the reading
quizzes? We took them on 5x7
cards. But modern television looks back
to those good old days, on Fox, with “Sleepy Hollow”, directed by Dwight
Little, starting in 2013, on Monday nights on Fox.
The concept recalls Washington Irving’s story “The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow” (which was also a 1999 film by Tim Burton, which I saw in
Minneapolis). But now professor Ichabod
Crane (Tom Mison) has answered the call of a stomper, and having switched sides
after emigrating from England to spy for George Washington (a touch of James
Fenimore Cooper, about whom I wrote term paper in junior English, about the
treatment of women in the novels). That’s
an idea in my own “Angel’s Brother” – you can have a full career as a history
teacher and work for the CIA on the side.
Crane and the Headless Horseman simultaneously killed one
another in 1781. Because their “sangria”
mixed, they can resurrect at the same time in present day (sounds a bit like a
notorious ABC series, doesn’t it.) A modern day battle between good and evil
will ensue, based on the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”.
Nicole Beharie plays police Lieutenant Abbie Mills in the modern
day setting. Crane still thinks he is
living in the 18th century, and would be happier there.
The episode Dec. 1 was “The Akeda”. The horseman is a rather conventional golem-type monster.
The series concept effectively combines the short story with
“Rip Van Winkle.”
The official site for the show is here. Although taking place along the Hudson River
in New York State, it is filmed around Charlotte, NC.
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