Film Noir Month! Part 1

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Finally, on the last day of January 2010 I get to mention some films my wife an I have been watching!

We are both seemingly obsessed with that iconic style of film so prevalent in the '30's, '40's and '50's, 'Film Noir' and so we spent several night the last week or two looking at several fine examples of this genre.

If you don't know, this style of film borrows very heavily from the German school of expressionism. It is almost always a drama that involves some kind of murder or serious crime and usually depicts mostly night scenes filmed in unconventional methods with bizarre camera angles, starkly contrasting silhouettes and will frequently have a tragic ending. In other words, someone always dies. Whee!

Most of the type of films borrowed heavily from the hard boiled style of detective writing produced by men like Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. When the studios made these, they tended to use less than 'top tier' actors and the budgets were often pretty skimpy. Since the studios already had several sets built to stand in for the 'naked city' it was pretty cheap to hire some writers to fling together a plot and get some actors from the studio stable to make it come alive. As a result, the vast majority of these works are definitely of the 'B-movie' variety.

In Film Noir movies, there is almost always a detective or investigtor of some kind (whether police, insurance, or private) trying to solve a murder or some felonious crime while dealing with the ubiquitous femme fatale. Good looking dames in these films are typically the last folks you want to trust...but the first you want to get close to!

There is usually a double cross and vengence is an extremely common motivator for the goons and/or hero. The better noir films try to blur the line, rather cynically sometimes, so it's not so clear cut who the bad guy or good guy is. And as I said, in the end someone often dies just short of realizing a dream, disallusioned and/or betrayed. In fact, many of these films can be argued to border on being nihilistic.

Anyway, over the last few weeks, we watched about nine of these. I'll try to give a brief synopsis of each with a rating. But frankly, there wasn't a dog in the bunch! It's easy to mock these movies through early 21st Century eyes, but when they are taken for what they are in light of when they were made, they are often very compelling.

Over acting? Sure. Melodramatic? Of course. Entertaining? Like nothing else at all! So, here's our list of recently enjoued noir films:

Raw Deal (1948)
Dennis O'Keefe as Joe Sullivan
Claire Trevor as Pat Cameron
Marsha Hunt as Ann Martin
John Ireland as Fantail
Raymond Burr as Rick Coyle

Joe Sullivan's in prision for helping Coyle with a big time rip off, but gets double crossed by Coyle who takes the whole stash. Pat helps Joe escape from prision (unknown to her they were aided by forces of Coyle so Joe could be shot and killed as an escapee) but Joe won't flee out of country. Pat loves Joe and will do anything for him, but Joe's lust for vengeance in killing Coyle makes him blind to getting away clean. Joe starts to fall for Ann Martin (a reporter who originally thought Joe was scum but starts to fall for him, too) and it's only at the very end does Pat let go of Joe after realizing too late he'll never love her...Joe loves Ann. A climatic gun battle at the end is the result of Joe rushing to save Ann from Coyle and his lackyies, spelling the end of Coyle but sadly for Joe too. Just as he was on the verge of escaping to a new life, Joe defeats Coyle but takes a bullet and dies in Ann's arms as a weeping Pat looks on.

This movie is a prototype noir film. It has it all, stark angles, deep black & white contrasts, vengeance, love, gun fights, fist fights, unrequited love, missed opportunities and a hero that wins in the end but pays with his life. O'Keefe and Burr are great, but this movie totally belonged to Claire Trevor, she owned it and gave every bit a good a performance as she did as Gay Dawn in 'Key Largo' the same year. I liked this one alot, near the top of this list!
Rating: 9/10


Call Northside 777 (1948)
James Stewart as P.J. McNeal
Richard Conte as Frank Wiecek
Lee J. Cobb as Brian Kelly
Betty Garde as Wanda Skutnik
Joanne De Bergh as Helen Wiecek

It is 1932 in Chicago, and a policeman is killed inside a speakeasy. Frank Wiecek and another man are sentenced to life imprisonment. Eleven years later, a newspaper ad by Wiecek's mother leads city editor Brain Kelly of the Chicago Times to assign reporter P.J. McNeal to look more closely into the case. McNeal is skeptical and believes Wiecek is guilty, but he starts to change his mind after meeting Helen Wiecek. McNeal meets increased resistance from authorities unwilling to be proved wrong but pushes ahead until he finally realizes that Wanda Skutnik's testimony (which was the key in putting Frank in prison) was falsified. But when Skutnik refuses to recant, McNeal is able to eventually prove Frank is innocent by expanding a photograph of a newpaper held by a newsboy, showing the date when Skutnik and Frank were photographed together, the day before he was booked for murder (which Wanda testified never happened, proving she lied under oath).

What can I say? Jimmy Stewart is Jimmy Stewart and really pulls off the 'haggered, hard bitten, cynical reporter' with aplomb. This movie was the first film ever shot on location in Chicago and it really delivers the sights, smells and spirit of the city with big shoulder well. Sadly, Cobb isn't seen more (he's one of my favorite all time actors), but when he is in he is authentic to the part with a substantial presence. The other players turn in acceptable performance, but Betty Garde's Wanda Skutnik is the best of the rest, with a delightfully 'hate-able' delivery.
Rating: 8/10


The Blue Dahlia (1946)
Alan Ladd as Johnny Morrison
Veronica Lake as Joyce Harwood
William Bendix as Buzz Wanchek
Hugh Beaumont as George Copeland
Doris Dowling as Helen Morrison
Howard Da Silva as Eddie Harwood
Will Wright as "Dad" Newell

Johnny is back from the war as a Navy hero, only to find his indiscreet wife Helen has been having an open affair with Harwood. He also discovers their recently deceased 7 year old son didn't die from illness as she told him in letters, she actually had a reckless car accident that killed him. Their marriage in shambles, Johnny goes to room with his two war buddies in their flop, Buzz and George. Buzz has been effected badly by the war (with a steel plate in his head) and as a result has an impossibly short temper, bad memory and is prone to violence when he's mad. Johnny hears on the radio that night his wife was murdered, and the signs point to him. He meets Joyce, Harwood's wife, and begins to grow close to her, even though he's disgusted by the fact her husband is slime and cheated on his wife while he was away in the war. In the end, everyone is now convinced it was really Buzz that lost his temper when going to talk Helen out of treating Johnny so badly, but ended up murdering her in a rage. But the police end up tricking the house detective Dad into confessing that he had in fact been watching Helen and Eddie, blackmailing them about their affair. Since Helen wouldn't pay more, he lost his temper and shot her. He then pulls a gun on the police and is cut down. Johnny and Joyce end up together.

I liked much of this film, it had a great cast and the stoic, mumbling Alan Ladd makes Johnny Morrison an very sympathic character. The confrontations between Johnny and Eddie's men are classic B-movie tough guy one-liners and haymakers, which makes the film fun. The end seems forced though, as if the writers said "Ah, we gotta end this, so how about ...?" and came up with the 'Dad' solution. Bendix's character can start to grate with his over the top tough guy reactionary stuff, but on the whole the film is engaging. Once you get in, you really want to know how it all works out, and you're glad it wasn't Buzz after all.
Rating:6.75/10


The Killers (1946)
Burt Lancaster as "Swede" Andersen
Ava Gardner as Kitty Collins
Edmond O'Brien as Jim Reardon
Albert Dekker as Big Jim Colfax
Sam Levene as Lt. Sam Lubinsky

Two hit men arrive at a small-town diner, assigned to find and kill a man, Ole Anderson, aka "the Swede". They track him to a boarding house where, resigned to his fate, he puts up no struggle. The Swede had life insurance, so Investigator Jim Reardon is assigned to look into the murder for his company. Interviewing people from his past, Reardon develops a theory that the Swede's murder stemmed from an unsolved payroll robbery of years earlier masterminded by Colfax and involving Kitty Collins, a mysterious woman the Swede loved, but who was ultimately betrayed by. Working with police detective Lt. Sam Lubinsky (who was a boyhood friend of the Swede), Reardon sets a plan in motion to trap the hired killers and the man who hired them. Colfax is eventually exposed and shot by the police. As he lays dying, Kitty again tries to save her own skin by begging Colfax to tell the police she had nothing to do with it, but he dies without doing so, leaving her to answer for her part in the robbery and murder of the Swede.

This is the best of this group of four. Lancaster is in his first starring role here, and carries it off triumphantly. When watching, I remarked to my wife that usually Humphery Bogart was the best at playing the sad sack sucker who got double crossed and, as you watch the film, you just know his tragic end is approaching and there's nothing that can be done. The saddest thing is, he knows it too. Well, Lancaster is the equal of Bogart in this film, and you feel incredible sympathy for him even though you saw him die 5 minutes into the film. Ava Garder is perfect in the role of the self obsessed, back stabbing beauty and you only wish something worse would have happened to her. This is a fantastic film.
Rating: 9.5/10


That's all I'll do for now, because this is getting pretty long. But as a preview, here are the other five that I'll chew up in Part 2:

Black Angel (1946)
Suddenly (1954)
Fear in the Night (1947)
The Killers (1964)
This Gun For Hire (1942)

This second group was dynamite, and for the most part was an even better group than those listed above.

Can't wait to chat about them in Part 2!

Until then, see ya' later, ya' rotten mugs....
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"Paaaaa-Lop!"

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Yup, that's the sound of a big fat, wet one hitting the prairie trail. This speech tonight really didn't work.

Obama's SOTUS was apparently not the 'pivot' the Democrats were praying for. In fact, if anything, they probably left the hall even more confused about what to do than before. Frankly, he didn't talk about the state of our nation nearly as much as he just whined and chewed people out for not rolling over for him.

This was a campaign speech more suited to a table top in a beer hall in Munich than a State of The Union Speech by the President of a representative republic. He knows he's in trouble, poll wise; he just doesn't care as much as we think he does. This is all about an agenda, not 'moving forward together' or whatever nonsense he said.

This President might seem to lack even Clinton's fundamental ability to move to the center, or even right, when needed. Clinton, after his 1994 off year election shellacking, moved to the right and signed Newt Gingrich's Contract with America into law. Of course, Clinton did take credit for it when it worked, but he did sign it. Political expediency demanded it and even Slick Willie was smart enough to jump on a winning deal when he saw it (but only after he soiled his panties by losing both the House and Senate).

But Barry, the Big O, The 'One', Mister Messiah....oh, no, he doesn't need that kind of 'compromise' spirit. Because this is about his 'change'. Consensus and bipartisanship are worthless for getting him what he truly wants. Look, he's gotten his nose bloodied in one very liberal New York Congressional race, 2 Governor’s races and most famously, in losing Ted "Not Your Father's Oldsmobile" Kennedy's Senate seat to a Republican. For the first time since 1956. Oww. But he doesn't stop. he's plowing right ahead! Why?

Look, he's not stupid. He knows that he will continue to pay a cruel price for doggedly sticking to this extreme agenda, so why do it? Because his goal is much higher than simple health care or economic overhauls. He wants the kind of monumental seachange that only occurs rarely in human history; he wants to completely rewrite this nation from top to bottom.

His words last night were revealing, but not nearly as much as his attitude was. BO clearly laid out how we are all, whether we like it or not, going to get on his bus and let him drive us off whatever cliff he wants right now. Get on. You have no choice. Because he won't quit. And neither will we. Because he won't let us.

Is there anyone he didn't scold like a stupid child last night? He beat up on Bush, he beat up on banks, he beat up on the rich, he beat up the GOP, he beat up on the media, he beat up on his own party...apparently everyone in the world is an idiot and simply cannot understand his superiority and genuis. But the worst example of his street thug heritage peeking out was his childish bullying of the Supreme Court justices for fogging McCain-Feingold (a bill that pretty much tried to truncate GOP fundraising) while his leftist commie lapdogs from the House jumped and jeered like some crazed, adolescent socialist peanut gallery.

This was not presidential, this wasn't even adult. This was a thug standing on a street corner with a baseball bat telling folks walking by he needs to see their wallets. He even attacked his own party for listening to their voters back home who are on full throttle boil over the health care bill. Did he admit he was wrong and overreached? No, he rearmed and threatened his own party to 'not turn tail and run' and 'abandon our goals.' And what did that mean?

Translation: "I know you are getting crucified at home for my Stalinist takeover of American Health Care, but I don't care. I order you to NOT represent your constituency, but rather to jump off the cliff and die for me so I can have my signature issue, legacy and install a nationalized system that controls all aspects of people's lives through the biggest bureaucracy in history that is totally unaccountable and all powerful. Follow me. I will become an icon of history for making the world's superpower a socialist nation. Follow me. Now!"

Stunning. He knows this will destroy his party's control and majority in 2010 and 2012, but he's steaming head full speed. Why? Because his agenda is bigger to him than winning re-election or gaining Dems seats. This is about Barack Obama seeing himself as a messenger of history whose destiny it is to change our lives to fit his elitist, socialist world view. Need proof of this arrogance?

Outside of his blatant lying about how the mortgage meltdown started (it was the Dems telling Fannie & Freddie to make loans to minorities and poor whites who couldn't afford it...for votes!) and how he 'hated' it, the most glaring example of this type of arrogance was his demands that things are going to be his way or else. Did you catch it when he said of the failed bill that would create another oversight commission "Since it didn't pass the Senate, I'll do it anyway, I am issuing an executive order!

Oh, really? So, the legislative branch is only there for when they pass something you want, but when they don't you can just bypass them and order it done anyway because you say so. Hey, Obama, kings used to get their heads cut off for this type of totalitarianism about 200 years ago. But Barry doesn't care. He makes the rules now. No one's gonna lop off his head, especially politically because he simply will not allow it.

Incredible. Obama's stubborn insistence on NOT going to the center after the horrible year he had is very revealing. In this SOTUS he didn't give any ground, he just flat dug in and reaffirmed his coming uber leftist agenda. Cap and trade legislation, amnesty for illegal aliens, worldwide banking controls, gays in the military, health care reform (again!), more stimulus bills, an economic control czar over all businesses. So again, is this guy just stupid? Sadly, no. The truth is far scarier.

When BO said recently he'd rather be a one term President who gets done what he wants (he said 'the right thing done' but we know what he meant), he wasn't lying. Obama is a committed Marxist. His agenda is pointedly and decidely aimed at destroying the very foundations of this nation. His hatred of America's core principals should offend every patriot. It staggers the mind and assaults the intellect.

Remember, Obama is a Saul Alinskly disciple. The ends always justify the means. BO would gladly choose electoral disaster in 2012 if in exchange he could terminate America's independent spirit, rugged individualism and free market constitutionalism. He would exchange a 270 Electoral College wipeout if he could truly 'rewrite' this country forever.

Because Barack knows that upon accomplishing such a feat, he would be in Europe, Asia and the Middle East the hero that took America down. And that is what he truly wants. He lusts to be the worldwide icon of all history that finally broke the back of the Judeo-Christian superpower that is this planet's largest check on communism, socialism and the forces of tyranny everywhere. I think his dream includes a move to a one world government run by the elite for the elite, fueled by the blood and money of the hundreds of millions of peasants that are needed to keep such a ruthless machine going. Obama truly does, in my opinion, believe he is a messiah. But not a religious one, a political one.

I think Obama believes that what Lenin was to Russia in 1917, he is to the world today. It's ironic in his speech he criticized politicians for taking campaign money or lobbyist donations from international sources, because there never has been a leader of this nation who so desperately is playing to an international audience. He may have failed tonight in selling his agenda to the Amercian people, but it won't stop him. He's going to keep going until he is pried out of the White House with a crowbar. This is about history and a terrifying, marching leftist agenda intent on sweeping the globe. After all, Obama is governing not for America, but for his legacy before the European Union, the Muslim world and, most especially, socialist nation states.

You remember them, don't you? Socialist states? As in the United Soviet Socialists Republic?













The one that murdered over 70 million human souls in the 74 years it existed? Yeah, that one... and Obama wants it back.

"Get on the bus, people...now. Because I won't quit."

This is the part where we should all be praying.

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Is It Christmas, Or What!?

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Well, it seems like it! I hate to sound like the Grinch. gleefully skulking around while the sleepy folk of Whoville get their precious toys taken away, but...oh Hell, I AM glad!
Bwahahahahahahaha!!

Remember just a under a year ago when I said America would wake up and have one huge collective "What the Hell?" moment over electing Obama? It has seemingly happened, or certainly seems to be in the process of happening.

Let me recap what has happened since Mr. Messiah was anointed 'The One' by the Democrat hack lackys in the media circus. Remember, this clown was elected with a Democrat Super Majority in BOTH houses. And what happened since the liberal savior descended from the skies just a scant 12 months ago?

• His personal, intense attention to get the Olympics in Chicago blew up and got him embarrassed internationally.


• His 'cash for clunkers' turned into a national joke, and a disaster. A large portion of those taking the government up on the offer bought SUV's!


• Obama increased the debt by a factor of THREE times in one year compared to what Bush spent in 8 years fighting two wars.


• His precious community activist fellow travelers at ACORN got investigated for cheating at the polls, big time.


• Several of his cabinet appointees, including Timothy Geithner who is over the IRS, got caught cheating on their own taxes, have huge outstanding balances or haven't even done them in years!


• The government 'lost' over a trillion of it, that can't be found but apparently went to those 'evil' bankers under the table...you know, the ones that rigged up the mortgage crisis to get rich quick in the first place?


• Obama lied and refused to close Gitmo, outraging his anti-war left base.


• Obama lied and refused to pull out of Afghanistan, further outraging his anti-war left base.


• Obama said that Cambridge University cops and Sgt. James Crowley "acted stupidly" in arresting black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, only to be proven wrong when the facts came out...then had that embarassing 'beer buddy' get togther to try to fix it.


• His pledge to put gays in the military backfired, and he broke his promise, making his liberal base livid.


• Obama failed to get his Democrat lackys elected, losing the Governorships in Virginia and New Jersey and despite his heavy, heavy presence and campaigning, his candidate won the uber-liberal New York 23rd District by the narrowist of margins.


• The Copenhagen fiasco which had as it's only memorable result Nancy Pelosi spending millions upon millions in travel expenses, perks and meals for family, friends and fellow hacks.


• The huge global warming myth got blown up when it came to light the UN had fabricated it's data!


• Despite the massive trillion dollar 'stimulus' giveaway, the economy tanked further and unemployment hit 10% - so much for his recovery plan.


• Obama totally dropped the ball when Major Malik Nadal Hasan brandished two handguns, yelled 'Allah Akbar!' and shot and killed several innocent soldiers and civilians at Foot Hood, Texas - Obama said "Let's not jump to conclusions.'

And in the last month alone? Here's a recap:

• Obama's desperate effort to save Ted Kennedy's Senate seat (which had been in Democrat hands since 1926 except for maybe 4 years) was lost to a REPUBLICAN!


• Harry Reid screwed the pooch by getting caught calling ol 'Bam a 'light skinned black man without the negro accent'...and OBAMA DEFENDED HIM!


• Obama, in stupidly losing Kennedy's seat to an upstart nobody named Scott Brown, lost the 60th seat in the Senate, effectively spelling doom for his radical socialist agenda (read: cap and trade, immigration 'reform', banking 'reform', etc. etc.)


• The Health Care Bill died! His signature issue got shoved up his keister by the voters in a blue state! A deep blue state!


• His poll numbers have fallen to around 44%, the lowest in American history for ANY President only 1 year into his first term.


• Democrats are retiring and bailing on him like rats off the Titanic.


• Harry Reid is almost 20 points down in the polls to...'opponent.' That means voters don't care who runs against him, he's behind to an unknown!


• Arlen Specter melted down on the radio yesterday and attacked his Republican (a real one, not like him) female opponent in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary, out of frustration that he is trailing her. It makes it look like he might lose, too - meaning the GOP can actually get rid of a chronic, pita RINO that cowardly switched parties.


• The liberal media has turned on Obama for not validating their faith in him by going after him like he was a Republican! Remember the SNL skit's lampooning his accomplishments of nothing? Now we're seeing articles about how he 'never was truly the one', 'we were misled' and even articles and op-ed's from the New York Times and international papers proclaiming 'faewell to Obama.'


• Obama, a fierce critic of Bush's handling of Katrina, totally bolloxed the US response to the Haiti disaster and even got into a whizzing contest with France over it...while people died and suffered


• The US Supreme Court ignited liberal rage by overturning the idiotic McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance 'Reform' bill, that essentially muzzled free speech. The SCOTUS said, and has for over a hundred years, that money equals speech and if corporations want to give to candidates (and quite frequently GOP candidates, which is why they hated the ruling) then it is not against the law - this ruling really puts Democrats at a disadvantage, fund raising wise.


• and finally, my favorite so far...Air America went bankrupt! Wheeee!

So much bad news for the Democrats and His Royal Glowingness Obama! This could very well be the worst single year for any President in history. And somewhere, Jimmy Carter is smiling because he is off the hook as the absolute worst, most incompetent leader this nation has ever had.

Yes, it seems the 'community activist' has replaced the peanut farmer on the all time idiot list.

Here's hoping the GOP can find it's spine again, and put someone up who can replace that 'community activist' in the White House and send him back to good ol' corrupt Cook County where he belongs.

Yeah, keep smilin' Jimmy...just remember, they only named a submarine after you...


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"GREAT SCOTT!" (As Drudge Reported It!)

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Wow...wow...WOW!!

I cannot believe this! I cannot get my brain to grasp what my eyes are telling it is happening! Is this real? After 42 years? Whoa! It is!! It is!!

Ted Kennedy won his Senate seat in a special election in 1962, claiming it pretty much as a birthright since it belonged to his brother JFK who had stolen his way, *ahem* since he got elected President in 1960.

Fast forward to 2008. Barack Obama, hailed by Ol' Teddy as the 'New' JFK was rising in the polls like a bottle rocket. Kennedy proclaimed BO was the fulfillment of the JFK dream and the confirmation of liberal dreams for America; a good looking, eloquent liberal black Democrat man sweeping to power with a Super Majority in each house. And they got it. The GOP put up the worst candidate and the weakest fight since Dole's disasterous bedwetting effort in 1996; John McCain, who promptly got stomped like a stinkbug.

In fact, if good old Sarah hadn't been riding shotgun on that road to nowhere, McCain would have lost in an avalanche (I personally think McCain knew he was going to lose and stuck her on the ticket to minimize the damage and save face, kind of like a team scoring in the closing seconds of a football game, adding a cosmetic touchdown to make it less embarassing).

Anyway, old Barry jumps into office spouting this and that about changing the way America does business in terms of the economy, energy, immigration, health care, the military....blah blah blah. According to His Blackness, America is all wrong, always has been and he's the only one smart enough to 'fix' the nation and make it 'fair' for everyone. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the Mensa meeting for Prez #44...the American people woke up.

Tonight, a Republican, let me say that again...A REPUBLICAN won the open Senate seat vacated when Kennedy died of cancer last year. Now, I'm sad when anyone dies, especially of a cruel disease like cancer. But, the irony of it being Ted Kennedy's seat being claimed by a Republican in the bluest state in the nation! To presumably stop the Health Care Take Over that was THE signature issue of the Obama Administration?!

Sweet biscuits of Heaven and holy rattlesnakes!! Could this be really happening!?!?!

Well, it did! As of 9:28pm Central Time, Brown was winning 52% to 47% and almost 50% of the state voted. That is as big of an upset and/or statement that can be made in an off year election. Read the tea leaves, folks. There ain't enough Republican voters in Massachusetts to give Brown that win...these are Democrats voting against the Democrat!

Or more accurately, Democrats voting against the Health Care Bill. They knew what was at stake, the incredibly important Senate seat that moves the Dems to 59 seats...no Super Majority! Filibusters are now alive and well!

Now, who knows tonight how that cranky, stinky, scary Bela Pelosi is going to react and what shenannigans she and Harry 'He's a good looking Negro' Reid are going to pull to try to Rahm that bill through anyway, but tonight that's not the most important issue.

What is important is Americans, DEMOCRAT Americans, just put their foot down and told Obama and the Dems they've had enough and they ain't taking it anymore!

Do you really think Democrats in more moderate, light blue or purple regions are now going to vote FOR that Health Care travesty, after it just cost the Democrats Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachussettes? I think many of them tonight are pouring their Kool Aid out on the ground right about now, and looking for the next station so they can get off Obama's crazy train because the conductors are insane!

Over the next few weeks, we'll see how this nuclear bombshell effects the Dems, the GOP, the lying weasels in the drive by media, but for tonight...for tonight, we just witnessed America doing one of those things that makes it such a great nation, the greatest nation! It just booted a corrupt political machine in the butt and shut it down!

If this can happen, ANYTHING can happen! Even getting a moose shooting, fish gutting, Bible reading hottie for President in 2012!













I love this country!

xxx
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The Year In Film 2010...I Hope

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Wow. August 20th, 2009? My last post? Whoa.

Well, life has been a bit like drinking from a firehose, but five months IS a long time. I never really got to discuss my '2009 Summer of Movies' but maybe I can do a thing on that in the upcoming weeks. Especially since part of the subject of this little entry is the upcoming film year.

I have to admit, the last few years haven't exactly lit my match, movie-wise. And the ones I thought would be good were in most respects, disappointing. But it looks like 2010 may have several offerings that, to me, might make it one of the best film years in a long time. I checked out 'Ain't It Cool News' and found and great article summarizing the upcoming features for the year and these are the ones that have the most promise (to me, anyway):

YOUTH IN REVOLT (January 8, 2010)
THE BOOK OF ELI (January 15, 2010)
EDGE OF DARKNESS (January 29, 2010)
KICK-ASS (April 16, 2010)
IRON MAN 2(May 7, 2010)
ROBIN HOOD (May 14, 2010)
THE A-TEAM (June 11, 2010)
TOY STORY 3 (June 18, 2010)
DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS (July 23, 2010)
THE EXPENDABLES (August 20, 2010)
THE AMERICAN (September 1, 2010)
DUE DATE (November 5, 2010)
RED DAWN (November 24, 2010)
TRON LEGACY (December 17, 2010)
THE GREEN HORNET (December 22, 2010)
THE BEAVER (Late 2010)
BUNRAKU (TBD 2010)
PAUL (TBD 2010)
THE RUM DIARY (TBD 2010)

There's also a new John Carpenter film (finally!) called "The Ward" but I can't tell from the brief clip I've seen if it's a return to works like "The Fog" (1980) or "The Thing" (1982) or a cheap "Ghost of Mars" meets "Saw" disaster. So I'll hold off for now putting it on the above list.

I'll also get into some politics in the coming weeks, mainly just to say 'Nyeah nyeah nyeah' to all the liberals who thought their pure vinyl messiah was going to give them the world on a platter. Remember my blog right after the election? Well, I was dead nuts on. The polls have collapsed on Der Chicago Furher's big, pointy ears and the Dems are going to take a Minnesota beat down once the cold rains of November come (reference the score of the Cowboys-Vikings Divisional playoff game to truly get my reference there).

I also need to kind of gloat about the University of Texas getting it's orange burnt by the Crimson Tide, but I'll take it easy on Colt McCoy. Explanations later.

Anyway, lots to catch up on in the coming weeks, mainly to keep the home fires of winter stoked until the warm spring and summer breezes of 2010 come and bring forth hope bounding eternal for abundant Hill Country wildflowers, more BBQ in Llano, great off season moves by my beloved Dolphins, big commitments for my Hurricanes, Democrats falling apart and running for the hills, a less weighty chassis for me, maybe a Fender Telecaster and even, dare I say, perhaps a replacement for my long lost '90 Firebird Formula? What will the future hold?

"The future is not set...there is no fate but what we make for ourselves."

Okay, so using lines from "Terminator 2" is a bit over the top just for looking forward to a new year, but heck...that's a great movie! If you're gonna rip something off, do it from a "time travelling psychopathic cyborg on the rampage shoot em up" I always say.

See ya' back in a few days!