No time to discuss how scary it is that anyone in their right mind without strong right-wing ideas would consider voting for a ticket with a VP who can’t be allowed to talk to press…
What are you are talking about these days?
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
How irrelevant this blog has become.
Kidding, kidding, DP. I mean, Heat.
And only 50+ days to until the vote. Get Ellen and Tyra on the phone, pronto.
Must…not…get…drawn into ultimately useless and annoying online political conversation about how Palin’s inability to speak to the press except in carefully controlled softball settings is unprecedented in modern American history…
mystery, why do you think Palin was chosen over seemingly more qualified women like Olympia Snowe, Kay Bailey Hutchison or Condoleezza Rice? Did McCain believe she was the best candidate? Just pandering to the extreme right? A belief that disgruntled female Hillary supporters would vote for pretty much any woman? It seems like a very strange decision (especially since he wanted Ridge or Lieberman, and if he is such a “maverick” why didn’t he pick who he wanted?) and even though the far right adores her I have yet to hear a compelling case for Palin.
And if she is ready and a qualified candidate why is she being furiously prepped on key issues while hiding from the media?
“What are you are talking about these days?
That question is above my paygrade.
In other news…
…I could not recommend The Stoning of Soraya M. by Cyrus Nowrasteh more highly. It is not one of the higher profile tickets at TIFF as there is no fluffy Clooney or McAdams attached to it. But this is easily one of the more powerful films I have seen of late and proof that MPower pictures has more on their mind than the latest Zucker film.
Anyone serious about film and politics should seek this when it gets released. The debates in my screening spilled out right onto the lobby after the film and the director, unlike many filmmakers, actually knows his stuff.
Let the brickbats fly.
Do you mean now, or when it comes out?
For a great while Obama was being criticized by the MSM carefully controlling his press access. Are our memories short, or just selective?
Palin got picked less than two weeks ago. She’ll do interviews, and you’ll be able to tick this talking point off the list.
I don’t doubt that she’s being furiously prepped. Did we expect the governor of Alaska be a McCain policy expert, just in case he picked her? Was Obama an expert in every facet of national and international affairs before he decided to run for president? No, because he was six years old, but you understand my point. Obama has and continues to “prep”. Even codgers like McCain and Biden prep. Both are well-versed in foreign policy; notsomuch in all things domestic.
You guys are suffocatingly hypercritical.
Why didn’t he pick a woman like Snowe, Rice or Hutchison? What does Palin bring to the ticket that those women do not? And do you believe she was a good pick?
You don’t think it’s at all unusual, the way she has completely avoided the media since being picked?
I don’t expect (or want) her to be a McCain policy expert, but I do expect her to actually have policies of her own, and we have every right to know what they are, ASAFP. Right now, her popularity is a cult of personality because nobody knows anything about her beyond that she’s feisty and very, very conservative.
There’s a difference between ‘prepping’ which every candidate does, and having huge gaps in knowledge about aspects of governmental policy and practice because you’ve never needed to know them.
Seriously, I’m sick of the posturing. In all sectors of the press, beyond those whose jobs are to repeat the party line, Palin’s choice has been questioned as it pertains to McCain’s judgment.
“You guys are suffocatingly hypercritical.”
Objectively speaking, it really is amazing how our thoughts can be so identically mirror-images of each other. I mean, it’s staggering that reality can be viewed in such dramatically oppositional ways. Aside from the obvious selection biases, what’s wrong with our society that this can happen?
Anyone else in the LA area having audio issues with Fox 11? It kept going in and out all day Sunday and last night as well, about 70 minutes into Fringe.
“Anyone else in the LA area having audio issues with Fox 11? It kept going in and out all day Sunday and last night as well, about 70 minutes into Fringe. ”
Had some similar issues myself, audio hits/glitches last night during “Fringe.”
Not sure if it’s FOX’s fault or that of the cable/satellite provider.
I have Time Warner Cable (miss DirecTV terribly) and was watching FOX 11 on TW’s HD channel (411), FWIW.
RP
“Why didn’t he pick a woman like Snowe, Rice or Hutchison? What does Palin bring to the ticket that those women do not? And do you believe she was a good pick?”
I don’t know all of the reasons why he picked Palin. Looking at the polls, some reasons are obvious, and savvy, and successful. He picked someone young, charismatic, confident, and articulate; someone who is a relative outsider, and for whom the party base is incredibly enthusiastic for. As jeffmcm stated, she is benefitting from a cult of personality. It is delicious, delectable irony– McCain picked his Obama.
As for whether I think she is a good pick– in many ways, I do. However, the “one heartbeat away” argument is a legitimate one.
“Objectively speaking, it really is amazing how our thoughts can be so identically mirror-images of each other. I mean, it’s staggering that reality can be viewed in such dramatically oppositional ways. Aside from the obvious selection biases, what’s wrong with our society that this can happen?”
It’s a good question. Perhaps our biases are more powerful than our pride allows us to see. Putting the shoe on the other foot is often a humbling experience for me. Might we be taking each other’s positions were our ideologies switched? In many cases, I think so. Too often our positions inform our arguments, rather than all arguments informing our positions.
The other culprit is probably the complexity of the issues we discuss, and the way we discuss them. We can be selective in which points we respond to, and offer up the arguments favorable to our positions.
I’m a big believer that our perspectives are informed and ultimately controlled by whatever bedrock beliefs we have, and that, if given the opportunity to have an open and honest conversation, that all differences will ultimately boil down to simple and basic differences in underlying philosophy.
On that, we can agree.
I might add, it’s also a little scary, when one starts looking into exactly WHY we believe what we believe. Bedrock? Not always. 🙂
Well, yeah. Most peoples’ political and religious views are whatever they inherit from their parents, so…
“I love the use of the colour blue by the artist.”
You’d think a pitbull would be ready to attack right away. She could be dealing Russia and Iran in three months. And nothing she has said convinces me she’s ready to become a global leader. Or would make a good one. Brrrrr.
that woman is baked, I tell you, she’s more than half retard. i’m sorry, it’s true
Wow, pretty harsh, T. Holly.
It’s obvious why he didn’t pick Rice, isn’t it?
Nevertheless, no matter what your opinion is of Palin (she seems like a demon spawn, doesn’t she?) she’s certainly had a positive effect on the McCain camp’s stance in the surveys.
If Palin is a double-edged sword (as many pundits described her when her nomination was first announced), then so far only the Dems are getting wounded. And some of those wounds, I must say, are self-inflicted. With friends like that idiot congressman from Tennessee, and that fool woman from South Carolina, Obama doesn’t need enemies.
Palin was selected over Hutchison, Snowe, et al for the same reason the GOP machine undermined McCain in 2000 in favor of Bush: they WANT an ideological imbecile whose strings they can pull as long as said puppet believes (s)he’s really in charge.
I want to make a point about a movie but it seems this BYOB is BYOPolitics which is all good since that glasses chick is scary, but I want to make a movie point; Hope it does not get lost in shuffle…
WHAT IS UP WITH THE SPIKE LEE MOVIE>? It DROPS in like two weeks but there isn’t ONE WORD OF BUZZ ABOUT IT; The trailer looks kind of AWESOME when the shots look like INSIDE MAN with that dude in PHONEY ASS GLASSES, but then the WAR PARTS look strangely generic; When I saw that trailer before SWING VOTE, I kept trying to guess who the director was, and then when I realized it was SPIKE (one of my favorites), I was kind of like, OH, I should have been totally into this trailer. But not knowing it was Spike, it seemed like a mixed bag.
What is the word coming out of Toronto? Is this a nonstarter or just a gem that hasn’t caught on yet?
(Feel free to go political again; I just had to ask, and I know someone referenced it in a TIFF thread but I couldn’t find it just now….)
Black: it’s smoke and mirrors man. If you believe this thing is close. If anyone believes it’s close. You obviously live in a world where repubs win elections OUT RIGHT instead of UNDER THE TABLE.
This is all manufactured bullshit to distract the populace from the simple fact that this woman is a ticking bomb. Every day we grow closer to the election, is another day we grow closer to the self-destruction or destruction of Sarah Palin.
This is not Alaska. This is the lower 48, and hokey only plays for so long. THere will come a point when McSame and PaBush fuck up. It’s coming. WE all know it’s coming.
So let McCain have his Mondale/Ferraro moment. We saw how that worked out, did we not?
IO, I wanna believe that, but listen to the actual conservatives…
THIS CHICK IS THEIR NEW REAGAN.
Lex: they are just excited because she shares their beliefs and McCain does not. This does not change the fact that this time 24 years ago. The Mondale campaign felt like they could win it with very similar polls and reaction to the Ferraro pick. Again; we saw how that turned out.
The point remains however, that Sarah Palin is essentially the VP equivalent of the ticking clock on 24. Every moment it clicks down to the impendinbg doom of the McCain and Palin campaign.
I mean, really, how many times can you LIE, and expect our incompetent press to ignore it? How many times can you say the same speech, and expect people to be excited about it? How many times can you cover up for a man whose against GI rights, against tax policies that help 95 percent of the people in this country, and supports destroying our coastlines for oil that we cannot use for close to 10 years.
It’s a ticking clock Lex. It’s a ticking clock, and the McCain people know their day of reckoning is at… hold on. They are helped by a man who looks like his head was crapped on his neck, and never saw 2006 coming. So they have no idea it’s ocver. Too bad. Too sad.
I agree it’s obvious that the party base has rallied around Palin. They have totally bought the idea that she is a reformer. It’s just that the more we learn about her, the more that appears to be untrue. And she also appears to be a total religious nut, a scary one. She’s a creationism proponent, she wanted to ban books at the library when she was mayor, she believes Iraq is a mission from God (meaning her views aren’t that different from al-Qaeda’s). She’s frightening and if she is a maverick I’m the pope. Same with McCain. If he was a maverick he would have picked who he wanted.
And to those of you who thought Wright and Obama’s church was fair game and important, is the same true for Palin and her churches (the Pentecostal one she attended for 20 years and her current one)?
Stella: tick tick tick… and now we are just waiting for the BOOM. Palin was always a stupid pick. She got people excited, but those people can turn on a dime. So I am just waiting for the fridge to be nuked. It’s bound to happen.
A “Troopergate” update: Ethics Adviser Warned Palin
About Trooper Issue. Letter Described Situation as ‘Grave,’ Called for Apology
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122109403841221751.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
And this from Bloomberg: Palin’s Ethics Scrapes May Undercut Pledge to End Old Politics
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080911/pl_bloomberg/alulrclkxig4
So what about the Spike Lee movie? I saw a TV ad and it made want to go see the film.
I just can’t believe that everyone isn’t even a little bit worried that McCain, who would be one of the oldest presidents in U.S. history, has picked the least-qualified VP is history. I could live with McCain as president but the thought of Palin becoming president scares the living fucking shit out of me.
I bought a PS3 last night. It’s one of the newest up-to-date editions. I bought it for the Blu-ray player.
Please tell me I made a good purchase? I need encouragement.
I hope to hook it up today.
PS3 is the right choice for Blu-ray, Gent. It’s the only one that has wi-fi updating for the firmware updates. It’s also amongst the cheapest.
Unless it’s for gaming, no reason for more than the 40g version.
But yes, the right choice. The only thing is, you should have a 40″ HD or over to really get the impact of the format.
The PS3 features the same component outs of the PSOne and PS2. So you can enjoy blu-ray the old fashion way if you like, but you really need a stupidly large TV to enjoy it as Heat pointed out. You also always need to have it connected to the net all the freakin time, because Sony seemingly update that firmware for the blu-ray player all the damn time.
“I mean, really, how many times can you LIE, and expect our incompetent press to ignore it? How many times can you say the same speech, and expect people to be excited about it?”
Are you kidding? Have you never seen Idiocracy?
You were right about Dark Knight. You had better be right about this, for all of our sakes. But this isn’t a movie.
It could become one, though — Dr. Strangelove. I really get the feeling Palin is Jack Ripper in a moose pelt.
Re: Miracle at St. Anna, the war stuff looks pretty interesting, but the present-day, bookending, young-actors-in-terrible-old-person-makeup, ‘and that’s why this happened’ stuff doesn’t look good, at all.
I’m hoping for the best from it, but SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER ARE REALLY OVERCROWDED AS ALWAYS.
I know D-PO likes to write off most of the middling pretenders of early fall, but much like April Movies, I always find myself more excited for even middling star vehicles, ambitious failures and potboiler thrillers than I do for so many of the kiddie-centric summer flicks.
Since it’s considered a DUMPING GROUND anyway, why not spread some of these movies out to summer, since they’re going to get lost in the fall shuffle anyway? Is RIGHTEOUS KILL or THE DUCHESS or LAKEVIEW TERRACE really going to make MORE money on a weekend where they’re going up against 10 OTHER MAJOR RELEASES than they would being a viable third option on a typical summer COMIC BOOK VS. ROMCOM weekend?
I actually hope someone has some insight into that. Again: SUMMER, Lex sees one or two movies a week; FALL, Lex has to figure out a way to see 7 or 8 MOVIES a week, because the next weekend 7 OR 8 MORE COME OUT.
Is it at all appropriate for me to say “I told you so” on the Dark Knight January re-release? I mean, I didn’t actually call that it would happen, rather just thought it made sense to put it in play (Awards consideration, potentially getting over the Titanic domestic BO – which still probably won’t happen – , etc.). But I more or less got swatted down for it.
So yeah, kinda told you so.
“You guys are suffocatingly hypercritical.”
Hi, i’m the internet. Have we met?
Musical Tip: Try and get your hand on an copy of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yurupingu’s Gurrumul. One of the best albums of the decade, without a doubt. Non-Australians would have to get an import copy considering I don’t think Australian indigenous artists receive releases around the world, but do yourself a favour. It has the same vibe as Tracy Chapman’s self-titled album, just better. Seriously. DO IT.
On a different note, I just bought Miami Vice season one. I’m pumped.
What’s Biden on now? Three of four gaffes a day? Maybe he shouldn’t be talking to groups or even people.
He’s a gaffe machine, clearly unfit to be VP. I mean, he says crazy stuff, like Hillary was a qualified candidate!