Wellllll okay some quick updates before I get into a rant or three.
a.) Make sure to check out my previous column, an epic review of IRON MAN, with a bonus rant of doom about its box office success.
b.) To update those of you who I may have mentioned this to ... yes, I was all set to go see AVRIL LAVIGNE in concert this past Sunday, thanks to some free tickets generously given to me by my NBCU pal Fowzia. Now, would I ever pay to see Avril in concert? Prob not ... But - free tix to see the eyelinered one belt out such songs as Complicated and Skater Boy? Hells yeah I'm there. Sadly, the concert was cancelled / postponed due to Avril losing her voice. So no, I did not spend my Sunday evening jumping around at the Gibson Ampitheater like a fifteen year old girl. And maybe that's a good thing?
c.) Slight plea for help: I am going to be in Boston on Friday night, May 16th and Saturday night, May 17th prior to my brother's big graduation from BU that Sunday. I currently have a few options in terms of where to stay, all of which are very far from ideal. If any of my Beantown-based buddies can help me out on this one, I would be forever in your debt. Thanks!
- Alright, anyways, moving forward ... it's time for a much-needed ...
POLITICAL RANT OF DOOM
- Okay, America, listen up! Enough is enough already - can we, for once, stop fixating on everything BUT politics when it comes to American politics? Can we, for once, FOCUS, on getting the right person elected into office?
I recently read the cover story of Newsweek, which paints a disturbing picture of an American populace that slowly seems to be turning against Barack Obama for everything but what matters most - his capabilities as a leader. Whether it's larger controversies like Jeremiah Wright (heavily denounced by Obama ), smaller and more trivial matters (the Whole Foods comment, the flag pin ridiculousness), or just the issue of race in general, which here in 2008 shouldn't be an issue - the Democratic voting block is once again becoming distracted from the real issues at hand, and frankly, it makes me sick.
Obama should have locked up the nomination by now, but thanks to Hillary's campaign spin-doctors, the race has somehow turned into a whole absurd spectacle in which Obama is painted as an elitist. We're talking about a guy who grew up in urban Chicago and worked his way up from next to nothing, versus a woman who attended Wellesley and has been a national figure now for decades. There's no doubt that the Clintons, Bill in particular, have a way of connecting with everyday Americans, but since when are they NOT part of the economic and social elite?
My larger point is this: Hillary's attacks on Obama are exactly the same tactics of distraction that helped elect George W. Bush to two terms. Al Gore was too stiff. John Kerry was too snobby. Maybe so, but good lord, either one would have been a better president than Bush. That's what the Republicans have done for the last few elections under the guidance of people like Karl Rove - they've cunningly made the elections about fluff issues, and took the real issues and reduced them to one-sentance soundbytes - Axis of Evil, No Child Left Behind ... need I say more?
Now Hillary is taking things one step further - she is pulling a play from John McCain's playbook and adopting the tactic of saying ANYTHING to get elected. She'll take a shot at a bar, talk about "obliterating" Iran, paint Obama as untrustworthy, and dub him elitist for his "bitter" comments, which by the way made total sense, and were more intelligent than most discourse in the campaign to date.
So ... can we get away from all of the tabloid-ish politics and get back to being pissed off at Bush for eight years of embarassing leadership? Can we stop nitpicking the candidates on their food preferences and start examining the finer points of their policies, of their visions for the country? On paper, either Obama or Hillary should be able to have a field day with McCain, hanging the last eight years of failure over his head. But thanks to the spin machine, the nature of the campain has changed to being about freaking flag pins. Shame on you, America. Now, can we please get back on the road to improving the country?
END OF RANT.
Oh, and by the way: what do you think of swiftboated John Kerry after seeing THIS?!? Now this looks like a man who keeps abreast of the nation's pressing issues! Bwahaha ....
http://wonkette.com/387351/john-kerry-is-sex-pervert#viewcomments
Now, on to some lighter topics ...
GOSSIP GIRL:
- Continuing my fifteen year old girl theme from earlier in the post, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention last night's Gossip Girl which lived up to the marketing campaign, as it was certainly worthy of an "OMFG" or two. Look, to me there's no shame in liking Gossip Girl - last night cemented to me that, just as The OC was in the beginning, GG is one of the best written shows on TV. Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage know how to make great teen TV, and this is it. Biting dialogue, great characters, and last night, the show's first real jaw-on-the-floor, surprise cliffhanger ending. Michelle Trachtenberg is great as oh-damn-she's-EVIL Georgina, and the rest of the cast is pretty darn good as well. Sure, the former rockstar dad is still, often, cheesy as hell, and the Jenny as Queen Bee storyline seemed to fizzle a bit too quickly ... but as far as primetime soaps go, just admit it, Gossip Girl is king.
My Grade: A-
FOX SUNDAY NIGHT ROUNDUP:
- I really liked Sunday's episode of THE SIMPSONS. To me, some of the biggest bright spots on the show the last few years have been the "let's explore a random cultural subculture" type episodes. The one from a while back in which Moe becomes a literary giant, for example. In this ep, we see Lisa create a doucmentary about her family and enter it into the Sundance Film Festival, where it of course goes on to become the hit of the show, until it's finally eclipsed by Nelson's even bleaker autobiographical film. I loved that this ep stuck to one main plotline and never really got off track, yet at the same time had a ton of pretty funny threads going on. Come on - Skinner and Chalmers as an indie-film producing duo, aka Chalmskin Productions? Classic. Skinner had some hilarious lines in this one - the entire scene in which he reveals his secret showbiz ambitions to Lisa was great ("Which one, Orlando or Hollywood?" "There's a Hollywood?!?!"), and I though Jim Jaramusch's (sp?) dry delivery in his guest spot was actually pretty amusing. I know this one had its detractors, but to me this was a pretty damn good episode of The Simpsons.
My Grade: A-
- KING OF THE HILL pleasantly surprised me with the Seinfeldian manner in which its various plotlines spun around and intersected into a madcap ending. At first, the episode looked to be another "Hank been done wrong" type storyline, which is okay if not particularly exciting, even if the opening's parody of Universal Citywalk was funny and sadly spot-on (though I still like Citywalk). But where things got really funny was a bit later on. Hank, having believed that a guy was trying to rob him and reacting by intimidating the would-be thief into giving the wallet back, realizes that the guy never tried to steal his wallet - so Hank had in effect actually stolen that guy's wallet. To Hank it's all an annoying misunderstanding, but for the victim this was the last straw after a lifetime of being picked on. When Hank's limply apologetic phonecalls are misinterpreted as threats, hilarity ensues. Meanwhile we got a nice cameo from Fred Willard as a down on his luck cop who pals around with Bobby, and a subplot in which Dale works at a Hooters stand-in in order to eventually sue them for sex discrimination. A lot was crammed into this ep, but it all came together pretty nicely, again, in a fairly Seinfeldian convergance of plotlines. Good stuff. Yep.
My Grade: A-
- So FOX was two for two on the night, nice. That is, until FAMILY GUY delivered a truly obnoxiously bad episode. It's strange - for a while I was really enjoying the direction that Family Guy was taking. With the Star Wars eps and the Stewie Kills Lois storylines, and the Peter time-travel episode, the show had a great run of episodes that were pretty hilarious and got back to what I loved about the show in the first place - not overrun by cutaways, and with an emphasis on smart but off-the-wall humor. But man, the last few eps of Family Guy have seemed to signal yet another change in direction. Of late, the show has become increasingly mean-sprited, off-color, and has once again fallen completely in love with the cutaways. But it pisses me off that the show has lost whatever subtley it once had. Come on - Michael J. Fox and OJ Simpson jokes - and gross ones at that? Are you serious? Meg is now reduced to a walking punchline for no real reason - I hate the fact that she is basically a "normal" girl but everyone on the show thinks she's fat, ugly, gross, etc. I mean, come on, was the scene of Chris lifting up her shirt, causing Brian to vomit, really necessary? Ugh. And it'd be one thing if some of these jokes were actually funny. But Sunday's ep was 90% empty shock value with minimal substance or actual humor. The plot was absolute bare bones - Chris meets a girl, dates her, and is told by his dad to treat her horribly to keep her interested. Wow, what a plotline. And guess what? The one or two gags that were actually funny were the ones that actually contained a clever joke (ie the parody toy commercial) and didn't just exist to take up time. It strikes me as ironic that FG creator Seth McFarlane was awarded a giant contract by FOX the day after this episode aired, because this was almost certainly McFarlane at his worst.
My Grade: D+
- Alright, a lot of big things going on today. The Celtics face off against the Cavs in game one of their second round playoff series. Go Celtics! And ... it's make or break for Hillary Clinton, and crunch time for Obama. Will we smell what Barack is cookin', or get slammed by the Hillrod? God bless America.
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