Monday, July 26, 2004
Thar She Blows
It seems that she has descended below the level of mere white-trashiness and into the depths of bag-ladiness! Oi!
And just in case you can't make out what her t-shirt says, here is a closeup:
Cheeky, huh?
I can't wait until she starts doing some serious wedding shopping. I envision bridesmaids in low-cut taffeta, barefoot. And, whoo-hoo, you just know she's going to have one hell of a bachelorette party ... stay tuned!
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Conventional Wisdom
Jennifer Granholm, Canadian-born Governor of Michigan, gave an amazing follow-up interview after Gore's speech. I have never heard her be so partisan in my life; she did the Democrats proud. She made a great pitch for Kerry. I was impressed with her very much.
President Jimmy Carter took a great swipe at GWB's "military career" by merely stating that John Kerry showed up for his military service. The speeches are extremely effective against GWB and his failed policies without ever mentioning him by name. "We cannot lead if our leaders mislead." Well said, President Carter. You can read the full text of Jimmy's speech HERE.
CNN kept talking about the blogosphere as if it were an entity like the Internet. They are taking great pains to call attention to the fact that there are bloggers present at this convention. It seems to cheapen it a bit for me. I am not a fan of the mainstreaming of blogging. In any regard, you can read the CNN Blog here.
A special edition of Larry King Live featured Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry, John Kerry's extremely able daughters. The only thing I kept thinking while listening to them was how much they could kick the Bush Twin's asses! It's childish, I know, but true.
I flipped over to Fox News, mostly because I'm a masochist, and found myself completely disgusted by their bullshit rhetoric. This news channel, "fair and balanced" mind you, was doing nothing but smearing every aspect of the Democratic National Convention. How they have the nerve to claim that they report "the news" is beyond me. The interview with Anne Coulter (I don't even want to tell you what I really think about that bitchface) just made me sick. Then it made me angry. It's people like her that make me fear for my country. The Right Wing Agenda fanatics must be stopped for the good of our nation. I was happy to switch back over to CNN. BTW, Bill O'Reilly is still a flaming asshole.
There was a nice tribute to those lost in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The delegates all held up lights while Amazing Grace was played on the violin. It was pretty touching.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton opened the prime prime time slot by first speaking on behalf of John Kerry and then introducing President Clinton. She said "[John Kerry] knows you need to lead the world not alienate it," and I couldn't agree more. She hailed the bravery of the families of those lost in 9/11 for their insistence on the creation of the 9/11 Commission. She spoke boldly and eloquently. God, I can't wait until she decides to run for President. I hope to see her run some day. You can read the full text of Hillary's speech HERE.
Anyways she finally introduced President Bill Clinton who emerged while Fleetwood Mac's song Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow played in the background. It felt just like 1992! He was greeted with such thunderous applause it's no wonder they put him on Monday night (so as not to overshadow John Kerry on Thursday night). He hailed John Kerry as "a true New England patriot" likening him to John F. Kennedy who was also from Massachusetts. He was funny and passionate, smart and witty. You could tell he was talking straight to the American people. Holy shizz, this man can give a speech! It was like church in that auditorium. All I kept thinking while he was speaking was how fast I would vote for him again! I haven't picked up his autobiography yet, but you better believe I'm going to get myself a copy. President Clinton did an absolutely incredible job talking up John Kerry. You can read the full text of President Bill Clinton's speech HERE.
Then Patti Labelle belted out a song and that was the end of the first night of the Democratic National Convention.
Earlier today I found myself wondering who was going to watch this or any party convention and why. I had in the back of my mind that I wanted to watch some of the convention broadcast but didn't really keep it in mind as a priority. While watching the speeches tonight I actually found my pride swelling at the prospect of Kerry being elected President of the United States of America. Yikes, this entry is so long because I sat in front of the TV with my laptop typing as events occurred on the screen. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to devote this much time to the Democratic National Convention beyond tonight but I will keep tabs on what happens next. I hope to watch the Howard Dean speech tomorrow and, of course, the John Edwards speech on Wednesday and the John Kerry speech on Thursday.
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"I Am Catwoman, Hear Me Roar!"
Today's comic-book blockbusters pay a lot of lip service to the strangeness and torment of their split-personality heroes, but let's be honest: Beneath their bug and bat suits, these are pretty straight guys. Just because Tobey Maguire has a few problems shooting off his web in ''Spider-Man 2'' doesn't mean that his love is anything but pure. Catwoman, however, serves up a lonely costumed female savior, and you can feel what the pressure has done to her. Catwoman, a purring whippersnapper vixen who leaps around balconies and buildings like a jungle predator, isn't just an alter ego. She's a superfreak, a good-time bad girl whose kinky strength -- her banishment of all that's passive and fearful -- is also her craziness. She may not be a villain this time around, but she still thinks like one. She's a crime fighter who has snapped.Grade: B-
Halle Berry, in shiny ruby lips, bare-backed dominatrix leathers, and a pointy-eared Egyptian mask, looks sensational, and she gives Catwoman an outrageous sex-panther strut as well as a happy coo of a snarl. What really puts her over, though, is her startlingly sinuous kitty-cat posture: pelvis thrust, midriff sucked back, shoulders out, head lolling to the side. It's as if her center of gravity were double-jointed. This, it seems, is what a life of pent-up aggression will do to a girl.
Berry starts out as Patience Philips, a fluttery art designer for Hedare cosmetics, which is run by the haughty George Hedare (Lambert Wilson) and his aging -- and therefore resentful -- supermodel wife, Laurel (Sharon Stone). After Patience stumbles onto secret information that the company's about-to-be-launched skin cream is toxic, she gets dumped into a river and is reborn, courtesy of a mystical Mau cat she had previously rescued. When Patience, as Catwoman, slinks into a nightclub and orders a White Russian minus everything but the cream (which she then licks off her upper lip), or when she gets hunky detective Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt) within reach of her jeweled talons, the movie gives off the funky twinkle of a very naughty sex comedy. Throwing her paws over her head, as if she'd like to be cat-cuffed, Catwoman lets Lone know that she's game for just about anything. Berry makes her so erotically empowered that she's funny, but her I'm-a-demon-vamp-and-loving-it performance deserved a far superior movie.
The director is a French graduate of TV commercials who bills himself as Pitof, and my assessment of his abilities is simple: Pitof, you're no McG. ''Catwoman'' includes a few fun fight scenes in which our feline fatale twirls and kicks like Charlie's Baddest Angel, but most of the movie has the cruddy lighting and generic, death-by-franchise atmosphere of a third-rate spectacle that's been worked over by too many hacks.
I wouldn't call ''Catwoman'' incompetent, yet it has no visual grandeur, and very little surprise; you can tick off the story beats as if they'd been graphed. As for Sharon Stone, cast as a woman who appears to be principally furious over having been cursed with Toni Collette's hair, she certainly makes a colorful impression as the villainous cosmetics bitch, if only because her sexiness has grown so disturbingly hard. Her cold porcelain is no match for Catwoman's hot taffy. If there's a sequel, I hope it's a better meow mix.
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Get The Party Started!
are you?
Oh how I wish this was real:
Xtina has been telling reporters that she is Dirrty no longer, saying that she is not interested in dressing like a skank anymore.
Christina revealed: "I have grown up now and have no need to dress like that anymore. I want my music to speak for me rather than the dress or lack of dresses I wore ... I've even ditched all my piercings - it's a new me," she exclaimed.I thought she said that the whole reason for the piercings and the street-walker-wear was because she had "grown up". $10 says that she's going to "grow up", yet again, into a more "mature" look. She probably shouldn't throw away those edible panties quite yet. Blah! She bugs me to death.
In other goss:
- This weekend, George Lucas announced the title for Star Wars Episode III -- it will be called Revenge of the Sith. Do people still care about Star Wars? I'm just wondering.
- I find it disturbing that Saddam is spending his time enjoying muffins and gardening while American soldiers are still toiling away in Iraq. What is wrong with this scenario?
- Fahrenheit 9/11 has just become the first documentary to make 100 million dollars at the box office. It's an important film, people should be seeing it more than once. Hurray for Michael Moore!
- Showgirls is about to be re-released in a deluxe DVD set; a V.I.P. edition. I think it comes bundled with a do-it-yourself H.I.V. test.
- Michael Jackson has been trying to score a date with Nicole Kidman. As if we needed further proof that the man is completely delusional. He reportedly asked her to accompany him to this year's MTV VMAs. Nicole claims that she took his proposal as a "great compliment." Yeah, right.
- The Fantastic Four movie is really taking shape. Jessica Alba has been confirmed to play the Invisible Girl. THIS GUY has designed a rendering of what the F4 might look like:
And that's all folks. Today will be another quiet one for me. Erik has my car (his truck will be ready later on today) so I'm stuck at home. I've got a lot of reading to do so I'll be fine. But, if duty calls, I'll be back.
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