Sarah Palin: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid!

The Wall Street financial crisis has created a political stir in the presidential campaign. With John McCain committing for all intents and purposes political suicide by "suspending" his campaign so that he can place himself as the hero who saved America from certain economic doom, his running mate Sarah Palin is slowly convincing the electorate of her total ineptitude. For reasons that have now become very obvious, the McCain campaign has continually denied the media any kind of access to Palin. All one needs to do is watch Katie Couric's interview to discover why the McCain campaign doesn't want Palin attempting a Q & A with journalists. I don't know about anyone else, but does Palin's accent remind you of Marge Gunderson from the movie, Fargo? "You betcha!" "You darn tootin!" Here's the link to the scariest parts of the interview. ". . . a close eye on uh . . . the Russians because . . . uh . . . they're like right next door to our state." Are you kidding me? Be afraid, be very afraid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk8moOxzlGQ

Here's lookin' at you kid. . .

Here's another classic scene from Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Lots of good subtext going on in this bittersweet scene that went to to define both of these actors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa-dGYjSq5k

Angler

I just got done watching an interview with Barton Gellman on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and I have to say, just when my opinion of Dick Cheney couldn't be lower, someone comes along and blows the whistle on yet another nefarious deed by this deplorable administration. Gellman is promoting his book Angler, which is Cheney's code name with the Secret Service. Gellman more or less confirmed my worst fears about Cheney's ruthlessness. Most notably, Cheney's role in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq. His behind closed doors meetings with Republican lawmakers to convince them of the debunked link of Al-Queda and Sadam Hussein and Hussein's "advanced" development of weapons of mass destruction. After all these years, why can't any Democratic lawmakers muster up some courage and start sincere impeachment proceedings other than Dennis Kucinich? Some years ago I can remember listening to a popular morning show here in Los Angeles on KROQ joking about sending their least favorite people on a rocket ship to space, never to return to earth. Well, here's my list of people I would put on that rocket.
George W. Bush
Dick Cheney
Karl Rove
Donald Rumsfeld
Condeleza Rice
John Ashcroft
Alberto Gonzalez
Dana Perino
Rupert Murdock
Roger Ailes
Bill O'Reilly
Sean Hannity
Rush Limbaugh
Geraldo Rivera
G. Gordon Liddy
Osama bin Laden
Pat Robertson
and last but not least, Paris Hilton.

A New Calling

This past weekend was eventful as my parents, my sisters Jill and Jamie, and Jamie's husband Dave drove up from San Diego to be a part of my new calling in the Church. I was called to be in our Stake High Council and my Dad was able to ordain me a High Priest. Within the Church there's the stigma of being in the "dry council", where every third Sunday you have to endure talks from the Stake. I hope I can avoid that label and give talks that will keep the congregation awake. Regardless, I'm looking forward to serving with the bretheren in the Council and our Stake President. Many of you have been requesting that I post more pictures of the family on this blog and I try to as new pictures are shot and imported into my laptop. I'll be importing pictures from Aimee's trip to Utah soon. I'm glad to have them back after they were gone for two weeks. I don't like being alone in the house. Yes, I'll admit I enjoyed the quiet for the first couple of days, but then I started feeling lonely and starting to miss the noise of three kids in the house. I don't think I want to let Aimee and the kids leave me alone for that long again. A week I can handle, but two weeks is too long.

Running on Empty

Once again, I'm posting a clip from another favorite movie, Running on Empty. The linked clip pretty much defines what the film is about. Again, the performances here are excellent. I've always admired Christine Lahti and thought she was underappreciated and she delivers the goods in this film. Also good in this scene is Steven Hill as Lahti's father. If you're a fan of Law and Order, you'll recognize Hill. Anyways, I know this clip is rather long, but I promise if you stick around to the end, you won't regret it. Watch the bottled up emotions rise to the surface as the scene is concluding. Hope you enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz6196-iU4U

Exceeding Expectations

I finally got to see this summer's blockbuster film The Dark Knight. I was preparing myself to be let down and disappointed after all the hype and critical praise it's been receiving, but thankfully, that wasn't the case at all. In fact, this movie exceeded my expectations. Wow! That's the best way to describe The Dark Knight. Props have to go to writer/director Christopher Nolan. He has managed to not only re-invent the Batman franchise, he found a way to take the Bruce Wayne/Batman character to dark and emotional places that I never thought anyone could take a comic book movie. I guess if anyone could've pulled this off, it was Nolan. If you've seen his prior work, you'll know what I'm talking about. His first commercial film was a film called Memento which is a murder mystery told backwards where the main character has amnesia and is trying to figure out how to piece his life back together after the murder of his wife. A couple of years later he made Insomnia with Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hillary Swank which is another murder mystery set in the long summer days of Alaska. Nolan's next film was his most popular, mainly because of the incredible twist at the end, The Prestige. Then the Batman franchise came a knockin' on his door and took the whole concept of the DC Comics hero and has fashioned two films that I believe make the Batman franchise more accessible to a wider audience than just the nerdy die-hard comic zealots and he still has managed to satisfy them. In Batman Begins we get to see how Bruce Wayne became what he is. In The Dark Knight we see how Wayne must come to grips with his power and how use his gifts ethically against a villain that is relentless. That brings us to the Joker played with a mix of sick humor and anger by the late Heath Ledger. This version of the Joker could give Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter a run for his money as the best screen villain of all time. Maybe there is some kind of added creepiness since Ledger wasn't able to witness the critical response he would receive for this performance. What makes this Joker scary is that he really has no agenda, financial or political. His goal is to create chaos through anarchy for the fun of it, nothing more. He forces Batman into making difficult decisions on how far he can go to stop him. All the performances are spot on. Christian Bale, the always reliable Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and new to the franchise are BYU grad Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhall. Credit has to be given to Australian editor Lee Smith who gives the picture a relentless pacing and rhythm and when it needs it, a deep breath before going into another slam-bang sequence. Longtime Nolan cinematographer Wally Pfister shoots Gotham (using Chicago) as if it were a character. If you have a chance to see this on IMAX, do it, you won't regret it.

The Grapes of Wrath

As I've mentioned earlier, I'll use this blog to post links to my favorite movie scenes. This week is a scene from The Grapes of Wrath. I think the signature of a good scene is that you never tire of seeing it. You memorize the dialogue by heart, you know when the music will start, you know every beat of the scene. I love this scene because of the performances of Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell, it so simple yet intensely powerful. I highly recommend putting this film on your Netflix cue, you won't be disappointed.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wke1RBvcNQ