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[TCB]

At last!

PAGE SIX

[S. Woody White]

Then I watched THE PINK PANTHER 2. Well, there were two sequences that made me laugh and had some of the wonderful slapstick choreography that Blake Edwards was such a master at in the PANTHER films of his that still are funny.

But looks like they're never going to learn that other talented actors playing CLouseau or someone like Clouseau (Alan Arkin, Tedd Wass, Roberto Bergnini, and now Steve Martin) just don't work. Peter Sellers owned the part, and no one can ever remotely come close to him in it, so why try?

Because the name is a franchise, and franchises are worth money.  And since most kids today have never bothered to see the originals, they don't know or care that the new films (of this and other remakes) aren't up to the quality of what came before.

Storytime...

Today, as I walked in to work, Justin-the-idiot-cart-wrangler called at me "Hey, your favorite singer died yesterday."

Justin is a couple eggs shy of a dozen, and what he's got are cracked.  He thinks that if someone is gay, that we are all supposed to behave in a pre-determined way.  Oh, wait, there's a lot of people out there who think that.  Well, he was sure that I had to be a Jackson fan, because I'm gay.

I told him I never much cared for Jackson.

"So, who's your favorite singer?"

I grabbed a name out of thin air.  "Marvin Gaye."

"Never heard of him."

Oh, we're back in that territory again.  "Nat King Cole?" I suggested.  "Johnny Mathis?  Harry Bellafonte?"

All the names drew blanks.

I just shook my head and went in to work.

Mother Teresa would have done better if she'd had a publicist.

[bk]

Call came.  Then I began addressing packages which I've been doing for the last ninety minutes - there are a LOT to go, though, but my eyes are blurry so I'll probably continue tomorrow.

[TCB]

I guess it is human nature that when someone dies, especially suddenly, that you can no longer find anyone anywhere who will say an unkind word about that person.  [That fortunately doesn't apply to the people at this site.]  However, up until yesterday, every time I heard Michael Jackson referred to as the King of Pop; there would be this angry outcry that Jackson was only the Kingt of Pop, because he claimed to be the King.  Now today, the whole world is calling Michael the undisputed King of Pop!


Amazing.

[S. Woody White]

As long as we're talking about death...

Delaware State Senator and Senate President Pro Tempore Thurman Adams (D)died last Tuesday.  He was eighty years old, and died of cancer.

I bring this up because on Wednesday, the State Senate voted on an anti-discrimination bill that adds sexual orientation to the already-existing list of prohibited practices of discrimination in re employment, public works contracting, housing, equal accomodations, and the insurance business.  The State Senate voted fifteen to five in favor of the bill, which immediately went to the House of Representatives.  Since the bill was identical to one already passed by the House (which had then died in committee in the Senate), the House chose to forgo it's usual proceedures, and voted to pass the Senate bill
twenty-six to fourteen.  The bill is expected to be signed into law by Governor Jack Markell as early as Saturday.

Senator Adams, as Senate President Pro Tempore, was the chairman of the Senate Executive Committee, and was one of the four senators who killed the original House bill in said committee.  He also during this year's session had previously voted for a Senate bill that would have limited marriage to heterosexual unions (a bill that was narrowly defeted eleven to ten).  It can be presumed, therefor, that he would have voted against Senate Bill 121.

The timing of the passage of Senate Bill 121 and Senator Adams' death should, however, be considered coincidental.

Gentlemen never engage in schadenfreude or other mean-spirited thoughts, after all.

[Matt H.]

I have an optical on both, but I guess I thought you wrote that it wouldn't be any better than the R/W analog connection I have.....might have read it wrong.

No, I said the optical and coaxial give the same surround information. Both are superior to the stereo only R/W connection.

[Matt H.]

"I wonder if he'd accept some basic tips on how to apply eyeliner."

Who cares about his eyeliner.  He is a hottie!

He looks GREAT in that costume!

[Matt H.]

I had a nice evening of viewing although it was shorter since I had to write the PINK PANTHER review, and I was running a good 90 minutes behind where I would have been had the power not gone off.

[Matt H.]

BTW, that's the SECOND power outage that the neighborhood has had in the past week, but the first one only lasted a few minutes.

[Matt H.]

Anyway, I began by watching episode 1 from the Season 4 set of THE CLOSER.

When I first started watching the set, I skipped this one because I had just rewatched it in HD on TNT-HD the week before season five premiered.

Anyway, it's that wonderful episode that brought back Jason O' Mara as one of Brenda's nemeses. Looked as good as always.

[Matt H.]

Next, I watched ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (#3 in the series). It was on Blu-ray, and it certainly looks far superior to the laserdisc of the film which was the only version of it I had ever owned prior to getting the Blu-ray APES set when Amazon heavily discounted it a couple of months ago.

I think this one must be second to the original film in being well made, involving, and not overlong. Nice to see it looking better than I ever remember it looking. Sound was just all right; I'm sure the source was mono that they manipulated into a 5.1 mix.

[Matt H.]

I ended my evening by watching the first half hour of THE SEARCHERS on Blu-ray.

I have been searching (no pun intended) for my copy of the film for WEEKS! I had forgotten that I had started a shelf of classics on Blu-ray hidden behind a sliding panel, so I couldn't see it in there. Just stumbled on it tonight, and I was glad I didn't rebuy it. I only got about a half hour into the movie, so I'll finsh it up tomorrow night.

[TCB]

G'night!

[Matt H.]

I slept somewhat poorly last night, so I'm heading down now to try to get a better night's sleep tonight!

Good night!

[FJL]

Rave in the NY Times for ARCHBISHOP SUPREME TARTUFFE starring Andre De Shields

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/theater/reviews/27archbishop.html

and a rave in Variety as well

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940561.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[JoseSPiano]

Good Evening!

And, yes, it turned out to be quite the beautiful evening here in NYC.  Very refreshing.  Aaaahhhhhh....

[JoseSPiano]

But as DR elmore mentioned earlier, we did have quite the storm come through, and the atmosphere most certainly did change before the rain came back.  I happened to be down in Madison Square Park, and managed to snap this pre-storm pic of the Flatiron Building:

[JoseSPiano]

As well as this view of the Empire State Buidling:

[JoseSPiano]

However, once the rain stopped, the sky looked like this for a while:

[JoseSPiano]

I just ate a Strawberry Pop-Tart and I have to say that I do not like Pop-Tarts.

Did you eat it cold? microwaved? or toasted?

*I've found that they only taste "good" when prepared in a toaster.

Yeah, I ate it cold.  Should have had it toasted with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Next time: Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Pop-Tart with Breyer's Butter Almond Ice Cream.  -Just sayin'.

[JoseSPiano]

I need to putter around Chelsea.

Ah, is that what they're calling it, these days?

No.

[JoseSPiano]

I'll write about YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS in a minute, but I HATE the hair of the new Adam. That doesn't look like hair gel in there; it looks like hair wax that guys used to put in flat tops fifty years ago. A totally unflattering look for him.

"Pomade" is back in.  Although, some companies do indeed call it "hair wax" - but they're trying to be "hip" with that term, and not "old school".

*For a second there, I almost thought you were going to say it looked like... Well, nevermind... Although, from what I understand, well... Just sayin'...

[JoseSPiano]

DR JRand - Glad to hear the La Mancha is going well so far.

And I shall add Adam Chandler's show to my calendar.  -And since my friend, Scott, is bartending at The Dupex now, well...

[JoseSPiano]

The big storm has landed after all the humidity, sprinkling, and sundry stops and starts. It's quite dark out and vewry noisy: lots of thunder although the news is reporting lots of lightning as well. You can feel the pressure in the air and the humidity lightening and it's quite refreshing. I guess I won't be stepping out to the market.

DR elmore - Did you make it out to the market after the rain stopped? We had quite the beautiful sunset earlier tonight.

[JoseSPiano]

Just as an odd coincidence...or maybe this is a "6 degrees of..." observation, but there's a correlation between Bruce's comments on the movie, "Strictly Ballroom" and Michael Jackson. Bruce talked about how ridiculous it is to zoom in to a close-up of the dancers' feet. I don't know if this is just urban legend, but I've heard that both Michael and Janet Jackson have had written into their contracts that when they make music videos, that all body-part close-ups must be kept down to a very small percentage. That's why their music videos always look so great - it's almost exclusively full-body shots.

DR Amy - That's not urban legend.  However, IIRC, that stipulation was first put into place by Michael Peters who was the choreographer for "Thriller". Michael Jackson then carried it over to his other videos - and choreographers.  But, again, that's IIRC (if I'm remembering correctly), so...

yadda-yadda-yadda

[bk]

Page six?  Page six?

[bk]

I don't know about you dear readers, but spam has reached epic proportions like I've never seen before.

[Laura]

DR Jose, what kind of camera do you have?

[Cillaliz]

My neighbors are moving this weekend.  I am sad to see the girls go.  I drive by their new house today, it's a couple miles from here and is big and gorgeous.  There are also kids in the neighborhood so the girls will have someone to play with.

On the other hand, I am anxious to meet the new neighbor.    Hope he's friendly.

[Laura]

I don't know about you dear readers, but spam has reached epic proportions like I've never seen before.

That reminds me. I need to check the church email account.