January 2007 Archives

GIVE ME ONE MORE CHANCE



I can change, I
swear...

Stop him before
he kills again. That is the judgment of the American people, and indeed of the entire world, as to the performance of our president, and no State of the Union address can erase that dismal verdict.

President Bush has accomplished what Osama bin Laden only dreamed of by disgracing the model of American democracy in the eyes of the world. According to an exhaustive BBC poll, nearly three-quarters of those polled in 25 countries oppose the Bush policy on Iraq, and more than two-thirds believe the U.S. presence in the Middle East destabilizes the region.

In other words, the almost universal support the United States enjoyed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been completely squandered, as a majority of the world's people now believe that our role in the entire world is negative.

--Robert Scheer on TruthDig.com

NOT TO WORRY



I spend last night at the movie theatre taking in Julie Taymor's Magic Flute, a re-simulcast from last month. Sure it skews to an older demo. But you don't want to miss it tonight on PBS. Resistance is futile. The received line on Mozart's tormenting father revolves around Don Giovanni... but that Queen of the Night aria is a mother consumed with veangance, a control freak who hits every high note. What are we to make of that?

AND NOW THIS:



This guy again. Imposter. Bring your books to see if he matches the author photo.

From NYTimes Arts Briefs this morning:

'CSI' vs. 'Grey's Anatomy'
The addition of Liev Schreiber to the cast of "CSI" helped give CBS the top spot Thursday night, but "Ugly Betty" and "Grey's Anatomy," which both won Golden Globes on Monday, put ABC on top among adults 18 to 49. According to Nielsen's estimates, 21.3 million viewers tuned in at 9 p.m. for "CSI," ranking it just behind "Grey's Anatomy," which had 21.9 million viewers in the same time slot. CBS led during the 10 p.m. hour opposite a repeat of NBC's "ER" (6.1 million), as "Shark" (15 million) matched its season's best ratings in the 18 to 49 demographic. ABC's "Ugly Betty" drew the most total viewers (14.1 million) at 8, while the lead in the 18-to-49 demographic went to NBC's "My Name Is Earl" at 8 (9.7 million) and "The Office" at 8:30 (9.3 million). NBC, with "Scrubs" at 9 (6.6 million) and "30 Rock" at 9:30 (5.1 million), was third for the night. BENJAMIN TOFF

Let's just chew on that lead sentence for a second: Schreiber boosted CSI into Thursday's ratings lead...? Does Toff really believe that? If he does, does he support it in any way? Has Schreiber ever opened a movie? In his one feature lead so far (Manchurian Candidate), does anybody think he sold tickets compared to costars Meryl Streep or Denzel Washington? Does anybody consider Schrieber even remotely on the road to leading roles? Has anybody ever seen Schreiber so much as smile? Even re-reading that sentence, you're hard-pressed to figure out who actually "topped" the ratings for the night, CBS (as he initially suggests) or ABC, which apparently won "among adults 18 to 49." Does that mean you can win the evening and lose to the adults? Does he mean to imply that Schrieber helped carry CBS among younger viewers? But then, in the very next sentence, Toff insists that CSI came in second to Grey's Anatomy by at least 600,000 viewers. Why go to the trouble of assembling all this data if you can't articulate it?

The Painted Veil




Sleeper of the year, with an unnecessarily distracting and anachronistic score by Alexandre Desplat featuring the very overhyped Lang Lang.

Eragon


Featuring the Come Hither Line of the Year: "You look... fit for battle."

The Good Shepherd



Good performances, weak writing, especially for the lead, which also weakens it central metaphor (that American wasps have no soul, God's frozen people, yada yada yada...) Juicy cameo by Joe Pesci. Choice score from Bruce Fowler and Marcelo Zarvos which melts right into the picture as you watch; it's not noticeable in the best of ways. One of those weird reversals where the melodrama and the twist get overplayed while the music stays understated.

BONUS POINTS



For
Ben Kweller's Brain Wilson story on Studio 360, followed by a high-wire solo turn on "God Only Knows."




MORE BONUS POINTS



For the tagline to the forthcoming schlock-horror Primeval: "based on true events."

ALMOST FORGOT


Jimmy Guterman's blogging again, hide the silver. (You'd think by now he would have weighed in on Salewicz.) Tipped me off to Amy Rigby's blog.

You could quibble, punch up the lead (a Johns Hopkins report has Iraqi civilian deaths surpassing 650,000), but this wins the year-in-review prize for tone alone:

Thousands of people died in the Iraqi civil war, which was costing the United States $100,000 a minute. U.S. forces began to negotiate with Sunni insurgents, and the Pentagon, short of buglers who can play taps at military funerals, ordered 700 automated digital bugles. Oil companies announced record profits; President George W. Bush said that America is "addicted to oil" and also asked Congress to pass laws outlawing human/animal hybrids. Scientists in Taiwan bred three glowing pigs. Samuel Alito was confirmed to the Supreme Court, and a study found that Antonin Scalia is the funniest of the Supreme Court justices. Robert Grenier, director of the CIA counter-terrorism center, was fired for opposing "excessive" interrogation techniques like waterboarding, and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney shot and severely injured a fellow hunter while aiming at quail. Osama bin Laden released a tape in which he warned of new attacks on the United States; he also called on his followers to travel to Sudan and fight against the U.N. forces in Darfur. Al Qaeda members were communicating via social networking website MySpace.com, and the Taliban established a "mini-state" in Peshawar. Iran announced that it had successfully produced low-grade enriched uranium; to celebrate, men in traditional dress danced with uranium samples. U.S. senators insisted that attacking Iran must remain an option. "I can drink beer out of my leg," said Matthew Braddock, a 25-year-old National Guardsman who lost his left foot and nine inches of his left leg to a mine in northern Iraq. "How many people can do that?"...

from Harper's