TV on DVD round up

We've been enjoying The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency like crazy. (It's available from our local library, see my previous post for a shout out to the good folks over there at the JCPL.) This HBO/BBC co production is a thing of beauty. The performances are smashing and the scenery is super as well. It's filmed on location in Botswana and it's filled with African actors, although an African American plays the title role.

I read the first two books in the series but I bailed on the third one because they were a bit too twee and precious for my taste. However the stories are perfectly fitted to being told on screen. And this adaption tells them very well. I love how they've adapted them and as soon as I saw that Richard Curtis wrote the first episode, he wrote most of the Vicar of Dibley series, co wrote three out of four series of Blackadder, and also wrote Love Actually, I knew I was going to be in good hands. All of the seven episodes of this series are well written, well acted, and well shot.

Jill Scott is terrific as the 'traditionally' built title character. I also love the bundle of uptightness that is Anika Noni Rose as her assistant and secretary. I'm not even done watching all the episodes in this series and I'm already itching for the next ones to come out so I can see them as well.
I can't imagine a more perfect contemporary Brit-com than Gavin and Stacey. This show is a slice of life about two people who meet through work and who fall in love soon after. Their story is complicated by their friends and family and the trials of modern life and somehow it's all a winsome winning laugh out loud wonderful series.

I'm in love with this show and it's going into our pantheon of British comedies that we watch over and over again. The two female leads in this show, Joanna Page and Ruth Jones, stand out and they really make it worth watching. Also great are Rob Brydon and Allison Steadman, as Stacey's uncle and Gavin's mom.
My good friend XUP mentioned that Hamish Macbeth was another good series from the BBC that is set in a small rural location. So I picked up the first series on DVD for a Christmas present for Sparky, she loves the BBC slice of life comedies set in small rural towns, and I'm happy to report that we both really like this show now. The accents take a bit of getting used to, they're very thick and almost unintelligible at times, but by and large this one is a winner. It's ostensibly a mystery series but the mysteries aren't like the ones we're used to from American TV, they're slice of life stories that feature a minor petty crime that gets solved while the story is being told. It's more about the town and the coterie of Scottish oddballs who live in it than it is about crime and crime solving, in fact Hamish Macbeth is probably the most lax policeman character I've ever seen on a BBC series. And that's what makes it so engaging.

Oh yeah, it also features my Scottish adopted actor Shirley Henderson as well, so it's got that going for it as well.

Graphic novel round up

I like the main Fables series of graphic novels but I freakin' love this series featuring Jack:
In the main series characters tend to get lost or obscured due to having to have so many in the story. In this series that mainly features Jack, the stories are sooooo much more fleshed out and the writers are able to delve into the characters more without having to worry about whether one or another is getting enough page time or not. These are clever tales told well. The art and inking in them is also top notch. I'm devouring them like a fat kid devours chocolate dipped eclairs. Mmmmmmmmmm, chocolate dipped eclairs.

All too often you hear a ton of hype about a comic book series and more often than not the series never lives up to the hype. I'm happy to report this is not the case with Y: The Last Man. It's well written, well drawn, well inked, and well, I love it. This series tells the story of what happens when all the males of earth, human and other animal, get wiped off the planet. All except for one man and his monkey. It's chilling and thought provoking. It's got great compelling characters and lots of action and intrigue. I read the first in the series in one night and I practically ran back to my local library to check all the rest out so I could read them as quickly as possible. I'm almost through the second one and I'm looking forward to finishing the next three I've got checked out as soon as I can. I highly recommend this series.

Unlike the previous two graphic novels in this post Stitches is not part of a series, it's a stand alone true life tale of a young boy who grew up in Detroit with a cold distant money hungry mother, an aloof father, and a brother who left as soon as he could. Young David is shunted aside and he's ignored for reasons that are made clear only late in the book. He develops a tumor on his neck at a very young age and his folks decide not to tell him that it's cancer because they think he might not survive the operation, and when he does his life becomes even more bizarre than it already was.

This book touched me deeply. I identified it with it greatly, having grown up in a house with a cold money hungry dominant female figure, my crazy aunt, who used affection like a weapon. Even though our situations were very different, I felt like I knew just what Mr. Small went through in this book, having to deal with such powerfully crazy family members at such a young age, his maternal grandmother, a committed Christian, was a nut bag who should have been committed to a mental hospital early in life but somehow managed to avoid one until the day in her old age when she locked her husband in her house and tried to burn it down.

The art and choice of colors in this book are stunning. It's a muted palette Mr. Small uses and his story is also almost mute, for reasons you'll see if you read this book, so most of the book is a series of wordless panels that say more than words ever could. It's a story that is by turns sad, provocative, thought provoking, and mind blowing. I highly recommend it. I haven't read anything that touched me as deeply as this book did since I read Toast.

And once again I must give a shout out to my local library for stocking these and many other great graphic novels on it's shelves. Yay Johnson City Public Library!

Crazy stupid

Ted Nugent says President Obama ought to be locked up in prison for being a Communist.

Ted Nugent obviously has no idea what the word 'Communist' means.

And if you believe that Obama is a socialist, a Nazi, a Maoist, and/or a Communist, then you're as crazy stupid as Ted Nugent is.

TV evangelist or German writer?

You decide.

What Bush really inherited

James Carville's crazy wife said Bush inherited the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It's s statement stunning not only for it's simple stupidity, it's also yet another attempt at revising history. Republicans and conservative pundits have always tried to act like the biggest terrorist attack on this country didn't happen on their watch but in point of fact it did. The US Supreme Court had named Bush Jr, the idiot, President after they halted the recount in Florida and no amount of lies can alter the fact that Bush was President when those planes hit the Twin Towers. No amount lies can alter the fact that his administration, and Clinton's, and Bush the elder's, and Reagan's as well had the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden's terrorist group on their payroll. Those two organizations fought Communists so we gave them money. It's a fact. It's not a fact the right wing likes mentioned but it's a fact, it's a matter of public record.

But that's not really what I want to talk about in this post. What I want to talk about is the things Bush really inherited, not the fantasy shit Mary Matalin makes up. Here's a partial list of things Bush inherited when the Supreme Court named him President:

• A budget surplus. (Which he then turned into a huge budget deficit because he plunged us into two never ending wars.)
• International goodwill. (Which he then pissed away by starting two wars that seem to never end.)
• A solid economy that was working for most all Americans and not just the ones at the top. (Then when he cut taxes in the middle of his wars he sent the economy of working and middle class people into a tailspin that they will never get out of under our current economic system.)

Dick Cheney's former top aide, Ms. Carville, would do well to remember the history of this country the way it actually was and not how she wishes it were. But when it comes to Bush Cheney Kool Aid drinkers, this pretty much sums it up:

Happy new year...

...from that dude's beard.

It's time for a peek at John Birch Society approved comix!

Click to enlarge.
A chilling tale, isn't it.

German note of the week

A tale of two stores

I went out looking for some Mexican corn flour and guajillo chiles for my Oaxacan yellow mole yesterday. I went in one Mexican 'grocery store' and the proprietor was a young man who did nothing but scowl and glare at me, even after I bought the corn flour from him. I then drove across town to another store that caters to the Latino population to see if they had the guajillos. Not only did they have the dried guajillos, the lady who ran the place, a very pretty Mexican woman in her mid to late 40's, asked me what I was making. I told her that I was making Oaxacan yellow mole with chicken, potatoes, and beans from a recipe that was in a Mexican cookbook that I had been given for Christmas. She smiled warmly and wished me good luck.

Even though I could walk to the first store in question, I'll never ever set foot in Scowly McGlare's store again.

Republicans are saying that the Christmas day terrorist 'attack' is the fault of President Obama

Funny, when the same thing happened under Bush/Cheney is was Obama's fault as well.

Merry Christmas from the family

I probably ran this picture last year but I don't care. That's my family circa 1968/69 on Christmas morning. That's my sister Linda on the far right, me, my mom, my sister Sandy, my brother Charlie, and my dad. My brother Karl took the picture, probably with a camera he got for Christmas. Even though we were poor as church mice and lived in the Detroit housing projects we still had great Christmases with lots of presents to open. But more than the presents, I remember how great it was to be together with everyone and playing, laughing, eating cookies and Christmas foods, and then going to see my cousins on my mom's side and then all going to Grandma and Grandpa Wells house.

Happy Christmas to you and yours from me and mine. And if you don't celebrate Christmas for whatever reason, then I wish you happiness and peace too.

It's comin' on Christmas

My new favorite Christmas song:

Discarded furniture of the week

Happy holidays from...

...young super hot Jane Fonda,

Starsky and Hutch,

classical beauty Gina Mckee,

increasingly dystopian Canadian writer Margret Atwood,

the snow pile,

and from me!

Happy Holidays to all!

Side by side myth magazines

Personally, I like the fairy one better than the Christian one, it just looks so much more colorful and fun.

A Lohan Holiday

The drinks are mixed and the cocaine is ready,
it's a Lohan holiday!
Dina and Lindsay are tipsy and Ali is unsteady,
it's the Lohan family way!

The paparazzi photograph them doing super crazy stuff,
because it's a Lohan holiday!
All the attention in the world for them isn't enough,
they crave more every day!

STD's, rehab, and a stint in jail,
it's a Lohan holiday!
Enough celebrity entitlement to choke a big blue whale,
for their mistakes they'll never have to pay!

Lindsay and lil' sis Ali are talentless skanky bores.
I wish they'd take their mom and go far far away,
so that we never have to hear again from these wretched 'celebrity' whores
and this is truly the last Lohan holiday.

A comic book couple weigh in on Rep. Heath Schuler (D-NC) and Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA)

Dude, listen to her. She obviously knows what she's talking about.

Up yours Samsonite

Damn luggage, it always gets you when you least expect it.

An atheist Christmas

Contrary to what your hear on Fox or on right wing hate talk radio, not all atheists hate Christmas. In fact, this atheist loves Christmas. Both Sparky and I do. What we hate is intolerant small minded Christians who insist on trying to ruin the holiday with their insistent cries that every one must tow their line or else. They seem to think they are making Jesus happy that by forcing everyone to bray, "Merry Christmas!," even if you're an atheist, a Jew, or a whatever.
You see, to me Christmas is not about the birth of the son o' God. It's about spending time with loved ones and friends. And the gifts I give to them don't symbolize the gift of the birth of mankind's savior, they are heartfelt offerings made out of love to remind that person of how much they mean to me.
I send Christmas cards, carefully chosen so as not to say 'Merry Christmas' or include any religious bull shit, to people near and far because I want them to know I am thinking of them at this time of year. I like to get together with friends this time of year not because someone decided years ago to co-opt a pagan celebration (it's no accident that Christmas falls only days after the winter solstice), but because another year has passed and I like to be with them once more to let them know how much I enjoy them and their company.
We put up Christmas trees not because they symbolize everlasting life, but because they are bright and cheery in an otherwise drab time of year.

But you know what? If you celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday then good for you. More power to you. I'm not about to try to stop you. You celebrate however you like. And I want you to let me do the same.

So stop telling me I have to say 'Merry Christmas' and not 'Happy holidays!' because you think I'm disrespecting your religion. Stop telling me Jesus is the reason for the season, he's not really. The reason for the season is that humans in the northern hemisphere have always celebrated the fact that the days start to get longer after the winter solstice and once they made their way to the southern hemisphere they took that celebration down there as well.

To me this holiday season is all about home, family (the ones I like that is), and friends. It's about giving and doing for those that are close to you. It's about trying to be a nicer person and starting the new year out right.

I'm an atheist and I celebrate Christmas the way I like, the way that works best for me. If only some of the people who call themselves Christian would do the same and stop trying to make others do as they do, then that would be a Christmas miracle we could all believe in.

Suddenly, in the basement...

Brunette of the week

British actress Gina Mckee.

Monkey Movie Reviews

We watched these two movies while snowed in this weekend:
Pure fun. That's what The Hangover is. It's not demanding, it has no message, it's just pure fun.

Four guys try to reconstruct what happened to them during 48 hours in Vegas. Stolen cop cars, Mike Tyson, live tigers, a chicken, a marriage to a stripper/escort, a screamingly flamboyant Chinese American gangster all combine to make their time in Vegas more than memorable. It's a wild funny fun ride.

When finally given a chance to shine Ed Helms does just that. He and Zack Galifinakis steal this movie. Also good in it were Rachel Harris as Helms ball busting girlfriend and Heather Graham. Rumor has it that Lindsay Lohan turned down the part Heather Graham took and if that's true then I'm almost inclined to believe there is a god because Lohan would have ruined this flick for me. There's no way she could project the sweet innocent stripper with a heart of gold image that Graham did.

I recommend this movie highly because it's so funny but I can see how some women might not like it. Ladies, you've been warned.

In The Loop is scathing razor sharp black comedy at it's finest. It's a satire for the ages, even though it's really about some slimy politicians in the run up to the Iraq war.

Peter Capaldi blisters the screen with the reprisal of his character Malcolm Tucker, first introduced in the BBC series The Thick of It, who is a top aide to the British Prime Minister. The film centers on him and his riding herd on an ineffectual British Cabinet Minister, his aides, and some American politicians and military people who are at odds. Capaldi takes swearing and Alpha male behavior to new unheard of levels. If you're not a fan of cuss words, and Capaldi spares no one, not man, woman, or child, then you better avoid this film. But for those who don't mind a blue word or two, or a couple thousand, then I highly recommend this film to you.

For my money, the director of this film, and he also co wrote the script with some other guys, Armando Iannucci is a genius. He wrote a slew of stuff for the BBC, including most all of the Alan Partridge series, and the aforementioned The Thick of It. The way he set up Mimi Kennedy's 'I'm not a monster' joke in the first part of this movie is a thing of beauty.

Like The Hangover, I recommend this film highly, perhaps a little more so because it's more politically relevant, but I can also see how women would hate it. The Alpha male posturing and numerous dick/gay insults may be a little off putting for hose with more delicate sensibilities than mine. But honestly, I loved this film more than I've loved any other film in a long long time.

WTF product of the day

Way to ride the coattails of the Amish you Mennonite bastards.

Storm of the century of the week

It started out as rain yesterday morning and then by noonish yesterday big wet flakes began mixing in. By three o'clock it had changed to all snow and it started to stick. By three thirty it was evident that things were going down hill weather wise. It snowed all night and many highways were closed.

Thank goodness our power only went off a time or two and only for a moment or two. Some of our friends in out lying counties will be without power for a few days.

I got out yesterday afternoon and went to the grocery store and I laid in the necessary provisions so we're good to go. I hope all of you in the path of this storm are safe and warm. We ended up with about 11 inches of snow and it's still spitting as I write this.

Here's some photos I took while out and about earlier this afternoon:

The Sparky mobile in the snow.

Dusted shrub.

Snow covered wildlife.

Snowman family built by some local kids.

By the way, if any of you decide to leave me a comment telling me something along the lines of 11 inches of snow is nothing or that the weather where you live is worse, then I'm going to delete it and I'm going to seriously consider revoking your comment privileges for good. When you leave comments saying shit like that what you are saying, whether you realize it or not is, "Your experience is shit compared to mine." I had to put up with that shit growing up and I'm not about to put up with it on my blog.

Get it right

It's 'tenterhooks' not tenderhooks.

It's Republican and Democrat when you are talking about the political parties and it's democrats and republicans when you are talking about political theory/movements in general.

It's 'up and at 'em.' Not 'up and Adam.'

It's gesture, not jester.

It's 'your' bike and 'you're' going to get in trouble if it's stolen.

And for fuck's sake, use spell check before you hit the publish button after you write a blog post.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some kids to go shoo off my lawn.

What Elin Woods will get in her divorce vs. what you'll get in the Senate version of 'health care reform'

Tiger's soon to be ex wife will get millions of dollars in a lump sum settlement and a shit load more in child support. You'll get to buy insurance from greedy for profit insurance companies who will do their damnedest to try to never pay any of that money back out to you when and if you get sick.

Elin will get houses and cars that she'll never have to worry about how to pay for. You'll get fined if you don't buy private health insurance that's basically worthless when you go to use it.

The former Ms. Nordegrin will get the sympathy of millions of people who have been cheated on. You'll get no sympathy from the private insurance companies who will do everything in their power to deny your claims.

Her young firm sun kissed body will get tanner and firmer because she'll have more time to work out and go to the beach now that she doesn't have to go to boring ass PGA events. You'll probably have to get another job to pay for the premiums on the health insurance that the government will make you buy.
She'll be set financially for the rest of her life and so will her kids, the ones she had with Tiger anyway. You'll be bankrupt from paying high premiums and trying to pay all the bills that your insurance company won't cover when you or someone in your family gets seriously ill.

And finally, when she moves back to Sweden she'll get single payer government run health insurance that will cover her and her klids for the rest of their lives. You'll get what the millionaires in the US Senate who have government run health care want you to have and you'll like it or they'll write a law where you can be arrested and imprisoned for complaining about it if you don't like it you damn dirty socialist.

We're fully stocked up on stupid

• Saying you 'don't believe in evolution' is like saying you don't believe that the sun rises in the east. Things evolve whether you believe it or not.
  
• People who are against any health insurance reform should not be allowed to ever have any health insurance. Ever. Especially Medicaid and Medicare.
• I thought we'd never see a Senate majority leader who was worse than Bill Frist was. Until Harry Reid came along that is.
  
• Taking marriage and relationship advice from dudes who are sworn to be celibate and who wear dresses from time to time is about as smart as taking show business related career advice from Victoria Jackson.
• If socialized health care is so bad then why are there so many healthy people in Canada and Europe?
• The way to get people to believe in your Bronze age cult is to be nice, loving, and welcoming. And yet most all of the Christian cults insist on telling us we're awful people for not believing the same thing as they do.
• If you preface anything you're about to say with, "This may sound racist but..." then I don't want to hear what comes next.
  
• The following voting blocs can help a Democrat get elected President: gays and lesbians, left wing progressives, and anti war peaceniks. See how far that same candidate gets if all those people stay home during the next election because that same candidate's policies so far have been no better than those of his predecessor.
  

And now here's an important message:

Nineteen?

Nineteen gods? Holy shit, I've got a whole lot of blaspheming to catch up on if there are nineteen gods. Looks like my holiday season just got a lot busier gods damn it.

Elizabeth Warren wants to show you how much she loves you

Maybe it's the glasses wearing nerd in me, but I've got a big ol' crush on Ms. Warren. Smart gals in high government positions, hubba hubba.

I have government run health care, Traitor Joe has it, and so should you

That's right. I have government run health care. I'm on Medicare. And before I had Medicare, I had TN Care, which was the TN version of Medicaid (they've since killed TN Care which is a shame because it paid for 100% of my open heart surgery). Medicare is good but it's not great. And I pay for it as well. The premiums are taken out of my SSDI checks every month. Every citizen in this country should be able to have what I have.

But in a more perfect world, we'd all have the same health care they have in Congress. You know, the plan Traitor Joe has. The plan he's fighting like hell to keep anyone else from getting. Which is not only a shame, it's a fucking crime if you ask me. That bastard was re-elected because he promised that he'd work for getting people health care. He promised he'd work to expand Medicare. But he's gone back on those promises. He's all in on the side of the insurance companies because they give him money to get re-elected and you poor people who aren't on government run health care like he is don't give him any so fuck you.

Maybe if everyone became an insurance company he'd work to protect you. If you gave him some cold hard cash that is. I hope you idiots who believed his lies in the last Senate race in CT are happy. You managed to not only fuck your state, you got the rest of the country's ass nailed by your traitor of a Senator as well. It's a shame that one filthy rich lying prick can derail health insurance for so many. I hope there is a hell so that when he dies he can get ass fucked by Jerry Falwell for all eternity there.

Do me a favor and don't tell Traitor Joe that I'm only 47 and on Medicare, if that bastard hears that news he'll start a campaign to get me tossed off it.

Happy holidays from...

...Sister Mary Bad Ass.

Dudes in diapers...

...stick a sword in their hand and their lust for killing takes over.

A Monkey Movie Review

I've been wanting to see this documentary ever since I first heard about it and last night it was on Sundance Channel:
Right off the bat I must tell you that I love Reverend Billy and his message of stopping shopping at corporate stores. I love how he attacks Starbucks, Disney, Target, Wal Mart, and other mega corporations for how they have ruined many a life and town. To me he's a hero who should be lauded every time he 'preaches.'

So having said that, what do you think I thought of this film?

Yeah, you're right. I liked it a lot. I didn't love it, but I really liked it.

The movie documents Rev. Billy, and for those of you who don't know, Rev. Billy is not a real minister, he's a character played by Bill Talen, and his choir as they tour America by bus spreading their message of stop shopping through song and sermon. They start out in NYC and head across the midwest, the southwest, and end up in Disneyland on Christmas day. The message they spread is simple, stop shopping at big corporate retailers and buy local when ever possible. Also they want people to consume less so that the people who work in the sweatshops under deplorable inhumane conditions won't have to work as hard and so that the planet won't be raped of it's natural resources. They also try to spread the message that Christmas isn't about an orgy of consumerism, it's about spending time with those you love and celebrating the birth of a man who wanted to bring peace to all the world.

As you might imagine, mega retailers and the corporations he attacks don't like Rev. Billy and his choir and they have him thrown off their property and have him arrested whenever possible. Which goes to show you how fucked up our system is. By that I mean if you go into Wal Mart, or Target, or Disneyland, and point out to people shopping there that those corporations ruin communities by paying low wages, keep thousands enslaved making cheap trinkets and clothing, and run their competitors out of business using nefarious business practices, then the corporations can call the cops and have you arrested for trespassing. But on the other if you call the cops on Wal Mart for killing the businesses in your downtown area, or on Target for selling stuff below cost when locally owned stores can't, or on Disney for using it's entertainment products to dilute your culture while promoting the go go consume at all costs American lifestyle, then the cops would laugh at you.

So yeah, this film has many valid points that millions of us need to hear again and again. And if you're a huge fan of all things Disney, or Target, or Wal Mart, then you're going to hate this film, but you are just the type of person that needs to see it.

Rev. Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping Now Choir are so spot on it's uncomfortable at times. But one way or another what he wants is going to come to pass sooner or later because our economy is unsustainable. It's going to collapse one day either because of the man made climate changes we're causing, or when the rest of you get laid off because all the jobs in the US are outsourced by the greedy corporations. And it looks like we've learned nothing from the last economic melt down so when it melts down again and China won't give us any more credit maybe we'll have to start making things here again and when the corporate genetically modified crops fail for good then well have to start growing our own food again as well. And when those days come maybe Rev. Billy will be seen for the national hero that he is.