Michael Moore

I'm not a fan of Michael Moore. However, that wasn't always the case. I enjoyed his first movie "Roger and Me" well enough, and "The Big One" was even better in my opinion. I also liked his show "TV Nation". It had its moments, was funny, and had guests like Steven Wright and covered some interesting topics. But that was when the focus seemed to be on humor, not as much on bashing America.



I used to see Moore primarily as a comedian, who happened to have some social criticisms, which is always welcome. But something happened. He turned mean-spirited, His "humor" was always at the expense of something (America) or someone (the troops) who have much more value than he does. He doesn't have the right to go after actually important institutions - he's way out of his depth - he's simply a ham-fisted (please excuse the expression) commentator, and who really cares about what this "hefty haranguer" has to say anyway? Who IS he? What makes him qualified to make these lie-filled judgments in the first place?



Moore continued his anti-corporate rants with books by major publishers such as the ironically titled "Stupid White Men" (What is Moore exactly?) -- the very title of which gets under my skin because it is socially acceptable and NOT edgy to make fun of white men. It is the last acceptable race that is totally OK to make fun of. If Moore had titled his book "Stupid Black Men", he likely would have been run out of town on a big fat rail. Or at least not taken seriously, which he really shouldn't be anyway and people need to realize that. This credentials-less hack enjoys preaching to the converted about how America is bad bad bad and the healthcare system of Cuba is really wonderful. This is probably the most popular baldfaced wish by the liberals that America will go commie. Usually they put it in coded speech, but because Moore wins awards from other liberals such as the Oscar, he has the gall (or lack of talent) to drop the pretense.



I guess the thing that annoys me most about Moore is that he humorlessly criticizes the very institutions that allow him to become a millionaire doing what he does. He gets awards, accolades, is lauded around the world, and gets to travel the globe preaching his anti-America diatribes, and most importantly makes millions. He stumbled onto the idea that he could make quite a nice living bashing the USA. Remember he didn't start out that way. He found his niche and his rhythm doing this midway through his "career".



Of course, no one really knows about answer films "Celsius 41.11" and
"FahrenHYPE 911" that refute Moore's lies and inaccuracies because they don't have the liberal Hollywood machine powering them.



It's obviously because of the troops and the veterans of America that have ensured Moore's freedom to bash, slander and smear. Rather than be grateful to live in a nation that allows you totally free reign to say as you please (not to mention a sweet profit - remember that capitalism that you hate so much, Michael? I guess you OFFICIALLY are a "Stupid White Man" now.), he takes this great freedom completely for granted, like a lot of people do. The very fact that I can voice my opinion now about HIS opinion, and not be thrown in jail, punished or stoned to death, I greatly appreciate. We didn't get here as a society through people like Michael Moore. We got here through actually BRAVE people and smart people like General Petraeus. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely and totally for criticism, protest, dissent and an opposing point of view. It's through this conflict that ideas are raised and some progress is made. But I feel Moore is a cheap hack who has exploited the "hate America, hate Bush" endless drumbeat of the left as a underhanded way to make millions of dollars and actually BECOME part of the institutions he claims to hate - criticizing it all the while, and the mechanism that allows it to happen. This is LOW. We as a nation should totally ignore Moore. Hey, that rhymes!

I love ALF

As we all know, "ALF" stands for a lot more than just "Alien Life Form". It stands for nostalgic, 80's hilarity and originality at its best! Created by Paul Fusco, who is from my hometown of Hamden, and originally performed at small rock clubs, ALF's ridiculously sarcastic charm wormed its way into the nation's heart in the 80's. First premiering in 1986, he's from the planet Melmac, he eats cats, and lint is more valuable than gold on his planet. His planet blew up after everyone on Melmac plugged in their hair dryers at once. He ended up in the home of Willie Tanner, with his wife, son and daughter. Hilarity ensues when there is a culture clash of milquetoast human and party animal alien.



Now that we've gotten the facts out of the way, I would like to say that ALF has a huge nostalgic value for me. I used to tape the show on Beta (competitor to VHS, smaller, high-quality) tapes. It is the first show I remember ever taping because I liked it so much. I may still have the tapes somewhere, I'm not sure. As a child of the 80's, there was something immensely appealing about this concept of a wise-cracking alien in a family home. He could be as snarky as he wanted to be and the parents couldn't punish him. He just had to hide from the neighbors, the Ochmoneks (I had to do some research on the spelling), the wife, Raquel, was played by the actress that played Jerry Seinfeld's mom on Seinfeld, Liz Sheridan.
ALF was truly a show of the 80's, and on top of the concept and the writing, there was something visually appealing, probably because of its uniqueness, about the way ALF looked, especially in that suburban setting. It was a contrast no other show had. It was just fun to watch. I know I've spoken to at least one other person who used to tape the show (although he was much older and his dad probably didn't have to help him, it shows the trans-generational appeal of the show).

Final notes: I remember there was a question on the show "Fun House" with J.D. Roth where the question was "what does ALF stand for?" I rolled my eyes just at the question, but it was multiple choice (!) and the only other one I remember was "astronaut's little friend". Now, that's just insulting.
Also: Al Jean and Mike Reiss, writers of The Simpsons wrote some episodes of the show (Mike Reiss is from Bristol and I met him and saw him speak, he is smart and hilarious) ALF made a splash in the 80's, and despite some inexplicably unpopular ideas, such as his short-lived talk show, he seems to be making a comeback, what with his recent appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, which generated a high amount of viewer mail. ALF Lives!

Music of the 70's

It is my belief that the 70's were the best decade so far for popular music. Bands of just about every genre built upon the freedoms started in the 60's and built upon them in heretofore unheard of ways and explored musical freedoms and ideas as far as they could possibly go, until the 80's arrived. While the 80's offered some great music as well, the facts that they couldn't go any farther than their forebears, and a tendency towards glossier and glossier production styles becoming the norm, the fruits this decade bore were not quite the same as the one before.

70's PROGRESSIVE (PROG)ROCK - this genre, derided as overly virtuosic and bombastic (a trait never denied by its makers; in fact it is part and parcel of the genre)is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Taking what happened in the sixties and vastly improving upon it musically and idea-wise, leaders of the genre like Genesis, Yes and ELP filled stadiums in the 70's, because clearly the public had an appetite for this type of material.


Khan


PUNK ROCK - A reaction to prog, this simple, angry genre was born in the 70's, and, for all intents and purposes, died there too. All the best punk bands are 70's bands: The Ramones, The Dictators, The Dead Boys, The New York Dolls, The Stooges. Once again, they took what came before and made it new and fresh. Unfortunately, this genre went quite downhill after this with the advent of all sorts of infighting subgenres such as skinheads, hardcore, punk/metal hybrids, etc., however, being a
"77" punk band is a proud title for many bands today.



SOUL/R&B/FUNK/REGGAE - Even the "urban" genres of the day experienced huge growth and creativity spurts. People like Marvin Gaye and Barry White introduced orchestras in a very creative way, female artists like Minnie Riperton and Thelma Houston (not to mention Aretha Franklin, of course) released genre-defying, even mind-bending albums not possible to record the decade earlier. It was also here that musical geniuses like Roger Troutman appeared. Bootsy Collins and George Clinton took to very funky excesses started by James Brown and took them to great extremes. In the reggae world, albums like Culture's two sevens clash and others showed the 70's had its own identity and creativity.



RAP/HIP HOP - this genre began in the 70's and, though it has changed a lot, can truthfully be called a "70's genre". All its major hallmarks and archetypes began in the 70's.


Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

DISCO - While the 70's are known as the "disco decade" by uninformed people, I submit to you that disco was not that bad. It was simply soul music with a slighly different beat. It was the idiots who WENT to discos who gave it a bad name. I call this the "Led Zeppelin" phenomenon. Just because their fans are largely idiots, don't take that out on the band, it's not their fault.


Gloria Gaynor

POWERPOP - A 70's genre through and through, a miracle occured when this genre was born. Prizing hooks, melodies and short songs that are pleasant to the ear, and giving them a little "Oomph" (but not so much that it became "punk", although some bands did do that), and taking the reins from the Beatles and Beach Boys, more "B" bands emerged such as Big Star and Badfinger who made great, great music. It was a pretty big phenomenon then, and still continues today. See also: The Raspberries



Badfinger

HARD ROCK/HEAVY METAL - BLACK SABBATH! That's all I have to say. Black Sabbath. Working on the theory that Black Sabbath IS metal, and they released their first album in 1970, the stage was set for a tidal wave of "heavy" bands that followed. Early Heavy bands like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and here in the US, Blue Cheer and Iron Butterfly (these are just the most prominent examples, not necessarily the best)initiated a worldwide movement still strong today of heaviness. Don't forget, this was born in the 70's too!


Black Sabbath


Deep Purple

COUNTRY - the decade "outlaw country" was born, as examplified best by David Allan Coe, as well as Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, expanded what the genre could do, as did artists like Mickey Newbury. This brought new facets, ideas, thoughts and instrumentation to country. It says a lot when country, primarily thought of as a "traditional" genre, could even be susceptible to the changes brought by the 70's like everyone else.


David Allan Coe


This was just a brief, brief overview in an attempt to make my point. I could probably write a book on this subject. So anyone that says "The seventies sucked" or "it was the worst decade for music", do politely tell them they are mistaken (I was going to say "shoot them" but I decided to go the more gentlemanly route.)

My Movies #3: Monster Truck

Excuses

My other job is working as a poller in an institute where we call people and ask them surveys that take about 3-5 minutes. All they have to do is give simple opinions, there are no hard questions. A surprising amount of people, no matter where you call, or what time of day it is, say "I'm just walking out the door." It is truly amazing just how many people are "just walking out the door" at any given time (read: when they could be giving a short survey.)Alternatively, some say "I just walked IN the door." Besides the common classics "I'm on the other line" and "We have company over", and of course "We're in the middle of dinner" (It's always "the middle" -- sometimes people say they are making/preparing dinner, etc.) here are some other actual excuses that have been said by actual humans (keep in mind, they could simply just decline, no details are needed):
"I don't watch the paper"
"I can't, I'm breastfeeding"
"I just got out of the bath"
"My husband is in a backbrace"
"I'm going to a basketball game"
"I'm playing basketball with my son in the living room"
"I'm taking my son to basketball practice"
"I'm watching hockey"
"I'm doing my taxes"
"I have the flu"
"I have a migraine"
"I'm asleep"
"I'm feeding triplets"
"I'm nursing my one month old son"
"I'm getting ready to go to a funeral"
"we're watching a family movie"
"We're painting today"
"It's TRICK OR TREAT, I have to give out candy"
"I'm a Roman Catholic Nun, a Sister"
"We have to go to a graduation"
"My husband just got out of hospice and he has terminal cancer"
"We're packing for vacation"
"We're going to a banquet"
"I'm in the midst of cooking"
"I'm baking cookies"
"I just got back from a 100 mile trip: 100 miles there and 100 miles back"
"I'm eating an ice cream cone, if I take the survey, it will melt"
"I'm in labor" (I got this one on two separate occasions)
"If you call again, I'm gonna call the deputy sheriff"
"We're getting ready to eat lunch"
"I'm putting together a swingset"
"My son has autism and he spilled milk all over the house"
"I have to go to my wedding in two hours"
"I'm a 96 year old woman!!!!!"
"I'm taking my granddaughter to football practice and they're (?) waiting in the car"
"I'm having a pizza delivered"
"I'm painting my living room - if I take the survey the paint will dry - it's a big living room and right now we're working on the molding"
"I don't play survey games"
I just got out of the hospital from a heart attack"
"I don't have any opinions"
"I'm waiting for a repairman to call, and if we miss the call, he won't come"
"The only survey I have is God. Ain't no survey gonna make me no richer or no deader"

There are others, believe me. Many people offer their dogs to take it, saying "he can bark". Presumably these are the same people that put their dogs' names on their answering machines. That's almost as bad as when people put their little kids' names on their machines. "You've reached Bob, Joan, rover and rex", "You've reached Dave, Sue, and little Timmy" -- no one's calling for little Timmy, trust me. He doesn't know what an answering machine IS. If someone does call for little Timmy, be alarmed.

There are a lot of old people still out there surviving, and good for them. Many times you can hear things going on in the background, i.e. barking dogs, screaming kids, people yelling, and, of course, the TV: "WHEEL! OF! FORTUNE!", The Entertainment Tonight theme song, etc.

I had no idea before I worked there that people saw their answering machines as some sort of platform for their religious views - all Christian. Many people, in different states, who obviously don't know each other, do this. How did this catch on? Are they hoping someone will accidentally call, hear their machine, and then be convinced by it and convert to Christianity? Who knew? Who will be converted by this? It's quite selfish. For example, one person said "You've reached the home of (such and such). Please leave a message. But first, I've got a message for YOU. In Galatians 3:16...." And then they proceeded on a fifteen minute tirade about how "Jesus rocks" or something like that. But that's an extreme case. MANY people end their messages with "Have a blessed day." or "Be blessed." I don't get this. Am I , as a mere mortal, in control of this somehow? I thought only God could determine if I am blessed or not. Can I bless myself? I mean, if it was up to me, I would have a blessed day every day. So then is God out of the picture?

But, through excuses, you see the stages of life play out: "I just had a baby", "I'm putting my kids to bed", "(such and such) is having a birthday", "My father just died", -- you see the full spectrum of life playing out in real time, for no other reason that you call hundreds (thousands?) of people at home, at random, over a period of months and years. It's a unique position to be in, so you get a unique perspective. You see birth and life and death unfolding in front of you through the magic of people's excuses and their unwillingness to take a short survey.

Election Coverage, Part 1

OK, we all know that making fun of President Bush is a national sport, and, granted, he doesn't speak in public very well and this leads to some hilarious moments regardless of your political position. But is the answer to this electing Hillary Clinton to the most powerful position we have?
Hillary Clinton is a lying, cheating, deceitful, insincere, cackling two-faced harridan whose Machiavellian grab for power is based more on a compulsion TO WIN and to have power than an altruistic desire to help America. Like a junkie who builds up a tolerance and needs more and more just to achieve an effect, Hillary cannot, and will not be satisfied until she grabs the ultimate prize - the presidency - and to her it is completely irrelevant HOW she does it, as long as she does it.
Even though Democrats and liberals claim to abhor racial attacks and are "above" race, surprise of all surprises, the Clintons (it is a two-headed hydra, after all) launch several attacks against their opponent Barack Hussein Obama of a race-baiting nature. I would say that is the very definition of hypocrisy, but then the Clintons are so far gone and just so used to deceits and hypocrisy, I doubt they even notice little blips on their radar like this, and besides, to them, dragging your opponent in the mud in a desperate joust to win trumps any supposed "ideals" that supposedly define their life's philosophies and life's fights and struggles.
Despite a history of rape charges, cover-ups, lies, deceits, corruptions, impeachments, Hugh Rodhams, Roger Clintons, and at least one murder that we know of (Vince Foster), why would Americans CHOOSE to go back to this? Bill Clinton COULD have been more aggressive on terror, after all, he was aware of Bin Laden, but he chose to do nothing. Is this passive non-strategy on terror the Clinton plan? Because I would rather not be just another person to perish at the hands of the Clinton machine.
Do we REALLY want to go back to this? Is this what America REALLY wants? Since it is highly doubtful that Hillary would be in this position if she didn't happen to be Bill's wife, do we want to keep close tabs on this administration...what I mean is, what with the sneakiness and philandering going on, we would have to check on them every two seconds, like a baby, instead of trusting them to do their jobs. "Trust" and the Clintons don't exactly go together, if you know what I mean.
Since she probably figured she could just walk in and become president, she's probably not happy about the strong presence of Hussein Obama (Barack better watch his back), and in one debate, she was haranguing him in her classic, girlish fashion, and the next, they were all "Buddy-buddy". This blatant, pathetically phony display is only rivalled in plastic soullessness by John Edwards. (It looks like BOTH Americas made their feelings known about this political absurdity.)
Hussein has one thing that Hillary doesn't. He has likability, and isn't boldfacedly powermad. he should really change his middle name from "Hussein" to "Fluff", because no living human knows any of his platforms, plans, or strategies, but they enjoy his dancing on "Ellen" and his appearances on "Tyra", and I believe he has mentioned the word "change" one or two times (but then again, all of them have, Republicans included), and also speaks about "hope", "the future"and uh..."change", that's the ticket. I believe people are bamboozled by his fluffiness and lack of appearance on any hard news TV shows. Either that, or they find Hillary so distasteful and they must pick a Democrat, so they will go with him, policies sight unseen.
I'm not asking for perfection, but the standards of the Democrats must be pretty low to even allow Hillary to get as far as she has. Even I would prefer Hussein over her, if a Democrat MUST be elected. That's saying something!

To believe in alien life does not make you a nut

It seems that if you say you believe that aliens exist, or at least have a strong suspicion, you are branded as a nut or some kind of kook by all the people that don't happen to believe. I think it is time for this "aliens definitely don't exist fascism" to end.
We know for a fact that UFO's exist. By this I simply mean things flying around in the sky, that we don't know what they are. Using the strict definition "Unidentified Flying Object." There is plenty of video and eyewitness footage testifying to this. When you couple that with the thousands upon thousands of people that claim to have had encounters, that seems fairly compelling. Now, let's assume most of the people that claim to have seen alien life in person are wrong in some way. It was a hoax (there would be no reason to start a hoax to say you have seen aliens because most people that come out as having had that experience lose jobs, friends, family and the media brands them as a nut and their life is, for all intents and purposes, ruined), they were dreaming (How this could be explained when more than one person is involved, you tell me. Thousands of group hallucinations?), or let's just say most were wrong for the sake of argument. Is it possible that ALL of the people are mistaken? EVERY last one of them? It is rare in life when 100% of something is true. Could this be the only thing? Let's just say that only 1% actually saw alien life. Is that a reason to discount everything we have learned about alien life so far?
You know the popular conception of an alien?
Pretty much this:
Did you ever ask yourself HOW exactly this image got to be known as the famous "alien" that we all know today? Long before this was known or popular, before the internet, people from totally different parts of the world that did not know each other, when asked to describe the alien in their encounter, all pretty much described the above alien. None of these people in these different countries around the world knew each other or had any contact with one another. Don't you think it is interesting that they all described the same thing?

Humans are still evolving. Did you ever notice that people, even from the 30's and 40's look a little bit different than people do today? And there is a theory that people's pinky fingers are getting smaller and smaller and eventually we as humans will not have a pinky finger. Our features are becoming more and more streamlined as we evolve and adapt to our environment. Now, if Erich Von Daniken is to be believed, Aliens came here in ancient times, and "planted" us. We, as humans, are just aliens that have not fully evolved to their level yet. We will eventually look like that picture above. What we call "aliens" are just humans, evolved millions of years.

The idea that they only visit "backwoods" areas is false and a lie perpetrated by the alien haters. UFO's have been seen in major cities such as New York, Hollywood, St. Louis, Chicago, near Galveston, Texas, Dusseldorf, Germany and most famously, Mexico City. And, I'm sure, many others. I just wish that people would embrace the idea of possible alien life more openly, instead of close-mindedly dismissing it out of hand. Just because the haters cannot conceive of a universe that is unimaginably vast, and, incredibly self- centeredly, simply assuming that humans are the ONLY beings in this unimaginably vast universe, frankly is more mind-blowing than the fact that there probably are aliens. In other words, that there more than likely ARE aliens out there is more plausible to me than assuming humans are the only intelligent beings in the universe. I would just like to say that I'm not a nut, and the time for people that think there probably are aliens that exist to be THOUGHT of as nuts, is long past. That is primitive, bully thinking. Unless you happen to be a nut ANYWAY, independently of believing in aliens. That is another matter entirely, and there are a lot of nuts in the alien game, because of the haters, they have been ghettoized and stigmatized. Now that it is 2008, I think the haters should be thought of as crazy and unrealistic.