Once again I 've recorded about 4 minutes and managed to upload only 2...
What I was saying about comments was...
MOSTLY, your comments are quite wonderful and well told and full of good information and excellent stories and I really appreciate very much your input.
Best wishes...
I'm leaving on a jet plane.
Venice, Sicily...Carnivale, Corleone...
I won't be posting on this blog again until March 3d.
But...
If you feel so inclined, check in occasionally to my other bog site,
http://laughingintheisles.blogspot.com/
which I last used during my '09 trip to Edinburgh and Dublin.
I'll endevour to get some good fotos of the masks and costumes in the Piazza, and the hillsides and Greek ruins in Sicilia.
A tough assignment, I realize, but...
Be well, Tutti!
Cosy Cave Lane.
Respected and admired Air Force Colonel charges with multiple murders of young women.
This is the stuff of old Law and Order episodes.
Will Ben Stone come out of his drunken retirement to prosecute?
Forgive me, for this is no laughing matter to the families of these victims.
The story is horrifying and fascinating and too much like a movie.
No doubt some enterprising HBO executive has already bought the rights.
Iran is fronted by a madman.
It is run by fundamentalist religious clerics.
It is increasing its nuclear stronghold.
And claiming that this is in the interests of medicine.
Read the latest from the NY Times and then pray or go jogging and try to forget that there are rogue nations on this earth that pose a clear and present danger to humankind.
(The "other guy" is American Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates.)
This was forwarded this morning from a friend on Hornby Island, where people read the news very early each day. Thanks, Gary.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Convicted ex-Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee was
reinstated Sunday as a full member of the International Olympic Committee, a
boost for South Korea's bid to host the 2018 Winter Games.
Lee's rights were restored by the IOC executive board, although the IOC also
gave him a public reprimand for tarnishing the Olympic movement and banned him
from serving on any IOC commissions for five years.
Lee voluntarily gave up his IOC rights after being indicted in 2008 in a
financial and tax evasion case. The South Korean government pardoned Lee last
year, clearing the way for his return to the IOC.
Lee is now free to attend IOC sessions, take part in IOC votes and help South
Korea's latest campaign to host the Winter Games.
The South Korean government has said Lee will be a key figure in the bid from
Pyeongchang, which is competing for the 2018 Games along with Munich and
Annecy, France.
Pyeongchang is bidding for the third straight time after defeats for the 2010
and 2014 Games, which went to Vancouver and Sochi, Russia. The IOC will choose
the 2018 host in 2011.
With Lee's reinstatement, South Korea has two IOC members. The other is Moon
Dae-sung.
"We are delighted to hear the news," said Park Yang-chun, chairman of the
Korean Olympic Committee's international relations commission. "We are very
pleased to hear of his reinstatement."
Park said it was too early to determine Lee's exact role in the Pyeongchang bid.
"One way or another he will join our bid," he said. "There is nothing official
yet. Mr. Lee will decide."
Lee's reinstatement follows the pattern of previous IOC ethics cases. French
member Guy Drut was provisionally suspended in 2005 after being convicted in a
party-financing trial. He was reinstated by the IOC a year later after being
pardoned by then French President Jacques Chirac.
Lee stepped down in April 2008 after 20 years at the helm of the Samsung Group
after being indicted in connection with losses at a Samsung affiliate and for
tax evasion. He later was fined and sentenced to a suspended three-year prison
term.
In Sunday's ruling, the IOC ethics commission said Lee's conduct "has tarnished
the reputation of the Olympic movement" and violated the IOC's ethical
principles.
The IOC issued him with a "reprimand" and a five-year suspension from sitting
on any commissions.
Asked how the committee could bring back a member who had been convicted of
criminal charges, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: "He has received two of the
three strongest sanctions the IOC can give."
The strongest sanction is expulsion.
The citizens of Colorado Springs, all 380,000 of them, have agreed that their city - just a hike down the road from Denver, doesn't really need or want government...or its questionable services.
In true American libertarian style they have decided to go it alone.
That includes parks, trash, lawns, dogs, you name it.
Outrageous! Madness! You say.
Or is it a sign of things to come and a warning to the idiots who mismanage governments everywhere at all levels - which, roughly means all of them?
There are dozens of temporary licenses that have been issued for the duration of the Games. Taxi operators in the GVRD who cannot usually operate within the City of Vancouver are now able to deploy up to 35% of their fleet to pick up passengers at Olympic sites or anywhere else in the city. The Olympic transportation plan and associated road closures make using taxis within the city to get to and from Olympic events very inconvenient (no right lane stopping, meaning the amount of cab stands is severely reduced during the Games). Finally, the economy is still soft, making cab fares an expense that many individuals and companies have cut back on.
As part of TCM’s Oscar month, “The Adventures of Robin Hood played the other night and I was able to catch and to enjoy immensely the last half hour or so.
This 1938 movie starred Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains.
I’ll give you a hint.
Rathbone played neither Maid Marian nor Friar Tuck.
What made the movie so much fun was Flynn’s cheeky charm and Olivia’s ethereal beauty.
There was a full and necessary slate of sword fighting and arrows falling we know not where, but the over-all take by director Michael Curtiz was lightness and feather touch.
This is, after all, a kind of fairy tale.
But that is all about to change, children.
Any moment now the new Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe monstrosity, “Robin Hood”, will overwhelm your neighbourhood screens.
Crowe was born to play “brute.”
He specializes in brute force.
Crowe and Scott were the pair who brought you “Gladiator.”
Do you remember anything from this movie? I don’t.
Here’s what the new “Robin Hood” will offer.
Heads hacked in two by axes.
Severed arteries exposed by missing limbs spurting blood in your face.
The intensity and mystery and neuroses of Cate Blanchett.
I can’t wait till this team tackles Sir Galahad.
A man is kicking a woman in the stomach.
Repeatedly.
On television.
If you saw this, wouldn't you be outraged, furious, spurred to action?
Soon you are on the phone and on the Internet registering your loud and justified complaint about violence towards women.
And you would be right.
But wait.
Every day, you can see exactly this TV advertisement.
Except that a woman is kicking a man in the stomach.
She also punches him several times.
She is oh so funny and he is the Dope.
Ho ho ho.
Isn't that amusing.
That piece of male debasement is the work of a clever and irresponsible ad executive and his/her "creative team," who want to attract women to their client's product or service.
I believe the client in this case is BMO, the Bank of Montreal.
This dreadful unnecessary and socially destructive piece of trash is part of a long tradition in TV programming and advertising, both of which are aimed at the "female consumer."
Because that's what you are, ladies, in the warped minds of advertisers and their clients - consumers.
You USE stuff.
In this oft-repeated scenario, the woman always wins.
She is smarter, stronger, more clever, more resourceful.
The hubby is a colossal nitwit, a loser, an incompetent, who clearly could not function without his far superior partner to drag his sorry ass through life.
And this running sore of a theme helps children and families HOW?
If a man kicked a woman in the stomach in an ad on prime time television, it would be front page news and talk show fodder for weeks.
But having a woman kick a man in the stomach is apparently just funny.
No.
It is not funny.
It is sick.
Boys and girls need and want fathers they can respect and admire.
Women and men need to respect one another.
Ridicule is not the way.
Pete McMartin, the Sun columnist, wrote an excellent piece yesterday.
The headline pretty much catches the gist of the article:
"Why I loathe the Olympics and why I hope they succeed"
I think he has captured the mix of emotions that many are feeling.
Does any one truly understand the "Missionaries Charged with Kidnapping" story?
Because I don't.
Are these people simply stupid or naive, scooping up 33 children and trying to rush them out of Haiti?
Are the deliberately posing as naive?
Are they, in fact, evil maniacs?
I really have no idea.
They keep telling any one who will listen - or bring them bread and water - that this is all simply a misunderstanding and a case of some innocently missing paper work.
It's possible...but...
Please explain your take on this peculiar circumstance.
An American reporter, who doesn't like The Games, has been turned back and not allowed into Canada by Canadian customs.
We have no information that this man is dangerous or violent or disruptive in any way.
But he does have an opinion.
Shame on him.
Can't he just buckle down and sing, "I believe?"
Not a week goes by without a half-page foto of Officially Annointed Comedian of Canada, Rick Mercer, being thrown out of a plane or some such running in full-color in every newspaper in Canada. And this costs the taxpayer how much? Our friend, Victor, has even found Mercer in his Shark's Fin Soup!
Last night we sat in a Chinese restaurant, surrounded by Chinese
patrons, eating glorious spicy fish while watching Rick Mercer on a
54 inch screen , mercifully with no sound. Surreal .
As virtually the only white person in the place, sitting among a
couple of hundred taxpaying Chinese Canadians who were ignoring the
mugging dork on the TV, I asked myself " Why do we have this guy"? I
also wondered what he is paid, how big is the budget that takes him
around the country and how large is his obscenely bloated CBC staff?
We have an Auditor General, a Governor General but do we need a
Comedian General? Paid for by taxpayers? Didn't syphilitic kings in
ancient times hire a court fool out of the public purse for the same
purpose? Aren't we beyond that?
I realize that I am out of sync with those Canadians who think his
painfully contrived skits, camera-hogging juvenility and gratuitous
anti-Americanism are are uproariously funny. But if he's that good,
why can't he get a sponsor to fund his efforts?
Then again, I am out of sync with all those Canadians who think that
the mere possession of a Newfoundland accent, applied to the most
puerile skits, is high comedy.
An elderly woman is seated on a city transit bus the other day.
She has her groceries on the seat beside her.
The bus is half empty.
Let me repeat.
The bus is half empty.
A young woman with VANOC marked all over her perfect self gets on, heads straight to the seated woman, and declares, "I want to sit there."
Not, "Excuse me, ma-am, but may I sit in that seat? Could you move those parcels please..." and anything like this.
And why there?
The bus is half empty.
Did I mention that?
The rude, privileged demand is hardly out of her mouth than the entire remaining passengers begin angrily and loudly chanting, "OFF VANOC! OFF VANOC! OFF VANOC!"
My friend, Donna, who told me this story yesterday, sees this incident as a clear and strong evidence of how so many Vancouverites are feeling about the arrogance of the VANOC Class.
I told her about a first year University professor I had about a thousand years ago, who came into class one bright winter morning and wrote in huge letters across the entire width of the blackboard, "CREDIT IS A SACRED TRUST."
He told us he had just seen this obscenity on a billboard in downtown Winnipeg.
He then ranted for an hour about the abuse of language, about putting spin on usury to make it holy.
This is how both Donna and I feel about "I believe."
Exactly what is it that Donald Sutherland and Bill Goo and all those other stooges believe?
I believe in God?
I believe in the divine right of Vancouver to host the Games?
I believe in free tickets? Little Upchuck? Red Mitties?
Pure shmarm.
Show me an athlete skiing or skating. Don't spend the entire budget to do it. Don't shut down social, health and education programs to pay for it. Don't declare yourself a "world class city." Don't raise Groupthink to Orwellian proportions.
Show me an athlete.
Keep it simple.
And detestable, as well.
Iggy Pop, languishing right there at the very bottom of all the polls, in an act of sheer hysteria has raised the spectre of an abortion discussion.
This is supposed to be the new conscience of the nation?
What cynicism.
What over-calculated drama queen idiocy.
What ever happened to the presentation of policy?
Next!
I have a new radio talk show on the way.
It's called "Sauna Talk."
Which is a bit misleading because all of the conversation and interviews actually take place in the whirlpool at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre on Beach Avenue.
The inspiration came yesterday.
Five men of various shapes and sizes were shvitzing at the far end of the giant tub.
Each one looked and sounded dumber than the last.
But, boy, did they know everything about everything!
Gordon Campbell, George Bush, Afghanistan, Obama, interest rates, mortgages, property assessments, Drew Brees, the Saints...
The Tatooted Man - there's one in every whirlpool - even had a life-size Mickey Mouse on his chest.
Whatever is really "life-size" for The Mick...who knows?
I thought as I hobbled back to the locker room, "The Globe, the New York Times - what do I read this trash for? I've got the experts right here in sloppy hanging Hawaiian bathing suits."
There must be some station in town who really needs something different...
Listen closely over the coming weeks...but, Puleeeeze, brng your own towel!
The video below shows the fascinating and complex structuring of a sequence in the 1946 movie, “The Jolson Story.”
This may be the first movie I ever saw.
It is certainly the first one I remember.
And it had a profound effect on me.
To this day, I still have a VHS copy of the film, and the sequel, “Jolson Sings Again.”
The story has been made and remade a dozen times under various guises, beginning with the very first “talkie,” “The Jazz Singer,” starring Al Jolson himself.
“The Jazz Singer” has been remade first with Danny Thomas and then with Neil Diamond.
“Funny Girl,” although a bio of Fanny Brice, follows the same trajectory and themes – the great performer who lays so much out there on the stage for his/her love affair with the audience that he/she can’t possibly have a reasonable or successful personal life. Think Bette Davis – 75 different addresses and 4, I believe, husbands.
In the movie below, Larry Parks is playing Jolson, who, of course recorded all the music tracks.
Jolson was such an egotist that he wanted to play the part himself.
He was dissuaded, but you can see him from a distance – shot from the theatre balcony – in the “Swanee River” number later in the film.
Larry Parks was nominated for Best Actor, but lost to Fredrick March for his role in “The Best Years of our Lives.”
Parks’ career was destroyed shortly thereafter by the McCarthy hearings. He survived by doing Broadway and live theatre around the country.
We didn’t really see him again in the movies until 1962 in “Freud.”
