Friday, July 03, 2009
The Houston Tea Party on Friday was Total Bullshit
I went to the "Tea Party" on Friday at 5pm at Discovery Green in downtown Houston. This so-called "Tea Party" was total bullshit, a total con job by a bunch of Republican religious right calling themselves "The Houston Tea Party Society". Half of the sign holders in the park were advocating attacking/combating "illegals". All the speakers felt obligated to devote a third of their speeches to asserting "this is a Christian nation" and our country "was built on the foundation of Judeo-Christian faith". The speakers went on to bring up the oh-so vital topics of Right-to-Life and how as Tea Partyists we must recognize the inherent worth of unborn children. The crowd was exhorted to "vote against all incumbents!", because "our representatives are not doing their jobs!" Nowhere did I hear of any call for simply eliminating ALL taxes, scant (no) mention was made about eliminating 99.9%+ of all government or more extreme (anarchist) measures, or such basic pro-liberty issues as ending the drug war, legalizing consensual behaviors or ending the outrageous wars in the Middle East.In short, apparently the neocon forces have completely co-opted the Tea Parties in the Houston area, and this "Houston Tea Party Society" is nothing more than probably a right-wing religious-right sleeper cell that was put into action to steal our Tea Party idea.Because the Tea Party idea was completely the creation of the Ron Paul R3VOLutionaries and the minarchist and anarchist wings of the libertarian and voluntaryist movements.Needless to say, the University of Houston's local National Public Radio station affiliate gave the rally big time coverage earlier in the day. No doubt, NPR wanted Houstonian libertarians to show up and get the idea that libertarianism is supposed to be about believing in Jesus, fighting abortion, and joining the other sheeple in "voting for change".I attempted to get on the speakers' list so I could rebut some of this insanity, but was informed by the manager/bouncer guarding the stage that the speakers were reserved well in advance and I wouldn't be able to address the crowd. You can imagine some of the things I would have brough up in my speech.Nowhere did I hear any aggressive condemnations of the President, Bush, the Clintons or the other war criminals.As soon as I found out I would not be allowed to speak, and heard more exhortations by the Jesus freaks on the loudspeakers, I cut my losses and left the park.No doubt the rally was broadcast on the news and in the papers. Hey, this shit was MADE for TV.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Public Enemies movie review - by Nic Leobold
Public Enemies -- Movie Review
by Nicolas Leobold
To put it bluntly, Public Enemies is a mediocre film.
After his 2000’s disaster Collateral, Michael Mann has failed again to capture the magic and power of his 1990’s crime blockbuster masterpiece, Heat.
Public Enemies fails on many levels. Throughout the film, the actors dialogue on the soundtrack in often garbled, muffled and unintelligible. Christian Bale as the tough FBI agent Melvin Purvis goes through the entire film trying to pull off some type of tough-guy spoken accent that is supposed to be either Southern, Midwesterner, Chicago-tough or D.C. officer-bureaucratic, but his performance and speaking quality is so bad I can’t tell which it is. Bale’s failed accent attempt renders his entire performance throughout the film pathetically bad. Also, Bale likes to punctuate his powerful lines with a stony silent statue pose after all his big monologues, in which he freezes in front of the filming camera and tries to look tough and menacing but only manages to look stupid and laughable.
The film simply fails to capture the type of intense drama and captivating performances and production values that were so addictively pleasurable in Heat.
There is no aesthetic tension between two compelling and conflicting forces like between Heat’s Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino and the gangsters versus the police in Heat.
Public Enemies is simply not a very dramatic and exciting movie.
The music of the film can’t decide between playing 1930’s depression-era folk songs, 1930’s jazz and roaring 30’s and love ballads, or an attempt at an atmospheric musical soundtrack. The film in fact does not have any of the atmosphere and palpable beauty of Heat--not even close. There is also zero character development from the screenplay. You never understand any of the motivations, thinking and personalities of the characters, not even of John Dillinger and his girlfriend, as handsome an actor as Johnny Depp is, as opposed to in Heat, where the character development began from the very first minutes and continued through to the film’s climax. Also, the writers can’t decide whether they want to portray the FBI agents as corrupt “bad cops” or honorable “career officers”. One particularly stupid segment has a fattish FBI agent manhandling and beating Dillinger’s girlfriend during an interrogation, when a superior comes in and slams him against the wall, with Bale carrying her out heroically. The scene wasn’t heroic, it was ridiculously pretentious and fake. Are these FBI agents thugs or professionals, can’t the writers and director decide?
The photography is pretty ordinary throughout the whole 2 ½ hours, the one exception being a nicely filmed segment at a 30’s thoroughbred racetrack. The first quarter of the film is very weak, with the hard-to-follow dialogue and no substantive beginning and transitions. From the middle to the end it gets a wee bit stronger, but it is a lame, insignificant improvement.
Basically, Public Enemies is a big disappointment and not worthy of being watched a second time, not even close, whereas I have seen Heat more than 30 or 40 times, could easily watch it another 40 times, and would jump at the chance to see it again on the big screen.
To put it bluntly, Public Enemies is a mediocre film.
After his 2000’s disaster Collateral, Michael Mann has failed again to capture the magic and power of his 1990’s crime blockbuster masterpiece, Heat.
Public Enemies fails on many levels. Throughout the film, the actors dialogue on the soundtrack in often garbled, muffled and unintelligible. Christian Bale as the tough FBI agent Melvin Purvis goes through the entire film trying to pull off some type of tough-guy spoken accent that is supposed to be either Southern, Midwesterner, Chicago-tough or D.C. officer-bureaucratic, but his performance and speaking quality is so bad I can’t tell which it is. Bale’s failed accent attempt renders his entire performance throughout the film pathetically bad. Also, Bale likes to punctuate his powerful lines with a stony silent statue pose after all his big monologues, in which he freezes in front of the filming camera and tries to look tough and menacing but only manages to look stupid and laughable.
The film simply fails to capture the type of intense drama and captivating performances and production values that were so addictively pleasurable in Heat.
There is no aesthetic tension between two compelling and conflicting forces like between Heat’s Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino and the gangsters versus the police in Heat.
Public Enemies is simply not a very dramatic and exciting movie.
The music of the film can’t decide between playing 1930’s depression-era folk songs, 1930’s jazz and roaring 30’s and love ballads, or an attempt at an atmospheric musical soundtrack. The film in fact does not have any of the atmosphere and palpable beauty of Heat--not even close. There is also zero character development from the screenplay. You never understand any of the motivations, thinking and personalities of the characters, not even of John Dillinger and his girlfriend, as handsome an actor as Johnny Depp is, as opposed to in Heat, where the character development began from the very first minutes and continued through to the film’s climax. Also, the writers can’t decide whether they want to portray the FBI agents as corrupt “bad cops” or honorable “career officers”. One particularly stupid segment has a fattish FBI agent manhandling and beating Dillinger’s girlfriend during an interrogation, when a superior comes in and slams him against the wall, with Bale carrying her out heroically. The scene wasn’t heroic, it was ridiculously pretentious and fake. Are these FBI agents thugs or professionals, can’t the writers and director decide?
The photography is pretty ordinary throughout the whole 2 ½ hours, the one exception being a nicely filmed segment at a 30’s thoroughbred racetrack. The first quarter of the film is very weak, with the hard-to-follow dialogue and no substantive beginning and transitions. From the middle to the end it gets a wee bit stronger, but it is a lame, insignificant improvement.
Basically, Public Enemies is a big disappointment and not worthy of being watched a second time, not even close, whereas I have seen Heat more than 30 or 40 times, could easily watch it another 40 times, and would jump at the chance to see it again on the big screen.
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