Barack-O-Lantern

This pumpkin may appear to be expressing a purely nonpartisan message, but trust me, it's for Obama. I carved it, so I know.

Denise Richards: It's Complicated: It's Resuscitated.

According to Us Magazine, E!'s godawful reality program,Denise Richards: It's Complicated, will, in fact, be returning for a second season. Not fair.

"W." : An Oliver Stone Curiosity

When I was a senior in high school, way back in the fall of 1988, my AP lit teacher was complaining about a school play he'd agreed to act in. It seems that a group of industrious students had decided to adapt John Hughes' film The Breakfast Club for the high school stage. The Breakfast Club was released in 1985, and whether or not you're a fan of that film, you could probably remember it well enough three years later that you wouldn't need to see your classmates recreate it on the high school stage. I'm not trying to say that John Hughes movies have anywhere near the significance of government affairs or world events, but after watching Oliver Stone's "W", I think I can imagine what those in the audience of South Eugene High's "Breakfast Club" production must have felt.

There's something inherently strange about seeing well known actors portraying government officials who are STILL RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT. The A-list cast do the best they can, but none of them are really able to break free of the disconnect that this movie creates for the viewer. Josh Brolin does a great job of mimicking Bush's voice and Texas bravado, but he doesn't really look like Bush, and the casting of Thandie Newton and Scott Glenn as Condoleeza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld is even worse. Putting the casting aside for a moment, though, what was really the point in making this film and then rushing it out before the election? A lot of the dialogue was taken from transcripts of actual events, but in our current 24 hour news cycle world, was anyone really dying to see these events recreated by Hollywood actors? The Bush administration is portrayed as a bunch of arrogant politicians who abused their power to take us to war in Iraq. This may be news to some, but I think most of us have heard it already. Stone doesn't perform a hatchet job on Bush exactly, but he doesn't have to. No one who has a low opinion of Bush is going to change their mind after seeing this movie, and the film doesn't cut deep enough to sway any Bush supporters. Instead, it's content to hold a mirror up to recent events, occasionally pausing to portray W. as a ne'er do well child of privilege with Daddy issues. Again, tell us something we don't know. If Oliver Stone thinks that this movie is going to have any impact whatsoever on the way people vote on November 4th, he's got a bigger ego than Bush and Cheney combined.

Okay. Rays.

(NY Times Photo)
The Red Sox took the American League Championship Series to seven games, but in the end, youth won out over experience. Riding on the arm of Matt Garza, who pitched into the 8th inning and only allowed 2 Boston hits, Tampa Bay held off Boston's furious comeback and successfully completed their transition from being last year's worst team to this year's World Series contender. While my gut instinct is to reject Florida expansion teams out of hand, and my hatred of Tampa Bay's ridiculous domed ballpark remains intact, this is a very good young team that's hard to truly dislike. As a result, I will pay them the respect they deserve, and quit calling them the Devil Rays. That being said, this is a pretty funny little piece on the Rays name change:

http://theserioustip.blogspot.com/2007/09/church-members-upset-over-devil-rays.html

To Hell With The Devil Rays

Love them or hate them, Thursday night's comeback by the Boston Red Sox was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. In honor of the biggest post season comeback in 79 years, I hereby post this picture of your faithful blogger, taken outside of Fenway Park on Opening Day in April 2007. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series that year, the day after I got married. I'm definitely staying married; whether the Red Sox can come all the way back against the Devil Rays and defend their title remains to be seen. But man, what a game!

Locking up the Post-Punk Vote

Taken by yours truly at the Mission of Burma show at Echoplex, September 25th, 2008. When a group breaks up and then reforms after a long period of time, you never know what you're gonna get. A lot of the time you get a bunch of much older guys trying to cash in on former glories. Sometimes, though, the group is made up of such fierce, singular talent that when they reform, it's almost as if they never left. Lucky for us, Boston's Mission of Burma falls into the latter category. As their name (not changed to Mission of Myanmar, obviously) would indicate, they've always embraced politics as a central theme, and as the picture indicates, they expressed their feelings about the upcoming election in no uncertain terms by decorating this amp and making damn sure that everyone could read it BEFORE they started their set.

Sadly, the message seemed to sail over the heads of some people in the audience. Rather than inspiring any kind of meaningful political discourse, the first thing shouted out to original Burma member Roger Miller was "Nice Pants!" Miller looked down at his pants, which were perfectly average, and gave the appropriate response:
"What the fuck are you talking about?" The band then proceeded to play their 1982 debut album "Vs" from front to back, and there was rock, and it was very very good.