Archive for May, 2008

An Ink-StainedWretch

May 29, 2008

Cleaning up the paper in my office today (Terminator II: &;I have detailed files.&;) my fingers got stained with a once-familar substance.  &;Don&;t pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel,&; they used to say, in a phrase growing as obsolete as a mimeograph machine.  Now, as former White House press secretary Scott McClellan marvels, the press is a lapdog, cowed by power and ratings. The ink on my fingers reminded me of how at the very beginning of my career, as a freelancer at the Jewish Daily Forward in the 1980&;s, I watched men in skullcaps banging away on linotype machines.  And how as an editor for college papers and later, I got pretty good with an X-Acto knife and rubber cement. Hot type.  Hot damn.

Tags:death-of-newspapers, Jewish-Daily-Forward, Scott-McClellan, Terminator-II Posted in death-of-newspapers | Leave a Comment &;

Signs of the AmericanApocalypse?

May 27, 2008

Defamer thinks the &;bad mom block&;  tagteam combo of Denise Richards and Dina Lohan is the end. &;On a day meant to honor the heroes who have protected our country, last night’s series premieres of Denise Richards: It’s Complicated and Living Lohan showed just how little there is left to protect.&; And just like the 70&;s, the gas thieves are out; got locking gas cap? But our eyes are really wide shut when they start stealing manhole covers and even 512-pound bronze statues with impunity.

[Image via Cinema Treasures.org]

Tags:1970's, American-apocalypse, Defamer, Denise-Richards, Dina-Lohan, locking-gas-cap Posted in apocalyptic-movies, Television | 1 Comment &;

Indiana Jones Reviewed in 7Words

May 27, 2008

So much So much So much Exposition.

Tags:Indiana-Jones Posted in Hollywood Follies | Leave a Comment &;

Ironman andI

May 15, 2008

I hadn&;t thought or written much about it much before the movie came out, but after seeing it at the Cinerama Dome, (arguably the most special place to watch a movie in the world)I I remembered that Ironman was my favorite comic book. Why?  Because Ironman was a nerd before it was a word.  He&;s no Superman or even one of Professor Xavier&;s powerful mutants.  Instead, he&;s the epitome of the brainy guy with the feeble body.  As a smart four-eyed fat kid who got picked on, I grooved on the idea of building something so powerfully electric that it would help vanquish one&;s enemies.  So, I suspect, did Bill Gates and the rest of the Silicon Valley crowd.  Apple creator the Woz, for example, is functionally identical to Bladerunner&;s replicant builder J.F. Sebastian, whose most famous line is  &;There&;s some of me in you.&; Like Ironman and Robert Downey Jr., at least in the good old days, &;debonair&; billionaire Wozniak likes to live dangerously.  He plays Segway polo and dates Kathy Griffin.   And to extend the riff, yes, Stephen Hawking is clearly Ironman.

Robert Downey Jr in “Iron Man.”

Tags:Stephen-Hawking, Wozniak Posted in bill-gates, Blade-Runner, Iron-Man, Robert-Downey-Jr. | Leave a Comment &;