(no subject)
If the Democratic party doesn't expect to hold each other accountable for their actions, why should the voters think that they will?
Whether you support Clinton or Obama, today is not a good day for the party.
While watching the arguments today, I kept wishing the advocates for letting Florida and Michigan slide would just say what they really mean: that their candidate is losing and we don't really care for the rules...because our girl deserves to win and your guy doesn't.
The whole thing reeked of sour grapes.
One of the arguments in favor of awarding the delegates to the candidates was that if they did not do so, voters were being disenfranchised. This came from the former governor of Michigan...who is likely a fairly high-ranking member of the Michigan DNC. If the delegates had not been given to each candidate, the voters would have reason to feel disenfranchised only because the MICHIGAN DNC BROKE THE RULES! You can't claim a group of people is being wronged when you are the one wronging them. That's just dishonest. That's kind of like if Southern plantation owners, after the North totally pwned the South in the Civil War, fought to keep their slaves because they thought that freed slaves would adapt poorly to their freedom.
The DNC is stupid.
Also, what movie is Mike Myers making fun of in those MTV Movie Awards commercials? I have a pretty good feeling that he's making fun of Wings of Desire, which infuriates me on five levels:
1. It's not funny. First things first...it's just not very funny. It's shameless, easy and a step bellow what Mike Myers could be doing.
2. Wings of Desire is a very good movie and culturally important to the German people. Next, maybe MTV can make fun of Wild Strawberries or Rashomon or hell, why not make fun of Schindler's List. Those are all in black-and-white, are paced deliberately (shop talk for "slow") and about grown-up things.
3. Wings of Desire was already remade into City of Angels...hasn't it suffered enough? It's not that City of Angels is bad, it's that it is a dumbed-down, over-simplified, sentimental adaptation of a very serious film. I still like City of Angels on it's own.
4. The not-so-hidden meaning behind these commercials is that American youth should believe that movies dealing with serious subjects, are shot in black-and-white, and don't involve a lot of explosions are pretentious and devoid in value. As if every person, at the age of 30, flips a switch where their cultural tastes change into the polar opposite of what they enjoyed in their youth. MTV dually takes their demographic for granted and promotes lackluster culture at the same time. I think that most 18-35ers would like No Country for Old Men or Juno (which is nominated) or Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. Nominating Jessica Biel for best female performance is akin to telling their target demo that they shouldn't like a movie like Away From Her. Granted, this year's nominees for best movie are decent ( I Am Legend, Juno, Transformers, Pirates3, Superbad, National Trasure 2 (what?!)), but that's more a reflection of the solid crop of cinema we've had this year. Even the big budget crap is pretty decent. But their's nothing comical about Adam Sandler in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, nor was Denzel Washington really a villain in American Gangster. It's not like the MTV viewers voted for who gets nominated. Still...Sumner Redstone is an American hero, a media trailblazer and a generous philanthropist. (Just in case he's reading this...you never know. He has his finger in many pots of honey.)
and finally...
5. Who the hell is Mike Myers? Who does he think he is? Try producing some new material instead of force-feeding us the same banal jokes that have been slightly changed since the last movie you were in. Shrek, Austin Powers, Pitka...same guy. Mike Myers seems to think comedy is static, but it's not. Audiences catch on to the joke and expect something fresh. I wonder what Christmas is like at the Myers house, circa 2001, before the big divorce. Did he just covertly re-wrap all of the presents he gave her last year? I'm onto you, Myers.
Glad I got that off my chest. The commercials for the MTV Movie Awards have been driving me nuts for about 3 weeks.
Also, thanks for the suggestions. I've decided to create a new, non-lj blog for that kind of writing. I'll keep this one for the more personal stuff, but starting in mid-June, there will be something else, too.
Whether you support Clinton or Obama, today is not a good day for the party.
While watching the arguments today, I kept wishing the advocates for letting Florida and Michigan slide would just say what they really mean: that their candidate is losing and we don't really care for the rules...because our girl deserves to win and your guy doesn't.
The whole thing reeked of sour grapes.
One of the arguments in favor of awarding the delegates to the candidates was that if they did not do so, voters were being disenfranchised. This came from the former governor of Michigan...who is likely a fairly high-ranking member of the Michigan DNC. If the delegates had not been given to each candidate, the voters would have reason to feel disenfranchised only because the MICHIGAN DNC BROKE THE RULES! You can't claim a group of people is being wronged when you are the one wronging them. That's just dishonest. That's kind of like if Southern plantation owners, after the North totally pwned the South in the Civil War, fought to keep their slaves because they thought that freed slaves would adapt poorly to their freedom.
The DNC is stupid.
Also, what movie is Mike Myers making fun of in those MTV Movie Awards commercials? I have a pretty good feeling that he's making fun of Wings of Desire, which infuriates me on five levels:
1. It's not funny. First things first...it's just not very funny. It's shameless, easy and a step bellow what Mike Myers could be doing.
2. Wings of Desire is a very good movie and culturally important to the German people. Next, maybe MTV can make fun of Wild Strawberries or Rashomon or hell, why not make fun of Schindler's List. Those are all in black-and-white, are paced deliberately (shop talk for "slow") and about grown-up things.
3. Wings of Desire was already remade into City of Angels...hasn't it suffered enough? It's not that City of Angels is bad, it's that it is a dumbed-down, over-simplified, sentimental adaptation of a very serious film. I still like City of Angels on it's own.
4. The not-so-hidden meaning behind these commercials is that American youth should believe that movies dealing with serious subjects, are shot in black-and-white, and don't involve a lot of explosions are pretentious and devoid in value. As if every person, at the age of 30, flips a switch where their cultural tastes change into the polar opposite of what they enjoyed in their youth. MTV dually takes their demographic for granted and promotes lackluster culture at the same time. I think that most 18-35ers would like No Country for Old Men or Juno (which is nominated) or Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. Nominating Jessica Biel for best female performance is akin to telling their target demo that they shouldn't like a movie like Away From Her. Granted, this year's nominees for best movie are decent ( I Am Legend, Juno, Transformers, Pirates3, Superbad, National Trasure 2 (what?!)), but that's more a reflection of the solid crop of cinema we've had this year. Even the big budget crap is pretty decent. But their's nothing comical about Adam Sandler in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, nor was Denzel Washington really a villain in American Gangster. It's not like the MTV viewers voted for who gets nominated. Still...Sumner Redstone is an American hero, a media trailblazer and a generous philanthropist. (Just in case he's reading this...you never know. He has his finger in many pots of honey.)
and finally...
5. Who the hell is Mike Myers? Who does he think he is? Try producing some new material instead of force-feeding us the same banal jokes that have been slightly changed since the last movie you were in. Shrek, Austin Powers, Pitka...same guy. Mike Myers seems to think comedy is static, but it's not. Audiences catch on to the joke and expect something fresh. I wonder what Christmas is like at the Myers house, circa 2001, before the big divorce. Did he just covertly re-wrap all of the presents he gave her last year? I'm onto you, Myers.
Glad I got that off my chest. The commercials for the MTV Movie Awards have been driving me nuts for about 3 weeks.
Also, thanks for the suggestions. I've decided to create a new, non-lj blog for that kind of writing. I'll keep this one for the more personal stuff, but starting in mid-June, there will be something else, too.