Undeniable eloquence and straight talk reveal an unparalled mastery of Foreign Policy.

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? … Instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions.

New Kaufman film. Synecdoche, New York

New Charlie Kaufman film, his directorial debut and it is (as his work always is) indisputably intriguing.
Watch the trailer here
If you are not familiar with Kaufman, he wrote the following :
Being John Malkovich
Adaptation
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Ghostbusters 3

More rumblings on a possible Ghostbusters 3 film. As you may or may not know, the writers have apparently been chosen, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky of the US version of The Office are going to give the script a go. Harold Ramis and Dan Akyroyd have both said they've been interested in possibly filming a third film to complete the series. Of course nobody mentions the one black Ghostbuster, Ernie Hudson aka Winston Zeddemore, but one would have to assume he wouldn't mind rocking the tan jump suit one more time. You know they didn't even put him on the front or back cover of the VHS for Ghostbusters 2. Do Ramis, Akyroyd and Reitman hate black people or was the omission due to something else, you be the judge. With that said, the one main piece of the puzzle that was unknown until today was the status of the man who seemed to be the most apprehensive, Peter Venkman himself, Billy Murray. During a Q&A at Fantastic Fest Murray was asked about his interest in doing another film and for the first time expressed excitement about the idea saying he'd heard that some writers from The Office were working on it and he'd "definitely be into doing another Ghostbusters movie." Lets hope they don't nuke the fridge on this one like Indy 4. Fingers crossed.

Tony Stark you will rue the day you stepped on my sneakers and didnt apologize.

If you read the graphic and vivid disappointment on my face you'd know that my powers have yet to manifest and therefore I am not currently labeled a 'superhero' by society or the media. Nor am I a billionaire with the technological know-how or appropriate connections to fight crime without certain genetic benefits or mutations. I don't have a last name that will ever be used as a fashionable first name ala Parker or Kent and despite the fact that I seek out accidents involving radioactive material it has yet to yield any positive effects. With all that said, the sticker to my right displaying the fact that 'I am a Superhero' is but a mere rouse, however the blog in which is it appropriately linked to is, about as close as a blog can get to being a Superhero. I don't know what that means but...its true nonetheless.

Look at Colbert's face and try not to laugh.
Glorious stuff.

Sarah, you Palin comparasion.

http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

The fact that some Americans, lets not even touch on the majority, think this woman is qualified makes me want to twist my head around until it pops off, grab my spine like a balloon string and float skyward to spend the rest of my days living within the clouds with the cloud people.

Go to this link and vote and if you're voting yes, I would love to hear your logic behind that decision.

One the Road to be adapted by Walter Salles

Just came across this news, very interesting to me for a few reasons. The first being my surprise that it took Hollywood this long to get a green light on this adaptation and the second being that once it was, they gave a lesser known Brazilian director the reigns. Walter Salles directed The Motorcycle Diaries, a precise and expanding film that follows the early days of Ernesto 'che' Guevara on a motorcycle trip which leads him to find his true calling. This was also an adaption from a book of the same name and stayed very true to it from top to bottom, was executed with grace and respect and created a serene open air atmposhere that sculpted the tonality of the film flawlessly. The man knows what he's doing, however, On the Road is one of those books with such a cult following spanning many different generations and will, no doubt make for an extremely difficult transfer of essence to the screen without making some sacrifices and changes. It always a gamble to take classic novels and transpose them to create a visual component that comes from one minds interpretation of the work. However, in my opinion you could not ask for a better director to attempt the feat of capturing On the Road on the silver screen, I mean lets face it...this man knows road trips like Sarah Palin knows ice hockey. (Shouldn't she know foreign policy? Nah, Hockeys enough.)
Now the question of the casting, I remember reading about an On the Road film being made about 5 years ago with Brad Pitt to play Dean Moriarty; which obviously never happened. Still seemed like a solid choice for the cult hero. Really no matter who they do end up casting, its a risky move to attempt this film, but hey, The Spirit, Watchmen and Fahrenheit 451 are all being released within the next 2 years so...well see how they, and On the Road fare.

The Polarizing Alan Ball

When Writer, Director, Producer Alan Ball's work touches the screen it hits its viewers heads with a polarizing ray. The odds are, if you're between the ages of 18-35 you saw and enjoyed American Beauty and you're parents...didn't feel the same. Its a trend that I've noticed ever since the film was released. The people of my generation, Y, seem to think of the film as an uncompromising piece of art that meticulously exposed many common issues that exist within the fabric of the Rockwellesque, plastic, suburban unit. There is a vivid gap between the films that defined our parents generations and ours and it is readily apparent on their reaction to this film. A work that seemed to hit so close to home for parents living mirror image lives to that of the Burnams and having the holes in their picture perfect American dream exposed, appropriately, didn't sit right with them. Generation Y, as a whole, seems to be much more open to finding beauty and light in the darkness of the world. There is evidence of this in every facet of art that's been created by and for us. Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and TOOL are some of the biggest rock groups in the world, not exacty Frankie Valley and The 4 Seasons; Darren Aronofskys Requiem For a Dream and Richard Kellys Donnie Darko became some of the most popular films for younger people in the last 10 years. The Baby Boomers were fans of some dark tales too but all of those films were rooted from a place of pure fantasy. Many of the films in our generation are intent on being as real and raw as possible to create a world that is easily relatable.
Ball's work always tackles issues that, on mere plot description, most would rather shy away from then see a film about. His new film, Towelhead, is set during the onset of the gulf war and follows a 13 year old Arab girl, Jasira who is sent to live with her father in Houston Texas. The story follows Jasira as she struggles with her Father, her racist classmates and her realization about the bleak view people have of her as an Arab American. Amidst all this, Jasira develops a sexual obsession with her 40 something bigot of a next door neighbor and must wade through all this to live a "normal" life. Ah, the never ending search for normalcy, a constant theme in Ball's films. People repressing the need for true happiness to fit into a mold of which they believe their lives should fit when in reality, happiness is happiness no matter what way you cut it. Every character in American Beauty was searching for something that wasn't there but from the eyes of an outsider they were the classic family unit devoid of any 'real' problems. There were many cracks in that white picket fence, there are cracks in lots of suburban families that develop because so many things are buried, repressed and their lives become material in nature as everything is left to fester until they implode and do some of the incorrigible things that happen in an Alan Ball film. These films have messages that generation Y seems to eat up and our parents seem to dismiss without true recognition. Maybe its because these films are as raw as they can be mean in the depiction of the subjects they portray and some parents may take this as an insult to the life they have built for their family. Maybe its the fact that the younger generations have developed more of an appreciation for harsh art or most likely its a combination of the 2 that separate our views on works like this. What I'm wondering is, will my children and I differ as much in our appreciation of art as my parents and I do? Will art continue to get more harsh and dark or had it hit its apex, and will soon regress back to happier times? Was the reaction of our Grandparents generation to Kubrick films the same as our parents to Ball, PT Anderson, Aronofsky and Kaufman. That would mean that these films will also be enjoyed by the next generation just as we enjoy Kubrick, Lumet, and Polanskis work.

The Goon

For those who don't know The Goon is a two time Eisner award winning comic series written by Eric Powell and soon to be a feature length film penned by the aforementioned writer, produced by David Fincher and created by Blur Studios. Label me pumped.

Charles Foster McCain

I came across this picture and it could in no way be more perfect. It features the lifeless puppet senator McCain as Charles Foster Kane of the film Citizen Kane. The same film in which, as you may or may not know this blog is named after. A match made in heaven one might say, most wouldn't, but one...might.

How
How in the name of all that is labeled holy by the bible thumping, coke enthusiasts that run this sphere could anyone in America show blatant discontent for our current affairs and say that McCain has their vote. 95%, he voted with our current empty headed, socially, mentally and intellectually inept dolt of a commander in chief 95% of the time. I'm no mathematician but thats a whopping 5% of issues in which he differs. Their whole new 'change' platform is laughable and Americans really need to be more educated on these subjects. That way, when Sen. McCain, that vapid, cracked shell of his former self takes the stage you will have the acute and near superhero ability to smell bullshit through a television screen.
One more thing to ponder, McCain in 72 years old, if he kicks the proverbial bucket were looking at a small town beauty queen turned hockey Mom Governor who has never even heard of the Bush Doctrine running the free world. How do things like this ever even have the faintest chance at coming to fruition? How does this happen? How?

Burn After Reading

Burn After Reading was a film I'd been waiting to see since I heard about the project simply because, well its a Coen Bros. film and I'm always one of the first to line up for their work. I thought No Country for Old Men was a pretty brilliant film but at the same I was very pleased to hear that Burn After Reading would be a return to the cat and mouse, dark-screwball farce infused with the token Coen quirk that just emanates throughout all their films. The film has quite the ensemble cast, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, the always genius J.K. Simmons and my personal favorite, multiple Coen collaborator and wife of Joel Coen, Frances McDormand.
The film begins following Osborne Cox (Malkovich) who in the opening scene is demoted from his job at the CIA due to his excessive drinking and subsequently quits. From there the film follows 4 different groups through a maze that half of them don't even know there in and the other half have no idea how to get to the end or if there is anything at the end. Pitt is completely hilarious as the bumbling personal trainer Chad. He's dialed up to 10 and miles over the top the entire time but it works and succeeds to make for most of the funnier scenes in the film. J.K. Simmons and David Rasch are the highlight of the film as the CIA officers following everything thats going on with complete head scratching confusion at the lunacy of the whole situation. Clooney is good, Malkovich is good but the film as a whole slightly misses the mark. It was very good at times but at the end I just had the feeling that it would've worked much better as a short film. Cut the story down to bare bones, 35-40 minutes and incinerate the excess fat. The people in which you're following throughout the brief but not brief enough 97 mins are such complete dolts that when everything crashes and burns its just the conclusion you figured, and maybe hoped, would happen. The film has some good moments but it just wasn't up to par with most of their previous work.
Bottom Line: On the Coen comedy spectrum, more on par with The Ladykillers than Fargo, Big Lebowski or O Brother Where Art Thou?

Sarah, you Palin comparasion.

Young Guns 3: Fabregas, Walcott and Nasri

Last year was a rather disappointing one for Arsenal supporters. The first Thierry Henry-less season started off very promising and the Gunners continued to thrive until the injury to Eduardo seemed to derail the squad. They crumbled in the last month after leading the league for the entire season, fell to Liverpool in the Champions League in heartbreaking fashion on a questionable call and seemed to hit their stride for a moment, only to viscously deflate when they needed the points.
The off season headlines were dominated by the news that both Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb were leaving the Gunners for Barcelona and AC Milan. Despite these massive losses to the infrastructure of the midfield and the disappointment of last season I think Arsenal will be back with a rabid vengeance. The emergence last season of Theo Walcott as a force to be reckoned with accompanied by the signing of another young gun with tremendous upside Samir Nasri should help lighten the load. The re-signing of Adebayor along with a healthy Fabregas and Van Persie and I dont know how one could not be looking at Arsenal to be a big contender.
Lets not forget Walcott started for England last week in place of one (washed up) David Beckham and ended up being the youngest player (19) to net a hat trick in international play.
Arsenal Gunners 08/09

the very antithesis of an outroduction

So, heres a blog.
Destined to be filled far beneath the brim with random ramblings, blatant moments of savagery (politics) head knocking revelations of euphonious ecstasy (music) thoughts on films, books, comics, art,sports, people, products, and palindromes.
I know...revolutionary.

Sham Wow, you'll say wow every time.

Stay tuned.