Karl Rove, Evil Genius

I don't like Karl Rove. I mean, as far as his politics go, he's a pretty evil person.

But just because someone is evil, it doesn't mean that they aren't brilliant.

Rove wrote this piece about the Democratic nominating convention for Newsweek and it's one of the best pieces of punditry I've read in a long time. It's insightful, spot-on, well-written and... okay, I'll admit it... brilliant.

So, here it is: The Dems' Knife Fight.

Nader talks about consumer protection

God bless that man.

I mean, if you believe there is a God.

Which there probably isn't... But, whatever... Either way, Ralph Nader is a prince.

Killer At Large

I just got an acceptance letter from a film festival for Killer At Large.

More info soon to come.

I was going to write a review for Run, Fatboy, Run but then decided not to. It was pretty "meh." It had 3, maybe 4, kind of funny jokes in it. The filmmaking was pretty pedestrian.

Anyhow, more info soon.

Jitterbug

A short film Elias, Steve and I Executive Produced (meaning we helped a little in post) has been accepted to 2 festivals and has a website now.

It's called Jitterbug.

It's a great little film and you can watch it over at the website. I'm really happy to be involved with it.

But it's premiering in May at the Charleston and Berkshire Film Festivals.

Check it out and be sure to watch for it.

Clinton's Bosnia Trip

This is certainly not any type of nail in the coffin of the Clinton campaign, but this is pretty funny. In this day and age of 24 hour news, you should assume people have tape of any public event or photo-op you've ever been to. So you should make damn sure to watch the tape before you recollect anything.

Also, pay close attention to the Clinton camp's spin-doctor in the video. They're rationale for the gaffe is actually laugh out loud funny.

Sexy Politics

I've finally found a website that combines two of my greatest pleasures:

1) trivia quizzes (in this case those of the political variety)

and

2) watching cute girls take off their clothes

Indeed, Sexypolitics.com has come up with a great incentive for learning about the things that affect you politically. I mean, honestly, who wouldn't take politics a little more seriously if they could watch girls in various outfits and uniforms take off a bit of clothing with each correct answer?

The only downside? It's safe for work.

Anyhow, apparently I'm pretty good at it. I've only done about 10 quizzes and made the top 10 high scores on most of them. (It sucks, I did the one that I got the #1 score for before I registered.)

Anyhow, check it out.

FUNNY SHIT

hat tip BLAME IT ON THE VOICES

BYU POLICE BEAT

Got some real gems this time:

Feb. 29: BYU police received a call reporting a white male wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt walking around Maeser Hill hitting people. When officers responded, the suspicious male was not on the premises.

March 1: BYU police received a call reporting suspicious behavior in a Heritage Hall parking lot. Individuals were seen running around the parking lot and looking into cars. Upon investigation it was determined that the students were chasing deer around the lot.

March 7: A suspicious male was seen walking a dog near Wymount. When police responded neither the man nor the dog was present. NOTE: Who the fuck is making these police calls?

March 9: A male BYU student received a threatening text message indicating he would die. The student responded with a text message saying that he would take the sender of the text message with him. There are no known suspects.

March 10: Residents of Wymount called BYU police when they noticed a suspicious male in their commons area. None of the residents recognized the man, who had been sitting and watching children play for an hour. When an officer responded they discovered that the man was watching his sister's children while she was out of the house and had taken them to the playground. His story checked out but when the officers ran his information they discovered a warrant for his arrest. They promptly arrested the man, who had failed to appear in court for a speeding ticket.

March 12: A male student posted fliers in female dorm halls asking for dates to satisfy a dating requirement for his marriage preparation class. The fliers not only violate BYU policy but were disturbing female residents. Police discovered that the student was not enrolled in that class and the professor he said he had has retired.

March 14: A student called BYU police when she noticed three suspicious males walking around a parking lot. When police responded they determined that the suspicious males were actually grounds crew who had been picking up trash.

In Memoriam

Anthony Minghella
1954 - 2008

Holy shit. I saw this news and it's really pretty shocking. I think The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley are two of the best movies in the last twenty years.

Minghella had been doing some opera and I was anxiously awaiting the announcement of his next project, not his premature death.

Star Wars TV

Star Wars Live Action TV series news.

God, this makes me happy.

Worst Movie Pitch I've Heard in a Long Time

So, I read up on the trade news a lot. And I caught this bit over at JoBlo about Lena Headey (the female lead in the drastically over-rated sausage party 300) joining the cast of a film called Tell Tale.

The former Sparta queen has joined TELL-TALE, the contemporized version of Edgar Allen Poe's macabre short story "The Tell-Tale Heart". The movie, from director Michael Cuesta (DEXTER, SIX FEET UNDER), stars Josh Lucas as a heart transplant recipient compelled by his new organ to seek revenge on the donor's killer. Brian Cox is a crusty cop on the confounding case.

I'm pretty sure that rates near the top of worst pitches for a film I've ever heard. It's almost as bad as the film Donald pitched to his brother Charlie in Adaptation.

This is just silly.

New Short Story

The Other Man....

More Bush Arrogance

George Bush, a guy who went AWOL for months from a national guard position his dad got him into to keep him out of Vietnam, said the following to troops in Afghanistan today:

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

What an arrogant douche-bag.

Eliot Spitzer....

I'm glad he showed some spine and resigned instead of protracting things and staying in office.

Aside from that though, can you blame a guy for wanting a piece of this girl:


Whether he paid for her or not, she's ten steps higher on the scale than Monica Lewinski and about a thousand times better than soliciting dudes in the bathroom.

I'm not saying Spitzer didn't do anything wrong, all I'm saying is that he should get some points for taste.

No 2008 Ashdown Candidacy

I'm sure most of you who have hung around this blog for the last few years know that we were pretty excited about Pete Ashdown's candidacy in 2006.

Well, he's not running for anything in 2008 and it makes me a little sad. But, we still have 2010 to look forward to.

From an email this afternoon:

The Tribune just asked, so I thought I should release a statement about
2008 candidacy on my website:

A number of people have asked whether I will be running for Utah
governor or congress this year. It is humbling to be considered.
However, currently my commitment to my family, XMission, and the local
organizations I sit on boards for does not lend the time required for a
candidacy this year. In January I took on the role of chairing the Utah
Heritage Foundation for two years and I feel strongly about seeing that
role through. I am looking forward to what political possibilities are
presented in 2010.

http://peteashdown.org/journal/2008/03/11/2008-elections/

So, here's to 2010.

Busy and Bone

Posting has been lax on my end because I've been working ten hour days for our picture lock cut. And when I'm not at the computer, I'm working on a dozen other things...

So....

Yeah....

I also wanted to point out that Bone might be a movie.

Read more about it here.

DAILY SHOW catches you up

I'm glad the writers are back at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Here's a solid piece on the current goings on within Election 2008. Thanks to One Good Move.

First Look: Watchmen

Here's pictures of the Watchmen characters.

I'm torn about this movie. It could be great, but most likely it might suck....

The Truth Is Out There

So, there's a new "X-Files" movie in the works right now.

I was an obsessed X-Files fan all through high-school. I started watching it back in 1993 during season one and I never went out on Friday nights for the next 4 years because of Mulder and Scully at 9pm.

When I went on my Mormon mission to Venezuela, my friend John would secretly send me audio tape recordings with the printed script of the episodes I was missing. As a missionary, you weren't supposed to watch TV, movies, or listen to music. I broke these rules 3 times: sneaking into a theater to see "The Sixth Sense", watching "The Phantom Menace", and listening to chunks of X-Files episodes once a month from John.

So, anyways, when I got back home, X-Files was in its 7th season and Mulder and Scully, despite overflowing sexual tension, still hadn't fucked. And then, in one episode, Scully decides she wants a baby. She approaches Mulder, as fans worldwide leaned forward in their seats, and asks...Mulder...for...his...sperm...in...a...vile.

The show died for me that day. I mean, WTF?

Looking back on it, the show died probably after the first movie came out and the show went into its 5th season.

So, anyways, they're making a 2nd movie. It supposedly has nothing to do with aliens and it probably picks up after Mulder and Scully ran off to Canada after Mulder was on trial for his life for killing a government alien spy.

And so, now there's this behind-the-scenes picture:
Ooooooooo! They're kissing! Literally 15 years after two, single, highly attractive 30-somethings meet, they finally decide to break down and smooch. Gimme a fucking break. I just hope the movie is HALF as good as the first one. But with Frank Spotnitz writing, I have to assume there's going to be quite a bit of God-Awfulness.

VIDEO MESSAGE TO RALPH NADER

I found this hilarious video to Ralph Nader on YouTube. Enjoy.

New Indiana Jones DVDs

So... They're re-releasing the Indiana Jones movies on DVD with all new special features.

This is going to be rad. I can't wait to get the third box of Young Indiana Jones, too...

And Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is going to be fantastic, I'm sure.

GET YOUR GUN

Laws don't stop killers. People with guns do.

As previously discussed on the blog, 4 of us had quite the intense argument over gun control the other day at the office.

I brought up the fact that the fatal shootings at Virginia Tech, Columbine, and Northern Illinois could have been lessened had someone like a teacher or student pulled out their own gun and either shot the assailant or scared the shit out of them.

Case and point:

At the Appalachian Law School, Peter Odighizuwa killed 3 people with a hand gun. Two students carrying personal firearms approached him. Odighizuwa set down his gun and raised his arms. Odighizuwa was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison plus 28 additional years.

In Pearl, Miss, Luke Woodham slit his mom's throat and then went to school with a gun. He killed 2 classmates and wounded 7 others. Then the school's vice principal held a .45 caliber pistol to his head. "Here was this monster killing kids in my school, and the minute I put a gun to his head he was a kid again," the vice principal said. Woodham was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

Killed 3 people before having a gun put to his head.
Now serving 2 life sentences on our terms.

At Virginia Tech, 33 people were killed and 29 injured. This means the bastard reloaded again, again, and again. At Virginia Tech, guns are banned on campus; even with a concealed weapons license. Graduate student Bradford Wiles has a permit to carry a gun in Virginia, but is not allowed to bring it to campus. "Of all of the emotions and thoughts that were running through my head that morning, the most overwhelming one was of helplessness. That feeling of helplessness has been difficult to reconcile because I knew I would have been safer with a proper means to defend myself."

At Virginia Tech, he killed 33 people on his terms.

Look at the numbers. They speak for themselves. If anyone can show me an example of a public shooting getting worse because a citizen pulled a gun on the assailant or that more people died because a citizen blew the assailant's brains out, then please do forward it to me.

Because right now, it all seems pretty obvious.

And for those who have argued (and they have, believe me) that the victims of Virginia Tech, etc should have just "hidden better" or "thrown something at the assailant and then tackled him" or "learned karate and disarmed him with their hands" or just "ran away", here's another news story for you from today:

Two killed in shooting at Wendy's near West Palm Beach

One of those killed was a father and local firefighter who had gone back in the Wendy's to retrieve his son's forgotten toy. He was shot in the brain at point blank range and died instantly. 7 people were shot in total. The killer reloaded once and then shot himself. He died on his terms.

But I gotta tell you, if I had been there enjoying Wendy's Dollar Menu, he would have died on my terms.

Why Barack Obama Should Go To Comic-Con

This is post written over at Big Shiny Robot.

Read it.

Barack Obama should go to Comic-Con....

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Bush's national approval rating is now at 19%. This is a very low percentage for a president. But a very high percentage for a fetish."

-Stephen Colbert

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

As you all may know, Bryan and I live in Utah.

Utah, on quite a few levels, is a Twilight Zone episode featuring a cast of stupendously batshit crazy mother fuckers.

You may say, "Hey, what about Texas? Texas is pretty fucked up. Or how about Alabama? Fuck Alabama."

And I would agree with you.

But, Utah takes the cake.

A company in the town of Provo is being accused of waterboarding it's employees.

I'll say it again:

A company in the Family-Values-Jesus-Loving-Mormon-Capital of the world is being accused of WATERBOARDING IT'S EMPLOYEES.

How did the owners of this company defend themselves?

"It was meant to be a team-building exercise," Dave Ellis said. "Everybody was . . . involved and enthusiastic."

Fucking Utah...