Movie: Casino Jack

Do you remember Jack Abramoff? I mean it's been several years since everything transcended, but it was a HUGE deal. The whole scandal really opened the public's eyes to just how much control big money lobbyist had in DC; legislation has a price tag.

Kevin Spacey always does a phenomenal job. He's already been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

"Season of Over-Indulgence" Campaigns

Have you noticed all of these ad campaigns leading up through the Christmas season that keep promoting this phrase "season of over-indulgence"?

First there's this campaign for Pepto:


Then Acura really hit it hard. This is like a montage to all the different ads they had using the phrase:


I just bring it up, because, although they say it like this is a commonly understood description of the season, I don't think I've ever heard the phrase before this. I mean I've heard the priest stand up at the pulpit and preach on the trouble of an overly commercialized, secular season and how we need to focus more on the religious origins. But I really don't think I heard this described as a season of over indulgence before.

I think it's kind of cool though. The campaigns aren't just promoting their own products, but they are creating a much needed mentality in consumers that this is the season to spend, spend, spend. This is certainly a mentality retailers need from consumers in light of all that has happened.

GM Thankyou Commercial

Thank you! Seriously, that's kind of all any of us really wanted. Just some acknowledgement that all of these "too-big-to-fail" companies failed and the burden fell upon us the U.S. tax payer to save their ass.

Don't play it around like you did with the last spring's commercial and pretend you it's not a big deal and you have it handled. Just say it. You royally screwed the pooched and you are heavily indebted to the American people for saving you.

Why can't we get this same acknowledgement from the banks? Instead of being all indignant and voicing some bull shit arguement about how you were owed the bailout because of how important you are to the economy and that without we would have all suffered. This is true to a good extent, but ultimately the fact still stands you failed epicly costing the rest of us dearly.

All Done!

Done!!! All finished! No more tests, papers, projects, presentations, nothing.

I'm actually not sure what I'm going to do now. Of course we are going to have to celebrate, but I have like 3 hours until we can do that. Then when I wake up in the morning I have a whole day of down time. I don't know. I have nothing I have to do, but I suppose I can do whatever I want. No worries just get to enjoy it now.

Mark Madoff Death

Bernard Madoff (left) with his wife Ruth and son Mark, who was found dead in his New York apartment. Photograph: GI/BM/Getty Images

Eldest son of the infamous Bernie Madoff, Mark Madoff, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment hanging from a dog leash two years to the day of his father's arrest.

The departed Madoff had not been charged with any crimes associated with his father's financial embezzlements, but investigations had been on going to discover any of his involvment with the scandal.

Snow

So all unholy, arctic-tundra hell decided to descend upon Des Moines today, and I am not leaving this warm room of my for ANYTHING ... except for like finals or something kind of important.

Seriously though, everyone I see walking around out there is having to walk backwards into the wind. I knew we weren't going to make it through December in Des Moines with out snow, but it is just piling it on out there.

I'm going to tell you, when I was little and lived in Kansas, I loved snow; thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. You could build stuff out of it, chuck it at people, slide down a hill really fast on it, and sometimes it would even help you to get out of school. But up here, this is like a horse of a totally different color. This stuff is rough, frigid, icy evil. Of course all of the Minnesota kids think I'm being a pansy, but it is really, really cold.

Celebrity commercials

Have you noticed there has been a lot of television commercials lately with big name, A list actors appearing in them. Like there's this one for Google TV with Kevin Bacon:



Then Planter's Peanut has this new ad campaign with Mr. Peanut being voiced by Robert Downing Jr



It's just a little bizarre. Normally when you see an actor appearing as a character in a television commercial is a sign that their career has tanked and you have this, 'Oh yeah, hey. I wondered what happened to them,' moment - doing the narration voice over for something like a car commercial is different - but you don't get that with these.

They're quirky. The humor in them gives you the feeling that, what with being big shot celebrities and always doing big-budget, Hollywood movies, they took these up on a fling; a fun, little 'what-the-heck.' Bet they still got paid like crazy even for this little bit of performance.

NY Times: 14 Actors Acting

14 Actors Acting

You got to check this out. This is these fantastic collection of some of the best actors out there performing without saying a word. There is even a clip of Michael Douglas, which honestly at this poitn may be one of his last performances on tape. Everything is so delicate.

Body language makes up like 70% of our communication, but we become so used to it through out our lives that we often stop to concious recognize. We receive all these messages and transmit them outwards often not acknowledging the reason why people make us feel certain ways and vice versa.

Watch these videos. The slightest tuck or jut of the chin or raise of the brow communicates volumes. The Vincent Cassel one is pretty good. It's like a Gene Kelly homage.

Wikileaks Arrest

They caught him! Julian Assange handed himself in the other day to British authorities where he will be extradited to Swizterland for several related charges of sexual assualt. There is a good possibility he may then be extradited to the U.S. for disclosing of classified documents.

Now I've said this to several people already with the same excitement I have above written, and the response I seem to get is that they are bummed by it. They view this as the capture of a nobel Robin Hood figure. Really?

The guy's a little shit. All the stuff he revealed were legitimate government secrets and in doing so all he did was complicate diplomatic practices. It's not like he released the Pentagon Papers. For everything I've read and heard, he basically just released a bunch of gossipy crap that countries were saying behind each others back. I'm not saying this on the basis of some ultra-conservative source like a Fox News or Glenn Beck. I'm saying this based on reports from New Yorker magazine and NPR. He essentially released the People Magazine of world politics.

The problem with this is we need to do things behind other countries backs and say things to one and say something else to another. That's how politics works. Don't be naive! All of do the same thing in our regular lives. You say crap on people in your community all the time behind closed doors that you make a smiling face to when out and about. WikiLeaks is not a whole lot different than the little kid who doesn't know when to shut up and just babbles out all of the gossip he picks up from his parents.

Worst of all many of these reports were released without any concern for the security of foreign operations. Those reports disclosed the names of foreign informants who are now in serious danger for their lives. Assange is not a vigilanty for the truth protecting us from the secracy of the government. He is a reckless gossip publisher.

Movie: True Grit

This may appear familar to John Wayne fans. The story is actually based on a 1968 Charles Portis novel of the same name, but was first made into a film in 1969 staring the Duke. The film won an aging Wayne his first and only Academy Award for his protrayal of Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn.

What I love with new production is the brilliant assembly of actors. Apart from Hailee Steinfield, here playing the film's heroine, Mattie Ross, each of these leading actors has had experience with Western, cowboy-esque characters with great success. Jeff Bridges, here filling the place of Wayne, received an Academy Award for his leading performance in Crazy Heart along with many many other recognitions. Josh Brolin and the Coen Brothers collaborated a few years in the making of No Country for Old Men that won 4 of eight Academy Award nominations. Hopefully the Coen brothers can keep Brolin on this track and away from a Jonah Hex performance. Then Matt Damon, who appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend and All the Pretty Horses.

I normally really object to remakes of classic, but this just has such tremendous potential cast. It's the perfect cast with a pair of directors capable of handling the art with a brilliance that will bring it to new levels.