NBC's cancelling Law and Order, the original. Ah I loved that show. I used to watch that all the time when I was little. John McCoy was freaking amazing! He's character was probably the greatest orator like ever. The show actually inspired me to make be a lawyer when I grew up, but then I learned how much reading was involved. That was kind of a deal breaker.
That's too bad their getting rid of it, but it's probably time for it. McCoy's gone, and Jerry Orbach's gone. They've been going for 20 seasons. That's pretty wild. They are going to air the final episode Monday, May 24 at 10/9c on NBC.
As the designated CBPA writter for these blogs and a lover of films, I feel it is my duty to highlight the return of greed incarna, Gordon Gekko. It's been 23 years (both in life and the movie world) but he's back. Now I haven't had the opportunity to read any reviews yet but something looks a little off with Douglas's portrayal this time around. Gekko seems affected by his infamy. He is no longer a heartless, cruelly real character and more of a legend; a legend of heartless acts to be sure, but separated from reality now. In that disconnect he loses his ability to harm us. Like the boogie man, we fear him, but we do so laughingly.
But, to be fair, I am basing this entirely off the trailer, which, as Avatar proved, can not always be a good representation. I suggest you go out and see, and we'll find out.
I've been reading a lot about this one laterly. Michael Caine is supposed to just do an amazing job with it all. In truth this is becoming quite the recurring plot line for films, and this one has all the necessary elements.
Caine's character is a heavy drinking, former Korea vet who's wife has recently died and who has little time left himself. The neighborhood he has lived all of his life has gone to hell, and it's time to blow away all those punk kids. We saw it recently in Grand Torino with Clint Eastwood and Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson, but can forget in this Charles Bronson's Death Wish series.
This however is supposed to a somewhat frailer, more human hero. Caine is not the hard-ass you have with Eastwood or Gibson or Bronson. He's not a pansy about it. He can be stern and the violence is not unnatural to him in the protrayal. He's just ... English. There is a gentlemen quality in his aggression and hostility.
But it's not just this. He's age and health really have an effect. Often in these stories the hero will find moments of strength for the sake of the fight and only be effected during the inbetweens and final climax. Here Caine is struck with a shortness of breath in the chase sequence. He is a real and human as you can get.
My little brother graduate from high school today. Class of 2010 with like 230 kids. That's a lot more than we had with 180 (we had a really high drop out rate). It was good. The grandparents, aunts and uncles were there. For the senior video they set the pictures to a song his drumline performed.
The key speaker was not too great. He tried some really creative stuff but didn't put enough planning into it unfortunately to effectively execute. The students did really well though. For some reason there were two student body Co-President addresses (got to love small town politics), but both did really well with it.
Of course then there are all the different parties to go to; living two days with hors d'oeuvres as your meals. It's fun though seeing everybody smiling and hugging catching up again. Most of the folks from my year are still back in Lawrence so that was a little awkward, but all and all I really like this time of year.
Finished! Packed up everything the other day and packed it into the Nissan. It's pretty sad when you can fit your life into a tiny, white Nissan. But hey back in Kansas now. I got to tell you the weather is a lot better. You got to love it. Okay so the other day there was a big tornado scare, but those come and go, man. Today is absolutely beautiful. No more spring hail storms or dreary skies. It's going to be a good summer.
LIES!!! Completely false. Okay lets go through a little recent history first. For GM's bailout, the US Fed purchased $49.5 billion in GM stock and gave them a loan of $6.7 billion. In addition to this GM was allowed a $13.4 billion line of credit in TARP.
What GM is referring to when they say they have paid back their loan in full is that they have tapped into that $13.4 billion line of TARP credit in order to pay off the $6.7 billion loan. So GM still owes the US just as much as it did before. They just did a little window-dressing to make it look like they did something good. Look at their financials. They still are no where near having a positive operating income.
And the winner is ... MEATBALL! Meatball is the winner of Drake Beautiful Bulldog contest. This is the fella right before we were about to drive them around the track Saturday. Now I know there have been a lot of rumors about what will become of Porterhouse, last year's winner and our unofficial mascot. Well be sure Porterhouse will still be Drake's number 1 dog and mascot. He's just too lovable.
