Open Thread Tuesday

Great film, that can be watched again and again. Philip Seymour Hoffman carries off a small role with his usual aplomb.

So true Stan. This was a terrific screenplay, the casting was excellent. As a musician, I thought Billy Crudup nailed it. And Carl Wilson's feelflow, during the ending credits is a great tune.

Michael Jackson's death ruled a homicide yesterday. I guess the media will be vomiting the phrase "trial of the century" soon.

Can someone please tell me when that butt-munch Bill Maher is going to STFU about Sarah Palin?? The guy needs a restraining order or something. He's completely mental over her to the point where he flat out lies about her.

Bill Maher is completely worthless….

I pray that Ms. Sarah comes out soon and starts boxing ears, in particular that mutt Bill Maher.

I'll bet Sarah Palin can punch his head clean off…..

He has a crush on her…he's like that spaz in elementary school that picks on the girls that he likes.

Spaz…..what great word for maher…..LMAO……

My only beef with Almost Famous – the soundtrack. It's from the 70's and no Pink Floyd or Black Sabbath? And the Bowie song that was chosen was just a Velvet Underground cover…that was the best 70's Bowie song they could think of?

It was a pretty good movie. But I could never buy the fact a mother would let her underage son travel across the country with a rock band.

Mahar has a crush alright, but it's not on Palin. It's on the spot light. What ever he thinks will keep him in it, he will do.

Arrested development.

Reports from Afghanistan, on the ground with Michael Yon. Excellent photography.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/bad-medicine.htm

I don't watch fantasy rock movies.

"A high-school boy is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone Magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies it on their concert tour".

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……………..

The problem with not buying into it though, Ed is that it is essentially true. Crowe was gifted and pushed to excel by his mother, graduating high school at 15. He then met the editor of Rolling Stone and started doing reviews. I guess it was a California thing.

I'm not a fan of Almost Famous, but I did like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Frances McDormand. Kate Hudson, on the other hand, is severely lacking in the talent department. Please, Hollywood, stop putting her in movies!

Maybe if this was set in the late 1930s-

"A high-school boy is given the chance to write a story for Down Beat Magazine about a popular Swing band (the Artie Washington orchestra) as he accompanies them on their ballroom tour by bus in pre-Interstate highway system America."

Now to make it really pc for the contempo audience :

"A white, Jewish high-school boy from New York City is given the chance to write a story for Down Beat Magazine about a popular Swing band (the black Artie Washington orchestra) as he accompanies them on their ballroom tour of the South by bus on the backroads and highways of a segregated America. He becomes an early champion for civil rights when he has a romance with the band's black singer and insists that the musicians be allowed to stay in 'white hotels'. By the end of the film, when he has been killed by the beautiful singer's family and his articles for Down Beat are never printed, he has become an underground legend."

Try going to Malkin's main page. It is the first blog listing

Great movie. Great soundtrack. Is it perfect? No. But considering the usual crap that comes from Hollywood, the film deserves its props. As for Sabbath, there were two songs played during the movie that didn't make the final soundtrack…Sweet Leaf and Paranoid. Floyd…who cares? Crowe's inclusion of the Beach Boys' Feel Flows and Elton's Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters was inspired. The early 70's era Beach Boys didn't have much commercial success with the Sunflower or Surf's Up albums (the latter of which features Feel Flows), but most fans will put them in their top 5 favorites by the BB's. I especially like the Dennis Wilson infused funk on Sunflower…but that's just me.

I didn't see this until a year or so later. Thus, in my opinion, it's just a good movie. What am I missing that makes it so great?

To me, it's a sad tale of being wanting to be famous (and getting their wish)…only to deal with the payment of said fulfilled wish.

A house divided cannot stand.

Regardless of how I feel about Pres BO, at least people have gotten interested in politics,
although we are coming to the point of no return, i.e. the destruction of the republic.

Did anyone see Ask Marilyn in this weekend's Parade magazine? Someone asked if all the money in the world were redistributed so everyone had the same amount, how much would we all get. The answer? Every man, woman and child on the planet would get $9,000. There wasn't much beyond that, but I took it as a subtle condemnation of communism and socialism. After all, who would bother working 40 hours (or more) a week in any job, if they only got $9,000 dollars a year? So more people would quit working, leaving a bigger burden for those still working, until eventually, everyone would give up and quit because there's no incentive to work hard to get ahead.

I was thinking the same thing as Hank, great handle Clarence. Yes Crowe's movies all have the soundtrack one can hear on any and every particular day on their hometown classic rock station. Growing up during the late sixties and seventies I heard the unimaginitive classic rock playlist ad nauseum, which is why I only listen to sports/politics talk radio now.

Every comrade thinks they will be the one to make it all come together and the planets will align. But we know how that works out – it doesn't.

Nobama's administration is a discombobulation of stooges.

It took awhile, but the furthest left finally got the memo: Opposition to Obama agenda— well, you can guess.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSB...

At least, all the statists are ALL on the same page now.

The key right now is to keep up as much pressure on Congress. Scare the hell out of them – not threatening with violence, threatening them with something far worse – their cushy jobs.

It looks like its going to come down to who scares the blue dog democrats worse Obama and Emanuel, or their own constituents.

Was it Confucius or Spock who said 'having is not the same as wanting'?

I'm not sure I'd say great, but definitely good. I liked the little things tucked in the movie. Like during the near plane crash, every band member admits they slept with Jason Lee's girl friend. Except the drummer who blurts out he's gay. Then when they get past the storm, they all just kind of look at him. And at the very end, what's the marquee on their bus read "No More Airplanes Tour"

I love quirky things like that.

"fantasy rock?" It was actually semi-autobiographical.

There are any number of films featuring famous big bands of the era…some depicting aspects of the scene at the time in a fairly truthful manner – you just need to separate the drama and the license from the realities.

The two Glenn Miller feature films have a lot of flavor to them, especially the 1942 ORCHESTRA WIVES, along with SUN VALLEY SERENADE from 1941. OW is on DVD, not sure of SVS. Both were on VHS, so you could p/u SVS for a song.

Benny Goodman did a film in 1944 that was intended to be a 'biography' of himself and his band, but it looks like they abandoned the concept to go with the made up 'boy meets girl' storyline. SWEET AND LOWDOWN – No DVD or VHS, but it ran/runs on cable. Really only good for the music and seeing BG and the band in action.

Also – look for DANCE HALL from 1941 with Ceasar Romero as the manager of a ballroom located in an amusement park. Highly entertaining film, no frills, so more 'realism'. You'll need a dictionary to translate all the early 40s slang.

I can't think of any recent films with a story line of a guy trying to get a Swing band going. There was a British film called SWING that had a guy trying to put together a 'neo-Swing' band.

I may be forgetting something.

btw – there is still a pretty big Swing dance scene in many US cities where you can hear live bands. There area few good bands recreating the sounds of 30s and 40s big bands….and then there are way too many bands playing semi-inept approximations of same.

I am going to plug my friend's big band in another post. Not as spam, but because I love Swing music and like to share the wealth and b/c he had a great band, plus 60 minutes worth of free music by his band from the Hollywood Palladium in 1999 on his web site! . Hell of a night!

Especially if you're a religious person. He'd claim the evangelicals made you do it.

If Obama's administration allows this, it will be proof positive that they are gutless, spineless cowards that are unable to stand up for what's right:

<a href=”http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/24/sick-gadhafi…” target=”_blank”>http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/24/sick-gadhafi…

He should have seen it coming.

OPEN THREAD:

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the best damn Congressman serving today:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/King_...

While that is extremely funny, you can't say that because Patterson says its not politically correct. What's the equivalent of 'racist' for not capitulating to a sight impaired liberal?

Blindest? Any comedians here to give me a hand?

Hey you worthless liberals your master is calling for five hundred pro healthcare “protest” before Labor Day, There’s money to be made, ten to fifteen dollars an hour for some real grassroots protest, that’s righteous bucks, you can get some booze and dope.

Labor Leader Named Head of New York Fed
August 25, 2009 Wall Street Journal

The Federal Reserve chose a labor leader to succeed a former Goldman Sachs executive as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of New York's private-sector board of directors.

Denis Hughes, president of the New York state branch of the AFL-CIO, had been serving as acting chairman of the New York Fed board since May, when Stephen Friedman stepped down from the position.

The NY Fed branch, arguably the most important, is run by a union boss. This union is heavily invested in having Barry's administration be a socialist success and granting them all their labor utopia wishes, and one of their bosses, this palooka, has the task of accurately reporting financial info and acting in a manner that is best for the financial sector and the economy as a whole.

More Hopey Changey, getting rid of that whole "conflict of interest" notion. Hey, anyone else remember the really old days when "perceived conflict of interest" got the media going and trashed appointments?

And could *bead* him up from 300 + yards and get a nice clean kill…then field dress his worthless carcass and mount his head next to the toilet at Wasilla's finest drinkin' hole and not even break a fingernail.

Now that's one damn FINE WOMAN!

he prefers his women, er…shall I say, Obama like but more so?

Fine by me, but the whole beating them (allegedly) thing is weak and sick and wrong…

For any wacky kid that wrote for the school newspaper (like I did) and assigned myself the rock concert "beat", this movie was a wonderful ride down fantasy lane. No "Cream" mag for me, just a few hangovers and a lot of damn fine concerts circa 74 to 76 or 77…Bad Co., Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Yes, ELP, AC/DC (with Bon Scott) the list goes on and on….

CABLE NEWS RACE MONDAY, AUG. 24, 2009

MSNBC HARDBALL 640,000

WILL SOMEBODY IN THE T.V. BUSINESS TELL US WHY THIS CLOWN MATTHEWS KEEPS HIS JOB? HMMM?

DOES HE HAVE ~COMPROMISING~ PHOTOS OF AN MSNBC EXEC? OF OBAMA?

Sounds like Kenya….hmmmm… I wonder

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A major fund-raiser for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats was charged by federal prosecutors in New York in connection with a scheme to defraud Citigroup Inc.

Hassan Nemazee, 59, was accused of one count of bank fraud for allegedly seeking a fraudulent $74 million loan from Citigroup's banking unit

Nothing "fishy" here folks, all is well. Please move along, remember Bush's CIA is evil….

Kurt Russell punches out all the guys she sees…..
If they can take it then they can date her : )

Too many posts vanishing or never even seen.

I guy I know in El Pso went to New Mexico Military Institute (lot's of out-of-control rich kids did back then) and was and is friends with both the Owens Bros. He's a bit biased but told me they were still the coolst least pretencious guys. He showed me that he still has Owen on his cell phone when I told him he was full of it…so I believed him. He says thierstill down to earth with their old friends.

I agree, it's good, not great.

The key flaw is having the kid start out so cool and knowing (like Billy Murray in The Razor's Edge),
which was unrealistic, and it gave his character 'nowhere to go'.
Most stories become meaningful by showing us a significant change in someone who matters to us.
Almost Famous was lacking that element (We watched a guy learn what he already knew?).

Another big weakness was the 'too clean & sweet' view of that rock band and their groupies.
The material was Led Zeppelin debauchery, but the sensibility of the storytelling was Elton John —
like 'A Disney family film look at low life wallowing – ooh, neat, huh?'

Too bad Cameron Crowe's talent and charm (on a moment-by-moment basis on screen)
has rarely been matched by the quality of his overall storytelling (Say Anything, Jerry Maguire).

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