Home
Today's Pick
Reviews
Top 5
Categories
Contributors

Featured Story

« Older Entries
Cam Cannon

A Look Back at the Beastie Boys Part Five: ‘Hello Nasty’

by Cam Cannon

In 1998, the Beastie Boys announced the arrival of a new album with the release of “Intergalactic,” which in my opinion, is their biggest and best single to date. It’s certainly their most accessible single, mainstream but with a sound that’s undeniably Beastie. The accompanying video, masterfully directed by Nathaniel Hornblower, featured them battling giant robots in homage to Japanese monster flicks.

It. Was. Awesome.

beastie hello nasty

Prior to the album’s release, they pulled another prank worthy of Andy Kaufman when they booked time on cheesy public access stations and ran a series of infomercials in which they hawked the album. Donning so-stupid-they-were-clever disguises, they marketed the album as a six-pack inducing exercise tool, a get-rich-quick money maker, and a juicer. Oh, they’re was also a psychic thrown in for good measure. It was an inspired bit, hardly well-advertised, which in concept and execution showcased their absolute strength as entertainers: they’re just fun. Good, stupid, irreverent, ridiculous fun. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 3:08 pm in Culture, Featured Story, Music | 7 Comments

Big Hollywood

Frum Forum: Evidence Shows Accusations Against Sean Hannity Are Not True

by Big Hollywood

Frum Forum:

Debbie Schlussel posted a long piece last evening about a charity that Sean Hannity is affiliated with, accusing them of malfeasance and mismangement.

Frum Forum has done an exhaustive investigation of the charity in question, Freedom Alliance, and found enough evidence to substantially rebut each of Schlussel’s claims. I’ll approach them one by one. 

hannity-head

Schlussel Accusation: Sean Hannity improperly benefited from Freedom Alliance by charging private jets, hotel stays and luxury cars.

Freedom Alliance’s press release today stated categorically that they have “never provided planes, hotels, cars, limos, or anything else to Sean [Hannity] … to be clear Sean pays for all his own transportation, hotels, and all related expenses for himself and his family and friends and staff.” We are satisfied that this is true.

It is true that Freedom Alliance spent $60,000 on aviation services in 2006, but there is no evidence that this was for Sean Hannity’s benefit, and it seems unlikely that the money was used to lease a Gulfstream 5. Rates for G5 aircraft average around $8,000 an hour. $60,000 would not buy much at that rate.

We have also been able to confirm that Sean Hannity has no operational control over the organization. Nor is he even a member of the group’s board.

If Schlussel stands behind her statement, then she will have to do better than a quote from a blind source, who is, as she admits, a friend of a friend.  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , ,
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 9:56 am in Featured Story, News, Politics | 37 Comments

Leo Grin

For Conservative Movie Lovers: Ian Fleming, Sean Connery, and ‘Goldfinger’ Part 2

by Leo Grin

The name was Fleming, Valentine Fleming. But to his four young boys, Bond creator Ian Fleming among them, he was “Mokie” — a baby-talk bastardization of “Smokie,” so called because he always had a pipe dangling from his lips, the same way Sean Connery would one day sport a cigarette in his debut appearance as James Bond in Dr. No. Curiously, no one in turn-of-the-century England thought to arrest Mr. Fleming for smoking in the presence of his children, nor did social services batter down his door to cart the poor cancer-threatened kids away. He was their Pop, and they adored him, smoke and all.

Child-abusing barbarians, I know.

valentine_fleming

They were rich, the Flemings. Grandfather made his fortune pioneering investment trusts, and when Valentine came of age he inherited hundreds of thousands of pounds. Thus it was that his second son Ian, born in 1908, grew up in a world of wealth and privilege. Mother was a typical socialite, a lover of status and all the good things that money could buy, but Father was different. He ran for government office as a conservative, and was by all accounts a thorough patriot of crown and country much admired by everyone who met him. When war became imminent, there was never any question whether he would use his money and influence to weasel out of the fight. Valentine joined the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars of his own volition and trained for combat, counting among his friends a fellow officer named Winston Churchill.

Ian and his family watched with dread as their Dad headed off to the front in 1914, and for the next three years they saw him but seldom. Valentine sent his family cheery letters to lift their spirits, but his missives to Churchill laid bare the truth: (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 20th 2010 at 6:43 am in Classic Hollywood, Featured Story, Film, For Conservative Movie Lovers | 27 Comments

John Ondrasik

Slandering Military Charities a New Low

by John Ondrasik

I was saddened to see the recent attacks on Sean Hannity and the Freedom Alliance. All chariites should be subject to scrutiny and public information, thus, the Freedom Alliance’s recent disclosure should elicit a challenge or apology/correction.

hannity-head

Whatever one’s politics or agenda, slandering military charities is a new low.

Sean Hannity has always been a champion for the troops, including my CD For the Troops project.  Unless concrete evidence is provided that supports the accusation of misused funds, I, for one, look forward to playing next year’s concerts.

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , ,
Posted Mar 19th 2010 at 5:40 pm in Featured Story, Military, Politics | 101 Comments

Greg Gutfeld

Daily Gut: The Spurning of Chris Matthews

by Greg Gutfeld

So yesterday on the Cartoon Network, Chris Matthews did a segment on Bret Baier’s interview with President Obama.

Matthews, still suffering from Obama-erotica Syndrome, was astounded by Bret’s treatment of his Precious Prince. To make sure he got his point across, he had a pair of chuckling chuckleheads on standby, in the form of Joan Walsh and Cynthia Tucker. Gosh, they’re adorbs!

Check it out, check it outers:

—–

“Buccaneer buddy?” What the hell is that? Is that like a gay pirate or something?

Look, the real star of that clip wasn’t those three bozos, but the editor who left out all of the Dear One’s filibustering. The editor just clipped the ends of Obama’s statements when Brett tried to get the Great One back on track. It’s sneaky. But so what. I suppose I could go through Chris Matthew’s illustrious career, and find examples of his self-righteous screeching at guests – something Baier never does. But there are just way too many examples, and it’s nice outside. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 19th 2010 at 5:01 pm in Daily Gut, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 89 Comments

Dan Gagliasso

War on Terror Films: Dear Hollywood, You’re Doing It Wrong

by Dan Gagliasso

The recent Daily Variety article “Hollywood calls ‘Truce’ on war films” described how the film industry is now sidelining any future war and espionage films because of recent box office disappointment like Green Zone. The $100 million to $130 million budgeted Matt Damon star vehicle brought in a paltry $14.5 million its first week, a major embarrassment to Universal. Virtually every recent Middle-Eastern war film with the exception of The Hurt Locker (which has a few problems of its own) and The Kingdom have trashed United States troops, security and intelligence personnel. The Hurt Locker cost less then $20 million to produce and swept the Academy Awards, so it should eventually make a tidy sum in DVD sales and some foreign sales, though it has yet to break the $15 million mark in domestic box office.

war-on-terror 

Hasn’t it occurred to the overpaid and over-educated studio execs that the rest of America, minus the liberal bastions of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, would probably pay to see Americans be the good guys again? Jerry Bruckheimer has a great Afghanistan War project called Horse Soldiers based on Doug Stanton’s incredible non-fiction book about the first teams of US Special Forces who led the Northern Alliance to victory over the Taliban – on horseback. With Bruckheimer behind the project it will have high potential for box office success, if Disney lets it see the light of day.

Producer Chris Godsick has been trying to get the World War II version of Horse Soldiers about the last combat charge of horseback US Cavalry made for a number of years. Colonel Ed Ramsey who led that heroic charge of the 26th Cavalry against the Japanese is a good friend of Godsick’s and an acquaintance of mine. I’ve actually filmed several hours of in-depth interviews with Colonel Ramsey for a possible documentary, yet we can’t get The History Channel to bite, “We aren’t doing those kind of shows any more.” No kidding, Ice truckers, pawnbrokers and UFOs are The History Channel’s stock-in-trade now. Ramsey is 94, a still sharp and vital 94, but Chris and I both would like for him to see he and his men’s real life courage celebrated on film before he goes off to Fiddlers Green, the cavalrymen’s Valhalla in the sky. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 19th 2010 at 5:01 am in Culture, Featured Story, Film, Military, Politics | 96 Comments

Jon Voight

Call to Arms: Join Me in DC Saturday to Stop ObamaCare

by Jon Voight

I am calling to all of you freedom-loving Americans to come once again to Washington D.C. to gather on the Capitol steps on Saturday, at 12 o’clock noon.

We must come by the thousands.

IMG_13071

Speaker Pelosi will stop at nothing to fulfill her corrupt conquests. She will bring all of the corrupt ACORN liars to try to bully all the Democrats that may be having pangs of guilt knowing quite surely what their votes can and will do. If they’re bullied into saying “yes,” it will destroy America.

Join me and Rep. Michele Bachmann in Washington DC at 12 noon EST so we can give all the Democrats who know what the end result will be the courage to say: “No, do not pass this destructive bill.” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 18th 2010 at 1:53 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 71 Comments

Joe Lima

REVIEW: ‘Oscar’s Cuba’ Brings a Hero to Life, Exposes Fidel’s Cuba

by Joe Lima

“We will obtain the liberty of the Cuban people.” — Doctor Oscar Elias Biscet

Filmmaker Jordan Allott’s documentary, “Oscar’s Cuba” paints a compelling portrait of Cuban dissident Oscar Elias Biscet, whom Armando Valladares, former Reagan administration Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and himself a former political prisoner of the Castro dictatorship, cites as the most important living figure in the struggle for Cuban liberty.


—–

In 1998 Doctor Biscet dared to publish a report in which he interviewed many Cuban mothers who testified that their infants had been born alive and then killed by the regime. The totalitarian regime that controls Cuba views problematic pregnancies or unhealthy infants as a threat to their much-touted low infant mortality rates. Cuba has the highest abortion rates in our hemisphere, with 6 in 10 pregnancies ending in abortion. Thanks to Dr Biscet, we now know that many of these abortions were not the choice of the mothers involved, that said abortions were coerced, and indeed that many of these infants were born alive…then terminated. When Dr. Biscet made this issue a matter of public record, he gave the regime a black eye. The regime was not going to let this go unpunished. Dr Biscet continued to speak out for human rights and democracy on the island, and he paid a price for it: in 1998 and 1999 he was arrested more than 20 times.

On March 18, 2003, seven years ago today, Dr Biscet was arrested along with more than 70 other dissidents in what has come to be called “la Primavera Negra,” the Black Spring of 2003.  He was sentenced to a 25-year sentence, which he is currently serving in the notorious Combinado del Este prison outside of Havana. Dr. Biscet spends much of his time in solitary confinement, incarcerated in an underground cell. Yet Biscet endures, and continues to defy the regime. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 18th 2010 at 11:55 am in Featured Story, Film, Reviews | 72 Comments

Leigh Scott

‘Green Zone’ Brings to Cinematic Life All the Left’s Desperate Lies About Iraq

by Leigh Scott

In the comments to Big Hollywood’s recent post about the box office catastrophe that is “The Green Zone,” one frequent poster, and noted leftist, gave us a “teachable moment.”

In a nutshell, this poster said that the antithesis to “The Green Zone,” and diatribes of that ilk, would be some dim witted, cheer leading, Michael Bay style action movie where the Arabs are sneering villains and the American G.I.’s are square jawed pretty boys out to save the world.

green_zone_movie_poster_matt_damon_01

Where does one begin?

His post reinforces the primary myth that drives all debate in our country. The central conceit is that leftist ideology is “complex,” “educated,” “nuanced” etc. Conservative and libertarian ideology is “simplistic,” “black and white,” and often times driven by superstitious religious beliefs and not “hard facts and science.” To suppose that the “conservative” version of “The Green Zone” is a movie like 1986’s “Delta Force” misses the point…big time.

As a quick side note, Menahem Golan’s “Delta Force” kicks ass. I recommend it highly.

What is silly about this narrative, especially in the discussion of “The Green Zone” is that it not only knocks conservative ideas, principals, and factual evidence down a few pegs, but it elevates leftist ideas far beyond their merit. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 18th 2010 at 5:03 am in Featured Story, Film, Politics | 120 Comments

James Hudnall

ClimateGate: What Will Television Do With All Their Scare-Programming?

by James Hudnall

A funny thing happened on the way to a global conspiracy. Reality killed it. Funny how that happens.

Not long ago people like Al Gore were jetting around the globe taking in vast speaking fees, winning awards, telling everyone that they must give up the things they enjoy to save the planet. These doomsayers all told us we were stupid if we doubted them. They knew better, you see. These people claimed all “real” scientists agreed that mankind was destroying the planet with global warming. That we humans were at fault and the only way to save ourselves is bow down to a world government, pay lots of taxes and give up our cars, our electricity, air travel, light bulbs, blah blah blah.

gtv

There was a vast left wing conspiracy in other words. One designed to scare people into giving more power and wealth to statist bureaucrats who were employing the oldest trick in the book. Using fear and guilt to manufacture consent.

They began by locking down major institutions like NASA and Britain’s Climate Research Unit (CRU). Then they got the media on board, the science magazines, the cable networks. They started churning out articles and documentaries supporting the global warming meme. Millions were spent selling the idea, because many of these groups knew that fear, like sex, sells. There are two main motivations that human beings have. The desire to have something and the fear of losing something. They used both to pitch the notion that we could create a “green utopia” by changing the way we did things, and in doing so we would prevent the end of the world. Who doesn’t want to be a hero? Who doesn’t love the environment? How can you argue with that? (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 17th 2010 at 8:51 am in Featured Story, Politics, Television | 111 Comments

Jon David

My Weekly Date with a Liberal – ‘The Mile High Club’

by Jon David

UPDATE: Error reading fixed. You should be able to read the post now.geffen gala 100309

On December 17, 1903 in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina….in the United States…Two great American brothers did the impossible: an expression that if considered at any length, truly makes no sense at all, for if they actually did it, then clearly it’s possible. In reality it’s impossible to do the impossible. 

I’ll be right back. 

On December 17, 1903 in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina….in the United States…Two great American brothers did the possible, albeit, the improbable.  On that glorious and mystical morning, the conditions were perfect save for the freezing headwinds gusting up to 27 mph, slapping both the brothers in their collective face like a cold black glove from the cruel dominatrix Nature herself. But they would not be deterred. They would press on…because the wheels of Innovation do not stop for a little ice on the tracks nor does Greatness reveal itself only in the most moderate of conditions. Not to mention, and let me preface this with I can’t speak for Orville and Wilbur, but some people like a good slap in the face from a cold black glove, I being one of them. 

Bear with me.  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 17th 2010 at 5:03 am in Culture, Featured Story, Political Humor, Politics | 45 Comments

Michael Broderick

REVIEW: ‘The Pacific’ Episode 1 — “The Real Marines are Here!”

by Michael Broderick

Every so often, my father-in-law, Angelo, will bust my chops saying, “Hey, Mike!  I talked to a real Marine today!”  Then he’ll clap me on the shoulder and chuckle in that Jersey City “you’re a good kid” kind of way.

joemazzello_davidjames_thepacific-500x365

Full disclosure:  I served for four years as an enlisted man in a helicopter squadron at the tail end of the Cold War.  My time was spent in the necessary but unglamorous world of logistics and embarkation.  I never had to fire my weapon in anger and was never fired upon.  Hence, the “real Marine” jab.  Hell, with what the Marines today are doing, I sometimes don’t feel like a “real Marine.”  I’m sure there are some other peacetime vets out there who know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, when Angelo hits me with the jab, it means he’s been talking to Uncle Pete.  My wife’s great-uncle Pete Cavo joined the Marines in 1940.  He served as a rifleman in 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.  I called Uncle Pete Sunday afternoon to talk to him about his time in the Corps.  He answered the phone and his thick, jovial Jersey accent triggered a sharp pang of longing for my old home state. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 16th 2010 at 1:13 pm in Featured Story, Military, Reviews, Television | 143 Comments

Jack L. Treese, CWO US Army, Retired

Wars of Race, Wars of Terror, & the World According to Tom Hanks

by Jack L. Treese, CWO US Army, Retired

UPDATE: I have corrected a misstatement of facts in this post. I wrote that the Japanese attacked us …”because they wanted to invade and eventually take over our country.”  This is in fact not true. Thank you to those who brought this to my attention. — Jack

“The World According to Tom” is an article that appears in the March 15 issue of “Time.”  It is all about Tom Hanks’ interest in American history.  It’s not a bad article until Mr. Hanks is quoted in the second to last paragraph. 

geffen gala 100309

Referring to World War II he stated:

“From the outset, we wanted to make people wonder how our troops can re-enter society in the first place. How could they just pick up their lives and get on with the rest of us? Back in World War II we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods.  They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?” 

For some background I served as a medic with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, 1967-68.  I retired from the Army as a Physician Assistant and my son currently serves in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division.  This does give me a bit more insight about our military and “how our troops can re-enter society”. 

It is not so hard to re-enter society when society is on the side of a war.  We have all seen the clips of victory parades after WW II soldiers were welcomed home as heroes. Many soldiers returning from Vietnam were actually spit on and called baby killers. I am sure this had an effect on every soldier who ever served in that war.  I am sure that it contributed to the high rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that occurred in our Vietnam Veterans.  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 16th 2010 at 8:41 am in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Military, Politics | 159 Comments

Warner Todd Huston

OBAMAGANDA: Another School Sings Praises to Dear Leader

by Warner Todd Huston

[Ed. Note: Full transcript of performance can be found in the post below.]

It’s a veritable cornucopia of Obamagandistic musical agitprop. You’ll recall the militaristic, fascist-styled Obama youth corps from 2008 where a line of inner city youth stamped out their obeisance militia-like to The One like good little automatons? Perhaps the slickly produced exploitation of sweet faced children from Hollywood that same year will ring a bell? Or maybe your favorite is this misuse of class time in Georgia? Or per chance you’ll recall “Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm?“ These are excellent examples of the Obama version of Leni Riefenstahl’s art.

But those? Well, those are all low class affairs done without an entire orchestra to back them up.

Hope School
Click here to watch the performance.

Now we have the brilliance of School children in Illinois, Comrade Obama’s home turf, to add to the din of young musicians enslaved to efforts to exalt Dear Leader. And this tops them all in production values — or at least in scope — for the Midwest Young Artists organization, a group dedicated to “inspiration through music,” has taken upon itself to give the Obammessiah the full orchestral treatment along with a choir and a spoken word segment to round out the production. Uncle Joe couldn’t have created a better display of fealty to Dear Leader. Kim Jong Il is likely red with envy. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 16th 2010 at 5:01 am in Art, Entertainment, Featured Story, Music, Politics | 75 Comments

John Nolte

Tom Hanks Clarifies: WWII & War on Terror Represent Wars of Terror and ‘Ignorance’

by John Nolte


—–

Later this week, Big Hollywood will address Tom Hanks’ comments in this interview about how long it’s taking for America to overcome racism. But for now, let us all pause and reflect on just how much more enlightened the actor is than the rest of us. 

Back to the point…

In the above video, CNSNews does an excellent job questioning Hanks about his “war of terror and racism” comments. The reporter isn’t confrontational and allows the actor to complete his answers fully. And yet, under these perfect conditions, Hanks fails miserably in justifying the awful things he said about our country and veterans, past and present. For accuracy sake, let’s look back at last week’s full “war of racism and terror” quote from MSNBC’s Morning Joe:

“The Pacific” is coming out now, where it represents a war that was of racism and terror. And where it seemed as though the only way to complete one of these battles on one of these small specks of rock in the middle of nowhere was to — I’m sorry — kill them all. And, uhm, does that sound familiar to what we might be going through today?

When asked about this by CNSNews, the Oscar-winner doubles down: (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 15th 2010 at 2:25 pm in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Military, Politics | 209 Comments

Kurt Schlichter

James Cameron Rewriting WWII & Undermining Christianity: Unwitting Fool or Willing Dupe?

by Kurt Schlichter

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  Fool me three times, and I’m probably in on the scam with you – or I am a fool.

James Cameron’s next project may well be a film about Hiroshima.  Sure, after the powerful show of solidarity he gave to our troops in the largely Oscar-free Avatar, you are probably thinking, “Hey, this will be a fair-minded project that shows that dropping the A-Bomb on Japan was a tough but necessary decision which ended up saving hundreds of thousands of American lives – and probably millions of Japanese.”

cp_face
Pellegrino and Cameron

Surprise!  Instead, it promises to not only be another round of America-bashing but, moreover, one based on the work of a gentleman with a demonstrated track record of fraud and distortion.  Cameron’s long-time pal, Dr. Charles Pellegrino, wrote The Last Train from Hiroshima, the book that Cameron wants to turn into a movie.  It’s a shattering tale of horror told in part from the point of view of an American flyer who deeply regrets his participation.  There’s just one little problem with this important new addition to the historical canon – it seems to have been largely made up by the good doctor.  But, of course, Cameron would not be the King of the World if he let a little thing like rampant fraud get in the way of some gratuitous America-bashing.

So who is Charles Pellegrino - and I use the title “Doctor” here loosely, since this clown’s academic credentials are on par with Dr. Dre’s?   Well, for one thing he does not appear to be a PhD holder from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, as he has claimed.  At least, that was the finding of a reporter from The Telegraph.  Those wacky Brit newspapers and their reporters – going out and actually investigating and reporting instead of acting as unofficial stenographers for their favorite leftist subjects can turn up the darndest things!   (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 15th 2010 at 5:03 am in Celebrity News, Culture, Featured Story, Film, Politics | 152 Comments

Daniel Kalder

CD REVIEW: Johnny Cash — American VI: Ain’t No Grave

by Daniel Kalder

Nobody has enjoyed a late career renaissance like Johnny Cash. The series of collaborations he made with Slayer producer Rick Rubin reignited critical interest in his work at a time when Cash believed he was destined to become a touring nostalgia act. The first of these, American Recordings is a fantastic album- raw, dark, stark, stripped down to the Man in Black’s baritone voice and primitive guitar playing. Cash had never sounded young, and he’d always been good with death, but I was shocked by the simplicity of the first lines, the frank, naked, blasé expression of brutality: 

Delia, O Delia
Delia all my life
If I hadn’t have shot poor Delia
I’d have had her for my wife  

johnny-cash-finger

Whenever I play American Recordings I find this opening as startling as when I first heard it well over a decade ago. Cash could get close to the darkness without screeching or posing. He was already there. He just started singing in that rumbling baritone and you believed. It’s so powerful that you forget he could also be funny- and indeed, the last track on American Recordings was a joke song, The Man Who Couldn’t Cry.  

Later I discovered that Delia was an old song, that Cash was covering himself. The American series always relied less on Cash’s abilities as a songwriter and more on his skills as an interpreter, even if he was reinterpreting an earlier version of Johnny Cash. Some of the songs covered were selected by Cash, others by Rubin. It was easy to tell which was which: Cash’s sensibilities were steeped in the broad country, gospel and folk tradition, while Rubin favored a narrower palate of heavy metal and alt rock. The miraculous thing was that it worked, most of the time. Cash could invest the adolescent self-loathing of Trent Reznor’s Hurt with the same authority and sincerity as an ancient standard like That Lucky Old Sun, a mournful lament for the difficult life of a working man. The songs on these records sat comfortably alongside each other because Cash’s experience, persona and interpretive gift enabled him to uncover the shared themes of God, pain, redemption, love, violence and longing in the unlikeliest bedfellows.  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 14th 2010 at 7:05 am in Culture, Featured Story, Music, Reviews | 50 Comments

Cam Cannon

A Look Back at The Beastie Boys Part 4: ‘Ill Communication’

by Cam Cannon

[Ed. Note: Previous chapters of this outstanding series can be found here.]

Never before had a Beastie Boys album been so greatly anticipated. The release of “Ill Communication” was preceded by the single and video for “Sabotage,” an all-out screaming rock song. The video is legen- (waitforit) -dary, an instant classic that featured the Beasties and their DJ, Hurricane starring in spoof/homage of/to 70’s cop shows. Directed with style and wit by Spike Jonze, the video was the source of a little bit of controversy when it lost in every category to Aerosmith and R.E.M at the VMA’s. When Spike Jonze lost best director to whoever won for R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” as his alter ego, Nathaniel Hornblower, Yauch bum rushed the stage in full leiderhosen and interrupted Michael Stipe’s acceptance speech. Hornblower claimed that the awards were a farce and that in addition to his great work on “Sabotage,” Spike Jonze had conceived “all the best ideas for “Star Wars.”

With “Sabotage” and the VMA interruption, we were introduced to the Andy Kaufman side of the Beasties. The album was fine, their first number-one hit since “Licensed to Ill.”  It was the first Beastie Boys album to sound anything like the last one, and as such, was a bit anti-climatic. It features a few great songs, plus a cameo from Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest. They managed some funny lines (“Got fat bass lines like Russell Simmons steals money.”), but fewer and further between. Yauch had become a Buddhist, and so they included a song about it. I didn’t love it, or the Funky Instrumentals.

Another emerging theme was their newfound respect for women. On both “Licensed to Ill” and “Paul’s Boutique,” women were treated like objects, for the most part (Sample lines: “Girls! To clean up my room!,” “I love girlies, waxin’ and milkin’!”). But themes were far too playful for me to label the Beasties as misogynists. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 13th 2010 at 2:59 pm in Featured Story, Music, Reviews | 45 Comments

Leo Grin

For Conservative Movie Lovers: Ian Fleming, Sean Connery, and ‘Goldfinger’ Part 1

by Leo Grin

It’s the kind of movie “best” lists were made for, and over the years it’s been on plenty of them: Best Movie Quote, Best Song, Best Villain, Most Thrills. It boasts both the most famous car in movie history and what novelist Anthony Horowitz once called “perhaps the most bizarre murder in literature.” It spawned both 1964’s best-selling toy among tots and that year’s “sexiest man alive” among adults. It remains the most beloved entry in the single most profitable cinematic series of all time — adjusted for inflation, the movie cost only twenty-four-million dollars to make, yet brought in an epochal 853 million at the box office.

It’s Goldfinger (1964), and a half-century on the thrills, chills, eroticism, adventure, and luster invoked by that name all remain undimmed. According to one estimate, over a quarter of the world’s population has seen a James Bond film. That marks Goldfinger as not only a blockbuster, but as the harbinger of a profound cultural phenomenon.

goldfinger_shirley_eaton_life_cover

Secret agent James Bond was introduced to the British public in 1953 via the novel Casino Royale, published in an initial print run of less than five-thousand copies. Author Ian Fleming quietly cranked out a novel a year for nearly a decade, with each languishing on the mystery-novel midlist alongside dozens of other now-forgotten titles from other writers. Sales were reasonable, but hardly spectacular.

Then on March 17, 1961, an article appeared in Life magazine called “The President’s Voracious Reading Habits.” Included on a list of “Ten Kennedy Favorites” was the 1957 Bond novel From Russia, With Love (over thirty years later, some choice praise from President Bill Clinton would deliver a similar jump-start to the career of African-American mystery writer Walter Mosley). The Kennedy Bond-boost, combined with the appearance of the first film (1962’s Dr. No), served to increase Fleming’s sales exponentially. By 1964 he had some forty million books in print. But the movie version of Goldfinger changed everything. In just the first year after it rocketed into theaters, an astonishing twenty-seven million more Bond books flew off the shelves. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 13th 2010 at 6:48 am in Classic Hollywood, Featured Story, Film, For Conservative Movie Lovers | 155 Comments

John Nolte

REVIEW: Matt Damon & Paul Greengrass Get Their HateAmerica On In ‘Green Zone’

by John Nolte

The poetic irony of the delayed release of the shaky-cammed Hollywood temper tantrum known as “Green Zone” couldn’t be sweeter. Yes, the very same week our Iraqi allies held a historic election that ended up much more successful than we could have ever hoped, our own Hollywood swoops in with a piece of cinematic sour grapes in the frantic, desperate hope of rewriting the history of a war they were so eager for us to lose.    

Green Zone Call Sheet No. 6 for Friday 7th November.

After making the last two “Bourne” films together, director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon have teamed up again in an un-thrilling attempt to transfer that same success to the streets of Baghdad. But this time within a very real and recent historical event, the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In a vacuum where history doesn’t exist, the film’s absurd premise would still undermine itself. But Greengrass isn’t working in a vacuum. Unfortunately for him, we all know the truth and this truth reduces his story to a strained, poorly contrived, episodic, Hollywood Hills fever dream that no amount of suspended disbelief can overcome.

Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, a good soldier in charge of an army team on the search for WMD four weeks after shock and awe. Baghdad is in chaos as the newly liberated Iraqis loot the city and scattered snipers take potshots at anyone wearing the American flag. Miller risks his own life and those of his men based on intelligence that’s supposed to reveal the location of Saddam’s WMD facilities. And this is the third time they’ve come up empty.  Frustrated and angry, Miller starts to ask questions and demand answers about the source of the intel. Naturally, his commanding officers aren’t interested in answering those questions or even facing the possibility the weapons might not be found. That would upset the Bush administration’s narrative of the New Iraq. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,
Posted Mar 12th 2010 at 5:39 pm in Featured Story, Film, Reviews | 367 Comments

« Older Entries