‘Law & Order’ Jumps the Shark

The only surprising thing about hearing that Law & Order was going to take on the Bush administration over “torture” is the realization that Law & Order is still on the air.  This car-wreck of a series has been bouncing around NBC’s schedule since the first Bush administration doing the impossible – making lawyers look even worse.  Thanks, guys.

Law & Order’s mysteries are as unpredictable as where the sun will come up tomorrow morning.  In a typical episode, when the cops arrest a gang member you can safely bet the climatic trial denouement will reveal the real killer to be either the wealthy corporate executive,  the ambitious conservative politician or the hypocritical Christian preacher.  You know, kind of like in real life. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 9/11, bush, Conservatives, Geneva Conventions, law & order
Posted Sep 29th 2009 at 5:03 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 236382145 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/09/29/law-order-jumps-the-shark/%27Law+%26amp%3B+Order%27+Jumps+the+Shark2009-09-29+12%3A03%3A49Kurt+Schlichter

Do The Warhol—Part 1: The Business of Vision

Your correspondent, as absorbed by the Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky Street, Pittsburgh, PA.

A dance craze— like “freaking”— it is not, but rather, a point of view.

Back in January of this year, Andrew Breitbart announced “Big Hollywood’s modest objective: to change the entertainment industry”.  The announcement is as important as it is radical, assessing the power of Pop Culture in shaping global attitudes and standing athwart contemporary assaults on Western values, yelling, as did William Buckley in 1955, Stop.

Ask yourself: Is a vision of the world that is contrary in almost every way to the prevailing cultural paradigms a difficult “sell”?  Given this is always so, how is such a challenge overcome? (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Andrew Breitbart, Art, artists, classical liberals, Conservatives
Posted Jul 23rd 2009 at 6:56 am in Art, Classic Hollywood, Politics | 17912639 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sgraves/2009/07/23/do-the-warhol%e2%80%94-part-1-the-business-of-vision/Do+The+Warhol%E2%80%94Part+1%3A+The+Business+of+Vision+2009-07-23+13%3A56%3A47Scott+Graves

Karl Rove: Shining a Light in the Wilderness

Last Tuesday evening I was privileged to attend a dinner at which Karl Rove was the keynote speaker.  The event was put on by the Heritage Foundation, the premiere conservative think tank of Washington, DC, of which I am proud to be a supporting member.  While Mr. Rove’s speech covered numerous topics, one point that he made has stuck with me and, I believe, should serve as a light for conservatives as we travel through the political wilderness. 

While Mr. Rove has been defined by the media and Hollywood elite as a partisan attack dog and nicknamed forebodingly as “The Architect,” he came off as anything but and emphasized that conservatives should be careful to work with our current president in a respectful manner.  When he mentioned President Obama’s name, a few overzealous members of the audience shouted out their less than positive feelings about the man; and Mr. Rove quickly and gently reminded them that our president has made some decisions that conservatives should applaud. From the surge in Afghanistan to military tribunals, Mr. Rove explained that President Obama has taken the right steps in regards to some very important issues that face our nation.   (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Barack Obama, Conservatives, Heritage Foundation, Karl Rove, political wilderness
Posted Jul 2nd 2009 at 9:17 am in Politics | 17348225 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smitchell/2009/07/02/karl-rove-shining-a-light-in-the-wilderness/Karl+Rove%3A+Shining+a+Light+in+the+Wilderness2009-07-02+16%3A17%3A42Seth+Mitchell

A Conservative Journey Through Literary America – Part 8: The Way Forward

This series of essays was not intended to be a laundry list of conservative literary authors – laundry lists are always boring and never helpful.  Instead, they were intended to be an investigation only, examining the dearth of conservatives in literature with an eye toward discovering the reason for this curious state of affairs and formulating a course for its possible correction.

As to the first, we have reached a tentative answer: A combination of temperament and values in the conservative mind combine to make the writing life both less suitable for, and less attractive to, conservatives.  The question remains:  What is to be done?

Let us state the obvious first  – conservatives who are so inclined must write, write often, and write well.  But that is not enough.  They must submit their work to literary magazines, publishing houses and agencies, large and small, again and again if need be.  Getting your work to market is a long, disappointing slog, with no guarantee of success for even the best of work.  Liberal writers know this and engage the process nonetheless; conservatives must do likewise. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: books, Conservatives, literature, magazines, novels
Posted Jun 7th 2009 at 7:13 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 152598No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/06/07/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-8-the-way-forward/A+Conservative+Journey+Through+Literary+America+-+Part+8%3A+The+Way+Forward2009-06-07+14%3A13%3A35Matt+Patterson

A Conservative Journey Through Literary America – Part 7: A Question of Temperament

In our interview, Michael Blowhard had this to say about conservatives and their temperament: “Conservatives are often practical, non-theoretical people with an aversion to flossiness and silliness. And the American literary world as it’s currently constituted is pretty damn pretentious and silly.”

My musician friend Martin has similar thoughts.  He feels a vast gulf separates the liberal and conservative mind.  He describes conservatives (again, generally) as serious in thought, and more apt to value personal responsibility and spiritual-based morality, while artists, he says, tend to have, and maybe even need to have, more lax work and personal ethics.  Creative people, he tells me, want to push the envelope, move beyond the status quo, an attitude which they tend to apply to all aspects of life.  Again, it comes down to messiness.  Conservatives don’t like a mess; liberals love ‘em.

The lifestyle of Bohemia is a prefect example – late nights, sundry substances, many partners; these and other staples are less likely to tempt the conservative temperament by definition.

But even granting that conservatives are temperamentally less inclined to participate in the Bohemian lifestyle, it is a vile (and destructive) myth that Bohemia and artistry necessarily go hand in hand.  Many writers and artists, many great writers and artists, have lived stable, relatively tranquil lives consistent with the conservative temperament. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Aeneid, Bohemia, Bohemian, conservative temperament, Conservatives
Posted Jun 6th 2009 at 7:11 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 1525862 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/06/06/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-7-a-question-of-temperament/A+Conservative+Journey+Through+Literary+America+-+Part+7%3A+A+Question+of+Temperament2009-06-06+14%3A11%3A40Matt+Patterson

A Conservative Journey through Literary America – Part 3: To Write or Not to Write

Mr. Blowhard gives us several juicy bones upon which to gnaw.

First, the point about closet conservatives.  They come in one of two breeds: 1) those who hold conservative views but keep them quiet, preferring to avoid discussing politics altogether for fear of being sniffed out, and 2) those who not only hide their political views, but openly and falsely profess liberal views.

My good friend Martin, a professional musician, admits to me that he is among the former.  “When I’m at social events, or any gathering of entertainers, and they start talking about Bush is evil, blah, blah, blah, I just bite my tongue, because I know that even if I say something, I’m not going to have time to correct all their stupid errors and assumptions, and even if I did, there’s no damn way they’re gonna listen to me anyway.”  It sounds like you think artists are dumb, I say.  “They are,” he answers with a sigh.  “Incredibly.”

For Martin, and those of his breed, I have genuine sympathy.  An artist in his position is surrounded constantly by people with whom he must work, with whom he must get along for work to both keep coming and run smoothly.  Many of these co-workers are personal friends.  This last is no small matter – artists are intensely clannish, and form tight personal bonds.  So in my friend’s case, why jeopardize friendships?  Why jeopardize income?  Perfectly understandable, it seems to me, that he lets his friends and co-workers prattle on.

The latter breed, however, the ones who affect a liberal bias, projecting a false beard to the world, are a different matter.  This is truly insidious, because the aim here is not just to protect one’s income by muting beliefs, but to gain income (and friends, I suppose) under false pretense. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Conservatives, literature, Mr. Blowhard, Philip Terzian, Poe
Posted May 23rd 2009 at 6:58 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 140054No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/05/23/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-3-to-write-or-not-to-write/A+Conservative+Journey+through+Literary+America+-+Part+3%3A++To+Write+or+Not+to+Write2009-05-23+13%3A58%3A51Matt+Patterson

Democrats — Why so Unhappy?

I think myself a happy person. Perhaps it’s because I enjoy writing and telling jokes for a living, and I have friends and family I cherish. I also delight in simple pleasures; a cold beer after mowing the lawn and some meat on the grill is all it takes to make my day. Sure I wish things were better right now, but I live in America, and in America the possibilities are close to infinite.

A recent study by the Pew Research Center has discovered that Democrats tend to be less happy than Republicans. That comes as no surprise to me. For the past eight years we have been listening to the whining about a stolen election, a war for oil, shredding the Constitution, Halliburton Halliburton Halliburton! You would think that now that they own both Houses of Congress and the White House, they should be happy. The economy is in the tank (as we told them would happen, if they ever got control of the government) but yet they still don’t seem to be happy. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Conservatives, liberals, Pew Research Poll, poor, Rich
Posted May 21st 2009 at 3:13 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 1391667 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/tslagle/2009/05/21/misery/Democrats+--+Why+so+Unhappy%3F2009-05-21+22%3A13%3A50Tim+Slagle

A Conservative Journey Through Literary America — Part 2: A Conversation With Michael Blowhard

Michael Blowhard, of 2Blowhards.com fame, describes himself as “…. a blogger who has lived and worked in the NYC arts and media worlds for 30 years, and who worked in and around the NYC trade book publishing world for 15 years.”   Surely, I surmised, this is someone who may have some answers.  Mr. Blowhard was gracious enough to answer at length a series questions via email.

Do you think that there are fewer conservatives (artistic, political, or both) in the arts generally, and literature in particular?

A two-part answer.

Part one is that I have a super-inclusive view of “culture.” We’re all immersed in culture whether we know it or not, and whether we want to be or not. We clothe ourselves, we watch TV and movies and flip through magazines, we eat, we listen to stories and jokes, we drive cars and have opinions about airports and restaurants … That’s all culture. So from that point of view we’re *all* “in the arts.”   (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Bruce Bawer, Conservatives, Henry James, literature
Posted May 17th 2009 at 7:11 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 1352143 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/05/17/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-2-a-conversation-with-michael-blowhard/A+Conservative+Journey+Through+Literary+America+--+Part+2%3A++A+Conversation+With+Michael+Blowhard+2009-05-17+14%3A11%3A57Matt+Patterson

A Conservative Journey Through Literary America — Part 1: Introduction

Big Hollywood is a unique and long needed institution – a place where conservatives can gather and talk about pop culture and entertainment, the ultimate goal being, as I understand it, to encourage conservatives to engage in the culture war through the arts.

While the best tactics to achieve this goal are open to debate, its ultimate worth and necessity are indisputable – for too long, conservatives have ceded the most influential segments of society, from academia to Hollywood, to the Left with nary a fight.  The current sorry state of our movement is in no small measure the result of this refusal to engage the battle of ideas where it impacts people the most- the culture that they absorb every day through radio, Internet, television, and movies.

The piece which will appear in eight installments, one chapter each Saturday and Sunday, over the next four weeks, however, will deal more specifically with the literary world, and the conservative’s place therein.  For contemporary literature (by which I mean drama, poetry, and written fiction) is also more or less the exclusive province of left-wing thinkers and practitioners.

Some may argue that literature these days is not nearly as influential as movies, say, or television, and therefore perhaps not as worthy of conservative efforts to engage.  On the face this is true – far more people watch Sex and the City, for example, than read The Kenyon Review.  But in a larger sense, this argument misses the point and dangerously underestimates the influence of literature as a vehicle for poisonous ideas to enter the cultural mainstream.   (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: big hollywood, Conservatives, fiction, Kenyon Review, literature
Posted May 16th 2009 at 7:03 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Featured Story, Political Humor, Politics, Reviews | 1351902 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/05/16/a-conservative-journey-through-literary-america-part-1-introduction/A+Conservative+Journey+Through+Literary+America+--+Part+1%3A+Introduction2009-05-16+14%3A03%3A03Matt+Patterson

‘NewsBusted’ 5/15/09 — Fake News from the Right

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: Obama’s Egypt speech, Massachussetts welfare, conservatives, Republicans, GOP, Michelle Obama, Sesame Street, Barbara Walters, Anderson Cooper, Rosie O’Donnell, Kelly McGillis, and Simon Cowell.

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Anderson Cooper, Barack Obama, Barbara Walters, Conservatives, gop
Posted May 15th 2009 at 5:54 pm in Celebrity News, Media Criticism, Political Humor | 135654No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/newsbusters/2009/05/15/%e2%80%98newsbusted%e2%80%99-51509-%e2%80%94-fake-news-from-the-right/%E2%80%98NewsBusted%E2%80%99+5%2F15%2F09+%E2%80%94+Fake+News+from+the+Right+2009-05-16+00%3A54%3A13NewsBusters

I Wanna Spend Yo’ Money!

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: a.i.g. generational spending, bail outs, Barack Obama, Conservatives, liberals
Posted Mar 27th 2009 at 7:01 am in Political Humor, Video | 89990One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/arachel/2009/03/27/i-wanna-spend-yo-money/I+Wanna+Spend+Yo%27+Money%212009-03-27+14%3A01%3A47Alfonzo+Rachel

Rebels with a Cause: Are Conservatives Cool Again?

I took a tour of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on a recent Saturday afternoon, visiting the graves of several entertainment legends. One of the more recent additions to the grounds is the cenotaph for original punk rocker, Johnny Ramone.

Ramone’s remains are not on the property, but the rock legend’s family and fans wanted a memorial on the well-trafficked grounds amongst other varied legends like Cecil B. DeMille, Vampira, John Huston and Jayne Mansfield.

As I admired the life-size marble statue, the friendly tour guide standing nearby said in passing, “He was a huge Republican, you know.” (And he was. He once praised George W. Bush at an awards show, and you’d have thought he relieved himself on the podium.) (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Conservatives, Establisment, Johnny, Ramone, Rebels
Posted Feb 25th 2009 at 5:51 pm in Entertainment, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 66410124 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jslewinski/2009/02/25/rebels-with-a-cause-are-conservatives-cool-again/Rebels+with+a+Cause%3A+Are+Conservatives+Cool+Again%3F2009-02-26+01%3A51%3A08John+Scott+Lewinski