I Didn’t Quit Drinking to Get High On Hope and Change

With the holidays fast approaching, I thought it might be a good time to jot down some thoughts on drinking.  Or, more specifically, not drinking – booze or Kool Aid.

Recently, I celebrated my eighth year of sobriety.  I have 9/11 to thank for that; it was shortly after the attacks that I began attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous with regularity.  I’d been to AA once before, at 25, when a DUI arrest landed me in “the rooms.”  But at the time, I still had 15+ years of drinking to get out of my system, plus a mid-life crisis to go through that sent me flying out to La-La Land (which is where I was when the towers fell back in my home town).

I’m proud I haven’t had a drink since 2001.  After spending decades trying to flee my “issues” like an adolescent hamster on an existential wheel, the fog gradually lifted from my brain and I stopped running.

They say when you drink, you stop growing emotionally, that you’re almost in a state of suspended animation – normal on the outside, stunted on the inside.  Sobriety gets the spiritual gears moving again.  Suddenly, years of pent-up, delayed maturation caught up with me – real fast. (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, Alcoholics Anonymous, BDS, Big Book, Bill Wilson
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 at 5:03 am in Culture, Featured Story, Politics | 21587821 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/11/23/i-didnt-quit-drinking-to-get-high-on-hope-and-change/I+Didn%27t+Quit+Drinking+to+Get+High+On+Hope+and+Change2009-11-23+13%3A03%3A43Charles+Winecoff

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: ‘Hollywood on the Potomac’: Personalities, Politics and Powerbrokers

Many thanks to all for making my new book “Hollywood on the Potomac” a success.  In the first week, it is already hitting Non-Fiction Bestseller lists in bookstores.  It’s available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders and many major independents in Los Angeles and Hollywood.  It features over 200 photos and stories that detail the fascination between Hollywood stars and Washington power-players.

Here’s an excerpt:

Chapter Five, Personalities, Politics and Powerbrokers

Somehow late night talk shows became a logical first step for politicians to reach voters. Somehow rock stars became a political voice of the disenfranchised. Somewhere along the way, American politics and pop culture personalities began to blend. (more…)

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Tags: "Hollywood on the Potomac", Arsenio, Bob Geldof, Bono, clinton
Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 8:35 am in Celebrity News, Culture, Featured Story | 2189428 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jmeath/2009/09/14/exclusive-excerpt-hollywood-on-the-potomac-personalities-politics-and-powerbrokers/EXCLUSIVE+EXCERPT%3A+%27Hollywood+on+the+Potomac%27%3A+Personalities%2C+Politics+and+Powerbrokers2009-09-14+15%3A35%3A58Jason+Killian+Meath

Return of ‘Mad Men’

Sunday, August 16th, begins the third season of the exceptional AMC original series, “Mad Men.” The show is about a private Madison Avenue (hence the “Mad” in “Mad Men”) advertising firm, set in the early 60s. This show somehow touches all my subterranean hot buttons. “Mad Men’s” second season ended in the year 1962, at the conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the firm is about to be acquired by a London based agency. The second season’s finale was a perfectly coordinated display of the several character centered subplots, each reaching a critical turning point simultaneously.  My tendency to see politics in everything is thwarted by this show, even as it is easily parodied politically, given current “mores and folkways.” But I’ll give it a shot.

The show has an uncanny ability to convince the audience it is watching people as they were then, with no intrusion of modern sensibilities and judgments. The show’s appearance is a gauzy impressionism, which helps create a nostalgic effect. There seems to be less dialogue than most shows. Characters are developed as much through facial reactions to events as with dialogue and plot lines. When watching the show, it feels like 1962, as I nostalgically remember it, even though I never heard of Madison Avenue until years later. Plot lines are about getting and losing clients, and they can be amusing. But plots are primarily designed to create interest in each character. (more…)

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Tags: 1960s, JFK, mad men, Nixon
Posted Aug 15th 2009 at 6:22 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 205030108 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mrulle/2009/08/15/return-of-mad-men/Return+of+%27Mad+Men%272009-08-15+13%3A22%3A40Michael+S.+Rulle+Jr.

Cronkite’s Legacy Includes the Killing Fields of Cambodia

Walter Cronkite passed away a few days ago and pardon me for not joining the wailing and gnashing of teeth of the professional media mandarins.  The fact is that Cronkite was an over-praised meat puppet, a doctrinaire liberal-left talking head who never once uttered a word that would have caused so much as a sigh of consternation in the Manhattan media environs he dwelled in. 

Except among his loved ones, the hoopla that has accompanied his passing has nothing to do with Walter Cronkite the man and everything to do with Walter Cronkite the symbol.  He symbolized a time – “The Golden Age” to hear the wistful liberals tell it – of a solid, unconquerable media monolith that passed judgment on What Is The News and defined Socially Accepted Opinion. 

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Oh, those glorious days of yesteryear, when those drooling slobs without the education or breeding to live in New York and work at the Times or at one of the three networks would genuflect before their black and white TV sets every evening and await Mr. Cronkite to bestow upon them The Truth!  Now (sigh), it’s chaos, with too many different media outlets and too many different opinions.  It’s gotten out of (our) control! 

Come back, Walter, and save us from Fox News! (more…)

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Tags: Dan rather, Edward R. Murrow, Fairness Doctrine, Fox News, JFK
Posted Jul 20th 2009 at 5:27 pm in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 187410177 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/07/20/and-that%e2%80%99s-the-way-it-isn%e2%80%99t/Cronkite%27s+Legacy+Includes+the+Killing+Fields+of+Cambodia2009-07-21+00%3A27%3A34Kurt+Schlichter

Interview: ‘Getting it Right’ with Captain Dale Dye

Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing a man who has helped bring to life some of my favorite films, series and projects. Captain Dale Dye, USMC (Ret.) has enjoyed an incredible career in Hollywood as an actor, a writer and as the most recognizable military/technical advisor in the industry. He recently worked as the Senior Military Advisor on HBO’s upcoming World War II miniseries “The Pacific” (currently in post-production) and is preparing to direct his first feature, “No Better Place to Die.”

J.R. Head: Thanks so much, Dale, for taking the time to talk with me.

Dale Dye: You’re most welcome. It’s a pleasure to be anywhere talking about the business we love these days. Hopefully, things will loosen up a bit, we’ll all go to work and I won’t have time for this in the near future.

JRH: Well, I’m glad I caught you when I did. First, let me say that I’ve enjoyed so many of the projects you’ve worked on.

DD: That means a lot coming from a guy with a military background. The reason I work so hard at it is to ensure guys like you and millions of others who served get a fair shake from Hollywood. (more…)

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Tags: "Born on the Fourth of July", "Forrest Gump", "Starship Troopers", "The Last of the Mohicans", "The Thin Red Line"
Posted Jun 30th 2009 at 5:02 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Military | 17326213 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jrhead/2009/06/30/getting-it-right-with-captain-dale-dye/Interview%3A+%27Getting+it+Right%27+with+Captain+Dale+Dye2009-06-30+12%3A02%3A42J.R.+Head

The Ghost of John F. Kennedy

“Strange…”  he blurted, on feeling that familiar pain in his lower back. “I’m just vapor and thought, and I still need a chiropractor.”

The handsome man instinctively brushed aside the hair barely hanging down on his forehead as he pressed on towards the residence portion of the house.

“Ah… I am here to see Obama” he told the secret service guard inside the residence. The guard did not react at all.  John Fitzgerald Kennedy knew right off that his presence would be seen only by his intended audience and the guard saw nothing. “Fix your tie pal.” Kennedy joked as he walked passed the oblivious sentry.

“You must be President Kennedy”, Obama sheepishly asked the figure now standing above him as he lay in bed.  ”These visits are getting quite regular, are you the last?”  (more…)

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Tags: budget, Castro, JFK, John F. Kennedy, Obama
Posted Apr 21st 2009 at 4:26 pm in News, Politics | 974543 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/emannix/2009/04/21/the-ghost-of-john-f-kennedy/The+Ghost+of+John+F.+Kennedy2009-04-21+23%3A26%3A05Ernie+Mannix

JFK Understood: ‘Free and Independent’

Whenever I stumble upon any media about JFK I’m always struck by how conservative he really was. By today’s standards, this speech would put President Kennedy squarely on the side of the Republican/Libertarian movement politically and on the receiving end of liberal media attacks worldwide. In an alternate reality I can imagine a young JFK giving this speech at CPAC as he preps for a White House run. Listen to this chilling warning about what we all know has already come to pass in Europe and is quickly creeping its way into mainstream American life unless we citizens act now to stop this train and derail it back into the ash heap of history.

President Bush’s 8 years in office was like someone taking a stick to a hornets nest that nobody knew still existed. He whacked it good and then paid the price with poisonous stings all over everything he tried to do. But the rest of us out there saw how the press and mainstream media reacted to him and that is how we came to clearly see what we’re really up against in the battle for America’s future. (more…)

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Tags: 2010 election, 2012 election, baby boomers, capitalism, JFK
Posted Mar 30th 2009 at 2:59 pm in Media Criticism, Politics, Video | 91634No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mmcgruther/2009/03/30/free-and-independent/JFK+Understood%3A+%27Free+and+Independent%272009-03-30+21%3A59%3A52Michael+McGruther

“NewsBusted” 3/27/09 — Fake News from the Right

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: President Obama, Jimmy Carter, Leno, Letterman, Nancy Grace, Cuba, JFK, telePrompters, Senator Harry Reid, Congress, I Love You Man, Britney Spears, “Fight Club,” and VH1’s “Rock of Love.”

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Tags: Britney Spears, Congress, Cuba, Fight Club, i love you man
Posted Mar 27th 2009 at 3:55 pm in Media Criticism, Political Humor, Video | 90526No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/epeterkofsky/2009/03/27/%e2%80%9cnewsbusted%e2%80%9d-32709-%e2%80%94-fake-news-from-the-right/%E2%80%9CNewsBusted%E2%80%9D+3%2F27%2F09+%E2%80%94+Fake+News+from+the+Right2009-03-27+22%3A55%3A30Eric+Peterkofsky

Watch Out For ‘Watchmen’

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published Jan. 7th. It returns today for obvious reasons, but also for the benefit of new readers. The original post and comments can be found here.  

Last summer, Joss Whedon (yes, he’s my master now), caused a minor sensation with his Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. One of the reasons the musical comedy about a would-be super-villain’s miserable love life was so successful — other than Whedon’s pact with Satan whereby he traded his soul, his mint condition Giant Size X-Men # 1 and a lifetime supply of HoHos in exchange for mystical word-talent – was that Whedon was standing on the shoulders of Alan Moore, the author of the landmark comic book Watchmen. More than anyone else, Moore is credited with “deconstructing” the comic book super-hero, and he probably deserves that credit. Though like with all great artistic innovators, Moore had his influences in this regard. Every artist has in his background a mob of ghostly helpers bigger than the crowd of phone technicians in that Verizon commercial. For instance, Marvel Comics (where my first loyalties lie, for the record) had already broken considerable ground in humanizing its heroes long before Moore started writing. Peter Parker, after all, was a terrible dork. (more…)

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Tags: alan moore, cold war, JFK, Nixon, Reagan
Posted Mar 5th 2009 at 7:45 am in Entertainment, Politics | 7305845 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jgoldberg/2009/03/05/watch-out-for-%e2%80%98watchmen%e2%80%99/Watch+Out+For+%E2%80%98Watchmen%E2%80%992009-03-05+15%3A45%3A56Jonah+Goldberg

Platitudes are not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things

The other day I was stuck in traffic behind a young woman whose rear bumper sported three popular cries for help: Hope, Free Tibet, and Save the Planet.  Her ass was covered.

For some reason, it made me think of my late grandmother, an English rose with a backbone of steel – what us Americans call a “tough cookie.”  As a young divorcee, she single-handedly raised my mother, and took care of her own mother, through the Great Depression and beyond.

I used to love asking her about all the events she’d seen take place in her lifetime: the rise of the automobile, the night of Orson Welles’s famous War of the Worlds broadcast, the blackouts during WW2, the “Stars Over America” war bond blitz (which even Hollywood nonconformist Bette Davis threw herself into), the arrival of television, and on and on.

As a boy, it seemed to me my grandmother had lived many lives, and seen more sweeping, historical changes than I could ever dream of.  I had missed the boat. (more…)

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Tags: AOL, Blackberry, bumper stickers, change, Che
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 at 10:00 am in Media Criticism, Politics | 3496645 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/02/02/platitudes-are-not-healthy-for-children-and-other-living-things/Platitudes+are+not+Healthy+for+Children+and+Other+Living+Things2009-02-02+18%3A00%3A49Charles+Winecoff