Señor Jehuda, aka "El Blogo de Liberto", is an attorney and media professional with a background in TV marketing and production, copywriting, independent filmmaking, and spontaneously speaking perfect Spanish. A proud Texan who recently escaped from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, he spends far too much time thinking about movies - especially since his job requires it. Jehuda is also a contributor at YesButHowever.com and PJ Lifestyle.
Lionel Chetwynd and Roger Simon, both Hollywood vets in their own right, discuss the James Bond film series
The Flash version requires no registration or special downloads, and it’s FREE.
TRT: 13 minutes.
Sounds like a stupid question, but not if you think about it in economic terms.
Justin Wolfers of Freakonomics Blog estimates Tivo has contributed about $200,000 worth of well-being to his life. Twice that when he adds the benefits it’s yielded to his spouse.
Of course, your results may vary, since Wolfers and his wife are not necessarily representative of the average Tivo-owning household.
Interesting discussion in the comments. Give it a read.
Via Instapundit: Jidadists see Mumbai “invasion” as a triumph.
Jihadists often indulge in spin. Since the aim of the attacks was to kill 5000 people, it would be dishonest not to think of them as a tactical failure. But in so far as the raids have caused terror and uncertainty, I think they may have a point in gloating.
Could it happen here? Sure. But odds are some American cities would suffer more than others. Chalk it up to gun culture (or lack of).
RELATED: Much more on the Mumbai raids at Culper Ring.
Niiki Finke has the figures and analysis here. How did Four Christmases make it to the top? I saw the trailer not long ago. It looked awful.
Here’s a review – at long last – from Anne Thompson, who’s been anticipating the release of this film on her blog for months now. She also links to reviews by others.
The film sounds like a praiseworthy artistic effort that may not be everyone’s cup of tea…
Goldman reminisces over his adventures in the screen trade at the Screenwriter Expo.
Well, believe it or not a good bunch of them have been outsourced to India.
RELATED: an overview of the attorney job market at Law Law Stud.
The Hollywood Reporter has launched its reviews portal here.
You can find all their reviews for movies and TV shows there, as well as music and home video.
No video game reviews. At least not yet.
User-created reviews, too.
U.S. Representative Charlie Rangel, who unlike Joe the Plumber happens to be a Democrat and therefore – presumably – likes paying taxes, has seen his troubles with the IRS increase in recent weeks. Lots of links at Instapundit.
He should just resign. This guy formulates tax policy for all Americans, including himself. And yet, he seems to have serious difficulties observing those policies on April 15 as they apply to his personal finances.
Rejected absentee ballots in Minnesotta senate race will not be counted.
Jonathan Toomey of TV Squad has another excellent post in which he reviews the series finale for The Shield. But watch out for spoilers!!
Interesting comments his readers have left for him. I thought the episode wrapped up the series in excellent fashion, but you can’t please everyone; and there is only so many lose ends a writer can tie in 90 minutes.
What strikes me as odd from reading the comments is that several other people seem to have been as emotionally engaged in the show as I was. I thought I was weird that way, but seems Shield-induced Post Dramatic Stress Disorder is not that rare.
As for my own impressions of Vic’s fate, (click below for more ONLY if you are spoiler-proof) (More …)
I knew things were slow, but I sure never expected the famous writer/director who penned Scorsese’s Taxi Driver
But it’s Indian money that is bankrolling Dreamworks now, so I guess this isn’t that extraordinary.
Times are a’changing…
Good for Mr. Schrader.
UPDATE: a Schrader film with musical numbers in it? That’s a first!
From UPromise! Turns out anyone can sign up for it. I’ll definitely look into it.
(Via The Consumerist)
I like Hank. I’d vote for him, but I don’t live in Tennessee.
Our economy has slowed down by less than 1/2 of 1%. And yet some politicians can’t stop screaming that the sky is falling and that our economy needs a jolt.
There are rumblings of a strike coming from SAG. But a strike in the middle of such bad economic times? Don’t rule it out.
TV networks would be hit hardest by a work stoppage. That’s if you don’t count the thousands of people in L.A. whose small businesses and jobs depend on a vibrant entertainment industry, from caterers to florists to dry cleaners, etc.
Is your Christmas list ready? Then you can take advantage of Black Friday deals at Amazon
Yes, right now. It’s like Christmas in July, but different…
I wish I’d waited. I started shopping last week.
Nikki Finke has the figures and analysis. Teen vampire flick Twilight owned the night – and the days – this weekend. And as Nikki points out, with no violence, sex, or stars.
That’s really not that unusual, though. You could say the same thing to a certain extent about the Harry Potter films and the Star Wars prequels. They all have something in common with Twilight: pre-sold characters, via other media.
STRATFOR:
Clinton voted to authorize the Iraq war — a major bone of contention between Obama and her during the primaries. She is also a committed free trade advocate, as was her husband, and strongly supports continuity in U.S. policy toward Israel and Iran. Geithner comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he participated in crafting the strategies currently being implemented by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Everything Obama is doing with his appointments is signaling continuity in U.S. policy.
If I may pay tribute to Dylan for a moment, you don’t need a Weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing (with apologies to Bill Ayers, of course); and I guess you don’t need STRATFOR to see Obama is not really going to bring about a whole lot of change, either; but their analysis of Obama’s first moves explains way more than that, so give it a read.
Are we witnessing the end of storytelling for Hollywood film? Some in academia – and Hollywood – certainly think so. As does screenplay guru Robert McKee.
That’s the word on the street, anyway.
(Via Drudge)
UPDATED: Bob Woodward thinks it’s a bad idea. I wouldn’t have done it either if I were in Obama’s shoes. I don’t think he can possibly expect to ever control the Clintons.
Obama is starting to disappoint some fans and pleasantly surprise detractors – such as myself – with his potential cabinet picks and his policy announcements.
First, there was his decision to keep intelligence policy old-school Bush-stlye. Then what is shaping up to be a hawkish foreign policy team, including the potential nomination of Iraq war supporter and former opponent Senator Hillary Rhodam “Bad Judgment” Clinton. And now – and this shouldn’t be a surprise since Obama opposes gay marriage – the announcement that a repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell won’t be happening any time soon.
So it makes sense that Obama’s advisers are basically telling the public “keep your shirt on”.
UPDATE: The honeymoon is over for the hard Left. Ha-ha! Fools.
The Cahiers bunch was always enamored of American cinema back in their golden days, during the heyday of the French New Wave, but not listing a single Brit flick among their 100 Greatest Films of All time seems like a glaring omission. Not even Lawrence of Arabia
(Via a reader’s tip)
Eric Holder has indeed had a distinguished career, but in between his recommendation of Marc Rich’s pardon by Bill Clinton and, his key role in the Elian Gonzalez raid, his position on gun control, and his support for “reasonable limits” on internet speech, I’m “neutral negative leaning to no” on his nomination for Attorney General.
I still doubt Obama will remove his nomination or that the Senate won’t approve it. Alas.
(H/T: Intapundit)
Interesting arguments if you are into soft I.P. law, especially in regards to music.
Oh, wow. I actually met McCain’s attorney Lincoln Bandlow during my 2L year at Loyola Law. He gave a lecture to my Entertainment Law Practicum class. Nice guy.
With this handy Live Piracy Map from the International Chamber of Commerce’s Commercial Crime Services.
Dang. Looks like even your next Caribbean cruise could be a target for pirates.
(Via Veryshortlist.com)
Jonathan Toomey of TV Squad reflects on the next to last episode of The Shield. It’s not spoiler-free, so be careful.
The road ends for Vic Mackey next Tuesday – after seven seasons on the air – in a special 90-minute episode.
I recall reading somewhere that Shawn Ryan said the series could only end in one of two ways: Vic will either go to prison or die. I wonder if that still stands? (spoilers follow) (More …)
Caught in the act: “Un-Islamic behavior” from an Iranian university official who disapproves of un-Islamic behavior (there’s video).
How do you say “sexual harassment” in Farsi?
(H/T: A Dr. Fiancee tip)
But and end to flushing to save water?
Human waste as fertilizer sounds like a bad, bad idea. This is environmentalism gone wrong (what else is new?). There is no better way to spread disease and parasites than using human poo as fertilizer on our crops.
You can follow it here.
Now that Stevens has conceded in Alaska, all eyes are on Minnesota. I have the feeling that Chambliss in Georgia will maintain his seat. Dems have sent Bill Clinton to help campaign against Chambliss over there, so maybe they have a similar feeling.
(Via RealClearPolitics)
Some libertarian thoughts on Proposition 8, from Professor. Richard Epstein.
(H/T: Instapundit)
The new service, available at http://images.google.com/hosted/life, debuted Tuesday with about 2 million photos. Eventually, Google plans to scan all 10 million photos from Life‘s library so they can be viewed on any computer with an Internet connection.
(Via a reader’s tip)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced at a press conference just before noon that Sen. Joe Lieberman, a self-described Independent Democrat, will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Seems gracious from Senate Dems after Lieberman’s support of John McCain. But the truth is they want to have as close to a filibuster-proof majority as possible; and they can’t risk Lieberman retaliating by caucasing with Republicans or just going solo.
“If the economy continues to tank and President Obama decides to help young public sector lawyers get rid of some of that oppressive law school debt, BigGov might just become the new Biglaw.”
I myself have been tempted to consider government work, but then I recover my senses. I’m sure it’s fulfilling and the experience is a great resume enhancer. But something about working for the government makes me uneasy.
Then again, with the economy tanking government work might just be many a young attorney’s best bet, as the quote above implies.
So much so that the Saudi Royal Family is calling the pirates involved the “T” word! Now that’s bold coming from the biggest promoters of Wahabism on earth.
Piracy on the high seas has become more and more common in the last decade. I first read about a rising trend in Foreign Affairs
This year alone there has been plenty of sea pirate activity reported on line. I just counted more than 5 pirate-related stories on Drudge, for example.
That’s a record. He’s probably trying to bring the problem to the media forefront.
UPDATE: Latest on the hijacked Saudi tanker here, via Drudge.
Well, of course they struggled. Accurate coverage of Obama/Biden was the exception, not the rule.
Predictably, Zogby has had to issue a statement to defend itself for having the temerity to conduct this survey. How dare they!
The poll was commissioned by author John Ziegler
UPDATE: Link was wrong. Just fixed it. Sorry about that…
Lots of still pictures, plus a proper trailer, with this web article from the Daily Mail about the J.J. Abrams re-boot.
UPDATE: a reader has notified me that not everyone is impressed.
Only two more episodes and Vic Mackey’s luck will run out. Then The Shield
In the meantime, here’s this piece from Jonathan Toomey of TV Squad. He sat down with Shawn Ryan for a revealing and enlightening interview/retrospective of sorts.
Best of all: spoiler-free! That is, if you have finished Season 5
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched this week’s Dexter episode, I suggest you move on. Otherwise, click on “More”, below.
…and all global warming demagogues and alarmists out there:
A new Irish film claims that climate change guru Al Gore is an alarmist and that those who think they are saving the planet are only hurting the poor.
It’s like I’m hearing an echo or something! Looking forward to the film’s release. Not that I need to see it (I’ve been a proud proponent of the film’s thesis for years now) but I’ll be glad to support the producers’ efforts by purchasing a DVD.
