This guy comes up to me His face red like a rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colors of a royal flush And he's peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down One hundred, two hundred
And I can see those fighter planes And I can see those fighter planes
Across the mud huts where the children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street....
Across the field you see the sky ripped open
See the rain through a gaping wound
Pounding on the women and children
Who run
Into the arms
Of America
---Bullet the Blue Sky, U2
When new people start to work with you, you say hello to them upon their arrival, but unless they have a boisterous personality, you tend to stick with your old work friends. And if they are an immigrant who is not great with the English language, you are even more likely to ignore them.
I am something of a social person, but oddly I like to eat my lunch alone. That quiet time allows me to read my newspapers and magazines and be at peace with myself. When I was younger I felt compelled to befriend every new worker who came into my company, no matter what company that was. Sometimes they became good friends, other times they moved on to others who were more their taste. But sometimes these new people tended to cling on like puppies. I am not a fan of cling-ons, they tend to interrupt my lunch peace. So I have to get cold with them and then they leave me alone. Sounds mean, but too bad.
Well at my current job virtually every new hire lately is an immigrant. They are all quite nice and they all tend to stay to themselves. One guy is a Latino fellow named Carlos. He started working with us a little over a year ago. He looks a bit like and has the build of famed Dodger pitcher Fernando Valenzuela. I say hello and goodbye to him and say "que paso Primo" when I'm joking around. Carlos has got a plum assignment. One of our other workers is an army reservist who has been stationed in Afghanistan for about a year or so. In his absence Carlos gets to do his route for that entire time. That route is next to mine.
Around Christmas time, I was looking for a letter from a customer. I asked Carlos if he could swing by my route and see if it was there, because I think the garbagemen have been stealing it the last couple of years. He got it for me and I was very grateful. I offered to buy him coffee, but he didn't want anything. He said, "You're my friend."
I was touched by this, but also saddened because of our limited contact. He was out of work a few days because of an emergency with one of his kids. When he came back, I drove over to his route to find out if everything was alright. While there we got into a pretty long conversation and I sat in my truck amazed.
This man is about 36 years old, but looks younger and he is usually smiling, so you imagine he had a pretty good life growing up. But appearances are deceiving. I assumed he was from Mexico, but he was actually born and raised in El Salvador. As you go south, first comes Mexico, then comes Guatemala and then comes El Salvador. He moved to America back in 1995 and doesn't sound like he's ever going back.
He was born in 1971 and the first 8 years of his life were happy and peaceful, for both him and his family. His country was divided as always by the very rich and very poor. Then war broke out in 1979. It took place mostly in the mountains and hills, but was still a burden on his country for 12 years. It was not unusual for helicopters to fly low overhead and start shooting.
Then one Saturday afternoon, November 11, 1989, there was a wedding in a church in his hometown, the capital city of San Salvador. Inside the church were all the guests with their gifts at their sides. Inside the giftboxes were concealed guns. They opened the boxes and ran out in the streets firing these guns in the middle of town.
Now 18 years old, Carlos would hear from his house, "pop pop pop pop pop pop", constantly, for 3 months. Sometimes the machine gun sounds were low and far away and sometimes they were very close and he and his family would be ducking on the floors of their house. His father was not a military man or a political man, so the guerillas had no reason to shoot him, but machine gun fire doesn't make those distinctions. One day there was fighting behind his house and it seemed to last forever. The next day his father and he went in the backyard and found dozens of stray bullets and shell casings littered across their yard.
On New Year's Eve 1992, the two sides signed an accord and peace was declared after 12 years of war.
A decent economy was destroyed by the long civil war and the rural areas were especially devastated. Young people from the farmlands with no place else to go are now causing trouble in the cities. Because of this two huge gangs have grown out of the mess and gangland violence and theft are the norm. Refugees who fled during the war have also come back with little industry to welcome them. Many have turned to drugs and violence as their new ways of life.
Carlos smiles because he's happy to be away from all of that.
The Freditor
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Hall of Fame selection of Goose Gossage a welcome relief
How do you spell relief? The Yankees spelled it G-O-O-S-E from 1978 to 1983 and few did the job better. Like most Yankees I didn't like him at the time he played, but appreciated him way more after he left the squad. He earned 310 saves in a career that began as a starter. In fact, he was a reluctant reliever for the Chicago White Sox at a time when relievers were still considered the scrubs of a pitching staff.
But Goose helped change that. He became the team's closer. The fireman who came in and doused the flames of the other's team's attempted comeback. Back then, offense wasn't as prevalent as it is now and a starter could probably get to the ninth inning more than half of the time. But then there were the moments when Ron Guidry or Tommy John would run into trouble and out of gas, and out of the pen would come this bull of a man, The Goose. The Mets used to have this silly looking, but fun baseball-shaped golf cart that they'd drive the relief pitcher in with. The Yankees used a boring K-car. Now I can't remember if Goose drove in with this K-car or not, I'm hoping not. It would have hurt his entrance. He had a thick Fu-Manchu moustache and a nasty scowl and he'd scare opposing hitters with his high hard heat.
Of course, hating the Yankees as I do, my favorite Gossage moment was when he gave up a go-ahead home run to George Brett in the 1983 Pine Tar Game. As Brett crossed home plate, Billy Martin showed the umpires that Brett had too much pine tar on his bat and he was thrown out of the game and the home run was disallowed. Brett went nuts, the AL president overturned the umpire's decision and the home run stood. But it was similar to another home run Gossage gave up to Brett in the 1980 playoffs. But pointing out two times when Gossage failed is unfair compared to the rest of his body of work.
He converted 50-plus saves that were from the 7th inning on, unlike today's "closers" who only come in for the 9th inning and usually with no one on base. He also converted 81 saves with the tying run on base, unlike Mariano Rivera, who has only saved 29 such games. In a group of the greatest closers, you have to separate the players into two categories. One would start with Dennis Eckersly, the first "modern" closer, who was not brought in before the ninth inning and rarely with men on base. That would start in 1988 and before that you would have the older closers like Rollie Fingers, Gossage and Bruce Sutter. The older guys' 300 saves might be worth more than the younger guys' 500+ saves. I know John Franco had 400+ saves in the modern era and I would not take five of him over one Goose.
As for taking 9 years to finally put the Goose into the Hall of Fame, I'm not sure what the baseball writers are thinking sometimes. I understand certain players deserve to go in on the first ballot over others, like a Babe Ruth or Willie Mays, but after that, what makes you a Hall of Famer in your second year of eligibility versus your 9th year. It is these kind of shaky grounds for election that make me appreciate the Hall of Fame less and less each year. Really, any kind of event that involves voting over performance. Jim Rice should have been in long ago, now he'll have to wait for his 15th and final turn at bat.
I enjoy wrestling because you have to pin the man to win, but I don't like boxing because a "judge" votes on whether you won or lost. Point totals of how many and how hard your punches are should be the deciding factor, but they are not. That's why champions keep their titles unless they are knocked out. Figure skating has a similar bias built in. Any event that relies on voting really disinterests me.
When Keith Hernandez, a tremendous clutch hitter and the greatest defensive first baseman of all time, is no longer eligible for the Hall of Fame, then that is an organization that really does not deserve my attention.
The Freditor
But Goose helped change that. He became the team's closer. The fireman who came in and doused the flames of the other's team's attempted comeback. Back then, offense wasn't as prevalent as it is now and a starter could probably get to the ninth inning more than half of the time. But then there were the moments when Ron Guidry or Tommy John would run into trouble and out of gas, and out of the pen would come this bull of a man, The Goose. The Mets used to have this silly looking, but fun baseball-shaped golf cart that they'd drive the relief pitcher in with. The Yankees used a boring K-car. Now I can't remember if Goose drove in with this K-car or not, I'm hoping not. It would have hurt his entrance. He had a thick Fu-Manchu moustache and a nasty scowl and he'd scare opposing hitters with his high hard heat.
Of course, hating the Yankees as I do, my favorite Gossage moment was when he gave up a go-ahead home run to George Brett in the 1983 Pine Tar Game. As Brett crossed home plate, Billy Martin showed the umpires that Brett had too much pine tar on his bat and he was thrown out of the game and the home run was disallowed. Brett went nuts, the AL president overturned the umpire's decision and the home run stood. But it was similar to another home run Gossage gave up to Brett in the 1980 playoffs. But pointing out two times when Gossage failed is unfair compared to the rest of his body of work.
He converted 50-plus saves that were from the 7th inning on, unlike today's "closers" who only come in for the 9th inning and usually with no one on base. He also converted 81 saves with the tying run on base, unlike Mariano Rivera, who has only saved 29 such games. In a group of the greatest closers, you have to separate the players into two categories. One would start with Dennis Eckersly, the first "modern" closer, who was not brought in before the ninth inning and rarely with men on base. That would start in 1988 and before that you would have the older closers like Rollie Fingers, Gossage and Bruce Sutter. The older guys' 300 saves might be worth more than the younger guys' 500+ saves. I know John Franco had 400+ saves in the modern era and I would not take five of him over one Goose.
As for taking 9 years to finally put the Goose into the Hall of Fame, I'm not sure what the baseball writers are thinking sometimes. I understand certain players deserve to go in on the first ballot over others, like a Babe Ruth or Willie Mays, but after that, what makes you a Hall of Famer in your second year of eligibility versus your 9th year. It is these kind of shaky grounds for election that make me appreciate the Hall of Fame less and less each year. Really, any kind of event that involves voting over performance. Jim Rice should have been in long ago, now he'll have to wait for his 15th and final turn at bat.
I enjoy wrestling because you have to pin the man to win, but I don't like boxing because a "judge" votes on whether you won or lost. Point totals of how many and how hard your punches are should be the deciding factor, but they are not. That's why champions keep their titles unless they are knocked out. Figure skating has a similar bias built in. Any event that relies on voting really disinterests me.
When Keith Hernandez, a tremendous clutch hitter and the greatest defensive first baseman of all time, is no longer eligible for the Hall of Fame, then that is an organization that really does not deserve my attention.
The Freditor
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Black Dog--Led Zeppelin Tribute Band Brings It On Home with Excellent Show
***** (out of 5)
On New Year's Eve Eve, Dec. 30, it had been a long time since I Rock and Rolled as I went to see Black Dog play a show at BB KIng's Blues Club in the heart of New York's Times Square. This is my third tribute band show at BB's and they have all been excellent, but this might have been the best act of all, because recreating Led Zeppelin on stage is so hard even Led Zep has a hard time doing it.
I've never seen LZ in person live, but have seen enough of them on TV to know that their records might be more products of production than mere talent. Robert Plant's screams on stage have never matched his record output and I heard that in the studio he would drink tea with honey between takes to get that perfect scream down. Doing it night after night on stage is a much harder trick. But Black Dog nailed it.
Four guys, who all look to be about 40, and who probably jammed to Led Zep in their mirrors when they were younger much like I did, were up there having a blast recreating some of the greatest music in the history of rock and roll. The thunderous applause that grew through the night had to be a better high for the band than any drug they could have taken. BB King's holds only about 300 people, but my ears were ringing from the crowd noise on my way home. Not an easy feat from hardcore New Yorkers, much less hardcore Zeppelin fans.
Their guitarist, Dan Toto, like the rest of the band looks nothing like his band alter ego, Jimmy Page, but boy can he play like him. His first few songs were note for note copies, but Toto had such a serious face and closed his eyes so much that you sensed he had to feel his way through the chords. But around halfway through the show he started playing more solos and he lightened up considerably, having a great time by show's end with flourishing guitar theatrics. Yes, he even pulled out the violin bow for Dazed and Confused, although thankfully the solo only lasted about 2 or 3 minutes compared with the 23 minute version on "The Song Remains the Same."
Jeff Mott is an excellent bass player and really laid the groundwork for many of their better rhythm numbers. Until Sunday night, I never realized how important bass was to the Led Zep sound. He also plays a decent mandolin on Goin' To California. Tom Capobianco got the beats right on drums and never made a show of himself. Again, the drum solo was thankfully short. Nothing kills a rock concert for me like pretentious, overlong solos. To me, bands who play them are just trying to build beer sales.
Of course, no Led Zep tribute band would be complete without a Robert Plant sound alike and Rob Malave has the vocal chops to pull it off. He's been playing in Zep tribute bands since his days with Four Sticks and it takes balls to reach for those high octaves, as well as act out the almost gay handshow that is Plant's moniker.
The only gripe I have is that since the show started at 11:30, they could not play a full set. Chuck Berry played from 8 to 10:30, so our late crowd was forced to leave at 1:18. I thought that we would get to see them play until 2AM. But they managed to squeeze in many favorites along with a few surprises and shockingly No Stairway or Whole Lotta Love. But honestly those songs are heard so many times on the radio, do you really need to hear them once more on stage? What was even cooler is that while the crowd went wild for the group and made a ton of noise for an encore, no one called out for either Whole or Stairway, but more for Gallo's Pole, which I would have loved to hear, but they didn't have time for.
What we did hear was magic:
Electric:
Communication Breakdown
The Song Remains The Same
Good Times Bad Times
Heartbreaker
Living Loving Maid
Acoustic Set:
Goin' To California
What Is & What Should Never Be
Hey Hey What Can I Do
Electric:
Bring It On Home
The Lemon Song
Immigrant Song
Dazed and Confused
Since I've Been Loving You
Encore:
The Ocean
Rock and Roll
Black Dog
The Freditor
On New Year's Eve Eve, Dec. 30, it had been a long time since I Rock and Rolled as I went to see Black Dog play a show at BB KIng's Blues Club in the heart of New York's Times Square. This is my third tribute band show at BB's and they have all been excellent, but this might have been the best act of all, because recreating Led Zeppelin on stage is so hard even Led Zep has a hard time doing it.
I've never seen LZ in person live, but have seen enough of them on TV to know that their records might be more products of production than mere talent. Robert Plant's screams on stage have never matched his record output and I heard that in the studio he would drink tea with honey between takes to get that perfect scream down. Doing it night after night on stage is a much harder trick. But Black Dog nailed it.
Four guys, who all look to be about 40, and who probably jammed to Led Zep in their mirrors when they were younger much like I did, were up there having a blast recreating some of the greatest music in the history of rock and roll. The thunderous applause that grew through the night had to be a better high for the band than any drug they could have taken. BB King's holds only about 300 people, but my ears were ringing from the crowd noise on my way home. Not an easy feat from hardcore New Yorkers, much less hardcore Zeppelin fans.
Their guitarist, Dan Toto, like the rest of the band looks nothing like his band alter ego, Jimmy Page, but boy can he play like him. His first few songs were note for note copies, but Toto had such a serious face and closed his eyes so much that you sensed he had to feel his way through the chords. But around halfway through the show he started playing more solos and he lightened up considerably, having a great time by show's end with flourishing guitar theatrics. Yes, he even pulled out the violin bow for Dazed and Confused, although thankfully the solo only lasted about 2 or 3 minutes compared with the 23 minute version on "The Song Remains the Same."
Jeff Mott is an excellent bass player and really laid the groundwork for many of their better rhythm numbers. Until Sunday night, I never realized how important bass was to the Led Zep sound. He also plays a decent mandolin on Goin' To California. Tom Capobianco got the beats right on drums and never made a show of himself. Again, the drum solo was thankfully short. Nothing kills a rock concert for me like pretentious, overlong solos. To me, bands who play them are just trying to build beer sales.
Of course, no Led Zep tribute band would be complete without a Robert Plant sound alike and Rob Malave has the vocal chops to pull it off. He's been playing in Zep tribute bands since his days with Four Sticks and it takes balls to reach for those high octaves, as well as act out the almost gay handshow that is Plant's moniker.
The only gripe I have is that since the show started at 11:30, they could not play a full set. Chuck Berry played from 8 to 10:30, so our late crowd was forced to leave at 1:18. I thought that we would get to see them play until 2AM. But they managed to squeeze in many favorites along with a few surprises and shockingly No Stairway or Whole Lotta Love. But honestly those songs are heard so many times on the radio, do you really need to hear them once more on stage? What was even cooler is that while the crowd went wild for the group and made a ton of noise for an encore, no one called out for either Whole or Stairway, but more for Gallo's Pole, which I would have loved to hear, but they didn't have time for.
What we did hear was magic:
Electric:
Communication Breakdown
The Song Remains The Same
Good Times Bad Times
Heartbreaker
Living Loving Maid
Acoustic Set:
Goin' To California
What Is & What Should Never Be
Hey Hey What Can I Do
Electric:
Bring It On Home
The Lemon Song
Immigrant Song
Dazed and Confused
Since I've Been Loving You
Encore:
The Ocean
Rock and Roll
Black Dog
The Freditor
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Whoa, The Sopranos' Season Finale goes out with a Whimper
Whoa, The Sopranos' Season Finale goes out with a Whimper
After three seasons of knocking this show I thought this year was a bit of a comeback. My friends were all disappointed in it, but I kept saying that while it was nowhere near as good as the first two seasons, it was back to being entertaining at least.
But last week's episode with the home movie of Carmela in Paris was admittedly pretty bad and this week, virtually NOTHING happened.
Well, one thing happened. A storefront gets blown out in "Sheepshead Bay."
Actually, the town they used really wasn't Sheepshead Bay but my town of Ridgewood. I was working out at the gym a block away the night they filmed this explosion. Fresh Pond Road, between Catalina Bakery and the Glen Lo Irish Pub, which you can see in the scene.
But other than that, nothing.
Next season they have the Eight Final Episodes and everyone is hoping the show goes out a winner, but really what leads you to believe that that is even possible. They've clearly run out of ideas. They've killed off at least half their great characters and the other half are being given less to do.
Off the top of my head, I don't remember a great ending to a great TV series. Seinfeld was awful in retrospect. Everybody Loves Raymond was ordinary. Cheers was weak. Mary Tyler Moore was memorable, but great, nahh. MASH was overlong and actually revealed everything that went wrong with the show after Frank Burns left.
I'm putting it to you. I would like you people to tell me what you think was a great final episode to a TV series. Because I'm stumped. When Mike and Gloria moved to California, that would have been a perfect finale to All in the Family, but instead of letting the show go off in the sunset, it jumped the shark with the ugly little niece and the Puerto Rican tenant (Mr. Bunkers).
As Paulie Walnuts would say, "Marone."
The Freditor
After three seasons of knocking this show I thought this year was a bit of a comeback. My friends were all disappointed in it, but I kept saying that while it was nowhere near as good as the first two seasons, it was back to being entertaining at least.
But last week's episode with the home movie of Carmela in Paris was admittedly pretty bad and this week, virtually NOTHING happened.
Well, one thing happened. A storefront gets blown out in "Sheepshead Bay."
Actually, the town they used really wasn't Sheepshead Bay but my town of Ridgewood. I was working out at the gym a block away the night they filmed this explosion. Fresh Pond Road, between Catalina Bakery and the Glen Lo Irish Pub, which you can see in the scene.
But other than that, nothing.
Next season they have the Eight Final Episodes and everyone is hoping the show goes out a winner, but really what leads you to believe that that is even possible. They've clearly run out of ideas. They've killed off at least half their great characters and the other half are being given less to do.
Off the top of my head, I don't remember a great ending to a great TV series. Seinfeld was awful in retrospect. Everybody Loves Raymond was ordinary. Cheers was weak. Mary Tyler Moore was memorable, but great, nahh. MASH was overlong and actually revealed everything that went wrong with the show after Frank Burns left.
I'm putting it to you. I would like you people to tell me what you think was a great final episode to a TV series. Because I'm stumped. When Mike and Gloria moved to California, that would have been a perfect finale to All in the Family, but instead of letting the show go off in the sunset, it jumped the shark with the ugly little niece and the Puerto Rican tenant (Mr. Bunkers).
As Paulie Walnuts would say, "Marone."
The Freditor
Guest Entry--A great reason to have unions, written by friend Tom
How did the non-union worker come to blame unions for negotiated benefits?
I’ve heard a lot of talk about how many people either don’t have a company pension plan or have to contribute to it. Ok fair enough, however, does that make it right?
Businesses of almost ALL sizes negotiate terms and conditions of the services they provide and they use the strength of their ‘numbers’ to justify forcing suppliers to cut the cost of or to raise the quality of the product. Take for example Wal-Mart….they negotiate with suppliers and demand concessions from then in order for the suppliers' product to get displayed and/or sold in a Wal-Mart.
Unions have acted as a counterbalance to the abuse of workers and the occasional greediness of employers for many years. They do this, in a simplistic viewpoint, by using their ‘numbers’ (how many members etc… ) They negotiate with employers over Terms and Conditions of employment. Unions also struggle to protect their members from unilateral changes in these terms and conditions by the Employer.
Somehow, without going into a lengthy discussion about the decline of Unionism in this country, non-union workers now ‘blame’ unions for getting negotiated benefits. AND they complain about benefits given to ‘Public” employees that were and are designed to compensate these employees for their Public Employee Salaries. These salaries are historically lower than the ‘Market Value’ of the Private Sector employment.
When a decent Union Job becomes an issue and the non-union workers compare what they failed to negotiate with their employer to those that have negotiated better Terms and Conditions…they say ….Union workers are overpaid and why should they have a low contribution or Free Pension Plan? Why should they get discounted or free Health Benefits? etc.. Instead, they could or should be saying THAT’S what I WANT.
Many horrific events have occurred‘behind the scenes’ to the workers of this country and only sometimes do they get attention through the media and other sources. (See Matewan about a disastrous coal miners strike.)
However, if we look closely at history we can find too many events that the people/workers under a government or employer have been abused and stripped of even modest ‘negotiated’ terms and conditions. Some examples:
Sweatshop workers locked in their place of employment when a fire broke out killing many. The Condition of employment regarding fire safety was not negotiated in a good way and caused this disaster. Did the benevolent Employer just give the workers safety…no they are the ones who locked all of the exits.
Approximately 17 workers DIE A DAY in THIS country EVERY Year because of unsafe working conditions or hazardous work. When the average employee goes to work most don’t think about the ‘safety’ of their work/office/jobsite…and most times there are Safety Codes in place so they don’t have to.
Do they realize or care that workers before them or from a different place and time fought hard for them and in a lot of instances DIED for those codes to be established? Rarely are improvements done ‘voluntarily’ by an employer, it usually stems from the efforts of Workers' rights organizations including Unions.
Steel workers in the early 1970’s, when that icon of American Business, US Steel went belly up, and I believe later reorganized, lost their ENTIRE Pensions with NO Insurance and absolutely no laws to protect their Retirement Plans. It took over 25 years for some of then to get anything if anything at all from their ‘plan’. This injustice was part of the reason that action was finally taken to enact laws protecting Retirement Plans and to insure Employers Compliance with safe-guarding ‘negotiated’ retirement plans. (See also Pan-AM Airlines and how they gutted their employees' retirement plans.)
Recently it was discovered, and I don’t believe any action has occurred to correct the problem, that Employers covered by these protections/Insurance have through the years opted out of their promises of providing Retirement benefits to their employees and have let the government insurance program pay their bills. This insurance, mind you, does NOT pay full benefits to those workers covered, but mere pennies on the dollar. This ’Fund’ is now depleted and will soon be working on a deficit with current government administrators refusing to ‘re-fund’ the program.
The gradual effect of this has been more and more workers relying upon the ‘safety net’ of retirement called Social Security, which coincidentally has been made to sound so important and is being destroyed by the very same powers complaining about pension benefits for employees. If every worker negotiated a Pension Plan from their employer the pressure on the system designed only to help those who have been less fortunate in their working lives would be greatly diminished.
The recent ridiculous rip-offs of workers by Corporations have seen some ‘light’ in the media, but where are the follow-up stories? What happened to the Enron workers? What happened to the retirement funds of TYCO employees or the effects of these corporations' actions on individuals IRS or Stock investments (so that an individual may strive for a better retirement)?
How quickly we forget about these events and sadly how jealous we are when others negotiate for themselves and their brethren better Terms and Conditions of Employment.
Major Airlines, after getting many financial aid packages from OUR Tax money, have demanded givebacks from their workers, or they have slashed benefits or they have gone bankrupt and negotiated deals under the law to take earned benefits away from their workers. Is this right? Isn’t this a Breach of Contract?
Hopefully, we will never feel the sting of a ‘layoff’ (and hoping there is something called unemployment insurance) or the indignity of working our entire lives earning and most times contributing to a secure retirement only to have it ‘stripped’ away by corrupt or mismanaged companies. Will there be a Retirement Security Act in place if THAT happens?
I, for one, strive everyday to insure that not only my job provides security for myself, but for those of my coworkers. I put in a great deal of effort to help my company survive and increase revenues in the hope of having some benefits when I can no longer work. I work with the hope that these ’guarantees’ are there in 10, 20, 30 years. However, I alone cannot guarantee that. I know that alone it would be much more difficult to get these benefits. Is it possible for some, absolutely. Is it a reality for most, No. I strongly believe that too many others worry only about themselves and how fast they can make a buck. This includes Employers.
With a great debt owed to the Military personnel of this country, I must comment that without the efforts of Workers Rights groups, Unions, the Labor Movement and Veterans Associations, workers that were/are called to serve this country are guaranteed a position of equivalent employment with their current employer upon return. This was not ALWAYS the case. And yet a lot of rhetoric is thrown around about regarding the ‘Duty to Serve’ and the ‘Honor we bestow’ upon our Service Men and Women. Yet prior to a law being enacted many employers did not care about their workers once they left to serve and even less when they returned.
Is this Term and Condition of employment also not worth fighting for?
Unions do play an important role in the lives of EVERY worker because as a whole they have formed the Labor Movement in this Country, without such a movement many of the work situations and job protections most people don’t have to think about on an average day, would not exist.
Is there or has there been, at times, corruption and abuses of power within Unions etc. Yes. However, in comparison to the abuse of workers by governments and employers, who are also guilty of corruption and abuse of power at times, I believe that in ALL instances it should be corrected and ‘new’ protections set in place. Unfortunately, the events that occur putting workers or their organizations in a ‘bad light’ gets more attention and drama than those that occur in Corporations and or government. Take a moment and go back in history to a time when Unions were against the law, do you think that you would be making a living doing what you are doing at your current compensation if those men and women did not stand up against an Invalid Law?
Everyone should be allowed to get a free ride into the City of their choice, not have to pay for any services along the way and be content to work for any employer without Health Insurance. Without a Pension Plan. Without Safety Codes. Without minimum standards. Everyone should be ‘At Will’ employees content to take and live on whatever the employers/ government is willing to give them without any guarantees or say in their employment.
If an individual chooses to NOT negotiate for themselves or to seek to improve their lot in life that is their choice. However, they should not diminish the efforts of others who are not afraid to try to better their conditions especially when those efforts usually result in making their own working life’s better and more secure.
To those who work in the City, I don’t mean to offend, however, isn’t one of the reasons you travel to work there because you make more money in the City? If the associated costs are too high, are you currently negotiating with your employer for better compensation for that or are you content that the difference in pay covers the cost? Maybe it does not cover it as well as it used to. That is unfortunate. However, that in my opinion is based more on the greater negotiating power of your employer as opposed to the struggle of other workers trying to improve their lives.
Too many workers take their Terms and Conditions of employment too lightly. This has and can have a devastating effect on other workers, and that is not right. I ask that everyone look closely at the Rich and Powerful, both individuals and Corporations in this country and tell me that THEY have not or DO NOT NEGOTIATE their TERMS AND CONDITIONS of Employment, even at MOST times to the detriment of others. If it is okay for some to do it, and we are trained to admire their ‘Success’, then why is it unfair and unreasonable for others to do the same?
OK off the ‘soapbox’ for me.
Tom
PS From Fred--Any company with a large work force that has good benefits, is only doing it to avoid their workers rising up and starting a union. Pre-emptive negotiations. If you work for such a place, you shoulkd be very thankful that unions exist.
I’ve heard a lot of talk about how many people either don’t have a company pension plan or have to contribute to it. Ok fair enough, however, does that make it right?
Businesses of almost ALL sizes negotiate terms and conditions of the services they provide and they use the strength of their ‘numbers’ to justify forcing suppliers to cut the cost of or to raise the quality of the product. Take for example Wal-Mart….they negotiate with suppliers and demand concessions from then in order for the suppliers' product to get displayed and/or sold in a Wal-Mart.
Unions have acted as a counterbalance to the abuse of workers and the occasional greediness of employers for many years. They do this, in a simplistic viewpoint, by using their ‘numbers’ (how many members etc… ) They negotiate with employers over Terms and Conditions of employment. Unions also struggle to protect their members from unilateral changes in these terms and conditions by the Employer.
Somehow, without going into a lengthy discussion about the decline of Unionism in this country, non-union workers now ‘blame’ unions for getting negotiated benefits. AND they complain about benefits given to ‘Public” employees that were and are designed to compensate these employees for their Public Employee Salaries. These salaries are historically lower than the ‘Market Value’ of the Private Sector employment.
When a decent Union Job becomes an issue and the non-union workers compare what they failed to negotiate with their employer to those that have negotiated better Terms and Conditions…they say ….Union workers are overpaid and why should they have a low contribution or Free Pension Plan? Why should they get discounted or free Health Benefits? etc.. Instead, they could or should be saying THAT’S what I WANT.
Many horrific events have occurred‘behind the scenes’ to the workers of this country and only sometimes do they get attention through the media and other sources. (See Matewan about a disastrous coal miners strike.)
However, if we look closely at history we can find too many events that the people/workers under a government or employer have been abused and stripped of even modest ‘negotiated’ terms and conditions. Some examples:
Sweatshop workers locked in their place of employment when a fire broke out killing many. The Condition of employment regarding fire safety was not negotiated in a good way and caused this disaster. Did the benevolent Employer just give the workers safety…no they are the ones who locked all of the exits.
Approximately 17 workers DIE A DAY in THIS country EVERY Year because of unsafe working conditions or hazardous work. When the average employee goes to work most don’t think about the ‘safety’ of their work/office/jobsite…and most times there are Safety Codes in place so they don’t have to.
Do they realize or care that workers before them or from a different place and time fought hard for them and in a lot of instances DIED for those codes to be established? Rarely are improvements done ‘voluntarily’ by an employer, it usually stems from the efforts of Workers' rights organizations including Unions.
Steel workers in the early 1970’s, when that icon of American Business, US Steel went belly up, and I believe later reorganized, lost their ENTIRE Pensions with NO Insurance and absolutely no laws to protect their Retirement Plans. It took over 25 years for some of then to get anything if anything at all from their ‘plan’. This injustice was part of the reason that action was finally taken to enact laws protecting Retirement Plans and to insure Employers Compliance with safe-guarding ‘negotiated’ retirement plans. (See also Pan-AM Airlines and how they gutted their employees' retirement plans.)
Recently it was discovered, and I don’t believe any action has occurred to correct the problem, that Employers covered by these protections/Insurance have through the years opted out of their promises of providing Retirement benefits to their employees and have let the government insurance program pay their bills. This insurance, mind you, does NOT pay full benefits to those workers covered, but mere pennies on the dollar. This ’Fund’ is now depleted and will soon be working on a deficit with current government administrators refusing to ‘re-fund’ the program.
The gradual effect of this has been more and more workers relying upon the ‘safety net’ of retirement called Social Security, which coincidentally has been made to sound so important and is being destroyed by the very same powers complaining about pension benefits for employees. If every worker negotiated a Pension Plan from their employer the pressure on the system designed only to help those who have been less fortunate in their working lives would be greatly diminished.
The recent ridiculous rip-offs of workers by Corporations have seen some ‘light’ in the media, but where are the follow-up stories? What happened to the Enron workers? What happened to the retirement funds of TYCO employees or the effects of these corporations' actions on individuals IRS or Stock investments (so that an individual may strive for a better retirement)?
How quickly we forget about these events and sadly how jealous we are when others negotiate for themselves and their brethren better Terms and Conditions of Employment.
Major Airlines, after getting many financial aid packages from OUR Tax money, have demanded givebacks from their workers, or they have slashed benefits or they have gone bankrupt and negotiated deals under the law to take earned benefits away from their workers. Is this right? Isn’t this a Breach of Contract?
Hopefully, we will never feel the sting of a ‘layoff’ (and hoping there is something called unemployment insurance) or the indignity of working our entire lives earning and most times contributing to a secure retirement only to have it ‘stripped’ away by corrupt or mismanaged companies. Will there be a Retirement Security Act in place if THAT happens?
I, for one, strive everyday to insure that not only my job provides security for myself, but for those of my coworkers. I put in a great deal of effort to help my company survive and increase revenues in the hope of having some benefits when I can no longer work. I work with the hope that these ’guarantees’ are there in 10, 20, 30 years. However, I alone cannot guarantee that. I know that alone it would be much more difficult to get these benefits. Is it possible for some, absolutely. Is it a reality for most, No. I strongly believe that too many others worry only about themselves and how fast they can make a buck. This includes Employers.
With a great debt owed to the Military personnel of this country, I must comment that without the efforts of Workers Rights groups, Unions, the Labor Movement and Veterans Associations, workers that were/are called to serve this country are guaranteed a position of equivalent employment with their current employer upon return. This was not ALWAYS the case. And yet a lot of rhetoric is thrown around about regarding the ‘Duty to Serve’ and the ‘Honor we bestow’ upon our Service Men and Women. Yet prior to a law being enacted many employers did not care about their workers once they left to serve and even less when they returned.
Is this Term and Condition of employment also not worth fighting for?
Unions do play an important role in the lives of EVERY worker because as a whole they have formed the Labor Movement in this Country, without such a movement many of the work situations and job protections most people don’t have to think about on an average day, would not exist.
Is there or has there been, at times, corruption and abuses of power within Unions etc. Yes. However, in comparison to the abuse of workers by governments and employers, who are also guilty of corruption and abuse of power at times, I believe that in ALL instances it should be corrected and ‘new’ protections set in place. Unfortunately, the events that occur putting workers or their organizations in a ‘bad light’ gets more attention and drama than those that occur in Corporations and or government. Take a moment and go back in history to a time when Unions were against the law, do you think that you would be making a living doing what you are doing at your current compensation if those men and women did not stand up against an Invalid Law?
Everyone should be allowed to get a free ride into the City of their choice, not have to pay for any services along the way and be content to work for any employer without Health Insurance. Without a Pension Plan. Without Safety Codes. Without minimum standards. Everyone should be ‘At Will’ employees content to take and live on whatever the employers/ government is willing to give them without any guarantees or say in their employment.
If an individual chooses to NOT negotiate for themselves or to seek to improve their lot in life that is their choice. However, they should not diminish the efforts of others who are not afraid to try to better their conditions especially when those efforts usually result in making their own working life’s better and more secure.
To those who work in the City, I don’t mean to offend, however, isn’t one of the reasons you travel to work there because you make more money in the City? If the associated costs are too high, are you currently negotiating with your employer for better compensation for that or are you content that the difference in pay covers the cost? Maybe it does not cover it as well as it used to. That is unfortunate. However, that in my opinion is based more on the greater negotiating power of your employer as opposed to the struggle of other workers trying to improve their lives.
Too many workers take their Terms and Conditions of employment too lightly. This has and can have a devastating effect on other workers, and that is not right. I ask that everyone look closely at the Rich and Powerful, both individuals and Corporations in this country and tell me that THEY have not or DO NOT NEGOTIATE their TERMS AND CONDITIONS of Employment, even at MOST times to the detriment of others. If it is okay for some to do it, and we are trained to admire their ‘Success’, then why is it unfair and unreasonable for others to do the same?
OK off the ‘soapbox’ for me.
Tom
PS From Fred--Any company with a large work force that has good benefits, is only doing it to avoid their workers rising up and starting a union. Pre-emptive negotiations. If you work for such a place, you shoulkd be very thankful that unions exist.
Fred gives B+ on Summer Movie Season 2006
Big Improvement Over 2005
The summer started early this year. Many big releases came out in mid-May to get a jump on the World Cup. Now that Hollywood has to rely more on international box office to offset the high cost of their big productions, the whole world has to be watching for them to have a fighting chance of making a buck.
Not so long ago, a movie released in the U.S. would take a few months to make it to Budapest, not now. Many huge films like The DaVinci Code are opened on the same day all around the world, mostly to get a jump on the illegal DVD pirates.
But the World Cup put a crimp in this year's summer movie season. The big World Cup matches can be seen by as many as 3.2 Billion people at a time. People take their vacations (holiday) from work in some countries to be able to catch all the matches. So that diminishes the potential audience for the big action films that generally do well world wide.
So, thankfully, the World Cup forced the studios to hold back on their bigger morsels until almost the 4th of July weekend. I wish the World Cup was on every year, because it gives a movie buff like me a chance to catch up on these films at less of a breakneck pace. Thus allowing me down time to soak in what I just saw before moving on to the next chafing dish.
So in this new world order, where summer starts around May 20 and ends on Sept. 21, we are at the midseason point and I'm ready to give my thoughts on all the films I've seen so far.
One quick note: My friend Harry asked me about one particular film. He wondered if it gave me that rush that you got when we walked out of a Rocky movie as a kid. After a Rocky movie how many kids would be shadow boxing in the street? I said no, I haven't felt like shadow boxing or imitating any action in a long time. I don't know if there is a lack of adrenaline in movies today, or I'm just jaded from having my dopamine levels set at a sky-high level. Excitement and adrenaline for someone my age comes harder. My friends and I used to come out of Chuck Norris movies and karate kick each other down Myrtle Avenue. But in retrospect, Chuck Norris movies were terrible. So no I haven't gotten that rush I got coming out of the original Die Hard, but that doesn't mean the movies I saw this summer didn't cause a rush for someone younger.
Here goes:
1---Superman Returns---My favorite quote of the summer comes from Newsweek. "Next to Superman Returns' Champagne, most recent superhero movies are barely sparkling cider."
Perfect.
My favorite movie of the summer so far. Magical. Takes all of the best elements of the first two movies and improves on them a tiny bit (especially the flying scenes which are both beautiful and then outrageous). And improves on all the weaker elements greatly. Brandon Routh (pronounced like south) is a great Superman. Heroic and charismatic as Supes, gawky and funny as Clark. Kevin Spacey is a terrific Lex Luthor, adding seriousness and cold villainy back to the role. So "under the top" as compared to Gene Hackman's minstrel show. The film's plot is secondary to the spectacular action scenes, a particularly great one involving an out of control airliner.
And this film is really great for the girls. A good looking romantic Superman, and a very strong, courageous Lois Lane. One of the things I liked about this movie was Richard White, Lois' fiancee, he's not just an earthly schlub that Superman has to joust with for Lois' love, but a really good guy who is as deserving of her love as Superman is. A rare romantic triangle that has you pulled in two different ways.
2---Monster House---I think this movie is too scary for kids under say 8. But just great for anybody else. A rare horror movie that is both really funny and pretty scary. The fact that it's a CGI-animated film does not matter. It is painted with honesty. A little girl rides her tricycle and sings to herself (annoyingly) as she goes past the scary house on the block. When the old man comes out to scream at her, she runs away and he carries her tricycle inside, to add to his collection of toys that ended up on his property. Even when the old man doesn't come out, the house seems to get mad.
We've all known houses and old men like that and kids like the main character DJ. He spies on the old man and the house directly across the street. He and his best friend Chowder are about 11 and caught in that age between being little boys trick or treating and pubescent pre-teens who like girls. When Jenny, the pretty girl scout, comes along they are both smitten and unable to run away from their fears of the house.
This movie plays it straight like Poltergeist and doesn't wimp out on bad dreams. The house is really that bad and it's up to these kids to do something about it. The movie was co-produced by Poltergeist's writer Steven Spielberg and his old partner in crime, Robert Zemeckis. Zemeckis has made a ton of hits, from Roger Rabbit and Polar Express to Forrest Gump and Castaway. The floating feather in Gump has been changed into an autumn leaf in this film and a Wilson basketball is a central prop. That Chowder doesn't scream Wilson was a welcome sign of restraint by the filmmakers.
Even the teenagers are creepily realistic. Great movie. I will buy this one.
3---Mission Impossible 3---The best of the 3. As (Frozone) Samuel L. Jackson's wife says to him in The Incredibles, "We have guests coming over, so you don't have no time for no derring do." Tom Cruise does a lot of derring do in this movie, some of it funny, some of it unbelievable, but all of it exciting. One scene on a rooftop of a Shanghai skyscraper is outrageous. Joel Siegel says that Tom Cruise doesn't go through one door throughout the whole movie, constantly shattering windows and it's true, but if you want to see doorway entrances go see Prairie Home Companion.
4---You, Me and Dupree---Last week, I was driving home while flipping channels on my radio. 103.5 WKTU had Goombah Johnny or somebody talking about being on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood outside the Rosa's Pizzeria. They were giving away "You, Me and Dupree" Sneak Preview tickets.KTU is a station of dance and hip hop, aimed at young people. I'm not their target audience. So when I showed up in my mailman uniform, I asked "you guys got Dupree tickets?," they were mildly shocked. They had to give them to me, but the one guy goes, "Ay, Papi." My brother and I were laughing for days about this, fortunately the movie is even funnier than this story.
Owen Wilson proves he can carry a movie on his own. He plays Dupree, the slacker best friend of the newly married Matt Dillon. Dillon is married to Kate Hudson, who I'm not a big fan of but is awfully cute here. Dillon is a rising young executive architect in her father's company (played by smarmy Michael Douglas) and he feels squeezed by both his father in law and by his ne'er do well buddy who just lost his job and apartment. When Dupree moves in soon after the honeymoon, Matt Dillon's life takes a turn for the worse. When Owen Wilson is on screen this movie is very funny. When he's not, it's very serious and not very interesting. Fortunately, Wilson's on a lot and his brand of humor is full of surprises.
One scene that he's brilliant at is when he gives a speech on career day at Hudson's elementary school. The only problem is he has no career or any plan of getting one. So his speech is squarely aimed at the kids like him who will go through life "living, laughing and loving." Sounds great, wish we could all live like that. But then we'd need Matt Dillon to pay our bills.
5---Prairie Home Companion---PHC is a filmed version of the famous radio program. Heard on National Public Radio, host Garrison Keillor puts on a pretend radio show in the tradition of the '30s and '40s. A staged event in front of a big live audience with singing and acting and comedy. The show takes place in Minnesota and has corny ads that are read live for biscuit powder and the like. Famed director Robert Altman (MASH, Nashville, The Player) reins it all in and Keillor wrote and stars in his own production.
Knowing only what I read about the show over the years, I have to admit I really enjoyed the movie. I don't know if I could listen to the show on the radio, but watching these stars perform it on stage was a treat. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin play a pair of Carter sister types, full of old stories and Christian-themed songs. Lindsay Lohan plays Streep's death-obsessed daughter. Kevin Kline is great as a befuddled, clumsy house detective, sort of an American Inspector Clouseau, but the best part of the movie belongs to the singing cowboys, Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly (Chicago). Their show stopper at the end, singing slightly dirty, slightly corny, but very funny bad jokes was for me the highlight of the film.
6---Pirates of the Caribbean--Too long perhaps. But the first one was a half hour too long and I was the only one complaining then. A very original action movie. When you break an action movie down to its set pieces, they have to show you something you've never seen before. This movie showed me about 10 new things, while using old devices like a man on a spit over an open fire and a ship attacked by a sea monster. One scene was similar to A Mad Mad Mad World and even used the music from that scene. Very clever. Deserves all the money it's making.
7---The Devil Wears Prada---Meryl Streep shows why she's still the best actress in America. She takes a part that is pure royal bitch, as the editor of the top Women's fashion magazine and still manages to find her human core. Not for long, because image is everything, but those instances when she's making sense or revealing herself, help you take your foot off the hate pedal long enough to make you mad at yourself later when she does something loathsome.
This Wall Street for girls makes Meryl Gordon Gekko and Anne Hathaway as Charlie Sheen. The problem with this movie is Hathaway is so shiny and cute, that even when she's supposed to be making the transformation to the dark side you're not quite sure it's happening until they tell you. Whereas when Charlie Sheen (who used to be able to play innocent very believably) made the transformation, you were like, Oh Charlie what happened, what went wrong? The big difference is that Charlie really wanted to be Gordon and Hathaway annoyingly keeps her feet on both sides of the line. The devil has to appeal tothe person from the beginning for the transformation to really take hold. Devil's Advocate was great at that.
8---Over the Hedge---I enjoyed it more than Cars. Was it better, no. Was it funnier, yes.
9---Click--Enjoyed. (See earlier review)
10---My Super Ex-Girlfriend---Fun and funny. Uma Thurman is a perfect New York superhero. Completely neurotic. She finally finds love in Luke Wilson. But he's just looking for a good time and she doesn't get that. Like a lot of guys, he takes his relationship advice from the worst possible source, his insensitive best friend played by The Office's Rainn Wilson (no relation). When he follows this guy's advice to wimp his way out of the relationship, all hell breaks loose. Uma's G-Girl is not above using her superpowers for vengeance. As the saying goes, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," and Uma's G-Girl is very corruptible. We need to see more women as superheroes. Barb got a real charge out of it. Between this film, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, she is now a big-time Uma fan.
11---X-Men 3---Good, solid X-Men movie, but third best out of the three. No-nonsense at 90 minutes. Only one really good new mutant--Juggernaut, a behemoth who can't be stopped once he gets going. The second X-Men hinted at the idea of a teenager being a mutant as being on a par with a teen trying to tell his parents he's gay. But this film is less subtle with the message as the government tries to force a cure on the mutants, much the same way as the Conservative Christian groups try to brainwash gay people to be "normal."
12---Cars--Very well made. Not very funny. Not a lot of fun. Rare Pixar film that is aimed more at kids, specifically little boys. (See earlier review)
13---An Inconvenient Truth---Global warming is going to get us and we're starting to see the proof already (the severity of Katrina, the 10 hottest years in history all in the last 15 years). I don't like that Gore tied his own political past so much into the film. Yes, Bush is bad for the environment, but how Bush got into power at Gore's expense is less of an issue. This movie would better serve if it was a little less political. Because while the politics that get mixed in can be relevant, they scare off the people who really need to see this movie. I came away from it only learning a handful of new things. And while they still were eye-opening, for someone who leans right and doesn't pay attention to environmental issues, this could have been a real mindblower. They are the ones who really need to see this.
Two parts got me--one is that we are able to detect the earth's climate through studying the layers of snow in the polar ice caps. I knew we could do that, but didn't know we could do it by going back 200 Thousand years. (We are currently putting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in that period.) Second, that through the ban on aerosol cans and FLUOROCARBONS, we have effectively Healed the Ozone layer. So with just a simple change in our behavior we can reverse the damage we've done.
14---Poseidon---A good remake to the original disaster movie from 1972. In some ways a big improvement. The kid in the original you hated and wanted to see drown, well now he helps more than annoys. Kurt Russell as an ex-NYC fireman/mayor is more suited to help people escape than Gene Hackman's preacher. And Richard Dreyfuss as a gay older man is a perfect update on the Shelley Winters role. Josh Lucas is cool and is a great sideman to a more charismatic actor like Russell. Russell's underwater scene near the end is worthy of an Oscar. Very real.
15---The DaVinci Code---A mess, but an interesting, fun mess. Clearly above Ron Howard's pay grade. Alfred Hitchcock would have eaten up this movie, but I'm not sure there is a director out there today who could make something great out of this. Part of the problem, as with a lot of modern movies based on books, is that the author is not a filmmaker, and what may excite on paper does not translate well to the big screen. I see this all the time with Michael Chrichton novels. You keep saying to yourself, wow this would make a great movie and then you see the movie and it's not great, it's barely good, and yet it was very true to the book.
This is the first time in a very long time that I saw Tom Hanks mail in a performance. My guess is because he really doesn't have a character. The fact that the French police are chasing him is utter nonsense. A young French actress (Audrey Tautou) is hard to understand when she speaks. And while she's supposed to be the new Audrey Hepburn, that doesn't do much for those of us who didn't like the old Audrey Hepburn.
The best part in the movie belongs to (Lord of the Rings' Gandalf) Ian McKellen. As the world's best scholar on DaVinci he knows all the goodies. One unintentionally funny aspect of this movie, is that everywhere Hanks and Tautou need to go to find out something seems to be less than an hour's drive from where they are. Not only didn't I realize that France was so small, but that it was the center of the Catholic world. LOL
The Freditor
The summer started early this year. Many big releases came out in mid-May to get a jump on the World Cup. Now that Hollywood has to rely more on international box office to offset the high cost of their big productions, the whole world has to be watching for them to have a fighting chance of making a buck.
Not so long ago, a movie released in the U.S. would take a few months to make it to Budapest, not now. Many huge films like The DaVinci Code are opened on the same day all around the world, mostly to get a jump on the illegal DVD pirates.
But the World Cup put a crimp in this year's summer movie season. The big World Cup matches can be seen by as many as 3.2 Billion people at a time. People take their vacations (holiday) from work in some countries to be able to catch all the matches. So that diminishes the potential audience for the big action films that generally do well world wide.
So, thankfully, the World Cup forced the studios to hold back on their bigger morsels until almost the 4th of July weekend. I wish the World Cup was on every year, because it gives a movie buff like me a chance to catch up on these films at less of a breakneck pace. Thus allowing me down time to soak in what I just saw before moving on to the next chafing dish.
So in this new world order, where summer starts around May 20 and ends on Sept. 21, we are at the midseason point and I'm ready to give my thoughts on all the films I've seen so far.
One quick note: My friend Harry asked me about one particular film. He wondered if it gave me that rush that you got when we walked out of a Rocky movie as a kid. After a Rocky movie how many kids would be shadow boxing in the street? I said no, I haven't felt like shadow boxing or imitating any action in a long time. I don't know if there is a lack of adrenaline in movies today, or I'm just jaded from having my dopamine levels set at a sky-high level. Excitement and adrenaline for someone my age comes harder. My friends and I used to come out of Chuck Norris movies and karate kick each other down Myrtle Avenue. But in retrospect, Chuck Norris movies were terrible. So no I haven't gotten that rush I got coming out of the original Die Hard, but that doesn't mean the movies I saw this summer didn't cause a rush for someone younger.
Here goes:
1---Superman Returns---My favorite quote of the summer comes from Newsweek. "Next to Superman Returns' Champagne, most recent superhero movies are barely sparkling cider."
Perfect.
My favorite movie of the summer so far. Magical. Takes all of the best elements of the first two movies and improves on them a tiny bit (especially the flying scenes which are both beautiful and then outrageous). And improves on all the weaker elements greatly. Brandon Routh (pronounced like south) is a great Superman. Heroic and charismatic as Supes, gawky and funny as Clark. Kevin Spacey is a terrific Lex Luthor, adding seriousness and cold villainy back to the role. So "under the top" as compared to Gene Hackman's minstrel show. The film's plot is secondary to the spectacular action scenes, a particularly great one involving an out of control airliner.
And this film is really great for the girls. A good looking romantic Superman, and a very strong, courageous Lois Lane. One of the things I liked about this movie was Richard White, Lois' fiancee, he's not just an earthly schlub that Superman has to joust with for Lois' love, but a really good guy who is as deserving of her love as Superman is. A rare romantic triangle that has you pulled in two different ways.
2---Monster House---I think this movie is too scary for kids under say 8. But just great for anybody else. A rare horror movie that is both really funny and pretty scary. The fact that it's a CGI-animated film does not matter. It is painted with honesty. A little girl rides her tricycle and sings to herself (annoyingly) as she goes past the scary house on the block. When the old man comes out to scream at her, she runs away and he carries her tricycle inside, to add to his collection of toys that ended up on his property. Even when the old man doesn't come out, the house seems to get mad.
We've all known houses and old men like that and kids like the main character DJ. He spies on the old man and the house directly across the street. He and his best friend Chowder are about 11 and caught in that age between being little boys trick or treating and pubescent pre-teens who like girls. When Jenny, the pretty girl scout, comes along they are both smitten and unable to run away from their fears of the house.
This movie plays it straight like Poltergeist and doesn't wimp out on bad dreams. The house is really that bad and it's up to these kids to do something about it. The movie was co-produced by Poltergeist's writer Steven Spielberg and his old partner in crime, Robert Zemeckis. Zemeckis has made a ton of hits, from Roger Rabbit and Polar Express to Forrest Gump and Castaway. The floating feather in Gump has been changed into an autumn leaf in this film and a Wilson basketball is a central prop. That Chowder doesn't scream Wilson was a welcome sign of restraint by the filmmakers.
Even the teenagers are creepily realistic. Great movie. I will buy this one.
3---Mission Impossible 3---The best of the 3. As (Frozone) Samuel L. Jackson's wife says to him in The Incredibles, "We have guests coming over, so you don't have no time for no derring do." Tom Cruise does a lot of derring do in this movie, some of it funny, some of it unbelievable, but all of it exciting. One scene on a rooftop of a Shanghai skyscraper is outrageous. Joel Siegel says that Tom Cruise doesn't go through one door throughout the whole movie, constantly shattering windows and it's true, but if you want to see doorway entrances go see Prairie Home Companion.
4---You, Me and Dupree---Last week, I was driving home while flipping channels on my radio. 103.5 WKTU had Goombah Johnny or somebody talking about being on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood outside the Rosa's Pizzeria. They were giving away "You, Me and Dupree" Sneak Preview tickets.KTU is a station of dance and hip hop, aimed at young people. I'm not their target audience. So when I showed up in my mailman uniform, I asked "you guys got Dupree tickets?," they were mildly shocked. They had to give them to me, but the one guy goes, "Ay, Papi." My brother and I were laughing for days about this, fortunately the movie is even funnier than this story.
Owen Wilson proves he can carry a movie on his own. He plays Dupree, the slacker best friend of the newly married Matt Dillon. Dillon is married to Kate Hudson, who I'm not a big fan of but is awfully cute here. Dillon is a rising young executive architect in her father's company (played by smarmy Michael Douglas) and he feels squeezed by both his father in law and by his ne'er do well buddy who just lost his job and apartment. When Dupree moves in soon after the honeymoon, Matt Dillon's life takes a turn for the worse. When Owen Wilson is on screen this movie is very funny. When he's not, it's very serious and not very interesting. Fortunately, Wilson's on a lot and his brand of humor is full of surprises.
One scene that he's brilliant at is when he gives a speech on career day at Hudson's elementary school. The only problem is he has no career or any plan of getting one. So his speech is squarely aimed at the kids like him who will go through life "living, laughing and loving." Sounds great, wish we could all live like that. But then we'd need Matt Dillon to pay our bills.
5---Prairie Home Companion---PHC is a filmed version of the famous radio program. Heard on National Public Radio, host Garrison Keillor puts on a pretend radio show in the tradition of the '30s and '40s. A staged event in front of a big live audience with singing and acting and comedy. The show takes place in Minnesota and has corny ads that are read live for biscuit powder and the like. Famed director Robert Altman (MASH, Nashville, The Player) reins it all in and Keillor wrote and stars in his own production.
Knowing only what I read about the show over the years, I have to admit I really enjoyed the movie. I don't know if I could listen to the show on the radio, but watching these stars perform it on stage was a treat. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin play a pair of Carter sister types, full of old stories and Christian-themed songs. Lindsay Lohan plays Streep's death-obsessed daughter. Kevin Kline is great as a befuddled, clumsy house detective, sort of an American Inspector Clouseau, but the best part of the movie belongs to the singing cowboys, Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly (Chicago). Their show stopper at the end, singing slightly dirty, slightly corny, but very funny bad jokes was for me the highlight of the film.
6---Pirates of the Caribbean--Too long perhaps. But the first one was a half hour too long and I was the only one complaining then. A very original action movie. When you break an action movie down to its set pieces, they have to show you something you've never seen before. This movie showed me about 10 new things, while using old devices like a man on a spit over an open fire and a ship attacked by a sea monster. One scene was similar to A Mad Mad Mad World and even used the music from that scene. Very clever. Deserves all the money it's making.
7---The Devil Wears Prada---Meryl Streep shows why she's still the best actress in America. She takes a part that is pure royal bitch, as the editor of the top Women's fashion magazine and still manages to find her human core. Not for long, because image is everything, but those instances when she's making sense or revealing herself, help you take your foot off the hate pedal long enough to make you mad at yourself later when she does something loathsome.
This Wall Street for girls makes Meryl Gordon Gekko and Anne Hathaway as Charlie Sheen. The problem with this movie is Hathaway is so shiny and cute, that even when she's supposed to be making the transformation to the dark side you're not quite sure it's happening until they tell you. Whereas when Charlie Sheen (who used to be able to play innocent very believably) made the transformation, you were like, Oh Charlie what happened, what went wrong? The big difference is that Charlie really wanted to be Gordon and Hathaway annoyingly keeps her feet on both sides of the line. The devil has to appeal tothe person from the beginning for the transformation to really take hold. Devil's Advocate was great at that.
8---Over the Hedge---I enjoyed it more than Cars. Was it better, no. Was it funnier, yes.
9---Click--Enjoyed. (See earlier review)
10---My Super Ex-Girlfriend---Fun and funny. Uma Thurman is a perfect New York superhero. Completely neurotic. She finally finds love in Luke Wilson. But he's just looking for a good time and she doesn't get that. Like a lot of guys, he takes his relationship advice from the worst possible source, his insensitive best friend played by The Office's Rainn Wilson (no relation). When he follows this guy's advice to wimp his way out of the relationship, all hell breaks loose. Uma's G-Girl is not above using her superpowers for vengeance. As the saying goes, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," and Uma's G-Girl is very corruptible. We need to see more women as superheroes. Barb got a real charge out of it. Between this film, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, she is now a big-time Uma fan.
11---X-Men 3---Good, solid X-Men movie, but third best out of the three. No-nonsense at 90 minutes. Only one really good new mutant--Juggernaut, a behemoth who can't be stopped once he gets going. The second X-Men hinted at the idea of a teenager being a mutant as being on a par with a teen trying to tell his parents he's gay. But this film is less subtle with the message as the government tries to force a cure on the mutants, much the same way as the Conservative Christian groups try to brainwash gay people to be "normal."
12---Cars--Very well made. Not very funny. Not a lot of fun. Rare Pixar film that is aimed more at kids, specifically little boys. (See earlier review)
13---An Inconvenient Truth---Global warming is going to get us and we're starting to see the proof already (the severity of Katrina, the 10 hottest years in history all in the last 15 years). I don't like that Gore tied his own political past so much into the film. Yes, Bush is bad for the environment, but how Bush got into power at Gore's expense is less of an issue. This movie would better serve if it was a little less political. Because while the politics that get mixed in can be relevant, they scare off the people who really need to see this movie. I came away from it only learning a handful of new things. And while they still were eye-opening, for someone who leans right and doesn't pay attention to environmental issues, this could have been a real mindblower. They are the ones who really need to see this.
Two parts got me--one is that we are able to detect the earth's climate through studying the layers of snow in the polar ice caps. I knew we could do that, but didn't know we could do it by going back 200 Thousand years. (We are currently putting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in that period.) Second, that through the ban on aerosol cans and FLUOROCARBONS, we have effectively Healed the Ozone layer. So with just a simple change in our behavior we can reverse the damage we've done.
14---Poseidon---A good remake to the original disaster movie from 1972. In some ways a big improvement. The kid in the original you hated and wanted to see drown, well now he helps more than annoys. Kurt Russell as an ex-NYC fireman/mayor is more suited to help people escape than Gene Hackman's preacher. And Richard Dreyfuss as a gay older man is a perfect update on the Shelley Winters role. Josh Lucas is cool and is a great sideman to a more charismatic actor like Russell. Russell's underwater scene near the end is worthy of an Oscar. Very real.
15---The DaVinci Code---A mess, but an interesting, fun mess. Clearly above Ron Howard's pay grade. Alfred Hitchcock would have eaten up this movie, but I'm not sure there is a director out there today who could make something great out of this. Part of the problem, as with a lot of modern movies based on books, is that the author is not a filmmaker, and what may excite on paper does not translate well to the big screen. I see this all the time with Michael Chrichton novels. You keep saying to yourself, wow this would make a great movie and then you see the movie and it's not great, it's barely good, and yet it was very true to the book.
This is the first time in a very long time that I saw Tom Hanks mail in a performance. My guess is because he really doesn't have a character. The fact that the French police are chasing him is utter nonsense. A young French actress (Audrey Tautou) is hard to understand when she speaks. And while she's supposed to be the new Audrey Hepburn, that doesn't do much for those of us who didn't like the old Audrey Hepburn.
The best part in the movie belongs to (Lord of the Rings' Gandalf) Ian McKellen. As the world's best scholar on DaVinci he knows all the goodies. One unintentionally funny aspect of this movie, is that everywhere Hanks and Tautou need to go to find out something seems to be less than an hour's drive from where they are. Not only didn't I realize that France was so small, but that it was the center of the Catholic world. LOL
The Freditor
Finally, Mets win the NL East crown--Hopefully the first of 4 celebrations
It took four nights, but finally the Mets were able to clinch the National League East title for the first time since 1988. Great night--the fans were all juiced up and nearly sold the place out, which is amazing considering the presold crowd was probably about 30,000 and it was a Monday school night. Catcher Paul LoDuca announced on live television tonight after the game, "I'm F--king Freaking Lovin' it!" Weren't we all.
I didn't go, because I'm not feeling 100% healthy yet, but more importantly, I feel like a jinx when I've gone this season. In 1999 and 2000 I was a combined 12-2 in games I went to. Then the Mets started losing and my record reflected their seasons, for instance 3-7 last year. But this year they've had the best record in baseball for nearly a month and have been world beaters at home. They are 48-26 at home. I am 3-9 when I've seen them. I've gone to only 12 out of 74 home games and I've seen over a THIRD of their losses. That's unimaginable.
After the last game (Aug. 25), when they played like the game didn't count (5-0), I swore I would not see another game that mattered this year. So no clinchers or playoff games for me. And it kills me, because all season long as the idea of a Mets clinching game slowly became a reality I could not remember why I didn't go to Shea to see the Clincher on Sept. 17, 1986. So I said, if I had the chance this year I'd go. But after 8/25, I knew that if I spent the time and money to go, they'd lose that night, so I'd rather watch at home.
We'll see if I change my mind for a playoff or hopefully World Series game. I was nearly invited to the Pennant winning game in 2000 and missed being soaked with Champaign (like my friend Pete) from the appreciative players. That would be very cool.
What seems weird is the long time between division wins--18 years, and playoff appearances--6 years, just doesn't seem that long anymore. I became a moderate fan in 1976, when Seaver and Kingman were still in their primes and the Mets were still good (86-76), but I became a bleed with the team fan in 1980, when the phrase The Magic is Back took hold.
From 1980 until 1986, I went from being a 13 year old in grammar school to being a 20 year old junior in college and those are some LONNNGGG years. That I suffered with each Mets loss and losing season during those years, made the ultimate triumph that much sweeter. Many times during that stretch I wondered if they would ever win anything again in my lifetime (3 years old in 1969 and still too young at 6 to remember 1973).
Since they have, the desperation is not nearly as great and the past 20 years have gone by almost as fast as those first 6, but it would be the Ultimate to see another Championship. When I was 20 I went nuts, but I also knew in my heart that it would probably happen again very soon, maybe in 1987. Little did I know that Dwight Gooden would become a drug addict and that this was a one-time thing. As you get older you learn to appreciate these things more because you may not see them again.
But this is a team that could Win it all, too.
Now, of course, we have to take it one game and one series at a time. But in May and June when the Mets were starting to show that they might be good enough to make the playoffs, Met fans told me they didn't want to see the Yankees in the World Series again. That just making the World Series would be great, but losing to the Yankees a second time would be unbearable. I sort of felt the same way, except that at the time it didn't look like the Yankees were even a cinch to make the playoffs. The Boston Red Sox looked like the better team. They manhandled the Mets in June sweeping a 3 game series in Boston. I wanted the Mets to make the WS, but I wanted them to win it, so I was rooting for the worst opponent in the American League if one existed.
But now Met fans are feeling frisky. For the First time in the 45 YEAR History of the team, both the Yanks and Mets will win their divisions in the Same Year. Yes, they've made the playoffs in the same year twice before, but winning the division and being the two best teams in baseball is a moment they've never shared together.
And now Met fans are openly rooting for the Yankees to meet the Mets in the WS, because this time they feel the Mets are good enough to beat them. And while the 2000 WS loss to the Yanks was disappointing, a 2006 WS win by the Mets would be absolutely crushing to the pinstripe fans. One die-hard Yankee fan told me if that happened he'd have to move to Boise, Idaho. I'll pay for his Ryder moving van.
Me? Do I hope for this? Well, I'm taking these games one at time. My friend Paul thought they would be division winners from the early part of the season, but I made no such claims. I played a wait and see approach, not taking anything for granted, because I know how they've disappointed me before. But deep inside that Yankees rematch would be something. Because if you are going to win it all, wouldn't it be sweeter to do it by beating the best.
Subway Series 1955. The Thrilla in Manilla 1975. Nebraska-Miami 1984. Villanova--Georgetown 1985. Subway Series 2006.
Oh yeah, one last thing to the Braves fans, winners of the last 11 straight NL East Crowns---Ahhhh Ah Ahhuhhhh, Ahhhh Ah Ahhuhhhh (And a Tomahawk Chop to you, too!!!)
The Metitor (err, Freditor)
I didn't go, because I'm not feeling 100% healthy yet, but more importantly, I feel like a jinx when I've gone this season. In 1999 and 2000 I was a combined 12-2 in games I went to. Then the Mets started losing and my record reflected their seasons, for instance 3-7 last year. But this year they've had the best record in baseball for nearly a month and have been world beaters at home. They are 48-26 at home. I am 3-9 when I've seen them. I've gone to only 12 out of 74 home games and I've seen over a THIRD of their losses. That's unimaginable.
After the last game (Aug. 25), when they played like the game didn't count (5-0), I swore I would not see another game that mattered this year. So no clinchers or playoff games for me. And it kills me, because all season long as the idea of a Mets clinching game slowly became a reality I could not remember why I didn't go to Shea to see the Clincher on Sept. 17, 1986. So I said, if I had the chance this year I'd go. But after 8/25, I knew that if I spent the time and money to go, they'd lose that night, so I'd rather watch at home.
We'll see if I change my mind for a playoff or hopefully World Series game. I was nearly invited to the Pennant winning game in 2000 and missed being soaked with Champaign (like my friend Pete) from the appreciative players. That would be very cool.
What seems weird is the long time between division wins--18 years, and playoff appearances--6 years, just doesn't seem that long anymore. I became a moderate fan in 1976, when Seaver and Kingman were still in their primes and the Mets were still good (86-76), but I became a bleed with the team fan in 1980, when the phrase The Magic is Back took hold.
From 1980 until 1986, I went from being a 13 year old in grammar school to being a 20 year old junior in college and those are some LONNNGGG years. That I suffered with each Mets loss and losing season during those years, made the ultimate triumph that much sweeter. Many times during that stretch I wondered if they would ever win anything again in my lifetime (3 years old in 1969 and still too young at 6 to remember 1973).
Since they have, the desperation is not nearly as great and the past 20 years have gone by almost as fast as those first 6, but it would be the Ultimate to see another Championship. When I was 20 I went nuts, but I also knew in my heart that it would probably happen again very soon, maybe in 1987. Little did I know that Dwight Gooden would become a drug addict and that this was a one-time thing. As you get older you learn to appreciate these things more because you may not see them again.
But this is a team that could Win it all, too.
Now, of course, we have to take it one game and one series at a time. But in May and June when the Mets were starting to show that they might be good enough to make the playoffs, Met fans told me they didn't want to see the Yankees in the World Series again. That just making the World Series would be great, but losing to the Yankees a second time would be unbearable. I sort of felt the same way, except that at the time it didn't look like the Yankees were even a cinch to make the playoffs. The Boston Red Sox looked like the better team. They manhandled the Mets in June sweeping a 3 game series in Boston. I wanted the Mets to make the WS, but I wanted them to win it, so I was rooting for the worst opponent in the American League if one existed.
But now Met fans are feeling frisky. For the First time in the 45 YEAR History of the team, both the Yanks and Mets will win their divisions in the Same Year. Yes, they've made the playoffs in the same year twice before, but winning the division and being the two best teams in baseball is a moment they've never shared together.
And now Met fans are openly rooting for the Yankees to meet the Mets in the WS, because this time they feel the Mets are good enough to beat them. And while the 2000 WS loss to the Yanks was disappointing, a 2006 WS win by the Mets would be absolutely crushing to the pinstripe fans. One die-hard Yankee fan told me if that happened he'd have to move to Boise, Idaho. I'll pay for his Ryder moving van.
Me? Do I hope for this? Well, I'm taking these games one at time. My friend Paul thought they would be division winners from the early part of the season, but I made no such claims. I played a wait and see approach, not taking anything for granted, because I know how they've disappointed me before. But deep inside that Yankees rematch would be something. Because if you are going to win it all, wouldn't it be sweeter to do it by beating the best.
Subway Series 1955. The Thrilla in Manilla 1975. Nebraska-Miami 1984. Villanova--Georgetown 1985. Subway Series 2006.
Oh yeah, one last thing to the Braves fans, winners of the last 11 straight NL East Crowns---Ahhhh Ah Ahhuhhhh, Ahhhh Ah Ahhuhhhh (And a Tomahawk Chop to you, too!!!)
The Metitor (err, Freditor)
What an Election Day!!!!--America, She is a Beautiful Country Once Again
I stopped writing about Bush and his minions a while back, because I was starting to get depressed that I seemed like a crazy man in Times Square shouting into a megaphone. I felt like no one was listening and we were going to continue on our downward spiral into a nation of rich and poor and less and less in between. A nation that would take away rights from people who had hard fought to earn them.
I am not happy that the Democrats won. I don't consider myself a Democrat. But I am happy that the nation turned against George Bush and his cronies and said "No More!" This is OUR country and you are no more than a glorified civil servant ("where's your manager?"). And that feels wonderful. I am certain that some good Republicans lost their jobs yesterday because they aligned themselves with the president, but that is their own fault. If you knew in your heart that the direction of the country was the wrong one and you went along with it for party loyalty and increased campaign contributions then you deserved to lose. An elected official is supposed to be an American first and a party member second.
I'm happy Joe Lieberman won. I was disappointed in his stance for the Iraq war, but at least he was willing to stand up for what he believed in and jeopardized his Senate candidacy in the process. He's done a lot of good work for Connecticut and this country and would have made a very good vice president if he got elected in 2000. I'd much rather vote for a man who believes in something even if I don't, than someone who's meekly willing to go along with the party line. (John McCain, don't let this BE YOU!!)
Hillary Clinton needed to win in New York by a large majority to have a legitimate shot at winning the 2008 presidential election. One prognosticator said she'd need 65% of the vote to be a frontrunner--she won with 70%!!
I was so happy when George Pataki became governor of New York back in 1994. He was going to fix the roads and give us back the death penalty. Well the roads got fixed and while the death penalty officially came back on the books, no murderer ever went down in the 12 years since. BUT, the crime rate dropped like a stone since then, so for that you have to thank both Rudy Guiliani and Pataki. But in the last few years the roads have gotten bad again and the budget is a mess. Elliot Spitzer might be the right man or he might be another Mario Cuomo, I hope he's the former.
The House went back to the Democrats. The new Speaker of the House, San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi is 3rd in line to be president if anything were to happen to Bush and Cheney. That probably won't happen, but just the fact that it could has to be scaring the Virginia Jim's of the world immensely. That's reason enough to smile.
I'm disappointed that Harold Ford Jr. didn't win the Senate seat down in Tennessee. He would have been the first black senator in the South since the late 1800s. He was eminently qualified, but it would take some kind of miracle for a black man to win in the Deep South. If he had won, the Democrats would be in full control of the Senate. It might still happen with Virginia yet to be recounted.
The greatest threat to the union in some states was not terrorism or a shrinking economy for the underclass, but Gay Marriage. Boogedy Boogedy. The scary gays wanted civil unions so they could share health benefits and protect themselves financially in case one got sick or died. But this was too much for certain constituencies to handle and they voted it down. For the first time in American history, married couples no longer make up a majority of households. So many old people are turning away from marriage for mostly Social Security reasons and here is a group that wants to get married and these states will not allow it. Silly.
And then to add a cherry to this Election SUNDAE, Donald Rumsfeld has handed in his resignation from bullying the Pentagon and running our Iraq war effort into the ground. Maybe now our soldiers will finally get the equipment they need including bulletproof vests and better yet, maybe this new Defense Secretary will come up with a plan to bring these people home. I was happy we went into Iraq for the sole purpose of getting rid of Saddam, his henchmen and especially his horrible sons.
But now thesons and the henchmen are mostly dead or out of power, Saddam is facing a hanging probably around Easter and Iraqis are now in control. It's time for us to get out of there and let the Iraqis fight it out amongst themselves to find out who will be in charge. I think three separate countries of the three different tribes would probably be best. The nation was set up unnaturally by Winston Churchill in the first place. Let it break down naturally into its tribal parts.
An Excellent Day. Now let's hope the Democrats have a plan and right this mighty ship. There's a lot of work to be done and even more work to be undone. We need a higher minimum wage that's tied into the cost of living. (One raise of the minimum wage in 25 years from $3.35 to $5.15 an hour, meanwhile in that time Congress has voted themselves raises totalling $35,000 a year.) We need some kind of health care coverage for every American. We need each town to mark off areas for affordable housing and not ugly projects, but suburban-type developments where a person can afford to live in his own town and not have to travel 2 hours to get to work.
We need more cooperation between government and big warehouse stores (like Costco and Home Depot) in the face of natural disasters like Katrina. For all its wrongs, no one is better suited to move large quantities of food, water and supplies than Wal-Mart and they should be a go-to contractor for events like that if or when they happen in the future. And we need to put restrictions on monopolies like we had for 50 years from Roosevelt to Reagan.
Companies that can run roughshod over competitors will do it if they have no controls to stop them. And they'll run roughshod over communities, too. A bully who has the ball can threaten to take that ball and outsource it to India unless he gets major concessions from the local townspeople. With monopoly controls and tax repercussions for removing jobs from this country that could all stop.
These anti-monopoly laws go for retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot (destroying local economies); banks like Chase that suck up all local banks and set uncontested savings rates (and get into other areas that scream of collusion like insurance andstock management); oil magnets like Exxon/Mobil which set unnaturally high gas prices; and broadcasters like the big networks which can buy up all the local TV and radio stations in the market and leave little room for a dissenting voice to be heard.
I want this to be an active Congress working hard to correct so many of these wrongs. People need hope and trust again. We engineered it yesterday, now these elected officials need to earn it.
The Freditor
I am not happy that the Democrats won. I don't consider myself a Democrat. But I am happy that the nation turned against George Bush and his cronies and said "No More!" This is OUR country and you are no more than a glorified civil servant ("where's your manager?"). And that feels wonderful. I am certain that some good Republicans lost their jobs yesterday because they aligned themselves with the president, but that is their own fault. If you knew in your heart that the direction of the country was the wrong one and you went along with it for party loyalty and increased campaign contributions then you deserved to lose. An elected official is supposed to be an American first and a party member second.
I'm happy Joe Lieberman won. I was disappointed in his stance for the Iraq war, but at least he was willing to stand up for what he believed in and jeopardized his Senate candidacy in the process. He's done a lot of good work for Connecticut and this country and would have made a very good vice president if he got elected in 2000. I'd much rather vote for a man who believes in something even if I don't, than someone who's meekly willing to go along with the party line. (John McCain, don't let this BE YOU!!)
Hillary Clinton needed to win in New York by a large majority to have a legitimate shot at winning the 2008 presidential election. One prognosticator said she'd need 65% of the vote to be a frontrunner--she won with 70%!!
I was so happy when George Pataki became governor of New York back in 1994. He was going to fix the roads and give us back the death penalty. Well the roads got fixed and while the death penalty officially came back on the books, no murderer ever went down in the 12 years since. BUT, the crime rate dropped like a stone since then, so for that you have to thank both Rudy Guiliani and Pataki. But in the last few years the roads have gotten bad again and the budget is a mess. Elliot Spitzer might be the right man or he might be another Mario Cuomo, I hope he's the former.
The House went back to the Democrats. The new Speaker of the House, San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi is 3rd in line to be president if anything were to happen to Bush and Cheney. That probably won't happen, but just the fact that it could has to be scaring the Virginia Jim's of the world immensely. That's reason enough to smile.
I'm disappointed that Harold Ford Jr. didn't win the Senate seat down in Tennessee. He would have been the first black senator in the South since the late 1800s. He was eminently qualified, but it would take some kind of miracle for a black man to win in the Deep South. If he had won, the Democrats would be in full control of the Senate. It might still happen with Virginia yet to be recounted.
The greatest threat to the union in some states was not terrorism or a shrinking economy for the underclass, but Gay Marriage. Boogedy Boogedy. The scary gays wanted civil unions so they could share health benefits and protect themselves financially in case one got sick or died. But this was too much for certain constituencies to handle and they voted it down. For the first time in American history, married couples no longer make up a majority of households. So many old people are turning away from marriage for mostly Social Security reasons and here is a group that wants to get married and these states will not allow it. Silly.
And then to add a cherry to this Election SUNDAE, Donald Rumsfeld has handed in his resignation from bullying the Pentagon and running our Iraq war effort into the ground. Maybe now our soldiers will finally get the equipment they need including bulletproof vests and better yet, maybe this new Defense Secretary will come up with a plan to bring these people home. I was happy we went into Iraq for the sole purpose of getting rid of Saddam, his henchmen and especially his horrible sons.
But now thesons and the henchmen are mostly dead or out of power, Saddam is facing a hanging probably around Easter and Iraqis are now in control. It's time for us to get out of there and let the Iraqis fight it out amongst themselves to find out who will be in charge. I think three separate countries of the three different tribes would probably be best. The nation was set up unnaturally by Winston Churchill in the first place. Let it break down naturally into its tribal parts.
An Excellent Day. Now let's hope the Democrats have a plan and right this mighty ship. There's a lot of work to be done and even more work to be undone. We need a higher minimum wage that's tied into the cost of living. (One raise of the minimum wage in 25 years from $3.35 to $5.15 an hour, meanwhile in that time Congress has voted themselves raises totalling $35,000 a year.) We need some kind of health care coverage for every American. We need each town to mark off areas for affordable housing and not ugly projects, but suburban-type developments where a person can afford to live in his own town and not have to travel 2 hours to get to work.
We need more cooperation between government and big warehouse stores (like Costco and Home Depot) in the face of natural disasters like Katrina. For all its wrongs, no one is better suited to move large quantities of food, water and supplies than Wal-Mart and they should be a go-to contractor for events like that if or when they happen in the future. And we need to put restrictions on monopolies like we had for 50 years from Roosevelt to Reagan.
Companies that can run roughshod over competitors will do it if they have no controls to stop them. And they'll run roughshod over communities, too. A bully who has the ball can threaten to take that ball and outsource it to India unless he gets major concessions from the local townspeople. With monopoly controls and tax repercussions for removing jobs from this country that could all stop.
These anti-monopoly laws go for retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot (destroying local economies); banks like Chase that suck up all local banks and set uncontested savings rates (and get into other areas that scream of collusion like insurance andstock management); oil magnets like Exxon/Mobil which set unnaturally high gas prices; and broadcasters like the big networks which can buy up all the local TV and radio stations in the market and leave little room for a dissenting voice to be heard.
I want this to be an active Congress working hard to correct so many of these wrongs. People need hope and trust again. We engineered it yesterday, now these elected officials need to earn it.
The Freditor
Bruce Springsteen Threw a Party in MY Basement--Best Show of 2006
On the weekend of July 4th I got a lot done. I sanded and painted my black iron fence and it came out pretty good. I went into the city to see a show and ended up having a very special night.
I took a drive to 42nd Street-Times Square that Sunday to see a Bruce Springsteen cover band: Bruce in the USA.-Matt Ryan and the American Dream. Across the street is the biggest movie theatre in the city, the AMC 25. After getting your tickets on the first floor you have to take an elevator up to the theatres. Mine was on the 8th floor. I went to see Prairie Home Companion (PHC).
PHC is a filmed version of the famous radio program, heard on National Public Radio. Host Garrison Keillor puts on a pretend radio show in the tradition of the '30s and '40s. A staged event in front of a big live audience with singing, acting and comedy. The show takes place in Minnesota and has corny ads that are read live for biscuit powder and the like. Recently deceased director Robert Altman (MASH, Nashville, The Player) reins it all in and Keillor wrote and stars in his own production.
They got some huge stars to fill the shoes of all of Keillor's characters. Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Kline and John C. Reilly (Chicago, Boogie Nights). I won't go into great detail, but if you catch it on video there's a tremendous cowboy comedy/singing act by Harrelson and Reilly toward the end that makes the whole thing worthwhile. Being that this was a small movie showing on only a few screens in the city, there wasn't much of an audience, maybe 25 in the whole theatre, but there was one couple--a blond woman and a man sitting three seats down from me that were laughing even more than me.
Out of the corner of my eye I could have sworn she was somebody famous, but I was sure she was just a look alike. Finally, as the credits rolled and the houselights came on I turned to her and was sure it was this star. I leaned toward the woman and asked, "Excuse me are you Georgette Engel from the Mary Tyler Moore show?" Ted Baxter's wife smiled yes, in that breathless voice of hers. She played a great part recently as RobertBarone's ditzy mother in law on Everybody Loves Raymond, so I complemented her on that and shook her hand. I've always been a fan of hers and it was so cool seeing a movie with her. She obviously has a great and smart sense of humor. She played ditzy as well as Gracie Allen. That's twice now that I've sat close to a star watching a movie in the city. A year ago it was Stephen King at Major Dundee.
Anyway, I left the theatre and rushed across to the new Dallas BBQ restaurant for a quick bite before my concert. I got bbq'ed chicken, baked beans and mac & cheese with corn bread and a Corona. The chicken fell off the bone. The waiter knew I was in a hurry as I walked in the place. I got a menu, ordered, got my food, ate it and paid my bill in 25 minutes!! I tipped him well for his speedy service.
Two doors down is the latest treasure in Times Square, the BB King's Blues Club. I assume this place used to be a porno theatre or something, but now it was an elegant, cozy night club with about 20 tables and another 30 stools at the bar. It was in the basement so it had a real smoky, underground feel. They didn't have a big crowd that night maybe because of the holiday weekend or the fact it was a cover band, but there were about 20 people when I walked in. I had a standing room only ticket, but they offered me a table 10 feet from the stage, dead center. But I would have to sit with strangers, which I was not in the mood for.
So they sat me off to the left side by myself, however still with a perfect view of the stage.
I had Samuel Adams Lagers in pint glasses and sat back to enjoy and judge the show. When I got the notice from the BB King website about the concert I was intrigued by the price--$19.00. I paid $16 for my first Bruce show back in 1984, but now a low ticket cost about $70. I was willing to gamble $19 on an impersonator. How bad could he be? Plus, I was not thrilled with 4 of the last 5 Bruce shows I saw, so maybe this guy could surprise me.
From the name Bruce in the USA, I had an inkling he would stick closely to the hits and not wander off the reservation the way Bruce had this decade. It's beenalmost 6 months since I saw the show, so I don't remember what his first song was coming out, but I do remember it was good, although not letter perfect. Matt Ryan's face was very similar to Bruce's, however he was about 30 pounds heavier. But man could he sing like him and talk like him. Matt's back-up band sounded good, but no one looked like the E Street Band besides the saxophone player. This guy dressed like Clarence and had his winning smile. But really, what do you want from a tribute band? That they look alike or that they sound alike? I could care less if they all looked like aliens as long as the music sounds real.
The tables were mostly full by the beginning of the show and there about 20 people who were on the bar platform who moved closer to the counter/divider. During the second song, four guys in the front center table stood up and started swaying and singing with the band. I thought they were kind of silly, especially since two of them were older than me. I mean come on, you're dancing to a pretend Bruce!!!
Well by the 5th song, I was standing up with them--singing, dancing, pumping my fists in the air to the all-time great live song Badlands. Matt followed that up with Because the Night, the Bruce-penned song that Patty Smith had a huge hit with. But Bruce's live version of this always has way more passion to me and the crowd was electrified at this point. From that moment forward about half the crowd was on its feet and never sat down. Screaming, singing, dancing and falling under the trance of this incredibly great tribute band.
I've seen cover bands before, not many and never a full show. I saw a U2 band play at Queens College for a party once and was impressed, but this group had every move down, every false start, even some of the stage chatter. The Bruce guy exposed a lot of himself that night. Matt didn't grow up a Bruce fan, barely knew who he was in high school, except that everyone called him Bruce from the sheer likeness.
He grew up in Nevada and became a Vegas musician forming this band with other Vegas vets. They considered doing a Johnny Cash tribute, but the Bruce fans were so passionate and wild that it was an easy decision to turn in this direction. The only problem is that since the fans are so passionate and so knowledgeable, you have to be able to keep up with them. He said that Bruce had 7 HOURS of material that he's done on stage and Matt and his band only knew 3 1/2 Hours of it. So there are some rare Bruce tracks that he still doesn't know, so it's hard for him to play all the requests. That's fair and his honesty was really refreshing.
The fact that he was from the Legends in Concert series in Vegas proved to me why they were so professional and tight. We saw a Legends show when Barb and I were out there and their acts were all uncanny, especially the Prince guy. Anyway, Matt was sweating like crazy. He couldn't believe that a guy from Vegas could find New York so hot. But about 10 songs into the show we were all pouring sweat. Around that point the audience was ravenous and he was so impressed that he said we "were the best audience they'd ever played for, even better than in San Diego," where Bruce apparently has a huge following. Before the show, Matt was afraid that they would be playing to just the sound and light guys because it was a holiday weekend and everyone would be going away.
Then Matt said, "Man, I feel like we're throwing a party in your basement. That's it. We're not playing one ballad the rest of the night. I might have a heart attack up here, but we're going to rock tonight." And BB King's roared with approval.
Growing Up, Rosalita, Born to Run, Out in the Street, Thunder Road, Candy's Room, Jungleland. Hits, hits and more hits, all mostly from 1973 to 1984. I think only about 3 songs from after that era. Many songs that I haven't heard Bruce play in 20 years. Two hours of non-stop rock. Everything sounded great and felt right, well almost everything. Glory Days and The Rising were tight, but interestingly the one song I felt was a little lacking was Born in the USA. Shocking because he named the band after this one. But whatever. I came thinking I was taking a $19 gamble. The worst that could happen is that the guy or the band would be real lame and I would experience embarrassing chills for them.
But instead I walked out of there with no voice left, my hands raw from clapping, feeling on top of a cloud, having just had the best Bruce concert experience since he played the Amnesty Show in 1988. I was floored by this band. This was their first concert ever on the East Coast and had never been to New York before. They said they were now going to make this a regular stop in the future. I was glad, because I couldn't wait to go back and bring friends this time to see what a real Bruce show used to be all about.
I had the greatest time, one of the greatest nights I had in all 2006 and I finally have the chance to tell you about it.
The Freditor
I took a drive to 42nd Street-Times Square that Sunday to see a Bruce Springsteen cover band: Bruce in the USA.-Matt Ryan and the American Dream. Across the street is the biggest movie theatre in the city, the AMC 25. After getting your tickets on the first floor you have to take an elevator up to the theatres. Mine was on the 8th floor. I went to see Prairie Home Companion (PHC).
PHC is a filmed version of the famous radio program, heard on National Public Radio. Host Garrison Keillor puts on a pretend radio show in the tradition of the '30s and '40s. A staged event in front of a big live audience with singing, acting and comedy. The show takes place in Minnesota and has corny ads that are read live for biscuit powder and the like. Recently deceased director Robert Altman (MASH, Nashville, The Player) reins it all in and Keillor wrote and stars in his own production.
They got some huge stars to fill the shoes of all of Keillor's characters. Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Kline and John C. Reilly (Chicago, Boogie Nights). I won't go into great detail, but if you catch it on video there's a tremendous cowboy comedy/singing act by Harrelson and Reilly toward the end that makes the whole thing worthwhile. Being that this was a small movie showing on only a few screens in the city, there wasn't much of an audience, maybe 25 in the whole theatre, but there was one couple--a blond woman and a man sitting three seats down from me that were laughing even more than me.
Out of the corner of my eye I could have sworn she was somebody famous, but I was sure she was just a look alike. Finally, as the credits rolled and the houselights came on I turned to her and was sure it was this star. I leaned toward the woman and asked, "Excuse me are you Georgette Engel from the Mary Tyler Moore show?" Ted Baxter's wife smiled yes, in that breathless voice of hers. She played a great part recently as RobertBarone's ditzy mother in law on Everybody Loves Raymond, so I complemented her on that and shook her hand. I've always been a fan of hers and it was so cool seeing a movie with her. She obviously has a great and smart sense of humor. She played ditzy as well as Gracie Allen. That's twice now that I've sat close to a star watching a movie in the city. A year ago it was Stephen King at Major Dundee.
Anyway, I left the theatre and rushed across to the new Dallas BBQ restaurant for a quick bite before my concert. I got bbq'ed chicken, baked beans and mac & cheese with corn bread and a Corona. The chicken fell off the bone. The waiter knew I was in a hurry as I walked in the place. I got a menu, ordered, got my food, ate it and paid my bill in 25 minutes!! I tipped him well for his speedy service.
Two doors down is the latest treasure in Times Square, the BB King's Blues Club. I assume this place used to be a porno theatre or something, but now it was an elegant, cozy night club with about 20 tables and another 30 stools at the bar. It was in the basement so it had a real smoky, underground feel. They didn't have a big crowd that night maybe because of the holiday weekend or the fact it was a cover band, but there were about 20 people when I walked in. I had a standing room only ticket, but they offered me a table 10 feet from the stage, dead center. But I would have to sit with strangers, which I was not in the mood for.
So they sat me off to the left side by myself, however still with a perfect view of the stage.
I had Samuel Adams Lagers in pint glasses and sat back to enjoy and judge the show. When I got the notice from the BB King website about the concert I was intrigued by the price--$19.00. I paid $16 for my first Bruce show back in 1984, but now a low ticket cost about $70. I was willing to gamble $19 on an impersonator. How bad could he be? Plus, I was not thrilled with 4 of the last 5 Bruce shows I saw, so maybe this guy could surprise me.
From the name Bruce in the USA, I had an inkling he would stick closely to the hits and not wander off the reservation the way Bruce had this decade. It's beenalmost 6 months since I saw the show, so I don't remember what his first song was coming out, but I do remember it was good, although not letter perfect. Matt Ryan's face was very similar to Bruce's, however he was about 30 pounds heavier. But man could he sing like him and talk like him. Matt's back-up band sounded good, but no one looked like the E Street Band besides the saxophone player. This guy dressed like Clarence and had his winning smile. But really, what do you want from a tribute band? That they look alike or that they sound alike? I could care less if they all looked like aliens as long as the music sounds real.
The tables were mostly full by the beginning of the show and there about 20 people who were on the bar platform who moved closer to the counter/divider. During the second song, four guys in the front center table stood up and started swaying and singing with the band. I thought they were kind of silly, especially since two of them were older than me. I mean come on, you're dancing to a pretend Bruce!!!
Well by the 5th song, I was standing up with them--singing, dancing, pumping my fists in the air to the all-time great live song Badlands. Matt followed that up with Because the Night, the Bruce-penned song that Patty Smith had a huge hit with. But Bruce's live version of this always has way more passion to me and the crowd was electrified at this point. From that moment forward about half the crowd was on its feet and never sat down. Screaming, singing, dancing and falling under the trance of this incredibly great tribute band.
I've seen cover bands before, not many and never a full show. I saw a U2 band play at Queens College for a party once and was impressed, but this group had every move down, every false start, even some of the stage chatter. The Bruce guy exposed a lot of himself that night. Matt didn't grow up a Bruce fan, barely knew who he was in high school, except that everyone called him Bruce from the sheer likeness.
He grew up in Nevada and became a Vegas musician forming this band with other Vegas vets. They considered doing a Johnny Cash tribute, but the Bruce fans were so passionate and wild that it was an easy decision to turn in this direction. The only problem is that since the fans are so passionate and so knowledgeable, you have to be able to keep up with them. He said that Bruce had 7 HOURS of material that he's done on stage and Matt and his band only knew 3 1/2 Hours of it. So there are some rare Bruce tracks that he still doesn't know, so it's hard for him to play all the requests. That's fair and his honesty was really refreshing.
The fact that he was from the Legends in Concert series in Vegas proved to me why they were so professional and tight. We saw a Legends show when Barb and I were out there and their acts were all uncanny, especially the Prince guy. Anyway, Matt was sweating like crazy. He couldn't believe that a guy from Vegas could find New York so hot. But about 10 songs into the show we were all pouring sweat. Around that point the audience was ravenous and he was so impressed that he said we "were the best audience they'd ever played for, even better than in San Diego," where Bruce apparently has a huge following. Before the show, Matt was afraid that they would be playing to just the sound and light guys because it was a holiday weekend and everyone would be going away.
Then Matt said, "Man, I feel like we're throwing a party in your basement. That's it. We're not playing one ballad the rest of the night. I might have a heart attack up here, but we're going to rock tonight." And BB King's roared with approval.
Growing Up, Rosalita, Born to Run, Out in the Street, Thunder Road, Candy's Room, Jungleland. Hits, hits and more hits, all mostly from 1973 to 1984. I think only about 3 songs from after that era. Many songs that I haven't heard Bruce play in 20 years. Two hours of non-stop rock. Everything sounded great and felt right, well almost everything. Glory Days and The Rising were tight, but interestingly the one song I felt was a little lacking was Born in the USA. Shocking because he named the band after this one. But whatever. I came thinking I was taking a $19 gamble. The worst that could happen is that the guy or the band would be real lame and I would experience embarrassing chills for them.
But instead I walked out of there with no voice left, my hands raw from clapping, feeling on top of a cloud, having just had the best Bruce concert experience since he played the Amnesty Show in 1988. I was floored by this band. This was their first concert ever on the East Coast and had never been to New York before. They said they were now going to make this a regular stop in the future. I was glad, because I couldn't wait to go back and bring friends this time to see what a real Bruce show used to be all about.
I had the greatest time, one of the greatest nights I had in all 2006 and I finally have the chance to tell you about it.
The Freditor
Rudy Giuliani for President
My friend Harry writes:
Backing this President is WRONG. I don't care what PARTY he is from, he is unfit for office. I want Rudy Guliani, there was a tough man. I dont care party what he joins.... we need a man who wants to work in office... and who isnt afraid to go against the grain.....
My response is:
I don't care if Rudy was a cheating husband, I'd vote for him for Pope. Imagine how he'd clean up the Catholic church?
Reagan was the best president of my life, but I'm willing to bet Rudy would be even better.
This man made New York livable again. Forget 9/11 and all he did for the city at that time. Just remember what this city was like in 1990, before he became the Mayor.
It was a cesspool.
I took a job on Long Island, because there was NO WAY my family was going to live in this city in the new century. But now, I see NYC as a great place to live. Crime is ALL the way down. You don't have to fear riding the subways, you don't hear car alarms going off at 3AM, because car thievery is down. You want to say it's because of the economy and the fact that people are working more now. Fine. That's part of it.
The rest is the zero tolerance for scumbags. Cops are more aggressive now and for that we can thank Giuliani, who uncuffed them and allowed them to do their jobs.
Right now the Dept. of Homeland Security is a joke, run by toadies and friends of George W.
Rudy would clean house and make America the most secure country in the world.
He'd work with the oil companies and give them tax incentives to slow down the price gouging. Remember all the beautiful work he did keeping businesses from fleeing New York? Remember when the stock exchange was thinking of moving to New Jersey? He stopped that.
Rudy would be going to soldiers' funerals and showing compassion to the families, unlike our current president who has not gone to ONE FUNERAL!!!!!!!!
Rudy would cut our losses in Iraq and forget how he'd handle a situation like Hurricane Katrina. He might even consider the idea that the climate is changing and do something about reversing its course.
The man is not Jesus, but he's not the dangerous, bewildered boss from Dilbert either, who is beginning to resemble Bush more and more each day.
Rudy is a brilliant businessman, a determined lawyer, a hard-nosed prosecutor, a statesman, a thinker, a listener, a tough guy, a compassionate man, a hero.
HE IS EVERYTHING PRESIDENT BUSH IS NOT!!!!!
The Freditor
Backing this President is WRONG. I don't care what PARTY he is from, he is unfit for office. I want Rudy Guliani, there was a tough man. I dont care party what he joins.... we need a man who wants to work in office... and who isnt afraid to go against the grain.....
My response is:
I don't care if Rudy was a cheating husband, I'd vote for him for Pope. Imagine how he'd clean up the Catholic church?
Reagan was the best president of my life, but I'm willing to bet Rudy would be even better.
This man made New York livable again. Forget 9/11 and all he did for the city at that time. Just remember what this city was like in 1990, before he became the Mayor.
It was a cesspool.
I took a job on Long Island, because there was NO WAY my family was going to live in this city in the new century. But now, I see NYC as a great place to live. Crime is ALL the way down. You don't have to fear riding the subways, you don't hear car alarms going off at 3AM, because car thievery is down. You want to say it's because of the economy and the fact that people are working more now. Fine. That's part of it.
The rest is the zero tolerance for scumbags. Cops are more aggressive now and for that we can thank Giuliani, who uncuffed them and allowed them to do their jobs.
Right now the Dept. of Homeland Security is a joke, run by toadies and friends of George W.
Rudy would clean house and make America the most secure country in the world.
He'd work with the oil companies and give them tax incentives to slow down the price gouging. Remember all the beautiful work he did keeping businesses from fleeing New York? Remember when the stock exchange was thinking of moving to New Jersey? He stopped that.
Rudy would be going to soldiers' funerals and showing compassion to the families, unlike our current president who has not gone to ONE FUNERAL!!!!!!!!
Rudy would cut our losses in Iraq and forget how he'd handle a situation like Hurricane Katrina. He might even consider the idea that the climate is changing and do something about reversing its course.
The man is not Jesus, but he's not the dangerous, bewildered boss from Dilbert either, who is beginning to resemble Bush more and more each day.
Rudy is a brilliant businessman, a determined lawyer, a hard-nosed prosecutor, a statesman, a thinker, a listener, a tough guy, a compassionate man, a hero.
HE IS EVERYTHING PRESIDENT BUSH IS NOT!!!!!
The Freditor
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