attacking fellow staff members is fun

What the crap is the 'great boa?'

I really, really, really hated this movie. Don't see it.
Spear pummels toward hokiness, mediocrity

Republicans and Nazis...not too far apart

You scored as Democrat. Democrat 92% Anarchism 67% Green 58% Communism 50% Fascism 42% Socialist 42% Nazi 17% Republican 17% What Political Party Do Your Beliefs Put You In? created with QuizFarm.com

you say you want a revolution?

Protests like this would never happen at ACU because a) No one that important would ever come here; b) fellow students would probably shout at and eventually stone the protestors; and c) we signed away most of our First Amendment rights on the first day of Welcome Week, so there are probably rules against protesting. At least I can live vicariously through Georgetown Law students.

Year's best defy labels, exceed expectations

1/20/05


Despite disappointing box office revenues for most of the year, 2005's cinematic finale provided impressive and inspiring steps from daring filmmakers asking tough questions. That's a lot of vague adjectives that don't really mean anything because most of the year's top films are hard to categorize and describe. They're not your average popcorn-munching, building-exploding flicks to which the masses flock.

"Good Night, and Good Luck," which once on DVD will sit on a shelf next to this journalism nerd's copy of "All the President's Men," is perched high on most critics' Top 10 lists for good reason. George Clooney's ode to his journalist father, Nick, is a simple yet pitch-perfect depiction of CBS anchor Edward R. Murrow's battle with Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the Communist scare of the 1950s.

Clooney won the Freedom Award at the 11th annual Critics Choice Awards on Jan. 9 for "for illuminating our shared values of freedom, tolerance and democracy." In his acceptance speech, Clooney shared his award with other filmmakers in the room, noting that the spirit of freedom is alive in the year's top films.

"When I look at 'Munich,' at 'Crash,' at 'The Constant Gardener,' we are taking chances, and we are succeeding. This is a great night for the freedom of filmmaking," he said.

Whether in response to current societal trends or political battles, filmmakers are bringing stories of freedom to life, whether freedom from oppression, fear, addictions or prejudice, and the ultimate question of how far one should go to obtain and/or maintain freedom.

Though some provide more questions than answers, such as Steven Spielberg's harrowing "Munich," they refuse to take the easy way out by settling for fundamentalist answers. I was not only entertained or challenged by these films, but also left the theatre appreciating the experience and the artists' messages, which doesn't happen often.

Here are my choices for the Academy Awards Best Picture category if I ran the show:

"Brokeback Mountain"
Expanded from Annie Proulx's short story and directed by Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain has been unfortunately and unfairly labeled as the "gay cowboy movie" since its inception as a screenplay. The story, however, defies labels and forces viewers to question their own beliefs and feelings, whether they're comfortable with it or agree with it or not. The affair between two ranch hands (Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger) is heartbreaking. After its recent win at The Golden Globes, Brokeback should and most likely will take home the Oscar.

"The Constant Gardener"
Not only is "Gardener" a mystery and thriller, it's a call to social justice and activism on behalf of the victims depicted: Africans taken advantage of by big pharmaceutical companies and those daring enough to expose them. Ralph Fiennes is so brilliant he almost goes unnoticed, becoming his compliant character so completely you forget he's acting.

"Good Night, and Good Luck"
Clooney brilliantly took a backseat role in this newsroom drama, letting veteran character actor David Strathairn embody Murrow. Shot in black and white, staged on only a few sets all indoors, rated PG and at a length of 93 minutes, Clooney captures the intensity of the time period and the importance of Murrow's words with old-fashioned flair.

"Munich"
When I think of Spielberg, I think of Happy Spielberg, as in the director of "E.T." or the "Indiana Jones" trilogy. I seem to forget that this is also the filmmaker who brought us "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," easily two of the best WWII films. "Munich" runs along those themes in its depiction of the events surrounding the 1972 Olympics in Munich when 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by a Palestinian extremist group known as Black September. The Israelis retaliate, answering violence with violence. One of the most haunting and disturbing films I've seen.

"Walk the Line"
Winner of The Golden Globe for best picture musical or comedy, neither of which it really is, James Mangold's biopic of country legend Johnny Cash presents a raw look at the singer and his various addictions and struggles, as well as his ultimate redemption. And, unlike most of the above-mentioned films, it won't leave you depressed. Joaquin Phoenix's transformation to Cash can only be rivaled by Philip Seymour Hoffman's impressive transformation to Truman Capote in "Capote," another excellent film. Both won Golden Globes for their roles, but I believe the Oscar will end up with Hoffman.

wake up the dawn and ask her why a dreamer dreams, she never dies

Excerpts from philosophy class, Existentialism & Literature, notes from today:

"...how we view ourselves through the mirror of our own existence..."
"No general account of what it means to be human defines for us what it means to be human."
"...causes us to be in the world and assert interconnectedness of the world, and that's how you find yourself."
"transcendence -- you as a person are not simply reducible to your facticity."

These aren't my thoughts. No, no. These are just snippets of what I heard in class and chose to write down. You'll get to read more of these lines this semester, throughout which I will feel more and more stupid and doubt my existence all together.

To relax after those random lines, go to these Web sites:

Potter Puppet Pals - classic
How tall are you compared to famous people?
Chuck Norris facts (parents - be warned)

I'm officially ready to graduate. These people apparently aren't.

...from 13 original colonies...

Fifteen out of 50 isn't very good, and I only counted Michigan because I've been to the Detroit airport. My brother beat me by one state, but seeing as I can drop lines such as "One time, while swimming in the Atlantic off the coast of Brazil," or "One night, while my friends and I were walking around London," I am the infinitely cooler Carlson. My friends who have studied abroad can beat me, but they don't count. They just don't.

Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of Truth.

Stephen Colbert is the funniest man on television. If you don't watch "The Colbert Report" weeknights right after "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, then firstly, we aren't friends, and secondly, you're uncool. His current crusade against The Associated Press and journalist Heather Clark is brilliant. In honor of him, I'll have my own On Notice and Dead to Me sections on this here blog. Pray you won't be on one of them one day.

Colbert: AP is America’s ‘number 1 threat’
Comedian wants credit for coining ‘truthiness’

Joel Jeffries / AP file

NEW YORK - Stung by a recent Associated Press article that didn’t credit him for coining the word “truthiness,” Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert has struck back.

The world’s oldest news organization, Colbert says, is the “No. 1 threat facing America.”

On Wednesday evening, Colbert placed the AP atop the Threat Down segment of “The Colbert Report” show. What was No. 2?

Bears.

In October, on Colbert’s debut episode of the “Daily Show” spinoff, the comedian defined “truthiness” as truth that wouldn’t stand to be held back by facts. The word caught on, and last week the American Dialect Society named “truthiness” the word of the year.

When an AP story about the designation sent coast to coast failed to mention Colbert, he began a tongue-in-cheek crusade, not unlike the kind his muse Bill O’Reilly might lead in all seriousness.

“It’s a sin of omission, is what it is,” Colbert told The AP on Thursday. “You’re not giving people the whole story about truthiness.”

“It’s like Shakespeare still being alive and not asking him what ‘Hamlet’ is about,” he said.

The Oxford English Dictionary has a definition for “truthy” dating back to the 1800s. It’s defined as “characterized by truth” and includes the derivation “truthiness.”

Michael Adams, a visiting associate professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, pointed to that definition and has said Colbert’s claim to inventing the word is “untrue.” (Adams served as the expert opinion in the initial AP story.)

“The fact that they looked it up in a book just shows that they don’t get the idea of truthiness at all,” Colbert said Thursday. “You don’t look up truthiness in a book, you look it up in your gut.”

Though slight, the difference of Colbert’s definition and the OED’s is essential. It’s not your typical truth, but, as The New York Times wrote, “a summation of what (Colbert) sees as the guiding ethos of the loudest commentators on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.”

Colbert, who referred on his program to the AP omission as a “journalistic travesty,” said Thursday that it was similar to the much-criticized weapons of mass destruction reporting leading up to the Iraq War.

“Except,” he said, “people got hurt this time.”

ah, the good ole commute

Best editorial I've read in a while. I can do a pretty good imitation of the "Please stand clear of the doors" lady.

A New Tone in Washington

The Washington Post
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page A14

SO METRO IS canning that nice lady who's been warning us all these years about the closing doors, and replacing her with a sterner voice. In an unusually (for Metro) adept public relations move, the transit system is inviting anyone to submit an audition tape to become the new, more authoritarian Sound of the Subway.

Which is fine, but if they're going to ask us to supply a new tone, can they really dictate the content? Isn't that some kind of violation of our First Amendment rights? We'd like to submit a tape that would go a bit beyond that stale doors-opening, doors-closing routine. We'd be happy to start with the standard, "Please stand clear of the doors." But why not take it a bit further? "Stand clear , we said -- that doesn't mean wiggle a couple of inches away from the door. Move in, for crying out loud. And when people are trying to exit, don't clog the passage, okay? Step out of the train. You can step back in after they've left. We're not going to leave without you.

"And you, big fella -- one seat per customer. You want to sprawl, buy a couch. And that rule about no eating and drinking? It's not optional, and we could do without the applying of makeup, too. No need to yell into your cell phone. And you, young man in Priority Seating -- yes, you -- are you going to pretend you don't see that old lady? All right, then, are we set? Thank you. Doors closing."

Maybe we won't win the audition. But we feel better already.

Considering I have nothing better to post about and have spent much of the past few days watching Law & Order episodes (curse you, New Years weekened marathons), I thought I'd post pictures of our poodle, Rusty, getting a bath. I can't tell you how funny this was.





Rusty is a hyper, fairly high-energy poodle. He's almost 3 and a half and barks at anything he sees and/or hears. It's annoying when his incessant barking wakes you up, but he's just too cute to dislike.







My Mom and Rusty.

I wouldn't be a good character on "Lost." I don't have a past. For my flashback sequences, the confused audience would see me sitting in a college newspaper office, or perhaps sitting in my apartment. Maybe, if they were lucky, they'd see me going to Wal-mart or even Starbucks. No, there is not much mystery behind this college senior, but I guess that's why no one's written about me.

I have, though, become addicted to "Lost" this break thanks to my brother, who brought home the first season on DVD. My Dad and I watched about 5 episodes a night before and after Christmas and now don't know what to do with ourselves. We've already missed half of season two, but I think I'm just going to read re-caps and try and catch up. Just can't live without it now. Thanks, J.J. Abrams.