[scifinoir2] Re: Poverty Line
George Will (the high principaled individual who stole Jimmy Carter's preparation notes and gave them to Ronald Reagan so Reagan could trounce Carter in their debate) opines that there is a very simple cure for black poverty: marraige. While it is true that stable, two parent families are the surest route out of poverty, Will blithely ignores the glue that bonds those families: jobs. I have spent twenty-five years working in factories and I can vouch that nearly every black man I know who makes a living wage, supports his family. And this is true through marraige, separation and divorce. A man who earns a living wage will support his children - and those children are more likely to succeed. I can also attest to the fact that this society makes it awfully hard for a black man to attain and, more importantly, retain a job that pays a living wage. At the company where I work, one often touted as one of the best places in America to work, I was the first black man in my division to achieve 15 years of senority (this was five years ago). There were black men working there when I started and none of them was still working for the company when I reached my personal milestone. I achieved my milestone despite repeated efforts by the company to lay the paper trail that would terminate me. The aggressive and frequently nonsensical lengths to which the company would go to eliminate me made me good and I have used my expertise to make sure that nearly every black man this division hires makes their probation (every white person that comes through the door makes probation but blacks failed frequently)and retains their employment (several have joined me in the 15-year club). When I started at this division in 1984, there were three blacks, including myself. Now a quarter of the workforce is black. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Xavier Moon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It took a few days after New Orleans flooded for the press to breach the mental levee blocking comments on the victims' race and class. But, once that levee finally broke, it washed away pretty quickly. In a furious rant on Thursday, CNN's Jack Cafferty lashed out at journalists' unwillingness to take on the elephant in the room and complained that almost every person we've seen, from the families stranded on their rooftops ... to the people holed up in the Superdome, are black and poor. Thereafter, the major networks got in on the action, and, by Sunday, a Fox roundtable was debating Condoleezza Rice's concession that we do, I think, at some point, need to see that people couldn't evacuate who were poor ... [and] understand better how to make sure that that doesn't happen again. The good news is that we're about to have a long overdue debate about poverty in this country. The bad news is that most of the commentary so far has focused only on poverty as an economic condition. Cafferty observed that many of [Hurricane Katrina's poor victims] didn't follow the evacuation orders because they didn't have the means to get out of town. Former Senator John Edwards stressed the low rates of car ownership among New Orleans's poor and their need to protect possessions they couldn't afford to replace. That view was echoed among politicians further to his left. There's a whole segment of society that's being left behind, wrote Representative John Lewis in Newsweek. When you tell people to evacuate, these people didn't have any way to leave. Implicit in these arguments is the idea that poor people are pretty much like everyone else, just with less money. From this, it follows that the remedy is primarily financial. Consider Lewis's proposed solution not just for New Orleans but for the problem of urban poverty in general: [I]n rebuilding, we should see this as an opportunity to rebuild urban America. ... There must be a commitment of billions and billions of dollars. But, if anything, the flooding of New Orleans teaches the opposite lesson--that the problem of poverty isn't just economic, it's also sociological. On Monday, The New York Times' Jodi Wilgoren bylined what may be the most important piece of Katrina coverage to date. Wilgoren followed two families struggling to evacuate New Orleans in the flood's aftermath: one white and middle class (though hardly affluent, as Wilgoren notes), the other black and poor. The outcome of the story will surprise no one. The first family quickly found comfortable accommodations in a northern Louisiana hotel, then a semi-permanent home in a nearby town. As of Saturday, the second family was still shuffling from one endless line to another--hungry, unshowered, unsure of its next move. What's fascinating are the ways in which the two families navigated, or failed to navigate, the crisis. The matriarch of the middle-class family, a local court clerk, tapped a cousin to secure a low corporate rate
[scifinoir2] Re: [OT] Looting by Cops in N.O.
Quiet as it is kept, the firemen in New York did quite a bit of looting in the aftermath of 9/11...but they are still heros. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Brent Wodehouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp? vnu_content_id=1001051261 'Times-Picayune' Announces New Home - in Houma - and Reports Looting by Cops and Firemen By EP Staff Published: August 30, 2005 6:25 PM ET NEW YORK The battered Times-Picayune of New Orleans, which evacuated its downtown office this afternoon, posted a simple note to it staffers on its Web site late this afternoon: We are working at the Houma Courier for a few days. If you have news, call 985-850-1182. We plan to set up a longer term newsroom in Baton Rouge. Call the Advocate to find out where we are. Meanwhile, two staffers published a story on one of the Web site's blogs, reporting on the looting in the city - joined in by cops and firemen who had been called to the scene. Other reports, and TV footage, have shown brazen looting at many sites around the city. One compared the current climate in the increasingly desperate city to Sodom and Gomorrah. One looter shot a local police officer, but Tuesday night word came that the officer was expected to survive. At the Times-Picayune Web site, Mike Perlstein and Brian Thevenot wrote that at a Wal-Mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, mass looting broke out after a giveaway of supplies was announced at that location. While some did indeed carry away food and essentials, others cleared out jewelry racks and carted out computers, TVs, and appliances on handtrucks. Some officers joined in taking whatever they could, including one New Orleans cop who loaded a shopping cart with a compact computer and a 27-inch flat screen television. Throughout the store and parking lot, looters pushed carts and loaded trucks and vans alongside officers. One man said police directed him to Wal-Mart from Robert's Grocery, where a similar scene was taking place. A crowd in the electronics section said one officer broke the glass DVD case so people wouldn't cut themselves. The police got all the best stuff. They're crookeder than us, one man said. Most officers, though, simply stood by powerless against the tide of law breakers. One veteran officer said, It's like this everywhere in the city. This tiny number of cops can't do anything about this. It's wide open. Some groups, the reporters wrote, organized themselves into assembly lines to more efficiently cart off goods. Inside the store, one woman was stocking up on make-up. She said she took comfort in watching police load up their own carts. 'It must be legal,' she said. 'The police are here taking stuff, too.' EP Staff ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: FW:August Wilson,American playwright ill
I am saddened to read this. Did Mr. August finish his project of writing a play commemmorating each decade of the past century? ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Tracey de Morsella \(formerly Tracey L. Minor\) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: -Original Message- From: African-Americans in Higher Education [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of RODNEY COATES Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 8:12 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [AFAMHED] fwd: August Wilson,American playwright ill I am so saddened to tell you that great American, descendant of the slaves playwright, August Wilson has been diagnosed with liver cancer and is very ill, but not bedridden. If you know his work or know the man he laughs in the face of truth and finds comfort. I am so glad that I was able to meet him, touch and know him through his wonderful family and his stories. Stories which bind me to myself, my history and to the depth of my own truth. I am thrilled that Imani will be able to grow up to say that it was a Gus Wilson play that made her first thrill to adult theatre and playwright. Gus has chosen to not to seek a curative treatment and in Stage IV . His sister Freda is joining him in Seattle this week and to help him through the many decisions that he has to make. There is more than you can do than go for medical intervention to be treated. I hope that he finds one of these to lift him beyond the illness and provide a quality of life that I am sure he would appreciate and make use of while he is ill. What an American treasure and his writings have been to this country. I am so saddened. His favorite critic and niece is a member of this list and we want Kim to know that we are here for her. The word cancer has such power over a family and a family's love. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/americasbest/pro.awilson.html His poetic plays about African-American life offer plainspoken truths that transcend race You will find that the media will be reporting it in the news on tomorrow. Please join me in prayers for Gus and his family. He has given us so much. His genius and a reminder of what our ancestors gave . . . the hope and the faith of the slave. Tuesday, May 20, 2003 A moment with...playwright August Wilson By JOE ADCOCK SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER August Wilson is arguably America's greatest living playwright. Time magazine has said so and I agree. The man is a sort of industry. He lives in Seattle, but his works are produced all over the world. He is the subject of conferences, lectures, essays and syllabuses. He is even the subject of an e-Bay collectibles niche. Wilson's epics of African American life include two Pulitzer Prize winners, Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990). Each of Wilson's nine major plays chronicles a 20th-century decade as experienced by struggling Pittsburgh ghetto dwellers. His most recent play, Gem of the Ocean, deals with the 1900s. That leaves one more decade to cover, the 1990s. But Wilson, 58, has taken a sudden detour. He has written for himself a solo performance piece, How I Learned What I Learned. It begins production Thursday as part of the Seattle Repertory Theatre's annual new plays series, running through June 2. I talked to Wilson Saturday at the Mecca Cafe, a Lower Queen Anne coffee shop that is smoker-friendly (Wilson is an avid smoker). Why the sudden shift of focus from writing to performing? Sharon Ott (the Rep's artistic director) asked me to do a 45-minute show as part of their 40th anniversary celebration. I said no, but I'll do an hour. At yesterday's rehearsal, I'd talked for 54 minutes and I hadn't even gotten to the first story. The show is made up of eight or nine stories, anecdotes about things that happened to me when I was 20, 21, 22 -- stories I've told 100 times. But they come out different every time. What kind of stories? Like the time I was put in jail for breaking into my own apartment. I hadn't paid my rent. I got home and found a padlock on my door. I talked to a lawyer I knew. I asked him if I could break the lock. He said yes. The landlord has to give 30 days notice. So I broke the lock and went to bed and fell asleep. Next thing I knew two cops were standing over me, 'Get up buddy, you're coming with us.' There was no charge, though. I was acting on advice of counsel. That's a valid out. But in fact the lawyer was wrong. He didn't know that this was a furnished apartment. With a furnished apartment you can't break the lock. Previous performing experience? None. Well, no speaking parts. Non-speaking? That's another story I can use in the show: my first kiss. This was in the seventh grade (of a Pittsburgh Catholic parochial school). Sister Mary Eldephonse hated me. I was one of the best readers in the class. But she gave me a non-speaking part in the Christmas
[scifinoir2] Re: DVD format war escalates as talks fail
If I was a betting man - no, wait, I AM - I would cast my lot with Toshiba. The inferior format always wins. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Brent Wodehouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7886 DVD format war escalates as talks fail 13:10 23 August 2005 NewScientist.com news service Japanese electronics giants said on Tuesday they would go ahead with incompatible formats for next-generation DVDs after talks to reach a common standard failed. The decision presents consumers with a choice much the same as when video cassettes came out in the 1970s. The duelling HD DVD and Blu-ray formats parallel the battle between Betamax and VHS and - a fight which Betamax eventually lost. Next-generation DVDs, expected to hit the mass market late in 2006, are billed as offering cinematic quality images and new possibilities for interactive entertainment. Sony's Blu-ray disc is expected to have a greater storage capacity but also be more expensive to make, at least in the short term, as the format has greater differences from current-generation DVDs. Software schedule Toshiba, maker of the HD DVD (High Density Digital Versatile Disc), said it was still in talks with Blu-ray designer Sony to find a common format but in the absence of an agreement it was going to push ahead with production of its own format. [We are] planning to launch our first HD DVD products by the end of 2006. To do that, we have to start production of software for it by the end of August, a Toshiba spokeswoman said. We have not set a time limit for the talks on a common standard, she added, but we have not reached any concrete agreement yet. A Sony spokesman said future negotiations would be held if there was an opportunity for it. But the Sony spokesman was bullish about Blu-ray becoming the single standard. He said: We have focused on improving our format with many technological breakthroughs. It is desirable that the market has a single format for the next-generation DVD. So Blu-ray has improved itself so that all firms will support the format. Multi-functional hardware After three years of fighting, the two sides agreed in April to study compatibility to prevent a scenario in which future Sony discs do not work on Toshiba players, or vice versa. But even if consumers have headaches when next-generation DVDs first hit mainstream stores, analysts note that the electronics industry has become more sophisticated since VHS and Betamax. In the digital era, it is easier for hardware to become multi- functional. It is different from the analogue period, like with video formats, said Osamu Hirose, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center. The difference between the two formats are things such as pickups and laser wavelength. Eventually, multi-functional DVD players should be able to overcome the difference. Consumers will only have to wait a little until that time comes, he said. Some electronics firms, including Paris-based Thomson, have said they would support both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. Supporters of the Blu-ray technology include Apple Computer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Samsung Electronics. Among the Hollywood studios, Walt Disney and Sony Pictures Entertainment back Blu-ray, while HD DVD supporters include Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers Studios. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: Brock Peters, Sisko's 'Father', Dies at 78
Now, see, this is what EYE am talkin' about! So far this (SFN) is the only source that has mentioned Peters stint as Sisko's father. Thanks Brent! ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Brent Wodehouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-08-23-peters-obit_x.htm Brock Peters, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' actor, dies at 78 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] 'Terminator 2' Shape-Shifting Lawsuit Moves Forward
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1507676/story.jhtml According to a claim by two Australian filmmakers, the shape-shifting T-1000 featured in Terminator 2: Judgment Day was based on a character they'd invented for an earlier movie. After years of legal battles, a federal appeals court in Los Angeles ruled Monday that the couple's lawsuit against Terminator 2 co-writer and director James Cameron can proceed. Filia and Constantinos Kourtis' lawsuit maintains that the idea for the T-1000 portrayed in the movie by actor Robert Patrick was lifted from a screenplay they'd commissioned back in 1987 for their film The Minotaur, The Associated Press reports. The Kourtises hired scribe William Green to pen the screenplay for The Minotaur, according to the suit, which also alleges that Green shared the script with Cameron. Green claims he owned the screenplay's copyright, and subsequently sued Cameron for copyright infringement years after the theatrical release of T2, the AP reports. That suit was later dismissed, and was followed in 1998 by a suit against Green filed by the Kourtises. An Australian court found for the couple, designating the Kourtises as the script's rightful owners. Not long after, the couple focused their claim on Cameron, filing a suit seeking attribution and compensation for the unlawful use of their form-changing concept. That suit was eventually dismissed on the grounds that William Green's earlier action barred them from filing their own action against the director. That decision was appealed, and this week, the Kourtises came one step closer to their day in court. A panel of judges ruled that the couple's lack of involvement in the initial suit brought by Green had no bearing on their case, and that the action should go forward. The AP was unable to reach Cameron's production company for comment on the court's decision. Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, interviews, trailers and more. Chris Harris Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- font face=arial size=-1a href=http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hdp6lrn/M=362335.6886444.7839734.2575449/D=groups/S=1705034827:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1124501825/A=2894362/R=0/SIG=138c78jl6/*http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/arts_culture/?source=YAHOOcmpgn=GRPRTP=http://groups.yahoo.com/;What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater?Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good/a./font ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Today on the World Ebon
Lisimba 20, 10031 Believing himself divinely inspired, visionary Nat Turner will found the band Southampton Insurrection. He will be best known for the song Sixteen Hanged from the band's debut album Chosen by God. His voice and charisma will turn the raid sound into an international rage. __ The Black Prince. The Black Church. A State of Mind. http://www.theworldebon.com Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- font face=arial size=-1a href=http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12htddi75/M=362335.6886444.7839734.2575449/D=groups/S=1705034827:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123828013/A=2894362/R=0/SIG=138c78jl6/*http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/arts_culture/?source=YAHOOcmpgn=GRPRTP=http://groups.yahoo.com/;What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater?Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good/a./font ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: For Fans of Marvel Comics Art from the 60s and 70s
An added bonus from the site: (most of the artists featured have websites) links! Here's something for you DC lovers: http://www.bobhall.com/framesetpages/1artwork/comicsportfolioframeset.html --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Kewl! _ The Black Prince. The Black Church. A State of Mind. http://www.theworldebon.com Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- font face=arial size=-1a href=http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hg2a9gq/M=362335.6886444.7839734.2575449/D=groups/S=1705034827:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1122694830/A=2894362/R=0/SIG=138c78jl6/*http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/arts_culture/?source=YAHOOcmpgn=GRPRTP=http://groups.yahoo.com/;What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater?Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good/a./font ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] For Fans of Marvel Comics Art from the 60s and 70s
http://www.twoinone76.com/ If you grew up on the great Marvel comics of the sixties and seventies like I did this is the site for you! Check out the commissioned art. ~rave! ___ The Black Prince. The Black Church. A State of Mind. http://www.theworldebon.com Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- font face=arial size=-1a href=http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12h3p1kt8/M=362335.6886444.7839734.2575449/D=groups/S=1705034827:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1122618090/A=2894362/R=0/SIG=138c78jl6/*http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/arts_culture/?source=YAHOOcmpgn=GRPRTP=http://groups.yahoo.com/;What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater?Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good/a./font ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: FW: Harry Potter and race
Novelist and professor Carolivia Herron (Thereafter Johnny, Nappy Hair)responds: Never underestimate the power of editors and of USAmerican culture. The British edition of the first couple of volumes didn't mention black students as black, simply described hair (braids and dreads), but the USAmerican editions did. Now both the Brit and USA editions mention blacks equally. I assumed it was the influence of the American editor who probably requested that at least a token number of people of color be clearly identified in the American edition. I refer to Rowling's ways of mentioning black folks in my course on Children's Lit at Hollins University. --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Tracey de Morsella \(formerly Tracey L. Minor\) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: -Original Message- Harry Potter and race http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=58aid=85445 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.9.1/51 - Release Date: 7/18/2005 Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] OT: The Ten Worst States in the US to be Black
Once again, my home state Wisconsin is number one! ~(no)rave! http://www.blackcommentator.com/146/146_cover_dixon_ten_worst.html The pervasive corporate media bubble, which grossly distorts the views most Americans have of the world beyond their shores, and of life in America's black one-eighth, operates to fool African Americans, too. While a fortunate few of us are doing very well indeed, and many more are hanging on as best we can, the conditions of life for a substantial chunk of black America are not substantially improving, and appear to be getting much worse. This is a truth which can't be found anywhere in the corporate media, but it is nevertheless one with which we must familiarize ourselves in preparation for the upcoming national black dialogue. It is high time to begin constructing useful indices with which to measure the quality of life, not just for a fortunate few, but for the broad masses of our people in America's black one-eighth. Measuring the quality of life in black America Painting an accurate picture is not difficult. Useful measures of family income and cohesiveness, of home ownership, life expectancy, education levels, of unemployment and underemployment abound. But among all the relevant data on the state of black America today one factor stands out: the growth of America's public policy of racially selective policing, prosecution, and mass imprisonment of its black citizens over the past 30 years. The operation of the crime control industry has left a distinctive, multidimensional and devastating mark on the lives of millions of black families and on the economic and social fabric of the communities in which they live. About half the nation's 2.2 million prisoners are black. With only 36 million of us, that's an astounding 3% of African Americans, counting all ages and both sexes, languishing behind bars, with a roughly equal number on probation, parole, house arrest or other court supervision. Almost one in three 18-year-old black males across the board is likely to catch a felony conviction, and in some communities nearly half the black male workforce under 40 have criminal records. A felony conviction in America is a stunningly accurate predictor of a life of insecure employment at poverty-level wages and no health care, of fragile family ties, of low educational attainment and limited or no civic participation, and a strong likelihood of re-imprisonment. Each month, tens of thousands of jobless, skill-less, stigmatized and often anti-socialized ex- prisoners are released back into communities that lack job and educational opportunities, where intact families are more the exception than the rule, and where upward social mobility is a myth. Clearly, more than any other single public policy, the day to day operation of America's crime control industry magnifies and exacerbates racial inequality, deepens black poverty, and wreaks widespread destabilization on black families and communities. Among the many scholars and researchers who have persuasively argued and extensively documented these conditions is Dr. Paul Street of the Chicago Urban League in The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs and Community in Chicago, Illinois and the Nation. So if you want to know where black families fare the worst, where the lowest wages and life expectancy are, where to find the highest unemployment and the greatest number of single parent households among African Americans, you don't need an online survey. You certainly don't count the black businesses or the black elected officials. You count the black prisoners, and the former prisoners, and the ruined communities they come from and are discharged into. That's what BC did, and here are the results. The Ten Worst States in the US to be Black Wisconsin leads the nation in the percentage of its black inhabitants under lock and key. Just over four percent of black Wisconsin, including the very old and the very young of both sexes, are behind bars. Most of the state's African Americans reside in the Milwaukee area, and most of its black prisoners are drawn from just a handful of poor and economically deprived black communities where jobs, intact families and educational opportunities are the most scarce, and paroled back into those same neighborhoods. So Wisconsin, and in particular the Milwaukee area justly merit the invidious distinction of the Worst Place in the Nation to be Black. Iowa, with only a small black population, is not far behind. The crime control industries in Wisconsin and Iowa seem to have learned to make the most efficient use of the preferred human material available to them, locking up the few black inhabitants of those states at a rate 11.6 times higher than whites. Texas, the nation's second largest state, is the third worst place to be black in America, and is in a class by itself, first because its extraordinary rate of black
[scifinoir2] INTERVIEW: Director Tim Story Marvel exec Avi Arad on Fantastic Four
http://www.cinecon.com/news.php?id=0507083 INTERVIEW: Director Tim Story Marvel exec Avi Arad on Fantastic Four POSTED ON 07/08/05 AT 9:00 A.M. BY ETHAN AAMES Director Tim Story, above By Jenny Halper in New York City Last October in Vancouver, I took a peak at the stunning sets and breathtaking effects Fox was preparing for the The Fantastic Four. This Tuesday, I got a chance to see Tim Story's rockin' vision on the big screen. Under the exuberant direction of Barbershop's Story, an eclectic cast including Jessica Alba (Sue Storm), Ioan Gruffudd (Reed Richards), Chris Evans (Johnny Storm), Julian McMahon (Victor Von Doom), Michael Chiklis (Ben Grimm), and Kerry Washington (Alicia Masters) bring Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's beloved comic to thrill- filled life. Check out this interview with Story and seasoned producer Avi Arad, the brain behind blockbusters like Spiderman, X- Men, and Blade. Q: This movie is opening up the week after War of the Worlds TIM: I'm just happy about the movie coming out. When it comes to thinking about the competition, it's a crowded summer and I don't think you can guess what's going to happen. I'm just happy in what's going on with the job Fox has done. It's everywhere. I think we have a family movie that is light and fun, it's a popcorn movie. You can sit back and have a good time, and I think the summer's been looking forward to something like our movie. Hopefully we get blessed with an audience. AVI: I feel this is quite different from early in the summer. Most of the movies were on the dark side, Fantastic Four is traditionally no secret identity, more of a dysfunctional family, action/comedy adventure. I think our audiences are going to be, on the top end, similar- young men, young women. And on the low end we have a hidden treasure, which is the kids. This movie is designed for everybody. It's a family movie. I think Tim put in a lot of fun, comedy and heart. Not on the intense end of it, but in the way Fantastic Four is supposed to be- loving, with sibling rivalry kind of comedy. Q: Tim, what was the journey like from being a rapper to this? TIM: Coming from music and that I started with film when I was young, at age 12. Music was, when I was young in my neighborhood, you either danced or rapped. So I was a rapper for a while. But after high school it came down to picking one or the other and film is the only medium where you use everything you use music, you use art, you use drama, you use it all. I knew at an early point that I wanted to do this and as a teenager drifted back to it, and fell in love. Q: Avi, what qualities did Tim have that made him good for the job? AVI: My Tim Story journey started with my wife and I going to see Barbershop. Barbershop you'll remember is ten characters in one room for two hours. A lot of story and a lot of terrific acting. For Fantastic Four we needed someone with a good heart, a light hand and a sense of comedy that can handle a group. It's very difficult. You can follow one character, but this one is five characters six characters in a way. In a very short period of time the film has to introduce to the world, to the uninitiated, the Fantastic Four, who they are and what their destiny is. And then we met with Tim and we really believe that directors put themselves on the screen in many ways. This movie is about good hearts and you have to be light with the problems, you have to accept your destiny and he just loved it. Then he did one last thing that was the perfect end of the story- he had to go home to talk to his wife about it! He was actually expecting a baby. He had to figure out, on one hand it's an opportunity of a lifetime, especially for someone who always loved the Fantastic Four. At the same time it's about family, so When he left and said he had to talk to his wife, we knew we had the right guy. Q: Tim, the younger generation might think that this film is a rip off of The Incredibles, but it's the other way around. How would you explain that to them? TIM: I would just explain to them that the origin. I would say let me show you a comic book that started 40 plus years ago, and check this out. The Incredibles was made in the last five years. I think it's pretty simple. I have a niece and nephew I had to educate as well. I gave them these comic books and now they're into them, so they almost know more than I do now. But just to see the education of them they loved The Incredibles and at the time I was doing the movie they didn't know what I was doing. They knew Uncle Tim was doing another movie, but when I explained to them what this was, they got it. It's as simple as that. This is the origin of pretty much modern comic books. This is where it started, with this magazine. It's as simple as that. Q: Tim, what kind of pressures did you feel directing such a high profile film based on one of Marvel's flagship comics? TIM: You're
[scifinoir2] Audio interview with Tim Story
http://www.kcrw.com/show/tt Film critic Elvis Mitchell interviews director Tim Story. Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Imaro Lives! (Forwarded letter from Charles Saunders)
Charles Saunders is the author of the legendary Imaro 'sword and sorcery novels. It is great stuff featuring a black hero and it was written over thirty years ago. ~rave! [EMAIL PROTECTED] OH JOY! I AM SO THRILLED TO BE FORWARDING THIS MESSAGE! WOOHOO! YIPPEE! Ecstatic Amy Dear Amy I guess it is a real shock to be hearing from me, after all this time. I've been working away, writing various things, not having much luck beyond getting another Dossouye story published in the second DARK MATTER anthology. Now, I have some news for you. Imaro is coming back! Night Shade Books will be publishing a revised version of the first Imaro novel in hardcover in February 2006! The revision consists of a new novella I wrote to replace Slaves of the Giant-Kings. Giant-Kings, as I may have told you before, made me uncomfortable because it turned out to be too close to the reality of the Rwanda genocide. For that reason, I didn't want to bring Imaro back, as I couldn't figure out a way to get around that problem. Finally, I did. The new story has Imaro meeting Tanisha under completely different circumstances. This affects subsequent events, so there will be other changes. Night Shade will publish the other two previously published Imaro novels, which I am in the process of revising, along with the unpublished fourth one I told you about, and the fifth one. That means that eventually, the entire Imaro saga will be in print. If you could spread the word on the new SciFiNoir group, I would appreciate it. I was shocked when Yahoo shut it down, but I see that it is back in a different form. I've tried to resubscribe, but I've had trouble doing it. Like I said, I've been out of touch for a long time too long. But, what better news could I have now? If anyone in the group wants to ask me further questions about Imaro, my e-mail address is still the same: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I hope all is going well with you. Charles Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Fantastic Four Movie Review by Kevin Carr
The bottom line is that I loved Fantastic Four. It was great fun. There was nothing about it that I could point to and say, Well, that was stupid, and considering the atomic wasteland of superhero properties that have been committed to film, that's saying a lot. ~Fantastic Four Movie Review by Kevin Carr http://www.7mpictures.com/inside/reviews/fantasticfour_review.htm With all the Marvel comic book properties being made into movies nowadays, I find myself sounding like a broken record. I'm constantly explaining (and ultimately apologizing) that I never collected Marvel comics as a kid. I just don't have the knowledge of the Marvel universe that I do for DC. Because of this, most of my knowledge of the Fantastic Four comes from the cartoons. I've watched the old show on Boomerang reruns with my kids, and I recently got the mid-90s animated series on DVD. So, I'm not coming to the new Fantastic Four movie completely ignorant. Considering my background, I find this new film to be actually quite true to the spirit of the characters. Sure, the characters are a bit two-dimensional, but that's how I've always remembered them to be. Reed Richards is a science geek. Johnny Storm is the ladies man. Ben Grimm always settles things with his fists. And Sue Storm is the mediator. This new Fantastic Four film locks the actors into these roles, and while they are full of cliches, it just seems to work. Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards and Chris Evans as Johnny Storm are spot on. Already, people are talking a lot of trash about Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, and I'll admit that it's a bit hard to swallow her as a brilliant scientist. But she actually holds her own in this film. She's not that bad, and she's easy on the eyes. I'd take Jessica Alba over Katie Holmes any day. In Fantastic Four, Alba just delivers her lines and gets out. However, Holmes projected a level of pretension in Batman Begins that was utterly uncalled for. At least Alba seems to have her own career in check and is content to just be the eye candy that she is. But the real acting kudos goes to Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm, aka The Thing. Throughout the cartoon, it's always been a theme that The Thing is the one member of the team who sacrifices the most. After all, he's permanently deformed where the other three can turn their powers on and off. Chiklis brings a level of empathy and understanding to the character that is critical to making things work. And the fact that he can act through all that make-up shows his strengths. Say what you want about the cast, but it was appropriate at the very least. There's no insanely stupid casting choices, like Richard Pryor as a super villain. I bought everything that was offered in this version of Fantastic Four. The real treat in the film is Julian McMahon as Victor Von Doom, aka Doctor Doom. Sure, the comic book purists are going to have a fit over the way this character was changed from the books. However, I liked this new version so much better. In the past, Doctor Doom was nothing more than a Lex Luthor in a steel mask. Here, he's actually got super powers, and this makes him a much more worthy adversary to the Fantastic Four. But ultimately, the movie isn't about the Fantastic Four fighting Doctor Doom. Instead, it's a story about four normal people who wake up one day with super powers - and how they deal with this in their daily lives. Their situations are sometimes humorous, and even mundane and silly. But it's what you might expect to go through if you had to deal with powers like these. Another interesting facet to the whole Fantastic Four story is that these heroes don't have secret identities. With the exception of mystical beings like Swamp Thing and the Silver Surfer, I can't think of any major superhero who doesn't have a secret identity. In some ways, this makes the Fantastic Four more intriguing of a story because they live their entire lives as the heroes. The bottom line is that I loved Fantastic Four. It was great fun. There was nothing about it that I could point to and say, Well, that was stupid, and considering the atomic wasteland of superhero properties that have been committed to film, that's saying a lot. The movie is more campy than what we've seen in the past, but for me, that was part of its charm. It just took me back to Saturday mornings as a kid. And, it's the first comic book movie that has actually made me curious about reading the original comics. _ The Black Prince. The Black Church. A State of Mind. http://www.theworldebon.com Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: O.T.:Princely Daddy, don't you walk so fast (Prince Albert's African love child)
My favorite part of the article is the following exchange: A statement from the prince's lawyer notes that the child, Eric Alexandre Stephane (known as Alexandre) will have the same inheritance rights as other children of the prince, should he have other children. EXCEPT he won't have the Grimaldi name, won't be in line for the throne and won't be a prince - which, aside from the money, is probably the coolest part of being the son of a prince. Well, yah! Except for the name, being in line for the throne and being a prince he will be treated EXACTLY as the other children of the prince (should he have other children). What will be REALLY interesting is if Prince Albert has no other children. Under Monaco's succession rules, Albert's eldest son would be first in line to take the throne upon his death, though it is not clear whether young Alexandre would have that right if the prince refused to marry his mother. Under the terms of a treaty imposed by the French government in 1918, the 700-year-old Grimaldi dynasty would have died out and Monaco would have become French territory if Prince Albert came to the throne and died without an heir. The change to the previous rule of primogeniture was slipped through the Monaco parliament in 2002. It will allow one of Prince Rainier's daughters, Caroline and Stephanie, to inherit the throne from Albert, 43, if he remains childless. Their children would also be in line of succession. Princess Caroline, 45, has two sons, Andrea, 17, and Pierre, 14, and two daughters, Charlotte, 15, and Alexandra, two. Princess Stephanie, 37, has one son and two daughters: Louis, nine, Pauline, eight, and three- year-old Camille. Under the old constitution, the succession was limited to a ruling monarch's children: so if Albert were to die before his father, the title would have passed to one of the princesses. But if Albert became sovereign and were to die without issue, his sisters and their children would not have been eligible to inherit. Monaco's succession laws in were changed in 2002, about the time of the baby's birth, to restrict the crown to legitmate heirs. Coste, who is from Togo, said she had met Albert on a flight from Nice to Paris, and that he asked for her phone number and eventually invited her to Monaco, where they spent a weekend together. She said that she fell in love with him and that weekend liaisons became a regular occurrence in an affair that lasted for years until Albert's father intervened. Their relationship grew distant after that, with the exception of the night they celebrated her 31st birthday together, which resulted in Alexandre's conception, she said. Coste, who is not married and has two older sons, told Paris-Match that Albert initially encouraged her to keep the child, promising to support it, but later changed his mind, concerned that a son born to a woman who was not his wife could complicate his succession to the throne. After the birth, Coste said, technicians were sent by Albert's lawyers to collect DNA samples from the child to confirm that Albert was the father, and when Alexandre was 2½ months old, he visited the child. She told the magazine that the prince had since agreed to pay her an undisclosed sum every three months to support her son. Coste said she was living in Albert's Paris apartment, but planning to move to the French Riviera, so that Alexandre would be closer to his father. I didn't want him to grow up like Mazarine, Coste told Paris-Match, referring to the daughter born to the mistress of the former president of France, François Mitterrand, who died in 1996. Mazarine Pingeot's existence was not revealed to the public until near the end of his life, and Paris-Match was the magazine to deliver that news, too. Coste said that she had threatened Albert with a lawsuit if he did not acknowledge that the child was his, and as a result, in December 2003, he signed a notarized document acknowledging paternity on the condition that he not be registered as the father until after Rainier's death. She said she had not been given a copy of the document. According to the interview, Albert last visited the child in February. She said that since Rainier's death she has asked that Albert register as Alexandre's father. She said she was going public to encourage him to do so. I'm appealing to his heart, and I think he'll understand the interest of his son, she told the magazine. PARIS The line of succession to Monaco's throne, which passed last month to Prince Albert II, the bachelor son of Prince Rainier, took a new twist this week with claims by a former flight attendant that she bore Albert a son in August 2003. The woman, Nicole Coste, went public with her claim on the cover of Paris-Match, the French picture magazine, this week. The magazine published a lengthy interview with the mother, together with photographs of Albert playing
[scifinoir2] Libertarians flying high over heroic businessman Batman
http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/jul05/339309.asp Libertarians flying high over heroic businessman Batman By ANN HORNADAY Washington Post Posted: July 8, 2005 Holy smaller government and lower taxes, Batman! Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan's brooding comic-book blockbuster, has been embraced by its fans for many things: Nolan's dark, shadowy aesthetic, the detail with which he has teased out Batman's mythic origins, and Christian Bale's credible performance as the psychologically complex billionaire-turned-Dark-Knight. But Batman Begins also has become something of a cult hit among fans of free markets, individualism and Ayn Rand, among other things. A cursory Google search with the terms Batman Begins and capitalism turns up a blogosphere love-fest, with conservative and especially libertarian commentators praising the film's pro-business, anti-statist themes. The film explores how Bruce Wayne, an otherwise mild-mannered heir to a billion-dollar fortune, became Gotham City's Caped Crusader, representing his good-hearted parents as paragons of noblesse oblige, who use their wealth to build a high-tech monorail system for Gotham, among other civic projects. When the Waynes are murdered in front of their young son and their killer is sent not to prison but to a psychiatric hospital, Bruce goes away for seven years, trains as a vigilante and returns to Gotham - now a cesspool of criminal and governmental corruption - to mete out justice. Along the way, he stages a hostile takeover of the publicly traded Wayne Enterprises, puts a dent in an evil mental health system, proves that individual initiative and guts are more effective than entrenched bureaucracies - in this case, Gotham's compromised police department - and, perhaps most notably, turns the typical Hollywood trope of rich-businessman-as-villain on its head. David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, saw Batman Begins recently at the encouragement of a friend at the Objectivist Center, which according to its Web site (www.objectivistcenter.org) champions reason, individualism, freedom and achievement. Boaz was happily struck by the fact that the hero was a businessman, he says, but I think what was more interesting . . . is that the movie takes a strong stand that some things are evil, some people are evil. Crime is bad. And criminals need to be punished, not to be understood and coddled and let out of jail for more therapy. Boaz says he was gratified as well to see a heroic portrayal of individualism and the idea that it's up to each person to take a stand and (that) each person has his own talents, abilities and opportunities. Bruce Wayne, because of his money and training, has more talent and opportunities to do these things than most of us, but it's made clear that it's important for everybody to take a stand. Although Hollywood often takes the rap for touting reflexively left-wing pieties, Boaz says the ideas that run through Batman Begins actually aren't that rare at the multiplex or on TV. He cites such hits as The Aviator, with its multimillionaire hero, The Incredibles, with its sly critiques of egalitarianism (If everybody's special, then nobody is) and the gleefully libertarian South Park as only the most recent examples. America is basically a libertarian country, Boaz says, so Americans are going to put libertarian themes into the art they create, and sometimes it's more explicit and sometimes it's less so. But it's not a big surprise to see individualism, anti-totalitarianism and fighting for freedom and social tolerance showing up in American art. Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] O.T.:Princely Daddy, don't you walk so fast (Prince Albert's African love child)
http://www.jsonline.com/enter/gen/jul05/339128.asp Princely Daddy, don't you walk so fast By JAN UEBELHERR [EMAIL PROTECTED] Last Updated: July 7, 2005 Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than Princess Stephanie marrying a circus acrobat or Princess Caroline losing all her hair for unknown reasons comes word that Prince Albert of Monaco has been a busy bachelor. He has not just been sitting around posing for paintings while his sisters kick up their heels. Yow! It's a safe bet that he does indeed look back with dismay at all the chatter about him fathering a son, now nearly 2, with an Air France flight attendant from Togo. (That's right, Togo.) Paris Match ran photos of the prince cuddling a baby boy with curly hair. Albert won an invasion of privacy suit. The magazine is appealing. Well, it turns out it's all true, the child is his - but that's about all you'll get from the palace in sunny Monaco. One news report has it that Albert always intended to accept his responsibilities but regretted that news of the child's existence broke just days after the death on April 6 of his father, Prince Rainier III. In another regrettable display of timing, a statement from the prince on Thursday came one day after the official mourning period for Rainier ended and just five days before Albert's coronation, according to Hello Magazine. A statement from the prince's lawyer notes that the child, Eric Alexandre Stephane (known as Alexandre) will have the same inheritance rights as other children of the prince, should he have other children. Notable exceptions to his standing in the Grimaldi clan include that he won't have the Grimaldi name, won't be in line for the throne and won't be a prince - which, aside from the money, is probably the coolest part of being the son of a prince. The child's mother, Nicole Coste, told Paris Match that she had come forward so that her son can grow up like a normal child with a father. Yeah, that'll happen. Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Mexicans Flock to Buy Stamp Criticized in U.S.
Manelick de la Parra, son of Memin Pinguin's creator and editor of the comic, said the criticism was due to ignorance. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/AR2005070101967.html?nav=rss_world Mexicans Flock to Buy Stamp Criticized in U.S. Reuters Saturday, July 2, 2005; Page A26 MEXICO CITY, July 1 -- Crowds of Mexicans lined up at post offices Friday to buy a new set of stamps featuring a 1940s black comic-book hero whose stereotypical looks and antics have been called racist in the United States. About 400 people, from comic fans to Mexicans simply wanting to defy the White House, descended on Mexico City's main post office. News reports said one person bought 4,000 stamps of Memin Pinguin, a mischievous black boy whose thick lips, flat nose and monkey-like antics have offended U.S. civil rights groups. Free E-mail Newsletters * Today's Headlines Columnists See a Sample | Sign Up Now * Breaking News Alerts See a Sample | Sign Up Now Meanwhile President Vicente Fox said he was baffled by the indignant reaction and refused to consider withdrawing the stamp from circulation. Frankly, I don't understand the reaction, Fox told the Associated Press. He said Memin Pinguin is an image in a comic that I have known since infancy. He said all Mexicans love the character, and we're going to keep it where it is as a recognition. Coming after a tactless remark about blacks by Fox, the stamps have sparked a fresh controversy over what the Washington sees as Mexico's blase attitude toward racism. The White House said the stamps were offensive and had no place in today's world. Jesse L. Jackson, the civil rights leader, wants them pulled from circulation. Critics said Memin Pinguin, like many comics of the time, reflected views of blacks as lazy and mischievous. But in Mexico, where there are few blacks and millions grew up reading about the escapades of the hapless Memin Pinguin, fans rejected the criticism and snapped up the stamps. We are not racists. We are not offending anyone. He is a very sweet character, said Teresa Montalvo, who bought three sets of the stamps for herself and her children. People's color is all the same to us. We are all brothers. The Mexican post office has issued 750,000 of the stamps and is selling about 6,000 a day. Some branches opened early Friday to cope with the demand from collectors and die-hard fans of the comic character. Normally when I come here to buy stamps there's hardly anyone here. Today you need two hours, said Roberto Casillas, in line at the central post office. The stamps, priced at 32 pesos ($2.98)for a set of five, have been bid as high as $200 on eBay amid a flurry of offers by collectors as the polemic mounts. Manelick de la Parra, son of Memin Pinguin's creator and editor of the comic, said the criticism was due to ignorance. I am relaxed because I know I drew him without intending to offend anyone, said Memin cartoonist Sixto Valencia. The stamps landed at a sensitive time, however, a month after Fox angered civil rights groups by saying Mexicans in the United States do jobs that not even blacks want to do. Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: War of the Worlds-Has Cruise's Meltdown Affected Whether You Will Go See It
Now I am confused. Despite Tom's Hollywood image he, like Michael Jackson, seems to suffer from aggravated Peter Pan syndrome. As for Alba's business people being involved - of course they were if the rumors of Katie Holmes being promised $5 million if she and Tom's platonic relationship lasts five years are true. I also enter into evidence that Nicole Kidman has been hopping around like a bunny in heat since her split from Tommy (see fling with Lenny Kravitz). Lastly, while Penelope Cruz and Matthew McCounaughey look like they actually do it, Penelope Cruz and Thomas C. Mapother IV did not. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm missing something. When you mention Alba's camp, are you talking about the group around her that takes care of her business life? What would they have to do with her dating Cruise? Or are you saying her loved ones put the kibosh on their relationship? What does that comment from rogers mean? -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kelly Wright Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 21:18 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: War of the Worlds-Has Cruise's Meltdown Affected Whether You Will Go See It The Hollywood scuttlebutt is that Tom wanted Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johanssen prior to settling Holmes. He wanted Jessica to raise his virility profile (she is young, hot, yet sill considered nice)but the Alba camp gave him the cold shoulder. Allegedly Johanssen balked at the Scientology clause in the relationship. Frankly, I think Tommy has been trading down since he divorced Mimi Rogers (my favorite comment of hers regarding their marraige: I needed my instrument tuned and he didn't). ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 6/28/05 9:28:58 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Meltdown? Schmeltdown. I am puzzled how Tom Cruise feels Katie Holmes is an upgrade over Nicole Kidman. The dude has lost his mind! LOL! On this I whole heartedly agree. :) To me this is a downgrade. -GTW [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] _ YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS * Visit your group scifinoir2 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2 on the web. * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ . _ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: War of the Worlds-Has Cruise's Meltdown Affected Whether You Will Go See It
The Hollywood scuttlebutt is that Tom wanted Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johanssen prior to settling Holmes. He wanted Jessica to raise his virility profile (she is young, hot, yet sill considered nice)but the Alba camp gave him the cold shoulder. Allegedly Johanssen balked at the Scientology clause in the relationship. Frankly, I think Tommy has been trading down since he divorced Mimi Rogers (my favorite comment of hers regarding their marraige: I needed my instrument tuned and he didn't). ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 6/28/05 9:28:58 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Meltdown? Schmeltdown. I am puzzled how Tom Cruise feels Katie Holmes is an upgrade over Nicole Kidman. The dude has lost his mind! LOL! On this I whole heartedly agree. :) To me this is a downgrade. -GTW [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: Black holocaust museum
--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Carole McDonnell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.exodusnews.com/HISTORY/History008.htm I live in Milwaukee and have met Mr. Cameron (we used to frequent the same barbershop). Although there has been some consternation about the museum appropriating the word Holocaust from some, the community here has largely embraced Mr. Cameron's brainchild. There is even a sign on the expressway proudly announcing the exit ramp to the Mr. Cameron's Museum. ~rave! _ The Black Prince. The Black Church. A State of Mind. http://www.theworldebon.com Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: OT: She Hate Me
What annoys me most about the negative reviews She Hate Me received is the notion Spike made the movie he made because he didn't know any better, as if he were novice Matty Rich mucking up The Inkwell. Spike has made eighteen movies including one that may be one of the one hundred best movies ever made (Do the Right Thing). It is true that Spike also made Girl 6, but even Spike's misses are well-considered and well-constructed. Spike is a classicist, a university educated filmmaker who is well versed in his cinematic antecedents. IMHO many of the reviews were dismissive and condescending, surprisingly so given Spike's porfolio and reputation. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Great review. Makes me want to rent the movie. The critics in the main excoriated it.. -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kelly Wright Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 18:12 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] OT: She Hate Me Check out my review of Spike Lee's controversial eighteenth movie, She Hate Me at: http://www.theworldebon.com/home.htm __ The Black Prince. The Black Church. A State of Mind. http://www.theworldebon.com _ Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ . [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: Johansson Quit MI3 Because Cruise Tried To Convert Her
Bowfinger is hilarious and their savage lampooning of Scientology is scathing! Murphy's Kip Ramsey is a thinly veiled Cruise-like action hero. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, James Landrith [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I can't look at Cruise anymore without thinking about Eddie Murphy's character Kit and Mindhead from Bowfinger. ___ James Landrith cell: 703-593-2065 * fax: 760-875-8547 AIM: jlnales * ICQ: 148600159 Yahoo!: jlandrith * MSN: jlandrith http://multiracial.com http://jameslandrith.com http://jameslandrith.com/wordpress/ .. Original Message ... On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:23:39 -0400 Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: As for the Scientology thing, they must have zapped Cruise with more of that electricity testing/cleansing regimen they have, as he's been acting straight crazy recently! Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: Batman and sobbin' - Cape and Scowl
There is a great interview with Christopher Nolen (conducted by former NY Times Film Critic Elvis Mitchell) at the following link: http://www.kcrw.com/show/tt There is an excellent interview with Frank Miller regarding Sin City at the same site. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Tracey de Morsella \(formerly Tracey L. Minor\) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Note: From the moderator, please do not beat up the messenger. Cape and Scowl Batman and sobbin': Orphan grief and existential questions in a grim franchise retake by Michael Atkinson Since Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever (1995) and Batman Robin (1997) devolved an already campy superhero franchise into a sub-Vegas monster's ball, it seems fitting that Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins is fastidiously grim. That is, it strives to take post-teen sturm und drang seriously, just as it must accept Tim Burton's expressionistic cityscapes as ordained. The promise of the comic book, in both its original Bob Kane incarnation and Dark Knight resurrection, was of existentialist hyper-noir with a Fritz Langian remorselessness, and Nolan aims for the dark heart, drenching the movie in orphan grief and questioning the fascist pathology of vigilante violence. In the movie's bid for solemnity, even Jung is explicitly invoked, but Nolan and his co-screenwriter David Goyer can only press the big buttons so hard?it's still an old-school superhero summer movie, the plotting tortuous, the characters relegated to one-scene-one-emotion simplicity, the digitized action a never ending club mix of chases and mano a manos. As the title sez, we start at the beginning (again), when Bruce Wayne is but the wee scion of billionaire parents?who, the film struggles to insist, are not in the least responsible for the rampaging poverty and social decay of Gotham City. (The subway that Linus Roache's Dr. Wayne built is seen as an act of beneficence, to help the poor get to the jobs they presumably don't have since they're all junkies and petty crooks.) Indeed, the screenplay performs ludicrous contortions trying to conform the fact of Batman's bottomless wealth to the urban blight he conscientiously battles at night. After his parents are gunned down by a mugger, Bruce grows up to be Christian Bale, broods, rejects the rich-boy lifestyle, and ends up in a Chinese prison, where he is salvaged by Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) and Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), the leaders of the League of Shadows, a ninja army dedicated to restoring balance to suffering civilizations via spare-no-collateral intervention. Laboriously trained, Wayne returns home determined to bring justice to the streets. The how is where Nolan and Goyer have focused their energies, providing explanations for every aspect of Batman's regalia, down to the cape (just like his father's tux jacket, placed over the boy's shoulders at the crime scene). Since his ninja training required him to Conquer your fear! Wayne's childhood phobia of bats becomes his chief criminal- terrorizing guise. (Fears need to be confronted, combated, and wrestled into submission, we're told ad infinitum, but all I could muster was the fear of a Dolby-bludgeoned tympanic cavity.) Soon, a chemical plot to destroy the city arises out of the busi-ness relationship between a mobster (Tom Wilkinson) and an effete psychiatrist (Cillian Murphy), proprietor of Arkham Asylum. Stuck in a glower groove, Bale acts only insofar as the context and the equipment will let him; the movie's tidbits of bemused humanity are the sole responsibility of Morgan Freeman, as a Wayne Industries techie, and Michael Caine, as Alfred. Scrambling villains and motivations from three decades of comic books, Batman Begins seeks out a middle ground between the Spider-Man films (boyish rectitude and romance) and the X-Men series (pseudo-sophisticated political ideas, including an archnemesis monologue that suggests the WTO has always been part of Ra's al Ghul's secret clan, doggedly destroying societies around the globe with economics). That it more or less succeeds hardly calls for drinks on the house. Nolan, like many filmmakers, seems to rise or sink to the level of his material and under the burden of his budget; those looking for a taste of Memento's radical perspective amid the stunts and CGIs will feel bereft. Tracey deMorsella, Managing Producer Convergence Media, Inc. Home of The Multicultural Advantage Phone: 215-849-0946 E-mail: tdemorsella @multiculturaladvantage.com http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.7.3/15 - Release Date: 6/14/2005 Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of
[scifinoir2] Re: Skywalker As The Joker? It's No Joke
Hamil did a fine job playing the the Trickster in the Flash television series. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Tracey de Morsella \(formerly Tracey L. Minor\) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Skywalker As The Joker? It's No Joke http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-06-15/ Original Star Wars star Mark Hamill has joined the shortlist of favorites to play The Joker in the Batman Begins sequel. The actor, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, has become a fan favorite to play Batman's colorful foe. He joins Crispin Glover and Aussie actor Lachy Hulme on the three-strong internet shortlist. Hamill became an obvious choice for some Batman fans after voicing The Joker for the Batman cartoon series. A spokesman for top Batman website Darkhorizons.Com points out, The net basically picked Christian Bale to play Batman, so who knows. Batman Begins opens across America and Europe this week. Tracey deMorsella, Managing Producer Convergence Media, Inc. Home of The Multicultural Advantage Phone: 215-849-0946 E-mail: tdemorsella @multiculturaladvantage.com http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.7.3/15 - Release Date: 6/14/2005 Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: Caught Revenge of the Sith
Since I don't own the first three (or last three depending on your point of view), I sequed from episode three to episode four and I am half way through episode five. It is amazing how young, crisp and exuberant A New Hope remains after almost 30 years (I have the original VHS copies, not the redigitized DVD versions). It is outright fun to watch, something none of prequels can claim to be. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Astromancer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have now seen all six in sequence...I still think Three would have made a great trilogy if they used it as the basis for it...too much, too little, too LATE... Kelly Wright [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Perspective is everything and I had the misfortune of being ace boon coon to someone who has watched episode three EVERY DAY since he copped a copy of the bootleg last Saturday. He has been through the roof and over the moon enthusiastic about Revenge of the Sith, recounting key scenes and epic battles over and over and repeating Yoda is a bad man! like a mantra. I have heard so much about Revenge of the Sith, that frankly, there was no way the actual movie could stand up to the hype. The movie my friend recounted is WAY better (and funnier) than the movie I paid to see yesterday. (Even before I saw it we had started doing riffs: When Obi Wan lands on General Grievous'landing dock he shouts Surrender! Grievous, who is surrounded by thousands of battle droids, looks around and then back at General Kenobi standing there by his lonesome, You must be crazy with the heat! Grievous raises his four arms, each holding a light-saber, You 'bout to get broke off, son!). That said, Revenge of the Sith is clearly the class of this trilogy. It is no The Empire Strikes Back but it is far better than the still disappointing Return of the Jedi. And, interestingly, it makes the two movies that preceeded it rise in my estimation. I am actually juiced to see Episode one and two again, something you would never have heard me say after originally viewing them. Revenge of the Sith put me in mind of the scene in The Godfather where Marlon Brando as the old don tells Robert Duvall as the callow consigliere You were not a bad consigliere; Sonny was a bad don. Yoda could have sat down with Obi Wan and told him the same thing: You bad master, were not; Anakin bad padawan, was. Except, Obi Wan WAS a bad master. He remained too much of a gee wiz, wiz-bang, hale fellow, well met kinda guy (a prototypical Luke Skywalker if you will) and never exhibited the firm hand Anakin needed. Qui-Gon would have done a much better job, (heck Mace Windu would have done a better job: Mace:You reckless eyeballin' me, boy? Anakin:Stop yelling at me! Mace: I ain't yellin' at you! This is how I talk!) which is why Darth Sidious sent Darth Maul to assassinate Qui-Gon in the first place. Frankly, Obi Wan hasn't been the same since he saw his master Qui-Gon get broke off by Darth Maul in Episode One. ~rave! Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Saw this today at a 10 am showing. (There were over 60 people in the theatre, so good crowd). Really enjoyed it. The overall tone was the most mature and realized since The Empire Strikes Back. A few scenes of Anakin's fall from grace were shocking. I don't want to say more until others have seen it. If you're a Star Wars fan, go. If you love scifi, go. I plan to see it at least two more times. - Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. - Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new Resources site! - Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. - Discover Yahoo! Stay in touch with email, IM, photo sharing more. Check it out! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo
[scifinoir2] Re: Caught Revenge of the Sith
Perspective is everything and I had the misfortune of being ace boon coon to someone who has watched episode three EVERY DAY since he copped a copy of the bootleg last Saturday. He has been through the roof and over the moon enthusiastic about Revenge of the Sith, recounting key scenes and epic battles over and over and repeating Yoda is a bad man! like a mantra. I have heard so much about Revenge of the Sith, that frankly, there was no way the actual movie could stand up to the hype. The movie my friend recounted is WAY better (and funnier) than the movie I paid to see yesterday. (Even before I saw it we had started doing riffs: When Obi Wan lands on General Grievous'landing dock he shouts Surrender! Grievous, who is surrounded by thousands of battle droids, looks around and then back at General Kenobi standing there by his lonesome, You must be crazy with the heat! Grievous raises his four arms, each holding a light-saber, You 'bout to get broke off, son!). That said, Revenge of the Sith is clearly the class of this trilogy. It is no The Empire Strikes Back but it is far better than the still disappointing Return of the Jedi. And, interestingly, it makes the two movies that preceeded it rise in my estimation. I am actually juiced to see Episode one and two again, something you would never have heard me say after originally viewing them. Revenge of the Sith put me in mind of the scene in The Godfather where Marlon Brando as the old don tells Robert Duvall as the callow consigliere You were not a bad consigliere; Sonny was a bad don. Yoda could have sat down with Obi Wan and told him the same thing: You bad master, were not; Anakin bad padawan, was. Except, Obi Wan WAS a bad master. He remained too much of a gee wiz, wiz-bang, hale fellow, well met kinda guy (a prototypical Luke Skywalker if you will) and never exhibited the firm hand Anakin needed. Qui-Gon would have done a much better job, (heck Mace Windu would have done a better job: Mace:You reckless eyeballin' me, boy? Anakin:Stop yelling at me! Mace: I ain't yellin' at you! This is how I talk!) which is why Darth Sidious sent Darth Maul to assassinate Qui-Gon in the first place. Frankly, Obi Wan hasn't been the same since he saw his master Qui-Gon get broke off by Darth Maul in Episode One. ~rave! Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Saw this today at a 10 am showing. (There were over 60 people in the theatre, so good crowd). Really enjoyed it. The overall tone was the most mature and realized since The Empire Strikes Back. A few scenes of Anakin's fall from grace were shocking. I don't want to say more until others have seen it. If you're a Star Wars fan, go. If you love scifi, go. I plan to see it at least two more times. - Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. - Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new Resources site! Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Revenge of the Sith: Galaxy Questions
This is from Entertainment Weekly: Besides scoring a record-breaking worldwide four-day gross of $304.2 million, they also left us scratching our heads. Sadly, the nice folks at Lucasfilm were too busy rolling around naked in piles of money to help end our confusion, so we turn to you, loyal EW readers. Hold us like you did by the lake on Naboo. - Whitney Pastorek 1) How does Episode III's Evan McGregor morph into Episode IV's Sir Alec Guinness in just 19 years? (Also, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru look like WB teens in Sith - they're old and cranky in A New Hope.) Is it Tatooine's desert climate? The two suns? Bad skin care? 2) It takes 19 years to build the first Death Star but just four to make the second fully operational. Did they use a better contractor, or did they just already know where everything went. 3) Why doesn't Obi-Wan recognize R2-D2 in Episode IV? And in the later trilogy, R2 seems to have lost the ability to catch things and leap friskily out of spaceships. Droid Arthritis? 4) Why'd it take Chancellor Palpatine like 26 different shout-outs to tell the stormtroopers to kill the Jedi. Couldn't Mister All-Powerful just set up a conference call? 5) In a world of Qui-Gons, Obi-Wans, and Anakins, where'd Padme come up with...Luke? General Hospital? __ The Black Prince. The Black Church. A State of Mind. http://www.theworldebon.com Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: Repost: Scorpius is in Sith!
Speaking of Keisha Castle-Hughes, what is up with Naboobian practice of ELECTING these virginal Queens? Is Queen on Naboo an American Idol type-hype where young women parade in their Kabuki make-up and Naboobians pony up galactic credits for each call/vote they make? ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: For those who've seen Revenge of the Sith since I posted this. Didja catch these actors? Kelly, from your post about the blue-faced dude in Sith: A Peter Cushing look-alike. At the end of the film, there's an actor who bears a strong resemblance to the late actor who played Grand Moff Tarkin, one of the villains in the first Star Wars movie. Guess what, that actor is played by Wayne Pygram, Scorpius from Farscape! Also in the movie is Keisha Castle-Hughes of Whale Rider fame. I guess the movie was shot in Australia in part, as both actors are natives. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Puppet vs. digital Yoda: Like me better in CGI, they do
Article below reminds me of a friend of mine who swears Godfather 3 is the best of the Godfather trilogy because it was the first one she saw. ~rave! Oh, and Jar Jar Binks is third in toy sales behind Yoda and R2D2. _ http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2005-05-12-star-wars_x.htm Generation flap By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY On May 19, the final Star Wars showdown begins. Puppet vs. digital Yoda: Like me better in CGI, they do. Lucasfilm Ltd. We're not talking Jedi knights vs. Sith lords, Obi-Wan vs. Anakin or even good vs. evil. When Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith hits screens next Thursday, fans of George Lucas' six-part opus will again clash over which films rule: the original hits of the 1970s and '80s or the prequel that began six years ago. Conventional wisdom has the original films 1977's A New Hope, 1980's The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's The Return of the Jedi winning hands down. Fans of the early movies tout the breakthrough technology, the story lines and the birth of such unforgettable characters as Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Yoda and the suave Han Solo. (Related story: Compare Anakin and Luke) There is no personality in the new movies, says Michael Walker, a 39-year-old Star Wars devotee from Decatur, Ala. The new movies, it seems that they are trying to win you over with fantastic special effects. But fans younger than 25 many of whom had their first Star Wars theater experience with 1999's The Phantom Menace or 2002's Attack of the Clones have a different perspective. They find the old films slow, the dialogue corny and the special effects crude. I watched the originals to learn the whole story, but I couldn't watch them more than once, says Jean Burton, a 22-year-old Los Angeles retail sales employee. I like the worlds in the new Star Wars. The dispute can get downright testy. Yale Tindell, 28, a Baltimore automotive service manager, says These new ones are an abomination. They have weak actors, weak stories, weak effects. They've bled the originals for profit. Elayne Rapping, a professor of American Studies at the University at Buffalo, says that each trilogy represents a seminal moment for its audience. Whether it's the 1970s or the 1990s, George Lucas has always known what kids want, Rapping says. And it's natural, she says, that each generation would favor the movies it grew up with. Dave Myatt, 32, an editor at the fan site rebelscum.com, has his doubts whether Sith can bring about peace in the Lucas galaxy. This one is going to please more people than the last two. But each group feels so strongly about their trilogy that I don't think they'll ever really agree. So who has the edge? We compare key characters from both trilogies in a tale of the galactic tape: Trilogies duel, role for role The young hero Like father, like son: Luke Skywalker (left) and his father Anakin were impatient when they were young. Contenders: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) vs. Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) Strengths: A farm boy with no clue as to who's his daddy, Luke yearns for a life beyond the planet Tatooine, where he can take his skills with a land speeder and use them as a fighter pilot for rebel forces. He's gifted with a lightsaber and fearless in the face of danger. Born a slave on Tatooine, Anakin displays an unrivaled grasp of the Force, both the light and dark side. He is passionate, mechanically skilled, a quick learner and has a strong sense of justice. Weaknesses: Luke is impatient and quick to fight. He doesn't want to wait for his Uncle Owen's permission to join the rebellion, nor for Yoda to finish training him as a Jedi. Anakin has a temper he can't control. He occasionally prefers choking someone to diplomacy. The winner: Luke Skywalker, for his pure heart. Luke was a boy we were all rooting for, which made the story so powerful, Rapping says. The plucky heroine Contenders: Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) vs. Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia (left) and Natalie Portman stars as Senator Amidala. Strengths: The daughter of Padmé, Leia is beautiful, defiant and skilled with a laser gun. Even under torture by her father, Darth Vader, she refuses to give up the rebel bases. Padmé, queen of Naboo, is beautiful, kind and fierce in the defense of democracy. She's unafraid to fall in love even when it's a forbidden romance with a Jedi knight. Weaknesses: Leia is too quick to judge, branding Han Solo incompetent. Plus she wears her hair in goofy buns and unaware they're related kisses her brother, Luke, on the mouth. Padmé overlooks husband Anakin's flaws, even when he's cutting down enemies and longing to rule the galaxy. The winner: Leia. Every time someone came to rescue her, she wound up saving the day, says director and fan Kevin Smith. The sidekick Contenders: Old Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec
[scifinoir2] Re: Bollywood 'Oscars' Honour Hasselhoff
And, of course, everyone knows Hasselhoff should have been oscar nominated for his transcendant performance in the Sponge Bob Square Pants movie. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Carole McDonnell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Smiled when I saw this. Am not a great Hasselhoff fan myself but he has an interesting kind of fame. And really, who knows what kind of fame we all might have? Hasselholff is arguably one of the biggest most famous international American stars. And musician. He's always having some big hit in Germany or wherever. Am not sure what kinda fame I'll have. Small little group of high-brow devotees -- akin to those who watch only art films. A creative or spiritual ghetto where only people of a certain race or spirituality read me? Heck I've heard people pick on this guy but it seems Hasselholf transcends. And what is that saying about a prophet not being accepted in his own country? (not that he's a prophet, mind you...but why should we judge fame and art by American standards? If the French, or the East Indians or the Germans or the Japanese see something in someone we don't much acknowledge, should we think they're wrong? After all, the US isn't the last word on creative approval. -C --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, keop6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,12078-4338531-52_12252_true,00.html 02/05/2005 07:41 AM Claudia Parsons India's movie industry has handed out its version of the Oscars at the Bollywood Movie Awards, which saw a veteran director take top honours and a US actor best known for Baywatch named international star of the year. Dancers in shimmering costumes, Indian beauties in saris and sultry heartthrobs sporting long black coats crowded the Taj Mahal for the occasion. The Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that is. The event was held in the US East Coast gambling resort as part of Bollywood's bid to be a global force in cinema. It was a fitting backdrop for a show that mixed the glitz of a major movie industry with the retro feel of variety-show dance numbers, the likes of which were long ago excised from the Oscars. An audience composed largely of Americans of Indian origin cheered as veteran Yash Chopra was named best director for his film Veer- Zaara, which also picked up the award for best film and best actor for its star Shahrukh Khan. Rani Mukherjee, one of the few major divas to take the stage, won the best actress award for her role in Hum Tum. The winner is the Spielberg of India ... Yash Chopra, said former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff as he presented the award for best film, referring to star US director Steven Spielberg. Bollywood has a reputation for colorful kitsch - melodramatic plots, young lovers battling cruel fate, wicked villains and sentimental, but chaste, song-and-dance routines. Whether it's comedy or romance or action, films should touch your heart, Chopra said, explaining the appeal of his films and the genre, which despite efforts to expand its audience has so far made few inroads into the US market. Big Cheers For Baywatch Star Though an array of stars including former Miss India Lara Dutta entertained the crowd, Hasselhoff provoked some of the night's biggest cheers when he picked up his statuette. The Bollywood awards - which resemble a slim-line Oscar holding what could be a torch or a bunch of flowers - are chosen according to a popular vote by fans. Baywatch and Knight Rider, in which Hasselhoff co-starred with a car named Kit, may raise sniggers from highbrow critics at home but they are still going strong in India, and the actor said he had much in common with the escapism of Bollywood. I'm proud of shows like Baywatch and Knight Rider because it's about saving lives, not taking lives, he told Reuters. It's entertainment, it's tongue in cheek, it brings the world together, he said, adding that the entertainment industry was a powerful force for good in the world. I think it's responsible for a lot of world peace, Hasselhoff said, adding that he was hoping to work in India soon on a project based on a series of romantic novels. I never knew exactly how to get there. Now I've got this (award) it's like my key to India, he said. Bollywood churns out around 1,000 movies a year. But despite a fan base that extends to the Middle East and Europe, few films make money. But Shammi Kapoor, who was given a lifetime achievement award, said better technology and funding were leading to more and more better films. They're getting to be more topical, he added. They aren't the happy happy movies of yesteryear. Bollywood still has comic heroes and dastardly villains, however, and the
[scifinoir2] Star Wars Revenge takes in Estimated $158.5 M (303 M worldwide)
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1826p=.htm Final 'Star Wars' is Box Office 'Revenge:' Estimated $158.5M in Four Days by Brandon Gray May 22, 2005 This is how records die, with thunderous applause. Giving into anger, hate and all that the Dark Side entails has made Star Wars stronger, at least out of the gate. Destined to be one of the biggest blockbusters, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith blasted off with an estimated $158.5 million since Thursday. The $113 million space opera shattered the four-day record once held by The Matrix Reloaded's $134.3 million after notching new milestones for midnight showing, opening and single day, two-day and three-day grosses. For the weekend, Revenge of the Sith ruled with an estimated $108.5 million, landing in the same range as Spider-Man's $114.8 million and Shrek 2's $108.0 million but not a record breaker. Sith was never expected to take the crown on this frontits $50 million Thursday burning off too much demandthough it would have had it debuted a day later. We blew the doors down, Fox's head of domestic distribution, Bruce Snyder, told Box Office Mojo. It's the culmination of the series, it's the hook that everyone's looking for, and, on top of that, it completes the circle. Snyder said that the studio's exit polling on Friday indicated that 52 percent of the audience was over 25 years old and 58 percent was male. All bets were off for this final installment as creator George Lucas and company, calculated downplaying to the contrary, gave Revenge of the Sith one of the most ubiquitous releases ever, instead of the controlled roll-outs of the previous prequels, Attack of the Clones and The Phantom Menace. In addition to licensing the characters to hock everything from soda to cell phones, Sith played on an estimated 9,400 screens at 3,661 theaters, while Clones was on 6,100 screens at 3,161 theaters and Phantom on 5,500 screens at 2,970 theaters. Overseas, Revenge of the Sith opened wider than any other movie in history, in 105 countries, amassing $144.7 million. All told, the $303.2 million worldwide start after five days stands as an all time high, eclipsing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's $250.1 million, though the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy's finale played in a much smaller number of countries. To many, it's no surprise that the most popular movie series would yield records with its finale. However, industry expectations were cooler based, in part, on the lagging market of the past few months, mixed audience reactions to Attack of the Clones and The Phantom Menace, and the performance of Clones. In the shadow of Spider-Man's historic run in 2002, Clones made $310.7 million and was by far the least popular Star Wars movie. Its four predecessors each rank in the top 20 of all time adjusted for ticket price inflation. Clones came in at No. 80. Hayden Christensen in Revenge of the Sith Revenge of the Sith was in no one's shadow, marking the first true event picture of the year. What's more, the hype on Sith promised a superior movie to the other prequels, and Mr. Lucas added luster to Sith with the DVD premiere of the original trilogy last September. The Phantom Menace had 16 years of pent-up demand behind it since Return of the Jedi, and that led to a $431.1 million gross. Attack of the Clones lacked any of those enticements. Many of the biggest blockbusters of all time, including Gone with the Wind, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings, have sad or bittersweet endings. Knowing all the events that transpire in Revenge of the Sith didn't abate audiences' desire to see it. Such knowledge didn't deter people from seeing The Passion of the Christ, either. If anything, the impending doom made them more excited. Few blockbusters close with complete tragedy, though, making Revenge of the Sith's popularity unique with corruption of the hero as its focus. The descent into darkness gave the series its first PG-13 Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating after years of ostensibly family-friendly PG ratings. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Darkest of Star Wars dark lords get his day in the sun
http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/may05/327099.asp Darkest of 'Star Wars' dark lords gets his day in the sun By BOB LONGINO Atlanta Journal-Constitution Posted: May 19, 2005 Skywalker Ranch, Calif. - More than 20 years after Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid first donned the dark threads of Emperor Palpatine as ruler of Star Wars' evil Empire, the robe's back on. 53727'Star Wars' And in Revenge of the Sith, the final installment in George Lucas' Star Wars saga that opened worldwide this week, the dark lord is finally having his day in the sun. Palpatine gets to wield a lightsaber, slicing his way through a mélange of Jedi knights. He uses that hellish lightning-from-the-fingertips moxie he's got in a blistering, senate chamber-smashing duel with Yoda. And he gets to order around Anakin Skywalker, compelling him to do evil deeds with simple commands, like Kill him. If Darth Vader is the baddest guy in the universe, what does that make him? It makes me beyond that, said McDiarmid, a veteran stage and TV actor with limited big-screen appearances. Blackest of the black. Darkest of the dark. But, unfortunately, still recognizably human. McDiarmid was 38 when fans first saw him as the creepy, disfigured emperor when The Return of the Jedi was released in 1983. Now he's 60 and actually much closer in age to the character he's played in four Star Wars films. From Shakespeare to Sith McDiarmid has progressed from senator to supreme chancellor to, now, the man who would be emperor. For a dozen years, McDiarmid was joint artistic director of the Almeida Theatre in north London. He's performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Court. He's played Edward II, Henry IV and Prospero in The Tempest. He's had small parts on the big screen in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Gorky Park and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. His left profile, emphasizing a weak chin, slightly pointed nose and a splash of swept-back gray hair, is the spitting image of the notorious Mr. Burns of The Simpsons. The whole of 'The Simpsons' (seems to be) obsessed with 'Star Wars,' McDiarmid said. He doesn't know if Palpatine was in Matt Groening's mind, the actor added, but I wouldn't be surprised. Lucas hadn't seen McDiarmid's work on stage, but a casting director did, in the small, upstairs theater at the Royal Court at the dawn of the '80s. It was Sam Shepard's play, 'Seduced,' in which I played the aging - well, his version of the aging - Howard Hughes with the long hair and the fingernails, motionless in bed, McDiarmid recalled. His performance struck the right notes: paranoia, confidence, arrogance, obsessiveness. Later, McDiarmid was called to lunch with Lucas. Even when I got back (home), I didn't know why we had been speaking, though I imagined it had something to do with 'Star Wars,' he said. His agent phoned. Obviously it went well because you got the part, the agent said. I said, 'What part?' The agent leafed through his papers, searching for the role, and then uttered four words - emperor of the universe. 'We'll be doing that then,' I said. And that's how it started. Creating a villain Once McDiarmid saw the ghastly prosthetics planned for the emperor's face - the reason behind his metamorphosis from the normal-looking supreme chancellor to the hideous emperor is illustrated in Sith - he conjured up the character's distinctive, cackling voice. Oh, he's like a toad, McDiarmid said. He's a terrible reptile. I thought his voice should come from the dark depths. From the bowels of the Earth or the bowels of his being. . . . And the voice just sort of arrived. Sith provides McDiarmid with the most screen time he's had yet. High praise His co-star, Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin/Darth Vader, said McDiarmid took advantage of the moment. He steals the show, Christensen said. I think so much of why this film works is from his performance. He makes choices I don't know that I could really muster the courage to make. And he pulls it off, Christensen added. You can see the process in his eyes. And between scenes, you see him doing that same sort of obsessive, constant analysis of things. He doesn't go anywhere. He just sort of stays on set, pacing back and forth. McDiarmid reluctantly admits that, despite all his years on the stage, he'll be best remembered for his work in Star Wars. If you make movies, your face and your performance is there forever more, and if you are involved in a big movie - the biggest movie of all time - then it's obviously going to be there, McDiarmid said. And it does give me pause. But it's not all that I do. And I haven't, I hope, got it out of proportion. That would be the only problem. Besides, he's not at all impressed with having his face on a Star Wars action figure. I think it's a bigger thing for Hayden than it's been for me. Those little figures or whatever it is. The T-shirts. It's been a very, very strange thing indeed.
[scifinoir2] 'Star Wars' Grosses $16.5M in Midnight Run
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FILM_STAR_WARS_BOX_OFFICE?SITE=WIMILSECTION=HOME May 20, 10:04 AM EDT 'Star Wars' Grosses $16.5M in Midnight Run LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Moviegoers flocked to the dark side in droves, giving the final installment of George Lucas' Star Wars tale a record-breaking midnight run. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith raked in an estimated $16.5 million from 2,900 midnight screenings Thursday, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. That's double what the Oscar-winning film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took in during its midnight showings in 2003. The third film from director Peter Jackson's trilogy rang up about $8 million domestically from 2,100 midnight shows. This is extremely impressive, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations. It just says so much about how excited people are to see this film that they lined up at midnight and just got on board and went along for the ride. After the midnight debut, Revenge of the Sith widened to 3,661 theaters for daytime and evening screenings. The studio, 20th Century Fox, said box-office results for the first full day would be available Friday. Tickets for the film went on sale last month. Soon after, legions of fans began lining up at theaters across the country, many dressed in full Star Wars regalia and sporting Jedi light sabers. The final chapter in Lucas' six-film saga chronicles Anakin Skywalker's transformation from hero to villain Darth Vader. The film may be the darkest chapter in the Star Wars story, featuring more violence and a story line showing how a democratic government turns into a despotic regime. Revenge of the Sith is the first Star Wars film to earn a PG-13 rating. The first five films were rated PG. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Get to know your friends and neighbors
http://www.mugshots.com/Criminal/Killers/Kelly+Wright.htm Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: Oppose eliminating the filibuster!
This is so wrong, and the arrogance of it is stunning. The Republicans think they have forged a permanent majority so they feel they are immune to the consequences. This is incredibly short-sighted. It reminds me of when the Republicans engineered the two-term limitation on presidents after Roosevelt won four consecutive terms. Little did they know they would be altering history. Without term limitations there would have been no Watergate as Nixon would have easily won a third term and Ronald Reagan could have served into his senility. (On the other hand, Bill Clinton would still be president). ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Amy Harlib [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Friend, Right now the U.S. Senate is debating whether to end the use of the filibuster. I don't think politicians should have the only voice in the debate. Add your voice by sending a message to your senators today! NARAL Pro-Choice America will deliver your comments to the Senate. Please take action by 10:00 Eastern tomorrow, Thursday, so that they can deliver your message before the vote happens! Click on the link below to learn more and get involved. Thanks! http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/sen_sendamsg_nuclear?rk=G7qFNWF1hmOVW *** Powered by GetActive Software, Inc. Relationship Management for Member Organizations (tm) http://www.getactive.com *** Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/pkgkPB/SOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: What happened to Grey's Anatomy?
I like Grey's Anatomy, it is a perfect companion to Desparate Housewives but if I miss either, it is not a tragedy. When the show first came on I mentioned the 'bizarro world' aspect of it --where the blacks were ostensibly in charge and were, in essence, oppressing the downtrodden white characters. I am sure the show's creators had to make many compromises. For instance, one of the four interns was supposed to be a black man but I guess that was too much diversity for the suits that run ABC. Television is a cruel master and an incredibly difficult place for a person of color to get a foothold. There has been much to do about Everybody loves Raymond coming to a conclusion after nine seasons. One of the hubbubs when the show was getting off the ground was that they didn't want Italian Ray Barone's wife to be too ethnic. By that Les Moonves (who is married to an Asian woman as is Rupert Murdock)didn't want Ray's wife to be Italian or Jewish. They originally wanted someone like Meredith Baxter Birney. If Ray Romano can't get an Italian wife in a show based on his life on a show he co-created and co-executive produces, what chance does a black show producer have? That said, let me say I thoroughly enjoyed the episode of Grey's Anatomy where Anna Maria Horsford played an old scrub nurse who was dying and even though her illness was terminal and the hospital could do nothing to save her the administration was letting her stay until she died. This episode showed the humanity of all the black totems and taught the callow young white interns something about caring and community. As an aside, I have never been an Isaiah Washington fan. I loathe almost every character I have seen him play including his debut in Spike Lee's Girl 6 where despite substantial screen time he is credited simply as the Shoplifter. But I saw him the other day on The View touting Grey's Anatomy and he was lovely. He looked great, loved his mama (as came out in an anectodote) and he simply adored his pregnant wife of nine years(who was black and in the audience). This man has been horribly miscast. I hope to one day write something worthy of his silky elegance. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I tuned into this show because I'd heard a Sister was the creator and main writer. She spoke at length with Tavis Smiley about the diverse cast (three Blacks and an Asian) and how the stories often center around guests of color. That may be true, but I haven't seen anything that really differentiates this from other shows I've seen that focus on the whites. The star's in a love affair with the doc played by Patrick Dempsey, the buxom nurse (who used to be on Roswell) has gotten some storylines, including one that had her stripping to her underwear in front of her co-workers. The Asian nurse is apparently pregnant. Frankly I quit watching after two episodes because nothing convinced me the Blacks would get major treatment. From what I can tell they're more like window dressing to the white characters. I notice that among the Blacks we have what are becoming familiar caricatures: the older doctor who ostensibly runs the place. But like Fancy on NYPD Blue, it reminds me of the device where you create a leader who's Black, then push him to the background...a mean doc who's shepherding the newbies. She comes onscreen, barks at the youngsters, then stalks off...and Isiah Washington's arrogant, self- centered genius, who reminds me of Eric LaSalle's character on ER. He gets a few lines where he helps himself by being a real human to his charges, then off he goes. They all seem to do little more than provide plot points for the scared doctors to be, yet have little in the way of fully fleshed out roles themselves. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just feel the hoped-for strong usage of the people of color isn't materializing. This seems to be borne out by all the coverage I've seen: not one commercial on TV shows the Black actors, instead focusing almost exclusively on the star and her lover, with a little bit of coverage given to the other non-Blacks. TV Guide recently did an article on the show that included a two- page spread of photos of the stars that make it hot. Not *one* of the Blacks was pictured! Am I off base? Are the Blacks used effectively? Do the guest stars consist of people of color with strong roles? Anyone watching this? Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your
[scifinoir2] Re: [OT] Dave Chappelle: The Interview
I admire Dave Chappelle, too, but like he himself said Comedy Central ...is not HBO, its regular assed TV. In other words, he needs to strap on his boots and go to work like the rest of us. Which, of course, is the rub for someone like Chappelle, who has never held a real job. Also Chappelle appears to be suffering from something Branford Marsalis called talent attacks. Talent attacks often paralyze jazz musicians of a certain ability when what they really need to do is just blow their horn. Come on Dave, this ain't Shakespeare: its just regular assed TV. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Tracey de Morsella \(formerly Tracey L. Minor\) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I hope people read this. I've always liked him, but after reading this I am coming to really admire him. He seams extremely enlightened, particularly for someone who has had such a meteoric rise. If this a cover for a crack habit and mental illness it is ingenious. Tracey de Morsella Phone: 215-849-0946 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] View The What Happened to ScifiNoir at Yahoogroups FAQ, at: http://www.visitfloripa.com/scifinoir/ -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 3:19 PM To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] [OT] Dave Chappelle: The Intervie It sounds to me like he reconized that the sudden fame was about to overtake him and pulled the 'ejection' chute. Despite the havoc it'll probally do to his career I think he was right in doing it. -GTW -- Yahoo! Groups Links a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.10 - Release Date: 5/13/2005 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: FW: 300 Black Boys are Missing in Britain
Living in a country where we often become obsessed with one missing white child, it is sobering that 300 black boys could vanish with narely a ripple in public consciousness. ~(no)rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Tracey de Morsella \(formerly Tracey L. Minor\) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: -Original Message- From: African-Americans in Higher Education [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of John Lindsay Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 2:50 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [AFAMHED] 300 Black Boys are Missing in Britain 300 black boys are missing in Britain DISCOVERY MADE AFTER CHILD'S BODY IS FOUND IN RIVER By Alan Cowell NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE LONDON - Even by the standards of a river that has known more than its share of death in gruesome and macabre fashions, the discovery was startling. In September 2001, in the River Thames near the soaring columns of Tower Bridge, the police discovered the torso of a dark-skinned child they called Adam. The suggestion from subsequent investigations was that he had died in some kind of ritualistic murder linked to West African witchcraft. Now, more than three years later, the discovery has brought another chilling fact to light: In the three months before the body was found, 300 other black boys from 4 to 7 years of age were missing or unaccounted for. We were really looking at black children, black male children, aged between 4 and 7, and we found 300 of those that couldn't be accounted for, Detective Chief Inspector Will O'Reilly told British radio on Friday. In the main these were African children. What happened to the boys remains a mystery. While the police said they had no evidence of murder, they also acknowledged that the absence of immigration records prevented the authorities from tracing the missing youngsters. When the police discovered Adam's body in 2001, they found it had been skillfully butchered and drained of blood. Forensic tests found a poisonous bean in his stomach and traces of crushed bone and clay pellets studded with fragments of gold and quartz in his lower intestine. Other inquiries, led by O'Reilly, suggested the boy originally came from a rural area of southwestern Nigeria. O'Reilly said the police questioned people who were supposed to be taking care of the missing children and were often told that they had returned to Africa. We asked through Interpol for police to make inquiries in the local countries to which they returned, he said. In the majority of cases we got no reply on that. Only two of the missing children were traced, he said. It is not unusual for African parents to send children to Britain and other places to be looked after by relatives and sent to school. But the people who look after them, called private carers, are not obliged to register with the British authorities. Yinka Sunmonu, an author and journalist, said some of the children are badly exploited and abused. They are being trafficked, they are being emotionally abused, there are incidences of domestic slavery, she told the BBC. There is physical abuse, sexual abuse. Felicity Collier, head of the British Association for Adopting and Fostering, said: We know there are thousands of children who are missing. We know there are children being passed between adults. We would not accept this as a society if these were white children, she added. We have to have a law in this country that says private foster carers have to register. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.10 - Release Date: 5/13/2005 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Next Mission Unclear for Star Trek
``A lot of fans have discussed the fact that we have ignored the continuity of `Star Trek' and ignored the canon. That could not be farther from the truth. We live and breathe this continuity.'' - Rick Berman http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/2005/05/09/living/11595128.htm Posted on Sun, May. 08, 2005 `ENTERPRISE' LOST By Charlie McCollum Mercury News This week, ``Star Trek'' will boldly go where it hasn't gone in 36 years: cancellation. The original series, with William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, was axed by NBC in 1969 after three seasons. But, a cult favorite, ``Star Trek'' was revived as a film in 1979 with the original cast, and a new television series -- ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' -- made its debut in the fall of 1987. Since then, 18 years in all, there has been a ``Star Trek'' series -- and sometimes two -- on television every season. (Unlike the original, none was ever canceled. The producers just moved on to a new version when it seemed like things were winding down.) With nine more theatrical films, numerous novels and comic books, and a vast merchandizing empire, ``Star Trek'' has permeated American popular culture to the point where it stands with ``Star Wars.'' That all comes to an end, at least temporarily, on Friday when UPN airs the last two episodes of the fifth ``Star Trek'' series, ``Enterprise'' (8 p.m., Ch. 44), ending a four-season run that saw viewership drop from 12.6 million to 2.5 million. At the same time, the film division of the ``Star Trek'' empire also has gone into stasis after 2002's ``Nemesis'' pulled in a lowly $40 million at the box office. (The top ``Star Trek'' movie, 1986's ``The Voyage Home,'' did $184.7 million.) ``There was some degree of fatigue,'' says ``Enterprise'' executive producer Rick Berman, who has run the franchise since the death of creator Gene Roddenberry in 1991. ``After 18 years and 624 hours of `Star Trek,' the audience began to sense a little bit of overkill.'' In a way, the very success of ``Star Trek'' worked against ``Enterprise.'' Repeats of the show's predecessors -- the original, ``Next Generation,'' ``Deep Space Nine'' and ``Voyager'' -- turn up almost 24/7 in syndication and on cable channels such Sci Fi and Spike TV. So do the films. ``We found ourselves in competition with ourselves. `Enterprise' was running against the franchise,'' says Berman. Nor did it help that UPN, home of the franchise since ``Voyager'' started its mission in 1995, had gone from being a testosterone-driven network to one that emphasizes shows appealing to women. ``It needs to be said that UPN has changed a great deal over the last few years,'' says Berman. ``It's been skewed in a totally different direction than `Star Trek.' That's caused as much of a problem with our viewership erosion as anything else.'' But the fundamental issue has been the failure of ``Enterprise'' to connect with not just a broad audience but also with fans of ``Star Trek.'' Set in the earliest days of warp-drive space travel, ``Enterprise'' was a retro take on the ``Star Trek'' world with technology that was shaky at best and a crew that wanted nothing to do with such things as a nascent transporter system. If you pop in the DVD set of the first season, the first episodes look like a fresh and witty reinvention of the ``Star Trek'' mythology and canon. Certainly, ``Trek'' fans initially were attracted. (The audience of 12.6 million was and still is huge by UPN standards.) But the appeal didn't last long. ``Enterprise'' soon was being slammed for pedestrian storytelling, and -- as a commander -- Capt. Jeffrey Archer (Scott Bakula) seemed to lack the gravitas of Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) of ``Next Generation'' or even Elizabeth Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) of ``Voyager.'' There was no breakout character along the lines of Spock; Data (Brent Spiner), the android from ``Next Generation;'' Quark (Armin Shimerman) of ``Deep Space Nine''; or Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), the bodacious Borg on ``Voyager.'' And the Trekkers -- the deeply obsessed fans of the series -- slammed ``Enterprise'' on the Internet for playing fast and loose with ``Star Trek'' continuity, such as exactly when humans first met the Klingons. ``A lot of fans have discussed the fact that we have ignored the continuity of `Star Trek' and ignored the canon,'' says Berman. ``That could not be farther from the truth. We live and breathe this continuity.'' But, adds ``Enterprise'' executive producer Brannon Braga, ``the success of a television show doesn't hinge on a tiny bit of continuity'' such as when the Klingons first turned up. ``It seems to me there are much larger issues.'' Given the show's somewhat contentious history, it perhaps was inevitable that even the final episode has been cloaked in controversy. Using as its basis a memorable episode titled ``The Pegasus'' from the final season of ``Next Generation,'' the ``Enterprise'' finale puts as
[scifinoir2] Re: [PSA] 'iPods can make you deaf'
I remain amused by how every popular new technological gizmo is followed shortly thereafter by an article portending imminent doom and gloom. I would write more but excessive staring at a computer screen can cause blindness. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Bosco Bosco [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: you may have had enough but as a person who suffers from tinitus, an ever constant ringing noise in the ears, and hearing loss due to damage caused by excessive volume, I can tell you that this issue is very real and very permanent. It's easy to take for granted until you lose it. It's really frustrating when your not even 40 yet and you spend half your life saying, what did you say? Just keep the volume level down and dont sweat it. Bosco --- Kelly Wright [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You know I have had enough. Microwave ovens make you sterile, Cell phones cause brain cancer, iPods make you deaf. I can't hear you cause I my cell phone is ringing while I'm listening to my i-Pod and my microwave popcorn in almost done. ~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Brent Wodehouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/18532179?source=Evening% 20Standardct=5# 'iPods can make you deaf' By Mark Prigg, Evening Standard 11 May 2005 A health alert over the dangers to your hearing from portable music players is issued today. Experts say the huge popularity of iPods and other players could leave a generation of music fans with serious problems. London commuters face the greatest risk as they play the machines at potentially damaging volume levels because of the background noise on Tubes and trains. A leading expert warned that people had to use the players more responsibly. Andrew Reid, head of audiology at the Royal United Hospital in Bristol, said: This is a big problem for young people, and there is a real risk that prolonged listening could lead to permanent hearing damage. Mr Reid added: If you are on a Tube, you have to turn the player up to dangerous levels just to hear it. Over time, this is going to lead to problems like tinnitus and severe damage to the inner ear. Tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss occurs when the delicate hair nerve cells that line the inner ear suffer repeated trauma from loud sound vibrations. According to Mr Reid, the first signs are a ringing or buzzing in the ears. People really need to turn down the player straight away and consult their doctor if the problems continue, he warned. Experts say the problem has reached critical levels due to the popularity of the iPod. Apple has sold 5.6million worldwide since it was introduced in 2001, along with over 250 million songs via its online music store. Experts believe that usage has increased dramatically because owners can now carry their entire CD collection with them, and the latest players give up to 30 hours' playback on a single battery charge. Recent research found that 39 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds listen to personal stereos for more than an hour each day, with 13 per cent listening for two hours or more. The Royal National Institute for the Deaf said: We are concerned that many people are turning up the volume on their personal stereos to levels that could create hearing loss in the long term. The RNID has launched a new website, dontlosethemusic.com, to warn users about the problem. It says users who are worried should investigate buying in-ear headphones that can block out background noise, allowing the volume of players to be turned down. Experts today called for Apple and other manufacturers to limit the volume of their players, and for users to limit their listening to under an hour a day. According to one expert, reducing the time people listen to their player is key. It would obviously be beneficial to reduce the volume and restrict the usage of personal players, said Christine DePlacido of the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy. She added: The difficulty is in persuading people to do this before their hearing is damaged, as many believe hearing loss will not happen to them until they are much older. A lot of the young people I see with tinnitus describe listening to music at high intensities. Apple said all iPods sold in Britain complied with EU volume standards, but refused to comment on the new research. I got friends who are in prison and Friends who are dead. I'm gonna tell ya something that I've often said. You know these things that happen, That's just the way it's supposed to be. And I can't help but wonder, Don't ya know it coulda been me
