Some of the news that is fit to print

I'm going to Disney World!

Actually I'm going to Orlando for a work conference... and the conference is actually closer to Sea World, but... I think I will score some Disney time while I am there. I return on Wednesday. Although I'm sure you will hear from me before then.

Seein' 'Sideways'

I'm behind on this, but even before we went to New York, we went to see the critically acclaimed Sideways and, to be honest, this is another one of those circumstances where I just don't get it. Yes, it is decent movie, but it isn't a great movie in any way, shape or form. And I love wine!

The movie is about two buddies who were college roommates who trek off on a wine-tasting road trip the week before the good looking one is set to get married. Unfortunately both seem to be in a competition about who can be more pathetic. The good looking one lets his dick do all his thinking for him and then looks to his buddy to fix odd situations. The buddy, an unpublished author, steals money from his mother and will get drunk and call his now re-married ex-wife.

Yet overall this is one of those movies where the sum is not as good as the parts. The writing is delicious in parts. The acting is quite good. Yet it somehow just falls flat.

The good parts of the movie are Santa Barbara and the wine. The most sublime part of the movie is when one of the girlfriend characters, Maya, is describing why she loves wine. The sequence is absolutely delicious as she describes a bottle of wine as a living, breathing product. It is marvelous and leaves you salivating for a glass right then and there.

Unfortunately the rest of the movie left me glad that these people were not in my life.

Sally Quinn has a screed in the WP today somehow arguing that men like the movie and women don't.

Imagine, if you can, a movie about two unattractive, gross women slobs going on a week-long spree and ending up with Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck. Imagine that becoming a hit, nominated for five Academy Awards, acclaimed by critics.
Wait, don't even try. It ain't gonna happen.
"Sideways," the low-budget Oscar contender, is a guys' movie that celebrates a certain cultural fantasy: Set off on a drinking-carousing-debauching adventure for a week with your buddy, seduce two great-looking girls and then dump them and go home. What fun!

The criticism seems a bit specious to me -- one of the guys is good looking after all. But I don't think she is that far off about the movie -- most of it is just not that fun.

Grade: C+

Be sure to respond in the form of a question...

I don't often blog about work stuff, but this is just too irresistible.

We are going to be interviewing a job candidate who is a five-time Jeopardy winner. I'm sure he has heard every joke in the book, but... does this mean that throughout the interview, we have to supply the answers and he supplies the questions?

The Gates: The Visit

Yes, yes, I have been blogging about The Gates on and on, even pointing to cool satellite photos, so being the childless, carefree gay men that we are, we packed up the Volvo station waggon -- don't ask! -- and traveled north to The Big Apple this weekend to see The Gates. It was well worth the trip.

We decided it was a good occasion to take the pooches -- and it was. They loved it. The park was filled with people. Of course, many New Yorkers were complaining, "None of these people would be in the park if it weren't for these things!" And that really is the point, I think.

Much like when architect Michael Graves wrapped the Washington Monument during its renovations a few years ago, The Gates are mesmerizing. And it is wonderful how they make the park look like a whole new place.

People may ponder the meaning, but it seems to me they are a wonderful way to highlight the park and get people out in February. Not such a bad thing.

Off to The Gates

So despite the fact that there are apparently no hotel rooms to be found in the Big Apple, the always resourceful DMV scored us a place at the Soho Grand, which is very pet friendly. So the two of us along with the two pooches will be traveling north to see The Gates. My mother and sister were there this week and they said it is wonderful. So it just really seemed like something we did not want to miss. So I'll report back. Satellite photo of The Gates from 23 miles in space from National Geographic.

Crash test dummie dies

Samuel Anderson, the inventor of the dummies used to test car safety, has died, the LAT reports. He was 90.

Bugs gets Swanned

A round-up of items...
I mentioned the Plume case yesterday. Slate.com's Today's Papers notes that both the WP and NYT front "a federal appeals court upholding an earlier ruling that the NYT's Judith Miller and Time's Matthew Cooper should indeed head to the slammer unless they spill who outed a CIA agent to them. The NYT has said it will appeal. The LAT also fronts the case, though putting it in a bigger context: The paper guesses that the ruling will push along federal "shield-law" legislation, which would allow reporters to stay mum about their sources."

Read the ruling itself.
Meanwhile, Slate.com’s media writer, Jack Shafer, urges a new attorney to represent the two.
Memo to Cooper and Miller [Slate.com]
Fire Floyd Abrams. Hire Bruce Sanford.

Totally unrelated...

A New Model Army Soldier Rolls Closer to the Battlefield [NYT, 2.16.2005]
The Pentagon predicts that robots will be a major fighting force in the American military in less than a decade.

I mentioned the indecency fines are likely to increase. Just wait, because you've not seen anything yet. The FCC wants children shielded from cellphone smut [Reuters via Yahoo News]

All of the press is working to deal with the new Web world -- and not just in my little niche of the world. The Financial Times reports that Rupert Murdoch and some 50 other senior News Corp. executives will meet in  New York today to map out an Internet strategy for the global media company in light of the sharp growth in Web advertising and changing viewing habits.

The most smutty story of the day...
Blogger digs up racy photos of ex-WH correspondent Gannon [WP, 2.16.2005].
Escort-service photos of former Talon News White House correspondent Jeff Gannon (real name: James Guckert) have deepened the debate over blogging and the tactics used by bloggers, says Howard Kurtz. Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid says: "The campaign against Gannon demonstrates the paranoid mentality and mean-spirited nature of the political left." John Aravosis of Americablog.org tells Kurtz: "The larger issue is how did someone like this get access to the White House." Here is the Americablog link, if you want to see it for yourself.

And finally...

Bugs Bunny gets Swanned with a total makeover. (Fox, of course, have pulled all links to its horrible make-over reality television program.)

Warner Bros. Wants to Update Bugs [WSJ, 2.16.2005]
Does Bugs Bunny, animation's king of insult comedy, really need a sharper edge? Warner Bros. Apparently thinks so. The WB television network is hoping to prop up its slumping Kids' WB line-up by launching a new cartoon series this fall "based on 're-imagined' versions of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, Lola Bunny, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote," The Wall Street Journal reports. Warner has thus "created angular, slightly menacing-looking versions of the classic Looney Tunes characters for its new series, dubbed 'Loonatics' and set in the year 2772." While the new characters will retain the personality quirks of the original, they may have newly derived names like Buzz Bunny, the Journal says. 

First ammendment shifted to 32nd

Yet another attack on our freedom of speech as lawmakers are set to raise fines for indecency.'
 

House Poised to OK Indecency Fine Increase [AP via Yahoo News, 2.16.2005]

House members are looking to hit broadcasters where it hurts — the pocketbook — to crack down on racy programming.

I just do not understand the entire brouhaha over indecency. Particularly these days, there are literally thousands of media outlets. So if you truly want to avoid indecency -- however one may define it -- you can. You don't like Howard Stern? Turn it off! It really is that simple. Yes, I know -- the children! This is one of these situations where we are outsourcing parental responsibilities. And, shockingly, it is conservatives who are pushing for this interventionist government.

CHER!

So we just got word that we got tickets to see Cher's final concert of her Farewell Tour at the Hollywood Bowl on April 30. Yes, yes, I know that she has done about 2,000  'final' shows, but... this may actually be her final show given that she first performed at the Hollywood Bowl 40 years ago with Sonny. Regardless, it is a great show and it will be a blast. Thanks to my father and step-mother for getting the tickets! And the show will apparently feature this cool Instant Live recording where you can actually buy a recording of the show literally as you leave. How cool is that?

Talk about a crime...

You want to talk about a crime. A U.S. appeals court ruled today that New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time's Matthew Cooper must comply with a subpoena from a grand jury investigating whether the Bush administration illegally leaked Valerie Plame's name to the news media.
This is a total witch hunt that hurts the press and hurts the people's right to get information. It's just bad!
I know people are never interested in hearing about how difficult it is to get and collect the news -- all of our jobs are difficult, after all. And people generally don't like the press, so in a way, I think they are happy that it is difficult. But his Plame case is the antithesis of free speech and freedom of the press. And the sad and frustrating part of this is that common sense seems to have evaporated.