Thursday, February 26, 2015

 

Psycho-Analyzing Hugh Hewitt

People on news programs exaggerating their life experiences has come under a lot of scrutiny lately. So I'm looking through DSM V for the diagnosis of Hugh Hewitt's serial exaggerations about being involved in famous rock bands. It might just be a mild case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (301.81), but he's too good a guy for most of the Diagnostic Criteria. I miss being able to diagnose Munchausen's Syndrome. That's not in the book. In the past he has claimed some association with the cowbell in (Don't Fear) the Reaper by Blue Öyster Cult and with Cream during that supergroup's existence. There may be others.

So what did he lie talk about this time? Earlier this week he reported on the 40th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin's 6th album, Physical Graffiti, on February 24, 1975. That was two days after Hugh's 18th birthday when he was a senior at JFK Catholic High School in Warren, Ohio. Hugh, live on the radio, was floridly fantasizing about being somehow involved in the making of that album, calling the band members by their first names (but, tellingly, not by their nicknames) and implying that his input into the song Kashmir was somehow vital to that song's popularity and success. Too bad for Hugh that Kashmir was written and recorded in November, December 1974, when Hugh was just 16 and nowhere near the UK, not that he was anywhere near the UK or Led Zeppelin during that group's existence either.

It's just possible that Hugh is doing this as a joke. If so, he should never, ever try stand up comedy. I guess he could be inviting us to laugh at him, at his transparent lies, but now I'm wondering if that's a mental disorder in DSM V in itself?

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Monday, February 23, 2015

 

Oscar Prediction Results

I was 18/24. I missed (almost on purpose) Best Picture but got the rest of the big 7 right (Remember--Hollywood loves disease dramas and to pat itself on the back for its denizens' portraying themselves sacrificing for art).

Regarding screen writing. Missed that Birdman would win original script too. I should have seen that coming.

Missed the long cartoon. The trailers for Big Hero 6 did look pretty good. I have alas moved on from cartoons.

Missed sound mixing. The winner was Whiplash, which I actually want to see now.

Missed film editing. It was Whiplash again.

I missed best film score. Grand Budapest beat the frontrunner Theory of Everything.

Dave, who taught me how to pick the winners (mostly), finally pulled ahead and won the bet after a long string of losses. Well done, my friend.

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Saturday, February 21, 2015

 

Take Them to the Bank Oscar Predictions -- 2015

Here are the big nine:

Best Picture-- American Sniper (Bold Prediction here--everyone else says Birdman, which sucked, and possibly Boyhood--it makes sense for it to be Birdman because that waste of film is about the brave, selfless sacrifices actors, directors and producers make to give us their magnificent art and Hollywood loves to pat itself on the back, but I'm picking American Sniper because I want it to be true)
Best Leading Man-- Eddie Redmayne (good possibility for Michael Keaton to upset here)
Best Leading Lady-- Julianne Moore (Yech!, other than Andie MacDowell, who else has ruined or diminished more good movies by her mediocre presence? but Hollywood loves disease dramas)
Best Supporting Actor-- JK Simmons
Best Supporting Actress-- Patricia Arquette
Best Foreign Film-- Ida (Poland) (tough category)
Best Director-- A.G. Inarritu (but it could and should be Richard Linkletter. Clint Eastwood will never win in this town again after the empty chair/Obama spot on stunt)
Best Screenplay, Original-- Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Screenplay, Adapted-- Imitation Game (but it could be Whiplash)

Easy calls:

Cinematography-- Birdman (bet the house-- Hollywood loves long uncut moving camera takes and this movie seems like it is nothing but those)
Visual Effects-- Interstellar
Animated Feature-- How to Train Your Dragon 2
Sound Mixing-- American Sniper (or Birdman, if I'm wrong about Best Picture)
Sound Editing-- American Sniper
Production Design fka Art Direction-- The Grand Budapest Hotel
Makeup-- The Grand Budapest Hotel
Costume-- The Grand Budapest Hotel

 Here are the not that easy rest:

Documentary Feature-- Citizen Four (film on lefty "hero" traitor Edward Snowden should beat a mediocre field)
Film Editing-- Boyhood
Original Score-- The Theory of Everything


Here are the  next to impossible to call:


Original Song-- Glory (even though Glen Campbell has the disease Moore pretends, poorly, to have)
Documentary Short-- Crisis Hotline
Animated Short-- Feast
Live Short-- Phone Call


I only saw three of the 8 nominations for Best Picture: American Sniper, Birdman and The Imitation Game. Nothing really wowed me in 2014. I liked Guardians of the Galaxy and Edge of Tomorrow (both based on comic books) but other good movies, like Fury, Lucy, Gone Girl, Interstellar, Imitation Game and Nightcrawler, all had very disappointing parts. I should see Boyhood and I want to see Calvary. The movie that really disturbed me but stuck in my head was Under the Skin.

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Friday, February 20, 2015

 

Au Contraire

Soon to be a former State Department Spokesman Marie Harf said on Chris Matthews' little watched show recently regarding our efforts to rid the World of IS savages:


But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war.
She is completely wrong. The only way to win a war is to kill enough of the enemy that they no longer can or want to continue fighting.


The moronic disbelief in the real world by Obama Administration personnel is mindboggling.

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Monday, February 09, 2015

 

Thought of the Day

And Greece is now saying: We took money from you for a decade and wasted it, and we intend to waste billions more, and there's nothing you can do to stop us, except kick us out of the EU, which we know you won't do, so there's nothing you can do but continue to subsidize us like rotten, hooligan teenagers.
And while Germany is threatening Greece that they had better buckle down and get on some program that will bring them to a point of financial viability, they're like parents threatening their freeloading hooligan teenage kids: They're not going to carry out the threat and they know it.


The Ace of Spades

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