The official poster for TTT debuts….looks like no love for Merry and Pippen this time, or Eomer, Faramir, Theoden, Treebeard, or Wormtongue, for that matter. Nevertheless, we’ve got less than two months until the big show, and exactly two weeks until the extended Fellowship…it’s a good time to be alive. Update: Are PJ and Sir Ian thinking of The Hobbit?
Month: October 2002
Hyde Smash!
More pics of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have surfaced online, including Jason Flemyng with some big ole arms. (Scroll past the X2 stuff, unless you’re interested.)
Music soothes the savage Berk.
No, according to these guys, it really does. There’s no question Berkeley‘s a lot more docile with “The Breaking of the Fellowship” on or somesuch. And when “Where’s Your Head at?” is blaring, he knows it’s time to jump up and down and run around in circles. (Via Follow Me Here.)
Regime Change.
Rolling Stone writer William Greider thinks the Dems need to get rid of Daschle and Gephardt. I always liked Daschle – in fact, of the current (admittedly lame) crop of Democratic presidential contenders he and John Kerry were my top two choices. But after the Majority Leader’s capitulation on the Iraq resolution, I’ve definitely soured on him. [As I’ve noted many times here, however you feel about the (all-too-)suddenly all-consuming issue of Iraq, it is Congress’s job to declare war, not the President’s.] As for Gephardt, he’s been trying for too hard, too long. Somebody should’ve told him years ago that, in the media age, a man without eyebrows will never be President. At any rate, I think Greider’s point here is essentially sound — The Democratic leadership needs to stop imagining themselves in higher offices and start drawing lines in the sand.
Way Out of Sight.
The official site for Solaris goes live, with a number of stills (basically George Clooney and/or Natasha McElhone running around the elegantly designed space station.) I was hoping to catch the original at the Film Forum but it’s already gone. If Soderbergh is right when he describes the remake as “2001: A Space Odyssey meets Last Tango in Paris,” it sounds like the premier date movie for the fanboy/fangirl nation (this side of The Two Towers, of course.)
Misery Index.
For the first time in ten years, crime goes up. Ah, the Dubya era…remember when the Dems were meant to be “soft on crime”? Of course, that was before the GOP allied itself with the gun nuts.
A Change of Season.
Angels win the series. I thought Game 6 was quite exciting. Game 7, on the other hand, was pretty dull. At any rate, it’s finally time to focus on more important matters, like the NBA, which starts tomorrow…
The Morning After.
As Minnesota picks up the pieces after Senator Wellstone’s untimely death, the GOP starts bashing (Walter) Mondale and Governor Body expects a challenge.
R.I.P. Senator Paul Wellstone 1944-2002.
Oh no. This is horrible news. Wellstone was the progressive lion of the Senate. He’s going to be missed in so many ways. And, while it seems utterly rude to consider politics at this moment of personal tragedy, lest anyone else out there was at first imagining a Jeanne Carnahan scenario to save the contested Senate seat, his wife and daughter are also among the deceased. Will Governor Ventura appoint someone to the seat? Ted Mondale or Skip Humphrey? Whomever it is, I’m positive they won’t fill Wellstone’s shoes.
Paul Wellstone was one of the last champions of the little guy, fighting daily for campaign finance reform, corporate accountability, universal health care, and a cleaner, safer environment. When the Democrats were falling over each other to prostrate themselves before Gore, Wellstone broke ranks to support Bill Bradley. When all too many of his Democratic colleagues in Congress voted to cede their constitutionally-mandated authority to debate and declare war, Wellstone voted no to Dubya’s Johnson-esque power grab. In sum, Wellstone had in surplus those characteristics that are in such short supply in today’s Capitol — vision, compassion, and above all, integrity. In a sea of mealy-mouthed, equivocating liberals, he was a bold, fighting progressive.
And he is struck down in his prime. Meanwhile, Jesse “Race-baiting” Helms and Strom “Dixiecrat” Thurmond just go on and on and on. Sometimes the world seems so goddamn unfair I just can’t wrap my mind around it.
Poetry in Motion.
Rosalie O’Connor, a former dancer with ABT, now has her own photography site full of striking pictures, including this one of dancers in the wings watching one of Gill‘s performances. Definitely worth a look-see. (Via Listen Missy.)