Saturday, July 31, 2004

RHINO'S WEEKEND BLOG - July 31st & August 1st QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: "You are about to become the first privately owned and operated vice president of the United States." - - A line from Jonathan Demme 's remake of The Manchurian Candidate THE HISTORY: July 31, 1774 -- Clergyman, librarian & scientist, Joseph Priestly (1733 - 1804) discovers oxygen. July 31, 1964 --  Tonkin Gulf Hoax incidents begin as the US Navy destroyer Maddox (DD-731) begins a "reconnaissance" patrol along the coast of North Vietnam. The string of Tonkin Gulf lies, serving the interests of American corporations, media, military & the state, launch America headlong into the Vietnam War. The lies continue for at least another decade & cost 50,000 American boys their lives as true flag-waving patriots cheer them on to their deaths. August 1, 1942 -- Vocalist, guitarist & cultural icon, Jerry Garcia, is born. August 1, 1971 -- Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden. Two shows put together by George Harrison out of concern for the starving people of Bangladesh. Highlights include Ringo Starr flubbing the lyrics in his hit "It Don't Come Easy" & an unannounced appearance by Bob Dylan. August 1, 1981 -- Dawn of a new era; MTV is launched in an estimated 2.1 million homes. The first video shown is The Buggles tune "Video Killed the Radio Star." TV TIP: "The Social History of Concerts" MTV, Saturday, July 31, 2004 Daughters of Rhino's Blog Reader, Jan Mundo produced this MTV doc featuring musicians & fans telling why concerts are the best way to experience music. It tracks the origins of concert T-shirts, groupies &  live-music rituals like crowd surfing, bic flicking, & arm waving The half-hour show features Ludacris, New Found Glory, Blink 182, & No Doubt.   The Mundo sisters are on a roll. In 2001, Nadine directed, "ART OF SURVIVAL", a documentary short exploring how the school of Brazilian martial arts called Capoeira has changed the lives of inner-city youth. Rena Mundo has produced for several cable channels including a stint with Michael Moore's series, "The Awful Truth." Together they're at work on "Commune," the true story of America's most renowned hippie commune and the kids that lived through it. MTV: http://www.mtv.com Mundo Films:  http://www.mundofilms.com WEB SITE TIP:  The Illustrated Daily Scribble Ultra-current blog of raw sketches about the day's news drawn on legal pads by Charles Pugsley Fincher. RHINO HERE: There's a joke rounding the web that goes, "Former President Ronald Reagan's son, Ron Reagan Jr., has attacked President Bush saying he made a terrible mistake in Iraq. President Bush is furious! He said, 'What does the son of a former President know about Iraq?!'  Truth is Ron Reagan Jr. gave a spirited speech focusing on the issue his mother has been championing, Stem Cell Recearch. He then turned up as nightly host of an MS NBC late night show called "Convention After Hours." Remarks by Ron Reagan Jr. to the Democratic National Convention http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/9258435.htm?1c "Convention After Hours" Transcripts http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5558720 Meanwhile, Rhino's favorite news anchor, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, continues to kick ass and take names while weaving it into some very funny hijinks. Friday night he justifiably ridiculed Chris Matthews for interupting the broadcast of Al Sharpton's incredible speech to criticize him.  Stewart has also had his share of presidential candidates on "The Daily Show," but John Kerry has resisted the late-night lure. "Is this a strategy by John Kerry to present himself as serious -- or is he inherently unable to smile?" Stewart asks in mock-stentorian anchor tones. The Comedy Central satirist, who chatted up Tom Brokaw for his show Monday, delights in making fun of the very media hordes -- or "whores," as he deliberately mispronounced it -- he joined at the Democratic convention. The Daily Show http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/ Following are Roger Ebert's reviews of both the new movie, "The Manchurian Candidate" directed by Jonathan Demme & starring Denzel Washington and the 1962 original directed by John Frankenheimer & starring Frank Sinatra. Also below is an essay Evert wrote about the significance of the original to the killing of John Kennedy. Rhino plans to see the new one this weekend. Roger Ebert's "Great Movie" essay on the 1962 film is available online. The title of "The Manchurian Candidate" has entered everyday speech as shorthand for a brainwashed sleeper, a subject who has been hypnotized and instructed to act when his controllers pull the psychological trigger. In the movie, an American patrol is captured by Chinese communists during the Korean War, and one soldier is programmed to become an assassin; two years later, he's ordered to kill a presidential candidate. That such programming is impossible has not prevented it from being absorbed as fact; this movie, released in 1962, has influenced American history by forever coloring speculation about Lee Harvey Oswald. Would the speculation about Oswald's background and motives have been as fevered without the film as a template? The film has become so linked with the Kennedy assassination that a legend has grown up around it. Frank Sinatra, the film's star, purchased the rights and kept it out of release from 1964 until 1988, and the story goes that he was inspired by remorse after Kennedy's death. In fact, the director John Frankenheimer told me, Sinatra had a dispute with United Artists about the profits, and decided it would earn no money for the studio or anyone else... MORE: http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/manchuriancandidate.html  "The Manchurian Candidate" By Roger Ebert , 3/11/1988 Here is a movie that was made more than 25 years ago, and it feels as if it were made yesterday. Not a moment of "The Manchurian Candidate" lacks edge and tension and a cynical spin. And what's even more surprising is how the film now plays as a political comedy, as well as a thriller. After being suppressed for a quarter of a century after its first run, after becoming a legend that never turned up on home video, John Frankenheimer's 1962 masterpiece now re-emerges as one of the best and brightest of modern American films.  The story is a matter of many levels,... MORE: http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1988/03/283501.html THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE / *** (R) by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times, July 30, 2004 Corporations, not commies, are the sinister force behind Jonathan Demme's "The Manchurian Candidate," in which poor Raymond Shaw is told by a liberal senator: "You are about to become the first privately owned and operated vice president of the United States." There's a level of cynicism here that is scarier than the Red Chinese villains in John Frankenheimer's 1962 classic. It's a stretch to imagine a communist takeover of America, but the idea that corporations may be subverting the democratic process is plausible in the age of Enron....    ... To compare Demme's version with Frankenheimer's is sort of irrelevant. That was then and this is now. Sinatra and Washington are both complete and self-contained and cannot be meaningfully compared. What we can say is that Demme has taken a story we thought we knew and, while making its outlines mostly recognizable, rotated it into another dimension of conspiracy. Are corporations really a threat to America's security? The rotten ones are. When you consider that the phony California electric crisis, with its great cost in lives and fortune, was an act of corporate terrorism, he has a point. READ IT ALL AT: http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/wkp-news-manchurian30f.html "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 7:42:39 AM    comment

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