Friday, August 1, 2003

Gigli - A Review (via cinema minima) GIGLI by Martin Brest. Martin Brest's fascinating GIGLI marks a return to personal filmmaking for a writer-director whose movies have zigged and zagged since his auspicious feature debut, GOING IN STYLE, in 1979. While Brest can deliver a slick Hollywood production (BEVERLY HILLS COP, SCENT OF A WOMAN) seemingly on demand, his best work combines a high level of Hollywood-style craftsmanship with often devastating reversals of conventions, particularly when it comes to happy endings for his protagonists. Generally, these comically pained anti-heroes are embarked on either criminal or semi-honest (Robert De Niro's bounty hunter in MIDNIGHT RUN) pursuits which they believe will solve their immediate problems. All they discover is that their problems are much bigger than they thought they were and that, when the inevitable ensuing farcical disasters are cleared up, they have an idea of how to go about solving them. more [Henry Sheehan: movie reviews]   GIGLI in Internet Movie Database  GIGLI in Movie Review Query Engine   Martin Brest [cinema minima] 11:14:19 PM

1-866-DEAN-4-USA You Are the First to Know. As promised, you here on the blog are the first to know. We weren't able to do this until you came through for Howard Dean. From Friday the 25th of July through Monday the 29th, 9,621 Americans joined together to demonstrate the power of the grassroots-- and raised over $508,000 in the Dean Team vs. Bush-Cheney Challenge. Your tremendous accomplishment has enabled us to do this. Beginning Monday, Howard Dean is going up on the air in Austin, Texas. In a television commercial recorded late this week, he will invite the people of Texas to join us in building the great grassroots campaign of the modern era-- whether by signing up online or using our new toll-free number: 1-866-DEAN-4-USA The people of Texas know George W. Bush better than anyone. Throughout this campaign, Howard Dean has been standing up to George W. Bush, and what better place to stand up against what George W. Bush has done to the economy and our nation than in Bush's home state of Texas. When we've said we're building a grassroots campaign in all 50 states, we've meant all 50 states. You have enabled us to bring Howard Dean's message to Texas. Help spread the word to the rest of the country by forwarding this blog entry, and ask your friends in every state to join us. We'll have the commercial on the web at the right time, sometime over the weekend. There will be more coming. But on Monday, Howard Dean goes up on the air in Texas. [Blog for America] 3:15:47 PM

A Gateway A Peking Gateway. [Ottmar Liebert] 1:42:48 PM

Blogs are 'It' - More Political Weblogs Senator Biden (Not an official site) and Jerry Springer jump into the blogosphere: Jeff Jarvis reports blog activity from Biden and Daschle. This is happening fast -- right on schedule.   I think Doc?s right that politicians may not understand the democratic potential of weblogs, and JRobb?s right that money is just the tip of the iceberg in the political blogosphere. But politicians smell money like sharks smell blood, and so they?ll all be looking for a weblog angle soon.   What will be interesting is that weblogs are hard to fake. Stiff, staff-written blogs won't fly. Dave Winer has said all politicians will  have weblogs, and I?ve countered that some of them shouldn?t. The lure of money may prove us both right. [EdCone.com] 12:14:15 PM

'Sleepy London Town Ain't No Place For A Street Fighting Man' It's "Streets of of London Day" over @ THE CARTOONIST. I think I owe that guy a couple of drinks! He did some technical consulting on the Mediaburn logo for the T-shirts and tank tops, which have now become very popular garments on beaches across the globe! Stop over at his weblog and pay your respects! ;o) The Streets of London. This is your Bishop Information Minister speaking. I'm disguised as a proper English Gentleman, because today is official 'Streets of London' day! The silly song, together with the stupid lyrics, is here. [The Cartoonist] 1:54:47 AM

Learning Daschle From Daypop "My staff told me a while back about a blog," Daschle said. "I learned a new word. ... This new blog concept appealed to me." The first posting in Daschle's blog - which will be called "Travels with Tom" and will be linked to the front of his official Senate Web site - should go up Thursday, spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said. Aides will post Daschle's entries as he writes them, Pfeiffer said. See the previous link by Wozz for a link to Daschle's site. "Daschle will post diary on his Senate Web site" [Daypop Top 40] 12:58:35 AM

Howard Dean's Growing Support & Sleepless Summer Tour Early Morning News Roundup. Illustrating how your efforts in growing the campaign are making a difference in every state of the union, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution publishes a piece this morning on the self-organized Georgia for Dean group, under the headline Dean Momentum Builds in Georgia: The Georgia group, already hundreds strong, appears to be a genuine grass-roots effort. Many of its volunteers are political novices who signed up through the Internet. "I have never been involved in a political campaign or so disgusted with a sitting president before," said Allen Broyles, 37, of Atlanta, who volunteered through the Internet last month... "Nobody has a staff yet [in Georgia]," said [Jeff] DiSantis, who expects campaigns to shift staff to Georgia after the first round of primaries. For now, the Dean campaign is the only game in town. The Internet, pioneered nationally by the Dean campaign as an organizational and fund-raising tool, has been credited with helping to make Dean a top contender. It's no different in Georgia. Monthly meetings are held in connection with Meetup.com, an Internet-based service that organizes local gatherings on a multitude of topics. Three meetings are planned Wednesday in metro Atlanta, and information about each is at dean2004.meetup.com. The Falls Church News Press features a bit of info on the upcoming Sleepless Summer Tour. Click here to sign up and join Howard Dean in your area. The AP reports that "The president of the Sierra Club says he's thrilled with Dean's positions on the environment," laid out in the Governor's speech yesterday in San Francisco. And in the "I'm a divider, not a uniter" category of news for President Bush, the San Francisco Chronicle writes that the President "deliberately blurr[ed] the difference between religious-sanctioned marriage and civil unions" in his press conference yesterday because it's a great "wedge issue," even though such a tactic is likely to "hurt the president's re-election chances because swing voters typically don't like creepy Republican debates about social issues." [Blog for America] 12:21:04 AM