[scifinoir2] Re: Poverty Line

[Kelly Wright]

George Will (the high principaled individual who stole Jimmy Carter's 
preparation notes and gave them to Ronald Reagan so Reagan could 
trounce Carter in their debate) opines that there is a very simple 
cure for black poverty: marraige.  While it is true that stable, two 
parent families are the surest route out of poverty, Will blithely 
ignores the glue that bonds those families: jobs.  I have spent 
twenty-five years working in factories and I can vouch that nearly 
every black man I know who makes a living wage, supports his family.  
And this is true through marraige, separation and divorce.  A man who 
earns a living wage will support his children - and those children 
are more likely to succeed.  I can also attest to the fact that this 
society makes it awfully hard for a black man to attain and, more 
importantly, retain a job that pays a living wage.  At the company 
where I work, one often touted as one of the best places in America 
to work, I was the first black man in my division to achieve 15 years 
of senority (this was five years ago).  There were black men working 
there when I started and none of them was still working for the 
company when I reached my personal milestone.  I achieved my 
milestone despite repeated efforts by the company to lay the paper 
trail that would terminate me. The aggressive and frequently 
nonsensical lengths to which the company would go to eliminate me 
made me good and I have used my expertise to make sure that nearly 
every black man this division hires makes their probation (every 
white person that comes through the door makes probation but blacks 
failed frequently)and retains their employment (several have joined 
me in the "15-year club").  When I started at this division in 1984, 
there were three blacks, including myself.  Now a quarter of the 
workforce is black.

~rave! 


--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Xavier Moon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> It took a few days after New Orleans flooded for the press to 
breach the
> mental levee blocking comments on the victims' race and class. But, 
once
> that levee finally broke, it washed away pretty quickly. In a 
furious rant
> on Thursday, CNN's Jack Cafferty lashed out at journalists' 
unwillingness to
> take on the "elephant in the room" and complained that "almost 
every person
> we've seen, from the families stranded on their rooftops ... to the 
people
> holed up in the Superdome, are black and poor." Thereafter, the 
major
> networks got in on the action, and, by Sunday, a Fox roundtable was 
debating
> Condoleezza Rice's concession that "we do, I think, at some point, 
need to
> see that people couldn't evacuate who were poor ... [and] 
understand better
> how to make sure that that doesn't happen again."  
> 
> The good news is that we're about to have a long overdue debate 
about
> poverty in this country. The bad news is that most of the 
commentary so far
> has focused only on poverty as an economic condition. Cafferty 
observed that
> "many of [Hurricane Katrina's poor victims] didn't follow the 
evacuation
> orders because they didn't have the means to get out of town." 
Former
> Senator John Edwards stressed the low rates of car ownership among 
New
> Orleans's poor and their need to protect possessions they couldn't 
afford to
> replace. That view was echoed among politicians further to his left.
> "There's a whole segment of society that's being left behind," wrote
> Representative John Lewis in Newsweek. "When you tell people to 
evacuate,
> these people didn't have any way to leave." 
> 
> Implicit in these arguments is the idea that poor people are pretty 
much
> like everyone else, just with less money. From this, it follows 
that the
> remedy is primarily financial. Consider Lewis's proposed solution 
not just
> for New Orleans but for the problem of urban poverty in 
general: "[I]n
> rebuilding, we should see this as an opportunity to rebuild urban 
America.
> ... There must be a commitment of billions and billions of 
dollars."  
>  
> But, if anything, the flooding of New Orleans teaches the opposite
> lesson--that the problem of poverty isn't just economic, it's also
> sociological. On Monday, The New York Times' Jodi Wilgoren bylined 
what may
> be the most important piece of Katrina coverage to date. Wilgoren 
followed
> two families struggling to evacuate New Orleans in the flood's 
aftermath:
> one white and middle class (though hardly affluent, as Wilgoren 
notes), the
> other black and poor. The outcome of the story will surprise no 
one. The
> first family quickly found comfortable accommodations in a northern
> Louisiana hotel, then a semi-permanent home in a nearby town. As of
> Saturday, the second family was still shuffling from one endless 
line to
> another--hungry, unshowered, unsure of its next move. 
> 
> What's fascinating are the ways in which the two families 
navigated, or
> failed to navigate, the crisis. The matriarch of the middle-class 
family, a
> lo

[scifinoir2] Re: King Leopold's Ghost

[Kelly Wright]

"The Race to Fashoda: Colonialism and African Resistance" by African-
American scholar David Levering Lewis is an excellent, extremely well-
written and researched text about the same subject.  

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
> HISTORY_King  Leopold's Ghost_ 
> (http://sublit.com/ad/func/ct.php?
mail_list_id=22&job_id=465325&subscriber_id=247296&listing_id=LISTING_
ID&url=www.amazon
> .com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618001905/102-1521687-6248139) 
> by Adam  Hochschildjournalistic  account of King Leopold II's 
colonization of 
> the Congo, which killed ten million  Africans, inspired Heart of 
Darkness, 
> and led to Mobutu Sese Seko's  brutal dictatorship.
> 
> Review
> When Adam  Hochschild realized that King Leopold II's colonization 
of the 
> Congo â€" a  holocaust that killed ten million Africans â€" was 
largely untold and  
> unremembered, he decided to write King Leopold's Ghost. Hochschild 
is a  
> Berkeley professor, a long-time journalist, and cofounder of 
Mother  Jones, and in 
> his able hands what could have been a morbid read becomes an  eye-
opening, 
> plotty story filled with intrigue and poignancy.
> 
> King  Leopold II assumed the throne of Belgium in 1865, and if 
there were 
> ever a  monarch whose ambitions did not fit his country, he was it. 
Hemmed in by 
> an  elected government and larger, stronger _neighbors_ 
> (http://sublit.com/ad/func/ct.php?
mail_list_id=22&job_id=465325&subscriber_id=247296&listing_id=LISTI
> 
NG_ID&url=www.onwar.com/aced/nation/fax/france/ffranceprussia1870.htm)
 , 
> Leopold's dreams of power, wealth, and empire seemed  destined to 
wither away 
> until _Henry Morton Stanley_ 
> (http://sublit.com/ad/func/ct.php?
mail_list_id=22&job_id=465325&subscriber_id=247296&listing_id=LISTING_
ID&url=en.wikipedia.org/wiki
> /Henry_Morton_Stanley)  emerged (barely alive) from his treks  
through the 
> Congo in 1877. Courting the macho trailblazer, Leopold was able to  
get the 
> inside scoop on the vast jungle from virtually the only person who 
could  provide 
> it to the Western world.
> 
> It wasn't long before Leopold laid claim  to an enormous swath of 
land, 
> halving the Congo's indigenous population in 40  years and making 
himself rich and 
> powerful. As the wealth stacked, so did the  atrocities: children 
were clubbed 
> to death to save bullets, women were abducted  to compel men to 
work, and 
> entire villages were razed to plant  rubber.
> 
> Despite _the horror_ 
> (http://sublit.com/ad/func/ct.php?
mail_list_id=22&job_id=465325&subscriber_id=247296&listing_id=LISTING_
ID&url=etext.lib.virginia.edu/e
> tcbin/toccer-new2?
id=ConDark.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/mode
> ng/parsed&tag=public&part=all)  of Leopold's regime, King Leopold's 
Ghost is  
> also a story of redemption. Hochschild relates the tale of George 
Washington  
> Williams, a plucky African-American polymath who began the crusade 
to 
> liberate  the Congo from Leopold's grasp. Although tuberculosis 
claimed Williams 
> before  the Congo was free, the torch was picked up by E.D. Morel, 
a Liverpool  
> dockworker who could not ignore his conscience once he realized 
that the  
> firearms he helped ship to the Congo in exchange for ivory and 
rubber could only  
> mean slave labor.
> 
> Showcasing Hochschild's keen eye for detail, King  Leopold's Ghost 
does just 
> what a history should do; it relates an episode  that we should 
care about, 
> and tells it in a way that will make us want to know  more. (SE) 
> 
> 
> 
> Carole  McDonnell 
> "Then said I, 'Here am I; send  me.'"
> www.geocities.com/scifiwritir/OreoBlues.html
> alternate email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





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[scifinoir2] See New Orleans' mayor Ray Nagin on "Sixty Minutes"?

[Kelly Wright]

Did anyone happen to catch New Orleans' mayor Ray Nagin on "60 Minutes"
tonight?

Mayor to feds: 'Get off your asses'
Transcript of radio interview with New Orleans' Nagin

Friday, September 2, 2005; Posted: 2:59 p.m. EDT (18:59 GMT)

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin speaks Saturday, before Hurricane
Katrina's devastation.


(CNN) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blasted the slow pace of federal
and state relief efforts in an expletive-laced interview with local
radio station WWL-AM.

The following is a transcript of WWL correspondent Garland Robinette's
interview with Nagin on Thursday night. Robinette asked the mayor
about his conversation with President Bush:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/

___
The Black Prince. The Black Church. A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com






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[scifinoir2] Re: [OT] Looting by Cops in N.O.

[Kelly Wright]

Quiet as it is kept, the firemen in New York did quite a bit 
of "looting" in the aftermath of 9/11...but they are still "heros."

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?
vnu_content_id=1001051261
> 
> 'Times-Picayune' Announces New Home - in Houma - and Reports 
Looting by
> Cops and Firemen
> 
> By E&P Staff
> 
> Published: August 30, 2005 6:25 PM ET
> 
> 
> NEW YORK The battered Times-Picayune of New Orleans, which 
evacuated its
> downtown office this afternoon, posted a simple note to it staffers 
on its
> Web site late this afternoon: "We are working at the Houma Courier 
for a
> few days. If you have news, call 985-850-1182. We plan to set up a 
longer
> term newsroom in Baton Rouge. Call the Advocate to find out where 
we are."
> 
> Meanwhile, two staffers published a story on one of the Web site's 
blogs,
> reporting on the looting in the city - joined in by cops and 
firemen who
> had been called to the scene.
> 
> Other reports, and TV footage, have shown brazen looting at many 
sites
> around the city. One compared the current climate in the 
increasingly
> desperate city to "Sodom and Gomorrah."
> 
> One looter shot a local police officer, but Tuesday night word came 
that
> the officer was expected to survive.
> 
> At the Times-Picayune Web site, Mike Perlstein and Brian Thevenot 
wrote
> that at a Wal-Mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, mass looting broke out 
after a
> giveaway of supplies was announced at that location. While some did 
indeed
> carry away food and essentials, others "cleared out jewelry racks 
and
> carted out computers, TVs, and appliances on handtrucks. Some 
officers
> joined in taking whatever they could, including one New Orleans cop 
who
> loaded a shopping cart with a compact computer and a 27-inch flat 
screen
> television.
> 
> "Throughout the store and parking lot, looters pushed carts and 
loaded
> trucks and vans alongside officers. One man said police directed 
him to
> Wal-Mart from Robert's Grocery, where a similar scene was taking 
place. A
> crowd in the electronics section said one officer broke the glass 
DVD case
> so people wouldn't cut themselves.
> 
> "The police got all the best stuff. They're crookeder than us," one 
man
> said. Most officers, though, simply stood by powerless against the 
tide of
> law breakers.
> 
> One veteran officer said, "It's like this everywhere in the city. 
This
> tiny number of cops can't do anything about this. It's wide open."
> 
> Some groups, the reporters wrote, "organized themselves into 
assembly
> lines to more efficiently cart off goods. Inside the store, one 
woman was
> stocking up on make-up. She said she took comfort in watching 
police load
> up their own carts. 'It must be legal,' she said. 'The police are 
here
> taking stuff, too.'"
> 
> 
> E&P Staff ([EMAIL PROTECTED])




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[scifinoir2] Re: Brock Peters, Sisko's 'Father', Dies at 78

[Kelly Wright]

Now, see, this is what EYE am talkin' about!  So far this (SFN) is 
the only source that has mentioned Peters stint as Sisko's father.
Thanks Brent!

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-08-23-peters-obit_x.htm
> 
> Brock Peters, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' actor, dies at 78
> 





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[scifinoir2] Re: DVD format war escalates as talks fail

[Kelly Wright]

If I was a betting man - no, wait, I AM - I would cast my lot with 
Toshiba.  The inferior format always wins.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7886
> 
> DVD format war escalates as talks fail
> 
> 13:10 23 August 2005
> 
> NewScientist.com news service
> 
> 
> Japanese electronics giants said on Tuesday they would go ahead with
> incompatible formats for next-generation DVDs after talks to reach a
> common standard failed.
> 
> The decision presents consumers with a choice much the same as when 
video
> cassettes came out in the 1970s. The duelling HD DVD and Blu-ray 
formats
> parallel the battle between Betamax and VHS and - a fight which 
Betamax
> eventually lost.
> 
> Next-generation DVDs, expected to hit the mass market late in 2006, 
are
> billed as offering cinematic quality images and new possibilities 
for
> interactive entertainment.
> 
> Sony's Blu-ray disc is expected to have a greater storage capacity 
but
> also be more expensive to make, at least in the short term, as the 
format
> has greater differences from current-generation DVDs.
> Software schedule
> 
> Toshiba, maker of the HD DVD (High Density Digital Versatile Disc), 
said
> it was still in talks with Blu-ray designer Sony to find a common 
format
> but in the absence of an agreement it was going to push ahead with
> production of its own format.
> 
> "[We are] planning to launch our first HD DVD products by the end 
of 2006.
> To do that, we have to start production of software for it by the 
end of
> August," a Toshiba spokeswoman said.
> 
> "We have not set a time limit for the talks" on a common standard, 
she
> added, "but we have not reached any concrete agreement yet". A Sony
> spokesman said future negotiations would be held if there was "an
> opportunity for it".
> 
> But the Sony spokesman was bullish about Blu-ray becoming 
the "single
> standard". He said: "We have focused on improving our format with 
many
> technological breakthroughs. It is desirable that the market has a 
single
> format for the next-generation DVD. So Blu-ray has improved itself 
so that
> all firms will support the format."
> Multi-functional hardware
> 
> After three years of fighting, the two sides agreed in April to 
study
> compatibility to prevent a scenario in which future Sony discs do 
not work
> on Toshiba players, or vice versa.
> 
> But even if consumers have headaches when next-generation DVDs 
first hit
> mainstream stores, analysts note that the electronics industry has 
become
> more sophisticated since VHS and Betamax.
> 
> "In the digital era, it is easier for hardware to become multi-
functional.
> It is different from the analogue period, like with video formats," 
said
> Osamu Hirose, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center.
> 
> "The difference between the two formats are things such as pickups 
and
> laser wavelength. Eventually, multi-functional DVD players should 
be able
> to overcome the difference. Consumers will only have to wait a 
little
> until that time comes," he said.
> 
> Some electronics firms, including Paris-based Thomson, have said 
they
> would support both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. Supporters of the 
Blu-ray
> technology include Apple Computer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Samsung
> Electronics.
> 
> Among the Hollywood studios, Walt Disney and Sony Pictures 
Entertainment
> back Blu-ray, while HD DVD supporters include Paramount Pictures,
> Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers Studios.




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[scifinoir2] Re: FW:August Wilson,American playwright ill

[Kelly Wright]

I am saddened to read this.  Did Mr. August finish his project of 
writing a play commemmorating each decade of the past century?

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly 
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> -Original Message-
> From: African-Americans in Higher Education
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of RODNEY COATES
> Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 8:12 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [AFAMHED] fwd: August Wilson,American playwright ill
> 
> 
> I am so saddened to tell you that great American, descendant of the
> slaves
> playwright, August Wilson has been diagnosed with liver cancer  and 
is
> very
> ill, but not bedridden. If you know his work or know the man he 
laughs
> in
> the face of truth and finds comfort.  I am so glad that I was able 
to
> meet
> him, touch and know him through his wonderful family and his 
stories.
> Stories which bind me to myself, my history and to the depth of my 
own
> truth. I am thrilled that Imani will be able to grow up to say that 
it
> was a
> Gus Wilson play that made her first thrill to adult theatre and
> playwright.
> 
> Gus has chosen to not to seek a curative treatment and in Stage IV .
> His
> sister Freda is joining him in Seattle this week and to help him
> through the
> many decisions that he has to make. There is more than you can do 
than
> go
> for medical intervention to be treated.  I hope that he finds one of
> these
> to lift him beyond the illness and provide a quality of life that I 
am
> sure
> he would appreciate and make use of while he is ill.
> 
> What an American treasure and his writings have been to this 
country.
> I am
> so saddened. His favorite critic and niece is a member of this list 
and
> we
> want Kim to know that we are here for her.  The word cancer has such
> power
> over a family and a family's love.
> 
> http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/americasbest/pro.awilson.html
> His poetic plays about African-American life offer plainspoken 
truths
> that
> transcend race
> 
> 
> 
> You will find that the media will be reporting it in the news on
> tomorrow.
> 
> Please join me in prayers for Gus and his family. He has given us so
> much.
> His genius and a reminder of "what our ancestors gave . . . the hope
> and the
> faith of the slave."
> 
> 
> Tuesday, May 20, 2003
> 
> A moment with...playwright August Wilson
> 
> By JOE ADCOCK
> SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
> 
> August Wilson is arguably America's greatest living playwright. Time
> magazine has said so and I agree. The man is a sort of industry. He
> lives in
> Seattle, but his works are produced all over the world. He is the
> subject of
> conferences, lectures, essays and syllabuses. He is even the 
subject of
> an
> e-Bay "collectibles" niche.
> 
> Wilson's epics of African American life include two Pulitzer Prize
> winners,
> "Fences" (1987) and "The Piano Lesson" (1990). Each of Wilson's nine
> major
> plays chronicles a 20th-century decade as experienced by struggling
> Pittsburgh ghetto dwellers. His most recent play, "Gem of the 
Ocean,"
> deals
> with the 1900s. That leaves one more decade to cover, the 1990s.
> 
> But Wilson, 58, has taken a sudden detour. He has written for 
himself a
> solo
> performance piece, "How I Learned What I Learned." It begins
> production
> Thursday as part of the Seattle Repertory Theatre's annual new plays
> series,
> running through June 2.
> 
> I talked to Wilson Saturday at the Mecca Cafe, a Lower Queen Anne
> coffee
> shop that is smoker-friendly (Wilson is an avid smoker).
> 
> Why the sudden shift of focus from writing to performing? Sharon Ott
> (the
> Rep's artistic director) asked me to do a 45-minute show as part of
> their
> 40th anniversary celebration. I said no, but I'll do an hour. At
> yesterday's
> rehearsal, I'd talked for 54 minutes and I hadn't even gotten to the
> first
> story. The show is made up of eight or nine stories, anecdotes about
> things
> that happened to me when I was 20, 21, 22 -- stories I've told 100
> times.
> But they come out different every time.
> 
> What kind of stories? Like the time I was put in jail for breaking 
into
> my
> own apartment. I hadn't paid my rent. I got home and found a 
padlock on
> my
> door. I talked to a lawyer I knew. I asked him if I could break the
> lock. He
> said yes. The landlord has to give 30 days notice. So I broke the 
lock
> and
> went to bed and fell asleep. Next thing I knew two cops were 
standing
> over
> me, 'Get up buddy, you're coming with us.' There was no charge, 
though.
> I
> was acting on advice of counsel. That's a valid out. But in fact the
> lawyer
> was wrong. He didn't know that this was a furnished apartment. With 
a
> furnished apartment you can't break the lock.
> 
> Previous performing experience? None. Well, no speaking parts.
> 
> Non-speaking? That's another story I can use in the show: my first
> kiss.
> This was in the seventh grade (of a Pittsburgh Catholic parochial

[scifinoir2] 'Terminator 2' Shape-Shifting Lawsuit Moves Forward

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1507676/story.jhtml

According to a claim by two Australian filmmakers, the shape-shifting 
T-1000 featured in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" was based on a 
character they'd invented for an earlier movie. After years of legal 
battles, a federal appeals court in Los Angeles ruled Monday that the 
couple's lawsuit against "Terminator 2" co-writer and director James 
Cameron can proceed.

Filia and Constantinos Kourtis' lawsuit maintains that the idea for 
the T-1000 — portrayed in the movie by actor Robert Patrick — was 
lifted from a screenplay they'd commissioned back in 1987 for their 
film "The Minotaur," The Associated Press reports. The Kourtises 
hired scribe William Green to pen the screenplay for "The Minotaur," 
according to the suit, which also alleges that Green shared the 
script with Cameron.

Green claims he owned the screenplay's copyright, and subsequently 
sued Cameron for copyright infringement years after the theatrical 
release of "T2," the AP reports. That suit was later dismissed, and 
was followed in 1998 by a suit against Green filed by the Kourtises. 
An Australian court found for the couple, designating the Kourtises 
as the script's rightful owners.

Not long after, the couple focused their claim on Cameron, filing a 
suit seeking attribution and compensation for the unlawful use of 
their form-changing concept. That suit was eventually dismissed on 
the grounds that William Green's earlier action barred them from 
filing their own action against the director.

That decision was appealed, and this week, the Kourtises came one 
step closer to their day in court. A panel of judges ruled that the 
couple's lack of involvement in the initial suit brought by Green had 
no bearing on their case, and that the action should go forward. The 
AP was unable to reach Cameron's production company for comment on 
the court's decision.

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, 
interviews, trailers and more.


— Chris Harris





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[scifinoir2] Today on the World Ebon

[Kelly Wright]

Lisimba 20, 10031
   
Believing himself divinely inspired, visionary Nat Turner will found the 
band Southampton Insurrection.  He will be best known for the song
"Sixteen Hanged" from the band's debut album Chosen by God.  His
voice and charisma will turn the "raid" sound into an international rage.
   
__
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com




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[scifinoir2] Re: What does Sci-Fi have against Black people?

[Kelly Wright]

A notable exception was Eddie Gordo from Tekken 3.  Unfortunately,
Eddie was replaced by Christine in Tekken 4 (although he can be
unlocked in both Tekken 4 and 5).  I have read there is an
African-American character named "Raven" 
http://www.tekken-official.jp/tekken5/character/raven_e.html
in Tekken 5, who "borrows" quite a bit from Wesley Snipes' "Blade,"
but I can't confirm this as I have been through with Tekken since they
deep-sixed Eddie.

See the excellent article on Eddie Gordo from Planet Capoeira.

http://www.capoeira.com/planetcapoeira/articles/gordo.htm 

A few years ago the video game developer Namco released Tekken 3 to
arcades, the third in a series of hugely successful video games.
Introduced into this game was the world's first video game
capoeirista. Surprisingly, the developers of the game did a pretty
good job representing the art form. Certainly, there was some artistic
license in the name of bombastic video flash, but overall not bad for
a first try. At the time of development they used the then cutting
edge technology of video motion capturing, hooking a real life
capoeirista (Marcelo Pereira, i.e. Mestre Caveirinha of  Capoeira
Mandinga) up to some electrodes and sensors, and capturing his
movements for all time into the annals of video game history. 

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Oh yeah, I'm aware of it. I follow the videogame industry quite closely.
> I've even posted some articles on it here, such as the new phenomenon
> where actors, musicians, and atheletes now count starring in games as
> being as important as getting good endorsement deals. The issue of race
> is a huge one in gaming, and, as this article says, worse than that of
> gender. It's a male-dominated industry, true. But at least in
> RPGs--notably the Japanese ones--you get women used as heroines. Often
> part of a team, many times as the stars. Blacks are rarely seen in
> traditional RPGs: funny that you can have elves, giants, orcs, fairies,
> dudes with purple hair, etc., but no Brothers. And when Blacks are
> featured in such games, they're invariably shown as huge and hulking.
> Look at many fighting games, a genre which does feature Blacks. From the
> classic Street Fighter, to Streets of Rage ("Bare Knuckle" in Japan), to
> Soul Calibur, the Asian and white characters usually have skills such as
> speed, dexterity, flexiblity, agility, and are masters of a number of
> impressive martial arts. Black fighters are almost always rated high on
> size, strength, and cruder, more brutal fighting, such as boxing. A
> classic example is the Mike Tyson-like character in Street Fighter 2 who
> fought in a Vegas scene which was filled with Black pimps and
> prostitutes. The other characters had speed, superhuman skills and
> powers, he was just a big brawler. For years, the "Big Black Guy" has
> been a staple in gaming. We never get the slicker abilities. With the
> advent of the more "realistic" games like Grand Theft Auto, designers
> opened a new world in which games are based more on real environments.
> Unfortunately the realities they've chosen to portray have often been
> the inner city, gang-ridden, crime overrun ghettoes. Hence the Brother
> in GTA San Andreas, the roster of rappers starring in the fighter Def
> Jam Vendetta, and others.  Oh: we also star in a host of football and
> basketball games, and show up as soldiers too--always subordinate to a
> white commander.
>  
> Video games are becoming a huge part of our culture. They're as
> entrenched as TV and the Internet. The gaming industry is making money
> that meets or exceeds that of the film industry, billions of dollars. A
> single game like GTA or Halo can sell millions of units and be seen the
> world over by people from several cultures. What a sobering thought that
> the image of Blacks as hulking, graceless, thuglike pimps and gangsters
> is what Japanese and European gamers are seeing. 
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of g123curious
> Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 16:02
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: What does Sci-Fi have against Black people? 
>  
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
> > Like many of y'all have said--better than me, I
> > might add--it ultimately boils down to us
> > controlling our own. Between whites that are
> > prejudiced, whites that aren't prejudiced but
> > let market factors shaped by *other* whites
> > influence their decisions, and whites that
> > simply don't get it, we're always fighting an
> > uphill battle. Why are so many Blacks in scifi
> > often used as aliens that are either weird
> > looking, or "noble savages"?
> 
> Don't forget how we are portrayed in video games, where we now seem 
> to be getting more and more "leading roles" like CJ. See below. 
> That's part of the problem, too. It's good to read about this 
> brother, Armstrong, who is taking acti

[scifinoir2] Re: What does Sci-Fi have against Black people?

[Kelly Wright]

The difficulty of cracking the mainstream media is illustrated by a 
conversation film critic Elvis Mitchell had with Roger Greenblatt, 
president of Entertainment at Showtime Networks on his radio 
program, "the Treatment."

http://www.kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?
show_code=tt&air_date=4/27/05&tmplt_type=show

Mr. Greenblatt, while at FOX green-lighted such shows as "the X-
files," and "In Living Color."  As a producer he has produced "Six 
Feet Under" for HBO and "The Hughleys" for UPN.  He is friends with 
John Ridley, and he acknowledges that "Soul Food" was one of the 
highest rated programs ever broadcast by Showtime.  He recognizes 
that there is a dearth of good programming for black audiences, yet 
the best he can do, after talking about how important it is to take 
chances and try new ways of telling stories, is translating the 
Barbershop movies into a television show.  Which, I guess, is not so 
surprising when his contributions to black television are "The 
Hughleys," "One on One," "Eve" and the short-lived John Ridley hip-
hopera, "Platinum."

~(no)rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Like many of y'all have said--better than me, I might add--it 
ultimately
> boils down to us controlling our own. Between whites that are
> prejudiced, whites that aren't prejudiced but let market factors 
shaped
> by *other* whites influence their decisions, and whites that simply
> don't get it, we're always fighting an uphill battle. Why are so 
many
> Blacks in scifi often used as aliens that are either weird looking, 
or
> "noble savages"? I've complained more than once that Stargate SG-1 
and
> Atlantis each use the noble savage in Teal'c and Teyla. Did you know
> that Rodney's character (the nerdy, grouchy, scary genius on 
Atlantis)
> was originally written for a Black man? The producers claim they
> couldn't find a Brother to really fit the role, so they brought in
> Rodney! Even then, what was odd was that the man they wanted was
> described as "an elderly Black man". I have *nothing* against older
> actors. Indeed, I celebrate their usage, which is too infrequent. 
But
> it's strange that so often white geniuses (Daniel Jackson, Samatha
> Carter) are often depicted as young, vibrant, and attractive, but 
Black
> ones--when depicted--are often older, nerdier, unattractive. 
Strange.
> We could go on asking questions such as why someone like Will Smith
> still can't make a movie where he has a Black love interest, but 
again,
> it's back to us doing our own...
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com 
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of DJ VIBE
> Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 09:16
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: What does Sci-Fi have against Black 
people?
> 
> 
> --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > i posted about this during Season one of Galactica and did a 
count 
> of Blacks. I counted about three or four, incuding the comm officer 
> and some nameless pilots (I assume) used in the background. I then 
> found a lot of Blacks existed afterall: on the prison barge!  When 
> Apollo was sent over there to quell the riots, the place was lousy 
> with Big Black Man, most of them dark-skinned as hell and bald...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> See, you guys have me ROFLMBAO!  I'm gonna double-check for that 
when 
> I get the Season 1 DVD in September, but you're probably right and 
> IIRC, Saggiterion, where Zarek and his followers are from, is 
> considered the ghetto of the colonies.  Go figure.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>   _  
> 
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS 
> 
> 
>   
> *  Visit your group "scifinoir2
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> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




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[scifinoir2] Re: What does Sci-Fi have against Black people?

[Kelly Wright]

The problem with this is amply illustrated on the various black sci-
fi and fantasy lists I subscribe to:  all the black folks on those 
lists like sci-fi, fantasy, anime, comic books and horror, but all of 
those black folks don't like the SAME sci-fi, fantasy, anime, comic 
books and horror.  Tiny as this audience is, it has the nerve to be 
extremely fractured and segmented.  It has become crystal clear that 
what floats my boat, won't necessarily float anybody else's boat.  In 
fact, sci-fi and fantasy constitutes a very small part of my current 
reading or viewing.  I would much rather read a good detective novel 
than a good sci-fi book: I am more apt to read Walter Mosley than 
Brandon Massey.  My heavy SF reading was almost a quarter century ago.
I remain in these groups because the people I have met there tend to 
be interesting and intelligent but when it comes to satisfying our 
diverse tastes, I don't believe we can all get along!

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "md_moore42" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
> That's why I mentioned editing and supporting the writers with our 
cash.
> 
> --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "tetsuwanatom1" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
> > --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
> > star. You pitch it to the studio . . . and they say no. Just 
because 
> > we write the movie doesn't mean it will get made. I suppose then 
you 
> > could say, "Well, we have to make the movie." Uh, okay. I need 
100 
> > million dollars. Im taking collections . . .





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[scifinoir2] Re: What does Sci-Fi have against Black people?

[Kelly Wright]

Video games are huge.  Unfortunately, the industry is also extremely 
insular and increasingly expensive to get into.  Blacks form a larger 
slice of this audience than either television, movies or DVDs.  And 
they want to see product that reflects them...yet, the quote below 
says it all. 

"Games are an expressive medium. They are an art form, just like 
movies, theater and literature," Della Rocca said. "We're seeing, to 
a large extent, that the games that are being designed unconsciously 
include the biases, opinions and reflections of their creators."

~(no)rave! 

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "g123curious" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
Don't forget how we are portrayed in video games, where we now seem 
> to be getting more and more "leading roles" like CJ. See below. 
> That's part of the problem, too. It's good to read about this 
> brother, Armstrong, who is taking action.
> 
> George
> - - - - - - - - -
> 
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/fun.games/08/05/minority.gaming.ap/index
> .html
> Drawing minorities into gaming
> Push for more black, Hispanic heroes in video games
> Friday, August 5, 2005; Posted: 12:07 p.m. EDT (16:07 GMT) 
> 
> [Photograph. Caption: Urban Video Game Institute co-founder Joseph 
> Saulter, demonstrates 3D animation software.]
> 
> ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- In the popular video game "Grand Theft 
> Auto: San Andreas," players assume the lead character of Carl 
> Johnson, a down-on-his-luck criminal who roams city streets, 
> stealing cars and helping gang members knock off rivals in drive-by 
> shootings.
> 
> "CJ," as he's known by his pals, is black -- and to some in the 
> video game industry, that's a problem.
> 
> A growing number of people in the booming industry believe there 
> should be more black and Hispanic heroes and heroines instead of 
> hoods and hoodlums.
> 
> "Not everybody goes outside with bling-bling and listens to rap 
> music all day," says Amil Tomlin, a black 15-year-old from 
Baltimore 
> who plays hours of video games each day.
> 
> Among those trying to paint a different racial picture is Mario 
> Armstrong, who hosts a weekly National Public Radio program on 
> technology. He and two fellow black colleagues have started the 
> Urban Video Game Academy, a virtual programming boot camp for 
> minorities.
> 
> "It's been said that a bunch of nerdy white guys are creating these 
> games," Armstrong said. "The problem with a bunch of white guys 
> creating the games is that the story isn't being created with 
> balance."
> 
> Roughly 80%t of video game programmers are white, according to 
> preliminary results of an International Game Developers Association 
> survey. About 4% of designers are Hispanic, and less than 3% are 
> black.
> 
> The academy is holding summer workshops in Atlanta, Baltimore and 
> Washington to give minority students like Tomlin an opportunity to 
> learn the basics of making video games. Organizers hope this early 
> exposure will inspire a new generation to make minority video game 
> characters that go beyond typecast racial roles.
> 
> "I'd love to hear what other stories exist in the world besides the 
> stereotypical ones. There are good people in the ghetto. There are 
> role models," said academy co-founder John Saulter, who runs 
> Entertainment Arts Research, one of the industry's few black-owned 
> video gaming companies.
> 
> So far, interest in the workshops has been high, which doesn't 
> surprise organizers.
> 
> A March study by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that black 
> youths between 8 and 18 years old played video and computer games 
> roughly 90 minutes a day -- almost 30 minutes more than white 
> youths. And Hispanics play about 10 minutes more per day than 
whites.
> 
> "If you've got kids who can sit in front of a game for eight hours, 
> then they have the cognitive thought process to learn how to build 
> the game," Saulter said.
> 
> Some in the industry believe race in games is a serious issue that 
> has been ignored for too long.
> 
> "For a long time, we've talked in the game industry about gender 
> diversity as the one problem on the radar, but the racial split is 
> worse," said Ian Bogost, a Georgia Tech game design professor who 
> recently published a book on video game criticism.
> 
> Jason Della Rocca, IGDA's executive director, said the industry 
must 
> confront a cycle that threatens its creativity: Educated, young 
> white males create games for other educated, young white males.
> 
> "Games are an expressive medium. They are an art form, just like 
> movies, theater and literature," Della Rocca said. "We're seeing, 
to 
> a large extent, that the games that are being designed 
unconsciously 
> include the biases, opinions and reflections of their creators."
> 
> In a way, he said, stubbornness to diversify runs counter to the 
> industry's tolerant roots.
> 
> "We like to think that game design is a higher calling and that no 
> one really cares what your skin color is o

[scifinoir2] Re: For Fans of Marvel Comics Art from the 60s and 70s

[Kelly Wright]

An added bonus from the site: (most of the artists featured have
websites) links!

Here's something for you DC lovers:

http://www.bobhall.com/framesetpages/1artwork/comicsportfolioframeset.html

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Kewl! 
_
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com






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[scifinoir2] For Fans of Marvel Comics Art from the 60s and 70s

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.twoinone76.com/

If you grew up on the great Marvel comics of the sixties and seventies
like I did this is the site for you!

Check out the commissioned art.

~rave!
___
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com





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[scifinoir2] Re: FW: Harry Potter and race

[Kelly Wright]

Novelist and professor Carolivia Herron ("Thereafter Johnny," "Nappy 
Hair")responds:

Never underestimate the power of editors and of USAmerican culture. 
The British edition of the first couple of volumes didn't mention 
black students as black, simply described hair (braids and dreads), 
but the USAmerican editions did. Now both the Brit and USA editions 
mention blacks equally. I assumed it was the influence of the 
American editor who probably requested that at least a token number 
of "people of color" be clearly identified in the American edition. I 
refer to Rowling's ways of mentioning black folks in my course on 
Children's Lit at Hollins University.


--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly 
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> -Original Message-
> Harry Potter and race
> 
> 
> http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=58&aid=85445
> 
> -- 
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
> Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.9.1/51 - Release Date: 
7/18/2005




 
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[scifinoir2] Re: Craig Brewer's 'Hustle' generates Oscar talk

[Kelly Wright]

Check out Elvis Mitchell's excellent interview with Craig Brewer (see 
link below):

http://www.kcrw.com/show/tt

If you didn't know Brewer was a white guy, you wouldn't know he was a 
white guy.  Interesting tidbit, when John Singleton signed on as 
producer he thought he had clout and influence because "2 Fast and 2 
Furious" had done $236,041,731 in worldwide box office.  He found out 
that "silly negro, tricks are for kids."  He ended up funding the 
movie by mortgaging his house.

Also check out the Hustle and Flow website:

http://www.hustleandflow.com/

Be sure to click on "Memphis Insider" where Brewer gives you a tour 
of his favoritie hangouts in Memphis.  I know where I am getting my 
breakfast sandwiches, fried chicken and ribs next time EYE am in 
Memphis!

~rave!



--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly 
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Craig Brewer's 'Hustle' generates Oscar talk
> http://www.azcentral.com/ent/movies/articles/0722hustletalk0722.html
> Bruce Newman
> Knight Ridder Newspapers
> Jul. 22, 2005 12:00 AM
> 





 
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[scifinoir2] Re: Halle looks Great in HDTV! (see who doesn't...)

[Kelly Wright]

Ordinarily, I would agree with you Keith (except, of course, about the
part about Halle Barry and Beyonce which is dead spot on!) but if you
go to the website you will see this guy is a serious techno-nerd.  He
knows his HDTV!  I don't believe this is his opinion but his
considered observation derived from hours of HDTV viewing.  For
instance, Lawrence Fishburne is on the NOT list and even at regular
definition Larry Fish is seriously pock-marked.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Not to go the obvious route, but lists like this usually irritate me.
> One, I've seen Kournikova, and no way her skin looks better than many
> Sisters I've seen. Black skin tends to be smoother, younger-looking, and
> less wrinkled than just about any other racial group.  Second, one
> person who's part  Black  in the top ten, and she's half white. Then
> they list Beyonce Knowles, who's on the lighter side too. Okay, there's
> Janet Jackson and Brandy, but that's it for the darker ones. What about
> Angela Bassett? Gabrielle Union? Serena Williams? From what I've seen,
> darker skinned Black people actually tend to have smoother skin than
> lighter skinned ones. 
>  
> It seems to me this is more of a list of white-to-light skin that they
> find beautiful, combined with the stars they simply find popular.  I
> know this is all in fun, but I just see another example of how the media
> hypes a certain look and convinces us that look is beautiful. How else
> can *anyone* put blonde Kournikova ahead of women like Zeta-Jones or
> Selma Hayek? And the number of darker Sisters---and Latinas--whose skin
> would put most of these women to shame is staggering, but barely a knod
> to them.  Finally, most of these celebrities are the same ones you see
> on other "most beautiful" and "most popular" lists. I know from my
> wife--who keeps up with fashion and beauty trends--that many celebs you
> think have perfect features owe it to a team of makeup experts whose job
> it is to make them look flawless. Don't let this list fool you.
>  
> Okay, so I only got three hours of sleep and my cranky self is blowing
> this *way* out of proportion!  :)
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of Kelly Wright
> Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 18:47
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Halle looks Great in HDTV! (see who doesn't...)
> 
> 
> 6. Halle Berry
> Wow! She looks great on "regular" TV, but her beautiful skin and lips 
> make her irresistible in high-def. This Catwoman wouldn't have to 
> work hard to bring home the kittens..
> 
> http://www.TVPredictions.com
> 
> HDTV: Beauty Is Skin-Deep
>   There is no escaping the naked lens of High-Definition TV. The 
> picture is so clear that aging signs and skin
>   imperfections are clearly visible. Below is our "Top 10" list of 
> which celebrities look better -- and worse -- in high-def.
>   If you're a member of the media and would like to interview our 
> president, Phillip Swann, about HDTV and/or
>   "The List," call 703-505-3064 or e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> Also see: The 10 Scariest People in HDTV!
>   
> 
> Here is OnHD.TV's top 10 celebrities who look even better in High-
> Definition TV.
> 
> 
> 1. Anna Kournikova
> The occasional tennis player looks even more beautiful in high-def. 
> Her skin is glistening and luscious. It's easy to see why her matches 
> sell out despite her limited talents. It's not love-15; it's love 
> Anna.
> 
> 2. Catherine Zeta-Jones
> The star of Chicago and Traffic is absolutely gorgeous and it shows 
> in high-def. Pity the aging Michael Douglas when he has to stand 
> beside her in the high-def broadcast of an awards show. (See "Worse") 
> The actress is so beautiful in high-def that even the hyphen between 
> Zeta and Jones looks good.
> 
> 3. Charlize Therzon
> Whoever did her makeup for Monster should have received an Oscar. 
> This woman is gorgeous and it's hard to believe that she was made to 
> look so horrific in the film. At the recent Oscar awards, Theron was 
> glowing under the HDTV lights.
> 
> 4. Sting
> Isn't it bad enough that this guy has all that musical talent? In his 
> fifties, Sting still looks great in high-def.
> 
> 5. Scarlett Johansson
> The Lost in Translation star has the skin of a porcelain doll and 
> looks incredible when seen in high-def. It's easy to see why Bill 
> Murray would get lost in her gaze.
> 
> 6. Halle Berry
> Wow! She looks great on "regular&qu

[scifinoir2] Halle looks Great in HDTV! (see who doesn't...)

[Kelly Wright]

6. Halle Berry
Wow! She looks great on "regular" TV, but her beautiful skin and lips 
make her irresistible in high-def. This Catwoman wouldn't have to 
work hard to bring home the kittens..

http://www.TVPredictions.com

HDTV: Beauty Is Skin-Deep
  There is no escaping the naked lens of High-Definition TV. The 
picture is so clear that aging signs and skin
  imperfections are clearly visible. Below is our "Top 10" list of 
which celebrities look better -- and worse -- in high-def.
  If you're a member of the media and would like to interview our 
president, Phillip Swann, about HDTV and/or
  "The List," call 703-505-3064 or e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Also see: The 10 Scariest People in HDTV!
  
 
Here is OnHD.TV's top 10 celebrities who look even better in High-
Definition TV.


1. Anna Kournikova
The occasional tennis player looks even more beautiful in high-def. 
Her skin is glistening and luscious. It's easy to see why her matches 
sell out despite her limited talents. It's not love-15; it's love 
Anna.

2. Catherine Zeta-Jones
The star of Chicago and Traffic is absolutely gorgeous and it shows 
in high-def. Pity the aging Michael Douglas when he has to stand 
beside her in the high-def broadcast of an awards show. (See "Worse") 
The actress is so beautiful in high-def that even the hyphen between 
Zeta and Jones looks good.

3. Charlize Therzon
Whoever did her makeup for Monster should have received an Oscar. 
This woman is gorgeous and it's hard to believe that she was made to 
look so horrific in the film. At the recent Oscar awards, Theron was 
glowing under the HDTV lights.

4. Sting
Isn't it bad enough that this guy has all that musical talent? In his 
fifties, Sting still looks great in high-def.

5. Scarlett Johansson
The Lost in Translation star has the skin of a porcelain doll and 
looks incredible when seen in high-def. It's easy to see why Bill 
Murray would get lost in her gaze.

6. Halle Berry
Wow! She looks great on "regular" TV, but her beautiful skin and lips 
make her irresistible in high-def. This Catwoman wouldn't have to 
work hard to bring home the kittens..

7. George Clooney
His animal magnetism is legendary in Hollywood and it comes through 
in HDTV. The Oceans 11 star must be living right.

8. Angelina Jolie
Breathtaking. Like Berry, her skin and lips are just juicy. The only 
negative: The actress has a small mole on her forehead. In high-def, 
it looks like Mt. Everest..

9. Liv Tyler
How can she look so great when her father is headed for Keith 
Richards territory? Beautiful skin.

10. Penelope Cruz
How did Tom Cruise break up with her? Talk about Mission Impossible.

Honorable Mention
Ashley Judd
Maria Sherapova
Jennifer Garner
Beyonce Knowles
Antonio Banderas
Rebecca Romjin-Stamos
Mariah Carey
Meg Ryan
Gwyneth Paltrow
Mandy Moore
Alex Rodriguez
John Travolta
Susan Sarandon
Janet Jackson
Nicole Kidman
Natalie Portman
Lee Lee Sobieski
Lucy Liu
Heidi Klum
Jay Leno
Rob Lowe
Jessica Alba
Salma Hayek
David James Elliott (JAG)
Naomi Watts
Brandy
Jill Hennessy (Crossing Jordan)
Leah Remini (King of Queens)

And here is OnHD.TV's top 10 celebrities who look worse in
High-Definition TV.


1. Cameron Diaz
The actress has had a terrible acne problem since high
school; her cheeks and forehead are littered with
unfortunate pockmarks.  Ms. Diaz seems like a different
person in HDTV; she looks more like a Charlie than an
Angel.

2. Michael Douglas
The actor was once considered a Hollywood sex
symbol. But now, in HDTV, he looks more like Kirk
Douglas than Michael Douglas. Being married to
Catherine Zeta-Jones doesn't help, either. He appears
even older when he's standing next to her. The Wall
Street star looks like eight miles of bad road.

3. Britney Spears
The pop tart is still in her early 20s, but she looks about
10 years older in high-def. Her face is puffy and she's
starting to show wrinkle marks around her lips,
reportedly from a two pack-a-day cigarette habit.

4. Brad Pitt
Like Ms. Diaz, Pitt had a terrible skin problem in his
younger years. The impact is clear in high-def. He's
still a good-looking guy, but he doesn't look like one
of People Magazine's  "Most Beautiful."

5. Jewel
The singer looks great in still photos and music videos,
but she looks terrible in high-def. And someone should
help her with make-up; it looks like it was done
by Ringling Bros.

6. Renee Zellweger
Ms. Zellweger is a cutie, but her cheeks look like
she's had a Rosacea problem; very visible in high-def.

7. William Devane
The veteran actor plays Secretary of State James Heller
in Fox's 24, but he looks like hell in high-def. Devane,
who once played John F. Kennedy in a docudrama
about the Cuban Missile Crisis, should duck and
cover the next time they ask him to star in a
HDTV program.

8. Bill Maher
The comedian/political commentator is scary in high-def.
And I mean, scary. His skin is pasty and white, making
him look like an Albino. Make that an Albino who
doesn't get much sleep. It's a good thing tha

[scifinoir2] Re: Trek's problem? It wasn't enough like Galactica

[Kelly Wright]

Since I am currently "in-between cable," I was pleasantly surprised 
when NBC ran a BG "marathon" a couple fridays ago.  I am still trying 
to figure out what is going on with Edward James Olmos and that ink 
black hair but overall I was impressed.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/weblogs/brain/archives/001800.html
> 
> Trek's problem? It wasn't enough like Galactica
> 
> July 14, 2005
> 
> 
> It's tantamount to heresy.
> 
> A panel of Star Trek experts and enthusiasts said Thursday at San 
Diego
> Comic-Con that the reason the now-canceled Enterprise series cast 
the
> future of the franchise in doubt was that it wasn't enough like the 
gritty
> new Battlestar Galactica.
> 
> "Galactica is made like a contemporary television show. It can 
measure up
> to any show on television right now," said Jeff Bond, author of The 
Music
> of Star Trek and executive editor of Eon Magazine.
> 
> Star Trek shows - even the critically acclaimed Star Trek: Deep 
Space 9 -
> never evolved much past the episodic, alien-of-the-week approach of 
the
> original 1960s series, panelists said.
> 
> And, unlike the original series, which reflected the social turmoil 
of
> 1960s America, later Trek shows became increasingly about spatial
> anomalies and other oddities, said Robert Meyer Burnett, director 
of Free
> Enterprise, a 1999 feature film about a pair of dysfunctional Trek 
fans.
> 
> "Battlestar Galactica is basically a naval show set in space. It's 
World
> War II," Burnett said. "Star Trek used to be about our world. Now, 
it's
> not 'real'."
> 
> "That's because the Cylons look like us now," quipped Daren 
Dochterman,
> producer of the special edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture,
> referring to Galactica's switch from the chrome-plated robots of 
the 1970s
> show to humanoids such as the seductive No. 6.
> 
> "Daren, the Cylons don't look anything like you or I," Burnett 
retorted.
> 
> Episodes of the survival-epic Galactica have dealt with contemporary
> issues such as suicide bombers, civil rights, torture and the 
paranoia of
> a society fearing infiltration by those who wish to destroy it.
> 
> "We need to ask the tough questions because the press isn't," 
Burnett
> said. "And Galactica has attempted to do that."
> 
> Much of the audience of roughly 800 Trek fans shuffled uneasily at 
the
> criticism of their iconic show. A few booed at the praise for 
Galactica
> and applauded when Deep Space 9 was heralded.
> 
> One problem with Enterprise was its bait-and-switch marketing, 
promising
> to bridge the gap between today's Space Shuttle technology and the
> star-spanning era of Captain Kirk and Spock, said Bill Hunt, editor 
of
> digitalbits.com, which focuses on DVD technology. And Enterprise 
quickly
> dropped that premise.
> 
> Another was the lack of joy among the characters, Dochterman said.
> 
> "When Captain Kirk is sitting there in the command chair, leaning 
forward,
> he looks like he's enjoying himself," Dochterman said. Whereas Scott
> Bakula's Captain Archer always looked like he wanted to be 
somewhere else.
> 
> A meandering plot and lack of character development for the first 
three
> seasons didn't help, Bond said.
> 
> "It wasn't a show where I felt like I wanted to tune in and spend 
time
> with these people," he said.
> 
> And by the time Manny Coto revamped the show as executive producer 
during
> its fourth and final season, it was too late.
> 
> Panelists said it seemed unlikely Paramount would revive Trek 
within the
> next few years, though the network might be pressured by the growth 
of
> independent fan films distributed over the Internet.
> 
> "We need to let Star Trek die for now. We know it will come back, 
just
> like Spock," Dochterman said.




 
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[scifinoir2] OT: The Ten Worst States in the US to be Black

[Kelly Wright]

Once again, my home state Wisconsin is number one!

~(no)rave!

http://www.blackcommentator.com/146/146_cover_dixon_ten_worst.html

The pervasive corporate media bubble, which grossly distorts the 
views most Americans have of the world beyond their shores, and of 
life in America's black one-eighth, operates to fool African 
Americans, too.  While a fortunate few of us are doing very well 
indeed, and many more are hanging on as best we can, the conditions 
of life for a substantial chunk of black America are not 
substantially improving, and appear to be getting much worse.  This 
is a truth which can't be found anywhere in the corporate media, but 
it is nevertheless one with which we must familiarize ourselves in 
preparation for the upcoming national black dialogue.  It is high 
time to begin constructing useful indices with which to measure the 
quality of life, not just for a fortunate few, but for the broad 
masses of our people in America's black one-eighth.

Measuring the quality of life in black America

Painting an accurate picture is not difficult.  Useful measures of 
family income and cohesiveness, of home ownership, life expectancy, 
education levels, of unemployment and underemployment abound.  But 
among all the relevant data on the state of black America today one 
factor stands out: the growth of America's public policy of racially 
selective policing, prosecution, and mass imprisonment of its black 
citizens over the past 30 years.  The operation of the crime control 
industry has left a distinctive, multidimensional and devastating 
mark on the lives of millions of black families and on the economic 
and social fabric of the communities in which they live.

About half the nation's 2.2 million prisoners are black.  With only 
36 million of us, that's an astounding 3% of African Americans, 
counting all ages and both sexes, languishing behind bars, with a 
roughly equal number on probation, parole, house arrest or other 
court supervision. Almost one in three 18-year-old black males across 
the board is likely to catch a felony conviction, and in some 
communities nearly half the black male workforce under 40 have 
criminal records.  A felony conviction in America is a stunningly 
accurate predictor of a life of insecure employment at poverty-level 
wages and no health care, of fragile family ties, of low educational 
attainment and limited or no civic participation, and a strong 
likelihood of re-imprisonment.  Each month, tens of thousands of 
jobless, skill-less, stigmatized and often anti-socialized ex-
prisoners are released back into communities that lack job and 
educational opportunities, where intact families are more the 
exception than the rule, and where upward social mobility is a myth.

Clearly, more than any other single public policy, the day to day 
operation of America's crime control industry magnifies and 
exacerbates racial inequality, deepens black poverty, and wreaks 
widespread destabilization on black families and communities.  Among 
the many scholars and researchers who have persuasively argued and 
extensively documented these conditions is Dr. Paul Street of the 
Chicago Urban League in "The Vicious Circle:  Race, Prison, Jobs and 
Community in Chicago, Illinois and the Nation."

So if you want to know where black families fare the worst, where the 
lowest wages and life expectancy are, where to find the highest 
unemployment and the greatest number of single parent households 
among African Americans, you don't need an online survey.  You 
certainly don't count the black businesses or the black elected 
officials.  You count the black prisoners, and the former prisoners, 
and the ruined communities they come from and are discharged into.  
That's what BC did, and here are the results.

The Ten Worst States in the US to be Black

Wisconsin leads the nation in the percentage of its black inhabitants 
under lock and key.  Just over four percent of black Wisconsin, 
including the very old and the very young of both sexes, are behind 
bars.  Most of the state's African Americans reside in the Milwaukee 
area, and most of its black prisoners are drawn from just a handful 
of poor and economically deprived black communities where jobs, 
intact families and educational opportunities are the most scarce, 
and paroled back into those same neighborhoods.  So Wisconsin, and in 
particular the Milwaukee area justly merit the invidious distinction 
of the Worst Place in the Nation to be Black.  

Iowa, with only a small black population, is not far behind.  The 
crime control industries in Wisconsin and Iowa seem to have learned 
to make the most efficient use of the preferred human material 
available to them, locking up the few black inhabitants of those 
states at a rate 11.6 times higher than whites.



Texas, the nation's second largest state, is the third worst place to 
be black in America, and is in a class by itself, first because its 
extraordinary rate of blac

[scifinoir2] Fantastic Four Movie Review by Kevin Carr

[Kelly Wright]

"The bottom line is that I loved "Fantastic Four." It was great fun. 
There was nothing about it that I could point to and say, "Well, that 
was stupid," and considering the atomic wasteland of superhero 
properties that have been committed to film, that's saying a lot." 

~"Fantastic Four"
Movie Review
by Kevin Carr

http://www.7mpictures.com/inside/reviews/fantasticfour_review.htm

With all the Marvel comic book properties being made into movies 
nowadays, I find myself sounding like a broken record. I'm constantly 
explaining (and ultimately apologizing) that I never collected Marvel 
comics as a kid. I just don't have the knowledge of the Marvel 
universe that I do for DC. 

Because of this, most of my knowledge of the Fantastic Four comes 
from the cartoons. I've watched the old show on Boomerang reruns with 
my kids, and I recently got the mid-90s animated series on DVD. So, 
I'm not coming to the new Fantastic Four movie completely ignorant. 

Considering my background, I find this new film to be actually quite 
true to the spirit of the characters. Sure, the characters are a bit 
two-dimensional, but that's how I've always remembered them to be. 
Reed Richards is a science geek. Johnny Storm is the ladies man. Ben 
Grimm always settles things with his fists. And Sue Storm is the 
mediator. 

This new "Fantastic Four" film locks the actors into these roles, and 
while they are full of cliches, it just seems to work. Ioan Gruffudd 
as Reed Richards and Chris Evans as Johnny Storm are spot on. 
Already, people are talking a lot of trash about Jessica Alba as Sue 
Storm, and I'll admit that it's a bit hard to swallow her as a 
brilliant scientist. But she actually holds her own in this film. 
She's not that bad, and she's easy on the eyes. 

I'd take Jessica Alba over Katie Holmes any day. In "Fantastic Four," 
Alba just delivers her lines and gets out. However, Holmes projected 
a level of pretension in "Batman Begins" that was utterly uncalled 
for. At least Alba seems to have her own career in check and is 
content to just be the eye candy that she is. 

But the real acting kudos goes to Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm, aka 
The Thing. Throughout the cartoon, it's always been a theme that The 
Thing is the one member of the team who sacrifices the most. After 
all, he's permanently deformed where the other three can turn their 
powers on and off. Chiklis brings a level of empathy and 
understanding to the character that is critical to making things 
work. And the fact that he can act through all that make-up shows his 
strengths. 

Say what you want about the cast, but it was appropriate at the very 
least. There's no insanely stupid casting choices, like Richard Pryor 
as a super villain. I bought everything that was offered in this 
version of "Fantastic Four." 

The real treat in the film is Julian McMahon as Victor Von Doom, aka 
Doctor Doom. Sure, the comic book purists are going to have a fit 
over the way this character was changed from the books. However, I 
liked this new version so much better. In the past, Doctor Doom was 
nothing more than a Lex Luthor in a steel mask. Here, he's actually 
got super powers, and this makes him a much more worthy adversary to 
the Fantastic Four. 

But ultimately, the movie isn't about the Fantastic Four fighting 
Doctor Doom. Instead, it's a story about four normal people who wake 
up one day with super powers - and how they deal with this in their 
daily lives. Their situations are sometimes humorous, and even 
mundane and silly. But it's what you might expect to go through if 
you had to deal with powers like these. 

Another interesting facet to the whole Fantastic Four story is that 
these heroes don't have secret identities. With the exception of 
mystical beings like Swamp Thing and the Silver Surfer, I can't think 
of any major superhero who doesn't have a secret identity. In some 
ways, this makes the Fantastic Four more intriguing of a story 
because they live their entire lives as the heroes. 

The bottom line is that I loved "Fantastic Four." It was great fun. 
There was nothing about it that I could point to and say, "Well, that 
was stupid," and considering the atomic wasteland of superhero 
properties that have been committed to film, that's saying a lot. 

The movie is more campy than what we've seen in the past, but for me, 
that was part of its charm. It just took me back to Saturday mornings 
as a kid. And, it's the first comic book movie that has actually made 
me curious about reading the original comics. 
_
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com









 
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[scifinoir2] Imaro Lives! (Forwarded letter from Charles Saunders)

[Kelly Wright]

Charles Saunders is the author of the legendary "Imaro" 'sword and 
sorcery" novels.  It is great stuff featuring a black hero and it was 
written over thirty years ago.

~rave!

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
OH JOY!  I AM SO THRILLED TO BE FORWARDING THIS MESSAGE!
WOOHOO!  YIPPEE!
Ecstatic Amy

Dear Amy …

I guess it is a real shock to be hearing from me, after 
all this time.  I've been working away, writing various things, not 
having much luck beyond getting another Dossouye story published in 
the second DARK MATTER anthology.

Now, I have some news for you.  Imaro is coming back!  
Night Shade Books will be publishing a revised version of the first 
Imaro novel in hardcover in February 2006! 

The revision consists of a new novella I wrote to 
replace "Slaves of the Giant-Kings."  "Giant-Kings," as I may have 
told you before, made me uncomfortable because it turned out to be 
too close to the reality of the Rwanda genocide.  For that reason, I 
didn't want to bring Imaro back, as I couldn't figure out a way to 
get around that problem.  Finally, I did.  The new story has Imaro 
meeting Tanisha under completely different circumstances.  This 
affects subsequent events, so there will be other changes.

Night Shade will publish the other two previously 
published Imaro novels, which I am in the process of revising, along 
with the unpublished fourth one I told you about, and the fifth one.  
That means that eventually, the entire Imaro saga will be in print.

If you could spread the word on the new SciFiNoir group, 
I would appreciate it.  I was shocked when Yahoo shut it down, but I 
see that it is back in a different form.  I've tried to resubscribe, 
but I've had trouble doing it.  

Like I said, I've been out of touch for a long time … too 
long.  But, what better news could I have now?

If anyone in the group wants to ask me further questions 
about Imaro, my e-mail address is still the same: 

 [EMAIL PROTECTED]


I hope all is going well with you.

 

Charles






 
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[scifinoir2] Audio interview with Tim Story

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.kcrw.com/show/tt

Film critic Elvis Mitchell interviews director Tim Story.





 
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[scifinoir2] INTERVIEW: Director Tim Story & Marvel exec Avi Arad on "Fantastic Four"

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.cinecon.com/news.php?id=0507083

INTERVIEW: Director Tim Story & Marvel exec Avi Arad on "Fantastic 
Four" 
POSTED ON 07/08/05 AT 9:00 A.M.
BY ETHAN AAMES 



Director Tim Story, above

By Jenny Halper in New York City

Last October in Vancouver, I took a peak at the stunning sets and 
breathtaking effects Fox was preparing for the "The Fantastic Four." 
This Tuesday, I got a chance to see Tim Story's rockin' vision on the 
big screen. Under the exuberant direction of "Barbershop"'s Story, an 
eclectic cast including Jessica Alba (Sue Storm), Ioan Gruffudd (Reed 
Richards), Chris Evans (Johnny Storm), Julian McMahon (Victor Von 
Doom), Michael Chiklis (Ben Grimm), and Kerry Washington (Alicia 
Masters) bring Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's beloved comic to thrill-
filled life. Check out this interview with Story and seasoned 
producer Avi Arad, the brain behind blockbusters like "Spiderman," "X-
Men," and "Blade." 

Q: This movie is opening up the week after "War of the Worlds"…

TIM: I'm just happy about the movie coming out. When it comes to 
thinking about the competition, it's a crowded summer and I don't 
think you can guess what's going to happen. I'm just happy in what's 
going on with the job Fox has done. It's everywhere. I think we have 
a family movie that is light and fun, it's a popcorn movie. You can 
sit back and have a good time, and I think the summer's been looking 
forward to something like our movie. Hopefully we get blessed with an 
audience.

AVI: I feel this is quite different from early in the summer. Most of 
the movies were on the dark side, "Fantastic Four" is traditionally 
no secret identity, more of a dysfunctional family, action/comedy 
adventure. I think our audiences are going to be, on the top end, 
similar- young men, young women. And on the low end we have a hidden 
treasure, which is the kids. This movie is designed for everybody. 
It's a family movie. I think Tim put in a lot of fun, comedy and 
heart. Not on the intense end of it, but in the way "Fantastic Four" 
is supposed to be- loving, with sibling rivalry kind of comedy.

Q: Tim, what was the journey like from being a rapper to this? 

TIM: Coming from music and that – I started with film when I was 
young, at age 12. Music was, when I was young in my neighborhood, you 
either danced or rapped. So I was a rapper for a while. But after 
high school it came down to picking one or the other and film is the 
only medium where you use everything – you use music, you use art, 
you use drama, you use it all. I knew at an early point that I wanted 
to do this and as a teenager drifted back to it, and fell in love. 

Q: Avi, what qualities did Tim have that made him good for the job?

AVI: My Tim Story journey started with my wife and I going to 
see "Barbershop." "Barbershop" you'll remember is ten characters in 
one room for two hours. A lot of story and a lot of terrific acting. 
For "Fantastic Four" we needed someone with a good heart, a light 
hand and a sense of comedy that can handle a group. It's very 
difficult. You can follow one character, but this one is five 
characters – six characters in a way. In a very short period of time 
the film has to introduce to the world, to the uninitiated, 
the "Fantastic Four," who they are and what their destiny is. And 
then we met with Tim and we really believe that directors put 
themselves on the screen in many ways. This movie is about good 
hearts and you have to be light with the problems, you have to accept 
your destiny and he just loved it.

Then he did one last thing that was the perfect end of the story- he 
had to go home to talk to his wife about it! He was actually 
expecting a baby. He had to figure out, on one hand it's an 
opportunity of a lifetime, especially for someone who always loved 
the Fantastic Four. At the same time it's about family, so… When he 
left and said he had to talk to his wife, we knew we had the right 
guy.

Q: Tim, the younger generation might think that this film is a rip 
off of "The Incredibles," but it's the other way around. How would 
you explain that to them?

TIM: I would just explain to them that the origin. I would say "let 
me show you a comic book that started 40 plus years ago, and check 
this out." "The Incredibles" was made in the last five years. I think 
it's pretty simple. I have a niece and nephew I had to educate as 
well. I gave them these comic books and now they're into them, so 
they almost know more than I do now. But just to see the education of 
them – they loved The Incredibles and at the time I was doing the 
movie they didn't know what I was doing. They knew Uncle Tim was 
doing another movie, but when I explained to them what this was, they 
got it. It's as simple as that. This is the origin of pretty much 
modern comic books. This is where it started, with this magazine. 
It's as simple as that. 

Q: Tim, what kind of pressures did you feel directing such a high 
profile film based on one of Marvel's

[scifinoir2] Re: O.T.:Princely Daddy, don't you walk so fast (Prince Albert's African love child)

[Kelly Wright]

My favorite part of the article is the following exchange:

A statement from the prince's lawyer notes that the child, Eric
> Alexandre Stephane (known as Alexandre) will "have the same
> inheritance rights as other children of the prince, should he have
> other children."

EXCEPT

> he won't have the Grimaldi name, won't be in line for the throne and
> won't be a prince - which, aside from the money, is probably the
> coolest part of being the son of a prince.

Well, yah!  Except for the name, being in line for the throne and 
being a prince he will be treated EXACTLY as the other children of 
the prince (should he have other children).

What will be REALLY interesting is if Prince Albert has no other 
children.  Under Monaco's succession rules, Albert's eldest son would 
be first in line to take the throne upon his death, though it is not 
clear whether young Alexandre would have that right if the prince 
refused to marry his mother.  

Under the terms of a treaty imposed by the French government in 1918, 
the 700-year-old Grimaldi dynasty would have died out and Monaco 
would have become French territory if Prince Albert came to the 
throne and died without an heir.

The change to the previous rule of primogeniture was slipped through 
the Monaco parliament in 2002. It will allow one of Prince Rainier's 
daughters, Caroline and Stephanie, to inherit the throne from Albert, 
43, if he remains childless.

Their children would also be in line of succession. Princess 
Caroline, 45, has two sons, Andrea, 17, and Pierre, 14, and two 
daughters, Charlotte, 15, and Alexandra, two. Princess Stephanie, 37, 
has one son and two daughters: Louis, nine, Pauline, eight, and three-
year-old Camille.

Under the old constitution, the succession was limited to a ruling 
monarch's children: so if Albert were to die before his father, the 
title would have passed to one of the princesses. But if Albert 
became sovereign and were to die without issue, his sisters and their 
children would not have been eligible to inherit.

Monaco's succession laws in were changed in 2002, about the time of 
the baby's birth, to restrict the crown to legitmate heirs.
 
Coste, who is from Togo, said she had met Albert on a flight from 
Nice to Paris, and that he asked for her phone number and eventually 
invited her to Monaco, where they spent a weekend together. She said 
that she fell in love with him and that weekend liaisons became a 
regular occurrence in an affair that lasted for years until Albert's 
father intervened.
 
Their relationship grew distant after that, with the exception of the 
night they celebrated her 31st birthday together, which resulted in 
Alexandre's conception, she said.
 
Coste, who is not married and has two older sons, told Paris-Match 
that Albert initially encouraged her to keep the child, promising to 
support it, but later changed his mind, concerned that a son born to 
a woman who was not his wife could complicate his succession to the 
throne.
 
After the birth, Coste said, technicians were sent by Albert's 
lawyers to collect DNA samples from the child to confirm that Albert 
was the father, and when Alexandre was 2½ months old, he visited the 
child. She told the magazine that the prince had since agreed to pay 
her an undisclosed sum every three months to support her son.
 
Coste said she was living in Albert's Paris apartment, but planning 
to move to the French Riviera, so that Alexandre would be closer to 
his father.
 
"I didn't want him to grow up like Mazarine," Coste told Paris-Match, 
referring to the daughter born to the mistress of the former 
president of France, François Mitterrand, who died in 1996. Mazarine 
Pingeot's existence was not revealed to the public until near the end 
of his life, and Paris-Match was the magazine to deliver that news, 
too.
 
Coste said that she had threatened Albert with a lawsuit if he did 
not acknowledge that the child was his, and as a result, in December 
2003, he signed a notarized document acknowledging paternity on the 
condition that he not be registered as the father until after 
Rainier's death. She said she had not been given a copy of the 
document.
 
According to the interview, Albert last visited the child in 
February. She said that since Rainier's death she has asked that 
Albert register as Alexandre's father. She said she was going public 
to encourage him to do so.
 
"I'm appealing to his heart, and I think he'll understand the 
interest of his son," she told the magazine.
 
 PARIS The line of succession to Monaco's throne, which passed last 
month to Prince Albert II, the bachelor son of Prince Rainier, took a 
new twist this week with claims by a former flight attendant that she 
bore Albert a son in August 2003.
 
The woman, Nicole Coste, went public with her claim on the cover of 
Paris-Match, the French picture magazine, this week. The magazine 
published a lengthy interview with the mother, together with 
photographs of Albert 

[scifinoir2] O.T.:Princely Daddy, don't you walk so fast (Prince Albert's African love child)

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.jsonline.com/enter/gen/jul05/339128.asp

Princely Daddy, don't you walk so fast 

By JAN UEBELHERR
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Last Updated: July 7, 2005

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than Princess
Stephanie marrying a circus acrobat or Princess Caroline losing all
her hair for unknown reasons comes word that Prince Albert of Monaco
has been a busy bachelor. He has not just been sitting around posing
for paintings while his sisters kick up their heels.

Yow! It's a safe bet that he does indeed look back with dismay at all
the chatter about him fathering a son, now nearly 2, with an Air
France flight attendant from Togo. (That's right, Togo.)

Paris Match ran photos of the prince cuddling a baby boy with curly
hair. Albert won an invasion of privacy suit. The magazine is appealing.

Well, it turns out it's all true, the child is his - but that's about
all you'll get from the palace in sunny Monaco. One news report has it
that Albert always intended to accept his responsibilities but
regretted that news of the child's existence broke just days after the
death on April 6 of his father, Prince Rainier III.

In another regrettable display of timing, a statement from the prince
on Thursday came one day after the official mourning period for
Rainier ended and just five days before Albert's coronation, according
to Hello Magazine.

A statement from the prince's lawyer notes that the child, Eric
Alexandre Stephane (known as Alexandre) will "have the same
inheritance rights as other children of the prince, should he have
other children."

Notable exceptions to his standing in the Grimaldi clan include that
he won't have the Grimaldi name, won't be in line for the throne and
won't be a prince - which, aside from the money, is probably the
coolest part of being the son of a prince.

The child's mother, Nicole Coste, told Paris Match that she had come
forward so that her son "can grow up like a normal child with a father."

Yeah, that'll happen.




 
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[scifinoir2] Libertarians flying high over heroic businessman Batman

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/jul05/339309.asp

Libertarians flying high over heroic businessman Batman


By ANN HORNADAY
Washington Post
Posted: July 8, 2005

Holy smaller government and lower taxes, Batman!


"Batman Begins," Christopher Nolan's brooding comic-book blockbuster,
has been embraced by its fans for many things: Nolan's dark, shadowy
aesthetic, the detail with which he has teased out Batman's mythic
origins, and Christian Bale's credible performance as the
psychologically complex billionaire-turned-Dark-Knight.

But "Batman Begins" also has become something of a cult hit among fans
of free markets, individualism and Ayn Rand, among other things.

A cursory Google search with the terms "Batman Begins" and
"capitalism" turns up a blogosphere love-fest, with conservative and
especially libertarian commentators praising the film's pro-business,
anti-statist themes.

The film explores how Bruce Wayne, an otherwise mild-mannered heir to
a billion-dollar fortune, became Gotham City's Caped Crusader,
representing his good-hearted parents as paragons of noblesse oblige,
who use their wealth to build a high-tech monorail system for Gotham,
among other civic projects.

When the Waynes are murdered in front of their young son and their
killer is sent not to prison but to a psychiatric hospital, Bruce goes
away for seven years, trains as a vigilante and returns to Gotham -
now a cesspool of criminal and governmental corruption - to mete out
justice.

Along the way, he stages a hostile takeover of the publicly traded
Wayne Enterprises, puts a dent in an evil mental health system, proves
that individual initiative and guts are more effective than entrenched
bureaucracies - in this case, Gotham's compromised police department -
and, perhaps most notably, turns the typical Hollywood trope of
rich-businessman-as-villain on its head.

David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a
libertarian think tank, saw "Batman Begins" recently at the
encouragement of a friend at the Objectivist Center, which according
to its Web site (www.objectivistcenter.org) champions "reason,
individualism, freedom and achievement."

Boaz was happily struck by the fact that the hero was a businessman,
he says, "but I think what was more interesting . . . is that the
movie takes a strong stand that some things are evil, some people are
evil. Crime is bad. And criminals need to be punished, not to be
understood and coddled and let out of jail for more therapy."

Boaz says he was gratified as well to see a heroic portrayal of
individualism and the idea "that it's up to each person to take a
stand and (that) each person has his own talents, abilities and
opportunities. Bruce Wayne, because of his money and training, has
more talent and opportunities to do these things than most of us, but
it's made clear that it's important for everybody to take a stand."

Although Hollywood often takes the rap for touting reflexively
left-wing pieties, Boaz says the ideas that run through "Batman
Begins" actually aren't that rare at the multiplex or on TV. He cites
such hits as "The Aviator," with its multimillionaire hero, "The
Incredibles," with its sly critiques of egalitarianism ("If
everybody's special, then nobody is") and the gleefully libertarian
"South Park" as only the most recent examples.

"America is basically a libertarian country," Boaz says, "so Americans
are going to put libertarian themes into the art they create, and
sometimes it's more explicit and sometimes it's less so.

"But it's not a big surprise to see individualism,
anti-totalitarianism and fighting for freedom and social tolerance
showing up in American art."







 
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[scifinoir2] Mexicans Flock to Buy Stamp Criticized in U.S.

[Kelly Wright]

Manelick de la Parra, son of Memin Pinguin's creator and editor of the
comic, said the criticism was due to ignorance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/AR2005070101967.html?nav=rss_world

Mexicans Flock to Buy Stamp Criticized in U.S.

Reuters
Saturday, July 2, 2005; Page A26

MEXICO CITY, July 1 -- Crowds of Mexicans lined up at post offices
Friday to buy a new set of stamps featuring a 1940s black comic-book
hero whose stereotypical looks and antics have been called racist in
the United States.

About 400 people, from comic fans to Mexicans simply wanting to defy
the White House, descended on Mexico City's main post office. News
reports said one person bought 4,000 stamps of Memin Pinguin, a
mischievous black boy whose thick lips, flat nose and monkey-like
antics have offended U.S. civil rights groups.

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Meanwhile President Vicente Fox said he was baffled by the indignant
reaction and refused to consider withdrawing the stamp from circulation.

"Frankly, I don't understand the reaction," Fox told the Associated
Press. He said Memin Pinguin "is an image in a comic that I have known
since infancy." He said "all Mexicans love the character, and we're
going to keep it where it is as a recognition."

Coming after a tactless remark about blacks by Fox, the stamps have
sparked a fresh controversy over what the Washington sees as Mexico's
blase attitude toward racism.

The White House said the stamps were offensive and had "no place in
today's world." Jesse L. Jackson, the civil rights leader, wants them
pulled from circulation.

Critics said Memin Pinguin, like many comics of the time, reflected
views of blacks as lazy and mischievous. But in Mexico, where there
are few blacks and millions grew up reading about the escapades of the
hapless Memin Pinguin, fans rejected the criticism and snapped up the
stamps.

"We are not racists. We are not offending anyone. He is a very sweet
character," said Teresa Montalvo, who bought three sets of the stamps
for herself and her children. "People's color is all the same to us.
We are all brothers."

The Mexican post office has issued 750,000 of the stamps and is
selling about 6,000 a day. Some branches opened early Friday to cope
with the demand from collectors and die-hard fans of the comic character.

"Normally when I come here to buy stamps there's hardly anyone here.
Today you need two hours," said Roberto Casillas, in line at the
central post office.

The stamps, priced at 32 pesos ($2.98)for a set of five, have been bid
as high as $200 on eBay amid a flurry of offers by collectors as the
polemic mounts.

Manelick de la Parra, son of Memin Pinguin's creator and editor of the
comic, said the criticism was due to ignorance.

"I am relaxed because I know I drew him without intending to offend
anyone," said Memin cartoonist Sixto Valencia.

The stamps landed at a sensitive time, however, a month after Fox
angered civil rights groups by saying Mexicans in the United States do
jobs that "not even blacks" want to do.




 
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[scifinoir2] Re: War of the Worlds-Has Cruise's Meltdown Affected Whether You Will Go See It

[Kelly Wright]

Now I am confused.  Despite Tom's Hollywood image he, like Michael
Jackson, seems to suffer from aggravated "Peter Pan" syndrome.  As for
Alba's business people being involved - of course they were if the
rumors of Katie Holmes being promised $5 million if she and Tom's
platonic relationship lasts five years are true.  I also enter into
evidence that Nicole Kidman has been hopping around like a bunny in
heat since her split from Tommy (see fling with Lenny Kravitz). 
Lastly, while Penelope Cruz and Matthew McCounaughey look like they
actually do it, Penelope Cruz and Thomas C. Mapother IV did not.

~rave!


--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'm missing something. When you mention Alba's "camp", are you talking
> about the group around her that takes care of her business life? What
> would they have to do with her dating Cruise? Or are you saying her
> loved ones put the kibosh on their relationship?  What does that comment
> from rogers mean?
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of Kelly Wright
> Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 21:18
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: War of the Worlds-Has Cruise's Meltdown
> Affected Whether You Will Go See It
> 
> 
> The Hollywood scuttlebutt is that Tom wanted Jessica Alba and 
> Scarlett Johanssen prior to settling Holmes.  He wanted Jessica to 
> raise his virility profile (she is young, hot, yet sill considered 
> nice)but the Alba camp gave him the cold shoulder.  Allegedly 
> Johanssen balked at the Scientology clause in the relationship. 
> Frankly, I think Tommy has been trading down since he divorced Mimi 
> Rogers (my favorite comment of hers regarding their marraige: "I 
> needed my instrument tuned and he didn't").
> 
> ~rave! 
> 
> --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > 
> > In a message dated 6/28/05 9:28:58 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> > 
> > 
> > > Meltdown? Schmeltdown. I am puzzled how Tom Cruise feels Katie
> > > Holmes is an upgrade over Nicole Kidman. The dude has lost his 
> mind!
> > > LOL!
> > > 
> > 
> > On this I whole heartedly agree. :)   To me this is a downgrade.
> > 
> > -GTW
> > 
> > 
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
> 
> 
> 
>   _  
> 
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS 
> 
> 
>   
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> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2> " on the web.
>   
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> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




 
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[scifinoir2] Re: War of the Worlds-Has Cruise's Meltdown Affected Whether You Will Go See It

[Kelly Wright]

The Hollywood scuttlebutt is that Tom wanted Jessica Alba and 
Scarlett Johanssen prior to settling Holmes.  He wanted Jessica to 
raise his virility profile (she is young, hot, yet sill considered 
nice)but the Alba camp gave him the cold shoulder.  Allegedly 
Johanssen balked at the Scientology clause in the relationship. 
Frankly, I think Tommy has been trading down since he divorced Mimi 
Rogers (my favorite comment of hers regarding their marraige: "I 
needed my instrument tuned and he didn't").

~rave! 

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 6/28/05 9:28:58 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> 
> 
> > Meltdown? Schmeltdown. I am puzzled how Tom Cruise feels Katie
> > Holmes is an upgrade over Nicole Kidman. The dude has lost his 
mind!
> > LOL!
> > 
> 
> On this I whole heartedly agree. :)   To me this is a downgrade.
> 
> -GTW
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




 
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[scifinoir2] Dear John Letter to Red States

[Kelly Wright]

Dear Red States

We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've
decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're
taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We
believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to
the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You
get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states
pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a
bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war,
and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If
you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals.

They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for
no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their
children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and
hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our
resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent
of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple
and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of
America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most
of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and
condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale,
Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care
costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the
tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern
Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh,
Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred
unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say
that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved
in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people
with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too.
You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Sincerely,
Author Unknown in New California.
__
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com




 
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[scifinoir2] Re: Black holocaust museum

[Kelly Wright]

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Carole McDonnell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> http://www.exodusnews.com/HISTORY/History008.htm

I live in Milwaukee and have met Mr. Cameron (we used to frequent the
same barbershop).  Although there has been some consternation about
the museum "appropriating" the word Holocaust from some, the community
here has largely embraced Mr. Cameron's brainchild.  There is even a
sign on the expressway proudly announcing the exit ramp to the Mr.
Cameron's Museum.

~rave!
_
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com





 
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[scifinoir2] Re: OT: She Hate Me

[Kelly Wright]

What annoys me most about the negative reviews "She Hate Me" received
is the notion Spike made the movie he made because he didn't know any
better, as if he were novice Matty Rich mucking up "The Inkwell." 
Spike has made eighteen movies including one that may be one of the
one hundred best movies ever made ("Do the Right Thing").  It is true
that Spike also made "Girl 6," but even Spike's misses are
well-considered and well-constructed.  Spike is a classicist, a
university educated filmmaker who is well versed in his cinematic
antecedents.  IMHO many of the reviews were dismissive and
condescending, surprisingly so given Spike's porfolio and reputation.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Great review. Makes me want to rent the movie. The critics in the main
> excoriated it..
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of Kelly Wright
> Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 18:12
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [scifinoir2] OT: She Hate Me
> 
> 
> Check out my review of Spike Lee's controversial eighteenth 
> movie, "She Hate Me" at:
> 
> http://www.theworldebon.com/home.htm
> __
> The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
> http://www.theworldebon.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
>   _  
> 
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[scifinoir2] Re: Johansson Quit MI3 Because Cruise Tried To Convert Her

[Kelly Wright]

Bowfinger is hilarious and their savage lampooning of Scientology is 
scathing!  Murphy's Kip Ramsey is a thinly veiled Cruise-like action 
hero.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, James Landrith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I can't look at Cruise anymore without thinking about Eddie 
Murphy's 
> character "Kit" and "Mindhead" from Bowfinger.
> 
> ___
> James Landrith
> cell: 703-593-2065 * fax: 760-875-8547
> AIM: jlnales * ICQ: 148600159
> Yahoo!: jlandrith * MSN: jlandrith
> http://multiracial.com
> http://jameslandrith.com
> http://jameslandrith.com/wordpress/
> 
> .. Original Message ...
> On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:23:39 -0400 "Keith Johnson" 
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> As for the Scientology thing, they must have zapped Cruise with 
more of 
> that electricity testing/cleansing regimen they have, as he's been 
acting 
> straight crazy recently!





 
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[scifinoir2] OT: She Hate Me

[Kelly Wright]

Check out my review of Spike Lee's controversial eighteenth 
movie, "She Hate Me" at:

http://www.theworldebon.com/home.htm
__
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com




 
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[scifinoir2] Superman Artist Dies

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.lambiek.net/cassidy_paul.htm

Back when Clark Kent was reporting to the Daily Star - and even 
before there was a Daily Planet - a mild-mannered Milwaukee teacher 
became the first ghost artist on the 'Superman' comic. The addition 
of a daily version increased the workload for Joe Shuster, so he 
assigned Paul Cassidy to do the inking and the detail work in the 
late 1930s. Cassidy added a bolder, darker and more fluid line to 
Shuster's style. After a while, Cassidy got to do entire stories by 
himself. Notable about Cassidy's 'Superman' was the addition of 
the 'S' symbol on the cape.

"Cassidy's cape was dynamic and flew in all direction, often covering 
Superman's face," according to one comics-related website.

Paul Cassidy passed away on 15 May 2005 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 
the age of 94.

_
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http://www.theworldebon.com




 
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[scifinoir2] Re: Skywalker As The Joker? It's No Joke

[Kelly Wright]

Hamil did a fine job playing the "the Trickster" in the "Flash" 
television series.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly 
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Skywalker As The Joker? It's No Joke
> http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-06-15/
> Original Star Wars star Mark Hamill has joined the shortlist of 
favorites to
> play The Joker in the Batman Begins sequel. The actor, who played 
Luke
> Skywalker in Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The 
Jedi, has
> become a fan favorite to play Batman's colorful foe. He joins 
Crispin Glover
> and Aussie actor Lachy Hulme on the three-strong internet 
shortlist. Hamill
> became an obvious choice for some Batman fans after voicing The 
Joker for
> the Batman cartoon series. A spokesman for top Batman website
> Darkhorizons.Com points out, "The net basically picked Christian 
Bale to
> play Batman, so who knows." Batman Begins opens across America and 
Europe
> this week.
> 
> Tracey deMorsella, Managing Producer
> Convergence Media, Inc.
> Home of The Multicultural Advantage
> Phone: 215-849-0946
> E-mail:  tdemorsella @multiculturaladvantage.com
> http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com
> --
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[scifinoir2] Re: Batman and sobbin' - Cape and Scowl

[Kelly Wright]

There is a great interview with Christopher Nolen (conducted by 
former NY Times Film Critic Elvis Mitchell) at the following link:

http://www.kcrw.com/show/tt

There is an excellent interview with Frank Miller regarding "Sin 
City" at the same site.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly 
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Note:  From the moderator, please do not beat up the messenger.
> 
> Cape and Scowl
> Batman and sobbin': Orphan grief and existential questions in a grim
> franchise retake
> by Michael Atkinson
> 
> Since Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin 
(1997)
> devolved an already campy superhero franchise into a sub-Vegas 
monster's
> ball, it seems fitting that Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins is
> fastidiously grim. That is, it strives to take post-teen sturm und 
drang
> seriously, just as it must accept Tim Burton's expressionistic 
cityscapes as
> ordained. The promise of the comic book, in both its original Bob 
Kane
> incarnation and Dark Knight resurrection, was of existentialist 
hyper-noir
> with a Fritz Langian remorselessness, and Nolan aims for the dark 
heart,
> drenching the movie in orphan grief and questioning the fascist 
pathology of
> vigilante violence.
> 
> In the movie's bid for solemnity, even Jung is explicitly invoked, 
but Nolan
> and his co-screenwriter David Goyer can only press the big buttons 
so
> hard?it's still an old-school superhero summer movie, the plotting 
tortuous,
> the characters relegated to one-scene-one-emotion simplicity, the 
digitized
> action a never ending club mix of chases and mano a manos. As the 
title sez,
> we start at the beginning (again), when Bruce Wayne is but the wee 
scion of
> billionaire parents?who, the film struggles to insist, are not in 
the least
> responsible for the rampaging poverty and social decay of Gotham 
City. (The
> subway that Linus Roache's Dr. Wayne built is seen as an act of 
beneficence,
> to help the poor get to the jobs they presumably don't have since 
they're
> all junkies and petty crooks.) Indeed, the screenplay performs 
ludicrous
> contortions trying to conform the fact of Batman's bottomless 
wealth to the
> urban blight he conscientiously battles at night.
> 
> After his parents are gunned down by a mugger, Bruce grows up to be
> Christian Bale, broods, rejects the rich-boy lifestyle, and ends up 
in a
> Chinese prison, where he is salvaged by Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) 
and
> Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), the leaders of the League of Shadows, a 
ninja
> army dedicated to restoring "balance" to suffering civilizations via
> spare-no-collateral intervention. Laboriously trained, Wayne 
returns home
> determined to bring justice to the streets.
> 
> The "how" is where Nolan and Goyer have focused their energies, 
providing
> explanations for every aspect of Batman's regalia, down to the cape 
(just
> like his father's tux jacket, placed over the boy's shoulders at 
the crime
> scene). Since his ninja training required him to "Conquer your 
fear!"
> Wayne's childhood phobia of bats becomes his chief criminal-
terrorizing
> guise. (Fears need to be confronted, combated, and wrestled into 
submission,
> we're told ad infinitum, but all I could muster was the fear of a
> Dolby-bludgeoned tympanic cavity.) Soon, a chemical plot to destroy 
the city
> arises out of the busi-ness relationship between a mobster (Tom 
Wilkinson)
> and an effete psychiatrist (Cillian Murphy), proprietor of Arkham 
Asylum.
> 
> Stuck in a glower groove, Bale acts only insofar as the context and 
the
> equipment will let him; the movie's tidbits of bemused humanity are 
the sole
> responsibility of Morgan Freeman, as a Wayne Industries techie, and 
Michael
> Caine, as Alfred. Scrambling villains and motivations from three 
decades of
> comic books, Batman Begins seeks out a middle ground between the 
Spider-Man
> films (boyish rectitude and romance) and the X-Men series
> (pseudo-sophisticated political ideas, including an archnemesis 
monologue
> that suggests the WTO has always been part of Ra's al Ghul's secret 
clan,
> doggedly destroying societies around the globe with "economics"). 
That it
> more or less succeeds hardly calls for drinks on the house. Nolan, 
like many
> filmmakers, seems to rise or sink to the level of his material and 
under the
> burden of his budget; those looking for a taste of Memento's radical
> perspective amid the stunts and CGIs will feel bereft.
> 
> Tracey deMorsella, Managing Producer
> Convergence Media, Inc.
> Home of The Multicultural Advantage
> Phone: 215-849-0946
> E-mail:  tdemorsella @multiculturaladvantage.com
> http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com
> --
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[scifinoir2] Re: FW: NEWS: Vast Condom Horror in Pacific

[Kelly Wright]

On the other hand, here in Milwaukee, some citizen discovered that 
condoms were being deposited into Lake Michigan unharmed after 
traveling through the waste treatment center.  The waste treatment 
center installed screens to capture the wayward condoms but some 
still made it through unharmed.  So they waste treatment center hired 
a man at a cost of fifty-two dollars an hour to spy and scoup up the 
offending condoms (or $18 per condom scooped).

~rave!

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/may05/325680.asp

Condom control — at a price 
MMSD's 'floatables' cost is more than $1.8 million
By STEVE SCHULTZE and MARIE ROHDE
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Posted: May 12, 2005
Case closed on the great condom cleanup caper.

Sort of.

Condom Control 
By the Numbers 
$1.5 million 
The cost of an elaborate system of nets to catch condoms that get 
through sewage treatment

$120,000 

Related costs, including replacement nets

$184,400 

What contract workers were paid during 424 days to scoop condoms out 
of Jones Island chlorine tanks. 
 
After spending more than $1.8 million for a temporary system to catch 
stray condoms slipping through the Jones Island sewage treatment 
plant - including having a full-time worker at $52.15 an hour 
manually skimming errant condoms from the final wastewater treatment 
tanks - the sewerage district is declaring its effluent condom-free. 

Pretty much, anyway.

"We are fairly confident we are capturing a majority" of the spent 
condoms before they can reach the Milwaukee Harbor and Lake Michigan, 
said Bill Graffin, spokesman for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage 
District. 

"If we need to take more steps, we don't know what they would be," he 
said.

Condoms are notoriously difficult to capture completely at sewage 
treatment plants, MMSD officials said. However, Peter Swenson, a 
regional official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said 
the problem is rare.

The quest for better condom control dates back to April 29, 2003, 
when a local fisherman reported seeing what he called a "slick" of 
thousands of condoms floating in the lake following a heavy 
rainstorm. MMSD officials initially discounted the story, suggesting 
the shiny objects the fisherman reported must have been alewives - a 
small fish. 

But with a public outcry and a nudge from Attorney General Peg 
Lautenschlager, the district sprang into action. 

First, a single laborer armed with a swimming pool skimmer was posted 
at the chlorine tanks at Jones Island to nab condoms that survived 
earlier phases of screening at the plant. To date, the effort has 
yielded 14,020 stubborn condoms scooped from the final sewage 
treatment soup over 551 days. Average daily yield: 25.4 condoms, 
according to the district.

$18.09 a condom
The district couldn't provide full costs of the effort. But the final 
424 days of condom scooping cost $184,400 for the 10,196condoms 
collected during that period, which ended Feb. 6. That comes to a per-
condom collection cost of $18.09.

The work was done weekdays by union laborers under a subcontract with 
MMSD's private operator, United Water Services. Those workers were 
paid $23.19 an hour. However, United Water charged MMSD $52.15 an 
hour, a figure that included costs of fringe benefits and a 15% 
markup for profit and administrative fees. 

On weekends, United Water employees scooped condoms at the plant. 
They were paid overtime - $51.06 an hour for Saturdays and $68.06 
Sundays.

The subcontract was done because United Water didn't have enough 
workers on staff to do it, said John Cheslik, United Water's manager 
of Milwaukee operations. Cheslik and MMSD officials said that 
although the costs seem high, they reflect the requirement in MMSD's 
contract with United Water that locally prevailing wages are paid for 
sewerage district work.

State Rep. Pedro Colón, a member of the commission that oversees 
MMSD, said a cheaper alternative for the job should have been used.

"It's just a lot of money," said Colón, a Milwaukee Democrat. "This 
is in the category of unacceptable."

The manual scooping was supplemented during summer months of 2003 and 
2004, when MMSD also had the crew of the Pelagos, the district's 43-
foot research boat, fishing for condoms that made it through the 
plant and into the harbor. That yielded another 1,722 condoms in 220 
days of intermittent harbor patrol. Cost figures weren't available 
for that endeavor.

Nets also used
An elaborate fabricated system of condom-catching nets - which 
themselves resemble giant condoms - also was approved and installed 
early last year at Jones Island at a cost of $1.5 million. Other 
costs, including replacement nets, have added another $120,000 to the 
project.

The net system installed in the plant was supposed to end the manual 
condom catching effort, but the system blew out when it got its first 
big test after last May's rainstorms. The device, euphemistically 
dubbed the "floatables removal project" by MMSD, was re

[scifinoir2] Re: Caught "Revenge of the Sith"

[Kelly Wright]

Since I don't own the first three (or last three depending on your 
point of view), I sequed from episode three to episode four and I am 
half way through episode five.  It is amazing how young, crisp and 
exuberant "A New Hope" remains after almost 30 years (I have the 
original VHS copies, not the redigitized DVD versions).  It is 
outright fun to watch, something none of prequels can claim to be.  

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Astromancer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have now seen all six in sequence...I still think Three would 
have made a great trilogy if they used it as the basis for it...too 
much, too little, too LATE...
> 
> Kelly Wright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Perspective is everything and I 
had the misfortune of being ace boon
> coon to someone who has watched episode three EVERY DAY since he
> copped a copy of the bootleg last Saturday.  He has been through the
> roof and over the moon enthusiastic about "Revenge of the Sith,"
> recounting key scenes and epic battles over and over and repeating
> "Yoda is a bad man!" like a mantra.  I have heard so much about
> "Revenge of the Sith," that frankly, there was no way the actual 
movie
> could stand up to the hype.  
> 
> The movie my friend recounted is WAY better (and funnier) than 
the
> movie I paid to see yesterday.  (Even before I saw it we had started
> doing riffs: When Obi Wan lands on General Grievous'landing dock he
> shouts "Surrender!" Grievous, who is surrounded by thousands of 
battle
> droids, looks around and then back at General Kenobi standing there 
by
> his lonesome, "You must be crazy with the heat!"  Grievous raises 
his
> four arms, each holding a light-saber, "You 'bout to get broke off,
> son!").
> 
> That said, "Revenge of the Sith" is clearly the class of this 
trilogy.  
> It is no "The Empire Strikes Back" but it is far better than the 
still
> disappointing "Return of the Jedi." And, interestingly, it makes the
> two movies that preceeded it rise in my estimation.  I am actually
> juiced to see Episode one and two again, something you would never
> have heard me say after originally viewing them.
> 
> "Revenge of the Sith" put me in mind of the scene in "The Godfather"
> where Marlon Brando as the old don tells Robert Duvall as the callow
> consigliere "You were not a bad consigliere; Sonny was a bad don."
> Yoda could have sat down with Obi Wan and told him the same thing:
> "You bad master, were not; Anakin bad padawan, was."
> 
> Except, Obi Wan WAS a bad master. He remained too much of a "gee 
wiz,
> wiz-bang, hale fellow, well met" kinda guy (a prototypical Luke
> Skywalker if you will) and never exhibited the firm hand Anakin
> needed. Qui-Gon would have done a much better job, (heck Mace Windu
> would have done a better job: Mace:"You reckless eyeballin' me, 
boy?"
> Anakin:"Stop yelling at me!"  Mace: "I ain't yellin' at you!  This 
is
> how I talk!") which is why Darth Sidious sent Darth Maul to
> assassinate Qui-Gon in the first place.  Frankly, Obi Wan hasn't 
been
> the same since he saw his master Qui-Gon get broke off by Darth Maul
> in Episode One.
> 
> ~rave!
> 
> > Keith Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Saw this today at a 10 am showing. (There were over 60 people in 
the
> theatre, so good crowd). Really enjoyed it. The overall tone was the
> most mature and realized since "The Empire Strikes Back". A few 
scenes
> of Anakin's fall from grace were shocking. I don't want to say more
> until others have seen it. If you're a Star Wars fan, go. If you 
love
> scifi, go. I plan to see it at least two more times.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > 
> > -
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[scifinoir2] From Luke to Anakin: Growing Up on 'Star Wars'

[Kelly Wright]

"The series has since faded to the grey area it seemed to stand
against, morphing into a Matrix-like state of malevolence, with
Revenge of the Sith's Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) insisting that
his young apprentice was supposed to be the One."

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/commentary/?id=1822&p=.htm

>From Luke to Anakin: Growing Up on 'Star Wars'
by Scott Holleran
May 18, 2005

The excitement over Revenge of the Sith's release recalls standing in
line to see the original Star Wars when it opened in 1977. My parents
enjoyed taking the family to the movies, which offered personal,
low-cost entertainment. We could hardly wait to see The Sting in 1973
and The Towering Inferno a year later. The following year, my sister
and I defied our mother to see Jaws, which Mom was convinced was a
horror movie.

Mom was right, but we just had to see it. We took a bus to see Steven
Spielberg's forbidden fish tale at a mall in Skokie, Illinois, which
would have been a brilliant scheme had we bothered to check the return
bus schedule. Nothing like being stranded in Skokie and having to call
Mom to pick us up from a movie we'd been prohibited from seeing. Being
caught did not teach us to avoid being caught up in Hollywood hype.
Not then and not two years later, when Dad piled us into the station
wagon to stand in line for something called Star Wars.

With its simple title in smooth letters outlined against black space,
Star Wars was different sight unseen. Unlike today's pre-release,
multi-media mania, newspaper ads were composed of words printed in
black and white, teasing, "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far
away…" What images there were emphasized Luke Skywalker—not Darth
Vader. That's what got us into the seats: the promise of a heroic
adventure—of watching good fight evil and win.

That raises the cultural context, which was the war in Vietnam,
initiated by communists and bungled by politicians, and the Watergate
scandal, which magnified the minutiae just when America needed to get
serious about its philosophy.

But America was in the grip of the hippies, who held American values
in contempt, and they were having an impact in Hollywood. Fiery
Katharine Hepburn and sunny Doris Day had all but departed from
pictures, versatile Sidney Poitier had been vilified in his prime for
being an Uncle Tom, and classy Cary Grant and upright Gary Cooper had
given way to sniveling, squinting anti-heroes. The hum of a light
saber firing up was a pleasant change from the sound of shrill hippies
and their cinematic counterparts screaming in our faces.

Star Wars delivered a tonic for the time: sweeping music, opening
scroll and a heap of hokey dialog set to purposeful action with enough
optimism to cleanse the stink of Woodstock for a long time.

Bringing self-confident heroes back to life, Star Wars engaged them in
vital pursuits and its catch phrase—"May the Force Be With You"—was an
affirmative 'chin-up' for a nation deluged by the drug culture. The
intellectuals gave us Annie Hall; the middle class—a guy from
Modesto—gave us Star Wars. It was a choice between cocaine and the
Millennium Falcon. It was not a tough call.

The series has since faded to the grey area it seemed to stand
against, morphing into a Matrix-like state of malevolence, with
Revenge of the Sith's Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) insisting that
his young apprentice was supposed to be the One. Turns out it was
dreary Anakin's—not bright Luke's—story and Darth Vader wasn't such a
bad guy after all. Like Vader, the saga became more mechanical than
human, and the moral relativism contaminating the culture affected
Star Wars too. Those looking for heroism had to be satisfied with Yoda
twirling a saber.

Today's fans appear less interested in the story than in the
spectacle; during a recent screening, they hooted at random in
recognition of the most trivial characters. Drowning out entire
scenes, it seemed like at any moment Artoo Detoo could have belted out
a bleeping version of Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" and they
would have grunted like monkeys.

But the grunting started with the murmur of Boomers and Xers, so
hungry for heroes we did not bother to notice the creep toward
pointless action, and we were first to suspend belief over the baloney
about the Force. The blockbusting arc of a dark father and his bold
son—depicted according to the wishes of its creator, itself an
exceptional achievement—is about to roll its closing credits. 28 years
after standing in line, it's not that Star Wars is not fun. It was
something good to cheer for in an era of defeatism. And, like sneaking
out to see Jaws, it is best remembered for what it might have been
than for what it was. 




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[scifinoir2] Puppet vs. digital Yoda: Like me better in CGI, they do

[Kelly Wright]

Article below reminds me of a friend of mine who swears "Godfather 3"
is the best of the Godfather trilogy because it was the first one she saw.

~rave!

Oh, and Jar Jar Binks is third in toy sales behind Yoda and R2D2.
_

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2005-05-12-star-wars_x.htm

Generation flap

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
On May 19, the final Star Wars showdown begins.

Puppet vs. digital Yoda: Like me better in CGI, they do.
Lucasfilm Ltd.

We're not talking Jedi knights vs. Sith lords, Obi-Wan vs. Anakin or
even good vs. evil.

When Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith hits screens next
Thursday, fans of George Lucas' six-part opus will again clash over
which films rule: the original hits of the 1970s and '80s or the
prequel that began six years ago.

Conventional wisdom has the original films — 1977's A New Hope, 1980's
The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's The Return of the Jedi— winning
hands down.

Fans of the early movies tout the breakthrough technology, the story
lines and the birth of such unforgettable characters as Darth Vader,
Luke Skywalker, Yoda and the suave Han Solo. (Related story: Compare
Anakin and Luke)

"There is no personality in the new movies," says Michael Walker, a
39-year-old Star Wars devotee from Decatur, Ala. "The new movies, it
seems that they are trying to win you over with fantastic special
effects."

But fans younger than 25 — many of whom had their first Star Wars
theater experience with 1999's The Phantom Menace or 2002's Attack of
the Clones— have a different perspective. They find the old films
slow, the dialogue corny and the special effects crude.

"I watched the originals to learn the whole story, but I couldn't
watch them more than once," says Jean Burton, a 22-year-old Los
Angeles retail sales employee. "I like the worlds in the new Star Wars."

The dispute can get downright testy. Yale Tindell, 28, a Baltimore
automotive service manager, says "These new ones are an abomination.
They have weak actors, weak stories, weak effects. They've bled the
originals for profit."

Elayne Rapping, a professor of American Studies at the University at
Buffalo, says that each trilogy represents a seminal moment for its
audience.

"Whether it's the 1970s or the 1990s, George Lucas has always known
what kids want," Rapping says. And it's natural, she says, that each
generation would favor the movies it grew up with.

Dave Myatt, 32, an editor at the fan site rebelscum.com, has his
doubts whether Sith can bring about peace in the Lucas galaxy. "This
one is going to please more people than the last two. But each group
feels so strongly about their trilogy that I don't think they'll ever
really agree."

So who has the edge? We compare key characters from both trilogies in
a tale of the galactic tape:

Trilogies duel, role for role

The young hero

Like father, like son: Luke Skywalker (left) and his father Anakin
were impatient when they were young.

Contenders: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) vs. Anakin Skywalker (Hayden
Christensen)

Strengths: A farm boy with no clue as to who's his daddy, Luke yearns
for a life beyond the planet Tatooine, where he can take his skills
with a land speeder and use them as a fighter pilot for rebel forces.
He's gifted with a lightsaber and fearless in the face of danger. Born
a slave on Tatooine, Anakin displays an unrivaled grasp of the Force,
both the light and dark side. He is passionate, mechanically skilled,
a quick learner and has a strong sense of justice.

Weaknesses: Luke is impatient and quick to fight. He doesn't want to
wait for his Uncle Owen's permission to join the rebellion, nor for
Yoda to finish training him as a Jedi. Anakin has a temper he can't
control. He occasionally prefers choking someone to diplomacy.

The winner: Luke Skywalker, for his pure heart. "Luke was a boy we
were all rooting for, which made the story so powerful," Rapping says.

The plucky heroine

Contenders: Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) vs. Padmé Amidala (Natalie
Portman)


Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia (left) and Natalie Portman stars as
Senator Amidala.

Strengths: The daughter of Padmé, Leia is beautiful, defiant and
skilled with a laser gun. Even under torture by her father, Darth
Vader, she refuses to give up the rebel bases. Padmé, queen of Naboo,
is beautiful, kind and fierce in the defense of democracy. She's
unafraid to fall in love — even when it's a forbidden romance with a
Jedi knight.

Weaknesses: Leia is too quick to judge, branding Han Solo incompetent.
Plus she wears her hair in goofy buns and — unaware they're related —
kisses her brother, Luke, on the mouth. Padmé overlooks husband
Anakin's flaws, even when he's cutting down enemies and longing to
rule the galaxy.

The winner: Leia. "Every time someone came to rescue her, she wound up
saving the day," says director and fan Kevin Smith.

The sidekick

Contenders: Old Obi-

[scifinoir2] Re: Repost: "Scorpius" is in "Sith"!

[Kelly Wright]

To answer my own question I invoked the awesome power of the internet
and found the following site:

http://www.forgotten-lore.net/duty/index.php

which chronicles the political career of Padme Amidala.  (Talk about
precocious!): 

"At the age of eight she joined the Apprentice Legislature, and by the
eleven years of age (ELEVEN!) she had become an Apprentice Legislator.
Following this she served as the supervisor (also called Governor) of
Theed for two years."

"After the siege was broken Amidala continued to serve as Queen of
Naboo. When her two terms were up she refused to seek re-election,
though the people were willing to pass an amendment and make her Queen
for life. Jamilla, her successor as Queen, asked her to serve as
Senator INSTEAD OF RETIRING AT THE ACCEPTED AGE OF TWENTY. Padmé
agreed and this started a whole new faze of her life, she was now
Senator Amidala."

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Well, I'm okay with electing a queen. It'd actually makes sense in a
> way, letting the people choose a monarch they trust, then giving that
> monarch limited time. Guess it's like a more powerful prime minister
> posting or something. I do have an issue with the age of these women.
> What possible skills could they bring to running a whole planet before
> their eighteenth birthdays? And  then Padme goes on to become a
> Senator??  Didn't buy it.
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of Kelly Wright
> Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2005 11:05
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: Repost: "Scorpius" is in "Sith"!
> 
> 
> Speaking of Keisha Castle-Hughes, what is up with Naboobian practice
> of ELECTING these virginal Queens?  Is "Queen" on Naboo an "American
> Idol" type-hype where young women parade in their Kabuki make-up and
> Naboobians pony up galactic credits for each call/vote they make?
> 
> ~rave!
> 
> --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > For those who've seen "Revenge of the Sith" since I posted this. Didja
> > catch these actors?
> >  
> > Kelly, from your post about the blue-faced dude in "Sith": A Peter
> > Cushing look-alike. At the end of the film, there's an actor who bears
> a
> > strong resemblance to the late actor who played Grand Moff Tarkin, one
> > of the villains in the first "Star Wars" movie.
> >  
> > Guess what, that actor is played by Wayne Pygram, "Scorpius" from
> > Farscape! Also in the movie is Keisha Castle-Hughes of "Whale Rider"
> > fame.  I guess the movie was shot in Australia in part, as both actors
> > are natives.
> 
> 
> 
> 
>   _  
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
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> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/
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> 
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[scifinoir2] Re: Repost: "Scorpius" is in "Sith"!

[Kelly Wright]

Speaking of Keisha Castle-Hughes, what is up with Naboobian practice
of ELECTING these virginal Queens?  Is "Queen" on Naboo an "American
Idol" type-hype where young women parade in their Kabuki make-up and
Naboobians pony up galactic credits for each call/vote they make?

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> For those who've seen "Revenge of the Sith" since I posted this. Didja
> catch these actors?
>  
> Kelly, from your post about the blue-faced dude in "Sith": A Peter
> Cushing look-alike. At the end of the film, there's an actor who bears a
> strong resemblance to the late actor who played Grand Moff Tarkin, one
> of the villains in the first "Star Wars" movie.
>  
> Guess what, that actor is played by Wayne Pygram, "Scorpius" from
> Farscape! Also in the movie is Keisha Castle-Hughes of "Whale Rider"
> fame.  I guess the movie was shot in Australia in part, as both actors
> are natives.




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[scifinoir2] Lost Finale

[Kelly Wright]

I am grateful that Saturday nights have become such a wasteland for
Network television that the networks have taken to using this day to
show reruns of their hit shows, otherwise I would have missed the "Lost"
recap episode ABC broadcast two weeks ago and the season finale
episode that they rebroadcast last night.  

I thoroughly enjoyed both.  The two hour finale was something network
television rarely is, engaging and surprising.  I take delicious
pleasure in a show that can blow up a guy seconds after he has warned
everybody about an unstable explosive.  And, for me, it was truly
harrowing when the pirates took Dawson's son.  Here was that
television rarity: a two-hour season finale that wasn't mainly
understuffed filler.

Although I wasn't even a casual viewer, I often wondered how the
writers and producers could sustain this premise over the life of a
series, let alone a season.  But, as evidenced by the first season and
the season finale, I am convinced these people can not only sustain
it, they can make it flourish. 

~rave!
_
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com




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[scifinoir2] Revenge of the Sith: Galaxy Questions

[Kelly Wright]

This is from Entertainment Weekly:

Besides scoring a record-breaking worldwide four-day gross of $304.2
million, they also left us scratching our heads. Sadly, the nice folks
at Lucasfilm were too busy rolling around naked in piles of money to
help end our confusion, so we turn to you, loyal EW readers.  Hold us
like you did by the lake on Naboo.

- Whitney Pastorek

1) How does Episode III's Evan McGregor morph into Episode IV's Sir
Alec Guinness in just 19 years?  (Also, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru look
like WB teens in "Sith" - they're old and cranky in "A New Hope.") Is
it Tatooine's desert climate?  The two suns?  Bad skin care?

2) It takes 19 years to build the first Death Star but just four to
make the second fully operational.  Did they use a better contractor,
or did they just already know where everything went.

3) Why doesn't Obi-Wan recognize R2-D2 in Episode IV?  And in the
later trilogy, R2 seems to have lost the ability to catch things and
leap friskily out of spaceships.  Droid Arthritis?

4) Why'd it take Chancellor Palpatine like 26 different shout-outs to
tell the stormtroopers to kill the Jedi.  Couldn't Mister All-Powerful
just set up a conference call?

5) In a world of Qui-Gons, Obi-Wans, and Anakins, where'd Padme come
up with...Luke?  General Hospital?
__
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http://www.theworldebon.com





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[scifinoir2] Re: Caught "Revenge of the Sith"

[Kelly Wright]

Perspective is everything and I had the misfortune of being ace boon
coon to someone who has watched episode three EVERY DAY since he
copped a copy of the bootleg last Saturday.  He has been through the
roof and over the moon enthusiastic about "Revenge of the Sith,"
recounting key scenes and epic battles over and over and repeating
"Yoda is a bad man!" like a mantra.  I have heard so much about
"Revenge of the Sith," that frankly, there was no way the actual movie
could stand up to the hype.  

The movie my friend recounted is WAY better (and funnier) than the
movie I paid to see yesterday.  (Even before I saw it we had started
doing riffs: When Obi Wan lands on General Grievous'landing dock he
shouts "Surrender!" Grievous, who is surrounded by thousands of battle
droids, looks around and then back at General Kenobi standing there by
his lonesome, "You must be crazy with the heat!"  Grievous raises his
four arms, each holding a light-saber, "You 'bout to get broke off,
son!").

That said, "Revenge of the Sith" is clearly the class of this trilogy.  
It is no "The Empire Strikes Back" but it is far better than the still
disappointing "Return of the Jedi." And, interestingly, it makes the
two movies that preceeded it rise in my estimation.  I am actually
juiced to see Episode one and two again, something you would never
have heard me say after originally viewing them.

"Revenge of the Sith" put me in mind of the scene in "The Godfather"
where Marlon Brando as the old don tells Robert Duvall as the callow
consigliere "You were not a bad consigliere; Sonny was a bad don."
Yoda could have sat down with Obi Wan and told him the same thing:
"You bad master, were not; Anakin bad padawan, was."

Except, Obi Wan WAS a bad master. He remained too much of a "gee wiz,
wiz-bang, hale fellow, well met" kinda guy (a prototypical Luke
Skywalker if you will) and never exhibited the firm hand Anakin
needed. Qui-Gon would have done a much better job, (heck Mace Windu
would have done a better job: Mace:"You reckless eyeballin' me, boy?"
Anakin:"Stop yelling at me!"  Mace: "I ain't yellin' at you!  This is
how I talk!") which is why Darth Sidious sent Darth Maul to
assassinate Qui-Gon in the first place.  Frankly, Obi Wan hasn't been
the same since he saw his master Qui-Gon get broke off by Darth Maul
in Episode One.

~rave!

> Keith Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Saw this today at a 10 am showing. (There were over 60 people in the
theatre, so good crowd). Really enjoyed it. The overall tone was the
most mature and realized since "The Empire Strikes Back". A few scenes
of Anakin's fall from grace were shocking. I don't want to say more
until others have seen it. If you're a Star Wars fan, go. If you love
scifi, go. I plan to see it at least two more times.
> 
>  
> 
> 
> -
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[scifinoir2] Re: 'Star Wars' Fails to Stem Box Office Slump

[Kelly Wright]

Here are Box Office numbers adjusted for inflation ("Gone with the
Wind" is still number one):

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have a major problem with the fact that these records do not factor in
> inflation. I believe, that means that these numbers are comparing
revenue
> generated by movies that movie goers paid say $5 to see, like ET, to
films
> today in which moviegoers are paying $8 to see.  So to me, that
translates
> into hype.
> 
> Is my assumption that inflation is not factored in true?
> 
> Tracey
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Behalf Of Kelly Wright
> Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 11:34 AM
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: 'Star Wars' Fails to Stem Box Office Slump
> 
> 
> "But the films will have a lot to overcome. Last year's Memorial Day
> weekend take set an all-time record of $250 million."
> 
> The above statement is what is wrong with the article below.  Last
> year an all-time box office record was established over the Memorial
> Day holiday and if it is not met this week we will continue to read
> doom-and-gloom articles about the sorry state of the film industry.
> 
> In fact, the film industry is doing better than ever.  "Assault at
> Precinct 13," a bomb at the box office, debuted at number one on the
> DVD sales list meaning it will more than likely make a profit for the
> studio that financed it. DVD sales are 4 to 8 times what box office is
> and the studios don't share a dime with the theatres.
> 
> As mentioned in an article formerly posted here, while this doesn't
> bode well for theatres, studios have never been more solvent.
> 
> (by the way, our friendly neighborhood bootlegger is distributing an
> absolutely gorgeous studio-cut version of "Revenge of the Sith."   How
> it made it out of fortress Lucas is a mystery to me).
> 
> ~rave!
> 
> --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly
> Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > LOS ANGELES -- It's official - "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge
of the
> > Sith" is a mega, runaway, blockbuster, record-setting hit.
However, the
> > popularity of the George Lucas film didn't vanquish the overall box
> office
> > slump that has plagued Hollywood for 13 straight weeks.
> >
> > The latest chapter in the sci-fi action series shattered previous
> records
> > for a four-day opening, taking in $158,449,700 from Thursday through
> Sunday,
> > according to the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
> >
> > The film, playing on more than 9,400 screens in 3,661 theaters alone
> > accounted for 68 percent of the revenue generated by the top 12
> films over
> > the three-day weekend.
> >
> > The action-filled tale of heroic Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker's
> > transformation into the villainous Darth Vader, failed to slay one
> record -
> > the Friday through Sunday take of $114.8 million set by the original
> > "Spider-Man" flick in 2002.
> >
> > The long-awaited last chapter in the "Star Wars" serial lifted the box
> > office from last weekend's take by 67 percent.
> >
> > Still, the total box office for the weekend was down 3.5 percent
> from the
> > same weekend last year.
> >
> > "It's shocking," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor
> Relations.
> > "We really thought this would end the slump."
> >
> > The problem was with the second and third place films,
"Monster-in-Law,"
> > which took in $14.35 million for the weekend and "Kicking &
Screaming,"
> > which took in $10.7 million.
> >
> > In the same weekend last year, "Troy" played more of a supporting
> role to
> > box office champ "Shrek 2" by generating $23.9 million.
> >
> > Memorial Day weekend, a traditional strong period for the box
office, is
> > expected to be strong with the remake of "The Longest Yard" and the
> animated
> > film "Madagascar" opening.
> >
> > But the films will have a lot to overcome. Last year's Memorial Day
> weekend
> > take set an all-time record of $250 million.
> >
> > The top 20 movies at North American theaters Friday through Sunday,
> followed
> > by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average
> receipts
> &

[scifinoir2] Re: 'Star Wars' Fails to Stem Box Office Slump

[Kelly Wright]

"But the films will have a lot to overcome. Last year's Memorial Day
weekend take set an all-time record of $250 million."

The above statement is what is wrong with the article below.  Last
year an all-time box office record was established over the Memorial
Day holiday and if it is not met this week we will continue to read
doom-and-gloom articles about the sorry state of the film industry. 

In fact, the film industry is doing better than ever.  "Assault at
Precinct 13," a bomb at the box office, debuted at number one on the
DVD sales list meaning it will more than likely make a profit for the
studio that financed it. DVD sales are 4 to 8 times what box office is
and the studios don't share a dime with the theatres.

As mentioned in an article formerly posted here, while this doesn't
bode well for theatres, studios have never been more solvent.

(by the way, our friendly neighborhood bootlegger is distributing an
absolutely gorgeous studio-cut version of "Revenge of the Sith."   How
it made it out of fortress Lucas is a mystery to me).

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> LOS ANGELES -- It's official - "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the
> Sith" is a mega, runaway, blockbuster, record-setting hit. However, the
> popularity of the George Lucas film didn't vanquish the overall box
office
> slump that has plagued Hollywood for 13 straight weeks.
> 
> The latest chapter in the sci-fi action series shattered previous
records
> for a four-day opening, taking in $158,449,700 from Thursday through
Sunday,
> according to the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
> 
> The film, playing on more than 9,400 screens in 3,661 theaters alone
> accounted for 68 percent of the revenue generated by the top 12
films over
> the three-day weekend.
> 
> The action-filled tale of heroic Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker's
> transformation into the villainous Darth Vader, failed to slay one
record -
> the Friday through Sunday take of $114.8 million set by the original
> "Spider-Man" flick in 2002.
> 
> The long-awaited last chapter in the "Star Wars" serial lifted the box
> office from last weekend's take by 67 percent.
> 
> Still, the total box office for the weekend was down 3.5 percent
from the
> same weekend last year.
> 
> "It's shocking," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor
Relations.
> "We really thought this would end the slump."
> 
> The problem was with the second and third place films, "Monster-in-Law,"
> which took in $14.35 million for the weekend and "Kicking & Screaming,"
> which took in $10.7 million.
> 
> In the same weekend last year, "Troy" played more of a supporting
role to
> box office champ "Shrek 2" by generating $23.9 million.
> 
> Memorial Day weekend, a traditional strong period for the box office, is
> expected to be strong with the remake of "The Longest Yard" and the
animated
> film "Madagascar" opening.
> 
> But the films will have a lot to overcome. Last year's Memorial Day
weekend
> take set an all-time record of $250 million.
> 
> The top 20 movies at North American theaters Friday through Sunday,
followed
> by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average
receipts
> per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as
compiled Monday
> by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. and Nielsen EDI Inc. are:
> 
> 1. "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," 20th Century Fox,
> $108,435,841, 3,661 locations, $29,619 average, $158,449,700, one week.
> 
> 2. "Monster-In-Law," New Line, $14,350,134, 3,424 locations, $4,191
average,
> $44,174,005, two weeks.
> 
> 3. "Kicking & Screaming," Universal, $10,721,715, 3,470 locations,
$3,090
> average, $34,196,720, two weeks.
> 
> 4. "Crash," Lions Gate, $5,546,006, 1,905 locations, $2,911 average,
> $27,648,811, three weeks.
> 
> 5. "Unleashed," Focus, $4,123,556, 1,962 locations, $2,102 average,
> $17,850,310, two weeks.
> 
> 6. "Kingdom of Heaven," 20th Century Fox, $3,537,201, 2,808 locations,
> $1,260 average, $41,218,408, three weeks.
> 
> 7. "House of Wax," Warner Bros., $3,288,419, 2,765 locations, $1,189
> average, $26,912,839, three weeks.
> 
> 8. "The Interpreter," Universal, $2,910,580, 2,164 locations, $1,345
> average, $65,403,045, five weeks.
> 
> 9. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," Disney, $2,054,904, 2,211
> locations, $929 average, $46,902,653, four weeks.
> 
> 10. "Mindhunters," Dimension, $1,005,839, 1,073 locations, $937 average,
> $3,562,161, two weeks.
> 
> 11. "XXX: State of the Union," Sony/Revolution, $828,350, 1,301
locations,
> $637 average, $25,607,347, four weeks.
> 
> 12. "Sahara," Paramount, $803,664, 1,074 locations, $748 average,
> $65,571,156, seven weeks.
> 
> 13. "The Amityville Horror," MGM, $702,477, 784 locations, $896 average,
> $64,255,243, six weeks.
> 
> 14. "Robots," 20th Century Fox, $401,692, 516 locations, $778 average,
> $126,145,964, 11 weeks.
> 
> 15. "Fever Pitch," 20th Cent

[scifinoir2] Re: NASA technology reveals texts of Trojan Wars, early gospels

[Kelly Wright]

This is very cool.  I love that burned manuscripts can be "read."

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002284845_texts23.h
tml
> 
> NASA technology reveals texts of Trojan Wars, early gospels
> 
> By Tom Hundley
> Chicago Tribune
> 
> 
> OXFORD, England - The scholars at Oxford University are not sure 
how it
> works or why; all they know is that it does.
> 
> A relatively new technology called multispectral imaging is turning 
a pile
> of ancient garbage into a gold mine of classical knowledge, 
bringing to
> light the lost texts of Sophocles and Euripides as well as some 
early
> Christian gospels that do not appear in the New Testament.
> 
> Originally developed by NASA scientists and used to map the surface 
of
> Mars, multispectral imaging was successfully applied to some badly 
charred
> Roman manuscripts that were buried during the eruption of Mount 
Vesuvius
> in A.D. 79. Examining those carbonized manuscripts under different
> wavelengths of light suddenly revealed writing that had been 
invisible to
> scholars for two centuries.
> 
> Now scientists are shining the multispectral light on the 
Oxyrhynchus
> Papyri, an enormous collection of texts unearthed from the rubbish 
heaps
> of the vanished city of Oxyrhynchus, about 100 miles south of Cairo.
> 
> First excavated by two Oxford archaeologists in the late 19th 
century, the
> hoard of papyrus from Oxyrhynchus has long been a source of 
fascination
> and frustration for scholars: fascination because it holds some of 
the
> lost masterpieces of classical literature, frustration because much 
of it
> is in such poor condition that it's impossible to read.
> 
> But the multispectral imaging has "produced miraculous results," 
according
> to Dirk Obbink, a lecturer in papyrology and Greek literature at 
Oxford
> who is directing the project.
> 
> "No one knows exactly why it produces the results it does," Obbink 
said of
> the technology. "But with texts that are difficult to read, it's a
> night-and-day difference."
> 
> In the past few weeks alone, researchers have succeeded in 
deciphering a
> 70-line fragment from a lost tragedy by Sophocles and a 30-line 
fragment
> from Archilochos, a Greek soldier-poet who chronicled the Trojan 
Wars.
> 
> The Archilochos fragment confirms what scholars have long 
suspected: that
> the Greeks got lost on their way to invade Troy and mistakenly 
landed at
> place called Mysia. There they fought a battle, lost and had to 
regroup
> before heading off again for Troy.
> 
> The Archilochos fragment will be published this month. The newly
> discovered lines from Sophocles are scheduled for publication in 
August.
> 
>  "To get a piece like that every 10 years, we think ourselves 
lucky, so
> I'd have to say that this is a very exciting development," said 
professor
> Richard Janko, head of the classics department at the University of
> Michigan.
> 
> Multispectral imaging uses digital cameras equipped with a kind of
> revolving Lazy Susan of light filters that isolate the waveband at 
which
> the obscured ink contrasts most vividly with the dark background of 
the
> papyrus, the paper of the ancient Egyptians.
> 
> A sequence of images taken at all ranges of the light spectrum are 
then
> put together, and the result often is a document of startling 
clarity. The
> technique for adapting NASA's technology to the reading of ancient
> manuscripts was developed at Brigham Young University in Utah, 
which is
> assisting Oxford with the Oxyrhynchus project.
> 
> The Oxyrhynchus collection, housed at Oxford University's Sackler 
Library,
> consists of more than half a million scraps of papyrus. Some of it 
is in
> excellent condition, but much of it is worm-eaten and darkened by 
time.
> 
> All of it was collected from the rubbish dumps of Oxyrhynchus, a 
city that
> flourished after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 
332 B.C.
> The city remained prominent in the Roman and Byzantine periods but
> declined after the Arab conquest in A.D. 641.
> 
> For a thousand years, the inhabitants dumped their trash in the 
desert.
> Over time the dump sites were covered by sand, and they remained 
covered
> until 1896 when Oxford archaeologists Bernard Grenfell and Arthur 
Hunt
> began excavating the area.
> 
> At first, Grenfell thought that what he and Hunt had found 
was "nothing
> but rubbish mounds," but they quickly came to appreciate that they 
had
> found a remarkable window into the literary and ordinary lives of 
the
> ancients.
> 
> There were plays by Sophocles and Euripides, poems of Pindar and 
Sappho,
> and some of the earliest documents recording Christianity's spread 
to
> Egypt. The gospel of Thomas, for example, records the "Sayings of 
Jesus"
> in a manner that some scholars of early Christianity believe is more
> authentic than the Gospels in the New Testament.
> 
> There also is an abundance 

[scifinoir2] Re: Did *anyone* see "Revenge of the Sith"?

[Kelly Wright]

Did your kids enjoy it?

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Bosco Bosco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I saw it. I am really really disappointed. I have waited so long for
> this one and it just wasn't good. It certainly wasn't terrible but
> all the things that people critique Lucas for are right on the 
money.
> bad writing, poor direction, wooden performances. Nobody had 
anything
> decent to work with. 
> 
> In the end I think what left me wanting the most was Anakin's
> transformation. It just was not compelling, not even remotely so. I
> mean I was rooting for the kid to turn to the "dark side" and by the
> time he gets into it with Obi-wan, I'm just wishing he was dead. It
> was a low grade mellow drama with special effects. 
> 
> Lucas should have turned the whole thing over to other people. I've
> just been to bummed to discuss it.
> 
> Bosco
> --- Astromancer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I just saw it yesterday, Keith...It did a good job of leading into
> > Ep.#4...Wiping C3PO's memory was a good touch because it made the
> > rest of the movies make sense...Anakin's transform into Darth 
Vader
> > was satisfactory in spite of a shakey performance by Hayden...I'm
> > now watching the last 3 movies after watching the firts two before
> > seeing Ep.#3...didn't see your comment, but I'm still digging
> > through this weekend's pile...
> > 
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Five days after the premiere and I
> > think I'm the only one who's commented. Has anyone else seen the
> > movie? What were your thoughts?
> > 
> > 
> > -
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > 
> >To visit your group on the web, go to:
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/
> >   
> >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >   
> >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
> > Service. 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> >  Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. Learn 
more.
> 
> I got friends who are in prison and Friends who are dead.
> I'm gonna tell ya something that I've often said.
> 
> You know these things that happen,
> That's just the way it's supposed to be.
> And I can't help but wonder,
> Don't ya know it coulda been me.
> 
> __
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
> http://mail.yahoo.com




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[scifinoir2] Re: Wormholes unlikely to allow time travel

[Kelly Wright]

I am somewhat disappointed to read this as I love the notion of 
wormholes. While I have never used the premise of time travel through 
wormholes, I have woven a system of natural wormholes into the 
mythology of my World Ebon.  These invisible wormholes, which I call 
pulse points, are used by adepts as a means of teleportation.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-
1-20050523-18392800-bc-wormholes.xml
> 
> Wormholes unlikely to allow time travel
> 
> 
> LONDON, May 23 (UPI) - Researchers say the idea of 
using "wormholes" to
> travel from one place in the galaxy to another is a "Star Trek" 
idea whose
> time may never come.
> 
> A study by University of Oregon researchers shows a wormhole that 
would be
> capable of transporting someone would be fundamentally unstable, 
the BBC
> reported Monday.
> 
> "We aren't saying you can't build a wormhole," said researcher 
Stephen
> Hsu. "But the ones you would like to build - the predictable ones 
where
> you can say, 'Mr. Spock will land in New York at 2 p.m. on this 
day' -
> those look like they will fall apart."
> 
> A study by the University of York and Central Connecticut State 
University
> says even if it were possible to keep a wormhole's throat open with
> so-called exotic matter, the throat still would be too small for 
time
> travel.
> 
> Cambridge astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has argued since the 1980s 
that
> fundamental laws of physics would prevent wormholes from being used 
for
> time travel.
> 
> 
> Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.




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[scifinoir2] Re: Bollywood 'Oscars' Honour Hasselhoff

[Kelly Wright]

And, of course, everyone knows Hasselhoff should have been oscar 
nominated for his transcendant performance in the "Sponge Bob Square 
Pants" movie.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Carole McDonnell" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Smiled when I saw this. Am not a great Hasselhoff fan myself but he 
> has an interesting kind of fame. And really, who knows what kind of 
> fame we all might have? Hasselholff is arguably one of the biggest 
> most famous international American stars. And musician. He's always 
> having some big hit in Germany or wherever. Am not sure what kinda 
> fame I'll have. Small little group of high-brow devotees -- akin to 
> those who watch only art films. A creative or spiritual ghetto 
where 
> only people of a certain race or spirituality read me?
> 
> Heck I've heard people pick on this guy but it seems Hasselholf 
> transcends. And what is that saying about a prophet not being 
> accepted in his own country? (not that he's a prophet, mind 
you...but 
> why should we judge fame and art by American standards? If the 
> French, or the East Indians or the Germans or the Japanese see 
> something in someone we don't much acknowledge, should we think 
> they're wrong? After all, the US isn't the last word on creative 
> approval.
> 
> -C
> 
> --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "keop6" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,12078-4338531-52_12252_true,00.html
> > 
> > 02/05/2005 07:41 AM
> > Claudia Parsons
> > India's movie industry has handed out its version of the Oscars 
at 
> > the Bollywood Movie Awards, which saw a veteran director take top 
> > honours and a US actor best known for Baywatch named 
international 
> > star of the year. 
> > 
> > Dancers in shimmering costumes, Indian beauties in saris and 
sultry 
> > heartthrobs sporting long black coats crowded the Taj Mahal for 
the 
> > occasion. 
> > 
> > The Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that is. The 
> event 
> > was held in the US East Coast gambling resort as part of 
> Bollywood's 
> > bid to be a global force in cinema. 
> > 
> > It was a fitting backdrop for a show that mixed the glitz of a 
> major 
> > movie industry with the retro feel of variety-show dance numbers, 
> the 
> > likes of which were long ago excised from the Oscars. 
> > 
> > An audience composed largely of Americans of Indian origin 
cheered 
> as 
> > veteran Yash Chopra was named best director for his film Veer-
> Zaara, 
> > which also picked up the award for best film and best actor for 
its 
> > star Shahrukh Khan. 
> > 
> > Rani Mukherjee, one of the few major divas to take the stage, won 
> the 
> > best actress award for her role in Hum Tum. 
> > 
> > "The winner is the "Spielberg" of India ... Yash Chopra," said 
> former 
> > Baywatch star David Hasselhoff as he presented the award for best 
> > film, referring to star US director Steven Spielberg. 
> > 
> > Bollywood has a reputation for colorful kitsch - melodramatic 
> plots, 
> > young lovers battling cruel fate, wicked villains and 
sentimental, 
> > but chaste, song-and-dance routines. 
> > 
> > "Whether it's comedy or romance or action, films should touch 
your 
> > heart," Chopra said, explaining the appeal of his films and the 
> > genre, which despite efforts to expand its audience has so far 
made 
> > few inroads into the US market. 
> > 
> > Big Cheers For Baywatch Star 
> > 
> > Though an array of stars including former Miss India Lara Dutta 
> > entertained the crowd, Hasselhoff provoked some of the night's 
> > biggest cheers when he picked up his statuette. 
> > 
> > The Bollywood awards - which resemble a slim-line Oscar holding 
> what 
> > could be a torch or a bunch of flowers - are chosen according to 
a 
> > popular vote by fans. 
> > 
> > Baywatch and Knight Rider, in which Hasselhoff co-starred with a 
> car 
> > named Kit, may raise sniggers from highbrow critics at home but 
> they 
> > are still going strong in India, and the actor said he had much 
in 
> > common with the escapism of Bollywood. 
> > 
> > "I'm proud of shows like Baywatch and Knight Rider because it's 
> about 
> > saving lives, not taking lives," he told Reuters. 
> > 
> > "It's entertainment, it's tongue in cheek, it brings the world 
> > together," he said, adding that the entertainment industry was a 
> > powerful force for good in the world. 
> > 
> > "I think it's responsible for a lot of world peace," Hasselhoff 
> said, 
> > adding that he was hoping to work in India soon on a project 
based 
> on 
> > a series of romantic novels. 
> > 
> > "I never knew exactly how to get there. Now I've got this (award) 
> > it's like my key to India," he said. 
> > 
> > Bollywood churns out around 1,000 movies a year. But despite a 
fan 
> > base that extends to the Middle East and Europe, few films make 
> > money. 
> > 
> > But Shammi Kapoor, who was given a lifetime achievement award, 
said 
> > better technology and funding were leading to more and 

[scifinoir2] Friday the 13th, 2029

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.physorg.com/news4146.html

Friday the 13th, 2029

May 18, 2005 

by Dr. Tony Phillips
 
Asteroid 2004 MN4 will come scarily close to Earth on April 13, 2029, 
but it will not hit. 

Friday the 13th is supposed to be an unlucky day, the sort of day you 
trip on your shoe laces or lose your wallet or get bad news. 
But maybe it's not so bad. Consider this: On April 13th--Friday the 
13th--2029, millions of people are going to go outside, look up and 
marvel at their good luck. A point of light will be gliding across 
the sky, faster than many satellites, brighter than most stars. 
What's so lucky about that? It's asteroid 2004 MN4 ... not hitting 
Earth.   
 
(Image: The trajectory (blue) of asteroid 2004 MN4 past Earth on 
April 13, 2029. Uncertainty in the asteroid's close-approach distance 
is represented by the short white bar.) 

For a while astronomers thought it might. On Christmas Eve 2004, Paul 
Chodas, Steve Chesley and Don Yeomans at NASA's Near Earth Object 
Program office calculated a 1-in-60 chance that 2004 MN4 would 
collide with Earth. Impact date: April 13, 2029. 

The asteroid is about 320 meters wide. "That's big enough to punch 
through Earth's atmosphere," devastating a region the size of, say, 
Texas, if it hit land, or causing widespread tsunamis if it hit 
ocean, says Chodas. So much for holiday cheer. 

Asteroid 2004 MN4 had been discovered in June 2004, lost, then 
discovered again six months later. With such sparse tracking data it 
was difficult to say, precisely, where the asteroid would go. A 
collision with Earth was theoretically possible. "We weren't too 
worried," Chodas says, "but the odds were disturbing." 

This is typical, by the way, of newly-discovered asteroids. Step 1: 
An asteroid is discovered. Step 2: Uncertain orbits are calculated 
from spotty tracking data. Step 3: Possible Earth impacts are noted. 
Step 4: Astronomers watch the asteroid for a while, then realize that 
it's going to miss our planet. 

Killer Asteroid! headlines generally appear between steps 3 and 4. 

Astronomers knew 2004 MN4 would miss Earth when they found pictures 
of the asteroid taken, unwittingly, in March 2004, three months 
before its official discovery. The extra data ruled out a collision 
in 2029. 

Instead, what we're going to have is an eye-popping close encounter: 

On April 13, 2029, asteroid 2004 MN4 will fly past Earth only 18,600 
miles (30,000 km) above the ground. For comparison, geosynchronous 
satellites orbit at 22,300 miles (36,000 km). "At closest approach, 
the asteroid will shine like a 3rd magnitude star, visible to the 
unaided eye from Africa, Europe and Asia--even through city lights," 
says Jon Giorgini of JPL. This is rare. "Close approaches by objects 
as large as 2004 MN4 are currently thought to occur at 1000-year 
intervals, on average." 

The asteroid's trajectory will bend approximately 28 degrees during 
the encounter, "a result of Earth's gravitational pull," explains 
Giorgini. What happens next is uncertain. Some newspapers have stated 
that the asteroid might swing around and hit Earth after all in 2035 
or so, but Giorgini discounts that: "Our ability to 'see' where 2004 
MN4 will go (by extrapolating its orbit) is so blurred out by the 
2029 Earth encounter, it can't even be said for certain what side of 
the sun 2004 MN4 will be on in 2035. Talk of Earth encounters in 2035 
is premature." 

In January 2004, a team of astronomers led by Lance Benner of JPL 
pinged 2004 MN4 using the giant Arecibo radar in Puerto Rico. 
(Coincidentally, the Arecibo dish is about the same size as the 
asteroid.) Echoes revealed the asteroid's precise distance and 
velocity, "allowing us to calculate the details of the 2029 flyby," 
says Giorgini, who was a member of the team along with Benner, Mike 
Nolan (NAIC) and Steve Ostro (JPL). 

More data are needed to forecast 2004 MN4's motion beyond 2029. "The 
next good opportunities are in 2013 and 2021," Giorgini says. The 
asteroid will be about 9 million miles (14 million km) from Earth, 
invisible to the naked eye, but close enough for radar studies. "If 
we get radar ranging in 2013, we should be able to predict the 
location of 2004 MN4 out to at least 2070." 

The closest encounter of all, Friday the 13th, 2029, will be a 
spectacular opportunity to explore this asteroid via radar. During 
this encounter, says Giorgini, "radar could detect the distortion of 
2004 MN4's shape and spin as it passes through Earth's gravity field. 
How the asteroid changes (or not) would provide information about its 
internal structure and material composition." Beautifully-detailed 
surface maps are possible, too. 

The view through an optical telescope won't be so impressive. The 
asteroid's maximum angular diameter is only 2 to 4 arcseconds, which 
means it will be a starlike point of light in all but the very 
largest telescopes. 

But to the naked eye--wow! No one in recorded history has ever seen 
an astero

[scifinoir2] Astronaut Asks Congress to Investigate Threatening Asteroid

[Kelly Wright]

Check out the "odds of dying" link at the bottom of page.

http://www.space.com/news/050519_asteroid_mission.html

Astronaut Asks Congress to Investigate Threatening Asteroid 
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 19 May 2005
09:59 am ET
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A former NASA astronaut will call on the U.S. 
Congress to evaluate an asteroid with a small chance of hitting Earth 
in 2036 and suggest lawmakers consider a space mission to monitor the 
object, SPACE.com has learned.

Russell Schweickart arrives here today to make his case. He'll also 
ask Congress to assign to a government agency the responsibility of 
protecting the public from space rocks.

The call to action stems from an orbiting hunk of stone that for a 
few days around Christmas had scientists on the edges of their seats.

The asteroid, named 2004 MN4, was found last year. It orbits the Sun 
but crosses the path of Earth. In December, preliminary observations 
showed it might strike in 2029, according to NASA scientists. It 
briefly had the highest odds ever assigned to a possible collision. 
Further investigation ruled out the 2029 impact scenario, but 
scientists cannot yet rule out an impact in 2036.

The odds of a collision in 2036 are about 1-in-10,000, Schweickart 
says.

In fact, there are several scenarios between 2034 and 2065 in which 
2004 MN4 has even smaller odds of striking. Schweickart and other 
scientists stress, however, that future observations are likely to 
reduce all these odds to zero.

Time to act

Meanwhile, Schweickart thinks the time to act is now.

SPACE.com was provided a copy of the paper Schweickart will present. 
In it, he carries out an informal analysis of the situation. He notes 
that the asteroid will be mostly out of view from 2006 to 2012. When 
it re-emerges, fresh observation will likely reduce the 2036 impact 
chance to zero, he said.

"However, there is a slim chance that we will not be able to draw 
this conclusion and that an impact will still be possible," he writes.

"One of the first things I'm calling for is validation and checking 
of the analysis I've gone through and the conclusions that fall out 
of my work," Schweickart told SPACE.com.

Schweickart heads up the B612 Foundation, which since 2003 has 
advocated for more research and action to protect Earth from stray 
asteroids.

Call to action 

Should his analysis prove correct after formal study, Schweickart 
says serious consideration should be given to first placing a radio 
transponder on the asteroid in order to better track its whereabouts. 

The former Apollo astronaut will take his message to Congressional 
lawmakers and detail his concerns at the International Space 
Development Conference being held here this week by the National 
Space Society, a space advocacy organization.

Astronomers agree that sooner or later Earth will be struck by a 
damaging asteroid. While one could sneak up on us any day, the 
overwhelming odds are that any potential significant impact will be 
known years in advance.

NASA has been charged by Congress with finding potentially hazardous 
space rocks. Yet only last year, after a separate brief scare, did 
officials formalize lines of communication between NASA's top brass 
and the astronomers who find and monitor space rocks. 

Still, there are no formal lines of communication between NASA and 
the White House to handle an imminent threat. And there is no U.S. 
agency to which the issue of protection of the public and property 
from the impact of near-Earth asteroids is assigned, Schweickart 
points out. Who would decide on whether and how to deflect an 
incoming threat? What agencies would be mobilized to deal with an 
impact?

The U.S. Congress should take action and assign that responsibility, 
he said. 

"In general, I am calling upon them is to address the overall issue 
of responsibility for near-Earth object activity in the U.S. 
government, which does not exist right now," Schweickart said.

Close brush

Asteroid 2004 MN4 was discovered through the efforts of NASA's 
Spaceguard Survey.

The object is estimated to be roughly 1,000 feet (320 meters) in 
diameter. Were it to hit the planet, it would not cause global 
devastation but would generate considerable local or regional damage, 
experts say. 

"This is not a marginal asteroid," Schweickart said. 

On April 13, 2029, 2004 MN4 will be about 22,600 miles (36,350 
kilometers) from Earth's center. That is just below the altitude of 
geosynchronous satellites. 

The extremely rare event will be visible from certain parts of Earth.

The flyby will change the orbit of the asteroid and create "a low, 
but real possibility" that it will return to hit Earth seven years 
later on April 13, 2036, Schweickart advised. 

There are no formal plans in place, at NASA or elsewhere, for 
destroying or deflecting an incoming asteroid. But if it needs to be 
nudged off course, you don't wait until after 2029, Schweickart 
explained. By then it will take fa

[scifinoir2] Diggs can't get over the "Hill"

[Kelly Wright]

A mid-season, "Kevin Hill" was a bonafide hit scoring an 89% higher 
rating than what UPN had achieved in the same time slot in the 
previous year.  It was among the first of UPN's shows to receive an 
order for a full 22 episodes.  By season's end it was cancelled.  

Although I was fond of the program (and I adored the "hero" 
baby), "Hill" had a lot of "issues."  For one thing, it couldn't 
decide what it wanted to be.  The raucous sexual antics of its 
beautiful cast was discordant with the sweetness of the show's single 
baby daddy core.  In other words, if you liked the single swanging 
stuff, you were bored to tears by the baby daddy drama and if you 
liked the baby daddy drama you were put off by the sexual stuff.  I 
liked the show but I felt uncomfortable watching it with my 
children.  

The article below touches on another problem with the show: Taye 
Diggs.  The show almost willfully refused to acknowledge his 
blackness choosing to protray him as a "straight-guy-with-a-queer-
eye" everyman.  This lead to him dating a seemingly endless stable of 
white women and left viewers like me wondering "where the sisters 
at?"  

Finally, the show was awfully slow is using one of its biggest 
assets: actress Michael Michelle.  Diggs and Michelle have a 
tremendous chemistry but the show never saw fit to use it.  Michelle 
had painfully little to do during the series' run.  

~(no) rave!

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/04/28/tough_clim
b_for_hill/

Tough climb for 'Hill'

Acclaimed African-American dramatries to reverse ratings for its 
survival

By Suzanne C. Ryan, Globe Staff  |  April 28, 2005

When UPN unveiled the Taye Diggs drama ''Kevin Hill" last September, 
television critics fell in love.

Diggs is ''perfect," purred USA Today.

The program is a ''profoundly pleasing hour," The New York Times 
chimed in.

As the only drama on broadcast television with an African-American 
lead actor, ''Kevin Hill" was supposed to have brought in new viewers 
to the network, known for the reality show ''America's Next Top 
Model," and for the fading ''Star Trek" spinoff ''Enterprise."

But now, after 19 episodes,''Kevin Hill" -- which chronicles the 
story of a successful lawyer who gives up a fabulous bachelor 
lifestyle to adopt his orphaned cousin, an infant girl -- seems to be 
falling flat.

Now, as ratings slide while it approaches a May 18 finale, ''Kevin 
Hill" stands a chance of being canceled next season. Fighting to 
avoid a bitter end, producers are bringing in a host of guest stars 
to boost ratings for the May sweeps. They include singer Toni 
Braxton; last season's ''America's Next Top Model" winner, Eva 
Pigford; and Diggs's wife, Idina Menzel.

If the show doesn't survive, it will join the ranks of short-lived 
programs like ''City of Angels" and ''Platinum," dramas featuring the 
lives of people of color that didn't resonate with enough viewers.

''It's so frustrating," says Dennis Leoni, creator and producer of 
Showtime's Latino drama ''Resurrection Blvd.," which was canceled in 
2002 after a three-year run. ''You'd think out of 110 million US 
households with televisions, you'd be able to scare up more than 2 
million viewers."

''Kevin Hill" averages 2.8 million viewers a week. By 
contrast, ''America's Next Top Model" averages 5.1 million. Even 
among women 18 to 34 years old, UPN's target demographic, ''Kevin 
Hill" is averaging 1.9 million viewers.

With all of the show's hype and Diggs's popularity (he became a sex 
symbol for his role in ''How Stella Got Her Groove Back"), what went 
wrong?

UPN and the show's executive producers aren't talking because the 
network is in the midst of deciding its fall lineup.

But theories about the show's possible mistakes abound.

Some critics look to the executive producer, Alex Taub, who oversaw 
the first 18 episodes of the season before UPN -- in a highly unusual 
late-season move -- replaced him with ''ER" veteran Samantha Corbin-
Miller Her first episode aired last night.

Felicia D. Henderson, the creator of Showtime's ''Soul Food," a drama 
featuring an all-black cast that aired from 2000 to 2004, says Taub 
and his team made the Kevin Hill character too perfect.

''He was supposed to be the biggest playboy ever but they made it so 
easy for him to say 'Now I'm a father,' " Henderson says. ''He should 
have made a lot more mistakes. Men would have responded to that and 
women would have said 'No he didn't! Men are such dogs.' "


A UPN official declined to comment on Taub, other than to say that he 
had been replaced because of ''creative differences."

Some observers question why the program, with its multiethnic cast, 
seems to avoid race as a topic.

While no one is suggesting that the show be spun around ethnicity, 
tip-toeing around the issue doesn't seem authentic either, they say.

''Without alienating your nonblack audience, you do want to see signs 
that this man comes from a certain kind of culture, whether it

[scifinoir2] Star Wars "Revenge" takes in Estimated $158.5 M (303 M worldwide)

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1826&p=.htm

Final 'Star Wars' is Box Office 'Revenge:' Estimated $158.5M in Four Days

by Brandon Gray

May 22, 2005

This is how records die, with thunderous applause. Giving into anger,
hate and all that the Dark Side entails has made Star Wars stronger,
at least out of the gate.

Destined to be one of the biggest blockbusters, Star Wars: Episode III
- Revenge of the Sith blasted off with an estimated $158.5 million
since Thursday. The $113 million space opera shattered the four-day
record once held by The Matrix Reloaded's $134.3 million after
notching new milestones for midnight showing, opening and single day,
two-day and three-day grosses.

For the weekend, Revenge of the Sith ruled with an estimated $108.5
million, landing in the same range as Spider-Man's $114.8 million and
Shrek 2's $108.0 million but not a record breaker. Sith was never
expected to take the crown on this front—its $50 million Thursday
burning off too much demand—though it would have had it debuted a day
later.

"We blew the doors down," Fox's head of domestic distribution, Bruce
Snyder, told Box Office Mojo. "It's the culmination of the series,
it's the hook that everyone's looking for, and, on top of that, it
completes the circle." Snyder said that the studio's exit polling on
Friday indicated that 52 percent of the audience was over 25 years old
and 58 percent was male.

All bets were off for this final installment as creator George Lucas
and company, calculated downplaying to the contrary, gave Revenge of
the Sith one of the most ubiquitous releases ever, instead of the
controlled roll-outs of the previous prequels, Attack of the Clones
and The Phantom Menace. In addition to licensing the characters to
hock everything from soda to cell phones, Sith played on an estimated
9,400 screens at 3,661 theaters, while Clones was on 6,100 screens at
3,161 theaters and Phantom on 5,500 screens at 2,970 theaters.

Overseas, Revenge of the Sith opened wider than any other movie in
history, in 105 countries, amassing $144.7 million. All told, the
$303.2 million worldwide start after five days stands as an all time
high, eclipsing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's $250.1
million, though the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy's finale played in a much
smaller number of countries.

To many, it's no surprise that the most popular movie series would
yield records with its finale. However, industry expectations were
cooler based, in part, on the lagging market of the past few months,
mixed audience reactions to Attack of the Clones and The Phantom
Menace, and the performance of Clones. In the shadow of Spider-Man's
historic run in 2002, Clones made $310.7 million and was by far the
least popular Star Wars movie. Its four predecessors each rank in the
top 20 of all time adjusted for ticket price inflation. Clones came in
at No. 80.

Hayden Christensen in
Revenge of the Sith
Revenge of the Sith was in no one's shadow, marking the first true
event picture of the year. What's more, the hype on Sith promised a
superior movie to the other prequels, and Mr. Lucas added luster to
Sith with the DVD premiere of the original trilogy last September. The
Phantom Menace had 16 years of pent-up demand behind it since Return
of the Jedi, and that led to a $431.1 million gross. Attack of the
Clones lacked any of those enticements.

Many of the biggest blockbusters of all time, including Gone with the
Wind, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings, have sad or bittersweet
endings. Knowing all the events that transpire in Revenge of the Sith
didn't abate audiences' desire to see it. Such knowledge didn't deter
people from seeing The Passion of the Christ, either. If anything, the
impending doom made them more excited.

Few blockbusters close with complete tragedy, though, making Revenge
of the Sith's popularity unique with corruption of the hero as its
focus. The descent into darkness gave the series its first PG-13
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating after years of
ostensibly family-friendly PG ratings.









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[scifinoir2] Get to know your friends and neighbors

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.mugshots.com/Criminal/Killers/Kelly+Wright.htm




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[scifinoir2] Kelsey Grammer to play Beast in X-Men 3

[Kelly Wright]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20050520/en_movies_eo/16596

Kelsey Grammer has been tapped to play Beast--the super-intelligent
blue behemoth, in the forthcoming X-Men 3, according to Variety.

He'll be joined by two other new X-Men recruits, Kitty Pryde, aka
Shadowcat, who can pass through walls (Lost's Maggie Grace is reported
to be the top candidate), and the winged Angel.

They'll square off against another evil mutant, the metal-clad giant
Juggernaut, to be played by Vinnie Jones (Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels).

British director Matthew Vaughn is taking over behind the camera from
Bryan Singer (who is helming the new Superman). X-Men 3 is slated to
hit theaters over Memorial Day 2006. 
__
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com




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[scifinoir2] 'Star Wars' Grosses $16.5M in Midnight Run

[Kelly Wright]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FILM_STAR_WARS_BOX_OFFICE?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=HOME

May 20, 10:04 AM EDT

'Star Wars' Grosses $16.5M in Midnight Run

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Moviegoers flocked to the dark side in droves,
giving the final installment of George Lucas' "Star Wars" tale a
record-breaking midnight run.

"Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" raked in an estimated
$16.5 million from 2,900 midnight screenings Thursday, according to
box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

That's double what the Oscar-winning film "The Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King" took in during its midnight showings in 2003. The
third film from director Peter Jackson's trilogy rang up about $8
million domestically from 2,100 midnight shows.

"This is extremely impressive," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of
Exhibitor Relations. "It just says so much about how excited people
are to see this film that they lined up at midnight and just got on
board and went along for the ride."

After the midnight debut, "Revenge of the Sith" widened to 3,661
theaters for daytime and evening screenings. The studio, 20th Century
Fox, said box-office results for the first full day would be available
Friday.

Tickets for the film went on sale last month. Soon after, legions of
fans began lining up at theaters across the country, many dressed in
full "Star Wars" regalia and sporting Jedi light sabers.

The final chapter in Lucas' six-film saga chronicles Anakin
Skywalker's transformation from hero to villain Darth Vader. The film
may be the darkest chapter in the "Star Wars" story, featuring more
violence and a story line showing how a democratic government turns
into a despotic regime.

"Revenge of the Sith" is the first "Star Wars" film to earn a PG-13
rating. The first five films were rated PG.






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[scifinoir2] Hey, check out that blue-faced dude!

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/may05/327098.asp

Hey, check out that blue-faced dude
Los Angeles Daily News
Posted: May 19, 2005

Among the insider bits in "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith":

• George Lucas in blue face at the opera as Baron Papanoida.

• A hot rod driven by Sen. Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits). It's based on
the front of a Tucker that is parked at Skywalker Ranch.

"George is an avid car fan, and when they were designing that car, he
actually sent them over to the garage to take pictures of the Tucker,"
said Rob Coleman, animation director on the film.

• A duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin marks the first time in a "Star
Wars" movie that two characters fight each other using the same color
light saber.

• A Peter Cushing look-alike. At the end of the film, there's an actor
who bears a strong resemblance to the late actor who played Grand Moff
Tarkin, one of the villains in the first "Star Wars" movie.

• Listen for Anakin's first mechanical-sounding breath as Darth Vader
toward the end of the movie.

• Padme changes her hairstyle, now wearing the bun style like Princess
Leia in the original "Star Wars."
__
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http://www.theworldebon.com




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[scifinoir2] Sampling of reviews from papers far, far away

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/may05/327100.asp

Sampling of reviews from papers far, far away
Journal Sentinel wire reports
Posted: May 19, 2005

The Force is with them - and, for the most part, the nation's movie
critics are with the Force.

Although a few have given rave notices to "Star Wars: Episode III -
Revenge of the Sith," many critics have given lukewarm endorsements of
the final big-screen production in George Lucas' famous saga.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel film critic Duane Dudek, in a 2 1/2 -star
review of the film in Wednesday's Cue section, asserts that Lucas
"tucks his family of fans into bed by completing the elaborate fairy
tale whose ending they already know. But the finale feels less the
inevitable conclusion of some great saga than the predictable mooing
of a reliable cash cow. . . . He demonstrates an ambitious sense of
scope and scale, but he rarely suggests these vast and richly
appointed digital landscapes are truly organic, much less that they
exist after the main characters leave them."

For his complete review, go to http://www.onwisconsin.com/movies/

Here's what some other film critics had to say about "Revenge of the
Sith":

The New York Times (A.O. Scott): "This is by far the best film in the
more recent trilogy, and also the best of the four episodes Lucas has
directed. That's right (and my inner 11-year-old shudders as I type
this): It's better than 'Star Wars.' "

Chicago Tribune (Michael Wilmington): "Even though many critics have
been rough on the last two 'Star Wars' (1999's 'The Phantom Menace'
and 2002's 'Attack of the Clones'), this one is a smashing success on
its own terms, achieving exactly what Lucas wanted and carrying most
of its viewers where they want to go. It's also the scariest, most
exciting, most visually prodigious of the sextet, with action
sequences that explode off the screen, characters who finally awaken
your sentiments (a bit) and images of violence, inferno, chaos and the
dark side that descend like a shroud of noir."

Los Angeles Daily News (Bob Strauss): "Love it, loathe it or feel
sorely disappointed by the odd avenues Lucas has taken his 'Star Wars'
mythos down in recent films, we are all preprogrammed in one way or
another to want 'Episode III - Revenge of the Sith' to climax in the
way it does. All George had to do was not screw that up. He didn't."

New York Daily News (Jami Bernard): "The final movie in George Lucas'
extravaganza is a gift to die-hard fans, who will ignore the bad
parts, thrill to the good parts and come away happy. Ka-ching! And
still the dialogue is astonishingly feeble, the acting unforgivably
wooden. To paraphrase Yoda, the only creature with truly human
dimensions ever since Harrison Ford's cowboy-mechanic Han Solo
departed the galaxy: Bored I am. But bored you will not be if, like
most "Star Wars" fans, the joy is in the overall mythology and the
sensation that this is an event, not merely a movie where dialogue and
acting count for something. On this level you'll get your money's worth."

Philadelphia Inquirer (Steven Rea): "The trouble with 'Revenge' and
the other prequels (and, to some extent, 1983's 'Return of the Jedi')
is that Lucas, having shaken up the pop-cult universe with his deft
mix of vintage cliffhanger, dazzling special effects, and
cowboys-in-space scenarios, started taking himself way too seriously.
. . . To be fair, there are shards of fun left in the series."

St. Petersburg Times (Steve Persall): " 'Revenge of the Sith' should
satisfy anyone not holding a grudge about 'The Phantom Menace' and
'Attack of the Clones.' Darker, and almost operatic with its looming
doom, it contains the payoffs that fans waited for. . . . Lucas saved
the best of his arguably needless prequels for last, finally
justifying an entertainment empire, and cementing a myth."

San Jose Mercury News (Bruce Newman): "Rarely has a sequel benefited
more by comparison to its immediate predecessors than 'Star Wars:
Episode III - Revenge of the Sith,' in which creator of the galaxy
George Lucas attempts to pull together the original series with his
puzzling misfires, 'The Phantom Menace' and 'Attack of the Clones.'
This final installment not only exceeds those two prequels by leaps
and bounds, it recalls some of the excitement of the original 'Star
Wars' trilogy, even improving upon 'Return of the Jedi.' "
_
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com






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[scifinoir2] Darkest of "Star Wars" dark lords get his day in the sun

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/may05/327099.asp

Darkest of 'Star Wars' dark lords gets his day in the sun

By BOB LONGINO

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Posted: May 19, 2005

Skywalker Ranch, Calif. - More than 20 years after Scottish actor Ian
McDiarmid first donned the dark threads of Emperor Palpatine as ruler
of "Star Wars' " evil Empire, the robe's back on.
53727'Star Wars'

And in "Revenge of the Sith," the final installment in George Lucas'
"Star Wars" saga that opened worldwide this week, the dark lord is
finally having his day in the sun.

Palpatine gets to wield a lightsaber, slicing his way through a
mélange of Jedi knights.

He uses that hellish lightning-from-the-fingertips moxie he's got in a
blistering, senate chamber-smashing duel with Yoda. And he gets to
order around Anakin Skywalker, compelling him to do evil deeds with
simple commands, like "Kill him."

If Darth Vader is the baddest guy in the universe, what does that make
him?

"It makes me beyond that," said McDiarmid, a veteran stage and TV
actor with limited big-screen appearances. "Blackest of the black.
Darkest of the dark. But, unfortunately, still recognizably human."

McDiarmid was 38 when fans first saw him as the creepy, disfigured
emperor when "The Return of the Jedi" was released in 1983.

Now he's 60 and actually much closer in age to the character he's
played in four "Star Wars" films.
>From Shakespeare to Sith

McDiarmid has progressed from senator to supreme chancellor to, now,
the man who would be emperor.

For a dozen years, McDiarmid was joint artistic director of the
Almeida Theatre in north London. He's performed with the Royal
Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Court.
He's played Edward II, Henry IV and Prospero in "The Tempest." He's
had small parts on the big screen in Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow,"
"Gorky Park" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."

His left profile, emphasizing a weak chin, slightly pointed nose and a
splash of swept-back gray hair, is the spitting image of the notorious
Mr. Burns of "The Simpsons."

"The whole of 'The Simpsons' (seems to be) obsessed with 'Star Wars,'
" McDiarmid said.

He doesn't know if Palpatine was in Matt Groening's mind, the actor
added, "but I wouldn't be surprised."

Lucas hadn't seen McDiarmid's work on stage, but a casting director
did, in the small, upstairs theater at the Royal Court at the dawn of
the '80s.

"It was Sam Shepard's play, 'Seduced,' in which I played the aging -
well, his version of the aging - Howard Hughes with the long hair and
the fingernails, motionless in bed," McDiarmid recalled.

His performance struck the right notes: paranoia, confidence,
arrogance, obsessiveness.

Later, McDiarmid was called to lunch with Lucas.

"Even when I got back (home), I didn't know why we had been speaking,
though I imagined it had something to do with 'Star Wars,' " he said.

His agent phoned.

Obviously it went well because you got the part, the agent said.

"I said, 'What part?' "

The agent leafed through his papers, searching for the role, and then
uttered four words - emperor of the universe.

" 'We'll be doing that then,' I said. And that's how it started."
Creating a villain

Once McDiarmid saw the ghastly prosthetics planned for the emperor's
face - the reason behind his metamorphosis from the normal-looking
supreme chancellor to the hideous emperor is illustrated in "Sith" -
he conjured up the character's distinctive, cackling voice.

"Oh, he's like a toad," McDiarmid said. "He's a terrible reptile. I
thought his voice should come from the dark depths. From the bowels of
the Earth or the bowels of his being. . . .

"And the voice just sort of arrived."

"Sith" provides McDiarmid with the most screen time he's had yet.
High praise

His co-star, Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin/Darth Vader, said
McDiarmid took advantage of the moment.

"He steals the show," Christensen said. "I think so much of why this
film works is from his performance."

"He makes choices I don't know that I could really muster the courage
to make. And he pulls it off," Christensen added. "You can see the
process in his eyes. And between scenes, you see him doing that same
sort of obsessive, constant analysis of things. He doesn't go
anywhere. He just sort of stays on set, pacing back and forth."

McDiarmid reluctantly admits that, despite all his years on the stage,
he'll be best remembered for his work in "Star Wars."

"If you make movies, your face and your performance is there forever
more, and if you are involved in a big movie - the biggest movie of
all time - then it's obviously going to be there," McDiarmid said.
"And it does give me pause.

"But it's not all that I do. And I haven't, I hope, got it out of
proportion. That would be the only problem."

Besides, he's not at all impressed with having his face on a "Star
Wars" action figure.

"I think it's a bigger thing for Hayden than it's been for me. Those
little figures or whatever it is. The 

[scifinoir2] Re: What happened to "Grey's Anatomy"?

[Kelly Wright]

Now that "Grey's Anatomy" is a hit, the real litmus test will be if
Shonda Rhimes is allowed to create another drama for ABC.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I Like Washington, and see this role as an opportunity for him. 
But... that
> could be lust talking.  :)
> 
> Stealth diversity..  I like that term.  I do not necessarily have a
problem
> with stealth diversity..  For many artists of color, it might be the
only
> way to get high profile, break out roles.  the same for many producers,
> writers and directors of color.  I've seen the shows with true diversity
> last only 6 six and bottom of the list ratings.  In the long run it
does not
> do much good.  If Grey Anatomy becomes an ER, (which seems extremely
likely)
> Washington, that Black actress, and the Asian actress might find
themselves
> with stable employment with a high profile role that actually
requires them
> to act, allows them to take some of the offers of movies that they
now will
> get, enough money to produce their own stuff if they want, and also will
> present them with opportunities for other juicy parts.
> 
> If you look at the career paths of Omar Epps,  Eriq La Salle ,
Ming-Na and
> maybe a few other ER alumni of color, ER may have contributed to some
> milestones in their careers.  I think being on a top 10 show, in a part
> where you are not playing some stereotype could definitely do some
positive
> things for an actor's career.
> 
> So, while I have a few criticisms and reservations about Grey's
Anatomy, I
> am glad in is thriving.
> 
> Tracey
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Behalf Of Keith Johnson
> Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 12:10 AM
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [scifinoir2] Re: What happened to "Grey's Anatomy"?
> 
> 
> From your response and Tracey's, I guess ABC's pullling stealth
diversity,
> using white-oriented marketing to pull in the mainstream. Like I
said ,all
> the commercials focus on the whites. And I'm still troubled by
magazine and
> other media coverage like TV Guide, which completely ignores the Blacks.
> Isaiah Washington's a good actor, but something about him often
seemed to
> get him villain roles. He was a villain in "Romeo Must Die", and a
couple
> other films I saw. I saw him in an interesting movie a few years
back with
> Mirando Otto (Eowen from "Lord of the Rings"), where he falls in
love with a
> white South African played by Otto. He was a villain in "Exit
Wounds" too.
> But Washington's done a lot of work, almost 40 films! Could we be
looking at
> another Sam Jackson? check out his filmography:
> 
> http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0913460/
> 
> Also, I have to give him my props, as he's a fellow Texan!
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of Kelly Wright
> Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 22:07
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: What happened to "Grey's Anatomy"?
> 
> 
> I like "Grey's Anatomy," it is a perfect companion to "Desparate
> Housewives" but if I miss either, it is not a tragedy.  When the show
> first came on I mentioned the 'bizarro world' aspect of it --where
> the blacks were ostensibly in charge and were, in essence, oppressing
> the downtrodden white characters.  I am sure the show's creators had
> to make many compromises.  For instance, one of the four interns was
> supposed to be a black man but I guess that was too much diversity
> for the suits that run ABC.  Television is a cruel master and an
> incredibly difficult place for a person of color to get a foothold.
> 
> There has been much to do about "Everybody loves Raymond" coming to a
> conclusion after nine seasons.  One of the hubbubs when the show was
> getting off the ground was that they didn't want Italian Ray Barone's
> wife to be "too ethnic."  By that Les Moonves (who is married to an
> Asian woman as is Rupert Murdock)didn't want Ray's wife to be Italian
> or Jewish.  They originally wanted someone like Meredith Baxter
> Birney.  If Ray Romano can't get an Italian wife in a show based on
> his life on a show he co-created and co-executive produces, what
> chance does a black show producer have?
> 
> That said, let me say I thoroughly enjoyed the episode of "Grey's
> Anatomy" where Anna Maria Horsford played an old scrub nurse who was
> dying and even though her illness was terminal and the hospital co

[scifinoir2] Re: What happened to "Grey's Anatomy"?

[Kelly Wright]

I like "Grey's Anatomy," it is a perfect companion to "Desparate 
Housewives" but if I miss either, it is not a tragedy.  When the show 
first came on I mentioned the 'bizarro world' aspect of it --where 
the blacks were ostensibly in charge and were, in essence, oppressing 
the downtrodden white characters.  I am sure the show's creators had 
to make many compromises.  For instance, one of the four interns was 
supposed to be a black man but I guess that was too much diversity 
for the suits that run ABC.  Television is a cruel master and an 
incredibly difficult place for a person of color to get a foothold. 

There has been much to do about "Everybody loves Raymond" coming to a 
conclusion after nine seasons.  One of the hubbubs when the show was 
getting off the ground was that they didn't want Italian Ray Barone's 
wife to be "too ethnic."  By that Les Moonves (who is married to an 
Asian woman as is Rupert Murdock)didn't want Ray's wife to be Italian 
or Jewish.  They originally wanted someone like Meredith Baxter 
Birney.  If Ray Romano can't get an Italian wife in a show based on 
his life on a show he co-created and co-executive produces, what 
chance does a black show producer have?  

That said, let me say I thoroughly enjoyed the episode of "Grey's 
Anatomy" where Anna Maria Horsford played an old scrub nurse who was 
dying and even though her illness was terminal and the hospital could 
do nothing to save her the administration was letting her stay until 
she died.  This episode showed the humanity of all the black totems 
and taught the callow young white interns something about caring and 
community.  

As an aside, I have never been an Isaiah Washington fan.  I loathe 
almost every character I have seen him play including his debut in 
Spike Lee's "Girl 6" where despite substantial screen time he is 
credited simply as the "Shoplifter."  But I saw him the other day 
on "The View" touting "Grey's Anatomy" and he was lovely.  He looked 
great, loved his mama (as came out in an anectodote) and he simply 
adored his pregnant wife of nine years(who was black and in the 
audience).  This man has been horribly miscast.  I hope to one day 
write something worthy of his silky elegance.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I tuned into this show because I'd heard a Sister was the creator 
and main writer. She spoke at length with Tavis Smiley about the 
diverse cast (three Blacks and an Asian) and how the stories often 
center around guests of color. That may be true, but I haven't seen 
anything that really differentiates this from other shows I've seen 
that focus on the whites.  The star's in a love affair with the doc 
played by Patrick Dempsey, the buxom nurse (who used to be on 
Roswell) has gotten some storylines, including one that had her 
stripping to her underwear in front of her co-workers.  The Asian 
nurse is apparently pregnant. Frankly I quit watching after two 
episodes because nothing convinced me the Blacks would get major 
treatment.  From what I can tell they're more like window dressing to 
the white characters.  
> I notice that among the Blacks we have what are becoming familiar 
caricatures:  the older doctor who ostensibly runs the place. But 
like Fancy on NYPD Blue, it reminds me of the device where you  
create a leader who's Black, then push him to the background...a mean 
doc who's shepherding the newbies. She comes onscreen, barks at the 
youngsters, then stalks off...and Isiah Washington's arrogant, self-
centered genius, who reminds me of Eric LaSalle's character on "ER".  
He gets a few lines where he helps himself by being a real human to 
his charges, then off he goes. They all seem to do little more than 
provide plot points for the scared doctors to be, yet have little in 
the way of fully fleshed out roles themselves.  
> 
> Maybe I'm wrong, but I just feel the hoped-for strong usage of the 
people of color isn't materializing. This seems to be borne out by 
all the coverage I've seen: not one commercial on TV shows the Black 
actors, instead focusing almost exclusively on the star and her 
lover, with a little bit of coverage given to the other non-Blacks.  
TV Guide recently did an article on the show  that included a two-
page spread of photos of the "stars that make it hot". Not *one* of 
the Blacks was pictured!
> 
> Am I off base? Are the Blacks used effectively? Do the guest stars 
consist of people of color with strong roles? Anyone watching this?




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[scifinoir2] Re: Oppose eliminating the filibuster!

[Kelly Wright]

This is so wrong, and the arrogance of it is stunning.  The
Republicans think they have forged a permanent majority so they feel
they are immune to the consequences.  This is incredibly
short-sighted.  It reminds me of when the Republicans engineered the
two-term limitation on presidents after Roosevelt won four consecutive
terms.  Little did they know they would be altering history.  Without
term limitations there would have been no Watergate as Nixon would
have easily won a third term and Ronald Reagan could have served into
his senility. (On the other hand, Bill Clinton would still be president).

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Amy Harlib <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Dear Friend,
> 
> Right now the U.S. Senate is debating whether to end the use of
> the filibuster. I don't think politicians should have the only
> voice in the debate. Add your voice by sending a message to your
> senators today! 
> 
> NARAL Pro-Choice America will deliver your comments to the
> Senate. Please take action by 10:00 Eastern tomorrow, Thursday,
> so that they can deliver your message before the vote happens! 
> 
> Click on the link below to learn more and get involved. Thanks!
> 
>
http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/sen_sendamsg_nuclear?rk=G7qFNWF1hmOVW
> 
> ***
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[scifinoir2] Re: FW: 300 Black Boys are Missing in Britain

[Kelly Wright]

Living in a country where we often become obsessed with one missing
white child, it is sobering that 300 black boys could vanish with
narely a ripple in public consciousness.

~(no)rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> -Original Message-
> From: African-Americans in Higher Education
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of John Lindsay
> Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 2:50 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [AFAMHED] 300 Black Boys are Missing in Britain
> 300 black boys are missing in Britain
> 
> DISCOVERY MADE AFTER CHILD'S BODY IS FOUND IN RIVER
> 
> By Alan Cowell
> 
> NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
> 
> 
> LONDON - Even by the standards of a river that has known more than
its share
> of death in gruesome and macabre fashions, the discovery was startling.
> In September 2001, in the River Thames near the soaring columns of Tower
> Bridge, the police discovered the torso of a dark-skinned child they
called
> Adam. The suggestion from subsequent investigations was that he had
died in
> some kind of ritualistic murder linked to West African witchcraft.
> Now, more than three years later, the discovery has brought another
chilling
> fact to light: In the three months before the body was found, 300 other
> black boys from 4 to 7 years of age were missing or unaccounted for.
> "We were really looking at black children, black male children, aged
between
> 4 and 7, and we found 300 of those that

 couldn't be accounted for,"
> Detective Chief Inspector Will O'Reilly told British radio on
Friday. "In
> the main these were African children."
> What happened to the boys remains a mystery. While the police said
they had
> no evidence of murder, they also acknowledged that the absence of
> immigration records prevented the authorities from tracing the missing
> youngsters.
> When the police discovered Adam's body in 2001, they found it had been
> skillfully butchered and drained of blood. Forensic tests found a
poisonous
> bean in his stomach and traces of crushed bone and clay pellets
studded with
> fragments of gold and quartz in his lower intestine.
> Other inquiries, led by O'Reilly, suggested the boy originally came
from a
> rural area of southwestern Nigeria.
> O'Reilly said the police questioned people who were supposed to be
taking
> care of the missing children and were often told that they had
returned to
> Africa. "We asked through Interpol for police to make inquiries in
the local
> countries to which they returned," he said. "In the majority of
cases we got
> no reply on that."
> Only two of the missing children were traced, he said.
> It is not unusual for African parents to send children to Britain
and other
> places to be looked after by relatives and sent to school. But the
people
> who look after them, called private carers, are not obliged to
register with
> the British authorities.
> Yinka Sunmonu, an author and journalist, said some of the children
are badly
> exploited and abused. "They are being trafficked, they are being
emotionally
> abused, there are incidences of domestic slavery," she told the BBC.
"There
> is physical abuse, sexual abuse."
> Felicity Collier, head of the British Association for Adopting and
> Fostering, said: "We know there are thousands of children who are
missing.
> We know there are children being passed between adults.
> "We would not accept this as a society if these were white
children," she
> added. "We have to have a law in this country that says private foster
> carers have to register."
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
> Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.10 - Release Date: 5/13/2005




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[scifinoir2] Re: [OT] Dave Chappelle: The Interview

[Kelly Wright]

I admire Dave Chappelle, too, but like he himself said Comedy Central
"...is not HBO, its regular assed TV."  In other words, he needs to
strap on his boots and go to work like the rest of us.  Which, of
course, is the rub for someone like Chappelle, who has never held a
"real" job.  Also Chappelle appears to be suffering from something
Branford Marsalis called "talent attacks."  "Talent attacks" often
paralyze jazz musicians of a certain ability when what they really
need to do is just blow their horn.  Come on Dave, this ain't
Shakespeare: its just regular assed TV.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Tracey de Morsella \(formerly
Tracey L. Minor\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I hope people read this.  I've always liked him, but after reading
this I am
> coming to really admire him. He seams extremely enlightened,
particularly
> for someone who has had such a meteoric rise.   If this a cover  for
a crack
> habit and mental illness it is ingenious.
> 
> Tracey de Morsella
> Phone: 215-849-0946
> Email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> View The What Happened to ScifiNoir at Yahoogroups FAQ, at:
> http://www.visitfloripa.com/scifinoir/
> 
> 
>  -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 3:19 PM
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] [OT] Dave Chappelle: The Intervie
> 
>   It sounds to me like he reconized that the sudden fame was about to
> overtake him and pulled the 'ejection' chute.   Despite the havoc it'll
> probally do to his career I think he was right in doing it.
> 
>   -GTW
> 
>

> --
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> 
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> 
> 
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
> Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.10 - Release Date: 5/13/2005




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[scifinoir2] Re: Samuel L. Jackson's greatest deaths

[Kelly Wright]

As Dave Chappelle said in his hilarious Sam L. send-up, "I am not
yelling!  This is the way I TALK!"

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Astromancer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I say they wait too late to kill him...they never catch him before
he gives his customary bellowing speech! At least the shark caught him
on the windup...BTW guys, I hope you know I'm kidding...but I really
do hate it when he absolutely HAS to yell at the camera...
> 
> Kelly Wright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Doesn't it seem like Samuel L.
Jackson is always dying in his movies?
> As we prepare for his final lightsaber battle in ''Star Wars: Episode
> III,'' we review his best cinematic swan songs.
> 
> http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1060425_1_0_,00.html
> 
> 1) Star Wars: Episode III (2005)
> 
> THE STIFF Mace Windu, Jedi knight
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH We're going to go out on a limb here and guess that
> it's death by lightsaber.
> 
> 2) Goodfellas (1990)
> 
> THE STIFF Stacks Edwards, thief and Mob associate
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot
> 
> 3) Jungle Fever (1991)
> 
> THE STIFF Gator Purify, homeless crackhead
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot
> 
> 4) Jurassic Park (1993)
> 
> THE STIFF Ray Arnold, a technician at the dinosaur preserve
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH Velociraptor
> 
> 5) Hard Eight (1996)
> 
> THE STIFF Jimmy, a Reno casino security guard
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot
> 
> 6) 187 (1997)
> 
> THE STIFF Trevor Garfield, high school science teacher
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot
> 
> 7) Jackie Brown (1997)
> 
> THE STIFF Ordell Robbie, arms dealer
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot
> 
> 8) Deep Blue Sea (1999)
> 
> THE STIFF Russell Franklin, tycoon and adventurer
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH: Shark attack
> 
> 9) Basic (2003)
> 
> THE STIFF Sgt. Nathan West, Army Ranger drill sergeant
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot, grenade, stabbing — depending on whom you
> believe.  As viewers learn in one of the plot's twists-upon-twists,
> there's a reason all these death scenes appear a little far-fetched
> and over-the-top.
> 
> 10) Kill Bill — Vol. 2 (2004)
> 
> THE STIFF Rufus, a musician
> 
> CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot
> __
> The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
> http://www.theworldebon.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
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> 
> 
> 
>   
> -
> Discover Yahoo!
>  Find restaurants, movies, travel & more fun for the weekend. Check
it out!




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[scifinoir2] 'Star Wars' Timeline

[Kelly Wright]

Here's an expanded online-only list of the events that shaped the
saga, from George Lucas' birth to the May 19 opening of ''Revenge of
the Sith'' by Jeff Labrecque

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1059915_7||221800|0_0_,00.html

5/14/44 George Lucas is born in Modesto, Calif.
1949Joseph Campbell publishes The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which
will heavily influence Lucas' work.
10/6/60 Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress opens in America. The
story is about two men who escort a princess and a general across
enemy lines. Sound familiar?
Fall 1964   Lucas enrolls at USC's film school.
8/66Lucas graduates from USC's film school.
1971Lucasfilm is established.
3/11/71 Lucas releases his first full-length feature film, THX 1138,
a box office dud.
2/72Lucas begins writing the treatment for what will become Star Wars.
Summer 1973 Universal passes on Lucas' idea for Star Wars; Lucas
subsequently takes it to 20th Century Fox.
8/1/73  Lucas' nostalgic American Graffiti, costarring Harrison Ford,
becomes one of the year's biggest hits.
8/20/73 Suddenly a hot commodity, Lucas renegotiates his deal with
Fox for Star Wars and forgoes a six-figure raise in exchange for
merchandising and sequel rights.
7/75Lucas creates Industrial Light & Magic to supervise his films'
special effects.
3/15/76 Lucas adds the opening ''A long time ago in a galaxy far, far
away…'' to a fourth and final Star Wars script.
3/22/76 Lucas and crew begin shooting Star Wars (starring Mark
Hamill, pictured) in Tunisia.
1/77Hamill is in a car accident resulting in injuries that require
significant facial plastic surgery.
3/5/77  John Williams begins recording the Star Wars soundtrack.
5/25/77 Star Wars premieres and goes on to gross $1.5 million in its
opening weekend. Six months later it surpasses Steven Spielberg's Jaws
as the all-time domestic box office champ.
Christmas 1977  Caught unprepared by the Star Wars phenomenon, Lucas'
toy-making partner Kenner sells 600,000 empty IOU action-figure boxes
during the holidays. In 1978, Kenner sells 42,322,500 action figures.
4/3/78  Nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, Star Wars
wins for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best
Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Music, and Best Sound.
9/78Lucas buys Bulltail Ranch in Marin County, Calif.; it eventually
becomes Skywalker Ranch.
11/17/78CBS broadcasts The Star Wars Holiday Special. Aired only
once, the special includes scenes (like Bea Arthur dancing with an
alien) that convince Lucas to take his name off it.
11/18/78Carrie Fisher hosts Saturday Night Live.
3/5/79  Shooting begins on The Empire Strikes Back, with Lucas as
executive producer and Irvin Kershner as director.
5/21/80 The Empire Strikes Back grosses $6.4 million in its opening
weekend.
3/9/81  NPR begins a 13-part radio dramatization of Star Wars,
featuring Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels (C-3P0).
4/81Fox re-releases Star Wars in theaters with the subtitle Episode
IV: A New Hope.
6/9/81  Mark Hamill debuts on Broadway in The Elephant Man.
1982Parker Brothers releases the first Star Wars videogame, ''The
Empire Strikes Back,'' for Atari and Intellivision.
1/11/82 Revenge of the Jedi begins shooting, with director Richard
Marquand. Shortly before its release, after some posters and publicity
materials have already been created, Lucas changes the title to Return
of the Jedi (pictured).
June 82 THX Sound System is developed by ILM.
1/83Steven Spielberg's E.T. surpasses Star Wars as the all-time
biggest box office hit...for now.
3/23/83 President Ronald Reagan, in a speech to the nation, proposes
a strategic defense initiative, later dubbed ''Star Wars,'' as a
defense against Soviet missiles. In November 1985, Lucas
unsuccessfully takes lobbying groups to court to stop them from using
the term to refer to SDI in their commercial spots.
5/25/83 Return of the Jedi sets single and opening day box office
records (on a Wednesday, no less).
11/25/84ABC airs a prime-time special called Ewok Adventures.
9/7/85  ABC premieres two Saturday morning cartoons: Droids and Ewoks.
11/24/86ABC airs another prime-time special, Ewoks: The Battle for
Endor.
1/9/87  Disneyland opens "Star Tours," a Star Wars-themed ride.
5/24/87 Ten years after Star Wars' release, Lucas announces plans for
a second trilogy — and hints at the possibility of a third.
6/91Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire, the first of a literary
trilogy picking up from the end of Return of the Jedi, hits shelves
and quickly becomes a best-seller. Followed by Dark Force Rising
(6/92) and The Last Command (5/93).
3/30/92 Steven Spielberg presents Lucas with the Thalberg Award
during the Oscar ceremony.
9/93Fox releases Star Wars Trilogy: The Definitive Collection on
laserdisc.
11/93   LucasArts releases ''Rebel Assault,''

[scifinoir2] Samuel L. Jackson's greatest deaths

[Kelly Wright]

Doesn't it seem like Samuel L. Jackson is always dying in his movies?
As we prepare for his final lightsaber battle in ''Star Wars: Episode
III,'' we review his best cinematic swan songs.

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1060425_1_0_,00.html

1) Star Wars: Episode III (2005)

THE STIFF Mace Windu, Jedi knight

CAUSE OF DEATH We're going to go out on a limb here and guess that
it's death by lightsaber.

2) Goodfellas (1990)

THE STIFF Stacks Edwards, thief and Mob associate

CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot

3) Jungle Fever (1991)

THE STIFF Gator Purify, homeless crackhead

CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot

4) Jurassic Park (1993)

THE STIFF Ray Arnold, a technician at the dinosaur preserve

CAUSE OF DEATH Velociraptor

5) Hard Eight (1996)

THE STIFF Jimmy, a Reno casino security guard

CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot

6) 187 (1997)

THE STIFF Trevor Garfield, high school science teacher

CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot

7) Jackie Brown (1997)

THE STIFF Ordell Robbie, arms dealer

CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot

8) Deep Blue Sea (1999)

THE STIFF Russell Franklin, tycoon and adventurer

CAUSE OF DEATH: Shark attack

9) Basic (2003)

THE STIFF Sgt. Nathan West, Army Ranger drill sergeant

CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot, grenade, stabbing — depending on whom you
believe.  As viewers learn in one of the plot's twists-upon-twists,
there's a reason all these death scenes appear a little far-fetched
and over-the-top.

10) Kill Bill — Vol. 2 (2004)

THE STIFF Rufus, a musician

CAUSE OF DEATH: Gunshot
__
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com




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[scifinoir2] Chappelle's No-Show

[Kelly Wright]

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1060812_3_0_,00.html

Chappelle's No-Show

EW investigates the disappearance of Dave Chappelle -- A look at why
production halted on the comic's comedy series by Josh Wolk

NO LAUGHING MATTER Staffers of Chappelle's Show are looking for new jobs
 
NO LAUGHING MATTER Staffers of Chappelle's Show are looking for new jobs

On Sept. 18 of last year, soon after signing a reported $50 million
deal with Comedy Central for two more seasons of his show, Dave
Chappelle threw an enormous block party in Brooklyn's Fort Greene
neighborhood. Hundreds of people showed up for a concert featuring
Kanye West, the Roots, Erykah Badu, and a reunited Fugees, and
Chappelle had the daylong event filmed for a documentary. ''He made it
a point to walk around and greet his fans, taking time and just vibing
with everyone,'' says Jamel Shabazz, who Chappelle hired to take
pictures of the event for a potential companion book. ''I saw nothing
but positivity from that young man.''

Eight months later, Chappelle is in a radically different place and
his sketch-comedy series has fallen apart. On May 4, not 24 hours
after Comedy Central touted Chappelle's Show's third season to a group
of advertisers, with promos for a May 31 premiere still airing, the
cable network hastily announced that the season would not proceed as
scheduled. In fact, the situation had become far more dire than the
network ever let on.

EW has learned from a source close to the show that on April 28, the
comedian flew from Newark airport to South Africa to check himself
into a mental health facility. (Neither Comedy Central nor Chappelle's
publicist would comment to EW; his publicist has repeatedly denied
persistent rumors of drug use.) Production had temporarily shut down
back in December, scuttling a planned February premiere; reports at
the time said Chappelle had the flu and that the show would come back
in April or May. But this time the series is unlikely to return.
Staffers are looking for new jobs, and wondering what happened to
their $50 million man.

''My strong feeling,'' says another show insider, ''is that Dave
couldn't handle the pressure.'' Former Chris Rock Show producer Nelson
George saw firsthand how challenging it is for someone to suddenly be
deemed ''funniest guy in America.'' Though Rock handled it well,
George said, ''it can mess up your creative process, [where you're]
second-guessing, 'Is that as funny as what we did last year?''' The
expectations — popular, critical, and financial — can seem unfulfillable.

Chappelle's retreat comes after a grueling climb up the comedy ladder
that has consumed nearly two decades. The 31-year-old has been a
stand-up comic since he was 14, and suffered through 11 network pilots
that had about as much in common with his edgy comedy as Richard
Pryor's did with The Toy. (Only one show ever made air, ABC's 1996
Buddies, canceled after four episodes.) But on his Comedy Central
show, he was able to give his incendiary, daring style free rein: He
and partner Neal Brennan wrote nearly every sketch, conjuring up such
characters as a blind KKK member who doesn't realize he's black, and a
cop-stabbing, whore-slapping Wayne Brady. It was a dream opportunity,
and redemptively popular (averaging 3.1 million viewers). It was also
a debilitating workload. ''Dave always wanted his work to be perfect
and would never settle for anything less,'' says Chappelle's former
manager Barry Katz, who met the comic when Chappelle moved to New York
City after graduating from high school in Washington, D.C. ''He's
mellow at times, but also driven in a way that few artists have
been.'' And trying to achieve his perfection with a small staff is
virtually impossible. Says George: ''With TV, no one person, or even
two people, can write [a season's worth of shows] that are all very
funny.''

If he felt pressure, Chappelle never admitted it publicly. After the
deal was signed last year, he told EW: ''What this money really
purchased me was a certain peace of mind. It was an affirmation, just
to be confident in your intuition. Try to do things that feel good
because ultimately that's what I got rewarded for.''

For this season, Chappelle had shot four to five episodes' worth of
sketches, but had yet to shoot his live onstage introductions. So what
becomes of the $50 million? The multifaceted deal covered seasons 3
and 4 and a TV and movie development deal. But the bulk of the money
would come from increased royalties from DVD sales, which will keep
selling without him; the season 1 set remains the top-selling TV DVD
ever — bigger even than The Simpsons or Seinfeld — and 2 will be
released May 24. (Comedy Central will promote it by airing its bonus
footage before Chappelle's Show reruns.)

Network spokesman Tony Fox says the show's loss won't damage Comedy
Central because the network's year-to-date ratings have already beaten
projections, thanks to the second Blue Collar Comedy Tour and the Jeff
Foxworthy r

[scifinoir2] Re: [PSA] 'iPods can make you deaf'

[Kelly Wright]

Once again, I don't think it is the iPods that make you deaf, if is 
the excessive noise.  It is the iPod that makes this article "sexy."  
I was thinking about this in the context of other "scare stories," 
which are really stories reflecting our ambivalence toward 
proliferating technological advances, and it occured to me that even 
water should have a warning label on it as too much water consumption 
can poison the human body.  Headline:  "WATER CAN POISON YOU!"  You 
have been warned.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/18532179?source=Evening%
20Standard&ct=5#
> 
> 'iPods can make you deaf'
> 
> By Mark Prigg, Evening Standard
> 
> 11 May 2005
> 
> 
> A health alert over the dangers to your hearing from portable music
> players is issued today.
> 
> Experts say the huge popularity of iPods and other players could 
leave a
> generation of music fans with serious problems.
> 
> London commuters face the greatest risk as they play the machines at
> potentially damaging volume levels because of the background noise 
on
> Tubes and trains.
> 
> A leading expert warned that people had to use the players more
> responsibly. Andrew Reid, head of audiology at the Royal United 
Hospital
> in Bristol, said: "This is a big problem for young people, and 
there is a
> real risk that prolonged listening could lead to permanent hearing 
damage."
> 
> Mr Reid added: "If you are on a Tube, you have to turn the player 
up to
> dangerous levels just to hear it. Over time, this is going to lead 
to
> problems like tinnitus and severe damage to the inner ear." 
Tinnitus and
> noise-induced hearing loss occurs when the delicate hair nerve 
cells that
> line the inner ear suffer repeated trauma from loud sound 
vibrations.
> 
> According to Mr Reid, the first signs are a ringing or buzzing in 
the
> ears. "People really need to turn down the player straight away and
> consult their doctor if the problems continue," he warned.
> 
> Experts say the problem has reached critical levels due to the 
popularity
> of the iPod. Apple has sold 5.6million worldwide since it was 
introduced
> in 2001, along with over 250 million songs via its online music 
store.
> 
> Experts believe that usage has increased dramatically because 
owners can
> now carry their entire CD collection with them, and the latest 
players
> give up to 30 hours' playback on a single battery charge.
> 
> Recent research found that 39 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds listen 
to
> personal stereos for more than an hour each day, with 13 per cent
> listening for two hours or more.
> 
> The Royal National Institute for the Deaf said: "We are concerned 
that
> many people are turning up the volume on their personal stereos to 
levels
> that could create hearing loss in the long term."
> 
> The RNID has launched a new website, dontlosethemusic.com, to warn 
users
> about the problem. It says users who are worried should investigate 
buying
> in-ear headphones that can block out background noise, allowing the 
volume
> of players to be turned down.
> 
> Experts today called for Apple and other manufacturers to limit the 
volume
> of their players, and for users to limit their listening to under 
an hour
> a day.
> 
> According to one expert, reducing the time people listen to their 
player
> is key.
> 
> "It would obviously be beneficial to reduce the volume and restrict 
the
> usage of personal players," said Christine DePlacido of the Victoria
> Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
> 
> She added: "The difficulty is in persuading people to do this 
before their
> hearing is damaged, as many believe hearing loss will not happen to 
them
> until they are much older. A lot of the young people I see with 
tinnitus
> describe listening to music at high intensities."
> 
> Apple said all iPods sold in Britain complied with EU volume 
standards,
> but refused to comment on the new research.




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[scifinoir2] Anti-Aging Gene

[Kelly Wright]

Anti-Aging Gene   

Most of us think aging is inevitable. But one scientist has committed 
her career to proving us wrong. 

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?
language=english&type=article&article_id=218392210

What if there was a drug that made you feel like a 45-year old at the 
age of 90, and could eventually help you live to be 200? Scientists 
think it's possible, and are trying to make it a reality.

"A lot of people think that aging is something that just happens, 
it's inevitable—you know, we wear out like old cars do," says Cynthia 
Kenyon, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of 
California at San Francisco. "But it turns out that that's not 
completely true."

Kenyon proved that in tiny roundworms called Caenorhabditis elegans. 
She altered a single gene, called daf-2, in the worms' DNA, and 
doubled their lifespan. "Normally this worm has a lifespan of just 
about two weeks," says Kenyon, "but when we change this one gene, now 
it lives twice as long, and it actually stays young longer than 
normal. So when the normal worms are on their last legs, so to speak, 
or in the nursing home, these altered worms are still moving around. 
They're much younger. So it's kind of like looking at someone who is 
90, and thinking you're looking at a 45-year-old. That's the kind of 
change we're talking about."

But this doesn't mean there's only one gene that controls aging. 
Kenyon compares the process to conducting an orchestra. "We're 
changing a kind of master control gene," she explains. "And when we 
do that, lots of other genes in the worm's DNA are turned up or down. 
These different genes do different things to protect the animal from 
kind of the ravages of time. As a consequence, the animal can live 
much longer. And these different genes do different things: some of 
them make anti-oxidant proteins that protect the cells from oxidative 
damage; others…protect the cells from getting infections by bacteria. 
So basically, it's sort of like an orchestra, where you have the 
orchestra conductor, which would be the master regulator gene, 
controlling lots of subordinate genes—the flutes, the cellos, the 
violins—making them all play in concert, essentially. So you can get 
a dramatic effect—in this case, a doubling of lifespan."

Kenyon recently took it a step further by altering daf-2 as well as 
hormones controlled by the reproductive system. "Now something almost 
magical happens, which is that the animals live six times as long as 
normal," says Kenyon, whose work was recently featured in Discover 
magazine. "And they stay young and healthy. These long-lived ones are 
also disease-resistant. And by that I mean, they don't get age-
related diseases until they're much older than normal."

Kenyon's so optimistic in her quest to extend life that she founded a 
company, Elixir Pharmaceuticals, to eventually create an anti-aging 
drug for people. That goal could be more than a decade away, but if 
Kenyon succeeds, would she take such a drug herself? 

"Yes, absolutely. I don't want to get old. And I don't think I'm the 
only person that feels that way. In fact, if you read Shakespeare's 
sonnets, so many of them are about the anguish of aging. People don't 
like to get old, they don't like to lose their abilities, their 
capacities. So for people who love life, like I do, what could be 
better?"

This research was published in the October 24, 2003 issue of Science, 
and the December 2, 1993 issue of Nature, and was funded by the 
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
___
The Black Prince.  The Black Church. A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com
 





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[scifinoir2] Scans reveal Tutankhamun's face

[Kelly Wright]

Scans reveal Tutankhamun's face

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Posted: 10:16 PM EDT (0216 GMT)

Model of King Tut made by French team based on facial reconstructions
from CT scans of Tut's mummy.

Image:  http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/05/11/tut.face.ap/index.html

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The models show a baby-faced young man with
chubby cheeks and his family's characteristic overbite, a weak chin
and a pronounced, sloping nose beneath an elongated scalp.

Three teams of scientists have created the first facial
reconstructions of King Tutankhamun based on CT scans of his mummy.
The images are strikingly similar both to each other and to ancient
portraits of the boy pharaoh, including his depiction on the famed
golden mask he wore into the crypt.

The teams -- from France, the United States and Egypt -- each built a
model of the pharaoh's face based on some 1,700 high-resolution images
from CT scans to reveal what he looked like the day he died nearly
3,300 years ago.

That models, photos of which were released Tuesday, bear a strong
resemblance to the gold mask of King Tut found in his tomb in 1922 by
the British excavation led by Howard Carter.

The beardless youth depicted in the model created by a French team has
soft features, a sloping nose and a weak chin -- and the overbite,
which archaeologists have long believed was a trait shared by other
kings in Tut's 18th dynasty. His eyes are highlighted by thick eyeliner.

"The shape of the face and skull are remarkably similar to a famous
image of Tutankhamun as a child where he was shown as the sun god at
dawn rising from a lotus blossom," said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general
of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The CT scans -- the first done on an Egyptian mummy -- have suggested
King Tut was a healthy, yet slightly built 19-year-old, standing
5-feet-6 at the time of his death.

The three teams created their reconstructions separately -- the
Americans and French working from a plastic skull, the Egyptians
working directly from the CT scans, which could distinguish different
densities of soft tissue and bone.

The French and Egyptians knew they were recreating King Tut, but the
Americans were not even told where the skull was from, yet correctly
identified it as a Caucasoid North African, the council said in a
statement.

"The results of the three teams were identical or very similar in the
basic shape of the face, the size, shape and setting of the eyes, and
the proportion of the skull," Hawass said.

The French and American models, seen in photos released by the
council, are similar -- with the Americans' plaster model sharing the
more realistic, French silicone version's receding chin and prominent
upper lip. The Egyptian reconstruction has a more prominent nose and a
stronger jaw and chin.

The scans were carried out on January 5 in the Valley of the Kings in
Luxor, where Tut's leathery mummy was briefly removed from its tomb
and placed into a portable CT scanner.

The tests provided an unprecedented look at Egypt's most famous mummy
-- but they did not resolve the mystery of the death of King Tut, who
came to power at age 9.

They were able to dismiss a long held theory that Tut, who died around
1323 B.C., was murdered by a blow to his skull or killed in an
accident that crushed his chest. It raised a new possibility for the
cause of death: Some experts on the scanning team said it appeared Tut
broke his left thigh severely -- puncturing his skin -- just days
before his death, and the break could have caused an infection.

The life of Tutankhamun -- believed to have been the 12th ruler of
ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty -- has fascinated people since his tomb
was discovered in 1922, revealing a trove of fabulous treasures in
gold and precious stones that showed the wealth and craftsmanship of
the pharaonic court.

A U.S. museum tour a quarter-century ago of Tut's treasures drew more
than 8 million people. A smaller number of treasures -- minus Tut's
famous gold mask -- will again go on display in the United States
starting June 16 in Los Angeles, after touring Germany and Switzerland.

The decision to allow the exhibit was a reversal of an Egyptian policy
set in the 1980s that confined most of the objects to Egypt, after
several pieces were damaged on international tour.

Hawass is leading a five-year project to scan all of Egypt's known
mummies -- including royal mummies now exhibited at the Cairo Museum.
Eventually, each mummy will be displayed alongside CT images and a
facial reconstruction.

"For the first time, we will make these dead mummies come alive,"
Hawass said.
___
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com




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[scifinoir2] Re: [PSA] 'iPods can make you deaf'

[Kelly Wright]

I remain amused by how every popular new technological gizmo is
followed shortly thereafter by an article portending imminent doom and
gloom.  I would write more but excessive staring at a computer screen
can cause blindness.

~rave! 

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Bosco Bosco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> you may have had enough but as a person who suffers from tinitus, an
> ever constant ringing noise in the ears, and hearing loss due to
> damage caused by excessive volume, I can tell you that this issue is
> very real and very permanent. It's easy to take for granted until you
> lose it. It's really frustrating when your not even 40 yet and you
> spend half your life saying, "what did you say?"
> 
> Just keep the volume level down and dont sweat it.
> 
> Bosco
> --- Kelly Wright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > You know I have had enough.  "Microwave ovens make you 
> > sterile," "Cell phones cause brain cancer," "iPods make you deaf." 
> > I 
> > can't hear you cause I my cell phone is ringing while I'm listening
> > 
> > to my i-Pod and my microwave popcorn in almost done.
> > 
> > ~rave!
> > 
> > --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse" 
> > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/18532179?source=Evening%
> > 20Standard&ct=5#
> > > 
> > > 'iPods can make you deaf'
> > > 
> > > By Mark Prigg, Evening Standard
> > > 
> > > 11 May 2005
> > > 
> > > 
> > > A health alert over the dangers to your hearing from portable
> > music
> > > players is issued today.
> > > 
> > > Experts say the huge popularity of iPods and other players could 
> > leave a
> > > generation of music fans with serious problems.
> > > 
> > > London commuters face the greatest risk as they play the machines
> > at
> > > potentially damaging volume levels because of the background
> > noise 
> > on
> > > Tubes and trains.
> > > 
> > > A leading expert warned that people had to use the players more
> > > responsibly. Andrew Reid, head of audiology at the Royal United 
> > Hospital
> > > in Bristol, said: "This is a big problem for young people, and 
> > there is a
> > > real risk that prolonged listening could lead to permanent
> > hearing 
> > damage."
> > > 
> > > Mr Reid added: "If you are on a Tube, you have to turn the player
> > 
> > up to
> > > dangerous levels just to hear it. Over time, this is going to
> > lead 
> > to
> > > problems like tinnitus and severe damage to the inner ear." 
> > Tinnitus and
> > > noise-induced hearing loss occurs when the delicate hair nerve 
> > cells that
> > > line the inner ear suffer repeated trauma from loud sound 
> > vibrations.
> > > 
> > > According to Mr Reid, the first signs are a ringing or buzzing in
> > 
> > the
> > > ears. "People really need to turn down the player straight away
> > and
> > > consult their doctor if the problems continue," he warned.
> > > 
> > > Experts say the problem has reached critical levels due to the 
> > popularity
> > > of the iPod. Apple has sold 5.6million worldwide since it was 
> > introduced
> > > in 2001, along with over 250 million songs via its online music 
> > store.
> > > 
> > > Experts believe that usage has increased dramatically because 
> > owners can
> > > now carry their entire CD collection with them, and the latest 
> > players
> > > give up to 30 hours' playback on a single battery charge.
> > > 
> > > Recent research found that 39 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds
> > listen 
> > to
> > > personal stereos for more than an hour each day, with 13 per cent
> > > listening for two hours or more.
> > > 
> > > The Royal National Institute for the Deaf said: "We are concerned
> > 
> > that
> > > many people are turning up the volume on their personal stereos
> > to 
> > levels
> > > that could create hearing loss in the long term."
> > > 
> > > The RNID has launched a new website, dontlosethemusic.com, to
> > warn 
> > users
> > > about the problem. It says users who are worried should
> > investigate 
> > buying
> > > in-ear headphones that can block out background noise

[scifinoir2] Re: Hollywood Worries as Decline Continues

[Kelly Wright]

This is an interesting dilemma for the film companies.  With DVD sales 
that they don't share a dime of with the theatres, they are making
more money than ever.  DVD revenue is three times the lucre they rake
in from theatres (a 55/45 split).  The real losers here are the movie
theatres which are relying more and more on commercials to spike
renevues which further dilutes the movie-going experience.  Further,
theatres have made no innovations in the movie-going experience since
rolling out stadium seating.  Many movie lovers can have a better
movie viewing experience at home - digital picture on HD screens with
surround sound.  

I haven't had a hankering to see a movie in a movie theatre since "Sin
City."  I have seen excellent bootlegs of "Kung Fu Hustle" and "XXX:
State of the Union" in the comfort of my own home.  "The Aviator" is
playing at the budget theater here (best popcorn in town) and I hope
to see "Alexander" there (but only because I want to see the Rosario
Dawson nude scenes on the big screen).

Back to the first sentence: this is an interesting dilemma for the
film companies which need theatrical releases to hype the DVD releases
where they make their real money.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/movies/10holl.html?ex=1116475200&en=570e36cadf423c7e&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERFEATURES
> 
> Hollywood Worries as Decline Continues
> 
> By SHARON WAXMAN
> 
> Published: May 10, 2005
> 
> 
> LOS ANGELES, May 9 - Now Hollywood is starting to get worried.
> 
> The poor box-office performance last weekend of the first major film of
> the summer, "Kingdom of Heaven," released by 20th Century Fox, made
for 11
> weeks in a row of declining movie attendance and revenue compared with
> last year, adding up to the longest slump since 2000 and raising an
> uncomfortable question: Are people turning away from lackluster
movies, or
> turning their backs on the whole business of going to theaters?
> 
> The historical epic about the Crusades, which stars Orlando Bloom
and was
> directed by Ridley Scott, took in just $20 million at the domestic box
> office, a puny opening for a film that cost about $130 million to
make and
> was supported by a major marketing push. The film was helped by a
stronger
> performance abroad, where it took in $56 million in 93 territories.
> 
> To be sure, "Kingdom of Heaven" is not the first swords-and-sandals epic
> to miss the mark with American audiences; neither "Alexander" nor "King
> Arthur" nor "Troy" was embraced by audiences in this country last year.
> Analysts said that the "Crusader" movie's R rating contributed to
its weak
> opening, along with reviews that declared Mr. Bloom's performance
> inadequate.
> 
> The weekend's top 12 films took in $77 million, the worst result for
early
> May in at least five years, according to Exhibitor Relations, a company
> that tracks box-office results. Box-office revenue is down almost 6
> percent compared with last year's, while attendance is down about 8
> percent, Exhibitor Relations reported.
> 
> Since 2002, attendance is down about 10 percent for the comparable
period,
> to about 433.7 admissions from about 485 million. The decline has
provoked
> speculation that a rising DVD market and the advent of more
elaborate home
> entertainment centers, along with the shrinking window of time between a
> theatrical release and the appearance of the DVD, is causing
moviegoers to
> stay home and wait for discs.
> 
> "It does take more to get people out of the easy chair and to the
theater;
> movies have to be so much more compelling," said the president of
> Exhibitor Relations, Paul Dergarabedian. "DVD's and home theater create
> more of an anchor to keep people at home. There's a little bit of that
> going on, and when there's more competition for eyeballs, it's a lot
more
> of a challenge."
> 
> Still, some of Hollywood's most seasoned executives insist that this
> year's problem is a simpler one: The movies have not been good enough.
> Usually, they said, a sleeper hit comes along in late winter or early
> spring to wake up the box office, like last year's "Mean Girls" or
> "Starsky & Hutch" - or the crucifixion blockbuster "The Passion of the
> Christ."
> 
> "Nothing has turned on the audience yet," said Tom Sherak, a partner in
> Revolution Studios. "It's happened many times before, where the movies
> come out without great word of mouth. What's happening is the same
people
> who usually come that first weekend have been coming, but they seem
to go
> away quickly because the movies are not generating a broader audience."
> 
> Others blamed last weekend's raft of R-rated films, which cut out a
major
> segment of the audience, for the continuing drop. Warner Brothers'
"House
> of Wax," which also opened last weekend, was rated R.
> 
> "R-rated pictures aren't working in this marketplace like they used to,"
> said John Fithian, president of the Nation

[scifinoir2] Re: [PSA] 'iPods can make you deaf'

[Kelly Wright]

You know I have had enough.  "Microwave ovens make you 
sterile," "Cell phones cause brain cancer," "iPods make you deaf."  I 
can't hear you cause I my cell phone is ringing while I'm listening 
to my i-Pod and my microwave popcorn in almost done.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Brent Wodehouse" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/18532179?source=Evening%
20Standard&ct=5#
> 
> 'iPods can make you deaf'
> 
> By Mark Prigg, Evening Standard
> 
> 11 May 2005
> 
> 
> A health alert over the dangers to your hearing from portable music
> players is issued today.
> 
> Experts say the huge popularity of iPods and other players could 
leave a
> generation of music fans with serious problems.
> 
> London commuters face the greatest risk as they play the machines at
> potentially damaging volume levels because of the background noise 
on
> Tubes and trains.
> 
> A leading expert warned that people had to use the players more
> responsibly. Andrew Reid, head of audiology at the Royal United 
Hospital
> in Bristol, said: "This is a big problem for young people, and 
there is a
> real risk that prolonged listening could lead to permanent hearing 
damage."
> 
> Mr Reid added: "If you are on a Tube, you have to turn the player 
up to
> dangerous levels just to hear it. Over time, this is going to lead 
to
> problems like tinnitus and severe damage to the inner ear." 
Tinnitus and
> noise-induced hearing loss occurs when the delicate hair nerve 
cells that
> line the inner ear suffer repeated trauma from loud sound 
vibrations.
> 
> According to Mr Reid, the first signs are a ringing or buzzing in 
the
> ears. "People really need to turn down the player straight away and
> consult their doctor if the problems continue," he warned.
> 
> Experts say the problem has reached critical levels due to the 
popularity
> of the iPod. Apple has sold 5.6million worldwide since it was 
introduced
> in 2001, along with over 250 million songs via its online music 
store.
> 
> Experts believe that usage has increased dramatically because 
owners can
> now carry their entire CD collection with them, and the latest 
players
> give up to 30 hours' playback on a single battery charge.
> 
> Recent research found that 39 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds listen 
to
> personal stereos for more than an hour each day, with 13 per cent
> listening for two hours or more.
> 
> The Royal National Institute for the Deaf said: "We are concerned 
that
> many people are turning up the volume on their personal stereos to 
levels
> that could create hearing loss in the long term."
> 
> The RNID has launched a new website, dontlosethemusic.com, to warn 
users
> about the problem. It says users who are worried should investigate 
buying
> in-ear headphones that can block out background noise, allowing the 
volume
> of players to be turned down.
> 
> Experts today called for Apple and other manufacturers to limit the 
volume
> of their players, and for users to limit their listening to under 
an hour
> a day.
> 
> According to one expert, reducing the time people listen to their 
player
> is key.
> 
> "It would obviously be beneficial to reduce the volume and restrict 
the
> usage of personal players," said Christine DePlacido of the Victoria
> Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
> 
> She added: "The difficulty is in persuading people to do this 
before their
> hearing is damaged, as many believe hearing loss will not happen to 
them
> until they are much older. A lot of the young people I see with 
tinnitus
> describe listening to music at high intensities."
> 
> Apple said all iPods sold in Britain complied with EU volume 
standards,
> but refused to comment on the new research.




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[scifinoir2] Next Mission Unclear for "Star Trek"

[Kelly Wright]

``A lot of fans have discussed the fact that we have ignored the
continuity of `Star Trek' and ignored the canon.  That could not be
farther from the truth. We live and breathe this continuity.''

- Rick Berman

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/2005/05/09/living/11595128.htm

Posted on Sun, May. 08, 2005

`ENTERPRISE' LOST

By Charlie McCollum

Mercury News

This week, ``Star Trek'' will boldly go where it hasn't gone in 36
years: cancellation.

The original series, with William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and
Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, was axed by NBC in 1969 after three
seasons. But, a cult favorite, ``Star Trek'' was revived as a film in
1979 with the original cast, and a new television series -- ``Star
Trek: The Next Generation'' -- made its debut in the fall of 1987.

Since then, 18 years in all, there has been a ``Star Trek'' series --
and sometimes two -- on television every season. (Unlike the original,
none was ever canceled. The producers just moved on to a new version
when it seemed like things were winding down.) With nine more
theatrical films, numerous novels and comic books, and a vast
merchandizing empire, ``Star Trek'' has permeated American popular
culture to the point where it stands with ``Star Wars.''

That all comes to an end, at least temporarily, on Friday when UPN
airs the last two episodes of the fifth ``Star Trek'' series,
``Enterprise'' (8 p.m., Ch. 44), ending a four-season run that saw
viewership drop from 12.6 million to 2.5 million. At the same time,
the film division of the ``Star Trek'' empire also has gone into
stasis after 2002's ``Nemesis'' pulled in a lowly $40 million at the
box office. (The top ``Star Trek'' movie, 1986's ``The Voyage Home,''
did $184.7 million.)

``There was some degree of fatigue,'' says ``Enterprise'' executive
producer Rick Berman, who has run the franchise since the death of
creator Gene Roddenberry in 1991. ``After 18 years and 624 hours of
`Star Trek,' the audience began to sense a little bit of overkill.''

In a way, the very success of ``Star Trek'' worked against
``Enterprise.'' Repeats of the show's predecessors -- the original,
``Next Generation,'' ``Deep Space Nine'' and ``Voyager'' -- turn up
almost 24/7 in syndication and on cable channels such Sci Fi and Spike
TV. So do the films.

``We found ourselves in competition with ourselves. `Enterprise' was
running against the franchise,'' says Berman.

Nor did it help that UPN, home of the franchise since ``Voyager''
started its mission in 1995, had gone from being a testosterone-driven
network to one that emphasizes shows appealing to women. ``It needs to
be said that UPN has changed a great deal over the last few years,''
says Berman. ``It's been skewed in a totally different direction than
`Star Trek.' That's caused as much of a problem with our viewership
erosion as anything else.''

But the fundamental issue has been the failure of ``Enterprise'' to
connect with not just a broad audience but also with fans of ``Star
Trek.''

Set in the earliest days of warp-drive space travel, ``Enterprise''
was a retro take on the ``Star Trek'' world with technology that was
shaky at best and a crew that wanted nothing to do with such things as
a nascent transporter system. If you pop in the DVD set of the first
season, the first episodes look like a fresh and witty reinvention of
the ``Star Trek'' mythology and canon.

Certainly, ``Trek'' fans initially were attracted. (The audience of
12.6 million was and still is huge by UPN standards.) But the appeal
didn't last long.

``Enterprise'' soon was being slammed for pedestrian storytelling, and
-- as a commander -- Capt. Jeffrey Archer (Scott Bakula) seemed to
lack the gravitas of Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) of ``Next
Generation'' or even Elizabeth Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) of ``Voyager.''
There was no breakout character along the lines of Spock; Data (Brent
Spiner), the android from ``Next Generation;'' Quark (Armin Shimerman)
of ``Deep Space Nine''; or Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), the bodacious
Borg on ``Voyager.''

And the Trekkers -- the deeply obsessed fans of the series -- slammed
``Enterprise'' on the Internet for playing fast and loose with ``Star
Trek'' continuity, such as exactly when humans first met the Klingons.

``A lot of fans have discussed the fact that we have ignored the
continuity of `Star Trek' and ignored the canon,'' says Berman. ``That
could not be farther from the truth. We live and breathe this
continuity.''

But, adds ``Enterprise'' executive producer Brannon Braga, ``the
success of a television show doesn't hinge on a tiny bit of
continuity'' such as when the Klingons first turned up. ``It seems to
me there are much larger issues.''

Given the show's somewhat contentious history, it perhaps was
inevitable that even the final episode has been cloaked in controversy.

Using as its basis a memorable episode titled ``The Pegasus'' from the
final season of ``Next Generation,'' the ``Enterprise'' finale puts as

[scifinoir2] Cold Case: "Best Friends" episode

[Kelly Wright]

I am a big fan of the crime show "Cold Case."  I am fond of the show 
because it does many things television seldom does.  Like almost 
every crime show, "Cold Case" has a multicultural cast but where it 
truly shines is in its story-telling and casting.  Almost every other 
week this show gives an underworked black, asian or hispanic actor a 
chance to shine - often in a poignant tale of America's persistent 
not-so-benign neglect (last week there was an excellent episode about 
the dark side of the Ronald Reagan's era -- mills closing and decent 
people struggling to make sense of it all).

Tonight's episode takes place in Philadelphia's "Bronzeville" and is 
a savory stew of topics not normally sympathetically protrayed on 
network television.  The episode touches on lesbianism (the love 
between a black girl and a white girl in 1930s Philadelphia), Harlem 
Renaissance poetry, jazz music (including a cameo by Billie Holiday), 
racism and prohibition.

It features a fierce protrayal by fedora, pant-wearing, cigarette 
smoking Tessa Thompson (I can't find any other credits for her under 
this name)as a self-proclaimed "Fox" who has big eyes for a white 
schoolgirl (Samantha Streets) and pays dearly for her attraction.  It 
is the kind of full-bodied protrayal blacks are seldom allowed to 
give on the small screen -- especially on episodic television.

Further, and more importantly, it gives Tom Wright ("Tuvix" on a 
great episode of "Voyager") and Marla Gibbs ("The Jeffersons," "227")
a paycheck and a chance to practice their craft.  Wright is excellent 
as the silky owner of the speakeasy where Thompson and Streets meet.

~rave!

Episode Guide: Cold Case: Best Friends 5/8/2005

Rush and Valens re-open a potential murder that is over 70 years old 
when a truck containing a pile of human bones is pulled from the 
Delaware River, on "Cold Case," Sunday, May 8 (8:00-9:00 PM) on CBS. 
Marla Gibbs ("The Jefferson's") guest stars.

Rush and Valens link the truck to a former prohibition era bootlegger 
and learn that the bones may belong to his sister, Rose, who 
unexpectedly went missing with the truck. As the case takes shape, 
Rush discovers that Rose took up company with a black girl who 
dressed and behaved like a man, named Billie. 

When forensics confirms the bones are not Rose's, Valens tracks her 
down and learns of her controversial friendship with Billie, which 
alienated several people, including Billie's ex-lover, Georgie (guest 
star Marla Gibbs), who always believed they were more than friends.

Lilly Rush-- Kathryn Morris
John Stillman-- John Finn
Nick Vera-- Jeremy Ratchford
Will Jeffries-- Thom Barry
Scotty Valens-- Danny Pino
Little Georgie (2005) Marla Gibbs
Billie (Paige) Ducette (1932) Tessa Thompson
Curtis (Dole) Collins (1932) Johnathan Tchaikovsky 
Curtis (Dole) Collins (2005) Tom Bower
Doc Win/Winsor Watson (1932) Tom Wright
Rose (Dole) Collins (1932) Samatha Streets
Rose (Dole) Collins (2005) Piper Laurie
Frannie-- Susan Chang
Celia Watson-- Linara Washington
Little Georgie (1932) Lakeiya Payne
Ted (1932) Brad Pennington
Lena-- Shelley Robertson 

Mark Pellington directed from a script by Liz W. Garcia. 

COLD CASE
Episode: "Best Friends"
Date: 5-8-2005
Time: 8:00-9:00 PM
Network: CBS 









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[scifinoir2] Anybody read "The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree?"

[Kelly Wright]

Has anyone read "The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree"?  My entree into
science and speculative fiction was "Black and Blue Magic."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595321828/qid=1115584739/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9840400-0703960

That book had such a profound influence on me that I originally named
my World Ebon narrative "Black and Blue Fantasy" (later changed to
"Black and Tan Fantasy" as an ode to Duke Ellington).
___

http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/apr05/322508.asp

Sci-fi blasted off long before 'Trek,' 'Wars'
By DUANE DUDEK
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Last Updated: April 30, 2005

Many people associate the words "science fiction" with "Star Wars" and
"Star Trek," the two long-running space operas which, coincidentally,
conclude within days of each other later this month.
52945Beyond the 'Stars'

But long before Capt. Kirk or Princess Leia were gleams in the eyes of
their respective creators, a children's writer named Louis Slobodkin
inspired countless young readers to look skyward using a roadmap to
the universe called "The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree."

The 1952 book is about a kid named Eddie who befriends a space
traveler named Martin - as in Martian - who landed in his
grandmother's orchard and stays for dinner.

Everyone's journey into the future begins as a child, and for some of
Slobodkin's early readers, their encounter with his book was formative.

"I can't say (it) set me down any career path," David Taylor, a
professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University, wrote
in an e-mail. "But it was probably the first science-fiction story . .
. that made me think that going into physics would be a lot more fun
than working for a living."

"That book started me also," said Barbara Bengels, who has taught
courses in science fiction, currently in conjunction with an
astronomer and a philosopher, at Hofstra University for the past 30 years.

"It's a kids' version of 'Gulliver's Travels,' " said Bengels.

Slobodkin, a Caldecott Award winner, died in 1975.

While his book is out of print - a used copy goes for $50 on
Amazon.com - it is fondly remembered and still recommended. But his
story about a friendly alien has less in common with its better known
and more menacing Cold War-era counterpart, the 1953 film of H.G.
Wells' "The War of the Worlds," than it does with director Steven
Spielberg's wistful "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" or awestruck "Close
Encounters of the Third Kind."

That the science-fiction genre can encompass such contradictory views
is a key to its endurance.

Spielberg's aliens have always been benign, playful and approachable
entities, and it will be interesting to see him change his tune when
they attack earth in his "War of the Worlds" remake.

Spielberg's new film is part of a sci-fi summer invasion, which
started Friday with "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and
includes "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" and "The
Fantastic Four."

While sci-fi as a bona fide commercial commodity is a relatively new
phenomenon, largely due to filmmaking technologies that have unleashed
the imagination, the genre itself is a cultural constant.

"Sci-fi has never not been popular," said Brannon Braga, co-creator of
TV's "Star Trek: Enterprise," which airs its last show May 13. "The
genre has been around since the dawn of filmmaking. One of the first
films ever made was a science-fiction film," he said, referring to
George Melies' 1902 film "A Trip to the Moon."

Its evolution, however, is somewhat murky.

Some trace its roots back to Homer's fantastic "The Odyssey." H.G.
Wells, author of "The War of the Worlds" and "The Invisible Man,"
said, "he could not have written without having read" Jonathan Swift,
according to Bengels. But science fiction is defined as "the story of
people dealing with change," said award-winning writer Greg Bear,
author of "Darwin's Radio."

And for the earliest known work with a "self-conscious awareness of
scientific change impinging on people's lives," said Bear, "you've got
to go back to Mary Shelley. Take a look at the introduction to
'Frankenstein.' She's basically saying, 'I don't want to scare or
thrill you. I want you to consider the possibility that this sort of
technology could become real.' "

Bear, the winner of two Hugo and five Nebula awards for his writing,
is chairman of the advisory board at the Science Fiction Museum and
Hall of Fame in Seattle, which on Friday will induct writer Philip K.
Dick and the filmmakers Ray Harryhausen and Spielberg.

Science fiction has been generally popular "at least since the 1930s,"
said Bear, and its contributions were not just cultural. The genre
"inspired people to become technicians, computer programmers,
scientists and astronauts, for that matter. In the software community
in Seattle, almost all these people grew up reading science fiction,"
he said.

The only real definition of science fiction is that most fans kno

[scifinoir2] Bloodthirsty 'Blade' stays sharp at Spike TV

[Kelly Wright]

Article Last Updated: 05/07/2005 03:02:34 PM

Bloodthirsty 'Blade' stays sharp at Spike TV
Zap2it.com

The half-man, half-vampire Blade will continue to walk the earth, only
in a slightly smaller format.
   Spike TV says it has ordered a two-hour movie/series pilot based on
the ''Blade'' movies, with a premiere targeted for early next year.
It's the first original scripted project greenlit under new network
president Doug Herzog.  
   David S. Goyer, who wrote all three ''Blade'' films and directed
the final installment, ''Blade: Trinity,'' will serve as an executive
producer of the pilot. He's not expected to write it, however, as he's
also at work on two other comic book-based film projects, ''Ghost
Rider'' and ''The Flash.'' New Line Television and Marvel Studios  
are producing the pilot. 
___
The Black Prince.  The Black Church.  A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com 




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[scifinoir2] Re: Ice Cube's "...State of the Union"

[Kelly Wright]

That was a very considered and well thought out response.  Thanks.

~rave!

--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Nope, I didn't like "Bourne Supremacy" for that one reason: the camera.
> Understand, I don't have this sweeping objection to fast cameras and
> quick changes of scene. The technique definitely has its usage in
> certain battles, fights, or for treatments that give you that
> documentary feel.  I like the handheld camera device in Battlestar
> Galactica. I thought the quick scene changes were appropriate for some
> of the closeup fight scenes in the Lord of the Rings films. But when
> it's the predominant effect in a movie, I get tired of it. Used too much
> it conveys an artificial frenetic sense that reminds me of music videos
> that change the scene every few seconds. It's supposed to give the video
> an energetic feel, but the directors forget that it's more effective
> sometimes to *pull back* and let the audience *absorb* an entire scene
> for a while. Let certain effects build slowly and they're more powerful.
> Using LOTR again, note how Jackson would give us sweeping scenes of
> whole armies, slow pans of incredible buildings, far away shots of
> battles. I like that device as I can take a few moments to *see*
> everything and take it all in.  Now, some might say that has no place in
> fight films like "Supremacy". But think of martial arts films, pictures
> like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", that have closeups and quick
> camera shifts in some fights, but also which pull back and let you see
> the whole scene at other times. I think it's just as effective to pull
> the camera back and let you see all the fighters in one frame as it is
> to move the camera back-and-forth with their fists and feet. The
> combination of the two methods gives a more complete experience.   I
> think the problem is that too many directors nowadays literally got
> their training with music videos and have no real imagination. It takes
> no skill to simply jump the camera back and forth. It's like shouting
> "Hey! This is a fight scene! Feel the energy!"  It takes more skill to
> really use the camera and frame  a larger scene. The problem, i fear, is
> that younger audiences, grown up on videos and TV, don't even know what
> they're missing, and directors are more concerned with delivering
> "action" than quality.  Hence, everything from Catwoman to XXX to
> Supremacy has this over reliance on what to me is becoming an overused
> artifice.
>  
>  
> -Original Message-
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of Kelly Wright
> Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 19:41
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: Ice Cube's "...State of the Union"
> 
> 
> 
> Just curious, Keith, did you like "The Bourne Supremacy" (which also 
> incorporated the handheld cameras and jump cuts).  Did you like NYPD 
> Blue, which also employed the technique for over a decade?
> 
> --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Johnson" 
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Wow, too kind, huh? I guess you're right, even the FX sucked!   The
> > first XXX was okay in idea, but its execution was too typical for 
> me,
> > especially the amateurish directing that you know I hate (camera all
> > over the place, bouncing from scene to scene). 
> > 
> > -Original Message-
> > From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com 
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> > Behalf Of Kelly Wright
> > Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 23:55
> > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: Ice Cube's "...State of the Union"
> > 
> > 
> > Keith, you are too kind.  This movie is awful.  It has no redeeming
> > values and, most unforgivably, it totally wastes the gorgeous Nona
> > Gaye.  Every stunt in the movie was a tired retread that had been 
> done
> > better elsewhere.  The whole movie has a been-there, seen-that feel 
> to
> > it. Worse of all, this movie has a glaringly weak grasp of the rule 
> of
> > presidential secession.  Even if Secretary of Defense Willem Dafoe 
> had
> > succeeded in his dastardly plan, he STILL would not have been next 
> in
> > line to be President of these here United States.
> > 
> > Unlike you, I have a certain fondness for the edge of the first 
> Triple
> > X film which actually had a plot, some kick-ass stunts and a certain
> > Euro-trash charm (Asia Argento). 
> > 
> > ~(no)rave!
> > 
> > --- In scifinoir2@yah