Lots to cover before I jet (okay, Toyota) off to the wilds of Schulenberg this weekend. Let's go to the videotape.
+ My unpleasant two star review of the equally unpleasant Talladega Nights is up at Film Threat. It's the best paid advertising program you've seen since...actually, it still wasn't as good as the pilates one with Daisy Fuentes.
+ Mel Gibson, Mel Gibson, Mel Gibson
It's no surprise that the guy is a barely more palatable version of his whackjob old man, but I stand by the two assertions I made at the time of Riggs' DUI bust:
1. Nobody says things when they're loaded that aren't harbored in the darkest recesses of their hearts. I've been drunk more times than I care to admit, and I've never ranted about Ze Jews.
Ze Canadians, on the other hand...
2. Gibson has mad, Passion of the Christ cash, so why is he driving himself home from a bar? Call a taxi, tell the driver to wait out front, then tip him a hundred. Don't want the story showing up on Page Six? Hire a stretch. Hell, I eat Taco Bell for dinner once a week, and I still take a cab home from Rudyards.
It looks like the blowback has already begun, however:
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo star Rob Schneider is the first actor to publicly announce he will never work with Mel Gibson due to the anti-Semitic remarks he made when he was arrested last Friday. Schneider took out an ad in Hollywood trade paper Variety slamming the star for his behavior in "An Open Letter to the Hollywood Community." The ad appeared yesterday and said, "I, Rob Schneider, a 1/2 Jew, pledge from this day forth to never work with Mel Gibson-actor-director-producer-and anti-Semite." Schneider then went on to say even if he were offered the lead role in Passion Of The Christ 2 or a "juicy voice-over role in his new flick and spoke ancient Mayan" he would still turn them down.
I applaud Schneider's brave stance, and - speaking as a representative of the movie reviewing community at large - I can only offer my heartfelt gratitude to the man for focusing his rapier wit and mammoth Hollywood superstar influence on someone besides movie critics, who have never fully recovered from that other full-page ad he took out.
+ R.I.P. MTV
Music Television's 25th anniversary came and went last week, conspicuously ignored by the channel itself.
It's understandable, MTV today is unrecognizable to anyone who grew up in the 1980s. We first got cable some six months after it went on the air, and I'm slightly ashamed to admit I spent many hours soaking up countless April Wine and Loverboy videos, and later Headbanger's Ball, 120 Minutes, and Liquid Television. I didn't have cable for most of college (or a TV, half the time), so by the time I started ckecking back in, The Real World - MTV's greatest crime against humanity - had already become a hit. From there, it was a short jaunt to the broadcast joke the channel is today.
One thing I did find was this list of the first 62 videos played on MTV. They sure liked that REO Speedwagon.
+ Whine Me, Dine Me
The only magazine I subscribe to anymore is Entertainment Weekly (I deduct it as a business expense, and reading about all the games I'd never get to play in Electronic Games Monthly got too depressing). I mosty skim it, but occasionally come across gems like this:
Five Things You Should Know About AFI
1. The acronymic band name is short for A Fire Inside - a fitting image for the brooding blackhearts whose epic album decemberunderground recently hit No. 1.
But wait, it gets better.
3. The group's notoriously passionate devotees united to form a 25,000-plus-strong fan club known as the Despair Faction.
As a retired colonel in the KISS Army, I cannot brook the existence of these upstart paramilitaries. First, we weaken their ranks with assaults by our front line of firebreathers and blood spitters, this would soften them for attack by our specially trained savate squadrons (clad in fanged platform boots, naturally). Finally, hand-to-hand combat, where crack troops will stab the insurgent emos to death with their own eyebrow pencils.
Nah, just kidding. In fact, here's a special song dedication for you crazy kids.
AFI Is Up for 3 VMA Awards!
Vote for Us!
1. Go to www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2006
2. Click on Vote Now.
3. Click on Best Rock Video
4. Click on “Vote” on the Screen Shot of Miss Murder
5. Repeat As Many Times As You Want!
AFI Is Up for 3 VMA Awards!
Vote for Us!
Anyone does and I ban your IP address.
AFI is from this complete and utter shithole town about 90 mins from me…Ukiah. Ironically, Ukiah is haiku spelled backwards yet there really couldn’t be a less haiku-esque town. They gotta Walmart, a Jack in the Box and about 15 gas stations.
AFI also recorded a song called DAYS OF THE PHOENIX which is about the movie theater/concert hall I hung out in as a teen. It’s right down the street from my house as well.
FYI, AFI is nothing more than a younger version of a glam band. Davey Havoc?
FYI, AFI is nothing more than a younger version of a glam band.
Didn’t most glam bands have a sense of humor? I’m not getting that vibe from Davey and his “Despair Faction.”
Great find on the MTV, Pete, I don’t exactly remember when I first saw it, but I do remember the first video I saw being Jack and Diane.
And I thought that Schneider was going to be Cortez in Apocalypto. Maybe my trade papers are different than yours.