MOVIES
Alan Ball Re-Emerges With Vampires, 'Towelhead'
Day to Day, September 5, 2008 · It's a big week for Alan Ball, the creator of the critically acclaimed death-obsessed series Six Feet Under. After several years out of the spotlight, his two major projects — the film Towelhead and HBO series True Blood — are emerging within a week of each other.
Like all Ball creations, both are dominated by the theme of sex.
Towelhead focuses on the story of 13-year-old Jasira, who goes to live with her strict Lebanese father in Houston during the Gulf War. There, she encounters racism, as well as a neighbor, played by Aaron Eckhart, who is eager to take advantage of her innocence.
"Between being on the receiving end of racism and totally inappropriate attention from an older man, it's the story of a young girl who does not have proper role models in her life," Ball tells Madeleine Brand. "She gets in situations that are pretty traumatic and abusive."
Ball sees his film as more of a tale of empowerment than victimization, unlike other tales of abuse.
What happens to Jasira resonates with him personally, he says, because he was abused when he was young. He also watched as his sister was killed in a car crash when he was just a teen.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has has urged Ball to change the title of the movie, which is the same as the title of the novel by Alicia Erian that inspired it. Using "towelhead" — a racial and religious slur against Muslims and Arab-Americans — in this way, the organization maintains, will only serve to increase its use.
Ball says he searched for a better title but couldn't come up with one.
"Ultimately, I feel like if you ban the use of such words — it's an unintended consequence, but those words are imbued with that much more power," he says.
Similarly, his new show, True Blood, is about discrimination … against vampires. He sets up a world in which vampires are outcasts fighting to have the same rights as humans.
"There's an anti-vampire church. They show up holding up a sign that says, 'God Hates Fangs,' " Balls says, laughing.
Vampires are often a metaphor for sex, and in Ball's show it's no different. Sex and death — the themes that dominated Six Feet Under — emerge yet again, but this time with fangs.
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=17
(listen to the entire segment !)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94321662
AND
Related NPR Stories
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94320825
On Television
by David Bianculli
'True Blood,' Tasty New TV From Alan Ball And HBO
Fresh Air from WHYY, September 5, 2008 · Ever since The Sopranos cut to black, HBO has been searching for the next big thing.
The show that replaced it, John from Cincinnati, sure wasn't it. Not only was that David Milch series a big disappointment, but its appearance meant the disappearance of Milch's Deadwood — the HBO series that, at the time, was the best drama on television.
Showtime, meanwhile, captured lots of attention — and deserved every drop of it — with Dexter, its creepy, funny, bloody drama about a serial killer who kills other serial killers.
So it makes sense that HBO, which was in need of a creative transfusion anyway, went with its own creepy, funny, bloody drama series — and went back to one of its successful producers, Alan Ball, who spent years on Six Feet Under surrounded by death and the dead.
In True Blood, which premieres Sept. 7, he's surrounded by death and the un-dead. Adapted from a series of novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is set in a small Louisiana town — small enough to be near both bayous and run-down plantation mansions. It's based on the premise that vampires, two years earlier, finally admitted they were real, not myth, and started to mainstream into regular society. They "came out of the coffin," as one character describes it, because of the invention of a synthetic blood that could sustain vampires, so they no longer had to drink human or animal blood.
They can even go into bars and diners and order some — which is just what one vampire does in the opening episode of True Blood. His name is Bill, he's played by Stephen Moyer, and he's served by Sookie, a charming young waitress played by Anna Paquin.
Sookie has her own secrets and hidden strengths; she's telepathic, for one thing. But Sookie can't hear Bill's thoughts at all — so when he enters Sam's Diner, she knows he's different. And she's not scared. She's fascinated, and as excited as a preteen girl meeting a Jonas Brother.
If you were a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I hope you were, you're already familiar with the idea of mixing terror and humor in a vampire story. Buffy was better, and actually a lot more subtle, but True Blood approaches things differently.
Buffy, like a David Lynch drama, was about finding darkness hidden in the sunniest of places — it was set, after all, in Sunnydale. And more than anything else, Buffy was about the epic, endless struggle between good and evil.
True Blood has other things on its mind. It's big on allegory, and the tension about accepting vampires into society is an obvious play on civil rights in general, and gay rights in particular. (Sometimes too obvious, but it's interesting anyway.)
Even better is the idea that just as vampires can feed on humans, certain humans in True Blood like to feed on vampires: They either seek them out as exciting, dangerous sexual partners or synthesize vampire blood as a potent new black-market drug.
So while some outlaw vampires continue to hunt humans, there are some outlaw humans hunting vampires. Others, like Sookie and Bill, just want to get along.
But what chance do you have to love one another "till death do you part," when loving a vampire means it's death at the start?
True Blood explores that question, and others, in a show that builds slowly but surely. Stay with it for a few episodes, and you'll be craving your weekly dose of True Blood.
It's not going to replace The Sopranos — but as a synthetic substitute, it'll do for now.
David Bianculli is TV critic for Broadcasting & Cable magazine and TVWorthWatching.com.
Friday, September 5, 2008
inappropriate reactions
Angry Argentine commuters torch train in rush hour
Thu Sep 4, 2008 2:13pm EDT
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Furious rail commuters in Argentina set fire to a train on Thursday in anger over delays during the morning rush hour....
Many passengers said the delays, caused by a broken down train, had cost them a day's work.
Argentina's dilapidated rail services are plagued by delays and travelers' anger sometimes erupts into violence....
http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSN0448099220080904
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Frisco Tar Art 2
channel 5 also did a piece on the artist's work, but nothing national like I hoped.
tar art channel 5
http://www.nbc5i.com/news/17385059/detail.html
FRISCO, Texas --
Some residents have found art in an unlikely place after a Frisco city worker took it upon himself to get creative as he patched up the street.
With a quick glance at the street, there appears to be just a lot of squiggly lines, but closer inspection reveals what some are calling tar art.
"Might as well have fun with, it's not like those squiggly lines look good," resident Margie Calder said.
The designs include a picture of a dog, sailboat, flower and a sun.
The new additions to the neighborhood went unnoticed for months, until someone called the city of Frisco with questions about how the city's tax dollars were being spent.
"It probably took about five minutes to do the pieces of art, and the materials were probably $5, $10 at the most," Gary Hartwell of Frisco Public Works said.
A city street worker confessed to creating the art in December as he patched up the street.
"We've talked to the employee and told him not to do it again and that will be the extent of the discipline," Hartwell said.
The city of Frisco said the overwhelming response from neighbors has been positive, so they have no plans to remove the artwork.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Frisco Tar Art
05:27 PM CDT on Saturday, August 30, 2008
By MONIKA DIAZ / WFAA-TV
http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?nvid=277738
Video
Monika Diaz reports
August 30, 2008
FRISCO - If you look at something long enough -- sometimes you see a picture.
But it doesn't take a second glance to see the creations on one Frisco road.
A worker added his own personal touch -- that slipped through the cracks -- until now.
At first glance, the maze of black patch work on Sunset Drive looks like any repair work on any street in North Texas. But follow the lines.
There are a few surprises along the road. A sailboat with a sun, and so much more. A flower in a pot and even a dog.
"It appears as if someone got a little artistic," said one passerby.
That someone works for the city - a street repair employee assigned to seal the cracks with tar, took the motto, "Keep Frisco Beautiful" into his own hands.
The city found out about the drawings this week after a neighbor called in to make a report.
The incident which happened back in December is now under review.
"It's the first time I have ever heard of something like this happening," said Gary Hartwell, from Frisco Public Works.
It's not Picasso but some neighbors say they don't mind.
"There should be more art on the road," said one.
City officials haven't decided yet if they'll fix it or leave it.
No action has been taken against the worker because the incident is still under review.
E-mail mdiaz@wfaa.com.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
India dam burst & flood
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/02/AR2008090201419.html
2.5 Million Indians Stranded by Floods
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 3, 2008; Page A09
NEW DELHI, Sept. 2 -- Close to 2.5 million Indians remained stranded, homeless and hungry in flood-ravaged villages in the eastern part of the country Tuesday, 17 days after a river burst a dam in neighboring Nepal and changed course.
Heavy rains and the swelling waters of the Kosi, known as the "river of sorrow" and worshipped by local people, caused havoc in almost 1,000 villages in Bihar state. Panic-stricken people fled to higher ground, tree tops and cramped makeshift camps.
About 117 people are reported dead, but officials in Bihar said the death toll could rise sharply as receding waters reveal more bodies.
Monsoon floods are an annual feature of Indian life, but some officials say the damage has been catastrophic this year.
"The river changed its course and inundated areas where people have not seen floods in 50 years. They were completely unprepared," said Mahesh Puri, an emergency specialist with UNICEF, speaking from Patna, the capital of Bihar. "What is worse is that many of these people will never be able to go back to their homes because the river has changed its course. Now there are streams where there were none before."
The Kosi River is infamous for failing to keep to its bed. This year the river breached a dam in Nepal that was built in 1954 and is maintained by India .
Several Indian newspapers have alleged that India failed to remove silt at the site of the dam, allowing the water to rise to dangerous levels, and did not respond even after the breach was reported.
On Tuesday, waters also rose in the northeastern state of Assam, where the Brahmaputra River gushed into a national park that is home to elephants and endangered one-horned rhinoceroses.
The Assam relief camps "are unhygienic and overcrowded," Puri said. "There is not enough clean drinking water. People are drinking the dangerous river waters that is carrying disease."
About 3,000 soldiers and several naval divers have been deployed to rescue people and bring them to the camps. The army is using six helicopters and 450 boats, and it has set up 37 clinics at the camp sites.
Puri said scores of volunteers are distributing water purification tablets and anti-diarrhea packets. Disease surveillance teams have been sent to the scene in a state where more than half the children are undernourished even in normal times.
Hundreds of thousands of frightened villagers have been making the perilous trek across flooded farmland, often carrying wailing children on their shoulders. Goats and buffalos were being herded along.
Some people have perched themselves on tree tops as they waited for boats to rescue them. The boats have often been overwhelmed by desperate crowds.
The acute shortage of food and other supplies triggered riots and looting in several parts of Bihar. Television images showed people scrambling to grab sacks of grains dropped from military aircraft.
A high-ranking team of officials from New Delhi toured the affected areas Tuesday. The chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, said plugging the dam breach and returning the river to its original course would be "a long-term project."
2.5 Million Indians Stranded by Floods
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 3, 2008; Page A09
NEW DELHI, Sept. 2 -- Close to 2.5 million Indians remained stranded, homeless and hungry in flood-ravaged villages in the eastern part of the country Tuesday, 17 days after a river burst a dam in neighboring Nepal and changed course.
Heavy rains and the swelling waters of the Kosi, known as the "river of sorrow" and worshipped by local people, caused havoc in almost 1,000 villages in Bihar state. Panic-stricken people fled to higher ground, tree tops and cramped makeshift camps.
About 117 people are reported dead, but officials in Bihar said the death toll could rise sharply as receding waters reveal more bodies.
Monsoon floods are an annual feature of Indian life, but some officials say the damage has been catastrophic this year.
"The river changed its course and inundated areas where people have not seen floods in 50 years. They were completely unprepared," said Mahesh Puri, an emergency specialist with UNICEF, speaking from Patna, the capital of Bihar. "What is worse is that many of these people will never be able to go back to their homes because the river has changed its course. Now there are streams where there were none before."
The Kosi River is infamous for failing to keep to its bed. This year the river breached a dam in Nepal that was built in 1954 and is maintained by India .
Several Indian newspapers have alleged that India failed to remove silt at the site of the dam, allowing the water to rise to dangerous levels, and did not respond even after the breach was reported.
On Tuesday, waters also rose in the northeastern state of Assam, where the Brahmaputra River gushed into a national park that is home to elephants and endangered one-horned rhinoceroses.
The Assam relief camps "are unhygienic and overcrowded," Puri said. "There is not enough clean drinking water. People are drinking the dangerous river waters that is carrying disease."
About 3,000 soldiers and several naval divers have been deployed to rescue people and bring them to the camps. The army is using six helicopters and 450 boats, and it has set up 37 clinics at the camp sites.
Puri said scores of volunteers are distributing water purification tablets and anti-diarrhea packets. Disease surveillance teams have been sent to the scene in a state where more than half the children are undernourished even in normal times.
Hundreds of thousands of frightened villagers have been making the perilous trek across flooded farmland, often carrying wailing children on their shoulders. Goats and buffalos were being herded along.
Some people have perched themselves on tree tops as they waited for boats to rescue them. The boats have often been overwhelmed by desperate crowds.
The acute shortage of food and other supplies triggered riots and looting in several parts of Bihar. Television images showed people scrambling to grab sacks of grains dropped from military aircraft.
A high-ranking team of officials from New Delhi toured the affected areas Tuesday. The chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, said plugging the dam breach and returning the river to its original course would be "a long-term project."
César Chávez, Texas
this from Jim Schutze's regular column in The Dallas Observer, Dallas' free weekly, in response to a city street-re-naming ballot/survey, controversy, lamentable baffoon-ish reaction by city government, and over-the-edge commentary in Dallas' OTHER newspaper and media monopoly:
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-08-28/news/c-eacute-sar-ch-aacute-vez-texas/
César Chávez, Texas
Forget about renaming Industrial Boulevard or Ross Avenue or the Dallas North Tollway. The city should go all the way.
By Jim Schutze
published: August 28, 2008
[ ...lots omitted.. please read the entire article ]
I propose that we change the name of the city from Dallas, Texas, to César Chávez, Texas.
Now, wait a minute. Don't start getting all helter-skelter on me. If you can get your breathing under control and give this idea just a moment or two of reasonable consideration, you will see what a wonderful thing it could be for the future of our fair city.
Who are we named for now? We don't even know. Presumably we are named for some rum-soaked, raccoon-wearing, frog-gigging denizen of the 19th century wilderness. César Chávez was actually a great man, someone whose life and accomplishments we know well and in detail.
His name, because it is Mexican, would be emblematic of the enormous contribution to and improvement of our community rendered by the influx of immigrants from Mexico in the last half-century. Think about it.
These are hard-working, family-centered, ambitious people, courageous enough to leave all that they know and venture into a strange and hostile land in order to provide better lives for their children. We have Anglos in this city of all social stripes, up and down, who wake up in the morning and can't even remember that they have children until their second cup of coffee. How can we not be better off for having more Mexicans?
Think of the fanfare for César Chávez, Texas, if this happened. Imagine what the world will think when all of the other contingent name changes begin inevitably to fall into place: Audiences around the world will thrill to the sounds of the excellentCésar Chávez Civic Orchestra. Critics will rave about exciting new exhibitions at the César Chávez Museum of Art.
Much of the unfortunate baggage that has plagued this city's current name for so long will fall by the wayside. I speak of the president whose last name began with a K, not to reopen a wound or anything. This would be clean break.
The truth is that Dallas has never been a city of tradition. The great strength of this city has always been its forward movement. This has always been a place where people come to shed their pasts and make a fresh start. That's what's cool about Dallas. You are what you say you are. Well, that and what you've got in your pocket.
When the suggestion was made to rename Ross Avenue after César Chávez, some of the bloggers complained that we must not dishonor the Ross Brothers for whom it is named now. I laugh out loud every time I read one of those comments.
The who brothers?
César Chávez really is somebody. He stands for the courage and dignity of humankind digging its way up from penury to a better life and a better world for children. He really is a hero.
Think of the attention we would get all over the world. "Dallas Renamed César Chávez, Texas." There isn't a newspaper in any language in any country that would not put that headline on page one.
And even if we don't get there, even if it's too big a bite, I hope that making the suggestion will at least help point people in the right direction. You don't take a thing like "know your place" sitting down in this country. You push back that much harder, demand that much more, make that much more trouble. It's what makes this a great country.
Man! Think of it. The most famous sports team on Earth will be the César Chávez Cowboys!
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-08-28/news/c-eacute-sar-ch-aacute-vez-texas/
César Chávez, Texas
Forget about renaming Industrial Boulevard or Ross Avenue or the Dallas North Tollway. The city should go all the way.
By Jim Schutze
published: August 28, 2008
[ ...lots omitted.. please read the entire article ]
I propose that we change the name of the city from Dallas, Texas, to César Chávez, Texas.
Now, wait a minute. Don't start getting all helter-skelter on me. If you can get your breathing under control and give this idea just a moment or two of reasonable consideration, you will see what a wonderful thing it could be for the future of our fair city.
Who are we named for now? We don't even know. Presumably we are named for some rum-soaked, raccoon-wearing, frog-gigging denizen of the 19th century wilderness. César Chávez was actually a great man, someone whose life and accomplishments we know well and in detail.
His name, because it is Mexican, would be emblematic of the enormous contribution to and improvement of our community rendered by the influx of immigrants from Mexico in the last half-century. Think about it.
These are hard-working, family-centered, ambitious people, courageous enough to leave all that they know and venture into a strange and hostile land in order to provide better lives for their children. We have Anglos in this city of all social stripes, up and down, who wake up in the morning and can't even remember that they have children until their second cup of coffee. How can we not be better off for having more Mexicans?
Think of the fanfare for César Chávez, Texas, if this happened. Imagine what the world will think when all of the other contingent name changes begin inevitably to fall into place: Audiences around the world will thrill to the sounds of the excellentCésar Chávez Civic Orchestra. Critics will rave about exciting new exhibitions at the César Chávez Museum of Art.
Much of the unfortunate baggage that has plagued this city's current name for so long will fall by the wayside. I speak of the president whose last name began with a K, not to reopen a wound or anything. This would be clean break.
The truth is that Dallas has never been a city of tradition. The great strength of this city has always been its forward movement. This has always been a place where people come to shed their pasts and make a fresh start. That's what's cool about Dallas. You are what you say you are. Well, that and what you've got in your pocket.
When the suggestion was made to rename Ross Avenue after César Chávez, some of the bloggers complained that we must not dishonor the Ross Brothers for whom it is named now. I laugh out loud every time I read one of those comments.
The who brothers?
César Chávez really is somebody. He stands for the courage and dignity of humankind digging its way up from penury to a better life and a better world for children. He really is a hero.
Think of the attention we would get all over the world. "Dallas Renamed César Chávez, Texas." There isn't a newspaper in any language in any country that would not put that headline on page one.
And even if we don't get there, even if it's too big a bite, I hope that making the suggestion will at least help point people in the right direction. You don't take a thing like "know your place" sitting down in this country. You push back that much harder, demand that much more, make that much more trouble. It's what makes this a great country.
Man! Think of it. The most famous sports team on Earth will be the César Chávez Cowboys!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Russian Politics
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/01/europe/EU-Russia-Dissident-Slain.php
Magomed Yevloyev died Sunday after a police car picked him up from an airport in the Ingushetia province and then dumped him on the road with a gunshot wound in the head.
Regional prosecutor Yuri Turygin said a police officer "accidentally" shot Yevloyev after the journalist allegedly tried to take away the officer's gun, the Interfax news agency reported.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magomed_Yevloyev
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24272873-5001028,00.html
Kremlin critic found dead
Article from: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Moscow
August 31, 2008 11:10pm
THE founder of a website that has criticised the Kremlin's policies in the Caucasus was found dead today in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, according to prosecutors quoted by Interfax.
Prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into the death of Magomed Yevloyev, who ran the website ingushetia.ru, said the news agency.
The website reported that Yevloyev was killed while in police custody.
"Magomed Yevloyev was arrested today in Ingushetia and was killed,'' said a report posted on his website www.ingushetia.ru.
Interfax quoted spokesman Vladimir Markin of the prosecutor's office as saying that "an incident'' took place after he was taken into a police car "resulting in a shooting injury to the head and he later died in hospital''.
The website is among the most visited for news on Ingushetia, a republic bordering Chechnya, and was openly opposed to Ingush president Murat Zyazikov, who had more than once threatened to shut it down.
Ekho Moskvy radio separately quoted local opposition activist Magomad Khazbiyev as saying that the website founder was arrested at gunpoint after his arrival in Narzan.
Yevloyev arrived on a flight that was also carrying the Ingush president.
"Yevloyev was arrested as he stepped off the plane,'' Khazbiyev said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/world/europe/01ingushetia.html?ref=todayspaper
A Journalist in Russia Is Shot Dead After Arrest
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: August 31, 2008
MOSCOW — A Russian journalist known for his opposition views was arrested at an airport in southern Russia on Sunday, then fatally shot in the head in what authorities said was an accident but human rights groups said was suspicious.
The shooting, in Ingushetia, and other recent violence in southern Russia suggested a possible further clampdown on domestic dissent, such as it is, in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus border region in the wake of the war in Georgia. The area has been under tight police control for years.
The Russian prosecutor general’s office said the journalist, Magomed Yevloyev, was shot in the temple while being driven from the airport to a police station, and said it would open an investigation into an accidental death.
Magomed Yevloyev died Sunday after a police car picked him up from an airport in the Ingushetia province and then dumped him on the road with a gunshot wound in the head.
Regional prosecutor Yuri Turygin said a police officer "accidentally" shot Yevloyev after the journalist allegedly tried to take away the officer's gun, the Interfax news agency reported.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magomed_Yevloyev
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24272873-5001028,00.html
Kremlin critic found dead
Article from: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Moscow
August 31, 2008 11:10pm
THE founder of a website that has criticised the Kremlin's policies in the Caucasus was found dead today in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, according to prosecutors quoted by Interfax.
Prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into the death of Magomed Yevloyev, who ran the website ingushetia.ru, said the news agency.
The website reported that Yevloyev was killed while in police custody.
"Magomed Yevloyev was arrested today in Ingushetia and was killed,'' said a report posted on his website www.ingushetia.ru.
Interfax quoted spokesman Vladimir Markin of the prosecutor's office as saying that "an incident'' took place after he was taken into a police car "resulting in a shooting injury to the head and he later died in hospital''.
The website is among the most visited for news on Ingushetia, a republic bordering Chechnya, and was openly opposed to Ingush president Murat Zyazikov, who had more than once threatened to shut it down.
Ekho Moskvy radio separately quoted local opposition activist Magomad Khazbiyev as saying that the website founder was arrested at gunpoint after his arrival in Narzan.
Yevloyev arrived on a flight that was also carrying the Ingush president.
"Yevloyev was arrested as he stepped off the plane,'' Khazbiyev said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/world/europe/01ingushetia.html?ref=todayspaper
A Journalist in Russia Is Shot Dead After Arrest
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: August 31, 2008
MOSCOW — A Russian journalist known for his opposition views was arrested at an airport in southern Russia on Sunday, then fatally shot in the head in what authorities said was an accident but human rights groups said was suspicious.
The shooting, in Ingushetia, and other recent violence in southern Russia suggested a possible further clampdown on domestic dissent, such as it is, in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus border region in the wake of the war in Georgia. The area has been under tight police control for years.
The Russian prosecutor general’s office said the journalist, Magomed Yevloyev, was shot in the temple while being driven from the airport to a police station, and said it would open an investigation into an accidental death.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
About all this:
I read the paper & see articles on issues I feel are important and want to share.. that's about it.
(First several posts will be out of chronological order. ...just me getting up to speed after an especially large and good batch of writing (and tragic events around the world)
