Life during a pandemic ain't too pretty.Contagion is a very frightening movie. Steven Soderbergh film of a Scott Z. Burns screenplay has a galaxy of stars–– Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Bryan Cranston and Kate Winslet–– without any big special effects or CGI aliens, monsters or exploding cities.
Yet, the film is gripping and terrifying because the simple story is so plausible, believable and frankly expected that this is certainly how the world will react when we get our next great pandemic.
It ain’t going to be pretty, people.
This is an adult movie studded with great performances, interesting camerawork, an innovative soundtrack and some surprising twists. It also has this gem of a line: “Blogging? That’s just graffiti with punctuation.”
Contagion is hardly a feel-good movie, but it’s certainly a movie worth seeing. If you do, please try to refrain from coughing. It will only scare others.
Growing up in the late pocket of Baby Boomerdom, The Beatles were at the height of their popularity. The most common question of the day was, “Who’s your favorite Beatle?”
If your answer was John, you were an artsy rebel.
Paul, a cutesy pleaser.
If you chose George, you were the quiet loner.
And Ringo was, well, the goofy outsider.
When I was about 10, my best friend Joe would invite me and a couple other pals to his garage. He’d swipe a pack of his old man’s Raleigh cigarettes, which came with coupons for being a loyal smoker. Collect enough coupons, you could maybe get a new set of lungs.
We’d light up in his garage, wield badminton rackets as guitars and pretend that we were the Beatles, smoking ciggies and singing like in the movie A Hard Day’s Night. Now Joe, being our cordial host and supplier of smokes and the only one of us who could actually sing, Joe always picked John or Paul since those two did most of the singing. I would try to get whichever one he didn’t pick. BUT, if Ernie was there, well, Ernie would take second dibs on the basis of the fact he was much bigger than me and a bully– so as the old saying goes, “Might makes Lennon or McCartney.”
Which left being George or Ringo. My first choice of those was to be George. I was pretty awesome on lead badminton racquet, and I could muck my way through harmonies. Last choice was Ringo. Pretending to play drums with tree sticks was not so glamorous.
We’d smoke, we’d play, we’d sing. Back then, it seemed the pecking order of people I knew for favorite Beatle was #1- John, #2- Paul, #3- George and #4- Ringo. John and Paul were probably 80-90% of the picks.
George never really got his due. He was not the popular Beatle, but he did write some of the band’s greatest songs. Now Martin Scorsese will give George his due, and I for one am looking forward to it. I won’t be smoking or playing badminton racquet, but I will be missing Joe, who left the stage far too early, my youth and the innocence of days when “Who’s your favorite Beatle?” could bond you to damn near anyone.
He's so desperate, he's joined Facebook and LinkedInFollowing the assassination of Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan porn crib on May 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri became the acting leader of the no-goodnik al-Qaeda organization.
al-Zawahiri, long recognized as a dastardly mastermind but lacking in the charisma department, is reportedly fed up with leading the organization after almost four months.
“He’s had it,” said an insider close to al-Qaeda operations. “There’s too many meetings, too many PowerPoint presentations, too many forms to fill out and expense reports to sign. He’s toast, so he’s updating his resume and starting to network like crazy. He’s even joined Facebook and LinkedIn– he’s that serious.”
Reportedly the 60-year old leader is also fed up with not getting any respect within the organization. “He always lived in Osama’s shadow,” said a confidant, “and that hurt al-Zawahiri’s ego. He thought that when he took over he’d get some respect, but it hasn’t happened–– dude’s the Rodney Dangerfield of terrorists.”
Apparently al-Zawahiri is also concerned about the recent drone-induced death of the #2 al Queda official, Atiyah Abdul Rahman.
“They’re dropping like flies,” said the unnamed source, “and al-Zawahiri wants to get out while he can. Rumor has it he’ll even shave his face fur for the right opportunity.”
You will be bored. You will feel like an idiot.Our Idiot Brother may be the most disappointing movie of the year. It’s chocked with talented, interesting performers– Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Steve Coogan, Emily Mortimer, Rashida Jones and more– yet it muddles around aimlessly trying to decide if it’s shooting for comedy, drama, dramedy, comedrama, morality tale, what exactly?
In the end, it’s an aggravation. The message is that the brother, Ned (Paul Rudd), is too trusting, naive and innocent in this world and that makes him an idiot. Or does it? Hey, maybe the sisters and others who are scrambling so hard to succeed, playacting their way through keeping a happy face, doing whatever needs to be done to get ahead and get their selfish ways… hey, maybe they’re the idiots!
It’s not a bad message, it’s just a story told with no focus and no clear point of view. Blame writers David Schisgall and Evgenia Peretz. Adding to the disappointment, it’s well-shot with good production values. Credit director Jesse Peretz. This film’s a turd that’s been varnished to a fine shine.
How bad is this film? Well, you know how many comedies have bloopers or outtakes at the end rolling during the credits? This film does that trick, but not even the outtakes are funny.
Steve Jobs has left the building. He is no longer Mr. Apple. While this day had to eventually come, it doesn’t make it any easier to take.
No other business leader has been such a visionary, and no other company is such a reflection of its inspirational leader. Jobs is Apple, Apple is Jobs, and we will see if the great company can continue going forward without him at the helm.
I suspect it will. After all, Jobs stocked the pond.
In its early days, back when IBM ruled the PC world, Apple was positioned as “the computer for the rest of us.” Us were those who could care less how the damn thing worked. Us were the technophobic crowd who merely wanted the magic without knowing how the trick was done. Us were the ones who wanted to do a task with one keystroke instead of three, and wanted to make it possible for typography to be beautiful.
That’s what Jobs and Apple gave us: easy to use computers and devices that did what needed to be done, while doing some other cool things, all while looking pretty cool.
I spend most days hunched over an Apple laptop. I listen to an iPod on foot, in the car and on the plane. I talk on an iPhone and surf the web with it, too. I rarely resist the siren call of an Apple store and lust for all the goodies within (MacBook Air, I’m stalking you). And, of course, I’ve been a fan of Apple’s advertising from the start.
Aside from those couple years when Jobs got das boot from Apple and created NeXT and turbo-boosted Pixar, the company was a reflection of the man in jeans and a black turtleneck. A man who is sick, but still generously shared his wisdom a few years back with this inspiring commencement address.
A man who was our modern day Edison with his name listed on 313 Apple patents. A man who thought differently, and asked us to think different. A true American legend, this Steve Jobs. He will be missed. Enjoy.
Buffet needs to cut out the loudmouth soup!Billionaire Warren Buffet, who testified last week that he and other super rich not be “coddled” by lenient tax laws, has been accused of being a socialist agitator who should be deported immediately.
“We can’t have troublemakers like Buffet running around serving bowls of loudmouth soup,” said Paul Guggins, a lobbyist for another billionaire’s company. “He’s an agitator and must be dealt with extreme prejudice for his socialist kowtowing. Buffet needs to act his wealth!”
Buffet admitted last week that he only pays a 17% tax rate on his income, the lowest tax rate of anyone who works in his office. He encouraged the government to close tax loopholes and begin asking the rich to pay their fair share. His public conversation has angered many Americans, including Clive R. Hunsickle, an associate manager of a Taco Bell in Jacksonville, Florida.
“Buffet is dead wrong about taxing the rich. We need to give the rich lots more tax breaks so that they’ll create more jobs and the economy will get all trickled down so that it can grow like a tomato plant in July. We need to eliminate all government spending and give tax breaks to the job creators if we’re ever going to get out of this mess Obama put us in,” Hunsickle said as he opened poly bags of seasoned Taco Bell meat for the lunch rush hour. “If the rich want to be taxed more, I won’t stand for it. The whole thing sounds as un-American as a burning flag at an ACLU meeting.”
Soon after he spoke, Mr. Hunsickle was informed he’d lost his job due to downsizing. He was angered. “It’s all Buffet’s fault,” the ex-associate manager said, “if he’d just take his tax breaks and create more jobs instead of asking for more taxes, we’d get somewhere! I need to use my noggin to invent some big moneymaker like Buffet did with his buffet line. Then when I got rich, I would take my tax breaks like a true American!”
Buffet could not be reached for comment on the subject of tax breaks or buffet lines. Rumors circulate that the outspoken billionaire is off the grid.
