DCrandall's Comments

Big Hollywood : 'Paranoid Elements Think Hollywood Has Proactive Agenda'

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 10:46:16 +0000

Thank you, John, for linking to my piece at Sam Karnick's "The American Culture." I hate to be a stickler for details but my last name is spelled with 'C' not a 'K'. BTW, I think John's post alerted Mr. Wright to what I wrote, which led to an interesting exchange between the two of us in the comments at TAC. While I think he is wrong about the industry's push for left-wing conformity and its desire to pursue influence over entertainment, we do agree that more voices should be heard in the Cultural Influence Professions rather than less. That is something the Entertainment-Industrial Complex does everything it can to avoid.

Big Hollywood : Joe Klein on 'Avatar': 'Americans Are the Bad Guys'

Fri, 8 Jan 2010 03:35:15 +0000

After reading your comment I started thinking about a story. What do you think of a collaboration? Drop me a line dpcrandall - at - gmail - dot - com

Big Hollywood : Joe Klein on 'Avatar': 'Americans Are the Bad Guys'

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 20:48:30 +0000

Some should snatch Cameron, and drop him in the middle of the Australian outback with nothing but a loin cloth, knife, ancient long bow, and a bundle of arrows and see how long he survives. Hollywood could turn it into the next Survivor series. No Blackberry. No internet. No fossil fuel powered vehicles to shuttle him from celebratory event to celebratory event. Let's see how long Cameron stands around worshiping nature when a salt water croc is dragging that flabby lib's butt into the swamp.

Big Hollywood : LA Times: 'The People Speak' Trashes WWII

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:48:51 +0000

I'm not at all surprised of this, especially after watching this 8 and a half minute video promoting Zinn's graphic novel "The People's History of American Empire" narrated by Viggo Mortenson. It's disgusting that these Hollywood ninnies mouth platitudes about the Greatest Generation and the war they fought against Nazi totalitarianism, then those imbecilic thespians go and embrace a guy who cannot distinguish between his fellow WWII era GI's and the goose-stepping Gestapo they fought against.

Big Hollywood : Latest NEA Controversy Isn't the First

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:20:13 +0000

"The right does not have to do anything." Brilliant... why didn't I think of that. Because for people who care about America's foundational values "not doing anything" - ignore the culture - attitude has been such a boon to the Culture over the past 50+ years. Where, exactly, has "not doing anything" been a successful strategy for anything? Should we do nothing about the war against Islamo-Nazism? If you read what I write as a call for conservatives to use gov't money to fund the arts, then I implore you to get your mind out of the political gutter. There is much more to life than politics. Imagine what the arts world might be if a fraction of the millions conservatives have funneled into AEI, Heritage, or CATO were used instead to fund arts institutions or to support filmmakers, writers, and others. Instead, to many conservatives take this head-in-the-sand attitude that the Cultural Influence Professions can be ignored. If that is the tack you want to take, then don't complain about what you get vis a vis politics. Politics follows culture.

Big Hollywood : Latest NEA Controversy Isn't the First

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:12:04 +0000

This post should be a reminder to its readers, especially those who long for a culture that promotes liberty and personal responsibility in America, where the Right went wrong in the so-called culture war. The NEA has long been an institution where the Left and the Right have, in a manner of speaking, exchanged blows in the battle of ideas. But it was a lopsided battle: The Left produced the art, and the Right produced speeches. That would be tantamount to Democrats passing legislation in response to which the Republicans wrote policy papers, but refused to produce alternative legislation. Rather than, or at the very least in addition to, attacking Serrano's, Maplethorpe's, et al work conservatives, libertarians, and anyone else who honors this nation's foundational values should have been hard at work funding and creating alternatives. Instead the Right dug into an ideological position from which it attacked the NEA and the work it was funding. This not only allowed people on the Right to be characterized as people who don't care about or are ignorant of the arts, when the truth is far different. Furthermore, young people who may have a passion for the arts and who also love the classical liberal ideas upon which America was founded were not supported in pursuing their passion. If, on the other hand, these young people wanted to pursue careers in public policy they found plenty of support and encouragement. All these years, folks who could have been making a difference in what The Culture Alliance refers to as the Cultural Influence Professions, i.e, arts, entertainment, education and journalism, were instead focusing their energies on attacking these professions. The result has been a culture that moved further and further left until it reached the point were it literally stood up and applauded when a radical leftist, with little experience, ran for and became America's 44th president. The solution to this is not to continue to remain on the attack. The solution is to support organizations that encourage and assist those who want to produce art and entertainment, who want to teach, who want to provide real journalism, and who also find value in a culture of liberty and personal responsibility. The Right must produce real alternatives in the arts and entertainment, not alternatives that simply promote a rival ideology to the leftist ideology the culture currently swims in. It must be an alternative the exposes the reality beneath the ideology. When the Right starts doing that, then the culture may once again be a place where America's foundational ideas are supported not held up for ridicule and disdain.

Big Hollywood : Barack Obama on Letterman

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:50:30 +0000

Just once I'd like to hear a Obama (D) react as strongly to the racist and ignorant blathering coming from his own Party, which he is the head of - I might add, with the same forcefulness and directness he directed at the millions of Americans who peaceably assembled in Washington DC, and throughout the nation, on Sept. 12. The comment quoted here is nothing but the President attempting to create space between himself and the foolish ex-peanut farmer from Georgia without actually distancing himself from the sentiment expressed.

Big Hollywood : Michael Moore: Artists Unite and 'Make the Country a Better Place'

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:09:01 +0000

How is it that Michael Moore understands what so much of the conservative movement seems to deny. Why aren't those who value liberty and personal responsibility building an organization that will work to get young people into the cultural influence professions? Actually, such an organization is being built. It is The Culture Alliance. I am its volunteer Director of Campus Programs, so, yes, I have a vested interest in promoting it. In addition to my own personal interest in the organization, I have as strong an interest in building a culture that promotes liberty and personal responsibility. I hope that those who stumble on my comment will go to TCA's website and become a member. It's free and you'll get TCA's Weekly Updates, which I also produce. We can do more than complain about the leftist domination of cultural influence professions. We can help and encourage young people who honor America's foundational values to get into the arts, entertainment, education and journalism. We have to start that work today.

Big Hollywood : Tea Parties: Protesting Government Excess

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:38:20 +0000

I stand corrected. So is Beck in DC?

Big Hollywood : Tea Parties: Protesting Government Excess

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:56:47 +0000

I'm kind of confused about something. Glenn Beck has been pushing the 912 March on Washington for months. And when it happens he goes to Illinois?

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 03:38:41 +0000

I'm really feeling the love in the idyllic post-racial America ushered in by the community organizer who doesn't "look like those guys on the dollar bill." Just let me know when the next two minute hate begins. I don't want to be late.

Big Hollywood : Drink My Red Blood!

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:53:42 +0000

The antique shop with the bat in "protective custody" - though who is protecting whom is open to question - I find more interesting than the kid obsessing over a vampire bat in a zoo. I can't quite tell if the shop owner is Renfield or Van Helsing. Though in Matheson's hands I'm sure the zoo bit works quite well.

Big Hollywood : Drink My Red Blood!

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:37:32 +0000

I enjoyed the short film. It makes me want to know about the shop keeper, who managed to keep Dracula locked away all these years. I really don't appreciate the trend of turning vampires into sympathetic characters and heroes. This turns morality on its head, and promotes that slavery to one's passions is a good thing. It is interesting that most people recognize the loss of humanity and degradation that occurs when following the base passions when this is represented in the werewolf. Tie these same ideas into the vampire story and suddenly a lot of creatives want to make turn the creature into a tragic hero. Despite the fact that the element of victimhood is present in both cases. In werewolf stories we all know that the creature has to be put down, otherwise death and destruction follows. Everyone works to make sure that happens. A lot of today's vampire stories want us to embrace the beast and ignore the dehumanization. Michael is right, modern vampire stories are a perfect example of Liberal ideology: Live for today. Follow your bliss. Embrace your animal nature. Despise the transcendent. Worship the immanent. An aside, I tried to watch True Blood, but lost all interest when I realized that it was going to be a sex-soaked, Republican bash fest, which did everything it could to inject foul language into as many scenes as possible. Why? Because its not TV, its HBO. Call me a prude if you like, but I couldn't find one redeeming value in it. My opinion: Don't waste your time.

Big Hollywood : The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:15:47 +0000

I don't know if I'd worry too much about a Republican administration using the NEA for nefarious conservative causes because Republicans haven't a clue as to how culture drives politics. Democrats understand this dynamic because the cultural influence professions are what they used to get themselves the keys to the kingdom. Republicans think that if you write fat checks to Heritage Foundation that great art, great films, great novels and serious journalism will fall to the earth like manna from heaven. Republicans would be scratching their heads, wondering why the NEA isn't making grants to AEI, Manhattan Institute or CATO, never realizing that some people don't see a treatise discussing Calvin Coolidge's domestic policies as art (though Manhattan produces a mighty fine journal with excellent contributions on art, not the least of which comes from Andrew Klavan). What Republicans might do is raise a fuss about the NEA's existence. They would properly raise some well reasoned arguments, supported by plenty of historical research that the NEA is beyond the Constitution's scope. Then they would be beat into submission by all the folks on the call Patrick wonderfully described, and they would crawl back into their legislative offices, go back to the AEI, Heritage & CATO conferences and keep the taxpayer's dollars flowing into art programs that depicted America's existence as a blight on the world. Now if folks saw a concerted effort by those who identify with the Republican banner actually engaging the cultural influence professions, i.e., arts, entertainment, education and journalism then the threat of Republican control of a propagandist NEA would have some teeth. Otherwise, it is just a silly joke and the Left knows it.

Big Hollywood : Box Office: The Virtues of 'Basterds'

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:00:30 +0000

I have not seen Inglorious Bastards (to site James Bowman: QT, Note SP). I feel drawn to this the same way one is drawn to a massive auto accident. A significant part of me wants to turn away from the gratuitous violence. Another part of me wants to slow down and stare. Currently, I'm listening more to the former than the latter. S.T.'s final sentence. made me think - what I would like to see is Tarantino create for television. If he is the great visual storyteller everyone says he is, then he certainly does not need the crutch of extreme violence and gore in order to create his art. Give Quentin a dramatic series a cable or broadcast television network (not HBO, Skin-amax, etc.). If on the other hand FCC television regulations would remove the thing that makes Tarantino a unique creative talent, then he can't be all he's cracked up to be.

Big Hollywood : Tarantino's Top Twenty Since 1992

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:19:42 +0000

Ignoring politics in one's work when one's work is not political in nature does not make one a conservative. If I did have to guess his political leanings, given the nihilism in his work and narcissism in his behavior, I would say he is a Left-leaning Libertine. And he is certainly no NRA supporter or believer in the 2nd Amendment. Here he is in a '94 Playboy interview: Playboy: Does the government have the right to tell citizens whether, they can own guns? Tarantino: I don't own a gun. But if gun control were to happen in America, I would have no problem with it whatsoever. Gun control would probably do wonders here. The street violence in America is horrific. When you go to Europe, you actually feel like you take a vacation from the threat of violence. Not that people don't get killed and raped in Europe, but it seems like they don't in comparison with here. But I also feel there's a slight hypocrisy about gun control. America was founded on people grabbing guns and just taking it. We are basically a nation of warriors. We're very easily pumped up. For good reasons, sometimes. The guy is so wrapped up in his own self-importance he doesn't have time to figure out what he believes.

Big Hollywood : New Trailer: 'The Wolfman'

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 22:55:16 +0000

Screw this trend for Vampire chic - bring on the Wolfman.

Big Hollywood : New Trailer: Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:55:15 +0000

Now that Moore's made his mock-umentary about the system that made him a wealthy filmmaker perhaps Sean Penn, Oliver Stone & Steven Spielberg can put together a sequel attacking the film industry's habit of paying millions to above the line talent.

Big Hollywood : âFamily Guyâ Taking Right Turn?

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:18:46 +0000

I loved that line about Family Guy being "Arguably a liberal leaning show." That's like saying CSI is "arguably a crime show," Battlestar Galactica is "arguably a science fiction show." and Michael Moore is "arguably a bit overweight."

Big Hollywood : Review: âDistrict 9â--An Alien Internment Camp?

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:15:38 +0000

JM, thank you for the response. I was a bit worried that there might be some kind of sucker punch in the film, and from what I gather in your comment that that isn't there. I entirely acknowledge that a creator can produce a work that was inspired entirely by his or her ideological perspective, and yet that same work uncovers a Truth that lies beneath that ideology. An example I always use is Neil Gaiman's short story, "Babycakes." I haven't seen District 9 yet so I can't say that that's Blomkamp does, but if what you say is accurate than perhaps he comes close.

DCrandall's Comments

Big Hollywood : 'Paranoid Elements Think Hollywood Has Proactive Agenda'

Big Hollywood : Joe Klein on 'Avatar': 'Americans Are the Bad Guys'

Big Hollywood : Joe Klein on 'Avatar': 'Americans Are the Bad Guys'

Big Hollywood : LA Times: 'The People Speak' Trashes WWII

Big Hollywood : Latest NEA Controversy Isn't the First

Big Hollywood : Latest NEA Controversy Isn't the First

Big Hollywood : Barack Obama on Letterman

Big Hollywood : Michael Moore: Artists Unite and 'Make the Country a Better Place'

Big Hollywood : Tea Parties: Protesting Government Excess

Big Hollywood : Tea Parties: Protesting Government Excess

Big Hollywood : True Colors: A Race Discussion With Isaiah Washington

Big Hollywood : Drink My Red Blood!

Big Hollywood : Drink My Red Blood!

Big Hollywood : The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?

Big Hollywood : Box Office: The Virtues of 'Basterds'

Big Hollywood : Tarantino's Top Twenty Since 1992

Big Hollywood : New Trailer: 'The Wolfman'

Big Hollywood : New Trailer: Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'

Big Hollywood : âFamily Guyâ Taking Right Turn?

Big Hollywood : Review: âDistrict 9â--An Alien Internment Camp?

Big Hollywood : âFamily Guyâ Taking Right Turn?

Big Hollywood : Review: âDistrict 9â--An Alien Internment Camp?