gdp's Comments

Big Hollywood : Open Thread Tuesday

Wed, 5 Aug 2009 13:44:36 +0000

Heh. Yeah, I guess so. <G>

Big Hollywood : Open Thread Tuesday

Tue, 4 Aug 2009 22:33:41 +0000

I did standup a few times. It was fun. I asked my girlfriend at the time if she thought I should take a more serious crack at it, and she said "No." I asked why not. "Because you're actually funny. Standups aren't actually funny. It would confuse people, and you wouldn't make a dime at it." Stupidly I listened to her, and she took up with a plumber's assistant from Hoboken.

Big Hollywood : Open Thread Tuesday

Tue, 4 Aug 2009 19:37:56 +0000

That was surprisingly funny. A lot of these kinds of things aren't really all that funny, but a progressively drunker president spilling beers on everyone and singing dinosaur rock and ripping his shirt off and profusely apologizing to his wife for no reason, that was just golden. It's a shame Gerald Ford didn't live to see this.

Big Hollywood : Open Thread Tuesday

Tue, 4 Aug 2009 17:55:14 +0000

Though they were an undeniably liberal band, Oingo Boingo had a number of surprisingly right wing songs that never ceased to get them pilloried by the lockstep liberals in the Kalifornia Uber Alles set. Here's one of my favorite examples of this: There's nothing wrong with Capitalism There's nothing wrong with free enterprise Don't try to make me feel guilty I'm so tired of hearing you cry There's nothing wrong with making some profit If you ask me I'll say it's just fine There's nothing wrong with wanting to live nice I'm so tired of hearing you whine About the revolution Bringin' down the rich When was the last time you dug a ditch, baby! ---Capitalism by Oingo Boingo (1981) Full lyrics here http://www.musicsonglyrics.com/O/oingoboingolyric... and later on in the same song, they nail it home:

Big Hollywood : 'Torchwood': Pro-American TV -- From the BBC

Sun, 2 Aug 2009 13:26:13 +0000

Here's the thing I've never quite gotten about the British: They're terrified - or at least their media is - with becoming a fascist dictatorship. This makes no sense to me: Firstly, the British have *never* been fascist, nor even terribly close to being fascist. I'll admit their empire was fairly draconian in some of its territories at some points, but it was never like that at home, and really the British did more for the spread of democracy than anyone excepting the United States. I understand that 'The price of liberty is eternal vigilance,' but this seems overboard. It's like a rock star having sex with a different supermodel every night, then worrying about being gay over breakfast. So why the continual freaking out about being one heartbeat away from fascism? What am I missing here?

Big Hollywood : 'Torchwood': Pro-American TV -- From the BBC

Sun, 2 Aug 2009 13:21:00 +0000

That was weird, wasn't it? I can only assume it was because that movie came out when Clinton was president, and his public opinion perhaps wasn't as great as he thought it was. <G>

Big Hollywood : 'Torchwood': Pro-American TV -- From the BBC

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:38:28 +0000

@ Mike Kriskey: >>No later "Doctors" may be considered, as they are clearly impostors. The real Doctor wouldn't shag his assistant. << What about Rommanna? Clearly Doctor #4 and her were an item. I don't think he did, to be honest. The Season 4 finale ends with a torturously awkward scene - deliberately so - in which The Doctor can't bring himself to say "I love you" to rose, while his human-bodied clone can do it with no difficulty. The very strong implication I took from that - and I think it was deliberate - is that the doctor is not sexually compatable with humans, even though he looks it. Pheremones are wrong, or maybe the plumbing is wrong, I dunno, but I got the very strong impression that The Doctor never slept with any of his companions (Excepting Rommanna, of course)

Big Hollywood : 'Torchwood': Pro-American TV -- From the BBC

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:51:55 +0000

Our TV industry claims to be all edgy and stuff, but no American show would ever portray the US Government in such a way, we would never even think to do so simply because, no matter how annoyed we get with the system, or how misguided we think it might be on occasion, at root we still all believe in it. Not even the most gibbering of Michael Moore-styled schizophrenics would think to portray it thusly, and if by some fever dream they did, there's literally several armies of studios and producers and directors - all of whom consider themselves liberals - who would prevent it from ever being filmed. I don't pretend to know what to make of that, but there it is. So, Mr. Scott, what were your thoughts on the brief American Military Dictatorship that was in charge of the UK in the last two episodes of "Children of Earth?"

Big Hollywood : 'Torchwood': Pro-American TV -- From the BBC

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:51:45 +0000

I'll tell you what really surprised me about this miniseries, though: the amazingly totally vicious way they tore in to their own government. Granted, it was a fictional administration, but still - our media here in the US prides itself on it's paranoia and cynicism of anything related to government, and yet nothing I've seen in a lifetime of American TV has come close to equalling the openly-evil portrayal of the British Government. It was truely amazing, particularly since the BBC is a wholly-owned government corporation.

Big Hollywood : 'Torchwood': Pro-American TV -- From the BBC

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:51:30 +0000

I dunno. The show was really weak in it's first season, somewhat better, but still not really solid in it's second, and this miniseries/series finale they just aired was undeniably fantastic, but I felt like the show never quite understood what it wanted to be. On the one hand, it was like a gay Captain Scarlet, on the other it was didactic as hell, really pushing the "It's ok to be gay" thing hard.