The Chronic of Narnia

I saw this SNL digital short film a weekend or two ago when it was broadcast, and I liked it; I found it online, and thought I'd share. Enjoy!

[EDIT:Had to update this since NBC's made it available on their own website and requested it deleted from YouTube.com!] - Lazy Sunday

Merry Christmas To All

And a lovely Christmas morning I'm waking up to - temperatures in the upper 40s, expected to get up to the low 70s today. Just about right for Christmas Day, although I could probably go for it being a little colder. Coffee and cocoa tastes better when there's a chill in the air. Jo-Ann's up in Marshall at her sister's with Kandra and Quentin; Tina & Melvin are (supposedly) over in Lake Charles and maybe Marxville doing the casinos, but I'll stop over by their place and see if Carla and the kids are around; I want to get a few more photos if I can (I don't have any of Carla or her kids yet, except for Kayla). I sent Rika and Chris some of the photos I took before, like I'd promised them; hope they like 'em, not sure if I'll see either of them though. I wonder if Kenny'll be around or if he went to his folks' place (or worse, is working). I'm not expecting much; should be a pretty quiet day, actually.

Ohh-wee-ohh! Yohhh-oh!

Is it just coincidence that Bush's address to the nation happened to be on the 4 major networks at the same time as the WB's presentation of The Wizard of Oz?

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain", indeed.

Say, is he telling us how many brain cells he has left in that picture?

Scientists find a DNA change that accounts for white skin

The Washington Post (and most of the newswire services) carried an OUTSTANDING story this week that states that scientists have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that accounts for white skin in humans.

Just go read it. It's long, but you NEED to read it. All of it. Entirely. Take your time. It's important to read.

Me, my honky ass is tickled pink to hear about it.

Is 'King Kong' Racist?

Matt Drudge, of all people, asks a rather intriguing question, one I hadn't really considered before and would have laughed off, but which I now have to admit is very thought-provoking and probably accurate, whether intentional or not: Is King Kong Racist?

I don't think it's one of those questions that, once thoughtfully considered, can really be answered with any real certainty one way or the other. I think that the story is certainly a product of its time, a time which was deeply imbued with racism, not that today isn't, but one in which racist ideas were given much more validity by the mainstream than they are today.

Angela Davis Speaks on Stan 'Tookie' Williams' Execution - The Democracy Now Interview

Haven't been listening to Democracy Now as much as I was a few months ago, but I happened to check it this morning and noticed Tuesday's show had an interview with prison activist, professor, and former Black Panther Angela Davis, who I'm kind of a fan of.

As far as Stan "Tookie" Williams' execution, I wasn't in support of it. I'm less and less in agreement with the notion of the state carrying out executions overall, because it doesn't really solve anything and it's hypocritical of the state to claim the moral high ground by making murder illegal but state murder legal. Killing's still killing. Death is still death. Sure, heinous crimes must be punished in order to have justice, but I just don't agree with the notion of the state carrying out executions. Killing Stan Williams (he preferred not to be called "Tookie" in his final years) doesn't really satisfy anything - it doesn't bring the victims of the crimes he was convicted of back (crimes that he went to his grave denying he carried out, which may or may not have been true - I don't really know, but it's certainly possible) , it's not really a deterrent to crime, and in this particular case, it silenced a voice that advocated nonviolence and turning away from gangs.

Clearly, Schwarzenegger and his Republican masters don't WANT young people, particularly young Black and Hispanic males, turning away from gangs and living nonviolent, productive lives, because if they do that in large enough numbers, pretty soon the corrections industry will have nobody left to process, cage, make money off, and then terminate when they're no longer useful to them.

Anyway, Angela Davis, like always, nails it spot-on. The interview with her is definitely worth listening to.

Bush says Iraq invasion was his responsibility

Well this was an interesting surprise to read.

Of course, he had to temper it all by cluttering it up with his tired old bullshit, but I guess that's to be expected. Just unbelievable that he actually thinks he's actually got any face left to save. In the category of "President Who Has Caused the Most Eyes to Roll Around in American History", ol' Smirky wins by a landslide.

Paramount buying DreamWorks SKG - End of a Brief Dream

From Reuters -

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures on Sunday said it has agreed to buy DreamWorks SKG Inc., the movie studio co-founded by director Steven Spielberg, for $1.6 billion, including debt assumption.

Paramount said the deal gives it DreamWorks' current projects, including Spielberg movie "Munich," part of future films from the iconic director, and worldwide distribution rights for movies from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., maker of computer animated movies like smash hit "Shrek."

Paramount further said it is in "advanced discussions" to sell off DreamWorks' 59-title film library shortly after it closes the deal to buy Glendale, California-based DreamWorks.

The deal marks the end of independence for one of Hollywood's major film studios, DreamWorks, which was founded 11 years ago by Spielberg, music mogul David Geffen and movie executive Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Apparently the massive failure of Michael Bay's The Island is a big reason why the studio had to go on the auction block, at least financially speaking. I'm sure that Bay is pretty much persona non grata in many circles in Tinseltown now.

Newsweek spreads the blame around, though, and actually in a very sensible manner. Considering that Spielberg has gotten his calls returned lickity-split by just about everyone in the business for pretty much the last quarter century, I always wondered why he opted to start his own studio in the first place. Katzenberg, I can understand, TOTALLY (especially after reading Kim Masters' Keys to the Kingdom), and I always sorta figured Geffen was just along for the ride. I kinda have a feeling that none of the three are really too broken up over this turn of events.

Still, I wonder if Paramount will still keep the Dreamworks name and logo as is, or just incorporate Dreamworks films into the Paramount fold. I'm hoping that Dreamworks becomes to Paramount what UA became to MGM (and what MGM has become now to Sony), rather than becoming the Cannon or Orion of the 90s and 00s.

New Hariri Report Implicates Syria in Assassination

More joy in the Middle East -

New Hariri report 'blames Syria'

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has received the second report into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The report is said to detail Syria's alleged role in the murder.

It comes days after United Nations investigator Detlev Mehlis's team questioned five Syrian officials.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed again on Sunday that he would punish any Syrian involved in the murder plot.

Damascus has strongly denied involvement in the car bomb which killed Hariri in February.

But an interim UN report in December has already implicated Syrian officials.

Greaaaaat. Any guess as to where the troops will go next? It's like a parlor game - will they go to Iran next, or Syria? Keep your eye on the ball, ladies and gentlemen, the hand is quicker than the eye! Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

RIP Richard Pryor, 1940-2005

Richard Pryor, who'd been suffering from multiple sclerosis for many years, died late Friday or early Saturday of a heart attack. So now one of the true kings of comedy, and a genuine pioneer, has passed into greatness. And he'd just had a birthday, too. What a bummer.

I called over to Tina's yesterday with the news; Carla answered, and she gasped. I called Jo-Ann shortly after that, and she was a bit bummed hearing about it, but didn't seem very surprised. Besides, her grandson Phat-Phat was driving her nuts as usual, playing with some candle and getting into the cat's food dish. It was funny to hear her chat with me and then suddenly shout out to the kid to stop doing something. What really made me laugh was when she said her son Quentin had dropped the phone into the toilet a few days before and she had to get a new one. I mean, what the hell is Quentin doing with the phone around the toilet that he's dropping it in?

Been making a lot of updates here....

For those of you who actually read my blog (and you're out there), you may notice a number of changes, particularly the Google search bar and the various ads and blog tracker doodads on the right hand side, as well as the reformatting of my many links. I also updated the subtitle of the blog, since the previous one wasn't really all that descriptive.

Well, now I got something to be thankful for.....

I had to go to the nearby county court for jury duty today at 1 pm, which I wasn't really looking forward to (especially the day before Thanksgiving), and I lucked out. Not only did I not get picked - nobody who showed up got picked. Turns out that this morning there were 246 cases that could have gone to a jury trial, but apparently they all knew we were coming at 1, and none - NONE - of them chose to go to trial. So we all got sent home, all of us who showed up will get paid our $6 check in the mail (not bad for 5 minutes of sitting), and to top it all off, none of us had to pay for parking like we would at one of the municipal courts downtown.

WHEW. That takes care of that! I'm just jazzed I didn't have to serve. Yippee!