Change, Creativity and Creepy Hairstyles

The new era has officially begun. Barack Obama is the new President of the United States. I wonder if we'll start referring to him as "O." I don't know if there's been a LOT of change in the past four days, but I DO know that three major media outlets (two of them being the Associated Press and Reuters) are already pissed off at the big "O" because their news photographers were kept out of the Oval Office on the first day of the new presidency. Instead, the White House press office issued photos of Obama hard at work in the office. But the news outlets complain every other president let them in to take pictures and it's not like they're trying to take pictures of his private quarters or anything like that. Personally, I think they just wanted to be the first people to say they took a picture of the president's "O" face.

From O to Blag-O, Illinois Governor (for now) Rod Blagojevich heads to trial next week on accusations of fraud and corruption. He still contends he did nothing wrong, though there are phone tap recordings of Blagojevich trying to sell off President Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder. He also used a lot of...um...COLORFUL language. Blagojevich says he would have kept the language cleaner if he knew the government was listening in on his phone calls. WHAT? That defense makes about as much sense as him showing up to defend himself on a ridiculous TV show like "The View"...WHAT??? HE IS??? Yeah, apparently he's trying to book himself on Good Morning America and "The View" Monday morning. Let me tell you, I L-O-A-T-H-E Elisabeth Hasselbeck, but I hope she gets her conservative claws into his bleeping ass.

Let's wrap this up with the Oscars. Heath Ledger received a posthumous nomination for his role as The Joker in "The Dark Knight." It's the only nomination the movie got, and it's a classy move by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" got THIRTEEN noms. "Slumdog Millionaire" was also honored nine nominations, which is the first time I can recall that many nominations for a bollywood-style film. So, congratulations to the ORIGINAL films at the box office, as well as those films based on LITERARY WORKS. (For those of you not keeping track, "Benjamin Button" was a story written by "Great Gatsby" author F. Scott Fitzgerald) You'll note the absence of movies like "Halloween" and "Saw 5" from the nomination list. Hollywood has been obsessed with remakes and sequels for YEARS, and this year is no different. It's sad, really. Directors keep putting out trash that we've seen before, and yet we keep paying to see it. And we pass up the Oscar-nominated films. It's almost like the Oscar has become the award for the "Best Movie No One Paid To See."

Seriously, I read this week that some a-hole is doing a big-screen version of Tom and Jerry. Computer-animated cat and mouse, everything else is real. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? What is the market for that? Those of us who watched the cartoon as kids are too old now to really enjoy that (and hopefully too smart to take our own children).

So here's the bottom line...Hollywood has for years...and will continue to...put that kind of trash on the big screen. You know why? Because we pay for it. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" was the top movie at the box office. Anyone see the trailers for that movie? Kevin James as a mall security guard who saves the day. Funny that production on the film was announced just a few months after my friend Martin pitched his TV show idea to some network execs in Vegas. It was called "Mall Police." At least one of the characters got around using a Segway. I don't want to suggest that Happy Madison ripped off his TV idea...but I'm not going to that movie.

Anyway, back to the point. Movies continue to play to the lowest common denominator. People apparently don't want to have to think at the theater. I make this plea...don't stop watching the crap movies, but for every, say, 3 crap movies you pay $10 a head to see, could you please see ONE critically-acclaimed movie? Much like a good book, you might be surprised to find something you're interested in. I suggest "Frost/Nixon." You can watch it before the upcoming remake of...wait, are you shitting me...FRIDAY THE 13TH??? Dammit.
-B-