The View From My Ass. My Home State, My Father, My Breibart, My God!!

March is here! And it came in like a...Well it came in closer to lamb than to a lion I'll put it that way. Still the wind kept it from being as nice as a 52 degree sunshiny day can be. And tomorrow it's suppose to rain and maybe drop a flake. SO MAYBE we won't wake up on March 29th to 15 inches of snow. But then again by Tuesday it's suppose to be 62 so maybe we will. Either way this has been an unbelievably mild winter in these parts. Maybe the mildest I can ever remember.

Today...well yesterday now, my state turned 145 years old. I was born in Nebraska, lived all of my life sans 4 years in Nebraska, I suspect I'll die in Nebraska and I know i'll be buried in Nebraska. In fact i think the plot's already there though I'll have to ask about that to be sure. And though i don't agree with the states politics much I love living in Nebraska. Still I never fail to marvel at the constant identity crises this state continues to create for itself and fight at the same time. Nebraskans hate and I mean HATE being labeled hicks yet they've made Larry The Cable Guy The State Symbol. The Largest newspaper in the state, which serves a metropolitan area of 900,000 people gives large spaces in the news and sports sections to a joke teller whose work is about on par with Peggy Hill's musings column in the Arlan Bystander but hey he used to be a joke writer for Jay Leno and he lives in Omaha. His jokes are painfully not funny and it just makes the paper look poor. It's the kind of crap you would expect to find in the York News-Times and not a paper that boasts having "the second-highest percentage of people within a home circulation area compared with other major metropolitan newspapers in the United States" But it's not out a character with either Omaha or Nebraska. This state, and this city in particular loves to hire people whose abilities barely qualify them to do political forums on Monroe Louisiana public access and give them 65 different jobs in the media.

Case in point. Travis Justice. Sportscaster, talks show host on radio, host of late night groovy movie, high school mascot, announcer for Creighton and finally political commentator. And guess what? Travis sucked at EVERYTHING he did. OK maybe did OK hosting late night groovy movie theater but that was it. Today the only job he's got is calling (very poorly) Creighton games. The New Travis Justice is Mike'l (yes that's how his name is spelled) Severe. Severe was a reporter on the morning news, wearing heavy coats on 75 degree mornings, a moderator on a political show where he played a Black Alan Colmes, a sports radio talk show host, a color analyst for Nighthawks games (he never played football) and get this a food critic for the Omaha World Herald. That's right somebody who's "expertize" talking about a sport he never played is the food critic for the largest newspaper in the state. I've never read his work as a food critic though maybe he's finally found a job he's good at. Let's see what the people are saying...

"So this is the new OWH format.  100 monkeys with 100 typewriters.  I guess eventually we will get a decent review.  Not that it even matters.  The Herald has decided that restaurants in Omaha are a joke and don't need any coverage.  This GARBAGE of unqualified jerk offs writing in some meaningless column that the paper can't even fake to care about is intolerably insulting.  STOP READING THE PAPER.  STOP BUYING IT.  STOP ADVERTISING IN IT.  It is obvious to everyone with a brain that the The World Herald is insufferably ill equipped to find writers let alone editors that any more interested in the subject than the readers become disinterested in reading it.  Ugh. What a waste."

Guess not. But welcome to Omaha, Nebraska where we have no clue what is we want to be we just so long as make sure that we suck at being it.

As I write this it is currently 35 degrees outside which is about as cold as it's going to get. A far cry from March 1st 2007. My Father's wish was to have Lara's theme played at his funeral a request my Mother always balked at because "you'll die in the spring and the snow reference will make no sense" Well on the day of his visitation was on a Wednesday and we were suppose to get a Blizzard. It never came. The weathermen said the snow missed us and we dodged a bullet. On Friday morning his funeral the snow came in and it snowed, and snowed and snowed and snowed. He damn well made sure Lara's theme was going to fit. I remember the nearly indescribable feeling I had at his passing, like I was wondering through a dream that I had no control over, everything around me just being a haze. That feeling I guess is what is keeping me from being too vitriolic about the Death of Andrew Breitbart.

I have nothing good to say about the man at all but the feeling a family must have to lose their Husband, Father, friend, suddenly at that young of an age must be awful. I know how I felt losing a Father 25 years older and having seen him cease to be the person he was. When I lost my Father he was in a state where he wasn't living any more. I had begun to pray for a quick and speedy end. I didn't want to see my Father linger any longer in the form he was in. The last thing I said to him was "Thank You" To this day I have not fully come to terms with no longer wanting my Father to linger in what was his present earthly state. I still feel a quilt for praying for a merciful end to my Fathers life. As hard as it was I had 3 months to ready myself and come to terms with the passing of My Father Andrew Breitbart's children and wife never got that time and that is truly a tragedy. Nothing else about his death, to me at least qualifies or even comes close.

I close with this for my Father...




KTF
Count Istvan
Stephen

Andrew Breitbart - 1969-2012

The old saying goes, "If you don't have anything good to say about a person, then don't say anything at all." Yet there are a handful of times where a person's death isn't all that sad (Names like the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, and Osama Bin Laden immediately come to mind). Andrew Breitbart, in my mind, is an exception to this rule. While I do offer my condolences to the parents, wife, and four children he left behind and I will not say he deserved to die from natural causes, i'm not going to shed any tears over his death. Breitbart was an asshole masquerading as a journalist; a jerkoff who twisted the facts to fit his viewpoints and ruined a few careers wile doing it. From Shirley Sherrod to spitting on Ted Kennedy's corpse on Twitter, the man was an unpleasant, mean-spirited creep.

Edit From The Count: It speaks volumes that the first reaction to his death was yeah right another publicity stunt. This man has destroyed lives with his lies. As I said elsewhere. 2 deaths in the last 2 days, both small people. One in stature only, the other in every way imaginable. 

Michigan and Arizona Primaries Go Ricky! Go Ricky!

 

Edit From The Count: Mitt "My Wife drives a couple of Caddies" Romney goes 2 for 2.

What College Made You A Snob?

Edit by ET to add...

President Obama Wants Everybody To Go To College...

What A Snob!

 

Went to college and has 3 degrees! Not one in common sense.

Oscars Open Thread.

This is the open thread for the big show. Discuss here!

Late Edit (6:38 PT): shows how much I know. Hugo has won four awards: Cinematography, Art Direction, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, Dragon Tattoo wins Film Editing. The Artist has Costume Design. Billy Crystal is ok. Not killing it, but way better than James Franco and Anne Hathaway last year. Happy that Octavia Spencer won Best Supporting Actress.

Late Edit (7:37 PT): Nice to see that the Academy could screw Harry Potter one last time. To put this in perspective: 15 nominations over the past 10 years = 0 wins. Thanks, Academy.  Also, if I ever age as gracefully as Christopher Plummer and win some huge award, that would be freaking awesome. Hugo continues its run, winning Visual Effects, while The Artist takes Score. Descendants wins Adapted Screenplay, while Woody Allen wins Original Screenplay. As usual, he's too cool to be there.

Late Edit (8:45 PT): The Artist wins Best Actor, Director, and Best Picture tonight. If you still haven't watched this terrific film, please do so. It is one of the best experiences i've ever had at the movies in years. Also: was I right, or was I right about Meryl winning Best Actress? She now ties Jack Nicholson for most wins by an Actor or Actress in Oscar history. I'll post the final tally later tonight. Final thoughts should be in by tomorrow morning. 

Late Edit (9:11 PT): The final tally (Hat tip to Awards Daily.com)...

• Best Picture: The Artist
  
• Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
  
• Best Actress: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
  
• Best Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
• Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help
  
• Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
  
• Best Original Screenplay: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
  
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne & Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants
• Best Foreign Language Film: Iran, A Separation
  
• Best Documentary Feature: TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay & Richard Middlemas, Undefeated
  
• Best Animated Feature: Gore Verbinski, Rango
  
• Best Cinematography: Robert Richardson, Hugo
  
• Best Film Editing: Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  
• Best Art Direction: Dante Ferretti & Francesca Lo Schiavo, Hugo
  
• Best Costume Design: Mark Bridges, The Artist
  
• Best Original Score: Ludovic Bource, The Artist
  
• Best Sound Editing: Philip Stockton & Eugene Gearty, Hugo
  
• Best Sound Mixing: Tom Fleischman  &  John Midgley, Hugo
  
• Best Visual Effects: Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman & Alex Henning, Hugo
  
• Best Makeup: Mark Coulier  &  J. Roy Helland, The Iron Lady
  
• Best Documentary Short: Daniel Junge & Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Saving Face
  
• Best Animated Short: William Joyce & Brandon Oldenburg, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
  
• Best Live Action Short: Terry George & Oorlagh George, The Shore
  
• Best Original Song: Bret McKenzie, Man or Muppet, The Muppets

Edit From The Count (11:50 CT) Ed Cunningham won an Oscar That is beyond What the fuck. Haven't seen it, never will, don't need to. I know the Son of a bitches' work as a color analyst in college football. He's terrible. No actually he is worse than that. I wonder if he demanded everybody in the theater be thrown out.

Jonathan Goes To the Movies: Oscar Pick-Em

It's Oscar night, folks! Tonight is the night where Hollywood's biggest stars come out to celebrate the best (and most mediocre) films that came out last year. Here's my guide on who's nominated, the state of the race going into Sunday, who will win, who should win on Hollywood's biggest stage.

Best Picture:

The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud, & Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight In Paris

Moneyball

The Tree of Life

War Horse

The Lowdown: You may notice that there are only 9 films on here - this is thanks to the new rule the Academy laid out earlier last year, where they changed the list on nominees yet again from anywhere between 5 to 10. This year, all the signs point to The Artist, the black-and-white silent film about a silent movie star fading into obscurity with the rise of the Talkies, dominating on Oscar night. It won Best Picture for a Musical/Comedy at the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice Awards, and the Producer's Guild of America Award for Best Picture. Oh, and the critics are madly in love the movie. How can it not lose? 

The Winner Is... The Artist. There's simply no stopping this juggernaut.

The Winner Should Be...Save Extremely Loud and its shameless exploitation of a national tragedy for ethos, The Tree of Life and its pretentious 139 minute run time,  War Horse and Spielberg's heavy-handed attempt to pull the audience's heartstrings, and The Help sticking to the shallows instead of going head-first into a unapologetic look at racism in the South, I don't have a problem with the other movies winning the top prize.

Best Director:
Woody Allen; Midnight In Paris
Michael Hazanavicius; The Artist
Terrence Malick; The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne; The Descendants
Martin Scorsese; Hugo

The Lowdown: Not really much of a race this time. Cancel out Malick's pretentious work, Allen's charming and beautiful sweeping romantic comedy, and Payne's strongest outing to date and we're left with Scorsese, who won the Directing prize for The Departed in 2006, and he won the Globe for Hugo back in January, and Hazanavicius, who won the Director's Guild, and the BAFTA for Achievement in Direction a few weeks back.


The Winner Is...Hazanavicius. He's got the hardware so far, and we haven't had a foreign filmmaker win the Directing prize since Ang Lee with Brokeback Mountain in 2005. 

The Winner Should Be...Scorsese. The world's finest filmmaker embraces cinema's newest form of visual storytelling and crafts a compelling love letter to the beginning of moving pictures as only a master storyteller can craft.

Best Actor:
Demián Bichir; A Better Life
George Clooney; The Descendants
Jean Dujardin; The Artist
Gary Oldman; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt; Moneyball

The Lowdown: One upon a time, George Clooney was the odds-on favorite for his performance as a detached father bringing his family together despite personal tragedy, infidelity, and a decision about land and money in The Descendants. Then The Artist was released, and the Awards circuit fell for Jean Dujardin's performance as George Valentin, the silent film star and his decent into obscurity after the rise of the Talkies, winning awards at SAG, the Globes, and BAFTA. It's hardware and momentum vs...George freakin' Clooney. 

The Winner Is...Dujardin. Again, this is building into a total sweep. 


The Winner Should Be...Brad Pitt. This is his most mature performance to date, and his best as manager Billy Beane, defying the old ways of building a baseball team.


Best Actress:
Glenn Close; Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis; The Help
Rooney Mara; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep; The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams; My Week with Marilyn

The Lowdown: In this corner: 17-time nominated and 2-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep. Her performance as Britain's first female PM Margaret Thatcher reminded all why she's one of the great actors of our generation. And in the other corner: 2-time Oscar nominee Viola Davis. her captivating role as a maid in Jackson, Mississippi in The Help, has to be the strongest performance to dare from her. Meryl's got the Globes and BAFTA, Davis has the SAG for best Actress and critical support behind her. In this battle of  acting heavyweights, it's anyone's game.

The Winner Is...Meryl Streep. Sorry Viola, but Meryl's got the upper hand here in being an Oscar favorite, and it's been too long since we seen her onstage.

The Winner Should Be...Rooney Mara. She delivered the best performance this year as troubled hacker Lisbeth Salander, lacing sorrow and menace and brief moments of happiness to a dark, tormented character. 

Best Supporting Actor:
Kenneth Branagh; My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill; Moneyball
Nick Nolte; Warrior
Christopher Plummer; Beginners
Max Von Sydow; Extremely Loud, & Incredibly Close

The Lowdown: I can easily sum up, in a few sentences, the state of this race: You could get most of your picks wrong, you'll still have at least one right: Plummer winning Best Supporting Actor for his role as a man coming out after his wife died in Beginners. He's won all the big awards this year, and there's no one who's even a threat of challenging him.

The Winner Is...see above.

The Winner Should Be...Albert Brooks or Alan Rickman...wait, they're not nominated, and it's a damn shame as well. Brooks ditches the deadpan humor and goes into tough, frighting mode as a L.A.'s mob boss in Drive, and Rickman steals the show as Snape, as he reveals his true nature, and his tortured, grieving heart in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II. Two excellent performances that got shortchanged by the Academy.

Best Supporting Actress:
Bérénice Bejo; The Artist
Jessica Chastain; The Help
Melissa McCarthy; Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer; Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer; The Help 

The Lowdown: Again, not really a lowdown since Spencer has won all the major Awards during the lead up to tonight. The only reason this isn't over, IMO, is that The Artist is in this category, and if i've learned anything, it's to never underestimate Bob and Harvey Weinstein.

The Winner Is...Bejo as my wildcard pick of the night, because of the weight behind her.


The Winner Should Be...Octavia Spencer. Easily the best job of the five nominated this year as the sassy Minny Jackson.

Wil Focks Knews Covarage Kil You're Brane Sells?

Feminism...the Radical Notion that Women are People

(title attribution to Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler)

OK, I know it's not an oft-discussed topic here at BAD, but I have to take advantage of the Count's generosity in sharing this soapbox to simply say it very directly, during this silliest of silly seasons in US politics. What about 51% of the population (for you businesspeople, that's a controlling interest) is not understood? From which backward and unholy cesspool has this War On Women bubbled up to the surface of the GOP dialogue?

Mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds - what we used to call non-consensual, forcible penetration; or, more colloquially, "rape" - positively embraced in principle, and backed away from only minutely and at the last minute, in Virginia. The marginalizing of women's health issues in the form of a fresh assault on birth control, coupled with the utter travesty of a panel of men testifying largely to other men on the issue (and the GOP-controlled House is refusing, with blatant hypocrisy and in unprecedented style, to broadcast footage of a Democratic hearing finally giving Sandra Fluke her day at the microphone - I suppose it will be a wonder if they don't cut the electrical power entirely). It's a laughable picture tantamount to a bunch of non-driving pedestrians holding forth on matters of automobile maintenance. Continuing efforts to abrogate women's ability to control their own reproductive destinies in multiple states. The looming danger that contraception apparently represents by its mere existence, in the form that sexual intercourse might - gasp! - be engaged in just because, you know, it's enjoyable. All capped by the bizarre spectacle of an Indiana legislator refusing to commemorate the Girl Scouts' 100th anniversary, for crap's sake, on the grounds that he thinks those adorable cookie-wielding Daisies and Brownies are closeted radicals intent on emasculating American manhood and unleashing the gay agenda. Because he read it on teh Innertubes, and everyone knows how completely authoritative and accurate whatever you encounter on the Internet is. (Consider the sad case of that Nigerian Prince, for instance...)

Are these candidates - Santorum in particular, who seemingly would like to return us to the 17th century and witch hunts for anybody who, you know, might think that preserving the Earth for future generations is a good idea - really going there? To points of view that marginalize the privileges of basic citizenship and human rights for more than half the population? Or, more to the point of their own self-interest, to alienate as much as half of their potential voting base?

Not only does this seem to me to be a stupid strategy overall, but creeping every day so much further and further to the most remote right-wing fringes as to be completely untenable for anybody with half a brain cell to spare.

Go re-read Margaret Atwood's depressingly prescient novel The Handmaid's Tale, everyone. And then tell me it can't happen in the US. The signage is on the roads already being trod.

In the meantime, I thank my lucky stars my daughter and I are here in Canada, where she has the right to protect her health as she sees fit; love and marry whom she wants, if she wants; and where her freedom of conscience guarantees that she need never submit to anyone else's set of beliefs and strictures. Because the way the dialogue is going down there in the lower 48, I wouldn't want her there for an instant.

Republican Debate Thread

You can knock twitter all you want to but it's never better than when Republicans are debating. Others watch these train wrecks so you don't have to. Anyway any thoughts at all on this mess go here.

Purdue 83 Nebraska 65

Nebraska basketball once again fails to Impress Malachy