Sunday, February 3, 2013

Did you know that almost 40 percent of Americans who watch the Super Bowl tune in as much for the commercials as they do for the game? At the cost of a million or more to produce and about $4 million to put on-the-air, corporate execs have just 30 seconds to make their commercial a memorable experience or an opportunity to go drain the lizard. And the psychological dope is, there’s only a five second window to take their best shot before you’re off to microwave up another batch of your patent recipe of  Five Alarm Chili Nachos With Velveeta.

So, sometimes when I’m lucky I turn on the tube and with minimal surfing I find the perfect program to satisfy my LearnSomethingNewToday gland. Found just that on, of all places, The Lifetime Channel (ugh!). Betty & Coretta was a perfect gem of a flick chronicling the relationship between the two women whose husbands had become monumental icons in the Civil Rights Movement, only to be gunned down by their detractors. Mary J. Blige as Betty Shabazz and screen veteran actress Angela Bassett as Coretta Scott King, gave me a glimpse of the powerful wives behind the martyred heroes. Their intimate friendship and valiant determination to continue the important work that their husbands gave their lives for, invigorated as well as saddened me at the same time. Narrated by the phenomenal Ruby Dee Davis, I couldn’t ask for a better chick flick. There aren’t many people who’d have the courage these two couples had in the midst of this country’s ugliest period.

Which leads me to Dr. Cornel West and his latest bitch fest regarding President Obama. West is now saying that he didn’t think it appropriate for the President to use the Bible of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for his second swearing in as President of the United States of America (C”mon! A Black male is President of the United States Cornell, dang! If only at face value that alone is worth a bit more deference from you). West says “President Obama’s actions as president are in direct contradiction to the principles and beliefs of Dr. King,”  and says he speaks for the people of the movement that Dr. King was borne out of. Can I just quote something here for a minute…lemme see…oh, here it is:

“We know our father would be deeply moved to see President Obama take the oath of office using his Bible. His traveling Bible inspired him as he fought for freedom, justice and equality, and we hope it can be a source of strength for the president as he begins his second term.”

This is from King’s surviving children in a statement to the inaugural committee. Give it a rest West. Despite what you may think of Obama as president, as a Man, with a wife and two daughters whose lives are threatened everyday on the regular by haters, you’ve got to admire the courage and fortitude of his convictions to sign up for this job, twice!  BTW, Obama also used the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln’s travelling Bible, for his first and second inaugurations…got a problem with that?

Remember the story about that husband whose photo journalist wife was missing in Turkey? Unfortunately they found her dead. Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old mother of two, was last heard from on Jan. 21, the day she was due to board her flight back home. Her body was discovered last night near some ancient Turkish ruins. She had been stabbed and bludgeoned to death reports said. Ladies, please protect yourselves when travelling alone, anywhere. No suspects arrested yet. She had a 9 and 11 y.o.

Wtf!? Burger King just admitted that it was possible some of their burgers may have contained horse meat!  Well– the burgers in the U.K. and Ireland BKs anyway. Hey, to each his own.
I understand that such things as horse meat and scorpion eggs are delicacies in some countries, but to America’s BK: You will notify us if our menus were to take such a drastic change, won’t you?

Republican Chuck Hagel’s hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee last Thursday was ree…dic…u…lous!  The senators conducting the hearing asked the most absurd questions that embarrassed me to think other countries were tuning in as well. And Hagel seemed like he just woke up, jumped into his waiting Lincoln Town Car and got briefed by the limo driver, without his coffee; black no sugar. You don’t get the full gist of the circus atmosphere til you’ve actually sat down and read the transcript. Three of my favorites stoopid questions were:

1. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-CT: I would like a commitment that you are committed as well to a fleet of twelve Ohio-class replacement submarines.

2. Senator Roger Wicker, R-MS: You have corrected the term Jewish lobby. And I assume the correct term now is Israel lobby or Israeli lobby. Do you still stand by your statement that they succeed in this town because of intimidation, and that it amounts to causing us to do dumb things?

3. Senator Joe Donnelly, D-IN: When we were together, I mentioned to you my visit to Crane Surface Warfare Systems, in Indiana. What they do is they work to create the technologies to control the spectrum, in effect try to win the battlefield before the battle starts on the ground. And so, we were wondering, what can be done, in this time of challenging budgets, that in the area of technology, in the area of spectrum, we can maintain our budget so that, as I said, before the war is ever started on the ground we have won it on the spectrum level?

Did they really think that Hagel would respond to these questions in a manner that may be detrimental to his appointment?  Hagel “hemenna-hemenna-aaahhhh-urrr-eeehhh-ummm…”  his way through the entire show. So far, scarily unimpressive as the next Secretary of Defense.

This is why I love cartoons. They’re bright and noisy, with lots colors and movement and chocked full of deep existential issues I can escape into. A great distraction from the real, sometimes less colorful but still noisy world. Come to think of it, it sounds pretty damn similar to the real, sometimes less colorful but still noisy world…
Anyway,  The Cartoon Channel’s Toonami (on Saturday nights til 5am!)  has finally brought back some of the original anime that hooked me onto the channel years ago. Stuff  like: Cowboy Bebop, Inuyasha, Bleach, Naruto…I used to fall asleep during the incredibly long fight scenes in DragonBall Z lol! (haven’t brought that one back yet tho’.)