IT'S ONLY MARCH

1. . . . said Hillary Clinton amid calls for her to drop out of the presidential race. She's staying in as long as there are more primaries and until the votes are counted in Florida and Michigan.
2. . . . She won't back down (a la I Won't Back Down – Tom Petty on MCA, 1989). She's in til the bitter end, come hell or high water.
3. . . . It's the truth. It is only March and there are eight more months to go and a lot can change. Some people act like the election's tomorrow. There's a lot of time left. Relax.
4. . . . Barack Obama took up for her and said she could run as long as she wants and called her a fierce and formidable" opponent.
5. . . . There's that word again, fierce. It was used endlessly by this season's Project Runway winner Christian Siriano every time he opened his mouth, became a catchphrase. Fierce, fabulous, flawless" was his philosophy about a lot of things in life and career. How philosophical.
6. THEY DID THE MONSTER MASH: I just don't want to be thought of as a monster," said Ashley Alexandra Dupre (formerly Ashley Youmans and more commonly known in the trade" as Kristen), the prostitute New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer got involved with.
7. . . . And Samantha Power, who quickly became an ex-advisor to Barack Obama, because she referred to the competition, Hillary Clinton, as a monster," in reference to her campaign tactics.
8. . . . And unrelated to politics, Les Moonves, CBS network chief, called Fox's American Idol show a monster that is tough to compete with" on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. How true.
9. . . . So get all those monsters out on the dance floor and mash, mash, mash their blues away.
10. ON MY NERVES. That dumb Dunkin' Donuts commercial where people (like zombies) walk and sing that annoying Power Walk" song as they head to work, carrying their coffee, in another ad for the America Runs On Dunkin' campaign.
11. . . . Power walking. Yeah, I can do without that. The stupidest looking activity on the planet.
12. . . . WORST PART: When they sing elevator, escalator." Good God that drives me crazy.
13. Heidi Fleiss, the former Hollywood Madam and now laundromat operator (just outside Las Vegas and called Dirty Laundry), showed up on Nightline, of all shows, some weeks ago as a talking head when the Eliot Spitzer news broke, offering her thoughts on what happened, to anchor Terry Moran. She spoke very bluntly and crudely and said it was just an example of the former governor and other men simply wanting to get laid." She didn't mince words and she certainly wasn't eloquent. Anchor Moran was a little bit taken aback.
14. . . . It was journalism" at its best.
15. 10,000 B.C. Fuhgedaboutit. Poor acting, medium to well-done effects, hard to understand what the characters are saying because they're half-whispering and there are many languages going on in this before the dawn of time flick. The characters are dolled up in dreadlocks and other hair extensions and face masks all over the place. The charge of the mastodons (hairy elephants) is okay but nobody gets crushed (darn it). The male lead (Steven Strait as D'Leh) resembles Lorenzo Lamas in a bad wig and the female lead (Camille Belle as Evolet) looks like Lindsay Lohan. And the narrator, Omar Sharif, slips in and out of an ethnic accent which sometimes sounds almost (unintentionally) comical.
16. . . . Some would say the movie's ridiculous. It's made a lot of money but for the fan of those kinds of movies, it was a disappointment.
17. Do the CNBC (America's Business Channel) producers have a dress code for their female anchors/reporters? Are they all required to wear low-cut tops so they look sexy while they spew out the latest important business news and act like experts? Do they have a contract with Victoria's Secret for the Biofit Uplift bra? Seems so.
18. . . . There's a dearth of men on TV giving the news these days because producers think thedames attract more of an audience. Sad but true.
19. . . . BUT TO MY SURPRISE. MSNBC actually had a man anchor on last week for a couple of days: Mark Mullen. The NBC News correspondent who we used to see quite a lot of stateside, anchored during the afternoons . On a break from his current duty in China, he was in the states for meetings about the upcoming Olympics in Beijing. I couldn't believe my eyes. He's a good national reporter and he did well – no surprise.
20. . . . NBC should use him more.
21. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, growls when she sees Hillary Clinton on TV, says owner Sally. Might this reflect the dog's owner's political bent? But of course.
22. MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY. Movie, good, takes place in 1939 London. Frances McDormand (Pettigrew) plays a governess who is fired from her job and then takes on the role of social secretary to a ditzy, flamboyant American actress (Amy Adams as Delysia Lafosse) living there. Pettigrew soon becomes confidante to Lafosse and her love life. It's a wacky, almost slapstick kind of film that's done pretty well.
23. . . . It's fun and upbeat and Amy Adams (Enchanted,Charlie Wilson's War, Junebug), once again, is good.
24. Are we in a recession or not? The administration people, including President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, keep talking about the stimulus package and how good it is and that it will make a difference. And the Federal Reserve's gonna be overhauled. But everything points downward.
25. . . . Why can't people just Tell It Like It Is (Aaron Neville, 1966 on Par-Lo Records)?
26. . . . A new $5 bill just came out with all kinds of enhanced security-implanted features and a big purple (purple?) number 5 appearing on the back. How much did that cost?
27. ON THE RISE. Chris Wragge, local anchorman on WCBS in New York and fill-in anchor for the Saturday Early Show, has been given the network job full-time and now he's even subbing for Russ Mitchell on the weekday version of the show. He seems to have come up quickly.
28. . . . Wragge came to WCBS as a sports anchor after veteran sportscaster Warner Wolf –remember him? -- was fired. They then made him a news anchor and from there he got opportunities at the network.
29. . . .He has personality, comes off as a nice, upbeat guy and likes to hunker down in his role on the Saturday Early Show: He starts off the program in a suit, shirt and tie but later on in the show's feature segments (Chef on a Shoestring and Second Cub Café), off comes the tie and sometimes the jacket. He likes to go cas(ual).
30. . . . He didn't, however, do that this past weekend. Maybe somebody told him to stay buttoned up in order to appear more newsy.
31. . . . He did manage to help chef David Myers prepare a meal for under $40 without getting his tie caught in the food processor.
32. New York Times writer Alessandra Stanley called Paul Giamatti's portrayal of John Adams in the seven-part HBO miniseries of the same name, the wrong choice" to play the second President of the United States. Mr. Giamatti," she says, is a prisoner of a limited range and rubbery, cuddly looks – in 18th century britches and wigs, he looks like Shrek."
33. . . . Tom Shales of The Washington Post, on the other hand, called Giamatti's performance captivating," but he does say that he's perhaps plumper and grumpier than the Adams of our mind's eye" and that he amusingly seems to be playing the role somewhat precious and pretty like someone dressed up in fancy wigs at Colonial Williamsburg." Ha Ha Ha.
34. Should Demi Moore be castigated for posing with her three daughters (Scout, Tallulah and Rumer) for Harper's Bazaar in her/their nighties? It's some kind of family portrait and they're all huddled together, touching and holding hands while sitting on a couch.
35. . . . She oughta be arrested for exploitation of minors. What, are they all posing in an ad for Emperors Club VIP?
36. . . . And speaking of Miss Moore, I just saw her in that movie Flawless," about a woman (Moore as Laura Quinn) who plots with building janitor Mr. Hobbs (Michael Caine) to steal some diamonds from the vault of the London Diamond Corporation where they both work. She plays an executive who has been passed over numerous times for a promotion. She's got an axe to grind and Mr. Hobbs is hip to her vulnerability.
37. . . . The flick is sorta okay but far from great. It takes place in 1960 and Moore is very much the picture of the way professional women looked then. She does adopt a partial English accent that's not too bad but at times the movie seems laughable and campy (not intentional).
38. . . . FOR EXAMPLE. There's a lot of cigarette smoking and right off the bat, in a scene with Miss Quinn at her desk smoking and talking to someone in her office, one minute the cigarette is long and looks like it's just been lit. Then cut away (director-speak) to the other person, then cut back to her and the cigarette's down to the filter. Cut away again and come back to her and the cancer stick is long again. This is all in a matter of a few seconds.
39. . . . Lack of attention to detail on the part of the director (Michael Radford) and blooper-fodder.
40. . . . Yet at the same time other scenes and individual shots are well-done and do have an almost Alfred Hitchcock influence.
41. . . . Inconsistent, not good enough.
42. NOTICED. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Wilson, er . . . Williams's hair's was light brown on top early last week. Or is it the lighting? But it was darker further down and on the sides it had a hint of gray in the sideburns area. His hair was three-toned.
43. . . . Maybe they use those new HD cameras that bring everything out.
44. You'd never know by the way she walks that Heather Mills has a prosthetic leg. She has a fast gait and gets around really well, it seems. I realized this after seeing her exit the London High Court where her divorce (from Beatle Paul McCartney) hearing was conducted.
45. . . . She got money in the settlement but not as much as she wanted. Judge Hugh Bennett said she overeggs the pudding," referring to her exaggerated" demands.
46. . . . Love those Brits and their expressions.
47. . . . Will she finally go away now? No way. The media likes the controversy that constantly follows her so they continually book" her to appear places. She's got a lot more cards to play in her lifetime. She won't back down.
48. . . . After all that court business, she was booked as a judge by Donald Trump for the upcoming Miss USA Pageant (NBC, April 11), which he owns. He likes to stir the pot and thus, she's on
49. . . . WISH: That both he and she be picked up by a crane and dumped in a landfill somewhere.
50. DIDN'T MATE. The pandas at Washington's National Zoo didn't. Female Mei Xiang was exhibiting estrous behavior," said Suzan Murray, the zoo's chief vet. (What's that? Just say it; she was in heat.")
51. . . . Things were not to be. Mei didn't assume the classic breeding position," Murray continued, which made it hard for the male, Tian Tian, to get his alignment and positioning correct."
52. . . . No wonder. They're never left alone. Too much monitoring. No privacy. The atmosphere wasn't conducive. They're inhibited by all the scientific attention, poor things.
53. The New York Times put a picture of a dead man on its front page a couple weeks ago. It was part of their Notes From the Field, 5 Years In"coverage of the Iraq war. He was lying on the dried and cracked mud ground on his back, face up and identifiable, while an American convoy passed in the distance. The picture caption said he was killed by marines in 2003.
54. . . . Being dramatic for the fifth anniversary of the war? I'd say so. Considerate for the man's family – NOT.
55. CNN's Anderson Cooper blogged about the removal of a mole on his face near his left eye a while back. He did so, apparently, because he knew viewers would notice stitches on his next 360 program and wonder how he got 'em.
56. . . . Does TV news have to be self-confessional all the time? Do we have to know and be informed about every nook and cranny of our anchors and their personal health and hygiene? Ridiculous, for crissakes.
57. . . . Hey, I had a crusty mole removed from my groin area last year. Can I get that on CNN?
58. UNHEALTHY. I think it's too smoggy to hold the Olympics in China. Look at the pictures over there. You can barely see. Everybody holding scarves and surgical masks over their faces. Are all those athletes gonna put up with that?
59. . . . The International Olympic Committee's concerned about it – as they should be. They're going to monitor the air quality levels in Beijing on a daily basis to decide whether or not to postpone some outside competitions.
60. . . . There'll be a lot of postponing to do.
61. Tucker Carlson's Tucker show's been replaced by David Gregory's Race for the White House. Tucker will continue on with MSNBC as a contributor/analyzer. Anybody miss him?
62. The Washington Metro is looking into better wireless service down in the tunnels. Oh great, more conversations for me to overhear when I'm commuting. And more people to glare at.
63. Barbara Walters told Barack Obama on The View that they (she and her co-hosts) thought he was very sexy looking. Obama responded by waving his hand in front of his face like a fan to show he was cooling off and a bit flushed by the comment. Aww, he's modest.
64. . . . Leave it up to that show to get to the bottom of the important campaign issues.
65. Beyonce is playing powerful R&B/jazz singer Etta James in a movie about the legendary record company she recorded for, Chess Records of Chicago, and the man/men who started it, Leonard and Phil Chess, who were responsible for historic recordings by many Blues, R&B and Rock 'n' Roll greats, including Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, The Dells, Billy Stewart. Only the movie's called Cadillac Records, go figure. Adrien Brody is slated to play Leonard Chess and Jeffrey Wright will do Muddy.
66. . . . UH . . . Something's Got A Hold On Me – Etta James on Argo Records (a subsidiary of Chess), 1962, which is performed live on her classic album, Etta James Rocks the House (1964). Excellent.

rocci@roccifisch.com

Archives

© Rocci Fisch/Random Thoughts

Services provided by BrowserMedia.com