I’m a Bit of a Movie Buff
Yesterday I mentioned one of my loves. Today I’ll share another — movies. I love movies. I would say I love all kinds of movies but that would be a bit untrue. I’m not a fan of romantic comedy or chick flicks like, The Notebook or Steel Magnolias. To the other extreme I’m not real crazy about slasher or horror films either. I used to but I guess I just lost my taste for gore. What I do...
Read More
Why I Like NASCAR
I know there’s a lot of you out there that do not get NASCAR. At best you might think it a bit juvenile, at worst, stupid. Many of you buy into the stereotypical portrait of the NASCAR fan. Yes, I am from the south. Yes, I eat fried chicken. Yes, I spend Sundays watching races. I gave up beer. It wasn’t agreeing with my waistline and pocketbook. (My lawyer seemed to think it would be a good...
Read More
Could Chuck Norris Defeat China?
I don’t know whether John Q. Public knows it or not but I am about to clue John in. The numbers are out and we are seriously getting our ass kicked by the Chinese. We are falling so far behind we may never catch up. And the bad thing about us the deeper we get in debt to the Chinese the worse it seems to get. The shock of these numbers is so severe I thought it prudent to hide the data inside the...
Read More
Sundance and the 99%
Last Thursday kicked off this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the playground of the rich and famous – Park City, Utah. I think they misplaced my invitation. Did you get yours? To listen to founder Robert Redford, his vision has always been for an event catering to the 99% crowd. “We show stories of what people in America are really dealing with, and really living with, against a...
Read More
The Humble Apple
It’s an old saying with a simple meaning and a ton of truth. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Frankly, I’ve never been much of an apple guy. I was more of a pig knuckles and beer kind of guy. You don’t hear people say, “A pig knuckle a day…” Hey, it didn’t work out too good for the pig either. It’s quite possible that I have eaten more...
Read More
My 2012 NFL Boycott
Two big games today in the NFL. Two more games I won’t be watching. Two winners – two losers. The winners go to Indianapolis. The losers are left to figure out what went wrong. Sports is like that – winners and losers. I started out the season as a loser unlike many of the NFL players and owners who held the sport hostage for most of the year. Who was sitting at the bargaining table...
Read More
R&R Saturday – Etta James
I saw Etta James a few years back. She played a show with B.B. King, Elvin Bishop, and J. Geils in Nashville. Man, that lady had some pipes! When she started singing At Last, the crowd went crazy. It was a real treat for me and surprising how she absolutely stole the stage from these music legends. Etta James lost her long battle with Leukemia on Friday. (Jan 20, 2012) Etta James was born Jamesetta...
Read More
Acceleration Weekend
Article first published as Acceleration Weekend on Technorati. CHARLOTTE — NASCAR gathers at the Hall of Fame Friday evening to induct five men who helped shape the history of NASCAR – Richie Evans, Dale Inman, Darrell Waltrip, Glen Wood, and Cale Yarborough. From Daytona to Talladega, Watkins Glen to Riverside, in the pits and on the tracks the legacy of the sport comes to life at the Hall of...
Read More
R&R Saturday
Observations
Mickey Mills
Struggling writer on the Harley Davidson of life.
Find Me on the Web
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Most Recent Articles
I’m a Bit of a Movie Buff
Yesterday I mentioned one of my loves. Today I’ll share another — movies.
I love movies. I would say I love all kinds of movies but that would be a bit untrue. I’m not a fan of romantic comedy or chick flicks like, The Notebook or Steel Magnolias. To the other extreme I’m not real crazy about slasher or horror films either. I used to but I guess I just lost my taste for gore.
What I do like is movies with a good story and characters. I love good writing. You can always trust the Coen Brothers to give us good writing.
I like good action films and spy dramas. I can’t believe they are considering another Bourne movie without Matt Damon. But then Sean Connery turned over the Bond role to George Lazenby who gave it back to Connery for Diamonds Are Forever. Future 007s include Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and now Daniel Craig.
I like good Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I’m a big fan of the Lord of The Rings trilogy and am anxiously awaiting Peter Jackson’s movie, The Hobbit. (I just finished reading The Hobbit again.)
I like westerns, good gritty tough cowboy westerns. Clint Eastwood did for westerns what Ray Croc did for burgers. Some of my favorites are Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
As much as I love John Wayne and his westerns, what the Coen Brothers did for last year’s True Grit was amazing. The girl who played Mattie Ross should one day be a super-star.
I also like the classics, the old films by actors and actresses long gone — John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Betty Davis and Katharine Hepburn.
From The African Queen to Casablanca, Citizen Kane to Vertigo. Give me The Maltese Falcon and a bag of popcorn and I’ll show you a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
This year I want to do a regular feature called Friday Films where I took a look at movies, past, present and future. What I like, what I didn’t like, and invite you to join in and share your opinions and insights.
— Betty Davis as Margo Channing in All About Eve
Why I Like NASCAR
I know there’s a lot of you out there that do not get NASCAR. At best you might think it a bit juvenile, at worst, stupid. Many of you buy into the stereotypical portrait of the NASCAR fan.
Yes, I am from the south.
Yes, I eat fried chicken.
Yes, I spend Sundays watching races.
I gave up beer. It wasn’t agreeing with my waistline and pocketbook. (My lawyer seemed to think it would be a good idea too.)
I don’t smoke cigarettes and my cell phone carrier is not Sprint.
Perhaps in the early days of the sport it was primarily a southern affair with most of the races on tracks in the deep south. The drivers came from places like Hueytown, Alabama, and Level Cross, North Carolina – Timmonsville and Florence, South Carolina.
These days you’ll find more drivers from California than the Carolinas. (Driver Hometowns) More out west than down south. It’s no longer the domain of the southerner, it’s the sport of the masses. You’ll find race fans from coast to coast, border to border, and beyond. When I watch races on a pirated internet stream, I’m amazed at how many viewers are there from Europe and the far east.
The fact of the matter is there is no such thing as a typical NASCAR fan anymore. We are young and old, rich and poor, male and female; we come from all walks of life around the globe.
Yes, NASCAR is main stream and I like it. So back to what this blog is all about today – why I like it.
I like it for the cars, the drivers, the teams, the speed, the competition, the danger, the swagger, the sunglasses, the tee-shirts, the asphalt, the girls, the pit stops, the National Anthem before the race, (catching breath) the food, the statistics, Darrell Waltrip, the burn-outs on the victory lap, Daytona, Talladega, the fans, and a whole list of things stuck somewhere between my brain and the keyboard.
I love everything about it. I love writing about it and it’s not even about anybody reading it. That’s not the point.
Writing about something you love is good therapy. You oughta try it sometime. 
Read More
Could Chuck Norris Defeat China?
I don’t know whether John Q. Public knows it or not but I am about to clue John in.
The numbers are out and we are seriously getting our ass kicked by the Chinese. We are falling so far behind we may never catch up. And the bad thing about us the deeper we get in debt to the Chinese the worse it seems to get.
The shock of these numbers is so severe I thought it prudent to hide the data inside the pulldown boxes below. I did not want to be responsible for any window jumping or such nonsense if someone freaked out on the extreme visual of seeing these numbers together on one page.
Click arrows for more info:
1-STEEL
U.S. production: 80 million metric tons in 2010
U.S. position: 3rd
In 1973, the U.S. was the largest producer of steel, making more than 136 million metric tons of crude steel, according to the International Iron and Steel Institute. Up to that point, the U.S. had enjoyed many decades of industry dominance, centered around the city of Pittsburgh.
2-COTTON
U.S. production: 3.4 million metric tons in 2011
U.S. position: 3rd
In 2000, the U.S. produced 4.2 million metric tons of cotton — the largest amount in the world. China was not far behind, producing 3.81 million metric tons. By 2008, however, China had not only surpassed the U.S., but made nearly double the U.S.’s production amount. China produced approximately 8.1 million metric tons to the U.S.’s 4.2 million. A year earlier, the U.S. lost its second spot among top cotton producers to India, thanks in part to technological breakthroughs in seed and production practices.
3-INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS
U.S. production: $31 Billion raised in 2011
U.S. position: 3rd
Even in the world of finance the U.S. is losing its dominance to China. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, “the yearly average of U.S. IPOs has decreased from 27 percent [global share] in the 1990s to 12 percent in the 2000s.” And as the U.S.’s share of IPO proceeds decreased, China’s share increased. It is now the world leader in IPOs.
4-TOBACCO
U.S. production: 0.33 million metric tons in 2011
U.S. position: 4th
Until 1976, the U.S. produced the largest share of the world’s tobacco. Today, the U.S. only produces 6% of the global output, according to Stephan Richter, editor-in-chief of The Globalist, in an interview by Marketplace. The most recent data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations places the U.S. as the fourth-largest producer of tobacco in the world.
I’m okay with losing the tobacco race.
5-AUTOS
U.S. production: 7.8 million autos in 2010
U.S. position: 3rd
Automotive manufacturing is considered one of the U.S.’s most critical industries. But in recent years, other countries have surpassed the U.S., which is now the third-largest producer of autos in the world, according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers.
6-BEER
U.S. production: 227.8 million hectoliters in 2010
U.S. position: 2nd
Now this one is the worst. I’ve seen those beer bellies out there. I know blue collar America is fueled by beer and we should be beating the beer mugs off those Chinese. Come on guys, this is embarrassing.
The U.S. lost its top position even in beer production. In 2000, the U.S. beer industry was the greatest in the world, producing 232 million hectoliters, compared with China’s 220 million. One decade later, and China is in first place, generating 443.8 million hectoliters of beer, versus the U.S.’s 227.8 million. Not only does China have a population that is more than four times that of the U.S., but beer consumption in the country has increased dramatically in recent years. According to the World Health Organization, the average Chinese citizen drank about half a bottle of beer in 1961. By 2007, that amount had increased to 103 beers per year.
7-HIGH TECH EXPORTS
U.S. production: $142 billion in 2009
U.S. position: 2nd
High-technology exports are defined as “products with high R&D intensity, such as in aerospace, computers, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, and electrical machinery,” according to the World Bank. The U.S. remains home to the largest pharmaceutical industry in the world, and the rest of industries mentioned are also huge domestically. According to the World Bank, China began earning more from high-technology exports than the U.S. as recently as 2005. In 2009, Chinese high-technology exports were worth $348 billion. High-technology exports from the U.S. were worth a more modest $142 billion.
8-COAL
U.S. production: 985 million tons produced in 2010
U.S. position: 2nd
America led the world in coal production up until 1984, and it is now a distant second to China. According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, the U.S. produced just under 1 billion tons of coal in 2010. China produced more than three times that amount, generating 3.2 billion short tons. There has been exponential growth in the Chinese energy infrastructure in the past decade. Since 2005, American coal production has decreased slightly, while Chinese production has increased by nearly 38%. Despite the U.S.’s decline in coal production, it is still the world’s second-largest producer, and combined, the two countries account for more than half of the world’s total coal production.
Source: Fox Business News
Read MoreSundance and the 99%
Last Thursday kicked off this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the playground of the rich and famous – Park City, Utah. I think they misplaced my invitation. Did you get yours?
To listen to founder Robert Redford, his vision has always been for an event catering to the 99% crowd.
“We show stories of what people in America are really dealing with, and really living with, against a consequence of having a government that’s let them down,” Redford said. “People can come and say, ‘God, at least we’re seeing how people are really living in America, and what they’re up against.’ We square away on the 99 percent.”
I don’t know too many ninety-nine percenters with condos in Sundance. Don’t get me wrong. I like Redford. He’s always been a favorite of mine. I just don’t believe the rich and famous can truly see the issues facing the 99% he is talking about. I don’t think it’s possible to see through Hollywood eyes and have an emotional comprehension of a single mother in America flipping burgers at McDonalds to make ends meet. You can’t truly appreciate middle class poverty until you’ve scrapped for every penny in the house just to buy groceries – beanie weenies and milk.
If you look at the Sundance Sponsor list it reads like a who’s who of the 1% — Starbucks, Accura, Chase-Sapphire, Bing and GE, to name a few. Now there’s a list of companies with our well-being at the center of their mission statement.
Oh and then there’s the celebrities who line up at corporate tents to get their swag from said corporate sponsors. Anyone of them could walk into any Apple store and buy 1,000 iPads to give to local schools, but there they are in line to get a free one.
And in a twist of irony, contrary to Redford’s vision, a group calling themselves ‘Occupy Sundance’ are camped out in Park City. They point out that of 11,700 films submitted this year, only 180 were accepted — roughly 1 percent. The Occupy Sundance organizers recognize that that volume of films could not make festival screening at Sundance. They are there to represent the 99% that didn’t make the cut.
“Robert Redford may think Sundance reflects ‘the 99 percent,’ but while his heart is in the right place, I’m not sure he can even begin to fathom how hard it is for an average person to gain access to his elite world,” said Los Angeles-based pop culture and entertainment expert Jenn Hoffman. “It’s true that independent filmmakers still have a chance at securing funding through the festival, but even the so-called indie studios still are looking for ‘names’ to star in even the smallest films and are scouting for new movies they think will bring them the largest financial gain.
“The price of a plane ticket to Utah is more expensive than what most aspiring filmmakers can afford in this economy,” she added. “Let alone all cost of all the marketing, networking dinners and social climbing events it can take to get a movie made.
“While it was once a small little festival centered around movie screenings, the Sundance film festival is now more synonymous with gifting suites, corporate sponsored parties and free swag for the already wealthy members of Hollywood’s elite,” Hoffman says. “I dare any of the celebrities attending these parties to sit with the Occupiers on a freezing cold night or to donate their free gifts to members of Occupy Sundance.”
Read MoreThe Humble Apple
It’s an old saying with a simple meaning and a ton of truth.
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Frankly, I’ve never been much of an apple guy. I was more of a pig knuckles and beer kind of guy. You don’t hear people say, “A pig knuckle a day…”
Hey, it didn’t work out too good for the pig either.
It’s quite possible that I have eaten more apples in the last four months than I have my entire life. For some reason they don’t seem as bad as they did when I was ten.
About the only apple you could get in me had to be hot, wrapped in two layers of crispy crust, full of cinnamon and sugar cooked to a sticky paste and best case, topped with a big pile of vanilla ice cream.
Jeeze, that don’t sound half bad right now.
Here are some health benefits derived from the humble apple.
The more apples I’ve had over the past few months the more I appreciate Johnny Appleseed. A true pioneer of the American fruit. A hero to dieters everywhere. Go Johnny!
Read MoreMy 2012 NFL Boycott
Two big games today in the NFL. Two more games I won’t be watching. Two winners – two losers. The winners go to Indianapolis. The losers are left to figure out what went wrong. Sports is like that – winners and losers. I started out the season as a loser unlike many of the NFL players and owners who held the sport hostage for most of the year.
Who was sitting at the bargaining table representing me and the other millions of us who put the money in the team owners and the players hand? We are the ones who buy the tickets and the $200 jackets, the $8 hot dog and the $15 parking. Who is it in front of the television on the weekends and Monday night watching the commercials of the sponsors who pay the networks who pour money like water into the NFL’s coffers?
What bugged me about the whole thing is this. At the end of the day… in the final analysis… when it was all said and done… the whole thing was about money. It just bothered me that nobody ever pointed out that it was our money. From day one they acted like it was their money. It was only their money after we gave it to them.
The NFL boycott of 2011 is history. Two champions will be crowned today and in a couple of weeks go duke it out at Lucas Field – one winner, one loser. When the dust settles on the 2011 season, my little boycott will have absolutely no impact on the season except where it matters the most. The knowledge that I took a personal stand and stayed there. It might be the minority voice but it’s my minority voice and I’m okay with that.
I wonder if it will be okay to watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and not the football? That’s a dilemma I have two weeks to wrestle with.
Read MoreR&R Saturday – Etta James
I saw Etta James a few years back. She played a show with B.B. King, Elvin Bishop, and J. Geils in Nashville. Man, that lady had some pipes! When she started singing At Last, the crowd went crazy. It was a real treat for me and surprising how she absolutely stole the stage from these music legends.
Etta James lost her long battle with Leukemia on Friday. (Jan 20, 2012)
Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins, in Los Angeles, Calif., January 25, 1938, her mother was 14 and her father was never known. James speculated that her father was the pool player, Rudolf “Minnesota Fats” Wanderone. James met him briefly in 1987. It’s noted that Fats never validated nor denied the claim.
Etta’s mother was a bit of a ramblin’ gal and young Jamesetta was raised mostly by a string of caregivers. The bulk of her childhood with “Sarge” and “Mama Lu.”
James received her first professional vocal training at the age of five from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir, at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Even then her talent showed promise.
In 1950 when Mama Lu died, her mother moved Etta to the Fillmore district in San Francisco. A couple of years later, James began listening to doo-wop and was inspired to form a girl croup — The Creolettes. The later changed the name to The Peaches and in 1956, at eighteen years-old, her little girl group from San Francisco earned an opening spot on Little Richard‘s national tour.
In 1960, she signed with Chess Records and recorded for nearly twenty years. Her debut album, At Last!, was released in late 1960 and was noted for its varied choice in music from jazz to blue, doo-wop and R&B. The album also included James’ future classic, “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and “A Sunday Kind of Love“. In early 1961, James released what has become her signature song, “At Last“, which reached number two on the R&B chart and number 47 on the Billboard Top 100.
After she left Chess in 1978 James did not record for nearly a decade as she battled addictions and alcoholism. In 1988 she staged a comeback with moderate success.
James signed with Private Music Records in 1993 and recorded the Billie Holiday tribute album Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday. The album set a trend for James’ music to incorporate more jazz elements. The album won James her first Grammy Award for best jazz vocal performance. In 1995, she released the David Ritz-co authored autobiography, A Rage to Survive, and recorded the album Time After Time. Three years later she issued the Christmas album Etta James Christmas in 1998.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked her #62 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. James has performed at the top world jazz festivals in the world, such as the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1977, 1989, 1990 and 1993, performed nine times at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival, and the San Francisco Jazz Festival five times. She also performs often at free city outdoor summer arts festivals throughout the US.
In April 2009, the 71-year-old James made her final television appearance performing “At Last” during an appearance on Dancing with the Stars.
James was hospitalized in January 2010 to treat an infection caused by MRSA, a bacterium resistant to antibiotic treatment. During her hospitalization, her son Donto revealed that James had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2008, and attributed her previous comments about Beyoncé Knowles to “drug induced dementia”.
She was diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011. Etta James died on January 20, 2012, just five days before her 74th birthday, at Riverside Community Hospital, Riverside, California.
There is a void in the music world today. It’s shaped very much like Etta James.
CNN Article from 2002 about Etta James
Read More
Member of:
