Countrywide-Fleecing Heroes

Posted on Feb 15, 2012 | 0 comments

There was this mortgage company a few years back named Countrywide. They started out a small company in New York founded by the son of a butcher, Angelo Mozilo. A few years after founding the company he moved the business west to make his fortune in the Southern California mortgage  business.

The California property market was on the rise and a good mortgage lender was the ticket to home ownership.

How they got to the front of the subprime mortgage debacle is anybody’s guess, but the fact remains with Countrywide holding roughly 20% of the American subprime mortgage paper of the late nineties, early 2K, their hands were elbow deep in the crisis.

When the wheels fell off the mortgage industry and foreclosure rates rose faster than the space shuttle, one casualty was many of the deployed servicemen holding Countrywide mortgages. In spite of a law on the books known as the  Servicemember Civil Relief Act (SCRA), it is alleged that Countrywide systematically and knowing violated the regulations by carrying out foreclosures on homes belonging to deployed U.S. Servicemen.

Bank of America purchased Countrywide in January of 2008 for over four billion dollars. I don’t know what they got for their money other than a boatload of trouble. They have spent millions in legal fees defending their acquisition and operation, but the hits just keep on coming.

A class action lawsuit against Countrywide/Bank of America was recently filed on behalf of servicemen who lost their homes to foreclosure. The lawsuit alleges Countrywide was fully aware of the laws set forth by the SCRA but moved foreward with foreclosure proceedings on deployed service members anyway.

To be honest in the course of researching this blog I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of injustice and greed at the root of this sub-prime mortgage and subsequent foreclosure crisis. Good people by the hundreds of thousands lost their homes. In many cases it was out right fraud and there hasn’t been any true accountability. People should be in jail for this travesty.

It’s not light reading. It’s not fiction. This really happened. It’s still happening.

If you don’t quite get what happened with the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, this animated documentary does a great job of simplifying it for you.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Posted on Feb 14, 2012 | 2 comments

Kids today have so many choices for entertainment it’s like a vast wasteland of suck to sort through to find one gem of a program like Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

Back in the day when we had… omg… three networks and no Playstations to entertain, life and choices were so much simpler.

Saturday mornings were consumed with Rocky and Bullwinkle, Clutch Cargo and Thunderbirds. Joining the Moose and Squirrel was a very smart dog,Mr. Peabody and his pet boy Sherman. What a team they made as they stepped into the WABAC (pronounced way-back) machine and took us on a trip through history to meet some of the worlds most important figures from days past.

Oh, man, that was great television.

So now all these years after Rocky and Bullwinkle got edged aside for The Simpsons and South Park, Peabody and Sherman are getting an animated reboot in a 2014 feature with A-list actor Robert Downey Jr., providing the voice of the canine genius.

The role of Sherman has not been cast yet.

Most people under 30 will not know who Sherman is.

Source: IndieWire - Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Good Vibrations at the Grammys

Posted on Feb 13, 2012 | 2 comments

I watched the Grammys last night. With a couple of exceptions, as a whole the program pegged my blasé meter.

One of those red-letter moments was the on-stage reunion of the Beach Boys. The assembly of Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine and David Marks together on the same stage had a magical quality to it. It was like stepping into Mister Peabody‘s WABAC Machine and showing up in simpler times when vocals stood on their own without technological enhancement.

The whole of Staples Center was on their feet bouncing to the solid vocal harmonies of Good Vibrations. Mike Love was his usual jovial self, that million dollar smile leading the way.

Even Brian Wilson, who has been struggling with health issues, managed a  big smile for the moment. There was no denying the sheer magnitude of the performance and that The Beach Boys have stood the test of time.

The set opened with Maroon 5 doing their take on Little Surfer Girl. Maroon’s Adam Levine was a bit too stiff and serious for the light-hearted tune, although the band nailed the surf sound of old.

Surfer Girl was followed by Foster the People doing a shaky rendition of Wouldn’t It Be Nice. The young band, with its mousy leader Mark Foster, seemed out of its comfort zone on the big stage and it showed in their tentative homage to the Beach Boys.

Even Glen Campbell, on hand to accept a lifetime achievement award and a former Beach Boys collaborator, rose to the occasion to applaud the event.

The Beach Boys are signed up to do a show in Louisiana in late April and a couple of August shows in Germany. Let’s hope this is the start of a round of performances the guys will bring to long-time fans.

Jennifer Hudson‘s understated memorial to the late Whitney Houston was an emotionally charged performance of Houston’s signature song, I Will Always Love You. With only a backing piano and the silence of the arena, Hudson fought through tears to a final statement of,  ”Whitney, we will always love you”.

The best moment of the night may have belonged to Sir Paul McCartney as he closed the event with a little help from some friends. The camera landed on McCartney as he sat at the piano, dug into the Beatles songbook and pulled out Golden Slumbers. He was joined on stage by Joe Walsh, Bruce Springsteen, and the Foo Fighters to wrap up the rest of the medly, Carry That Weight, and The End.

Oh yeah… I almost forgot.

The night belonged to Adele who needed assistance to carry her six Grammy trophies. Congrats on a wonderful album and collection of music that stole the show from a strong cast of nominees.

Whitney Houston -1963-2012

Posted on Feb 12, 2012 | 0 comments

On the eve of music’s biggest stage, the 54th Grammy Awards, emergency medical personnel were called to Whitney Houston‘s fourth floor hotel room at approximately 3:40 pm. The team was unsuccessful with resuscitation and at 3:55 Pacific time, the legendary performer was pronounced dead.

Houston was an American singer, actress, producer, and model, cited as the most-awarded female act of all time. Her resume includes two Emmies, six Grammies, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards as of 2010. Houston is one of the world’s best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide.

Inspired by prominent soul singers in her family, including her mother Cissy Houston, cousins Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, and godmother Aretha Franklin, Houston began singing with New Jersey church’s junior gospel choir at age 11.

Ken Erhlich, executive producer of the 54th Grammy Awards announced that Jennifer Hudson and Chaka Khan would perform a tribute to Houston at the February 12 awards.

R&R Saturday – The Beatles Take Manhattan – Feb 9, 1964

Posted on Feb 11, 2012 | 1 comment

The Ed Sullivan Show was a fixture on CBS Sunday night TV since launching on June 20, 1948. It was a big deal. Families would gather around the television after the Sunday night meal (pot roast at our house) and watch the show. Sullivan would roll out a various stream of performers to entertain the viewers.

Virtually every type of entertainment appeared on the show; opera singers, popular artists, songwriters, comedians, ballet dancers, dramatic actors performing monologues from plays, andcircus acts were regularly featured. The format was essentially the same as vaudeville, and although vaudeville died a generation earlier, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his stage.

If the Elvis appearance on September 9th of ’56 changed the direction of the show, The Beatles 1964 appearance turned it upside down in a Twist and Shout kind of way. Over 73 millions American (more than 40% of the population) were glued to the family set to watch the four from Liverpool make their Ed Sullivan debut.

In late 1963, Sullivan was passing through London’s Heathrow airport at the same time The Beatles were returning from Stockholm. Sullivan was intrigued about how the bands fans were going nuts at their arrival and told his entourage it was the same thing as Elvis all over again. He initially offered Beatles manager Brian Epstein top dollar for a single show but the Beatles manager had a better idea—he wanted exposure for his clients: the Beatles would instead appear three times on the show, at bottom dollar, but receive top billing and two spots (opening and closing) on each show.

There are a handful of events on the Rock and Roll timeline with huge impact — January of ’56, when Sun Records released Elvis Presley’s first single, Heartbreak Hotel, February 3, 1959, when a small plane crash claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, and Feburary 9, 1964, when the Beatles took the Ed Sullivan stage.

The Hunger Games

Posted on Feb 10, 2012 | 0 comments

Of upcoming movies this is the one I am most looking forward to – The Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games is the NY Times best selling opening novel of a trilogy by writer Suzanne Collins. The story follows sixteen year-old Katniss Everdeen in a post-apocalytic world where a central government rules the outlying districts with a cruel firm hand.

Katniss is a strong young girl who dreams of being free in a world where freedom barely exists for the animals much less the citizens of District 12, the place where young Katniss lives and her father died.

The Hunger Games is an annual event where each of 12 districts sends one boy and one girl, ages 12 – 18, to compete in a televised battle where there can be only one winner. Twenty-four go in – one comes out. The selection of the competitors is by raffle in a big ceremony in the district center. When Primerose Everdeen, Kat’s 12 year-old sister is selected, Kat volunteers to represent the district effectively saving her sister from sure death.

What follows is a rapid fire sequence that carries Katniss and her counterpart from District 12, Peeta Mellark, a baker’s son she knows from school from the Appalachian mountains where she’s lived her whole life to the glitz and glamour of The Capital (Formerly Denver) to prepare for the games.

Her mentor in the process is Haymitch Abernathy, victor of the 50th Hunger Games 24 years in the past. The question is can Abernathy stop drinking long enough to be of much good to Katniss and Peeta?

As the game preparations begin she quickly learns of the disadvantages she will face against the older, stronger competitors from the other districts who have prepared for the tribute role all their lives. Katniss has one thing they do not. A reason to live and two men who love her, one of which she may have to kill to survive.

The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence in the Katniss Everdeen role. Lawrence was the powerhouse young performer in the 2010 Sundance Best Picture, Winter’s Bone.

Josh Hutcherson takes on the Peeta Mellark role. Hutcherson is another standout young performer with critical performances in Bridge to Terabithia, Journey to the Center of the Earth,  RV,and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.

The tribute’s mentor, Haymitch Abernathy is filled by Cheers and Zombieland alumnus, Woody Harrelson.

Other cast members include Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland as the ruthless President Snow, and Lenny Kravitz as stylist Cinna, the fashion mastermind behind transforming young Katniss for a glamorous introduction.

I’ve read the trilogy and anticipate the whole series endingup on the big screen before it’s all said and done. Move over Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen has arrived.

Hunger Games opens in theaters everywhere in March 23.

Lilyhammer – Já!

Posted on Feb 9, 2012 | 1 comment

I love the whole premise behind Netflix’s first original series, Lilyhammer. Steve Van Zandt for all practical purposes resurrects his Silvio Dante role from The Sopranos. The gangster is different and the location moves from the Bada-Bing to Norway, but Van Zandt’s wise guy portrayal of mobster Frank Tagliano, turned rat and cubbyholed in the witness protection program half a world away in Lillehammer, Norway.

Tagliano proves that you can take mobster out of the city but you can’t take the mobster out of the mobster. In a fish out of water story, Van Zandt provides a rock-solid character able to hold the screen and maintain the persona with a style of his own making.

It’s a long way from the E-Street Band to the streets of Lillehammer, but Van Zandt absolutely pulls it off. If you were a fan of the Sopranos you will love this light hearted look at a gangster turned Norwegian bar owner. It’s like Al Capone meets Marge Gunderson.

Don’t fughetabout. Catch lilyhammer only on Netflix.

{Insert five gold stars and one thumbs up here.}