The Stupid Spoiled Whore is Out

Sorry for the crass title, but that episode of South Park so perfectly encapsulated Paris Hilton’s low character in that one vulgar phrase that I have a difficult time thinking of her in any other terms.

Anyhow, I’ve been trying to work up the dudgeon to comment on the media circus that accompanied her release from jail last night — you’d have thought it was the biggest damn movie premiere in the history of moving pictures, the way EntertainmentExtraAccessTonight was so breathlessly talking about it — but I just can’t seem to summon the words I need to adequately convey my disgust with the media, with the SSW’s stupid fanbase for idolizing this vacuous waste of protoplasm, and even with my own inability to leave this story alone while being fully aware that I’m giving the little twit exactly what she craves: attention. (oh, the hurtful prick of irony!) So I’ll borrow someone else’s observations instead, and let them stand in as reasonably close facsimiles of my own thoughts:

Phil Spector is on trial for murder but nobody notices. The newspapers have been filled with reports that Paris served more time than 80 percent of people accused of similar crimes. They fail to take into account that Paris was pulled over three times. That she was swerving. That she had a signed statement saying she knew she was not allowed to drive. That she failed to show up to mandatory classes. The judges have discretion in these cases for a reason. Paris had flagrantly flouted the law. Several days ago she called Barbara Walters at 2 in the morning, 11 at night West Coast time. Nobody seems to think that’s strange. A call to Barbara Walters at 11 at night from a prison cell.
The jail holds 2,200 people. It is full to capacity. There are only eight medical beds. Paris has occupied one of them almost the entire time.

 

…we shudder and complain about the attention Paris Hilton gets but we talk about her just the same, sometimes in quiet and disparaging tones. We talk about her more than we talk about Iraq and often we talk about how we talk about Paris Hilton when we should be talking about the war in Iraq.

 

But we don’t.

Food for thought, kids. That’s all I’m sayin’…

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Well, Now I Know…


You Should Be a Film Writer


You don’t just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind.
You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life.
Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling.
And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!
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Shadow Update

Several people have asked me in the past few days how Shadow, the Bennion Family Dog, is doing with his cancer treatments. It sounds kind of stiff to say it like this, but I want to thank you all for your concern and interest. It really means a lot to me and my folks. The short answer is, he’s doing surprisingly well.

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I Obviously Need to Swear More…

So, I decided to participate in the latest meme thing that’s sweeping the InterWebs, and I got back this rather surprising result:

Online Dating

A G rating? That’s the kiss of death at the box office! I was hoping for at least a PG. Geez, it’s not like Simple Tricks and Nonsense is the Pete’s Dragon of the blogosphere… or is it? I’m so ashamed…

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Random Questions for a Monday Morning

Just some things that have occurred to me in the past couple of days:

  1. When you go shopping for pillows, they come in three categories, for those who sleep on the backs, those who sleep on their stomachs, and those who sleep on their sides. What are you supposed to buy if you tend to sleep somewhere in between two categories?
  2. Why is Pat Benatar’s most enduring song (based on how often I hear it on the radio compared with her other hits) “Love is a Battlefield”? If we’re talking kick-ass songs about feminine empowerment in the face of male ass-hattery, I much prefer “Treat Me Right.” If we’re talking just plain kick-ass songs, then “Shadows of the Night” is my vote. And if it’s that mushy, mid-80s, proto-new-agey vibe, then I’d rather hear — god help me — “We Belong.” But “Love is a Battlefield”? Really?
  3. Finally, why do Jedi dress like Tatooine moisture farmers? Or is it that Tatooine moisture farmers are a bunch of backwoods posers who dress like Jedi in hopes of seeming slightly more sophisticated? (The real-world answer, of course, is that Ben, Luke, and Owen all dress like the feudal Japanese characters in the Kurosawa movies that G. Lucas wanted to reference, and the look was retained in the prequels for the sake of continuity. But who’s interested in talking about the real world?)

That is all. Discuss amongst yourselves and get back to me…

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Living on the Edge of Mordor

Driving home from The Girlfriend’s tonight, I could see a pair of wildfires burning on the mountain ahead, the one which separates the Salt Lake Valley from Utah Valley to the south. It’s a sight I’ve seen just about every summer for as long as I can remember — hot weather combined with a careless cigarette butt or a dry lightning strike is a simple equation — but it never loses its eerie, unworldly quality. That particular mountainside hasn’t been developed yet, you see, so there are no street or house lights up there; it’s effectively invisible at night, except when there’s a fire. Then there’s a glowing orange smudge that seems to float in the sky, or sometimes it backlights the hulking shape of the mountain itself. Geek that I am, I can’t help but think of Lord of the Rings whenever I see this effect. All the image needs is a psychic vision of a flaming eyeball and a creepy, growling voice telling me that it sees me…

Of course, I was listening to “Every Breath You Take” tonight, so maybe that’s close enough to the Voice of Sauron to count. That always seemed like such a nice romantic tune back in the Awesome ’80s, before we all noticed the unnerving stalkerish overtones that linger underneath the catchy bass line like the stink of burning sagebrush…

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Back in Action

Courtesy of Michael May’s Adventure Blog, a new image of a familiar face:

Harrison Ford on the set of Indy IV

I’ve been pretty dubious of the whole idea of doing a fourth Indy movie, but I’ve got to admit, this picture brought a smile to my lips and injected a little cheer into an otherwise crappy day. It’s good to see you again, Dr. Jones…

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Sobering Truths About Back to the Future

Well, I just seem to be puttering away here today, don’t I, posting up my little bits of nothing? Here’s some more, courtesy of Lileks:

[Back to the Future], which I still think is a perfect little thing, was made in 1985. Marty was sent back to 1955. If they made the movie today, he’d go back to 1977.

 

Think about that. 1977 would look like today, minus computers. Same clothes, same Pink Floyd tunes on the classic rock station, same smear of gimcrack commercial architecture interspersed with stalwarts from the 20s. Color TV, Star Wars, angry Iran. Marty could order a Pepsi Free in 1977, and they’d think it was a sugarless brand they hadn’t gotten yet.

How’s that for a scary thought? I, and I daresay most of the people reading this blog, are now the age of Marty McFly’s parents in Back to the Future, a movie that came out when we were about Marty’s age.

This actually parallels an equally scary thought I had the other day: in Back to the Future II, Marty travels 30 years ahead to what is, to him, the fairly distant future. That distant future was the year 2015… which is only eight years away from us now!

On the positive side, maybe this means that self-adjusting sneakers, hoverboards, Mr. Fusion, and the Cafe 80s aren’t very far away. That would be nice…

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Here They Come!

Squad leaders, we've picked up a new group of signals... enemy fighters, headed your way.

The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis had better angle the deflector shields and charge up the main guns! Oh, wait… that’s just the International Space Station, looking rather TIE fighter-ish with its newly symmetrical shape following Atlantis‘s successful construction mission. Just another one of those photos that amuse me…

(For a comparison of how the ISS has changed during this mission, click here for a 2006 photo, then here for a current one.)

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