You couldn’t have a week like this without John Williams.
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor and pianist. He is considered to be one of the greatest film composers of all time.[1][citation needed] In a career spanning over six decades, he has composed some of the most popular and recognizable film scores in cinematic history, including Jaws, the Star Wars series, Superman, the Indiana Jones series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, the first three Harry Potter films, Memoirs of a Geisha, War Horse, and Lincoln. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all but two (Duel and The Color Purple) of Spielberg’s major feature films.
Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, the NBC Nightly News, the Statue of Liberty’s rededication, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the original, not as well known calypso-based theme song to Gilligan’s Island. Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the Boston Pops Orchestra’s principal conductor from 1980 to 1993; he is now the orchestra’s conductor laureate.
Williams has won 5 Academy Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, 7 British Academy Film Awards and 21 Grammy Awards. With 48 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated person, after Walt Disney.[2] Williams was honored with the annual Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards, recognizing his contribution to film and television music.[3] Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.
Best to just begin with his work.
Watching Marco Rubio go around the bend
By Steve Benen
Fri Jul 12, 2013 9:57 AM EDT.
With many on the right still furious with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for supporting comprehensive immigration reform, the far-right Floridian is scrambling to bolster his unhinged bona fides.
In his remarks to the Weekly Standard’s “Defend & Reform” breakfast — how do they come up with these names? — the Republican senator added, in reference to his balanced-budget demands, “This is not an unreasonable request. They will say that it is, but it is not. They will say, ‘Well you are going to risk default.’ The $17 trillion debt is a risk of default.”
Here’s a tip for U.S. senators with national ambitions: if you don’t know what “default” means, don’t try to use it in a sentence.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/12/19436633-watching-marco-rubio-go-around-the-bend?lite
Why Boehner should care about Jorge Ramos
By Steve Benen
Fri Jul 12, 2013 12:08 PM EDT.
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When House Republicans think about who they’ll offend if/when they kill immigration reform, it’s a lengthy list. After all, the bill enjoys broad public support, and is backed by leaders of both parties, leaders from the Latino community, private-sector employers, labor, and deficit hawks.
But let’s not overlook Spanish-language media, which as John Sides and Greg Sargent explained yesterday, is poised to be unrelenting in its criticisms of Republicans for killing the bipartisan bill. Indeed, by some measures, it’s already begun.
Univision’s Jorge Ramos delivered this message last night to his 912,000 Twitter followers, connecting House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to anti-immigrant sheriff Joe Arpaio in the minds of the Hispanic community. Following up on that message, Ramos added this tweet this morning:
Remember, in Spanish-language media, Ramos is unrivaled in his reach and influence. “Spanish-language news has almost the same pull as the priest in the pulpit,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.). “And Jorge Ramos is the pope, he’s the big kahuna.”
Three months ago, the Republican National Committee said it intended to vastly improve its relationships with Latino media outlets. How’s that outreach effort going, Reince?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/12/19438624-why-boehner-should-care-about-jorge-ramos?lite
McDonnell allies ‘privately express doubt’ about his political survival
By Steve Benen
Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:33 PM EDT
If you haven’t already put your “McDonnell 2016” swag on ebay, because you think there’s still a chance the Virginia governor can bounce back, forget it.
The editorial board of the Washington Post, which is hardly reflexively liberal, slammed the governor awfully hard yesterday: “Mr. McDonnell’s head-spinning hypocrisy has stained his reputation and shredded the bonds of trust that any governor must maintain with the public if he wishes to be effective and credible. It’s time for him to stop dodging hard questions and hiding behind legal niceties; it’s time for Mr. McDonnell to level with Virginians about what has become the state’s most toxic scandal in years.”
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/12/19439553-mcdonnell-allies-privately-express-doubt-about-his-political-survival?lite
Jay-Z Bashes Agents Who Criticize His Ability To Represent Athletes
Jay-Z is convinced that the sports agent profession is comprised of a group of lazy individuals. He has a few things for those agents to recognize — Jay-Z is coming, there are new rules and he is going to be a problem for them going forward.
This week, in an interview with The Breakfast Club on New York’s Power 105.1 radio station, Jay-Z said in reference to the agents who criticize him that, ”Those guys have been sitting around just doing the typical things…knock on the same doors. They go to Nike, they do the contract and then they sit back. They don’t do anything else. So they’ve been sitting around for 20-30 years just not doing anything.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2013/07/11/jay-z-bashes-agents-who-criticize-his-ability-to-represent-athletes/
Tina Turner Getting Hitched
Will wed Erwin Bach, beau of 27 years
By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff
Posted Jul 12, 2013 10:13 AM CDT
Tina Turner and Erwin Bach, her record producer beau of 27 years, are making things official. Sources tell the New York Post the couple, living together in Switzerland since the 1990s, will wed July 21 either at their Lake Zurich home (according to some sources) or at their French Riviera villa (according to others). Turner, 73, recently said she is “happier than I could have ever dreamed of.”
http://www.newser.com/story/170891/tina-turner-getting-hitched.html
America gets a wake-up call
Smartypants
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, there were many who suggested that the United States had finally entered a “post-racial” phase. And then after he won re-election in 2012, there was talk about the Republican Party reforming and reaching out to people of color.
We now know that both of those assumptions were incorrect.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/07/america-gets-wake-up-call.html
A matter of priorities
By Steve Benen
Fri Jul 12, 2013 8:00 AM EDT
After House Republicans narrowly approved a stripped-down farm bill yesterday, McKay Coppins seemed to chide journalists covering the story. There’s a group of people who may care about the farm bill, Coppins argued, and there’s a group of people who keep up on politics, but the overlap on the Venn diagram is about 14 Americans.
That may be true, though it suggests to me that those of us in media will have to do a better job to either get those who care about the issue to take an interest in current events, or get those with an interest in current events to care about the issue.
Let’s try to put aside some of the inside baseball and make this plain: the farm bill, for decades, has paid for food stamps and subsidies for the agricultural industry. This year, the bill fell apart because House Republicans weren’t satisfied that it sufficiently punished poor people who want to eat.
So, yesterday, GOP lawmakers came up with a solution to their problem: they’d give money to the agricultural industry and get back to punishing struggling Americans at some point in the near future. The former would get $195 billion over the next decade; the latter, for now, would get nothing.
Why should anyone care? Well, if you’re one of the millions of Americans who rely on some level of public assistance to barely get by, you should care quite a bit — the same Republicans who are cutting jobless benefits and making it harder for you to vote are now literally interfering with your ability to purchase food.
If you’re a taxpayer who cares about national priorities, you might also care that a majority of your U.S. House of Representatives is eager to give your money to agribusinesses, while equally eager to deliberately and consciously ignore the needs of the poor. For decades, the farm bill has been an easy-pass piece of legislation because it tackled both elements at the same time, but as Republicans have become radicalized, they see virtue in rewriting the old rules.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) recently boasted on MSNBC, “I’m focused on poverty these days.” Yeah, I bet he is. What Paul neglected to mention is that his focus was coming up with new ways to make those in poverty struggle more, not less.
So, what happens now, other than arguments with media professionals about why people should give a darn about this story?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/12/19434852-a-matter-of-priorities?lite
Motorcycle-turned-abortion bill advances in N.C.
By Steve Benen
Thu Jul 11, 2013 6:48 PM EDT
Yesterday, with no public notice, North Carolina state House members amended a bill on motorcycle safety to feature sweeping new restrictions on reproductive health.
A grand total of one day later, it was passed.
Democratic state Rep. Nathan Baskerville noted during the debate, “We’re being tutored by the Republican majority about what big government really looks like.”
Indeed, as Rachel explained on the show last night, the GOP bill is poised to close 15 of the state’s 16 clinics where abortion services are provided.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/11/19421431-motorcycle-turned-abortion-bill-advances-in-nc?lite
Total Hate
Posted by mistermix at 7:56 am .
Jul122013
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In Alex Pareene’s review of the book This Town that DougJ posted yesterday, there’s this aside:
One of the manifestations of Obama’s attitude towards DC is the way he treats the press. He doesn’t even bother to fuck with them the way Bush did by giving them nicknames and making cutting little remarks about their appearance. He just tolerates them the way an old dog tolerates a puppy. He tries to pretend they don’t exist, and gives them a nip when they get on his nerves. Since the DC press corpse can’t just sit down and write a story with the headline “Obama hates us”, it all leaks out in oblique references to how “aloof” or “cool” he is, and how he doesn’t have the right number of the right kind of drinks with Members of Congress.
Obama’s clear and longstanding hatred of the DC press is probably a little part of the reason that lefty bloggers expected more from him, since we both view them as an anachronism, obstacle and enemy.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/07/12/total-hate/
MSNBC’s Joy Reid: GOP Immigration Plan ‘Sounds Like Indentured Servitude,’ They Don’t Want ‘More Brown People’
by Josh Feldman | 4:21 pm, July 11th, 2013
On Now with Alex Wagner, Wagner got into a heated argument with Republican congressman Raúl Labrador over the party’s immigration platform and whether the GOP is doing a good job reaching out to minority voters. Wagner et al. clearly still believe they haven’t, with panelist Joy Reid saying today that the Republicans’ immigration plan “sounds like indentured servitude” and they just don’t want more “brown people” in the United States.
Business Insider’s Josh Barro said that the Republicans may end up going with an amendment proposed by Rand Paul that would cut a pathway to citizenship. Wagner remarked that it basically means illegal immigrants will have to pay taxes, but won’t be able to vote.
Reid couldn’t help but think this proposal bears too many similarities to indentured servitude.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/msnbcs-joy-reid-gop-immigration-plan-sounds-like-indentured-servitude-they-dont-want-more-brown-people/
White People Won’t Save You
by BooMan
Thu Jul 11th, 2013 at 07:03:08 PM EST
Alan I. Abramowitz and Ruy Teixeira understate the stupidity and futility of the GOP doubling-down on the all-white electoral strategy. Why? Because, while they prove that the strategy won’t work, they neglect to point out that any effort to get more of the white vote will almost by definition cause the Republicans to get even less of the nonwhite vote.
Republicans are doing pretty well with white voters currently, but to do better they need to increase the percentage of whites who see their political interests in racial us-vs.-them terms. Even if the language they use is carefully constructed, the dog whistle can be heard just as well by people of color as it can be by whites. And there a lot of whites, particularly the younger generations, who are as hostile to racial messaging as blacks, Latinos, and Asians. You don’t just add white votes when you engage in this kind of politics; you lose some white votes, and you lose even more minority votes.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/7/11/1938/93689
this is why I want Harry to play Barack Obama in the movie.
……………………………………………….
Harry Lennix Takes On ‘The Butler’ – Says Lee Daniels ‘N*ggerfies It,’ Calls It ‘Historical Porn’
…Which leads me to asking do you constantly have to think about the
image you are portraying as black man every time to do a role?
“I think about it every day and any time that a role is
offered, and believe me lots of crummy roles are offered. But at this
point people know better than to mess with me with a lot of these
things. For example Lee Daniels sent me the script for that film he’s
making now, The Butler, about the black butler at the White House. I
read five pages of this thing and could not go any further. I tried to
read more of it, and I’m not a soft spoken guy, but it was such an
appalling mis-direction of history in terms of taking an actual guy who
worked at the White House. But then he “niggerfies” it. He “niggers” it
up and he gives people these, stupid, luddite, antediluvian ideas about
black people and their roles in the historical span in the White House
and it becomes… well… historical porn. I refused.”
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/harry-lennixs-take-on-lee-daniels-the-butler-and-it-aint-pretty
GO HARRY! I’m sooo feeling you. “The Butler” looks like “The Help” with a penis.
HARRIET TUBMAN WE NEED YOU!!!
You and your gun
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Black People for Paula” Group To Host a “We Forgive You, Paula” Rally in Times Square
JULY 11, 2013 BY CLUTCH
“Black People for Paula,” want you to know that Paula Deen supporters aren’t just white people who are mad they can’t use the “N-word.” There are black people standing in solidarity with the disgraced cook show host, who admitted to planning a slavery-themed wedding and calling black people racist slurs.
Said black people have created a fanpage called “Black People for Paula,” detailing why they’ve forgiven Paula Deen for her “mistake.” An excerpt from their page:
“The word Paula used was horrible. She has admitted that what she said was wrong and hurtful. She gave an extremely heartfelt apology and I forgive her, my family forgives her and the African American community forgives her. We have all made at least one mistake that we wish never happened. Paula Deen should not have to continue to suffer for one mistake. […] Black leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton have forgiven Paula. The Black community has forgiven Paula, it’s time for us all to open our hearts and give this good woman a second chance.”
Who wants to tell them Paula’s under fire for more than just one word?
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/07/black-people-for-paula-group-to-host-a-we-forgive-you-paula-rally-in-times-square/
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone. Soon and very soon, the Zimmerman trial will be over.
Thanks for holding it down on Open Threads, Rikyrah!