Archive for March, 2010
Waking Sleeping Beauty
We highly recommend going to see Waking Sleeping Beauty, a documentary about Walt Disney Animation in its darkest days (the abysmal Black Cauldron) through its renaissance and creative zenith in the mid-90s.
It’s fascinating for a great many reasons.
(1) We love the classic Disney fairytales, even when they are complete misses like Princess & the Frog or weird mashups of fairytales and real-life or literary stories, like Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame. We’ll see every Disney animated movie, at least once — but only repeatedly watch the best of them, like Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty & the Beast. All it takes, honestly, to start the waterworks is the merest hint of “Tale As Old As Time”, sung by either Angela Lansbury or Celine Dion. And someday we all hope to earn an epitaph as perfectly poetic as Howard Ashman’s, “the man who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul”. To see how Ashman was brought into Disney to bring that voice and soul to projects was an incredible treat.
(2) We remember seeing The Black Cauldron in theaters and thinking how terrible it was. It was the first time in any of our lives that we saw people actually get up and leave the theater and not stay until the end credits (which some of our mothers always made us watch to the very end, because people worked hard on the film and it was disrespectful not to see their acknowledgments). That movie was just terrible. In Waking Sleeping Beauty, we learned it made less than The Care Bears Movie at the box office — and that movie was bad, too. Though we still love us some care bears.
(3) It was amazing to see what a simple ragtag operation Disney Animation was, even when creating Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast. Sure, they had studio millions behind them, but the core of everything done was just a group of oddballs and misfits working hard at what they loved, creating magic. We found that truly inspiring — and hope others watching the movie realize that they, too, can create magic like that if they set their minds to it, work hard, and never give up no matter what the challenges are.
(4) The movie briefly touched on the episode where corporate raiders tried to take down Disney and sell it off into constituent parts in the 80s, the way Richard Gere’s character in Pretty Woman used to take apart companies, break them up, and make more from their destruction than he would have running them. Years ago, we read a book called something like Raiding the Magic Kingdom, all about this episode. The movie doesn’t go that deeply into the “greenmailing” that went on, but a Jewish New York corporate raider came dangerously close to destroying Disney for profit — in the book, it’s noted one of the only things that stopped him was the Jewish community, who refused to allow this man to take down Disney because it was an American institution and they were afraid of a massive backlash against Jews everywhere for destroying part of Americana. So, instead, that corporate raider “greenmailed” Disney into buying back all his shares at a huge profit to himself, lest he bring the whole company down.
(5) It’s amazing how much the personalities of the executives, and their interactions with one another, impacted the company.
We’ve said many times before that the entertainment industry is a great deal like politics. These movies showing the behind the scenes of a movie studio make us think about all the behind the scenes in Congress, campaigns, and the White House. It’s fascinating to watch archival footage of Disney executives insisting Pocahontas was going to be a massive hit, while The Lion King was sure to be a mediocre success. Those fools also believe The Black Cauldron would be the greatest Disney film of all time.
In retrospect, all of these bad decisions are easy to spot, and hindsight is 20/20.
We can’t help thinking about the Democrat Party in this way, and looking at everything they have done to produce their own Black Cauldron with this Obamacare bill. Every time we read another propaganda piece in the NY Times or TIME claiming this will help Democrats in November, we’re going to remember all of those suits at Disney who deluded themselves to believe some of their worst films were going to be their biggest successes.
In Waking Sleeping Beauty, it was clear the amount of time and energy invested in bad ideas became too great for anyone to put the brakes on these projects and let cooler, saner heads prevail. They set themselves on a course to destruction, investing everything in bad ideas, and the structure of the company and all its employees just wouldn’t allow them to change direction mid-course to avert the disaster we in the audience knew was coming.
That’s so similar to what we feel today, watching the reality of Obamacare set in.
America will be okay in the end, because the coming elections and court challenges will see to it that this madness is put in check — but the Democrat Party will never recover from what it’s done to itself.
Just as Disney’s self-inflicted wounds and myopia almost did it in more than a few times.
See You In November Video
Everyone who has the talent and time to make videos like this should start doing it. It’s very cute, and very well-done. The more of them the better.
Research: Can you find all the companies who are stating how much of a hit they'll take under Obamacare this year?
Can you list in this thread all the companies that have announced how much Obamacare will cost them this year?
So far, we’ve seen:
(1) Boeing = $150 million hit
(2) Prudential = $100 million hit
Please include a link to the source article.
All of this should be compiled into a table that also shows how much the average worker at these companies makes.
Then, we can figure out just how many jobs will be on the line because of Obamacare’s costs — since we all know full well salary and bonus cuts in the C-suite won’t be used to make up for those lost millions, and shareholders won’t allow any less dividends to be paid to them.
That $150m at Boeing and $100m at Prudential will be recouped by the companies in higher costs passed on to customers, as well as savings from layoffs.
What other companies are telegraphing their job cuts while announcing their Obamacare financial hits?
Say what you want about Nancy Pelosi, but Drudge is right, she looks great
Drudge ran a headline this morning noting how great Nancy Pelosi looks for a 70 year old.
We don’t think she’s a good Speaker of the House. We believe she might actually be a criminal, in that she knew about the abuses of Congress critters like Eric Massa and Charlie Rangel long before they came to public light — not to mention all the lies she’s told and underhanded games she’s played in her quest to undermine our national intelligence agencies.
We’ve met her in person and she’s rude, dismissive, and aristocratic. She has about a minute’s worth of prepared speech to deliver to a member of the public on about a dozen topics, and after that she seems lost, confused, and more than a little panic-stricken as she frantically blinks some kind of code to her handlers to be moved on to the next person waiting to shake her hand.
But, we need to give credit where credit is due and note how right Drudge is — she does look amazing for 70. To be honest, she looks great for 40.
If we didn’t know how old she was, we’d swear she was in her early 50s, tops.
It’s a real shame she doesn’t take care of the country, and our Constitution, as well as she does herself.
And that she doesn’t share her anti-aging secrets with the rest of us.
Wednesday Open Thread: March 30th, 2010
What’s on your minds this Wednesday?
What are people talking about in your part of the country?
Another Day, Another Horror Story from Dubai
Here’s another story of Westerners being jailed in Dubai for “outraging local standards of decency”.
The Religion of Peace takes personal insults very seriously, and almost everything on Earth is insulting to Islam.
In this particular instance, a 56 year old man has been prohibited from leaving Dubai since August of 2009 because an 18 year old Iraqi teenager accused him of giving him “the finger”.
Making a rude gesture is an offense to Islam, and as such is punishable for six months in prison.
The 56 year old British man, in our opinion, is a fool for ever going to Dubai. It would be interesting to start monitoring all the Westerners, especially British people, who find themselves prisoners in the United Arab Emirates for kissing, drinking alcohol, “making rude gestures”, or otherwise offending Islam.
Typically, we only hear about this when we’re on Drudge and they run an item like this in the headlines, but we wonder what we’re missing by not actively researching this.
We’ve told you before the it’s Robby’s sister Ann-Louise’s dream to someday live in Dubai, because she thinks it’s a futuristic paradise there.
What she doesn’t realize is how dystopian “futures” can be.
Particularly where Islam is involved.
Tuesday Open Thread: May 30th, 2010; Today in History; HillBuzz Coast to Coast
Via Wikipedia, the following are some of the interesting things that happened today in history?
- 1416 – The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund, a supporter of Antipope John XXIII, burns Jerome of Prague following a trial for heresy.
- 1431 – Hundred Years’ War: in Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. Because of this the Catholic Church remember this day as the celebration of Saint Joan of Arc.
- 1434 – Hussite Wars (Bohemian Wars): Battle of Lipany – effectively ending the war, Utraquist forces led by Diviš Bořek of Miletínek defeat and almost annihilate Taborite forces led by Prokop the Great.
- 1536 – King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives.
- 1539 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.
- 1574 – Henry III becomes King of France.
- 1588 – The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel.
- 1635 – Thirty Years’ War: the Peace of Prague (1635) is signed.
- 1642 – From this date all honours granted by Charles I are retrospectively annulled by Parliament.
- 1806 – Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson had accused Jackson’s wife of bigamy.
- 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Sixth Coalition – the Treaty of Paris (1814) is signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent.
- 1832 – The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario is opened.
- 1842 – John Francis attempts to murder Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill, London with Prince Albert.
- 1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas.
- 1859 – Westminster’s Big Ben rang for the first time in London.
- 1868 – Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern “Memorial Day“) is observed in the United States for the first time (By “Commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic” John A. Logan‘s proclamation on May 5).
- 1871 – The Paris Commune falls.
- 1876 – Ottoman sultan Abd-ul-Aziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murat V.
- 1879 – New York City‘s Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
- 1883 – In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede that crushes twelve people.
- 1911 – At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race.
- 1913 – First Balkan War: the Treaty of London, 1913 is signed ending the war. Albania becomes an independent nation.
- 1914 – The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
- 1917 – Alexander I becomes king of Greece.
- 1922 – In Washington, D.C. the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated.
- 1924 –Giacomo Matteotti spoke out in a speech at the lower house of the parliament against the result of the election, where the fascist used intimidation tactics.
- 1925 – In China protests erupt against the Great Powers infringing on Chinese sovereignty.
- 1941 – World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb on the Athenian Acropolis, tear down the Nazi swastika and replace it with the Greek flag.
- 1942 – World War II: 1000 British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany.
- 1948 – A dike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.
- 1958 – Memorial Day: the remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
- 1959 – The Auckland Harbour Bridge, crossing the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, is officially opened by Governor-General Lord Cobham.
- 1961 – Long time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
- 1966 – Former Congolese Prime Minister Evariste Kimba and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu.
- 1967 – At the Ascot Park in Gardena, California, daredevil Evel Knievel jumps his motorcycle over 16 cars lined up in a row.
- 1967 – The Nigerian Eastern Region declares independence as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a civil war.
- 1969 – Riots on the Caribbean island of Curaçao
- 1971 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.
- 1972 – The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout Britain.
- 1972 – In Tel Aviv members of the Japanese Red Army carry out the Lod Airport Massacre, killing 24 people and injuring 78 others.
- 1982 – Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO and the first nation to enter the alliance since West Germany‘s admission in 1955.
- 1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: the 33-foot high “Goddess of Democracy” statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
- 1998 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.
What’s on your minds today?
We encourage you to use this thread to tell us and everyone out there what the people in your home towns are talking about, what’s on the minds of your family members, and what you think are the most important stories in the news today.
