Eddie Murphy's new comedy, a great television show and a disturbing documentary are in this week's DVD column.

Norbit

All great comedians have developed personas or styles of comedies. Charlie Chaplin had his tramp character. The Marx Brothers were anarchists. Jim Carrey is a maniac. And Eddie Murphy is now the guy who specializes in multiple roles accomplished by his considerable acting ability and tons of make-up by the great Rick Baker.

There's not much new ground here in "Norbit," though. Murphy has portrayed multiple characters before. He has played in fat suits before. He has been a female character before. He has also been the lead character in an unlikely romance.

So what is new with "Norbit" is the over-the-top villain in Rasputia, the bigger-than-life woman who attaches herself to meek and sweet Norbit early on in life. Rasputia is right up there with Cruella de Vil as a movie bad girl. The problem is she's plenty hateful, but not too funny.

In fact, this film made me laugh just three times. I have to admit, though, I was fascinated by the illusion of Murphy playing multiple roles and the DVD's extras explaining that process were very interesting.

All in all, this is a sub-par comedy.

For more information, log onto www.paramount.com/

homeentertainment.



Mission: Impossible Season Two

Time to climb into the time machine and go back to 1967 when my brother and I would end our weekends by staying up late hey, we were farm boys and it was a school night to watch "Mission: Impossible."

With intricate plots, a cool dispassionate style and the second coolest theme song on television "Peter Gunn" remains the best "Mission: Impossible" had it all.

The trouble is whether or not it still does.

Paramount has released the second season of the show, the first year with Peter Graves portraying the leader of the team that undertook a weekly covert assignment. What made the show different from other spy movies or shows is that it was a procedural drama. Every week we saw the challenge and the formation of a plan.

Of course there were some twists along the way, but this had a far more realistic feel than the James Bond films.

So do these shows hold up after 40 years? I'm happy to say, "Yes!" What I like about them is their central concept of tripping up a bad guy in such a way that their hand is never seen. Oh yes, I still have a crush on Barbara Bain. Sigh.

I much prefer these original shows to the recent Tom Cruise sort of re-makes.

For more information, log onto www.paramount.com/

homeentertainment.





The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

I bet you forgot about this footnote in the history of the Iraqi War, but you shouldn't and this chilling film underscores why.

This film is about how the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison came about and the impact the revelations made on the war effort. It questions how our troops are deployed and the effectiveness of torture in gathering intelligence.

Most importantly, it looks into how a group of Army Reservists could fall into the mindset of not questioning the very behaviors they had been taught to avoid by living under the rules of the Geneva Convention.

Extensive interviews with the soldiers involved in the torture and Iraqis unjustly imprisoned at Abu Ghraib and later released are matched with still and video images of the torture incidents.

This is strong stuff. I can't help but think that most people watching this film wouldn't question the basic foundations of the conflict itself.

For more information, log onto http://www.hbo.com

/docs/programs/ghostsofabughraib/index.html.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

So can my friends and relatives who support this administration possibly comment on the following debacle? For the life of me I can't understand why there are still people who think that Bush and Company are right when so much of what they do is desperately wrong.

So did you hear about the American taxpayer-funded Arabic language television station that is supposed to win over the hearts and minds in the Middle East, but has been actually presenting pro-terrorist and anti-Semitic messages because the Americans who run it can't speak Arabic?

ABC News has the story on its web site here dated May 22

It seems the Bush Administration has allocated $63 million a year to the station but doesn't have a clue what it's broadcasting.

Amazing, isn't it?

How would you use $63 million a year? More cops on the street? More recovery efforts for New Orleans? More teachers?

And what about the border patrol guard on the Canadian border who apparently ignored the message he was to detain and isolate that idiot attorney running around the world with damn near incurable tuberculosis?

Which one of them has the least regard for public safety?

Do you wonder why we are so paranoid about the Mexican border, but the Canadian border gets scant attention from a homeland security status? Maybe it will now.

***

I hope someone is going to do a sociological study of the baseball cap soon as I find it amusing that on one end we have guys who carefully preserve the metallic stickers on the bills of the hat, while on the other we have kids spending $40 or more getting a hat that is pre-worn.

Can you imagine the sweatshop in China where they make perfect hats in one section of the factory and then another unit takes a sander to them? What the heck do you think those workers think of us?

For that matter I wonder what these folk think as they make all of the "decorative" stuff one finds in dollar stores or the Christmas Tree Shop? What are they thinking as they're spray painting garden gnomes?

***

You know I've been wondering if people who watch local television news really want to be scared all the time? Everything on their tease commercials is somehow a threat or an answer to a threat.

Life is scary enough just with day-to-day stuff. Do we really need more fright?

Conventional wisdom is that sex sells, but if you're afraid of FCC fines, then I suppose the next best thing is a little homegrown terror.

In the spirit of cooperating with my electronic colleagues, allow me to make some suggestions when a slow news day threatens:

"Is your dog thirsty? We'll tell you how a filled water bowl can make a difference."

"Experts say pasting a $20 bill on your forehead and walking through an urban center at 2 a.m. is asking for trouble. We'll tell you how to avoid that danger."

"Looking both ways before crossing a street saved this local boy's life. Find out how turning your head and looking could save your life, too."

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

More from eBay!

I couldn't resist this item: a British publication aimed at boys ("Boy's Cinemas" gives it away) that presents novelizations of action pictures.

This one features my favorite cowboy star Tom Tyler, the B-western star who had one of the most interesting careers in movies.

What is so amazing is that a western such as "Riding Through" is no great shakes and yet it's treated here as a major production worthly of some uncredited writer adapting the script into a novella.

The story is illustrated with stills from the film and I was interested to see that apparently this picture – independently made – was distributed by the British arm of Universal in the United Kingdom.

The weekly publication had several other novelizations as well as movie news.

My friend Richard Gordon, the last of a generation of indpendent filmmakers, told me he and his late brother Alex (also a notable indie producer) read "Boy's Cinema" regularly. And look what happened to them!

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Hey, I want these two fonts based on the title cards of Fleischer cartoons! I know I'm not an graphic artist, but I still want them.

I want to use these on stationary, etc. They are beautiful.

Fleischer fonts

Damon Wayans was a cool guy – very professional yet funny and loose at the same time. It was a pleasure to speak and with him and I would have liked to have asked him about his movie career, but I ran out of time.

So why is the star of the successful ABC sit-com "My Wife and Kids" as well as an alumnus of "In Living Color" and "Saturday Night Live" and the star or co-star in a dozen movies touring the country performing stand-up in small clubs?

Damon Wayans laughed and said, "I'm still in shock why I'm doing this."

He quickly explained, though, that of all of the things he has done in show business from acting to writing to directing nothing "gives me the same joy" as performing live and alone on stage.

Wayans will be coming to the Comedy Connection at the Hu Ke Lau in Chicopee on June 2.

He said there is no better way to test your skills and timing as a comedian than performing live.

His fame doesn't allow him to coast.

"You have a grace period of about five minutes. If you're not funny, they're start yelling at you," he said. "You constantly have to prove yourself."

He said the stand-up tour was a "tune-up" for a television special he will be shooting on June 27 and 28. When asked what network it will be on, Wayans laughed, and said, "Whoever spends the most money."

Wayans is well known for pushing the comedy envelope. He recently was banned from The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles for three months for repeating the "n-word" on stage.

Wayans said that he apologizes to his audiences up-front.

"I will offend you tonight," he said.

For him, comedians are "the voice of the people."

"If you stop comedians from telling a joke, you stop the masses from expressing their point of view," he said.

Weighing in on the firing of Don Imus for saying "nappy headed hos" on his radio show, Wayans said that Imus shouldn't have been dismissed. He said he thought Imus was "speaking matter of factly. I didn't feel any malice. He was trying to be cool."

Commenting on the love-hate relationship many comics have when they land a television sit-com, Wayans pulled no punches. "I love the money and I hate everything else."

Wayans is currently working on launching his own web site, www.wayouttv.com, which will feature new comedy shows designed for Internet audiences. He said he doesn't understand why the television networks aren't designing new programs for a web-based audience instead of developing new shows.

His site should be up June 1 and will feature a sketch comedy troupe. If a character does well, Wayans hopes to launch more shows.

Movies hold little interest for Wayans right now. He said unless you have written the film and "want to protect the baby," being an actor for hire isn't appealing.

"I don't want to play the third lead in a Charlie Sheen movie, if you know what I mean," Wayans said laughing. "That's nothing against Charlie Sheen."

He said he makes sure to connect with an audience on their terms. He doesn't get on stage and talk about his life as a star.

"I talk about stuff they can relate to," he said.

He knows that some fans have misconceptions about the life of a person in show business.

Believe or not he said, he does not spend every day waking up with four women in bed, followed by his butler delivering breakfast, then spending all day hanging with other celebrities and ending it with five women.

"Well, not every day," he added.

Instead he'll wake up at 3 a.m. with ideas that he is compelled to write down.

"I work hard. My brain is calloused," he said.

He said the people he knows who excel in their field are the ones who work the hardest.

He said his friend, basketball great Michael Jordan, was the first one in the gym and the last one to leave.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Hey I was the radio again.

I love radio. Always have since I was a mere boy and beardless youth. While I love writing and publishing, there is something so seductive about talk radio. You can be angry or funny or creative or smart or all of the above or none of the above from segment to segment. It's a blast.

I was on a talk station, WREB, from 1982 to 1987 as the afternoon drive shift host. Ah, to be a liberal voice during the height of the Reagan years. I got the best hate mail.

Once I understood that station management paid no attention to the content of my show I had a ball. I worried about the listeners and the advertisers.

A partial guest list from those shows would include: Governor Michael Dukakis, Senator George McGovern, Attorney General Elliot Richard, Sidney Shelton, Vincent Price, Lillian Gish, George Romero, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Lucie Arnez, Cassandra Peterson, Larry Cohen, Barry Morse, Clarence Nash and many more.

Hey at the end of my interview with the Lone Ranger himself, Clayton Moore, he remarked that I really knew his career and gave me an "Adios amigo." The memory of that moment still brings tears to my eyes.

People used to asky my wife why she worked if I was on radio. She made more than I did! Five bucks an hour with $1 extras for every live endorsement I did. That's right: every man has his price and mine was a dollar.The spot I had to do for "Cold Stick," a plastic tube filled with anti-freeze that you would put in the freezer and then shove up your backside to relieve the pain of hemorroids was my favorite.

Well anyway, I was a guest on Bill Dwight's show over WHMP radio in Northampton, MA, discussing local politics yesterday. Bill's a good host and a good guy. I've known him for years and I worked for his father as a reporter on the Holyoke Transcript Telegram.

I don't hold that against him, though.

If you want to listen, click below. I'm on the second half hour.

Bill Dwight's May 29th show on WHMP radio

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Memorial Day musing...

Yeah, this will undoubtedly tick off a few folks who will first tell me I don't have the right to feel this way because I don't understand geo-politics, the big picture.

And maybe I'm just a little soft on the whole terrorism thing. Or maybe I just don't understand the political process.

Well, everyone needs a little justification to get through the day and the 25 percent of the nation that still beleives in Bush's plan for the Middle East – nation-building – and making the nation safe from terrorists need to beleive that everyone else is wrong or their own value system might take a tumble.

I did not serve in the military, but I grew up in a military family as my dad was a three-war, 26-year veteran of the Air Force.

My father never voted in an election while he was in the Air Force as he said his opinion was that folks in the armed services should be politically neutral.

I've wondered if he would have thought the same today.

Well, another point he would like to make is that it doesn't matter what a recruiter promised a person as they were signing up, it only mattered if a President and a Congress lived up to those promises.

The fate of the American military is not in the hands of their professional commanders, but is the responsibility of elected officials.

The president likes to call himself "the Decider," and has routinely criticized members of Congress who want the Iraq war over as people who want to "micro-manage" and "politicize" the conflict.

Apparently that is what Congress believes as well with the gutless and pointless deal they struck last week with The Decider over continued war funding.

The common reaction from many pundits is that the Democrats don't want to be seen as people who've cut funding from the troops a political weakness that might be exploited in future elections.

So American and innocent Iraqi lives are being put in jeopardy because some senator or representative is concerned about a smear ad back in the district.

There are many reasons to consider the cowardice of their actions. Let me give you 3,425 of them: the American dead as of May 23.

Here's 26,188 more reasons: the wounded who've come back home.

By the way, what The Decider hasn't decided to talk about is the wounded very much. More than 4,600 Iraq vets have suffered a severe head or brain injury. What is going to be the long-term costs of care for them?

The amputation rate in Iraq is nearly double that of other wars. More than 1,300 soldiers have lost a limb. What is the cost for their care?

If you want more statistics, log onto www.motherjones.com/iraq_for_dummies.

Don't these men and women, whose lives have been ended or altered forever, who have demonstrated the principles of honor and duty, shouldn't they expect the same kind of courage from members of Congress? It shouldn't be difficult for the House and Senate to show this kind of backbone because they are being backed up by a majority of the American people who sent a clear message during the last election that the war should end.

This war and now the Democrat's failure to take a stand are among the most shameful events in the history of this nation.

The blood of the dead is not longer just a stain on The Decider's hands. It is on every member of Congress who supported this "compromise."

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

(That's me pointing my finger at another newspaper guy while on a panel at Western New England College)

Well, today is my birthday...the same as John F.Kennedy, Patrick Henry and Bob Hope. At 53 I'm not considered "old," as "old" is now when one reaches the eighth decade of life and beyond.

There are times when I feel much younger than some of the younger people with whom I work: people who have very strict rules and outlooks on life and act far more conservatively (not in a political sense) than I did at that age.

At least how I remember I acted. I could be wrong here. Maybe I was a putz as well.

But there are times when I'm not able to keep up or even understand the popular culture and that does make you feel out of touch.

A bit of wisdom that has come after 53 years: One fact of which I'm sure, the two most previous commodities one have in life is love and time. If you have support and the time to accomplish things, life is sweet. I've been very lucky in having a soul mate for the past 28 years-plus and for having time within my field of interest to accomplish a few of the things I 've wanted to do.

I've not made much money. I've been screwed over by people I've thought were my friends. I've taken hits that I didn't deserve. But all of that has made much more bearable thanks to my wife and true friends.

Thank you.

Go over to That's Thirty for a new post.

Documentaries dominate this week's DVD column.

Secrets of the Dead: Dogfight over Guadalcanal

This PBS series re-examines historical events and this episode is compelling even if you're not a history fan.

During the battle of Guadalcanal during World War II, two fighter pilots, one American and one Japanese engaged in one of the more talked about dogfights during the war. While the aerial dual was well documented, there remained many questions about it the primary one being why the American pilot didn't shoot down his enemy when he had a perfect opportunity.

Using the memoirs of the pilots and going to Guadalcanal to find the remains of the American plane, this program provides the answers sought by many aviation and war historians.

The film does more than discuss history it puts it in a human perspective. It looks at both pilots and their lives.

Even if you don't like aviation or World War II history, this film will fascinate you.

For more information, log onto www.pbs.org.

Heavy Petting

By using clips from vintage dating and sex education films along with interviews with 1990s hipsters, director Obie Benz hoped to come up with a funny yet somehow revealing documentary about how Americans have viewed dating and sex.

The result is an unfocused production that really doesn't say much that we don't already know: kids are attracted, mystified and horrified by the opposite sex and no matter what adults do, we can't prevent confusion and mis-information.

Hearing Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Spalding Grey and Allan Ginsberg recount their sexual development is just stupid. Who cares?

The various dating, sex education and venereal disease film clips from the 1940s and '50s are also supposed to be hilarious and some of them are pretty funny. How the director has positioned the clips in the film, however, feels pretty random.

This two-disc set has all of those vintage films intact and, frankly, they are far more interesting as cultural artifacts. The VD films from the 1940s, intended to convince military personnel of the importance of safe sex, are far from camp, though, and are extremely explicit.

For more information, log onto www.docurama.com.

The 131st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show: Special Collector's Edition

If you're a dog lover like I am, you probably catch a little of the annual broadcast of the venerable contest but never really have the chance to see the entire event until now.

This two-disc set has the complete broadcast and a ton of features. Set aside four hours to see it all.

Although I really liked the show, our dog, Lucky the Wonder Bichon, didn't pay too much attention to it. I think he was a little jealous.

For more information, go to www.newvideo.com

One Punk Under God: The Prodigal Son of Jim and Tammy Faye

Remember Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the PTL television ministry empire? Their son Jay is now a minister and is the subject of a six-part mini-series originally broadcast on the Sundance Channel last year. Made by the same team of filmmakers who produced the documentary "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," this show is one that anyone interested in religion or American popular culture should see.

Unlike his father, whose vision was to build commercial developments with religious themes, Jay simply wants to spread a message of God's unconditional love in ways that clearly impress and confound his father. The younger Bakker has helped set up Revolution, a dogma-free church that has made its home in bars and coffee shops and has reached people who would never go to a conventional church.

The series has several points of conflict. One story line revolves around Jay's decision to embrace the concept of not discriminating against gays, which causes his main financial backer to drop him. Two more concerns are his mother's fight against cancer and his strained relationship with his father.

What fascinated me about the show was how the soap opera/reality show elements were de-emphasized and how the filmmakers showed a young man who is dealing with issues of faith both as his calling and in his life.

For more information, log onto www.docurama.com

G 2007 vy Gordon Michael Dobbs

Hey, here's the cover of my book by the uber-talented artist (not the race car driver) Mark Martin. I'm quite excited. The good folks at BearManor Media will be bringing this tome out later this year.

As I've written before here, this is a collection of animation articles I've written over the years with updated information. There are plenty of interviews with voice actors, animators, etc.

***

Puzzling evidence: I went to a Burger King the other day for the first time in many years and noticed as I was dispensing my own soda there were recommendations posted on the soda machine.

Just like you would ask the wine steward at a good restaurant to suggest a wine to go along with your meal, Burger King now suggests which soda to go with which sandwich. I never knew that Dr. Pepper went better with one mass-produced burger than another.

That's what I love about life you learn something new everyday.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

I meant to put this up here weeks ago, but it slipped my mind. "Grindhouse" was a great experience and was an intersection of two of my pet film theories. The first is "Trash chic," in which film elements once commonly thought as bad by mainstream critics and audiences are lauded by niche audiences. Interestingly enough, while "trash chic" was once the province of film nuts and fan boys celebrating the "it's so bad it's good" aesthetic, it's now considered almost mainstream.

The other theory is "The Movie Boys" in which there is now a handful of directors whose roots are not in journalism, fiction, still photography or theater, but in the appreciation of film. Sam Raimi and Joe Dante are two examples. They reference favorite films and use actors whom they admired as fans. Richard and Alex Gordon were the first "movie boys," especially Alex, who sought out characters actors he loved – he tried always to find a place in his films for Frank Lacteen, for example.

Anyway, I loved "Grindhouse," although the Tarantino sequence was too talky.


For many of us who grew up during the drive-in era, the new movie "Grindhouse" brought forth a number of memories about that movie-going experience.

The recently released film is a double feature of two new movies that capture the spirit of drive-in classics. The three-hour show is complete with trailers for other outrageous films that don't exist. The only thing that could make the experience more authentic is if the stereophonic sound was replaced with the tinny noise that used to come out of those speakers that hung on your car's window.

Although "Grindhouse" had great reviews, industry pundits noted it didn't make the money its opening weekend many thought it would. "Grindhouse" is not a film for everyone. In many ways it has the specialized appeal of an art house film. While I think its hyper-violence is so over the top it becomes satiric, the zombie blasting of "Planet Terror" and the serial killer antics of "Death Proof" might offend others.

Unless you lived in a major city, you couldn't experience a real "grindhouse" the movie industry term for a theater that ran about 18 hours a day with continuous showings of both main stream Hollywood fare and exploitation movies.

In markets such as Western Massachusetts, though, the place for low-budget exploitation films were drive-ins such as the Airline in Chicopee, E.M. Loew's in West Springfield, or the Parkway in Wilbraham.

With the weakening of the major studios in the late 1940s due to Supreme Court decisions that made them divest their theater holdings and the rise in the popularity of television, there was an opening for independent productions and foreign imports. There was also a rise in the teen population and the explosion of the suburb that created a new market for theaters located outside of traditional urban settings.

Add those ingredients with the fact that theater owners were investing in drive-in theaters and eager to try new productions to lure people away from their television sets, and you had everything you needed to create a fascinating 30-year slice of American movie history.

The restrictions of television carefully censored productions shown on a small screen in black and white were used by independent producers to their advantage. They realized they did have big stars or big budgets. To make their films work, they emphasized elements that the major studios shunned: controversial drama, sex, skin, actions and violence.

The producers frequently used the horror, crime and science fiction genres as their vehicles of choice.

The delirious violence and action in "Grindhouse" is way out of the budget league of the filmmakers Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino emulated. The two contemporary directors, though, effectively caught the subversive qualities of the exploitation film.

Although many people who made these low-budget wonders took pride in their work, the goal was not art, but money. The producers were more concerned with box office receipts than with reviews.

I must admit that after seeing "Grindhouse" my first reaction was to go through my videotape and DVD collection and assemble my own double-bills. Here are some suggestions if you want to continue the "Grindhouse" experience in your own home.

Something Weird Video (www.somethingweird.com) is the home for a wide variety of forgotten films and they feature some double feature DVDs. One great set is "Blood Suckers/Blood Thirst," a pair of films that have the very exploitable word of "blood" in their titles. Starring Peter Cushing and Patrick MacNee, "Blood Suckers" is an odd vampire film set in Greece and England that revolves around academics (!), while "Blood Thirst" is a vampire tale set in the Philippines that mixes the conventions of that genre with those of the detective fiction.

Another hysterical double feature is "Death Curse of Tartu/ Sting of Death," a pair of horror films from Florida director William Grefe. You haven't lived until you've seen a walking jellyfish man!

Something Weird also features collections of previews from dozens of drive-in movies. Since previews have to show you enough of the good parts to lure you to a show, they are frequently more entertaining than the actual movie.

Parents should be aware there is adult material on the Something Weird site.

There are dozens and dozens of drive-in movies available on DVD. Producer Roger Corman specialized in these films and among my favorites are "Death Race 2000," a darkly funny look at America's future, and "Hollywood Boulevard," a film that first time directors Allan Arkush and Joe Dante did for Corman on a remarkably low budget.

Corman produced a number of films in the Philippines that offered low labor costs and good filmmakers such as director Eddie Romero. Romero's trilogy of "Mad Doctor of Blood Island," "Brides of Blood" and "Beast of Blood" would make one of those great "all night" shows all the drive-ins featured.

While the era of the drive-in and the grindhouse is over, the films they featured live on and can still provide some low-rent guilty pleasures.

© 2007 by G. Michael Dobbs

Ah, joooooooooooooooooy!

There are so few films more blissfully complete in their wrongness as "From Here it Came." If you thought The Mummy was a slow moving monster, wait until you see a walking – kind of – living pissed off tree! How could you not love the great Paul Blaisdell's design of the tree god Taranga? Seriously! And that hideous close-up of supposedly handsome Tod Andrews? And the scene in which doctors "operate" on Taranga?

When will Hollywood make a big budget remake of this drive-in classic? When? When? But no CGI. Taranga must be imagined in loving latex.

Perhaps Nicholas Cage will read this and want to remake the film as his latest in a string of really bad career decisions.

One can dream.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Here's a press release I received today. Interesting food for thought. I'll be curious to see how far this gets in the corporate owned press.

Bush Proposes Weakening of Federal Alternative Fuel Standards Today


Rose Garden appearance falsely portrays proposal as improving standards


In a Rose Garden appearance today, President Bush cynically portrayed his "20-in-10" alternative fuel standard as improving current federal fuel economy standards. In fact, the proposal is considerably weaker than current targets signed into law in 1992 by George Bush Sr.

“The president's policy is a retreat, not an advance. It would weaken existing federal targets for alternatives to petroleum fuel, not improve them,” said Julie Teel, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate, Air, Energy Program. “This shameful ploy proves that the president still doesn’t understand the dire consequences of global warming."

Reiterating the State of the Union address, today's speech will call for the replacement of 20% of U.S. gasoline consumption with alternative fuels by 2017 (i.e. "20-in-10”). This is much weaker than current federal targets established by the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which was developed in response to energy dependence issues raised by the first Gulf War. The 1992 law mandated the replacement of 10% of petroleum motor-fuel consumption with alternative fuels by the year 2000 and 30% by 2010. To attain this goal, the law first required a replacement of 75% of federally owned vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles by 1999. The Department of Energy was then required to determine if extension of the regulation to municipal and corporate fleets is necessary to meet the national 30% reduction target. If so, the Department is required to institute alternative fuel standards for municipal and corporate fleets.

The federal government violated the Energy Policy Act by not converting its own fleets to alternative fuel vehicles and not establishing a municipal and corporate standard when it was clear that federal action alone was insufficient. The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth sued over these violations, winning one court order in 2002 and two more in 2006 requiring compliance with both aspects of the law.

In response, the federal government has increased the number of fuel efficient vehicles in its fleets. However, it has continued to refuse setting alternative fuel vehicle requirements for municipal and corporate fleets. Instead, on March 15, 2007, it issued a ruling which delayed the compliance date for a 30% reduction from 2010 to 2030. The rule is vigorously opposed by environmental groups and likely be challenged in court.

"The time for political games and pandering to opponents of meaningful alternative fuel requirements and greenhouse gas emissions caps is over," said Teel. Climate science shows that emissions must be reduced by 80% or more in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Reducing gasoline use is part of the solution, but to safeguard our children's future, we need rapid progress toward that goal, not a delay of twenty years."

Information on the Energy Policy Act and the Bush Administration’s refusal to implement it: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/programs/policy/energy/EPAct.html.

Information on the Bush Administration's decision to delay Energy Policy Act goals by 20 years: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/energy-policy-09-07-2006.html

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Hey, new stuff over at Animation Review!

***
One of my great pleasures in life is to look through a box of my stuff at home and discover things that I’ve forgotten about completely.

It’s like a getting yourself a present and not spending any money.

I found a plastic bag with a number of clippings of pages from the former “Springfield Union” from the late 1930s. I can’t remember who gave them to me but they’re great. I love them as a movie nut and I love them for their historical significance.

We talk today about entertainment districts, but what we have today in any Western Massachusetts city pales compared to what was here almost 70 years ago.

Terry O’Donnell, of our sales staff, can reel off the names of all of the movie theaters that once called downtown Holyoke home. It’s impressive. The Paper City clearly loved the movies and nightlife. The only one standing is the Victory – an empty shell of a building that has never fulfilled the promise of its long awaited rebirth as a performing arts center.

Chicopee has theaters as well with the Rivoli being the one people still remember fondly. Westfield also had theaters downtown.

Northampton and Greenfield still have downtown theaters, but they are the last ones in this area. The downtown areas of both of those communities have maintained much of their significance as the social center of the community.

The historians and urban planners can tell you exactly how these city centers changed through jobs moving south after World War II, the growth of suburbs and the influence of television.

The film industry has changed as well. Having one screen, as all of these old movie houses had, is an almost impossible financial situation for an exhibitor today. Believe me. I ran a theater with just two screens.

If you book a bad movie, you’re stuck with a dog for weeks. In 1939, bills changed on a weekly basis. A sign that a film was a monster hit is when it was held over for several weeks.

I find it interesting the Urban Land Institute’s report on Springfield addresses the need to identify and market to key markets, two of which are empty nesters and young people who want something different than the suburbs and shopping malls. Perhaps a downtown movie theater will once again make financial sense.

And other urban centers might benefit from those strategies as well.

***
Hey log onto http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/realestate/commercial/09real.html for a great story on Springfield and how it has turned a corner. This kind of story could have never happened just a few years ago.

For those without a computer the article has a headline of “Glimmers of a Turnaround in Springfield, Mass.”

The first few paragraphs of the story by C.J. Hughes reads, “Late last century, this once-thriving New England city, like many of its neighbors, fell victim to a causal chain of events — mills closed, jobs disappeared, crime rose and residents left.

“While cities like Providence, R.I., and New Haven were revitalizing themselves, Springfield languished, with rampant mismanagement and corruption dealing further blows. By 2004 with the city facing bankruptcy proceedings, the state stepped in, appointing an outside finance board to help get Springfield’s books in order.

“But now residents, developers, brokers, financial analysts and urban planners say that the city’s long decline may finally be starting to turn around.

“In the fiscal year that ended in June 2005, for the first time since the early 1990s, the city’s budget ($470 million) was balanced and even yielded a surplus ($6.8 million). And now Springfield’s tax base is set to expand, led by major commercial development, with most of it financed privately.”

Now if we could see ourselves as others do, maybe we could make even more headway.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Here's a couple of scans from the entertainment listings from the Springfield MA, daily from the late 1930s. I can't quite imagine what is was like to have a diversified entertainment district in a city of about 170,000 people. Saturday nights must have been great!

I've got some more. Want me to post them?

Hey, go over to my animation blog for my review of "Spiderman Three."

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

I look forward to spring. I enjoy seeing the shoots of plants in the garden pop up. I enjoy the warmer temperatures. I like being awakened by the birds.

Of course, I don’t look forward to certain urban fauna. There’s the “play-my-car-stereo-so-loud-it-shakes-people’s fillings-guy.” About this time he emerges from hibernation.

Then there’s his close cousin, the “drag-my-stereo-out-to-the-back-yard-so- everyone-can-hear-my-trashy-music” guy. I think their other cousin is the “let-me-drop-the-f-word-and-the-m-f-word-bombs-as-I-walk-by-your-open-window” guy. Oh he’s a prince.

And then there are the folks who love wildlife more than me that they keep the lid to their trash can open all the time. Here’s a Ranger Mike tip: Raccoons live in the city and they love garbage cans…at 3 a.m. and again at 4 a.m.

A closed lid stops them from having a noisy meal.

It’s funny that none of these urban animals is in any of my wildlife guides. They do make city living more wild, though and not in a good sense.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Documentaries dominate this week's DVD review column.

Fired!

One might argue that when Woody Allen fired actress Annabelle Gurwitch from a play he was directing he was truly doing her a favor. Gurwitch was inspired by the incident to start producing theatrical events in which people would relate their own stories of being "let go."

Those stories helped form the foundation for Gurwitch's book, "Fired! Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized & Dismissed." The book then became this 70-minute documentary.

Having been fired three times myself, I was both amused and angered by some of the stories in the film. The stories told by both Gurwitch's celebrity friends and by every day folk are compelling.

The weakness in the film is Gurwitch herself. She comes across in many sequences as trying to be a lighter version of gadfly Michael Moore and it just doesn't work too well.

The stories of termination are the heart of the film and there are some great ones in the DVD's extras. Comedian Dana Gould's "Jimmy The Idiot" is laugh-out-loud funny.

Ultimately, the film is up lifting with the message that there is life after being fired.

Although not a thoroughly successful film, "Fired!" may be the thing to help put your own situation into perspective.

Log onto www.shoutfactory.com for more information.



The War Tapes

In 2004, filmmaker Deborah Scranton gave video cameras to several members of a New Hampshire National Guard unit deployed to Iraq. The goal was to make a film from the perspective of the people who were actually fighting the war. The result is a very powerful film that everyone should see.

The three soldiers featured in the film - Sergeant Steve Pink, Specialist Mike Moriarty and Sergeant Zack Bazzi - come to their deployment with different attitudes about the war itself but share the same objective of fulfilling their mission. The men and the soldiers in their unit are given the task of protecting supply convoys as they deliver supplies in Iraq.

Facing the risks posed by snipers and explosive devices on a daily basis, the men record both moments of horror - the death of an Iraqi woman who runs across a road during the passing of a convoy - to the mundane.

The film also follows the three men home to see how the war has affected them and how they adjust back to civilian life.

The DVD has more combat footage in its extras section and new interviews that update the three men.

This is essential viewing.

Log onto www.docurama.com for more information.



Escape to Canada

I like to think I keep up on the news, but this film surprised me as I had no idea about the events shown in this film.

In the summer of 2003, a series of legal decisions made both marijuana and gay marriage legal in our neighbor to the north and this film shows how those changes took place and what were their effects.

Part of the film deals with what some people see as a lack of a national Canadian identity and that making pot and same sex union legal gave the country a needed boost in how it looked at itself. These changes made Canada more "free" than the land of the free in some eyes.

One of the film's premises is the changes also made Canada a threat of some sort to the United States and how pressure from this country sought to overturn Canada's domestic policies.

This film is a very intriguing look at a relatively brief experiment at reforming the laws around marijuana and how legalizing same sex marriage opened the door for the landmark decision here in Massachusetts.

For more information, got to www.disinfo.com.

Terror Storm: A History of Government Sponsored Terrorism

Last year when this newspaper ran a story about a local screening of the film "Loose Change" that challenged the accepted version of the events around the Sept. 11 attacks, I had a reader call to cancel his delivery of "The Reminder." He objected to this newspaper giving any publicity to the film.

Well, I'm sure if he were angry about that story, this review of "Terror Storm" would give him a stroke.

The work of radio talk show host, writer and filmmaker Alex Jones, the film puts forth the premise that the Bush and Blair administrations have engaged in "false flag" campaigns to create reasons to go to war in the Middle East.

Jones had some very interesting documentation to support these premises and if you have an open mind, you will be riveted by this movie. Any one who is suspicious about the status quo will want to see this film. Those who can't view current events with a jaundiced eye should stay away from this production.

For more information, got to www.disinfo.com.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Western Massachusetts is an area rightly proud of its many colleges, so undoubtedly the tragedy at Virginia Tech has resonated pretty deeply here among college staff and students.

Rather than concentrate on how to reconcile student privacy issues with a system that could enable college administrators to prevent such occurrences in the future, much of the nation's professional pundits have turned their sights on the gun control issues.

There have been plenty of suggestions that if Virginia had allowed students to pack heat on campuses that some of the 32 deaths could have been avoided. The right-wingers on talk radio have been having a field day saying this terrible incidence shows how soft this nation has become.

Radio host Neal Boortz wrote the following on his web site on April 17: "How far have we advanced in the wussification of America? I am now under attack by the left for wondering aloud why these students did so little to defend themselves. It seems that standing in terror waiting for your turn to be executed was the right thing to do, and any questions as to why 25 students didn't try to rush and overpower Cho Seung-Hui are just examples of right wing maniacal bias. Surrender comply adjust. The doctrine of the left. Amazing, isn't it? Even the suggestion that young adults should actually engage in an act of self defense brings howls of protest."

In Boortz's view I guess those poor Amish kids who were killed last year were "wusses," too. It really help solves problems in a society by calling the victims names, right?

I can't imagine how parents of the slain students must be feeling when they hear such a stream of hate.

The real issues in my mind, which have been clouded by the right wing media for the purpose of ratings, are the following:

How can colleges and other educational institutions better address students with mental and emotional illnesses so they will not be a danger to themselves or others?

How can colleges prepare themselves better to respond to such emergencies? Do mass e-mails or text messages do the job?

Will we as a society ever be able to defend ourselves from the actions of individuals with a mental illness who are determined to kill themselves and other people?

Is there substantial and reliable research to indicate an armed America would prevent acts of madness?

Would having a simple waiting period and background check in Virginia prevented this event from happening?

What do you think?

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Here's part three of the Kong article. Sorry this took so long, but this week has been a grinder...not a sandwich.

We saw Dom Irrera last night and I laughed so hard at times that no sound came out of my mouth! Although at time stunningly profane, Irrera was a scream.

Veteran comedian and actor Dom Irrera is looking forward to performing in Western Massachusetts again.

"I have friends in Springfield," Irrera told Reminder Publications in a telephone interview.

His busy performing schedule just hasn't allowed a local booking for quite some time. Irrera will be at the Comedy Connection at the Hu Ke Lau on April 28.

The Philadelphia native began his career in 1980 performing stand-up comedy, acting and improvisational comedy. His big breaks came in 1986 when he appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," and in 1987 when he was part of the line-up for an HBO Rodney Dangerfield comedy special.

Since then, Irrera has been nominated six times for an American Comedy Award and won two Cable ACE awards. Besides a string of comedy specials, Irrera's comedy series on sports, "Offsides," was seen for four seasons on Comedy Central and he has appeared in numerous guest spots on television sitcoms.

Irrera is well known for his Italian ethnic humor, which comes naturally as he grew up in a three-generational Italian household.

"I always felt I was going to be a comedian," he said,

His favorite comic has been Woody Allen. Irrera has long admired Allen's writing style, although it hasn't influenced his own comedy that much.

He noted that no one has ever come up to him after a performance and said, "Man did you rip off Woody Allen with that goomba act of yours."

Ethnic humor has both its advantages and disadvantages, he said. If you stick to ethnic humor, you tend to maintain a core fan base, he explained.

A comic can broaden his or her base by performing less ethnically oriented material, Irrera said. He recalled meeting the son of the late comic and actor Red Buttons after a performance who told him his father wanted to talk with him. Irrera called him and Buttons said, "Don't paint yourself into a corner with that goomba act. Don't be an Italian comedian, be a comedian who happens to be Italian."

Irrera took the advice to heart, but he still does some Italian humor.

"It does leave a lot of the audience out, especially the Persians," he added.

Irrera has built up a side career as a voice artist for animation. He is currently recording the voice of Duke the Dog for the up-coming series based on the animated feature "Barnyard."

He has also performed voices on "Hey Arnold," "Hercules," and "Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist."

He and his fellow cast members are given a script to perform, but are allowed to improvise, which is a lot of fun for Irrera.

Irrera has also appeared in a number of movies, the best known might be his funny bit as a chauffer in "The Big Lebowski." Irrera said he is a big fan of the Coen brothers who wrote and directed the shaggy dog tale starring Jeff bridges and had no idea they had attended one of his performances.

A script came in the mail with a notation the Coens wanted him to play the role and Irrera was amazed to see they had used lines from his stand-up performance for the character.

He had no idea the film would achieve cult status and admitted the first time he saw it he didn't care for it. By the second viewing, though, he was a fan.

Irrera has had plenty of television experience on sitcoms, but he's in no rush to try to get his own.

"Beware of what you wish for," he said. "It's [sitcom work] a drag compared to stand-up."

Irrera isn't a snob. He readily admitted that he would accept a starring sitcom role if offered. "I'm not willing to go around pitching and pitching [a show]."

After more than 25 years in the business, Irrera stills enjoys the "immediate gratification" one gets from performing stand-up comedy.
© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Here's part two of the Kong article.

Something for the big monster fans

Here is the first of three posts of an article from a 1933 Popular Science story on how the sound effects were created for "King Kong." If you read it carefully, you'll notice that not all of the way it depicts the making of the film is exactly true.

Remember when comic books used to be "funny books?" No, well that's because if you're not a middle-age geezer like me, you probably never heard anyone emphasize the concept that at one point comic books were allowed to be humorous.

The field wasn't just about superheroics as it is today. There were some great books such as Sheldon Mayer's "Sugar and Spice" to the Donald Donald comics by Carl Barks. Some people still hold the John Stanley "Little Lulu" books quite dearly. And of course "Mad" stands as perhaps the greatest humor comic of them all.

Well, there's another great comic comic and the third issue is now out, "Runaway Comic" by Mark Martin. Now some of you who read this blog might just know Mark as a conservative guy who likes to poke me with a sharp stick every now and then.

He's more than that, but just to be clear he is NOT the race car driver.

I view Mark as one of the most talented cartoonists working today, but also one of the most under-appreciated. There are few people who can match his combination of a multi-layered art style with his quirk observations and recyclings of pop culture.

Although Mark has announced this is going to be the last issue of "Runaway," you should head over to www.paneltopanel.net and order all three.

I wrote this over a week ago and the terrible event at Virginia Tech pushed the national discussion of what is right and wrong in speech these days off of the media radar. The issues, of course, haven't been resolved.

What I've learned over the years – in some very bitter lessons – is that context is everything. One person can something specific in a conversation, but if another person responds in kind, it's wrong. Accusations and charges can be made about language without the context consideration.

Political context is similar. If I use critical speech in response to something nasty a righty has said, then it's unacceptable "hate" speech from me. That's what I've been told. I'm supposed to lay back and take the criticism because I deserve it as a "liberal."

Imus had no context to buffer his remarks, though. His feeble attempts at shock humor showed an inherent meaness.

The issue of "correct" speech does need to be explored, but it won't until the next time a situation such as this one arises. American society and the media have little stomach to really address this kind of thing.

It's been fascinating to see just how the talk radio industry actually the media in general has reacted to the Don Imus flap.

For those of you who have missed the incident from almost two weeks ago, the granddaddy of shock radio, Don Imus, referred to the Rutgers University womens basketball team by a term that insulted both their gender and race.

Some people have said it's just Imus doing what people expect of him: a crude comment from a once talented broadcaster who has evolved into a spent, nasty man.

What made this remark worse than the three million words of wisdom Imus has dispensed in the past is that it was aimed not at an elected official or celebrity, but at a group of young women who had taken their underdog team to the NCAA Final Four.

The conventional wisdom is that it's okay to attack people who court publicity, but not a group such as this team who were simply doing something they were supposed to do.

What has made the furor so interesting is its multiple tracks of discussion. Some talk show hosts have wondered if this is marking the beginning of a new form of censorship. Others have said that remarks made by right-wingers such as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Bill O'Reilly should also be considered grounds for their removal from their programs. Issues of politics, censorship and commercial considerations have all come into the discussions.

What Imus said was supposedly in the context of humor, something that is being obscured by some people. Imus is known for his acid wit, so can that be considered "hate speech?" Are Savage's remarks attacking gays and Muslims different than Imus' attempts at humor? That's an interesting question to ponder where is the line drawn?

And who should draw that line? Should Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton both men with checkered pasts of their own be designated as the judges of correct speech? I hope not.

What isn't being spoken about is what is correct speech and what isn't, especially in the context of comedy. The late comedian Lenny Bruce, who served jail time for using profanity, would be gob-smacked to see what is generally accepted today.

Profanity is easier to define and control perhaps than the issues of race, gender and sex.

Carlos Mencia on Comedy Central has a weekly series largely built on exploiting racial stereotypes and relations. If a white or African-American comic used the word "beaner" in his or her act, they might be considered as having stepped over an acceptable line.

Are "blonde" jokes funny to blondes? Is it all right to laugh if a person of Polish heritage tells a Polish joke and you're not Polish? Are there Southerners who object to the images put forward by Larry the Cable Guy? If you see Mantan Moreland in an old horror movie say, "Feet, do your duty!" is it funny or an embarrassment?

I don't know. Do you?

Let's face it, most of have us have either made a remark deemed inappropriate or heard something that was simply wrong. And we all know that how someone says something, to whom and in what context colors that joke or comment.

If you're offended how do you change things? I like to think it's through discussion.

I hoping this national dialogue doesn't get sidetracked by politics or taken over by self-appointed holier-than-thous. People should start talking about what is acceptable speech.

By the way, in my opinion, I'm glad that Imus was fired for his remarks. It wasn't humor and it hurt innocent people.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Finale of history lesson!

Part two of Porky's history lesson

First half of Porky teaches civics...from the October 1939 issue of Click "The National Pictorial Monthly."

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST IS ABOUT MASSACHUSETTS POLITICS. SO IT MIGHT BE A SNOOZE FEST FOR FOLKS LIVING OUTSIDE OF THE BAY STATES. MY APOLOGIES.
The first part of this post is what I wrote in my newspaper column that appeared just before the governor's appearance. I was able to get an exclusive sit-down with him at the event and that story follows.

What intersts me is the fact that Patrick was a popular candidate who handily beat his opponent, yet the Boston press has chosen to emphasize his public relations gaffes, rather than what he is actually doing.

The local daily has taken a highly critical position against Patrick as well with little apparent motive.


An open letter to Governor Patrick:

I just received an e-mail stating that you are going to appear in Springield on April 11 for a regional "town hall" style meeting. It will be conducted from 6 to 8 p.m. at Scibelli Hall on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College.

This is good news, because you know that some folks out here are saying about you: you have already forgotten Western Massachusetts.

I know that a governor's first 100 days in office is supposed to be a honeymoon. The Legislature should be in courtship mode, trying to get to know you and form a good working relationship.

The press should also be wearing kid gloves. Everyone who reports politics knows the importance of an honest, open relationship. Holding off on using the 10-pound sledgehammer is probably a good move.

The public is, of course, hopeful that you will come into your office with guns a blazing, taking aim at fulfilling the promises you made during the campaign. Everyone wants their issue dealt with first, though, and the unrealisitic anticipation is you will be able to cure the ills created over years in a matter of days.

These are expressions of conventional wisdom. Here's another conventional wisdom: candidates will tell Western Massachusetts voters that they will not forget them, but as soon as they are elected we become an after-thought.

Now there are some media outlets I won't name (but we can call them "The Republican") which seem determined to foster this last rule. A recent front-page article noted your perceived lack of attention to us as well as an unsigned editorial.

I'm sort of a direct guy governor. I like you. I voted for you. You've got one hell of a life story and career and I still think you were the right choice for the state.

I'm more than willing to give you time to make things happen.

You've got to get certain things under control, though. The public relations gaffes give morons such as Howie Carr fodder to bash you. You're suffering a death of a thousand paper cuts. Please understand that people elected you as a reformer and they don't want to hear about business as usual abuses.

So, if you're willing to take some advice from a working class guy from Springfield, these are a few things I think you need to do if you want to counter the "he's forgotten us" line being spun by some folks:

Open up the Western Massachusetts Governor's Office. Appoint a good person with many local ties and connections who can help you service your constituents.

Tell us your agenda for Western Massachusetts and what we need to do to help you get it done. Letters to state reps and senators? Petitions?

Got a message for us? You have to campaign. Use the local media. Develop relations with us.

Focus on what our mayors are saying and hone in on a few things with which people can identify. For instance, the formula for Additional Assistance, the local aid so many communities need, has to be revised so it is fair to all of the municipalities in the Commonwealth.

Listen I know you probably already have dinner plans, but I would be happy to show you some Western Massachusetts hospitality. What's you choice? Italian? Cajun? Asian? Barbeque? Just let me know.

Here's the follow-up story.

SPRINGFIELD – Before a backdrop of 50 Springfield Technical Community College students, Governor Deval Patrick told a standing-room only audience at Scibelli Hall on April 11 that not only did he want to hear their concerns, but also he called for their support to seek answers for problems.

In an effort to speak directly with his supporters and re-energize his base, the governor told the audience what he said he tells his staff: “Bring any problem you like, but bring a solution, too.”

***
In an exclusive interview with Reminder Publications prior to his meeting, Patrick remarked on media accounts of the reactions the state budget he has proposed has garnered from members of the Legislature and how to build a relationship with the House and Senate.

“The [budget] process has really just begun,” he said.

Describing his budget as “thoughtful and balanced,” Patrick said the House’s budget came out that day and it embraces some of his ideas, and scales back other aspects of his budget. He added the House’s version does not address the financial structural issues his budget includes and predicted that if the Legislature ignores those structural concerns, they will still be an issue next year.

The Senate will be releasing their version next month and Patrick said at that point the negotiations would begin.
“We are going to fight for the doubling of spending for early daycare programs and a 46 percent increase in all-day kindergarten programs, Patrick said of two of his line items.

“COPS” is another program Patrick wants funded as that will give the state the flexibility to work with individual police chiefs on “tailored solutions” for their communities. He said, for example, some chiefs might call for more community policing efforts, while others want more officers on the streets. After-school and summer camp programs for at-risk youth are also tools available to prevent crime under this program.

“There’s no doubt there are things every new governor has to learn about working with the Legislature, but there are things this legislature has to learn about working with me,” Patrick said.

He said he wants “the latitude to govern,” which he does not think diminishes the role of the legislature. He explained that consolidating many line items give him greater flexibility to govern.

He used an example illustrating this flexibility. Recently Thomas Menino, the mayor of Boston, asked for help in combating guns and gang violence. Patrick said his administration was able to identify $5.4 million to fund summer jobs for at-risk youth and $2.2 million of that will go to Boston.

Menino also needed financing that would allow a class of police officers to move forward. Patrick said he could find a small portion of what was needed, but not the full amount. If the Legislature would allow the governor the authority to transfer funds from a $25 million emergency fund, he could solve the entire problem.

When asked about the opposition from the local tourism industry for Patrick’s support of a local option for municipalities to impose additional meal and hotel taxes, Patrick said his support comes from the pressure to relieve the property tax burden in the state.

Patrick has several initiatives in his budget to help communities lower their property taxes. Individual taxpayers could qualify for an increased tax credit program and cities and towns could reduce costs in health insurance and pensions by joining the state’s programs.

The governor said his support is to allow each community to decide if they want to put “another penny or two on that hamburger, on that room tax” He said that even if municipalities went to the maximum allowed by the legislation the state would still be lower than many other cities around the country with which the state competes for tourist dollars.

Patrick said he wasn’t supporting the measure lightly and that it was part of his effort to partner with communities.
“I’m asking a lot from them,” he said. I’m asking for better planning regionally and across the Commonwealth. I’m asking them to join us in streamlining the permitting process, as that is part of our economic initiative. And I want to be able to provide things in return that can help communities strengthen themselves.”

When asked about the media coverage of his first 100 days in office, he said, “We’ve been at this for 97 days. There is a long list of tangible accomplishments that are about implementing the vision that I campaigned on. I’m just getting started. I’m not worried about all that [negative media reports].”

He said he couldn’t take the time to analyze why the media has emphasized certain stories, but he has learned of the “intrusiveness of the job.” He said it takes twice as long to go through a grocery checkout line and that he has to be aware that people might mis-interpret a facial expression. He said his children have been warning him for years that his look when he concentrates on what someone is saying could be mis-interpreted as a frown.

He said he had a recent lengthy conversation with President Bill Clinton who told him how important it was to concentrate on long-term goals. Patrick said his job was to focus on doing his job.

***
Patrick used the first half hour of his town meeting to talk about some of the specific accomplishments of his first three months in office. He said he has reduced the permitting time for many businesses from two to three years to six months and two months for insurance products. He has appointed a “sales team” that is reviewing a list of 382 businesses determining what each needs to stay in the state or how they can be brought to the state. Patrick asserted this effort, when it is completed, could result in as many as 100,000 new jobs by the end of his term.

The governor said he has also signed the regional green house gas agreement, he said he can auction off the credits earned by the state through this agreement to create a funding pool that will advance the development of energy-saving technologies.

He has worked with the Legislature to create a small business loan fund and a $1.47 bond bill to finance needed infrastructure improvements on the state’s roads and bridges.

Patrick also has reversed former Governor Mitt Romney’s stand on stem cell research.

He said he was “governing for the long term,” and that vision was not enough to govern. He needs power and influence to move along his agenda. That power is not from 20-year relationships with legislators but from the voters who support him.
“I didn’t expect you to return to repose [after the election],” Patrick said.

“You want property tax relief?” he asked. “Come and get them. Make your voices heard. They’re on the table.”
“Every day you have to act like the State House is your house,” he added.

Patrick heard issues ranging from the controversial logging in Agawam’s Robinson State Park to working to preserve the Commonwealth’s dairy farms.
A re-occurring theme was the establishment of a governor’s office in Western Massachusetts. Romney had eliminated the office that had been established by governors before him.

Patrick, who owns a vacation home in Richmond, joked he’d like to have the office in Pittsfield, as it would be 15 minutes from his house. He conceded that Springfield would be a better location.

Funding is what is holding up the Springfield office, and Patrick said the office would be a reality if “the budget process works out as we hoped.”

Patrick said the Finance Control Board will be extended by one year to July 2008, but the composition of the board might change as will its role. The governor envisions the board to help implement the economic development plans Patrick’s administration is working on for Springfield.

In other answers to questions, Patrick voiced his support for a bill that would eliminate a 92-year-old tax exemption telephone companies have enjoyed on poles and lines. Other states have eliminated similar exemptions without an increase in telephone rates and communities would be the beneficiaries of the new tax. Springfield, for example, would receive $2.7 million.

In a show of cooperation, Patrick said he and the leadership of the Legislature have agreed to form a commission to simplify the state’s tax code. Massachusetts, Patrick said, is ranked 40th in the national for its total tax burden, despite the nickname “Taxachusetts,” but has an overly complicated tax code.

After speaking for about an hour-and-a-half, Patrick said he would stay as long as necessary to answer questions as there were still people lined up to speak.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

I spent five years in talk radio as the house liberal during the Reagan years ( I got the best hate mail!). I love the medium so that's why I was drawn to watching the documentary on Al Franken like a moth to a flame. He was simply a lousy broadcaster who had little concept of what a successful talk show should be.

Although I loathe Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage for being the hatemongers that they are, I have to give them credit for understanding how broadcasting works, unlike Franken.

I saw Franken in person at the Talkers Magazine annual conference on the medium and he came across as a smug horse's ass. I may agree with some of his politics but I think he is incapable of swaying people to think about issues. Instead he preaches to the choir and that does little good in trying to create a dialogue.

Three very different films are reviewed in this edition of the DVD column.

Al Franken: God Spoke

Like most people I first saw Al Franken on "Saturday Night Live" where he practiced a form of egocentric comedy. One of his shticks was to perform a monologue where he inserted his name in random places.

I always thought he was a fairly amusing guy and it was interesting to see him evolve into a political commentator and eventually a radio talk show host.

This documentary traced that evolution showing Franken on book tours prior to his hiring as a radio show host for Air America. Along the way we're treated to some very amusing firefights between him and many conservatives including Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter.

The film ended with Franken moving his radio show to Minnesota, where he was raised, in order to establish residency for a run for the Senate.

The two directors of this film got some great footage I particularly liked when Franken got into a "Newsweek" party for Republicans but they did the viewers a disservice of not identifying people. Unless you knew them already, you would not have known the other members of "the cast."

What was also glossed over were the many trials and tribulations of Franken's time on Air America. What the footage indicated, but does not elaborate on, was Franken's inexperience with radio and the fact that Air America chose to push his show rather than those of seasoned broadcasters such as Randi Rhodes and Rachel Maddow.

Franken's show, which did not take callers, was ultimately as egocentric as Rush Limbaugh's program, Franken's target in many markets.

The result is a film that played like those "Saturday Night Live" routines in which Franken repeated his name constantly. It's all about Al Franken, even though Franken's story isn't just about him.

For more information, log onto www.godspoke.com.



The Kingmaker

For many years, I've been an Asian movie junkie. Hong Kong movies are my meat and potatoes, but I've certainly open to films from other countries as well. Recently they have been a slight influx of martial arts films for Thailand, but this movie marks a new kind of genre: part martial arts, mostly historical drama, part romance and a little bit of a music video.

The result is a film that recalls the Indian "Bollywood" films that include a wide variety of genres storylines into a production. The Bollywood films can be audaciously entertaining, but this film sort of lurches from scene to scene not knowing exactly what it is.

Supposedly drawn from a true story, Gary Stretch plays De Gama, a Portuguese sailor sold into slavery by Arab traders in 16th century Thailand. A beautiful Portuguese woman, whose father has been hired by the Thai king to build fort, rescues him. Naturally, they fall in love.

De Gama fights in the Thai king's army and does so well he is promoted to be one of the king's bodyguards. When the jealous queen poisons the king, De Gama and his fellow bodyguard are set up to take the blame.

The look of the film is quite impressive, but the acting is wooden and the plot is convoluted. While technically, this film is more than competent, the acting and story drag it down into the depths.

For more information, log onto www.sonypictures.com.



Attack of the Gryphon

The rule of thumb is the SciFi Channel is capable of producing some very good series but the network's made for television movies generally are awful.

This one is no exception. A sword and sorcery story, "Attack of the Gryphon" is brought to earth by cardboard characters, predictable situations, and a very hammy performance by Larry Drake as the evil wizard and, worse of all, a terribly animated gryphon.

The trouble with computer animation these days is that too many people think the computer will do all the work for them. One actually had to master the art of animation first and clearly the folks behind the monster haven't.

A rule of monster movies is that a good monster can redeem a tired plot. Nothing redeems this little film.

For more information, log onto www.sonypictures.com.

©2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs

Okay, I'm posting twice. I’ve never done that before but it's been a week and there are some things I'd like to share.

Governor Patrick will be in Springfield on April 11 at Springfield Technical Community College for a two-hour town meeting filled with Q&A time starting at 6 p.m. in Scibelli Hall. I hope there will be a good turnout that will include people who are not sold yet on his brand of leadership or the substance of his first 100 days in office.

I'm very tired of people who sit back and either complain without taking some sort of action to make conditions better and people who ignore their local politics in order to be a pundit on the national stuff. I don't care if you agree with Patrick or not, but being involved and being informed is far superior than ripping off a juicy blog post based on third or fourth hand information and believe you're "connected."

Hope to see you there.

I had the pleasure recently of interviewing Stanley Nelson, the director of the new documentary about Jonestown that was recently aired on PBS and released on DVD. When doing research prior to the interview I found a site that bitterly criticized the film and nelson's approach. The author of the blog believed Nelson was a trying to whitewash Jim Jones and not portray him as the deeply disturbed man he obviously was.

This film tries to strike a balance between the natural freak show aspects of the story and trying to humanize the Jonestown experience. I think he did a fairly good job, although I do have certain criticisms.

People remember that the 1978 deaths at Jonestown in Guyana in South America as the largest mass suicide in recorded history. Filmmaker Stanley Nelson wanted audiences to remember more than just the hideous end for over 900 people he wanted to explore what brought them to an isolated section of the South American jungle.

Nelson's new documentary, "Jonestown, the Life and Death of Peoples Temple," will make its television and DVD debut on April 9. It will be seen on PBS station as an episode of "American Experience."

Charismatic preacher Jim Jones and his social experiment have been the subjects of films before. A wildly exploitive drive-in movie "Guyana: Crime of the Century" was released in 1979, while a more sober television production, "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones," won an Emmy in 1980 when it was broadcast.

Nelson spent almost three years working on the film that weaves interviews with 25 people, two of which actually escaped from Jonestown, with archival footage and sound.

Nelson said he remembered hearing about Jones and the Peoples Temple on the radio in the 1970s. He said that members of the San Francisco-based church were living out socially progressive ideals.

"It sounded so sane," Nelson recalled to Reminder Publications in a telephone interview.

That perception changed when the 1978 mass suicide and the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan was reported. Nelson said the story of "the crazy man" stopped with his death and the deaths of many of his followers.

In his research Nelson found that Jones was "a very complicated man. It was hard to make it simple."

Nelson went back to Jones' Indiana hometown and said that Jones "was never normal. He was a strange guy who hid [his true feelings]."

As an adult Jones became a controversial preacher who broke down racial barriers and fought for social change. He and his wife adopted African-American and Asian children, making them one of the first multi-racial families in his home state.

He formed a successful commune in California and then decided to bring his ministry to a large city, San Francisco, where he became a political force.

Although Nelson said that "on the surface, [the church] was very, very attractive" to many people, there were problems revolving around Jones' sexual practices and faked healings, among other issues.

With his church under greater scrutiny, eventually Jones decided that he and his congregation could only practice their brand of religion and socialism outside of the United States. Jones acquired property in Guyana and built a small town there.

Nelson believes there was no one trigger to Jones' deteriorating mental state that led to the move to Guyana and the abuses that culminated in the suicide. He thinks Jones' problems started with childhood and grew more severe.

"With more and more power, things got worse," Nelson said. "In Guyana, he was totally isolated. He built a little kingdom."

Nelson said that people who have seen the film have been affected by it.

"It's such a dark story. People joined [the Peoples Temple] with all of the best intentions and were led astray."

"There's no happy ending to it," he said. "It's a cautionary tale."

Review

There's an old saying in show business that a performer should always leave an audience wanting more. I'm not sure if that's the best approach in documentary filmmaking, but at the end of "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" I did want more.

Nelson's film goes a very long way in humanizing the people who joined Peoples Temple. Through numerous interviews, it becomes clear the congregation was not made up of people who could be simply be written off as mindless members of a cult. Instead these were people who were swept up in the idealism of the 1960s and early '70s and saw this church as a true vehicle of change.

The film is also effective in showing how Jim Jones, undoubtedly plagued with mental health issues for most of his life, slowly went from being a preacher with ideas to a paranoid who said he was the reincarnation of Jesus and Buddha.

The filmmakers interviewed Jim Jones, Jr., who was away from Jonestown the day of the suicide, and I wanted them to ask him what kind of man his father was, how did his mother figure into the Peoples Temple and how his life has been for him in the years since the suicide.

They didn't broach those subjects and the film is weaker because of it.

The film doesn't try to whitewash Jones nor does it vilify him. It is a very sad, melancholic production because we know the ending of it. And Nelson is right in saying it is a cautionary tale. In turbulent times, another Jones might be around the corner.

© 2007 by Gordon Michael Dobbs