Buoyed by the success of Daredevil, Marvel Comics starts casting its B-list superheroes: Deep Blue Sea‘s Thomas Jane is set as The Punisher (I presume the Dolph Lundgren film never happened) and Vin Diesel is bucking for The Silver Surfer. While a really cosmic and contemplative Surfer flick might be worthwhile, I’m personally more interested in Peyton Reed’s The Fantastic Four (and, of course, The Hulk and X2) than either of these projects.
Author: KcM
Over Here.
To the vast credit of our armed forces, the Iraq war now seems to be going as well as it possibly can. (As I’ve said several times before, I fear the Iraqi peace will be somewhat tougher.) But the Bushies aren’t in the clear yet. For, despite all the work Karl Rove’s doing to paint Dubya as Eisenhower for the reelection campaign, it’s still the economy, stupid. And despite our military successes outside Baghdad, the deficit is soaring, the GOP is repudiating their own budget, and the economy is now clearly poised for the Dubya-dip. Like father, like son?
Rallying the Troops.
“The Republicans have tried to make a practice of attacking anybody who speaks out strongly by questioning their patriotism. I refuse to have my patriotism or right to speak out questioned. I fought for and earned the right to express my views in this country.” John Kerry presses the attack against the gaggle of GOP flaks (with no military experience) casting anti-American aspersions his way, and as a result is now screaming back up the Murphometer. Unlike Daschle, Kerry seems to have learned not to back down after stating the obvious. Let’s hope it’s the start of a trend among Democratic Presidential candidates. Update: Salon posts the text of Kerry’s speech: “I don’t need any lessons in patriotism from the likes of Tom DeLay.” Fellow Dems, this is cause for hope.
Rolling down the road.
Bob Dylan’s Never-Ending Tour continues in the spring of 2003. If you live in the South, you might want to check out these dates.
The Subtler Knife.
Contrary to the Ratner report of a few days ago, AICN reports that Sam Mendes will take on His Dark Materials. Better than Ratner, surely, but I for one didn’t think all that much of Road to Perdition. Can’t we draft Gilliam for this project?
Deepest Condolences.
Deepest condolences go out to Missy on the recent and tragic loss of her father. Tears may blind the eyes, but the soul is not deceived. In this world, even winter ain’t what it seems. My thoughts are with you at this difficult time.
Szpilman, drop the remix.
Go shorty, it’s your birthday…Found while trying to ascertain on news.google whether there’ll ever be another Portishead album: Pianist star and self-proclaimed 50 Cent fanatic Adrien Brody moonlights as a hip-hop DJ. But does he do rhymes, or strictly beats? A Kazaa search only brought up all of Night Ranger’s oeuvre.
Unconscientious Objectors.
On the question of war, it seems that, Dennis Kucinich notwithstanding, the Dems have basically decided to lay low for the time being. It’s the Iraq vote all over again…when is our party going to get its act together? Be they pro-war or anti-war, Democratic reps should be actively involved in the public debate on Iraq, not running scared from the underhanded smears of the administration. Get in the game, people. Update: Perhaps this is the beginning. At a Q & A today, John Kerry argued that the world will only trust a new president after the experience of this war. Y’know, I think he’s on to something.
Turning the Tide?
Between the rescue of Pvt. Lynch (which seems an interesting comment on the Greenberg piece linked yesterday) and the advance of American forces to within 20 miles of Baghdad, we’ve gotten a recent spate of good news on the war front. But, as Terry Neal of the Washington Post notes, trouble is now brewing in the rest of the Arab world. And given both Saddam’s deliberate attempts to incite Muslim rage and the shocking, extremely graphic images of civilian carnage being broadcast on Al-Jazeera, it’s little wonder why. (I caught ’em via Week in Review, but the Al-Jazeera site seems to be down now.) Even if Saddam’s regime falls soon, and let’s hope it does, we have our work cut out for us in rebuilding the region’s faith in America. And, as I said before, it will take reservoirs of diplomacy and goodwill that the tone-deaf and heavy-handed Bushies have yet to manifest.
The Few, The Proud, The Plane Campers.
It’s probably a strange time in world affairs for a link like this, but nevertheless, these FPS propaganda posters cracked me up. Battlefield 1942 players will find them especially on point.