Back in the SLC With the O.G

Hatch is Back!

Or at least will be for another six years come election day. Ironic that when he first camapigned it was on a "new blood" platform. Thirty years later, he's still holding strong. Still holding fast to his rigid party dogma.

And it looks like more of the same will be forthcoming. Democratic candidate Pete Ashdown doesn't stand much of a chance to unseat the venerable incumbant. So it appears that we will continue to "stay the course", in this the state that bleeds the most conservative.

Hatch was on the locally produced NPR program "Radio West" today, and gave us the standard party rhetoric, and talked about being a tough guy but a sensetive guy. Thankfully he didn't sing.

It seems that since his re-election is pretty much in the bag, the only visible evidence of his campaign are some horribly narscissitic billboards that are displayed around town. And by town I mean Utah.

There are others with similar buzzwords like "clout" and "bold". His mother must be so proud.

Well at least he supports stem-cell research.

And we can all take comfort that Rick Samtorum is going to lose.

Something Historical

Saw Marie Antoinette Saturday night. I rather enjoyed Ms. Coppola's last film Lost In Translation, but this left me a little underwhelmed. Are we to view the titular character sympathetically or not, furthurmore is this even relevant? Oh its stylish, but more often than not it seems to rely to much on it. The juxtoposition of 80's New Wave and Pre-Revolution France works suprisingly well, especially during the opening credits, where Natural's Not in it by the Gang of Four plays while the opening credits go past in punk-rock minimalist black and hot pink, intercut with shots of Kirsten Dunst and clothes. The irony of using the Gang of Four in a movie about decadence was not lost on me, seriously read the lyrics. Comparisons to Paris Hilton and he fellow celebutantes can and have been drawn. It also included some close up eating scenes that bordered on Denethor-esque. Still I didn;t out and out loath it, but I didn't love it.

ME UGG, ME NATION BUILD

I guess its that time again. Time for the U.S Army to once again attempt to reposition intself to appeal to a new generation of apathetic youth. And with that comes a new slogan. A new slogan that can adorn stickers and other free swag given away by recruiters at high school and the Warped Tour. We had the iconic "Be All That You Can Be" and the passable "Army of One", but the newest slogan tops them all in idiocy.

Two words.
Hardly a sentance.

Army Strong.

Yes that's it, a $200 million dollar a year contract with Ad agency McCann Worldwide (for whom my roommate works!) and this is how they expect to bolster recruitment numbers.
I can only imagine the conversation went something like this:

GENERAL: Jenkins! Numbers are down, how do get kids to come fight and furthur our hegemonic ambitions.

JENKINS: Well the kids do like the Hulk

No one is going to join the army now.

Read more about it here!

Watch the lauch video! (If you dare, it's just like every army comercial ever)

On a Wire

If I'm tired today, I've only The WIre to blame. Yes I've fallen into the black hole that is HBO's critically lauded cop drama slash urban drama slash ever expanding spiral galaxy of intrigue. More than half way through with season one and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger, more characters keep being added. I can't wrap my mind around how they can keep this up for three more seasons (which apparently they do). By season 6 will we find out the Zorlaks from space are buying all of Avon's coke and selling it in the Sigma Sector at huge markups?

Don't get me wrong, I love the show. It makes the finest use of TV as an artistic medium that I have ever seen. Realistic and highly entertaining. I can't recommend it enough.

Do the Distortion!

I want you to listen to this.

What a piece of partisan bullshit. When I first hear this I couldn't believe it was real. It has to be parody. But in the increasing surreal political landscape of today it is all to real. Depressingly so.
Intentionally preying on those politically naive enough no to know that the parties essentially switched ideologies is just the kind of dirty tactics we've come to expect from a certain party. These days it's becoming harder and harder not to be blatantly partisan.