Witness To Lincoln's Assassination Appeared On 1950s TV

This is one of those things that makes you realize that the past is often not as far away as it seems. Over at the Atlantic, earlier this week they posted a YouTube clip from the TV show I'VE GOT A SECRET showing a 96 year old man from Maryland who was a 5 year old boy in Ford's Theatre the night Abraham Lincoln was shot. He vividly remembers John Wilkes Booth jumping to the stage from the Presidential box and was more worried about Booth's condition from the fall than the President, as it was all a bit confusing what was going on. It's amazing that his lifetime spanned the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the civil rights movement.

In a personal vein, I remember a neighbor of ours, an older woman who sometimes babysat me as a kid, who had a painting of a Civil War drummer boy above her fire place. It was actually a painting of her grandfather who was on the field at Gettysburg. Incredible, right? And let's not forget the well-documented stories of the last 3 Civil War widows who were alive until the mid-2000s (one was even collecting a pension from the Department of Veterans Affairs).

Though it's easy to think of the Civil War as ancient history, it was a mere 150 years ago that the conflict raged and nearly tore apart the country. Coming next month--Steven Spielberg's LINCOLN, which will look at the president's struggle to end slavery as the war, and his own life, came to an end. Here's the trailer below, with a script by Tony Kushner.

NY Republican Votes For Marriage Equality And Battles For Reelection

Today's TIMES has an interesting story about a Republican state senator Roy Mcdonald who was one the key four votes in passing marriage equality in New York state last summer.  Now, he's up for reelection and his opponent is making his vote the number one issue in his reelection.  The question is, in economic hard times, will voters even care?  What I find even more interesting is that his opponent concedes that there is no way the state's law can be reversed or re-voted on either.  So it's a true case of water under the bridge but she has been relentless in her attacks on her opponent. And, obviously, the advent of gays getting married in the state has not brought about the apocalypse or the collapse of society so it seems like she doesn't have much of a case really.

Let's hope that the votes upstate can see this tactic for what it is...a desperate measure by a fringe candidate to get some attention. Roy Mcdonald won a lot of gay fans (and financial support for his campaign) with his common sense approach to an issue that all too often becomes conflated with things that are entirely irrelevant to it (i.e. the "threat" to "traditional" marriage).  I particularly love his quote in the article today below. I think we could really use more wise men, Republicans or Democrats, like Mr. Mcdonald serving in government today.

“I’m in the party of Abraham Lincoln — I’m very proud of that,” he said. “I’m not in a party of a bunch of right-wing nitwits. It’s Abraham Lincoln. It’s everybody’s included. And I feel that’s very important.”

The Genre Mash-Up Goes Hollywood

This summer marks the start of a new mini-trend in H'wood; the extreme genre mash-up.  This concept started in the book world a few years ago with a novel called "Pride, Prejudice and Zombies", which had a big YA following.  This was followed by many imitators and sequels and, of course, Hollywood took notice.  This summer, a funny "little" movie (meaning it's not based on a comic, toy, or TV show) called "Cowboys & Aliens" is kicking things off with a bang it seems.  At least the trailer seems to indicate that.

Yesterday's TIMES reported on the next wave, specifically a movie about Abraham Lincoln's secret life as a vampire hunter.  Despite the sound of it, this is not some scrappy weird indie but a huge weird studio effort that FOX has put together for summer '12. The title?  Well, it's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" of course and has all sorts of history in it as well as the fact that the 16th president liked to slay the occasional blood-sucker.

I'm not sure if this genre has already jumped the shark with this title. But, if it hasn't, you can expect many, many more like it.