GLEE Sings At The World Series

Not being the world's biggest baseball fan (surprise!), I have been somewhat peeved lately that GLEE is on a 2-3 week hiatus due to the World Series. Well, in a saavy bit of cross promotion, FOX flew the cast out to Philadelphia on Saturday to sing the National Anthem at the start of Game 3. They did a wonderful job singing and maybe won over some baseball fans. I can dream right?

But at least I got to see the GLEE gang again, if only for one "number" and minus the show's usually energetic choreography. Though GLEE has some plot problems lately (how many times can people quit and rejoin the club?), it's still got amazing singing and dancing. And they are pulling out all the stops for November sweeps....coming soon, "Defying Gravity" from WICKED. Go GLEE!

Obama's Midnight Trip To Dover AFB

Just before midnight on Wednesday, President Obama left the White House and flew to Dover AFB in Delaware, where the remains of US servicemen and women killed abroad are returned home. He witnessed the "transfer ceremonies" for 15 soldiers, spent two hours meeting with families of the fallen and returned to the White House just before 5am. Famously, these transfers were banned from television coverage back in 1990 by the first President Bush. The ban remained as the US entered two wars under the second Bush and more than 3,000 soldiers were lost. Obama lifted that ban earlier this year.

Last night, the Katie Couric did a solemn piece on this historic visit for the CBS Evening News that you can watch below. Generally, there was very scant coverage of it in the media. Fox News was the only other broadcast story I could find. The NY TIMES wrote about it but the story was buried online...I had to search "Dover" to find it. Not sure where it ended up in the print edition but I'm doubting it was page 2. As the President weighs his options on the war in Afghanistan, it seems that this extraordinary visit by the Commander-in-Chief to honor his fallen troops would have been more newsworthy.

Regardless, while those on the right froth and fret about this President destroying our country, Obama's clear sense of the gravity of his job is unmistakable and his actions, even those taken without fanfare, continue to speak louder than any of their words.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Blowing It Up Back In The Day

In 1981, I got my start as a filmmaker working with my neighbor Jeff Davison and his dad's RCA b/w video camera that was tethered to a massive, first generation VHS player/recorder. We did all sorts of adaptations of popular TV shows, like "Superman", "Star Trek", "The Wild Wild West" and "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir". But the most memorable and hilarious films we made were of us blowing shit up. Jeff would get fireworks down in South Carolina and we'd go to town on our old toys or models. We even blew up Luke Skywalker's land speeder....I've gotta find that clip!

Anyway, I finally got one of these videos up to YouTube today. Now I know that it was totally juvenile and dangerous to be lighting firecrackers on my neighbor's wood porch. But it was damn funny too....the last line's a classic! Even though this video is nearly 30 years old and I've watched it countless times, it still cracks me up, especially the Beavis & Butthead background dialogue and uncontrollable giggling when things go boom. Feel free to forward, link, share and who knows....maybe it'll become a YouTube sensation. America likes a good explosion.

Backstreet Is Back...In The Office

Continuing the trend of DIY music videos, here's one from a group of office workers doing their own take on the Backstreet Boys 1999 hit "I Want It That Way". This has gotta be one of my fave cheesy songs of all time and this video does the song justice with a funny/cheesy take on the thing. However, I'm slightly suspicious these camera-ready, emotive lipsynchers are actually random folks working in the same small office together...unless maybe it's a casting office. ;) Still this video is awesome for its utter simplicity and it is very sweet too. Oh--and the guys are cute as well.

Someone Broke My Facebook

There's been a lot of angry status updates lately as Facebook pulled another big change without letting anyone know what was going on. The general consensus seems to be that the live feed/news feed is a bit of a mess.

So if you'd like to fix your Facebook back to the way it was, here's how to do it in a couple easy steps:

On the menu at the top left, click on MORE.
Drag STATUS UPDATES to the top of the list above NEWS FEED. After dragging to top, CLICK on it.
Your HOME will be just like before.

I just did it, it took two seconds and all is back to normal. Yes, it's true....you can fix your Facebook. Give it a try....

Indie Filmmaker Richard Kelly is Kinda Cute

I wouldn't say I'm a rabid fan of "Donnie Darko", the 2001 indie sensation starring a then-unknown Jake Gyllenal in a story about....well, I still don't know what it was about. But I kinda enjoyed it's weird, moody style even though it was pretty damn confusing. Something about a schizo high school student who dreams of a big scary bunny that causes a plane crash leading to the end of the world. I do remember there was all this cool 80's music...like real college radio stuff by Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen. That I appreciated.

"Donnie Darko" was written and directed by Richard Kelly and, given the subject matter and the artsy feel of the film, I imagined it the feverish work of some real Tarantino-like film geek. Apparently not. Here's a picture of Mr. Kelly (on the left...why are director's always pointing?) from a profile in yesterday's New York TIMES and, suprisingly, the director of this super dark movie is kinda cute. In fact, he might even be borderline hot. Regardless, I am adding him to my Kinda Cute pantheon anyway because he is certainly not how I expected the director of that film to look. To use a pop culture analogy, it's sorta like the reverse of the Susan Boyle effect.

Anyway, "Donnie Darko" developed a cult following and Kelly made another movie called "Southland" which I believe was also about the end of the world, though I didn't see it. Now, he's traded up and done a big studio movie which sounds semi-intriguing. It's called "The Box" with Cameron Diaz playing some suburban mom in the 70's gets a million bucks if she hits a big red buttton that will randonly kill someone in the world. Weird, right? But at least it sounds like it has a plot so I think I'll check it out.

Money Makes The World Go Around

While trawling The Awl for my weekly taste of weird, I came across this German TV commercial for donating money to charity. It is not your average Unicef ad..that is for sure. But then again, Germany is not your average country. Though the commercial uses a classic narrative cliche that has been the basis for more than a few features and shorts, it does so with style and wit....all under one minute.

Whatever Happened To Persis Khambatta

I put the original Star Trek movie on my Netflix after seeing "Close Encounters" earlier this summer at Bryant Park and loving it. I have to say "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" doesn't hold up as well, even in the reedited version available on DVD. It plays like a very long episode of TOS which would have been fine if it was 50 minutes long. Unfortunately, it's 136 minutes long which earned it the fanboy tag "Star Trek: The Slow Motion Picture."

Like this year's "Star Trek" reboot, Bones steals the show and his scenes with Kirk and the old gang always crackle. Another standout is the lovely and mysterious beauty of Persis Khambatta, the bald Deltan who has an odd dual role in the film, playing Lt. Ilia and a robotic version of herself in a dangerously short mini-dress.

Joining the crew of the Enterprise was Persis' big break, having been Miss India in the 1960's and a well-known fashion/makeup model, most famously for Revlon. Unfortunately, her career didn't exactly hit warp drive after her role in "Star Trek". Her most notable role was in 1981's "Nighthawks" and a final part in the pilot episode of "Lois & Clark", playing the Indian ambassador....what imaginative casting!

In 1998, she suffered a heart attack and died suddenly. Her age is listed as 47 on Imdb and 49 on Wikipedia. Either way it seems too early....she was such a striking and enigmatic figure. It's a shame she didn't take off and have a more vibrant career. Her Hollywood debut, however, remains memorable. Even if the movie isn't all I remembered it to be.

An Eloquent Speech On Equality For All

Earlier this year, Maine's legislature passed a bill which gave gays and lesbians same rights as heterosexual couples to be married under the laws of that state. This was not a so-called activist court in action. It was a measure brought forth by the state's elected representatives and signed by the state's popular elected governor. Still, the so-called Christians started gathering signatures and spreading fear and now Maine's marriage equality is up for the entire state to vote on this November.

When Maine was considering the original bill, there were extensive public hearings held with a great deal of public comment. Recently, a statement in support of equality for all by an 86 year old WWII vet has been making the rounds on the blogs. It is moving and beautiful in its simplicity. Too bad this guy wasn't around for the Prop 8 battle last year...

If you'd like to donate to help defeat Maine's Proposition 1, go here. They need all the help they can get.

NYC Couple Collect 3,500 Works Of Art

Herb & Dorothy Vogel are well-known in the New York art world. For more than 40 years, they have been ubiquitous on the art scene. Sometimes attending as many as 25 shows a week, they were avid collectors who amassed a modernist treasure trove of more than 3,500 works of art which cluttered their small NYC apartment.

Soon they will be well known to the entire country as they have donated their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art. Their donation, however, was so massive that it overwhelmed the National. The museum could only absorb 1,000 works. So the solution they all came up with for the balance of this material was to give 50 works to a museum in each of the 50 states. A non-profit was formed called 50 x 50 and the crates have been arriving, like an early Christmas present, at museums across the country this Fall.

I found out about these unique artistic philanthropists via a movie that aired this weekend on PBS called "Herb & Dorothy". It's a documentary about how they started collecting art in the mid-1960's on their modest salaries as a postal worked and librarian. They collected mostly modern work by artists like Sol LeWitt and Chuck Close. What's amazing about their story is how their passion for art, not money, inspired and sustained their collecting. The tag line of the movies is "You don't have to be a Rockefeller to collect art".

The Vogel's are true patrons of the arts whose generosity will now be shared with the nation by this unique arrangement. They are an inspiring couple with an amazing story. The movie captures their unique relationship beautifully and is well-worth seeing.