Usually when I talk about a television show, it's about the show in general and an overall opinion of why I like the show and why you the reader should watch it. This time is going to be a bit different, I am going to talk about a particular episode of a television show.
First let me say that I am not going to give the episode away and will include a link to where you can go watch the episode. Obviously, the television show is Cold Case. An amazing show I just recently started to watch this season. So, in order to get caught up with the show from the beginning, I started watching the episodes from Season 1. Right now it's in it's sixth season, so some of the back stories I am not familiar with which is why I am going back to the beginning. Well today, I watched an amazing episode called Fly Away. The basic plot of the show is this:
The case of a young woman who was thrown from a second story window. Putting her in a coma and killing her daughter is reopened.
Let's just say that I am not a big emotional person when it comes to watching television, but this episode just tugged at my heart. The acting was amazing and the story just tore me up inside. I ask you to watch the episode and leave a comment. Let me know what you think and if you had the same reaction as I did.
I remember when I was 10 years old sitting with my mom on a Saturday afternoon drinking lemonade and listening to Fleetwood Mac. My mother had adopted me and was already in her late 50's but decided to take a strange kid into her home to give him a better chance at life. While we were listening to the music, she turns down the volume and out of the blue asks me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I thought about it for a minute and said several things, an astronaut, a baseball player, a doctor and maybe even President of the United States. She looked at me with the comforting smile and told me I could be anything I wanted to be.
Years later I was home on leave from the Army and was sitting in the living room talking with my mom and we were watching a documentary on civil rights. We had never really talked about the civil rights movement at any length, but started up a conversation about it. What I learned from her that day is that she was involved with the movement and had actually marched on Washington when Martin Luther King gave his famous speech. There was no doubt that I had nothing but love and respect for her, but it grew even more once she told me what she and some friends had gone through during those years. I asked her did she still think a black person could become President...she hesitated for a minute and basically said although she hopes that it would happen, she doesn't see it happening in her lifetime or mine.
My mother passed away several years ago and I wish she was here today to see this historic event. Barack Obama is now President Elect of the United States. The first black person in history to have that distinction. This is truly an historic moment and I can't lie to you....as I type this blog, I have tears in my eyes. Not just tears of pride at this accomplishment, but tears that my mother, who fought through prejudice and was part of the civil rights movement, isn't here to see this with me. I know there are plenty of other people who have similar stories of family members, friends who they wish were here to see this moment.
Watching the coverage and seeing Representative John Lewis, Oprah Winfrey and Reverend Jesse Jackson crying while Obama was giving his speech, said everything to me. I am sure there was a sense of relief in the black community when it was official that Obama won the election, too many times things have been pulled out right from beneath us in the last minute, but not this time. This was our time and by our time, I mean American....everyone. Even though he is a black man, he ran this race strictly as a man, a Democrat and not on race.
I am sure there are McCain supporters and others who are disappointed that Obama won the election, but for just one moment, let that go and realize that you have just witnessed history. We need to come together as a country and let everyone know that we are a united nation and no one will hold us down....this campaign is a testament to that fact.
I think we all will look at ourselves and this country a little differently from now on. This whole situation makes me think of a line from a 2pac song called I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto:
"Although it seems Heaven sent, we ain't ready to have a black President"
Since Halloween has just passed, I thought I would take time out to write about a show that dealt with the Devil and paying for your sins. That show is Brimstone.
Every once and a while, a show comes along that resonates with a core group of people. In this crazy world of TV ratings, demographics and core viewing groups, some shows although excellent, fall through the cracks because they don't post the big ratings that the networks would like. Unfortunately for us, Brimstone was one of those shows.
The basic premise of Brimstone is this....Ezekiel Stone was a highly decorated New York police officer. His wife was raped and when the case went to trial, the rapist was let go due to a technicality. Several weeks later, Detective Stone tracked down his wife's rapist and killed him in cold blood. Months later while on a routine drug bust, Detective Stone was shot and killed in the line of duty. Since he killed someone in cold blood, he was sent to Hell. The show starred Peter Horton as Ezekiel Stone and the brilliant John Glover as the Devil.
Fast forward 15 years and we find out that 113 souls have escaped from Hell and have gone back to Earth. Since Stone was a cop, the Devil makes a deal with him. Send back all 113 souls to Hell and you will get a second chance at life on Earth. I thought this was an excellent concept. The show was created by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, who now have the show Eleventh Hour on CBS. Like I said before, great concept, but it doesn't mean the show will work with the general public. The show was to debut on a Tuesday night for FOX. Then president of the network had high hopes for the show and began promoting the show in the 9pm time slot. 2 weeks before the show was to air, he stepped down as President of FOX network to take another job and a replacement took over. This person did not like the dark nature of the show and wanted more programming that was upbeat and light, but decided to give the show a chance anyway. Brimstone was moved to the death time slot of 8pm on Friday nights, paired with another great show Millennium. Without any big promotion or support from FOX, the show aired it's first thirteen episodes with decent numbers. FOX had ordered 6 more scripts of the show, but during post production on episode 14, FOX cancelled Brimstone. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper!
The final episode of Brimstone entitled Mourning After, aired on February 12, 1999. There was no announcement publicly that the show was cancelled, it just stopped airing. After a couple of months, I decided to go on the internet and find any information that I could about the fate of the show. Nothing was on the FOX website, although the Brimstone link was still there. While digging for information, I came across a save Brimstone website. There I found out that the show had indeed been cancelled and that I was not the only fan of the show. After weeks of talking with other people on the site, we decided to start the usual steps to try and save the show. Start writing to FOX, Warner Bros and other stations to see if we could save Brimstone. After 4 months with little head way, we gathered money from people who could contribute and placed and ad in Variety magazine, yes, Variety! It garnered our little campaign some national attention...so much so that the head of the SciFi channel wrote to the head of our campaign to state that they were interested in Brimstone. Almost a year later, the SciFi channel picked up the rights to air the original 13 episodes, which was great. We were actually seeing results due to our hard work. We later found out that Warner Bros. would not give the SciFi channel the rights to produce new episodes. So after 6 months of showing the original episodes, Brimstone was taken of the schedule. The campaign was obviously disappointed that the show stopped airing on SciFi, but was happy that we were able to get the show back on the air. I was proud to be part of that campaign.
In February of 2009, will be the 10 year anniversary of Brimstone being cancelled. Over the years I have tried to find copies of the 13 episodes with varying success. Most of the complete sets I found were on VHS and not in great quality. Recently I came across a great site that actually put a DVD set together of the show and I got my copy a couple of days ago. It is by far the best fan made set of the show and the picture quality is a solid A. I watched the episodes from the beginning and it made me remember why I was so into this show. You may be thinking to yourselves, why is this guy so wrapped up in a TV show. Hasn't there been anything that you were passionate about? That you wanted to make sure that people knew about? Well, one of my passions is the show Brimstone. Excellent acting, writing and top notch storytelling that just pulls you into the world of Ezekiel Stone from moment one. It gave you a mixture of humor, drama and fantasy all rolled into one. It made you ask questions about faith, religion and what is truly good and evil. If you haven't seen the show, find it and watch it. If you have seen the show, watch it again.
Unlike many people in the press, bloggers and other political entities, I do not think that Governor Sarah Palin is a stupid person. It would be foolish of anyone to think such a thing. You do not become Governor of a state by being a stupid person. Also, I do not care that she is a female running for the Vice Presidency. There will be no woman bashing in this blog. I could care less that a woman is running for Vice President, President, or any other political office. I just want someone who is informed and can make good decisions. Watch the following Sarah Palin clip and you tell me if she is an informed candidate:
I still to this day have no idea what her point was in that clip. This is the problem that Palin has, no clue as to what is going on. Could it be she was placed in the limelight not being ready to handle it? Could it be that McCain chose her just for political reasons? Or is it just that she doesn't know what is going on in the world. Here is Palin defending her foreign policy experience:
It is very simple people...we are living in serious times right now and need someone who can attack these issues with the calmness, knowledge and the respect of the American people. This again is not a blog to knock down Sarah Palin. She should be proud of her accomplishments as a woman and as a politician, but no more of the nice hometown stories. No more dodging questions when you don't truly have an answer. Let's be real for a minute, no politician knows everything, but I have never seen a candidate as unprepared as Palin.
Maybe the expectations are so low that no matter what happens, she will come out of the debate no different than she was when she went it. Joe Biden seems to have a problem. Not too look like he is attacking her, but at the same time point out her weaknesses and push the Obama policies. Can he walk this tightrope?
I just don't think she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the most powerful job in the world.
We all know that the world of politics is dog eat dog and isn't for the faint of heart. Constant character attacks, personal attacks, highs, lows and everything in between...but what the Republican party has done in the past 10 years is a downright disgrace.
This is not to say that the Democratic party is not without it's faults, but the way the Republican party has used personal and character attacks in recent campaigns can not go overlooked. BarackObama was at a town hall a couple of days ago and while talking about John McCain and President Bush, he made the comment that you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. He was not referring to Governor Palin, but Bush and McCain. No more than an hour after he made this statement, McCain's camp fired back and wanted Obama to apologize for the so called sexist remark against Governor Palin. Almost as fast, they had an attack ad on the web called Lipstick.
It just cracks me up how they just splice a couple of clips together to make it seem one way when it actually isn't. This has Karl Rove written all over it. How can you support a party who looks to Karl Rove as an inspiration and leader. He should be in jail along with several other prominent Republicans, but guess who is helping them out, Bush.
I have to give it up to BarackObama for trying to turn the other cheek when it comes to gutter politics. But he has to remember what those gutter politics did to John Kerry and his bid for President in 2004. Questioning his military service just to cast doubt. John McCain is a hypocrite, a true hypocrite. I seem to remember a certain politician saying the exact same thing:
See what I am talking about? The Republican party seems to have forgotten about Senator McCain saying the same thing about Hillary Clinton's health care policy. He wasn't called a sexist or asked to apologize. The reason is because it's NOT a sexist or derogatory statement against women.
This has been a theme throughout the primaries and now the Presidential campaign. Sexism and racism have reared their ugly heads and certain parties have chosen to play on these fears in order to gain support. Obama wants to keep racism and sexism out of this race, make it about the issues, but not the Republicans. You want to know why? When you don't have an answer for 8 years of this country losing all respect and the economy in the tank, you play on people's fears and try to divert their attention away from the real issues. The Republicans have even used these character and personal attacks against each other. Remember when McCain and Bush were going head to head for the Republican nomination years back and the Bush camp put out a story that McCain had fathered a black child? Are you serious? What the hell does that have to do with any of the important issues? Nothing. It's a diversion tactic. Get the news media and people around the water coolers talking about salacious gossip and not what is important.
John McCain likes to play a cool game. He says he is against negative campaigning and he seems genuine when he says it, yea right. Here is what McCain does. He will have his sheep float out an attack to the media and hours later, McCain will come back and say something like that has no place in politics... trying to make himself look like the good guy. Give me a break.
So, John McCain is the one who is going to defend women against sexism? Remember, this is the same person who made several disgusting jokes and cracks towards women.
Here is the bottom line people. I have no problem with anyone running for office. My thought is that McCain has chosen Governor Palin to try and sway some of the Hillary Clinton vote. We need to stop listening to the crap that Republican party is trying to hammer us with and pay attention to the issues. That is what the Republican party does not want. Ask yourself this question..
Which 8 years were better, the Clinton years or the Bush years? If you answer Bush, then you deserve 4 more years of what we have endured with George Bush. I feel sorry for you.
Here it is folks! Episode #50! This episode is a best of that last 50 episodes of the show. From some of my favorite moments, to some of the moments you told me you really enjoyed. So sit back, download the show and enjoy some of my comic genius. Of course, comments are always welcome! So, click the link above and listen to a synopsis of some of my best work.
This is an absolutely amazing thing. Senator Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. This is huge folks, huge! I never in my lifetime thought I would see a black person with a legitimate chance to win the White House. Take a minute, sit back and reflect on what this country has gone through when it comes to race. Slavery, lynchings, race riots of the 60's, the killing of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X and the KKK. We as a race have gone through many trials and tribulations but are here still standing tall. Barack is a shining moment for us and should be noted as a major story in the history of this country.
Not since JFK has a candidate fueled such excitement and enthusiasm when it comes to a political campaign. With both Hillary and Barack, more people have signed up and voted than any other time in history, truly amazing. Now, I am one of the Obama supporters that does not hate Hillary Clinton. You have to give her her due on what she has accomplished in this Democratic primary. One of the problems that I have with the Clintons is that they seem like sore losers, especially Bill. She did not even acknowledge his winning of the nomination tonight, which I think was in poor taste. But I will not let Hillary take our thunder away, not this historic night.
Now Obama faces off with Senator John McCain, a candidate who couldn't be futher from the ideals that Obama believes. I think the fall campaign hinges on 2 important topics, the economy and the Iraq war. McCain wants to continue the war in Iraq, Barack does not. I think this war was a mistake from the beginning and 4000 Americans have had to die during the war. The economy is in complete shambles due to Republican policies. We are in the midst of a recession and McCain does not have a solid idea on what to do to get our economy back on track.
I remember when I was a little boy and asked my mother would there ever be a black president? She basically me that in her lifetime and my lifetime. She would have a tremendous smile on her face now if she was still here.
I salute you Barack Obama for proving that anyone who works hard and believes in their dream, can accomplish anything. If Martin Luther King Jr could only see this now.
Politics is a very dirty game. In order for someone to run for any type of political office, you have to have a thick skin. Anyone who supports a candidate also has to have a thick skin. Over the course of a campaign, many negative things by many people will be said about your candidate. You can either fight back with your emotions and not respond rationally or you can take what is being said about you, gather the facts and respond in a cool and intelligent way. If you haven't guessed by now, I am a supporter of BarackObama and before you even say it, no it's not just because he is black. Granted, I never thought I would see a black candidate in my lifetime to actually have a chance to win the White House, so this is historical. I also agree with many of his policies and ideas on how to change the stranglehold some politicians have on our political system. Not since John F. Kennedy has a candidate sparked so much interest in politics and galvanized so many people.
This has been a long primary between BarackObama and Hillary Clinton, too long. Being the first black candidate with an actual chance for the White House, Obama has met with some reservations by many in the political arena and voters, which is understandable. We knew race would be an issue in this election, but I was hoping that analysts and voters would try to stick to the issues rather than tabloid garbage. His pastor Reverend Wright, not wearing a flag pin and other problems that have popped up during this campaign. In my opinion, he has handled them extremely well. It's kind of a no win situation for him, if he doesn't respond, he is the candidate that doesn't have any toughness, if he does stand up and fight, he's the angry black politician which is something he can't afford if he wants to attract the important blue collar vote.
So, how does Ann Coulter fit into all this you ask? Well, every night I watch MSNBC or CNN to hear all the so called political analysts views on the days events that pertain to the Democratic primary race. This particular night, I turned on a program hosted by Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter was the guest. For those of you that don't know her, she is a conservative political analyst and also a best selling author who has stirred up some controversy in the recent past, but we'll get to that. Now, I have no problem with these political "experts" opinions good or bad about Obama, as long as they stick with the issues and not tabloid garbage or hearsay. Ann was asked to give her opinion on Obama and his chances for the Presidency. She had stated weeks before if McCain won the Republican nomination, even though she is a Republican, she would vote for Clinton if she was the Democratic nominee. She has very different opinions than McCain and doesn't think he represents the "true" conservative. When asked what will you do if/when Obama gets the nomination, she says that I said I would vote for Clinton, not Obama. She then goes on to bash his campaign with rhetoric that had nothing to do with the issues and the part that bothered me most is that she kept calling him Barack Hussein Obama, emphasising his middle name. When she was asked basically not to do that and it wasn't fair, she said why not, that is his name. True, it is his name, but why use it to make it seem that he has some kind of connection to terrorists or Sadam. She knew exactly what she was doing and that really bothered me. In politics, perception is everything. Obama has had to deal with this off and on during the campaign, even as recently as a couple of days ago at a diner, he went up to shake a potential voters hand and the man would not shake it. Saying that he was a Muslim and his middle name was Hussein. I guess that guy must have been Joe Redneck. Tactics like this are trying to strike fear in the minds of people who really don't follow the news and truly follow what is going on in the race and I think it's disgraceful!
Why is Ann Coulter of all people asked to be an analyst on the campaign? She has had some really cruel things to say about people and here are just a few:
1) On Senator John Edwards when he ran with John Kerry for the White House..
"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm - so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions"
2) Her comments on Muslims..
"Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombedGerman cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war"
"Not all Muslims may be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims -- at least all terrorists capable of assembling a murderous plot against America that leaves 7,000 people dead in under two hours"
3) Her comments about Jews on the show The Big Idea hosted by Donny Deutsch...
DEUTSCH: You said — your exact words were, "Jews need to be perfected." Those are the words out of your mouth.[152]COULTER: No, I'm saying that's what a Christian is.DEUTSCH: But that's what you said — don't you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic—COULTER: No!DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You're an educated woman. How do you not see that?COULTER: That isn't hateful at all.DEUTSCH: But that's even a scarier thought. OK—COULTER: No, no, no, no, no. I don't want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean (Jerry) Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is "Christ died for our sins." We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian(sic) is not offensive at all.
This is the kind of person you call on to give her opinion on what is happening with Obama and the Democratic primary? Are you serious? Again, if you have valid arguments against a candidate no matter who it is, more power to you, but to take it to gutter politics and to try and strike fear into people for no reason, that is just wrong.
So, it is now 12:37am and I have been watching MSNBC's coverage of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries. Heading into the primaries, Obama was to win a close one in North Carolina and Clinton would win big in Indiana. The big issue she was pushing was the gas tax relief which to me is really a smoke screen. Obama was clearly against the gas tax relief having himself voted for a similar plan in Illinois and seeing that it didn't work. Clinton thought she could definitely pick up the blue collar vote pushing the gas tax relief. Well, as of 12:37am, Obama has won North Carolina by 14 points and they are in a virtual tie in Indiana, a state Clinton was suppose to run away with. Right now, she leads him by less then 17,000 votes.
Now it is time for the spin. Obama is the first to make a speech and congratulates Clinton on winning Indiana while also debunking her idea of this primary being a game changer. He is now starting to focus on the task of taking on John McCain in the fall and it shows. Clinton comes on later and at first seems to say she will continue the fight all the way to the White House, but the second part of her speech seems to be a concession speech. Is she finally realizing that it is over? The Clinton camp obviously is trying to play down the lost in North Carolina and play up the possible win in Indiana by saying they were expected to lose North Carolina and basically a win is a win in Indiana. Every political analyst that I have listened to tonight says it is basically over...yet still her staff and supporters are trying to downplay the issue. Here is a clear indication that she is starting to realize she is done. She has cancelled all Wednesday morning television interviews and appearances which were scheduled based on her believing she was going to have a good night. Usually after a primary, the candidates send out emails asking for donations and to keep plugging away with the campaign. Her latest email to her supporters does not even mention the raising of money.
Mathematically, Clinton can not catch Obama in the popular vote nor the pledged delegates. But wait, what about Michigan and Florida Clinton wants to have counted? After tonight, even if they do count those 2 states, she will still be down by 100+ delegates and more than 200,000 popular votes...she is done. I know the Clintons want to save face and continue that legacy, but what is the point of staying in the race? Is it to continue to try and tear Obama down more? Even with all the Reverend Wright and Bittergate drama, Obama is still in the lead.
Her campaign is in debt. She's already loaned the campaign 5 million dollars and reports are she has loaned the campaign even more money. I think it is time for her to formulate an exit strategy that is graceful and helps her and the campaign save face. This has been one hell of a Democratic nomination race, nothing like I've seen in my lifetime and it has fascinated me. People ask me are you supporting Obama just because he is black? I will admit it is history that he is running and unless something horrific happens, he will be the Democratic nominee, but I do agree with many of his ideas, not all, but many. I think his idea of change is a breath of fresh air in the dirty world of politics. I think Clinton's undoing was her constant negative attacks against Obama and when she had the chance to put him away at his lowest point, she was unable to.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the campaign and who you are voting for.
I am usually the kind of person that keeps personal things to myself and rarely shares them with anyone. But I feel compelled to say a little something about a close friend who unexpectedly passed away one week ago today. My friend Keith Johnson.
If any of you are familiar with the Washington DC area bar scene, then you will probably have crossed paths with Keith. He had been a staple as a bartender for a long time and had made friends with many people, including me. I met Keith in 1988 at a bar/club called Champions. Let's just say that he helped me out of a bad situation and didn't even know me. When I talked to him after the drama was over, he told me he had seen me around before and thought that he should help. That's the kind of man Keith was. You hear it all the time when someone passes, how they would give you the shirt off their back and would do anything for a friend. It's almost become cliche', but in Keith's case, it is 100 percent true. Over the years he and I became closer friends. I would ask his advice on things and he always gave me his honest answer, which I truly appreciated. I spoke with him 4 days before he had passed and we made plans to possibly hangout at a bar for a minute.
His funeral is tomorrow and his wake was today. I had planned on attending both, but I don't do well with death. I don't want to remember Keith last by being buried, I want to remember him as the guy who would always call me out when he would offer me a drink. Question my manhood, LOL! So many memories I have of hanging out with Keith and just having a great time.
If any of you have met Keith, please leave some memories you have of my friend. I know he is looking down on us.
I miss you man..
P.S. Alright man, I am gonna drink the damn shot! LOL!
What does it take for the entertainment industry to wake up and ask what the hell is going on with it's young members? Heath is just the latest in a string of deaths in young Hollywood. Entertainers who were given a gift from God only to let it go to waste. Some people will not agree with what I will say in this blog, but that is just fine. I am not here to trash Heath and others who have passed, only to ask when will this stop. What is going on in Hollywood to make these individuals feel so alone, so depressed that there only escape is death? It hasn't been confirmed by toxicology reports exactly how Heath died, but I am sure the prescription drugs that were found near his body will have a roll. Six different types of drugs folks, six! Shouldn't that raise a flag to someone in his camp?
In just the last month actors Heather Ledger and Brad Renfro have been found dead. This makes you think back to other young artists who died too early. River Phoenix, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, just to name a few. Apparently, the environment surrounding these people is toxic. Not knowing who you can truly trust. Realizing that most people you meet want something from you instead of genuinely wanting to get to know you. I know that some of you are thinking you aren't in that situation, so how do you know you wouldn't end up the same way. To be completely honest, I don't know, but I hope I would be smart enough to surround myself with a couple of people I know I can trust and who will keep me grounded. I have several friends who are either in the biz are on their way to being in the biz. I hear it all the time how Hollywood can chew you up and spit you out. For every Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and so on, there is a James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and a John Belushi. Someone who has the power and the fortitude needs to stand up and say enough is enough.
All I am trying to say is that these people were blessed, blessed with a gift and wasted it. Many of us "normal" people would have loved to be in the position that they were. Privileged, living the good life and able to affect so many people in so many different ways. Only to take this gift, abuse it and ultimately lose it. Some were suicides, some were "accidental" overdoses, whatever the cause of these deaths, I just can feel sorry for them. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see anyone die, but if you die at your own hand or doing something stupid or reckless, I have no sympathy for you. Some people won't like that statement, but that's why we have freedom of speech.
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