- “Fight Club” was a huge hit, so maybe returning to that
same well will yield another big win. James Franco clearly hopes so after he acquired the
film rights to “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk’s “Rant.” Franco has been a
busy man of late even if those films keeping him busy have mostly been
ridiculous – his Oscar-nominated performance in “127 Hours” not withstanding – and he now has his grubby hands on “Rant”
with an eye toward playing the leading role. He will portray Buster Rant
Casey, "a murderous demolition driver who takes part in the Party Crashing
derby in a world where people intentionally crash into each other violently to
feel, and create a vivid reality of the experience.” It’s a different take on
the concept of therapeutic violence than the fisticuffs of “Fight Club,” but
the basic principle holds. Playing a an described as a “murderous demolition
driver” might test Franco’s ability to go beyond his recent doofus roles, but
he should get plenty of help from Pamela Romanowsky, who is set to write and
direct the film. The two previously partnered on the film “Adderall Diaries,”
which wasn’t exactly a big-budget project bit did earn a fair amount of
critical praise. Franco’s latest film, “The Sound and the Fury,” premiered at
the Venice Film Festival earlier this month and Franco received a filmmaking
aware at the event for "an original contribution to innovation in
contemporary cinema” and for his efforts as "a relentless ‘manufacturer’
of cultural imagery.” Yes, that was every bit as pompous as it sounds……….
- Six Californias is dead before it could really come to
life. The controversial
“Six Californias” initiative was a pipe dream of venture capitalist Tim Draper
for months now, but Draper’s idea that the state is simply too large to govern
effectively was not winsome enough to earn a spot on the 2016 ballot. The Secretary
of State’s office announced this week that the initiative did not have
enough valid signatures when officials completed the standard random sampling
of petition signatures. That means the proposal to split California into six
smaller states won't be happening any time soon. That’s welcome news for OneCalifornia
co-founder Steve Maviglio, whose group formed with the sole purpose of stopping
Draper’s idea from becoming a reality. “Well, if it somehow miraculously gets
on the ballot, we’ll file a lawsuit immediately. We believe it’s
unconstitutional,” Maviglio said. Under the plan, six sovereign states would
have formed and one of those conveniently would have been the wealthy state of
Silicon Valley, including San Francisco and San Jose. The current capital city
of Sacramento would have been bundled together with Marin County to form a
northern California state, while Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside would’ve anchored
three other states. The sixth, hippie-friendly state would have encompassed the
extreme northern portion of what is currently a singular California. Draper and
others who backed the “Six Californias” initiative submitted more than 1.1
million signatures, but that wasn’t enough. The California Secretary of State’s
office said “the total number of signatures … filed with all county
elections officials is less than 100 percent of the number of qualified voters
required to find the petition sufficient.” Davis disputes that claim and said
his organization will conduct a review of the signatures determined to be
invalid by the registrars in several counties to determine if they were in fact
valid signatures. Keep that dream alive, you elitist ass hat………
- Did I say something? Why is everyone mad at me? Both are
questions currently being asked – at least publicly – by the best golfer in the
world. Rory McIlroy won two majors this year and is the top-ranked player in
the world, which should earn him some leeway when it comes to commenting on the
state of the sport he currently rules. Yet when the Northern Irishman made comments about Tiger Woods and Phil
Mickelson being on the "last few holes'' of their careers, the backlash
was swift and severe. Prior to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club,
McIlroy was asked if Woods and Mickelson failing to qualify for the event
signaled a new era in golf. "They're just getting older. Phil's [44] or
whatever he is and Tiger's nearly 40 (39 in December). So they're getting into
the sort of last few holes of their career. And that's what happens. You get
injured,” McIlroy said. “Phil has to deal with an arthritic condition as well.
So it obviously just gets harder as you get older. I'll be able to tell you in
20 years how it feels.'' It was an eye-catching comment wrapped in a sandwich
of realistic observations of fact and yet, all anyone heard was a young punk
shoveling dirt on the coffins of two all-time greats while they’re still
playing. Woods and Mickelson have combined to win 19 major championships and
121 PGA Tour titles, but both are absent from the Tour Championship for the
first time since 1992. Nothing McIlroy said was unduly harsh or wrong and he
admitted that the reaction to his words caught him off guard. "I was going
through Twitter last night and it was like, 'Hold on here, did I say something
bad here? I don't think I did,' " McIlroy said the day after his initial
remarks. "I know Tiger and Phil really well. I get on really well with
both guys. I've said much worse to Tiger before. "I felt like I had to
clarify what I said. I thought I was very complimentary.” True, there are a lot
of people looking for headlines and drama sells, but pretending that McIlroy
just took out his golf glove and smacked two icons across the face because he
can is almost as ridiculous as the idea that Woods is still the best player in
the world………
- Yemen is a happy place right now. Who wouldn’t be happy if
their country were immersed in non-stop turmoil pitting the government against
a rebel group hell-bent on overthrowing said government and enforcing its
strict agenda on the nation? The principals in this one are the Yemeni
government and a Shiite-rebel group, known as Hawthis. The two
sides were close to an agreement to resolve their issues through an
international mediator, but that agreement is in serious doubt after Yemeni
military officials confirmed that army troops clashed with Shiite rebels who
have been demonstrating for weeks demanding the government reinstate fuel
subsidies and resign. The weekend riots broke out in a northwestern district of
Sanaa, the capital, near a state TV building, when troops stopped a rebel truck
loaded with weapons. Rebels are clearly very fond of their weapons and when the
attack took place, the sh*t hit the fan quickly and violently. The military did
not report casualties, but said the area was now secured by army vehicles and
troops. The timing could not have been worse given the amount of violence and
tension that has soaked the sands of Yemen for months and a cynic might argue
that the attack was actually just what the rebels wanted – at least those
opposed to the proposed agreement. Unless that agreement is going to be
signed with gunfire and sealed with the blood of those who continue to clash
for and against what it stands for, any lasting peace may take a while longer……..
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