Here in the Philadelphia region, we are up to our asses in snow, ice, and misery due to the poor weather. It’s had me cursing more than the lovable foul-mouthed 1980’s arcade legend Q-Bert. And as mentioned last week, I am also up to my ass in work, graduate school work, dirty diapers, and stress. And the ass of which I speak has been struggling to get into my wrinkle free pleated cotton Dockers lately. I can’t afford new pants, so it’s high time for me to get in shape! [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, Marty digs by Marty O'Connor
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Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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10. It’s so cold, Lady Gaga’s charbroiling her meat dress before putting it on

9. It’s so cold, opticians at LensCrafters are giving away free ice scrapers with every new pair of glasses

8. It’s so cold, TSA agents are required to put on mittens before fondling you

7. It’s so cold, the Statue of Liberty decided to hold her torch under her robe

6. It’s so cold, Miley Cyrus is lighting her bong just for the warmth

5. It’s so cold, Charlie Rangel was spotted with his hands in his own pockets

4. It’s so cold, yesterday I chipped a tooth on my Cup-a-Soup

3. It’s so cold, Al Gore recently came out in favor of global warming

2. It’s so cold, Glenn Beck has requested he be sent to Hell earlier than scheduled

1. It’s so cold, Brett Favre is just describing his junk to women
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, ends & odd, environment & nature by Bob Sullivan
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Like many of you, I’ve been following the Egyptian uprising on The Drudge Report, Instapundit, and the major network websites like Fox News and CNN.  I’m totally in support of the populace to rise up and overthrow the existing government, if that’s what they so choose to do.  This is a basic American Ideal, laid out since the Declaration of Independence first offered up the words “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

What I find interesting though is not the political upheaval, but the response by the powers that be and its relation to current US policy.  Namely the idea that they tried to turn off the internet.

[Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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I think the following statement from Iran’s Foreign Ministry, reported just a moment ago on CNN, is worthy of note:

“Iran expects Egyptian officials to listen to the voice of their Muslim people, respond to their rightful demands and refrain from exerting violence by security forces and police against an Islamic wave of awareness that has spread through the country in form of a popular movement.”

This statement by Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, as simple and plain-spoken as it may be, is nonetheless an inadvertent masterpiece of irony that, I think,  deserves to live on for all eternity in the annals of insincerity.

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Michael Antman
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One trait of being a “screenager” is the love of upgrades. In a bit-based world governed by the never-ending promise of Moore’s Law, they live for the next best device.  My daughter has been campaigning for a new cell phone to add to her growing list of devices, including a one-year old cell phone that she has lost… no, more on that in a moment. [Read more →]

Tags: technology, virtual children by Scott Warnock by Scott Warnock
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Everyone has their routine stops – both actual and virtual – that they make in the course of the day. For me, the latter include a “This Day in History” feature prepared by the New York Times.

During TODAY’s stop I learned of a number of significant events, including one that had a special added note, due to an event that will appear on the feature TOMORROW.
[Read more →]

Tags: ends & odd by Jeff McDonald
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Here is what you call a “non-story:” The upcoming film “Captain America: The First Avenger,” will be dropping the “Captain America” part of the title when it is released in South Korea, Russia, and Ukraine.

The choice was made by Marvel, Paramount Pictures’ international team and distributors in those three countries based on market research results. Those involved in the decision are being careful to frame the move as a matter of brand management and consumer awareness and not as a decision tilted by cultural or political winds.

In private, Marvel insiders said that early on in the project’s planning there was talk that the title might need to be changed in numerous international markets but that there was a ”pleasant surprise” — the brand recognition of the comic-book superhero was so strong that it overrode those considerations in many places. That was not the case in Russia, South Korea and the Ukraine.

Most Americans don’t care what happens in any of those three countries, anyway. I’m not entirely sure that “Ukraine” is even a real place. Show it to me on a map. I’m waiting. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
9 Comments »

I blogged in December, but I didn’t post it.

The blog was vague. I wanted to talk about something, but I didn’t want to jinx it. So, the blog didn’t really make any sense. It was likely pretty darn uninteresting, as well.

At the time, when I first wrote it, I was pregnant. I was trying to come to terms, in a happy way, with the idea that maybe I could go back to re-planning that whole “married with children” lifestyle. It would be a new version, of course, with my new cake husband, and certainly way better than the Bundy version. Not to mention way better than my previous version, one would hope. [Read more →]

Tags: square one by Van McCourt by Van McCourt
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We’re coming up on the fiftieth anniversary of the fabulous Frank Loesser musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  To celebrate, Daniel Radcliffe will star as window washer turned business hotshot, Finch, along with John Larroquette as the big boss, J.B. Biggley.  I’m looking forward to this one, not only because of the dissonance of watching Harry Potter sing “Brotherhood of Man,” but because of my personal history with this play.  Yes, readers, a much younger Broadway Fred was one of the great Finches of his time, in one of the finest productions of the mighty Studio Y Players.

[Read more →]

Tags: Broadway Fred by Fred Siegel
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Today’s post continues last week’s meditation on Miles Davis, Tony Williams, and incontinence among jazz musicians.

A quick recap:  Recall that Absurdity and Despair govern our world. Recall further that these overlapping magisteria often surface in the realm of jazz music, particularly whenever someone conjures the words “Miles” and “Davis.”

Last week I discussed this phenomenon in the context of a performance by the late, great Tony Williams. This week, we move from a surly drummer to a no-nonsense bass player.

Enter Richard...

[Read more →]

Tags: Michael Cade's audio files by Michael Cade
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Mega producer Ivan Reitman has been producing and directing comedies for over 30 years. He directs and produces a standard romantic comedy here, and that is not such a bad thing. No Strings Attached is amusing, even if it is predicable. But Natalie Portman and a remarkable cast of supporting actors give this unremarkable comedy added laughs and energy. [Read more →]

Tags: Gail sees a movie by Gail D. Rosen
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Many of you may accuse me of hasty floccinaucinihilipilification for this, and claim that I’m being harsh, but…

[Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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Why are the NFL players threatening a strike next season? Was it about unity? Or money? Or injuries? I’m confused, because the two more noble of those causes seem to have fallen by the wayside. Players praise themselves for standing together and they condemn the league for trying to injure them, but the players are the ones stabbing each other in the back. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, sports by Dan Sterlace
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Remember Dickens’s Thomas Gradgrind, with his meaty, square-ended finger pile-driving into his lectern as he tells the kids in his classroom that the world has no room for “fancy”? — that “fact” is all that matters? Well, he is alive and well. There are people walking around who think that imagination and creativity are extraneous human endeavors. Of course, they probably think this because they often witness artistic idiots skipping around and scattering rose petals up to the harsh winds of reality. It is a cultural snake that eats itself, really. [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo, education by Chris Matarazzo
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Mark Vernon recently posted three quotations on his excellent blog Philosophy & Life.

The first was from physicist Carlo Rovelli: “The notion of ‘scientifically proven’. Nearly an oxymoron. The very foundation of science is to keep the door open to doubt.” [Read more →]

Tags: science, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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On Monday, I helped an 88-year-old man move a Coca-Cola vending machine from the floor of an industrial warehouse to the back of his pick-up truck. He was buying it for the employees at his scrap metal business in Houston. The owner of the vending machine was out of town, and I had agreed to meet the old man and help.

Alas, I wasn’t much use. I soon discovered that even if I pushed the vending machine very, very hard with my shoulder, it wouldn’t move. Fortunately there was a man across the street with a forklift truck. If he hadn’t been there, the Coke machine would still be standing in the original spot, or perhaps the 88-year-old man and I would be lying under it, two bloody smears on the warehouse floor.

And so the week began with a new discovery: VENDING MACHINES ARE INCREDIBLY HEAVY. Reflecting upon this, I wondered what other things I had learned from Coca-Cola which, like the air we breathe, is a ubiquitous part of modern life.

So: what else has Coke taught me? [Read more →]

Tags: ends & odd, travel & foreign lands by Daniel Kalder
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This week I am teetering closer and closer to my first nervous breakdown. I am knee deep in graduate school work, we have an uninvited “mouseguest” problem, and my little boy bounces off the walls until midnight every night. My sleep is messed up, I’m out of shape, unmotivated, and out of sorts. The realization of my problems came to a head last night when I hazily sat through 1/4th of the movie “You’ve Got Mail” with my girlfriend and was actually getting into the storyline. My cure-all for this is time traveling in my mind back to the glorious mid-90s. The band joining me on this journey is the much misunderstood band The Goo Goo Dolls.     [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, Marty digs, music by Marty O'Connor
2 Comments »

Some athletes just don’t get it. I guess it’s because of how far removed their lives are from those of the average fans. When you make millions of dollars a year for playing a game, it must be easy to lose sight of what it’s like to have to save to take your family to a game. That’s the only way I can explain comments like those made by Kobe Bryant this week, discussing the fact that Carmelo Anthony is being booed by his home fans in Denver. Bryant called the fans of the Nuggets “stupid” for daring to boo Anthony, the team’s star player who is trying to force a trade to the New York Knicks. Apparently, those fans should stay quiet about the giant middle-finger that Anthony is sending their way. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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10. “Oprahsourced”

9. “Gayle King and I”

8. “Saturday Night Oprah”

7. “America’s Got Oprah”

6. “Extreme Makeoprah: Home Edition”

5. “Dr. Phil’s Crap-a-Thon”

4. “$#*! Oprah Says”

3. “The Bold and the Oprah”

2. “The Stedman from Atlantis”

1. “The Story of O”
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: art & entertainment, Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, television by Bob Sullivan
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So I’ve had a very hard time trying to write about politics for the last two weeks.  The whole response to the Gifford’s shooting has really ticked me off.  The left’s attacks on conservatives are, in my mind, an effort at the censorship of free political speech, and I don’t see the assault on a conservative’s right to say what he/she thinks coming to a stop anytime soon.

This upsets me because we have large problems to deal with in this country, problems like the nation’s debt, a struggling economy, the Federal Reserve dropping depth charges on the value of the dollar, why, I could write for a month solid on all the things we’re not getting done because we’re having to defend ourselves against trumped up accusations of murder.

I think the best piece I’ve read so far on the subject comes from Don Surber at Daily Mail.com, which I found thanks to Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit.com.  It’s entitled “I do not want civil discourse”.

[Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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The Greek Tragedy has become Comedy, then Absurdity and somehow has come full circle to Normality… Our New Reality; which evidence says is the repetitious behavior emblematic of Insanity. All the things the “bailout” was meant to avert are at the door. All the things it was meant to promote have whithered. Of course the prescription can only be more of the same. More borrowing. More spending. More taxing. It is far from over and it is far from just Greek. The Greeks are merely carrying the banners in this parade. Every nation whose name you know is on the program. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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10. When Sarah Palin said U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords should be “targeted,” she meant targeted with a surveyor’s scope

9. Sarah Palin used the term “blood libel” in a completely non-Jewish Christian context, referring to people who claim that wine in church isn’t really the blood of Christ

8. When Byron Williams, who got into a gunfight with police trying to attack members of the Tides Foundation in San Francisco, said he had been influenced by Glenn Beck, he really meant the singer Beck (“Odelay”)

7. When Sarah Palin complained that the shooting in Arizona had been unfairly politicized, then suggested that the gunman was perhaps a “left-leaning criminal,” she meant one of his legs was shorter than the other

6. When the mother of Gregory Lee Giusti, who was convicted of threatening former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, blamed Fox News, she actually meant the news that Redd Foxx had died

4. Tea Partier Sharron Angle’s suggestion of “Second Amendment solutions” for an out-of-control Congress was a misquote; she actually referenced the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments

3. Sarah Palin’s use of the phrase “don’t retreat, reload” was a reference to wash loads

2. When a relative of Charles Wilson, who was convicted of threatening Sen. Patty Murray, said he was “under the spell that Glenn Beck cast,” he really meant he’d been drinking Beck’s beer.

1. Whenever Sarah Palin uses the term ‘Democrats,’ she of course means ‘shitheads who should be taken out’
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: black helicopter watch, Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, damned lies, politics & government by Bob Sullivan
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Marvel published the top comic book of 2010. Do you know what it was? Do you even care? It was The Avengers #1.

“The Avengers” No. 1, Marvel Comics’ relaunch of its superhero property featuring Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man and Wolverine, was the best-selling comic-book title for 2010.

A relaunch, of a comic book that was first published in 1963, then relaunched in 1996, then relaunched in 1997, then relaunched in 1998, then relaunched in 2004 (actually a resumption of the original series launched in 1963), then relaunched in 2010. You can try to follow it all here, if you like.

In 1998, the great cartoonist Frank Miller told The Comics Journal,

When I was in my 20s, putting together Ronin and feeling the handcuffs come off creatively, I thought that we just had to win a certain number of business victories and there would be an absolute explosion of all this fine talent producing work that they were dying to do. And there’s no politic way to put it– it’s been a crashing disappointment to see what’s actually happened. And as time has gone by, my expectations have lowered. Talent is being squandered by people just becoming the next person to do whatever old Marvel comic. That’s not just squandering an opportunity, it’s suicide. Creative suicide. In one of my nastier moments, I started comparing the industry to a bunch of Elvis impersonators, trying to sell records. Understand, I grew up on the old Stan Lee/Jack Kirby/Steve Ditko stuff and loved it and will always have affection for it. But repeating it would be like staying in first grade the rest of my life. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, movies by Ricky Sprague
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When Falls the Coliseum is looking for bloggers to post commentaries, essays, rants, satire, and reviews about current events, politics, entertainment, culture, and many other topics from a broad range of personal and political perspectives. We appreciate both serious discussion and merciless mockery. We like humor — the funny kind. If you’re interested in being a regular contributor, visit our submissions page and tour our site (see FAQ, Welcome, and History). We don’t care if you are libertarian, liberal, conservative, other, or don’t pay attention to politics. As long as you can write posts that interest readers and you want to do so regularly, we’d like to hear from you. We’re looking to increase our coverage of movies, books, TV, video games, celebrity news, pop culture, politics, current events, social issues, online oddities.

Tags: announcements by Coliseum
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In her director’s notes, Emma Rice, Artistic Director of Kneehigh Theatre, writes of a creature from Scottish and Irish folklore called the Selkie.  This is a seal who sheds her skin, assumes human form, and dances at the beach. In some versions of the tale the Selkie is kidnapped by a man, has children, and lives among the humans. Eventually, however, she locates her seal skin, puts it on, and jumps back into the ocean forevermore. [Read more →]

Tags: Broadway Fred by Fred Siegel
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Throughout his life, the late Miles Davis struggled to cultivate a decent relationship with WhiteDevil Honkey-Caucasians. He once reportedly said:

“If somebody told me I had only one hour to live, I’d spend it choking a white man. I’d do it nice and slow.”

Personally, I think that may be the greatest quote ever. It’s funny.

But then I have no problem mining a laugh from something that might be direly offensive. Call it a 21st Century reflex, but I accept the fact that two frequently overlapping magisteria, Despair and Absurdity, govern our tragicomical world.

But how far do these magisteria extend into the realm of music?

[Read more →]

Tags: Michael Cade's audio files by Michael Cade
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At this year’s Golden Globe Awards, the comedian and actor Ricky Gervais ruffled a few feathers by performing jokes that were considered by some to be disrespectful. You might think that Mr. Gervais is the only Ricky to have provided entertainment services to members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but you would be wrong. Once upon a time I, myself, got a taste of entertainment greatness, in a story I shall relate to you now: [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, ends & odd by Ricky Sprague
3 Comments »

It’s not that Country Strong is a terrible film. It is just not a very good film. The talents of Gwyneth Paltrow are wasted in this derivative and formulaic film in the milieu of country music. The music is pleasant enough, the story is momentarily diverting and the performances are pretty good. But in the category of films about music, Country Strong is not even close to as much fun as Burlesque or as good as Crazy Heart. [Read more →]

Tags: Gail sees a movie by Gail D. Rosen
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“You are listening to a machine. Do the world a favor and don’t act like one.”

Computers and the internet revolutionized our society from an efficiency standpoint like no other invention since perhaps indoor plumbing. Everyday human transactions have been made simpler and quicker for everyone with access. Online banking, ordering take out sans translator, and buying books minus the snide remarks from the aficionados at Barnes and Noble, can all be accomplished from the comfort and privacy of your home without interacting with anyone at all. But as we all know, all good things should be taken in moderation. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, Joshua Goldowsky blames a fictional character by Joshua Goldowsky
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