It was inevitable that this day would come. With the growing knowledge about the Mayan calendar end date of December 21, 2012, it was just a matter of time before Hollywood seized the opportunity to show its version of what the end date could mean. Since worldwide spiritual enlightenment, a slow transition from a patriarchal to matriarchal society, or nearly imperceptible earth-changes are admittedly not the stuff of blockbusters, Hollywood logically opted for a disaster flick. And not just any disaster flick, but a disaster flicks’ greatest hits. [Read more →]

Tags: movies, religion & philosophy by Marc Oromaner
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Although TV has had a long standing love affair with science fiction, it has generally avoided basing its SF shows on the works of bonafide science fiction writers as it has in the case of “FlashForward,” originally a book by award-winning SF novelist, Robert Sawyer. Rather than let the book stand on it own merits, the producers have warped it to make it to fit the Network TV mold, adding cops and bad guys, dumbing down the ideas, and perpetuating the TV stereotype that if a scientist ain’t a cop (e.g., “Numbers,” “11th Hour,” “CSIs,” “Fringe,” etc.), then he must be mad and bad.

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Tags: books & writing, television by Mark Guerin
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The contributors of When Falls the Coliseum are an intelligent bunch, providing us with thought-provoking posts on a regular basis, covering politics, sports, parenting and book reviews, among other topics. Therefore, it is my duty to ensure that the useless, mindless discussions stay alive amidst all of this intellect. Because if the stay-at-home moms of the world, such as myself, won’t keep the stupidity alive, then who will? [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, television by Nancy DeGregorio
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I recently wrote a post about my three-year-old daughter and her new found love of torturing me. She’s a smart, sassy little girl with an attitude that, at times, stops me in my tracks. It’s hard to fault her for something she most likely inherited from me. Plus, she’s ridiculously funny — like she gets-the-joke kind of funny. But lately, the cute and funny part of her is taking a backseat to a whining, screaming child — and the cause of these outbursts? Getting dressed. [Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, going parental by Jaclyn Roth
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I’ve been watching the very interesting Mob Scene videos on Philly.com that feature George Anastasia, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s ace organized crime reporter. 

Anastasia has been covering organized crime in Philadelphia and South Jersey for more than 25 years. He has also written several books on organized crime, such as Blood and Honor , The Last Gangster and his latest, Mobfiles: Mobsters, Molls and Murder.

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Tags: books & writing, on thrillers and crime by Paul Davis
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“Every thing is what it is, and not another thing.”

Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752)

Like everybody else, when I first heard about the shootings at Fort Hood I immediately rushed to judgment, assuming that anybody opening fire on soldiers on an army base in Texas expected to die. Thus the shooter was either 1) a soldier who had cracked or 2) a priapic jihadist aroused by the thought of all those virgins in paradise. Reasoning that an armed Islamist would struggle to penetrate Fort Hood’s security, I concluded that the shooter was probably an unfortunate soldier gone berserk. A few hours later however I discovered secret option 3) that the “alleged” shooter Nidal Hasan was both a soldier and a jihadi nutbag — an entirely new hybrid, in other words. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, trusted media & news by Daniel Kalder
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“Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all become respectable if they last long enough,” Robert Towne wrote in the screenplay for Chinatown. He could have added, “Also, monstrous sports owners become figures of sympathy.” Many people have decided it isn’t enough the New York Yankees beat the hell out of everyone; now you have to like them while they do it. So not only does Yankee owner George Steinbrenner get another World Series title (his seventh); this time he deserves to have it. Having gone through similar experiences with my own family, I’m very sorry that rumors suggest George has slipped into senility, but the fact remains for most of his life he was the loudmouth jerk who earned countless millions while threatening to cut the dental plan for his janitors. Somehow the Boss having to get by on a mere six championships doesn’t seem too cruel to me. [Read more →]

Tags: sports by Sean Cunningham
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September 25, 2009
I dream I am at a cross between a deserted mall and Six Flags. Bob and I want to ride one of the older gravity rides. We walk up flights of stairs and finally start to climb up tandem ladders inside a chute. Then when we run out of rungs, we intuit that we are to simply fall backwards. We do, and find that the anti-gravity properties of the chute work beautifully. We flutter down gracefully and gain momentum as we splash safely into the pool.

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Tags: Fred's dreams by Fred Siegel
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Summary: We learn about Cassidy’s back story, which revolves around an Irish-English conflict. We see John Custer’s (Jesse’s father) Vietnam experiences. Jesse meets Genesis’ father, an angel, which was being held by The Grail. We meet the AllFather (head of The Grail) and the current descended of Jesus. Jesse rescues Cassidy. God shows up again. The Saint of Killers shows up again. There is a huge blood bath. Starr is coping with his new desires, which is freakin’ hilarious.

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Tags: books & writing, just fantastic by Steve Mazzeo
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Get your gears off my love handles you damned dirty machines!

Tags: black helicopter watch by Shawn Macomber
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Director/screenwriter John Krasinski assembled an impressive amount of male talent to fill out Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Unfortunately, their impressive performances are largely wasted in this film. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is not really funny enough to be a good comedy, and its attempts at serious reflection are pretentious and pat rather than insightful. This is a shame, because this film has some interesting ideas and real potential. [Read more →]

Tags: Gail sees a movie, movies by Gail D. Rosen
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The Book of Lies is a tough review to write.  There is so much going on, so many interesting side stories that I want to tell you about, but I don’t want to spoil the surprises you have in store.  There’s Cain and Abel, a kid named Jerry Siegel, a dog named Benoni, a tractor-trailer full of melting shrimp, and the difficult relationships between fathers and sons.  Add a healthy dose of mystery, ties to several real-life stories, and you’ve got The Book of Lies, a great mystery from a great mystery writer.

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Tags: books & writing, Lisa Reads by Lisa Hura
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Thanks to the Internet — and, in particular, to blogging — the capacity for dialogue has, along with much else, increased exponentially. Now, the aim of this column is to take something someone has said and see where thinking about it leads. But there is no reason why the quoted matter I choose to discuss need be a remark that is famous or one uttered by someone famous.

Recently, I linked on my blog to a piece by Mark Vernon called “How to be agnostic,” in which he quoted something written by Daniel J. Boorstin: “I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress.” [Read more →]

Tags: that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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For most non-Teutons the idea of German rock is not very appealing. The fatherland of Bach and Beethoven may well have produced many interesting experimental groups (Kraftwerk,  Einstürzende Neubauten etc) but on a global, top 40 level it’s an entirely different matter. Consider:

1) The Scorpions- hair metal popular in the 80s, approximately as good as Winger. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, music by Daniel Kalder
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So You Think You Can Dance (Tuesday, 8PM, FOX) — I was definitely not ready for another season of SYTYCD. The hours you have to put in to this reality dance competition makes it the perfect summer series, so having it on in the fall made me feel anxious and overwhelmed. With the abundance of fall television, I knew I wasn’t tuning in until at least Vegas week. I never even made it to Vegas which put me at a distinct disadvantage… I knew no one in the top 20. I thought for sure that this season was not in the cards for me… and then they did something brilliant. [Read more →]

Tags: Lauren Likes TV, television by Lauren LaBumbard
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For a lot of years, I was a big fan of Allen Iverson.  To me, no one in the NBA was more exciting to watch. The Sixers didn’t always win, but Iverson rarely failed to excite. It was always clear, though, that he was a selfish player who cared more for his own statistics than he did about winning. Now, at 34 years old, his skills have eroded, but his attitude has not. That makes for a bad combination. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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10. Visit more cities than you ever expected!

9. We’ll make sure you have time to watch the whole in-flight movie!

8. Up, up, and a way over there!

7. We go the extra distance for you!

6. Some people just know how to fly! Then there’s our pilots!

5. Who knows which flight will turn out to be our Secret Mystery Flight?!

4. Fly the distracted skies of Northwest!

3. Northwest Airlines: We love to overfly, and it shows!

2. Earn extra frequent flier miles!

1. Our planes are so comfy, even the pilots can’t stay awake!
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, travel & foreign lands by Bob Sullivan
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Indeed she does. Ladies and Gentleman, allow me to present Totally Stylin Tattoo Barbie! Thanks Mattel. My three-year-old definitely needs this toy. It’s an awesome idea  — giving her ways to express herself creatively via mock-mutilating herself and Barbie? Genius. [Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, going parental by Jaclyn Roth
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I think 30 Rock is the funniest show on TV. At least, I did until this season. I was disappointed with the premiere and found each new episode worse than the previous one, to the point last week I was fastforwarding through the second chunk of commercials and I thought, “You know, I really don’t care what nutty adventures Jack and Liz have visiting Kenneth’s hometown” and switched over to The Office. This leads to the question: how much patience do you show a show before it’s time to move on?

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Tags: television by Sean Cunningham
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November 1, 2009
I dream I have won a tiny fish at a carnival, and I keep him alive in a drinking glass by feeding him the crumbs of a saltine cracker. After various scrapes with death, the fish winds up in a tank in my kitchen, but I don’t know how the tank got there. Furthermore, it seems as if this fish had a baby fish. Then, when I wake up a subsequent morning, there is a huge tank with two enormous fish, two small fish, plus a large octopus. It becomes clear later that the octopus is really a guy who admonishes me for not taking care of my fish.

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Tags: Fred's dreams by Fred Siegel
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