Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

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Entries Tagged as 'Film'

On My Reading List: Naomi Klein’s New Book, The Shock Doctrine

October 16th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Books, Climate Change, Culture, Film, Foreign Policy, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Journalism, News, Politics, TV, Video

Daily Kos has a review up of Naomi Klein’s new book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Harper’s ran an excerpt from The Shock Doctrine in the October issue which was, as the DKos review says, riveting, and immediately put the book on my must-read list. I’m planning to pick up a copy […]

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The Golden Compass: Official Trailer and Featurette on Daemons

October 12th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Books, Culture, Fantasy, Fiction, Film, Lit, Music, News, Science Fiction, TV, Ursula K. Le Guin, Video

The official/final trailer for The Golden Compass is out, and the more I see of this film the better it looks. I am somewhere between guardedly optimistic and completely geeked out.   Also, here’s a nice little featurette called “Defining Daemons,” which looks at the animal companion-spirits that accompany the characters on their journeys.   […]

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Roundup: Swiftly Tilting Planet Edition

September 17th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Swiftly Tilting Planet Edition · Activism, Books, Chicago, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Fantasy, Film, Foreign Policy, Hate Crimes, Health, History, HIV/AIDS, Infrastructure, Journalism, LGBT, Lit, Media, Nature, News, Peace, Politics, Public Transportation, Roundup, Science, Science Fiction, Tech

Eric Alterman has an outstanding column in The Nation on how the media’s mean girls (of all genders) develop the narratives they use to bring down the presidential candidates they take a dislike to. With examples of what they did to Gore in 2000, and what they’re doing to Obama and Edwards right now. Two […]

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Roundup: Pink Elephant Edition

September 10th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Activism, Books, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Energy, Film, Foreign Policy, Health, History, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Internet, Journalism, Language, LGBT, Media, Music, Nature, News, Peace, Performance, Politics, Racism, Roundup, Science, Tech, Theater

General Petraeus says that “victory” in Iraq will require 9-10 more years. I’m trying to imagine how ten more years of bloody occupation can possibly work out to a victory. More on that subject here. A bill has been introduced in Venezuela to restrict baby names to a list of 100 approved choices. “The bill’s […]

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Trailer for Rendition, with Meryl Streep, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Reese Witherspoon

September 10th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Blogs, Comics, Culture, Film, Human Rights, Media, News, Politics, Torture, Video

Via Towleroad, the trailer for the new movie Rendition, scheduled for release October 19 in the US.   I’m not usually one for movies that get the “thriller” label, but the political dimension to this one — and the quality of the cast — make it look like an early standout among fall releases. There’s […]

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Russell Hoban News: New Releases and More

September 7th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Books, Culture, Fiction, Film, Lit, News, Russell Hoban, Science Fiction, Theater

I just updated the News page over at The Head of Orpheus, the Russell Hoban Web site I maintain, so I figured I might as well cross-post the info here as well (with a few slight formatting tweaks). Autumn 2007 is shaping up to be a great season for Hoban fans, with Russ’s next novel […]

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Good Morning, Day 51

September 6th, 2007 · Comments Off on Good Morning, Day 51 · Activism, Culture, Film, HCC-DDT, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Human Rights, Media, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

1,850 U.S. citizens were recently killed in an entirely preventable disaster. It’s been a while since I’ve updated this record — 37 days, to be exact. On July 18 I started keeping count of the 50 U.S. citizens who die every day because they can’t afford health care, according to this statistic. So in a […]

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Roundup: Dinosaur Corsage Edition

August 31st, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Dinosaur Corsage Edition · Activism, Advertising, Comics, Culture, Doctor Who, Energy, Film, Foreign Policy, Health, Healthcare Crisis, History, Human Rights, Law, LGBT, Media, Nature, News, Peace, Pets, Politics, Roundup, Science, TV

Scary stuff: There’s a lot of buzz and speculation that starting just after Labor Day, the Bush administration is going to be rolling out a major PR campaign to pave the way for war with Iran. See here and here for starters. Grand Moff Texan at DKos says the Bushies will be using the same […]

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Review: Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin

August 28th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Books, Culture, Fiction, Film, HIV/AIDS, LGBT, Lit, Reviews, TV

I just finished reading Armistead Maupin’s newest book, Michael Tolliver Lives — well, inhaling it really, because reading Michael Tolliver Lives is less like reading a novel than it is like opening a richly detailed letter from an old friend you inexplicably lost touch with about 15 years ago, and suddenly here he is giving […]

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Clip and Trailer for Todd Haynes’ New Dylan Movie, I’m Not There

August 24th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Culture, Film, Music, Video

For those looking forward to Todd Haynes’ new film about Bob Dylan I’m Not There, in which Dylan is played by six different and very diverse actors, here’s a leaked clip from the movie with Cate Blanchett as Dylan and David Cross as Allen Ginsberg. If the whole movie is this much fun we’re in […]

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The Oingo Boingo Video Vault: Gong Show, Flaming Bathtub, and an Urgh! Outtake

August 18th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Culture, Film, Music, New Wave, TV, Video

Via Gadget Girl, let us now thrill to this 1976 appearance by Oingo Boingo on The Gong Show, from the early part of their career when they were still called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. With bonus Bill Bixby!   (As the notes on the YouTube page point out, you might think that’s […]

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Roundup: Skydiving Baby Giraffe Edition

August 15th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Skydiving Baby Giraffe Edition · Activism, Apple, Books, Chicago, Comics, Culture, Death Penalty, Fantasy, Fiction, Film, Food, Health, Human Rights, Internet, iTunes, Journalism, Lit, Media, Meta, Nature, News, Politics, Roundup, TV, Ursula K. Le Guin

Out, damned spot! Fox News caught red-handed, laundering entries on Wikipedia. Keep on scrubbing, Lady MacFox, but those stains belong to you always. The GOP’s California strategy: winning the 2008 election by undoing California’s winner-take-all electoral system. Once the state goes piecemeal, the Repubs gain at least 20 electoral votes from safe GOP districts. Arianna […]

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A Message from Ian McKellen

August 1st, 2007 · 5 Comments · Activism, Culture, Film, Human Rights, LGBT, Media, News, Politics, Theater, Video

… to the people of Singapore.  

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Golden Compass Trailer

July 31st, 2007 · 6 Comments · Books, Culture, Fantasy, Film, Lit, News, Video

Finally! An “extended preview” trailer for The Golden Compass. Been waiting for-EV-er for a look at this.   Hard to tell too much for sure, but it does seem like they’ve gotten the look of it right. And it seems like maybe it’s going to be fairly faithful to the book — fingers crossed anyway. […]

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