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THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE

With Independence Day on the horizon, a curious crop of new stories is arising. Or maybe they've always been around but I am just now noticing.

There's a guy named Mike Norton in Utah who's built a war memorial on his front lawn. It says, "KILLED IN IRAQ" and shows the faces of every American who has died in the war. The memorial is updated almost daily as new soldiers are killed. The memorial also sports some yellow "Support our troops" ribbons. There is nothing on the memorial that says, "Stop the war," or "These people died to protect us!" There is no clear opinion expressed, except the simple fact that these are the faces of now-dead Americans. This is a memorial for the dead, not a protest against the war or a call to arms.

As you may expect, Norton is getting a small number of thanks from veterans, but mostly, he's getting his car vandalized and he's being harassed by neighbors. It's gotten to the point that the town is telling him to take down the memorial, even though they told him it violates no codes. Nobody wants to know the truth. Or if they do, they don't want to see it. It's OK to say, "Support our troops and fight the war," as long as you don't show the reality of the situation. Soldiers die. That's what they do. Oh yeah. They kill, too. That's not me being a crazy Liberal. That's the truth and any conservative Republican will agree. So if you want to honor and support the soldiers, the least you can do is to acknowledge their deaths and look at their faces.

In a somewhat related story, The House votes today (June 22) on a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban desecration of the flag. This is plain crazy. The foundation of this amazing country is freedom. All we've been hearing for the last 4 years is how we have freedom and terrorists hate it and our freedom is so amazing. "Freedom isn't Free!" I hear. Well, Bush and Cheney keep saying how well the war is going. That must mean we have our freedom and it's nice and safe. Well then, please explain to me how the government can just decide to take our freedoms away? Or if not how, why? Why would they try to silence the public from dissent? What makes America so special is the respect the government supposedly has for the people. Can you imagine going to prison for desecration a flag? In the strictest sense, people would be eligible for orange jumpsuits left and right. You are not supposed to fly a flag at night, in the dark. You shouldn't put any marks on it. If it's damaged, you are supposed to remove it from sight. How many torn flags have you seen on cars? How many were flying at night? Congressman Phil Gingrey said that "to burn a flag is to disrespect America." Well, yeah...so? That's still legal. Disrespect, while offensive, is legal. The price of freedom is that you're gonna get offended sometimes. Congressman Gary Ackerman said that the American flag symbolizes the right to burn the American flag. I'm paraphrasing, but he's right....I mean Left. He's correct, is what I'm trying to say.

On Independence Day (also known as 4th of July, dummy), try to keep in mind the countries around the world that are NOT free. Think of the countries where the media is told not to print certain stories, or the news stories are produced by the government itself. Imagine a country where the average person cannot criticize the government without risking prison. Imagine a world in which the government sorts through library records to see if there are any suspicious patterns. Better yet, imagine a country in which the government has the right to grab any "suspected" individual without a court order and hold them indefinitely without legal council.

Then wonder who is going to liberate those people.

PINK FLOYD REUNITE!!!!!!

I can't believe I'm writing those words, but it appears Dave and Roger have, at least temporarily, calmed down enough to perform together for charity. Roger started taking over Pink Floyd in the late 70s, and by 1983, he'd basically become a solo artist with Dave and Nick as session players (Rick was fired in 1979 for drug abuse), so he left the band and assumed they'd retire the name Pink Floyd. Dave and Nick didn't retire. They hired Rick back and continued the Pink Floyd legacy, but it just wasn't the same. Dave and Roger complimented each other. Roger is abrasive and witty while Dave is somewhat pop-y and musical. Dave's Floyd was too wimpy and Roger's solo albums are always a little hard to take right away. They're more of an acquired taste.

Anyway, Bob Geldof is reanimating Live Aid with Live8, a similar worldwide concert to raise awareness for world poverty. Nick had always said that it would take something on the scale of Live Aid to reunite Roger with the band.

Now, this isn't a real reunion. I mean, it's a reunion for a concert, but I have no illusions that they'll reunite for an album or tour or anything like that. I'm sure this is a one-time thing, but I'm just so excited!

ADAPTATION part 2: "THe Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy"

I finally saw the film version of Douglas Adams' "HHGTTG." It was originally broadcast on BBC radio, then it was made into books, then a record album, then more books, then a TV miniseries, then more radio shows and now a movie. Every version had direct involvement by the author, Douglas Adams. The film version was in script phase when Adams died. However, I had every reason to expect the best, as Adams had been involved for a long time in getting this movie made, and the directors assured us that they would absolutely do the books, et al, justice.

Holy crap, was I misled. The previous incarnations were chock full of satire, clever writing, meaty science fiction and character development. This film was a whiz-bang, slap-dash, slapstick abomination. I'm not saying this because it was different from the books. I'm saying this because it was completely misguided. All the jokes stemmed from visual gags, instead of from the writing. Zaphod is supposed to be a cool, hepcat-ish smoothie. That was where his character's humor came from. This one was somewhat a smoothie, but mostly an idiot. I had heard they were going Mos Def, a black rapper to play Ford Prefect. Fine, the character doesn't need to be white and Mos is supposed to be a great actor, so bring him on! Mr. Def is a mumbling plank of cardboard in this movie. Marvin was originally depressed, but abusively condescending. This one was just sitcom depressed and irritating. At least they gave Trillian something to do. The previous versions had her dooing nothing of note. This one had her doing dumb things, like falling for Arthur.

Overall, I felt like the producers took the original radio shows and books, tossed them in a pot, boiled it down to a small putty-like paste, and then reconstituted it with too much water. The movie was fast and visually fun, but there was practically no story. They hit on each moment and then WHIZZZ! They went on to the next part without developing it enough to let us care.

This movie sucked. Maybe the DVD will have an hour of deleted footage that willl redeem the story as a whole, but I doubt it.

ADAPTATION part 1: "Wicked"

I saw the Broadway musical Wicked recently. If you're not already familiar, it's the supposed back story of The Wizard of Oz movie and it's based on a book of the same name. It explains how Glinda and the Wicked Witch became who they became, and the real stories behind the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. That whole premise lent itself to a lot of "inside" jokes. I say "inside" because you'd only get them if you saw the original "Oz" movie. That pretty much means everyone, but they were delivered with a "wink wink."

So the story basically goes like this: *******SPOILERS*****A long time ago, some guy used a green potion to get a woman to sleep with him. She does and ends up having his baby, even though she's already married. The baby comes out green and her name is Elphaba. Elphaba grows up shy and awkward, hated by her father, and unpopular. Oh, and in Oz, animals can speak and are treated like humans, although the Wizard is trying to stamp them out, Nazi-style. Elphaba meets Glinda at school, who is popular and pretty and dumb. They end up friends and meet the Wizard. The Wizard cons Elphaba into casting a spell to turn the monkeys into flying monkeys so the Wizard can use them as spies. Elphaba goes on a campaign to tell the world of the Wizard's evil plan, but is forced into hiding and she is branded "wicked." The Wizard convinces Glinda to drop a house on Elphaba's sister, to draw her out of hiding. She does and she does. ...You know what? The plot details are long and convoluted, especially as a related story to the original. It's not truly important what happens.

The story has loads of subtexts not related to The Wizard of Oz at all. It touches on high school politics, prejudice, morality and friendship. There are a lot of political references that relate to Nazism and our current United States government. I'm not saying George Bush is a Nazi. I'm just saying some things are similar, i.e. when you need support, find an enemy. So, in all honesty, it wasn't an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, but more of a sequel, really. It took a few real moments to steal, but basically it was all original show "based on characters created by Frank L Baum."

So, how was the show? It was a lot of fun. I thought it was very well written and quite clever. The set was fairly sparse, but well-designed and efficient. Not as much as Rent, but still lean and tight. That leaves the songs; I had borrowed the soundtrack prior to seeing the show and was terribly disappointed. There are 2 songs that I actually like. The rest are fluffy and unmemorable. I though the show was better than the sum of its parts, however. The songs didn't suddenly become great, but in the context of the show, they were less annoying.

As far as modern Broadway goes, this was a strong GOOD, but not a GREAT, in my opinion. I thought Rent was a GREAT. I think Wicked is safe for just about all ages and I can't say I'd tell anyone NOT to see it.