yallerdawg
yallerdawg's JournalHairspray Live! NBC, 8/7 c
1985, John Waters wrote an article for Baltimore Magazine about the reunion of performers from teen dance show "The Buddy Deane Show," and it sparked an idea. This idea was the first step toward his creation of the 1988 cult classic film "Hairspray," starring Ricki Lake and drag performer Divine.
The "Hairspray" story has been told a number of times since Waters' film, including in the form of a Broadway musical, and the latest iteration is NBC's live production, "Hairspray Live!," which is set to air December 7 at 8 p.m. EST.
http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/hairspray-live-brings-john-waters-story-small-screen-n692586
Please remember - 2nd Amendment rights are not for everyone.
Cool Facebook post, right?
Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown: Rome
What a show! 
From: https://medium.com/parts-unknown/mamma-roma-2362271634cc#.n9g8fphiv
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*****
You should know right now, if you didn’t know already, that what drives the team behind PARTS UNKNOWN is not to do what we did last week or last month — or ever. We are delighted when our viewers like an episode and even more delighted when they love one. But we are compelled, just the same, to avoid repeating what we’ve done before. If we fail — we want to fail outrageously, foolishly, gloriously — giving it everything we’ve got in the cause of making something new and strange and hopefully, awesome. Our latest Rome episode is perhaps, the most ambitious example of that compulsion.
My long time team have for years discussed the possibility of shooting an episode entirely in wide screen, letterbox anamorphic format — like so many of the movies we admire. And for this episode, we finally got our way. This was necessarily a mammoth undertaking. Networks don’t like it — as it makes distribution to countries where they might still have square TV sets difficult. To do it right requires additional equipment, lighting, expense — and, in this case, the addition of a sizable Italian film crew. Working within the Italian filmmaking system presents….challenges of its own. The kinds of images we anticipated capturing required music adequate to the scale and subject. Which meant we needed an actual score — in this case, a beautiful collection of related pieces on a theme by our long time music director Michael Ruffino. And I was adamant about acquiring rights to an existing piece of music — the song “Spiral Waltz” from the wonderful 60’s sci-fi satire, “The 10th Victim”.
And though we intended from the beginning to make the most beautiful looking show we had ever done, there was one important thematic constraint: We would shoot NO classical Rome. The entire episode would feature ONLY the architecture of Mussolini and post-Mussolini era Rome: brutalist, futurist and rationalist structures, mid-century housing blocks, suburbs, the decidedly downscale and not particularly romantic seaside community of Ostia.
*****
The episode would not have been possible — or be anything like it is without the truly magnificent Asia Argento. She’s spent a lifetime in films — mostly in front of the cameras, but also — and quite notably — behind, directing most recently the remarkable and beautiful “Incompresa (Misunderstood)”. She told us about “stornello”, the bawdy, profane Roman folk songs we feature at various times during the episode. She introduced us to the batshit crazy boxing club where we ate pasta ringside as gladiators pounded one another and the crowd hooted and roared. She allowed us to shoot at her favorite little restaurants, where she takes her kids on the weekends for homemade fettuccine and polpetti. Introduced us to the lovely and outrageous trans ladies who live in her neighborhood — and arranged for them to wander, choreographed, like exotic birds, through her local Quicky Mart while we shopped for dinner. She arranged for her sister Fiore to cook for me at her home — with her delightful children, daughter Ana and son Nicola (who pretty much steals the show as he struggles with his tripe). She convinced the notorious Abel Ferrara to appear in the episode — and explain how the maddest and baddest of American film directors could find himself living an ordinary life as a husband and father in Rome.
*****
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The Way Forward for Democrats: Your Message Works, Fight HARDER for It
by Peter Daou*****
First, I want to dispense with all the hand-wringing and overwrought analysis of Hillary’s Electoral College loss. The reality is painfully simple: Her public image was viciously and relentlessly attacked by right, left and media and the damage ultimately proved too much to surmount. Despite one of the greatest character assassinations in political history, she’s still on track to win the popular vote by a convincing margin.
The fact that more Americans voted for Hillary’s values than Trump’s should be the north star for Democrats in the difficult years to come.
*****
Some highlights from his two 'tweetstorms.'
PART ONE: DON’T CHANGE YOUR MESSAGE, JUST FIGHT HARDER FOR IT
2. I'm a Democrat because the Party better reflects American values of equality, fairness, justice. More Dems = more positive progress.
5. For 15 years, I've watched in dismay as Dems, whose positions are morally sound and popular, cede ground to dirty-fighting Republicans.
13. Proud to stand with those who resisted the hideous character assassination of Hillary, someone I know personally to be a good soul.
18. The unwillingness of her team to hit back HARD and FAST any and every time Hillary's integrity was impugned telegraphed weakness.
19. Her campaign's deference/respect to the national media as they blasted away at Hillary's character was a significant strategic error
21. Hillary did everything she had to do as a candidate and much, much more. No one should have to endure what she did. EVER.
24. More than 65 million Americans voted to affirm Hillary's values, her core Democratic principles. THAT is the source of Dem power.
25. Don't tell 65 million Hillary voters her message was wrong. It wasn't. Tell them we will no longer tolerate the GOP's shameless politics
PART TWO: NAVIGATING THE BLUE-RED DIVIDE
4. One common trait: Blue and red Americans each claim moral high ground and believe that THEY are fighting for core American values.
5. Setting aside whether blue or red has moral high ground, one thing is certain: The MINORITY (red) is about to rule the MAJORITY (blue).
9. So how did we get to where the MINORITY (red) rules the MAJORITY (blue)? Big reason: Dem leaders play by the rules, GOP not so much.
10. Dem leaders typically respect press, societal norms, Constitutional precedents. GOP leaders don't give a flying f, as long as they win.
11. Trump is the living embodiment of the GOP philosophy of win at all costs. When only one team adopts that strategy they tend to dominate.
13. Soon, Trump voters (and Trump himself) will find out that there are no magic solutions in politics -- or life. Suffering is our lot.
14. All we can ever rely on as humans is our dignity. It's the one thing that can NEVER be taken away. By anyone, ever. In life or death.
15. Finally, if we defend/promote universal values of fairness, justice, equality, compassion, we WIN in the only way that really matters.
http://peterdaou.com/2016/12/the-way-forward-for-democrats/
http://shareblue.com/
Survey: black and Hispanic voters reported more problems voting than white voters this year
The survey found black voters were nearly twice as likely to report problems voting as their white peers.Source: Vox. by German Lopez
On Election Day, how easy of a time you had voting might have come down to your race.
In a new survey of 1,500 US adults by the advocacy group Democracy Fund, about 85 percent of respondents said they had “a pleasant experience voting” on November 8. About 9 percent said they “felt fearful or intimidated voting,” and 6 percent said they had “problems voting.”
But the results here appeared to be racially skewed: While just 12 percent of white voters expressed fear, intimidation, or other problems voting, 18 percent of Hispanic voters and 23 percent of black voters did. So Hispanic voters were 50 percent more likely than their white peers to report problems, while black voters were nearly twice as likely.
This isn’t the first analysis to find minority voters face extra hurdles voting. Previous studies by Harvard researcher Stephen Pettigrew found that minority voters are six times as likely as white voters to wait more than an hour to vote. And these hurdles to voting can affect outcomes, Emily Badger reported for the New York Times:
Mr. Pettigrew’s research suggests that for each hour would-be voters wait, their probability of voting in the next election drops by one percentage point. That may not sound like a lot, but Mr. Pettigrew estimates that this means about 200,000 people didn’t vote in 2014 because of the lines they encountered in 2012 (and that’s accounting for the lower turnout we’d expect in a midterm election).
Read the rest at: http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/12/3/13822646/voting-problems-race
Appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate if FBI Director James Comey violated the Hatch Act.
We the people ask the federal government to Take or explain a position on an issue or policy:
Created by R.B. on October 30, 2016
614 signed, 100,000 goal
Closed Petition
This petition has been archived because it did not meet the signature requirements. It can no longer be signed.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/appoint-special-prosecutor-investigate-if-fbi-director-james-comey-violated-hatch-act
Trump voters tell CNN that California 'allows' illegal voting
John Goodman was terrifyingly perfect in 10 Cloverfield Lane...
He deserves an Oscar nomination.The actor played a very human monster in one of the year’s best supporting performances.
From Vox, by Todd VanDerWerff
If you haven't seen 10 Cloverfield Lane - I didn't because reviewers kept saying it was nothing like the original 'found-footage' Godzilla-like monster movie Cloverfield - I was shocked at how good a movie this is after showing up on premium cable, and how there are still wonderful surprises at the end!
John Goodman as 'Godzilla.'
*spoiled at* http://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/1/13773792/john-goodman-oscar-10-cloverfield-lane
Why we need to plan for a future without jobs
Andy Stern spent his career organizing workers. Here’s why he thinks work is doomed.Andy Stern is the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Vox Conversations, with Sean Illing
A vision supported by universal basic income (UBI):
Women have always worked historically raising families, which everyone sees as a great value, but it was not paid work. UBI will solve this problem.
People have always taken care of their parents, which in some cases is a paid job and in other cases it’s not paid work. The same thing is true about tutoring your child, or volunteering at a hospital or as a Little League coach or with any other service organization.
We need to decide that creative activity, such as learning a language, painting, writing plays or books, is work. Or that trying to build a business or solve a problem or learn new skills is work, even if you’re not being compensated.
We’re also going to need to appreciate that there are many other things that people can do to self-actualize, which may be the most important adventure that people can travel to make life fulfilling, and it may not be what we now call work.
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