No Pressure

Since the television and motion picture industries started self-governing themselves and attempting to apply some standards to their products, it seemed as though killing children on-screen was a taboo.

A despicable ad campaign came out in October 2010 with an effort to scare people into supporting the climate change movement. Not only did they blow up children and adults who didn't consent to their "no pressure" approach, they succeeded in getting explosive reactions with an epic fail production.

Check out my wife's commentary on the campaign in her article here. As she says, if nothing else, "no pressure" will become a popular catch phrase.

Yo ho ho!

In January of 2010 I reviewed Michael Crichton's book that was discovered by one of his assistants after the legendary author's death, Pirate Latitudes. I liked it very much and now have learned that Steven Spielberg (who worked with Crichton on Jurassic Park and E.R.) will be doing the movie.

Also, the existence of a book trailer was just pointed out to me and here it is. If you have read the book, it might be convenient to read it again before the movie debut. That's what I plan to do. Hmmmmmm........I wonder who might get cast as Lazue?

Watch for more details as they become available.

Over a year ago, I started writing reviews for Blogcritics and more recently, Technorati. These are sister publications and appear online at their respective websites. My reviews cover a variety of media including movies, books, and music. My favorite kind of music is JAZZ and you can find my jazz oriented articles as a part of the “Jazzed Up” feature. Articles about other music genres are scattered through the “Entertainment” section of Technorati and the “Music” section at Blogcritics. Frequently my reviews are picked up by other publications like Seattle Post Intelligencer and other websites like "Cloudspeakers.com". Please leave a comment and if you have a request, please let me know!



Clarence Darrow's Landmark Cases

How many lawyers can boast of having been involved in a "landmark" case -- or one haled as "the trial of the century"? Clarence Darrow could and did. How about THREE? Clarence Darrow did!

I recently reviewed a new book about those cases. An interesting bit of history (which I discuss in my review) involved three other trials without which, none of the three big cases would have seen Darrow's participation.

For some reason, books with long titles seem to appeal to me and this is no exception. The Great Trials of Clarence Darrow: The Landmark Cases of Leopold and Loeb, John T. Scopes, and Ossian Sweet is a, but wait. Just click HERE and read my review. It would be great if you could leave a comment over there or here. I'd appreciate the feedback.

"The Kennedy Detail"

When I got home from school That Day, my mother told me she had been watching "As The World Turns" when it was interrupted by the CBS News Bulletin, Walter Cronkite speaking.

November 22, 2010 was the forty seventh anniversary of this fateful day. Recently I had the opportunity to review a new book about the secret service agents assigned to protect the First Family on what they refer to as "That Day".

The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence was written by former agent, Gerald Blaine along with award winning author, Lisa McCubbin. Retired agent Clint Hill (shown in the above photograph) wrote the foreword.

Please click on the link, enjoy the article and share on Facebook and Twitter.