Mike's Daily Lockup

ComicCon 2009

It's Saturday at ComicCon...more later.

Kaaaaahhhhhnnnnnn! (Star Trek Reference)

I hope the "Rule of Threes" doesn't kick in...

Live from Hollywood

Well, by the time you read this, it won’t be exactly live, but seeing that I was swimming among sharks (the two legged variety) I took what we like to pass off as public transit and jetted down to Hollywood and Highland to check out the scene for Tomorrow’s Academy Awards.

The place is packed with tourists and even the local gawkers who come out to get a glimpse of the stars, I’m just sitting here people watching. Having worked a couple national conventions, this pales in comparison. One location, every-year, at almost the same time (unless the networks change it for ratings) each year. Political conventions have more security, delegates, staff, unions, and other support staff to build a small city for 4 days, not just one night.

While on the topic of political conventions, this brings up the other issue that is on the minds of the political types that will be watching the Academy Awards tomorrow night: Will Al Gore Announce?

This depends, if he wins for an Inconvenient Truth then he will have some ground in the Hollywood “Community,” but his fund raising would be shot due to the recent feud between Obama and Hillary. Al might announce, he would have my secondary support in his effort, but after the team of Gore/Lieberman (If Lieberman was VP, who knows if he would have shifted to Independent?) Gore would have to campaign just to raise the awareness of global warming and not much else.

This might pave the way for an Obama/Gore Presidency, but then the insiders have been leaning towards an Obama/Edwards ticket. Adding Gore would bring the conservatives out of the woodwork, but on the plus side, would add experience to Obama’s campaign.

What's Filming in LA?

While hanging out in Downtown LA, I swore I was in New York.

At one point the street signs were all changed to look like the ones in New York, NYPD officers were on all of the street corners, and a campaign office complete with a motorcade was viewable from the street. Looking inside the office, people were running back and forth and the place looked like a working campaign office.

I have a few pictures from my camera phone here: (I'll post them later, tech. difficulties)

If anyone knows the name of the film/television show, drop me a word in the comments. Thanks.

Out of Touch for a Reason

The classiest line I have ever herd someone say after accepting an Oscar:

"And finally, I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it's probably a good thing. We're the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I'm proud to be a part of this Academy. Proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch." - George Clooney

iPod Data Theft and Buzz Lightyear saves Disney

While perusing the web today I came across this interesting article on iPod forensics. It lays out the file structure of the iPod and also discusses how the media device can be used for data theft. That's why I have the black 5th gen "Pirate" model.

Buzz Lightyear saves Disney, but Pixar becomes a "Mickey Mouse" Operation. On the plus side, Steve Jobs is now the largest share holder in one of the largest media companies in existance. Can you say "more iPod content coming soon."

Syriana

After getting stuffed with cakes and cookies at my Family's annual Holiday Party, I decided to jet into Hollywood to see "Syriana" at the Archlight in Hollywood. Yes, it's a drive from the OC but trust me, the cost is well worth it as no one talks, no one answers their cell phones (unlike here where it's "Oh, Hi Cindy I'm in a Movie. What's Up..."), and ushers guide you to your assigned seats. But enough about the experience, the politics of the movie is what really made me pay attention to the plot and the multiple story lines. So be forewarned, the following will spoil your movie experience if you have not yet seen the movie.

Syriana was one of the greatest movies that I have seen all year, it dealt with current events, with our war on terror, and the possibility that our government is planning to "liberate" Iran (Under this administration the term "Liberate" has a different meaning then it once had during World War II, but I digress). Bob Barnes (played by George Clooney) is a person stuck in the middle between the State and Defense Departments in his work for the CIA, at the beginning of the movie he is involved in a missile deal that goes bad. He sells two missiles, just to have one go to the bad guys. As a result he blows up the car that had the one missile, but the other got away and would turn up later in the movie.

Meanwhile, in the background two other storylines are playing out. A merger between two oil companies "Connex" and "Kleen" comes under congressional and Justice Investigations when it is revealed the company bought their way into Kazakhstan in order to keep the Chinese out of the oil market. As a result a small group of Washington "power players" are forced into damaged control to keep the story from getting out and destroying the merger and making the company the fifth largest oil company in the world. In "an Oil-producing Gulf Nation," the Amir and his two sons are getting into a political squabble over the future of their kingdom. One son, Prince Nashir Al-Subaai (Played by Alexander Siddig), has hopes for a democratic country with a Parliament and granting women the right to vote, but quickly falls out of favor with his father (part of this is due to his agreement to accept the bid from the Chinese). The other son, Prince Meshal Al-Subaai, is friends with some of the "power players" in Washington and has his father's ear. This soon becomes evident when he is selected as the new Amir by his father. His selection as Amir leads to a coup by Nashir while his brother is attending the "Oil man of the year Awards." However Nashir's coup fails when the CIA intervenes (and that's all I'm going to say about that).

There are some other storylines in play, such as the death of Bryan Woodman's (played by Matt Daemon) son at the Amir's party in Spain. The death causes Woodman to have a "Fuck it all" attitude and accepts a position as a financial advisor to Prince Nashir when he agrees to his plan of a construction of a pipeline through the "Eurasia" Triangle so they can control the deliver and the cost of the oil. At the same time Barnes is trying to complete his mission, which was to take out Prince Nashir, but since his connection in Iran has switched sides (from working with the CIA to working with Hezbollah) his mission goes "off the grid." We never know if he was trying to save Prince Nashir at the end or if he was ultimately trying to complete his mission even though he had fallen out of favor at the CIA.

At this point you may be wondering what happened with the second missile. Just as what happened to us in Afghanistan, where we sold weapons to the Taliban to force out the Soviets, just to have our weapons used against us when we invaded the country after 9/11, the same thing happens in Syriana. This time the missile ends up in the hands of Jihadists who use it with a dingy packed full of C4 explosives and ram it right into ConnexKleen's new Liquid Natural Gas facility at the end of the movie.

While our leaders feel it is in our best interest to put their hands in the "cookie jars" of the world, a majority of Americans are too involved in their daily lives to care for themselves. Just in my travels and talking to others I've learned that we as a country have a long way to go to have respect and understanding for the different countries and cultures of the world. Syriana is just one movie which will hopefully introduce American’s to the complexity of global and corporate politics, a movie which will hopefully peak our interests in what happens beyond our borders and how that affects us here at home.