The Women: The Remake: The Review

OK, So I have been putting it off for several weeks since it came out, but I felt obliged to see this movie on your behalf, gentle reader. As you know, I was not predisposed to liking this movie, what with my visceral hatred of Meg Ryan and all. It should therefore come as no surprise that I ultimately did not care for this movie. I did not hate it, but neither did I love it.

First, let's stop the madness. This movie is not so much BASED ON the 1939 movie of the same name as a pitiful ripoff of INSPIRED BY the original. At best, it's a re-imagination. The names are the same and it's still New York high society, but the plot is different enough from the original movie as to be annoying without being at all unique or anything more than derivative. It was like watching a bad pilot of what might one day be a good show.

This movie is neither an homage to the original, where every detail of scene and dialogue is slavishly re-created, nor is it a modern re-telling of a classic. One of the problems I always had with the original was the almost casual way acceptance of the husband's infidelity as a woman's lot in life. I always fantasized about how similar situations would be handled in 2008.

Meg Ryan, visceral hatred aside, was OK. She was playing the same character she always does: befuddled, likeable woman stumbling her way through life. I thought her reactions were entirely inappropriate for given situations. For instance, when Mary Haines confronts Crystal Allen in the dressing room, she is neither aristocratically above the situation, looking down on Crystal from her high society perch, nor is she gutter-bucket ready to scratch her eyes out. Instead, she is milquetoast at best, practically begging Crystal to just be decent and stop seeing her husband.

That's another problem with this re-imagination. These Women aren't classy, high society dames. They are all good people, but in the original, these were wealthy, upper-eschelon people, above the sort of common trials and tribulations of mere mortals.

Standouts in the movie include Debra Messing as the eternally pregnant Edith, although it just seemed like she was playing an Upper West Side Grace Adler. Jada Pinkett-Smith does alot with little material as the LESBIAN!!! author Alex, and any movie that gives screen time to Candice Bergen and Cloris Leachman can't be all bad.

Don't fuck with David Letterman

Nuff Said!!!

I am shocked and surprised!

Someone needs their ass whipped UPDATE

This isn't the first time this kid has taken his Grandmother's car for a joyride. You would think they would learn to keep the keys away from him.

Le sigh...

Someone needs their ass whipped

Now, after listening to this story, young Latarian might be a little special. If that's the case, bless his heart and get him into treatment. If not, Grandma needs to be beating that ass as we speak.

Speaking of ass beatings, the Grandmother's mother needs a beatdown for naming her child Vikkita. This is why we cannot rise as a people.

Effie White is marrying a Punk

This will not end well. Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Hudson is engaged to marry her boyfriend of less than a year. I have two words for Ms. Hudson... Prenuptial Agreement.

If this man looks familiar, it's because he is David Otunga, better known to America as Punk, one of the contestants on I Love New York. Now before you all start talking about how he is Harvard-educated and all that, ask yourself this: How well was that education working for him that he starred on a show that was the antithesis of all that Harvard stands for (that would be intelligence, common sense, and couth, among other things)?

Plus, let's keep it real. He has gayface. He looks like Al Reynolds more attractive cousin (and we KNOW how well his marriage worked out). I will also add that he is kind of an F-list celebrity media whore. What better way to work you way up to C+/B- territory than to marry an Oscar-winning actress singer who's star is on the rise.

Sounds like a beard to me.

Star Jones, get your ass in here and talk to JHud, please!

The Renewed Mind

Oh

My

God...

I could not stop laughing. This is the funniest Saturday Night Live skit ever. Sadly, its a real musical number at a real church.

Bristol Palin

Today, I received an email in one of my yahoo groups with the screaming headline, "The Father of Bristol Palin's baby is an African-American!!" Check out the alleged confession.

I don't give a shit and neither should you. I am more shocked that there are black people in Alaska, The brotha claims that he is being kept out of the picture in favor of Bristol's fiance because he is black. This may be true, but if he is the father, you wont be able to hide that fact for long.

One wonders though, if he truly does know Bristol as intimately as he claims, wouldn't he know how to pronounce the family name?

Jet Magazine and the Gays, circa 1950

Since I like to get my news when it happens and not three weeks later, I don't read Jet Magazine. However, it seems that our favorite pseudo news magazine regularly reported on gays and lesbians during ths 1950's.

The following excerpt was written in August 1952. Unfortunately, it could have been written yesterday:

"Whether they walk with simpering hinged-hipped gait or hide their effeminate characteristics with baggy tweeds and smelly pipes, there are in the US today, 8 million males who prefer intimates with other males. Collectively, they present America with the biggest pychosexual problem of modern times because: 1. They cause dislocations in family life: 2. breed maladjusted inmates in jails. 3. like persons afflicted with a dread disease, bloat their number each year with by the planned seduction of innocents."

To read more, click over to Cory's blog.

Walking on my Lips...

Fresh from Bryant Park...

How can you look at this and not say its a hot mess? Now Mother is not exactly a fashionista, but really!

Yes, I know he is an artiste, and yes, I know he is a winner of Project Runway, but come on, does he really expect people to take him seriously when he looks like something that you just vomited up? Now as a person of substance myself, I am all for Big Gurls Runway, but the outfit is completelt unflattering. If I hired someone to design me a couture gown suit and he came in looking like this, I would show him the door.

Speaking of hot messes and Project Runway, Senorita Gap Tooth is back, complete with gingham shirt, SUSPENDERS, and that gawd-awful conducters hat. At least we can thank goodness that it's not mesh. I'd still fuck him though.

Thanks to Project Rungay for the pics.

As I Remember It...

With the summer of 2001 was winding down, what I remember most was that there had been a record number of shark attacks that summer. Funny how no one even talks about that anymore...

I had only been in the office for about 20 minutes. It was my second day on the job at CETROM, a small-ish architecture firm far out in the 'burbs of Gaithersburg, Maryland. I was far from my comfortable apartment in downtown DC, less than 15 blocks from the US Capitol, but after having been laid off a month prior, I considered myself blessed to me employed. Over the cubicle wall, I hear the woman (her name was Jobi) remark to someone else in the office, "Hey, on the radio they said a plane just hit the World Trade Center." She turned the radio up a little.

I logged on to Yahoo, and confirmed it. The coverage made it sound like a crop duster or something had gotten off course and hit the building. I tried to click on a link to get more information and could not connect. I tried CNN. Nothing. MSNBC. Nothing. Washington Post. USA Today. I could not connect to any website at all. Jobi yelled out, "A second plane just hit the other tower at the World Trade Center, and they were jets." It got VERY quiet in the office as everyone gathered at her desk to listen to the radio.

One crop duster with a malfunction crashing into the World Trade Center was an accident. Two JETS deliberately flying into two buildings moments apart was the game. My first thoughts were for Keith. Keith was the tragically beautiful man I had just spent a blissful Pride weekend with in ATL. I called his house in LA where it was only a little after 6am and got his voicemail. "Don't go to work today baby. Something crazy is going on and I don't want anything to happen to you. I will call you later." Ultimately, he proved unworthy of such devotion, but that's another story. We had all drifted slowly back to our seats, but the office was completely silent, save for the occasional cellphone ring, followed by a whispered reassurance that someone was OK.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have confirmed reports that one of the towers of the World Trade Center has collapsed." Jobi started crying hysterically. Someone came in to comfort her. Sadly, in the 3+ years I worked there, it was not the only time this would happen. Yep, she was one of those types.

My next thoughts were for my Bristas in New Jersey who worked at the World Trade Center. I tried Robert's cell. No answer. Reggie. No answer. I tried to place a third call and all circuits were busy. I tried to call my father and sister. All circuits were busy. I tried the office phone and still, all circuits. I started to freak out a little.

With no internet, very little phone and only the radio to go by, rumors ran rampant. The White House had been hit, the Pentagon was on fire, the Capitol had been hit. Eventually we all found out exactly what had happened, but in those first hours, it was total chaos.

Later, once I for home, I was faced (as we all were) with wall-to-wall coverage of the events. I was shocked at how quickly the government was able to put it all together. I kept thinking to myself, if they had only put these pieces together even 12 hours earlier, none of those guys would ever have gotten on those planes.

I pray we never have a repeat of that day, but sadly...

I'm back!!!

Hey y'all, Mother is back. The vacation was wonderful. I got a sunburn on my scalp and now it's peeling. Not a very good look.

By the way...

Did you know that John McCain was in the military?

We'll get to Sarah Palin tomorrow, but why does she look like Karen Walker? I half expected Rosario to come out . Listen, lady!

P.S., Whatever the hell John McCain's mother is drinking, they need to bottle that shyt. She looks better at 96 than alot of people do at 60.