Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Talking about the news review

Did you really yell at C.I. over the phone? Yes. I was asked to by C.I. I called C.I. Sunday everning about a project my niece is doing for school and C.I. sounded worse than when we were all working on The Third Estate Sunday Review. C.I. had just gotten home and was about to go straight to sleep for "a nap" but was worried the "nap" would last more than a few hours. C.I. wanted to be sure if that was the case, that it didn't go on forever. So I offered to give a wake up call. There had been no sleep over the weekend and C.I. warned me, "Cedric, you are going to have to yell or I will pick up the phone, set it aside and go back to sleep." So I did.

I was getting up at that time and C.I. always helps me out so I was happy to return the favor.

Jess covered the protests that were brewing over Bully Boy's upcoming trip at The Third Estate Sunday Review this weekend and I saw something I wanted to note on that. This is Alan Clendenning's "Protesters March Ahead of Americas Summit :"

Arriving in buses and minivans at the seaside resort of Mar del Plata, the demonstrators gathered at a drab concrete sports complex several miles from the luxury hotel where leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations will meet Friday and Saturday.
"This is a chance for the real people to hold their own summit," said Wayra Aru Blanco, a 33-year-old Bolivian Indian, beating a calfskin drum as brightly dressed South American Indian women played reed flutes.
Protesters will spend days airing grievances from the Iraq war to free trade policies they say enslave Latin America workers. They are hoping to draw 50,000 people for their highlight event -- a protest Thursday as Bush arrives on Air Force One.

Three Cool Old Guys say that the news review The Third Estate Sunday Review does is one of the highlights of their weekend because it catches them up on some stuff they might miss and puts 'em a little ahead on some stuff coming up. They wondered about that and how we figure out what we're each going to do? We aren't assigned topics. We come up with our own. Lately, I've been offering the Bully Boy spin in a sarcastic way and then this weekend I did something serious because of Rosa Parks. But I always get to pick what I want and then if I need help, Dona and Jim will help me find stuff. Most of the time, I don't and just go with what Jess' parents and I can find. That's because I usually go fairly quick. Usually, I'm right after Jess.
Jess flies blind by going first and I thought that was brave and still do, but I also know from what I do that C.I. is right there with you. There's no rehearsal and this weekend, Dona and Jim were going, "Is he done?" because I just read a poem by Langston Hughes. I was done and C.I. had already figured that out and was giving a trnasition from my piece into the next one. Jess will tell you the same thing goes with him. His reports are rough up until C.I. says, "Now we go to Jess . . ." and Jess is not always sure what he's starting with until that moment. But he knows if he's not clear on something, C.I. will pitch in.

I'd really hate to go to last. To me that's the hardest because Dona's saying, "Cut one minute" or more to you as she's watching the time. Ava and Ty will strip their stuff to the barebone to make sure Kat gets as much time as they can spare. And that's usually while Betty's on that they're figuring the time which is why C.I. and Betty always do their conversations during the news review. Rebecca usually goes right after that and she'll cut her own stuff to the bones. Elaine and Mike have their thing going and that's because they're talking all week figuring out what to cover at their sites so it works real well for them to team up. I've done some stuff with them and they're great but they're on their own wave length.

I'm going to note Wally's thing later this week.

But I want to note this because Three Cool Old Guys think Wal-Mart gets away with a lot.

C.I.: Thank you for that report Wally. For news from the world of entertainment, we go to Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man. Betty, what do you have for us this morning?
Betty: C.I., no one wants to talk too much about it but for the fifth week in a row the show that America supposedly had to watch is down in the ratings: ABC's Desperate Housewives. 30 million watched last season's ender, 28.4 million watched this season's debut. Each week, this year, has seen erosion in the viewership and it's now down to 25.2 million. In the who the hell asked for it department, the otherwise unemployed Sylvester Stallone will make his sixth Rocky film and his fifth Rambo film. While Republicans punch their fists in the air and holler, 13 and 14 year-old boys ask, "Who?" As Robert Greenwald's Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices readies for release, Wal-Mart's trying to offset the Greenwald documentary with their feel good, Up With Corporations response film entitled Why Wal-Mart Works: And Why That Drives Some People C-R-A-Z-Y. The fact that they spell out crazy demonstrates how out of it the store that no self-respecting teen would purchase clothes at is. I spent time with my teenage nieces this weekend and apparently the must-say insult in their crowd is anything having to do with Wal-Mart. From, "Where'd you get that shirt? Wal-Mart!" to "Where'd you get that weave? Wal-Mart!" the corporation that just won't go away is fast becoming the punch line to any insult.
C.I.: Betty, Kat wants to jump in on this. Kat of Kat's Corner (of The Common Ills).Kat: Sorry to butt in but as someone a bit older than Betty, I'll note that it's a similar process to what happened with K-Mart. It stands for cheap goods and as a new group of teens comes of age that's been lugged to Wal-Mart once too often, they turn on it. If Betty's nieces are knocking it for non-political reasons, Wal-Mart should worry more about that than Robert Greenwald's documentary. I'll jump back out now.
Betty: That's a good point that Kat made. The teen years are all about what's hot and what's not for many and when something gets bad word of mouth, there are problems. With my nieces, they're not commenting on Wal-Mart's practices of hiring or insurance or wages. They're commenting on the store being uncool. As Kat points out, once that rep starts getting around, it's very hard to recover. You lose the teen girls, forget it. Greenwald's film opens in select markets on November 4th and can be purchased online. George Takei, known to millions as Mr. Sulu on Star Trek, came out this week. Takei, who's been in an 18 year relationship with Brad Altman, said, "The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay. The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young." Demi Moore teams with Sharon Stone, Anthony Hopkins, Elijah Wood and Lindsay Lohan for Emilio Estevez's upcoming film Bobby. Estavez will appear in front of the camera but he'll also be directing from a script he wrote. Finally, this coming Tuesday, Lifetime's Real Women will remember Rosa Parks with an Intimate Portrait featuring commentary from Ruby Dee, her late husband Ossie Davis and Gloria Steinem among others. Following that, Lifeteime Telivision will broadcast The Rosa Parks Story starring Angela Bassett as Parks and Cicely Tyson as her mother.

And you can also check out C.I.'s "'Labor Dept. Is Rebuked Over Pact With Wal-Mart' (Steven Greenhouse)" from this morning. The link Betty gives to the Wal-Mart film provides a trailer so you should check that out.



























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