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Navy to mask Coronado's swastika-shaped barracks I mean, seriously, in 21st Century USA, don't we have better things to worry about than whether a set of Navy barracks is sending some kind of subliminal Nazi message to aliens from space? Obviously the jackhole that started this uproar doesn't, but after just a few moments on his site, I understand where this nonsense comes from. But the rest of us can't seriously care about this, right? Silly me… of course we do: …in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, the Navy has budgeted up to $600,000 for changes in walkways, "camouflage" landscaping and rooftop photovoltaic cells. Yes, that's right, the US Navy will be spending $600,000 this year to disguise something that can only be seen from space. I'm either getting too old for the bullshit, or our collective cultural IQ is plummeting into the basement faster than anyone could anticipate.  

We got into a discussion the other day, during rehearsal, about the contemporary problem with this word. It came up because there's a line in Twelfth Night where one character refers to another as niggardly. The actor who has that line has changed it to "tight-fisted", an adequate replacement, and one I can't, in all honesty, argue with, mainly because it's not worth the possibility that anyone in the audience would be sidetracked by the word. It also bears acknowledging that this actor is African-American, which just adds another layer of potential confusion to the issue. But where I got hung up on the discussion was the actor defending this choice, not simply for the above reasons, but because he felt that there's some justification for the confusion… that because the words sound alike, 'niggardly' has become a potentially offensive word. He then went on to argue that words change meanings all the time and that this is just one of those cases. (This

I've been working with a Shakespeare group in Burbank ( Shakespeare at Play ) for the past several months and have done a few workshops and shows with them. (I realized recently that I've been seriously submerged in Shakespeare when I used the phrase "fulsomely false" in my recent post on the movie Invasion, and didn't even notice I'd used it till days later.) The most recent show we wrapped was As You Like It, a part of their Summerfest 2007. When I heard that HBO was doing a version of As You Like It , I couldn't wait to see it. HBO, known for its quality programming and movies, Kenneth Brannagh who's shown that he knows Shakespeare (between his incredible Henry V and entertaining—despite Keannu's wooden Don John— Much Ado About Nothing ). Fine actors in the main comedic roles (Alfred Molina as Touchstone and Kevin Kline as Jaques) and a pack of British actors to handle the majority of the rest of the play… what's not to like, right? (Ah,

Southwest Airlines Tells Woman Her Attire Is Too Revealing Maybe we DID need that Invasion .  

As any number of reviewers are wont to point out, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers was an allegory for the creeping conservatism of the Eisenhower years. The story of seemingly normal people being replaced by emotionless alien pod-people IS a great analogy for the way conservative thought processes seem to suck the life out of otherwise healthy individuals.* So it's probably no surprise that every few decades, as our politics swerve to the conservative side, someone feels the need to trot this story out again. (It's funny… I distinctly remember the 80's remake of Invasion —the one with Donald Sutherland, for those not inclined to click the link—as being Reagan era. But according to IMDB, it came out in '78, during the Carter administration. Maybe the backsliding into that Reagan mindset had already begun and that's why it seems so much a part of that time period.) Then again, I just discovered the Abel Ferrara version from '93, so maybe my whole &qu

All debate about the merits or evils of Pinkberry aside, have you SEEN the latest in motorcycle headgear? I can't find an example of it online, so it gives me hope that this is an isolated incident, but I've seen this several times in the past few weeks and I can't believe I'm seeing the same guy with the same helmet each time. But it's gotta be seen to be believed… Proudly displayed along the crown of the helmet are a row of bristles, somewhat like a those on a Roman helm (similar to this ). The latest example I saw was a blue and white helmet with a row of bright blue bristles jutting up along the top of the helmet. The first time I saw this, as the guy zipped past me on the 105, I figured I had to be seeing things. But as I mentioned, I've seen it several times since, and all I can say is you've GOT to be kidding me. Without a doubt, the most inane transportation related decoration I've seen since exhaust spinners .