Robert Redford Sundance 2006

Robert Redford's Sundance Institute has announced the 64 films that will play at the Park City, Utah, Sundance Festival that runs Jan. 19-29, 2006. The festival is the nation's top showcase for independent film.

Among 16 films contending for the top U.S. documentary prize will be "American Blackout," director Ian Inaba's examination of voting troubles for blacks in Florida and Ohio in recent presidential elections. Aren't there any right-wing filmmakers out there who could produce a film showing how the Democratic Party is incapable of protecting black voters at the polls?

Laurie's Global Warming Show

Taped in Las Vegas, the two hour TBS broadcast of Earth to America featured some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Tom Hanks playing acoustic guitar was particularly interesting. Laurie David is quite active in publicizing the problem of global warming. Unfortunately, she is promoting Hollywood solutions to the problem. She and Leonardo DiCaprio always highlight their Prius ownership and promote personal efficiency retrofits, when we all know that they have multiple homes and cars. Thus, such frugality recommendations ring hollow to us. They should show us their other cars and homes. Larry David is delightfully irreverent in this regard.

This is America and everyone wants big houses, multiple cars, every electronic device we can stuff in our homes, plus BIG boats and large properties. The real solution is to provide the American way of life through appropriate technology. They do have half of the equation right though in promoting hybrid vehicles. We must aggressively push NUCLEAR POWER combined with plug-in fuel cell powered hybrid vehicles to solve our global climate change problems. Cedric the Entertainer and Wanda Sykes participated in the show.

Rev Al Sharpton's New TV Show

TVOne features one of our favorite people in a new show called Sharp Talk With Al Sharpton. The set is a barbershop and captures the flavor of a local hair cutery. It seems strange seeing white people in a black barbershop though. It is probably because you never see whites in a black barbershop. Maybe Rev will start a new trend here and whites will start getting their hair cut in black barbershops.

The subject matter is topical and covers the spectrum of issues of importance in America today. Reverend Sharpton is one of the smartest men out there and his examinations should be informative.

New Outdoor Show Titillates

ESPN's new show, Get Wild with Cindy Garrison, features a blond-haired, green-eyed beauty shooting big game, sticking fingers in dung to track water buffalo and catching fish. She is an outdoor huntress extraordinaire. She is Jenny McCarthy with a gun and fishing rod. It is probably a good formula. She romps around the woods with short shorts and attitude. She's a pretty good shot too. Two thumps up.

Dawn of the Dead: Environmentalists?

If you like a good dead flik, you will love this one. No matter what environmental catastrophe caused the dead to rise again, these dead in the 2004 version can RUN. Just like the rage zombies in 28 Days Later, these undead can really get up. Nicole, evidently an extreme animal lover, risks her life to save her dog from the undead. Then the rest of the cast risks their lives to save her. The fun part about these movies is to see who will make it.

This movie could represent the current state of the environmental movement in the 21st Century as described by the Reapers in The Death of Environmentalism. The undead, like many extremist environmentalists, are running to infect others to make them undead. There were interracial couples in both films. (View Trailer)

Hollywood Digital Ecology

Hollywood can and will save energy and money one day by providing movies to theaters via filmless digital cameras and digital projection in theaters. Currently, movies are made on 35-millimeter celluloid negatives from which reels of film are printed, sent to film exchanges, trucked to theaters, and projected on the screen with the aid of a powerful lamp. These 35-millimeter prints are expensive to make and cumbersome to distribute. In 2003 the average cost to make prints for distribution of a studio film in America was $4.2 million. The six major studios had a print bill of more than $1 billion in 2003.

Digital delivery from studio to theater via satellite or cable eliminates physical truck delivery, which will save money and energy. One of the current hold ups is who will pay for and control the $80,000 digital cameras? In 2004 there were 36,012 movie screens in the U.S. (Source: Edward Jay Epstein, The NEW LOGIC of MONEY and POWER in HOLLYWOOD)

Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)

The greatest song about the environment ever recorded was by Marvin Gaye in 1971. His Mercy Mercy Me on the What's Going On? album was a masterpiece that stands the test ot time. If you disagree, propose a better song.

Hitler Youth Entertain Aryans

A folk duo named Prussian Blue promotes white power with their image (note Hitler smiley face T-shirts--see Aryan Wear) and songs. Hitler's environmentalism is described on our main blog. Although their songs are banal and bland (and we like folk music at AAEA), this teenage duo is probably quite entertaining to white supremacists. Check out their website and let us know what you think about their art and ideology.

Boston Legal: Global Warming

Tonight's episode found James Spader defending a television children's show against a clown wanting to talk about global warming on the show. Spader gave a passionate defense of the seriousness of global warming and that it did not need to be represented by a clown on a children's show. He unfortunately insulted President Bush on the issue (most of Washington's politicians have avoided the issue--more so than Bush). Spader won the case.

The great attraction of this show is that we get that intergalactic planetary savior William Shatner playing the nutty Denny Crane on the show. Who else has flown whales from the past around the sun and into the future to save the Earth from a menacing alien whale spaceship.

The West Wing Presidential Debate

If you saw it, who do you think won? Fictional presidential candidates Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) debated on Sunday. Energy & environmental issues were part of the debate: Democratic congressman Santos believes in using alternatives, such as solar and wind to fight global warming. Santos is anti ANWR oil drilling, anti-nuclear and demanded that his opponent take and oath to, "Never go to war for oil" (Vinick refused). In a soliloquy about liberal Republicans Santos complimented republicans for passing the Clean Water Act. Republican senator Vinick does not believe in global warming, is pro drilling in ANWR, promoted the Prius hybrid car, believes in free markets and doesn't trust the government to solve energy problems.

TV President Prevents Oil Spill

The Nov 1, 2005 episode of Commander-in-Chief starring Gina Davis had her saving the Gulf, Florida and the East Coast from a massive oil spill from a damaged oil tanker. The fictional governor of Florida and the power-hungry Speaker of the House (Donald Sutherland) wanted the president to sink the tanker instead of risking it breaking up while trying to dock at a port in Florida. The environmental group in the episode supported the speaker and the governor (partisan politics--the president is an independent and the speaker is a Democrat). Interestingly, during negotiations, Gina as president, opposed a permanent ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf citing the country's need for oil as her rationale.

In Hollywood the White House Chief of Staff is black. In Bush's Washington the Secretary of State is black. Advantage Bush.