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Philly Peef

Published Letters: 99
Editor's Choice: 7

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 02:50 PM
Original article: Quote of the day

Ignore the Jeers of the Fools and Tools

This ongoing disparaging of Obama supporters as religious zealots is cynical, patronizing and smacks of desperation. From the start, his strongest support has skewed higher educated and better informed--not exactly the target audience for a tent revival. You'll excuse us if we cheer a bit loudly, but after being fed twenty five years of tepid, triangulating losers by the party establishment, it is nice to see a candidate with substance and charisma and who knows better than to listen to the likes of Penn, Shrum and the DLC.

Monday, February 25, 2008 03:18 PM

We need the Powerpoint Presentation

Where can we get it?

Thursday, February 28, 2008 08:25 PM
Original article: Hillary at twilight

A DIfferent Connotation

I agree that the Clinton campaign probably chose the "Hanging Rock" context for a reason, but I suspect it was not a comment on the precarious state of her candidacy. Rather, they were probably attempting to prime the association with our national situation--we are hanging on the edge in terms of physical and economic security. The overuse of the word "Safe" is probably a Mark Penn tested way to enhance the subtext.

Yes, this really is the way marketers think and operate...

Thursday, February 28, 2008 08:32 PM
Original article: Maestro of buffoonery

Yes, but...

Great meta-analysis of Will Ferrell's career. But how was "Semi Pro"? You never say.

Saturday, March 1, 2008 12:20 AM

The pot, the kettle, and the color black

Obama supporters have long suffered the patronizing slings and arrows of HRC supporters, who brand us idealistic, unrealistic and blind to the realities of both our candidate and to the world at large. But it seems now--on this thread and in the larger public sphere--that it is the Clinton supporters who tilt at windmills and resist all fact, logic or history where the candidates are concerned. HRC's electability is discredited, her campaign turned nasty, her lobbyist donors run dry. The rats are away, leaving only fools and true believers (is there any difference?) to greet the rising waters. And for whom? A cunning corporate lawyer who would and has sold her soul for power.

Good luck with that, kids.

Monday, March 3, 2008 09:34 PM

How many chickens and how many eggs?

The month of March has just begun, so while the cancelation rumours may be true this may or may not be the last week. While it is possible that they are pulling a Twin Peaks on us and ending the strip on a cliffhanger that will never be resolved (only during Twin Peaks I actually gave a crap), I suspect that this is not the last we have seen of KOF.

Monday, March 10, 2008 02:25 PM

The kids are alright!

Hell, I like the label "Mumblecore", which has always been more suggestive of a system of production (DIY production and distribution, no budgets, minimal scripting, use of nonactors, etc.), rather than an onscreen aesthetic. So why not let’s call Swanberg’s latest “Mumblecore”?

Mumblecore, like Dogme 95, represents a real conceptual advance for filmmakers, though without the… dogmatism… and pretense of Von Trier’s manifesto. Instead of purity it emphasizes democracy—the value of personal stories filmed by real people in practical ways. The stories that emerge manage to transcend the lo-fi technology of their creation at the same time that they embrace it. DV never looked so real or so legit. And while I am an X’er myself, I recognize and respect the personal issues of identity and relationships that the Millennials who are making these films emphasize. They tend to be slow paced, concerned with minutae, but somehow not navelgazing. Unlike most fictional digital work produced by filmmakers in their early 20s, Mumblecore films never feel like an audition for Hollywood “real work”, but rather an artistic end in and of themselves. My feeling is that Swanberg and his ilk ARE today’s Cassavetes and that while they are unlikely to break into the multiplex, they have already established a place for themselves in the canon of cinema history.

Monday, March 24, 2008 10:51 PM
Original article: The best-laid plans

Give Sloane Crosley a regular column!

Seriously. I so miss my weekly dose of reader generated smackdown that Kansas O'Flaherty used to generate. Reading the much deserved criticism here, I got just the faintest taste of that KOF grade bile. I miss it. I do.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 04:03 PM

Video Please

Can somebody edit and post a video compilation of all of these please? The CBS video is pretty good (see link) but it doesn't include all of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-KFe5Q0TyI

Media better give this the Reverend Wright treatment or I'm giving another sawbuck to the Obama campaign.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:02 PM

November is media lifetimes away

While I disagree with Ms. Walsh’s ongoing tacit support for Senator Clinton, I think this argument has some merit. Even the Clinton attack machine has an upside; it is better for the Rev Wright “scandal” to happen now than in October, no? The story will be moldy and boring to the easily distracted general electorate by then. I want Clinton to clean out every nasty half baked skeleton from the Obama closet (skeletons that the well funded Repub machine already knows about and has in the bank) in the next month so that the Republicans can’t use them down the road. Then, when she inevitably has to bow out, the Repubs will have nothing new except outright lies to throw at us. Not that they aren't above using outright lies...

Wednesday, April 2, 2008 10:02 PM
Original article: The Obama difference

3 things

To GizmoJones:

Thank you for your introspection and your candor. Your generation did many good things politically and made many great and positive changes to our culture. Sure, you could have done more, but of whom can't that be said?

To those who say the primary needs to end RIGHT NOW for the good of the party:

Take a deep breath. Let it out. Repeat. Now doesn't that feel better? Super Tuesday wasn't even two whole months ago. Two whole months from now it will only be June. November is FOREVER away. All of this will fracas will fade, 100 years McCain will lose and Camelot will be restored. Unless...

To the HRC Flying Monkeys:

Like it or not, your candidate has lost. The only question now is whether she goes with some dignity, or clawing and screaming, "What a world, what a world!" We'll suffer your slings and arrows for the time being, but you better get the hell on the bus when the time comes. It is you and only you who can screw this up for us all.

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