I was out running Tuesday morning and around mile two I passed a sign outside of Happy Joe's (a pizza place in Urbandale) that read "Now Hiring. Apply Inside." I didn't think much of it until about 50 feet later I passed another sign for Happy Joe's that said "Now Serving: RIBS."
I certainly hope that these two events at Happy Joe's (the hiring of new employees and the sudden serving of ribs) don't have anything to do with one another -- that they're completely coincidental. I'd really hate to apply and find out that I got a server position only to learn in orientation that I had to give up my rib cage so Happy Joe's could add another menu option.
8/31/2006
8/28/2006
Overheard at the Urinal
"If you'd have told me 10 years ago that I'd spend as much money on wine as I do now, I'd have said you were crazy."
Amen, brother.
Amen, brother.
8/16/2006
A Gray Area
I saw this morning that the "mystery hero of 9-11" came forth and had his first televised interview. While watching the interview (courtesy of MSNBC), I noticed a couple of things:
Number one, Rita Cosby of MSNBC is pretty much the most annoying talker I've ever heard and I can't believe she has a job in which her voice has to take center stage. Seriously, it sounds like she has emphysema. If she has some sort of chronic condition or has multiple sclerosis or something then I don't mean to be crass, but she still shouldn't be on TV. She should be consulting a physician.
Number two (and the thing that really gets me) is that Marine Sergeant Jason Thomas is black. No, it doesn't amaze me that he's black and he's a hero -- I'm not racist or anything. What gets me is that the guy is black and they had a white guy portray him in Oliver Stone's new movie World Trade Center. I mean, I fully understand that he was a "mystery" until just recently, but come on. So maybe the producers didn't know he was black? Well, from their research in putting together the screenplay, they obviously knew the guy's name. And apparently, they knew his "character." In fact, Rita Cosby mentions in her wheezy voice that the producers were looking for an actor that fit Thomas' character more than basing their choice of actor on appearance. Yeah. Right. Does she understand in her covering for the producers that they were looking for ACTORS to play Marine Sergeant Thomas? That means the actor doesn't have to have the same character as Thomas, they just have to PLAY someone with that same character. That's what actors do. Don't get me wrong, this works in some cases. For instance, the character of Red in Stephen King's short story Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption was not black, he was most likely a fair-skinned Irish man. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, however, Morgan Freeman played Red*. And he ruled. It was because Freeman nailed the part better than any other actor, white or black. But here's the thing: Not only does WTC not fall into the same category as Shawshank because it's not a completely fictitious film, I doubt William Mapother, who plays Thomas in the film World Trade Center, "nailed" the part. I doubt Mapother ever nailed any part save his part in ABC's "Lost," in which he played a mean, kidnapper jerk that tried to kill an unborn baby. Wait a minute...sounds a lot like Sergeant Thomas, a man who left his mom's house the moment he heard the first plane hit the WTC, rushed into Manhattan in uniform and pulled some cops out of the fiery rubble. Man, I bet Mapother didn't even have to try out for the role, they probably just watched his psychotic attempted-baby murdering performance on "Lost" and decided he was a shoo-in.
But anyway, back to my point: It's pretty pathetic that the producers made a move like this. Let's not fool ourselves, they knew Sergeant Thomas was black when they cast the part.
"But there was so much dust and soot, I could have sworn he was white."
-- Dr. Excuses
You're stupid, Hollywood. And don't say in rebuttal to me, "Aaron, the very fact that you noticed the color of Sergeant Thomas' skin shows that you see a difference in people based on race." That statement is ludicrous. You should have gotten a black man to play Sergeant Thomas for the very same reason that Will Smith played Muhammed Ali instead of Russell Crowe and that Phillip Seymour Hoffman played Truman Capote instead of Denzel Washington and that Ben Kingsley played Ghandi instead of....er....well, you get the idea.
Anyway, let me stop ranting and let you watch the video. It's an amazing story, despite my distracting you with talk of Rita Crosby's respiratory problems and the movie's casting mistakes. You'll find the interview here.
Tune into my next blog update, in which I complain about how stupid a proposal to add two new planets to our solar system is.
* - By the way, Frank Darabont really cashed in on this when Andy Dufresne askes Red why they've given him that moniker and Red responds, "Maybe it's 'cause I'm Irish."
Number one, Rita Cosby of MSNBC is pretty much the most annoying talker I've ever heard and I can't believe she has a job in which her voice has to take center stage. Seriously, it sounds like she has emphysema. If she has some sort of chronic condition or has multiple sclerosis or something then I don't mean to be crass, but she still shouldn't be on TV. She should be consulting a physician.
Number two (and the thing that really gets me) is that Marine Sergeant Jason Thomas is black. No, it doesn't amaze me that he's black and he's a hero -- I'm not racist or anything. What gets me is that the guy is black and they had a white guy portray him in Oliver Stone's new movie World Trade Center. I mean, I fully understand that he was a "mystery" until just recently, but come on. So maybe the producers didn't know he was black? Well, from their research in putting together the screenplay, they obviously knew the guy's name. And apparently, they knew his "character." In fact, Rita Cosby mentions in her wheezy voice that the producers were looking for an actor that fit Thomas' character more than basing their choice of actor on appearance. Yeah. Right. Does she understand in her covering for the producers that they were looking for ACTORS to play Marine Sergeant Thomas? That means the actor doesn't have to have the same character as Thomas, they just have to PLAY someone with that same character. That's what actors do. Don't get me wrong, this works in some cases. For instance, the character of Red in Stephen King's short story Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption was not black, he was most likely a fair-skinned Irish man. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, however, Morgan Freeman played Red*. And he ruled. It was because Freeman nailed the part better than any other actor, white or black. But here's the thing: Not only does WTC not fall into the same category as Shawshank because it's not a completely fictitious film, I doubt William Mapother, who plays Thomas in the film World Trade Center, "nailed" the part. I doubt Mapother ever nailed any part save his part in ABC's "Lost," in which he played a mean, kidnapper jerk that tried to kill an unborn baby. Wait a minute...sounds a lot like Sergeant Thomas, a man who left his mom's house the moment he heard the first plane hit the WTC, rushed into Manhattan in uniform and pulled some cops out of the fiery rubble. Man, I bet Mapother didn't even have to try out for the role, they probably just watched his psychotic attempted-baby murdering performance on "Lost" and decided he was a shoo-in.
But anyway, back to my point: It's pretty pathetic that the producers made a move like this. Let's not fool ourselves, they knew Sergeant Thomas was black when they cast the part.
"But there was so much dust and soot, I could have sworn he was white."
-- Dr. Excuses
You're stupid, Hollywood. And don't say in rebuttal to me, "Aaron, the very fact that you noticed the color of Sergeant Thomas' skin shows that you see a difference in people based on race." That statement is ludicrous. You should have gotten a black man to play Sergeant Thomas for the very same reason that Will Smith played Muhammed Ali instead of Russell Crowe and that Phillip Seymour Hoffman played Truman Capote instead of Denzel Washington and that Ben Kingsley played Ghandi instead of....er....well, you get the idea.
Anyway, let me stop ranting and let you watch the video. It's an amazing story, despite my distracting you with talk of Rita Crosby's respiratory problems and the movie's casting mistakes. You'll find the interview here.
Tune into my next blog update, in which I complain about how stupid a proposal to add two new planets to our solar system is.
* - By the way, Frank Darabont really cashed in on this when Andy Dufresne askes Red why they've given him that moniker and Red responds, "Maybe it's 'cause I'm Irish."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)