Montana Loves The Beatles

I Am The Jurist, Goo Goo G'Joob - June 1, 2007

Like my friend Tex said when he sent this to me, "don't mess with a Beatles fan."

Yay The Beatles!

I love the Beatles!
And truly that is an understatement. As long as I can remember I had a poster of the Abbey Road cover in my bedroom.
I never got rid of the poster my parents keep it in the guest room to this day. The Beatles' influence continues to be consequential and permeate our pop culture.While speculation continues over when and with who the Beatles catalog will be released online I say just go out and buy the music. Its worth the investment and you won't have to wait or head to your local library I'm sure they must have some Beatles there for you.

'Sgt. Pepper' at 40, from A to Z

What was Phil Collins alluding to ?

There's something in the air in Rome: cocaine - Yahoo! News

I just like how the highest concentration of particles was found in the air around the University, and the warning not to draw conclusions from that statement. Why say it at all?

Maybe we should study the air around all universities. What would be in the air around Bob Jones?

Discovering Nora

This mornings news lead me to the Huffington Post to read something about Rosie O'Donnell and her departure from The View. I'll spare you the link. I've never really read the Huffington Post because I've had enough of Ariana Huffington over the last few years and just associated it with her (note where her picture was taken on her wiki page...nuff said).

But this morning, I was lead to Nora Ephron's blog. Who is Nora Ephron? Well, before this morning I knew she was a writer who I thought wrote about fluffy women's issues. She also wrote a couple of chick flicks that did well at the box office. While searching through her blog this morning I gained a great respect for her and her views.

I especially liked this entry about Condi Rice and Hilary Clinton. Its an old entry but I think the commentary still holds. Her take shows that both democrat and republican woman are falling into political traps, and takes them both to task over it; regardless of her own political leanings. It also just amused me that Ephron still holds some weird grudge against owning a VW, and her idea that we should all forgive and rush to visit Berlin as penance for upholding WWII stereotypes.

Clearly, she isn't perfect.

But what she is is honest, eloquent, and worth the read.

Love me! Hate me! Love me!

This Memorial Day weekend while many were displaying patriotic sentiment through the grilling of meats Rachel Smith was representing the U.S. in the Miss Universe competition. I'm only familiar with Rachel because of her appearance on the Oprah show. Apparently, she was an intern at Harpo Studios, and having heard that she had won the Miss USA pageant, Oprah had her on to discuss her experiences. Usually, pageant contestants are only interesting to me as targets for sarcastic humor. They remind me of Stepford sorority girls. Anyway, the few impressions the interview left me with were:

1) This girl really hasn't faced very much adversity in her life.
2) How stupid it was to have her go on to discuss Oprah's leadership Academy in South Africa because really what wisdom could this Beauty Queen impart to girls in South Africa?
3) There are a lot of people that work for Oprah and she has no idea who they are. Since it was obvious that this was the first face to face meeting between the two of them. Did Oprah just use the connection to further remind the audience about her leadership academy?
4) blah blah blah why isn't Sylvia Browne on Montel today?

The interview was mid-day filler for me, nothing else.

Slowly, though as the blogosphere starts to awaken from its BBQ induced coma, reports are circulating that Miss USA was booed all through out the Miss Universe competition. Of course I had to see the footage for myself and even though it was amusing (come on it totally is!). I felt so sorry for Rachel. And if the boos weren't enough, she falls flat on her ass during the evening gown competition! I'm pretty sure her confidence must be pretty well shattered and still she keeps a smile plastered to her face. A nation is basically booing her and Ms. Smith holds it together. Even though I felt pretty ambivalent about her before I had to give it up to her for going through all of that with an unshattered sense of decorum. Kinda makes me feel like Rachel should have belted out "And I'm Telling You," like Effie in Dreamgirls. Not that the booings would have stopped, but I would have loved her all the better for it. If adversity is what I wanted to give her some sort of validity there it was, and is since its playing over and over again on youtube, for all the world to see.

Comments on sites about the incident are ranging from a call to oust all Mexicans from the United States to teach them a lesson. To calls, asking the Miss Universe organization to boycott Mexico for its boorish behavior. To others calling for a race war against Latinos. Really what is the logical response to such outlandish requests? Isn't it that sort of attitude what fostered this reaction in the first place?