You Generation Y types probably have no idea who Scott Baio is, but Gen-X-ers like me should know. Baio was Chachi on “Happy Days” and spin-off “Joanie Loves Chachi,” and Charles on “Charles in Charge.”
I just learned this morning, through Jill Stanek, that Baio is pro-life and a conservative. He responded to someone on Twitter, and his leanings leaked out. He tweeted, “People that are Pro-Choice should ‘Thank’ their Mother for being Pro-Life.”
But, as Jill notes, the tweet is no longer there. “For whatever reason Baio – or his agent – apparently decided it best to remain underground with his pro-life convictions.”
That’s too bad. I’ve made similar complaints about Christian rockers who don’t like talking about their faith.
So few in Hollywood (or in the music business) hold views similar to mine. They’re like diamonds buried in a pile of manure. When I find one, I’ve got to pluck it out, clean it off, and present it.
Later…A man who killed a 13-week unborn child faces murder charges. Unborn life is only worth protecting if the woman carrying him wants him. Otherwise…
The wanted unborn baby is protected under law. The unwanted baby is not.
We know a lot more about the development of babies in the womb since Roe v. Wade. A re-examination of the law is overdue (pardon the pun).
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If you live long enough, you’ll eventually see everything.
I used to watch “Law & Order.” Fed up over what I considered leftist preaching and no longer willing to suspend disbelief over the statistically weak saga of the Great White Defendant, I stopped.
Anyway, in the usual “ripped from the headlines” fashion, a recent episode was loosely based on the murder of infant killer George Tiller. An abortionist performing a partial birth abortion failed in his attempt, delivering a viable baby. He asked the mother if she wanted him to finish the job he botched, and she said yes. The abortionist kills the baby, which at that point is murder as defined by law. A “pro-life” man murders the child killer. One detective investigating the case is pro-life, and the other is pro-abortion. Interesting exchange between the two at the beginning of the episode.
Jill Stanek, pro-life blogger and former labor and delivery nurse, posted the episode on her blog. I watched it. Still not a fan of the show, but I’m pleased the writers, likely pro-abortion, crafted such a script. Kudos to the network for airing the episode. There are a couple of pro-life swipes here and there, but overall, it’s watchable. The show is, for lack of a better word, groundbreaking.
Ironically, groundbreaking was used to describe pro-abortion shows in the 1960s. How times have changed. If you have 43 minutes to spare, check it out.
(Photo source: National Medical Slide Bank/Wellcome Photo Library)
Update: My bad! I assumed the band only recently got back together, as others have. Not true. Lead singer Corey Glover said, “People need to know we’ve been back together for nine years. This new record should help people get the facts straight.”
No, he didn’t tell me personally, but I hope to personally get some quotes from him about…nevermind. Here’s the source.
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I’m tickled peach that the late 80s/early 90s rock group Living Colour is back together, for how ever long. They’re looking a little older, as we all are, but they still sound good. Last night they performed the Grammy-winning “Cult of Personality” from their first album on Jimmy Fallon’s show. Check them out rocking out:
Update: A Facebook commenter says when he sees Obama, he’s reminded of this song and wonders if Living Colour members support him. If I were a wagering woman, I’d bet $10 they do.
A brief interruption, if I may, from blogging about ACORN employees with “contacts” in Tijuana advising a “pimp” and his “whore” how to operate a whorehouse without getting caught and smuggle girls into the country to turn tricks. (And claim the child tax credit!)
I developed a weird fascination with how digital technology has changed the music industry. I still have it. In fact, I’m trying to set up an interview with…Fun stuff. Basically, the microchip altered the whole game, the industry’s scrambling, and the “hit” has been defined down. Radio has suffered, and it’s hard to sell millions of records or even be heard these days. It’s not about the mass anymore; it’s all about the niche.
Some artists try to make up for the attention/access deficit by licensing music for ringtones and games, offering free songs, and interacting with “hardcore” fans and cultivating new ones on Facebook, Twitter, and the like. A few lucky ones get to hear their music in commercials, and on TV and movie soundtracks.
Guess which movie soundtracks are coveted above all (at the moment?). If you’re thinking about fangs, blood, and deliciously engorged veins, you’re on the right track. From the New York Times:
The major labels long viewed soundtracks as low-risk, high-reward vehicles for promoting mega-singles. And until that model was eroded in the early 2000s by the rise of single-track downloads, there was a steady stream of multiplatinum hits. “The Bodyguard,” from 1992, has sold 11.8 million copies. But along with recent films like “Juno,” “Twilight” has emerged as an example of a new approach: choosing songs that are entwined with a film’s narrative, and which appeal to viewers through emotional resonance rather than superstar familiarity. “There have always been amazing soundtracks, like ‘Flashdance’ and ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ where the music was attached to what the story was about,” said Livia Tortella, general manager and executive vice president of Atlantic Records, which is releasing the album on Oct. 20 with Ms. Patsavas’s label, Chop Shop. “Somewhere along the lines it became about a single tie-in opportunity and not about the film itself. It diluted things.”
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For bands placement in a “Twilight” film means huge potential sales and wide exposure.
“If you’re an artist that’s successfully branded with a film as enormous as ‘Twilight,’ you get a lasting benefit beyond the movie and the soundtrack itself,” said James Diener, president of A&M/Octone Records. “You’re able to access marketing dollars that the film company has been spending beyond what a record company could or would spend.”
Love it or detest it, there you go. But don’t you have to be somewhat well-known to have a shot at being on a mainstream movie soundtrack? A Christian band called The Wrecking isn’t what you’d call “well-known,” but they’re trying to get on the soundtrack of “New Moon,” the movie based on the second book of Stephenie Meyer’s four-book Twilight series.
Christians and vampires don’t mix, you say? Tell that to Christian writers like Eric Wilson and…others.
If you haven’t read Stephen King’s The Stand, please do. Compelling reading, especially in light of the swine flu.
The Stand is about a nasty bug (referred to as “Captain Trips”) that wipes out something like 99 percent of the world’s population, and survivors separate themselves into “good” and evil groups. The book, which I read in 1991, was made into a movie. I watched it but didn’t like it as much as I liked the book. Isn’t that usually the case?
At over 1,000 pages, the book is a satisfying read and pure Stephen King, if you know what I mean. If you’re a Christian who doesn’t read supernatural/occult fiction as a matter of conscience, steer clear.
Update: What do you know? Characters from The Stand are twittering!
Every now and then a song captures me enough to blog about it. I haven’t turned my back on music and digital tech blogging. Just taking a haitus while I finish my strangely funny at-times Christian paranormal novel (it’s not supposed to be funny, but the characters are attempting to have their own way). After trying to squeeze into my schedule a long list of things I want to do, I chose one and decided to put most of my creative energy into it.
But I digress. This song is from Prince’s new three-CD set, available only through Target (so retro!). It’s a psychedelic remake of Tommy James and the Shondells’s “Crimson and Clover” with a bit of The Trogg’s “Wild Thing” mixed in. The song is rocking. Sounds so good to my brain. Check it out (listen to it through bass-friendly speakers/earphones):
I don’t watch “American Idol,” but I’ve heard about Simon Cowell. Blunt. Difficult to please. Jaded. But a woman named Susan Boyle broke through the world-weariness on a show called “Britain’s Got Talent.”
Somewhat dowdy and looking older than her 47 years, this woman seemed kind of goofy and in over her head. The audience was laughing at her. But she stunned Cowell, the two other judges, and the audience with a voice nobody expected to emanate from her.
I laughed, I cried…
What’s the big deal, you ask? The big deal is that lots of folks unfairly judged her based on her appearance (including me), and I’m sure almost all were shocked.
Ken Rance is a cousin of one of my sister’s friends. He wrote a screenplay about a “white collar” black woman who falls in love with a “blue color” black man. “32 & Single” became the movie “New in Town,” with Harry Connick, Jr., and Renee Zellweger in the leading roles. You may have noticed that neither Connick nor Zellweger are black.
I wondered why Rance would allow such a significant change to his work. I was hoping this interview would delve more into his reasons. At one point, he seemed to balk at changing the characters’ race, but apparently things changed:
“It is my story, but the story can be told with different nuances. … There wasn’t that much change, but I never set out to write a movie about race. She (Monica Tate, the lead in the original script) just happens to be an African-American female. In the spirit of Barack Obama it shows that black writers can write universal stories. A lot of our stories are so tragic, but our stories are more vast and diverse than that. There are other stories out there.”
To answer the question, “Because of the money!” would be rather cynical, yes? What are the odds of selling a screenplay and seeing it made into a movie, no matter what color you are? It must be doubly difficult if you’re black. Let’s be honest. From trying to sell screenplays to auditioning for a handful of roles to proving yourself behind the camera and in the corporate office, it’s not an easy road for blacks in Hollywood.
Imagine yourself in Rance’s situation. Someone wants to buy your work and make your movie, which no doubt will open doors and build your network of people in the business who can help get subsequent movies off the ground. But there’s a catch.
Is changing the race (sex, religion, nationality, etc.) of your main characters a small price to pay?
I read the novel Push when it was published over 10 years ago. I wasn’t heavily into fiction and wasn’t drawn to novels like this one, but the intriguingly simple title caught my attention. I skimmed the first couple of pages and decided to check it out.
The novel is about an overweight, HIV-positive black teenaged girl named Precious Jones, pregnant for the second time with her father’s child. (Her first child has Down syndrome.) Yucky, I know, but it gets worse. Her crazy mother is molesting her. Precious is a rough-around-the-edges, foul-mouthed, inner-city (Harlem) girl who uses bad grammar and mispronounces words. She talks back and curses at teachers. She can’t read but likes “maff.” If I recall correctly, Precious was suspended from school and sent to an alterative school. She meets a teacher who helps her learn how to read, and her attitude changes.
Once you get past the character’s defensive, stereotypical attitude, and vulgar language (yeah, I know…why bother?), the book becomes absorbing. The book ends with Precious, who so far as lived a chaotic, pitiful life, is feeling joyful because she’s doing something as ordinary as drinking hot chocolate at a café with girls who care about her. She’s “alive inside,” and her degenerate parents haven’t broken her spirit.
I think I either cried or was close to tears as I read the last few pages. A used and abused young girl who initially saw no value in herself becames a cared-about person, and it made all the difference. The theme is about pushing oneself: to improve, to get out in the world, to do the right thing, etc.
Push was made into a movie and won the grand prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It stars Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe as Precious, Mo’Nique as her mother, Paula Patton as the caring teacher, and Lenny Kravitz (!) as a nurse.
I don’t know how the movie handles the book, but either way, the subject matter is awful. The redeeming factor about Push is that it shows how the human spirit fights to survive (and thrive) even in the midst of unspeakable pain. That’s what I got from it.
Hollywood leans left. It’s as certain as taxes and death. But I’m convinced there are enough influential right-leaning folks in Hollywood (Clint Eastwood, Kelsey Grammer, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Jon Voight, Gary “Sirius Black” Oldman, Gary Sinise, and James Woods, to name a few) with the power to push “conservative” projects. In fact, the task might be easier if more Hollywood conservatives came out of the closet.
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Right-leaning actors and decision-makers do exist, though they’re not as vocal as their liberal counterparts. Perhaps Big Hollywood will encourage conservatives in Tinseltown to talk about their views loud and often. Just shut up and entertain, you say? Like it or not, political ideologies shape the entertainment culture and influence what’s produced in Hollywood.
As reasonable people know, “tolerance” doesn’t mean acceptance. For example, I tolerate — or “put up with” — the fact that people are free to do whatever legal thing they wish to do, but I don’t accept whatever they choose to do. I tolerate differences, but that doesn’t mean I consider all differences good or worthy of appreciation.
In our relative-rubbish society, the definition of tolerance has shifted. It now means acceptance of any and all behaviors and lifestyles. Ironically, the new meaning of tolerance doesn’t extend to Christians or conservatives. Graphic novelist and artist Doug TenNapel, writing for new conservative site Big Hollywood, says it better than I do:
“I once had a meeting with an executive regarding one of my graphic novels that had been optioned. This exec started the writer’s meeting with a few notes to change some rough spots in the story. This is normal procedure with my work. I have no problem with making these changes, since it’s part of the game given where I’m at in my career. They pay me lots of money so I like these execs when I’m sentenced to work with them. I was taken aback by the first round of notes that went something like this, ‘For starters, we’re gonna get rid of all this Christian shit from the story, right?’
“The exec informed me that religious imagery didn’t sell to American audiences, that it was intolerant and it definitely didn’t export. This was before ‘The Passion of the Christ’ so I can forgive his ignorance of the world’s most popular religion, but it was the word intolerant that struck me. How was the inclusion of religion not tolerant while the removal of it was?
“This is my baptism into the myopic view of religion by most of my friends in Hollywood. For being multicultural, the lack of humility regarding a religion they didn’t know or understand is…is…well, these days it’s typical.”
Now that I’m living so close to Hollywood, I plan to write more about Christians in the industry and how they’re treated. Since I briefly mentioned Christian entertainment in Hollywood, readers have sent lots of links to valuable resources: groups for Christ-following screenwriters, producers, actors in Hollywood…a whole world I never knew existed.
By now you’ve probably heard about Andrew Breitbart’s “Big Hollywood” project, which he hopes “will help challenge the status quo in what he believes has been a one-party, left-tilting town.” (Source)
Conservative, moderate, and libertarian folks in Hollywood will offer their commentary on the industry. Big Hollywood probably will look like a right-leaning Huffington Post. Speaking of HuffPo, Breitbart, an editor for The Drudge Report, also helped create Arianna Huffington’s left-leaning site. Hey, business is business!
Right-leaning actors do exist, though they’re not as vocal as their liberal counterparts. Perhaps Big Hollywood will bring more of them out of the closet.
What I’d really like to see, however, is more Christian entertainment in Hollywood. Why, you may ask, would Christians want to be part of an industry that is anti-Christian? I submit that instead of retreating, Christians should be salt and light, even in Hollywood, and smuggle in the Gospel.
Come to think of it, the message doesn’t have to be subtle. Look at Kirk Cameron’s “Fireproof.” The message of Jesus Christ was overt, and that film, with a budget of $500,000, raked in $33.1 million at the box office. (Also see Cinematic Christian soldiers in S.A.)
Is La-La Land any less a mission field than Africa? A heathen is a heathen, whether or not he’s got indoor plumbing and plenty of food and clean water.
I’m working on a related piece for Pajamas Media. In the meantime, check out my recent contributions to Pajamas Media and Townhall. More to come.
I linked to an article about a Christian film festival. Christian homeschooling blogger Laurie Bluedorn writes: “My kids just got back from the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. Our sons’ web site was one of the sponsors.”
Looks like major Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson is hitching a ride on the powerful Disney-esque marketing machine. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I just think it’s…wild, weird, and smart!
Young stars like “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks, Sean Astin of “Lord of the Rings,” (Astin’s only a few years younger than I am – does that mean I’m young, too?) curly-haired cutie Corbin Bleu of Disney’s “High School Musical,” and Emily Osment and Cody Linley of Disney’s “Hannah Montana” (which my 10-year-old niece can’t get enough of) read the New Testament in the recording “The Word of Promise: Next Generation – New Testament.”
What TN’s doing certainly isn’t new. Dramatic readings of the Bible, especially by well-known celebrities, must be hot sellers. If this product encourages more young people to “read” the Bible, I’m all for it. No doubt some of the audio Bible’s participants are Christians, though I won’t assume all are what we Bible thumpers call “born again.”
Included in the set of 20 CDs is a 75-minute “behind the scenes” DVD with interviews.
Speaking of Jordin Sparks, she earned major kudos from me after she defended “purity” rings on the Video Music Awards show. Some Brit joked about the Jonas Brothers wearing them, and Sparks (who wears one herself) reportedly said, “I just have one thing to say about promise rings. It’s not bad to wear a promise ring…because not everybody – guy or girl – wants to be a slut.” Some in the audience cheered.
May I interrupt the suicide and phony love story blogging for a few seconds of pop culture/music?
I “discovered” Coldplay a few years ago. Nice sound, but too hyped. When the new album came out, I avoided listening to it. Why? Kinda juvenile, I guess, but I try to avoid following the crowd. I favor non-hyped-but-should-be-hyped artists (hint, hint). I heard “Viva La Vida” while driving one day but didn’t know it was “Viva La Vida” and said, “I dig it.”
You Generation Y types probably have no idea who Scott Baio is, but Gen-X-ers like me should know. Baio was Chachi on “Happy Days” and spin-off “Joanie Loves Chachi,” and Charles on “Charles in Charge.”
So few in Hollywood (or in the music business) hold views similar to mine. They’re like diamonds buried in a pile of manure. When I find one, I’ve got to pluck it out, clean it off, and present it.
Later…A man who killed a 13-week unborn child 
A brief interruption, if I may, from blogging about ACORN employees with “contacts” in Tijuana advising a “pimp” and his “whore” how to operate a whorehouse without getting caught and smuggle girls into the country to turn tricks. (And claim the child tax credit!)
I don’t watch “American Idol,” but I’ve heard about Simon Cowell. Blunt. Difficult to please. Jaded. But a woman named Susan Boyle broke through the world-weariness on a show called “Britain’s Got Talent.” 
Ken Rance is a cousin of one of my sister’s friends. He wrote a screenplay about a “white collar” black woman who falls in love with a “blue color” black man. “32 & Single” became the movie “
I read the novel 
I think I either cried or was close to tears as I read the last few pages. A used and abused young girl who initially saw no value in herself becames a cared-about person, and it made all the difference. The theme is about pushing oneself: to improve, to get out in the world, to do the right thing, etc.
Hollywood leans left. It’s as certain as taxes and death. But I’m convinced there are enough influential right-leaning folks in Hollywood (Clint Eastwood, Kelsey Grammer, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Jon Voight, Gary “Sirius Black” Oldman, Gary Sinise, and James Woods, to name a few) with the power to push “conservative” projects. In fact, the task might be easier if more Hollywood conservatives came out of the closet.
