Blog archives
2011: Our blog archives for the year 2011
'I Love You Phillip Morris' (Jim Carrey movie, 2009)
December 17, 2011
Jim Carrey stars as Steven Russell in this wild, true story — which feels less true because it stars Jim Carrey.
Grover Norquist pledge = Rumpelstiltskin
November 22, 2011
Grover Norquist, with his Americans for Tax Reform pledge, is a rehash of the Grimm tales story of Rumpelstiltskin.
Mark Twain quote on surfing in Hawaii
November 16, 2011
From Roughing It, a Mark Twain quote about how he tried surfing in Hawaii in 1866.
Philip Seymour Hoffman: 'Jack Goes Boating' (2010 movie)
November 3, 2011
Philip Seymour Hoffman gives us several strong moments of humans close to the breaking point.
Coal ash in Lake Michigan after We Energies construction at Oak Creek
November 2, 2011
Coal ash spilled into Lake Michigan after We Energies construction at Oak Creek, between Milwaukee and Racine.
Which MP3 deals? Amazon $5 albums for November
November 1, 2011
John Coltrane’s The Ultimate Blue Train, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill are all $5 each.
'Once Upon a Time,' 'Grimm': New TV series spun from old tales
October 31, 2011
TV shows that both feature imagination, writing, acting, and production — and are both rooted in the world of fairy tales.
Ezekiel and The Bone Song ('Dem Bones Dem Bones')
October 19, 2011
Dry Bones: The Book of Ezekiel is the basis for both a short animated film and the spiritual song that became a 1940s hit.
Michael Lewis book: 'Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World'
October 5, 2011
Michael Lewis on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Fresh AIr with Terry Gross, and Charlie Rose, promoting his new book Boomerang.
C. Peter Wagner, the New Apostolic Reformation, and Rick Perry
October 4, 2011
NAR endorsers who were involved with Rick Perry’s Houston prayer rally seek Christian dominion in government.
Social Media Week: Richard Roeper, Steve Dahl, Robert Feder, Nancy Loo
September 26, 2011
Four Chicago media personalities discuss Reinventing a Media Career on Alternative Platforms.
9/11: Iraq erased from 'War on Terror'?
September 10, 2011
When remembering 9/11, are soldiers who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom to be counted among the casualties of the War on Terror?
S.C. Johnson Wax pays no Wisconsin taxes?
August 31, 2011
No state income tax is paid by Wisconsin’s SC Johnson companies, according to veteran journalist David Cay Johnston.
'Raccoon Mayhem' commercial (Allstate insurance)
August 28, 2011
The Allstate insurance Mayhem commercials starring Dean Winters have burrowed deep into my mental attic.
Kate Voegele, 'Heart in Chains'
August 23, 2011
Music video from Kate Voegele’s latest album Gravity Happens that I can’t stop playing.
TV schedule shell games
August 18, 2011
When TV programmers keep us guessing about a show’s airtime, we might decide we don’t really need to watch it after all.
Weird chipmunk noise
August 12, 2011
Every now and then, a chipmunk will take a position and make a weird noise like this all day long. As in morning to night.
'The Kids Are All Right' (2010 movie)
August 11, 2011
Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo add exceptional performances to a very good script, making for a little treasure of a film about family.
Austerity (budget cuts) and social unrest
August 9, 2011
Mark Blyth says that austerity, driven by class politics, usually ends badly. Louise Cooper sees a connection between austerity and the UK riots.
'Public Enemies' (2009 Johnny Depp movie)
August 8, 2011
A couple strong scenes of gun violence, but a weak story and characters make for a mediocre movie which should have been much better.
Rapid prototyping: The 3D printing miracle
August 7, 2011
What is rapid prototyping? Video examples show how 3D printing in plastic creates a desktop factory.
Racine, Wisconsin history: House on Taylor Avenue near Durand
August 4, 2011
A historical house in Racine, Wisconsin was built by an old settler and race horse owner named Joshua Pierce.
Japanese beetle control: Grubs in lawn
August 3, 2011
Japanese beetles are destroying plants all over Racine, Wisconsin. The other 10 months of the year, they are white grubs in the lawn.
Website traffic tops 15,000 in July
August 1, 2011
MarkCz.com received over 15,000 visits in July. Thanks for reading, sharing, linking, liking — and for just being you.
Happy anniversary
July 29, 2011
30 years since Charles and Diana’s wedding — and our first ride together, dinner and a movie, first kiss. 20 years since a trip to a courthouse in Quebec.
'Crazy Heart' (2009 Jeff Bridges film)
July 25, 2011
Performances by Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal turn what might otherwise be a Hallmark TV movie into a deeper portrait.
Hummingbird moth: Hummingbird Clearwing sphinx moth
July 24, 2011
Too big and long to be a bumble bee, too small to be a hummingbird, this hawk moth is Hemaris thysbe, and it’s astonishing to see.
Swim with dolphins? Film 'The Cove' shows them killed
July 22, 2011
Flipper dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry and an Oceanic Preservation Society team secretly film the annual killing of 23,000 dolphins at Taiji, Japan.
Food find: Cock flavored soup mix
July 17, 2011
Amy came home with this pouch of Grace Cock soup mix she found at the Kenosha Woodman’s store.
'The Real Dirt on Farmer John'
July 7, 2011
This wonderful 2005 documentary chronicles the life of farmer John Peterson, of Caledonia, Illinois.
Jackson Browne, "The Barricades of Heaven"
June 30, 2011
The song — originally released on his 1996 album Looking East — reflects on Browne’s earliest days as a musician in Orange County, Califormia.
Butterfly Weed good, Milkweed Bugs bad
May 3, 2011
Butterfly Weed was a beautiful host to Monarch Butterflies in our flower bed — until it was destroyed by Milkweed Bugs.
Debt, Medicare, spending, deficit: Obama speech, April 13, 2011
April 13, 2011
President Obama’s speech: Video and full text of his remarks at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Paul Ryan is Dagwood Bumstead
April 7, 2011
Is Rep. Paul Ryan the bright young Republican man on the rise — or a bumbling Dagwood Bumstead?
'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' (1988 movie)
April 7, 2011
Based on Milan Kundera’s 1984 novel, this American movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, and Lena Olin, and feels like a foreign film.
Mad Men Season 5: I give up
March 30, 2011
Mad Men has been a bad soap opera for four seasons, and now Season Five has been postponed until 2012.
Rick Steves' Europe: Bloopers
March 28, 2011
Blooper reel from Season 6 of Rick Steves’ Europe, with outtakes of the public TV travel guide in Spain, Norway, Stockholm, Helsinki, etc.
Stupid Americans get more dumber
March 22, 2011
A Newsweek story finds that an alarming percentage of Americans cannot answer questions from the Citizenship and Immigration test.
Potassium iodide: Thyroid protection from nuclear radiation
March 14, 2011
You can buy potassium iodide tablets and potassium iodide oral solution online without a prescription to have on hand in case of a nuclear event.
Rachel Maddow Show: 'Shock Doctrine' used to take over Michigan towns
March 9, 2011
Journalist Naomi Klein discusses proposed laws empowering Gov. Rick Snyder to appoint Emergency Managers to take over financially troubled communities.
'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' (movie, 2009)
March 8, 2011
Adapted from the first book in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, the crime thriller stars Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace and includes scenes of brutal violence.
Genesis, creation and evolution: Science finds snake's legs
February 10, 2011
A 95-million-year-old snake fossil in Lebanon reveals lizard-like leg bones. Did Bible authors know snakes didn’t always slither on their bellies?
TV news: Kerry Sanders drives while reporting live
February 8, 2011
Reporting live from behind the wheel: Is NBC’s Kerry Sanders on the cutting edge of a TV news trend?
Obama in the news: He quit smoking
February 8, 2011
President Obama quit smoking, and you can quit smoking too.
Green Bay Packers: Socialist success story
February 5, 2011
Where are the Green Bay Packers from? Green Bay, Wisconsin. Who owns them? The community of Green Bay.
Blizzard of 2011: Snow storm video (Racine, Wisconsin)
February 3, 2011
A YouTube video summary of the Blizzard of 2011, as we experienced the snowstorm here in Racine, Wisconsin.
Blizzard of 2011 - Racine, Wisconsin: First video
February 2, 2011
Our first peek out the window at the results of the Blizzard of 2011 in Racine, Wisconsin.
Katy Perry: 'Teenage Dream', 99 other albums just $5 each
February 1, 2011
Amazon.com’s February list of 100 Albums for $5 Each includes Katy Perry, Arcade Fire, Eminem, Carole King, Gillian Welch, Sarah McLachlan, and Sade.
Chicago Blizzard of 1967
January 31, 2011
Radio broadcasts and reminiscences recall the snowstorm that buried Chicago under 23 inches of snow in January of 1967.
