MarkCz.com: Blog

Southern Gospel song: 'Looking for a City'

2012-01-24T16:33:00Z

It's funny how one random item on the Web can lead you through a tunnel of connections you never imagined following. Today's rabbit hole was pointed out by my friend Phil Inzinga of the Inzinga and Spinozi Morning Show on 96.9 BOB FM in Oklahoma City.

]]> [Full post here]

Price of gas when Obama took office: $1.81

2012-01-22T18:12:00Z

Many Facebook commenters instinctively suspect that something is wrong with the figure, that the price of gasoline could not possibly have been so low just three years ago. To some, it must therefore be B.S.

]]> [Full post here]

Bob Dylan, 'Chronicles: Volume One'

2012-01-09T22:00:00Z

For all of its quirkiness, though, this is a highly enjoyable book. The atmosphere of New York City in the early 1960s, the vignettes of St. Paul, Minnesota before that, the little anecdotes about writing songs in his welding studio at home, a dinner with Bono, and his visits with Archibald MacLeish are just a few of the highlights.

]]> [Full post here]

'Lars and the Real Girl' (Ryan Gosling movie, 2007)

2012-01-09T14:24:00Z

Imagine if the late comedian Andy Kaufman made a feature film. Picture a movie with an authentic indy drama feel and a sturdy cast -- but revolving around a ludicrous predicament which is uncomfortable to begin with, and then continues on and on until the absurdity makes you want to scream. Except you can't scream, because that would be insensitive.

]]> [Full post here]

'I Love You Phillip Morris' (Jim Carrey movie, 2009)

2011-12-17T19:08:00Z

What I Love You Phillip Morris has going for it is a great story. The saga of impostor and con artist Steven Jay Russell is unbelievable, outrageous -- it's beyond your wildest imagination.

]]> [Full post here]

Grover Norquist pledge = Rumpelstiltskin

2011-11-22T17:40:00Z

Think about the way he zeroes in early on aspiring Republican politicians and makes their daunting dreams come true in exchange for one simple pledge. Think about how he collects these signatures and forces them to do the unthinkable years later, after they have attained power.

]]> [Full post here]

Mark Twain surfing in Hawaii: Quote from 'Roughing It'

2011-11-17T01:17:00Z

Turning a page, my eyes met a passage that I do not remember reading before. Flipping through Letters from Hawaii, I do not find it now.

It is astonishing. Mark Twain tried surfing.

]]> [Full post here]

Philip Seymour Hoffman: 'Jack Goes Boating' (2010 movie)

2011-11-03T23:52:00Z

Both unknown to us before this, the intensity between John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega is perhaps the best surprise in this film. She is subtly cunning and driven, and he is everything from elegant to tender to pitiful at various points -- sometimes one after the other. Their mutual maneuvering is fairly electric, and in one scene his restlessness is simply perfect.

]]> [Full post here]

Oak Creek: We Energies coal ash in Lake Michigan

2011-11-02T16:36:00Z

Of course, environmental regulations are exactly what Republicans are working hard to dismantle. Republicans don't like the Environmental Protection Agency protecting our environment; a number of them want to eliminate the EPA entirely. As Rachel Maddow notes, the House of Representatives just passed the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act (H.R. 2273) a couple of weeks ago, on October 14. That bill declared that coal ash is not toxic.

Our Republican congressman Paul Ryan voted for H.R. 2273.

]]> [Full post here]

Which MP3 deals? Amazon $5 albums for November

2011-11-01T15:10:00Z

In the Amazon MP3 store, each new month brings a new list of 100 Albums for $5 Each. It's always a hit and miss affair, with a few bargain treasures mixed in among the discounted debris.

]]> [Full post here]

'Once Upon a Time,' 'Grimm': New TV series spun from old tales

2011-10-31T22:10:00Z

What both of these series have in common is actual writing, acting, sets, effects, music, production, and a dose of imagination. They are not reality shows or news magazines. That alone makes them a refreshing change from much of the modern TV menu.

]]> [Full post here]

Ezekiel and The Bone Song ('Dem Bones Dem Bones')

2011-10-19T18:25:00Z

The short film is based on the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, verses 1-10. In the passage, the prophet is carried away by the spirit of God to the Valley of Dry Bones. There, God urges Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, to tell them that He is going to reassemble and reanimate them, restore their sinews and flesh, and revive these dead bodies with the breath of life.

]]> [Full post here]

Michael Lewis book: 'Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World'

2011-10-05T15:22:00Z

Boomerang is sort of a followup to Lewis's 2010 bestseller, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. That book looked at the folks who brought us the credit default swaps which played the global financial crisis for profit. In this book, Lewis travels to places like Greece, Iceland and Ireland to observe how these various cultures got caught up in and punished by the economic meltdown.

]]> [Full post here]

C. Peter Wagner, the New Apostolic Reformation, and Rick Perry

2011-10-04T16:01:00Z

What's also curious is how little attention this relationship has received from the network news. Remember the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his relationship with then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, and how many times the nightly news played those controversial video clips? To date, far less scrutiny has been devoted to Perry's endorsers, who reportedly believe in a Dominion Theology which gives them "divine mandate is to do whatever is necessary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to retake the dominion of God's creation ..."

]]> [Full post here]

Social Media Week: Richard Roeper, Steve Dahl, Robert Feder, Nancy Loo

2011-09-27T03:13:00Z

The deepest insights and the most surprising social media journey are recounted by Robert Feder. Despite being the media reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, he was a virtual online virgin until after taking a buyout from his newspaper job in his early 50s. Feder picked up blogging and tweeting skills following a revelatory moment at the Newseum during his hiatus. His cellphone use, text messaging, and social media interaction all began in the last three years.

]]> [Full post here]

9/11: Iraq erased from 'War on Terror'?

2011-09-10T20:55:00Z

Today, as news organization after news organization "remembers" 9/11 -- and as our fellow Americans remind us not to forget 9/11 -- I saw something truly shocking.

It was a Facebook post by WISN 12 NEWS, Milwaukee's ABC affiliate:

By The Numbers: Approximately 3,460 died on 9/11/01. Approximately 1,566 soldiers have died in the ensuing War on Terror.

]]> [Full post here]

No WI income tax paid by SC Johnson companies, reports Pulitzer winner

2011-08-31T14:25:00Z

So, when someone on Facebook posted a recent Reuters article by David Cay Johnston about the richest family in Wisconsin, whose companies are headquartered here in Racine, it caught my attention.

The column, from last Friday, August 26, was titled "Wiping out Wisconsin taxes."

]]> [Full post here]

'Raccoon Mayhem' commercial (Allstate insurance)

2011-08-28T17:53:00Z

The "Mayhem" TV ads for Allstate insurance have burrowed deep into my head. I saw this "Raccoon Mayhem" ad a couple of days ago. Then, this morning at about 2:30, I heard either a large raccoon or a small horse tramping across our roof above my bed. All I could think of for the rest of the night was actor Dean Winters tearing into our attic insulation and ripping nasty holes in our roofing.

]]> [Full post here]

Kate Voegele, 'Heart in Chains'

2011-08-23T18:38:00Z

Here's a video that showed up in my YouTube subscriptions stream, and now I can't stop playing it: "Heart in Chains," by Kate Voegele, from her latest album Gravity Happens (available via Amazon.com or iTunes).

]]> [Full post here]

TV schedule shell games

2011-08-18T21:18:00Z

As a TV viewer, there are few things which irritate me more than the games schedulers play these days. Despite the ridiculous amount of money we pay to a cable company every month -- and despite our willingness to follow and even promote the few shows we do watch regularly -- it's as if schedulers are deliberately trying to evade us.

]]> [Full post here]

Weird chipmunk noise

2011-08-12T14:00:00Z

The chipmunk in this video was recorded on our doorstep a couple of years ago, but I have a similar situation in the backyard today. After weeks of air conditioned cabin fever during the Heat Wave of 2011, the windows are finally open here at the MarkCz.com home office, and this is what I get to enjoy.

]]> [Full post here]

'The Kids Are All Right' (2010 movie)

2011-08-11T21:10:00Z

Written by Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg, directed by Cholodenko and nominated for four Academy Awards, it is the story of a married lesbian couple (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) with one child each, by the same sperm donor (Kenosha-born Mark Ruffalo).

]]> [Full post here]

Austerity (budget cuts) and social unrest

2011-08-09T14:25:00Z

Watching the riots in England these days, one line from the video above keeps echoing in my mind:

"There's a term for this: "class politics," and it usually ends badly.

]]> [Full post here]

'Public Enemies' (2009 Johnny Depp movie)

2011-08-08T16:44:00Z

Thank goodness for the optional subtitles on DVDs. I am glad I did not try to watch Public Enemies in a theater.

]]> [Full post here]

Rapid prototyping technology: The 3D printing miracle

2011-08-07T22:30:00Z

As Mr. Day lays out in his program, all sorts of things can be manufactured this way, from building components to artificial limbs. When you think about the possibilities for customization by manipulating data in the virtual models and consider how this changes our hundred-year-old system of mass production manufacturing, it's very exciting and even a little frightening to contemplate the possibilities. The newer umbrella term for these miracles is "additive manufacturing."

]]> [Full post here]