Weekly Wilson - Blog of Author Connie C. Wilson

Welcome to WeeklyWilson.com, where author/film critic Connie (Corcoran) Wilson avoids totally losing her marbles in semi-retirement by writing about film (see the Chicago Film Festival reviews and SXSW), politics and books----her own books and those of other people. You'll also find her diverging frequently to share humorous (or not-so-humorous) anecdotes and concerns. Try it! You'll like it!

“American Idol” from Los Angeles: January 26, 2010

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On January 26, 2010

In Music, Pop Culture, Television

american-idol-judges21Los Angeles, California, described by Ryan Seacrest as “the epicenter of entertainment” was not uniformly entertaining during Tuesday, January 26th’s “American Idol” auditions. (As usual, CAPITAL LETTERS mean the contestant made it through, while lower case means the contestant was rejected.)

Neil Goldstein

The very first contestant out-of-the-box was a weird guy named Neil Goldstein, 19, who, ironically, forgot the very first line of a song (by Meat Loaf)  about not forgetting (“Rock ‘n Roll Dreams Come True”), causing Simon to utter the word “ironic.” Simon cautioned the would-be singer—who said he had an I.Q. of 168—“You’ve got to have a reality check.” He was less-than-macho, had a long girlish page-boy bob (which changed during the try-out film, however) and kept insisting that he was not going to leave.  Neil’s response to Simon’s suggestion that he realize his singing was not that great with a “reality check”, “There’s no reality but what we make for ourselves.” Neil  refused to leave the stage, until Simon threatened to have him escorted out. Guest judge Avril Lavigne said, “That was really bizarre,” when the contestant finished.

Neil Goldstein, after being cut, declared, “In the greater scheme of things, ‘American Idol’ is going to be the greater loser.

JIM RANGER

Contestant #5054, the 27-year-old married father of 3 from Bakersfield, a worship pastor, sang a song of his own entitled “Drive.” Although the judges wondered, aloud, how he was going to both tour and be a pastor, he was voted through to Hollywood.

Jayson Wilson (19, Seattle): a screamer. Jesse Cheng, 23; Martin Perez, 19: All rejected.

Damian of the sandwich store came in, declaring that “pepperoni” was the favorite sandwich at his shop and then forgot the name of the Righteous Brothers song he planned to sing. It turned out to be “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” It turned out, also, that Damian had lost any ability to sing well, in addition to the name of his song selection. Simon: “Damian, you should just go.” Damian’s response? “On my way.” (At least he left without a fight.)

MARY POWERS

Mary, from Burbank, did a Joan Jett impersonation which Simon found clichéd. The mother of an 8-year-old daughter, she still got a golden ticket. Short black hair. Punk look. Pretty. Daughter came in and Simon said, “Are you sure this isn’t my daughter?” when she turned out to have a bit of attitude.

A.J. Mendoza

A.J. sang “The Cult of Personality” by Living Color. From Upland, California, the 20-year-old was bad. Simon said, “It sounded like you’d gone to the dentist about 10 minutes ago and your anesthetic had worn off.”

Austin Fullmore

Austin Fullmore, 19, of Glendale, California, sang “Surrender” by Cheap Trick, complete with weird posturing.  Beforehand, he said, “This is my purpose in life, I think.” After Austin’s audition, Simon said, “That is one disturbed young man” and Katy Perry, who was the guest judge at this point in the program asked the question of my last column, “Are these people frisked before they come in here?”

ANDREW GARCIA

Andrew could really sing. His parents, George and Mary Garcia, who were involved with gangs in Compton but moved the now-23-year-old father of a small boy to Moreno Valley was praised as “a genuinely good, good singer” by Simon. Katie Perry said of his audition, “You gave me chills,” Kara passed him on “110%” and Randy declared, “You’ve got mad vocals.”

TASHA LAYTON

The Pasadena resident who said she was a personal assistant by day and a minister by night sang Joss Stone’s “Baby, Baby, Baby” and, after getting her golden ticket, said, “I’m going to Hollywood. Now what?”

Jason Green

Jason Green, 21, a student sang Divinyls “I Touch Myself’ and was generally effeminate and disgusting.  He ended up on the floor on his knees, causing Simon to say, “I knew you’d get down there eventually.” After that crack, Jason hit on Simon obliquely, causing Randy to protest, “Don’t hit on my friend.” Katy Perry, who was attired in a tight, red, low-cut dress, said, after Jason’s audition, “I feel dirty.” The catty Jason then said, “I’m sure it does…especially with that top.” (Snap!) As he left, doing ballet moves on his way out, he said, “But the point is, I’ll be back next year.” When he encountered Ryan Seacrest outside the door, Jason commented, “They (the judges) did enjoy this,” and proceeded to give Ryan his phone number, telling him to “call me any time.” Ryan took the folded phone number over to a very butch-looking individual, commenting, “Don’t believe everything you read” as he gave it to the bodyguard, who looked like a prison inmate.

CHRIS GOLIGHTLY

Foster child Chris Golightly, who entered foster care at age 18 months and grew up with 25 different foster families, had reddish mop-like hair and a good voice. A Los Angeles shoe salesman, Chris said, “Music is where I always felt comfortable” and sang with a sweet tenor that seemed to polarize the panel. While Kara declared, “There’s something very interesting about you,” commenting on “your story and your pain,” Chris did not impress Katy Perry as much, as she turned to Kara and said, “This is not a Lifetime story, Kara.” Eventually, Chris Golightly earned 4 “yes” votes, 2 with a small “y,” one with a big “y,” and one (Randy) with a giant “Y.” Chris said, rather plaintively, “I’ve had nothing in life.”

All-in-all there were 22 contestants passed on to Hollywood from the Los Angeles Rose Bowl Stadium crowd of 11,000 hopefuls who made it past the regular judges, plus either Avril Lavigne or Katy Perry. We saw a few of the other “yes” votes jumping about: the cute guy, the chubby blonde, and the black guy.

On another note, one Orlando contestant (an African American) also had his golden ticket revoked when he confided to his father that he had made it through to the Final 24 and his father blabbed. Apparently, all contestants are sworn to the strictest secrecy and Dad’s loose lips sank his ship.

“Dreamgirls” Is A Dream of a Play in Chicago

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On January 24, 2010

In Music, Pop Culture, Reviews

Dreamgirls-001“Dreamgirls,” the 1981 Motown musical by Henry Krieger and Tom Ewen which became the 2006 hit movie that made Jennifer Hudson (Effie) a star and garnered Eddie Murphy a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role as James “Thunder” Early, a character based on James Brown blew into the Windy City on Tuesday, January 12th for a mere two-week run. As I write this on Saturday, January 23, the play has a very short life in town left and will be gone before it can be appreciated as the best show Broadway in Chicago has mounted this season…so far (and there’s only one left, “101 Dalmations.”)

The play began at the Apollo Theater last fall, where it received rave reviews and there is buzz that it might have a full-on Broadway opening after the tour, which includes a month in Tokyo. The production “stars” Syesha Mercado in the movie’s Beyonce role as Deena Jones, said to be based on Diana Ross. The Supremes who back her up are played, first, by Moya Angela as Effie, the role that Jennifer Hudson took all the way to Oscar gold, and then byAdrienne Warren as Lorrell Robinson and Margaret Hoffman as Michelle Morris, the later “Dream” girls (after Effie is replaced).

In the movie, Jennnifer Hudson took the “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” song and belted it impressively, but Moya Angela is no less impressive. Her voice is impressive: massive and worthy of the starring role she portrays. Syesha Mercado’s stint as Deena Jones is good, also. After all, the singer was second runner-up in the 2007 “American Idol” tryouts, and, a graduate of the theater program of Florida International University, she received the prestigious South Eastern Theatre Conference’s Best Supporting Actress award even before that.
Deserving of special mention are the two male leads: Chaz Lamar Shepherd as Curtis Taylor and Chester Gregory, a Chicago native, in the Eddie Murphy role as James “Thunder” Early. Shepherd appears onstage more than any other actor, tying the entire plot together and he both acts and sings extremely well. He has appeared as Harpo on Broadway in “The Color Purple” and was on the Billboard charts 3 times in 2009. His soul/R&B album is to be released during the “Dreamgirls” tour. His gospel work was Grammy nominated in 2009.

The crowd favorite amongst the male leads, much as in the movie, has to be Chester Gregory, a graduate of Columbia College (BFA) who got his start at Chicago’s Black Ensemble Theater playing Jackie Wilson, courtesy of Jackie Taylor of that ensemble. Said Ms. Taylor, in a Chicago Tribune interview on Sunday, January 17, “I had been wanting to produce the Jackie Wilson story for a long time, but I always felt like I didn’t have a strong enough Wilson.  This was going to be a ride specifically for Chester.”

And what a ride it was! It took Chester Gregory (he has now dropped the II from his name) all the way to New York’s Apollo Theater, where he made enough of a mark, complete with a Wilson-like back-flip while onstage, that he has picked up work ever since with parts in “Hairspray,” “Cry-Baby,” “Tarzan,” and performing for Michael Jackson. In fall, 2011, Gregory has promised to reprise his star-making role as Jackie Wilson for his “theatrical mother” Jackie Taylor at the opening of the Black Ensemble Theater’s new North Side home. The play was the most popular and profitable the Black Ensemble has ever put on.

For his role as the womanizing James Brown-like James “Thunder” Early in “Dreamgirls” Chester Gregory gets the most memorable stage time (along with the part of Effie) if not the greatest amount of it. Manager Curtis Taylor, Jr., tries hard to tone down the soul brother, so that, at one point, the unhappy singer says, “Last time I was here three people thought I was Tony Bennett.” It’s Curtis’ plan to break the black acts into the Big Time, and he wants James to tone it down and behave because it’s hard to book black acts into places like Miami in the sixties. As one character says, “That place is so white they don’t even let our boys park the cars.”

Chester Gregory makes the most of his time onstage. At one point, he sticks the microphone into the front of his pants, and there is the famous scene (also in the movie) where he drops trou while playing a chi chi white club, causing Curtis to fire him and tell him, “Your time has passed.”

The character of Curtis (Chaz Lamar Shepherd) is described at various points as a “two-bit car salesman” and he certainly seems to be a huckster (called a “second class snake” by Marty, Jimmy Early’s first manager) who will woo whomever he must to get his way. However, Curtis does seem to have idealized and idolized Deena (Syesha Mercado), who eventually becomes his wife, as he sings to her, “I needed a dream but it all seemed to go bad. You were the only reason I had to go on. You are the things I can never be. They’ll never take my dreams from me.” Unfortunately, as Deena (Syesha Mercado) tells him, “I want to be an artist,” most specifically a film star. Curtis says, “You’ll do what I tell you.” Deena (Syesha Mercado) says, to Effie, in a scene of reconciliation, “I played the role he gave to me. Now I don’t know who I’m supposed to be.”

Special mention should be made of the singing, of course, but the dancing and costumes are just as outstanding. William Ivey Long did the costume design and the sparkly lavish costumes rival anything the real Dreamgirls (i.e., the Supremes) ever wore. There is even one very creative costume change (for Effie) that takes place while she is singing about changing, onstage. The spotlight focuses to just Effie’s (Moya Angela’s) face and, in a heartbeat, she emerges from “everyday” clothes she is singing in for an audition and is now clad in a lavender sparkly gown.

This was by far the best play of the series, so far, beating “In the Heights” by a mile and “Young Frankenstein” by a nose. I also liked it better than “The Addams Family,” which is supposed to take Broadway by storm. It’s just a shame that “Dreamgirls” is leaving Chicago so soon, as it definitely is worth Broadway theater ticket prices, with energy and talent to burn.

Jeff Bridges Goes for Oscar Gold in “Crazy Heart”

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On January 22, 2010

In Uncategorized

“Crazy Heart:” Bridges At His Best and One of the Year’s Best Movies

OSCAR ODDS?

jeff-bridges-pic“Crazy Heart” is the film that should win Jeff Bridges his long-overdue Oscar. The veteran Hollywood star has turned in 4 Oscar-nominated performances, stretching back 38 years to his first nomination for 1972’s “The Last Picture Show.” (Others were: 1975: “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”; 1985: “Starman”; 2001: “The Contender”).

Bridges is 60 years old, now and he’s never won that Oscar. This just might be his year. (Especially given his reception at the Golden Globe awards on January 17, 2010).

BAD BLAKE

In “Crazy Heart” Bridges doesn’t so much “play” the alcoholic, broken-down country-and-western singer Bad Blake as he inhabits that character, which is what he has done so well for so many years in so many films. Bad Blake is 57 and he’s broke. He’s reduced to playing bowling alleys like the Spare Room, where the owner refuses to run a bar tab for the hard-drinking singer (who is partial to McClure’s), but tells him, “Mr. Blake, let me personally offer you all the free bowling you want.”

Bad Blake is the kind of musician with true talent that carried him far, but talent he abused and wasted by drinking too much, smoking too much, and screwing too much. Now, says Bad, “I’m 57 years old and I’m broke…My career’s goin’ nowhere.” Some have remarked on parallels to Mickey Rourke’s character in “The Wrestler.” That’s understandable, but the films take very different plot paths. “The Wrestler” may be a more dramatic examination of an old dog who’s having trouble learning new tricks, but there are echoes of the theme of the family that has been sacrificed at the altar of career.

A doctor tells Bad (after a minor car accident in his ’78 Suburban van) that Bad has a broken ankle, a concussion, emphysema, and is a good candidate for heart problems and a stroke. He cautions Bad that he must stop smoking and drinking and lose 25 pounds. He adds, ”You’re an alcoholic.” Bad doesn’t say this line to the doctor, but to the woman he is wooing (Maggie Gylenhaal) when she cautions him about his drinking and smoking. It sums up his self-destructive behavior through the first two-thirds of the film: “I don’t want to hear it, darlin.’”

Bad writes songs with lyrics like, “I used to be somebody, now I am somebody else. Who walks in tomorrow is anybody’s guess.” He’s also the kind of troubadour of the road who says of his nomadic lifestyle, “I’ve played sick, broke, divorced and on the run. Bad Blake hasn’t missed a show in his entire life, even if it’s in a bowling alley backed by a bunch of hippies.”

STEPHEN BRUTON

The bunch of hippies referenced above is Bad’s on-the-road pick-up band, “Tony and the Renegades”. Playing the character Tony is Ryan Bingham, one-half of the team that composed the Golden Globe-winning song “Weary Heart,” the theme song from the movie. The wonderful songs (especially good lyrically) were written by T Bone Burnett, who paired with Bingham and the man to whom the movie is dedicated, Stephen Bruton (also credited on guitar and mandolin). Bruton died on May 9, 2009, of throat cancer at age sixty.

When your eye looks over the song credits at the end, notice how many of them Stephen Bruton is responsible for. He wrote most of the good ones. When he died, T Bone Burnett—who was instrumental in getting Jeff Bridges to play the lead character—said, “Stephen Bruton was the soul of Texas music.” Bruton had written music for Kris Kristofferson as far back as 1972; for Carly Simon in 1976; and for Bonnie Raitt’s best-selling “Luck of the Draw;” Willie Nelson; Jimmy Buffett; Johnny Cash; Waylon Jennings; and Patty Loveless. Bruton had also released five solo albums of his own, including 2005’s “From the Five” and was working as music producer and composer for “Crazy Heart” and on Kris Kristofferson’s “Starlight and the Stone” album when he died of throat cancer in Los Angeles. (Wikipedia).

THE REAL C&W ROAD

The musical knowledge of the road and how it really works shows through in this carefully crafted film. For example, there’s a scene where Bad and his current back-up group (“The Bum Steers”) are practicing. They are to open for the young man (nicely underplayed by Colin Farrell), Tommy Sweet, whom Bad Blake launched and taught everything he knows.

While practicing for a gig in Phoenix where Bad will open for Tommy (Bad is billed as “guest artist” in very small letters on the marquee) Bad tells the sound man to stop amplifying the instruments so that they drown out his voice. He is insistent and explains to the pick-up band, “It’s the sound man’s job to make the opening act look worse than the main act by amplifying the instruments over the singer’s voice.”

At another point, Bad is asked about his back-up band. When he says it’s a band he is assigned at each gig, the seasoned musician he is conversing with says, “Pick up band? That’s a ballbuster.” This is the kind of attention to the true realities of the road that the movie gets right. Jeff Bridges’ singing is a revelation. I knew he was a skillful photographer, but he is a very good singer as well (as was Colin Farrell). Their credited vocal coach is Roger Love. (*I’m so glad that Kevin Costner—a would-be country singer— isn’t the one playing the part; I heard Costner sing to a mule in “The Postman” and once was enough!)

Maggie Gyllenhaal as Jean asks Bad, during an interview, “Who is real country in today’s world of artificial country.” The question seems to be a comment on the state of today’s C&W chart-toppers. Bad’s musical influences were authentic C&W stars like Hank Williams, Gene Autry, Lulu belle and Scotty, the Georgia Wildcats.

The script tells us the story of Bad Blake’s downward spiral into near-oblivion, some of it a hymn to self-destructive behavior. Maybe he can pull out of his death spiral and find another chance because, as supporting actor Robert Duvall tells him, “It’s never too late.”
TOMMY SWEET/COLIN FARRELL

Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) is the new C&W star, the flavor of the month, while the authentic good ol’ boy who made him what he is, Bad Blake, goes unrecognized by fans. Tommy will eventually ask Bad to write him some songs, and Bad will have to make a decision as to whether playing second fiddle to his former protégé is something he is willing to do.
THE LYRICS

When the newspaper interviewer that Maggie Gyllenhaal plays (Jean Craddock) asks Bad, “Where’d all those songs come from?” he answers, “Life, unfortunately.” He says, “I feel like I should be apologizing for being less than you probably imagined me to be.” Bad’s been on a real run of hell raising. As one song’s lyrics put it, “I been who I shouldn’t be. If there’s such a thing as too much fun, this must be the price you pay. It all happens for a reason, even if it’s wrong. Especially if it’s wrong.’

Continuing that theme are these lyrics, “Doin’ what I shouldn’t do. Lately I just lost the fight. Funny how fallin’ feels like flyin’ for a little while.”

The music, well sung and played by all, helps advance the plot in this Scott Cooper-directed and written movie (based on a novel by Thomas Cobb). Here are more lyrics that should give you an idea (from a variety of songs sung in the film):

  • “I been blessed and cursed, All my lies have been unrehearsed.”
  • “This ain’t no place for the weary kind. This ain’t no place to lose your mind.  This ain’t no place to fall behind. Pick up your crazy heart, give it one more try.”
  • “Your heart’s on the loose. This ain’t no place for the weary kind.”
  • “I should have known that this would never last.  I should have seen it through the whiskey in my glass.
  • “If I needed you, would you come to me and ease my pain?”

GREAT SCRIPT LINES

Quite apart from the song’s lyrics, which are wonderful, there are some great lines in the script (Cooper’s first)  like Bad’s (Bridges’) comment to Tommy Sweet on the ugliness of his boots. “What happened? Did the salesman threaten to shoot your dog?”) When the romance with Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character (Jean or Jeannie) heats up, Bad says, “If I can walk, I’ll come to you. I’m not gonna’ forget about you. I’m not gonna’ forget about this day.” (Of course, Bad (real name Otis) has been married 4 or 5 times, so Jeannie is right to be skeptical.) Speaking to Gyllenhaal about his failings as a parent to his only child, a son, Bad says, “I wasn’t there, even when I was.”

C&W MUSIC and ME

Those who know my musical preferences will nod their heads in agreement when I tell you, honestly, that I’ve never been a big fan of Country & Western music. In fact, when Freddy Fender (“the Mexican Elvis”) was scheduled to play a C&W street fair in downtown Silvis, Illinois (where I taught for 17 and ½ years) one of my 7th grade students eagerly rushed to my desk to ask me if I was going to that night’s show. My response: “Not in this lifetime.” I lost some girlfriends over C&W music. I lost out on some invitations (most notably to Summerfest in Wisconsin) because I didn’t get onboard with Reba and line dancing and all the rest of the enthusiasm for country-and-western music (although I do like the blues).  The Summerfest flap that followed, when I inadvertently learned of a fun “road trip” by my  friends to which I had not been invited (one to celebrate the retirement of 2 women I thought were my very good friends…one my closest)  permanently deep-sixed a 35-year friendship—[a friendship that apparently wasn’t as close as I had thought].  Best description: it was  more my extending true-blue loyal friendship that was not reciprocated unless my husband were involved, apparently. So, I’ve had a country-and-western song lesson in friendship, you might say. Therefore, my inclination to be recommending C&W music to anyone are nil. I have personally hurtful and painful memories of Country and Western music, just like in most of the radio songs in the genre.  I feel I was “wronged.” To borrow from a country song about a failed marriage (“She got the gold mine; I got the shaft”): “They got the tickets; I got the stubs.” (Or is that “snubs”?)

Ironically, my daughter now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, so I’ve mellowed slightly on country-and-western music. But C&W is still not my All-Time Favorite Music, (although I like the blues and rock-and-roll.) If I tell you the music is good, it has to have been very good to have won me over; you can take that to the bank. Of course, with T Bone Burnett helming, that should have been predictable.

T BONE BURNETT

T Bone Burnett’s involvement in the film was why A-lister Jeff Bridges finally agreed to take the role. Bridges said, at the Golden Globes, “It was just a dream come true. We all met thirty years ago on ‘Heaven’s Gate.’ To be able to do this movie thirty year later was really special.  When you have something that you love so much, it’s kind of challenging to pull it off.” Bridges also reminisced that, when he was first nominated for an Oscar way back when, he was “living at the beach with Candy Clark.” T Bone Burnett was born in 1948; Bridges in 1949.

T Bone had been in self-imposed musical exile for the past 14 years. Prior to that, he had won 10 Grammies and given us such movie soundtracks as “The Big Lebowski” for the Coen Brothers (a classic Jeff Bridges role as “the Dude”); B. B. King’s “One Kind Favor”; “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” (also the Coen brothers); “Walk the Line”; Tony Bennett/K.D. Lang’s duets album “A Wonderful World” and an Oscar-nominated song for “Cold Mountain” in 2004. (All data from http://www.tboneburnett.com.bio.html).  T Bone has worked with the Counting Crows, The Wallflowers, the Coen Brothers (see above), Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Gregg Allman, Jakob Dylan and Elton John and Leon Russell. He began his musical career in 1965 and was a member of Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Thunder Review” band, playing guitar.  He has been working on both a TV series (“Tough Trade”) and a play, a collaborative effort with Stephen King and John Mellencamp, entitled “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.” He is also known for collaborating with actor/playwright Sam Shepard. Meryl Streep announced, at the Golden Globe awards this year, that perhaps she should change her name to “T. Bone Streep.” (Burnett’s real first name is Joseph Henry)

ROBERT DUVALL

Veteran character actor Robert Duvall plays a small role as Wayne, a bar owner/bartender. Duvall also sings a song a cappella over the closing credits and in a fishing sequence with Bridges. After many years of great work (his career began in 1956, according to the IMDB website) and six Oscar nominations, the now 79-year-old actor finally won on his fourth try, for “Tender Mercies” in 1984, which is the film that “Crazy Heart” immediately reminds you of. [Duvall was previously nominated for “The Godfather” (1973); “Apocalypse Now” (1980); “The Great Santini” (1981); “The Apostle,” 1998, which he also directed; “A Civil Action,” 1999].

Perhaps “Crazy Heart” will be Jeff Bridges’ “Tender Mercies” and this often under-appreciated actor, a consummate professional, will finally win gold. This was definitely one of the year’s Best Films for me. (Too bad I had to drive 3 and 1/2 hours to Chicago to finally see it.)

SCOTT COOPER

The director of “Crazy Heart” is first-time director Scott Cooper, who has a background as an actor and had acted with Robert Duvall four times (he describes him as a big influence.) In an interview posted on www.Movieretriever.com, the Video Hound Blog, by Turk182 on January 21, Cooper explained, “I set out to tell the life story of Merle Haggard, but I couldn’t obtain the rights, so I turned to this novel instead.” He also confirmed that the film was originally scheduled to open the Sundance Film Festival, but Fox Searchlight bought the film for distribution before that occurred, which was serendipity.

Said Cooper in the Movieretriever.com interview, “Because I knew what I had, I never felt like it wouldn’t find the right home…The quality was something that people would see.  People like modest well-told stories.  It would have been a shame.  Look at ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ That was headed to DVD and then Fox picked it up.” He added, “I think I’m able to tell a story that’s very human and that highlights the human condition and focuses on character and behavior..Telling a story simply and telling one about loss, hope, regret, and redemption—those are things that, as an actor, I have played.  I feel like I could tell that story.”

Jeff Bridges has described his performance as the best of his career. Cooper said, in the interview, that he felt he had the two best actors in America in Bridges and Duvall. (He had originally suggested that Duvall play the role, but then wrote the script with Bridges in mind.)

Scott Cooper’s advice to other would-be directors is succinct:  “Take risks, persevere, and don’t take no for an answer.” (Sounds like good advice for a lot of us.)

Poster Throws Stones: Hits Himself in Foot and Mouth

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On January 20, 2010

In Uncategorized

This post is in response to the individual who has posted a completely false contention in reaction to the Richard “Dick” Leibovitz FBI probe.  Apparently, this person thinks that “the best defense is a good offense.” Therefore, “Easgle” felt it necessary to accuse me of dishonesty, ludicrous  in light of recent front-page newspaper (and other media) revelations about the County Clerk’s office. (The “Easgle” poster should be railing aginst our papers and Chris Minor of Channel 8 who actually interviewed the County Clerk, who admitted on camera some things his attorney probably wishes he had not admitted.) Riiiiiight. I’m really in a position to be “rigging” anything inside the County Clerk’s office. (Another HA!) I wouldn’t know the first thing about “rigging” an election. I don’t have specially developed software, paid for with federal funds, that I can use to target voters or disenfranchise voters or whatever the software was going to be doing. [If you want to develop better software, go for it…but do it on your own dime, not that of the taxpayers!]

The individual who posted (Easgle?) this slanderous remark (my contentions have names and addresss attached and can be verified; keep that in mind. The Judge saw them all, and they’re still in the files of Nelson, Keys & Keys) is obviously desperate.  To suggest that I was or am the dishonest individual and “Dick” Leibovitz was a knight in shining armor, riding forth to make sure that elections remain honest is contrary to fact and absolutely stunning in the light of recent revelations about his County Clerk office practices.

This person is really reaching! When reality sinks in for him or her, perhaps he (or she) will realize that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating Richard “Dick” Leibovitz, not some ex-English teacher who ran openly and honestly without any ties to the Democratic machine.

I had a children’s campaign of a few high school students. I paid for all campaign expenses myself. I owed no one and ran with no one.  I remember (fondly) that incumbent Alderman Louis Moreno (a former student in Silvis; no relation to Joe Moreno) spent the morning of HIS election making phone calls for me. (Thanks, Louis!) I was, in fact, swept up by a surge of enthusiasm from some young people in the community (many of them former students), who volunteered to help me (“We’ll help you, Mrs. Wilson!”) A young bus-boy at the Village Inn Restaurant whom I didn’t even know (Thanks, Brandon!) volunteered to help distribute flyers. It was wonderful to see young people enthused about electing someone who really wanted to see the city improve and didn’t plan to make a career out of public office (I said I’d run once and once only) simply to collect the stipend. (I was so naive, I didn’t even know there WAS a stipend…lol.) I wouldn’t know how to “fix” an election (OR a car)…but the County Clerk and Democratic County Chairman would know how and might be in a position to abuse the public’s trust, IF they were not honest individuals.

If you read the newspapers and have any reasoning ability, you can make up your own mind as you watch things unfold in Peoria. I had no “insider” status, no “helpers” or acquaintances who would “do dirt” to anyone, (nor would I ever stoop so low.)  And I’m honest (which is, apparently, a huge disadvantage in politics).

In order to secure a recount, names, addresses and instances of abuse were submitted to a (Republican) Judge who ordered the recount of the popular vote which showed that the incumbent did not, in fact, carry the popular vote in the 1st ward.  This is fact. (The absentee vote count is a separate issue, and, as the officials around the state who monitor cheating in elections told me, “You have to look at the absentee ballots. That is where they cheat.” (Historically, it has been ever thus.)

This was where and when the County Clerk did his best to hide the absentee ballots from view, knowing that the count would not be accurate (it wasn’t.) If you care enough to become informed, go find the earlier post about “the Illinois law of proportionate reduction” on this blog. It is an intrinsically unfair law,  designed to keep challengers from overturning elections, because it would be inconvenient for the County Clerk’s offices (who are already preparing their slate of candidates and ballots).

This law basically means (short version) that, for every invalid, fraudulent vote discovered that is thrown out as dirty, one vote is ALSO taken away from the person who is challenging. It makes no sense, I realize. It sounds “wrong” and it sounds “dirty” and it is. However, if you have spent as long on the phone with the state’s leading experts in election law as I did, (and as Nelson, Keys & Keys did), you soon learn that the statute is written to keep the “status quo” in place whenever possible. And, of course, everyone has to hope that the person counting the votes in any election is honest and will count the votes honestly (Remember the movie “Election”? Not good.)

I’m not going to go into the long drawn-out explanation of “the law of proportionate reduction” in Illinois, because it is posted elsewhere on this blog and, really, it is not germane to the poor misguided person who chose to throw stones at me, a citizen of the city and county who is merely watching the corruption be revealed and the story unfold from the sidelines.

I had and have nothing to do with the mess  in Richard Leibovitz’s office.  I didn’t notify anyone of anything, because I am not a politician, and I think I’m too honest to ever become one, after my experiences. [My father, a Democratic County Treasurer of Buchanan County (IA) always warned me, “Politics is a dirty business” and told me to steer clear. I should have listened.]

But I didn’t, swept up in a children’s crusade of enthusiasm for the cause of trying to do some good in our dilapidated, struggling city.

The angry writer of the post should be writing  to the local papers (or television stations) that are covering the story daily, or to the intrepid investigators who have found the many incriminating documents, such as the “none” signature of Richard Leibovitz on documents filed with the state, saying he was not involved in any other businesses that made more than $1200,  when, in reality, he was President of the software firm mentioned in all the newspaper stories (and merely re-mentioned in my article.) I can’t take credit for discovering those documents; I can only relate what happened in one very small and insignificant East Moline Ward election, reporting it as truthfully as possible (not that anyone cares any more).

We are now seeing what went on “behind the scenes” of the elected Rock Island County Clerk’s office. This has been front-page news for days now in both newspapers. The quotes in the blog article, far from being my opinion(s), were taken from the Quad City Times and the Moline Dispatch, with which “easgle” needs to take up his argument. The personal anecdotes I related ,which are completely true,  were submitted to a Republican judge, with documented names and addresses, and this is why the recount was ordered in the first place. One does not simply say, “I’d like a recount.” It has to be DOCUMENTED before a Judge (with names, dates and instances) to justify a recount because there is a preponderance of evidence (not opinion, but evidence) that something “fishy” happened in the election. This has to be proven  to the Judge’s satisfaction before a recount is ordered. It was proven to the satisfaction of the Judge that there were instances of impropriety on the part of the incumbent. End of that particular story. If the Judge had not seen specific instances of abuse, there wouldn’t have BEEN a recount showing Helen Heiland losing the popular vote at the polls in her ward in that long-ago election.

Second, the firm of Nelson, Keys & Keys was one of the few firms courageous enough in the Quad Cities to take on John Gianulis. Incompetent they are not. Most law firms told me, haltingly, that they couldn’t afford to ‘anger’ the then-Democratic County Chairman. The firm did a great job in the short time we had, and I had to go door-to-door (with a lawyer in tow) to secure authorized, notarized affidavits from voters. It was really an experience! Brett Nelson said, “Sometimes, I like to take cases that make a difference.”

I also (now) know that I would have had to have had a team of lawyers standing by at the time of the election to challenge immediately, as was done in Minneapolis in the Al Franken disputed election. If you aren’t prepared ON THE SPOT, the incumbent tank and installed machine rolls over youl.

I haven’t talked to Brett Nelson or Rick Keys lately, but I’d like to hear their comments on the recent newspaper articles.  I have the utmost respect and admiration and gratitude for this firm, which could definitely see the tank rolling on and recognize that  it was a miscarriage of justice, but could not stop it because of the way election law is specifically stacked against challengers….(and, possibly, because of other abuses of the public trust in the County Clerk’s office.)

I challenged not because I wanted the job that badly, but  (hopefully) to reveal the corruption that was endemic in the Rock Island election process. Unfortunately, the reporter assigned to be present during the recount in Rock Island by the “Dispatch” (Jenny Lee), stood in the room and heard that the poll count was wrong, and then went off and did not write one single word about it.

When the Feds get involved, stuff gets written…by both papers (the “Times” did not have a reporter present during the recount.)

I have a longstanding reputation for honesty and integrity. I do not have a reputation for using federal grant money to line my own pocket(s) to develop software that I then profit from, etc. Some have told me that I was merely “collateral damage” in an attempt to unseat Jose “Joe” Moreno, an attempt to ‘teach him a lesson’ by others more highly placed in the party. Since Joe was runing on HIS own, and I was running on MY own, that may or may not be true, but the voters for Joe….(and I think those votes were counted about as well as Gore and Bush in Florida)…were probably voting for me, goes the theory.

When I am subpoenaed to appear before an FBI Grand Jury (they don’t charge you unless they’ve got the goods, Folks), then this individual can question my honesty. Anyone who knows me knows that I was naive and idealistic, yes, but I was and am honest (which is more than can be said for some elected officials.)

I wandered onto a 2005 archived document while googling for some information. There were the names of many prominent men (Gary Andersen of MetroBank, Dr. Craig Whitlock, etc.) who were all part of a Committee to Rejuvenate East Moline in 2005. I remember what a nice and successful Centennial Joe Moreno engineered, with the frogs and the traffic the ceramic sculptures brought to the downtown area, which is sorely in need of traffic and support for the few remaining businesses. I am reminded of the many businesses (Country Manor, etc.) that have shuddered to a halt since 2005, a time when architect’s rendering(s) of a potential Farmer’s Market Forum were shown (one of Mayor Moreno’s ideas) at a meeting I attended. The proposed location would not only sell fresh produce, but also serve as a social gathering point. Mayor Moreno  sincerely wished to serve the community to make it a better place. I think the ideas his people had put forth, if implemented, would have helped the downtown’s sad plight.

However, to “teach Joe Moreno a lesson” (and don’t ask me who was teaching what lesson ,because the lesson learned is that the Mayoral position can be used as a stepping stone to the County Treasurer’s post or some such, and the city can be left “out of the Loop” (see previous article) and struggling) all of Jose “Joe” Moreno’s plans went down the tubes.

In the years since that election none of those good ideas have been championed by the man who unseated Joe. East Moline  also faces the prospect of an unnecessary and expensive ambulance service, spearheaded by the 1st Ward Alderwoman and others,a move  being forced down residents’ throats with or without their/our consent, to the point that former Mayor Dussliere’s son (I believe it was Al Dussliere’s son who came to my door; if not, apologies, but kudos to the individual doing the organizing, which was also not me) went door-to-door to gather signatures for a petition to put this ambulance proposal on a ballot for the people to decide. [Still, there was a certain cadre of aldermen who tried to sneak the ambulance proposal through.]

I don’t mind letting this illiterate person’s post stay up, suggesting (laughably) that I “rigged” the election, because I think it’s pretty clear who has been “rigging” things for years.  If I’m ever subpoenaed to appear before a federal Grand Jury, if the FBI comes after me,  then you can start throwing stones. Until then, learn to spell and read a paper once in a while.

The “irresponsible” are those who trashed our fair city and county for their personal gain and , have accomplished little or nothing noteworthy since 2005 to try to fix what’s broken in the cityof East Moline, specifically. Because of those folks, East Moline is “out of the Loop” (see previous post). Some of those elected officials have now used up their moment in East Moline, merely a stepping-stone for political ambition(s), and they are now moving on down the road….or to jail, in some cases….whichever comes first.

It’s a sad, sad thing, when you look back at the 2005 “Rejuvenate East Moline” committee posting and think, “What if…..”

Hellfire & Damnation Video

By

On January 18, 2010

In Uncategorized

This is one of the latest version of the new “Hellfire and Damnation” trailer, now up on YouTube, etc. Stay tuned for the dedicated website, www.HellfireandDamnationthebook.com.

Hellfire & Damnation

Fifty Fun Facts Featuring Elvis

By

On January 17, 2010

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Music, Pop Culture

Elvis recently had a birthday (he turned 75) and I ignored his birthday, at the time, just like I try to ignore my own birthdays.

A McCarthy newspaper writer named Valerie Kellogg wrote “75 Things You May Not Know About Elvis” at the time of his birthday. Some of them amused me…not all, but some. Plus, we recently visited Graceland in Memphis, so I decided to throw out the less-interesting or more well-known “things you might not know” about Elvis, insert a few of my own, and shorten Kellogg’s article to a mere fifty. So here goes:

1)      Elvis’ first 2 recorded songs cost him $4 at Sun Studios in Memphis, where he recorded “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” as a gift for his mother, Gladys.

2)      Elvis is Norse for “all wise.”

3)      When he was 15 months old, Elvis almost died in a Tupelo, Mississippi tornado, which would have meant that he would have joined his dead-at-birth twin Aaron.

4)      At age 1, Elvis enthusiastically joined an Assembly of God church service choir in singing, wriggling away from his mother’s grasp to do so.

5)      At age 10, Elvis placed fifth singing “Old Shep” at a children’s talent show, thereby surpassing Michael Jordan, who got cut from one of his first basketball teams.

6)      Songs recorded: anywhere from 600 to 1,200. [With mixes like “A Little Less Conversation” being released many years after his death, that number could change.]

7)      Sometimes, Elvis would sign “Elvis” on a female fan’s left breast and “Presley” on the right. (There is no truth to the rumor that this gave rise to the term “double-breasted.”)

8)      Elvis’ maternal grandmother was Jewish, so Elvis added a Star of David to his mother’s gravestone in the mid-sixties. (Since most of the family is buried out back at Graceland in a weird circle that tourists visit, I assume it is this tombstone. It is just a stone’s throw from the really small tea-cup-sized swimming pool that looks like it belongs behind a Hampton Inn in St. Louis.)

9)      Other ethnic derivation for Elvis Presley:  Scottish, Irish, German, Welsh, Cherokee Indian and French. (A little something for everyone.)

10)  “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, a 1961 Presley hit, is set to the melody “Plaisir D’Amour,” an 18th century French love song.

11)  Presley hated fish. He wouldn’t allow Priscilla to eat fish at Graceland. We all know he loved fatty, deep-fried goodies, and he also loved biscuits and gravy, potato/cheese soup and meatloaf with mushroom gravy. The dining room table at Graceland, however, was not very large, (considering Elvis’ fame and fortune). It is hard to imagine seating more than 11 or 12 comfortably in the cramped dining room. The room isn’t big enough and the table isn’t big enough.

12)  Presley preferred sponge baths.

13)  Presley worked as an usher at Lowe’s State movie theater in Memphis. He was fired when he was discovered taking free candy from the girl working the concession stand.

14)  Presley was honored, while in the Army, by his commanding officers for “cheerfulness and drive and continually outstanding leadership ability.”

15)  Germans called Presley “the rock-and-roll matador.”

16)  Elvis smoked thin German cigars.

17)  Elvis’ big disappointment while in Germany in the Army? He never got to meet Brigitte Bardot. (I think we can all relate to that.)

18)  Presley’s movie idol? Tony Curtis.

19)  Hair dye used? Miss Clairol 51D, “Black Velvet” and “mink brown” by Paramount, to make his hair look black onscreen in movies. He once dyed his hair with black shoe polish in his do-it-yourself days. He also dyed his eyelashes, which caused him health problems later in life. (Good thing he didn’t EAT the dye).

20)  In 1956, Elvis made “Love Me Tender” and in 1957, he did “Loving You.”  In the hiatus between filming these two epics, he had plastic surgery on his nose, had his teeth capped, and had his acne professionally treated.

21)  Elvis dated Natalie Wood, but only for a very brief period. He said he didn’t like the way she smelled. (No report on what Natalie Wood thought of the sponge-bathing Elvis’ scent.)

22)  “Unchained Melody” was a song he only performed during the last 6 months of his life.

23)  Unverified reports claim Elvis’ range spanned three octaves, but unverified reports of the day also said that the Colonel (Tom Parker) would have another singer interpret the song while Elvis listened and then Elvis would  record the song after hearing it sung by someone else. It is also true that Elvis never did a World Tour, which was because of legal problems that Colonel Tom Parker, his dictatorial manager, faced in travel outside the country. (The Colonel had passport problems.)

24)  Presley had a slight stutter.

25)  Elvis used A&D ointment to keep his lips soft.

26)  Elvis recorded 15 songs with the word “blue” in the title.

27)  Some strangely titled Elvis songs include: “Queenie Wahini’s Papaya,” “Yoga Is as Yoga Does,” “There’s No Room to Rhumba in a Sports Car.”

28)  Elvis began using “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” a 19th century Strauss tone poem and theme of the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” because he liked its rhythm and movements.

29)  UK viewers couldn’t see Elvis much-vaunted TV special “Aloha from Hawaii” because the BBC refused to pay the price for the 1972 concert.

30)  Presley and the Beatles met at his BelAir, California house in 1965, after Colonel Tom Parker forced Elvis to invite the Fab Five over. That same year, Elvis talked about joining a monastery. No word on whether he discussed entering a monastery before or after meeting the Beatles, who ended his reign as undisputed King of Rock ‘n Roll.

31)  Presley met Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in 1975 but Wilson says that the meeting went badly. Wilson made an unexpected karate move on Presley, after Presley had asked him specifically not to do so. (I now understand why Brian Wilson spent so many years alone “in his room”).

32)  When Presley met Richard Nixon in 1970, Tricky Dick said: “You dress kind of strange, don’t you? Elvis replied, “Well, Mr. President, you got your show, and I got mine.” We didn’t find out the extent of  Nixon’s “show” until Watergate, but it’s not hard to imagine Elvis drawling that statement to Nixon.

33)  The Washington Post broke the news of that secret meeting between Nixon and Presley. [I think we’ve all heard the stories of Presley’s fascination with law and law enforcement, his desire to be named a ‘special agent,’ etc.]

34)  When Presley met Muhammad Ali, he gifted the boxer with a robe that said “The People’s Champion.” Ali, for his part, gave Presley boxing gloves that said, “You’re the greatest.” [This surprises and confuses me. I thought Ali was “the greatest?” The two probably should have traded gifts.]

35)  Once, after receiving a kidnap/assassination threat, Elvis performed with a pistol in each boot.

36)  In the early 1970’s, Presley would impersonate a police officer and pull people over and hand out autographs. He had purchased police equipment for his 36th birthday.

37)  Some members of the Memphis Mafia called Presley “Crazy.” He turned down the opportunity to play Kris Kristofferson’s role in “A Star Is Born” opposite Barbra Streisand, because the Colonel wouldn’t let him take the part. The chance was a career-making comeback opportunity, and ex-wife Priscilla urged him to take the role. Now THAT was “crazy.” What was NOT crazy was the way Priscila turned Graceland into a moneymaker after Elvis’ death.

38)  Once, while showing a woman a karate move in his Las Vegas hotel suite, he broke her ankle. (Sounds like an instant replay of the Brian Wilson bad meeting.)

39)  In Chinese astrology, Presley’s sign was “the dog.”

40)  Four psychics told actor Patrick Swayze that Elvis was his guardian angel. If so, Elvis didn’t do a very good job of watching over the recently deceased actor, who died too young of pancreatic cancer.

41)  The year before he died, Presley was prescribed about 10,000 pills. (I wonder what the count against Michael Jackson’s final year would be: which would score highest?)

42)  When Presley played Madison Square Garden in 1972, he rented the New York Hilton’s top floor.

43)  Presley’s pet turtle’s name was Bowtie.

44)  Other Presley pets:  a basset hound, 2 Great Danes, a Pomeranian, several horses, some donkeys, some peacocks and guinea hens, ducks, chickens, a chimpanzee, a monkey and a mynah bird. His golden palomino, Rising Sun, is buried at Graceland, along with his parents, his grandmother and his twin brother who died at birth.

45)  Presley’s pet chimp, Scatter, is thought to have died of liver disease, since the chimp had developed a drinking problem. Some think a maid, whom he had bitten, poisoned the chimp. (Wonder whatever happened to Bubbles, Michael Jackson’s chimp?)

46)  Presley believed he would die in his forties like his mother, Gladys.

47)  Presley had a strange “Madonna/whore” fixation. According to Priscilla Presley’s autobiography, once she gave birth to Lisa Marie, he no longer considered her sexually desirable because she was the mother of his only child. Presley did have a longstanding attraction to co-star Ann Margret, though, and always sent her a large floral tribute whenever she opened in Vegas.

48)  When Elvis was alive, there were about 170 Presley impersonators (1977). Today, it is estimated that there are around 250,000.

49)  Presley had one room of his Graceland mansion (the house that grew like Topsy and has many wings that were added to the sprawling structure) completely carpeted in shag carpeting and sometimes recorded there. The Jungle Room, a strange futuristic circular bed with fake fur: many “Elvis’ taste was all in his mouth” moments while touring Graceland.

50)  Elvis’ last words (to his girlfriend Ginger Alden, who had cautioned him against falling asleep reading in the bathroom) were; “Okay, I won’t.”

FBI Investigates Rock Island County Clerk Richard “Dick” Leibovitz

By

On January 16, 2010

In Local, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

FBI Investigators are looking into the activities of retiring Rock Island County Clerk Richard Leibovitz and his office. Leibovitz has been in office 22 years. A probe of the Rock Island County Clerk’s office is long overdue. The current charges stem from Mr. Leibovitz’s profiting through  companies he founded,   (he  is registered with the Illinois Secretary of State as President of  American Election Systems, Inc.),  but Mr. Leibovitz never disclosed this business on required forms. Brad Ware of the FBI office would neither confirm nor deny reports of the investigation into illegal practices in the Rock Island County Clerk’s office.

Richard Leibovitz didn’t feel it was necessary to help a first-time office aspirant (i.e., me)  in any way, shape or form, either. He gave me inaccurate information about how to challenge a vote I knew to be bogus, a vote after a very close primary election that changed dramatically overnight and was announced as a “fait accompli” for the incumbent in the morning papers.

The incumbent was actually proven to have lost the popular vote during a recount. (It’s never a good sign when you leave your own “victory” party in tears, as Helen Heiland did.) County Clerk Leibovitz did his best to derail the challenge to 1st Ward incumbent Helen Heiland,  every step of the way.

It was the rigged absentee ballots that tipped the scale in Helen Heiland’s favor, so that she could remain in office to this day, where she has been instrumental in supporting  the ambulance service that East Moline residents do not want and also is a member of the City Council that recently failed to get the downtown area of East Moline placed on “the Loop.” [The Loop is a  recently- announced  new diesel bus service which will  transport tourists around the loop of the Quad Cities…but not to East Moline. ](It’s now accurate to say, of East Moline, “We’re out of the loop.”)

I’m sure the business owners of downtown East Moline are really happy about that development, courtesy of incumbent Mayor John Thodos, 1st Ward Alderperson Helen Heiland, et. al. Heiland and Thodos ran as a team and spent massive amounts of money with a firm in Iowa that campaigned for George W. Bush, all in the service of a very dirty campaign against popular incumbent Mayor Joe Moreno (who probably was also railroaded, but would have had a harder time  proving it.) Since then, Ms. Heiland has whined in print letters to the editor about not succeeding John Gianulis as County Democratic Chairman, despite the fact that Gianulis retired due to the ravages of old age, and Helen Heiland is not far behind him chronologically.

Now, during the heat of a three-way race for Richard “Dick” Leibovitz’s seat, a race between Larry Toppert, Nick Leibovitz (son of the incumbent), and Karen Kinney (scheduled to go before voters in a February 2nd primary), comes the news that Liebovitz has been profiting mightily from his position as County Clerk over his 22 years in office. Invoices that bear Chris Leibovitz’s name (his son) have surfaced. Son Nick, who works in the County Clerk’s office  has been using campaign signs with just his surname in his bid to succeed his father. He was featured on tonight’s Channel 6 news reading haltingly from a typed statement about “restoring his good name and reputation.” At least he was reading—partially thanks to me. And one assumes, since he works for his father in the office, that he can also write (more thanks to his English teachers.) Perhaps I should have given the young Leibovitz boys poor instruction,  rather than working hard and honestly as I did for 17 and 1/2 years in the Silvis Public Schools, only to be given  poor and dishonest service (as my reward) by my elected county clerk, their father. (And the public wonders why teachers quit!)

Leibovitz’s company markets an Auto Poll Book, according to a website, and it is described as a computerized tool to make it easier for election officials to look up voters. Whether federal HAVA money was used to develop it will be determined. One thing is for certain:

The voters that were being looked up during my one-time-only run against long-time incumbent Helen Heiland were mostly “the lame, the halt and the blind.” If the voter was near death, someone in the incumbent’s camp raced out to get the nearly-dead to sign an  absentee ballot.  Some of those absentee voters, to whom I personally spoke, (who were undergoing chemotherapy at the time and were not totally “with it.”)  had little or no idea what it was that they had ostensibly signed. The count announced for absentee voters was totally wrong, and I knew this going in, since I was given almost no absentee votes, when my entire family group had voted for me absentee and totaled more than the number the Clerk’s office wished to give me credit for; and there were others, as a door-to-door search with an attorney to notarize their statements later proved. However, when each and every voter, who has signed a notarized statement that they voted for you, is required to show up in a courtroom the very next morning, with no time to subpoena and no time for some to return to town and some too infirm to leave their homes, the deck is stacked.

So, this was your County Clerk’s office in action under incumbent Richard Leibovitz for the last several years, years dating back to 1988. Rock Island County Board Chairman Jim Bohnsack has been subpoenaed to appear in Peoria on February 27th before a Federal Grand Jury to testify in the ongoing investigation.

One area of concern is  the possible  of federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grant money by Leibovitz to develop computer software which his private company then marketed and sold for a profit, according to assertions made by Larry Toppert, who is currently running for Leibovitz’s seat.

There are invoices bearing Chris Leibovitz’s name and checks written to American Elections, Inc. dated between April and October of 2008, although the company was allegedly dissolved on September 7, 2007. [American Elections Systems, Inc., was incorporated on May 19, 2009.] The HAVA funds were established in 2002 to aid states in improving the running of federal elections. They distribute millions in grant money each year and those funds are distributed to counties for use in improving their election processes. If my experience is typical, the funds were used to keep the rightfully elected out of office and maintain the status quo desired by then-incumbent Democratic County Chairman John Gianulis, now retired.

According to Friday’s Quad City Times, state records list three officers and directors for American Election Systems, Inc.: Richard Leibovitz; his son Christopher of Lenox, Illinois (listed as director); and James Harmening of Orland Park, Illinois, company secretary.  Harmening is also president of a Chicago-based information technology company called Computer Bits, Inc., which has provided “consulting services” to the County Clerk’s office. Computer Bits, Mr. Harmening’s company, was paid $48,969 since 2008 by Rock Island County, including $35,280 in federal grant funds.

When I ran against 1st Ward (East Moline) Alderperson Helen Heiland, there were numerous documented irregularities in the election. In fact, Democratic insiders (who know the story to be true) told me at the DNC in Denver, on condition of anonymity, that it was quite well-known (behind-the-scenes) that strings were pulled to defeat me when I had actually won.  Absentee votes were the weapon of choice, although there were also irregularities at both polling places, including 3 people entering the voter’s booth together, in one instance.

I had run as a newcomer to politics, a naïve idealistic person who thought that elections in Rock Island County would be run fairly. I soon found out differently, as I went door-to-door speaking with every single absentee vote cast and uncovering fraud at many levels, including a non-existent male voter at one duplex in East Moline where the young girl who answered my question about whether someone with this name had voted absentee from this address told me, “Oh, nobody by that name lives here. Only my mom and I live here, and she wouldn’t vote absentee because she works for John Gianulis at the Courthouse.” (Interesting).

Then there were the people bussed in from the retirement home that is not in my district (two of them the parents of the man who was then Kaplan College’s President) and those voters whose absentee ballots were secured while they were dying or close to death.

When I decided to challenge, I had to work with the County Clerk’s office. First, I was given wrong information about how long I had to file a challenge. I was told in a phone call to come file much later than the deadline. Luckily, I followed my instincts and went down immediately.

When I showed up, in person, to secure the necessary paperwork, the form was mysteriously unavailable and they offered to “mail it” to me. (They said they had to “retype” it).  I asked for the form and told them I’d retype it myself. Ir was after this that I really learned how low the Clerk’s office would really stoop  to defeat someone that then- Democratic County Chairman Gianulis had decided was not going to be allowed to win.  I was given paperwork that contained the wrong statutes. It was by the merest of coincidences that I ran into a lawyer friend on the way home, who, in looking over the challenging petition, informed me that I had been given paperwork with all the wrong statutes. If I had filed them as they were given to me, the challenge would have been thrown out on a technicality.

I was able to file the correct paperwork with the corrected statues but no thanks to the County Clerk of Rock Island County. All election experts in the state told me I must gain access to the absentee ballots because “that’s where they cheat.” Mr. Leibovitz  refused to give me the list of absentee voters (where the cheating mainly took place) and made this verbal refusal while television cameras turned. (I had to ultimately hire Nelson, Keys and Keys Law Firm and get a court order to secure the absentee voters’ names).

I was particularly shocked to be treated so dishonestly and so uncooperatively by the clerk’s office, as I taught at least one of Mr. Leibovitz’s sons in school when a teacher at Silvis Junior High School.

This is your current Rock Island County Clerk’s office in action, Folks. If you want more of the same….(finish that thought).

“The Lovely Bones” Makes Murder A Bit Too Lovely

By

On January 15, 2010

In Movies, Reviews

“The Lovely Bones” is Peter Jackson’s interpretation of the best-selling novel written by Alice Sebold. A 14-year-old girl who was murdered is still spiritually guiding her father from above as he continues to search for his daughter’s killer.

Jackson has become better-known in recent years for his CG extravaganzas like the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy or the most recent “King Kong” but there was a time (in a galaxy far, far away) when Peter Jackson could tell a murder story with the best of them, as he did with “Heavenly Creatures,” Kate Winslet’s film debut (1994).

If “The Lovely Bones” is any indication, that time has passed. Far from agreeing with Sean Patrick, who ended his review by saying “’The Lovely Bones’ is one of the most daring and original works in years and one of the best films of the last year,” I think the film was a semi-disaster, fairly slow-moving, and only good from the standpoint of the acting and the sets. I’m not alone in that assessment, with the objections I had being fairly widespread across the land.

Fortunately, “The Lovely Bones” had a great cast, especially in Saoirse Ronan, who plays the murder victim, Susie Salmon. (Saoirse has already been Oscar-nominated once for her part as the younger sister in “Atonement,” and rightfully so). Saiorse gives another wonderful performance here, as do Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg as her parents, plus a toupeed Stanly Tucci (who also has some sort of fake teeth thing going on) is great as the murderer, George Harvey, the Salmons next-door neighbor who just happens to be a serial killer.

Saiorse has been nominated as Best Actress by the Critics Choice Awards (as was Stanley Tucci for Best Actor); won the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Virtuoso Award, won the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by a Youth, Female, and won the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award, the Sierra Award, for Youth in Film (2009). She is very, very good, and I predict that she will do some amazing work in her upcoming films. Tucci, also, is Golden Globe nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; has been nominated for a Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics Choice Award for 2010 for Best Supporting Actor; was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards as Best Supporting Actor of 2009; is nominated for the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role by the Screen Actors Guild for 2010; and has been nominated by the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association as Best Supporting Actor for 2009. The above means that either or both could be Oscar-nominated for the March 7th Awards show.

As George Harvey (Stanley Tucci) in “The Lovely Bones” says, “I took a risk and tried something new and discovered a talent I didn’t know I had.” Unfortunately, the talent George discovers seems to be killing girls and women, and the string started with his landlady Sophie Sanchetti in 1960 and continued through Jackie Meyer of Delaware, age 13; Leah Fox of Delaware in 1969; Lana Johnson of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; Flora Hernandez of Delaware in 1963; Denise Lee Ang of Connecticut, age 13; and our heroine, Susie Salmon of Norristown, Pennsylvania in 1973.

Let’s start with what’s good about the movie.

The cast is uniformly good…. in some cases (see above) outstanding. There is a minor quibble with the concept of having Susan Sarandon play a boozy Grandma Lynn. Her stint was more appropriate to insertion into the old television series “Malcolm in the Middle.” My husband read the book (I didn’t) and he doesn’t remember the grandmother in the book at all, nor was there so much emphasis on Susie’s status in the “In Between” after her murder (which I will address in a moment). On the positive side, I was struck time and time again by the careful attention to the details of 1973 life that the art/set director displayed. It is true that Susie’s schoolbooks bear the clearly visible legend “Fairfax County Schools” and that the clipping we see later is clearly labeled “Fairfax, Virginia,” while the voice-over tells us that this is Norristown, Pennsylvania, but you’d have to be semi-bored to be noticing these tiny little telling mistakes. Saiorse Ronan is an Oscar waiting to happen. She is luminous. The cinematography is also good, especially the creative scenes shot through the small dollhouse. The symbolic metaphor of ships-in-a-bottle, while useful, was not faithful to the source material and, ultimately, added to the problems that I am going to label “bad.”

The Bad:

In addition to the ships with bottles in them crashing on the shore, and Mark Wahlberg throwing the ships in the bottles to the floor to demonstrate how upset he is, the entire depiction of the strange “in between” world where Susie is now lodged did not fly, with me. Another critic mentioned it as being reminiscent of “What Dreams May Come.” I don’t have problems with using light and fake fog and weird other-worldly visions to illustrate this “in between” world, but maybe it would have been better for all of us if Jackson had stuck to telling the story, itself, without the special effects extravaganza stuff he has become known for in his latest films?

Here’s another “bad” thing. The 14-year-old girl is brutally murdered, (as were the others mentioned above). Her throat is slit. But all the victims turn up almost humming a happy tune like a Manson clan from the sixties or the cast of Big Love, in heaven, where there are lines like, “It’s beautiful, of course. It’s beautiful. It’s heaven. What are you waiting for? You’re free.” (*And, on behalf of “Field of Dreams,” I would like to remind all of you of the line that trumps any here, which is, “It’s not heaven. It’s Iowa.” So, maybe the In-Between is really Iowa? Naaaaah.)

I don’t think that we want to give anyone the incorrect impression that, once you are murdered, it’s all roses and fake fog and bright lines at the end of hallways. Lines like, “I began to see things in a way that let me see the world without me in it…Nobody notices when we leave.  At best, we might feel a whisper, or the wave of a whisper undulating down.” cloud the reality of a brutal death. I am certain that Susie Salmon felt a lot more than “a whisper or a wave of a whisper” as she was brutally murdered. (No spoiler there, as it’s a well-known fact that the book is narrated by a girl already dead.)

My husband, who read the book, tells me that this emphasis on the “in between” as a semi- Candyland and the annoying character of Asian Holly Go-Lightly who guides Susie in the In Between (actually a previous victim named Denise Lee Ang), were not in the book. I hope not.

The entire idea of a murdered girl finding happiness after her death (“These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence.”) was, to be honest, off-putting to me as a parent.  This film is every parent’s worst nightmare, and it almost seems to be making light of the horrific. Of this year’s films, Jackson’s depiction of limbo, aka the in-between, reminded me most of the Terry Gilliam flop that featured Heath Ledger venturing into a similar fantasyland. (When Ledger died, Jude Law and Johnny Depp filled in for him, creating a very confusing film, indeed, called “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” one of the biggest messes of the year 2009.)

The other issue that divided critics across the land was the idea that Susie feels worst about her unfulfilled teenage yearnings for Ray Singh (Reese Ritchie), who was about to give her her first kiss. There are better reasons to stay alive than to be kissed. Staying alive is reason enough to stay alive, she said redundantly, echoing the song title.

The film was slow moving, rousing itself (again, after the initial murder takes place) only during the scenes when the younger sister, well played by Rose McIver, breaks into the neighbor’s house to search for clues to her sister’s murder. As always happens when there is someone in a vacant house looking for the piece of evidence that will nail the suspect, the homeowner returns and peril threatens. That part, however, was far too short. Also, the way Lindsey, the younger sister, reveals what she has found upon her return home was ridiculous. Any kid I know, possessing this kind of dynamite information, would enter his or her house yelling at the top of his or her lungs, but Lindsey is quite restrained…restrained enough, in fact, to allow the neighbor to slip through the grasp of the authorities. (My kids spent the first ten years of their lives standing on the end of diving boards screeching: “MOM! MOM! LOOK AT ME!” That’s why I can’t believe that Lindsey in the film waits so patiently and in such an unhurried manner to reveal what she has found.  So much for Dad’s years spent ferreting out the truth, which includes a near-arrest and a near-fatal beating. When you DO find out the truth, you hold on to the evidence so long that the suspect gets away? [As the British would say, “Not bloody likely.”]

To conclude: slow-moving, artsy, good acting, great sets and period furniture and costumes and posters, wonderful acting turns from Saioren Ronan and Stanley Tucci. A good rental, but not worth the price of admission at the theater.

And somebody urge Peter Jackson to return to his hard-edged telling of a murder, as related in the 1994 film “Heavenly Creatures.” Lose the fog. Lose the light effects. Forget about the miraculous leafy tree and the gazebo. Just the facts, Peter, just the facts.

“American Idol” Auditions in Atlanta on January 13, 2010

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On January 14, 2010

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Music, Reviews, Television

american-idol-judges2[*With thanks to all the hard-working English teachers who collated and contributed the actual analogies and metaphors from their high school students’ essays into one hilarious article, which I am going to “lift” for my analysis of January 13, 2010’s “American Idol” Atlanta tryouts. If you are the nameless student, condolences and apologies.]

Mary J. Blige joined the regulars as guest host. Ellen DeGeneres won’t join the judges until February 7th, when the contestants reach Hollywood.

First up this night was a 27-year-old African American singer (I use the term “singer” loosely) named Dawon Robinson who said that his uncle had discovered Gladys Knight and the Pips and his father was known as Motown Bobby.  Dawon kept pronouncing the word “lady” (while singing) as “lay tee.” The free associating thoughts Dawon shared tumbled in his head “like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.”

Another black male singer who sang in an extremely high voice, like someone who has undergone castration, followed Dawon. We were saved by the appearance of Keia Johnson, who wore bright lime-green pants and was once named Miss Congeniality in a preliminary to a Miss America contest. (Simon ventured that, were it him, he’d rather win the beauty part.) Keia sang the love song from “Titanic” and she sang well. Keia was given a golden ticket to Hollywood and was followed by singers named Meriam Lemnoumi and Noel Reese.

Then came one of the diamonds of the day, Tisha Holland, 18, of Georgia, a waitress. She was followed by another star, Germaine Sellers from Joliet, Illinois, a 17-year-old church singer who cares for his mother, who suffers from spina bifida. The comments? “I think that’s the best we’ve seen all day.” Germaine sang Joan Osborne’s “What If God Is One of Us.” He’s going to Hollywood. Mary J. Blige said, “You’ve got skills. Best we’ve seen of all the cities.  That was incredible. It was anointed.” Plus, Germaine has the all-important back-story that this year’s competitors seem to need. (Talent, alone, isn’t going to be enough, it seems.)

A TV hostess from “Hotlanta,” Christy Marie Agronow, then regaled the group with a Pat Benatar song. The revelation that the judges did not share her feeling that she was a great singer hit her “like a guy who goes blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.” She left in a huff. (“How dare they!”)

Next up was Vanessa Wolf, who shared the news “I jump bridges.” She is either from Baltimore, Tennessee or Vonore (population 658) and shared this sad statement: “I’m stuck in Vonore. I can’t get out.” She had purchased her dress for $4.50 at a Dollar General store in Smyrna, which I seem to remember was Julia Roberts’ birthplace. Tennessee must be so proud, at this point in time, of the way their state is being portrayed. Vanessa was very likeable, but “her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.”

Jessie Anison, 26, of Alabama, #99342, shared several near-death experiences he had recently endured, which allowed “American Idol” to make several “cheap dramatizations” related to Jessie’s riveting stories. Jessie grew on us “like he was a colony of e coli and we were room temperature beef.” As for his audition, it didn’t help that Jessie couldn’t remember any of the words in the song he had selected and had never before sung in public. Mary J. Blige collapsed in helpless mirth and had to be comforted by Kara. Jessie had a mind “like a steel trap, but one that has rusted shut.” ”The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and ‘Jeopardy’ comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30 p.m.”  Jessie, also, left in a semi-huff. He traveled down the 47 stories in the elevator, “hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.”

After Jessie and the “cheap dramatizations” (once, at band camp, Jessie was almost hit by a stray bullet or a falling flute or some damned thing) we were treated to Holly, age 27, who sang Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man.” Holly proclaimed, “I’m the next great thing.” She was as modest as Donald Trump during one of his Rosie O’Donnell rants. “She had a deep throaty voice like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.” Holly made it through to Hollywood.

At one point, Simon actually said, to one contestant, “You sound like a cat barking; it shouldn’t happen.” The gargling noise of contestant Hansel Enriquez was not well received. Blake Smith of Covington, California came to his audition attired in a tee shirt that read “Britney Spears Changed Her Life.” (It didn’t change Blake’s).  “Guitar Girl” (attired in a guitar outfit with guitar glasses) lucked out. She caught your eye “like a wet nose hair glistening after a sneeze.”

Tony Skiboski, contestant #91870, actually could sing, but his attempts to make himself sexually appealing, in the process of singing “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye were about as enticing as “ maggots just before you fry them in hot grease.”  When it was pointed out to Tony Skiboski that he was missing a letter on his shirt, he replied, “That’s what they’ve got discounts for.” Skiboski actually made it through, which seemed “as unlikely as a little boat gently drifting across a pond, exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.”

We were treated to Loren Sanders, age 19, of Baxley, Georgia, and her BFF Carmen Turner, 19, also of Baxley, Georgia. Unfortunately, only Carmen sang well. The news that she was being cut from the competition hit Loren as a rude shock, “like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.”

Police officer Bryan Walker sang “SuperStar” and earned a golden ticket to Hollywood, but he looked very old. “He looked as old as a 60-year-old retiree.” (Or as old as General Larry Platt).

Lamar Royal sang Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” song. Before he went up in the elevator for his audition, Lamar was quite pleasant, saying how much he was looking forward to meeting Mary J. Blige. After Lamar delivered the loudest version of a Seal song ever heard and would not shut up (security had to be called to stop his audition), he changed his tune considerably and uttered the night’s most hostile remarks, yelling, “F*** Y’all” as he left. This earned him a round of applause from a passing carful of motorists. (At least Lamar said “Y’all”).

Last, and certainly least, General Larry Platt, age 62, sang his own original composition “Pants on the Ground.” “General Larry was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But, unlike Phil, General Larry actually works.” General Larry earned praise for his attempts to break dance for the judges, although, in his case, the word “break” is meant literally.

And congratulations to former contestant Jason Castro, who, in addition to his budding career as a performer, got married. I noticed his smiling dreadlocks on the “American Idol” website while scoping out the schedule, and it reminded me that I heard this news somewhere. Ah, young love.  “Jason fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.” Imagine “the star-crossed lovers racing across a grassy field toward each other, like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 66 mph; the other from Topeka at 4: 19 p.m. at a speed of 35 miles per hour.”

Stay tuned for next week’s shows on Tuesday, January 19th, from Chicago and on Wednesday, January 20th, from Orlando

Downtown Bus Link Bypasses East Moline Entirely

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On January 14, 2010

In Local

Today’s Quad City Times front page (January 13, 2010) has a story entitled “Downtown Districts Will Be in the Loop.” The article  touts a fleet of low-emission diesel buses slated to take tourists to all the Quad City downtown districts. The service, using “spiffy, low-floor, low-emission diesel buses” was to be unveiled on Thursday, January 14, at the Quad Cities’ Transportation Advocacy Group’s public forum.

Joe Taylor, President of the Quad Cities’ Convention & Visitors Bureau is quoted as saying, “The Loop will allow the Quad Cities to function as a unit.” That sounds good until the route is released and it specifically excludes downtown East Moline, which is struggling, to be sure, but will not be helped by a bus service that totally bypasses it.

According to the article, the circulator will run between the downtowns of Bettendorf, Davenport, Moline and Rock Island. The Village of East Davenport also will be on the route, says the article, and 2 buses will run in one direction while 2 run the other for a fare of $1 per ride or $3 for an all-day pass.

Becky Passman, Iowa Quad City transit coordinator with the Bi-State Regional Commission of Rock Island is quoted this way: “We really think it is going to be a hit with visitors. If you are from out of town, you don’t need to know anything about how to get there. Just hop on The Loop.”

I applaud the idea, in theory. I simply feel that it is a low blow to exclude East Moline’s downtown area, and I wonder why East Moline’s leadership (Mayor, City Council) have not lobbied harder to make East Moline part of The Loop.  I also wonder(ed) why diesel vehicles were selected,  at a cost of $836,808 received through grant moneys. Why not hybrids, which would seem more progressive in eliminating emissions?

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