Newscoma

Joe Powell knows everything.

I’ve known this for awhile. He talks about something near and dear to a few of us that love monsters and horrorific goodness.

…Insomnifest, the world’s first Online Horror Movie Festival.

12 movies are featured in the fest, which runs from Feb. 11 thru Feb. 24. The web site for the fest boasts a mega-trailer from most of the movies. I’m thinking this is not the kind of festival one attends hoping to meet the people who actually made these movies or the fans who seek them. At least they did not call it Splatterfest or Cheesefest, but perhaps they could have. And I don’t recommend you use your computer at work to bask in the buckets of fake grue.

But you don’t have to stand around in the snow like at Sundance, or wade through the beautiful people.

See, I told you.

I’m waiting on Joe to cure halitosis, teach dogs to speak and advise me on how to cook a dinner without ever entering, and alas, blowing up my kitchen.

Joe knows. 

Is the writer’s strike coming to an end?

From Deadline Hollywood:

The WGA leadership is hoping to finish tonight or early tomorrow drafting the language of the deal they’ve negotiated with the moguls. (“Our friends at the DGA didn’t leave us language that could serve as a template. In fact, the DGA has no language beyond what was in their press release because they figured they had until June to work it out,” an insider tells me.)

Then the WGA intends to email to members and/or post on the WGA.org website that language so the members will have an opportunity to digest it before Saturday’s meetings.

But Nikki Finke is saying it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.

And we wait.

One of the most exquisite things I’ve read in a long time.

Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living.

Jim discusses a moment in his former life and how it was significant. And I couldn’t help but read it twice. He continues.

‘You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’

I squeezed her hand, then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk.

What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift?

What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life.

We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.

But great moments often catch us unaware–beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

Just wonderful and thought-provoking how seemingly small moments create and form who we are and how are actions impact others.

Djuggler is doing something nifty today and I’m just about as impressed as I can be.

Just two questions.

Where is the prosperity and where is the peace, Pres. Bush?

President Bush, rallying conservatives for a battle against Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, says “prosperity and peace” are at stake in the upcoming election for his successor.

“We have had good debates and soon we will have a nominee who will carry the conservative banner into this election and beyond,” Bush said in prepared remarks of a speech he was to give Friday to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“Prosperity and peace are in the balance,” the president said in speech excerpts the White House released on Thursday night. “So with confidence in our vision and faith in our values, let us go forward … fight for victory … and keep the White House in 2008.”

Karl Rove back in town?

In some ways, last night’s episode could be considered flawed but I think it made up for it by creating new mysteries and those small moments that sometime come back with huge ramifications.

If you haven’t seen it, I’ll put my thoughts after the jump. (Get it jump, because everyone jumped out of a plane that the guy that played Jobe in the Lawnmower man flew. Bwaahaahhaa, I crack myself up.)

(more…)

 This story is going to catch the eye of a lot of people. Including me.

 Ten days after losing a federal lawsuit against this St. Louis suburb he insisted harassed him, a gunman stormed a council meeting and opened fire, killing two police officers and three city officials.

The gunman, identified as Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton, critically injured the city’s mayor and wounded a reporter Thursday night before law enforcers fatally shot him.

You get some wackos at meetings sometimes. Mostly I’ve seen people be tolerant towards folks. The reason why I bring this up is this part of the story.

Thornton was well-known at City Hall, often making outrageous comments at public meetings, according to the weekly Webster-Kirkwood Times.

The newspaper quoted Swoboda as saying in June 2006 that Thornton’s contentious remarks over the years created “one of the most embarrassing situations that I have experienced in my many years of public service.”

Swoboda’s comments came during a council meeting attended by Thornton two weeks after the man was forcibly removed from the chambers. The mayor said at the time that the council considered banning Thornton from future meetings but decided against it.

Thornton said during the meeting he had been issued more than 150 tickets.

When allowed to speak during one meeting, he approached the podium with a posterboard with a picture of a donkey and began making harassing remarks about Swoboda.

In a federal lawsuit stemming from his arrests during two meetings just weeks apart, Thornton, representing himself, insisted that Kirkwood officials violated his constitutional rights to free speech by barring him from speaking at the meetings.

But a judge in St. Louis tossed out the suit Jan. 28 …

I guess this story is on my mind today because I’ve seen people get irrational at board meetings and in court. About three years ago, I was covering a trial and an officer moved me away from some guy who was acting very odd. I found out later that the guy had been calling the police not only on a couple of the folks that worked in court but on me as well. I didn’t know that at the time but the guy was telling with some pretty outrageous conspiracy theories.

And you just don’t know the inner workings of people’s minds.

Kirkwood, Mo has been in the news before. You may remember this.