Thursday, June 24, 2004

Urban Development Cowboy

Want proof that western movies are dead? Warner Brothers has torn down Laramie Street.

• Posted at 9:32 PM · LINK

Prepping for Bill

Tomorrow afternoon at 5 PM, Bill Clinton will be at the Brentano's in Century City to sign his new book. Today at around the same hour, I had to stop in there to look for a book that — it turned out — they didn't have. The place was already in a bit of a tizzy.

Outside, a security guard was trying to politely shoo away some folks who came to camp out all night so they could be first in line. The guard was explaining that the mall closes overnight so no one can be there. Three people with knapsacks and picnic baskets were telling him how devoted they were to the former President...as if that might make a difference.

Inside, phones were ringing constantly and all the store employees were having the exact same conversation with callers, explaining The Rules. The line starts at 6 AM and you can either buy a ticket (for the price of the book) or get one by showing the receipt for the copy of My Life that you already purchased at that store. Then you have to be back in line by 4:00 — or maybe it's 3:00 — and you'll be processed in order. It's one book per person. Clinton will only sign his book and he will only sign his name. No personalizations. No cameras. No cell phones. No purses. (There are other rules, too. If anyone reading this is thinking of going, don't presume that I'm giving you the entire story, or that I didn't get something wrong.)

Clinton, they said, is committed to sign 1000 books. He may sign more "at his discretion" — and when was the last time you heard the word "discretion" in a sentence about Bill Clinton? I suspect he won't sign many more than that...and I say that as someone who occasionally has to sign his own 11-letter name on 1000 copies of some Groo book or print. I couldn't do it all in one sitting, and I didn't have to keep stopping and shaking hands between signatures, as Clinton presumably does.

I delighted one clerk by going up to her and saying, "Could I ask you a question that has nothing to do with Bill Clinton?"

"It'll be the first one today," she grinned...and seemed more disappointed than I was that their computer showed they aren't carrying the book I wanted. Then out of nowhere, she said, "We're putting on ten extra people to help tomorrow and we're closing for several hours before he arrives, and it still won't be enough. I don't know why we're doing this."

I do. It's just about the only thing a bookstore can offer us that Amazon can't.

• Posted at 7:16 PM · LINK

Odd Advertising

Here's a link to the online video for a new Bush-Cheney commercial. The premise is that the folks who oppose George W. Bush are wild-eyed and crazy and angry...and I can't imagine why the Bush folks thought this would get them votes. I mean, yeah, the clip of Michael Moore at the Oscars makes him look rude and rabble-rousing. But at a time when Americans increasingly believe there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction and no Saddam-Osama partnership, I think the reaction to Moore saying the war was for "fictitious reasons" [sic] will be more along the lines of, "Gee, maybe that guy wasn't as wrong as we thought at the time."

The thing that puzzles me about this ad is that it's not really anti-Kerry. Yeah, they have him in there...but they can't seriously believe they're going to convince America that boring ol' John Kerry is a wild-eyed radical crazy. They'd be better off going the other direction, trying to sell the notion that Kerry lacks the fire and passion to be Prez. This is really an attack not on the opposition candidate but on the more vocal folks who say George W. Bush has been a bad president. I can't think of any other incumbent who has ever spent money on that kind of spot.

• Posted at 6:55 PM · LINK

Programming Notes

Tomorrow night (Friday), The Discovery Channel is reairing Breaking Vegas, a combination documentary and dramatization of how a batch of M.I.T. students made an incredible Blackjack assault on the casinos of Nevada. A fascinating tale told in an interesting manner.

Fans of Hawaii Five-O may be interested to know that the rerun rotation has come around again to "V for Vashon," a story that ran for three consecutive episodes of the series in 1972 and was later edited into a quasi-movie. Just about everything that was good or bad about that program was represented in that three-parter about a crime family that vows to stop McGarrett from interfering with their operations. The first hour runs 6/27 on the Hallmark Channel with others to follow on subsequent Sundays, while a local station in Los Angeles, KDOC, is running all three parts next Monday through Wednesday. (Here's an article I wrote some time ago about Hawaii Five-O and its little quirks.)

Monday evening, Game Show Network is reairing Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal. This is the hour-long "documentary" about Michael Larson, the man who went on the game show Press Your Luck and through unexpected ingenuity, took CBS for over a hundred thousand dollars. An interesting story, indeed.

And if none of these shows interest you, you can turn on darn near any program at random and watch Bill Clinton being asked about Monica.

• Posted at 9:58 AM · LINK