HARRY POTTER – A SOCIAL EVOLUTION

The HP series has gone through a lot of evolution in the past 12 -years. Dumbledore as portrayed by the late Richard Harris in thefirst two films was passed on to actor Michael Gambon upon the death of Richard Harris. During the 9-movie deal a host of Oscar winning actors/actresses would portray many of the characters, Maggie Smith, Oscar winning British actress would play Professor McGonagall, Alan Richman, the bad guy in Die Hard would play the severe and brooding Severus Snape. Other award winning actors like Shakespearean actor/director/producer Kenneth Branagh, his Oscar winning wife Emma Thompson, Helen Bonham Carter, Miranda Richardson, Gary Oldman, Seldom has so much acting firepower been assembled in a single film – or series of films. In addition to Smith, we’ve seen Emma Thompson (five Oscar noms and two wins), Kenneth Branagh (four Oscar noms, including one for directing), Julie Christie (four noms and one win), Julie Walters (two Oscar noms), Irishman Richard Harris (two noms), Ralph Fiennes (two noms), John Cleese (one nom), Helena Bonham Carter (one nom), and Imelda Staunton (one nom). This month’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince also introduces 2002 Oscar winner Jim Broadbent (Iris) to the cast.

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Let us not mock the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was in a dark place when he wrote I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day. America was in the midst of the American Civil War and the news of his son Charles Appleton Longfellow having suffered wounds as a soldier in battle. He had suffered the great loss of his wife Fanny two years prior to an accident with fire.

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THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS SINGERS (PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE)

Every year, they trot out the same lame Christmas songs we have heard for half-a-century, It’s starting to fewhitechristmas1el “contrived.” There’s Burl Eives singing Have a Holly Jolly Christmas or Frosty the Snwoman (the two biggest hits he ever had), Bing doing the Ba-Ba-Ba-Boom, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” as I begin to nod off while Dean Martin crooning Christmas Blues on another station and Elvis strumming Blue Christmas on a Gibson sun-burst guitar on yet another.
To honor the festiveness of the holidays I present to you, oh blog-readers, my version of the best and worst of Christmas singers past, present and future.

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Creating tomorrow’s dirty-laundry today

So why, after 30-years, when American government failed to learn their lesson at Jonestown is CNN regurgitating the horrible tragedy?
As a young journalist I learned quickly that, “If it bleeds- it leads.” Yet, we exercised restraint in what we reported and more importantly how we reported it. Today’s young infotainment twenty-something journalists under pressure for ratings and looking to build careers, do not labor under such restraints or compassion.

When authorities began looking into allegations that Jones was engaged in a wide-ranging criminal enterprise which included welfare fraud, election fraud, child abuse, and extortion, instead of the FBI detaining him, the government hiccuped allowing Jones to flee to French Guyanna, a Banana-Republic that had no extradition with the U.S. at the time.

CNN and the networks do not care about your pain.

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