Cowboy up!

My Darling Clementine was on last weekend on AMC, and couldn't help myself I had to watch it again. If you haven't seen it, get a copy. Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Ward Bond, Gabby Hayes. Of course it is the story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday at the shoot out at the O.K.Corral. Maybe Westerns aren't your thing but just watch it for the masterpiece John Ford created, and if you say you don't like black & white movie, try this one, what Ford does with lights and darks and shadows will make forget you are watching in black & white. But this isn't about waxing on about My Darling Clementine, it is the jumping off point for today's post.

Reading the history of Wyatt Earp you know that he was not without his brothers, Virgil, Morgan, and James. And the most recent incarnation of Morgan Earp was played by Mr. Nichols. How can you forget a thumbsucking Morgan Earp? Austin, I know it was Milch's vision, but seriously what would Ward Bond have thought?

Now Austin loves Westerns, comes from Texas, can ride a horse (which we saw in Deadwood, for once proving he wasn't lying, unlike some of the others he's claimed - and a Texan lying about horse riding, that could getcha in some deep shit) and has played an iconic figure in history of the Old West. What's a boy to do now? Hook up with some Jewish cowboys. Wait hasn't he done that? Not talking about that, Brothers, wait ... no no that's another movie with... Hell... try and get a meeting with the Coen Brothers who are going Western.

Many have talked about Austin fitting into the Coen Brothers movies before and this one, well, I think might be it. Joel and Ethan Coen are retelling True Grit. It is not the traditional remake, would expect anything traditional? It will be more faithful to the Charles Portis book than the 1969 picture staring John Wayne.

Portis' novel is about a 14-year-old tomboy, Mattie Ross, on a mission of "justice", which involves avenging her father's death. She recruits a tough old marshal, "Rooster" Cogburn, because he has "grit", and a reputation of getting the job done. The two are joined by a Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, who is looking for the same man for a separate murder in Texas. They track her father's killer in hostile Indian territory. The Coen Brothers will retelling the story from the girls perspective.

Trivia to impress your friends: The 1969 movie was the only Academy Award John Wayne ever received, for his performance as Marshall "Rooster" Cogburn.

So listen up Mr.Nichols get on the phone and get your agent on top of La Bouef. Glen Campbell,who Wayne hand picked for the part, got a Golden Globe for it and he was from Arkansas. What could a Texas boy do with it. And what Texas boy wouldn't want to play a Texas Ranger?

Austin quirkiness would fit in the the bandwagon of players the Coens like to set up shop with. Of course the Coen Brothers you know would have the same reaction to the studio execs who'd suggest to cast Shia LaBeouf as La Boeuf as the rest of us. "You squirrel-headed bastard!"

Rooster Cogburn: Damn that Texan - when you need him, he's dead.

LaBoeuf: I ain't dead yet, you bushwhacker. Hang on.

Variety- Coen Brothers to adapt True Grit


Austin over at Southern Gothic
Southern Gothic's latest Vlog

Could it be magic?

On tonight's One Tree Hill Julian asks Brooke to come to California. Kinda makes you wonder what would happen if she did. Would it be magical?

CW/MTV/PAC10 productions
presents:

OTHPCHUSC

OTCPCHUSC follows the eventful lives of some actors in Malibu, a small but not too quiet city on the Pacific Coast Highway in California full of stories and secrets . Will USC be enough to keep the connection or will they be torn apart by a handsome Ivy League drop out? What will happen when they're cast for a show following the eventful lives of some high-school kids in Tree Hill, a small but not too quiet town in North Carolina, full of scripts and set breaks?

Commercial Break:
Economic Stimulus - Helping You Help Your Economy

Word of advice for shoe shoppers - Bright eyelets are great.
You can be seen on the road, trail, and the beach.
Back to OTCPCHUSC:

"abby, abby, alex, allison, allison, bambi, britney, blonde britney, vegas britney...."

Well if you are be all Brody about it.
I'm giving you my Lauren Conrad look.

Want to say big thanks to Spooky for the screencap and picture of Austin on set of OTH.

Out Spotlight LXVIII

Today's Out Spotlight is Dr. James B. Pollack.


Pollack was an American astrophysicist who worked for NASA's Ames Research Center. He was a world-renowned expert in the study of planetary atmospheres and particulates. It was his work that led to many advances in our understanding of the solar system.

Born on July 9,1938, Pollack was brought up in Woodmere, Long Island by a family that was in the women's garment business in New York. He was a high school valedictorian and graduated from Princeton University in 1960. He received his master's in nuclear physics at University of California, Berkeley in 1962 and his Ph.D from Harvard in 1965, where he was a student of the famous astronomer Carl Sagan. He later became a colleague of Sagan's.

He was openly gay. Dorion Sagan told how his father, Carl, came to the defense of Pollack's lover in a problem with obtaining treatment at the university health service emergency room.



Pollack specialized in atmospheric science, especially the atmospheres of Mars and Venus. He investigated the possibility of terraforming Mars, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the possibility of nuclear winter since the 1980s with Christopher McKay and Sagan. He and Sagan correctly postulated that the seasonal color variations on Mars were caused by wind storms and dust, rather than plant life. The work of Pollack et al. (1996) on the formation of giant planets ("core accretion paradigm") is seen today as the standard model. Pollack also discovered the first real evidence that the clouds of Venus are composed of sulphuric acid. He also explained the reason for the paradox that Saturn's rings showed low microwave emissivity but high radar reflectivity.

He explored the weather on Mars using data from the Mariner 9 spacecraft and the Viking mission. On this he based ground-breaking computer simulations of winds, storms, and the general climate on that planet. An overview of Pollack's scientific career was given in the memorial talk "James B. Pollack: A Pioneer in Stardust to Planetesimals Research" held at a Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1996 symposium.

He was one of five scientists, including Sagan, who introduced the term "nuclear winter" and, with a 1983 article, ignited a bitter dispute among scientists over whether a nuclear war would be likely to result in a catastrophic global chilling.

He was a recipient of the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize in 1989 for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of planetary science.

He participated in every major NASA flight mission since Apollo until his death in 1994 from a rare form of spinal cancer.


A crater on Mars was named in his honor in 1997.

OMG Movie Club

Can you even imagine the pitch? It's a story about a 19 yr old who is obsessed with who falls in love with a 79 yr woman? It's comedy with fake suicides. It's a political statement. It's a love story. It's Harold and Maude.

Harold and Maude is the cult classic film directed by Hal Ashby in 1971. Filled with slapstick, dark humour, and existentialist drama it revolves around Harold (played by Bud Cort), who's obsessed with death, and begins pulls away from the life that his detached mother prescribes for him, as he finds septuagenarian Maude (played by Ruth Gordon).

One of Ashby's themes was to contrast the doomed outlook of alienated youth of the Vietnam era with the hard-won optimism of the Greatest Generation. Nihilism vs Purpose. What makes Harold & Maude classic, is that the same can be said about today, the theme is relevant today as it was then.

Ashby also made strong statements about the war in Vietnam throughout the film.
From the poignant conversation between Harold and Maude about the daisies, and the daisy turns into a military cemetery, to Uncle Victor and his discussion with Harold about going into the military. He also speaks loudly about the horrors of war in one of the most subtle ways in film. Just the glimpse of Maude's tattoo or her wrist is all that is needed. He did not need to exploit it to make his point. If H&M were made today, sadly there would be some huge dramatic scene about Harold seeing it with a emotional tour de force of Maude, that would be not for the movie, but more for the Academy.
Harold & Maude was one of the first indie films. To quote the AV Club. "The film is the birth of modern indie quirk, full of elements and attitudes that have now become cliché: Heroes who are more whimsical conceits than real-life, flesh-and-blood creations; an offbeat and slightly twee pop soundtrack (here by Cat Stevens); authority figures painted as stiff, clueless, and completely devoid of humanity; and some vague leftist political references thrown in for good measure." And you can see its influences on some of the indie directors today, such as Wes Anderson.
There is something dark and funny, when Harold tells Maude why he fakes his death, watching the police come and tell Harold's mother that he was dead. Watching from where he had been hiding after setting a fire at school, Harold watched as his mother fell over in grief. It's him telling Maude, “I decided then I enjoyed being dead.” that you can't help but grin about.

But at the heart it is an unconventional love story, finding the reason for why you are here, and living everyday fully. But now its your turn. What is it about Harold & Maude? What was funny? What's your favorite suicide attempt of Harols? Anything strike you and make you want rewind and watch again?

Black 'n Tooth?

Austin gives the motivation for this Austin Friday with his post yesterday over at Southern Gothic.

He talks about music and music that inspires. Music And he's writing a song with his post. (It's been ages since music theory, so I am apologizing in advance to all you musicians and songwriters if I miss the mark on the structure)

First verse:

We got married in a fever
Hotter than a pepper sprout
We've been talkin' about Jackson
Ever since the fire went out

I'm goin' to Jackson
I'm gonna mess around
Look out Jackson Town

-Rodgers, Wheeler

I feel some connection to the man in black. Johnny Cash.
J.C. Jesus Christo. I usually wear black myself.
Every car I ever owned was black. I like fast cars and
faster women.

Guitars slung around the back.

And women named after months.

Mr. Cash has become incredibly inspirational to
me for Lincoln Booth.


This is all stinkin' Lincoln, and Austin is Lincoln Booth. Lotsa' Lincoln.

Music helps round out the character he's inhabiting. Austin's used music before when approaching a role. The impression you get after watching him tackle various roles in the last few years is that he slips into a new body an inhabits the person becoming them from the inside out.

Now as James Brown says - take it to the bridge

I don't know why.

It doesn't really make sense. And it doesn't have to.
People often ask me why I feel a certain way.

Why? Why? Why? And nowadays, my answer is...

"IT DOESN'T MATTER. I JUST DO!!"

"How do you know?" That's my other favorite
question these days. My answer...

"I JUST KNOW!!!!"

This is all Austin - pure simple passionate

Second Verse

But something about that song JACKSON,
when John and June sang it, there is something in
there that knocks me out. It's like a bolt of lightning
struck my skull and penetrated straight to my heart.

Did a song ever do that to you?

What is it?

Name it.

It makes me want to cry and scream and laugh
and love a woman real real hard. All at once.

It makes me want to scream from the rooftops.
I hope everybody's been doin' some of that lately.

This is about the artist. How music affects him, what it does, what music brings out in him. And wondering if anyone else feels that about music.

Then the coda:

Get to it.

But more and more, people ask me questions and
I have learned to not answer them. Cause I can't
really speak the answer. But I feel it. And I do know it.

When something inspires you, it just does.
You don't have to describe it. In fact, I say, DON'T!!!!!

And it 's built to this. And it says everything he will not say. What is it that more and more people ask, what is that he can't describe?

It's the two sentences "But I feel it. And I do know it."

No more questions.

Thank you Mr.President


Join us today for the OMG Movie Club at 5:00pm EST through tomorrow as we discuss cult classic movie Harold & Maude from director Hal Ashby. As in we've done before we will leave this post open for all other posts, not related to the movie. Hope to see you stop by and join us.

And yes we are coming late the party on this one but we want to say we added Southern Gothic to our list of Places We Go.

So to celebrate, here's a little Southern Gothic - from my camera to you.

Spring, Swing and Swagger

Something we haven't seen before - Uncle Jake holding Miss Ramona.

He's pushed her stroller, and we see now her swing , but it looks like Ramona is no pushover. It's Uncle Jake who is, looking at those smiles. (R - work it girl)

And who doesn't love a little lady who wears red shoes.
Every girl should have a pair or tw0. : )

The Swing

by
Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing?
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown -
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

Talk about a walk off. Just paparazzi pictures but they could be from a photoshoot.

Disney'd, Knocked Up and it's Superbad

So what does Disney, Knocked Up and Superbad have to do with Jake?

The newest news in the state of Gyllenhaal?

Oh I know your first thought - but its not that.

And following Monty Python's advice "always look on the bright side of life"

Do you recongnize this Disney star? Yes it's Sharpay(that's PG) from High School Musical , Ashley Tisdale Who was she? She was Kim, the dorky girl in the assembly with Jim Cunningham, who comes up to the mike to ask about her step sister who eats too much. Donnie's advice. "Tell her to lose weight. Tell her get off the couch. Stop eating Twinkies, And maybe go out for field hockey."

Her small role in Darko came up during a conversation with MTV about which actors Tisdale would most like to work with.

"I would love to work with Jake Gyllenhaal ... Johnny Depp. I love Kate Hudson. She's one of my favorites," Tisdale told MTV News before recalling her one amazing day of working with "Donnie Darko" star Gyllenhaal back in 2001. "I was in one scene with him. I met him and he was the nicest guy in the entire world. At the premiere he even remembered who I was," she said. "I was there for a day. I had, like, two lines. But I'd like to actually do another scene with him, more."

And Knocked Up and Superbad? Come on that's easy.


He doesn't look like a monster or an alien here, but he and Jake have one of those in common.

Some space time continuum, huh? And in an alternate reality would have gone with musicals and action figures and birthday parties. But then would have to go with Monty Python's "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition". See how the space time continuum works?


And now for a little double shot to finish it off. Forbes came out with the list of Hottest Hollywood Siblings list. Who tops it? The Baldwins? The Olsens? Could it be the dark horse The Arquettes? (there's so many of them) It's Maggie and Jake who are the first runners up to the twosome from Texas, Luke and Owen Wilson. I say recount! Bottle Rocket might have been good but Darko blows it away. And come on Maggie and Jake could take them in a walk off and grab the crown . Could Luke or Owen pull off the evening wear competition? The interview maybe, but evening wear?


OMG Movie Club reminder we will be discussing cult classic Harold & Maude by director Hal Ashby starting Friday night, March 27th at 5:00PM EST and all day Satruday March 28th. Grab a copy watch and join us.

Tee'ing Off

In today's Mirror (UK), covering the "The Boat That Rocked" premiere in London's Leicester Square we get a smiler about Jake.

" Bond girl Gemma, who looked frozen to the core in a skimpy off the shoulder dress, has recently been filming Prince of Persia and revealed that co-star Jake Gyllenhaal has a silly side.

'He’s such a lovely guy,' she said. 'He’s quite goofy, always messing around and trying to make everyone laugh on set. Not bad to look at either, which always makes the day easier.'"

But a couple of days ago, we got a story about Jake giving smiles another way at yoga class .

It was during a yoga session at Yas in Venice, Calif., Jake began sweating like a pig. To the delight of the female class members (and a few male), he whipped off his Facebook Addict T-shirt (the back of the shirt read: "stealing your friends") , wiped himself down and rode off on his bicycle.



So OMG has come up with some special addiction t-shirts just for Jake.

bubble addict "bright and shiny"

darko addict "being frank"

musical addict "sing out louise"

jfc addict "eye on you"

rocket addict "deep space"

wild turkey addict "better with austin"

grey goose addict "honk hard"

proof addict "add it up"

oth addict "back off brooke"

austin addict "bigger, better, texan"

AddictionTee.com

Bump, not the dance, the good bye

Yeah coffee and I'm grinning

Think I need the alka seltzer

OMG Movie Club reminder we will be discussing cult classic Harold & Maude by director Hal Ashby starting Friday night, March 27th at 5:00PM EST and all day Satruday March 28th. Grab a copy watch and join us.

Birds of a Feather .....

HB: Austin, what is your power animal?

AN: A seagull.

HB: Why?

AN: Because it’s bones are hollow…. Like me. [laughs]

HB: [gasps] That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard!

[cut to Austin running on the beach, chasing seagulls]
AN: [approaching camera] Those are my power animals.


Puzzled that Austin says his power animal is a seagull? Well, it kinda makes sense

Technically there are no such thing as a seagull, there just Gulls, birds that hang around near coastal bodies of water, and a bird bird bird bird is the word, (sorry got a little carried away) is an animal by kingdom, ok, but usually not the first thing to pop in your head when you say name an animal.

So living on the coast for a long time, I've learned a lot about seagulls.

First off they hang at beach a lot (can see that)

They don't just hang out at the beach, they hang wherever they want to, the weather vane on top of the Post Office, the top of the Methodist Church, but the weird thing is they rarely swoop in the business district. They kind of hang out and just where you don't noticed them too much, you see them, you know there but you leave at that. (Hmmm, well that makes sense.)

They can do good things and they can be really really bad. Going after Rachael Ray as she's filming a segment trying to eat a Kelly's Roast Beef on the North Shore- (good) attacking blondes (Tippi Hendren)- (I want to say bad, but....)

They dive bombing and steal. Try eating after you get your food from a clamshack, and those damn birds are everywhere. (Moochers)

They are "resourceful, inquisitive and highly intelligent birds, demonstrating complex methods of communication and a highly developed social structure" - is that what that noise is -disussion over who's getting the sesame bagel (ok, I can see that)

The cartoon versions are always funnier. (that's one to see)

The further inland you see seagulls, tells you if you are headed for bad weather.

They're carnivores and will eat anything that even on a dare.

Now think Austin was thinking about this when he said seagull:



Definitely not this:

maybe not caught in this mob:



Or this, too 70's :

But can totally see this:


And this:

You know that shirt looks like something he might have picked out



maybe they were looking at a gull.


Birds have freedom they can go anywhere, there is nothing holding them down

They can soar as high as their wings can take them and never fall,

They can fly as far as they want to, but some how they always know the way back home

And sometimes a goose, can look like a gull.

"All limits are self imposed. "

Icarus

Thanks Nicole T for the transcript


But just one word of caution Austin, if you are like your power animal, I would lay off the alka seltzer cause sea gulls and the tablets that make plop plop fizz fizz aren't a relief it is to a seagull... more like tick tick boom.

Out Spotlight LXVII

Today's OutSpotlight Jane Addams. Addams was a Nobel Peace Prize winner and perhaps the most famous social worker from the United States. While she did not publicly come out as people do today, but for her time she would have been.

Jane Addams was born in 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois. She has been described as a sickly child, with a spinal curvature. Her mother passed away when she was two years old and drew close to her father, her three surviving sisters and her brother.

Addams was a bright young girl who dreamed of attending Smith College in Massachusetts but her father would not allow her to go so far from home, so she attended a school closer to her family . At an all-female boarding school she learned the importance of female friendships and began her life-long friendship with Ellen Gates Starr, co-founder of Hull House. Although many of her classmates dropped out of school to get married, there is little evidence that Addams ever dated a member of the opposite sex.

Addams went on to study medicine after college but found the work hard and uninspiring. She returned to Cedarville, as women of her era did, to take care of her family. After her father died, Jane experienced depression and without a sense of purpose. She desperately wanted to make a difference in the world. During this her stepmother took her to Europe to recover and study art while her spirit began to return, but she still questioned her purpose in life.

After returning from Europe, she resumed friendship with Ellen Starr, now a teacher. A female love of Starr's had moved away and she was heartbroken. She wrote to Jane, "The first real experience I ever had in my life of any real pain in parting, came with separating from her. I don't speak of it because people don't understand it. People would understand if it were a man." Soon Addams would become the object of Starr's affection. It is not clear whether she returned the affection.

Starr and Addams traveled to London together and there Addams visited Toynbee Hall, the settlement house that inspired her to start Hull House. Hull House's purpose was two-fold. It's primary purpose was to serve the poor inner city residents. Its other purpose would be a cure for the uselessness she and other educated women of her time experienced. Hull House on was founded on Halsted Street in Chicago in 1889.

Previously, social work was based on a "Friendly Visitor" model. The wealthy would visit the poor and model for them behavior that would help them better their situation. Addams came to see that poverty was not due to character deficits, but social conditions that needed to be changed. So in addition to helping people meet their immediate needs, Hull House worked for social change, addressing such issues as child labor, public health reform, garbage collection, labor laws and race relations.

The term lesbian was coined in 1890, one year after Addams founded Hull House. Although she would not have used the term to define herself, by today's standards, Jane Addams would be a lesbian. Mary Rozet Smith arrived at Hull House one day in 1890, the daughter of a wealthy paper manufacturer. Over the years she became Addams' devoted companion, a "Boston Marriage", virtually playing the role of a traditional wife: tending to her when she was ill, handling her social correspondence, making travel arrangements.

Unfortunately, it will never be known the full extent of her relationship with Mary Smith. Toward the end of her life, she destroyed most of Mary's letters to her. Perhaps trying to cover up a sexual component of their relationship. "I miss you dreadfully and am yours 'til death," Addams wrote to Smith. Smith wrote back, "You can never know what it is to me to have had you and to have you...I feel quite a rush of emotion when I think of you."

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of Addams's life and the one which won her the most notoriety was her involvement in the peace movement. Declaring herself a pacifist and speaking out against World War I. Although she would eventually win a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts, it was an unpopular stance to take in 1914.

Addams believed women had a social responsibility to work for peace because working men would never be against war. She took on a leadership role in the Woman's Peace Party. In March 1915 she was invited to speak at an International Congress of Women in the Netherlands. Addams presided over the event and one participant said, "She towered above all the others and again and again when she rose to speak and when she closed the audience would stand and applaud...She led without dominating and with extraordinary parliamentary skill clarified and interpreted for the polyglot congress of women."

Jane Addams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. True to her cause, Jane gave all her prize money away.

Addams had a heart attack in 1926. She never fully regained her health. As a matter of fact, she was being admitted to a Baltimore hospital on the very day, December 10, 1931, that the Nobel Peace Prize was being awarded to her in Oslo. She died in 1935. The funeral was held in the courtyard of Hull-House.