A lone protester picketed Alice Cooper's Thursday show at the York Fair, holding a sign that said Cooper is a satanist.
Seriously?
Please, the guy plays golf.
OK, maybe there is something to it.
Our Culture: September 2009 Archives
Patrick Swayze was a star. He was great in some things -- the cult hit "Donnie Darko," for instance. You could almost see him in that movie, playing against his stereotype. His performance stands out. "The Outsiders," made by Francis Ford Coppola, was also a piece of art.
And he seemed like a nice enough guy.
Yet, some of his movies are classics, while remaining among the dumbest movies ever made.
"Roadhouse," "Red Dawn" and "Point Break" stand out. The notion that there are Ive League educated bar bouncers, high school kids who are able to defeat the Soviet Army and Zen surfer/bank robbers. You have to say, though, he made the characters come alive and those movie remain modern classics, still in the rotation on cable.
And in "Point Break," the contrast between him and Keanu Reeves, well, I'll just say that Reeves made Swayze look like Laurence Olivier.
So, rest well, Patrick. You will be remembered.
Today, a new Dan Brown novel is being unleashed upon an unsuspecting public.
It's called something. It's more than 500 pages long. And if past history is any indication, it's horribly written. Stilted dialogue. Predictable plot twists. Severe foreshadowing abuse.
This one has something to do with the Masons. Yes, those guys in the funny hats who have pancake breakfasts apparently run the world and have guided history since mankind climbed from the primordial ooze.
I don't get it. I read "The Da Vinci Code" and hated it. Hated it with a passion seldom reserved for books of this ilk. It just irritated me. Theology aside, I thought it was just horribly written.
And sold something like a gazillion copies.
So what do I know?
Anyway, Slate magazine has posted a Dan Brown plot generator. Enter a city and an organization and the computer does the rest. Check it out here.
I was able to come up with "The Sacred Enigma," summarized thusly:
"A long-forgotten labyrinth deep beneath the streets of Philadelphia.
"A nefarious cult determined to protect it.
"A white-knuckled race to uncover the United States Postal Service's darkest secret."
This arrived via e-mail:
"The same day a message to students from the President of the United States was kept out of school Michael Vick was allowed in school to talk to students. Hmmmmmmmmm."
It's true Michael Vick, convicted dog killer, spoke to students in Philadelphia earlier this week. Talk about sending a weird message to kids.
If you haven't see this yet, it is amazing.
U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., draws, free-hand, a map of the United States.
In three minutes.
The federal government has enlisted a powerful ally in battling the swine flu.
Yes, Elmo.
What? Was Big Bird asking for too much money? Was Miss Piggy unavailable? Does Kermit not care whether we're all going to get the flu?
A story in the Washington Post begins:
"For one answer to the nation's most pressing economic question -- when will the recession end? -- just take a peek inside the American man's underwear drawer."
Uh.
No thanks.
