Write Or Wrong 77

Around the World

It's been a while since I've tackled the news. So much has happened in the last few months and I've really had little or no time to really take it in and digest it. And it's been even longer since I've put it down on paper from my own point of view. So here goes the rundown of what's interested me in the news lately. Also, if you're interested, I'll include a link to the site where some more info on the following subjects can be found.

So, Martha Stewarts is serving prison time, eh? Well, I don't think that serving five months in some cushy women's wing in a penitentiary is going to solve all that much. Insider trading isn't murder but lets be honest and say that it is pretty damn bad. While these wonderful white-collar criminals gain a big influx of cash for their shady dealings, the "everyday joe" gets shafted. So, Queen Martha serves her time, goes back to her $150 million estate in Westchester County and releases "Martha's Jailhouse Recipe & Decorations Guide" or some other insipid crap and makes millions. Yeah, really fair. Read it all here.

In a less covered event, workers in a factory in Chile went on strike for better wages and came under attack by customs officials who threatened them with and administered physical violence. Now I don't know about you, but this disgusts me. People deserve a decent life. They deserve decent pay so that they and their family members can live out their days on this world in relative comfort. The fact that they are being refused higher wages isn't fair but understandable considering how horrible big business are to the little guy. But to resort to violence to solve a problem like this is simply repulsive. Imagine working at a supermarket and asking your boss for a raise after you've worked twelve hours a day for six days a week for over two years. Now imagine him grabbing him a wrench and hitting you in the face and telling you that if you ask for a raise again he'll do worse. Now you know how these poor folks feel. Read it all here.

Prostitution is now legal. Well, not exactly, but it may be very soon in the UK. According to some the laws over in our UK neighbour land, it isn't illegal if a person runs that little business out of their own home. I honestly don't think I can say much about legalized prostitution as it's not uncommon in many parts of the world. Heck, you can even find it here in the USA in the "Bunny Ranches" that exist out west. But I can say that I do find it weird because I can just picture people who are running a bit low on funds, not able to pay this months bills having a little prostitution business going on in their house to raise some extra funds. I just see this as faintly ridiculous. But I guess it's something that some area of the citizenry is pushing for so I hope it gets resolved. Read it here.

These are only a few of the recent events going on in the world, but I chose to take only a few from very different sites. It's a great thing to keep up with the news by watching CNN or Fox News, but you should remember that news nowadays has spin, no matter if it's corporate or independent news. So I say, if you're really interested in keeping up with world events in a evenhanded manner, then you should check out these fine sites and keep on watching the news at six.

BBC News
CNN News
Independent Media Center
Independent News

The Grapevine

In the same way that I love hard news, I also love entertainment and the fanfare surrounding it. It's extremely fun to search sites and read rumours about creative changes on some tv shows, movie sets, or music groups. So here is the rundown of the entertainment news that I've found intriguing as of late.

We all grew up knowing about Superman. You know the deal: a strange visitor rocketed from a dying planet crash lands on Earth and is raised by Kansas farmers to be the greatest and most powerful hero the world has ever seen. Superman has been the subject of numerous cartoons, movies, comic books, action figures, and even television commercials with Jerry Seinfeld. Now, Warner Brothers, the parent company that owns Superman is beginning production of a new, updated Superman feature film franchise (try and say that three times fast) and after months of creative shake-ups the whole deal has been made official. At first, the new film was to be directed by Tim Burton (Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands), then Oliver Stone (JFK, Natural Born Killers), then Brett Ratner (Red Dragon, Rush Hour 1&2) entered the picture. None of these gentlemen worked out so McG (Charlie's Angels) was brought in to take a crack at the Man of Steel. That didn't pan out either. So, now it seems that a final creative crew has been brought in to bring Superman to new heights. Director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men & X2: X-Men United) and the writing team of Michael Dougherty & Dan Harris have been contracted to take over the franchise. If this is not a good thing, I don't know what is. Read it here.

We've all seen actor Christian Bale grow up in his numerous roles from Empire of the Sun to American Psycho to Reign of Fire. And with his upcoming role as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the new Batman film we'll definitely see him buffed out. But check him out in his new film, the Machinist, where he looks like he hasn't eaten in months. Check out the trailer here.

It seems that there's a new band on the scene and you probably won't here anything by them. The new band is Defacto, a side project of Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez, ex-members of At the Drive-In and current lead singer and lead guitarist of one of my favourite bands ever, The Mars Volta. So hit your music download service and see if you can find any of their tunes. If you can, drop me an e-mail because I can only find one of their songs.

And for those of you who want to see trailers but don't want to spend your hard earned dough to go see movies you don't know much about, here's the best site to see those awesome and crappy trailers that everyone has been talking about. Here.

Okay, that's more than enough for me. I'm off to another wonderful weekend of . . . well, I don't know at the moment. So wish me luck in finding something good to do.