The Daily Mail has been on top of this story, so please go to my link and read carefully what they are reporting. Furthermore, there are frequent updates. I don`t believe that Rupert Murdoch will survive this one. I was absolutely floored when he was able to take over The Wall Street Journal in 2007. I haven`t read The Journal since then. You must read Carl Bernstein`s piece in Newsweek, Murdoch`s Watergate? Old boy stills has the touch!

I`m sure glad I got to see Episode 10. Much of it revolves around Belko Royce (Brendan Sexton III), Stan`s partner in Larsen`s Moving Company. Belko has an interesting montage of pix on his bedroom ceiling. Sarah and Stephen need to track down an Adella girl in conjunction with some of Rosie`s last movements on the night she died. By the way, make that Stela, not Stella.

If you can find any of the early footage of Squawk Box, I would recommend you watching that. This was the prime-time glory days of the Dot Com Bubble. You know how the story goes: Cisco Systems, Dell, Intel, Mickysoft and QUALCOM. Mark brought a level of probing (Mark was an attorney) business news, as well as entertainment value. Mark really invented business cable!

After Haines kept those Lava Lamps constantly bubbling on the set of CNBC, I went out and picked up a few Lava Lamps myself, thinking it would improve my luck on stock market calls. I need not leave out the incredible chemistry between The Brain (David Faber), The Kahuna (Joe Kernan) and Mr. Haines during those early days. Mark Haines was a classy and classic journalist. Just check out his coverage of Nine-Eleven.

The investigation of Rosie Larsen`s murder take some dramatic turns in Episode 9. As a clue, it seems as if the focus on Bennet Ahmed as the major suspect is misplaced. I will say also, in her grief at her daughter`s death, Mitch prods her husband (Stan Larsen) to exact justice. Just noticed the dark lighting and brooding industrial soundtrack (which adds a great amount of atmosphere) in the last scene…

Bridesmaids

matinee attendance

Bridesmaids is not afraid to get down and dirty, and waddles in the mud big time! Also, it`s not afraid to poke fun at our society and some of the characters are appropriate archetypes of people you and I have brushed up against in our stage of life. This might be a good reason why just about everybody on the planet will go see this ‘mock chick flick!’ Take that Miss Goody Two-Shoes character Helen (Rose Byrne) for example, I`m sure I`ve come in contact with her somewhere and time in my past?

Most of the motion of the plot, however, is a heightened identity crisis of Annie (Kristen Wiig), who has lost her groovy little cake shop to a cruel recession. Her forte is baking sweets, and it takes an Irish cop (Rhodes played by Chris O`Dowd) for her to realize this essential talent. As far as a favorite scene goes, you have so much to choose from. All of them are good, but the giant French cookie with free puppies scene tickled me most. You`re going to see it anyway, so why not just go today, before you`re upstaged by a co-worker or a friend, like me.

James McAvoy

I didn`t read any reviews until yesterday and this morning, but what I read simply confirmed what I was already feeling. This was a 2 to 2 and ½ star film. It wasn`t a bomb, but it didn`t live up to the incredible high bar imposed on it. That is, the telling of an important chapter in our history. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an average rating of 58%, and this is about in line with what I can give it.

I`ve never given the Lincoln Assassination proper consideration. Don`t know why exactly, either I didn`t have enough time or I thought I already knew it all. Actually, it`s fairly complicated. Especially the evidence surrounding Mary Surratt`s role. I`m not quite convinced that Robert Redford`s version adheres with the record, but I can`t get specific for you. Not yet, at least. Took a look at the Wikipedia entries to break the ice. Did visit Ford`s Theater when I was kid. Didn`t realize that John Wilkes Booth once played a great Romeo!

Sterling Fitch, Rosie`s best friend, seems to know much more than she`s letting on? It appears as if she was dressed up as Rosie on the night of the murder, and actually saw Rosie leave the school party. But where did Rosie go? Detective Holder is following up on Rosie`s suspicious movements on Bus 103, where she would depart, even during school hours.

Like the scene where Mitch and Stan meet with a priest to plan Rosie`s funeral. The priest says: “Your daughter is with God now, Mrs. Larsen?” Mitch questions where was God when Rosie was left alone with her predator? And what about that letter Sarah found in Rosie`s room? I`m having to rewind the tape to try to read the letter. And now Bennett Ahmed is coming into the picture more clearly.

And what about the music? Listen for the grinding track by Fran Bak right as the show ends. And can you imagine these two punks videoing the rape of Rosie Larsen down in The Cage. The videoing takes on a realistic tone against such incidents that have occurred on social media. And when Mitch Larsen learns that her daughter drowned, she simulates it in the bathtub. Shocking!

And the janitor clip was a nice little sideshow; he drilled the peep hole so he could peep into The Cage. Therefore, he saw part of the crime. Another sidebar is whether Sarah Linden will get away for her wedding. It doesn`t look good; she`s too busy trying to solve the Rosie Larsen murder. I wonder what the writers were thinking when they created Kris Echols` character? Brilliant character creation! Remember Damien Echols?

Network is a 1976 film, so I assumed it would come across as fairly stale after so much time. A good thing is that I haven`t seen it since that time, so I was able to take a fresh look at it. For me the main angle or message that still resonates with us today, is that network news is about ratings and entertainment, not about providing a valuable service to the public by way of ‘objective news.’

The film takes these ideas to extreme levels, like the ending, which I still don`t know was a show or real. But this is just the point – there`s a fine line between fantasy and reality, especially when you`re talking about television. My case in point is the affair between Max Schumacher (William Holden) and Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) which absurdly resembles one of her dramatic episodes from a hit show of hers. And look at all the amazing parallels you can draw between the fictional network UBS and our contemporary news networks. Think Fox News!

Well, the first part was really good! Reviews are sterling as well. Mireille Enos is fantastic as Sarah Linden, the lead detective. The executive producer Veena Sud describes the series as “slow-burn storytelling in a sense that every moment that we don`t have to prettify or gloss over or make something necessarily easy to digest, that we`re able to go to all sorts of places that are honest, and dark, and beautiful and tragic, in a way that is how a story should be told.” (The Killing Brings Murder to AMC by Eric Goldman)

The pilot was directed by Patty Jenkins, which immediately caught my eye, since Patty had directed Monster, the grueling story of our first female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos. The music was quite nice also, but I haven`t found out who did it yet. I like the approach, where we get to witness the investigation in nearly real time. It`s a who done it, and I`m already suspicious of Seattle mayor candidate, Darren Richmond. Since this is so obvious, he must not be the right one. The mood of the series reminds me of Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood.