The "Prime Minister's Question"-ification of the State of The Union Address

I fully support the "Prime Minister's Question"-ification of the State of The Union Address by Pres. Obama last night. The President expressed many emotions, directly attacked and mocked his political opposition, and joked and whatnot. Perhaps the change in tone is a result of the last time he addressed a join session of congress, when Rep. Joe Wilson broke decorum and yelled "YOU LIE".

For those unfamiliar with the weekly "Question Time" that the British PM has to endure in front of a lively opposition:

music industry

49 year ago, the #1 single in America was "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" by the Shirelles, the first single to top the charts by an All-Girls group. It was co-written by an 18-year-old Carole King in the famous Brill Building and was her first hit.





The current #1 record in America is independently distributed, which means a guy in an Astro Van goes around and delivers it to "record stores". A dozen other "independent" records have topped the charts. The best selling album of last decade was by a band that broke up in 1970, The Beatles. 10 years ago I had to do a "History Day" project for school on the subject of "inventions that changed the world". I chose Napster and peer-to-peer file sharing. Without Napster, it's unlikely the mp3 player would have viable, the iPod would have released, or the iTunes store would have been created. The History Day judges didn't select my project to move on to the regional competition.



Now read this December 18th Article from Variety by Christopher Morris: Music sales took a hit: Piracy, technology send sales model back to the '50s ...

Someone teleported through time from the early 1950s to 2009 would find a music business curiously similar to the landscape of 60 years ago... Department stores (Walmart, Target) dominating the market. A singles-driven industry. Pop music dominating radio. TV musical talent shows all the rage.

But as the '00s dawned, a Pandora's box opened when computer-savvy college student Shawn Fanning's website Napster allowed users to share compressed MP3 music files -- at no charge. Napster was eventually knocked down by the courts (and absorbed by a major label), but other illegal Internet file-sharing services sprang up to replace it.
...
Labels had snuffed the physical single in the '90s... Consumers, who had long believed CDs were overpriced and packed with filler, embraced the MP3 -- either legally or illegally -- as the "new single."

Within a year of opening in 2003, the iTunes store sold 100-million tracks.
I think my position from a decade ago was vindicated.

Top 20 films of the Naughties

Top 20 Films of the Naughties

1. There Will Be Blood 2007 ...a touching father-son story, the "Mr. Holland's Opus" of the 00s
   
2. The Royal Tanenbaums 2001 ..."Vámonos, amigos," he whispered, and threw the busted leather flintcraw over the loose weave of the saddlecock. And they rode on in the friscalating dusklight.
3. No Country for Old Men 2007 ...A Western set in 1980 with no soundtrack. Call it, friendo
   
4. The Last King of Scotland 2006 ...historical fiction done right
   
5. The Prestige 2006 ...few can leave watching this film without remembering it
   
6. A Serious Man 2009 ... I'm a serious man, Larry.
7. (500) Days of Summer 2009 ...best film about a relationship
   
8. O Brother Where Art Thou? 2000 ...the Coen brothers stage an epic in the depression-era Deep South and pull off an entertaining, memorable, funny, well-made movie. Its soundtrack started a Bluegrass revival
   
9. Thank You For Smoking 2006 ...a movie that actually upsets mainstream conventions
   
10. Good Bye Lenin! 2003 ...not everybody in East Germany eagerly embraced the collapse of their state. A well-told story about an elaborate farce put on by a son for his mother.
    
11. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 2004 ...Vivid, funny, brilliantly crafted with an elaborate cut-away set, this film is definitely one of Wes Anderson's best and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
12. Gran Torino 2008 ...learning to love your neighbors
    
13. The Incredibles 2004 ...the best CGI-animated film to-date
    
14. Waltz with Bashir 2008 ...an Israeli animated film which takes on serious issues and war in a serious way that few other animated films have
    
15. Grizzly Man 2005 ...man is man and bear is bear and never the twain shall meet
    
16. The Departed 2006 ...Southie culture of violence done right (versus "Boondock Saints"), well-made American adaptation of Hong Kong's Internal Affairs (2002)
    
17. Idiocracy 2006 ...an accurate portrayal of our dystopian future, Mike Judge's next film directed after "Office Space", it unfortunately only released in seven cities
    
18. About Schmidt 2002 ...you retire, your wife dies... (just like in Gran Torino) what's next? What's life? Alexander Payne's About Schmidt tackles many of the issues of examining a life without being sanctimonious, patronizing, and insufferable (i.e. American Beauty).
    
19. Road to Perdition 2002 ...best mob movie of the 00s, well made, well told, Paul Newman's last film.
    
20. Cloverfield 2008 ...nearly the entire film is shot as if it were on a camcorder and it actually pulls it off without seeming derivative of Blair Witch. Clever, exhilarating, and well paced.
    

Honorable Mention: Avatar, The Illusionist, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Casino Royale, Blow, City of God (Cidade de Deus), Coffee and Cigarettes, The Squid and the Whale, Cast Away, Lost in Translation, A History of Violence, High Fidelity, The Queen, Batman Begins, The March of the Penguins, The Fog of War, Minority Report, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Appaloosa, For Your Consideration, Team America: World Police

Have yet to see: Downfall, Adaptation, Spirited Away, A Mighty Wind, Hotel Rwanda, The Man Who Wasn't There, Valkerie, My Winnipeg, 12:08 East of Bucharest, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Day, Sideways, Enemy At the Gates, No Direction Home, Man on Wire, Bowling for Columbine, A Long Night's Journey Into Day, Vanilla Sky, Momento, Broken Flowers, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, I'm Not There, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Nixon/Frost, The Wrestler, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Death at a Funeral, Death to Smoochy, A Scanner Darkly, Dirty Pretty Things, Churchill: The Hollywood Years, Pan's Labrynth, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Avetar, Everything Is Illuminated, Fast Food Nation, Flags of Our Fathers, 8 Mile, Gangs of New York, Good Night and Good Luck, Helvetica, Infamous, Little Miss Sunshine, Love in the time of Cholera, Bridge of San Luis Rey, Me Myself & Irene, Mean Girls, Memoirs of a Geisha, Requiem for a Dream, Stranger than Fiction, Running with Scissors, Syriana, Taken, Mulholland Drive, My Kid Could Paint That, School for Scoundrels, The Night We Call it a Day, Adeventureland,Thirteen Days, La Vie en Rose, Volver, Babel, The Wendell Baker Story, Welcome to Pyongyang Animal Park, Who The #$&% Is Jackson Pollock, Y tu mamá también, Dogville, The Lives of Others, Punch-Drunk Love, Gosford Park, Capturing the Friedmans, Inland Empire, Before Sunset, Yi Yi, Cache (Hidden)

...next I will tackle the best comedies and the most overrated films of the past decade