Hello gang! I was so looking forward to a long vacation from work that I didn't see the nasty cold that kept me in bed until now. Shall we (sniff, sniff) begin?

MOVIE REVIEW "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I"  by Mike Smith "Fair Game" by Mike Smith
RETRORAMA The Lost Drive-In: Nature Runs Amuck!  by ED Tucker
THE ASIAN APERTURE USF Japanese Picnic  by Jason Fetters
MIKE'S RANT Don't Grope Me Bro! .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Mike's Record Shelf  by Mike Smith

DON'T GROPE ME BRO!

I chimed in a few thoughts on this subject on the message board earlier this week on the TSA patting down people. I listed some of the forseable problems:

I can see so many problems with this:

1. Accusations of unwarranted touching.

2. Let's say for arguments sake I'm a transvestite wearing my best dress to the airport. Which TSA agent searches me...the guy or the girl.

3. Again, for arguments sake, I was sexually molested as a child. I can't stand for ANYONE to touch me. I am now in a ball on the floor crying uncontrollably because the TSA agent "grabbed my junk."

4. I am a Muslim woman and my religion forbids.......ha ha ha, just kidding. There is no way in HELL anyone in a Burka is getting searched...that would be profiling!


Since then I've been alarmed by several incidents that have occurred.

In Detroit, a man who survived bladder cancer, but now has to wear a urostomy bag, was patted down so roughly that the seal on the bag broke, splashing his clothing with urine. Thomas "Tom" Sawyer, age 61, was heading to Orlando to attend a family wedding when he went through the body scanner. Called aside for a pat down, Sawyer assumed the machine had picked up on his urostomy bag and informed the TSA agent of its presence. When told he needed to be patted down, Sawyer requested it be done in a private area. According to Sawyer, “One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn’t have any place to take me.” Despite his repeated requests to be careful around his urostomy bag the TSA agent patted him down so rougly that the seal around the bag broke. In another instance, a flight attendant was made to remove her prosthetic breast after another pat down. The woman, who lost her breast to cancer, told the screener that she had a prosthetic breast. She was made to remove it before she could board the flight. TSA regulations allow agents to request to see and touch a prosthetic but not to have it removed.

This evening on the news I learned that, though there are over 2100 screening stations in our country's airports, there are only 350 of the scanning machines. This means that passengers going through the normal metal detectors will not be patted down, since the pat down is only for people who either appear to have something on their person or have refused the scanners. If I was a terrorist I'd be planning my attack from an airport without the scanners.

Album:
Spirits Having Flown - the Bee Gees

Soundtrack:
Back to the Future - Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack - Composed by Alan Silvestri

Was there a band as hot as the Bee Gees in the last few years of the 1970s? The short answer...no. Still riding the success of the soundtrack to "Saturday Night Fever," the group went into the studio in early 1978 to create their 15th album, "Spirits Having Flown," which would also become their biggest selling album as a group. In November 1978, ironically almost exactly a year from when the "Fever" soundtrack had been released, the band released the first single from the album, "Too Much Heaven." It climbed immediately to number one. In February 1979, with the "Fever" soundtrack still going strong on the charts (it would spend an incredible 120 weeks on the top 200) the album was released along with a second single, "Tragedy." Both shot to number one, as did a third single, "Love You Inside Out." The album spent 55 weeks on the chart. In November 1979, the title tune Spirits (Having Flown) was released in conjunction with the Bee Gees Greatest Hits album. I have no idea why the song includes parenthesis and the album title doesn't. There is a great two hour special on the band running this month on the Biography channel. If you're a fan, I urge you to give it a look. Though Barry Gibb refers to the band as "the enigma with the stigma" there is no doubt that as composers and performers the Bee Gees are truly masters. Hey, George Martin wouldn't lie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSVTOMkJdqs



With the current 25th Anniversary DVD release the "Back to the Future" trilogy is back in a big way. Who would have thought that a movie dumped in theatres on the fourth of July weekend in 1985 (they actually reprinted buttons to herald the new date) would have such an enduring legacy. I know Universal didn't. During the films original release, it ended with the words "The End," not "To Be Continued." But even if the film had been a one shot deal, it left us with not only a memorable theme but with "The Power of Love," a tune that became the first number one hit for Huey Lewis and the News and later earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. Sharp eyed viewers may notice that it's Lewis himself who informs Marty McFly's band, the Pinheads, that they're just "too darn loud" after their power version of the tune. And FYI, just because Michael J. Fox can play guitar, he doesn't play on any of the songs in the film. Want to see Mr. McFly jam on screen...check out "Light of Day." Check out the Pinheads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP1HeThUlvw

And the way it's supposed to sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxdYq7o306o

Well, that's all for now. Have a great week and a safe and happy holiday. See ya!