CALL THIS A REALITY? (I’m not ready for reality.)
I don’t know if it’s the California rain, or black dogs, or too much bad holiday TV, or something that I ate, or the miasma of endless work in which I currently find myself, or simple being surrounded by a nation that should probably be institutionalized if not actually eased into straightjacket and the straps pulled very tight, but, in the last few days I have found myself tempted to retreat more and more from reality. It’s too early to know what direction this may take but, be assured, I will keep you up to speed.

MOVIE NEWS
Doc40 does not as a rule post movie news, but (see above) I was quite delighted when I was informed that Keith Richards may play Capt Jack Sparrow’s (Johnny Depp’s) father in Pirates of the Caribbean II. And then HC Beck sent over the following...
There is going to be a two-part TV miniseries on Elvis, come May, that takes him from the beginning through the 68 comeback special, which I suppose makes it official, that, like Spade Cooley (who is also the subject of a biopic launched by and starring Dennis Quaid, who is maybe a foot and a half taller than the very short, very vicious Cooley), Elvis went out at an opportune moment. In the future, historians will write that Elvis died in 1968. Don't know if you ever read Bradbury's story about the guy in the time machine pickup truck who fixes wrong deaths, taking Hemingway back to his near-death early-50's plane crash and sparing him the subsequent years of pain and depression. And of course there's the Johnny Cash biopic, which is rolling round the bend. The Elvis TV thing looks to be fashioned by total hacks, but the one bright light, to my eyes, is that they've cast Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Elvis, who is pretty and menacing, as anybody who saw him in Ride With The Devil may remember. He played the evil Confederate killer with the long hair.

CALL THIS A REALITY? (Part 2)
The Christian SS are attempting to destroy away with science yet again and are re-assaulting Darwin because they can’t bear to believe they are descended from simians. (A sentiment, incidently, shared by many monkeys of my acquaintance.) They are now pushing some piece of crap called Intelligent Design, which is Biblical Creationism in scientific drag – which kinda makes it look like the dopey prof in a 1950s Big Ant movie who intones, "this could be the end of civilization as we know it."
Read the full horror...
http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011105L.shtml

The secret word is Bubbles

CRYPTIQUE – On the night he was shot in Umberto’s Clam Bar, Joey (Crazy Joe) Gallo had been to see Don Rickles perform. (And if anyone can explain why this interests me, I will be very happy.)