Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Hello, everybody. Well, when we pick up the "Anchorage Daily News" and/or the "Fairbanks Daily News-Miner" within the next 24 hours, it will no doubt have the biggest banner headline in quite a while:

STEVENS INDICTED!!!
That's right. Senator Ted Stevens, who's been representing us on Capitol Hill for almost 40 years, was indicted today on seven federal counts of filing false financial disclosures. He may have issued a statement intending to prove his innocence, but it appears that the damage has already been done as he's up for re-election this year.

So, what was the smoking gun? Stevens accepted more than $250,000 in gifts from VECO Corp. and its CEO Bill Allen (no relation); most of them were for renovations of the senator's Girdwood home. Stevens failed to disclose all these, which led to the indictments.

The big question stemming now is, and I've been saying this infinite times: WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN??????? Like I said before, Stevens is up for re-election this year, and it looks like it's curtains for him. Mark Begich, the Democratic candidate for Senator who's also the mayor of Anchorage (for now), is itching to pump some much needed new blood in Washington in the hopes of picking up where his father left off.

In 1972, a small plane carrying Congressmen Nick Begich of Alaska and Hale Boggs of Louisiana disappeared during a flight from Anchorage to Juneau; a massive search and rescue effort by the Coast Guard, Navy, and Air Force turned up nothing after 39 days. As a result, Begich was declared dead, and a special election to replace him was called; Republican Don Young won.

Young on the other hand, has also faced scrutiny over the last few years, but in the 2006 mid-terms Diane Benson surely gave him a run for their money. Now she and Ethan Berkowitz are fighting for the Democratic ticket while Young is slugging with Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell on the Republican side. With Lisa Murkowski waiting till 2010 to see if she'll get her just desserts, the Alaska congressional battle this year is surely going to be much sweeter.

And as far as Stevens is concerned? Make no mistake about it: It's over. Give it up. So long and stay strong.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Hello, everybody. "The Dark Knight" may have surpassed "Spider-Man 3" to have the all-time opening weekend gross with $158 million, but the big story that stemmed from it was that star Christian Bale was arrested but not charged for assault on his mother and sister in London where the film had its premiere. A statement from lawyer Simon Smith says, "Christian Bale attended a London police station today, on a voluntary basis, in order to assist with an allegation that had been made against him to the police by his mother and sister. Mr. Bale who denies the allegation, co-operated throughout, gave his account in full of the events in question, and has left the station without any charge being made against him by the police. At this time, there will be no further comment by Mr. Bale." Bale was out on bail and will be at the Barcelona "Dark Knight" premiere on Wednesday.

As I said, "Dark Knight" opened big with a record $158 million, easily enough to overtake "Spider-Man 3's" $151 million haul two weeks ago. The first "Spider-Man" in 2002 earned $114 in its opening weekend, and in the May 18-19, 2002 "Plain Truth", I gloated about it in yet another gem from the archives as the tenth anniversary of The Allen Report/AllenBlog continues:

Now, to a certain film by George Lucas with one of the most famous movie themes of all time: "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones". It opened on Thursday with midnight screenings across the country and yes, eager fans (most who probably don't have a job) have lined up for days, even weeks anticipating the release.

But yes, it does have some mega competition with "Spider-Man". We already know about its huge $114 million take opening weekend (easily beating "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone's" $93 million), and the over $200 million they raked in in one week. And of course, the receipts will continue to trickle in on the international side; it's well on its way to make the all-time Top Ten. To make things better, sales of the action figures from the film have grossed over $1 billion. That's right -- $1 BILLION!!! Not since the "Superman" or "Batman" series of films (save the Adam West/Burt Ward one) or even "X-Men" -- also from Spidey's creator Stan Lee -- have we ever seen so much money accumulated from a movie based on a popular comic book character, and that may continue next year with "The Hulk" and "X-Men 2".

Oh, speaking of "Batman", I remember seeing a throng of people with Batman shirts coming out of a previous showing when it came out in 1989 after buying my ticket for the next one. This was at the old Goldstream Theaters, by the way.

It was simple: Many of us have been familiar with Spider-Man for decades from the comics and the old cartoon series, and the long, long wait was indeed worth it for the movie to come out. And speaking of the movie, those fans didn't need to line up outside the multiplex for weeks. All they did was stand in line for minutes to buy their tickets right up front (or on the Internet in advance if they wanted to), get their munchies, take their seats, bore themselves with 15 minutes of trailers, and on with the show!

By the way, the sequel has already been planned; filming starts early next year and May 4, 2004 is the date you might want to mark on your calendar. That's when it's guaranteed to be released.

As to whether or not "Attack of the Clones" will beat "Spider-Man's" opening weekend record? According to George Lucas, not by a longshot. His film is shown in 1,500 less screens than the web slinger's, so even though those loser geeks have stood in line for God knows how long does not mean it will topple over $114 million this weekend. But it has made over $30 million in its first day.

"Spider-Man" would hold on to that $114 million record for two years, until "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" collected a whole lot more booty: $135.6 million worth, followed by the aforementioned "Spider-Man 3."

Of course the huge contribution to "Dark Knight's" record-breaking success is Heath Ledger's posthumous performance of the Joker, which puts all others to shame (I'm talking to you, Jack Nicholson and the late Cesar Romero). And already, the early Oscar buzz for him has already begun.

The four-year indecency drama known as "Nipplegate" is officially buried, and Justin Timberlake poking fun at it on the ESPY Awards may have been the final chapter. On Monday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the Federal Communications Commission's original $550,000 fine against CBS for Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson's breast and pierced nipple at the very end of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.

When the whole thing blew into proportions four years ago, I made the indecency debate the subject of "Safe Route, Sleazy Route 2", a special commentary I did sometime in spring 2004. And once again from our archives, here it is in an abbreviated version:

Indecency (n.) Shamelessness, shamefulness, offensiveness, outrageousness.

For decades, that word has appeared on and off the television and radio airwaves. On broadcast television, however, the networks and stations have done everything in their power not to cross that boundary, except of course if you're Jerry Springer. And with the exception of Howard Stern, radio personalities have always kept their content in good taste, especially if there's children listening to them.

But on Sunday, February 1, 2004, in front of sports' biggest stage, everything changed forever.

Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake heated things up during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show with Timberlake performing "Rock Your Body." Right at the very end when Timberlake sang the line "I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song", he ripped off Janet's top showing off more than she wasn't expected. A portion of her red lace bra was supposed to be revealed, but instead, her right breast and a pierced nipple ring were exposed to a worldwide television audience. The two in shock and awe mode left the stage in disbelief, while across the country, telephone lines immediately jammed up CBS' switchboards. Later, the apologies started to flow.

The next day, the madness began. Network and cable news programs as well as "Entertainment Tonight" and other similar shows around the world were all over the incident with reactions and discussions, while foreign papers showed photographic proof. And of course, the late night jokesters wasted no time running Janet and Justin into the ground. The Federal Communications Commission, however, wasn't laughing. At the end of the week a record 200,000 letters of complaint were received, compared to the 60,000 over Nicole Richie mouthing off at the Billboard Music Awards in December.

The FCC began investigating into all this, and decided to up the indecency fines ranging from $27,500 to $275,000. As a result, CBS and ABC had to put five-minute and five-second delays on their respective Grammy and Academy Awards telecasts in case what happened at the Super Bowl would never, ever do so again.

Now, the debate of how far is too far on TV has been waging for decades, going all the way back to the Golden Age. The word "pregnant" was very obsecne for 1953, when "I Love Lucy" did an episode in which Lucy gives birth (the "P" word was never uttered, by the way). Flash forward to the mid-'60s, with "Peyton Place" as the first primetime soap opera to include sexual dialogues to their storylines. The boundary-pushing "All In The Family" and "Charlie's Angels" with their pre-cable term "Jiggle TV" would later follow in the '70s. And in the '90s, with Fox already on the air and UPN and The WB to be next, syndication's "The Jerry Springer Show" and ABC's "NYPD Blue" were next to push the envelope even further.

As for cable and satellite? Well, almost all the rules have been broken there with WWE wrestling, MTV, HBO, pay-per-view, and soft-core porn movies on Cinemax and Showtime late at night.

Unless if you happen to live in a medium-sized market like Anchorage or a small one like Fairbanks, you know the morning and afternoon radio personalities have always kept their act together, especially with young children listening. But if you happen to be in say, New York, it's a completely different story.

In an August 2002 "Plain Truth", I began with the phrase "Sleaze ya later!", referring to New York afternoon DJs Opie and Anthony being fired from their station for broadcasting a Virginia couple having sex from St. Patrick's Cathedral. I said the two have been at the bottom of the radio food chain for years; even Clear Channel wouldn't hire them if their lives depended on it.

One person who has really felt the wrath of the FCC for years has been Howard Stern, whose debauchery have collected millions of dollars in fines and the other month cost key stations owned by -- who else? -- Clear Channel. The latter happened in the wake of Janet and Justin; the previous day, Florida area DJ Bubba the Love Sponge (formerly Todd Clem) was fired by Clear Channel. The crude acts on his show, by the way, led to a fine totaling $750,000.

As for Stern, it didn't stop there. Clear Channel have recently pulled the plug on him permanently, even though the Infinity stations will keep him on the air for who knows when.

But several "clean" radio personalities including Ryan Seacrest have always stayed far away from the "shock jock" antics the other guys have been doing just for one thing: Ratings. That's because they have them.

After all, it's been never like this 30 or 40 years ago with the AM stations before the Top 40, urban, and rock formats migrated to FM in the late '70s and early '80s.

Back to television now. About those hot and steamy love scenes on daytime soap operas? Well, unless you watch those "telenovelas" on Univision, they might have to be cooled down quite much.

And as for Springer? It's his daily (or nightly) rauchiness that made his show become the Worst TV Show of All-Time according to "TV Guide." Like many of us, I was hooked on that show as it was well on its way to becoming the #1 talk show, beating Oprah Winfrey. Of course I liked its early years when it tackled serious topics like the "mole people" or a family living in a car. But sometime later Oprah got the ratings back, while the brawls that made Jerry's show famous were toned down thanks to beefed-up security.

To make things even worse, the jazzy theme music and talk show style were out and the WWE attitude was in. And then, it became more idiotic. Besides the usual "Jerry! Jerry!" chants, there was "Fight Naked!", "Go to Oprah!" (if somebody from the audience said something serious to the guests), "Sit down loser!", "You suck!", etc., not to mention the constant sound effects like a cow mooing or the boxing bell whenever the guests start to get it on. There's also that stupid hillbilly music which has the audience in a brief hoedown; a girl named Angie (or somebody else) as their pole dancer; and the next-to-last segment which is half-insults, half-"Girls Gone Wild" with the females flashing for "Jerry beads." On one episode, a woman in her mid-60's -- that's right, her mid-60's!! -- did just that! Oh well, at least the "Final Thought" has always remained since day one.

Just like "Access Hollywood" (which I explained about in "Safe Route, Sleazy Route I"), "Jerry Springer" is becoming more and more and more like a comedy and freak show than a talk show. I wouldn't be surprised if their current season is their last.

By the way, a couple years ago Bill O'Reilly did a primetime special called "The Corruption of the American Child." During the TV segment, no clips of Springer were shown, not even a mention of the show itself. Maybe he was too chicken or something.

The special didn't even bring up video games, which are a part of television. Sure, Pac-Man, Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, and "Final Fantasy" have challenged and amazed us over the years, but "Resident Evil" and "Grand Theft Auto" had pre-teens coming back for more...more and more violence, that is.

Decades ago, everything we watched on TV or listened to the radio seemed very wholesome for almost all ages. But as trends changed over the years we had to follow suit as we were trying to break away from the same old rut.

So, as far as the "I" word -- indecency -- is concerned, Janet and Justin may have started the war, but this is going to be one battle that'll continue to be waged for a long time...or until John Kerry is elected President in November, whichever comes first.

Indecency is one of the many exits in the Safe Routes and Sleazy Routes of pop culture we've been taking regularly; who knows when there'll be a U-turn in sight.

That summer, Howard Stern announced he would be moving his radio antics to Sirius Satellite Radio effective 2007.

And last but not least...summertime is grilling time all over America, from ribs to steaks to hot dogs and burgers. And speaking of burgers, a huge battle is being waged as to who has the most expensive burger in the world.

A Burger King in London has The Burger, which would set you back $185 U.S., while the FleurBurger 5000 at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino is a mere $75. But the most expensive burger meal belongs to the Palms Casino on the other side of the Vegas strip, with a Carl's Jr. six-dollar burger and a 24-year-old bottle of French Bordeaux to wash it down with. The price tag: A mouth-watering $6,000!!!

I dunno about you, but with the economy still on life support largely thanks to the shutdown of Indymac Bank, I can create a burger that won't bust your budget. The meat would beef, turkey, and lamb all mixed together with herbs and spices, topped off with romaine lettuce, sun-dried Roma tomatoes, French-fried onions, and of course the usual condiments all on a nice potato bun. Jalapeno peppers? Forget it!

It'll be called the Allen Burger, and I may demonstrate it at my 30th birthday party this fall. And the price? Absolutely nothing, but tasting it would feel like you bit into a $100-plus burger. With that said, so long and stay strong.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Hello everybody, as we Americans are about to light up 232 candles on our birthday cake on Friday. But before you blow them out, there's always tons of territory to cover.

First up...two signs that our economy continues to be in life support thanks to those damn rising gas prices: The big three U.S. automakers and Toyota have reported major drops in vehicle sales for June. General Motors' fell 18 percent; Ford, 28%; Chrysler, 36%; and Toyota among the Japanese companies? 21%.

Another is one that hits home: The Top of the World Classic, the four-day college basketball tournament in November that annually draws seven teams from across the country to play the Alaska Nanooks, is no more thanks to a 2006 rule change imposed by the NCAA that increased the number of pre-season tournaments. Prior to that change, there were ten of those; now, it's 45.

Now that the Carlson Center is without a major sports event, the only way now to get your Division I men's college basketball fix here in Alaska is the Great Alaska Shootout over in Anchorage.

But from those 11 years, the one memorable moment from the Classic that stood out for me was when the Nanooks (under the direction of then-coach Al Sokatis) won the tournament. And of course, I had a little something to say about that on the November 30-December 1, 2002 "Plain Truth" which I dug yet again from my archives as the ten-year anniversary of The Allen Report/AllenBlog continues:

We start, of course, with last weekend and the Top of the World Classic. And what an historic one it was. No other NCAA Division II basketball team has ever won a Division I tournament until last Sunday, when our UAF Nanooks clobbered UW Green Bay, Nebraska (by three points), and later Weber State (77-65) to win the seven-year-old tourney...and they did it in our own backyard. Sophomore Brad Oleson was the tournament MVP.

Additional tickets for the championship game between UAF-Weber State immediately went on sale at the Carlson Center box office after they beat Nebraska. And you know the old saying about not wearing white after Labor Day? Well, many diehard Nanook fans ignored it and did so to create another indoor blizzard...or make that flurries.

For those who didn't have white sweatshirts like myself (okay, so I have an Oklahoma Sooners sweatshirt), they brought in white face towels from home. 800 of those rally towels the fans got during Saturday night's semifinals ran out, and they couldn't make any more on the fly for Sunday. To my estimation, about 45% of the packed crowd on Sunday wore white, which was largely compared to mid-March when the college hockey playoffs came to us for the first time.

Now, unlike that carnage in Ohio State, we celebrated our win very peacefully. And why not? It all continued with a brief victory parade through downtown on Tuesday night followed thereafter by a public reception at the Westmark Hotel. The team and its coach Al Sokatis got a proclamation from the three mayors (Borough Mayor Rhonda Boyles, Fairbanks Mayor Steve Thompson, North Pole Mayor Jeff Jacobson).

So yes, thanks to UAF history was made here twice this year, with both the college hockey playoffs being played in Alaska and of course the Nanooks being the first Division II team to win a Division I tournament. Could the UAA Seawolves be next with the Great Alaska Shootout now underway? We'll find out.

The University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves have played in every Great Alaska Shootout since its first one in 1978 (they moved from the Buckner Fieldhouse on Fort Richardson to the new Sullivan Arena in 1983) and have yet to win that tourney.

And last but not least...YouTube is of course home to billions of videos from around the world including game shows from the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe...and even Japan. That's right, Japan!

The Land of the Rising Sun have one-upped the Westerners over the decades when it comes to producing the most outrageous game shows in the world, and if you've been watching the summer reality series "I Survived A Japanese Game Show" on ABC lately, you know what I'm talking about.

The show pits ten Americans who are selected to take part in a reality competition show similar to "Survivor" or "Big Brother", but what they didn't know is that they were going to be on a Japanese game show called "Majide" ("Seriously?") and that they'd be split into two teams (Green Monkeys and Yellow Penguins). The winning team gets a nice reward like a helicopter tour of Tokyo or Japanese spa treatments, while the losers' punishment is pulling rickshaws or something as well as picking two of their members for a second game head-to-head. And since it is Japan, the losing contestant is given its final words to go along with "The tribe has spoken" and "You're fired" in the long list of parting lines: "Sayonara!"

Americans poking fun at Japanese game shows is not new. There was a "Saturday Night Live" skit from 1994 that had Chris Farley as an American tourist from Wisconsin being a contestant on one of those shows, but with only one problem: He doesn't understand Japanese! It's on the "Best of Chris Farley" DVD if you want to see the whole deal.

And on the "Simpsons" episode "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo", the family took a trip to Japan until Homer used his last million yen to make an origami crane for Lisa...only to lose it in the wind. The only resort was to go on a Japanese game show to win plane tickets home.

So far, I'm liking "I Survived a Japanese Game Show", but trust me...I'm better off surviving an American game show instead! So long, stay strong, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!!!