Chelsea Clinton to Deliver #SXSW Keynote, because...ummm...?

Jim Geraghty at National Review reports that Austin's famous annual South by Southwest Conference, a several week long "music, film, and interactive festival" has selected as the keynote speaker for this year none other than Chelsea Clinton:

Charlie Sheen: If "#winning" means making SNL look clever and eloquent, then you're doing it right!

Charlie Sheen's grand plan to ensure he's never taken seriously again is going extremely well. Earlier tonight, he gathered several of his friends pathetic enablers in a room and babbled away on an online video stream-of-consciousness for about 50 minutes.

If you missed it and you don't have any drying paint or growing grass you can watch, here you go:



Video streaming by Ustream

One of my new blogger friends from CPAC, Robert Stacy McCain, has had some excellent commentary on the whole Sheentastic fiasco this past week (see here and here), pointed out that tonight's performance "might be worth a thesis" for an abnormal psychology grad student. Oh yeah, he also quoted one of my tweets:

The Other McCain | 'Sheen's Korner': Not Winning

Brutal reviews for Charlie Sheen’s Saturday night Webcast. Chris Nashawaty called it “a sloppy, self-indulgent bit of cringe theater” featuring “a posse of chuckleheads and enablers.”

About 115,000 people tuned in to watch the godawful disaster, according to USA Today. One of the viewers, Michael van Poppel said, “Wish I could get my 50 minutes back.” Another viewer, Sarah Rumpf, said: “I don’t have the expertise to diagnose Sheen as bipolar but somethin ain’t right with that boy.”

...Yeah, [CBS and Warners Brothers] got their money’s worth out of Charlie and he gave them an easy out at just the time when they needed an easy out.

OK, so I'm not going to claim that was insightful social commentary. But I will say this, if anyone ever applies for a job with me and I see a "WINNING" wrist tattoo like Sheen shows off in this video, there is no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks I'm hiring that person.

Not sure what Sheen's next career move will be. I'm thinking the best role for him to tackle next is probably the egg in an update of this famous anti-drug PSA from the 1980's:


YouTube | This Is Your Brain On Drugs

Final note: anyone else starting to worry about the increasing parallels between America today and the final years of the Roman Empire? Unsustainable debt levels, decaying moral society...and while the Romans had "panem et circenses," we have American Idol and Charlie Sheen. Sigh...

Atlas Shrugged Movie! OMG OMG OMG

One of my favorite experiences of CPAC was attending the "BlogBash" on Thursday night and seeing the world premiere of the trailer for the new Atlas Shrugged movie.

Official movie poster. The movie premieres on April 15th, an appropriate date!

I've loved Ayn Rand's book for a long time, and often said that it should be required reading for elected officials. (Apparently FreedomWorks agrees with me, but Congressman Keith Ellison does not.) It has puzzled me that no one had adapted this great book to film before now, but I can see how it might be challenging, especially today.

In 1949, Hollywood managed to get Ayn Rand right, with the film version of The Fountainhead. However, Rand herself wrote the screenplay, King Vidor was the director, and Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal excelled in the starring roles. I highly recommend adding it to your Netflix queue or catching it the next time it's shown on Turner Classic Movies.

Atlas Shrugged is admittedly a denser and more complicated book than The Fountainhead.  It's Rand's longest book and the last one she published, with, let's face it, a theme that is a bit more complicated than the standard "boy meets girl" schlock that Hollywood is accustomed to producing now. Without Rand to guide the screenwriting and production, I honestly did not have very high expectations for this new movie.

Well, my pessimism was misplaced. The people responsible for bringing this film to the big screen have created a wonderful, amazing, and powerful work. This is a top-quality, lush, visually-stunning production. Judge for yourself, and view the trailer here:


YouTube| AtlasShruggedPart1 | Atlas Shrugged Trailer

We were also shown a few selected scenes from the movie. The actors appear very well suited for their roles, even the minor characters...I was a huge fan of the TV show Friends and the casting of Christina Pickles (she played Ross and Rachel's mother) as Mother Rearden, was spot-on. I have to admit getting slight chills upon hearing certain lines brought to life ("Who is John Galt?") and seeing Dagny Taggart wearing a bracelet of Rearden metal.

The movie is currently planned to be a trilogy. Part 1 premieres on April 15th, 2011.

For more information about the Atlas Shrugged Movie:

Official Movie Website

Atlas Shrugged Movie on Facebook

@_AtlasShrugged on Twitter

Atlas Shrugged Part 1 YouTube Channel