Eric Scheske

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Entertainment

Polka Wars

You ever read a story and learn about a hot news item that you didn't even know existed? I scan through at least three different newspapers a day, but I didn't know there was a Grammy for polka, much less a stirring battle within Polkadom. Heck,

SNL

NYT this morning runs a story about guest hosts on Saturday Night Live. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/arts/television/09bald.html?8hpib]It's a neat piece, even if it does feature Alec Baldwin. A few highlights: When Baldwin hosts this Saturday, he will be tied

Outsourcing Gaming

Too lazy to be lazy. I'm (nearly) speechless: > One of China's newest factories operates here in the basement of an old warehouse. Posters of World of Warcraft and Magic Land hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer screens, pounding away at

Giving It Away

George Will takes apart Congress' plan to give every American household money in order to deal with the April 2009 end of analog TV broadcasting. Even though 85% of all television households have cable or satellite services already (with the result that changes in TV broadcasting don't

Serial Killer Series

HBO is redy to push the envelope again, this time with extreme violence. The 13-part mini-series starts tonight: > Epitafios is as gripping as its murders are ghastly, a spiraling reverberant circle of horrors that keeps widening as the bodies pile up (more than two dozen killings by the time

No Rap for Gangs

> Dutch authorities are playing loud and annoying Christmas carols in public areas to keep teenage gangs off the streets. > Charlois Council in Rotterdam have started blasting out the Dutch children's carols from a barrel organ at the Zuidplein underground station. . . . > A council spokesman said all

HBO Funding Fleiss

An article in Newsweek strongly implies that HBO is helping provide the seed funding for Heidi Fleiss' new stud farm [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10313009/site/newsweek/from/RSS/]. > Even when her business partner, a prominent Nevada brothel owner, backed out last month, Fleiss vowed to

Greydanus on LWW

The web's best Catholic reviewer discusses Narnia [http://www.decentfilms.com/sections/articles/2636]. Two excerpts worth noting: > 1. Though widely referred to as “allegories,” the Narnia stories are actually something different. Real allegory, like Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, uses each character, place and

Orthodoxy in Hollywood

> "The problem with Hollywood movies today is not necessarily stupidity or too much sex and violence. It's that in too many of today's movies, characters never change. . . . > "Liberal orthodoxies about politics and culture have become sacramental in some circles, and better to

CBS' Pope John Paul II

The first part runs tomorrow night. Another reasonably-favorable review [http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/13300075.htm]. Excerpt: > CBS's miniseries has any number of advantages over ``Have No Fear,'' starting with a longer running time that allows it to be more expansive in its