Sunday 18 August 13:36:54 PM CDT 2024 : 1723149414


Fri 16 August 2024 12:21:40 PM CDT

One of the few old movies I saw in the theater was Phantom of the Paradise. I was in high school and the music scene portrayed was something we readily related to. Bowie was big with our age group then and the Beef character reminded me of him. Great music, all by the great Paul Williams who also played the bad guy. Later there was a time when I was at working at home on my own schedule and always had one of the movie channels on in the background. A movie I liked came on I'd stop and watch it - probably watched POTP a dozen times or more, mainly because of the music.

POTP is an early DePalma film. A couple of years later he hit it big with Carrie. There weren't any major stars aside from Paul and he's known more for his music than acting. I enjoyed his appearances - you might remember Little Enos in Smokey and the Bandit. Did some TV in those days too. The lovely Jessica Harper is also a very good singer as she demonstrated, went on to do a few films and some TV. Married to a showbiz exec now for thirty-something years now.

Brian is credited as the writer. He took some scary stories and mixed'em up with a extra pinch of sarcasm and some socio-commentary - The Phantom of the Opera is the main one, with The Picture of Dorian Gray being the basis for Paul's character. Faust and Frankenstein get some love.

POTP was about a year before The Rocky Horror Picture Show which is considerably more famous. I've seen it a handful of times, never developed the affection I have for POTP. Rocky Horror was slicker I guess - POTP probably required a little deeper thought to appreciate.

Okey-dokey, let's have some fun.

Some people in Jonestown have some sense I guess. I occasionally wonder. I suppose this could have something to do with the governor's action. Now whether the locals are just going with the flow or really care... I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess they're going with the flow. If people do the right thing for the wrong reason I guess sometimes that's better than if they don't do it at all. My experience is most people do what's good for them and how it affects other people doesn't enter into their thinking, do the degree that they think.

Before I forget and even if I already said it that planned Wynne High School is an order of magnitude - or two - beyond hideous. What it will look like in ten years I don't want to think about. Tell ya a story, long ago there was a girl went to school there, a junior I believe when she died in an automobile mishap. She was a member of a moderately prominent family and pretty popular. Somehow a memorial got built - not a little statue of something or other - maybe put it on a little pedestal in among some flowers or shrubbery or something. No, they built a pond about six or seven feet wide, several feet deep and the other direction, against the wall of a building. Nice stone and higher back that had some lily pads made out of bronze or something with fountain outlets, two or three, the water coming out of the lily pads out into the rectantular stone pond. It was probably twenty years later I happened to be in the area and took a look. The fountains had probably quit working shortly afterwards and weren't fixed, as I remember. When I visited it again it was dry and full of leaves and debris. The plaque with her name and some philosophical quotation was gone. Wonder if I had asked some people if they knew what it was any of them would know.

Anyway whatever that blue and yellow thing is made of is gonna take some maintenance and doesn't wear as well as brick. What's wrong with brick buildings, for millenia the symbol of educational and other esteemed institutions? And it's really really low-maintenance. And it's hard to make regular brick buildings ugly. They may or may not be beautiful to some folks but they're rarely ugly unless someone screwed up real good.

This is one denizen of Memphis who should have stayed home. Someone suggested that the folks over here in NEA, particularly Jonestown and Paragould, might try informing the inhabitants that coming over to Arkansas and predate isn't a good idea. For now the Arkansas Prison system seems to be able to deal with the influx. If it gets too crowded I hope our leaders will have the spine to introduce some cost control measures like Sheriff Joe.

JONESBORO, Ark. -- A Memphis man with an extensive criminal history was sentenced to life in prison today for an aggravated robbery committed earlier this year in Jonesboro. Pierre Darnell Wright, 34, of Memphis, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, August 15, 2024, according to the prosecutor's office. He was convicted of aggravated robbery, a Class Y felony, after less than 20 minutes of jury deliberations. He also was convicted of a misdemeanor theft charge, receiving a 12-month suspended sentence on that charge. ~ (NEA Report)


Saturday 17 Aug 2024 12:21:40 PM CDT

Wynne Progress has the local state representatives write a piece about what went on down in Little Rock. Senator Caldwell wrote about the LEARNS act with some numbers. I don't know of any home-schoolers who applied for it as there were too many things they had to put in to keep the teachers union from hiring the Rent-a-Riot folks to stop it. It does some good and for those who can't homeschool it might be worth looking at. A relative is raising eleven kids and every one is home-schooled and the older ones have their own businesses before they're old enough to drive and make enough money to pay people to drive for them.

It's better than nothing and maybe it can be improved. School choice is more important if there are choices. The folks in Cross County do have an alternative if they want out of the Wynne schools. It's possible that private schools may become more of a thing now that more people can afford them.

Talk about the vape shop robberies? Over on the bad end of Johnson. Maybe if they catch the perps I'll take a look.

Things being slow so far I took a look at the team at KAIT. Slick page with pics of the team members. Done a couple of those, being on the executive level. High dollar photo crew somes in, tell you what to wear, little bit of make up - nothing like telly, just touch-up - and they shoot a few pics to put with your bio. Looks like some canned product, I didn't dig into it much, pretty tacky. Pics too big, icons too big and badly positioned. I would guess the tool allows for making better-looking stuff as most do.

It may be turnover - the faces seem to change a lot - some of the links don't work so I couldn't get to the bio page on two or three of the new-looking ones. Now they got a couple of anchors - the one that's been there forever and a young-looking one - three anchor/reporters and three just regular reporters. A while back they had an ivevestigative reporter or two but they're gone. I tried to make contact a couple of time to see if they wanted to investigate the Medical Industry debacle that's about to boil over. Just a formality - I archive my communications and some day when they can't ignore it because the feds are frog-marching people out in cuffs you can bet you'll see one or two of their vehicles over there.

Then they got the meteorologists. Four meteorologists. I know there's some people making fun of the aggrandizement in calling people meteorologists because they have a degree in meteorology and read the weather reports. Anyway they should be in good shape meteorogically. Just got a couple of sports guys which is kinda strange. Paper only shows one sports type which seems down a bit.

Alright, that should do it for now. It's Sadderday so maybe some crime action will go down.

Sunday 18 Aug 2024 12:21:40 PM CDT

Yesterday some folks protested the police brutality incident the other day. I read the article three or four times and couldn't find any mention of the Chief of Police going there and talking with them. Ya know, the way he did with the NAACP people. Probably the mayor figures that a handful of them don't matter much to him getting reelected whereas the local NAACP chapter can deliver a bunch.

I haven't forgotten about the kid that got killed over at Judsonia. As of today not much besides the barebones facts: a young man aged 17 was shot and killed by a number of persons from Memphis. All four have been arrested and presumably will be tried at some future date. Pretty sure they won't be tried at a date in the past but I guess some people might need that clarification. Probably there won't be a lot of info until the trial approaches. Some sources suggest a hate crime (the victim was white and the perps weren't) but those don't count as hate crimes. My interest - as readers of this here blog may guess - is the crime from Memphis infecting the bucolic environs of NEA. OK, the towns aren't bucolic but it's a cool word and the two places I spend most of my time at are bucolic indeed. And I don't like the diseases of the nearby cesspools infecting it. OK?












































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We need a man that is simple perfection There's nothing that's harder to Find Someone to lead us, protect us and feed us And help us to make up our minds We need a man that's sophisticated Quiet and strong and well-educated Where to go? What to do? Could it be somebody super like you? Somebody Super Like You Paul Williams (Phantom of the Paradise - 1974)
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Twisted Mentat 56 minutes ago OnE tempi Man he eens This guy came over to Jonesboro from Memphis and robbed a Plato's Closet and hightailed it back towards Memphis? That's how I read it. Help me out here, has everything in Memphis been robbed blind? It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. Reply WG Phantasm Lord of the Dead 39 minutes ago Pretty much. Did he come over here just to rob something or just happened to be here? I know there are a lot of bad types from Memphis here, whether they go back and forth of what I don't know. You play a good game, boy, but the game is finished. Now you die. Reply 2G[-) KaliforniaDreamin 28 minutes ago Hard to say. Mississippi tag on the car. Stolen? Life is a lemon and I want my money back. ~ Meat Loaf Reply +1(4+]-) Jessica Atreides Marshall 21 minutes ago The car or the tag? Or both? Mississippi is close and doesn't have the river between them. They must get it bad. We have entered the time when all will turn against us and seek our lives. Reply oGl[-) DePloraBelle 11 minutes ago The only thing they had on the car was the color. I'm guessing Infiniti. A Dodge Charger would red or black would be more likely. What difference, at this point, does it make? Reply 0G ]-) Mandroid 42 minutes ago Several other stores in the Memphis area robbed? I guess if he did them he figured he might as well keep on doing that worked. Hope he enjoys prison. Electric eye, in the sky, Feel my stare, always there, There's nothing you can do about it, Develop and expose, I feed upon your every thought, And so my power grows. Reply 0G ]-)
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Sinanju Master '59 minutes ago Only a few people cared enough to show up. People of Jonesboro will have only themselves to blame when the crime and corruption starts to really hurt them and it's too late to reverse it. Before you can learn anything, you must know what you are studying Reply +4(4]-) DePloraBelle 38 minutes ago I'm guessing they had all the eyes crossed and tees dotted - permits or whatever you need to do in Jonesboro to have a demonstration. Otherwise the police would have shut it down. What difference, at this point, does it make? Reply 1Gl[-) Remo Williams That's the biz sweetheart. 22 minutes ago It's a big club and we ain't in it. @ OoC+ - Reply
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