Posts tagged Vietnam
“The Company You Keep” a Blast from the Past
0May 4, 2013
“A Blast from the Past”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Company You Keep is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Neil Gordon; Robert Redford produced, directed, and stars in it; and it is about an anti-war protester from the Seventies who has been underground all this time, but is now being chased by the FBI for a murder that occurred in a bank robbery that went bad.
This is somewhat ironic, because the protester, Nick Sloan, was a member of the Weather Underground, also known as Weathermen, who used bombs to draw attention to their cause, which was an anti-Establishment protest against the war in Vietnam.
The story erupts into motion when a woman who was also a part of the movement is captured by the FBI, and a young newspaper reporter, played by Shia LaBeouf, starts digging into the details of her arrest and discovers a link between her and a lawyer named Jim Grant, who lives in the area.
The reporter’s editor tells him, “You keep telling me you’re a good reporter, right? Prove it.”
After more digging into Grant’s background and the details of the bank robbery in Detroit, the reporter believes that Grant is actually Nick Sloan, whom the FBI has been looking for since the Seventies and making them look bad, because they could never catch him.
The reporter’s suspicions prove to be true, and after Sloan gets his brother to take care of Sloan’s daughter, who is 11 years old, Sloan takes off across country with both the FBI and the reporter after him.
Although the FBI believes that Sloan is just running to escape capture, the reporter thinks that Sloan has something else in mind, and the reporter is right.
Sloan is searching for Mimi Lurie, another protester from back in the day, and he is looking up other colleagues who might be able to help him find Mimi, because Sloan believes that her help is the only way that he can get his daughter back.
The people that Sloan gets in touch with are all played by famous actors, so many, in fact, that their appearance can become distracting.
The Company You Keep is a look back at a time when the whole country was in turmoil and a protest group believed idealistically that what they were doing was right, a blast from the past.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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“The Sapphires” a Sweet Story Set During Vietnam War
0April 20, 2013
“Sweet Story Set During Vietnam War”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE SAPPHIRES is inspired by the unlikely, but true story of four girls from the aboriginal outback of Australia who form a singing group that entertains the American troops in Vietnam during the war.
The movie begins in 1958 in Australia, and we see four little girls who love to sing performing before an audience. Suddenly a group of government officials show up, and one of the little girls, Kay, is taken away from her family by the officials, because she has light skin, and forced to live in a city with a white family.
This was all part of a government program to integrate aborigines into Caucasian society.
Then the movie shifts to 1968, and we meet Dave Lovelace, played by Chris O’Dowd, who is sleeping in his car and arrives late to work in a bar where he is the emcee of a local talent show, and his boss puts him on his last warning.
Dave says to the audience, “I sort of start off slow, and then I slowly peter out.”
Two young aborigine girls, Gail and Cynthia, are singing in the talent show, they announce that they are from “black fella’ country,” and they sing a country song that the audience doesn’t pay much attention to.
But when their younger sister, Julie, suddenly joins them on stage, their singing becomes much better and so does the audience’s appreciation.
After the talent show, the girls approach Dave, show him a newspaper clipping about an audition in Melbourne for singers and dancers to perform for the troops in Vietnam, and ask him to help them go to the audition.
Dave agrees to help, but says they should sing soul music instead of country music and that Julie should sing lead instead of Gail, which doesn’t please Gail one bit.
Also, while they are in Melbourne, they track down their cousin, Kay, who had been abducted 10 years earlier, and she is able to join them for the audition.
Ironically, while Dave is coaching the girls and teaching them choreography, he says that they should sing their soul songs “blacker.”
So, the girls, accompanied by Dave as manager and chaperone, entertain the troops in Vietnam, where there is danger, conflict, and even romance.
The Sapphires is a sweet and mostly true story set during the Vietnam War.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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The Sapphires – Movie Trailer
0April 14, 2013
Inspired by a true story, THE SAPPHIRES follows four vivacious, young and talented Australian Aboriginal girls from a remote mission as they learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertains the U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1968. Cynthia (Tapsell), Gail (Mailman), Julie (Mauboy) and Kay (Sebbens) are discovered by Dave (O’Dowd), a good-humored talent scout with a kind heart, very little rhythm but a great knowledge of soul music. As their manager, Dave books the sisters their first true gig giving them their first taste of stardom, and travels them to Vietnam to sing for the American troops.
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Veterans Day a week long celebration in Boulder, finally Jann Scott’s Journal
0November 8, 2012
F-4D Phantom II flown by Ritchie for 1st and 5th MIG kills
26 year old Capt. Steve Richie 1972 back from patrol Vietnam
Boulder has gone all out for Veterans Day this year celebrating every day for a week. It never does that. Boulder usually never pays any respect to veterans, the military or those who serve. If anything Boulder usually disrespects them. You know, hippies, commies and the like. That started to change during the Boulder boulder celebration at Folsom field. And just this year for the first time in decades, the band shell celebration was well attended on Memorial Day. Over the years I have taken a lot of heat from the Boulder Atheist Buddhist leftist crowd for featuring veterans on my TV shows.
Russian MIG 21
20 years ago I had Vietnam flying ace “Steve Ritchie” from Golden on my TV show. He is one of the few who shot down five Russian Migs during the Vietnam war. It was very exciting to be able to talk to a real Flying Ace. The problem was Boulder was horrified that I dare to have an American hero on my TV show. My solace comes from those of you who roll your eyes. General Ritchie took it all in good spirits. “Hey, I lived through the Vietnam war” he said. “Nothing anyone here can say or do to me that compares flying through flack or being shot at by Mig 21s. I am just happy to be on your TV show and share my story for those want to hear.”
But Boulder is changing and the city pays more respect today.
from Americas favorite small city
Jann Scott
Boulder
tomorrow I will write about Sgt Allen Dale June a Marine Navajo Code Talker from Longmont
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Agent Orange resistant soybeans? No kidding.
0September 17, 2012
From Food Democracy Now
The first generation of biotech crops has failed. And failed badly. Now the biotech industry is stepping up the chemical arms race in an effort to make up for the failure of Monsanto’s Roundup. Excessive use of Roundup by GMO farmers has led million of acres of U.S. farmland filled with Roundup resistant superweeds.
The first generation of biotech crops has failed. And failed badly. Now the biotech industry is stepping up the chemical arms race in an effort to make up for the failure of Monsanto’s Roundup. Excessive use of Roundup by GMO farmers has led million of acres of U.S. farmland filled with Roundup resistant superweeds.
To combat this, Dow Chemical is petitioning the USDA to approve a new GMO Agent Orange Soy to tolerate 2,4-D, a main chemical component of the Vietnam era defoliant linked to birth defects, cancer, and hormone disruption. On top of these horrific health problems, 2,4-D is widely known among farmers to be difficult to control during application, leading to drift onto neighboring farms, causing major crop damage and contaminating waterways.
These facts have greatly alarmed scientists and farmers alike, leading a former top Reagan USDA official to declare 2,4-D one of “the most dangerous chemicals out there.”
