From the Cincinnati Enquirer: Ikea opening draws thousands
I love Ikea, but you won’t see me around there for the next couple of weeks. Not until the crowds thin out a little.
In honor of the grand opening, here’s the website of Mark Malkoff, a comedian who lived in an Ikea for a week. The videos are great!
Watching the mess of Eliot Spitzer, you can’t help but feel sorry for his wife standing at his side. Who is Silda Spitzer?
An interesting profile from the NYTimes.com: Her Next Job: First Lady of New York
From CNN.com (Video): Oldest man to run marathon
Can this guy really be 101 years old? He’s amazing.
From NYTimes.com : Batman’s Burden: A Director Confronts Darkness and Death
It’s enough to make a marketing executive cringe, that the word “dense” pops up in conversations with Mr. Nolan and his actors. But it’s true: “The Dark Knight,” which will be released on July 18, is jammed with characters, plot and action. It picks up where “Batman Begins” left off, with Mr. Oldman’s police lieutenant, Jim Gordon, warning about the perils of escalation: that Batman’s extreme measures could invite a like response from the criminal element. And sure enough, a deadly new villain, the Joker, emerges to wreak havoc.
In a political context this would politely be called an “unintended consequence.” (Gotham as Baghdad, anyone?) Mr. Nolan doesn’t deny the overtones. “As we looked through the comics, there was this fascinating idea that Batman’s presence in Gotham actually attracts criminals to Gotham, attracts lunacy,” he said. “When you’re dealing with questionable notions like people taking the law into their own hands, you have to really ask, where does that lead? That’s what makes the character so dark, because he expresses a vengeful desire.”
It always amazes me that big budget movies are sometimes made without a semblance of a coherent story or character development. Hearing Christopher Nolan talk about delving into deeper character issues is exciting.
From the NYTimes.com: Revelations Began in Routine Tax Inquiry
From ABCNews.com: Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions
In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.
It seems like Hillary’s work as a director at Wal-Mart would have received more scrutiny during the battle for Ohio, especially with the union workers in the Northern part of the state. This story is from the end of January and I never heard about it until today. Maybe I just missed it.
From CNN.com: Girl seen in Clinton’s ‘3 a.m.’ ad supports Obama
Casey Knowles didn’t much like a recent campaign commercial for Hillary Clinton — even though she’s in it as a sleeping 8-year-old.
After all, she about to turn 18 now and is a big supporter of Barack Obama.
From the NYTimes: Pakistan Rivals Join to Fight Musharraf
From NYTimes.com: Dancers in the Crowd Bring Back ‘Thriller’
By this week, the videos had together been viewed more than a million times, to the pleasure of the music company Sony BMG, which staged the scenes to promote the 25th anniversary of “Thriller,” the Michael Jackson album that featured the zombie dance in a graveyard video.
This is pretty brilliant marketing. Probably cooler than having Michael Jackson doing it himself. Here are three of the videos referred to in the story.