Jim: Roundtable time again. . Remember our e-mail
address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com. Participating in our roundtable are The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the
illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.
Jim (Con't): First up, we did "200 Best Comedy Films" and "500 Greatest albums of the rock era" recently and there are a number of e-mails. One, from Rita, says she bets C.I. is more bothered by the album list than the film list and bets "after C.I. recently posted multiple videos by the Pointer Sisters" that she's bothered that they were not included.
Ty: I think Rita may have missed the fact that The Pointer Sisters made the 500 -- in fact, their album BREAK OUT came in at number 64.
Ruth: That was a long, long list. The album list. I do not remember the effort in doing the film list as taking as much time or being as difficult. I would say we were all in agreement with the bulk of the comedy list -- that is all of us, the readers who participated, Dallas and everyone participating in this roundtable -- than we were with the album list.
Stan: Even with 500 slots?
Ruth: Yes.
Elaine: I would agree with Ruth. I'm okay with Stevie being top of the list with TALKING BOOK. I might have preferred his SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE being number one. But there are a number of albums that I love which didn't even make the list. I'm much more comfortable with the film list -- maybe because I'm much more into music than I am films. Stan, do you think the converse could be true for you?
Stan: You're probably right there. I watch movies constantly. I really enjoy music but I am a film buff. So, yeah, I was more bothered by the film list.
Jim: Specifically?
Stan: I would've liked us to either have labeled it American films or to have included more British films or even MURIEL'S WEDDING from Australia. As it is, if C.I. hadn't championed Peter Sellers' THE NAKED TRUTH, I don't think that would have even made the list and it's one of the few non-US films to make the list.
Jim: Marcia, did you feel similar?
Marcia: No. If it had been a sy-fy list, I would have been more vested. I do really like comedy films, they're my second favorite after sy-fy, but I felt like at least 100 of the 200 choices were films I would've picked all by myself.
Rebecca: We should also note that the movie list wasn't a 'shock' or 'new.' By that, I mean films have long been covered and discussed here. Basically any comedy that made our FILM CLASSICS OF THE 20th CENTURY series made the list. And we'd done movie lists here before. We used to do a lot of music pieces in the first ten years of the site. Especially the first five. But that tapered off. So while movies have been discussed and debated here -- and even in the community newsletters -- it's really just been Kat and Elaine noting music for the most part over the years.
Kat: That's a good point. Over 15 years, we have built a consensus among ourselves and with our readers on what our tastes were in films. I love Goldie Hawn, for example, but I didn't nominate one of her movies for the top 200. That came from readers on the group I headed. That's not that I don't like Goldie, I love her movies and they belong on that list. But it's an argument we long ago made here, that Goldie has made some of the funniest films. I would've honestly nominated TOWN AND COUNTRY and would love a piece on that film at some point in the future.
Mike: And picking up on that theme, Jane Fonda had a number of films on the list as well. Everyone that made the list had a piece on it written by Ava and C.I. for this site. Remember that, in 2005, Jane Fonda's first comedy film in years was released. In the lead up that film opening, MONSTER-IN-LAW, Ava and C.I. did a weekly piece where they reviewed a Jane Fonda comedy film. What Rebecca's getting at, that the list was the product of a 15 year discussion, is true.
Jim: What I'm getting from this is that we haven't done enough music coverage but, curiously enough, the one feature suggested in this discussion, by Kat who covers music, is that we do a piece on the film TOWN AND COUNTRY.
Kat: C.I. has proposed we do a group piece on a Cher album and has proposed that every edition for the last six weeks.
Jim: That's true but in this edition the only feature suggested for an upcoming week has been about a film. Okay, the election is breathing down our necks. Any predictions?
Ann: I agree with the point Ava and C.I. make in their media piece, a press that refuses to hold Joe Biden accountable or investigate him when he's the candidate for president is not going to, if he's elected, suddenly start doing their job.
Jim: Tara Reade had an online conversation today. Any thoughts on media coverage?
Betty: The media's going to ignore it. The most we or Tara can hope for is that in ten or so years when there are different columnists, someone will stage whisper in a column "I believe Tara Reade."
Isaiah: I think Betty's right. I was thinking about Juanita Broaddrick. There is a large consensus now that she told the truth. I believe her, by the way. But I don't see the press, not even the ones claiming to believe her, doing interviews with her or rushing to report her story. It's like they say, "I believe her," and they feel they've done their job. I think Tara's got supporters today and that their number will grow over the next few years but unless there's a sea change in the press, that's all it will be, public opinion on Tara's side but the press refusing to offer anything more than a simple declarative single sentence.
Marcia: And it's too bad because Tara's telling the truth. I believe her.
Jim: We all do, all of us participating.
Ann: As Ava and C.I. point out, the press did the same thing to Tara that they've done regarding Joe's e-mails. They've refused to address and investigate the charges. Instead, they've attacked the people who came forward.
Rebecca: The press is in Joe Biden's pocket.
Ruth: Which makes it very difficult for them if Donald Trump wins. They are biased against President Trump. Their coverage has been biased and they have defined their role as defeating his re-election. So if he is re-elected, he gets a pass because a lot of people are not going to believe the press, even if they are telling the truth about Mr. Trump, because of their past history of bias -- that is real and perceived bias. That is why you do not takes sides if you are the press. They could have a real, a true, explosive report on Donald Trump in 2021 and a lot of people would not believe them because of their past bias against him.
Cedric: They have shot themselves in the foot.
Ruth: Exactly.
Cedric: And that's true of the 'faux' resistance as well. They became the little boy who cried wolf because they seized on every rumor and every Tweet as something to impeach over. They went to that well over and over and they made themselves a joke.
Wally: On the election, Stan made a point last week that I wanted to echo. In his post "HAPPY DAYS and STAR TREK," Stan noted that he was tired of this nonsense of people using TV shows and films we love to raise money for Joe Biden. I'm tired of it too. I'm tired of people trying to turn everything into a partisan activity. If you're promoting your new show or movie tomorrow, make it clear to me that ten or twenty years from now you plan to use the project as a way to fundraise for a politician, let me know then because I am not okay with it. Don't use my being a fan of STAR TREK or whatever as your way of fundraising for your candidate of choice. That's not the relationship I entered into with the TV show. You want to raise money as individual, go for it. But don't try to use a TV show or film to do that. It sullies the art.
Dona: Good point and thank you, Stan, for catching that. I don't think anybody else has really explored that topic. Trina, you haven't spoken. Election thoughts?
Trina: I will be so damn glad when the election is over. Hopefully, WSWS will drop the crazy and return to normal and I can read it and enjoy it again. I'm tired of their covert attempts to pimp Joe Biden with loony conspiracy stories about Donald Trump. I really don't get it because I do believe that there is enough wrong that Donald Trump does that you do not have to make up s**t. And all making up s**t does it make it harder to hold Trump accountable when he is doing wrong.
Jess: Very good point. I'll speak on the election as a Green. Ann's a Green too so she might want to jump in. But at this site, we have always been welcoming of Greens. I hope that would be the case even if I wasn't here at the beginning. But it's what we've been. And as I survey the landscape, I see so many trying to bully or shame Greens. That's disgusting. It's very disgusting that Amy Goodman refused to bring Howie Hawkins on her show this year. He is the Green Party's presidential candidate. In her pathetic attempt to elect Joe Biden, she has shut down free speech and kept Howie off her program. As Ava and C.I. have reported, she didn't even note it in headlines when he got the party's presidential nomination. This is outrageous and it shouldn't be allowed to pass for normal.
Ann: I would agree, Jess. Green Party members are real people. We're not rushing to vote for Democrats. We are our own party and for Democrats to ignore us or put us down is outrageous. I'm tired of the bullying and shaming and tired of getting it from so-called 'progressives' who are not progressive enough to allow someone to vote for their own beliefs.
Jim: Great points and this was a planned brief roundtable so we're going to stop it there. This is a rush transcript, thank you to Ava and C.I. who took notes for this transcript.