PETA and Breast Milk (Why, Oh Why?)

I have always disliked PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). I have nothing against Vegans (thou I do love meat), and believe me, I'm all for Animal Rights, just not at PETA's cost. Ever since they passed out graphic pamphlets to school aged kids, called "Your Daddy Kills Animals" and "Your Mommy Kills Animals," I have been appalled by their actions. These comics told kids things like, your daddy goes fishing and kills animals, lock up your kittens from daddy or he will kill them all. I’m serious, I'm not even exaggerating, and what's worse is the covers of the pamphlets which cartoonishly depict a crazed mom and dad viciously mutilating a fish and a rabbit. These were passed out at elementary schools to scare the kids into submission. Propaganda at its most evil. I wont even get started on their campaign put up in high schools to teach high school kids that drinking milk can lead to acne, cancer and strokes.

Milk leads me to the most recent crazy gimmick by PETA. Read this excerpt from a letter that was seriously sent by PETA to Ben and Jerry's this past week.

“On behalf of PETA and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I'd like to bring your attention to an innovative new idea from Switzerland that would bring a unique twist to Ben and Jerry's. Storchen restaurant is set to unveil a menu that includes soups, stews, and sauces made with at least 75 percent breast milk procured from human donors who are paid in exchange for their milk. If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers--and cows--would reap the benefits.”

They go on to explain that cows milk is hazardous to our health, and that dairy cows are often mistreated, etc. Again, I’m all for the proper care of animals, but what the hell? First of all, remind me never to order anything with milk products in Switzerland. Luckily, Ben and Jerry's wrote back; "we applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child." PETA is so crazy that they believe donated human breast milk is vegan because it was knowingly donated by the mother. So, if someone dies and donates their body to be eaten, will PETA go carnal on us? What a crazy world we live in.

R.I.P. Paul Newman

"Sometimes nothing can be a pretty cool hand."

Paul Newman died last night from a long fight with lung cancer. Newman was a legend, a true icon of cinema. As far as actors go, he was genuine, giving it all to his characters, and using his fame to give it right back to society. Amazing roles in The Hustler, and The Sting, along with title roles in Hud and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Newman knew how to play it cool. I personally love him playing the selfish, greed-lust driven boss Sidney Mussburger in the Coen Brother's Hudsucker Proxy. But no Newman role (in my opinion) can top that of Luke in Cool Hand Luke, the chain gang thief with the greatest of all outlooks on life. The "damn the man" mystique of the Luke character reads on Newman himself. A relentless liberal advocate, he was a champion for liberal causes, backing up democratic candidates and notably etching his name into Dick Nixon's enemies list. His famously organic line of Newman's Own food products are great, but what's more is that all the proceeds go to charity. Newman himself was a prominent philanthropist, known for his work with seriously ill children and his co-founded Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, so named for Butch Cassidy. Newman will be sorely missed not only by movie lovers like myself, but more importantly by the many he has helped over the years. Newman was 83.

I'm Starting A Movement; The Originality Movement

Movie remakes. I’ve been neutral on this subject for some time; watching decent remakes like Oceans Eleven (with Clooney tastefully modernizing Sinatra) pass by horrendous remakes like Planet of the Apes (with Whalberg going Funky Bunch on Heston’s role). Don’t get me wrong, I like Mark Whalberg, just not here. I don’t mind sequels, or prequels, but this fad of remakes is getting really old, really fast. There are those remakes that are decent films but just didn’t have to be made (Willy Wonka), and then there are those that just really shouldn’t have been made.

Let’s start with horror. Most horror films nowadays are remakes. No, not remakes from 40 or 50 years ago, but remakes from the eighties! Why? What is there in today’s filmmaking bravado that wasn’t there 20 years ago? The worst of the bunch are hands down Gus Van Sant’s Psycho and Rob Zombie’s atrocious Halloween remake, which not only rank in the worst remake category, but the worst films of all time category as well. Now word comes that another Hitchcock classic is being remade, The Birds, starring Naomi Watts in the Melanie Daniels role, and to be produced by…wait for it…Michael Fucking Bay! I have to say, I do like the Dawn of the Dead remake Zack Snyder did, although the original cannot be beat, and I also dig the Hills Have Eyes remake, but the sequel took it too far. Now obviously Snyder can’t touch Romero, but Dawn of the Dead remade was still enjoyable.

Sci-Fi has the same fate as horror, with remakes like Godzilla, King Kong, and War of the Worlds (which I enjoyed) proving time and time again that originality is lacking. People say there are no more original ideas out there. This is a sad notion, one I believe not to be true at all. The fact of the matter is there is so much unoriginal work out there that anything remotely unique gets suffocated by this mass of rehashed, recycled storylines and character arcs.

What really made me want to write this blog was a story I read this week that stated Japanese film legend Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Rashoman is to be remade next year, as is my favorite of his films, Ikiru. The same thing happened with French director Jean Luc Godard’s masterpiece Breathless, being turned into a Richard Gere flick. Godard and Kurosawa had a true genius, a unique and genuine vision. We watched and studied their films in film school like an English major would study Shakespeare. I don’t see anyone reading J.K. Rowling’s take on Hamlet, or Tom Clancy’s take on Richard III, so why do we have to be subjected to this trudging upon of quality filmmaking. I say it’s like having to listen to Hannah Montana sing the Beatles…its sacrilegious. Granted, taking a film and re-imagining it is another story. Kurosawa had his film Yojimbo masterfully rehashed by Sergio Leonne’s epic spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars…unique.

What I’m getting at is this. Look at a shortlist of films slated to be remade in the next few years; Tron, The Evil Dead, The Fly (again), The Thing, Escape From New York, etc. These are all great movies that mastered the effects and techniques of filmmaking for their time. If you want to showcase how technology has changed, don’t show us how King Kong can be better in CGI; show us something new and unique. I know it's all about money and what sells, but don’t always presume moviegoers are stupid, we know how to enjoy an old movie for what it is and what it was for the time it was made. Please...Let’s bring back originality.

Welcome! Let me introduce you to my blog (sounds like a creepy pickup line)

Welcome to my blog! Now, an introduction to what Tony’s Take; A Mediabreak Production is all about.

First, a little about myself. My name is Tony Nunes, I am a filmmaker out of southern New England and self proclaimed pop-culture whore. Here are four facts that will help you gauge the kind of person I am, and the kind of blog this will be. My idols are Jim Henson and Steven Spielberg. My favorite quotes are “I dream for a living” said by Spielberg, and “I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours,” a lyric from a Bob Dylan song. I am an avid listener to NPR. And most importantly, I am a loving husband and father.

What is this blog about? This is a fun blog about all things media. I love movies and television, dork culture like comics and videogames, and silly things like puppets. I am interested in serious things like politics, African studies and media studies. This blog will cover it all.

What made me want to start this blog? Good question. The truth is, I know a handful of people who think we live in a society where news and information has been replaced by this subjective world of blogger's, and knowledge has become the great hypocrisy, a notion replaced by judgment and opinion. Well…shit yes it has, and I want to know other peoples opinions. I want people to know my opinion. How interesting would the world be without all these opinions? Granted, news should never be confused with opinion as the case has been on certain quote-on-quote news-programs that promote left or right rhetoric rather than providing cold facts to shape the people’s opinions. But blog's are designed to be taken as nothing more than ideas, personal opinions on things that matter to the blogger, and hopefully their readers. The “Mediabreak” part of my blog’s title is homage to the faux newscasts from the film Robocop, a statement that this is nothing more than my subjective thought process. I took a class on Media and Society in college and had to keep a daily blog, a series of rants on all things media. I loved this project, and found myself missing it as of late. So here I am, starting up my own blog and putting myself out there for anyone to read. Will anyone besides my wife read it? Doesn’t matter, nothings more therapeutic than a good rant now and then

Enjoy!