Let's Get Bloggin'!

What a summer so far. Gay marriage, the Zimmerman debacle, Amanda Bynes (an unfortunate mash-up of Britney Spears and Lohan who should go back to her former self, the girl known as "Who?") but hey, no mass shootings this year thus far for which we can all knock on wood, even it's on your rifle stock.
Lindsay

Then there's the Royal Baby. Leave it to the Brits to bring us all together again, whether it's to collectively exclaim ""Awwwwww..." or to shout "Enough with these over-privileged fucks already!" I fall into the former category. I actually like the idea of a monarchy in the old empire. It's rather quaint. So they named the kid George (though I prefer the nickname Digit the Finger Prince) so that England will have another King George someday. This worked out well once...

...and not so hot another time. 

We lost a couple of tough guys recently. Seeing Dennis Farina's name in the credits guaranteed that I would enjoy whatever I was about to watch. The man was an absolute natural and always delivered the goods. Recently, he and Dustin Hoffman made an excellent pair on HBO's ill-fated LUCK. My favorite had to be his portrayal of Ray "Bones" Barboni in GET SHORTY, especially delivering the immortal phrase that pays, "Fuck you, fuckball!"

As for Farina's ponytail wearing co-star in that film, James Gandofini, well whadda ya gonna do? I still watch THE SOPRANOS, not being able to pass by as I'm channel surfing and, to use a phrase from another gang story, he always pulls me back in. I'm just drawn to this giant that walked among us and am so grateful that he did. Check out one of his best post-SOPRANOS performances in Andrew Dominik's KILLING THEM SOFTLY with Brad Pitt.

The Emmys always disappoint, whether in the nominations, the awards or in the craptacle known as the show itself. How can an industry celebrating itself produce such bad television? The nominees are chock full of omissions almost too painful to list (but damn, no love for RECTIFY or Tatiana Maslany of ORPHAN BLACK?). However I have to applaud the recognition of Jonathan Banks (BREAKING BAD), Bobby Cannavale (so goddamn evil on BOARDWALK EMPIRE) and my girl Mrgo Martindale (THE AMERICANS) Then there are two sentimental favorites nominated as well: Bob Newhart on this year's finale of THE BIG BANG THEORY who has NEVER won an Emmy and my boyhood dreamboat Diana Rigg (GAME OF THRONES).Well done, Mrs. Peel. I'd still do ya. 

Finally a big shout-out to my good friend and fellow author Thomas Amo (AN APPLE FOR ZOE and FOREVER ME) who debuted his online radio show 92.6 The Blitz, playing classic rock and featuring the independent arts including authors, filmmakers, musicians and more more more in the words of The Andrea True Connection. Listen Monday-Friday 9-11 PST right HERE.

So that's it on this end, boys and girls. Have yourselves a swell rest of the summer and stay tuned for some big news real soon. Yes, bigger that the birth of a mad, stuttering British baby. 

Bad LUCK

The last time I attended a horse race was back in the 1980s. My brother Doug, who loved to play the ponies as much as our dad, took me to the track at the Alameda County Fair. In the home stretch of a race late in the day, one horse in the middle of the pack took a tremendous fall, end over end and breaking its neck. Though the procedure been blocked from the race attendees following the accident, it was obvious was what was occurring when the covered dead horse's body ended up a flat bed trailer and driven away. I didn't stay for the rest of the races, waiting for my brother outside the main gate.

I recalled this story when I heard that HBO had cancelled Luck this last week.

HBO premiered its gambling drama Luck this past winter, a show with an extremely high pedrigree what with the heavyweights involved. Created by Deadwood's David Milch, excutive produced by Michael Mann and with a cast featuring both Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte. After a slow build, Luck instantly become addictive, not unlike gambling itself. One of the high points of each episode were the brilliantly staged horse races themselves, brilliantly staged and edited for maximum effect. These scenes came with an unfortunate price. In the filming of these scenes, accidents have occurred, resulting in the euthanizing of three horses. Not being able to insure that these would not happen again, HBO has decided to pull the plug on the show due to safety concerns. Both Milch and Mann have agreed and Luck will end its run after one season even though it had been renewed for next year.

Though Luck has the potential to be another classic series in the HBO stable, they made a wise decision scrapping it. To be realistic, I doubt they would have made this call if Luck was pulling in True Blood or Game of Thrones rating numbers. Despite the best cast on TV: Hoffman (his best role in years), Nolte (superbly understated as an aging trainer, a performance that makes me eat my ass-hat comments in the previous Oscar blog), Dennis Farina, Joan Allen, Michael Gambon, Jill Hennessey, Kevin Dunn, Richard Kind and so many more, Luck was an expensive bottom feeder in the audience department. To continue in light of this controversy would be folly on HBO's part. No amount of Hollywood magic (stock footage, green screen, motion capture, CGI) would be able to match the intensity of those racing scenes. Without them, the show might as well be set in video poker parlor. HBO wouldn't pony up the extra dough (so to speak) anyway.

So, I guess you could say HBO is shit outta Luck.

Wasn't David Milch really tempting fate by naming a show Luck?

He's in show business. Surely he understands the concept of the phrase:

"Break a leg."

They shoot horses, don't they?