jakobnicholas

From the L.A. Times:

Poll: 49% disapprove of Obama's handling of healthcare policy

A new Gallup poll shows 43% in support of the president. Findings are essentially unchanged over the last three weeks.

By Mark Silva

August 12, 2009

Reporting from Washington - The vocal few standing up at summer town-hall meetings with complaints about the president's proposed healthcare reforms aren't the only ones with concerns, polling shows.

Slightly more Americans disapprove of the president's handling of healthcare than those who approve, the Gallup Poll reports this morning -- with findings essentially unchanged during the last three weeks of an increasingly volatile public debate.

The latest measure of public support for the president's initiative follows weeks of action by congressional committees in the House, an ongoing debate in a key Senate committee and a personal campaign by President Obama to build public support for an overhaul of the nation's health insurance.

Nearly half of those surveyed -- 49% -- said they disapproved of Obama's "handling of healthcare policy." And 43% told Gallup's interviewers that they approved.

The findings of the Aug. 6-9 survey are virtually unchanged from those of a Gallup poll conducted in mid-July, when 50% said they disapproved and 44% said they approved.

Since the latest survey was conducted, the president has embarked on a stepped-up campaign for public support, with a town-hall-style appearance Tuesday in Portsmouth, N.H., and two more planned: Friday in Montana and over the weekend in Colorado. The stops are part of a Western tour during which Obama and his family also will visit two crown jewels of the national parks system, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon.

Despite the efforts to gain support, there appears to be a narrow but persistent gap in public backing for the healthcare reforms that the president is pressing Congress to approve by the end of the year.

The debate also has been punctuated by confrontational town-hall meetings conducted by members of Congress who have returned home for the August congressional recess. With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) calling some of the disruptions of those meetings "simply un-American," the president has set out to quell what he has called "outlandish rumors" about what his plans include.

Americans appear evenly divided on the broader question of Obama's handling of the economy in the latest Gallup survey. And the president receives a higher grade for his handling of foreign affairs: 53% approval, 40% disapproval.

The president's overall public job-approval stands at 54% in the latest results of a daily tracking survey that Gallup conducts, an average of the last three days' polling. That is down, however, from a high of 69% that Gallup found in the weeks after Obama's inauguration in January.

Obama's job approval averaged 63% during the first six months of his presidency, Gallup has reported of its daily surveys.

The Gallup polling portrays a wide partisan divide in public opinion on the president's performance, with more than three-quarters of the Democrats voicing approval for Obama's handling of healthcare and just 10% of Republicans voicing approval.

The August survey on the president's handling of key domestic and foreign issues included 1,010 adults and carried a possible margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

With editing and music (the Arcade Fire is absolutely perfect), trailers can be more thrilling than the movie itself. I hope (and doubt) that's the case with this movie. It LOOKS to have a lot characters to get invested in.

This is a very sweet and fun and beautiful film. Most of Miyazaki's films are darker and more mature than "Ponyo". But for me that didn't lessen the enjoyment of the film. The animation is so great....especially knowing it's all hand-drawn. Much of the focus of the film is on the ocean, and Miyazaki supposedly spent a lot of his time on making the ocean look as wonderful as it does. It's got Miyazaki's typical quirkiness throughout, but it's scaled-back more.

The American voices (directed mainly by John Lassiter) sounded really good and the words and phrases sounded natural. I didn't notice any awkward lines because of translaltion issues.

I thought Pixar's "Up" might be a lock for best animated movie of 2009, but now I'm not so sure.

Inspired by fear - the same emotion which, you could argue, is inspiring a lot of these economic bills to move through so quickly. Also the same emotion conservatives are trying to drum up in regards to the healthcare situation.

 

Fear is legislative vaseline.

Fear was NEVER used as a tactic against Bush and Cheney.

Are some Republicans using scare tactics? Maybe. They don't like the bill, so they're gonna do all they can to stop it.....the Democrats have done the same thing in the past.

If Obama can't get his health bill passed through the Democratic Congress, Republican scare tactics won't be the reason.

I’m curious as to why you chose to defer your comments regarding the state of the nation until now, and not last year, or the year before, when the person who bears much if not most of the responsibility for our current predicament was still in office. And what, exactly, is disappearing?

 

I agree that we’re sort of in the shitter right now, and at times, it feels as though we’re circling the bowl, but this is not just a liberal issue, it’s a let’s take a long hard look at the facts and see what led us here type of issue – and if you do that, I think you’ll see that our current predicament has a hell of a lot more to do with eight plus years of mismanagement and a lack of oversight, from both democrats and republicans, and quite a bit less to do with 8-month’s worth of Obama’s policies – which are, as Beltmann (so awesomely) pointed out, by no means outside the mainstream.

 

If the country is confused about health care, it has less to do with the actual plan, though the Administration’s case in favor of leaves a lot to be desired, and more to do with the way in which republicans have framed the issue, i.e. - soviet-era-like rationing and death panels populated by nefarious bureaucrats who would, a.) like nothing more than to make compost of the elderly, and b.) ensure that the Special Olympics folds due to a lack of available participants.

I really don't follow politics very closely, so am not gonna try to make it sound like I know my shit, from a historical perspective.

I agree with you that Republicans AND Democrats are both to blame. That kind of speaks to my frustration that for the past 8 years, there seems to a sentiment that W. is responsible for EVERY problem. You basically say as much above ("when the person who bears much if not most of the responsibility for our current predicament was still in office"). It was just a stupid little quote, but it bothered me that someone as intelligent as Jeff Tweedy could throw out another tired line that implies "Bush's 8 years of crappiness have destroyed our country". It's so easy and simple to say that. It wasn't just Bush passing laws over the last 8 years. People hated the war, and he rightly can be blamed for that. But so many other things were decided with Congress' help....mostly Democratic late in his Presidency.

Financially, couldn't Bill Clinton be blamed as much or more than Bush? Didn't a lot of our housing loan problems start back then?

Yeah, it's the Republicans fault that Obama can't articulate whatever the hell health plan he has. Gimme a break. Obama's supposed to be our leader. If he can't handle a few Republicans criticizing his plan, then what kind of President is he? To me, Obama has ZERO excuses these first 2 years. He's got a HUGE majority in Congress, plus a media that STILL has Obama on his post-election honeymoon. I say Obama and other Democrats should stop whining and go get some shit done.

FWIW, my point above, about the rest of the lyrics, is that I think the OP (and everyone else?) is taking a very literal (narrow?) view of what I would consider to be a pretty beautiful and anything but concrete song. And mostly because we are only looking at two snippets from the song out of context.

 

I dont know if Jeff has said explicitly that this song is about Bush, but I take this song to be about much more than Bush.

Jeff's quote, pertaining to this song in a Rolling Stone article, said how he felt so "beaten down after 8 crappy years" (that's pretty close, from what I remember), that he penned this song as kind of a hopeful song for the future. In the same article he talked about being excited to have Obama be the next President. If anyone is being narrow, maybe it's Mr. Tweedy.

But yes, it IS a beautiful song, and it IS much more than just a song-writer feeling blue over a President.

One thing I CAN understand from Conservtives is that there doesn't seem to be too much compromise with Obama. Obama seems to have his ideas, and damnit, he's gonna shove them through with his majority in Congress. Bush, to the frustration of many Conservatives, worked with the Democrats on a number of issues.

Wake up, we’re here

It’s so much worse than we feared

There’s nothing left here

Our country has disappeared

With the winter trees bleeding leaf red blood

And the summer sweet dreaming April blush

But none of that is ever going to mean as much to me again

Hold out your hand

There’s so much we don’t understand

So stick as close as you can

To all of your best laid plans

You’ve got the white clouds hanging so high above you

You’ve got the helicopters dangling, angling to shoot

The shots to feed the hungry weekend news crew anchormen

So every evening we can watch from above

Crush the cities like a bug

Fold ourselves into each other’s guts

Turn our faces up to the sun

I won’t take no

I won’t let you go

All by yourself

I know you need my help

When the cold light shakes you like a chandelier

The snowflakes break through the atmosphere

And melt on the blue breath of the auctioneers and disappear

So every evening we can watch from above

Crush the cities like a bug

Fold ourselves into each other’s blood

Turn our faces up to the sun

I find it interesting that, although Jeff penned this song when Bush was in the White House and thinking back on W's 8 years, this song sounds very topical to me. Obama's approval ratings are below 50 percent, unemployment seems to be still dropping and the economy took another slight dip in July. Obama's handling of the auto industry and the Cash for Clunkers program are controversial to say the least. Small business owners seem a little nervous. The country seems confused as hell about health care....a majority is against Obama's plan. North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq all seem as dangerous as ever.

I'll admit, it's kinda nice to have a President who can pronounce words. But some might argue they see our country disappearing more now than before.

(All the Via Chicago libs can now flame away...)

Molly Ringwald on Hughes:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/opinion/12ringwald.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&em

Wow. That's a very beautiful, touching piece by Ringwald.

p.s. everyone has the right to their opinions, and yeah its pretentious to make a definitive Jeff 20 list...but if you do publish one as a so-called music critic, (ie the Evan Schlansky list), then the omission of Reservations and Via Chicago are a complete travesty with no possible explanation. IMHO

I agree that Via Chicago is great, but I prefer Pieholden Suite. I'm surprised it's not on your list, as lyrically it packs the same emotional wallop as Reservations and it may be Jay Bennett's single best musical contribution to Wilco. That's saying a LOT.

Via Chicago probably WOULD make my top 20 list some days, but not Reservations. Jeff has written a ton of great, quiet songs....Panthers, Lonely One, Fatal Wound, Radio King, Less Than You Think, On and On and On, Solitaire......

Reservations is great, no doubt, but why that single song as Jeff's pinnacle?

Joe Posnanski, a very great sportswriter from the Kansas City Star (who just announced he took his dream job as head senior writer at Sports Illustrated), wrote this on his blog:

John Hughes directed eight movies. I saw all eight movies. I don’t know if there’s another director I can say that about. I can say that Martin Scorsese is my favorite director, but I haven’t seen every one of his movies. Boxcar Bertha? No. New York, New York? Always thought I would see it, but no. There are others.

I love Woody Allen but haven’t come CLOSE to seeing every one of his movies in large part because he releases a new one every 27 days. Francis Ford Coppola? It’s no secret that I’m a Godfather junkie, but I’ve seen fewer than half of Coppola’s directing efforts … and I never saw Godfather III. Well, I did see it. But I didn’t see it. Ya dig? Because it never happened.

This goes for popular directors too. Steven Spielberg? I’ve seen most, but I’ve missed a few through the years. Ron Howard? I like his movies, but never saw Da Vinci Code and never will and I despise the very idea of “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” so much that I would ask the pilot to drop me off early if it was ever showing on a plane. If someone asked me if I like Rob Reiner movies, I’m sure I would say yes. But I haven’t seen one of his since The Story of Us back in 1999, and that movie was so exaltedly terrible that I’m pretty sure it will never drop out of my 10 worst movies ever (where “North” has it’s own reservation). I wrote about The Bucket List … but I never saw it.

John Hughes though … eight-for-eight. I saw them all. There are reasons for this, of course. Hughes has not directed a movie since 1991 — And in those days I would try to see pretty much every movie that came out.

That 1991 movie, incidentally, was the tooth-aching “Curly Sue,” when Hughes decided that Jim Belushi was ready to carry his own movie — or at least carry it with a homeless girl with naturally curly hair.

Before that, was Uncle Buck, She’s Having a Baby (Elizabeth McGovern, you are missed), Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. Saw them all, of course. But more than that: Every person I knew growing up saw them all. We would not have called ourselves “John Hughes fans” by any stretch. But we saw his movies. And we kept seeing them.

For some reason, I thought Hughes had something to do with the preposterously horrific St. Elmo’s Fire — probably because he discovered most of the cast. It is nice to know, upon Hughes’ death, that he actually did not have anything at all to do with that horror show. And in retrospect, it makes perfect sense: Yes, John Hughes became known as the “Bard of Teen Angst” or whatever … but really his movies did not have real ANGST in them, not the sort of grotesque, angry, self-mutliating angst of St. Elmo’s Fire or Bright Lights, Big City or Footloose or Wall Street or Dead Poets Society or dozens of other movies and books of my generation. And, look, I liked many of these books and movies — but John Hughes’ movies were different. They were, above all, fun. Was there angst? I guess. Duckie seemed troubled. Cameron had some issues.* But it always seemed to me that the angst was not over the top, that even the characters seemed to understand that it was all just something they had to go through. The John Hughes message — if there was a message — was so blindingly obvious that you could not miss it. Don’t judge kids by their looks! Rich kids suck! But don’t judge them because some don’t suck! Don’t travel with shower salesmen! Don’t let Emilio Estevez smoke a joint because he will go dance crazy!

*Did you know that Alan Ruck — who played Cameron in Ferris Bueller — was THIRTY when the movie came out? Did you know he was born in Cleveland? You did?

You wouldn’t want to spend too much dissecting the oeuvre of John Hughes because that was never the point … but as a director and writer (add the Vacation movies, Pretty in Pink, Home Alone to the mix) the overriding essence was always to make people laugh. You remember that game show “Make Me Laugh,” where (fittingly) comedians would try and make contestants laugh. And the first comedian would try and tell jokes and usually get nowhere. The second comedian, meanwhile, would go “Blah! Booga! Bully bully bully!” and make funny faces and that was usually the one who broke the contestant. John Hughes was like the second comedian. He wasn’t trying to win Oscars. He was trying to make Oscar break a smile.

That’s John Hughes to me. If I had been born 15 years earlier, I probably would have thought his movies were beyond stupid. If I had been born 15 years later, I probably would not have gotten the joke. But I was born at the right time … and the movies made me laugh a lot. Movies, to me, are a mysterious thing. Words that look good on the page sometimes don’t sound good in the movies. Words that would look dumb on paper sometimes jump off the screen. Plots that shouldn’t work do, and plots that are brilliant and intricate on a storyboard sometimes just confuse the heck out of people in movies. John Hughes’ movies were simple and fun for me and they still are, and you know what? I like simple and fun movies. I don’t think there are enough of them in the world.\

I have a hard time distinguishing "best" from "favorite" when it comes to music. If I really like a song, it becomes my favorite AND the best.

Stairway to Heaven and Freebird almost always top the all-time best classic songs list. But if I made the same list, Kashmir and Gimme Back My Bullets would get my vote before those 2 'cause I like those songs better.

I wouldn't get in a big argument with someone who said Lennon's solo work is better than McCartney's solo work. But McCartney's solo and Wings work is by far my favorite over Lennon's work.

I agree that movies are easier to distinguish "best" from "favorite". Raising Arizona is my favorite Coen Bros. movie, but No Country for Old Men or Miller's Crossing is probably their best movie. Other movies, like The Breakfast Club, Back to the Future or The Incredibles can fall into both categories.

How about actors?

Johnny Depp is one of the best and one of my favorites.

Clint Eastwood is one of my favorites, even though I'll admit he's probably not one of the best.

One of Leroy's finest moments: When The Roses Bloom Again Soundstage 2003.

I still think this is the best lineup of Wilco, and I'll stand on Nels Cline's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

 

--Mike

I saw Wilco in St. Louis very shortly after Bennett's departure, and it's one of my favorite Wilco shows ever. It was just the four of them, but the more spare version of Wilco was pretty stunning. Tweedy really shined in that lineup, and I loved Bach's keyboards and occassional guitar. There wasn't a lot of guitar jamming, but that seemed to be OK.

Well, the blog is finished! Every album track has a post, as well as all of the Tweedy-sung Mermaid Avenue songs. I'll be doing b-sides, outtakes, and whatever else is left whenever I get bored, but I'm taking a break right now.

Finally got around to looking through your site. Very interesting and fun to read. I particularly like your Summerteeth blurbs and interpretations.

But no Pieholden Suite?

It's very possible I over-looked it, but even clicking on the Summerteeth link only brings up 14 songs, one short when counting Candy Floss.

I always look forward to a new Miyazaki movie, but I'm extra eager for Ponyo because it will be the first Miyazaki that I see with my daughter at my side. I showed her the trailer earlier today, and she's pretty excited to catch it in the theater. Disney is notorious for botching the marketing and distribution for US releases of Miyazaki films; I'm skeptical but hopeful that this one will finally capture the imagination of mainstream audiences.

I'm not sure Disney is to blame. In fact, John Lassiter is a HUGE fan of Miyazaki's films and seems to be doing all he can at Disney to get as many people seeing the films....whether at theatres or DVD.

I just think it's a cultural thing. Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, as great as they are, are like art-house films when compared to Madagascar or Kung Fu Panda. I think visually his films are a little too mature or creepy for the typical parent who's used to taking their kids to see cute and funny characters. I think Ponyo could be different, as it sounds to be very much geared for kids. And it sounds like Disney is really gonna try to make its translations sound more natural to Americans, rather than making always-literal translations.

I found this question/answer to John Lassiter from a comic-con interview:

Q: John, what is it like bringing foreign animated films to the US market?

Lasseter: “If you’ve seen ‘Spirited Away’, Spirited Away’ is set in a very, very Japanese sensibility. And so, to Japanese audiences when Sen would walk up, the main character, and look at this big building with a flag on it with Japanese writing on it, everyone in Japan would know what that is. No one in this country would know what that building is.

So these are the kind of things that we look at and go, in order to be on the same level of understanding, we have to, we have to add a line off stage where a character goes, ‘oh it’s a bathhouse!’ so, it’s small little things.

I absolutely don’t want to, I strive very hard not to change Miyazaki’s vision because his movies are, you know, so deep and so unique, and you know, sometimes some of the stuff we don’t quite understand, but that’s how he intended it. So I’m not gonna sit there and clarify and add story to his stuff. I’m gonna leave it to where he wants things explained or wants to leave things ambiguous. And you know, he’s that way, and then just get out of the way.

And, you know, just try to cast the actors and do the performances so it sounds natural for our ears, you know. Even though we don’t change the characters names, you know. I have a funny story; when we were doing ‘Spirited Away’ the, it’s a very clever thing. The name, if you know the story they go into this world, and, uh, the witch kind of changes peoples, takes peoples names. And the names she gives them are sort of the tasks they do at the bathhouse. And it’s very clever, right? And so, we’re sitting there going, ‘What do we do?” Do we change the name or keep the Japanese name and do something. So I sent a message over to Miyazaki-san, ‘What would you like us to do with this?’ And he says, “I think that for people to understand, the audiences to truly understand my movies is that they should all learn Japanese.’ And I go, ‘Miyazaki-san, that won’t do.’ And he said, ‘John I trust you so do what you want to do.’ So what we did is we kept the Japanese name, but as soon as you introduce a character, say, ‘Oh, the boiler man!’ or whatever like that. And we tried to achieve sort of the same thing, but keeping the name.

I like to keep his original name. Like, the boy in Ponyo’s name is Soskai, and it took me a long time to learn how to pronounce properly.

Q: Why hasn’t Miyazaki had a crossover hit here in the US? Is it perhaps because American fans are more interested in deconstructing their heroes versus heroes who tend to be more noble and try to overcome their flaws like many of Miyazaki’s heroes?

Lasseter: That’s a very good question. I haven’t ever really thought of it quite that way, though it’s an interesting observation. Frankly, it’s a simple fact too, also that the box office equals the number of theaters it was in. I mean, [spirited Away] was in 100 theaters nationwide. So now we’re going to be in 800 theaters. It’s a nice medium sized release, so we’re excited about that.

I believe in this one thing. I’ve been a big advocate within the Disney company of trying to get Miyazaki’s films out there for the DVD releases as well as for the theatrical releases because I believe that once you see a Miyazaki film once, you get hooked. You keep thinking about it well after you’ve seen it and you want to see it again. My sons, I have five sons, and I came back in 1987 with his films on Japanese Laserdiscs and we would sit and watch them in Japanese! Like, ‘Totoro’ and all those films. And they just communicate. It’s unbelievable!

Chuck Jones always said with great animation you should be able to turn the sound off and still tell what’s going on. and by and large his films, you can watch and just sort of feel what’s going on. and, um, there’s some subtly and depth to the language, but one of the things you’ve tapped into with your question is the messages in all his films. He gets into pretty deep issues of the environment, of growing up, of, you know, of moving on, of all these things. And he handles it so beautifully. It’s almost like this thing you don’t quite realize that he’s getting to you in some ways.

And my sons just, it’s their favorite movies. They’re constantly taking the DVD’s over to friends houses to introduce them to ‘Princess Mononoke’ and ‘Totoro’ you know, ‘Spirited Away’ and ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and all of them. So they’re great.

Those films have been one of the things that have been tremendously influential to me as a filmmaker. And one of the things that Miyazaki has done that has been so inspirational is, actually Hollywood movies I think keep going the opposite direction. He celebrates the quiet moments of a film. if you watch his films, there is always a lull before the action that makes the action just that much more and if you watch ‘Up’ it’s really really influenced by that. And, I think it’s really, really great.

I didn't know Via Chicago was so non-diverse looking.

We could all pass for an audience of the Mike Huckeby show.

Billy Bragg is given a sole co-writer credit on this song with Guthrie, however it's common knowledge or at least known by the hip-hop artist Common that he unfairly poached full credit from Bennett/Tweedy. Thus while we here at the Let's Do This Right thread give Billy Bragg a lifelong pass for anything short of murder because of Waiting For the Great Leap Forward alone, we do consider Another Man's Done Gone a Guthrie/Tweedy/Bennett/Bragg composition and it is thus eligible for this list.

mtt_wojo says in the Top 20 Tweedy Songs thread that "From what I read in the Wilco book, Jay basically said that Billy came up with three chords to the songs. Jay added more embellishments to the chords and sequence and Jeff came up with this beautiful melody. Basically a group collaboration, yet when the album came out, it was only listed to Billy. Apparently he thought the three chords he came up with were the 'germ' of the song."

If this and what Common believes is all true, what sort of character is Billy Bragg?! I'm guessing the beautifull keyboards are all Jay. And Tweedy's voice and delivery and melody just KILLS. I remember reading it was done in the first take. Everyone knew it wasn't gonna get any better. Really an amazing song. Credit should read, "Guthrie/Tweedy/Bennett with inspiration from Billy Bragg".

"Waiting For the Great Leap Forward" is a good song, but a little too pie in the sky for me. A MUCH better song, in my opinion, is "Tank Park Salute".

I'm really looking forward to this.

Below is an interesting Variety article. I'm stunned that a Miyazaki movie has never made more that $10 millon in the U.S. Disney, who is putting out his movie, looks to be making a more concerted effort at making this movie more appealing to a wide audience...

Miyazaki hopes to break U.S. spell

'Ponyo' aims at wider audience

By ELLEN WOLFF

Animation fans know Hayao Miyazaki as the living legend behind four decades of hand-drawn classics, including "My Neighbor Totoro" (a film originally released in the U.S. by low-budget label Troma) and Oscar winner "Spirited Away," and yet the visionary Japanese director remains largely unknown to American auds.

His biggest Stateside hit, 2002's "Spirited Away," made just $10 million of its $275 million worldwide haul in the U.S. And his much-publicized follow-up, "Howl's Moving Castle," earned less than $5 million, compared with $230 million abroad, in 2005.

That's a situation the director's champions -- including Disney/Pixar guru John Lasseter and power producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall -- hope to correct with his latest film, "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea," when they release the English-language version in North America on Aug. 14.

Whereas Miyazaki's past few pics have been seen as more adult-oriented, this family-friendly, G-rated entry evokes Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Mermaid" fable and features dialogue dubbed by Liam Neeson, Tina Fey, Matt Damon and Noah Cyrus (kid sister of Disney superstar Miley). The film is expected to open on more than 800 screens.

According to Kennedy, who has known the director for eight years, "One of the frustrations we've shared is this conundrum of how to distribute his movies in North America in a way that people realize these pictures can appeal to a wide range of audiences and not just be relegated to arthouses.

"That's why (Miyazaki and his associates at Tokyo-based Studio Ghibli) asked us to get involved and see if we could come up with ideas to expand on the release."

Kennedy-Marshall set about bringing both A-list acting and writing talent to the English-language version of "Ponyo," including Oscar-nominated "E.T." screenwriter Melissa Mathison. "We felt a responsibility to subtly reinterpret Miyazaki's storytelling," Kennedy recalls. "Miyazaki-san was quite intrigued with Melissa getting involved, and she found a subtle adjustment to the language so that you understand you're watching a Japanese movie but, at the same time, you're not getting confused by a literal translation."

No cuts were made to Miyazaki's animation, so the challenge in directing the voice actors was to make their English dialogue fit the existing picture. "It's different than the way we usually work, where we animate after recording the voices," explains Brad Lewis, who, like fellow Pixar directors Lasseter and Peter Sohn, helmed individual recording sessions for "Ponyo." "With this, the actors watched the animation, and then we'd record several versions and see what worked. The only liberties we could take were a few words of pre-lapping dialogue."

Lewis, who's currently directing Pixar's "Cars 2," says the actors brought fresh perspectives to Miyazaki's material. "Tina Fey, who plays Ponyo's very modern mother, gave a really natural performance. We were recording her during afternoons, and at night she was playing Sarah Palin on 'Saturday Night Live.' "

The producers have taken their time getting the U.S. release right since "Ponyo" premiered at the Venice Film Fest last fall. They booked "Ponyo" into a high-profile closing slot at the Los Angeles Film Festival last month and have even coordinated a rare personal appearance, in which the reclusive director will address his American fans at the San Diego Comic-Con this Friday.

Though Miyazaki merchandise represents a big market overseas, Disney has prepared little more than companion publications for the director's past U.S. releases. Rather than diluting the brand, savvy tie-ins could actually cement his cultural standing and make Miyazaki as familiar a household name as Walt himself.

"If Disney gets the audience they're hoping for with the increased theaters ... I think they'll definitely take advantage," Kennedy says. "They're going to have to see if, in fact, audiences do show up. I believe that once people see his movie, they'll be hooked."

From what I read in the Wilco book, Jay basically said that Billy came up with three chords to the songs. Jay added more embellishments to the chords and sequence and Jeff came up with this beautiful melody. Basically a group collaboration, yet when the album came out, it was only listed to Billy. Apparently he thought the three chords he came up with were the 'germ' of the song.

That may be correct. And if it is.....well, crap!....now I may need to re-do my list.

It's my opinion that Another Man Done Gone is the best track on either Mermaid Ave. disc.

You can copy and paste your list into the thread called "Let's Do This Right", where ViaChicagoans are gonna tally their own Top 20 list. Good lyric choices.

Another Man's Done Gone IS fantastic, but I believe Billy Bragg wrote that song.

How hard would it be to name R.E.M.'s Top 20 songs?! Paste magazine gives it a shot. Here's their Top 20, plus a link (the writer gives a small blurb for each song):

1. Talk About the Passion

2. Driver 8

3. Swan Swan H

4. Nightswimming

5. Finest Worksong

6. Losing My Religion

7. Don't Go Back to Rockville

8. So. Central Rain

9. Radio Free Europe

10. It's The End of the World...

11. Everydoby Hurts

12. Fall On Me

13. 7 Chinese Bros.

14. Man on the Moon

15. Gardening At Night

16. What's the Frequency Kenneth

17. Cuyahoga

18. World Leader Pretend

19. These Days

20. King of Birds

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2009/07/the-20-best-rem-songs-of-all-time.html

It's embarrassing all the great songs I DON'T have on my list. Here's mine:

1. Pieholden Suite

2. She's A Jar

3. At Least That's What You Said

4. Hell is Chrome

5. Fatal Wound

6. Venus Stop the Train

7. Sky Blue Sky (Lullaby for Rafters & Beams version)

8. Dash 7

9. Wreckroom

10. Always in Love

11. Lonely One

12. Ashes of American Flags

13. Solitaire

14. All The Same To Me

15. Hotel Arizona

16. Panthers (acoustic)

17. Black Eye

18. Hummingbird (Wilcobook)

19. Airline to Heaven

20. Magazine Called Sunset

So This Is A Panic Attack, Eh?

By T. Eric Mayhew

July 30, 2009 | Issue 45•31

Hmmm. Something seems to be happening. I'm definitely noticing a quickening of the breath, a pounding of the heart, racing thoughts, and I believe…yes, the feeling of an elephant sitting on my chest. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this is one of those elusive "panic attacks" I've heard so much about.

Huh. I really didn't expect it to be quite so utterly terrifying. Weird.

It's almost as if the more I think about how panicked I am, the more panicked I get. Like some kind of, what do you call those? Vicious circles. Like I'm spiraling around in an state of utter helplessness, unable to function on even the most basic level. Yeah, that about sums it up. I'd like to try to calm myself down by drinking a glass of water, but—it's really the darnedest thing—the kitchen sink feels 400 miles away, and the thought of actually getting up to go over there feels about as impossible as flapping my arms and flying to the moon. Man, these panic attack things really are as petrifying as they look in the movies!

Now, granted, I'm new at this, but I can't help but notice that there doesn't appear to be any concrete reason for me to feel so terrible. How odd. I guess I assumed that such a sudden, paralyzing wave of unbearable dread like this would follow an actual occurrence of some sort. Like, say, my girlfriend leaving me. Oh my God, what if my girlfriend leaves me? Perhaps if I think about it for a moment longer, I can come up with all kinds of specific reasons to feel this terrible.

Oh, yep, here they come. Here they come. Loneliness, getting fired from job, alienation by social circle, blood clots in legs, my dog hates me, plane crashes, cancer. Gee, these panic attacks are powerful stuff, aren't they? They weren't kidding!

I can't quite put my finger on the total sensation of unavoidable doom that's coursing through my body like a tidal wave. But if I had to describe it, I'd probably go with "all-consuming." Yeah, definitely all-consuming. Everything in my field of vision seems to contain malevolent, menacing forces bent on my destruction, which is a bit of a surprise considering they're just inanimate objects in my living room. Lamps, end tables, rugs…who knew they could be so horrifying, in a nonspecific sort of way?

Aaaand, now I'm sweating. Oh, my stars and garters, isn't this wild?

I wonder what's going to happen next. If I weren't stuck in the fetal position, I'd be on the edge of my seat with anticipation. Going by what my brain has been telling me repeatedly for the past 20 minutes, I'd predict that I'm about to die. Probably a heart attack. Or stroke. Or brain aneurysm, diabetic shock, spontaneous lung collapse, or…can you panic to death? My, my, what amazingly rapid thoughts I'm having.

Maybe if I repeat some simple phrase to myself over and over maniacally, that'll calm me down. It's worth a try, right? You're fine. You're fine. You're fine. Nope. Turns out the only sounds I am capable of making right now are strangled gurgling noises and quiet sobs.

Oh, wait. I seem to be calming down a bit. Yes. Things are coming back into focus and I can feel my heart slowing. All right. Settle down. Breathe slow. Someday I'm going to die. Oh, God, it's back. Here we go.

I had better call 9-1-1 and have an ambulance come pick me up. Then they can take me to the hospital and complete a barrage of tests that will all come back negative, and the doctors will tell me there's nothing wrong with me physically, and they'll chastise me for wasting their time and valuable hospital resources, and the bill will be outrageously high, and I won't be able to pay it, and I'll be right back here in this whirling vortex of unrelenting horror and fear.

Oh, my goodness gracious. How long do these things last?

Perhaps hiding under the covers in my bed will help. Let's see now…no, nope. Still just as panicky under there as I was curled up in a ball on the couch. This panic attack sure is persistent. Looks like it's going to follow me wherever I go.

In fact, come to think of it, nothing can help me at all. Alternately hugging the couch pillows and throwing them across the room doesn't seem to have any effect. Sobbing with big fat tears running down my face isn't doing any good either. The worse things get, the more I panic, and the more I panic, the worse things get.

Who knew that, all this time, when people were talking about a panic attack, what they really meant was a nonstop rocket-sled ride to hell itself, where your soul gets sucked through a straw by demons?

Well, at least I finally understand what all the hubbub is about.

Junior's Farm (Paul)

Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (Paul)

#9 Dream (John)

Photograph (Ringo)

Watching the Wheels (John)

What is Life (George)

Take it Away (Paul)

Give Me Love (George)

Band on the Run (Paul)

Hi Hi Hi (Paul)

* I almost included a song from Paul's "Back to the Egg". I might argue it's the ballsiest of all their post-Beatles output. It's a very strange record, but I give props to Paul for taking a stab at a hard rock album.....at least for one side anyway. 'Getting Closer' and 'Old Siam Sir' are both very good rockers.

Summerteeth has 2 represented, and sadly, I don't think it will get another....though I think it's almost criminal to not have at least one of the following on a Top 20 Tweedy list: Pieholden Suite, How to Fight Lonliness or Via Chicago.

I'll try the impossible....and predict the final 3 songs.

3. At Least That's What You Said or Hell is Chrome or Spiders (I'll predict Spiders, though Hell is Chrome is my personal fave. One of these MUST be on a top 20 Tweedy list.)

2. IITTBYH or Ashes of American Flags or Poor Places (I'll predict Ashes. All 3 of these are arguably better than the 2 YHF songs he's listed so far.)

1. Boxful of Letters or OuttaMind/OuttaSite (I'll predict Boxful of Letters. Both got good radio play back in the day. A.M. has only one represented so far.)

It's awesome. Convinced of the hex has a very heavy Bitches Brew influence. This little taste leads me to believe this will be better than At War, which I still love.

It really is a great tease and makes me excited to hear the whole thing.

Pitchfork did an interview with Wayne Coyne during the Pitchfork Music Fest. Wayne talks a little of making the record:

Pitchfork: So you've got some new ones off your new album, it's called Embryonic?

WC: Yeah, we feel it's still new to us…I don't know, it's a bit difficult, even by our standards.

Pitchfork: Were you trying to do anything in particular with it?

WC: Well you try not to just do the same thing over and over again, which is difficult. I think once you've made one record, you can easily say, well let's just try something different. But after you've made 13 or 14 records…

Not that it should be difficult. I just think people get used to doing what the audience likes. We wanted to try some new trip and see if we had it in us. It's not that we're fearless, I just don't think we thought everything else we were doing was that great anyway. What kind of ego would you have to have to be like, "Well I just wrote this song and it's great"? I'm glad the audience likes it, and I'm glad that it lets us be this renowned group or whatever, but I think for me, it's always going into the unknown, trying to do something new or trying to surprise yourself. For the artist, that's where the thrill is.

Pitchfork: So there was nothing like, you weren't going to go into it thinking, oh this will be totally different--

WC: Well I think you know what you don't want to do, and I think that's what probably guides most people, and I think we did a lot of that. When me and [drummer] Steven [Drozd] began jamming in his old house…Steven got a new house, a year ago this summer, and he put his old house up on the market, and that was the exact moment the housing market completely fell apart. So his house has been sitting there waiting for someone to buy it, and he has all his recording equipment in his old house, and he has a couple of small kids, real small, so we could never go at like one o'clock in the morning over to his house and start banging on drums and things like that.

Well, we were in his old house, and the kids were at the other house, and we were just sitting there, recording on the computer-- everyone does that nowadays-- but we were like, "Let's get out the drums and dick around." And it was mostly just dicking around, and he set up a couple of microphones ‘cause he's got some there, and just out of something to do, we weren't thinking it was anything, we'd jam for like 20 minutes or so and then we'd listen back, and be like, "That minute or two right there? That's awesome! I don't know what that is, but that's awesome!" The rest of it was just a bunch of junk, but there would be a couple of moments where we really got into some strange groove. And then we'd just take that couple of minutes and work on it again, overdub some stuff. We'd collect five or six of those, then went up to [producer] Dave Fridmann's studio, and then once he heard them, then we thought, well maybe we should do this.

But that's how it works. Once you know you're trying to find some accidental groove you never find it, and half the time you don't remember it, the computer's on or whatever. I don't think we could have ever sat down and thought, we're gonna play this thing, ‘cause some of it, if you're a musician, you'll hear it and think that it's out of time, and it's faulty. But to me, if you have a computer, you can make music that's perfect by pressing a button, you know, it's not hard to make precise music. It's still very difficult to make music that is unique, or emotional. So in some ways, I think we were trying to get beyond that "Ah, I wonder if it's good, or if it's retarded, or if we've lost our fucking minds" or whatever.

Pitchfork: Do you worry about that?

WC: Yeah! But you're always insecure, unless you're like, Prince, and you just think you can take a shit and it's gonna be good. You always struggle. For me, once we put out a record, it is what it is. I can't really justify it. I know how much [listeners] give the records meaning. I can write a song and think it means a certain thing, but the power really comes from you. You grab the song and put your life into it, and then it's this mega powerful thing. It's not about me, it's about the listener. You just don't know.

But I think people would want to know that the Flaming Lips are not really trying to make some calculation of what we think is gonna be cool, we just do stuff and lose our minds and…it works. It's embarrassing though, you'd think that after all this time you'd figure out how shit works, how to produce records. But you can't, and that's the beauty of it and the danger of it, is you always end up not knowing what the fuck you're doing. But that's what art is! I mean, craft is something different. I'm not against any craft, it takes a lot of skill to figure out how to do some things, but art really is always working completely…new, you don't know what you're gonna do. So I'm lucky, and if we haven't done anything else, I know we've done that. I'll take my beating if I have one coming.