Also.. because I know you're looking for it

For those of you that want, no... NEED to see this photo in much higher detail, here it is in all of it's awkward glory.
FEAST your eyes on the skilled photography by the kind ladies in our design department...
MARVEL at the complete lack of joy in the faces of Editor Reichl and Managing Editor Hessinger...
SQUINT at the distinct "action" poses by news staff (Note: not ACTION news).
...
BONUS: What is the mystery surrounding Hessinger's raised hand? And what is he reaching towards? Berks-Mont scientists ponder if we unravel that conundrum, we might be able to successfully decode the human genome.

‘Burn After Reading’ is for the intelligent in a dim-witted cinema tapestry

MOVIE BLOG TIME

By Matthew Reichl
Times Editor

The Coen brothers’ newest movie, “Burn After Reading,” is a clever movie about dim-witted people.
Indeed, the filmmakers behind last year’s “No Country For Old Men” have stepped back into their comedic side, reminiscing “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “Raising Arizona.”
“Burn After Reading” feels like a balanced blend between “The Big Lebowski” and “Intolerable Cruelty.”
My only question is whether or not Ethan and Joel Coen wanted to riff off of characters made for spy genre films or they wanted people watching the movie to not feel lost keeping up with all the different twists engaged in a spy movie.
The trouble starts when John Malkovich’s character Osborne Cox gets demoted within the CIA. Instead of taking the demotion, he quits in a rush and begins writing his memoirs.
Somewhere else in the Washington D.C. area, Frances McDormand’s Linda Litzke and Brad Pitt’s Chad Feldheimer work at the world’s most shallow fitness gym, Hardbodies.
There, the two find “top secret documents” on a CD with Cox’s memoirs and finance records. They decide to blackmail Cox for the government documents.
Linda plans to use the money to pay for extensive cosmetic surgery so she can attract the right kind of guy, one that she busily searches in vain for on dating Web sites.
McDormand plays the character as a woman on a mission, someone who has never been wrong a day in her life.
Pitt’s Chad, truly one of the scene stealers in the movie, belongs in any gym. He pumps his fists while exercising, bikes everywhere and his two-tone hair needs another dye job or a trim. His vacuous smile covers his face for almost every scene he’s in, and he is Linda’s friend due to his “can-do attitude.”
All the while, Cox’s ice princess of a wife, played by the porcelain Tilda Swinton is cheating on him with George Clooney’s Harry Pfarrer, a Treasury agent who has not fired his gun in his 20 years of service.
Pfarrer is a shady character building something in his basement who trolls Internet dating sites for women he can sleep while wife is on a book tour promoting her children’s books.
Clooney provides the charm that would otherwise be leading man material, however, his Pfarrer is nothing more than a shark.
Following the first act of the characters taking steps that ultimately lead them to the chaotic mess that is the third and final act, none are left unaffected by repercussions.
Characters are murdered over mistaken identity, none get what they aim for by the story’s end and are left unfulfilled like they started.
With an ensemble cast as strong as this, its very fortunate (and great work for the Coens) that the characters were written specifically with the actors and actresses in mind.
Playing off less than obvious strengths, Pitt, Clooney and McDormand excel at channeling amazingly flawed people with their own goals and challenges.
Going back to levels of intelligence in the film and viewer. Like Malkovich/Cox’s description of his blackmailers and bystanders as a “legion of morons,” almost every character in this film is being misled, misleading other characters, completely in the dark about the whole situation or is trying to figure out the situation.
Malkovich is especially engaging as a quiet analyst who slowly loses everything and melts down cursing expletives and brandishing liquor glasses.
Particularly hilarious scenes include his kiss off of the CIA office that is demoting him and the late night phone call Chad and Linda make waking Cox up to tell him he is being blackmailed.
However, this is not a slapstick comedy. The humor comes from subtlety or interaction between the cast. The film demands more of the viewer to appreciate the comedic elements and story. Much like “Fargo,” the comedy is dark and subtle. The only difference is the heart of this story is a comedy.
If you are looking for another “Ocean’s” movie with Clooney as the dashing con man or a political thriller with McDormand as the innocent that becomes involved in risky business, this is not either kind of film.
This movie specifically works to deconstruct stereotypes that the normal box office would make millions off of.
Clooney? Almost completely unredeemable. Pitt? Completely void of intelligent thought. McDormand? Entirely shallow.
However, if you are a Coens vet, or are looking for something different in a “thriller” then perhaps this is the film that best delivers in 2008.

Dark Jedi spared from jail? Do or do not, there is no sparing!

Thank the Gods that I remembered my blog password...
It's been far too long, and the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
So to get things "blasting off" (ed: so to speak), we shall start off with the essential worldly happenings so far in 2008: the recently released Iron Man film and an AP story about dark Jedi.
*See other posting for the film review.

To start, what truly merits a news story? Is it the headline? Is it the content and density of a story, deserving to be published in a paper (or papers)? Or is it the simple execution of selling more papers?
I want to look closely at the AP story of the drunk Welsh guy who attacked the first Welsh Jedi church dressed in makeshift dark jedi garb.
An interesting enough story, but how is it relevent in the media world?
More importantly, does it warrant the Associated Press to report on the event with a 400+ word story?
The story, essentially boils down to a drunk guy brutalizing (without inflicting any serious injuries) a bunch of harmless nerds for their religious beliefs.
This story does not warrant local paper coverage.
So, if the story deserves some coverage, where does it belong?
The answer, lies in word-of-mouth, sheer oddness and the ability to attract other nerds to something so outlandish, the subject matter deserves to be retitled "Someone's Believe It or Not."
This is the fourth time I've heard about this story in less than a week.
For one, I saw it running along a real-time news blog on a comic book Web site (If you must ask, it was in research for my movie review), I saw it on yahoo news the same day, MSN news and just recently, giving it a six-day run, in my email in an encouraging e-mail to encourage more blogging.
So does this make it a successful news story, in essence, for being circulated so widely that there is no escaping the long-reaching grip of a drunken Welshman?
Or is it simply me noticing the story so many times on a variety of online news sources?

Film in review: Iron Man

There's a part in the Iron Man movie where after being knocked out of the sky by a tank, we see the metal faceplate up close. With scratch marks and paint melted off, the image reminds the viewer that Iron Man is nothing more than a man in a metal suit.
He clearly hasn't done this before. He barely knows what he's doing, and everything happening to him is new and unexperienced.

The 2008, now grossing over $276 million (according to boxofficemojo.com) film tells an updated classic yarn of young industrialist billionaire playboy Tony Stark and his march towards redeeming his military arms company and family's legacy by building a high tech suit to fight for good and the American way.

This film also marks the first self-financed big box office venture by comic book company Marvel Comics.

At first glance, the film seems to be in the same vein as rival comic company DC Comics' 2005 Batman Begins in terms of grounded grittiness.

However, after contemplation, there are differences that keep both films, updated origin stories with room for upcoming sequels, and characters, non-super-powered industrial businessmen, from simply being cut and paste skeletons of existing movies or even the comic books that they were based upon.

However, someone unfamiliar with the comic book source material (not me) can still appreciate this film.

One of the aspects Director Jon Favreau crafts into the mythos behind the Iron Man character is, in essence, Stark as a high tech sci-fi James Bond.

However, Stark is much more fleshed out then any Double-O agent adaptation (maybe aside from 2005's Casino Royale).

Robert Downey Jr. excels at playing a comic book character that oddly enough seems to be a living embodiment of Downey himself. Reports from production, Favreau allowed his star talent to improvise their lines to allowing more fluid delivery.

Gwyneth Paltrow feels like a nice fit for Stark's loyal assistant and ambiguous love interest Pepper Potts, who can do anything from inserting a new piece of tech into Stark's chest to dispensing with his one-night stands the morning after.

Despite some debate over various Internet fan blogs, Jeff "The Dude" Bridges pulls off convincing and realistic villainous businessmen Obadiah Stane, one of Iron Man's most early foes in the comics. While maintaining an icy exterior, Stane puts an arm around Stark following his return from the Middle East while secretly filing an injunction to dismiss him from his own company.

Some might argue that Bridges is not menacing enough, the change from sly businessman to the Iron Monger suit at the end of the film is too sudden.

Rounding off the main cast, Terrence Howard as Stark Industries Air Force liason Col. James Rhodes provides one of the goose bump-inflicting comics nerd moments in the movie, foreshadowing the introduction of War Machine in sequels (the first, of which has already been announced by Marvel for an April 30, 2010 release date).

Other aspects that keep the average Joe or Jane Popcorn in his or her seat for the two-hour running time is the neat gadgetry, interesting non-powered characters and action scenes.

While each action sequence only clocks in at a relatively short 10-15 minutes, the longest segment of the movie is the beginning, where we see Stark captured by Afghani terrorists who demand he build them one of his own missiles.

Instead, he builds a walking tank-like early version of the Iron Man and essentially blows up the terrorist camp in his escape.

With the lowest tech scenes in the movie, we are once again reminded, that, through the duration of his captivity, Stark remains undeterred in his resistance of evil, and in that sense Tony Stark is the Iron Man even without the red and gold suit.

First day of Spring

Well, it feels like the weather allowed Spring to peak out from the clouds a little earlier this year, but today marks the official first day of Spring 2008, March 20.
What better way to celebrate the occasion by getting free Rita's Italian water ice in Boyertown or visit your favorite park.
Fortunately, today was nothing like yesterday.
This reporter was outside in the chilly rain weather trying to get inside the filled Hotel Bethlehem to see former President Clinton speak to the masses about his wife Hillary's bid to win the democratic nomination for presidency.
When I finally got in, however, Bill was late by an hour!
Not that bad when you've got crowds of people around you, but we members of the media were roped off by bicycle barricades and not allowed to leave the area until Clinton had left the floor!
and fellow journalists can get boring!
No, I'm just kidding of course.
Look for the story on my trip to the Hotel Bethlehem for the Saucon News paper on the berksmontnews.com Web site under breaking news, or in the upcoming issue of the paper.

Everybody works for the weekends

One of the things I've seen through a lot of writers is the ability to constantly work.
Some might argue we have to, a seven-day work week might be a necessity.
I know I prefer working 6 hours for seven days instead of working 9 hours for five days.
Sometimes, generating stories and following leads takes a lot of time.
Even worse, sometimes we're sitting waiting for a crucial phone call.
That's why we keep busy with constantly writing, editing and compiling information.
Another way to work that I prefer, working at night compared to during the morning.
I like to get as much notes during the day or afternoon as possible, then write everything out at night where I can concentrate in silence or with the tv on.
I prefer to write two stories a day from Wednesday to Saturday, but that's if I can get all info during the daylight hours.
Sundays and Saturdays usually are the days I edit my stories for style and flow.
Line editing is done Mondays and Tuesdays.
By Tuesday at 5 p.m., the paper should be completely finished with design and the process starts all over again.
Tuesday nights, I am almost completely exhausted, so I don't usually write stories then, however I have.

'What a day for a peace rally!'

Sunday, I accompanied the Oley peace walkers briefly to gather insight for their story.
While en route on the road of peace, I tried to talk with as many as the intrepid walkers as possible.
Fortunately, it was a bright and sunny day to go out for a stroll.
Especially with Mr. Welter, the convictions were very inspiring.
Welter said
One interesting aspect behind the whole ordeal was the culling of different religions along the walk.
I had thought the walkers were all part of the same congregation, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church.
Even better, Courtney McEachern (Westside Weekly editor and photographer for the walk) and I were treated to a complimentary lunch at M & M's Sandwich Shop.
Also encouraging, the amount of drivers that gave a friendly honk while I walked next to Father Bob Daly and co-founder of the walk, Carla Mannix.
Bottom line is, it's something nice to go out and do, to follow your beliefs...