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Oscar Nominees, Part Two

This episode of the Plastic Podcast is the second half of a conversation about the Academy Award nominations and omissions.

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Daily Plastic is an ironically named Chicago-based movie blog, a collaboration between Robert Davis and J. Robert Parks, the same pair who brought you the wearable movie tote, the razor-thin pencil pocket, and that joke about aardvarks. If you know the whereabouts of the blue Pontiac Tempest that was towed from the Plastic Parking Lot on the evening of August 7th, 2008, or more importantly if you've recovered the red shoebox that was in its trunk, please contact us at your earliest convenience.

Davis is the chief film critic for Paste Magazine, and you can send him messages via Twitter. At this moment he is seated in a movie theatre or watching a DVD screener or eating a homemade cracker with his daughter while sipping puerh, or two of the above. Meanwhile, Parks, whose work has appeared in TimeOut Chicago, The Hyde Park Herald, and Paste, is molding unsuspecting, college-aged minds in the aforementioned windy city. Media types are warned to stay clear of his semester-sized field of influence because of the distorting effects that are likely to develop.

The © copyright of all content on Daily Plastic belongs to the respective authors.

New Orleans
Robert DAVIS — November 03, 2008

Some advice for people who talk to exit pollsters:

Little more than three years ago, the greatest engineering disaster since Chernobyl according to one expert occurred in the city of New Orleans, blamed by three different teams of investigators on misfeasance and malfeasance by an agency of the United States federal government. ["a system in name only" says the Corps' own report.]

Not a word about it in this presidential campaign. It didn't happen. We dreamed it. They must have dreamed it down there.

Not a word. Why? No, not evil. Not malice. Not any of that good stuff. You and I know the reason, ladies and gentlemen: it didn't show up in the polls.

The candidates decided what to talk about based on what people in the polls say they're concerned about, and it wasn't even in the top ten. So, you know, I don't care whether you vote or not. It's no skin off any part of my anatomy. But I will say this: if you are going to some place on Tuesday and you're going behind a little curtain and you're casting what you think will be a secret ballot. And you then decide, the minute you leave that private booth, to go out and talk to a total stranger and tell him how you voted, how much money you make, and what religion you are, just make sure when he asks what demographic group you belong to, you say "genius."

— Harry Shearer

Does the Army Corps of Engineers have a project near you?

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2 Responses to “New Orleans”

  1. Howdy, this is such a fine blog. Thank you for keeping the Lights On in New Orleans. We are all big fans of Harry.
    I hung you onto today's Ladder.

    Perhaps you might be interested in this little Levee Finding thingy they came up with at Levees.org:
    http://www.areweatrisk.org/?utm_campaign=referral&utm_source=null&utm_medium=awar_badge

    I hope you enjoy the Ladder. We will be 1 year old this November 11th! Yea! Please fang back through the posts and if you have any suggestions or whateva, we'd be most gratified to have them in our Inbox.

    Thank you,
    Editilla~New Orleans Ladder

    New Orleans Ladder — November 4th, 2008 at 3:50 am

  2. Thanks for that interesting link, Editilla. Here's a compelling bit from that page:

    - There are 146 levees that the United States Army Corps of Engineers has deemed "vulnerable."
    - Under pressure from USA Today, the Corps has released the names and locations of 122 of these levees.
    - 24 vulnerable levees remain unaccounted for.
    - None of these vulnerable levees are located in Louisiana, which suffered catastrophic levee failures in 2005.

    And that's just levees.

    Robert DAVIS — November 4th, 2008 at 12:19 pm

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