Something Wicked
Posted at 5:30 AM on May 18, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(33 Comments)
Tonight at midnight something will emerge from the Capitol that will send certain Minnesotans fleeing for cover and others off to get their torches so as to raise the rabble. The creaking, clanking end of a contentious session is bound to leave no one happy, and the budget for the next two years, a cobbled-together monster with a 4.6 billion dollar hole in its heart, will lurch down the steps and into our lives.
You have to sympathize with our dedicated public servants, who were dealt an awkward hand by the economic downturn. For them, the last five months has been an agonizing process of trying to determine which kind of ugly the budget will be. Sunshine and puppies were never really an option. And while it was expected that the end would be dramatic, I wouldn't be surprised to see a freakish, isolated lightning storm, with a kite flying over the famous Quadriga at midnight.
The sculpture's official title is "Progress of the State", but it's hard to imagine much progress being made under these circumstances, and at this moment it's still unclear which of the fearsome horses is pulling hardest - Cutbacks, Taxes, Accounting Shifts or Unallotment. We shall see.
And afterwards, all the arguments will be about whose monster it really is.
I choose Dr. Frankenstein, of course.
But enough politics.
Who is your favorite movie villain?
Comments (33)
Well, Jack Nicholson in the Shining-the only movie that gave me nightmares. But FAVORITE like in deliciously villianous--the first ones that come to mind were Boris aNd Natasha in Rocky and Bullwinkle! I am sure there are a few more in movies of Mel Brooks.
Have a good week Heartlanders! Got to get to work said Tom belatedly.
Jenny
Thank you Jenny, for the villian nominee and the Tom Swifty!
Boris and Natasha are an excellent choice too. I forgot how creepy Boris was, though I think people sold him short on account of his size.
I think Frankenstien has to be a one of the top choices, especially if applied to poltics. The poltical system seems to have created monsters, the people who run the political parties and some of their canidates. This is a sad situation but we can still have fun with it I hope. How about the One Eyed Purple People Eater song of the Monster Mash?
oh, Dale and Jenny - y'all are way too witty for me so early in the morning. thanks for the Tom Swifty, puns, and witticisms.
my fave is Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor in Superman. i liked his humor and his psychic nutritionist.
i also liked Steve van Zandt's Silvio Dante in the Sopranos.
beautiful photoshop again, Dale!
good morning All!
One favorite villain? You make it tough!
I guess I'm going to choose The Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz for a female villain. For a male villain, Norman Bates!
The Wizard in the Wizard of Oz. He was one of the first "Teflon executives." He managed to shove the blame off on flying monkeys, witches , and the legislatures, but just like Tim "No New Taxes" Pawlenty he could have been truthful and cooperative from the beginning and averted many of Dorothy's problems.
As the Dorothies of Minnesota we need to click our heels together and remember"There is no place for representative democracy like the house and senate."
Dale, perhaps Bobby McFerrin could convince Wizard Pawlenty to use the brain of the tinman and the heart of the lion for working with our representatives on this last day of the session.
Wow - Frankenstein's monster is ripped!
My 2 favorite villains: Norman Bates in Psycho and wicked witch in Wizard of Oz.
Glad to hear the drive was successful. How soon before the next one? - just curious:)
Actually, I can hardly tolerate horror movies of any kind. Just about every villian gives me the creeps, a level of sensitivity I attribute to a too-young exposure to the 1958 classic "The Crawling Eye", also known as "The Trollenberg Terror".
To this day I get uncomfortable whenever there's a radioactive cloud around the top of the mountain.
I hd to hide in the lobby of the theater the first time I saw Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Witch of the West. I still skip over the flying monkeys...won't see Psycho, hated Silence of the Lambs (had to fast forward to the end...) But recently read Frankenstein and found the doctor and his creation a little less frightening than the movie versions.
Boris and Natasha I can appreciate...good pun, Dale. And my Tom Swiftly from the weekend: "The bees arrived Friday and are hard at work already," Cynthia hummed busily.
Elinor - we must do lunch! I promise I didn't read your post before making mine- freaky!
Greetings Heartlanders! My favorite villain is probably Ricardo Montalban as Khan in "Star Trek II - Wrath of Khan." Definitely one of his better acting roles. He was silver-haired, bare-chested, virile-looking and spouting Melville with a vengeance. He had all the best lines in the movie.
While I tend to avoid horror movies, my other favorite was the shark in "Jaws." Whether it was the giant jaws snapping at the boat, or the barrels racing along the top of the water (shark unseen), they both scared the crap out of me.
howdy from sunny utah, y'all---i'm on a volunteer vacation to the best friends animal sanctuary---can't wait to get out there this morning for puppy socialization!
wireless at the motel means i still get to wake up with dale and RH and all of you!
dale, i'm like you---can't enjoy horror movies; while i was very frightened by the flying monkeys, i'll have to go along with the wizard now, as an adult---beth ann made a strong case!
the phrase "villains you love to hate" just popped into my mind, followed by memory of JR from Dallas---that phrase has always been mysterious to me....once someone turns evil, i just don't want to watch them at all!
i'm waiting impatiently for the free coffee in the lobby to be done---i took a cheaper route this visit, and was "horrified" to find no coffeepot in my room!!!! eek! now THAT is scary.
ha ha, "she's a thirsty girl" lyrics highly appropriate!
oh, yeah, Khan!!!! he gets my vote for most buff male villain...and most cultured...he was deeply, coldly angry....
Kay H - hope you're having fun in Utah. I have to agree with Larry Hagman as JR Ewing as another great bad guy. He reinvented the villain with the congenial face and winning smile, hiding the snake-like predator he was. Larry Hagman managed to spew venomous lines with a soft Texas drawl and an ingratiating smile on his face, but daggers in his eyes. These guys may not have been great actors, but they were certainly very good at their craft.
Personally, villains fascinate me. The psychological horror movies (the ones I do manage to see) are riveting, trying to fathom what goes on in their minds, and unlock the puzzle of the crime.
THE CRAWLING EYE? THE CRAWLING EYE? Man, I was traumatized by just the POSTER when I was a little kid... a big gnarly looking eyeball holding a scantily clad woman in one of it's tenacles/optic nerves. A couple of years later, I saw the first five minutes of the movie on TV, and THAT scared the hell out of me. Never made it to the actual monster part, until many years later. Turns out, they (there were several) were actually squishy looking octopus type thingies. Yeah, THE CRAWLING EYE... great bad guy.
Good Morning Heartland…..
I wanted to make sure I jumped on the blog this morning to share our experience last night at the Cedar.
First of all Thank You Dale for featuring Steve Kaul on Sat nights show. We wouldn't have known about it if we hadn't heard the show. Steve hosted the 416 Club last night bringing in African; (Sokousize) and Indian; (Nirmala) music along with the Brass Kings. They played separately then all together at the end. What an enjoyable evening!
Let me say this, if you enjoy hearing the Brass Kings on Radio Heartland but have never seen them live do yourself a favor and get out to one of their shows. They are so fun to watch and listen to.
At the end when they all played together they did Will the Circle Be Unbroken and it was so amazing mixing all those styles; it was like nothing I’ve heard before. I know it was being recorded I just hope it gets released one day.
Dale, will you please play some Brass Kings this morning?
Thanks,
Good Morning!
"Glad to hear the drive ended." Tom said successfully!
I think my favorite villain was the Spy -VS- Spy villains in Mad Magazine that I read as often as I could get my hands on one as a kid. I know, I know, the rules were for a movie villain but all the good ones were already taken and, like Dale and Kay H, I'm not much for the horror flick.
The villain I will face this morning is the wind which for a cyclist is the supreme villain unless it's from behind which seems to be pretty rare.
Have a Marvelous Monday everyone!
Thanks for the concert review, Kate.
I agree, the band is a great sonic AND visual experience.
Brass Kings coming up!
oh, the "villian you love to hate" concept Kay! my dear old grandmas both loved watching wrestling in the 50s and 60s. the "Crusher" and "Rowdy Roddy MacDowell" and during the height of the cold war, the worst villians always had Russian names, it seems. (can't remember the actual names)
i can't remember the Crawling Eye, but when i was 9 i took my 3-y.o. brother to "The Mole People" - who liked to pull folks into their holes. my brother started crying at the first frame of the first pull-down and i had to walk him home and miss the show. had barely gotten started on my Bonomo's Turkish Taffy.
fun memories.
Thanks for Jeremy Messersmith! His music is just so good!
For a movie villain, I would have to say my favorite is Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars. He's just an evil blend of political giant (Episodes 1-3) and creepy, powerful dude (Episodes 4-6). He always scared me as a small child. I'm not a fan of scary movies, so I don't know any of their villains...though Jack Nicholson in The Shining was pretty freaky.
One of my favorite villains is not a movie, but Dr. Larry Kyle from Genway! I wonder if you'll be hearing from him like you sometimes do from Cpn. Billy..?
Thanks, Dale, for Morningtime, and following it with Rave On was a nice touch -- we were dancing around the kitchen!
Is there still time to play "Zombi Jamboree" ("Back to Back and Belly to Belly")?
I've always hated horror flicks, so I'll vote for Boris and Natasha.
Certainly good suggestions all. Although, keep in mind, that when it comes to Frankenstein, many people regard 'the creature' as a tragic victim (albeit a 'monster' nonetheless) rather than an actual villain. After all, it was Dr. Frankenstein that essentially did all to create the circumstances that were essentially a 'no win' situation for his creation.
Hm. I try to avoid absolute 'favorites' because they tend to change with my moods. But one 'bad guy' that I just love to watch is Keyser Söze from 'The Usual Suspects.' It's always the smart villains that are so interesting to me.
Another one that I think is masterful is Max Von Sydow as Joubert in 'Three Days of the Condor.'
How about Henry Fonda as 'Frank' in 'Once Upon a Time in the West?' One of his first lines is, "People scare better when they're dyin'." Awesome stuff!
James Mason as Phillip Vandamm in 'North by Northwest?'
Oh, and Friday's Pieta Brown/Roma di Luna concert was amazingly great. Bo Ramsey was backing Pieta up on electric guitar and he did a masterful job. Roma di Luna did a lot of new songs (and a few old ones) and, despite Channy saying that she was nervous, they really sounded amazing. A great show all around!
Of course I can't forget the earliest villians: Boris & Natasha, Wiley Coyote, and the dasterly Mexican bandit that troubled the Quick Draw Macall by tying ladies to the railroad ties!
How about Auric Goldfinger? Wasn't he a sinister combination of greed and ambition? People were just cockroaches to crush underfoot. He wanted to set off a nuclear device just to raise the value of his gold holdings. A true sociopath!
What about Heath Ledger in the last Batman movie?
Yikes, he was so good at being creepy....
I vote for the flocks of birds in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." I saw the movie on TV as a child and it really creeped me out. Nature in its unpredictability can be frightening. I must add however, that I am an avid bird-watcher so for me at least there were no long lasting phobias.
Two other came to mind:
The Wicked Witch in Disney's Snow White -- scared me,anyway, at age of 4or 5.
And HAL in 2001! I was so glad when you changed HAL's name to JASPER.
My favorite movie 'bad guy' is Roy Batty in "Blade Runner," played by Rutger Hauer.
In his quest to extend his own life, he takes the life of others. In the end, when he dies himself, it's with such eloquence, you feel regret. Here's his last words:
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams ... glitter in the dark near Tanhauser Gate. All those ... moments will be lost ... in time, like tears ... in rain. Time ... to die."
Or you can watch it on YouTube
here.
"The Talking Wig" from some long-forgotten TV show. It would slither up the stairs and smother people as they slept. (except for Sam Donaldson who apparently wrestled it into submission and wears it to this day)
So glad to see someone else posting in the evening! The anticipation of reading all the comments from Heartlanders keeps me going all day until I can get to my keyboard. (Our HD radio does us well in the morning!) I would have to vote for JR Ewing in "Dallas" as my favorite villain; however, Genway's doctor does a close second! Evening.
The Song of Higher Office
By Bill Beyer
On the shores of insolvency
By the shining legislature
Stood the office of Pawlenty
T-Paw, Chief of Minnesota
Revenue in diminution
Chopping cost his sole solution
Don’t fix up no taxing loophole
Don’t clean up no corporate poophole
No adjustment to the budget
That could make a liberal hug it
Sell no bond for building maintenance
Cost of debt too high for patience
But, by magic of Pawlenty
Borrow mega-bucks aplenty
Pay more interest to the rich few
Presto, change-o, debt is revenue
Take those bucks from big tobacco,
Securitize, and don’t look back, Oh
Can you see how he looks tougher
As the least among us suffer?
Make it work with one-time shifting
Magic acts that leave us drifting
Don’t address no nitty-gritties
Kick the can down to our kiddies
Gotta live within our meanies
Thus spake all the tax-hawk weenies
Waste no time by grinding axes
Bottom line is no new taxes
Don’t ask no more taxing question
Don’t expect no special session
Don’t do no negotiation
As goes T-Paw goes the nation
Just one cure for tax-besotment
Give a hand to unallotment!
Stamping vetoes by line item
Making cuts, ad infinitum
Looking tougher, striking poses
Practicing his thumbing noses
For those far too dense to notice
T-Paw wants to be the POTUS
Campaign ‘12 already starting
MN attention span departing
Focus now on national wooing
Campaign slogans for reviewing:
“T-paw, T-paw he’s our hero!
Unallot us down to zero!”
“Private perfect, public too lax,
Only good tax is a dead tax!”
“Help our rich protect their riches
Shove our poorest in the ditches!”
On the shores of insolvency
By the tarnished legislature
Thus departed Chief Pawlenty
Turned around and waved a finger
Launched his birch canoe for sailin’
Off to battle Sarah Palin
“And the people from the margin
Watched him floating, rising, sinking,”
And they said farewell forever
Said good riddance, Chief Pawlenty.
Hi:
I wanted to mention a new TV show that was on ABC a couple of days ago. It's something like "The Goode Family" and it's an animated show from Mike Judge who was the creator of Bevis and Butthead and King Of The Hill. Now, while I like King Of The Hill fine it was always unpleasent to me to see how he kicked around progressives and always made them look like fools. Now he's built a whole Show around that idea. The Goodes are a family who try to be "Green" and correct all the time and are just too stupid and dense to get anything right or have any common sense at all. Is Mike Judge planning to do a show around a Far RIGHT pack of nutballs called "The Gunnes?" Nope. It's just always easier to kick around the liberals and it's safer too for cowards like Judge who like to poke fun at us. We don't poke back. I think we should check out this show and talk about it. I saw the first one and was offended. Am I too touchy? I don't think so...
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