November 6, 2007 Archives

The AP broke news today that musician Rosanne Cash will be undergoing brain surgery. Rosanne, daughter of Johnny Cash and stepdaughter of June Carter Cash, is a great singer and songwriter in her own right and has spent the past year touring in support of her album "Black Cadillac," which deals with June and Johnny's deaths.

Although Rosanne's surgery is elective and not life-threatening, we know how difficult it can be to go through and recover from surgery. To send your prayers to her, click here.

On this election day in many parts of the country—and with the presidential primaries on the horizon (and the front page), here's my list of the Top Ten Election movies (that I’ve actually seen). I've evaluated them primarily on the inspiration they give to mobilize people to make a difference with their vote—or to at least become more educated about it—as well as its star power and entertainment value. They're also good if you want to rent a DVD while awaiting election returns!

10. "Bulworth" Warren Beatty stars as a candidate who is so disillusioned with the political process that he decides to be brutally honest with voters during an election cycle in which he has nothing to lose…because he's organized his own assassination. It's a whimsical tale, to be sure, but there are moments where we are actually caused to wonder: "What if a politician really just told the truth?!"

9. "Dick" A younger Kristen Dunst and Michelle Williams star in this "Clueless" or "Legally Blonde" feeling movie that young kids and teens may be interested in. Two young girls are on a tour of D.C. when they stumble upon President Nixon's top-secret team, shredding documents. The girls are ditzy but they end up being targets of Nixon's politico machine that (as the movie portrays) would do anything to go after anyone to control public opinion, hide truth, and win the next election.

It's been beautiful. It's been a welcome change. It's been a bit hokey at times. But all-in-all, NBC's weeklong commitment to raising awareness of Global Climate Change has been in informative and inspiring addition to this week's programming, highlighted by the ends-of-the-earth segments that have screened everywhere from "The Today Show" to all of the news shows and newsmagazines in the NBC/Universal family of networks.

Matt Lauer has been live from Greenland, "the epicenter of climate change" in the Arctic Circle. Ann Curry has been live from Antarctica, "the planet's air-conditioner." Al Roker has been in Ecuador at the Equator, earth's "engine of biodiversity," in both the cloud forests as well as the line where you can stand in both hemispheres at the same time.

The Arctic Circle pieces have been the strongest with regard to climate change issues. Time lapse photography has shown ice moving and melting. Comparison pictures have shown icebergs growing in number while glaciers melt en masse. The people of the island nation (three times the size of Texas) are having longer shipping and growing seasons, and able to access more natural resources due to the ice melt. Doing segments between windstorms and white outs brought a bit of journalistic re-standardizing, as Lauer went unshaven and revealed he was "freezing my you-know-what off." The "Seal and Pigheart Stew" was a visual I won't soon forget.