riggins idaho hotels
We couldn't find the page you requested, either because it is temporarily unavailable, has had its name changed, or no longer exists on FindArticles.
This error occurred at: 2009-12-17 09:29:31
If you'd like to forge ahead here are some ideas:
Thank you for visiting FindArticles.
|
|
|
|
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. |
|
|
As a third-generation GMer, Jon Lauckner is fiercely committed to restoring greatness to America’s biggest car company. The VP of
global product planning and the man behind the Chevy Volt, is determined to go big or go home.
When it comes to understanding consumers and what they will want, Apple is one of the strategically smartest companies in the world. And the recently reported deal to acquire music streaming start-up Lala is another indication that the company is planning to become the central cloud for consumers. That raises some interesting questions about what [...]
Even smart people make financial moves that are downright illogical. Emotions and superstitions have a sneaky way of keeping you from rational financial decisions. But dumb choices can have serious, real-world consequences. Here are some of the biggest blunders we all make, plus tips from the experts on how to keep cool.
John Gibson: What isn't he capable of?
At this point it's hard to say. But what is completely clear about Fox News's scarily vampiric news anchor is that he has never denied the charges. Arguably because I just made them up right here at my desk, and I have no facts to prove them.
But Gibson is a celebrity, and as such less a human than a holographic abstraction, and thus fair game for all manner of smirky ridicule. At least, this is how Gibson
Hulk: Don't say he's juiced. Not where he can hear you, anyway.
On "American Gladiators" the pursuit of wealth and fame has become a superhero comic book. The master of ceremonies is Hulk Hogan,/cq and he's amazingly large and loud and not what you'd call a natural reader of cue cards. He may be distracted by the lights, which erupt from every direction, often in consort with the flames exploding from the surface of a pool. The studio audience bellows its approval and greets failures with a wall of descending thumbs. Everyone is ravenous for success, and the competition is fast, brutal and yet surprisingly good-natured.
As in the syndicated version of "American Gladiators" from the '90s, NBC's revived version combines the flash of professional wrestling (Hogan's world) with the emotional manipulation of network Olympic coverage. The contestants (including Milwaukie's Monica Carlson) turn out to be relatively normal folk (a doctor, a firefighter, salespeople and one professional skateboarder figured into last week's premiere) who introduce themselves in terms of their personal problems. A divorce here, a few needy kids there, a pair of immigrant parents whose dedication must be rewarded. It's impossible not to empathize.
Everyone has good intentions. Which mean precisely nothing to the show's gladiators, a dozen supersized humanoids whose entire purpose in life is to take each contestant's most tender desire and use it to bash them in the face. It's not personal. As with their Roman forebears, the American gladiators are professionals who bear no grudges. They may not be capable of thought on that level. All are lumpy and shiny and prone to displays of animalistic fervor, equipped with noms-du-mayhem such as Fury (a/k/a Jamie Kovac of Oregon City), Hellga (who dresses in the manner of a Viking princess, with a dainty skirt and knee-high boots) Wolf (long hair, beard and the unsettling habit of howling at the camera) and Militia (whose name I first heard, and still prefer, as Malicia).
The show's first episode last week moved quickly from introductions to the games themselves, in which the contestants faced off against the brutally efficient gladiators in various non-lethal forms of jousting, hand-to-hand combat and weapon-heaving. The action is swift and easy to follow, and the exhortations from Hogan and his female cohort Laila Ali (the charming daughter of Muhammad), along with the commentary from a faceless announcer, trend toward the hilarious.
"Crush," we're told of one comely gladiator, "just happens to be a joust expert AND a knock-out!"
The latter is self-evident. The former becomes clear moments later when Crush uses a padded spear to send her quarry hurtling into the water below. At which point the dialogue became even more absurd.
"That's the most fun I've had in a long time!" she exulted to the camera, prompting the announcer to muse aloud: "I wonder what ELSE Crush does for fun."
If I were a teenaged boy my idea of fun would be to watch "American Gladiators."
The action is fast and nearly non-stop, the trash-talk is good-natured and even the villains are strangely good-humored. The implicit message, it seems, involves sacrifice and commitment. You give your all, you work hard, you step through the fire (literally, on the "Gladiators" set) and go toe-to-toe with fearsome, mindless antagonists. If you're lucky you could actually become one of them - the grand prize for the show's winners, along with the $100,000, is the privilege of donning the silver lycra and becoming a star in the next season of "American Gladiators."
Be careful what you wish for. I'd hate to imagine what sort of regimen (physical and perhaps pharmaceutical) it takes to maintain the sort of physique gladiator work seems to require. And while that sort of fame, complete with absurdist nicknames, is obviously limited, Hulk Hogan had to start somewhere, too. And just look at him now.
Say what you will about Hogan's puffed-up appearance, his severely mediated hair and tight, shiny face. Whatever his secret vices he's nowhere near the depths plumbed by the sad, ravaged celebrities who stumble in to VH1's "Celebrity Rehab." A kind of penultimate stop in the stations of the celebrity cross (the last being the post-mortems on cable news and "Last 24"-style documentary coverage), "Rehab" promises to cast an unblinking eye on the toll of unchecked indulgence.
The show delivers, in horrifying measures. And while it's hard to recommend "Rehab" as casual entertainment - it's a stone bummer - it's far less manipulative and degrading than you might expect. On the contrary, the show is remarkably clear-eyed. It would serve nicely as a cautionary tale for anyone who still believes the Hollywood fast lane's ultimate destination isn't somewhere in Dante's realm.