Recently on these pages, I reviewed Tunes of Glory, 1960, directed by Ronald Neame, the fictional screenplay by James Kennaway based loosely on the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. A few weeks ago, a fellow member of Clan MacLeod, who had read my review of Tunes of Glory, called my attention to another film involving the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. I obtained To End All Wars from Netflix, watched it, mulled it over, checked a few things, and decided that it was worthy of a review.

Throughout, I was in a "compare and contrast” mode regarding this film and David Lean's 1957 epic, "Bridge on the River Kwai" (inspired by the same Japanese military railroad construction project through Thailand, utilizing Allied prisoners-of-war). My impression, despite Lean's film being both an epic and a classic, was that this film, To End All Wars, was most likely more historically accurate, and that it certainly contained more depth, more realistic ambiguity, and more complexity (appropriately reflecting a very complex social and cultural situation).

From June 16 to June 19, I went to Portland to attend a conference of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. It was a fun time to meet cartoonists from all over the country and to learn more about the state of the political cartoonist trade in the U.S. During the 4 days, I attended many informative panels where various speakers talked about the local cartooning scene, and political cartooning in the web, political cartoons from across the world. We also got to hear from two legendary political cartoonists.

One interesting panel consisted of Mike Keefe, Ted Rall, Tjeerd Royaards, and Caroline Dijckmeester and they discussed possible new business models for editorial cartoonists. This is of special interests to editorial cartoonists, as recent years have seen many cartoonists lose their jobs as part of a larger trend of newspapers folding in the face of declining subscriptions and ad revenue. With the decline in newspapers, political cartoonists have been exploring other avenues to expose their work and earn some revenue. Mike Keefe talked about the website Sardonika as being a possible place to submit cartoons. Sardonika is a fictitious island off the coast of the United States that looks upon the U.S. sardonically and spoofs many of the late breaking news of the country. The Sardonika website is a bit like The Onion or Mad Magazine. I checked it out and found quite a few funny articles, although I couldn't figure out if there was a place that was just for the cartoons.

From June 16 to June 19, I went to Portland to attend a conference of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. In the span of a few days, I met cartoonists from around the country and enjoyed many conversations about the state of the industry and about the craft of cartooning. I was initially nervous about meeting some of my cartoonist heroes, but once I started talking to them, they always turned out to be nice and engaging people.

The very first cartoonists that I met were Jesse Springer and Monte Wolverton. Jesse had attended his first convention last year and still considered himself a relative newby, even though he had been doing political cartoons for over 15 years. He does political cartoons for local papers in Eugene, Oregon, and during the course of the convention we got around to talking about the materials we used to create our cartoons.

On April 9, 2008 my first cartoon for the Tri-City Voice was published and it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. I grew up wanting to be a published cartoonist, and the Tri-City Voice gave me an opportunity to be one. The Tri-City Voice is a wonderful newspaper with a circulation of 21,000 readers that covers the Fremont, Union City, Sunol, Milpitas, and Hayward areas of the San Francisco Bay Area. Every week I look forward to going on the drawing table and thinking up a new cartoon to submit to the Tri-City Voice editors.

It was Bob Dylan who started me pondering what ordinary persons such as I do expect from public figures, and what is reasonable for us to expect. It isn’t that I am overly sympathetic to public figures. Most of them sought that status, and that status pays off fairly well for most of them. We private citizens have a fair degree of legal right to our privacy. Public figures do not. That is part of the bargain. They forfeit privacy in return for the advantages of notoriety. So, it is not the privacy issue I am addressing. That is more or less settled. What I would like to address is ownership. Yes, once we the public fasten upon someone who has become a public figure, once we are delighted or moved by something he or she does, we think we own that person as he or she is (or as we think he or she is) at that moment.

With the release of Sex & The City II, it’s that time again.

Time for breathless “news” discussing earth shattering stories of consequence. What are Carrie/Samantha/Charlotte/Miranda wearing? Are Carrie and Big still together? Is Samantha…umm, still not “family friendly”? What’s up with awkward Miranda? How’s Charlotte’s sugar coated, goody-goody life?

I am invoking the words of Roberto Duran when I say with regards to Sex & The City – “NO MAS”. Yep, in the words of Mixed Martial Arts, I am tapping out of the Carrie/Samantha/Charlotte/Miranda bout. No mas. Tap…tap…tap.

When I first heard that a new Sex and the City movie was coming to a multiplex near me, I called my friend to ask her if she was up for seeing it. She and I had watched and discussed every episode of the TV version and had seen the first movie together. “Of course,” she said. Now we’re trying to find a day when we can both take time out to spend an afternoon at a movie.

My husband, the guy who likes to watch PBS documentaries about headhunters in Borneo who, during WWII, separated the heads of Japanese soldiers from their bodies, says every time he sees an ad for Sex and the City II, “You’re going to hate that movie.” I respond by saying, “No, I won’t.”

In the new video "Why Don't you Love Me" Beyonce is seen cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry, and scrubbing the floor as an unhappy housewife "BB Homemaker". Her retro style is incredible and the lyrical and musical uniqueness of the song is not only enchanting, but catchy. "Why Don't You Love Me" was co-written by Solange Knowles, Beyonce's younger sister whose style and musical choices are always interesting and unique and you can definitely see that in her new video.

The video has recently garnered attention from feminist blog sites such as Jezebel and Feministe, where women have both praised the video and questioned some of the themes hidden inside the lyrics. In the video "BB Homemaker" refuses to let her man make her feel less of a person because she knows she deserves a lot more. Is B a Feminist or a Independent Sister with a Knack for Girl Power? What are your thoughts?