Comments for Jason Cochran

Comment on My exclusive tour of the Shark Tank by Jason Cochran

Jason Cochran — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:41:26 +0000

Hi, Noah. You’ll find your answer at 0:18 in that video.

Comment on My exclusive tour of the Shark Tank by noah

noah — Sat, 12 May 2012 03:38:01 +0000

Do they have a real shark tank or is it a screen?

Comment on “Oklahoma!” is one of the dirtiest movie musicals of all time by Sabrina

Sabrina — Wed, 09 May 2012 05:53:56 +0000

Interesting stuff! I’ve having deep introspection about Ado Annie’s song, “I Cain’t Say No.” I loved that song as a 9 year old and would dress up and do little “performances” of it. (I made my little sister be Will Parker in the duet, too.) Now studying some feminist theory, I’m wondering how my parents didn’t find this rather precocious for a prepubescent girl and disturbing in some of the implications. Just why CAN’T Annie say no, anyway? Is this purely a liberated woman before her time pursuing her own sexual pleasure? Or is there some pressure, perhaps? Some girls can be “prissy and quaint” and still get male attention despite their being “coy and hard to catch,” but attention is a lot more tangible with physical touch. Attention sure is “fun.” A girl gets cookies for living up to a man’s fantasies. (Cookies being attention and positive feedback.) Although Annie “knows what’s right and wrong,” knows she ought to “give his face a smack” he who tries to kiss a girl, a child is taught to respect her elders and superiors by following instructions. In a patriarchal society, woman’s superiors are men. We know exactly what a man’s fantasy is, even with the outwardly modest values in Oklahoma!: the lewd “burleeque” girls of Jud’s posters and Will’s “Little Wonder.” It is a sexually available woman, of course! What is his fantasy is what is his instruction to Annie, and of course it’s difficult to “dissapoint” that beau.
It’s more than just “coy” or “prissy” to defy the feller’s desire for access to her body, it can be downright dangerous. When her friend Laurie denies Jud that access, she is threatened with bodily harm. Annie says that when she “loses a wrestlin’ match [she] has a funny feeling that she’s won,” but I’m not so sure it’s such a great thing all the time. Yet she “never make[s] a complaint ’til it’s too late for restraint, then when [she] wants to [she] cain’t. That would make something “inside of me snap,” too.

Comment on Hidden truth in Rosewood, Florida by Mary Wright

Mary Wright — Mon, 07 May 2012 02:33:04 +0000

I’m a Georgia girl and just watched the movie for the first time; never heard of Rosewood before. Looked up info on internet and read everything I could find.

I’m saddened to be part of the human race and it is sickening to know my race has been part of so many evils against other races.

Florida owes the families of Rosewood much more. There should be a museum or something there for historic record on all the families of that community.

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”, the original is in Russian do various translations to English are possible, narrated theme of Sergei Bondarchuk’s Soviet film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s book “War and Peace”.

Comment on Movie musicals: Stuck in Renée Zellweger’s head for a decade by Ken Kleiber

Ken Kleiber — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:48:12 +0000

Well-articulated! I’ve always believed that if the world of a piece (musical or otherwise) is established in the first two minutes, then that piece pretty much has free-reign to stylistically go where it needs to go. One of my biggest gripes about the RENT film is that rather than sing the opening lines (“December 24th…”, etc.) as written, the director opted to have it spoken, thus establishing the film as a non-musical…so when several minutes later the characters break into song, it offended the senses (“Hey! Why are these people running around singing all of a sudden! Cut it out!”).
Great job!

Comment on Movie musicals: Stuck in Renée Zellweger’s head for a decade by Broadway Strips Down, "Seminar" Skips Town and More News | The BroadwayBlog

Broadway Strips Down, "Seminar" Skips Town and More News | The BroadwayBlog — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:13:34 +0000

[...] friend and amazing writer at large (yes, Jason, amazing as in awe-inspiring) Jason Cochran in this insightful article about the film version of Chicago and its “justified” musical numbers. I [...]

Comment on Movie musicals: Stuck in Renée Zellweger’s head for a decade by Jason Cochran

Jason Cochran — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:44:11 +0000

Although the trend was bubbling for years, it seemed to require the mad success of ‘Chicago’, combined with Hollywood copycat-ism, to cement it into the dominant mode of musical storytelling.

Comment on Thrifty rental car requires your gas receipt now by Derrick

Derrick — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:22:29 +0000

How freely do you think the credit card company gives up your personal information?

Comment on Thrifty rental car requires your gas receipt now by Jason Cochran

Jason Cochran — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:06:23 +0000

Credit card companies have a wee bit more information about account holders than their mailing addresses.

Comment on Thrifty rental car requires your gas receipt now by Derrick

Derrick — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:24:56 +0000

Well I guess if the car comes up missing they can always look in your P.O. box

Comment on Thrifty rental car requires your gas receipt now by Jason Cochran

Jason Cochran — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:04:40 +0000

I’m guessing you work somewhere in service, because you say “the public, in general, will lie right to your face.” And because you’re not really hearing what I’m actually saying. I don’t have trouble giving my personal information. Giving a credit card is not the problem — in fact, it’s the car company’s insurance against any of the Lying Public from putting water in the gas tank. It’s because I’ve supplied a credit card and full identification that the car company shouldn’t have to police my personal schedule once I have the car.

Comment on Thrifty rental car requires your gas receipt now by Derrick

Derrick — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:29:16 +0000

Are u kidding? U don’t want to give your personal info? Let me ask a question, what would a bank say if you asked for a 20 thousand dollar loan and said “but i don’t want to give any personal info”. I think we both know what they would tell you. Companies need to take precautions on everyone that rents a car. No offense to you, but they don’t know you or what you might do to that rental car once you leave the lot. The public, in general, will lie right to your face to get out of paying for something. “Must of been like that when I picked it up” or “I don’t know how the bumper went missing” are some common things that you might hear at a rental desk. Oh yeah good luck to John on the lawsuit. Most likely the legal contract that you signed allows the company to run your credit card. They don’t have to ask your permission because they already have it when you hand your card over and sign the contract. Thats why they take your card at the beginning of the rental. How many people do you think would freely hand over their credit card for damage?

Comment on Movie musicals: Stuck in Renée Zellweger’s head for a decade by Jason Cochran

Jason Cochran — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:07:49 +0000

Songs that occur inside the characters' fantasies are nothing new -- you can go even back to Kurt Weill's psychoanalysis musical Lady in the Dark (1941) for taking that that innovation to a major level. Dancer in the Dark could be considered the wrist-slitting descendant of that one. But what's new is that so many musicals occur in either Fantasyland or Realityland now. So few songs simply arise from a character's impulse to sing their emotions to another character. It's as if the only way jaded audiences can accept singing is if it's monologue, and not dialogue. The concept musical has become the only acceptable mode.

Comment on Movie musicals: Stuck in Renée Zellweger’s head for a decade by Tom Benton

Tom Benton — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:14:45 +0000

I believe Lars von Trier’s film Dancer in the Dark was very much responsible for Chicago’s success. He used Bjork’s musical numbers in much the same way, as she escaped into her own internal world to deal with the harshness of the world around her.

Comment on Movie musicals: Stuck in Renée Zellweger’s head for a decade by John Strangi

John Strangi — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:57:25 +0000

I found Jason Cochrans about “movie musical’s” excellent. I’d also hoped that “Chicago” would have brought us back to the era when Julie Andrews was Queen. Thank God we at least had those years. In my book Miss Andrews is still Queen but, sadly, most MM’s, these days, just don’t seem to make it.

Comment on Movie musicals: Stuck in Renée Zellweger’s head for a decade by EstherK

EstherK — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:48:30 +0000

Hey, this post isn’t about travel! But wait, it is…about travel into the fabulous world of musicals. I had been long pondering a post about the resurgence of the musical in popular culture, attributing some of it to Joss Whedon for his “Dr. Horrible” as well as his “Once More With Feeling” episode of Buffy (in which spontaneous singing was caused by a demon), and even extending back to “Cop Rock.” But I never wrote it, which is why I was glad to see that you did.

When the songs come organically, I’m all for singing in priimetime. Or anytime. Or at the office, where I’m trying to find collaborators in what I’m tentatively calling “Musical Wednesdays.” Fun post, Jason. Thanks.

Comment on Beautiful mistakes my camera made by Nick Shirley

Nick Shirley — Tue, 01 May 2012 01:21:49 +0000

It’s nice that you got something good out of it. Some of those are pretty cool!

Comment on All the National Park Service Twitter accounts in one place by Jason Cochran

Jason Cochran — Tue, 01 May 2012 01:18:27 +0000

Thanks, Deanna. I have added the two missing parks, but I left the Virginia parks in the Southeast because I think that, contrary to the federal government’s classification, most Americans think of Virginia as Southern — a classification that might be backed up by the fact that so many of its National Park units concern its membership in the Confederacy. But who is this prominent official? I don’t put a lot of non-unit Twitter accounts on this list, but now you’ve got me curious.

Comment on All the National Park Service Twitter accounts in one place by Deanna Beachsm

Deanna Beachsm — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:04:03 +0000

All the Virginia parks are in the Northeast Region. You are missing COLO and STSP. And a certain very prominent administrative official who is a champion Twitter enthusiast.

Comment on San Francisco’s tourist pitfalls by Nick Shirley

Nick Shirley — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:51:10 +0000

A travel video with actual useful advice! You get my vote for best travel writer of the decade.