Can I get a big Amen?

I haven’t been to Funny or Die in a while, but Jamie at Perr Bear has, and she grabbed this mini-musical skit protesting the passage of Proposition 8, the California ballot measure in last year’s general election that defined marriage in California as between a man and a woman.

Written and co-produced by Marc Shaiman (on the piano), the cast includes Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, John C. Reilly and other celebrities.

Law suits seeking to overturn the measure abound and the California Supreme Court has accepted three, with oral arguments and a decision expected later this year.

Instead of military aircraft in this week’s fly-by, we’re featuring my friend and dive buddy, Mike, and his Socata TB20 Trinidad. (Wife Michele refers to it as “his beloved”.)

I’ve traveled with Mike and Michele to many of the most exotic dive destinations in the world and, besides a love of world class underwater adventure, we share an affinity for general aviation. Michele shares this photo and cockpit video of Mike and the TB20 in flight.

Suggestion: If you have the bandwidth, move your cursor to the triangle at bottom right and select HQ (high quality) viewing.

From James along with the lyrics. Go ahead, sing along…

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We finally saw the nearly three hour film Australia last evening after a drive out to tour Red Hawk Casino, and then dinner - peel & eat shrimp and “lazyman” cioppino - at Powell’s Steamer Co. & Pub in Placerville. Ran into our friend Candy there listening to live jazz. Yep, we covered a lot of ground but it felt good to blow off a little work related pressure and do something we don’t often get time for. Kind of a double feature weekend!

The film is a romantic action-adventure set in northern Australia prior to World War II and centers on an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a ranch the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn drover (Hugh Jackman) to drive 2000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country’s most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.

The film wasn’t in wide release for long, so many of you may have passed it by. But if it’s still playing in your area - we had to drive out the the Century on Greenback, the only theater still showing it here - make a point to catch it on the big screen. A special treat: the kid who narrates the story and plays the half Australian Aborigine boy that is more or less adopted by Kidman’s character. He is wonderful!

Dawn and I just got back from seeing Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino. Once again, the old man turned in both solid direction and an Oscar worthy performance. The film contains sufficient humor to take the edge off and delivers a good message about life, setting it apart from other revenge movies. We also chose to watch it in digital cinema format (no film!) which further enhanced our viewing experience. If DLP (Digital Projection) is offered at your theater, opt for it.

Here’s a pleasant little Dutch treat. Developed by Czar.NL for Heineken in the Netherlands and launched in late December 2008, this clever ad projecting the perceived differences in fashion focus between men and women was viewed a million times in its first week!

The money you give won’t just save a life, it’ll save a lifestyle.

And no year would be complete without JibJab’s “Year in Review”. All right, the last couple of years were phoned in, but this installment signals the bros are back to some serious “reviewin’”.

It’s been a whole year since Uncle Jay has sung an entire episode, and here’s a reminder why! It’s the year-end review of the news, and maybe it’ll seem a little better with music. Or not.

A year that witnessed unprecedented shocks to the financial system, wrenching losses in stocks, a disastrous blow to home values, massive layoffs, and a knee jerk election that trumpeted our desperation is heading into its final hours on a quiet note. I for one will be happy to see it disappear into the annals of history. Here’s to a brighter 2009!Tip o’ the hat to Michael!

When Simon promised another ‘toon by Christmas, I expected another “Simon’s Cat” episode. So when he released this spinoff, I assumed it was something for the RSPCA and that another “Cat” would be forthcoming. Guess I was wrong. But this is still pretty funny…

About this time every year there are warnings that, according to prophesy, the world is about to end. In fact, there’s at least one book that postulates the world will reach critical mass this year! The current world political climate certainly points in that direction.

The latest warnings reminded me of the popular “The End of the World” Flash animation I’d posted a couple times on my AFP site and last year on this one so, just in case the jig is up in the next couple days, here again is how it may very well play out. Not work-safe but well done and fairly accurate in a satirical way…

*Requires Adobe Flash Player, available as a free download if you don’t already have it.

And then there’s this from cranium…

Tell me again… When will all these holiday bailouts start working?