The American Culture

Continuing the trickle of live 3D events in U.S. movie theaters, Turner Network Television's broadcast of the National Basketball Association's All-Star Saturday Night event on February 14 will be shown live in 3D in up to 160 screens in 80 digitally equipped theaters around the United States.

The NBA All-Star Saturday Night is not the actual all-star game but instead comprises the slam dunk contest, three-point shooting competition, and other such skills exhibitions. This is the first NBA event to be shown in theaters in 3D.—S. T. Karnick

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 By S. T. Karnick

The editorial committee at Berkley Books undoubtedly thought they had a big winner on their hands when they first saw the manuscript of Angel at the Fence.

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By S. T. Karnick

The quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers tend to get the glory, but football is really about blocking and tackling, and games are still won or lost at the line of scrimmage. One of the greatest tacklers of all time was football Hall of Fame honoree Dick Butkus, who played for the University of Illinois and then the Chicago Bears in the 1960s and '70s.

Butkus was one of the hardest hitters of all time, and he attacked the game—and opposing ball-carriers—with a savagery extraordinary even for his time. Yet his ferocity as a player was in service of a greater good—team success—and although he had an engaging personality and ultimately had some success as a movie actor, during his playing days Butkus never sought undue acclaim from the press or the fans, going about his job as a true professional who simply loved his work.

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You can criticize anything except global warming shibboleths, the producers of the excellent BBC TV automobile show Top Gear have found out. They did some of their usual editing with a piece on the Tesla electric car to make the item spicier and more fun, the Guardian reports, and naturally the enviros went nuts, saying the program misled viewers.

It's a comedy show, people, not a documentary.

Oh, that's right, envirocommunists have no sense of humor.—S. T. Karnick

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The new American Girl doll of the year is Chrissa, who must endure and overcome pranks and bullying at school, providing life lessons for today's girls that are unfortunately all too necessary these days. The Chicago Sun-Times reports. The doll goes on sale on New Year's Day.—S. T. Karnick

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An enthusiastic preview of the new season of Fox's action-drama series 24, which begins a week from this Sunday, is available on E! Online. It appears that the year off due to the writers' strike did the series a world of good, reinvigorating the writing and production team.—S. T. Karnick

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Here's a brilliantly funny burlesque of twisty films noir, set at Christmas. Directed by Vincent Bal in 1996, it's in Belgian, with English subtitles, but is quite watchable and a good deal of fun. It can be purchased on DVD here.

(Thanks to The Seattle Mystery Bookshop and TAC correspondent Mike Gray for letting us know about the film.)

Note: to see the film in full-screen mode, click on the rectangle at the lower right corner of the player window.

Enjoy The Bloody Olive.