A little slower than usual on the news front this past week given the Thanksgiving Holiday, but with the Iowa Republican caucuses just thirty-six days away, there seems to be yet another seismic shift in the field of candidates.
The campaign of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been seen as a long shot since it was rather clumsily announced last March. Recent questions about money he made advising Federal Housing giant Freddie Mac and statements he made criticizing child labor laws, seemed like they would be additional blows to an already flagging campaign.
But as of about two weeks ago, some opinion polls show Gingrich inching out a lead over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, indicating that he may be the latest in a long line of candidates that conservatives are flocking to him, as an alternative to Romney.
Last Tuesday, in a CNN Republican primary debate about National security issues, many observers said Gingrich gave a strong performance.Gingrich, also made headlines in the debate, when he spoke of the need for a ‘more humane’ immigration policy that would forge a pathway to legalization’ for those immigrants who may have entered the country illegally, but now have families in the U.S and have assimilated into the fabric of American life.
Some conservatives slammed Gingrich for the move that has been widely seen as a tact to the center. Iowa Congressman Steve King as well as primary rivals such as Romney and Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann called such a policy ‘amnesty’.
Local movie enthusiasts were crestfallen this Summer when after a quarter century of bringing classic cinema and great conversation into our lives; the forces of economics and advancing technology forced those us in the valley to parts ways with Pleasent Street Video.
Fellow Valley blogger Tommy Devine, posted a scene from the 2004 film TheDown Fall (which has been altered in the past to show Hitler railing against everything from Barack Obama beating Hillary Clinton in the Democartic primaries in 2008, to the Apple ipad, and even the parodies themselves) in which Hitler takes the news that the independent video store that once sat at the corner of Pleasant and Armory Streets has gone out of business, pretty hard.
His nerves though would probably calm though after he learned that the Forbes Library had adopted the store’s entire collection and will make them available to the public to rent out at no cost. A good way to say ‘up yours’ to Netflix.
Pleasant Street Video (Pic courtesy of: Skytemple.com)
Sobering news for cinefanatics in the Pioneer Valley, especially Northampton. As many already know Pleasant Street Video, the old-fashioned video rental store on the corner of Armory street and Pleasant Street in the downtown area, will forever close its doors two weeks from today. Its shelves were stocked with hard to find titles, foreign films from just about every country on the map, and experimental films. The close comes as the old video store business that first came about in the early to mid eighties is dying out with the birth of the internet, Netflix, and red box services.
This Sunday will be the last chance to rent out or renew any rentals, though the store will remain open until Saturday July 16 to collect movies that need to be returned, accept donations for their effort to sell their film collection to the Forbes Library, and for what will no doubt be a multitude of heartfelt goodbyes. My computer isn’t set up yet (hopefully the needed part will come today and my brother’s friend will be able to service the computer as needed); so a further article and photographs should be posted on this by the end of next week.
Sidney Lumet, the cinematic mind that brought to life such motion picture classics as Twelve Angry Men, Serpico , Dog Day Afternoon , Network, and many others; died Friday night at the age of 86. Reports indicate that lymphoma was the cause of death.
Pioneer valley dispatch 