2009 December 04 « Rev. Danny Fisher

New F.T.C. Guidelines for Bloggers Took Effect This Week

THESE ARE THE NEW FTC GUIDELINES THAT WENT INTO EFFECT 12/01/09:

· The Guidelines apply to Bloggers and online word-of-mouth marketers and require them to disclose any material connection to a company when reviewing the company’s products or services (failure to disclose any payment or receipt of free product from an advertiser or someone acting on their behalf could expose you to liability);

· Both advertisers and endorsers can be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement (if you were given a product for free or were paid to write a review, then the claims you make about the product must be accurate and substantiated);

· Advertisements containing consumer endorsements, or testimonials, must disclose what results a reasonable consumer could expect from the product and can no longer rely on a disclaimer that “results may vary”;

The complete revised Guidelines can be found at http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf

. The FTC has also posted several short videos explaining the Guidelines at http://www.ftc.gov/multimedia/video/business/endorsement-guides.shtm

A Gift of Dharma for 12.4.09

Another quote today from the Vidyādhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939-1987), whom I previously quoted and wrote a little bio for here. This is it:

If you are a warrior, decency means that you are not cheating anybody at all. You are not even about to cheat anybody. There is a sense of straightforwardness and simplicity. With setting-sun vision, or vision based on cowardice, straightforwardness is always a problem. If people have some story or news to tell somebody else, first of all they are either excited or disappointed. Then they begin to figure out how to tell their news. They develop a plan, which leads them completely away from simply telling it. By the time a person hears the news, it is not news at all, but opinion. It becomes a message of some kind, rather than fresh, straightforward news. Decency is the absence of strategy. It is of utmost importance to realize that the warrior’s approach should be simple-minded sometimes, very simple and straightforward. That makes it very beautiful: you having nothing up your sleeve; therefore a sense of genuineness comes through. That is decency.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring Among The Onion A.V. Club‘s “Best Films of the ’00s”

The Onion A.V. Club, which I have long contended is overdue for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, has offered their list of “The Best Films of the ’00s”. Among the titles they selected, I was pleased to see Kim Ki-duk’s Buddhist fable Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring–which came in ahead of such great ones as City of God, Brokeback Mountain, Old Boy, Gerry, and The Dark Knight. Earlier this year, I named it one of my “Five Great Films about Buddhism” for elephant journal. If you haven’t seen it…well, what are you doing reading this? Go watch it!

December 4, 2009

UWest’s Religion & Film Series Continues Tonight with Crimes and Misdemeanors

Before we go into finals week here, UWest’s Religion & Film Series is screening Woody Allen’s 1989 comedy-drama-fusion-classic Crimes and Misdemeanors. Nominated for three Academy Awards—Best Director (Allen), Best Original Screenplay (Allen), and Best Supporting Actor (Martin Landau)—the film features an all-star cast, including: Allen himself, Landau, Alan Alda, Mia Farrow, Jerry Orbach, Anjelica Huston, Sam Waterson, Claire Bloom, Joanna Gleason, Caroline Aaron, Daryl Hannah, Jenny Nichols, Martin Bergmann, Frances Conroy, and Nora Ephron. It is described this way by the All Movie Guide:

Martin Landau plays Dr. Judah Rosenthal, a prominent ophthalmologist with a successful practice, a loving family, and a reputation for generous charity work. But Rosenthal also has a secret: his mistress, Dolores (Anjelica Huston). [As] he tries to break off the relationship, Dolores threatens to expose his infidelity to his wife and some unorthodox financial arrangements to his colleagues. Fearful that Dolores will make good on her threats, Judah confesses his secret to his brother Jack (Jerry Orbach), who has ties to organized crime and offers to ‘make the problem go away.’ Meanwhile, Cliff Stern (Woody Allen) is a filmmaker working on his pet project, a documentary about philosopher Prof. Louis Levy (Martin Bergmann). However, films about philosophers don’t pay the rent, so Cliff’s wife Wendy (Joanna Gleason) arranges for him to make a documentary for public television about her brother Lester (Alan Alda), a famous TV comedian whose vapidity is exceeded only by his arrogance. While Cliff tries to bite the bullet and finish the film, he finds himself falling in love with PBS producer Halley Reed (Mia Farrow).

Vincent Canby, the great New York Times film critic, has said of the film: “Crimes and Misdemeanors is…about love and death, lust and murder, and attempts to reconcile religious faith in a world where it’s now taken for granted that E=MC²…[It is] Mr. Allen’s most securely serious and funny film to date.” A trailer is below.

The screening starts tonight at 7 p.m. in Room ED309. It is free and open to the public. A discussion will follow. We hope to see you there!

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