|
Thursday, July 24
Posted
Thursday, July 24, 2008
by Gene
(0) comments
OwFrom about an inch past my right elbow to about halfway down the forearm there is currently no skin. This is because my faith in my thin speed tires to continue to grip the road on a tight turn on a wet road-- I was going downhill around a turn at about twenty-two miles an hour-- was misplaced.
We've been getting phenomenal amounts of rain lately. As I type this we are being hit by a really powerful thunderstorm and rain shower, with the rain and the wind combining to create actual visual waves in the rain as it falls past my window. You know things are bad when the rain is thick enough to have its own tide chart.
Wednesday, July 23
Posted
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
by Gene
(0) comments
Exposing Bush's Historic Abuse of PowerIn the middle of reading this article I recalled the line from the tragically underrated Strange Days: "the issue's not whether you're paranoid, Lenny. I mean look at this shit, the issue is whether you're paranoid enough."
And because I'm apparently all about the movies today, I'm also remembering a scene-- actually about two dozen scenes-- from Enemy of the State where the super secret government apparatus accessed data instantaneously they simply could not have accessed, quickly or otherwise. Daily banking information, for instance. I work for a bank, and I can tell you right now there is no way to just peek into the data from outside like that.
On the other hand... well, read the article. And then? I hear the Netherlands are quite nice.
Tuesday, July 22
Posted
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
by Gene
(1) comments
Janet Jackson's boob freed after ruling overturnedThe boob has no statement at this time.
Considering the FCC has been spinning out of control, I think this is good news, don't you?
Seriously The FCC has been pushing an agenda of "decency" that has the backing of right wing special interest groups, whether tacit or implicit. What I mean is, they are responding in part to written complaints, but those complaints are all coming from the same source, usually with the exact same wording, because watchdog groups are telling their members to take a standard complaint letter, sign their name to it, and send it in. The FCC treats these as individual complaints when they're really a single complaint by a group with members who would actually bleat instead of speaking if there were any justice.
By taking these complaints seriously the FCC has effectively changed the definition of what you are allowed to watch on television. That means you, an adult, are being told you cannot watch things that are morally objectionable to somebody that isn't you. And based on most of what's on television that person who isn't you may also be functionally retarded.
So bravo: the judge who ruled that the FCC was acting "capriciously" was absolutely correct. Keep your religion out of my entertainment and I'll keep my entertainment out of your religion.
Monday, July 21
Posted
Monday, July 21, 2008
by Gene
(2) comments
The Dark KnightOkay, so about the movie...
Let's start with how long it is. It's two and a half hours, and it has a plot that needed three hours to tell. I'm aware it was edited down from something like that length, which was telling especially in the first forty minutes and the last forty. Subplots that needed at least one more scene to work didn't have those scenes. For instance-- and now I'm going to speak obscurely so as to avoid having to put a spoiler alert at the beginning of this-- the accountant's subplot was missing a scene that would have given him some important motivation. And if you don't know what scene must have been missing, email me.
So I liked it a lot, but I want to see the director's cut of this film before I start calling it the Godfather of superhero movies, as I've heard a couple of times. I think it very nearly was what the filmmakers wanted it to be, but it didn't quite make it. There was an overarching message that just didn't get delivered, and that became important at the end, which is the real reason so many people are sitting in silence after the movie is over. It's not that they're stunned by what they've just seen, it's that they didn't understand the ending of what they just saw. (BTW, if you're planning to see it in IMAX, my advice would be to see it in the theater first. IMAX films have to be edited for length, so you might lose another 1/2 hour of plot, and the film is confusing enough already.)
Now: Heath Ledger. The highest compliment I think I can make about his performance is that I couldn't see him in there. At all. His Joker was a brilliant and terrifying force of nature. Absolutely Oscar-worthy.
Watchmen rethink After being all giddy about the gorgeous visuals I saw in the Watchmen preview I've come down to earth just a little bit. Something's bugging me. See, the guy making this is the same one who made 300, which was all visuals and machismo and anachronism (see below) and about as subtle as a double-D's in a strip club. To tell Watchmen you really do need to grasp the subtle. And I don't know if Zach Snyder has it.
I'll give you two problems I saw in the preview (which I've since watched three more times): Nite Owl has no paunch, and the Silk Spectre is clearly in her mid-twenties. These are two aging, retired heroes who have been out of the game for a decade. Their story arcs include learning how to be heroes again. A buff Nite Owl and a Silk Spectre who is supposed to be a fit forty year old do not match those story arcs very well at all.
So I'm... a bit worried.
Aside: Regarding 300, I think someone needs to point out that the signature line from the film-- "Spartans! Tonight we dine in hell!!!!"-- makes zero historical sense. The Greeks had no concept for "hell" in the sense invoked by this phrase. They did have Hades, which was an all-encompassing underworld land of the dead, and you went there regardless of the kind of life you led. You can argue all you want that that's what Leonidas meant when he said "hell", but seriously: "tonight we dine in the afterlife"? No, he meant "hell" in the sense we think of it, which is where you go when you've been a bad person. The phrase is, "we are going to be some serious bad-asses now and we don't care where we end up for it." Hell, in other words.
Anyway, that bugs me every damn time I hear it.
Friday, July 18
Posted
Friday, July 18, 2008
by Gene
(3) comments
Never mind Dark KnightThat Watchmen preview caused me to wet myself. Holy shit.
Oh. Dark Knight was good too. Glad we stayed for it.
Posted
Friday, July 18, 2008
by Gene
(6) comments
The Dark Knight is tonightSqueeeeeeeeee!
Yes, I have been making that noise all day.
A headline you may have to take some time off to recover from
Thursday, July 17
Posted
Thursday, July 17, 2008
by Gene
(0) comments
I KNEW it!
Yes there is a reason the cookies taste that good.
(Thanks to Jenn for the link. And possibly the joke.)
While you're waiting for the Dark Knight premiere
Location found A location for the shooting of Parting has been found. And there was much rejoicing.
Down to one car We've officially made the conversion to a one-car family. The old Chevy Blazer-- the Hellblazer we called it-- was towed this morning to live a long and fruitful life as a dismantled pile of scrap. From this point forward if I'm not biking to work I'm probably taking the train. With a full tank of gas costing $50-$60 bucks it's time to embrace my metropolitan existence. I mean goodness: I live within 1.5 miles of Harvard Square. If I drew a two mile circle around our residence I do believe there isn't a single need or service that would not be met by something within that circle. We barely need one car.
Wednesday, July 16
Posted
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
by Gene
(5) comments
Dark KnightWell, The Dark Knight opens Friday, and I'm so giddy I can barely contain myself. I went and splurged, buying two tickets to the Friday night 10:30 showing at the Premium Seating theater in Framingham, a place I think I've mentioned before. It's an enormous screen, a flawless sound system, reclining leather seats, and a full bar and restaurant. Since you can't be under 21 and attend this theater (because of the liquor availability) the kids can't come with us for this, which is okay as they're getting a jump on the film by seeing it at Midnight on Thursday.
Watchmen And there's supposed to be a trailer for Watchmen airing. I'm nearly as giddy about this, but I understand if I'm the only one.
Here's a little history. In the Eighties, two seminal comic books were released: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, and Watchmen, by Alan Moore. In terms of comic book narrative, there has never been and never will be anything better than Miller's four issue DKR, although he personally came close with Batman: Year One, Electra: Assassin, and the Daredevil: Born Again storyline. Miller's Batman-- especially Year One-- directly influenced the last two incarnations of the cinematic Batman, with some film sequences cribbed directly from the books.
Watchmen is an entirely different thing: literature. I have seen it on several lists for the best novels of the 20th century and it belongs there. Watchmen is the pinnacle of graphic art. If you want to know how strongly I've felt about this book and for how long, my first online handle was Ror1schach (the 1 is silent), a name I took from one of Moore's characters.
Unfortunately, Moore's work has failed almost all attempts to film. The only one that came close to working was V for Vendetta, an angry story he wrote before Watchmen, and before his completely brilliant Swamp Thing stint. It was a less mature story for him, in other words. The other two attempts were The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell, and I don't think I need to go on about how bad they both were.
If Watchmen manages to be a successful imagining of the graphic novel, it could well be the best comic book film ever made. And the Eighties high school kid in me will be very happy about that.
Tuesday, July 15
Posted
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
by Gene
(0) comments
No going topless in DubaiThis article reminds me of the time wife Deb and I were in Aruba. We ended up sharing a cab with a couple who were going to a nearby resort. The couple consisted of a statuesque blonde and a thin, mousy little man, a contrast that led me to conclude he must have been very wealthy. They were Dutch, so it's also possible that both were typical looking for the Netherlands.
The woman spent most of the cab ride complaining about their resort. She had apparently done what is perfectly normal in large portions of the world, i.e., sunbathe topless while at the pool. People complained and management asked her to cover up. And she was appalled. I mean, it was weird for an American to hear a deeply attractive woman complaining about how unfair it was that she could not show her breasts in public. Because in America, we don't really do the topless sunbathing thing at all, and we are also short on statuesque blondes, I've noticed.
I spent the entire ride agreeing with her, by the way. "Yes," I said, "it's really really awful. You should be able to sunbathe topless wherever you want. Where are you staying again? I'll certainly file a complaint..." and so on. And for some reason this got me in trouble with my wife.
The Obama-New Yorker flap I'm only going to say that I agree with essentially everything said in this article. We need to get a grip, y'all.
Dear Brett Favre: please please go away
Monday, July 14
Posted
Monday, July 14, 2008
by Gene
(1) comments
When old columns become new again
Witnessed Wall-E. I had to bring my family to this at gunpoint on a day (July 4) when everyone wanted to do their own thing. Good thing I have a gun. This was a deeply entertaining film that I want to see about five more times.
Pixar is getting pretty good at their animation, too. There were three or four times in the Earth sequences where I actually forgot I was watching something computer-created rather than filmed.
In the Valley of Elah There were times when watching this movie that I thought it was truly exceptional. The feeling passed. The pacing is kind of off, it felt about ten minutes too long, and when we got to the ending my wife had to ask if "that's it?" The film somehow managed to hit you over the head with their message while at the same time making the message so subtle it was difficult to identify. That, if nothing else, is an impressive accomplishment.
Slings & Arrows, season two If you have ever been involved in theater in any capacity and have a NetFlix account there is really no reason not to be watching this. It's hysterical, but it also has a love of the theater that is so deep and clear that you'll remember that one time when you loved the theater too, and then you'll start to tear up. I know I've mentioned this before, but really: this is/was a great little show.
Friday, July 11
Posted
Friday, July 11, 2008
by Gene
(1) comments
Payday: time to pick up a few special extras for my bikeBrakes, for instance. My current brakes do kinda sorta stop the bike, but only after a generous application of both sets. The back tire brakes don't stop the bike alone, while the front ones do, which isn't actually that fantastic because using just them would send me over the handlebars.
I have biked over 250 miles with the brakes like this, but enough is enough. I now have gotten to the point where I have to anticipate every stop well in advance and coast to it, which is the biking equivalent of down-shifting... at least on flat ground. Coming down a hill is a different matter entirely.
Next: fenders!
Posted
Friday, July 11, 2008
by Gene
(1) comments
Rove refuses to testifyIn fairness, Karl Rove has never shown a really good understanding of the laws in this country.
I think my favorite part is where a former employee claims executive privilege. In Watergate, it was ruled that not even the President is immune to a subpoena, which means, evidently, Karl Rove is above the President in his own dark little mind.
It is really worth your time to read this entire article. It's hysterical and deeply, deeply disturbing.
Wednesday, July 9
Tuesday, July 8
Posted
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
by Gene
(3) comments
Friend me, babyI caved. I now have a Facebook account. Forgive me.
Is that cruel? I don't know. I just don't really understand what was expected here. I mean, this isn't like the lottery, where a single drawing is done after everyone's gotten their ticket and so on. It's a scratch ticket with multiple winning tickets including one with a very large payout. If you're buying a scratch ticket seriously thinking you have a shot at the grand prize something has already gone terribly wrong in your life.
Who is in first place, again? No, seriously. The Tampa Bay Rays are in first place in the American League East. If I had just woken up from a coma and you'd told me that it was July and the Rays led the East, I would be counting my medication to see if you'd been sampling.
Thursday, July 3
Posted
Thursday, July 03, 2008
by Gene
(1) comments
More iPod from workI do believe Genesis recorded the song Who Dunnit? on a dare. Someone said, "I bet you can't make the most annoying song ever recorded" and someone-- I'm guessing Phil Collins-- said, "Oh yes we can!" And boom: Who Dunnit? was born.
Posted
Thursday, July 03, 2008
by Gene
(0) comments
Dude seriously. There's the sunset, here's your horse. Get going.To the surprise of nobody who isn't currently recovering from head trauma, Brett Favre is mulling unretirement.
Please please please go away, Brett. Pretty please.
Happy July 4th I'm leaving work early today to bike home, drop off my laptop and whatever else is adding to the weight of my backpack, and then I'm biking to Wilson's Farm for meat to grill.
Because I can. Wilson's is a quarter mile from the Minuteman bikeway, which terminates right near my front door.
Wednesday, July 2
Posted
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
by Gene
(3) comments
Listening to my iPod at workI know I said this before about Thunder Road, but I do believe Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here is the most perfectly crafted pop song ever recorded.
That is all.
Posted
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
by Gene
(2) comments
This makes me laugh and point fingers; Manhattanites amuse me
How I now spend most afternoons ...looking out my window and asking, "hey, was it supposed to rain today?"
My mother emailed this weather to me. I got a message from her twenty minutes earlier commenting on how nasty the weather was. At the time it was sunny here, but apparently not where she was. We are now experiencing a storm so foul we're thinking there's a chance the rain might penetrate the glass of the window.
Yes of course I biked. I bike every day.
The question posed Given enough cash to see only one movie this weekend, which would you see? The choices for me were WALL-E and Hancock. Then I started reading the reviews. Apparently, Hancock is either a completely and irrevocably terrible film, or it isn't. Haven't seen reviewers quite that divided in some time. On the other hand, WALL-E is possibly the best film of A: the year, B: the past five years, C: in Pixar's history, or D: possibly ever. Okay, okay.
Tuesday, July 1
Monday, June 30
Posted
Monday, June 30, 2008
by Gene
(1) comments
Two years and thousands of hours of manpower...and we might have a food garden. We won't know for about six weeks if we also have food.
Turning a part of a yard that had only previously grown scrub grass into something capable of supporting vegetables is not, it turns out, easy. It involves using things one would never imagine finding a use for. Like chicken shit. (Warning: that link crows like a rooster. I just woke up everyone in the office retrieving it.) We thought since we had the space and the interest, given the rising cost of food, our current state of abject poverty, and the end of the world being ushered in by climate change (only sort-of-kidding), now seemed like a good time to raise our own meals, as much as it was possible to do so.
We don't have quite enough grazing land for a cow, however. Chickens maybe. Plus, I know what I can do with their shit.
Random Jim Croce question of the week The plot behind the song Bad Bad Leroy Brown is nearly identical to the one in You Don't Mess Around With Jim. For some reason this bothers me immensely.
Friday, June 27
Posted
Friday, June 27, 2008
by Gene
(1) comments
My employer is trying to make my head explodeTwo weeks ago we had employee appreciation week with the theme "You Make It Happen! Everyday!" This legend was printed everywhere, on every single piece of email and handout and poster, and nobody seemed to care that "Everyday" was supposed to be two words and not one. This is for one of the largest financial institutions in the country, mind you, not your neighborhood bank.
Today I went to the ATM in my building, which is naturally owned by my employer. In the space between my typing in the amount of cash I wanted and the cash being distributed I was subjected to an advertisement. It turns out we offer "SUDENT BANKING." Yes.
The weather is trying to kill me Yesterday was the nicest day of the week and also the first day it started raining on me while I was biking home. We are getting hit by a massive thunderstorm right now. Again. It's been nearly every day (or Everyday!) around here lately. Last time I saw daily thunderstorms was when I was in Florida.
Climate change? What's that?
Wednesday, June 25
Posted
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
by Gene
(0) comments
I think Cheney might have played the alien, actuallyIf you could pick one movie from the Eighties, and say "I expect more than one of the actors from this film to end up in public office," I have to think Predator wouldn't be at the top of the list.
For the record, if this guy wins that makes three from the film, after Jessie Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Does anyone know Carl Weathers' party affiliation?
Tuesday, June 24
Posted
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
by Gene
(0) comments
I am leading a charmed existenceYesterday it rained off and on from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon, then didn't start again until six-thirty, which was exactly enough time for me to bike home, hop in the car and pick up our cat from the vet, drive home and get the cat in the house again.
Today we were expecting scattered thunderstorms all day. The sun was out this morning as I biked into work, then it rained for half of the afternoon, stopping at four. I biked home from five to five twenty-five, and during that time I was hit by three raindrops, saw seven bolts of lightning, and watched the sky go from Early Evening to Late Apocalypse. I got my bike under the tarp in the back yard, got to the front door, and fished out my house keys from my bag. At that moment the wind increased by fifteen miles an hour and blew my water bottle seven feet from the porch railing to the yard. (The bottle was nearly full.) I picked up the bottle and got into the house. It began to pour as soon as I shut the door. And when I mean pour, I mean "am I standing under a waterfall or is this the end of the world" pour.
One of these days I'm going to get nailed.
The most amazing example of irony in the history of mankind
Don't believe me? Here's a quote:
"I think he [Obama's] deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology."
Is that not magnificent?
Obama's point-- and this would be obvious to people who are not also evangelical ministers-- is that you can't govern this country with the Bible. And you can't.
Monday, June 23
Posted
Monday, June 23, 2008
by Gene
(0) comments
CarlinThe big three, in my mind, were always Carlin, Pryor and Cosby. I grew up listening to Bill Cosby records often enough to memorize not just the routines but the cadence, the pauses, everything. Pryor came later, when my mother took me to the movies to watch Live on Sunset Strip. I couldn't have memorized his routines had I tried, because... well, there are some things a young white kid just can't pull off.
The first Carlin routine I ever heard was the famous football vs. baseball bit, and I was sold from that point forward. I was older then, and no longer interested in playing the same bit over and over until I had it memorized. I was also old enough to fully appreciate what he brought to the game, so that worked out pretty well.
In his prime George Carlin was probably the most intelligent commentator on modern American life in the world. While often pithy, his best bits said more about our culture than any sociologist could manage in a lifetime. The simplest and best example is the seven words you can't say on television, which I won't bother to link to because by now at least ten people have already sent you a link. It's a funny bit, but it was an important one too. It was the next stage in the career of Lenny Bruce, or would have been had Lenny not overdosed. Carlin, not coincidentally, was in the crowd the night Bruce was arrested for indecency, just as Carlin was later for his seven words routine. I digress.
These are just words, was his point. And if he'd come out and just said that, or said "we're ignoring the big things because we're so hung up on the little things" nobody would have heard him. His particular genius was in finding a way to take a big issue and making it palatable enough that people would listen.
It would have been nice to have him around for at least a little bit longer.
Wednesday, June 18
Posted
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
by Gene
(1) comments
I'm kind of glad I never wrote that chapter
So I'm happy I never considered writing a chapter by that title. Although if I had I suspect he would have tried whacking them over the head with the hilt while holding the sharp end instead. And everyone would have been better off for it.
Posted
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
by Gene
(0) comments
Celtics jump on Lakers, tie them up, take their lunch money, crap in their closets, and insult their mamasGood lord. I don't think I've ever seen one team play that well in every facet before. I think Kobe and Phil might still be wondering what just happened.
Tuesday, June 17
Posted
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
by Gene
(1) comments
Now I just have to figure out what to do with all these business cardsMy business cards all have the genepoool website on them, of course.
Not Hillary Count me among the voices that don't want to see Hillary named as the vice presidential candidate. I don't think she improves Obama's ticket and she's enough of a polarizing figure to hurt it. There are similar problems with Gore, only less so.
Celtics go for it at home Two chances to close this out at home. Boy has this been a weird postseason. The team has set a record by losing ten playoff games to get to this point. Pierce is playing on one leg, Garnett is doing an excellent Bert Lahr impression, Ray Allen is dealing with a family crisis (his infant son is in the hospital), Rondo and Perkins are both injured, with the latter probably not playing due to a dislocated shoulder and the former having difficulty cutting because of a badly sprained ankle. That, in case you haven't been watching, is the team's starting five.
Thank goodness this is the last series, one way or another.
This is an enlightening little news article.
|
![[Powered by Blogger]](http://buttons.blogger.com/bloggerbutton1.gif){kind=small}
