Early morning

Gotta be up early tomorrow to wait for the fixer-upper people to come in and fix the front door at the Grand. So expect lots of blogging while I wait. Assuming there will be interesting stuff going on. Which is no guarantee.

Celebrity Gossip

Well, really Angelina and Brad gossip. First, let me commend them on their name of their child, Shiloh. It's weird, yes, but not that weird. It calls to mind Neil Diamond's imaginary friend, and given the lives of celebrities, this may be an apt name for her.

Second, let me commend them for their choice to have their child in Namibia. After their vacation in Kenya (9 months ago maybe? I can't remember). And after their Thanksgiving Day trip through Pakistan. Here's what probably happened. Angelina said, "Brad, if photographers are going to follow us anywhere we go, why don't we make them follow us to places people need to see."

And third, let me commend them for not having their baby right as one of them is launching a movie. The release date for MI3 was probably pretty well set in advance and it didn't take much work for Tom's publicist to figure out when he and Katie should shack up. But Brad Pitt missed Cannes (and his award) and she doesn't have a movie coming out for awhile.

Sure it's a little annoying to see celebrities talk about politics and world peace and such because they usually come off pretty bad. But Angelina and Brad (I will never never call them Brangelina) seem to walk the walk. With a little bit of class, too. Who would have expected that?

Friedman on the Gas Tax (Again)

I keep hammering away on the gas tax, but dammit, it's worth it. Thomas Friedman goes after GM in his column today for giving "gas credits" to anyone in Florida or California who drives a Hummer or a Suburban that effectively caps gas at $1.99. He concludes the article (which is subscription only):

You want to do something patriotic, G.M., Ford and Daimler-Chrysler? Why don't you stop using your diminishing pools of cash to buy votes so Congress will never impose improved mileage standards? That kind of strategy is why Toyota today is worth $198.9 billion and G.M. $15.8 billion. G.M. is worth just slightly more than Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle company ($13.6 billion).

President Bush remarked the other day how agonizingly tough it is for a president to send young Americans to war. Yet, he's ready to do that, but he's not ready to look Detroit or Congress in the eye and demand that we put in place the fuel-efficiency legislation that will weaken the forces of theocracy and autocracy that are killing our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan — because it might cost Republicans votes or campaign contributions.

This whole thing is a travesty. We can't keep asking young Americans to make the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan if we as a society are not ready to make even the most minimal sacrifice to help them.

Go to it, TF!

Another interesting tidbit about college education

Interesting piece (as usual) in the NYT about the value of college internships. This is part of my official linking system to all-things-college, and I appreciate the Times obliging my interest. But I do have some particular interests; four years at the Carleton College Career Center makes me especially attune to pieces about internships and other experiential education.

The article is called "Take This Internship And Shove It." This argument against the internship is particularly insightful:

Second, though their duties range from the menial to quasi-professional, unpaid internships are not jobs, only simulations. And fake jobs are not the best preparation for real jobs.

Long hours on your feet waiting tables may not be particularly edifying, but they teach you that work is a routine of obligation, relieved by external reward, where you contribute value to a larger enterprise. Newspapers and business magazines are full of articles expressing exasperation about how the Millennial-generation employee supposedly expects work to be exciting immediately, wears flip-flops to the office and has no taste for dues-paying. However true this stereotype may be, the spread of the artificially fun internship might very well be adding fuel to it.

What the article really nails is that unpaid internships are not the way to go for the employer or the employee. Unpaid interns don't have the kind of accountability they need for an employer to get anything meaningful out of them, and it doesn't work so well for the students who need to make money over the summer.

Moon on the Rocks

Apparently some scientists think that the best way to support human life on the moon is to send water there from here. But nothing complicated. Basically, they figure they can just slam the water into the moon in big ice chunks.

Like Earth-generated comets. Awesome.

Titan exploration by Goodyear

According to the NYT, Saturn's moon Titan may be explored by a big blimp that could sample the sands and remain safely above what may be perilous terrain. I say, cool.

But what is more interesting is the notion of exploring the solar system with thinking learning robots. The most interesting example of these proposed robots can be seen in this video on NASA's site. The robot is like a creepy crawly geometic stretcher that can glide its way across the landscape. Think of a spider where all of its legs are connected to other legs and are each retractable. Better yet, just watch the movie. You'll get the idea.

All I know is that if I were a Martian and saw that thing crawling around on the ground I would be very curious to see what kind of creatures had designed it.

Stephen King was right

Veronica Mars is pretty darn good. Cool show!

Once again ...

... I would just like to add that it's great blogging from the lake. There's been practically no sun, it rained a bit yesterday, but man I love this place.

Mr. Spacey

Kevin Spacey is the Artistic Director at the Old Vic theatre in London. He's been ravaged by reviews of the press and has made some difficult decisions.

But the man is still holding in there. Check out the NYT for a look at what he's up to.

He closed SNL this season with a wonderful group of sketches, by the way.

And the Oscar goes to ...

Soren published the results of the film competition in yesterday's Tribune. It was a pretty successful competition. 550 people or so packed the Rialto and we had a great time watching the films. Three cheers for Tacoma filmmakers! I was quite impressed; 26 films made in one weekend.

Tabbed Browsing

I'd like to pitch tabbed browsing, too. I have only just recently began to explore Firefox's tabbed browsing capabilities and I am quite taken with it. It makes things much easier, especially blogging. I just wish there was a quick hotkey to go between tabs. But other than that, it's none too shabby.

A Gift From Harry Potter's Parents

As anyone who reads Harry Potter knows, the best gift ever was the invisibility cloak. That thing was awesome. And it keeps being used throughout the series because it's just so damn useful.

Well. According to Wired magazine, people are actually investigating whether invisibility cloaks are technologically feasible. They know what it has to do. The cloak would just let light course around it, like a river around a boulder. As far as everyone is concerned, the cloak, and all that is inside it, would just not be there.

The hard part is building the thing.

I have found this to be true when it comes to my brainchild: a creditcard sized lighter. See, a guy would carry a lighter in his pocket about the size of three credit cards packed together. It would only have enough butane for a few lights, but it would be designed for non-smoking guys who want to pick up women by offering them a light. I think it's brilliant. And by posting it here, I retain all copyrights, by the way. But I just don't know how to build it. Perhaps if I ever get a prototype I'll move on to the invisibility cloak and then build my own little Marauders' Map next.

A Note On Mutants

Saw X-Men 3 on Saturday. This was actually a pretty good film, although it doesn't compare to X-Men 2, which was really really, really well-done. The film feels rushed, which is too bad because it has some very good moments in it.

My pal Joe tells me that Fox rushed production to beat Superman Returns out of the gate this summer, and if true it shows in the film's scripts. It's not that any particular action sequence feels like they've skimped or anything, but there's just not enough movie. X-Men and X-Men 2 were both long. In fact, comic book movies as a rule are long (the original Spiderman was way too long, in fact). And I felt the shortness of the film, like they clipped scenes from the script.

But the film certainly has its relevance today, and like blockbuster V for Vendetta, it makes a big budget argument about gay rights although in this film it's through the guise of mutants. That analogy is not the only one in the film, as it attacks the question of normality, who defines it, and who wants it. Like V for Vendetta, like the original 2 X-Men films, this one has ideas it really wants to talk about. But it's a shame it has to rush through them.

Finally Rested

Feels like I've been going on fumes all week, but I'm recovering--and looking forward to a couple nights at the lake to help, too.

But first, a deck building party this morning at Aaron and Erin's place. I hope someone there knows what they're doing and can tell me what to do.

The Real Bee

An interesting op-ed in the NYT today comparing the Spelling Bee and the Geography Bee. I think its author is dead-on about both the relevance of the Geography Bee and its ability to challenge students far more than the Spelling Bee. Good stuff.

Oops

Apparently the re-release of the Star Wars films will just be copied from the Laserdiscs--not even in widescreen. This is about as close to sacrilege as you can get for a dramatic re-release of the films. It makes the whole exercise pointless.

My hunch is that they've found the original prints are too far gone to get a decent film off of them. From what I understand from some articles I've read by someone who has seen them, you can tell that the color is fading--Darth Vader is more blue than black--and may be beyond repair.

Sad.

The Routes

If you're interested you can see a proposed set of routes on Tacomastreetcar.org. It's certainly a dramatic use of track--24 miles around Tacoma to connect all major business districts, downtown, and the mall. Actually, although I don't often argue for the Tacoma Mall, they need a better connection on the route with a cross-Tacoma line from Proctor to the Mall, I'd say. Down Union with a stop at Target and Bellarmine and then on to 38th Street.

The View from Your Window

Andrew Sullivan has launched a "view from your window" project where his readers snap pictures of where they are and send it in.

It has a certain intimacy. Neighborhoods in Ghana, or Capetown, a skyrise in Portland, a soup kitchen in Boston ... They are not stunning pictures necessarily, but they serve as good reminders of where we all live.

Blanche would be pleased

Tacoma is looking into streetcars around town to supplement the link. I'm a little skeptical of the streetcar approach as opposed to lightrail primarily because of the speed. If it's not fast, people aren't going to take it. But Dan Voepel has some interesting arguments about it.

I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance

Just in case the Geico gecko ever dies, Stanford researchers have devised a robotic replacement. That gecko may just get replaced by the ever changing world of technology. Imagine waking up and finding this thing clinging to your wall. A quicktime video of it scaling a window can be found here.

It's not speedy, that's for sure. If you're worried about machines taking over the Earth a la Terminator or the Matrix, we're still a good ways from that point, so not to worry.

Interesting Experiment

Time has a photoessay of character actors making faces. Kind of fun and lighthearted. I don't know if the taglines were made up before the shoot or to describe it, however.

Aren't all shoes wireless?

Nike and Apple have created a device that will let your iPod and your shoes talk to each other. So your shoes will record mileage, etc, and transmit that information to your iPod. It will also help you choose songs whose beat matches your pace.

Crazy world.

Nothing Sacred

Live ads in front of plays. Well ... not plays. But live ads in front of Stomp. More at the NYT.

Freudian Slip?

This is so unexpected. It's definitely one of the funniest newscaster slip up you'll see in a long while.

Get Lost!

Tomorrow's the big finale!

Let me explain

A few questions about my puppy post arose. All I'm saying is that it's ironic to see anything about puppies in a News Update area generally reserved on the Tribune site for school closures, arrests, and "big news" items. The Humane Society piece is certainly worth putting in the paper, but its section on-line was dubious as it looks like "breaking news" like there was a car chase or the governor resigned.

Second, the headline was "Humane Society accidentally euthanizes puppies" which leads to bad images in your head of trying to figure out how you "accidentally" euthanize anything. Perhaps the Tribune realized this, because their new headline for the article is "Shelter kills five puppies by mistake" which is much clearer and doesn't lend itself to the possibilities the first headline does.

And finally, the owner was quoted as describing the dogs as "cute and adorable." I'm not saying they weren't. But the article reads as if this fact made what the Humane Society did worse, which, of course, it doesn't because a) all puppies are cute and adorable and b) it shouldn't matter anyway.

So that's all I'm saying.

Ebert at Cannes

He's got his half-way review of the Cannes Film Festival posted if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Headlines

I apologize for light blogging. I'm exhausted, but as I was browsing the internet tonight, some headlines caught my eye as being particularly bad.

"Jack Bauer Saves Day on Finale of '24' " --Who saw that one coming? That's news?
"Humane Society accidentally euthanizes five puppies" --Is this a smear campaign again the Humane Society? Really, The News Tribune probably did not need to file this on the homepage under "News Updates." Perhaps I'm going to come off like a sick and twisted fellow, but the reporting of the story (not the story itself, mind you) is laughable:

[The owner] described the puppies as “cute, adorable, healthy” and nearly ready for adoption.

Cute and adorable? Puppies? Did Jack Bauer save them in the finale?

In my sleep-deprived state this story has struck me as being the quintessential "Slow News Day" piece. Perhaps my heart will not be so black tomorrow. But everything about this--except for the incident, which is awful--cries out to be made fun of.

Oy

Up waaaaay too late and waaaay too early. But I have 26 short films ready to go for Thursday, a grant interview today, and still plenty to do before lunch. At which point I plan to sleep. :)

Modern Times

Charlie Chaplins's film "Modern Times" had a special screening at the Grand today. It's from 1936, and was surprisingly funny. The film was his last silent film, and quite interesting because of the use of sound effects, including voice, mixed in with the silent film.

This was a funny movie, and about the only full Charlie Chaplin film I've seen in full. Good stuff!

Too Boring To Be Heresy

Where's the juicy bits of heresy? Da Vinci Code was a let down, not that I had high expectations of it. In case you don't know it's about a secret group that has hidden a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, and Nicholas Cage has to ... oops. My bad.

If you really want to see a good adaptation of Dan Brown's novel, then I suggest "National Treasure." It is not a great movie. But it has the fun, the flair, and the joy that reading the actual book The Da Vinci Code has, where Ron Howard's version just plods along.

There's not even suspense! It's boring! And then voila! Ian McKellen enters and everything is fun, lively, and interesting for about a half hour. Then he's gone again and it's all blah. Ron Howard can do better. Like Apollo 13. Or Ransom. Or The Paper. Or even Edtv. But this is not his best work.

Apple Stores

Interesting piece in the NYT about Apple Stores and how incredibly successful they are. Go Apple!

And they're off!

The filmmakers are off and running. Good luck to them! And I am very excited to see what they end up with.

In Happier News

The citizens of the island on "Lost" are set up for a pretty awesome season finale next week. I am totally looking forward to that 2 hours of my life.

Missouri Hates Company

Or so it would appear. In the town of Black Jack, MO, a family will be evicted because the town "prohibits more than three people from living together unless they are related by "blood, marriage or adoption." An unwed couple with three children may not be able to continue residing in the town. After 13 years together apparently the vow is more important than the committment to the town.

How I wish I were linking to The Onion instead of CBS news.

But alas. Maybe you should rename your town from Black Jack to Running Scared In The Face Of Difference.

Didn't That Movie Used To Have A War?

So, if you want to come off as a ninny, I suggest following the lead of the Thailand's film censorship board. They have agreed to allow The Da Vinci Code to be in Thai theaters, minus the last 10 minutes. Which is a great move on their part because everyone who sees it will feel so upset that they don't know what the Code is that they will go out and buy the book, no matter how heretical.

This smacks of the Simpsons episode where an "Edited for Seniors" version of Gone With The Wind is screened in the retirement home. Clark Gable's line is, "Frankly, Scarlet, I love you, let's get married!" And then the movie ends. And the old fella asks, "Didn't that movie used to have a war?" Didn't the Da Vinci Code used to have a secret?

On the plus side, IMDB.com reports that:

an official of a Christian coalition in Malaysia said that no attempt will be made to interfere with the release of the film in that country "purely because we believe that if the Bible is the truth of God, we are not afraid of any attempt to discredit it."

Can I get an Amen? It would seem that the motivation behind the cartoonist controversy last year and the Da Vinci Code controversy this year is very simply fear. The fundamentalist is afraid.

I appreciate the sentiment of the Malaysian coalition that a movie, even with Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard, is not a threat to God. It's either conflating the film or deflating God, I'm not sure which.

Either way, if a movie or a book or a cartoon can rock your world so much than you need to get it banished or burned then you need to figure out why faith isn't enough for you. Because if you believe in the One True Religion and other people's criticism, skepticism, or baptism in another religion shouldn't matter. Let them criticize, attack, or disbelieve, guys. It doesn't hurt you. Your own faith is still intact and you can pull out the Koran or the Bible to counter, if you'd like. But stopping the distribution of a film because it casts doubts upon your faith says a lot more about you than the film.

Feelin' Groovy

At the Grand tonight I hosted an information session for 17 teams that will participate in the 72-Hour Film Competition. And 14 teams still need to register.

This is an overwhelming feeling; seeing people so excited about an idea that I helped create and the anticipation of the finished products next week. I am incredibly excited.

It's times like this when it's hard not to think that I have a dream job.

A treat

There are some rare pleasures in this world that are so rare you often forget them. One of those pleasures is finishing a good book, flipping back to the title page, and discovering that the author is the same author who wrote another good book.

Surprise. The elation at discovering "an author," not just a book; somone you can count on and look for in the store. There are all good things.

In this case it was John Dunning. I picked up his novel "Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime" when it came out in paperback in 2002. I picked it up primarily because of the title. It is a mixed bag--the mystery takes a backstage to the book's centerpiece, 1940s radio drama, and by the time the mystery comes back we don't care about it, but are far more interested in the radio station.

This novel, "Booked to Die," is like soft-core porn for English majors. Value first editions are missing; a doesn't-play-by-the-book cop is forced to give back his badge and decides to open a bookstore; etc. But it's a good read and a lot more balanced than Wartime.

Glad to find a good mystery author, although I must say that Dunning pales next to my favorite mystery author, Reginald Hill, who writes both literature and mysteries in the same book.

A really funny story to end the morning

On the BBC recently, a cab driver was accidently interviewed about the legal battle between Apple Corp and Apple Computers. The language barrier (the cabbie was from the Congo) got in the way and Guy Goma raised his hand when the producers were trying to find Guy Kewney.

The Daily Mail has the story, along with the transcript. Mr. Goma did his best trying to field questions like "Were you surprised by this verdict today?" but seeing he didn't really know which verdict they were talking about, he had some trouble. You gotta feel bad for the guy.

And you have to wonder about the BBC.

Precedent

A worrisome development here in Washington. Two of our 29 tribes have successfully won a court case that would allow them to drop the state's gas tax. In one case, the tribe just imposed their own tax, but what if a tribe sets up a gas station on the freeway minus the gas tax. Estimates are that Washington could lose 100 million in funding.

I am rather annoyed that a small group could hold the state hostage. Everyone uses the highways and undercutting prices would be incredibly damaging to our infrastructure. In November we passed a nine cent gas tax--amazingly--and a lot of people credit the passage to Hurricane Katrina, which showed everyone the incredible need to have a sound infrastructure.

Gov. Gregoire is working a compromise where the tribe would get a large percent of the tax collected on their land and the state the rest. It's not a bad plan as it allows the tribe to collect money but they don't have to drop their prices to undercut the state.

Immigration Last Night

In principle, I respect what President Bush did last night. He really did attempt to reach a compromise and try to build the county instead of divide it.

But there are some pesky details. First, I am all for securing our border and would say that it seems like a pretty important duty of our government. But unmanned drones and 6,000 troops? That seems like a bit of an overkill to me.

Second, he said he wanted to reduce the need for illegal immigration and proposed a temporary worker program. This doesn't reduce the need, unfortunately. Billions of dollars in aid to Mexico might help. But a temporary worker program doesn't reduce the desire of a mother to give birth in the US or of a family to attempt to live here longer than a growing season.

Third, any citizen should be wary of a federal ID card. If it starts with foreigners, US citizens may be next. And the digital fingerprint is worrisome, too. Fingerprinting has a very bad connotation in other countries and asking their citizens to be fingerprinted upon entry is insulting to the point that they probably just won't come.

Which gets me to my fourth concern, that allowances don't seem to be made for anyone other than apple pickers. Thomas Friedman, Bill Gates, and lots of other smart people will tell you that we are desperately short in the US on engineers and techies. We can't import them anymore and a lot of them leave here for India.

Finally, I don't think that Bush is going to be allowed to make this compromise. The Democrats have gotten too strong to cave and the Republicans don't like that with a majority in both houses they have to compromise. He's lost a portion of his base and hasn't gained any ground in the process.

Tuesday

You'd think that since I was at work until 8:00 last night and have an 8:00 meeting tonight I'd sleep in and goof off this morning and enjoy the beautiful and unlikely weather we've been having.

But no. I will not. You can bet I will take the afternoon off, however.

Bartlett's Quotations now include Bartlet

Here's a funny story. Some TV sports guy for NBC ripped off lines from President Bartlet while covering the Kentucky Derby. The West Wing writers have done pretty well with a "Quotable Bartlet." Expect a hardcover edition this fall.

The Best Speech Ever

Well before I started watching the Daily Show, I read Jon Stewart's speech two years ago at the College of William and Mary. It's close to the funniest, most touching, and most insightful graduation speech that did not include the phrase "Remember what I said about the sunscreen."

Worth returning to annually.

And the next President

Early bets usualy are wrong, but I'd bet on McCain for the Presidency from 2008 to 2012. Heck, I might even vote for him. Here's his speech to Jerry Falwell's graduates at Liberty University. It's nice that he doesn't pander to the crowd.

Speaking of McCain this letter to Andrew Sullivan is well put. It concludes:

I would love to see a Democrat win. Or rather, I would love to see a Democrat who is good enough to win. But I don't think that's going to happen. I think the GOP primary will decide who our next president is. And as far as I'm concerned, McCain is the pick of the litter. Not because he agrees with me on any of the issues that are normally in play; he doesn't. But because he seems honest and competent, and because he seems to understand the difference between right and wrong. He seems to understand the things in the Federalist papers - how the various branches of the government are supposed to fit together.

We have to be realistic about where we are. A president who won't torture people would be a big improvement. I don't need a president who will implement European-style social-democratic policies. I'd like to see that, but it's not going to happen.

I just want a President who will follow the law.

For a practical assessment of the Democrats' chances, I'd say this reader is right on the money. If you can't get a Democrat you can really get behind, choose McCain. I actually think that John McCain with Condie Rice as a running mate would be almost unstoppable for any Democratic ticket, regardless of Hillary's involvement.

The West Wing specifically

Regarding the final episode of The West Wing, it was a shame to leave it at only 1 hour, especially when 2 hour season finales of Deal or No Deal and Law & Order were advertised during the episode. Surely the series deserved a good two-parter. I would have loved to see the Santos administration in action, even for a little bit.

The show will be missed; I thought they really had a great transition to Season 8.

Late Night Reflections on the Presidency

In the same weekend, "The West Wing" came to an end and I finished Schlesinger's "A Thousand Days" about Kennedy. Both are unquestionably rather fawning accounts of not only Presidents Bartlet and Kennedy. But besides that, both are idealist, romantic, and elegant in their belief of the virtues of good government by good people.

Perhaps this is one of those dividing lines between Democrats and Republicans. I don't think you would hear a Dem repeat Reagan's famous line, "The nine scariest words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' " Certainly you won't find it in either Bartlet or Kennedy's world.

What is interesting about this Kennedy book, in particular, is that it blew apart some of the Kennedy myths I had. The reckless playboy, perhaps, or the pretty public face with a snappy comeback that was all facade.

But in general, he's respected and well-liked. Why? I think many of my generation chalk it up to, unfortunately, his assassination. I probably did to some extent. Are our greatest Presidents great because they were assassinated or were Lincoln and Kennedy assassinated because they were great? What I found in this book was that Kennedy was just pretty great and in many ways his star was still rising.

The respect the international community had for him was pretty incredible. Schlesinger's account of the reaction to his death is amazing. In Soviet Russia--a country Kennedy had just forced to back down during the Cuban Missile Crisis--Khruschev allowed Kennedy's funeral to be aired on state TV because, supposedly his respect for the man was so high.

I should clarify here that I have virtually no interest in the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories. I don't know if it was one man, the CIA, the military, or the Nixon family. I'm not sure I really care right now (though, if I ever get elected President, I'd make someone who knows tell me what they know).

I would like to quote Schlesinger's brief summary of the assassination as I think it is an incredible piece of writing for a historian.

The car turned off Main Street, the President happy and waving, Jacqueline erect and proud by his side, and Mrs. Connaly saying, "You certainly can't say that the people of Dallas haven't given you a nice welcome," and the automobile turning on to Elm Street and down the slope past the Texas School Book Depository, and the shots, faint and frightening, suddenly distinct over the roar of the motorcade, and the quizzical look on the President's face before he pitched over, and Jacqueline crying, "Oh, no, no. . . . Oh, my God, they have shot my husband," and the horror, the vacancy.

That's about the best grammatically-incorrect sentence I've read in some time.

From Chelan

As expected, the weather is quite gorgeous here. What was unexpected was the lake level. I have never been here to see the lake surface so low. The shoreline is a good 40 or 50 feet out from the stairs at Peterson's Waterfront, which I've never seen before. It's a drop of about 20 feet in the level of the lake. It makes the lake much lighter, too, because it's so much more shallow. It's quite a sight, if not a little disconcerting.

But the hills are green, which will change dramatically by this summer, and the sun is out and the whole place seems just a little quieter than ever before. It's a pretty great place.

Cool Chimes

The best doorbell ever. I think Waterford should start making them.

The High Desert Again

I am becoming more fond of Eastern Washington the more I go. I'll be in Chelan tonight until Sunday afternoon, so unless there's easy wi-fi I likely won't be blogging. But if there is, well. Lots of blogging, I'm sure.

Renton Jokes

Here's a great Tribune headline: "Renton: Where Anything New Is An Improvement"

Hahahahahaha. True. Courtesy of the Tribune's gossip reporter, The Nose.

Hilarious Misunderstanding

You might be "one of those people" who downloads music illegally. Like me. Actually, I only do it when I can't find what I'm looking for on iTunes.

If you do have access to some cheap, illegal downloads, check out the Kiwi band Flight of the Conchords. They are a comedy duo who sing freaking hilarious songs. Best songs I've found so far:

• "Think About It, Think Think About it" (you want the one that is 3:30 not 3:43).
• "Hiphopapotamus vs Rhymenocerous"
• "Business Time"
• "Hilarious Misunderstanding"
• and Joe and Eppig should definitely find "Frodo, Don't Wear The Ring"

Good for laughing all day long.

A Crazy Way to Win

The Tribune has a pretty funny story about how a woman with less than a week left to sign up to run for office knocked off a 20-year incumbent. Worth a read.

Again?

In Indian riots broke out over The Da Vinci Code and the novel was burned.

Do we have to get started with this again?

It's a movie! Probably not a great one, as the book was not a great one. In a recent interview Ian McKellen (who is in the film) had this to say:

I think the world is pretty much not changed because of "Da Vinci Code," other than people who have had an awful good time reading it.

It's a good read, if you define good as lightning fast. And he can keep you glued to the story very well.

The book--and therefore, likely the movie--attack some basic fundamental pillars of Christianity while accusing Catholicism of holding some big secrets back and portraying members of Opus Dei in a very negative light. So it's blasphemous and insulting and all that. But I just really can't get worked up about a movie that is so obviously fiction, no matter what kind of claims it makes. It's telling, I think, that everyone argues, "People might think it's real." But we haven't really heard from anyone who says, "I think it's real."

I'm going to go see it, but I'm not looking forward to it the way I'm looking forward to X-3 (which, by the way, is totally real).

Best of the Quarter Century

The NYT polled critics on the best American novels of the last 25 years. "Beloved" won with a runner up in "Underworld." After that Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike, and Delillo show up on all the other "notable" books.

It was a little worrisome to me that at least two "notable" books were published 26 years ago, and technically fall outside the prescribed boundaries. But, ah well. I haven't had a chance to think too much about whether they've missed something, but if I think of it, I'll mention it.

More TV

I'm going to by on City Line on TV Tacoma this morning. You can watch for me throughout the week apparently. My second stint! Pretty soon I'm going to be a regular.

The Anti-Abortion Pill

The Onion makes a funny. You should definitely read it. Trust me.

An odd piece of history

I didn't even know this existed. The last remaining piece of the World Trade Center that is above ground is endangered of being demolished. It's being called "The Survivors' Stairway." I am not sure to what extent this is worth saving. I am all for memorials and preservation, but this is one that I am not sure how I feel. It could be done very poorly, or very well.