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July 20, 2008

Go See The Dark Knight

There will be spoilers here, so if you haven't seen The Dark Knight, you should probably stop reading. So I've now seen The Dark Knight twice--once painfully alone and once with friends. And here's what I've got: it's obviously the best Batman movie ever. Anyone with any sort of lingering love for Tim Burton's Batman movies just has to accept that. It's also clearly the best superhero movie ever. This admission pains me, but it's just true. It's also the most awesome movie I've seen all summer and the best movie I can remember seeing this year or even in...

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July 18, 2008

How I Spent My Friday Morning

My friends and I are going to see The Dark Knight tonight. There had been some discussion about going to a midnight showing, but we never did anything about it and then assumed that all the screenings were going to be sold out. And, besides, we've all got responsibilities and jobs and stuff. Well, as it turns out, I don't have to be in court tomorrow and I'm not meeting any clients. I've got stuff I have to do, sure, but I don't have to be up at any specific time. That left me wondering what I was going to...

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May 28, 2008

Weezer! Now With 98 Percent More Lightsaber!

I have to admit two things. First, I really liked "Beverly Hills," the lead single off of Weezer's last album, Make Believe. Second, I fucking hated the rest of the album. I was pretty much done with the whole band. I mean, I guess I've already talked about what I think of each of Weezer's albums, so I won't rehash that. But the point is that I was somewhat sad but mostly relieved when I read that Weezer had broken up. And then I was cautiously excited but mostly apprehensive when I heard that they were actually releasing a new...

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March 10, 2008

Harbingers of Doom

We are fucked. Oil prices are breaking new records every day. We are mired in an endless war. Our President doesn't seem to mind torture. Our leaders are more corrupt than ever. Or perhaps they're not, which is even scarier. Yes, it seems that at almost every turn, we are confronted by evidence that our entire civilization is heading for the shit can. But the most compelling evidence that our culture is (rightfully) doomed comes from Hollywood. Yes, at a time when the entire entertainment industry seems to be completely out of original ideas and left with no option but...

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March 9, 2008

There Will Be Blood, but it's OK--I'm Going to Graceland

My friends and I watched There Will Be Blood tonight. I'm going to discuss the plot, so if you haven't seen it and don't want it ruined, skip down. Actually, nothing I could tell you about the movie could ruin it. See, the entire concept of ruining a movie stems from the assumption that there's, well, a plot. Like, if you hadn't seen The Sixth Sense or The Empire Strikes Back and I told you that Bruce Willis was a ghost all along or that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, then you could say that I ruined the movie...

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January 19, 2008

With Apologies to Dee . . .

I watched the movie Gone Baby Gone last night. It was really, really good, which is hard for me to admit seeing as how there were two Afflecks involved in its production. But the movie was very well written and surprisingly unafflecky. And the younger Affleck did a very good job. Except in one crucial aspect of his performance: his infuriating Boston accent. Now, I've only been to Boston once--on a school trip when I was a little kid. I remember liking it a lot because we got to see a bunch of really cool American history-related things. I do...

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January 14, 2008

Where No Untalented Black Man Has Gone Before . . . . (Updated)

I'm just going to go ahead and admit this for anyone that hasn't already picked up on this: I love Star Trek. I never really liked the original series. I think it's cheesy, predictable, and boring. I can see past the amazingly crappy special effects, but most of the stories are transparent morality plays and, as a result, all the characters are either completely flat or absolutely overdone. No, my love of Star Trek started with The Next Generation. That show was awesome. I still remember being relatively young and getting really excited whenever Jean-Luc Picard would start doing his...

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December 31, 2007

Concerning God, Jesus Camp, and My Opinions Thereof

I am not a Christian. I was raised Catholic, and I even did my First Communion. But somewhere between that and my Confirmation, I came to see that the whole thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense. At the time, that was due almost exclusively to the extremely lazy catechism teachers I had when I was growing up. As I've gotten older, I've come to understand that there are many people of faith that are intelligent and articulate and that have real, substantive, internally consistent answers to tough questions. My teachers were nothing like that. It never made sense...

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December 15, 2007

The Dark Knight Looks Awesome (Updated!)

I know I've been doing that thing where I just put up pictures rather than actually write something a lot lately. I figure I'll continue the trend for one more post and then stop. Anyway, the sequel to Batman Begins--which was by far the best Batman movie ever--looks awesome, at least based on the posters. Check these out: I mean, I think those look awesome. And apparently the trailer is coming out soon and might even be with I Am Legend, which I'm going to go see later today. Sweet. So, as planned, I saw I Am Legend. Although it's...

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December 3, 2007

The Ultimate Cure for Depression: Food

As some of you may have noticed, I've been kind of depressed lately. Good thing, then, that my friends and I had our traditional Thanksgiving this weekend. Sure, Thanksgiving was over a week ago, but some people insisted on seeing their "families," so we all got together Saturday. Let me just say that, while I still wish I had seen my family for the holiday, and I don't have a job yet, and I'm pretty broke, there's no problem that turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy won't take your mind off of. And, although the turkey wasn't deep fried as...

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November 28, 2007

"I Miss Everything I'll Never Be."

I remember one night when I was fourteen I was lying in bed and just sort of thinking about the future. I remember thinking that I'd be able to drive in two years, and that it seemed both like it was very far away and just around the corner. And I remember that when I was seventeen, driving around in my '65 Mustang, I remembered thinking about driving that night when I was fourteen. And I thought about it, and those years just seemed like they had gone by instantaneously. Now I'm twenty-six, and I can't fucking believe where I...

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September 10, 2007

Things that Made Me Angry Today

I went and watched Shoot 'Em Up with Mr. Vice, pH, and New Guy today. God, that movie sucked a whole fucking lot. I don't know if Mr. Vice is planning on posting a review, so I'll just say this: I thought about asking for my money back after the movie was over, but decided that getting my $5.75 back wouldn't be sufficient. In fact, if they had given me the fucking movie theatre itself, I still would have considered the day a loss. It was fucking terrible. But, strangely enough, the movie wasn't the thing that made me angriest...

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September 8, 2007

"I Saved Latin. What Did You Ever do?"

Rushmore is one of my all-time favorite movies. I hadn't seen it for a while, though, but we remedied that tonight. And I have to say that it just gets better every time I watch it. I don't really know why I like the movie so much. The humor can be pretty subtle--like when Mr. Blume lights up a second cigarette even though his last one is still in his mouth--but that's part of what makes the movie so good. You notice something new each time you watch it. And let's not forget the famous "Oh, are they?" line. But,...

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August 18, 2007

Superawesome

Mr. Vice, pH, and I went and watched Superbad tonight. The movie surpassed all of my expectations, even though I was expecting a lot. It was definitely funnier--though not necessarily better--than Knocked Up, and both Mr. Vice and pH thought it was funnier than Forty Year-Old Virgin, although the jury's still out on that for me. What this movie definitely was, though, was all-out hilarious, and it didn't spend a lot of time on sentimental or romantic stuff. That might be a negative for some people, but I liked it. Although I generally don't mind a love story in my...

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June 21, 2007

"They Look Like Big, Good, Strong Hands, Don't They?"

One of my favorite movies when I was a kid was The Neverending Story. Anyway, remember at the end, when Atreyu meets with the Rock-Biter, who tells him that the Nothing has taken all his friends and that it will soon consume all of Fantasia? And the Rock-Biter sits there and he's looking at his hands, and he's saying that, even though he's big and strong, he couldn't stop the Nothing? That scene always resonated with me. And it did so especially today, which ended up being one of the worst days I've had in a long time. For various...

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June 15, 2007

Here's Something . . .

Good fancy crap, I've been busy. That, together with the laziness that's left over after I finish the stuff I have to do everyday, leaves me with very little time to write out a semi-intelligible thought on here. More importantly, however, absolutely nothing of great import has happened lately, leaving me without things to share. My lack of time has been so complete, in fact, that I haven't even really had time to keep up with any news, so I don't even have anything unrelated to me to rant about. I plan on fixing that right now. First of all,...

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June 7, 2007

Optimus Prime Does Not Have Flames, Goddamnit!

As you may or may not be aware, a Transformers movie is coming out this summer. Like most boys of my generation, I loved the Transformers--they were cars and robots! That's just awesome. So, when I first heard about this movie, I was really excited. But now that I've seen some previews, I'm not excited. In fact, I'm actively unexcited. Here's one of the trailers: Here's a still of what Optimus Prime will look like in the movie: First of all, Optimus Prime really looks like this: Note the complete lack of hotrod flames. Why doesn't Optimus Prime have flames?...

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June 3, 2007

The Eighth Thing to Love About Madison: Vilas Park Zoo (Also, Sometimes Saturdays Kick Ass)

A bunch of us went and watched Knocked Up today. I liked it, probably more than anyone else in the group, although I think the reactions were mostly positive, with the possible exception of RPM and Bluebunny. In any event, I would recommend it, but with the caveat that you should not expect to laugh as hard as at 40-Year-Old Virgin. Before the movie, Bluebunny, RPM, and I went to the Henry Vilas Zoo, which is the free zoo here in Madison. I thought it was pretty cool, especially considering that it's free. Of course, it's no where near as...

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May 25, 2007

I Don't Hate Pirates

Purple Hays accused me of hating pirates tonight. I don't hate pirates--I love pirates. Pirates are way cooler than zombies, for example. And, although they might not have the sheer killing power of ninjas, they definitely have a swagger that ninjas lack. I love rum, love screaming "Argh!", and love calling women "wenches." I even love pirate outfits--one of my favorite pictures is of me, Mr. Morenononsense, and the Pole Medley in pirate costumes at--gasp--a pirate party. No, the truth of the matter is that I love pirates. And it all started some years ago when I watched Pirates of...

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May 5, 2007

With Great Power . . .

Mr. Vice, Ms. PH, and I went to see Spider-Man 3 tonight. It was decent, but I think we all agreed that it fell far short of matching its predecessors. The first Spider-Man movie was pretty good. It took the characters seriously, gave them real human motivations and emotions, and was action packed. As good as the first movie was, the second set a high-water mark for movies based on comic-book characters that was not surpassed, in my opinion, until Superman Returns. For most, though, I think Spider-Man 2, together with Batman Begins, represents the best adventure for any costumed...

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April 26, 2007

New Poll! and a Rant About Those Young Whipper Snappers

Ok, it's been a while but, at the request of TheExpat, I've posted a new poll. But first, the results from the previous poll. It turns out that the thing the that you're most looking forward to about the summer is . . . warmth, which got 36 percent of the votes. That's not really surprising--even I, an admitted winter lover, was getting tired of the sub-thirty-degree weather. Second place, with 32 percent, was the new Harry Potter book. Neither of those is surprising, but what's mildly surprising is how heavily you guys favored those two: the next closest vote...

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April 22, 2007

Law School Prom and the Power of Grayskull

Last night was the Barrister's Ball, also known as Law School Prom (not to be confused with the Malpractice Bash, also know as Law School Homecoming). Mr. Utah, Mr. Vice, Ms. Purple Hays, and I all attended. This being a formal event, I rocked the top hat. I also wore my newest, coolest accessory: a pocket watch engraved with my initials given to me by my illustrious co-Senior Managing Editor. The party itself was pretty decent. The beer (surprisingly) did not run out. Not that I cared--given Thursday night's goings ons, I wasn't really in the mood to drink. It...

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April 6, 2007

Spring Break: Day Seven: "They Fucked With the Wrong Mexican!"

Today was our last day in beautiful Marco Island, Florida. We weren't sad, I don't think. We're ready to go back--even if we don't want to. The entire trip to this point went very smoothly without any incident. It makes sense, then, that today was marked by not one but two debacles, although I may be alone in thinking that the second thing counts as a "debacle." The day started quietly enough; we woke up, cooked some burgers, and hung around the pool. Yvette and Lindsay wanted to go to the beach, but none of the rest of us did;...

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March 21, 2007

Hall of Fame

Like last year, there were two short movies at this years Law Revue show. The first was "Community Justice Commandos II: Behind the Justice," a sequel to last year's film. The other was written by a certain Vic Yanz and was received incredibly well. I have to admit that it's fucking hilarious. The producer, Rachel Graham, has posted the video on Youtube in four sections. For those of you that missed the show (or if you just want to watch it again), here's Hall of Fame: Great work, Vic ad Rachel!...

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March 10, 2007

At Least Jessica Alba Is Hot

For some reason, I stayed up way later last night than I had originally intended; I didn't go to bed until abou 5am. Then I woke up at about ten so that I could get to school in time to do the Law Review stuff I had to do today. Once I got going, it was a pretty productive day, especially thanks to a few 2Ls that worked their asses off today. After leaving school and faced with the prospect of (gasp) free time, I decided to go deposit a few checks at the bank. While I was there, I...

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February 19, 2007

America Is a Bunch of Idiots, but New Jersey Apparently Is Not

Ghost Rider is the number-one movie in America? What the fuck is wrong with you people? What is it about those commercials that made you want to go watch it? Were you all drunk and laughing? I hope so, because that's how I want to enjoy the movie. But, seriously, you people flocked to this thing? That's inconceivable! I'm incredulous. To make matters worse, Ghost Rider took over the top spot from Norbit, a movie so bad one critic said "[f]rom start to finish, Norbit is dismally unfunny, inspiring this Sign of the Apocalypse observation: Big Momma's House 2 was...

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February 17, 2007

Welcome to Rock Bottom

I know this isn't my usual schtick, but I just think this is so funny I have to comment. Britney Spears has apparently shaved her head and checked into rehab. Here's the picture from the Superficial: Man. Remember when she used to look like this? At this point, she might as well just give up. There's no comeback on the horizon for her. And speaking of comebacks, how the fuck does Nicolas Cage plan to rebound from Ghost Rider, which is currently rocking a 24 percent freshness rating at Rotten Tomatoes? God, I hate it when Hollywood puts out shitty...

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December 4, 2006

Concerning the Impending Finals and Advertising Justice

Not much is going on right now. Finals are about to kick into full gear--the last day of classes is Wednesday. I don't have a final for a little under two weeks, and I don't have my last final for a little under three weeks. I'm not flying home until the 23rd. That's ok, though. I'd rather take it relatively easy and give myself the time to really study than rush and be all stressed out. Speaking of studying, that's been really tough lately. It's not that I don't care or that I don't want to do well, it's just...

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November 18, 2006

A Great Time to Be a Nerd

While trolling around the Internet today, I found this awesome poster for the forthcoming Harry Potter movie. I think it's pretty much unbelievably awesome. I also found a few other new Harry Potter pictures, most notably one of Dumbledore's Army. I pretty much love that picture. You can see Harry in the middle, obviously, then Cho to his left, then . . . were both Padma and Pavarti in the DA, or is that the snitch next to Cho? In any event, then Ginny, then Zacharias Smith, then some other dude. Fred, George, and Neville behind Harry, Hermione to his...

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October 30, 2006

Halloween and its Aftermath

Well, that was an interesting and awesome weekend. In a last-ditch effort to get a good costume, Kristin and Emily and I headed to the West Side to some store out there and found that they had a huge wall full of costumes. Emily picked hers out, and I picked mine. I ended up going with a knight costume, completely with cape and chainmail head gear. Emily picked a camo army girl costume. Strangely, it came with sequins, almost definitely ensuring that its wearer would not be stealthy at all. After retreating to our respective homes to put on our...

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October 18, 2006

Stuff That's on My Mind

I noticed something yesterday as I was walking to school. Or, rather, I didn't notice something. That's right, those fucking cows are finally gone! Happy days are here again. I honestly can't believe that they kept them out that long. That's fucking bullshit. Two days of those ugly things was way too much, in my opinion. Apparently, a Massachusetts school has banned playing tag. That's one of the stupidest fucking things I've ever heard. Tag is what kids are supposed to play - that's just what you do. The game's got everything - running, screaming, chasing, tagging! And there are...

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October 8, 2006

The Repository of All Human Knowledge

I spend so much time on Wikipedia, it's not even funny. I go there ofte to look up something I don't know anything about and, next thing you know, it's 4am. Tonight, I decided to look up Indiana Jones because I saw a story on Yahoo about how George Lucas is planning an animated Star Wars cartoon. At the end of the article, he mentioned the much-discussed fouth Indiana Jones movie. Having grown up in a household that didn't have a VCR with parents that weren't particularly keen to drive an hour to take me to the nearest movie theatre,...

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September 24, 2006

My Foolish Ship

First and foremost, a hearty congratulations to Mr. Zachar who, in a stunning display of his trigger pulling abilities, beat 50 other competitors today and took home the Dean's Cup Texas Hold'em championship. His prize? Pride. And, together with the second-place finisher, the knowledge that he helped bring 9 additional points to the law school, increasing our lead to over 20. We're gonna fucking win this year, I can feel it. After poker, Zachar and I went over to Laurence and Cristina's, where we watched Dodgeball, which is awesome, walked to State Street, I ordered way too much Taco Bell,...

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August 24, 2006

My Family's Crazy and Scarface Sucks

We went out for my birthday yesterday, and it was a bit of a debacle. But I don't really want to talk about that. What I found funny was the way that my family acted. First, a little background. We had originally planned to go to this one restaurant. I drove my grandma in one car. My aunt drove my mom and Mia (my cousin Gloria's daughter) in another car. Gloria met us there in her car. Kaky met us there in her car. When we got to the first place, I decided it sucked and that I wouldn't have...

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August 3, 2006

Is Donald Rumsfeld an Idiot? You bet! Also, Bellatrix LeStrange and a New Family Member

Does he ask a bunch of rhetorical questions? Yes. Is it annoying as all get out? Gosh, yeah. Does he deserve to be shot? I think so. Do I have a link to some sort of corroboration about what I'm talking about? No, not right now. Would I appreciate one? Yeah, I think I would. In other news . . . Bellatrix LeStrange will be played by Helena Bonham Carter in the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie and, hopefully, in the last two movies. I gotta admit that I don't know how I feel about it....

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July 24, 2006

Michael Jackson Kicks Ass!

Alright. Whatever Michael Jackson may or may not have done later in his life, his music (at least his music from his time with the Jackson 5 up to and including Dangerous kicks ass). Ever since Cole, Kristin and I watched Clerks II (which was funny and did not ruin the View Askewniverse), I've had ABC by the Jackson 5 stuck in my head. It's a fucking awesome song. I downloaded it from iTunes the other day and have been listening it almost non-stop. It's a great mix of funky R&B-type stuff and pure, unadulterated 70s pop. Having started listening...

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June 28, 2006

He's Back!

Wow. I stand before you, a puddle of fanboy joy. My mind, honestly, cannot comprehend the awesomeness that was Superman Returns. I'm going to go spoiler free here, so please read on. I just got back from watching Superman Returns with Cole and Kristin. They didn't like it as much as I did. So please take everything I'm about to say with a grain of salt. Having thus disclaimed . . . I really, honestly, truly, have never been so blown away by a first-time movie watching experience. I've been excited about movies before. Star Wars. Lord of the Rings....

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March 27, 2006

Masked Justice

So, yesterday we filmed for Law Revue (the show). We have two movies this year: the first is Brokeback Hill, starring Walter Dickey and Michael Smith as wanna-be Torts professors. The second is Community Justice Commandos. I was involved primarily in the second one, in the starring role of "Commando No. 1." The Commando costume includes the following: black shirt, black pants, black shoes, black tie, black judge's robe, black ski mask and black sunglasses. In order to film it, Cole and i had to run around the law school in the outfit i've just mentioned beating up undergrads and...

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March 25, 2006

So Was Zachar RIght?

So, i shared Katherine's outrage and shock when Vin Diesel announced that he was a serious actor. The whole world came into question. Now, however, the Vin Diesel movie in question, Find Me Guilty, has been released and we can examine whether Vin Diesel really should be taken seriously or whether he's just a muscular moron. Here now are some excerpts from the Find Me Guilty page at Rottentomatoes.com: "It shouldn't work, but the story runs on pure Diesel." "It fails on almost every level possible to fail on" "Diesel owns it. He hits us in the eye with the...

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February 27, 2006

I'm a Good Student, After All

YES! I am actually caught up through tomorrow in both Evidence and Professional Responsibilities. Astounding! I'm back on track. I'm not going to fail out! I fucking RULE! What's that? What about Insurance Law, you say? FUCK YOU! The point is i'm caught up in Evidence and PR, you naysaying twit. More importantly, i'm fucking going to be ready to be on call in Evidence this week. Excellent. Yes, i had to cancel working out with Laurence and Cristina, but you gotta break some eggs to make an omlette. Still, i feel bad and guilty for flaking out and not...

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January 4, 2006

"They Can Be a Great People, Kal-El, They Wish to Be. They Only Lack the Light to Show the Way . . ."

So, on June 30th, 2006, Superman Returns will hit theatres. I, as a lifelong Superman fan, am incredibly excited. You should check out the trailer at the official Superman Returns webpage. The trailer really does kick ass. You can also see a bunch of pictures and read lots about the movie here. Now, personally, Christopher Reeve will always be Superman. So, i had mixed feelings about this new guy, Brandon Routh, wearing the cape and tights. However, the first time i saw this picture, i was highly encouraged. That's Superman, i thought. I was so encouraged, in fact, that i...

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January 3, 2006

Not Exactly a Lightweight . . .

So, i watched Syriana with some people tonight. I don't think i understood it, really. In fact, i know i didn't. And, to paraphrase Roger Ebert, to the extent that i do understand, i don't care. The plot was really convoluted, and not for any reason that i could see. i don't see any reason why the narrative couldn't have been told in a much more coherent way. I do, however, see an advantage: the fucking movie would have made sense. As it stands, the movie was almost a complete waste of time. I never cared about the characters or...

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January 2, 2006

"State of Fear" and Unsuckable

So, I just finished reading Michael Crichton's book, State of Fear. I bought it at LAX so that I would have something to read on the flight home from visiting the family for Christmas. I bought State of Fear even though I had just started Al Franken's new book, The Truth (With Jokes) because I was in the mood for a light-hearted romp of a book. Having read all of Dan Brown's books on my last two trips home (by the way, he's basically been writing the same book over and over again) I felt it was time to return...

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