Whatever.

Thoughts on movies, television, the world, and other unimportant stuff.

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community.


Movies
News and Opinions
Other Blogs I Read
Television
Baseball
Useful Information
Games
Shopping
Music


Random Quote:


Tuesday, May 27, 2008



RIP 


Sydney Pollack.

I recommend Michael Clayton if you haven't seen it yet.

Monday, May 26, 2008



Chasing Me 


13.27 miles, 1:51:15 (8:23).

Results.

Last year.

Labels:

Friday, May 23, 2008



28 




"Day" is a vestigial mode of time measurement based on solar cycles. It's not applicable.

Labels:

Thursday, May 22, 2008



Rove 


Nah, easy response: "It shouldn't be a surprise that the basic concepts of diplomacy are a mystery to Karl Rove."



QOTD 


Do women really cover themselves in oil before taking long showers?



Suit 


Life imitates Boston Legal.  But even Alan Shore playing on friendly turf couldn't win that argument.



Email 


Dear [Stealth],

Our Party needs to pull together, and we need to do it now.

Never in memory have the Democrats, liberal special interests groups, labor unions and unregulated "527" soft-money groups come together with so much money and so much determination toward one purpose: Defeating Republicans.

They want the White House. They want Congress. They want total control of government.  And with record-breaking fundraising and voter turnout in Democrat primaries and caucuses nationwide, the challenge to our Party is greater than at any time in modern history.

I truly believe the only way we can stop the Democrats is if dedicated Republicans, like you, step forward immediately and support the Republican National Committee's VICTORY 2008 project -- a grassroots effort that is the backbone of our entire Republican Party.

As our Party's presumptive nominee for President and as a fellow Republican, I am asking you personally to help the RNC's critical VICTORY 2008 campaign to strengthen our Party, to spread our conservative message, and to rally more Americans behind our Republican candidates.

Please help me kick-off the RNC's VICTORY 2008 project by clicking here to make a generous online contribution of $1,000, $500, $100, $50 or $25 or as much as you can afford to support our campaign efforts.

[Stealth], let me tell you why your help is so urgent.

The aggressive campaign being played out for the Democrat nomination is showing us one very crucial fact: The Democrats and their liberal allies are building the most massive political fundraising machine ever seen.

They are growing their mailing lists and phone banks, perfecting their technologies, developing their money-raising techniques -- from telephones to text-messaging to mail to the Internet to knocking on doors.  And it is working.

With all the hype and media attention focused on their campaigns -- Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have managed to raise a staggering $425 million between them.  Together they raised more than $60 million in the month of March alone.  This is an unheard of amount of money in the history of American elections -- it's approaching a half a billion dollars.

The upcoming elections could be the most important in decades -- and have far-reaching implications for America's future security, growth, and prosperity.

If we fail to elect conservative Republican leadership in Washington, D.C. and all across the country, we face a return to the Democrats' tried-and-failed liberal policies that embrace higher taxes, more government spending, socialized medicine, and surrender in Iraq.

These are not the solutions to our country's greatest challenges.

That is why we are calling on our Party's very best -- individuals like you -- and getting them involved at the highest level in the RNC's victory-building campaign.

[Stealth], as someone who has done so much in the past for our Party, may we continue to count on your support at this very important time?

Your secure online gift of $1,000, $500, $100, $50 or $25 will be used for promoting our Republican agenda, identifying Republican and Republican-leaning voters, conducting voter education and Absentee Ballot programs as well as funding our vital voter registration program, with the goal of registering 2 million new Republican voters before Election Day.

With your help, the RNC will fight to make sure we have a Republican seated in the White House and strong Republicans in Congress and offices all across the nation who will push forward our conservative vision for America that includes lowering our taxes, reducing wasteful government spending, and ensuring victory in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We need you with us.  I hope to hear from you soon and I look forward to working with you throughout this campaign.

Sincerely,,

John McCain

P.S.  The Democrats are assembling massive rallies, breaking records at the polls, and raising unprecedented campaign funds for their candidates.  Every vote, every dollar makes a difference in this election.  [Stealth], I'm counting on you, as a loyal Republican Party supporter, to answer this challenge and join the RNC's VICTORY 2008 by making a secure online contribution of $1,000, $500, $100, $50 or $25.  Thank you.



Secret 


I have never heard of The Secret History of Star Wars, but apparently it is in its third edition.  It's also free and downloadable.



Trailer 


I may be looking forward to Batman: Gotham Knight more than The Dark Knight.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008



Skills 


May as well burn that college diploma.  Head to grad school, kids!

I graduated in 2002, in regards to that chart. I already knew at the time it was a year or two too late. And check out Kevin's final paragraph: positive reinforcement > negative punishment.



Hah 


Pandora just played me some Salieri, then some Mozart.



Heh 


The campaign to save Dollhouse has already begun.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008



Asshole 


In Senate terms, Joe Lieberman would be a total nobody if Al Gore hadn't asked him to run on his ticket.  This is, unsurprisingly, lost on Holy Joe.



Lion 


Eep.



Medical 


A DC piece of trivia:

When you see an official motorcade in this town and an ambulance is a part of it, that means it's for the Vice President. Apparently Cheney never sets out the door without ambulance and emergency medical team close at hand.

Dick Cheney is five years younger than John McCain.



Gratz 


George Takei is getting married.  He spent some of his childhood in an internment camp, so he knows a little something about freedom.



Idiots 


Obama wants "voters to go hungry for Gaia."

I don't understand how these people manage to tie their shoes in the morning.



Maybe 


Can they quietly make a really good Green Arrow movie?  That'd be nice.  And with obscure villains!  Pied Piper!  Fluronic Man!



Metaphor 


Buffy in Baghdad.



Mailer 


This is begging to be photoshopped.

PRO-FAMILY.  Not just recently.  Always.  Except not with this wife.



Pitching 


It's a big deal:

Jon Lester becomes the first Red Sox lefty to throw a no-hitter at Fenway since Mel Parnell in 1956. Lester threw a total of 130 pitches, a total that he probably would never approach without the no-hitter on the line. However, he never seemed to tire. He was throwing as well in the ninth as he did in earlier innings, and had looked extremely sharp in the eighth.

Two years ago he was diagnosed with cancer. He comes back to win the World Series and now throws a no-hitter. As he came off the field, it seemed every player and coach gave him a big hug.

The Red Sox did not throw a no-hitter at Fenway between 1966 and 2001. With Lowe, Buchholz and Lester, they've now thrown three since 2002, plus a five inning no-hitter by Hansack. Maybe Fenway's become a pitcher's park!

Congratulations to Jon Lester on the game of a lifetime. He continues to be the feel good story of the Red Sox.

Jason Varitek caught every one of those games, making him the first catcher in MLB history to catch four no-hitters.



NoNo 


Congratulations to Jon Lester, who, I hear, did something amazing last night.

Not that I'd know, since I haven't seen or heard the end of a Red Sox game since they were in Japan.

Monday, May 19, 2008



McCain 




..versus McCain!



Standards 


While reading through various reviews of Indy 4, I am reminded of something the esteemed Jacob wrote in a recap for one of Battlestar Galactica's rare crappy episodes:

Surely not every episode can be a home run, right? And my response would be: Why the fuck not? When did we get to the point where excellence gets graded on a curve? Why give yourself, the show, anything that pass? I am so violently opposed to this concept of "everybody screws up now and then," it's not even funny. What a nasty, masturbatory, self-aggrandizing, lazy, stupid sentiment. I'd rather not have the conversation at all, if that's the only option, because at that point you're defending the indefensible: I like the show enough to lie and say this wasn't that bad. Who does that help? How does that induce transformation? How can you rise, when you give yourself the option of taking a nap? You fuck up, you learn, you try harder, you get better, you get stronger. You don't lay down and go to sleep and close your eyes and shut down the conversation: you evolve. This episode couldn't be worse, but it could be a great fucking deal better: Why isn't it?

And when I'm feeling charitable, the response, at least as television goes, is that some times things in the real world happen that affect the quality of the product.  For just one example, a very popular recurring character just bit the big one on Lost, solely because the actor in question wanted off the show.  All sorts of things can happen, and often with weekly television, events can happen so fast that it's impossible to compensate in time.

None of these excuses apply to Spielberg and Lucas, two of the most powerful men in Hollywood.  Anything they want, they get.  Which is maybe the problem, but that's another post.



Movie 


Once (2006)
directed by John Carney
rating: 9 out of 10
rented from Netflix

Most great musicals make we wish I could sing better. This one makes me wish I could play anything at all.

A neorealist musical! Who knew? Hey, if they can make a noir Western...

Labels:



Diversity 


A critical essay on race in the Buffyverse (contains spoilers for the entire run, including Season 8 and After The Fall):

Six years and a different network later, Buffy entered its final, seventh season with a TV series spinoff, comic book series, dozens of tie-in novels, and even action figures to its name. It, and sibling show Angel the Series, also had a reputation with some fans that were less than impressed with the way the two series handled race. In the twelve years combined that Buffy and Angel were on the air only a scant dozen of the speaking part characters were characters of color – one can literally count them on the fingers and toes of one person. Only one was a main character with a person of color as a regular cast member. Only three were major reoccurring characters, with top billing in the guest credits. The rest were relegated to single episodes or supporting positions in multiple episode arcs where the show never explored the character and, instead, used the character to explore a white character's dramatic arc instead. Even being generous with what calls a "minority " by including the ilk of multicultural (but still predominantly Western European) Charisma Carpenter and Italian descended Robia LaMorte (who played an outcasted Romani in Buffy's second season before being the first permanent death of a reoccurring, non-villain character for the show) the statistics still remain almost shockingly low for a franchise that valued itself on its diversity of characters. But more jarring than the blatant lack of characters, and actors, of color on the shows were the fact that when characters of color did show up they were almost inevitably evil, insane, or quickly no longer of the living (or undead, for that matter).

While I don't agree with every argument made there, as good as Joss has been with gender, this remains an issue.  Given that the 'verse in Firefly is run by a government descended from China and the U.S., how many Asian people were on the show?  I don't even mean the main cast, I mean, ever?

(via Whedonesque, with lots of comments, naturally)