Transamerica succeeded in being a lot less agenda-driven and exaggerated than I expected it to be. The movie follows a man-turning-woman as (we'll say) she rescues her son (whom she just found out about) from prison and takes him on a road trip to California without letting him know who she is; oh, and she has to get to California by Friday for her final sex change operation. Felicity Huffman stars as Stanley-turned-Sabrina (Bree), the woman in a crisis of not knowing how to tell her son she's his father while spending as much time with him as she can. The plot sounds a little bit crazy, and I agree, it's not all that believable, but it works the way it is presented in this movie.

Huffman is very capable as Bree, her face physically enhanced to look like a slightly mannish woman. It's hard to dtermine exactly how well she performs in this movie. Emotionally, she's spot on. Great job. If we're examining her physical performance as man-turned-woman, I found her body movements to look almost 100% woman... but it's always possible that Stanley has spent all his time trying to become more womanish... This is confusing. At any rate, I think out of all the Housewives, this is the one with the most talent; perhaps her husband (William H. Macy) has been a good influence on her.

Bree's 15-year-old son Toby is probably the weakest link in the film, more because of the writing than the acting. The movie tries to emphasize that he's young and says "like" a lot (think "My So-Called Life"), and that he's very idealistic about his plans for the future as well as his visions of what his real father is like. The early conversations between Bree and Toby are painful to listen to because they are so obviously written, but soon enough the script kicks into gear and the characters seem more legitimate. An encounter with Bree's mother is also over-the-top, but we soon get past it as well.

Religious views not being discussed here, I actually think the movie was pretty good. It had its flaws, but was essentially about a parent and son relationship developing for the first time between two people (in a very weird an uncomfortable way at times), and that part of the movie worked well enough for me. I guess you could say it wasn't amazing, but it definitely held my interest.

So on saturday my little brother's basketball team one their sub tournament game. That means this weekend well thursday and friday I will be in Pendleton OR to watch the 2a Boys Basketball tournament. I am taking days off to do it, it should be a lot of fun.

Also this goes to someone out there who I think is reading my website. Its ok to talk to me. It is not bad.

Next to someone else, punch him, he deserves it.

Mrs. Henderson Presents is basically our Being Julia for 2005, only Mrs. Henderson is more enjoyable because we know less about her, and we don't want to strangle her with every fiber of our being. We're in a theater, following a stubborn woman making many mistakes, and feeling slightly underwhelmed by the theatrical productions even though they're decent enough.

It's not that the movie is bad. I'd say it's just... pleasantly unremarkable. It moves smoothly from one plot point to the next, always staying carefully on the surface, and only once daring to become more dimensional by addressing the impact of WWII. I'm sure the movie makers felt rushed to pack in both plot and stage shows, but in the process, they seemed to sacrifice making the movie deep enough to be memorable. Sadly, in just a few months, I'm sure my memory will strain to remember anything about this movie, even though it's got tons of nude shots of girls. Perhaps I'll remember Bob Hoskins' frontal nudity shot, but I don't really want to.

(Slight spoiler)
While I enjoyed the idea of how these first nude shows meant to display the women as fine art rather than something to howl over, the movie sort of defies that purpose when we find that Mrs. Henderson's motive seems to be inspired by the idea that all soldiers should be able to see real breasts in person before dying for their country.
(End slight spoiler)

In the end, it was pleasant enough to fill a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon. That's about it. I would recommend a rental over a theater for this one.

From Kyle, a humble midwestern English teacher and concerned citizen advocating progressive governmental reform.

To all congressmen, governors, and leaders within the Democratic Party.

What the hell do you think you're doing?

In case you hadn't heard, 2006 is an election year. Many of you and your Republican peers are up for re-election. So why do you have yet to establish any kind of plan or voice in American politics?

Yes, I know that the American people are dissatisfied with the President right now. Hurricane Katrina caused many to question his ability to handle a natural disaster; people are realizing what a mistake it was to invade Iraq; the President's grand plan for Social Security was soundly rejected; and most recently, his proposed sale of U.S. ports operations to Dubai has met with widespread opposition, and has actually cast doubts upon Bush's National security credentials. And that's just the President. Meanwhile, Republicans in Washington have been confronted with a host of scandals related to illegal fundraising and lobbying practices.

This is the opportunity of a lifetime for you Democrats. So why do you have yet to do something about it? Your "shut-up-and-wait" approach to dealing with the Republican majority, though spineless, has certainly kept you from making any decisions that can be used against you. Unfortunately, this is no substitute for leadership, and will not work at election time. Despite all of their problems, the Republicans are still dominating the media and America's consciousness at every turn.

When Jack Abramoff's arrest stirred up a scandal about his countless Republican contacts, you should have been there offering legislation to reform the way lobbying works in Washington. Instead, you stood aside as Republicans beat you to the punch and passed virtually meaningless lobbying "reform," whose real purpose is to gain back the public trust. When Hurricane Katrina revealed that our nation's security has grown no stronger since 9/11, you should have been there with suggestions for improving Homeland Security. Instead you called for a new series of reports to be written and quietly filed away.

See, you may been too busy getting your butts kicked in Congress to notice that Republicans are good at politics. It's what they do best. Even with all of their recent scandals, they are not going to roll over and let you win. Simply pointing out Republicans' mistakes is not enough. If you don't come up with some solutions to America's problems, you will lose. Again. And the rest of us will have to continue living with the consequences.

Thank you for your time.

Holy Shiite Tomb Attacked

(via digg)

Jon, Grace, and I are watching an episode of Wondershowzen titled "Patience". This show is already jacked up, but they did the most genius and messed up thing I've ever seen on TV in this one. They started off an episode like normal and it was all about patience. It was already freaking funny, but then halfway through the show they apologized for how boring the show was and the proceeded to play the show in reverse. The entire freaking thing. Then with the time left they restart the show and play an episode in super fast speed. Then during the credits they played the entire show in fast fast forward. Crazy stuff.

Yes this is old. I just saw it on VH1's Web Junk 20. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. It's a 1982 ad for a weight-loss product that turned out to have a very funny name.

I took a spin through the iTunes podcast directory tonight looking for something for my dad to put on his iPod Shuffle to listen to on his commute. I was amazed at how many new shows there are. You can learn half a dozen languages, get news from the New York Times, CNN, NPR, ABC and PBS, and hear a satirical weekly presidential radio address. You can also now get video casts of the latest Strongbad email, Best Week Ever clips and Digital Life TV. You may notice that there are a lot more professionals publishing podcasts now. It didn't start out that way, but I don't think it's a bad thing. More good, free content is great for everyone. The little guy with a great show can still make it big much easier than in conventional radio.

If you haven't recently, take a look in the podcast directory and see what you can find. Here are some of my recent favorites.

The Ricky Gervais Show - The creators of The Office, Ricky Gervaise and Steve Merchant, team up with the infamous Karl Pilkington chat for half an hour. The show has caused genuine laughter-induced pain for me and Sara.

The Official They Might Be Giants Podcast - My favorite band. Bar none. They've been giving away free music since the early 80s with their dial-a-song service. Podcasting is a perfect fit for them. I'm listening to the first episode now. There are some very fun, strange songs on it. They're songs that could not and should not make it onto an albumn, but I'm loving it.

KCRW's Le Show - Harry Shearer, of The Simpsons and various Christopher Guest movies, podcasts his very funny and infomative weekly radio show.

The Onion Radio News - Satirical news, like The Onion, but in one minitute radio segments.

Escape Pod & Spaceship Radio - These are both shows for stories. They're mostly sci-fi.

That's what I've been listening to recently. Once I've heard some of the shows I just subscribed to, I'll try to post some thoughts about them.

I'm still sick but I've been going to work because I need the money and I don't really have any points to spare. What are points? Basically every time we call in to work for any reason or are late we get docked points. When you call in sick it is three points. You can call in for five working days on those three points, so it's not too bad. But I called in three times last year because of my various car troubles. Also, I was late a few times. Whether you are 30 seconds late or 3 hours late you still get docked 1.5 points. Points stay on your record for a year. So in July some of my points will start dropping off my record. Until then, I have to be careful. If you have 25 points you get fired. I also don't want to mess up my chances of getting the job I applied for. So I'm just grinning and bearing it until I get better. Meh.

I've got a lot of songs that have the "blues," so here's a random ten songs for you.

Bald-Headed Woman Blues Bassholes Blue Roots
Disappointment Blues The Hellacopters Payin' The Dues (Live Disc)
Blues X Man The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Orange
Armageddon Double Feature (Love Sick Blues, No. 4) The Dirtbombs Horndog Fest
Aldedly Blues Gas Huffer The Rest Of Us
Signifying Blues (Extended Version) Bo Diddley The Chess Box (Disc 2)
Blues for Big Town John Lee Hooker The Complete 50's Chess Recordings (Disc 2)
We Hate The Blues The Delta 72 The Soul Of A New Machine
Titanic Blues Bassholes Blue Roots
Satellite Blues AC/DC Stiff Upper Lip

A couple of weeks ago I was ripping all of my old CDs onto my hard drive. During that process I came across two artists that I had almost forgotten about, Newsboys and Audio Adrenaline. While I cannot even respect about 99% of Christian music, these albums, Take me to your Leader(NB), Step up to the Microphone(NB), and Bloom(AA), were very instrumental in either forming or reinforcing my early beliefs. With all the ups and downs that I have had in my faith since then, it has been refreshing to revisit. Almost like going back to my roots or something. Gosh, just saying that sounds so damn silly. Here the lyrics to one of my favorites, "Lost the Plot" by the Newsboys.

When you're coming back again
would you bring me something from the fridge?
Heard the rumor that the end is near
but I just got comfortable here.

sigh
let's be blunt
I'm a little distracted
What do you want?

Headaches and bad faith
they're all that I got
first I misplaced the ending
then I lost the plot

Long among the free-ranged sheep
where the big birds sharpen their claws
for the time we stuck with the shepherd
but you wouldn't play Santa Claus

sigh
let's be blunt
We're a little distracted
What do you want?

Once we could follow
now we cannot
You would not fit our image
so we lost the plot

Once we could hear you
now our senses are shut
We've forgotten our first love
we have lost the plot
lost the plot

When I saw you for the first time
you were hanging with a thief
and I saw my hands were dirty
so I dropped my gaze
but you said I was forgiven
and you welcomed me with laughter
I was happy ever after
and I was counting the days
When you're coming back again
I'll be ready for you
When you're coming back again
We'll be waiting for you
Maybe we will wake up when
Maybe we will wake up when
You are coming back again

lies
let's be blunt
We're a little unfaithful
What do you want?

Are you still listening?
'Cause obviously we're not
We've forgotten our first love
We have lost the plot

And why are you still calling?
You forgave, we forgot
We're such experts at stalling
we have lost the plot
lost the plot
lost the plot
lost the plot

When you're coming back again
would you bring me something from the fridge?
Heard the rumor that the end is near
but I just got comfortable here...

So in the last few days I have had a pretty consistant diet of cookies and Mountain Dew?

Perhaps this is why I have not been able to focus and post a bliggity blog.

Anyway yesterday I felt like I did nothing at all at work. All I felt like I did was fix things someone else screwed up and so I had to fix them. However today was completely different. I felt like I did a lot and that things really went well. I am trying to cut my mistakes down to zero. Of course I also realized that I touch the parts at work twice as much as anyone else. So I that means that I have more chance for error. Anyways, I really want to go on a date, but that probably isn't going to happen any time soon, unless I get on my horse and ride.

Why is it that I look exactly like Napolean Dynamite, minus the fro?

I have a lot of cans on my desk, perhaps I should do something with them.

I swear, chicks dig me, they are too afraid to admit it. Which really scares me because I wonder how many girls out there would date me if I just asked. I guess I don't care enough to ask, but maybe I will sometime. You know just get to know them, and then just be awesome and be super great, and even more just be myself. Hopefully that will be one of the days that I remember to wear deodorant.

I have health insurance. Suck it hippies.

I really wish that insurance companies weren't so slow. I really want my deductable back from my accident in JANUARY!!!!! I really could use that money to buy something like a table, or even a table and a couple four chairs. Then I will be super awesome.

My tax refunds will be directly deposited into my bank account. How sweet is that.

Come to my apartment, it is clean.

So really why are you so scared of me, I will talk to you, and I won't bite. I mean I use to have fangs but when I started seeing the orthodontist, again, when I was Junior in High School he took care of that. Contrary to popular belief I have not always been as close to perfection as I am now.

I think I am quite possibly addicted to McDonald's for breakfast. I need to stop spending my money on sausage McMuffins with egg. Oh but they are so good with their sausagey, cheesy, eggy goodness forever. There is nothing quite like warm sausage and meleted cheese and egg on an english muffin in the morning, except for the great satifaction of knowing that you don't have to get up, but you chose to anyway.

I need to eat more vegetables. I have lived here since November, and still have not bought a vegetable, unless you count tomato sauce. I think I may buy mushrooms, because I have seen an interesting spaghetti sauce receipe that involves mushrooms and a crock pot. That should be delicious.

Cookie dough is good.

I figured out what I would do if I won one of those $300 million dollar powerballs. Can you say LAN party? Or Brendoman.com super get together? I mean really we all haven't met ever. I think in the new house I would have just had built and a limo ride from the airport would be a good way for everyone to meet. I would even fly your spouses. We could play video games, or do other stuff. Basketball? Eat food? Dance all night?

I really want to get Dance Dance Revolution. Then again I don't think that the people who live below me want me to get DDR. Also, I have no one to play DDR with. I shall work on that.

So there is this person that I really want to get to know better and develop a deep relationship with. I mean she is pretty neato. Atleast she appears to be so far, but I don't know how to do it. I am so friggin scared of asking people to do stuff with me. I thought I decided not to be scared a couple of weeks ago. I hope I still think that.

Explosion.

I love it when you hear lines in songs that you want to tell people and tell them to quit living in a day dream. Yet I don't know how to do that.

I have strange day dreams of me protecting women by beating up their boyfriends.

It has truly been a long time since I rock and rolled.

I find myself looking in the right spots for things, but not recognizing what I am looking for, until it is too late. Dang, I need to work on my reaction times.

My new TV is quite neat, when you turn it goes blue first, then off.

Pirates, Ninjas, and Robots are no longer creative. However Vikings are pretty cool. I think Erik the Red would destroy Jack and Chuck with one arm tied behind his back.

What is this?

Calories 170
Total Fat 0g
Sodium 70 mg
Total Carb. 46g
Sugars 46g
Protein 0g

I wish the dishes gnomes would come out of their hiding spots and come do my dishes.

I have a lot of keys on my keychain. Some of them I will never use again.

I work with Mormons.

I need to start running. Maybe lift some weights.

My leg keeps bouncing up and down.

I win.

Plain View #36 2/18/06

Hustle and Flow

Station Agent

subscribe

The billionth song, ”Speed of Sound,” was purchased as part of Coldplay’s “X&Y” album by Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan. As the grand prize winner, he will receive a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth generation iPods, and a $10,000 Music Card good for any item on the iTunes Music Store. In addition, to commemorate this milestone, Apple will establish a scholarship to the world-renowned Juilliard School in his name.

“I hope that every customer, artist, and music company executive takes a moment today to reflect on what we’ve achieved together during the past three years,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Over one billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet.”

I just think it's unfortunate that the download that won the young man all of that loot was from a popular bandlike Coldplay. I think it would have been great if the 1,000,000,000th track downloaded would have been something from the Hellacopters or the Reigning Sound.

Wow,I found this in my "to be published" postings, so I guess it never made it to my blog. So, here's last week's Random Ten.

This week, I sort my iTunes to include only songs with words like "boy," "girl," "man," "woman," etc.

Watermelon Man Gun Club Early Warning (Disc 1)
Poor Poor Girl The Dils The Dils (AKA Dils Dils Dils)
Bride Of The Elephant Man The Murder City Devils Thelema
Southern Girls Cheap Trick At Budokan (2)
Speed Girl Electric Frankenstein EF Live! On WFMU Volume 3
Bald-Headed Woman Blues Bassholes Blue Roots
Get Your Hands Off My Woman The Darkness Permission To Land
40 Boys In 40 Nights The Donnas Turn 21
I'm Looking For A Woman Bo Diddley The Chess Box (Disc 1)
Little Green Men Project 86 Truthless Heroes

Spider-Man

Can't freaking wait.

I'm only 25! Could I really be an old man already?


Two days ago, Kelly and I were folding some laundry. One moment I'm standing there laying my serious folding skills on some poor sap of a shirt, the next I'm hurt. Making a move to put a shirt away, I could hardly take a step for the pain in the groin/hip area of my right leg. I thought that surely my leg would pop and the pain would leave, but that never happened. So, for the two days since, I have sort of limped around, although the pain is almost gone. But, there is now another pain is present behind my knee. I can't decide if this is from walking differently the last two days or from when I tried to stretch my leg out after the initial folding injury. Who cares, it still hurts.


Spontaneous pain is not the only evidence I'm an old man in a young man's body. There's also the candy dish. Yes, I've decided that I want a bottomless candy dish. I want to walk in the door, plunge my hand into a dish of jelly beans (or Twizzler bites, or Hershey kisses...) and plop down and watch religious television programming. Well, maybe not the religious programming part. Especially if '24' is on. But I do want my sweets!


- Lucas -


evidence to the contrary: I can't sport a bushy old man beard. Maybe I'm am still 25.

Please go HERE and click on the "Vote for this Story" button. This lady used to have my current job and is much loved by our office. If she wins, she gets help in paying her medical bills.

I'm sick. I'm pondering taking a few sick days at work because it was insane tonight and I almost couldn't handle it. I've never seen it so busy at California Adventure. You can thank the 2fer tickets for that. SoCal residents can buy a regular price one park ticket and go to the other park on another day for free. Of course everyone wants to use them in both parks on the same day or they want to go to Disneyland on both days so it's kind of a nightmare for us in the main entrance. Oh well. I think I have a fever. Good news though: 3 job interviews in three days. I interviewed for a Guest Communications position on Tuesday, a job at a software company today, and a tech position at a golf store chain tomorrow. So that is good. Hopefully something will pan out. Phil, Janelle, our friend Stephen, and I are all going on a Disney Cruise at the end of March. I'm super stoked. It's super cheap thanks to my discount so my tax refund will cover pretty much everything and I really need to get away for awhile. We're going on a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean and then we are going to stay at Walt Disney World for 4 days. I can't freaking wait. I'm going to crash now. Good night.

Hamas, now there is a name to get your children behind.

This past weekend was incredibly busy and tiring!

Friday night Ric's brother Jon and his family came to town. The family celebrated his birthday a bit belated, but we had fun. Yes, Gron, I have fulfilled my duty from the Anti-Olympics in buying it forward with the Arrested Development DVD.

Saturday morning we got up early for a brunch at Ric's cousin's house. We usually get together around Christmas, but had to delay a bit. Being around so many kids was fun but freaky. It was good to see the family again.

I think this is probably the only time any of our family have ever had beer together. They waited till half the family went home before cracking open the fridge in the garage. Haha.

Saturday afternoon, we got ready and drove out to Thousand Oaks to be Connor's chaperones for Steve's wedding. We spent the night out there and spent Sunday watching the kid (with some help from mom). Connor only had a couple of freak out moments, especially when he saw the suit he was going to wear, but he did really well overall. With the help of the other ring bearer, he strutted his stuff up the aisle with no problems, then went to the cry room with us and spent the entire ceremony running in circles chasing a little friend of his.

We drove back Sunday evening in time to catch a little tv and crash before starting the new work week. I'm sleepy!

I forgot to post about what happened at our complex a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't drugs this time that brought the cops to our neighborhood - it was a hit and run. A high school kid from the complex next door was hit by a car. The car kept on driving. There were a lot of newspeople out on our street the next day, and we continue to see a flow of people come to light candles at the vigil area outside his complex, where his mother is faithfully seen each night. I know it's got to be trauamatic for a driver to realize they have hit another human being with their car, but why on earth would they keep on driving without even checking to see if the kid was alive?
The family attends Faith, a church just a half-mile down the street, and they are taking donations for the family.

You can read the details online, here.

The Life Pursuit by Belle and Sebastian

Some various bits of things from my corner of the world:

• I had an interview today at Disneyland for a full time position in Guest Communications. This job sounds like an even better fit than the Guest Research job I didn't get. I think they really liked me. It's not salaried, but it is full time and I would qualify for benefits.
• I have an interview tomorrow at a company that makes software for manufacturing companies. The job is a project lead who would implement and train people in the company how to use the software. It sounds pretty neat. I also have a few other good leads as well, so things are still moving forward.
• I have a pretty bad cough. Everyone I know is sick so I think I'm finally coming down with something. Blarg.
• Season 2 of Veronica Mars is totally sweet. So far there have been cameos from Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith. Lots of great twists and turns so far and not just one big mystery like there was in season 1.
• I've been playing The Movies a whole bunch. It's pretty darn cool. I love being a movie mogul.
• Justin and I went to the Ann Lynn show last night at The Detroit Bar. It was a really great show. Their last show of their February residency is next Monday, so be sure to check them out if you're in the area!

That's I got for you guys today. Hope you all are enjoying your week. Stay tuned for more strange and disturbing posts from Gringo.

I don't have a lot of stuff to post about lately because I've been busy. I haven't seen any movies lately either, because I've been watching the Olympics constantly! I love my TiVo.

Commentators at the Olympics are pretty funny.

You've got the people who cover the luge, bobsledding, and skeleton runs: they have these sudden outbursts while the others are commentating that crack me up. They can't restrain themselves from "OOOH!", "WOW!" and my favorite, "HOLY MOLY!"

The snowboarding commentators, particularly for the snowboard cross, have a tendency to overuse the same phrases. One guy has said "And THAT is the essence of snowboarding," about 20 times already. Everything can't be the essence of snowboarding, Joe.

My personal favorite comment, given couple of days ago at the end of an ice dancing routine, came from a couple of commentators, one of which I think was Dick Button (who is a lot more sarcastic this year, which is funny). A couple had performed a couple of twizzles that didn't look too great, and then later did better ones. This brought about this brilliant exchange:

"So are you saying that twizzle didn't fizzle?"
"There's no shnizzle about that fizzizzle."

WHAT. THE. HECK!?!?!?

See more at: LEGOd Video Games.

Can you Digg it?

Sorry, no creepy-ass photos on this post.

I don't care what it is you may want to compete in. I want to beat you in it, even if it is something that is not even close to competitive like, jumping off chairs, I want to compete against someone.

Also I know you are reading this.

HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA,HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA....HAHA HA HA.

In order to protect company vendors I will not use the names instead I will just use vendor.

Curse you vendor. Eight pallettes in one day, delivered by Trucking Company, is just sick and wrong. I have never seen so many boxes of product in my life, espcially ones that I have to package up in rust paper and boxes. Geez vendor, now that I have felt like we were finally staying ahead of the game at work, you come along and screw everything up. This is about as bad as the times we get crate loads of boxes from other vendor. Still we are looking forward to a shipment from yet another vendor. Then who knows, it will probably all hit the fan then.

The Zen of CSS Design : Visual Enlightenment for the Web by Molly E. Holzschlag & David Shea

The Road to Ensenada by Lyle Lovett

The guy has a reputation for creating very subversive comic books. In the 1980s he wrote and drew Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which, aside from being one of the first comics to question the morality of the superhero vigilante, contained biting criticism of the Reagan-era United States.

Fifteen years later, he revisited this theme with The Dark Knight Strikes Again, which was even more blatantly critical of American politics and media. The September 11 terrorist attacks, which occurred after Miller had already begun the story, lent it even more poignancy. Even if it wasn't originally envisioned as a criticism of the Bush administration's post-9/11 policies, it certainly looks that way in retrospect.

Miller took the opportunity to express his personal views on the terrorist attacks, unfiltered, in one of many benefit comic books published about the event. His two-page comic is as shocking as it is blunt.

Now I read in Newsarama that Miller is writing yet another Batman story. This time, he describes it as a propaganda story about Batman fighting terrorists: "And not to put too fine a point on it, it is a piece of propaganda. Batman kicks al-Qaeda’s ass."

Is this really Frank Miller talking?

Here's the discussion that then takes place between Miller and the panel moderator:

CB: Alright – so in calling it propaganda, how do you want your art to impact the war effort?

FM: I want us to win the war…

[very minor applause]

FM: Oh, only a couple? I know this is San Francisco, but come on! What, you want to lose?

I must say I'm surprised to hear this kind of reductionism coming from Frank Miller. He just doesn't seem to be the type that would buy into the rhetoric that we're in an inevitable war, and that the only possible outcomes are victory and defeat.

I think that a modern propaganda comic book is an interesting idea. It would be neat to see a story that simultaneously spoofs and pays homage to WWII-era propaganda comics. It would also be a cool opportunity to create some satire of current events (Team America: World Police comes to mind). But I simply can't believe that Frank Miller can make an earnest and sincere attempt at creating mere propaganda, and nothing more. Our world is too complex for that. Frank Miller is too complex for that. Either he's been seriously overestimated all these years, or he's got some surprises up his sleeve with this "propaganda" project.

In college, I was a big Dave Matthews Band fan. Huge. I went to see them twice in concert in St. Louis. I own nearly all their CDs. One of my only contributions to the walls of Lauren (Beckner)and my dorm room freshman year was a black and white poster of Dave Matthews. Today, as I was browsing through music to play while I cleaned the apartment, I realized that I can't even remember the last time I listened to a DMB CD. Somewhere along the way, I replaced my favorite band. I can't remember exactly when it happend, but I am pretty sure that they were in my top 5 at least until I graduated college. Thanks to a game Lucas and I like to play called "name your top 5 ____" (fill in band, movie, book), I think I can reconstruct my top 5 from college and compare it to my top 5 now. Aren't you lucky?


THEN:
5. Bright Eyes

4. No Doubt
3. Letters to Cleo

2. Ben Folds 5
1. Dave Matthews Band


NOW:

5. Ben Kweller & The Postal Service (tie)
4. Feist

3. Bright Eyes
2. Ben Folds 5 (and Ben Folds solo)

1. Rilo Kiley


In a few weeks, we are going to see Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley. She has a new solo album out and is currently touring with the Watson Twins. I am excited. Rilo Kiley was a great live show, so I am hopeful that this will be too. Feist is a new addition to my music library that quickly made it into my top 5. If you haven't heard her, listen to Mushaboom. It is great.


~Kelly

The Nation has a brief, but fascinating, dual interview with Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman on the Danish anti-Muslim cartoon. It's interesting to read the reactions of two Americans who have been involved in politically-themed underground comics for many years. They actually seem to take slightly different views on the subject.

I'm happy to say that I agree with Spiegelman the most. My position is basically this: The controversial political cartoon depicting Muhammad as a terrorist is outrageously offensive and totally inappropriate; but the author had every right to print it.

Here's what Spiegelman says:

If there's a right to make cartoons, there has to be a right to insult, and if there's no right to make cartoons, well, I'm in big trouble. And I think America might be too.

But then, Joe Sacco makes some excellent points, too:

Freedom of the press, or the idea that you can depict anything--we simply don't subscribe to that when it comes down to it. I mean, child porn is not allowed. There are certain barriers or borders we all sort of agree, or most of us agree, where you are taking things too far. I personally don't necessarily think that attacking a religion is taking it too far, or even working within the imagery of religion to attack it. But you have to judge each instance, and what it means.

They also get into the very nature of cartoons as communication, and why they have so much power to offend people. Just go and read the whole thing.

Computer Stupidities: The World Wide Web

I've stumbled upon pages like this many times and I've had a good laugh but tonight I thought of something. I used to be the idiots these guys are laughing at. I think at one point all of us were, even if it was for a brief amount of time. While I have been using a computer since I was 5, I didn't start using the internet on a normal basis until my junior year of high school in 1997. Before that I had used BBSes and things like AOL and Prodigy. AOL was the internet. It did everything for you. So when I signed up for an ISP, I was totally clueless as to what to do. I set up everything but I didn't have a web browser and I had no idea what one was. This resulted in probably the most embarassing tech support call ever. I think I might be on one of these web humor pages. Just look for the story about the idiot kid who didn't know what a browser was or how to get one. Mind you, this was a few years before Windows came with IE. You don't even want to know what happened when I first tried to download something. I remember clicking on a link to a .zip file link and having no idea what was going on or what the heck a .zip file was or what to do with it. The point of all this is just to remind us all that we all were novices once, maybe even complete idiots. Although this day and age, I guess you do have to be kind of a moron not to know how to do basic internet stuff if you're under the age of 55. Ignore everything I just wrote.

I have been staring at my screen for a few minutes now, thinking of something to post, but I can't. Oh well.

Our friends from Denver, Herb and Cara, left this morning. We had a great weekend with them, and it was good to get to know Herb. We went to their wedding back in November, but only got to share about 30 seconds of conversation with them.

Since it was about 500 degrees below zero, we opted not to go walk around downtown Chicago. It feels like kind of a disappointment to be so close to Chicago and not be able to share it with out of town friends, but when your snot turns to icicles upon opening the front door, it's probably best not to try to brave the cold.

Instead, on Saturday Herb showed us his boyhood home in Palatine, then we showed them the third most impressive structure in Chicagoland after the Sears Tower and Wrigley Field, Ikea. We made some exciting purchases: two bath mats, a garbage can and a shower curtain liner. Herb and Cara picked up a sweet light that projects different images and different colors on the wall.

We also went to a mid-day lunch/dinner at Wildfire in Oak Brook. We were seated immediately, and when we walked out there was a 2 hour wait. Wildfire has some amazing filets; I got the horseradish crusted filet and Herb got the bleu cheese crusted filet. Quite good. The one downside was the attack from a dish of sour cream, or some other creme/sauce concoction, from some table near us. It suddenly flew over our table, with some lannding on Cara and Herb, some on the table, and some in the hair of a girl at the table next to us. The restaurant was really great about it, offering to pay for the dry-cleaning of any clothes, and they comped us dessert.

We capped off the night with Melanie's superb creme brulee, and a viewing of the Tom Cruise-Steven Spielberg opus, "War of the Worlds." I still like the film.

I am beginning to feel lonely again...

koinong

OMG! It's a freaking Katamari Flash game and it's made by Namco. Just click on Start and then one player and drag your Katamari around picking up things. It even has the music. Basically, this is what Katamari would look like on a C64 or Apple II or something like that. Totally sweet.

I am so hungry right now. My first crock pot dinner is going to be done in an hour. I am so hungry. I am having a three pound roast for dinner, and probably lunch and dinner for the next few days. My apartment smells good, and I bought a broom today.

So I have swept the floor. I love having a clean floor. Soooo nice. Next I am going to clean my toilet.

I am really hungry.

Last night, around 3:30 AM, Lucas and I were both ripped from sound sleep by a shrill beep! Occurring every 30 seconds, this beep has now become familiar territory for us. Our apartment is equipped with enough smoke detectors to outfit a small scale celebrity's home. Slowly, over the course of about a month now, the batteries in these detectors have been dying. When that happens, the beep occurs. For all 3 that have died so far, this has happend during the middle of the night. Usually we just get up and change the battery. Last night, though, proved the value of having a husband that is 6'4".


After searching the apartment to find which smoke detector was the culprit this time, we found it in the living room. Our living room has 18' vaulted ceilings. Guess where they put the smoke detector--at the highest point of the ceiling, of course! Of course we don't have a ladder, so it was time to get creative. We had 2 options: a) call the emergency maintenance number and have them bring a ladder over, or b) find a way to reach the ceiling. It couldn't wait till morning because it is impossible to sleep with the awful loud sound beeping every 30 seconds. So, Lucas got a chair. Not tall enough. He tried a bar stool. Not tall enough. Then, he put the bar stool on the chair and stood on that with me holding them steady. He could barely reach, so he got a screwdriver and stretched the last 2 inches on his tiptoes--and somehow managed to change the battery. Way to go, Lucas. In exchange, I promise to get all the groceries on the low shelf on our next Wal-mart trip.


~Kelly

Plain View #35 2/18/06

Kids

Talk to Her

Movie Critics: Ebert and Cinecast

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Ok, I'm sick of being sick. Sickness has put me behind everywhere and I guess the blogging is the lowest of my priorities. I believe I said something at the beginning of the year about blogging everyday. I don't see how people do that. Anyway, we'll see if we can't get back on track somehow.

So my mom used my ebay account to buy me my Buffy Box Set. Unfortunately she had never used ebay before and bought the box set from a seller who had no rating on ebay. This is almost always bad. I knew it was bad when my DVD set never showed up. What follows is a series of e-mails to Lonnie Hilliary of Tacoma, Washington.

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Is imitation flattery or making fun of me. I mean really let me know, and I find it funny that people imitate me.

Lunkider.

1. Song About Nuthin' - Powerman 5000
2. Wonder What's Next - Chevelle
3. Sick Sad Little World - Incubus
4. Midnight Show - The Killers
5. (Go To) California - Rob Zombie
6. Spiral - Godsmack
7. Ticks & Leeches - Tool
8. Like Suicide - Soundgarden
9. 45 - Shinedown
10. Trampled Under Foot - Led Zeppelin

This is the story of three aborignal girls who are taken from their homes in 1931 to be sent to a training school. Instead of staying to be analyzed regarding their race and schooled to learn domestic housework, the three escape and follow the longest fence in the world to find their way home.

Beautifully shot and always subdued, the story is interesting because of what it reveals about what went on in Austrailia in those years, and also because it's based on a true story.

While I didn't feel emotionally invovled, I enjoyed watching the girls use their instincts to survive. I'm not sure about the hoopla of award nominations and wins, but it is a good movie.

Why will I never hear my favorite songs on the radio? Read this:


Paying to Make It to the Top of the Charts


I suppose it's not a real suprise, but it is an interesting read nonetheless.


- Lucas -

Maybe some music will cheer me up.

1. That's What I Think, Cyndi Lauper
2. Telescope Eyes, Moss Eisley
3. To Protect The Family Name, Pedro The Lion
4. State Farm, Yaz
5. Boxers, Morrissey
6. Stand By Love, Simple Minds
7. Fresh, Daft Punk
8. Ya Leil, Sufjan Stevens
9. Carillonneur, The Valets
10. Fibber Island, They Might Be Giants

Wow, two tracks from Our Ladies of Independent Rock. Neat. Also, a great TMBG track to finish it off. Happy Friday people. I'm going to work tonight and then figure out what the heck I'm going to do with myself.

I didn't get the job. I tried to ask the lady what was wrong with me, what I needed to do next time, but she didn't know because she was just a secretary. No one ever tells you why. This is seriously like the 100th job I've been turned down for since I started looking for full time employment almost a year ago. I'm starting to flip out. I think my degree is worthless, even among churches. I'm starting to think I'm worthless too. I've been having nightmares all week about what the hell I'm going to do if I don't get this job. Welcome to my nightmare.

Dave Barry's Money Secrets by Dave Barry

While Gringo's video was, uh, interesting, this one is a little more to my liking.

Tokyo Godfathers shows the adventures of three vagrants who find an abandoned baby on Christmas and try to track down the clues to return it to its parents. The three heroes here are a man who ruined himself with gambling, a young runaway girl who insists she never wants to go back home to her parents, and a transvestite.

Sometimes an animation is the best way to convey a story, and I think this is one of those times. If this movie had been live-action, I would probably be more annoyed with some characters and less sympathetic towards others.

The movie is a lot more touching than I expected it to be. It actually has great themes of responsibility, family, love, and forgiveness. The story could easily take place in just about any country, and the main characters are universal as well.

It's filled with a lot of odd laughs, unexpected excitement, and really sincere moments. I really enjoyed it.

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