Friday John McCain made big news by announcing that his running mate will be Sarah Palin.

The obvious question on everybody's mind is: Will a woman on the ticket help McCain? I don't think so. In fact, I expect a backlash.

The thing most commentators seized upon is Palin's inexperience. After serving as mayor of a town of 5,000 people she has served for 2 years as the governor of the 4th least populous state in the union. After all his talk about how inexperienced Barack Obama is, John McCain is claiming that Palin, with even less experience is ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency (a 72-year-old cancer-surviving heartbeat at that).

Even more significantly, John McCain has been building his campaign around the idea that (unlike Obama, presumably) he is a candidate of substance, who always does what is best for his country and not necessarily what is popular or likely to get him elected. Remember that his big line is, "I would rather lose a campaign than lose a war." Yet he very transparently selects a female Vice Presidential candidate in an attempt to win over the supposed masses of disillusioned Hillary Clinton supporters.

Am I reducing the issue? Not at all. I challenge anybody to come up with one quality about Palin, aside from her gender and her age, that would make her a better Vice Presidential than any other Republican in the country.

So much for McCain putting substance and policy ahead of popularity. But will his gambit succeed in winning over Hillary Clinton supporters? I don't think so. Sure, there will always be a few who will change over just because she's a woman (and you can bet FOX News will find them and interview them), but as a whole I believe people supported Hillary Clinton partly because she's a woman, but also because she speaks to the issues that they care about: health care, reproductive rights, equal pay for equal work, etc. Hillary supporters aren't going to suddenly switch over to a pro-life, pro-drilling, pro-business candidate just because she also happens to own a pair of ovaries.

In fact, I expect some voters will be insulted by the suggestion that a person's sex is all that matters to them. I'm reminded of Barack Obama's senate race in 2004 when the Republican party drafted Alan Keyes to run against him. It only showed how out of touch the Republicans are that they thought people would vote for another man who also happens to be black, but speaks of none of the issues that the targeted voting block care about.

I don't expect that McCain's selection of Palin will be quite as disastrous as Keyes' Illinois Senate campaign. In fact, I think any direct effect she has on the overall election will be negligible. But I do think the choice compromises McCain's overall message so far, and can only hurt him.

Happy Birthday, Josh!

And Happy Labor Day to everyone as well.

I'm spending the weekend working on the condo, relaxing, and reconnecting with some old friends (music).

Be safe with all of your parties!

In honor of not working, I may or may not be blogging this weekend. If you don't hear from me, I hope you all have a good one. So long, summer. We hardly knew ye.

Remember when I raved about Micah P. Hinson a while back? No?

Well, I was thinking yesterday, "I wonder if Micah P. Hinson is working on a new album yet." I consulted Wikipedia and learned that he was indeed working on a new album and that it was already released last month--and yet I had heard no mention of it.

Next I went to Amazon and found all copies of the CD priced at almost $30. These are obviously imports. The album is supposed to be released (again, according to Wikipedia) on Jade Tree Records in the US, yet the label's official site has no mention of it.

Not willing to buy a $30 CD (or even a $20 used one) before hearing it first, I checked last.fm and found that the entire album is streaming for free.

So I listened.

And I loved it.

And now I know I have to buy it.

I finally went to eBay and found some copies of the CD available from UK sellers. With the conversion from pounds to dollars plus shipping, it looks like I can get the CD for 10 or 15 bucks, which isn't too bad, I guess.

It doesn't seem right, though, that I have to send away to another continent for a CD recorded by a country-folk musician in Texas. I may not know much about how the music industry works, but I think that even a musician of very minor renown should be able to get someone to release a CD in the US at an affordable price.

By the way, if you want to hear why I'm so determined to get my hands on this, take a listen to Throw the Stone.

Plain View #91 - August 4, 2008

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For our retreat, I created a list of things to do at the Farmer's Market and the Grove. The people who had photos of themselves doing these things were in competition for medals at the Office Olympics. I ended up winning the silver medal, only off by one photo, I think! The green team got the gold and the bronze.

One of the photos was supposed to be of ourselves with an interesting decoration at Cost Plus World Market. There were tons of dragon decorations, if any of you are interested in filling your house with that sort of thing.

In my determination to fill my final short Friday and not go back home, I went to see Transsiberian based on hearing a few positive reviews. In this story, Emily Mortimer stars as Jessie, a woman who is traveling with her husband (Woody Harrelson) on a trans-Siberian train to Moscow after they have completed a missions trip to China. On the train, they share a cabin with an odd couple - a girl and a man who at first seem friendly but whose behaviors raise a few red flags to the viewer's eye. When Jessie realizes that Roy got off the train at a stop and that he isn't on the train, she has to wait at the next stop for him. But her life pretty much derails (get it?!) from that point on.

Roy is a bit of a nerd (I think the costume decision to give Harrelson glasses was overstepping the nerdiness) and yet he's a good guy and is generally likable. One wonders how he and his more mellow wife found each other, and we soon find out that Jessie has a bad-girl past and Roy has helped her move away from that lifestyle. Unfortunately, the differences between their personalities seem to be taking a slight toll on their relationship, although it is still evident that they love each other. The presence of their cabin-mates changes the dynamics of their trip, and Roy's disappearance leaves Jessie alone to face the issues on her own.

What I did like about this movie is that it shows how certain choices can have repercussions. I like that Ben Kingsley's character, a detective they meet on the train, says that lies can move a person forward in Russia, but they can never bring you back. Jessie learns this lesson over the course of the movie, to an extreme degree. Unfortunately, it's her choices that caused a disconnect for me. The ways she tries to deal with her problems seemed a little too frantic for realism, and because of that, I kind of wanted to smack her around until she was thinking straight... but of course she never did. Even so, Emily Mortimer is a talented actress and Transsiberian basically rests on her shoulders, and she is actually able to make it seem like Jessie's actions and emotions are authentic.

I also liked the way the cramped quarters of the train were captured. Each scene on the train emphasizes the narrowness of the train, and that claustrophobic atmosphere heightens the tension of Jessie's situation, especially when we realize she can't exactly run away from her problems when she's stuck on a train that's traveling through the middle of nowhere.

What I didn't like about this movie is the extremes to which it takes the plot. From the dark and tight train, the characters and the plot emerge into a much bigger scene and scheme of action that I didn't see coming--and didn't really care for. Suspension of disbelief flew out the door at a certain point, and that's when I kind of shut myself off from the movie. I watched to see what would happen, but I think it got to be too big for its own good and lost its effectiveness as a result.

I'm left admiring parts of the film and wishing others had happened differently. And ultimately, there aren't proper closing consequences for each of the characters, and that bothered me. It's like the movie wanted to explore the idea of the effects one's moral decisions can cause, but still wanted to give a Hollywood ending. Actually, as I sit here thinking about it, I don't think a single character was given what he or she deserved. So in a sense, what was the point?

Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006 by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker

We went to convocation this morning and it was much more of a formal affair than it was in the old days! With a new president comes a new image. Sometimes I worry that image is too much of an issue with the new regime, but I do appreciate that a few things are more polished than they used to be. I guess it's tough to find the perfect balance. But even in the middle of my worries and an address that started out a little stiffly, the president was able to remind us of why we are all here. It was a good time of focus, and we had a nice time of singing as well.

The blessing that the president bestowed on the new students was given, which I thought I'd share:
The peace of Christ be over you to shelter you,
Under you to uphold you,
About you to protect you,
Behind you to direct you,
Ever be with you to save you,
This day and forever more.
Amen.

Happy Birthday, Paul Reubens! | Comedy Central Insider - The Comedy Blog for Comedy Fans

It's a real shame that after a groundbreaking TV show, one of the funniest movies ever and a string of scene-stealing supporting roles, you still can't bring up Paul Reubens without talking about the elephant in the room. But I actually don't think Big Top Pee-Wee was that bad. Zing! Paul Reubens is 56 today.

If life really were fair, I'd be posting a picture with me and Paul Reubens here. Sadly he didn't show up at Comic-Con. I still think he's great, but hopefully one day I can meet him. People always look at me weird when I say that, but the guy seriously helped mold my childhood, first with his hilarious and bizarre movie and then with his TV show. Even the haters can't deny that show rocked. I watched it all the time when I was a kid. I still watched it all the time when it was on Adult Swim. Here's to you, Paul. Please come to Comic Con next year and actually show up.

YouTube - John McCain - POW Bros

I Ha'd.

The last event before our closing ceremonies was Trashcan Basketball. It's pretty much what it sounds like, only the athletes not only had to shoot as many shots as they could in 60 seconds; they also had to make their own paper balls before each throw (the provided paper was bluebar with a bunch of old class schedules on it). My team got the gold, which meant we were in contention for the silver medal!

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

Scientologists avoid public discussion of some of the stranger elements of their mythology. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, was a science fiction author, so it's no surprise that he included some space aliens. South Park famously lampooned this mythology in the episode "Trapped in the Closet". An audio clip of Hubbard explaining the story of Xenu has been making the rounds on the Internet. Here's a copy of the clip on gawker.com.

After listening to it, I think the South Park episode was pretty accurate.

People actually believe this.

If anyone wants to get in on some Fantasy Football action, it's too late to join the league my brother set up. We need at least five more teams to get a decent league going. Last year I kicked everyone's butt so I'm definitely looking for a challenge.

EDIT: We've gotten enough people so thanks a bunch guys. My brother has one more spot for his friend and then we'll be set to go.

Okay, so now that all those movies are out of the way, I only have a couple of reviews to do! Phew! Well, until then, I'll tell you what we've been up to.

All last week, our sister-in-law and the two nephews were in town. They visited her family by day and spent the nights at Ric's parents' house, where they could easily relax. That meant a lot of catchup time for us. We were there four nights in a row. So, by Friday, Ric was tired and I could use a break myself after all the Olympics preparation (final details to come). We spent the evening at home and I think I probably spent most of it watching the Olympics.

Saturday, we drove out to Redlands to have lunch with Kristen at the Royal Falconer, an English pub that has some very tasty fish and chips. We had a good time hanging out for a couple of hours and then headed up into the mountains to visit Yo at his home in Crestline. We spent a long time there, just hanging out, eating, and drinking. I love the view from Yo's balcony, where we spent most of our time. It was a great time and reminded me a lot of how we used to do the same stuff at his old place in Huntington Beach when I was in college.

Sunday morning was church with the Andersons. I came home to watch more Olympics and then went out to see Bottle Shock (review to come, but skip it). After that I went shopping for heavier clothes that I can wear on our trip. I got some jeans, a jacket, and a couple of sweaters. After a Flame Broiler dinner, I set in to watch some tv with Ric. Now that the Olympics are over, I'm back to watching Sledge Hammer with Ric, as well as figuring out which movies I want to Roku.

Up this week: working on the condo, cleaning the condo, movie night on Wednesday (hence the cleaning), trip talk over coffee, and mini golf to celebrate Ric's mom's birthday on Friday.

brendoman.com reddit

So I've seen the create-a-reddit feature for awhile on reddit but put off making one of my own. Then I thought today it would be cool if we had our own reddit we could submit stories to and vote on. If you're not familiar with reddit, it's a bit like digg but a bit more minimalist. Sign up and check it out!

Madden NFL 09

Maxed Out

Friday Night Lights - The First Season

These scientists, working to hasten the day when we are exterminated by our robot overlords, have attached a suspension of biological neurons to a robot. The electrical activity of the biological brain drives the robot via some electrodes. The robot has sensors that feed back into the brain. In the video it bumbles around the room in a very nonintimidating fashion, but THEY SAY IT'S GETTING BETTER AT IT!!!!!!! The neural connections for certain activities are strengthening. Of course, they say they're doing the study to help them understand the human brain and cure diseases like Alzheimer's, but isn't that exactly what the robots would want you to believe?

(via Atheist Media Blog)

Oh my gosh, I've gotten SOOOO far behind with movie reviews that I'm just going to write up a quick review of a bunch of them in order to catch myself up. So hold on, and here we go! I'll tell you about my weekend tomorrow.

Control (2007)

I've always half-understood the appeal of Joy Division, but a look at Control and the spectacular performance of Sam Riley as lead singer of the band, Ian Curtis, shows the appeal and the agony of this musician, who started life way too quickly. His early marriage and parenthood, his career, and his health problems are captured beautifully in black and white. In almost any given scene, the screen could be frozen, printed out, and framed, thanks to the vision of director Anton Corbijn. I loved this movie.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

I'm not sure why I haven't seen this movie until now, but it's a definite classic, in theme and feel. A remake will be released in December of this film, which is about the arrival of a spaceship on our planet, from which emerges a strange but kind man who seeks to give a warning to unhearing ears. Some of the special effects and images are very striking, and Michael Rennie as Klaatu is wonderful, especially in his scenes with the little boy, Bobby.

Payback (1999)

Payback was one or Ryan's picks for our twice monthly movie nights. It stars Mel Gibson as a not-so-good guy who gets tricked and left to die by a friend. He doesn't die, so he comes back with revenge on the brain. We watched a re-edited version of the film, and from the extras we watched afterwards, I'm curious to watch the original cut. I think the shots of the original footage looked richer and more interesting. I have a hard time rooting for a person who is bad right off the bat and continues to stay that way through the entire film. I guess I was looking for a little more change in the character of Porter, but perhaps the original ending would give me what I wanted... I'm not sure, but for now, while interesting enough to watch, I had the feeling that the re-edit took away the things that I would have appreciated most about this movie, and so left me feeling a little bit empty.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Believe it or not, I had never seen this movie! A Jimmy Stewart classic about a man who's chosen to be a member of the U.S. Senate so that some crooked men can pass a bill to their benefit, this one's all about the spirit of good Americans and what our country is supposed to be. With strong performances all around, it's an absolute pleasure.

King Kong (1976)

I just happened onto this older version of the giant gorilla while watching tv, and decided to give it a go. Jeff Bridges is our hero, and Jessica Lange the heroine. A ship sets sail for a mysterious island hoping to find a good source of oil (picking up a beautiful castaway en route), and instead discovers King Kong. They manage to capture the beast, and the infamous New York skyscraper climb actually takes place on the Twin Towers. There is a little bit of cheese, but that's expected from a movie of this type. I actually thought the special effects were good and that the adaptation to a present-day situation worked well enough. It was entertaining, for sure.

The Lady from Shanghai (1948)

Ooh, while looking this up I just found out this is being remade by Wong Kar Wai in a couple of years. That could be interesting, although he's messing with an absolute classic. With an awesome pairing of an Irish-accented Orson Welles and the beautiful Rita Hayworth, this one's about a seaman who allows himself to fall for a beautiful married lady and work on her yacht as she and her husband travel the seas. As if the triangle weren't enough, the Irishman finds himself in the middle of a complicated murder plot. Full of exotic locations and wonderful dialog, this one really surprised me with how well it has held up, even at the age of sixty.

Out of Africa (1985)

Yet another of the recommended Meryl Streep movies, this one is said to be the best movie made by director Sydney Pollack, who just recently passed away. The story is of a Danish woman who enters into a marriage of convenience with a friend, and together they set out to start up a plantation in Africa. As the plans and her marriage slowly disintegrate, her friendship with a huntsman played by Robert Redford deepens, and the two fall in love, although he is not to be soon tied down. The movie looks wonderful and is an interesting premise, and is acted well enough by the two leads, but I had trouble falling for the love story, which lacked substance. I enjoyed looking at it, but not so much experiencing it, if that makes sense.

Speed Racer (2008)

A display of shockingly bright colors and an incredible mix of real life and computer animation, Speed Racer is a wonder for the eyes. It may not get you all that emotionally involved, but it is a new experience in movie-making and feels like a giant piece of candy. Emile Hirsch stars as Speed, who is wooed by a giant motoring company, but tries desperately to stay true to his family business, win the big race, and honor the memory of his dead brother, whose story is revealed to us as the movie progresses. While Speed himself is held up by his supporting characters, it all seems to come together, and both Ric and I enjoyed this a lot more than we thought we would. We were glad we decided to catch it on the big screen at the cheap theater.

Frisky Dingo (Season 1)

Ah, Adult Swim. How do you come up with this stuff? Frisky Dingo follows an evil villain named Killface, who wants to destroy the world. The only problem is that no one knows who he is, so he has to find ways to publicize himself, and as a result, doesn't have enough money to finish building his destructive machine. His enemy, although I'm not sure either of them quite realize it so far, is Awesome X, a superhero who has pretty much destroyed all the evil there is to destroy and enjoys goofing off in his real life persona, Xander Crews. I can't even describe the oddness of this show. It's got a lot of cartoon violence and obscene material, but has a wit that comes very unexpectedly. Now I understand why my husband runs around quoting it, with exultant phrases like "Cackow!" and "Booosh!" Fun times.

American Graffiti (1973)

I saw this one projected on the Fox Fullerton Theater with Ric and the Hutchinseses. Another classic that I just caught up with, American Graffiti captures a single night in the lives of small town kids who are on the verge of adulthood. Some are questioning their futures, some are dealing with relationships, some are goofing around. I never thought I would see Opie (Ron Howard) try and convince a girl to have sex with him, but here it is. My favorite stories are that of the wandering Curt, Milner and the young girl he gets stuck cruising with, and the nerd who actually gets a pretty date. It boggles the mind to think that George Lucas could be so good with writing and directing here, yet have so many problems with character development in his later films. By the way, Ric's dad's corvette makes an appearance as an extra in the film.

THX1138 (1971)

Speaking of George Lucas, this is an ambitious Anthem-esque flick about a futuristic and controlled society, from which a young man and woman try to escape. It stars an unrecognizable Robert Duvall and is penned and directed by Lucas. While full of interesting ideas, the editing and pace of the film suffer, and I fell asleep more than once watching it. I think I prefer Logan's Run, zany though it may be.

The Innocents (1961)

Deborah Kerr plays a governess to Miles and Flora in the first thriller to get me riled up in quite some time. Miss Giddens becomes convinced that the house where they stay is haunted by the ghosts of the children's former governess and her lover, who are both of questionable morale and both had mysterious deaths. Furthermore, she believes the ghosts are possessing the children. Are the ghosts real, or is everything in her imagination? At the very least, Miles and Flora, played by Martin Stevens and Pamela Franklin, are the first intentionally creepy movie children that I've actually been freaked out by. The brilliance of the film is in execution, with music, cinematography, dialog, direction, acting, and an incredibly well thought out script. I haven't read The Turn of the Screw, the James novel that inspired this movie, but it's now on the (very long) to-do list.

Semi-Pro (2008)

I'm about ready for Will Ferrell to be done with sports movies, but that doesn't mean there aren't some good-but-meaningless laughs in Semi-Pro. The idea alone of a sports team in Flint, Michigan being called the Tropics is worth the $1 price of admission I paid. It's about some underdogs who want to get their team into the NBA, and they are led by their owner, Jackie Moon. I went in with extremely low expectations and laughed more than I thought I would, so I guess that means I was okay with it. I've already forgotten most of the details about it, so that should let you know how significant it would be to your life, were you to watch it.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (2007)

Yet another of the wealth of Romanian films I've been seeing lately, the setting of this one is Romania, before the fall of communism, in which a girl helps her friend obtain an illegal abortion. As expected, it is an extremely heavy movie. It gives one a real picture of day-to-day life and what the effects of communism were like on people's lives. It also shows the bleakness of the situation, and is really rough to watch. While I wasn't exactly routing for our protagonist, I could feel her life falling apart as the day progressed. I'm not sure of how to rate this one, but it is effective, to say the least, and some of its scenes will stay with me for a long time to come.

Tootsie (1982)

Amy chose to show us Tootsie as her most recent pick. Let me tell you, I find Dustin Hoffman hard to look at, but as a woman, it's even worse! Despite that, this is a Sydney Pollack film that I almost find more successful than Out of Africa. It has a premise that could be destructive in the hands of different actors and directors, but it all comes together here, in a very weird way. All the movies I've been seeing lately are so mixed, but somehow they all manage to play into one another, and here again is Jessica Lange, showing off what made her famous - a truly enjoyable personality and innocent look. I just watched an episode of Bob Newhart recently as well, and she really does have great charisma. Ric would contest that some of the plot revolving around Lange's character's father is a bit too much of a muddle. I agree somewhat, but I like how it was handled, although I'm still trying to figure out how awkward family get-togethers would be in the future of these characters.

Tight Spot (1955)

When I think of Ginger Rogers and the term "brassy broad", I think of a fun character like hers in The Major and the Minor. But that's not anything close to what she plays in Tight Spot, which is actually a pretty serious movie about a woman who is taken out of prison and held in secret police custody while they try and convince her to testify against her mobster ex-boyfriend (whose goonies are all surrounding the hotel). Edward G. Robinson and Brian Keith give solid performances, but Rogers is too over-the-top here, and out of her element. The more she eased up, the better the movie got, but the overly harsh performance did this movie in for me.

The Happening (2008)

The wonderful Zooey Deschanel and sometimes wonderful Mark Wahlberg are completely wasted in this wreck of a film, about a guy and his girlfriend who try to escape from an odd phenomenon that seems to be causing everyone around them to kill themselves. M. Night Shyamalan, I'm sure, has a specific vision in his head, but I'm not sure anyone else cares to understand it. From oddball comedy to unintentionally funny violence to gratuitous gore to bad dialog, it is simply all over the place. I laughed where I shouldn't have and didn't when (I think) I was supposed to. An interesting idea was terribly executed, and one has the feeling that the actors realized what they had gotten themselves into, because they seemed to be phoning it in. Terrible.

Persepolis (2007)

Based on a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis is based on Satrapi's growing up years, from a young girl in Iran to a young woman in Austria to a young woman in Iran facing her own identity and place in life. The animation is crisp, quick, beautiful, and witty. It's an informative and interesting movie that gave me a glimpse of a part of history I didn't know much about through the eyes of a young girl. It was great.

Five Easy Pieces (1970)

With a contrasting score consisting of classical music and country, Jack Nicholson portrays Robert, a man who has left his intellectual family for a life on the oil rigs, but goes home to visit when he finds out his father is sick. The movie didn't speak much to me personally, but was in interesting glimpse of a way of life and the clash of Robert's character and his girlfriend with that way. Robert is both likable and despicable, and I can't quite make up my mind how I feel about the movie as a hole. Great music though!

Last Tango in Paris (1972)

Okay, so I didn't exactly know what this movie was about going into it, but I did know its rating, which could have clued me in. Here, Marlon Brando is trying to process the death of his estranged wife and meets Maria Schneider, a young girl who is in a playful but unfulfilling relationship with her film-maker boyfriend. The two come across each other while apartment hunting and instantly enter into an affair with each other. They leave their names and histories behind and meet up at the apartment regularly, where Brando's character pretty much treats the girl savagely yet manages to eventually sort of fall for her. The movie is written and directed by Bertolucci. I like that he tries to explore interesting ideas, but don't usually end up caring for his movies all that much. This one is interesting, but it's an exploration that I really don't need to put myself through viewing.

Number 17 (1932)

Another Hitchcockian offering marked off the checklist, here we have a young man, a young girl, and a goofy older man who get tangled up with a gang of robbers who come to apartment number 17 to track down a valuable necklace. Most of the action takes place in the dark house on the stairway, but eventually, a chase on a train ensues, which is where one can see the familiar Hitchcock touches. It's a quiet one and lasts only a bit over an hour. The sound quality of the version I watched wasn't very good, so I missed a good portion of the dialog, which is a shame. I liked all of the characters, especially Nora, played by Ann Casson, who unfortunately gets forgotten in the plot even though hers is the most interesting character. Oh well! The movie isn't exactly amazing, but of course, I'm trying to watch them all, so I'm glad I found it with the TiVo.

Children of a Lesser God (1986)

My, my! It's always interesting to go back in time and see how the older actors of our current generation were once young and more handsome. From Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces to Tommy Lee Jones in Coalminer's Daughter to William Hurt in this movie, it's fun to see why they became stars and makes you wonder about which of our current young actors will be their equivalents in the future. Anyway... Here we have William Hurt as a teacher for deaf and mute children who falls in love with a deaf woman played by Marlee Matlin, who won the Oscar for her role. The two have a very dynamic relationship and the movie is much more intense and interesting than I would have thought (assuming one can get past how people fall in love in hardly any time at all). For me, the stars of the show were actually Hurt and the screenplay, although Matlin is very talented as well. This one really surprised me.

The Apartment (1960)

I'm not sure my mind ever would have thought to pair up Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray (as a bad guy, no less!) together in a film, but the casting is perfect for this interesting script by Billy Wilder, which goes from hilarious comedy to drama in a snap yet still manages to work. Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, who is trying to make his way up the corporate ladder by allowing high-profile company executives to use his apartment at nights for their secret trysts. Little does he know that the girl he has a crush on is one of the trystees (I like new words) who is having a miserable romance with his boss. Hilarity and sadness ensue. I think the shock of the change in mood is still lingering for me, but overall I really liked this one, both for its entertainment value and simply to look at as well.

Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Oh, good old Marty Scorsese. I love your new "don't interrupt our movies and we won't interrupt your phone calls" bit that's playing at the movies these days. Most of the time, I'm on board with what you're making. I even think that this movie is an interesting exploration of what it was like for Christ to be both human and divine, and what his temptation might have been like. It's a movie I keep returning to in my thoughts to think about. So in that way, it's a success. On the other hand, Harvey Keitel as a curly-red-haired Judas who whines to Jesus that he's the only person in the Roman empire who can make crosses (which are basically two pieces of wood locked together, no?) is just a mess. There are so many things wrong with this movie, and yet, it's still interesting. I wouldn't say that it's good or that I loved it, or even that I'll see it again, but it did get the wheels in my head spinning around. I'm not sure why believers had to get so riled up about the movie, since it directly says, first thing at the beginning, [something like] "This is not true to the Gospels but is an exploration..." I wasn't all that offended, but I did laugh at many of the examples of a modern (in the 70s) take on Jesus, especially when Defoe would outright explain the parables in hippie terminology after he told them. Overall, I think I'll just stick with the one word, interesting.

Soylent Green (1973)

Unfortunately, I already had heard soundbites in which Heston divulges the secret of this movie, but it was still fun to watch. He seems to like the sci-fi futuristic movies, doesn't he? Well, this one is in New York after the world has polluted itself and people have been crammed into the big city for survival. One could say its story is almost like that of WALL-E, but the two go off into different directions quickly. A man who was on the board of Soylent, a food manufacturing company, has been killed in an obviously fake robbery, and Heston's character Thorn is aided by Sol (Edward G. Robinson) in discovering what's behind the murder. Say what you will about this movie, but the scene where Sol is watching clips of the old Earth set to classical music was incredibly moving to me. It ends rather abruptly, but I liked it.

Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)

The story of country singer Loretta Lynn is told in this movie starring Sissy Spacek and a young Tommy Lee Jones. Plucked by an older guy from her rural home, married at 13, and a mother several times over during the next few years, she became a music star when her husband decided to make her perform publicly. It's really bizarre to think that this movie is anything close to a person's real life, but it really is based on reality, which is what makes it somewhat engrossing to watch for the first two-thirds of the movie. It kind of loses steam when it reaches the usual things one might see in a biopic of a singer, but it's not her fault that that's how her life turned out. Another one with an unexpected stop to the story, I thought it was very well made and a story worth telling just because of its unbelievability.

High Anxiety (1977)

When a coworker told me that there was a Mel Brooks movie that spoofed Alfred Hitchcock films, I instantly queued it up. Brooks himself stars as Dr. Richard Thorndyke, who is hired on at a mental institution where some strange happenings are going on. He also suffers from high anxiety, and it cracks me up that he sings a song of the same name in a club with no anxiousness whatsoever. Madeline Kahn and Cloris Leachman are his respective love interest and enemy, and the whole thing is as over-the-top as you might expect, only slightly slow at times. I liked the new takes on the Psycho shower scene and the Birds attack at the playground the best. The movie was probably more forward leap in comedy when it came out, but it's probably only a one-time watch for me, unless I happen to see it on tv.

The Comedy Feed » 9 Reasons It?s Better To Be A College Freshman Now Than It Was In 1998.

7. We wasted our time looking forward to the Star Wars prequels.

We?d have to wait an entire year before our childhood hopes and dreams were murdered by George Lucas, while Jar Jar Binks shat on their corpse. We didn?t know any better.

Having entered college in 1998, I can say that all these are very true and also made me laugh. Honestly, I don't know what I would add. Maybe that we still had to dial in to get internet. I remember my first year at Biola the nice dorms had just gotten ethernet but the poor kids still had dial-up. I also remember crowding around someone's Macintosh Performa (!) to see a tiny trailer for Episode 1 and thinking it was the greatest thing in the world. Also, the peak of multiplayer gaming was Goldeneye. I can't believe that was TEN years ago.

Geeks » Propeller

So Wil Wheaton created a Geeks group on Propeller. It's been a lot of fun finding new stories and adding them to the group. Propeller is kind of like Digg but a bit different. They just launched a new look and are still working out some of the kinks and adding new features but I've found some cool links there and I really like the Groups feature when they're properly moderated (some groups have become spam dumps). If you hop on Propeller be sure to add me as a friend.

Curtis and I went to the opening for Crazy 4 Cult 2 on Friday night and had an amazing time. If you live in the area, the show is open until September 12th and you should definitely check it out. Check out some more pics after the jump.

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What do you do when you need to store some nuclear waste that will be toxic for the next 10,000 years? Of course, you bury it underground, then form a committee to draft an awkwardly worded warning for future generations. Here's what they came up with:

This place is not a place of honor.
No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.
Nothing valued is here.
This place is a message and part of a system of messages.
Pay attention to it!
Sending this message was important to us.
We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.

WTF?

(via le Show)

Round 1: One at a time, grab a name plate out of a bag and run to put it on the correct office wall.
Round 2: Decipher scrambled names stuck to an office wall, and place the correct name plates under them.

My team got silver! Julie rocked the second round but got a bad luck of the draw in the first round. Still in third!

I was the competitor this time around. I'm not sure why I chose to take on the most difficult event so far.

Hole 1: through our filing hallway, around a corner, through a dolly, and into the hole (our holes were recycling bins).
Hole 2: into a cubicle, over a folder, and into the hole.
Hole 3: a long shot down the main hallway.
Hole 4: down a short hallway, into an office, hit the "please ring for assistance" bell, and into the hole.
Hole 5: into a cubicle with a floor covered with rubber bands, around a chair, and into the hole.
Hole 6 (this one was my downfall): the conference room tables were rearranged to make a snake-like maze.

I was in a tie for first place at hole 4, but an extra few strokes in the next two rounds set me at 2nd place. At least it wasn't another bronze for our team!

Saved by the Bell Quote of the Day

Bravely dusting off the most hoary of sitcom chestnuts, today Saved by the Bell invents a pregnant lady only to dangerously trap her in an enclosed space for the birth of her child. Will Tori be able to overcome her fear of earthquakes to use her narratively-convenient Lamaze skills (which apparently surpass actual medical knowledge as the most important element of safe childbirth -- it's that easy, ladies!) to save Mrs. B and baby Belding in the nick of time? Yes.

Oh man, I'm kicking myself for not coming up with something like this. Pure genius. I just don't have the discipline. I need a blogging boss or something.

Yesterday's big event was a shooting challenge - a nerf gun at a white board bullseye. My team got third again. I'm sensing a trend! But, even the big boss got in on it (a regularly active member of the NRA, not pictured here), so we had a lot of fun.

I'm pretty sure I sat exactly where Luke Wilson is sitting for an office picnic a couple of years ago. That's right - this one was filmed in the university's neighborhood, although I had no idea about that before I went to see it. It also has shots from La Habra (City Hall, I think, and driving up Lambert towards Beach) and Whittier (Mexican supermarket on Lambert). It was very surreal to be sitting in the theater, thinking the neighborhood looks a lot like La Mirada, and then seeing a couple of houses that I distinctly recognized. It's fun to see how a filmmaker views your neighborhood, especially what they choose to include or exclude from their shots.

The movie itself is about a man named Henry (Luke Wilson) who is told he has a terminal disease. He leaves the city and buys a home in his childhood neighborhood - a newly stuccoed home. The new stucco job doesn't impress him because there's a water stain on his wall; the stucco job then becomes annoying when his devoutly Catholic neighbor sees the image of Christ in the water stain; and the new stucco job becomes the bane of his existence when a lot of "coincidences" seem to be happening in the neighborhood (and his backyard is almost always occupied). Henry is forced to face his belief or disbelief in miracles and God, and come to terms with how his illness plays into how he feels about those topics. Along the way he also befriends his single-mother neighbor Dawn (Radha Mitchell) and her daughter.

Now, a movie about a water stain with the image of Christ in it could turn out to be a pretty bad thing. I didn't even know the plot of the movie when I walked into the theater, and was nervous the whole time that the movie would take a wrong turn. There are a couple of awkward moments - the biggest script flaw is the jump between Henry talking vaguely to a clerk at his grocery store to that clerk showing up in his backyard without him asking why or how she's there - but really, the movie is actually effective. Henry's neighbor Esperanza (Adriana Barraza) could have been a complete stereotype, and while she does fulfill some of our expectations of a Hispanic busy-body Catholic, she turns out to be a wonderful portrayal unconditional Christian love. No matter how many times Henry lashes out at her, she returns love, and although she's over the top she is actually enjoyable throughout the whole movie. The father from her church (George Lopez, of all people), as well, isn't fanatical. He is understanding and doesn't try to force his or Esperanza's beliefs on Henry. These two are possibly the most positive portrayal of a Christian I've seen in a movie for a while.

The interesting part of this movie is that it seems to represent all sides of the spectrum, from atheism to agnostic to Christian. Except for the Catholics in the movie, no person really professes to be one thing or another, but they're all there, and as Ebert pointed out, they all have beliefs even though they may not be the same ones. Radha Mitchell and Morgan Lily are a radiant little pair, and probably represent agnosticism. One of my favorite moments is when several miracle-like events have occurred in Henry's back yard, and Dawn says to him, "It's getting harder, isn't it?" And when he asks what is harder, she says something to the effect of, "Pretending that these are all just coincidences." She's not sure what it is, but is willing to admit that she thinks there are miracles occurring.

I think that, by the end of the movie, both the believer and non-believer may by a little bit dissatisfied with its conclusion. One may think it promotes belief in God and miracles while the other may think it's too vague and doesn't have the strong closing statement it should. I think I like it the way it is because it just opens up the door for thought, not only in the audience's mind, but in Henry's. And after all, this movie is about Henry and the transformation he goes through, in dealing with his illness, his beliefs, his relationships, and how he feels about his past and who he is now.

I know that this movie probably won't reach everyone in the same way, but from my own background, it worked. With Religious heading out to theaters this fall, I feel attacked just by watching its previews. It was nice to see a movie that was willing to look at a Christian positively and be willing to explore ideas about belief without being patronizing to either side. While I do think that the balance (surprisingly) leans more toward the believing side, I'm glad that it doesn't beat the audience over the head. I think there are certain scenes in this movie that turned out to be ones that will probably stay in my head for a while. I'd say that's a pretty good result for running into the theater just to be there for the sake of doing something on a short Friday!

Mr. T and Bill Hader Join 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' - Cinematical

While speaking with Anna about her upcoming projects, she did tell us a little bit more about the voice work she's doing for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, based on the popular book by Judi and Rob Barrett. The film follows "a scientist who tries to solve world hunger only to see things go awry as food falls from the sky in abundance."

First off, I love Bill Hader and Anna Faris so I'm glad they are involved in this. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is probably my favorite children's book of all time. I read it like a billion times when I was a kid and it may or may not have contributed to my large girth. Or maybe that's why I liked it, I don't know. I just really, really loved the pictures. I haven't read the book in years but I can still see almost all of them in my mind, crystal clear.

That being said, I don't remember anything about "a scientist who tries to solve world hunger" being in the book. It's just a town where it rains food. Simple as that. I guess they had to come up with a reason for it for the movie, but for me that was what made the whole story so magical. We didn't need to know why it rained food in Chewandswallow, it just did and for some reason things took a turn for the worse.

Mind you, I don't think the film is going to suck now or anything like that. I'm happy I'll finally get to see the book come to life and I think the animation is going to be great. There's still a ways to go as the release date isn't until 2010. I seriously haven't been this excited for an animated movie in years.

I heard this a while ago, but didn't get around to posting it now because that's just how busy things have been lately.

Republican Enjoys Paying Huge Health Insurance Premiums

Truly, one of The Onion's greatest moments.

My favorite lines:

Kilfoy says he feels privileged to pay a quarter of his income for the 37th best health care system in the world.

Kilfoy says if universal health care is passed in the US he may leave the country, but has yet to find a developed country that doesn't offer it.

I had low hopes for Pineapple Express after the "okay" Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but thankfully, my low expectations opened me up for a fun night at the movies. We went to a late showing, and it was really funny to look across the audience and realize that most of the couples were actually two guy buddies and I was one of few women in the audience. Ric says that when we left, I was probably the only girl who was fine with having spent the last couple of hours watching a stoner comedy.

Seth Rogen plays Dale, a process server who happens to witness a murder right before he serves a subpoena. He runs for help to his pot dealer, Saul, who buys his pot from Red (Danny McBride), who takes orders from the murderer, Ted (Gary Cole). Dale and Saul, who have previously only hung out while smoking pot together, are suddenly being hunted down by some powerful people.

The movie begins in a very relaxed way, pretty much like a high (not that I..). It moves at a stoner's pace, and then when Dale and Saul are faced with trying to save their own lives, the movie moves more towards being an action comedy. The funny thing, too, is that Dale eventually realizes that everything bad that's happening to him pretty much happens because he's high. The hole they dig themselves into gets deeper and deeper the more often they stop to smoke some Pineapple Express.

I think the funniest parts of this movie aren't the obvious jokes - they're just the stoner behaviorisms. From the very start, simple scenes like the one in Saul's apartment that make the movie funny. James Franco is perfect in his role. Later on in the movie, the action and physical comedy scenes are set up to make the audience laugh more, but really the characters are what's funny more than the situation that they're in. One thing I enjoyed is watching regular guys get placed in an action situation, and seeing how they respond to it. They aren't natural men of action, so when they are in the middle of an action scene and stop to say "Ew!" when a guy gets knifed, that's what makes me laugh.

There are plenty of jokes that are misses, but there are many more that aren't. This movie does hit a level of sincerity, but doesn't do that in such a forced way as Sarah Marshall. While the first half rings a little more true, I think the action-based second half works in its own way. It's not going to win any big awards, but it made me laugh, and I'm glad I saw it.

Well, it's a little blurry, but it's an ACTION shot. We had taped squares with points on the floor, and the goal was to land the frisbee halfway in the square for the points, and fully in the square for double points. Pretty much everyone was bad at this, which is why the only person who could land a frisbee in the square won gold. There was a tiebreaker between the two teams who hadn't done well before (see below). My team came in third. The overall three-way tie is now broken, and now we're in last place!

The day after interviewing Barack Obama and John McCain on the stage in his church, Rick Warren said this:

"I could not vote for an atheist because an atheist says, 'I don't need God,' " Warren said. "They're saying, 'I'm totally self-sufficient by [myself].' And nobody is self-sufficient to be president by themselves. It's too big a job."
LA Times

As for as I'm concerned, anyone is free to vote or not vote for someone based on any criteria. Our Constitution forbids any official religious test for office, but individuals can take religion under consideration if they think it's important. However, I have some problems with the way Warren justified his statement.

First, atheists don't say "I don't need God." We say that there is no such thing as God. We also don't say "I hate God," "I'm running from God," "I love to sin" or "I'm angry at religious people." I cannot hate or run from something that doesn't exist. The fact that Warren said this shows that he either doesn't understand atheism or refuses to take it seriously.

Second, he's right that the president needs help, but shouldn't that help come from knowledgeable human advisors? I think that a good president should listen to advice from trusted staff, trained experts, public opinion and even political rivals.

Third, how, exactly, does God help a person govern? Does he send intra-office memos? Does he call the president on a private line? Does he attend cabinet meetings? Does he speak to the president in dreams? How does it work? Wouldn't it be better if our president sought and took the advice of humans rather than trying to puzzle out the will of a silent God?

Fourth, for the last seven years we've had a president who claimed to be called and guided by God. I don't think that's going very well. In fact, I think that the delusion of God's favor has made President Bush especially arrogant and reckless. Because he thinks God is on his side, he is capable of ignoring good advice and going it alone. An atheist president would understand better than anyone that all we have is each other, and that we should take care of the earth, the only home we have.

Me of Little Faith by Lewis Black

At work it's pretty much official that summer is over this week. Our last short Friday, one more week, and then classes begin here on campus. It's so warm out, though, and my life really doesn't get aff