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We saw Beowulf this past weekend in the Digital 3D version. (There are three versions right now — Digital 3D, IMAX 3D and plain old movie theatre digital. Seems like an embarrassment of riches, and I wonder if they're tracking all three combined to get the movies box office each weekend.) We saw trailers for a couple of new 3D films for next year (including the new live action Journey to the Center of the Earth ). James Cameron's directing Avatar and Dreamworks has Monsters vs. Aliens , both for 2009. 3D is obviously the "next big thing". As I was watching Beowulf, I had some thoughts on this. Overall, we both enjoyed the movie. It's a big, fun, loud action/adventure with a strong fantasy element… right up our alley. It doesn't hurt that it's based on a piece of classical literature so there's a strong story to work from. (Let's face it, if you're talking archetypes, Beowulf's gotta top the list. In fact, during the climactic battle, Dani

So last month I made the observation that I hadn't posted a word about the acting I've been doing recently. Since then, it's been over a month since I've posted anything. In that time, I've been on vacation a couple of times, seen a few movies and read a couple of books, played a good game on the PC… oh, and spent a week in Paso Robles, where we'd gone on vacation, while Dani was hospitalized with a blood clot. And it occured to me, as I was studiously NOT blogging, that it's really all about what's too personal. I blog about a lot of things I find meaningful. Or important. Or amusing. I'm often snide, sarcastic and/or cynical. And I don't feel any real compulsion to share those things that are more personal. I almost never talk about work (not just because I don't want anyone from work stumbling across any rants I might feel compelled to post) and certainly don't feel like sharing my feelings on that week in Paso Robles. So here it is, t

The obvious joke here, of course, is who knew he had a heart. Doctors Find Cheney Has Irregular Heartbeat Sadly, I couldn't resist the obvious.

There's an excerpt from David Chase's new book (or an excerpt from an interview about the book… I'm not entirely sure which) in last week's Entertainment Weekly. In it, he talks about how surprised he was at the reaction to The Soprano's finale ("I knew they'd be angry, but I didn't realize they'd be THAT angry) and his contempt for those who, after following and cheering Tony Soprano for seven seasons, all suddenly wanted to see him punished for his "sins". And all I've got to say to that is bullshit. The problem with the Sopranos finale isn't simply that it's one of those seemingly ubiquitous non-endings that directors are so fond of lately. I think he's right that there's a certain number of fans that would be dissatisfied with whatever ending he came up with for the series, since everyone has their own idea of how these stories should end. But what he's done here is to build up the tension in the closing scene,

I've been acting again since the Spring. Just wrapped a weekend of Twelfth Night in Las Vegas, followed by a Halloween themed night of Edgar Allen Poe and Edward Gorey scenes at the Huntington Library. I don't know what's coming next… gonna have to start looking at audition notices, I guess, and maybe get a subscription to Backstage West again. But I've written next to nothing ABOUT the experience. I've started several posts… but often that's little more than a title and a brief sentence to remind myself what I intended to talk about. But I haven't finished one of them. (Admittedly, acting and writing use different sorts of creative "muscles" — but it's all creative, right?) I've got a degree in Theatre. I love acting, and I've had more fun doing these shows this year than I've had in ages. But the blog has lain here fallow, waiting for me to say anything about anything , for nearly a month. But not a word. About movies, or books, o

Navy to mask Coronado's swastika-shaped barracks I mean, seriously, in 21st Century USA, don't we have better things to worry about than whether a set of Navy barracks is sending some kind of subliminal Nazi message to aliens from space? Obviously the jackhole that started this uproar doesn't, but after just a few moments on his site, I understand where this nonsense comes from. But the rest of us can't seriously care about this, right? Silly me… of course we do: …in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, the Navy has budgeted up to $600,000 for changes in walkways, "camouflage" landscaping and rooftop photovoltaic cells. Yes, that's right, the US Navy will be spending $600,000 this year to disguise something that can only be seen from space. I'm either getting too old for the bullshit, or our collective cultural IQ is plummeting into the basement faster than anyone could anticipate.  

We got into a discussion the other day, during rehearsal, about the contemporary problem with this word. It came up because there's a line in Twelfth Night where one character refers to another as niggardly. The actor who has that line has changed it to "tight-fisted", an adequate replacement, and one I can't, in all honesty, argue with, mainly because it's not worth the possibility that anyone in the audience would be sidetracked by the word. It also bears acknowledging that this actor is African-American, which just adds another layer of potential confusion to the issue. But where I got hung up on the discussion was the actor defending this choice, not simply for the above reasons, but because he felt that there's some justification for the confusion… that because the words sound alike, 'niggardly' has become a potentially offensive word. He then went on to argue that words change meanings all the time and that this is just one of those cases. (This

I've been working with a Shakespeare group in Burbank ( Shakespeare at Play ) for the past several months and have done a few workshops and shows with them. (I realized recently that I've been seriously submerged in Shakespeare when I used the phrase "fulsomely false" in my recent post on the movie Invasion, and didn't even notice I'd used it till days later.) The most recent show we wrapped was As You Like It, a part of their Summerfest 2007. When I heard that HBO was doing a version of As You Like It , I couldn't wait to see it. HBO, known for its quality programming and movies, Kenneth Brannagh who's shown that he knows Shakespeare (between his incredible Henry V and entertaining—despite Keannu's wooden Don John— Much Ado About Nothing ). Fine actors in the main comedic roles (Alfred Molina as Touchstone and Kevin Kline as Jaques) and a pack of British actors to handle the majority of the rest of the play… what's not to like, right? (Ah,

Southwest Airlines Tells Woman Her Attire Is Too Revealing Maybe we DID need that Invasion .  

As any number of reviewers are wont to point out, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers was an allegory for the creeping conservatism of the Eisenhower years. The story of seemingly normal people being replaced by emotionless alien pod-people IS a great analogy for the way conservative thought processes seem to suck the life out of otherwise healthy individuals.* So it's probably no surprise that every few decades, as our politics swerve to the conservative side, someone feels the need to trot this story out again. (It's funny… I distinctly remember the 80's remake of Invasion —the one with Donald Sutherland, for those not inclined to click the link—as being Reagan era. But according to IMDB, it came out in '78, during the Carter administration. Maybe the backsliding into that Reagan mindset had already begun and that's why it seems so much a part of that time period.) Then again, I just discovered the Abel Ferrara version from '93, so maybe my whole &qu

All debate about the merits or evils of Pinkberry aside, have you SEEN the latest in motorcycle headgear? I can't find an example of it online, so it gives me hope that this is an isolated incident, but I've seen this several times in the past few weeks and I can't believe I'm seeing the same guy with the same helmet each time. But it's gotta be seen to be believed… Proudly displayed along the crown of the helmet are a row of bristles, somewhat like a those on a Roman helm (similar to this ). The latest example I saw was a blue and white helmet with a row of bright blue bristles jutting up along the top of the helmet. The first time I saw this, as the guy zipped past me on the 105, I figured I had to be seeing things. But as I mentioned, I've seen it several times since, and all I can say is you've GOT to be kidding me. Without a doubt, the most inane transportation related decoration I've seen since exhaust spinners .  

I've never heard of Pinkberry before today. (I'm more geek-trendy these days than pop culture trendy.) But apparently, this is the latest legal drug of choice. Let's face it, they only sell 2 flavors ('regular' and 'green tea') and are what sounds like stupid expensive ($9 for a large with toppings… that's nearly twice what Coldstone Creamery charges for ICE CREAM, and this stuff isn't even frozen yogurt). Suddenly you've got people lining up dozens deep to buy this stuff? This is one serious meme . Unless, of course, the secret ingredient (and maybe the reason the FDA won't let them call their product frozen yogurt) is some heretofore undiscovered incredibly addictive element that they've innocuously slipped into the recipe. Judging from the number of people calling in to KROQ this morning to say they couldn't understand it, but after one trip to Pinkberry's they just couldn't get enough of it, I'm kinda tending toward t

White House Declares Office Off-Limits Anyone surprised by this move has NOT been paying attention to the Bush White House.

…You'll see Mr. Bean's (wait for it…) Silly Dance! ?!? The scariest thing is that I've seen the trailer for Mr. Bean's Holiday . And the quote above (from their oh-so-cutesy radio campaign) is the height of sophistication compared to what I saw in the trailer. I swear, it almost makes me long for the days of Benny Hill !  

I don't usually post links like this… MoveOn.org Political Action: Help get the word out about Dick Cheney's Quagmire I may be a political loudmouth, but I tend to limit this stuff to email, where I can quietly spam my friends, rather than posting it here. But when you hear what Cheney said in '94, you've gotta wonder what the hell happened to his grasp on world politics between then and 2001. And no, I don't think you can blame it all on 9/11. Have I mentioned, recently, how much I hate these pricks? Oh yeah, I guess I have .

Can I just say, good GODDAMN riddance: Rove to leave the White House, return to Texas The only disappointing thing here is he's going home, instead of to a prison where he frankly belongs for what his machinations have done to this country. Good riddance, Karl. Rot in hell.  

First off, I want to say that I enjoyed The Bourne Ultimatum immensely. I liked where this story went (and frankly dismiss the few complaints I've seen about "thin story" or nonsense plot) and found the ultimate resolution to the series quite satisfying. I really appreciated the "echoes" of moments from the previous films, especially the one in the final moments of this film. (Talk about bringing things full circle.) Somewhat similar to my reaction to seeing the latest Harry Potter, this one made me want to go back and watch the first two films to see those original moments, and maybe find others that I'd forgotten. I'd also like to see if there's anything in those first two films that foreshadows (oh so very subtly) the relationship they tease for the briefest moment in this one. (God, I'm being so circumspect here about not giving anything away. I must really want people to be able to experience this one on their own.) One other thing that I

The production team for the Harry Potter films has it rough. They're sitting on the rights to the best selling book series of all time, and they've made a series of highly successful adaptations of the first books in the series. But each book keeps getting longer, darker and more adult in tone. Meanwhile, their actors are ALSO getting more adult. That's the first thing that struck me when watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix . As the credits finish, the camera swoops down to eventually find Harry sitting on a swing in the park and the first thing I thought was "look how freaking OLD he's gotten!" Not that he's old, of course. But he's certainly not the fifteen year old you're expecting. He's too tall, too mature, for the role. Fortunately, within minutes you forget about it. Partly, it's because all the REST of the 'kids' in the movie have grown up as well, so there's a consistency that makes it easier to accept t

A kind of obvious title for any post talking about a Michael Bay film, but let me reiterate… Transformers is one big, dumb, loud movie. With a healthy emphasis on dumb. I guess I should acknowledge that I've never been a Transformers fan. They came along too late for my childhood cartoon watching, and too early for my adult appreciation of all things animated, so they got lumped into that "my god, another cartoon designed to shill toys" category. And it's never really left that category for me. So my excitement level over this would have been hard to find, let alone measure. Suffice it to say, I had an afternoon to kill, I'd heard it was a fun time at the movies and I figured, if I'm GOING to watch the damn thing, I'd better do it in a theatre where I can get the full effect of all those exploding robots. I'm going to opine, first off, that the "fun time at the movies" comment is really one of those "all a matter of taste" moments

I've got a degree in Theater from UCI . Currently, I'm a website producer for a Fortune 500 company. In the past I've waited tables (how cliché), been a restaurant manager (decidedly NOT cliché… and soul-crushing) and held numerous other odd jobs (some more odd than others). I usually joke that my degree in theater means that I can act like I know what I'm doing in any situation. Sadly, this has been more true than I may have wished, and I've certainly bluffed my way through more than a few of those odd jobs on the pretense that I knew what I was doing. Until this year, it's been ages since I've done any acting. It's been so long that my wife, who's done her share of acting and directing, had never seen me act. But I've talked a lot about getting back into it, especially in the past few years. So, when a friend of mine asked me if I'd like to do a scene for her in the Shakespeare Festival at the Huntington Library this year, I jumped at the

Bush claims oversight exemption too Beyond "no surprise" I've really got nothing more to say about that. Arrogant pricks. (OK, so maybe ONE more thing.)  

Everybody knows that Dick Cheney is an arrogant prick. Some may admire that arrogance, attributing it to the "courage of his convictions" or other such BS, but I presume those are people that, for the most part, agree with Cheney's actions. I just see an arrogant motherfucker, solely focused on his own agenda and damn the Constitution or consequences. But seriously, this truly may be the height of arrogance: Cheney Power Grab: Says White House Rules Don't Apply to Him —Justin Rood; ABC News I love the comments in Rood's blog (linked from the above article). As at least one of those posts mention, if he's not part of the freaking Executive Branch, then what part of the government does he think he's working for? (And how does he explain the President extending his Executive Privilege to include the VP back at the beginning of his term in office, if he's not part of the Exec? Not that that would explain how the VP qualifies for executive privilege in the

Seriously? When I first heard the phrase "Certified Pre-Owned" a few years ago, I thought it was an unbearably pretentious way of referring to used cars, an example of euphemisms gone awry. It didn't help that it was always used when talking about Mercedes, BMW, Lexus… cars that, apparently, can't be sold "used". After a while I've come to accept that the phrase does have some value, in that the "certified pre-owned" car, presumably, undergoes screening and servicing and repairs prior to being offered for sale. It also, I assume, stems from the increase in the number of leased vehicles being returned to dealers for sale to their clientèle. If my experience of leasing is at all indicative, the car I returned to the dealer was in nearly pristine condition, compared to the car I now own, which I couldn't wait to make "my own"—swapping out the car stereo, adding an amplifier, etc. But Volkswagen is running an ad campaign on KROQ this

I'm as willing to argue that Paris Hilton is a spoiled little rich girl, desperately in need of a reality check, as the next person. But this is seriously starting to smack of piling on: Hilton Transported To Twin Towers Jail And, if that weren't enough, the fact that the Sheriff's Dept. is calling a press conference to address "the Paris situation" is bordering on the absurd. Seriously, isn't there ANYTHING more important going on in the world right now? We are still warring in Iraq, right? And wasn't there something about our President and the Russian President facing off over weapons in Europe or the Middle East? I don't really know, since the news was too freaking busy with the Paris Hilton travails.  

I obviously haven't seen it yet, but you've gotta love a reveiw quote like this one: I know full well I'm expected to Suspend My Disbelief. Unfortunately, my disbelief is very heavy, and during "Ocean's Thirteen," the suspension cable snapped. RogerEbert.com Maybe I'm not going to rush out and catch this one this weekend after all.  

So this little tidbit hit the news yesterday: Court Rebuffs F.C.C. on Fines for Indecency I, for one, couldn't be happier to see it. The FCC, egged on by the Bush Administration, "concerned" members of Congress and the narrow-minded a-holes from the Parents Television Council and other morality watchdog groups, has been on a tear in recent years, attempting to "make TV safe for children" or some such BS. It's a battle that's been raging for decades, but between idiot stunts like the infamous Janet Jackson nipple-baring Superbowl, the power of Internet "activism" (can it really be activism when it takes less than 30 seconds of your time, comfortably seated in front of your PC, to participate?) and the increasingly judgmental mindset that's apparently prevailing in this country, it's gotten much worse in the past few years. So I'm very glad to see the courts start smacking them down over this. We'll most likely have to see how thi

So here it is, the first week of June and the summer movie season has kicked off with a vengeance… Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, Pirates 3 (I'm detecting a theme here) and Knocked Up have all come pounding into the theatres the past month and made a lot of noise about opening weekend grosses and records set and broken… blah, blah, blah. What I find most interesting here is how freaking long most of these movies are! (Shrek actually clocks in at a very reasonable 93 minutes, so it's off the hook for this discussion.) Let me first say that I'm the last person to complain about a movie being too long just because of the number of minutes it runs. As far as I'm concerned, it's not how long the movie runs, it's how long it FEELS like it runs. I've watched 3 hour films that have flown by, and endured 90 minute movies that couldn't end fast enough. (I have plans, one of these days, to sit down and watch The Lord of The Rings in it's entirety—and yes, that's the

I used to get lost for hours in used bookstores, but it's been ages since I've found a good one. (I did a search on bookstores in our neighborhood a while back and, with the exception of the quintessentially homogenized Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores, the only thing I could find were Christian bookstores.) I think Acres of Books is still around (at least, they've still got a website ), but outside of that, the few used bookstores I've found lately have been small, cramped and not terribly inviting. My other problem in finding a good used book store is that my favorite genre is Science Fiction. SF, sometimes, seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of literature. ("Rodney Dangerfield of" apparently my favorite analogy of the month). Acres of Books has an SF section, but it's buried in the back warehouse, in a corner with no lights. Finding ANYTHING there is an accomplishment (and probably explains why I haven't been by recently to find out if the

The incredibly short line at the gas station when I filled up. Yeah, like you didn't see that one coming. The only thing not buying gas yesterday is going to prove to those evil gas corporations is just how freaking gullible you are. You want to send them a message? Cut back your gas consumption every week. If we all did that (and it could probably be as little as a gallon less a week) now THAT might send a message. But we're not going there… that'd take effort, and inconvenience, and dedication. Things we're not good at when it comes to environmental/conservation ideas. (And yes, I am VERY guilty of this.) Sad.

In the interest of calling a spade a spade , I figured it was time for a new label, one meant to convey my awareness of just how out there some of my posts are getting. Let's face it, the thought that my actions in any way have such a direct effect on the world as to lead to the demise of a formerly thriving magazine business is the height of solipsism . So I figured I should acknowledge what I'm up to and make it clear I'm only having fun. Right? It sure is a fun idea to play with, though. (How amusing, and utterly PC, that I felt the need to define my "calling a spade a spade" reference, as if I'm concerned that some moron is going to misunderstand the phrase, as has happened more than once in the past few years with the phrases " niggardly " and " pot calling the kettle black ." I mean, seriously, if I get someone whining about "calling a spade a spade," how much fun is it going to be to copy their, most likely, illiterate and

I've joked recently about my ability to kill a magazine simply by subscribing. But I didn't realize my true power till just recently. I have subscriptions to several gaming magazines. (Apparently, I'm something of a dinosaur on this count, judging from the forum posts I have recently read). One of these is… er, was… Computer Games magazine. The other day, I realized that it's been a while since I'd received an issue. I checked the date on that last issue and figured I had to be at least a month behind. So I went to their site to contact customer service. I noticed that it looked like it had been a while since the site had been updated, and that the cover page they were showing on their subscriptions page was the same as the last issue I'd received. But it wouldn't be the first site I'd found that was slow to update. Then I started clicking on customer service links, and found myself getting redirected to "this page cannot be found" links. Cur

This is one I'm VERY glad I saw in the theater. (Of course, I almost always prefer seeing movies in the theater, but some are less of an issue than others. That cozy little art-house movie may play just as well on the wide-screen with surround sound at home—especially since I don't have to deal with the moron and his blackberry in the row ahead of me—while this week's latest blockbuster will suffer from the transition to the smaller screen. Sadly, this means that I end up seeing a lot of crappy movies in theaters and the good stuff months later on DVD. But that's one of the perils of movie going these days, I guess.) But Grindhouse is one of those that really needs to be experienced the way Tarantino and Rodriguez intended it. there's a method to their madness here, as they try to recreate an experience that you can't find any more. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing may be debatable, but it's definitely not something you're likely to come a

I've been hearing for a couple of weeks now that President Bush's latest approval ratings are about 28%. That seems kinda low to me. (Sarcasm alert) But on KROQ the past couple of days, they've been playing this clip of Dick Cheney speaking to the troops in Iraq. He wishes them well and "brings greetings from the folks at home and your Commander in Chief, George W. Bush". And is greeted by dead silence. Short pause, then he says "don't hold back now" and people laugh and start applauding. But seriously, don't you figure, if there's any group that's going to at least pay token respect to the Pres and Dick Cheney, it's going to be US troops? Guess not. Well, couldn't happen to a more deserving pair of guys, imho.  

George W. Bush was on American Idol last night? Yes. The President of the United States was on American Idol. And apparently doing shtick with Laura. If I'm Paul Weitz this morning, my head's about to explode. That's all I've got to say. (For those of you not getting the reference, go here .)

I saw an article in the LA Times a few weeks ago about the demise of Premiere Magazine, so it wasn't a surprise last week when I got a postcard, notifying me that the April issue was the last one to be published. But finding out that they were going to finish out my subscription with issues of Us Weekly did come as a bit of a surprise. I mean, seriously… Us Weekly? I know they blamed the end of Premiere (at least, the physical magazine—it apparently lives on on the web) on the rise of the gossip mags and websites. But can you really compare Premiere's movie coverage with… well, whatever it is Us Weekly actually covers? Frankly, the first issue arrived the other day… I took one glance at the cover and tossed it aside. Apparently, nothing stuck with me, since I can't remember a single item on the cover now. I have an interesting knack for "discovering" new magazines just in time for them to go out of business. PC Accelerator , Cinescape , Iniquities … each of these

I'm a sucker for new words and phrases. The wittier the better. (Hence, I suppose, my contempt for the non-witty, like "baby daddy" and "warfighter".) So when I was reading the April '07 Premiere the other day and saw the phrase "Torture porn", I had to read on. Then when I got into the article (Notes from the Dream Factory, by Tom Roston), and realized what the topic was truly about, I had to stick around for the whole thing. (I'd quote the article, but it's one of the magazine's regular columns and is not included on their site. Sadly, since this is Premiere's last issue, it seems unlikely we'll see any more of these columns from them.) I've never been fond of slasher films. I've always maintained that, while I like a good horror film, I prefer my horror of the supernatural/SF variety… things that are frightening, but not something I'm terribly likely to stumble over on the way to work, or while reading the morni

I refer, of course, to our inestimable President and his moronic comments, quoted here: Va. Governor Calls For Day Of Mourning Allow me: "One of the lessons of these tragedies is to make sure that when people see somebody or know somebody who is exhibiting abnormal behavior, you do something about it, to suggest that somebody take a look… I would make the case that, if you don't know what you're talking about, maybe you should keep your mouth shut, but a President that doesn't say a word for his entire Presidency would hardly be practical (though think of all the problems we'd have avoided). Somebody, somewhere along the line, probably should have told the President that people DID try to do something about it, but that nothing could be done… he hadn't broken the law and, as he's an adult. Unless someone could make a viable case for committing him, you can't lock him away. I know GW doesn't give a rat's ass about privacy, but this isn't one

In one of Robert Heinlein's later novels (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I believe), he posits a suggestion as to how to deal with the violently anti-social… the mass murderers and spree killers amongst us, for instance. His conceit is that these creatures are driven by a need for recognition and feel that any notoriety is better than going through life unnoticed. They are acting out in order to get the attention of the world. And they are inspired by the fame and notoriety that those that have preceded them have achieved. (The Virginia Tech shooter's reference to the Columbine shooters as "martyrs" would seem to support this notion.) His solution to the problem is the you "erase" these individuals from the collective consciousness. Instead of 24-hour coverage of the event, debating the nature of the killer, his background, what could have driven him to this extreme, etc., you focus on the victims and their families. You put a human face on the tragedy that d

If you pay any attention to gaming, you had to know that it was only a matter of time after the Virginia Tech shootings before somebody was going to blame it all on videogames. But even I was surprised by how fast Dr. Phil jumped to this conclusion. (I am NOT however, surprised to find that Jack Thompson came to the same conclusion first. I'm sure he sits around waiting for news like this, a boilerplate press release at hand, ready to plug in the names.) As I write this, the suspect has been ID'd, but the police are not ready to confirm that he's the shooter. But this hasn't stopped Dr. Phil from pushing his agenda that videogames are to blame for all the ills in our world today. We know next to nothing about the kid involved (we know his age, his name, his nationality) nor what set him off. Could he be an avid videogame player, desensitized to violence thanks to years of first person shooters? Sure, it's possible. He could also be a lovelorn loner, dumped by his gi

The world, if you trust the gossip blogs, is all a-whirl with the question of who's the "baby daddy" of Anna Nicole's daughter. ( Turns out , as was, I think, expected, it's Larry Birkhead. Wow, glad that's over.) But I've gotta ask… what the hell is up with this "baby daddy" bullshit? (Freely acknowledging that I fell guilty of using this very phrase recently.) But isn't "baby daddy" just a bit redundant? Isn't whoever fathered the child, by definition, the baby's daddy? So why the need to specify that he's the baby daddy, and not simply the dad/father/sperm donor in question? Does it somehow make it cuter if he's the baby daddy? Reminds me of the equally annoying and superfluous "warfighter" that's been making the rounds in recent years. I assume some moron in the Pentagon, either suffering from a lack of usable vocabulary tools, or from some prejudice against the obvious term "warrior" cam

So I'm probably breaking SOME kind of composition rule here, but let me digress (yes, I'm starting this post with a digression, and a self-berating one at that. Surely, this must be "wrong". But, back to my digression…) It's been weeks since I posted, and not for lack of topics. I started a post about the Richard Donner cut of Superman II that was recently released on DVD; a post that I have every confidence I will eventually return to and finish. But at this point, my recollections of what I was going to say are so vague I may have to watch the DVD again. Then there's 300 , which I saw a couple of weeks ago and utterly enjoyed, and I've yet to say anything about that film. (My fear here is that I was suckered in by the incredible art direction and that, on revisiting, I'll find it empty and lifeless, as one of the reviews I read complained. I'm hoping this is not the case.) And don't even get me started on politics! Between the Attorney Gener