Month: December 2004

I went back to work today after a six-day weekend. Tomorrow is my last day before a four-day weekend. I’m really going to have trouble going back to a regular work week.

Luckily, we also get Martin Luther King’s birthday off.

For a short while there, I was starting to remember the part I liked about being unemployed. Sleeping late is definitely a good.

You know, any week where Monday is actually Wednesday can’t be half bad.

A. O. Scott from yesterday’s New York Times (as always, registration or BugMeNot required):

We critics often wish (or say we wish) that the discussion of movies – and the movies themselves – were more socially relevant, more political, more in tune with what’s going on in the world. This year that wish came true, and it made me appreciate the value of escapism – or at least of popular art that maintains a happy distance from contentious realities. Don’t get me wrong: I was fascinated by the intensity of argument about “The Passion of the Christ” and “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and curious about the skirmishes that sprang up around “Team America” and “The Incredibles.” But at the same time, the assumption that the most interesting interpretation of any cultural artifact or work of art must be the ideological one – is “The Incredibles” anti-affirmative action? Is “Troy” antiwar? Is “Shark Tale” pro-gay rights? – is one of the things that drove me from graduate school. The best movies, however political they may be, are always more than just political.

I’ve actually seen almost none of this year’s so-called big movies. The truth is, I probably haven’t seen a lot of last year’s big movies either. Eventually, I may work my way around to watching The Passion of the Christ, but I can’t imagine it’s a film I’ll enjoy as much as the argument about the film.

If there’s one consistent theme in my web stats, it’s your friend and mine, that lovable star of Police Academy 4 and Cocoon: The Return, Steve Guttenberg.

In my search referrer logs from the other day, there were requests for “steve guttenburg movies” and “scary movies with monkeys”. I can only hope there isn’t a film out there that’s both.

I’d post this over on 600 seconds, but that hasn’t been getting much play lately — my own fault as much as anyone’s — so here goes.

Your assignment, taken from my stats is to write the following: a “short story on film director who is immersed with thoughts”. Pencils ready? Go!

You know, I love Farscape, but I really hope I can rent this. I’m a fan of the earlier cast commentaries — they’re a big part of what first hooked me on the show — but I’m not too keen to buy a whole new set just so I can listen to new ones.