Letters to Holly

Friday, June 2

Your Sister Has No Soul. But You Knew This.

We are still trying to clear out space on our TiFaux. Your Sister has 55 episodes of "Mad About You" which hopefully will be watched and deleted during summer vacation. Until then, we watch a few half-hour shows and delete them before the TiFaux hits its limit and starts erasing whatever strikes its mechanical fancy. This weekend we watched:

Hotel Rwanda: A dreadfully bad movie with good acting. Don Cheadle fans must watch this. Everyone else can skip it. The directing is bad, the filters and lighting are pedestrian, and the last line (which should hit you like a hammer) is almost inaudible.

Grove Arcade: A UNC PBS history of the Grove Arcade. Duller than dirt.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off: We are thinking of Chicago for a honeymoon, and I figured she should watch a film where people do things in Chicago. Plus, she had never seen this before. I thought it couldn't miss. It makes fun of high school, features parade karaoke, and she likes Broderick. But no. She didn't like it. She chuckled maybe three times (shockingly, all at Cameron), and this may the last time I try to watch a comedy with my wife. I also realized that Ferris is a genius at skipping school and flustering authority, but has no imagination about visiting the city. The stock market, a Cubs game, the Sears Tower, and a museum? This is what high-school kids want to do when they escape school? He could have robbed a bank or annexed Indiana.

Revenge of the Sith: We started Master & Commander and then realized we hadn't watched this on DVD yet. It doesn't hold up well as a story. As set pieces and action sequences, it's good stuff. The rest is needless dialogue, and Natalie Portman doing jack shit. Ian McDiarmid completely owns the prequels. He knows what he's doing in every scene.

Justice League Unlimited: Your Sister likes the cartoon. Whoda thunk?

As for the rest of the weekend, she slept a lot while finished the mix CD for Travis. I also worked a bit more on the Star Wars drawings and am nearing the point where I have to decide on tight pencils or ink for the final version. I finally got a haircut and fed the pets-in-law for what I think is the last time. I'm not sure when your parents get back, but it was supposed to happen last night. I haven't heard from them. Kampas tried to bite me when I held her back from another dog. I think she's cranky from missing your parents.

Your Sister is no longer staying overnight in the Sick Bed, and there was much, um, rejoicing.

Mind-Boggling Picture of the Day

This letter ran in Wednesday's edition of The Transylvania Times. It appears exactly as it was printed.

I'd like to think this is a joke letter, but it sounds a lot like what normally runs in the paper.


In the news
CNN reports that extraterrestrial life may have been discovered.

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A cave painting of a face might be the oldest portrait ever found. Or not. It looks like a mandrill to me.

Library and Spelling

We took the horde of books back to the library. These were two boxes' worth the library asked the community to take home to make their move easier. The new digs are nice, if a little spartan. All the new joint needed was more floorspace, and it certianly has that. It's a simple building with good lighting and an accessible layout. It also has a small ampitheatre, another recent discovery that makes me want to try theatre again. We ran into some students scrambling to finish research papers. One tried to get Your Sister to edit his work, and I told him she's off-duty. Then we ran home to watch the spelling bee.

I started to think the Saryn Cook angle was just that: scripted. The judges admit to a spelling mistake in the first primetime network airing? And it allows the cute girl to return to fight again (and by "cute I mean she had her hair done and what appared to be make-up)? I'm a cynic. It tripped my alarm. Her subsequent loss suggested her return didn't affect the outcome so much, protecting any effort to provide a shock without putting the contest in her lap.

Still, it's a fascinating spectacle because we get to watch people think, a rarity for TV. Ms. Close deserved to win as she outlasted a Canadian who got at least four French words in the last three rounds. Talk about luck.

Speaking of the Canadian, she was there because the contest is open to all English-speaking nations, yet so many words were not English: French, Greek, Turkish, native Hawaiian, German. What's the deal? Either it's an English spelling contest or it's not. If not, why should the official language of a competitor's nation matter?

Your Sister had very little trouble with the German words, including the winning word "ursprache."

Picture of the Day
This gets a little complicated. The image below is of the first appearance of Jean Grey as Phoenix. This is possibly the biggest moment in the X-Men franchise, as it set up storylines for decades. It also plays a part in the X2 and X3 films. This is drawn by John Byrne, who co-wrote and drew the majority of the original Phoenix material, including its holy-crap ending. But this is an homage to the guy who originally drew the scene, Dave Cockrum. Byrne is a lightning rod for online geek chats. He's certainly one of the more significant artist/writers of the past 25 years, but he's also one of the most vilified. Rumors about his ego and professionalism dog him, and as far as I know, it's unfounded. Either way, he energized the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Superman, and Wonder Woman franchises over the course of this career. And he can draw anything. He's been a fave of mine since I was barely a teen.



In the news
Get ready for Loud Words. On Monday, Bush will back a Senate bill to add an amendment against gay marriage. This is a ploy to win back the GOP diehards who drifted away because of the war. Al Franken (funny guy, lousy radio host) said the GOP won the 2004 election with "fears and queers," spooking the Heartland with tales of terrorists and gays. Looks like they're trying it again.

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According to ABC, Homeland Security excused a reduction in anti-terrorism funding to New York because there were no national monuments there of interest to terrorists. I'm dumbstruck.

Thursday, June 1

Supper and Spelling

We had a late-ish dinner with Kathy and Travis at the local pub. Another great time, as usual. Tonis leaves within the month, and we need a going-away party for her. Something silly and upbeat. Also, she needs to give us back some DVDs. She's German; she's annexed them. I offered to help Travis paint the nursery this weekend, but he wants to tackle the project himself, and I can understand that completely. But if he changes his mind, we'll shoot the shit and inhale toxic fumes all day. Your Sister is still in the Sick Bed, but we managed to watsh come of the Heat-Pistons game last night as she slowly crashed into oblivion. Because we dated over state lines, we started a tradition of watching at least one NBA finals game in a bar. We'll to that again this year. Doesn't matter who's playing. We commandeer a table for the whole game, from anthem to wrap-up, and drink like fish. School's usually over by that point anyway.

Tonight, ABC airs the final round of the National Spelling Bee. If you've never seen it, this is hypnotic stuff. The coverage this year includes short features to introduce the favorites to win. No es bueno. The kids shouldn't be the object of that kind of intimate speculation. They should be like racehorses: They show up, do their thing, and go back home. The only celebrity is the winner. Or some kid who does something loopy when he realizes he can't win. I want to see a small bespectacled lad imitate a Jay-Z rap instead of giving a go at "encephalon." What happens if he won't stop? Will security take him down? Can we see a nerd get Tasered on live TV?

Picture of the Day
The new international poster for the Soupyman film. No bad at all.


In the news
The allegations of a Marine slaughter in Haditha, Iraq allows the right-wing folks to claim it's all a ploy by liberals to slam the military, which they supposedly hate. Both Hugh Hewitt and Sean Hannity began yesterday's radio shows with a plea for level-headed investigations and then proceeded to insult everybody who might have once read a New York Times once in their lives. I don't agree with the suggestion that such an incident means the entire military is amoral nor do I think they followed some shadowy mandate from the Pentagon to do this. Although some like leftwing host Randi Rhodes do say the Abu Ghraib guards were following orders to torture. Maybe so. But we can't overlook the inherent probability of such events by battle-ragged assholes.

Like any other large organization, you're going to get a segment that lacks discipline and good judgement. And in that segment will lurk another that is just fundamentally flawed, a bad thing waiting to happen. War is no excuse for inhumanity, and what I don't like from hannity and Hewitt is their repeated effort last night to exucse such an incident by saying how another marine was killed by a bomb. This rationalizes, to them, a bloodthirsty rage. Rage is understandable, but the military is all about focusing that for effective combat, not storming a private house and killing families. Ugly rhetoric is gonna fly no matter the outcome of the investigation. It's a midterm election year; folks are grabbing for any rallying stance they can find, and the GOP needs to stir up pro-military voters to buoy their chances for holding Congress just as much as the Democrats want to say Iraq is devolving into chaos. The GOP talking heads are attacking former Marine and Congressman John Murtha for his comments about the incident. They claim he's insulting the Corps, but he's saying the troops are under too much stress to act rationally. He's defending them, proving he's still loyal to the Marines.

Tuesday, May 30

Death By Curry

Your Sister is back in the Sick Bed with this school-incubated bug. She attended a shower for a teaching buddy scheduled to marry in July, and I ate a leftover curry dish. Some times the curry dilutes when frozen and thawed. Not this one. It was painful. I could only eat one plate. And then I gave birth to an alien. We watched the Don Cheadle epsiode of "Inside the Actor's Studio" and called it a night. It's become so hot outside that I seek the sweet embrace of air conditioning and a nap. Sometimes married life is work, commute, eat, couch, bed.

Picture of the Day

This is what the World Cup balls look like. According to Sports Illustrated, they fly differently, and the goalkeepers think a scheme is afoot to increase scoring.

Memorial Day

The weekend was productive. I mowed and weeded the lawn. I cleaned up the barrier strip between the driveway and the runoff. I trimmed the shrubs on the walkway. I started the package design for Travis's mash-up CD. I fed the pets-in-law. I bought new shoes. I finished the X-Men videogame and started a Hulk game (crafted just like Grand Theft Auto, but you throw people instead of shooting them). I made wings and fries for Travis and Your Sister for the wrestling show. And I drew a bit.

We also watched some films.

Elizabeth: This was Cate Blanchett's first big role. It's not a great film; in fact, it's weirdly boring. It shows us the events without allowing emotional investment. Instead of telling the story, it shows it. Only Blanchett makes it noteworthy at all, as Elizabeth is despised by her court on religious grounds and assumes a throne beset by France and Spain. The composition of camera shots is top-notch.

Amelie: An utter charmer of a film, and I wished I had seen it before. Your Sister said she saw this with you in Chapel Hill but dozed off. Shock. She enjoyed it much more this time having seen the whole thing. We watched this from our TiFaux archive, but I'd like the DVD. This might be one of those perfect films to run in the background while working around the living room.

X3: I talked about this already, but I'm stunned by the virulent reaction by comic fans. The majority of online X-fans hate this film with a personal indignance. I'm left wondering another matter: Is Ian McKellan the most bankable movie star in the busuness? With two hugely successful geek franchises (Lord of the Rings and X-Men), he also stars in the Da Vinci Code which, I understand, is based on a some book by the same name. He's had some Oscar nominations and even directed a killer version of Richard III. If you needed an older white guy to bring heft to a role, wouldn't he be in the top three candidates?

I started both Saved!, a satire on Baptist high schools, and City of God, the Brazilian gang film. I'll watch them in chunks as time permits.

Picture of the Day
There may be two men who crafted and defined the style of comics and cartoons since 1960: Jack Kirby and Alex Toth. Toth died over the holiday weekend. He's not a name many know, but generations have seen his work. He provided many of the designs and model sheets for Hanna-Barbera cartoons for shows like Jonny Quest, Superfriends, Space Ghost, and Herculoids. He also drew comics and his work on "Zorro" may have ben his best. While Kirby was all about hyperkinetic body positioning (while co-creating the Marvel Universe of heroes), Toth focused on light, line weight, and simplified depiction. Toth didn't waste lines. When a new editor for the East Carolina University newspaper comics page took office, he assigned the cartoonists to bone up on Toth. He was the inspiration to follow: clean lines, strong composition, and clarity of depiction. Look at the third panel on the page below. No one did the light tricks like Toth.


In the news
The new treasury secretary candidate is the first major appointment by the administration that doesn't elevate a crony or policy parrot. Henry Paulson comes from Goldman Sachs.
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A riot in Afghanistan after an U.S. truck accident. A car bomb hits a prominent network news team in Iraq. The Marine slaughter-coverup scandal isn't helping our public image. We're distracted by Iran. I don't really have a point here. I just wish the adults who are supposedly in charge would show up and fix things.

Sunday, May 28

X3 (no spoils)

I saw the film Saturday afternoon with Your Sister and her teaching assistant, and I'll tell you true: X3 is a hellacious superhero film. It's a proper third film in what appears to be a trilogy and not just a tacked-on sequel. It pays off some big subplots, establishes new folks, and expands the known characters. Magneto is an outright villain, Beast steals the film, and all the Hugh Jackman fangirls will have plenty to enjoy here.

However, the majority of online comic fans that I have encountered hate it. They complain it drifts too far from the original comics. It's a non-argument. This is an alternate film universe and has been since the first film. Things are drastically different, and I enjoy seeing new tangents woven and cut. This film is filled with big events; the status quo is barely glanced at, much less upheld. Once you stop clenching the beloved source comics, you'll find quite a tight adherence to their themes. Comic writers would give their right hands to craft a story this seismic and see it printed by Marvel Comics. X3 does things the comics gang can't for fear of losing that petulent audience, and that's what makes it a good movie for everybody. It isn't afraid to shake things up while moving the story along logically.

I admit, the comic purist in me has gripes. But the film fan realizes the two media have different rules about character progression. And so, I shut up, sit back, and enjoy what is here, not what I would do differently. This is a fun movie, and it does the previous films justice. Much like Batman Begins and the two Spider-Man films, it keeps what worked, adjusts what was clunky, and shows the world the relationships, themes, and character elements we comic geeks enjoyed.

Now, can Superman Returns top that?