The Sound of the Crowd

That the coming Supreme Court fight will be the next testing ground for democrats. But he also says that if they fumble the ball there, we might as well give up.

I have already given up.

…when [Jolson] got back to New York after honeymooning in Europe with his second wife, Jessel asked him how he was feeing and he said he didn’t know. “How can you say that?” Georgie asked. ‘You’ve just come back from your honeymoon. Aren’t you in love?”

“Love,” Jolson shrugged, “what’s love? Who wants to go to Europe alone?”

–George Burns, “All My Best Friends”

So I finally saw Before Sunset. I liked it, though not as much as most people seem to, or as much as you’d think I would, considering that it is a film that either sinks or swims on the basis of its dialogue.

I tend to respond to such films by (metaphorically speaking) clapping my hands in delight like my nephew to a fire truck. But though it was certainly poignant and made me want to write (not just this…better stuff), I can’t totally shake the feeling that it was, at least in some sense, an 80-minute rationale for Ethan Hawke having cheated on his wife.

Hawke has almost always seemed overrated to me, but he was never better as an actor than in the original Before Sunrise, written by director Richard Linklater & Kim Krizan. Here, where’s it’s said Hawke wrote most of his own part, some of the wit so present in that original character seemed forced and self indulgent.

Delpy is much better; she seems more naturally to inhabit her character. I admit it’s possible I’m projecting feelings of disapproval onto Hawke and giving the French babe a pass, but watch her. In the few and far-between moments when both shut up for a few seconds, she is watching him, while he is lost only inside himself.

Acting choice or natural disposition? I guess we’ll never know.

The film did make me decide one thing, though. I would much rather go to Vienna (splendid setting of the original) than Paris. At least the strangely faded version of Paris in this film.

But like Jolie, who wants to go alone? Not me.

Not me.

Some people drink.

Me, I’m going to spend Saturday being a girl and Sunday being a boy. What do I mean by that? Why, that I’ll be enjoying the respective Gilmore Girls and Boy Meets World marathons, of course.

Stop looking at me.

Go watch some television.

A new bill will allow the slaughter of wild horses. Sleep tight, red-state america.

Or, “these are a few of my faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavorite things.”

In no particular order:

This blog
Aaron Sorkin’s West Wing

Aaron Sorkin’s Sports Night. How good a show was it? It made me love a show about sports. Me.

Libraries

Kirsty MacColl. You know that great feeling when you put on a CD you really like but for one reason or another haven’t listened to for a really long time and it almost sounds new? I did that with Tropical Brainstorm today.

The book about Kirsty MacColl
Being in the book about Kirsty MacColl

Keitha, Colley & Annabel. Friends I made up.

Corey, Stefon, Moya, A’mee and all and any other friends I didn’t.

Joe Jackson
Monty Python

Emma Peel (though, what’s up with her having a lower spot than Buffy on Bravo’s countdown? I don’t think so.)

The golden age of radio

Charles Schulz, Bill Melendez, Vince Guaraldi & everybody who worked on the classic Peanuts specials

Dan Rather stepping down

Anne Hathaway–who, you realize, I will one day do something like shoot the president of the united states in order to impress.

Bands Reunited when it’s good
The good seasons of Buffy & Angel
Spider-Man 2

Fraggle Rock, other Muppety goodness, and Jim Henson being on a postage stamp!

Stars (band)
Cole Porter
Gilmore Girls

Greg Rucka mysteries–although, he really pushes the unsympathetic lead characters thing sometimes.

Peter Cook
Jerry Goldsmith
Bobby Darin
It’s My Party (movie)
Amber Benson

Did I mention Anne Hathaway? I’m not crazy, right–that is an extraordinarily beautiful woman?

The Music Lovers (band), especially “Sometimes People Just Do Stupid Things.”

Spaced/Shaun of the Dead

Brad Bird/Pixar’s The Incredibles kicking Universal/Robert Zemicks’ Polar Express’s ass to the curb

The Iron Giant special edition DVD
Cowboys International’s The Backwards Life of Romeo CD
Jon Stewart on Crossfire
A new Jim Brooks movie, even if it does star Adam Sandler
Willow & Tara
Wolves

Susan Sarandon, Virgina Madsen, and Sonia Braga–if I were a woman, these would be my role models.

Bill Hicks

Here’s an article in Editor & Publisher about the Washington Post’s bullshit, weak excuses for accepting an anti-gay marriage “advertorial” (this is my new favorite perversion of the english language).

From the Post (via Talking Points Memo): “Also included in [i.e., slipped in furtively into] the final [omnibus spending] bill was a major provision barring states from enforcing laws that require health care providers, hospitals, HMOs or insurers to pay for, provide or give referrals for abortion.”

“California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York — none of them can make their own reproductive rights policy.”

It looks like the movie of “Watchmen,” one of the most acclaimed comic books of the past 20 years if not of all time, has found a director.

Personally, I think the idea of filming “Watchmen” is just a bad one, unless it’s in a multi-part mini series for cable where they have room and freedom to do it justice.

If it licked Terry Gilliam… He tried to make it a movie for I think about a year, but finally decided he couldn’t condense it. There’s too much. The richness in story is what makes it what it is.

This is an FBI report on the 7,489 hate crimes, including 14 murders, in the US last year.

“Six of the 14 murders were committed as a result of a sexual-orientation bias, five involved racial prejudice, two were committed because of a bias against an ethnicity and one was the result of a hostility toward a disability, the bureau said.”

Those of you who aren’t now, or never have been Joss Whedon fans can skip to the next item. The rest of you can click below to see what I sometimes wonder.
(more…)

…in this list of the top-35 most cited political blogs. I did find more than a handful to either add or return to my regular rotation.

Atrios tipped me off to an online campaign to draft Howard Dean head of the DNC, which I’ve signed onto. I think the reasons for him are greater than the reasons against him.