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….See you in October!

I should be packing but instead I am watching “Pieces of April” and avoiding my work. It’s a pretty interesting movie - filmed in that IFC style of jerky camera movements, Dogme95 homage, etc.

I like Katie Holmes, despite being a “Dawson’s Creek” alumnus she has really shown herself to be versatile, evocative, and talented … although her recent taste in roles (the all to predictably schmalzy (even looking at the commercial) role as the President’s daughter trying to get through college “just like all the other kids”) is surely a perversion of her talent.

…and whiile I’m on the topic, i hate the way they always photorgaph her with this tomboy smirk. It’s so…lame. She’s a pretty girl with a lot to her beyond being equal doses of tomboy and hottie. Let her show a new dimension in photographs!

In any case…it’s an interesting indie flick.

Dutch teacher John Eyck once said that he never packed until the day of his departure. I thought this was insane when I heard it at the time (1996, freshman year, university of Texas, Robert Lee Moore Hall) but I understand — it’s hard to get the motivation and clarity of focus together until the very last few hours….

I watched the double airing of Law and Order last night. First, I miss Jerry Orbach. I mean that kind of deadbeat, deadpan, “ho hum another body” humor just can’t be imitated. However, Dennis Farina as a smooth, Italian, playboy meets Sherlock Holmes is an interesting character and he seems to work well with Jesse L. Martin.

Something I really noticed is the downward spiral that Elisabeth Rohm’s character (ADA Serena Southerlyn) seems to be headed towards. Instead of a transfer or a flame-out her character (she is leaving the show at the end of the season) seems to be headed for mass disillusionment and burn-out.

We see this in her disagreement with former Republican Senator Fred Thomson’s DA character. She citing that the War In Iraq is a covert act of Imperialism, that it is immoral, that bombing civilian targets indiscriminately is not the way to win and he citing the failures of the international community to stop atrocities, etc.

L&O always has the ability to put both the weaknesses of both sides on display and flirt with either.

In the second delivery McCoy’s cross examination of a 9/11 widow was particularly lethal and pointed ( I always root for McCoy but sometimes think he opts for the Draconian route versus a more merciful consideration. The People whom he represents want justince, not always blood) and one could read the change in Serena’s mein as he hammered over and over again.

When she tried to mention it to him she was interrupted, but I suspect that this seed of cynicism threatens to destroy her outlook on her post and will ultimately lead to her character’s (and her) departure.

Bad news for Dick Wolf, time to find yet another sophisticatedly pretty female for the ADA slot…. I thought about it a bit last night, could they put a guy in there? Don’t think so. That would leave the van Buren character as the only female on the show …

Personally I would love to see Alicia Witt in the role ( actually, I just like seeing Alicia Witt ). She looks great in conservative attire, has a great delivery and I could totally see it. I was really a fan of her performance in the (3rd season?) of “The Sopranos” and think it could carry over.

I hate the Charmin bear ads. I mean, there’s a famous joke about bears and their necessity in the woods, and I think that this commercial is attempting to trade on that ….

But … But … Ugh! It’s freaking disgusting

“Don’t squeeze the Charmin” - Yes I’d prefer that by a mile. A trade of goods and commerce from the inventory stocking gentleman.

But relieved ursae? Yeaaach!

Imagining a bear needing toilet paper, if you’re lucky, merely gets dismissed as an absurdity and the mind rejects it. But if your mind lets it go past then — as I said before

It’s freaking disgusting!

I’m leaving in a little bit under 48 hours….so I decided I would watch the NBC action drama “Hawaii” to get in the spirit.

Good post-racial cast African-american, japanese-hawaiian, vietnamese named half caucasian half something females, a Samoan gentleman…

Hackers in Paradise Glad to see the presence of APPLE APPLE APPLE: The hacker-cops (more on them later) were using the new flat-panel Apple monitors (was that a CGI blurred out Mac OSX dock I didn’t see at the bottom of the screen?) and the toy of our decade, the iPod, had a cameo…

But here’s the real question, hackers in tropical paradise? Are we supposed to believe that people would voluntarily live in Hawaii who have the genetic inclination to live in perma-semi-dark with gentle red lighting with code? You can’t achieve proper hacker pallor in the aloha sun.

Equality for the Hackers? It’s sorta funny, I found a few web sites complaining that the female cop was playing the “worry about the boys back at the office” and that the Samoan guy was portrayed to stereotype — but what about the poor code-monkey contingent of the force? When will justice for the informatically inclined be found?

Very Clich? plot: A last minute save of a noble cop, a collaborative bonhommie between cops and a fence, “don’t be a hero” speech. So…. I guess I won’t be watching the show after that.

On the up side — 2 hours of law and order now!

Name that movie.

Episode IV: A New Hope.

As virtually every entertainment site and news outlet is reporting, the Star Wars original trilogy went on sale today (on DVD).

After another yoga session I swung into Sears and it hit me. I could have purchased the set from amazon.com, or Best Buy, or any of a thousand e-tailers….

…but I went to Sears. I never go to Sears. As a non-homeowner I don’t buy tools, I don’t buy durable goods and despite their “softer side” campaign, I’d still opt for Target. Heck, I don’t think I’ve been to Sears since I finished my driving school there over 10 years ago.

…but back in the day Sears was it because they were the company in with Kenner, the sole distributor of Star Wars action figures and sets.

It kinda hit my how proper it was that my purchase should have been there.

Strange that we have intimate relationships with capitalist institutions.

I don’t really listen to Glam, but I thought it might be a good iMix for iTunes with the above title….

David Bowie: “Lady Stardust” T. Rex: “Spaceball Ricochet” Rocky Horror Cast ( Tim Curry ): “I’m Going Home”

Well that’s the top 3 that easily come to mind for me anyway.

I believe that in the morning before George W. Bush hops out of bed, Dick Cheney must sneak in, like to tooth fairy, and put MAGIC GLASSES on the sleeping commander-in-chief.

It’s these MAGIC GLASSES that allow him to me so damn chipper all the time - despite the looming specter of facts coming to darken his day. When George and the MAGIC GLASSES see trouble coming they know just what to do - filter it out! Here’s a humorous example.

With his glasses on, GWB tells us great news like this from the campaign trail:

“This country [Iraq] is headed toward democracy.”

You see, with MAGIC GLASSES everyone in Iraq is sitting there wondering whether to frolick in place or to spontaneously erect a monument to Paul Wolfowitz.

But here in the real world, where we don’t have access to those MAGIC GLASSES we see scary things - things that make the president sound out of touch, clueless, or self-delusional. We see things like the National Intelligence Estimate’s pessimistic research that says that the Iraq situation now has three likely conclusions:

• Living in a state of constant fear awaiting the next bombing (status quo)
• All out civil war
• A fractured tribal society taking over in which tribal agendas are prosecuted (and Lord knows the US has gone out of its way to stop the genocide in Darfur - remember we’re the force for liberty and human rights, right?)

[Story]

See, the MAGIC GLASSES make the facts disappear and make everything seem peachy keen!

Much like a delusional CEO in a bankruptcy tailspin (which our president, a multi-times failed business man should know well) or a bad gambler, Bush thinks things will magically turn around (with the MAGIC GLASSES the next day or the next card is always the one you need).

With the glasses on you can inspire without a hitch of cynicism, you can say things like: ” I believe in the transformational power of liberty. The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom. “

…And not realize that the transformation you’ve helped usher in is a debacle, chaos, and a situation that is unwinnable — all the while the mastermind of September 11th is still at large. Furthermore you’ve started our noble Republic down the path of Imperialism.

The MAGIC GLASSES keep one safe from irony too!

Bush said, castigating Putin’s behavior in the post Beslan horror as he works to consolidate power, squelch media protest, and dominate by the politics of fear:

“As governments fight the enemies of democracy, they must uphold the principles of democracy” [story]

To which Putin I’m sure had to say: “Are you on drugs (again)? The ability to pull what books citizens have checked out, that is nyetdemocracy. Asking Muslim men to go down to local federal offices and register, that’s hardly democracy, comrade.”

But the MAGIC GLASSES help elicit that cute smirk and a thought of chopping wood in Crawford and those nasty facts and themes suddenly pop like bubbles and life goes on just the same for the delusionist-in-chief.

If anything seems to go wrong guess what else, Bush can dispel bad news with banners that say “Mission Accomplished” and guess what - it is! Just like “The American Economy is getting stronger” . He says so, it must be so! The future is so bright with MAGIC GLASSES that you almost need to swap them out for shades!

And at night, Bush goes to bed, sleeping the sleep of the just, sleeping good dreams in which the Yankee-cowpoke sets everything square and all is right in Tombstone.

As hisgentle snores start, Dick tiptoes back in, removes the glasses and we, the residents of Tombstone, worry about what evils have been filtered out by the MAGIC GLASSES. Instead of the chimeral promises, we see reality and we are afraid.

Here’s a graph that breaks down how we’re winning the war.

You will note all my story references are from FoxNews - the mouthpiece of the Empire. I have chosen their story sites to avoid the criticism that it’s the fault of the “liberal media”

—

Update: Kerry calls Bush’s outlook “rose-tinted” here

Lucky guy…

It’s pretty tasty pho, though.

My friend Norbert is getting married in Maui on the 25th of this month. I decided I should be there to wish him well on his nuptials. So I’m going. Aloha, Maui.