Movie Update

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: 3/4 stars.
I saw this originally on DVD in January 2004. Unfortunately it was only a day or two after I saw "Master and Commander" for the first time. The flaws in POTC's logic, and its overall silliness really stood out in comparison. I watched it again on the recommendation of a friend and found that I liked it much better this second time round. The plot holes are still there, but it's also an entertaining and very fun, very watchable film. Good but not great.

Movie Update

Kicking and Screaming 2.5/4 stars.
Funny but benign Will Ferrell comedy. A good movie for kids, probably. I liked the fact that it wasn't filled with gross-out humor. This is probably also the most I've enjoyed Will Ferrell in a movie, and I laughed a fair number of times. That said it's totally formulaic and ultimately a little bit dull.

Interesting Photo

This is a picture of Jacob Lincoln (1815-1889). Jacob's father was Josiah Lincoln, brother of Thomas Lincoln, who was Abraham's father. So Jacob and Abraham were first cousins. The family resemblance is uncanny, isn't it? I found this on a website trying to disprove the rumor that Abraham Lincoln's real father wasn't Thomas Lincoln, but someone named Abraham Enloe, a man who Abe Lincoln's mother once worked for. Even presented as anecdotal evidence, this picture would seem to dispel any such notion.

Bad 70s Song Trivia Question

Listen to the following song. Actually, don't listen to all of it, just thirty seconds or so, otherwise your ears will start bleeding.



OK, bad song, bad hair, bad outfit, bad "dancing", right? Now skip ahead and listen to 2:21-2:29. Sound familiar?

The reader with the correct answer wins a new pair of hot pants.

Tinny Memories

During the 1993 holiday season I worked at the Toys R Us on Azusa Avenue near Arrow Highway in Covina, California. There's still a Toys R Us in that general area, but it's a different building than the one I worked in. The one that existed back in the '93 was a great bolshy, orange and brown monstrosity. When I walk into any Toys R Us now, I can't fully reckon with the fact that I used to work in one. Perhaps it's best that way. But I digress...

I worked the graveyard shift that season. And I also had another job working in a restaurant as a busboy/dishwasher/prep cook. My schedule was like this:

5pm- wake up.
5:30pm- go to restaurant job.
10:30pm- Leave restaurant job and head straight to Toys R Us (usually smelling like cooking grease)
11:00pm-7:00am- work at TRU.
7:30am- go to sleep.
Rinse and repeat

Fortunately I didn't do this for more than about two months. I think if I had I would have gotten really sick eventually.

Since this was the graveyard shift, the manager would turn the radio to Power 106, the disco station, and then broadcast it over the store's crappy intercom system. So, as a result I can't listen to any dance music from that era without being instantly transported to that time, that place. It's really eerie, but it gets me every time. Some examples:







and, of course:



The weird thing is, I've kind of grown to like all these songs. I don't normally like this kind of music and I don't exactly look back on that job fondly, but because they were such a constant presence I naturally grew fond of them.

Movie Update

Religulous: 1.5/4 stars. So-so documentary that claims to be about religion but is really about Bill Maher's view of religion. Even though I basically agree with most of Maher's points, I had some big problems with the film. For one, he only goes after the Abrahamic religions, doesn't touch Hinduism or Buddhism. Second, the film has an almost Tom Green-like confrontational style that I find uncomfortable to watch. Third, he talks to extremists, and spends almost no time talking to people who are more moderate in their religious beliefs, or who approach their faith with their intellect-- too much shooting fish in a barrel, not enough tackling the bigger questions and issues involved. Lastly, I'd compare making a film about how ridiculous relgion is to making a film about how ridiculous romantic relationships are. It's easy to make a lot of good, persuasive points, but the argument ignores something fundamental about the human condition. You can't really dismiss religion entirely, it's not going anywhere no matter how badly you want it to.

Barack Obama Does Not Care About White People

A picture from North Dakota.