"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

V For Vendetta

Well, it wasn't as good as I hoped. I can see it being maybe more inspirational to teenagers, but I thought there were a couple things hurting the film:

  1. The Mask: I can see how this would work great in a comic book, but on film the lack of expressiveness coupled with the amount of screen time kind of takes the life out of things.
  2. Lack of Backstory: There just wasn't enough attention paid to the context. The Fascism wasn't really realistic... seemed like too much of a disconnect between how evil/hitlerian the High Chancelor was, and how benign most of the people who worked for him were and how bland daily life seemed to be.
  3. Essence of Drama: I wasn't consistantly hooked. Like, there was no oppression, no evidence of discomfort or fear, no uber-patriotic hooligans. It's not until 3/4 of the way through that you really get anything to empathize with or against. I just was never emotionally sold on the stakes, which is close to a mortal wound for this story.

Still, enjoyable, if not the masterpiece some were hoping for. And Natalie Portman is pretty easy on the eyes, so there's that.

Finally, as an afterthought, here's The Koran, searchable, browsable, etc. Good to know about.

Read More

Tags: 

Injun Abortion

South Dakota Indians To Offer Abortion Clinics Safe Harbor

This is an interesting development. There are few states without a Rez, and although they are often remote, if these state bans stick, it could be part of an answer. Planned Parenthood will need to raise a few million dollars for constuction, and NAARAL can do something useful by offering to subsidize transportation to and from Soverign Territory for women in need.

The wingers heads will 'splode of course, but I think it would work.

Read More

Tags: 

Kleptones: 24 Hours

It's insanely listenable. There's some very interesting soundscaping tying together number of knee-slappin' pop tracks. Just check out some of these:

Down on Bennies, a rockin' take on an Elton John song I never liked.

Sixteen Sisters, wich picks up the old "Sixteen Tons" and gives it new life.

There's lots of hot Soul put to great use, as in Amazing Temptation.

This is art. It's good. You should be allowed to do this without having to deal with lawyers.

Anyway, the whole thing is on their site and in my torrentfeed. It's really an album, in the best way. This raises the bar for remix/mashup creations.

Read More

Tags: 

Debauched

Krebs' birthday, a typical slaughter for me. Fun, but kind of unhinged, adolescent. Jello shots? What!?! It was all downhill from there...

I've got to work on my Drinking Liberally style. This wasn't that, but the pattern was the same. It always seems I get there too early, and then get too drunk by the time people I want to talk to arrive. Perhaps I should try harder to be fashionably late, or maybe stick to water for a time. Would be easier on the wallet/liver too.

On the plus side I had a productive afternoon meeting with Jon and Eric. Check it out:

www.democrobot.com

We're making a "Political Digg."

Read More

Tags: 

Torrentfeed - The Kleptones - 1800 War Of Confusion

Clicky clicky; listen, listen.

From the just-released 24 Hours by those crazy Pirate Artists from the UK, the Kleptones.

A torrent for the whole double-album is in my torrentfeed.

Read More

Tags: 

Torrentfeed - The Kleptones - 1800 War Of Confusion

Clicky clicky; listen, listen.

From the just-released 24 Hours by those crazy Pirate Artists from the UK, the Kleptones.

A torrent for the whole double-album is in my torrentfeed.

Read More

Tags: 

Payback

Via Atrios, we find that Chris Matthiews is finally realizing the Iraq wasn't, in fact, payback for 9/11:

MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "Well I am just going to stick to this point that the president led us in there with the background music of American culture. Everybody was led to believe that we were getting payback, we were avenging what happened on 9/11 and that we are going to get them."

That's why we're at war -- because we had to get them. It was fucking obvious from the start to anyone who cared to take a deep breath and think about it that this was irrational and bullshit.

I wonder, when will Mr. Matthiews begin to question and contemplate his own complicity in all this?

Read More

Tags: 

That Was Quick

Ben Domenech resigns. A pity. I was looking forward to more discussions of Red Dawn.

The "youngest political appointee in the Bush Administration" (and the son of an appointee himself) was probably not the greatest choice for a historical bastion of journalism like the Washington Post to attach their name to, but you think they would have done some better reference-checking.

This is sort of egg on the fact of the WaPo for a few reasons. One, the bowed to traditional "Liberal Media" hersey and put their brand behind a nakedly partisan contributor to "balance" their journalistic bloggers (like Dan Froomkin) who, whaddya know, investigate and criticize the government. Secondly, they hired a lemon. Thirdly, it took the blogging rabble all of a week to dig up conclusive evidence that this kid is a plagarist.

Read More

That Was Quick

Ben Domenech resigns. A pity. I was looking forward to more discussions of Red Dawn.

The "youngest political appointee in the Bush Administration" (and the son of an appointee himself) was probably not the greatest choice for a historical bastion of journalism like the Washington Post to attach their name to, but you think they would have done some better reference-checking.

This is sort of egg on the fact of the WaPo for a few reasons. One, the bowed to traditional "Liberal Media" hersey and put their brand behind a nakedly partisan contributor to "balance" their journalistic bloggers (like Dan Froomkin) who, whaddya know, investigate and criticize the government. Secondly, they hired a lemon. Thirdly, it took the blogging rabble all of a week to dig up conclusive evidence that this kid is a plagarist.

Read More

Pages