As It Should Be

Sometimes things just work out better. A softball team playing a brand new one with little equipment and no experience stops the game and uses the time to help out the new team.

Life As It Is

It's kind of nice to finally use my laptop for the excuse I bought it for. Speaking of, is anyone looking for a kick-ass laptop? Anyway...

In the "What the Fuck!?! Oh yeah, it's just Pat", I finished the original Degrassi series. Yeah, it's hokie, but the characters were the same age that I was at the time. The look of things was familiar with lots of big hair and mullets. The only difference was instead of saying "ruht" and "fir", they said "aboot". The complete series of Daria arrived this last week, so I'll dig through that to pass time and remember why I hate humanity, mostly because I can relate to a cartoon than most people. On a more respectable note, I ordered the Modern Lovers album and Meat Puppets II on vinyl.

Louie has ennui and a black beard. He could have an impacted digestive system or maybe I need to get a new UV light. I'll take him into the vet this week. If I get the same vet as when I took Leopold in, she'll think I'm a terrible owner. Aaagghhh!

I'm tired, I'll post more tomorrow.

Bo Knows Hockey

So a co-worker came into my office this morning as I have the communal mini fridge. It went like this:

Me: The Red Wings won last night. I'm not happy about that.

Her: Who are they?

Me: The Red Wings? You don't know who they are?

Her: No, who are they?

Me: The Red Wings?

Her: Haha!

Me: The Detroit Red Wings?

Her: Oh! I don't follow baseball.

Me: Leave.

Vision

What some people can see is a great thing.  Even better when they share it:

Muddling of the Titans

I caught the new "Clash of the Titans" film this weekend.  What a turd.  Here's what I liked and didn't.

What I Liked

Io:  Perseus had a fairy godmother of sorts.  She was cursed with agelessness when she refused the advances of a god. I guess she was kind of like Bubo, but a lot hotter.  She added a little bit of depth to a thin movie.  Being a turd, the movie didn't reveal who sent her, so I'm guessing Zeus.

Mads Mikkelsen:  He played the leader of the guards that set out with Perseus to find Medusa.  His character was one-dimensional by the script, but Mikkelsen was able to convey a jaded, yet dedicated soldier looking for something worth fighting for.

Medusa:  They made Medusa more menacing than in the original.  She was a woman twice wronged who took her frustration out on everyone.  She would giggle to taunt and her face was her birth one until she turned a man to stone.  The only thing I didn't like is that she went after Perseus like a woman possessed.  She's a stone cold killer, so that didn't work.

What I Wanted to Like, but Didn't

Polly Walker:  Polly Walker proved in Rome that beauty is more how you carry yourself than looking picture-perfect.  I admit it, I have a boner for her.  Unfortunately, she didn't have anything to work with.  If you took Junior to the bathroom near the beginning of the film, you would have missed her whole  performance.  Mikkelsen at least had a few scenes, but Walker was allowed to pontificate on man not needing gods for about 20 seconds before Hades turned her into an old woman.

The Special Effects:  I did like the looks of most of the special effects.  They didn't kill everything like in Star Wars or look a Happy Painter painting like Lord of the Rings.  Still, Ray Harryhausen's effects had a bit more elegance to them.

What I Hated

 Where to start?

Sam Worthington: How he gets all of these rolls is beyond me.  The guy makes Kate Beckinsale seem like Judy Garland.  He went through the movie with a "Kick Me" sign on his back and his costars seemed to be laughing at him, but the "Deus ex Machina" of the script made everyone help him anyway.  Parsley is more compelling than this guy.

Revenge Instead of Love:  Perseus's family gets killed by Hades for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  His motivation is thus revenge versus love.  Not very true to Greek Mythology and a much less compelling reason to cheer for Robo-Douche as he fumbles around.

Argos:  Ok, so I'm being OCD here, but how does a city survive surrounded by unscalable mountains and a small harbor?  Not one inch of arable land.

Hippie Jesus Freak:  The movie had an anti-religion edge, which was fine by me, but to express it the director created a tripping (from organic mushrooms no doubt) hippie with rat-nest hair.  He warned all of the townsfolk to pray to the gods for forgiveness and drug Andromeda onto the platform to be sacrificed to the Kraken.  Nope, no dignity in her sacrifice.  I think I've seen this guy on Willy Street.

The Ending:  When Perseus finally arrives on Pegasus to turn the Kraken to stone, I met it with a yawn.  Ok, creature dead, douchebag is a reluctant hero (versus heroism as its own goal in mythology) who doesn't even get Andromeda.

The Very Ending:  So to make sure everyone knows that Perseus is, um, straight, Zeus revives Io for him to enjoy.  And give the prospect of a sequel.

Say what you will about Steven Sommers, but he has a bit of joy in his junk.

War is Death

This is just the stuff we see.

Busking in Paris

I was riding in the back of a transport truck through Paris after it was liberated in WWII.  I pointed out to the people in the truck that all these buildings were rigged to explode, but the Germans never destroyed them.  I noticed that some of the buildings had their facades blown off.

Then I was by a bridge.  The bridge went over a courtyard below to a romantic style building.  I was busking with some guy on drums and a woman on bass.  I played the guitar and was trying to get a harder sound from everyone.  I wanted to be the a pioneer in rock and roll, about ten  years early.

I was in the same courtyard, but it had a large dirigible in the middle and buildings built into the walls.  All of this was for people about 1/10 the size of me.  Then Superman and Batman were defending it against aliens.  The aliens made all these plants grow.  The rest is fuzzy.  Then I was walking along some catwalks in a bombed out building.  I was still trying to be a  pioneer in rock and roll.  Part of the building was a school hallway with lockers.  I was mad that the record labels were not happy with my sound so I decided to start my own label.

Then the building was part marsh and I was walking through it.  There were two skeletons about 12" high playing some tune.  I knew them when they worked at a grocery store so I walked up and talked to them.