Your Thoughts Exactly

Let me first say that Marmar, your review of The Da Vinci Code is exactly how I felt about the book. Please, cite me next time you read my mind. Stu, congrats on your Imagine project. I agree with you about the Mars expedition - exploration is a justification in itself. The timing, however, was quite awful, as we are suffering through enormous tax cuts favoring the wealthy above all, a gigantic and growing budget deficit, and an ever-rising cost of war and reconstruction, which the Bush Administration thought would be funded by gasoline revenues from Iraqi wells. Woops. If he rolled back a good portion of the tax cuts to pay for his imperialist designs, funding a Mars expedition would be more affordable.

In other news, a few topics have piqued my interest recently but I haven’t been able to shape any of them into full, coherent posts. More troubling is that I can’t forget about them and move on to new topics. So please indulge me in a little mental clearing, as a few shorties have been combined into one gigantic beast of a post.

Indiana Jones IV is an unlikely dream that recently received a serious blow. Rumors have flown every which way for years – It will be set in the 50’s; Natalie Portman will play his daughter, who will be the main protagonist; as soon as the schedules of Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas are free, they will start filming. The problem is that they haven’t found a script they like, and all three have screenplay veto power. One was completed recently after 18 months of work by Frank Darabont, writer of The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and many Young Indiana Jones films, but was rejected immediately by Lucas. Many things irk me about this. 1) Ford and Spielberg apparently liked it, but the man who “wrote” the “screenplay” for Episode I and II felt it could be better. 2) Instead of improving the screenplay, which is based upon a story created by Lucas (so its not like they're looking for an entirely original plot), it was rejected outright, and the search for a new screenwriter is on. 3) The scheduled release date, if the script was agreed upon, was for the 4th of July weekend, 2005, a month after Episode III. Could Mr. Lucas have any personal reasons to reject a screenplay and delay the making of Indy IV, thus protecting his Star Wars thunder from thievery? 4) I really, really, want this to be made. Harrison, Steve, if you’re reading this....cool. Tell all your friends.

Shrek 2. New feline character. I imagined disaster. I usually can not stand characters added to sequels for a new angle of comic relief, though I have no examples at my disposal. Just a gut feeling. But this guy, voiced by Antonio Banderas, was quite the charmer. Simply a fantastic character. He is not overused and is not simply a punchline delivery vehicle. Well done, Dreamworks.

Two of my favorite things have become awful after four year stretches of greatness. Well, it is tough to call the Mariners great when they didn’t even reach the world series, but they did have a very good four year run. The West Wing, on the other hand, was great, and suddenly turned to crap with the departure of Aaron Sorkin. The 5th season has finally come to a merciful close, and I can’t really figure out why I watched the whole year. It was pretty painful to see such a great show sink to the crap that was this season. I guess it’s like watching someone drown – I mean, we all like to watch that, right? (if you watch The Game Show Network enough, and are lucky, you might find out what the hell I’m talking about). I really can think of only five episodes that were entertaining, and most of them had plenty of flaws that in any other season could not be overlooked. If I were NBC, I’d save video of Shutdown, The Supremes, No Exit, Gaza, and the finale, and dump the rest. Just burn it all. This show used to be perfectly written, funny, serious, dramatic, informative, and well filmed. Now it’s condescending, excessively dramatic, poorly lit to the point that many episodes were simply difficult to see, and far too often has the superior, patronizing tone and simplistic arguments of an after-school special. (I just said three things that all mean the same thing). And I still watch. Am I a sucker? So, I need a new show. Comedies aren’t cutting it at the moment, though Will and Grace is funny, if formulaic; sketch/live shows aren’t what I’m looking for, despite the entertainment of American Idol, brilliance of The Daily Show, and hit or miss hilarity of the Chappelle Show; and I don’t like the Sopranos. What shall it be?

I went to concert tonight where I saw Ludacris and Wyclef. Now, I’m no big fan of Ludacris – save a few songs, I find his beats harsh, his lyrics annoying, and his flow dull. Hearing him live changed everything. His heavy rhythms (wow, that’s a seven letter word with only one vowel, and even that isn’t really a vowel) are perfect for a large crowd of dancing drunks. Wyclef, on the other hand, I often enjoy at parties, in the car, etc., yet I found his performance nothing if not strange. He talked/spoken worded/freestyle sung about all sorts of stuff, mostly about loving Columbus (yeah, right), marijuana, and not being a big fan of the President. He got down from the stage and walked through the crowd twice, once singing/freestyling, where he then passed the mic off to some guy he was rapping about who proceeded to reel off an incredible freestlye rif, so good I figured he must be a plant, though it really seemed like it was impromptu; and once while playing the guitar, when he was nice enough to stop about ten feet away from us and play for a while, and then walk right by us and around the floor, not two feet away. His whole set was odd – it featured more riffing and jamming, vocally as well as instrumentally, than actual songs, and he didn’t harness the crowd's energy very well – just when it reached a high point, he got the crowd quiet and brought out a little kid who did some spoken word. Despite the feeling that I was not getting my money’s worth (in expression only – the concert was free), by the end I was feeling a bit euphoric and wanted him to stay on stage. It was like we had become friends, and I just wanted to be there and listen while he jammed. Maybe it was the second hand weed. I don’t know; I just know I’ve been to quite a few concerts and never experienced anything quite like it.