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FEBRUARY 2008 BLOG ARCHIVE

For current and ongoing blog entries: http://www.thrillfactory.com/

FEBRUARY 25, 2008

So the Oscars came and went. I am perplexed.

Daniel Day-Lewis' win for There Will Be Blood was spot on the mark, as was the Best Supporting nod for Javier Bardem -- the best thing about an otherwise unremarkable (I thought) picture. Needless to say, the Academy vehemently disagreed, bestowing the Best Picture to No Country for Old Men. Inexplicably, the dramatically disingenuous and amateurish Juno got Best Screenplay (what the f**k???) and Best Score went to Atonement (a very good score) instead of Blood (pure genius). Asses.

FEBRUARY 18, 2008

QUICK HITS: Look under the Red A in Column 3 for a new feature, the Atheism News Feed (lifted from RichardDawkins.net). The Duran Duran mp3 of the week is John Lennon's "Instant Karma" recorded in Buenos Aires in 2005. And, apparently, Lindsey Lohan has officially posed for a series of artful nudes. And boy do I like art. I mean, really. And now, on to the Desktop...

One week until the Oscars, and my movie watching agenda is a mess.

Of the nominees, Annemarie and I have seen only The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, No End in Sight, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Sicko, There Will Be Blood, 3:10 to Yuma and Transformers. For the average person, this may seem like a lot of movie watching, but for me it's a new low.

The good news is that I have acquired copies of Juno, Charlie Wilson's War, Sweeney Todd and Atonement (don't ask about my source :). These, combined with recent Netflix I've copied (Eastern Promises, Ratatouille, Away From Her and Elizabeth: The Golden Age) could put me in a better mood. The trick is finding the time between now and Sunday to watch all of them (and Netflix has Across the Universe, The Assassination of Jesse James, In the Valley of Elah, Michael Clayton, American Gangster, Gone Baby Gone, La Vie en Rose and Into the Wild set to drop into my mailbox in the next 72 hours). Tell it to the Judge!!

Ah, the heck with it. The whole issue re-opens the same old wound every February, which is that we really miss our California cronies, for whom this sort of thing is a big deal. Except for our buddies, the Jaffins (whose respective blogs are now linked in column 2), it has been very challenging for Annemarie and I to connect in a substantive way with a lot of people we meet here in MA. And the Jaffins are moving to New York in, like, four months! Argh!

The social gulag remains even harder for me, as I do not have the health care industry as a conversational fallback like Annemarie does. I haven't met anyone who isn't in the health care field since moving here, except for my co-workers at Comcast (and the company staggers our schedules in such a way that outside social interaction with the handful of people worth dealing with is a virtual impossibility).

Listen to me griping. I mean, I do try.

I suppose age is a factor. At 38, I am pretty much set as far as my likes and dislikes, priorities in life, and outlook on the world, as most people are by this point in their development. MS and other life elements have put my Self Number somewhere between 2 and 4 (Your Self Number is the total of possible life outcomes available to you. It starts with infinity at birth -- at which point you could potentially become anything from an astronaut to a prostitute -- and progressively dwindles to absolute zero at death -- at which point you could potentially be dead). I think humans are predisposed to gravitate toward those with a similar Self Number, and certainly I can attest to some bitterness and envy toward those with higher numbers than I, as well as frustration with those who don't take advantage of the multitude of potential Selves at their disposal. I become discouraged. I might be a bit of a dick.

As if to prove the point, here is a link to a disturbing New York Times piece on the state of American culture, and the inspiring work of Susan Jacoby. Bill Moyers interviews Ms. Jacoby here. Take the time.

FEBRUARY 13, 2008

To all the loyal readers who e-mailed to make sure I was still on planet Earth... yes, I am okay! I just had an issue with my web server that prevented me from uploading changes to the site.

You have no idea how frustrating it is to witness John Edwards' disheartening exit from the presidential race, and then not be able to stop my website from endorsing him. Argh. Not to mention all the other cool stuff that came down the pike in the last few weeks that I wasn't able to share.

I've updated with the cream of the crop. In Stuff to Watch, we've got a hysterical look at the HD-DVD/BluRay format war (courtesy of T-Ruff) as well as good buddies Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher talking about the 'OUT' campaign.

In media news, there is the mind-shattering news that we'll have an all-new Star Wars theatrical release in August!

And we've got the new Indiana Jones trailer hitting tomorrow (which I'll no doubt have here on the site by tomorrow night).

And the writers' strike is OVER!!

I'll be getting more stuff up over the next few days.

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