MAY 2008 BLOG ARCHIVE
For
current and ongoing blog entries: http://www.thrillfactory.com/
MAY
30, 2008
"Arthur from West
Virginia" asks:
In RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, the bad guys are vanquished by the power of
God rising from a golden ark containing the commandments handed down to the
Hebrews by God Himself. In INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, the fortunes
of a small Indian village are directly impacted by the power of their god,
Shiva. In INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, Indiana saves his father's life
by using the cup that caught Christ's blood at the crucifixion. I must ask...
as a so-called atheist, how is it you can be such a fanatical fan of Indiana
Jones?
Great question,
"Arthur from West Virginia". The answer, I think, is self-evident.
Indiana Jones is real.
In other realities:
This just came down the
pike five minutes ago, literally. Here is an image of a remote
Amazonian tribe that has never had contact with modern civilization. I
mean, zip. Nil. Nada. [Until, of course, the helicopter that took this shot came buzzing
overhead. I don't know about you, but I'd bet $50 that at this very moment,
there's an Amazonian witch doctor claiming the big metal bird was the result of
Lothag "knowing" Aktuk in all the wrong places. Oh, and
eleven-year-old Nakti just got beheaded as an apology to BELL BOEING. Poor
Nakti. If only she had been born to a Sivrak. No skills.]
Have you seen HBO's
outstanding movie Recount?
AlterNet's Larry Beinhart did, and he has a bone to pick
with the New York Times. He says they buried the truth about the 2000
election, and they're still burying it today.
A new computer program has
been created that examines the reproductive success of two groups - those who
pass on real information to their offspring versus those who pass on
unverifiable information. The
results may surprise you.
A radio commercial calling
for non-Christians to "sit down and shut up" is being used to sell
Ford cars in a rural part of California. I shit you not. And here it is...
http://www.youtube.com/v/oTWBKRTv4mM&hl=en
I'd be lying if I said I
wasn't severely disappointed with my employers, Comcast. They've just done
something so utterly reprehensible that any reservations I may have had about
leaving next year are wiped clean away. Here's the scoop.
MAY
25, 2008
Go here
to read a cool article about how Annamae's Nana beat the odds. Workplace
Wellness Works!
MAY
22, 2008
So the waiting is done.
Annemarie and I saw Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night at 1am. There were only three other
people in attendance, and they didn't make a peep, so it was essentially the
private showing I predicted it would be. While this has a novelty, I did miss
the energy of a full house (Hernan reports that the Indianiacs at the Ziegfeld
were cheering pretty much all the way through -- that must have been killer).
Now, as for the movie
itself... I liked it. Some parts I really loved. Other parts I was kind of
indifferent about. There were a few things I would just as soon not have seen
in the picture. But when you balance everything out, what results is: I liked
it. As far as a concise summation of my feelings, I offer this quote from Roger
Ebert's positive review in the Chicago Sun-Times:
I can say that
if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that
if you did not, there is no talking to you.
I will admit that it is not the Indiana Jones movie I was
expecting. After 19 years of back and forth squabbles between Lucas, Spielberg
and Ford as to which was the best way to revisit the franchise, and
interminable false starts, and a dozen or so screenwriters toiling away on
countless (eventually rejected) drafts -- it is perplexing to me that this was the one everybody agreed was
the "go". You can be assured that now that I have nothing to fear
spoiler-wise, I will be reading the many unused Indy 4 scripts that have leaked their way onto the web over the
years. I want to see what didn't make
the cut.
*** SPOILERS FOLLOW ***
I was overjoyed to see
Harrison in the gear again, and while he does move a little slower (and his
line deliveries are not exactly razor quick), he is still very much the movie
legend I was craving. The jungle chase, especially, reminded me how masterful Spielberg
is at devising a complex action/stunt sequence, and how few others are even
capable of working at this level.
Cate Blanchett gave me the
flutters as the sexiest movie character I've seen in maybe ten years (that
haircut should be made the legal standard). And this UFO junkie can't be
thankful enough for the entire Roswell plotline -- the magnificent atom bomb
gag will stay with me forever.
What didn't exactly sit
well with me was the dense, exposition-heavy plot, which is a departure from the
dirt simple throughlines of the three earlier Indy movies. I would have thought
the terrific opening sequence would have had a bigger payoff in later scenes,
but didn't. There did seem to be an awful lot of supporting characters, all of
them saying and doing things that Indiana himself should have been saying and
doing -- for instance, why was Marion
driving the jeep through the rapids, exactly? And I never really had a sense of
true peril for Indy or anybody else, either due to CGI stunts that present no
real-world sense of danger, or real-world dangers that were introduced but then
dispatched almost immediately (the Ugha warriors in the Akator temple spring to
mind).
I think what I've written
above makes the general case against the movie being perfect. I definitely had
inflated expectations, and I won't apologize for them. The movie satisfied me
more than it disappointed. I saw The
Phantom Menace at an industry screening a week before the rest of the
world, and I remember walking out of that theater feeling like I had been hit
by a truck of dashed hopes. No such drag on my momentum comes from Crystal Skull, I can assure you. But it
sure was different.
I may revisit the issue
after seeing it a few more times, but for now I have no more to say. Off to blast
the soundtrack, read the novel, and wonder what other pop culture milestones
remain...
MAY
14, 2008
You'll all be happy to
know that my original power wheelchair went into the hands of a very nice lady
from Quincy, MA whose sciatic nerve prevents her from being able to propel her
manual wheelchair. I feel very good about it, and who says atheists have no
morals? On a related note, keep your eyes peeled for more developments in the
"giving away of wheelchairs" area in the next few weeks. I'm cooking something...
Well, it looks Iike going
to the Ziegfeld Theater in NYC to see Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Hernan next week is going
to be scrapped. Turns out the location cannot
accomodate my current wheelchair. When we went down for Revenge of the Sith back in 2005, I had
a chair that could be carried up the stairs (while I rode the escalator on
foot), but that is no longer an option. The silver lining is that the movie
theater down the street from me is playing the movie Wednesday
at midnight, 12:10, 12:20, 12:30 and 12:40, so I'm reasonably certain to
have at least a quiet, private experience.
Janelle S. (my Sister from
Another Mister) is a big fan of Rolling Stone Magazine journalist Matt Taibbi.
I have to call her attention to this excerpt from his
forthcoming book. He went undercover into the cult of Super Christian John
Hagee. Can't wait for this one.
Big V (my Brother
from...er...the Same Mother, actually) checks in from Burbank to report on my
nephew Joe's career progress:
He just completed filming nine weeks of
"Jail" for Langley Productions, the second season. This Friday he
leaves for Vietnam to film the "Miss Universe Pageant". He'll be
there for two weeks. Then he's off to Salt Lake City, Utah for more of the show
"Jail", about four weeks.
Keep spankin' it, Joe!
For all my Star Wars
peeps, have a look at this
interesting take on the future of the franchise. It's a real chin rubber.
Just one more quick note
today. A slight redesign of the page may be noticed. By popular demand, the
Baby Annamae will now have her own featured video window, which I intend to
keep pretty up-to-date. The rotating window of spotlighted feature articles was
a lot of work to maintain (I did all those graphics, you know), and I needed a
break from it. For the foreseeable future, I will continue to call your
attention to news, commentary and analysis of note, but it will more than
likely appear here in the blog.
Later.
MAY
9, 2008
Boy, unpacking is mighty
thirsty work.
Every day starts with a
to-do list, and "update
Thrillfactory.com" just can't seem to get any play. With putting my
Star Wars stuff out to display, reading all the latest news and commentary
around the web, tweaking the new HDTV set-up and being a full-time daddy to a
1-year-old who just doesn't stop moving -- it's amazing I even have the few
minutes to type this!
MAY
3, 2008
Bam!!
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