So the movie meme I posted earlier does not seem to be functioning for some reason. I went through and made all the movies I have seen bold, but they don’t seem to show up as such here at home. It’s really annoying me. I cannot find a reason for it not to work. Grrrr. Any suggestions anyone?

In the continuing spirit of getting as little work done as possible, I took the Teachout Cultural Concurrence Index or TCCI today. I got a 64% which I found surprising. I like Teachout and I enjoy reading him, but I thought our tastes more divergent. I guess I was wrong. There were some I thought he got just plain wrong (yes, I realize this is a completely subjective test). The Sopranos over the Simpsons?! Pul-eeze. Liz Phair over Aimee Mann? C’mon. And I found the Hotdogs or Hamburgers one of the most difficult.

I took last Friday off to give myself a four day weekend. It was lovely. So lovely, its hard to get back to work. So instead, I am posting about this movie meme thing I came across here and here. I am not sure what the criterion for the movies are exactly. It seems more or less like a list of random movies. Basically you bold the ones you have seen and add three more at the end. So now you can see what I watch and make fun of my movie-watching habits. Just click below and fire away.
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My friend Josh told me about Wind Scorpions today. Otherwise known as suns spiders, these little beauties have stronger jaws than a great white—relative to size obviously. Last night I actually had a nightmare about spiders. They were large furry brown ones about the size of a dinner plate and they were attacking me. I think these wind scorpions, which are actually more spider than scorpion, might be my new no. 1 fear. So thanks Josh.
By the way, you can see a delightful picture of Josh here.

Is ass-whupping hyphenated? I have no idea. Anyway, apparently Cheney visited the Yankees yesterday for the first game of the Yankees-Red Sox series in NYC. The Yankees handed us our hats and said get the hell out last night with an 11-3 win. But the best part? “During the singing of “God Bless America” in the seventh inning, an image of Cheney was shown on the scoreboard. It was greeted with booing, so the Yankees quickly removed the image.” So funny! I love NY! Except when we play them.

It is Monday once again. I am back at my desk, contemplating the week ahead of me. I have very little work to do this week, since June has a fifth week. The extra week throws off my schedule a bit. But it’s not so bad. I think I will take Friday off and give myself a 4 day weekend.
One thing I did this Saturday was finally go see Troy at the nearby movie theater. I love living by this theater. They get new movies that have been out for a month or so and charge slightly less for tickets and such. They are the reason why I have seen such cinematic masterpieces as The Mummy Returns and South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut. This theater has kept me cool when the summer has gotten to be too much, entertained when I have been too bored by the world, and they make the best popcorn! Anyway, Troy was precisely what I imagined. Not horrible, just…..let’s just say, I had to divorce my mind from my body for about two and a half hours. All the years I devoted to studying Classics rebelled, but I managed to squash it for a few hours. There were some good fight scenes, but the whole thing was a bit silly. Plus they made it seem like the whole thing took place over a weekend. Weekend at Priam’s —watch how Odysseus, Agamemnon and company prevent the Trojans from catching on to their secret—Achilles is really dead (at least he seems so with Brad Pitt playing him)! Seriously, it seemed to take place over a week or so. I seem to recall something about 10 years……Stop it brain. I am trying to watch a summer blockbuster! You know you are not supposed to bother me when I am watching one of these. God, I can’t wait to see Alexander this fall.

From an interview Jeanine Baxter conducted with J.G. Ballard in the Guardian:

Meanwhile, too much is made of conceptual art – putting it crudely, someone has been shitting in Duchamp’s urinal, and there is an urgent need for a strong dose of critical Parazone.

*Snicker*

So I am not really going to comment on the death of this president. Y’all don’t need me to tell you what a shitbird he was. Let’s all just move on. The media made out like they were reburying Christ. He was just a shitty president. That is all. Okay actor, crappy president. He’s dead, Nancy’s single again and Six Feet Under started up again last night. That’s all I am going to say.

I came across this article in the Guardian in which Elena Lapping details her deportation from the United States. Apparently you need a special visa now to enter the U.S. if you are a journalist. News to me and to her as well. She was treated in an abominable fashion. Questioned, searched and locked up for the night in a tiny cell with no place to lie down. I know worse has happened to other people, particularly Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, but this shows how much fear and isolationism have taken over our country. I blame the government for this. The terrorists may have punched us in the gut several years ago, but Bush is responsible for the repeated kickings while we are down (a poor analogy yes, but the best I can think of right now). He and Ashcroft and the others have used 9/11 to separate us even further from the rest of the world and damaged us all in the meantime. The best solution is to vote their asses out of office as soon as possible. C’mon everyone, can we show the bastards the door?

I am still alive, though not blogging. I have done nothing of interest in the past few days, so nothing to report about. I did see the new Harry Potter, but don’t feel the need to comment on it. You can find plenty of reviews elsewhere. I will say it was good and the best of them all so far.