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Conjuring Up Cinematic, Political, Athletic, and Cultural Arcana Since The Final Moments of the Last Century

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2/8/00 - Bad news on the Space front today. Not only do two scientists conclude that alien life might be much rarer than earlier anticipated (login required), but we seem to have an asteroid bearing down on us. When it rains, it pours. Update: The asteroid will miss us. Well, that's one less thing to worry about.

Al Gore was quoted today in the LA Times saying of Bill Bradley, "Don't think you can run for the nomination by running down the Democratic Party." Why does remarking on your distortions, flip-flops, and general inability to speak the truth have anything to do with the Democratic Party? Grrr...what an asshole. Speaking of which, Ken Starr finally admitted the independent counsel statute was probably unconstitutional.

I just finished watching The Iron Giant, and it was surprisingly good. I went it with high expectations given the amount of great press it's received from fellow fanboys, but I thought it rose to the challenge. See, Disney? You can make a top-of-the-line animated feature without musical numbers or the token cutesy sidekick voiced by a flailing comedian in need of family fare to bolster the rep. Next up tonight, Existenz and Drop Dead Gorgeous.

I'm also very much looking forward to The Beach this weekend, as I was a great fan of the book. Here's hoping Danny Boyle pulls it off.

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2/7/00 - Reading about Al Gore's pro-NRA record has me completely flabbergasted and disgusted by his current popularity among Democrats. That marks the third core issue for Dems (abortion and affirmative action being the others), on which Gore has changed sides and then lied about his previous record. And yet Democrats still flock to his sorry campaign at the expense of Bill Bradley. I get the feeling my party is suffering from knee-jerk post-Lewinsky stress disorder, by which we circle the wagons around Clinton-Gore at the first sign of any criticism of their leadership, be it progressive or conservative.

I posted this Message to Fellow Democrats on my Al Gore page today. The links pretty much sum up my contempt for the man:

WE NOW KNOW THAT, ASIDE FROM HIS OBVIOUSLY STRAINED RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TRUTH, HIS ENDLESS CAPACITY FOR SELF-PROMOTION, AND HIS WILLINGNESS TO DO ANYTHING FOR MONEY, AL GORE HAS BEEN AGAINST GUN CONTROL, AGAINST AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, AND AGAINST A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE. WHY DOES THIS MAN DESERVE YOUR VOTE?

Why indeed? That giant sucking sound you hear is disaffected Progressives and independents dropping the Democratic Party to vote for John McCain, should Al Gore be the nominee. Better a conservative reformer a la TR than a soulless panderer like the veep.

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2/6/00 - Somebody at the Boston Globe is reporting the obvious: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is way easy.

Evhead has found a decently amusing retooling of The Matrix (widely known by its detractors - I am not one of them - as The Gap Movie).

I went ice-skating for the first time ever last night at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden and I'm proud to say that in a full hour on the ice I only committed one faceplant. Woo-hoo! Unfortunately, I now have blisters on strange places in my feet, only a few days after my guitar blisters went away. It seems I must become one big callous to be amused these days.

Elaine and I got in a discussion this afternoon about where exactly the phrase "get one's goat" comes from. Perplexed, I went online and discovered Ye Olde English Sayings, with etymologies of dozens of common phrases that sound weird if you think about 'em for a sec. (Getting one's goat refers to an ancient Welsh practice of stealing another's goat so as to perturb that Welshman's cows. Uh...ok.)

The Knicks looked dominant this afternoon against the Heat, 94-80. My distress at seeing Gumby and Grandmama go down with leg injuries was mitigated by the Return of the Mighty Patrick, who put up 25 points and 14 boards (the second strong game for him in a row). Charlie Ward also represented with five steals in the third quarter.

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2/5/00 - Wetlog has constructed the Weblog Junior High (via Barbelith), which is definitely one of the more amusing Blog raters to be found around these parts, in spite of (or perhaps because of) all the furor it's raising among the regulars. In other blog news, Matt's glbt weblog portal seems to be really taking off...a definite hit for Hit or Miss.

Has Harry done it? Has he figured out who's playing the most talked about role in sci-fi fandom? Is this man - Jeff Garner - the face of Anakin Skywalker? He does look like an older Jake Lloyd (although emphatically not like a younger James Earl Jones, or David Prowse for that matter), and he could be related to Mark Hamill. Can he act? Who knows? If he's really a kick-ass martial artist a la Ray Park I'm guess I'm all for it.

Today's Washington Post has an interesting virtual map of Adams-Morgan, arguably (14th and U notwithstanding) the city's most eclectic and fascinating bar/nightclub strip. I particularly like the 360 degree view of my old Saturday morning court.

I caught Scream 3 last night and it was about as entertaining as I had expected, although [Spoiler - Click to Reveal] I'm not sure why you cast Patrick Dempsey in a slasher flick if you're not going to off him in some horribly disgusting way. Look at Outbreak - A terrible "Hunt the Monkey!" movie (a subgenre closely associated with "Find the Disk!" films), but at least they got the Dempsey factor right - he was the first guy down Ebola Road. At any rate, I recommend it if you liked the first two Screams.

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2/4/00 - Ok, gang, I'm keeping it short today because (a) I really want to go play with my Sims and (b) I've had three hits in the past two days, and I'm almost positive that I was all three of them. Since I've already heard all this before, what's the sense in preaching to the choir?

Courtesy of Bifurcated Rivets, see the most recent Guitar Chord of the Minute.

Via EatonWeb, I now know that my home in Alexandria, VA will go out like Independence Day should anybody decide to drop a 1-megaton warhead on the Washington Monument.

From Riothero (who, I must admit with a twinge of jealousy, gets more good press from bloggers than John McCain does from the boys on the bus), we have the Tree Test. Apparently, I'm an apple tree (hey, back off Erykah), which means I'm of slight build, lots of charm, appeal, and attraction, pleasant aura, flirtatious, adventurous, sensitive,always in love, wants to love and be loved, faithful and tender partner,very generous, scientific talents, lives for today, a carefree philosopher with imagination.. Well, they got the slight build part right.

Knicks won a big one yesterday against the Blazers. Apparently Patrick can still turn it on when that perennial chump change Scottie Pippen is in the house. In other news, it's great to see the Worm return - the Lake Show would have won it all last year if they'd kept Dennis to board and upset Duncan/Robinson/Malone. Maybe he can put some fight in that other league-wide joke, Shawn Bradley.

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2/3/00 - Tonight on Fox - When SuperModels Attack!, followed by World's Most Disgusting Necklaces!

It's good to see my home state getting its act together and dropping Bush for McCain. 20 points down to 5 points up in a week is pretty impressive. If only Bradley had received a similar New Hampshire bounce (sigh). Oh well, there's still plenty of time for Al Gore to make more idiotic, self-serving claims that will aggravate the electorate.

According to Cinescape, the three main candidates for Peter Parker (a.k.a Spiderman) right now are Leonardo diCaprio, Freddie Prinze, Jr., and Jude Law (I know, I know - I usually link up to celebrity sites, but I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger and knowingly send people to a Freddie Prinze, Jr. fan site). Either Leo or Law would be ok choices, but neither of them scream "Peter Parker" at me. Also rumored to be in talks is Liam Neeson as Norman Osborne, The Green Goblin. I'm sure he could pull it off, but shouldn't the Goblin be younger and more wiry? And, for that matter, shouldn't Neeson be pulling Episode II duty as a disembodied spirit and/or evil Sith clone?

In an admission that I'm sure will get Rush Limbaugh babbling (via Memepool), President Clinton liked Fight Club! I thought it was easily one of the best five films of last year (and, with Malkovich and Three Kings, one of the most ground-breaking mainstream flicks), but I would never have expected any politician (except, perhaps, Mr. Nine Inch Nails, John McCain) to admit to enjoying it, what with the underlying anti-consumerist, pro-fisticuffs message and theme of male alienation. I guess being a lame duck does have some advantages after all.

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2/2/00 - So, New Hampshire's done and McCain's the big winner. I can definitely live with that. I desperately wish Bradley had eked it over Gore, but, as I note over on my Bradley page, the Senator seems to have still won the expectations game, which in terms of momentum is definitely more important than 22 delegates.

Talk about your bad weeks. First Gary Bauer tries a full gainer off the back of a stage, then he comes in sixth behind "OTHERS" in the New Hampshire primary, and now it turns out that dead people have been voting on his petitions. He may be Christian Coalition, but I sincerely doubt he's spiritual enough to pull a Lazarus.

With Bradley's narrow loss and the Orlando Magic's 98-77 blowout over New York yesterday, it's also been a bad stretch for the Knicks. Check out this nightmare from today's New York Times: Patrick Ewing for Juwan Howard? You HAVE to be kidding me. Meanwhile, Reggie Miller is averaging 19 points, 3 boards, 2.5 assists, and 1 steal. Latrell Sprewell is averaging 19 points, 4.5 boards, 4 assists, and 1 steal. Guess which one was made an All-Stern by the no-cornrows-please NBA?

I picked up two excellent CD's yesterday: The first would be the Soundtrack to HBO's megahit The Sopranos (of which I've only seen three episodes but like immensely), which includes gems by A3, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, and Nick Lowe. The second is a compilation entitled Old School Vs. New School, which updates hip-hop/alternafunk classics by The Stone Roses, A Tribe Called Quest, and Whodini with Y2K dance sensibilities (Fatboy Slim, Rabbit in the Moon, and Doc Martin all appear as remixers.) So far, thumbs up on both choices.

Looks like Michael Kamen will be scoring The X-Men - I loved his work on Brazil, in my humble opinion still one of the forgotten classics of the twentieth century. Also, in the films-we-really-don't-need department, it looks like the wheels have started turning on Jurassic Park 3.

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2/1/00 - 11:30pm EST - Gore edges Bradley 52%-48%. I've gone through the Kubler-Ross stages and am actually feeling pretty good about our showing, but I'll write about it tomorrow.

7pm EST - McCain decisively over Bush(!), Bradley-Gore still too close to call.

Via Memepool, this is the coolest site I've seen in some time, and Lord knows I'll need it after tonight's vote count. Do Not Zzz.

Well, how you like them apples? According to the Scoop Index, I'm in the top ten of the most derivative weblogs on the internet (based on links). I'd like to thank all the folks out there who've lent their time and energy...

New Hampshire votes today, and I'm feeling a mite nervous. The modern science of polling seems to be trying to tell me to go ahead and put it in the L column for Dollar Bill, but hope springs eternal. (If only Dixville Notch were more indicative of the entire state). A Bradley upset would be grand, if only to watch all the pundits who called the Democratic race ten days ago so they could lounge about the "Straight Talk Express" wipe the egg from their faces. As a public service, Jake Tapper at Salon has condensed all the pre-voting NH coverage into one handy, time-saving column.

The most recent Episode II rumor over at Ain't it Cool has Gabriel Byrne (Miller's Crossing) joining Dana Sculley as a Jedi Knight and Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) as a Sith of some kind (presumably one without a bullet in his head.) We'll see - With those cheekbones, I still think Byrne as a young Tarkin is better casting, but it's all conjecture at this point anyway. Meanwhile, somebody with some time on their hands and talent to spare has created this spiffy promo flyer for The X-Men flick. And, finally, E Online's Force of Hobbit has an exclusive interview with Frodo himself, Elijah Wood.

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1/31/00 - The Bradley Dance is the chance to do the hump... In other election news, Now This has encapsulated the Al Gore campaign strategy with the following fictional exchange:

Gore: My opponent's plan includes provisions for federal agents to break into your homes, steal your children and eat them. Also, they will kick your pets when you're not looking.
Bradley: The things you say are obviously not true, and you must be aware of that. Why are you lying?
Gore: I'm saddened by the personal nature of your negative attacks, Bill.

Touche! For more incisive Gore commentary, check out the old memos CBS News dug up from the 1988 campaign. Thanks, Drudge.

While the Superbowl did have a great second half (and a photo-finish for the ages), what was up with the ads? I was remarkably unimpressed. The only one I found marginally funny was the Etrade ads, particularly the one with the chimpanzee jumping up and down. Then again it's encoded somewhere in the genetic makeup of the Y-chromosome that men find monkeys hilarious. How else do you explain the Chimp Channel?

While I'm making strange TV confessions, I must admit that I also kinda dig the Teletubbies. When I'm working mornings, I sometimes throw it on in the background and find it incredibly soothing. EXCEPT for that Sun Baby thing...that just weirds me out.

I picked up my guitar on Saturday and, in the immortal words of RINGO (not George, as I had earlier posted -Thanks, Looka, for the heads up), "Ah've got blistuhs on me finguhs!" But I can strum a decent version of the Trogg's "Love is All Around" and the first eight bars of "Stairway to Heaven" and "Driver 8." It's a start.

Dammit, Nurse, this patient has three broken legs! Fetch me the super glue stat!

My favorite place from which to jack sites, Memepool, has unearthed the Old Testament Text Adventure. Here's a hint: diminishing the Gentile population always seems to result in a loss of boils. Also, PeterMe has found Yeti@Home, a site almost but not quite exactly like SETI@Home.

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