5/6/01 - The boy king gets his first T-ball game. So lame on so many levels.

The Jurassic Park 3 trailer hits the web. Ho-hum. A bit more interesting is this new look at Final Fantasy, if only for the amazing CGI.

Space Tourist Dennis Tito returns from Space, and, man, check out how happy he looks. Power to him. I'd love to follow in his footsteps someday.

Hollywood dodges a bullet by averting the pending Writer's Strike. So much for that Weakest Link Marathon...

Knicks falsify (again), getting kicked out of the first round for the first time in a decade. Given the way this year's shaken out so far, I really could have used another month of Knickerbocker playoff games. Oh well, there's always next season.

Ring of Dark Water: A killer otter takes down a dog and bites its would-be savior. No Slinky for you.

5/1/01 - "Well, dang, Dick...I haven't seen this kind of lousy turnout since that Secret Society kegger we tried to throw sophomore year..."

The official Star Wars site offers another Making of Episode 2 video, with Obi-Wan McGregor piloting his own ship and George Lucas putting the hurt on the stunt coordinator.

Rolling Stone publishes an excerpt of a piece on the tender madness of Dylanology. The full article appeared in the magazine a month or so ago - it was quite a good read.

Playoff madness continues. Evidently, I don't know anything about basketball, because the Hornets made my playoffs predictions look stupid. Meanwhile, as the Knicks right the ship in Game 3 and Marcus Camby plans his return to the lineup, let us stop for a moment to sing the praises of Jeff Van Gundy.

More great stills from Fellowship popping up lately. Here's Ian Holm as Bilbo, presumably delivering his farewell birthday speech.

Still busy, busy, busy over here. Both the speeches I mentioned last entry are in revision mode, and on the kind recommendation of my former employer M. Carville, I may be picking up another researching-writing gig to work on a book. More on that if I take the post...I'm not sure if I want to use up the rest of my free time on another project, but I'm going to need every penny I can find the next few years at Columbia. We'll see.

4/27/01 - My friend Tim Cullen sent this in to me last week, and I neglected to mention it here, a fact I'm pretty ashamed about. But the living wage sit-in at Harvard University continues, and it still seems to be doing quite well. Power to 'em. If you can put a gilded candlestick in front of every window on campus, you can pay your workers a satisfactory wage.

What do you do when there's an impending strike? Well, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, David Fincher, and a handful of other acclaimed directors are composing car chases for BMW's website (Via Lotta.) Interesting...

Kinda wish I'd been blogging more often lately, because this Bob Kerrey down Memory Lane situation is fascinating stuff. The latest development: While veterans rally around him, Kerrey disses the medal the Army wants to take back. Is he clearing the air early for a Presidential bid in 2004?

Speak, friend, and enter. The Fellowship arrives at the Gates of Moria. Sounds like bad news for Bill the pony.

David Greenberg examines W.E.B. DuBois. I know I keep saying it, but his occasional column is just the best thing on Slate.

Have I mentioned lately that Dubya is an absolute moron? Better have Condi and Colin help you bone up on your China-Taiwan diplomacy there, bud.

Speaking of Colin Powell, did you know that the current drug morass in Colombia has nothing to do with hardline US Drug Warriors funding all kinds of nefarious influences down there and everything to do with Robert Downey, Jr.? Oh, well, that explains it.

Disrespecting the Bing...a catch-phrase is born. (Better than "You are the Weakest Link," at any rate.)

The Torch at Defcon 2. Oh, good riddance. How shady can you get? Remember when we used to have quality Senators from Jersey?

Disappeared into the void again. Two big speeches due this weekend - one a stump speech that has to be better than usual to be reused, the other a commencement speech that has to be better than usual to be memorable. So, I've been busy on those, and not here. April has not been kind to the Ghost, has it? Perhaps it's a residual falling-off from last April, when I smashed my nose into its current form. Ah, well.

4/24/01 - The Supreme Court allows handcuffs for even minor violations. Does stealing an election count?

Doh. REM guitarist Peter Buck goes drunken bonkers on a plane and faces 5 counts of air rage. Will we be seeing a repeat of the star-crossed Monster (4 band members, 3 surgeries) tour?

Oh, my goodness. I am completely trapped in a NBA playoff timesink...it's a beautiful thing. Hate to enjoy anyone else's misery, but the 2-0 homecourt beating given to the Heat by the surprising Hornets is quite something. Now if Indiana can also do a job on Philly, New York actually might come out of the East. Of course, the Raps are still problem #1. And, what with the Camby hostage situation (thank goodness, it ended well) and the Ward religious fallout, there's quite a number of distractions out there.

More Lord of the Rings orcs pics to be had here.

Chyna as Wonder Woman? No, no, no, that won't do at all.

A very happy birthday to Tessa, who turned 14 yesterday.

Gooding, Cuba Gooding (at least according to Roger Moore.)

4/21/01 - Just in time for a weekend of basketball fun, I've posted my NBA playoff predictions. Wishful Thinking, Thy Name is a New York Championship.

4/20/01 - Russia wants to a man on Mars by 2020. God bless 'em, at least somebody's thinking big. I'm all for another Space Race.

More spiritual trouble for the Knickerbockers. A week after Coach Jeff Van Gundy got in hot water for admitting he had little tolerance for overly religious people (Hey, I've got his back.), Allan Houston and Charlie Ward are lambasted by the ADL for possibly Anti-Semitic remarks. I dunno about this one. For one, these guys were in a Bible study class, not in front of a microphone - their views may be wrongheaded, but they seem to be basing them on the Scripture, not malformed stereotypes. And if you can't ask challenging questions about religious texts in a freakin' Bible study class, then where can you? My main concern is, when you've got a tried-and-true Raptor squad gunning for you, is now the time to be systematically pissing off the world's religions?

The Entertainment Weekly summer preview, a Spring tradition, shows up online with Apes on the cover. Hopefully, Summer 2001 will weigh in better than last summer's garbage. Now, 2002...Episode 2, Matrix 2, Spiderman...that's where the money is.

Dubya leans toward a hawkish Drug Czar, diminishing hopes that he might pull a Nixon-in-China on the issue.

Sigh...Michael Powell at work. The days of an activist FCC already seem far in the past.

Shades of Cincinnati: the NYPD targets rappers. I mean, you didn't think they were going to go after white Wall Street cokeheads, did you?

4/18/01 - The NBA playoffs are set, with Knicks hosting Vinsanity and the Toronto Raptors in the first round for the second year in a row. Playoff predictions to be posted sometime before Saturday.

Amazing pictures of Saruman of Many Colors (Christopher Lee) up to no good are available at TheOneRing.Net today, including this great one here at right. Another nice one among the stash is of Lurtz the Uruk-Hai coming to life for one foul purpose...to take down some hobbits. Very tantalizing stuff...is it December yet?

For a more kindly wizard, new Potter pics are posted at the Cauldron, including this one of Richard Harris as Dumbledore.

Bad news for the Torch. No wonder he had concerns about McCain-Feingold. So shady.

In related news, TNR thinks McCain-Feingold might bog down in the House.

Gipperophilia hits the DC Metro, with Rep. Bob Barr threatening to withhold transit funding unless the Metro changes National Airport signs to honor the deficit-busting, arms-selling Prez of yore. He who controls the past controls the future...

And, speaking of canonizing mediocre pols, Franklin Foer tries to rehabilitate Gore. As I've said before, Frank is a friend of mine, but frankly I couldn't agree with him less.

Orrin Hatch, music aficionado.

4/17/01 - Reader jtmcc sends in information on July 3, Ghost in the Machine Day, dedicated to Luddites everywhere.

Dave Sim writes another long, bizarre and embarrassing tirade against feminism in the most recent Cerebus. (Via Link MachineGo.)

The NBA playoffs, my favorite sporting event of the year (and one which spawns all kinds of strange pieces at ESPN like Being Jeff Van Gundy), begins this weekend, which means at some point I'll get around to putting together another playoff page. Doesn't look too good for the Knicks this year, though. I'll be happy if they escape the first round. Well, I suppose that's not true...I'm sure I'll be displeased if they don't go all the way. I do feel bad that Patrick didn't make the playoffs in Seattle, though.

Speaking of the Knicks, Latrell Sprewell, once one of the most reviled men in sports (at least in sportswriters' eyes), gets the love from ESPN Magazine. And even PJ gets in on the act. I'm with Willie Brown on this one...PJ still looks to me like a guy who probably had a choke coming. Watching him on the current NBC halftime show (which, by the way, has zero chemistry - none, zip, nada - O Hannah, Where Art Thou?), you can almost see the cartoon lines of reeking bad breath emanating from his mouth.

So Berkeley seems to have discovered the art of howling, and now he won't stop doing it. What at first was kinda cute in an American Werewolf in London sort of way is now getting really tiresome.

Corona publishes this pic of Will Smith as Muhammad Ali in the forthcoming Michael Mann film. Hmmm...he looked better in the ring. The fellow to his right is Mario Van Peebles portraying Malcolm X.

Madonna hits the road. Not exactly Bob Dylan, but I'm sure she could probably make for a fun summer evening.

Tourists, schmourists. Scientists at the Smithsonian fight for research funding.

Following Georgia's lead, Mississippi votes on whether to change the Confederate emblem on their state flag. If the measure passes (which, alas, it probably won't), the Stars and Bars would no longer be featured on any state banner (although in any case it will still deface the street in front of the South Carolina State House.)

Ah...well, that was a nice break. I think 8 days is the most I've taken off since I started this puppy back in '99. Sorry about that, y'all. Between my folks in the area to see Gil's most-recent run at the K-center (I liked the Taylor piece much more than did this reviewer, and Listen Missy seemed to like Gisele), the warm weather and long weekend, and my current attempt to give myself a repetitive stress injury in my wrists from constant playing of SSX, the PS2's killer app, I've been neglecting the blog. The Ghost isn't fading away quite yet - just took a much-needed respite for a bit. Good to be back.

4/9/01 - Dubya fills out the FCC. I can't speak to these choices, so I'm curious to see what kind of reaction they get from the monitored industries.

The Boston Globe's not too happy with the Alcatel commercial featuring Dr. King. My feeling is, if you're going to do it, do it right. The CGI work as the camera pans around the podium is awful.

Man bites dog. With Clinton out of the picture, Judicial Watch head Larry Klayman turns on House Exterminator Tom DeLay. Can't say I saw that coming.

In a first for any professional sport here, NBA.com will broadcast the Kings-Mavs game over the Internet on Friday. Not coincidentally, Sacramento and Dallas have more international stars between them than any other two squads, including Vlade Divac, Dirk Nowitzki, Predrag Stojakovic, Eduardo Najera, Hidayet Turkoglu, Obinna Ekezie, and the recently signed Wang Zhizhi, the first China-born player in NBA history. Hope it draws a crowd.

The Green Goblin, up close. Nope, still don't like it. Ah, well...Spidey looks good, and that's what important.

Jada Pinkett discusses the Matrix sequels. Val Kilmer in the Morpheus role? Sorry, as deft as the Wachowskis are, I don't think they ever could have overcome the mediocrity of both Val and Keanu.

Sorry, y'all. With the onset of warm weather and the necessity of spring cleaning, I've been neglecting the blog of late. Must climb on...

4/5/01 - Add eleven more planets to the tally, with one smack-dab in the "life zone." Prep the colony ship.

Have you seen this girl? (Sent to me by Lotta.)

Two become one - Scientists discover the celestial origins of gold and platinum.

The Senate puts the skids on Dubya's tax plan 53-47. Notwithstanding Cheney's tie-breaking Bush budget vote the other day, the Senate seems to have been gripped by an outbreak of common sense.

Somebody watch the traffic on Ebay - four Spiderman costumes are stolen from the film set - there's a 25,000 reward.

Scapegoats R US: Attorney General John Ashcroft rails against video games for the third time in a fortnight.

Governor Body comes out for medicinal marijuana, returning to a position he tactically retreated from upon his election in 1998.

Experienced a strange cultural disconnect last night. The late movie on TNT (after the Portland-Minnesota game and some other film I flipped over) was a classic, Superfly - which was worth staying up just to hear Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman" alone. But, for some reason, all the commercial time had been bought out by Christian-themed products, from the sermons of Billy Graham to your favorite gospel hymns, etc. etc. Kind of edgy fare for someone who's going to throw down $29.99 a month for some commemorative New Testament plates, isn't it?

4/4/01 - The Post Office considers giving up on Saturday delivery. But how will I get my reams of Pizza Hut coupons?

Bush wins again. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. All I know is any news that encourages Gore not to reup in '04 is good news in my book.

Back to work: McCain and Feingold prep for Round 2 in the House.

The new Tomb Raider trailer for your perusal. Looks lame in that summer movie excess kinda way...I'm think I'm going to feel dirty throwing down matinee money on this one.

Strike Three. David Plotz calls out Dubya's lame baseball initiative.

Dark energy permeates the universe...well, that explains a few things.

Speaking of Dark Energy, the gang at TheForce.Net have put together a scriptment of Episode II, with all the lines and scenes known about in order. This thing is spoileriffic, folks, but definitely worth a read if you don't mind knowing what's going down in the next chapter.

Sorry there was no update yesterday. Had a speech to write and a press release to compose and release. And I sent in my taxes. Not to mention my acceptance papers to Columbia and my thanks-for-the-offer e-mails to UVa. So New York City in the fall it is...I had best start reestablishing my urban game face.

4/2/01 - YES! Not the end, the beginning.

Not Enough of Me is now Do You Feel Loved? Well, do you?

The Cult of Greenspan springs a leak. The problem with playing the Wizened Oracle during boom times is that you'll be the first target for the angry torchbearing townspeople when stocks take a dive.

Speaking of the bear market, the LA Times examines how the recent downturn affects the looming strike in Hollywood.

Daylight savings time...booyah. More sunlight means more after-work pick-up basketball. Everybody likes that.

It ain't over yet. Foes of McCain-Feingold look for new ways to kill the bill, from attacking it in court to subverting it in committee. Speaking of which, Republicans are considering freezing McCain out of the committe review, but fortunately Daschle has his back.

Of course, even if McCain-Feingold passes, there'll still be hard-money PACS to contend with.

Bono hypes the new REM album.

Harry scores some decent pics of Matrix 2 shooting, including images of a baddie with more than a passing resemblance to Christopher Lambert in Mortal Kombat.

Started playing Black and White this weekend. All in all, it's quite fun. Although I must say I was a bit disheartened to discover much of the game involves training my Avatar creature through positive and negative reinforcement. Hello? I already have to do that every day with Berkeley. Do I really want to spend my free time neglecting my real pet in order to train my digital one?

By the way, if you're looking to see a good movie, I must give big ups to Memento, starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. A very clever film, and the less you know about going in, it like you'll think I more the.

Toast in the Machine has been archived here. Hope everyone had a grand April Fool's Day.