4/5/02 - Have sent the nine to fetch ring back. If nine succeeds in sorting their elbows from asshats, that is. The very secret diary of Sauron, via Windowseat.

It's official. The Knicks have missed the playoffs for the first time since 1987. Bleah.

Despite a deeply dubious defense, Peter Buck gets off.

Say what you will about Bob Barr (R-GA) - when it comes to civil liberties, strangely enough, he's on the side of the angels.

Did I mention that Farscape returns tonight? (Booyah.)

4/4/02 - In an abrupt shift from last week's policy, Dubya sends Powell to the Middle East. Oh, that'll solve everything.

Somehow, surprisingly, the idea of slave reparations has gone mainstream. While I'm all for the nation doing a better job of facing up to our Original Sin (Why, for example, do we have a museum on the Mall dedicated to the Holocaust, which happened in Europe, and none dedicated to slavery, which happened here?), I don't think this type of compensation makes much sense.

Asteroid on collision course with Earth...in 878 years. I just hope somebody reminds us after 850 or so years have gone by.

In related news, five planets soon to line up, although it doesn't strictly count as a syzygy.

Ah, syzygy. A Scrabble word if ever there was one (although you'll have to use a blank for the third Y.) It brings back fond memories of cyborg sorcerer Syzygy Darklock in the comic Dreadstar, by Jim Starlin (all covers available here.) The only comic book I ever wrote a letter to. (It wasn't published - I thought I knew who the traitor of issues #18-27 was...I was wrong.) Definitely a classic that deserves reprinting, even if fell apart completely after issue #30. Update: Upon further research, I've discovered that at least the first twelve issues have been reprinted...in glorious black and white. What's the point of a re-issue if you're going to be so lame about it?

By the way, while looking up Dreadstar on Google for an appropriate link, I found this very interesting site: Nukepop. "When the first nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, popular culture was quick to respond."

What would Costanza think? Jerry Seinfeld's tearing up of W. 83rd St. has New York residents up in arms.

Apparently, Bush likes The Osbournes.

Dahlia Lithwick handicaps McCain-Feingold's chances before the Court.

Scientists see the future of agriculture in the genome map of rice.

Surprise, surprise. Dubya's executive order on creating an interagency task force on energy was basically written by the gas companies.

The (formerly Boston) Sportsguy ranks NBA players by trade value. Hint: The #1 player was in Kazaam.

An ex-DC roommate of mine, now a speechwriter for Daschle, seems to be having a spot of trouble with his sister.

With Episode II just around the corner, one site gets a ton of pics, while another decides to [Big-time, ultra-mega Spoilers] give away the ending.

4/3/02 - Jonathan Alter checks in with Clinton.

Are Americans too litigious? Judicial Watch's Larry Klayman thinks so. Which, as Tim Noah aptly points out, is equivalent to "a Weight Watchers commercial starring Marlon Brando or a temperance lecture given by Hunter S. Thompson."

An appeals court attacks the FCC's media ownership limits (again). Oh, hell, let's just give half the stations to Murdoch, the other half to AOL-TW, and be done with it.

Apparently, Terry Gilliam didn't like Tomb Raider. Bully for him.

Fellow webloggers, how how hit-obsessed are you? (As for me, I'm "TYPE U (HIT-UNDECIDED). You have a healthy number of readers that you'd like to maintain but you don't think you can keep them happy all the time. It bothers you when your weblog gets less hits than usual. You know there are things you can do to increase hits to your weblog but you just don't think you're desperate enough to actually try it.") By way of LinkMachineGo.

Stick a fork in him - Jordan's done.

Get your Maxim hockey name. (I'm Bob McMurphydyk.) Via Pop Culture Junk Mail.

Farscape, the best science fiction show on TV right now, returns on Friday (9pm/12am EST.)

Also on the Sci-Fi channel, Susan Sarandon has taken the role of Princess Wencisia in the Children of Dune mini-series. And, among other projects, Sci-Fi'll be doing a version of Joe Haldeman's classic The Forever War, which is basically a leftier and more Catch-22ish version of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. A good read.

I've updated the Two Towers trailer link below to a new site with a few mirrors, since the first one seems to be down. In related news, I think I'm developing a bit of a crush on Miranda "Eowyn" Otto.

4/2/02 - In case you're anything like me and can't wait for a better copy, a truly awful Kramervision version of the Two Towers footage is online, and despite being of horrible quality it's still a thing of sheer beauty. I particularly love the sequence from SPOILERS [Highlight to Reveal] Gandalf the White (0:48) to upset Eowyn (1:07)...nine months and I already can't wait.

Hope everyone had a happy April Fool's Day. I probably should have reposted Toast in the Machine, but I didn't.

3/30/02 - Ok, the Middle East situation is now officially off the hook. I still can't believe Ari Fleischer had the nerve to call this chaos Clinton's fault. I don't remember the situation hitting the fan under his watch.

Speaking of which, your tax dollars at work. Apparently, the Clinton investigations cost $70 million...I wonder what we could come up with if we spent that much on Enron, for starters.

Ok, campaign finance reform passed. Now what?

In related news, doing that contrarian-for-its-own-sake bit they do so well, Slate defends Mitch McConnell.

R.I.P. Queen Elizabeth 1900-2002...she has diminished, and gone into the West. 'Tis a shame. I find this much more depressing than the passing of Princess Di, even if you can make a solid case that it was definitely the Queen Mum's time to go. (I mean, it's been Strom's time to go for twenty-five years now.) She will be missed.

And, with Dudley Moore, Billy Wilder, and Milton Berle (not to mention Lyle Lovett's run-in with a bull), it's been a bad week for celebrities all around.

Bad news for your dentist - The vaccine for cavities is almost ready for human trials.

Doris Kearns Goodwin's publicity fight for her reputation is irking some historians.

Also in the reputation-rehab dept., Michael Stipe and Bono stand up for Peter Buck in the guitarist's air rage trial.

Clone bunnies. They just keep going, and going, and going...

David Greenberg looks at the cult of TR.

You didn't hear it from me, but the Episode II soundtrack is now readily available on Kazaa. Standout tracks seem to be "Across the Stars (Love Theme)" and "Confrontation with Count Dooku and Finale."

Todd Gitlin on "national attention deficit disorder."

The Final Four is fun and all, but, lest we forget, the NBA is better (pt. 2.)

The trailer for Minority Report is now online.

With only two months to go until the big show, SI offers World Cup power rankings.

Saw Fellowship in the theater one last time Friday night...Two Towers footage looks as good as the first.

3/23/02 - The next step in the campaign finance fight, and where the Justices stand.

March Madness hits Afghanistan, and it gets ugly quickly.

In a textbook definition of blowback, we find US-promoted anti-Soviet Afghan textbooks coming back to haunt us.

Mars on Ten Dollars a Day. Ok, maybe slightly more. And it's Utah, not Mars...same difference.

3/21/02 - Doh...Duke just lost. There went my bracket. Ah well, perhaps next year.

More Nixon tapes are released, and you wonder why Dubya's trying to bury the Reagan papers. Nixon on History: "You know what happened to the Greeks. Homosexuality destroyed them...Do you know what happened to the Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags...You know what happened to the popes? It's all right that popes were laying the nuns." Nixon on drugs: "You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them?" Paging General Jack D. Ripper...Yes, he had his finger on the button.

You must be joking. Ken Starr, whose Whitewater boondoggle finally died yesterday, is rolled out of mothballs to fight campaign finance reform in the courts. I guess McConnell is conceding the PR battle.

In other reform bill news, as Bush declares he'll sign the dotted line, McCain ponders what's next.

More news on the Amadeus re-release.

3/20/02 - Easy Riders: On the Road in American Culture.

Great news...Dark Horizons reports that Amadeus, easily in my all-time top five, will be re-released this year with 20 minutes of new footage. Hopefully they didn't feel the need to give Tom Hulce CGI fingers or anything.

The beard is gone...can Gore be far behind?

Republicans concede on McCain-Feingold, and, barring a last-minute upset, it looks like Congress has passed comprehensive campaign finance reform for the first time since 1974. (What it means.)

Peter Buck's air-rage trial seems to be going quite badly...fortunately for him this all happened before 9-11.

Ridiculous. The Fourth amendment goes out the window as the Supreme Court prepares to back drug testing for all high school students involved in ANY extracurricular activities. As Dahlia Lithwick notes, "Maybe in the Scalia household they make you pee into a cup just for being alive. At my house, you had to total the car first."

TheOneRing.Net posts Two Tower pics of Eowyn and Grima Wormtongue.

Will an attack on Iraq help the GOP?

Journalist/historian Todd Gitlin on journalist/bombthrower David Brock.

If I got to choose a coast, I got to choose the East - I live out there, so don't go there...that being said, I had a grand ole time in Cali at the Dish re-u, which mostly consisted of touring the Oakland environs, watching basketball, and playing basketball. The rest of the week will be spent in Albany, NY doing research...I suspect it won't be as fun.

Speaking of basketball, I've lost 3 of my Elite Eight (and 1 other of my sweet 16, since I falsely assumed Penn would finally represent for the Ivies this year), but my Final Four - Duke, Kansas, Oklahoma, Maryland - remain intact. It's not much fun to pick the high seeds, but I've been burned too many times in the past for hoping beyond hope.

3/11/02 - Come here often? The Social Issues Research Centre's guide to flirting, by way of Absolute Piffle.

While it's not the best write-up for ABT in today's Post, they did have this nice picture of Gil.

I know it's considered bad form to blog the Onion, but this piece made me laugh out loud, for obvious reasons:

3/10/02 - Oooh...it's that time of year again. The Madness has come upon me...

Go back to the Shadow! Because somebody demanded it, Lord of the Rings in Legovision.

Enron, Schmenron. Unfortunately, the financial scandal isn't sticking as a political issue this campaign season.

Blade 3...Spartacus with vampires?

Doh. Six months after 9-11, the US preps for the next stage of the war, while trying to minimize diplomatic fallout from our new nuke policy. While I'm all usually for public knowledge, this really seems like the type of thing that should've remained secret.

David Fincher on MI:3? He's one of the few directors who can persuade me to pay money for another Mission: Impossible after John Woo's disaster.

Dems plan a filibuster to save Alaska from drilling.

A remake of Manchurian Candidate in the works? Ok, that's really not necessary.

The Atlantic reflects on TR.

Good news for Harold Ford in Tennessee...Fred Thompson will step down.

New Episode II trailer, 9pm EST on Fox (and online. Update: Wow...it looks bloody awful. Bad dialogue, bad acting, bad CGI. Oh well.)

And, for fans of that other space franchise, images from Star Trek: Nemesis (an even-numbered Trek) are now up.