We all are, after all, working for the weekend.

"Fuck the police, coming straight out of the under-ground."

Chinese execution vans, and a podcast of Patti Hearst's recorded SLA rants.

Saw "Revenge of the Sith". It was good. I saw it on Saturday, rather than standing in line or whatever. I watched it the same way I've watched the last two movies; enjoying the hell out of certain parts, alternating with being embarrassed by how bad the dialogue gets sometimes. The one part of the movie that was important; the duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin, I was there. It worked, and thank fuck, George Lucas. I felt Obiwan's anger and betrayal, and I felt Anakin's impotent rage. That scene worked incredibly well, and that was all I really cared about. Good movie.

Awesome. I've had a MeFi post deleted. What a gang of assholes that place is.

"Thank you for your continued interest in our planet. We have launched two thermo-nuclear missles at your current location. Please note that your death may be recorded for training purposes. Thank you and have a nice day."

Saw the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie this evening with Corey and Tim. Tim and I are the target audience for the movie (having read all of the books multiple times since we were about 11 years old) but Corey has never read any of them. Despite my fears, all three of us liked it - I had no problems with the divergences from the book, and Corey liked the movie just as a movie.

I was really worried in one place and one place only - the first couple of scenes after Arthur and Ford were picked up on the Heart of Gold. It just wasn't working for me for probably about ten minutes of the movie there, but I think it was because the beginning had been so totally faithful to the book/radio show/TV series that when it became apparent to me that the movie was going in a different direction, it was just... jarring. It's like when you jump out of a moving car going 100 MPH onto a completely different car still going 100 MPH and in the same direction. You're still heading in the same direction at the same speed, but even the most stallwart passenger is going to be a little shaken. Nevertheless, as I said it was only for a few minutes - after the first bits on the Heart of Gold, the movie (and I) settled in, and I ended up loving it. I loved the new Humma Kavula stuff - which apparently was all Douglas Adams' idea - I thought Magrathea was incredible (the 'factory floor' of Magrathea and the ride with Slartibartfast was almost cribbed from my imagination) and even the more emphasized love story worked for me. Really, the attention to detail overall was what made the movie for me - I'll have to see it again if I want to list all the little things I noticed. The unfortunate jewel-encrusted crabs were when I knew I liked it. Seeing Jason Schwartzman as Gag Halfrunt didn't hurt much either, random as it was.

Didn't expect to rave about the movie - as somebody on a forum I frequent said after someone who'd seen an advance screen said simply that it was OK posted "It being OK more than I was expecting - this is good!". I'll stop writing about it, simply because when I'm really happy with a movie and blog about it, I start sounding sounding all AICN. Suffice it to say, if you're a fan of the books/radio show/TV series - go see it. It's a lot better than you're expecting.

I don't know if I ever blogged this - I wrote an "ask the movie guy" letter to Roger Ebert, and he posted it. I'm linking to the google cache of the page; it's down for some reason. I was thrilled, I'm a big fan of the Ebert. Here's the link.

This one comes direct from the WTF?! Department:

As a member of the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, and as a session guitarist for Carly Simon, Bryan Adams, Ringo Starr and many others, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter has been a clandestine rock and roll hero since the '70s. Now, as a specialist interrorism, missile defense and chemical and biological warfare, he's also a covert hero for the U.S. military...