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Saturday, April 29, 2000
11:47 PM
How cool is it that Bill is in New York right now?
Very cool.
{posted by Ned}
Friday, April 28, 2000
1:21 PM
- Homer, work called and said to tell you that if you don't come in on Friday, don't bother coming in on Monday.
- Whoo-hoo! Four-Day weekend!
Okay, here's Ned's to-do list for the coming weekend:
- Finish "Riding the Rap"
- Start "Cosmic Trigger III"
- Re-design DrunkenFish page
- Re-design TanqueLogue
- Re-design Tanque.org home page
- Re-design Jim's page with Jim
- Create NBA live pages with shots of each player
- Eat, drink and be merry!
(Not necessarily in that order.)
{posted by Ned}
7:14 AM
Just had to put this one up, back before the Hoosiers lost Mr. Three to the Cards:
{posted by Ned}
Thursday, April 27, 2000
2:52 PM
Whenever the crew of the Starship Enterprise must resort to the use of force, it is considered a
diplomatic failure. Likewise, whenever I find myself using profanity, I consider it (for the most part) to be a
linquistic failure. Yesterday's post was a failure. What can I say? I was frustrated and angry, and
sometimes the use of profanity just seems unavoidable. But I still feel lame afterwards.
Maybe I need to vent more. Or maybe I need to vent less.
Or maybe I just shouldn't listen to the radio on the way home from work. Too much stupidity and
hatred brings me down eventually. Which is part of why I've been hesitant to rant more about this whole
Elian mess. GRRRR, it makes me so furious to think about. (on a lighter note, this used to be a funny Elian version of Wazzup, but
apparently it's already been removed. It may still be here).
In any event, I'm sure I'm the only one who really cares about such things, so this is really just for my
benefit. Today's post will be 100% clean teen.
via PotatoMan, here's a link to pictures from Tin Foil Hat's latest show.
via Sean, here's this page
run through the T'inator. Such fun!
{posted by Ned}
7:06 AM
As I think this image makes clear, Jimmy's the real punk when it comes to one-one-one in the street:
{posted by Ned}
Wednesday, April 26, 2000
11:03 PM
In an unrelated matter, I'm a little disappointed that Liz doesn't count me as one of her butch friends, but I guess that's my feminine side showing through.
{posted by Ned}
10:48 PM
Boy Scouts of America - What the Hell?!?
Okay, I was a boy scout, and for the most part it was a hoot. I mean, we went swimming, we went camping, we learned some things. What I don't remember is learning that homosexuals are sub-humans.
I guess my troop missed that point.
Turns out the BSA is right up there with the KKK when it comes to tolerance. If you teach kids that homosexuals and people who don't believe in god don't have the same rights as "normal" people, doesn't it stand to reason that they'll end up as homophobes?
I had planned to write a letter to the pig-shits who run the national charter of the BSA, but it turns out their website is totally devoid of any names, addresses, emails or any contact info. Just who is the BSA? Apparently they're afraid to make themselves known, but somehow this shadow organization of rat-bastards can fund taking a court case all the way to the supreme court; is that my tax dollars at work?
Well, it looks like making my opinion heard will take a little more investigation. Here's a few sites I found from Google:
That's all for now, but that's plenty.
{posted by Ned}
9:50 AM
Take time to stop and smell the corpses
{posted by Ned}
Tuesday, April 25, 2000
10:51 PM
Blogger is cool, unless it's unavailable, as it is so often of late, in which case it sucks.
{posted by Ned}
12:34 AM
Jim, try hitting 2 returns for every page break.
See, it's cool to make obscure comments on your weblogue, no matter what others may say.
Tanque3 longs for second monitor
What I didn't mention about my Saturday night (when I was watching "The Haunted") was that before that flick I was trying to download the latest Brittany Spears video. No luck. The big money players are all trying to distribute their stuff in stream-only format, so you can't just download it and play it from your hard-drive. When they tried that with the Lord of the Rings trailer, the multitudes flocked to Slashdot to give alternate download addresses and techniques for beating the system, but I can't expect such cyber-help when it comes to bubble-gum pop.
Next came my attempts to add a second monitor to Tanque3. Tanque2 has been powered down for weeks now, but it's 17" monitor has sat next to Tanque3's monitor this whole time, just asking to be used. Well, the PCI video cards I have laying around are too old, and both T2 and T3 use AGP, of which there is but one slot available in T3, so I guess my dreams of multi-monitor action will have to be deferred. And you know what happens to a dream deferred.
I think I'm getting tired of this page design again. Maybe May will see another re-design.
And maybe I'll get off my duff and fix the problems with DrunkenFish. Ben's been quite patient, but I know it's only a matter of time before he orders some bargain basement hitman to put me down for not making the changes he's asked for. You heard it here first.
Easter, Spring, rebirth, the coming of Summer. It's all good.
Don't you wish I had something meaningful to put here?
{posted by Ned}
Monday, April 24, 2000
4:41 PM
Went over to Phil's yesterday and played the drums for the first time in I don't know how long. I don't hang out with Phil very often these days, so it was good to spend some time over at his place. I'll tell ya, there are muscles in my hands that don't get used for anything but slamming drumsticks into things, and those muscles were screaming.
Beyond that, I had that experience I always seem to have when it's been a while since I've played. My chops are lame, I don't have much energy, and I don't feel much motivation to try very hard. Sometimes I can just play through it and have some fun anyways, sometimes not. This time was a case of the former.
In fact, we had two pretty cool jams, which of course went unrecorded (we joked thusly: "Always record, always record!")
Anyways, Jim and ScottE have been itching to jam a little, so maybe I should be looking into fixing up the ole kit. If money was no object, I'd just trash what I have now and get a brand new one, but until that lotto ticket comes through, I'll have to start pricing pedals (at the very least). The thing is, I don't really feel any urge to play anymore. Yes, it's fun every now and then, but I rarely if ever feel like I miss it at all. Maybe this is just a side-effect of the dulling process....
{posted by Ned}
Sunday, April 23, 2000
5:28 AM
Well, it's official: Scott and Justine's house is really nice.
I keep wanting to type some more on the whole Elian mess, but I just can't get the motivation. I don't have the energy to work through my lack of empathy for the far-right Cuban-Americans who wanted to keep that kid hostage. I just don't understand how they could feel that they have the right to keep a boy away from his father.
But that's not what I'm worried about right now. Right now I'm watching "The Haunting", a truly bad horror flick. I should go to bed.
{posted by Ned}
2:28 AM
Okay, I'm not saying I'm an Eatonweb junky. I'm just saying I notice when it's not available. Right now it's a blank page.
{posted by Ned}
Saturday, April 22, 2000
10:58 AM
Elian's rescued; now arrest his brain-washing captors in Miami
This whole business has been depressing and frustrating.
{posted by Ned}
Thursday, April 20, 2000
2:19 PM
Hey, look who's web-logging now: it's Bill!
{posted by Ned}
12:47 PM
You can always tell when Huffman's updating his page, cause it says "under construction". :)
{posted by Ned}
1:18 AM
Jim wants pros and cons re: Bloomington v. Portland. I'd say I prefer Bloomington, cause all my stuff is already here. Course, not having any of my stuff in Porland sounds strangely attractive as well.... Which is a better cat-town?
{posted by Ned}
12:49 AM
Three Kings.
I can almost hear Randy from Scream explaining it to the kids: There are rules to this kind of movie, and they almost always must be followed. In this case the genre is American war movies; I just finished watching Three Kings.
Now, I expected to like this flick, since Klawans had favorably reviewed it in The Nation when it first opened (though the review's not online so far as I know), and like it I did. I enjoyed it and was upset at the same time, as often happens with good cinema.
See, there are rules. This time Randy (Jamie Kennedy) is a dune-buggy driver, without too much in the way of insight except that he's there to listen to the frustrated female war correspondent who's been looking for a story through this whole darn media-war. The media-war is, of course, the Gulf War, and it's about over as the movie's story begins. America's official involvement in the conflict is over, and the Iraqi forces are surrendering in droves.
Marky Mark stars, playing pretty much the same guy he played in Boogie Nights, except he's in the military instead of the porn industry. Ice Cube is pretty much the guy he played in Boys in the Hood, with some military experience behind him and a belief in God. George Clooney is exactly the same character he always plays, as if that doctor from ER went nuts and shot up a bunch of people before killing all those vampires and dressing up as Batman, only to find himself in special forces in the Gulf. You know what I mean.
Which is okay for this movie. The plot has these three (and a hapless hanger-on) figuring out that they can scam gold bootie now that Sadam's forces are kaput. That much you could glean from the ads.
What happens, though, is that they figure out that the gold is theirs so long as they don't give a rat's tail about the Kurds who are now getting kicked around in the post-war "rebellion". Clooney's happy to point out that Bush encouraged the Kurds to rise up and take on Saddam, but the US pulled another Bay of Pigs and let them twist.
You see, there are rules. You kick the third world back into place if they start to act like they have control over their natural resources, but once that's been contained, you don't bother with human rights. Dictatorships that poison and torture their own people are fine so long as the oil's flowing.
However, up close that policy is harder to take, especially when it seems like such a small thing to rescue a handful of captives. Why not get the gold and feel good about helping some villagers out as well? So begins the drama.
Three Kings does a nice job of balancing things. It wants to tell the story of the unpleasantness and hypocracy of war, especially American foreign policy. At the same time it wants to show American boys bucking the system and doing the right thing. A movie that just showed refugees being tortured to death, while more realistic, would have been pretty hard to swallow.
That's maybe the part that didn't work so well. We want good guys, doing the right thing, for the right reasons, and getting away with it. An example of how this is usually portrayed is John Wayne's The Green Berets; a government-assisted pro-war production, this farce attempts to show why the fight in Vietnam was the good fight (and is worth seeing, albeit as a rather clumsy example of propaganda). 3K at least tries to show the hypocracy of the stated objectives of operation Desert Storm, even as it offers naive solutions to the situation.
It's easy to argue that 3K oversimplifies it's subject matter, but that's bound to happen when an action film tries to cover this territory. At one point the war correspondent (well played by SNL's Nora Dunn) is led out to the burning oil fields. She's upset because she's already covered this story, she know's she's being led around by the nose, and yet the sight of oil-soaked waterfowl struggling to pull themselves upright brings her momentarily to tears. The frustration and fatigue of the situation, though contrived, worked for me.
{posted by Ned}
Wednesday, April 19, 2000
11:17 AM
CNET News.com - Can Napster be stopped? No! "Napster has achieved the remarkable milestone of 9 million users in just six months. For perspective, it took AOL 12 years to reach 9 million members."
{posted by Ned}
7:16 AM
Things are happening at Liz's site. Hmm, can't wait. And the Huffman-Jenkins's are expecting ... A Computer! (Or do we just call them the Huffmans, or the Jenkins? Or the Jenkmans, or the Huffkins? I think I like Huffkins :) Anyways, I can't wait to hear more about it.
Boring stuff: finished The Forrest House, started Riding the Rap; got my taxes called in on the 17th, and I owe, but I can't pay electronically because they don't take VISA (there's a killer ad campaign in there somewhere); 3-day work-week for me this week (I love the separation of church and state that gives me time off for Good Friday - that's a pilgrim holiday, right?); can't seem to stop playing with the picture at the top of this page (I'm sure it will pass).
Fun stuff: Shari goes into the Blue Marble offices for the first time today. You can almost taste the anticipation.
Real stuff: I'm off to work myself.
{posted by Ned}
Tuesday, April 18, 2000
6:24 PM
And here I thought that this was just a myth: IBTC via evhead.
{posted by Ned}
2:08 PM
Metallica sues Napster:
"We take our craft -- whether it be the music, the lyrics, or the photos and artwork very seriously, as do most artists," Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said in a statement on the Elektra Records Web site. "It is therefore sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is."
Uh, Lars, I think when you guys charge for your albums that's a little closer to treating it like a commodity than when college kids trade the mp3s amongst themselves. Hello?
{posted by Ned}
1:54 PM
I guess I wasn't the only one to look at last week's People and suspect that a hatchet job was in the works on Whitney.
"Are we to believe that not appearing at an Oscar awards show "salute to Oscar-winning music" is somehow a sign of worse judgment and a career going down the tubes than actually participating in such a dismal display?"
And why the heck am I posting something about WH? To be honest, I really don't know.
{posted by Ned}
Monday, April 17, 2000
6:01 PM
Ah, a great day for the kitties; Shari and I brought back copious amounts of anti-hairball kibble, cosmic catnip, biljack treats and a handful of little toy mice. They all seemed to enjoy the fun.
How could I have not mentioned that Christy is also now gainfully employed. The irony? Just days ago she and Shari were trading job-hunting war stories, and now they're both back in business. Although part of me is a little suspicious that Christy is actually a teacher at a Catholic school. Perhaps I should be send her Jack Chick tracts.....
Speaking of which, the last mailing I got from Chick publications had been pilfered, the envelope torn and the tasty Jack Chick comic missing. I can only imagine the hell-fire awaiting those responsible.
I had planned to have my next web project up by now, but to no avail. The title? Empty Room.
{posted by Ned}
Sunday, April 16, 2000
9:25 AM
Shari Finds a Cool Job!
I doubt you heard it here first, but there you go. Shari has accepted a position with Blue Marble, the Bloomington-based ISP that hosts Tanque.org (which explains why you sometimes get mail from me from ned@tanque.org, and sometimes from ned@bluemarble.net - well, if I ever got over my lameness and sent email, that is - but now I'm babbling).
How cool is that? Way cool. Now when it takes 3 tries to dial in, I'll have a contact on the inside to hear my whining. Okay, that's minor compared to the fact that Blue Marble is a cool little company with big potential (as far as I can tell - I'm no investment banker after all), and as close to a groovy web-related job to be found down here.
Now maybe I can afford more domains. Some ideas? How about www.yourposthasbeenremoved.com? Or, www.ISwearImNotANaziNoReallyIMeanIt.com. But those are probably taken. And I'm probably milking this too long.
There seems to be lot's of drama on the weblog-web these days. I had never checked out spoonfed before, but it looks like at least one person has decided that the web should be left behind. Kinda sad. And the 4/9/2000 edition of BenBrown is all about relationship pain and such, as well as self-censorship on the web. I guess it's not all sunshine and flowers out there.
(For those who are wondering, Win98ME hosed the laptop. I'm starting over with a clean install of Win98SE)
And now I've got to finish The Forrest House today. The thing is becoming an albatros, and I just want to be done with it. It's really not too bad, just that I've read better and it's not holding my interest very well.
But I will finish it.
Finish it Today.
{posted by Ned}
Friday, April 14, 2000
5:12 PM
Ah, the weekend. Solice for the under-motivated and enthusiasm-challenged.
I got a beta copy of Windows98 ME (Millenium Edition) from a co-worker and tried putting it on Shari's laptop (which doesn't yet have a good name - Tanque1.5, maybe?). Color me underwhelmed.
To be fair, I don't know if the laptop even meets the minimum requirements for Win98Me, but that didn't seem to be the problem. I'm told that doing a clean install (rather than upgrading, as I did) is the way to go, so I may give that a shot one of these days. But I think it comes down to the simple fact that I don't enjoy finding bugs; I'll probably leave Win98 where it is.
Yes, this is boring stuff.
Shari, you're scaring Chris.
So what's up with Indiana radio, anyway? If you don't live here, you probably don't know or care that WNAP ("the Buzzard") changed formats again and it now "RadioNow". (Then again, anyone living here probably doesn't care much either). Instead of "classic rock that really rocks", they now play a heavy-rotation of a small number of pop/top40-type stuff. Actually the format interests me a little, just because I don't see how they can keep it up.
Every hour they count down the 5 most popular songs, which means that roughly the same 5 songs are played every hour. This over the past 3 days I've heard that Dr. Dre/M&M song at least twice a day coming to and from work. In fact, I think I've heard less than 7 different songs all week. I find myself switching over to that station just to see if they can possibly be playing the "new" Brittany Spears song again. It's an odd fascination for me.
Sometimes stuff like this makes Indiana seem like a quaint little place to me, comfortably out of step with the movers and shakers of the world on either American coast or around the world. Other times, it gives me this slightly desparate feeling like I'm going to spend my whole life somewhere that will eventually suck away what little energy I have left.
But that's when I'm feeling melodramatic
I've been trying to form an opinion about the Bobbie/Neal Reed videotape, but it's hard. Mainly because I can't seem to muster up any reason to care one way or the other. Maybe I live too close to this subject, but I don't have any interest in it. The easy story seems to be that if you're a Bobbie fan, the tape exonerates him. If you don't like Bobbie then the tape shows him for what he is. I don't consider myself a big fan, but I've watched the footage a few times and I just don't see enough to fire someone. But I'm not interested in defending him either. The guy's got a temper problem. If I could imagine having a son, and if that son were a basketball player, and if he was good enough to play for IU (and if I didn't vaguely feel that professional sports are kinda stupid), would I want him to play for Bobbie? There's too many if's for me in that sentence, but I sorta feel like no, I would rather he didn't.
For Dave: "Eleven-Year-Old Has Miniskirt, Pumps, Vague Notion Of What Sex Is"
{posted by Ned}
7:05 AM
Ouch, Chris.
When I wasn't busy forcing legions of webloggers into trains to be trundled to slave-labor camps and their eventual deaths, I found time to check out OnLinePhotolab, a cool web-based way to modify images ala GIMP or Photoshop. Hence the slightly different picture above.
However, this is easily the coolest site I've seen in quite a while ("brought to you by Kevin & Courtney").
.
{posted by Ned}
Thursday, April 13, 2000
3:19 PM
Let me first say that yes, PB sandwiches are groovy, and chili rocks. That said, I cannot, no matter how hard I try, give the PB/chili combo the same status as tomatoe soup and grilled cheese. I'm sorry, but I have to be honest. Even though dinner last night rocked. So hard.
Dave's moving his page, and even sounds like he might not continue with it. Better let him know if you want him to keep posting.
I'm feeling antsy lately. Maybe it's spring, or just plain boredom, but days seem to pass quickly without anything happening. Weekends come and go with little fanfare, and work drones on endlessly. Color me looking for spark.
On the other hand, the latest Apathy has several cool links to hold my attention, at least for a little while.
{posted by Ned}
12:17 AM
Hey Kids, it's me again. I won't take up too much of your time but, I just wanted all of you to know that we had our veggie chili dinner tonight. The peanut butter sandwiches were a BIG SUCCESS! For those of you out there who still haven't had the pleasure, please try it, I know you will like it, just ask Bloodboy!!!!
P.S. Thanks to all of you who emailed me your opinions!
{posted by Shari}
Wednesday, April 12, 2000
2:55 PM
Interesting discussion about the pros and cons of Gnutella as it exists today. (Gnutella is an open-source Napster-type program, originally developed by a company which has since been purchased by AOL, who is now trying to close Pandora's box).
{posted by Ned}
7:10 AM
Quick update: added both Chris' and Sean's webpages to the links at the top of this page (one of these days I'll make a full-fledged link page). Yes, Sean has had multiple web-pages in the past (and still does), but this one is his Blogger-powered weblog. Now my list of daily sites to check is plump indeed.
And no, I've never associated peanut butter sandwiches with chili (see Shari's post below), but I guess that just proves that I come from the ruling aristocratic class. Or not.
{posted by Ned}
Tuesday, April 11, 2000
11:41 PM
Hello to all of you out there in weblog land. I'm Shari, Ned's shorty! Ned has graciously given me the permission to post my thoughts on Tanquelogue.
So, I am going to open with a very important topic, PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICHES AND CHILI.
OK, I will start at the beginning:
Sometime last week when I was reorganizing Shangra-La's kitchen cabinets (yes, I am still unemployed), I came across about 20 cans of chili beans and canned tomatoes that are made for chili. I decided at that time I was going to make a big batch of veggie chili for those tenants of Shangra-La and anyone else who might want some. Well, being the professional procrastinator that I am, I had to make a mad dash to the grocery between Montel and Jerry Springer. I got home, unloaded the groceries and planned for my meal for tomorrow night's dinner. At that time, Bloodboy came home from a day with the pre-pubescent middle schoolers. Shortly after Bloodboy's arrival, Spooge showed up. I was telling them both about having chili for dinner and I also mentioned that I bought a loaf of white bread for peanut butter sandwiches too.
Well, the perplexing look on Bloodboy's face told me that he was confused as to what I was talking about, then, I asked the question.
Don't you eat peanut butter sandwiches with chili?
He told me he had never heard of such a combination. Of course, I was stunned. Then I nearly lost it when Spooge said he hadn't heard of it either!
Growing up, my mom always made peanut butter sandwiches with chili. Even the school corporation I went to school at served peanut butter sandwiches with chili.
Bloodboy is suggesting that this is a "Whiteland thing" (Whiteland, Indiana is where I grew up).
Dave is on my side. He ate peanut butter sandwiches with his chili. Dave's observation is that poor white trash families have different cultures but, I don't understand that reasoning cuz, Dave grew up with the affluent "Carmelites".
So to the point of this posting....I want to find out just how many people out there have never eaten a peanut butter sandwich with their chili. Please let me know what your thoughts are on this matter. I will be taking a poll to find out just how many people are on my side! Email me at shari@tanque.org.
Well, thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you!
{posted by Shari}
Monday, April 10, 2000
7:43 PM
First he announces he's coming out with a CD, then he puts up a website. Whoda thunk Jack Flannel would go digital? Check it out here.
{posted by Ned}
10:35 AM
If all goes as planned, there will be another addition to tanque.org tonight. Check back sometime after 7pm Indiana time.
{posted by Ned}
10:32 AM
These weekends are killing me.
Came home on Friday to learn that the modems in both mine and Shari's machines are kaput, at least so far as I can tell. I suspect an electical surge on Friday afternoon durning all the rain we got, but we're still investigating. No surfing :(
Then I threw out my back, and ended up laying in bed for a few hours, whimpering like a wet puppy. It was really pathetic. Still, overall I guess I can't complain. Watched the trailer for LOTR a few times, and decided that I need to read that bad boy before the movie comes out, which gives me until Christmas, 2001. Should be no prob, right?
{posted by Ned}
Friday, April 7, 2000
12:13 PM
Crikey, will the madness never end? Matt's put up a spanking new version of his page too. I especially love that big link back to yours truly. ;) Who's Matt you might ask? One of the crazy HelpDeskers I work with (and a stair-climber to boot). Don't worry, I'll be pestering him to get those broken links working. He promises to have a bunch of tasty Flash stuff added soon too.
{posted by Ned}
11:01 AM
Hey man, check it out: Huffman's got it going on! He's finally taken time away from wooing Sarah (who broke down and decided recently to make an honest guy out of him) to put up his web site. Way cool; I'll be watching to see what happens.
This is how I always wanted the web to turn out; all of my friends making web-pages for me to read. :)
{posted by Ned}
9:06 AM
Dave's concerned that everyone's not reading his page, like, every friggin' day, so please, do me a favor and check it out.
Also, I should point out that Jim has been trying to get his page going, but technical difficulties, hopefully soon-to-be resolved, have hindered his progress. You'll hear it here first when it's moving and shaking.
There is no Why.
At least that's what the helpdesk guys at work claim, and I believe them. Turns out Netscape doesn't like the way I was using the margin attribute in my styles. Now that it's removed, the "TanqueLogue" title above appears in splendid blue for both Navigator and IE5. As if anyone but me noticed.
... come to think of it, I think I might like plain black better ....
Sean and Sonya have sent back pictures from their cool Euro-excursion; color me jealous. One of these days Shari and I wil begin our world tour, and we just might never come back. If only we could get the cats to enjoy travel. I can hardly get Oscar to go to the store with me.
Well, that's not entirely true. He did ride to the store with me once. (He had picked up Hrothgar's habit of jumping into the car when I got home from work and wanting to hang out in there, so I decided he'd like to go for a ride. He became very talkative, but not in a good way. But he doesn't jump in the car as soon as I pull up anymore, which seems safer in the long run)
It looks like the Ill-Litturatty site isn't quite working like I'd hoped. Maybe it's too early to tell, but I don't think anyone is actually using it. The Ill-L here in Bloomington talk to each other face-to-face, and the long distance members haven't read our latest book yet. Maybe it will pick up, but maybe we need to figure out a different way to spawn long-distance book discussion. I still haven't finished Forrest House yet, though I have gotten a little farther than half-way through it, and it's growing on me. Next weekend, for real, we'll all be ready to discuss.
{posted by Ned}
Thursday, April 6, 2000
12:22 AM
Another good article on Napster.
{posted by Ned}
Wednesday, April 5, 2000
9:32 PM
Well, well. Where to start? Watched two good flicks last night, both very different from one another. The first was The 6th Sense, which was very well done. I have to admit to a little skepticism, since it was Oscar-nominated and that often equals the presence of bilge in my book. Instead, it was genuinely engaging, creepy, and peopled with well-acted characters.
It reminded me of Jacob's Ladder, a movie I haven't watched for a couple of years, but which I liked alot. JL, like 6S, wasn't just about the scary ghosts haunting the living, (though it certainly had its share of the demonic). Instead, it explored the scary parts of real life: losing loved ones, not understanding what's happening to you, feeling desperate and alone. So did 6S, in even subtler ways.
Both movies also revolved around a man and his relationship with a young boy (in JL it's father/son). However, where JL tells the entire story from the father's (Tim Robbins) perspective, 6S gives more of both, developing both characters. Recommended.
We watched the DVD version, which has spoilers in it's "extra features", so you should be careful to watch the movie first if you're watching it for the first time on DVD. It also had some interesting interviews with the writer/director, along with deleted scenes and explanations as to why.
After that Shari and I watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which makes me wonder just how insane the Western-Euro/British empire underground really is. I mean, between this and Trainspotting, one gets the impression that everyone in their twenties is on the dole and scamming drugs, when they're not the deliverer or recipient of some awful beating. That aside, I really liked it.
That's despite the fact that I thought I'd never keep the characters straight, and that a little of the dialog went uncomprehensibly through these corn-fed Indiana ears of mine. The large cast of characters is filled with the spectrum from REALLY, REALLY bad guys to hapless/harmless scheming losers. The plot is loopy and convoluted, and just plain fun to watch. Also recommended.
And, let's see ... the whole Shangra-La crew (Shari, Jim, Dave and Yours truly) checked out "Romeo Must Die" this weekend at the theatre. It was a tough call, since Sean and Sonia's movie (also starring Jack Black of Tenacious D fame) opened this weekend as well, but we probably made the right choice; despite some fun action scenes, Romeo probably won't last too long in the theatres.
It was fun, but to be honest it just didn't have enought Jet Li. We rented Lethal Weapon 4 on the way home to get a Jet-fix (which I still need to watch - the screening that afternoon was cut short due to some hoopie-action between the NBALive2000 Hoosiers, unfortunately a losing battle).
{posted by Ned}
12:40 PM
Craziness. Feels like there's a ton to post right now (seen several good flicks over the past few days), but for now I'd just like to point out that Dave has joined the madness. His tanque page still needs some HTML work (which I'm working on, really), but at least he's posting. Check it out here.
{posted by Ned}
Saturday, April 1, 2000
3:48 PM
And it looks like I have another week to finish The Forrest House. Whew!
{posted by Ned}
3:48 PM
Shari likes the song Malibu, but doesn't like Courtney Love, so we're planning to re-record it on our own solo albumn. Don't you all want a copy?
Speaking of which, even though Sean's over-seas, that doesn't mean that you can't order a copy of his latest CD. Of course, as I type this, I seem to have misplaced the latest Potato Man (which had an ad for it, with ordering info). Gentle readers, stay tuned and I'll track down the needed data.
{posted by Ned}
3:33 PM
What's going on? I'll tell ya what's going on. I'm developing a guilty appreciation of Blink182. Who can say why, but in some ways they remind me of a pop-ier Steve Kawalski. In any event, I've been downloading their tunes via Napster, and I like it.
Of course, I'm still into "Damn it feels good to be a gansta" by the Ghetto Boys (from the Office Space movie). Fun stuff.
So Jim's up in the windy city this weekend, hangin with Mel Stanke. Dave and S/J are out as well, and Eva's staying at our pad, chillin' like Bob Dylan in the back yard and groovin with the kitty-homies. And so? So we did the fondue thing last night, and the biscuits and gravy thing this morning, and cats and dogs are living together. Madness.
Already the weekend is upon us....
{posted by Ned}
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