The Hour of Babel

Over at Mark Evanier’s site he has some fairly intelligent things to say about weblogs and how they work (or don’t work, as the case may be).

With that in mind, it occurs to me that I’ve been more or less silent apart from the random poem every day or so, the occasional who-the-fuck-cares? hint about what I’m writing, and the occasional praise of all things related to fountain pens.

Okay. So here’s a little bit of late-night media blowhard from the guy who ca’t read his comic books at the moment because they’re (ugh) “joint marital property” but is absolutely dreading the upcoming Constantine movie…

…I am still enjoying Wilco’s latest album ‘A Ghost is Born’ but I can’t quite nail down my favorite song. This week it’s ‘Theologians’ but that could change…

…I would have enjoyed ‘The Triplets of Belleville’ more if I hadn’t been quite so angry last weekend. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable movie and surprisingly elegant, but here’s a word of advice: Learn to put things away. It makes it all a lot easier…

…I liked ‘The Last Samurai’ an awful lot more than I thought I would. Sure, Tom Cruise is still Tom Cruise . . . but there are many points in the movie when it got away from him and was something far better than what it could have been. I was surprised by the obvious things not happening (no, I won’t reveal them here) and the semi-unHollywood things being so easily accepted by everyone in the film. Just like it should have been…

…After plowing my way through Tad Williams’ first first volume in the ‘Otherland’ series, I finally got a hold of ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ that my father recommended and I have to say I’m enjoying every goddamn word of it and I’m happy that there’s not thirteen more volumes waiting for me…

…But Kij Johnson’s latest is waiting for me at the library and I can’t wait to read it…

…And, once again, Jack was right, ‘Croupier’ is worth seeing — very much so, in fact…

…However, I found ‘Matchstick Men’ to be a complete waste of time, even with a 102 degree fever and a heavy Mamet addiction. But, in it’s defense, while Nicholas Cage’s acting ability gets worse with every passing year, Sam Rockwell is a helluva interesting performer. Watch ‘Confessions of a Dangerous Mind’ instead, because you get Clooney and Drew Barrymore (she’s so cute) too…

…You should rent ‘Kill Bill, Volume One’ and then immediately go out and see ‘Volume Two’ which is far better than the first but cannot be seen as a standalone piece (although I’m still annoyed by Tarantino’s blatant plagiarism of Jules Feiffer in the last sequence)…

…And when I finally get my comic books back (and I will get them back) I’ll try to say something about The End of Cerebus.

So. It’s time to read for a bit and then sleep.

(Last night I woke up at three in the morning with a fully formed Elmore Leonard short story in my head. Tonight I’m hoping for Paul Auster…)