Monday, March 05, 2007

Would it surprise me to tell you that I am 1/8th Mighty Choctaw?


Normally, I'd say something apologetic here about not having blogged in while. But what, really, would be the point of that. Life is short. Blogging isn't all that important. Ergo, we haven't been doing it very often lately. Sorry. Now move along.

Welcome to another episode of "Short Attention Span Theater," in which, in several short profanity-laden items, we mention things we've seen, read, eaten, etc., and comment on whether we liked them or not. We usually conclude with a pointless but really cute picture of our puppy. Now lets get started.

1. It was a big movie watching weekend in the jwbblog household. On Friday night, we watched the Oscar winning extravaganza known as "The Departed." The performances were just about uniformly good--Leo was great; Damon was pretty good, playing against type, as a baddie (though I thought that his accent was a bit much); Baldwin, such a legend, was his usual solid self; Jack, of course, can be annoying when he's in a movie where they let him get away with chomping on the scenery, but he was quite restrained (though I kept thinking he looks nothing like Whitey Bulger); Wahlberg was hilarious. The movie itself was excellent. If you've seen the movie it was based on, the oddly titled "Infernal Affairs," you know that they changed the ending, which gave it (for me) unexpected suspense. It was also cool for this Bostonian to see all the local scenery. Overall, a very high quality movie watching experience.

2. We also finally watched "Brick"--recommended in comments here some time ago by Bram. Jenn was a bit baffled by the whole thing, but I thought it was really entertaining. It is completely preposterous, of course, but to say that is to sort of miss the point. I love the rat-a-tat dialogue and the kid from "Third Rock" (but not "30 Rock") was excellent in the lead.

3. I was under the impression that Christopher Guest is a comic genius who can do no wrong. After sitting through "For Your Consideration," I'll amend that by saying that Christopher Guest is a comic genius. "For Your Consideration" isn't really all that funny, which is problematic since, you know, it's, like, a comedy.

4. On to more serious matters: Arthur Schlesinger, RIP. There was a nice essay by Sam Tanenhaus in the Sunday Times that places Schlesinger's distinguished career as an academic historian nicely in context.

5. Note to self: Next time in Chicago, stop at The Boring Store. Seems like my kind of place. Oddly, there are lots of shops in Boston that don't sell "anything of utility," but none of them sell "Watergate Fingers". (Via Crooked Timber.)

6. Speaking of comic geniuses, Jennifer Saunders, the brains behind the much beloved (at least by jwbblog) "Absolutely Fabulous," has a new show called Clatterford that is set to premiere on BBC America on Friday. I'm sure it'll be funny, but I must confess a little trepidation about this. This trepidation results at least in part from my observation that other recent British comic geniuses have had a very hard time following up on the shows that made their reputation with anything even remotely funny. The Young Ones is the classic example, but I'm sure there are others.Incidentally, did you know that Jennifer Saunders is married to Adrian Edmondson, who played Vyvyan on "The Young Ones"? I thought not.

7. In other movie news, David Fincher's "Zodiac" got an absolute rave from Magnolia Darkness in the Times. Joe Morganstern didn't like it so much in the Journal, but, of course, Joe Morganstern is an utter mediocrity.

8. New York Times bla bla bla Arcade Fire bla bla bla So hot, so hot bla bla bla

9. We are clearly running out of steam and will leave you (for now) with a picture of Buzzy, who turned five months old on Friday.

Posted by jwb at 3:31 PM   

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