02-28-04 (01:46)
  • updated movies list.
  • been having lots of ups and downs lately.
  • har har.
  • har har 2.

  • 2-27-04 (01:10)

  • my first reaction to this story was "jesus fucking christ." my second reaction was "god damn."
  • updated movies list.
  • here's a great review for errol morris' "thin blue line" i especially like that last line...
  • "The Thin Blue Line has good motives. It attempts to retell the tragic death of a police officer and the intricate web that was spun around the suspects. It tries to make a statement about the downfall of the American Justice System. Those are the ingredients for a great film, right? Wrong. The style in which Errol Morris presents the material lingers in tedium. Why did he feel it was necessary to juxtapose almost every word with a picture? Someone will say the word "pistol". All of a sudden an image of a pistol appears on the screen. A woman is described as dropping her milk shake. Suddenly, Morris flashes upon the screen the image of a milk shake being dropped. Did he think his viewers were not aware of what those objects looked like? Here is how this movie could have been good: take all the interview footage and turn it into a screenplay. You can only depend on spontaneity for so long. I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it had been a segment on a TV journalism show."
  • some people should just not watch movies.
  • fantastic...
  • "Coal, for decades the reviled stepchild of the U.S. energy family, is about to become the prodigal son.  Stoked by easy availability, the rising costs of other fuels, and a growing desire to reduce dependence on foreign oil and gas, coal is roaring back:  Plans are in the works to build some 94 new coal-fired power plants in 36 states.  Because most plants are still in the private planning phase, not yet open for public comment, the impending coal rush has thus far come in under the radar of most environmental groups and state officials.  The burning of coal produces more airborne mercury and greenhouse gases than any other single source, and those levels could increase dramatically when the new plants come online.  Says Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club's energy program, "I think most Americans would be shocked that utilities are dragging the 19th century into the 21st century.""
  • looked for some jobs tonight. there are a couple good leads that i might follow up on tomorrow. looking for jobs puts me in a bad mood.
  • my movies review list is already over 100K. that's half the size of last years reviews and bigger than any year prior to 2003. in other words, i'm reviewing a lot of movies (76 so far this year) and doing so at great length.
  • the kings had a huge win tonight over the lakers. the facts: the lakers had won five straight and 8 of their last 10. they have four future hall of famers plus arguably the best coach of all-time. karl malone was injured, but other than that they were healthy and playing at home. the kings, on the other hand, were without bobby jackson (sixth man of the year), chris webber (our mvp) and brad miller (an all-star). i figured we'd lose by about ten. but we pulled out the win on the road and i was very pleased. i was listening to the game on the radio while i was at work. with about three and a half minutes left in the game i was done closing, but it was a close game so i thought that if i really booked i could make it home in time to hear the last few seconds on the radio (it wasn't televised for some reason). by the time i got home and turned on the radio there was just over a minute left in the game and i got to hear bibby hit a key three pointer. bibby and peja really turned it on tonight. wish i could have seen the game.
  • sherman's march is coming to dvd on march 23rd.

  • 2-26-04 (00:43)

  • trainspotting, enter the dragon, and saving private ryan are both going to have special edition dvds later this year...may/june.
  • it rained like crazy last night and then again tonight. actually it hailed pretty hard tonight. that was cool.
  • "The legendary Edith Head was nominated for at least one Academy Award for costume design every year from 1948, when the category was created, until 1967, when her streak was broken."
  • never even heard of her.
  • today was pretty good.
  • read one of my MAD spy vs. spy books last night. there was a time when the only reading i did was MAD books and comic books (for some reason i was really into richie rich). the greatest thing about spy vs. spy is how one spy will always make the other spy kill himself in his attempts to kill the other. they go through the most elaborate plans to set up a situation in which one spy's desire to kill the other, backfires. in one strip we see black planes that are parachuting down munitions to the black spy. the black spy then uses these missiles and whatnot to try and kill the white spy. the white spy sees this happening so he concocts a plan. he builds a special missile and paints it, and his plane, black. then he flies over the black spy and parachutes the missile down to the black spy. the black spy, thinking it's a normal missile, fires it towards the white spy's base. but in midair the black missile separates and a smaller, white missile is released which then turns around, in midcourse, and flies back to kill the black spy. when i was younger i thought it was hilarious because it was unexpected and death is always funny when it's drawn. but now i see it for more than that. the books i have were written in the sixties and are clear commentaries on cold war conditions. our spying and desire to destroy the other side will ultimately be our own undoing. as a side note - there doesn't seem to be any preference to which spy dies most frequently. they both act foolishly and die with equal frequency.

  • 2-25-04 (02:33)

  • regarding nader's bid for the presidency...i still think that the two party system in america is a sham. i think the argument that nader stole the presidency from gore is ridiculous. i think that alternative parties need to be encouraged in this country, even in the face of four more years of bush - and i hate bush as much as just about anyone else. i think it's sad that our political climate is such that even left wingers feel the need to bash nader for his decision to keep fighting the good fight. it shows you how truly scared the nation is. once again the powers that be have framed the issue in such a way that Right is on the defensive. that is, only in a truly fucked up world would the debate be structured in such a way as to put naderites on the defensive about his decision to vote. only in this political climate does the decision of one consumer activist to run for public office become something to rally against. am i the only one who sees how twisted that is? they're winning because they're framing the way we talk about fundamental issues such as this, and that's the most scary thing that i can think of.
  • regarding gay "marriage"... i don't care what they call it, i think that people should be allowed to bond with each other and have equal rights under the law. is it a state issue? a federal issue? i don't know. so far it seems to have been a state issue since i guess the states issue marriage licenses, but if it becomes a civil rights issue then that would make it federal, right? on the other hand there is precedent for the limitation of such things. we don't generally think that brothers and sisters should be allowed to get married and no one seems to be all that upset about it. to some people the thought of gay marriage is the same as the marriage of two siblings (or marriage between multiple partners) - it's unnatural and morally reprehensible. this is also seen in the anti-sodomy laws that some states have. they feel it's simply an extension of the states' right to limit other deviant sexual acts such as incest, polygamy and bestiality. my point to all this is this - there does seem to be adequate legal precedent for the government to limit certain marriages and sexual acts. this is, unfortunately, especially true in particular states where there is an actual mandate to limit said activities/bonds. that's a common theme of mine - the tyranny of democracy - most people think i'm insane when i use that term, but i think there's an element of truth to it (though i do recognize its necessity). but back to the subject at hand... president bush's plan to amend the constitution to limit the meaning of marriage seems pretty absurd. just mulling over the amendments in my head i can't remember any amendments (other than prohibition, which was later repealed) that limit the freedom of people. most of them are about granting suffrage to blacks, women, people 18 and older or giving the people the rights against government tyranny - like all that boring stuff in the bill of rights about freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, the right to a jury, etc.. bush is fucking evil. at any rate, since there is precedent to limit marriage in certain instances, i think it'll probably stay a state issue and will come to votes on a state by state basis. i don't think that bush's planned amendment will pass by the needed margin. and having it work on a state by state basis is about as much as one can realistically expect, in which case the only limitation will be when couples move or something like that because in those situations the other states won't be forced to recognize their marriage. but as soon as california allows gay marriage i guarantee you there's going to be some crackpot brother/sister couple that demand their constitutional right to get married.
  • also, what benefits do people get from marriage? tax breaks, they can't be forced to testify against each other, and a slew of benefits that come when they have kids - like the right to custody of the child if the other parent dies... things like that. what, historically, is the reasoning behind granting benefits to any two people who want to marry? in its origin i suppose it was religious and a matter of wanting to help those people who are advancing the race. if procreation was the major reasoning behind giving certain benefits to married people then i propose not an expanding of marriage, but a contraction of it...actually an elimination of it. if its major purpose is to provide benefits to those who procreate then i think we should get rid of it altogether. we have too many people as it is. in conjunction with this we'd have to change a few other laws...for example any rules that say only blood relatives and spouses can do certain things should be changed, adoption/parenting rights laws would have to be changed, stuff like that. i guess the question becomes this: why should any people entering into a bond be allowed certain special rights? and then, what should the limits be? what number/sex/species of animal should be allowed to enter into this bond? once you start deconstructing it, the whole thing seems utterly absurd. to draw the line where we have, for as long as we have, is completely arbitrary.
  • my problem is i don't believe in God or Truth.
  • i wish "who wants to marry a millionaire" was still on fox. maybe next season.
  • on to less heavy issues...
  • updated movies list.
  • i'd like to see a (short) movie that takes the philosophy behind hip-hop or the mix-tape and applies it to film. manipulation of found images in a creative way. if done by the right person i think it could be pretty cool.
  • johnny got some new speakers. that was quick.
  • discovered today that scott simmons, my old film teacher, lives one door away from me. that's pretty awesome. now if i could only find a way to break the ice and start borrowing some of his dvds and getting free lessons. seriously though, i'd really like to talk with that guy because he knows far too much about film to keep it to his paying students.
  • i'd like to view the movie "idiots" again in the context of pushing boundaries. from what i remember the movie was only so-so in its execution, but left itself open to some interesting readings. perhaps it would have been better if they pretended to be a group of monkeys instead of mentally retarded people. then it would have been pushing the boundaries of human/animal much in the same way that drag queens push the boundaries of male/female. i'd like to see more people acting like monkeys for this purpose. i think it's a very valid point that needs to be made - we are, after all, 98.5% identical to chimps. just as there are many people who don't fit into "female" or "male" categories, i've met an equal number of people who don't quite fit into the "human" or "chimpanzee" categories. to categorize things in such rigid ways, i think, is a bit fascist and dogmatic. unfortunately, almost by definition, these people are largely unaware of, and unable to defend, their place in society. because they lack the intellectual capacity for this sort of thought they cannot organize in a meaningful way (as gay, bi, and transgender people have). as a result they have yet to establish any sort of social or political groups capable of reforming the public's view, or treatment of, their kind. i may have just found my calling.
  • i forget who it was, but someone once said that people like you and i are closer to apes than we are to great philosophers like plato or nietzsche. i might agree.

  • 2-24-04 (02:37)

  • "Universal will release Law & Order: The Second Year on May 4th."
  • updated movies list.

  • 2-23-04 (02:17)

  • updated movies list.
  • last night we watched two movies in the theater. on the way back from sacramento the car broke down. the streak of bad luck continues. who knows what's wrong or how much it's going to cost. we'll find out tomorrow.
  • got a rare autechre ep in the mail the other day. there are only three eps/singles left.
  • my academy predictions: picture/director - lotr/jackson. actress - theron. actor - murray. s. actress - zellwegger. s. actor - robbins.
  • supporting actor is a tough one. robbins didn't have as good a performance, but sometimes the academy likes to give awards to people who have gotten the shaft in the past. i think del toro did a better job in 21 grams than robbins in mystic river, but robbins hasn't been nominated before (as an actor) and probably should have.
  • looking over past nominees and winners can be depressing. forrest gump? jeesh. only three films have won all the major categories - director, picture, actor, actress and screenplay. it happened one night, one flew over the cuckoo's nest, and silence of the lambs.
  • how about this set...1967 best actor:

  • Bonnie and Clyde Warren Beatty
    Cool Hand Luke Paul Newman
    Graduate, The Dustin Hoffman
    Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Spencer Tracy
    In the Heat of the Night Rod Steiger (won)
  • if you know of a tougher category in any year then let me know. i know that 1939 was a tough year for picture, but i think that 67 for actor has the edge.
  • all i can listen to lately is ambient music. good thing i have plenty of it.
  • updated movies i own list.

  • 02-21-04 (02:10)

  • great
  • "Mel Gibson's father Hutton has launched a blistering attack on the Jewish religion - just days before his son's controversial film The Passion Of The Christ is released in America. Catholic extremist Hutton, 85, claims the Holocaust never happened and accuses Jews of conspiring to take over the world. According to British tabloid The Daily Express, Hutton ranted to an American radio station, "They are after one world religion and one world government." Mad Max star Mel has faced uproar from the Jewish community amidst claims his film - about the last few hours of Jesus Christ's life - is anti-Semitic. Christian Mel has always denied the film is racist towards Jewish people and says he hold great respect towards the religion."
  • that movie has gotten an amazing amount of press.
  • my sister turned 17 today. crazy.
  • here's an excerpt from my journal 03-11-2000:
  • "At eleven o'clock tonight I randomly picked names from the student directory and called people up. It was really fun, but it further proves the level of sadness my situation has gotten to. I would say something to the effect of "Hey this is Chris did you want to go out for a quick bite to eat?"...then they'd either ask who i was or just pretend to know me and say they're tired or something. then i'd say "remember Chris from English class, etc."...then they'd be completely perplexed and say i have no idea who you are or something to that effect. then i'd say "this is give name here right?" they'd say yes, then i'd say "hmmm, didn't you tell me to call you in english class yesterday?"...or something to that effect. they might say something like i don't take english or you must have the wrong number or something to that effect. then i'd say "hmmm, that's really bizarre. you must think i'm really weird or something. i'm really sorry, i guess i have the wrong number" then they'd either be silent or, if they are cool, say oh no - don't worry about it ha ha ha. then i'd say "well did you want to go out and get something to eat anyway?" then they'd either be really silent and i'd say "ha ha, just kidding don't worry about it, sorry bye." or they'd laugh and say no i'm fine. then i'd say "ha ha, okay, sorry about that again." the best one was the first one, but i didn't ask her out because i hadn't gotten it down yet.
  • the most interesting one was the last one which went something like this:

  • me "raquel?"
    her "yes"
    me "hey, it's chris. i was wondering if you wanted to grab a quick bite to eat."
    her silence "uhm, who is this?"
    me "it's chris. you know, from english class"
    her long pause "uh"
    me "trying to piece it together? chris. english class. you told me to call you tonight. i'm sorry if this is too late."
    her pause "uhm, hmmm."
    me "i'm sorry. you're raquel, right?"
    her "yea that's me. i'm sorry, i'm just trying to get oriented here. i'm raquel, but i don't think i know you"
    me "really?"
    her "describe me"
    me holy shit, what do i do now "uhm you're 5'7" with dark hair..." pause
    her "anything else?"
    me "i'm not really good at description"
    her "what length is my hair?"
    me "medium length, about to the shoulders"
    her "oh, that's not me" duh "i have really long hair"
    me "hmmm, this is 555-1515, right?"
    her "yes, and i'm raquel. which really isn't a..."
    me "yea it's not a common name, that's really weird"
    her laugh "no it's not common at all, that's strange. well good luck finding her"
    me "yea thanks. hey you wouldn't want to go out anyway would you?"
    her short pause and uncomfortable chuckle
    me "i'm just kidding, don't worry about it. well, sorry."
    her "yea, well i hope you find her"
    me "yea, thanks."
    her "well, give me a call if you find her or something to tell me how it works out."
    me laugh "okay, thanks, and sorry again. bye."
  • her "bye""
  • i think i was a more funny person back then. at least on my webpage i was.
  • here's another one from 07-30-2000:
  • "parties are definitely not for me. the party we were supposed to go to was canceled so we went to some stupid one in davis which featured a keg, lots of stupid guys, and few decent girls. vern walked home. i drove kim (jon's sister) and jon to jack in the crack. while we were there we saw two girls who couldn't get inside because only the drive thru is open after 1am. i told them they could get in the car and order something with us. then we drove them home. meanwhile we all talked about the weather or something.
  • after we dropped them off jon and i decided that we should turn around and knock on their door in order to acquire their phone numbers. we are dorks. so we went back to the apartment where we dropped them off and rang the doorbell three times. no answer. then we went to another apartment they said they were going to rent starting in september. jon rang the doorbell, again no answer. we saw a jack in the box bag in front of the door so we knew we were close. then kim saw them walking up ahead. we drove up to them and asked for their numbers. they didn't really seem too taken aback by it even though we had dropped them off 5 minutes ago and were now almost aimlessly wandering through arlington apartments trying to find them. it was borderline stalking, but it worked. they don't have phones yet since they're just moving into these apartments so they gave us the apartment numbers were they would be staying and asked for our numbers.
  • all in all it was an interesting ride, but i highly doubt anything will come of it. this is what i call the game. the game is retarded. i don't think i'll ever meet a person like me at a party. being different is sometimes a liability. such is life."
  • updated movies list.
  • time to sleep.
  • my webpage provider upgraded their terms so now i get more webspace. i've decided to take advantage by creating yearly archive pages. the archive pull down menu at the top of the page should now include those. e.g. 2002.
  • it's 5:45 right now. i spent a few hours cutting and pasting old updates onto the yearly pages. i'm not tired. i woke up too late this morning and it screwed me up. dammit.
  • one thing i noticed as a result of doing this, though, is that i was most prolific in 2000. 2001, 2002, 2003, 1999, and 1998 complete the order from most updates to fewest. i've been pretty good about updating my webpage so far this year. also, my movie reviews have gotten much longer in the last six months so that sort of evens things out in terms of total writing output.
  • forgot to mention that jorgay dropped by tower yesterday. he's in town to play some music off his cd. he came in to drop off some more of his cds because he expects some people to come by to buy the album.

  • 2-20-04 (02:01)

  • the first season of quantum leap is coming to dvd in june. some people say i look like scott bakula...i always took that as an affront, but that's just me. quantum leap was a decent show though.
  • updated movies list.
  • i'm pretty tired.
  • tomorrow i plan on selling off some cds that i don't listen to anymore.
  • kings lost tonight. that was expected since it was a road game without webber or miller and they were playing minnesota who has been playing very well this year. kg should be mvp this year.
  • going to look for another job tomorrow. i fucking hate doing that.
  • i think luke was right about imdb versus allmovie.com there are some things i like more about allmovie.com, but imdb seems to have more information more readily available. one thing i like more about allmovie.com is that if you look up an actor or director you can see which movies have been released on dvd because there is a disc icon next to those with a dvd release. they also tend to give good information on the dvd releases. imdb separates a person's roles in a film so it's easier, for example, to group all the films that kurosawa wrote, edited or directed. but enough on that.
  • i'm glad it's my weekend. time to sleep.

  • 2-19-04 (01:42)

  • today i asked myself who might comprise the pantheon of documentary film directors. i came up with the following: flaherty, the maysles brothers, wiseman, and morris. to me those would be the fords and kurosawas of the genre. those aren't my favorite documentary film directors, but i feel they have done the most for the genre. one could make an argument for a ken burns or michael moore, but burns doesn't make feature documentaries and moore only has a few films under his belt...so far. it's academic.
  • kurosawa's 'stray dog' is coming to dvd this summer...thanks to criterion, of course.
  • updated movies list.

  • 2-18-04 (01:36)

  • there are no typos in my transcription of the following quote...
  • "i understand this is a unconventional war. it's a different kind of war. it's not the kind of war that we're used to in america. the greatest generation was used to storming beachheads. baby boomers such as myself was used to getting caught in a quagmire of vietnam, where politics made decisions more than - more than the military sometimes. generation x was able to watch technology right in front of their tv screens, you know, burrow into - into concrete bunkers in iraq and blow them up. this is a different kind of war that requires a different type of approach and a different type of mentality." george w. bush, october 11, 2001.
  • the last month hasn't been very good.
  • my super bowl team lost, there's been trouble on the home front, chris webber was suspended for eight games, brad miller sprained his ankle (despite that the kings did win today), i'm really broke, and i didn't get the job for the city of davis.
  • updated movies list.
  • it's going to rain all week.
  • i must say it again...i think it was an egregious error on the part of the AFI to list travis bickle (deniro in taxi driver) as a villain, rather than a hero. maybe there are two types of people in the world - those wo view travis bickle as a villain and those who view him as a hero. i guess i'm in the sick minority on this one.

  • 2-13-4 (01:46)

  • public's trust in bush is at an all-time low. i still think he'll win in november, and here's why...our exit from iraq is still planned for june, but all that really matters for bush is that we get out before the election. also, he's probably going to spend as much as 200 million on his election campaign which will surely iron out any bumps along the way. i think i've finally gotten a grasp of political forecasting - go with the money and never "misunderestimate" the stupidity of the people.
  • updated movies list.
  • i use a lot of "but"s in my writing. especially when i review a movie. the positive spin on that might be to say that i look at both sides of an issue, but, then again, maybe i'm wrong about that.
  • going to visit johnny, vern and luke tomorrow.

  • 02-12-04 (02:09)

  • updated movies list.
  • still no word. every morning i wake up dreading the mail as if i were expecting a letter from the draft board.
  • i fucking hate george lucas. even speilberg released both versions of e.t. when the dvd came out. the alien quadrilogy included both directors' cuts and theatrical versions of each film. lucas' attempt at revisionist history shows what kind of respect he has for the fans, truth, and cinema. fuck him.
  • the new black heart procession album is pretty good.
  • "It is said that we live in a free society because we have a certain number of constitutionally guaranteed rights. But these are not as important as they seem. The degree of personal freedom that exists in a society is determined more by the economic and technological structure of the society than by its laws or its form of government. Most of the Indian nations of New England were monarchies, and many of the cities of the Italian Renaissance were controlled by dictators. But in reading about these societies one gets the impression that they allowed far more personal freedom than our society does. In part this was because they lacked efficient mechanisms for enforcing the ruler's will: There were no modern, well-organized police forces, no rapid long-distance communications, no surveillance cameras, no dossiers of information about the lives of average citizens. Hence it was relatively easy to evade control." - ted

  • 2-11-04 (00:35)

  • today was a strange day.
  • just before i left for work i got a call. i was hoping it was from the city regarding my job, but it wasn't. it was james - my boss before joe. he told me that the city had called him asking about me. we chatted for a couple minutes and he said that he might come into tower to see the store and whatnot. later in the day he stopped by and it was good to see him since he's a pretty cool guy.
  • so the day started out well, but didn't finish as well. there were an unusual number of stupid and/or annoying customers who wanted tickets to the "disney on ice" show that is coming to arco arena this week. their kids ran around the store causing all sorts of annoyances and just being a general nuisance.
  • also, since yesterday's bankruptcy announcement there has been a sort of surreal feeling at the store. i'm sure it's just my own perception, rather than a real change in anything, but things just feel weird.
  • "The most requested films for the DVD format will finally become a reality this September as Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox present the eagerly-awaited Star Wars Trilogy for the ultimate home entertainment format. The four-disc collection will be released on September 21 in the U.S. and Canada, with international release dates following closely." unfortunately they will be released in the 1997 "special edition" versions. that's pretty fucked up.
  • setting the record straight.
  • i think i may have made doc mad because he hasn't replied to my last email. i told him god was dead. that may have ruffled his feathers.
  • fog of war comes out on friday.
  • this weekend i plan on visiting vern in berkeley or some place.
  • life hasn't been too exciting lately. every day i wake up and check the mail in the hope that i haven't gotten a rejection letter from the city. most nights i watch a movie after work. eating has become a chore.
  • i can't believe how much the media has focused on the super bowl halftime show bullshit. i also can't believe that johnny thought the game was boring.
  • february hasn't been a very good month.
  • there was a good article on justin frankel in last month's rolling stone magazine. he's the creator of winamp and a bunch of other nifty software. i remember reading about him trashing a geo metro just for the hell of it back in the day when they weren't owned by aol.

  • 2-10-04 (01:39)

  • updated movies list.
  • tower records officially filed for bankruptcy today. they say it's just a restructuring thing and that everything will be okay.
  • i've been reading the bush dylexicon lately. it's not as good a read as the last few books i've read.

  • 2-9-04 (01:41)

  • updated movies list.

  • 2-7-04 (00:43)

  • updated movies list.
  • two of my five favorite five films of all-time begin with a plane landing in los angeles.
  • didn't get a call from anyone at the city of davis. at this point it looks pretty grim. this hasn't been a very good week.

  • 2-6-4 (00:20)

  • listening to some sonny sharrock right now. that guy was great. how about this for a song title: "portrait of linda in three colors, all black."
  • not watching a movie tonight. i think i'll watch some south park episodes that i downloaded a while back.
  • the new moby album is truly awful. actually it's not a moby album since he put it out under his "voodoo child" pseudonym.
  • this seems to be similar to what's happening to dean....especially after the incident right after the NH primary where he supposedly shed a tear. i never saw it, but i heard letterman making fun of it.
  • "Soft drinks made in India by PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. contain levels of toxic pesticides -- including lindane, DDT, malathion, and chlorpyrifos -- high enough to cause cancer or immune-system failure over time.  Such was the conclusion of an Indian parliamentary report released yesterday, confirming similar findings by the Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment released last summer. Tests showed that Pepsi's fizzy drinks contained 36 times the pesticide levels allowed under European Union standards, Coke's 30.  Although the companies denied that their drinks are unsafe, the report is widely expected to hurt the $1.6 billion Indian market for soda and lead to more stringent public-safety regulations in the world's most populous democracy.  Says CSE head Sunita Narain, "Their report is historic and reads almost like a manifesto for environmental action in the country.""
  • "Both The Force.net and Rebel Scum have today posted a rumor that Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox will be making their official Star Wars DVD announcement next week, likely on Tuesday. Their information again confirms that the films will be released in a 4-disc set, like the Indiana Jones DVDs, and that the street date is set for 9/21/04."
  • sherman's march is coming to dvd march 23rd.
  • i got an email at work today from our manager that said something like "i don't know what the story is, but there are rumors going around. just remember that cameras aren't allowed in the store and direct all questions to me." i guess he was referring to this. the sac bee historically isn't very kind to tower, but they do provide me with more information about my employment than my employers, so i'm thankful for that.
  • here's the latest one...type in "unelectable" in a google search and then click on "i'm feeling lucky."

  • 2-5-4 (01:40)

  • "Voters generally turned out in large numbers in the states holding Democratic primaries or caucuses Tuesday, with only Missouri and Oklahoma officials reporting lower than expected turnout.  In Arizona, there was unprecedented turnout for the state's primary as more than 225,000 voters -- or roughly one-quarter of the state's registered Democrats -- cast ballots, far exceeding previous records. In New Mexico, officials estimated the total number of ballots cast in the state's Democratic caucus at about 100,000. North Dakota saw its caucuses attract almost five times as many Democratic voters as a similar presidential preference caucus in March 2000. Democratic National Committee Terry McAuliffe said the numbers show there's excitement among Democrats about the chances of beating President Bush in the general election. Several Republicans take issue with that assessment, arguing that primary results don't correlate to turnout in a general election. In South Carolina, for example, Democratic officials said the 300,000 votes cast Tuesday was high considering they came in a heavily Republican state. But Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for Bush-Cheney 2004, said more than 560,000 Republican voters turned out in 2000 when President Bush was running against Arizona Sen. John McCain."
  • i think that is mostly good good news. but this is not.
  • i think i heard that dean is still second in total delegates, even though he didn't get second in any of the races yesterday. but, at this point, i think it's pretty clear that kerry is going to be the guy. even if dean has a strong showing in the industrial states and the western states (and he should do better than he has in those states), he still probably won't be able to catch up to kerry.
  • updated movies list.
  • "Starting this fall, seafood sold in the U.S. will be labeled with information about where it was caught, the country where it was processed, and whether it was wild or farmed, thanks to a provision in a spending bill recently passed by Congress.  Seafood will be the first food group subject to "country of origin" labeling, something the beef and pork industries have avoided through heavy lobbying. The provision was welcomed by enviro and consumer groups, who point to recent news that farmed salmon contains high levels of pesticides as one of many reasons consumers need more complete information.  It was also welcomed by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and muscular advocate for Alaska's wild salmon fishers.  The rest of the seafood industry was pretty ticked off, claiming that the labeling requirements would produce a logistical nightmare.  Consumer groups say it's only a matter of time before beef and pork are labeled as well."
  • this is next story is really troubling. i think they recently outlawed bikes in shanghai, and i know that cars are becoming more and more popular in china in general. the last thing the world needs is another america (in terms of consumption).
  • "Last year, China became the world's second-largest importer of oil (take a wild guess who's No. 1), struggling to keep up with the energy demands of an economy expanding at a rate of 9.9 percent annually.  Having recently concluded, like other oil-thirsty countries, that the volatile Middle East might not be a stable, long-term source of black gold, China has begun jostling with other global energy consumers -- notably the U.S., Japan, and Europe -- to find oil in more out-of-the-way locations.  Recent months have seen Chinese President Hu Jintao visit the African nations of Gabon and Algeria, not exactly high-profile diplomatic allies, but lucrative sources for oil contracts.  China's ballooning energy demands are helping to fuel an oil boom in West Africa."

  • 2-4-4 (02:27)

  • updated movies list.
  • i wish there were more errol morris and frederick wiseman films on dvd.
  • "After being unavailable for nearly three years, Criterion's DVD of Stanley Donen's classic spy thriller Charade is coming back in print this spring. The Charade re-release will feature an all-new 16x9-enhanced high-definition digital transfer, in addition to all the supplements featured on the original release. Look for Charade in April of this year."
  • where did the tradition of a dead man's hand in poker being aces over eights start? there are lots of references in westerns to it, but i don't know how it all started.
  • my obsession with movies is becoming almost insane. every movie i watch opens up a new list of movies that i want to check out or buy. one would think that every movie i watch would be one less for me to watch later, but what ends up happening is that every movie i watch makes me add another couple movies to my netflix queue or my dvd wish list. right now i have 311 movies and that's a lot. but i could double that within a week if i had the money. i've already seen 48 movies this year, but if i had the time and resources i probably would have seen twice that number by now. i suppose there are worse obsessions to have.
  • in the last week i've seen two dvds with quotes from peter travers (of rolling stone magazine), both read "there's magic in it!" if i had access to lexis-nexis i'd do a search for peter travers and "there's magic in it!" i wonder how many times he's used that one. rolling stone magazine is just plain bad.
  • my interview with a real canadian.
  • time to sleep.

  • 2-3-4 (02:04)

  • updated movies list. on my list i've decided to start keeping track
  • i'm still mad about the super bowl.
  • "Shawshank Redemption: Special Edition is planned for September DVD release by Warner Bros. to celebrate the film's 10th anniversary."

  • 2-2-4 (02:58)

  • updated movies list.
  • need some sleep.
  • by the end of the week i should know about the job.
  • by the end of tuesday we will probably have a clearer picture of who will lose to george bush in november. i don't understand a political culture that, nine months before the actual election, has already lost interest in voting their conscience. so many people have already flopped over to kerry, even if he wasn't their first choice, because he appears to be more "electable."
  • i was very sad to see the panthers lose today. we should and could have won, but we didn't and i don't want to dwell on all the things we did wrong or could have done differently. stevonne smith got a touchdown and that was exciting. the panthers are better than people gave them credit for and they proved that today. i knew they'd do well. the only surprise for me was that it turned out to be a high scoring game.

  • 2-1-4 (01:36)

  • "A recent flurry of announcements from the Bush administration about proposed funding increases for environmental projects -- including salmon restoration and brush clearing in the Northwest, Everglades protection in Florida, and cleanup of the Great Lakes -- has some enviros suspicious.  Not that they aren't glad to have a bit more money going to good causes.  But they point out that the funding increases have several things in common:  they are for programs the administration pushed to cut as recently as last year; they represent a fraction of the money requested by the affected parties; they were announced with fanfare in an election year; and, most significantly, they funnel money to crucial electoral battleground states.  "God help you if you're waiting for EPA to clean up a toxic waste site outside of a swing state," said Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust.  The White House rejected the contention that its announcements were politically motivated."

  • updated movies list. 44 movies in one month.