4-30-04 (02:21)
  • ncaa tightens academic requirements. the article isn't very specific, but i assume there are some plans to increase the minimum SAT score or some such step to "ensure athletes are better prepared when they enter college." i have no problem with steps that encourage colleges to graduate more of their atheletes...i've always respected for bobby knight because, despite his temper, he makes sure his athletes graduate at a much higher than average rate. but ever since i saw "hoop dreams" i've felt that academic requirements for atheletes should be kept lower than non-athletes. there are a few reasons for my opinion on this. 1) college is about preparing high school graduates for the next level in whatever career they desire. some people want to become senators, others basketball players. currently there are more nba players than there are senators, yet people would more likely refer to being in the nba as a pipe dream; not sure why that is. there are a good deal of opportunities in sports - coaching at all levels and playing here and abroad are just the most popular ones. 2) we don't require kids with a 1600 on their SAT to take physicals, so why would we require atheletes to meet stricter academic standards? should their be some sort of standard? sure, but i don't think raising it is necessary or preferable which bring me to number 3) raising standards doesn't mean that atheletes are going to do better, it means that more atheletes are going to be denied the opportunity to go to college. for basketball this means that more will enter the draft out of high school which means there will be less talent in college and more undeveloped talent in the nba. that won't benefit the ncaa or the nba, but it will benefit the few kids who make it to the nba out of high school since they'll be getting paid at least six figures. and though there will be more people trying to make the jump, many won't make it and some of those who do make it won't have had the many opportunities that college provides. finally, i don't think it hurts other students, or the college at large, all that much to have a handful of atheletes, who are less qualified academically, be part of the college. i understand that it's a zero sum situation, meaning that for every underqualified athlete who makes it, there will be a qualified non-athlete who doesn't. but, personally, i don't have a problem with that. them's the breaks. so that's my ethical argument for keeping the standards where they are. of course there's the economic argument which is pretty overwhelming and obvious, but really shouldn't factor into the decision as much as it does, so i won't adopt it here.
  • the big news of the day is also sports related...the kings won tonight and made it to the second round of the playoffs. our offense had its shit together again and that was encouraging. in three of the four games that we won in this series, though, we had scoring droughts down the stretch and that's cause for concern. overall it was a strong series and it got our confidence back. tonight's game was a fun one to watch. bibby was on fire which was good because webber had a bad game. the officiating was poor and mostly to our detriment, but we still pulled it out so that was good. our rebounding was bad again and that's going to be a concern against a team like minnesota. i like the fact that we were down by as much as 16 and still were able to come back through a combination of defense and good shooting. we also won three of the four quarters so that's a positive sign. songaila did a really good job this series. not as much as bobby jackson would have done off the bench, but good nonetheless. we're going to really miss bobby jackson against minnesota. hopefully he gets better soon.
  • while i was at work today i was training a new girl on the ticketmaster machine and showing her how to get tickets for various events at various price levels. as an example i pulled up tonight's kings game since the prices vary from 900 to 12 bucks. out of pure luck i was able to find a couple tickets at the 27.50 price. that's pretty crazy since those games sell out in the first few minutes that they go on sale. what must have happened is either they released more tickets or there was a refund. unfortunately i couldn't go to the game so i asked the guys at armadillo (music store across the street) and one of them snagged the tickets. lucky guy.
  • tonight was also the pixies concert. ryan and luke came from berkeley....ryan to see the concert and luke to tag along. luke visited me at tower which was nice, but i was pretty concerned at the time because the kings were down 17-3 at the time. maybe it was 14-3, either way it was looking very bad.
  • no movie tonight. the other night i watched the first 19 minutes of grease 2 and just couldn't bring myself to watch the rest of the movie. it's such an awful piece of crap. at least when i watched gigli i was watching it with someone and had a sort of morbid curiousity of how bad it would get. grease 2 compelled me in no way other than to press eject.
  • after the nhl and nba playoffs i'll be able to focus on my fantasy baseball team.
  • called the city of davis to follow up on one of the many positions for which i've applied lately...the guy said he didn't have any positions open, but that i should continue to call. that wasn't a total rejection so i guess that's good. also applied for two jobs at uc davis. looked into jobs at sac city and didn't find anything. i look at the classifieds almost daily. i also look at the sacbee classfieds frequently. i also look for jobs on craigslist.org. in other words, contrary to popular belief, i'm still actively looking.
  • got the money from the coachella tickets today. also got a bill for car insurance.

  • 4-29-04 (02:01)

  • updated movies list.
  • "Also today, there's a story up over at CNN.com on a new DVD player from RCA that uses ClearPlay software to censor "objectionable" material out of movies on disc. So, you know... if you're just dying to show your underage kids movies like (for example) Dawn of the Dead, Last Tango in Paris or Natural Born Killers, but don't want them to see any naughty bits, this $70 piece of poo is right up your alley. MMmmmmm... makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and safe inside! Any guesses as to where you can buy this player? Yep... Wal-Mart, that retail bastion of moral decency which, to this day, still sells guns and ammo in its stores (Low Prices on Brands You Trust... like Beretta, Ruger and Savage!). I have nothing against guns - it's the hypocrisy that drives me crazy. Personally, I'd rather just wait until my kids were old enough to see a movie the way it was MEANT to be seen. Ah well. It's a truly puzzling world." - thedigitalbits.com
  • today was pretty lame. my bike fell while it was locked up and apparently banged up against the metal pole to which it was locked. as a result the big cog attached to the crank is bent out of shape a bit and makes the chain rub against the front derailer with each rotation.
  • some customer left their doggie bag at the front counter at work today. after we closed i looked inside and there was some leftover sushi. i took it home and ate it. there's not much i wouldn't do for sushi. i'm also poor so free food can't be wasted.
  • i wish i had cable so i could watch the nhl and nba playoffs. there are only two or three channels i'd be interested in if i got cable so paying 50 bucks a month just doesn't seem worth it.
  • the "progress" of our country has been marked by (among other things) the increased difficulty to separate oneself from society. 200 years ago it would have been rather easy to have a family and live on a farm with very minimal human contact. i wish it were easier to subsist on your own labor these days. i understand that the system we have now allows me to have a dvd player and go downtown to buy a dvd and eat a lunch someone else prepared for me, etc. but i often wish i could trade all that for the ability to work my own land and not have to deal with stupid drunk people trying to pick fights with other stupid drunk people in the middle of the street, or stupid drivers turning left in front of my bike, or people in general or go to work for a boss so i can earn a piece of paper that becomes a number on a screen that gets smaller as i pay for electricity, a place to sleep, hot water, a phone line, interest on past debts, car insurance and food. we're the wealthiest nation in the world, but we also have such a great deal of overhead as individuals. i wonder how many people actually own their homes now. i don't know anyone who owns their home. people call themselves home owners, but they still have to pay for their homes. once you actually own your home outright you become very rich because all that money you were spending on space to sleep, now is disposable income. it's pretty depressing when you start thinking about it. i'm about two steps away from living like ted.
  • tomorrow is my friday and that's good.

  • 4-28-04 (02:06)

  • updated movies list.
  • orbital are splitting up after their next album comes out.
  • setting the facts straight about kerry's record. there's also a good article in the march 27th issue of the economist regarding kerry as a supposed flip-flopper. it puts his votes in their proper context and points out that "flip-flopping" isn't always a bad thing. for example, bush, pre-9/11, would have been against a department of homeland security or how about his claims to be pro free trade, but later deciding to impose a tariff on imported steel.
  • "The claim that Kerry voted against body armor is based similarly on Kerry's vote last year against an $87 billion emergency supplemental appropriation bill to finance military operations and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It included $300 million for the latest, ceramic-plate type of body armor for troops who had been sent to war without it. The body-armor funds amounted to about 1/3 of one percent of the total."
  • if i were a politician i would write all sorts of bills that allocated 99% of their funds to wars on cheese or boots, or something equally inane, while having the other 1% of the money go towards helping the homeless or giving a tax refund to the middle class or something. then, come election time, i could tell the american people that my opponent, senator x, voted against middle class tax relief and helping the homeless - what an evil guy. the scary thing is that if i had almost 200 million bucks to spend on my campaign (like bush), people would start to believe my accusations about my opponent.
  • i'm interested in finding out what will happen regarding campaign finance reform. the mccain/feingold bill doesn't seem to be doing very much. now we have independent organizations campaigning for/against candidates under the guise of free speech. they could try to shut down all "partisan" campaigning from organizations, but i don't know how successful that will be. i think that if that happens it benefits the left because there's nothing wrong with informing people of their rights as voters or putting money into getting people to register to vote...both are leftist tactics to mobilize the poor and disenfranchised.
  • who is kerry's VP going to be?

  • 4-27-04 (02:09)

  • updated movies list.
  • big win tonight for the kings. happy that went well. we should have closed out the game a bit better, but i like the outcome. darius songaila made a bad rookie mistake and webber got an offensive rebound while on the out of bounds line...the replay i saw made it look like he was actually inbounds, but it got called as a turnover. the mavs missed a bunch of free throws and they'll point to that as the reason for their loss. it's a tough loss for them because there's a huge difference between being down 3-1 and being tied 2-2. at any rate we won the game and now we only have to win one game out of the next three.
  • of the "big four" american sports i like basketball the most. each of the four is interesting in its own way. in baseball the defense has the ball, in basketball, hockey and football the offense has the ball. basketball and hockey are the most fluid of the two. football is the only sport of the four that allows people to play on only one side of the game (except for the american league in baseball, but that's another debate...) hockey is neat because even though there is so much back and forth and so many substitutions, it's a low scoring game so all goals are big goals. in basketball one play in the middle of the game has very little bearing on the outcome of the game (unless it's an injury), but in a hockey game one breakaway goal can be the difference. i think that football is the most intensely strategic of the four. it's also the worst sport to watch on tv since you see the smallest percentage of the field. since baseball is so slow they have time to show tv viewers when the outfield shifts or if the first baseman is playing the line or any number of things outside of the usual pitcher-batter shot. in football showing a play develop downfield isn't much of an option. they can show you a replay, but that's not as good. basketball and hockey are almost always confined to one end of the court/ice so you can see pretty much all the action within the screen. i'm not sure why i like basketball the most. perhaps it's because basketball is the sport that develops the most complete athletes (in my opinion). there are only five people on the court at any given time (the least of the four sports) and each must play well on both sides of the court. any disadvantage a player may have on defense will be exploited so everyone needs to develop both sides of their game. despite having the smallest playable area, basketball (like all sports) is still a very strategic game. and because it's so fluid it is never boring to watch. i could go on analyzing the differences between the sports, but most of it is self-evident. suffice it to say that i like all of them, but for different reasons.
  • "Criterion’s upcoming release of Gillo Pontecorvo’s landmark 1965 film The Battle of Algiers will be a three DVD set. This special edition will include a new transfer supervised by cinematographer Marcello Gatti and a number of features created specifically for the Criterion release, including new interviews with writer/director Gillo Pontecorvo, producer/actor Saadi Yacef, actor Jean Martin, Marcello Gatti, composer Ennio Morricone, and historians Benjamin Stora and Alistair Horne. Also featured will be filmmakers speaking to the film's importance, including directors Steven Soderbergh, Julian Schnabel, and Spike Lee. Look for Criterion’s The Battle of Algiers this autumn."

  • 4-26-04 (01:29)

  • updated movies list.
  • hmmm.
  • lakers won a close one today. i hate the lakers. i like jeff van gundy and yao ming. houston is my second favorite team.

  • 4-24-04 (22:37)

  • added a country of origin column on my movies lists. it's going to take a while, and i'm not check every single title, but it'll be nice to have once it's completed.

  • 4-23-04 (03:09)

  • updated movies list.
  • one reason that being a runner was so cool is that after every workout you knew you had made yourself better. it was easy to see an improvement on a weekly basis. every day built on the next and that's nice. it seems that much of the rest of life isn't like that. with other things that you may want to change about yourself the slate gets wiped clean every morning. at least that's how it seems with me. if you do some good things today that doesn't have any bearing on what's going to happen tomorrow.
  • had to train new people at work today and didn't get to leave until 10:40. i usually get out by 10:10. joe told me the other day that i have to stay until 10:30 everyday rather than just leaving after the closing duties are done. no one wants me to get a new job more than i do.
  • so when bush got that authorization from congress to do what he wanted in iraq (what were they thinking, by the way?) he had to show congress two things: 1) that there was no diplomatic avenues left available AND 2) he had to show that action in iraq was consistent with the war on terrorism. i hadn't heard of these stipulations until just this month. i listen to the news fairly frequently and yet i never heard that there were stipulations regarding his movements in iraq. i always heard it was more or less a blank check handing over military power to bush. so i'm sort of happy to hear that congress made him meet certain (ambiguous) guidelines but i'm also disheartened that 1) i didn't hear about them until recently and 2) that they weren't enforced.
  • melanie got my !!! (chk chk chk) cd signed by one of the band members today. he was down at kdvs for the fundraiser and she went down there to get her premium. that was nice of her.

  • 4-22-04 (01:47)

  • we decided that we're not going to go to coachella. it's just going to be a pain and we could get pretty good money for the tickets.
  • today was shitty in almost every possible way.
  • updated movies list.
  • saw scott simmons in tower today and talked with him for a few minutes. that was the highlight of my day.
  • listening to haunted dancehall by sabres of paradise. not sure why i haven't listened to that more often.
  • william hung's album is number seven on our top 25 at tower.

  • 4-21-04 (02:10)

  • KDVS fundraiser is going on right now. do your part here.
  • updated movies list.
  • kings won a big game tonight. webber came up big (despite missing two big free throws down the stretch) and looked as good as he has all year. bibby turned it on late in the game and christie had another good effort. our defensive rebounding still needs work. overall we looked good and got good shots (unfortunately they weren't falling), so i'm happy.
  • "On 7/6, look for the film noir classics The Big Clock, Black Angel, Criss Cross, Double Indemnity, This Gun for Hire (1942) and Touch of Evil (all SRP $14.98)" on dvd.
  • the celebration is coming to dvd on 7/27. finally.
  • soundgarden are good.

  • 4-19-04 (02:08)

  • updated movies list.
  • "Madonna has ditched her best friend Debi Mazar - because she doesn't follow the teachings of the Kabbalah. The revelation comes just days after the singer reportedly refused to schedule performances for her upcoming world tour on Friday nights, because the mystical offshoot of Judaism forbids it. An insider tells New York website Page Six, "They are no longer best friends. Debi is very hurt and confused, but Madonna has made up her mind. These women have been friends for 20 years and now, nothing." The Material Girl has donated huge sums of money to the religion - including all proceeds from her children's books - and will reportedly give the Kabbalah Center earnings from her upcoming Re-invention Tour. The insider adds, "Madonna is doing everything for Kabbalah she and hubby Guy Ritchie are its biggest cash cows - they make a lot of money for the Kabbalah Center.""
  • picnic day was yesterday and that was fun. we didn't do all that much, and it rained while we were biking to and from the fesitivities, but it was still a good day. most of the time we were there it wasn't raining at all. the weather has been odd the last couple days. saw some funny short films, the j band, a fashion show, and a bunch of other stuff.
  • on friday we watched kill bill volume one and two and ate out.
  • i had a good weekend, but it went by too quickly.
  • the kings won today and i got to see most of the game so that made me happy. christie came up big. peja got going early and webber was as aggressive as i've seen him this year, though his numbers were only average for him. divac opened up the game early. not having jackson hurt us defensively because peeler isn't as quick to recover or help on rotation. also, brad miller wasn't able to get much going because of the matchup problems that dallas presents. we shut them down when we needed to and that's what counts. we played a good game, but it wasn't as great as the announcers made it out to be. the intensity was there and that's what was lacking the last few weeks, so that may have contributed to people thinking it was a really good game. the next game will be tougher and we'll have to find a way to consistently slow them down.
  • still not sure whether i'll be able to go to coachella or not.

  • 04-16-04 (03:37)

  • interesting interview.
  • updated movies list.
  • i have the shins album stuck in my head. fuck the shins.
  • "according to the latest issue of Video Business, director Quentin Tarantino has big plans for both Kill Bill, Volume 1 and Volume 2 on DVD. The director has been quoted as saying that he cut an alternate version of Kill Bill, Volume 1 for release in Japan, that will be released in the States eventually. This version contains both new footage and omissions. He also plans to assemble a complete 4-hour version of both films together for art house theatrical screenings. Look for a multi-disc "major special edition" of both films on DVD, which may include significant deleted scenes (including the original introduction to the character of Bill, who originally fought Michael Jai White, as well as the original scene at the wedding chapel). Tarantino is also reportedly considering releasing additional stand-alone supplemental discs after the main DVD release."
  • netflix is raising their prices by 10%.

  • 04-15-04 (00:42)

  • this is what i'm talking about.
  • "Federal policies favorable to renewable energy could yield up to 240,000 jobs by 2020 nationwide, whereas continued focus on new fossil-fuel development would yield only some 80,000 jobs, according to a new study by researchers from the University of California at Berkeley.  The research was released yesterday at a Seattle press conference that highlighted the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of enviros, politicians, labor activists, and deep thinkers that is promoting a national effort on renewable energy commensurate with the single-minded pursuit of space travel under President Kennedy's Apollo Project.  The Alliance's goal is to have renewables providing 15 percent of the nation's energy by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020. The Alliance sees hope for its agenda in the current troubles besetting Bush's fossil-fuel-centric energy plan, which is mired both in the Senate and, the group says, the 20th century."
  • no movie tonight.
  • today was a really bad day.
  • kings lost, lakers won in double ot with a last second shot from kobe. that means the kings are fourth in the west and the lakers are second. that's just silly. we've totally tanked it lately and my conclusion is that it's a mental thing. either way, if we go out in the first round then adelman will have to look for another job. not having bobby jackson sucks, but isn't excuse enough for the way we've played lately.
  • work was awful and i almost quit.
  • "The U.K. is stuck with nearly 500,000 tons of nuclear waste, which will be dangerous for 250,000 years, and it is flummoxed about what to do with it.  A government commission assigned to study the problem is considering a range of options including, we kid you not, firing the stuff into the sun, burying it underneath the ocean, placing it on Antarctica where it would melt its way down to bedrock, and tunneling it down under the Earth's crust -- an idea that's already been tried (!) by the U.S. and Russia.  There's also the old-fashioned option of storing it above ground in concrete bunkers, but those things need upgrading every 100 years or so, and by our math, that's 2,500 upgrades before the waste becomes safe.  A report to the commission states, with tragic-comic British dryness, that 50 years of experience dealing with nuclear waste shows "the pursuit of 'the best' in the long-term management of radioactive waste to be an illusory concept," and that success, in this grim context, means "the identification of 'the acceptable.'""
  • i have 472 movies in my netflix queue.

  • 4-14-04 (01:11)

  • updated movies list.
  • was searching through more job ads today and came across a counselor position at a shelter like the one i used to work at in woodland. they're offering $9/hr to work with "severely emotionally disturbed adolescent boys, ages 7-14." right below that ad there was another ad for the same shelter that had an opening for a cook position. for that position they were offering $10.50/hr.
  • i've been looking for a job just about every day now for the last few months and still haven't found anything as promising as the city of davis job.
  • i like westerns more than i realized.
  • big kings game tomorrow. doug christie is officially my favorite kings player.
  • i thought about possibly quitting my job and getting a few part time jobs instead of one full time job. if i worked for the theater, had a paper route and cleaned houses for old ladies that would mean just as much money as i make now and i'd have a slightly more flexible schedule and wouldn't have to deal with one boss as much. a paper route would mean i'd basically work on my own the whole time, cleaning/doing yard work would be physical and would be an as needed type of job and the theater thing would mean free movies and easy work. i wouldn't get any benefits and i'd probably end up working more hours, but it's an idea.
  • there's a decent chance that joe won't let me have may 1st and 2nd off because we have two more people quitting before then. that would mean that i wouldn't be able to goto coachella despite asking for the days off over a month ago. two other people want to go to the music festival as well, so that poses a problem. hopefully i get the time off. if i don't then i don't know what i'll end up doing. i've seriously contemplated just quitting.
  • max beesley is my least favorite actor of all-time.
  • david mcnally may be the worst director ever.
  • after tower filed for bankruptcy joe said "business will run as usual, there won't be any store closures, everyone still has a job." but then in march i read this article which said "“We don’t anticipate any layoffs at all,” said spokesperson Kevin Cassidy. “We’ve gone down that road for the last two years.” Tower said it would shutter two undisclosed store locations." i heard yesterday (from a customer) that the berkeley store is closing in may. i heard from another customer that there are two other stores that might be closing. this is the kind of thing that makes working for a major company a major pain in the ass.

  • 4-13-04 (01:05)

  • updated movies list.
  • kings lost tonight. i actually don't mind the loss that much. we need to win the next, and final, game in order to secure a second place finish in the west. being second would give us a first round matchup against houston who we shouldn't have much trouble with.
  • anyone who keeps abreast of the news on a semi-regular basis should be well aware of how inept george bush is and yet 45% of the people still plan on voting for him. every time i think of that it bewilders me. regardless of your ideology you have to see his policies as pretty insidious and evil. it just blows my mind.
  • work was mostly lame today. i stayed busy, which was good, but joe was on his period so that made things lame.

  • 4-12-04 (00:40)

  • another good site.
  • updated movies list. five days in a row that i've watched at least two movies. that streak will likely end tomorrow.
  • "California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger turned into a real-life action hero last week - by saving a swimmer from drowning. The 56-year-old was holidaying with his family in Maui, Hawaii, when he helped the struggling swimmer by diving into the sea and bringing him back to the beach. An onlooker says, "Arnold sat with this guy for quite a while as he had cramps, was breathless and a bit shaken up. He was also overawed by having just been rescued by the Terminator. It's not every day one of the world's most famous movie heroes saves you from drowning. I'm sure he'll be telling all his friends although they might not believe him.""
  • i'm happy that the kings won today.
  • my feet are sore. people just aren't meant to be on their feet for 6-8 hours a day.

  • 4-11-04 (18:08)

  • listened to most of the first half, and watched the entire second half of the kings game today. that was the kings basketball. all this talk about webber holding the kings back or adelman needing to switch up the line-up was proven false today. we played defense both on and off the ball, we rebounded well on both sides of the court, and our offense moved without the ball. today's game was a thing of beauty. after the game shaq said (on live tv) he was "not fucking impressed" and will likely be fined for that. despite what he says none of the lakers fouled out and the lakers only had three more fouls than the kings. kobe shot the ball only once in the first half in part because our defense was that good and in part because the zen master has allowed the lakers to sort of fall apart in the last four or five games. they'll get it back together for the playoffs, i'm sure. but the fact remains that when the kings play as hard as they played tonight they can beat anyone in the world. that's not an overstatement. we didn't shoot the lights out (only 42%), peja only scored 13 points, we made just as many three-pointers as the lakers (8), had fewer offensive rebounds (13 vs. 16) and equalled them in overall rebounds (47, which is good since we usually get out rebounded)...all this is to point out that we didn't actually have that great of a game - i've seen our offense play a lot better - but we played hard and that is what made the difference. if we play this hard and we have a good shooting night or peja is having a good night then we have the potential to score 130 points and/or hold teams to under 80 points. that's not going to happen in the playoffs because of the level of competition, but the potential is there, we just need to play as hard as we can for the entire 48 minutes. my favorite stat of the game was the combined point total of shaq and kobe - 18.
  • congratulations to phil mickelson for finally winning a major. maybe that means chris webber will finally win a championship.

  • 4-11-04 (01:14)

  • nice site.
  • updated movies list. according to my latest calculations i'm on pace to watch about 530 movies this year.
  • have work early tomorrow. feels like the first day back to school. i was wrong earlier when i said that i hadn't worked at all this month. i worked last sunday for a few hours.
  • blinds are difficult to clean.
  • i'm trying to think of a way to build a pull out surface under my desktop that would be suitable for writing on.
  • i'm not very tired right now which is unfortunate.
  • i don't seem to listen to very much music these days...especially new stuff. i'm sort of out of the loop. i think a lot of it comes down to the fact that i only have so much time and money and most of those resources go towards movies these days. also, there doesn't seem to be very much worth checking out lately.

  • 4-10-04 (16:18)

  • i've started looking for the original star wars films on dvd. it turns out to be easier than i thought. i always assumed that dvd transfers of the laserdisc versions would be hard to find through the normal channels (ebay, etc.), but i was wrong.
  • i've never had an allergic reactions until i moved into my current apartment. there are some trees around here that spew their pollen all over the place and it makes my eyes itch like crazy.

  • 4-10-04 (12:27)

  • watched about half an hour of godard's "in praise of love" today. what a piece of crap. totally incoherent and not nearly as beautiful as reviewers made it out to be.
  • as much as roger ebert phones in some of his reviews for blockbuster films, i do respect his reviews for the independent films. i think that he gives the big movies a thumbs up sometimes just so people will think he's a critic that is in touch with the masses, so to speak. by doing this he may persuade people to go out on a limb once in a while when it comes to a film they've never heard of. i don't always agree with him, but i respect his opinion. i mention this because after laboring through the first 30-40 minutes of "in praise of love" i went to metacritic to see what i was missing by not finishing the film. here's part of what ebert said: "Yes, I praised the film in an article from the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, but have now seen it again, and no longer agree with those words.....Defenses of the film are tortured rhetorical exercises in which critics assemble Godard's materials and try to paraphrase them to make sense. Few ordinary audience members, however experienced, can hope to emerge from this film with a coherent view of what Godard was attempting....I see so little there: It is all remembered rote work, used to conceal old tricks, facile name-calling, the loss of hope, and emptiness." he gave it a 25/100.
  • will probably watch a couple more movies today. might play some basketball. not feeling very good right now. the kings suck, i'm tired, i want a new job and my stomach hurts.
  • saw an article that brought to my attention something i should have thought about before...the fact that china is growing so quickly (in industrial terms, not population-wise) means that the price of raw materials and consumables like oil is only going to continue to rise at greater than expected rates. a while back i heard a story on npr about the decision to ban bicycles in shanghai in order to make room for cars which more and more chinese people are starting to buy because of the growing middle class population in china. the same thing has been happening in parts of india for a while now, but to a lesser extent. if those two countries start to consume at anywhere near the same rate as the U.S. then the world is in big trouble. of course this isn't to say that they shouldn't try to become more affluent as nations, rather i'm trying to point out the obvious - that consumption at our current rate is barely sustainable right now, just imagine what happens if the two most populous nations in the world (each having three times the number of people that we have) start consuming at the rate of western nations.

  • 4-10-04 (02:07)

  • i've had zero days of work in april. that's pretty nice.
  • "Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has just suspended -- pending further study and review -- the massive hydroelectric dam system planned for the Nu River, which runs through an unspoiled, richly biodiverse area in western China dubbed a World Heritage Site by the U.N.  The dam was opposed by China's nascent environmental movement, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the State Environmental Protection Agency, but few observers held out much hope that the project could be stopped.  Wen's move seemed to signal a new concern for environmental protection on the part of the Communist government.  In a written order, Wen said, "We should carefully consider and make a scientific decision about major hydroelectric projects like this that have aroused a high level of concern in society, and with which the environmental protection side disagrees."  Chinese enviros and scientists were shocked and pleased. Said professor and dam opponent He Daming, "I don't think I've ever heard of anything like this ever happening before.""
  • the kings lost another game tonight. they've gone from first place in the west to third in just two games.
  • updated movies list.
  • "Speaking before a crowd in Michigan, Marc Racicot, chair of President Bush's reelection campaign, characterized Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as "incredibly environmentally green" and an environmental extremist; it was unclear whether he saw any distinction between the two.  Racicot criticized Kerry's support for a plan to raise the average fuel efficiency of America's car and light-truck fleet to 36 miles per gallon by 2015.  Claiming the plan would cost the nation 450,000 jobs and Michigan alone 105,000 jobs, Racicot said, "Environmental extremism is not something that the people of Michigan are going to support."  Kerry spokesperson Bill Burton dismissed the criticism and pointed out that the state has lost 300,000 jobs since Bush became president.  Michigan, home of the Big Three automakers and thousands of autoworkers, is a crucial swing state whose electoral votes went to Al Gore in 2000."
  • i'm really psyched about a couple of criterion dvds that are coming out in the next couple months. stray dog (kurosawa) and the lower depths (both kurosawa and renoir versions). i also want to check out tin drum and the testament of dr. mabuse.
  • i was supposed to be at work yesterday, but i wasn't on the schedule so i didn't show up. talked with joe about it today and he acknowledged it was his fault. he didn't say anything about my showing up late on sunday.
  • melanie is going home for easter.
  • while i've had this time off i've done a pretty good job of staying active and watching movies. i've seen 17 movies and either played catch or basketball all but one day of the month. i've watched a lot of bad movies this month. i've also watched or listened to a lot of kings games lately.
  • there's a film festival in davis tomorrow that i may check out. i really should, but i just paid a bunch of bills and started up a subscription to the nation, so i'm broke again.
  • i've yet to see a perfect film, but the graduate is as close as i've ever seen. i was thinking about this because i've been seeing so many really really awful movies lately and it got me thinking about whether it's possible to make a film that is flawed in every single possible way. so i thought about the opposite of that - the perfect film. and i came to the conclusion that it's damn near impossible to make a perfect film, but just as hard to make a film that is completely bad. even gigli, which right now heads up my list of worst films of all-time, has moments that aren't painful. i guess it just comes down to how much you are willing to slice up a film. if you look at a film scene by scene or shot by shot then it is possible to find something right/wrong in all films. for better or worse, i often break down films in shorter time intervals. i actually used to be the exact opposite. i used to judge a film based upon the majority of its offering. in other words, if a film was more than 50% good then it was a good movie. or if a film had a really good ending then it was a good film, despite what may have come before it. it wasn't that cut and dry, really, but my inclination was more towards the work as a whole outweighing any micro moments of good that a bad film may have had, or bad that a good film may have had.
  • i need sleep.

  • 4-9-04 (12:58)

  • updated movies list.
  • sarah leaves this afternoon.
  • last night melanie and i went to roundtable pizza and watched the kings blow a good lead in the fourth quarter. i'm very sad about that loss because we played really really well for the first three quarters and then we missed free throws and open shots which led to our losing the game. it was ours to win, but we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, as the saying goes. a poor outcome to what was otherwise a solid game. i'm pretty depressed about the whole thing.
  • condoleezza rice's testimony was pretty much what we expected. she backed bush and blamed the intelligence. on the one hand the administration clearly had information that should have been acted upon, on the other hand that kind of intelligence is always vague and in a pre-9/11 era it's hard to justify shutting things down for unclear threats. in other words, i don't think much will come from the 9/11 commission...there will be a lot of finger pointing, but i don't think it will hurt bush very much. besides, there have been a lot of changes since 9/11 and the commission will likely site that as a positive for the bush administration. of course a lot of the changes have eroded our civil rights, but on the surface it looks like bush has done a lot of good things to prevent terror attacks in the future. my sense is that this will more or less blow over by the time the elections come because nothing big was revealed. i actually think that the stuff that happened immediately after 9/11 is more intriguing and damning than the stuff that happened before. things like the fact that the bin laden family was given a free pass to fly immediately following the attacks, or that within days the administration was thinking about using this as an excuse to finish business in iraq, or that bush used the attacks to author the patriot act and shove in all sorts of insidious legislation and "relief" for corporations...
  • the ncaa final turned out to be pretty lame.

  • 4-8-04 (13:26)

  • updated movies list.
  • sarah is in oakland today. i'm going to watch movies.

  • 4-4-04 (14:27)

  • forgot about the time change so i was an hour late for work today. that was bad and may get me in trouble when joe finds out.
  • sarah is in town.
  • went to berkeley/oakland on friday. sarah got to see berkeley (the city and the campus) for the first time. i got to see johnny, luke and ryan. after spending time with them in berkeley we went to oakland to see the family. my uncle tried to convince me to vote against bush, rather than for nader. we had a nice debate that most construed as him lecturing me.
  • saw baaba maal in concert last night after the basketball games were over. we were a little late because of the uconn/duke game, but that was okay. the concert was great...the best performance i've seen at the mondavi center since its inception. if you want an introduction to african music him, fela kuti, salif keita, and youssou n'dour are the people with which to start.
  • both basketball games were good. i actually wanted ok state to win, but georgia tech looked strong all around so they'll pose a better threat to uconn. most of the tournament i thought that uconn would get to the final, but about 10 minutes before the game against duke started i changed my mind and thought that duke would pull it out. duke just has an aura surrounding them...coach K finds a way to make his teams win in big games so i thought they would pull it out. thankfully i was wrong.
  • in between games i went to the basketball courts across the road and played for 15 minutes or so. i like playing basketball.
  • don't know what we're going to do for the rest of the week. i haven't watching movies lately so we should do that and hopefully, since sarah is around, we can play some catch or something active. generally i don't have anyone to play ball with. er, i don't have anyone with which to play ball.

  • 4-2-4 (09:01)

  • updated movies list.

  • 4-1-04 (15:59)

  • "Yum! Brands, Inc. -- the Fortune 500 company that operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and several other restaurant chains worldwide -- has turned over a new environmental leaf.  In a statement released yesterday, CEO David Novak said, "We take our slogan -- 'alone we're delicious, together we're Yum!' -- seriously.  All earth's creatures are in this together.  Our executives, employees, and shareholders believe that we have a responsibility to care for our planet."  The company promised a range of eco-friendly changes to be phased in over the next five years:  All restaurant chains will use exclusively organic meat, include post-consumer recycled content in their packaging, and provide public-transportation subsidies to employees. The move came as a surprise to industry analysts and competitors in the fast-food business.  James Cantalupo, CEO of McDonald's Corp., said, "Frankly, I think it's unwise.  We're here to feed customers, not change the world.""
  • "Just when you thought the SUV craze couldn't get any more overheated, General Motors has upped the ante.  Yesterday, at the annual Copenhagen auto show, the company unveiled a prototype for a "DUV," or dual utility vehicle, dubbed the Kangaroo.  Not only would the vehicle be the largest SUV on the market -- 31 feet long, and weighing half again as much as a Hummer H2 -- it would be the first personal vehicle ever designed as both a means of transport and a garage.  Hard to believe, but the Kangaroo is designed to carry a spare vehicle inside it:  a small, nimble two-seater electric car called the Joey, which is loaded and unloaded via a retractable ramp. On vacations, the company said, the Joey could be used for navigating narrow city streets or "sport driving," while the Kangaroo could carry the luggage for the long haul.  According to GM, the Kangaroo and Joey would be "an unbeatable one-two punch for families that want the luxury of a large car with the convenience of a small one.""
  • april fools' day.
  • last year i saw 23 movies in the theater, this year i've seen 17.

  • 4-1-04 (02:44)

  • "Record-high gas prices are fueling the already-raging fire of this year's presidential race.  John Kerry has come out swinging in favor of lower fuel prices, prompting the Bushies to remind voters via TV attack ads that the Massachusetts senator has supported higher gasoline taxes in the past.  Kerry may be backpedaling on the gas tax, but he's not backing down from his support for higher auto fuel-economy standards.  For this he's drawing heat from Michigan Democrats worried about the automotive industry, despite poll results showing that Michiganders and even auto workers overwhelmingly support higher CAFE standards."
  • i don't mind the cost of oil being high. i know it raises the cost of everything...not just because most things need to be transported by means of oil burning devices (trucks, planes, etc), but also because it means less money is available to be spent on other things.
  • i don't know what the laws are regarding indian reservations. obviously there is some ruling that allows them to have casinos in states that normally don't allow such gaming. to me, this is just the tip of the iceberg...unless there is some built-in restrictions on the sovereignty of the reservations. depending on the limits, we may one day see reservations that act as pockets of third world nation-like cheap labor. if minimum wage doesn't apply then you could feasibly see wages that would compete with mexico and other nations, but wouldn't require factories moving as far. other possibilities would include lower health/envrionmental standards for factories, prostitution, etc. i assume there are some regulations on what sorts of things the reservations can do...maybe they are bound to federal regulations, but not state ones, or something like that. i wonder if they have the power to tax people/businesses on their territory. i'd like to know more about how the whole thing is structured; politically and economically.
  • great article about kubrick. thanks to vern for that. if i had more time and money i think i would live like kubrick. unfortunately living like that doesn't make you a genius.
  • kings lost again tonight. things are getting bad. granted miller and jackson didn't play, but we've been playing really poorly regardless of who is/not in the game. i haven't gotten to see enough of our games to really know, but it mostly looks like a lack of consistent effort. i think we're only one game ahead of the lakers now. that's pathetic.
  • http://www.nofragrance.org/ i'm not an mcs sufferer, but i can certainly empathize with the desire to flee a room because of someone's cologne/perfume. there are few things i dislike more than someone doused in perfume.
  • "I think sufficient proof must now exist that over-priced movie stars do little besides leaving an insufficient amount of money to make the film properly, or cause an unnecessarily high picture cost. A recent 'Variety' study, published during the past year, showed the domestic grosses of the last four films by a group of top stars were not sufficient to return even the star's salary, computed at a recoupment rate of 2.5 to 1. On the other hand, films like 'Dr. Zhivago', '2001', 'The Graduate' and many others show that people go to see good films that they enjoy, and that the main impetus of going to the movies is word-of-mouth recommendations from friends."
  • that's from kubrick's screenplay of "napolean" which he had been working on for many years, but abandoned.
  • hope this catches on.
  • heard a story on npr the other day about a proposal from santa monica that would ban smoking on the beaches. they had some lady on who told a story about the her days as a fourteen year old growing up in santa monica and sneaking onto the beach to smoke on abandoned lifeguard towers. she went on to say that she understood the ban for smoking indoors, but that the beach is the last bit of the frontier and should be free from such regulations. i like santa monica. they were one of the first cities to fine people for talking on their cellphones while driving and i think this ban on smoking at the beach is a good idea as well. cigarette butts in the ocean and in sand castles is fucking lame. as for rafkin's rationale that the 14 year olds won't be allowed to sneak around on the beach to smoke anymore...wtf? what kind of rationale is that? i must have missed something because if breaking one law doesn't stop a 14 year old, then i doubt another one will. her whole story sounded pretty half-baked.
  • i don't have a problem with a foreigner being our president, but instead of 20 years of residency/citizenship, i think a candidate should have spent 50% or more of their life in america.
  • i saw maria shriver on some crappy magazine show like 20/20 the other night. she was talking about how the kennedy dynasty is great, but that the shriver dynasty is also great and often over-looked. the fact that she has even thought about that, or thought of her family in "dynasty" terms, tells a lot about what kind of person she is.
  • recently i checked out some of michel gondry's videos (again) and was blown away (again) by some of the stuff he has done. that guy is some kind of genius. i mean chris cunningham and spike jonze are brilliant, but gondry is working at an even higher level. not only does he have amazing ideas, but he's able to organize his thoughts in such a way that he is able to make them translate to film remarkably well. when i watch his stuff i think two main things - i wish i knew a lot more about the technique of filmmaking, and it's true that our only limitation is our imagination. check out some of these videos to see what i'm talking about: chemical brothers - let forever be; cibo matto - sugar water; foo fighters - everlong; kylie minogue - come into my world; and white stripes - the hardest button to button.
  • sarah gets in later today. it's 425am and i still haven't written my movie review yet. had a lot to do tonight.
  • updated movies list.