Category: words mean things (Page 195 of 223)

I’ve been endlessly amused by all the “reporting” being done recently about GWB’s “First 100 Days.” Come on, people. FDR had a first 100 days; JFK had a first 100 days. Even using the same term is an insult. Watching him mug on the morning shows this week gave me chills – he looked like Jethro Bodine doin’ some cipherin’.

What’s scary is that our president is an idiot. What’s even scarier is that apparently, it doesn’t matter.

Rented Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” on DVD last night, mainly because the aforementioned Joe Dirt et al. didn’t seem to warrant plunking down the money in the multiplex, even if they do have stadium seating. I didn’t like the movie much when it was over, but since then I’ve been thinking a lot about it, and I like it a lot more now. I just wish for once Spike Lee would make a movie without a MESSAGE. It’s sort of like how I wish Christopher Walken would try playing a normal, non-scary guy once in his life.

I always spend a lot of the time watching a Spike Lee movie trying to decipher all the MESSAGES he is trying to get across, and not enough time just enjoying the experience. I really don’t think Spike necessarily wants us to “enjoy” ourselves anyway, but rather contemplate and ruminate and discuss. That can get tiring sometimes.

So Colby “Mr. Unstoppable” Donaldson had his mom visit the Outback last night on Survivor:DV, in an exact replica of Sean “Dr. Stoopid” Kenniff’s dad’s visit last time. Except this time, Colby’s mom watched him shower; slept beside him in Colby’s new Pontiac Aztec; and prompted him to say as she left, “It was like a conjugal visit when you’re a prisoner.”

I hope to god Colby doesn’t know what “conjugal” means.

Cap’n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch is surely the cereal they eat in Heaven.

It’s a sad, sad world when the new movies you have to choose from at your local feet-stuck-to-the-floor multiplex are: Joe Dirt, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, Escanaba in da Moonlight, Freddy Got Fingered, and Josie and the Pussycats. Gak. 2000 was a crappy year for movies, and apparently 2001 will be even worse. What the hell were they thinking?

I guess I’ll just pop the Fight Club DVD in again. (Are you out there, Mosey?)

I was a little disappointed to see that after just a few performances, John Larroquette is out of The West Wing as White House Counsel Lionel Tribbey. He’s cool overall, and seemed to enjoy himself as the hothead Tribbey. One of the many things to love about this show is how they can use high-profile actors in smaller roles (Stockard Channing, anyone?) and mix them in so well with the regulars. In Larroquette’s place was new counsel Oliver Platt (I like him too, but still), in an episode that had about six too many subplots. The main plot, about the president’s MS, remains brilliant, especially as it becomes a funhouse mirror of the Clinton situation – the coverup is what gets you, not the act itself. Amazing writing and acting throughout. “Bring it on.”

Take that, TV Turnoff Week. (And Survivor tomorrow!)

Saw Rachael Leigh Cook on The Daily Show tonight, and I have to agree with one “Josie and the Pussycats” reviewer who said she “looks like she had plastic surgery directly on her DNA.” Scary.

Very interesting thing going on at Plastic. A while ago I said Plastic was cool, but their design had way too much chartjunk, i.e. boxes and other elements that clutter up the page rather than impart information. Well, they’re at least demoing a new design that’s so much better in this regard. (You may have to click ‘switch views’ to see the new design, but that’s cool since you can instantly see the difference between the old and new.) They heard me! They really heard me! 🙂

My friend Patti is quick to say that I was raised by the TV. I’ll confirm that – they just plopped me in the cardboard box with the hole cut pointing at the TV, and tossed a pork chop in there occasionally. (Just kidding, Mom.) So I have intensely ambivalent feelings about TV Turnoff Week, currently in force. I understand that many people watch TV just as an anesthetic or as a habit. But I also get really ticked off at people who love to tell everyone within shouting distance that they “never watch TV,” at the same time getting that face on like they are tasting a lemon. You just know that those are the people secretly glued to the set for the entire “Facts of Life” marathon on TV Land.

As for me, they’ll have to pry The West Wing, Survivor, King of Queens and The Simpsons from my cold, dead hand. So there.

Two new additions to the carnival that is “words mean things”: a links page and an about page. You can reach them through the links at left. Enjoy.