Embarrassing pop culture confession: I own two copies of “Basic Instinct” on DVD.

I bought the first one a while back, probably for a sale price. It’s the movie and nothing else. Then over the weekend at Best Buy I saw the “special edition,” with commentaries, a making-of documentary, and lots of other stuff. Amusingly, it comes with an icepick-shaped pen that writes with red ink. I had to get it.

My favorite feature of the DVD is a compilation called “Cleaning Up Basic Instinct,” where they show you scenes with naughty words which had to be dubbed over to show the movie on TV – first the original, then the TV version. Showing this sex- and violence-drenched movie on TV seems quite counterproductive, and it’s fun to see how voices clearly not of the original actors were used to cover over the words that network executives think we’re too delicate to hear.

They’ll expect us to watch “Baby Bob,” but we can’t hear “fuck” on TV. And which of those is likely to cause the most long-lasting psychological effects?

Random thoughts on Episode II:

-Those Jedi robes look really comfy. I bet it would be like wearing your pajamas all day.
-Who among us really wants to live on a planet (Naboo) governed by teenage girls?
-Jimmy Smits? What the?

Went to see Star Wars Episode II last week with my friend Wendy. As predicted, my intense dislike for the movie cooled, mostly because Wendy enjoyed herself so much. My favorite moment was when we watched Anakin writhing around in bed having a nightmare, and Wendy whispered to me, “He’s not jackin’ off, is he?”

I love Wendy.

Season/series finales in a nutshell

Felicity
While I was irritated by the time-travel capper, feeling it was tacked on to the “real” ending, there’s no doubt it was well written and acted. The show had a good run, and wisely ended before we could get all that tired of it. Now someone just has to write a show where the girl goes for the nice guy, not the tortured hunk.

Enterprise
I have high hopes for this series, and we all know that it took at least a season or two for TNG to hit its stride. There’s a strong and interesting cast and a good premise. Nest season could be quite good.

X-Files
Haven’t watched this show in years, since before Mulder left. The “Mulder on trial” thing was a transparent and ham-handed way to do a ton of series-ending exposition, but it also allowed Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny to recapture a little of the chemistry that made the early seasons of the show so wonderful.

West Wing
Martin Sheen knows how to kick ass, and the standoff against Gov. Ritchie in the finale showed it. And next season, we get a presidential campaign, which should be fun. I think Lily Tomlin is the wrong choice to play the new secretary, but I’ll give her the chance to prove me wrong.

24, Buffy
Don’t watch them. Sorry.

Mental health tip of the day

Stop answering the phone. Let the answering machine or voice mail answer it. If it’s a telemarketer, they’ll hang up. If someone has something to say, they’ll say it and you can call them back at your convenience. There’s no reason you have to jump to when someone calls. You control your time.

Does anyone out there know a good place to find ROM images (games) for the arcade emulator MAME? I love those old games, and I used to have a good selection of them before I wiped out my computer the last time and didn’t back them up. Now all the places I used to go for ROMs are shut down.

I’m usually a big no-piracy advocate, but this is different – these games have been out of circulation for ages. In addition, I’d be happy to pay for a commercial distribution of MAME with lots of game files. But no such thing exists.

I need to play Galaga!

I’m fascinated by the shopping channels. I think those hosts really have a talent – you can plop just about anything in front of them, and they can talk for a half hour, at least mostly coherently, about its many virtues.

But what really creeps me out about the shopping channels are the doll shows. I know they’ve been lampooned on SNL before, but until you actually watch Marie Osmond talk about the lifelike eyes and real petticoats of her latest creation, you can’t understand how soul-shakingly disturbing they really are. And then I think about the people who obsessively collect these faux-humans, and I get even more creeped out. Who buys these things? And they’re not inexpensive, either.

I guess one thing that disturbs me is you can imagine people buying and at least theoretically using turquoise jewelry, or palazzo pants, or Wolfgang Puck cookware. But these dolls seem to be the absolute height of consumerism gone awry. They exist solely, solely, to be purchased and owned. Do we really have that much disposable income? Apparently, we do.

If anyone is interested in a good movie with Natalie Portman in it, you should check out “Beautiful Girls.” Nothing earth-shattering – just a series of subtle, well-written character scenes surrounding a high school reunion. Portman is outstanding as Timothy Hutton’s 13-year-old “old soul” next door neighbor. Highly recommended.

“We’re living in a society!” Part II

Went to my usual car wash today, and there were about three loose dollars in the map pocket of the driver’s side door – I use them for parking, etc.

When I got back into the car, they were gone.

Three dollars isn’t much – it isn’t like I had the Hope Diamond in the car or anything. But it’s the principle of the thing.

After many months, I have a new client site up: the Garvey & Stoddard law firm site. Let me know what you think. The interesting thing about this site is that I’m using my old friend Blogger for their “latest news” page, so they can keep it updated themselves. I wonder if weblogs are being used in other business settings?

And if I haven’t mentioned recently, I’m looking for new clients. If you throw some business my way, I’ll give you a referral fee.