Give my man a cappucino -- and make it a quadruple.

I've been enjoying Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo for years, and can't remember a time when I didn't check it out two or three times a day. So I'm really enjoying his newly-launched venture, TPM Cafe, which is a sort of group blog focusing on progressive issues and questions. The highlight of this first week of the site is a guest-blogging stint by former Senator John Edwards, focusing on poverty. I'm a big fan of Senator Edwards, and voted for him in our local precinct caucus last spring, so I'm thrilled to see him continuing to be active in public affairs and making use of the connective power of new media as part of that effort. This site looks like it will be tremendously useful and interesting, so check it out, won't you?

Ding-dong, the mural's dead

When we bought our home in January of 2004, we faced some rather unusual repainting issues. Granted, we were sick of living in white-walled apartments, as we'd done for the previous four or so years, but our inclination to paint our new home in bold colors -- an inclination borne largely from our addiction to watching DIY programs on BBC America -- became something of a necessity thanks to the preverse painting proclivities of the property's previous owners.

For instance, one might say that the front room of the house had something of an Egyptian theme going on, if one had no real knowledge of Egypt save having watched that episode of One Step Beyond with the reincarnated pharaoh on a UHF channel many years ago. The walls were a creamy yellow color, and there were what appeared to be pyramids sponge-painted in gold in two corners of the room, except that they looked like something that would have been painted before the discovery of two-point perspective. Where there weren't pyramids, there was more gold sponge-painting for what the people who did it no doubt thought was some sort of texturing effect.

It took a coat of primer and three coats of paint to get rid of the damn things.

Much of the rest of the house featured similarly awful painting -- bizarrely flat and lifeless colors combined with inartful attempts at effects, our job was not helped by the previous owners' apparent inability to spackle holes, remove nails and hooks from walls, or use painters' tape. There's no need to detail them all; suffice it to say that we covered most of them before we moved in, and are making slow but steady progress on what little is left.

Today, for instance, I painted over the Wizard of Oz mural in the basement.

You read that right: Wizard. Oz. Mural. Basement.

One corner of the basement -- the outside wall of the finished part of the basement, which houses our office and our exercise equipment (even that which is not overly vast can contain multitudes, you see) -- featured a strange painting of a nearly surreal tornado against a sloppy, scribbly blue-and-white background, with a street sign depicting the "corner" or Kansas and Oz, a painting of a farmhouse, and random cow stickers scattered around for good measure. I have a sneaking suspicion that the cow stickers came first, and the rest of the mural -- I really hate to use the word, as it implies some level of artistic skill and integrity -- was concocted as an excuse to put the cow stickers on the walls. The whole thing would have been less disturbing, I think, if it had depicted scenes from the HBO series Oz.

In a perfect world, we would have been able to get rid of the damn thing last year. But we had enough other work to do in and around the house that repainting one wall of the basement was bumped way down the priority list. A few weekends ago, however, we acquired some new storage shelving for the basement, and that gave me the excuse I needed to eradicate the bloody atrocity from our wall. I found a tan paint that the previous owners had left behind in the basement, which was a surprisingly pleasant color and, more importantly, nearly exactly matched the existing color of most of the rest of the basement, and one peeling away of the cow stickers and two coats of paint later every trace of the damn mural was gone.

Ding-dong, I say. Ding. Fucking. Dong.

Good Vibe-rations?

Scipio gives praise unto Vibe. God help me, I'm almost convinced.

Plotz

So, can anyone watch the season finale of Smallville explain to me exactly what the hell was the resolution of the Jane Seymour/reincarnated French witch subplot that's been rendering the whole show even more incoherent than usual all season long? I mean, seriously, what the hell was that thing? It's the kind of subplot that makes you wonder what the creators of the show were smoking, and why that substance isn't more heavily regulated by the DEA and FDA and Gruff the Crime Dog and those sorts of folks.

Contrast it to the Chi McBride evil hospital administrator subplot on House. I didn't much like it, and I didn't think it was executed especially well, but the idea was a perfectly sound one: Create a cantankerous, stubborn foil for our show's stubborn, cantankerous protagonist. It flowed completely logically from the show's premise and characters. If it didn't have the best execution in the world, well, these things happen and let's move on.

Whereas Smallville's Jane Seymour plot appeared to be about reincarnated French witches fighting over some mystical Kryptonian artifacts. Put aside the sheer cruelty on the part of the show's creators in coming up with a subplot that required Kristen Kreuk to attempt to act on a regular basis (I'm not sure if that was more cruel toward her or to us. No, wait, I am sure. It was much, much more cruel to us). Did someone in the conference room say, "Hey! You know what the young people are into today? Reincarnated French witches! There's a kiosk at at the mall about 'em, even!" Was this some stealth diplomacy initiative to repair relations with the French? I dunno, the show's produced in Canada, maybe a writer was trying to score points with a Quebecoix intern or something...

Faint praise

I think it says something about what a cesspool of butchery mainstream DC and Marvel superpeople comics have become that these pass for favorable notices of the new direction on Firestorm. I know, I know, lots and lots of people are buying books like Identity Crisis and Avengers Disassembled, but, well, lots and lots of people watch Bill O'Reilly, too.

Some more Star Wars links

This line from Roger Ebert's review sums up a lot of my feelings about Lucas and the Star Wars phenomenon:

George Lucas has achieved what few artists do; he has created and populated a world of his own. His "Star Wars" movies are among the most influential, both technically and commercially, ever made. And they are fun. If he got bogged down in solemnity and theory in "Episode II: Attack of the Clones," the Force is in a jollier mood this time, and "Revenge of the Sith" is a great entertainment.

David Edelstein of Slate makes a similar note:

It must be said that there's a touch of the term paper in how his characters' fates play out, and the actors still wear the glazed, helpless expression that comes from declaiming lines with no subtext in the direction of Creatures To Be Animated Later. But it's worth doffing our beanies to a man who wouldn't settle for Flash Gordon—who was driven to turn a Saturday-matinee space serial into something that needed the combined forces of Milton and Shakespeare to do it full justice. In the end, there's a breadth, a fullness to the Star Wars saga. It's so much more than the sum of its clunks.

I'm far from the world's biggest Star Wars fan, but I think it's important not to lost sight of the fact that these movies are the realization of an intensely personal artistic vision, and that the things on the screen are there because one guy wanted them to be. That's too often forgotten, sadly.

For something completely different, check out this old Salon article about Irvin Kershner, who of course directed The Empire Strikes Back all those years ago.

Lucas, you fool!

One of the more reliable forms of entertainment in these troubled times is watching conservatives freak out at any hint of apostasy in popular culture; very often the spectacle of one of these folks screaming "INFIDEL!" is as entertaining as (or moreso than) the original. You know what I mean: Like when an episode of 24 depicts a Muslim who isn't a terrorist, or when there's an issue of Green Lantern with the invidious message that Beating Up Gay People For Being Gay Is Wrong, and that sort of thing.

The wingnuts are out in full force over Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, of course, and Roy Edroso deserves combat pay for actually wading through all of this bilge to pick out the funniest bits and mocking them, cruelly. Another criticism I thought was hysterical came from the ever-amusing Monitor Duty, wherein it was alleged that "Lucas seems obsessed a touch too much in Eastern religions and philosophies to fully connect with a Judeo-Christian-influenced American audience."

And, really, I can see what this guy is talking about -- I mean, the Star Wars films have really been held back by this sort of thing. That's why American audiences have only paid $1,802,341,185 to see the first five Star Wars movies, after all, and it's kept the total merchandising sales to only a million bajillion dollars or so. If only the movies had been more Judeo-Christian friendly, and had less of those darn Eastern religions and philosophies in 'em, they could have made two million bajillion dollars, I'll bet!

(For the record, I enjoyed the hell out of the movie; it more than exceeded my expectations and justified the renewed excitement I felt about the movie in the wake of the wonderful Clone Wars cartoons. I want to see what Lucas does next; I'd love to see him take his CGI technology and apply it to a musical...)

Super Shorts

One more thought on an upcoming DC Comics cover: Adventures of Superman #643 depicts a Superman whose costume looks very much inspired by the recently-unveiled movie costume: Note the rather short shorts and the vaguely funky "S" shield on the comic (versus the more traditional rendition of the "S"). I wonder if this is an editorially-mandated thing, or just one artist's choice on one particular cover? Either way, I'm glad to see that the superfluous belt "S" on the movie costume hasn't made its way into the comic. Yet.

Patterns

One of the benefits of having an obsessively alphabetized DVD collection is that you notice weird, meaningless patterns when they emerge. For instance:

• We own two movies whose titles start with "L." Both movies star Bill Murray.
  
• We own two movies whose titles start with "O." Both movies star George Clooney.
  
• We own two movies whose titles start with "Z." Both movies feature Ben Stiller.
  

Like I said, weird, but meaningless, but weird nonetheless.

Mental floss

You know you've read too many comics in your life -- and probably need many, many years of therapy -- when your reaction to the cover of Hawkman #43, which depicts the long-forgotten character Golden Eagle slashing through a mock-up of a page from DC's old Who's Who series, is to think, "The real reason that's an entertaining cover is that the Golden Eagle never had a Who's Who entry!"

Leggo my logo!

I don't have much of a reaction, positive or negative, to the announcement of DC's new corporate logo, save that it's a little more unwieldly than the old one in that it's not contained in a nice, simple circle. My question is this: Will the logo change on DC's archival collections as well? Because that would really suck; I'd hate to have, say, 12 volumes of the Legion of Super-Heroes archives with the old logo and then the rest with the newer one. Or, worse, for the logo to change on subsequent printings of the archives volumes, so that if I ever get around to buying volumes 5 and 9 of the Legion series (one of the joys of only buying DC archives when they're on huge sales is that, with longer series, one catches as catch can), they'll have the new logo on their spines and stick out like sore thumbs amid the volumes with the old one.

Veronica Mars recaps

If you've been watching Veronica Mars this past TV season, don't miss this excellent wrap-up and exegesis on the series as a whole in Salon:

It's fitting that the first season of "Veronica Mars" ends with more questions than answers. The answer to "Who killed Lilly Kane?" has turned out to be relatively clear-cut. But the whodunit structure of "Veronica Mars" is something of a red herring, because what really entangles us, and keeps us on the hook, are the bigger questions -- they're the key to the show's momentum, its sly sense of fun, and its emotional resonance. Veronica is played by Bell with such eminently reasonable self-assurance that we're almost fooled into thinking we don't need to worry about her -- with her small frame, no-nonsense blond locks and dark, glittering eyes, she seems both sophisticated and mischievously elfin. Veronica can, and does, take care of everything: She tries hard to help out with the family finances, and she gives up her own hard-earned college savings to help her mother straighten out so she can come home. Each successive episode only confirms Veronica's perceived invincibility -- which is why it's so devastating when we see her confused or afraid, or when she's overcome with missing her mother.

And the indispensable Teevee.org has more:

During the course of the season, I twice thought that I’d sussed out the killer’s identity for certain. I was wrong both times.

Why was I so confused? Because on this show, no one’s quite who they seem. The thuggish biker’s got a sense of honor to balance his enthusiastically criminal nature. The snarky, sneering rich kid conceals genuine decency and compassion. That kind, inspiring teacher? He’s getting a little too close to his attractive young students. It would have been easy for Thomas and his team to make the victim herself a flawless little angel, but flashbacks revealed Lily as spoiled, callous and more than a little promiscuous. It’s difficult to feel sorry for anyone like that, no matter what their fate — difficult, but not impossible.

Mars wouldn’t let any character among its talented cast get away with being entirely “good” or “bad” — even Veronica herself. She was tough, smart and resourceful in pursuing Lily’s killer — but despite her reluctance, she was willing to use and manipulate the few friends she had, stretching their trust to the breaking point to further her investigation. Thomas allowed to see what, up until the season’s haunting final moments, Veronica couldn’t: Her search for Lily’s murderer was really an attempt to fix her own screwed-up life. And in that respect, it was doomed from the start.

I remain grateful and amazed that we'll be getting a second season of Veronica Mars; I was prepared to clear out shelf space on the DVD rack for it alongside Freaks and Geeks and Firefly. Now if the TV gods would just give us more Arrested Development and Eyes...

Harold?

Am I the only one who found it odd that John Cho, who played a twenthysomething guy named Harold who lived in New Jersey in last summer's Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, played a twentysomething guy named Harold who lived in New Jersey in this week's episode of House?

Zissou!

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou was one of the best movies I saw last year so I was thrilled to see the 2-disc Criterion Collection edition of it on sale this morning for slightly less than the price at Amazon. Plus there were added goodies: The cashier gave both me and She Who Must Be Obeyed official Team Zissou knit caps, a free issue of Entertianment Weekly, and signed us up for 16 free weeks of EW. Is that a great way to end finals week or what?

Meanwhile, I see that at Amazon the 1-disc Criterion Collection edition of the movie costs a whopping 60 cents less than the 2-disc version. So if you're thinking about it, and don't want to go to Suncoast and get free stuff with the movie, at least spend the extra 60 cents and get a disc full of extras.

Hiatus? You hardly know us!

As you might have noticed from the absymal lack of posting, I'm kinda busy right now with end-of-the-semester madness, so there probably won't be another update until after next week. Until then, enjoy this article about the possibly-familial friendship between Jimmy Buffett and Warren Buffett, Cookie Monster's Blog, and Western Democrat.