Stephen King’s The Mist is hideously bad. From its derivative, overblown script to its utterly cartoonish social and political commentary, from its monumentally bad special effects to its uneven acting, and all the way to the overly telegraphed and monstrously twisted ending, it embodies all that is bad about King’s movies and books. It is ham-handed and ugly with a simplistic view of our nation’s political and cultural differences; its characters are drawn obscenely from pure stereotype with not an ounce of sympathy for the depth of real folks; it’s dialog is tedious; its thrills are killed by the sheer unbelievability of the scary creatures and the stupidity of the plot; and its soundtrack (especially near the end) works hard to infuse emotion into a laughably contrived film.

What the hell was I thinking? I really should have known better and if I had seen it in a theater I would be pissed. Hell, I just rented it for $4.99 on pay-per-view and I’m pretty damn cranky.

My life needs instructions as simple as this.

“If you want to be arrested follow Reverend Sharpton,” an organizer, his profile framed against the Welcome to Police Headquarters sign, barked into a bullhorn. “If you don’t want to be arrested, don’t follow Reverend Sharpton.” Fairly simple instructions. Having been arrested a stone’s throw from the site while covering a protest during the 2004 Republican National Convention I personally planned to err on the side of distance, especially once I saw the rolls of orange netting and ungainly clumps of white plastic handcuffs protruding off police officers’ belts.

Just sayin’.

Via Shawn Macomber, who gets to go to all the good protests. Of course, he also has to deal with spontaneous outbreaks of bad poetry and accusations of supporting the white supremacists.

Tucked in there is this bit of wisdom from Shawn:

An hour later trash cans were stuffed with “We Are All Sean Bell” signs. Because in the end, we really aren’t.

No, indeed, we are not. Which is something that I occasionally shout in public when someone stupidly says, “We are all Columbine.”

Offering sympathy and help in the face of tragedy and disaster is all well and good. The irritating need to insert oneself into the pain and loss of others is just arrogant.

I think that we can all agree that the poorly choreographed and scandalously performed “Reelin’ in the Years” (which is a freakin’ awesome song) shouldn’t have happened. Group vocals almost never work out well on this show. Sining together, they were simply awful; David Cook and Syesha were credible in their solo bits, Archuleta was mildly humorous, and Dreads just gets worse with every episode that goes by, doesn’t he?

And what happened with the way they just chopped the song off at the end? At least the guitar solo was nice.

Personal Stuff Aside: So, apparently, I’m going to be going on vacation at the end of October. When I return, I’ll have about twenty four hours before I’m on a flight to a trade show in Kolkatta. Or Calcutta, if you’re old like me and set in your ways.

Can I tell you how excited I am? I need to buy a new digital camera to take with me and I’m hoping to get advice from the crowd. My current camera takes reasonable pictures but it’s slow between shots, eats batteries at a rate that would probably cause Gore to have a heart attack. The new camera can’t be too expensive or too big, but I would like it to take good pictures. Megapixels don’t matter as much as image quality, reasonable low light performance, and speed.

Suggestions?

Personally, I suggest never ever buying an album from David Archuleta, because I’m fairly certain that the sound of his voice drains brain cells from your noggin’. Sad to say the li’l feller will be tormenting us again with his youthful imitation of sincerity. Which is only good because that means Jason Castro is still on the chopping block.

Link Love from While I Ignore the American Idol Filler Material Aside: A list of hilarious bests. My last AI post makes the cut--which, although I’m betting there’s someone else out there more deserving, I’m not the type to turn down a link when it’s offered. Especially if it comes with a shot of something tasty.

Good Lord, I could use a shot.

Every once in a while, Randy is nearly as stupid as Paula. Which is something I don’t say often enough.

Possibly Embarassing Admission Aside: I’m looking forward to You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. I’d like to apologize to all of my fans, my fellow bloggers, my family, and the whole blogging community for my lapse in judgement. I think that I really learned something from this admission and I plan to get help. This is really the moment where I realize that I need to grow up and take my responsibilities as a blogger seriously.

Burger King ads suck.

So do the Ford commercials with which American Idol is contractually obligated to brutalize their contestants. And I’m a Ford guy.

I must say that David Archuleta looked sort of natural wearing the sparkly tights, though, didn’t he? He looked extra happy in the sparkly tights in fact.

Dude, Seriously? David Archuleta just got asked out on a date by some caller in Pittsburgh. I’m pretty sure that Paula is fighting off Hulk-sized jealousy. Don’t make Paula angry. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.

The Q&A from around the country is always sort of funny, but not always intentionally. People love Simon, don’t they?

Useless Aside: I still like Bo Bice, so it was fun to see him on the show tonight. Which reminds me of one of my personal favorite blog post titles of all time: Bo Bice and His Big Bag of Cocaine. That still cracks me up. Can I get a witness.

So, jeez, who’s going home already?

Big reveal in the extended entry.

Read the Rest...

1. Never heard of it? That’s not surprising. Even though it came from the mind that brought us Donnie Darko (brilliant), Southland Tales got exceptionally poor reviews along with a limited release.
2. It’s also a sprawling, messy, occasionally incomprehensible film that makes his previous work look like simplistic by comparison.
3. It’s also, occasionally, one of the funniest looks at the apocalypse that you’re likely to come across.
4. The acting (and there is at least a metric ton of famous folks going through this movie--some of them remarkably good actors) is a little out of step by design as is the slightly stilted script. When it works, it catches an edge of social commentary that is hard to ignore. When it doesn’t work, it jars you out of the “reality” of the movie almost painfully.
5. Visually intriguing, filled with strange characters, and shot with a more careful eye than the messy feel might otherwise indicate.
6. The barbs thrown at popular obsession with politics, idiotic and misguided “revolutionaries”, the mass media, entertainment, and some painfully real and moronic social commentary from TV talking heads, not to mention sly jabs at forced patriotism and government encroachment on freedom doesn’t always hit the targets. When it does, though, there are little tiny moments of perfection--witness especially scenes like the porn star talking heads discussing how the morning after pill becomes the morning before pill and a staged double murder that goes ludicrously wrong. Some of this stuff is really going to stick with you--if you can get past the rougher bits.
7. Interspersed with ads, news clips, various forms of cartoons, and a few moments of merely watching TV, it might be the qualitative decline and pervasive nature of media that takes the biggest, most direct hits.
8. Like DD, it’s obsessed with people who find themselves out of synch with their own lives. One particularly telling scene has a man staring into a mirror, watching his own movements which are happening in the mirror just a second behind his real movements.
9. Yes, that was Colorado’s own Big Head Todd and the Monsters singing “Broken Hearted Saviour” that you heard for a few moments there. Good stuff.
10. It’s a giant, ambitious mess--and I admire giant, ambitious messes. That doesn’t mean that it’s a success, though. Southland Tales isn’t the equal of Donnie Darko and most of the criticisms leveled at it are entirely earned. I don’t think it’s a complete failure, though--and, even with its shortcomings, I’ll be buying the DVD.
11. Bonus Point: Don’t read that last as a blanket suggestion for everyone else to see it. No film short on coherent narrative or accessible message, gifted with awkward moments that don’t even seem like part of the rest of the film, and entirely indecipherable politics (when it seems to be trying to make a political point of some kind) is ever going to reach a big market. It takes a peculiar mind to appreciate this particular brand of surreal filmmaking.

Update: And when you’re done here, you should stop by and read Mr. Lady’s post. Because it’s funnier than mine. Which is a damned high bar to clear, if you know what I mean. Update 2: And here’s another one.

So, yeah, back to American Idol now that the Colorado Avalanche dinged up my hopeful heart. Not a lot, mind you, just a little.

David Cook is singing “Hungry Like the Wolf.” Which is from the year he was born. Which is to say, 1982. You lose my vote when you make me feel old, kiddo. Just so’s you know.

Anyway, it isn’t bad in a useless cover sort of way. He isn’t really into it, he doesn’t change it up enough to make it intriguingly his own, and it doesn’t really suit his style. Probably should have gone in another direction even though I can’t imagine he’s in much danger of getting booted from the show. Mediocre.

Randy thought it was “okay” and “solid” but doesn’t seem impressed. Paula wants to eat him, apparently. I’m pretty sure she means it in the naughty way, not the scary Jeffrey Dahmer kind of way. Simon agrees with Randy. No one seems impressed, least of all the deliveryman who has just kindly dropped by to bring me hot & sour soup. Mmmm.

Paula would be jealous.

I can’t help but think Syesha is a little lucky to still be on the show. She was pretty uneven early in the season, but she outlasted some others and seems to be hitting stride at the right time.

Can she pull off “Proud Mary?” Well she certainly has the legs to make a good go of it. Starts slow and a little cabaret, but kicks into high gear half way through. Fun performance, but only decent vocals compared to Tina Turner’s scorching hot original. The crowd eats it up, but it makes me want to see Tina Turner--and I’m not even a big fan. Whatever. Not bad, but she was more worried about the dancing than the singing--and that was an error in judgement.

Randy loves it with all his giant heart. Paula loves it, too. And she goes on and on saying nothing much interesting. Simon didn’t like it. At all.

Interracial Aside: Lovely post about the passing of Mildred Loving on Wizbang. Worth a read to remind people of both how far we’ve come on racial issues in a short time--and, not incidentally, just how close we remain to some of America’s embarrassing past.

None of which changes the fact that Jason Castro’s “I Shot the Sheriff” is just bad. Bad karaoke bad, if you take my meaning. Messy, wrong, bad vocals, horrid performance. Make the dreads go home.

Randy starts by teeing off, then pulls back a bit. Stick with the original instinct, buddy. Paula “wasn’t crazy about” it, but she wants him to know that he’s special, anyway. What a waste of a critique. Simon nails it: “That was utterly atrocious.” Yep, it was as bad as all that.

The sad little elf, David Archuleta takes on Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” and does a credible performance. Not great, but it’s a comfortable fit and it’s one of those songs that makes people feel good. Archuleta tries to do too much with it, but he’ll have people on his side because that is a great freakin’ song. Darling girl says, “He’s overestimating how much I want to hear him...”

Decent performance, brilliant song choice.

Randy loves it. Paula loves the youngin’. Simon says it sounded brilliant by comparison to the previous tune, that he struggled a little at the end, but that it was still the best performance of the evening. Which, pleaseLlord, let it get better. Please?

David Cook’s second song is a smarter pick. The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” is just the kind of thing that you can imagine him sinking his rock sensibilities into--not demanding vocals, but suited to his personality. Which is why it’s sort of strange to see it done in a slightly listless fashion. I don’t get it--it certainly wasn’t bad, but it was nowhere near actual, honest-to-God good. Perhaps he just doesn’t feel like putting much effort into the show at this point--that his career is assured whether he wins or not. Whatever the reason, he just seems to be coasting right now.

Randy liked it more than the first one (ditto), but it’s hard to divine whether he’s impressed or not. Not sure. Paula is still a zone completely free of purpose on the show. Simon welcomes him back to the show.

She Linked Me Aside: I love it when Hazel links me. It makes me feel all fuzzy inside--which, in turn, makes darling girl glare at me crankily. Er, sorry, baby. Still, thanks Hazel--yet again, you’ve nailed the essence of the story.

Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” is a truly great American song. Soulful, beautiful, poetic, and powerful. And Syesha (with just a few wobbles) does the song justice. Lovely, although it could have done without the gratuitous big note at the end--this is a song that doesn’t need extra adornment.

Randy doesn’t dig it and comments on what I said: it’s a song that doesn’t need any extra. I still liked it, but he definitely didn’t. Paul goes all speechifying on us. Simon loves it and says so rather nicely. The kind comments make the girl cry--which is sort of sweet.

There is no way that Jason Castro can do as poorly with song two as he did with song one. Although I think Dylan misfired on “Mr. Tambourine Man” (and seem to be close to alone in that assessment), it’s a song that fits Castro. Who promptly proves me wrong by losing the lyrics early in the song and whining his way through the rest. Whatever value there is in the song is lose in his unpleasant and awkward vocals. I’m not sure it was worse than song one, but it wasn’t very good.

Randy didn’t like it. Paula makes strange noises that have little to do with the song. Simon tells Jason to pack his suitcase. Wowsers.

Not that I disagree.

Last up, Archuleta makes Elvis’ gooey “Love Me Tender” into something even more tooth-decaying, then misses some notes, sounds sort of odd, and saves me from having to be nice to him twice in the same show. Everyone else will have loved it, of course, but the more soulful he tries to be the less I like him. It may be a credibility issue.

Randy loved it. Paula, well, yeah. Simon says he “crushed the competition.”

I want to hope that there are better reasons that this for the (in a practical sense) dismissal of a substitute teacher in Tampa Bay.

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas does a 30-second magic trick where a toothpick disappears then reappears.

But after performing it in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land ‘O Lakes, Piculas said his job did a disappearing act of its own.

“I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers.  He says, ‘Jim, we have a huge issue, you can’t take any more assignments you need to come in right away,’” he said.

When Piculas went in, he learned his little magic trick cast a spell and went much farther than he’d hoped.

“I said, ‘Well Pat, can you explain this to me?’ ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,’ [he said]. Wizardry?” he asked.

In a day of mind-boggling stories--prison priests sexing up the inmates and Hillary promising to break up the evil oil cartels, for instance--this is far from the worst or most important story of the day, but I’d be hard-pressed to find another that stumped me quite so effectively.

Wizardry. And, apparently, someone was serious about that accusation over a simple magic (for the slower amongst us, it isn’t real magic) trick involving a toothpick. That isn’t the bad part, though, is it? I mean, some people think the Harry Potter books might shuffle their kids’ souls off right to hell.

What business does the school district have indulging that kind of idiocy, though?

I’m all for involved parents having a say in school curriculum. As with most things, though, there has to be a balance, and in this case the balance should be protecting the teacher.

The only potentially game saver here is this:

Tampa Bay’s 10 talked to the assistant superintendent with the Pasco County School District who said it wasn’t just the wizardry and that Picular had other performance issues, including “not following lesson plans” and allowing students to play on unapproved computers.”

It has to be viewed, though, in light of the fact that the supervisor apparently took the “wizardry” charge seriously enough to mention it to the teacher. Whatever cause might exist to want this man out of a classroom, being an amateur Dumbledore shouldn’t really be in the mix.

Read the story.

Hat tip to Andy who recently decamped to less bloggy climes.

Here’s the sequence of events: First, six months ago I bought the MacHeist Bundle II which included Pixelmator. A week or so ago, I bought the MacUpdate Bundle which included Parallels. A few days ago, a freelance client of mine sent a pair of .rdp files to give me access to their servers for a little work that I’m doing for them. All these things came together to create this post.

Which caused a problem.

Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Client for Mac OS X isn’t a particularly good product, as far as I’m concerned, but I couldn’t find another client that might actually open one of those .rdp files. So, last night I tried to find a way to get those things open while doing all of the work on my MacBook--and I’m sure that you geeks can see where this is going.

The MacHeist and MacUpdate bundles proved a fairly cheap way for me to try new software--and I like the idea of supporting shareware developers who put together good software. I bought the MU bundle without ever intending to use the flagship product, Parallels, because I didn’t imagine that I needed to run Windows inside my MacBook--besides which, I have no idea where my Win XP system disk is and I’m afraid it’s somewhere in a big box o’ abandoned technology in the storage unit. Which isn’t particularly helpful at 1:30 in the morning. But the more I struggled to find a Macintosh based solution, the more I started to think that there might be a Linux based solution to my problem.

Hence the quick installation of Parallels last night and a nearly as quick download of NimbleX, a tiny, fast Linux distribution that ran beautifully in Parallels after I spent a good three minutes setting up the virtual machine. What I couldn’t do was figure out how to install NimbleX (which was designed to be run from a USB device or CD) on the virtual hard drive that I had created. For that matter, it wouldn’t even recognize the existence of that virtual drive, wouldn’t save downloaded files, and was clunky to get around when it came to trying to figure out how to install and use its .mo module files in hopes of getting a terminal services client that would open the .rdp files. NimbleX, which ran quick as hell and impressed me with its small footprint, didn’t get me where I wanted to go.

On older computers, I’m betting that something like NimbleX would be appreciated, though.

A much longer download (about 700 megs to NimbleX’s 200 megs) got me the latest Ubuntu distribution. Ubuntu also required about a 3 gig virtual drive compared to the 500 megs I gave to NimbleX. Ubuntu, though, installed like a dream and gave me a much happier path to full screen virtual computing in Parallels than NimbleX had managed. Although it isn’t as polished as I had expected, it’s also much easier to get around and familiarize with than the smaller distro. Even better, it’s build-in Terminal Services Client offered to open up my .rdp files (with just a little nudge).

But it didn’t bring in the encrypted password. Damnit. So it opens with all of the details filled out (and looks, for all the world, like a really nice client), but I don’t have the super secret password to actually get in and do my work. As I said: damnit.

So in the end, I decided to write a post and take a screen cap of the entire thing running inside my Macintosh. So, hitting the command for a screen cap (Command-Shift-3), up popped Snapz Pro X (a brilliant title from one of my favorite small developers, Ambrosia Software, that came in the MacUpdate bundle) to give me a variety of options for the screen cap that I wanted to take to illustrate the post. Nifty. I set the options and took the picture. Once the picture was done, I decided that I wanted to edit out the IP address and other information from the Terminal Services Client to protect the security of my client.

I could open it in Photoshop since I have a legal copy running on this machine, but it seemed a bit much to open up the big app for such a little job. Enter Pixelmator.

Pixelmator is missing many of the features that I need as a guy who deals with preparing press files on a daily basis. It doesn’t have all of the features that I need especially in terms of its color handling. But for something like this, it loads so much faster and does have a wide variety of great tools that it’s worth having on my hard drive just for the small jobs.

All of which got me here (see below), but didn’t get me where I wanted to go.

All of which thrills me.  I don’t mind paying for software, but I love having so many reasonably priced (and often free) options for some of the things that I do. Not every job requires the huge titles that sell for hundreds of dollars--and, in fact, some of them get done better with leaner, more focused tools.

When, precisely, did America lose its sense of humor?

Because at times like these, we could all use a good laugh, and I know I’m not the guy to deliver the goods.

Okay, all, Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash 7.5 will be taking place on June 7. ViewMyLife.com, a local, up-and-coming business contacted us and wanted to help sponsor both this event and our DNC event, which will be taking place on either August 28th or 29th.

The folks from ViewMyLife.com are being very generous with their time and their sponsorship of the event and we look forward to introducing a bunch of bloggers--you wildly influential folks, you--to their site. We’re going to be setting something up with them to act as a kind of official page for information and updates for these upcoming events and all of that, along with more details about the event, will start rolling out in the next few days.

While we work on the details for 7.5, we’ll also be working out the details for 8.0 so that our out of town guests can start making their plans. Graphics, e-cards, and more will be rolling out, too, so that you can help us promote the event.

Full disclosure: while ViewMyLife.com will be sponsoring the event and helping to promote it, neither Andy nor I are being paid for our time or efforts. This is a situation where we decided that a good, young, local company could help us make a better event for all of our attendees and where we hope that we can help them to grow their business. To fulfill our side of that bargain, we need have a great event--and I’m hoping that all of you, whether you plan to attend or not, will help us spread the word. We’d like to reach beyond our normal crew to bring in bloggers and readers from a wide variety of sites. We want everyone to know that they are welcome to join in the fun.

This is a pretty exciting development and we’re coming up with some creative ideas to help attendees not only enjoy a night out drinking, but to help you all gain a little new readership, too.

You can start the RSVPs now or wait until we set up the official site, but I would love to have feedback from everyone who plans to attend either or both events.

Cheers!

If you’re a sports geek who believes that one of the most important aspects of sports is to teach life lessons to young people who will go out and shape our society, then you will love this story. You might even get a little misty.

Story brought to us by Andy.

Sometimes it really and truly is about how you play the game.

I think it might make more sense if we had some examples.

The lyrics would definitely be coming from a pro-fat, pro-sex, pro-queer, pro-bicycle, feminist, anticonsumer culture, situationist prospective.

Whatever it is, it doesn’t sound like fun party music, does it?

Was anyone else surprised by the Fed’s quarter point rate cut yesterday?

I haven’t been following the financial sites lately, and apparently I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. It seemed like a good time to sit back and do not too damned much.

Does anyone else think that it’s sort of cool that the Chinese government now has a super secret underground lair?

Well, maybe not so super secret since everyone seems to know about it, but it does fit the bad guy image they’ve been cultivating of late, doesn’t it? And, no, I’m not particularly worried about the thing; I’m pretty sure James Bond managed to single-handedly destroy more impressive super secret underground lairs a few times in his career. Once call to our friends in the UK and that thing is toast.

Does anyone else think that Josef Fritzl is going straight to hell when he dies--and that his is a clear case where his government should give him a helpful push down the path?

There are reasons that we keep the words “monster” and “evil” in our non-ironic lexicon. He serves as a reminder that evil is very real, that there are monsters in the world, and that we need to remain vigilant if we plan to keep citizens safe from the worst of us.

Is anyone else terrified of the fact that we’re having a worldwide spike in food prices and availability because, largely, of destructive government policies?

Let me continue that thought for a moment: most modern food shortages occur because of natural events. Floods, droughts, disease--acts of God if you will. The food shortages now (because we are tying our food policy to our energy policy, because trade barriers are being erected, because the cost to bring food to market are growing wildly) are manmade. I’m sure that, as we always do, we’ll absorb the painful losses, change our policies somewhat, and adjust to new realities and costs. We always do. What scares me, though, is that if our policies aren’t changes wisely, what happens to energy costs, food costs, and food availability when God visits us will a really good flood, drought, or plant disease that severely limits the supply of some staple grain? Because what has happened over the last year or so has happened without dips in actual production.

I might be missing something that makes it all okay, but this has me worried.

Does anyone else think that the whole Lesbos/Lesbian thing is absolutely hilarious?

I’ve got nothing to add to that. It’s just funny, I tell you.

Does anyone else think that the Open Source Boob Project kerfuffle sort of goes to prove all the worst stereotypes about a certain subset of geekdom?

To the point, that this class of geek imagine themselves to be extra-special-evolved in cultural terms while the rest of us just recognize the reality of their sexually immature, juvenile social ineptitude. To try to somehow demystify breasts by making such a big deal about an ongoing gropefest seems a good way to miss the actual point of their point.

That’s only compounded by the native geek tendency to suck the spontaneous fun out of a thing by codifying it, over-explaining it, and extending it like overeager schoolboys into places where it doesn’t belong. All the while they see it as a way to make a social statement of some indistinct kind.

Hi, I’m socially evolved and don’t buy into the cultural taboos about boobs. Can I fondle you now? I promise it will be totally non-sexual.

Proving with impressive emphasis that some of the worlds smartest people can still buy into stupid like nobody’s business. Especially when breasts are the topic.

I originally saw this on Scalzi’s site. He’s nicer than I am.

For the record: any deals you make to grope or be groped by another consenting adult aren’t any of my business, I know. But pretending to some heightened sexual enlightenment because of something like the oddly named “Open Source Boob Project” just looks dumb.

In the face of high royalty payments owed by online radio stations, does anyone else think that we’d all be better off when the record companies had to pay for their stuff to get played?

Instead of working toward the destruction of Internet radio, we would see a boom in the number of stations, the variety of music, and the financial health of the businesses that, for all intents and purposes, are advertisers for the record companies. By comparison to this superhighway robbery, was payola really such a bad thing? Hell, I think it was more honest.

It should have been Jason Castro going home tonight, but it wasn’t going to be. Before the show started I gave darling girl my guess and my guess proved correct: both girls in the bottom two and I’ll have to live a Brookeless existence from now on.

While Archuleta and Castro become more annoying as the show goes on, Brooke was a consistently warm presence on the show. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had a really good night in a few weeks and, on the strength of last night’s performance, she deserved to be in the bottom two (Jason just deserved the boot for being even worse).

We’ll miss her.

Against all odds, I must say that AI has produced a minor miracle: a singer whose songs I might well buy in the future. David Cook could well find a place in my digital record collection someday--I just hope that they don’t saddle him one of the terrifyingly bland singles that they make them sing at the end of every season.

Premature predictions going forward: Castro goes next week, Syesha goes the following week, and Cook wins. Of course, that might be underestimating the hordes of tweens who will vote twenty times each--hordes that might tip the balance in Archuleta’s favor.

Or, as Andy says, “You Will Be Hearing of Drinks and Rumors of Drunks.”

Big news. Big bash. But the form of all that bigness is just starting to take shape.

Seriously, though. Big. Big-gantuan, in fact.

Man. Slow down. Let us enjoy the songs. I like Neil Diamond.

But…

In the spirit of the show, we’ll just get through this post as quick as possible.

Jason Castro: blah. David Cook: a’ight. Brooke White: not so much. David Archuletta: begone foul youth of doom. Syesha: pretty good.

Randy: yep. Paula: put down the drink. Simon: harsh, but not too far off.

Jason Casto: you suck. Randy didn’t like it, Paula didn’t like it, Simon didn’t like it.

David Cook: decent, but not great. Smart in a way to take on songs that no one knows, though, since it gives him leeway to make break away from any comparisons to Diamond. On the other hand, he loses points because people can’t sing along and say, “I love that song” in a moment of musical rediscovery.

Randy: love it. Paula: again filled with pride. For some reason. Simon: loved it.

Brooke: Good stuff. Very fitting song for her in vocal style and mood. Of course, it’s probably my favorite Neil Diamond song, so I’m biased. The truth is, as the girl says, it was a little too short to go anywhere. Truth.

Randy: liked it. Paula: filled with empty words. Simon: still hated the first song, but the second was good.

David Archuletta: good God, no. Seriously painful to listen to him warbling--uncomfortably--"Coming to America.” And I think he hit puberty somewhere in the middle of the song. It felt a lot like being at a high school graduation ceremony. In a bad way.

Randy: you’re in the zone. Paula: I love your little, innocent self. But not in a naughty teacher sort of way. Well, not entirely, anyway. Simon: smart choice of song (I agree--still hated it, though).

Syesha: it was okay, I suppose. Alright. Decent. Whatever. I liked the first one better. Maybe it was better in person.

Randy: lovin’ it. Paula: lovin’ you. Simon: lovin’ that the show is over for the night.

In just about a month, the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) will begin with the aim of focusing on “high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners.” This might not sound particularly sexy, but coordinating aid efforts on concrete goals and principles, finding ways to encourage African “ownership” of development and solutions, and encouraging international donors to become real partners in development is a set of goals near to my heart.

That the TICAD conferences are organized by the UN (admittedly, not my favorite nor my most trusted institution) doesn’t lessen my hope that it continues to bring us closer to a prosperous set of stable, liberal, independent nations that contribute heartily to the world community.

The UN University has a site devoted to tracking interesting stories related to African development on a page within their site. Set up in a blog format, it’s a great resource for those of use who believe that Africa really can be, as TICAD believes, the “Continent of Hope and Opportunity.”

Check out the site and, if you feel so inspired, leave your critique on their site here. I’ve promised one of the organizers that I would both publicize it and offer up my critique and suggestions. I would like to be able to offer more than my own small suggestions, though--and since I’m pretty sure that the smartest people in the world read my site (I mean, they would, wouldn’t they?), I would ask for their insight.

...How much Reverend Wright seems to hate Obama?

Can there be any other explanation for Wright’s willingness to keep a negative story alive? He has basically written the script for Republicans and told the world that Obama was being a typical, duplicitous politician who only pretended to distance himself from the Rev. Wright’s more outrageous statements?

If Wright cared about Obama’s bid for president, he might find it expedient to keep a low profile for a bit.

Not that I’m complaining.

The original WarGames--with a predictable, not particularly bright plot offset by the incredible charisma of young Matthew Broderick --will always be a guilty pleasure of mine. If I come across it while surfing channels late at night, I’ll stop and enjoy the little blast of eighties Cold War nostalgia that I also get from the likes of Red Dawn. It isn’t a good movie in the same way as, say, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but it still makes me smile.

But a remake (with an even dumber plot plopped on an apparently no-charisma zone) probably won’t be making anyone’s nostalgia tour two decades from now. Which might be why it’s skipping the theaters and going direct to video where only the plainly foolish might be suckered into watching the thing.

Yet again I feel surrounded by seas of stupid. You can see the trailer for the abomination at the link.

On the plus side, when we went to see the slight but funny Forgetting Sarah Marshall (with all of its surprising and unfortunate male frontal nudity), I saw trailers for movies that I absolutely cannot wait to see. Steve Carell was born to play Maxwell Smart--which might seem a small thing to be born for, but if it’s as funny as the original TV show, Get Smart will be one of the funniest movies I will have seen in years. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian looks to be a worthy followup to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Lastly, a new version of The Hulk, with no connection to what shall forever be known as Ang Lee’s worst film, with Edward Norton is coming up, too, and it looks much more fun than the last movie. It doesn’t hurt that Norton, apparently, contributed some of the writing. Between that and Robert Downey, Jr’s turn as Iron Man, I have to think that there is some good comic book action coming to theaters this year.

Anyway, the message is this: don’t see War Games: The Dead Code, but look forward to some fun, dumb eye candy while the Democrats continue to work hard at making presidential politics a real brutal contact sport.

And if you’re looking for more raunchy comedy from the Judd Apatow machine, Forgetting Sarah Marshall will have you laughing and, true to form, has some touchingly real moments about how men and women screw up their relationships. It’s a joyously vulgar thing and, for all the talk of bravery for movies like Crash and Brokeback Mountain, Jason Segel showed true bravery in his willingness to bare himself in so many (often disturbing) ways and top it off by singing a portion of a melodramatic rock opera about Dracula’s desire to be loved. That’s courage, my friends.

Let us all, who have attended Rocky Mountain Blogger Bashes, give thanks that I am not a particularly courageous man.

In no way did Wesley Snipes deserve a three year sentence for misdemeanor charges of failure to file his taxes--and a piss poor way of saying thanks for the $5,000,000 in checks that he handed over before sentencing in an effort to show that not only had he learned his lesson, but that he had a newfound willingness to pony up.

As a bonus, I’m also pretty leery of government agents and agencies when they are looking to prosecute harshly in an effort to send a message to the rest of us. That is, quite baldly, a threat. Honestly, I don’t mind “We think it sends a real message” when it’s in the form of high explosives dropped in the laps of terrorists or long sentences doled out to murderers. This doesn’t quite qualify, though, does it?

It’s extremely rare to see a criminal prosecution like this (and remember that Snipes was acquitted of the harshest of the charges) and the prosecution admits to using Snipes’ celebrity to make a point to the rest of us--essentially delivering a different standard of justice to Snipes than I would have faced if I had made the same exceptionally bad decisions as the actor. It rankles when celebrities are given a free pass for stupid (and occasionally criminal) behavior; it’s no less wrong when celebrities are unfairly made into legal targets because of their social standing.

My MP3 player (a second generation iPod Nano) has done good things for my music listening habits. On the positive side, in place of the stacks of CDs that I used to keep in my car and office, I now have a mini library of music wherever I go that I can easily change and which holds enough music to match nearly my many moods and tastes.

On the negative side, I rarely listen to albums anymore. Unless it’s a new purchase, my favorite tracks get picked and placed with others to create some wonderful mixes, but the cohesive pleasure of listening to a great album from front to back is mostly gone. So, today I’m reacquainting myself with my favorite albums while I’m working.

Not that I don’t enjoy the playlists that I create--because, I’m here to tell you, I am the playlist king--but I know that there are hundreds of songs that I haven’t listened to in some time because they don’t easily fit into any of the playlists that I make. Like Screaming Trees’ “Look at You” from the first album on my list, Dust. It’s a gorgeous love song, but I haven’t heard it in quite some time.

The point being, since I doubt that I’m alone in the near abandonment of listening regularly to albums, you’re invited to play along and rediscover your own favorite albums. If you do play along, though, I’d love it if you would let me know what you’re listening to--it might give me some ideas for my own rediscoveries.

First up for me, as I noted, is Dust--the Trees’ last album is a wonderful little rocker. Not great, perhaps, but with some brilliant moments.

Update: This is list of albums thus far.

1. Dust, by Screaming Trees
2. Consider the Birds by Woven Hand
3. Definitive Collection, Disc 1, by Alan Parsons Project
4. Pet Sounds by Beach Boys
5. Sex, Love and Rock n’ Roll by Social Distortion
6. Deliverance by Corrosion of Conformity
7. Acadie by Daniel Lanois

And definitely look in the extended entry for some worthy suggestions.