:: Friday, December 19, 2003 ::
2003 in review, part 2: celebrities
Five celebrities/newsmakers I hope to see less of in 2004:
5. Kobe Bryant (except when the subject is basketball)
4. Koby Bryant's lawyer
3. Britney-Madonna -- the most overhyped kiss ever
2. Bennifer -- most overhyped celebrity couple of the year
1. Michael Jackson -- neither a celebrity or a newsmaker, in my opinion
:: Andrew 09:25 + ::
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:: Thursday, December 18, 2003 ::
Happy Hanukkah (wav file)
You could take everything I know about Hanukkah and put it on the tip of a dreidel. So, in honor of the Festival of Lights, which begins at sundown today, here's a newer version of Adam Sandler's classic Hanukkah Song.
:: Andrew 07:26 + ::
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:: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 ::
Testing 1, 2, 3...
Yesterday I wrote up a post called "2003 in review, part 1: movies," then hit the "publish" button but nothing materialized on the old blog. So now I'm testing to see if this post appears, as well as the aforementioned post which should be just below this one.
Update: Well, this officially sucks. Blogger proclaims, "publish successful!" Yet nothing shows up. I smell a conspiracy. I suspect that the pop culture cogniscenti is trying to stifle my voice.
Yet another update: It's Friday morning, December 19, and still no new posts appear. I'm getting peeved.
Final update: Success! Huzzah!
:: Andrew 10:36 + ::
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2003 in review, part 1: movies
As the calendar year draws to a close, and I grow increasingly bored with the usual stuff I blog about, I hereby proclaim myself bloggedy blog's pop culture savant-in-residence and offer the first of several installments of pop culture observations regarding the past year.
In this first installment, I present my picks for the best movies of 2003. But before I do, a disclaimer: I didn't see too many movies this year. Fact is, I don't watch more than a dozen movies in an average year anymore. Who has time these days? You could probably find hundreds of thousands of bloggers who are more qualified than I to write about cinema. But -- I have a blog, and I'm not afraid to use it.
Without further ado, I present to you:
Bloggedy Blog's Top 5 Movies of 2003
5. The Matrix Reloaded. This, the second installment in the Matrix trilogy, is flashier than the first movie by several orders of magnitude. The "burly brawl," in which Neo dukes it out with a hundred agent Smiths, is a significant technical achievement, and it alone is worth the price of admission -- and worth the big-screen viewing. The chase scene was pretty good, too, from a technical standpoint. But cinematic sleight-of-hand cannot compensate for a weak story, and the story of Reloaded, while not necessarily weak, pales when compared to the original. Like all sequels (with the exception of The Godfather, Part II), Reloaded was a letdown. I haven't even bothered to see The Matrix: Revolutions on the big screen, although I'm sure I'll rent it one of these days.
4. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Russell Crowe is a terrific actor. As Captain Jack Aubrey, he carries the day in this swashbuckler. Directed by Peter Wier, whose work I first discovered with the 1981 drama about World War I, Gallipoli.
3. Adaptation. I'm a writer, and I love movies about writers -- even bad movies about writers. (Henry & June, anyone?) But Adaptation, which came out in 2002 but I didn't see it until it played at our campus' free film festival this past fall, is a good movie about a writer. One of Nicholas Cage's best roles, in my opinion. Directed by the quirky Spike Jonze.
2. Bruce Almighty. From a spiritual perspective, Bruce Almighty was the movie of the year. (Or, if allegory is your thing, the runner-up to No. 1, below.) My thoughts about it were published in the June issue of Next Wave.
1. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I won't get to see this until Saturday at the earliest -- but I already know it's going to be the best movie of the year.
Movies I'd planned to see this past year, but never got around to: X2; Spellbound (documentary about spelling bees, which never made it to Rolla, Missouri); A Mighty Wind; Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (I know my wife wouldn't let me watch this one -- too violent and she hates Quentin Tarentino -- but I still want to sneak out and see it someday). That's about all that I can think of.
Coming next in of "2003 in review": either music or music videos.
:: Andrew 16:00 + ::
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:: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 ::
Wright Brothers Centennial: cause for national celebration or day of mourning?
How should we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight? George Bush, John Travolta and others will be on hand today in Kitty Hawk, N.C., to celebrate this "milestone that Bill Gates has called 'the single greatest cultural force since the invention of writing.'" We'll read and hear news reports aplenty praising the 1903 flight as a testament to humanity's ability to overcome barriers. I, like many others, take aviation for granted, and cannot fathom a life without frequent commercial flight. But before we celebrate this triumphant achievement, we should consider the argument from the folks at Mathaba.net:
December 17 2003 is the centenary of the world's most effective killing machine. ...
When Wilbur Wright was asked, in 1905, what the purpose of his machine might be, he answered simply: "War." As soon as they were confident that the technology worked, the brothers approached the war offices of several nations, hoping to sell their patent to the highest bidder. The US government bought it for $30,000, and started test bombing in 1910. The aeroplane was conceived, designed, tested, developed and sold, in other words, not as a vehicle for tourism, but as an instrument of destruction.
In November 1911, eight years after the first flight, the Italian army carried out the first bombing raid, on a settlement outside Tripoli. Then as now, aerial bombardment was seen as a means of civilising uncooperative peoples.
Full story.
:: Andrew 08:07 + ::
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Bigger than Jesus
No, not John Lennon and the Beatles -- not this time (see March 4, 1966, on timeline). It's the man of the moment, Saddam, who knocked Jesus off the cover of Time. Link via Relevant.
:: Andrew 10:52 + ::
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:: Monday, December 15, 2003 ::
TV exec's biggest blunders of 2003
Today's edition of USA Today looks over television network executives' boneheadedest moves of the past year. From "Law and Order" (exhuasting your assets) to "Joe Millionaire 2" (playing the same joke twice), writer Robert Bianco lists "10 of the season's worst ideas, and the shows they spawned." I'm smugly proud to say I haven't watched a single one of these shows.
:: Andrew 10:42 + ::
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Warning: bandwidth-clogging slide show ahead
If you just can't get enough of the images of a disheveled and scraggly-beared Saddam, check out this gem from Poynter online: a 4.7-meg Flash slide show of online news sites breaking the news of Saddam Hussein's capture. Interesting stuff -- but worthless if you're using a dial-up.
:: Andrew 07:51 + ::
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Simon Dawes, 
