the awesome/terrifying freedom

things i love:



v for vendetta: i thought it was great. it's not for everyone. if you liked 'dark city,' this is your kind of movie. i thought it was far better (read: more satisfying) than any of the matrix films. nothing in the matrix ever resonated emotionally the way one sequence of 'v' does - portman reads a letter left by a prisoner of the new government, a lesbian film star, who's open life makes her a target. the sequence was a stunning, unexpected gay twist, and elevated the entire film beyond slickly produced comic book fare.

david cross bitchslaps larry the cable guy: just absolute genius.

the return of hbo sunday nights. i wasn't totally sold on 'big love' last week, and i liked this week's episode even less. it seems like we need something more than -just- polygamy to carry a series, and those external conflicts exist (the family feud, property deals, etc), but aren't given quite enough focus or momentum to propel the episode so that we can linger on the minutiae of what it takes to schedule sex with 3 women. rome took 4 episodes to take off, so that's what i'll give 'big love.' oh also, a fun game is to compare bill paxton's ass from 'weird science'



to his ass now. holdin' up pretty well. man, when he whipped that towel off in 'weird science'.. i remember being so mad that the camera was on the wrong side of him. really it was more of an unconscious anger that i couldn't label until much later. regarding sopranos: i'm going with it for now, but there's shades of 'we're doing a six feet under style final season' here.

the finale of battlestar galactica: so frackin' good, and such a huge risk they took, entirely restructing the show right at the height of its popularity. if you haven't seen it, it's astonishingly good, morally complex, and pretty damn hot too. jamie bamber. mmm.



taylor hicks: at this point, i'm willing to venture a guess that taylor will win american idol, and i think he will win in the same way that ruben won back in the day: he's charming, relaxed, and is the only contestant who gets up there and actually has fun every single time he performs. he also seems incapable of singing a wrong note. of course at times he seems like the 'rain man' of music, but that's what makes him brilliant.

taylor before the gray:


things i don't love:

the TRAJAN logo (however slightly modified, with select serifs removed) for 'big love.' booo. the show's style is already an unabashed echo of 'six feet under.' do we have to copy the font too?