Couple of new movies to be on the lookout for: Wes Anderson's (Rushmore, Royala Tennenbaums) new movie starring Bill Murray as a French oceanographer (shades of Jacques Cousteau?) and the new mockumentary from Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman, Best In Show) about three 60's folk music groups teaming up for a reunion show.

These movies are going to bring the funny...I can't wait.

(thanks to Jon B and Daniel for the heads up)

Aw, you gotta be kidding me.

School Daze

Ugh, it's usually not good when you're looking at a syllabus the night before you start a class and realize that a report is due the next day. Not only that, but that a full 60 pages of reading in the assigned text is also required. Such was my Sunday night. So Monday was spent writing a three page paper during my breaks and lunch. To say this paper was both eloquent and full of interesting insights would be a serious stretch. To say that the paper smelled somewhat like a stable full of livestock would be more on target.

I think this new class will be interesting. It is a class on, brace yourselves, pop culture. That's right, the King of Useless Information is taking a class on pop culture. As stated my first class was last night and it was suprisingly enjoyable despite a few unsettling moments and circumstances. My instructor is on the Board of Women's Studies at Cal State Fullerton and she kind of used the class as a sounding board for her takes on the "male dominated society" that we live in. To her credit though, she made a point to let us know when she was editorializing, yet in a class where the female/male ratio was 3:1, it still made for some squirmy moments.

Class interaction will be interesting as well. There was a point in class where she was asking us to describe America as if we were explaining it to a foreigner. The expected adjectives were thrown out: "busy", "immediate gratification", "greedy", "capitalistic". Now, I have no problem with these generalizations yet, (I don't know whether it was the empty stomach or the lack of oxygen to my brain) I decided to stir the pot a bit. I raised my hand and asked if these descriptions of America that we were giving were in large part colored by our own experiences growing up and living in the industrialized society that is California. I told her about my visit to Tennessee and the culture shock I received down there. No hustle or bustle, no one making business deals on the cell phone during lunch, no 5 mph traffic jams...nada. I then asked if we were right in using these words to describe America as a whole, when they would be more accurate in defining our own subculture in So. California.

I was met with blank stares by the class as well as the instructor. Then after a couple of pregnant beats of silence in which I swear I heard even the chirping crickets turn in shame, the instructor smirked and glibly said "Yeah, but what else are you going to do down south, It's so hot that you can't help but move sloooooow". The class erupted in laughter.

Yep, I had found the level of discourse in the class. No biggie, at least now I know how to adjust.

Somebody tell me why I decided to go back to school again?

Nothing to see here..move along

Oil company linked to Cheney set to rebuild oil wells in Iraq if they are destroyed.

No...get out of here...seriously?