Also

Shorter Sarah Palin: Let's progress the prevention of free-market efforts to protect life!

Update: As Kevin Drum points out, Sarah Palin really did write and the Washington Post really did publish this op-ed on Cap-and-Trade that omits any mention whatsoever of the concept of global climate change.

Tuesday Trivia

This week, it's characters.

Monday Movie Review: The Fountain

The Fountain (2006) 6/10
Tommy (Hugh Jackman) is a research scientist working on brain tumors, and hoping to find a breakthrough in time to save his beloved wife Izzi (Rachel Wiesz). Tomas (Jackman) is a Spanish conquistador seeking the Fountain of Youth on behalf of Queen Isabella (Weisz). Tom (Jackman) is a bald guy in a bubble with a tree. Directed by Darren Aronofsky.

I am so confused.
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I am okay with non-linear plots. I adored Memento. I like mysticism. I love romance. But I found this movie very difficult. Visually stunning, kind of engrossing, but ultimately frustrating. I had a sort of a sense of what was going on, but I felt like I was spending too much time trying to figure out what was going on, and it was distracting me from enjoying the movie. My teenagers (my son and my goddaughter) enjoyed the movie a lot more than I did. Arthur in particular didn't care whether he understood, because he found the palette of light and color, and the repeated motifs of stars and specific shapes, so fascinating. And certainly the movie is like a painting; unfortunately, too much Dali, not enough Monet.

Because The Fountain deals with a man facing the death of his beloved wife, and because it is abstract and laden with symbolism, it lends itself to comparison with What Dreams May Come. The latter movie is weird, otherworldly, and metaphorical, and yet I never had trouble following it.

After watching The Fountain, I started looking at some of the DVD extras, and they started talking about Tom on his spaceship in the future. And I was all like "SPACESHIP? It was a SPACESHIP?" No clue. I had no clue. Because shaved head, lotus position, talking to a tree in a bubble in the stars doesn't read "spaceship" to me, it reads astral travel or nirvana or something like that. The kids, apparently, knew it was a spaceship, so maybe it was me, but seriously, the teensiest bit of exposition is all I ask.

So what I get is that these two very pretty people with very prominent eyebrows are deeply in love, and this love transcends time, except it doesn't really, because the whole Spanish conquistador thing may be a novel that Izzi is writing, except maybe it isn't. But she is dying and he is upset by that so there are intense facial expressions and some hot sex.

(Non-linear kind of confused cross-post I think)

Papal Bull

Shorter Ross Douthat:

How many angels can dance in my pinhead?

This guy is seriously embarrassing himself on a weekly basis.

Sunday Trinityblogging

Diamond Lake and the Granite Trinities, Trinity Alps Wilderness.

Huh.

Yesterday, on the bus home from work, there was a guy reading a book¹ by Kim Jong Il.

Speculate in comments.



¹On the Art of the Cinema

Friday Random 10

Fall - There's a Ghost in My House
Sleater-Kinney - Steep Air
Mekons - Kidnapped
Gary Numan & Tubeway Army - Down in the Park
Sahara All Stars of Jos - Take Your Soul
Expressions - Money I$ King
Savage Republic - Viva La Rock 'n Roll (instrumental)
Delta 5 - You
Tlahoun Gèssèssè - Sethed Seketelat
Adam West - Vehicle

What are y'all listening to this morning? Bonus video below the fold...
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"your an elitist snob"

That line pretty neatly sums up reaction among the Freeper-types dominating comment to Peggy Noonan's column on Sarah Palin this morning over at the Wall Street Journal. So you can skip the comments (as enjoyable as they are if you have the time and inclination), but do not miss the column.

Teaser line:

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying.

That is not a "Shorter," folks. That's the genuine Noonan. From there she gets up close and personal with a whole cast of GOP charlatans and mythmakers like John Fund and Russ Douthat.

Thank you, John McCain. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Corn Lily (Veratrum californicum) at Diamond Lake, Trinity Alps Wilderness. More Corn Lilies below the fold.
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New Jersey Trivia

Okay, actor trivia. Come see.

Quimby the Mouse

Quimby The Mouse from This American Life on Vimeo.