Random musings...

I just saw a poll that shows Al Franken within 5 percentage points of Norm Coleman. Franken is running for Coleman's Minnesota Senate seat next year. Can you imagine Al Franken in the Senate? I mean, seriously? One thing is for sure, he would make C-Span much more interesting. In a way, I'm really hoping he pulls it off and wins just to watch the loon show that will no doubt be the United States Senate (as if it weren't already). I also just read some info stating that the reason Hillary has such a lead on Obama in all the polls is because Democrats simply think she has the best shot to beat whoever the Republican nominee is. The sad thing? That's true. She's the only one of the frontrunner's that has any semblance of what the electorate defines as "experience" and she has that last name that garners an automatic 45% of the voters.

So this is what all the waiting has been for? This essentially means "I'm stopping the surge." So, in reality, what has happened is that Bush threw in a bunch more troops to "stabilize" an area that hates us only to take those extra troops out next year because Petraus recommended it? Huh? This reeks of politics to me. Sorta like, "the elections are coming up next year, let's bring some troops home so it will look like we are capitulating to the electorate's wishes". The funny thing about this is that if Democrats say we should start bringing troops home, Republicans say we'll destabilize the area and allow terrorists to "win". Yet if a general says the same thing, and a Republican president brings troops home, it's suddenly "things are better in Iraq!". The hypocrisy is maddening :)

Californication is not getting any better. Disappointing since I thought the first episode showed a lot of promise. The biggest fault of the show is that the dialogue is just downright bad. It amounts to David Duchovny saying fuck a lot or "hip" sarcastic jokes like "You want to suck my cock?" and referring to the "Brown Eye" when discussing a woman who tried to put her finger in her husband's asshole. Seriously. The scripts are trying desperately to be edgy but are coming off as forced and contrived. Even the plotlines are stupid. For instance, Duchovny's agent is cheating on his wife with a Suicide Girl who likes to be degraded and dominated. The agent character isn't anybody you even care about or want to be watching, yet the show deems it necessary to throw in Suicide Girl plugs and a separate storyline for it. It's stupid. Even the main hook of the show (Duchovny accidentally sleeping with the 16 year old daughter of his ex-wife's fiancee) is going nowhere. I'd give the show so far a C- rating and I wouldn't be surprised if that grade goes lower in the coming weeks.

I just read a review of the latest Argento flick, and predictably, it isn't good. Personally, I've never been a fan of Argento and don't really understand the fanaticism he is shown by some horror fans. Still, I don't think he's some hack or anything. I thought Pelts, his latest Masters of Horror episode was pretty good.

I'm seeing 3:10 to Yuma tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that. It's been a while since I've seen a good western. Ironically, it's a remake that is getting great reviews, although remake haters won't mention that fact :)

I was trying to come up with a good way to describe the difference between liking a movie and the movie being "good". This seems to be a concept that most people I've come across just can't understand. They just can't seem to separate the idea that though they really enjoy a movie, that that same movie can be utter garbage. In other words, there's a difference between liking a movie and recognizing it as a quality piece of cinema. I've got this analogy of Gold and Pyrite (Fool's Gold) that I'm working out in my head. I'll post it in an upcoming blog. Until then, time to rearrange some stuff in my living room