On the brink

I've been scared shitless for some time of being where we are right now. Basically since about five minutes after I realized that I had taken on more debt than I'd probably ever climb out of. 

I try to not pay attention to the chicken-little stuff, but now Warrren Buffet is talking that way. If we're really circling the drain, then I guess I do hope they nationalize the fuck out of the markets to cushion the fall. Then start getting people used to the idea of rationing and conservation, a la England when they wrapped up their empire and its related revenue streams post-WWII. Just start taking the pain in as humane a way as possible. The sooner everybody admits that this ponzi scheme couldn't last forever, the better off we'll all be.

At least I'm not still working for investment bankers.

New Terminator Season!

"Sometimes they go bad. No one knows why."

PICTURED: In the season premiere, Cameron goes on a rampage due to a malfunctioning chip. OR IS IT?????

I'm such a nut for this show, and I'm thrilled that it's back on the air. Week after week, it respects--and expands upon--the world of the James Cameron films, while being mercifully short on the overt references and corny in-jokes that saddled T3.

They even outdo T2 in one sense: John Connor is played here by a kid who can deliver the requisite emo pout, minus the  douche chills. The rest of the cast is strong, but the real star is Summer Glau as Cameron, the alleged "good" Terminator. As she did in Firefly/Serenity, she gives a performance that walks a razor edge between confused innocent and unhinged monster.

Bailout

Pictured: Chris Dodd, Government Guy

I'm somewhat capable of understanding the arguments on both sides of this. I read the Economist occasionally, sometimes even facing the right way up. But I can't for the life of me figure out if this bailout is a good thing or not. Maybe it's just the least awful of the options in front of us.

All I know is that when I first heard people saying that we needed to bail out Wall Street, I somehow had the sensation that I was being sold a sports stadium. Do you realize what a disaster it'll be for our economy if Shelbyville gets the sports stadium instead of us? You want those three, possibly four net jobs going to Shelbyville?

How can you not get nervous when George Bush goes on TV and tells you that the solution to all the problems is yet another round of spending like a drunken fucking sailor. I do like how everyone seemed to be for it, and then Bush comes out in favor of it and suddenly everyone's skeptical of it. When you're George Bush in 2008, every day is opposite day.

__________________________________________________________

Dude, there's not a space there, even for you. I understand you must be pretty excited about being one of the first Yanks to own one of those things, but that doesn't mean you just put it in the crosswalk. The rest of us can still see it. It's slightly smaller than a regular car, it's not Wonder Woman's invisible plane.

Edie & Roxy

Keeping up with a baby is a full-time gig. Just ask my two-year-old, who always seems to have her hands full making sure that baby Roxy doesn't play with things she shouldn't play with. Or taking toys that she is allowed to play with out of her hands. Or placing toys in front of her just so she can take them away two seconds later. 

They say at this age the older kid has a hard time with the creeping realization that the little one isn't just another temporary houseguest. Edie takes the attitude of a small-town sheriff, with the baby something like a teenage hot-rodder who's rolled into town for repairs. Edie won't cross the line into outright brutality. She sees it as her job to behave in a sufficiently harassing manner so the young troublemaker doesn't get any ideas about staying put for a spell.

Michael Phelps

THE SPIRIT

So, Frank Miller has made what appears to be a horrible movie of Will Eisner's The Spirit. 

Since Will Eisner and Frank Miller were my two favorite cartoonists as a lad, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about this. On the one hand, nobody needs to prove their Eisner-fan stripes less than Frank Miller does. I wouldn't even know who Will Eisner was if not for Miller. This is a guy who used to take up space in his top-tier Marvel book to plug a strip that had been defunct for 30 years. It's just disappointing that he appears to have made a movie that's less about the Spirit comic than about Frank Miller's late-period preoccupation with boobs, blood and bad dialogue. Like practically everything he's done post-1980's, the trailer leaves me scratching my head; it seems like a bad parody, and I can't tell if he's joking or not.

I should have known it might turn out like this after having read Eisner/Miller, the book-length cross-interview that Dark Horse published a few years back. In parts you just had the sense that the two of them were on separate wavelengths. Like the following passage where Miller is about to talk about Sin City: Family Values.

EISNER: The book I'm working on right now is about a family that immigrates from Eastern Europe in the 1930's and struggles to make a living in the garment district while keeping their traditions alive.

MILLER: Oh yeah, my book deals with a lot of the same themes. These two hot chicks get it on with each other and then go around shooting everybody with uzis.

Okay, I might not have exactly transcribed that word for word, but it's not far off.

Black Monday

Inspired by a photo I pulled off CNN.com.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007)

I finally caught this on DVD. (I don't get out that much. A trip to the video store is a big event around my house.)

I had heard that the movie is great up until the ending, which I heard described as confusing and pointless. I can understand the confusion, because the movie fakes you out. It's pretending to be a certain kind of film that you've seen a million times. The kind that only flirts with existential dread. When Tommy Lee Jones showed up early on, I actually said to my wife, "Oh, it's Tommy Lee Jones, everything's going to be all right now". Which is exactly what I was supposed to think.

Like the motorist pulled over by the police cruiser in an early scene, you respond automatically to certain signals that reassure you that a safety net is in place. But the safety net hasn't held, and the tent around you is on fire. The film leaves you standing, slack-jawed and dull-eyed like cattle, watching the bolt aimed at your brain but failing to understand its purpose until it's too late.

Galveston

Faith and Edie playing in the rain at my in-laws' beach house, Galveston Island, TX, April 2007.

Madame President

DAY ONE: What the hell were they thinking nominating this woman? She's clearly insane. I guess it's over for McCain.

DAY TWO: Oh, I get it, she's the kind of insane that's great on television. Well, hopefully the Democrats won't play into the Republicans' hands on this one.

DAY THREE: We're dead.