Normally, I'd name a list of movies that I'm looking forward to, and my reasons for each. But looking over the season's slate, I realized that I'm much more certain of what I will not be seeing, and why. So, I give you

The most notable Fall/Winter movies I’m least interested in seeing:

Defiance - It’s World War II, and Daniel Craig and a bunch ( Read more... )

Dune

Ishtar

Howard the Duck

The Shawshank Redemption

Donnie Darko

Hannah was gone (again) this week, so I’ve been day and night dad. It’s not really much more work than it is usually. Work and Sam occupy me, and when I do get a night free it seems everybody else is busy ( Read more... )

Hey, a rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t be comfortable with it showing up in the local paper, don’t post it. I don’t care how beautiful or natural it is, or how drunk you were- all it really reveals is how tone-deaf you are to the finer notes of conduct and civility. It’s not becoming; at best, it erodes the respect I had for you, and at worst, it ( Read more... )

(As in, stuck in it when I’d much rather be taking a swig from it ( Read more... )

Is it really an Italian restaurant if it doesn't have an autographed photo of a Sopranos cast member hanging on its wall?

The Serious Layman is of mixed opinion about mega-churches, and, when he is pressed, he admits to being a skeptic about the spiritual viability of such congregations. What seems most clear to him is that Americans love success, and big churches definitely communicate success. He observes that they also make for great one-stop shopping, offering ( Read more... )

Entertainment Weekly has selected 100 “new classics” from the past 25 years (can't hyperlink to it: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20207076_20207387_20207063,00.html). (Why 25 years? Well, that’s about as far back as the average EW reader can ( Read more... )

Joanna's visiting, and Marnie's over. Sam's in bed, and we're flipping channels waiting for, oh, So You Think You Can Dance or something. Return of the Jedi is on Spike, and the rebels are on Endor, approaching the generator.

Hannah: Now, are those little people?

Marnie (quickly, as if to correct): No, they're Ewoks.

The place sold. All that's left is the closing. I hear the new owners find the garden "a detriment" (funny, that's how the teenage-me felt, too). They will certainly raze the house itself. It will, in a short time, bear almost no mark of what it has been. I think I never want to see it again ( Read more... )