2am

It's 2am in the morning. I'm on four cups of coffee and have 14 hours to write an additional 1000 words for one essay and start and finish another 1000 word essay. Why do I do this to myself?

I wonder if I'll do it next week when I have a big essay and a decently sized assignment due on Friday. Sigh.

Diablo Cody's Thoughts.

Am going to watch a movie in my room tonight. I have a recommendation from Spielberg(!) in my bag. (Who is this Fellini dude, anyhow?)

Diablo Cody's Twitter is an interesting read. What I expect from the writer of Juno really.

Template change... again.

Like the title... I can't stay happy with a template so I did the old switcheroo.

Review: Spider-Man 2 (2004)

God, when did Spider-Man become so fucking emo?

**spoilers!**
OK, we're two years after the events of the first film, a film that I liked and it appears that Peter has not moved on emotionally at all. He still wants to fuck Mary Jane and every single time he sees her it just seems to open up some emotional wound for him that causes him to go for some emo drifting around New York City. As Peter Parker he acts as a seriously sad bitch, he has no money, he's nearly failing class and he works for a man that demonises him. Things seem to be going well for everyone else but everyone else is also miserable, Harry still wants a hug from his dead father, auntie blames herself for her husband's death, Mary Jane wants to fuck Peter but he's in emo-land so she settles for an astronaut.

Are you serious? An astronaut? Do we still send people into outer space?

There's a villian called Dr. Octopus and he's crazy... like the last villian. Peter decides giving up everything he wants isn't worth being Spider-Man so he throws his little uniform away and becomes a nerd instead with spiffing glasses. Crime rises but Peter doesn't care, he can now finally have his shot with Mary Jane, but tough luck pal. She's getting fucking married. You knew that. He tries to convince her with a smashing argument but she is somehow not convinced.

The entire plot becomes ridiculous as the movie progresses. Scenes full of plot holes arise, for instance: no one (including Mr. Super Spider Senses) notices that a man with four huge metalliac arms enters a bank until he thows open the vault door. Later in the film, the said man with the metalliac arms is given one clue (Peter Parker) to find Spider-Man and then KILLS him. Oh, wait, he didn't. Because Peter Parker has super powers. Right. That was lucky otherwise you would have killed your only clue and then you wouldn't have got your precious whatever that glowing shit was.

And don't get me started on the ending. Don't get me started on that awful speech that is repeated throughout the film. Don't get me started on the phrase "with great power comes great responsiblity". Don't get me started on the useless sequences.

We should just talk about J.K. Simmons. He's fucking awesome. I wish the rest of the movie could just live up to him.

I'll finish with a picture... from the first movie because that was so much better.

Quality Journalism from Jon Stewart

Lee Sigelman @ The Monkey Cage has a post commenting on a report by the "Project for Excellence in Journalism" on The Daily Show. (which screens in NZ on C4 Tue-Fri 10pm)

The Daily Show is one of my favourite shows but the idea that it should be taken as journalism is laughable. It's a comedy show that works as a meta-text rather than an actual text as it spends most of its time looking at the media's coverage of events rather than the actual event.

This report happened because in a poll of which journalists were admired the most, host Jon Stewart came in fourth. Really, this is reflective of the state of the rest of media rather than on the Daily Show. The questions that the report should be asking is why does no one admire the media anymore?

An interesting stat though on the front page...

Daily Show viewers are highly informed, an indication that The Daily Show is not their lone source of news. Regular viewers of The Daily Show and the Colbert Report were most likely to score in the highest percentile on knowledge of current affairs.

Seems that people who watch the show are quite likely to get their news from other sources as well and are able to distinguish between satire and reality.

The conclusions of the report seem to be: The Daily Show has a skewed focus on Washington politics and can completely ignore other big stories (such as the Virginia Tech shootings - with good reason, there is nothing funny about that). The Daily Show also has a liberal bias, the show producers say this is because the show is anti-establishment. It'll be interesting to see if the show changes if Obama wins the White House in November.

Finally, I pulled up the Wikiquote page for The Daily Show, it has a section that has some taglines. Let's see how The Daily Show defines itself:

• More people get their news from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart... Than probably should.
• The Daily Show - the only news program with no credibility left to lose.
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We're getting a helicopter... soon.
• The Most Important News Show... Ever.

What a film that could have been...

Studying at the moment at 1am in the computer room on campus for my Robert Altman essay that is due on Friday, about three times now its been mentioned that he was dropped for the Ragtime film which turned out (apparently) rather average. I would have so loved to see an Altman version of Ragtime. Pity Altman's dead now.

Awful Policy

ACT founder and candidate the Hon Sir Roger Douglas said ACT would make the first $10,000 tax-free for full-time income earners, and inflation-index tax brackets to restore 2000 values.

-ACT

(h/t: Deborah @ The Hand Mirror)

How do you justify giving the tax break only to full time workers? Is part time work not important? Not even a little? As Deborah points out this is a spit in the face to anyone that looks after children. This policy completely distorts incentives towards full time work. Sure, that may not seem bad but kinda assumes that everyone can be fitted into a nice little homogeneous box that says that full time work is best for everyone. It's not. I used to kinda like ACT, it appealed to the inner right winger inside me but this policy seems to go against what the likes of Rodney Hide stand for - especially their rhetoric concerning 'choice' - I thought ACT would be the last party that would try to dictate how people can work through the tax system. I am very confused by this policy.

In terms of the other issue raised by this press release - tax bracket creep. I'm in favour of it and I thought it was already in place. A bit of research found that it is - just not to the extent that ACT wants it. It was announced in 2005 and the first adjustment would take place back in the 31st of March 2008 - only covering the period between the 1st of April 2005 and the 31st of March 2008. ACT wants it to cover the period going back to 2000. I'd be seriously more cautious doing that.

I do think that the tax brackets should be increasing by the rate of inflation every year. Not every three years in an attempt to build up a nice little stockpile for election year.

Man... long boring post. One question, did National increase the tax brackets in the 90s? That's something I want to find out.

Album of the Moment

The album: Hello Young Lovers by The Sparks. Released in 2006. This album is so weird in its theatrics that its impossible to become fully engrossed in their spinning web of irony. Or if, you're not into that - you'll probably find the whole thing rather stupid.

I've got two youtube videos here. One is a music video for one of the singles of the album (Dick Around - this is a shortened version of the song)

And their guest appearance on the Gilmore Girls.

Stupid Vicious Circle

The sad thing is how true it is sometimes. Not this week... I hope.

So confused right now

• I have a test at 7pm
• I study up until then, sending a text message to my flatmate about 15 minutes before test starts saying "i'm screwed"
  
• I arrive. I'm a minute early. But everyone has already started on their tests.
  
• 8.15pm, the 15 minute warning before the end of the test arrives much sooner than expected. End result: I finish 29 marks worth of the questions out of 50.
  
• I come home and something doesn't feel right. All that I do though is go to the video store to return The Triplets of Belleville.
  
• I suddenly come to a realisation of what's going on. I get back home and knock very loudly on my flatmate's door to check when I sent that text.
  
• As I expected: 7.15pm
• So I somehow lost the ability to read clocks and mistook 7pm for 7.30pm. I'm very annoyed with myself. And very confused.
• I'm also probably fucked. I needed 40% to get terms and I doubt I achieved that. I think I answered the questions fairly well but 20 out of 29? God I hope I did.
  

Quick Film Reviews: The Procrastination Edition

I was meant to be busy this week so I procrastinated and watched a whole bunch of films.

The Triplets of Belleville (2003 - Sylvain Chomet)
I gave two films 10/10 last year - Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and Band of Outsiders and this becomes the first film this year to receive that rating. Every single frame was injected with so much energy and originality that I was giddy for the entire 81 minutes. Finding Nemo, a film I quite liked beat this one for the Oscar of best animated feature. Nemo should have been CRUSHED. But oh well; not everyone's cup of tea I guess. To emphasise the point: 10/10

Mission Impossible III (2006 - J.J. Abrams)
Having not seen the first two I don't really know what to compare this too. As an action flick I thought it worked quite well. 7.5/10

Cars (2006 - John Lasseter & Joe Ranft)
Pixar's weakest film to date. But still quite lovable and pretty. Still good. 8/10

Priceless (2006 - Pierre Salvadori)
Lots of expensive stuff on display. Everything looks pretty and its fun some of the time if it wasn't for that dull predictable plot. And Audrey Tautou, one of my favourite actresses after Amelie looks so skinny, was she always like that? 6/10

Planet Terror (2007 - Robert Rodrigeuz)
Now this was fun. Pure fun. Delivered exactly what they promised. Need to see Tarantino's Death Proof now. I read that the fake trailer at the beginning is actually going to be made into a real movie. Now that is awesome. 8.5/10

The Conversation (1974 - Francis Ford Coppola)
Part of the New Hollywood in the 70s. Coppola made this between the first two Godfather films. Interesting thriller. 8/10

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936 - Frank Capra)
I always liked that Gilmore Girls by Paris when she is in Stars Hollow for the first time and describes it as a place "that would even make Frank Capra throw up". This is one of those films with those Capra idealistic characters that are so pure and innocent and full of integrity that it'll make you throw up. Other examples is Jimmy Stewart from It's a Wonderful Life and Jimmy Stewart from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I'm sure he's got a few more movies that have these characters. If they weren't so lovable in their integrity this film will be awful but Gary Cooper does well here. 8/10

The Lady Eve (1941 - Preston Sturges)
I'm still trying to work out what happened in the end there. It kind of confuses me. No judgement yet.

Thank You For Smoking

Money...

No Right Turn talks about social dividends and Universal Basic Incomes here. I've always loved this idea. A pity that no one implements so that we can see if it works in the real world.

As an aside, he also talks about the Qantas Media Awards in another post. (A congratulations to No Right Turn for being nominated) But it's nice that the Otago Daily Times is no longer winning Best Newspaper in the country. Because, quite frankly, it's not. And (for the last five years at least) it was never the Best Newspaper.

One Man Band

Pixar short film from 2005. I love these guys.

Suplerative Simpsons: Sideshow Bob Roberts

I find it funny how the people on SNPP seem to differ wildly on their views on particular episodes. . The reviews section includes "terrible" and "SUCKED really, really, really bad" amongst the other reviews and some even seemed "offended" by the attacks on the Republican party.

Being a loopy fruity left winger I loved them. Though there were all soft satirical jabs. I fail to see how they could be offensive.

The basic plot of this episode is as follows: Sideshow Bob (my favourite Simpsons character of all time) is released from prison by Mayor Joe Quimby after some grassroots support for Bob is generated by a right wing talk radio host, Bob is then enlisted by the Republican party to run against Quimby in the latest mayoral election which he wins.

Some of the classic lines...

Barlow: Monty, I'm way ahead of you. If you'll just open that door you'll see the next mayor of Springfield.
[door opens to reveal a water cooler; everyone applauds]
[the cooler bubbles]
Senator: What'd it say?
Barlow: No, no, no, Bob. Bob, come in!
Bob: [enters wrapped in a US flag] A fine "Mahoke" to you all.
Hibbert: Why, he's even better.
Ranier: I agree. I like the human touch.

Bob: That was a big mistake, Bart. No children have ever meddled with the Republican Party and lived to tell about it.

TV Commercial: Mayor Quimby supports revolving door prisons. Mayor Quimby even released Sideshow Bob -- a man twice convicted of attempted murder. Can you trust a man like Mayor Quimby? Vote Sideshow Bob for mayor.

Barlow: Mayor Quimby, you're well-known, sir, for your lenient stance on crime. But suppose for a second that your house was ransacked by thugs, your family tied up in the basement with socks in their mouths, you try to open the door but there's too much blood on the knob...
Quimby: What is your question?
Barlow: My question is about the budget, sir.

Bart: You were just Barlow's lackey.
Lisa: You were Ronny to his Nancy!
Bart: Sonny to his Cher!
Lisa: Ringo to his rest of the Beatles!

And the best one...

Bart: We want the truth!
Bob: You want the truth? You can't handle the truth. No truth-handler, you. Bah! I deride your truth-handling abilities.
Judge: Will you get to the point?
Bob: Only I could have executed such a masterpiece of electoral fraud. And I have the records to prove it! Here, just look at these -- [pulls out binders and floppy disks] each one a work of Machiavellian art.
Judge: But why?
Bob: Because you need me, Springfield. Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king. That's why I did this: to protect you from yourselves. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a city to run.
Judge: Bailiffs, place the mayor under arrest.
Bob: What? Oh yes, all that stuff I did.