But He is The Batman

We saw the new Batman movie last night. It's......you know, it's good. Visually stunning, the story is pretty good and they draw some interesting parallels between the Batman/Joker conflict and the War on Terror TM.

It's worth seeing. As with most movies, I think had they cut the last twenty or so minutes it would have made for a superior film. As it was, I'd give it 3.5 stars out of 4. A very good movie.
And Ledger? He makes it interesting. It's a shame about him. It would have been fun to see what he might have done. I'm thinking the sky was the limit.

Then there's Batman. He was good too. Still the lone wolf, still the gadget freak, still pretty good on his feet.

Growing up, I was a Marvel kid, meaning I read Marvel comics. I only read DC comics when I was hard up, when I couldn't get a Marvel fix. Then eventually all the buzz about the rebranding of Batman -- changing him from the overstuffed boy scout he was into The Dark Knight -- sucked me in and I quickly became addicted to Batman, too.

The opening of one Batman comic really stayed with me over the years. Clearly, it's still with me. It was right after the 2nd Robin was killed by the Joker (relax, this is in the comic books). Batman was pretty much ruined afterwards, thinking he had caused a young man's death. So to make up for that, he started to take crazy risks; diving headlong into situations without doing his usual homework. He was punishing himself, more or less. Possibly trying to kill himself.

So this one comic opened with him slugging it out with some 2nd-tier, Joker-wannabe on top of a dam. The opening was all action and narration and it went something like this: His breathing is labored. His body aches. He's already been stabbed twice. Any other man would succumb to his wounds and tumble headlong into the raging abyss below. But he is The Batman, and this only makes him more determined.

I guess I just love the concept of Batman. How f'd up do you have to be to decide, 'I think I'm going to dress up like a bat from now on, and fight crime.' Pretty darn f'd up, I'm thinkin'.

what they say about assume

So I was hanging out in the Intimates section at Kohl's last night, doing a little browsing -- if you will -- and a salesperson came up behind me and said, 'Doing a little shopping for your wife, huh?'
I spun around angrily and replied, 'Why should she get all the nice stuff?!'

Alright, I didn't say that, but people shouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. That's my whole point here.

8 years is a long time (to go without justice)

'Fixing a hole in the ocean..'
- The Beatles, 'Glass Onion'

A few days ago, super-genius Republican strategist Karly Rove refused to testify before congress after being subpoenaed (and not for the first time, I'm guessing). However, ever generous, Mr. Rove did offer to testify privately, as long as he wasn't under oath and no transcript of his fictional testimony was kept. In other words, he was willing to lie, just so long as there was no one there to record his lies and use those lies against him someday in a court of law.

I've been thinking about this a lot and Congress should just agree to Mr. Rove's terms. He is A Genius, after all, and...I know! Congress and Mr. Rove could make a little game out of it. Everyone could wear paper hats and imaginary tea could be served -- oh, and they could invite the Queen! I remember from childhood how the Queen likes to come to these things.

That would be keen.

Song for the day: Glass Onion, the Beatles song in which John Lennon tweaked the Beatles fans and Beatles mythology, and crafted some new mythology while he was at it. I also like how the drums on this song sound crisp and muffled at once. There's something kind of cool about that.

NOTE: We've reached song #250 on my list of 500 songs that don't suck. Can you say milestone?

Tommy Stinson's gots chops

Ho-kay, I've mailed it in for so long I'm running low on postage. I'd better dig in a little bit. So, yes, today I tried to eat blueberries in traffic -- briefly. What happened was that I had a big container of blueberries and cream (with a lovely glaze of sugar on top) with me in the car. I also had a spoon. And it was lunchtime. You can about imagine what happened next. Yup, I was at a red light -- you know the kind. The spoon glinted in the sun and next thing you know, it was blueberry madness! Of course this red light lasted only 3.5 seconds (as opposed to all the other red lights on the planet that glow eternally), so all at once I had to shift my car into gear with one hand while holding a spoon in another hand while gripping the steering wheel with my other hand.

As you've probably surmised, that math doesn't hold up. Nor would my argument have held up in court, had I piled it in. "But Your Honor, the blueberries were SOOOOOOOOOOO tasty. They were de-lish!"

Yeah. Probably wouldn't fly. Luckily, I was able to make an adjustment and become once again a fairly responsible citizen.

And, since I was on my lunch break, I shot over to a Half-Price bookstore in the area. It's not such a bad place to kill a lunch hour. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, but I found it: a CD by Bash & Pop. Bash & Pop was Tommy Stinson's band after The Replacements broke up and before he joined up with Guns N' Roses. How about that for a sterling rock resume'? In the business world, that would be like being the CFO of Norelco and then the COO of Panasonic. It's damn impressive! What's more, I've always heard pretty good things about Bash & Pop. And the name of the CD I found is cool too -- 'Friday Night Is Killing Me.' Who hasn't been there before? I spent eight years of my life walking that cold beat. Nowadays? No, thanks! When Friday night rolls around I go home and rest, thank you very much.

So, yeah, blueberries in traffic. Bash & Pop. Not a half-bad day, all in all.