February 22nd thru the 28th, 2004

I did some reading, used the old Torso Track, got all groggy and decided to go have a tan. Man. It IS like a drug, you know? I do mean that seriously. I mean, if heroin feels better than that, I can understand why people throw their lives away for it. I don't approve, mind, I just understand.

Weather: beautiful.

Some movies. S'mores. Beef Stew, mashed Potatoes, chocolate cake. New Plates! Hasinchow, pretty much the most excellent person in the world, ever, got me some plates as a thank-you. Sango. There are so cool. The movies were Memento, and the other one was supposed to be Cuckoo, but the DVD was so scratched it was no watchable. So Eddie Izzard instead. That limey is hilarious.

Bowling. We were in first, bowled against Slamma Jamma, who were in second by half a point. We managed 3 points out of four, thanks to everyone bowling close to or above their averages on our team. Mine was 162, 152, and 166. That seems consistent, but it isn't really-- my first balls were wack, and I was picking up weird spares. If I had been bowling consistently, I would have been closer to 190 each time. Managed 3 strikes on the tenth frame of the third game, which was a good way to go out.

Leilani has a DDR Max machine, so I challenged another bowler to a match. Beat him 2-1, and lost the one cause I couldn't find the rhythm on Standard mode. NO EXCUSES! Okay. I need more practice.

Bought the new Mitch Hedberg CD/DVD combo called Mitch All Together and an album by Laika and the Cosmonauts called The Amazing Colossal Band. Walked to coffee with the group at SBC and then we ate at Thai Ocean. So good. Walked home. Kopi-pa stopped by and we chatted about how $^&*ed-up the world is.

I need to add more text so I can make room for a picture. Let's see. Something philisophical? An opinion piece? How about some jokes? Perhaps I wax rhapsodic about some pretty face. Upcoming movies? There we go: I want to see the new Jesus movie that Mel Gibson did. I still want to see Monster, and 21 Grams, somewhere. And You Got Served. Is it still in theaters?

Frieda came over and we watched the Mitch Hedberg DVD, and Eddie Izzard's Circle, and ate pizza, and talked about gun control, and Jerry Springer. She's always so much fun.

UPDATE: I have added some new poems to Really Bad Poetry Dot Com. Under Divorce I have added "Egg Shells Turn to Glass." Under Nature I have added "On A Saturday in Seattle." Under Weird I have added "Unnaturality." Under Found I have added "What Else Is Going On- How Was Bowling?" And there is a whole new section called Lyrics.

I'm taking a quiz on match.com to see what kind of woman I am attracted to physically. Here is one thing they told me so far:

Anyone surprised?

So Delafluge and I went to see the The Passion of the Christ. At last, a movie I can review fully without worrying about giving it away (cause you know he dies in the end, right?).

I went in to this movie with the expectation that I was going to be looking at a painting. Indeed, in a book of movie stills, Gibson even said he took inspiration from the better known paintings of the crucifixion. I did not think the story itself would be any kind of new revelation, nor did I expect there to be any kind of message or theme.

I suppose I got what I was looking for. I do not feel this is an important movie. I do not feel that devout Christians "need" to see this film any more than they need to see any other artistic rendering of the crucifixion. Nor do I think that it will be instrumental in anyone's converting to the Christian faith. Nothing in this film is new or news. It does not preach, plead, or proselytize. There is no religion in this movie-- indeed, if there is any "story" other than the one we all know, it is a political story-- a man murdered by authorities for crimes against their authority, an execution carried out by a government for the sake of quelling the populace's unrest.

It is for the most part a bloody, gory, intense horror film. I mean no disrespect when I say that. Viewers are subject to watching 2 hours of torture and murder, psychological humiliation, and overt hatred. It is far worse than any Scream, Chainsaw, or Nightmare film. From the Pharisees and their arrogant superiority, to the Romans and their depraved bloodlust, viewers are shown the most evil sides of humankind-- and there is no motivation for this behavior in the realm of madness, otherworldly demons, or even simple sociopathology. This makes it even more horrifying.

Should you go see this movie? If you want access to pop culture, yes, because this will be a popular movie. If you do not understand the horrors of physical crucifixion, yes, because Gibson pulls no punches. But if you want to know WHY Jesus died for our sins, no, the movie does not address this. If you want know where the Christian faith comes from, no, this movie does not explain the tenets of Christianity at all.

Want a review of Big Fish? It was okay. Should you see it? Rent it.

What else can I tell you. Something insightful. Something deep. Pleasure is a kind of madness, when you give in to your happiness and embrace the eternal now of joy and forget for a moment the tenous threads that connect the past to the future, and exist free of thought outside time, eschewing the cause and effect that ensure your continued being for the sake of a thrill you can not control or contain. Or something.