Wise Drivel

Movies vs Film

Some reviewers have liked Revenge of the Sith. Some have hated it. For what it's worth, I won't see it for another 2 days. Here's the difference:

If you're reviewing a FILM, you will hate ROTS. If you're reviewing a MOVIE, you will like it.

Armageddon, Independence Day, The Notebook, all Star Wars movies, etc are movies. They should be fun to watch and enjoy with popcorn. The fun may make up for some shortcomings in areas like writing, directing, acting, etc.

The Godfather, The Piano, Chariots of Fire, etc are films. You want good writing and acting in films.

Films are art. Movies are fun.

Revenge of the Sith is a movie. Don't review it like a film. Have fun with it. It just might be cool and fun if you stop expecting Hayden Christiansen to act.

An insightful observation

Today one of my students had a good one:

Adults always tell kids that "fighting never solves anything."

Then why does history show us that many things actually have been resolved through warfare?

Are we lying to our kids? Or are we just setting a really crappy example?

How racist are we?

Did you see the movie "Hitch," starring Will Smith?

In this movie, Will's love interest was played by lovely, talented Hispanic actress Eva Mendes. Many reviewers and casual observers said that she was playing the "Sandra Bullock" part.

Thing is, Sandra Bullock would never be cast as a love interest for Will Smith because the general audience (that's general audience, as in I'm not talking about you, your friend, or any one specific person) is not ready to see an interracial love story in this kind of movie.

"But," you say, "This WAS an interracial love story. Will Smith is black, Eva Mendes is Hispanic."

True, but in the eyes of the general audience, Hispanics and Blacks are interchangeable. No one makes a fuss about a Black/Hispanic relationship, but White/Black relationships are still iffy for a lot of folks.

It must be nice to be white.

Oh, wait a second...

I saw a great T-shirt today...

They've relaxed the dress code at the high school where I teach, and now students may weat T-shirts with witty slogans on them. I saw one this morning that made my day...

Protons have mass...
I didn't know they were Catholic

Science geekdom. Catch it. It lasts forever.

Blast from the past

A friend recently sent me this pic from New Years Eve 1994 in New Orleans. I am there with two good Navy buddies and one friend-in-law who had, by that time, become a good friend in his own right.

It was an interesting trip. My ex-roomate got sick in a fine French Quarter Restaraunt (no, he wasn't drunk) and soiled the entire ladies' room (don't ask!)

Anyway, we had fun.

Why am I the last one to know anything?

My good friend That Chris gave me the Star Wars trilogy on DVD for Christmas. I watched Episode IV, but have not yet sat down to watch V and VI.

The other day, someone mentioned something to me that I could not believe. Sure enough, I go home and queue up the last scene of Jedi, and there's a digitized-in Hayden Christiansen, glowing and blue, standing next to the also-dead Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda.

How come I hadn't heard of this before?

Is the crazy weather almost over?

Any other year, in early May I'm wearing a steady diet of shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops.

Yesterday I wore a sweater.

Two days ago, in the evening, I actually wore a toboggan.

This is ridiculous. It's MAY, for crying out loud. Where's the sweat?

Track season winds down...

I didn't know how busy I've been lately until I noticed I hadn't updated my blog in over a month.

The bulk of our track season is over. The boy's team did OK, but the girls' team struggled, largely due to lack of numbers.

I thought soccer players were flaky, but they're drill sergeants next to track athletes. At least soccer players love their sport and want to play it all they can. Track is a social club. They show up when they want to, run if they want to, and use track as an excuse to get out of class early a few times.

We finished up our region meet yesterday. Our only success -- our pole vaulters finished 1-2 and will both go to the state meet next week. We might have had more, but our #1 athlete -- also our #1 attitude problem -- decided he'd rather go visit his sister than compete in the finals of 3 races for which he had a good shot of qualifying for state. Oh, well.