• Mood: content
• Music: "Kushiel's Chosen" - Jacqueline Carey

Went to see Millenium Mambo - political reflections

Staying at work until 7 last night left me tired and cranky. I worked hard all day, and by the time I finally walked out of my office I was practically cross-eyed. No cure for that like a good movie! After quickly reading the review on the New York Times' website, I thought, "Why am I NOT wanting to go see this movie by a director I like so much?" and hustled my way down to the U-District to see it. Yes, the bubble tea I got on my way in did make it better. I am a fan of Hou Hsiao Hsien - his films are so richly colored they're almost like layers of jello cut into stained glass patterns. It was also fun for me to listen to a movie in such clearly spoken Chinese that I was able to follow along, although I would have been quite lost without the subtitles ("Fuck you!" not being in my vocabulary ... yet). Too bad it was the last night - but that's part of the reason I went.

I was disgusted enough recently to swear off political rants in my blog, but there are things worth passing along today to anyone who was unaware. First (per ciphergoth's interests), I heard on NPR this morning that California decertified 14,000 Diebold voting machines. All of the squawking about security issues and lack of accountability was finally heard - hurray! Second, I was very disturbed to read (as I was searching for the Millenium Mambo review) that Disney is blocking the release of the new Michael Moore movie. I feel this represents exactly the kind of problem liberals predicted might occur in the event of media consolidation. Finally, George Will (whom I normally loathe) actually had an intelligent analysis of the bullshit masquerading as political commentary coming out of the mouths of Bush and Tony Blair. I would be hard-pressed to not be pleased to see John Stuart Mill referred to in an editorial of any sort, but I also enjoyed Will's fine distinction between conservatives and neo-conservatives.

Enough for now ... it's back to getting freaked out by my monitor's refresh rate for me! At least I finally got enough sleep to have hope for the day. And imagine ... we have no plans for this evening. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone will want to distract me ...