I hate how previews for Hollywood films on television try to induce rapture in the general public, not unlike televangelists and commercials for Christian rock compilations. The music swells, the protagonist spits out some pithy maybe mildly witty laconism and the world runs out to see the dumb movie. People pin something on these films, on the characters. They sit there for an hour and a half and even if the movie sucks they�ve already paid their $9. Lame. I just saw the commercial for that you-know-it�s-going-to-be-totally-lame new movie with Will Smith as Muhammad Ali. �Who rocks the party� is playing and Will Smith says something about the toupee � �Everyone in American is dying for me to rip that thing off your head.� It makes it look like Ali never had a moment of rest, like he�s always either spouting off some BS, running, fighting or having sex � and come on! Will Smith? People will accept anything into their schema if it�s on television.

I'm all for bad movies in the summertime. It's allowed. It's hot, you can go inside the air conditioned theater, get a giant diet coke and be lightly to extremely entertained. In the winter bad movies piss me off. Brent and I went to see The Business of Strangers because it happened to be playing at Kendall when we arrived there, just on a whim, and Kendall generally gives good film. No such luck this night. Bleh. You don't give a crap about the characters and every potentially good moment is immediately diffused with some cold cut to another scene. Coldness I suppose was the point of the film, so if they were trying to create the opposite of feeling and interesting, they succeeded. You never get to know the characters and you don't care. There were two kind of funny moments and they're not worth mentioning.

Go see The Royal Tenenbaums. If you don�t -get- Wes Anderson�s films I deeply apologize, for you are missing out on one of the great pleasures in life. Ben Stiller and his two sons in matching afros and red track suits constantly running around, the slowness and sweet brooding of Luke Wilson, the lethargic flat stare of Gwyneth Paltrow's blackened eyes and the tap of her wooded finger, Owen Wilson's facial genitalia and drug-riddled antics, Gene Hackman's loveable horridness, Bill Murray, the clothes that seem to grow with the children, oh and the music was so good... Ahhhh, JUST SEE IT! In fact, I kind of want to go see it again right now. Hmmm... 4:50 at Kendall! Yeah, I totally won't go by myself. I'm waiting for pizza to get here anyway. When we saw it we had to sit in the second row and ended up with stiff necks. But it was worth it.

Happy 2002, everybody! I'm psyched--it's a palindrome year. Probably the last in my lifetime. 1991 was one too. ...I love palindromes -- "Sit on a potato pan, Otis!" "Cigar--toss it in a can--it is so tragic." "Yawn. Madonna fan? No damn way." I love palindromes...