Saw Terminator 3 over the weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie more obviously designed for no other purpose than to make someone a lot of money. Problematic plot, shallow characterizations, average action sequences, and an ending left wide open for more of the same. This movie should have never made it to the theater. I don’t normally complain about movie ticket prices, but $10 a head is a bit much for something that is really no more than a special two-hour preview event for a new television series. Interesting trend, though, this summer. Are we really that …

Seems to me we stand at a crossroads. On the one hand, there seems to be a growing consciousness that things cannot stay as they are. On the other, our very inertia propels us toward chaos and catastrophe. I went to the market yesterday, and while walking in the parking lot I seemed to see two buildings: the intact commercial center in front of me and a dark and crumbling shell mentally overlaid. I’m never sure what causes the destruction my inner eye sees, just that it’s a possibility. Finished reading Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters Trilogy. Wrapped in a story of …

Saw the new Charlie’s Angels movie last night. Ian is calling it the “Triumph of style over substance.” Lovable fluff. Refuses to take itself seriously. And obvious that cast and crew had a great time making it. I have to wonder though, how many sprained ankles there were, all those flips and kicks and other stunts, all done in insanely high heels. It’s good to see female action heroes, even if they’re framed in a purely fantasy world. I’d like to see a movie that tries to stay as close to reality as possible but still has a female lead …

I don’t appear to be doing too well on the daily part of this journal. Interesting how I can become so caught up in finding approval and validation from outside myself that I actually end up sacrificing myself. Extremely strange dream. For the last year or so, I have had a thread pop up in my dreams: I’m in high school, and I know I have this English class, but I go so infrequently I can’t remember when the class meets or if anything is due. Somehow, this has only been mildly concerning. Last night, I dreamt I ran into …

Recently finished reading A Child’s Book Of True Crime by Chloe Hooper. Will likely put it on my list of books to read again; the presentation of the narrative is delightfully convoluted, and now that I know the story, I’m curious to go back and pick apart the structure. I have the distinct impression that the author has several things to say about growing up, the transition between college life and the working world, naivety, adultery, jealousy, parenting. It’s just that on the first time through, I was too busy trying to figure out the murder. Workload has been psychotic. …

“Ba ba ba ba-pa-bum.” We saw Episode II when it arrived in theaters. Not to go would have been pop culture suicide, willfully ignoring the source of the myriad references and comparisons that will be made over the next three years. Not to mention that it will be important to be able to say “I was there” when the mythos machine, sometime in the next twenty years, catches up with Lucas’ current work. Besides, seeing the movie is like voting: participation gives you the right to complain. And complain we did, the half-dozen of us who attended the 10:00 a.m. …