“Troy”. This snuck into my house, disguised as a film by Wolfgang Peterson with Brian Cox and Peter O’Toole in it. I lasted a few minutes longer than I did when I tried to watch “Braveheart.”
If “snuck” is the past tense of “sneak,” do I actually “feak” in the present tense?
TV shows: “Firefly” finally made me understand why people are impressed with Joss Whedon. And tonight I’ve been rewatching episodes of “The Upright Citizens Brigade,” which made me want to shove pennies up my ass. Again.
“In Good Company” was a fine exemplum of the contradictory embodiment of ideology in popular film. Even as they satirize “synergy,” the characters drink absurdly large cans of Diet Pepsi; the critique of globalization and the conglomeration of industry stems from a nostalgia for the good old days when old white guys shook hands in back rooms. And Topher Grace is a hottie. He reminds me of John Bruns, if John were taller and more anorexic.
who is joss whedon? and should i rent “firefly”? and mike, you’ll have to explain whether things that make you want to shove pennies up your ass are good or bad. i think they must be good but there is so much about this fascinating country that i do not understand.
we watched “troy” in l.a last summer. i wish i could have seen it in india instead where talking back to the screen would be socially acceptable and encouraged (at least in the delhi of my callow youth). it was also fun to check the anachronisms the next day with pete’s dad, the classicist. but one really good thing about seeing this movie: there was a row of young kids–about 8-10 years old–in front of us and they completely got that achilles was an asshole and hector a good guy. they were not taken in by the star-system. when hector was killed one of the boys, trying to be provocative, said “cool”–the little girl next to him bopped him across the head with an empty soda bottle (plastic). apparently children are not quite the passive consumers of media that we’ve been led to believe they are. someone alert kincaid.
and speaking of topher grace and our own johnny burns, there was someone at peoplelink who had a friend who came on to a woman at a bar with the immortal line, “you’re like felicity but not as hot”. i believe he went home alone. topher is like john but richer. i don’t know how he looks in a white shirt, however.
Whedon: Buffy creator, much-beloved by geeks around the country. Firefly is, yes, worth renting; it’s trying to be a Western-flavored sci-fi show which grapples with ethics, philosophy, and (more often) jokes. Like the original “Star Trek” with less orating. About 2/3 of the episodes are quite good, which is a better ratio than 95% of most network tv. And it will soon be a feature–“Serenity” comes out next Summer, I hear.
I hate kids.
And I probably see John as Topher because Topher was always borrowing my car, too.
Oh: ass-pennies is an allusion. An “allusion” is a clever use of some stray detail from one text in another. I will now wreck the allusion by spelling it out: in one bit on the show, a man describes his confidence-building technique. Rather than the abstract process of imagining people in their underwear, this guy puts $30 of pennies up his ass every day, then returns them to circulation, so that–when he’s in a tough interview or a competitive business lunch–he can think to himself how the guy he’s talking to has one of his ass-pennies in his pocket. That a competitor trying to control has touched something that had been in his ass. Hence, ass-pennies. I just find it soul-replenishing to say “ass-pennies.” I wish I could affix the prefix “ass-” to other nouns, too.
I suppose I can.
I was up late worrying whether you’d get this reference, Arnab, so I’m glad I got back online.