SuperSatellite ||

Sorry that I’ve been too busy lately to write much. Marisol is running at the studio theatre at PSU next week, Thursday thru Saturday (I think that’s right anyway…). I’ve been pretty tied up doing the sound design/board op stuff for it as we prepare for full tech rehearsals. I have to make up for lost ground due to Alice in Wonderland (don’t ask). Anyway, sound for this show is shaping up to be quite a spot of all right, and so far the cast has been happy with it. It’s just a time suck, as usual. I stand by the theory that I could go for a shorter year if it meant each day could have a couple more hours to them. Be sure to stop by if you get the chance, it’s a short show. I think once this wraps, I’m going to take a longish break from theatre, and get back to writing (as well as finding someone to produce Walking).

It’s a good thing I’m not actually in it though. My voice is apparently taking a vacation from my body at the moment. I feel fine though otherwise, which I’m hoping isn’t a bad sign. I say that only because of that super crappy throat infection I had a couple years ago that was similar. Like swallowing molten shards of glass. I’m keeping an eye on it, so far there isn’t anything resembling that former pain, so it might just be random sore throat. But I sure do sound funny.

I finished Yakuza Moon last week. It was all right. You could tell it had been translated (some of the language was awkward, and it was far from without typographical errors). It wasn’t quite what I had expected. Very “young lady overcoming adversity,” not so much “young lady fighting the dark shadow of the Yakuza boss father.” It is, however, a fast read, which makes up for some of the lack of details. I just expected a little more information about the skeletons in the closet her family had or something like that. It was just more personal than I expected. But, it was also her first (and so far only?) book. I suspect future work will be a little thicker around the middle, hopefully. I’m probably coming across as very “don’t bother reading this book,” though, and I don’t want to give that impression. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was still a fine read. And it’s short enough that even if you don’t like it, you aren’t out much time.

Jamaica we have a bobsled team!

Today, you get a very special deal. Two review-like things for the price of one! It’s a holiday special, and everyone wins! I also admit that I am lazy, and didn’t want to spread this over two different posts.

Michaele and I went and saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets last night. I did really enjoy the first one, that is for sure. It was a good movie with a nice, historical basis to it that kept the brain happy. Book of Secrets, however, was not that. I thought that FirstShowing.net did a pretty good review of it, and I pretty much mostly agree with it.

It was not bad at all, so don’t get that impression. I’d rather not spoil anything, but it is mostly the first movie, with rehashed bad guys and a new treasure. But that’s what made the first movie work, and I was fine with it this go around. They could have done better tying things together like they did in the first, but they didn’t. Oh well. It was still a fun holiday movie to go see with some neat trivia, excitement, and relatively good pacing. I am not disappointed, and am not afraid to recommend it to others who enjoyed the first one.

If you’re interested in the Page 47 mystery, I did find this research someone did.  Likely?  Who knows.  I have my own theories.

Okay, die hard liberals are not allowed to criticize me for reading Culture Warrior. For one, I made a promise to. Second, it’s important to be educated about all sides of issues. For the most part, I group Bill O’Reilly at about the same level of Michael Moore. But not quite Ann Coulter. At least he’s still human. The point being that he’s a strongly partisan commentator, and as such, is a little looney to several degrees. Except he has a broader appeal among the right than Moore does with the left, or so is my perception.

Anyway, it’s actually not that bad a read, and it’s a little less political than you might assume at first. I agree on many points about certain aspects of traditional values in the country. Then again, I’ve never read a book that I can agree with on one hand, turn the page, and be completely blown away by the disregard for logic and proper problem solving.

For one, O’Reilly apparently has no concept of the differences between correlation and causation. The way he draws certain conclusions is so flawed, even high school debaters would rip him in half. I also disagree on a fundamental level with his concept of the “culture war” that he claims is in progress. I prefer to look at it as “culture rot.” It’s not a battle between two sides, it’s a disease that is eating us away. His culture war approaches conspiracy theory levels.

O’Reilly also has this strange habit of defending traditional values at the feet of how government here was founded. I call this strange because of other analysis he does. Such as attacking the media that has grown out of a system he directly praises (ideas of free market, etc). He will praise certain systems and principles we have, and then directly criticize the products of those systems. He blatantly ignores founding principles that we learn in elementary school, like the Constitution as a living document designed to grow with time. It comes across more like him resisting needed change in society, changes that are needed at root points to continue thriving as a society that is exponentially larger and more complex than the one that existed at the founding of the nation. We cannot live in the 21st century with an 18th century government and moral structure.

In the end, it makes him come across mostly like a stubborn old man who’s afraid of the future. He spends more time writing vanity text and fluffing his own ego than developing his points in defendable ways. He takes the opportunity to lambaste people who have spoken against him in the past, and between the lines all you can hear is “ha ha, it’s my book and you can’t interrupt me here, I can say as much as I want to and I know my fans will all agree.”

The worst part is that there are a few good trains of thought started. But you have to take care with the knowledge, and follow up on your own if you want to get any real “truth.” It’s a quick read, and as such is probably worthwhile. I would definitely recommend the die-hard left take the time for it. It’ll fire you up, and also give you more insight into the right, so don’t disregard it out of hand. He also does try, if in a biased manner, to approach issues nonpartisanly (if that makes sense, he basically thinks he’s being nonpartisan).