Chase wouldn't lower my credit card interest rate today.

And when relating the story to a family member today, I couldn't help but be reminded of this scene from Fight Club.

And after seeing that again, I've found inner peace.

If you get Fight Club, then you'll get this post. If not, well then, just bask in the beauty of controlled implosions. No actual buildings were harmed in the making of the film.

Beckham. Travolta. Cruise. Posh. Spice Girls. Planes. Movies. WTF?

Sorry for the title. It looks like some blatant sploggery, but the post is done and the clever title is nowhere to be found.

Current inertia has really reduced the amount of posting here, and writing anywhere else, and I find it a bit inexplicable, other than the drastic reduction in free time, and my refusal to abandon time with my family. that said, it's inexplicable that I'm not sleeping and actually posting, but I missed my niece's radio debut on last week, and needed to stay up late this week to hear her on the air. My first attempt at recording the stream has failed miserably, and to record a whole six hours looks like it will eat up a significant amount of hard drive space. But she sounded great, and I'm quite proud, not just that she's on the air, but that she stayed focused enough and worked hard enough to get this far. Focus is not easy for anyone anymore. Distractions seem to run the world. Shutting them off long enough to get something done is a feat that I find impressive.

Ok…so back to distractions, while listening to her show, I've been skipping around the Internets and found some individual pieces of information that add to a greater whole.

Item A

Victoria Beckham To Play Alien Bride In Scientology Film

Plus Item B

John Travolta offers to fly Spice Force One

Equals Conclusion C

Those Scientologists really loves them some Beckhams. I don't follow that close but I didn't think the Church of Hubbard had nabbed Posh and David yet, but come on. The Tom Cruise bankrolled movie that is not yet listed on IMDB.com and has been turned down by every studio is titled The Thetan. Can't we just go back to simpler, more innocent Hollywood? These developments would be significantly less creepy if this was just an outrageous lie constructed to bang Mrs. Beckham. Which this is obviously not, we're talking Cruise and Travolta here. I long to hear casting couch stories when I hear stuff like this. If I go to a hotel in the Los Angeles area will there be a copy of Dianetics in the night table?

If George Steinbrenner was this persistent maybe he would have landed David Ortiz years ago and saved himself some grief. You know, Air Force One is pretty cool plane, too, I hear, Travolta's not trying to fly that one, but with the President's approval rating lower than his college GPA plus his shoe size, I guess he's no trophy.

RvD2

Don't get this confused with the Def Jux dj RJD2. I'm referring to Ryan vs. Dorkman 2, so there should be no confusion. Type in 'light saber' on Ye Olde YouTube, you'll get close to 10,000 matches. And there's a good chance these arch-nemeses (is that right?) will appear at the top of the results.

Arguably the epitome of Star Wars fan film light saber battles, my son and I had the good fortune of viewing the sequel at the end of the NY Comicon, courtesy of the folks of nyjedi.com. RvD2 premiered on the 'tubes' March 1, so the rest of the world can view it in its infinite goodness. Enjoy.

This is not the Footage I'm Looking For

Missed the earlier coverage of the Tournament of Roses parade. Haven't yet found real good footage of the Star Wars floats and the 501st Legion marching in the parade. This will do for now. Why the Star Wars thing in Pasadena, must have something to do with the Grand Marshal, and 2007 marking the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.

And I'll take this opportunity to post a link to my favorites televised live musical performance by a pop act donning Star Wars garb for 2006. Yep…Gnarls Barkley.

The Fountain

I knew nothing about The Fountain when I picked it up at the public library, about three months ago. But I knew that when it was done, it needed to be mentioned here.

I read a lot. Blogs, books, newspapers, e-mails, comics, web sites, professional journals, magazine, and sometimes even the pile of novels that I can't keep up with. And, of course, graphic novels. Now sometimes a graphic novel is a collection of individual comic books bound together under one cover. Well, I'm not sure if The Fountain appeared that way, but I am certain that it is one of the best representations I've ever seen of a graphic novel. This is why people should read graphic novels, and get over the fact that it's a story that has pictures, and there's nothing wrong with that. (Although, I'm sure most of the people that read this blog don't have a problem with it.)

Darren Aronofsky (you know, one “A”, like Elvis), wrote this as a movie. The movie was cancelled originally, but was eventually made. But I am not looking forward to seeing it. I don't care who's playing the characters, or how its filmed, or how much is spent on effects.

It's a good story. And the graphic novel medium suits it fine. This may not have been Aronofsky's original intention. But combined with Kent Williams gorgeous illustration, I'm convinced the story as told the way it needed to be.

There's three intricately weaved storylines here, but it's all one story that takes place at different points in history. Despite the battles fought in South America and the travels through the universe, where The Fountain truly hits home is as a story about love, life, and death. Simple, huh?

Isn't every story about that, one may ask? Every story may involve that, but every story may no reflect upon it or encourage introspection on these matters.

I don't want to give a synopsis, but I know when the book was over, I was moved. I shook, I shed a tear.

Maybe I'm a big baby. There's always that possibility. It's not so much that it's sad, but there's something beautiful about The Fountain.

Hardware Wars

I believe I was in 3rd grade when they played this in my elementary school, but it may have been earlier since Star Wars came out when I was in 1st grade. (LL note: Looks like it was 1st grade. 1977.) I still chuckle when I see this. If the Internet was around back then, they certainly would have had a ton of traffic.

Hardware Wars.

More:

Home page

IMDB entry

Wikipedia entry

Apparently, in 1999, George Lucas called Hardware Wars his favorite Star Wars parody.

I'm a big Chewchilla fan myself. I fondly remember him gnawing on Princess Anne-Droid's cinnamon buns.