THX 1138 No posts for a long long time. My fault, huh? Sorry. Busy busy busy. If it's not one thing it's another. I have to say, though, that things are good for the first time in probably a year. With goodness comes a slight bit of monotony through forced autonomy. But this is corrected usually once a week or once every two weeks in rare cases. I'm in the middle of watching George Lucas' first film, THX 1138. I've wanted to see this movie for years, and now thanks to a friend at work, I've been given the opportunity. I wish I could say it was more of an experience. Aside from some interested visuals, and the retro-sci-fi-futuristic look, it's not that special. Parts of it resemble the French new wave while others are simply indicative of Lucas' masturbatory and shoddy directing to come. If nothing else it seems fairly original and the props are cool looking. Furthermore, towards the beginning, Robert Duvall's character is watching holographic television and the program is of a futuristic metallic policeman beating a main with his nightstick. The sounds from this scene are sampled at the beginning of Mr. Self Destruct on Nine Inch Nails best album, The Downward Spiral. It's always cool to find out where a good sample comes from. If only Lucas had stuck with material like this; he could have honed his craft and created very good adult science fiction. Instead he's reduced himself to the Star Wars industry, and while I cannot deny the technical importance of those films, they are really no more than popcorn cinema at its finest. And there's a place for that, just not in my house.

On another note, Bill Maher is usually a favorite of mine. He's arrogant, yes, but his politics and theology... well, we would get along, I think. But recently he said on his program that our base mission to convert Iraq to democracy is a good idea. I can't agree with that. Democracy on a whole is probably the best form of government we have today, but it's not our business to go to any other country and force it upon them. It boils down to good old fashioned White Man's Burden and we all have seen where that got us in the past. Have we learned nothing? No, I guess we haven't.

My weekend was a haze of fondue, Carnivale, Deadwood, The Soup, Chicago skylines, Irish Pubs, transvestites, yelling, hotdogs, home movies, Sin City (go see it now!), music stores, and old college roommates. A great weekend to say the least.

A few new songs since the last post. The new digital piano is making writing a real pleasure again. It sounds like a million dollars (or at least $750). I think I'm out of instruments to buy. Maybe a bass and a genuine analogue synth, but the synth would have to be top-notch to compete with my digital modelors, and that would cost a lot of money.

Working in television is great if you work with the right people. Consider this: It's your job to come in a half hour before the news broadcast to get everything set up. And that means everything from white balancing the cameras to getting the anchors cups of water. You have one girl and one guy that you work with. The girl is the nicest person you've ever met, and that's cool, but the guy doesn't show up any earlier than 5 to 10 minutes late. This has been going on since January but they haven't fired him. How frustrating is it? Well, it's more frustrating than almost anything. Sooner or later, guy. Sooner or later. Probably later.

And with that, I'd say it's time to hit the dusty trail. You want long and pretentious, you got it.

End.  ¶ 6:16 PM