Movie Review: The Dark Knight

I sort of feel bad because the main reason I watched it was because Telkontar expressed a profound fondness for the movie. OTOH, this isn’t the first movie we’ve had different opinions on. Best Part: The first 45 minutes. Some pleasant, well-orchestrated tension and violence. Biggest Question: How did anyone accomplish any of the things

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Movie Review: Sophie Scholl, the Final Days

Best Part: We don’t get to hear a whole lot about the German youth-resistance over here in the states, so it was kind of fun to hear a little about it. (Although I hear there’s a Helmuth Hübener movie currently in production starring Haley Joel Osment — odd.) Plus it had some good in medias

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Book Reports: Deliverance and On the Road

It’s been a few months since I read these two books. I liked Deliverance a lot and found On the Road insufferable. More interestingly maybe, the two books seemed to be about the same thing: discovering real life through voluntary suffering. Deliverance, of course, would be the more middle-aged model and On the Road the

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Movie Review: The Caine Mutiny

Best Feature: I find 1940s women attractive — unfortunately, there was only one woman in the movie. Biggest Question: Was the source material as facile as this? Most Horrifying Truth: There were a lot of similarities between Captain Queeg and several people I’ve seen try to navigate leadership situations. Too Long By: 90 minutes —

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Movie Review: Hell in the Pacific

Best Feature: Really nice job of in medias res and of avoiding exposition, plus Lee Marvin was fun to watch. Biggest Question: How did they manage to hang out together for a month (longer?) without either of them ever learning a word of the other’s language? Too Long By: 20 minutes. Haiku Synopsis: On island

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Fallout 3 Is the Reason I Stopped Blogging

Because who has time to blog when there are mutants to decapitate and robot factories to explore? Probably the best adventure/RPG game ever released on a console. Seriously, I think that’s the reason. Blame Google Bart for telling me how good it was in the first place. bkd

The Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century (Mostly Suck)

A little unfair in that, in fact, I’m surprised they included so many novels that I don’t think suck. Also unfair in that I’m not sure I can confidently name more than 15-20 novels that, in my mind, don’t suck. And that I haven’t read most of the list. Ah well. I also appreciated Game

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I Went to a Basketball Game in Malibu on Tuesday

Best sporting event ever. Well, not counting the MNF game, which, arguably, *was* the best sporting event ever. That I attended. Although the ’90 BYU-Miami game was pretty amazing also. And the USA-Costa Rica World Cup qualifier. But, yeah. Comparisons are hard. And sporting events are better when the right team wins. Assuming JL ever

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Book Report: The Naked and the Dead

Norman Mailer wrote it. It was ranked #61 on the Modern Library 100 Greatest Novels list. Many have called it the greatest novel ever written about World War II. I have to say, the competition doesn’t seem that stiff. Oh well. Pros: Really long. Makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something. Sure, it’s a pyrrhic

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Fire Joe Morgan Indeed

This article r0x0rz (as do many of their articles). Much praise. Although it seems to indicate that I should have kept FictionMock going. bkd (Here’s a good FictionMock sample…)