Mom & Donna are coming down to visit this weekend, and bringing Dean. I'm still not sure what we're going to do, especially for the Fourth. I know were we're not going. Taste of Chicago is vastly overrated -- too hot, and too crowded. Grant Park can't adequately contain the sprawl that Taste has become.



Most of my Fourth of July memories as a kid are a mishmash of going to a park (or better yet, a drive-in) to watch fireworks, and running around trying to find out who's selling firecrackers and bottle rockets. My most memorable Fourth was in 1990, when I spent a summer driving an ice-cream truck. My usual route was the northern half of Plymouth, MN, but on the Fourth everyone got an event to cover. I got a beach in Excelsior, maybe 20 miles west of the Twin Cities on Lake Minnetonka. So everyone got an extra temporary freezer in their trucks, filled with dry ice and extra goodies. I shlepped out to the park at maybe 11 a.m., and sat. And sat. And sat some more. Listened to some musical acts playing at the nearby bandshell, did some reading. But starting at about 8 p.m., still light out, people began to come to my truck, and continued until I had a huge mob waiting for Dove Bars just after the fireworks. I had maybe made $10 in the past nine hours, and suddenly I was making at least a week's income in three hours. I began to run out of change, and had to start rounding prices. It was crazy. Then I got lost on the way home, trying to navigate the windy roads out there in the sticls.

But the most memorable part of this capitalist orgy? One of the bandshell acts was a polka band, which was okay, nothing special, until their last song: Purple Rain! Yes, polka-ized Prince.

The best parts of MEN IN BLACK II are in the periphery. Patrick Warburton gets laughs as the latest of Agent J's not-up-to-snuff partners (he's doing

the same Puddy/Tick shtick you've already seen, but he does it so...damn...well). "Mr. Show's" David Cross is excellent as a whacked-out video-store owner. A public locker holds nifty surprises, and we learn what's so special about the U.S. Postal Service. And some more stuff. I'm sure the pug in the trailer would be less funny if we didn't have pug-owning close friends, but it worked for us.



As J (Will Smith) explains, neuralization wipes the MIB from one's memory. And Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, when in the suits (TLJ at the Post

Office is the exception), are mostly unmemorable. Not that I didn't enjoy myself thoroughly, but aside from what's in the trailer, I have little

recollection of *them* onscreen. This is not their fault -- If they were bad together, that would have stuck with me. It's just that the Cocky Newjack/Crusty Veteran buddy formula is so shopworn, they can't fully overcome it, even with the twist of Smith having to bring K (Jones) back into service. Not much in the center here, but still a tasty donut.

yes, You too, could be the next Man Without a Hat.

Before he got old

John Entwistle died. Looking at the bands who populate the canon of Classic Rock, I'd have to say I respect The Who the most (yes, possibly more than the Beatles, but don't make me defend that assertion. And Entwistle was always vastly underrated as a member of the Who. So that sucks. Would suck more if I had tickets to their upcoming tour.



Also, via Craig I learn that Jay Berwanger died. Which means only that I'm sucking wind in my Dead Pool. I need the people that only I picked -- Leni Reifenstahl, Ingmar Bergman, and Ernie Harwell among them -- to die, pronto! RE: Harwell: looks like I picked the wrong baseball announcer.

Obligatory pledge post



Though it will most certainly get overturned, and it will deflect national attention from the important things -- namely our overreaching president and more shadiness from corporate America -- I salute the 9th Circuit Court ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional, for these reasons:



1. Rote recitation of anything diminishes its meaning. Think of your favorite song, or a poem that particularly moves you. Read its words aloud. Do this again. And again. And over and over until all you hear are syllables. Then some more until the syllables become phonemes.

An aside -- This is something I never understood about Catholicism, either; the idea of penance through repeating a prayer over and over. Other than occupying time the penitent would certainly rather spend doing something else, how is this a sin deterrent?



2. The inherent contradiction. "Under God/Indivisible." What's more divisive than religion?



3. A truly free society would not demand a loyalty oath. For that matter, the only flag worth pledging to is one that its citizens can burn, but that's another argument entirely. Conservatives would argue there's no sense in messing with something that's been in its present form for 50 years. But I'd point out that the nation existed for over 100 years -- including its darkest period -- without a Pledge to its flag. Good enough for the Founders not to worry about, then that's good enough for me.

Newly added to the links: God's Blog. I also need to add Craig and JQ at some point, but hey, first things first.

The time of day I'd usually be online (before going to work) has of late been occupied with World Cup viewing or recovering from same, hence no updates. And in the evenings, we've generally been watching films. Here's what's been on the schedule in the past seven days:



Love's Labour's Lost - The Shakespeare play made into a musical with Ken Branagh, Alicia Silverstone and Matthew Lillard. Kinda cute.

The Believer -Excellent movie about a Jewish neo-Nazi. Not as brutal as American History X, but had more to say.

Attack of the Clones - sucked. K. liked it less than Phantom Menace; I thought it was better than that, bit still lousy. Dee got to see Wet Ewan, so she was happy.

Ocean's 11 - VERY entertaining. We're keeping it for a while to listen to the actor commentary.

Osmosis Jones - Not so good.

Lagaan - This was great! This is the Oscar-nominted 4-hour Indian musical largely about cricket. A lot of fun; moved by quickly, and the cricket was easy to follow, for the most part.

About A Boy - Really good. Hugh Grant, whom I usually despise, was perfect, the kid was great, and Toni Collette was almost unrecognizable.