Ah, inertia, you are a cruel mistress. As if you couldn't tell, I've been very low-ambition as of late. We're both under a little job-related angst, coupled with a double whammy of the property tax bill and an ill-timed special assessment to repave the parking lot. I've even let the 3-Chord Monday lapse...I'll have to come up with a triple-shot of Labor Day songs. Wobbly anthems or some such, to piss off the Bruce.

We went up to Minnesota the other weekend for a wedding. I've known Kathleen since junior high, giving her seniority among the friends from home I talk to with any regularity. Mike's an outstanding fellow, and I'm glad she found someone as swell as him. Very nice, low-key affair.

I've seen a few movies in between mainlining Season 3 of The Wire, so, in reverse order:
Movie Log 2006, #63-67
MirrorMask - Boy, I really wanted to like this more than I did. The Oz/Alice aspects were a little too obvious, and I imagine our TV is too small for the visuals to suck me in. Pretty clearly not made for adults, though...I wonder if the nephews would dig it.
Bringing Up Baby - One of those what-took-me-so-long films. Exhausting in its screwballness. I'm still not getting the Hepburn mystique, but it was interesting to see her play a total psychopath.
Little Miss Sunshine - I fear this is getting overly praised on a level comparable to Sideways. It's quite good, but the hype needs to be reined in a bit.
Band of Outsiders - Yeah, so I'm lowbrow, but this was just sort of...there. While I'm not close to seeing them all, or even a majority of them, I'm willing to go on record and say that Breathless is pretty much the only Godard film anyone needs to see.
Talladega Nights - It had us at "Eleanor Roosevelt," and I'm ready to start drinking Laughing Clown Malt Liquor. I eagerly await the inevitable Brew & View double feature with Snakes on a Plane.

Hola amigos, etc., etc. Remember Sneaker Pimps? They had that catchy, trip-hoppy "6 Underground" single ten years ago, and the rest of the album was pretty solid as well? I had no idea they had any followups until I saw their 2002 album in a used bin.

And now I know why the Sneaker Pimps followup stuff was completely under the radar. Simply awful. Maybe it was wise to abandon trip-hop and sack Kelli Dayton, but now they sound like a lukewarm NIN/Coldplay fusion. Bleah.

In other media news, Spin has yet another new editor, as Andy Pemberton lasted all of one or two issues. It's now less socialite/party oriented and focusing again on the music. Still rudderless, but at least they've given the talent-free Ultragrrrl the boot. I suppose paper music magazines are wholly irrelevant now; for instance, this new issue of Spin just got around to informing me that Sleater-Kinney is breaking up.

Finally, after trying and failing to view the file Dee sent me, I procured and viewed the Heroes pilot. S'pretty good. I still have no idea what goes on my LaPlaca entry, though...

3-Chord Monday #35
Sure enough, we spent most of the weekend inside watching The Wire. One of the things I love about the show is someone behind the scenes is a Pogues fan. Though I suppose it stretches credibility that cops in Baltimore would send off a fallen detective in a wake using this rare track, I was still surprised and pleased to hear it:
The Pogues - "The Body of an American"

I do mean to update this more than on Mondays and maybe Tuesdays. The bonus mom had her hip replacement this week, and apparently all went well. There's a new movie log update on its way. The WI State Fair trip is tomorrow, surrounded by watching tons of The Wire Season 3. I'm missing Gen Con this year for logistic and financial reasons. I hope people remember to snag me a copy of Cineplexity.

So if Notflixing is the term for sending Netflix movies back unwatched after they sit on the TV forever, what's the term for falsely marking movies as returned so the next discs in the queue (say, discs 3 and 4 of a television series) arrive faster? All of this is purely hypothetical, of course. I guess the term is just "lying."

You should be populating your queues with Brick and The Hidden Blade. Both are movies I talked about earlier, and just hit DVD this week.

So Matt has started a new tournament; this one running down the 128 Wussiest Songs. In honor of this, the 3-Chord Monday #34 selection is...

King Missile - "Wuss"

Movie Log 2006 50-62
A Scanner Darkly - Someone finally got Philip K. Dick right. Perfectly cast, I thought. The only major change seemed to be (invisotext spoiler:) Donna was written as more burnt out in the book. Here she just seemed weird and aloof, which made the reveal at the end less powerful.

Bells Are Ringing - Judy Holliday's last film. She was only 38 or so, but still too old for the role. The film spent far too long establishing her ZANINESS!

Kagemusha - I liked this a lot less than I expected to. Too long and self-indulgent. It felt like Lucas had more to do with it than just distribution.

Monster House - Excellent 3D. I can't imagine seeing it flat. It's 3/4 of a decent movie, but falls apart.

Genghis Blues - who saw this and *didn't* attempt throatsinging afterward?

Swing Time Quite entertaining, except for the blackface number.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance - I think I still liked Oldboy slightly better.

Jesus is Magic Sure glad I rented.

Humoresque I gotta say, I believed John Garfield could actually play the violin. I also learned that divorced women are better off drowning themselves. Young John Garfield was played by Bobby Blake, who grew up to look a lot like Garfield. Well, I think so.

Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla You know what's worse than Jerry Lewis? A Jerry Lewis impersonator.

She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword LONG! and BORING! This was written by Bob Forward, who wrote of of my favorite lost pulpy paperbacks, The Owl.

Visions of Light - This was a made-for-TV doc about how important cinematographers are. Meh.

Lost in America it was okay. Julie Hagerty needed a sammitch.