My smile is an engine

My smile is an engine that makes the dog’s tail go. Listening: What does your soul look like-DJ Shadow-Endtroducing

God Bless the mass media,

God Bless the mass media, public school system and American laziness:

According to a January poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates, 46 percent of Americans thought most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Iraqis. (Only 17 percent knew the correct answer: none were from Iraq.) That conspiracy theory seems to be thriving inside the U.S. military as well. A recent news account in the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger about U.S. troops deployed in the Gulf region was accompanied by a photograph of a bomb presumably destined for an Iraqi target. On it someone had scribbled: “It’s Payback Time.”

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a feast for the eyes and ears, or at least stomach

The French are at it again. After recent shockers like “Romance”, “Rape Me” and “Fat Girl” Gaspar Noé has taken up the challenge to assault his audience in a whole new way. In a NY Times interview he cites inspiration from such subtle and nuanced classics as “Straw Dogs”, “Deliverance” and “Salo.” Funny how all three feature vivid rape scenes of a woman, men and children respectively. Aside from graphic visuals, because what doesn’t have those nowadays, Mr. Noé has found something new to add:

I made another update on

I made another update on gnumatt.org. Now that I think about this it seems like a bad idea to link to it. It isn’t exactly something I look forward to other people reading. However, I did put in a fair amount of time producing the piece so I must have wanted someone to look at it. Listening: Eple-Royksopp

Doesn't somebody hate Spider?

I’m waiting patiently for David Cronenberg’s Spider to come to Dallas. Last year I went and read the book it’s based on and was not really that impressed. The fact that the author wrote the screenplay concerns me as well. (I just saw “The Fountainhead” where Ayn Rand adapted her own novel and it doesn’t make a very good movie, it’s more like propaganda. Gorgeous art direction though.) However, review after review keeps praising “Spider”. I keep trying to lower my expectations but then I read stuff like this from Stephen Holden in the NY Times:

Huntsville: burgeoning indie film metropolis

In what has to be a first Huntsville, Alabama is getting a small independent film during its theatrical release. On 5/9/03 the Madison Square 12 is going to be showing it. Has it become the new art house theater in town? The movie is All the Real Girls, written and directed by David Gordon Green. He has an authentic modern Southern voice that I haven’t seen in film before. One that I hope is copied and expanded upon by dozens of like-minded writer/directors. Listening: French Disco-Stereolab

The way back machine

This is a gem from the Plastic sidebar. Think back to 1999 when we had a Democratic President supporting NATO’s efforts to end troubles in Kosovo. Now read William Saletan’s article on Congressional Republican’s anti-war movement. The three Republicans leading the anti-war movement back then: Trentt Lott, Don Nickles and Tom DeLay. This bit at the end is what ties the whole thing together.

Some Democrats call Republicans who make these arguments unpatriotic. Republicans reply that they’re serving their country by debunking and thwarting a bad policy administered by a bad president. You can be sure of only two things: Each party is arguing exactly the opposite of what it argued the last time a Republican president led the nation into war, and exactly the opposite of what it will argue next time. I’d find this whole situation funny if it wasn’t the 27th time I’d heard this joke. Listening: Molly-Michael Nyman-Wonderland

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"You have to be what Southerners find abhorrent: blunt and direct."

In the collective ho-hum that is media coverage of news from the South I was surprised to see a piece on Salon about the South’s problems with HIV and AIDS. The South has more residents with HIV and AIDS and is also the only area of the country with a significant increase (9%). The South also accounts for 40% of people living with AIDS and 46% of new cases. The main thrust of the article is that the southern culture of politeness is a guilty party to the AIDS/HIV problem.

i used to update this other site

I started messing around with gnumatt.org today and began a page dedicated to the green Acura Integra that enriched my life for a few years. In lieu of trying to shoehorn my thoughts into livejournal you can look at them on gnumatt.org.

Listening: I’ve Just Seen A Face-The Beatles-Help!

"i am a time bomb"