The Weekly Roundup

Because the Coalition scheduled a board meeting Wednesday (that was eventually cancelled- thanks) the Star Wars marathon got moved up a day, and went off swimingly. Started at 8:30 AM, finished at 10:15, pizza was delivered, feeling was maintained in my extremeties, and yes yes- the Star Wars saga holds up and holds together as a whole (kids movie, romance, tragedy, coming of age fairy tale, penultimate episode loaded with destiny dark and terrible, and climactic tale of redemption)- the story of the Skywalker family, of parents and kids, and of kids making right the wrongs of their parents (no wonder the conservatives got their britches all bound up). And for the record the CGI loaded prequels do match up with the analog originals- it was interesting watching the operatic scale of the prequels burn itself out both thematically and visually after the narrative climax on the lava planet and be replaced by the intimate scale of the originals (God John Williams is a genius), a scale focused squarely on the Skywalker kids and their pals, the technological limits of the analog era serving the story perfectly (although to ILM's credit the FX in Jedi do actually match up with the prequels rather well). On the whole it's a beautiful and ludicrusly ambitious work of (pop) art and pop mythology, and I'm sure more will be said on that in the future here...

It's also interesting to note that after Tuesday November 1 anybody who comes to Star Wars for the first time will be coming to it from the numerical start and not chronologically. Boy it'd be neat to talk to one of those poor souls to get their impressions of the series from I to VI; I tried during the marathon and frankly I am too messed up by growing up and growing older by these movies to pull that off.

November 1 also brings us (me) Star Wars Battlefront 2 for my PS2. Battlefront 1 was the best Star Wars game ever (which for me could make it the best videogame ever)- a guaranteed out of body experience everytime you went into sensory overloaded videogame battle in the Star Wars galaxy, and if the sequel matches or tops it I might not ever leave my house.

"Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is great. I didn't not smile through the entire movie, and frequently I laughed raucously loud; the entire production's obvious love of cinema, the dotty Britishness of the entire enterprise, and the film's profound craft combines to make something truly special for the entire family (yes, I occasionally like family films). God I love the British.

Smallville is too racy for it's 8 PM timeslot. Fun, but way too racy. This week Lana Lang in that black skintight Catwoman outfit, Chloe in the Japanese schoolgirl costume, all those skanky sorority girl vampires... and next week Lois Lane undercover at a strip club? At 8 PM... on a show about Superman as a young man.... clearly I am of two minds on this subject.

The audiobook of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is every bit as enjoyable as the first two as read by Jim Dale, who once again nails the simultaneously wry and whimsical tone of Rowling's prose and the nuanced tone of it's numerous characters. A textured piece that exemplifies perfectly the maturing tone of the Potter series. God I love the British.

And speaking of British whimsy (via Scotland) "Donovan's Greatest Hits" is just right (I suspect that new box set is too much). In addition to the standards "Mellow Yellow," "Jennifer Junniper" and "Sunshine Superman" you get Led Zeppelin (Jimmy, John and John Paul Jones) on "Hurdy Gurdy Man," Scorcese flashbacks courtesy of "Atlantis" and "Wear Your Love Like Heaven"- one of my all time favorite songs: trippy and sweet and beautiful, and chock full of timeless sentiments of peace and brotherhood. Everybody should have some Donovan on their shelf, and indeed this should be it.