What's A Month Between Friends?

As promised, German is finished and I am officially back in the saddle. Unfortunately, the horse is blind and shaped like the letter "U". Oh well, you get what you pay for, I guess. Coincidentally, today's blog is also brought to you by the letter "U". Weird...

I digress...

There really is no better way to get back into the blogging groove than with one of my patented Bits and Pieces episodes. So, for better or worse, here's what I've done/learned in the past month:

1. One of the greatest epidemics facing America today is mumbling. Mumblers can be found just about anywhere, and you can certainly find them at Ebenezer's. A word to the wise--if you insist on mumbling while placing your order, and I respond by asking you to repeat what you just said, IT MEANS I WANT YOU TO ANNUNCIATE THE SECOND TIME YOU SPEAK. Mumbling a second time will only result in me asking what you just said a second time. We could repeat this little game ad nauseum--I really do have all day--or you could put in a little effort and stop placing your order like a primate. Just a suggestion...

-and I'm just getting warmed up!-

2. The German language is crazy. And not the good kind of crazy either. Oh, German, why must your words have 32 letters? Who came up with verbs that have separable prefixes? Why must you place the verb at the very end of the sentence? And, for that matter, why must you write sentences so long they would make Charles Dickens blush?

3. 2008 has been a good hear for music so far. Death Cab for Cutie, Tapes 'n' Tapes, Sigur Ros and Coldplay all have spectacular new albums, and those are just the big names. A host of other, more obscure bands have made my ears very happy this year--amongst them are: Amber Rubarth, Liam Finn, Headlights and Ghost in the Water.

4. Jess and I like visitors. A lot. Have you come to visit us in DC yet? If not, you are running out of time! ACT NOW!! THIS OFFER CAN'T LAST FOREVER!

5. The best movie I've seen in a long time: Lars and the Real Girl. If you haven't seen it yet, put it to the top of your Netflix queue. You won't be sorry. Hopefully I'll get to post something more extensive about this excellent film in the near future.

6. Movie to skip: Prince Caspian. The film version of the C.S. Lewis's excellent book is flaccid from start to finish. It boggles my mind why the director would have departed so much from the book and created motifs that are alien to Lewis's original story telling.

7. I had the privilege of attending Tim Russert's wake last week; Jess and I met his son and wife while we were there. So incredibly sad... He was one of the good guys in a world filled with blathering pundits. NBC won't be the same without him--he was the best in the business and an irreplaceable voice of reason amid the white noise.

8. Has anyone else noticed that the Twins are only 1 1/2 games out of first place? They're far exceeding my expectations for the year. I can't wait until they open the new stadium in 2010.

9. Speaking of sports, I'm happy for Kevin Garnett. It was good to see him get the monkey off his back; though he was well compensated while in the Twin Cities, dealing with Kevin McHale on a daily basis is its own special kind of hell. Congrats, Big Ticket.

10. (HT: Jessica Banti) Be sure to read this excellent and scathing op-ed piece by Thomas Friedman of the NY Times about the insanity of the Bush administration's current energy policy.

11. I confess that I have been regularly listening to NPR's "This American Life" lately. I'm officially an elitist. God have mercy on me...

12. Two of my favorite people came together in one place last week. Click here to see N.T. Wright's appearance on the Colbert Report.

Well, I best be getting to bed. I'm sure there's more to be said, but it will have to wait another day.

300 Ways to Die Trying

I saw 300 last night and am still reeling from it. Though I usually like to have thoughts fully formed before blogging, I haven't posted in a long time...

...which may tell you about how many thoughts I've fully formed in the last two weeks.

This movie appealed to me in a base kind of way. There's just something about being a dude that gives you an insatiable urge to watch movies with exploding buildings, fast cars or ripped heroes picking a fight.

So...was it good? Critics were mixed in their evaluations, and after leaving the theater I had similarly mixed feelings. The movie was undeniably gorgeous from a cinematography perspective. While the dialogue was often predictable, it mattered little in the wake of the visual elegance. But something about this film has left me feeling empty.

About halfway through the film, I noticed myself longing to see the Spartans spill the blood of their enemies. The arrogance, cruelty and blasphemy of Xerxes and his minions begged for a taste of true justice, and who better to administer it than the Spartans? After all, they were in the right, simply protecting their land, women and children. Fighting for freedom. Protecting Justice. Ensuring liberty.

But something about these slogans and their trappings rang painfully hollow as I thought back on the film this morning. Sure, the Spartans were presented in the film as the protagonists. As heroes. As liberators.

But were they?

Exactly what sort of freedom, justice and liberty were the Spartans aiming to protect by King Leonidas' ill fated march against the Persians? Justice that snatches the most beautiful young girls from the city and subjects them to a wasted life of pseudo prostitution as oracles? Liberty that casts all 'undesirable' babies to their death and instills an insatiable blood lust in the desirable ones? Freedom that ultimately begins and ends with the one who wields the mightiest sword?

Is anything truly gained by substituting one form of tyranny for another? Is there really any difference between the 'benevolent' rule of Leonidas and the 'benevolent' rule of Xerxes? Is there really any sort of freedom that doesn't come at the expense of systemic bondage? Shouldn't evil be identified as such irregardless of personal or national familiarity with it?

The parallels to our own situation almost go without saying and, though it has become fashionable to criticize current United States foreign policy, the implied questions are still worth asking irrespective of fashion. But, I'll leave those questions implied for the moment.

Tut, tut. It Looks Like Snow

For those of you keeping score at home, it's still snowing. We're hovering around 14" outside of my house right now, and I expect over 20" by the time I wake up tomorrow morning. The only thing in Minnesota exceeding the snowfall amounts today was (sadly) Carlos Silva's ERA--a whopping 22.50. Perhaps he was showing sympathy to his home state. That, or he's just a terrible pitcher. Logic and experience force me to lean toward the latter.

I'm soooooo not going to work tomorrow. But it's OK. I have The Departed and Syriana to keep me warm.

Pan's Labyrinth

I'm going to see this movie tonight. I pretty much could not be more excited about it. Check here for a plot synopsis. The cinematography and storytelling are supposed to be amazing. Speaking of amazing--my wife got four free tickets for the show at the Lagoon in Uptown tonight. What's more, it's a pre-screening, so I get to have that feeling of superiority and exclusivity--ultra important when watching an art film.

Seriously though...

Check out the trailer below and tell me this doesn't look amazing. Jess said it got a 20 minute standing ovation at the Cannes film festival this year. I am absolutely giddy.