Batman Begins

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While I knew that Waner Brothers was working on bringing the Batman franchise back from the neon grave that Joel Schumacher buried it in, I had no idea that the project was this far along: the teaser trailer has just been posted.

The trailer doesn’t really show me enough to be absolutely sure, but it does look promising. What looks more promising, however, was the cast they’ve lined up for this thing!

With any luck, we just might get a watchable Batman movie again.

(via Ryan)

iTunes: “Girls of the Night (Elite Force)” by Surreal Madrid from the album Black Flys pres. Club Flys 3: Late Night (1998, 6:16).

Kerry’s DNC speech

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Thanks to C-Span‘s video archive, I just sat back and watched Kerry’s speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I must say, I’m more impressed than I thought I was going to be, not having been overly impressed by what little I’ve seen of Kerry in the past. A good, well-written speech, and he delivered it quite well.

A few choice quotes that especially impressed me:

We’re told that outsourcing jobs is good for America. We’re told that new jobs that pay \$9,000 less than the jobs that have been lost is the best we can do. They say this is the best economy we’ve ever had. And they say that anyone who thinks otherwise is a pessimist. Well, here is our answer: There is nothing more pessimistic than saying America can’t do better.

I am proud that after September 11th all our people rallied to President Bush’s call for unity to meet the danger. There were no Democrats. There were no Republicans. There were only Americans. How we wish it had stayed that way.

As president, I will ask hard questions and demand hard evidence. I will immediately reform the intelligence system, so policy is guided by facts, and facts are never distorted by politics. And as president, I will bring back this nation’s time-honored tradition: The United States of America never goes to war because we want to, we only go to war because we have to.

As president, I will wage this war with the lessons I learned in war. Before you go to battle, you have to be able to look a parent in the eye and truthfully say: “I tried everything possible to avoid sending your son or daughter into harm’s way. But we had no choice. We had to protect the American people, fundamental American values from a threat that was real and imminent.” So lesson one, this is the only justification for going to war.

For four years, we’ve heard a lot of talk about values. But values spoken without actions taken are just slogans. Values are not just words. They’re what we live by. They’re about the causes we champion and the people we fight for. And it is time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families.

I want to address these next words directly to President George W. Bush: In the weeks ahead, let’s be optimists, not just opponents. Let’s build unity in the American family, not angry division. Let’s honor this nation’s diversity; let’s respect one another; and let’s never misuse for political purposes the most precious document in American history, the Constitution of the United States.

I don’t want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God’s side.

Good stuff.

Now, let’s get this man into office.

iTunes: “More” by Crystal Method, The from the album Plastic Compilation Vol. I (1997, 5:59).

Tattoo number two: Ouroboros

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Some time ago, I got my first tattoo: a yin-yang made of smiley faces, a design I was taken with because of the symbolism of the yin-yang (light and dark intertwined and dependent upon each other) and the incorporation of the smiley face, which I interpreted as meaning that light or dark, good or bad, there’s some good in every situation.

For some time now, I’ve been pondering what to get as a second tattoo. I didn’t want to get something merely because it “looked cool” or struck my fancy for a passing moment. Rather, I wanted to get something to both complement and balance the tattoo I already had. As the smiley yin-yang is a roughly 3 inch diameter circle on my right upper arm/shoulder, I knew I something similar on my left upper arm, but I wanted to find something that matched thematically, as well as visually.

Nothing struck my fancy for quite a few years, but off and on for the past year or so, I’ve been thinking more and more seriously about one particular design that first caught my eye when I was around eleven or so.

At that time, movies often came to Anchorage months after they had wide release in the lower 48. I’d seen trailers on television for a new fantasy movie that looked incredibly cool: The Neverending Story. However, the movie just didn’t ever seem to come out, and I eventually went out and picked up the book by Michael Ende.

I completely and entirely fell in love with the book (and later was somewhat disappointed by the movie when it eventually hit Anchorage — it’s enjoyable and a lot of fun on its own, but it only covers the first half of the book, ignores roughly half of that, and scrambles what little is left), but the cover of that edition of the book featured stills from the movie, and had Atreyu’s amulet, the Auryn, featured prominently on the front cover.

The Neverending Story

The Auryn in the film was actually a stylized version of an Ouroboros: while the traditional Ouroboros is a single snake consuming its own tail, the Auryn was designed as two intertwined snakes, one light and one dark, each consuming the other’s tail.

The symbol has stuck with me ever since then, and more and more often as of late, it’s been popping into my head as what I’d like to get to complement the tattoo I already have. I spent a little time this morning trying to find good images and information on the symbol — something of a difficult task, unfortunately, as there are quite a few possible spellings of Ouroboros — but have found a bit of each. I’m not sure if I’ve found an image that’s clean enough for me to give to a tattoo artist yet, but I did confirm some of what I’d already believed of the symbolism of the Ouroboros:

The ouroboros has several meanings interwoven into it. Foremost is the symbolism of the serpent biting, devouring, eating its own tail. This symbolises the cyclic Nature of the Universe: creation out of destruction, Life out of Death. The ouroboros eats its own tail to sustain its life, in an eternal cycle of renewal. In the above drawing, from a book by an early Alchemist, Cleopatra, the black half symbolises the Night, Earth, and the destructive force of nature, yin. The light half represents Day, Heaven, the generative, creative force, yang.

So it looks to me like we’ve got a winner. Now, the search is on for a good, clean image that will work well as a black-and-white tattoo. Once that’s done, it’ll be time to get inked again!

iTunes “Behind the Wheel” by Kirk from the album Trancemode Express 1.01: A Tribute to Depeche Mode (1996, 7:30).

Ash to Ash, Dust to Dust

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August 18, 1992. I was living in Anchorage in an apartment off of Muldoon Road, and working slinging popcorn at the Fireweed Theaters. It was a rather muggy, hot day, and I was quite happy to be getting off of work at 6pm that evening. One of the girls I worked with offered me a ride home, and on our way across town, we turned on the radio, anxious to hear about the day’s news — the sudden eruption of Mt. Spurr, a volcano just across Cook Inlet from Anchorage.

Mt. Spurr erupts

The eruption had blown plumes of ash miles into the sky, and winds were blowing all of that ash directly towards Anchorage. As we drove down Northern Lights Boulevard towards Muldoon, we could glance behind us and see the sky starting to darken as the already overcast sky started to fill with the incoming clouds of ash.

I was wearing my hair long at the time — the very ‘alternative trendy’ style of shaved along the sides and back, with the top long, down to just past my shoulder blades — and after having it pulled back in a ponytail for work, was more than ready to let it loose. I pulled out the ponytail holder, shook my head a couple times to let my hair fall loose…

…and then yelped as my glasses slipped off my face and went flying out the open passenger window of the car. We pulled over as fast as possible, but it was too late, and all we could do was pick up as many of the pieces of my glasses as we could find after they’d been quite thoroughly demolished by the tires of the cars behind us.

For the rest of the evening, I watched as much of I could of the volcanic ash fall over the city, but given my poor vision (I’m legally blind without my glasses), that was limited to seeing the world get darker and darker as the city got blanketed by the ash from Mt. Spurr.

The next day I got a new pair of glasses, and got to see the aftereffects of the ash fall. The entire city was grey — apparently it wasn’t that big of an ash fall, only a millimeter or two, but it was enough to blanket the city and choke the air filters of nearly every car in town. Not far from my apartment, someone had scrawled ‘Ash to Ash, Dust to Dust’ on the back window of a car.

Now, it looks like there’s a possibility that Anchorage could be getting hit again — Mt. Spurr is showing signs of life.

Mount Spurr, the volcano on Anchorage’s doorstep, is kicking up once again, the first time since it erupted 12 years ago, scientists said this week.

Tiny earthquakes by the hundreds have been rumbling beneath the mountain across Cook Inlet from the city, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage.

The observatory on Monday raised its official level of concern from Code Green, or “No eruption anticipated,” to Yellow, meaning “An eruption is possible in the next few weeks and may occur with little or no additional warning.”

Scientists hastened to say the earthquake swarm does not necessarily presage an eruption of Spurr, which blew its top three times in 1992 and, in the August ’92 explosion, spread a thin, obnoxious layer of ash over Anchorage.

“The most likely scenario,” geophysicist John Power said, “is that the earthquakes will die off.” That’s what commonly occurs.

But it’s also true, Power said, that when volcanoes blow, their eruptions most often follow just such a swarm of quakes.

Nifty! If it happens, I wanna see pictures, since I managed to miss most of the fun last time!

iTunes: “Stalemate” by Limp Bizkit from the album Three Dollar Bill Y’All (1997, 6:14).

Pay attention to the road, you idiots

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Years ago, while driving around Anchorage, I glanced to my right and saw a couple guys driving around with a portable DVD player sitting on the dashboard of their car, quite happily watching a movie as they motored around town. Very unamused by their obvious disregard to the safety of themselves and those around them, I made sure to move a lane over so that I wasn’t next to them, and then spent the next few minutes ranting to whoever I was in the passenger seat about the idiodicy of trying to drive and watch a DVD at the same time.

Well, with the boom in fancy car toys over the last few years, including things like in-car DVD players, the inevitable has finally happened: two people in Alaska were killed by a driver watching a movie on a dash-mounted DVD player.

In what may be the first trial of its kind in the nation, prosecutors have accused the pickup truck’s driver of second-degree murder for watching a movie instead of the road when he crashed head-on into the Jeep.

The pickup’s driver, Erwin J. Petterson Jr., denies using the DVD player as he drove north on October 12, 2002 and contends he was only listening to music from a compact disc, said his attorney, Chuck Robinson.

[…]

After the crash, Petterson and his passenger, roommate Jonathan Douglas, were transported to an Anchorage hospital. Within hours, Douglas called his ex-wife and told her he was not sure how the collision occurred because he was “spacing out on a movie they were watching,” according to prosecutors. The woman is scheduled to testify.

David Weiser, 34, the son of the slain couple, said only two people know what happened in the cab of the truck. But equipping a truck with entertainment options that can be used while driving goes beyond a momentary distraction of putting on makeup or using a cell phone, he said.

“This takes forethought, this takes methodical steps,” David Weiser said. \”You have to go to the store, plop over money, install it, and install it so it can be used without a brake employed.

“I view it as no different than walking into a bar, having five beers within an hour and getting behind the wheel,” said Weiser, who quit an eight-year career as a loan originator in Boston to attend the trial.

It’s very simple, people. If you’re driving a car, then drive the damn car. Don’t jabber on a phone (I don’t care how many times you tell me it doesn’t affect your driving — studies show that cell phone usage while driving is at least as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol, and if I know that you’re calling me from a cell phone while on the road, I will hang up on you), don’t watch a damn movie, and for God’s sake, pay attention to driving!

(via /.)

iTunes: “Entrada and Shootout” by Goldenthal, Elliot from the album Heat (1995, 1:45).

9/11 commission: Everything we knew was wrong

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The New York Times nicely summarizes the recently released report from the 9/11 commission:

When the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States set to work early last year to prepare the definitive history of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, it seemed that much of its hard work was already done, because so much of the horrifying story seemed to be known.

At the time, it was understood that all of the hijackers had entered the country legally and done nothing to draw attention to themselves; Osama bin Laden had underwritten the plot with his personal fortune but had left the details to others; American intelligence agencies had no warning that Al Qaeda was considering suicide missions using planes; President Bush had received a special intelligence briefing weeks before Sept. 11 that focused on past, not current, terrorist threats from Al Qaeda.

But 19 months later, the commission has released a final, unanimous book-length report that, in calling for a overhaul of the way the government collects and shares intelligence, showed that much of what had been common wisdom about the Sept. 11 attacks at the start of the panel’s investigation was wrong.

Until I have time to pore over the entire report — a copy of which is sitting here on my desk — this is a good overview.

iTunes: “First Encounter” by P.I.M.P. from the album Twisted Secrets Vol. 2 (1996, 7:52).

Gagging and swallowing

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Blacks are gagging on the donkey but not yet ready to swallow the elephant.

— George W. Bush, quoting Charlie Gaines, while addressing the 2004 National Urban League Conference

According to the transcript, this comment was answered with “laughter and applause.” My first response was more along the lines of a dropped jaw. Simply amazing.

Lots more fun commentary on this by doing a simple Google search for “gagging on the donkey” (admittedly, rather amusing in itself).

iTunes: “Nica’s Dream” by Blakey, Art and the Jazz Messengers feat. Silver, Horace from the album Jazz: The Definitive Performances (1956, 11:53).

Alan Moore interview

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There’s a stunningly good interview on Salon with Alan Moore, creator of the extremely well-regarded graphic novels “From Hell” and “Watchmen” (unfortunately, I’ve yet to read any of his work, though I’ve heard many good things about them). A definite must-read.

We invite [television] into our own home every night; I’m sure that some of us think of it as a friend. That might be a horrifying notion but I’m sure there are people who think of television as perhaps one of their most intimate friends. And if the TV tells them that things in the world are a certain way, even if the evidence of their senses asserts it is not true, they’ll probably believe the television set in the end. It’s an alarming thought but we brought it upon ourselves. I mean, I think that television is one of the most diabolical — in the very best sense of the word — inventions of the past century. It has probably done more to degrade the mind and intelligence of its audience, even if they happen to be drug addicts or alcoholics; I would think that watching television has done more to limit their horizons in the long run. And it has also distorted our culture.

TV and politics have always made inevitable bedfellows, but the results have been disastrous. Look at the situation we have now. Let’s say that tomorrow someone who is a political genius were to emerge — and I’m not expecting this to happen, but say that it did. Say that a politician emerged who seemed, for once, basically competent, who seemed to be able to do their job as well as the average cab driver, comic writer or journalist. If they were the most intelligent, visionary, humane political thinker in the history of mankind, but were also fat, had some sort of blemish or something that made them less than telegenic, we would not be able to elect them. All we’re able to elect are these telegenic, photogenic crypto-Nazis. As long as they look good.

(via Mike)

iTunes: “Gift, The” by Way Out West feat. Law, Miss Joanna from the album Deconstruction Presents (1996, 4:23).

Power corrupts…

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I’m just starting to re-read a book I first read quite a few years ago after discovering it somewhere in Dad’s stack of books, James Morrow’s Only Begotten Daughter. I’ve since read a few more of Morrow’s books, and he has a definite knack for religious satire, but I’ve wanted to pick this one up again for a while now.

There’s one particular short conversation in the book that’s stuck with me since I read it the first time. At this stage in the book, seventeen year old Julie Katz — only begotten daughter of God, born of the virgin Murray Katz — is having a discussion with Andrew Wyvern — the Devil.

“No problems? No questions? Need a recommendation?” Wyvern closed his cigarette case. “I can tell you why the universe is made of matter and not anti-matter. I can tell you why the electron has its particular charge. I can tell you —”

“There is one thing.”

“Shoot.”

“My mother…”

Wyvern began retracting the wick. The flame grew translucent.

And so did he.

“It always comes down to her, doesn’t it?”

“Why doesn’t she care about people?” The spring air dried Julie’s tears. “Why all the diseases and earthquakes?”

With a final twist of the knob, Wyvern’s body became a gaseous haze. The dead lantern hit the beach, dug into the sand. “The Columbian mud flows?”

“Yeah. The Columbian mud flows.”

“Actually, the answer’s quite simple.” Two red eyes floated in the mist.

“Really? Tell me. Why does God allow evil?”

The red eyes vanished, leaving only the lantern and the night. “Because power corrupts,” said Wyvern’s disembodied voice. “And absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I got such a delicious chill down my spine when I read that the first time. Of course, I’d heard the phrase before, but never thought of applying it to God.

Now, the book does have quite a bit more to say than that, and it’s certainly not always that dismissive of God — this is fairly early on in the story, and consider the source of the accusation — it’s just a particularly favorite passage of mine.

iTunes: “Rex Caeli, Domine Maris (Musica Enchiriadis)” by Capella Antiqua Munchen from the album Gregorian Chant: Sequentiae (1992, 6:30).

And the DNC 2004 begins

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Due to my current work schedule and lack of television, the majority of my exposure to the 2004 Democratic National Convention is going to be through the news sites and weblogs that I frequent. I did happen to catch the first couple minutes of Gore’s speech today during lunch, though, and liked his start. Well written, and he delivered it well, getting laughs from his audience in the right places.

I’ll be candid with you. I had hoped to be back here this week under different circumstances, running for re-election.

But you know the old saying — you win some, you lose some. And then there’s that little-known third category.

I didn’t come here tonight to talk about the past. After all, I don’t want you to think I lie awake at night counting and recounting sheep.

I prefer to focus on the future because I know from my own experience that America is a land of opportunity, where every little boy and girl has a chance to grow up and win the popular vote.

Every time I’ve seen Gore speak in the past couple of years, I think what a shame it was that he presented himself so blandly during the 2000 election campaign. Given the freedom to actually show some personality, the man does a good job…but for whatever reason, that just wasn’t allowed to happen during his presidential campaign, and at times I really think that that was as important to the eventual outcome as the voting issues became. If he’d been able to show a little more spark to combat Bush’s “guy next door” persona, the final tallies might not have been quite so close.

Or not. Who really knows?

Either way, though, one of the things that has worried me about Kerry is that he’s often struck me much the same way that Gore did in 2000 — very bland, and not terribly able to really fire up his base. Maybe I haven’t seen him at the right times, and he’ll start coming across better as things go on…but I’d hate to see that same perceived lack of personality bite him as badly as I think it may have bitten Gore.

iTunes: “All Good Girls (Joyous)” by Die Warzau from the album Afterburn: Wax Trax! Records ’94 and Beyond (1994, 6:06).