saw 300 tonight. wasn’t something I had planned to see, and tonight was no exception. my old college buddy dan and I were gonna go see some improv but it was sold out so we ended up at the closest movie theater.

lots of pecs with makeup and toothy monologues. eh.

apparently some football game was on last night. I wouldn’t know, but I did notice some commercials that came on during this time.

if you’re a pedestrian fan like me you probably missed 90% of the commercials. you can catch all (most?) of them at ifilm.com/superbowl.

random update: I no longer despise the o.c. but I can’t say I like it, either.

for the past week or so I’ve been feeling like I’m on the cusp of getting sick. it accelerated this weekend, but I’m trying to keep this bitch at bay.

one of the symptoms of “on the cusp of a cold” appears to be “not blogging in the least bit.” it says so right on the box.

know what else is pretty blah? new music. it’s almost october and there hasn’t been a single release this year that makes me want to do a “top recordings of 2005″ list. you know, the last time I felt this way was back in ‘99 or so when indiepop became completely stagnant.

is it time for a new genre to immerse myself into? and what will that be?

so yeah, episode 3. here’s how I experienced it.

at first I was all hyped up because, by watching this on the big screen, I am in some ways a part of history. after sitting through the 20 minutes of trailers that old familiar 20th century logo came on and off we went.

so the movie starts and I’m finding that for every conflict these dudes run into, they solve it by swinging their light saber around. it seriously did get unexciting after a while because all of the effects and fighting took the place of story telling. already I was starting to lose interest.

if lucas made episode 4 today you certainly won’t see obi-wan wave his hand in the face of a stormtrooper and say, “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” no, obi-wan would have whipped out a light saber and beheaded each and every one with a flourish. fuck-a-doodle-doo.

so at some point early on in the movie I started to notice holes in the plot. “how did whats-his-nuts end up there?” “why is that happening already?” — well as it turned out I had DOZED OFF in small spurts and DIDN’T EVEN KNOW.

I did get a second wind and managed to stay awake for the rest of the film, which was good because I paid $9.50 to see this (this was at the “cheap” theatre in manhattan).

okay so the last half hour or so was good. the very end of the obi-wan vs anakin showdown was good, the birth of luke and leia was unceremonious but okay (for someone who was allegedly carrying twins, natalie portman looked like she was barely 3-4 months pregnant with ONE child), and they paid homage (hmm, can you call it an homage if you’re paying tribute to something you made?) to episode 4 at the very very end with this one scene. you’ll see.

all in all it was just another hollywood movie: too much bells and whistles and not enough story telling.

in summation, I believe kumar (of harold and…) said it best: “just ’cause you’re hung like a moose doesn’t mean you have to do porn.” as in, just because you have all of ILM’s technologies and talent under your thumb doesn’t mean you have to throw it in our faces every opportunity you get.

if I see it again it’d be on dvd.