The Eighties Pop Act Quiz is the next best thing to those e-mail questionnaires you're supposed to send to all your friends (thanks, JD!) Here's my result:

Based on the last trailer, it's no surprise that the next Star Wars movie will be a collection of fashionable costume and hairstyle changes. According to Star Wars Homing Beacon #53 (not yet available online):

Portman has about 15-20 hairstyles in Episode II, and [Episode II hair stylist Sue] Love has a favorite. "Nothing's difficult on Natalie. She's so beautiful. You can put anything on her," she says. "I think P-11 [the white jumpsuit look] is my favorite.

Finally, Lucas gives sci-fi/fantasy fans what they really want!

I realized something the other day, and in the interest of full confession, I must share it with you: I like the Ewoks. I know, I know it's not so cool to dig on the little fluff-balls, but I do appreciate their role as kind-hearted-primitive-culture-defeats-evil-technology saviors in Return of the Jedi. And although I do not think that Jar Jar Binks is one of the seven signs of the apolcalypse, which would you rather have in your movie? Ewoks don't seem so bad now, do they?

On an entirely unrelated note, if you're tired of trying to figure out the plot intricacies of the most puzzling films of last year, these in-depth analyses, courtesy of Salon, do a pretty good job of doing the hard thinking for you:

Memento
Mulholland Drive

Of course, you're doing youself a terrible disservice if you read these without seeing the films, first! Memento is now out on video and DVD, so no excuses. If that doesn't at least get nominated for best screenplay I'll -- well, I won't really be surprised because the Oscars are fucked up, but it should win.

Not much going on this week and thus not updating much. I've been spending much too much time at home, watching movies, cooking, sleeping at utterly unreasonable times, and generally being in a funk. Perhaps it didn't help that Nell sent me this link to Colorgenics, which utilized a highly sophisticated and technically complex psychological profiling mechanism to tell me that I'm a lazy shit who will never amount to anything.

And while we're trying to get to know ourselves, it can't hurt to check your Star Wars Astrology (thanks, Deb). And don't forget the insights gleaned from discovering your Hobbit Name.

If you know me well enough to be reading this you probably already have this link, but for any lurkers out there, here's something I wrote recently.

I made a carrot cake today.

We had the first monthly (?) "Nebrooklyn Breakfast" today. The first group to arrive got a table for six and we ended up swelling to a cozy party of eleven, to the consternation of diner management (we left about a 30% tip). This was sort of a loosely-organized test run for possible future social gatherings of Brooklynites who had a previous life in Nebraska. This could be daunting, because Lara said at one point she had made a list of 65 people she knew who had moved to the New York metro area from our homeland, but none of the rest of us are that socially connected. At one point Nell asked the table how many of us had worked at the same record store (which at various times was called Dirt Cheap, Twisters and Homers), and nearly everyone raised their hands, though none of us had worked together. Such is The Good Life.

This was basically Nell's idea, and a very good one. I think people are often very eager for new social activities--especially now that so many of us are unemployed. The neat thing was that even though we all were ostensibly connected by mutual acquantance, nobody knew everyone. The diner ran out of home fries, so we all had to have french fries with our various eggy dishes. It was the worst food I've eaten in weeks, which is nice, because I used to have that stuff every day. I didn't die!

Consensus was: This was fun, let's do it again, somewhere else.

Does anyone ever read my other blog or is it just that nobody finds it particularly interesting? I just wondered because I'm spending rather more time on that one lately, and I kinda like the latest entry.

Meanwhile, check out Mike's Blog -- the latest in a series of humorous attempts to make sense of Enron.

Finally, I e-mailed this little mini-analysis of one of my favorite movies, Fight Club, to my Dad and I thought it might help anyone out there gain a different perspective if the film didn't float their particular boat.

* * * (WARNING! SERIOUS SPOILERS--I'M NOT KIDDING!!) * * *

[Dad] Well I liked it up until the guy blows his own head off. I'm seeing this a just too nihilistic. I only like happy endings.

[Me] But it IS a happy ending! He doesn't KILL himself! He's doing the opposite--he's forcing the nihilistic part of his personality (Brad Pitt) to go away, so that he can allow himself to form a meaningful relationship with a woman. The whole movie is really a chick flick folded into a black comedy--a neurotic guy, emasculated by consumer culture and lack of male role-models, attempts to create a male identity by denying female influence, which leads to rampant destruction. Eventually he realizes that partnering intimately (not just sexually) with a woman will help--not hamper--his ability to form a grown-up male identity in a life-affirming way, and in turn help her curb her own self-destructive tendencies. Marla and Edward Norton's love for each other is the enemy of self-destruction (which is why Brad Pitt kept trying to keep them apart). Two people who hate themselves learn to love themselves by loving each other. Very sweet, really.

* * *

Aw, I'm just an old softy.