Turkey Daze

This Thanksgiving I had a lot to be thankful for. I was thankful for my wife, my new house, and even my job. But mostly I was thankful that Megan and I only had 2 Thanksgivings...

...and 1 Christmas... with Thanksgiving food. Which I guess, technically makes it Thanksmas, but since that's not an official holiday yet, my mom called it Christmas. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if becomes one someday soon, with Christmas seeming to start earlier and earlier every year. I mean, our neighbors across the street had their tree and lights up 2 weeks before Thanksgiving! Why do people want to skip Thanksgiving so bad? It's a great freakin' holiday. You get to pig out, hang out with the fam, and you don't even have to buy anybody any gifts! It's great!

The only drawback to Thanksgiving is if you are required to have multiple Thanksgivings. Now, generally when I think of something with the modifier "multiple" in front of it, I think of good things. Like, say, multiple orgasms. But trust me, multiple Thanksgivings is really something muliple you don't want to have. Like, say, multiple sclerosis. Okay, it's probably not that bad, but its bad.

First of all there's hassle of not being in control of your own schedule. You are now on somebody's else's time. If you're ready to eat at 11:00, too bad. You're waiting until noon. That's fine and all, but you get no say in it. Plus its great to see the family and hang out and all that, but it's all day. This would be fine if you only had to do it once, but three times in one weekend, and there goes your weekend. So much for seeing Walk The Line...

Second, there's the food. Again, don't get me wrong, I love turkey, dressing/stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green casserole, rolls, and pie as much as the next guy. Probably even more so, but after three days of this and you're done. Plus, it is impossible not to overeat. Back in the days when my parents were together I would maybe have 2 Thanksgivings and they would be on different weekends. I would stuff my face. You know, make yourself a plate, go back for seconds, maybe thirds. Then a couple of hours later, after a food induced coma, I would maybe have some pie. Yes, I was a huge fatass back then and maybe eating like I did on Thanksgiving contributed to that, but it wasn't just us fatasses eating like this. Almost everyone I knew ate like this at Thanksgiving. Now, I try to eat way less at each Thanksgiving meal. This started because I knew I might have to go to another one in a couple of hours and didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Have you ever been to Thanksgiving dinner and tried not to eat? Doesn't work. They will tie you down and force-feed you if they have to. I think it's a law, something to do with Thanksgiving being a federal holiday or something.

And my last gripe is simultaneously wanting to spend more time with relatives you barely see and wanting to go home because you're on sensory overload. I felt bad on Saturday especially, because by then I had had it with family and I could think of nowhere else I'd rather be than at home eating pizza. Or any food that didn't involve turkey, dressing/stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green casserole, rolls, or pie. Well, I guess pie would be okay.

So, here's my advice: if your parents are divorced and remarried, think twice about marrying someone who's parents are divorced and remarried. Unless you really like Thanksgiving, that is.

honestly, I'm looking forward to a day when I only have one Thanksgiving to worry about, and that's the one Megan and I have at our house. Unfortunately, probably at least 20-30 Thanksgivings away. And that's not counting any Thanksmases, either...

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Not too much has been going on lately. Megan and I have been trying to get the house winterized. Just stuff like draining the sprinkler system, clearing out another 30 bags of leaves, and cleaning out the gutters. Now, up until a little over a week a go, I had never had the pleasure of climbing around on a roof and digging decomposing black muck out of gutters, but let me tell you it was blast. For anyone who took that last sentence seriously, I suggest looking up the word sarcasm. Anyhow, the experience was made even better by Megan "supervising" my rooftop excursion and encouraging me by constantly shouting motivational phrases up at me like: "Don't fall!"

No shit. Thanks Megan, I don't what I would have done had you not been out there reminding me.

Anyhow, I did have a couple of free hours on Sunday, so I decided to check out Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang with Saldi. I'm sure that several of you are wondering why I didn't see the new Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line. Well, as much as I wanted to see Walk, I knew that Megan REALLY wants to see it as well, and that she had no interest in Kiss Kiss, so there you go. Also, I had been reading about it for some time and was interested, but my interest was really piqued after Ain't It Cool News ran an article urging it's readers to see it, as it was dying at the box office. And it wasn't dying because it isn't worth seeing, but because for whatever reason, it hadn't really found an audience. So, since I'm usually in the demographic that actually likes things that can't seem to find an audience (i.e. Arrested Development and Scrubs), I decided to check it out. Man, was I glad I did, too. It's been far too long since I had that much fun at a movie.

Kiss, Kiss something of a satire/homage/satire to old hardboiled detective novels like the ones Raymond Chandler wrote. In a wink to the audience, the movie even features a fictional series of detective novels about a P.I. named Johnny Gosammer, which inform the actions of the characters and often foreshadow events in the movie. And don't worry, the movie is witty enough to be laugh out loud funny even if you've never read a detective novel or seen a movie based on one. In fact, it's sort of like Scream, in that you can enjoy it on it's own, but the experience is definitely enhanced by knowledge of the source material. Interestingly enough, most reviewers seem to have missed this entirely. Most reviews I've read consider Kiss a satire of buddy cop/action movies, but whatever.

The plot of the movie is a little hard to explain, as it's a winding story with twists and turns like any good detective yarn. Basically, it centers around a small-time thief name Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey, Jr.) who, while on the run from police, stumbles into a movie audition and wows the producers with his "method acting." He's subsequently flown out to L.A. for a screen test and is sent on a ride-along with Perry Van Shrike (Val Kilmer) AKA "Gay Perry", so he can learn how to be a detective. Naturally, they get involved in a big mystery and hilarity ensues.

Anyhow, it's great. The performances are great all around, including Michelle Monaghan as the love interest. The dialogue is great. And despite being a satire, the mystery is even great. Hell, it's even got boobs! What else do you want? Go see it already!

Good night, and good luck.

Last night Megan, our friend Pat, and I all went to AMC and checked out George Clooney's new film Good night, and good luck. Good night centers around television newsman Edward R. Murrow's battle with Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was at the time riding the wave of the Red Scare in America and was holding "hearings" to supposedly root out communist spies here in the States. Murrow, found these hearings unfair and many of McCarthy's accusations to not only be false but to often be outright lies. At one point in the film Murrow tells CBS President William S. Paley that McCarthy's allegations are wrong 99% of the time and that somebody has to go after him because the senate seems happy to wait until he's wrong 100% of time. So, with no one else willing to stand up to McCarthy, Murrow decides that he's going to have to be the one to do it.

The movie is solid. The acting by everyone involved is superb, with David Strathairn as Murrow especially great. Clooney has come under some scrutiny for not casting someone who looked more like Murrow, but I don't think that he could have found anyone who sounded more like him. For his part, Clooney (who directed, co-wrote and co-starred in the movie) really did a great job on with the visuals. Good night is shot entirely in black and white and is full of great transitions and camera moves. Where the movie stumbled a little is it's lack of suspense. The pacing and structure were very economical, which I actually have no problem with. It's just that the movie never seem to build to anything, and therefore had no real tension. Maybe it's because I was familiar with the story, but I've seen movies before where I knew the outcome (Apollo 13 comes to mind) but still got caught up in story as it played out on screen. Honestly, though, that's a small complaint and I highly recommend checking it out.

The movie is not only meant to laud the courage and accomplishments of arguably the greatest broadcast journalist of all time in all of his chain-smoking glory, but also as an indictment of the the politics of fear we have allowed to hijack our county. It also gives voice to those who are tired of being called unpatriotic for challenging the war or even the current administration. And it does so without being preachy and without demonizing those on the other side as is often the case of other films that seek to challenge the current administration (Michael Moore I'm looking in your direction.) In fact, the film never spells out correlations between the Red Scare and the current War On Terror, but rather allows the viewers to come to those conclusions on their own.

Make no mistake though, the correlations are there. The Red Scare has been an interest of mine ever since I read about it in it grade school. Even then I couldn't understand how a country who guaranteed it's citizens in it's constitution freedom of political ideals could then persecute them for those ideals. I understand then, as I do now, the want and need to get rid of spies, but destroying people's lives for ever even attending a communist meeting or simply reading a communist newsletter is unforgivable. As Murrow himself put it:

"If none of us ever read a book that was 'dangerous', had a friend who was 'different', or joined an organization that advocated 'change', we would all be just the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants."

I don't think that I'm the only one who thinks that you could easily substitute the words "Joe McCarthy," with say the words " the Radical Right" and it would apply perfectly to today.

Yeah, yeah. "Now who's demonizing," right? Maybe, but I'm demonizing the Radical Right, not everyone who's on the Right (Hey, I'm voting Republican in 2008, remember?) And besides, is it even possible to demonize those who are so obviously bad guys? After all, they did lie us into war. They also continue to use 9/11 and the War On Terror to scare us all into giving them more and more power. And if anyone questions their actions or stands up to them? Well, they smear and discredit them by calling them unpatriotic, liberal, or "French-looking." If that doesn't sound like McCarthyism 2.0, then I must need to get my hearing checked.

Okay, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now, but before I do, I just want to share the following excerpt from Murrow's broadcast on McCarthy. Take note on how he doesn't place the blame on McCarthy alone, but all U.S. citizens. His statement about how the rest of world sees us is also just as true now as it was when he said it in 1954. Anyhow, here it is:

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men— not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it— and rather successfully. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Good night, and good luck.

Good night, and good luck, indeed. Thanks, Ed. We need all the luck we can get.

The Man In Orange

Things have been pretty low-key for Megan and me recently. Not a lot going on. The weekdays have mostly been spent working and trying to keep our house in order and the weekends have been spent seeing family and trying to catch up on stuff we haven't had time to do during the week. Well, that and college football.

We did catch The Decemberists when they were in town. It was definitely one of the best shows I've seen in a while. Their music style is hard to pin down, I've heard them compared to Belle and Sebastian and Neutral Milk Hotel, but honestly, I think that's doing them a disservice. Don't get me wrong, I like the bands they're compared to, but The Decemberists really have something pretty unique going on. Seeing them live was a treat, because they sounded great and you could really hear the individual instruments more clearly live. They closed the show with The Mariner's Revenge Song, which is a truly epic piece of music, both structure and execution. The song was made even better through a pretty ridiculous whale prop and great crowd participation. Anyway, if you have a chance, check them out and you'll be glad you did.

Last night was Halloween, and again things were pretty low key. Megan had been really excited to give out candy at the new house, but instead had to teach obedience class. So, no candy from the Thom household this year, but as evidenced above, we did carve pumpkins. Mine was supposed to be Johnny Cash, but it kinda came out looking like Ronald Reagan. I was going to try and carve in one of the graffiti stencils Shepard Fairey did for Walk The Line, but the Walk The Line website changed and I couldn't find them online anymore. So, I based my design on this stencil, which wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be Shepard Fairey as well.

Megan got home and we watched Shaun of the Dead to celebrate Halloween. I can only get Megan to watch scary movies once a year and was pleased the she enjoyed Shaun so much. She was really surprised that it "was actually funny and not just dumb." If I ever direct a movie, remind me to get a quote like that for the poster. People will be lined up around the block.