(Wrong) Class Reunion

Megan and I had pretty eventful weekend. We were able to finally make it to the movies to catch a flick together and saw Friends With Money. The movie addresses a multitude of issues stemming from marriage and the relationships that married couples have within their own families and with others. It was a nice ensemble piece that was funny and bittersweet. My brother was in town and when Megan went to work on Sunday, we checked out Ed Norton's new flick Down In The Valley. It was...Interesting. It had some great moments, and Ed Norton was great as always, but the film never achieved the sort of fantastic realism I think it was trying for and actually needed to work. It's worth seeing, yet I can't see myself recommending it either. As a quick aside, after we left, my film student brother declared a better title would have been "Downer In The Valley." Takes after his brother, that one.

Anyhow, the major event of this weekend was not in fact my two trips to the multiplex, but Megan's Class of '96 high school reunion. An event made even all the more dramatic by the fact that on Friday afternoon, the day of the reunion, Megan developed an almost debilitating bladder infection. Now, I've never had one of these myself, but I can tell from witnessing them that they are not only uncomfortable, but searingly painful at times. So, Megan left work early, took some prescribed drugs, forced water, and once again proved what a total badass she is. For as I was content to beg off for a quiet evening at home, Megan was intent on sucking it up and going to her damned reunion. Hey, if she wanted to go that bad I wasn't going to stop her, and since the drugs had finally started to work their magic, it seemed like she would hold up long enough to at least make an appearance. Granted, Megan wasn't in the best mood (as was evidenced by her admonishment of my attire for the evening), but I think we both thought her mood would change for the better and once we got to the party, especially now that she wasn't in agony.

As it happened, I think that Megan later regretted her decision. A lot of our friends were there (Boyd and Emily, Katie and Josh, Mike and Melissa, Mike and Tracey, etc.), but we see them on a regular basis anyway. Her friends aside, I think Megan felt something akin to, "I'm going through all of this for these people?"

I, on the other hand, had a great time (despite the fact that I didn't bring any cash and had to bum money from Josh to buy a beer). Since these people weren't in my graduating class, I didn't feel like anyone was judging me, and the experience was quite freeing. It was also like having another reunion of my own, as the people there were all people I went to school with as well. Granted, there were a lot of unfamiliar faces, but I was surprised by how many people were there that I not only recognized, but actually knew. Here's a brief summary of conversations that evening:

- Caught up with Jay Saunders and met his fiance. Jay looks great, is still in the TV News biz (like me) and is a producer for a CBS affiliate in Columbus, OH. I'm looking forward to seeing them both again at Nate's wedding in October.

-Talked to Genelle Wilson Gerthoffer. I knew that she had gotten married to one of the three Gerthoffer boys (all of whom I worked with at Baker's in high school) but wasn't sure which one, a case made all the more confusing considering two of them are identical twins. Finally, found out it was Zach (one of the twins) that she was married to, not Joe (the other twin), and that she has only confused the two of them 3 times, and she was drunk each time. They're happy and have two kids. Genelle's a great person and was generally excited when she asked why I was there, since it wasn't my class reunion, and I told her that I had married Megan. It was a nice moment.

-While talking to Genelle, I was also engaged by Tiffany Pfeiffer. I know that I look a lot different than I did in high school, but I was wearing a freakin' nametag, so maybe you can understand why the following conversation was little annoying:

Tiffany: "You seem familiar. Were you on student council or something?"

Me (deadpan): "We were on the paper together."
In my head I'm screaming "WE WERE ON THE PAPER TOGETHER FOR TWO YEARS! I SAW YOU EVERYDAY AT SCHOOL FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS!

Tiffany (still not making the connection): "Who did you hang out with?"

Me (not really understanding if she means on the paper or in general): "Max Riffner, Tristan Dalley, Ben Schick..."
In my head I'm screaming "ESSENTIALLY ANYONE WHO WAS ON THE PAPER, INCLUDING YOU! WHAT ELSE DID WE DO?!?!"

Tiffany (finally recognizing me): "Oh, yeah! But you were kinda..." Tiffany then puffs out her cheeks, leans back in her chair, and sticks out her arms from her sides and makes a sort of circle with her arms around her midsection as though she was carrying a large pot. I assume she was indicating that I was fat, but then again, maybe she had me confused with someone who was taking pottery...

Me: "Um, yeah..."

Anyhow, all I got from Tiffany was that she was "singing in a band." I asked her if she had heard Nick's CD, and she said that yes she had, it was good, and that she and Nick had "hung out" when he was living in NYC where she lives. I know it may not sound like it, but our conversation didn't make me mad, it was actually kind of amusing, and to be fair, even though I was wearing a nametag, I was a bit huskier in high school. Speaking of which, Tiffany, if you're reading this, try eating something with calories in it. You could stand to be a little more... (I know that you can't see it, but I'm puffing out my cheeks and making a circle with my arms around my midsection.)

-After talking with Josh about Zinedine Zidane and Fever Pitch (the Nick Hornby book and the Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore movie), I had a nice conversion with Yolanda Johnson and LaSharah Bunting. I was really hoping that I would see Yolanda (or Yo as our journalism teacher Mr. Krainak called her). She was definitely one of my favorite people in journalism. She's doing well, and is an opera singer living in NYC. Mr. K would be proud of LaSharah as she is now working for New York Times and is also, obviously, living in NYC. We talked at length about Mr. K and the circumstances surrounding his retirement, as well as busing in Omaha, and Ernie Chambers' ridiculous OPS redistricting plan. When Yolanda asked what I was up to, I told I was an art director at a local TV station and she said "Of course you are." We ended our conversation with the two of them promising to check out Max's website and to keep an eye out for Goldenboy.

-Later, I had a long coversation with Sarah Reisinger. Sarah and I go way back, having grown up going to church together. Sarah's father Frank was our church's pastor, her older brother Scot was a youth group leader, Scot's wife Heather was used to babysit me (as did Scot) back in the day before they wre married, and Heather's sister Jessie is an old friend and former classmate. I got the scoop on all of them, Scot and Heather are expecting their first child, Jessie and her husband are expecting their second, and Frank, unfortunately, has was recently diagnosed with early onset, rapid Alzheimers. Sarah, though, is doing well, is married, and is teaching at Skinner Magnet, which is right across the street from North.

Finally, Megan and her bladder decided that they had had all they could take and we left for home. I was left with a couple of different thoughts about the whole experience. The first thought is how high school reunions don't really make for true reunions. Sure, you get to catch up with people from your graduating class, but you really went to school with 6 other classes during your tenure in high school. I had kind of forgotten that I went to school with thousands of other people, not just the 300 or so I actually graduated with. It makes the whole reunion thing ring all the more false. But as Megan pointed out, that's why they created homecoming. So, maybe I should actually start going to that one of these days...

The second and most important thing I took from the reunion is how glad I am that I have been accepted by Megan's group of former high school friends, and that they have truly become my friends as well. I really feel at ease when we're all together. I know that even if I didn't run into anyone else I wanted to see, I would have had a great time nonetheless, just hanging out with Mike, Melissa, Boyd, Emily, Katie, Josh, Mike, and Tracey.

It's nice to be accepted, even if it's from the wrong class...

Viva Zidane!

I love the World Cup. Granted, I'm not a fanatic, as I am a casual soccer fan at best, but the World Cup is something different entirely. It's a time when a country's best players, who often play on different teams and therefore against each other, band together to represent their respective homelands. It's a time when entire countries essentially shut down while their team is playing so they can cheer them on. This is not an exaggeration either, I've seen it first hand. During the 2002 Cup, Megan and I were in Italy and Rome was like a ghost town when the Italians were on the pitch. Walking down the street, we saw shopkeepers and workers rush into the street when Italy scored and heard fireworks echoing throughout the streets. Every television screen anywhere was tuned to Cup matches. Heck, they even had big screen TV's set up at the train station, which attracted huge crowds even when Italy wasn't playing! There is simply nothing to compare it to back in the States, even for us Husker football fans, who might recall hundreds of Omahans converging on 72nd & Dodge in a spontaneous celebration when Nebraska won the National Title in '95. Granted, that's pretty cool, but to come close you'd have to imagine the whole country as being Husker fans to get a more accurate picture.

This Cup, I was again, of course, rooting for the US. Thankfully, I missed their first game, but was able to catch the other two matches against Italy and the Czech Republic. The Italy game was great, as I watched it a sports bar with a fairly sizable crowd of both US and Italy supporters. It's the closest I've come to having a true version of the atmosphere that surrounds the Cup everywhere else in the world here at home. Sadly, the US didn't make it out of the first round, so I have to admit my interest started to flag. I watched the occasional match, and caught bits and pieces here and there (our TiVo doesn't work with our new cable phone lines), but once England lost, I was without anyone to really root for. Honestly, I wanted to cheer on Italy, since I was there for the Cup in '02, but I just couldn't get behind them, as they seemed to flop every time a player from the opposing team looked at them wrong (which was nothing compared to Portugal's constant flopping).

Enter Zinedine Zidane. For those that don't know, Zidane is a worldwide soccer superstar who played on the French national team. I caught bits and pieces of almost all of France's games and he astounded even a novice soccer fan like myself with his ball-handling skills. Seriously, the guy is amazing. During this year's Cup, he had an assist and scored a goal against Spain, had an assist against Brazil (and was named Man of the Match), he scored the only goal had by either side in the game against Portugal, and in the World Cup final he scored a goal against Italy. That goal against Italy, by the way, put Zidane in a rather elite club, as he became one of only 4 players to score in two separate World Cup Finals. What made this all the more amazing is the fact that Zidane is 34 years old (ancient by soccer standards) and came out of retirement to play in the Cup. At this point, the stage was set for Zidane to walk off the pitch and, win or lose, have a Hollywood ending to his brilliant career.

Then the unthinkable happened, in the second overtime Zidane completely lost it and headbutted Italy defender Marco Materazzi in the chest. Zidane got a red card and France subsequently lost in penalty kicks to Italy. It was crazy. First of all, who headbutts someone in the chest? I mean, it was just weird. Second, Zidane had to know that the match was heading for penalty kicks. France obviously needed him on the pitch to help out, but that apparently slipped his mind in his moment of fury. And finally, what kind of way is that to end your career? I mean, Zidane is never going to play another match. He has had one of the most amazing careers in soccer where he has won countless accolades including FIFA World Player of The Year (3 times: 1998, 2000, and 2003), a World Cup title in 98, and the Euro 2000 title, and the last thing he does as a professional is headbutt some guy? There's a small part of me that thinks, well, if you're going to get a red card and get sent off, I guess that's the way to do it, but the sensible side of me realizes that has to be one of the worst ways to end your career in history.

Since getting sent off for the headbutt, a lot has been made of what Materazzi said to set Zidane off. Granted Materazzi probably deserved what he got, hell, he probably deserved worse. But the fact remains, this was the World Cup and not only that, it was Zidane's last match ever. I know that I have never been, nor will I likely ever be, in a position with that much pressure surrounding me, but you just can't lose it like Zidane did. Zidane not only let himself and his team down, but he let down millions, if not billions, of people down watching the match. It was truly a tragic event.

It was not however "unforgivable," nor was it a "disgrace," as some commentators have presumed to call it. When I think of disgrace in terms of sports, I think of guys like Pete Rose and Barry Bonds. These are two legendary sports figures who willfully and methodically broke the rules repeatedly. Pete Rose didn't just spontaneously, in the heat of the moment bet on baseball. Barry Bonds didn't lose his cool and in a split-second use performance enhancing drugs. These guys new what they were doing ahead of time, new it was wrong, and made conscious decisions to not only break the rules, but to keep breaking them. What these two guys did is a disgrace, what Zidane did is called a foul.

People foul in sporting events all the time and that's why they have yellow and red cards in soccer. Again, what Zidane did was a foul. He lost his head in a moment of anger, headbutted a guy, and got a red card. And just as with any other red card with any other player, he was punished appropriately, sent off the pitch, and that should have been the end of it. And that would have been the end of it, at least it would have if it wasn't Zidane, or if it wasn't the last game of his career. Unfortunately, because of those two factors, people can not let it go. They seem to keep wanting to punish Zidane for being, well, human.

The most unfortunate consequence of the whole ordeal is due to a strange twist of fate that occurred after the final whistle blew in that fateful last game of the World Cup. Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball, the award that goes to the best player in the World Cup. It was an award that Zidane clearly deserved due to his stellar performance throughout the Cup. Now that FIFA has initiated an investigation into the headbutting incident, there are indications that Zidane might be stripped of his award. This would be a travesty. Doing so would seem like an attempt to erase every great play that Zidane made throughout the entire Cup because he fouled out of the final game. It's not like we're talking about premeditated game fixing, or performance enhancing drugs; we're talking a garden variety foul. Okay, maybe not garden variety, but it wasn't a cheap shot, he didn't hit an opponent from behind, kick him when he was down, hit him in the face, or for that matter, say, bite his ear off.

Even Materazzi has stated the Zidane deserved the Golden Ball. "He won it for what he did on the pitch," Materazzi told the Gazzetta dello Sport. "He was the best." Materazzi even went so far as to call Zidane his hero. Coming from the guy who was on the receiving end of a headbutt, this is pretty high praise indeed.

Stripping Zidane of the Golden Ball would make an unfortunate end to a storied career even more unfortunate. Letting him keep it would at least allow Zidane some modicum of redemption, as he will never be able to attempt that for himself again on the pitch. People will rightly not soon forget Zidane's headbutt, but they shouldn't be made to forget his tremendous play in the World Cup either. The two should be allowed to co-exist, just as things that they we are ashamed of and things we are proud of co-exist in each and every one of us. It's what makes us human. And that's what makes Zidane one of us.

Nick Hornby On Criticism

Sometimes I am my own worst enemy. I tend to prejudge a lot of things before they really get a chance. I often get so excited about something, say a new film, that when it fails to measure up, I am devastatingly disappointed. Other times, I decide something isn't any good, sight unseen, and miss out. A couple of days ago, I started reading Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch and thought a passage found inside summed it up quite nicely. So for any of you out there that has actually listened to or read any of my diatribes/rants on music and film (especially those of you who waded through my Superman Returns one), well, this one's for you:

"A critical faculty is a terrible thing. When I was eleven there were no bad films, just films I didn't want to see, there was no bad food, just Brussels sprouts and cabbage, and there were no bad books - everything I read was great. Then suddenly, I woke up in the morning and all that had changed. How could my sister not hear that David Cassidy was not in the same class as black Sabbath? Why on earth would my English teacher think that The History of Mr Polly was better than Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie? And from that moment on, enjoyment has been a much more elusive quality."

By the way, when I read that to Megan, she said, "Oh my God, he's you!"

Sigh.

Everyone's a critic...

Super(?)Man

I wasn't sure if I was going to write up my thoughts on the new movie Superman Returns or not. I was really excited about it and leading up to seeing it, I was surprised at how few other people were excited. Obviously, somebody went and saw it, since it made over $100 million in its Wednesday to Sunday opening "weekend." Not bad, but to put that into context, Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest made $135 million it's first weekend, and it started on a Friday, not a Wednesday. But, none of my friends have seen it, not even Max, even though the two of us have been closely following it's production. So, I don't really have anyone to talk with about what I liked and didn't like about it.

Generally, I find that you can discuss aspects of a movie in broad enough terms with people who haven't seen it, that you won't give anything away. However, the make or break, "yay "or "nay," thumbs up or thumbs down of the movie is a major plot spoiler. So, for instance, when I met Max, Ben, and Tim for lunch last week and they asked me what I thought of the movie I sounded like an incoherent idiot. When trying to explain what I didn't like about it, I think I said something like, "Well, there's this thing that happened in Superman II, that if what I have a problem with Superman Returns for having took place during, then it's okay, I guess. But, if the thing I didn't like about Superman Returns didn't take place during the thing that happened in Superman II, then I really have a problem with it." See? If that was the best you could come up with, you wouldn't want to talk about it either.

But recently, I have stopped worrying about ruining the movie for anyone. I don't think anyone that hasn't seen it already is probably going to see it anytime soon. And if you are planning on seeing it, and don't want anything ruined, for the love of God, stop reading this now. You've been warned.

Okay, so I'm going to assume that those of you left have either seen it or don't care. What I'm not going to assume is that you've seen (or if you have seen, remember) the first two Superman movies. This is one of the major problems that I have with Superman Returns. I'm a fan of the first 2 films. In fact, I own them both on DVD and I'm glad that this movie is not only a sequel of those two films, but ignores Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. Although, in the interest of full disclosure I loved Superman III as a kid. It's got Richard Pryor, Superman turning evil, and even a scene where Superman splits into two Supermen with the good side fighting the bad side. Fortunately, I haven't seen it since it was first out on VHS, as I hear it's horrible, and I can keep my childhood memories untainted. Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, on the other hand, sucked then and will always suck.

Back to the first two movies, I haven't watched them in a while, and I bet it's been even longer for the average movie-goer, so the movie really faltered by not explicitly mentioning events in the last 2 movies. I mean, is it too much to ask for a little exposition referring to 2 movies that were made nearly 30 years ago?

So, unlike the screenwriter(s), I'm going to do a bit of a recap. First off, I want to say that Superman: The Movie is one of my all-time faves. I like it so much that I can overlook two glaring problems within the movie (a scene where a Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) voiceover recites poetry while she and Superman fly and the climax of the film where Superman flies around the Earth so fast he either goes back in time, or makes the Earth go back in time, either way, it's kinda dumb) and embrace it unconditionally as probably the best superhero movie of all-time. Richard Donner's film is beautifully shot, well-acted, and does a great job of using Superman as a metaphor for America (more on Superman as metaphor later). The movie essentially details the origin of Superman (an underappreciated Christopher Reeve), from his escape from his exploding homeworld of Krypton to his first time donning the tights and cape. From there he does battle with Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) who is going to use nuclear missiles on the San Andreas Fault to plunge California into the ocean, so all the land he owns in Nevada will be high-priced beachfront property (more on Lex Luthor's real estate shenanigans later). Superman saves the day, of course, and drops Lex off at prison. The End.

Superman II picks up with 3 criminals from Krypton (who were off in their space prison when Krypton exploded) arriving on Earth. The are evil and decide to take over the world. Unaware of their presence on Earth, Superman has revealed his secret identity as Clark Kent to Lois, given up his powers in the Fortress of Solitude (Superman's arctic base of operations) so he can marry her, and finally hooked up with her. After returning from his "honeymoon," the now powerless Superman sees that the world needs his help fighting the evil Kryptonians, so he returns to the Fortress of Solitude and regains his powers. With his powers back, Superman eventually defeats the 3 Kryptonian criminals and saves that day. At the end of the movie, Superman realizes the world needs him and that Lois can't live with always fearing for his safety, so he gives her a superkiss and makes her forget his secret and presumably their subsequent romance. The End. Again, there are some things I don't like about this movie, but overall I love it. I mean, what's not to love about Superman duking it out with 3 other super-people? If you actually answered that question in any other way that by responding, "nothing," well, you're not only wrong, you're un-American.

In Superman Returns, Superman (a commendable Brandon Routh) has returned from being in space for 5 years. He comes back to discover that the world has moved on, with even Lois (a rather flat Kate Bosworth) has turned on him, winning a Pulitzer for an editorial entitled Why The World Doesn't Need Superman. She even went and had a kid and got engaged to Richard White (a surprising James Marsden). Lex Luthor (an awesome Kevin Spacey) is back this go around as well. This time Lex is bent on using technology he stole from the Fortress of Solitude to create a new continent, which will destroy most of North America, and selling the land to the displaced populace (see I told you there'd be more real estate shenanigans). Eventually Superman stops Lex, throws the forming continent into space, almost dies, pulls through, and finds out Lois's kid is his. The End.

Guess what part of that nearly ruined the movie for me? If you said throwing the continent into space, because it was kind of boring and Superman didn't really fight anyone or anything, you'd be close, but wrong. No, it was Superman having a kid. I mean, I remember talking to people about how I was annoyed when I found out Lois had kid before the movie even came, since that seemed to be unnecessary and out of character. Imagine how I felt when it turned out to be Superman's!

There's a whole bunch of reasons why this annoys me, the first of which is SUPERMAN DOESN'T HAVE A KID. Yeah, I know this is a movie and it's different, blah, blah, blah. But it's totally unnecessary. Seriously, as a thematic device it serves little to no purpose. I suppose that one could make the argument that giving Superman a son humanizes him. However, I would make the argument that Superman already was human enough, having been raised by two loving human parents who instilled in him his values. Also, let's not forget his relationship with, and his love for, Lois Lane.

As it stands, the introduction of a child for Superman only served to confuse and confound not only the message of the movie, but it's audience. Watching the movie, it quickly became apparent that director Brian Singer had cast Superman this time not as a metaphor for America (as Donner had), but as a metaphor for Christ. Seriously, the Christ-like images of Superman occur so often, you could make a drinking game out of spotting them. Does saddling Supes with a kid reinforce this metaphor? No, rather it detracts. If the writer(s) really wanted to reinforce this metaphor, a better tact would have been to play up Superman being raised by his earthly parents when he is clearly more than human, as Joseph and Mary are said to have done with Jesus. Not that I think that the whole Superman as Christ metaphor is a particularly good one (I prefer the Donner metaphor), but for the most part it works. It just could have worked better.

As far as confusing the audience goes, I've got to say that throwing the kid in there initially not only confused me, but actually pissed me off. First off, as I said before, SUPERMAN DOESN'T HAVE A KID. But it went further than that. I mean, Superman is supposed to represent our best ideals, and in the movie he's a Christ figure, so it was completely out of character for him to father an illegitimate son. Not only that, but he flew off into space leaving the mother of the child to raise him on her own. Superman? Try Super Deadbeat Dad. And I'm not even getting into the actual logistics of how Superman could knock Lois up without killing her!

After the movie, I had a bad taste in my mouth. For the next 2 days when people asked me about Superman Returns, I gave a them a thumbs down. Then in sort of an epiphany, I remembered the whole sequence in Superman II when Lois and Superman hooked up while he was powerless. The pieces have since fallen into place and I have now cooled off, but this brings me back to one of my original points, which is: if even a fan of the first 2 movies, could understandably have forgotten some of their details, what about the rest of the audience who may have seen the originals only once or not at all? Normally, I get mad when the filmmakers don't give the audience enough credit, but here they gave them too much. Exposition people!

The beginning of the film even started of with a black screen and white text explaining that Superman had left Earth after astronomers discovered the remnants of Krypton and that he had been gone for 5 years. Is it too much to ask then, that they throw the audience a bone with another sentence like, "After his battle with the renegade Kryptonians and it's repercussions on his relationship with Lois Lane, Superman decides to investigate the scientists' discovery," or words to that effect. Something. Anything! It would not only directly acknowledged the films that came before it, and made a better transition, but it would have cleared up some other questions as well, like Superman's timing. It would be understandable if he left after his battle with the other Kryptonians to lick both his physical and spiritual wounds. It would not make sense for him to leave much later than that, though, because he would have known Lois was pregnant. After all, we're talking about a guy that can hear what's going on down on Earth from space and has x-ray vision. If he left knowing Lois was pregnant, it would be totally out of character, and I'm sure this was not the intent, but since the filmmakers were too lazy to spell it out, it leaves you to wonder: maybe Superman's a dick.

Okay with that out of the way, let me tell you my other problems with the movie. It's too long, the plot with Lex and real estate is a little too similar to the original (especially since it's a sequel, not a remake), and by the end it gets kind of boring. Not overly boring, but Superman doesn't really get to fight anyone, he just throws a small continent into space. So, you probably think I hated it, right?

Nope. It takes a lot to make me hate a film. Yes, I was a little disappointed in it, but overall, I thought it was pretty good. In fact, having only seen it only once, I liked it only slightly less than I liked Spider-Man the first time I saw it. What Superman Returns did well, it did exceptionally well. First of all, the movie looks great. I mean it. Great. If it doesn't get nominated for an Academy Award for art direction, it will be a travesty. Second, Routh and Spacey are great replacements for Reeve and Hackman. Third, the special effects are great and Routh looks great in the suit. Fourth, the tone, look, and feel of the movie are spot-on descendants of the original two. And finally, it has a scene where Superman rescues a plane that is beyond words. It is the best scene of a superhero doing his thing on film so far and it perfectly captures Superman being, well, super. Not only that, but it's quite possibly one of the coolest things I've seen on the silver screen, period.

So, where does that leave us? Well it leaves me shrugging my shoulders and going, "Meh," when people now ask me about the movie. I no longer feel I wasted my money, and it's a far sight better than Daredevil. I remember not really liking Spider-Man all that much until I saw it on DVD, plus having remembered the events of Superman II has certainly taken the edge off my disdain.

So, who knows? Maybe this was just a jumping off point for something better next go around, as was the case Spider-Man. Maybe my questions will be answered and my doubts assuaged. And maybe, just maybe, they'll kill off the kid. Hey, I know it sounds cruel, but that's the only way they can save this franchise. He is only a character after all, and a superfluous (no pun intended) one at that.

The sad thing is, my tickets essentially already been sold, because I can't wait to find out.

Independence Day

This year's 4th of July holiday somehow turned into a week-long celebration. It was a little like Christmas for me, running around visiting with family and friends who were in town and eating lots of food. What made it even more like Christmas was the fact that more and more, this secular holiday has begun to inspire more and more reverence from me. The Constitution is quickly becoming my Bible, and the celebration of the birth of our country my Christmas. The best way I can think to put it is I believe in God, but my faith belongs to the Constitution. Yes, I know that the Constitution didn't take effect until March 4, 1789, but since there's no Constitution Day, the 4th of July makes for an easy substitute.

As I continue to read works detailing the creation and ramifications of the Constitution, such as Jon Meacham's outstanding American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation and J.R. Norton's informative and acerbic Saving General Washington, my adoration for the document grows greater still. Learning more about our Constitution and our founding fathers has truly made me feel more patriotic. Unfortunately, the more patriotic I feel, the more I am disappointed with what is happening to our country and the ways in which our Constitution is being ignored and abused.

I really believe that things are going to get better. The problem is, change does not seem to be coming quickly enough for my tastes. This created a bit of a logjam when I sat down to write this post, as I wanted to praise what an amazing document the Founding Fathers had crafted, but I kept feeling the need to point out how the current administration seems to have thrown it out the window. I then realized that recently I have been complaining a bit too much about the current state of affairs in our government, and I was just going to do so again. Instead, I think I will give myself and those of you who actually read this blog a break. I know that Thomas Paine would be disappointed and probably pissed off at this prospect, but he seemed to be pissed off and disappointed most of the time anyway.

So, the rest of this week I'll be doing my best to post on current events not involving politics. Check back to see what I come up with. And don't worry, I'll be back to bitching about politics soon enough...