Wisdom of the Sages
Episode X
October – Autumn 2010
Hello People of the World;
The heavy, clouds pushed the hot air away filling the void with the chill which signals the coming of the season of falling leaves, wood smoke and longer nights. Yes folks, autumn is here. I love this weather, cloudy and chilly on the cusp of rain.
Let’s get started, shall we?
1:[ First Item of the Month: I just saw a guy walking down the street in Evanston, strumming a lute! You’ve got to be f^cking kidding me! I had to stop just so I could use my whole body to HATE this guy’s pretentiousness.
But then again, I don’t know if it was a mandolin. It was one of those triangular, wooden stringed instruments. Still, his grey, hounds tooth jacket, black shirt and skinny slacks (Yeah, not skinny jeans but SKINNY DRESS SLACKS!), his shiny and pointy, brown dress shoes and Kenny G hair just pissed me the F*CK OFF….
2:[ Warner Brothers finally sign Zack Snyder to the “Superman” director’s gig. Christopher Nolan of “The Dark Knight” fame is guiding this, yet-another reboot of the ailing Superman franchise. Since he revived the Batman franchise, his comic geek cred is good. Yet, the selection of Snyder is not without its controversy.
Look, I am not a fan of “300”, nor of “Watchmen” but after seeing his “Legend of the Guardians”, with its attached mythology and actual warranted use of slow motion, I feel he is competent for the job of reviving the franchise. Look, from a marketing standpoint Snyder is the obvious choice. He handles SFX well, has credibility with adapting comic book properties and is a recognizable name. Sure, Aaronofsky or Fincher may have been the aesthetically pleasing, rock-n-roll grunge tip, but for putting butts in the seats, Synder was the easiest choice.
Besides, we Geeks always fail to look at the marketing side of moviemaking and that is why we feel betrayed and cheated. Comic book movies are no longer for Geeks. It’s for the mass audiences that pay. Sorry Geeks. Truth. Look for my upcoming examination of the decline on genre films entitled “Geeks F^cking Ruin Everything”, coming soon to my essay ‘blog “The Redshade Report”.
3:[ I’m sorry ladies but I really don’t mean to interrupt your meaningful discussion but can I please have a medium coffee? You know, when you can the time? No problem, I can wait. No, go ahead. No, really. No, I’M sorry for interrupting. No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. No, no, no, really, whenever you get the time. No, really. Thanks…
4:[ People asking for a “Dislike” button on Facebook. Isn’t that what comments are for? Just man up and take some responsibility for your dislikes by writing out your disagreement. Sheesh.
5:[ Hey, have you ever noticed that while you are unlocking your door to your house to get inside and you have the screen door pressing at your back, you suddenly feel like you have to hurry?
6:[ So, I happened to be on a plane to San Diego the other day and while I checked in and got a seat assignment well before the flight, when I got to my seat this lady was sitting in it and when I showed her by boarding pass, she sniffed and said, “Oh, so they booked it then.”
She begrudgingly scooted over and the other person in our aisle attempted small talk stating that I was lucky to get an aisle seat because I am so tall. I made a light joke in agreement. But the first lady then stated “Oh my husband was SUPPOSED to be sitting there but he missed our flight” as if it was my fault her husband was an idiot to miss the flight in the first place!
Then for the rest of the flight she never spoke to me but to the other lady sitting in our aisle loudly explaining HOW her husband missed the flight to begin with. Apparently instead of staying with him she chose to leave him behind. Wow. And then it was my fault I got the seat hours before they did. I should have at some point said to her in the middle of one of her rants, “Oh, I’m sorry, should I sit somewhere else? Maybe then your husband will show up.”
Sheesh, some people. Why do people feel like the world owes them something?
7:[ And now Wisdom of the Sages presents “An Ever-growing List of Things That MUST Stop!”:
+Steampunk. Really man. It has to end. Paint it copper and add some gears and it’s cool, right? Wrong.
+Seriously, adding Zombies to everything must stop! Bonnie agrees. It isn’t cute, or zany or hipster cool, it’s lazy. Parodying a classic novel by adding zombies simply means you are too intellectually lazy to come up with something original. Pretty soon we’ll have tons of novels featuring Native American vampires! That’s worse! Riding the coattails of a zeitgeist. Commerce trumps art every time. That’s why art is a scam.
8:[ Star Wars Lego 2: The Original Trilogy for PS2: A Short Review
My Boo was tired of playing “Dynasty Warriors 6” over and over whenever I happened to bring the PS2 around. Sure, I bought her other games we could play but she always wanted my to play with her and not simply watch her play. So, one day she took all her unused games for her DS and traded them for credit.
A couple of weeks ago she found the card she was given (She lost it a few weeks before) and proceeded to tell me that she specifically wanted to get another controller and a game we could both play. So, we made a special trip and picked up said controller and Star Wars Lego 2: The Original Trilogy. It was a game she mentioned more than once whenever we visited the game stop.
Once we got the stuff home, we play it whenever I’m there. I love the game. It follows the three movies but with everything styled as Lego blocks. We play it together, yell and scream at each other but it is simply fun to play with my Boo. It is an easy game to figure out and we have much fun blasting the environs and each other to bits. She recently unlocked The Emperor and has been having a blast blasting everything (including me) with lightning. I recommend it highly. It’s Boo-tastic!
9:[ From the “This Just In” file: The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was struck down by a federal judge. Finally, gays get to serve openly to protect all the rights we are denying them….
10:[ Last Item of the Month: I am the lowest common factor in any society. I have no TV (digital antennae are too expensive), I do not listen to the radio outside of WFMT because it is set on my clock radio (long story) and I barely check the Internet for news. So, when information finally trickles down to me I would gather that it might be important because it reached me here on the bottom rung.
Translation: If you do not register with me, I don’t care about you. To me you are not newsworthy. (See? Being better than everyone has its perks!)
I noted the on-going saga of the Chilean miner entrapment and rescue of late and did notice that not much was made about the politicalization of the situation. I did not hear about the politics of Chile in this whole thing. Maybe the media did cover it but it never reached me. I wonder why that is? I know next to nothing about the politics of the Chilean government but it was kind of nice to notice that the rescue of the miners was more important than the political impact to whatever party the situation may have had.
That will do it for this month.
I got in from the NIEA convention in San Diego. I must admit right now that it was not the same without Mi Trio. I wished that they had come along on this one. It’s been years since we been to San Diego. Still, I did learn a thing or two there; most notably, of how much my artistic ideology seems to isolate me.
Also, that little kids just rock. They simply rock. And palm trees.
Oh well. Feel free to comment, critique, counter or disprove any item on WoS. It doesn’t hurt to start a discussion. In fact, more people should discuss more things these days. But who am I to dictate all that, right? Only your future leader.
Until Next Time, “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
© 2010 Ernest M. Whiteman III
