Brief Review: Quantum of Solace

I enjoyed the movie and thought Roger Ebert was too harsh in giving it the two stars of death. I do think that, for all of Casino Royale's flaws, it is the superior of Daniel Craig's two outings. QOS's action sequences are too messily edited, at times bordering on incoherent. Michael Bay's long and awful shadow falls over them. Aside from Judi Dench's M, I found the female characters in QOS to be too sketchily written. And I'm beginning to wonder whether it's advisable, in a series that's based primarily on wish fulfillment fantasies about the wild life of "00" agents, to turn James Bond into yet another moody adventurer bent on avenging himself upon an unfair world. It's not Daniel Craig's fault. His Bond clearly does want to have a good time and enjoy some luxury; it's just that QOS never takes time to allow the character to savor the more fun aspects of the 007 life.

That said, I did enjoy Craig's work as 007 and Judi Dench's work as M. I thought the dialog was frequently close to witty, and that the villain, while not in the first rank of Bondian adversaries, brought enough menace to the role to keep me interested. All in all I had a good time with Quantum of Solace. It's in the middle of the Bond pack, fun to watch but not outstanding. Think Thunderball or Octopussy.

Oh, two final quibbles. I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated the title sequence, which stands as the most pedestrian one since License To Kill, and loathed the meandering, pointless title song. I also question the decision to save the gun barrel sequence for end. I missed it at the beginning, and I really want them to put it back. It just doesn't feel like a Bond movie without it.

Atlas Shrugged II: Electric Boogaloo

I've never been able to take anyone who takes Atlas Shrugged seriously seriously, at least where politics, economics, or aesthetics are concerned. And no, I haven't read more than a few pages of this literary cement overshoe, mainly because, after ten pages or so, I kind of figured a) that the novel's odds of improvement were long and b) that the siren call of thousands of more interesting diversions, including doing the dishes and cleaning my computer screen, easily lured me from Ayn Rand's cardboard characters and turgid prose. Besides, I'm not a book reviewer by trade, so nobody's ever offered to pay me to endure 1,100 pages of Rand's nonsense, the gist of which I had already absorbed from a political science class in the form of Rand's equally silly but mercifully shorter essay collection The Virtue of Selfishness.

Still, it is gratifying to see that one of the charming someones at McSweeney's spent enough time with Atlas Shrugged to write this brilliant, timely parody.

Diary of A Superfluous Man

I just thought I'd mention, since it's been consuming my life for the last three months, that Diary of A Superfluous Man will premiere on the MMIP website and at the iTunes Music Store as a free podcast Dec. 12th. It's exciting to finally have the play realized, if only electronically. The production process improved the script markedly, and, as with Let Us Sit Upon the Ground, I was damned lucky in casting. I've seldom had trouble finding talented actors to devote vast swathes of time to my projects, in spite of inability to pay. (Hopefully the MMIP's move to nonprofit status, and the generous support of listeners...hint...hint...will deliver us from this penury.)

You can listen to a sample scene here.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Every year, the War on Christmas comes earlier and earlier.

Where does the time go? My meeting with the Northwestern Division Atheistical Sanhedrin (NORWESDAS, for short)--at which Julia Sweeney (looking quite fetching in a Prada-made black cape and cowl), me, Henry Rollins, and the Mythbusters set fire to a ceremonial Christmas Tree while singing the A side of the fifth Black Sabbath album and popping man-sized balloons inflated in the shape of TV Pundit William Bennett--seems like it happened just yesterday. I remember how we plotted all night to place ourselves, by means both insidious and foul, in key positions to rename the Christmas decorations slated to hang in the town square of Chitting Switch, Montana "holiday decorations". I remember cackling "WHERE WILL THEIR PRECIOUS GOD BE THEN! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

After the orgy (a bacchanalia of absinthe and Vietnamese spin-fuck chairs), we said goodbye to each other with the traditional NORWESDAS salute, and melted away in the night mist.

Now it's time to buy the onyx candles and heroin again. I swear, if it keeps up, we'll be starting the War on Christmas on Labor Day.

We Done Treated Him Bad

Because I am relieved that Barack Obama is now the President-Elect, I laugh a little louder at arguments like this one from the Wall Street Journal's Jeffrey Scott Shapiro:

The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.

Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty -- a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.

Just a few weeks ago, I'd have used this argument as a chance to launch into another jeremiad about why people like Jeffrey Scott Shapiro make me ashamed of my connection to the human race. Now, I smile, as I did whenever Archie Bunker whined about the treatment of his beloved "Richard E. Nixon".

One argument deserves a response though. Shapiro says that one day people will recognize Bush's leadership in difficult times and accord him a higher degree of respect. Even though Bush's administration was a political, financial, and moral disaster of world-historical proportions, Shapiro may be on to something. Among Russians, Josef Stalin's reputation, which suffered greatly in the Khrushchev and Gorbachev eras, has rebounded. His approval rating among Russians (47%) is nearly double Bush's current rating with us. So, yes, Mr. Shapiro, Bush can take comfort. Any country sufficiently motivated to ignore the facts of its own history can rehabilitate even its most hideous leaders.

If this ever happens, then I'll have something to blame the people for.