Tonight's movie: Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!

It's 20 years down the road but Eddie Wilson's music is heating up the charts in a way it never did in the old days. The a-holes at the record company have even found some unreleased music Eddie made without the Cruisers--but was it made before or after he drove off that bridge? Meanwhile Eddie is alive, living in Montreal under a new name, working construction, making music only for himself.

Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! starts with a decent premise, Michael Pare returns as Eddie and has John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band back again to make the music. But fans of the original movie will quickly realize that this one was made simply to cash in and is devoid of any originality. The plotting is split between an A story showing a band coming together and a B line mystery of lost and now found Eddie Wilson tapes. Eddie is driven by his music and neither he nor the band is good enough for what is in his head. Even the Eddie Lives! songs are consciously chosen to mirror the energy and pace of the first.

Made by a Canadian cast and crew, other than Eddie only Matthew Laurance plays the same role except in a few brief flashbacks (taken from the first, not newly filmed), even the writers (Rick Doehring and Charles Zev Cohen in essentially their only IMDB-credited production) and director (Jean-Claude Lord???) were clearly chosen for low cost. Though I've never met these people and have nothing against them, the entire production is low budget and, if I recall correctly, went straight to video without benefit of theaters.

In a sense I was disappointed by Eddie Lives! because Eddie and the Cruisers was such a wonder to me. The obvious connection was to Bruce Springsteen, with a similar mythos and music, was really exciting at a time when Born in the USA was all over the charts. But the second film came out in the shadow of Bruce's split with the E Street Band and, besides, what happened to Pare's career in the six years between them?

Modestly recommended

Redesign is in the air

A bunch of sites, such as Whump, Kottke, Dave and Garret have done some freshening up, so I thought perhaps the time had come for minor tuning here too. Dave did more than just change the visual aspects of his site, he re-architected as well and, not to be a Dave-basher, while I like the new design I don't care for the architecture. As for here, there's much more whiteness and the site navigation bar on the left side of all pages has been pruned, with the removed pages transferred to an Etc... page. This was an example of how the use of CSS makes visual changes easy; all I had to do was change the color specified in three styles and boom!

Nice combination: Gigabyte's USB Wireless LAN and Memory Card

Today's book: Neuromancer

Willliam Gibson created an entirely new genre in science fiction with 1984's Neuromancer and for his efforts he won all the major awards that year. Browsing through a used book store a few months back I thought enough time had passed since my last reading and so I took it home. Perhaps, though, too much time has passed, too many novels came after mining the same vein and too many related real world developments have come to be and so I couldn't enjoy the book nearly as much in 2003.

Neuromancer tells the story of a cowboy named Case who roams the wide open spaces of the Matrix, a computer mediated virtual reality space, as he takes a job to remove a physical, legally-imposed constraint preventing the further development and growth of an artifical intelligence created by a secretive, wealthy, space-dwelling family. Case works with an enhanced female warrior; her eyes are covered by implanted mirror shades, each of her fingers has a short steel blade which extend out at will, and her nervous system and musculature are beyond what steroids can do. Armitage is the team's visible boss though in truth he's a burnt out shell with a temporary personality embossed by the AI. Peter Riviera has the ability, not sure how he got it, to project illusions, very complex and believable.

Gibson, though he's often worked in science fiction, has never really considered himself an SF author but more in the literary tradition of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell using speculation as a dramatic tool. This novel is built on rich and vivid language, deep and subtle characterizations, dialogue well fit to a speaker's place and persona. And for the most part the plot is deft and well-paced, though as with so many other stories the ending doesn't quite match up to the rest of the book. Still, that's a small complaint for what is an amazing accomplishment for a first novel.

Recommended--absolutely if you've never read it before.

Yesterday's movie: Bad Santa

I hope I never really get caught up in simplistic politcal correctness yet, on the other hand, I'm sure that humor derived from negative portrayals and comments is usually coming from a wrong place. That conflict surfaced as I was watching and enjoying Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa yesterday.

Skipping right over the questionable tactic of producing an adult movie that many kids will see advertised and want to watch themselves, and this is not a movie I'd recommend at all for the under-15 crowd, screenwriters John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (previous claim to fame: Cats & Dogs) use so many human attributes and characteristics as targets of mockery that it's hard to know where to start: alcoholism, sexual abuse, race, height, a mentally-challenged child whose father is in prison and mother is dead, age-induced loss of contact with reality, wussiness, suicide and murder.

However, the movie is genuinely funny and only afterwards, when I began thinking about what I'd write, did the vast negativity of the picture came to me. The basic story came from the Coen Brothers and they've shown a definite lack of sensitivity in past movies such as Raising Arizona, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Fargo yet have an ability to make the films work. The director here is Terry Zwigoff, who's garnered some notice for a couple of offbeat movies based on comic books, especially Ghost World; this is Zwigoff's first shot at a decent budget and a mainstream production.

Beyond the politcal correctness, though, this film is genuinely nasty and filthy. Santa rarely utters a sentence fragment that doesn't include a curse word, even when talking to small children and drinks everywhere; he targets 'hefty' women for his favored backdoor sex except when he gets together (in a car, in a hot tub, whereever they can) with Santa sex-obsessed Lauren Graham. There's a gratuitous subplot where the Kid keeps getting picked on and beat up by a slightly older neighborhood bully. And so on.

The actors are mainly TV types: Bernie Mac (who seems to be the 'cool black dude' these days), Graham (who isn't really hot enough for her role but gives an okay performance), John Ritter (last movie role but not quite meebly enough here), Lauren Tom (convincing as a shrew but is that what her character is supposed to be?) and even minor roles such as Billy Gardell (the Roundtable Pizza guy) and Ethan Phillips (Neellix on Star Trek: Voyager).

Props to Thornton, though I wonder if--and I'm basing this solely on press reports of his behavior--he isn't just more or less playing himself in a Santa suit. Tony Cox is pretty good as his accomplice, the real brains of the outfit or at least the partner able to stay sober for more than an hour at a time. Last props to Brett Kelly, playing the Kid, taking all the abuse that the bad Santa can give and then some.

(Barely) Recommended

Would be interesting to see what kind of sounds Stanley Jordan, say, could get out of this guitar!

Bushinations: Not always dumberer

Less than three hours spent at Baghdad International Airport today will pay serious political dividends over the coming months for The Bushinator. The secrecy with which this event was pulled off will be used for gain as well. Though Thanksgiving always is a publicity event for major politicians anyway.

Those DirecTV commercials with Danny Devito, Lawrence Fishburne and Andy Garcia (and whoever else) are stupid, stoopid. Plus annoying for good measure.

Reject me? I reject your rejection!

Auntie Mame goes electronic

I sent the following question to a few of my friends, just to see if the online romance is as strong as I'm seeing: Not counting me and my wife, can you tell me how many couples you personally know who met through an online or other type of automated dating system? If the number includes yourself, please say 'me'. 14 of them responded (thanks!) and only two people answered with a zero.

Including me and Vivian, four couples out of the 13 possible (two respondents are single) met this way. That includes me, my sister and one of my best friends. From the 15 responses, we knew of 29 distinct couples. And the couples with which I am personally acquainted, all but one who've gotten together in the last few years met online. So much for tradition.

Dr. Mark Rego in a Letter to the NY Times nails one of the keys issues of our times.

Oooh, it's so white!

Bushinations: A brother's burden

"The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and had sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them." So says Neil Bush, in his divorce deposition. Not to mention a Chinese semiconductor company that wants to pay him $2,000,000 for his 'business expertise'.

Amusing: Starbuck and Starbuck at Starbucks

Ann Coulter is a clueless idiot

This would be a great title for Al Franken to use on his sequel to Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, but her recent Townhall.com column goes over the line into anti-Semitism.

Red Camaro

I saw a red Camaro twisted,
Sitting up on the driver's side
Smashed up against a guard rail
Right where her head ought to be.

Police lights were flashing,
Fire trucks racing up the highway
We were hoping they would win,
Reaching her before she was gone.

Thousands of glass shards were
Strewn like a thin glittering stream
Across the highway lanes, thin blood
Ribbons intermingled with the windshield.

As we came even with the ambulance and
Police cars, the EMTs were strapping her body
Unmoving, small and still, hair standing out,
Onto a small gurney for her final ride.

Tonight's Simpson's episode, the trip to England, was hilarious, an instant classic. If you missed it, I expect it will be on one of the six thousand channels that show The Simpsons within a few weeks.

A bridge too far

Being on the job hunt these days is all about networking. sometimes, though, people take the idea of network just a bit too far. For instance, I just got an email on one of my subscribed mailing lists from someone who "met someone from Company X at a coffee shop yesterday." This person offered to forward any qualified resumes from other group members to his new contact.

Go USC, way to screw (F)UCLA

"None of this BCS. . . Sugar Bowl -- none of this matters," said USC wide receiver Mike Williams. "It's about today and how we handled them. God, I hate them."

So said star Trojan wide receiver Mike Williams after yesterday's 47-22 dismantling of their crosstown rivals. Williams had 12 receptions, 181 yards and two touchdown catches; he rested after the halftime whistle. QB Matt Leinart, fellow sophomore and rival for next year's Heisman, had nearly 300 yards passing and tossed those two TD catches to Williams. Combined with Michigan's stomping of Ohio State for the Big 10 championships, USC is assured of a shot against Oklahoma in the national title game as long as they take care of business two weeks from now against Oregon St.

Props to the Quakes

Landon Donovan scored two goals--the first multi-goal game by any player in MLS Cup history--and led the San Jose Earthquakes to their second MLS Cup victory in three seasons over the Chicago Fire 4-2 this afternoon; Donovan was also named the Finals MVP. Quakes Captain Jeff Agoos made some excellent defensive stands and got one (ring) for his thumb, his fifth MLS title as he won three early in the League's history with DC United. Several Cup Finals marks fell today: six goals made this the highest scoring game in history, Donovan's brace, fastest first goal and quickest three goal sequence; game stats.

Pat Onstad, named last night as MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, took care of business, especially when he had to shut down Fire scoring leader Ante Razov on a penalty kick in the 54th minute. The Quakes had taken a 2-0 halftime lead on goals by Ronnie Ekelund (5') and Donovan (38') but the Fire took one back quickly after the restart (speed demon DaMarcus Beasley, 49'). DaBeas, a real crowd pleaser and someone who gives the US National Team real width, put in the first of three quick scores--Richard Mulrooney answered for the Quakes less than a minute later, then the Fire got an own goal from San Jose defender Cliff Ronier--and Razov could have had the equalizer if not for our terrific keeper.

Razov apparently had the flu all week but the announcers didn't bother to mention it until the 84th minute, after criticizing him for not making anything of his opportunities during the game (eight shots on goal, including the PK, but no goals), which was just indicative of the generally poor work from ABC in televising the match. Then again, I've never been a fan of JP Dellacamera, the main soccer play by play man for ABC Sports (that is, including ESPN broadcasts as well). However, I am appreciative and thankful to the network for giving this game some valuable national exposure.

The Home Depot Center, regular season home of the LA Galaxy, was an excellent field for this match. Built specifically for soccer, the field is very large at 120 yards long by 75 wide and well-suited to the aggressive playing styles of both teams. The result was visible on the ground as there was little play in the midfield but rather a lot of up and down runs.

Bottom line: W00t to Donovan, Agoos, Onstad, Mulrooney, Ekelund, Brian Mullan, Jamil Walker, Dewayne Derosario, Eddie Robinson, Troy Dayak, Craig Waibel, Chris Roner, Manny Lagos and Ian Russell, coach Frank Yallop and the rest of the Earthquakes organization for a great season and a wonderful result!

Why is Michelle Branch the (lipsynching) music act at halftime of the MLS Cup? If the need any music, surely should have been an act that appeals to younger guys and not young girls.

Umm...yuck!

I saw a three minute clip of the infamous Paris Hilton sex video this morning and I am no longer interested, even for prurient reasons, in seeing the whole 26 minute escapade. I do wonder what the hell the rich little hottie was thinking when she agreed to make the tape--sure she's young and presumably naive but a person who has so much to protect ought to be aware enough at the age of 18 or 19 to just know better. I suppose, though, that when you have over $300 million most of your non-fatal mistakes are easy enough to get past. If the embarassment gets too intense, she could just buy herself a small island and go hang out until the storm passes.

N.B.: Frank Rich has some thoughts on the same subject in his latest column.