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March 29, 2007

More 300-blogging

I guess I'm getting a lot of mileage out of having seen this movie.

A friend of mine from Skopje writes in to tell me that the soundtrack contains a folk song common in the Republic of Macedonia entitled "Zajdi, Zajdi" performed by a woman from Iran. Apparently the song is so well known throughout the former Yugoslav republics that local newspapers have been taking note of it from having seen pirated DVDs of the film that are available in the country.

Posted by Dean at 11:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 27, 2007

So I saw 300

After much anticipation since I first heard about this movie, I got a chance to see 300. Maybe you've seen the trailer:

At least I think that was the trailer. Anyway, my reaction? You know, I liked it. It's best to keep in mind the following: first, it is based on a comic book. So if you watch it and remember, "they're adapting a comic book for the big screen," suddenly the movie makes sense and the dialog doesn't seem as painful. But really, this is a movie that would have been a lot better if there were less dialog. There's a bizarre quirk in the film, no doubt from the influence of the comic book's author Frank Miller, in which every character who speaks in overwrought bombast and cliches ("Tonight, we dine in HELL!") happens to be a good guy, and every character whose speech patterns resemble a normal human being turns out to be a villain (or, at least, worthy of being killed). The movie was a lot of fun, and fortunately there's not much history to screw up... the battle of Thermopylae is covered by Herodotus in about a page and a half of text, leaving a lot of room for a filmmaker to add what he wants without making the movie a total offense to historical epics *cough*Alexander*cough*. THe battle scenes were a lot like something out of Return of the King. You know, it worked. The Persians didn't really have ninjas and 8 foot tall bald giants at their disposal, but the Greeks saw the Persians as so alien that they might as well have. Plus, the movie was an adaptation of a comic book.

You know how this movie could have been improved, though? Give it the Mel Gibson treatment. No, not the "make up a movie about nothing and set it in Central America and mess up the history and ignore the worthwhile story that he could have told." What I mean is, try to meticulously reconstruct ancient Greek scenery and have all of the dialog in Doric Greek. Maybe get some Tsakonian-speaking shepherds to consult. That would have been cool.

UPDATE: This being Washington, DC, I have to deal with people involved in politics. When I talk about a "conservative" pair of glasses, they think I mean, "the sort of glasses Republicans wear." People are, at this very moment, mark my words, talking about how 300 shows how we have to be big boosters of the Most Important Clash of Civilizations in Our Lifetimes Going on in Iraq At This Very Moment. Don't believe me? We begin with Victor David Hanson, who just coincidently is paid to do some marketing-tie-ins with 300, as he's a classical historian. What does he tell us? That the film is important because it shows that Iran is bad. I'd argue that this was a stupid line of reasoning. So stupid that the Iranians actually agree with him. No, it wasn't just a fun movie with bad dialog, it was, to them, all about how Freedom Isn't Free. This genius writes the following about her enthusiasm for the film:

My cousin Jeff saw the film at midnight Friday and gives it an enthusiastic review. He states that it is, in fact, a "neocon's wet dream." That's good enough for me.

Note that this is all said without irony. I wish I were as good a writer as Roy Edroso, because he said what I wish I had been able to say about the movie's overenthusiastic boosters:
You would never imagine, reading his analysis, that 300 is an action movie consumed with popcorn and soft drinks by citizens with disposable income and a desire for well-ordered thrills.

Some people will never figure out that American culture does its work in the world not as a propaganda for America's policies, but as food for the world's appetites. You may argue that it is junk food, but it is undeniably tasty, and it comes in a multitude of flavors to suit a multitude of tastes. Soviet teenagers certainly spent more of their black-market kopeks on bootlegs of Exile on Main Street than on The Wealth of Nations. Like George Clinton said, free your ass and your mind will follow.

Next person I have to deal with who starts spouting crap about how 300 is some modern day message to audiences about the importance of war gets a reference to this guy who smacks anyone who gets a little to enthusiastic in declaring how 300 means that we (those who say "we" mean you and me, not them) need to sign up to go to war:

It's downright hilarious the way this movie punishes every smart character. Every time someone wants to argue with the war party in this movie, he's evil. Everybody who talks in a normal tone of voice is evil. Snyder shows two scenes where the Spartans murder Persian envoys arriving under a flag of truce. And both times, you're supposed to cheer.

Since when do Americans cheer when truce parties are murdered? Well, that's pretty easy to answer, actually: since Iraq. These diehard neocons have gone insane because there's no way they can argue for an invasion of Iran any more. But they still want it, bad. So they've taken a crash course in fascism, jumping all the way to cheering for Sparta and booing for Athens - because Athens stands for brains and flexibility and talking things out. They can't win the argument, so they want to kill anybody who tries to argue. That's why Leonidas kicks the Persian envoy down a well.

So you can enjoy the movie for what it is-- a good time and a fun adaptation of a comic book. Or you can take it seriously, in which case you're an idiot.

Posted by Dean at 9:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 20, 2007

Things I have had to replace in my car since January, 2006

(not counting oil changes and other oft-replaced fluids)

Wonderful. Gotta start saving now for that new steering control arm and ball joint. If my car can last 5 more years (taking me to about 180,000 miles), I should have enough saved up for a new car at that point.

Posted by Dean at 9:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 14, 2007

Happy Pi Day!

Today is March 14th. That makes it 3/14-- Pi Day! To help me commemorate the occasion, someone gave me a gift, today:

IMG_3981

A gift of pie!

Posted by Dean at 11:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 9, 2007

Film Festival in DC

This weekend is your last chance to check out the DC Independent Film Festival, which is going on right down the street from me at UDC. I got a chance to see Wednesday's Mediterranean features, showing both Greek and Turkish films.

Update: The website of The University of DC is one of the most awful, most horribly designed university web site I have ever seen.

Posted by Dean at 9:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 8, 2007

More on Watches

Following up on my earlier post on watches, I found a site that evaluates a few fake watches in detail. Pretty cool stuff. The replicas these days are almost flawless, minus a couple amusing spelling mistakes.

Posted by Dean at 11:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 6, 2007

Greetings, Loyal Readers

Apologies for the lack of posting, lately. Rest assured, I remain alive and well here in DC. I've just been very tired and busy lately and haven't been conscientious about providing new material. There will be more to come. I promise.

Posted by Dean at 8:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack