Monthly Archive for July, 2008

Okay, so the review, which was frankly more of a labor of love than anything, is now out of the way. Now I can get down to what I’ve really been anxious to do, which is analyze some of the themes and motifs that I think made “The Dark Knight” so wonderfully complex. I’ve had a request or two to focus on a few lines in particular, and I intend to honor those (that’s you, Aaron).

Let’s get started! Oh, and obviously, if you haven’t seen the movie, you really shouldn’t read this.

“THE DARK KNIGHT”

1. “They’re only as good as the world allows them to be.”

The Joker says this to Batman during the interrogation scene, if you recall. He claims that any ethical code adopted by any person is fundamentally ridiculous, and will be “dropped at the first sign of trouble.” But why would the Joker believe this? What necessitates for him that people are evil? That we can’t know for sure, because his back-story is kept deliberately mysterious (don’t be fooled by his contradictory versions of how he got his scars, they’re all lies). To be honest, it’s quite beside the point what brought the Clown Prince of Crime to this conclusion, what matters is that he intends to prove it. Let’s see if he did.

Each of his major crimes can be broken down into a fundamental attack on any code of ethics. Or, to put it another way, everything the Joker does is actually some kind of awful joke: the opening bank heist uses greed to tempt each bank robber into committing what they think is only a momentary lapse in loyalty to one another. Each of them, except for “Grumpy” (the name in the script for the guy who gets hit by the bus), expects their behavior to remain in a vacuum, but the joke is that nothing remains in a vacuum. Technically, each of them thinks they’re only killing one person, but a hypocritical mentality that relies on the good behavior of others is eventually quite destructive. Human beings tend to justify lapses in their better judgment with the belief that their actions can be contained within their own lives. To put it simply, each of them thinks, “It’ll just be this one time, and only I’ll do it.” The Joker knows better: what you do echoes outward, and he demonstrates that very effectively here.

Let’s also consider the now-infamous “Magic Trick,” a gag so stunning and clever that it gets an audible reaction from the theater every time I see the movie. It’s a simple but brilliant act of misdirection: notice how the Joker waves his hands crazily around the pencil as the thug approaches him, pretending to be working on making the pencil go away. Of course, he’s actually waiting for the thug to get to him, but the Joker knows that his appearance and demeanor allows others to underestimate him, and he always uses this fact brilliantly. It also comes in handy when he murders Gambol, who is too ready to believe the Joker is dead, because he can’t fathom being fooled by a costumed freak. Later in the movie, the Joker tells Harvey Dent, “Do I really look like a guy with a plan?” Harvey buys this line, and wrecks his vengeance on the mob instead of the Joker, even though he was really the mastermind behind Rachel’s death. And, of course, this trick almost works again when Gordon orders a SWAT team to assault the Joker’s hideout at the end of the movie, not suspecting that the guys in the clown masks are really the hostages. The joke here is simple: human beings are suckers for appearances, no matter how much they should know better.

And of course, there’s the Sohie’s choice he puts Batman and Gordon through when he straps Rachel and Harvey to separate bombs and only gives their friends time to reach one of them. The Joker, of course, has already seen that Batman is highly protective of Rachel, so he assumes that she is the one he’ll choose to save and lies about where she is. He does this for two reasons: firstly, because he’s relatively sure that Batman will arrive in time to save whoever he chooses, but Gordon won’t (after all, he’s got the Bat-pod!), and he wants to make sure Harvey lives. Secondly, he wants to strip both Batman and Gordon of any feeling of agency: Batman couldn’t save Rachel because he was lied to, and Gordon couldn’t save anyone because he just couldn’t get there fast enough. The joke here is that humanity is not “in control,” and that the best-laid plans are easily destroyed with a simple lie.

So. Does the Joker win? Does he prove that humanity is hypocritical, stupid, and completely out of control?

Not quite. “The Dark Knight” wants you to *feel* like the Joker is correct for much of the running time, but the scene with the two ferries is this movie’s way of turning the tables on the Caliph of Clowns. This is where the Joker’s plan ultimately fails: both boats are tempted to blow up the other, but neither can bring themselves to do it. When midnight strikes and no one is dead, the Joker is visibly annoyed, and Batman proudly barks, “What did you want to prove? That deep down, everyone’s like you? You are alone.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a revelation about the Joker: he doesn’t want to be alone. His desire for anarchy and bloodshed comes from a need to feel connected with the rest of the world, to feel like he belongs among humanity. He can only feel this if everyone is like him, but at the end of the day, “The Dark Knight” does not believe we are. We can be very bad, yes, but we can also rise above it. Indeed, we have a two-fold identity, much like Harvey Dent and Batman do.

2. “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

Chilling words, uttered by Harvey Dent and again by the Dark Knight himself when Two Face is killed. Dent was referencing the “emergency powers” granted to a ruler in Rome in a time of crisis, but Rachel wisely points out that eventually these powers became permanent, crisis or not. It’s easy to see how chillingly the fall of Rome’s republic can be applied to Batman: sure, technically the Dark Knight only intends to operate for as long as Gotham “needs” him, but once someone has the kind of power he possesses, giving it up is simply against human nature.

There are three main heroes in “The Dark Knight”: Jim Gordon, Batman and Harvey Dent. Every single one of them lives long enough to see themselves become the villain, just as Dent predicted. Each of them does it in different ways, and each to very different degrees, but the tragedy is still there. This is what makes this movie such an exceptionally complex piece of cinema. Let’s take a look at how each of them discovers their own capacity to be reduced by evil to their own worst enemy.

-Batman. The Dark Knight begins this story looking for a way out of being the hero, hoping to pass the mantle to someone else and maybe get a second chance at being with Rachel, whom he has loved all his life. The Joker, however, interrupts this. His spree of chaos, which is aimed squarely at Batman, puts Gotham into a frenzy that Bruce never could have imagined. He quickly comes to realize that even though the Joker claims he will relent as soon as Batman turns himself in, this cannot really be trusted, and would not constitute any kind of victory. Nonetheless, he knows that he is responsible for inspiring this new villain’s wave of murder, and over and over he finds himself unable to stop his foe. This constant feeling of impotence drives Batman to do several things he would never have imagined: the first is his massive sonar grid, which goes against even the most rudimentary system of ethics and freedom. There is no happy resolution for this plot thread, even though the device is destroyed. Batman resorts to unethical means to stop the Joker, and this violates the basic freedom he is supposed to be protecting. The second act that breaches his code is the semi-accidental murder of Harvey Dent. Now, to be sure, anyone can understand why Batman felt he had to act immediately to save the life of Gordon’s son, but killing is something the Dark Knight *cannot* participate in.

This, really, is the reason he is so willing to have Gordon blame Harvey’s crimes on him. Batman feels deep in his heart that, on some level, Dent’s sins really were his. He has violated his own code twice out of desperation, so playing the villain to Gotham City is easy for him to do; he *feels* like the villain.

-Jim Gordon. The soon-to-be-Commissioner Gordon has what might be considered the smallest fall from grace, but it hits him hard nonetheless. Gordon prides himself on being an honest cop, and has built his entire life on that principle, but his policy of abiding the corruption he sees in the department no longer works. He is in a position of *power* as Lieutenant, and he should be rooting corruption out, but he goes lax. He feels like he needs the manpower too much, even when Dent warns him explicitly that the people closest to him are not to be trusted. Eventually, Harvey and Rachel pay the price for this, and Gordon learns the hard way that he should have listened. Even though he is Gotham’s most noble police man, he finds that even he has been corrupted in his own way. It’s a hard lesson.

-Harvey Dent/Harvey Two Face. Harvey takes the biggest fall of all of them, and his is in many ways the simplest. The Joker targets Dent because he wants Gotham’s white knight brought down to his knees, and he suspects quite correctly that his love of Rachel is the key to doing it. Long before Dent becomes Two Face, we see glimpses of rage and arrogance boiling underneath his calm surface. Harvey is a good man who wants to protect the people of Gotham, but his demons are looming around the corner. He is violent, impulsive, and obsessed with *fairness* to a very dangerous degree. That two-headed trick coin of his represents his false belief that he can control the world, that he can “make my own luck.” He can’t, and a person like the Joker is determined to prove that to him.  As this maniacal madman wrests all feeling of control from Harvey’s life, the final coup de gras being the death of his beloved Rachel, the former white knight gives in to vigilante justice because he simply *must* have fairness, whatever the cost. He was only ever committed to the law because he believed it would never let him down. But of course, the law lets us all down sometimes. Harvey simply is not ready for this, and his blinding rage demands that everyone around him lose what he lost, because that is what’s “fair.”

But then why flip a coin to determine his actions? Because for Harvey, all of life is now that coin. It’s cold, unbiased, unfeeling, completely random. He gets more satisfaction from *forcing* his enemies to be subject to that coin than he does from actually killing them, because that makes them fall into his notion of fair.  Dent thinks he’s learned the true nature of life the hard way, and he cannot stand for anyone to escape it. Remember that Dent made his name in Internal Affairs, and his specialty has always been exposing people who think they can have special treatment. The idea of corruption infuriates him, and now that Rachel is dead and his face is scarred, anyone who does not submit to the same 50/50 chance he had of losing everything is corrupt.

Whew! A lot to take in! Why don’t we pause for a recess, eh? More later!

The smoke billowed in the distance, choking the sunlight in the sky above us. As I stood in front of my army, I knew their spirits were broken. They held their rocket launchers, their link guns, their AVRiL anti-vehicle weapons, and their beam rifles low in their arms, swooning with the labor pains of acquiescence. Arranged around me in a horse shoe, each of them wore a heaviness on their shoulders I had scarcely imagined before. I knew each of these soldiers by name: Jester, Bishop…uh, that other guy…okay I knew some of them by name. The point is, I’d waged many a battle with these metal-clad marines, and I knew when they were about to give up.

We had a simple objective: take possession of several power “nodes” and hold them, creating a flow of energy across the battlefield that would connect us to our enemy’s power core and allow us to destroy it. At the same time, of course, we had to prevent our foe, the scurvy dogs of “Blue Team,” from rendering the same fate upon our beloved “Red” core. After a strong start, we had lost every single power node to Blue, and our precious core was slowly dying in our arms. Their armies were an unstoppable wave of tanks, jets, and hovercraft generated by the extra power their node dominance afforded them. Their will seemed undeniable. They were closing in.

That’s the moment I gave the talk. A Saint Crispin’s Day Speech, if you will. Only I didn’t talk any flowery nonsense about “we happy few, we band of brothers.” I looked my team dead in the eye and told it like it was…or rather, I told it to my television screen, standing mightily in front of the couch in my boxers, and I did so very quietly, because Corelyn was sleeping in the next room:

“Soldiers,” I began, “Patriots. Friends. Today I can honestly say, without reservation, that I am ashamed to be your commander. You’re a bunch of tambourine-shaking hippie cowards. Last time I checked, pressing the X button orders you maggots to ‘hold this position.’ But maybe I didn’t check the game manual thoroughly enough, because apparently the orders you received were ‘Sit there like a bunch of tools.’ God help me, you look like Army Reserve rejects out there, begging for mercy every time those Blue mongrels summon up a tank. You’ve got rocket launchers, for crying out loud! Shoot the damned things, blow something up!

And here’s another thing: I want an explanation for why I die faster when I tell you boneheads to “cover me.” Explain it. Now. Shut up, I don’t want to hear it! When I order covering fire, I sure as hell better be able to stroll happily to the enemy power core on a magical path of Blue corpses!

Now, I’m going to go single-handedly take back our Power Nodes. Again. Then I’m going to order you to ‘Hold. This. Position.’ That is an order, not the Second Amendment, so obey it blindly. You’re going to live at that Power Node. It will be your home. During the day you’ll think about the enemy Power Core exploding, and at night you’ll dream of Nodes, and how protecting them is your soul’s delight. You’ll wonder sometimes what the outside world is like, but only for a moment, because all you can remember is how you’re never ever leaving this spot ever. You’re going to sit there and kill things that move. You can kill me if I walk by and happen to look “blue” to you because you’ve gone so insane just standing there guarding that Power Node. After we’ve won the game, because you did your job finally, and I come to tell you that it’s all right for you to stop guarding the Power Node, you’re still not allowed to move. If I tell you, ‘This isn’t a test, you really are done,’ stay there anyway. Just stay. When you’ve starved to death, then you can leave the Power Node.

This is zero-hour, people. I’m not going to shoot sunshine up your nose, we’re in a bad place here. Blue Team wants to stomp all over our genitals and I can’t imagine what’s going to stop them unless we cowboy-the-heck-up right about now. Now you all are, as I said, embarrassing failures, and I would like nothing more than to join Blue Team and abandon you forever, but this game does not allow that, so I’m stuck with you. But I swear on the graves of every goldfish I’ve ever owned that if you don’t grow a pair and start making some widows out there on that field of battle, I’m going to press ‘Start,’ go to ‘Options,’ turn ‘Friendly Fire’ to ‘On,’ and execute every one of you.

Does everyone understand? Excellent. Go Read Team.”

And that’s when the magic happened. Like all of those great sports movies you’ve seen, or like the end of Henry V, Red Team came together. We played off of one another, we fought vigorously, we darted and weaved. We took one node, then another, then all of them, and then we took the Blue Power Core to town and just barely did more damage to it than Blue did to ours as the “overtime” clock ticked down to nothing.

We won. I sat on the couch, weeping for joy and thrusting my fists in the air…again really quietly. We had done it. The speech had worked.

….

…Of course, every single soldier on the battlefield other than I was run by an artificial intelligence program. And true, I had no microphone connected, and even if I did, none of these AI bots were programmed with even the most rudimentary voice recognition.

Still! If these computer-generated warriors have souls, somewhere out there in the nether region of digital code, then I touched those binary souls of theirs.

Or I remembered that the X button reloads. The D-Pad is actually the one that sends orders. Whoops.

Maybe you’ve been there before too: you stand in a fluorescent-lit money trap, your sneakers squeaking on the polished floor, pressed between rows of colorful trinkets you absolutely do not need. In each hand is an object, completely unnecessary to your continued survival, the shrink-wrap collecting oily sweat from your fingers. They are but things, nine times out of ten made of simple plastic and offering little in the way of insight into the human condition.

But you must have them. And there’s only room in your wallet right now for one.

The agony is unrelenting, dear reader. Whenever I am going to purchase anything on any variety of “budget,” I invariably end up with two choices of the exact same price which divorce my soul into two separate, equally coveting halves. These battles can go on for hours. I need not tell you the grisly details of the “Resident Evil 4 versus Metroid Prime: Corruption” struggle that raged for hours within a Gamestop one summer afternoon. Let’s just say it got so bad that a call had to be placed to William Cover to end the civil war once and for all.

In case you think I’m crazy, let me inform you that my wife is standing directly behind me at this very moment, wielding a large knife in one hand and an onion in the other, having no less than a conversation with the latter. She is reasoning with it, insisting that it “wasn’t in the refrigerator for that long,” and calling upon the onion’s sense of duty: “I was planning on using you tonight! You were an important part of this meal!”

I’m just saying, there are crazier things than being stuck on a purchase–things like anthropomorphizing a vegetable.

Anyway, my predicament was thus: a double-feature DVD of the first two “Resident Evil” movies (before you say a word, know this: I have written songs based on Ingmar Bergman films, I have a favorite Akira Kurosawa film, and I’m allowed a guilty pleasure!), or, for the same price, “Minority Report” and “Mad Max” (the latter of which I’d never seen). You see, Corelyn and I discovered yet another Target gift card from our wedding that we hadn’t used, and my cut of its total allowed for one of these two options. After rigorous debate, I decided it was impossible to choose, and that I would just need to have the “Resident Evil” pack AND “Mad Max,” going over my limit by an incredibly reasonable four dollars. Turns out, Corelyn was splurging on her half as well, so she was in no position to critique me. All’s well that ends flat broke.

What, you ask, was she going over her limit on? Vegetables. Frozen green beans and broccoli. No, I’m not kidding with you. I have never known a human being so transfixed by a class of food designed specifically by Jesus Christ Himself to make other edible things more delicious by comparison. My theory for this phenomenon is simple: for a large part of her adolescence, Corelyn was a vegetarian. A romantic relationship with me soon made this course of life impossible, because you can only watch so many tender, juicy hamburgers be consumed from across the table before the omnivore in your genetic wiring kicks in, but even after I rescued her from this disastrous way of existence, a mark remained on her. She has, I believe, some kind of culinary Stockholm Syndrome.

The going is still hard over here in Charlottesville, but we are managing nonetheless, and I must say Cor and I have a lot of fun spending time with each other in spite of everything. I feel so blessed to have her as my companion, particularly at times like this. She’s steady, tough and sympathetic, always there no matter what. I myself am trying to maintain the role of Male Egotist (short for “ME”), blazing into every situation confident of how much cooler we are than everyone. When you’re single, confidence only goes so far, because it’s just you and everyone doubts themselves. When you’re married, though, you’re a team, and you always think your partner is awesome, so by association you must be as well. It sends the old vanity through the roof.

Let me give you an example: the wife and I were out for a nice Mexican dinner (our first meal out in some time), for which we had budgeted a small but reasonable sum of money. We were enjoying our dinner in spite of the obnoxiously loud open mic going on behind us, but things began to fall apart when a fly was discovered in my food.

Not good.

Naturally, I contacted the waiter and asked for a replacement in a to-go box. He agreed, and sportingly provided me with just that, but when the bill arrived I discovered I had been charged for the same meal twice. Sneaky devil. I summoned our waiter back over and told him I had expected the replacement free. Corelyn later pointed out that long before he arrived at our table, he looked like he knew what this was going to be about.

“Well, we can’t just do that. We can’t just give you a free meal because a fly fell into your food,” he asserted very calmly.

Oh yes, hot-shot. Yes you can. “But the meal was ruined,” I retorted.

“Yeah but that’s not our fault.”

“It’s your establishment,” I stated.

“I know it’s our establishment,” he replied. Not really any kind of argument, but okay.

“I want this meal replaced,” I put flatly.

“I can talk to the manager, but he’s not going to allow it. He’s going to be really mad.”

Oh, I’m terrified. “Send him to me,” I said.

“I can do that if you want.”

“You talk to him first,” I said, “And then if he won’t do it, send him to me.”

Folks, I was a waiter once. It was the worst, most hellish job I’ve ever performed, but I did it. I know how restaurants work, and there isn’t a blue-jean wearing Ryan Gosling look-alike waiter in this world who’s going to tell me it’s a heretical notion that a meal has to be re-prepared. It happens all the time, and a diseased insect is one of the better reasons I’ve ever heard to do it.

And let’s be clear about something else: flies do happen, and no matter how clean a restaurant is they will probably appear once in awhile to ruin someone’s meal. That does not, however, remove you from responsibility. I’m sure your restaurant is perfectly sanitary, and I won’t tell anyone any different, but Mother Nature is still going to put one on her tab once in awhile; it just happens. Don’t bat your eyes at me and say there was no way you could have seen it coming. I specifically ordered the “Fajitas without larvae” and that’s sure as hell what I’m going to get. After all, if this happening has to be someone’s fault, it sure as Shinola isn’t mine; I didn’t offer my rice to an ant hill, and I’m not aware of any magical procedures I’m supposed to use when consuming food so that insects don’t want it anymore. And you don’t get to take my money in return for unclean food every now and again, shrugging and writing it off to chance.

I watched our waiter walk over to his manager. They talked for maybe three seconds, and then I got exactly what I asked for. That’s what I thought.

Hello, my favorite readers in the whole wide world. How are you? Ssh, don’t answer that, this blog is about me. I GOT DARK KNIGHT TICKETS!!! WHOOOOO!!! I can’t tell you the excitement I’m feeling over knowing that “The Dark Knight” is fast approaching. You should be aware that the reviews so far call it “The Godfather Part II” of comic book movies, and Heath Ledger’s Joker is being talked about for an Oscar nomination.

Just as exciting, the number of people coming with me to the midnight show at the Hoffman has swelled to an impressive 18. This magnificent group all grabbed their tickets within 12 hours of them going on sale. I imagine the people at Movietickets.com were surprised to see so many rapid-fire purchases on a tuesday night at 11:30 pm.

It’s COMING!!! We’re so close I can TASTE IT!

Seriously, though, sorry it’s been a few days since I posted, but I just haven’t been getting in enough car accidents or arboreal misadventures to make me feel I had a worthy post for you all. Still, I have resolved at last to return to the warm embrace of your passing attention as you surf the internet and pretend to look busy (don’t deny it, you scoundrels).

I know some of you rely on me to keep you posted on movies that are out now. This is a service I’m happy to provide, and will endeavor to keep up-to-date with any relevant releases. I’ve seen many of them, but for those I haven’t, I’ve got solid advice from people who have:

-Prince Caspian: I saw it. It was good, but if you didn’t buy the first one, it ain’t gonna convert you.

-Get Smart: I saw it. Much to my surprise, it was a very solid action comedy, with healthy doses of both. Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway have surprising chemistry, and Alan Arkin is…well…awesome.

-Hancock: I didn’t see it, but pass on it. I happened upon the plot “twists” that the movie offers, and I can promise you they are utterly ridiculous. The movie has a reputation for being uneven and disappointing.

-The Happening: I didn’t see it, but most people who did, even Shyamalan fans, were disappointed. Again, the plot twist might strike you as ridiculous.

-The Incredible Hulk: I saw it, and it was perfectly decent. Very solid action sequences, and a nice, brisk self-awareness. Completely lacking in depth but adequate as summer fun.

-Indiana Jones: Saw it twice, and loved it both times. To be sure, it goes in a much campier direction than any of the last entries, but I liked that it was unique from the others in that way. It involves aliens. If that sounds dumb to you, don’t see it.

-Iron Man: Saw it, it was very good. Better than the “Hulk,” definitely, but not quite as good an action movie. Robert Downey Jr. is magnificent, but the climactic battle is a little perfunctory.

-Kung Fu Panda: I saw it, I liked it. It rarely tries to be hilarious, which may surprise you, but the story is surprisingly complex and three dimensional.

-The Love Guru: I did not see it, and neither should you. Pass, pass, pass.

-Sex and the City: I didn’t see it, but its reputation is very predictable: fans of the show love it, everyone else hates it.

-The Strangers: I didn’t see it, and the jury’s kind of out. It looked really terrifying in the trailers, I’ve heard mixed things. If you’re in the mood for a horror movie, consider giving it a shot. I am under the impression that it’s low on the gore and high on the suspense, thank God.

-Wall-E: Haven’t seen it, but it doesn’t matter. All reports, both critics and friends of mine, say it’s a classic. Pixar does it again.

-Wanted: Saw it, liked it. It’s got an over-the-top sensory overload style that may turn off the older crowd, but it’s a decently satisfying action movie. I thought the conclusion of the story was ballsy and brilliant.

So there you go. That’s the word on movies I’ve seen and heard about recently. I’ll keep doing this from time to time and let you know how the new movies coming out are being reviewed, and also hopefully let you know if I actually see them.

You know, Corelyn and I have both soured a little on Wii Tennis. The reason is simple: we’ve gotten so good at it, particularly as a team, that the game has begun bending the rules so we can’t beat AI opponents who are supposed to be twice our skill level. Suddenly, a perfectly decent swing will cause the ball to hit the net, or a bounce on the white line will be “out” where it would have been legal other times. We’re both getting a sense that the game didn’t intend this level of commitment, and is now scrambling to fake levels of depth it does not possess. Our patience is tested, dear reader, our patience is tested.

I’ve also been playing “Enemy Territory: Quake Wars,” the demo version. This build of the game has only a single map to play on, and one series of objectives to complete therein, and yet I have played it for days. “Quake Wars” is one of those games where you are tossed into a massive, 16-player battle as one among many infantry men, and given access to a wide cadre of tanks, jeeps, ATVs, even airplanes and helicopters, with which to play. It’s an extremely satisfying strategic experience, with each vehicle or weapon balanced out by another, and every “class” of soldier (medic, engineer, etc) given distinct attributes. In order to win the day, you must strategically employ all of the vehicles and classes at your disposal. These kinds of games always can be played online against other people, but “bots” (computer-controlled opponents) are provided, and I much prefer them to real human beings. I can set them to whatever difficulty I desire, they play fairly, and I don’t have to hear them grip in my headset for ten minutes about how cheap my last kill was. The 12 year olds on Xbox Live are on their own, I’ll take the neutral, emotionless embrace of computerized friendship.

The funny thing is, the game has terrible reviews, and I can scarcely doubt it deserves them. The graphics are muddy, the auto-aim is too nice, and the vehicles control like magic carpets, lacking grit or a sense of weight. Add on top of that the fact that I only have one map to play on, and the experience should get old fast, but the core gameplay mechanic works too well. I find myself having a really great time, so much so that I’ve played it for days on end. Fortunately, “Unreal Tournament 3,” a MUCH superior rendition of the same genre of game, comes out this monday, and yours truly has already reserved and paid for a copy. Once I have that sweet baby in my hot little hands, “Quake Wars” will be but a shadow of a memory.

Anyway, it’s off to Alexandria today to hang out with the good folks there for the 4th of July and such. Corelyn has an invitation to see fireworks at the White House, while myself and the gang of scoundrels I associate with will be making our own breed of merriment to commemorate the occasion. As is fitting, Cor and I have been watching the HBO miniseries “John Adams,” which recently came on DVD, and I have been reading “1776.” I’m developing a real fascination for the story of our country’s birth.

“John Adams,” by the way, is quite good. I prefer the earlier episodes to the latter, which have a troubling habit of focusing on family strife and controversy in an unglamorous way that feels a little art-house-y and “modern” to me. The earlier episodes, where drama at home mingled with the excitement of the birth of a nation, grabbed me more. It should be noted that Tom Wilkinson, an esteemed character actor, portrays Benjamin Franklin immaculately, and Stephen Dillane (never heard of him) is similarly wonderful as Thomas Jefferson. Both of them look so much like their characters that it’s creepy. David Morse, another fine actor, is wonderful as George Washington, although he isn’t quite the carbon copy that Wilkinson is to his role. Anyway, I highly recommend you give the series a shot sometime.

I suppose that’s about all for now. Talk to you again soon!