I have to cop a plea of clueless on this one. For most of the duration of the movie, I was lost. There are so many characters, names, subplots, and nuances whose significance does not become apparent until much later on, that I was left scratching my head in more scenes than not. Even so, this movie left a strong impression.

I remember the first game I bought from Loki. The year was 1999. Once I heard it announced on Slashdot, I anticipated for many weeks the release of Civilation: Call to Power. After a few unsuccessful attempts to buy it at CompUSA, I finally managed to get it one day. It provided me with many days (and nights) of entertainment building empires.

High school kids in the 80s. Relatively funny. Lots of amusing moments. Fairly predictible plot. Apparently, some people consider it a classic. Perhaps that's because it was made before the "teen movie" genre became a tired cliché. See it for the cultural history, or something like that.

Rivetingly bizarre. This one goes into the "masterpiece" category.

This movie portrays an aspect of the historic Apollo 11 mission that almost nobody knew about. In an obsure sheepherding village in Australia was the dish which would receive the television transmission of the moon landing. Tended by several local scientists, an ambassador from NASA, and a gaggle of humorously eccentric smalltown people, it was the only facility on "that" side of the world capable of receiving televised images from space.

A classic.

Sweetness.

Anyway, I the NIN disc into the player again tonight, thinking I would watch a few tracks, but it was so entrancing, I ended up watching the whole concert again. Amazing, powerful stuff.

(alternate title: Trent Reznor is a musical genius!)

Um, actually no, the title is not referring to a recently released epic adventure movie based on the books of J.R.R. Tolkien. This would be the other J. The Michael Straczynski one. You know, the television genius who created the show everyone has been clamoring for in hopes of a DVD release. Babylon 5. This new tv movie installment: Legend of the Rangers.

For some unknown reason, my body decided to become conscious at around 0400 this morning. I decided that sleep in the very near future was hopeless, and stumbled across the room to Argo to surf a bit.

What I found was a piece of history being made. (At least it qualifies as something resembling "history" in the minds of a bunch geeks who have nothing better to do than sit around and debate endlessly on concepts such as karma, thresholds, and the essence of a perfect troll.)

"The idea that the show could be so schizophrenic -- that it could be bouncing from horror to comedy to action to drama all the time is something that some people had trouble getting used to."

David Lynch king of the world of non sequitur morbid incomprehensible film making. It creeps and terrorizes down to the core of the human soul. Absolutely bizarre. I don't have a clue what any of it meant.

The plan was to go to a movie. That didn't quite work out.

Maybe more than 1 sentence, but not much more, because in a few minutes, I'll be heading off to the cinema. As to which cinema it will be, I'm still deciding, but there's a 90% chance my choice will have been influenced by a content solutions poster known as drizzt.

Tonight, I ate supper at the Dark Horse with other BLUG members, and then went to the BLUG meeting. It was fun.

The current temperature inside the Lair is 19.1 degrees.

[Bitscape gets totally distracted messing with the DVD player, and watches the last several scenes of Moulin Rouge again, and becomes preoccupied with rewatching the second-to-last shot in the movie several times, a reverse B5-style pushin night-to-day interior / exterior / interior / pan which seamlessly combines.... way, way too many elements.]

John Travolta (a much younger John Travolta) plays the accidental "ear-witness" to a politically motivated murder. Nancy Allen plays a phenomenally ditsy sidekick / love interest, whose stupidity turns the scene intended as a suspenseful climax into a near-comedic head-smacking fest. (My thought: "What does he see in this dopeface, anyway? If she does die after so many idiotic moves, then Darwinism will have run its proper course.")

I know what all the loyal content vultures have been waiting for. (At least I can theorize that I do.) Today is Jaunary 1st, 2002. The day when I draft the mighty and momentous set of resolutions which supposably serve to direct and improve selected areas of my life over the course of the next 12 months. Well guess what? It's 22:42 localtime, and the day of January 1 is nearly over.