I Me Mine, I Me Mine, I Me Mine

Day 23 - Favorite animation
Probably The Iron Giant, which I went from liking to loving over the years. And Beauty and the Beast at some level was a payoff for liking animation: yes, an animated movie can be good enough to get a Best Picture nomination! So much potential opened up with that movie that still hasn't been nearly fully realized yet (though, as Waking Sleeping Beauty argues, that film happened only mere years after Disney animation almost went away). I haven't seen Beast in ages; I hope it holds up. But The Iron Giant might be my preferred film of the two. And I know it holds up.

Day 23 - Most annoying character
Many, many, many of the people in commercials. Many commercials are MADE to be annoying, and commercials have to paint the people in them so broadly (you're conveying a message in 15, 30, or 60 seconds) that the form encourages annoying characters.

Givin' you some James Bond this morning:



The Laurelhurst Theatre's showing From Russia With Love starting today. Watch Bond with beer!

Portland's been wet. Wetter than normal. A lot wetter than normal. How wet? We've already broken an at least 70-year-old record for June rainfall a week and a half into the month. Recently we had three weeks straight of rain every day. Wet. In other words, wet. (I guess that would just be "word," wouldn't it?)

The Willamette River's high enough that the beaches on Ross Island, which I go near on my commute, are flooded. This is still nothing like the flooding we had in 1996, and it probably won't be that bad, but it made me go "Whoa."

We haven't floated away yet. And, thankfully, we started drying out today and should stay dry for at least a week. This is improvement. We'll take what we can get.

Edited: Here's photo proof, c/o DevlynPDX, from near the Steel Bridge. Yeah. That's high.

I wasn't interested even before hearing Mike Russell deconstruct it on Cort and Fatboy today, let alone his continued ripping of it on this forum here.

The thing is, I was kind of interested in a film version of The A-Team...back when it was going to be directed by John Singleton. The man has fun with action, and with B-movie insanity. Seemed like a good fit. That version was also likely to have Ice Cube as B.A. Baracus; Ice Cube has a charisma that's completely different from Mr. T's charisma, and it's good charisma. I'm hearing the UFC guy who's Baracus in the film...doesn't have that performer's charisma. (Admittedly I'm more a wrestling appreciator who doesn't "get" that Ultimate Fighting/mixed martial arts thing -- wrestling's more theatrical! And it's funnier! -- so I was less likely to "get" Quentin Rampage Jackson, too.)

Another what-might-have-been? John Singleton's films often get scored by David Arnold. I like David Arnold: he can be straight-faced when he needs to (cf. his James Bond scoring), he can tweak his films when he needs to (cf. Hot Fuzz), and he seemed like he'd be a good fit for The A-Team's insanity. (I mentioned that once back when Singleton was still a possibility, and David Cornelius, a.k.a. leonardpart6, said No, the film needs MIKE POST!!!! He didn't actually use that many exclamation points, but they were implied. (Hi, David.))

But I am proud that the film generated this comment from Eric D. Snider: "Look at this A-TEAM publicity photo and tell me you don't think, '...and George W. Bush as Hannibal.'"