Avatar

I'm kinda late to this, but I just watched "Avatar" and it was awesome. I had always planned on watching it when it came out on DVD. I didn't make it a huge priority even though I figured it would be entertaining. I just thought it would be too cheesy to take seriously. I mean, c'mon, those graphics, it must be like watching a cartoon for two-and-a-half hours, right? Wrong.

There was so much that I really enjoyed about the movie, not to mention all the cool, not-so-subtle political stuff. Although, I heard a lot of talk about the movie's message being environmental, and while that was obviously there, I felt a lot more convinced by the arguments it made about imperialism and colonialism. I kept thinking about folks not just in Iraq and Afghanistan where we are basically unwanted occupiers, but people in places where our influence is more under the radar because its on the basis of "advisory" roles, or just with paramilitary American contractors (just like in the movie). Places like Columbia, Pakistan, or Nigeria (which got a mention early in the film).

Overall, it was a very inspiring movie. It inspired me to A) have crazy fiber-optic tentacles coming out of my hair that could connect with other species and B) to take up with some forest-dwelling resistance movement in a country where the government-elite interests have become intertwined with our governments-elites' interests. Neither of those are very likely to happen, I guess, so I'll settle for just chilling with Japhy while the Magic beat the Celtics.

Futbol

I'm so pumped for World Cup! I'm glad there'll be something to go to after the Lakers win the Finals. Apparently, Kobe is looking forward to it, too. Don't believe me? Watch this (seriously effective) piece of Nike propaganda:


Maybe the best part is Wayne Rooney's beard after he's living alone in a trailer with only his failure. There's another commercial piggy-backing on that concept:

Interleague Play

When I was about 10 and first found out that there would soon be interleague play in baseball, I was excited about seeing the Dodgers play teams that they would have previously only met in the World Series. I pictured scoreboards that featured the Dodgers and the Orioles, or the Dodgers and the Royals. The seemingly-bizzare images in my head were just like the one above. The Tigers? In Dodger Stadium? It was just that sort of a random American League team that the Dodgers never encounter, that I rarely even think about, that I was so intrigued to see the Dodgers play. Yes, it will be exciting in a couple of weeks when the Yankees ("boo...") are in town. And yeah, the "rivaly" developed by playing the Angels in two series a year has added some interest for SoCal baseball fans. But I see those teams on TV all the time already, so when I was 10, being the baseball geek I was, I was most looking forward to match-ups with teams that it would be really strange to see. Like the Detroit Tigers. So, it was pretty awesome on Friday night to see all those Old English D's, with Dodger Stadium in the backgound. I could muster my 10 year-old awe at seeing Dontrelle Willis, Miguel Cabrera, and Jim Leyland with "Detroit" across their jerseys, playing against my team.
As an aside, seeing the Tigers made me think of that Disney movie "Tiger Town" starring the guy from "Jaws". I liked that movie, too, around the time I was 10. The only thing I really remember from that movie is how in the first scene, where their trying to set up how pathetic the Tigers have become, they show the main character swing at a pitch that hits him in the back. That seemed really sad. Just really terrible.

Nerdiness

Did you know that every black hole in our universe might be a doorway to another universe? Not only that, but our own universe may be what is merely a tiny side street accessible through one of the black holes in another universe. Thank you, National Geographic!