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.

Lake Show vs. Atlanta Hawks

I harbor no ill will toward the Hawks, but I do hope that Mike Bibby is crying by the end of the night.























On the other hand, I hope he's in better spirits by the time he's up against the Celts in the playoffs. Atlanta has quite a bit of young talent. They're the kind of team that has the capability to shock a team like the Lakers or Celts on a given night (though the LAL are leading 90-70 at present). It has been fun watching them push teams to the limit late in the season and in the playoffs. Let's just hope it's not tonight.

Okay, so maybe the season's not "over"

At 22-5, and with some of those 22 wins feeling a little like losses, we Lakers fans were starting to get pretty pessimistic looking ahead to tomorrow's game against the Celtics and the rest of the year. I have to admit, I was ready to just write off any championship hopes for this season---"Maybe they get out of the West, but there's no way they''ll beat whoever comes out of the East", was something I repeated in conversations over the weekend.
And then, last night, they beat an awfully good New Orleans team--on the road--to further confuse us all. But really, this shouldn't be confusing at all. The fact is, the Lakers are now 23-5--they still have just 5 losses! Yeah, so the Celtics and the Cavs both have even more impressive records at this point, and generally, their wins of late haven't all seemed like near-misses. I wouldn't think to argue that they're not great teams. But I think it's a bit premature for us to count out a team that can go out and dominate a game against a great (really good?) team like the Hornets.
Take the example of last season. In December, very few people were expecting something like what happened where the Lakers made it to the Finals after blowing through the West as the 1st seed. Remember, they were strong favorites going into the series with Boston (which is fodder for a different post). Point being: one third of the way through the season is just too early to predict how things will end up in June.
But as for tomorrow, a win over the Chris Paul-led Hornets, doesn't bolster my faith going up against the Kevin Garnett-Ray Allen-Paul Pierce-(and now Rajon Rondo, too)-led Celtics.