Start Saving Your Pennies

Because U2 is going on tour. While the college students and budget-minded people will easily plunk down the $49.50 plus $345,234,234,564,000 in ticketmaster surcharges for general admission seats (which is fantastic), seats on the first level are going from $95 to $171 across the nation. That's a heck of a lot of money for four men who don't need it. I understand that if Styx can charge and actually get $60 a head, bands with actual legs will charge more. I just remember the first time I saw U2, which was for $17.50 plus a whopping three dollars for surcharges. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to try like crazy to go, but I sure could pay an entire week and a half of child care for a single entrance price to see the boys from Dublin, who'll probably release a live dvd of the tour.

Watched Woody Allen's Shadow's and Fog last night. A bit messy, with absolutely too much going on in the storyline and too many unresolved character issues. The most redeeming quality of the film was its nod of the hat to genres of movie past - German expressionism (I felt like Nosferatu the Vampire would spring out any minute), the Universal Studio monster movies from the 1930s, European cinema with a little Claude Raines thrown in. The half of the movie focused on Allen's whiny character was worthless but the wounded and fragile Mia Farrow character was worth pursuing further. I liked how Farrow visited a whorehouse needing a place to stay and ended up turning a trick for $700 with a young college student who instantly fell in lust with her. The underlying message of random feelings and the timing of life made for a poignant scene but unfortunately, the Farrow character would eventually have to meet up with the Allen character. As many reviewers have written, however, A disappointing Woody Allen film is still better than ninety percent of everything else that's out there.

Raise your glasses and drink to the Democrats standing up against the assumed confirmation of Condi "Fabricated Evidence" Rice. However, pack your bags and run for the hills if the rumor of Antonin Scalia replacing William Renquist as the Court's Chief Justice rings true. At least it's not Clarence Thomas. Thinking about it, if Bush, who has already named Rice, does name Thomas, wouldn't be totally ironic when he begins pushing for the dismantling of affirmative action?

Please visit my friend Lefty Brown's web page to see if you agree with his Oscar nods. For those of you who are irate for The Passion of the Christ not being nominated for any of the top awards, consider this: characters aside, a two-hour bloodbath without character or plot development a good film doesn't make. Why did Jesus HAVE to die? Why did Jesus pursue God's will for him? Isn't the most important message of Jesus' death his rising from the dead to prove God's power? Where does that happen in the movie? A guy in white with holes in his hands is not the proof that an almighty divine power desires to spread the message of love, compassion, and selflessness. The movie fails because Mel Gibson fails to portray the beauty of Jesus' return and mission to help those who need it, not because he cleaned up after a good whooping.