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I've had a few dreams over the week that I thought would be worth sharing with the group.

• I went with bethje to a convention at the same hotel as the one where Monster-Mania is held, and there were hardly any people there. Beth went to a nearby store to buy food, while I worked out on an elliptical and listened to The Spine (the They Might Be Giants album, for those of you who don't know).
  
• I was in Virginia, and I met up with my brother, who had taken a car down there. I decided I would drive back home, but when I started the car turned into a small bus, and I had trouble controlling it.
  
• I was in a house that was being robbed by some kids (who were, at least at one point, the bullies from The Simpsons), and I managed to drive them off by hitting them with a pillow.
  
• An amusement park where I was waiting in line for some ride turned into a grocery store, and then into a bookstore. Or maybe the place was just all three at once. I'm not totally sure.
  
• I was trying to investigate a secret society, and I brought Hillary Clinton along, because I thought she would be able to get into places that I wouldn't. I think it backfired, though, because while I was waiting for her in the car, I heard some guys talking about how they thought Hillary's being there meant the government knew about them, or something like that.
  

Getting back to waking life, a few nights ago, Beth and I watched Final Destination, which was pretty good, but seemed to contain some plot holes, or at least elements that they didn't explain very well. Some of the deaths of the people who got off the plane appeared to have elaborately worked out to make the main guy (I can't remember his name for sure, but I think it might have been Alex) look guilty. Now, I can see this happening when an actual serial killer is at work, but here it was apparently just death catching up to them. I have no problem with Death as a conscious entity. As a matter of fact, he's one of my favorite characters in the Discworld series. But the movie never really indicated whether they meant us to think of Death that way or not. Also, it seemed like any hunch that the characters had turned out to be true. Maybe more of this is explained in the other two movies in the series, but taken simply in its own context, it came off as a bit lazy and inconsistent in spots.

Last night, we saw This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which I quite liked. I expected to like it anyway, since I thought a film about the MPAA ratings was a good idea, and because what I'd heard about it made it sound like I would agree with it. But it also made some good points I didn't know it would cover, like how the system is largely anti-gay (they showed some very similar clips of gay and straight sex from various movies, and the gay ones always had received stricter ratings) and anti-female. They also touched on copyright issues, and there are some deleted scenes on the DVD where a guy from the Electronic Freedom Foundation has a lot more to say about those. I believe it was copyright issues that first brought Jack Valenti on to my radar, and the film gave me a lot of other reasons to dislike the guy. There were some interesting interviews with movie directors. It's always cool to hear from John Waters, and while I never got into South Park, Matt Stone had some good points to make. He tells a story in one of the outtakes about how the original intended title for the South Park movie was "All Hell Breaks Loose," but the ratings board objected to the use of the word "hell" in the title of an animated movie. Then they came up with "Bigger, Longer, and Uncut," and they got an okay on it, only to receive a letter two weeks later saying that the board had just gotten the joke in the new title. That about says it all, doesn't it? The parts where the private investigators tracked down the members of the ratings board kind of made me wonder how they could get away with so much (it's apparently legal in Los Angeles for a private detective to go through your garbage, as long as it's on the street), but I did like the confirmation that most of the board members didn't fit the description that the MPAA was trying to sell to the public. There's a lot of other stuff that I could say about the film, but I think I've gone on long enough for now. I think it's time for some quiz results!

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Could Behemoth be a dinosaur, a mighty sauropod?

Recently, I got a notice from Voter Registration in my old county in Pennsylvania, asking whether my new address was in the same county. Gee, you'd think the "NJ" at the end of it would have clued them in that it isn't. Besides, I've already registered and voted in my new county. So that doesn't automatically cancel out my last registration? Does that mean that, if I'd been really dishonest and willing to do a lot of driving, I could have voted twice last November? That's a rather disturbing thought.

bethje and I have now seen Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi, and I guess it'll have to do for our fix of crazy, bigoted fundamentalists (not to mention Ted Haggard) until the "very long wait" for Jesus Camp on Netflix. In the HBO special, the daughter of the current Speaker of the House visits congregations, Christian wrestling matches and miniature golf courses, anti-evolution brainwashing sessions for kids, and Jerry Falwell's church. There was a lot of talk of culture war, being warriors for Jesus, and the like. Even ignoring all other factors, I think all of that violent imagery would be enough to turn me off from their particular brand of Christianity. I mean, isn't one of the most appealing things about Jesus that he was a lover, not a fighter? Apparently not to a good many of the more vocal evangelical fundamentalists.

The thing is, not all evangelicals are of the scary, bigoted sort. One of the preachers visited on the road trip was Joel Osteen, a televangelist who DOESN'T dwell on hellfire, hatred, and hassling people. And as weird as they appear, there's nothing wrong with sharing your faith with visitors to your mini-golf course, as long as you're not obnoxious about it. The problem is that the Jerry Falwell types have made themselves the most visible representatives of evangelical Christianity, and some of them seem to think that the ones who AREN'T focused on gay-bashing and science-hating aren't true Christians. People say things like, "I don't believe in evolution because I'm a Christian!" as if the two are somehow mutually exclusive.

Speaking of anti-evolution, I have to wonder whether the "dinosaurs lived alongside humans" concept was specifically intended to appeal to kids. Like, somebody sat down one day and said, "Hey, kids love dinosaurs. Maybe telling them that dinosaurs never existed isn't really helping win them over to our beliefs." Really, though, that kind of Flintstones Creationism makes "God created the world with the appearance of age" and "Satan put the dinosaur bones there to trick us" seem totally sensible by comparison.

Oh, the special also showed a "Conservative Comedian," who insisted that the only two groups you could still make fun of in the United States are Southerners and Christians. It's amazing how many different One Last Remaining Groups It's Okay To Make Fun Of exist, and how they almost inevitably include whoever's identifying said group.

( Here's yet another survey. )

Am I Bo Bice? Yes, I am! Well played, worthy adversary!

Hey, it was yet another Simpsons episode with three out-of-continuity segments and a flimsy framing story! They do a lot of these nowadays, and it's always fun to see how they manage to work established characters into the various parodies and period pieces, but such episodes generally aren't favorites of mine. Still, they usually have their moments. As for the specific segments this time, the Count of Monte Cristo story was probably the best overall. Moe living in the doorway was a well-executed joke, and I liked some of Lenny and Carl's lines. It's interesting how so many of these recent fantasy episodes use Moe as Homer's adversary. Lisa's story was largely forgettable, but I did like Milhouse's various means of taking revenge on everyone in the school. And when he said "prevenge," that MUST have been a They Might Be Giants reference, right? :P The third one was pretty funny, although the Batman spoofery has kind of been done to death. I did enjoy Snake's lame puns and Krusty's criticism, though. So overall, the episode was decent enough, but not great. What was great was the seemingly random dedication to everyone who died in the Star Wars films.

Regarding Family Guy, it's cool that they brought back the Brian/Stewie roadtrip concept, since those episodes have been quite cleverly done in the past, and this one was no different. Brian and Stewie's interactions are often the best in the show, although I think Adam West might have actually had the funniest lines this time around. I originally thought the subplot would be lame (Hey, a character lost his driver's license! Really original stuff there!), but I did like the way in which Peter gained newfound respect for Meg.

And finally, American Dad. (I gave up on King of the Hill years ago, so I used the time in which that episode was on to finish the survey in my last post.) I appreciate how the show can take on actual issues facing the county (in this case, illegal immigrants) without getting preachy. The subplot, with Steve and Roger in competing bands, was also pretty good, although a bit undeveloped.

Because he apparently doesn't already have enough on his plate, Seth MacFarlane has also created a third show, and it looks dumb. Of course, Fox DOES have an uncanny knack for picking out the worst jokes when promoting something, so it might not necessarily be as bad as it looks. Still, though, I get the idea that, after succeeding with his two animated shows, Seth has gotten the impression that he can do no wrong, and Fox is willing to indulge him.

Oh, and am I the only one who finds Burger King's "I'm a MAN, so give me MAN food, like the Texas Double Whopper!" commercials irritating? I guess I have a general distaste for exacerbation of gender differences, especially when such differences don't actually exist. I haven't really noticed eating habits to be particularly divided among gender lines. Well, aside from women tending to like chocolate more than men do, but that's partially a chemical thing, isn't it?