The Happy Fingers Method

Last night, I watched Dr. Seuss's The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. This was a commercial failure when it first came out, but I liked it. Earlier in the day, bethje and I were discussing whimsically creepy media (the songs "I Am the Walrus" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" came up, as did the tunnel scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), and I think this film definitely qualifies. I wonder if part of its initial failure was that it was too whimsical for adults, and too creepy for kids. The main theme seemed to be that peculiar sort of imaginative childhood paranoia, where you think that mean teachers and the like are specifically out to make your life miserable (not that I haven't occasionally felt that way as an adult as well {g}). Dr. Terwilliker's exaggeratedly flamboyant performance was great, and while seeing some of the Dr. Seuss designs in live action was kind of weird, it still looked better than what I've seen of recent live-action films of Seuss stories. And this was fifty years earlier, mind you. Some of the extended dance sequences were a bit tedious, but that's often the way with musicals.

And while I'm posting, here are my computer-generated New Year's resolutions:

In 2009, vovat resolves to...

Backup my sugarplastic regularly.
Overcome my secret fear of nursery rhymes.
Get back in contact with some old amusement parks.
Give some nes to charity.
Be nicer to yosef.
Give up writing.

Get your own New Year's Resolutions:

I'm not really sure how giving up writing would benefit me, but obviously this online application knows best! :P

Battle of the Red-Headed Alt-Country All-Stars

While this is three years old, I'd still like to comment on it, as the comments feature some argument as to whether Jenny Lewis (who won the poll) or Neko Case is more attractive.

( The two contenders )

I'm a fan of both, and I think they're both easy on the eyes AND the ears (as they say in colloquial circles), but I'd have to give the edge to Neko. I've seen Jenny described as "sexy-cute," and I would agree, but I think she's attractive in more of a generic fashion-plate kind of way. Neko has more of a distinctive appearance. Of course, it's certainly possible to be distinctive and ugly, but I think distinctively attractive wins out over generically attractive. Besides, I prefer Neko's music, and why would a poll be about indie rock girls if you weren't supposed to take into account how well they...um, rock independently.

And yes, I realize the title isn't entirely accurate, because Neko doesn't care for the term "alt-country," and Jenny's music is...well, I guess you'd call it indie-pop. She does have occasional country-tinged songs, though (both solo and with Rilo Kiley), and I think they're often her best. I love "I Never" and "The Charging Sky," for instance.

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm really curious about the comment that Neko hates Feist. If it had come up recently, I'd say it was jealousy over getting to appear on Sesame Street, but I don't know what would have come between them back in 2005.

Pope on a Rope

Jack Chick is back, and taking aim at a new target, if by "a new target" you mean "a target he's attacked about 80 billion times in the past." And that would be a very bizarre use of the word "new," so I wouldn't recommend doing that. Yes, it's another anti-Catholic tract, this time featuring a guy with a Catholic uncle learning from his neighbor Bayou Billy that the Popes are the same as the Roman Emperors (a few minutes after learning who the Pope even was, because apparently Jimmy has been living under a rock for his entire life). Surprisingly, the bit about the Circus of Nero on the Vatican Mons being the site of Nero's persecution of Christians, and the obelisk there being the only one left standing after the fall of the Empire, is more or less true, at least based on the minimal online research I did. On the other hand, the implication that the Vatican was where Catholicism started doesn't appear to be true at all. While St. Peter's Basilica was built there in the fourth century (based on the tradition that Peter was killed at the Circus and buried in the cemetery nearby), it didn't become the seat of the papacy until the late fourteenth century. And does Chick actually think Protestantism would have existed if Catholicism (which, for Western Europe, WAS Christianity) hadn't already become the dominant religion? But apparently Rome dominates the world now, even though the nation considered the most powerful on Earth (i.e., us) has only had one Catholic president. Why Satan needs to work through some kind of vast conspiracy when other tracts have him doing pretty well with a more personal approach is beyond me, as is why this hypothetical Anthony character suddenly comes to dominate the comic starting in the twenty-first panel, especially when Chick had already given himself Catholic characters to work with (Uncle Frank and the nerd whose perpetual anger probably stems from his receding hairline). Also, the copyright date on this is 2008, when John Paul died in 2005. Actually, this is surprisingly good timing as far as Chick goes. The tract is also sort of up-to-date in that Jimmy's family is watching the news on a computer monitor. Well, either that or the world's smallest flat-panel TV.