All I Want for Christmas is Hanukkah

Christmas in Korea is not nearly as crass and blaring as America. I went to a restaurant with my stepmom's relatives and ate a ton of food and that was that.

At some point recently I passed the halfway point (6 months) in my Korean life. I have less than 100 days of teaching left, but it's spread over 6 months. I'm pretty sure I won't be doing a second year in Korea. Not anytime soon, anyway.

My vacation just started. Woo.

Saw Dark Knight. It was pretty good and watchable, I guess. "Good action movie" - isn't that what the kids say. Kind of reminded me of Casino Royale the way it kept moving and upping the ante. Or like a "greatest hits" version of the best action scenes in the comic. But it also didn't really feel like the cool detective ninja in the Batman comics. Partly because of Christopher Nolan's clunky fight choreography (I complained about this my cutting-edge Batman Begins review). And also because this could have been James Bond in a costume (and kind of a lame costume in this film). None of the Batman movies seem to pick up that he's "the world's greatest detective." Christian Bale is a great Bruce Wayne, though. It's just when he puts on the Batman mask and starts speaking in a retarded growl . . . some things just shouldn't migrate from the printed page.

I think I have definite ideas about what Batman is because I grew up on the comics. Writers like Denny O'Neil, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, and Frank Miller got the Batman concept so right that almost everything else looks wrong. I could write a lot more but everybody else already did so what's the point.

For the next Batman movie they should get a new actor and director, set it forty years in the future, and do Dark Knight Returns. I'm not a big fan of that comic (the Frank Miller Batman I like is Batman: Year One) but it'd be a good way to keep the franchise fresh.

I listened to Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. I kind of like Gladwell's idea about the 10,000 hour rule, but Gladwell himself kind of annoys me. I've read all his books, and I'd love to parody his prose style in fiction. And whenever I see an interview with him I want to punch him.



Tried listening to the new Antony and the Johnsons album, got bored.

It's hella cold out. And yet... I kind of get used to it when it's not windy. Suddenly anything over 40 seems nice and toasty.

Planning a big trip for late '09 - at least three continents, methinks.

I'll try to blog more now that I'm off.

"The Dark Knight" Review - REAL THIS TIME! **SPOILERS**

Last night I dreamt I saw The Dark Knight. Here's my review.

For the latest version of Batman, the dark knight battles not one but three villains: the Joker, the Penguin, and the Riddler. Dialogue is minimal; in fact, I don't remember anyone talking in the whole film. Christian Bale was virtually unrecognizable. He looks so old now, and I don't know why they decided to give him a skinhead look.

The climactic scene came when Batman met the three villains in a swamp. Batman pressed a remote control, the Batmobile fired something at his antagonists, and they succumbed. There wasn't much conflict, and absolutely no hand-to-hand fighting. WEAK!

So honestly, I don't see what all the big hoo-ha is about. People talk about Heath Ledger's tragic final performance blah blah blah... but I don't even remember it!

I'm just glad the film didn't drag on like so many Hollywood epics these days. I don't think it could've been more than a few minutes, all told.

So I'll be the first one to say it: The Dark Knight: THUMBS DOWN!!!

Review of "The Dark Knight" (by popular demand) **SPOILERS**

I have not seen it.

Banana-skin Pirouette and Collapse

"Once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who would try to benefit from taking a lease on our eyes and ears and nerves, we don't really have any rights left. Leasing our eyes and ears and nerves to commercial interests is like handing over the common speech to a private corporation, or like giving the earth's atmosphere to a company as a monopoly. Something like this has already happened with outer space, for the same reason that we have leased our central nervous systems to various corporations. As long as we adopt the Narcissus attitude of regarding the extensions of our own bodies as really out there and really independent of us, we will meet all technological challenges with the same sort of banana-skin pirouette and collapse."

- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (1964)

I was thinking, you know what the best part of Batman (1989) is? . . . and then I looked on youtube and was pleased to see that someone else felt the same way.