Overheard at Table 5: The Dark Knight Rises

Yeah, I'll admit, when I took my kids to go see Dark Knight Rises I was looking around to see if any freaks in gas masks were coming in the door.   That kind of stuff just naturally makes you nervous, you know but yeah I know it's like what are the odds?  that happening twice.

Weird, yeah - but the movie.  The movie was OK, I mean, maybe it was because you know, people died just wanting to go watch it, but I just felt this movie wasn't as good as it should have been.  For example, we've got Alfred tearing up in almost every scene, I mean I've loved all of Michael Cain's movies, he's been a great actor for, like, forever, but this blubbery boo-hoo don't get yourself hurt, my son! was just a little over the top.

And Christian Bale?  Who told that guy he could act?  well, I dunno maybe he can act but he can't act Batman.  Less said about him the better.

The best parts of the movie were that one kid who used to be on Third Rock from the Sun, and then came back again in Inception - yeah,now he was pretty good, and you were thinking he's either going to become Robin or become the new Batman, since this Batman's walking around with permanent bone damage, and Catwoman, now that was a saving grace.   That lady can act!   I mean I just saw her in One Day and my little girls know her from the Princess Diaries, that Anne Hathaway takes the Catwoman of the sixties and just runs with it.  It's like she embodies the classic sexiness and mixes it withe the truly independent woman, who only follows a man who can truly earn her respect.   She's just great, and NOT just because she looks slinky in a black leather bodysuit.

Bane, I just wanted him to rip out the shoulder cuffs and grow huge, but he never did!   So that's not Bane, that's just some run-of-the-mill psycho killer.

Anyway, a few twists and turns.   A few big explosions, some good scenes, but mainly it was a snoozer about Batman having been a hermit for eight years because Maggie Gyllenhal got killed in the previous movie.   Oh, yeah, and Alfred weeping throughout.

You can wait for the DVD.

Overheard at Table 2: Top Ten Rock Songs

That's so subjective!

Yesh, I know, but here's mine:

10. The Smithereens - The World We Know
9. The Ramones - We're a Happy Family
8. The Pursuit of Happiness - I'm an Adult Now
7. Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
6. The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night
5. Van Halen - Pretty Woman
4. Guns n Roses - Sweet Child o Mine
3. Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
2. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1. AC/DC - You Shook Me (All Night Long)

Overheard at Table 2: 226

Joy is knowing
that you and I, we
are still rumpled bedsheets
in a foreign hotel overlooking
some purple somnambulent
sunset. 


226.

from 366.

Overheard at Table 4: Framing the Debate

Republicans are very very good - at framing the debate.

Some examples, on a radio show (Morning Joe I think it was) there was a soundclip of two men discussing the attack ads of this year, and one man was talking about Romney's negative ads, and had asked the other man about this false accusations, and the other responded by the question, "Well, what about your ads - they did the same thing.  Are you comfortable with that?"

And the first man tried to bring the question back to the original point, but the other guy just kept hammering the question, "Are you comfortable with that?" Meaning, are you morally accepting of your camp presenting the same type of ad.   All the while, Joe is interjecting, "Answer the question."

This is so typical of the conservative style of debate: they are able to avoid answering questions by using fallacies of logic, such as this play on the "Tu Quoque" (You Too!) fallacy.   And then, spotting the hesitancy in the first man's response, the other man was able to continue the belabor the point, thereby making his opponent more confused and seem more evasive.

And those who can't reason coherently (about 90% of all Americans and a full 100% of Morning Joe listeners) will have only the impression that the liberal is weak while the conservative is strong.

Overheard at Booth 4: Criminalizing Dissent

Criminalizing Dissent
The very name of the law itself—the Homeland Battlefield Bill—suggests the totalitarian credo of endless war waged against enemies within “the homeland” as well as those abroad.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/criminalizing_dissent_20120813/
 Copyright © 2012 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

Overspoken at Table 4: He Still Dreams of Mercury

from 366.

223.

He stank of the black bowl
at his bedside,
but only ever spoke
of his 57 Mercury Cruiser
and the redhead
he thought was still riding shotgun.

Overread at the Counter: from 366.

from 366.

222.

I can not photograph this
only try
to memorise
through the lens of my eyes

the dark, subtle beauty
of your silhouette,
as the sun
tiptoes away
down into the lost line of the ocean
somewhere far behind you.