Kal-L, I believe.
One of the Medici, probably. I don't remember. Michael and I saw this in Chicago.
If you don't know Yoda, don't read this blog.
Thanks to Michelle, I have two pleasant looking monkies.
One of Gerry's old Zorro comics.

I saw an idea for cheap fisheye photography on the internet last week, and on a trip to wallyworld I decided to test this method. A one-way peep hole with the inside end removed makes for a cheap way to deform a subject. I made a stand for the lens with green floral wire, a cheap and versatile material I discovered in undergrad when my friends used it for sculpy clay armature understructure. The original faq I found has comments and links to other methods of mounting the lens to the camera. If I can find a cheap lenscap or filter, I'll try to make a mount for it. The images are all orange due to the light in my apartment, and PS couldn't do much to change the saturated orange.

In other news, it's good to be a comic geek right now. The last panel of Astonishing X-men #15 made me (quite literally) jump out of bed and dance around for what it referenced, and hopefully everybody else who reads this issue will get the meaning. Gerry and I purchased our advance tickets for the first showing of Superman Returns next week, so we're all ready to go.

This week saw the similarly abrupt arrival and exeunt of a small orange cat at Gerry's apartment. From what I gather, Monday evening three excitable undergrads presented him with a year-old cat wrapped in a light blue sweater and a smattering of cat supplies purchased so recently the receipt ink was scarcely dry. Essentially, an all-in-one cat care kit, presented with the sincere hope that said cat might live with Gerry. Gerry, being the probable exclusive caregiver, was incredulous to the idea, though the girls made promises to stop by often to help with care and feeding of the feline presently hiding under the bed for lack of a say in the matter. If there is a common factor to any of Gerry's few questionable decisions, it is my consort, so he called me to come see the cat. They had coaxed it back to the couch when I arrived, where it was shedding by the bale from the stress of being lugged around campus by such an excitable gaggle, all the while quietly praising the management of their apartment complex for a rule against cats. Yadda yadda, Gerry got a cat. Ever wonder what happens when you introduce an unpredictable element into a controlled environment? Gerry's expression while watching the cat was often that of a Swiss engineer surveying a room full of children fingerpainting- open befuddlement at the random behaviors and quiet amusement. I got to play the role of the cool uncle who only shows up long enough to spoil the cat rotten with attention, never once having to put up with the nighttime quirks when the cat couldn't sleep. The aforementioned girls put up fliers in the village and the owner claimed him, confirming his gender for us. Though they were grateful, they failed to offer any recompense for the expenses of boarding a cat. The term "schmucks" has been suggested more than once. Curiously, the cat is missed. Of course I miss the little bugger, because I didn't do much to care for him aside from checking in once and helping with some basic cat knowledge gained from caring for June at USF. Gerry freely admits to being attached to the cat, having tentatively dubbed him "Streaky" after Supergirl's cat circa 1960. This was a good little cat- he sat on our laps and greeted people like a dog.

I just saw Everthus the Deadbeats play an outdoor show- good stuff as always. They travel with a rubbermaid bin full of various noise makers that the crowd can play along with, and one stalwart fan always shows up with a skillet and spoon. The act before them was one guy dressed in black with a cape and large sunglasses. He sang along with some sort of old background music CD and danced around. It was funny, then annoying, then ultimately cool. At one point he danced out to the middle of the road to dance in front of an alpha-male stereotype driving a convertible. The guy looked pretty confused, as most people would, and the crowd loved it. The Belle Ends were conspicuously absent, as this was supposed to be their big comeback show.

Those of you who are in or near Muncie ought to plan to head down to Villiage Green Records in the villiage next Friday, June 9th at 6PM. Everthus the Deadbeats will be playing a CD realease show with The Belle Ends. All-ages, so tall people won't have any trouble seeing over the crowd.

I thought about reviewing The Da Vinci Code and X-Men here, but I wasn't particularly blown away by either. Da Vinci Code follows a pretty standard formula for the sake of having a plot, which often gets in the way of the more interesting parts about architecture and symbolism. I would rather see a re-edit with most of the plot crap removed, save for Sir Ian McKellen's scenes. Most expository dialogue is accompanied by short vignettes of historic events. Someone mentions the crusades, and suddenly a huge, lavish depiction of the crusades comes up to remind the audience what it probably looked like. While I normally love big fx shots, I thought these scenes were tedious and tacked on to keep the average person's attention until the next time someone pointed a gun at someone else. Yes, academics pack heat in this movie. Are Ivy league tenured faculty normally strapped when travelling abroad? I mean, aside from Indiana Jones, whose movies are easily comparable and superior to this movie, as they can take an absurd premise and actually have fun with it. No such fun is found in this movie, not even in the foundation of the Louvre, a building that has been dug up and remodeled so many times in the last thousand years or so one wonders how there could be any mystery left in it.

X-Men wasn't really great, or terrible, which is probably the worst way to tackle the Dark Phoenix story, perhaps the most signifigant story in the Marvel U. I really don't have much to say about it, except that too many characters and no real plot was the reason I stopped reading X-Men when I was 15. The film effectively sinks the franchise, despite the box office gross, which is just as well. I'm ready for Superman Returns.