June 8: Birthdays, Movies, and Gray Out

Yesterday was Vince's birthday, and we sent his present. (Better late than never.) It's a "You Don't Know Jack" version that I hope they don't have. I know they play the game. Today is Mike Jittlov's birthday. Bernadette's cartoon is chugging right along. Go there and vote for her!

Yesterday we also went to see Pearl Harbor. Rich liked all the bangs and explosions, and I found it interminable. That was only 40 minutes, not 40 hours?

Ebert says: "'Pearl Harbor' is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle. Its centerpiece is 40 minutes of redundant special effects, surrounded by a love story of stunning banality. The film has been directed without grace, vision or originality, and although you may walk out quoting lines of dialogue, it will not be because you admire them."

Rich says there had to be a love story ("Then all this happened") to frame the battle. I say that it didn't have to be recycled Titanic, the plot could have been my family's story: woken up by booms, wondering where the men were, afraid of the Japanese gardeners, the letters from the mainland talking about the "Japs" and not in flattering terms. Oh, well.

Today Casanunda* and I saw Evolution. Salon's review isn't all that flattering, but I loved the movie. The acting was actually quite good. The plot was predictable, but it was supposed to be. I wasn't keen on the gross humor, but that was a small part. Dan Aykroyd was in both movies, too.

Tonight we joined about 80 pther people in a flashlight vigil at the Capitol. The Freeper speakers were terrible. Also, with no recent blackouts and with wholesale prices coming down, people aren't feeling all that desperate. But Gray is still a porker at the trough. We got our bumper stickers, now if only Rich could be convinced to put it on a bumper! Various signs:

• Gray Davis, Prince of Darkness
• Building a bridge to the 19th century
• Using taxpayer money for Lehane and Fabiani is theft, not a solution!
• Whining and fingerpointing, the Davis way.
• It's time for Gray to go away.

One of the channels came by and took pictures of my flashlight and my knobby knees. First I get my eyes, now it's my knees, I'll be on TV in bits and pieces!

When we had the Northridge earthquake, Governor Wilson stepped right in and used his emergency powers and fixed it. Gray is so scared to lead, the situation just keeps getting worse and worse.

*The last time I saw him alive. At least it was pleasant.