beautiful monsters

I can't believe

That there is a World Rock Paper Scissors Society. With World Championships. Online training. An official strategy guide. And t-shirts. Not to mention promotional posters dating back to the 30's. It's a joke, right? Tell me it's a joke.

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This weekend I went to see I heart Huckabees, which had Dustin Hoffman, and showed promise, but ended up being grueling. Lots of shouting, I got really sick of the shouting. And I really didn’t get the rolling in the mud thing.

I have to agree with Roger Ebert, who says “I went to see "I Heart Huckabees" at the Toronto Film Festival. It was on the screen, and I was in my chair, and nothing was happening between us. There was clearly a movie being shown, but what was its purpose and why were the characters so inexplicable?”

The highlight of the whole movie was when the actors were ranting about how we're all nothing, and everything is meaningless. And then suddenly the movie stopped, and the screen went black. And someone in front of us said, "Wow. Everything is nothing." Priceless.

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I also went to see Hate Crimes at Bats, which was possibly even more grueling. Bullying, a suicide attempt, KKK types, sexual abuse of an intellectually disabled 15 year old, several beatings, and then someone gets shot. Yeah, I was depressed by the time I left. The actors were good. The music between scenes was too loud, and started to grate after the first few times. And for the last half hour I was trying to work out if I could somehow escape.

I should have stayed at home and watched Buffy.

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I can't believe the pope is dead. He seemed like he might keep going forever, you know, like the queen. And my grandmother.

Geez, the wikipedia site is updated pretty smartly. Under the entry for pope it already says "Currently, the office of Pope is vacant, a condition known as sede vacante, or the vacant seat. The most recent Pope was Pope John Paul II, who was elected at the age of 58 in 1978. He was the first non-Italian to be elected to the Pontificate since Adrian VI, who was briefly pope in 1522-23. Pope John Paul II died at the age of 84 on April 2 at 19:37 GMT, 2005. A conclave will assemble between April 17 and April 22 to conduct a Papal Election to elect a new Pope."

It will be interesting to see what happens next. The whole election process is weird. In fact, the whole Catholic thing is kinda weird, but I guess that's just because I didn't grow up with it.

From the BBC site: “They say that during his reign, the Vatican exercised too much power, and was less likely to tolerate dissent. They want to see a different kind of papacy, with bishops around the world having a greater say in how the Church is run. That would be a challenge to the authority of the Church's central bureaucracy, the Curia. "Many bishops and cardinals felt that at the end of the reign of John Paul II, the Curia got out of hand," said Father Thomas Reese. "They felt it was imposing its will on the local bishops, and really not being sensitive and listening to their concerns. So I think there is going to be a backlash in the conclave against the Curia."

OK, so he reinforced an oppressive patriarchal legacy. But he did good in other areas. The whole pope thing is a pretty weird gig - and a tough one. I'm glad he can rest now.

His last message was "Love converts hearts and gives peace."

Posted by Fionnaigh at April 4, 2005 12:50 AM | TrackBack