(Blogspot ate my previous post, a moment after I remembered I should have copied it just in case. I'll try to recreate it)

I'm in a most peculiar state of mind tonight. I just returned from a birthday "party" for my friend Jason, which amounted to a great deal of hanging out and watching Stir of Echoes, which wasn't half bad in my opinion. And I don't even like scary movies, generally.

Earlier this evening, the gang all went to a school playground to be silly and have some fun. On the walk over there, we ran across a guy who was walking around with a flashlight. We found out he was looking for his dog Taz, who was big and black. We went on our way, saying we'd keep an eye out but not really paying much heed. It happens, right?

Cut to five hours later, when I'm driving home. I'm forced to stop at a green light because of a dog standing in my headlights. I sit there for a moment and he decides to move out of the way. But when I look back in my rear view mirror as I'm driving through the intersection, I catch him perfectly framed in the reflection and I see a glint near his neck. I think that it's got to be a collar, right? So that means he's somebody's dog, not just a stray. At this point, my neurons finally decide to start firing and I make the connection. I've probably gone another 50 feet, so I pull an immediate u-turn and find a parking spot (technically I stopped in a no-parking zone, but at least I was out of the way of the traffic) so I can look for this dog.

I looked for a while, but didn't find him, I'm sorry to say. It turns out that searching through a vaguely familiar but still sinister looking, poorly-lit mess of buildings and alleys and construction at two o'clock in the morning is no fun, considering the state of mind the Stir of Echoes had put me in. Especially since I was looking for a black dog. Every movement I caught in the corner of my eye might have been it, or it could have been any number of other things. I retreated back to my car and continued the search from there for a short while (damn the one-way streets around here) before I returned home.

I have no way of knowing if that dog was the same lost dog from before. If it was, I hope that he stays safe tonight and his owners find him. If not, I hope Taz is back with his people and this dog gets home too. It can be really sad to lose a pet. I wish I could have caught up with him. I would feel better now, if I had. I wish I had made the connection in my head sooner.

On a completely unrelated and inconsistently happy note, we had a very enjoyable Abbot and Costello moment tonight. Nate had put a VHS copy of the Michael Douglas movie "The Game" somewhere in the living room. Also note that Nate and Jason have an X-box, a PS2, and a Dreamcast hooked up.

Nate: Where's "The Game?"
Jason: What game?
Nate: The movie.
Jason: What movie?
Nate: "The Game."
Jason: What game?
Nate: The movie!

Good night, everyone. I hope everyone sleeps well and has an enjoyable holiday weekend.

"I'm afraid of the dark without you close to me
I went out to the forest and caught
A hundred thousand fireflies
As they ricochet round the room
They remind me of your starry eyes.
Someone else's might not have made me so sad
But this is the worst night I ever had,
'Cause I'm afraid of the dark without you close to me"
~A hundred thousand fireflies, by the magnetic fields




  posted by Matthew @ 2:53 AM

 
I think I will just stop sleeping entirely. It seems to be relatively unnecessary anyway.

  posted by Matthew @ 4:06 AM

 
And now, I'm pretty much fully recovered. I was pissy for a while, but for the time being, all is cool.

My mood redemption came at the hands of a friend who had no idea what he was doing. It was his blog that convinced me that blogger is more fit for me than LiveJournal. In a recent entry of his that announced I had recently created my own blog, he had this to say of me.

"Matt may be the funniest friend I have. Many of the times its dark humor but it’s great."

Simple, no? Inexplicably, that perked me up almost entirely. I relish my sense of humor. It encourages me immensely to hear that other people find me funny to talk with. It's a characteristic of mine that I'm glad to have. It's important to be able to laugh at things, I think. You can't take things too seriously. Like a piddling twelve bucks. Who cares?

And I am at peace with the world.


  posted by Matthew @ 6:17 PM

 
I have been royally screwed, and not in a fun way. Okay royally may be a little over the top, but I'm pissed.

Me (to Blockbuster chick): These games were due back three hours ago. Can I just take care of the late fee now?
Blockbuster chick: That will be twelve dollars.
Me: [blinks]
Blockbuster chick: If you want, you can just keep them another week and bring them back. You're kind of already paying for it.
Me: [pays and walks out of store]

I rented them because I wanted to see if they were any good. They weren't. Now, I realize that if I had not rented them at all, I could have bought a used copy of FFX. With that kind of late fee policy, there's no way in hell I'm going back to Blockbuster. Maybe they should change their name to 'Ballbuster' ... Heh. That was so bad it was funny, to me. I've cheered myself up a little with horrible, horrible humor. ^_^

  posted by Matthew @ 5:49 PM

 
The numbers are in, and the Matrix: Reloaded made 91.8 milion over the weekend, and 134.3 million over five days. The best showing ever for an R-rated movie. It's surprising, though, that Daddy Day Care somehow managed to rake in almost 19 million this weekend. There's an obvious explanation for this, though. How many pre-17 movie-goers bought that Daddy Day Care ticket and then meandered over to a Matrix: Reloaded theater? It's an old trick, and I've done it. But I think this is probably one of the first times that it had a significant effect on ticket sales. I bet that Reloaded actually broke 100 million last weekend, but unfortunately Eddie Murphy is going to get part of the credit. It's a shame, really.

  posted by Matthew @ 12:46 PM

 
Okay, I changed the title of my blog in honor of the fact that I was nearly killed by an avi of Aqua Teen Hungerforce and a bag of popcorn. In the intro, I was watching Dr. Weird and Steve. Steve was attacked by corn for the second time, and it made me laugh while I had a piece of popcorn in my mouth. I nearly choked and died. It was hilarious. And so, I found the new title for my web log.

I have one more observation regarding the Matrix before I get Reloaded downloaded off Kazaa and review it so I can re-review it.

The racial make-up of Zion has been heralded as progressive in a number of reviews, seeing as it is predominantly black and asian. It's hardly progressive. It's a calculated effort to pander to the mainstream, white audience that is fascinated by these cultures. Progressive, my ass.

  posted by Matthew @ 11:23 AM

 
Okay, I have now watched the Animatrix DVD, which is a collection of nine short animated features related to the Matrix: Reloaded. It won't be out until June fifth, but I have downloaded a copy. It was pretty cool. Four of them are available for download on the internet, and one was viewable along with the Stephen King movie Dreamcatcher, or whatever. The other four are completely new. Some of them are referenced in the movie. Remember that annoying kid that was following Neo around and gave him the spoon? Yeah, he's in there. Some of you would say this is pretty cool, but I have my problems. Sure, they're cool, but parts of the movie that made no sense are clearer now. Is it really a good idea to have prereqs to understanding a movie? If you can explain their reasoning for doing this without saying that its mostly a way to make more money (which is what I think it is) then please tell me.

What was exciting about the first Matrix movie was the mystery. Ooh, what is the matrix? What's going on? Is Neo really the one? Those kinds of questions fueled the narrative very well, and they were generally answered. In this movie, there are the understandable questions left open because it is the middle part of a trilogy. But there's more left open-ended in the movie for other reasons. The Wachowskis decided to have this Animatrix DVD and the video game complement the movie. So there are things in the movie that are left unexplained, but as an audience we have no way of knowing if its unexplained a) because this is the middle part of the trilogy b) because its something in the other "required reading" involved with the movie or c) just because its not explained, and isn't going to be. This kind of frustration is not a good thing to do to your audience.

I've also been reviewing the first movie. It's undeniable that the world of the Matrix changes between the two movies. In the first movie, we as views are given the impression that we know all the major players in this story. The idea of "rogue programs" or even the significance of the other freed humans is not an issue. Morpheus and Trinity are the only hackers who are important in the beginning of the story. Neo has been searched for Morpheus, but he has no idea (and neither do we) who Niobe, Ghost, or anybody else is. Also, at the end, we were given the impression that Neo was the One and that meant he had the ability to reshape the matrix as he saw fit. At the beginning of the second, he could kick ass and he could fly, but that's about it. The implications of his being the Chosen One that we saw at the end of the first movie went right out the window. Observe a comic: http://www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20030514

Now, this is understandable. When the first Matrix movie was made, there was no guarantee of a second or third. Ironically, if they had made it with that assumption in mind, it possibly would have prevented them from being able to make the whole trilogy. But still, it's just incongruous. And just because it makes sense from a real-world perspective doesn't make it make any sense in the world of the movie. (Höfstadter would love the repeated loops in this discussion)

Further critiques:

In talking to friends of mine, it has occured to me that most people didn't realize that Agent Smith had gone back into the real world and sabotaged the attack. This is an important piece of information, and it wasn't picked up on. Either that, or I was wrong, and what really seemed to be the case to me is not. In any case, the Wachowskis should have been clearer.

In retrospect, I also realize that the speech made by the architect was incredibly difficult to understand, ridiculously so. And there was no reason for this. He gives important, vital information to the understanding of the movie, but he's nearly impossible to figure out. Poorly written. And don't give me some bullshit line about "Oh, I understood it, it must be your fault." because I'm a relatively intelligent individual, and the people I've talked to are certainly not at a level where we should be confused by this kind of thing. The first matrix was such a good movie because it was accessible.

In the second movie, the agents seem to have gotten less powerful. Morpheus holds his own against the agent on top of the truck (and then eventually beats him) way longer than in the first movie. And in fighting against the dozens of Agent Smiths, there's even more incongruity in the relative strength of these characters. It really doesn't even need to be said but, since Neo flew off at the end of the fight, why the hell didn't he just do that at the beginning? I know why - he needed to fight to impress the audience. But that's not a character's justification, it's a moviemaker's.

People in the matrix and out of the matrix have essentially the same bodies, right? When two people in the matrix get married and have children, do the robots take the DNA from the parents and mix them together to create the child? Or do people no longer look like their parents? Are birth rates and consequently human production rates by the robots constant throughout the year, or do they increase nine months after Valentine's day, and things like that? You can dismiss these questions as unnecessary and reading too deep into things, but the Wachowskis are making this world, and they're intent on revealing so many significant details about it, they can't accept that the only questions to ask are the ones they have answers for.

Here's the deal, as I see it. There are people who would be completely willing to disregard all the problems I have. That's fine. There are people who would say I lack some kind of experience or perception essential to the understanding and acceptance of this movie. That's not fine. That's elitist and that's pompous and it's wrong. If you look for profundity hard enough, you're going to find it. I know this, because there was a time when I was able to find it in Dragonball Z. And that's way harder to make a case for than the Matrix, okay? Don't tell me it was my fault that the inane philosophizing didn't make sense. I'm a philosophy major and I've read a lot on the subject of zen. What they were saying in that movie was circular and nonsensical. Don't tell me it was profound and I'm just not smart enough to get it, okay?

The vision of what the story amounted to changed between the first and second movies. I don't know if its as satisfying a story now. Of course, I'm forced to withold final judgement until the third part comes out. So that's what I'm going to do.

  posted by Matthew @ 6:46 PM