3:00 AM:

Continuing the old-news roundup: On the whole High Fidelity wasn't bad. Not great, either, but still. And, as an aside, it tuns out that TVs with the feature I describe below already exist. (Thanks, Margaret!)

In other recent video viewings, I've finally seen The Matrix, rented strictly for reasons of cultural literacy. I now understand references to red and blue pills, non-existent spoons, and so on. And, somewhat to my surprise, I liked the film, too, despite the entirely nonsensical plot and shallow characters. I'll even confess that when my phone rang, about three quarters of the way through the film, I found myself wondering -- for a brief moment -- whether it was a call from another reality. Ultimately, this film works because its stars look really good in black... but that suffices.

Also good: The People vs. Larry Flynt. Contains lots of nudity, and so not for everyone, but as a First Amendment activist, it was very interesting viewing. If the system can work for Flynt despite his best efforts, maybe there's hope for us after all, as it really is the most offensive stuff that needs to be protected the most vigorously.

I followed that up with Quills, but had to turn it off after the first two minutes. I should've known better than to rent anything about the Marquis de Sade. I'm all for consenting adults doing whatever they want with each other, but, well, BDSM squicks me, on a personal level.

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend. It features Deborah Gibson, which is why I've wanted to see it, and it ended up bypassing theatres and going straight to video. It's not hard to see why. The cute animated opening credits sequence (over a song by the Debster... yay!) is the only bit worth watching. Bad film. Very bad film. Avoid.

I'm waiting for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to be downgraded to 5-day rental status at Blockbuster before checking it out, but it's at the top of my list, otherwise.

As for stuff currently playing, I wouldn't mind seeing Moulin Rouge or Tomb Raider, but I'm not exactly rushing to the theatre either. I'm just biding my time for the releases of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Particularly the former, as I've seen the live version, and I'm wondering how they turned it into a film; it's gotta be radically different.

Camp starts tomorrow! ...or later today, I guess. I ought to get some sleep.

In other news, I got a digital camera from a friend earlier this week, and I finally managed to install the thing -- in spite of my system's ideosyncracies -- earlier tonight. It's kinda low-end (said friend got fed up with it and bought a better one for himself), but I'm not about to look a gift camera in the lens.

(Except for self-portraits, but I was speaking metaphorically.)

It looks like I'm about to get a PDA through a similar process, this time with my father being the person upgrading, but I'll wait until that actually happens before saying anything else on the matter. I'm excited at the prospect, though.

In other news... let me try to catch up on some of the stuff alluded to previously. The Bronx Zoo was indeed nice; I hadn't been there in ages, and I'm glad I went this time. The gibbons were fun, as were the flamingos, not to mention the bats. And there are some suprisingly morbid ornithologists working there.

The movie I saw with Jen was The Mummy Returns. On the whole, it was an interesting demonstration of the power of Photoshop. (And as nobody but Jen has yet laughed at that line, I'll give you my alternate punchline, which I don't like as much, but which has gotten better results: "It was an interesting demonstration of what you can do with a lab of networked Commodore 64s.")

The movie was bad. The plot, the characterization, the acting... well, actually, they didn't really bother with any of those. The special effects were at times hysterically funny; there was this one series of shots featuring a dirigible during which I couldn't stop laughing, and it clearly hadn't been intended to be funny. It was at such moments that the film crossed that magic line into "so bad it's good" territory, but, alas, such moments weren't enough to carry the film as a whole.

Trashing the film with Jen during the credits, on the other hand... that was a blast. Made the whole experience well worth it.

The dinner I made the week was just fine. I belatedly discovered that the friend visiting was of the school of thought that holds that "chili" contains beans by definition, but I renamed what I'd made "really spicy sloppy joes" and all was well.