Ramsayings

Helen and I have had a hell of a time watching movies lately. Between work and raising a very active 17-month-old baby, it’s hard to watch anything more than a few sitcoms before passing out on the couch. We rallied last night to watch a full-length feature for the first time in months and watched the international hit, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. What better way to celebrating scaling back on our Netflix subscription than by streaming a movie, right?

You’ll have to forgive me for not reading the books, but when my Danish host mom recommended them to Helen and me back when we visited them in ’09, I had a hunch they’d be here soon. It’s a gruesome story poorly told; Helen, who has read the book, explained that they really took liberties with it and I can’t rightly say it was for the best, but where it doesn’t succeed as an adaptation, it works as a thriller.

Lisbeth Salander reads like a more emotionally tormented Jason Bourne, with even less insight into her troubled past. She’s a fascinating character who’s absolutely captivating onscreen. The main problem with the movie is that the story can’t seem to get out of its own way at times. The hamfisted director hammers home in every possible frame just how atrocious and psychotic these crimes are, as if the audience hadn’t ascertained that already. Hopefully that improves in future installments.

My biggest worry about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo? That people will overstate the influence of the Swedish Nazi Party. The Swedes have their faults, but being Nazi sympathizers isn’t one of them.

I’ve never watched much late night tv. Remember seeing Conan’s very first show…and then never tuning in again. Then I caught the late night bug with Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert on Comedy Central, but even that waned. But after the kerfuffle between he and Leno, I became a fan.

One small problem: I almost never stay up that late. What to do?! Well, I’ve moved into the 21st Century and I’m watching on my computer. Even awesomer? I can treat it as some folks do Howard Stern and just run it in the background at work while I’m knocking out other things.

If A Decade Under the Influence turned you on to American film in the ’70s, then this collection is for you. It’s also a great way to see Jack Nicholson before he entered the realm of self-parody. Also, Henry Jaglom!

Once upon a time, that would’ve been a dream walk-on for me. Reallly hard to imagine Radiohead and R.E.M. together live now.

Their forthcoming album, Collapse Into Now, strikes me as the most desperate attempt at relevance since their last. Whatever happened to aging gracefully, guys?

I get having Patti Smith and Eddie Vedder aboard, but Peaches? In 2010?

Went to see a recording of Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! at the Academy of Music last night here in Philadelphia. If people think that this weekend’s Rally to Restore Sanity is like the Gathering of the Smuggaloes, then they wouldn’t know what to make of this.

Let’s just say that Helen and I really love the show, but seeing the sausage get made wasn’t quite as appealing. Can someone start a “More Carl!” campaign? I think you could make it catchphrasey, like “more cowbell.” Who’s with me?

Overall the show wasn’t that bad, it’s just that, I dunno, it just didn’t come off quite the same live. When the jokes are flat, they’re really flat and the panelists’ hemming and hawing wasn’t all that clever, although Tom Bodett was a treat! P.J. O’Rourke got booed once when he joked that ’60s protesters deserved to be beaten and teargassed. Amy Dickinson did had to stand in for women everywhere. Weird.

We heard the show air yesterday as we drove back from D.C. Sounded much better. Probably best to not see how the sausage gets made, huh?