Boy, is that windy out there this evening. I saw lots of shit blowing across the road on the way from the movies. I ventured over to the Cinemark at Valley View, where there might have been 15 in attendance.

And the movie I came back from was "Michael Clayton". I'd say this was a pretty good thriller. You see, you have this ADM-type company who kinda made a bad product which ended up poisoning some people. An incriminating memo was found, and voila, there's your movie. George Clooney again was very good as a lawyer who doesn't do a whole of litigating. He's a fixer, a janitor, and gets folks out of trouble. As Sydney Pollack says, "You found a niche."

Tilda Swinton probably deserves her Oscar nomination. Hard to figure how Tom Wilkinson got his. But the movie probably deserves its Best Picture nomination. Except for that one part where Clooney is investigating. Jeezy creezy, a cop yells "Freeze!" quite unexpectedly. Man, I haven't jumped in a movie like that in a long time.

Meal of Links

Here is an opinion of the 10 Best at Sundance. The two that jump out for me are the Hunter S. Thompson doc and "Be Kind Rewind" by Michel Gondry.

Time for the annual Pazz and Jop list from the Village Voice. I always look to this list as a way to catch up on music I may have missed, because while there are some obscurities in here, I think it's a true reflection of what's going on. For instance, "Icky Thump" is at #11, and I believe the last list I posted neglected it. Face it, that's pretty stupid. Spoon and Amy Winehouse with a couple, that's cool. I see Against Me! (who I just saw) in the top 40 singles and #21 on album, OK. It's a good read every year.

Another nutjob, Deion Sanders, gets a reality show. Hope they have his Hot Dog Maker on there. Get the popcorn ready.

Exercise Yard

The Seattle Times has an unbelievable series going on about the 2000 Washington Huskies. Browns draft pick, Jeremiah Pharms, gets a chapter. Pharms was the Butch Davis pick that was being investigated for murder and the Browns embarrassingly had to drop him. Excellent stuff.

Visitor

21 Across: First name in cosmetics (5 letters) Answer: Estee