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Edwin MacPhisto

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Everything posted by Edwin MacPhisto

  1. Edwin MacPhisto

    Watchmen

    The plot is mostly faithful, and the images are faithful. The themes, tone, and several characters of the film are not terribly faithful to the book, unless you are reading the book in extremely simplistic fashion. I consider those a lot more important than, say, the blots on Rorschach's mask or Bubastis or a given line of dialogue appearing. That's not "overanalyzing" the movie; it's just analyzing it. If you enjoyed this incarnation, more power to you, but I think it's been made pretty clear why several people didn't, and it's not just cause there's no squid or Black Freighter.
  2. Edwin MacPhisto

    The Things That Anger You Thread.

    Why would a club want to bother letting in someone underage, even excluding the liability issues should he or she manage to finagle a drink off someone? Assuming that the underage person isn't drinking, that's a body taking up space that isn't paying for more than a couple of $2 sodas all night. Most busy clubs are wall-to-wall with people, and the ownership surely wants them to be drunk, paying people.
  3. Edwin MacPhisto

    24 -- Season 7

    I always enjoy 24 for the ridiculous action and plotting, but this season really is absolutely monstrous. The ridiculous advocacy of torture and the conflation of its opponents with dripping wrinkly vaginas is overbearing and embarrassing.
  4. Edwin MacPhisto

    BUG JAR II

    It appears that Canada, then, is safe.
  5. Edwin MacPhisto

    Lil Wayne is releasing a rock album

    Well, Prince did release "Let's Pretend We're Married" as a single off 1999, too, and that song features the line "I sincerely want to fuck the taste out of your mouth." I guess it didn't chart as high as his major hits, but I still think of it as the sort of obvious blow-job themed pop music hit ancestor to "Lollipop." That said, Weezy has never exactly been one for subtlety.
  6. Edwin MacPhisto

    Ben Folds - Way to Normal

    I can't believe I didn't make a "more like Gay to Normal" joke back in December.
  7. Edwin MacPhisto

    The Agent of Oblivion question of the day

    Continuing to post on various "save money!" message boards and listening to an additional hour of talk radio a day.
  8. Edwin MacPhisto

    Watchmen

    I'll refer you to some specific quotes from people on the previous page that sync up closely with my thoughts. I also felt that the subtlety and ambiguity of the ending was more or less entirely tossed out. It's like, look kids--Nite Owl's beating up Adrian because black and white superhero morality fails and/or is pointless! Zounds! Snyder didn't have the balls (or maybe the talent?) to really imbue the story with the level of moral terror and horror it demands throughout its 12 issues. Everything was very simplified, most of the "good" characters were idealized in a way the book, to its credit, never allows to happen, and the film ended up being a pile of exposition with a rushed plot and some weird leftovers. It's like Watchmen for people who read the comic but didn't get it.
  9. Edwin MacPhisto

    Watchmen

    Plotwise, most of the stuff was there. Thematically and in terms of the background and psychology of several of the characters, it wasn't. Those were the important elements that were missing.
  10. Edwin MacPhisto

    Knives, Pans, and Kitchen Gadgets

    My biggest problem with Global knives is that they're crazy light. I feel like the chef's knife would just fly out of my hand. I hear the handles can also get very slippery, which could add to the "I am trapped in a knife fight in my kitchen oh god" experience.
  11. Edwin MacPhisto

    Watchmen

    Kinda boring, mostly devoid of subtext, powered along by a superb Jackie Earle Haley and a handful of strong sequences, and frustratingly paced. I actually think people who know nothing about Watchmen will like it way more than people who've read and loved the comic; the movie does little more than serve the plot (and some characters) of the story, which makes it somewhat dull for fans--it's not that fun watching the story beats you know by heart play out awkwardly. Still, it's probably just as exciting for first-time viewers as it was for those of us cracking the spine the first time.
  12. Edwin MacPhisto

    The MagicJack Offseason Bowl

    I bet they all copied off Myron Rolle. EDIT: Not much in the way of consequences--they're losing a tremendous one scholarship in 2009-10 and 2010-2011. They also voluntarily already cut two scholarships from '09-10 to take that total down to 82. I'm unimpressed.
  13. Edwin MacPhisto

    The Agent of Oblivion question of the day

    I developed an aversion to peeing in the shower as soon as I got to college and had to share a bathroom for the first time. It just seemed like a dick move (har!) and the practice has stuck with me since. I'm sure everyone else was coating the tiles, but at least I did my part. I blow my nose sometimes when I'm feeling particularly congested or am out of tissues.
  14. Edwin MacPhisto

    The Truthiness is a fucking stinky twatfart

    "Accidents Will Happen"
  15. Edwin MacPhisto

    Knives, Pans, and Kitchen Gadgets

    If you want to upgrade your knives a bit without breaking the bank, I highly recommend Forschner/Victorinox. The swiss army knife people make extremely sharp and nicely weighted knives on the cheap. It might not be a $100 blade, but for $16 or so, the 8" chef's knife is hugely better over anything I've found even in the $30-$50 range. I love my cast-iron skillet, though I've only got a 10". Ought to upgrade that. I get a ton of mileage out of a huge 12" Anolon non-stick skillet I picked up on sale a couple years back, especially for breakfast stuff or big wok-ish stir fry type projects, but I do most of my cooking in stainless steel. Have a full set of saucepans, pots, and skillets, some department store brand that's held up well.
  16. Edwin MacPhisto

    Cowboys release Terrell Owens

    I'd be stunned to see Owens sign with a team that didn't have a winning record last year, much less one that was far, far from it. The first three teams that popped into my head were Jacksonville, Tennessee, and San Diego. Problem with the first two is that neither has a QB who's likely to be throwing out many 300-yard games, and we know especially from last year that Owens wants his looks and his stats.
  17. Edwin MacPhisto

    Shit I have to read for High School

    We did Anthem in 8th grade. It was ass even then. Not nearly as graphic, as I recall. Beloved has a nice pile of rape, rapists violently drinking milk out of their victim's breasts, and a woman brutally murdering her infant child with a saw. I don't think anybody failed to get the slip signed, though. It's one of his more straightforward works, which makes it a pretty good intro to his catalog. A lot of his other work plays heavily with gender, identity, and politics in a way that might be a little heavy for most 9th/10th graders to really follow. Most students already know the basic story, too, since it's such a cultural touchstone. That eliminates some of the initial challenge of comprehension that a lot of people encounter when they read plays in verse for the first time. My school gradually ran us through R&J, Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and King Lear, but I think that much Shakespeare is somewhat uncommon.
  18. Edwin MacPhisto

    My new way of eating.

    Superb word filter fallout right here.
  19. Edwin MacPhisto

    Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

    It's the biggest problem of the show for me. Nobody but Helo is worth a shit; even Harry Lennix is a deluded asshole who sits in a van while his charge gets sent out for sex. The show needs to get much darker on that aspect to be at all compelling. It obviously can't be ignored, but the show's handling of it thus far is totally puerile.
  20. Edwin MacPhisto

    Covering Coverage

    I would have preferred Vanish/Doom.
  21. Edwin MacPhisto

    Shit I have to read for High School

    Permission slips I remember in high school: 1) Beloved, 11th grade. Failing a signature, the alternate was Invisible Man. This was 1999. 2) The Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet, which we watched in 9th grade. Brief flashes of nudity for our scandalized little 14-year-old eyes.
  22. Edwin MacPhisto

    The 2009 NFL Offseason

    So says ESPN. With Engram and Housh, the Seahawks are going to be possessing the hell out of some 12-yard routes.
  23. Edwin MacPhisto

    (new feature) BUG JAR I

    I wanted more stinging.
  24. Edwin MacPhisto

    Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

    I've been watching. There are vast problems with the premises of the show, and I'm not convinced Whedon understands how to handle the trafficking/exploitation side of the organization in an adult fashion. The lens of his show is very male-gazey and his heroine's been prostituted out in 2 of 3 episodes, but there really isn't a visible counterpoint yet; thematically, the show isn't subtle enough to effectively foreground much more than Dushku wearing skimpy outfits, which makes it both uncomfortable and stupid to watch. Whedon seems to operate much better in a more fantastical environment, where he can explain things with broad metaphor via the adventures of various charming rogues. I like pieces of what's going on, but there's no viable show here on any level--it's totally getting canceled by the end of March.
  25. Edwin MacPhisto

    Personal Attacks on Jingus.

    I just searched "jingus uswo" and it was on the first page.
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