Hrm.

Sudhir Venkatesh's fantastic book, Gang Leader for a Day, has been optioned for a movie.

Not sure how I feel about that.

Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation was made into a movie, but it didn't have much in common with the book. Subject matter was the same, sure, but these characters in the movie weren't in the book. It was a fictionalized account of something very real. It was okay. The book was better, as it almost always is.

Gang Leader for a Day is not a story that can be translated to the big screen without it being cheapened, glamorized and ultimately robbed of it's reality, IMO.

Hollywood needs to come up with some of it's own good ideas. Too many movies are coming from books, and while some are good (No Country for Old Men), many of them have failed to do the book they are based on justice. The Kite Runner, anyone?

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuckity fuck.

that's all.

3-19

Barack Obama's speech Tuesday.

Amazing. Just amazing.

I can't think of anyone else in recent history with such eloquence in public speaking.

Great speech. What needed to be said, was said. Thanks for not shying away from difficult issues.

(If you haven't heard it, the link is to a transcript. Youtube has the video.)

**

More on Obama....

I remember getting excited for the 2004 election, as a Kerry supporter. But I think it was more of Kerry being the anti to Bush that garnered my support. This time around though, I feel really strongly about Obama. He is a great candidate and he isn't afraid to say things that aren't necessarily political campaign material.

I respect the fact that he did not just renounce Rev. Wright outright, as the standard MO for political candidates would likely have had him do. He stuck to his convictions and explained how it is possible to have a relationship with someone who is at once so helpful and so different. We don't have to agree on everything and believe the same things; we can still be friends.

Maybe he's young and naive. Maybe I am naive for believing that one man could set off a revolution of change. I am not naive enough to think that four years- or even eight- will be enough time to change the world, but it is enough time to be the catalyst.

As much as I want Obama to win, I am afraid of him winning.

I know this sounds weird, hear me out.

His entire platform is change. He promises the moon and then some. It almost sounds too good to be true- but somehow still doable. I'm afraid that if he wins, he won't live up to the expectations that millions of people rallying around him have. I want him to be special, and notable for more than just the first African American president. I want him to live up to the hype. I don't want the most promising candidate in recent history to let us down.

PSA for new parents

Congratulations on the birth of your spawn! You must be thrilled.

While your child is, naturally, the cutest, smartest little bugger ever born, eventually you will realize that baby talk and formula regurgitation do not make for interesting conversation topics. When this happens, you will want a night out to be an adult. Maybe even with cocktails!

Time to find a sitter for your little angel. Maybe you are lucky enough to have a family full of suckers, or maybe you have to pay someone to snoop through all of your drawers and finish that bag of M&Ms in the fridge. Either way, it is important to treat your sitters kindly or they may turn on you. Mutiny!

Your brain is, no doubt, fried from sleep deprivation and Baby Einstein videos. I understand. To make things easier for you, here are a few tips to keep your sitters, and you, happy:

Have a plan. When planning your return to the adult world, don't fly by the seat of your pants. Your sitter has a life too, and likely a bed time.

Be Considerate. If the sitter asks you not to stay out all night, don't do it. This is the fastest way to reduce the pool of potential sitters.

Do not assume. If you are fortunate enough not to have to shell out the bucks for your sitter, do not assume that they will be content to sit in your tiny living room all night while you stand, jaw gaping, (ooh! shiny!) at all of the things you had forgotten existed out there in the adult world. The dynamics change quite a bit when payment is involved, of course.

*ahem*

Anyway. Someone's grouchy this evening.