28 Days Later...minus eight days.

I apologize about the lapse in posting around here lately. I've updated my movies list and the Lyric Box for those of you who take a look at those particular sidebars. I have some assorted thoughts to share that will give you a sense of what I've been up to since October 2oth.

1) I saw American Gangster Sunday night. It was good. I'll give it 3 out of 4 stars. An engrossing story with solid performances from highly respected actors. The plot went several directions I never would have anticipated, and the surprise was most welcome and refreshing. These were not "twists" but simply moments and settings incorporated into the film that neither my previous experience of crime films nor my knowledge of American history led me to anticipate. If you're looking for an enjoyable night at the movies, I recommend American Gangster as fun for the whole family...assuming your family does not contain children under the age of 13 or staunchly conservative adults who feel the flames of hell lick their feet each time they hear an F-bomb dropped or see naked boobies that aren't their own or those of their spouse.

2) While meeting with the reading group associated with my Nietzsche seminar, I actually uttered this imperative cloaked as an interrogative: "Why don't you reify my balls, Gary?"

3) The Colts lost to the Patriots 24-20 last weekend. Now Peyton will almost certainly have to battle the frigid elements of Foxboro come January. Crap. The Colts could finish the regular season 15-1 and still only be the #2 seed in the AFC. Nevertheless, I take pride in the fact that the Kraft family threw around a ridiculous amount of money to acquire new players during the offseason and yet their team was only able to defeat the home grown Colts by 4 points. Sadly, moral victories don't win championships.

4) I spent much of last week working on a presentation about the 19th Century philosopher of religion Ludwig Feuerbach. On November 1st, my co-presenter and I rocked the house with a potent combination of humor and critical scholarship. (I found out Wednesday night that our professor awarded us an "A" for our efforts.) Among other prefatory statements I made about the presentation, I articulated the following warning:

"I should let you know in advance that our presentation includes a lot of gender-exclusive pronouns. Feuerbach talks about "man" and so we'll be using his language. Ladies, the upside here is that, if you don't agree with his anthropology, you can just tell yourself, 'He ain't talkin' 'bout me.'"

5) I made two visuals for my part of the presentation. I post them here without explanation for your purely aesthetic enjoyment.