TV Update: Echostar (Direct TV) and Viacom solved their differences ... David Letterman has returned! Game Over (Wednesday 8PM UPN) is billed as the first Prime Time show that solely uses computer generated images (CGI). Reboot was the true pioneer in CGI, a Saturday Morning Cartoon with creative storylines, fully formed characters, and eventually, a serious story arc that is more often seen in anime than regular animated cartoons. I was a bit hooked on it and the email addy for this blog is a takeoff of one of the characters. It ended badly -- new episodes were funded, a mixed bag, and then it ended with a cliffhanger that never was resolved!

[Update: I caught some of the show ... a bit lame though Patrick Washburn (Puddy from Seinfeld, now Lydia's boyfriend on Less Than Perfect, is always fun.).]
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The Barbarian Invasions: This won the 2003 Best Foreign Film Academy Award (Canada/Quebec). The movie is a sequel of sorts to The Decline of the American Empire (which I did not see, but apparently it is a bit of a talkfest, not quite as deep as the title implies), and the gang of fun loving academics come together again to be there for their dying friend. Roger Ebert suggests that few want to see a film where someone has a hard time dying (except, perhaps, if Mel Gibson directs), though I think that's the problem here -- things (with a lot of help with his son's money) are a bit too perfect. And, though Remy went to Burlington for medical treatment, Gov. Dean did not have a cameo!

The characters and dialogue still are adult and intelligent, the dramatic moments still present, but it all has a sense of unreality that troubled me some. It also was a bit too flippant. Still, in a day where it's so much trouble to get medicinal marijuana, it's nice to see that some can get medicinal heroin (go to the police station, ask the local narcotic detective ...) without too much trouble. The title itself is a metaphor made after a clip of the attack on the twin towers is shown (will the attacks be but a first of a stream of "barbarian invasions?"). I don't know if the film quite earned the right to such a weighty metaphor, but there is enough to it that the audience still respects its use. Perhaps, enough that it won an Oscar, though I think the fact it was Canadian (and the other nominees a tad obscure) helped some as well.

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News: More on how the Bush Administration inhibited democracy in Latin America because they didn't like the democratically elected leadership. A satirical look at current events that is funny enough that I just might put it on my blogroll. It is especially tragic when nonmilitary die in overseas conflicts, including a reporter in Haiti and a human rights activist specializing in women rights (one of the victims of those pretending to be Iraqi police). [Update: Some reports that it might have been a real police officer. See, e.g., here with fuller story about victim.]