Big Comedians and Deep Performance.

I watched Punch Drunk Love again tonight. And as much as I though Billy Madison was kinda funny, and Magnolia was self-indulgent tripe, I think that this is a really great movie that never got it's due. And I think that Adam Sandler's performance was never given the respect it deserved. I just wanted to say that.
Just like Bill Murray was bad ass in Lost in Translation and Jim Carrey did an amazing, affecting (without affectation) job in The Truman Show, I think that silly comedians, really silly comedians like those three, do great jobs once they get into well written small dramas. The whole point is to stuff a large-but-thin (tragedy-wise) personality into a small-but-thick part. That's freaking gold.
When you stuff a large-but-thick personality (tragedy-wise) like Sean Penn into a small-but-thick roll, like most of the great ones are, then you end up with over acting...like most of Sean Penn's more lamentable roles (I'm looking at you I Am Sam).
This is the same phenomenon that makes Clint Eastwood a great filmmaker, he's a large but thin personality. He can encompass a dozen different thoughts, feelings, and ideas at the same time. Thus he incorporated Sean Penn in his larger vision and made that actor look good. Large but thick personalities get caught in their own depths--so they end up giving us one-sided, thin art. Think about Da Vinci, spread all over the place and never finishing most things, but the things he did finish are amazing. While, say, Ayn Rand, just wrote (essentially) the same thick novel over and over again.

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He'll Save the Children, But Not the British Children

My fascination with both long-dead American political figures and the legends surrounding them is rewarded with profane hilarity in this animation. The guy who did it also created an alternate soundtrack and commentary for Harry Potter and theSocerer's Stone which is itslef pretty sweet. You knew that George Washington never told a lie and chopped down that cherry tree (about which chopping, no lie was told) but did you know that he threw a knife into heaven, and fucked the shit out of bears? Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

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She liked the songs before she listened to them

Okay, this is stupid.

The senator from New York responded that she has the Beatles and the Rolling Stones on the white iPod that her husband gave her for a birthday present, along with Motown and classical music. She then rattled off a list of songs: the Beatles "Hey Jude," Aretha Franklin's, "Respect," the Eagles "Take It to the Limit," and U2's "Beautiful Day." Hillary Clinton is the least spontaneous of politicians, and this playlist suggests premeditation, if not actual poll-testing. She first indicates that she basically likes everything before coming to roost on classic rock and soul, which any baby boomer must identify with, lest she or he be branded terminally uncool. Hillary avoids, however, anything too racy, druggie, or aggressive, while naming tunes that are empowering and inspirational.

You know that this is calculated and not an honest playlist because Hillary Clinton is "the least spontaneous of politicians." How do you know that she is the least spontaneous of politicians? Why, by looking at her iPod, silly. The circular logic is breathtaking. My parents (who are Hillary's age) listen to the same music...that's because they're both running for President. Why else would they like this music?
Are you telling me that a baby boomer has classic rock and Motown on her iPod? Horror of horrors! I mean, I have Modest Mouse and Jay-Z on my iPod, I'm clearly just pandering to the tastes of 25 year olds. There is literally no other explaination.

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This makes me a sad panda

Behold, down from the dewey slops of the lofty mount of rocking comes the National Review (Official Slogan: What's So Bad About Segregation?) with the Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs. Check it out, it's pretty funny. There are already some cogent takedowns from better bloggers here and here.

I don't want to examine the songs themselves (honestly, The Clash? really?) but I would raise an objection to the entire enterprise itself. Here's the sad truth, the devistating reality of the world whose cold, black outlines show in stark relief the hardness of the universe: Conservatism is not cool. Never has been, never will be. That doesn't mean that individual conservatives themselves cannot be cool or write a cool song or paint a cool painting. Stravinksy was practically a fascist, and people seemed to have liked Rush (?!). But the whole principle of conservative political thought stands opposed to anything like the aesthetics of cool, to wit: rock music. Rock is avowedly that strain of pop music that celebrates, nay encourages promiscuous sex, heavy drinking, drug use, crime, and the brining down of The Man.

Even the sort of wussy indie rock that I often listen to is composed with an eye to a decidedly un-conservative lifestyle.

There are surely some conservative rock songs, but on this list of 50 there are perhaps five authentically conservative tunes. The list conflates any opposition to authoritarianism with anti-Communism, the list seems to believe that mistrust of government in these songs is right-libertarianism (not, say, opposition to Vietnam, or mistrust of the Regan or Nixon administrations...which is what the sentiments in the songs tend to be), the list seems to mistake irony for earnestness as in the case of "I Fought the Law," which is decidedly not a law and order song--the outlaw is still the hero, it's just that he lost in this case. There is also the comical over-reading of songs like "The Battle of Evermore" whose politics, if any, seem to relevant only in Middle Earth.

Or when the list makers fall for the fake out in "Sympathy for the Devil," pronouncing that, "The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that 'every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints.' What's more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: 'I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain.'" In point of fact, the song paints the Devil as a seductive hero who speaks the truth that "every cop is a criminal..." And yeah, the song mentions Bolshevism, but by the list's terms it also condemns the Kennedy assassination and Western intervention in the Third World. Listen to the swagger in Mick's voice when he sings the song in character as the Devil, Ol' Scratch is the hero of this tale, always getting one over on the squares. Rock music likes the Devil, this is an inviolable truth of rocking.

At the end of the day, the entire project--to find "conservative" rock songs--is a fool's errand. Conservatism doesn't rock. The very attempt to find conservative rock songs belies its own foolishness, liberals don't have to look for cool stuff that reflects our values; it's not a hunt for a progressive, it's a shopping spree. The conservative top 50 contains the song "One" by Creed, which is the least amount of rocking ever committed to CD. Q.E.D.

The very first group of culturally conservative, laissez-faire Republicans in the 19th Century were called the "Stalwarts." It is an apt characterization encapsulated in a single word. In fact, I know more a one conservative who defines themselves against hippness. The counter-strain, the idea that conservatives are the real cool cats, and it's stuffy old politically correct liberals who hate fun is absurd in the highest degree. Yes liberals think that you shouldn't be allowed to call people racial epithets because that's not cool, and we care about policy more than image (as demonstrated by our consistent electoral defeat over the last few years). But so long as the misogynist War on Fucking continues, and so long as it's conservatives that think dissent is treason and art should be censored if it's politically unacceptable...well so long as all of that continues They Shall Not Rock!

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I like that show about the doctor

So, if you didn't see it, you should definitely see the episode of House that showed tonight. Yeah, yeah, it's gripping drama. But more importantly it's an indictment and (perhaps?) vindication of Plato. Yes, Plato. The entire episode is the parable of the cave and then with some side jokes dismissing (or confirming) Aristotle and Pythagoras and the pre-Socratics. But again, maybe those are in jokes that come down on Pythagoras' side. Anyway, it was a messed-up episode that may or may not be inspired by Francis Bacon.

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Lionel of Arabia

Lionel Richie is huge in Iraq. Hasselhoff, eat your heart out.

Grown Iraqi men get misty-eyed by the mere mention of his name. "I love Lionel Richie," they say. Iraqis who do not understand a word of English can sing an entire Lionel Richie song.

I love that song "All Night Long." Also, that video where the blind woman makes the (shitty) sculpture of him.

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I'm stealing this outright

I totally stole this from another website that I got to via the blogs of many fine men and women. But the source is here at the Philidelphia Daily News' blog. It's a great sentiment.

Let the stealing begin:

What we've become

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
-- Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775.

"You have no civil liberties if you are dead."
-- Sen. Pat Roberts, May 18, 2006.

And the stealing is over.

This is an important difference in the two statements for a reason bigger than even the Revolution itself. See, we're being told that the NSA program, the suspension of habeas corpus for terrror prisoners, the stifling of dissent (people being removed from public Presidential speeches for not being supporters, protestors being arrested even when their demonstrations are legal) and the general sacrifice of civil liberties is because we are facing the worst enemy ever. The terrorists or evil doers or whatever are the such a great threat that liberal democracy itself must be sacrificed in the name of preserving the Republic. A greater existential threat in fact than the four most powerful empires in history (the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, the Empire of Japan, and the British Empire) all of whom we've soundly defeated without sacrificing our way of life. In fact we sought to make greater strides of inclusiveness and further our own liberal tradition in response to threats from these enemies. A few thousand douchebags that dare not show themselves in public lest they be destroyed by the might of the American and allied millitary are apprently more of a threat than four world-conquering authoritarian powers unknown in scope and ambition since the Caesars and Khans of old.

I submit to you, gentle reader, that neither al-Qaeda in particular, nor Islamist terror in general (nor terrorism at all--it's never, ever been effective, ever) is a threat to America in any greater measure that drug addiction or inflation. All of them are threats, and they are serious, and need to be dealt with properly because they are deleterious to the public weal. But none of them require the sacrifice of our core ideals in any way. In the end then, fair correspondants, I tell you that if a bunch of farmers and mercheants could hold off His Britannic Majesty with steel in their eyes and a copy of Common Sense in their hands, then we should not sacrifice freedom and civilization in order to save...freedom and civilization. That would be stupid.

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Ahhh, refreshing and delicious.

Can I get some motherfucking horchata please? I can't find it any-goddamn-where around here. With the sun coming back and the days lengthening I wan't horchata because it is delicious and refreshing. Yet this Godless Northern Land cannot seem to provide it for me.

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Wow...it's so super to be here.

Boy...I have to say that it's so great to be here. I trained and trained and now I finally made it! I've held my breath for a world record 1,893 visitors here at the the Codex Ivstinianvs. Man. It's a lot. I'd like to thank my trainer, Jimmy Hargood, and my support team, Tom, Jenny, Sam, you know who you are. I'd like to thank my parents and my friends and family. Hey, remember Jim, when when we all went to Cabo and Sam and Jenny said that thing? Yeah that was great. Most of all I'd like to thank Jesus Christ who made this all possible. Oh, wow. Wow. 1,893 visits and all of these people made it happen.

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Mars, Bitches!

The great Atrios has the great news.
Well not great, per se, just refreshing to realize that I'm not the asshole with the weird opinion.
President Bush. Now less popular than your jobless cousin!

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Tha Jeez want's no truck with such as this

As I am, much as the namesake of this humble blog, a member of that Papist monstrosity in Rome, I do ocassionally read the Good Book. Oh, and it is a good book, even if you don't believe what it says (and I don't from time to time). And this passage rung out today:

Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' Matthew 7:21-23 (NKJV)

It's from a protestant translation (I have few Bible's that I read...yeah they're gonna take away my liberal card) but it's a good way to sum up today's arguments about both the surveillance and the Bush Administrationat the same time. See, there's a lot of talk about Jesus and faith in this country. But read what The Man says. Going around crying His name and being a douche isn't goin' to help. The Jeez doesn't want you to fuck around and then hide behind Him. Especailly not you who practice lawlessness. Dicks.

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Fear Zod, he is your leader.

While I lack the Seinfeld level of love for Superman that I imagine it takes to watch the show Smallville (or as I like to call it, "Superman's Creek"), I do like Superman and comicbook heroes in general and I have a youthful affinity for the old Superman movies, and story-lines. And so I shall be watching this evening's episode of Smallville for the simple reason that I am informed that it shall feature an appearance by General Zod (Superman's cheif Kryptonian nemesis). Kneel before Zod!

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Watch what you say America

I want to mention the recent revelation that he NSA has been engaged in a massive warrentless monitoring of domestic telecommunications hitherto unknown to the Congress, the judiciary and the American people for two reasons. Those two are as follows:

1) Good for you, [my] hometown company Qwest:

Among the big telecommunications companies, only Qwest has refused to help the NSA, the sources said. According to multiple sources, Qwest declined to participate because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants.

Sure, your previous leadership engaged in a massive Enron-like criminal conspiracy that destroyed employee pensions and screwed consumers, but you were standing up for idividual rights, so that's something. Also, way to be smart enough to stay out of the way of what is likely to be a truly, historically, massive class action suit--especially considering your other (ahem) pending legal matters. Kudos.

2) WTF?! Seriously, they're monitoring everybodies phone records without any authorization other than, "Because we say so," and we're supposed to believe that this isn't worse than it looks? The last time the NSA's evesdropping schemes came to light the whole reassurance from the top was Don't Worry We're Only Tapping International Calls. Well that turned out to be a pack of lies. I'm not going to crack the books, but if you want a quick rundown of why this is so not legal, check here and here. (Note Prof. Kerr's statement that he thinks the Administration's legal argument will rest on Article II. That's the part of the Constitution that enumerates executive powers, which is to say that the Bush Argument will be what it always is: I want to, so I can. Also, read the whole USA Today article a note that Qwest said they would happily comply if the NSA would just get a court order...the NSA declined to do so.)

And if anybody at NSA is reading this I just want to say: Vigilence and Loyalty to Our Leader!

[UPDATE: What did I say about that lawsuit?]

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Take that "Jesus" if that is your real name!

Indeed. Zeus is God. Read the Iliad.

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Ah, how you say? "Immigration"

This article in the Washington Post (as much news as the New York Times, but less cultural condescension--"Oh, you haven't been the Met this week, well good luck sprucing up the cave, plebe"--and more political condescension--"Oh, you've never been to cocktail party at Senator Graham's house in Georgetown, well good luck sprucing up the cave, plebe") is a nice little outline of immigration history. Let's all remember that German and Italian immigrants didn't speak English when they first came here, and brough their culture with them, and everybody freaked out for no reason (the Irish weren't even considered "white," no shit!) and now it's fine. More interestingly, other than some pernicious racist quota laws (modern immigration isn't above those old quota numbers much anyway) the US didn't even have passports, let alone "illegal" immigrants. If you weren't carrying TB and had a strong back, we pretty much let you in. So next time someone informs you of the dangers of illegal immigration, go ahead and tell them to STFU and go back to Germany or wherever.

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Of works and days

I have nothing to do today. They're showing my apartment, so I cleared out and now I'm typing this. Because I have nothing to do today. Maybe I'll get drunk and watch TV. Nah, too predictable.

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Consumer Crunchy Crap

This article in the Washington Post outlines the "Crunchy Conservative" movement, of which, they seem to have found a single family in Dallas (oh, by the way, the father, he's a Dallas Morning News columnist and author of a book about "Crunchy Cons," what a coincidence.) Crunchy Conservatives are socially conservative people who also shop at Whole Foods, recycle, and care about quality time with their kids. I want to take issue with "cruncky cons" in general for a couple reasons. 1) This dude doesn't seem to know what he's talking about and appears to be making this up as he goes, and 2) even if he did, this falls into a pernicious little category of idenity-through-shopping of which I'm really getting tired.

First, as to Rod Dreher, the crunchy con in question, and whether or not he knows of what he speaks let's just take a single short passage:
""A house like this, in a lefty city?" Dreher asks. "We would never be able to afford it. But here? In 'the hood'? We got this so cheap. We like it aesthetically. That's not always valued here.""
I submit that this is self-serving hookum. It's internally contradictory and contradictory of his whole crunchy con message. First off, their house (a "1912 Craftsman bungallow near downtown Dallas") is a small old house in the central city. Yeah, it's a great house for a young family. You know how I know that, by visiting the analogue to this house with a young family living in it affordably in "lefty" cities like Los Angeles and Denver. Also, Dreher contends that a (presumably) righty city like Dallas is a better place to live, but then in the next sentence talks about how his aesthetic isn't valued there. Again, do you know where it is valued? That's right, lefty cities.
This is the larger point. I don't thing crunchy cons exist, or if they do, their either in denial, or superficial assholes. Denial because raising your kids without the dreck on TV, buying into sustainable agriculture, and being environmentally consious are lefty values. They're really just good sense, but mostly good sense embraced almost exclusively by the left. I point you to everything done under Reagan and both Bushes as my proof. So these good people aren't "crunchy cons" so much as anti-choice lefties. And that leads me to believe that their mostly just superficial assholes. They like the sense of satisfaction that eating better, and spending more time with the children brings, and they like feeling young and with it, but they don't actually believe in any of this stuff or they'd have they're hands over their faces like the rest of us. Wanting to protect eh environment and encourage sustainabel agriculture and get the culture on an anti-corporate kick means opposing the modern GOP and embracing not just an aesthetic, but an ethic. The "con" part of crunchy cons seems to be that Mr. Dreher likes Jesus. And why that makes him conservative is anybody's guess. See, I think Mr. Dreher is someone who would like to be a liberal but is filled with self-loathing and insecurity to the point of having to cover his masculinist bases by claiming a conservative traditionalist creed.

Besides, all this is part of larger trend of identifying sub-cultures and ideologies with consumerism. Basically Dreher wants you to believe that he's a different kind of conservative because he shops at Whole Foods. Just like David Brooks wants you to beleive that the prescence of Home Depot shoppers across America is a sea chnage in the fabric of society because people shop there, not because of the global economic and political forces that conspire to create big, box-store, consumption economies. This is surface as substance. And it's a real problem in American popular discourse. This is the same phenomenon to be found in weird naming of government programs. The "Clear Skies" initiative raises caps on factory emissions, but it says clear skies so it's environmentally friendly. Jsut like the crunchy cons claim the love of Whole Foods, and thus must be environmentalists despite doing nothing meaningful on that front at all. Talk is cheap, that's why so many people buy it.

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The Undeservedly Obscure Dead

Empress Theophanu (Θεοφανώ--"Likeness of God" if my Greek doesn't fail me). Wife of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor and neice of Emperor John I Tzimisces, Byzantine Emperor. Born in 960 and died in 991. After her husband died in 983, she ruled as Empress Regent until her death, when her mother in law Adelaide of Italy took over (Theophanu's son, Otto III, was still too young to rule).

Otto I wanted a Byzantine princess for his son, the Emperor to be. All three Ottos were of the Saxonian dynasty, the first non-Frankish Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. The Franks by now had France to themselves leaving Germany and Central Europe and Lombardy to make up the rest of the Empire on their own. Otto II successfully brought Bohemia and Poland under the HRE's sway. The HRE of course was emphatically not the successor to the Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire, though, was. And the HRE knew it.

Otto was trying to tie the HRE to the real Roman Empire (which was, at the time, still a powerful ally to have--it wouldn't hurt having some sort of claim on the throne in Constantinople too, which is why John I sent a neice, not a daughter). See the Roman Empire didn't fall in the 5th Century, just the Latin West, but the Greek East staid around until the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453. Better infrastructure, better armies, and more sustainable agriculture made the East strong enough to fend off the Goths and Vandals, who descendent on Gaul and Italy. The Byzantines didn't call themselves the "Byzantine Empire", they called themselves Βασιλεία Ρωμαίων (Basileia Romaion), Roman Empire, because they were. And they were civilized.

Which all brings me to the point of naming Theophanu the newest Undeservedly Obscure Dead Person. See, she reintriduced the fork to the West. More importantly, she was ridiculed when she showed up at Otto's court and did things like bathe everyday, eat with a fork, and read. Nobody else (well, some of the clergy) did those things. The Eastern Roman Empire still did, and kept it alive. When Venetian and Genoese traders started bringing Arabic manuscripts of the classics back to the West and sparking the Renassiance, where do you think the Arabs got them? From Byzantine lands conquered by the Muslim Caliphate as the Roman Empire began it's final decline in the East after the reign of Basil II and the Commenian Emperors.
This is an object lesson in Western douchebaggery.

When Otto II welcomed his bride he was King of Germany, Prince of Saxons and Heir to the Throne of the Holy Roman Empire. But he couldn't read, he didn't wash himself, at all, and had never in his life used a utensil to eat his meat. The west were so many barbarians, the empire centered at Constantinople ruled over Greeks, Slavs, Arabs, North Africa, and Sicily; the Holy Roman Empire was a political compromise with nothing but some feudal arrangments holding warring principalities together sort of. The Carolingians (and the Saxonians, like Otto) wanted the imprimatur of Rome, so the Popes gave them the Holy Roman part and the Germans gave them the Empire (allowing Popes to crown the emporers and lending military support to the Papal Territories), though the two would have their fair share on conflicts over the centuries.

The prejudice lives down the centuries, so that even now we say that because the West fell to barbarians, they are the successors of Rome, we don't pay attention to the fact that the Empire lived on in today's Turkey. That might make those people civilized. But thankfully we had Constaninople and we had Theophanu, to civilize us descendants of barbarians. So we salute you, Theophanu, and we thank you for the literacy I used to write this, the shower I took this morning, and the fork I used on my salad tonight.

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The Television provides in its own good time.

Once again, I'm supposed to get up early, thus necessitating an early bed time. And yet, damn the gods of cable television! Casablanca is on Turner Classic Movies. So now I'm going to have to stay up and watch it. Why? Why don't I just go to bed when I had planned to? Because you cannot deny the power of Casablanca. It's force is far to strong for mortals. It's the best movie ever and you cannot stay away, it will destory you if you ignore it.
First off, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains..you cannot deny the power of that.
Second, observe the quotes, realize how many of them employ idioms that you now think are cliche, and be in awe of the writing and acting on this film (courtesy of IMDb.com):

Annina: Monsieur Rick, what kind of a man is Captain Renault?
Rick: Oh, he's just like any other man, only more so.

Major Strasser: Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?
Rick: It's not particularly my beloved Paris.
Heinz: Can you imagine us in London?
Rick: When you get there, ask me!
Captain Renault: Hmmh! Diplomatist!
Major Strasser: How about New York?
Rick: Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade.

Ugarte: You despise me, don't you?
Rick: If I gave you any thought I probably would.

Rick: I stick my neck out for nobody.

Major Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick: I'm a drunkard.
Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

Rick: You know what I want to hear.
Sam: [lying] No, I don't.
Rick: You played it for her, you can play it for me!
Sam: [lying] Well, I don't think I can remember...
Rick: If she can stand it, I can! Play it!

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!

Rick: Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she had to walk into mine.

Rick: And remember, this gun is pointed right at your heart.
Captain Renault: That is my least vulnerable spot.

---

Captain Renault: Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects.

Rick: Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

And the piece de resistance:

---

Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you're getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.
Ilsa: But, Richard, no, I... I...
Rick: Now, you've got to listen to me! You have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Louie?
Captain Renault: I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist.
Ilsa: You're saying this only to make me go.
Rick: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have...we...we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid

Yeah. Casablanca. Booyah!

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What's on TV

I really like that show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. It's a kid's cartoon on the Cartoon Network. Kid, Max, has to give up his imaginary friend, Bloo (short for Blooregard Q. Kazoo), to live in the home when he becomes too old. But he sticks around and hangs out with him. The animation is an excellentstylized modern-art melange and the story lines are that magic combination of zany and childish, yet grown-up friendly. (I go for the zany and childish, as I am not a grown-up in any meaningful sense). I find it soothing. There's also a certain element of pathos in the entire thing. Max and Bloo's bond is remarkably nuanced and treated well in the scripts. The other characters are fully fleshed out and believable as personalities if not persons; this makes the idea behind the entire show, that Max is a little boy (who lives in an apartment with his absentee mother and bully older-brother) so alone in the world that these imaginary friends are his only real companions, rather affecting.
Also, I wish the imaginary friends at Foster's were my real friends. I do not like my real friends, and I'm too short on options to trade up. (You heard me, assholes--when you come up with harebrained schemes to win a go-cart competition, come talk to me.)

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