Wow! It's been a while. Consider my tail thoroughly tucked, after the mockery I absorbed during the recording of the You Don't Suck Awards podcast. But now, as it turns out, I've only got about eight minutes of internet time in which to post this before having to run and catch a bus! Doesn't that just blow.
And I had a great, what I would consider to be a classic-style culturological formulation ready and everything. I'll get it out here, and maybe add to this if/when I get the chance, should conversation not bubble off as rapidly as I think it will.
Over the weekend, I third wheeled with a friend of mine and his girlfriend to go see the new George Clooney vehicle, Up in the Air, which is a great kind of movie to third wheel on, since it's the usual brand of "indie" rom-com that uses an episodic structure and general plotlessness to come off as quirky and indie as it's been perceived as by the general-ish viewing public. A general waste of a time of a movie, except for an awesome cameo by Sam Elliot (though I missed all his dialogue because I was too busy whispering Big Lebowski quotes to my friend's girlfriend (in typical third wheel fashion)).
But here's the point I want to make, about George Clooney:
George Clooney will always be disappointing as an actor because he's constantly trying to be Jimmy Stewart when he's really--and hopelessly--James Cagney.
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JUST finished watching it. Up in the Air is this year's In Good Company, corporate middle age crisis drammedy and all. Plucky upstart making a play for the grizzled older protagonist's bread and butter, heartbreak, layoff woes, indie music, it's got everything.
I don't know if that makes it good, but it certainly made it easy to watch. As for George Clooney, I'm starting to accept his purpose in this world. That is, to put a nice face on otherwise unattractive stories.