The Three W's

So I was trying to find trailers to watch for Oliver Stone's new historical clusterfuck, W. I can't say that I love Oliver Stone's films - Natural Born Killers was alright but Platoon is way overrated - but I'm definitely fascinated by his gall. He makes history films in broad strokes with little regard for reality. His attitude is even evident in his casting - James Cromwell is awesome but he is no George H.W. and Anthony Hopkins is a great actor, but he sure as hell isn't Richard Nixon. There's a surrealism in seeing famous actors playing even more famous historical figures. It takes a lot of balls, too, and I'm really curious about how/if it pays off at all.

In looking for the trailers on youtube I stumbled across even more strangeness. First, one of the official W. trailers:



Then someone's bizarre pet project full of spliced films, newsreels and soundbytes (and Zeppelin!). It's baffling to me why this was made, but even more interesting in the way that it works. There's no denying how cinematic George Bush's story is. (For the record, you only really need to watch the first 30-45 seconds of this to get the point, though the end is pretty good).



And lastly, and most importantly, I ran into this trailer for a completely different W. which I'll let speak for itself.



Which film would you rather watch? Fiction, non-fiction or whatever that last one is?


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On a similar note, did anyone else see McCain and Obama doing stand-up comedy and roasting each other at the Al Smith dinner??? Since when does this happen? Has the world gone mad?

It reminds me of this Onion article: World Leaders Gather to Roast Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Nooo!

CNN Headlines of the day:
"Close dancing, topless flashing great boy band," "Man punches shark" and, seriously, "How to hide from 'squid' people."

So guess what, blogosphere?
Yesterday I opened my Queen's email and found a lovely message from one of my three professors-to-be. He told me to "take it easy," because he wasn't going to be here for the first two weeks and we'd start class in mid-October. Yay!
And while I was taking it easy, he wrote, the only thing I need burden myself with is the task of reading five 500+ page Victorian novels.

Sure, why not; it's not like I came to Northern Ireland to ever leave my dorm room.

So for the past two days I've been hustling through Jane Eyre with The Cranford Chronicles, The Way We Live Now, and Tipping the Velvet on the horizon. Great Expectations gets the axe because I've already read it twice.
Plus, I have to watch the BBC adaptations which have always looked pretty dire. Christina liked them, though, so maybe they're ok. Plus, Tipping the Velvet is about lesbians, so it can't all be bad, right? And The Way We Live Now is a "radical exploration of the dangers associated with speculative capitalism," which sounds...
No, it sounds really boring.

So while all my little freshmen friends are going to clubs with fuck all to do, I'm rapidly trying to find out if Jane ever marries Lord Rochester.
And I have two other classes, both starting tomorrow.
And I have to go on a study abroad visit to live with an Irish family this weekend, so I can't just hole up and read.

Good Christ, St. Christopher, protect me now.