And I’ve now read Dalian Hansen’s _ANIMA_. The book starts off well, and has an intriguing premise, but is not written very well (and the editing and publication are frankly atrocious). Still, because of its conceptual strengths, I may end up using it at least a little for my work.

I was shocked and disappointed when I found out that Prop 8 had passed. I think that around campus there had also been signs saying stuff like “Yes on Prop 8 for Equality!” which would be misleading to the uninformed voter. I actually had a suitemate tell me I will go to hell for voting no on prop 8. And there was that scare about “protecting our children”, which may have influenced a lot of voters. -_-

Nearly nine months have passed since you’ve written this blog. How do you feel about Southern Cali now? About the same, or did that restlessness get more rest?

Hey – I liked your presentation last week – I had a thought going through my head – we should collaborate on doing some sort of “Virtual Reunion” through Second Life…. Could be really interesting!

John Lofthus

Anyway.. Let’s start with the hoopla around Heath. I am halfway between Bola’s assessment and the general public. He *was* extremely creepy (but so was Jack Nicholson). He *was* extremely crazy and sociopathic (again, so was Jack). His makeup was much more unattractive to look at but Jack’s scaring was more obvious and at least, fully explained. I think it was a completely admirable performance and completely out of the character of what we have come to expect from Heath. Certainly, kudos to him. He did the part justice, re-defined it a bit for himself and the new franchise, and overall did a fantastic job. The small cynical part of myself says that he probably would be getting accolades but not quite this much in accolades if he hadn’t died.

Bola and I disagreed heartily on Batman Begins but he won me over (as usual) with his superior arguing skills and body of evidence. I too, now, have some trouble erasing all those previous incarnations and I think what got me was the character of Two-Face. First of all — WTF his makeup – though EXCELLENT and GROTESQUE – seemed way over the top to me. (and if half your jaw is gouged away, how is it that you STILL have perfect teeth?). I was surprised they killed that character off cause I thought they’d keep him around for the next movie, though his motivation for being a bad guy was pretty thin if you ask me. The movie was loaded with good tension, but the key scene for Dent and Rachel was really empty.

We all hated Katie Holmes in the first movie and while I adore Maggie Gyllenhal – what a waste of talent for a NOTHING role… there was NO chemistry between her and Bruce or her and Dent.. at least they didn’t have her screaming and being rescued TOO much.

But back to the universe and the canon. Reintroducing characters is a good idea (remember Gordon saying, “I wonder how he got his scars”) but I would think most of us were thinking.. “hey, remember he fell into a vat of acid?”. If you’re going to wipe the slate clean, then do it completely and tell us WHY Joker is such a psychopath, how he grew into the mastermind criminal etc.. The mob storyline, I thought, was too convoluted with too many characters that contributed nothing to the story. The movie had parts where it dragged on and on and coulda/shoulda ended.

By far the best scene in the entire movie was the scene on the ferry when the gigantic black convict guy said, “give it ( the dentonator) to me and I’ll do what you should have done 10 min ago. ” And then.. threw it out the window.. WOW what a beautiful moment, what a blatent statement on prejudice and who we think is “good” and “virtuous” vs. who really is… That was a great moment and should have been exploited more in the final fight between BM and J.

Oh and BM should have just let him fall to the ground.. although, yes, I get that that would have defeated the premise of the ENTIRE movie.. but really.. kill the psycho already.