it's hard to find anything amusing about the current situation in the middle east...but this headline caught my eye as if the group massive attack had decided to go on tour in palestine; in other news I saw a man training a seeing-eye dog viciously beat the animal after barely brushing a planter wall...he was walking along at my workplace (presumably pretending to be blind) a few feet in front of me, then took a right and began to walk along side a knee-high containment wall that held some dirt when he brushed against it, almost fell down, grabbed the leash and proceeded to go to town on the animal; thinking the man was blind I scurried around him to go to the deli...if I was the dog I'd think my life was a living hell, having to escort a dog-beater around; hopefully we can soon replace all the real dogs with robots;

After writing about the metro driver, I came across this article in the Washington Post about another person that I've seen tons of times yet never understood about. Maybe people aren't ever crazy...they're just determined!

i got out of work yesterday to get back on the metro to go home when i noticed it was crowded...full of people who didn't understand the rules of the escalators, or how to operate the faregates; or where they were, or what temperature it was, or anything at all; if tourists in the district represent a slice of america, then it might be time to pick a new apple; one could sit outside the smithsonian exit all day and just watch the yokels emerge into the sunlight like confused lemmings, looking for the people in front of them to lead them to the holocaust museum, or Air and Space or the monument; going home i saw two get stuck in the yellow line trap despite the metro operator blinking the lights and repeatedly saying you must leave the train, this train is out of service until finally, just as the doors were beginning to close, the couple escaped out into the station...silly tourists!

David Fincher's latest work, Panic room is a film everyone should see. The man who brought us Seven and Fight Club has cobbled together a new suspense thriller that manages to straddle the line between aesthetic and textual appeal. This is the sort of work that allows American History students to write lengthy papers on place and space while missing the visceral thrill of the movie itself.

Yes, the movie does take place almost entirely within the confines of a large house in Manhatten. Yes, the main character (played by Jodie Foster) is just getting over a divoce/separation. Yes, her young daughter is a diabetic. Yes, both Jared Leto and Forest Whitaker are dim-witted criminals who aren't jailbird material. There are so many angles to each of the multi-dimensional characters that it is refreshing to see Dwight Yoakam play a single sided baddie in comparison to everyone else. Rather than dissecting each camera angle or statement however to search for greatness, is it easier to simply look at why the movie works so well. First, within a few scenes the audience is completely under the spell of Fincher, rooting for individual characters in an interactive manner I've yet to see during most modern movies. Perhaps the audience I was in was simply more expressive than most, but the old cliche of telling the horror victim don't open that door! was in full effect. Each moment at which the god-like camera revealed a truth only half-perceived by the other characters, the audience would grow restless, muttering softly or preparing for a surprise. Ironic, then, that inside the panic room itself eight cameras record the action that Fincher provides through cgi zooms and pans.

In the end, it is this quality, the simple human predilection for mistakes, that drives the movie forward. At each stage an opening exists for hunter or huntee to end the madness, yet small minds breed stagnant solutions, and what seems like a good idea may result in a catastophe. It is this continuous fatality, this inexorable march towards desruction, that drives the picture on and engrosses the audience. Much like a chess endgame, one can see the eventual outcome (or so one thinks) long before it is reached, yet we are powerless to do more than push pawns, hoping some opening will reveal itself. Thankfully, the game is scripted by a master.

new fincher review is here for those interested; total masterpiece; only negative (again) was that some idiots decided to bring their kids to the R rated flick which could easily give you some nice emotional scars to carry with you for your childhood...you'll never feel safe in your house again (and you don't even have a panic room!) get out there and watch it!