I vowed to never, ever start a writing with “Another Xxxxxx has come and gone”, but when another holiday trip has come and gone, it’s hard to dodge the spectre (british spelling!) of The Expected. I can finally add another stupid thing to the list of stupid things I’ve done, and include “Sabotaging my own holidays with sundry shit”. For the last week of my vacations, I literally couldn’t even sleep thinking about all the shit I had to take care back at work. This might have had some merit had I, a) been able to do something about the shit at the office (I couldn’t), or b) had some way to somehow convert this into brownie points with my boss. Given that neither was true, the joke’s on me. I can see myself quoting the bible to complete my misery, but that’s one road I won’t be travelling today. Nor ever (one can only hope).

I’ve already said how much I liked 300 (just enough), but I also re-watched (and re-loved) Mike Judge’s Idiocracy. Mike Judge takes the Futurama concept (Luke Wilson is frozen for an experiment and thawed 500 years in the future) and uses it in a future in which America has grown so stupid that he is now the smartest man alive. Idiocracy has two things going for it: for one, it’s a damned funny movie, full of quotable lines, but it’s also a biting, satirical look at a future that looks like it just might happen. He doesn’t pull any punches, either. He name-drops corporation after corporation, pointing fingers and blaming them for helping make America a stupider place. Apparently, all this corporate hate didn’t sit well with 20th Century Fox, who tried to shelf the movie by not giving Judge enough money to finish the special effects, with Robert Rodriguez finally stepping in and doing all the remaining SFX work for free. This movie needs to be seen, if only so I can quote Justin Long’s “It says on your chart you’re fucked up, you talk like a fag, and your shit’s all retarded”.

Another movie you should see is Black Snake Moan. Much like the criminally under-rated Hustle & Flow (which I’ve mentioned loving before), this is a movie that doesn’t talk about the redeeming power of music. Rather, it goes and shows you exactly how music redeems you. Like Chase said, I wouldn’t go out and tell Samuel L. Jackson to quit acting and start a singing career, but this story of an underdressed chick (Cristina Ricci, who I’ve always loved) chained to a radiator works, and it’s thanks to him. If nothing, watch it for the posters, and please, ignore Justin Timberlake’s presence. I’m not quite ready to say that he’s a good actor (even though he’s making merits), but at least he doesn’t get in the way here.

I have a hard week ahead of me, with jet-lag and post-vacation depression setting in, but at least I’m back home. For the first time since I left, I wish I had been gone longer. It’s nice to see family & friends, but this time I think I needed a bit more time. There’s always next time, I hopeguess.