With yet another damn birthday looming i suppose i’m right on schedule as i dig through images from my past. For one thing the technology is certainly better today. Netflix makes it possible for me to reexamine in great detail the movies i and my high school and college cadres shlepped to in all manner of automobiles. Handbrake enables me to rip the movie files and go over them frame by frame. Hell, when you think of the amount of work that went into producing the thing it’s only fair that i expend some energy in return.

12 Monkeys was, on balance, a disappointment for me. While it remains Brad Pitt’s best work, the marketing hype in New York drowned out the actual movie. It became an “above 14th street” art film. Seeing it in a theatre i found the actual experience annoying. There were points where i just wanted the bombardment to stop. But then i remembered who had directed the film and i hunkered down in my seat and held on a little tighter. I remember thinking to myself that this was a film i’d have to rent and watch on the small screen. As for the “star factor” i’d not yet seen Die Hard. For me Bruce Willis was that clown from Moonlighting, so i didn’t bring the same baggage to the screening.

But Madeline Stowe was another story. She established a bit of an archetype for me; the smart and beautiful woman who wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. Of all the characters in that troubled story of time travel and Monty Python-esqu over-the-top weirdness and viruses that may or may not nearly kill off the human race she remains the chunk of rationality trying to make sense of the utterly strange situation.

Meanwhile back in this world Obama has won three more primary/caucuses including Washington state. I tossed his campaign another $50. His marketing is bang on. I don’t feel like i’ve contributed to a campaign, i feel like i’ve bought a part of an ongoing campaign; like i’ve bought a little stock in a company that might get real big real fast, or, like so many companies do, disappear overnight.