I’m not Catholic, I’m not especially saddened by the loss of J.P. II, and I readily admit that I’m getting a bit irked by the news media’s “Papal Deathapalooza ‘05” coverage, I’d just like it to go away. That said, I was dumbstruck at the crassness of USA Today’s front page this morning. One of the McNews’ signature colorful graphic boxes showed a drawing of St. Peter’s cathedral with the text:
Full-page graphic. How and what to watch.
It seems wildly inappropriate for a national newspaper’s coverage of the death of an international leader. That wording would be more appropriate for sports, as in: “Your guide to Thursday’s First Round NCAA Tournament action. Full page graphic. What teams to watch.”
Not that I would expect anything less of “The Nation’s Newspaper.” It is, after all, “No. 1 In The USA.” As anyone who has spent a few days/weeks in hotel rooms knows, the #1 paper seems to specialize in lowering the bar.
At any rate, I’m outside of Trenton today (I’ve decided to stop vaguely concealing the places I’m visiting, my name is all over this blog no point in being secretive). Yesterday was a 24-hour visit to Harrisburg, preceded by Trenton once again. This new work experience is a bit akin to a spatially larger version of my everyday life. Instead of quickly walking into a room and then exiting before I can really figure out what I’m doing there, I’m performing the same action with cities in the Mid Atlantic. Or, as a friend so kindly pointed out, the armpits of the Mid Atlantic.
On the tube last night--Taking Lives. Stoopid, stoopid, stoopid. Why, oh why, did I watch this crap? If only Angelina Jolie or Ethan Hawke had been killed five minutes into the film it would mercifully have ended there and I would have gotten an hour and a half more sleep last night. Unfortunately, some douche-bag screen writer decided to throw in some plot twists, a couple clichés, and a randomly placed Keiffer Sutherland(?) to make this pathetic exercise stretch to feature film length. Not even a briefly naked Angelina Jolie could improve my opinion of this pathetic piece of slop.
On the Pod--Modest Mouse, Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks. Someone please orchestrate an intervention and help me turn this off. This is the sixth time in a row I’ve listened to this EP end-to-end. Sweet.
Above My Head--Sprinkler Pipe. Dripping.
"Taking Lives" was pretty stoopid, but I thought the first scene was haunting, and the ending was better than I had expected. As with the coverage of JP, and reality TV, remember the off button. One day that off button may just be a distant memory, but today, you still have a choice not to watch.
Posted by: Rich at April 14, 2005 7:55 AM