Dances with Lions

So, we did another lion dance this weekend.

One of my office mates was gettin' hitched. I wasn't actually invited to the wedding, but I ended up crashing it 'cause my Kung Fu Studio was hired to do a lion dance at the reception.

So, as of right now, I'm officially the only bachelor in my office. Kinda scary considering that one of the people I share an office with looks about 16. I think he's mormon; although in fairness, I don't actually know exactly how old he is.

I do know that there's no way in hell he's over 20, though.

An old high school pal of mine is about to pop out her first kid, another just announced his engagement, another former acquaintance of mine (I don't really talk to her much 'cause, frankly, she's a bitch) had twins a few months back, and now I have an office mate who just got himself Ball-and-chained.

Wow.

When the hell did I get all grownupy!?

It kinda sneaked up on me. I'm thinking career, home, life, family. What happened to the day when the biggest concern I had was when the latest Transformers toy would be on sale? And, yes, I am aware of how much that dates me.

Not that I'm feeling any particular pressure to change my current marital/familial status. Things are going very well (amazingly well, considering the jackass April has to put up with) right now, and at the moment, as far as I can tell, neither of us really feels the need to change anything. Granted, things may change in the next few years, but for the moment, what's the rush?

On the subject of not wanting to grow up, April and I went out to see the latest (and, I'm hoping, the last) installation of the Star Wars franchise. Actually, this one wasn't so bad. The first two "prequels" were, let's face it, lousy in a way matched only by the Lord of the Rings trilogy (although, I must confess that watching Yoda hop around like a green monkey on speed almost makes Episode II worth watching in and of itself... almost.); so I walked into this one with my expectations low. Maybe it's because my expectations were so low that I enjoyed it, I dunno. That's a philosophical debate for another time.

Episode III will likely not go down in history as a masterpiece of cinematographic work. It's well-done to be sure, the special effects are spectacular and very nearly make up for the (many) shotcomings in the script; frankly, a lot of the dialogue needed some work. Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman; both very talented actors; were noticeably struggling with this movie, and many of their lines came off as forced and/or hoaky. Not through any fault of theirs, the script was just a litle weak in some places. And Hayden Christensen spent most of the movie pretending to act. But, one could forgive his stony, semi-emotionless exterior in this film; he's turning evil, after all. He almost managed to pull off cold, obsessed and emotionless in this film. Of course, that's not too different from his performance in Episode II when cold, obsessed and emotionless wasn't quite called for, but here, it actually worked.

So, without spoiling the movie, I suppose I can offer the following critiques:

Ian McDiarmid plays "creepy" better than any actor in the universe.

Natalie Portman: easily the most talented performer in the entire movie, pity the script wasn't good enough for her.

Ewan McGregor: Manages to accomplish what can only be described as a miracle, considering the aforementioned weakness of the script

Hayden Christensen: One day, he will learn to act, I just know it.

Samuel L. Jackson: Who's the black private dick That's a sex machine to all the chicks? Shaft!

Yoda: Easily the best-acted character in the entire film, and he's entirely computer-animated.

Okay, that's me signin' off for now.