“Into the light I command thee”

02.18.2005

Just got back from watching Constantine (aka “Hellblazer”), which wasn’t quite as bad as I’d expected. Certainly worth about $5. Rachel Weisz & Tilda Swinton were the highlights. Keanu Reeves is, we all know, a terrible actor. But this film carried him.

I wonder why apocalypse-centered movies have a fetish w/ Gabriel as a second fallen angel (it’s a key element in many such movies, most notably The Prophecy). At least in all the movies my namesake’s always on the good side.

Earlier, I saw Bridge Over River Qua play a free show, opening for Victory Gin (their CD release party), at Music Express. Musically, both bands are great. I didn’t catch all of Victory Gin, but they’ve great energy & élan. River Qua has an eclectic sound, but very rooted in Joy Division. And I must point out that Mickey O is just a phenomenal guitarist. If the life in psychological academia doesn’t work out, he should just focus on the music.

I also went home w/ the latest Tanya Donelly album, Whiskey Tango Ghosts (Amazon.com). If you don’t know who she is, she was guitarist for Throwing Muses & The Breeders, before fronting Belly. My introduction to Tanya Donelly was in 1993, when Radiohead opened for Belly at Detroit's State Theater.

While waiting to leave for an evening of rock, I shot a few amazing games of pool w/ Bret, Jake, and Dave.

Before that, I stood at the computing services help desk for 15 minutes while the staff had a jovial conversation among themselves, then spent ten minutes whey they tried to figure out why they sold me a version of STATA w/o license information. Next to me, a poor undergrad waited to learn why his laptop was still in for repair after two months. He asked me if I’d ever brought my computer for repair to University Computing Services. And I couldn’t stop myself from sputtering out: “Good, God, no!” I got my licensing information, only to later discover it doesn’t work. So. No STATA for me until Monday. At the earliest.

Which reminds me: WIDR 89.1 FM will host a radio call-in show, this upcoming Wednesday, 7-8pm about the following question: Is president Bailey a good university president? Feel free to call in w/ any thoughts on the matter.

Posted by Miguel at 11:32 PM