Connect the following:

Part the First: There is a natural progression, described by a 'learning curve,' that leads through a state of Unskilled and Unaware, to conscious incompetence, to conscious competence, and ultimately to a state of unconscious competence. You could probably plot it out, next time you try to learn a new skill.

Part the Second:

I have a stock position on things like television shows, and maybe comic books. I say that I don't plan to watch Lost or Battlestar Galactica until they're done, and I can sit back with the whole DVD series, or possibly when it turns out they were in a giant snowglobe I'll just know it doesn't turn out in an interesting way and not bother.

Similarly, I like reading history, but can't really be bothered with news and politics. The very same ubiquitous news coverage that makes it possible for folks to become rapt with that stuff is the reason that it's all kept under tighter wraps than ever. You can't get a chat with the president these days simply by tagging along on his walk to the senate, and there's no hope of getting the real story on any current event.

So: not knowing whether there's going to be a worthwhile ending, I guess I'd rather just read up on the election later. That feels more honest than cribbing opinions from an SNL sketch.

Other current events

Forgot to mention - here's the video from the 02/08 Sketch Cram. You can't distinguish my voice from the rest of the screaming in the screamy part. Or at least I can't. And this isn't from anything at all:

#1,238: Juno

Moving this week. Found a place to move TO last week. Leaving the valley Hollywoodward. Stacking up little edit jobs to work on here and there. Writing things. And there's a radio-show-to-be.

Recent movies:

Sunshine - Wanting to like a movie isn't always enough. Already starting from a deficit by bearing similarities to Event Horizon (one of film's greatest embarrassments), this chronicle of human failure and monument to (as I understand it) bad science didn't win me over. There might be a lesson here, since Danny Boyle movies never do. Extra demerits awarded for requiring outside reading to explain the plot.

Michael Clayton - Solid. Monument to human weakness. Somewhat too neat and tidy an ending.

Harvey - Fantastic! Surprisingly 'modern,' given the kind of Hays Code-ish santization one imagines in movies from 1950. Dowd, Elwood P. is an American Hero.

Funny Games - The remake looms, so I saw the original. It should be a fun movie to see with a big audience. It was much more tense viewing based on what I'd been told about it than through its own merits. Even the new trailer is a shot-for-shot remake of the old trailer, at least until they get to the 'explain things to Americans' bit. And there's a genuine worth to repeat viewings.

Be Kind, Rewind - Gondry movie, shares some of the joy of the TV series Home Movies, in seeing the homemade solutions to fancy effects and costumes. Doesn't fret much more than it needs to on plot to string along the fun bits.

Jumper - Pretty much nothing happens after the first 15 minutes. Points for showing someone use a power selfishly (you'd use the Force to reach the remote if you could), demerits for Hayden Christenson. Points for having a snowglobe in the movie, demerits for having such an expensive snowglobe that there was no money available for an ending to the movie. It's kind of funny to see franchise-hungry companies make bold advances on trilogies that fizzle (ie, Eragon).

There Will Be Blood - More like There Will Be Boring. There was a fair amount of slapping though.

Juno - I had been avoiding this because it looked like a very calculated Napoleon Dynamite -styled monstrousity. Finding out Jason Reitman directed it tipped the scales for me. And there are some neat directorial ideas going on, but the movie drew a lot more Kif-shaped sighs than laughs for me. You can just wave at the jokes as they cruise by. Points for the notion of vacationing in Gettysburg, dozens of demerits for the Moldy Peaches. This movie really wants to be quotable.

What a letdown. Boo!

Today was a miserable day, but I don't feel miserable about it.

Words and photos*

First off, I'm writing for Sketch Cram at the UCBTLA on Saturday, Feb 9, 2008.Writers start scribbling in the morning, performers come in and learn the stuff in the evening, and by the time YOU show up at midnight, we've assembled a show you'll love like a precocious niece.

Also, last week, I wandered around LA county looking for billboards and taking photos. See the fruits of this effort on the internets, and go visit Project Nightlight (the organization responsible for said billboards) if you want to.

*Photos, while still valued at 1,000 American words apiece, are now only worth an embarrassing 978 Canadian words.