Echoing the White Rabbit...

By my own standards, this is late...there are a lot of reasons for that, coming each successive day I haven't done it and starting Thursday...I don't really know why I didn't update Thursday...I was putting it off all day, then had to go to bed because I had to get up at 6:30 on Friday...at that point, I had planned to do it when I got home Saturday night...but then I didn't get home until about midnight...and didn't want to do it then. I've no terribly legitimate reason to have not done it Sunday or yesterday...my best reason probably has to do with Harry Potter...I read the last 300 pages of book 6 Sunday and I've been reading as much of book 7 as I can as often as I can ever since....it's bittersweet though, because I must admit, I don't want it to end.

I'm not sure what to say about Harry Potter, but I think I have much to say. I must admit that I don't think I was ever wrong about the books. They aren't written too terribly well; indeed, I could probably, in the technical sense, write circles around Rowling, and that's saying something because I'm not a great fiction writer at all. But when it comes to making a story, I do think Rowling may be the best, most creative novelist we've ever seen...the only exception might be C.S. Lewis for Narnia...but there's something more impressive, something more addictive, something more, well, magical about Harry Potter. That being said, I might replace Harry Potter with The Chronicles of Narnia just to see...it feels like blasphemy, and Lewis could write circles around just about anyone...but there's just something about Harry Potter and it is wonderful; indeed, it is perfect. 7 books and 7 movies seem far too short...and it's not like it's 7 short books and 7 short movies...I know it can't go on forever, but I'm not sure I'll ever be totally satisfied in that....if only the Wheel of Time or Dark Tower series were Harry Potter...as far as I can tell, those will go on forever. That being said, I've quite the penchant for identifying with the characters in Harry Potter, and I'm not sure I would want that to happen to them...even so, no matter what happens in the end, I will at least be sad that it is the end..... If absolutely nothing else, I have not felt this way about a book, much less a series of books, since I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was very, very very young....it's a sort of magic I've been looking to recapture; indeed, perhaps even spending thousands of dollars on a college education in the subject, to try to recapture...and there it was, the whole time, being insulted, snapped at, tossed about like trash by me the whole time....I didn't want to admit that everyone was right about books....Maybe though, without that education, I wouldn't have broken down and given Harry Potter a try...so it really did take all that time and money to get me here.

One interesting thing too, although probably not too important, is that the last book came out while I was in China...that's kind of significant to me for no real reason.

I'm not really sure what to talk about now. I've had all sorts of things slide through my mind over the past few days while I've been putting this off...but even so, nothing is coming to mind right now.

I think the best movie I've seen in a theatre this year, so far, was yesterday: Inglorious Basterds. Even though I've studied him extensively, I think the same things stick out in my mind about Tarantino, and his reputation still precedes him. Let's just say, IB was far from the movie I expected, knowing the premise...that being said, it was exactly what I would expect from Tarantino, when I think about what his movies are actually saying.

Yes, it's violent...very much so....as always, overly so. But, as always, no matter the attention payed to the debased, Tarantino has the control over his films (really, control that only Hitchcock, Antonioni, and Fellini have exhibited) such that the bad guys, even if they win, never win. There's a screaming social commentary that we, as Americans, are far too fast to forget the humanity of all humans...even Nazis. Even in doing so, the actions and tenets of Nazism are not held to any level of regard...and, even in what, to the untrained eye, would look like a glorification of ultraviolence, what really happens is an absolute and utter example of the inhumanity of war...all war. I don't know if Tarantino is a pacifist...indeed, that would probably be ironic...but in using WWII, the most common argument against pacifism, Tarantino performs to ultimate post-modern coup de grace in showing us that even a war that seems justifiable is ultimately a picture of inhumanity even on the side of the "good guys." But he doesn't say that. He doesn't have to. Film is powerful because it doesn't ask you directly to do or think anything...but even so, it makes you think about something.....and, because it's tarantino, it's beautiful, horrific, and hilarious all at once. I do recommend it, but I fear many self proclaimed "Tarantino fans" will dislike it and miss the point by quite a bit.

Patriots-Packers is my Superbowl pick.

I always pick the Packers....

Fund raising isn't going as slowly as I thought it was...by that I just mean that I'm not in a position much different from many others....that's strangely reassuring. Actually, the biggest thing right now is how small my average gift is...I've got a lot of donors...but the gifts are small. I'm kind of okay with that...I've kind of always thought and I think said, a couple of times, that I want to "Obama" it...meaning like, a lot of small gifts instead of a few big ones...the problem being, with my current average gift, I need like, 200 donors...and that's ten times the amount I've got right not. I've got the contacts...they just haven't had the will or the ability quite yet. I do have faith I'll get there...most certainly. God's a great provider like that.

-Zack

"Where you're headed to we don't have to guess"
-Mae