Today I gleefuly woke up, only to wonder exactly where my sense of humor had gone. For lack of a better explanation I choose to partially blame Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson and their stooges for creating The Life Aquatic in such a way as to be highly reminiscent of their other collaborations but neither as funny nor as cohesive. I watched it last night and I liked it, I did, yet it confused me deep down.

True to Anderson/Wilson form, anyway, the soundtrack is really fun and clever and great. Specifially, there's this song by Sigur Rós, which isn't on the actual soundtrack but features in one of the movie's final scenes (when the crew finally finds the jaguar shark, if you've seen it). The song is lovely, I recommend.

So I mentioned Rosa Parks's death to a couple friends and was surprised to find that neither of them knew who she was. The school system taught me at an early age that the name Rosa Parks is synonymous with all things civil rights, i.e. Martin Luther King Jr.* and Outkast. But of course, I said to myself, these Commonwealth friends of mine were raised to appreciate their own countries' civil rights champions and not the USA's, right? Uhhhh.** So then I tried to come up with a list in of international civil rights leaders, both for my own peace of mind and because I've long since run out of off-the-cuff topics to discuss in the voice room.*** But besides Nelson Mandela I'm somewhat at a loss. Embarrassing. I'll have to ask someone smart.

Fondly,
Eliz

*with a milk keg, if you find that sort of thing funny.
**Over here in Japan, you can say Uhhhhh and it means yes. Pronounce it like the sound Ron Burgundy makes when he's rockin' out on Yazz Flute.
*** Either one of my place of employment's most or least redeeming features, depending on the day.