Congressional Addresses: Now with Less Pain!

I'm a firm believer that part of being a good citizen is staying informed and listening to our leaders when they want to address us. That being said, it has been a long 8 new millennium. It was incredibly hard to sit and listen to the horrible policies, the fake promises and the nails-on-chalkboard-esque giggle wink of President Bush. Compound this with the constant ovations (some all-inclusive, the more fun ones partisan) and poor oratory skills and this part of citizen never felt like such a burden.

All that in mind, it was exciting to see a new face at the podium and unified colleagues standing behind him. .Yes it was still dull, the ovations too frequent and the policies a bit too dull (he's just a man!) Yet, I feel that Washington was stuck in a rut for a long time and at last there's been a bit of shaking up. Certainly these are not original ideas, but its something I hope strongly not to lose sight of in the coming weeks, months and years. 

This is a new generation coming to power and that is something that I will never see again in my life until I'm no longer a part of the group that made it happen. Seeing the approval numbers for Obama and his stimulus package demonstrates that the people are behind him and that they trust him to right this ship. 

One final partisan note would be how hypocritical the republican house members still appear...refusing to rise for the ovation about the Stimulus Package all while sliding the money of their states into the pet projects they love. I most sincerely hope that they come around and start playing the game by something other than the old rules, but if not it will be nice to see them get their walking papers in the coming years. 

But I don't mean to be bitter (yet another lingering effect of the eight year doldrums). I see our country with its best years ahead of us, and hope only that I can live long enough to see its full return to grandeur. We've finally elected the best man for the job instead of the lesser of evils...mabe we'll finally learn that elitism isn't such a bad thing in choosing the leader of the free world.

(Image from cnn.com)

 I am in fact genetically engineered to love this movie,but even I was surprised of the extent to which I loved it: this is my cinematic soulmate, thus a brief review to get you fine readers to the theater soon:

Having followed the long circuitous route this movie has taken to theaters, I was quite relieved when the film finally got released in Cambridge (our fair city). This truly is the love letter to Star Wars and all things Lucas-ian (or in many cases, all things late 90s...mmmm tub-thumping). The dialog is littered with constant references to the holy trilogy and the types of trivia contests and debates that have acted as geek handshakes for 30 years now (What is Chewbacca's home planet? How didn't Luke know that Leia's his sister?) that put even the richest Kevin Smith movies to shame. 

The movie's ostensible plot is the road trip of four geektastic friends on a cross country journey to steal an early cut of the Phantom Menace in the Fall of 1998. The journey, in the hands of uberfan director Kyle Newman, becomes a wonderous odyssey of self-discovery and friendship not entirely different from other mainstays of 80s childhood like The Goonies or Stand By Me.  While the comedy is not flawless, the jokes are so rapidfire that the rough ones disappear under the funny ones and even the funny ones pale beside the hilarious ones. Throw in a huge number of cameos (Star Wars and not), some good down-home Trekkie bashing and Kristen Bell as the cutest fangirl ever (gold bikini: check) and you'll never believe how far the ride takes you in a mere 90 minutes. 

It may not be a brilliant film, and it probably won't ever even see wide release, but if you have the oppoortunity to throw yourself back to the moment when you saw Star Wars back on the marquee for the first time in 20 years and have a damned good laugh, absolutely do not let it pass you by. 

If you listened hard enough, you might even hear the beflanneled one's beard. 

(Reprinted from another blogger project)