I think what I feel now can only been described as schadenfreude. I am taking delight in geographical restrictions on content finally being applied to people in the US, instead of the rest of the world like it usually is. This has been something that’s annoyed me for years. The first time I encountered it was when I wanted to find out more about the Penn and Teller show Bullshit. This was years ago back in 2003, when I first heard the show was coming out, and they are a lot more international user friendly now. But while they have gotten better buying digital goods has gotten a lot tougher. I like to buy stuff, pay for stuff online all the time, but as of right now it seems like Audible is the only company selling digital media who wants my money. I miss allofmp3.com. Not Apple. not Amazon, none of the TV networks, if I want something like Heroes, or House my only choice is to Pirate it.

Ive been collecting screenshots of messages where I cant see content that Im looking for. Some are more egregious than others(Im looking at you NBC), but they all annoy me.  Here’s a slide show.

Roughly translated that says: You worship or honor the hair on my butt .

Seriously how interesting could a movie made about W. be? Is there any story there other than goofy rich kids get lucky?

When was the last time Oliver Stone made an interesting movie? His last seven movies were World Trade Centre, Alexander, Comandante, Any Given Sunday, U Turn, Nixon, and Natural Born Killers. World Trade Centre and Alexander sucked. I never heard of Commandante. Any Given Sunday was ok. U Turn sucked, Nixon was ok, and Natural Born Killers would have released 15 years before W’s planned 2009 release.

Neither on their own are very interesting.

Why did Lord Vader decide to break all protocols and personally pilot a lightly armored TIE Fighter? Conveniently, this placed Lord Vader outside of the Death Star when it was destroyed, where he was also conveniently able to escape from a large-sized rebel fleet that had just routed the Imperial forces. Why would Lord Vader, one of the highest ranking members of the Imperial Government, suddenly decide to fly away from the Death Star in the middle of a battle? Did he know something that the rest of the Imperial Navy didn’t?

Heres another classic Star Wars conspiracy theory:

If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.

The leaders according to this theory are R2D2 and Chewbacca:

Fortunately, before coming to Tattoine, R2 had already arranged transport, which is waiting at Mos Eisley, under the command of the Rebellion’s other chief field agent and espionage asset. Chewbacca.

20 years earlier, Chewbacca was second in command of the defence of his planet. He’s there in the tactical conferences and there on the front lines and is a personal friend of Yoda’s. When he needed reliable people to join the embryonic Alliance, who else would Yoda turn to but his old friend from Kashykk? Given his background, there is no way that Chewie would spend the crucial years of the rebellion as the second-in-command to (sorry Han) a low-level smuggler. Unless it’s his cover. In fact, Chewie is a top-line spy and flies what is in many ways the Rebellion’s best ship.

I love this stuff

The film ends not with a “Scarface“-style shootout, but with Frank and Richie sitting down for a long, intelligent conversation, written by Zaillian to show two smart men who both know the score. As I hinted above: less “Godfather” than “Wall Street,” although for that matter a movie named “American Gangster” could have been made about Kenneth Lay.

I highly recommend this movie.