Sentential Links #128

And away we goooooo!

:: Coming to America may be the Blackest comedy ever made, and it’s little touches like McDowell’s that elevate it past the mild amusement it seems to garner from White viewers into the upper echelon of hilarity it occupies for us. It crushes us under the weight of familiarity, to the point where a musical cue or a mere image is enough to inspire raucous laughter. There are so many in-jokes that the film is like an old Negro Spiritual: everybody can hear the music, but only we can understand the code in the words. (I love Coming to America; for me, it's Eddie Murphy's best comedy, edging out Trading Places.)

:: Everyone usually expresses such polite jealousy when they hear I freelance full time. And to be honest, I used to as well. But now sometimes I think the idea that people have built up in their heads is of a lifestyle that might as well include half-naked servants feeding the freelancer grapes. (You mean the lifestyle of a freelancer isn't like that? Oh noes!!)

:: There's something utterly true about Advent and Lent, Good Friday and Ash Wednesday. Some days are dark. Some seasons are times of desolation. Someday your life will end. And yet: ashes signify not only desolation but also renewal, not only sorrow but also the hope of joy, not only death, but also transformation.

:: The stars are aligning too much for me to ignore them any more. I'm on a Jane Austen kick and I can't help it.

:: Here is a picture of two bald, middle aged white men at the makeshift Obama for America headquarters here at Rotus Ranch.

:: It's true, lutefisk is more popular in the United States than in Norway. What the hell are they doing with it? They're not eating it are they? Is it because it' a cheap alternative to colonic irrigation? Seriously, how do you advertise this stuff? (OK, this isn't specifically a blog post, but still, here it is. I went to college with people from Minnesota and Wisconsin, and thus folks who knew what lutefisk is all about. Not one of them liked it, or would admit it, but they all said the same thing: "It's this incredibly nasty stuff that my grandmother makes." Link via SamuraiFrog, who's been linking the hell out me lately, so thanks to him! I loves me the GoogleJuice.)

:: Here's a shocking truth: a lot of so-called "A-list" celebrities don't have what it takes to succeed in voice acting, because it's an entirely different set of skills, and an entirely different work ethic. It's hard, and it's competitive, and it's not someplace "down on their luck actors with distinct voices" go when they can't go anywhere else. To imply otherwise is an insult to the actors whose voices bring these characters to life. I find that truly offensive.

:: Let's talk about last night's House episode for a bit. (You know, there's something about stories set partially at the South Pole that always trips up on the logistics front. I think of the X-Files movie, where Mulder is somehow able to get from Washington, DC to the South Pole all by himself in a span of time about twenty-four hours long, or something like that.)

:: "Your children will grow up in a world with two suns. You'll be able to tell them of the time when there was only one bright star, and people feared the night. Someday the children of the new sun will meet the children of the old. I think they will be our friends. You can tell your children of the day when everyone looked up and realized that we were only tenants of this world." (Ah Geez, Roy Scheider died. That's sad. I think he's been a pretty underrated actor for a long time.)

And that's all for now. Tune in again next week!