lmfao

John, I know you are done with Midnight. That's what I get for showing up late. Nevertheless, a few things:

I didn't mean to suggest that you don't know how to enjoy a good story. Midnight hit a lot of the essential elements that I look for in a fun movie. Doesn't work for you on that level, I get it. Still don't agree with you about a few other points you've made but that's part of the fun of this entire thing. You have some interesting ideas and forced me to consider a different perspective. I feel sorry for anyone who has seen Midnight but missed this debate.

I would also be interested in having the genre fiction discussion at some point. You mentioned way back in one of your first posts that you find some of the stuff going on at there to be important. I completely agree and think it is a shame that people tend to dismiss it so quickly. I'm actually talking about this in a more literary sense but only because my film knowledge is still lacking. (Ok, just found the post and you were talking about this in your discussion of The Lower Depths.)

Brandon and Jeffery, can I say a few words in defense of Twitter? As someone who is very interested in social media - an umbrella term that Twitter falls under, though Lisa and I were just yesterday discussing how ambiguous the term is - I use and love Twitter. Far from it being just a place where I send out mindless updates ("i'm naked and wasted and, omg, my life is so fucking boring"), it is a place where I connect and learn. Honestly. I connect with other people who have similar interests as me, most of whom I have never met. I find new and interesting information from them, ask and answer questions and can have my voice heard by people who would normally be inaccessible. I have tweeted with some of my favorite authors and actors. Hopefully Lisa will chime in here too. We had a really interesting discussion about this very topic yesterday.

In addition, look at the power of Twitter to affect change around the world. The Arab Spring movement was largely coordinated via Twitter. I was getting information on there that was not hitting the news until almost an hour later.

Yes, Twitter does have many users who probably use it the way you two describe. But that's not all it is.

I follow Ebert on Twitter. He tweets A LOT and I find that his stuff is almost always, at the very least, interesting (it helps that our politics are similar). His comment about Dunn ("Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive.") is probably crass and "too soon." I happen to agree with him, however. Should he have tweeted it? I can't really say - but probably, yes. His point is valid. Dunn was driving 130 mph after drinking (his bac was twice the legal limit and he...wait for it...tweeted a picture of him drinking at a bar just a few hours prior to the accident). Sorry, that qualifies as a jackass, clever pun or not. Dunn's death is sad and tragic but it was also avoidable. Ebert isn't afraid to point this out and I can only hope it serves as a lesson.

As you might know, this isn't the first time Ebert has created controversy with a tweet. A few months ago, in response to the censorship of the word "nigger" from Huck Finn, he tweeted, "I'd rather be called a nigger than a slave." Again, I think the outrage was ill-founded. If Twitter fails here, it is that people missed the context of the tweet.

Now, enjoy Hank talk to Hank about blogging.



Brandon, one more thing. I happen to be of the opinion that some people are not meant to go to college. This is not a slight against them. I tend to excel in academia but that's also because I've bought into it. Just because someone does not have a degree does not mean they are not educated. I know a lot of people with degrees who I find to be dull, boring and rather stupid. A self-directed education like you have is admirable. In fact, I think that education is probably heading in that direction and away from institutions.