Freyburg

….no surprise there. Apparently they rack up the unpaid bills just as much as people of low-or middle-income backgrounds. As my dad used to say when a fancy car would drive by, “there goes a guy in a lot of debt.”

Apparently ethnic Chinese are running more and more traditional Parisian bistros. And if that doesn’t float your boat, check out what’s up in Dubai.

…partly because Bush uses one.

I managed to get into a press screening of Revenge of the Sith yesterday. The boys from Fox were pretty adamant about not giving out formal reviews, so I’ll just say it’s a lot better than the other two prequels and ROTJ, though of course it can’t hold a candle to New Hope or Empire.

There are some moments of screamingly bad dialogue, but there are also some great scenes, like when the Jedi get killed, which is fairly heart-wrenching. And the duel….well, you’ll just have to check it out for yourselves on May 19th.

I’ve been listening to the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack, and so far it’s pretty damned good. There’s parts that sound a little like Williams’ scores for Amistad and Schindler’s List, which is a tad unusual, but given the dour nature of the final prequel it might work.

Hitchens calls the place “worse than Orwellian.” Nothing here you don’t already know if you’ve read a thing or two about North Korea, but Hitchens sums it all up rather succinctly.

…this time about what Lucasfilm will do without the enormous Jedi cash cow driving it. This is just going to get worse and worse before May 19, people.

Myself and Hodson were wandering down Nelson St last night when we walked past Calista Flockhart and Harrison Ford. She doesn’t look as scrawny as she did in her Ally McBeal days, and Ford didn’t look anywhere near as old as he has in his last few movies.

It was kind of weird passing by THE Han Solo in the street. If I’d been clever I would have said “of course you shot first!” to Ford, but a) he probably wouldn’t get such a nerdy Star Wars reference, and b) I came up with that several hours after I’d passed them by.

More NYT goodness in an article about how putting Star Wars to bed will make life easier for sci-fi writers, who have far outstripped the simplistic tropes of Senor Lucas for some time now.

After literally decades of trying to bring Douglas Adams’ magnum opus to the big screen, the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has finally hit the movie theatre. I’ve been a fan of the books and the radio show since I was a little kid, so I was filled with both anticipation and nervousness as I stepped into the movie theatre to see what Hollywood had wrought. But, for the most part, they got it right.