Jay Bennett

I am a little behind the news, but I was sad to hear that Jay Bennett passed away last weekend. I appreciated what he added to Wilco, and I saw him play a couple times solo, and though the shows were a little weird, they were fun and memorable. He will be missed.

Anything You Can Do, Elijah Wood Can Do Better

I don't like Tobey Maguire. For all those "he was good as Spiderman" people, I might as well share that I really don't like Spiderman. I never have...it has as much to do with how annoying of a character Mary Jane is as anything else, but I digress.

We watched The Good German last night. I generally like Steven Soderbergh, I am a fan of The Cloon, and I like Cate Blanchett a lot, plus the movie is shot in black and white with lots of old timey touches, so I figured I was safe. Then, the movie starts, and Tobey Maguire is "acting" all over the place. He's horrible, worse than usual, and I worry that I'm not going to make it through the movie. "Maybe he'll get killed." I genuinely believe that any role played by Tobey Maguire would be better suited for either (if not both) Topher Grace (frustrating since he also appears in the Spiderman franchise) or Elijah Wood. Andy and I spent much of Maguire's screen time naming actors that would have been better: Andy's dream choice was of course Ryan Gosling, I suggested Shia LeBeouf and Adrian Brody (who Andy declared too old even though he's only 2 years older than Tobey). Heck, there's a pretty good chance that Justin Long would have been better. Luckily, McGuire ended up not being onscreen for the whole movie, and I was able to make it through, but his scenes were painful and distracting. I'll admit that I am okay with Maguire's preformance in Wonder Boys, since he is playing the one role he's capable of (much like Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted).

By the way, The Good German ended up being just okay. It's worth a watch, espeically if you are into old movies, but it's by no means essential viewing.

(Another) Fox Guarding the Hen House?

IDEM has just released their new Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Legal Counsel. Who is it? Why, it's David Joest, a former registered lobbyist for Peabody Coal. The Post Tribune article provides similar info but (not surprisingly) is more critical. It's another frustrating day for an environmentalist in Indiana.

A Message from the CDC

With Indiana reporting 12 new cases of swine flu (ahem, H1N1 flu), I thought now was the perfect time to post this button from the CDC.