In case you missed it, Steven's B-Day. Birthday celebration, desserts, video and Steven's generally positive demeanor, all by Lauren.

Dark Knight in IMAX and in Perspective

Jamie, Jason, Wagner and Wagner's brother, Jeff, and I all ventured out to see "The Dark Knight" at the IMAX at the Bob Bullock Museum today. The show was sold out, as, I believe, all shows were sold out over the weekend for the IMAX.

It's true this movie is doing gangbusters. And on a second viewing, and sort of pondering what else I've seen this summer, rightfully so.

A second viewing revealed some plot holes I missed watching the movie the first time. Mostly regarding stuff like "well how did Batman know to be there then?" I'd say I'd let that slip, normally. But I reserve Batman simply KNOWING where to be for Batman as supporting character and seeing how he creeps out even his fellow JLA'ers. In a comic, cartoon or movie about Batman, he's a detective, and him figuring those sorts of things out is often what the story is about.

But, you know... Batman is cool like that, so if he just knows where to be, then... awesome. But had they done too much of this, its the same sort of thing that usually makes me say "I have absolutely no idea what is happening in this movie..." What bugs me about that sort of thing is that Batman IS a detective. At least in the comics. So would it have killed them to say "how did you find me?" And then have Batman give some idiot simple explanation.

I actually think I followed the plot a lot better this time instead of just gritting my teeth and letting the movie knock me over like a rogue wave. And, I am happy to say, the Batpod was just as cool on a second viewing.

Given the stories on all the clams Batman is making for Legendary and WB (and hopefully the folks who worked on the movie), I looked up how its ACTUALLY doing in an historical perspective. You can see where it's currently sitting at Box Office Mojo's adjusted dollars comparison page. Unlike every entertainment reporter in the world, this site actually takes inflation into account when making hyperbolic declarations about the success of a movie.

Right now, Dark Knight has almost made as much/ sold as many tickets as... Batman. Go figure. That said, I recall seeing Burton's Batman in the theater about five or six times over the course of several months, and Dark Knight's been in release for about four weeks. So... we'll see.

But its also sort of fascinating to consider ticket sales for something like "Cleopatra" when you compare it to the actual population of the time, number of screens, etc... In a way, it makes you really realize how even movies are narrowcasting to such a degree that when a movie DOES make superstar money these days, its worth looking at why that's happening.

How was Dark Knight in IMAX? I have no idea. We were sitting so close to the screen that I know the effect was totally lost on me. Aside for being able to say "Oh, THAT'S what it would be like to be a microbe floating somewhere near Morgan Freeman's face!", I don't know if I got everything out of it I could have. Jason actually got up and moved to the back and had to tell me the screen changed aspect ratios throughout. I hadn't even noticed because I was sitting in the middle of the image.

World Now Significantly Less Soulful

If you noticed that things seemed a lot less groovy today, there's a reason.

Isaac Hayes has passed away.

We're losing too many of the great ones.

Steven G Harms is old

I couldn't post on this before, because Lauren was attempting to keep things a surprise, but Happy Birthday to Steven G. Harms.

Last night we met up at Threadgill's on Riverside for some home-style cookin', and a whole crew of Harms friends and admirers were in attendance. Lauren busted out some really great desserts at the end (which I am not sure was okay with Threadgill's policy, but they didn't argue, either). So cupcakes AND cherry pie for all.

I had a brief passing thought that JimD should have been in attendance as his George Baileyness led, in one way or another, to many of the folks celebrating Steven's birthday. I also worried that if we were in the first act of a film and all celebrating such a nice birthday (we somehow managed to squawk out Happy Birthday in tune), that this had to be one of those coming of age movies in which someone was going to die in the third reel.

So, I am doomed.

Happy Birthday, Steve-N.

Byrne & Eno, together again

Do you like David Byrne? I do. Maybe not as much as some, but I have something like 80% of his stuff. Unfortunately, some time around 1995 I quit being able to remember the name of every song on every album I owned, so don't ask me what is on what album or anything. That part of my brain just doesn't function.

It seems Byrne and Eno have once again decided to collaborate. Funny, because just this week I was ripping "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" to iTunes for the first time, as well as Byrne's "Grown Backwards" and Eno's "Here Come the Warm Jets". I've owned all of them for a while, but hadn't made the transition to iPod status.

Here's a link to a website for the new album. be careful, as there's self-starting audio.

There's a free MP3. That's pretty cool.

The site includes tour dates.

I happen to already have tickets to see Byrne as he's headlining (as far as I'm concerned) ACL Fest this summer. I'm glad I already had tickets. I think if his only swing through Austin was part of ACL Fest and I wasn't going? I'd be very irritated.

But I have tickets, so I'll try not to think about how ACL Fest is sort of screwing up Austin as a destination city for bands on tour. I'll be there at the AT&T stage for Byrne at the 6:30 show. Let me know if you're there, too.

Obligatory Olympics Post - 1

Well, if you read Jamie's blog, you're going to know we watched the Olympic opening ceremonies, as well as an hour of Animal Planet's Puppy Games.

So we're in neck deep now. Woke up this morning to Dressage (or horsey dancing, as we call it). Then watched the Americans slightly beat Japan in 3 of four sets in Women's Volleyball. Japan was really good, and I don't understand how the US managed to pull it out in the three sets. Plus, seeing really tall Japanese women is sort of interesting.

The American women swept Sabre. Which is awesome (yes, I got a little misty when they showed the three medal winners together). We also watched a Chinese girl (I'd say woman, but she was really young) lift 250+ pounds clean over her head for a world record. That was... insane. Kudos to her.

Anyway, we're now onto Canada v. China in women's soccer. Not sure when the US women play, so I need to look that up.

The only men's sport I've seen has been badminton, which a Polish gentleman was winning.

Walsh & May-Treanor play this afternoon, so I need to stick by the TV. Keep your eyes peeled for volleyball.

Anyhow, the games are on multiple networks, so I'm considering trying using the Picture-in-Picture feature on my cable.

One of the funny things about watching sports is how you automatically, randomly pick a side. Well, probably not randomly. But when you don't have a dog in the fight, and you're watching, say, Poland play Uganda in Tiddlywinks, I'll still decide to cheer someone on. Usually whomever is losing on the off chance that if they come back from behind, I'll feel like I knew how to pick a winner.

Also, I frequently cheer for someone based on the cut of their jib.

I did wonder exactly what the conversation was with Putin and W sitting a few seats apart at the opening ceremonies. "So, Vlad. Couldn't wait to stir up some military action until the end of the Olympics, huh?" "Da."

By and large, I thought the opening ceremonies were some of the best ceremonies/ least embarrassing/ keeping the cheese to a minimum in a few years. And I'm including Atlanta in that, although we had Ali at Atlanta. But, yeah, it was all very well done and imaginative.

So, viva los Olympicos.

It's been a strange day.

So here's U2 and Arcade Fire joining up to play some Joy Division