The Body Polite-ic

Today I discovered a key downside to being home sick - in addition to the sickness itself, of course. The Today Show gets really dubious after 9:00 am. This morning's main offender was several minutes of air-time - sponsored no less - spent talking with a woman who was upset that her son's preschool used "ladies first" and the attendant concept of "being a gentleman" to determine which kids in the class would use the bathroom first ahead of nap-time. I can only surmise that this woman's son is her only child, because otherwise she'd appreciate that getting multiple preschoolers to do anything in an orderly fashion is like herding barracudas - just with a slightly lower chance of getting bitten. Rather than jumping down the school's throat for using an admittedly old-fashioned approach to teaching good manners, perhaps she could have used it as a teaching moment for her own child to convey that there are multiple sets of customs that are used to display politeness.

Flash (aah-aah)

I've always enjoyed the 1980 film of Flash Gordon. Because I missed it in the theater, I've never seen it in its full outlandish glory until buying the Blu-ray the other day. Aside from the obvious praise about how good it looks in high-definition, my overall impressions have remained unchanged over the years.

1) As far as creating a comic-book atmosphere, it's about the truest adaptation of a classic character from that era of comics.

2) The American leads are pretty bad, but the supporting actors (mostly Brits) are wonderful, especially Brian Blessed as the borderline insane king of the Hawkmen.

3) The soundtrack by Queen remains awesome.

4) Between the blond beefcake being marched around in a speedo, the well-groomed man in the green suit speaking BBC English and - I suppose - the actress playing Ming the Merciless' daughter, I wonder how many young men came to appreciate their sexuality watching this movie.

5) The most implausible thing about the movie remains the idea that the New York Jets would actually have a quarterback good enough to fight off so many of Ming's soldiers singlehandedly.

Sex Bomb

With record stores seemingly an endangered species, along with bookstores, I've resolved to enjoy them while they last. It's not hard with the store just down the street from my office, because they have several racks of CDs priced $1.00 or less. Obviously, only the most uncritical music fan won't think at least some of their inventory is crap, but it's a rare visit that I don't find something worth picking up.

Today was no exception. I left with nine discs and that abundance left me with a dilemma. I can't decide which CD bargain I'm most excited about. I was able to narrow it down to two, but that's as far as I've gotten.

One was Roxy Music's album For Your Pleasure for a quarter, and the other was the CD-single of Toby Keith performing "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" live (with a spoken intro) for a dime. Bryan Ferry is passionate about screwing those after whom he lusts, while Toby Keith is passionate about bombing those he hates. Who's to say which is better? I respect them both.