Regarding this week's Salon Masterpiece, 12 Monkeys: when saw it on its release back in Mexico, though it was a fun movie, but not on par with better Gilliam entertainments like Time Bandits and the ill-fated Baron Munchausen. And way below my favorites, The Fisher King and Brazil (Virginia Vitzthum calls it overrated, but to geeky fans like me it's amazing).

To be honest, it failed to enchant me only because of the very last minutes of the film. As Vitzthum describes them:

Kathryn, cradling the dying Cole's head, looks up straight into the eyes of 8-year-old Cole, burning the scene into his head, ensuring that this is not the end of the loop, that his life will continue on again through the apocalypse.

OK, the issue for me was that Gilliam sets up the whole ecounter showing us this infant Cole coming to the airport with his parents, several minutes in advance of the adult Cole's foretold death. Having paid attention to how the movie had unraveled up to that point, when this kid appears it was obvious who he was and what role he would play in the story. Would have worked a lot better for me if we had met him until Kathryn makes eye contact with him, when his parents take him away saying, "Let's go, Cole!" Now, that would have been a perfect, lyrical moment.

Whatever. Maybe it was just me not appreciating this movie back then. Maybe if saw it today, would have to call it a Masterpiece too. After all, as Cole put it so succinctly: "The movie never changes. It can't. But every time you see it, it's different, because you're always a different person."

Have had a curious relationship with Salon's "Book Gangs of New York," which was published today. My PDA downloaded it a whole week ago. A whole week where the Salonistas went on their Summer break. Found this aricle a riot, and my curiosity was piqued by the quote from the NY Times it opened with. Had to find out the link to the whole Times article. Went ape-shit trying to find out if "Book Gangs" had been posted to Salon prior to their oh-so-entitled break. Well, they had done no such thing. Zilch. Nada, José. Was starting to fear that was donwloading content feed from Rod Serling's neighborhood.

Today, they finally posted the article. Here's the quote I mentioned:

"In recent years, there have even been several book-stealing gangs, led by bookstore owners."

-- From the New York Times, July 18

For crying out loud, people! Couldn't you have provided a link to the source article? Something like this?

-- From the New York Times, July 18

Really...

Dye, Maxim, Dye
The snarky men's magazine wants to color your hair.
By Rob Walker
August 19, 2002

Slate's "Ad Report Card" discusses the latest in brand extension: Maxim Magazine hair dye. If the beers and babes rag is not providing enough zest to its readership's daily lives, maybe some beach-bum tips or highlights willd do it. To my personal disappointment though, the "Report Card" didn't review the version running during Cartoon Network's Adult Swim bar, so tried localizing it on the Web. No such luck, but ended up finding an interview on Maxim's Website with former guest stars of The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Search engines can find unexpected new relationships.

Keeping Down the King
by John Grooms
August 14, 2002

In 1956, the year of Elvis' big national breakout, the kid who became a symbol of freedom for millions of teenagers was, to many Americans, more symbolic of degeneracy.

The only article that have read so far on the death anniversary of Aaron the King, which reminds us that before movie stardom, the Las Vegas years and morbid obesity there was this white, Southern kid who learned to sing and play like a black man. Would it be wrong to call him the original wigger?