About that sadist/masochist joke, others are better at it. (The joking, not the S/M.)

For example Giles, who put it more succinctly:

"Beat me!" said the masochist.
"No," said the sadist.

But even better yet is the way Maxine puts it on her own cartooning style.

One of the directors I get most excited about when he releases a new film is David Cronenberg. His last film, Existenz, was one of the best of 1999. Now comes Spider, the story of a schizophrenic (played by Ralph Fiennes) who, after being released from a mental institution, begins to remember the events in his past that led to his trauma and eventual madness. The only release date I've been able to find for this movie is "2003." The wait couldn't be harsher.

On a side note, what's with Fieness playing deranged characters lately? First he's cast as the titular serial killer in Red Dragon, and now a schizophrenic? If his next role follows the same line, I'll consider this officially a trend.

I've been listening over and over to Interpol's "NYC" thanks to Salon Audio. I love this song! Maybe it's time I bought their record, Turn on the Bright Lights. They may sound like recycled Joy Division, but they recycle with great results, so who's complaining?

Idiot Box

Cartoon Network starts airing today new episodes of one of the best action shows around, Samurai Jack.

Jack is all about kinetic expression. Whether it is by speeding up the action to the point of turning it into a blur and a flash on the screen, or slowing it down until it comes to an ominous, silent halt, the show is about the visual poetry of movement. Far from a weakness, the show's minimal plotlines allow it build on its real focus: the action.

Not that the show disdains storytelling. Quite the opposite, most episodes have a yarn-spinning moment that holds the emotional core of their story. This is a show fascinated with stories, whether it is a warrior's memories of the curse that turned him into a monster and his search for release in a honorable death at combat, or the melancholy tale of the ruler whose realm on the sea was sunken by an evil demon.

Why such enthusiastic words for a children's show, you might wonder. Believe me, with its impressionist artwork, its sparse dialogue, its focus on poetic movement and storytelling that makes a virtue out of simplicity, Samurai Jack is more than an entertainment for the elementary school pack: it is a work of art in its own peculiar way.

{Edited on September 19, 2002. Changed "virtually dialogue-free writing" for "sparse dialogue."}