Clinton's speech was pretty rousing. As a president, he was... well, better that the alternative, but never too impressive, but boy, he do love to talk. And he does it well. Which I think makes people remember him as better than he was. Which I'm okay with. Lord knows the Democrats could use someone with charisma. My favorite thing, though, was how he explained that Republicans have to go negative because they want to divide people, but Democrats are going to be positive. And then he proceeded to bash Republicans for a while. And it didn't sound hypocritical, even though it totally was! I was laughing at that, but with deep admiration. He's like a rhetorical savant or something.

And he had some good jokes, which is always good. The boat metaphor at the end was veering toward self-parody, but still.

He could still use an editor, though. The bit about how we should "...[c]reate a world where we can celebrate our religious, our racial, our ethnic, our tribal differences, because our common humanity matters most of all" would have been a great soundbite if it wasn't one-quarter of a crazily long sentence.

I picked up a copy of Charles de Lint's Dreams Underfoot at the Book Alcove a while back, and finally got around to it. I keep hearing about de Lint but I'd never read anything by him. I was... underwhelmed. I mean, the stories were fine, but that's about it. The characters drove me out of my mind. All of the major characters blur together for me; they speak the same way, the women are always slim with pixie-like features. I don't think the men are described with nearly the same odd focus on appearances, but they aren't any more distinctive. And everyone is so freaking noble and well-adjusted. It's like the later Spider Robinson stories where instead of people really growing and changing, they just get slightly unhappy for a little while and then overcome it because they're so open-minded and comfortable with themselves. Well, there are a few troubled characters, but they don't make any more sense than the happy ones. They just are troubled, and there's not much interest in exploring why. Mike, in "Our Lady of the Harbor," is afraid of getting close to people. And the people around him are way more antagonized by that then real people are, perhaps because in this world people like him are unusual. And at the end of the story, nothing's changed -- he doesn't learn anything except to feel a little bit bad about being so estranged. So... what was the point? And that was one of the stories I kind of liked while reading it. I dunno, maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it. I feel as if I probably would have enjoyed the stories more when I was 15 or so, and the book is from 1993 so his style may have changed a lot since then. There wasn't anything I really hated, but I don't think there's anything in the book I'd feel compelled to read again in six months, either.

A couple weeks ago I watched Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and enjoyed it a lot. It's nothing deep, but there's a lot of fun to be had, and if you rent the DVD you can listen to George Cloooney talk to you on the commentary track. He's got a nice voice, you know. He's also pretty entertaining, and explains a lot of very cool things. There are almost no FX in the movie, but there are a lot of things that I assumed were FX or done in editing that are actually in-camera effects. It's worth seeing the movie just for the bit where Barris goes from taking an NBC tour to applying for a job to leading another tour group to sitting behind a desk listening to his co-workers talk. It's all one shot, and involved several actors rushing around behind the camera as it moved off of them, changing costumes, and dashing into place before the camera returned. And there are several scenes like that. It's neat. There are also a lot of shots and techniques lifted from other movies, which Clooney cheerfully points out.

I'd mentioned Dragonslayer a few days ago in a discussion of dragon-related movies, and then I stopped off at Circuit City, and it was $10 instead of $20, so... I am relieved to say that it's still fun. And the dragon is awesome. You can tell it's bluescreened in, but it doesn't have that jerky stop-motion look. There's a lot of teasing in the first half, where you see people reacting to it but don't see more than a claw or a tail. And the big reveal is still worth it, because that thing is gorgeous. There are also some little dragon-babies that are not nearly so impressive, but don't let them put you off. The movie itself is weird. There are a lot of characters whose motivations and decisions aren't really explained at all, and scenes that woud be pointless if you just read them in the script. Somehow the cast manages to make all that stuff seem plausible -- they invest the characters with enough depth that things seem like little subplots, other stories you only see glancing moments of, instead of clumsy writing. Which I think is what it is, really. The story is pretty basic, though there are a couple of good twists -- it's a standard fantasy plot, but the fact that it's so well done makes it much better than most fantasy movies. Partly because there aren't hours of exposition and history and mysterious prophecies and so on. Get this: you can actually pick up what you need to know from context. And there are hints of backstory that are left as just hints, because they aren't important. Sometimes it's the little things. Oh yeah, and the whole thing looks gorgeous. You know how fantasy movies from the 80's look dated? Apart from the bluescreen, this one really doesn't. And everyone's dirty. I always like that. So to sum up, it's pretty much the opposite of Clash of the Titans. The only major problem is the score, which is full of clunky "THIS IS VERY DRAMATIC AND IMPORTANT" stings that are incredibly irritating. Particularly when they come during things that aren't really all that dramatic. You know it's bad if I notice that. Oy.

In other news, I've been enjoying the Dinosaur Comics and playing far too much Kingdom of Loathing. Thank goodness there's a per-day turn limit of sorts.

Oh, if you go here and have Java installed, you can see a chinchilla who looks very much like Scooter running in a newfangled variety of wheel. Cute! It doesn't quite convey how bouncy they are, since it's a loop -- but look at how far forward his feet go! Also, for the curious: the one in this image looks fat, I guess. But half of the mass at his waist is fur. They have big heads, but honestly, they're tiny.