Note on blog entries, and brief weekend update

I will discuss many topics and refer to many sources in my blog entries, as I am personally very tolerant of and open-minded about a variety of things. However I would stress that my blog entries be read within the context that they are stated. Anything beyond that may not be my point of view. With that said, last night I saw the latest from Quentin Tarantino, called Inglourius Basterds. This flick exemplified what we have come to expect from Tarantino - that is, an entertaining, mindless, glorious piece of artistic junk, which I guess is what pulp fiction and cult movies generally are. :) Although it received, on the whole, positive reviews from movie critics, I tend to side with The New York Times take, which faulted the flick for its cavalier treatment - a problem of form and style, rather than story-telling - of such a serious subject matter (I also had trouble with Life is Beautiful for similar reasons, despite its redemptive use of humor). I feel, as did the Times reviewer, Manhola Dargis, that Schindler's List, a movie I would include among my all-time top five movies, was the most appropriate way to visualize the atrocities of that period. Shifting gears a little bit: I have spent most of today watching Tennis (Federer versus Murray, two players I like), Track and Field, and Baseball (Yankees vs the Red Sox, one of the most intense rivalries in sports). I will spend the rest of the day reading the latest issue of The Paris Review. Bye for now.