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quislibetMany years ago I happened to watch "The American President," with Michael Douglas, and thought it was, while not a masterpiece, a reasonably decent way to have spent about 2 hours. Didn't think about it again until recently, when I learned that it was written by Aaron Sorkin and is really a forerunner of "The West Wing," which I have been watching fairly consistently (and think it's in decline, but that's another story).
So we watched "A.P." last night when J. found it at the public library. It was Very Weird. Right from the opening scene, with fast-paced bantering dialogue as the President and some of his aides walk quickly through the halls of the White House, it was clear that we were in some weird alternate universe version of "W.W." And THEN Martin Sheen showed up as the Chief of Staff (and a few other actors now on "W.W." appeared in various roles).
But possibly the oddest thing was when Michael J. Fox said, "fuck."
Anyway.
Speaking of bantering dialogue, I must resist the urge to read Steven Brust's Paths of the Dead rather than a recent biography of Livia (wife of Augustus, mother of Tiberius -- you know, the evil matriarch in "I, Claudius"). It is, I am surprised to note, the very first biography of Livia in English. And yet the details of her life are all so drearily familiar to me by now, and even though the author's other work has been engaging, well, it's not Steven Brust.
Incidentally, my advisor doesn't even have cosmetic changes to recommend for my prospectus, so I guess it's done. I'll be distributing it to my committee this week and probably defending it at the end of the month. After that, well, it's just writing the whole dissertation. Piece of cake, really.
So we watched "A.P." last night when J. found it at the public library. It was Very Weird. Right from the opening scene, with fast-paced bantering dialogue as the President and some of his aides walk quickly through the halls of the White House, it was clear that we were in some weird alternate universe version of "W.W." And THEN Martin Sheen showed up as the Chief of Staff (and a few other actors now on "W.W." appeared in various roles).
But possibly the oddest thing was when Michael J. Fox said, "fuck."
Anyway.
Speaking of bantering dialogue, I must resist the urge to read Steven Brust's Paths of the Dead rather than a recent biography of Livia (wife of Augustus, mother of Tiberius -- you know, the evil matriarch in "I, Claudius"). It is, I am surprised to note, the very first biography of Livia in English. And yet the details of her life are all so drearily familiar to me by now, and even though the author's other work has been engaging, well, it's not Steven Brust.
Incidentally, my advisor doesn't even have cosmetic changes to recommend for my prospectus, so I guess it's done. I'll be distributing it to my committee this week and probably defending it at the end of the month. After that, well, it's just writing the whole dissertation. Piece of cake, really.
