More news in case you care

Good news: I have a job, and it's starting on monday.
Good news: Becky's coming to visit this weekend, and David is coming to live here.
Good news: Ratatouille comes out this weekend.

Things are looking up, generally. Until my first paycheck, I'll still have to live off my housemate's day-old offerings from their job at a bakery (Mrs. London's...faaaaaancy!), but after that, it'll be sunshine and lollipops, I think. Or I hope. God, I hope.

I feel like a tirade. If you have interest in the minutiae of my life but have no interest about things that aren't related to me, please leave. Really. Go. Now. I told you now!

If you've seen Amadeus, perused the special features section of the Citizen Kane DVD, or read even the slightest shred of a fact about Kurt Cobain, you'll have a passing familiarity with a very sad fact: really talented artists can also be horrid, miserable people. Everyone's been through it. You come to love the artist, feel an almost personal connection with him/her, and decide to gently dip into their biography. What do you come up with? Megalomania, pig-headedness, cruelty and shame. It happened to me with John Lennon, who, judging by interviews with the press and his incredible body of work, seemed to me to be the coolest guy that ever was or will be. Then I learned about his heroin addiction, his total abandonment of his first wife and son for Yoko "Fucking Pretentious Little Bitch When Will She Learn To Just STOP" Ono, his capacity for being just a total prick. It made him more interesting in a way, but before I learned these things, John Lennon was my #1 famous guy I'd want to be friends when I meet him in a non-denominational afterlife-type setting. Now I'd like to meet him, talk to him, but I'll be damned if I'd want to get close to him. Now a similar thing has happened with another artist: Mr. James Stewart.

I was watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington the other day, which I love and if you haven't seen it please do, and I felt an urge to look up Jimmy on the ol' Wikipedia. Every movie I'd seen Jimmy Stewart in, especially his Hitchcock movies, I'd pretty much loved. And it seemed like he was just the sweetest, nicest guy you'd want to meet. Then, the facts start slamming. Jimmy Stewart did the following things, ranging from kind of unfortunate to just plain awful:

1) Supported America's continuing involvement in the Vietnam war.

2) Was an informant for J. Edgar Hoover during the HUAC hearings.

3) Refused to share the screen with any black actor.

This guy? The guy that read the constitution on the fake Senate floor? The guy who's the richest man in that fake town? The guy who loved that fake, invisible bunny so very, very much? I guess that's what happens when you grow up in Indiana.