the weekend's two major cultural ventures were a) seeing the madison savoyards perform "the pirates of penzance" on saturday, and b) spending sunday afternoon drinking beer with my brother jeff and watching the entire "kill bill" saga on dvd. guess which one i enjoyed more.

i kind of hate gilbert and sullivan, mostly because it's boring and insular and self-congratulatory...but i figured "so is everything i like", and i loved topsy-turvy, so i figured i'd give it a try. but the production is a little botched, with a bogus forced frametale, and i couldn't understand what the hell they were all going on about in the second act so i took a little nap. emma liked it, sammy was disappointed that there wasn't more swordplay. i agree with sammy.

as for kill bill; i honestly worry about quentin tarantino, because this long-ass epic is pretty much the apotheosis of everything he's ever tried to do, and it did okay critically and commercially, but didn't blow the roof off of anyone's joint. personally, i love his kitchen-sink strategy, and i flatter myself that i understand what he was up to in kill bill. i just wonder if he's sitting around going, 'jeebus, do i have to rely on the fact that this movie won't get its critical due for a goldurned decade?' i am pretty sure that his next move should be a rom-com starring fairuza balk and terrence howard (with shawnee smith and john leguizamo as the wisecracking best friends), but i am pretty sure he's not going to make that move.