Meanwhile, Back at the White House

"Hey! There were Weapons of Mass Destruction after all!"
"Uh--that's Iran, George."
(long pause)
"O-o-o-oh. Um. Hoo boy."

Pictures of Paris (Not Nude)

Caveat: There aren't actually any nude pictures of Paris Hilton here. I repeat, for the benefit of search engine crawlers: there are no nude pics of Paris Hilton here. So don't accidentally send porn-dogs who were looking for nude pictures of Paris Hilton here.

However, there are pics of Metro wearing a hat in Paris (not, I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, not in Paris Hilton).


They love Metro in Paris, though possibly not etc. . . This one is a café around the corner from where Mme Metro and I were staying.


A picture of the famous Metro in Paris. Though not etc. . . Here we see one of the ubiquitous signs indicating an entrance to the underground railway that serves the city very well. Speaking of underground . . .

Went to see V for Vendetta last night.

The individual actors are terrific. Hugo Weaving emotes better in a mask than most actors do in their real lives. Natalie Portman is hereby forgiven for the Star Wars series. The fatwa is withdrawn. The story suffers from the usual comic-adaptation problems, i.e. having to resort to broad strokes and shorthand to express complex relationship chains.

I had only two mildly negative comments about the film. Firstly, the film establishes a co-operative relationship between V and members of the fascist government he seeks to destroy--problematic at best, betrayal of the story at worst. Secondly, V has moments of uncertainty, even self-doubt. The V of the comic is an implacable foe of the regime, dedicated not just to the downfall of those individuals who created him, but to the deliberate and complete ruin of the entire civil structure. No second thoughts, no looking back. He plays the Destroyer, and prepares another to play Rebuilder.

He also claims to have forgotten about love, in the film. In the book, V considers love and music to be central to his purpose. He understands his role, and realizes that there will be a time when he should step aside to let others build where he cannot. Would that modern politicos had that much vision, eh?