"Godfather" Makes Demands on My Time, "Rome", and Some Deeply Inane Ramblings on the Field of Democratic Contenders

Hey dudes and dudettes. I know -- I've been sucking it as a blogger lately what with my rambling and infrequent postings. Here's what I've got working against me. I'm going to be 30 in less than a month, and my current plan to stave off the crushing depression that may or may not accompany that landmark birthday is to have my goddamn novel done and done. I'm on page 293 of a polishing line-edit on my 497-page tome you're all no doubt tired of hearing about, and I want to get that done before the 11th. Now here's the other thing I've had working both against this admirable goal and bloggin' this week. I've been sick.

The illness goes by the name of "The Godfather" for the XBox 360, and man have I been suffering. Stumble out of bed at noon because I stayed up till 3 the night before playing "Godfather", fix a shitty lunch of a turkey and cheese sandwich with a tasteless stack of pretzels to go with it, all washed down with some DC (Diet Coke for the uninitiated), and I set all that bizness on the coffee table and pick up the beautiful white 360 controller and get things rolling. "The Godfather" game, which is not a new title and was just modded out for the 360, is damn playable. Addictive even. When I was playing it, I didn't even want to be playing it, but I felt compelled. If I extort just one more business, I thought, the whole game will be different. One more hit for Don Corleone and I'll get a promotion to Underboss. I played it a lot. There's a helpful/depressing play-counter that comes up each time you save the game that lets you know EXACTLY how long you've been playing. I think by the time I beat the game by becoming Don of New York, I'd put in a full day's worth. The big 24. One of the fun things (more fun when you first start playing) is that you can design a character that looks like you. Well, pretty close. My guy looked more like Ben Affleck than me, (they didn't have a setting for my particular hairline, which would have really sold it), but it was close enough to be funny. When my brother came by to play (he bought the game for the PS2 a few days later such is its addictive quality), we designed a character that looked like him, down to what he was wearing, which was a total white guy-looking yellow button-up shirt. Watching a bearded, yellow shirt-wearing Patrick run around Little Italy extorting small business owners was hilarious. Anyway, I packed it back up in its GameFly mailing sleeve and mailed that mutha off. My fever has broken. I am free.

In other news, the wife gets back tomorrow from India. She's on her way to France right now if she's not already there. From gay Paree straight to the equally sophisticated environs of Hotlanta. It'll be good to have her back.

I've been watching the first season of "Rome" on DVD. I forgot how many of those first epsiodes I'd already seen. As a result, the first disk was just a rehash so I was kinda sorta looking forward to the second disk but, wouldn't you know it, the disk is scratched and wouldn't play any of the three episodes in their entirety. I think I'm done with "Rome" now. Not just because I can't actually watch the 3rd 4th and 5th episodes, but also because I don't really care what happens to these characters. When wifey first told me they were doing the show a bunch of years ago (I think at the time Warner Bros. had something to do with it), I was excited about it. It sounded like an exploration of the politics of ancient Rome, which sounded to me like a great idea. In actuality, however, the show they finally came up with feels like a fairly disinterested summarizing of great swaths of Roman history populated with generally unlikable characters. What fun. Also, the show depicts Rome at its height to be not as grandiose as it seemed in movies like "Gladiator", but more rundown and sparsely populated. Weeds spring up from the cobblestones, and the like. It's an expensive show from all accounts, but the sets look like sets and the extras look and act like extras. It isn't a convincing or terribly compelling portrait of that time. So I wash my hands of it. Thought you'd all like to know about that.

Mmm, politics. Both Hillary and Obama jumped into the presidential race this week. I feel like we just finished with the Bush/Kerry election, now we're doing it again? Hillary's not a completely unappealing candidate, but she's positioning herself too strenuously for the general election. If she gets the nomination it will be with the same feeling of weary resignation with which the Dems nominated John Kerry for President. No one was terribly excited about Kerry (my un-excitement culminated with his speech at the Democratic National Convention when he saluted the audience and said, "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty", at which point he snapped off the salute. How could anyone not be unexcited after that?), and no one seems excited about Hillary. (Though the idea of getting Bill back in the White House has its charm). People are enthusiastic about Obama because he's an appealing candidate, nevermind what he thinks. Unlike Hillary he can speak well and doesn't always come off like he's making political calculations everytime he opens his mouth. His candor on "Meet the Press" last year when Russert pressed him on a possible run was refreshing, and immediately set him apart. But what does he think? Yes, he was against the war back when it counted, but he wasn't in the Senate then to actually cast a vote like all those other poor saps. So far as I know, that's the only positions he has. When asked about the other issues that generally divide the electorate, his stock answer is to speak extemporaneously about coming together and unity. I like unity as much as the next guy, but the fact is as an electorate we're divided right down the middle. Sooner or later, he's going to piss off somebody when he takes a position on an issue. Whether it's the liberals (whom Hillary's pissed off with her so-far unregretted vote for the war), or the conservatives remains to be seen, but right now all of this early excitement seems way premature. Besides, I'm still holding out for Gore. I know. Fat chance, and getting fatter all the time. Still I hope.

Anyway, if you got all the way through that congrats. Enjoy your Sunday.