This Is Not A Funny Post

I know that my posts have largely been about movies and sports, and not that much about New York, my life, my life in New York, bars, clothes, manicures, sex etc..., but that's because I'm (1) not a fictional character so I don't have that kind of life, and (2) I've got a job that often entails me working into the wee hours of the morning (and weekends as well), so if my Friday nights are spent across the street at Pacific Echo downing a few lychee martinis on the house (friends and family discount, I guess) before I head home to watch whatever bad movie they show on TV on Friday nights (e.g. Swordfish).

Before I start ranting, I do have to give a "shout-out" (as they say in vernaculars more urban than mine) to the barstaff and waitstaff at Pacific Echo. I pay for perhaps every other drink I have there (even though I really pay for none of them, because I often get out of work late and can expense dinner, and the good folk at Pacific Echo know not to itemize my receipt when I get three martinis with my take-out). The manager always tells me it's "happy hour" when I come in. And their lychee martinis and mango martinis are quite delightful. Their sushi's great, too -- try the Snow White roll next time you're there.

OK, back to our blog. My point is...

I refuse to see United 93. They could have Frank Beamer shouting lines like, "LET'S GET THESE MOTHERFUCKING [racially-charged derogatory slang for islamic extremists ] OFF THE MOTHERFUCKING PLANE" -- and I still won't see it.

It's not that real-life tragedy makes poor cinema, or even poor taste cinema. If anything, it's the other way around. Numerous books and movies were written about the Holocaust and I have no issues with those (and apparently, neither does Oprah). And let's take Pearl Harbor. That movie was only offensive in the fact that it was a such a shitty film that it should offend everyone (insert Team America reference here), not the fact that it graphically displayed a wartime tragedy's events. And then there's Hotel Rwanda, Titanic, The Perfect Storm, Rudy (OK, Rudy's not really a "tragedy", but to those who hate the Irish as much as I do, it is). You get the point. So why do I hate the idea of this film?

Just stick to playing hobbits, bro.

I guess that a lot of red-state rednecks will drag their church groups to see this movie and proclaim that it would be un-American to see it. But, it's just too soon for me, I guess, to be entertained by that shit. I fly too much. I live in Manhattan. I work in Times Square. These things could have happened to me, and they very well still can.