~ as we were fixing the broken link to the dingbat scene report, we noticed in the reflection on our monitor that someone was standing near our car. We walked to the door just in time to see another parking ticket shoved under the windshield wiper.

~ i was *forced* to wait 1.5 hours to see ‘x-men’ and *had* to sit in the third row from the screen, but the movie was suprisingly worth it. having been an unabashed collector of marvel comics for the past 16 years, i have seen repeatedly the shameful adaptations into live action: ‘captain america’ (video), ‘nick fury – agent of s.h.i.e.l.d.’ (television miniseries), ‘fantastic four’ (to my knowledge only bootleg copies exist), ‘blade’ (starred wesley snipes). even a true-believer should be ready for the worst. however, apart from an initial impatience with the back story that had to be spelled out to the philistines who hadn’t picked up an ‘x-men’ comic in the past 35 years, i was more than pleased with both the personalities and the accurate relationships in the film. the good examples of the love-triangle between cyclops, jean grey, and wolverine or the personal respect/professional animosity between xavier and magneto both outweigh the tender footed portrayal of storm by the vapid halle berry. i happen to know that technology is capable of better effects than we are given, but logan’s claws looked totally righteous, even if it seems that the x-men never existed without him…

~ does this week’s news [npr.org] unfair to anyone else? if you live in florida, and are actually stupid enough to misunderstand (and stupid enough to admit it) the dangers of smoking, you now get a piece of $145 billion; on the other hand, if you were forced into slave labor during the holocaust, you have to make due with only splitting $4.8 billion…

~ are *still* you looking for the photos of the new home for the southern california institute of architecture? in seven weeks, this building (*link removed) will be converted into the most intense, ‘avant garde’ graduate and under-graduate architectural school in downtown l.a., if not the world….

~ ‘x-men’ was sold out hours before we arrived at the theater, so we had to move along down santa monica boulevard and see ‘time regained’, a fetishist’s absurd adaptation of proust’s final volume. today….

~ i added a few photos to the dingbat scene report.

~ first we get another citizen beaten by police in philadelphia, and now the u.s. government has just been cleared of its guilt for the waco massacre [cnn] & [l.a.times]. just two more reasons to set it off in los angeles next month…

~ happy bastille day….the angry red planet is celebrating along with stereolab, air, brigitte bardot, and, of course, the vidal band. tout le monde, descendez…

~ time to get ready for the convention at www.d2kla.org

~ are you looking for the photos of the new home for the southern california institute of architecture? in seven weeks, this building (*link removed) will be converted into the most intense, ‘avant garde’ graduate and under-graduate architectural school in downtown l.a., if not the world….

~ it might be late for a countdown, but there are now less than four hours until the first showing, at midnight, of ‘x-men’ in los angeles.

~ the mazda 323 still lies dead in the road.

~ why the angry red planet loathes cars, lesson 10: while phobos looked on, i spent an hour installing a new $129 alternator into the mazda 323. once i believed the job was complete, i attempt to start the engine, to no avail. i have the theory that the battery is discharged due to the abuse it suffered while the previous alternator is dead…

~ the angry red planet has been removed from service for the past week due to another two-pronged assault on its operations. last thursday, while the angry red machine rested alone, somehow havoc was wrought against its ‘tcp’ installations, causing internet connectivity to come to a halt and inspiring a half-dozen hikes to the local library to visit micr*s*ft’s support and downloads pages. a day after this ‘crash’, while driving through ‘mossland’, the mazda 323 suffered a fatal electrical problem which has rendered it useless to this day. it’s carcass sits in the road outside the angry red office, with its tags still fresh from the previous week’s $400 emission repairs.

~ the very first information that the restored internet connection was that lars ulrich had testified before the senate over napster [w].

~ after viewing a rock-and-roll show in santa ana on saturday, i explained to my companion the good-natured contempt i have often seen expressed towards drummers: ‘who’s that guy hanging out with the musicians?…the drummer.’ we challenged ourselves to name by name a ‘famous’ drummer, and the best only names we came up with were neal pert and the drummer for van halen, whose name i have subsequently forgotten in the past two days. i wonder how someone as prolific and clearly as renaissance as lars ulrich escaped our attention; after all, you may remember, he is testifying to the u.s.senate about napster [w].

~ the angry red planet is back after a four-day ‘holiday’ spent entertaining guests from no.cal. yesterday was, of course, ‘independence day’ in the united states, so the angry red planet packed the car with water and headed out of los angeles and into 1,000 palms in the california desert. without notice to the angry red planet, the refuge we sought is closed for july and august. so, we turned back and wasted a total of $28 on mel gibson movies…

~ there is a new skywriter in los angeles.

~ yes. the angry red mazda made it through the second smog check. last month’s ‘nox’ emission was 1873; today’s was only 5. the bastard at ‘rocket smog’ tried to charge me for another test, though i was entitled to a ‘free’ one, since the last one was a failure. in the end, i had to pay $8.25 for something about which i am not sure; i didn’t get anything in return. damn this arcane system. despite my daily use of one of them, cars are still abominable.

~ today’s mail also brought issue number 12 from ‘the assassin and the whiner’. i suggest that you immediately send $1 to carrie for your copy; find carrie’s address in the ‘zine contacts’ page of the angry red planet.