In the last week-and-a-half I've taken my Dad to Physical Therapy three times and been to two all-weekend cat shows.

When I work, I need uninterrupted time and "the groove". Lacking either (or both), I'll accomplish almost nothing.

My Dad went back into the house with crutches today, after PT, so it look like they won't need my help any more (though I'm ready if that's not the case). Also, I won't be going to any more cat shows for awhile (at least a month).

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to buckle down and get back to work. I don't feel like I've accomplished anything in weeks!

Watched The Million Dollar Hotel tonight. At first I thought, "this is boring!" It improved, lots. Go rent it, before you finish reading this. Don't let the fact that Bono wrote it scare you away.

On the other hand, keep reading and you won't need to rent it: spoiler alert!

Every review I read talked about Mel Gibson's character as being "complex", but I think that's just because he's a superstar. The movie's not about his character, and looking back on it I'm not even sure why he was there except perhaps to add a name to the credits. He did play it well, but the movie is really about "Tom Tom", played very well by Jeremy Davies.

As usual, I find that this movie was heavily influenced by others. While not a remake, I'll say that MDH is like a dark progeny of American Beauty and The Other Sister. Mix those two movies together -- three parts Beauty to one part Sister -- and stir in a lot of black tar. Out pops MDH, straight from Bono's brain to your VCR.

Maybe that's not fair because it's too obvious, but Tom Tom's narrative soliloquy at the beginning and end of the film sounded an awful lot like Lester's (Spacey's). The "moral" of the story is very similar, too... that of appreciating the perfect beauty of life wherever you find it.

The irony of that statement sort of hits you square between the eyes, since the lines are delivered by a man somewhere between the roof of his apartment building and the street below: his self-inflicted solution to falling in love with the girl of his dreams and making all of his friends rich. Or something like that.

The "paintings" seemed to be a commentary on the movie itself. The critics see them and proclaim that they're dark, mysterious, [more adjectives here], but secretly claim that thye're garbage. Later, beneath the tar paintings are found stolen works by "great artists" from the city's museums, "covered in tar". Again, that was almost too obvious.

One last thing, for anybody who actually reads this far: do you think Tom Tom was actually the idiot he seemed to be, or was he just pretending? The veneer seemed to fall away for a minute when he delivered that poem for Eloise, or showed her his magic roses. She even asked him, "Are you really a retard (or just pretending)?"

Weird movie, but I recommed it.