Couple unrelated items...

-The NCAA tournament has killed any motivation to be productive.

I don't know if any of you care whatsoever, but the quality of the games have been almost staggering. (And by "quality" I mean "dramatic"... they're not all great players performing at exceptional levels or anything. Just felt like I had to make that point.) Not every game has gone down to the last minute, but a large majority of them have. Plus, a lot of underdogs have made the Sweet Sixteen so far... 4 to be exact, and 2 more with a reasonable chance right now. So essentially it's had all I've ever wanted from the NCAA tournament: exciting games, and underdogs winning.

It makes me think that I should follow college ball during the actual season, but at the same time I feel like there's really no point. The tournament is great because the stakes are higher than pretty much any other postseason, and if you have one off-night--you're done. Which means that the regular season seems boring--and almost irrelevant. I mean... sure, you have to play well in order to make it, but as long as make it and play reasonably well, you have a chance to go far. It's all about getting hot at the right time.

Anyway--I'm all about the Butler Bulldogs right now. I know they made it to the National Championship last year, and that they shouldn't actually be labeled an "underdog"... but I like the program. Bunch of scrappy players going at it hard... plus their coach seems like someone who's not at all concerned about the bigger paycheck and the high-profile job, which I respect a lot.

-So I watched the Coens' "Ladykillers" earlier today, which I suppose is noteworthy because a) it was the only Coen movie I hadn't seen, and b) .... well, I guess that's it. It's probably one of their most reviled films, which I suppose is fair, because as a comedy it's broadness doesn't really work all that much. I'd probably say it's only above Intolerable Cruelty in terms of their filmography, but at the same time I can't say that I disliked it... and I'd probably call it "pretty good" if pressed right now.

And I think that's because--well, there's this theory I have. It's that as long as a film has a great soundtrack and solid visuals, I'll always like it, no exceptions.

I've tried to think of anything that might be that exception, but so far no dice. In any case, The Ladykillers has both. Just about every scene is filled with gospel music in this--and it's not like I've accumulated a huge collection of old-time gospel or anything like that, but it adds such great character to everything. And for the cinematography--well, it's always top notch in any Coen outing (usually it's because of Roger Deakins, their cinematographer for all but a few of their films--but I'm too lazy to look up to see if he's responsible for this outing), and any film that can take a shot of a garbage heap on some island and give it so much weight will not prove any different.

And that's all there is to the film. Well--Tom Hanks is fun as this slightly off-putting but highly articulate southern gentleman. And J.K. Simmons is awesome, despite some weaker material he's given. But other than that... it's all about that gospel music, really.

-Having an earache is never fun, for the record.