Analysis

An excellent look at Hillary's campaign, and why Obama won.

Wanted

I've seen the trailers for Wanted for awhile now, and they looked pretty cool. Although I had heard about the comic series, I hadn't read it. So last Friday I picked up the trade paperback so I could read it before the movie. And after finishing it earlier today, I can safely conclude that the movie will be very, very different from the comic. Not necessarily in plot, but in particulars. In the comics, the plot revolves around a boring, everyday loser whose father, who he's never known, dies. But his father, who was part of a Fraternity of supervillians who killed all the superheroes in 1986 and now secretly run the world, left him a ton of money and a genetic legacy of being able to kill just about anything. However, to collect his inheritance, this kid must become part of the Fraternity, which means he gets to create a trail of rape, murder and mayhem wherever and whenever he wants. Essentially, Wanted takes place in a universe where the bad guys won. And it means they get to indulge in every sick, twisted fantasy they want with repercussions.

I enjoyed the comic quite a bit, and I'm guessing the movie plot will have many of the same elements. But I'm going to go ahead a guess that Hollywood will change the edgier aspects of the comic into something a little more palatable for people. We'll see how well it works-the superhero/supervillian dynamic is kind of what gives the comic its backbone. That and the massive amounts of unPC violence and swearing. I'm now slightly skeptical about the movie.

25'

After getting back from the Boundary Waters on Monday night, the first thing I did was to pick up the paper and see what had happened with Puerto Rico and Florigan in the Democratic primary. I was amazed to find out that Obama would be speaking at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul after the end of the primaries on Tuesday, especially since at that point he would have most likely captured the nomination. Being a massive Obama fan since I watched his speech at the 2004 convention I knew I had to go. So at about 3:30 the next day, I headed to St. Paul to stand in line and hopefully get in to see history.

As I started walking along the line outside the Xcel at a little after 4pm, it was already huge. I came to the end of the line, but was informed that it reached back across the intersection I was standing right next to, and indeed I could see that stretched many blocks into downtown St. Paul. However, this line was set up along a metal fence that had been set up for the event. As I stood at the intersection, I saw people walking on the other side of this fence toward another entrance and forming new lines at the doors there. I knew that two entrances would be opened for the rally, so I just followed the line that was moving. So I ended up in one of six lines, about 20 people from the entry doors. I don't know if I was supposed to be able to do this, but no one told me not to. After two hours they opened the doors. I got in, bought some food and hit the bathroom (which turned out to be a very good decision, as I would have never gotten my spot back if I had had to leave it). In another stroke of luck, I overheard an usher saying that entrance to the floor could be gained from the line to my right. So I went to my right, stood in line, got onto the arena floor and grabbed the best spot I could-right in front of the empty podium, about 25' away.

The seats filled up slowly over the next three hours, and my feet started to hurt as I had been standing for a long time. But when Barak Obama and his wife, Michelle, came out, it was as if the room had exploded. MSNBC had been on the jumbotron earlier, but it had been turned off before Obama had been declared the nominee. Thus, when he came out and began to speak, the line "I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States" almost caused the crowd to riot. The closest thing I can compare it to would be the footage I've seen of Beatles' concerts in the 60's. I couldn't even hear the whole line-everything after "nominee" was cut off.

The speech wasn't long, but that was fine. Afterward I stayed and tried to get as close as I could to the rope line. I didn't get to shake his hand (I was about 2 people back from being able to do that), but I did get within about five feet of him as he worked the line. And that was pretty freaking cool.

Thinking about it later, it occurred to me that this might be the most historic event I'll ever personally get the chance to witness. Something could best it, of course, but for now it's easily at the top of the list. The best five hours standing I've ever spent.

BWCA

Last weekend I got the chance to go on a very short-notice trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which takes up a decent part of the northern Minnesota boundary with Canada (it extends into Canada as Quentico National Park). I've been several times before, but the last time I went was just before the beginning of my senior year at Carleton, which was the fall of 2001.

I consider the BWCA to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and this trip reminded me just how correct I am in that assessment. I went with my good friend Dustin Allebach and two other guys. We entered through Brule Lake, camped one night (in a bit of rain), then did five portages the next day (totaling 324 rods) to Winchell Lake, where we stayed for two days. Though we fished for most of the weekend, only one fish was caught out of a canoe, a 2 lbs. sucker that was hurriedly thrown back.

However, the guy who had set up the trip (Dan McCarthy by name), had the practice of throwing out smelt on a hook at each campsite, letting it sit on the bottom and wedging the fishing pole into a position on shore such that we would hear the drag going out if there was a hit. Well, I didn't hear the drag, but I did see the rod bending after we arrived and set up camp on Winchell. After about 7 minutes of fighting, I managed to land an 8 pound northern, which I'm pretty sure is the biggest fish I've ever personally caught. It was turned into Saturday night's main course, which was good because we figured we'd catch enough fish for at least one meal. Unfortunately, other than these two incidents the fish were conspicuous by their absence during the weekend.

On Sunday we bushwhacked to the top of a cliff on the south side of the lake, where we saw rain go by off to the north of us, giving us a rare double rainbow effect. Even more rare was the fact that the brighter rainbow split at its apex into a second color spectrum, so we kind of had three. We then proceeded to take the steepest route down the cliff that didn't involve jumping into the lake. No one was hurt.

A fantastic trip. I'm glad I was able to go.