Phi Slamma Obama - Primary Postscript and Speed Racer Rant

- Wow, yesterday in the early evening, I was nervously IM'ing with a few friends as I glanced at the first data coming in from the Indiana primary. Initially, it looked like Hillary had a commanding lead on Obama, a scenario that, even coupled with an Obama win in NC, would have made the primary even more drawn-out and given Hillary even more reason to keep on scrappin'. Luckily, the numbers took a surprising turn as the evening wore on, and Obama just kept gaining and gaining, to the point where Indiana was still deemed "too close to call" until late into the night. Even with her eventual victory, it looks like Hilalry only just edged out her rival, with a mere 2% victory - meaning her delegate advantage was ultimately negligible. Meanwhile, Obama won by double digits in North Carolina. What this hopefully means is, as Chris Matthews offered up on MSNBC last night, that we have now entered the "the end of the beginning." Sure, we still have a few more key primary states to get through, but ideally Hillary will soon gracefully bow out and focus her energies on making sure that a Democrat is elected to the White House, even if that Democrat happens to be someone other than her. Now, there was some debate on the news shows last night as to whether Hillary's speech was concilliatory or catty. Personally, I thought her speech was typical Hillary Clinton, in that we saw a visible internal battle waged that materialized while she was on the podium. We could see Hillary A - the Hillary who recognized that the battle was winding down and it was time for grace and unity. Then there was Hillary B, who couldn't resist getting in some jabs about how Indiana was the "tie-breaker" and how, well, gee whiz, look who won the tie-breaker. And by god, Michigan and Florida count, because she's running to be president of ALL 50 states! If anything, Hillary's willingness to constantly get her shots in whenever she can has proven that she has what it takes to be a highly skilled hatchet-woman. And we all know what that means: can you say ... Vice President?

Yeah, YOU can ... but Hillary? Prob not in her vocabulary.

- Okay, on to a totally different topic: SPEED RACER. Once again, the pundits are coming out of the woodwork and imagining every reason possible why this movie will bomb. These people clearly don't have their noses to the grindstone - every indication to me is that Speed will be a pretty sizable hit. Even if it doesn't overtake Iron Man, I still see it easily passing the 60 million mark on opening weekend, and going on to do excellent business thereafter. What the cynics never quite understand about blockbuster moviemaking is that the premise and execution ALWAYS trumps everything else. A great concept done right will always win out, irregardless of the movie's cast, director, or off-set drama. Speed will of ocurse skew slightly younger than Iron Man, but at the same time, I think there will be plenty of teens, college kids, and twenty-somethings who rush out to see it, along with throngs of kids 5 to 12 who are probably already frothing at the mouth to see this one. I know I can't wait - people say "oh, it looks like a videogame." About time, I say. I've waited years to see a Hollywood film that catches up to cutting-edge games like Wipeout in terms of design aesthetic. Oh, and the last big movie that was derided for looking like a videogame? A little film called 300, which I believe did pretty well for itself. And by the way, there's a big difference between having the aesthetic of a videogame and being a crap adaptation of one. Exhibit A: Super Mario Bros. - a game series that has always had incredible visual design, a movie that looked like burnt toast.

So anyways, mark my words: Speed Racer will be huge.

- And on one final note: how great is Subway's $5 foot-long deal? Amazing.