The wire services in the U.S. picked up yesterday a multi-newspaper poll, including the Guardian, La Press in Montreal, Le Monde, Asahi Shimbun in Japan and the Sydney Morning Herald, which showed that 8/10 polled in these countries prefer John Kerry to George W. Bush in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Also 68% said they like Americans, nevertheless. Not a big surprise. I wonder who will poll the Iraqis?

TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE - Matt Stone and Trey Parker's send up of jingoism, action movies and liberal activism manages to prick nearly all sides of the political spectrum while never leaving an opportunity for a cheap laugh. Okay, lots of cheap laughs. There are a couple scenes that will have you laughing so hard you're in tears and probably make you feel guilty about how much you laughed. If you are a fan of South Park you know exactly what you're going to get: juvenile humour, shots at celebrities and world leaders, a bang on parody of genre TV and film plus a handful of musical numbers. Team America was created using what they call "supercrapination", even worse puppeteering than in the Thunderbirds TV show. The effect of showing the puppets blasting away at each other and fight hand-to-hand is extremely silly and good for a chuckle. The movie never really rises above its most outrageous gag: a nearly two-minute scene where the lead marionettes undress and make passionate love in a dozen positions but if you stick around you'll see a wicked satire of action films from a pair of directors who know instinctively how to exploit the cheese in the formulas. From the cliched shots to the rote action plot to the wooden characters, Team America: World Police will have you grinning in recognition of all the standards engrained in the action genre since the 80s (and probably make you feel guilty for enjoying the same when you see the next Bruckheimer movie).

Got my car back the same day I put it in. As expected, it was a mystery sensor. They checked, found nothing, rebooted the car computer. Think if how easy it would be if the driver himself could reboot the car. Oh, wait, I can hear the car 'crash' jokes coming on.

My bud Dylan gets a new website. Partly done. See it here >>

In Star Trek whenever there appears to be a problem with the ship, the captain always says: "I want a full level two diagnostic scan" at which time the engineers start complaining. Of course, in the episode it always turns out that the sensors are correct and there really is a problem with the main drive or deflector dish. In my case, the 'check engine light' which I reported yesterday looks like a common problem among the first year Mazda3s in which the issue is with the thermometer gauge, not the engine. The gauge needs to be calibrated for colder weather and with its miscalibration, believes the engine is overheating (or something). Tomorrow I will drop it off at my dealership for this to be confirmed.

My fuel efficiency apparently is getting worse and there may be a problem with my car. My latest fuel efficiency calculation is 12.9 L/100 km or 21.7 MPG (41.26L / 317.6k), worse that previously. And now I find the 'engine warning' light is on. Tuesday I will drop off my car at the dealership to see what's what.

Check this performance out. It's a percussion group called the Spirit Cymbal Line performing a piece all with cymbals. George Ellis from the DVInfo.net forum caught this as part of a festival. See the video here >> (.wmv)

A film I didn't catch at the festival proper but saw last night was Walter Salles' THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (Diarios de motocicleta), a meditative story of revolutionary leader Ernesto 'Ché' Guevera's 8,000km motorcycle odyssey as a young medical student that works on two levels. It's an amusing buddy picture with young Ernesto Guevera struggling to stay on the straight path with gregarious friend Alberto Granado (the wonderful Rodrigo De la Serna). Guevera, played by the handsome Gael García Bernal, has one semester to complete his medical degree when they decide to set out on an old motorcycle on a trip through four countries in South America, intending to end up in Venezuela for Granado's birthday. It begins as a lark, involving a side trip to visit Guevera's girlfriend, an ingenue in a wealthy family, but as they travel deeper and deeper into the backcountry of Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil the more they come into contact with and live with the peasantry, Indians and workers. This is the second, and actually less well realized, level to the movie. The philosophical journey that the young Guevera takes is a bit unrealized. The mood is there, the brotherly relationship bertween the two men is genuine, but the connection between the people they meet is all surface. We feel the wanting of the young Guevera to connect with people but it still feels that their journey is as tourists despite their many experiences with the people along the way. Many critics have already pointed out that the diaries is uncritical of his later life. I don't care so much about that as I do about the genuine nature of his political awakening in this part of his life. Obviously this is a self-portrait, taken from his own romantic writings (romantic as in idealistic). As a portrait of his state of mind it is not as successful. Interspersed between events are snapshot portraits of the people they meet in black and white, like the photographs of Indians at the turn of the last century. This movie is on that level. You can try to view the soul of a people or persons through an image but a film is about actions not just visions and dialogue. A far superior film is Salles' Central Station.

I saw the second debate in its entirety. People who know me know where my leanings are so I want to comment on the debate as a presentation. The second debate was hosted by Charles Gibson of NBC and had an interesting town hall format. 120 people identified by the Gallup Organization as 'independents' or undecided were picked to be in the audience. Each submitted a question for both President Bush and Senator Kerry. Gibson picked a handful of questions from those submitted and neither candidate knew what they were. When it came time for the debate, the member who had submitted the question rose and read it out (but then had his or her microphone cut off).

I thought the format made for an interesting bit of theatre. This was a chance for both candidates to connect with a member of the general public (though pre-selected) and their manner of answering may have been as revealing as the content of their answer. Since they would have to address the questioner, a citizen, they would need to come across as warm and understanding. And unlike answering questions from the media, they needed to really answer the questions, not just provide a stock answer that the media would need to filter.

Both men needed to show aggressiveness to each other without coming off as aggressive to the audience or to the moderator. At one point, President Bush conflicted with Gibson when he wanted to rebut but was not permitted to. Kerry appeared to force the predetermined boundaries where both candidates were told not to approach the audience too closely. In the previous debate, Bush was criticized for looking like he was scowling or in pain while Kerry was attacking him. In yesterday's debate Bush tried to joke about it, saying in response to one Kerry criticism that it made him feel like scowling. Kerry at a couple points stared straight at the camera to project the image that he was unwavering, something which might seem overly aggressive.

George W. Bush's telling performance was in the final question given to him in which a woman asked him what he considered his three biggest mistakes of his administration were. His response was to joke, lamely, that he regretted appointing certain people (which was trying to laugh off the number of former members of his government who have spoken out against him recently). Otherwise, he could not think of a humble way to reach out to that questioner. On the other hand, John Kerry did not adequately provide a position when a young woman asked him about abortion. Kerry said he respected the 'feeling' behind the question and said he was a Catholic but otherwise did not really say where he stood on it.