Roger Ebert once said critics just like to know they’re right. What it’s about is secondary.
Natalie’s sister, Adrienne, was here last week and somehow we started talking about computers and she started talking about her Mac and I made the comment, “Nobody has Macs.” By “nobody,” I mean general consumers or anyone not working in graphics or imaging. Apple represents 4% of the personal computing market. All those stickers on the backs of Accords you see… those people bought iPods. They’ve probably never touched a Mac computer. How often do you see them in a Best Buy?
“Everybody has Macs,” she assured me. I was puzzled. “Really?” I thought. Maybe because this was California. They’re progressive people. Maybe that’s where the concentration of Macs had been because surely they weren’t in my local bank or the DMV or the Blockbuster around the corner.
So a few days later I am watching My Life On The D-List on Bravo and Kathy Griffin is dating Steve Wozniak, creator of the Apple PC and all-around billionaire genius who enjoys Segway polo and buying suits from Men’s Warehouse (two for $100 he’ll tell you… he’s not cheap, he’s just a nerd). So I Wikipedia him and the first paragraph says blah blah blah invented the first Apple I in 1975 while attending the University of California at Berkeley with Steve Jobs.
Adrienne attends the University of California at Berkeley. No shit everybody has Macs. It would be like drinking Powerade at the University of Florida.
Again, proven correct and the Gods shine on me.
So this morning I am reading Roger Ebert’s review of Tropic Thunder (2008) and in the final paragraph he says it’s better than Ben Stiller’s directing debut, Zoolander (2001). Well, he’s wrong. Ben Stiller directed Reality Bites (1994) and The Cable Guy (1996) before Zoolander.
I can do without Reality Bites. Cable Guy and Zoolander and both the works of a misunderstood genius.
So the highlight of my week is getting to email a person ridiculously smarter than me in film and telling him he was wrong.
Who’s talkin’ ’bout me?