Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore. I went into the theater expecting the movie to be less than the sum of its parts and to be disappointing. At the moment all I can say is that it was entertaining but the jury is still out as to whether or not it was disappointing. Naturally, it was dark but I didn't think it was a very poetic dark, just creepy. If anyone denies that Wonka in this version is based on Michael Jackson they're fooling themselves. Come to think of it I think everyone was portrayed better than the 1971 film except Wonka and Charlie. Thankfully they offer a completely plausible explanation for this Wonka's freaky, messed up behavior: Count Dooku is his father. I dunno, dark is refreshing and good but only for certain stories, and I don't think this is one of those stories. I probably would have liked it so much more if it weren't for the way Wonka was portrayed. I wouldn't ever let five children near him, actually I wouldn't let five adults near him either. Aside from him, everyone in the cast was awesome, the fat German kid, especially.

It's so strange to me that so few people in Sweden know what anthropology is. I had been told that it's not a very common major outside the US and Britain, but I had assumed people would at least know what it is. It's a particular contrast to back home where largely people not only knew what it was but were all in awe like I told them I was studying to become a superhero. Then again, they might be thinking archaeology and automatically think Indiana Jones. But hey I haven't decided where I'll go with anthropology yet, so who knows? And going off on a tangent, at what point can one no longer say, "When I grow up, I want to be..."? When you graduate college? When you get that job? At a certain age? When are you too old to talk about when you grow up?

Oh, and here's something uniquely American and part of a generation's collective heritage: The Oregon Trail. Imagine your childhood without it. How else would you learn about dysentery or shooting buffalo? Or how funny your epitaph could be? The Swedes of course would have no games teaching American history, that's to be expected. But you'd think they'd at least have the Amazon Trail or maybe some Swedified version, the Leif Eriksson Trail or something. What a sad, sad childhood they must have had.

BTW, I got some message from someone on Flickr that wants to use my photo "The Source" as a cover for his album. So that's cool.