I'm still doing some DVD and game reviews, despite renouncing the "TV/movies Editor" title like some insane-in-the-membrane duke of yore ranting in the streets about the plague.

There is a plague, by the way. Watch who you let sneeze on you.

Yesterday, a review I wrote of the South Park Season Four DVDs ran in the paper. I'm sort of surprised and pleased that the middle seasons of the show (which I still watch semi-religiously) hold up so well. It's a wonder those guys are still doing it and I always am curious as to what they'll do next. Another South Park movie? More sitcoms like the underrated That's My Bush? Not-so-great movies like BASEketball?

Li'l Floaty Omie Head loses his movie marbles as he trades positions within the newsroom. You can just see all those movie press releases roll off him like oily water on a seal. Or perhaps adult contemporary singer Seal.

One thing I neglected to mention is that I also have been watching a lot less TV. Which I guess is a good thing, except that I seem to be watching an inordinate amount of reality TV, including The Casino (trashy!), The Simple Life (trashier!), Blow Out and Last Comic Standing along with my usual doses of pretend-reality-TV like Reno 9-11 and The Daily Show. There's probably some meaning there somewhere, but I'm too busy to figure it all out.

It's finally done!

As you may well know, my brother and I have been working on a comic strip called "Space Monkeys" for a few months now and we misgiudedly thought it would be no sweat to put together a Web site for said cosmic simians so that all of their twisted adventures could be contained in one neat place.

Well, it wasn't easy. I mean for PJ it wasn't easy. He had to design the whole site. I mostly just sat back and watched The Daily Show and said things like, "Yeah, the background is a little... too spacey. And what's up with Bobbo's head?"

But my managerial skillz paid off because the site is now done and ready for business. Please come love our monkeys at the Official Space Monkeys Web Site and let us know what you think (via the comments feature heretofore forbidden in these Bloggypages.) There's even a new comic waiting for you there.

I have a lunch appointment down in the Marcos of San and I wore a tie to work today.

It's been a while. When I was a business reporter, I used to have to wear one almost every day (except Fridays; those were my fundays; I didn't have to runday.), but except for the occasional wedding or funeral, I haven't really had a need to wear one, and only about three or four guys in our whole building even bother with them anymore.

Which is too bad because I really like ties. I have a nice tie collection and when we went to Paris, I picked up two more on the cheap (in the subway, no less) that I never get to wear.

I walk by the really nice display tables at Nordstrom and see cool ties that catch my eye, but then I think, "What's the point? You won't ever wear it. Take that out of your pocket and put it back on the counter."

I suppose I could be Office Tie Guy, the dude who shows up just slightly overdressed to work, as if he's got a Rotary Club meeting to go to on his lunch break or who's having an affair with a city council member. When you wear them every day, people stop asking, "Hey, what's the occasion?" or "Ooh, who died?' or "Hey, aren't you Scott Peterson?"

The tie I'm wearing today is a crimson red with tiny cream-colored polka-dots.

I must admit -- it's stylin'.

Maybe I'm the last EW subscriber to see Spider-Man 2, but I don't care. I was blown away. Why wasn't the first movie this good? Oh yeah: exposition.

Anyway, we quite loved it; it was a great Sunday afternoon movie. We'd just seen Love Actually which was much better than I expected (except for the endless cheesy song cues; somebody really needs to take a scrubbing to Richard Curtis' CD collection). The craftsmanship and action of Spider-Man were a nice antidote to all that lovey dovey stuff.

Why is Sam Raimi not immortalized in bronze and worshipped with offerings of film school virgins and pomegranate milkshakes? He is clearly a deity on earth, as smart and talented as they come, able to leap tall film concepts with wit and aplomb. (The "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" sequence alone is so funny and unexpected that I wanted to cheer.) I say we scrap Arbor Day and give the man a holiday. Who's with me?

On the DVD horizon is Sealab 2021's first season, which I strongly encourage you to pick up. Along with Harvey Birdman, it's probably the best of Adult Swim's lineup.

I see Monkeys in your future. Monkeys that don't reside on earth. Very... very soon.