Wheeee... I had a blast making all that food for the party. I like to cook, but I don't enjoy my own food enough to cook for myself... so I think I might make this party thing a regular deal. I'm already soliciting requests for the next meal, because, to tell you the truth, what I made yesterday was pretty much everything that's good -- the other stuff I've tried wasn't worth a poot. Becky says I should make fried okra, so that, I guess, will be Item 1 on the next menu. Let's figure 1½ to 2 months from now for the next one.

Matrix II is as good as advertised. I warn you, though -- they try to advertise it as if you can just jump in and enjoy the 2nd if you haven't seen the 1st, and that is totally untrue. In fact, Mark and I were a little bewildered ourselves at a few things which didn't seem to gel with the 1st film, like, say, for example, where's Tank? We kinda thought he survived from the 1st one, but apparently not. Oh well. I like the guy from Oz as the operator, although it's completely weird to see him up and walking around after having seen him confined to a wheelchair for six or seven years.

Action content is high, but so is the intellectual jabber. There were spots where they'd talk about theories and how the Matrix was created for 5 minutes at a pop... I was completely enthralled, I love a movie that makes you think, but I could tell my brother was getting restless during these periods of nonphysical activity. There was a lot of symbolic overtones, too, I thought... a lot of issues came up that, while they didn't say it outright, seemed to parallel religious beliefs. I don't want to be a spoiler, so if you want to read what I'm talking about (it WILL spoil the end of the movie, so choose carefully!), highlight the following blank area -- it's white text.

What I'm talking about is right towards the end, after Trinity's been shot, and Neo reaches into her and pulls out the bullet, then reaches into her again and restarts her heart -- so basically, he resurrects her. There was also the scene where he's first coming into Zion, and the people rush up to him with offerings of clothing, blankets, and food, if he'll "watch over" their relatives. I could totally be off on a tangent here, but those two scenes in particular had an almost Biblical sense of religious symbolism to them. This seems to me like it's going to be a big theme in Revolutions. Or not. I will say, though, that in the car-chase scene where they spin around and start going down the freeway the wrong way, I was having bad flashbacks to Friday night. It wasn't even a voluntary reaction -- every time another car or truck approached, my head jerked itself away from the screen, until I just finally put my hand over my eyes. Mark was sitting next to me and he saw me doing it. ... You know what? I probably ought to fade the text back in since this isn't spoiler material anymore.

Anyway... I guess that's about it. Catch y'alls later. I'm glad people enjoyed the meal, and trust me, it was my pleasure. Like I told Rick, "It's nice to have an audience to cook for."