What Frank said

*sigh*

Okay, I'm linking-and-running again, but it's because a) I'm at work right now, b) my wife is going out of town in a couple days and I want to spend some time with here, which leads to c) any time I get to myself between now and when my wife goes out of town will be devoted to my story (31 pages, 8,500+ words...how do you like them apples?)

Also, Frank Rich of the New York Times (make that the beleaguered, scandal-ridden New York Times) nails down most of what I've been feeling about the whole Matrix megahype machine, but I couldn't in fairness write about it because I haven't been roped in to see it yet. Millions already have. The media onslaught about the film has been relentless, hyped up beyond the clouds and make into an idol you just have to worship. It's this month's Big Thing and your life just isn't complete without it.

And whenever that happens, to anything...a book, a movie, a TV show, a pair of jeans, whatever...I have to press my little pop culture eject button and parachute to some quiet island for a while. Wait until the media-made heat dies down. Every so often, I'll sniff the air to see if it's safe, registering if any new hype is coming in the wind. Wait...what's that? Oh yeah, Harry Potter 5, coming to bookstores in late June. And guess what? The lovely Mrs Skob and I will be literally out of the country for the big literary orgasm coming to your local bookstore. Resistance is futile. You will go back to Hogwarts. What, you don't care for Mr. Potter? You must be a terrorist.

(Sadly, escaping to Canada won't help. According to Amazon's garrison in Canada, the fifth tome in the adventures of everyone's favorite orphaned wonder wizard is due it hit the streets the same as it is in America. I blame globalization. HP5, trying to capitalize on the momentum from a huge release, is trying to own the day the same way major releases of wannabe blockbusters are doing. Thanks to Web pirates, major films are being released everywhere around the world on the same day, which leads to a McDonaldsization of advertising from the streets of the Seattle to the dingy, corroded Art Deco of the Parisian Metro. The whole world is caught in the supernova of overloaded marketing. In Europe, the movie posters for the "Matrix Reloaded" were everywhere, touting a release date that'll run the film at the same time back at the states. During my trip to Paris, I lost count of how many times I caught the glacier-cold stares of Carrie-Anne Moss in her sex-and-death leathers and Keanu himself in his wraparound shades and midnight-grim cassock. Like the replicating evil agent in the new film, they were everywhere in the Metro, their faces elegant and smooth to the point of parody...Roswell aliens hired to don S&M fashions, captured by a camera armed with an icy filter. When you get a chance, look for the posters with Carrie or Keanu staring back at you and convince yourself they aren't computer-generated beings themselves, flawless and androgynous....Gibson's Idoru brought to life.)

Anyway, back to Frank, who encapsulates the media juggernaut of the new Matrix film, American politics and the upcoming FCC vote on June 2, which could turn the media landscape into (at best) a very bland soup of very few corporate hands dictating what you see, hear and read on TVs, radios and newspapers from Seattle to Key West, and every point in between. He does a good job compressing the swirling madness of "You must see the 'Matrix Reloaded' " and arcane broadcasting rules to craft two theses.

Our priorities, as Americans, are completely out of whack.

You don't have to be in a pod of pink goo to be in the Matrix.

Go read Frank.