i hate mockingbirds

i have developed a hatred for the mockingbird, and i now understand why harper lee chose the title of her famous novel.

here is why: i went over to a friend's house yesterday for a few drinks after work, and we sat outside on her front porch the entire time. i was floored to see the interaction between a healthy, young cat and two annoying mockingbirds.

i've never seen anything like it, but this cat just sat in the yard the entire time i was there and let two mockingbirds hover over and attack him for a couple of hours. the cat just sat there, seemingly uninterested in two loud, annoying birds who just flew back and forth, over the cat, and actually bumping into the cat's body time and time and time again.

LET ME REPEAT MYSELF: THE BIRDS LITERALLY FLEW INTO THE CAT AND HIT THE CAT WITH THEIR WINGS AND FEET. AND THE CAT DID NOTHING. HE JUST LET IT HAPPEN.

my thoughts:

1) i am no hunter nor do i take any pleasure in killing animals, but i want to kill these birds. they are loud, obnoxious, and mean.

2) why does this cat not attack these small birds????? granted, the cat has been de-clawed, but he easily could have bitten these tiny birds and eaten them whole.

3) why are the birds not scared of the cat??????

4) my mind was baffled by this display of counter-intuitive and seemingly unnatural behavior by these animals!!!

2 great acting performances: richard jenkins in 'the visitor' and heath ledger in 'the dark knight'

1) the visitor: this is the second movie by writer/director tom mccarthy. i was a big fan of his directorial debut in 'the station agent' in 2003, which was one of the most underappreciated movies of the past five years. like 'the station agent,' don't expect a complicated plot from mccarthy or much real action at all. mccarthy's brilliance shows up in his portrayal of the daily grind of our every-day activities in a way that is both artistic and psychologically-insightful. he also does an amazing job of getting the most out of his actors. richard jenkins (the dead father from 'six feet under') was phenomenal in the lead role as an aging, widowed economics professor who walks into his rarely used manhattan apartment one day only to find two illegal immigrants living there. on its surface, the movie is clearly an attack on america's post-9/11 immigration system, but it is so much more than that. it really is just a story about friendship and jenkins' evolution from a bored, boring, and melancholic old man to a man who rediscovers that his life is worth living.

2) the dark knight: believe the hype! it is not an overstatement to say that heath ledger outdid jack nicholson's 'joker' performance in the original batman. this movie exceeded my already-high expectations. this is probably my favorite superhero movie of all time. go see it on the big screen! ledger stole the show with his scary, funny, smart, and believable portrayal. his death is a loss to us all. it will not merely be a publicity stunt if ledger wins a posthumous oscar for this role. christian bale was slightly disappointing, but his character was very well scripted and even more complex than it was in 'batman begins,' which was also a very good movie.