Nobody Knows, Nobody Sees, Nobody Knows But Me

Quick Hits on a Friday spent studying for Finals:

• David Brooks (NY Times) envisions Sen. Hillary Clinton channeling Jack Nicholson's Col. Nathan Jessup. It's as entertaining as it sounds.
• In a statement that will surely anger one Cris Carpenter, I cannot believe that the (Super)Sonics are likely moving to OKC. I realize that the Hornets received a warm welcome in Oklahoma's state capitol, but it just does not seem right for Oklahoma City (metro area pop. 1,266,455) to have an NBA team instead of Seattle (metro area pop. 3,263,497). I know that the relative sizes of the metropolitan areas are not the only concern, but due to the large possibility that the NBA will not grant a new expansion franchise in the near future, Seattle basketball fans may be entering a very dark period.
• It looks like Uncle Ridley (Scott) has produced a riveting film with standout performances by Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe:

  "Washington is brilliant. He makes sense of a man who could move his mother into a mansion and love the joy on her face, and yet coldly place a Browning 9mm against a competitor's forehead and reply to the question "What are you going to do, Frank, shoot me in front of all these people?" by shooting him in front of all those people. Washington seems to have a secret mechanism by which he turns his face off; it goes from a vibrant, expressive projection of humanity and empathy to a stone-killer executioner's mask so fast it's scary. He makes you fear Frank. Yet he also makes you love Frank. That's the key to the thing, the charisma of the man who triumphs over the system. And so identified with this theme is American Gangster that its other hero, Richie, is also defined as an outsider. The movie seems to be saying: When the inside is so corrupt, you must turn to outsiders. "
  

• Update: An American Gangster review from Running Down a Dream's most widely read-commenter (though he would probably prefer to be identified otherwise), Mr. Dan Carlson.