Wasted opportunities

FX was playing The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen yesterday night, a movie so bad I snarked through it the first time I watched it, instead of my usual protocol of saving the vocal snark for the second viewing or post-viewing discussion. The big shame about it is that it's such a waste - it was obvious that they would soften up the far more brutal graphic novel in the transition to the movie, but they didn't have to make it, well...so damn dumb. I don't even mind the inclusion of an iconic American to the group, I can cope with Mina being a vampire instead of just a supremely tough woman, but I do mind the really stupid dialogue, the idiotic plotting, and the GIANT SUBMARINE RACE THROUGH THE VENETIAN CANALS FOLLOWED BY A CAR CHASE THROUGH VENETIAN STREETS MY GOD PEOPLE. Or maybe I have the order backwards, I don't know - because I stayed on the channel until we were done with Dorian Gray saying, "I'm complicated!" and then I was off to the gym. BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN. But we could have had such a cool steampunky movie, all dark and weird and awesome. But noooooo.

Hmph.

Micro-mini Art History: Domus-ecclesiae

Let's look at early Christian architecture!

( Dura Europos was a Roman garrison town on the distant edge of the Roman Empire, near the border with the Sassanids in what is now Syria. )