"The decider" is now "the decision maker" on Iraq: George W. Bush just shows his contempt for any idea of democracy, and reveals his true belief in himself as dictator. Plus more revelations about the utter shambles that have been wrought upon the notion of "civil liberties" show you how closely Bush is towards making the United States a fascist country.

Since Monday: went to the press screening of "Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams" and when i got out, Larry was frantically calling my cellphone. The boiler blew up! There was steam rushing out of the boiler and water was all over the boiler room. By the time i got home, Larry had turned off the boiler and was waiting for the Keyspan emergency crew. They got there about 9:15, two hours after Larry had called. They checked the the boiler, they couldn't tell us what was wrong, but they made sure everything was turned off so that the boiler wouldn't leak. Larry had already made an appointment with the Keyspan repair service. So the emergency crew told us to call Keyspan, to say that the emergency crew had been there but we still needed the repair service.

So the repair service was supposed to be there sometime between 8 AM to 1 PM Tuesday. No hot water, no heat for a few hours, but it wasn't so bad, but we were worried because the forecast was for the temperature to plunge below freezing by the end of the week. Of course, Larry was in hysterics worrying that the boiler couldn't be repaired and we'd have to freeze. Well, the Keyspan repairman came about 11 AM, it took about 45 minutes, turned out it was the valve, it needed to be replaced. (Last year, when we had problems with the boiler, it was the gauge.) The reason for the water wasn't because the boiler was leaking: the steam that was coming from the valve was condensing because of the cold air. So it wasn't really that serious, but getting a new boiler has been one of our plans for the last year... we're just waiting for the spring.

But having the service contract with Keyspan was one of the smartest things i did; as soon as we moved in, we had to contact Keyspan to come and turn on the gas, and when i called, the person i talked to asked if i'd be interested in a Keyspan service contract. That's been one of the most useful things i've done.

Because of waiting for the Keyspan repair person, missed the press screening of "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion" which i haven't seen since... what? 1970? Whenever it was. There are a number of Italian directors (Elio Petri, Pietro Germi, Mario Monicelli, Ettore Scola) who made some terrific movies in the 1960s and 1970s... MoMA had a retrospective of Petri's films, and i caught "A Quiet Place in the Country"....

Manohla Dargis has a wound-up of Sundance, and reading all the stuff about Sundance (every day, indieWire has a whole raft of articles/interviews/reviews) is just getting to me. I just can't even go into it.

However, i was glad that i went to the press screening of the German doc "The Decomposition of the Soul". It turned out to be engrossing, but what was nice was running into Jim Hoberman and Tony Pipolo.

Anyway, because i missed the screening of "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion", i stayed home and watched the first two Boston Blackie movies on TCM: "Meet Boston Blackie" and "Confessions of Boston Blackie". Have to say thought they were charming, and was glad i finally saw them. Those are the kind of B movie that are easy to overlook....