Well, tomorrow starts press screenings. There's a screening fo Catherine Breillat's "Brief Crossing", which i haven't seen; it's at MoMA, and it's part of a series "The Age of Chevalier", because the producer Pierre Chevalier was involved in all the movies. He's the one who came up with the idea for "Boys and Girls in Their Time", which remains one of the best series of films ever, with great films from Andre Techine, Chantal Akerman, Cedric Klapish, Claire Denis and Olivier Assayas.

And already i have to start shifting through and seeing some of the new movies. Jia Zhangke's "Still Life" is having a screening; i thought that was a wonderful film. Hou Hsaio-Hsien's "Flight of the Red Balloon" is going to be opening soon. So already 2008 is starting off with some very interesting movies.

The Iowa caucuses are happening tomorrow. I know that it should be exciting, because it's such a crowded field now, both Democrat and Republican. But the only candidate i really despise is Giuliani. It's one of those things where his reputation as mayor has really been very controversial (to put it mildly) for those of us in New York City: he remains a very unpopular mayor, especially among people like the police and the fire departments, people who had to deal with him, and found him to be less than helpful. Yet he seems to believe that if you bull your way through and outright lie, people will simply believe you. And the unfortunate thing is that he seems to have a point. (Like George Sanders saying to Marilyn Monroe in "All About Eve": "You have a point, an idiotic point, but a point.") Giuliani is someone who has zilch in terms of family values (he's an adulterer, he's a terrible parent who is estranged from his children) yet he thinks he can claim to have "family values" by screaming at others. And he seems to be getting away with it!

Well: i wonder what would happen if another snowstorm hit the midwest?