I know, I know, "Don't Panic," but...

...is anybody else a mite alarmed by the deal to bring Hitchhiker's Guide to the screen? Don't Terry Jones or Terry Gilliam direct movies anymore, to name two? Chicken Run and Austin Powers each have their merits, but there's an incipient clash of sensibilities here--apparently nobody learned from last Christmas' showdown between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Not everything is--or should be--grist for America's multiplexes, Mammon love 'em...And as Peter Jackson showed, if the movie works on its own terms, you can get there just the same.



I've been having a nice conversation with Jeffrey Sweet, the author of Something Wonderful Right Away, an oral history of The Second City. Essential reading for fans of improv--and since it was published in the 70s, it has interviews with some of the high holies of that generation.