fighting out of the thicket. the paper got written this afternoon in a spectacular 3-hour explosion of productivity, and for once it's actually not half bad, so i'm going to call it done. i'm watching this is spinal tap while waiting for jared to call so i can get a ride to the advisor's christmas party. it's the earliest of the christopher guest movies that i've seen, and although the trademark style is definitely there, he has many more concessions to slapstick than usual. or maybe i just don't have a very good recollection of guffman and best in show, seeing as i watched both of those at 4 in the morning.