Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sitting down and overstimulating himself. He is typing a blog post on his laptop. He is watching the end of Al Pacino’s movie “Looking for Richard.” And from time to time he is switching over to watch his beloved Washington Capitals get trounced by the Florida Panthers.

In the realm of hockey, the Capitals looked okay on Saturday night when your Maximum Leader attended the game. They (the Capitals) looked okay against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. But they are playing for crap tonight against the Panthers. They are down 5-1 and your Maximum Leader can’t bear it any more. He is switching off the game in favor of other electronic stimulation.

Your Maximum Leader never thought he’d be “one of those people” who would have the computer on while doing other things. Like watching a movie… But, alas, he’s become one of those people.

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader is finishing up watching Pacino’s documentary about Shakespeare’s Richard III. “Looking for Richard” came out in 1996. As longtime readers of this space (if such a thing exists anymore with the lackadaisical updating that has been the hallmark of this blog for a while now) know, your Maximum Leader is a great fan of both the play Richard III and the actual historical Richard III. That might seem like an odd combination as we all know that Shakespeare’s play is a Tudor propaganda piece and real hatchet job on Richard and the real Richard was likely not that bad a king… Well… Back to the movie…

Your Maximum Leader really wanted to see the film back in 1996 when it came out. But time and location conspired against him. At the time he lived in Virginia Beach and the film was only playing in limited release. Needless to say, he didn’t see the film. Basically he has waited since 1996 to see this movie. The night before Thanksgiving your Maximum Leader couldn’t sleep and noticed that “Looking for Richard” was on HBO so he hit the DVR and recorded it. He was excited that after so many years he would now get to see the film.

Well… Reality did not quite live up to expectation. In 1996, Pacino was just starting to fall into his new mode of “yelling as acting.” So there was a little bit more yelling than your Maximum Leader would have liked. There were a few sequences where Pacino and the other cast (a great cast including Alex Baldwin, Kevin Spacey and Winona Ryder) were trying to “figure out” the play. Those scenes were hit or miss (and mostly miss) with your Maximum Leader. All in all it isn’t interesting, and can be downright annoying, to see the behind the scenes with actors figuring out their roles. Your Maximum Leader is looking for finished product. The process of getting to finished product isn’t all that exciting.

So, your Maximum Leader’s Monday night wasn’t quite as pleasing as it could have been…

Then again… He is blogging from his sofa… So he’s got that going for him…

Carry on.