Nice thing about being busy and occupied with apartment hunting and two jobs and a lousy commute and, y’know, I really hate performances at Strathmore because everyone parks at the Metro garage and it shouldn’t take twenty minutes to get out of there (OTOH, Metro just opened the gates and started letting people out, so I didn’t have to pay $5 for parking), but, really, the point I’m trying to get made here, is that it completely snuck up on me that Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is being released to theaters in less than a week.

This might not, however, be the last time I get excited about a forthcoming Indiana Jones film, sayeth this article:

“I haven’t even told Steven or Harrison this,” he said. “But I have an idea to make Shia [LeBeouf] the lead character next time and have Harrison [Ford] come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it working out.

“And it’s not like Harrison is even old. I mean, he’s 65 and he did everything in this movie. The old chemistry is there, and it’s not like he’s an old man. He’s incredibly agile; he looks even better than he did 20 years ago, if you ask me.”

Lucas says he’s not concerned about early mixed buzz on “Crystal Skull.”

“This movie is the exact same experience as the other three were. The difference is, the novelty of discovery is gone. I get worried when I hear fans say they’re expecting something different that will change their lives. This is ‘Indiana Jones’ just as you remember him.”

But that’s exactly the gamble Spielberg and Lucas took with reviving their icon. Expectation grows into a frenzy and then no one in that frame of mind can be satisfied.

I don’t know about the Shia LeBeouf angle … be cool if he and Short Round (Tall Round, now?) had to team up to save Indy or something … maybe …