RE:cap

turkey day: trukpro arrives at 6AM after a 18hr drive from ABQ. not bad. i had only been sleeping for a couple hours but had to get up to see the "kids" -- his 4 dogs along for the trip. after a few more zzz hrs, dinner commenced. my mom's friends come over... dogs are excited. don't remember a lot about all that 'cept one of my mom's friends calling Hillary Clinton a bitch and then sayin' "i know it's thanksgiving but i really wish i had a sniper rifle to take that bitch out." wtf?

soon more family arrived. got to test drive the new F150 crewcab that my stepbrother drove over. my nephew, an 18yr old freshie marine, told us how drunk he was the night before on cheap booze b/c "the marines don't pay shit." then went on to throw f-bombs left and right around family & friends. guess it's ok b/c he's a marine, dammit. after two hearty dinners, i treat trukpro, past0r & sally to the Kill Bill v1 late show at the budget theater. that was cool 'cept for the morons behind us talking the entire time. yeah, everyone enjoyed the flick as i knew they would. discovered that trukpro lost his wallet...

...so we spent black friday looking for said wallet. no luck. avoided any retail exposure which was nice. last night trukpro & i ended up taking the van & dogs up to chicago to pick up my speakers. dogs freaked when they got to my apt. that wasn't cool so we split right away... at least i didn't have to drive. got back to my 'rents place around 1AM and i stayed up 'til 4 on the Gamecube.

today was nothing special. finally got my car washed at my dad's station. nice nap and another homecooked meal. very good. i've been eating well. wanted to go out tonight but w/no ID for trukpro that idea was squashed. so just an evening home w/the 'rents. past0r & sally came over to visit for a bit and watch the dogs entertain. so far the holiday's been mellow... just hangin' w/trukpro and his funny dogs.

RE: Black Wednesday

"I fight authority, authority always wins"

so i head home for the holiday (t'giving) fighting traffic all the way -- 80-90mph/2.5hrs and still somehow avoided any run-in w/the numerous law along the way! planned a night out w/past0r -- upon picking me up he tells me about getting pulled over on the trip back to the QCs from chicago -- not for speeding (cops were out in force!) -- for not having a front license plate on his non-descript camry. also turns out his registration had not been renewed since May! so he rec'd citation + mandatory court appearance.

i'm like, "wha?! you should've told me and i would've driven tonight -- the night that cops are on full alert: black wednesday" this was right as we were passing a local cruiser. sure enuff, the cruiser pulls out and dogs us. cherries on, we pull over. past0r delivers the "guess what? i already rec'd a ticket" spiel and the cop gives us the "is that so" attitude then sez, "does your passenger have ID?" great. so he gets a written warning on top of the previous ticket. and this is all before we hit the first bar. the night is shaping up!

so less than a mile later we enter Bent River Brewing Company... turns out to be a typical midwestern joint lack of any notable diversity -- incl. the folk duo performing folk covers of pop tunes. agh. i don't think i'll be able to listen to gabriel's "in your eyes" ever again. couple of stouts later we bolt for the District.

yes, it's promising as there's several bars within a block. we head to Blue Cat and it's a decent college crowd but not packed. breathing room indeed. so a couple more drinks -- damn, JD&Coke + Bud Light = $5.25: one of the few upsides of returning to our hometown! cool conversation & warm toasty feeling... i'm killin' for a smoke. give up our chairs to a heather locklear look-a-like (only taller) and her cute asian friend. potential until Johnny Crewcut cuts in... what a nutball. that's fine. time to bail anyways...

took a route less-frequented by law enforcement and found our way back to the Valley. next up: turkey talk... and the anticipated arrival of trukpro -- after a 2 year hiatus! should be good.

btw, my dad's dial-up is a friggin' drag!
/out

what a night... sleep deprivation caught up w/me and i've been struggling to stay awake the entire evening. the chipolte steak burrito didn't help matters... felt like i was with child most of the night.

finished off some dvds and arranging dvd/vhs on my new shelves while watching the dubbed ver. of Night on the Galactic Railroad. such a dreamy anime that probably wasn't helping me stay awake. but damn, i love that flick.

so next joe millionaire finally wrapped last night. thank bloody hell. but he didn't pick cat! grrrr. average joe continues to roll. agh. what i love about the summer: no tv. due to my lack of sleep i won't be watching disc 2 of LotR:FotR SE tonite. ah well. rec'd Ju-on: The Grudge dvd today. nothing getting the third in the series before seeing the first 2 movies.

toyzz.com order also arrived today. 12" Gatchaman G3 Princess figure is awesome. sweet deal @$13.99 (originally like $60 or something i've heard). The smaller BotP Voltar figure is "ok" but nothing special. the dark angel mini-mate is also nothing to write home about. lastly the lithograph was effed up prolly due to crummy packing. jerks. still can't complain @$25 for all of it w/s&h.

now i gotta figure out how i can scrape up some cash for Ultraman Jack.

well, it's all over. i accidentally sent my dad the url for my blog.

last day of the week is finally here! yeehaw. yes, i am stoked to not have to return to this office for an entire week. that's really the best part of this time of the year for me; lots of days off. right now it's all about getting thru today...

finished the 1st disc of LotR:FotR SE last night/this morning. i've decided that the flick is worthy of a "10" @IMDb instead of the "9" i originally gave it. i'll watch disc 2 tonight. friday, i hooked up my LD player via s-video and the picture is surprisingly pretty crappy! i watched SW:ESB and it was akin to VCD quality. actually a little worse. But Yoda still rules. Boba Fett rocks. Han is great. and Vader is a badass, "apology accepted." however it will be weird to watch the original trilogy after Lucas wraps the final prequel. i'm curious to see the bridge between the 2 sets of movies.

(blog title does say "movie minutia" right?)

started watching Night of the Galactic Railroad again this morning around 3AM. that is such a rich anime and so easy to chill to. but it's 2 hrs long. so i forced myself to stop watching so i could read more of the Quatermain novella in the back of the LXG trade. i'll cap that tonight as well.

in 2 days trukpro will be home for the first time in 2 years! that's retarded. ok, i have some work to do.

there's reasons why ppl hate mondays.

funny weekend. didn't leave my apt once and didn't even step outside today. friends over last night making dinner and conversation so i spent the day slaving on my place to make the kitchen functional again. was a good evening and took in a couple of flicks on my new dvd player. very nice!

today i caught up on more sleep and took in some NFL games. wow, the Bears actually beat a decent team. i built some shelves tonight for more dvd storage. that was cool. when i finished those i worked on the most ridiculous dreadful work assignment i have ever participated in since i've been working at my current employer (that's 5+ years, folks). some will know what i'm referring to, some won't. that's fine. let's just say that there are some clearly delusional ppl in the midst of my company. well, one anyways.

haven't really spent anytime with my rig like i planned. having never had a RPTV widescreen or progressive scan dvd player, i have nothing to compare to. the HDTV reception for the handful of HD channels available is exceptional. And the LotR Two Towers SE dvd has the best clarity i've ever seen in a dvd to date; the picture is stunning w/my setup. overall i'm very pleased. can't wait to learn more about it and how to use it!

so it's been a crazy week... short on posts, i know. thanks, flounder, for pointing that out. what can i say? new dvd player arrived yesterday so i spent the night deciphering my manuals to figure out what the story was. don't laugh, i'm new to progressive scan and digital projection.

comcast showed up today smack dab in the middle of the 1-5PM suggested timeslot. i love cable companies. so i got the HD cable receiver installed and running. on the way out, cable guy grabs the remote and sez, "oh yeah, one last thing," as he clicks to MTV. "For all these channels..." his voice trails as the station appears. "huh, you shouldn't be receiving this channel under the basic plan," as he proceeds to click thru the stations, "yeah, all of these. I'll have to clip the cable outside before I take off."

so, right. i was paying 10 bucks for basic and getting the full compliment of cable channels. hey, their mistake. had a feeling that party would be squashed today.. and it was. so after this and that, i ended up signin' on for the HBO silver package 4-month special for $34.95/month. ~sigh~

the HD channels look incredible. and i learned why worstbuy features WTTWHD Chicago on all the floor models: it's the best HD channel going! none of the other HD channels look nearly as good as WTTW. so the weekend will be spent figuring out how to work the rig. still so much to learn... i heard my RPTV has PIP. heh. soon... very soon.

started watching the 2nd disc of LotR2Towers SE last night... wow.

did I mentioned that @5:30 this morning I was eating a bowl of Zesty Butter popcorn, drinking a Harpoon ESB and reading my RPTV manual? that's right. I didn't sleep last night... tried to crash @4AM but after an hour of tossin' and turnin' I gave up and got up.

Bonus: it's been a full-on, cowboy-up day here at the office. like non-stop fire and brimstone, face in the flames... at least it's kept me awake this long.

I am tired. I am leaving early. I am going to hit... the... wall... soon...........

RE: sundry thoughts

How good is matrix: revolutions? ticket sales dropped 66% in only its 2nd weekend. "The studio is shrugging off Revolutions' plummet in the U.S. and continues to trumpet the film's $310 million worldwide gross." I'm sure they are.

Scary Movie 3 is the 23rd movie to cross the 100mil threshold this year. scary indeed.

Around the World in 80 Days is posed to become the next Cannonball Run franchise.

Do we need another Looney Toons movie? Better question: do we really need Brendan Fraser? I didn't think so.

I found a used copy of B.Monkey (featuring Asia Argento) in my apt. I haven't seen this b/c I am under the impression there are no monkeys in this movie.

how do i get hooked on things like average joe?

RPTV arrived today. it's retarded. and i have a box the size of a small room sitting in my apt. ETA on my prog.scan dvd player is friday. ~fingers crossed~

filmthreat posted this year's frigid 50. couldn't agree more w/local diss #35. i'm also fond of #45 (if "mom & pop" stores weren't already out of business).

band of the day: The Moon-Rays. local flavor of creepy exotica and 60s spy rock (they did the theme song for WGN's creature feature show).

busy weekend cleanin' up the joint for the arrival of my new visual jams tomorrow afternoon. worstbuy called so the game is on. i will say, all this cleaning and reinventing my apt is burning me out. i should sleep well tonite. but we all know how that goes...

made a leap and paid top price for the killer DVD player @ebay. that scares me... sending a stranger a lot of money. you've heard the horror stories. i don't wanna become the next one.

i'm tired... and sorry i missed flounder's metal spin at streetside tonite. esp. if he used my playlist suggestions. damn that would've been fun...

having the afternoon off was nice. really nice. caught matrix: revolutions w/past0r & sally (who didn't even see reloaded, mind you). afterwards treated them to killer dinner & drinks @pete miller's. very nice afternoon.

fought the traffic home and napped. napped & napped. got up around 9 and left to buy a new widescreen tv. man, the buggers @worstbuy don't know up from down sometimes. hopefully if they did it right i should have my new RPTV arriving sometime monday. we'll see. nothing like dropping a couple k on a new screen to enlighten the evening. i guess i won't be happy until it's actually here.

my gods, meeting day always sucks... and this one's already started like a himalaya. I'm glad I requested the afternoon off. I can't take much more of this.

holy hell, pAT has finally joined the party.

that and this zz top boxset i'm listening to right now are the bees knees!

hrmph. the dark dreadful came and went this morning. thank hell it's over... for now. sadly there's repercussions. always repercussions.

a rockstar once said, "this too shall pass."

didn't get any sleep last night and ended up twisting my neck outta sorts. fun not being able to move my head to the right.

day was dismal. worked my @ss off from beginning to end... and the dark dread to come never came. postponed until tomorrow. more fun.

after my delightful call to comcast i've re-thought my TV plans... looks like i'm going back to square one.

flounder finally saw Kill Bill v1 last night and quickly proclaimed it the best movie he saw this year. whatever. he only went to 5 movies i think (and he thought Pirates of the Caribbean was fantastic).

anyway he asked if the chick that plays Go Go Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) in the flick is the same psycho chick from Battle Royale. "yes, flounder, she is." he of course was all giddy about this... and now wants to borrow my BR DVD again. ~sigh~

anyway, another incentive to see the flick... see the psycho chick from BR in another movie! yeah, ok. sure. hopefully i'm going back for a 2nd helping this friday with past0r who doesn't want to see it. but agreed if i pay. yay!

/done and dried.

RE: "try to sigh/try to fly"

story of my night... nothing like spending the twilight hours working on a "dreadful" supervisor assignment. sometimes being just a worker bee has its benefits.

spice, it was never this bad...

the upside of not going to see the Genitorturers/HuG show @Oasis tonight was the next joe millionaire marathon i'm wrapping right now. yep, 5 hours spent below stupidity. no wonder this show is a turd. but cat is smokin'... damn.

waitasecond, did i just say that i skipped the gens/hug show for a joe millionaire marathon? ugh. do i have to go to work tomorrow?

"I don't know why I want to fly"

window shopping for widescreens is ridiculous. i think i've found my match but off to abt to drool some more. HDTV is a given... but built-in vs. receiver req. is another issue.

the real deal is DLP... hells yeah.

btw, i'm trying to wrangle the monster dvd player at ebay. doubtful i'll score. ah well.

wow, Sound::Lounge has been picking up lately. can barely keep up w/the posts/reviews. lots of cool japanese grooves to check out [note to self: order the new puffy cd already!].

looks like culturedose is back up. did anyone even notice it was down?

i saw this press release for my company. i better sit down.

i still have no interest in touching another alcoholic beverage. i could make it all the way to t'giving before i drink again.

have i mentioned how much i hate giving employee reviews?

monday was a wash... I was sick all day. I'm gettin' too old for consecutive benders. flounder was fine today... 'cept for those bleeding gums. ah to be a kid again.

so I'm out a tellie since pAT picked mine up yesterday and lugged it to its new home in Champaign. my 19" midgetvision still holds up surprisingly well but this won't do. started the search for a replacement and I don't know what direction to go. so many choices. so much money.

part of me wants to unload and get *nice* widescreen but another side of me sez, "don't get out of control." ah well. I'm off to window shop tomorrow.

damn, the eagles won tonight. I'm done w/spice's dvds. I'm so backlogged on taped shows to watch. man, I need a tivo. props to flounder for adding comments functionality to my blog. I'm slow when it comes this.

I must go now.

RE: Monday morning hell

did i mention that those doubles (triples?!) were drank within an hour & 1/2?

right. so tonight was so retarded.

i meet flounder in line at the Dimmu show @HoB and he skips outta line only to go to the end with me. dude, it works the other way around.

so we hook up w/4th Month behind the bar and she comps us drinks straight away. that works. i split for the head and return to find flounder gone. 4th month tells me he will return. so Bodom goes on w/a blistering tune and flounder misses it... why? b/c he's getting a Dimmu shirt. doh! do that when Nevermore is on.... NOT BODOM.

4th month is entirely cool... she makes some evil 1-sided Beam and Cokes for me... I'm telling ya, drinking 3 (beyond the first JD&coke) was like drinkin' six... or nine. whatever. i was trashed. way smoked.

so by 4 tunes into Dimmu i'm ready to kill it. and it's like 9:15pm. wtf? yeah that's what happens when you kick the party on thursday and don't stop. i barely remember pAT lifting my tellie today or pickin' up my shortie vision from my brother in Deerfield.

i came home to midget-vision and was stunned. i already miss my big console... hope it finds a good home in Champaign. now i gotta snatch a widescreen. yes.

with any luck, my group hug will show up within the week. damn revealing, ain't it?

btw, 4th month is cool. tight w/killer ink. i love it. she got something in common w/spice & stakk... work by Tim Biedron at Deluxe. nice!

ok, i'm retarded right now. must go.

alrighty, Pat's here playing Mario Sunshine.... and to take my TV away from me. Then we're off to movie night @Ron's. Chinese food and horror flicks! yeehaw! gotta run.

ok, friday night was a gas... Ween was excellent and the aftershow antics with spice were awesome.

sadly, i'm in no position in my current state to recap what went on. hopefully when i'm fully recovered i will be able to provide some juicy details on the night that just wrapped...

right now, i'm in need of some serious bag time.

ok, so it started around 10:30PM....

first up, The Rapture@the metro. cool show... as good as it could be w/The Rapture. a decent warm-up for the night to follow...

second up, Smartbar w/Tommie Sunshine. really fun time w/flounder and his fille du jour, Nikko (sp?). The coolest part of the evening was Luke Jenner, the lead singer/guitarist for The Rapture, taking turns DJing. and he was good! call me impressed but it was an unexpected yet pleasant turn of events... and thru-out all of this, i was obsessed w/the honker!

flounder mentioned that thick chick in the soccer shirt was giving me an eye. no time for that nonsense.

flounder and his maiden split at the 2:30AM mark... as i stood steadfast sucking down my final JD&coke. after all, i was there to dance, Dance, DANCE... but the evening slowed w/o the flounder camaraderie so after finishing off his leftover Red Bull and whatever, i bailed a half hour later. but not before a brief chat w/Luke Jenner. i don't think he heard me and i certainly couldn't hear him but the point was made: he rocks.

next up: Ween@The Vic. Spice to join the party. the journey continues...

tonight it begins. 9PM. can you handle it? i think you can...

RE: Clerks The Animated Series - Uncensored

just finished a marathon viewing of the Clerks animated series... ok, so not really marathon-like since there's only 6 episodes. right now i'm listening to the commentary as i write.

ok, it's not terribly great but entertaining nonetheless. i had seen the original 2 episodes when they aired and previewed a few others years ago during a Kevin Smith panel at Wizard World.

after watching all the eps, i am rather surprised this was picked up by a major network (ABC). of course, the commentary explains how this came to be but overall the series is loaded with gay/racist jokes and in general plenty of offensive material. not that i mind but it's weird to think this was created to air on a major network. i think the obsession with the gay thing is probably the strangest aspect of the whole thing. it's like a running theme thru-out.

as racy as Clerks TAS is it still tends to fall flat b/c it feels like they take it right to edge but never step over. i get this but the eps suffer for it, IMO. that said, it's still a cute series recommended for all Smith fans, esp. for the commentary which is probably more interesting.

RE: Wednesday night tellie

The OC? bah. Taped Smallville and Angel. if i'm lucky i'll have the time to watch next week.

Enterprise was cool tonight but the thing w/episodes like that one, when it's all over it's like much ado about nothing. no consequences. nothing. it never happened. ah well.

put that in your crack pipe and smoke it. =)

RE: day after halloween... PART 1

ok, so i was busy flying emails back n forth that i didn't get a chance to recap saturday. ... sorry in advance for my excessively LONG initial post.

in reverse order, my final stop was yet another Blockbuster, this time in north Skokie (next to that ridiculous upscale Old Orchard outdoor mall). this has to be the best BB i've ever been to... it was sickening to see the sheer number of titles and types of titles, things i'd never find in the stores nearest me. i was rhapsodizing over their Foreign section when i noticed i was really in the Drama section (the expanse of foreign titles greatly outweighs the "normal" titles)! and they don't just have 1 DVD of each title; most titles have two copies at least (eg. 2 copies of "Emperor's Shadow" and "Shanghai Triad"). The horror section reminded me of my last visit to Facets. This BB is indeed catering to the local area (wilmette) where patrons leave their Lexus running while they shop for rentals. I cannot imagine the freedom pass here. Sadly it's too far from me!

Before that, stopped in EBX at Old Orchard for used games. surprisingly nothing of great interest there. then stopped in the vacated Museum Store that now is the temp home for the KBtoys Outlet (xmas time only) and picked up Godzilla Destroy All Monsters (gamecube) for $15 and a Ronin Warrior figure for $3. trip to Old Orchard not wasted after all... just had to put up w/the mindless richie rich teenagers running rampant. go moto!

before traveling north on Skokie Blvd, I hit the Blockbuster in Lincolnwood where the whole place is run by frazzled middle-aged women. They were actually zinging verbal barbs at each other about who worked the longest w/o a break. this was amusing. Nothing of great interest here but i did pick up "Cubix: Robots for Everyone: Showdown" for $7. This was a very nice BB (way better than mine -- mine is ghetto. the worst BB in the NW burbs).

[dinner at Long John Silver, it's digusting but i like it. a lot.]

visited the Lincolnwood mall specifically to check the EBGames store. But went into Suncoast first and walked out with a Sideshow Toys Dr. No figure for $7.49 and a very cool looking new Spawn Series 24 statue, er.. figure. still tons of Micronauts series 2 on the wall. I look forward to the clearancing of these en masse. nothing notable in EBGames. time for dinner.

RE: PART 2: Kill Bill v1 - not your typical Tarantino flick. But a refreshing change of pace.

And firstly, went to the 3:50PM $4.50 showing of Kill Bill vol 1 @Village Crossing in Skokie/Niles. I was late due to being held up at the long lines and slow service at my ghetto BB (any BB should be avoided on Saturday). So when i walked into the theater during the Matrix trailer I realized how the reserved seat thing would've been nice. the room was packed so i had to settle for an end seat in the 3rd stinking row. wasn't great but still better than any IMAX viewing.

ok, i won't go into a lot of details about KBv1 other than to say it's by far and away my favorite Tarantino flick (which isn't saying much since he's only made 4 movies). i know there's been the resistance to pay for half a movie when it should've been released as 1 long flick a la LotR. i'm still pissed by this decision mainly b/c it came from Quentin and it sets a horrible, horrible precedent. all that said, if i had paid full admission, i still would've thought i got more than i paid for. there's a good chance i will see it again before it leaves the theater.

of the 30 movies i've seen at the theater this year, i'd put KBv1 in the top 2 or 3.

RE: the violence/gore issue. after seeing the movie, i realize where this "criticism" comes from... from those critics/viewers that don't normally watch violent/gore flicks. yes, there is a fair share of both but nothing more than any other similar film of its ilk. i.e. on par w/Battle Royale or any anime for that matter. and the violence is so hyper/ultra-violent it's comical. anyone who had a problem with this (that TMQ guy, Pat) obviously isn't tuned in. and honestly, the violence/gore were merely silly subtext to me. the robust and rich qualities come from everything but the fighting/violence. those fighting scenes are fun due to the characters within but i think it's safe to say that we've all seen plenty of HK Wo-Ping fight choreography that it doesn't impress us anymore. by "us", i'm talking about a couple of friends specifically... not the moviegoers in general that ogle the screen at these overused fight sequences lifted right out of the shaw bros. stable, circa '75, and rehashed countless times since. then again, at least Q tossed the love out to them at the getgo. very nice touch.

The style, soundtrack and still scenes really make this one for me. as well as dialogue, of course, which is terrific. 10 minutes into the feature, I was already thinking how wonderful it will be to curl up on the couch and watch this on a cold wintery day. it has that kind of "warming" quality... the kind that you want to go on for hours and hours. i wish the movie was longer... it was like opening a present only to find another present inside and so on, the feeling of being pleasantly surprised with each new chapter of the story. i smiled constantly thru-out the viewing.

ok, so that's my take. if anyone i know gets a chance to see it i will be curious to hear their reactions. who knows, they may end up hating the flick. i hope not but it's always possible. However i do recommend seeing it on the big screen, free if possible, if not then the cheapest matinee. it is worth more than that but the delivering the movie in 2 parts peeves me to no end. ah well. please go see it... i need someone to discuss it with that is tuned in.

ok, off to Lincolnwood Mall...

/recap