well it finally happened: tonight the cops came for the whore next door!

last night was yet another successful movie night, a *greatest hits* version for a couple of newbies we finally corralled into joining us. i think both dorf and Art had a good time; hopefully they'll join pAT, Ron and me for another excursion down film dementia in the near future. a good time was definitely had by all.

i totally spaced that Yimou Zhang's Hero was opening this weekend otherwise i would've hit the matinee today. at least it still came in #1 in surprisingly wide release. i'll for sure catch it this weekend and try to drag someone w/me. despite already owning the DVD for almost 2yrs it's still a theater must-see b/c it's such a cinematic flick that is grand in every way. i look forward to it. after running some errands (more tubs for toy storage) and grabbing my sunday carry-out from Amitabul, i picked up my library hold of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and watched it as soon as i got home.

sadly the '74 Harryhausen flick doesn't hold up so well today. at least not as i remember it. for those vaguely familiar w/this one (2nd of the Harryhausen Sinbad trilogy) Golden Voyage features the one-eyed centaur vs. griffin stop-motion climax. but the movie itself is a bore and the real "action" doesn't begin until around 40 minutes into it! the 6-armed statue of Kali coming to life is pretty cool but even Harryhausen's creatures cannot save a drag of a movie. however, i must say that the real high point of the flick is Caroline Munro whom i had forgotten was a b-movie siren in her own right from the 70s along the lines of Raquel Welch.

wow. and double wow. ^_^

and she makes sitting thru this dreck worth it. her and the stop-motion monsters, that is (besides being a "Bond girl" she also co-stars w/David Hasselhoff in Starcrash, an abysmal Star Wars ape from 1979; i have to get that!).

besides Golden Voyage i watched another slew of anime torrents. i am happy to report that i'm back on the torrent viewing wagon having relegated pokemon to the trunk space (oh, btw, i beat the elite 4 in Silver a couple nights ago; it was much easier than i expected. ho-hum). i've been really glued to Samurai 7 and Samurai Champloo recently. i can't believe i waited until now to begin watching these fabulous series but in a way it's good b/c i have accumulated enough episodes to watch 'em back to back w/o waiting for the latest one.

Samurai 7 is loosely based on Akira Kurosawa's pinnacle opus Seven Samurai - the premise is the same as is the intentional knod to Mifune's "Kikuchiyo" (the character in S7 shares the same name!) but S7 is rather different in many other aspects that i won't go into here. you'll just have to watch for yourself. i burned some eps for pAT and my brother; i think they'll dig it. i am enjoying it immensely.

Samurai Champloo is a whole 'nother animal. set near the end of the Edo Period when ronin wandered the land looking for work, Champloo pairs two polar opposite samurai to aid a girl in her mission to find the "samurai that smells like sunflowers". there's plenty of comedy, drama, action and history all mixed in w/very modern editing. the 1st episode is almost annoying to watch as it "scratches" from one situation to another and then back again. fortunately they don't employ this turntablism cum editing technique often. it's altogether a really entertaining series so far. i'm sure i'll get the DVDs of both of these series whenever they are licensed.

there are times when i truly feel bad for seniors and their rapidly diminishing ability to cope with the real world. when i was at K-mart today tracking down a couple more Citizen figures, an old man looking clearly lost asked me where the checkouts were... i turned and pointed, "right over there" about 20ft away. he thanked me and told me that he had been all over the store looking for them. ~sigh~

i broke down last night and ordered the Chinese release of Takashi Miike's Zebraman. what's wrong with that? nothing. well, that is unless you're up on the initial releases of these Japanese DVDs as they slowly spread from country to country throughout the pacific rim. cuz then you also know that these Japanese DVD releases do not contain English subtitling. Nor do the initial Chinese release of the same movie. And it's usually that initial Chinese release that the bootleggers rip for global pirating (besides other traits the most glaring are the nonsensical, poorly done English subtitles).

so i ordered the Chinese release as it's much cheaper than its Japanese counterpart (by ￥3000 or more). but there's no subtitling ('cept Chinese, natch). whatever, i'm just really wanting to see the flick and i'm pretty certain i won't have any problem following along w/my limited J-language comprehension. sure, i could've waited for the pirated versions or pricey ones w/English but i'm a tad obsessive-compulsive.

speaking of J-language, i had a heckuva delightful time placing orders at Asahiya yesterday. imagine trying to order a Japanese magazine ("Cure") with an English name. she ponders, "koo-ray?" there's no kooray in the system. thankfully i had print-outs from Japanese web sites featuring most of the books i wanted. but it was still a slow process and rather funny at the same time. i took home the latest Figure-Oh and Dengeki Hobby mags (the latter came w/2 mini-transformers!). i would speak some Japanese at Asahiya but for some reason i always feel as tho if i were to speak Japanese i would be offensive. i'm not sure why i think this.

from Mitsuwa i headed over to the brand new Meijer store i just learned about last weekend where i found a new assortment of Citizen figures. picked a few to take home along w/a Manga Spawn figure set i had never seen before. between Meijer & Mitsuwa it was a really easy way to blow a hundred bucks in a half hour.

Chinese Actress Zhang Set for 'Geisha' Turn (...b/c of course there aren't any good Japanese actresses).

"Zhang Ziyi, who co-starred in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," is in final negotiations to play the title character in the long-in-the-works film adaptation of "Memoirs of a Geisha," while the Oscar-nominated Ken Watanabe has signed on to play the male lead."

"Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh and Koji Yakusho also are in final negotiations to join the cast of the Columbia Pictures/DreamWorks/Spyglass Entertainment feature, which Rob Marshall ("Chicago") is directing."

"Yeoh would portray Mameha, the experienced geisha who becomes Sayuri's mentor, while Gong is wanted for the role of Sayuri's treacherous rival Hatsumomo." (full article here)

this is dumb. Gong Li has a very classical and beautiful face, _ideal_ for the role of Mameha. and being older (3yrs older than me even) she's a perfect fit (wasn't Gong Li just absolutely smoking in Shanghai Triad? she had the subtle glamour thing going on in The Emperor and the Assassin). i can't picture Yeoh in this role or this movie for that matter. there are plenty of Japanese vixens who would do nicely has the delightfully evil Hatsumomo. it's almost as tho they felt they needed some "star" power to sell this movie when in fact the movie will sell itself, provided they do it right. it *was* a fuggin' Best Selling Book for year, fer christsakes!

as much as i adore these actors, the casting gets a C- from me. i hope they prove me wrong.

email rec'd today:
"Hi, how can I buy the Simond and the sea monsters toy and how much does it cost.email me at HollyandMilkdud @aol.com. Thanks"

tonight i met kev @Crown Village to catch an opening weekend viewing of AVP, with a free ticket no less. ok, so the ticket wasn't technically free since i had to pay a total of $14 for the Predator SE DVD set to get the freebie screening. with the price for admission being 9 bucks i figured i got a fairly decent deal out of it since i would've paid to see AVP anyways, hype or otherwise.

as far as AVP goes, well, let's just say that somewhere in that mess there was a story worth telling. sadly, it was so poorly executed you end up scratching your head wondering why they bothered at all. i know for a fact that had they turned that plot over to me i would've developed a much more compelling and tighter flick. that ain't bragging b/c i know a few others that could've done the same.

was it better than the much ballyhooed Freddy vs. Jason über-match a year ago? hmm, yeah, it was. but not by much. IMO, i think the Aliens and Predators have much stronger "cool" cachet than that of those dusty old also-rans. and while AVP tried to highlight the cool factor of such fabulous sci-fi monsters in the movie match-up every fanboy has been wetdreaming about for last decade, it failed on so many counts registering barely a beat above flatline. Director Paul Anderson is competent in his own right having delivered some okay big screen features but i think these legendary heavy hitters would have been better handled by a Bryan Singer type who knows how to get the most out of his fantasy characters and give the fans what they want.

i'm already spending more time dissecting this film than it deserves but i guess it's b/c i really expected so much more and left w/so much less. i wanted to leave the theater thinking about how cool the Aliens and Predators were battling each other to the death; instead all i can dwell on are the flaws (way too many to single out any one of them). i'm hoping the eventual R-rated director's cut DVD will be a marked improvement but that's asking a lot from a seriously marred movie. ~sigh~

oh yeah today was the last day of Wizard World Chicago! i planned a late start and limited budget to finish off the trio of tiring days. i went solo intent on scoring final day deals and looking forward to a lot less fangeeks in attendance. arriving sometime after noon i paved my way to countless bins of 50%-off trade paperbacks swinging deals whenever i could. roughly 3 hours later i didn't have a dollar on my person, which was the plan so i left relatively pleased leaving nothing on the table... er, wallet.

today's acquisitions:
Catwoman: The Dark End of the Street trade paperback -- $3.00
Emily the Strange (exclusive) figure -- $12.00
Fudoh (Takashi Miike) dvd -- $12.00
GOZU (Takashi Miike) dvd -- $8.00
Microman Spy Magician M141 Henry figure -- $4.00
Microman Spy Magician M142 Hudson figure -- $5.00
Microman Spy Magician M143 Holmes figure -- $5.00
Planetary/Batman "night on earth" graphic novel -- $2.00
Preacher Book 3 "proud americans" trade paperback -- $7.00
Preacher Book 4 "ancient history" trade paperback -- $7.50
Preacher Book 5 "dixie fried" trade paperback -- $7.50
Preacher Book 6 "war in the sun" trade paperback -- $7.50
Stormwatch "change or die" trade paperback -- $7.00
Stormwatch "force of nature" trade paperback -- $7.00
Ultimate X-men vol 2 "return to weapon x" trade paperback -- $7.00
Y The Last Man Book 1 "unmanned" trade paperback -- $6.50

overall i'd say that WWC 2004 was the most disappointing WWC i've been to yet. And i've attended them all except one since Wizard bought out ComiCon in 1998. Seems like every year there are fewer exhibitors and worthy attractions. this year the dealer space was increased and so was artist alley. as pAT exclaimed, it was essentially like a huge toy/comic flea market, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's really the "Con" aspect that's sorely lacking. my own conjecturing tells me that this is just a reflection of the comics industry. rather sad.

it seems that SDCC has gone Hollywood to drive its appeal whereas Wizard is trying to make due w/the waning number of exhibitors willing to buy booth space to showcase their wares. Only a handful of major comic book companies were represented this go-round and i use the term "major" loosely as Devils Due is hardly a major. Marvel was practically non-existent and Mattel had the largest exhibitor space if that's any indication.

and sadly there was not much in the way of cosplay this year except for the usual array of Star Wars 501st Legionnaires. hrmph. sure, 3 days of WWC was exhausting yet still managed to elicit a few moments of child-like glee; however, it's just not the same WW that it once was. i'm planning on going to San Diego next year. 'nuff said.

Wizard World Chicago Day 2

as if yesterday was damn long today topped it. Ron and pAT just left my pad moments ago and by the bleary-eyed expression on pAT's face i'm guessing today was equally as exhausting for those two, esp. since they told me they only had about 4hrs of sleep last night. that said, it was pretty damn good day for all present.

i hooked up w/those two this morning @WW shortly after the doors opened. we then proceeded to the exhibitor area to procure a few exclusives before heading to the dealer stronghold where i played the initial tour guide. i directed them to a table selling Sideshow figures at rock bottom prices. from there we moved _slowly_ thru the irritating mass of humans and subhumans clogging the maze of dealer space where Ron and i ran into a fellow Micropolis Embassy list member by sheer accident.

we trudged onward until about 12:30 when i split to attend Steve Sansweet's Star Wars presentation. now i'm hardly the Star Wars fanatic but i wanted to hit this session for a couple of reasons; 1) i was curious to hear about the upcoming trilogy DVD set and forthcoming Episode 3 but more importantly 2) i wanted to see how the 501st Legion attendees would make their presence at this session. the 501st Legion is the Star Wars Costuming Club, the largest of its kind, and there's always a decent sized 501st delegation at WW every year, this year being no exception. and on cue as the session kicked off, the large contingent of Stormtroopers marched down each aisle led by a single Darth Vader, Boba Fett and Jango Fett. this was hilarious as everyone in the audience cheered and clapped. then Steve came on, applauded their fanaticism then told them to take a hike so he could begin. the hour of the session i caught was pretty good w/several clips from the bonus trilogy DVD and a short behind the scenes clip from Ep3. There were a few trailers from the upcoming video games which all looked great...

i walked out to gawk at the stunning Kelly Hu signing autographs; hot damn, she's 10x more attractive in person than in photo or television. forcing myself away i went to look for Ron & pAT and eventually found myself lost on the dealer floor as i discovered new areas i had not yet visited. heading to lobby i decided to check in on the Kevin Smith session that had just started. after watching a few ppl go in the closed doors i decided to go in to see if i would in fact be kicked out for not having a special session pass. i walked in and stood for a few minutes enjoying Smith's banter w/the crowd all the while. when a few ppl got out of their seats to leave i asked security if i could take a seat. he asked if i had a ticket and when i replied 'no' he said "sorry, you can't. but you can stand here in the back." okie-dokie. so i made my way to the corner, shot some video and finally encouraged Ron & pAT to join me in the session.

Kevin Smith was his typical caustic self shredding each person that stood up to ask a question (most deservely so as many of the questions were rather inane and idiotic). Jason Mewes sat off to the side signing Big Ass Jay figures and provided the occasional riotous wise-cracks at all the right moments. the entire session was entertaining as Smith continually attempted to take his off-color explication to a new low; Smith definitely has a strange predilection for ass-fucking and dick-sucking of the gay sort! (i've never understood this nor do i want to)

that finally over we bailed for the land of shiny happy beautiful people and affluent seniors otherwise known as Evanston - it was apparent that we felt way out of place the moment we walked onto the street. we sat for an excellent dinner at the same Thai joint (Farang Meet Thai) that i went to the previous weekend (around the corner from the CineArt theater) before catching the 7:20 viewing of Beat Takeshi's Zatoichi. even w/the atypical senior crowd packing the seats around us it was still as enjoyable as the first time i saw the flick last weekend. both Ron and pAT liked it a lot as i figured they would.

afterwards back to my overcrowded craphole apartment cum toy storage facility where we sat outside on the stoop (no room to sit inside), smoked, conversed and displayed our acquisitions from the day. yeah, the day was tiring but also very satisfying.

today's meager acquisitions:
Devilman Heavy Gohkin Marmit figure -- $10.00
G-Force Mark 12" Real Action Hero figure -- $10.00
Hellboy - "conqueror worm" trade paperback -- $9.00
Hellboy - "the right hand of doom" trade paperback -- $9.00
Professor House of 1000 Corpses figure -- $5.00
Titan AE Space Walker Suit and Cale figure -- $5.00

today has been one hella long and exhausting day! Wizard World Chicago started today and from 9AM until 6PM i was on my feet not sitting down once. goes w/o saying that my feet are suffering miserably from this. i'd say my wallet is bit sore as well since i spent more $$$ today than i had originally planned. it was the KUSA Master Nova figure that put me over the top ringing in at $100 and that was within the first 10 minutes of arriving at WW! that didn't bode well for the rest of the day...

i was surprised that there were as many attendees but mostly they were there to cherry pick all the best deals on the dealer floor before the onslaught tomorrow. i found some nice items for reasonable prices but i was mostly nabbing all the exclusives and getting much of my shopping out of the way so i can float w/Capt'n Satan and Raydeen tomorrow. i didn't bother attending any sessions or panels; i just walked most of the maze that is the dealer floor and stood in lines at exhibitor booths for the exclusives.

here's a list of acquisitions (and cost) from today:
Buffy con exclusive PALz figure -- $5.00
Dir En Grey t-shirt -- $12.00
Fathom collected editions comics vol 2 & 3 -- $2.00
Hellboy - "the chained coffin and others" trade paperback -- $9.00
Hellboy - "wake the devil" trade paperback -- $9.00
How to draw Manga Vol 1 (Antarctic Press) -- $10.00
Kill Bill Crazy 88 con exclusive Quentin Figure -- $15.00
Kingdom Come trade paperback -- $7.50
Kubrick Batman series Man-Bat figure -- $7.00
Kubrick Evirob figure -- $6.00
KUSA Master Nova figure -- $99.00
Mask of the Red Death Sideshow Toys figure -- $11.50
She-Ra Con Exclusive He-Man figure -- $20.00
Shockini Standard white figure -- $7.00
Skrash AlienRacer figure -- free
Son of Frankenstein Sideshow Toys figure -- $11.50
STIKFAS Beta Female w/Dragon figure set -- $16.00
STIKFAS Beta Female w/Jungle Cat safari set -- $9.00
The Authority "Earth Inferno and other stories" trade paperback -- $7.50
The Authority "transfer of power" trade paperback -- $9.00
Top Cow characters poster -- $1.00
Ultimate X-men vol 1 "the tomorrow people" trade paperback -- $7.50
Vintage 1980 Flash Gordon posters - 3 -- $5.00
Vintage Mego Micronauts - 8 figures -- $25.00

i'll save ya the time in case yer wondering; it was around $300 and change. ugh. i'm definitely gonna go easy tomorrow.

last night, my dept (3 of us) went to Chicago Indoor Racing for a couple of races in go-carts. damn, i wish i had remembered my camera b/c we were all decked out in racing suits and gear -- it was quite a hilarious site to behold! the racing was cool but frustrating b/c of all the rules they impose. i rec'd a warning after 1 lap and had no idea why. so i wasn't nearly as aggressive as i wanted to be. by the 2nd race we had more ppl racing and i started to figure out how to get the go-cart to better perform but some dumbass driver in front of me kept wiping out causing me to come to a complete stop a few times. stopping the cart totally kills your overall lap time. ah well. it was still fun. kinda.

afterwards we hit the Weber Grill for steaks and drinks. That was pretty good but not as good as i remembered from my first visit there several years ago. i ended up crashing pretty early (1AM or so) which was a good thing since i needed all the energy i could muster to survive WW today. i dunno how i'm gonna manage 2 more days of this.

i haven't been much into posting lately since work is sucking the life out of me at the moment and leaving very little energy for other physical things... incl. packing my toys and working on my DVD database. this bugs me. i'm so looking forward to having friday off and attending wizard world this weekend... it's gonna be exhausting but well worth it and probably the right distraction my mind needs right now.

i'm posting tonight primarily b/c i just finished watching one hell of a frightening documentary: THE END OF SUBURBIA: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream. it really blew me away. it's not scary as in horror/violent etc. it's scary b/c it outlines the early demise of modern civilization as we know it. and that's hella more frightening than some half-baked horror flick, Asian or otherwise.

in a nutshell, EoS describes the Oil Peak dilemma, leading up to it and the likely outcome, which is pretty dismal. besides revealing the problem w/oil production and dwindling energy resources and all the mistakes that have been made along the way, the movie also discusses the problems w/alternate energy and fuel sources. and it calls out many of the culprits from past and present that are responsible for what surely will be another potential economic depression and ongoing war-state world. seriously, this little documentary is an eye opener.

and EoS presents the material in such a clever and often hilarious manner using splices from old post-WW2 "America is Great" films mixed w/scenes from contemporary americana. The clips, reminiscent of the Educational Archives films, are funny by themselves but turn into an eerie premonition w/the callous voiceovers.

it's the kind of flick that you want everyone you know to see and experience. i'm hoping i can get my dad to watch this since we've been having arguments lately about the political climate and upcoming election. i think it will be far easier to trick him into seeing this (altho, there is definitely material in this movie he will not want to hear and more than likely write-off as bullshit) than getting him to see Fahrenheit 9/11. not that the latter is any straight up truth but in both cases, these are documentaries that leave you thinking. the sad part of EoS is wondering if there's anything than can be done at our level. and it's this feeling of hopelessness and despair that really sinks in by the time the credits roll. it makes that kind of impact.

i recommend checking out their web site. this is one movie that i will be passing around.

crashed around 6AM this morning only to get up at quarter to 10 in order to hit the morning matinee of The Village. call me concerned knowing the "slo-burn" nature of the flick (thx,pAT) that i may doze off on so little sleep. twas not the case as i was completely riveted beginning to end. for a 2hr "slo-burn" it seemed more like only an hour passed. i'm not exactly sure why it was like this to me but i was moved by the overall viewing.

i found the flick enjoyable despite the not-so-new spin on a very old story/twist that had me rolling my eyes several times. it was the societal study that was most compelling and the acting was suberb, as expected from that cast... m.night's knack for framing and inducing tension from off camera continues. i think it was the characters that drew me in as opposed to the retread plot (the only downside) but at least the drama aspect made a potentially absurd tale we've already read or seen 10x over a decent big screen flick. i won't go into it any more to avoid any spoilers but i'm sure anyone w/a brain will realize the "twist" 5 minutes into it as i did. it's the process that makes it worthy viewing.

i believe there was even a Twilight Zone (or was an Outer Limits?) episode on the same subject. i was wondering how m.night would pull off his Hitchcockian appearance but he managed to slide it in which drew a chuckle from me. never mind the critics (ebert's off his meds again; he gave a big thumbs up to Little Black Book! gasp!) The Village is a worthy film that redeems m.night from that utterly dismal 3rd act of Signs.

Last night i went to see Beat Takeshi's Zatoichi w/kev who was wanting to see it almost as bad as me. yeah, i know, i have scheduled plans to see it this weekend w/Capt'n Satan & raydeen as well but i sorta had a feeling this would happen (seeing it before then). at least it's a flick i _want_ to see again. i'll leave it at that (but go see it if it's playing near you; it's entertaining as all hell).

today after The Village and picking up my Sunday carry-out from Amitabul i watched Enki Bilal's Immortel. damn, i want the DVD of this! it's a very odd feature that mixes CGI characters w/live actors. And the CGI characters are what you'd find in the latest PS2 game (it's almost like watching the cut scenes from a video game) so it's very bizarre but the story is intriguing (if not a bit convoluted) and Linda Hardy (a former Miss France) is quite the hottie in her white skin, blue tear kind of way as the character Jill. once i got over the silliness of the CGI characters the movie really turned on and got interesting. and the soundtrack is excellent.

started boxing up my toys from my display shelves tonight and forgot what an arduous pain in the ass this process is. caught the first hour of Gasper Noe's Irreversible while i was packing the toys... holy shit. now i know why Blockbuster didn't even consider stocking this flick. it's a difficult one to watch.

btw, i picked up my first CD (Sahara Hotnight's "Kiss & Tell") w/BMG's sunncomm anti-copy protection bullshit. if anyone knows a solution to this or can point me in the right direction i would be much appreciative. i'll be damned if i'm gonna install their app and digital keys which, IMO, works just like spyware. utter and complete bullshit.

welp, the flight home wasn't so bad afterall. Shrek 2 was the movie which has to be the 2nd best movie i've gotten on a flight. i dunno if i enjoyed Shrek 2 more than the 1st one but it had it's moments esp. the entire Mongo giant cookie sequence a la Godzilla. Puss In Boots, however, stole the show; Antonio Banderas' best role in ages.

anyhoo, it's really good to be home. i decided to upload all the photos i took from SES. the Google Dance photos are probably the only ones of interest. you can see all the photos here. there's also a short AVI file of Ozomatli who performed at the party. several thousand ppl were at the party incl. a gaggle of Google cuties (hundreds of 'em)... me & bauer grew tired of the whole thing and left a little early. apparently they ran out of alcohol around 10PM or so. ho-hum.

best night for me was last night @Yahoo's party at the Tech Museum (upstairs and downstairs!). huge turnout and lots of good food and drinks. hanging out w/Massimo, Mauro, and Fabio (all from Ad Maiora Italy) and smoking way too many cigarettes was the most fun. Massimo is one cool dude. after we closed down that place we headed to the overcrowded "unofficial" Eonmedia party at the Flying Pig bar. after getting completely soused there i bailed sometime after midnight. i guess blevins and our lawyer were the last two standing at the joint until finally getting the boot. no surprise there.

so i'm sitting at the SJ airport w/blevins waiting for our flight to board. i'm worn out and not looking forward to 4.5hrs in the air. hopefully i fall asleep. unless they surprise me w/another decent flick (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was the movie on the way out; probably the best movie i've gotten on a flight). i'm hoping for a shitty flick. lots to talk about RE: SES San Jose incl. a bunch of photos taken at Google HQ. i will probably retro post those tomorrow. we'll see. dorf better not be around when i return.

11PM PST. it's like 54 degrees here in San Jose and some kind of cold spell. whatever. i'm enjoying the cool weather. most of today was spent travelling... 4.5hr flight which sucked then much meandering around getting the booth set up and just waiting. finally at 5:30PM was the much ballyhooed SEMPO meeting which turned out to be rather dull. after this it was one party after another. too much drinking and eating on my part. a real easy way to trash my diet in a few hours...

Overture party was first; too many ppl. then onto the SEMPO/SuperPages party at the Tech Museum; way too cool and the best eats around. it was sick. i over-ate. left that to stray around downtown looking for the GoToast (AtlasOnePoint) party at the Mission Ale House. Finally got there and it was L-A-M-E. returned to the hotel overloaded on booze and food. too tired to think. too loaded on drink. my feet are already killing me. i must retire.

so today (after staying up till 6AM) i decided to catch a matinee of I,Robot. it wasn't nearly as bad as i expected going it which is probably why i'm saying that now; my expectations were severely low. i chose to go merely b/c i wanted to see the sci-fi FX on the bigscreen... and see Chicago 2035 (all that was "ok"). plus i figured there'd be less ppl to deal with. surprisingly there was a decent amt of folks during my viewing. however, the movie was just blah. i give it a 6/10 b/c it was watchable despite being formula and full of flaws. i saw a lot of wasted potential. ah well.

Next week i'll see The Village which managed to do well despite the number of negative reviews from the critics. i'm thinking it cannot be worse than I,Robot. i picked up Dead Man from the library today and was motivated to see it again as soon as i arrived home (after another takeout Sunday from Amitabul - i'm attempting to try everything on their menu at least once and rate each dish).

Dead Man is such a stellar movie all the way around. i've been wanting to see it again probably ever since the first time i viewed it a few years ago. the look and feel of the flick is sublime w/a terrific Neil Young soundtrack to match. i love that there are so many great actors in such bit roles throughout from the few minutes of Gabriel Byrne in the beginning to Alfred Molina at the end. and Robert Mitchum was brilliant. i'm sorta on a Johnny Depp kick for some strange reason. i think i have his latest, Secret Window, lying around here somewhere. i should watch that soon.

tomorrow i leave for San Jose for the week. my company rigged up a loner laptop for me so i could do "work" while i'm gone attending the trade show. that's lovely of 'em to be so considerate. the worst part of going is just the packing. i hate taking trips like these always thinking i'm gonna leave behind something. with any luck (thanks to the laptop and wireless @the hotel) i'll be able to post about the supremely dull time i'm having and how much booze i manage to drink. we'll see.

a snippet from 'The Village' Delivers a Box Office Surprise: "Universal's family adventure 'Thunderbirds,' a live adaptation of the cult British TV show with marionettes, misfired, opening out of the top 10 with $2.7 million. The film was budgeted at $57 million."

you know it's a bad movie when not only does it not make the top 10 its opening weekend but gets clobbered by Catwoman. truly pathetic.