putting the "X" back in christ: the post-xmas wrap

for having the day off today it couldn't have be more unproductive. real smart on my part. of course not. for whatever reason i couldn't sleep last night despite being tired as all hell. normally this wouldn't have been any shocker 'cept that i did have the day off today so there was no "returning to work" anxiety. i was out of sorts all night last night and chalk it up to post-xmas blues.

that ain't to say that xmas was a high note because it wasn't. i just think the bum-rush leading up to the day builds up all the emotion and general anticipation then when it's finally over all the air is let out and i'm left kinda flat. that's how i describe yesterday: flat. i had expected a friend to visit and stay the night (for which i had originally requested today off) but that plan fizzled almost in the eleventh hour. i didn't really care but it sorta left me w/o a plan.

having fallen asleep somewhere between 6 and 7AM this morning i didn't pull myself up until almost 1PM when i split to catch the afternoon matinee of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; another excellent Wes Anderson flick so rich and satisfying that you never want it to end. i've been trying like hell to catch up on theater flicks lately since my entire November was blanked due to my car accident, vacation and move to the new apt. matter o'fact i've seen more theater movies in the last 2 weeks than i did in the previous 3 months combined.

5 flicks, for those counting at home including finally catching at late night viewing of The Incredibles, which was terrific as expected, and an xmas day showing of Flight of the Phoenix w/my dad (since The Aviator was soldout). that was watchable but nothing terribly special (we were really looking forward to seeing The Aviator both being Howard Hughes fans for different reasons). The Life Aquatic definitely made up for it tho but what was surprising was that a few people actually left the viewing about 20-25 minutes into it. my guess is that it wasn't the movie they thought it was going to be. certainly, if you're not wise to Wes Anderson and his brand of humor and movie making you probably won't get it. i could name a few of my family members that wouldn't get it. more than a few, actually.

speaking of, i expected to post a long diatribe about yet another dumpy and disappointing xmas at the homestead w/the fam but at this point, i no longer care. i went out of my way to arrange some nifty gifts to which i'm most happy about. i rec'd a lot of what i expected and didn't want. i plan to be more on my game this year and return the bulk of it thanks to collecting all the respective gift receipts. i would've preferred not to have gotten anything so i'm sorta treating it as tho i didn't get anything. easier to reconcile than just getting pissed off.

fortunately i picked up a few things i would've wanted for xmas that will keep me occupied for the time being. 'course i'm speaking of Call of Duty: Finest Hour and Killzone, both PS2 games that so far are proving to be entertaining. i'm also buying a new TV (gasp!) this week so the pattern continues (eg. surrounding myself in more material goods to make up for the lack of everything else in my life).

merry effing xmas, everyone!

after pleading w/my father via email to dissuade my mom from giving me more clothes for xmas that i will not wear, i rec'd this from him this morning:

> I am glad you are finally getting into Christmas. But, do prepared for
> some nice cloths that Mom picked for you. She goes all out for you
> because she feels that you are alone. I am sure you will enjoy what you
> receive.


(btw, i still have the neatly folded stack of sweaters and fleece pullovers from last year that i have yet to wear let alone look at. looks like another drop-off at goodwill)

it's hard to believe that the 2nd to last weekend of '04 has finally reached its end. and at times it seemed as tho i was squeezing every last drop from it. between the miserable, never-ending move from my old apt to my new digs i did manage to obtain a few moments of glee.

saturday evening found me w/kev for a viewing of Yimou Zhang's House of Flying Daggers, a flick almost as gorgeous as his Hero epic. i've had the DivX for months and the DVD only recently but i've held off home viewing in anticipation of the full-on theater experience. i'm glad i did... even tho i'd bill it as a martial arts chick-flick it was still excellent. too bad i didn't have a chick to enjoy it with. definitely one to catch in the theater first and i'm already looking forward to seeing it again (btw, Ziyi Zhang is just incredible with a major notch up in her acting abilities for sure).

today wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday... considering i was up until 2AM last night just cleaning the kitchen in my old place. talk about miserable. it was only around midnight when i discovered upon pulling out the crisper drawer in the fridge that some time ago soy sauce had spilled and pooled under the tray. this wouldn't have been so bad had this just happened. but since this must've occurred a long time ago, the soy sauce had crystallized and was practically *burnt* into the bottom of the fridge. real nice. after working on it for a while i honestly didn't think i'd be able to remove it but with much perseverance i managed to eliminate every last trace of that damned hardened soy sauce. it'll be a real long time before i ever have soy sauce again after smelling that stench for an hour.

anyways, today was much better w/the kitchen, bathroom, and the bedroom already completed. i moved out quite a bit of the remaining junk either to my new apt or the dumpster. now there's little left before i can finally be free of the place. i'll probably drink myself to sleep when it's officially over.

in a celebratory mood of sorts tonight, i split at 9PM sharp and headed to WorstBuy to pick up Call of Duty: Finest Hour for the PS2 - a game i've been wanting since i first saw the commercial. usually it's $50 as a hot new release but amazingly BB had it on sale for $30 (w/some other "hot" titles like THUG2) so i couldn't pass. even a used copy won't run at that price for several months. after a couple more quick stops to pick up some minor xmas gifts i made it into the 10PM viewing of Blade: Trinity w/10 minutes to spare! (god, i love late night shopping around the holidays - no traffic on the road or in the stores!)

unfortunately arriving 10min before showtime served no purpose other than getting the perfect seat. the fucktwats at the Randhurst AMC somehow had forgotten to queue up the flick so me and the small crowd of 16 or so sat there until a quarter past the hour until finally someone got up to tell them to start the fucking movie already. finally after the obligatory previews the movie got rolling at 10:31PM. thanks a lot, jerkholes!

i won't say too much about B:T other than i enjoyed it immensely and laughed out loud several times (during intended funny moments). i grinned at the wooden acting all around esp. at Kris Kristofferson who appeared to reading off a cuecard. after succumbing to the Schwarzenegger sad school of one-liners in the first 2 flicks of the "trilogy" the producers at least gave way to bona fide humor in this final installment w/the inclusion of Ryan Reynolds (of Van Wilder fame) and an all too brief appearance of Patton Oswalt (as well as a hilarious Pomeranian!).

besides the justified R-rating (for some reason i thought it was PG13 - glad i was wrong), i was also happy to see that Dominic Purcell ("John Doe" from the short-lived John Doe tv series) is getting work and here as the main baddie. and Parker Posey wasn't too bad as a mean vampire bitch either. sure, the flick plays out like a big screen comic book/mtv commercial/video game a la Resident Evil but isn't that what we expect from this franchise? i certainly did and only wish it were continuing w/Reynolds and Jessica Biel, who's so goddamn hot it's not funny. what's not to love about an ass-kicking hottie who also shows her emotional side?

they could start a new franchise, The Nightstalkers, and well... hey, i can dream, can't i?

email rec'd this morning:

> From: "Madonna Seniw"
> Subject: LOUDNESS!
> Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 08:03:47 -0700
>
> dude. you're missing lodnesses 1st album!!!!!!!!
> it's called Law Of Devils Land!!!!!!! wished i still
> had the tape to convert it to mp3.. but
> unfortueately it's to old & warped.... :(

so i cont'd my annual tradition of making an ass out of myself at the company xmas party last night. funny thing is, i don't remember most of it. as in, i _really_ do not remember. i woke up fully hung over this morning going thru the motions preparing myself for the day ahead. when i got into my car i noticed immediately that i had a full tank of gas. that was red flag #1 since i've never had a full tank of gas in that car since i've owned it (hasn't even been a month yet). very suspicious. so i tried to recollect the evening and nothing came to mind. then i became scared.

when i arrived at the office and conveyed this to the other culprits who attended last night's festivities; they began to tell drunken tales of things that i did not recall nor could put into context from what little i did remember. from what i gathered, i could only remember back from around the time we left our company party and headed to the restaurant bar. after that i don't have any memories. not only has this made me frightened it has also made me angry. angry that i somehow allowed myself to get so teetering sloshed to not only forget most of it the next day but somehow, some way i managed to drive my new car home... and stop along the way for a fill-up. WTF kind of idiot can i be?!

I'm actually too ashamed to discuss this little event anymore. it's embarrassing and foolish. i hope to never pull a stunt like that again.

email rec'd tonight:

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 7:27 PM
Subject: No Subject

I would like to E mail the band. Where would I send that mail?

Karl

xtras817@aol.com

thanksgiving wasn't as eventful as one might think. i actually spent it by myself which i haven't done in a long time (probably 9 or 10 years since the last loner turkey day). normally being alone on a traditionally "family & friends" type of day makes me a tad melancholy but this year i didn't have time for much of that kind of thinking. see, i was busy trying to move as much of my apt into another apt 3 doors down. that on top of cleaning my place and making it presentable enough for my landlord to start showing it to prospective renters during my holiday absence. yep, i left the following day for a few days in the cold desert paradise known as Albuquerque.

i had decided to fly to ABQ a couple of months ago when i realized that i wanted no part of my family's plans to drive 10hrs to Rapid City South Dakota and spend 5 days at my step-sister's home. you've heard of a "blue christmas" right? well this would've been a "Red" thanksgiving. Red as in Right, if ya catch my meaning. and that would've been too much for me in such a closed environment. don't get me wrong, i love most of my family but have reached a point in my life where i can only take them in doses... small doses.

So i opted to spend a few days w/my brother and his 4 dogs and sleestakk, my iguana. then there was the slight annoyance of his roommate's girlfriend.

anyways, it was a few days of pretty much nothing. and when i say nothing i mean nothing. unless petting any one of his 4 dogs counts as something. this isn't to say that it was a bad few days b/c it wasn't. it was just a few days about nothing really. our ink appt was cancelled so nothing happened w/that. the one night we went out nothing was happening so we went home after a few stops and drinks along the way. i did go out of my way to make Slee a killer salad and tried to configure his heating element since it's on the verge of winter down there. but mostly i sat around petting the dogs. at least my brother's dogs are "hella cool", as his roommate's girlfriend would say.

overall it was a nice if uneventful getaway. i got see my brother's new truck and his new "old truck" project (he's restoring an old '31 Ford into a hot rod). we watched movies, ate out for every meal, and played with the dogs. had i known 2 months ago that i would be moving to a new apt during the same time as thanksgiving i'm sure i wouldn't have booked the trip. i have a ton of shit to do w/the move and being gone for 5 days has only slowed the process. that said, i'm happy i got to hang with my brother once more before the end of the year. and he has hella cool dogs that won't hesitate to kick you off the bed during the night. and that, my friends, was my thanksgiving vacation!

here's what i posted at the spookhouse about the Manson show tonight at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago:

i suppose the chicago show was pretty much like jeff's description of the cincy show... 'cept M kept saying "chi-KAgo, chi-caGO, etc." between the songs w/emphasis on different syllables each time he repeated it. it reached a point where i realized that he didn't have anything interesting or witty to say so all he said was "chicago" over and over to keep the crowd in it.

he did say something early in the set about the Good Charlotte/Sum 41 show a block away at the Aragon - making fun of them ("goddamn canadians") and their fans - even tho apparently Sum 41 was in the right balcony watching M. when Sum 41 came into the balcony right before the show began, many on floor flipped them off and started chanting "Fuck You" which turned into "Man-son".

my take-aways:
- sold out show? that's how i heard it but it didn't seem that way inside the venue having been to several soldout shows at the Riv. but there was lots of ppl there.

- the Riviera Theatre. M last played here on the ACS tour. it was almost uncanny that the setlist swirled in and out of ACS ending w/the title track (i was hoping for a Man that You Fear reprise but no such luck).

- the crowd. great audience. good energy. i was shocked b/c i haven't seen M since the GGG tour and the last show i saw was in C-land where the turnout and overall vibe was weak. tonight's crowd was into it and the greater majority seemed to identify w/all the tunes. i was impressed... that not only are there still lots of ppl into MM but they also know the tunes and showed up.

- the band. chris looks like a substitute but rocked nevertheless. guitarist is non-existent, probably the way M wants it. pogo was pogo. skold was actually cool to see and did fine. M clearly likes Skoldy since he hangs all over him during the show and avoided the other bandmates.

- Skold. that was the first time i've seen Skold in MM and he still looks young. KMFDM played here last night to which i recalled the 1st time i saw Skold live was with MDFMK a few years ago. now he's in a different band yet crossing paths w/his previous gig. i just found it odd.

- Get Yer Gunn. i cannot remember the last time i saw that performed live. definitely wasn't on the GGG tour. does anyone have a setlist handy from the MA tour? i'm just curious how long it's been since i've seen that live. i'm glad they played it too b/c it was stuck in my head all day.

- scratchy intro song. that's a Manson tune that now escapes me. i think it's off of ACS or maybe it was MA. could be from the "Manson by Cellos" CD. or from something else. does anyone know which tune it is?

- M was on. he didn't really make any mistakes or miscues. nor did he blow up. i'd say he seemed on autopilot and did a good job. i wasn't in the front row but it looked like he was really locked into the front row so i'm sure those kids had an experience - all the magick and eyes staring lasers thru your skull stuff. during one moment he pointed to someone in the front and just stared at them until he cracked a sly grin.

- overall i enjoyed the show. i actually got goosebumps when M started into the Family Trip. some dude behind me that obviously didn't get the memo on the correct MM concert attire says right after 'Stop the Boat!': "huh, i have no idea what that was or what he was saying." and he was the apparent MM expert among his little crowd behind me. he just looked out of place and sounded like it as well.

altho i've seen most of it all before, 'cept for the GAOG material, i'm glad i went. it's been too long and i'm glad it was a decent show. nothing particularly memorable like the old days but at least i could see M up close again. it was also the longest MM show i've seen at 1.5hr. and i definitely think the theater venue suits him better and his energy isn't lost as it is in arenas and sheds.

email i rec'd tonight:

-----Original Message-----

Subject: Look for Spawn

Hi

I am looking for the following toys, please tell me if you have any of them. And what's their price? Do you have office in Sydney?

SPAWN SERIES22：
SPAWN THE BLOODAXE AND THUNDER HOOF
SPAWN SERIES21：
SPAWN VII
WING OF REDEMPTION SPAWN
SPAWN SERIES 19：
DOJO
LOTUS THE ANGEL WARRIOR
SPAWN SERIES 17：
TIFFANY II 女
MCFARLAN E‘S MONSTERS：MUMMY
MCFARLANE’S MONSTERS SERIES 3：
SAMURAI WARS ACCESSORY PACK

Thanks and Regards,


Sam Wang

All Ports International Logistics (NSW) Pty Ltd
Phone: 61-2-9700 1803
Fax: 61-2-9700 1834
Web: www.allports.com.au

Team America will be great. trey parker and matt stone were just on Conan moments ago, and the more i hear about this flick the more excited i get about seeing it this weekend. with any luck i'll be going for a 2nd viewing come movie weekend in little over a week. following Shaun of the Dead, the down period for post-summer releases seems to be picking up.

the final debate was this evening but i haven't watched it yet (i taped it, natch). it should provide a few more yuck-yucks while i'm sloggin' thru FireRed during the wee hours. oh btw, i discovered last night that USA Network's Frankenstein isn't an apparent mini-series. it's just a 2hr movie. which makes no sense considering the "movie" ends w/o an ending and very unsolved. i question whether this was just a set up for a potential series but then i still have to question the participation of the actors involved. bizarre.

welp i made a major fuckup today when i thought i booked my thanksgiving flight to abq new mexico. my brother called tonight to inform me, after reviewing the itinerary i sent him, that my flight departs abq on 11/25 and arrives back in abq from chicago on 11/30. um, how the fuck did i not notice that i booked the reverse flight? i'm sure when i call american airlines it'll cost me a pretty penny to get this flight changed. oh fun. and on a day when i donated another $25 to the city of des plaines for expired tags (that's 3 years in a row, folks!).

the upside to this week is that i successfully hired 2 more acct mgrs for my dept who both start on monday. and god knows (he does) we need the help. fuck, *i* need the help. and these are guys with some experience under their collective belts so i have high expectations. none of that affirmative action/train 'em and hope they do well bullshit (sorry, but i've had some bad experiences over the years). let's just hope they show up on monday. so that and the fact that my hearless leader is out all week have made things somewhat more palatable at thee ole office.

i've come to accept that i have a life-threatening addiction to pokemon. no, i'm not ashamed to admit this (however, i am ashamed of this behavior). life-threatening? yep. because life outside of pokemon almost ceases to exist and i have a strange feeling that things are falling apart around me. yet i'm too preoccupied to notice. i'd say between that and Hunter X Hunter anime, i'm not really giving life a fair shake these days. and that's threatening.

last night i finished downloading another 36(!) episodes of Hunter X Hunter (i'm so glad this is still a free fansub!). i watched 5 eps yesterday and another 4 so far today. the show continues to get better and better. and it's hella violent for a "cutesy" shounen. honestly, it's not all that cutesy but does build on its foundation of friends sticking together to accomplish a goal; in this case, passing the ever-so-difficult hunter exam. damn, it's a great anime.

when i attempt to sleep at night or morning, my head is swimming with pokemon strategy and HxH. so, yeah, i have a problem. another reason to catch a flight the fuck out of here to new mexico for a few days but i can't even get that right. yep, it's threatening.

having a clean bathroom is nice. really. i spent a chunk of the afternoon cleaning the head which was terribly overdue. all i have left is the area around the sink basin; and that's easy compared to the floor, tub and toilet i did today. i mention this b/c i've been negligent with a lot of things lately... incl. this blog (and all the others i choose to read regularly). not sure really why or how this came to be but somewhere along the way i decided to do little else than play that stinkin' pokemon, read magazines, and/or watch the new Fall season on TV.

speakin' of, i just finished watching the first chapter of the new Frankenstein mini-series on the USA Network. normally i wouldn't bother w/junk like that but the whole NIN (circa '94)/Se7en look of the trailers and eclectic cast (Parker Posey? Michael Madsen? Vincent Perez? Adam Goldberg?) drew me in. So far it's not bad 'cept the lack of recoil on Parker's shotgun; it's providing a very twisted albeit modern take on the Frankenstein mythology. i look forward to the next installment.

yesterday, Zombie Killer (kev) and i finally caught Shaun of the Dead. i've had the DivX for a while since it came out in England quite some time ago but held off watching, hoping to catch it in the theater here when i heard it was going to be released domestically. wow. talk about a riot of a great time! 'cept for the more serious tone (RE: lull in humor) it takes in the final act SotD is hysterical. on one hand i would think that it would do better at box office b/c it is so damn funny and marginally scary (if you're afraid of zombies and gore) but then again i think there's an obvious culture barrier that the middle of the road American citizen just can't overcome. this may be a disservice to both flicks but i guess the easiest description for SotD is that it's the Trainspotting of zombie flicks. whatever, i will own the DVD someday day.

surprisingly i haven't played as much pokemon this weekend b/c i was too preoccupied obtaining new music and making back-up DVDs; both of which i haven't done in some time. but i am motivated to get back to my old routine pre-pokemon when i wasted my time on slightly more productive things. this includes finally unpacking from my vacation a couple weeks ago and ordering those new Microman Bio-Machine, Batman, Catwoman, Batgirl and Devilman figures that i kept putting off.

plus i've been trying to stay on top of anime torrents as well as watching when i can. i know i was late to jump on the Hunter X Hunter bandwagon but since i just start watching it recently i've really come to enjoy this rather simple shounen. it's addictive for sure and ranks high at animenfo (#50 overall) w/a 9.4 rating. i suppose for the longest time it just looked too cutesy for my tastes... until i started watching and realized how well the story and characters are crafted. so i've pushed aside most other anime for HxH right now. i'm dumbfounded that this hasn't been licensed for domestic release, for either the Cartoon Network or DVD.

ok, i think that's enough to get back in the blog of things... i've got some blog reading to catch up on as well. slowly i'm gettin' back into the swing of it. really.

np: Dio - "Master of the Moon"

i am digging these new Daft Punk RAH figures!

"Daft Punk, late 90s pioneers of the French house music scene that took the world by storm, are now ready to invade your home as Real Action Heroes. Standing 12 inches tall, these realistic dolls feature injection molded, plated backpacks. Updated to RAH301 specs. Release Date: December 31, 2004."
(now, to come up w/the $260 to get them)


-> R.i.P. (and raise hell!) Russ Meyer!

if i were a rich man, i'd get one of these in a heart beat: horse head pillow

it's one thing to be sick. it's another thing to be sick due to long hours at the office and almost no sleep to recover. friday it caught up w/me so i was down and out w/a truly unpleasant summer cold all weekend of which i'm still tryin' to get over. this was easily the most unproductive weekend in a long, long time as i was pretty much confined to a motionless state the majority of the weekend. except when i was weezing, coughing or wiping snot off my face.

last night i did manage a grueling venture to pick up some provisions with a quick stop into Mitsuwa to retrieve my book order from Asahiya (Microman Chronicles 1974-2004, which is very cool despite Asahiya's hefty markup: $42 for Y2800 cover price! ugh). i also got my j1toys membership card sans the photo of me they took a few weeks ago. ah well.

i was able to watch a fucking awesome movie that i've wanted to see for a long time: Shurayuki-hime aka "Lady Snowblood". it's a 1973 Japanese revenge flick starring Meiko Kaji in the title role. i won't blather on about it b/c it's just too goddamn good for words (plus i wouldn't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet like all the reviews tend to do these days. thanks, jerkwads!). it's also one of the films (in the long line of films) that Tarantino has riffed. in this case, for Kill Bill, natch. this is one that definitely makes the top of the movie night list w/a bullet.

this morning i attempted to "go to bed" but found myself in the rasping hell of coughing and congestion no matter how many shots of tussin i downed. however, i still managed to pull myself up for the early matinee of Resident Evil: Apocalypse. ok, so the 2nd installment wasn't much better than the 1st (maybe it was worse?) but, seriously, i have no problem dropping five bucks on 2 hot chicks fighting zombies for an hour and a half. esp. when my mind was as foggy and fucked up as it was putting down this goddamned work-induced cold virus.

RE:A is stupid, silly eye candy; teenage boy, testosterone-fueled fantasy-violence in a can for video game junkies (much like the 1st flick). did i enjoy it? hell yeah. was it a good flick? hell no. but i will say that i am motivated to play the video games now. cuz that's really how i viewed it: a video game brought to screen. being vaguely familiar w/the storyline but never having played _any_ of the games, it seemed like an 'okay' adaptation. and still 100x better than House of the Dead, which ain't saying much, i know. somewhere in my toy stash i have a Nemesis action figure and i only wish it was as cool as the one in this movie (tho i wouldn't mind a real nice 1/6 scale movie version Nemesis w/gun accessories!).

at least EbeRoeper hated the flick, which was expected, and that makes me feel a little better about liking it. i'm a bit concerned about Sky Captain coming up this weekend since Roger *loved* it and Rope-a-Dope hated it. guess we'll know soon enough.

after the viewing i stopped in bestbuy to get FireRed and LeafGreen which came out today and were onsale for $25 each. hard to pass on that since Sapphire/Ruby are still selling at their regular msrp of $35. come to think of it, i'm pretty sure i paid around $25 for mine used. anyways, it was a deal to get the new games at the sale price along w/the nintendo guide for $15. i kicked off LeafGreen tonight and it's super terrific of course and reminds me of when i first (finally) started playing the series earlier this year w/Yellow. it's the same Kanto story as the original game so it conjures up the warm fuzzies... but it's so slow going early on as you know if you played the original games. yet it's still super terrific and now i want to get another GBA:SP just so i can trade. yes, it's still a sickness.

George Iida's Dragon Head


it's hard to say whether or not i truly took advantage of the 3-day weekend. if sleeping whenever on a whim (and yet staying awake until 6AM), bidding on and winning more needless items on ebay, viewing anime torrents and watching a few DVD movies all count then i made out pretty well. feeling somewhat guilty after 2.5 solid days of indulgence i decided to do something productive today and worked on my frontroom for a large part of day.

my ghetto shelves are down to two final boards which i intend to eliminate tomorrow evening and begin the massive rearrangement. i managed to pack up _all_ my micronauts which was a tad bittersweet: happy to finally get them packed; sad b/c i've spent a lot of effort (and coin) to acquire my micros and not having them on display sucks. but it had to be done. i'm still undecided as to whether to make the leap and get the proper shelves i want or wait until i move to a new apt. i bailed out of moving to LA this summer for a few reasons and one was b/c i thought there was a possibility of moving to a different, more desirable locale. but i'm thinking that dream is quickly fading and i may be stuck here in the windy city a lot longer than i planned. so... what to do?

i definitely do not want to continue living in my current craphole. besides growing to hate my apt i've developed a major aversion to my neighbors and apt location. i wish i knew that i was going to be moving to a whole other place so i'd had least have some assurance in making my plans. ugh. i'm tired of it.

visited The Glen saturday evening w/some friends. such a peculiar place it is! residing in the middle of Glenview some city planners took the old vacated Naval Air Station and restored it into a spanking new modern *urban* suburban mini-town. and it's an odd place b/c there's no 'tweeners to found on the hopping weekend nights; it's all teens and +40 set. our party seemed to be the only representation of our age group during the crowded evening. just bizarre.

caught Hero yesterday at Crown Village and as expected, it's simply gorgeous on the big screen. and this was despite a piss poor screening (subtitles cropped off initially than overcorrected so that the top of screen was cropped; dumbasses!). theater was surprisingly full! not surprisingly it took top box office honors again (good!! take note, miramax, next time you consider sitting on a film for 2 fucking years. assholes).

today i finally finished watching Dragon Head (over 3 sittings). it wasn't an easy film for me to watch. best described as twisted spin on Day After Tomorrow meets 28 Days Later post-apocalyptic theme set in modern Japan the flick is dreary, bleak, hopeless, grim, etc (read the review story & *spoiler* warning!). based on a manga series by Mochizuki Minetaro, Dragon Head is not a bad movie by any stretch just very desperate. there was a tremendous amount of fanfare around this flick when it was released in Japan last year and i'm not sure why (maybe from the popularity of the manga?) b/c it's not particularly all that great but is worth watching. and the sets and demolished landscapes were done extremely well.

after that i watched the Korean comedy Spy Girl which kept me captivated for the entire 2hrs (not easily done these days). this is not a great movie but very watchable and reminded me of lot of the late 80s Patrick Dempsey teen/romance-comedies (Loverboy, Can't Buy Me Love, etc.) of which i am rather fond of, good or bad. read this synopsis and you'll understand what i'm talking about:



Jeong-hwa Kim in the lead "spygirl" role is the ice queen hottie that you expect will melt by films end. but Spy Girl sidesteps the easy "hollywood" ending offering a sly finale (possibly signaling a sequel; hell, they sequeled My Wife The Gangster so why not?). i recommend it, natch. check the review here (slight *spoiler* warning).