it’s wednesday and i’m still occasionally finding myself getting songs in my head from dan’s karaoke birthday celebration last friday. that’s a problem, especially when one of those songs is right said fred’s ‘i’m too sexy’. worth it though, as that was a hell of a fun night. i must say my performance on ‘summer of ’69’ was a personal highlight even if i may have freaked out my partner neil with my level of enthusiasm.

saturday night’s 6th annual (damn, we’re old) wine & cheese holiday party at amanda’s was fun as always has been. i told her it’s probably one of the best parties of the year, and i think that’s because it’s so nice and low key. just drink and eat and chat. loved that. even if it made us groggy and lazy pretty much all day sunday, but hey, that’s why TNT has all-day movie marathons.

now the counting down to the holiday break has begun. christmas at home is always a nice relaxing time, everyone will be there, it’ll be cold but we’ll eat a lot of cookies. it’s been rainy and cold all week in LA as if to prepare us for the much harsher illinois weather, and i’m practicing stuffing my hands in my pockets and walking quickly indoors from my car. everyone at work is starting to show their desire to be done with it all for a week or two, and i’m feeling it too. but soon: PRESENTS!

we also got the hook up through gino to see an early screening of the wrestler, which i would say is a very good movie but not mind-blowing as some may be expecting. it’s very indie, they (being the director and producer) described it in the Q&A afterwards almost as if they filmed a documentary about this character that just happened to be played by mickey rourke. he’s certainly convincing, but we wondered how much of the performance was just him already. i liked it though. it wasn’t just rocky with wrestling. it didn’t show a pure comeback story. it showed both sides of having a career that exploits your body, both the glory of being in the moment and the pain of making a life outside the ring (or off the stage, for marisa tomei’s stripper character). it left you to weigh both instead of painting him as a pure hero or a pure failure. i may not always love those aronofsky movies but they do leave you with something to talk about on the drive home, and that’s a good thing.

now, back to writing our big year-end round up over at under culture. it’s going to be epic and full of fun stuff, so be ready to be told about a lot of cool shit in the very near future.