Author: brian

i’ve had a lot of fun watching the debates so far, and i’m somewhat sad that last night was the final matchup. shouldn’t debating be the primary way to make the decision? wouldn’t we learn more if there were like twenty of them, each on a single specific issue that they stick to and have time to really discuss and explain their plans for? maybe america just can’t handle that much to think about. i guess it is more important they don’t have to pre-empt too many nights worth of quality sitcoms and forensic crime dramas.

on a side note, i love the idea of one good minute, which puts the blogging medium to good use with an original and very suitable premise. well played.

i heart huckabees – 4 stars

although uncertain to what degree the term ‘existential’ really applies to the philosophies espoused in the film whose tagline declares it to be a comedy of said school of thought, i certainly enjoyed the film anyway. the unselfconscious absurdity of the story and characters and dialogue really made it a fun ride, because nothing spoils oddball comedy than the feeling it should have to explain itself. plus, i always like a little metaphysics with my comedy. you know, ‘the fool’s job to speak the truths we will not tell ourselves’ and all that.

so essentially the fact the story was strange and scattered was more than made up for by the fact it was filled with ponderous moments as plentiful as the silly or satiric ones. highly recommended for the funny little nerd in at least some of us.

it should be fairly apparent by my general characteristics (age, education, economic status, heck, even musical tastes) that i am naturally liberal-leaning. and yes, i’m long-since decided to go the smarter route and try to get the current bungled administration out in favor of a hopefully smarter, better, less offensive one.

so i’m not really watching the debates so faithfully because i need the insight into the candidates in order to make a decision. my decision was made as soon as the current president managed to convince the supreme court to give him the job. it’s more to get some better insight into the new candidate’s ability to prove themselves better in front of the camera to those who don’t realize how obvious the choice should be. i have to say though, it was much more fun watching an intelligent and insightful kerry badger a frightened and helpless bush last week than it was to just watch one fairly smart and charming vp candidate sling accusations against those of the other fairly smart but evil current vp. i didn’t get the satisfaction of hearing cheney start to sound like a whiny kid caught doing something wrong by his mother in the same amusing way bush did on thursday.

at least i have friday to look forward to; hopefully when confronted with the massive job losses during his administration, the president won’t respond with another incredulous, “what about poland?” or “of course i know osama bin laden attacked us. i know that.” sharp as a tack, that one.

yesterday a group of us went paintballing for mike’s birthday (happy 23rd man!), and after crouching for 6 hours in the dirt getting pegged by whizzing pellets of colored dye, i’m generally tired and sore and doing nothing today. it was a blast even if my legs are killing me the day after, although next time i’d much rather get a private party together instead of playing with the general group of hardcore dudes with customized gear and something to prove by shooting me in the neck. good times.

a few notes though, like that i finally set up a photo albums page, so if you want to see my adventures after reading about them, check it out. so far all i have up are my recent trips to prague and vegas, but i will now have more of a reason to photo-document all the fun that goes on around here, i guess, so look forward to more in the future.

also, since i was saving/paying for an intercontinental vacation, i haven’t bought any new music in weeks. although i have a nice list going of what to pick up soon, i did go ahead and at least download a bit to hold me over, and as a result have been singing har mar superstar’s DUI to myself and dancing around wherever i go for about the past two weeks. see what happens when you don’t visit amoeba regularly?

it took me almost an hour yesterday just to find out what time the debate started thursday night. what’s your problem, news networks? then of course, having found out it starts at 6, i wouldn’t be surprised if i missed most of it because i haven’t left work at 5:30 in roughly the entire time i’ve worked here. how am i supposed to be an informed voter now?

also, i found out i have one more reason to get cable this fall: entourage. extremely funny and it’s so nice to see jeremy piven getting a chance to cut loose his hilarity. plus shows set in the town i live in are fun to watch for familiar landmarks, and all the women are unbelievable, but those are just small perks. mostly it’s like people say, sort of swingers the series except the guys are successful and wealthy instead of kind of sad.

so, i’m back safe from my trip to prague. and if you’re dying to hear all about it, i’m sorry but i couldn’t possibly fit all the fun goings-on into digestible blog form. i did have a great time, did lots of good eating and drinking for not a lot of money, got to catch up with and hang out with josh, wandered the city a lot and saw lots of cool people and sights. i’m working on getting a functioning photo gallery up for that and other recent trips, which i’ll announce once it’s operational, so maybe that’ll tell more if this isn’t enough.

to fill in for long stories though, and to help me someday in the future remember the long stories that go with each of these things, i will give a brief list of things i saw of note:

— holy shrine of human bones

— old, beautiful castle with old, beautiful church (and 287 steps to climb to its tower)

— lots of other old, beautiful things

— a cool marionnette show

— largest dance club in central europe (5 floors! beautiful women! american pop music!)

— cool bars: secret lounge, marquis de sade, bombay (sort of–at least it was open late on sunday night)

— half the cool restaurants/bars being in underground basements for some reason we never pinned down

— stupid drunk american girl dancing on a table

— stupid drunk group of british dudes saying loudly and stereotypically, “oi, we jus’ come from a pub!”

— lots of other groups of drunk british guys, and restaurants/bars with “no stag groups!!!” signs in the window to ward them off

— several guys trying awfully hard to get us to come to their strip club

— their strip club, for about 5 seconds … sad, not sexy

— several girls offering us sex (“you know blowjob?”); several guys offering us marijuana (“you smoke joint?”)

— people in the hostile trying to get action when we walked in … sorry!

— those same people actually being the coolest english-speakers we met while there

— people in the hostile who were unbearably obnoxious … “i’m not usually retarded, amsterdam did this to me,” is not an excuse

— my first flambeed entree. my steak was on fire!

— absinthe, which we drank, and i purchased from a very nice girl who led us into their little winery/spirit shop. she described it as ‘making you a little strange in your brain’

— the waittress i wanted to marry where we got lunch one day

— the waittress i wanted to marry at the bar where we drank the last night

— the amazing german girl i danced with at a bar, which also had a waittress i wanted to marry

— the very fat man i sat next to on the 10 hour flight home

— the customs officers who stopped me for questioning for some reason they didn’t tell me, but which made me very nervous, and didn’t even result in a search of my bags for some reason. not that i’d ever smuggle anything questionable home from a winery/spirit shop

and even with all that, it’s good to be back.

to those that read on a weekly-or-so basis: do you ever think about the relationship your occasional perusal bears on my daily life? not that i write every day, but say in a good week i do three or four, and so the reader on a 10 day cycle maybe misses a few entries here or there unless truly dilligent and sure to digest every post since her/his last visit. if that’s the case, okay. if not, you’re missing every 3rd passage or so, which amounts to maybe days, weeks of my life as described here. i could be going through crises, having adventures, pondering minutia that you had never even thought of, and it’d all just slip right by you. meanwhile you are developing a two-thirds-formed idea of who i am and what i do with myself, which as the entries increase in total number, become farther and farther from the actual complete picture presented here (nevermind the philosophical discussion that could involve, i.e. ‘you can never really know anyone completely’ or ‘by observing something you change it inherently’, etc.). what i’m getting at is, for those that only visit now and again, i could drop off the map for a decent amount of time and you wouldn’t even notice. sort of implies a weird detachment in this supposedly intimate medium attempts to bring about; which oddly reflects the actual real-life dynamic of friendships… can you ever fully keep up with what’s going on in even your best friend’s life? what do we really know about eachother at all?

to those that read daily or almost-daily: i know i don’t post as often as i should or would like to, but this time i have an excuse. i will be abroad for about a week having an adventure in prague with my dear friend josh. all that nonsense above was really just a pretentious lead in to the equivalent of an out-of-the-office auto-reply. gotcha!

see you next week… xo, –brian

sky captain and the world of tomorrow – 4 stars

the problem with a movie like this is that i know full well the reasons i absolutely loved it could be the same reasons other people find it absolutely pointless and boring. the good thing, however, is that those are the sort of people that i shouldn’t really be too concerned about.

sure, they can tell me how the plot was a little thin and comic-booky, what with the “oh if we only knew where the bad guys were…” followed immediately by the vital clue that led them straight there. to that, i would slap them in the face and point out that OF COURSE it’s comic-booky, can you not tell that this is the most fully realized pulp-comic-inspired film to come out since the invention of the computer?

they could go on to talk about how the whole movie looked all weird and fake, to which i’d probably kick them in the shin and ask them what part about imaginative masterpiece they don’t understand. and if they wanted me to stop inflicting them with minor damages, they would have to shut up and admit that this was a gorgeously executed and delightful adventure film that goes where movies like dick tracy and the rocketeer — also personal favorites — tried to go too. sky captain just happens to do it more whole-heartedly, more vividly, and more successfully. if that sounds as exciting to you as it was to me, then not only would you like this movie, but i bet we’d get along pretty well. want to hang out?

kind of tired. i’ve continued to be busy and work hard lately.

extremely excited. i’m leaving to visit prague, and my best friend not currently in this state, on tuesday. that’s like two days away.

pleased overall. today was pay day and i got a free, delicious shack burger from the shack in playa. mmm, spicy sausage on a burger.

somewhat fixated. this new black keys song 10am automatic is so damn good i keep listening to it over and over again. hence, it’s the pay day song. i need to get that cd.

getting sleepy. time to go to bed i think and maybe go out tomorrow night instead of staying home and watching a dateline special, “sigfried and roy: the miracle”. the kicker: he still loves the tiger. plus they wouldn’t even show the actual footage, and very obviously danced around the whole gay thing in the way every single statement or question was worded. ‘best friends’, ‘share a house together’, ‘together night and day’… just say it: LOVERS, okay?

want to hear what i did today? well, i started off the day going to a photo shoot where we took pictures of a beautiful woman in her underwear and splattered with mud (not only was it really hot, but she was a great sport about it). she was actually a really cool, friendly person too and even had lunch with us afterward instead of leaving as soon as possible, and knew more about football than i do.

then in the afternoon i went to the second part of the photo shoot in the desert hills which led to me getting to ride an offroad mini-ATV. i had of course never done this before, and it was possibly more fun than the morning activities. or just a different kind of fun. a lot like riding a jet ski which i did once several years ago, only on dirt, and this time i even caught a little air once or twice. i was so hardcore — and afterward, dusty.

tonight i just had some pizza and watched family guy, which was fun too, but just less exciting. however, i am pausing to write this while reading the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay, which is very good so far. and even if you never read this book, i recommend you drop by a bookstore and at least read the passage that begins, “only i have one question. what is a comic book?” on page 74 of the paperback version, and ends, “that is a comic book.” several paragraphs later, on page 78 as a matter of fact. it’s one of the most lovingly constructed and captivating passages i’ve read in any book this year. of course there might be better ones later on in this very book, but i just haven’t gotten to them yet.

all in all, a good day.