Author: brian

our neighbors next door to the west are a couple hispanic families in two little houses on the same lot, and they have a lot of barbeques. possibly more than we do. theirs always seem to smell better too, but i’d say that’s just because they have more experience. i’m just getting started on the path to barbeque-master status. yesterday’s was especially fun to watch from our porch though because through what i imagine are connections in our friendly nation just to the south, they had a bunch of fireworks to light off in their tiny paved front yard/driveway area.

it was pretty funny though because they also have an indeterminate amount of children which seems to range from four to fourteen depending on the day, probably all under 10, maybe 12 max, who are always running around having a good (loud) time. and who on this special occasion they were letting light off explosives right in front of them. even funnier because the kids were using long sticks whose ends had been lit in the grill to ignite the wicks, which made a pretty funny scene of kids running around with their little firebrands trying not to get blown up as things popped and exploded pretty much all day and into the night. one of my roommates was getting really jealous cause he didn’t get to blow anything up like the neighbor kids. we showed them though when we got on our roof and got to see real fireworks going off in all directions all over the city. who’s the winner now?

well anyway, happy 4th of july a day late. hope your holiday was as excellent as mine — but that would mean you’d have to match grilling delicious bratwurst at a lively barbeque, kicking ass at ping pong, the aforementioned roof climing that also let us see a house catch on fire a few miles away, and then winning at late night poker. if you can beat that then more power to you.

plus minus the bear put on a show thursday worth way more than 8 dollars i’d say. those guys are just fabulous; and communique, the middle act, played some hooky stuff too. i’d give them a thumbs up. this weekend is shaping up to be a worthy celebration of our nation’s independence, i’ll tell you what.

how about a beach trip and a birthday party to keep it going then? yeah i think that just might work.

[now hearing this: reggie and the full effect – under the tray. that show’s coming up in two weeks too.]

charlie’s angels: full throttle – 2 stars (out of 5)

yes, i went to see this movie opening weekend, but i was thinking it over, and the movie doesn’t really bear a full review. so here:

(photo courtesy of maxim)

enjoy that? well since cameron diaz’s ass/abdomen combo is more or less the main character in the movie, if you did enjoy it, then this movie is for you. at least, assuming you can also bear lots of ludicrous and flashy action sequences. luckily i can go for a hearty scoop of both once in a while and actually had a good time watching. sure missed bill murray though — the first was definitely better.

the pianist – 2 stars

weeeellll…adrien brody was really good. but i’m pretty sure i can never fully enjoy a holocaust story. just not my kind of film. plus you know what’s going to happen; the war is going to end and either the guy survives or he doesn’t. although there were some great shocking images of german cruelty that i appreciate the dramatic value of, i just feel like i could have missed it and not been that much worse off. not really a critical review here, but what can i say. needed more ninjas.

tomorrow our weekend starts on wednesday, for real. how exciting is that? i don’t quite understand the logic behind giving us the 3rd and 4th off for the holiday, granted. it would make sense if thursday was the 4th and they gave us the 5th off so we didn’t have to come back for one day, sure. but this way it’s as if a bunch of important people just wanted to be able to take longer weekend trips to expensive locales, which i certainly won’t complain about, don’t get me wrong. it gives me an extra day to watch dvd’s i got in the mail and eat beef products that have been cooked over fire. i’ll take it.

not to mention that this begins Super Fucking Rock Month (also known as july), in which we’re scheduled for a record-breaking six concerts. at least i think that’s a personal record. nonetheless, the excitement begins this thursday with one of my favorite newer bands minus the bear and continues in full swing on sunday with rilo kiley. i’m already getting anxious. oooo, indie rock girls.

i would make the pay day song one by the bands with live shows coming up in anticipation, but they’ve both been songs of the week recently already. and i thought about making it d-plan in memorial after seeing them the last time a month ago and then listening to them all day at work the other day, but that passed. instead i’m gonna go with a differently appropriate song to lead me into the long weekend. i haven’t been able to stop listening to XO lately so i don’t see why this week of all weeks i shouldn’t share some independence day goodness. delicious.

[now hearing this: dianogah.]

it’s alive! it’s aliiiiiiiiiiive!

so here we are in the new digs. hopefully my clever subversion of blogger difficulties has led the right people to the right place despite the hassle. i will explain. i switched my settings in blogger to publish via ftp to test out this new location. it worked great, and it was oh so easy. score one for blogger. then i said to myself, hey, time to post a nice little “we’ve moved…” message back at the old space on blogspot, so i tried switching back to the old settings. what’s that? i can’t publish to collapsing.blogspot.com? because it’s taken by someone else already? but wait, i AM that someone else! what’s wrong with this picture? big strike against blogger.

but after an hour or more of research and no leads, i remembered i had image files in the old template that was still up, just unreachable for editing, which i could manipulate independently of blogger. so i just changed the text of the logo image and now i have outsmarted the idiot once again, proving i am an internet superstar. i assume everyone will be kind enough to update their links and follow my rise to virtual celebrity status/descent into megalomania. and buy the shirts.

now that i’m here i’ve added some touches, fixed some graphics, and for the first time, allowed some audience participation. all just in time for the big two.[years].collapsing that was yesterday, officially. it seemed like the time to move out on my own. besides, i was going to need a new email address once my university one expires in a couple months anyway. done and done.

BOO YAH!

[now hearing this: the plan all over my itunes at work.]

let’s keep our fingers crossed…

hopefully there will be no serious outages while i try to make a few changes… updates soon.

[now hearing this: oh my god i forgot — i posted at work, and yet i can do an actual [now hearing this]. postal service, in case you were wondering. but it’s all thanks to a script i downloaded from this great page of ipod scripts. now i can rip songs to my ipod at home, then upload (what’s the opposite of rip in this case? unrip? join?) songs to my imac here at work, which you can’t do normally without a sneaky script.

and in case you’re wondering, ‘well, if you have an ipod, why don’t you just listen to the songs right off of that?’ then let me tell you i have a very good reason. if you wear headphones in a place like this you can’t hear someone asking for you, not to mention you are seen as anti-social. and how am i supposed to climb the corporate ladder if people think i don’t like them? haha…exactly. so i stick with my cute little modern/hip imac speakers turned to an appropriate volume.

plus, this way the other people on the network can see what great taste in music i have — almost 5gb worth — which can only lead to eventual office romance. right?]

i haven’t been sleeping much this week. things have kept me up later than usual every night, until last night which was cancelled out by having to get up earlier than usual. i wish i could attribute my nocturnal habits to something (or prefereably someone) really exciting, but it’s more nerdy than anything. you’ll see next week. it’s a special, albeit geeky occasion.

then last night was a night out with the crew from work, which luckily for me is actually enjoyable. i work with good people. interesting the things you learn about them when you’re out at a bar instead of in an office, but they’re still good despite their other sides. i think i’m lucky to have found a place here.

but good or not, staying out until 11:30 with people you work with, unless they’re really your best friends too, gets sort of strange. i had to get out of there before it got too late because the idea of spending all day with a group of people associated with work, as fun as they may be, then the whole night with them — to the point where i go home, go straight to bed, then wake up and go back to work with them — was a little to much. the days would just blend together too easily. so i left a bit earlier than the most dedicated of the bunch in the interest of having at least an hour or so to sit on my own couch with my own friends. it made a noticeable and welcome difference.

i’m curious as to the percentage of blogger-published web sites that comment on the new layout the first time they post using it. i would guess it has to be around 95% which i’m not ashamed to be contributing to — just because everyone else does it doesn’t automatically make it bad. it does look more like a webmail page now though. and i never liked webmail.

oh, gorgeous weekend — i think the only really shitty part of my week these days is adjusting from waking up at noon on your heavenly sunday mornings to waking up almost 5 hours earlier the day following. it’s not that i hate going to work so much as it’s simply a very harsh contrast in waking habits. but we survive somehow. with free donuts, maybe. or free lunches with margaritas. or birthday cake (no, not mine, but still chocolatey).

yes, it’s been a rough day.

the weekend was fabulous though. i think i have developed a real taste for los angeles lately. the past few weeks have sort of sold me on it. last weekend we drove less than two hours and climbed cool desert boulder formations. this weekend i managed to pack into a single day the two very opposing activities of driving less than an hour to a mountain biking track that took us through meadows of wildflowers and over rocks and hills and was gorgeous in a natural kind of way; to walking down a street in hollywood looking for a bar that wasn’t too pretentious and just happening to walk past quentin tarantino coming out of the egyptian theatre, looking not-so-gorgeous in a put on some weight recently kind of way. then we found a bar with 3 dollar beers which is great for this town. fantastic.

if sunday had been sunny enough for a beach trip i would have been in heaven. instead i bought a desk chair for my new apartment, which will probably be heaven in it’s own way once i live there and sit curled up in its leathery embrace reading a book in my slick new apartment. soon enough.

big things coming soon! stay tuned.

[now hearing this: time to go home!]

before i get fully into planning my weekend activities — happy hour? movies? ping pong? — some friday morning netflix rental reviews:

in the company of men – 4 stars (out of 5)

highly recommended by my film nut friend spencer, i finally got around to seeing this and laughed loudly and often. the two main characters are drawn up so well you can’t help but laugh at almost everything they do. as long as you’re not a weakling who is offended by exagerrated male stereotypical misogyny, i’d say see this. obviously funnier to guys, i’d guess, and the closing scene let me down, but still, good.

igby goes down – 4 stars

i’m a fan of bleak cynical humor, and this movie had it start to finish (starting more on the humor side and ending more on the bleak), which i liked. it also had jeff goldblum, who i think is a funny enough supporting actor to overcome ryan phillipe’s deficiency as one, which i liked. plus it had clare danes, who i will have an eternal crush on thanks to formative junior high years watching my so-called life, which i couldn’t help but like. i wanted to give this 5 stars, but i was just too depressed afterward to be excited about this movie. but in a good way, you know?

the deer hunter – 3 stars

great movie; if it were 2 hours instead of 3. i laughed at the buddy scenes that set up the characters, and the fucked up scenes in vietnam were unforgettable, but there seemed like so much exposition that didn’t deliver in the end i wasn’t sure it was worth all the time i spent watching this movie. and who ends a war film with people singing ‘god bless america’? i mean come on. worth it for the deniro/walken scenes though.

and a nice book review to show i don’t just sit on the couch with a remote in my hand…

glamorama – 4 stars

i’m an ellis fan, otherwise this might have been a 3. he just tells such visceral stories though, i get sucked in. i am afraid for his characters and what manner of descent they will go through before hitting bottom. and he does have an uncanny ability to turn your stomach with written words i find more grotesque than most visual scenes of horror i’ve ever seen in film, which you at least have to respect. starts out with laughs and ends up with bloodbaths — what’s not to like?

[now hearing this: nothing, really. i need to remember one day to bring my firewire to work so i can upload from my ipod somehow.]