Author: briancollapsing

time for the next day’s worth of installments. i really hope anyone reading this isn’t thinking, “just shut up already, your trip was only interesting to you, and i don’t want to hear about it.” well, then come back monday, i guess, i should be caught up by then and you can read about my first day of school. for now though:

saturday, dec. 29

my pal gabe picked me up from lynn’s place and we went into the city again to find our friend madilyne, kill a few hours, and go to a lucky boys confusion show at the metro. i’m not a big lucky boys confusion fan really, but (A) gabe knows a few of the guys in the band, and after calling one, got us all on the guest list, making it a free concert for all four of us (matt came later). it’s hard to turn down a free rock show. also (B) it meant i got to go to the metro again, which is cool in itself because i hadn’t been there since high school, obviously, what with me living in california and all. and i think that’s still one of the best places to see a show i’ve been to so far. it’s just the right size and for extra fun, you can feel the floor moving when a lot of people are jumping on it. you have to love that.

so the show was decent and i had a lot of fun. we had some food at matt’s older sister’s apartment in the city (located only a half-block away from the hilariously named gay bar “the manhole”, who’s marquee read “new year, same hole” on one side and “santa came. merry christmas” on the other), and we had some free deep dish pizza which rocked my tastebuds. gabe dropped off the other two and we went to his house and played video games until 4am and that was that for saturday.

okay, i’m really tired but i want to keep up with this. i’ve never liked writing in paper journals, but now that i’ve started this, i feel like i need to keep a record and so i’m going to follow through. “so brian,” you ask, “what’d you do your second day in chicago?”…

friday, dec. 28

dominic brought me over to my old friend (and ex-girlfriend) lynn’s house friday afternoon, and seeing her in itself was quite a trip. i used to be completely in love with that girl. she broke my heart too. aaah, high school. but we’re older and wiser and now we still keep in touch and i still think she’s a real cool cat. it was nice hanging out with her and talking about life and things, while we took the train downtown and walked around the city. what a beautiful night it was. chicago is so much prettier than any part of los angeles. and to top it off, right as we came up out of the el stop, it started snowing. i was so happy that the fact that it was 15 degrees out didn’t really even bother me.

we got coffee at the virgin megastore to warm up, and we talked. we went to see this spanish ghost movie called the devil’s backbone she said was supposed to be good (and wasn’t–i give it a thumbs down), and we talked. we got some food at the pick me up cafe, and we talked. we rode the trains and busses home, we watched the zero effect at her house, which she’d never seen (which i love–i give it a hearty thumbs up)… and we talked. it was a really great night. i can see why i used to be so infatuated with her, because she’s still completely beautiful and really interesting, but it’s nice to know that i can be aware of both those things and just appreciate her instead of being frustrated because i can’t have her. that was a good, good night.

plus we talked about sandman, and dave mckean, which would make me love any girl at least a little bit.

okay, i’ve had a big day (today–which i’ll get to eventually), so i’m going to bed now.

alright. i’m back at my apartment in LA, home from the fun-filled week trip to illinois as of yesterday evening (instead of early afternoon–thank you, 3.5 hour flight delay), and i’m ready to start catching up the record here on collapsing. i don’t have much to say from before i left for illinois, so i’ll start trying to recap the fun things from the trip here over the next few days. it seems like there’s so much it’d be hard to do at once, if at all, so we’ll see how far i get.

thursday, dec. 27

it’s always reassuring to know there are weirdos everywhere, no matter where you are in the united states. as i walked up the ramp into the terminal at o’hare i saw the biggest weirdo ever. first: the guy was wearing a cape. a long black cape with a purple lining, fastened across his chest. not a coat, not even a cloak. this was definitely a cape. second: the guy had a gross pony tail, a gross goatee, and was very, umm… well, ugly. third (and best by far): the guy, standing against a pillar in an airport terminal, was wearing headphones and playing air violin. and not in a fun, whimsical fashion as if it were a joke. he was intently and very seriously playing air violin as if he were practicing for an upcoming performance or something. i about laughed my head off, except that i was scared of what a weirdo like that could do to me.

then i hung out with my man dominic at his place. we went to johnny’s for the best beef sandwiches on earth (as voted by numerous chicago publishers, apparently) which were goddamn tasty. and we had some portillo’s for dinner too. mmm. later that night we just hung out at one of his friend’s places with his high school crew, which was fun. they’re great kids and fun, and it made me jealous that all his old friends still all live in the same town (none having moved to, say, houston, texas) because i never get the luxury of just sitting around with a ring of old buddies and just laughing and having a good time. or at least, almost never (see new year’s eve, coming soon).

so that was day one of the adventure, more to come soon…

sneaky sneaky, i’m back on the computers again. i just can’t seem to stay away.

i’m not going to divulge anything yet, until i can sit down long enough to write a proper story. but last night was outstanding and hey, happy new year.

hope your 2001 was as good as mine (or better).

hey everybody…

sorry i haven’t been around lately–i’m visiting friends like crazy all over the chicagoland area and haven’t been on a computer since i flew in here on the 27th. but i’m having a great time and i’ll be home to resume regular blathering on the 3rd, so hang in there.

and happy new years. hope you’re having as good a time as i have been this week, and as thrilled to be around a whole bunch of people you really love, just like i am.

see you in 2002.

hey, it’s christmas day!

now, i wouldn’t say my only interest in christmas is the material side. i was thinking a few days ago, there’s nothing i feel greedily about, as in “i sure hope i get this, or that.” really i was just hoping to have a nice time. but i have to say, it’s kind of cool to look at my little pile of new dvd’s and other booty and be glad that my family is so generous to me. new stuff is cool even if you weren’t aching for it in the first place.

however, there are other cool things too, like not sitting at a computer on christmas, and reading books, and most importantly and immediately–homemade pie. so i hope your day was joyous and such; mine was quite nice, thank you.

it’s christmas eve, and a thorough search of tv guide turned up no sings of how the grinch stole christmas this evening. i ask you, what has become of this world. jimmy stewart will have to provide all the christmas magic on his own. if i were a girl, i’d be in love with him too.

i really love reading this, even though i talk to her all the time. i don’t know quite what it is. she’s clever and funny written just like in person, i guess.

i was very pleased to see over at slatch, on the winter mix, two bands i really love getting some appreciation. it seems to me that neither the stereo nor the flaming lips get much ink from anyone in indie rock land, and i always wonder about that but figure it’s just my problem. maybe i was wrong.

back to christmas now…there is no snow anywhere in houston, in case you were wondering. it’s not really a matter of whether or not we’ll have a white christmas here. it’s more a concern of whether or not it’ll be cold enough to even need the furnace or wear a long sleeved shirt. i’m off to illinois thursday morning though, so maybe i’ll get a nice dose of cold to make me appreciate living in southern california through the harsh months of january and february.

i think i might run over to the bookstore today because i have nothing else to do and i’m reading my last unread book; and i like to always have one or two on deck (i.e. sitting on my bookshelf), staring at me, pushing me to keep reading. i’ve also got christmas cookies i should be eating so merry christmas everyone, and to all a good night. see you tomorrow.

now that i’ve finished reading oscar wilde, i’ve moved onto a book called atheism: the case against god by george h. smith. i’ve known for years i don’t believe in anything “up there”, but i never actually read a book about it, and it seemed like a good idea.

i’m only about 30 pages in so far so i can’t really say much, but it starts off pretty well i think by talking about the “burden of proof”. this is regarding how if you tell someone you don’t believe in god (or actually it turns out with a lot of people being something you have to “admit” to, as if it were a dirty secret), you are asked “why not?” 9 times out of 10. the writer here makes a fun comparison and says that if you believed in something someone else didn’t, for example little magic elves, it would not be up to everyone else to prove to you why they don’t believe in magic little elves, but up to the believer to provide any reasonable (i.e. grounded in reason) argument as to why anyone should believe in magic little elves.

now obviously i understand the first argument most theists would make, and the first one i thought of: that god is outside of reason, which is an age-old argument i realize is always going to be there. it does sort of make the whole thing a moot point though if you take that defense; okay, so he’s outside of reason. i guess we can’t debate his existence then.

i just thought it was really funny–although still valid–that someone compared god to leprechauns in a scholarly essay.

bam, that’s four trips to the theatre in less than a week. tonight was harry potter (with my little sister, so that makes it okay, right?). yes, i’ve read the book (not the books, plural, just that one so far. it was a gift from someone i really love, and i feel no compulsion to buy the rest for myself), and i liked it, and now i’ve seen the movie, and i have to say i liked it too. it wasn’t a spectacle, it was just a cool movie. i’d let my kids be into harry potter if i had any. i wouldn’t buy them owls though–have you heard about that? kids wanting owls for christmas and some people trying to actually get them, because of harry potter? i think i saw a sound byte for the news one night doing a story about this phenomenon, and there was an owl expert or something saying, “they’re not pets. they’re killing machines.” and i remember laughing quite heartily at that.

these homemade chocolate chip cookies, however, are nothing to laugh at. damn, my mom knows what she’s doing with these things. mmmm, christmassy delicious.

so since i’ve seen four movies this week, i will try to differentiate amongst them. i realize my review for all of them has been “pretty good”, and that’s true. but that doesn’t say as much as it could. and since i have nothing else to talk about, i’ll keep talking about this.

movie i’d most like to see again–ocean’s 11. it was funny and entertaining and as hip a movie as i’ve seen in a while. it was just damn smooth.

movie i’d most like to see again with a girl–vanilla sky. i know it’s not that romantic, but the love story at the center of all the craziness is really sweet, and it’s long enough to allow some making out during the slow parts. heh heh heh.

movie i’d have to be in the right mood to watch again–lord of the rings. you know there are great movies out there, movies that really get you every time because they’re so great. but they’re also so large in scope and therefore such an undertaking to watch (this can mean long, and does with LOTR, but doesn’t have to) that you can only watch them sometimes, even if you’re pretty guaranteed to love them when you do find yourself in the right mood to sit down for a viewing. examples are the godfather, braveheart, pulp fiction–movies you can’t deny are great but couldn’t just watch any old time. this is one of those i think.

movie i’d pretend i wasn’t watching if little kids were watching it and i happened to be in the same room–of course, you wouldn’t go out of your way to see harry potter, because you’re grown up. but it could be worse.

but now that i’ve seen everything there is to see i’m out of luck and will have to find something else to get me out of the house for a few hours now and then. ho-hum.

i did find something to do yesterday, and that was seeing lord of the rings. my review would be something along the lines of “i can see why this film has been so long in coming, because between scenery, effects, and even the depictions of the different races, the visual quality in lord of the rings is remarkable. this is helpful in making the audience able to sit through a three hour film that admittedly can be slow in a few places, but by the end had me very excited and moved. i wouldn’t blame you for not loving this movie if you’re not a fan of fantasy, but personally i really enjoyed it.”

and i finished oscar wilde’s plays last night. you know that line in willy wonka where he says, “this suspense is terrible. i hope it lasts…”? well that line is also in the importance of being earnest. that can’t be a coincidence. oh, i loved the plays, too, if you were wondering.

now i must again find a way to fill my day, so if you’ll please excuse me, i’m off.