Category: Uncategorized

busy! still at work at almost 10 on a tuesday, so i won’t be able to give you too much juicy brian goodness today.

saturday on the way to a barbeque for our friend michael’s birthday, i finally saw one of those R2D2 mailboxes, all the way down in huntington beach. i figured they be all over the high traffic streets of los angeles, not in the strip-mall filled stretches of brookhurst avenue off the 22 freeway. maybe they’re worried about the city ones getting all vandalised up? what i really wonder is if any super-fans have gone so far as to try to steal one. i’d love to see a big sweaty nerd scurrying home trying to score his own artoo. ha!

in case you were wondering, the barbeque in question was also totally great, tasty burgers, many margaritas, and awesome orange county-dwelling friends who we don’t get to see often enough.

sunday, and last night as well, we began the dreaded task of apartment hunting, in which i sadly have no real news to report other than you probably shouldn’t start apartment hunting on sundays. i guess building managers think they have better things to do on the lord’s day than traffic in potential housing for youngsters like us, but hey, that’s their call.

lastly, oh man do i ever have a pay day song for friday, which you can and maybe have already heard elsewhere, but it’s so good i’ll be making extra sure.

speaking of death…

a long way down – nick hornby – 3 stars

i’m a hornby fan. i think the guy gets it. high fidelity remains probably tied for my favorite movie ever (star wars trilogy, duh). both that and about a boy are among the best books i’ve read in the past ten years. this one, i have to say, was totally solid, even if not his best work.

the problem was, it seemed almost too casual about itself, like it was trying too hard to be a good book perfect for translating into a decent movie. like light reading that was a little too light — i mean i breezed through it in less than a week, which for me is nuts. at the same time though, that can partly be attributed to the fact that it was a really good read: relatable, interesting, and funny for a book about 4 people who meet when they all consider jumping off the same building on new year’s eve. so maybe i’m being biased against pop-lit by saying ‘easy books aren’t great literature’. but then again, without that, i wouldn’t be the kind of person who inflicts don quixote on himself either, so there’s no turning back now is there.

but also speaking of the miracle of life…

knocked up – 4 stars

i’m a big fan of the whole crew surrounding judd apatow, freaks & geeks, 40 year-old virgin, etc., so i was willing to give a romantic comedy by these guys a chance, even though i almost never subject myself to the genre willingly.

lucky for me this was a whole lot comedy and only a little bit romance, and a really surprisingly hilarious one. it eschewed a lot of the trite parts where people have difficulties, overcome them, realize that love overcomes all, blah blah blah, and sticks with how absurd relationships, families, marriages, kids, and general life is when people try too hard to live them by the book.

this was helped in huge part by the main character’s housemates, a gang of dudes that sit around drinking, smoking, and talking shit pretty much all the time, making for a lot of the best scenes of the movie, as well as the moments that make almost any guy who lived with his buddies in college go, ‘oh my god, yes, these are my people’.

plus, the sharp transitions between that sort of slacker-immaturity and the daunting task of parenthood or marriage were a perfect illustration of how i think a lot of people around my (our?) age are approaching adulthood. in a generation of people who don’t feel like they should ever have to become ‘grown-ups’, the fact that huge life events kind of sneak up on you and all you can do is go ‘holy shit, this is crazy, but what the hell, let’s do it,’ comes across perfectly. and in the end, like in the movie, you realize you had it in you all along, and you don’t really have to give up who you are to come out okay.

not to get all deep on you or anything; i mean there are lots of sex jokes, and drug jokes, and a surprising amount of high quality beard jokes. it’s hilarious even if it seems a little longer than it needs to be. the supporting cast is awesome, seth rogan and paul rudd are amazing as usual, and it’s definitely worth seeing even if you don’t think about life at all and just laugh all the way through, which is easy to do too.

it occurred to me that i have a few friends, the kind of friends you only see or hear from a few times a year, who haven’t updated their blogs in over 6 months. and as morbid as it sounds, the thought has entered my mind that it’s not 100% impossible that they died, and no one thought to notify me.

it’s not that depressing, because i’m 99% sure that in fact they are not dead. if anything, it makes me chuckle at how dependent i am on the regular updates regarding things i care about that are so easily available in the internet age. so for you rare web writers, get back on the ball would you? let me know how not dead you are!

spent a lot of time on airplanes in the past week, which allowed me to finish another book already, and also saw a great movie this weekend. i’m gonna hold off on the reviews until tomorrow though. those can wait another day, when i’m even more behind on posting a pay day song as usual.

well i’m sorry, but i hadn’t quite been able to give the new dinosaur jr album the real in-depth listen i thought it deserved before deciding if i really liked it, or just plain liked it, at which point i was going to post a song. truth is, i still haven’t had the chance to listen to it the way it needs to be listened to, but i do know this: whenever the rhythm-change part in we’re not alone happens, half-way through the song when it gets a little twangier right before the soloing kicks in, i get a big old grin. try it out yourself!

you know what i don’t love? but i guess i wouldn’t go so far as to say i actively hate. so do you know what i mildly dislike? interviewing people. it should make you feel all important and finally definitively in the judging chair and not the being judged chair, but more often than not i just feel out of place. nothing against the people i end up having to interview either; even if they’re not perfect for the job, they’ve all been really nice, and in most cases totally qualified in a lot of ways. maybe it’s a reflection of my own insecurities as i transition from ‘guy just out of college’ to actual young professional (who may even know what he’s talking about).

you know what i also didn’t love?…

jonathan strange & mr. norrell – susanna clarke – 3 stars

one of those books that’s not bad enough to say, ‘god, i should just hurry and get this over with’, nor good enough to say, ‘god, i can’t stop reading this!’, i’ve been leisurely plodding my way through this book for over a month, and finally realized it was time to stop being so casual and put the fingers/pedal to the pages/metal. a perfect undertaking for a long weekend.

well, my final verdict has been that all in all the book was charming in its very dry, very proper, very old-time british way; but also a bit tiresome in its very slowly paced, very long-winded, very old-time british way. the book is fairly enjoyable, but would have been better had it been told in 500 instead of 800 pages. it made me wonder what it was that made someone recommend it to me those months or years ago, and as i drew to the end i never quite found it.

perhaps if you were especially fond of early 19th century england, magic, fairy beings, high society, or especially the combination thereof, you’d be delighted by a book like this. i, however, was merely distracted, and for a fair bit longer than i would have liked, making it tough to outright recommend.

no, i’m not going back on what i said i’d do just last week with the posting frequency, i’ve just been enjoying a little extra weekend than everyone else, and so haven’t been at a computer really. the three-day one was so full of activity i figured i’d take a couple days on top of that to have my own private time, which is working out great – clearing off some of the dvd shelf and wrapping up the book i’ve been reading for far too long. i even did housework. eww.

this after a cubs/dodgers game, SF road trip, and barbeque filled regular weekend. it was all fun and friends and good times, but to get honest, there aren’t any great stories to come out of it. no one got crazy or did anything dumb or extra funny, we just had drinks and cracked jokes and talked and had plain old fun that doesn’t make good anecdotes. makes me wonder, since we drove up to SF for dom’s 26th birthday, is this going to be the year where the ‘wild’ goes out of our parties? are we done doing stupid thing or getting so drunk someone pukes off a balcony or passes out so badly we can roll them off of furniture onto the floor without waking them? and is that to be mourned or celebrated? i’m sure the case could be made that maybe the stories aren’t worth the messes and/or bruises.

*nerd post warning*

i’m stressing out today because we’re heading into a long weekend, a weekend where i’m taking extra days off just to have some relaxing fun, and i don’t have any video games to play. well, ones that i haven’t already finished, anyway.

with the summer being the traditional ‘drought period’ in video games, there’s really nothing new i’m dying to pick up, either. what do i do? settle for something just okay? dig up an old classic i missed? but then when you start going down that path there are almost too many choices.

grrr, what a weird and unnecessary problem to have. any nerds with a tip on how to remedy the soft months between now and late august (BIOSHOCK!), or willing to help me pass the time with some multiplayer gears of war or rainbow six, feel free to drop a comment. maybe i’ll suck it up and pick up god of war II for the old playstation on the way home from work.

i heard on the radio this morning on the way to work, ‘today on morning becomes eclectic, the bravery do an in-studio performance in the 11 o’clock hour,’ and my immediate reaction was, ‘ha, nice try guys. you only get to work up from being unknowns once and you blew it.’

poor bravery.

also, in the ‘my adult life is still like high school in a lot of ways’ department, our office had its annual basketball game against the rival agency down the street, complete with drumline, dance squad, pep rally at lunch, and signs saying that we rule, and our opponents, in fact, had problems controlling their salivation. sure, it was a good time (how can a kegger at 4pm at the office not be?), and i’m glad our team won by more than twenty points. i even, i won’t lie, clapped and cheered. but it does make one consider where exactly the line between fun/silly and bizarre/immature lies.

now i will go home to watch some batman the animated series and play video games, and consider this question at length.

i read an article a while back — in wired perhaps? they do have some of the most interesting stuff in print — about how netflix is using the clout they’ve built over the years to buy up struggling film festival properties and distribute them to their millions of subscribers, which not only sets them apart from other dvd-by-mail services, but also helps out blossoming film makers. i thought, ‘wow, that kicks ass. i love netflix even more now. i should check out some of these little indie gems.’

well last night i got one called the puffy chair, and had mixed feelings. it was decent, but it felt a lot like a first film. a little uneven, but with some great moments. my favorite was a line where the main character is on the porch with his dad, telling him how his girlfriend (who was so needy and annoying) is looking for some sort of affirmation of their relationship. the dad says to him, and i’m paraphrasing, ‘well son, you’re never gonna know any better than you do right now. if you’re waiting for some revelation or disaster to help you decide if she’s the one, it’s not gonna come…’

i thought that moment was probably the best part. the idea that there are no absolutes, no sure things, no romantic moments of clarity unless you make them happen yourself, for better or worse. maybe it’s un-romantic in the film sense to not believe in those magical points in time where zach braff decides he loves natalie portman or whatever — and don’t get me wrong, i love watching those movies as much as the next sensitive emo dude. but i’ve always thought it’s much more romantic in a real-life sense to accept the fact that maybe there are lots of people out there who could be ‘the one’ for you, and in the end you still have to choose that one person that feels right and commit to being happy together.

of course in the next scene they break up, which after the first five minutes you know is going to happen, so maybe it’s not the best example. what can you do? okay movie, really interesting thought.

good weekend full of peculiar situations. sunday we found ourselves surrounded by senior citizens as we went to watch josh perform as part of his barbershop quartet club, also comprised almost entirely of gentleman over 50, it seems. then with our good ol’ college buddy right there singing along with them. jessica remarked, quite accurately, that ‘i don’t think i’ve ever been around this many old people in my life’. and yet, josh fared well and it was almost a strange enough site to be worth the price of admission. mostly i’m glad i didn’t follow my instinct to duck out early and miss his spotlight moment in the last song, despite having realized that 2 and a half hours of old guys singing (in quartets or otherwise) may not be entirely up my alley.

saturday was: i spent it playing video games and then drinking at a whisky bar for sarah’s birthday with friends. strange again, because the whisky drinks i tasted were actually not so great — should have gone on the rocks instead of mixed — and people i didn’t know kept taking our picture for some reason. my guess: obvious hotness?

friday we saw paris je t’aime, which if you do not know, is 18 very short films about love in paris all by different directors, with a large cast of well-known actors. the trailer makes it look better than it is, but it was good. the most fun was discussing afterward who liked which shorts, and why. i realized later how odd it was that the coen brothers’ piece, which was pretty good, could have easily been a silent movie, as the main character played by steve buscemi doesn’t say a single word. what an odd choice that a pair whose works have some of my favorite dialogue in all of film would go that route, but ah, paris is a mysterious place.

so anyway, i have a new idea to try out, where i write either right before i start or right after i finish work every day, in order to keep things from going stale around here. you know it’s gotten bad when your mother, who if not for you might not know what the word blog even means, scolds you for not blogging enough. maybe if it sticks i can escape this rut of a single weekly post where i tell you how much fun i had the weekend prior, and return to having opinions and telling jokes and sharing interesting things occasionally. cross those fingers.