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what happened to our fun loving friends? both friday and saturday we were up for at least a little kind of fun and couldn’t for the life of us wrangle a party crew. even a little poker or trivia group would have done the trick, but nope. i hope they weren’t all having a blast without us. we may be engaged and settled, but i don’t think we’re dead weight yet, are we? god, i hope not.

maybe it’s just that people are slowly trickling out of town even still. we did end up getting some delicious sushi & kushi imai, which i’d never been to and turned out to be excellent. definitely going back. and we went with jessica’s old roommate jordan, who is the next on the list to move away (to dallas!? poor guy…). we’re going to make it up next weekend though, i swear. july 4th birthday barbeque and fireworks, and hopefully more with the extended holiday time.

we also started our very preliminary only hypothetical apartment browsing, not because we want to move, but because we want to pay less. the plan is to just have some competing offers for negotiating power, but hey, maybe we’ll see a place that’s not too bad, get shut down in the bargaining process with our current managers, and end up moving again. if nothing else, it’ll give us a good reason to have a party.

lastly, i am in love with the cd hometowns by the rural alberta advantage, and so here is a track to sample. we also discussed the album on a recent podcast. in other under culture updates, if you missed the LA film fest, i reviewed the two great movies we saw, in the loop and humpday, and spencer just today posted a write-up on some great ‘summer jams’ to take the place of an actual honest-to-god summer jam, of which, he contends, there are none this year.

this blog isn’t going to do much good as a diary of my life if i never post here. damn you twitter, with your short, too-easy updates. quick look back:

never made it camping, because it was raining and we got a flat tire on the way up the mountain. boy, was that fun. apparently it was beautiful once you got closer to the top, but we never got that far. anyone need some fire wood? or want to go make-up camping soon?

last weekend we went to two LA film fest screenings which were both great, and i wrote reviews over here if you’re interested. go check out both, and support funny movies that aren’t stupid so we don’t have to put up with a whole bunch of year ones and dance flicks. also, moon and away we go were really good. in fact, i’m on a crazy good streak of movies right now. luckily, i’m skipping transformers and holding out for public enemies.

busy at work but in a sort of in-between phase on the big projects where it seems everyone is trying to figure out exactly what we should be doing, not actually doing a lot. it’s a necessary part of the process but harder to see progress happening, or feel like you’ve accomplished anything. all i know is it’s been a long week and i’m looking forward to some weekend action now, and even more to the long holiday and vacation shortly after.

i’ve said it a thousand times but i think i’m going to try getting back in the habit of at least a couple paragraphs every couple days, because as fun as twitter is it’s easy to get lazy and use only that. at least i have the excuse of another website i’m putting a lot of energy into (subscribe to the podcast! comment on some articles! let me know we’re not wasting our time on that stuff, i’m so needy… okay not really).

also: celebrities that didn’t matter to me are dying and seeing people on tv having vigils or other nonsense seems really bizarre and misplaced. i just finished a david foster wallace book, and he’s been gone for a while, but that made me much more sad because after reading the book, at least i thought, ‘wow, this is a talent that probably had a lot more to offer, and it’s gone’. i’m pretty sure michael jackson had long ago contributed about all he was going to. i guess it’s sad when people die but not tragic like he was stolen from us.

good week. and by good, i basically mean we stayed home every night burning through my box set of six feet under and i was totally fine with that. halfway through the series, it starts getting to the point where you know the characters so well, all the upheavals matter so much you have to keep watching to make sure everyone comes out okay. poor fisher family, nothing ever stays good for very long with them.

we ended up choosing up in 3d last weekend for movie night, and that was not a mistake. those pixar cats always do it right. don’t know if the 3d makes it a better experience, frankly, because there’s a weird discoloring effect with the glasses that to me isn’t outweighed by the depth of field effects. pixar movies are already gorgeous, i don’t really need those ‘oooo, those balloons are moving toward me’ feeling to enhance the movie.

tomorrow we go camping somewhere new that i’ve never been. i don’t even know how to get there yet. someone else planned it, and i’m just going along for the adventure. cross your fingers i don’t fall in a crevice or get attacked by mountain lions.

but first, coworkers decided it’d be fun to skip out early this afternoon and go see the hangover. not bad! checking this stuff off the list left and right. too bad i’m not going to vegas tomorrow though instead of camping. there will probably be far fewer opportunities in the forest to repeat choice lines from the film. oh well, at least if i bring enough beer, the hangover part is reproducible.

man, summer is here in so many ways except for the part where it feels summery. damn you, june gloom.

but in other ways, it’s totally here. there are big cool movies coming out every weekend this month i almost have no hope of keeping up with. i want to see up AND drag me to hell, and the hangover and away we go are both coming out this weekend. how can i possibly cover off on all these? time to start deciding which can wait for netflix-land.

people are having parties and barbeques left and right. we went to a party every day over memorial day weekend and i could barely survive the continuous flow of beer and good times. having that much fun is exhausting.

and every band in the world is on tour, too. i’ve been to 3.5 concerts in about two weeks’ time. decemberists were great, thermals were really good, animal collective were… well, about what you’d think. passion pit are pretty good at convincing you they are a fun band, even if i’m not full-on crazy about the album. it’s good, but not incredible.

and, sadly, we’re in the annual video game desert. if not for infamous on ps3 fortunately coming out, there’d be almost nothing for me to play right now. luckily, i have books and dvds for this time of year.

the most interesting thing out of all the fun though was a female arm wrestling tournament we went to last sunday. something i would normally say, ‘eh, no thanks,’ except that somehow miraculously five or six of our friends decided to participate. and let me tell you, as soon as the first match started, it was riveting. we didn’t even know half the people, having been invited through a friend (thank you, byron), but every match, it was impossible to look away. even more when people i knew were battling out, a few of which went on for several minutes during which neither seemed willing to concede. i was clenching my own stomach and arm muscles without even realizing it. who knew?

and i was especially proud of jessica, who may have been mismatched in her first bout, being the smaller, cuter of the participants, but when paired with amanda, used her iron will to win probably the longest-drawn-out match of the day. that girl is fierce!

well, we had ourselves a weekend alright. parents came in thursday night and it was pretty much continuous activity until i dropped them off monday morning. father’s office thursday for a dinner of the best burgers ever was a good start to things. friday we drove up to wine country, found our hotel and some mexican food, then drank the afternoon away one sample at a time. i think it’s safe to say my mom was a little giggly by the end. decent steak dinner at the hitching post in buellton, then a few games of pool that i completely lost to my dad, three in a row. shameful. after all the beverages though, it ended up being an early night.

the rest of the weekend back in LA was fairly low key, but still good times. saturday was an excellent food day with zankou chicken for lunch and cube for dinner, which are both amazing, obviously. in the afternoon we strolled around the neighborhood (melrose, the grove, etc), and we stretched out dinner with an extra bottle of wine and basically called it a night. when you start at 5 it’s a little tougher to make it past midnight.

then sunday, brunch at toast, watching some sports on tv, and a nice afternoon BBQ. sadly lots of people had other plans, but even with a small crowd it was nice to have a family-style afternoon with parents and friends intermingling. considering they’ve only been out here once at graduation, it was long overdue and good to see that everyone got along. also, we cooked both beer-boiled bratwurst AND carne asada, so by the end of the day i was too stuffed to move. soooo good.

overall it went great. they had fun, we had fun, and i think we represented LA pretty well. if only i had another day or two to do nothing, but hey, that’s why it’s wonderful that memorial day is coming up this weekend. summer has arrived and the good life is here.

well, here’s what happens when you leave town for a couple days on a work trip. sure, you get a lot of reading done on the plane. maybe have a couple beers with a cool coworker and get some face time with clients. all well and good. but you also miss the annual beer pong tournament that you started five years ago. sad, right? and not only do you miss it, but your girlfriend and teammate of many years has to go and WIN the WHOLE THING without you, proving that in at least this one aspect of your relationship, you are the anchor that is weighing her down. haha.

kidding of course. i think we’ve established that we’re both better when we’re not teammates, probably because all that lovey dovey nonsense gets in the way of serious competition. and i just kind of suck generally; i’ve had to accept that.

other news in the last few weeks? we did another podcast over here, talking about star trek, free comic book day, etc. that was fun even if we got a little rambly and it meant going back to do an awful lot of editing to make it into a decent show. of course, when i say ‘awful lot of editing’ i don’t really mean i chopped it all to hell. half of the problem is the slightly-too-basic nature of apple’s garageband making it sort of a pain to do even run of the mill stuff.

biggest is that my parents are flying in to LA tonight for a long weekend of what i hope will be lots of fun. heading out to wine country tomorrow, then back in town for the weekend, so i hope i come up with suitable things for us all to do. my main struggle is figuring out which awesome restaurants to go to in a limited time window, but then of course i suppose there will be hours during which we aren’t eating that i’ll have to figure out as well. maybe my parents will be useful additions to a trivia team?

i’ve talked about this before, a sort of tension between having a comfortable routine that is pleasant in every way and keeps me content, but at the same time lacks a certain challenge or eventfulness. same old same old. not a bad thing, except when you’re looking for something to blog about worth reading.

of course, that general feeling then leads to things like last weekend, where a multi-person birthday party seemed like a great chance to have a bunch of drinks and do some silly things. but in my excitement, i pour a little too heavily and knock them back a little to quickly. not normally a problem except when you’ve barely eaten that day and end up incapacitated just as things are getting into full swing and going home pre-dance-party. even pre-birthday cake. the photos made it seem like i missed the better half of a fully great night. way to go, mr. greedy for novel experiences!

really the most interesting things lately have been related to the other site. we recorded a podcast, if you didn’t hear, which was lots of fun and i think falls safely into the ‘new challenges’ category. (for the parents: a podcast is like a digital radio show people download and listen to on their ipods — we’re even listed in the itunes store now!). setting it up, editing, recording, and distributing were their own obstacles, but actually having an hour-long insightful and entertaining conversation about pop culture is not easy. even though it’s me and spencer in a room with a computer, the thought that someone (well, one would hope) is going to listen still brings at least a little bit of that live radio nervousness. listening through while editing brings the verbal ticks and insecure stutters into sharp focus when it’s your own voice, and you can see your awkward pauses right there on the screen in waveform. i have to say though, it was a lot of fun and i almost immediately couldn’t wait to do another one. it’s good to have something you want to be better at.

so of course, in an effort to have fodder for the next one, i’ve been reading and listening to music and watching tv shows like crazy. also, i wrote another big piece on friday night lights if you’re at all interested. essentially, my interesting stories are mental exercises, not life experiences, because bodily i’m doing a lot of the same things but in the off hours in my apartment at least my brain can go new places.

speaking of which, i am nuts about this new japandroids cd that just came out. two dudes making a rock and roll ruckus, a little reminiscent of my old favorites braid but not exactly the same. not as intricate lyrically but still very energetic. heart sweats is a good example. man, those drums. it’s like, whoa.

we did it, we went to vegas for madilyne and kyle’s wedding and made it back in one exhausted, slightly bloated and less cash-rich piece.

the wedding part was lovely. saw some high school characters who are always a good time, the ceremony was small but cute and plenty of fun, and the only problem was us running out of energy before the agenda of good times was up. jessica turned in a bit early and i stayed but might as well have left, because after several hours of open bar, the after party for me was more the ‘can i hang in there until at least the bride and groom decide to go home’? well, i did, so at least that way i can say i was there to see them off.

the next day we lounged by the pool for a while and hit the tables without much success. this trip i really mixed it up: i lost money at roulette, black jack, poker AND craps. i think a trip or two in college during which i actually won permanently affected my sound judgment when it comes to games of chance, and the last several years have combined to try to teach me the reality. quite effectively, if i look at it rationally, but of course, gambling is exciting so i continue despite better judgment. i think the new motto should be, ‘you’ll only win if you get a really lucky streak,’ so next time the method is going to be to play a little bit at a lot of tables and if there’s no luck, just move the hell on. even the couple times i did get up significantly, i thought maybe i could just keep going and ended up losing my winnings and then some. pooooooor game plan, friends. but hey, at least the flights were free and the hotel was discounted, so what can you do. still love ya, vegas.

coming soon: a big birthday party this weekend and the following weekend, the annual beer pong tournament! crap, that’s getting close, i’d better get that invite out soon or no one’s going to show up.

i really do wish i had more to post about on this, the blog about me, instead of always writing about video games and movies over on another site. you’ll always be my first and greatest love, good old blog.

unfortunately, my life just hasn’t been that interesting lately, or if it has, it’s been in ways that don’t require writing about here because interesting work projects are not really the domain of this site or probably interesting to anyone who isn’t in advertising. maybe i’ll do something wacky this weekend just so i have a good story to write up here. like read a book or play some burnout paradise! wait, that’s what i’ve been doing instead of living a story-worthy spring.

since i’m not really that cool in this post, how about a funny and bizarre video gabe found a long time ago when he typed ‘brian gets cool’ into google for some reason. man, now this brian, HE probably has lots of great stuff to blog about.

so this weekend, there is a beer festival here in LA. it’s called the LA beer festival. for a pre-determined fee you get a souveneir sample-size stein and all the beer you want in the three hour span. there are a slew of small breweries present to sample, and if there’s one thing i love to put in my mouth, it’s craft brews. it’s as if someone organized the perfect way to spend a saturday and invited me to come. how could you not want to go to this?

and yet after putting the word out to all my friends, i have almost no takers. not because it’s not a cool idea, but because either a)they have other obligations at that time, or b)other food-and-drink based plans over the rest of the weekend, making another epicurean event possibly too much.

i can understand, a friend of ours had already planned a hot-wings crawl, and that does sound great. another is having a barbeque all sunday afternoon. but this is a BEER FESTIVAL. a glorious celebration of my favorite bevarage, and in abundance. when did my social circle become so structured and aware of quote-unquote ‘proper life balance’ that almost no one is interested in a MASSIVE BEER PARTY?

i can’t say i’m not a little disappointed here, team. only one ‘yes’ so far, but a beer festival is not something you go on a man-date for. you need a team of revelers here, people.

maybe as a protest to draw attention to peoples’ skewed priorities, i will attend solo, on both saturday and sunday, shirking all other social obligations in a sort of beer-in, civil inebriation sort of way. that’ll teach ’em.