two.points.collapsing

so there’s been a big streak of good news lately that i’ve kept more or less quiet about until things were more cemented, but i think it’s all set by now and i can lift the embargo.

one, jessica and i are going to tokyo, japan for a vacation in the fall. that’s right, i said TOKYO. it’s so far and so foreign, i am nervously excited even though the trip is more than half a year away. and the thought of more vacations with my wonderful girl is always a good one.

also, i’ve recently been promoted. more good news, very unexpected, and also very exciting. luckily i really love my job, and it helps to know that apparently i am doing okay at it as well. not only did i shed the ‘junior’ that preceded my title formerly, finally leaving all diminutive prefixes behind after almost four years as a professional, but i also anticipate hitting a milestone mark with the accompanying raise that will go a loooooong way toward retiring my lingering debts. all in all, a great development so early in the year.

and of course the new ping pong table on our roof doesn’t hurt. and it’s getting to be spring not winter. and i took over temporary possession of a full-sized weber grill from stacy, who was holding it for our friend zach who moved away, and who was moving herself to an apartment without a yard. it’s almost too much good news to handle.

it’s easier, though, with drinks in hand, so the work crew headed out last night to celebrate. see, i wasn’t the only one who got a promotion, so the whole group had some celebrating to do. fun times at the cozy inn that lasted many more hours and several more beers than i thought it would, the only drawback being that i stayed out too late to meet up with jessica afterward. well, and the somewhat cloudy state of my brain this morning. it’s great having such a fun team of people to work with though, those are the nights that confirm why i love this place.

so as not to end on a sappy note like that though, and instead on a nerdy one much more in line with the overall tone of this blog, i have to gush briefly about a new game i downloaded to my xbox called alien hominid. if you’ve ever played the classic game contra on NES back in the day, it’s like that only in HD, with hand-drawn 2D animation that looks way cooler, it’s way more funny, much harder, and more fun to play. it’s crazy hard just to beat a level but luckily once you clear one you can start fresh from the next one anytime. and to top it all off, you get to play as this cute little guy and blast things with laser guns and chomp people’s heads off. very much recommended if you’ve got the 360 and ten spare bucks; it’s so addicting i even fired it up to play a bit last night after getting home as late as i did.

sure i meant to do this in january, but oscar-time is as good a time as any to look back at best films from last year, right? i was glad to see the departed win so many awards, especially scorsese. of course, i couldn’t bring myself to actually watch the degeneres-hosted broadcast because of my total hatred of her as a comedian, but the news was mostly good news once i checked the results. anyway, here are my favorites…

	movies i enjoyed most in 2006
as usual, there are a few big ones i missed, like babel and some of the more indie and/or girly ones like the queen or little children. some i caught late (i even had to include one i saw in january of ’07 because looking back, i saw so few great movies last year), and some i saw and loved but for all their greatness weren’t on the same level as the ones here — like inconvenient truth. children of men in particular, which i just finally saw this week, was an outstanding-looking and intense movie, but just doesn’t seem like something i’d be drawn to time after time. that’s what i really look for in a favorite: just like a good album, i keep wanting to come back to it over and over.
	#7: casino royale
after having no interest whatsoever in the last few brosnan bond movies, the promise of a darker, formative version of the bond character was a big one after watching all those connery movies on tbs with my dad as a kid, and boy did they not disappoint. this was like a grown-up’s bond movie without losing what made it fun, and made me believe in the franchise again.
	#6: the prestige
a lot of people weren’t as excited about this as i was, but i love the fact that it took me and jessica a whole car ride home and then some to finish arguing over exactly how much we perceived wrongly as we watched, or which characters knew what at what time in the film after the ‘twist ending’. i know lots of people are weary of those after the past few years of movies, but this one went so deep that for me you can never really know what exactly you might have seen, and that makes it a more meaningful film and not just a cheap trick. you know, like good magic (see how i did that right there?). plus, hugh jackman and christian bale are a couple of the best male actors around and they both owned this film.
	#5: pan’s labyrinth
kind of cheating here since i saw this in january, but since it won some oscars this weekend i’ll include it under a technicality. actually less bizarre than i was expecting, but much more emotionally powerful. i just wanted to hug that little girl so many times, she was so cute and still so brave in the face of such terrible circumstances. great ending as well. plus: foreign language picks get me culture-points!
	#4: thank you for smoking
i think the title and subject made this destined to only ever be a mild success, but all in all it was a really quick-witted and enjoyable comedy much more than it was any sort of political or cultural statement. aaron eckhart almost always kicks ass too. (tangent: and did you hear he’s probably playing harvey dent (the nascent two-face) in the next batman? HOLY SHIT, christian bale and aaron eckhart together are going to put that at my number one for ’08 for sure).
	#3: v for vendetta
take an alan moore comic and actually translate it decently to film and you’ve already won my heart. keep the verbose language and you might confuse some, but surely delight yours truly. throw in some natalie portman, some explosions, swordfigting, and political intrigue and jesus, either you’re trying to seduce me or you just got a damn smart and satisfying action movie.
	#2: brick
noir dialogue mixed with high school drama? sign me up. doesn’t hurt when it looks this good either. maybe i have a weakness for any mystery where the characters talk so fast you can barely keep up, but this earned major points for sheer creativity then totally delivered a solid, well-acted story for the win.
	#1: the departed
umm, obvious much? i won’t even go into it but this one has classic written all over it. i mostly just want to see it again so i can start guessing which lines will go down in quotable movie history, since a film this epic and exciting and gut-wrenching can’t help but beat out just about anything else in the last several years, let alone the generally weak 2006.
honorable mentions…
&nbsp	best netflix movies i rented this year:
i also saw 51 netflix movies last year on dvd (more if you count each disc of a TV series separately), which is a decent average of at least one a week. lots of great stuff, in fact i rarely rent something i don’t like at all, which is a testament to the netflix system and the friends i get recommendations from. these are the ones i absolutely loved and recommend with the most enthusiasm: freaks & geeks: probably second only to my so-called life as best and most accurate drama depicting life as a high school kid. deadwood: so glad i finally caught up on this, the dialogue is spectacular. hard boiled: best action movie i’ve seen in ages, might even rival die hard if it were in english. maybe. wordplay: totally tickled the nerd in me, and well put together for such a geeky topic. kiss kiss, bang bang: fun noir-comedy i could watch over and over. the good, the bad, and the ugly: any time a 3 hour movie doesn’t feel like one, it must be amazing. ichi the killer: messed up, but so worth it if you’re not squeamish.

the week has turned out extremely well. first and foremost, gino and josh, roommate and friend respectively, impulsively went out and bought a ping pong table this weekend, which now resides on the roof patio of our apartment building. so guess what we’ve been doing during most of our free daylight hours — especially the extra ones we got for president’s day. i’m already better than i was saturday when they bought it and this is sure to provide fun for months to come. jealous? just come over and play with us, doubles is fun too.

also, work has been going really well. the first phase of a project i’ve been working on for a few weeks culminated in a big presentation that went extremely well. i’m really excited to know i didn’t screw up, added valuable thinking, and didn’t choke when it came time to actually discuss our ideas with clients. so yesterday i felt kinda badass.

of course, having stayed at work until 11:30 the night before and getting up at 5:30 to catch a plane for the meeting, i also felt kinda exhausted. so i spent almost the whole night watching tv (after ping pong of course), and holy crap, discovery channel shows in HD about space exploration are unbelievable. this week’s heroes was good too.

all in all, quite content with this shortened week.

NEW MAXIMO PARK! holy crap holy crap holy crap. i’ve been looking forward to this for months and regularly checking back for updates on when the album will be out. so far what i know is that their first single is around (out now? coming soon? not quite sure), having heard half of it last night on kcrw. AND, that the album is coming out april 2nd (just in the UK? here too? also not sure). of course, i bolted to the internet as soon as i could to track it down and quell my lust for hyper fun brit rock.

so i’m very very pleased to be able to share our velocity as this week’s pay day song. i hope you enjoy this as much as i’m going to be as it plays every 20 minutes or so over my stereo for the next week.

oh, and i’ve totally forgotten to blog in ages, haven’t i? tahoe was super fun even though the snow was sub-par. saturday night jessica took me out to a romantic dinner for early-valentines so we didn’t have to fight crowds or get up early the morning after, which was brilliant. we opted for sleeping in and mimosas instead, a truly wise decision. so that night made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

we even went on a pre-dinner art gallery visit and bought a pair of beautiful prints by an artist named scott saw, one for each of us; she got the birds and trees, i got the skulls and butterflies. it was another in the long line of nights that make me pretty sure my girlfriend is better than everyone else’s — sorry guys, i guess i just lucked out.

two films you should absolutely see if you get the chance:

pan’s labyrinth – 4 stars

the problem with american trailers to foreign films is they never have any dialogue, so all you get is a visual montage. based on that and the mumblings i’d heard, i thought this would be a wild, trippy alice-in-wonderland type film. it turned out to be only partly that, but much more a gripping and frightening human drama, with elements of fantasy as a young girl yearns to escape her reality. the mix of the two in the heartbreaking story of young ofelia made this a really amazing film, which i appreciate more the more i mull over the ending, which sealed off the tragic yet hopeful story in a perfect way.

the animation show 3 – 5 stars

every time one of these comes out i will guarantee you one ticket in los angeles will be purchased by yours truly. i can’t sing the praises highly enough, and this year didn’t let me down. don hertzfeldt’s latest, “everything will be okay” was particularly great, definitely his best work yet, and along with shane acker’s beautiful film “9”, probably worth the price of the ticket alone. throw in some other great bits ranging from bizarre to beautiful to hilarious (oh man, plympton’s “guard dog” was a crack-up too), and you can hardly beat it for range and quality.

also, i picked up the box set for the past two years’ shows, so if anyone wants to borrow that let me know… i can’t wait to dig into some of the bonus stuff myself. i had bought the first year’s separately already, but i had to have the pretty two-volume set like a typical nerd. anyone want to buy the stand-alone first volume for cheap?

so it’s oscar season and i still haven’t done my best movies list from last year. as it stands, i think i’ve only seen two of the big contenders this year (departed and pan’s labyrinth, both great), so don’t expect there to be too much of an overlap, but i still intend to do it, and soon.

not this weekend though, because i will be up in tahoe snowboarding my heart out, and i can’t wait. it’s been almost two years since i’ve been on a board i think and it’s gonna be wonderful. i can’t wait. i also hope i haven’t forgotten all the progress i’d made over the previous years of snowboard trips. we’ll see when i hopefully return sunday night in one piece and happy instead of heavily bruised.

music-wise everyone is buzzing about a bunch of bands playing at coachella around here, but the album i’ve most recently acquired and listened to most has to be the new of montreal. i can’t even how many times i’ve been walking around the office singing, ‘come on chemicaaaaaals‘ under my breath this week. so there’s your pay day song.

let me tell you how rad my friends are, once again, in regard to making my birthdays great. the party saturday night was pretty much perfect (not that i take full credit for all those that showed up, of course). lots of people but not too many. lots of drinks but not too many. great music and dancing and fun well into the morning hours. one of the best gifts i’ve received in a while (not including the latest in a long line of unbelievably cool gifts i’ve received from my unbelievably nice girlfriend). even the cake was tastier than normal. all around it was an amazing, if somewhat exhausting time. mike and dom even made it down from SF, which took it to another level.

when things go this well for your birthday, getting a year older is in no way a sad moment — cause there’s a good chance the next year will be just as good as the last. party on guys, and if you were a part of it thanks so much.

in case you didn’t have it etched into your calendars already, you should know that today is my birthday. before noon, i’d toasted at midnight last night with all my best friends, gotten a text from my girlfriend as soon as i woke up, received an email, a couple instant messages, and an e-card wishing me happy birthday, and gone out to a nice long lunch with my coworkers for pizza and beers. not to mention the thoughtful cards from parents and grandparents with generous checks enclosed. so i’m feeling pretty great today, and it’s not even half over yet!

last night, talking to justin (whose birthday was yesterday), we mutually agreed that 26 is not the year to start acting responsible or worrying about the future, and that we’d be perfectly happy just continuing on the path of fun and partying we did a great job of as 25-year-olds. so cheers to another year of good times and great friends.

still slacking on favorite movies of ’06, i keep forgetting to flip through ticket stubs and make up that list. weekend was great though. gino’s birthday at busby’s on friday night was a pretty great night, and i’ll write up a review of pan’s labyrinth along with the movie picks, hopefully tomorrow if i can get around to it.

most importantly, though, the big day has arrived and i’ve fallen way short once again. maybe an additional new year’s resolution for the coming year should be to not let my personal prejudices and wishes cloud my judgment when gambling. but hey, it was fun and the lineup is pretty massive this year, so i have a tough call ahead of me. check out the blog for the results if you’re interested (and you should be, we need more participants next year so the winner might actually be able to buy at least a day pass with the prize money).

the coachella pool 2007 winners