two.points.collapsing

don’t like this not posting phase i’m going through. how will i ever become a famous writer if i can’t even write a few paragraphs a day of website drivel? but let’s not give up hope.

weekend was fabulous. drinking in the OC with spencer friday night (worth noting: any bar with over a hundred beers on tap is a fine, fine establishment), then some drinking and poker saturday night with the fellas. guess who won everything on the table at the end of the night? that’s right, yours truly is the master gambler walking home with 8 heavy dollars profit weighing down his wallet. can’t wait for the poker tournament in a few weeks.

and all that after an early screening of napoleon dynamite and a pulse-pounding tennis showdown versus my girlfriend. how do i have so much fun in such a short span of time? well it’s not easy, let me tell you. but you have to take this saturday thing seriously. it only happens once a week.

apparently if you go to the ND website you can register to go to more free screenings they’re having in the next month prior to launch, like i did, and even get free shirts, like i did as well. i wanted the ‘vote for pedro’ one. the movie was good, check it out if you can; i’ll write an actual review in a day or two.

oh, and sunday i watched my copy of the animation show on dvd, and was very pleased. there were a few omissions from the theatre version i would have been happier having, but the addition of adam elliot’s “cousin, uncle, brother” pieces were a fair tradeoff (he’s the winner of this year’s academy award for animated short harvey krumpet — these are his earlier pieces). i have to say: those are three terrific, dark, very funny claymation films. well done, mr. elliot.

also: ate french toast. yum.

top ten best things about my trip to coachella 2004:

10. our hotel room.

i think i had gone far too long in this life without having slept in a car. it was also good to verify that my ride makes a very decent mobile motel if necessary. just ask gino, or my leg. we were perfectly comfortable sleeping off our drunkenness here until 5:30 am when in the dawn glow a lady on an ATV told us we had 3 minutes to leave the coachella parking lot or we get a ticket — no overnighters allowed. we relocated to a movie theatre parking lot and slept 3 more hours, then went to denny’s to start day 2.

9. …and you will know us by the trail of dead.

i had a picture of them but it’s not very good. they play a massive rock show, even though i was embarrassed that i didn’t know they had two drummers until that day. i thought they just had one really good one.

8. thom yorke dancing

their whole set sounded impeccable actually, but i had never seen them before and had no idea the spastic joy that takes over that little guy’s body during the breakdowns on some of their songs. fantastic set. pretty cool they played ‘creep’ in the encore too.

7. being vip’s.

with the right colored bracelet you got access to a beer tent area with couches and bar stools and no lines instead of a beer tent area with a few picnic tables and not enough shade. also: vip port-o-potties. found them adequate, considering.

6. this guy.

can you even say anything? i mean, those really ARE butterfly wings, and that really IS a bowtie. you don’t need to say anything.

5. leaving the rave tent to go see belle and sebastian.

i really like 2manydj’s, but they were having sound problems, and gino wanted to see b&s, and when you take hundreds of dancing people in weather that’s already over 100 degrees and put their sweaty bodies into an enclosed tent in the desert, you get pretty much the closest thing to a jacuzzi without water. it seriously made the outside feel air conditioned in comparison. i heard they tore it up after we left though, which is a shame.

4. being close enough to the pixies to take this picture.

i was never even seriously into them, but i haven’t been able to stop singing their songs to myself since saturday night. they played just like they’d been doing this all those years in between; sounded just as good as the cds my friend burned for me a few years ago and said, ‘dude, you should listen to the pixies’. now it finally makes sense.

3. the afterparty

through work connections part of our perks were also going to a spin-hosted party. round after round of top-shelf drinks and jager shots, all complimentary. we saw marisa from the O.C. and neve cambell there too, although they sure didn’t look like they’d been at coachella all day. not only was it in a really nice rose garden with cool dj’s, but since we didn’t know anybody, we randomly decided to stand in a line we weren’t sure went anywhere. we asked the people in front of us and they didn’t know either. turns out it was for FREE SNEAKERS. i’m not kidding! we tried on shoes and they’re sending us free pairs in the mail. unbelievable.

2. the flaming lips.

words simply do not suffice. they put so much effort into their presentation they only got to play 5 songs, but the whole experience was just amazing. wayne walked out over the audience before the set in a huge inflated hamster ball, for starters. it was spectacular. then the whole place was raging and smiling and dancing along with the people in bunny costumes on stage in front of the huge projector screen while batting enormous balloons around and singing along to the music . . . i haven’t had a concert experience that euphoric in years. definitely the musical highlight of the weekend.

1. remembering intermittently that IT WAS ALL FREE.

every time we thought about that we couldn’t help but get really really excited. i think it cost maybe 30 bucks apiece for the whole weekend on water and some food. and we even got free shoes out of the deal — how can you beat that?

christ, i haven’t been this busy in ages. go go go all day at work, then come home and hang out all night with my special lady. it’s all been great, actually — time flies when you’re busy at the office, and it’s so good to catch up on girlfriend time after being gone all weekend. but i think this coming weekend i’m going to have to make a specific point to spend plenty of time reading and lounging and doing nothing basically. balance myself out a bit.

and since i’ve been go go going non stop i haven’t had enough free minutes to write about how amazing coachella was; also because i wanted to include some pictures i took, which are on my laptop at home, so i’ll have to do that later.

additional note: we watched x-men 2 on DVD last night at my place, and during some big effects sequence meghan looked up from my lap and said, ‘wow, your sound system is amazing.’ take notice ladies — i equate this feeling to a guy telling his girl she looks like she’s lost weight.

modest mouse – good news for people who love bad news – 4 stars

i was never really convinced about modest mouse, i’m guessing because i never had the spare cash to pick up moon and antarctica. i only had their first album, which had given me the opinion that they could write a dynamite song — ‘dramamine’, anyone? golden! — but weren’t so great on their other stuff.

good news has me corrected. most of this album is solid if not great, shows the creativity in lyrics and sound that make them so noteworthy in the ocean of indie music, and stands up just fine under start-to-finish listens. although i have to admit i almost always skip ‘dance hall’ because it just seems like they could have left it off without hurting the rest of the album. but i adore the single ‘float on’, and have lately been obsessed with singing along to ocean breathes salty loudly while driving to and from work. makes it a good pay day song.

definitely a recommended buy. why can’t they be playing at coachella too? which just reminds me how badly i want to finish this day, have a few drinks tonight, and prepare to ROCK MY FACE OFF. see ya monday, suckas!

this is the nice man who sure took his sweet time driving in front of me on the way home tonight. i guess when you’re that excited about the lord, you’re not really in much of a hurry to get anywhere that isn’t heaven.

i, on the other hand, am in a huge hurry to get to this weekend. why? cause i’m going to both freaking days of coachella, that’s why, bitches! good fortunes have smiled upon me and now i get to see dozens of good bands and all i have to do is bear some 106 degree heat [gulp]. if god were really awesome, he would have made this event near the beach instead of in the damn desert. let’s see the emo kids try to wear sweaters to this cursive show; i dare them!

i can’t begin to say how worth the sweat it’s going to be though — i got free tickets for me and my roommate through work, along with vip bracelets and passes to the spin party saturday night. so it’s all free rock AND free booze. what’s not to like? it’s even worth probably having to sleep in my car parked at a rest stop off the freeway saturday night. but who cares, we get to see radiohead and the flaming lips within 24 hours of eachother! and a pixies reunion show! and 2manydjs! and and and…

well i don’t want to rub it in or anything *coughallforfreecough*.

[now hearing this: modest mouse.]

i am pleased to report i spent a large majority of my weekend sitting in my apartment alternately reading, watching videos, and playing video games. i know it was beautiful outside, but you can’t let the weather bully you into going outside every time it’s nice. it’s LA, it’s beautiful all the time. and besides, i can absolutely appreciate a nice day through the sliding glass door off my living room while i sit on the couch and finish crimson skies on my xbox, don’t try to tell me otherwise. it was a gloriously geeky weekend.

the main non-geek event was jen’s birthday, which went crazily off course when we couldn’t get into the downtown standard roof bar and tried to walk to a party, which led us — a party of 12 or so noisy post-college kids in varying levels of intoxication — through the very sketchiest parts of downtown. our wisest move was giving up and turning around to get cabs and go to hollywood instead where my favorite part had nothing to do with bar hopping and everything to do with new york pizza from greco’s.

returning to geek news though, did you know you can already pre-order the original star wars trilogy dvds at places like best buy and amazon? make fun all you want, but if you order now you save 25 bucks, and it’s not like i wasn’t going to buy them anyway. who cares if they don’t come out for another 5 months — this is a piece of my childhood we’re talking about.

me at the prospect of getting a card in celebration of what was formerly known as ‘secretaries’ day’, only recently updated to the slightly less embarrassing ‘assistants’ day’ or ‘administrative professionals’ day’: not exited. actually, possibly offended, despite the fact that, yes, the word ‘assistant’ is part of my job title.

me at getting a card in celebration of aforementioned, containing 50 dollar amazon.com gift certificate: excited! thank you so much! it’s so nice to be appreciated to the tone of free video games and comic books to be shipped in 1-2 business days.

the only surprise more pleasant would be getting promoted out of the position that betokens such a card, with the commensurate raise allowing me to buy more video games and comic books on my salary. not bitter though! very honestly. i love my job and i like free stuff, so i’m happy all around. the promotion nod will come soon enough on its own. happy holiday-formerly-known-as-secretaries’-day!

kill bill: volume two – 4 stars

in my review of the first one, i sort of decided that the thing holding it back from being a 5 out of 5 was its incompleteness. it was all style and not enough content, and obviously it didn’t finish the story. it was a fucking great time though.

for the second one, i’d say it was the yin to the first one’s yang. where the first was almost entirely action, action, blood, blood, the second filled out the other half of the badass-centered movie with a lot more storyline and hard talk. the characters face to face being the large, willful, cool-as-hell, clint eastwood from fistful of dollars types you know quentin wanted them so badly to be. and it was a fucking great time again.

my criticism after having seen both then is pretty nominal… it’s solely an editing complaint. i would rather have watched the whole movie at once, as i guessed after seeing the first one, and that maybe a few parts had been switched around to even it out a bit more. spread the killer fights and the killer character development throughout the whole story. that way the first one doesn’t feel shallow compared to the second, and the second doesn’t seem so dialogue-heavy compared to the first. because i definitely could have used a bit more of those ‘holy shit!’ moments i kept getting in volume one this time out, although the ones you do get are soooo worth it.

nonetheless, outstanding job by david carradine as bill. what a priceless character. and what a great set of movies — i can’t wait to see that director’s cut DVD (before christmas? come on quentin, please? it’ll make a great holiday gift!).

had a great damn weekend. i think the most fun i had at every instance was the result of not getting to do what i really intended in all three days. had a blast hanging out with my friends friday night because we couldn’t get into the 9:30 kill bill and had to wait around and stand in line for a 12:00 show instead. tried to drive to the san diego zoo saturday with my special lady and ended up driving right back because of the pouring rain — in san diego? now there’s luck for you — but had a lovely time just driving in the car and talking to her and going to the record store instead. and tonight i had planned on catching arrested development with the guys but since it got bumped (fuck you 24!) we ended up chatting mostly and then watching an old episode of the shield.

a great measure of quality people and wonderful girlfriends i think are times like all of those; when you’re basically doing nothing and it’s still the greatest. i love the people i spend my weekends with.

and i love this pavement cd i got too. filled in the hole i’ve been meaning to fill for ages now, and for 6.95 it was finally meant to be. so crooked rain, crooked rain gets me about as caught up as i need to be and unfair gets me about as rockin’ as anything pavement has ever done. good pay day song.

i sat here thinking a few minutes ago that i don’t have much to write about, but that i should come up with something anyway so i don’t slack off for too long. then somehow that got me reflecting on my life as it stands today; and i’m completely wrong about having nothing to say. this moment of idle consideration has caused me to realize, just now, that this year has seen more changes in my life than probably any of the last five.

i’m more consistently considerate of my own body now than ever before and i’d like to think it shows. for reasons too varied to really explain efficiently, i suddenly follow with consistent enthusiasm things i before had almost no interest in — liberal politics and the chicago cubs. i am going on the 10th month of the first streak in my life without cable television, and except for a craving here and there, i prefer it that way. i am reading more ravenously than ever and trying harder to really get something out of it. i’m probably a single raise away from being comfortably self-sustaining. i have friends in several far-off major U.S cities. i have a girlfriend who is also a young professional and have no problem staying a night with her and leaving for work in the morning. we do culturally enriching things together but also appreciate time alone. i currently have wine chilling in my refrigerator. and as of this current tax year, i am no one’s dependent.

apparently, at some point, i became a grown up. while the point in time at which this transition occurred may elude me, the fact remains it has happened. some might be scared, but being far from knocking on death’s door, i choose instead to be excited. i think it may end up being more fun than being a kid was anyway — when i it comes down to it, i didn’t have nearly as many friends or freedoms as an unhappy 12 year old.

besides, i may not have cable but still watch cartoons when i get a chance. i may be into politics but i’m still more into rock concerts. i may have a girlfriend but i wouldn’t let that keep me from playing video games. the wine in my refrigerator is accompanied almost solely by frozen pizzas. and as ravenously as i will ever consume literature, it will likely always include a safe portion of comics.

so can a person be a grown-up child, in a way? as in, a healthy, well-adjusted, socially acceptable and functional way? i’m of the opinion that this is really the only way to go. it should be the new ideal. if you cannot be a philosopher-king, perhaps you can settle for being an adult-youth? a responsible-upstart? a practical epicurean? a thoughtful reveler?

it could be time to write a philosophy text here, so i had better leave the topic for further deliberation. you might be wise to flee before i start asking for converts.