two.points.collapsing

a pair of things that delighted me this morning included driving to work and waking up.

driving to work, because as i made a left turn i was cut off by someone making a right turn against his right of way probably just a few feet in front of me. however, since he was driving a shiny silver sports car and wearing a black leather jacket, a black skull cap and black sunglasses — it wasn’t sunny, by the way — i almost automatically assumed he was making a getaway. instead of getting upset, i silently hoped his evasion was successful and praised myself for being the type to respect such adventures.

prior to that, waking up, because once i sat up in bed i noticed i had a definite and noticeable ear print on my left shoulder, which has to be one of the most endearing post-sleepover details i’ve picked out in my lifetime. just the sort of thing you need to get going on a wednesday morning — not to say that the company alone wouldn’t have done the trick. it would seem that every time we’re about to part ways, something little like that sticks in my head and by the time i’m out the door i’m already looking forward to next time.

with a start like that, how can the day not turn out great?

i woke up like a shot this morning. none of that bleary-eyed nonsense, none of those monday morning blues, clutching my pillow thinking the alarm clock must harbor a deep-rooted hatred for me. it was fantastic. mornings like this always surprise me, while renewing my hope that having a work week isn’t so bad after all.

from what i can tell, this sort of morning results from a few favorable conditions. one: the weather. it went from winter to spring over the weekend. i know winter is a joke here, but losing that morning chill makes a world of difference being able to jump out from under the covers at 7:30. two: the weekend. it doesn’t take a thrill ride to make it a good couple days; in fact, the far and away highlight wasn’t at all getting to see one of my favorite bands (we actually missed the first few songs of the already brief hey mercedes set because of the drive to pomona, and then left early since it was a crappy bill overall). nor did the rest of the weekend spent mostly reading and lounging make much of a story. when it comes down to it though, a lazy and leisurely saturday morning in the sunshine with my girl is enough to last for days. sleeping in, getting breakfast at 1 in the afternoon — it may not sound like much, but i’m sure it helps how she just knocks me out every time i see her.

now if only that made it as easy to wait til the end of the day as it did to hop up for the start of it, i’d be right as rain.

[now hearing this: the mountain goats. i could not possibly listen to we shall all be healed any more times in a day than i have in the past week, trust me.]

the passion of the christ – 2 stars

i wish i’d had the chance to write this a couple days earlier when it was hotter news, but there’s still a chance i can save some people from seeing this movie over the coming weekend, so maybe it’s not too late.

that’s right, the passion receives a hearty ‘don’t bother’ rating from this site at least. i know that most people feel like they have to just to have their own opinion on the hype and debate surrounding it, and that’s what got me into the theatre. the experience that followed was a fairly brutal (although not as unrelentingly violent as other reviews had prepared me for) but ultimately uninspiring, entirely literal depiction of the story i already knew. aside from a few visual additions like the satan character moving through the crowds, and some exceedingly brief flashback scenes, all you get is the filmed version of the stations of the cross.

the problem with the passion then is that there’s not enough to work with; it shows you what the bible and the church have already told you. maybe this works spiritual wonders for those who already put so much stock into the harsh events they believe to have happened, but for someone outside the faith the film still lacks on the side of moving or fascinating the viewer. i would definitely say this was an affirmation for the believers, not at all a transformation for the rest.

my big problem with the film is that it doesn’t have an argument, really. gibson should have spent more (or any, really) time on the message jesus preached during his life, and culminated in him sacrificing his life for that message. i think that story arc would have given me more of a ‘love thy neighbor’ hope in the universe — despite my sturdy atheism — if it had at least come together as a strong, emotional film. as is though, my only big reaction after having seen it is sadness at the fact that humans actually did those things to eachother as punishment, and the suspicion that mel really just wanted to show the true believers how much jesus must have loved them if he suffered such a hideous death on their behalf. a nice lesson for the christians, i suppose, but not such a strong cinematic work to the more objective. frankly, i think i’d rather go to church.

excellent b-celebrity sighting yesterday while running an errand over in westwood — the guy who played the bad guy in films as varied as robocop and disney’s blank check! one of those guys you instantly recognize but could never remember by name in a million years. but hey, he was on twin peaks, so the guy’s alright by me.

fantastic weekends like the one i just had feel even better because they’re so full of activity and good company, they just seem to stretch on longer than the average old weekends you’d just call ‘okay’. we capped madilyne’s visit off friday with a fun trip to the roost during which we took eachother’s pictures pretending to drive some stranger’s gargantuan convertible — do these people not expect this to happen when they leave the top down overnight, parked right there on the curb? then saturday’s gorgeous sunshiney afternoon prompted driving to amoeba and lunch with music up and windows down, and later a nice stroll up melrose because we just couldn’t get enough. tried to grab some shoes but wasn’t inspired by the wall of tired puma/adidas offerings, so i made a pilgrimmage sunday instead to the old trusted favorite and grabbed some gorgeous new grey & white vans. my feet love me right now. my stomach should too because i got the most excellent key lime milkshake ever right afterward with jess; if you’ve never been to cafe 50s you are missing the boat. and you do not want to miss the delicious milkshake boat, brother.

most of the rest of the time was spent with the unbeatable meghan, who i can’t get enough of lately. we caught the passion saturday which i will hold off commenting on until tomorrow, and then watched the oscars with a nice little crowd last night. i noticed myself throughout simply turning and thinking that yes, i actually do get to take this wonderful girl home with me — how great is that? and realizing that just that little thought is one of the best feelings ever.

so, yes. good weekend.

i was starting to feel like i was in a music lull; at least half of my favorite bands have stopped touring and are recording or resting this winter so i’m sitting at home neither hearing their shows or buying their new cds. weak shit. however, some extremely recent music-related developments have started me all a-twitter this fine friday morning.

like how about how i am about to be the proud holder of a free coachella ticket come may? that’s right, my coworker connections come through for me again and i get the hook up. dig that job of mine. sadly, i’ll probably only get a one-day pass for saturday, not both days, and technically there are more bands day two that i’m a fan of. not so thrilled to miss flaming lips AND 2 many dj’s AND cursive; but since i had to choose one of the two i figured i should probably head out to catch the pixies and secure the envy of the rest of the country who wishes they could. (and i guess seeing radiohead, wilco, and trail of dead for the first time among the dozens of others won’t be too bad either).

additionally, today is pay day and to battle the aforementioned musical blues — i can only listen to chutes too narrow so many times in a week, no matter how good it is — i’d say it’s high time for an amoeba trip. unless you have a better suggestion, i need to grab the new mountain goats and the elected cds before they’re old news.

oh and for the grand finale, charlie gets credit for first pointing me to the holy grail of music news: braid tour 2004!?! here’s me trying not to shiver with anticipation. they need to figure out those dates though so i can make sure i’m not out of the country or anything. i can see myself driving reasonable distances to catch at least two of these shows, considering they’re probably one of my two or three all-time favorite bands, but these things need to be accounted for in advance. if they could only talk hum into reuniting for the tour with them i’d go ahead and sign my soul over to whoever’s idea this all was.

instead perhaps i will keep my soul, and just switch the pay day song to braid, since for the first time since getting their cd i can listen to new nathan detroits and imagine getting to hear them play it in the near future, right in front of me. unbelievable.

back to normal colors. have to say i wasn’t really digging the grey.

the perks of being a wallflower – stephen chbosky – 4 stars

this month i spent reading books that i received as birthday gifts in january. this one even had to overcome an initial theft and re-send from amazon, and i’m glad it finally made it into my bookshelf as i’d already been meaning to read it for a while.

i tore through it at a pretty nice clip because not only was it very readable, the kid was so endearing and honest i wanted to make sure everything went okay for him. with the same appeal as any story of the weird kid who ends up with friends even though he’s still sorta weird but at least working on finding his place, parts of it reminded me exactly of that time of my life, and other parts reminded me of what i’m glad i didn’t have to deal with at that time of my life (i don’t think i ever cried in front of anyone, at least, no matter how rough it was). so despite perhaps lacking a larger profound meaning, the story does do a funny and touching job of reminding me it wasn’t just me who was scared and confused at 15.

kissing in manhattan – david schickler – 3 stars

another gift book, this one i hadn’t heard of before i unwrapped it. since it came from a sharp and savvy friend of mine though i gladly undertook it.

either because i’m just in a reading mood lately or because this was a little more addicting than i realized, it almost seemed over before i really got started. at first i was skeptical and it mostly seemed odd more than necessarily clever or gripping; but toward the end when the various short story characters came together in events that intertwined them, i started feeling invested. i think the book appeals more to the web of connected new yorkers and how their lives criss cross eachother, and having never lived there i assume part of the magic of this book was lost on me. so although it might not have been quite well-written or entertaining enough to overcome that hill and seem great to me, certain stories did have really striking premises and overall it was definitely worth the time for the hint at what i might be missing by choosing to live on the left coast.

TODAY IS GREY TUESDAY.

hence the uglification of the site.

read about the protest and support downhill battle here (several participants have already received cease and desist letters from EMI).

support dangermouse by checking him out here.

check out the one track i’m sharing from the grey album here.

or better yet, check a list of a hundred different places to download the whole thing on the grey tuesday site, or get it from p2p servers, or ask me to burn you a copy. honestly, it’s really really good.

from what the site says, hundreds of participants have helped this get some news coverage already as well, and it’s not even the end of the business day. good job, internet.

(back to normal pretty colors next time i post).

new developments since friday include such wonders as winning at poker (two dollars, ten cents), finishing another book (reviews coming up), and getting to see the big lebowski on a theatre screen at the new beverly. either some of the attendees were drinking or they were just rabid fans; personally, i’ve never felt the urge to whistle or whoop at a movie, even when my favorite scenes come on, but so they did. the best was when a guy a few seats over tried to do one of those loud fingers-in-mouth whistles and failed horribly, producing an embarrasing whiff and spittle sound. i had a hard time not laughing out loud right at him, and i think he saw me restraining my chuckles and looking at him across the aisle.

still an enjoyable night though, made moreso by my companions. it also proved a good trial on the compatibility of a group of my friends with my favorite new one — they all liked her and she had fun around them, which give me all the more reason to smile about the whole situation. we all know how key it is that she pass the friends test, right? i know how tragic it would be if my roommate’s girlfriend drove me insane (luckily she’s great), so when i bring home someone new and everyone gets along i’m pleased as punch. it gives me the feeling that this might actually work.

so prepare for the frequency of sappy-tinged posts to go up over the next little while. i haven’t been down this road in what seems like ages, so it’s refreshing and very novel to me right now. i’m almost confused by how well things are going, because how can it be real and have been this simple? i can only sit back and enjoy it i guess, and occasionally subject my website to these goofy paragraphs about how great it feels.

i think it hit me hardest returning to my car at one in the morning with so much jittery excitement — centered in my stomach but really all over — that i had to sit and catch my breath before starting the car and finding a cd that would live up to the moment i was in and attempting to drive home like a normally functioning person. the girl i rode the elevator up with once i was back in my building probably thought i was high standing there in my hooded sweatshirt sort of smiling and half-humming and barely noticing or caring that she was there (tall blonde girls probably aren’t used to this happening), but i don’t know if that’s quite the right word for the state i was in.

now trying to recall and write about it is getting me all fluttery again, which i like, but i won’t prolong because understatement is the probably the best route to go here. don’t want to spoil this feeling by trying to describe it — she is wonderful, i am thrilled. that’ll do for now.

lest you think my life is suddenly a fairy tale though, all is not peaches and cream: the return last night was beautifully shot but largely boring. if not for the positive association i’d say it was wholely a waste, however the essentially romantic backdrop of an empty theatre arrived at far too early was probably worth the ticket price, so still i can’t complain.