So the time has finally come (and gone).
It feels kind of like Christmas afternoon. The anticipation is over, the presents are unwrapped, and now it’s time to sift through them all and decide whether or not it was everything I’d hoped it would be.
And that’s the question: was it everything I hoped it would be?
The short answer is yes.
Was it cool? Yes, without question.
Did it kick ass? Of course.
Was it the most faithful translation of a comic into a film? Absolutely. In fact, it may have been the most faithful translation of something from any medium into another ever made.
Was it a landmark piece of film presenting a visual breakthrough the likes of which we haven’t seen since the original “Matrix” movie?
Again, yes.
Did I enjoy it? No question.
So, you’re probably wondering, what’s the problem?
There isn’t one. Great movie, loved every second of it along with every frame that looked as though it could have been lifted directly from the comics.
So, you wonder again, ignoring my denial, what’s the problem?
And again, I say there isn’t one.
Except…
Well, I loved it. Every other person in the theater loved it.
But what was abundantly clear on the first showing of the movie on its opening day is that we all went into the movie already loving Sin City.
Would someone not similarly initiated be able to walk in and enjoy the movie? Would someone who doesn’t already love the works of Frank Miller in general, and the Sin City books specifically, be able to fully enjoy the gallows humor, the over-the-top and stylized ultra-violence, the gritty, grimy, seedy underbelly of society that is represented by the hapless inhabitants of Basin City?
Would anyone else get the joke?
To be perfectly honest, there are moments of serious cheese in this movie. There’s no getting around that fact, but what people need to realize is that they’re intended to be there. They’re lovingly and skillfully crafted moments of cheese, and they exist for a reason.
As mentioned, the violence is over-the-top and extremely stylized. As unrealistic as it is (made even more so by the lack of color), it’s still grit your teeth and turn your head away brutal.
And of course that brings us to the other potential problem: the lack of color.
Sure, it helps bring the pages of Miller’s work to life, and makes the occasional use of color that much more vivid and shocking, but in a lot of people’s minds, black and white automaticaly equals boring.
So I’m concerned that, apart from its dedicated fan base, Sin City will fail to find an audience.
I hope I’m wrong, though, because this movie deserves to succeed and to have the chance to be fruitful and multiply.
And hopefully, if people pay attention to this sort of thing, the glowing review that Roger Ebert wrote will help draw them in.
So what was so great about the movie?
Mickey Rourke, for one thing. Who would ever have thought that I would actually enjoy watching a movie with Mickey Rourke in it in 2005? Before I found out he was in Sin City, I thought he was probably dead (or as good as).
Clive Owen played a great Dwight, and Rosario Dawson was very good (and scarily sexy) as Gail.
Bruce Willis as Hartigan…okay. I think he just carries too much baggage from other roles to properly play the part, and he’s just not quite old enough. Still, he did fine.
As did, surprisingly, Jessica Alba, whom I had thought would be the film’s weakest link.
She wasn’t great, but she did all right. I’m still bothered by her refusal to appear nude, not just because I’m a guy and would like to see Jessica Alba’s boobs, but because I think it would honestly have added some additional resonance to her scenes with Hartigan.
As far as nudity goes, though, there was a fair amount, though not nearly so much as in the books. In the books, pretty much every female character appears nude at one point, but in the movie only Carla Gugino and Jaime King shed their clothes.
It might have been nice to see Dawson’s Gail out of the dominatrix outfit, or Brittany Murphy’s Shellie wearing the man’s shirt hanging open sans bra, but I have to say that Ms. Gugino’s scenes largely made up for the rest.
Besides, Miller and Rodriguez were kind enough to spare us nudity in other scenes, and I for one am glad that the Yellow Bastard was wearing boxers instead of going commando…
In terms of surprises, I was really surprised by Alexis Bledel, who took the relatively minor (though significant) role of Becky and infused it with a great deal of life and humanity.
Devon Aoki as Miho…ah, deadly little Miho. It was a thrill to see Miho, one of my favorite characters, brought to life so well.
Then there is Elijah Wood. Finally, being a creepy (in a shy, boyish sort of way) little hobbit pays off. Very good, disturbing performance, and fortunately he never spoke a word, so we didn’t have to suffer through any of the whining that was a hallmark of the last two and a half hours of “Return of The King.”
One of the best performances by far, though, was Benicio Del Toro as Jackie Boy.
As for the look and feel…like I said, it was as if Miller’s art had been lifted directly from the pages.
They did some interesting things to weave the stories together, as in the original books they were mostly unrelated. One thing that I found particularly appealing was done during “The Hard Goodbye,” the story featuring Marv and his hunt for vengeance. Marv walks into Kadie’s, the local dive, and the camera pans over to Dwight.
Even though we have yet to be properly introduced to Dwight we are suddenly treated to a voice-over in which he muses over Marv’s placement in history.
It was an interesting switch, as it helped to reveal a little about who Marv is, while at the same time giving us some insight into Dwight’s character, whom we get to know better in “The Big Fat Kill,” the story following Marv’s.
What I really liked about it, though, was that for the voice-over, Dwight’s inner monologue was lifted from “A Dame To Kill For,” a Sin City yarn that wasn’t part of this film, but which will hopefully be presented in a sequel.
Despite the attempts to tie things together, though, there were some questions of continuity that linger, but nothing too disruptive to the experience.
I will say that he end of “That Yellow Bastard” seemed a little rushed, though, and a lot of scenes were not brought to the screen from the original story, presumably in the interests of time. They weren’t vital, but they would have been nice to see.
One other nice touch was the creation of “book ends” for the movie, which actually entailed making a very minor change to the story of “The Big Fat Kill” in order to more artfully wrap the movie up in a neat little package.
So yeah, it was worth the wait, and I will definitely see it again.
I didn’t see it multiple times today simply because of the time factor. It was nearly 2 by the time I got out from the first show. Taking time to eat and catching another showing would have put me on the road in the middle of rush hour, and prevented me from getting home and having enough time to call my sister Kim and wish her a happy birthday, or to write this, before going to bed.
After I got up and showered this morning I was reluctant to sit around waiting. I hate sitting around at home waiting to do something. If I have to wait, I’d rather go to wherever it is I need to go and wait there. After all, what’s the point of being home? I can’t really relax, or get started on some sort of project.
So I usually tend to be early.
As I had some things I needed to pick up, I decided that I would just head to Wal-Mart first to kill some time, then head over to the theater.
At Wal-Mart I picked up a spring form pan (three, actually, as they came in a set of multiple sizes) for the cheesecake, and a cheap GE knock-off of a KitchenAid.
I would have liked to have picked up the real deal, but did you see those prices? Yikes.
No, the $30 I shelled out for what is basically a big hand mixer with a stand and a bowl is money well-spent, and more than enough for my purposes.
After that, I still had some time to kill, so I went over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to see if they had something I was looking for that Wal-Mart didn’t.
In point of fact, I was looking for a container to carry the cheesecake in on Tuesday. Wal-Mart had some disposable foil and plastic containers, but I was looking for something more along the lines of a Rubbermaid container. Something permanent.
Why not go the disposable route when I’m just going to give the entire cheesecake away, you ask?
Well, it’s all part of my little scheme.
As you know, I’m going to HQ on Tuesday for a class, which is when I will give the woman I’ve dubbed “Tucson” the cheesecake.
The class actually lasts two days, so I’ll be back again on Wednesday.
Tucson is a very attractive, possibly single woman.
If I give her a “good” container, I can ask her to give it back to me, and since I’ll be there the next day, that would give her the perfect opportunity to do so, giving me another chance to see her, and possibly muster up some sort of charm.
If Wednesday doesn’t work for her, I’ll actually be back for another class the following Tuesday.
I suspect that the added opportunity to interact with her won’t have any sort of positive impact on my behalf, but hey, you never know.
Of course, I was frustrated in my search for a suitable container today, so it may be irrelevant anyway. I’ll have to look again on Monday, I guess.
After that I had time to wander around BestBuy. I managed to get out of there without dropping a bunch of money (there was a $700 computer that had definite possibilities), which was surprising.
After that I headed to the theater.
I got there at a decent time, around five after 11. With time to buy some snacks, hit the restroom, and find a good seat, twenty-five minutes isn’t too terribly early, at least for me.
However, once I got to the doors I saw an older couple just standing there looking at them.
They were locked.
When I bought my ticket through Fandango, it had given the time as 11:30. The listing at Moviefone, though, said that the earliest show was at 12:30.
This was distressing.
As I was thinking, “Worst April Fool’s joke ever,” I got out my cell and called in to work, where Kathleen verified that there were other shows starting at or about 11:30, so the time given by Fandango was correct.
A line of increasingly annoyed people began to form, and finally, at about 11:22 the doors were opened. The manager cited being short-staffed and having just received a visit from the Health Inspector as the reasons for the delay.
Although I had initially been annoying, ultimately the delay worked in my favor, as I wasn’t subjected to the usual amount of pre-movie treacle.
With the exception of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the previews were unremarkable. Hell, one movie, a remake of a cheesy old horror movie, even has Paris Hilton in it God’s sake. What’s up with that? Why is this skank famous?
Anyway, the movie started, and I sat, enthralled, for about two hours.
Then, with a fair amount of the movie still left, the screen went blank and the lights came on. WTF? Why was the universe giving me such a hard time about seeing this movie?
After being fetched, the manager came in and said that there was a technical problem that would soon be resolved.
Throughout the movie, nature had been calling, but I’d kept refusing to accept the charges.
Disruptive as it was to the experience, this delay provided the perfect opportunity, so I quickly slipped out to the men’s room.
However, apparently every last drop of liquid I ever imbibed in my life had been waiting for this opportunity, and by the time I managed to staunch the flow and get back to the theater the movie had resumed.
Fortunately I don’t think I missed too much (mostly Hartigan taking a cold shower, I think).
So yeah, I did finally get to see the movie, but there were some of the trademark irritations associated with doing so that make my life…well, that make it my life.
In any case, that was my day.
In summary, Sin City kicks ass, and everyone should go see it. I don’t care if you’re offended by things like prostitution, pedophilia, cannibalism, or Yellow Bastards; see it anyway, or at least buy a ticket. Whether you watch it or not is irrelevant as long as it does big business at the box office.
I’m kidding, of course. I can understand that this movie isn’t for everyone (You bunch of pussies).
In any case, that does it for this mini-review of the movie and my day. Tomorrow it’s back to business as usual, though somewhere along the line between now and Tuesday morning I have to make a cheesecake, figure out what I’m going to make for the last cooking class, and try to develop a personality so that I can sweep Tucson off her feet.
Somehow, I think I’ll only manage two out of three on that one…
Have a good weekend, one that is, ideally, filled with multiple viewings of Sin City.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The Waiting Is The Hardest Part
As 7:00 got closer and closer tonight I found myself, presumably out of habit, becoming pretty sleepy.
Even though, intellectually, I realized that I don’t have to get up early tomorrow, my circadian rhythms seem to be creatures of habit.
Hopefully they won’t get thrown for too much of a loop.
Of course, now that I have managed to stay up past my usual bedtime, I’m hard-pressed to find anything to do with my time.
There’s nothing on TV that I want to watch, I don’t really feel like drawing, or doing any sort of non-Threshold writing, and, while I don’t agree that it’s shit, I am finding the Internet to be pretty boring.
My big excitement for the evening consisted of finally folding and putting away my socks, followed by folding and putting away the other load of laundry I did today.
Yep, I’m a wild man.
Honestly, not much short of getting up tomorrow and seeing Sin City is of interest to me, but because I don’t have to go to bed, I’m unwilling to call it a night just to hasten tomorrow’s arrival, especially since I'd probably end up waking up at around 5 in the morning.
Hmm…I was just reading through the local freebie advertising circular. It mostly runs ads, but it has some local news and other articles.
In any case, I found an article called “The Single Side,” which is written, ostensibly at least, by a woman.
This particular article’s topic is about finding ways to give guys a polite, but definitive, brush-off, as she is, apparently, an “Avoider” when it comes to conflict.
She’s requested feedback from guys, and has an e-mail address.
Guess I found something to do after all.
I may be back again tonight, but I can’t say for sure.
More than likely you won’t hear from me again until post-SC.
Even though, intellectually, I realized that I don’t have to get up early tomorrow, my circadian rhythms seem to be creatures of habit.
Hopefully they won’t get thrown for too much of a loop.
Of course, now that I have managed to stay up past my usual bedtime, I’m hard-pressed to find anything to do with my time.
There’s nothing on TV that I want to watch, I don’t really feel like drawing, or doing any sort of non-Threshold writing, and, while I don’t agree that it’s shit, I am finding the Internet to be pretty boring.
My big excitement for the evening consisted of finally folding and putting away my socks, followed by folding and putting away the other load of laundry I did today.
Yep, I’m a wild man.
Honestly, not much short of getting up tomorrow and seeing Sin City is of interest to me, but because I don’t have to go to bed, I’m unwilling to call it a night just to hasten tomorrow’s arrival, especially since I'd probably end up waking up at around 5 in the morning.
Hmm…I was just reading through the local freebie advertising circular. It mostly runs ads, but it has some local news and other articles.
In any case, I found an article called “The Single Side,” which is written, ostensibly at least, by a woman.
This particular article’s topic is about finding ways to give guys a polite, but definitive, brush-off, as she is, apparently, an “Avoider” when it comes to conflict.
She’s requested feedback from guys, and has an e-mail address.
Guess I found something to do after all.
I may be back again tonight, but I can’t say for sure.
More than likely you won’t hear from me again until post-SC.
I Didn't Want To Spend The Money THAT Desperately...
It feels very strange to not be preparing to go to bed fairly soon.
Today was mostly uneventful, with the exception of going to the dentist.
I had a new permanent crown put in to replace the one that had fallen out, and I had a temporary crown put on another tooth.
While I was there I found out how I’m finally going to spend most of the money I’ve been saving.
Looks like I won’t be building my own computer anytime real soon…
I have to have several teeth pulled, get another crown, and have a partial plate made.
My insurance and Flex money will both run out long before that’s done.
Ah well, not-so-easy come, easy go, I guess…
He wants me to have all of the teeth pulled at once, so I have to schedule an appointment with an oral surgeon.
I hate having to call someone else to set up another appointment, so I'm inclined to procrastinate about that, but I’d kind of like to get the teeth pulled soon so that, hopefully, I can get the partial before I go home for Jourdan’s graduation.
I neglected to call when I got home today, though, as I was busy doing something slightly more interesting.
While I was at the dentist my cell phone did something it almost never does: it rang.
I couldn’t answer it, so I had to wait until I was done with the dentist and was waiting for his assistant to call to check something with my insurance before I could check my voice mail.
It was Tony, a guy I used to work with who recently quit to pursue a career in selling life insurance.
He had a question about image-editing. It seemed easy enough to answer at first, but then I realized what he was asking and decided that it would be easier if he just e-mailed me the image and had me do it for him.
Basically it involved taking a low-res, color jpeg and converting it to a high-res, black and white image.
You have to bear in mind that “Black and White” is entirely different from grayscale. The image would have no shades of gray and no anti-aliasing (basically the effect that smooths out jagged edges).
It’s not easy to make a black and white image that doesn’t look like crap, especially when you’re converting it from another format, so essentially what I ended up doing was totally recreating the image in black and white.
So that killed some time.
In the mail today I received my Smart Tag. I’ve been meaning to get one for over two years, but I had been reluctant to do so, as it involves having money automatically deducted from my account. I hate automatic deductions, as they can be kind of risky.
Over the weekend, though, I learned that if you don’t have the funds available, it just holds off on taking the money until you do have the funds, or else you just have to pay it the old-fashioned way, apparently.
So I ordered one. It’ll keep me from having to constantly save my quarters and dimes for paying the toll on my way to and from work.
And that’s pretty much been my day.
Tomorrow, of course, I’ll be off to see Sin City. I think the odds are that I will only see it once, as Friday will be my Thursday, meaning that I’ll have to call it a night fairly early. As there are some things that I need to get done before the weekend (things that I would have had to do today, under normal circumstances), I just don’t think I’ll have enough time to see it twice.
In any case, I think I’m going to get myself something to eat. As I don’t have to turn in early tonight, and I’m totally unfamiliar with Thursday night programming at this point, I doubt that I’ll be doing much TV watching, so I’m sure I’ll be back with more later.
Today was mostly uneventful, with the exception of going to the dentist.
I had a new permanent crown put in to replace the one that had fallen out, and I had a temporary crown put on another tooth.
While I was there I found out how I’m finally going to spend most of the money I’ve been saving.
Looks like I won’t be building my own computer anytime real soon…
I have to have several teeth pulled, get another crown, and have a partial plate made.
My insurance and Flex money will both run out long before that’s done.
Ah well, not-so-easy come, easy go, I guess…
He wants me to have all of the teeth pulled at once, so I have to schedule an appointment with an oral surgeon.
I hate having to call someone else to set up another appointment, so I'm inclined to procrastinate about that, but I’d kind of like to get the teeth pulled soon so that, hopefully, I can get the partial before I go home for Jourdan’s graduation.
I neglected to call when I got home today, though, as I was busy doing something slightly more interesting.
While I was at the dentist my cell phone did something it almost never does: it rang.
I couldn’t answer it, so I had to wait until I was done with the dentist and was waiting for his assistant to call to check something with my insurance before I could check my voice mail.
It was Tony, a guy I used to work with who recently quit to pursue a career in selling life insurance.
He had a question about image-editing. It seemed easy enough to answer at first, but then I realized what he was asking and decided that it would be easier if he just e-mailed me the image and had me do it for him.
Basically it involved taking a low-res, color jpeg and converting it to a high-res, black and white image.
You have to bear in mind that “Black and White” is entirely different from grayscale. The image would have no shades of gray and no anti-aliasing (basically the effect that smooths out jagged edges).
It’s not easy to make a black and white image that doesn’t look like crap, especially when you’re converting it from another format, so essentially what I ended up doing was totally recreating the image in black and white.
So that killed some time.
In the mail today I received my Smart Tag. I’ve been meaning to get one for over two years, but I had been reluctant to do so, as it involves having money automatically deducted from my account. I hate automatic deductions, as they can be kind of risky.
Over the weekend, though, I learned that if you don’t have the funds available, it just holds off on taking the money until you do have the funds, or else you just have to pay it the old-fashioned way, apparently.
So I ordered one. It’ll keep me from having to constantly save my quarters and dimes for paying the toll on my way to and from work.
And that’s pretty much been my day.
Tomorrow, of course, I’ll be off to see Sin City. I think the odds are that I will only see it once, as Friday will be my Thursday, meaning that I’ll have to call it a night fairly early. As there are some things that I need to get done before the weekend (things that I would have had to do today, under normal circumstances), I just don’t think I’ll have enough time to see it twice.
In any case, I think I’m going to get myself something to eat. As I don’t have to turn in early tonight, and I’m totally unfamiliar with Thursday night programming at this point, I doubt that I’ll be doing much TV watching, so I’m sure I’ll be back with more later.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Adventures In Amateur Sex Re-Assignment
When I did laundry (socks) yesterday, I never bothered taking them out of the dryer and putting them away, so this morning after I took a shower and was getting dressed I just grabbed a pair directly from the dryer.
One of the cool things about my apartment, aside from the simple fact that I actually have my own washer and dryer, is that it has a decently-sized laundry room to contain the washer and dryer.
As I was on my way out after grabbing the socks, I realized that I had left the dryer door open and considered turning around and closing it, at least partially, but I was already nearly out of the laundry room, so I left it the way it was and closed the laundry room door behind me.
It is, however, worth mentioning that I did take note of the fact that the dryer door was open.
Among the things I purchased when I went grocery shopping were bleach, laundry detergent, and fabric softener.
After I got home I put away the perishable items and turned my attention to the laundry items.
I grabbed the bleach, opened the door to the laundry room, and walked in, my eyes turned upward toward the shelf on the wall to determine where I was going to put the bleach.
The fact that the dryer door was open, at a 90 degree angle, had slipped my mind…right up until I felt it driving its way into my groin.
Fortunately my reaction time was sufficient to prevent this from turning into an impromptu gender-reassignment surgery, but it was representative of the way that I frequently set myself up, sometimes well in advance, for painful encounters with inanimate objects.
Sometimes, as a result of similar, previous encounters, I will take note of the possibility of such an occurrence and take steps to forestall it.
For example, I have a TV in my bedroom. While I’m not certain why (or motivated enough to find out), I have noted that the cable outlet in the room does not appear to actually transmit a signal.
Perhaps because I don’t get cable, I almost never watch TV in my bedroom anyway, but on those occasions on which I do, I do so by making use of rabbit ears.
On one such occasion I discovered an optimal set up for the rabbit ears that would allow me to pull in the maximum number of channels with the maximum clarity. This set up involved leaving one of the “ears” set at about a 45 degree angle. I thought about just leaving it that way for any time in the future in which I might decide to watch TV in the bedroom, saving myself the trouble of having to realign the antenna.
Because it was pointing to the side of the TV this seemed innocuous enough.
However, I was naturally suspicious and opted to make a quick test of just how innocuous it really was.
The test demonstrated that if I were to grab something from my dresser and turn quickly, when not wearing glasses, I would catch the antenna right in the eye.
Naturally I folded the rabbit ears up and pushed them completely in to totally prevent any potential eye-gouging.
(Having suffered a stick in the eye as a kid, I tend to be a little overly cautious about this sort of thing)
So this was an instance in which I did actually prepare for a future problem.
Today we saw one, which is much more common, for which I was not prepared, even though I had something of a premonition about it being a problem (when I had briefly considered closing the door).
There was a time when I thought that these kinds of mishaps might very well be the source of a fair amount of my anger. After all, if I weren’t constantly banging my head against doors or stabbing myself in the arm (did that in cooking class yesterday) or setting off land mines (I really ought to stop leaving them lying around the apartment), I might very well be a slightly more pleasant, cheerful person.
...
Well, it was a theory, anyway.
To test the theory a while back I decided that every action I engaged in would be very carefully considered. I would make no quick or careless moves, leaving as little as possible to chance, hoping that I would thereby eliminate at least the majority of painful and aggravating accidents and mishaps.
What I discovered is that very carefully and deliberately considering everything I do is irritating as hell, so at the end of the day I was even more pissed off than usual. Worse, it didn’t really do all that much to cut down on the number of bumps, cuts, and contusions I suffered.
So it seems that my life is fated to be like some sort of slapstick comedy gone horribly awry.
Ah well, at least all of you can get a laugh out of it.
Tomorrow I’m off to the dentist again to have my new crown put in, and a temporary crown put on another tooth. Fun stuff.
It will be strange to not have to turn in early on a Thursday. I don’t think I’ve taken time off since last December.
The next time (a full weekend, which translates to 11 days off) will be in May, when I head home for Jourdan’s graduation.
In any case, that’ll do it for this entry. Tune in tomorrow when we'll be that much closer to Sin City Day.
One of the cool things about my apartment, aside from the simple fact that I actually have my own washer and dryer, is that it has a decently-sized laundry room to contain the washer and dryer.
As I was on my way out after grabbing the socks, I realized that I had left the dryer door open and considered turning around and closing it, at least partially, but I was already nearly out of the laundry room, so I left it the way it was and closed the laundry room door behind me.
It is, however, worth mentioning that I did take note of the fact that the dryer door was open.
Among the things I purchased when I went grocery shopping were bleach, laundry detergent, and fabric softener.
After I got home I put away the perishable items and turned my attention to the laundry items.
I grabbed the bleach, opened the door to the laundry room, and walked in, my eyes turned upward toward the shelf on the wall to determine where I was going to put the bleach.
The fact that the dryer door was open, at a 90 degree angle, had slipped my mind…right up until I felt it driving its way into my groin.
Fortunately my reaction time was sufficient to prevent this from turning into an impromptu gender-reassignment surgery, but it was representative of the way that I frequently set myself up, sometimes well in advance, for painful encounters with inanimate objects.
Sometimes, as a result of similar, previous encounters, I will take note of the possibility of such an occurrence and take steps to forestall it.
For example, I have a TV in my bedroom. While I’m not certain why (or motivated enough to find out), I have noted that the cable outlet in the room does not appear to actually transmit a signal.
Perhaps because I don’t get cable, I almost never watch TV in my bedroom anyway, but on those occasions on which I do, I do so by making use of rabbit ears.
On one such occasion I discovered an optimal set up for the rabbit ears that would allow me to pull in the maximum number of channels with the maximum clarity. This set up involved leaving one of the “ears” set at about a 45 degree angle. I thought about just leaving it that way for any time in the future in which I might decide to watch TV in the bedroom, saving myself the trouble of having to realign the antenna.
Because it was pointing to the side of the TV this seemed innocuous enough.
However, I was naturally suspicious and opted to make a quick test of just how innocuous it really was.
The test demonstrated that if I were to grab something from my dresser and turn quickly, when not wearing glasses, I would catch the antenna right in the eye.
Naturally I folded the rabbit ears up and pushed them completely in to totally prevent any potential eye-gouging.
(Having suffered a stick in the eye as a kid, I tend to be a little overly cautious about this sort of thing)
So this was an instance in which I did actually prepare for a future problem.
Today we saw one, which is much more common, for which I was not prepared, even though I had something of a premonition about it being a problem (when I had briefly considered closing the door).
There was a time when I thought that these kinds of mishaps might very well be the source of a fair amount of my anger. After all, if I weren’t constantly banging my head against doors or stabbing myself in the arm (did that in cooking class yesterday) or setting off land mines (I really ought to stop leaving them lying around the apartment), I might very well be a slightly more pleasant, cheerful person.
...
Well, it was a theory, anyway.
To test the theory a while back I decided that every action I engaged in would be very carefully considered. I would make no quick or careless moves, leaving as little as possible to chance, hoping that I would thereby eliminate at least the majority of painful and aggravating accidents and mishaps.
What I discovered is that very carefully and deliberately considering everything I do is irritating as hell, so at the end of the day I was even more pissed off than usual. Worse, it didn’t really do all that much to cut down on the number of bumps, cuts, and contusions I suffered.
So it seems that my life is fated to be like some sort of slapstick comedy gone horribly awry.
Ah well, at least all of you can get a laugh out of it.
Tomorrow I’m off to the dentist again to have my new crown put in, and a temporary crown put on another tooth. Fun stuff.
It will be strange to not have to turn in early on a Thursday. I don’t think I’ve taken time off since last December.
The next time (a full weekend, which translates to 11 days off) will be in May, when I head home for Jourdan’s graduation.
In any case, that’ll do it for this entry. Tune in tomorrow when we'll be that much closer to Sin City Day.
Worst Cake Ever
I brought my MP3 player along for my walk, and as I was nearing home (I put in about three and a half miles), the song “Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?” by Nick Cave came on.
…
There may be more depressing songs in the world, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard them, and I’ve heard a lot of depressing songs in my life.
Like most Nick Cave songs, “Nowhere” tells something of a story, but, again, like most Nick Cave songs, it doesn’t tell the whole story, giving us only bits and pieces of it and leaving the rest up to our imaginations.
Here’s what I’ve gleaned from the information presented in the song:
A formerly happy young couple has found their happiness shattered by the death of their child. For reasons that are unclear the woman holds the man responsible for the loss of the child. For his part, the man mourns both the death of the child and of their love, remembering the happy, beautiful young woman his wife had been before their recent tragedy.
Like I said, it’s depressing.
The story tends to jump around, and at one point we find the man in the hospital, presumably in the aftermath of whatever (Some kind of car accident?) happened to cause the child’s death.
He says to his wife:
You come for me now with a cake that you’ve made/Ravaged avenger, with a clip in your hair/Full of glass and bleach and my old razor blades/Oh where do we go now but nowhere?
I can’t help thinking that there are better ways to utilize your Betty Crocker Bake N Fill.
In any case, if you ever feel like you’re in too much of a good mood, get yourself a copy of this song. It’ll take care of that problem in a hurry.
Not much is new or exciting as of yet. As mentioned, I bought my ticket to Sin City earlier.
Beyond that I went out and did some grocery shopping. As per usual, I ended up in line behind someone who had to argue about the validity of a coupon, which resulted in a call to the manager and a delay of several minutes.
Of course, I didn’t really have any reason to be in a hurry, but that’s not really the point. If arguing with the cashier about a coupon is going to cause you to inconvenience other people, just suck it up and pay the extra fifty cents, get the hell out of the way, and take up your complaint at the damn service counter. It’s not that difficult a concept.
I stumbled across a site today that has a rather pessimistic view of the Internet. Check it out here.
The author makes some valid points, but I think that he (or she) overestimates the significance of those points.
For my part, I think that those points are all invalidated by the simple fact that I was able to make a smart-ass comment and supplement it with instant access to a picture (the Betty Crocker Bake N Fill). If providing a method for more effectively making smart-ass comments doesn’t prove that the Internet is amazing, I don’t know what else could (except for, you know, all the porn...).
In any case, I’m going to do a few things and then get started on dinner. I’m sure I’ll be back again later.
…
There may be more depressing songs in the world, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard them, and I’ve heard a lot of depressing songs in my life.
Like most Nick Cave songs, “Nowhere” tells something of a story, but, again, like most Nick Cave songs, it doesn’t tell the whole story, giving us only bits and pieces of it and leaving the rest up to our imaginations.
Here’s what I’ve gleaned from the information presented in the song:
A formerly happy young couple has found their happiness shattered by the death of their child. For reasons that are unclear the woman holds the man responsible for the loss of the child. For his part, the man mourns both the death of the child and of their love, remembering the happy, beautiful young woman his wife had been before their recent tragedy.
Like I said, it’s depressing.
The story tends to jump around, and at one point we find the man in the hospital, presumably in the aftermath of whatever (Some kind of car accident?) happened to cause the child’s death.
He says to his wife:
You come for me now with a cake that you’ve made/Ravaged avenger, with a clip in your hair/Full of glass and bleach and my old razor blades/Oh where do we go now but nowhere?
I can’t help thinking that there are better ways to utilize your Betty Crocker Bake N Fill.
In any case, if you ever feel like you’re in too much of a good mood, get yourself a copy of this song. It’ll take care of that problem in a hurry.
Not much is new or exciting as of yet. As mentioned, I bought my ticket to Sin City earlier.
Beyond that I went out and did some grocery shopping. As per usual, I ended up in line behind someone who had to argue about the validity of a coupon, which resulted in a call to the manager and a delay of several minutes.
Of course, I didn’t really have any reason to be in a hurry, but that’s not really the point. If arguing with the cashier about a coupon is going to cause you to inconvenience other people, just suck it up and pay the extra fifty cents, get the hell out of the way, and take up your complaint at the damn service counter. It’s not that difficult a concept.
I stumbled across a site today that has a rather pessimistic view of the Internet. Check it out here.
The author makes some valid points, but I think that he (or she) overestimates the significance of those points.
For my part, I think that those points are all invalidated by the simple fact that I was able to make a smart-ass comment and supplement it with instant access to a picture (the Betty Crocker Bake N Fill). If providing a method for more effectively making smart-ass comments doesn’t prove that the Internet is amazing, I don’t know what else could (except for, you know, all the porn...).
In any case, I’m going to do a few things and then get started on dinner. I’m sure I’ll be back again later.
Success!
Today it (finally) became possible to purchase tickets to Sin City online, so, naturally, I did.
The first showing is at 11:30 am on Friday. I would have liked for it to be a bit earlier, but oh well, at least I have my ticket.
For anyone who’s interested, a new feature has been added to the SC official site.
If you go to “The Books” and then click on “Connections,” you get a listing of all seven SC books, and if you click on a cover you get breakout images of the characters featured in the book. Click on a character, and you see all of his or her connections to other SC residents. It’s pretty cool, and provides a fair amount of background for anyone not familiar with the books.
Anyway, I think I’m going to enjoy the nice weather again today by taking a walk.
I’ll be back with more later.
The first showing is at 11:30 am on Friday. I would have liked for it to be a bit earlier, but oh well, at least I have my ticket.
For anyone who’s interested, a new feature has been added to the SC official site.
If you go to “The Books” and then click on “Connections,” you get a listing of all seven SC books, and if you click on a cover you get breakout images of the characters featured in the book. Click on a character, and you see all of his or her connections to other SC residents. It’s pretty cool, and provides a fair amount of background for anyone not familiar with the books.
Anyway, I think I’m going to enjoy the nice weather again today by taking a walk.
I’ll be back with more later.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Like Some Kind Of Science Fair Cliche
So today was pretty uneventful.
I got up, did some ab exercises, ate breakfast, threw a load of laundry in, finished that, set the dishwasher going, and started on some “spring cleaning.”
That was stopped short by the realization that I was completely out of garbage bags and paper towels.
So I took a shower and walked over to Safeway to at least pick up some garbage bags so that I could get rid of some of the junk mail cluttering up the place.
Finishing that, I ate lunch, then moved some files off my hard drive and onto a DVD.
Because I seem to be incapable of motivating myself to engage in a full-fledged workout during the week, and since spring is now upon us, I’ve resolved to get myself back into walking.
Long-time Threshold readers may recall that I used to walk upwards of ten miles every day. Somewhere along the line the excess nervous energy I’d developed after I quit smoking, which had been the driving force behind my walking, wore off, and as the weather cooled the walking stopped.
In contrast to yesterday’s dreariness, today was a gorgeous spring day, and so I managed to force myself to take advantage of the weather and take my first few halting steps towards getting back into the walking habit.
I’d say I put in about three miles, which isn’t too bad.
Not long after that it was time for cooking class, where, as mentioned earlier, we made strawberry jam.
The point was to cover the principles of canning in general. We were also going to make pickles, but the teacher had forgotten that in order to pickle them the cucumbers needed to soak in brine for twelve hours, so we had to call that a miss.
Making the jam was pretty straightforward, and as there were only enough of us there to split into two groups, and the teacher had brought in enough supplies for a full class, Kathleen and I ended up making six jars of jam.
Everything was going pretty well, and we were simply waiting for the mashed strawberries to reach the correct temperature.
We all sat down and waited, getting up periodically to stir the strawberries and check the temperature.
At one point the teacher actually checked on our strawberries and said it wouldn’t be much longer.
A minute later we all turned to look as we hear the sound of the spoon flying out of the pot of strawberries, and we went into a panic as, inexplicably, the strawberries started boiling over.
This was pretty unexpected, obviously, as just a minute before the strawberries were well below the boiling point.
In any case, the boiling over strawberries looked rather like something you might see on some sitcom with a kid making a volcano for the school science fair.
In any case, as you can imagine, this made a huge mess.
Still, after cleaning things up and moving the remaining strawberries to a different stove top to achieve the correct temperate, we proceeded to fill our jars, and, after some additional clean up, were on our way.
Next week is the last class. Apparently instead of actually cooking something there we’re going to just have a sort of pot luck consisting of our favorite recipes (or of recipes, at any rate).
I’m not sure what I’m going to make, or even when I’m going to make it, as I have to work most of the weekend (as you may recall, I took Friday off for Sin City), Monday I have to make the Oreo cheesecake, per the terms of the deal I made last week, and I’ll be in a class all day on Tuesday.
Ah well, we’ll see, I guess.
Tomorrow is likely to be pretty uneventful. I’ll most likely head out to do some grocery shopping, then come home and finish the cleaning that I started.
In any case, that does it for this entry.
I got up, did some ab exercises, ate breakfast, threw a load of laundry in, finished that, set the dishwasher going, and started on some “spring cleaning.”
That was stopped short by the realization that I was completely out of garbage bags and paper towels.
So I took a shower and walked over to Safeway to at least pick up some garbage bags so that I could get rid of some of the junk mail cluttering up the place.
Finishing that, I ate lunch, then moved some files off my hard drive and onto a DVD.
Because I seem to be incapable of motivating myself to engage in a full-fledged workout during the week, and since spring is now upon us, I’ve resolved to get myself back into walking.
Long-time Threshold readers may recall that I used to walk upwards of ten miles every day. Somewhere along the line the excess nervous energy I’d developed after I quit smoking, which had been the driving force behind my walking, wore off, and as the weather cooled the walking stopped.
In contrast to yesterday’s dreariness, today was a gorgeous spring day, and so I managed to force myself to take advantage of the weather and take my first few halting steps towards getting back into the walking habit.
I’d say I put in about three miles, which isn’t too bad.
Not long after that it was time for cooking class, where, as mentioned earlier, we made strawberry jam.
The point was to cover the principles of canning in general. We were also going to make pickles, but the teacher had forgotten that in order to pickle them the cucumbers needed to soak in brine for twelve hours, so we had to call that a miss.
Making the jam was pretty straightforward, and as there were only enough of us there to split into two groups, and the teacher had brought in enough supplies for a full class, Kathleen and I ended up making six jars of jam.
Everything was going pretty well, and we were simply waiting for the mashed strawberries to reach the correct temperature.
We all sat down and waited, getting up periodically to stir the strawberries and check the temperature.
At one point the teacher actually checked on our strawberries and said it wouldn’t be much longer.
A minute later we all turned to look as we hear the sound of the spoon flying out of the pot of strawberries, and we went into a panic as, inexplicably, the strawberries started boiling over.
This was pretty unexpected, obviously, as just a minute before the strawberries were well below the boiling point.
In any case, the boiling over strawberries looked rather like something you might see on some sitcom with a kid making a volcano for the school science fair.
In any case, as you can imagine, this made a huge mess.
Still, after cleaning things up and moving the remaining strawberries to a different stove top to achieve the correct temperate, we proceeded to fill our jars, and, after some additional clean up, were on our way.
Next week is the last class. Apparently instead of actually cooking something there we’re going to just have a sort of pot luck consisting of our favorite recipes (or of recipes, at any rate).
I’m not sure what I’m going to make, or even when I’m going to make it, as I have to work most of the weekend (as you may recall, I took Friday off for Sin City), Monday I have to make the Oreo cheesecake, per the terms of the deal I made last week, and I’ll be in a class all day on Tuesday.
Ah well, we’ll see, I guess.
Tomorrow is likely to be pretty uneventful. I’ll most likely head out to do some grocery shopping, then come home and finish the cleaning that I started.
In any case, that does it for this entry.
Jam Master J (and K)
Tonight's cooking class project was strawberry jam. Here we see two of the jars as they cool.
I'll be back with more of an entry (including the story of the inevitable cooking class mishap) later.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Blast From The Past
Most of Threshold is written offline in an increasingly large Microsoft Word document. Looking back through my “Blog Journal” tonight I found this entry.
It was the first time I ever mentioned Sin City here. I just find it interesting that not only has my enthusiasm not waned since then, it’s actually increased.
Seeing the optimistic comments about a third season of “Dead Like Me” made me a little sad, though…
It was the first time I ever mentioned Sin City here. I just find it interesting that not only has my enthusiasm not waned since then, it’s actually increased.
Seeing the optimistic comments about a third season of “Dead Like Me” made me a little sad, though…
Sin City Featured In Maxim Magazine
See a preview of the cover here.
Oddly enough the issue doesn't come out until 18 days after the movie. Still, the Frank Miller cover looks very cool.
Oddly enough the issue doesn't come out until 18 days after the movie. Still, the Frank Miller cover looks very cool.
What Lies Ahead?
So the countdown to Sin City has well and truly begun.
I attempted to buy a ticket in advance this morning, but they’re not yet available for sale.
I would assume that the local theater will have an initial showing of it sometime around 10 am on Friday, which is what I’ll be aiming for.
Once that’s over, I’ll probably grab a quick lunch, then turn around and see it again.
That would actually be a first for me. I’ve gone to see a movie more than once, but never on the same day.
The closest I came to doing something like that happened years ago when my friend Joel took me to see the special edition re-releases of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” for my birthday.
We went in to see “Empire,” watched it, stepped outside so that I could smoke, then walked back in and bought tickets to “Jedi.”
The girl working the ticket counter gave us a curious look, and we responded, “Well, we need to see how it ends.”
After I’ve seen the movie at least once, I will come home to post my review here.
I’m anticipating that the words “coolest,” “movie,” and “ever” will be used at various points in my review.
If not, well…in all honesty, as excited as I am about this movie, and as much as I believe that it will kick ass, I’m fully prepared for it to suck.
And if, by some chance it, does, I won’t fall into a suicidal depression.
Most likely I’ll say, “That sucked,” then go back to my usual routine (though some people seem to equate my usual routine with a suicidal depression).
After all, if one positive thing can be said about living a life filled with disappointments it’s that you pick up coping skills along the way.
In case anyone is wondering, there are actually some additional cinematic efforts that I am, with some amount of trepidation, looking forward to.
They include the obvious one, “Revenge of the Sith,” but do not include some that people might expect.
“Batman Begins,” for example, barely warrants a “meh,” from me, as I have no hope for it being any better than any of the other pieces of trash brought to the screen.
Yes, that includes all of the live-action Batman movies. I don’t think any of them were good. The simple fact that Burton didn’t go with the campy style of the TV series caused people to give him way too much credit. Just because it wasn’t as horrible as it could have been doesn’t mean it was good.
The only decent treatment Batman has ever received outside of the pages of the comics has been in the 90’s animated series and the related series that have come since, such as “Batman: Beyond” and the current “Justice League Unlimited.”
Despite its visual appeal, the “Fantastic Four” movie looks like garbage, and has the potential to destroy the current run of comic book-based movies. If it flops, it could derail many current projects and prevent any additional projects from even getting started.
Still, as mentioned, there are a few things I’m looking forward to further down the horizon, such as the “Hellboy” and “Spider-Man” sequels, which I don’t think can be derailed by the failure of the FF movie.
Much loser at hand is the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” movie, which looks like it could have potential.
Towards the end of the year, presumably, we’ll also be presented with “V for Vendetta.”
I say “presumably,” as there is still the potential for FF to derail existing comic book-based projects that, like this one, have not progressed too far as of yet.
I can’t honestly say that I’m looking forward to “V,” as I’m firmly convinced that it’s impossible for anyone to convey even a portion of Alan Moore’s brilliance on the screen, and if you can’t have it all, in this case at least, I see no point in even bothering.
To date, most attempts at transliterating Moore’s works have failed miserably (“From Hell,” “LXG,” the really, really half-assed attempts at bringing Moore’s version of “Swamp Thing” to life, and, while not lifted directly from his work, “Constantine” owes a debt to Moore).
And when I say failed I mean artistically, as some of them have done reasonably well commercially.
However, the Wachowski brothers (not to be confused with the Venture Bros., which has received the greenlight for a second season, by the way) of “The Matrix” fame are attached to “V,” which means that, at the very least, it could be visually interesting.
As for the rest, well…I’ll reserve judgment for if and when I see it.
There is also talk of making a “Watchmen” movie, which is something that I would be utterly opposed to, as there is no possible way that a movie deserving of the name could ever be made.
Years ago there was talk about making a movie, but, blessedly, it languished in pre-production hell and died…only to be resurrected as a result of the current comic book movie renaissance.
There is currently an entry for it at IMDb, and there is also an official site.
If the FF movie doesn’t kill the comic book movie genre, there is, unfortunately, a very good chance that the movie could get made.
I know that there's essentially no way that it could be any good, but at the very least I hope it’s made with a different script than this one, which was written by Sam Hamm, the hack who cranked out the script for the first “Batman” steaming pile.
Moore himself has refused to become involved with any film adaptations of his work, and, if I recall correctly (I haven’t been able to locate the source on this one) has basically refused to accept any money for any movies based on his work.
In any case, I thought that I should address some of what lies ahead after SC finally bludgeons its way onto movie screens across the country and I no longer have its arrival to anticipate.
I’m sure that I’ll be back with more later, but today is a very dark, wet, and gloomy day, and I’m beginning to think that the most sensible response to such a dark, wet, and gloomy day after having dealt with it for several hours with its darkness, wetness, and gloominess is to climb back into bed and curl up under the covers for a while.
I attempted to buy a ticket in advance this morning, but they’re not yet available for sale.
I would assume that the local theater will have an initial showing of it sometime around 10 am on Friday, which is what I’ll be aiming for.
Once that’s over, I’ll probably grab a quick lunch, then turn around and see it again.
That would actually be a first for me. I’ve gone to see a movie more than once, but never on the same day.
The closest I came to doing something like that happened years ago when my friend Joel took me to see the special edition re-releases of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” for my birthday.
We went in to see “Empire,” watched it, stepped outside so that I could smoke, then walked back in and bought tickets to “Jedi.”
The girl working the ticket counter gave us a curious look, and we responded, “Well, we need to see how it ends.”
After I’ve seen the movie at least once, I will come home to post my review here.
I’m anticipating that the words “coolest,” “movie,” and “ever” will be used at various points in my review.
If not, well…in all honesty, as excited as I am about this movie, and as much as I believe that it will kick ass, I’m fully prepared for it to suck.
And if, by some chance it, does, I won’t fall into a suicidal depression.
Most likely I’ll say, “That sucked,” then go back to my usual routine (though some people seem to equate my usual routine with a suicidal depression).
After all, if one positive thing can be said about living a life filled with disappointments it’s that you pick up coping skills along the way.
In case anyone is wondering, there are actually some additional cinematic efforts that I am, with some amount of trepidation, looking forward to.
They include the obvious one, “Revenge of the Sith,” but do not include some that people might expect.
“Batman Begins,” for example, barely warrants a “meh,” from me, as I have no hope for it being any better than any of the other pieces of trash brought to the screen.
Yes, that includes all of the live-action Batman movies. I don’t think any of them were good. The simple fact that Burton didn’t go with the campy style of the TV series caused people to give him way too much credit. Just because it wasn’t as horrible as it could have been doesn’t mean it was good.
The only decent treatment Batman has ever received outside of the pages of the comics has been in the 90’s animated series and the related series that have come since, such as “Batman: Beyond” and the current “Justice League Unlimited.”
Despite its visual appeal, the “Fantastic Four” movie looks like garbage, and has the potential to destroy the current run of comic book-based movies. If it flops, it could derail many current projects and prevent any additional projects from even getting started.
Still, as mentioned, there are a few things I’m looking forward to further down the horizon, such as the “Hellboy” and “Spider-Man” sequels, which I don’t think can be derailed by the failure of the FF movie.
Much loser at hand is the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” movie, which looks like it could have potential.
Towards the end of the year, presumably, we’ll also be presented with “V for Vendetta.”
I say “presumably,” as there is still the potential for FF to derail existing comic book-based projects that, like this one, have not progressed too far as of yet.
I can’t honestly say that I’m looking forward to “V,” as I’m firmly convinced that it’s impossible for anyone to convey even a portion of Alan Moore’s brilliance on the screen, and if you can’t have it all, in this case at least, I see no point in even bothering.
To date, most attempts at transliterating Moore’s works have failed miserably (“From Hell,” “LXG,” the really, really half-assed attempts at bringing Moore’s version of “Swamp Thing” to life, and, while not lifted directly from his work, “Constantine” owes a debt to Moore).
And when I say failed I mean artistically, as some of them have done reasonably well commercially.
However, the Wachowski brothers (not to be confused with the Venture Bros., which has received the greenlight for a second season, by the way) of “The Matrix” fame are attached to “V,” which means that, at the very least, it could be visually interesting.
As for the rest, well…I’ll reserve judgment for if and when I see it.
There is also talk of making a “Watchmen” movie, which is something that I would be utterly opposed to, as there is no possible way that a movie deserving of the name could ever be made.
Years ago there was talk about making a movie, but, blessedly, it languished in pre-production hell and died…only to be resurrected as a result of the current comic book movie renaissance.
There is currently an entry for it at IMDb, and there is also an official site.
If the FF movie doesn’t kill the comic book movie genre, there is, unfortunately, a very good chance that the movie could get made.
I know that there's essentially no way that it could be any good, but at the very least I hope it’s made with a different script than this one, which was written by Sam Hamm, the hack who cranked out the script for the first “Batman” steaming pile.
Moore himself has refused to become involved with any film adaptations of his work, and, if I recall correctly (I haven’t been able to locate the source on this one) has basically refused to accept any money for any movies based on his work.
In any case, I thought that I should address some of what lies ahead after SC finally bludgeons its way onto movie screens across the country and I no longer have its arrival to anticipate.
I’m sure that I’ll be back with more later, but today is a very dark, wet, and gloomy day, and I’m beginning to think that the most sensible response to such a dark, wet, and gloomy day after having dealt with it for several hours with its darkness, wetness, and gloominess is to climb back into bed and curl up under the covers for a while.
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