A Movie Every Night: Green for Danger

Green For Danger (1946)
Director: Sidney Gilliat
Starring: Sally Gray, Trevor Howard (wheet whoo), Rosamund John, Alastair Sim, Leo Genn

Sally Gray, Leo Genn, Trevor Howard, Megs Jenkins and Rosamund John
One of you is a murderer

My GOD I love the Criterion Collection.

This is a somewhat above average murder mystery in that the mystery is a little weak, but everything else is fantastic. The inspector on the case (played by a sly Alastair Sim) gets all the good lines and he shoots them out with a wonderful casual flippancy. He's like a shaved, well-mannered Dr. House. Trevor Howard and Leo Genn are the central men, both capable of love or murder, and the nurses, Sally Gray, Rosamund John, Judy Campbell and Megs Jenkins (who always seems to play a nurse or a housekeeper), have distinct characters and personalities, unlike the typical damsel-in-distress types. It's easy to believe that they could all be capable of murder, but who could it be......

Inspector Cockrill examines ghostly fingerprints left by the victim

Why do I love Criterion? Because this film is beautifully restored so that every nuance is highlighted, from the back lighting through the cabinet to illuminate a victim's fingerprints on glass, to the sharpening up of the background so that we can see the eerie hanging skeleton decorations at the hospital party. (Nurse "Freddie" remarks that it's August, so it's not Halloween. Are the skeletons some nurse's nutty idea of decorations or is it a presentiment of things to come?)

Dr. Barnes drinks away his troubles while the ornamental dead look on

Even the drinks shine with luminosity that made me thirsty for a cocktail (until they started talking about poison). By cleaning up the negative they've restored all of the purposeful shadows and lights, and the sound is so clean you can hear every innuendo that passes between them all. Sure, as mysteries go, the story could have used a little more work at the resolution, but watching it lead up to that point was more than worth it.

Tomorrow, what you've all been waiting for: La Decima Vittima (1965)

A Movie Every Night: Dracula

Dracula (1970)
Director: Jesus Franco (you heard me)
Starring: Christopher Lee, Klaus Kinski, Herbert Lom, Fred Williams, Maria Rohm

One of the many shots detailing the inside of someone's nose

That was excruciating.

I've seen Ed Wood pictures with more going for them than this. I've seen educational films about wheat harvests with more going for them than this. Klaus Kinski, who might have saved it with his craziness, only gets to croak out one word: "Varna." That's it. The rest of the time he's wandering around staring and shaking his hair out of his eyes, and while he's doing it there's a camera man capturing it all. I know, because I saw him.

Shadow of the vampire? Nope, it's the shadow of the hand-held camera guy. Should we shoot it again? Jesus Franco, why should we?

A Movie Every Night: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss

Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss (1982)
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Starring: Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, Cornelia Froboess, Annemarie Duringer

Poor Veronika, always in some kind of prison

"Love is the best, most insidious, most effective instrument of social repression." -- Ranier Werner Fassbinder

We move from love to suffocation. Everybody is trapped and repressed by something in this movie, whether it's drugs or other people. They want to be free to express art, because, as Veronika says, if you're not free your art isn't free

The contrasts lighting is high and intense. The whites are so blown out sometimes that the darks get sucked in. It's brutal and illuminating. There are plenty of fun little references to UFA, usually in things said by the characters, but more often by the Expressionist sets (what's a mirror ball doing at the drug clinic?). Everything is blank, brutal, cold and full of misery. The war imprisoned Germany, which is then imprisoned by Americans with their black market morphine and their silly music ("The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton in particular). No one escapes until they die.

Yeah, it was a fun Friday night.

And angels sing thee to thy rest

Good luck, Michael Jackson fans. If you think you're going to get in to his spot at Forest Lawn Glendale I've got a little story for you.

I was a regular at Forest Lawn back when I was a kid (or after I was old enough to drive, but not old as I am now). I would go every month and hang out with Spencer Tracy and Alan Ladd and smoke cigarettes with Errol Flynn.

(Photo from seeing-stars.com)

It was nice. No one seemed to mind my being there and I always brought them daisies because daisies are kind of simple and sweet and less showy than roses. I couldn't afford roses in any case.

Once I was there with friends and we went into the Great Mausoleum with the sincere intention of paying a visit to my hero, Irving Thalberg (okay, you people in my dish about him cutting Greed need to lay off -- it's a complicated story and von Stroheim was mad. A genius, sure, but barking mad)(but I digress). We went in, sat through the entire Last Supper stained-glass window presentation (here's how it looks at sunrise ... now, sunset ...) about how the glass came from Italy piece-by-piece la la la. We get up, after respectfully offering this tribute of attention, and walk over to the Sanctuary of Benediction --- not to go in it, mind, just to lay our daisies at the gate --- and a guard was on us like THAT. No, no, no, he says. You have to go now. It's not allowed.

Paying your respects is not allowed at Forest Lawn Glendale. Remember that.

So, while I don't begrudge the famous a little peace in the end, it kind of sucks to get turned away when you're on a sincere mission of adoration. However, at Hollywood Memorial Park (or whatever it's called now) you can lie on top of Tyrone Power without a hassle. That's all I'm sayin'.

A Movie Every Night: Star Trek The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Director: Robert Wise
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, yeah, yeah, yeah...
Special Bluray edition
(which means the screen shots are courtesy of Nikon and the cousin/roommate)

Kirk, Spock and Bones: as it should be, friends

The idea behind this series is to watch movies I either haven't seen before or haven't seen all the way through. Now, I know you're going to think I'm lying on this one, but the only Star Trek movie I've ever seen all the way through is The Wrath of Khan. Honest as the day is long -- no, wait, I saw that one with the whales, but I never saw the first movie, although I think I maybe tried to watch it once way back when it was on SelecTV and the only thing I remember is that VGER was Voyager. I'm sorry, did I ruin it for anyone? I haven't. Honestly, by the time you get to that point you're already kind of sleepy anyway and the surprise is a little lifeless. It takes them 20 minutes just to get Kirk on board the Enterprise. (That's 20 minutes in a shuttle, not 20 minutes of forwarding the story.)

My mother likes this one, she says, because it's a love story. I think she's absolutely right. Kirk loves his ship enough to challenge the new captain out of ownership. The new captain, soon to demote down to commander, Will Dekker (Stephen Collins), loves the navigator, Lt. Ilia (Persis Khambatta), who apparently likes him, sort-of, but won't sleep with him or anyone, apparently, because she tells the captain and the entire crew that she is celibate even though no one asks.

Brokeback Enterprise

There are some sweet moments of boy-love between Kirk and Spock, machines love other machines --- it's a crazy universe. But the big love is clearly reserved for Dekker and Ilia, who ... it's complicated. Let's just call her Veeger and she's a machine, right, and she has feelings, right, but doesn't have feelings, right, and the machine wants to know if there's MORE, right, than just being a machine, right, so it's tapping into feelings, right, and so the mommy and the daddy when they get together....

Dekker "mates" with the machine

Kirk's reaction: How is it I've never had that kind of action?

Yes, my mother is right. It's all about love, love, Love!

A Movie Every Night: The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia (2006)
Director: Brian De Palma
Starring: Josh Harnett, Scarlett Johansson, not nearly enough Aaron Eckhart and far too much Hilary Swank

Josh Hartnett doing what he does best: staring into brown space

"Junior Nash was an inbred, Okie shit-kicker."

That's the only line in the movie worth quoting and it's straight out of Ellroy. I haven't read this book in years, but I seem to remember being interested in what happened to the characters. It was a grisly case, no one was all good or all bad, and that trip down to Tijuana and finding Lee and how he really dies ----- dude. My friend Jeff said he had to shower after reading it. In this version we get guys falling from a balcony and death in a fountain (which reminds me, Scarface is on tv tonight). It was really hard to care about what happened to these people and maybe I wasn't supposed to care, but, then again, maybe investing in them might have made it a better movie to sit through because it certainly made it a good book.

I blame the sepia tone. The whole thing is coated in brown except for one artsy moment at the end, one real, colorful, exciting moment and it's OH wait it's a nightmare hallucination.

Color = bad.

Oh Brian ... geez, you know, when you were copying Hitchcock I thought it was really cool. Some people thought you were just being unimaginative. I said nooooooo he's paying homage. He appreciates Hitchcock. He wants to show his love of Hitch's style. And, sure, some of the acting is kind of flat in The Untouchables, but Mamet's hard to do if you're not used to it ("Nice house. I said. Nice. House.") and who cared since the music was Morricone and the clothes were Armani? But you had Ellroy here. You had some hopped up great dialogue and it's drowned in floppy fake music and lost in weird, slow, unnecessary moments of nothingness.

You could have at least kept the Ensenada burial ground.

O

The full moon is coming. I know because this came through the work email this morning:


Message: You have an employee at one of your San Antonio by the name [name removed, but it was in the email] who used to work the bakery dept. at the Cosco store here in El Paso, TX I need to buy some pot and cocain from him as well as his usual store merchandise he steels and sells. Can you help me contac him?\\ thanks tom


"Tom" also provided his phone number and email address so we could hook him up with the Steelin' Deeler. Oh yeah, I don't work for Costco, so I'm not entirely sure why he chose us for this message, but I'm so glad he did.

A Movie Every Night: A Hard Day's Night

A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Director: Richard Lester
Starring: John, Paul, George, Ringo, and Wilfrid Brambell (the 5th Beatle)

John shares his hobbies

Maybe you don't have brothers. Maybe you haven't seen Jackass. Maybe you went to an all-girls school for your entire life and have never once run around like crazy with a group of boys who don't care if they tear their pants or fall on their face because the fun is in the freedom and the laughing and the falling down and tearing your pants.

It's pretty infectious.

And let's face it, adults are boring. They have to conform to conventions. They have to be reasonable. And it's funny, if you think about it, being middle-aged and old takes up most of your time. Get out once and awhile and forget what you've got to do and be what you really are. Parade yourself before it's too late!

Honestly, who can't appreciate that? Love them, like them, hate them -- I defy anyone to keep from joining in however briefly you do so.

Ringo contemplates the diagonal with his lovely Pentax

We all know the ending. We've seen the future. The beautiful black and white photography of Gilbert Taylor is lovely and somewhat poignant, knowing that he later did that weird hazy work in The Omen and the silly, eye-popping Flash Gordon. But this is the past, right after he shot Dr. Strangelove and right before Repulsion; when Richard Lester could move his camera through train corridors and chase his subjects down streets; when the boys were all young and alive and happy.

Do the pony and the jerk, let go of the night and fly through the day. You won't regret it. Not one moment.

Until it ends.

A Movie Every Night: Marked Woman

Marked Woman (1937)
Director: Lloyd Bacon (mmmm bacon)
Starring: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane, the delightful Isabel Jewell

Hostesses with the mostest-es
left to right: Mayo Methot, Lola Lane, Bette Davis, Rosalind Marquis, Isabel Jewell

Hard day on the job? Your boss treating you like you're an idiot? Jerks barking at you on the phone? So, let's say you work at this clip joint run by a mobster and you go all night cozying up to guys, trying to get them to lose at craps, hoping to get a cut of the action so you can pay the gas bill. You think you're smart, because so far you've kept going on the dimes they throw you, but you've got this dopey kid sister who gets mixed up in the "fun" and ends up dead. That sucks, huh? Whaddya gonna do about it? You think you're going to talk, do you? Well, let's say the mobster gets his goons to put the double-cross on the side of your face to shut you up.

So, you go to the DA, but he's not going to help you because you lied once to protect your mobster boss. Why should he believe you now? Because he's got it for you, baby. You're his kind of girl, only you're a "hostess" and he's legit and at the end it's just you and the girls walking off into the fog while reporters start primping him for a run at governor.

So think about it, as you watch them saunter away into the dark, leaving the vocal devotees of society's moral code who support justice, but reject those who serve it: working girls looking for a break, hoping to show that they have scruples like anyone else.

They just work crap jobs.

Today's "I cut my tongue on these pancakes" Moment

cust: YES
cust: I HAVE A CONPLAINT
cust: HELLO
us: I'm sorry to hear that, how can I help you today?
us: Hello---
us: How can I help you today?
cust: WHEN I OPENED A PACK OF YOUR DENTYNE ICE GUM I GOT A SLIVER OF METAL IN MY FINGER
cust: I SPOKE TO A FEW FRIENDS AND THEY SAID IT HAPPENED TO THEM ALSO

It made my day.

Sholay!

Or, as it's known on the Netflix envelope G.P. Sippy's: Sholay.

Best movie EVER --- and we've only watched half of it. It's a really nutty mix of 1970's action and 1960's American western, and I swear, we just watched an almost shot by shot homage to Once Upon A Time in the West and it was AWESOME. Yeah, sure, you've got to get past the silly motorcycle song and the somewhat awkward Hitler humor, but it's totally worth it.

Oh, and Amitabh Bachchan steals it from Dharmendra with his dazzling urbanite coolness. He is my new hero.

unFair

I apologize if you've heard this metaphor before, but I can't think of a better one -- It used to be that hearing a concert at the Lane County Fair was like buying a vowel on Wheel of Fortune: Why would I pay $13 to stand on one side of the barrier when I can hear the same music for free on the other side of the barrier (or the front lawn of our house)? It's useless. I'm not shelling out dough for something I can get for free. Well, apparently someone got wise and moved the concerts inside one of the exhibition halls, right next to the room with the cakes, cookies and shortbreads, and now you can't hear it outside anymore.

Which, on the aside, it was pretty funny to be looking at Junior Yeast Breads and listening some local opening band shout out the old "ROCK ON EUGENE" on the other side of the wall.

This year's big act was Foreigner. We didn't pay for the show (as usual), but since the good bathrooms are in the exhibition halls anyway I figured we'd catch at least one decent song by doing a pop-in. What do you think is playing? Is it "Hot Blooded"? "Urgent"? "Cold as Ice"? "Juke Box Hero"? ANY of the great ones????

No. It was "I Want to Know What Love Is." And since security was there to move along loiterers trying to catch the show for free in the hallway, there was no chance to wait around for something better.

Boo.

So we went on the Zipper. TWICE. The second time my sunglasses zipped right out of the cage. We found them later on the midway.

Thank God for contact lenses, man. That's all. If my bi-focals had come off they'd have knocked somebody out.

This one's for my dad

My pop didn't believe me when I told him I had seen this, so I used the sh--ty phone camera to capture it for posterity.


Who would buy this? You know that when you get it up to the register the first thing they're going to look at is your turkey neck. "That'll be $42.5--wow that is bad."

It's a little better on their website where the tough love packaging is replaced by a common sense tag line: "If you have skin... you need StriVectin®!" Whew, good thing only a few of us have skin. And as much as I love the ellipsis as a pause between thoughts, I'm not sure what its purpose is there. "If you have skin..." -- take a moment and think about it. Do you have skin? Do you? Really... Do you? Okay then, you need...

I used to like Mondays

I wake up this morning 3 times because I have to pee, walking through the kitchen in the dark without my glasses 3 TIMES to the bathroom on the other side of the house. The last time I was actually awake to do my morning routine, so my glasses are on as I come out of the bathroom, and I reach down to change the cat's food and see this mutha-...er waiting for me.

Yes, I've used the picture before. No, it's not the actual spider, just a small reproduction of the GIANT NUCLEAR TEST AREA INSECT that was staring me down. It was bigger than Veda's head. It was so big, we could leash it and take it for walks. We could put a saddle on it and run it before judges at the fair. If you wanted to call it, you'd have to look up its f...ing country code. And I had walked past it, over it, brushed against it, traded witty bon mots with it 3 TIMES without even knowing it.

But it was in the kitchen and in the kitchen it's bad luck to kill a spider. "If you want to live and thrive, let a spider stay alive." Don't ask me, I just know that to kill it I would have to get something really big and certain, like the car, to make sure it died and then I'd have bad luck for all that trouble. Worth it? Perhaps not.

So I got the big Watney's Red Barrel pint round and trapped it. I put Saran Wrap on the top and poked it full of holes until the cousin could get up and take him outside.

Then I vomited.

Then I called the tow truck guy to come pick up the Honda because the clutch didn't work and I thought I'd be smart, right? Help him. Move it from the driveway into the street, right? So I let it roll and it gets stuck there with the back end sticking out into the street. I think ... "hmm ... maybe I can get it into reverse," and I could, but then it would stall when I let up on the clutch because the clutch didn't work. Remember how the clutch doesn't work? Yeah, so then I got the shift stuck in reverse with the car sticking out into the street. My neighbor left her house and drove away as though I wasn't even there. Thanks, neighbor. So I'm playing classics of 1960's Hindi films until her dog barks itself hoarse.

But then, after working and fretting and trying not to worry about finding other spiders in the house, we get home (eventually, by many means, but without the car) and put in A History of Violence and that, my friends, made me believe in film again. God bless us everyone.

At least you've got your health

I like the Wii Fit, don't get me wrong. I like when it tells me my Wii Fit age is 22, because that's pretty satisfying. But it's a real jerk sometimes. It asked me today if I wanted to "review my sleep habits," which I've done before. It consists of the machine asking you how many hours you sleep at night and then telling you how wrong that is. So I said "No." "Well, you might want to think about it." This is a plastic board that sits on the floor telling me this. It shut up when I scored perfect on the walking test. Usually it asks if I trip when I walk.

So that's how I start my day, followed by a trip to my bathroom where the fan -- I swear -- smells like BO when it runs. The cousin/roommate doesn't believe me.
"It smells like a taxi driver."
"Oh yeah, what's his name?"
"Harvey."
"Does he have a beard?"
"Yes."
"So what's his sign?"
"Scorpio, maybe Saggitarius."
"You're making it up, K. I don't smell a thing."

Okay, so I don't care about my sleep habits, I'm Wii 22 and I'm crazy. Boh. And my platelets dropped to 39, but my weight dropped to 140, so there's a kind of Zen balance there.

I started to scan the photos. Here's one of my great-grandmother. Mom says she looks like me, but I think we just have the same way of pursing our lips (she tends to keep her eyes open).


And this little cutie is my grandmother (before she hit the Busby Berkeley chorus line):

It's so funny how pictures capture kids' expressions that you later see in them as adults. I don't think any of us really changes. We all just get taller.

Instant Karma's Gonna Git You

This is what I get for starting the morning with a rant.

This was the first experience and it was actually with a co-worker. He came back later and got me and said the same thing, but it was much longer. This was shorter and you get this gist (all typos are verbatim):

Is this your first visit?
Visitor: yes
Great! We appreciate the opportunity to assist you! How can I help you today?
Visitor: The new "Dixon Ticonderoga" are junk. I just bought 2 boxes of each.
Did you buy them from us? What is your order number please?
Visitor: I don't remember. That's not the point. The point is that you're pedaling cheap Chinese junk, and passing if off as known quality mdse.
I'm sorry you are unhappy with the product--
Visitor: If you thik passing the junk as quality mdse, you are a young modern that should not have your job. If you choose to not answer me, it won't change my opinion. I will look for qulity elsewhere. You and your low quality company can look for customers that don't know any better. Don't try to pass this off with sarcastic comments. Try doing your job and pass along my criticism.
Visitor: I am the customer! For a fact!

He concluded this with "End of Message" and then told me that co-worker had hung up on him.

He gave us his name later and it turned out that he had purchased them from someone else -- for a fact! -- and most of my chat time with him was trying to convince him of this. He was a retired former Federal employee, so who the hell was I to tell him he was wrong? Some young modern, I guess.

Politics and Religion

I keep hearing people complain about how Obama's not "doing anything," especially the Christian Coalition co-worker who sits behind me and likes to bark along with her blaring right-wing radio programs, carping on and on about how the Democrats fought so hard to get into office and what have they done? What? Have? They? Done? And how she hopes there will be a town-hall meeting in Eugene so she can go and shout down her congressman.

For the love of God.

Here are some reminders so you can follow along:

Your man got us into this mess. He got us into the war, into a shite economy, into people getting thrown out of their homes and losing health care.
Your party's policies have made it impossible to pull yourself up without government assistance -- yes, that bad ol' government who should stay out of the lives of its citizens and can't now because you expect it to save the lives of its citizens.
Your man had 8 years to do this.

Our man's been on the job since January. No, not vacationing in Texas and playing golf -- he's actually on the job. He's just started untangling the knot that your man created and he's got a lot on his plate right now. He's got to start unraveling your junk while still trying to manage the new junk that keeps coming in. And if you want to go downtown and shout down your congressman for not being the Magic Man, then go right ahead and let everyone else see what a great big moron you are. Go on, ask them why they haven't fixed the economy that apparently just turned bad in January because it was so great before that.

Oh, and before I forget, cops asking for color on a suspect description IS racial profiling, and if Prof. Gates wants to "throw the race card" it's not unfair, it's what whitey has been doing for over 200 years. (Old news? Ask anyone in Oregon who isn't white.)

Full Moon? Yes.

Actual phone conversation (with some security changes) that just happened:

Me: -------------.com, this is li'l hateful.
Customer: Yeah, my order is 79490.
Me: I'm sorry, that's not one of our order numbers. Was this ordered from ------------.com?
Customer (barking): Who else would I have ordered it from?!
Me (tries to read mind. fails): I don't know. What's your name?
Customer: Jim L------.
Me (checks order database): I'm sorry, I don't show that you've ordered from us. What is the item?
Customer: What good with that do you if you say I didn't order from you???
Me: I can get you a phone number for someone who can help if I know what this is regarding.

Customer launches into long involved story about a big and tall executive chair that he ordered on Tuesday, just received, the guys put it in his office, he sat in it, got up to get coffee, came back AND THERE WAS A HOLE IN IT! A HOLE!!!!!

Me: Well, we haven't sold that chair since May, so I --
Customer: Listen, I've got a Staples catalog sitting on my desk. What does that tell you?

(pause to control laughter and snarky response ... fail)

Me: It tells me you ordered it from Staples. Here's their phone number.

*** that was followed by this email from someone else ***

"Our order was received and I am very pleased, thank you. If you had any sort of coupon toward our next hypothetical order, I think I could sell my boss on locking you in as a go-to."

Sure, here's a virtual coupon for your hypothetical order.

Having a Helluva Time. Wish You Were Here

Am I stuck in a perpetual trap of rushing around and not having time to blog? How the hell did I ever find time for school? I wake up, go to work, come home and the day is completely shot. I blame Wii.

So, to recap the last couple of weeks:

art - lovely(That's me with the Hopper - eyes closed, wrong ISO, mom taking at a blurry angle - perfect)

gambled - lost

sunburn - still red(that's my sunburn, yeh. It goes to 11)

back to oregon - hot

family pictures - haven't scanned them
(autograph - JOAN CRAWFORD!!!) (story for Antiques Roadshow - in my head)

photo story - published at last

now - ... ... I forget what I was doing now. Oh well, that about sums it up for this week. Come back again next week when we'll explore the benefits of coffee together.

Still working holiday photos, but in the meantime...

For those of you without Facebook, the big news today is my photo story hit the web as part of the Summer edition of Etude Magazine:

http://etude.uoregon.edu/summer2009/

And, no, in answer to questions in my email already, she has not yet bought a car. "I'm saving," she said. "It's a work in progress now."

I'm celebrating tonight with ice cream and Di Soronno.

And maybe I'll start scanning some stuff, sure...

Have pictures -- too hot to scan them. Too hot to do laundry. Too hot to sleep, eat, breathe, be, blog.

We wait all year for the summer and the first one that comes is BAM just too hot.

Weird that with all the karma flags and well-meaning hippies that Oregon's earned a living hell. Go figure.

Retired

This is the first visit to the parent's house when they've both been retired and it's kind of weird to be the first one up and about. When I was a kid I was the last one out of bed every time. Pop was always up around 5 and out of the house before 6. Now the coffee doesn't even come on until 7 and they're still not awake.

Should I go jump on the bed and pull the covers off like they used to do to me?

I guess they've worked hard enough at the early rise. Retirement means sleep.

Yesterday's trip to the Huntington was long and hot and left me collapsed on the bed when we got back. The car temperature came in at 108 when we were leaving and mom has red legs now because we forgot to spray on the sun screen. But the gardens were lovely and it's always a pleasure to see a Hopper up close (The Last Leg purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr). And they didn't throw us out of the tea room, even though mom had her elbows on the table and I spilled caviar down my sleeve after having already dropped a water cress sandwich on top of the hummus.

But the art ... mein Gott ... they had this lovely item in the Steele Gallery:


This is not my picture of it, since I have to wait until I'm home to download off the Nikon -- it's actually taken off of a Wikipedia page on Augustus Saint-Gaudens. (Wikipedia ... I'm so ashamed.) -- but it's relatively the same as the one we saw. Honestly, Stevenson in bed smoking and writing? How can you not hero-worship the man? The card next to it said he was in bed due to the tuberculosis. What a sugar coat. He had weak lungs, sure, and maybe lighting one cigarette off the other isn't such a good idea when you have weak lungs, but he didn't have TB. He just liked working in bed.

The kids are up and the coffee's done. Time to move on. Today we're going gambling so no lap top and no update until I'm super rich on Friday. WHOO HOO.

Antique's Roadshow?

Pop has boxes of old photos that came out of my grandmother's trailer. He was going to throw them away, but I told him to wait until I got down here so I could go through them all. My eyes are red from the dust and now I can't sleep because among the snappy photos of my grandfather (who was quite a looker -- so was gramma) are the following treasures:

- two tickets to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics: one for fencing and one for gymnastics
- a program from the games with notes made by grandma on who won what and how
- a whole series of programs from these Catholic conferences they had every year at the Ambassador Hotel, which I was kind of skipping over, to be honest, because who cares, right? The last one, from 1934, has signatures on the front of someone named Mary something with a C, Sid Grauman (Grauman's Chinese Theatre, have ya heard of it?) and Joan Crawford.

Yeah. YEAH. Joan "Mommy Dearest" Johnny Guitar Crawford!

I almost threw up I was so excited. I knew she mixed and matched with Hollywood folk, but this is before grandma was even working in pictures. She was only 17 (gramma not Joan).

Gramma why didn't you tell me? Why why why why didn't you fill my head with stories while you were alive?

I'm getting all of the boxes shipped to me and the scanner will be working over time. I will be creating a new blog with all of this stuff and pictures pictures pictures.

Forget gambling. I've already won.

Going to California for a while. I'll take lovely photos.

See you later ---- oh yeah, go see Moon. It was good n' stuff. If you're in Eugene it's still playing at the Bijou, just don't sit in front of the kids who think "Live and Let Die" was sung by a band called Band on the Rhine. They know not wherefore of they speak.

Saturday Morning's Alright for Fighting

At Costco I persuaded the cousin/roommate to buy Saturday Morning Cartoons 1970s Volume 1. It was cheap and it promised some Yogi Bear, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch AND the Funky Phantom. What's not to love?

As kids we used to watch the Saturday morning previews of the new cartoons and then the older brother would make us a schedule of what we'd watch -- which sounds really obsessive and weird, but it kept us from fighting ... sometimes. We'd watch ABC (channel 7) until Bugs Bunny came on, and then we'd move to channel 2 all the way through to the live action stuff: Shazam, Isis, and that show about the people driving around in what looked like an elongated styrofoam burger box -- I don't know what it was called, but they solved environmental issues in a post-apocalyptic Earth (it had a monkey and some Robert Foxworth-y looking guy, that's all I remember).

Anyway, so we get this disc set and first we watched it like a treasure box, waiting to see what would come up next, but that requires sitting through some serious crap. The c/r has decided it's better to use the episode guide on each disc, but I'm beginning to think the crap has something to offer as well, if only because it provides such an interesting study of how crappy crap can be.

I know a lot of people pick on Hanna-Barbera -- the backgrounds are bland, the characters are flat, the stories are bad and, in general, movement defies the laws of physics. Friends, you just haven't seen it up against Filmation.

Now, I know you Filmation die-hards are going to bark at me about the use of rotoscoping and live models and the characters have real movement -- hell, they will even sometimes throw in a shadow or two in the opening credits -- but they are the biggest offenders of lazy repeat shots and appear to be complete incapable of producing depth of field.

Hanna-Barbera:













Without even knowing the story, already you can tell it's early in the morning for George, his hair is a mess, he needs a shave, his hands (on arms made of noodle, sure) are in motion, and the detail on the house makes it seem like a Wes Anderson movie over the Michael Bay-ish production of Filmation:













Sure, there's some detail -- we know they're playing Pong (how topical!) and it's maybe in a garage because the background is concrete texture (or it's really old film stock), but it's dead, flat space with, what, 3 colors? Maybe 4 if you count the yellow "GAME OVER" part.

The character detail is just as exciting, perhaps more so:














Successive shots -- that Robin is a pretty intellectual fella. And what's all that happening in the background? Oh yeah, there's NOTHING happening in the background, that's what. If there was they may not be able to use the shot again.

Maybe I should hold off on my opinion until we get the Super Friends series from Netflix. But I can't say anything bad about Aquaman no matter who draws him.

What the hell --- where's summer off to?

Yeah, I'm not getting around to the blog. I'm exercising all the time, and then the cousin's cat died (represented by the "cat" in the drawing of my pet-sitting sleep habits last March) and I really liked that cranky pet, and she (the cousin who had the cranky pet) is moving to Atlanta n' junk and there's all the "last week in Eugene" festivities and packing and garage sales in the heaviest rain since winter, and that Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was 2-1/2 hours long! and I had to watch the whole thing to see what happened (he was married to her, but disguised as this macho guy, but she didn't recognize him because he wore a moustache as the husband, but then he asks her to cheat on him with his other self ... I love Bollywood) -- so ... yeah ... I thought being done with school meant having all this free time and I don't see the payoff coming.

Although I guess I had some free time not too long ago, but I seemed to have squandered it on ridiculous wasteful habits of sleep and book reading.

I'll try to get one or two posts in before the gambling junket next week. Mom and I are booked for tea at the Huntington Library on Monday (do I get free cake cuz it's my birfday?) and then it's off to Pala to lose at penny slots and get a sunburn. Good times. If I don't get a post in before then, well, now you know what I'll be doing, so the cat's out of the bag.

Oh, the cat out of the bag. She was a good cat. Poor Marosa. I just can't picture her scampering up the Rainbow Bridge. I assume she'll just wait patiently at the steps for her owners to come and tote her over one day.

Going to see Moon tonight. I'll tell you how it is.

Skip a bit if you're tired of Formula 1

Sorry to post F1 stories all the time, but every day I read some f-up story about the people who run it. Chief f-up is Bernie Ecclestone, President and CEO of F1. On July 4th he gave an interview to The Times where he said "that he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and praised Adolf Hitler for his ability 'to get things done.'" (You can read the whole thing here.)

Bernie's hit back at criticism, saying that it's all a big misunderstanding:

"I wasn't using Hitler as a positive example, but pointing out that before his dreadful crimes he worked successfully against unemployment and economic problems," said Ecclestone.

The wide-circulation German newspaper (the Bild) asked the Briton if he felt the need to apologise.

"It was never my intention to hurt the feelings of any community," Bernie replied. "Many people in my closest circle of friends are Jewish.

"Anyone who knows me knows that I would never attack a minority," he added.

nice.

Wii played

Rather than pay my rent, I'm going to blog about the weekend.

The cousin/roommate's parents were in town and we showed them a pretty good time -- which translates to: we spent the most of the time inside the house exercising with the Wii. Another set of parents gets seduced by the power of Nintendo. My parents are saving their Social Security up to buy one and now the c/r's folks have gone back to Hawaii with the intention of getting a Wii and the Wii Fit that goes with it. They love the yoga and the push up/plank (I know! who likes that one?) and the fact that it tells them that their Body Mass Index is "normal" while every morning the c/r and I hear "that's overweight" in that child's voice, like a 4 year-old is telling you some obvious yet embarassing truth in the middle of a shopping mall.

They also got into Rock Band, which was fun. We'd never had a vocalist before, but they sold Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker" solid. Couldn't get them to do Styx's "Renegade" though -- had to sucker the cousin into it.

Now they're gone and we're back at work and we don't get Friday off for some reason, and Saturday is the 4th of July and I'm trying hard not to be cynical because we're a new country now, but I've spent years smirking at "I'm proud to be an AMERICAIN where at least ah know ahm FREEEEEEEEE," so to realize that maybe now, yes, I am kinda proud of my country, it feels a lot like the semi's jack-knifed on the overpass and I'm still waiting for the tow truck to help me straighten out.

Pop goes the King

The death of Michael Jackson makes me sad for the following reasons:

- it has completely over-shadowed Farrah and she had anal cancer ... dude ... all that only to get busted out as top story
- who can fill the tabloids like he could? the virtual wealth, the baby dropping, Prince Michael, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II (aka "Blanket"). Come on, there's no one to take his place, not even Jon and Kate or any of the Housewives rolled together
- his death is referred to on every news story/news cast as "The King of Pop has died today," which means that, yes, when Madonna goes one day we will have to hear "The Material Girl was 87 when she..."
- who gets the Jeff Koons sculpture of Bubbles? And what about 50% of the Beatles songs?
- the movie channels will be playing "The Wiz" all weekend now and I'll never get "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" out of my head
- who had him picked in the third star pool? nobody.
- will this create an even bigger spectacle of public mourning than the death of Princess Di?

I just feel as though there's now this void in the world, sucked clean of the phrase "Wacko Jacko".

It is a sad day.

correction

No mention of Jon and Kate in the office, but I was ripped for not caring that Ed McMahon died. I thought he'd died last year. What do I know?

Down time in the down turn

You'd think I'd have a lot more free time to my day now that school is over.

And you'd be right. I spend a lot of it sleeping, which leads to a general lack of completion for everything else -- although that's not entirely true, since I did manage to finish a book on Sunday, but still, other stuff just can't seem to move up to the top of my list, like buy food or laundry.

I do manage to Wii Fit every day and can't seem to lose a bit of weight, although my Fit age went down to 21 last night. I even did the 10 minute boxing and got a "Good job" out of the boxing Wii (who usually barks at me for not breaking a sweat or tells me that he knows I can do better -- how does he know? He's a Wii). Whatever. Maybe this is my optimal weight or maybe I'm gaining all this incredible muscle and it's making me heavier. Yeah .... that's it.

Jon and Kate are breaking up. I'm sure at work today they'll be berating me for not feeling sorry enough for them. I'm sorry they're getting divorced, although, from what I hear, they weren't exactly happy anyway, but I can't really work up the tears. There are so many other people out there with 8 kids who don't live in big houses and go on paid vacations to the Carribbean. Those people deserve more sympathy than these meatheads. If one of them had a job, maybe I'd think of them as people, but it's like The Bachelor/'ette. I find it really hard to get excited about pretty well-adjusted people trying to find dates. "Oh boo hoo, she had to dump the tan one for the fireman, what a difficult decision. Her life must be hell." That kind of thing.

rrrrar ... I don't even watch that Jon and Kate show. I had no intention of getting involved in their drama. Damn them for being on the cover of US every week. Why? Why?

Blog As News = Rental

This citizen journalism thing is for dopes. I'm going to keep writing about myself and my great life and my great self in my great life. Or maybe comment on exciting international (yet strangely personal) news like this:

F1 faces split as eight teams break away
Eurosport Fri, 19 Jun 11:47:00 2009

Formula One plunged into its biggest crisis in 60 years with eight of the 10 teams announcing plans to set up their own championship.

So long Bernie Ecclestone, you destructive idiot muppet bastard. For years he has run this sport into the ground along with Max Mosley (you remember him, the guy caught on video in the Nazi party with the hookers). I hope this is solid and the teams don't turn back because with them go the sponsors, the drivers and the best cars, and coming back are the great circuits like Indianapolis and Silverstone (which was getting cut after this year) and maybe even a return to South Africa or Mexico.

Man, I wish the US team had jumped in, even if they haven't responded to my resume.

I feel so very different

Whoo! University of Oregon RULES! The dean actually ended the ceremony with "Go Ducks."

Dude.

Yeah, that's my cap. You can't really tell, but it has a glitter sealant keeping the newspaper down. I wanted to be seen n' stuff. There are more pictures in the Flickr. Most of the time I had my eyes closed or my mouth open or both. I tried to pick out pictures that had a little less of that. Sorry, I have a weird face for photos.

So, it's over now and the family and friends have returned to their normal lives -- the brother has called and said he felt "bad" about not being here (I said, "Good.") and he didn't say "badly," so I think I can forgive him. We still have beer and a lot of Diet Coke in the backyard. I just can't bring myself to empty the ice chests. It's silly but I feel as though I'm acknowledging summer by keeping drinks on the porch.

I've been working today and go into the office for reals tomorrow. But school is over and I can read now and maybe watch a movie all the way through in one sitting, I don't know. Do I wish I was going to work for a newspaper? Kind of. We watched Superman last night (geez, I forgot how corny it was and how Valerie Perrine gave it a PG rating) and I was feeling wistful whenever they were in the Daily Planet newsroom. But the pay is lousy and I need to maintain my heady lifestyle of backyard badminton and periodic penny gambling.

Perhaps I will make this a newsy blog and talk about things like the election in Iran and the economy and why it irritates me that Jon and Kate get paid to have cameras follow them around and then complain that cameras follow them around. Yeah ... that's it ... I'll be a CITIZEN JOURNALIST. (reporter - paycheck = blog)

Covah yo ears, dahlin

Stephen Fry in Big Ben (from his Twitter post).

"BigBenBoo" by stephenfry on audioboo.fm

Shared via AddThis

Brilliant

yay. i graduate saturday

Register-Guard lays off 21 employees
The company reduces its work force by 7 percent to cope with ad revenue undercut by the recession
By Ilene Aleshire
The Register-Guard


-- by the way, can you imagine working there and having to write this story?

week

Rescuing the neighbor's dog ... taking finals ... working all day ... cleaning the house all night

and my Wii fit age keeps hitting the 40's! "School is making you old," the cousin/roommate told me. Sheeyah it is. One more day and it's done. Then I'll be in the 20's like he is. You'll see! You'll all see!

Tomorrow I turn in the photo portfolio and take the art final -- the samurai final was a tricky little sucker. Who drew the map in The Seven Samurai? and stuff like that. That one I knew (Kambei) and the one about Kikuchiyo, but Lady Yae in Heaven and Earth? Who's going to remember the girlfriend who dies off-screen as some side-plot? And there were two questions about her. I think I passed okay, but I'm pretty sure I missed a few.

Parents here on Thursday. Of course it's going to rain. Why have sun? Why? Because it was predicted, that's why. Now I'll never hear the end of "It rains all the time there" because for them it does. nuts.

Oh yeah, this just in: the wee brother, apparently still hasn't decided.

That is all.

AIR RAID!

I'm sitting outside at the EMU Amphitheatre enjoying the fruits of being a senior. It's Senior Send Off and I get such great freebies as a rootbeer float in a collector pint glass and a plastic cup of popcorn. I'm surrounded by my fellow seniors, all of us better than those underclassmen who pass us and look in with envy. I'm one with others ---- so why do I still feel like a complete space alien? People still look at me like they're not sure if I'm a student or a parent. I mean, feck, I'm in line, aren't I? I'M ONE OF YOU.

If you give us finals, do we not cry?
If you make us drink a beer bong, do we not belch?

So wipe that face off your heads, bitches, and HIT THE DIRT!

Head. Mush. Editing done. Two multimedia projects done. One due next week. Samurai final next Monday ("Just a reminder: if you fail this you fail the entire course") then Art final as the final final Wednesday. Then Tailhook Convection will be rocking the Rolling Stone challenge in Shanghai. whoo!

Oh yeah, then we're getting a Wii.

"UK singing star Susan Boyle suffering exhaustion"

Honey, I know how she feels.

This multimedia project is a b... I now only have 3 tracks of sound to mix because 5 wouldn't meld into a 2 1/5 minute show, but then I've got to line the mixed sound up with the slideshow so that she's not describing A while we see picture B. Man oh man. I was sitting in front of a Mac for 3 hours yesterday trying to make it work -- that's after spending 5 hours sitting at the office getting told by a-holes on the chat line that I don't really work for the company I work for, I actually work for the company that they were looking for and I just didn't know because I must be new. Man oh man, I can't wait to have weekends off.

But things have improved on the home beautification project (aka: putting crap away). Thanks to the cousin/roommate, we now have a lovely TV stand and soon our records will be in neat shelving units instead of stacked against the walls of the red room. AND we bought a badminton set. We are thisclose to being ready to receive the family -- well, family with the possible exception of the little brother who has to decide whether or not he's coming up for my graduation. I can't get over my pissed-off-ness that he will have to "let me knoe" whether or not he's coming. How painful is that? I went to both of his weddings, no questions asked. At the first one I had to sleep in someone else's bed that had 4 half-filled pints of water hidden at various locations around the sheets. The shower had more hair than I did. I was stoned at his second wedding -- but, still, I was there and in it and performed the role of taxi driver for guests (yeah, it's a mystery why, but people seemed to think I was okay to drive them back and forth to the motel).

But I digress from the rant ... although now I'm not as pissed off because I was remembering what it was like to be stoned. Those were the days.

Maybe he'll change his mind (or make it up or do whatever he needs to do) and come, but the hurt's already happened and I'll probably end up crying either way, because that's what I do.

I really need some sleep. Kel, you're right. I don't know how I do it either. I'm going to wake up next week in one of those Matrix pods and realize it's all been some computer programmed reality, I know it.

Don't Stop Believin'

I've written my last college paper (on Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress -- how cool is that?) and I only have finals left (which include two multimedia slideshows one with 5 levels of audio that still need to be edited), and I still get irritated by low grades on stuff. A frickin' 89 on the last art history exam! It's so unfair. Is it because I mentioned Friedrich before we were quizzed on him? Was I supposed to save that for the final?? 89 ... what a load of ... If I get a B in this class I'll cry. Of course, by the time they get through grading the final I'll be graduated so screw it.

Yeah, I said screw it.

How bitter am I?

The Best News EVER

From the news today:
Guy Ritchie is set to branch out from the world of gangster cinema - the filmmaker is reportedly in Hollywood to begin writing a script for a remake of Guys And Dolls.

The director, best known for his London-based crime films, is said to have roped in movie hardman Jason Statham to show off his vocal talents in a reworking of the classic musical, which originally starred Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra.

A source tells British newspaper The Sun, "Guy has been on the case with the idea of making a musical recently. He had been throwing ideas around with Jason Statham about writing their own musical.

"Guy has had a lot of meetings with top studio bosses about other projects but the Guys And Dolls idea really tickled him."

But Ritchie could be sticking to a familiar formula when shooting begins - he is apparently considering basing the song-and-dance classic in his native Britain.

The insider adds: "He is torn between keeping the script true to the original in New York and taking it to familiar surroundings in London."

I can't wait until this is out on BluRay -- and it will be because it stars Jason Statham. Maybe it'll even go straight to BluRay.

It's Duff Time

Just got back from the blood doctor -- platelets dropped again, so the no-alcohol experiment has ended in failure.

Which means I'm up for a beer if anyone wants one! WHOO HOO!

yin + yang = beer.

I Loves the Spring

Should I include a picture of the Le Tour in my photo portfolio? How many daimyos can you have in a warrior government? Wasn't Toranaga-san a daimyo when Anjin-san was made samurai? Why can't JMW Turner paint within the lines? Was Goya's Maja Desnuda painted in 1798-1804 or 1803-1806?

Gee, school presents more questions than answers. Better go outside and ride the bike instead.

Helpful Hints

There is no "L" in the word "both" -- it's not pronounced "bolth".
There is a "Y" and an "O" in "crayon" and "mayonnaise" -- it's not pronounced "cran" and "mannaise".

that is all.

The Balkan Girls like to party like nobody, like nobody

Thank you Wuh for reminding me that I've been so busy that I'VE NEARLY MISSED EUROVISION.

I'm just in time to check the first semi-finals, and how happy am I that Romania made it through?

I'm gonna start my weekend with a tonic and lime... and my hips are ready to glow.

Boo

Ferrari kills Kimi's car and then short-fills Massa on fuel, and then Rubens Barrichello is beat back by team orders AGAIN. Formula 1 makes me cry.

This story out of crash.net on Rubens:

"He would remain there all the way to his first pit visit on lap 19, having eked out a small advantage over Button along the way, but unbeknown to him the team had switched the British star to a two-stop strategy during the stops, whilst he had been left on three. That meant that whilst the 36-year-old now had an even greater lead, he would need to push harder still to extend his margin in order to remain ahead at the end of the race, and ultimately it was just too tall an order.

"At one point looking in danger of missing the podium altogether, Barrichello took the chequered flag 13 seconds behind Button in second place – his second rostrum appearance of the season, but one that was scant reward for what he felt should have been his first F1 victory in more than four years. Fastest lap to his credit too was little consolation."

Ay, Rubens ...

Sweet righteousness

So, I had to photo this sports event for the photo journalism class, right? And it's Spring, right? So there's plenty of sports out there, right? Oh except for the ones in other parts of the state and ones that I didn't get a media pass for and the ones that happen on Monday when I have the samurai class. Oh yeah, and then there are the ones that I went to.

AYSO soccer. Friends, don't let anyone tell you that little league is where you get the angry parents. I have never heard someone tell a kid "Now you know what fear will do to you" as an admonishment. Not even my dad said crap like that and he used the old "stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about" line. I mean, think about it, this ball is coming for your head and this other kid's ready to kick it and your head, so, yeah, maybe you're going to be afraid, especially if you haven't reached your growth spurt yet and the guy bearing down on you looks like Baby Huey. Do these adults, responsible parents and guardians, care? Hell no.

GET UP! DON'T JUST LAY THERE!
(uh, coach, he's lying there, not laying there)

Then I sat down and filled out my exit questionnaire on the student loan only to come face to face with mortality issues: "Wait, so I have to pay this amount for 10 years or this amount for 25 years and in 25 years I'll be on whatever's left of Social Security, so ... ... Jesus." I had to put down 2 friends as contacts for people who would know where I was in 3 years, which means if I gank on the loan you'll get a call. You can solve for yourself who those 2 friends are. I will pay you in pie if you get hasselled by the gub'ment. I promise ... just like I promise to pay off the loan.

suckers.

weird

I'm trying to watch last week's House, but the school wi-fi is being particularly iffy. At the table next to me are 4 girls comparing Grey's Anatomy with Scrubs.

Weird.

Just overheard: "I don't know if I want to go to Maui this summer or not." God! I know. What to do? What to do?

But in this ever changing world in which we live in

The term's almost over and I just don't think it's going to work out in a pretty fashion. The weekend was spent at a narrative journalism workshop, which was helpful on its own, but not helpful considering all the junk I have to work on this week and the time I missed by being in the classroom. I just sat there playing over in my head all the crap that's due and not done. It's relative to money fear -- that feeling you get on the Wednesday before payday, where you know you've got to get through Thursday with $2.50 in the bank.

In two days I pushed through a paper on Rashomon, (it's due tonight), and an edited news story for tomorrow, a series of portraits for Thursday (psychological photo? They're all psychological -- it's art demmit), we planted vegetables (rain? yes) and I learned how to write about suicide and murder in a narrative fashion. Rich. Full. Weekend.

One day I'll sleep and it will be good.

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blast

When I hear that people are dressing up like Star Wars characters I don't reach for my revolver, but I do tend to get a little leery. I'm used to Trekkies -- well, not used to, but that's what I'm familiar with. Guys like this one who posted a review of the Star Trek BluRay series on Amazon:

"Paramount is the worst. This release is just a thrown together bunch of crap to collect money from trekkers. Face it fellow Federation Members until we unite and stop buying these travesties they will keep rolling merrily along picking our pockets as long as they can. A blu-ray release should include everything we deserve as loyal Star Trek customers who have shelled out hundreds if not thousands each over the years and that means re-mastered theatrical and extended releases with all the extras thrown in. These Paramount Pirates obviously adhere to the Ferengi Rule of Acquisition which states: Sell the sizzle and NOT the steak - and then sell it again - and again - and again - as long as the rubes keep coming back. IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP AND STOP HANDING OVER THE LAUDINUM! "

So, yeah, it's a little scary. You don't know if they're belching or speaking in Klingon, and it can get a little dicey if you don't know your Sulu from your Seven of Nine.

Star Wars people on the other hand are kind of fun. I spent last Saturday with a group that does events for charity: The Cloud City Garrison.


First of all, their costumes are amazing. Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Chewbaca, the stormtroopers, Leia ... absolutely stunning. They put a lot of time and work into making them as real as possible.


Second, these are just the nicest people you could ever run into in any galaxy. They do stuff all over town -- here, Portland, wherever in Oregon you need a better than average meet and greet, and if you get a chance to take your kids to one of their events go.


They do everything for charity. Lucasfilms states that it's all got to be non-profit, which is cool. Honestly, it's amazing to see people actually going to these lengths with nothing to gain for themselves.


So while some Trekkies count their credits and look to trade up on tribbles, the Rebellion and the Evil Empire have joined forces for good, and prove yet again that Yoda was absolutely right:

Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

And in the blue corner, with his mouth open

Tarver Sues Rocky Balboa Bosses
Professional boxer Antonio Tarver is suing the makers of Rocky Balboa for failing to pay him a performance bonus for his role in the movie.

Tarver starred as heavyweight champion Mason 'The Line' Dixon in the 2006 film, opposite Sylvester Stallone.

He claims bosses owe him a bonus based on how much money the movie pulled in, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday in Los Angeles' County Supreme Court.

Tarver is seeking what he claims he is owed - $1.5 million - plus interest, reports TMZ.com

---

The cousin/roommate had better watch his back. He used Tarver to win a series of devastating knockouts in Fight Night 3.

And, you know, I kind of liked Tarver. He's mouthy, but he seemed to be able to back it up most of the time. Now, I just don't know.

time for one ping only

I'm still downloading pictures -- what? Get off my back! I shot in camera raw! It takes time -- but wanted to remark on the following topical points:

Today's Yahoo news: "Learn about worst-case scenario for swine flu." Right there on the home page. Yesterday while watching The Today Show (what a goofy name for a news program ... The Today Show ... say it slowly, it's weird, isn't it? Intensely simple) -- yesterday while watching The Today Show I got this huge journalist hankering to cut right to the chase and ask the big question:

"But do you think people are worried enough? What steps can they take to be worried more about this possible pandemic?"

Speaking of Chase and cutting to it, I missed House last night and have to wait a full week for it to show up online. This has been my process for spring term, but now that House is going mad I'm really starting to get frustrated with school. Stupit school. I'm missing the only thing worth watching on tv aside from The Dog Whisperer. But, last night I couldn't ditch out because we had our midterm and watched the first part of The Seven Samurai.

Yes, I'm a big nerd. Yes, I love that movie. Yes, I am most identified with Gorobei. But, more important, here is a sampling of what the dudes next to me said as we were leaving:

"Dude, that movie ROCKS!"
"It's totally cool."
"Dude, that's the best movie we've watched in here!"
(note: we've seen only 4, but they were Rashomon, Gate of Hell, Onibaba and Kwaidan, so they didn't suck ... well, Gate of Hell kind of sucked)

They then proceeded to loudly re-enact swordfights on leaving the building.

A most satisfying result.

Cut the chatter Red 5

I'm going to spend the day with characters from Star Wars (it's a photo assignment, so ...). In the meantime, here is the best email I've received in a long time:

Jarno Trulli is now following you on Twitter!

I know it's because I gave him 10 Euros for Abruzzo, but whatever works. Si amo. If you want to give Jarno a donation for Italy you can do so here: http://abruzzonelcuore.org/. They take PayPal and will convert dollars to Euros.

E la...

sorry

School is busy -- midterms ... will I miss them? I just don't know. Just who is Hojo Yasutoki and will I need that information at some point in the future? Maybe. But I just don't feel like studying junk. The sun is out and I just want to ride my bike. Some guy at school yesterday called me a "bike nerd" ("I like bike nerds") and I think he meant it as a compliment because I felt like I didn't quite measure up to it ("oh, no, no, not really").

So school is busy = life is boring. Go here. See this wonderful site. Report back.

Got our stuff back from the cops. It consisted of

1

red

suitcase

Dude, they even swiped the Holy Family scapulars my grandmother had given me in Vegas. They were in the suitcase pocket. What the hell...

THE COPS ARE RELEASING OUR STUFF TODAY!

Excavate National Treasure Show Chinese Culture

If you've been reading along with The Mahoney Family Blog (and if you haven't you've missed out -- it's the only way I travel anymore) you'll know that they've just come back from a tour of Australia and Hong Kong. SA Mahoney always gets me the best travel gifts. She sent me the Checkpoint Charlie chocolate (which melted last summer) and the Robert Kubica F1 shirt (which was destroyed by our dryer ... that last house was hard, hard on my valuables), but this year the travel gift beats all:

The box description is as follows:
Culture Revolution Engraving - The serious of HCG poker
Culture Revolution Engraving affects by special stage. The brand for epoch is obvious. The engraving as the topic of Chairman "Red Classical" which has great value of collections is called "Alive Curio". The poke is chosen 54 pieces of the engravings of Chinaman Mao. (no, I swear, it really says that) It shows historical cultural quintessence. For the people who experienced that period, the engraving Red Classical will be recalled their memory about those days.

Even better is the story of how they were purchased:
I bought those cards at the night market in Hong Kong. Dude, it was like this totally wacky flea market in a dicey part of town, but they had the best stuff! The best part of the whole experience was having to walk through 20 tables full of vibrators to get to the public toilets…because when you travel with a bunch of kids they have to go to the bathroom A LOT!

I loves my friends.

Cap Yer A...

Senior day at the bookstore. I now own a cap and a gown and one of them tassel things. They had these yellow stoles that you're supposed to wear and give out to a professor who made a difference, but I couldn't afford to do that for everyone so I opted out on that and the souvenir tassel, which is not like the real tassel, but like a useless second tassel:

volunteer: "You get a burgundy tassel for the ceremony and you can also buy one of these green and yellow ones as well."
me: "For?"
volunteer: "Uh, for ... whatever ... you can, you know, hang it on things."
me: "Like the rear-view mirror on my Ford Bronco? You know right over the rifle rack."
volunteer: "Uh ..."
me: "It's cool. I'd end up knocking it off during a wild drunk U-turn or something. Where do I pay for the other stuff?"

Now I just have to finish the classes and all. Shouldn't be too hard, right? D is a passing grade. That's all that matters now.

Oh yeah, and it's spring finally and I went and broke my right bike pedal AGAIN. I've waited all this time for spring (since it appears that my rain pants were stolen ... feckers -- that or I've lost them in one of my frequently occurring senior moments) and I'm still on the bus. mother-corker.