Art, Groceries, Badness

The Yorkie had started acting like she was feeling better in the wee hours of the morning, so we risked giving her a small amount of food late into the night. The wife was able to get the vet to simply hook us up with a bit of the same medicine she was given last time she got all puke-y, so the dog narrowly avoided going to the Vet this morning by keeping down some food overnight.

The wife split for meetings and I got up shortly afterward, made some coffee and listened to a couple podcasts while I started working on the two collage pieces in the kitchen. I got a few more pieces/layers added into each, then left them to dry while I got a couple things ready for the post office and checked e-mail in the Office.

I ran my errands and then made my way back to the house, layered more crap into the two pieces, then watched some random television until the wife got home from her meetings and we headed out for a late lunch. That took longer than it really should've because the service at most restaurants lately seems to be in their ass, so when we finally made it to the grocery store to do our shopping it was pushing towards 3:00 in the afternoon. The store was ridiculously packed because we're supposed to have snow for the next couple of days and everyone thinks that this is a sign of the apocalypse or something.

Bizarrely, the shopping itself wasn't so bad, it was the bottleneck at the registers that kept us there even longer, so once we got home, got things put away and settled down to relax it was after 4:30 in the damned afternoon. I was kinda stunned, as I hadn't realized how long we'd been in the store until that point. I fiddled with the art a bit more, then left it drying and watched a few odds and ends off the TiVo while the wife took a short little nap.

We spent our evening wrapping up the first season of Breaking Bad, which moves toward darker territory in the latter half of the season. Really good stuff, I'm really happy to finally be checking these out. I guess we'll be moving on to season 2 later in the week, once we're snowbound from tonight's weather.

Above are the two pieces I'm fiddling around with, I still dunno what they're going to ultimately be, but I'm enjoying the way they're shaping up, especially the one with the orange background, seeing how it looks almost made me toss the first attempt altogether, but I've decided to stick it out to the bitter end with both of them. I do think that the first one (yellow) has more of a chance of achieving the weathered billboard look I originally envisioned, but the second (orange) looks...smoother, if that's the right word, more assured in the placement of the images and offers more of a slick look. I finally got the method of covering more area down to a quasi-science with this one, but it's all still a giant experiment that may end with me burning the room and starting over.

Tomorrow we have the Maid and the Yorkie is to go to the Groomer, both situations complicated by the snow that's currently coming down outside, so who knows if all that will be scrapped, as our little town kinda shuts down at the first hint of snow.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Yorkie, Illness, Lunch, Shopping, Groceries, Art, Television, TiVo, Breaking Bad

Piece Of American Walkabout Work

We naturally didn't sleep in as we'd wanted to, rising fairly early and getting the house opened up for business. The wife puttered around with some bills and I made coffee, then played fetch with the Yorkie for a bit. I eventually got out and picked up an early lunch to beat the after church lunch crowd, then the wife and I tucked into that and some television in the den.

Caught up on our normal television fare for the week, the wife caught a nap while I popped in The American, Anton Corbijn's slow, moody thriller starring George Clooney as an assassin abroad, laying low in Italy after a hit. The film looks stunning, unspooling a slow measured tale as Clooney settles into a routine and prepares for his next assignment, meeting a few locals and his contact along the way. Great flick, I pretty much knew I'd love this but resisted the urge to blind buy since the Blu-ray hasn't been on sale for any great discount as of yet. It's something I'd definitely own and is well worth a look for fans of 70's drama, as it feels a bit out of time, lost in a small village in Europe.

I spent some time working on the art stuff, then left it to dry while the wife and I popped in another film I knew was supposed to be equally visually arresting: Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout, the Criterion Blu-ray being something I grabbed late last year. The film is gorgeous to look at, following a teen girl and her younger brother as they are abandoned in the Outback by their father for reasons left open to interpretation. They happen upon an Aboriginal boy on his Walkabout and he helps them survive. The film follows them on their journey, more observational than anything, telling me that you can't step more than three feet in the Outback without running across a lizard of some sort. They finally make their way back to civilization, which proves to be as cruel and unforgiving as nature itself. Good flick, I also need to give Roeg's The Man Who Fell To Earth a spin as well.

I added more stuff into the art projects, which I may snap a pic of for you tomorrow, then the wife and I started watching Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work via Netfux Instant Watch, only to have the Yorkie suddenly make good on the promise of her moping around all afternoon by throwing up a bit. We'd noticed that she'd done her weird hunger strike thing during the day, but had hoped for the best. Over the course of the night she dry heaved a few more times, but mostly just lay very still, as if to try to agitate herself as little as possible. She'll be going to the Vet in the AM, so we're hoping for the best this evening. This whole incident was precipitated by exactly nothing, her stomach just goes apeshit from time to time, regardless of what she has eaten, because it's been her food and nothing else this weekend. Oh well.

The Joan Rivers documentary was something we finally returned to once the dog was settled, and it was a very interesting look at a person who seems to have a complex view of herself and her celebrity. She claims that she wants to maintain a certain lifestyle and is thus driven to her career, the very nature of which in recent years is painted as her desperately clinging onto even the corner of the limelight, which to me isn't what being a celebrity would be about. I would think as a celebrity you would be above certain gigs or whatever, while she shamelessly brays about how she'll take any gig, etc., which to me defeats the very purpose of being able to ride in that limo, y'know? If you are constantly feeling degraded to maintain your lifestyle, how can you truly enjoy said lifestyle, right? Or am I kidding myself?

Our normal television fare had taken the night off for the most part, save for Californication, so the wife and I wrapped our evening with another episode of Breaking Bad, keeping a cautious eye on the dog before finally calling it a night.

I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Movies, Blu-ray, The American, Anton Corbijn, George Clooney, Criterion Collection, Walkabout, Nicolas Roeg, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Yorkie, Illness, Joan Rivers A Piece Of Work, Netflix Instant Watch, Television, Californication, Breaking Bad

Early To Rise

I made the mistake of getting up to take a piss around 8:30 this morning, which the Yorkie took as her cue to start bugging the shit out of both the wife and myself until we got up and rubbed her belly and showed her some attention. The wife expressed interest in coffee, so I dressed and got out to pick that up, encountering no end of clueless assholes with no concept of their surroundings while I was out. It's as if everyone was still hammered drunk while driving home from their Friday night party or something.

I cooked up some sausages and eggs for our breakfast, we ate and read the newspaper and then I decided to hit the arts & crafts store for a few tubes of acrylic paints and some more glue for this current project I'm working on. It's moving along at a decent pace, and I think I'm getting the result that I want, so I may try to post another 'work in progress' pic tomorrow or the next day.

The wife and I spent some time in the afternoon watching a bit of television, catching up on a few shows while the wife knitted some more and I paused from time to time to glue down some more stuff on the art piece. The Yorkie and I spent some time in the back yard and I watered the neglected ivy plants, then we started planning our evening.

EL had texted about a week ago to tell us that we were invited to his wife's birthday party this evening, so we decided to grab a bite to eat, then head over there afterward. We ate in a sweltering restaurant with only one waitress but good food, so it was a mixed bag overall.

The party was fun, filled with folks that we don't see all that often, so the wife and I said our happy birthdays to the birthday girl, then let her spend time with her closer girlfriends and caught up with a few acquaintances and drank a beer. Before too long I was surprised to realize that it was after 10:00 at night and we'd long overstayed our initially intended hour or so of visitation. We said our goodbyes and took the short drive home, where we were met by an ecstatic Yorkie. The wife crashed out and I got started on this nonsense.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Yorkie, Irritation, Breakfast, Shopping, Art Supplies, Television, Dinner, Birthday, Party

Arts And Entertainment

I slept less than I probably should've last night, but still woke at a reasonable hour this morning and spent some time lounging with the wife and going over our evening plans, as we had two conflicting parties that we had to go between, as well as dinner with another couple afterward.

Y'know, for such a curmudgeonly fucker I certainly have an alarming amount of social engagements. Stoopid wife. Ah well, there's certainly worse fates out there.

At any rate, I picked up some lunch for us and we spent a bit of time in the den with a few things off the TiVo, then the wife got a call from one of her non-profits requesting her presence for an emergency of some kind (a check needed signing or something), so she split to do that and I decided to work on the art crapola a bit more.

I started gluing down a few things that I culled from a magazine, selecting certain faces or even architectural details to highlight by making sure the 'right' areas got glue rather than leaving it all to random chance. This didn't take very long, and I suddenly realized that I now had a piece of paper that I really can't do anything with until the glue has dried completely. On a complete wild hair I decided to start painting the background colors for a 2nd painting, so as to give myself something to be focusing on while the other piece was drying.

Also it'll be something I can fall back on if (when?) this whole process starts turning to misery and vomit and I want to try this shit from a different angle.

The wife returned, we bullshitted a bit, flipping channels on television until I needed to start getting ready for the evening.

We had a kick-off party for one of the wife's non-profits first, which was to celebrate their fund-raiser that's coming up in a few months, so we hit that almost early, visiting a bit and mingling while grabbing a few snacks and the like. We split after about an hour, made our way to the museum where an art opening was in progress. We were meant to have dinner with another couple this evening after the museum, but that had started to morph into dinner with a few couples, which eventually became dinner with an extended group in honor of the artist at a nice little restaurant across town. Dinner was fun, we met a few new folks and visited with friends over the course of a nice meal, good times had by all.

We headed home, unwound while watching the end of The Crazies on cable, then called it a night. I'm beat.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Lunch, Art, Painting, Party, Non-Profit, Dinner, Television, Movies, The Crazies

Breaking Scary Bad Paintings

Weird day. The wife was out of the house for most of it, so I woke late, picked up a late lunch and then started watching the TiVo suggested Scary Movie, as I hadn't seen it in forever and figured what the hell.

I was fairly impressed with how well the flick holds up (as I expected NOTHING from it), though I hope writers will take a hint and stop referencing such timely material in comedies nowadays, as they become dated INSTANTLY, it's not even funny how old the film feels in no small part due to that very issue. Oh well, as far as 90's comedies go, it's an 'amiable timewaster', right?

I had it in my head that I was going to start painting again for some time now, so this afternoon I decided to give it a go and started laying down a layer of colors that will live behind the collage that I intend to place on the piece once it's dry. Ideally, I want to do this layer of colors, then a layer of photos, more color over that and then a layer of text with color laid upon that, but we'll just have to see how it all shakes out, now won't we? I'm content with this first step, but who knows how long it'll take it to turn to shit? On the upside, I have an entire pad of watercolor paper to work with, so I can achieve the same looks on subsequent attempts if need be.

TiVo had also suggested the second Scary Movie as well, so I sat through that while my paint dried, then laid in an second color to kinda square out the overall page. I see collage material going into the area towards the middle, leaving a slight border to things and making this initial painting process worth my time. Again, we'll see how it turns out.

The wife picked up some sandwiches on her way home, we caught up a bit when she got home, then we settled into the den and ate, starting a new series while we did so.

I've had numerous people suggest that I check out Breaking Bad on AMC, and since they started re-running the series from the first episode back during December I figured we should load up on the show and give it a go once we got Boardwalk Empire under our belt, so to speak. We watched the first 3 episodes back to back, taking us through half of the first season if I'm not mistaken, and it's been an interesting series, if only in the manner in which it's presented, with only a small break between episodes. I'm curious to see if this continues in this same manner as the series goes on, picking up within a few moments of the last episode ending, or if it changes as we get into a 2nd season.

Suffice to say: I'm intrigued.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Lunch, TiVo, Scary Movie, Art, Painting, Scary Movie 2, Television, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire

And Now For The 'Good' Stuff...

I seem to be fighting a weird tug of war with the idea that I need to be asleep at a certain time each night and my actual interest or need to be awake during normal human hours. I should theoretically nail down a middle of the road hour to rise each day, but as my life is remarkably simple and lacking in commitments, it's become easier and easier to ignore this idea completely and still be awake at 5:00 AM reading a book with no intention of listening to the alarm the next morning.

This is a roundabout way of explaining why the Yorkie standing in the living room barking at basically nothing this morning woke me in a rather shitty mood that has lingered around on and off for most of the day. She has taken to expressing her irritation with the perpetual workmen remodeling the house across the street, which is all well and good, hell, I don't like it myself, but if I'm trying to sleep this shit simply isn't going to fly. What annoys me even more is that the wife simply ignores it, rather than tell the dog to shut up, so yeah, there ya go, woke up in a shitty mood right off the bat.

I piddled around the house for a bit, eventually heading out to grab some lunch for us and try to change my lousy mood a bit. The wife and I ate some take out while watching something from the To-Watch Pile, the Blu-ray of Black Dynamite, which turned out to be as amusing as I'd expected it to be.
An homage of the Blaxploitation films of the 70's, it has numerous laugh out loud bits and acknowledges virtually all of the things that give those films their charm. Great little flick, well worth a look if you're the other person on the planet who hasn't seen it yet.

The wife was working on a project for one of her non-profits, so she signed letters while I popped in another random selection off the To-Watch Pile: Neil Jordan's In Dreams, in which Annette Bening finds herself sharing clairvoyant dreams with a serial killer and growing increasingly unhinged as the film goes on. To be fair though, Bening does have a certain borderline crazy look right from the jump in this flick, so her going nuts isn't that much of a stretch. I hadn't seen the film since the VHS days, and while I think I even owned it on tape at some point, I had somehow never migrated it over to DVD until a short time ago when it turned up at Big Lots. Good little flick, nothing mind blowing plot-wise, but it does have some nice visuals and is worth a peep.

Having watched a couple turkeys the past few days, I was determined to continue my 'good' movie day with a selection from the Netfux Instant Watch queue, so we next viewed a film I knew was getting a lot of buzz, even though I hadn't heard much in the way of detail about it, a Greek film called Dogtooth that is an Oscar contender this year. The basic plot is that a husband and wife have three teenage children of indiscriminate age (late teens, presumably), which they have sequestered at a remote villa, ostracized from the world. The father takes care of them by managing a factory of some sort, but he's the only member of the family who has any contact whatsoever with the outside world, everyone else remains on their estate and the children have the intellect of much younger children, spending their time listening to recordings by their parents that go so far as to teach them the wrong definitions of words ('the sea' is a type of chair, for example) to further remove them from any hope of adjusting to society. The tipping point to this bizarro set-up comes when the father introduces a co-worker into the mix and their 'perfect' world begins to unravel in increasingly creepy and unsettling ways. I went into this fairly cold, and I was not disappointed at all. The film is rather slow moving, but quite frankly the scenarios playing out are so fucking strange it's hard to quibble with the pacing as it allows you time to puzzle over what you're being shown. This is definitely worth a look, but be warned it goes into some unsettling areas fairly quickly, so it won't be for everyone.

The wife and I spent the rest of the evening with the last episodes of Boardwalk Empire to wrap up our season viewing. Good show, again, something I'd probably not have sought out except that I had so many reliable web folks telling me how great it was, so I'm glad that we kept them on the TiVo for as long as we did.

I'm out kids. Y'know, sleep and all that nonsense.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Yorkie, Irritation, Movies, To-Watch Pile, Blu-ray, Black Dynamite, Blaxploitation, In Dreams, Neil Jordan, Annette Jordan, Netflix Instant Watch, Dogtooth, Oscars, Television, TiVo, Boardwalk Empire

Still In Movie Jail, So To Speak...

I was meant to have the standing lunch date with EL and DR today, so I figured I'd make the most of my morning by taking a troll through a few junk stores that I hadn't been into in several months, just to see if I was missing out on anything. Shorthand morning: I missed nothing, though I was amused to notice that one little second hand store had a large selection of laser discs, a video format that I missed entirely, thank God for small favors.

I ended up finding a single disc copy of Battle Royale at a pawn shop for $2.00, which is kinda timely, as a big deal among movie nerds online recently has been a British release of the film on limited edition Blu-ray by Arrow Releasing. I've seen it once before, liked but didn't love it, so I'm cool to own a cheap DVD release for the time being, as importing stuff seems like a pain in the ass unless it's just my favorite thing ever.

A few errands later I met the fellas for lunch, which turned out to be rather eye-opening, as I found out that the painting that DR is doing for me (which we'd discussed being in oils) has now morphed into a 'mixed-media' joint. I took this revelation with as much patience as I could muster, as one has an idea in their head of what they've commissioned for fuck's sake, and stated my misgivings as plainly as I could without actually cursing at the poor guy. It turns out that he had changed course mid-stream due to his lack of faith in his own ability to pull off the painting in oils, which I appreciate on some level, but to ask for one thing and deliver another does leave you a bit miffed, to say the least. He did call me later in the afternoon and apologize again, pleading his case a bit further, which I assured him I would rather hear about this shit now rather than a few days before our delivery date, which is this coming May. This situation might not have pissed me off so much, had we not discussed things in advance; it's not as if I told him that I would 'buy his next painting', without any talk of what it would be or the medium to be used. Oh well, the missiles are flying, so I'm just hoping for the best, as I do like his acrylic/colored pencil/inked work, it's just not at all what I was expecting. ::crosses fingers::

The wife was relaxing at the house when I got in, so we caught up and I left her to relax with some television and a possible nap in the bedroom while I went over to the Guest Side of the house and piddled around in the Library scanning more of the DVD collection into the iPhone app. The wife had an evening meeting, then returned with dinner and we dug into another film from Netfux that I fully expected to be a giant pile of shit.

Jonah Hex was fairly maligned from the word go, so I was expecting little from it and I got pretty much that. I wasn't as put off as many were, likely due to lowered expectations, but man there are a few extraordinarily silly scenes, especially Gatling guns being fired beside a horse that doesn't just shit itself and die of fright & terror as the guns unload on either side of its head. The really interesting thing to me is that I didn't completely hate it, as it didn't really capture the legit western flavor of the comics from my youth, nor did it get completely into the supernatural elements that happened in the Vertigo tales from the 90's, it actually seemed to try and pay lip service to both and satisfied no one. Oh well, like I said, I didn't hate this one, but it's not a good film by any stretch of the imagination either.

I gotta watch a couple decent flicks tomorrow, as this string of clunkers is kinda making me sad in my movie viewing soul.

We called it a night shortly afterward, and here I am doing this dumb shit again.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Errands, Shopping, Lunch, Friends, Irritation, Movies, Battle Royale, Jonah Hex, Netflix, Blu-ray

Boardwalk Legion

Not a lot happening today, so maybe we can both get out of here at a reasonable hour and get home to our families, eh?

I slept in, having been up later than I should, more out of habit than out of anything else. The wife had a morning meeting, then met a girlfriend for lunch, so when I got up I started piddling around the house, getting a few bills paid online and catching up on e-mail.

The wife returned, we caught up a bit, then I eventually excused myself to grab a late lunch while she chilled in the bedroom with some television. Once I returned I found myself poking around on Netfux Instant Watch a bit, finally settling on Legion, a much maligned little supernatural thriller thing about angels turning on the human race, centered around a single pregnant girl and her impending birth, as the child plays some sort of pivotal role in things. The movie was about as bad as expected, just sort of meandering around while never finding a real reason for things to be happening, as the final reveals seem to indicate that all that came before was little more than a test for our characters or some such shit. I'd definitely say pass, unless you're like me and let morbid curiosity get the better of you.

The wife and I got into a little inadvertent marathon of Boardwalk Empire in the evening, as we've had the entire first series on the TiVo for quite some time, but have only slowly been pecking away at them here and there. We watched the middle of the season this evening, and I have to say that I've really enjoyed the show in spite of only having a passing interest in the whole concept/genre of period gangster material. I suppose once we wrap this up we can move on to the two seasons' worth of Breaking Bad that I've been recording religiously, as it's the other TV show that everyone on the planet tells me we need to be watching.

I'm out kids, as I'd like to not sleep into tomorrow afternoon.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Movies, Netflix Instant Watch, Legion, Television, TiVo, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad

Early To Bed, Early To Rise...

I was able to muster a nice 8 hours of sleep last night, waking up around 9:00 this morning. The wife and I actually got out and picked up a little breakfast, then ate at the kitchen counter while reading through the newspaper.

Hell, I even knocked out a Netfux rental viewing by noon, it was a very productive day. You should all check out the French film Micmacs by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, it's a fun little flick about a guy who ends up homeless after a series of circumstances cost him both his father's life and leave a bullet lodged in his frontal lobe. He realizes which companies are responsible for his condition and uses his fellow homeless folks to exact a fitting revenge on the war mongering profiteer cunts who made the weapons that cost his family so dearly. Typical of the director, there's a fine balance between sweet sentimentality and straight up drama; this is a clever little film and well worth your rental.

The wife caught a nap in the early afternoon while I dropped the movie back in the mail to Netfux, then I spent some time in the Library reading for a bit, as it seemed appropriate for the grey day we were having.

We watched a movie I'd picked up for $1, which turned out to be worth at least that much, as we had some fun poking fun at it. Henry Jaglom's Always...But Not Forever is a tale he shot in his own home, with his ex-wife, about the subject of a couple's marriage dissolving and how they spend a weekend together on the cusp of signing divorce papers. The flick is rather strange, as all the dialog felt somewhat improvised, with characters occasionally repeating the same line of dialog several times in a row like a broken record. Either the writer/director felt that this rang true for stream of consciousness riffing on the subject of divorce, or they're just lousy actors, but either way it was something that the wife and I found ourselves poking fun at numerous times. I'm sorry that we find this man's fairly auto-biographical material so amusing, but if it's presented in such a way as to invite mockery, what am I to do? It's annoyingly acted - the delivery of about half the dialog sounds as if it is navel-gazing wankery being read aloud rather than actual feelings being expressed about certain situations. Hell, there's at least 10 instances of one particular guy pissing and moaning about not getting to go out in the past 2 years due to his newborn child, and it's not as though he mixes it up with his wording, he simply whines about "not having been out in 2 years because we have a child" every five minutes; it invites a slap to the fucking face. Wah, poor fucking you, wear a rubber next time asshole! Bah.

The wife had some kinda bullshit meeting on a Sunday afternoon, so she was gone for the end of the movie, then she returned with dinner when I was settling into a re-watch of The TV Set off the To-Watch Pile. The film is a fun behind the scenes take on the making of a network television pilot and all of the concessions that a writer makes just to get something greenlit for a full season.

We wrapped the evening with the normal run of things from the Fox animation line-up.

I'm out kids, as I'd like to be in bed sooner than later.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Movies, Netflix, Blu-ray, Micmacs, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Always But Not Forever, Henry Jaglom, The TV Set, To-Watch Pile, Television

A Night Lost To Red Bull

I managed to stay up all damned night last night, as sleep completely eluded me after I got the blog posted and still found Red Bull zipping around in my veins. I tried to make the most of my time by heading back to the den and popping in the first disc of Lost season 4 to pass the time. I ended up watching the first two discs of the season, watching the sun creep in from outside before the wife and Yorkie wandered in to see what was going on. The wife had some luncheon relating to the Niece's debutante participation, so she showered and dressed for that while I finished up my last episode on the disc I was watching.

The wife out of the house and the Yorkie bored in the den, I retired to the bedroom and buried my head under several pillows in hopes that I could finally get to sleep. I slept hard for about an hour and a half, then woke up because the dog was barking at something outside. I ended up catching up with the wife, who was just getting back from her luncheon, we bullshitted for about an hour, then we both headed to bed for a bit, though I ended up sleeping most of the day away, finally stumbling out of bed around 5:00 in the afternoon.

Our evening was lost to the couch and some odds and ends from the TiVo that'd accumulated over the past few weeks.

I'm out folks, as I wanna get some rest tonight, come hell or high water.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Insomnia, Red Bull, Television, Lost, Blu-ray, Napping, TiVo

Friends, Russians And Social Networking

I seem to be slowly becoming something of a nocturnal creature, having slept from 4:00 AM until the mid-afternoon. I'm an idiot.

I rose to find that I not only had a couple sales of my Amazon material, but I also had a few things to drop in the mail for Swap A DVD, so I got those items packaged up and loaded up the various bits of recycling that we had around the house, then headed out to run a couple errands before our friend Brian showed up for the evening.

I dropped my stuff in the mail and hit up the liquor store, where I again encountered the little Russian gal who I'm dying to try and lure into saying 'Get moose and squirrel' aloud, though I remain fuzzy on how I'm going to pull this off without looking like a total asshole. If you have any ideas, please feel free to drop them into the comments section.

I picked up a pizza for dinner on the way back to the house, then pointed the car at the house.

Brian arrived shortly after I got home, we caught up a bit while the food did its time in the ovens, then we settled into the den and watched some tube, eventually popping in The Social Network for another look. Brian split afterward, while the wife and I gave the bonus features a look, and now I find myself writing this dumb shit while sipping a 4th vodka and Red Bull, which puts me in the mood to stay awake well into the morning. This will be a stupid fucking move, but one I don't know if I have any real choice to ignore this sensation, as I'm keyed up like a humming bird on meth at this point.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Insomnia, Errands, Liquor Store, Russian Girls, Movies, The Social Network, Friends

Stars, Crashes And Travellers

I found myself unable to sleep last night and was reading in bed next to the wife when she got up at 5:00 AM to start getting ready for a television she had to make to promote one of her various charities. I finally settled in to try and sleep around 6:00, as she was about to leave and slept into the early afternoon, because everything catches itself up eventually I suppose.

I stumbled out of bed and was greeted by the Yorkie, who seemed happy to have any activity around the place to occupy her attention. We played for a bit, then I called in a food order and picked up a late lunch, since I had no idea whatsoever when to expect the wife home. I had been vaguely aware that she had come and gone at least once since the crack of dawn, but I wasn't sure of her afternoon schedule and didn't want to bother her just to ask where she was like I'm keeping tabs on her like some kinda nutjob.

I popped in the Blu-ray of Starcrash while I ate, another of the recent Shout! Factory releases that I had grabbed around the holidays when they got sufficiently discounted. I mean, these flicks are fun, but I'll be Goddamned if I'm paying a full $20 for what is essentially a poorly made movie, charming earnestness aside. The flick is very Star Wars and other genre tiles inspired, visually referencing 7th Voyage Of Sinbad and that kinda thing, but has some amusing moments in the dialog and plotting. I also was surprised to see that this was yet another film starring both sleazy looking Joe Spinell and Caroline Munro; it as though these two had riders in their contracts that they had to star alongside one another or no dice. The flick was amusing, give ti a look it you can enjoy cheap sets and bad acting.

The wife came home and chilled for a bit, but had meetings and a dinner that I had point blank told her I had no interest in attending, so she was soon out the door again.

I spent my time in the afternoon setting up an Amazon Vendor account so that I could list a few items that I'd rather get the actual value out of rather than hoping for the best on eBay or just tossing them into the mail via Swap A DVD. Once I finally got all that lined out and returned a phone call from El Vox, catching up with him for about an hour or so.

I spent the evening poking around Netfux Instant Watch in the den while scanning a few more things into the movie app, happily noting that there is an end in sight for this project. The wife got home while I was halfway through the pilot episode of The Riches, a show that starred Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver as the parents of a family of 'Travellers' who lay low in a rich neighborhood when a couple's death presents them with the opportunity to get away from their roots a bit. The first episode is intriguing enough, and since I happened across it on Instant Watch I may try to throw it into our viewing rotation in the future, as the wife seemed to enjoy the half of it that she caught.

I'm out kids, I hope to sleep this evening.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Insomnia, Frustration, Lunch, Movies, Starcrash, Blu-ray, Shout Factory, Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro, Star Wars, 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, Television, Netflix Instant Watch, The Riches, Eddie Izzard, Minnie Driver

Extreme Philadelphia Dream House

I slept a very solid 10 hours, catching up on all the late nights and yesterday's early morning in one fell swoop. I ran a couple errands in the afternoon, then picked up a late lunch for myself and headed home, since the wife was out of the house with meetings and some shopping that she'd planned.

I watched a Netfux rental called Extreme Movie, having fallen for it due to my interest in Matthew Lillard and Michael Cera, both of whom are listed in the credits. Unfortunately, both of them have fairly minor parts in what is almost a sketch comedy piece that reminded me slightly of something like Kentucky Fried Movie in the manner that it flips from skit to skit, with on occasional recurring character turning up from time to time. It was an okay watch, had a couple moments that made me smile, but I honestly only laughed once, which probably isn't a glowing endorsement for a comedy.

The wife got home while I was piddling around with web shit, so I put that on hold and helped her unload her purchases and we spent some time catching up on our days, then she headed into the office to print some things that she had to have ready for a meeting later in the week, so I retired to the den and popped in something from the To-Watch Pile.

I'd watched The Philadelphia Story for the 1st time last year, so I was rather happy to run across it cheap at Big Lots recently. A shake of the phone had turned it up via the random number generator, so I settled in with a cocktail to watch Cary Grant work his magic on Katharine Hepburn. The wife joined me for the latter half of the film and then she cooked a couple steaks while I sorted through some junk in the Library, then we both headed to the den and ate while watching another Cary Grant selection.

I'd recorded Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House off of Turner Classic Movies last week, as I tend to enjoy him in comedies more than dramatic roles (though he's a great actor in virtually any role, to be honest), and was excited because this happened to co-star Myrna Loy as well. The idea of a guy getting in over his head with a home renovation/blitz build is possibly a personal fear of mine, as I know that the wife wants to build a home at some point in our lives, so I was curious to see how it all goes wrong for Grant. The flick was a lot of fun, he and Loy play off of each other well and their various travails weren't enough to send my lurking fears into overdrive, even though I can see a lot of this shit actually happening to us.

We called it a night shortly afterward, as the wife has to be up early tomorrow. I've been spending some time on the web tonight going over a handful of DVD's that I have managed to end up with duplicate copies of, some of which are even out of print. I will be listing a few things on Amazon later in the week, see if any of these 'rare' treasures can score me a few bucks as an Amazon Vendor.

I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Errands, Movies, Netflix, Extreme Movie, Matthew Lillard, Michael Cera, Kentucky Fried Movie, To-Watch Pile, The Philadelphia Story, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Myrna Loy

All Rise...

I forced myself into bed early last night (early for me, anyway), managing about 6 hours of sleep before the alarm went off. I showered, dressed and was out the door without waking the wife and sleeping Yorkie. The local courthouse has moved since I had done this whole song and dance last, so I located it with little hassle, but was stunned to see that the new parking set-up creates a virtual gridlock on the side street that it intersects, as the pedestrians have the right of way and fuck up any kind of normal give and take you get at a stop sign/cross street scenario. I settled into the courtroom, started reading a bit of a book until they finally got started and swore everyone in and started in one what an honor and service jury duty is. I usually scoff at this idea, if only because I've been pulled in there time and again only to be turned away and the whole shtick is getting old at this point. I read several chapters while the judge listened to everyone who had an allegedly legit reason to not be there, then released them and offered everyone a 20 minute break before he started nailing down the pool of 70 that they wanted.

Thankfully, when he ran down the list of names once everyone had been herded back into the room, mine was happily absent and I was free to go on my merry way. This was with the standard warning that everyone needed to call this evening to make sure that they didn't need people on Wednesday as well, a call that this evening set my mind at ease by letting me off the hook for the week. I've done my 'civic duty', so I guess I'll be bitching about this again sometime early next year. If not (God Forbid.) sooner.

I headed home after grabbing a bit of breakfast and a coffee, making plans to meet EL and DR for our standing lunch date. I'd canceled in fear that the whole Jury thing would tie me up for longer than it actually did. The Maid arrived shortly after I got home, so she set to her task while I retreated to the Office and looked at e-mail and shit to pass the time. I eventually left her under the watchful eye of the Yorkie to go meet the fellas for lunch, withthe understanding that the wife would be home shortly.

I ran a few errands after lunch, one of which took me past a restaurant that boasted on its outdoor marquee '15 meals under $15', to which their next door competition had promptly retorted '40 meals under $10!" on their own little board. I wish there was a Taco Bell nearby as well, as their sign could possibly read 'A house cat will shit on your mouth for only $4!', as that'd provide roughly the same nutritional content one expects from their foodstuffs.

The wife had an evening meeting, so she and I kinda passed like ships in the night as she was leaving at roughly the same time I was getting back to the house. I spent the evening scanning another shelf worth of DVDs into the movie app while I absently watched some bad TV, then the wife and I caught up with Hawaii Five-O from last night and called it a day.

I'm beat, so I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Jury Duty, Maid, Lunch, Friends, Errands, Television, Hawaii Five-O

Pawn Shopping

I have to report for Jury Duty (and presumably lose most of my day before being dismissed) in the AM, so I decided to get up early this morning and ran over to Odessa to hit Big Lots in search of some more TV deals that have been turning up, including the 2nd volume of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.

I was pleasantly surprised to find exactly what I was looking for , along with a few other items, so I decided to hit a few pawn shops since I hadn't made those rounds in at least a month or more. I was happy to see a bit of turnover in their stocks, even stumbled across an out of print version of Swamp Thing that was yanked from shelves once they realized that there was a full 2 minutes of Adrienne Barbeau's Barboobs on display when she bathes in a pond. I have the film in the cut version (another Big Lots purchase, if memory serves) but for another $2 at a pawn shop, I figured I could take the time to upgrade.

I hit a couple places on my way back into town, then picked up some lunch and headed home to double check that one of my new treasures, a used copy of J.D.'s Revenge was in good working order, as it had a few scratches that I wasn't 100% about and wanted to make sure didn't effect play. The movie is a different spin on the Blaxploitation genre, as it features a nice guy in modern (70's era anyway) New Orleans becoming possessed by the vicious spirit of a slain pimp/bootlegger who is out to settle scores with those that betrayed and killed him. It's a really good performance by the lead Glynn Turman, who I now kinda want to track down in a few other films, as he managed two distinctly separate personas here, at times within the same scenes. Good stuff.

The wife had a meeting or three in the late afternoon into the evening, so I spent some time adding stuff into the movie cataloging app while watching something off the To-Watch Pile, a little kidnapping gone wrong film called Venom. A handful of crooks attempt to snatch the son of a wealthy couple, but quickly come up against several problems, not the least of which is the police surrounding the townhouse they are holed up in. On top of this, the boy, who collects numerous pets accidentally receives a poisonous snake by mistake due to an error at his lousy ass pet store. The snake (a Black Mamba) is quickly released and instead of a calm garden snake they have this 6 foot monster snapping people in the face immediately before disappearing into the heating ducts. The best parts of this film are watching Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed seethe at one another (a friend also tells me that they actually hated one another on set), as well as Kinski going toe to toe with the snake in the final reel. It's a fun film and I do admit that they even got me once with the jump scares as the snake turns up when you're least expecting it.

The wife returned with dinner and we watched a few things off the TiVo, then I headed to the office to get started on this so I can be up early in the AM to shower and go waste my fucking day.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Shopping, Big Lots, Television, Dr Katz Professional Therapist, Movies, Pawn Shops, Swamp Thing, Adrienne Barbeau, Lunch, JDs Revenge, Glynn Turman, Television, Venom, Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, TiVo

Wasting My Life Away

As regular readers (all four of you) may've noticed, I didn't publish last night's post until late today. This was out of general fatigue that set in as I was working on the post late into the night, so I decided to say piss on it and try to go to bed. I then lay in bed for several hours, tossing and turning, half-assed dozing from time to time before finally getting some decent sleep after 7:00 in the damned morning. I shoulda stayed up, but I kept thinking I would fall asleep. God hates me.

I naturally slept half the day away as a result of this, getting up around 2:00 in the damned afternoon. Hell, I slept so late that the wife was settling into the bed to take a nap of her own when I finally roused myself and realized how late it was. I left her to catch a few winks with the Yorkie in the bedroom while I moved into the den and started setting up the TiVo for this evening's recordings and then grabbed the newspaper from the driveway and spent some time reading through that while I grabbed a little snack to tide me over until dinner.

Since I was sort of in the business of wrapping up sets this weekend I decided to tackle the last disc in the Lost season 3 set, which consisted of the final 3 episodes. I was about halfway through that when the wife joined me and set into her knitting project, so we wrapped the season on its cliffhanger ending, then she made dinner while I fed the Yorkie and kept her entertained.

We ate while watching the standard Sunday evening animation stuff on Fox, then caught up with the last couple Desperate Housewives episodes before calling it a night.

And now I'm here, playing catch up and listening to some music.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Insomnia, Frustration, Television, TiVo, Lost, Desperate Housewives

Winchester Tale, Baron Imprint

The wife was involved in the process of introducing a potential new executive director to one of her non-profit organizations today, so she was up and gone early to set things up.

The Yorkie and I chilled out in the den with some coffee after I got up, though I had to drink the majority of the coffee,as the Yorkie is something of a lightweight and gets jittery. Okay, the Yorkie doesn't drink coffee, but it'd be nice to have a vice in common, give us something to do together when no one else is around. I decided that today was the day that I was going to finish up my viewing of two different box sets that I had on the coffee table, each with two films left in them to be viewed.

First up was another selection out of the 2nd Mario Bava set, a comedic Spaghetti Western called Roy Colt & Winchester Jack, which was an okay watch, though the Italian humor is a bit slapsticky for my tastes. I've definitely decided that I prefer Bava in the horror/suspense/Giallo genre, rather than the few things I've seen in these sets that would fall under 'adventure' or today's western. There were some amusing bits with the female lead, a gorgeous Indian prostitute who wanted to charge the leads when showing even the smallest amount of skin, ultimately demanding marriage if they didn't wanna pay up. Strange reasoning.

The wife came home between her little 'meet and greets', brought lunch and chilled with me for a bit before catching a short nap. I watched the penultimate selection from the Masters Of Horror season one, Haeckel's Tale, the one based on a Clive Barker short story. It was as trippy and transgressive as one might expect a Barker tale to be (necrophilia, anyone?), and held up about as well as I expected it to from my recollections of my initial viewing.

The wife was to be at a little reception thing, then pick me up for a dinner with two other couples, so I decided to squeeze in the final Bava film in the set in the late afternoon. Baron Blood was a film whose title sounded ridiculously familiar, and I had it in my head that I might've already watched it during October of last year. I checked my lists and couldn't find it, but I popped it in thinking it would all start to seem familiar and I'd be off the hook on this one, but I'll be Goddamned if I had never seen this film at all. It was a big step up from the last one, Bava in his groove with Gothic castles and gruesome deaths attributed to the newly risen ghost of a long dead sadist known as (duh) Baron Blood. Good little flick, has some great cinematography that makes ample use of the castle and it's European settings. Well worth a look.

Now I wanna try to figure out what the hell film I watched that I somehow thought was this one...hmmn.

I dressed for the evening, got a decent shave and splashed on some cologne, then piddled around in the den waiting for the wife's call that she was on her way. She and our friend Scrawny McTall arrived, dropped off a few things from the reception and then we headed to the restaurant. Scrawny's husband was already there, having met our other couple, so we made the various introductions and chitchatted while waiting for a table, then finally got seated after a short wait. The meal was good, though the restaurant is always somewhat cacophonous, making conversation a bit hard at times, especially when the table of younger folks behind us had a few females who seemed to squeal with glee at whatever was being said by their tablemates. The evening was fun, the new people seemed nice enough, had funny stories and were open to hearing ours, so that's cool, right? I hope they end up moving here, they seemed like a good fit for the area.

The wife and I ended up watching the final Masters Of Horror episode when we got home, the gruesome and overall lackluster Imprint by Takashi Miike, which was as disjointed and poorly acted (looking at you, Billy Drago, you fucking HAM) as I remembered it being. The episode wasn't aired on Showtime due to the level of violence and torture that Miike employed, but as a whole the story is kinda silly and felt more like Miike had built it around color schemes and certain bizarro images rather than a cohesive story, as the through line never makes all that much sense and is made harder to take due to the puzzling over-acting we get from Drago as the lead, an American in search of his lost love, who was last seen turning tricks in a brothel and has most likely meta bad end. Truly a sad trumpet ending for the first season of what should've been a better series as a whole. Oh well, I knew the whole show was fairly middle of the road when I picked up the sets cheap for a potential re-watch.

We called it a night shortly thereafter, winding down with an episode of Veronica Mars, which the wife really seems to be enjoying, to my amusement. The show is growing on me, but she seems to dig it much more than I expected her to, it's just funny when she likes something more than I think she will.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Movies, To-Watch Pile, Roy Colt And Winchester Jack, Spaghetti Western, Mario Bava, Television Masters Of Horror, Haeckels Tale, Clive Barker, Baron Blood, Dinner, Friends, Takashi Miike, Imprint, Netflix Instant Watch, Veronica Mars

Taking A Pass

To be honest, I'm beat and writing this a bit later than I have in some time. With very little happening today I doubt there will be much of any interest to be had in this post. I do find myself every now and then just going through the motions with this type of shit; this will be one of those instances.

The wife is to be busy most of Saturday, from around 8:00 AM until we both have to be at a dinner in the evening, so her whole day is pretty much committed to stuff and she decided to stick close to the house today and take it easy, as the weekend is going to be a bit of a bear. With this in mind, I left her piddling around the house in her pajamas, stepped out to pick up a bit of lunch for us, then we settled into the den to eat and watch some tube.

We spent the day with a few films and a smattering of television, then I caught up with about half a disc worth of Lost when the wife called it a night and headed to bed early, as she needs to be alert tomorrow. I got started on this post and decided about halfway through an opening paragraph to forego the normal details in favor of going to bed sooner than later.

I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Tired, Cannot Be Bothered, Television, Lost, More Tomorrow

Birds, Meth & Why Family Reunions Are For Suckers

I don't know what happened this morning, but while I was drinking my coffee and shooting the shit with the wife before she left for a meeting, the subject of the little Angry Birds game for the iPhone came up, and I found out that my wife had the freebie version on her phone. I played it for a bit, then surrendered her iPhone so that she could leave for her meeting. Next thing I know, I've downloaded the free version, finished it and bought the regular version when I see that it's not $5 or something crazy like that. I spent the next hour flinging these stupid fucking birds at things, pausing only to refill my coffee periodically and finally to get dressed, basically until the wife walked back in from her outing. I never get fished into games like this, so I dunno what happened, but I'm sure as hell not going to try crank or something this week, I'd obviously fall down the rabbit hole and be sucking cocks for drugs within the week.

The wife and I had a lunch date, so we caught a late meal in a largely empty restaurant, then steeled ourselves for the grocery store. The overall experience wasn't bad, but for fuck's sake, people have absolutely no awareness of their surroundings: stopping dead in the middle of busy aisles, eyes glazed over as though the hypnotist has snapped his fingers and they suddenly think they're a lobotomized chicken again. The scariest thing is that these are the same assholes who you'll soon be meeting in the parking lot, where I'm sure they'll be equally clueless about who their motor vehicle just slammed into.

We made it home successfully and put away all the groceries, then we both got into our comfies and chilled on the couch for a flick from Netfux, so it can go back in the mail tomorrow.

Winter's Bone is a film I've heard good things about from several reliable sources, and it was also something I felt that the wife would dig. It's set in the Ozark region and focuses on a teenaged girl who must go on a harrowing quest to find her meth cooking father, who is due for a court date and his absence will cause them to lose the small shack that they call home. She's already taking care of a shut-in mother and two younger siblings, and now she finds herself forced to start asking questions in the criminal underworld that her father traffics in, bringing the wrath of the local sleazeballs down on her at every turn, a good number of which are her extended family.

We're zipping along fine, engrossed in the film, when suddenly the Blu-ray freezes. I wait a few seconds, try rewinding a few frames, no dice. I try to fast forward, nothing. I even go so far as to advance to the next chapter, losing about 10 minutes of possibly crucial (we'll never know, no will we?) plot, only to have the dialog and video start in out of synch. I finally popped out the disc and inspected it, the reverse side looked no worse for wear than any other rental disc, hell, I know for a fact that we've played more scratchy looking material in the past, and Blu-ray technology alleges to be resistant to getting scarred up like the average DVD. After fighting with the disc for a bit to no avail, I decided to try the PS3 in the bedroom to possibly finish the last damned hour of the film. I had to update the player, but it was willing to allow me to advance to the next chapter and play the video and dialog in the proper synch, so that' was a big step forward. We were able to watch the rest of the film, but I have to admit that having been taken out of the experience so completely to fight with the machines, I wasn't as invested as I was an hour earlier. The film is really well done, very realistic and honestly kinda depressing to think about the state of the lives of some folks here in the states.

We made dinner after the movie and moved back into the den, where I popped in a film off the To-Watch Pile by one David Gordon Green. Undertow maintained the same 'rural experience', as a farmer and his two boys live a solitary life in Georgia, fairly removed from the rest of the world until the children's uncle (their father's estranged brother) turns up looking to insinuate himself into their lives. The film soon explodes with tension and violence akin to Cain and Abel, it's quite a nail biter for the last half of the film, the wife even said that if certain turns happened as she feared they might, she might not be able to finish the film, something she's never said about even the worst horror films I've shown her. I find this to be a true testament to David Gordon Green's storytelling, as he takes you into the lives of these small fringe types, invests you in their lives and makes you want them to survive the ridiculous odds that the world has stacked against them. Great flick, definitely worth checking out if you get the chance.

We called it a night shortly afterward, and now here I am doing this crapola again.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Games, iPhone, Angry Birds, Lunch, Grocery Shopping, Movies, Netflix, Winters Bone, Blu-ray, Undertow, David Gordon Green, To-Watch Pile