Big Bad Comforter

The wife was out of the house at the crack of dawn, returning as I was getting ready to go and run by the Post Office to mail a couple things I'd recently sold on Amazon. We danced around argument over the situation with the comforter on the bed, which was becoming an issue on my end at the very least, finally deciding to run out and find something to replace it with before we got divorced or something. The wife also got fished into some kind of situation where she needed to sign some paperwork regarding some real estate that she and her Older Sister were selling (super-looong story, don't fucking ask), so we had to stop off along the way to let her do that. Surprisingly, we found a little bed set the first rattle out of the box, then hit the Post Office and stopped to pick up some food on the way home. This turned out to be something of a nightmare, wasting about 45 Christing minutes from start to finish to pick up some chicken, which I think we can all agree is ridiculous on many levels.

We had to be back at the house to meet the Interior Decorator's assistant and a guy who is meant to install some granite around the fireplace on our bedroom to match that on the mantle they've installed recently. They are also supposed to re-route the fireplace's gas switch, which now falls behind the leg of this mantle piece, something one would think that they would think of/consider/fucking notice before it's been placed, but what do I know; I'm no Interior Decorator. Once this meeting happened the wife and I were free to finally eat our late lunch and relax in the den for a bit.

I popped in the Shout! Factory double feature of Big Bad Mama, backed with Big Bad Mama II, in which Angie Dickinson plays a tough as nails gal in the 20's-30's, who goes on a crime spree with her two teenage daughters. Both films are a lot of fun, full of boobs, guns and car chases, I can really see these being big hits on the drive-in circuit of the time. Not too shabby of an entry off the To-Watch Pile.

The wife caught a nap towards the end of the first film, so when the credits rolled I paused the DVD and took the Yorkie for a ramble in the back yard while I brought in the new comforter and set it up on the bed in the bedroom to see if the color was as appropriate as we'd first thought. It looks pretty sweet and isn't 18 inches thick and as heavy as a safe, so I think we may've found a winner with this one.

We spent the evening with more random television off the TiVo, it's surprising how quickly the shows begin to get backlogged when there's a few evenings spent with friends or entertaining and what have you.

We called it a night around 10:30, as we have the Maid in the AM and I need to be awake when she arrives instead of drooling into my new comforter.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Bedding, Argument, Errands, Post Office, Lunch, Ridiculous Frustration, Interior Decorator, Movies, To-Watch Pile, Big Bad Mama, Big Bad Mama II, Angie Dickinson, DVD, Television, TiVo

Splice Me, Stupid!

The wife and I put a down comforter on the bed last night, then watched it rise like dough to the point that I felt like I was rolling around in marshmallow fluff. The Yorkie sprang hither and yon, bounding around as if she was fording her way through deep snow, sinking in wherever she landed before pouncing for the next location. By the time I settled down to sleep myself, I felt a great deal like I was sleeping under a sofa rather than a comforter; it's pretty ridiculous. Also warm and comfortable, but still: ri-Goddamn-diculous.

I got out this morning and pick up breakfast, which we ate at the kitchen counter while the Yorkie waited impatiently for a crumb to fall her way. I read through the newspaper, then the wife and I chilled out in the den and watched a few things of the TiVo. I'd recorded a Billy Wilder film called Kiss Me, Stupid awhile back and decided to give it a go. It stars Dean Martin and Kim Novak, with Martin essentially playing a lecherous version of himself (or 'Dino' in the film) on the road from Vegas to Los Angeles, getting waylaid by jackassery in a small town called Climax, Nevada, where aspiring songwriters seize on the chance meeting and try to finagle a scenario in which to sell him one of their songs. For whatever reason the film started off interestingly enough, but I was pretty shocked to notice that the film clocked in at a whopping 2 hours and 5 minutes, so it has plenty of time to meander around in the middle. I was also amused to hear the Robert Osborne guy intro it on TCM saying that it was savaged by both critics and fans when it premiered, which is a helluva way of selling me on the film I'm about to watch.

We watched a few things left over from this past Thursday night, then I finally popped in something that's been hanging around for too long from Netfux: Splice, is a sci-fi film in which a couple of geneticists create a animal/human hybrid against the better judgment of their corporate masters, only to have it become problematic almost immediately. The movie plays out in much the manner you'd expect, though the ending was a little different than what I was expecting, so that's cool I suppose, subverting my expectations and that kinda thing.

As we eased into the evening we watched the re-runs of Fox animation stuff that they'd thrown on opposite the Oscars, an event that I just don't think I have the strength for anymore. Plus, with Twitter and shit being as immediate as it is, I was able to follow along for the run of the show just peeping at the iPhone every 20 minutes or so. The gist of the program seemed to be that some gal from The Fighter said "Fuck" during her acceptance speech, Banksy did not win for Exit Through The Gift Shop and James Franco seemed high as a giraffe's ass to most of the people Tweeting about the show. Yawn. I did catch the last three awards after we'd wrapped our TV viewing, just because I could work on this bullshit on the iPad while I listened to the show.

The wife has an early morning, so she was off to bed, leaving me to piddle with this crapola in the Office before tackling the marshmallow that we're now sleeping in.

The bedding thing is definitely a 'to be continued' situation, as I dunno if I can deal with this on a daily basis.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Bedding, Hijinx, Movies, TiVo, Kiss Me Stupid, Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Billy Wilder, Turner Classic Movies, Robert Osborne, Television, Netflix, Blu-ray, Splice, Oscars, The Fighter, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Banksy, James Franco, Twitter

Grandmother's Lot

The new bedding proved comfy (I realize it's the same mattress and whatnot, but it's somehow a psychological thing for me), though I did find myself kinda tossing and turning a bit. The morning came and went, I was vaguely aware of the wife leaving to fulfill her last bit of volunteer time at her event downtown, but I slept like a stone with the newly installed blackout curtains, unable to discern if it was 6:00 AM or 1:00 PM outside. These things may be the death of my sleep patterns once and for all, so it's been nice knowing you folks.

Since I wasn't sure when the wife would be home I stepped out and grabbed a burger for my lunch, then popped in a truly random selection off the To-Watch Pile, Tobe Hooper's adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, something which I was fairly fuzzy as to whether or not I had seen the flick before. Originally presented as a mini-series on television, the DVD release is a solid 3 hours of vampiric goodness, hitting most of the highlights that I recall from the novel, though it's been at least 20 years since I have read that book, so who knows how well my memory is serving me on this one. The wife got home in the late afternoon, putting the finishing touches on the shawl she was knitting for Grandmother while I finished up my movie.

We headed over to the Mother In Law's just before 6:00 to join Grandmother's 92nd birthday celebration, which included most of the extended family. I believe that the idea was to throw a smaller party this year at Grandmother's request, though the headcount seemed virtually the same as it ever was, so I'm not sure what was really changed aside from the venue. The food was good, the mingling seemed easy and natural enough, and to my knowledge no one managed to get too loaded and show their ass, which is always a glowing sign of the success of any family gathering, right? The Uncle (who I may shorthand to the Druncle sooner than later, as I rarely see him when he's not loaded like a freight train these days) seemed to be holding it together pretty well, though we did get into some of his weird stuttery loops later in the evening, a weird repetitive tic that seems to surface when he's had more than a few. The evening wound down around 9:00 or so, though it took a bit of time to roust the Druncle, even though Grandmother was all but begging him to take her home because everyone was gone, she was tired, our hosts were tired and the party was over, for fuck's sake. I really feel bad about this situation, as I know the man would do anything you asked him to, he's a real stand up guy, it's just rough to watch him get kinda sloppy pretty much any time you see him.

The wife and headed home, where we were greeted by an ecstatic Yorkie. We spent the rest of the evening looking into whether or not the down comforter that we'd stored in the closet would play ball with the new bedding, as the snazzier bedding isn't something we really want to sleep under on a daily basis, preferring to fold it to the end of the bed at night. Adding another step to the whole sleep process seems kinda silly to me, but whatever, it's still nice bedding and I guess we should do our level best to keep it looking decent.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Bedding, Decorating, To-Watch Pile, Movies, Salems Lot, Tobe Hooper, Stephen King, Birthday, Family Dinner

Decorating Trance

Almost a year ago we'd had our formal living and dining rooms redecorated, making plans to have the same people give our master bedroom a once over. That finally happened today, the Interior Decorator and his crew descending on our humble abode shortly after 9:00 this morning. The wife had errands and meetings, so she was out the door shortly after they arrived, leaving the Yorkie and I to watch over their progress. I spent most of the day in the Office, trying to keep the Yorkie relaxed and quiet while burning a few CD's to mail to a friend Monday.

The wife returned briefly to drop off some bedding pieces (we had new custom pillows and comforter coming, so we needed new sheets to match), then she headed back out to a luncheon as the drapery guy arrived to install new hardware and put up the drapes to match the new bedding. The Yorkie continued to lose her mind as all this happened.

After a lunch break the Interior Decorator returned with his crew to install a mantel around the fireplace, as well as arrange a lamp and side table near the new chaise lounge, hang a couple things on the walls and generally pull the various elements together. The wife also made her way home finally, so she was here to look over everything and approve the new look before they split. I'm still not 100% sold on the whole thing, but I'm hoping that can just be chalked up to the fact that in spite of how nice all the new things are, it's still (!) not quite finished, needing a few final touches that will happen hopefully sooner than later.

We had plans for the wife's friend JH to come by and bring a take-out pizza to bake at our place, and I found out that Brian would be joining us as well, so once we finally got some time to relax in the late afternoon I even went so far as to try and lay on the couch and see if I could catch a few winks, but to no avail. I finally got up and shook up a martini, just to ease into the evening; plus I was hungry and cocktail olives sounded tasty.

Our friends arrived and I kinda let the wife visit while I chilled in the den and watched a little bit of Jackie Brown off cable while waiting for the pizzas to bake. Brian joined me in there for a bit, then we ate dinner and I finally decided to pop in Death Trance for a re-watch off the To-Watch Pile, as I figured something subtitled and more action oriented was in order to let people visit but not completely disturb me if I actually tried to pay attention to the movie.

Brian split around 9:00, he'd seemed quiet most of the night, so maybe he just wasn't into the low-key hanging out this evening. JH stuck around and watched The Soup with us, calling it a night a little after 10:00 or thereabouts. The wife and I tackled the process of moving the piles of new decorative pillows off the bed and creating a safe passage for the Yorkie to scale and make her way onto the bed. She now has a little stool to work with, but her nerves kept getting the better of her and she wouldn't make that last little leap, even though she had made it earlier in the day. We finally got a decent system going to allow her to get up and down, then I put the wife to bed and headed to the Office to polish up this and try to get some sleep myself.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Interior Decorator, Yorkie, Decorating, Friends, Dinner, Movies, To-Watch Pile, Death Trance, Blu-ray, Television, The Soup

Sweet Sweetback's Breaking Baadasssss Song

The wife was tied up all day with various non-profit stuff, so the Yorkie and I were left to our own devices for most of the day.

I got some bills paid and then ran a couple errands, including stopping by Grandmother's house for a visit to drop off the little magazine I get for her, or I guess more accurately whoever she's passing it along to. I visited with she and the Uncle for a bit, then headed back out to grab myself a late lunch or early dinner, depending on whether or not the wife would be home for in the evening.

Back at the house I got the dog fed as well, then settled down for a movie off Netfux Instant Watch. I had always planned to check out Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, so when I noticed it on the streaming service I bumped it to the top of the queue. I have to say that while I understand the historical significance of the film, overall this one left me a little cold on the initial viewing. It has a minimal plot (Sweetback's character beats up cops who are abusing a Black Panther, then spends the rest of film fleeing LA, meeting weird people along the way) and spends a lot of time on music montages of Van Peebles running to a funky jazz score through back alleys and train yards. It's somewhat interesting visually, but it sure as hell isn't all that engaging when it does little except pad the film out to an hour and forty minute running time. Personally I would've preferred to see at least 15, perhaps even 20 minutes of running and shit trimmed off this thing to make it a little pacier and less meandering and stream of consciousness.

I spoke to a friend on the phone after the film, then the wife got home earlier than expected, having elected to pass on a 'girls night' that she'd been invited to, as it'd been a long enough day for her tastes. We chilled in the den with several episodes of Breaking Bad before calling it a night.

The Interior Decorator and his crew are supposed to be here tomorrow to start setting up the new vision for the master bedroom. The Yorkie has had a rough week, and this turn of event isn't going to help at all.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Errands, Movies, Netflix Instant Watch, Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song, Melvin Van Peebles, Television, Breaking Bad, Interior Decorator

Well, Just Crank My Chiba, Sonny!

Not a ton really going on today, but I bet I get some good mileage out of it anyway, because I'm a loquacious sumbitch.

The wife had morning stuff, I got up briefly with the alarm, then caught a few more winks before getting up for good around 11:00. The Yorkie was at the Groomer, so the house was almost unsettlingly quiet. Deciding against heading out for lunch, I grabbed some leftovers from last night's party and decided to dig into a set of Sonny Chiba stuff that'd been hanging around for awhile. The set is actually a trilogy with Chiba playing a character called Masutatsu Oyama, and over the course of the three films he generally beats the hell out of all comers using his lightning fast karate skills. These foes include a bull in Karate Bullfighter, then a bear in (duh) Karate Bearfighter, and he finally runs out of animals to whip the shit out of by the time Karate For Life rolled around, so the whales and shit were safe. For now. Actually, to be honest I think they might've run out of bears in certain scenes of the bear fight itself, as the animal looks suspiciously like a man in a suit in a few bits. At any rate, the films were all short and sweet, clocking in at around 90 minutes apiece, so that ate up most of the afternoon. I have to say that I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to take away from these films, as Chiba's character rapes a woman in the first film, but immediately feels bad for doing it, so we're supposed to be cool with him as our (rather) flawed hero now?

The wife returned in the mid afternoon, we caught up a bit, then she fielded a few calls and whatnot before trying to chill for a bit in the bedroom before heading back out for a couple meetings this evening. Maybe I'm misremembering, but she seems a helluva lot busier lately than she's been in the past year or so.

I picked up some food for my dinner, then fed the Yorkie her evening meal before settling in with another To-Watch Pile selection, the two disc set of Crank and Crank 2: High Voltage that was put out around the same time that The Expendables hit Blu-ray. I'd seen the first film a couple times before, so it wasn't any big surprise and was just the same fun wacky romp I was expecting, but the sequel I'm still a little on the fence about. I didn't dislike it, but it managed to go a bit further over the top in several places that I wasn't expecting, which left me feeling like it could've been better served had it not tried to out-do itself in certain sequences. I'm not gonna go into tons of vivid details and spoil stuff for people, but suffice to say, the film lost me and then won me back several times, so I'll be curious to see how well it holds up on a re-watch in a few months time when I know what to expect.

The wife got home near the end of the second movie, so I wrapped that while she piddled around with a baking project she had a wild hair to tackle, then we both settled down for the new episode of Justified before calling it a night.

I spent some time bouncing back and forth between the wife's PC and my own, as I had again run up against the hassle of not being able to get the Amazon MP3 downloader program to play ball with my computer. This happened a few months back when I got a wild hair and bought something cheap from them, only to have the computer tell me again and again that it didn't know what file I was talking about and that it didn't know how to read the file, so I essentially threw away $5 for music that doesn't exist. It occurred to me last night that I had run their program on the other PC before, so I figured I could look into possibly downloading something there and zip driving it over to my own computer across the room. Don't get me wrong, this is more of a pain in the ass than it should be, but I figure if it works, what the hell, I've definitely dealt with a helluva lot bigger hassles to move music around in the past. I think what gripes my ass the most is simply the fact that I have to download their stupid little program to send the music file where I want it, there's no other way of downloading music from their website.

Ah well, I think I have a relatively easy fix around it, so no harm done, except for my missing album from several months back.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Yorkie, Groomer, Movies, To-Watch Pile, Masutatsu Oyama Trilogy, Karate Bullfighter, Karate Bearfighter, Karate For Life, Sonny Chiba, Dinner, Crank, Crank 2 High Voltage, Blu-ray, Television, Justified, Music, Frustration

Host THIS!

The wife was already up and running when my alarm went off today, so I started some coffee and was piddling around in the office when the Mother In Law's lawn person arrived. The wife had asked to 'borrow' him for a few hours, since the recent weather had all but killed several plants in the front beds, leaving yellowed palm fronds laying all the way to the ground in a few places. Normally, we'd let our own Lawn Guys deal with this sort of jackassery, but they tend to show up on Wednesdays and the wife had this 'thing' that she'd agreed to host at the house which naturally fell the day before, so she'd made plans to try and get things cleaned up in advance of all that. I on the other hand woke with the cold chills at the prospect of a large group of people being in the house and generally fucking up my nightly rituals, such as sleeping and scratching my ass. God+Damn+Christmas.

I spoke to the MIL's guy when he arrived, told him to just kind of blow out the various beds and trim off the worst of the dead limbs/fronds. He even leaned down close to the largest palm tree to indicate the lower fronds I envisioned him trimming off, so I figured we were good, the erm....language barrier notwithstanding. I was in the Office for a time, then came to refresh my coffee and peeped out the window to see that he'd scalped the poor fucking tree down to one frond (!) and was about to trim its extremities off as well, as they were yellowed & looking ill. He paused and indicated with the clippers what he was about to do, and since I can't shit plant life to replace what he'd basically chopped down, I kinda smiled weakly and gave a thumbs up, hoping that the tree will recover. I mean, there's still some green on it, but it's so minimal it's hard to judge if it will bounce back or not. We do look a little weird right now though, as the wife was dismayed to return home to basically a stick in the yard where a fairly good sized palm had once stood, but what're ya gonna do? We're just not set up for an extended freeze in these parts, which we had for almost a full week awhile back.

The wife was arriving home and reacting to all this as I was supposed to be leaving to meet EL and DR for our standard Tuesday lunch, so I think between the weirdness of the lawn and the gnawing hunger pangs I came fairly close to picking a fight with her about this, as I was left feeling as though the yard situation was something I was supposed to have magically taken care of. Not that I'm above yard work (maybe?), but I was feeling as if this was some sort of last minute thing that she should've been looking at last week if she was this worried about it. I will say that I was happy to find my personal mood much lighter after a meal, and once she and I were talking in the late afternoon once I was back at the house, everything seemed fine. Don't get me wrong, I was still a little miffed/out of sorts at the idea of hosting this fundraiser nonsense, but was relieved that neither one of us was holding anything against the other.

I actually had both DR and EL drop by after lunch to check out the art, which they seemed to approve of as a general thing, offering a few solutions to the coloring issues, as well as their own interpretations of the images, so that was cool, interesting to hear others impressions of it.

The evening's gathering was to start at 5:30, which meant that the food and people setting things up would arrive about 30 minutes early, so once the 5:00 o'clock hour hit we were pretty much in the shit until after 7:00 or so, in spite of the alleged one hour running time of the presentation. Late arrivals, general bullshitting and the usual run of things kinda delayed things beyond our control, though it's no less frustrating in the long run, as I was hoping that this might not eat up my entire night. The presentation itself was interesting enough, though I would say that the handful of people who attended seemed less than 100% sold on the idea, but perhaps I'm too much of a cut and dried person; I.E.: They came in the door with a gut feeling of whether or not they wanna throw tons of cash at another non-profit organization, and not a lot that anyone tells them will sway them one way or the other. I know next to nothing about fund raising at this level, save for what I've gleaned from the wife's side of things, so maybe I'm just spinning things in a negative light.

We cleaned up afterward and visited with one of the wife's friends, who is also involved in the whole fund raising process while having another beer and chowing down on some leftover hors d'oeuvres. We eventually chilled in the den and halfway watched The Losers on cable while chatting some more, then we called it a night around 10:00.

Personally, I'm beat.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Lunch, Landscaping Nightmares, Non-Profits, Fund Raising, Movies, The Losers

Not Of This Pursuit

The wife and I both slept like the dead last night, a nice change of pace for both of us. She tends to toss and turn, regardless of how much time she spends in bed, and I have been waking frequently myself so this made for a nice change of pace.

The wife has been working on sorting things in her Craft Room, so while she busied herself with that I stepped out to grab an early lunch for us and drop off some more recycling that had piled up due to the cleaning. Back at the house we watched a few thing off the TiVo, leftovers from Thursday and Sunday, our busier TV nights. This ate up the early afternoon, at which point the wife excused herself to catch a nap.

I started painting over the 1st collage, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best as to whether or not it would ruin the effect already achieved by the collage process. I spent some time on the web, eventually retiring to the den to watch something else off the To-Watch Pile to give the painting time to dry. Hot Pursuit was one of those really strange grabs at Big Lots, in that it's an 80's John Cusack flick that I've somehow never seen, so I figured what the hell, it's a fun era for him, it's gotta be decent, right? While it never had anything as amusing or quotable as "Two dollars!" or anything like that, it was an alright way to pass an hour and a half.

The wife had an evening meeting, so she was heading out for that while I took a colored pencil to the now dried painting, hoping to pick out more detail on top the happy accidents of the drizzled white acrylics. I was a little disappointed to see that the pencils weren't going to prove all that useful, or at least the white I'm using isn't; it appears that the amount of pigment isn't sufficient enough to really show up on the page. I don't know if this is due to the amount of fixative I applied in advance of the painting stage, or if the color just doesn't show up well in this instance. Oh well, I may take a pass at it with a different color, see what happens. I just know that I'm not in love with it at this stage.

I watched another selection from the To-Watch Pile, the Roger Corman produced 80's cheese-fest Not Of This Earth. It stars Traci Lords as a nurse who finds herself caring for a mysterious patient who we soon learn is an alien with grim plans for humanity. I was amused immediately with the credit sequence, which featured a lot of footage of aliens that appear in other Corman films, but have nothing what-so-fucking-ever to do with this movie, and the alien peeking over the Earth on the box art? Don't be too stunned if you never see him at all, because these fuckers were absolutely shameless with their marketing. The wife returned towards the end of the film, so we ate dinner while it finished up, then spent a bit of time with last week's episode of Justified and the Human Target season finale before calling it a night.

I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Errands, Recycling, Lunch, To-Watch Pile, Movies, Hot Pursuit, John Cusack, Big Lots, Painting, Not Of This Earth, Traci Lords, Roger Corman, Television, TiVo, Human Target, Justified

Blergh.

This will be a rather short post, as very little happened today and I spent the majority of it in a daze, to be perfectly honest. I was up late finishing up the 5th season of Lost, then popped in the 1st disc of season 6, just because I was looking forward to re-visiting the 'sideways' world so much. I spent the wee hours of the morning sipping cocktails and snacking on this or that, so when I finally went to sleep I found myself feeling kinda miserable, having overeaten without really noticing it. To add insult to injury, I was asleep for about an hour when I was woken by sinus drainage, which would go on to plague me on and off for the next four hours, as I spent the 'night' up and down with coughing and just pretty much feeling miserable and unable to bed down comfortably for more than 45 minutes at a stretch.

The wife and Yorkie eventually got up around 8:30 or so, so we were all up in the morning. I grabbed the newspaper and eventually flipped through some television while the wife worked on a little project for one of her non-profits. We caught up with the usual NBC comedy stuff, but I was really having trouble keeping my eyes open by this point, so around 3:00 in the afternoon I finally laid down and was able to sleep, thank God for small favors.

I woke up after 7:00 in the evening, so I made a little pasta dish for our dinner, figuring that something simple would be best for my stomach after last night's ordeal. We checked out the normal Fox animation fare, then the wife started working on cleaning and sorting that she's been doing in her Craft Room, while I headed to the Office to get these blog posts caught up and published on the proper days.

I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Lost, Television, Insomnia, Sinus Drainage, Misery

Reincarnated Spiders

The wife and I got out early today to check out the little store that sells used books to raise money for the local public library. We came up empty-handed, then dropped off the recycling and grabbed a coffee on the way home.

The wife was supposed to take her niece to lunch, so she did that while I relaxed at the house and watched Reincarnation off the To-Watch Pile. The film is directed by Takashi Shimizu, who gave us the Ju-on films and their American counterparts, The Grudge. The film revolves around the haunted shenanigans that begin to happen when a director begins making a film about a mass murder that occurred at a hotel many years earlier. I have to say that I like the visual cues Shimizu uses in his films, hiding ghosts in tons of impossible places, but I do feel like he goes a bit too far into style over substance at times, as some of his pacing feels needlessly complicated at turns. The film was ultimately a fairly middle of the road affair, never really managing any true unsettling or scary moments.

The wife returned during the film, so we caught the end of that together, then I re-watched Spider Forest off the To-Watch Pile while she caught a nap. The film holds up pretty well, I picked it up based on my recollection of a Netfux rental of it a few years back.

I had a call from our pal Robbb around mid-day, who was in town for his nephew's wedding and inquired about maybe getting together for a drink or dinner or something of that sort. We ended up making dinner plans, so he dropped by and we eventually met his cousin at a steakhouse for near the house. Ironically the nephew and his new In-laws were having dinner at the same restaurant, so we got a chance to congratulate he and his new bride before their wedding. We had Robbb, his cousin and nephew over to the house for a bit to visit, then they had plans to go out and hit a bar, so we said our goodbyes.

Since I had been on the Maker's Mark for the evening, I decided to sit up a bit late once our guests had left and wrap up my re-watch of the Lost season 5 finale. I started this post on the iPad, then put it aside for later editing, as I wanted to give my attention to the show.

And now here I am, polishing this turd for popular consumption.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Errands, Recycling, Movies, To-Watch Pile, Reincarnation, Takashi Shimizu, Ju-on, The Grudge, Spider Forest, Dinner, Friends, Television, Lost

B-Movies And Bee Movies

I slept in today, though I was briefly aware of the wife getting up and moving with the alarm. I awoke after noon, with the Yorkie still cuddled up with me in bed, which rarely happens. We lay there for a bit, as she seemed up for the extended belly rub (no funny business, so get your mind out of the gutter, ya fucking pervs), then my bursting bladder finally forced me from the safe cocoon of the bed and down the hall to the toilet.

The Yorkie remained in bed; obviously she'd found the outside world lacking this morning and decided to hell with that noise.

Since it was the lunch hour I got out and picked up a small burger to tide me over until dinner, which was to be with a couple friends of ours that we hadn't seen in quite some time.

The To-Watch Pile beckoned, so I threw on Midnight Movies, a documentary covering the phenomena of things like El Topo, Rocky Horror Picture Show and Eraserhead as they found their crazy little niche audiences at midnight screenings in certain metropolitan areas in the 70's and 80's. It's strange to think about this sort of marketing, as it will never be coming back in my lifetime, hell, I feel a weird longing for it and I have never really experienced it myself. The closest I have ever come to a 'midnight movie' was a screening of Heavy Metal back in the mid 90's, in advance of it hitting home video if my memory serves. The documentary gives fairly in depth coverage to all of the films featured, giving a good look at both the background of the film as well as what influences it had on society at the time. Great little film, well worth owning.

The wife returned about halfway through the film, so we caught up a bit about her day and then she joined me for the end of the flick as we both relax on the couch in advance of our evening out.

Having seen a trailer recently for a ridiculous look film called Invasion Of The Bee Girls, I did a little digging and found out that we did indeed already own it on a Mill Creek set called Drive-In Movie 'Classics' (sarcastic quotes and italics mine, naturally), so we settled in to see what this was all about. Men being found dead of 'sexual exhaustion' sounded like an intriguing set-up, right? It was pretty amusing to poke fun at, though the grotty print on the set was fairly murky, making certain night scenes virtually impossible to discern what was happening from time to time.

Our friends arrived around 6:00, then we headed out to grab a bite to eat over on the South side of town at a little Mexican place we hadn't visited in quite awhile. The food was good, but the waitress was kind of out to lunch, even if it was her first night, as she claimed. We grabbed a coffee afterward, then chilled at the house with some Pandora Radio on the TiVo while we visited a bit before watching tonight's episode of The Soup, then calling it a night.

I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Yorkie, Lunch, To-Watch Pile, Movies, Midnight Movies, Cult Films, El Topo, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Eraserhead, Heavy Metal, Invasion Of The Bee Girls, Dinner, Friends, Music, Pandora Radio, Television, The Soup, TiVo

Shopping, Angels, Television

I slept in a bit this morning, then dressed to run a few errands, specifically a quest for a case to put the iPad in, as the stuff I was seeing on the web all had wildly varying reviews as to their quality.

It's the best thing I ever spent money on, five stars!
It fell apart after aborting my only child; what a piece of shit! No stars! Fuck this product and everyone involved in making it!

I'd pretty much decided that I'd have to find something that I could hold in my hands and discern the quality of before I dropped the cash on it, figuring that interweb exchanges would be a pain in the ass.

Target was who I first thought of on this trip, as they tend to have decently priced, stylish stuff, but as it turned out there was only one case that sort of fit my idea, and it wasn't exactly what I was envisioning, so I decided to try Best Buy as well, since they have their own little Apple section now. I have to admit though, I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to give Best Buy any money, as they took a solid fucking week to send me a pre-ordered Blu-ray earlier this week (it was released last Tuesday, arriving a full week late), but I figured if it turned out to be a piece of shit I had a better chance of returning it locally.

Things turning out as they usually do, I purchased a case at Best Buy, as it seemed the most protective of the device and allowed for the various tilts that I wanted to see for the iPad when I use it. I grabbed a burger on my way home, then ate while being watched over by a very expectant Yorkie, always hoping against hope that we'll start letting her have 'people' food again. I popped in a random selection from the To-Watch Pile: Angel Of Death. It was a blind buy written by Ed Brubaker and starring Zoe Bell as an assassin who finds herself haunted by the ghosts of her past when she botches her latest hit. It was an okay way to spend 80 minutes, though I do confess to being a bit preoccupied with the iPad and getting certain settings nailed down and other sites bookmarked while the film played out.

The wife returned, we caught up on her day, then she spent some time in the Office with e-mail and the like while I grabbed a shower. Kno1 was supposed to be staying with us this evening, so I texted with him about what he might be interested in doing for dinner, eventually settling on ordering in deli sandwiches.

We chilled out with a couple episodes of Justified, which Kno1 had expressed curiosity in, then he called it a night around 9:00 or so. The wife and I watched a new episode of Archer before calling it a night ourselves.

We've made plans for dinner with one of the wife's girlfriends for tomorrow night, so it looks to be a busy weekend right out of the gate.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Shopping, iPad Case, Errands, Movies, To-Watch Pile, Angel Of Death, Zoe Bell, Ed Brubaker, Houseguest, Television, Justified, Archer

Dangerous Metropolis

I got up today and had planned to run over to Odessa to make that monthly prowl through the various, so I started planning my little shopping route and tackling the rough decisions like coffee or just a Red Bull for the road?

I elected for the Red Bull and headed out, making the short drive to Odessa and hitting town just before noon and in the thick of the normal assortment of reckless yahoos on their way to lunch or death behind the wheel, whichever comes first.

I crapped out at the first couple shops I stopped into, but I eventually found an out of print copy of Danger Diabolik for $3 at the next shop, so I grabbed that with the intention of selling it on Amazon, as it seems to be going for a reasonable price, even used. I figure I can flip it for around $20, basically pay for a portion of what I picked up on this trip. I also found a 2 disc copy of Terry Gilliam's Tideland at the same shop, a film that I've wanted to own for some time now. Interestingly, it also looks to be OOP, though not in as high of a demand.

The biggest 'score' of the day came a couple shops later, where I found the recent released restoration of Metropolis on Blu-ray, for only $9.99, which the disinterested counter wench rang up at $7.99 instead. Superfantastic. I made the customary Big Lots dig, found a few cheap things and then hopped back in the car with one thought nagging at me: Every other clerk I had encountered was coughing and hacking like there was no tomorrow. I started to get slightly paranoid, because these people were all covering their mouths (which is nice, seeing as who we're living in a society and all), but then they're rubbing their grubby mitts all over the items I'm buying. If I make it to the end of the week without Captain Trips killing my ass, I'll be suitably impressed.

Also, in an completely crass and tasteless aside: I overheard the fat, unattractive (And what I had assumed was a borderline mentally challenged) woman who runs the counter at Big Lots talking to someone about her pregnancy, which made my jaw fucking drop in abject horror. I can't imagine anyone fucking this woman, let alone having some sort of misbegotten water-headed cracker spawn with her; I remain chilled and appalled by this turn of events even hours after the fact. Gag. Shiver.

Moving swiftly forward...

I finished up my 'rounds' and headed home, picking up a late lunch and pointed the car towards the house. I ended up spending the late afternoon and evening with a couple discs out of the Lost season 5 set, which moves along much faster than I remember it doing, but that's kinda cool, as I wanna get to the spiffy stuff in the 6th season that most everyone else hated in retrospect. The wife had an evening thing to attend, so she got home after 7:00 or so, I passed on dinner, as my late lunch was still keeping me very sated. We watched some Lost, then she headed to bed, as she has to be up in the AM.

The Office beckoned, so I started setting up the iPad, making sure that it pulled the right stuff over and didn't just try to dump everything in my iTunes all at once and defeat itself in the process. I mean seriously, the first time it did its thing it tried to add all of the silly digital copies of movies that I have sitting in iTunes, which it couldn't do, so it copied nothing at all. Silly.

I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Shopping, Bargains, Pawn Shops, DVD, Movies, Danger Diabolik, Tideland, Terry Gilliam, Metropolis, Blu-ray, Big Lots, Disgust, General Tackiness, Television, Lost, iPad, iTunes

Lost The Maid In The Bright Lights

The Maid was supposed to be here this morning, which can mean she'll arrive anytime between 9:30 and noon, so I was up and running by 9:00, making coffee to stave off the fatigue nipping at my heels. The Yorkie moved to her normal perch in the sitting area off the kitchen, grumbling under her breath at the workmen across the street every time you could faintly hear them fire up a skill saw or whatever. I worked on the collage stuff a bit, tearing out last night's pieces and adding several more to dry while I checked e-mail and piddled around in the Office.

The Maid turned up around 10:30 and started in on her stuff, the dog and I spent most of that time in the Office chilling, then the wife got home around 12:30 from her various meetings and errands, so she and I caught up, then I had to excuse myself to go and meet EL and DR for our standing engagement at 1:00. Lunch was good, the conversation occasionally heavy, one hopes that things even out for everyone sooner than later, as that has felt like a growing trend in the past few weeks.

I dropped by an art supply store on my way home to look for something to thin but not completely dilute the acrylics I've been using, which I experimented with a bit once I got home, with less than stellar results. I may have to rethink how I'm attacking the next stage of the two collages, as I don't just wanna flat out ruin them at this stage by half-assing it or just diving in with no plan. We're getting past the 'happy accident' phase of things and needing to find something to tie it all together.

The wife had a commitment this evening that I begged out of, as I hadn't showered and didn't really feel like dressing for, quite frankly. I popped in a selection off the To-Watch Pile instead, the Big Lots purchased Bright Lights, Big City, which I was annoyed to notice is the Full Screen version, so I see it going the way of Swap A DVD before too long. The movie is an uneven mix, ranging from truly down and out feeling moments of drug abuse to hijinx involving releasing a ferret into the boss' office, I recall the novel being a bit more serious throughout. Oh well, it has its moments and I'd like to have it around to refer back to should the mood strike me.

I picked up a burger for my dinner and was in the middle of the first disc of Lost season 5 when the wife got home from her evening. We caught up on her night, then she gave me a late arriving Valentine's gift: a freaking iPad. As with the new iPhone, I'm a little intimidated with it right now, but I guess I'll be working my way into it over the next few days. She said she splurged on it because once she'd seen me tinkering around with hers she quickly decided that I'd enjoy personalizing one of my own rather than having to work around her settings, etc.

I'm out kids, I need to find a cover for this iPad so that it doesn't get ruined before I figure out how to charge & sync it.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Maid, Yorkie, Friends, Lunch, Art, Painting, Collage, Movies, Bright Lights Big City, DVD, To-Watch Pile, Big Lots, Shopping, Television, Lost, Blu-ray, iPad

A Methy Affair

Pardon my pun (or shitty lisp, depending on how you wanna read that title).

I woke up this morning feeling like someone hit me in the back of the neck with a lead pipe, which I took to indicate that God does indeed hate me, as I've always feared. I wouldn't jump to this conclusion had I not gotten up to hit the john a few times last night and felt fine, only to wake up unable to turn my head a few short hours later. Sucks to be me, right?

The wife had to be at one of her non-profits early this morning, so she was leaving about the time I was waking up. I headed to the Library on the other side of the house, where I'd stashed the roses that I arranged yesterday afternoon, made sure that they hadn't mysteriously crapped out on me overnight, then arranged those on the kitchen counter alongside the little jewelry item, chocolates and card that I had made for her. Yeah, made for her, I've been feeling more artsy lately, sue me.

I spent some time in the Office checking e-mail and then decided to step out and grab some breakfast since I had some coffee perking and nothing to really do until the wife got home.

My breakfast secured, I headed home and watched a few things off Netfux Instant Watch until the wife got home, whereupon we exchanged gifts and then settled into the den to relax for the day, as she'd run all of her errands and was ready to chill out with a bit of a day off. We watched the rest of an episode of Fear Itself, a horror series that ran to a chilly reception on NBC a few years back, then I took her lunch order and left her to knit some more while I picked up some food.

We watched An Affair To Remember, a film that neither one of us had seen before. I've been on this weird Cary Grant jag lately, so I figured we'd give this one a go, what with it being one of the great romantic films and all. We both enjoyed the film rather well, though I will admit that I started out fairly cold on it at first; there was just something in Kerr and Grant's banter that left me feeling less than convinced. It did grow on me, building to a nice conclusion that was rather bittersweet in the grand scheme of things. Good stuff, glad to have finally checked it out.

We both piddled around the house with a few chores, laundry, trash, replacing some of the security spotlights in the yard in the late afternoon, then reconvened for some more television in the den, diving into season 2 of Breaking Bad since we've got a good chunk of those to make our way through. We ended up watching the first 5 episodes of the second season and we're both still really digging the show, it manages to build a decent amount of tension in even the most mundane scenarios, real edge of the seat stuff at times.

We called it a night around the usual time, though I spent a bit of time playing around with the 1st collage, as I think I've finally fallen into a direction for it, as well as cracked what I wanna do with the 2nd one at long last.

I'm out kids, we have the Maid to contend with in the AM.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Valentines Day, Gifts, Errands, Lunch, Television, Netflix Instant Watch, Fear Itself, Movies, An Affair To Remember, Cary Grant, Breaking Bad, Art, Collage

Camping Is For Suckers

I found my way into bed at a reasonable hour last night, so I woke feeling fairly well-rested instead of clutching for a cup of coffee this morning. I had a few last minute errands to run for Valentine's Day, so I made plans to pick up a bit of lunch while I was out. The wife had a baby shower or something to be at in the mid- afternoon, so I was planning to use that time to place a few items as part of the wife's Valentine's goodies.

While I worked on that I noticed that a few folks in Europe were mentioning on Twitter that they either don't 'believe in' Valentine's Day, or that their spouse doesn't, which kind of annoys me. Why on earth are you gong to be such a dick that you won't make the (very) minimal effort to buy the wife some cheap flowers or a box of candy? It just seems like posturing for the sake of posturing, rather than (God Forbid) admitting that you love your spouse by allowing 'society' to tell you when to give them a gift. What's the worst thing that could happen: you're out $20 for a cheap dozen roses and your loved one feels special?

How awful for you. I'll never understand people.

Since I knew the wife would be out of the house in the afternoon I had popped in His Name Was Jason, the little Friday The 13th retrospective for a re-watch off the To-Watch Pile. It's an interesting look at the series, something I think I recall seeing on cable originally, before running across it cheap at a pawn shop awhile back.

The wife returned and ooh'd and aah'd over the flowers for a suitable time, then she set about starting dinner while I finished up my movie in the den and watched a bit of the special features on the second disc that was included.

We pretty much rounded out the evening with the normal Fox animated fare, the last week's episode of Fringe, which continues to be one of my favorite things on television, I really, really hope that Fox doesn't let it go.

We called it a night around 10:00, as I decided to try and get in bed even earlier this evening if at all possible, as sleep seems to agree with me.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Valentines Day, Errands, Annoyance, Movies, His Name Was Jason, Friday The 13th, Television, Fringe

Television And Trailers

The wife was up and working on a little craft project at the kitchen counter when I got up this morning. We sat around chitchatting for a bit, then I eventually got dressed and got out just long enough to grab some lunch before we spent the rest of the day in the den catching up on some television off the TiVo from the past few nights.

We got caught up on this week's NBC comedies from Thursday night, except for 30 Rock, which the TiVo had inexplicably decided not to record, which is irritating as all hell. It's done this once in the past, so I'm not sure what seems to be the problem there, it's obviously something I need to keep an eye on in the future.

The wife caught a nap in the late afternoon while I watched a new Supernatural and spent some time layering a few things into the 1st collage, then I popped in something kinda light off the To-Watch Pile to wile away the evening.

Stephen Romano's Shock Festival is a three DVD set built around the book of the same name, in which Romano created fake histories and marketing campaigns for a ton of exploitation films that don't exist. The set opens with a selection of trailers based on some of the titles set forth in the book, then moves on with a reel of exploitation films, then the horror stuff, TV spots, etc. The set is a ton of fun, actually spotlighting several things in the mix that I wasn't familiar with, and has a couple separate commentary tracks to dig back into later. Good stuff.

The wife knitted a bit more while we watched TV, then we wrapped the evening with this week's episode of The Soup. I added another layer of stuff to the collage before heading in here to work on this stuff.

I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Television, TiVo, 30 Rock, Supernatural, Movies, Trailers, Shock Festival, Stephen Romano, Exploitation Films, The Soup

Playing With The French

The wife ran the Yorkie to the Vet for a little check-up today, as she'd been acting a little odd the past 24 hours or so, but they seemed fairly unconcerned, prescribing the same medicine that's done the trick in the past. We're guessing that they know what they're doing, as she seems a bit better this evening.

The wife ended up running a few other errands after dropping the dog back at home, leaving me free to get a few things relating to Valentine's Day squared away. I paid some bills, showered and headed out to run through a little grocery list of things I needed to get finished today in order to possibly avoid doing a ton of shit at the last minute or even (God Forbid) on Monday afternoon.

I grabbed a late lunch and headed home to squirrel away my various purchases and eventually settled in and watched the Luc Besson film Angel-A, in which a down on his luck type is on the verge of suicide, only to instinctively save a gorgeous blonde woman when she throws herself from a bridge. She begins to help him turn his life around, revealing her own mysterious origins along the way. This was firmly set within the fun, zany world of French cinema, a country that I sometimes feel has two speeds: Films like this one, a light-hearted fun affair, even when colored occasionally by grim moments or the other side of the coin - the soul crushing, depressing, gun-in-mouth blues of films like Irreversible or Martyrs, where you're left feeling like society is going to torture and rape your corpse just for fun and it won't matter to anyone. It's an interesting culture, as I would be hard pressed to name a movie off the top of my head that's 'just a movie', for whatever reason the films that I gravitate to from this country all seem to swing to one side or the other of these emotional poles. I'm sure as soon as I hit 'publish' on this I'll think of several and have to edit this heavily, but this is what my gut says. It's all either the sweet fun of something like Amelie or the brutal confrontation of High Tension, with very little in between.

We'd made plans to have dinner with another couple this evening, so after traded a few texts I suggested maybe just ordering in and chilling here, which somehow seemed a little more relaxing and would allow for easier conversation than waiting on a table in a crowded restaurant lobby and then shouting over a waitress for an hour or so. Our guests arrived about 5 minutes ahead of the food, so we unpacked the meal and dug in, enjoying a nice long visit and eventually retiring to the den where we talked over a flick I had put in for background noise, Jacques Tati's Playtime. I figured soemthing else light and French would round out the evening well, especially since it's largely sight-gags and subtitled, allowing us to talk over it when necessary.

Our dinner guests left around 11:00, I put the wife to bed and then watched the new Ricky Gervais Show before heading to the Office to do this nonsense.



I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Errands, Valentines Day, Movies, Angel-A, Luc Besson, French Cinema, Irreversible, Martyrs, Amelie, High Tension, Dinner, Friends, Playtime, Jacques Tati, Blu-ray, Television, The Ricky Gervais Show