Sorority Fascination

I was able to manage about 7 hours of sleep last night, then rose with the wife and Yorkie around 8:00 this morning. The wife started getting ready for her day, so I busied myself with making the bed and getting the house opened up for the day. I settled in the Office with some tea and spent some time on the web dicking around with the nerd-lists, which I am finally making a slight amount of headway on.

The wife split to run her errands and I had some more tea, eventually getting off the PC to run a few errands of my own shortly before noon. I gathered and loaded the recycling, then went to dump that off and hit the bank before heading back home to make myself a bite to eat.

I ate a sandwich while watching a few episodes of The Venture Brothers that'd accumulated from this past weekend, then caught up with the wife when she got home from her outing. She headed into the Office to work on some non-profit stuff while I popped in something off the To-Watch Pile.

Fascination is a 1979 film from Jean Rollin, a man known for his dreamy Euro-horror/skin flicks, most of which are fairly light on plot and heavy on atmosphere and nudity. I've now seen a couple films by the man and I have to say that I do enjoy his movies for what they are, as I am something of a 'style over substance' kinda guy, and these films are nothing if not stylish. I would say that the movie is worth a watch if you know what you're getting into, which is little plot and some interesting languid visuals, as well as Brigitte Lahaie getting naked like clockwork about every 12 minutes or so, which I assure you isn't a bad way to kill 80 minutes.

The wife was still wrapped up in her stuff ont eh computer, so I did some time on the stationary bike, passing the time by letting the Goddamned PS3 update itself yet again, as it seems to be in need of something every other time it's turned on. I cannot imagine how annoying this would be if I were sitting down to try and play a game or something, rather than just playing something via Netfux Instant Watch.

I spent some time on the Library reading to cool off afterward, then the wife and I settled into the den for the evening and I made myself a martini before we started a movie. We've had Sorority Row sitting on the TiVo for some time now, which I figured that the wife could get some laughs out of considering her own time in a sorority in college. The movie is loaded with ridiculous 'movie parties', where gorgeous people have amazingly lavish parties with no indication as to who's bankrolling all these assholes and their drunken expensive hijinx. The movie is okay, though I was slightly disappointed that the kinda cute chick I was surprised to see was in the film was the girl who is killed and whose death is covered up, as I was hoping for a bit more screen time for her. Oh well.

We ordered in some pizza for our dinner, then I eventually tracked down something else off the To-Watch Pile to go along with the 'sorority' theme of the evening, which turned out to be the wordily titled Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, which is a flick I've always heard of (mostly due to the puzzling fucking name), as well as the schlocky low budget nature of it all. The movie is very much of its time (the late '80s), with the requisite corny characters, nudity and some amusingly bad special effects as an Imp is released from a bowling trophy (?) and wreaks havoc on the college kids responsible. It was picked up cheap and I feel like I got my $5 worth of entertainment from it.

We called it a night shortly after, so that I could get the blog caught up and then get some notes typed out for this post to go up sometime on Thursday or shortly thereafter, depending on my commitment to the cause.

Be seeing you.

It's Tuesday, Dog, Do You Know Where Your Charity Is?

Having done my best to get to bed at a reasonable hour last night, I still managed to be awake and reading a book at 2:00 in the freaking morning. My plans to catch a decent amount of sleep dashed, I resigned myself to instead rise as early as possible and power through the day so that I could go to bed this evening and sleep well.

The wife was getting ready to leave to run errands while I made my tea this morning, so she and I shared a quick cup, then I spent some time on the web working on getting the nerd-lists caught up, as they remain months behind at this point. I traded texts with EL about meeting for lunch earlier than usual, and also spent some time on the phone catching up with Robbb, who I hadn't heard from in forever.

I eventually met EL, DR and a couple of EL's buddies at our favorite Thai place, where we visited a bit and I kind of got to know EL's pals a bit better, as I normally only see them at parties and places like that, so it was nice to catch up in a more relaxed setting. I headed back home after the meal, spent some more time on the web, then eventually made some time to read for about an hour just because I don't feel like I've been doing enough of that lately.

The wife and I were set to attend a fundraiser in Odessa, so I eventually started ballparking to the time that I'd need to get ready and decided that I could retire to the bedroom to do some time on the stationary bike and catch a movie on the PS3. I popped in Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night, which was a pretty watchable movie in spite of some bad CGI, awfully cornball lines and some odd musical cues here and there, but I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy it a great deal. This one was a loaner from Buckaroo Banzai, so it was nice to give it a look and be able to hand it off the next time I see him. I did pause the movie around the midway point to make myself some more tea in an effort to stave off the yawns, as my late night was catching up to me.

I finished the flick and hit the shower, then got cleaned up and dressed for the evening, then the wife and I picked up the other couple we were going to this event with and headed over to Odessa. We hadn't seen Scrawny McTall and her hubby in quite some time, so it was nice to visit with them a bit on the drive and catch up, then we arrived at the country club and headed inside to have some food and mingle our little hearts out.

The evening had some live entertainment that we mostly tuned out in an effort to visit with the other people at our table, then a live auction was happening that drew some amazing amounts of cash, including $4,000 for a Stetson hat signed by Tom Selleck. I mean, who knew that he had such juice these days? Crazy.

We dropped our friends back at their place shortly before 10:00 in the evening, then headed home to unwind and start planning for bed.

I saw the wife to the bedroom, then got the blog caught up for Monday and started punching up some notes for Tuesday's post before calling it a night.

Monday With A Shotgun

I managed to up later than intended yet again last night, so I slept in this morning.

The wife had a lunch meeting and was up checking e-mail and the like when I finally got up. I made the bed and got the house opened up, then sent the wife on her way with the understanding that we'd go and do some grocery shopping in the early afternoon.

I spent an hour or so online piddling around and polishing up the weekend's posts, then the wife called to let me know that she was on her way home, so I met her in the garage and we went for a late lunch and then hit the grocery store.

We always seem to end up being in the store for at least a solid hour, regardless of how much or how little stuff we need, so that shopping slog was as predictable as ever, but we got all the crap we needed and headed home, pausing only to grab a beverage from Starbuck's.

We unloaded and put everything away, then I spent some time on the web getting a blog post published and updating a couple of my little nerd-lists that always fall by the wayside, then I made myself a martini and joined the wife in the den to watch some television.

Since we had last night's episode of Breaking Bad waiting for us we dug into that, then eventually poked around on Netfux Instant Watch a bit looking for something to try to stream and see if it played any smoother than it has in the past due to the new positioning of the router.

Hobo With A Shotgun was something I had been putting off as I wanted to be able to settle in and really enjoy it, so we took a pass at that to test the new set-up. I can unfortunately report that the playback was essentially the same kinda half-assed stuttering bullshit that we have had in the past, which seems to be typical of our luck and makes me really happy that we haven't taken the steps to move toward a 'streaming only' account with Netfux, as it's just never going to work for me like it's meant to. Whether this is due to Suddenlink or Netfux themselves is anybody's guess, and I would wager that both companies would happily point blame at the other, so who knows what the fix will eventually be? Oh wait, I know, when we build our 'forever home' as we're calling it, I wanna drop a fucking router into the corner of each and every room of the house so that things are hard-wired to within 10 feet at most of any wireless device that they might need to connect to. Then is something still isn't connecting I'm going to just kill myself, as it'll be a sign that I'm just not meant to be happy and enjoy things that others are allowed to have with relative ease.

All that shit aside, I dug Hobo... pretty well, but was honestly expecting to just love it to death, so I was kinda surprised by my reaction. The movie is very simple, Rutger Hauer turns up in an exceptionally seedy city, hoping to earn cash for lawn mower to try and start a small business, then is forced by circumstances to finally go vigilante justice on the populace after crooked cops and criminals run roughshod over him. It's a good film, but for whatever reason I only liked it rather than loving it as I expected to, so I dunno what's up with that. It's definitely something I'll come back to, so perhaps it will grow on me more with repeated viewings.

We called it a night shortly afterward and I headed to the web to dick around with this nonsense, because that's what I do with my evenings.

Be seeing you.

Wait, It Needs Electricity To Actually Work?!?

The wife and I both slept in until nearly noon this morning, then I rolled over to find her trying to log onto the web on her Mac in the bedroom with no success. We lay in bed for a bit chit chatting, then my bladder drove me from the comfort of the covers, so I stepped into the Office on the way back to the bedroom to see if the router was doing anything strange. I noticed that the router, PC and the cable modem were all turned off, as well as the little surge protector/battery back-up that it's all plugged into. I turn it on, it stays on for about 30 seconds, then craps out again. I hit the button again, same story. I suppose that little fella had just run its course, as we've had it since we bought our first computer together, so it's been in constant use for about 6 years at this point, plus all the random power flips that this stupid house has had since we have lived here, I guess I should be surprised it made it for as long as it did.

Somewhat relieved, I announced the death of the surge protector to the wife and we ended up planning out some afternoon running around to remedy that situation. We dressed and then hit up Best Buy for the surge protector/battery back-up, which was pretty easy to find. We popped into the mall next, as the wife had a shopping agenda involving a beauty supply store and a couple other stops, culminating in a burger at a place in the food court.

Walking the mall confirmed that I need to continue to do most of my shopping online, as I'm now probably more familiar with the layout of the Northpark Mall in Dallas than I am with our local one, and I don't wanna be that confused old man wandering around wondering where everything went.

We had a really decent burger, then headed home, stopping to gas up the car and drop off some sort of cosmetics that the Mother In Law had requested since we would be in a certain store on our outing. Back at the house I started unplugging everything and actually ended up moving the router around a bit in an effort to put it closer to the doorway of the Office, in hopes that it might connect to remote devices better in our lead-lined home from whence no wireless device can successfully communicate. So with both the router and cable modem relocated to the desktop and hidden behind our various corkboards that we use for notes and what have you, I was able to get everything plugged into the new device and hit the power button.

Boom. Everything is working again, and I may be imagining things, but I will swear that the iPad is connecting to the web better in the den than it ever has before, so today was kinda win/win as far as all of that hassle went.

I piddled around with a few other oddjobs around the house, ran the old surge protector to the garage to wait for a recycling day where the locals are prepared to receive electronics and things of that nature, then replaced the light bulb in the garage that had blown during Thursday night's weird power outage.

The wife and I watched a few things off the TiVo in the afternoon while she knitted and I read through the newspaper, then she caught a bit of a nap while I caught up with some rat killing online, then I made a martini as we got into the evening and settled in for the standard Fox fare, as well as our normal HBO stuff.

The wife picked up some take out for dinner somewhere along there, so we ate while we watched True Blood, then rounded out the evening with Entourage.

Since I was up so late last night, I headed immediately to the Office to work on getting the blog caught up while the wife headed to the bedroom with the Yorkie to crash out for the night.

Be seeing you.

Errands, Dinner, Birthday, Movies

I slept in today like a lazy tosser, rising shortly after the wife had retired back to the bed to catch a nap after being up for the morning. We're like two ships passing in the night sometimes.

I got the blog from Friday up and posted, then eventually ran into the wife when she got up a few hours later. We discussed a late lunch vs. the two social commitments that we had for the evening, eventually deciding to get out and grab a little something just to tide us over.

We grabbed something from a Mexican place's drive-thru, then ate at the house while watching this week's episode of Louie. If you're not watching Louie, you're doing yourself a great disservice. It's a great show, and this week's episode was an hour long and centered around him doing USO work in Afghanistan. With a duckling that his daughter sent with him. Cute stuff, very poignant and smart material for what is ostensibly a sitcom.

The wife busied herself with a new beauty routine for her hair in the late afternoon, so I finally finished out the Jean-Claude Van Damme flick from Friday afternoon. I would say that Replicant was basically what I was expecting, latter day action from the man in which he seems to try and stretch his acting chops a bit with the childlike nature of one of the characters. An interesting enough way to kill an hour and a half, for what that's worth.

I showered late in the afternoon and got cleaned up before we headed over to the Mother In Law's place, where we'd been invited for an early dinner with the In-Laws and the wife's Aunt and Uncle. Dinner was a crab boil with the customary fixings, so we visited a bit before finally digging into some great food. The meal was barely winding down when I noticed the time, indicating to the wife that we were supposed to be at her girlfriend's birthday gathering about ten minutes ago.

We picked up a little bit and made our apologies for having to eat and run, then loaded up and drove back to our neighborhood, or rather a block from our house, where this other couple lives. We gave the birthday girl our greetings and visited with the other guests as they trickled in. I would eventually excuse myself to run around the corner to our place for a few things that birthday girl needed to make a pitcher of margaritas, then we all gathered to sing and have cake, all the usual rigmarole, then the other couples started making noise about their next move, which was to catch the late showing of Our Idiot Brother, something that I definitely felt I could get just as much out of on home video.

We said our goodbyes and drove 'round the corner to the house, unwinding a bit with some television. I decided to re-watch American Beauty, a film that the wife finds depressing for reasons that I honestly can't fathom, so I put her to bed and popped that in, relaxing with a cocktail. I hadn't watched the movie since I was still living alone in the apartment years ago, so it was fun to take a trip down memory lane so to speak.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I've been kinda down this week, so I was surprised to find my spirits rising a bit, as I find the movie rather uplifting even in its portrayal of the dark undercurrent of suburban America. This being the case, I decided to go for a double feature and re-watched Fight Club next, as I find the themes similar, even if the approach to re-inventing oneself and self sufficiency is amazingly different between the two films. I guess these two films have become my comfort films, as I watched them numerous times during another fairly miserable period of my life while I was working things out in the pages of my sketchbooks, so I found myself feeling a bit of a weight lifted by the time the credits rolled on Fight Club.

I headed directly to bed, as I didn't feel at all like staying up even later to try and make notes for the blog just to be doing it.

I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

The Replicant Layout

I slept my little heart out last night, and most of this morning as well. It was nice, though I did wake feeling like I had pissed away most of the day. Which is pretty much what I'm doing with my life as well, so why I'm bothered with the results of a single day I have no idea.

I got the house opened for business, dressed and went in search of something for lunch, spending more time than I had intended in a drive-thru line behind a woman who seemed to have never encountered the menu items at an average Mexican restaurant, as she took a good six minutes to order even after studying the board for several minutes in advance.

Once I finally got back to the house I chilled with something from the TiVo to pass the time while I ate, the Jean-Claude Van Damme flick Replicant. The story is that a government agency decides that the best way to catch a serial killer would be to clone him from a hair found at the scene of one of his crimes, so we get JCVD in yet another dual role, this time as both the killer as well as the almost childlike clone, or replicant, which he's called presumably because the Blade Runner folks aren't known to be particularly litigious? It's amusing to me, as JCVD has played twins or clones or what-the-fuck-ever in at least 3 films that I know of now; he's like the Olsen Twins of action films.

I didn't make it all the way through the movie though, as the wife returned from her errands with the intention of leaving again soon to pick up our friend JH from the airport. I offered to go with her, so I put the movie on hold and we left shortly thereafter, as the flight was scheduled for 2:45. We picked up a beverage at Starbuck's on the way, then grabbed our gal from the airport and ran her to her apartment.

We made plans for her to spend the afternoon at our place, as we had nothing else going on, so she followed us home and we spent the rest of the afternoon bullshitting and relaxing in the den. I put on one of those Something Weird double features, ending up halfway watching a Joe Sarno sexploitation flick called The Layout, in which a woman is seduced by both her neighbor's wife and her female cousin who's turned up to spend a few weeks with her while on break from college. It's a rather soap operatic turn of events and was actually a bit boring at times, to be perfectly honest The ladies all spend their time hooking up in various pairings or eventually in a group (!), but the scenes dragged on for what felt like forever. Oh well, even when these Something Weird titles aren't all that engaging they're still puzzling enough to allow you to drift in and out with no real commitment.

Brian had made plans with the wife to hang out this evening, so he joined us around 6:00, then we had deli sandwiches delivered and ate while another disc of 42nd Street Forever trailers played in the background.

We visited and half-assed watched a few of the trailers once we reconvened back in the den, then eventually watched The Soup before flipping over to Showtime for our new favorite awful show, Gigolos, just to let JH experience the magic of it all.

We sent our guests on their way after 11:00, then I headed to the Office to work on the notes for this post while the wife chilled in bed with a new book.

Be seeing you.

The Greener Destination

After being up a bit late last night reading the beginning of the Mr. X Archives by Dean Motter and others, I was in no mood to be jarred from slumber at 8:00 in the Christing morning, but that's sure as hell what happened. I haven't really read the Mr. X material since it was first coming out in the late '80s and early '90s, so it's nice to have a heavy duty hardcover reprint of them to peruse at my leisure, but it certainly doesn't help when you have to be up in the morning. We had scheduled some guys to come and wash the windows at least a week or so ago, and they were a no-show, but had re-scheduled to turn up this morning.

The only issue would be that they were under the mistaken impression that we needed them to do the inside of the house as well, so I had to call them off from that nonsense the first rattle out of the box, then they got started on the windows outside while I tried to calm the dog down, as none of this was making her very happy.

The wife and I both got dressed and started piddling around in the Office, then she had to head out to a series of meetings, so I was left to try and mollify the Yorkie, who still wasn't keen on having anyone in the backyard, squeegee or not.

The eventually finished up and I realized that they had been using some sort of vinegar mixture on the windows, which made me happy that they weren't working inside, as I don't think I could stand that smell inside for an extended period of time. Yuck.

I picked up some lunch for myself around 11:30, then spent some time watching some odds and ends on the TiVo to pass the time while I ate. The wife and I had plans to try and catch Final Destination 5 this afternoon with friends, so I was pretty much killing time until it was time to go and check that out, leaving me kinda unwilling to commit to a movie or something else to pass the time.

I did finally finish out The Grass Is Greener, in which Cary Grant's wife Deborah Kerr meets Robert Mitchum briefly and essentially flees her monetary strife with Grant to pursue a week-long affair with Mitchum. I actually watched this movie in sections, as the complete flip of the switch with Kerr's character actually kind of pissed me off. I mean, I understand checking out the alternatives if you have a shitty relationship, but her life (aside from a meager but steady living made from tours given in their elaborate mansion) isn't all that bad, she has a loving husband and a couple kids, but is willing to shitcan it the moment she lays eyes on another man? Are you fucking kidding me? I'd end up killing this broad for her sheer gall, let alone the fact that she's fucking another man while lying to me for a week. It naturally ends on a cutesy note with all's well that ends well, which is fairly common for the time period, but still left me with a weird feeling. I guess I could have understood the series of events had they been precipitated by absolutely any sign that the couple weren't happy aside from 'woe is me, we're not as rich as we could be', which just doesn't ring true to me. If that were the case, all of my neighbors would be fucking each other (over) constantly, because this town is full of boom and bust in a neverending mobius strip. Oh well, maybe it'll grow on me now that I know where it's going and can adjust my expectations accordingly should I ever choose to re-watch it.

I was shredding up more magazines for collaging when I got a call from Buckaroo Banzai, saying that he and Pookie were in town early and had run out of errands to kill time with, so they dropped by and we visited for a bit, then headed out to pick up the wife from her doctor's office, as her appointment put her out too near the time of the film to allow for her to run home to pick me up and then let us get across town comfortably. We picked her up and hit the theater, where our friends treated us to the 3-D presentation and we got everyone's snacks, because what's a bunch of butchered college kids without some salty treats to accompany it?

The movie was a ton of fun, each over the top death accompanied by our various nervous laughter and/or cries of disgust. We all really enjoyed the movie, then had an early dinner afterward. I dropped the wife back at the house, then Bucky, Pookie and I stopped into the liquor store so that they could do some shopping. When we got to the house it was in the middle of a fairly chaotic dust storm that blew in quite literally between the time we left the store and when we turned down our alley. I was annoyed to find that our garage door refused to open, so we parked out front and headed inside. I noted with a sinking feeling that the security lights were out on the house, which lead me to believe that our power might be out, presumably due to the wind or some such. The wife met us at the door brandishing a flashlight, confirming my suspicions.

Thankfully it wasn't quite full dark outside, so we could still see to get around, and while we settled in I lit a few candles around the house just in case the lights didn't return any time soon. We visited for about 30 minutes or so, then eventually made sure that a breaker wasn't the culprit before things finally popped back on of their own accord. We were pleasantly surprised to watch as a short round of rain blew through the area, but it wasn't really anything to get excited about, just enough moisture to turn the dust to a light layer of mud.

We visited until around 9:00, then our guests split, as they have work tomorrow and the wife and I watched Futurama to unwind a bit, then called it a night ourselves.

Be seeing you.

Nightmares & Deathdreams

Since I didn't even bother to leave the house today I hope I can blow through tonight's post in record time, as there's honestly just about nothing going on right now and I'm struggling to find anything interesting to tell you in relation to it.

The wife had errands in the morning, so I woke from 8 hours sleep feeling fairly refreshed and made the bed around the lazy Yorkie, then got the house opened and the kettle boiling for tea. I spent some time on the web, then the wife turned up with some Starbuck's and sandwiches for an early lunch. She'd made plans to meet Brian here for lunch and to give him tickets to a baseball game that she was set to attend this evening.

Brian arrived and we visited and ate, then he headed back to work and the wife and I both spent some time in the Office working on our various rat-killing, then she had to leave for a series of meetings that proceeded her evening at the ballpark. I ended up watching an episode of X-Files to pass the time while the Lawn Guys did thier bit, as they make enough noise to make watching a movie in the den irritating. Once the Yorkie successfully ran them off (Oh, just let her think it!) I moved into the den and spent time making sure that the TiVo doesn't start dumping stuff, as a ton of it was about to expire, then I popped in something off the To-Watch Pile.

Bob Clark's Deathdream was a film I've always been familiar with but had yet to check out, the story of a soldier killed in Vietnam who inexplicably returns home to his family in a very Monkey's Paw-ish manner. The family soon begins to see that something's not quite right, but his mom and sister do their best to ignore it while dad copes in the only way he can. This leads into this amazing bit of domestic strife around the mid-way point of the film:

**Dad is angry over the the son killing the beloved family dog, then discovers that his mother has allowed him to leave the house.**

Mother: "You'd leave too if your father were drinking!"

"You know why I'm drinking!"

Sister tries to find out what the commotion is, saying "Oh, daddy, what's wrong?" in a slightly hysterical voice.

"Mind your own business!" he snaps and stalks away.

Priceless.

I dug the movie quite a bit, especially the look of the lead when he runs amuck at a drive-in in the third act. I spent some time shredding up magazines for use in future collage work while I watched, then made myself a couple little sandwiches for my dinner and watched a few odds and ends off the TiVo until the wife got home.

We caught up a bit on our evening(s), then rounded out things with a couple episodes of the Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection, which is a series of hour long adaptations of Stephen King short stories. To be honest the two that we watched this evening (Battleground and Crouch End) didn't really blow my skirt up all that much, so I dunno if I'll end up hanging onto this set once I finish watching it, unless something else turns out to be dramatically better.

We called it a night shortly afterward.

Be seeing you.

The Ninth Reef Configuration

Odd turn of events last night: I found myself laying in bed unable to sleep with a ton of weird shit running through my head, the ultimate point of which seemed to be that I don't think I want to decorate for Halloween anymore. I had decorated the place the year that Macguffin took his life, and found myself kind of looking at it during the rest of that month with a certain amount of 'what's the point?', then took last year off, as I didn't really have any particular inspiration to do anything new or different with it. The longer I lay there last night the more I struggled to find any reason to continue this whole decorating thing beyond sheer habit, so I think I'm done with that. I mean, I know that most of my interests and hobbies are pretty pointless and dumb, but this Halloween thing just isn't something I feel too much passion for anymore. Hell, to be honest the entire end of the year is somewhat blah for me the past few years, aside from getting things together for the wife for Christmas (which makes her happy), but all the other holidays and so on can pretty much be crammed up your ass for all I care. Oh well, I'm sure a lot of this is just the crummy mood I've been in for the past few days, which I'm sure will pass, but I think I will remain disinterested in the decorating, unless the house we wanna build is just fucking amazingly set up for it.

Anyway...

The wife had a handful of phonecalls to make this morning, so she settled into the Office to work on that while I got the house opened up for business and the bed made.

I gathered up our recycling to drop off while I was out with a few errands, then hit the road so that the wife could get ready for a couple meetings that she had. I dumped the recycling, then stepped into a bookstore to poke around and try to locate my normal monthly periodicals. I picked up the new Fangoria and Juxtapoz, then stood in line for fucking ever while the one cashier worked to figure out what was wrong with a customer's account.

I stepped into Barnes & Noble to make sure I wasn't missing anything, then met the fellas for lunch at our alternate Thai place. The food was good, though I dunno what kind of company I really was, as I wasn't feeling all that social overall, but we had a decent enough visit after missing last week, as we had more stuff to catch up on. I headed home afterward and fed the Yorkie her lunch, then spent some time on the web before the wife got home from her errands.

We caught up and then she did her own interweb routine while I settled into the den to watch The Ninth Configuration off the To-Watch Pile. Written and directed by William Peter Blatty, it's a decent little thriller set in an unorthodox asylum (an old castle in the Pacific Northwest?) treating Vietnam vets, whose government have a suspicion that they could be faking their various mental illnesses. The film has an almost comedic tone in the first half, then takes a decidedly dark turn towards the end. It was pretty damned interesting, and had some great visuals peppered throughout. Worth a rental if you've not seen it.

We made sandwiches for our dinner and then watched this week's episode of Breaking Bad, then rounded out the night with something that Buckaroo Banzai had left with me.

The Reef was a decent enough watch, even if the whole 'shark peril' kinda genre isn't my big thing. Based on a true story, it sees a small group of people forced to abandon a sinking boat near Australia's Great Barrier Reef and swim through shark infested waters to the small island roughly 12 miles away. It was a quick little watch and a nice simple way to round out the evening.

The wife headed to bed and I got started on the notes for this post before calling it a night myself.

Be seeing you.

Season Of The Mitchum Extract

I slept poorly again last night, waking around 3:00 AM feeling almost vomitous for no apparent reason, so I popped another Zantac and drank half a glass of milk, as it felt like it might've been acid reflux related, which seemed to sort it out enough for me to get back to sleep.

The wife was off on her normal run of meetings this morning, but a text woke me asking if I needed anything from the grocery store, as she was planning the evening meal. I put in my order and then got the house opened up and started laundry. I put on water to boil for tea, then spent a good bit of time on the interwebs, finally getting my stupid iPhone's voice-mail sorted out, which left me with a flood of ignored voice-mails from the past month or more, so who knows when the fucking thing had stopped taking messages.

The wife turned up near 1:00 with groceries which I helped her put away, then she settled into the Office to work on some things on her Mac, so I ordered and picked up a late lunch for myself, then chilled in the den to watch Night Of The Hunter off the To-Watch Pile as part of another impromptu Mitchum Monday. It was a great film, I can see why it has been as influential as it has, and I'm happy to be able to cross it off the list of films I've always meant to see: Robert Mitchum is rather chilling as the murderous preacher who seems to pursue his prey like Jason Voorhees - slow and steady wins the race. The Criterion Blu-ray looks great and was well worth picking up, I would definitely recommend grabbing it during the next big sale at Barnes & Noble.

The wife was wrapping up her online stuff for the day, so while she was getting settled into the den I spent some time on the stationary bike, as I don't want to allow my self to get out of the habit completely, although I was pretty bad with it over this past weekend.

We eventually started watching something that I wanted to get back in the mail to Netfux, the recent Nicolas Cage film Season Of The Witch, which was an okay watch but ultimately nothing I could see myself re-watching anytime soon, as there's just not a whole helluva lot going on with it. Then the 3rd act is absolutely lousy with CGI bullshit that kinda ruins any minor interest I had for the characters, regardless of whether or not the plot and its various twists grabbed me to begin with. The wife and I distracted ourselves a bit with some sushi for dinner, then wrapped the movie and paused to get the Yorkie fed and settled for the rest of the evening.

I selected something light from the TiVo to close out our night, which was the Mike Judge film Extract, in which Jason Bateman stars as a beleaguered owner of a flavor extract business who is in trouble with his bored wife and his business being in danger after an employee is injured on the job. The film is a fun, breezy little affair, though I have to admit that I was a little thrown by the directions the movie goes off in, which I kind of chalk up to my expectations rather than anything being truly 'wrong' with the script. For example, Mila Kunis' character is introduced the first rattle out of the box, so with the average film you know she's going to be Bateman's love interest, but you would be wrong, which actually ends up making the film a bit more interesting with the weird turns that it takes. Oh well, I wanted a light comedy to end the night and it's basically what we got, so it all comes out in the wash I suppose.

We called it a night shortly afterward and I got started on this dumb stuff again.

Be seeing you.

She's Expired From My League

I woke with sinus drainage around 5:00 AM this morning, then spent about a half hour coughing and hacking to try and prevent it from strangling me to death. I finally fell back asleep ear 6:00 in the morning, then finally woke around 11:00 to the sounds of the wife doing laundry.

We chilled in bed with the Yorkie for a few, then we both got up and I got the house opened for the day. The wife spent some time in the Office dealing with a few e-mails, then she and I eventually stepped out to pick up some food for lunch.

We ate while watching something from Netfux: She's Out Of My League, in which average guy Jay Baruchel finds himself dating the gorgeous Alice Eve, but is plagued with doubts as to why someone like her would be with him. It was a cute little flick, kinda lightweight and a fun way to spend the afternoon.

We eventually stepped out in the late afternoon to grab some ice cream on a wild hair, then dropped a few things off at the Post Office before heading back to the house to dive into another movie.

Expired was a random grab form a closing Hollywood Video many months back, and a movie that someone had mentioned on a podcast that I listened to last week, so I decided to give the 'offbeat romance' a shot, somewhat assuming it might be in the same vein as the film we'd just watched. As it turned out, it was somewhat more downbeat, focusing on a mousey meter maid who finds herself dating a rather abrasive co-worker who manages to catch her interest in that he will occasionally do sweet things in between his offensive outbursts. You sort of root for them as a couple at first, as his abrasive nature may shock her out of her quiet mundane life, but by the final reel you definitely begin to doubt that she needs to be with this guy at all. It was an interesting watch, very much reminded me of the indie film fare that I watched constantly in the '90s, to the point that I felt like it should've been proceeded by the Mirimax logo, as they were responsible for a lot of the films I watched back then.

As we got into the evening we settled in to the normal Fox re-run fare, then flipped over to round out the evening with the new episodes of True Blood and Entourage before we called it a night.

Be seeing you.

Too Cool For Brunch

I had set the alarm for 9:00 this morning, as we had brunch plans with our Minister buddy and his Wife. We lay in bed for a bit after the alarm sounded, loving on the Yorkie who was happy to be lavished with the attention, then I grabbed a shower and dressed so that we could head out and be able to find a table.

We found a table and ordered beverages to tide us over while we waited, then our party arrived and we visited and caught up over some good food for the better part of two hours (!) by the time it was all said and done. Good folks, good times. We said our goodbyes and then the wife and I hit up the nearby Starbuck's for a coffee and a tea, then wandered through Big Lots just for the hell of it. I picked up a couple things, then replenished the Maker's Mark from the local liquor store before heading home, as I figured I might partake of a few this evening since we didn't have anywhere to be.

Back at the crib we chilled out in the den and I popped in the final disc of the Too Cool For School set, just because I figured that we could breeze through the remaining four films in quick succession this afternoon and evening.

Our viewing included Cavegirl, Coach, My Tutor and Jocks, all basically watched back to back over the course of the afternoon and early evening. The best two of these were Coach and My Tutor, both of which starred fairly big name stars (the former, with Cathy Lee Crosby & Michael Biehn)or were well-written (the latter, which had some ridiculous bits but was overall fun to watch), while the other two films were watchable but nothing I see myself returning to anytime soon. I have to say that it was amusing to see Daniel Roebuck as the goofy lead in Cavegirl, but by the time we got to Jocks I was in no mood to deal with the quasi-assholish lead who just did stupid, irresponsible shit all through the film and was meant to be 'zany' or 'madcap'. Why on Earth would we care about that guy, who constantly cocks things up for his friends with his casual fuck-ups? Bah.

We eventually stepped out to pick up a burger for a late dinner, then watched this week's episode of Louie before calling it a night.

We played fetch with the Yorkie for a bit to burn off some of her nervous energy, then she and the wife headed to bed while I got started on the notes for this post.

Trail Of The Melting Body

The wife had errands this morning and was well into her routine to leave with me still asleep, but as she moved about the house her little sandals' clicking on the tiles woke me, so I was slowly rousing myself from the bed as she left anyway. I lay there for a few checking e-mails, then got up and got some tea started and the bed made. I eventually moved into the Office and got last night's blog post polished up and published. I lost the rest of the morning to a few more cups of tea and random interweb shit, then finally got dressed and went in search of a bite to eat around noon.

I returned with food, then settled in to watch something off the TiVo, another Larry Blamire vintage spoof called Trail Of The Screaming Forehead. His movies are always kind of a hoot, in that they are really over-written, with the dialog over stating the obvious in much the same way the films of the '50s would, or the hamfistedly sexist attitudes of the males towards the women. Fun stuff, well worth a look.

The wife returned while I was in the middle of the movie, so she and I spent some time catching up on her day, then she fielded some e-mails in the Office while I wrapped my movie.

We piddled around in the den for the rest of the afternoon, watching a few things off the TiVo and kinda waiting to hear from our friends Buckaroo Banzai and his wife Pookie, who we'd made plans to see for dinner this evening.

They joined us around 5:00 or so, as they'd been in town early to run a few errands, then we all caught up on our respective vacations, as they had recently been out of town as well. That whole process ate up a good chunk of time, so we eventually had a few cocktails and ordered in some deli food to allow us to just relax at the house instead of getting out and fighting traffic and restaurant crowds. We eventually watched a fairly corny mid-'90s splatter film called Body Melt via Netfux Instant Watch to pass the time until the food arrived.

We put the splatstick on pause while we ate, then finished the movie, though a combination of either spotty streaming service or poor internet coverage made that process a bit of an ordeal, but we finally by God made it through the last half hour of the movie, then watched a few things on television to wrap up the evening. This included a new episode of The Soup as well as a couple more episodes of that awful Gigolos show on Showtime, which continues to fascinate in much the same manner that watching body removal at the site of a tremendous wreck is always spellbinding.

We called it a night around 11:00 after Bucky and I exchanged piles of movies for the other to check out: I received a pile of recent releases to peruse and sent him home with some top shelf Blaxploitation titles.

Be seeing you.

The Hunk In The Van At The Beach

Again with the not a whole lot going on, but let's just soldier on and try to get through this, shall we?

I got up shortly after the wife this morning and got the house opened up for business while she spent some time on the computer dealing with e-mails and the like. A short time later the damned power went out altogether, so she said to hell with it and started getting ready for a meeting that she had shortly before noon. The power flipped back on about a minute or so later, so the whole thing did little except to fuck up the clocks and startle the dog, because the alarm system started whining from the loss of power.

Not feeling very inspired past posting the blog from yesterday, I grabbed my Netfux movie and stepped out to pick up an early lunch and drop that in the mail. My takeout secured, I enjoyed my lunch at the house over some old episodes of Tales From The Crypt that I had started watching over a week ago, just to finish out the set of season four.

The wife returned while I was watching those, so she soon joined me with her knitting and we finished out the season in quick succession. Since I really haven't had a lot of time of just us alone together this week, I decided to try and cater to our mutual interests with some '70s and '80s cheese out of the Too School For School set from Mill Creek.

The Van is a fun little flick from the late '70s which focuses (duh) on the van culture that was apparently rather popular during that time period. This flick has a nerdy guy pouring all his cash into a custom van in the hopes that it will finally allow him to score with the ladies. He quickly meets and becomes infatuated with the most distant and fairly annoying woman in the film, which made little sense to me, but I guess you always want what you can't have? Or something of that nature? The flick is full of corny bits and some fairly broad characters, but it's also a nice snapshot of the era, which is what keeps the wife and I coming back to this sort of material, as it's fun to see all of the vintage background details, old signage and businesses that no longer exist, things that that make these a ton of fun for us. I also had to wonder what the tipping point was for the whole 'van culture' thing, where it's kinda gone from being this sort of cheesy/cool thing of the '70s to being the punchline to a tasteless rape gag nowadays. I mean, seriously, when was the last time someone said 'van' to you without the preface 'rape' attached to it? There's even a website I frequent that has an on-again-off-again flame war with modern 'van enthusiasts' due to the writer's frequent casual use of the phrase rape van.

Since I am kinda wanting to finish out the set, we soon moved on to the next disc in the set, kicking off with The Beach Girls, a film from 1982. A slightly uptight bookworm type meets her two party girl friends at her uncle's beach house, where the party hoo-ers soon turn the place into a den of iniquity with a houseful of strangers boozing it up and wrecking the house. There were a few familiar faces in here, the lead for example I recall from another movie of the same era called Malibu Bikini Shop if memory serves and I'm sure there's a few others in there in a blink and you miss 'em capacity.

We ordered in some food and then finally tucked into dinner over the second feature on the disc, a movie called Hunk that I was unfamiliar with but actually turned out to be something of an '80s sex comedy but from more of a female point of view, as it is concerned with a nerdy computer guy who makes a deal with the devil to become the titular Hunk (seriously, that's his name, Hunk. The writer should be shot) and lead the life he's always dreamed of. The movie is a bit different from the other stuff in this set so far in that there was a conspicuous lack of nudity and as I mentioned, it's very much centered around a hot guy who spends most of the film shirtless or in a swimsuit, so I kind of felt that this was geared more for the female audience of the period, where our earlier viewing was obviously for more for a male audience. Or maybe I'm just making shit up in my head, who knows.

Amusingly, the wife and I both agreed that we'd have preferred to end the evening on either of the other two movies that we watched, because Hunk just wasn't quite as much fun or as over the top as the other movies that we'd blown through earlier in the night. Oh well, live and learn I suppose.

We called it a night shortly afterward and I got started on the notes for this nonsense.

Be seeing you.

ParaMorris Activities

I surprised myself and woke around 8:30 this morning, then couldn't really go back to sleep, so I got up and started some water boiling for tea. The Yorkie and wife got up about 30 minutes later and she started getting the dog ready to go to the Groomer, which is always a pitiful sight, as the dog cowers as though she's being drug away for an execution. I suppose in her defense she never really knows what fresh hell we have in store for her, but it does tend to feel melodramatic.

The wife had little going on today save for the Groomer mission and possibly spending time with Morris, so I figured I should just plan on keeping the day open to spend time with the two of them. I spent some time on the web with the blog and other time-sink nonsense, then the wife and I made plans to meet Morris and his mother for an early lunch.

We ate at a Mexican place somewhat near the house, the split up with the idea that Morris would meet us in a bit at our place after running a couple errands with his mother. The wife and I dropped off the recycling and then stopped into the local books music and video outlet to see if anything popped out at us. I saw a couple things that I debated over, eventually deciding against it and we headed to the house to chill until Morris turned up.

We ran around a bit, stopped into a little gift shop/pharmacy and had a malt while we browsed, then popped back into the books music and video outlet so that I could grab those two movies I saw earlier, having talked myself into it over the course of the hour or so that had passed.

We visited the Mother In Law and her Beau at their place, then finally called to see if the fucking Groomers planned on giving our dog back today. As it turned out she was ready to go, so we headed across town to pick her up, then headed back to the house and chilled out to visit and have a cocktail. I watched a bit of a Something Weird DVD while the wife and Morris relaxed in the sitting area off the kitchen, occasionally drawn into their conversation while halfway watching the movie.

We eventually stepped out to grab a bite to eat, then after a bit of winding down back at the house Morris split to take some dinner to his mother and settle in for the night at her place, so the wife and I moved into the den and popped in a newly arrived Netfux rental.

Paranormal Activity 2 was pretty decent as far as a film comprised almost entirely of fun-house 'BOO!' style scares would go, and I have to say that I did jump a couple times. I would also say that loud noises and shit jumping out at you is always going to make most people jump, so I dunno how much of an accomplishment this actually is, but I enjoyed the prequel fairly well for what it was, adding to the original story and fleshing out events that would have happened both during and after the first film. The only thing I found somewhat tiresome was the fact that the male lead is every bit as disbelieving as the male lead of the first film, leading me to spend a good amount of the movie praying for him to be supernaturally raped to death by something evil in exchange for his stupidity. Me personally, if even half of this weird shit happened to us, I'd be long gone from the house. Hell, if we have a leaky faucet I'm starting to pack my overnight bag, because fuck waiting around for the truly awful shit to happen.

We called it a night shortly afterward and I got started on the notes for this crapola.

Be seeing you.

Shaolin Tuesday

I honestly don't have a lot to really tell you people today, but that's never stopped us from muddling through before, now has it?

The wife had meetings this morning, so she was out and about when I got up and started my routine, making some tea and making the bed before moving into the Office and spending time with the blog as well as my little nerd-lists that are ridiculously behind now after months of neglect. That pretty much ate up my morning, then the wife texted to ask if I was interested in any lunch, since my normal standing lunch meeting had fallen through and I put in my order with her.

The funny thing about lunch falling through is that we'd actually pushed back a meeting with a Contractor and the Interior Designer to accommodate the whole lunch at 1:00 thing, then it falls through anyway and is a moot point. Oh well.

I ate while wacthing something that'd been laying around from Netfux for far too long: Stephen Chow's action comedy Shaolin Soccer, in which a bunch of misfits apply their kung-fu skills towards sports in an effort to regain their dignity and defeat the ruthless asshole in charge of a major contest. It's a fun little film, something I was surprised to notice had about 30 minutes cut out of it for the American theatrical release. Thankfully the DVD had both versions, so I was able to see it intact, but it never fails to amaze me how much tinkering US companies are happy to do with already successful foreign films, especially martial arts material.

The Contractor & Interior Designer came and went, he seemed completely receptive to the plans that the Interior Designer has, so I guess we'll be proceeding with that as soon as the materials start coming in. The really spooky thing is that it's begun to sink in that this project will involve replacing carpets and the like, meaning there's a ton of shit in there that will have to migrate to somewhere else in the house temporarily, which poses all sorts of new complications, as we're not exactly brimming with free storage space. Oh well, I guess we'll get into all that when we have to.

The wife had a few errands in the afternoon, including the Niece's volleyball game and a pedicure afterward, so she split to do that as I finished up my movie. I eventually got out and dropped the Netfux movie back in the mail, then hit the liquor store as I was in need of olives for the eventual martini that I'd enjoy later in the evening.

Back at the house I finally got the PS3 to update its firmware and then hit the stationary bike while watching another chunk of a movie on Netfux Instant Watch, then hopped in the shower to get cleaned up. The wife had made plans for us to meet Morris and his mother, as well as our friend JH at a little Italian place downtown for dinner. Morris is in town because his friend's brother passed away, so he had that funeral this afternoon and is now somewhat free to mingle and visit, so we had dinner, then he dropped his mother off at her apartment and came by for a lengthier visit and relaxed at our place.

Side note: Morris' relating the funeral notes to me had me feeling very Lifetime Movie Channel about it all - The deceased's high school girlfriend was in attendance & was heard to say that "I never should had that abortion, our little boy would be 19 years old now!"

Double yikes.

I popped in one of the 42nd Street Forever discs for background noise and we chitchatted for about an hour and a half, calling it a night around 10:30.

I put the wife and Yorkie to bed, then hopped online to get this put together before crashing out myself.

Be seeing you.

Mitchum Monday

I slept in this morning while the wife went to her usual battery of meetings, then got up and got the house opened up and some water boiling for tea, as I was still kind of tired even after about 9 hours sleep.

I spent some time updating the blog and downing my tea, then got a couple things ready to mail off, Swap A DVD and the like, then the wife got home and I caught up with her about her day and further plans for the afternoon. I left her catching up with e-mail in the Office and then hit the Post Office and picked up a burger for my lunch.

Back at the house I ate while watching a Venture Brothers re-run, then started a movie called Two For The Seesaw, which had been on the TiVo for awhile. The film sees Shirley MacLaine as a bohemian dancer type in NYC who meets and begins to see Robert Mitchum, a Lawyer who is in the process of divorcing his wife after fleeing Nebraska and the life of privilege that his soon-to-be-ex's family has afforded him. They begin a bittersweet romance that sees him trying to help her get a dance studio off the ground as she helps him deal with his impending divorce, which doesn't end as one might've expected it to. The movie has some great black & white cinematography, with Mitchum stalking around a very noirish looking NYC, I was really blown away by how it looked, though the ending may be a deal-breaker for some. Well worth a look, and from what I'm seeing online it isn't really available on DVD, so you may have to keep your eyes peeled on the cable schedule if any of this sounds of interest to you.

The Repair Guy turned up mid-afternoon and installed the missing part on the under-counter ice machine, so we're now back in business with that after who knows how long of it sitting empty. We'd put off the repairs because I think we both pretty much assumed that the process would involve replacing the damned thing altogether, rather than something as simple as parts and labor. Oh well, it's fixed now, so that's something else to scratch off the list.

We had the Older Nephew's birthday party over at the In-Law's place in the early evening, so I decided to jump on the stationary bike for a few, watching part of another Mitchum flick on Netfux Instant Watch, then I showered and dressed so that we could head over there to have some cake and see what the boy got for his big day.

We spent a good two hours over there, visiting a bit after the rest of the family had left, as we'd not seen the Older Sister and her family since the cruise. We caught up, watched the Nephew break out his various gifts and check them out, then eventually took our leave as it was pushing towards 8:30 in the evening, as the time had kinda got away from us.

The wife and I picked up a few things at an office supply store, then drove thru to pick up some dinner and headed home. We wrapped the evening with last night's Breaking Bad, a show that still manages to nearly have me grinding my teeth for a full hour, even when I already know how tense it's probably gonna be. Great show, amazingly well written.

I put the wife and Yorkie to bed, then got started on these notes so as not to lose any mundane details from the day.

Nightmare Informer

I stayed up late last night catching up with some of my nerd-watching on YouTube, where I've managed to subscribe to a bunch of different collector's channels where they go through and show off their collections. I haven't watched any of these things in at least 2 months now, so I was kinda browsing through that late last night on the iPad in bed and the next thing I know it's pushing towards 2:00 AM.

I woke around 10:00 today and lay in bed for a bit loving on the Yorkie, then finally got up and moving, retrieved the newspaper and greeted the wife as she got up from the dog's urging. I spent some time in the Office polishing up a couple posts to get things caught up for the week, as the weekend always tries to get away from me.

Once I got that stuff posted I went to see what the wife was up to, then we headed out to pick up an early lunch and try to beat the church crowd to the restaurants. We dropped the wife's bulk mailing off at the Post Office, then picked up burgers and headed back home to hole up for the afternoon, as there wasn't anything else going on today.

We watched about half of a documentary on Netfux Instant Watch called Nightmares In Red, White And Blue before the Mother In Law and her Beau dropped by, as they needed the wife's signature on something. We visited for a few, they looked over the proposed decorating ideas for the Guest side of the house and we actually had a little rain shower blow through, then they split and we finished out the movie.

The documentary was interesting enough, as it took an interesting slant on the trends in horror over the years, juxtaposing it against what was happening in the world at certain points in history and comparing it to what was coming out of Hollywood at the time. Interesting viewing and they speak to a nice cross-section of directors along the way, decent way to spend 90 minutes on a rainy afternoon.

I made a random selection off the To-Watch Pile next and we watched The Informers on Blu-ray, which I had seen before but the wife had not. She liked it quite a bit, though it is an inherently downbeat film, being based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name and all. I like the movie, but I do find issues with it here and there, as certain plot threads don't seem to really go anywhere, like the rock star's arc for example, he just drifts out of the film after a certain point, which I suppose may be a comment on the nature of life and whatnot, but it struck me as odd, since nothing else he did ever built up to anything. I know that the film had a troubled production, in that the director may not have 'got' the material, but it does feel like overall it captured the languid pace and feeling of the source material.

Our evening consisted of the usual Fox re-runs, then we took the time to blow through a new True Blood and Entourage before calling it a night around 10:00, whereupon I got started on my notes for this post in hopes of being in bed soon.

Be seeing you.