Dear Diary | Effed by the Wind

quiddities, such as 'Cash'

For anyone who saw the news this morning about the fire on Capitol Hill, even though they gave OUR address, it was not, in fact, mine and Dom's place that was on fire. It was our neighbors. I'm still a little fuzzy about which building it was because I was discombobulated when I left the house. I was about to miss my bus (as usual) and when I emerged from the door, I was completely blocked in by police tape. I thought about just running through but had images from movies and TV of being tackled by cops and I was not in the mood for that this morning. So instead I paced in front of my building for about 30 seconds before getting the attention of a police woman and asking if I could go through to get to my bus. She said yes, and through I went. Turns out, my bus didn't come anyway because it was re-routed due to the fire trucks blocking the way. So I was still late to work. But at least I didn't die in a horrible fire.

Last night I saw Sideways. It was a special treat from Dom’s dad who also took us to dinner (at the very yummy Roti on lower Queen Anne). This is the first “Best Picture” nom film I have seen. I thought that that it was aight. I enjoyed it for the most part. The acting was good. The dialogue was good. The pictures were pretty. But it was a little long-winded for my taste. And even though it was an indie film, I felt they over-explained certain things in an attempt to pander to a wider, dumber audience. I probably would never feel compelled to purchase it on DVD or even watch it all the way through again. Regardless, I am sure that it is the best film that is up for that particular bullshit award. Therefore, I am certain it won’t win. God bless the Academy.

UPDATE

Here's a story on the fire. Again they give our address and I must point out the fact that I am not dead…I think.

February 25, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, Seattle . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

the geek minute

Geek Issue The First:

After several pretty mediocre episodes, (including one with Charlie, formerly my favorite character) Lost was finally good again last night. Who knew that Sun and Jin were so engaging? Maybe it's just the actors but their story was very emotional. Also, two people FINALLY hooked up on the island and I am just tickled pickles that it wasn't Kate and one of the hundreds of men she has drooling over her boney ass.

Geek Issue The Second

I want to be here.

Maybe next year…

February 24, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, Hug Your Television . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Place it under the tongue and achive amazing result

I can FINALLY update my journal a bit! So here goes…

WEEKEND RECAP

The details are fuzzy as it's now Thursday, but I'll see what I can do to make this interesting.

Friday

We went to the long-awaited Elyse and Gene Housewarming party, made all the more special with an appearance by the soon to be extremely famous The Bobcats. Faye, Dom, Sherrard, Jacob and I arrived fashionably late because we were busy pre-drunking and watching Ginger Snaps (which was very entertaining and worth the hype). I must say those Canadians have a knack for surprisingly good horror films with female protagonists. Now we must get our hands on Ginger Snaps Back!
ANYWHO, we arrived at the party, met Maura, who is not only Elyse's friend from way back, but also the very first person whom I met on LJ before I met them in person. She wasn't a child molester or a 200 pound man, so I was pleased to meet her. She's also just as cool as she sounds in her “blog”. That last paragraph sounds painfully dorky upon re-reading it so I will simply move on.
The Wildcats were just as kick-ass as everyone said they would be. Those kids are gonna go far. They'll have a Stranger Suggests in no time, I tell you. And I will try to repress my jealous rage when that happens. There may have even been staffers FROM The Stranger there. Although I heard mixed accounts. Some people seemed to think that it was just “strangers”.

Saturday
We gathered our wits and strolled on down to Pacific Place for a matinee of Constantine. Apparently, many of the people I'd drunkenly invited to the movie the previous evening actually indented on showing up. So the Constantine Posse took our seats and prepared for the worst. Once again, we were pleasantly surprised! Keanu is still Keanu but the story is pretty interesting (apart from the lame subplot involving the Mexican just roaming around being evil) and the special effects were cool and the supporting cast was IN-credible! Even Gavin Rossdale, whose mere presence is comical, played a decent English Pansy Demon. Titda Swinton was mesmerizing and is so androgynous that I'm not convinced she's NOT a morally questionable arch-angel. And Peter Stormare as Satan was a joy to watch. Shia LaBouf's character was pretty unnecessary, but I just like having that kid around. I don't want to “spoil” anything so I'll just say that if you enjoyed the first Matrix, you will probably enjoy Constantine. Of course, they set it up for a sequel so hopefully it won't go the way of The Matrix and go from entertaining and decent to horrifically campy and lame.

After the movie, we caught an early happy hour at The Six Arms and just kept on drinking. We lost a few people along the way, tested out The Bus Stop, which is the new bar next door to Bimbo's that used to be a thrift store. It's kinda cool in there, even though their beer selection is limited. We also discovered that they had karaoke on Sundays so we made a plan to come back.

We then had a quick drink at the Cha Cha for old time's sake and headed back to my place for…I don't know what…TV? I think that's what we did. Like I said, it's Thursday. Things get fuzzy after a couple of days in this head of mine.

Sunday
We had breakfast at the B. & O. It was my first time there and I was very underwhelmed. $7.95 for eggs, TWO pieces (not 4) of toast and some crappy potatoes? No thanks! Give me the $3.50 plate of grease from Linda's or The Canterbury any day.
Then we hit Half Price Books for a while. I hit the yoga studio, and we got ready to sing our little hearts out at The Bus Stop.
And sing we did! It was kind of a strange scene because it seemed like the DJ knew EVERYONE in the place except for us. But we still got to sing a lot of songs, because the place was small. The DJ was even pretty nice even though she pulled that snooty business wherein she refused to call people who were singing songs she didn't like. But when she accidentally stopped the CD in the middle of my rendition of “Separate Ways” she genuinely apologized and let me and Faye sing “Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now” instead. (Because you simply CANNOT start “Separate Ways” again after that. You just have to let it rest and move on).
We were witness to one of the most amazing karaoke performers I have ever seen. A man called Ian, who bares a striking resemblance to David Sedaris, apparently knows his boys bands. And I don't mean just the lyrics. He knows all the dance moves too. And he does them. This man does NOT need to look at the monitor. He just needs room so that he can wave his arms and jump like a member of N'SYNC. It was nothing short of incredible. He did THREE songs like this and each one was more amazing than the last. All hail Ian.
The only real downers of the evening involved some loud and obnoxious girls (who acted out my karaoke pet peeve of making a solo song into a duet simply because they don't want to get up there by themselves), and some haters who were dissing on Oasis. But everything else was peachy creamy. I heart karaoke.

Monday
Nothing much happened apart from me sleeping in (even through the plumber installing a new dishwasher), and a bunch of us snoozing through The Punisher which is too boring for words. Even though I just typed some words.

end transmission

February 24, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary . Tags: weekend recap . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

55815

This office is in the process of making absolute sure I don't want to come back here after holiday next week. Go on, co-workers, pretend I'm not brain-hemorrhagingly busy and give me another time consuming job. I fucking dare you.

February 23, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I'm Working . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

workmanlike

Lots to write about from this weekend, but no time to write it. Hopefully tomorrow.
I just got a huge mailing sprung on me for which I didn't budget any time before I leave for London (in a little over a week). Meanwhile, Lil' D. keeps asking me if I've taught the interns how to do this or that, leading me to believe that she plans on doing exactly NOTHING to help me out while I'm gone. I guess when, she said that in this office “everyone needs to fill in when necessary to meet a common goal” she actually meant “EveryJessica” needs to fill in.

February 22, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I'm Working . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Don't let ED depress you…

It has been a trying week indeed. On Monday morning, we learned that our composer quit the movie (because he was swamped with PAYING gigs). I guess I can understand needing to take the paying gigs and dropping the non-paying ones but it still screws us and that does not make me happy. Dom has been frantically trying to find a new composer. It hasn't been easy. The trouble with most of them is that, in order for them to do it for free, we can't have a nice, traditionally horror orchestral soundtrack. The alternative? Midi. Which sounds…like midi. We did NOT want that. Our old composer happened to know a lot of musicians who could play for free. No one else does. Maybe we can just have Dom rif on his tin whistle live while he watches the movie. It worked for Jim Jarmusch.

But that was just the beginning. My week has been shitty for loads of day-job related reasons that are too boring to explain. I'll just say that it has been hell here and I can't tell if I'm getting sick or I just feel like ass because I hate it here so much.

There have been some highlights though. Monday night I watched this low budget horror flick called “Detour” with Dom, Faye and Sherrard. The “plot”: some liberal arts college students are driving back from a rave through the desert and they take a titular detour to find a rumored peyote field. But instead of peyote, they find some disgruntled Tuscan Raiders who have taken to cannibalism. The result? Lots of girls in daisy dukes die bloody deaths. FANtastic.
After the movie we watched the toy division of the dog show and laughed heartily as the little fluffy dogs whose hair obscured their legs. Watching a dog who appears to have no legs run is the height of comedy.

And those are the high points. Everything else has been shit city.

February 16, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I Made Movies, I'm Working . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

second attempt

WEEKEND UPDATE

Friday
We had our Snow Day wrap party which was loads of fun! We were pleasantly surprised to discover that The Grotto in the basement of The Rendezvous is an adorable cross between an underground bar in Amsterdam and The Mos Eisley Cantina. Our bartender was an super cool gay man called Babe who bore an uncanny resemblance to Tom Savini. Before we arrived, we'd consumed a bottle of champagne in an attempt to keep booze costs down. I never seen to remember that such a thing doesn't work because I forget that I'm hammered and buy too much alcohol anyway. Regardless, a good time was had by all (or at least by me). We danced to Joy Division and it seemed like a matter of minuted before the Shame Lights came up and we were thrown out onto the street. At the time, I thought I had a lot of party left in me, but I completely crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Saturday
Owowowowowowowowowowowowow.
But really, didn't I deserve that? 5 pints of water, some french fries and 1 nap later, I became functional and was able to accompany Faye to sign the lease on her new apartment (the interior of which looks exactly like my apartment but with only one bedroom). While she filled out the paperwork, I hung out with her landlord's carpet loving, windowsill eating toddler. Children are very weird and I will never understand them.
After that, we had about two hours to kill before our Snow Day wrap dinner for minors. (Several of the people that worked on the project were under 21 and couldn't attend the party). Faye and I lingered over some chai magic for an hour but still had another hour to go. We ended up at the ridiculously huge and versatile QFC on Broadway where we purchased each other stuffed animals. I got Faye a fluffy puppy with a purple bow whom she dubbed “Pupzooki” and she got me a fanciful purple unicorn called “Unicron”. We then attempted to stroll VERY SLOWLY to Charlie's as we still had 20 minutes before the dinner. Luckily, one of our minors arrived early so we hung out with him as everyone else trickled in. But guess what? He was the ONLY underager that showed up. Seriously, people. If you RSVP “yes” to an evite, it's as good as a legally binding contract. You are now, under the penalty of law, legally assholes.
Still, the 7 of us old fogeys had fun with our little fella. We later took him back to the Zookster Palace to watch Zardoz.
Ah…Zardoz. What can be said about this film that can't be better summed up by looking at this picture? Or this one?
After that we watched SNL with Jason Bateman which was one of the best SNL's I have ever seen. Their current cast is really incredible.
Also…ale and pie.

Sunday
We spent the morning doing ADR (“additional dialog recording”) for Snow Day. It went pretty well. Also, Faye and I now have director vocal cameos in the movie!
Later, yoga.
Later still, Arrested Development.

Hooray for weekends!

February 14, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I Made Movies . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

53581

My extremely long and enteraining LJ entry just got lost. I hit the spell check button and the window closed. There is no way I can be that prolific again. Fuckers.

I'll try again in a little while. Right now I have to go cry. It's definitely a Garfield-style Monday.

February 14, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

grimm foible

They paved Sam Goody and put up a Starbucks.

Ok, so it doesn't have quite the same ring as that Joni Mitchell song, but it's true. Where that junky old Sam Goody on 3rd used to be, there is now a gutted out building. And from the illustration of the projected finished project, it looks like the sole purpose of doing that was to put up ANOTHER Starbucks. Now, it may sound like I'm annoyed about Starbucks specifically. That's not entirely accurate. While I do think it RIDICULOUS that there is quite literally (at least) one Starbucks in any given 2 block radius downtown, I am more annoyed by the pointlessness of gutting the building. Apparently, they are trying to make 3rd and Pine/Pike look less like the tramp haven that it is and more like a swanky metropolitan area, what-with the new Johnny Rockets and the re-faced McDonalds and the silly little coffee/sandwich bar called “Cosi” that they installed in the soon to be Macy's. But it's not gonna work. It's not.

But the real issue here is this: It seems like there is no sacred architecture in Seattle. I'm not saying that the Sam Goody building was a beautiful example of historical architecture. But I see this kind of thing ALL the time around town. I come from a city (Richmond, VA) in which most of the buildings in their metropolitan area are hundreds of years old. If not the whole building, then significant sections of it. It's history. People live and work in history and there are whole societies dedicated to preserving it. (It's probably the only cool thing ABOUT that city).

Since Seattle is a young city, most of the buildings are pretty new, and therefore they don't give a second thought to tearing something down and starting over. The only “living history” we have here is the Underground Tour and those guys had to fight like hornets to preserve that. As neat as it is, it's also pretty crappy down there. It looks like a college student's basement.

Most of the standing buildings in Seattle aren't more than 50-60 years old. My old apartment building was built in the 1970's and yes it was a shithole but that's only because the owners didn't take care of it. Oh, the toilet in your unit is broken? No, we don't need to fix it. We'll just tear down the whole effing structure and build luxury condos instead. In fact, I think if The Man had his druthers, everyone in Seattle would live and work in a Starbucks-like environment.

In summary, Seattle will never have historical buildings are ANY living history because we will just keep building a “young Seattle” on top of it. One day, in the not so distant future, people will be heading underground to see scraps from the Seattle of 2005. Maybe we'll even find part of the Sam Goody sign buried under some coffee grounds.

February 11, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, Seattle . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

that had caught fire

A work-day inspire haiku:

I wonder how much
force it takes to kill someone
with a three-hole punch.

February 9, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I'm Working . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

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