You are 73% Virgo
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Don’t Panic
Last night, a group of us went to see National Treasure as presented for free by The Warren Report. I shan't spoil the delicious badness because Faye is going to write it up as a special Bad Movie Monday review. Check back for that because I'm sure it will be well worth your time (much more so than seeing the actual film). But that's not important now. What I wanted to talk about it was the preview that came before the movie. We don't usually get previews with Warren Report films. Therefore, I was very surprised when I realised I was in the midst of the teaser for the upcoming Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film. I've blogged about this film before and how excited I am because I really think there's a good chance it's going to be pretty damned good. I've also seen the teaser before on the very very small screen that is a Quicktime window on my computer. In that capacity, it seemed “cute”. On the big screen, however, when the Earth explodes in a great big ball of blue and bits of planet come flying toward you, it is a-effing-mazing! Seriously. I got chills and everything. So that made me pretty happy. Waiting till May will be tough.
This morning, I was reading The Salmon of Doubt which is a posthumously published collection of essays by and interviews with Douglas Adams. In it, there is an interview he did with the Onion in 1998. He was talking about how the rights to the film had just been purchased by Disney and how glad he was that it was finally being made. At that time, various parties had been trying to make this film for 15 years (by now it's 21 years). Adams said that the whole process had been rather frustrating for him because the project was something that meant a lot to him. I won't go into all the details. I'll just mention who has tried to make the film: Ivan Reitman, Michael Nesmith(!) and Jay Roach with Disney (I'm glad that last one didn't pan out. The guy who did Meet the Parents has no business directing this film). I don't know the whole story about what happened to the film after this interview and why Jay Roach isn't directing. (Instead it's Hammer and Tongs, who are best known, by me, as the guys who made Blur's “Coffee and TV” video). I do know that when Douglas Adams died in 2001, the only visual realization of his story that he witnessed was the fairly silly BBC version, which he admits was disappointing. In the interview, he sounded so excited that he would FINALLY see his work on film. He said that he was confident it would be something he could be proud of because special effects have come a long way since the film was first pitched. I'm sure that when he died, he was happy about a lot of things besides movies. But he never will get to see bits of Earth hurling toward him in a dark theatre. I'm sad that he didn't have the opportunity to get chills. Sure, many authors never get a chance to see their characters on film. (And for many of them, that's a good thing). Adams, however, was always “close” to seeing it get made and it just didn't happen in time.
injurious revenge bracket
I just witnessed a blind guy jaywalk right in front of a bus!!! The bus stopped, of course. But maybe jaywalking isn't such a good idea when you're BLIND. Sure, you're probably thinking “Maybe he just thought the light was green”. Well, I don't know how he usually judges green lights when they aren't making those noises, but no one around him had started to walk or anything. I just think he thought he couldn't hear any traffic and decided to go. But there was a BUS!! Jesus Christ!
and waved them in
WEEKEND RECAP
Friday
Dinner at my beloved Canterbury with Dom, Faye and Andrew. We were all very tired and planned to make an “early” night of it, but somehow that never quite works out. Probably continuing to order beer doesn't help either. We may or may not have pissed off the staff of the Canterbury when we encouraged Andrew to inquire as to why his juke box selections were cut off. Turns out they have the power to skip tracks if they are so inclined and when it comes to Phil Collins and Cream, they ARE so inclined. The delightful Shawna (sp?) gave Andrew his dollar back and we tipped her extremely well in order to make amends (just in case she was more annoyed than she let on). Can't be burning our bridges at The Local.
We returned to mine and Dom's, slightly tipsy and forced Andrew to watch our short films and listen to Tickle Me Emo. It was that kind of night. Then we broke out the new “80's power ballads” karaoke cd's that I purchased. Derek joined us after a while and did a heart-wrenching rendition of “Everybody Wants to Rule The World”. I can't remember what anyone else sang because at that point, 3 beers has turned to 6 (or 7). Meanwhile, Faye was fighting narcolepsy on the couch. Early night, indeed.
Saturday
We (being Dom, Faye, Sherrard, Dan and me) loaded up the car and headed up to Bellingham for the Projections Film Festival at which two of my shorts, the lovely Slavka Kolbel's (6SFP fame) and the talented (and baby soft) Daniel Purcell's films were playing. We sat through 4 hours of several good films (and a few…well, if you can't say anything nice…) After that we were exhausted and hungry. We had initially planned to go to a very El Toro-like establishment called “La Pinata” (which means The Pinata). Turns out, it was a little TOO El Toro-like in that it was out of business. No mexican food and karaoke for us! (Which is probably good because we were still a little sick from some really sub-par Mount Vernon Taco Bell. Yes, it was actually WORSE than Taco Bell-quality.) We entertained visiting “Taco Lobo” (meaning Wolf Taco) or La Casa Que Pasa (meaning The House of What's Up) but we decided instead to get pizza and cut our losses. On the way we got yelled at by two passing cars in a row! (What are the odds?). The first were girls shouting something about a flower. The second was a pickup truck full of (I'm assuming) frat boys who yelled something to us about being foreigners and going back to where we came from. (I blame them for that awkward diction). Anywho, we ate our foreign asses some pizza and then retreated to our hotel rooms at the Rodeway Inn (past tense of “Ride”), ate pie and were in bed by midnight. It was that kind of night.
Sunday
We decided not to stay for the awards ceremony, as it would have gotten us back home very late. I will let you know if we won anything. I'm not holding my breath though. My good friend DJ won an award for best in category though! (The Category was
“Pure Schlock”. Doesn't sound terribly flattering, I know :) Congrats DJ!
Instead we ate a delicious breakfast and hit the road back home (resisting the temptation of first visiting the hemp museum). I forced everyone to listen to my cheesy road trip mixes. We arrived home around 1:00 in time for me to go to yoga! I am trying to cram as much yoga in as possible before my surgery. It's difficult though being that I'm so busy. The temptation to get lazy about exercise is very strong. Must resist…
Anywho, the weekend wasn't as adventure-ridden as I'd predicted, but it was fun nonetheless. And now…The Working Week!
Don't cry daddy
Ok. After two days of paralysis, I'm back. And here's what I've decided: Despite the fact that a horribly evil man has once again taken leadership of this country, I still (perhaps naively) feel that if things get REALLY bad (I mean REALLY) there are enough of us liberals out there that we we can band together and just mother-effing RIOT in the streets. I don't know what that will do, if anything. But I'm still pretty proud of what we did during the W.T.O. And even if THAT doesn't help repair ANY of the damage that Bushy is going to do in this country during his regime, we can at least be confident in the fact that there will probably be a whole lot of good rock music made that is political as hell. It can be just like the sixties! Only this time the Bob Dylans and the Phil Ochs's will have electric guitars (and not in that crappy way)! And maybe the liberals will smell a little bit better!
I'm just trying to see the bright side here, people. There HAS to be one…hasn't there?
In other news, we are going to Bellingham this weekend because two of my shorts (as well as Slavka's short from the 6SFP) are going to be in the Projections Film Festival! This is actually kind of a big deal because this festival gets a fair amount of exposure and important people go to it. (Not as many as SIFF, of course…but STILL). So I'm excited. I'm also excited about this bar up in Bellingham that is a mexican restaurant/karaoke bar. Those of you from Tacoma might remember the beloved El Toro which boasted the same features and was the stomping ground for a lot of our misspent college days. I have tremendously fond memories of El Toro and was utterly devastated when I stumbled upon its smoldering remains one sunny summer day. Anywhosel, I am hoping that this La Pinata will be at least 1/10 the fun that El Toro was. (Or at least that they will have free chips and salsa. {{{Homer Simpson noise}}}. I will be aided in this mission by the charismatic , the lovely , the superfun and the moustachy Dan.
I'll regail you will tails upon my return! In the meantime, happy Friday!
I'm gonna go listen to folk music and get riled up!
PS: I just want to say that Dominic Monaghan is a fine actor and Charlie is the only character on “Lost” thus far that has elicited an emotional response from me. And I'm not just talking about “down there”.
Massive dlck in action!!
I have no words for what has happened. All I know is that I am terrified for this country and for myself. This is a dark day.
bubble bath 49 dissidents
WEEKEND RECAP (To forget about life for a while)
Friday
Had a quiet evening in at Faye's house wherein we watched Martin (George Romero's fun vampire effort) and ate delicious pumpkin pie. Ale and Pie is always a good idea, even if, as Americans, we get it slightly wrong.
Saturday
We had some interviews at Vita for SDBSD ( update later today). Found some more good folks. Then we putzed around and began to get ready for the party. Dom dressed as Ash, Faye and I were Beavis and Butthead, Jacob was Patrick Bateman (of COURSE) and Sherrard was Donnie Darko. And OH, the party! We arrived around 9:00 and began singing straight away. I sang a bunch of songs I've never sung before including “Science Fiction/Double Feature” (from Rocky Horror)with Gene, “More Than Words” with and “Feed Me” (from Little Shop of Horrors) with ! I especially enjoyed singing the showtunes because I have always wanted to be talented enough to be in a musical and beer gives me the delusions that I am!
Costume highlights as Courtney Love and Andrew as Stanz from Ghostbusters! Hopefully, Dom will upload the pictures soon!
Around 4am I became vaguely aware that I was really tired. We gathered up the troops and headed home.
SundayIt's a good thing we had that extra hour of sleep because, well, let's just say my old bones aren't as resilient as they used to be. I spend almost ALL of Sunday completely wrecked. Sherrard was kind enough to bring me some gatorade, which helped a bit, but mostly, I couldn't get up off the couch. I was out of my pajamas for all of an hour when I went to the grocery store. Yikes! I feel pretty guilty about not making it to yoga, especially since I've only been making it once a week anyway. I'M TOO BUSY!!! I plan to MAKE time to go twice a week 6 weeks prior to my surgery though because who knows when I will be able to get back in there after that. I'll be damned if I turn back into cookie dough! I'll be damned. Because everyone will want to eat my delicious cookie limbs.
I'm off to find other ways to distract myself for the next several hours.
what makes you so nervous?
If I may quote Bill The Cat, “ACK!”
I can't take it! It's only 9:00 and I'm already FREAKING OUT. Everywhere I turn there's someone talking about the election. Luckily, living in Seattle as I do, most of it is liberal chatter. Pat Cashman is making light of it on the radio with a re-working of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. There's “fun” little blurbs and things all over the place. Zach Galifianakis sent his newsletter subscribers a plea to vote for Dukakis. (But in all seriousness to vote Kerry, obviously). Nonetheless, I am TERRIFIED and I feel like I should just lock myself in a sensory deprivation chamber until later tonight to avoid having a panic attack. Especially when I think about Faye's (hopefully not prophetic) freudian slip uttered last night wherein she called tomorrow “The Day After America”.
In the meantime, if you voted absentee, you can check to see if they received your ballot heyah. I checked mine days ago. It says they received it so I've done all I can do.
descendant ravish opacity
Grrrraaarrg!
It is insanely busy here today. (I should clarify by saying that I am insanely busy). I've not taken my break yet. When I do, I shall have to do a post office run so it won't be entirely a break. I am not pleased.
I want to talk all about the weekend but it will have to wait till tomorrow. Which is probably good because I will need to distract myself with happy thoughts. I was unable to eat lunch today because my stomach was all a-flutter.
That is all for now.
Back into hell like Meat Loaf.
arrowhead advisor incubi
Today is Halloween in offices everywhere. Here only Lil D. and myself dressed up. I dressed up as Mary Katherine Gallagher (Superstar!). I will try to post a picture later if I can figure out how. We were a part of a company-wide costume contest that was clearly rigged as only the popular people in Portland won. But ah well. The REAL Halloween party will be on Saturday and it will rule! (And I will be wearing a DIFFERENT COSTUME!)
I am also annoyed because my work load is gradually getting unmanageable. I keep getting stuck with these HUGE time-consuming projects and I barely have enough time to do my own job. I mentioned before that I asked for that raise because I felt like I wasn’t paid enough for the work I was doing. So I got my little raise and my workload tripled. I never even have time to take my breaks anymore. I am going to talk to the boss man again after my one year anniversary in February. (My one-year FULL time anyway. I’ve already been here a year.)
I am also tired as hell because things with the film are filling up my evenings. I’m pretty much going from 7am to 11pm every day. There’s enough work to do for the film to fill up an 8 hour day easily. I wish wish WISH it were my day job. Soon, I hope, for the sake of myself and my co-workers who might die a horrible bloody death at my disgruntled hand.
Tonight I plan to watch a movie and go to bed early. Rockin’ Friday night, I know. But I NEED to rest, if for no other reason than to be able to party that much harder tomorrow at the House of Fun. But I probably also need to rest for the sake of my health or some junk. Saturday will be HUGE. It might also be the party of the century because who knows if the world will end on Tuesday night. I am prepared for the apocalypse. I have my Buffy-style trunk full of weapons all ready to go.
In the meantime, I gotta update these goddamned spreadsheets.
Effed by the Wind 