the rabbits of the night

I remember this

2008-04-26T20:40:00.002-04:00

What's it been? Years? All relative.

I'm an old married guy. What's a "blog"?

2006-10-14T16:32:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time. Sorry. Here it is......

-I got married!! It was a pretty perfect day. It was extra sunshiney, there were plenty of people there who would have never otherwise been in the same room together, and I got caught drinking a nip of coconut rum by my favorite high school teacher/aunt in law...and she laughed mightily. I danced, looked stupid, got more drunk than I said I would, got spanked and licked by my friend Russ, and generally had the best time ever. Then I went on a cruise with my lovely wife, where we....

...Rented and crashed a jetski with all of our valuables in the "water tight" compartment on the front of the machine. It was unpleasant, at best.
...Ate our weight in onion rings.
...Took roughly 30 pictures of our stuffed dog "Baby Logan", for a photo journalistic project called "The Adventures of Baby Logan in the South Caribbean", all the while coming home with no more than 3 pictures of ourselves.
...Ate breadfruit.
...Spent the day on a beach in Antigua that is clearly the prototype for tropical beaches.
...Put our feet up and read lots of John D. MacDonald.
...Drank wacky/girly drinks, and felt no shame.
...Went on a private sailboat excursion, and went snorkeling, which involved me putting aside my crippling fear of sharks (I haven't swam in the ocean in almost 15 years...maybe more) in order to have an incredible time.

In other news...

-I finally got out of my position at work, and back to the out-of-doors. Just in time for the cold weather!!
-I've decided to go back to school. I'm fairly terrified, yet constantly excited.
-Got moderately drunk at Dino's, and attempted to play "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "Psycho Killer" with The Deloreans. I'd had just the right amount of beer so that I couldn't feel my hands too well, and the results were....iffy.
-We're looking at houses. Which is crazy, but necessary. Also crazy, but less necessary: our current landlord (or lady...the landlord mostly smokes weed and works on old Jeeps.)

Other than that, I've just been: watching lots of good TV shows, seeing an extraordinarily shitty Brian DePalma movie, sleeping poorly, meeting lots of cool dogs, rooting for the Dodgers, then the Tigers, keeping it real, seeing friends, feeling happy.

Canada. Wedding stuff. Madness (not the band).

2006-08-13T22:23:00.000-04:00

So long summer! It gets more and more cliched as you get older to talk about how fast the summers go, but holy poop.....it's mid-August!! The Deloreans on Thursday, Montreal on Friday...this is good stuff. We've been busy...picking out wedding songs (Mike, if you read this, "Martinis on the Roof"? Absolutely), getting fitted for fancy weddin' clothes, having weird wedding dreams. It never ends. But we're way excited, and really looking forward to seeing everyone. Peace out, playas'.

(My prediction: Canada will never be the same after this weekend.)

Solstice-y

2006-06-22T17:23:00.000-04:00

First day of summer, eh? I knew my third favorite season had arrived when a girl in a Jeep pulled up next to me blasting "O.P.P".

Anyway, you know how this is gonna go down, so here it is:

-Lucked into some Red Sox tickets, and for the second year in a row was treated like royalty in a luxury box. There is no finer tasting hot dog (or sausage, ice cream, cookie, chips & salsa, beer, etc.) than a free hot dog. I want to be nostalgic/romantic about sitting in the bleachers, but quite seriously, the last time I sat in the bleachers I had the urine of several white hat wearing jerks trickling down near my feet. In the luxury boxes, you have a private bathroom, and nobody tries to pee on you. Call me elitist...I'm fine with it.

-I've been blowing through China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, which in all likelihood is maybe the greatest book I've ever read.

-I saw The Deloreans (an 80's cover band, for all you mortgage/real estate pushing blog-bots who aren't in the know) twice. It was 80's-tastic.

-I think I temporarily burned myself out on comics. Financially, this is good news.

-I may have commented on this here, or over on the Vorpalfilm message board, but over the last month or two, I've developed a twitching in my lower left eyelid. So yeah, it's fucked up, and there's no surer way to feel like you're going crazy than to have a twitchy eye. I went and saw an opthamologist, was put through no less than a half-hour of eye exams, some of which were relatively uncomfortable (they put some drops in my eyes that made my eyelids feel like 5lb. weights...like falling asleep uncontrollably), but I passed with flying colors. The twitching is caused by lack of sleep and stress, which is a little embarrassing. Anyway, if you see me, and my eye looks all fucked up, that's because it is.

Josh Beckett's offensive explosion...

2006-05-23T17:17:00.000-04:00

...was just about the only thing pulling me out of some serious Preakness-induced depression this past weekend. I know the whole Barbaro story is getting tons of press, all of it really sentimental, but that whole scene just kicked my ass. I'm a rookie to the Triple Crown races, this being only the third year I've watched them. Already though, I'm just completely under the spell of the whole thing. It was one thing to watch Smarty Jones get within one race of the crown, and just get beat. It bummed me out, but hey, I'm a Red Sox fan, so I can take it. But watching Barbaro pull up early, with his leg dangling in all sorts of unnatural directions just turned my stomach, and basically broke my heart as well. I know some of my friends think the whole racing thing is strange...but that saying, about the Kentucky Derby being the most exciting two minutes in sports? Not wrong. For me, this really is the new "there's always next year". In the scheme of things, I didn't really wait that long to see the Sox win the World Series. I'm just hoping I don't have to wait so long to see a Triple Crown winner. Oh, and here comes the part where I act like a broken hearted little kid holding up a sign on TV: Get well Barbaro.

And since I named this post after him, again: Josh Beckett? Knocking in the tying run on Saturday, then scoring the go-ahead run, then hitting a very convincing home run? Fuck yes. He also throws the ball OK too.

If you can dig it, it's pretty good

2006-05-15T17:10:00.000-04:00

New catchphrase? Maybe. Anyway, it's been another month, so here's the obligatory list of things that have gone down:

-It's rained. A lot. Large portions of New England are underwater.
-I bought a camouflage Red Sox hat, and am thinking I'll need to take up chewing tobacco and snowmobiling to complete my new look.
-Work just keeps geting worse. I need to get the shit out of my current position, but just haven't been able to pull the trigger on a move that will land me back in my old department, where I will be scrubbing bird shit in short order. Glamorous, eh?
-I ate a Shepard's Pie, under threat of abandonment by my friend Chris. He was right to resort to such extremes. That was fucking quality eating. Thanks Chris!
-I've decided Battlestar Galactica might be the greatest show on TV right now (It probably isn't, but I got really excited to be watching it again, and felt like making a sweeping, declarative statement about the show).
-Kristin and I had a Kentucky Derby party. We were the only ones who showed up.
-I had almost a week of quality (by my standards) sleep...it was uncanny.
-Jason stole my thunder for my planned withdrawl from Myspace....I've been talking about it for months now, but he beat me to it. Now, it'll just look like I'm more of a follower than I already am.
-I got excited about, and then completely forgot about Free Comic Book Day. That sucked.

Do we like Josh Beckett?

2006-04-17T10:25:00.000-04:00

Yes. Yes we do. A lot. Unfortunately, due to yesterday's two Easter festivities on opposite ends of the Cape, I wasn't even able to see him throw one pitch (though we did make it home for the 9th, just in time to see Mr. Papelbon continue his stretch of 9th inning perfection). But yeah, having two pitchers on our staff with 3-0 records is one of the more exciting things in recent Red Sox memory. And OK, it's early, but Beckett just really comes as advertised, no? It's also just a blast watching the guy work...it's only a matter of time before his post-strikeout antics (ie fist pumping, screaming at the top of his lungs) are going to cause some serious problems, and then hopefully we'll be treated to Jason Varitek's trademark running chokehold tackle. Good times.

Sorry.....again.

2006-04-13T18:18:00.001-04:00

What the eff is my problem? Why can't I post more regularly? Really, why? I imagine there are at least 2 or 3 people who check here periodically, hoping I've something interesting to say. So, um,...don't hold your breath. These long lapses between blogs would seem to indicate that I've been extremely busy, unable to sit and write out meaningless shit for a few minutes. But that's not the truth of the situation. I've actually been mired in a months long funk, and it's mostly to do with my job. And I bitch about it enough during the day that I want to put it behind me when I get home. That being said, I hate my fucking job. But I found out recently that I am not unique, and that most everyday people like their jobs to an extent, but are stuck with at least one walking pile of shit who can make their day miserable. Meet my supervisor, Al. He's obnoxious, incompetent, in poor health, and he tells the same sad-sack medical stories over, and over, and over, and over again. OK....I feel better now.

Elsewhere:

-The Red Sox are winning. This pleases me.
-I'm up to my eyeballs in good comics, and while I can't rightly justify the money spent, there's some truly fantastic stuff out there.
-It's warming up, and while I no longer work outside (sad face), it's certainly a good time of year when I can contemplate not starting my car 10 minutes before leaving in the morning.
-There is the outside chance for rock and roll in my future, assuming I remember how to rock and roll. I do hear that rock and roll never forgets.
-I have a three pound tub of cookie dough in my fridge.
-Slither kicked ass, though not financially, which probably means we won't be seeing a sequel.
-Eli Roth is still an asshole.

Anyone.....

2006-03-18T18:41:00.000-05:00

....have any ideas as to where my listing of links got off to? If you see them, tell them I've been worried sick.

Where the time goes

2006-03-15T17:15:00.000-05:00

Wow. It's been a month since I last posted here. I suck. But here's what I've been up to in the interim:

-Reading lots of comic books
-Making lots of lists on the Vorpalfilm message board
-Getting excited about going on a cruise in the fall
-Tasting wedding cakes
-Not playing my drums (sad face icon)
-Feeling slightly miserable at work (I essentially work with just two guys; one I like quite a bit, the other lives permanently under my skin. The guy I get along with, personally and professionally, was just checked into rehab, which isn't nearly as Hollywood-y as it sounds. It's really just sad.)
-Talking baseball
-Seeing Ted Leo in a familiar Rhode Island haunt
-Getting jacked trading in video games at Newbury Comics (in case anyone was considering it, don't)
-Watching good horror movies (The Hills Have Eyes remake and May for the second time)
-Learning how to use the bold key!
-Working incredibly slowly on a zombie movie script

That's most of it, anyway.

Japanese Doughnuts

2006-02-17T20:24:00.000-05:00

A delicacy, made all the more delicious with their element of surprise. And free! There's a bizarre little operation going on in my town. A deli by day...and "Sushi by Night", which is plastered all over the windows of Paper Moon, in the heart (near the Stop N' Shop) of Sandwich. I went there for some takeout last week, and my experience was, at best, troubling. The joint was empty. One couple, on a Saturday night, at 7:00. I placed a meager order, and was told it would take 35 minutes, which seemed long, no? I also got rooked on some real vs. imitation crab routine (I'm thinking at an extra $2 per roll, this is how they're staying in business). I also didn't get what I ordered, and when I thought about getting out of my car and going back in to get things straightened out, I looked up to see the sushi chef, his apprentice (a dead ringer for Rupert Gee, from the Hello Deli) and the waitress, all huddled together, under an awning on a rainy night, their faces submerged in shadows, cigarette tips glowing red. I stayed in my car. The sushi? Fucking fantastic. So we went in tonight, to get the full dining experience. The lone couple on a Friday night, 7:00...that was us. And you know what we ordered? The Deep Impact Roll (you can't make this shit up). It's as delicious tasting as it is erotic sounding. Tempura shrimp, avocado, topped with spicy tuna, tobiko, and scallions. If you're in town, you need this. And then came the fresh, piping hot, crazy-ass looking Japanese Doughnuts. Kristin's theory, having worked in restaurants since forever, is that the guys in the kitchen were bored, made some treats, and rewarded us for being their only customers. Anyone on the Cape, in the mood for weird atmosphere (Japanese techno cover version of "Paint it Black" on a CD player that skips incessantly), and killer sushi, check out Paper Moon.

Snow Shoveling Tips: Do it right. Do it safe.

2006-02-13T10:23:00.000-05:00

1. Lift with your back. That's your 'power center'.
2. Pick up as much snow as you possibly can.
3. Work quickly. You don't want to be out there all day, do you?

Arkham Asylum

2006-02-01T08:31:00.000-05:00

Scariest graphic novel......EVER!!!!! In fact, I'm not sure I've ever actually been creeped out by a comic before. But man, this book is a complete nightmare. It's also really, really good. The Joker is nothing short of menace here.....the usual one-liners, instead of being hokey, are just downright disturbing. Even the images of Batman, all wispy pencil sketches and gritted teeth, are more than a little unsettling. I have my friend Bill to thank for my recent reawakening into the world of all things comic book-y (that, and "Sin City", which, prior to the movie, I had never read). After loaning me the excellent "Planetary" books by Warren Ellis, he got me "Superman For All Seasons" by Jeph Loeb (et al) for Christmas, and it kicked my ass. I followed that up with Loeb's "Daredevil: Yellow", also a great read. I can't help but wonder how those guys felt about the "romantic comedy" tagline on the back cover.....doesn't seem appropriate. All this prompted me to dust off my old comic collection and take stock.....with mixed results. It ranges from the great (at the age of 10, I somehow managed to put together and keep in pretty good shape a solid pile of Frank Miller's "Batman" graphic novels), to the bizarre ("Quasar"?), to the embarrassing (I have several "ALF" comics). Anyway, there seems to be lots of great stuff out there. And this is what I need. Another expensive hobby.

I'm officially joining...

2006-01-24T16:06:00.000-05:00

...the "Eli Roth smokes pole" club. I'm hoping I can be the treasurer. In the most recent Entertainment Weekly, he was asked for a quote as to why he would be making a "Hostel" sequel (I'm as curious as the next guy..."Hostel" sucked ass). He claimed that people all over the country have been throwing up during screenings of his crappy movie, and that it's his responsibility to "give the people what they want"...or some such thing. First of all, if you're throwing up during "Hostel", you might just have some 24-hour virus...the gore effects were cheesy, and as horror movies go, this one was really tame. Secondly, fuck off Eli. Now, I still stand by "Cabin Fever"... I thought it was a good, romp-y kind of horror movie... I liked the actors, and I think that played a huge part in what made "Hostel" so bad....lousy performances across the board. But back to the quote.....there's this smarmy little picture of him, with his smart haircut, and honestly, in all my life, this was as close as I ever got to punching a magazine.

kate's jungle fashion

2006-01-09T13:35:00.000-05:00

we're 8 episodes into the first season of "lost", and loving every second of it. i know, i know....i'm late getting into the mix. when the show first came on the air, even amidst the undying hype, i had some weird panic-y moment when i decided i really didn't want to watch a show about a plane crash. but after some (incessant)pleading by some of my nearest and dearest, we put it on the 'ol xmas wish list, and thanks to my very generous sister, we're finally catching up with the rest of america. and so far, even with friends and family warning us about the frustrating parts of the show, i can only think of positive things to say. the only problem i'm going to have is keeping my greedy eyes out of magazine articles hell-bent on spoiling the show for us late comers. so anyway, "lost". good stuff. apologies to mr. abrams for sleeping on his quality television program. won't happen again.

the holidays: a look back

2006-01-02T17:43:00.000-05:00

no complaints, really. santa was good to us. new year's was well in hand, with little to no drama (once, there was drama, and it was bad, bad, bad). mostly, it was great to see some faraway friends, live and in the flesh, rather than here, in the cold yet familiar landscape of "the internets". also, here's a live news update.....the latest in the series of episodes involving guys getting shot in the head with various projectiles (usually nails, but in this case, a bullet), and somehow, they just don't notice. these are either the toughest bastards out there, or they're just so numbed by a beer that undoubtedly ends in the word "ice", that they no longer feel pain. maybe these guys need to be hand selected for covert, sexy black-ops type stuff, because clearly, they're unstoppable. anyway, you see what happens when i watch the news. i'll be off now. there are stacks of dvd's that need watchin', and lots of books that aren't going to read themselves. here's hoping everyone had a good time.....now, brace yourselves, get some sleep, and get ready for winter.

freaks and geeks

2005-12-16T17:28:00.000-05:00

man. i had kinda forgotten just how incredible that show was. i've had the dvd set for well over a year, but it always seemed to be on the proverbial and crowded "back burner". well we're flying through it now, and i'd say our lives are certainly better for it. what's more, i never did see all the episodes, so it's extra exciting for me. i've watched the homecoming dance sequence from the pilot at least 10 times in the last few weeks, and i'm throwing it out there as one of the most perfect scenes in television history....that look on sam's face when he realizes that yes, in fact he's going to have to dance fast with cindy....lindsay and eli dancing...."come sail away" blasting away...millie's freaked out hippie dance!!! such good stuff. between that and season two of "scrubs", there's a whole lot of quality tv-on-dvd lovin' to go around. anyway, here's to christmas lights, well-fed sleepy boatyard dogs, egg nog, and interesting book recommendations.

man, those chipmunks could sing!

2005-11-29T17:49:00.000-05:00

i heard "christmas don't be late" on the radio today, and started getting a little excited about the season. people have lights up (seems early to me), and my mom and my sister have already broken out the fake trees. i'm also doing reasonably well as far as checking names off my list. almost everyone has been good, but it's never too late to slip up, so watch it. also, if anyone in the cape cod area knows any actual fat, jolly guys, send 'em over to the local mall. our santa looks malnourished, and he's sure as shit not too jolly. i'm fearful that "santa" is going the way of "cookie monster", and he too will be portrayed as a veggie lovin', healthy guy (apparently cookie monster is now teaching the kids about moderation). so perhaps our local santa's lack of a fat suit is one way of trying to keep america's youth at a respectable weight (in case sensible parenting fails, of course). either way, it's that time of the year. egg nog, bright lights, tension headaches, and road rage (sighs with contentment).

you might think it's foolish...

2005-11-09T17:21:00.000-05:00

....but i've parted ways with the 80's cover band (in hindsight, we really should have had the nerve to call ourselves "the 80's band"...though i think it may have already have been taken). in all honesty, it really was/is a very sweet deal. i'd play my drums for a couple of hours, people would dance, and at the end of the night, some other people would give me money (i had never previously entertained the notion of making money playing music, save for my 5th grade hopes of becoming the next slash...hopes that were completely and utterly dashed when i found out that playing guitar was kinda hard). it was by no means an easy decision to make, but i'm sure that when all is said and done, it was the right one. i really want nothing but the best things for those guys....they're all exceptional musicians and human beings. i guess i started to feel like i was taking more away from the band than i was contributing. i also knew that i wasn't going to be able to get back in the routine of practicing a couple times a week (it amazes me that we were able to keep the same folks coming back every thursday...every time i started playing the drumbeat to "billie jean", i half expected to get slammed in the head with a beer bottle, and hear something to the effect of "learn some new songs, jerk"...the point is, it was really time to expand the catalogue). there are a handful of logistical reasons why it had to be this way, but probably none more compelling than my waning level of enthusiasm. and i just wanted them to have the freedom to do whatever, whenever, and not have to worry about whether or not i'd be "into it". because in order for a band, any band, to work, everyone has to be equally gung-ho about things. and i guess i had stopped being quite so gung-ho. so if anyone in the world who reads this is disappointed, don't be. general chicken's chicken/money for nothing will be fine, and better, without yours truly. and that's not me being coy, humble, or self-deprecating. it's really just the truth.

my brush with bird-flu

2005-10-26T19:03:00.000-04:00

that's actually not even funny. but am i the only person who misses a few days of work (respiratory-sneezy-achey-badness), only to return to a flurry of questions about whether or not i've got the hot new disease? yeah, i've got fucking bird-flu funny guy. not long ago it would have been SARS, and it still wouldn't have been funny (ok, SARS is a little funny). anyway, i was badly laid up for a few days, but now i'm back, and i still don't have much to write about. it's fall, and cool, which is nice. the white sox are on their way to dethroning the red sox, and apparently, judging by the ratings, america doesn't seem to care. i was rooting for the cardinals all the way (well, after the red sox packed it in that is), so i've been out of it for some time......anyway, i'll try to make more exciting things happen, thereby increasing this blog's intensity. stay tuned for major announcements. also, here's the latest in what i hope will become a long list of 2-word movie reviews.

"elizabethtown"....sorely disappointing.

how i spent my summer vacation

2005-10-03T17:29:00.000-04:00

i've been trying to find the right time, and more importantly the right words to describe a 4,000 mile roadtrip, and have failed on both accounts. so here, i'll give it a try.....

tourist-y highlights:
-the rock and roll hall of fame in cleveland.....awesome! two things i couldn't take my eyes off of were the big, unruly looking reel to reel machine that creedence clearwater revival recorded everything on, and the torn scraps of metal from otis redding's plane, with his name in a greenish painted script. the place is a treasure hunt.....hand written beatles lyrics, the wide shoulder suit david byrne wore, grade school drawings by jimi hendrix, a shit-ton of guitars.....it's really just perfectly done, and we had a blast. special thanks to sue and tim for being great hosts, and perfect rock hall companions.

-the louisville slugger factory and museum.... i held an unfinished bat destined for the hands of manny ramirez... how cool is that!?

-churchill downs....easily one of the coolest places i've ever seen. we took a guided tour of the whole damn place, got to see lots of horses running a lot faster than it looks on tv, and i rode a fake plastic horse and looked like a jackass.

-meramec caverns in west stanton, MO....my first experience in a cave of any kind. we were the only ones in our tour "group" (though we were joined later by a british motorcycle gang... no, really), and our guide was one of those people who deals with the public so much, he doesn't even remember why he hates dealing with the public. he was a little scary, and it occurred to me more than once that i only had my keychain and a bottle of water to defend myself with. oh yeah, the cave was cool.

-the petrified forest national park in arizona...a 93,500 acre state park. 26 miles of road cutting through painted desert, logs that magically turned into rocks, and more pound for pound untouched prettiness than we saw the whole trip.

-las vegas. holy shit. i mean, oh my.....

food-y highlights:
-tamales and chile poblanos at el nopal in washington MO.....far and away the greatest mexican food i've ever had.

-some wonderful and bizarre hybrid of chicken salad and guacamole at the country dove tea room, a froofy, off the beaten path type place in elk city, OK.

- i feel like i can now speak with authority on the subject of fast food hamburgers... we tried 'em all... sonic, carl's jr......but fatburger in l.a. was stupid amounts of good....special thanks to jon and jay for showing us the ropes.

-yum yum donuts....mmm.....donuts

anyway, i could easily be forgetting so much....what struck me most was just the incredible amounts of nothing that's out there....and truthfully, that's kind of what i set out to see. i wasn't disappointed. the unexpectedly pretty state award goes to oklahoma. i loved driving through it, and tulsa was a pretty cool town. what else... we saw some vacation movies: "red eye" in cleveland, "the exorcism of emily rose" in amarillo, and "lord of war" in los angeles. i should also mention, if you've gotten this far, that kristin and i got engaged on a beautiful and lonely stretch of american highway....it was really kinda perfect. i think people assume i'm lying when i say we didn't get on each other's nerves the whole trip. she was a perfect navigator (i drove the whole time....i'm a bad passenger). our rented ford escape held up perfectly, my ipod was a little champ (if you want to think of our trip in terms of songs, it was around 900 on shuffle, plus a few cd's), and as much as we had grown tired of sleeping in hotel beds and the make-your-own-waffle machine, and were really happy to get home, i wouldn't trade the trip for the world.

the waiting is the hardest part

2005-09-07T08:42:00.000-04:00

two days until vacation.....i'm not packed, we're not prepared, but morale is high. wish me luck. and oh yeah.... so long stink-town!!!

california, here we come (whiny vocals, pounding drums)

2005-08-04T17:50:00.000-04:00

by the by....we're taking a two week roadtrip to california in september. it's shaping up to be totally firearms.....we're taking the southern-ish route, but we're really looking for any and all suggestions of places we must vist.....as of right now, our itinerary is a bit thin.

the wire, murderball, sugary cereal.

2005-08-03T15:14:00.000-04:00

it's been too long blog....summer is blowing by me, and i'm just sort of sleepwalking through it. we did manage to finish season 2 of "the wire" recently...that show is second to none....really. i'm glad they got picked up for a fourth season, despite the low ratings. i'd be really happy if one of the many people i've gushed to about this show finally got around to checking it out...so get off yer butts!!(and then get back on your butt, as i find sitting to be the best position for watching tv shows)....i got to see "murderball"...it's certainly deserving of all the great reviews. it's hard for me to understand why it's playing on so few screens... i hope word of mouth will be enough to change that, and more people will get to see it. i've also been up to my old tricks as far as breakfast is concerned... for a good bit of time, i was eating cereal like "maple pecan crunch", and i considered that to be a step in the opposite direction of "count chocula"... and while i haven't had breakfast with the count in some time, i've been stocking the cabinets with the likes of "cocoa krispies", "reese's puffs", and "golden grahams"....and the searing pain in one of my lower teeth has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with this.....also, in case anyone wanted to get back to talking about healthy living, i went to the fair and ate a fucking fried milky way!!!

because nothing says creepy like a diet pepsi and doritos...

2005-07-09T18:09:00.000-04:00

the other day i was running some errands during work, or rather, running errands for work.....anyhow, i felt a bit sluggish, so i thought i'd stop by the cumberland farms for some refreshments. as i was making my way through the store, carefully selecting just the right afternoon snack, i heard a woman talking to a little kid, calling after her, and telling her that if she (the kid) didn't report back to her (the woman), someone was going to "take her" (again, the kid). well, i certainly hope that when i have kids, i won't have to use these kinds of fear tactics to keep them by my side, but hey, whatever works. so of course i have to end up at the opposite end of the same aisle as the kid just as her grandma (i'm pretty sure it was her grandma) finds her....whereupon granny sort of half points at me and says, just loud enough for oh, everyone in the store to hear, "you don't want him to take you, do you?"....so now i am the personification of evil in some poor little kid's head....when she thinks of the "boogeyman", he'll no doubt be sporting a two-day beard, and a slightly yellowing, misshaped red sox hat...thanks lady, me and my self esteem really needed that.

18 wheels of american goodness....

2005-07-05T19:16:00.000-04:00

well, i can now say, should anyone ever ask, that yes, i have played 80's cover songs for thousands of people while riding on the back of a flat-bed semi in a 4th of july parade. america, fuck yeah.

sleeplessnessicity

2005-06-28T17:26:00.000-04:00

this is going to be a tough summer......the kids are up way too late these days. i'll flat out admit that i live my life like i'm 40, but fuck, i'm so tired after work, it's all i can do to make it through dinner without nodding out. someday, when kristin becomes my sugar-mama, i'm gonna get me that dream job at a bookstore....then i'll have energy to spare. but anyhow, the 80's band is in full swing, and now, after just a couple of shows, i answer to caffeine. in a big way. but it's fun playing, and i'm seeing a side of the cape i wouldn't, or perhaps shouldn't, ordinarily see. it's weird to put yourself in a position where, if people don't dance, you've failed. in my time at places like t.t.'s and the middle east, a couple of well placed head nods and 5-10 people in front of the stage qualified as a "great show". but people seem to be having fun, drinking a lot, and i guess that's pretty much the point of summer on cape cod.

leave behind your pointy, shiny toys.....

2005-06-22T17:14:00.000-04:00

so tonight is the first of what should be a weekly show for the 80's band (we are sadly no longer called general chicken's chicken....we're currently operating under the moniker 'money for nothing'... apt)at the blue anchor, on main street hyannis... unfortunately, and i'm strictly repeating what i've heard, someone was stabbed there on monday.....and to that i say... what the fuck?!! it's cape cod....people wear fucking pink shorts..in public...like on the streets!!! just take a deep breath, relax, and basically don't fucking stab people. i've never been stabbed myself, but i'll wager it's a might painful. anyway, if anyone in the world reads this and has the means, motivation and money ($2 cover....this shit ain't free, bub!!)please come on down. and don't bring knives. they're really, really bad. ok?......ok.

a little list....

2005-06-09T18:14:00.000-04:00

it's summer....that means movies. here's a brief list of what i'm hoping will, and in some cases downright expecting to bring the goods....

1. "serenity"... ok, it doesn't come out until the fall, but i've been going back over the "firefly" episodes, and no matter how fanboy it sounds, fox really dropped the fucking ball on that show. i do think it's amazing what's happened recently with some of the shows scorned by the fox network...."family guy" is back in a big way, and all i can do is hope "serenity" hits a big nerve at the box office. because if the only people who see it are "firefly" fans, joss whedon will have some explaining to do.

2. "war of the worlds"....i'm getting a little sick of tom and katie...ok, she's way hot, really tall, and super cool.... can we get back to the aliens, and shit blowing up? this looks great though... every still i've seen, every trailer, it's just fucking huge looking.....

3. "batman begins"... the last two "batman" movies hurt people deeply. i never got around to seeing them until years after their release... i rented both while battling a nasty, fluish, fevery thing. they didn't help. i'm really counting on christian bale to pull the trigger on this thing. because if this doesn't work, with a director like chris nolan, you have to wonder if we'll ever see another great "batman" movie.

4. "dark water".... ok, i'll agree we've been a little inundated with remakes of japanese horror films, but this looks quality. it's jennifer connelly....how can you resist?

5. "land of the dead"....my first time seeing a romero movie in the theatre...i'm counting on that being a good time.

some other movies i'm looking forward to: "high tension", "charlie and the chocolate factory", "the island" (i know it's a michael bay movie, but when it comes to scarlett johannsen, well, i've got a problem), "the bad news bears", "the one with jessica alba swimming the whole time", and "mr & mrs. smith"

movies that look like absolute, total and complete poo: "stealth", "the fantastic four", and "the honeymooners".

and whatever happened to "the ringer"?

cinderella man

2005-06-07T21:20:00.000-04:00

why is it that no matter how much i try to dislike russell crowe, i keep going back for more? i can't explain it away, so i'll just have to keep giving him my $8.50, because the guy's quality. i wanted to come here and shout "best boxing movie ever", but hell, i haven't seen 'em all, so that's not fair. i read somewhere today that this is this summer's "seabiscuit", with russell crowe filling the biscuit's horseshoes. true enough. this isn't a plot that keeps you guessing, and this isn't a character study either...it's just a basic underdog story, but damn, the guy in front of me wasn't the only one throwing his hands up in the air. plus, if you're in it for the fighting, this is scary real. you know how you're going to feel when you leave a ron howard movie (except "the grinch", which had me struggling to hold up the very foundation of my childhood), but sometimes that's not such a bad thing. maybe i'm getting overly sentimental in my old age, but this thing had me. people were laughing, cringing, and crying.....and by people i mean me.

when it's cold outside, i've got the month of may?

2005-05-25T21:22:00.000-04:00

now this is just getting to be frickin ridiculous! it's in the bloody 40's out right now, raining for days on end. now, don't get me wrong, i'm the last guy you'll see outside "enjoying the weather"...but we're well into the current baseball season, closing in on june, and people are wearing fleece on a regular basis. arrgghhh....anyway, here are some things that have gone down since last we spoke....."revenge of the sith" kicked my ass...i purchased season one of "scrubs", which makes me happier than i have any right to be...today at work my computer crashed. hard...let's see...i bought the new weezer album. i think i'll listen to it a few more times before picking it apart. i don't want to say anything i'll regret later...but right off the bat, it's not spectacular. and my new favorite beer is otter creek's stovepipe porter. also, general chicken's chicken....absolutely.

unleashed

2005-05-13T21:45:00.000-04:00

see, here's the thing...jet li fucking kicks ass! and so what if this flick gets a little too cute for its own good, and hell, downright schamltzy in places. the opening is one of the most explosive fight scenes you'll ever see. the violence, it's not pretty....it's not "house of flying daggers" here.....it's manic, raw, dirty. i mean, in one late scene, jet li bites. hard. and there's blood. there's one really fantastic fight between jet li and some freaky bald swordsman, who looks a bit like the drummer from ac/dc (no, not phil rudd, the other one... the one who looked like the guy from midnight oil.....either way, he's a big bald white guy with no eyebrows). they're wedged in a tiny bathroom, both of them with their backs against the wall, literally. it's great. also, jet li eats ice cream too fast, and it makes his mouth cold. and morgan freeman is a blind piano player (why wouldn't he be). and um.... but did i mention jet li kicks fucking tons of ass in this movie? because he really does. the whole psychological trauma aspect of this script could have worked better, but then they would have had to further "develop" the "characters", and that would have meant less jet li breaking people and bob hoskins screaming and yelling. but truth be told, there are a handful of scenes that will sucker punch you. there's also a great "mad max" style underground fight, complete with bad mohawks and tight leather. very cool. and stick around for the credits and hear the songs by the rza. was this a smarmy thing i just wrote? because i'm giving this fucker plenty of stars.

19 vs. 1

2005-05-07T19:38:00.000-04:00

ask anyone who was there (and by anyone i mean my girlfriend, who fortunately was the only one there) and they'll tell you that i was reduced to a whimpering puddle of estrogen last year when smarty jones lost the belmont, failing to win the triple crown. i'll admit to being a band-wagon jumper...i had never looked twice at a horse race, but i got completely caught up in the hype, and was crushed when he lost. it was the suddeness of the heartbreak...2 minutes. i'm a baseball fan... that, i can take. 162 games. no time limits. and although i was squirming with the rest of red sox nation during the ALCS, it was 7 games. you had the time to process the idea that the red sox were going to let you down...again (i recently saw HBO's "reverse the curse of the bambino", and i couldn't agree more with denis leary when he talked about feeling slightly pissed at the sox for winning game 4, and delaying the inevitable) but these horse races...man, it's just so much bulid up, and it's all over in 2 minutes. 1 fucking lap, and the horse never races in the kentucky derby, or belmont, or preakness again. and i'm not sure i would have even bothered to tune in to today's kentucky derby were it not for the whole steinbrenner fracas. but i had to root against the guy. not for the thrill of rooting for the underdog, but because i'm a sox fan, and i was hoping that with the type of season the yankees are having, that if his horse lost, old george's head might actually explode on national tv....and who wouldn't want to see that. and i got completely sucked in. again, my only personal stake in the race was to see one particular horse not win, but i found myself blindly picking a favorite (who incidentally finished third), and just falling in love with the whole scene. i'm happy that steinbrenner's horse lost....but mostly, i'm just looking forward to the next race. i fully expect to have a gambling problem by then.

holy crap.....

2005-05-07T17:40:00.000-04:00

it's been way too long since i last posted. and, um...i haven't had much to rant and or rave about. which is not to say that things have been aces, because that sure ain't true. my mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and although everyone's staying upbeat, it's kind of put a damper on things in general. what sucks the most is knowing my involvment in this is limited to supportive phone calls and big hugs. i don't know.....maybe this isn't the type of thing one posts about on a blog, but it just feels phony to come here and talk about how crappy mos def was in "the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" when there's some altogether rotten, and way too real shit going on at home. i will try to get back in the swing of it here though.......because mos def has got some shit coming his way....

even in my dreams, my heroes are bastards

2005-04-21T21:10:00.000-04:00

i've made a concious effort here not to post about any dreams i have... and it's not about not wanting to be pretentious...i've got absolutely no problem with that. it's more to do with the fact that my dreams tend to be either remarkably mundane (people messing with my computer at work) or really horrible (mm...yeah, let's not get into it). but last night i had a really bizarre and disturbing dream, and it just seems like something i want to write about. so.....i was in a bookstore, browsing through the "calvin and hobbes" books, when i noticed there were a bunch of them that i had not read, or even heard of (and i've read all the books cover to cover, many, many times). upon closer inspection, i saw that they weren't even written by bill watterson, which is fucked up, no? there was this haggard old woman sitting in a chair by the shelf, so i asked her if she knew anything about it. she was shocked to learn that i "hadn't heard". she claimed to be a relative of watterson's, and she told me that he had committed a terrible crime. apparently he had brutally murdered his son, whose name was calvin (in my dream, the strip was based on his son.... in reality, i'm not quite sure the man has a son). this was 10 years or so prior to my dream. at this point, the bookstore became more of a library, and i began doing some research on the killing. the whole thing was extremely gruesome, but had somehow been swept under the rug by the media so that they could continue to publish "calvin and hobbes". the dream logic stops short of explaining how people didn't notice that their favorite comic was being written by someone new. so, weird dream, huh? bill watterson killed calvin. which, in effect, he did. so i guess it's just probably latent disappointment over the end of "calvin and hobbes". which is really fucking sad. that i'm dreaming about comic strips, i mean. but also the end of "calvin and hobbes". that was sad too. and so am i.

the wire

2005-04-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

it's as good as you've heard it is. better, in fact. it sucks that this show gets lost in the HBO shuffle, with "the sopranos" and "sex in the city" getting all the attention. but this is far and away the most tightly written of the bunch....i'm tempted to say it's HBO's best, but i've only seen season 1, and i'm not jumping any guns. anyway, it's sort of the anti-"law & order" (and i like some of the "law & order" shows)....so instead of a case per show format, you get 13 episodes, all one case. and it's just one of the most ambiguous shows i've ever seen.....yeah, we've all seen shows and movies where "the cops are more dangerous than the criminals"....we've all seen harvey keitel jerk off during a routine traffic stop....right? sorry. but "the wire" just blows all that shit out of the water.....you can't help but like the guys putting the drugs on the street.....because they're pretty likeable guys......d'angelo barksdale, the conflicted nephew of the show's kingpin, avon barksdale, is someone you can't help but root for. you know he's stuck in this life of drugs and murder... he wants out, but you know it's not going to happen. also, much credit to idris elba, who plays stringer bell, avon barksdale's right hand man. i've never been more afraid of a character who's voice barely rises above a conversational tone. plus, they're just turning the myth of the drug dealer on its ear.. this guy is taking business courses, he's smarter than the cops chasing after him, and you begin to feel like these guy's are just too careful to get caught. the cops are equally as charismatic and complex. they're obsessed with the work, they fuck up their personal lives, they're manipulative, back stabbing.....they get violent with suspects, and it's real, and scary, because it's sanctioned by the higher ups...hell, sometimes it's the higher ups doing the beating.....there's this particularly great scene where jimmy mcnulty, the lead cop on the investigation into avon barksdale, has pissed off his ex-wife. see, he's a drunk, she feels like he doesn't take care of his kids when he has them for the weekend, and she's threatening to take away his custody rights. he's in his apartment, shit faced, trying to put together some bedroom furniture for his kids, and it's not going well. cut to later in the episode, he's goes to her house to pick up the kids for the weekend, only she's not there, and neither are his sons. cut to the end of the episode, we see him sitting on a bed.. the camera pulls back, we see he's on the bottom bunk of a really nice bunk-bed set...the camera pans around and we see he's decorated the room with soccer posters, and dinosaur posters....man, it's wrenching. if you have the means, check this out......

oh man....

2005-04-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

i'm tempted to just go ahead and say that "sin city" will be my favorite movie of '05, but i suppose that's being a bit premature (and premature is NEVER a good thing)....but there's no way it won't be in the top 3. it's nice when you can walk out of a theatre and not only feel like you got your money's worth, but that your expectations (and mine were high)were not just met, but stomped on, bitch slapped, and in the case of "sin city", castrated. this movie just walked right off the pages of the frank miller graphic novels... i'm wondering if they just brought tattered copies of the books to the set rather actual scripts. and this is a movie where everyone is turning in killer, killer performances. for my money, clive owen steals the show.....he's got this great, menacing line as he holds a blade up to benicio del toro's face..."i'm shelley's new boyfriend, and i'm out of my mind"..classic.
and devon aoki as "miho"....wait, who the hell is devon aoki? call me a fan. she's superbad, flinging throwing stars, carving people up, and generally just intimidating people with her icy stare. the scene where blood splatters all over her face, and she doesn't even blink....brilliant. there's also a hilarious scene where she shoots an arrow through some guy's stomach, and he just stands there telling everyone to check out the arrow, that it went straight through him. this is great, great stuff. leaving the theatre, i had the same feeling i had after seeing both "kill bill" movies...wishing it didn't end, and thinking "how soon can i see this again".....just a fucking incredible movie, top to bottom.

sin city....

2005-04-01T09:55:00.000-05:00

man.....tonight's the night. i'm getting really excited. i think this will be robert rodriguez's return to form (i wasn't crazy about "once upon a time in mexico")... either way, this whole thing has rekindled my love for the comic book... i have all the frank miller "batman" books....i had them when i was a kid, and i'm glad they survived (except for a couple pages in my "complete frank miller batman" that got mutilated in the name of a fanzine that never got finished....that sucks....they never should have let me keep scissors in my room)...anyway, i'm a nerd, and i'll be getting back in the practice of being a nerd. between this and christopher nolan's "batman begins", there's a whole lot of gooey comic book lovin' at the movies. and then there's the "fantastic four"... i saw a still of michael chiklis as "the thing"....a bird poops on his shoulder....and in turn, poops on a lot of fragile hearts.

project greenlight

2005-03-28T14:47:00.000-05:00

i'd never seen this until yesterday, but i gotta say, this seems like a pretty damn watchable hour of tv. i try to stay as far away from reality tv as possible, but this is too far up my alley to ignore. i couldn't help but wonder whether or not they chose the director because they knew this guy was unstable, and would therefore make for some intersting viewing. whatever their motive, i'm going to be there when this guy hits the wall. he's like a real life phillip seymour hoffman character, all sweaty, mumbly and akward. and the guy clearly has no respect for the process of making a movie. it seems like his gratitude for winning the contest lasted about as long as his acceptance "speech"... after that, we find him loafing around, and being stand-offish with the casting director because he's adamant about casting his friends and family in the movie. it's also got that trainwreck element to it, with all the dissenting voices about the script choice. (although honestly, i'm not sure how i'd feel if wes craven were knocking my script around....he's gleefully attached his name to some vile piles of dung as of late). either way, for tuesday at 8:00, getting to see the film industry in all its sleazy glory is certainly worth my time. also, affleck.

the ring 2

2005-03-21T11:38:00.000-05:00

well, it didn't suck. i guess if you were a big fan of the original, i'd say go and see it. otherwise, you might want to hold off. the main problem is it's just not all that scary. i feel like i have "the grudge" to blame for this....after enduring that nightmare, "the ring 2" was about as scary as "the care bears movie". and some of the stuff they try to pull off here just fails......like when the CG deers attack rachel and aiden's car....it's hilariously strange. admittedly, the film retains some of the creepy imagery of the original....but that's also kind of a problem. it starts to feel like they've only got two tricks up their sleeve, and they keep pulling them out. anyway, on a side note, i'm pretty sure i was in the same theatre as local movie-jerk tim miller (during the scene with sissy spacek, two kids in front of us remarked how much she looked like michael jackson... miller referenced that in his review...so either she really does look like the king of pop, or i was just a few rows behind him). over the last few years, this man has lost what little dignity he had to begin with. i think i really started having a problem with this guy when he knocked around all three "lord of the rings" movies. but he's so lazy with his reviews. it's not uncommon to read one of his reviews, and hear things like "some creepy kid", or in the case of "the ring 2", "for some reason" this or that...i mean, is he really having that hard of a time keeping up with the plot in a movie like this, or is he falling asleep in his seat? oh, he's also really hung up on the "bad hair day" that sumara, "that creepy kid" is having throughout the film. i know how obsessive i sound, getting worked up over a local movie critic, but he just gets it wrong time and time again. plus, he's getting paid to write about movies, while i have to do it all sneaky-like when i'm at work. anyway, a big FU to tim miller.

this & that

2005-03-08T16:59:00.000-05:00

we saw "million dollar baby" the other day. i had been feeling guilty about not having seen that, and "sideways", plus i'd been catching bits of "mystic river" on TV (it seems to get better, especially kevin bacon, god bless him), and thought i should get out and see mr. eastwood's latest. and while i'm not sold on it being best picture material (i think after ROTK, the bar is too fucking high to hurdle), and if forced to choose, i'd probably pick "the aviator", it does not disappoint. like "mystic river", "million dollar baby" has some dark, dark places to take you. i guess i just felt like the movie lacked some much needed punch (ok... pun intended). it's devastating in places, and maybe that's the problem. it's as if the last quarter of the film is so dark and upsetting, i just sort of shut down, blocked it out. i'm also not a hilary swank fan in the first place (even though her turn in the 1992 "buffy the vampire slayer" movie is nothing short of inspired). but it was cool to see clint eastwood and morgan freeman in another movie ("unforgiven".... fucking brilliant), and on the whole, it's worth your time......on a somewhat related note ("mystic river", directed by eastwood, based on the book by dennis lehane).... i read "shutter island" by dennis lehane. i'm completely sold on this guy. it's a quick read, and it's certainly predictable in places....but the book managed to creep me out, and i read it on my lunch breaks...it just turns out to be a really fucked up story about a mental institution (i think anyone who stood in the shadow of the northampton state hospital and felt a chill down their spine will really be affected by the atmosphere of this book)... and even if you can see the "twist" coming, it's a great, great book.... so great that i'm about 25 pages into lehane's " a drink before the war".... so far it plays out like a modern, buddy-cop version of a chandler novel, and that ain't a bad thing. there's also plenty for elmore leonard fans to love, but lehane comes off a little more sincere with his characters (and i'm a big elmore leonard fan, so it's no knock). i'm also plowing my way through "the hitchiker's guide to the galaxy"... there's a good rhythm to that stuff, but i'm finding if i don't pick it up for a day or two, i'm lost when i come back to it. but i'm one of those nerds that has to read the book before the movie, so i'll keep on keepin' on.

how i learned to stop worrying, and become HBO's bitch

2005-03-02T09:36:00.000-05:00

we just got through all 12 episodes of "deadwood" in around 2 weeks. it's my second time watching the first season, and i gotta say, it's fantastic. ian mcshane as al swearengen is just plain brilliant. every second that guy is on the screen, you just can't look away. the fact that the most genuine, kind-hearted thing the man does in 12 hours of television is smother a priest with a crippling illness.....it's remarkable. and you feel it too. he's self serving, maniacal, and sometimes just plain mean. and somehow, when he covers that preacher's face with a rag until he stops squirming, it's kind of touching. we're also halfway throught the first season of "six feet under" (god bless the hbo shows on dvd, and especially the people who bought them for my birthday or christmas). i haven't the time now to get into the list of reasons i'm in love with that show. but a big part of it is ruth fisher. that's one of the weirdest, most wonderful characters ever committed to film. really. great, great stuff. add those to "the sopranos", "band of brothers", "curb your enthusiasm", and you'll see why we decided to fork over a little extra cash for hbo. (next up: "carnivale", and "the wire")

still unpacking...

2005-02-24T17:02:00.000-05:00

i wish i could post here more often, but we have yet to find a computer desk, and currently the laptop is shoved in a corner on an end table. the end result of this positioning is that if i'm here for more than a couple minutes at a time, hunched over and sort of leaning in at the same time, the backs of my legs and my shoulders start going numb. but i'll get back to it once everything is all unpacked, put away, thrown out and sold. oh, and bring on the snow.

the end of....an era?

2005-02-18T21:22:00.000-05:00

it's my last night in my house. no nostalgia tonight, only cardboard boxes and dust. i'll keep this short, because i've got a crap load of stuff to do tonight....i guess i could sum this up with a send off straight from the mouth of the immortal homer j. simpson......"so long stink-town..."

point pleasant

2005-02-18T09:39:00.000-05:00

i can't really pretend to be unbiased when it comes to this show, given the fact that it was co-created by marti noxon, of "buffy the vampire slayer" fame (a show with which i'm completely obsessed). but they seem to have something good going here, and i can only hope they don't get cancelled just when they're hitting their stride. admittedly, it's poorly acted in some of the smaller roles. but the leads are great. christina, the "daughter of darkness" (that's right...her daddy is the devil himself....at least i think so), comes off sweet and innocent in one scene... in the next she's shredding the skin of a dog with her mind, and throwing icy stares the likes of which i've never seen. and you have to enjoy grant show as boyd, because he's clearly having more fun in this role than anyone on tv right now. anyhow, i'll keep supporting this.... check it out if you get a chance....there won't be a new episode for three weeks, but you can see the series premiere encore in two (so you can "see how it all started")....and if you have no interest in the show whatsoever, do yourself a favor and at least watch the first ten minutes of an episode to hear the creepy theme music...that's some vintage danny elfman.

have "manic compression", will travel

2005-02-14T10:30:00.000-05:00

we went to boston this past wednesday, to that mecca of rock, the paradise, to see asobi seksu. i think we were among the first five people at the show, so with nothing to do other than wait around, i began telling kristin about some of the better shows i'd seen at the paradise....kristin hersh, my first superchunk show, and that legendary, late 90's afghan whigs show....and no sooner were the words "greg dulli writes some really creepy lyrics" out of my mouth, and the sound guy starts playing "debonair". very cool. a couple songs later, he breaks out "landmine spring" by quicksand, and it became apparent that the soundguy was "the man". anyhow, the first band on was emergency music, and i'll say i wasn't impressed, and leave it at that (this is a family website). but asobi seksu were great, if not the loudest band i've seen in a long time. the bassist came off a little smarmy...maybe it was the foot-pedal activated strobe light (no, really), or just the smug look of contempt he wore on his face, but he just had that "too cool for school" thing going on, and it kind of jumped out at me. but they sounded really great, and i'm curious to see where they'll end up in the future...hopefully they won't be opening shows at the paradise for much longer (the good north and the information were playing, but i didn't stick around for either). anyway, it was a good week for rock. the dresden dolls, asobi seksu, and i learned how to play some songs by the police. you'll be proud, ghost of gordon sumner.

file this one under...

2005-02-10T13:28:00.000-05:00

the truth is stranger than fiction category. this is one of those stories that just sounds like bullshit, no matter how many times i tell people it's the truth. but one of my two best friends from my younger days (i haven't spoken to this kid in over 15 years), has advanced through the first two rounds of this year's "american idol". weird, huh? he was always known for his singing ability, just as i was known as a force to be reckoned with when it came to nintendo (so we've both followed through with our dreams....must have been something in the water). anyway, his name is sean mcneil, and he's a big, bald guy with a goatee. so if you happen to "stumble" across "american idol" while searching for "american chopper", root for the guy.

you can't get there from here...

2005-02-06T15:55:00.000-05:00

we saw the dresden dolls at lupo's last night....so when did that club undergo the major overhaul? it's completely unrecognizable.....it's now known as "diesel", and all rock shows must end before 10:30, when they usher in the fine folks who dance the night away in cages... no, really, there are cages. anyhow, regina spektor opened up, and she was great. her first song, she played with her left hand on the keyboard, while her right was busy pounding a wooden chair with a drumstick...hard. really hard. i've been playing the drums since i was 13, and i can honestly say, i'm unfamiliar with the rhythms this girl was playing. wacky, wacky shit. but a good time, and someone i'd be interested in hearing some more of in the future. and the dresden dolls, they tore the fucking roof off that place. they just came out swinging, and it was great. and if anyone had any doubt about just how much metal the drummer grew up on, he's added a double bass drum pedal to his set, and the results are fantastic. also, he was confessing to the crowd how much he loved metallica as a kid (and especially the cock-rock posings of kirk hammett during his solos), and he also informed the crowd that they plan on covering "fade to black"..all amanda would say on the subject was that it had "been discussed"... "coin operated boy" was the standout, and not just because it's their current single, and therefore the reason a lot people were in that room. they just fucked with it so much, you couldn't help but smile. the part where everything's slowing down ("i.... want....a..."), one of those breaks had to be 20 or 30 seconds, and they're managing to hit those accents without so much as a glance in the opposite direction. good stuff. and brian....that was far and away the best live drumming i've seen this side of a jawbox show. anyway, we made it in and out of providence, and only got lost once. i try to justify the fact that i've been to lupo's at least 10 times in my life, and still don't know how to get there...all i can say is, providence is bad. very, very bad.

the latest in a long line of jerks

2005-02-04T14:50:00.000-05:00

the people who, after completing a lengthy transaction in the drive through lane of the bank, refuse to pull forward until all their money is put away properly, and all receipts are filed neatly.

wardrobe malfunctions

2005-02-04T10:01:00.000-05:00

could everyone just shut the fuck up about this now?

because everyone loves a list

2005-02-02T13:28:00.000-05:00

here, in no real particular order, are 10 movies that in one way or another, scared the life out of me, or disturbed me in some unshakable fashion...
1. carnival of souls
2. pet semetary
3. fire in the sky
4. eraserhead
5. black christmas
6. open water
7. the grudge
8. the blair witch project
9. requiem for a dream
10. el topo (it took me two weeks just to get through this one...thanks bill.)

i think it's modern english... no, no, no..it's naked eyes

2005-02-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

so it's official. i'm in an 80's cover band. i think once upon a time, i swore i'd never be in a cover band. so am i selling out? maybe. do i care? no, not really. i haven't been in an active band in quite a few years, so i think the idea of "selling out" is a bit silly. maybe i'm just being defensive. but ultimately, if i get to play some songs by the clash, the cure, the cars, and some other great bands that start with "c", and maybe make enough money to pay the cable bill, then i say bring on the beer mamas. so hopefully i'll see some of you out in the bars of cape cod. i'll be the guy playing the drums way too loud while you try to eat your spicy tuna roll.

alright, ok.

2005-01-25T16:03:00.000-05:00

someone (anonymous??.. we're all friends here) recently called me out on the fact that i suck, and i'm lucky if i get to update this here blog once a week. well, sorry. anyway, here's some updates....

... i saw "house of flying daggers".. it's fantastic. if you're looking for a tight narrative and some slick dialogue, stay home. if you want to see some beautiful photography and kick-ass fight scenes, go see it.

..."in good company"... i'm officially a topher grace fan. "that 70's show" isn't exactly setting the world on fire with writing, but it's funny enough to watch when it's on. and in this movie, he just comes off as a likable guy. i've read the tom hanks comarisons (why is the press always looking for the next tom hanks?.. .is there something wrong with the current tom hanks?), and they're not unfounded. i guess we'll just have to wait and see where he goes from here. but it's good stuff. and scarlett johansson...it's just getting silly how gorgeous that girl is. though i'm wary of her decision to star in a michael bay movie about clones...i mean, i'll still go... but michael bay?

...it seems like every magazine i've opened up in the past month has an article about conor oberst, or mos def's acting career, or both. now mos def, i can tolerate. he's not my favorite, not by a long shot. but i like the black star album. i think my aversion to his acting career is similar to how people feel about certain words in the english language (i've known people who hate the words "slough", and "moist"... i myself cringe every time i hear the words "winningest" and "smoothie")... there's no real reason, it just doesn't sit right with me. and conor oberst. i don't know a whole ton of bright eyes material, but somehow everything that kid says makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. i mean, i respect the upstart nature of his career... putting out records, playing for no money. maybe it's just that picture i saw of him on stage with the boss and michael stipe. or maybe it's the fact that he got to smooch winona ryder. ok, fine... i'm just jealous, and i'll probably have a bright eyes album in a few weeks.

i remember this being more fun...

2005-01-25T15:34:00.000-05:00

snow. and lots of it. the upside of things is that i got a four day weekend out of it. the downside is the throbbing. which is pretty much everywhere. when i was, oh let's say 7, a snow day was like striking oil. breaking out the sleds, the snowpants(snowpants!!), and a cup full of fluff with a splash of hot chocolate. but this, this was no day off. we shoveled for almost five hours yesterday, and an hour and a half this morning (thanks mr. plow, we may never get mail again). that's almost thirteen hours of shoveling by my math (which is admittedly spotty). anyway, we're done, at least until tomorrow, when we might get another 8 inches. but god bless new england, because honestly, where else would i go?

asobi seksu

2005-01-18T17:25:00.000-05:00

so i finally got the asobi seksu album in the mail the other day, and it was worth the wait. it's 11 songs, 8 of which are sung by yuki (forgive me if that's spelled wrong), and they're captivating. she's got a really cool, wavering, frail sounding voice. some of the songs are sung in japanese, some in english, but either way, they're fantastic. highlights for me include the 2 singles, "i'm happy but you don't like me" (catchy to the point where you might have trouble getting it out of your head enough to fall asleep) and "walk on the moon". two other gems are "umi de no jisatsu", and "stay", the slow, moody song. they're clearly fans of "loveless"...and there are times, listening to the sticky sweet boy/girl harmonies, you'd swear it was the early 90's. and oh, the other 3 tracks, sung by...um, the guy....they sound a little plain by comparison. sorry dude, but maybe you could have saved it for the solo album. this is good, catchy stuff. i'd say get on over to insound, and pick this one up. my money's on this band blowing up in a hurry. you want to be able to say you knew them when...

i can't imagine what it's like, you with your basement life..

2005-01-13T19:45:00.000-05:00

the words "basement apartment" send chills down my spine. the mere thought of living in a place with those little sliding windows near the ceiling is enough to make me want to move home with my parents. but, we made a commitment to see as many places as we could, so as not to miss a potential "diamond in the rough". tonight i saw a place with no redeeming quality, whatsoever. a basement apartment with no kitchen (yet), full of baby toys and strollers, but get this... a jacuzzi tub. oh, what, you wanted to take a shower? too bad. baths from now on. the woman who was showing the place akwardly stumbled through a speech about how "they" hadn't put the shower in yet, and with the low ceiling, one might have to sit down to take a shower. i kid you not. and the tub was also dangerously tall. i think i pulled a groin muscle just thinking about climbling out of that bastard. arrrggghh! and this isn't the first place we've seen where showering as we know it wouldn't be possible. the shower head in another place was mounted roughly at throat level, meaning i could either crouch down, or if i angled the shower head properly, spray water directly into my face. am i asking too much? i really hadn't anticipated that the trade off for cheaper rent might be sit-down showers. i mean, fuck. maybe if i had spent more time going to college, and less time dropping out of college....

the song of the day is "i'm happy but you don't like me" by asobi seksu. this band has become my new obsession....i'm subsisting on a few downloads, but i'm expecting the album in the mail soon, so more on these guys at a later date.

the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked

2005-01-10T18:39:00.000-05:00

go to vorpalfilm for all the lists of good movies, shows, and albums of 2004. but for my votes for the most craptastic crap of the year... look no further.

the craptastic movie of the year...."sky captain and the world of tomorrow". not even angelina jolie, equipped with a sweet jet pack and eye patch could save this pile of dung.

the craptastic band of the year (i'm thinking of renaming this "the john mayer award", or possibly, "the band that just won't fucking go away" award)... maroon 5...i try not to be a music jerk, and i really don't think i am at this point, but really.... i mean....maroon 5?

the craptastic tv show of the year...."father of the pride"...it wasn't funny, the animation was ugly, and i really hope somebody finds something good for john goodman to do, because he's not getting any healthier.

also, in keeping with the trend of naming tv shows in such literal, expository fashion ("las vegas", "hawaii", and my personal favorite, "medical investigation"), i'm renaming some of my favorites. "scrubs" will be "the funny doctor who daydreams", the simpsons will be "yellow cartoon people", rescue me will be "firefighters", or possibly "fireman", and deadwood will be "that western show".

if you're not busy, sometime next month...

2005-01-10T18:01:00.000-05:00

moving time. ahh.... the smell of cardboard boxes. confronting such problems as "can i part with all these old magazines and greeting cards?", and "do you think the landlord will care if we take this?". i can't say i'm looking forward to moving in the winter, but a problem with mold in the basement/bathroom, along with the problem of money in our wallets has led to this. and now we must downsize. and anyone who knows me knows that i have a ton of shit. and now, going from a house with a basement, garage, two bedrooms, and a big living room in which to store that shit, to the inevitable one bedroom apartment, has got me a little stressed out. i mean, am i supposed to just throw out the stay-puft marsmallow man action figure i got that time at that comic book convention at a VFW? what about my collection of movie posters i got for free at the video store? and there's no way i'm getting rid of my kermit the frog tambourine. that was a gift. before the advent of dvd, i used to tape every epiosde of the x-files, and i'd get the name of the episode from the newspaper, then i'd carefully label the tape, and on and on until a tape was full. and somehow, i've still got all these tapes in boxes. nobody wants them, i'm sure, and really, neither do i. but they haven't found their way to the trash yet. but i'm getting better. i've stopped saving movie ticket stubs (though i still have the box full of old ones). and if anyone needs a copy of "the man who wasn't there" on dvd, i think we've got two. anyhow, if anybody is looking for some good wintery excersise, there's no shortage of books and couches to carry. i'll buy doughnuts.

medicine

2005-01-05T22:22:00.000-05:00

i hope this is as close as i come to being sick all winter. ever since the weekend, i've had this miserable, golfball sized lump in my throat. mmmm....lumpy. so i sucked it up and went to see my doctor today. the diagnosis..."it looks pretty red in there"...no joke. so i walked away with some free samples of allegra (my doctor is the king of the free sample... what's ailing you?... broken finger? got the clap?....oh boy, has he got some samples for you), and a prescription for something i won't bother trying to spell here. so go medicine!!

so this is the new year

2005-01-05T00:11:00.000-05:00

and this is my new blog. shiny. i had a home on another site, but it just wasn't working out. i haven't told the other site i'm leaving, and they might be upset if they knew i was here. so you didn't see me. anyway, i'll try like hell to write as much as possible. but on those nights, and you know the ones i mean, those nights when you order pizza and watch the sopranos...i can't promise i'll write on those nights. unless it was especially good pizza. anyway, if you stumbled upon this page, or felt somewhat obligated to check it out based on some sort of personal relationship with me, i'll try to make it readable. have a happy tuesday. also, no "scrubs" tonight, or next week. bad NBC, bad. go to your bed!