review: charlie wilson's war

me alert

"......Maine hasn't had anything like a hurricane since Bob was downgraded as it moved into the state in 1991 after causing problems in southern New England.

While residents took precautions, many weren't impressed by Kyle."

We'll see who's laughing after I cripple the syrup industry.

recovery days

Dear Blog, did you know that I am now a tropical storm? It's true.

After over 2 weeks of non-stop work (not even free weekends!) I got so stressed I formed a weather system.

After turning down 4 more (!) jobs this week, Boy and I are regrouping. Me, working on personal projects, and he doing yardwork, which strangely is his relaxation method. Bless.

After date night last night, we returned some dvd's we'd rented for work, and picked up Kill Bill V1 on blu-ray, which was such a gorgeous transfer that when it was over and we switched to the season premiere of Ugly Betty in HD, it looked soft and unfocused.

Poor Ugly Betty, after a sophomore slump I gave you chance, and now you've lost me for good. Hope you enjoy NYC.

I knew Heroes wasn't going to be very good, thanks to a friend on staff there, but I wasn't prepared for how off course the show has become. It pains me to think of the talent on that staff and how the ship is going the wrong way.

Next week sees the premiere of CSI, which I'm excited for, even though I'm not thrilled about Laurence Fishburne replacing William Peterson.

Now I must return to work (my personal work), because its incompletion has been eating away at my very soul.

review: 9 to 5, the musical

iked, part 2

As I continue to be slammed with more work than one can fathom, I'll take a minute chill out thanks to these photos my Dad sent. No damage to them or their house, but people around them weren't so lucky.





Some truly amazing photos are also at Boston.com

iked

Heard from most of my family by this morning. Everyone is okay (and without power), and my parents have running water again. My cousin has been working in Virginia for the past few months, but its assumed his Uptown Houston apartment is probably in shambles.
found on flickr

is it wrong of me...

...to be secretly happy that Sarah McLachlan is divorcing her husband of 11 years? I mean, its horrible, but think of all the great music that's about to get made...

autumn

Out of nowhere, leaves began falling off our plum tree today, and its so "chilly" that I had to go put on jeans.

Someone has a fire going, and the smell is intoxicating. I love the cooler months.

dolly would

Because Cully's comment below prompted it, an Instant Message Excerpt:

"So Boy is on the phone with our friend A, who unbeknownst to me has been working on 9 to 5.  Today was the first run through, and dolly has been there for the past few days helping. So they start the show, with the iconic piano bit and the stage manager yells, "HOLD! WE GOTTA HOLD!" So they hold for a bit with the piano still playing, and dolly yells, "NO!!" and runs on stage, and tells the orchestra to "hit it." She belts out all of "9 to 5" to an almost empty theatre and the whole cast comes out to watch. She finishes, and then they ask her to sing something else, and she says "No, this isn't my time to be on stage,"  and the orchestra just starts playing an impromptu version of "I Will Always Love You" and she sings that, too. And everyone cries. The end."

purgatory, or a fall preview

Ah, August/September at the movie theatres. Purgatory. The time when nothing good comes out, and some so-so films shine like gold. Due to our travels we haven't seen Hamlet 2, House Bunny, or Death Race yet, which is probably good since for the next few weeks there's not much to see.

When I went to see Hellboy 2 weeks after the premiere, the trailer roster before it was painful. It looked like direct to video fare and fake trailers that you see in Hollywood-based movies...but they were real. And they have real people in them. All around town there are billboards trying in vain to sell me Bangkok Dangerous, Traitor, and Lakeview Terrace.

I think Nicholas Cage, Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson all lost a bet.

There is hope on the horizon tho (even if Harry Potter has apperated to summer). Surprisingly, the film I'm most looking forward to is Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. I'm not a Michael Cera groupy, but I could really use a Can't Hardly Wait-ish comedy that's actually funny (two of my friends have already seen and enjoyed it greatly).

Other Movies of Interest:

Bolt - Even tho Lilo & Stitch creator/director Chris Sanders was ousted from Disney's new CGI  venture, I still want to see it. The trailer is funny, and compared to Chicken Little, this looks like The Incredibles.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - More than Brad Pitt or David Fincher, I'm excited to see an F. Scott Fitzgerald movie. I haven't read the story in so long, I'm hopeful for a somewhat original movie experience.

Burn After Reading - The only bright spot in September, I want to see this for Frances McDormand's reaction shots alone.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno - Hopefully the right mix of dirty/feel good.

Milk - I really had little interest until I saw the trailer. Still, I'm leary of obvious downer's right now. I keep having to dodge United 93 on TNT.

kitchen confidential

I'm working from the kitchen table today. Why? Because my kitchen annoys me, and I figure if I have to sit in it I'll be more inspired to get work done so I can pay for a remodel.

The kitchen really isn't all that awful, especially for a house built in the 1920's, but as a whole its a mixed bag. It was fully rennovated at least 10 years ago, back when our wood floors were a more golden oak or pine, and not the dark wood they are now. The cabinetry and tile work just don't fit with the rest of the house, and after cleaning up from last night's pasta dinner the tile countertops tested my very last nerve. Some are dinged, some are chipped, and the grout will never ever be clean again.

There's also the organizational problem. While we love our stove, its placement isn't ideal for more than one person to be standing infront of it. For all intents and purposes, the oven and stove may as well be in an apartment.

Also, what I wouldn't give for a pantry.

So yeah, I know I'm whining about my kitchen in my house and there are other things to complain about, that's my vent for the day.

pilot season: fringe/90210

deep storm, by lincoln child

Originally purchased to be a beach read, this became a rain read thanks to Fay.

Borrowing heavily from The Abyss, The Andromeda Strain and Sphere, Child takes all these good ingredients and makes something new. It was (for Boy and I) a quick read, even at 432 pages. Some surprises are predictable, while others cleverly turn the plot onto a different course. You will, at times, roll your eyes, but a lot can be forgiven when it comes to mass market paperback techno-thrillers that want to be a little grander that reality would probably let them.

If you're one of those people who measures a book's success by the desire to read more works by the author, then be aware that Riptide is on my desk, and I'm considering getting Still Life of Crows.

Both of those books were co-written with Douglas Preston. The first book of theirs I read was The Cabinet of Curiosities over 5 years ago, which I greatly enjoyed. The duo also wrote Relic, which we all know was a bleh film, but I haven't read the book. In regards to the film their site's FAQ says, "We really had no involvement in the project at all, and our input wasn't solicited. Contractually, we can't say anything negative about it."

back in slow motion

Oh, blog, let me get my head on straight. Maybe I'll just give you the condensed version, since reading of familial matters can be tedious.

The Wedding
My sister's wedding was wonderful and went off without a hitch. In pictures it will look perfect, but you will not see the intense heat and humidity, nor will you see the layers upon layers of clothing groomsmen had to endure. My entire family was there (it's a large family, and very weird to see both sides in one room - out of logistics, not familial politics), as well as neighbors and family friends we'd grown up with. A very "This is Your Life" experience that felt strangely impersonal since I was running around doing a bunch of stuff like shaking hands, giving personal updates, and ushering folks around. A whirlwind affair where Boy got to meet my entire family, my sister got to join a new family, and my mother got to see her year of planning fulfilled.


Virginia Beach
Seeking relaxation, Boy left his laptop in LA(!), and we flew to VAB to be with his aunt, his dad, and stepmom. A night or so before we arrived Aunt Annette tripped over a grandchild's playing in the middle of the night and cracked her upper in half. Not "in the middle half" but "diagonal" in half. Ouch. Did you know that don't put real casts on anymore? She looked like the beginning stages of C-3PO. Sadly, the remnants of Hurrican Fay kept us mostly in doors for the first part of the week, parting slightly so we could go on a long hike in the woods, drink beer at dinner and pass out in the parent's camper. Did I mention Dad and Stepmom have a camper and have spent 2 months down by the Bay? They do.


The District of Columbia
Since we were only three hours away, and in town for such a long trip, we took a weekend trip up to DC to see my boys (John, Jamie, Chris, Glenn, and Brian). Boy, who is an airplane nut (nay, fanatic) finally got to go to the Air & Space Museum, and we checked out the Jim Henson retrospective at the Ripley Center. It was more art/video than actual puppets, but great (even if the gift shop was geared towards the Sesame Street crowd).


Baltimore
On saturday we took the train up to visit Brian, a new northern resident. Strangely, Friend Ben was also in town visiting from San Francisco, as was Boy's friend Molly who lives in nearby PA. With daylight fading we took a trip to Charm City Cakes, home of Ace of Cakes. We didn't go in, nor did we ask to, even though I want to put Mary Alice in my pocket. We then ate at the inner harbor, seated outside, when the Fay remnants finally unleashed a massive thunderstorm. You miss thunderstorms in LA, and if you can't get it in Texas, then the east coast is just as good. Brian wanted to do a pub crawl, which I want go into too much detail here, suffice to say we were getting sleepy, the company was great, and the bars were from a different era.


DC Part 2
With a day left in DC, we went to visit Boy's old friend Mo, who lives near the Zoo. Let me preface this by saying aside from the big travel holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Comicon), Boy and I don't think in terms of Holidays. When we planned this trip we had no idea it was falling on Labor Day. We had no clue that the next day all of New England was going back to school. And thus, to our great misfortune we took on the National Zoo. Seeing all the kids slamming and screaming on windows, for the first time, I felt really awful at the Zoo. You get upset that they're trapped in there, and then you get even more upset that they can't be released because most of them have nowhere to go. A quick rooftop BBQ later, and Boy was at John and Jamie reading vintage Dean Koontz and I was at Taint, a monthly alternative dance night I visited in my "youth" (4 years ago). A brunch, a three hour drive, and we were back in...


Virginia Beach Part 2
With Fay gone and the sun shining, I took the day off while Boy went to the beach with the 'rents. Annette is a great cook, so we did some baking, some eating, and a smidge of drinking, so the next day I was well rested for a beach/kayak double header before heading to the airport for our (long) trip home.

Los Angeles
We are home. The dogs were ecstatic, if moderately well behaved for housesitter Angela. Well, ok, Murphy and Tucker were great, but Ginger can jump the backyard fence and clear the kitchen window over the sink. Sleep. Laundry. Back to work.

a vacation from my vacation

2 weeks is a loooong time to be away from home.
Glad we went. Glad we're back.