It's Monday night on Memorial Day. I've been at the hospital since 6:45 this morning. ICU call today, tonight, and through the morning. It's been a while since I blogged.
Thinks are relatively peaceful in "the unit" for now, but that could change of course. The lives of about 8 people requiring intensive care are in my hands tonight. That's kind of a surreal thought, but not all together disconcerting. As an intern I would have felt different. But now, nearly graduated, I guess its just that I've been here before, and have a certain comfort level with really sick people. That's reassuring in my work, I guess.
One of the people in the ICU but not in my charge is a sad 20 year old kid who was in a highway accident. He was a passenger in the back seat, not wearing his seat belt, and was thrown from the car and fractured his spine. His fracture is high( about C6/C7 for those with a knowledge of anatomy). The incident has left him a quadriplegic. 20 years old. Very, very sad. (He's not in my charge because he's on the neurosurgery team).
Other News
I spent 4 days of last week doing some actual military training. It seems that "they" (they being an unknown set of shady military higher ups, in my best estimation) make most of the graduating residents go through the 4 day course that they give to the military's combat medics. The first 2 days of the course were mostly in the classroom. Lots of powerpoint, but also several videos, mostly military footage of injuries and combat care regarding the ongoing war in Iraq. There was some pretty sketchy stuff. Its kind of funny to me how I probably shouldn't be talking about it here. Let's just say the footage I watched doesn't make it to CNN. I think the military and the government prefer it that way.
The latter 2 days of the course (particularly the last day) were spent "in the field". The third day featured running simulated combat medic training exercises (as a point of reference - a combat medic is not a doctor; they are an enlisted soldier with EMT or LPN training, capable mainly of rudimentary medical care and stabilization measures....under fire. They are those guys that come running in a firefight when other guys with guns start screaming "MEDIC!"). These drills were done in the "sim center" which is kind of a cool set up with everybody practicing medical care on expensive fully automated mannequins which are run by a computer and can bleed, have a pulse, speak, and all sorts of other cool stuff. After putting us in teams of 4, several "real army people" started putting us through scenarios which comprised of the squad encountering a casualty (mannequin), often under fire (provided by speakers and other theatrics). Some times we had to work in the dark - other times there were strobe lights. (Either to simulate tracer fire and explosions during a night raid OR to simulate the specific niche of treating casualties in a techno dance club - I'm not sure which).
On the afternoon of the 3rd day we practiced real procedures on anesthesized animals - and the less I mention about that the better lest I get in trouble. I will say that the army handled the lab with respect and care for the animals - so while the acts were sometimes difficult, the training was invaluable and I wasn't too against it. (Plus I think I would have to be a full fledged vegetarian before I could get on any sort of serious animal rights soap box, so there).
On the fourth day, we spent the entire day in the field running a simulated live exercise from battle to battalion aid station (or the echelons of military battlefield care) regarding the treatment and evacuation of war casualties. It was kind of nutty, but then again so is all the real "military training" I've undergone to this point. Suffice to say it involved a lot of me running around the brush in full camouflage with lots of theatrics and mannequined casualties along side of real animal casualties, all of which had to be treated and evacuated according to proper military procedure. At one point I was made "medic squad leader" (we all sort of rotated) which involved me sort of running the evacuation. This became entertaining because the course instructor made it his job to try and exasperate the various squad leaders by berating them constantly, as if channeling the drill sergeant from "Full Metal Jacket". So for several minutes I had this whole evacuation to coordinate while some ex-medic guy screamed in my face trying to distract me and add to the overall "feeling of real combat". He was firing off countless acronyms and military jargon which I found amusing more than anything else. After the exercise, he said I did well in keeping my cool and that I "deal with my stress" by laughing. I just shook my head. Honestly, I think I "deal with things that I find funny" by laughing. If and when I ever go into a real battle (now THAT thought is fucking surreal, and all too possible, sadly), I dare say I would not be as amused...
Since the course, which ended last Wednesday, I've been back at this ICU thing, which is getting old. I'm tired of being a resident, tired of being on call like this. Its time to move on. And that presents a whole other set of issues, because moving to Europe via the army is not a simple nor administratively streamlined process. The amount of forms, admin, and overall bullshit required borders on the ridiculous. You see, the REAL army is run by government service workers, which are nothing more than packs of lazy, underqualified, unmotivated, and unfirable civilians who make an already boggy process into an excrutiating, hair pulling ordeal. Imagine people from a 1985 DMV running your life. And that's what I go through on a weekly basis to ensure a smooth transition from this continent to the next.
And though I'm excited to be moving onward and upward, I'm definitely starting to get pangs of anxiety and nostalgia as the Pacific Northwest clock ticks persistently down. Its tough to pick up and start somewhere else, even though it can ultimately be rewarding. I've decided that I'm going to miss Seattle. I like my city apartment and I like the scene up here. Its been a crazy 3 years of my life. I shall have more to say on that in upcoming posts, I should think.
Moustache May
I can't believe I haven't mentioned this earlier, but I've spent the entire last month with a moustache. Not a goatee. A moustache. The Army won't allow much facial hair, but it will allow a simple moustache, as long as the ends don't go beyond the corners of your mouth. And as a sort of a goofy misguided pact, all of the senior Internal Medicine residents (to include myself) decided to grow a dirty moustache and wear it (reluctantly vs. proudly) for the month of May. Of course we proudly deemed this "Moustache May." The results have been interesting, and of course I'll post pics up in a future post.
All I can say is that moustaches are nasty. Especially the narrow military-legal ones that we are suffering through. What becomes sort of a comical bonding experience at work inevitably mutates into a badge of shame out in the real world. At work, it's fun to watch everyone's filthy growth come in (and to a man they all look terrible - though there is a range within even that terribleness, I must say). Out in Seattle, at a restaurant or the like, its no fun to watch a waiter's eyes go from my eyes to my lips, as he contemplates the flagrant atrocity that I sport. My eye contact with strangers has been at an all time low. Parents keep their children on the other side as we cross, not wanting to let little Suzie come anywhere near "that clearly perverted man". Its no fun feeling that you look like a rapist or child molester, and its been very tough at times to keep going with the 'stache. But its fun to come to work and see everyone else looking as ridiculous as I do. And thank heavens June 1st is just around the corner, signaling the heralded end of Moustache May. And believe you me, my razor is ready.
Sith, Sleeplessness, and the Spaghetti Factory
As advertised, I went and saw Star Wars last Wednesday midnight (surrounded by all manner of costumed freaks and selfless nerds - which only added to the experience). I put some rambling, post-call thoughts about the movie up on the old WCD site. Now, more rested, I'm still tossing the film around in my head, trying to see where my take on it will eventually settle out. I'm not in the mood to elaborate on it too much more right now, however. To sum up my current opinion I would say that I enjoyed the film, certainly classify it as the best of the prequels, was pleased to see at least some return to space opera form, only winced outwardly two or three times, am truly disappointed in only two scenes (of consequence), and in general feel satisfied with the result.
I do keep thinking about the movie, and I am eager to see it again. My initial viewing was dampened by fatigue (I'm doing a call-intensive ICU month), which I honestly feel prevented me from reaching the highest level of glee in taking it in (although lower expectations courtesy of the other prequels may have had a hand in that as well). It will also be nice to relax a little more on the second viewing, knowing that it doesn't completely suck, which was of course my biggest fear on opening night. More to follow.
My last few days have gone like this:
12:01 am Wed. night/Thurs. morn - saw Star Wars
3:30 am Thurs. morn - went to bed
5:45 am Thurs. morn - got up and went to work an ICU call
8:30 pm Thurs. night - got a 20 minute nap in prior to being paged again
After that I did some work on call, trying to lie down but failing (curse the pager) until about 1 am
1 am Friday morn. - went to sleep for 3 and a half hours straight! (an ICU call record, and badly needed that night)
4:30 am Friday morn - woke up from pager, began the new work day
13:00 Friday afternoon - departed work, ran a few errands, and headed home (its debatable whether I should have been driving...)
15:45 Friday afternoon - went to sleep, ah sweet wonderful sleep; prior to lying down, I had gotten exactly 6 or so hours in a 2 night span. Yuck.
The rest of this weekend has been mellow thus far. I was off today (Saturday). I slept in, then arose and went to Rosebud. Got home and read a little. (Currently, I'm reading this essay collection by David Foster Wallace, entitled "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again". The title story is his day by day account of going on a luxury cruise - it is the funniest story I have read in a good long while - I highly, highly recommend it.)
This evening I met Gwen, her brother, brother's beau (Nate), and Gwen's mom at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Seattle. Let it be known that I am no fan of the "Factory" at all. Ironically, neither is Gwen, Charles (brother), or Nate. But, Gwen's mom, being the guest of honor, got to pick the restaurant. So she got her wish, and in the process had to put up with us nay sayers and our thinly veiled disdain at eating at the place, the consequence of which was rather amusing. Also funny was the fact that it was prom night for the local teens, which made for hilarious observations of the adolescent sub-culture. (And we all just about died when we learned that Nate (who is CLEARLY gay) went to like 5 proms, 2 as a junior, and 3 as a senior, all with different women from different high schools. He was some sort of prom master. I can totally see it - he was the archetype doesn't-realize-he's- gay-guy in his early days, but was very talkative and sensitive and friends with all the girls. Classic. Simply classic. We were all in stitches about this over dinner.)
Tomorrow I begin a 4 day military medic course based on trauma care "in the field". I'm not really looking forward to it, but it gets me out of 4 days of ICU work (meaning no call), which is a plus. And with that I'm off to bed.
I do keep thinking about the movie, and I am eager to see it again. My initial viewing was dampened by fatigue (I'm doing a call-intensive ICU month), which I honestly feel prevented me from reaching the highest level of glee in taking it in (although lower expectations courtesy of the other prequels may have had a hand in that as well). It will also be nice to relax a little more on the second viewing, knowing that it doesn't completely suck, which was of course my biggest fear on opening night. More to follow.
My last few days have gone like this:
12:01 am Wed. night/Thurs. morn - saw Star Wars
3:30 am Thurs. morn - went to bed
5:45 am Thurs. morn - got up and went to work an ICU call
8:30 pm Thurs. night - got a 20 minute nap in prior to being paged again
After that I did some work on call, trying to lie down but failing (curse the pager) until about 1 am
1 am Friday morn. - went to sleep for 3 and a half hours straight! (an ICU call record, and badly needed that night)
4:30 am Friday morn - woke up from pager, began the new work day
13:00 Friday afternoon - departed work, ran a few errands, and headed home (its debatable whether I should have been driving...)
15:45 Friday afternoon - went to sleep, ah sweet wonderful sleep; prior to lying down, I had gotten exactly 6 or so hours in a 2 night span. Yuck.
The rest of this weekend has been mellow thus far. I was off today (Saturday). I slept in, then arose and went to Rosebud. Got home and read a little. (Currently, I'm reading this essay collection by David Foster Wallace, entitled "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again". The title story is his day by day account of going on a luxury cruise - it is the funniest story I have read in a good long while - I highly, highly recommend it.)
This evening I met Gwen, her brother, brother's beau (Nate), and Gwen's mom at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Seattle. Let it be known that I am no fan of the "Factory" at all. Ironically, neither is Gwen, Charles (brother), or Nate. But, Gwen's mom, being the guest of honor, got to pick the restaurant. So she got her wish, and in the process had to put up with us nay sayers and our thinly veiled disdain at eating at the place, the consequence of which was rather amusing. Also funny was the fact that it was prom night for the local teens, which made for hilarious observations of the adolescent sub-culture. (And we all just about died when we learned that Nate (who is CLEARLY gay) went to like 5 proms, 2 as a junior, and 3 as a senior, all with different women from different high schools. He was some sort of prom master. I can totally see it - he was the archetype doesn't-realize-he's- gay-guy in his early days, but was very talkative and sensitive and friends with all the girls. Classic. Simply classic. We were all in stitches about this over dinner.)
Tomorrow I begin a 4 day military medic course based on trauma care "in the field". I'm not really looking forward to it, but it gets me out of 4 days of ICU work (meaning no call), which is a plus. And with that I'm off to bed.
A Long Time Ago....
The end of an era is here.
Tonight, the final official chapter (all side stories, comics, books, TV spin-offs, etc. aside) of Star Wars will be unveiled. And I find myself looking back on a life with the saga.
The most interesting thing for me about the Star Wars saga is how much it has undoubtedly been a significant part of my life ever since I can remember anything. In some difficult to describe way, I really think that it has had a meaningful hand in shaping who I am. And certainly it has done so to more extent than any other film series or piece of audiovisual entertainment ever has.
The first movie I ever saw in a movie theater was "The Empire Strikes Back" in 1980. I was 5 years old. To be honest, I remember we went to a late show and I fell asleep about the time when Luke got to Dagobah. However, before that, I had my little hands full and little eyes aglow with the most spectacular piece of amazing and imaginative entertainment I had ever scene. The battle of Hoth still ranks among the coolest scenes in cinematic history for me. Not only is it a great scene that holds up, but it brings with it an instant nostalgic chill factor as well. As a 5-year old boy, I was so mesmerized and transfixed by that scene that I think it alone sparked an entire childhood full of desires for Star Wars toys, GI Joes, Transformers, and everything else fictionally imaginative that made my tastes in those areas what they are today.
In 1983 I was 8 years old when "Return of the Jedi" came out. It came out on a Wednesday and we saw it on a Friday after school (I remember that the 2 days of knowing it was out, knowing my best friend had seen it, and still having to wait all the way until Friday to view it were absolute torture). My parents and I (this was before my sister) waited in line, in the rain, for about 2 hours to go see it in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. And it blew me away. To this day, I would have to say that "Return of the Jedi" is in my top 3 of all time movie theater experiences. For 2 plus hours I was absolutely glued to that screen, taking in everything and feeling exhilarated the entire time. I was in that simple state of nirvana that can only be attained during childhood. Afterwards, my parents bought me a toy lightsaber and I spent hours and hours running around the house pretending I was a magnificent jedi battling the forces of evil. Ah, to be young again.
During high school Star Wars reached uber-cult status and, other than some ewok scenes and a tarzan yell, could do no wrong. I remember going to see a special viewing of all three movies (in the theater!) and being so pumped on it. When I was in college, the re-releases of the big three came out and I waited in line on opening night all three times. And despite the aside of discussing the newest nuances, that powerful nostalgia was once again present and exquisitely gratifying. Star Wars, was indeed the coolest.
The timing of the original saga, to include the re-releases, encompassing the first 21 glowing years of my life, was perfect. If at that time I had to sit down and write a book listing 100 reasons why life is grand, you can bet that "The Star Wars Trilogy" would have been high on that list.
And with that, I don't want to spend a lot of time writing about the most recent 2 films and my already well known thoughts. I will say that I am probably particularly harsh on them because they represent such a legendary fall from grace. Its as if Episode 1 and 2 are capable of ripping away some of that symbolic childhood and adolescent goodness supplied by the original trilogy. How dare they come along and cheapen that? Of course, they don't really cheapen it - rather I, like anybody, only allow my now much more adult perspective (and much higher expectations) to interfere with that sense of wonder and bliss attainable only in childhood. Its an unfair comparison, but also impossible to not make given the power that original trilogy still holds for me.
Given such contrasting thoughts, I still look forward to tonight. It really is the end of an era.
I have SO MANY awesome memories of Star Wars, ranging from the powerful sense that I could do anything if I believed in it and myself (this trite but important childhood dream of achievement definitely stems disproportionately from visions of Luke Skywalker and Star Wars) to the countless other little but meaningful thrills along the way (for example like from playing the video game X-wing and then humming the familiar tune while jogging warm laps at track practice with Adam), that I can't help but be excited by this.
Tonight is the last time I will ever see a Star Wars movie for the first time. Ever. And that is a powerful thought, given all that has gone before. I may be older and much more bitter, and when all is said and done I may end up hating the movie. But when those curtains come up and that Lucasfilm logo comes on and that music begins, I will be in a particular special happy place, at least briefly, that only Star Wars can get me to because of its lifetime of memories and influence.
The film itself will certainly be debatable, but the experience of seeing "Sith" in the theater, knowing that it is a finale on many levels, will certainly be potent. I'm hoping and betting that Lucas still has something to give, that his prequels by design were probably one movie stretched over three (with most of his vision coming alive in "Sith"). But those assumptions are neither here nor there.
For me, tonight is about reliving the Star Wars magic that has so been a part of my life all these years. It may sound ridiculous, but it really does represent more than I could possibly understand or express about myself and about how I see things. And though tonight is the last time I will see something NEW from Star Wars, it is the sensation of the OLD that I will cling to. It's that music, those memories, that vibe, and that feel of existing a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The one that makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up and that warm feeling flood over, around, and through me. That Force, if you will. And, if only transiently, it'll be like I'm 8 years old again running around saving the universe with a lightsaber in my hand and the world at my feet. Ah, I absolutely cannot wait!
Mick
PS - In all seriousness, how good is John Williams? I have all 3 of the original soundtracks in my CD player randomly shuffling as I type this, and I can't believe how much emotion and energy is wrapped up in those riffs. Every once in a while I do that, just put the soundtracks on. And no matter what menial task I'm performing around the house, its resounding significance is immediately amplified by a factor of a thousand. All of a sudden I'm not just folding laundry, I'm folding laundry with all the awe and majesty of a Sith Lord leading his fleet out of hyperspace as the Imperial March blares! I'm not just doing dishes, I'm doing them with the fate in the balance intensity of Luke Skywalker leading an assault on the death star! John Williams, did I ever tell you you're my hero? May the Force be with you.
Tonight, the final official chapter (all side stories, comics, books, TV spin-offs, etc. aside) of Star Wars will be unveiled. And I find myself looking back on a life with the saga.
The most interesting thing for me about the Star Wars saga is how much it has undoubtedly been a significant part of my life ever since I can remember anything. In some difficult to describe way, I really think that it has had a meaningful hand in shaping who I am. And certainly it has done so to more extent than any other film series or piece of audiovisual entertainment ever has.
The first movie I ever saw in a movie theater was "The Empire Strikes Back" in 1980. I was 5 years old. To be honest, I remember we went to a late show and I fell asleep about the time when Luke got to Dagobah. However, before that, I had my little hands full and little eyes aglow with the most spectacular piece of amazing and imaginative entertainment I had ever scene. The battle of Hoth still ranks among the coolest scenes in cinematic history for me. Not only is it a great scene that holds up, but it brings with it an instant nostalgic chill factor as well. As a 5-year old boy, I was so mesmerized and transfixed by that scene that I think it alone sparked an entire childhood full of desires for Star Wars toys, GI Joes, Transformers, and everything else fictionally imaginative that made my tastes in those areas what they are today.
In 1983 I was 8 years old when "Return of the Jedi" came out. It came out on a Wednesday and we saw it on a Friday after school (I remember that the 2 days of knowing it was out, knowing my best friend had seen it, and still having to wait all the way until Friday to view it were absolute torture). My parents and I (this was before my sister) waited in line, in the rain, for about 2 hours to go see it in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. And it blew me away. To this day, I would have to say that "Return of the Jedi" is in my top 3 of all time movie theater experiences. For 2 plus hours I was absolutely glued to that screen, taking in everything and feeling exhilarated the entire time. I was in that simple state of nirvana that can only be attained during childhood. Afterwards, my parents bought me a toy lightsaber and I spent hours and hours running around the house pretending I was a magnificent jedi battling the forces of evil. Ah, to be young again.
During high school Star Wars reached uber-cult status and, other than some ewok scenes and a tarzan yell, could do no wrong. I remember going to see a special viewing of all three movies (in the theater!) and being so pumped on it. When I was in college, the re-releases of the big three came out and I waited in line on opening night all three times. And despite the aside of discussing the newest nuances, that powerful nostalgia was once again present and exquisitely gratifying. Star Wars, was indeed the coolest.
The timing of the original saga, to include the re-releases, encompassing the first 21 glowing years of my life, was perfect. If at that time I had to sit down and write a book listing 100 reasons why life is grand, you can bet that "The Star Wars Trilogy" would have been high on that list.
And with that, I don't want to spend a lot of time writing about the most recent 2 films and my already well known thoughts. I will say that I am probably particularly harsh on them because they represent such a legendary fall from grace. Its as if Episode 1 and 2 are capable of ripping away some of that symbolic childhood and adolescent goodness supplied by the original trilogy. How dare they come along and cheapen that? Of course, they don't really cheapen it - rather I, like anybody, only allow my now much more adult perspective (and much higher expectations) to interfere with that sense of wonder and bliss attainable only in childhood. Its an unfair comparison, but also impossible to not make given the power that original trilogy still holds for me.
Given such contrasting thoughts, I still look forward to tonight. It really is the end of an era.
I have SO MANY awesome memories of Star Wars, ranging from the powerful sense that I could do anything if I believed in it and myself (this trite but important childhood dream of achievement definitely stems disproportionately from visions of Luke Skywalker and Star Wars) to the countless other little but meaningful thrills along the way (for example like from playing the video game X-wing and then humming the familiar tune while jogging warm laps at track practice with Adam), that I can't help but be excited by this.
Tonight is the last time I will ever see a Star Wars movie for the first time. Ever. And that is a powerful thought, given all that has gone before. I may be older and much more bitter, and when all is said and done I may end up hating the movie. But when those curtains come up and that Lucasfilm logo comes on and that music begins, I will be in a particular special happy place, at least briefly, that only Star Wars can get me to because of its lifetime of memories and influence.
The film itself will certainly be debatable, but the experience of seeing "Sith" in the theater, knowing that it is a finale on many levels, will certainly be potent. I'm hoping and betting that Lucas still has something to give, that his prequels by design were probably one movie stretched over three (with most of his vision coming alive in "Sith"). But those assumptions are neither here nor there.
For me, tonight is about reliving the Star Wars magic that has so been a part of my life all these years. It may sound ridiculous, but it really does represent more than I could possibly understand or express about myself and about how I see things. And though tonight is the last time I will see something NEW from Star Wars, it is the sensation of the OLD that I will cling to. It's that music, those memories, that vibe, and that feel of existing a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The one that makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up and that warm feeling flood over, around, and through me. That Force, if you will. And, if only transiently, it'll be like I'm 8 years old again running around saving the universe with a lightsaber in my hand and the world at my feet. Ah, I absolutely cannot wait!
Mick
PS - In all seriousness, how good is John Williams? I have all 3 of the original soundtracks in my CD player randomly shuffling as I type this, and I can't believe how much emotion and energy is wrapped up in those riffs. Every once in a while I do that, just put the soundtracks on. And no matter what menial task I'm performing around the house, its resounding significance is immediately amplified by a factor of a thousand. All of a sudden I'm not just folding laundry, I'm folding laundry with all the awe and majesty of a Sith Lord leading his fleet out of hyperspace as the Imperial March blares! I'm not just doing dishes, I'm doing them with the fate in the balance intensity of Luke Skywalker leading an assault on the death star! John Williams, did I ever tell you you're my hero? May the Force be with you.
Who Let That Dog Out?
After watching the Sonics whoop up on the Spurs to even the series tonight, I decided to walk downtown and go see "Unleashed".
I must admit I had been harboring the guilty pleasure of looking forward to see this film, and for reasons which are not terribly clear.
Honestly, I do like the idea of hand-to-hand fighting in movies. Part of my eighth grade testosterone self has never gotten completely tired of a couple of bad asses duking it out. Its fun to watch talented people of jujitsu (such as Jet Li) do their thing. But with an abundance of crappy movies featuring mindless karate for the sake of karate, the trick becomes to tie those flying fists to something important and endearing and still pull off some bitching fight scenes (and in the process, interest the audience in the outcome of the fight and not just in the fight display itself). I thought, I guess, that "Unleashed" had the potential to do this.
And I'm glad to say that it did. While it does not play on the same level that the the-more-I-think-about-the-more-I-realize-I-really-really-liked-it "Kung Fu Hustle" (see last post) does, its still a very watchable film with some definite high points and uniqueness to it.
Thanks to Luc Besson (of "The Professional" fame), the film is actually a film and not just some karate movie. Its quite artfully done and has a killer soundtrack courtesy mostly of Massive Attack. And though there is definitely a stretched suspension of disbelief (this man has the mentality of a dog for this long?!) and some minor other flaws, the film as a whole succeeds. The fight scenes are very well done in that they: 1) employ cool and believable moves (anyone else here sick of blatant and ridiculous wire use?) and 2) incorporate a savagery often missing from the more routine, overly-choreographed and ballet-like scenes from other movies (i.e. people appear to be actually fighting). And perhaps most important of all, I actually cared about what happened to old Jet. By the end of the movie, I was rooting so hard for him to literally bash the crap out of his tormenters and enemies that I could hardly stand it. And though that last sentence sounds twisted, it also explains why the movie works.
If you're so inclined, I definitely recommend checking it out.
( just not before "Kung Fu Hustle.")
Back to work and ICU call tomorrow - lame.
And after that, my life focuses on Star Wars - the final chapter. I'm really looking forward to it. Through this final film I'm giving Lucas an almost Vader-like choice on how to be summarily viewed in my eyes. It all hinges on "Sith". He can continue this epic fall from grace, have "Sith" suck, and take this prequel trilogy forever to the dark side. Or, he can take one last deep look inside, pump out a movie that plays to its near limitless euphoric potential, and save the saga forever and be redeemed. The decision is his. Bring it Lucas!
I must admit I had been harboring the guilty pleasure of looking forward to see this film, and for reasons which are not terribly clear.
Honestly, I do like the idea of hand-to-hand fighting in movies. Part of my eighth grade testosterone self has never gotten completely tired of a couple of bad asses duking it out. Its fun to watch talented people of jujitsu (such as Jet Li) do their thing. But with an abundance of crappy movies featuring mindless karate for the sake of karate, the trick becomes to tie those flying fists to something important and endearing and still pull off some bitching fight scenes (and in the process, interest the audience in the outcome of the fight and not just in the fight display itself). I thought, I guess, that "Unleashed" had the potential to do this.
And I'm glad to say that it did. While it does not play on the same level that the the-more-I-think-about-the-more-I-realize-I-really-really-liked-it "Kung Fu Hustle" (see last post) does, its still a very watchable film with some definite high points and uniqueness to it.
Thanks to Luc Besson (of "The Professional" fame), the film is actually a film and not just some karate movie. Its quite artfully done and has a killer soundtrack courtesy mostly of Massive Attack. And though there is definitely a stretched suspension of disbelief (this man has the mentality of a dog for this long?!) and some minor other flaws, the film as a whole succeeds. The fight scenes are very well done in that they: 1) employ cool and believable moves (anyone else here sick of blatant and ridiculous wire use?) and 2) incorporate a savagery often missing from the more routine, overly-choreographed and ballet-like scenes from other movies (i.e. people appear to be actually fighting). And perhaps most important of all, I actually cared about what happened to old Jet. By the end of the movie, I was rooting so hard for him to literally bash the crap out of his tormenters and enemies that I could hardly stand it. And though that last sentence sounds twisted, it also explains why the movie works.
If you're so inclined, I definitely recommend checking it out.
( just not before "Kung Fu Hustle.")
Back to work and ICU call tomorrow - lame.
And after that, my life focuses on Star Wars - the final chapter. I'm really looking forward to it. Through this final film I'm giving Lucas an almost Vader-like choice on how to be summarily viewed in my eyes. It all hinges on "Sith". He can continue this epic fall from grace, have "Sith" suck, and take this prequel trilogy forever to the dark side. Or, he can take one last deep look inside, pump out a movie that plays to its near limitless euphoric potential, and save the saga forever and be redeemed. The decision is his. Bring it Lucas!
Discostup Does The Hustle
Gwendolyn's mom is in town. She arrived last night. Today, she, Gwen, Gwen's brother, and Gwen's brother's boyfriend (he's gay!), and I went out and got our fill of good old downtown Seattle. We started in the fish market, cruising around its many variety stands/shops and generally taking in the salty air of the fish-friendly place. We had some Thai for lunch and then continued walking downtown.
On a whim we went and saw "Kung Fu Hustle", which was absolutely amazing. It was an odd choice for the five of us to see, but with Gwen's brother lobbying intensely against "Kingdom of Heaven", it remained the only other feasible option. All five of us (with varying movie tastes to say the least) universally LOVED it, and I really can't recommend it highly enough. It was one of those precious few times where a movie comes out of nowhere (I really had NO idea what to expect) and goes above the call and delivers the goods beyond all expectations (and in a kung fu saturated market, no less!). It was incredible - hysterical, mesmerizing, very clever and oddly powerful. If you have the chance, go see it.
On a whim we went and saw "Kung Fu Hustle", which was absolutely amazing. It was an odd choice for the five of us to see, but with Gwen's brother lobbying intensely against "Kingdom of Heaven", it remained the only other feasible option. All five of us (with varying movie tastes to say the least) universally LOVED it, and I really can't recommend it highly enough. It was one of those precious few times where a movie comes out of nowhere (I really had NO idea what to expect) and goes above the call and delivers the goods beyond all expectations (and in a kung fu saturated market, no less!). It was incredible - hysterical, mesmerizing, very clever and oddly powerful. If you have the chance, go see it.
New Look
I've been messing with the html quite a bit in my template. As a result, this blog has an incomplete new look. I'm pretty pleased with it, thus far. Only I can't figure out how to change the text color in my description (below the title). I swear I fidgeted with every parameter in the damn template (and I could easily change the background color of that box!), but the mysterious descprition text color location remains a mystery to me. As a result, I had to make that stripey white background below the title just so my description would be legible. I'll keep working on it. But after tonight, other html tasks, such as manipulating margins and utilizing hexadecimal color features, have become quite doable! Rock on.
A more normal post, from earlier today, is below.
Mick
A more normal post, from earlier today, is below.
Mick
A Night in the City and Tecmo Super Bowl
Last night my friend John from work cruised up to the city. John is a fellow soon-to-be graduated resident whom I've known for the past 3 years. He doesn't get out on our crazy social scene all that much, mainly because he is married. (Another reason he doesn't get out in the city much is because John lives 84 MILES south of work! He and his wife, whom is a second year resident down in Portland, have set up their living arrangement to split the distance; so he commutes 84 miles (ONE WAY!) to work every single day. Utter craziness. And I live 45 miles NORTH of work, so we are hardly neighbors. In fact, his area code is 2 full codes south of mine.)
He told me earlier in the week that he'd be cruising up Wednesday night to take in an opera up here in Seattle. His wife was on call that night and he would be coming up alone. He asked if he could crash at my place, and I told him he could. As it worked out, Gwen was also on call last night and thus it was sort of a mild boys night out.
I like John. He is a smart dude and pretty funny and is one of only a handful of other military residents from work who would classify themselves as "liberal". We have worked well together for three years and it was good to see him in a more social setting.
We started by going down to good old Shiro's and getting the always fantastic and not-so-cheap chef's special which, as usual, was amazing. (My new taste for good Uni is growing). After dinner, he went to his opera and I tooled about the downtown area. First I grabbed a beer at good old Shorty's where I played some Defender, Joust, and pinball. Then I cruised up to the Barnes N' Noble in downtown Seattle and read various things for about 2-3 hours. (I really have no trouble spending an entire evening in a book store.)
When John's opera let out, he called me and we met up downtown to play some pool at Belltown Billiards. John and I are about even pool players, I would say, but the bastard beat me in 4 of 5 games (all by 1 ball or less) which was annoying since we are both mildly competitive. At about 1 am we cruised back up to my pad and played a couple of games of chess in which he beat me handedly both times. He's the guy I'll usually play chess against at work. When we first started playing, I was winning more than he but over the past few months he has won nearly all of our infrequent games.
I hate losing at chess. When it happens, I always feels like I just got "out-intellected" by someone else, Princess Bride style. Its not like losing a game of monoply. Rather, it feels more like being objectively proven dumber than an opponent. This is not something I enjoy, obviously. (Granted, I know from work that John is a pretty damn smart guy and there are many who are not as smart as he). And for what it's worth, we had both had about 4 or 5 beers at the pool hall prior to coming home and breaking out the chess board. I'm not sure how the alcohol affected John, but it sure didn't help my concentration or "chess foresight" any.
After two games of chess I'd had enough, and as I was putting the board away John noticed I had an old school Nintendo in my cabinet. He asked to see my games and after leafing through them he said, "You have Super Tecmo Bowl?! I used to kick ass at this game! Wanna play?"
I smiled. It looked like my night's worth of gaming failure was about to turn around.
The next words out of John's mouth were "I'm unbeatable with the 49ers!"
I smiled again. Oh no - not tonight, you aren't, I thought, practically licking my chops. I couldn't get the Nintendo hooked and the cartridge in the machine fast enough.
We loaded up the game and I told him that I used to a "pretty strong swimmer" myself at old Tecmo Super Bowl. In fact (though I didn't tell him this), I can't remember the last time I lost a game of Tecmo Super Bowl - it's been a long damn time, I can tell you that much. As I was setting everything up I was trying to decide which team to use. I could of course have selected my beloved Giants, with whom I dare say myself I am pretty much unbeatable (Lawrence Taylor, anyone?). I could have taken another GOOD team, which I wouldn't be as used to but may be on par with the elite 49ers squad of that game. (The game was made around 1991 or so - that 49er team, with Montana, Craig, Rice, Taylor, Jones, Lott, Haley, et al, is seriously no joke and probably the best team in the game). I could have taken the Raiders, just to run around with Bo Jackson. That would have been fun. After all was said and done,however, I opted to go with the old Cincinnati Bengals, who I would classify as a mid-level team that I had lots of experience with. I also figured it would be an amusing taunt aimed at poor John - to beat his mega-niners with the lowly Bengals - game on!
I could tell by his face that he thought the Bengals were a strange selection, but I only smiled. I think he realized then that I was probably going to be pretty good at the game. With that, the sweet familiar old-school style intro anime of Tecmo Super Bowl loaded up and we were off.
To John's credit, he was actually a pretty solid player. Outside of Iwan, I can't remember playing anyone better in a long time. And during our game, he kept picking my plays when I was on offense which was really annoying (seriously about 40% of the time he would pick my play. In Tecmo Super Bowl, as you may recall, you pick 1 of 8 possible plays on every down. The defense also picks 1 of 8. If the defensive selection matches the offensive one, the play is immediately shut down after the snap courtesy of massive computer-assisted defensive cheating which essentially turns every player on the defense into an ublockable, ultra-fast, ball-carrier homing tackling machine). Despite that, he made some bad coverage mistakes (and with Lott!) and I scored on my first drive.
The game went on and his play picking led to me going 3 and out in 2 successive drives in the second quarter. On the other end, I WASN'T picking his plays hardly at all. He was picking up small chunks of yards on his drives. Then he would reach 4th and short, go for it, and invariably pick up the first! He did this up the field on his second drive -the drive took like 5 Tecmo minutes (which is a whole quarter). Fortunately, on 4th 1nd 10 from the 35, he didn't want to kick a field goal. He went for it and didn't get it and I got the ball back. The score at the half was 7-0.
The second half was similar. It was a defensive battle. He kept picking enough of my plays to stall my drives and I kept playing solid enough overall defense (thank you strong safety David Fulcher, Tecmo stud) to stall his drives. In the fourth quarter, he made a bad coverage mistake and I hit Eddie Brown for the second touchdown to go up 14-0. (You can't blow coverages against 1991 Boomer Esiason - he'll tear you apart!)
John made a desperate comeback attempt but I was all over it. The game ended 14-0. A low scoring affair for Super Tecmo Bowl, and certainly given that the 49ers were involved. John shook his head, acknowledged my Tecmo prowess and we laughed about sweet old school video games. Then we played some Marble Madness and I schooled him at that too, though he had never played the game before and it was notably much less satisfying.
And there it is. John beat me handedly at the low-brow, trivial games of pool and chess, but I used the Cincinnati Bengals to shut out the super-powered offense of the San Francisco 49ers in Tecmo Super Bowl - one of the best video games of all time.
I ask you dear readers - which feat is the more impressive?
Thank you.
Last night my friend John from work cruised up to the city. John is a fellow soon-to-be graduated resident whom I've known for the past 3 years. He doesn't get out on our crazy social scene all that much, mainly because he is married. (Another reason he doesn't get out in the city much is because John lives 84 MILES south of work! He and his wife, whom is a second year resident down in Portland, have set up their living arrangement to split the distance; so he commutes 84 miles (ONE WAY!) to work every single day. Utter craziness. And I live 45 miles NORTH of work, so we are hardly neighbors. In fact, his area code is 2 full codes south of mine.)
He told me earlier in the week that he'd be cruising up Wednesday night to take in an opera up here in Seattle. His wife was on call that night and he would be coming up alone. He asked if he could crash at my place, and I told him he could. As it worked out, Gwen was also on call last night and thus it was sort of a mild boys night out.
I like John. He is a smart dude and pretty funny and is one of only a handful of other military residents from work who would classify themselves as "liberal". We have worked well together for three years and it was good to see him in a more social setting.
We started by going down to good old Shiro's and getting the always fantastic and not-so-cheap chef's special which, as usual, was amazing. (My new taste for good Uni is growing). After dinner, he went to his opera and I tooled about the downtown area. First I grabbed a beer at good old Shorty's where I played some Defender, Joust, and pinball. Then I cruised up to the Barnes N' Noble in downtown Seattle and read various things for about 2-3 hours. (I really have no trouble spending an entire evening in a book store.)
When John's opera let out, he called me and we met up downtown to play some pool at Belltown Billiards. John and I are about even pool players, I would say, but the bastard beat me in 4 of 5 games (all by 1 ball or less) which was annoying since we are both mildly competitive. At about 1 am we cruised back up to my pad and played a couple of games of chess in which he beat me handedly both times. He's the guy I'll usually play chess against at work. When we first started playing, I was winning more than he but over the past few months he has won nearly all of our infrequent games.
I hate losing at chess. When it happens, I always feels like I just got "out-intellected" by someone else, Princess Bride style. Its not like losing a game of monoply. Rather, it feels more like being objectively proven dumber than an opponent. This is not something I enjoy, obviously. (Granted, I know from work that John is a pretty damn smart guy and there are many who are not as smart as he). And for what it's worth, we had both had about 4 or 5 beers at the pool hall prior to coming home and breaking out the chess board. I'm not sure how the alcohol affected John, but it sure didn't help my concentration or "chess foresight" any.
After two games of chess I'd had enough, and as I was putting the board away John noticed I had an old school Nintendo in my cabinet. He asked to see my games and after leafing through them he said, "You have Super Tecmo Bowl?! I used to kick ass at this game! Wanna play?"
I smiled. It looked like my night's worth of gaming failure was about to turn around.
The next words out of John's mouth were "I'm unbeatable with the 49ers!"
I smiled again. Oh no - not tonight, you aren't, I thought, practically licking my chops. I couldn't get the Nintendo hooked and the cartridge in the machine fast enough.
We loaded up the game and I told him that I used to a "pretty strong swimmer" myself at old Tecmo Super Bowl. In fact (though I didn't tell him this), I can't remember the last time I lost a game of Tecmo Super Bowl - it's been a long damn time, I can tell you that much. As I was setting everything up I was trying to decide which team to use. I could of course have selected my beloved Giants, with whom I dare say myself I am pretty much unbeatable (Lawrence Taylor, anyone?). I could have taken another GOOD team, which I wouldn't be as used to but may be on par with the elite 49ers squad of that game. (The game was made around 1991 or so - that 49er team, with Montana, Craig, Rice, Taylor, Jones, Lott, Haley, et al, is seriously no joke and probably the best team in the game). I could have taken the Raiders, just to run around with Bo Jackson. That would have been fun. After all was said and done,however, I opted to go with the old Cincinnati Bengals, who I would classify as a mid-level team that I had lots of experience with. I also figured it would be an amusing taunt aimed at poor John - to beat his mega-niners with the lowly Bengals - game on!
I could tell by his face that he thought the Bengals were a strange selection, but I only smiled. I think he realized then that I was probably going to be pretty good at the game. With that, the sweet familiar old-school style intro anime of Tecmo Super Bowl loaded up and we were off.
To John's credit, he was actually a pretty solid player. Outside of Iwan, I can't remember playing anyone better in a long time. And during our game, he kept picking my plays when I was on offense which was really annoying (seriously about 40% of the time he would pick my play. In Tecmo Super Bowl, as you may recall, you pick 1 of 8 possible plays on every down. The defense also picks 1 of 8. If the defensive selection matches the offensive one, the play is immediately shut down after the snap courtesy of massive computer-assisted defensive cheating which essentially turns every player on the defense into an ublockable, ultra-fast, ball-carrier homing tackling machine). Despite that, he made some bad coverage mistakes (and with Lott!) and I scored on my first drive.
The game went on and his play picking led to me going 3 and out in 2 successive drives in the second quarter. On the other end, I WASN'T picking his plays hardly at all. He was picking up small chunks of yards on his drives. Then he would reach 4th and short, go for it, and invariably pick up the first! He did this up the field on his second drive -the drive took like 5 Tecmo minutes (which is a whole quarter). Fortunately, on 4th 1nd 10 from the 35, he didn't want to kick a field goal. He went for it and didn't get it and I got the ball back. The score at the half was 7-0.
The second half was similar. It was a defensive battle. He kept picking enough of my plays to stall my drives and I kept playing solid enough overall defense (thank you strong safety David Fulcher, Tecmo stud) to stall his drives. In the fourth quarter, he made a bad coverage mistake and I hit Eddie Brown for the second touchdown to go up 14-0. (You can't blow coverages against 1991 Boomer Esiason - he'll tear you apart!)
John made a desperate comeback attempt but I was all over it. The game ended 14-0. A low scoring affair for Super Tecmo Bowl, and certainly given that the 49ers were involved. John shook his head, acknowledged my Tecmo prowess and we laughed about sweet old school video games. Then we played some Marble Madness and I schooled him at that too, though he had never played the game before and it was notably much less satisfying.
And there it is. John beat me handedly at the low-brow, trivial games of pool and chess, but I used the Cincinnati Bengals to shut out the super-powered offense of the San Francisco 49ers in Tecmo Super Bowl - one of the best video games of all time.
I ask you dear readers - which feat is the more impressive?
Thank you.
Dirty Leave, Animal Farm, and Schindler's List
I'm supposed to start the ICU this week but a schedule rift has given me a nice break. One of the other residents, who is currently on an outpatient rotation (meaning normal work hours and weekends off), needed someone to cover a week of HIS ICU month, which begins at the next cycle 4 weeks from now. In exchange, he offered to take this week of ICU from me. So, my ICU shifts are covered for now, his rotation is extraneous, and now I have what essentially amounts to a week off - the so called "Dirty Leave". It's too shady to make full use of it (i.e fly to Alaska or something) because it's not really "leave" in the official military sense of the word, and parting too far and getting caught could get me in trouble. On the upside however, I have no clinical responsibilities this week and need only mosey into work on one or two days this week and check off some administrative tasks. I get up when I want, go to bed when I want, all of that. The downside will come 4 weeks from now when it becomes officially Payback Time. However, since I would have been doing another rotation anyway, I merely switch to ICU and all works out. Overall its a good thing.
Because of my good fortune, I was able to find some pleasure reading time this morning. After I got up and polished off the Sunday Crossword from yesterday (local paper, not NY Times), I set about reading "Animal Farm", the George Orwell classic which I had bought over the weekend. I had never read the book previously, and had only been exposed to pieces of it way back in High School (or earlier) when I probably wasn't paying attention or didn't care. The book is only about 130 pages (and in large print) and I actually ended up reading the whole thing in about 90 minutes. Its obviously a classic and I found it to be a great read. Its simply written but full of great red flag subtext about politics, power, revolution, and the nature of man (and beasts). Incredible stuff. It actually roused a bit of emotion from me; I'm speaking mostly about the mistreatment of some of the good-natured characters. The book was written in the 1940's, and is a clear critical allegory of the Russian Revolution and the eventual Stalin regime. It's astounding how much the message still comes in to play today. Sadly, people never seem to change. A wonderful read - highly recommended. I look forward to "1984" as well.
Lastly, Gwen and I finally got around to sitting down and watching the acclaimed "Schindler's List" tonight. The 2-disc film has been in my possession for at least 6 months now. (1 of my 3 allotted Net Flix rentals). Its the sort of movie I desparately wanted to see but never could get fired up enough to get over the hump and sit down and watch it knowing it would only make me depressed. (If that makes any sense). For anyone who hasn't seen it, Spielberg pulls no punches and its pretty graphic and powerful. Its very well rendered. Though I will say that I think its hard to look critically at holocaust films in general because they are given so much leeway as a result of their subject matter. That's not to say I don't think the film was excellent. I just wonder how the film would hold up if you could somehow peel away the emotional realism attached and see its other aspects. Unfortunately, this is hard to do. And in order to get the most out of the initial viewing, I'm not all that sure it needs to be done. (Though in all seriousness, how many times are you going to actively sit down and power through Schlinder's List? It may be the best one viewing only movie of all time....)
I'm supposed to start the ICU this week but a schedule rift has given me a nice break. One of the other residents, who is currently on an outpatient rotation (meaning normal work hours and weekends off), needed someone to cover a week of HIS ICU month, which begins at the next cycle 4 weeks from now. In exchange, he offered to take this week of ICU from me. So, my ICU shifts are covered for now, his rotation is extraneous, and now I have what essentially amounts to a week off - the so called "Dirty Leave". It's too shady to make full use of it (i.e fly to Alaska or something) because it's not really "leave" in the official military sense of the word, and parting too far and getting caught could get me in trouble. On the upside however, I have no clinical responsibilities this week and need only mosey into work on one or two days this week and check off some administrative tasks. I get up when I want, go to bed when I want, all of that. The downside will come 4 weeks from now when it becomes officially Payback Time. However, since I would have been doing another rotation anyway, I merely switch to ICU and all works out. Overall its a good thing.
Because of my good fortune, I was able to find some pleasure reading time this morning. After I got up and polished off the Sunday Crossword from yesterday (local paper, not NY Times), I set about reading "Animal Farm", the George Orwell classic which I had bought over the weekend. I had never read the book previously, and had only been exposed to pieces of it way back in High School (or earlier) when I probably wasn't paying attention or didn't care. The book is only about 130 pages (and in large print) and I actually ended up reading the whole thing in about 90 minutes. Its obviously a classic and I found it to be a great read. Its simply written but full of great red flag subtext about politics, power, revolution, and the nature of man (and beasts). Incredible stuff. It actually roused a bit of emotion from me; I'm speaking mostly about the mistreatment of some of the good-natured characters. The book was written in the 1940's, and is a clear critical allegory of the Russian Revolution and the eventual Stalin regime. It's astounding how much the message still comes in to play today. Sadly, people never seem to change. A wonderful read - highly recommended. I look forward to "1984" as well.
Lastly, Gwen and I finally got around to sitting down and watching the acclaimed "Schindler's List" tonight. The 2-disc film has been in my possession for at least 6 months now. (1 of my 3 allotted Net Flix rentals). Its the sort of movie I desparately wanted to see but never could get fired up enough to get over the hump and sit down and watch it knowing it would only make me depressed. (If that makes any sense). For anyone who hasn't seen it, Spielberg pulls no punches and its pretty graphic and powerful. Its very well rendered. Though I will say that I think its hard to look critically at holocaust films in general because they are given so much leeway as a result of their subject matter. That's not to say I don't think the film was excellent. I just wonder how the film would hold up if you could somehow peel away the emotional realism attached and see its other aspects. Unfortunately, this is hard to do. And in order to get the most out of the initial viewing, I'm not all that sure it needs to be done. (Though in all seriousness, how many times are you going to actively sit down and power through Schlinder's List? It may be the best one viewing only movie of all time....)
Updates
- The redesign of discostup.com is beginning to take shape from the mists. I did some reading on site design this weekend and I also experimented with the Yahoo site builder quite a bit this evening. It seems to be a good program, and it has proved sufficient for the simple tasks I've used it for thus far (basic photo pages, WCD). I am now, however, finding that when I make pages that are "busy" (i.e. lots of stuff such as multiple pics and complicated backgrounds on them), my whole computer slows down substantially, which I don't quite understand. The machine runs Half-Life 2 clean as a whistle but gets bogged down with a "mini-stripe" background. Odd. Regardless, progress is being made. I'm definitely looking at making a more full site (like Baditude, sort of) and making it fully public. This blog will likely morph somewhat as well. Some of the logistics of the whole process are still being worked on (in my head), and I think it will still be a few weeks until any sort of substantial unveiling occurs. Stay tuned.
Weekend
- My weekend was fairly chill with neither overt excitement nor excess alcohol to speak of. There was a fair bit of cinema involved.
- I suppose it started Thursday when George and I went and saw "XXX - State of the Union". The whole idea came together on a whim - both of us were in the mood for a "good-bad" movie and Ice Cube's 'tude is always a plus. (And Cube was in "Anaconda", one of the best good-bad movies of all time). I hadn't seen the first XXX, but I figured I could get the gist of it anyway. I counted approximately 20 seconds from the opening shot until something blew up, which was satisfying. Overall the film was solid in terms of good-badness; there were definitely a few laugh out loud in-your-face-tude scenes. But I've seen better. It's funny how acting, dialogue, and almost everything else take a serious back seat in those kinds of films.
- Friday night Gwen and I walked downtown and took in "The Interpreter". I had heard good things and was certainly entertained. I would rate it about 8 out of 10. The plot was interesting and complex enough without going ridiculously overboard, which was a nice change from the average suspense/thriller these days. Nicole Kidman is an A-list actress, and I enjoyed watching her out-act Sean Penn. Penn, in his defense, did a solid job of at least keeping up with her for the most part, (and he was certainly better in this than the horribly overrated, full of Penn over-acting "Mystic River) though he's still a league below the top tier Kidman.
- Saturday Gwen and I cruised out to the local Best Buy. I'm in the market for a laptop these days and so I started doing some leg work on that front. I've never had to deal with the concept of foreign (i.e German) power and electricity before. All I know is that it's differnt over there and it makes shopping for electronics more of a hassle. No purchase of yet. I did, however, pick up "Eternal Sunshine", "Lost in Translation", the new Beck CD, and the Chemical Brothers CD at the store. So all was not lost. After Best Buy, Gwen and I came home, had a modest dinner and then watched "Days of Heaven", a 1978 film by Terrance Malick ("Badlands", "The Thin Red Line") starring a young Richard Gere. It was a period piece (shudder) about the early 1900's involving a love triangle. Very, very meh. It was recommended to me by Paul Tatara, and was probably the worst of his recs thus far. The movie was disjointed, moved too slowly most of the way and then suddenly too fast when it mattered, and overall left little impression other than the spark you get when you send back a Netflix and know something new is on the way.
- Today was Mother's Day, which I spent with Gwendolyn at my cousin Cynthia's house with that whole portion of the family (including super cousin Heath). A good meal and good fun. Called Mama Stup and everything's all right. Now I'm back at home. And that's all I have to say about that. Time for bed.
Baditude has left me. And taken with him all hope. Or we had a fun weekend and left on good terms. Either way, I suppose.
Yes; big bad baditude was here for 72 hours and good fun was had by all. A short recap, bullet style! (not quite miami style, but hey, not everything can be)
THURSDAY
-Eryn's flight is delayed for hours and he ends up arriving near or after midnight. Come to think of it, there was no Thursday.
FRIDAY
-Arrive at the pad from the airport at 12:30 am and immediately have sex (not the tame sort either; it was quite the thrash-fest as I recall....)
-Go to sleep nestled together. Before I fall asleep, I realized how beautiful Eryn is.
-Next morning we get up - more sex (tamer this time, more loving than lusty, but still passionate)
-Then we cruised to some breakfast, walking in that trademark seattle rain
-Eryn had french toast; I had eggs
-We both had coffee (his was decaf) and juice
-Off to EMP (Experience Music Project - a music museum under the space needle)
-EMP was fun; checked out Beatles stuff, Hendrix stuff, general song making stuff; we even added flava' to our own mix
-Eryn's favorite part was the Arril Lavigne costume
-Next went to the adjoining sci-fi museum, which was fun and made me want to read more
-Took the Seattle MONORAIL (what's that friends?) downtown and had coffee at a punkish little start up joint called "Starbucks" (had some trouble finding it, though)
-Cruised back to my pad and met up w/ Gwendolyn
-Had bitchin' sushi at Shiro's (which was so good that we got to hear this quote from some random chick at the bar: "This sushi is great - and I was in LIMA two weeks, ago")
-Yes, the sushi was so good it was Lima-worthy
-Fended off some other overly-conversational not quite getting it jackass from across the bar
-Went to Shorty's bar and played Joust and Big Buck Hunter (I schooled E at the latter)
-Went to "Last Supper Club", met up with cousin Heath and his posse, had a few drinks, listened to techno, watched computerized transformers breakdance on screen (this was AWESOME), then went home
SATURDAY
-With Gwen around now, Eryn and I did not have further sex (sad, really)
-Woke up, went to Rosebud for insane breakfast
-Lots of gay people in Rosebud - it was a little much for homophobic Eryn
-Went to see Hitchhiker's Guide in downtown Seattle, enjoyed it (and schooled it)
-Went to Pike Place Market (even went ...to-the-candy-shop....)
-Crusied home and hung out a bit
-Met up with George, Pete, and Pete's parents for a sweet dinner at Brasa
-Eryn got sauced on wine (typical)
-Pete and his parents took off; George, E, Gwen, and I went to local bar (lava lounge)
-After bar, we went to "Club Medusa" and met up again w/ Heath
-The club was OK at best; too crowded and hot, not as much fun as the previous night
-However, E and I "shared a moment" which revolved around some meathead thinking he was so sweet with his dance moves as he tried to grind some friendly but not-too-interested chick (this was really fun to watch)
-Cruised home late (like 3 am); George became belligerent (drunk) and nearly got in a fight with the local hot dog vendor and some locals after discovering the guy was closed
-George proceeded to eat 2 full bags of popcorn and a Lean Cuisine in my apartment at 4 am while watching South Park the Movie before we all went to bed
SUNDAY
-Woke up tired from low sleep; hangover was mild (E's was rough)
-Went to Noah's Bagels for breakfast; watched Gwen and George do the crossword
-George took off
-E, Gwen and I charged downtown for some more walking around (sun was out, beautiful day)
-Went on the "Seattle Underground Tour" which featured some cool local history and many, many bad puns
-Went to Ivar's for some chowder and light dinner
-Cruised home and chilled out
-Went to bed
MONDAY
-Took E to the airport at the crack of dawn
-One sweet weekend in the books
High five E!
Mick
Yes; big bad baditude was here for 72 hours and good fun was had by all. A short recap, bullet style! (not quite miami style, but hey, not everything can be)
THURSDAY
-Eryn's flight is delayed for hours and he ends up arriving near or after midnight. Come to think of it, there was no Thursday.
FRIDAY
-Arrive at the pad from the airport at 12:30 am and immediately have sex (not the tame sort either; it was quite the thrash-fest as I recall....)
-Go to sleep nestled together. Before I fall asleep, I realized how beautiful Eryn is.
-Next morning we get up - more sex (tamer this time, more loving than lusty, but still passionate)
-Then we cruised to some breakfast, walking in that trademark seattle rain
-Eryn had french toast; I had eggs
-We both had coffee (his was decaf) and juice
-Off to EMP (Experience Music Project - a music museum under the space needle)
-EMP was fun; checked out Beatles stuff, Hendrix stuff, general song making stuff; we even added flava' to our own mix
-Eryn's favorite part was the Arril Lavigne costume
-Next went to the adjoining sci-fi museum, which was fun and made me want to read more
-Took the Seattle MONORAIL (what's that friends?) downtown and had coffee at a punkish little start up joint called "Starbucks" (had some trouble finding it, though)
-Cruised back to my pad and met up w/ Gwendolyn
-Had bitchin' sushi at Shiro's (which was so good that we got to hear this quote from some random chick at the bar: "This sushi is great - and I was in LIMA two weeks, ago")
-Yes, the sushi was so good it was Lima-worthy
-Fended off some other overly-conversational not quite getting it jackass from across the bar
-Went to Shorty's bar and played Joust and Big Buck Hunter (I schooled E at the latter)
-Went to "Last Supper Club", met up with cousin Heath and his posse, had a few drinks, listened to techno, watched computerized transformers breakdance on screen (this was AWESOME), then went home
SATURDAY
-With Gwen around now, Eryn and I did not have further sex (sad, really)
-Woke up, went to Rosebud for insane breakfast
-Lots of gay people in Rosebud - it was a little much for homophobic Eryn
-Went to see Hitchhiker's Guide in downtown Seattle, enjoyed it (and schooled it)
-Went to Pike Place Market (even went ...to-the-candy-shop....)
-Crusied home and hung out a bit
-Met up with George, Pete, and Pete's parents for a sweet dinner at Brasa
-Eryn got sauced on wine (typical)
-Pete and his parents took off; George, E, Gwen, and I went to local bar (lava lounge)
-After bar, we went to "Club Medusa" and met up again w/ Heath
-The club was OK at best; too crowded and hot, not as much fun as the previous night
-However, E and I "shared a moment" which revolved around some meathead thinking he was so sweet with his dance moves as he tried to grind some friendly but not-too-interested chick (this was really fun to watch)
-Cruised home late (like 3 am); George became belligerent (drunk) and nearly got in a fight with the local hot dog vendor and some locals after discovering the guy was closed
-George proceeded to eat 2 full bags of popcorn and a Lean Cuisine in my apartment at 4 am while watching South Park the Movie before we all went to bed
SUNDAY
-Woke up tired from low sleep; hangover was mild (E's was rough)
-Went to Noah's Bagels for breakfast; watched Gwen and George do the crossword
-George took off
-E, Gwen and I charged downtown for some more walking around (sun was out, beautiful day)
-Went on the "Seattle Underground Tour" which featured some cool local history and many, many bad puns
-Went to Ivar's for some chowder and light dinner
-Cruised home and chilled out
-Went to bed
MONDAY
-Took E to the airport at the crack of dawn
-One sweet weekend in the books
High five E!
Mick
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