WeirdCurves
There is a new
blogger among us. Check him out. Fifty-one percent of what he says is funny.
American Splendor rocks. You must see it. I'm always a big fan of mixed media films, but this one really surprised me. The tone and construction of the film was not like that of the artsy-fartsy films that use mixed media. Well, I guess I shouldn't say that all films that use mixed media are artsy-fartsy.
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys definitely wasn't artsy or fartsy.
I'm a little concerned about how much I identified with
Harvey Pekar.
Two days until the renaissance of my pop culture education. "E! True Hollywood Story!" "Changing Rooms!" "A Makeover Story!"
Only three days left until I get cable! I am so excited to expand my pop culture knowledge. No more hanging my head in shame when people start talking about what happened on "Sex and the City" the previous night. No more embarrassing questions like, "What new Johnny Cash video are you talking about? He's nominated for a what? A VMA? What's that?" No more waiting until Thursday night to see NBC broadcast the Tuesday night "Queer Eye." Freedom from the ridicule of my peers at last!!
Three days! Three days! Three days! I can't wait!
At least one weekend of the summer should be spent at a lake. Walks through the woods, lounging on the dock, riding in a boat, and enjoying good food with good friends is how it should be done. I'm still enjoying my high from the weekend at Deep Creek Lake. I look forward to being in my 50s when I can buy a second house on a lake. I actually look forward to my 30s when I can buy my first house, condo, or shack. Maybe I should look into buying a trailer. Living in a trailer could be the new in thing for 20-somethings. It would be so easy for hipsters to move when a neighborhood (I really mean trailer park) becomes passé. Everyone would hook up their
Shastas to their trucks (yes, we would have to buy trucks) and set up a new trendy community in another locale. Maybe it would be something like a flash mob. "Okay everybody. Synchronize your watch to
the official U.S. time. On Thursday evening at 8:14p.m., hitch your trailer and move yourself to the location indicated in code in the previous email." Much easier than finding a new apartment and getting your friends to help you move your crap. This is what looking to buy a condo in the city does to me. I'm forced to investigate my real options since I will never be able to afford a place in the city.
Went to
Puppetry of the Penis on Wednesday night at the
Rosslyn Spectrum. The show was a bit different from what I expected. I saw a clip of the show on HBO a couple of years ago, so I had a sense of what these guys did. What surprised me was how campy the show was. It was funny, but funny with lines like, "this show is nuts!" The guys in this tour are quite cute (much different looking than the guys on the Website), so that raised the entertainment value for me. The Rosslyn Spectrum is kind of a weird venue. It reminded me of a college auditorium.
Monkey Happy Hour was a lot more fun than I expected. I was thinking of not going yesterday afternoon, but glad that I made it over there. About 150 "young professionals" showed up. The music was fine. There was a lot more food than I thought there would be.
Equinox and Starbucks were there with yummy samples. The zoo also provided animal crackers, pretzels, spinokopita, egg rolls, and chicken nuggets shaped like animals (I had two camels). The drinks were priced fair for an event like this. They provided shuttles that ran between the event venue and the Ape House where there was a keeper to answer questions about the
apes and primates. I learned that my favorite animal at the zoo--Mopie the silverback gorilla--has arthritis. Poor Mopie. He's been on pain medication now for about a week, so he should get some relief soon. Anyway, Zoo happy hours are worth the trip. I'm definitely marking my calendar for "I Get a Kick Out of Shrew" on September 18.
There are so many films that I want to see and I still haven't made it to Census 03. Ugh! I will not be able to accomplish any of the items on my cultural to do list this weekend because I am going to
Deep Creek Lake to commune with nature and a hot tub. Culture will have to wait.
I am so jealous that
nm gets to go to Ozzfest tonight!! I wanted to go!!
Too slammed with work for the past couple of days to blog. It really is such a shame when work takes up one's entire day. However, the employer did provide one benefit today--open bar and a three-course meal at
Corduroy. Gosh, I've written an awful lot about alcohol lately. It really is not the center of my universe. Anyway, after much silliness with out-of-town trainees, a couple of the locals explored what turned out to be the highlight of the night. There was a rumor that a "bar" just around the corner from my office was actually a brothel. Four of us (I'm not counting the "alpha male") decided that tonight provided a perfect opportunity to explore this alleged brothel. After our investigation, we concluded that it is indeed a brothel. We saw one lady of the night walk out of the "bar" and saw another woman who we suspected to be a madam. The "bartender" declared upon our entry that this was indeed a bar, "See, look at all of the alcohol. This is a bar." He's not fooling anyone. We left pretty fast because we were sure that the alpha male who accompanied us would get us into a bar fight, or sell us at a bargain basement rate. We thought about going back up after we ditched said alpha male, but one of us feared that they would drug us of gas us (if we didn't drink). We will certainly explore this brothel again, but we will bring beta male with us. He will ensure that we will not be drugged or gassed.
Met friends at
Cafe Citron on Friday night for mojitos (they're excellent here). I also recommend the fried plantains. Watched
Spun and
From Hell. I was a little frightened by Spun and terribly disappointed by From Hell.
Book club (can't post my real feelings here) at
Teaism and
O's game yesterday.
I'm making an attempt at getting my apartment in order today, so not much time to post. The rest of my day will be reserved for domestic activities--ick!
Stopped by
Zola last night for a quick drink after work. Warning: a glass (half filled) of
Steele Cuvee chardonnay is $11! My friend made the unfortunate mistake of ordering that. You can get a Grey Goose cosmo for cheaper than that--$9.25 (still expensive as far as I'm concerned). The chardonnay is quite good, but one can buy a bottle at
Calvert Woodley for 20 bucks. Zola is much more fun when the bartender that gives me free drinks is there.
I picked up a copy of 1602 at
Big Planet Comics on my way home. I read it once last night and was impressed by it. I'll give it another read over the weekend.
A favorite childhood
destination of mine
may soon be gone. Going to Weeki Wachee is one of my earliest memories. I was old enough to walk on my own, but still young enough to believe that the mermaids were real. Seeing a live mermaid supported my belief that I would pet a unicorn and play with Scooby-Doo someday. Of course, it was not long before I learned that neither of these activities would ever happen. Many dreams and beliefs have been squashed over the past 28 years. And now one of the few places I could visit and relive those days when I believed that all of my dreams could come true may not be there for much longer.
1602 comes out tomorrow! I actually do not know much about the Marvel characters, but the idea of superheroes interacting with Elizabeth I intrigues me.
No movies for me this weekend, but I did make it to the Adriaen Coorte exhibit at the National Gallery. The collection of paintings in the exhibition was quite small. Typical Dutch themes from that time period (17th century). Nothing too exciting.
Census 03 looks interesting. I plan to check it out at the end of the week.
The scene at
MCCXXIII was pretty cheezed up, but at least
Panorama Productions came through with free admission, an open bar for two hours, and decent light fare (meat on a stick-yum!). We stayed there for about an hour, then walked to the
Black Cat. The
French Kicks put on a good show, but the set was 35 minutes at the max.
The Walkmen were up next with an enthusiastic performance that was, unfortunately, overshadowed by sound problems. The highest pitches dominated the songs, making them difficult to enjoy. Not a bad night considering that I only shelled out $19.20 (including a
CD) for the entire night.
I'm itching to go see a movie today, but I really need to make some progress on the books that I'm reading. Maybe I'll catch something later this afternoon. I can't decide between
Camp,
Step into Liquid, and
Finding Nemo.
My attempts to add a couple of Key West pictures to my post this morning were not successful. I'll try again over the weekend. I blame the fact that I have had only three sips of coffee.
I'm going to hang with a
friend tonight and then try to catch up on house chores tomorrow. I think that I might drag out the art supplies and do a little sketching. It's been quite a while since I've done that. I have focused on photography for the past several months, so my easel and sketch book have been ignored.
If I get my chores accomplished before Sunday, I think that I'll check out the
Adriaen Coorte exhibit at the National Gallery. My appreciation for Dutch paintings was not developed until I visited the Netherlands and learned more about the history and culture of the country. I'm particularly interested in this exhibit because the artist is from
Middleburg. I visited that town a couple of years ago and was quite taken with it.
Watching
The Evil Dead before going to sleep last night was a big mistake. I wanted to watch it since it's part of the cult film canon. I thought that it would be some campy horror movie that would make me laugh and give me something to pick apart. That was part of the experience, but it mostly scared the bejesus out of me. The pace of the story is critical to its enjoyment as a scary movie. Even though the effects and acting are laughable, Sam Raimi keeps the tension high throughout most of the film with the use of music, sound effects, and quick shots. It's a remarkable product for just a $350,000 investment. I really want to watch it again tonight with the commentary by Sam Raimi, but I'm not sure that my body can stand the drastically elevated level of adrenaline two nights in a row.
Saw the trailer for
American Splendor yesterday. Looks great.
Watched
Muriel's Wedding this morning. I saw it when it first came out, but wanted to watch it again. It is so depressing. I had forgotten how really sad it is. Well done film, but probably should not have been my choice for my Saturday morning escapism session.
I got about 1/10 of what was on my agenda for today accomplished. Oh well. I guess that's what I get for having an agenda on a Saturday.
Finally finished From Hell. I've never been much interested in Jack the Ripper, but really enjoyed this telling of the story. Alan Moore's annotations provide insight about the killer's motivations and the lives of the individuals involved in this unfortunate mess. His serious research and interpretations make this graphic novel seem like the closest anyone will ever get to actual documentation of the crimes--truly creepy. I wasn't terribly impressed with the drawings when I first started reading it, but gained an appreciation as the characters became more developed. I was amazed at how disturbing the murder scenes were. The simple black and white sketches created images that made me turn the pages quickly to avoid nightmares.
I want to read another of Alan Moore's novels right away, but I have so many other books in my queue. I'm sure that if I calculated the time it would take me to read all of the books that I've bought that I have yet to read plus those on my wish list I would come up with a figure somewhere around five years. That's depressing. And that's not even getting into the books that I will re-read. Like Breakfast at Tiffany's. I read it several years ago after developing a fascination with Audrey Hepburn films. I'm interested to see how my perspective on the book has changed since the last time I read it.
