RSS FeedOpening Weekend Movies
It is not often that I’ll go see movies on opening weekend. I usually wait until a movie has been out a week or two before I go see it in the theaters. But this weekend I sorta shot that plan in the foot. Yesterday we saw two movies, both of which were released this weekend.
In the morning we saw Vantage Point. The movie is about an assassination attempt on the US President as seen from 8 different points of view. It was pretty entertaining. I liked the way they fed revealed pieces of information bit-by-bit through each of the different view points.
In the afternoon we went back and saw Be Kind Rewind. This is a pretty silly movie about a guy (Jack Black) who becomes magnetized and erases all of the video tapes in his friends VHS video rental store. To avoid getting in trouble with the owner, they go out and re-shoot all the movies themselves. Their versions are all about 20 minutes long. Not a great movie, but I still enjoyed it.
As if that’s not enough, on Tuesday night we are heading to the Palms to see a sneak preview of the new Will Ferrell movie, Semi-Pro. Saying that a Will Ferrell movie looks silly is like pointing out that Bill Gates has a bunch of money. But, if you want proof, here’s the trailer. See, I told ya.
If that’s not enough Will Ferrell for ya, it looks like he’ll be staring in the new Land of the Lost movie coming out in summer of 2009. Sleestak’s beware!
Body suspension
Something that has intrigued me for many years is the art of body suspension. For those who don’t know, body suspension is when people insert flesh hooks in their body, connect them up to some sort of rigging and are lifted off the ground to by the hooks.
I know how that has got to sound to the uninitiated, but believe me when I say that it can be an incredibly beautiful piece of art. Plus, I’ve heard interviews with many people who have been suspended and they all say that there is a euphoric feeling associated with it. Every time I hear somebody say that, it makes me want to try it even more. I don’t know if it is comparable to the feeling I had when I first jumped out of a plane, or when I crossed the finish line after running my first half-marathon, but if it is, I really must try this at some point.
Over the years I’ve seen quite a lot of photos of body suspensions, but for some reason today was the first time I had though to check Youtube for video footage. As usually happens with Youtube, two things happen. First, I was amazed at how many videos I found. Second, I was surprised it took me so long to even look for them. These videos are not for the faint of heart, but if you’d like to see some videos, here are a few that I found that are pretty amazing.
The body can withstand some amazing things.
Moving day at work
It’s been about a year and a half since I had an office at work. When I was first moved out of my office I truthfully said that it didn’t bother me. Working in a cube (or the crazy shaped desks we have at the office) hasn’t really bothered my at all.They are a little small and if you are working on a project that requires you to have a few sheets of papers out at the same time, these desks are pretty constricting. Other than that, I haven’t been bothered by the lack of an office. That all changed two days after I got a promotion last month.
In my new roll at the office, I am constantly working on projects that require a notebook, 2 or 3 different printouts, a spreadsheet on one screen and a web browser on the other. I just flat out need more room. Our plans to move in to the new offices have been pushed back time and time and time again. However, tomorrow is officially moving day. At noon we get to peel the wrapping paper of the new building and dive on in. For me, this means I’m back to having my own office.
There are a few things I will not miss about the current office. The crazy shaped desks are only a part of it. There is almost always a crazy odor in our building. A lot of times it comes from people cooking things in the microwave that shouldn’t be cooked in a work type setting. The kitchen in our new building has doors that automatically close off the rest off the office, and another set of doors that opens out to our new patio. Also, at the current building there is a crazy temperature change that happens every day around noon. It goes from being cool/comfortable to warm/unbearable in a matter of minutes. It’s almost to the point of needing to bring a change of clothes. I’m hopeful that the new office will not have the shifting climate syndrome. My final gripe about the current office is the fact that I sneeze there more than anywhere else on the planet. That may be due to the odd smell, it may be due to the temperature change or it may just be something in the air. Whatever it is, I’ll be happy to be rid of it.
So tomorrow is going to be a busy one. I better go get some sleep.
The not-so-perfect Valentine’s date
Ahh yes, Valentine’s Day. The holiday created by Hallmark and the florist industries. The holiday that probably causes more tension between couples than any other. After everything that happened yesterday, I can certainly see why.
Our dinner reservations were set for 8:30. I checked the movie schedule and saw that Juno was playing at about 10. But, since we had Chris’ mom hanging out with the kids we didn’t want to stay out too late, so we opted to go to the movies before dinner. No problem, there was a 6:00 showing. That would leave plenty of time to see the movie and make it to dinner. Done deal!
We leave the house at about 5:40 and arrive at the theater at 6:00 straight up. Perfect! We walk up to the ticket counter and find out that the movie times listed online were wrong. The movie didn’t start at 6:00. It started at 5:25. Shit. Our options for 6:00 movies were “Jumper” and “Meet the Spartans”. Chris didn’t know what Jumper was so she wasn’t sure she’d want to see it, so we went with Meet the Spartans. Wow, that movie was bad. I was expecting it to be just sillyness, which it is… but it’s really not all that funny. There are some funny things in it, but overall, I could have skipped it.
The movie was pretty short (probably the best thing I could say about it), so we ended up having PLENTY of time to drive to dinner. Since it was so cold last night we decided to just go directly to the restaurant and have a drink in the bar while we waited for our table.
We arrived at The Tillerman at about 7:50. We checked in with the girls at the front counter and they informed us that it would probably be 8:30 before we were able to be seated. We had expected that, so it was no big deal. The bar ended being PACKED so we found seats in the reception area instead. By about 8:20 we started hearing several people complaining about their reservation time having passed already. Ours did the same. At about 9:00 we finally got seated. Our waiter brought us some drinks and gave us the rundown of the lobster specials. We both ordered steaks (Filet Mignon for Chris, Porterhouse for me) and we ordered an appetizer of Spicy Thai Calamari (which were thankfully NOT that spicy). Our appetizer arrived a few minutes later and it was cold.Then a few minutes after that they served us our salad. They serve it on a Lazy Susan with several items around the outside for you to add to your salad. I requested some ranch dressing that our waiter told us was available but wasn’t on the Lazy Susan. After 5 minutes of waiting, I went ahead and used the Bleu Cheese. Then came the main course. I am fairly certain that I have never had a steak that had so little flavor.
When I am spending $140 on dinner for two, I expect to enjoy my meal. Hell, when I spend $50 for dinner, I expect to enjoy it. The thing is, if I spent $50 and didn’t like it, it wouldn’t have stung so much. Oh well, lesson learned. I will not be returning to The Tillerman. The thing that bums me out most about the dinner isn’t the money, it’s the fact that I could have gone to several other places and spend the same (or even less) on dinner and I know Chris and I would have both enjoyed our dinner much much more.
On the bright side, I have an awesome wife. For Valentine’s day she got me a hat that she had embroidered with geeeek.com and a hat that matches our softball team colors with my number (42) on it. She also bought me Guitar Hero 3 for xBox 360 WITH the wireless guitar. She is so awesome.
Despite the crappy movie and dinner, we still had a very nice time. When you spend time with good company, what’s going on around you doesn’t always matter.
Where’s the blood?
I went and saw “There Will Be Blood” on Sunday with Ashley, Craig and Ryan. With a title like that, I’m expecting to see blood. Lots of it. By the gallon. I’ll bet I’ve seen Disney movies with more blood.
Daniel Day-Lewis is a phenomenal actor. If he doesn’t win an Oscar for this performance, I’ll be amazed. As good as he was in Gangs of New York, he’s equally as good if not better in this one. I can’t say that I loved the movie, but it was certainly worth seeing. There’s no doubt it’s a good movie, but it’s not your typical movie. It’s over 2 and a half hours long, and there is a lot of story telling and not a lot of action.
A western and a shooter
Last week Netflix delivered the next two movies from my queue. The first movie I watched was Shoot ‘em Up. I’m a big fan of Paul Giamatti and was really looking forward to seeing it. I was really bummed that I missed seeing it in theaters. After getting a chance to watch it, I’d have to say that I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for it. Yes, there were some decent action scenes, but the story line was pretty lame. Not to mention the fact that they do the one thing about shooter movies that just drives me absolutely crazy. I’ll explain.
Why is it that when the hero is being chased he can run at full speed, throw his arm back and fire off two rounds and kill both people chasing him who were both firing dozens of rounds from their automatic weapons that never even graze the hero? Even if only by accident or ricochet he should at least be nicked, right?
Ahh well, it was at least entertaining…
Next I watched 3:10 to Yuma. I had heard some good press about it and then Todd mentioned that he loved it. I’ve enjoyed some great movies on Todd’s recommendation so I figured I’d give this one a shot. Just Wow! The movie is fantastic. I can’t really say that I’m a big fan of westerns, but this movie is fantastic. The characters in the movie are more than one-dimensional stereotypes of good guys and bad guys in the old west. The bad guy is mean enough to run his crew of hired killers, but at the same time he’s cunning and charming.
Aunt Jamima and the Action Junkies!
Once a month we host a poker tournament. We usually have between 10 and 20 players. We start around 7 and are usually wrapping it up around midnight. A few friends usually stick around for 30 minutes or so and we shoot the shit. This month was a little bit different…
Last night the poker game wrapped up around 11:30. A few of the players who had been knocked out early were playing some card games at the other table. Our friend Marcia had recently taught us a new game called Golf that we’ve been playing a bit, so we were teaching it to the rest of the group. After the first game, we played another. Then another. Then “just one more.” And then only one more. Rinse, repeat.
Somewhere around 3:00 AM Chris headed up to bed. Marcia, Craig, Ashley, Charles, Brent, Michelle and I kept playing. With us being as loud as we were, I have no idea how she was able to sleep at all. Around 4:00 AM there started to be talk of going to breakfast. By 4:45 we had woke Chris up and headed to Denny’s. Of course, we took along a deck of cards.
As our breakfast was being served, our waiter delivered a plate with about ten 2-ounce cups of maple syrup. By the time breakfast was over, there were 5 left. It’s at this time when Marcia says, “I want to play a game where the loser has to chug one of those cups of syrup.” After the table stopped laughing, I said I was in. We decided to play 2-card Guts. I won the first round and Marcia chugged the shot of syrup like a trooper. I knew I wasn’t off the hook that easy. There were still 4 more containers of syrup just sitting there. So we played again. 2-0 Hawkins. Woo Hoo!
After the second shot of syrup, our waiter was walking back towards the kitchen. I stopped him and asked if he wanted to play a game. I explained the rules and he agreed. So the three of us drew our cards. This time, I wasn’t so lucky. But neither was the waiter. Our waiter took the first shot like a champ. I then took mine. Holy crap that stuff is sweet. It’s also rather thick, so it’s not like just taking a drink. You almost have to chew the stuff.
Since there was one shot left, Marcia and I drew again. Another victory for me meant shot #3 for Marcia. She was so hopped up on sugar, I think she decided to leave her car at the restaurant and run home.
We tipped our waiter VERY well and headed back home to get some sleep. This was the first time in I don’t know how long that I had been awake for nearly 24 straight hours. I forgot how much that zaps your energy. Luckily I had that shot of syrup to keep me going.
I’m gonna Choke on 8/1/08
It’s been a long time coming! Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke is about to hit the big screen. OK, that’s not really news around these parts. But, the part that may be news to you is the fact that we now have a release date. August 1st, 2008. It’s still a bit away, but it’ll be here before we know it.
Chuck Palahniuk, for the 3 of you who may not know, is the author of Fight Club. Aside from Fight Club and Choke he’s written several other great books that are not your typical everyday stories and usually contain a fair share of fucked up characters. I have a hard time trying to decide which of his books is my favorite, but Choke is definitely one of them.
Choke was recently shown at the Sundance film festival and has received great reviews. Plus, here’s a short video interview with the director of Choke.
If you are unfamiliar with Choke, BUY IT NOW!