RSS FeedSo Much Chuck Palahniuk
It’s a good time to be a Chuck Palahniuk fan! This week his new book Snuff, a story about a girl on a quest to complete a 600 person gang bang, is set to come out. Here’s a fantastic trailer (mildly NSFW) for the book. Hilarious!
This summer we’ll be treated to Sam Rockwell staring in Choke, which just happens to be one of my favorite Palahniuk books. Looks like the current release date is August 28th. We’ll see.
While looking around on IMDB.com today I saw that Chuck also has another movie in the works. His book Invisible Monsters, a story about A disfigured fashion model and a pre-op transsexual go on a road trip of revenge and recovery, is listed as being in development. It says it’s going to be released in 2008, but there aren’t even any actors attached to the project on IMDB, so I’m not buying that.
Now, if we can just get Chuck back to Vegas for another speaking engagement, I would love to ask him if he has used the Easter morning story I told him the last time he was here at any dinner parties. If you don’t know the story I’m speaking of, it’s probably better you don’t ask.
The art of setting expectations
Setting people’s expectations is something that I think we all do all the time. At work I basically do it all day long. I set my boss’s expectations for how long a project is going to take and how much it’s going to earn. I set developers expectations for the workload I’m going to be handing off to them. I set advertisers expectations for the amount of traffic they are going to see for an offer. So on and so on. I set my wife’s expectations for when I plan to be home each night so that she can have a sense of when to start making dinner. Without setting expectations, well, nobody would know what to expect.
So what happens if you set expectations that are way off? Well, usually people end up getting upset at you. Tell your boss a project will be done on Tuesday and it’s not done until Friday… he’s upset. Tell your boss a project will earn $2500 a week and it ends up earning $300 a week, yep, upset again. Tell your wife you’ll be home for dinner at 5:00 and don’t show up until 8:00, you guessed it, upset.
I constantly try to set peoples expectations in ways that will always leave them satisfied. It goes right along with the saying, “under promise and over deliver”. If you tell your boss a project is going to be done on Thursday and it’s actually done on Tuesday, he’s going to be pleased. Tell your boss a project is going to earn $900 a week and it ends up earning $2500 a week, he’s pleased again. Tell your wife you aren’t going to be home until 7:30 for dinner but call her at 5:30 to say you got out early and are heading home, well, unless she’s shagging the pool boy and was counting on you being late, she’s probably going to be pleased as well.
This past Tuesday we got passes to see a sneak preview of the new Will Ferrell movie Semi-Pro. I’m a big fan of his movies, but I’ll be the first to admit that they can be hit or miss. Anchorman is one of my favorite movies, but Blades of Glory isn’t exactly a laugh a minute. When we went to see Blades of Glory in the theater, my expectations were pretty high and we walked away fairly disappointed in the movie. With Semi-Pro, however, my expectations were pretty low. I had seen several previews for it and my biggest fear was that I had already seen all the funny parts and the rest of the movie would just be filler. I can not stress enough how happy I am to be wrong on this one. First off, Will is so great at playing over-the-top characters. Even in Blades of Glory, I loved his character, the rest of the movie just wasn’t that good. But, in Semi-Pro, there are a bunch of great characters, funny scenes and a ton of quotable lines that I’m sure we’ll all be repeating for months and years to come. I’d have to rank the movie just under Anchorman as my second favorite Will Ferrell movie.
I’m a little concerned by the fact that one of Will’s next movie projects is Land of the Lost. But hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised at that one, too.
Opening 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!
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.
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!
Brain Overload, Time to Chill
My new position at the office has kept me really busy these past two weeks. On top of the many new projects I have on my plate, I’ve also been added to several new weekly meetings. This has made it fairly challenging to keep up. This morning I got to work just before 7:00 AM. Between 7:00 and 12:00 I had spent a grand total of 6 minutes at my desk. The rest of the time was spent in meetings. Ouch.
Don’t get me wrong, these meetings have all been useful. Knowledge transfer is one of the things I need most right now. I need to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. But, when you spend 5 hours in meetings, you usually come back to your desk to find 2 or 3 voice mails and a slew of emails that need attention. Get caught up with those and now you have about 2 hours to get 8 hours worth of work done. Sweet!
After a couple weeks of that and I was in need of a night off. It was time to turn the brain off and just chill the fuck out! So last night, that’s exactly what I did. I got home from work, plopped down on the couch with some dinner and then watched a couple movies with the wife.
The first movie we watched was The Man From Earth. This was on the recommendation of both Rob and Todd. One word: Fantastic!
The movie is about a Professor who attempts to convince a group of his colleagues that his 14,000 years old. They spend the better part of an afternoon and evening trying prove or disprove his claim. Each of his colleagues goes through a roller coaster ride of thoughts and emotions as they go from thinking he’s lost his mind to thinking that he’s telling the truth and back again. The bulk of the movie takes place in a single room with nothing more going on than some conversation. The movie was like no other movie I’ve seen before. I can not recommend it highly enough.
Our second movie required a lot less thinking. Waiting…, staring Ryan Reynolds and Justin Long is about a group of friends who all work at a restaurant together. The guys all spend their time playing a game where they try to get the other guys to look at their junk. Succeed and you get to kick them in the ass. There’s all the typical relationship issues (waiter who’s too smart to not being doing something bigger, waiter lusting after the hostess, manager trying to hang with the group of “cool kids”, bitter waitress who puts on the fake smile all day until she’s in the kitchen where she rants and raves like a lunatic). There are several funny parts strewn through the story, but overall, the movie didn’t really do it for me, though I can’t exactly pinpoint why.
Next on my Netflix list are 3:10 to Yuma and Shoot ‘Em Up. But tonight LOST returns. WOO HOO!
Welcome back, Netflix
I was an early adopter of Netflix. I was a member back when they had only 1 or 2 distribution centers. That never really was an issue since I was in Redondo Beach and they were in Anaheim. I’d still get my movies the day after they were shipped. But, at some point I got so busy with other things I started holding on to movies from Netflix for 2 and 3 weeks at a time. “But there are no late fees” you’ll say. But I’ll say paying $19.95 a month to watch 1 or 2 movies per month is not my idea of a good deal. Netflix benefits most the people who can watch at least a handful of movies each month. If I’m going to pay $10 or $20 to see 1 or 2 movies, I should just buy the DVD and watch it whenever I want.
I reactivated my account yesterday and I opted for the 2 DVD deal. I can rent unlimited movies and can have up to 2 DVDs out at any given time. Plus, I have unlimited access to their downloadable movies. This is a new feature since I was a member previously. I put several movies in my queue and am now waiting for the first to arrive. On Rob & Todd’s suggestion I put “The Man From Earth” as my #1 movie. I’m looking forward to seeing it.
After a great dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Todd, Justin and Jessi (happy birthday, Jessi) last night, I came home and checked out the downloadable movies. I was a little bummed that you are FORCED to use a PC (meaning I couldn’t lay in bed with the Mac and watch a movie) and Internet Explorer (I’m a Firefox junkie). But, after a quick update or two I was elbows deep in a zombie comedy. Todd had sent me a list of the best 19 movies of 2007 that you didn’t see. One of the movies on the list was called “Fido” and stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Billy Connolly. I won’t even try to explain the movie to you. I’ll just say that it was quite entertaining.
I’m heading out the door to go to Softball practice. My company is putting together a softball team. I haven’t played baseball in probably 30 years and I don’t know that I have ever played softball. This should be interesting. I fully expect to end up in the emergency room at some point.
Cloverfield: 1, Me: 0
This weekend ended up being pretty busy, though I didn’t really start out with many plans. I capped it off with a trip to the movies with Todd & Sarah to see Cloverfield. If you haven’t seen it yet, let me just say…. MOTION SICK!!! The way it’s filmed is very similar to Blair Witch Project. Single camera angle, hand held, bouncy as hell. With about 15 minutes left in the film I started feeling sick. By the time I left, I looked like this:
I am amazed that I didn’t throw up. Seriously, I felt THAT bad. But, I went home, crashed on the couch for a while and felt better after about an hour or so.
“How was the movie?” you ask. It was so-so. The story isn’t new. It was just shot from a different angle. I will say that the new Rave theaters by my office are fantastic! First off, they are all digital projection. Second off, they are hidden away in the back of Town Center and not a lot of people know about them. So even though I went to see the #1 movie on opening weekend, the theater was only half full.
As for the rest of the weekend, on Saturday I spent the morning at work trying to get a head start on the weekend. Then Saturday evening Todd and 4th Place came over to play some Rock Band. Sarah, who had originally suggested we have Rock Band night, pulled a big no-show. She claims to have been sleeping. I don’t know that I buy it, though.
This morning I bailed out on my Sunday run. My knee has been feeling funky still. This week I’m going to make a point of riding the stationary bike at least 3 times to try and build up some strength in my knee. I think I may need to hold off on running until I’ve had a few weeks of the stationary bike under my belt. No sense going out and hurting the knee even more.