smacky and bucky

Here's something hypnotic: www.leekspin.com

Enjoy!

Damn! Last night's Lost was very Tales From the Crypt, huh? So long, Nikki and Paulo. We hardly knew ye. I feel a tiny bit sorry for hating you, considering your fate. But only a tiny bit. A much larger part of me just says "See ya. Dig another grave."

Is it incredibly sappy of me that I think it's very cute that since the people who play Chase and Cameron on House are engaged in real life, their storyline now has them hooking up in closets on the show? Could you imagine getting paid to make out with your honey (or homey, whichever way you may roll)?

Speaking of House, did you know that the theme song to the show is a song called Teardrop by the group Massive Attack? It's the second song from their album Mezzanine. I recommend the entire CD, or download, or whatever it is you kids today do. Just don't steal it! RIAA is now mailing letters to students at colleges demanding $3,000 to avoid expensive lawsuits. The organization is tracking servers at schools. It's extortion. Ironically, the major record labels have just admitted to "payola," the act of bribing radio stations to play songs by their artists. They'll be paying millions in fines, which will be collected from poor college students who get caught downloading songs illegally. So really, the only ones being hurt here are the students (and of course, the musicians, who are screwed by their labels already).

Yesterday after work, I broke the seal. With temps freakishly in the low 80s, under a clear blue sky, I mowed the lawn. I know I've started a weekly cycle that could last well into September, but this will be the first time since 2004 that I'll only be mowing ONE yard! No more running across town to keep up appearances at the other house (which, you'll recall, we just sold this past December). YAY!!!

Labels: house, music, yard

I didn't go.

Here's someone who did: HERE.

I received an email this morning offering two free passes to see an advance screening of a movie. Not a big deal on the surface. We get them a lot, being in D.C. and on mailing lists. But this one is different:
That's right, it's the new movie by the creators and stars of Shawn of the Dead. Even more enticing is this item I found on MovieWeb:

Hot Fuzz, the hit action comedy from the U.K., is headed your way! Director/writer Edgar Wright, writer/star Simon Pegg, and star Nick Frost (the whole team from Shaun of the Dead) are coming to the U.S. -- armed with rare theatrical prints and showings of some Cop Movie classics, plus a sneak peek at their own Hot Fuzz (weeks in advance of its April 20th release in the U.S. from Rogue Pictures). Hot Fuzztivals will be held in select cities (see below), with the Hot Fuzz gang on hand for Q&As. Here come the FUZZ!

WASHINGTON DC Date: Friday, March 23. Details: A screening of Die Hard followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.Location: Arlington Cinema N Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington VA.

HOLY CRAP! Simon and Nick are going to be in Arlington tonight! Who wants to go? Drop a note in comments, or e-mail me if you know how. The email I received was for two free passes and my wife has to work tonight, so I can bring someone. If you're the second or third person to contact me, I can forward you the email, which you should be able to print out and use as a pass.

Day-um! That was a good episode of Lost last night. Possibly the best of the season, and yes, I know I may have said that last week, and/or the week before. The writers are on a roll. If you missed it, you owe it to yourself to watch it for free on abc.com. Terry O'Quinn is a fantastic actor. I've loved his work since I saw him in the intensely creepy The Stepfather.


This is an episode that ranks among the best of any season of this show.

Not much has happened since Sunday, but I'm tired of seeing a mopey post leading off the blog, so I feel I have to post something...

(1) Movies I'm looking forward to seeing again when they come out on DVD in the next few weeks: Solarbabies, Night of the Comet, and Looker.

(2) We've been watching reruns of Match Game from the 1970s on the Game Show Network. We actually TiVo them to watch together. That show is a freaking time capsule, all polyester, plaid, and sexual innuendo.

(3) Today would have been Mr. Fred Rogers' 80th birthday.

(4) One reason to like Mondays: http://www.dead.net/view/tapers, from The Grateful Dead's official site. Every Monday they dig into the vaults and post free MP3s from concerts performed that week (from the '60s through the '90s). I've gotten some great songs this way. I know some people complain that the Dead took the full shows off all the sites, but I don't blame them. Since they stopped touring when Jerry Garcia died, most of their income has to come from selling their recordings. If they can sell a CD set of a show, let them do it. You're already saving money by not going to see their shows, so suck it up. (I find full shows of the Grateful Dead sort of boring, actually. I'd rather just hear some of my favorites from them.)

(5) Tomorrow is the first day of spring!

I've been sort of sad and angry and depressed all at once the last three or four days. I guess I just have "liberal frustration." I've been pissed about the government, so fucking sure that "success" in Iraq is just around the corner, if we could only pour a few billion more dollars and maybe a thousand or so more young men into the mix. Then a middle eastern country will do something it's never done in its entire history: It will embrace the western ideal of democracy. What a crock of shit. A democracy surrounded by...

OK. See? See how thinking about it can just set me off? I surprised myself by getting a little weepy eyed when I tried to explain my mood to Laura.

I feel a bit better today after snuggling with my honey, some good Chinese food, and a Wonderfalls marathon.

There's a reason I usually choose the cartoons over the news.

I overslept this morning. I usually get up promptly at 6:00, with no alarm clock. This morning my wife nudged me and said, "Don't you have to get up?"

I looked at the clock. It was 6:40. Our boy cat had snuggled his way under my left arm and looked up at me, purring. Purring, "No, you don't have to get up...."

I pulled myself out of bed, started the coffee, let the dog out, fed the cats, let the dog in, fed the dog, got dressed, had coffee, brushed my teeth, grabbed something for lunch out of the fridge, and headed out to the car. I ended up getting to work at...

7:10.

Only 10 minutes later than usual. And still about 2 hours before the majority of the office.

Shrug.

* * * * * *

Another spring book went to the printer yesterday. That's a darn good feeling, the end result of months of work. One reason I love this job is that twice a year I have tangible results from all my efforts. I can hold these books, show them to people, flip through them. It beats the heck out of getting validation from a earn/loss spread sheet at the end of the fiscal year!

Started a new book. This one is nonfiction. Basically a journal of Palin's trek across the desert, but with glossy photos courtesy of a talented BBC cameraman. It was $4 on the clearance table.

Labels: Africa, sleep, Success

Saturday night Laura and I played Scrabble. She took an early lead and started building up points, while I had good letters and nowhere to use them. In the last half of the game I pulled even, then ahead. It became neck-and-neck, a matter of single digits. She was fist to use all her tiles, leaving me with one tile unused. Thus, I lost one point and she received on extra point.

Final result: 288 to 288.

We freaking tied!

I have no idea what the odds are of that, but we choose to believe it's a sign of our synergy. Or perhaps we're two opposing forces that cancel each other out. Either way, that was weird.

I'm at work this morning, making periodic trips past the windows, watching the snow, wondering if or when the government will freak out and close early.

An early afternoon nap at home sounds lovely, so fingers crossed.

We stayed in town this weekend. What did that mean? Well, Saturday morning I awoke early for some reason, so I popped out and bought coffee and donuts and brought them home for my honey. Then I got to work cleaning the basement, which mainly entailed dismantling a gazillion empty cardboard boxes and laying them flat for recycling. I finished up in a few hours, and I got out of the basement just as the dust and assorted microparticles were about to drive my sinuses insane with anger. Achoo!

We went to lunch at a relatively new Irish pub down the street. A hardware store had originally stood there. I discovered the restaurant when I had gone there months ago to buy some sandpaper. Oops! This was our first time going there with the intention of eating. First impression: Wow, this place is much bigger on the inside. Was the hardware store always this big? The square footage of the place becomes apparent when you remove the aisles. The waitress is Irish. Good sign. I order a Smithwick's Ale, which is always a pleasant surprise to find on tap. Had a very good Reuben, only my second in seven years. That sounds like a strange thing to remember, but I was with my wife both times I've had one.

Saturday afternoon I worked in the backyard and got a pile of brush into trash bags. Saturday night was watched For Your Consideration, and while it might not be fair to compare an artist's current work to work done in the past, let's face it, it's unavoidable. The newest release of directors, novelists, and musicians is always compared to previous work. And in this case, it wasn't as good as A Mighty Wind or Best in Show.

Sunday morning I took a few items to Goodwill and stopped at a used bookstore on the way home. They were having a 50% off sale on sci fi and horror. I resisted the urge to buy everything and only picked out five books.

The temperature was about 20 degrees colder than Saturday, with strong winds, so I stayed inside and played on the MAC. I used the iDVD program for the first time, and by dinner, I had made three DVDs. I won't mention the contents, but I now have half a season of a TV show on DVD. A show not yet available in stores. The iDVD program is amazing. I created menus and sub menus. The main menu plays a clip from the show in the background while I song I chose from my iTunes library plays. From there, you can either go to the episode menu or the extras menu. I tested the DVDs, and they play on both DVD players in our house, including the older one I thought wouldn't recognize video in the MP4 format. Shrug. Awesome. I don't think I would have been able to do this with the PC. It would have taken hours to figure out what to do.

New Heroes tonight, with a new Spider-Man 3 commercial airing too.

Oh, and thanks to my 365 Days of Fitting Ends and Final Resting Places calendar, I can tell you that 25 years ago yesterday, John Belushi died of an overdose of cocaine and heroin (March 4, 1982). And 44 years ago today, the world lost Patsy Cline to a plane crash.