28.4.05
Well, back to the corporate world - at last and alas. Good: I get paid. Bad: it's a corporate world where casual Fridays don't even exist. It's currently temporary. So we'll see if it becomes permanent. Medical benefits would be great, and lunches are cheap - as in under 3 bucks for a giant salad good for two. But everybody is SO serious - they need to lighten up!
22.4.05
"Whoever takes advantage of the largesse and good will of the city is a bum," a seething Goodman said. "Real pigs."
When you offer 50,000 free tickets to a Red Hot Chili Peppers/Weezer concert online for the
Las Vegas Centennial, you're bound to have scalpers on the fringes. The tickets were wiped out within four minutes. I
wrote about how I scored 4 free tickets, while "bums" are
eBaying them for over $200!
"Asked for his own reaction to the drama, City Councilman Larry Brown launched into the chorus of a 1991 Chili Peppers smash hit: "Give it away, give it away, give it away now."
16.4.05
blow my mind
Grant Morrison has the ability to slowly drag you into the story then blow up in your face into total weirdness and thought-provoking confusion. I'm a conspiracy theorist by nature, untrusting, always suspicious, bordering on paranoid, and I identify in many ways. But then the Matrix-like dreamworld, are-we-being-watched/ controlled by machines/a greater power? just blows the mind the further you sink into the notions/theories. It becomes an enormous mess of questions brewing on the existence of humanity, and I just want to get out, take a breath and a quiet hike in the mountains, listening to silence only broken by my dog breathing hard, away from humanity and the question of why the world and we exist. Sometimes, it just knocks on the brain too hard, short of madness, but somehow, you want to keep reading anyway, riveted;
The Filth, Doom Patrol and
Animal Man. It's just too good to put down.
15.4.05
it ain't over 'til
So, I thought I'd recovered from having some asshole steal my purse which had all my credit cards, atm card, driver's license, cell phone,
and a Miu Miu wallet, when I realized last weekend that my father's Nikon Coolpix digital camera had been in the bag too. That started the Tourret's Syndrome all over again, and wishing the theif would somehow stupidly hurt itself, slowly and torturously.
There. It's over now.
horror flicksWent to see the premiere of the remake of
The Amityville Horror film courtesy of
Marie and her Mom (thanks)! I remember as a kid, the original version creeped me out so badly that when I woke up in the middle of the night, I didn't dare check if it was 3:15 a.m. Well, when you watch scary movies as a kid, mostly anything will creep you out -- and I watched everything. I didn't have a censor board, and my parents let me watch virtually anything short of porn. So I spent many nights tossing and sweating it out under blanket covers hoping
The Tenant wouldn't push me out of a window, or my parents wouldn't turn into
Body Snatchers as soon as the lights were out.
The
Amityville remake is great in that it still keeps you on edge, and though you have a vague idea of the story, it still jumps you at the right places. The ending sucked of course, with the unneccesary last 5 seconds and a bunch of questions hung in the air, like a cloud over our heads, unanswered, full of holes. I didn't expect anything at all, so it was a good scare for the price (free).
8.4.05
first drawing
This is Dylan's first drawing that actually looks like something other than artistically squiggled lines with the occasional dot. This is Sad Man with two eyes and a pair of nostrils. He didn't have hands at first, and when I pointed it out, Dylan said he forgot them and proceeded to add the left short arm. He has feet though, as you can plainly see.
6.4.05
motherfuckers!
To the
mother fucking cock sucker who stole my bag today:
I hope you choke on a fish bone from that fucking soft fish taco you bought with the twenty bucks that was in my wallet and I also hope that while you're choking, your inept accomplice has no idea how to unchoke you so, while he tries to drive you to the ER, he rear ends and smashes up his car on an EMS truck and you rip your fucking forehead on the windshield, still choking, limp as the tortilla you just ate, and the EMS truck decides to bring your and dumb accomplice's sorry asses to the ER and they fix you up, put you under observation and charge you each five thousand fucking dollars and you, both of you, stupid as you are, have no health insurance and are deeply in debt. Fuck you and I hope you pay through your fucking noses!
5.4.05
Sin City is a black and noir film. High contrast compositions, luminous accents once in a while punched with striking color, it's a visual feast. I won't comment on story, but it all works together with the strong paneling sequences, virtually allowing you to take any frame, print it and put it back onto the graphic page. Mikey Rourke does a convincing Marv and Benecio del Toro is a great Jackie Boy. The stories weave non-chronologically (of course), and the dames are unreal, over the top - if we had them in the real Sin City, they'd be raking in the money and out of town visitors so much, they wouldn't have to protect themselves - the city would probably do it for them, including employment benefits.
I can't believe people actually left mid-film because of the violence. Wha? They didn't expect SIN CITY to be about hookers and violent death? C'mon now, you would think they didn't live in Sin City. Even if you didn't read the books, I think you would have some inkling - Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino ring a bell? Just watch the movie, but let me warn you, there's boobs, butts, and blood. And if you try to Google the movie, let me warn ya again, sincity.com is, surprise, surprise, a porn site.
3.4.05
the vault
Digging through an old stash of, gasp, casette tapes and found a few interesting albums. I haven't seen a tape deck in a while and it'd be good to hear some of these again on my parent's stereo.
1. The Sugarcubes - Life's Too GoodBirthday was the first song I heard off of this album and I was hooked from that moment on.
2. Siouxsie & the Banshees - TinderboxI loved this album, but 8 songs seems a bit abrupt.
3. The B-52's - WhammyKiss me, whammy hug. Come on mammy, throw me that Whammy! Perfect silliness for 80's dance parties!
4. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White HeatLou Reed reading
The Gift is story time for adults. For some reason, I thought he had a bit of an Indian accent on this spoken word track.
5. Love and Rockets - Seventh Dream of Teenage HeavenThey didn't release early Love and Rockets locally, so I had to pay an arm and a leg for this one. But the band did their own album artwork, so it was worth it to see the inside covers.
6. Felt - Forever Breathes the Lonely WorldI haven't listend to Felt in ages. I've forgotten what they sound like. Ethereal I'm sure. This will be a re-discovery.
7. The Damned - AnythingWhatever happened to the Damned, and did they really sleep in coffins like they said they did? *googles "
the damned"* Ah.
8. The Cult - LoveI still love
She Sells Sanctuary. Then they rocked too hard for my taste.
9. Pet Shop Boys - PleaseI used to read Neil Tennant in British Smash Hits. Then he put together a two-boy band. Then I listened and liked very much.
10. Big Audio Dynamite - No. 10 Upping StreetThe voice of the Clash with a great dance beat.
11. Strawberry SwitchbladeI loved these Scottish girls with the hideous headdresses.
12. The Cure No letters, no words, just symbols. The tape label says to look at the inlay card for details. The inlay card shows a telephone, a target sight, an outline of a man, a person in bed, a pyramid, a...don't know what that is. But
Three Imaginary Boys is on this album.
13. The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
14. The Cure - The Top
15. The Cure - Japanese Whispers
16. The Cure - Concert The Cure LiveDid I mention I was a Cure fan?
17. That Petrol Emotion - Babble
18. Close Lobster - Foxheads Stalk This Land
19. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psycho CandyAre all these people Scottish?
20. The Mighty Lemondrops - World Without End and
Out of Hand21. U2 - Boy, Under a Blood Red Sky
22. Ministry - Twitch
23. Duran Duran - Duran Duran, Rio, Seven and the Ragged TigerThey're coming to Vegas. All 5 of them. I need 80 bucks.
24. A-Ha - Hunting High and LowI loved this album except for
Take on Me, but whose video was groundbreaking at the time, still is when I see it.
25. Belouis Some - Some PeopleAnd
Some People was probably the only song that I somewhat liked.
26. The Thompson Twins - Into the GapLoved this album.
27. The Communards Fantastic album! It's so worn out now.
28. 10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe
29. New Oreder - Substance
30. Talking Heads - Little Creatures
31. Yaz - Upstairs at Eric's
32. Depeche Mode - Speak and Spell
33. Echo and the Bunnymen - Songs to Learn and Sing
32. The Clash - The Story of the Clash Vol. 1 & 2
33. Madonna - Like a VirginThere's another box somewhere for another time though.
2.4.05
must read
What more can be said about these books except go out and find them at your local library or buy them - they're certainly worth the splurge. These books will endear you to Marjane Satrapi who tells of a life in Iran only she can tell. Intelligent, witty and funny, Marjane was unlike many 12 year olds, reading Marx - even if it was just the comics version. I didn't even hear of it until I was in college and I was in a first world country (is that why?). Part prophet, part revolutionary, Marjane entertains, but most importantly opens our eyes to a life that is often excluded by first world media - the simple truthful lives of people living in places other than where obnoxious, prevailing opinions are formed.
My family and I had the good fortune to spend a year in Iran before the revolution, when Iran was the image of wealth and had such an enviable wealth of history. The family and some friends visited Shiraz, "The City of Roses and Poets", and searched for the famed black rose. We walked through the gardens. I happily ate away at a jar of peanut brittle and lost my first tooth by the time we arrived at the garden where the black rose usually blooms. There was a big hubub about the tooth, which I thought was an extremely hard peanut to crack, almost spitting it out, when I realized there was a new space in my mouth that was never there before. The black rose was forgotten seeing as it hadn't yet bloomed, too early in the spring. Everyone else was more interested in seeing the tooth. Never mind poets and roses, a tooth had fallen.
We drove hundreds of kilometers back home to Esfahan where we lived with other Filipinos and where I saw rabbits born for the first time. They died in the bitter cold of early spring. Then the rabbit disappeared. Possibly, in one of the uncle's pots in the kitchen, along with the dog. We did eat well in those days.
I found my best friend in Iran. She was a year older than me and half American. She was so mature and acted like she was 10 instead of 7. She taught me to speak proper English, or rather, proper American English slang. We watched The Donny and Marie show and played with her Barbies and swam in the neighbor's deep swimming pool. Only, I didn't know that I didn't know how to swim. Miraculously, a nun pulled me out of the pool before I could drown, although, to tell the truth, it didn't seem like I was drowning at all, just blowing an awful lot of bubbles. Her name was Sister Elsa. She was my favorite nun.
One day, we all packed into my father's tiny, green Citroën and we headed for the Caspian Sea. We came upon the shiny, bejweled ocean in the middle of the ancient desert, climbed out of the car and stretched a bit, sat on the car hood for a quick stare in admiration, then climbed back into the car and drove off in search of sea food.
Once in a while, we traveled to Tehran, and there we dined with Iranian families, so modern and cultured, so open and welcoming. My mother pretended she was allergic to lamb, after my father found a nice, grassy piece of mutton on his plate. All I really wanted was the sweet nougat and rahat loukoum with tea in clear glasses resting on filigreed silver handles, and the sugar cubes, ooh, the sugar cubes! But the party went on and on, the music, the dancing...I just wanted to sleep after all the grapes, oranges and dates I'd devoured.
