Oh, sweet November, can you not come quicker?
The last month I've been nothing but a ball of nerves. With our first big deadline approaching at work, helping out with Traci's wedding, and trying to deal with my own (and the nation's) sudden and painful financial problems, I've been under a great deal of strain, both mental and physical.
Work, thankfully, has evened out, and it looks like smooth sailing for us for at least the near future. The stress of work actually manifested itself physically: painful, itchy hives in weird patches on my arms, legs and back. I''m not positive, but they coincided with both my work stress level skyrocketing AND my wearing some terribly itchy, dry-clean only pants AND a trip to the Atlanta Humane Society. A combination, perhaps?
I know that something like a wedding shouldn't stress me out, but it did. Because I had the fabulous Javier as a house guest on Thursday night, I got to take a day off of work. I had hoped to show him some of Atlanta on Friday, but I slept very late, due to both Benadryl and an early morning fight between my upstairs neighbors that interrupted my normal pattern. They love to fight! In fact, on Sunday evening, they had a big fight about how stupid their fights are. How meta!
Yes, I can actually HEAR the words that they scream at each other. It's terrible. They started this morning at about 6:50, when I was trying to squeeze in a few more winks before I absolutely had to get up. I only know their names from them yelling them out. Awful. Just awful.
So I slept late and Javier and I were reduced to bagels and errands before we hit the road to Statham. It's an easy trip and I love being around Traci's family. Especially her parents and her Aunt LaRue. We had rehearsal and dinner and I learned that by accepting the position of "wedding coordinator" I was in charge of the processional, the schedule for the reception and just generally helping out. It sounds easy and it looked easy, but I still felt harried during the wedding and reception.
Before the ceremony we hung out at Traci's parents house, just helping with cooking, a playlist for the reception, putting out programs, etc. The wedding was at the Community Center, two blocks "uptown" from Traci's folks. Traci and her bridesmaids used a room at the Police Department next door for their preparations. In my opinion, everything went really well. I had a good time, despite the fact that I kept saying "This is my last responsibility" and then realizing I had another duty. Maybe I'm not as organized as I thought.
We all stayed in Athens Saturday night. It's a fun town and there's one bar that serves $2 Lone Star. Bless them. Unfortunately the Roadhouse, not to be confused with Logan's Roadhouse, is like other Athens bars in that at a certain point, a lot of frat boys are going to wander in and a lot of shitty music will get played.
After a few hours of drinking we all headed over to the 40 Watt Club, an establishment that I was happy to visit based solely on the number of live albums that I own that were recorded there. There was some horrible DJ, horrible in the sense that he did not understand transitions or mixing, was using a PRERECORDED mix, and was really full of himself. I've never seen a DJ spend 15% of his time running to the front of the stage to interact with the crowd. Tres douchey.
After a few hours of dancing and more drinking, everyone left but me and Javier. And we were rewarded for our fidelity! Yeah, that's right, the DJ who I will always malign did throw us a bone and play the "Tootsee Roll". Since Javier and I both graduated in the 1990s (1998 and 1997, respectively), it was a fond reminder of our high school years. It was also fun to watch the young folk dance to a song with instructions and not be able to follow them. How hard is "To the left, to the right..."? And when the man says "There's a dip coming on", there's a goddamn dip coming on!
That night did render a good "I knew I was drunk when.." story, which is, I knew I was drunk when Javier and I walked home and spontaneously started telling each other how much we love one another, miss one another, were so happy to have spent time together, etc. And then sudden hugging, while still walking. That and when I got in the shower and realized I had no motor skills. Suddenly soaping up my own ass was a mystery to me.
What will never be a mystery to me is the appeal of The Grit. We went for lunch on Sunday and Sweet Zombie Jesus, the food is fantastic! My cheese grits looked like a creme brulee, so browned and crusty was the cheese on top. And the use of cheese! To call it "liberal" would be an insult! Instead I will call it a flag-burning, abortion-loving, gay-friend-having, Communist use of cheese! Bless those hippies.
I came home from dropping Jav off at the airport and crawled into bed exhausted and still full of cheese. It was nice to come home and find my Sunday Times stolen and my neighbors fighting. It felt very welcoming.
And then back to work, where I could finally relax. This week has been busy, but good, as the bulk of the pain is already past. And then last night Tom and I managed third place at trivia (we've placed four weeks in a row now) and another team bought is a shot and now I am hungover and in pain in the office. It doesn't mean I can't work, it just means I have to cocoon myself a little more than usual. Headphones help, and that the person I talked to most is stuck in a four hour line to vote.
Another thing that has got me all riled up: the election. Whenever I think about McCain/Palin winning, I find myself on the verge of tears. My country can't betray me again, can it?
If it does, and I think it might, please help me with my drinking. It's already wildly out of hand, and after nearly six months of not smoking, I'm back at it again. Be a good friend and help me curb my addictions, okay? It's just that I love to drink; it takes me to a happy place that I can't find otherwise. Sigh. This post went from fun to depressing pretty quickly. To cheer you up, imagine me and Javier obeying the "Now slide!" command to this:
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Ham on Rye
I want to thank everyone for sending me various links to stories about MR's recent triumph at the Venice Film Festival. I am very proud of y'all for paying attention; you know what I like!
I'm also proud of Mickey these days. Not only is he the lead of the Golden Lion winning The Wrestler, but he also has a supporting role in the upcoming film The Informers, which is based on the novel of the same title by one of my favorite authors, Brett Easton Ellis. The male lead in that one is Billy Bob Thorton AND it also stars Chris Isaak. How could you possibly go wrong?
There is no trailer out yet for, but here is a clip of an interview with Mickey and director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, just so you can see how scary he is looking these days. That's a triple bagger if I ever saw one.
And because it is out, here's the trailer for The Informers. I think I might approve of any use of "Blue Monday". Also, Winona Ryder's in it.
Is that Brad Renfro's last film?
I'm also proud of Mickey these days. Not only is he the lead of the Golden Lion winning The Wrestler, but he also has a supporting role in the upcoming film The Informers, which is based on the novel of the same title by one of my favorite authors, Brett Easton Ellis. The male lead in that one is Billy Bob Thorton AND it also stars Chris Isaak. How could you possibly go wrong?
There is no trailer out yet for, but here is a clip of an interview with Mickey and director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, just so you can see how scary he is looking these days. That's a triple bagger if I ever saw one.
And because it is out, here's the trailer for The Informers. I think I might approve of any use of "Blue Monday". Also, Winona Ryder's in it.
Is that Brad Renfro's last film?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tales of the City
Week before last I headed out to San Francisco for the Society of American Archivists Annual meeting. Contain yourselves.
It was a good trip, but it would have been a great trip had I not gotten sick on the place on the way out there. I fell asleep about halfway through the five hour flight and when I woke up, I had a sore throat. By the time we landed I had a full on cold that lasted significantly longer than the trip. This doesn't mean that I didn't have a good time and learn a few things.
1. The Hilton Hotel chain is practically useless.
Our hotel was enormous, but with tiny rooms and unbelievably expensive amenities ($5 for the pool? Really?), and it just wasn't that nice. For half the price I could have stayed at the Holiday Inn and gotten free Internet and some eggs in the morning. I really shouldn't speak ill of all Hilton Hotels, as the was the first one I've actually stayed in, and I know from experience that the Austin Hilton has a rather lovely, decently priced restaurant (The Fin and Porter) in it. My friend Jones took his lady there on her 30th and they printed special menus up for the occasion. Nice!
So maybe not all Hiltons are created equal. Maybe some are nice and pretty and useful and some are dull, drab, overpriced and have way too many people coming in and out of them.
2. Everything you hear about AT&T Park is true.
Good God, is that a beautiful ballpark. The first night that I was in town I walked over for the Giants vs. Rockies game and it is a lovely place. I had a seat out in the bleachers and was not prepared for how cold it was. The park is right on the Bay (for non baseball fans that's a literal "on the Bay"; across the wall is water), and it was freezing. As per the recommendation of The New York Times, I got the hot crab sandwich (available only at one stand behind the scoreboard), which is two pieces of sourdough buttered and grill on the flat grill, then slathered with hot crab meat, a tiny bit of mayo, some tomato slices and served with a lemon wedge. Worth $15? Why, fuck yes.
At AT&T they have cultural nights and the night I went it was "India Independence" night. My section was full of folks in formal, traditional Indian dress. One of the men had a drum and at random times during the game, would start up a beat and inspire an impromptu Indian Dance Party in the stands. There was also a whole crew of soccer hooligans in the section who got really into the dancing, so pretty soon it was a British Soccer League/Indian Dance Party. I never got involved, mainly because the eating of that crab sandwich really dulled me to other sensations, but I was jealous of the hats given to the Indian folks: a regular black baseball cap with "San Francisco Giants" in orange Hindi script on the front. I came really close to tripping a little girl in her own sari and jacking her hat. Lucky for her, the crab really slowed me down. It's like a drug.
3. San Francisco has some amazing history and is really fun.
The last time that I went to SF was for a day trip with my friend Brooke (see below), when she was living in Davis, CA. It was a fun trip, but one day isn't really enough to experience a city like San Francisco. Honestly, in what city is one day enough?
Sue, one of our colleagues from Stanford University, took us on a tour of SF labor and civil rights sites, as well as defunct speakeasies. She works with the local "living history" group and has lived in SF for 30 years, so she is well informed. Also, her partner runs Bolerium Books, a used book store in the Mission District that specializes, among other things, in labor history.We didn't ride a streetcar, but we did ride the bus! To round out the night, Sue took us to a new speakeasy, where you have to have a password to get it. Yes, it's a gimmick, but the atmosphere was great and the drinks were delicious. A cucumber gimlet? But of course!
4. Indian pizza is awesome.
Friday afternoon my friend Brooke (graduate school at Ole Miss) picked me up at the hotel for a too quick visit. It's nice to have friends that you can fall into the same routine with, even after not seeing them for four years, which was the last time that I made it out to California. We went to the W Hotel, where her husband Will works, for drinks until he was off. Then to a micro-brewery (okay, but not enough watery-ass lager to please my white-trash ass), and off to their house by the ocean. Literally, by the ocean; it's like two blocks to the beach. It was really nice to go out there, as I've been to the Bay in CA but not the coast.
We ordered dinner from there favorite Indian pizza place, which involves regular pizza crust (not naan, as I thought it would), and meat or vegetables, curry and cheese. Delightful! After eating and chatting until 11:30, we realized that the cab I called for at 10:30 was not coming, so Brooke checked the bus schedule and sent me down to the corner to wait for the bus; the line that they live on goes directly from the beach and into downtown, stopping only one block from the Hilton. So I waited, in the dark, in the thick fog (the first I'd seen in San Francisco), with my back to the strip of woods between the street and the beach, a foghorn blaring in the distance, and a homeless man fighting with himself in two different voices to my left. I missed one bus and the second was out of service, but the midnight bus showed up on time, warm, clean and pleasant. I blessed Brooke for loaning my a book (it kept me sane during through the foghorn and the schizophrenia), and had a great ride back to town, enjoying a microcosm of SF along the way. My co-riders included a gang of teenage Asian skate-punks, people on their way to work, a bunch of Mexican men in their 20's snapping on each other's mommas, the homeless, a few white couples clearly headed to the club and two aging leather daddies sporting gray crew cuts and matching vests and jewelry. Nutshell.
It was a good trip and the conference was great. I have to thank the fine people at RWWL for paying for it and for hopefully paying next year when SAA is in Austin. So far for work I have gone to California twice, Boston once, New York once and Columbus, GA, once; I could get used to this jet set lifestyle.
It was a good trip, but it would have been a great trip had I not gotten sick on the place on the way out there. I fell asleep about halfway through the five hour flight and when I woke up, I had a sore throat. By the time we landed I had a full on cold that lasted significantly longer than the trip. This doesn't mean that I didn't have a good time and learn a few things.
1. The Hilton Hotel chain is practically useless.
Our hotel was enormous, but with tiny rooms and unbelievably expensive amenities ($5 for the pool? Really?), and it just wasn't that nice. For half the price I could have stayed at the Holiday Inn and gotten free Internet and some eggs in the morning. I really shouldn't speak ill of all Hilton Hotels, as the was the first one I've actually stayed in, and I know from experience that the Austin Hilton has a rather lovely, decently priced restaurant (The Fin and Porter) in it. My friend Jones took his lady there on her 30th and they printed special menus up for the occasion. Nice!
So maybe not all Hiltons are created equal. Maybe some are nice and pretty and useful and some are dull, drab, overpriced and have way too many people coming in and out of them.
2. Everything you hear about AT&T Park is true.
Good God, is that a beautiful ballpark. The first night that I was in town I walked over for the Giants vs. Rockies game and it is a lovely place. I had a seat out in the bleachers and was not prepared for how cold it was. The park is right on the Bay (for non baseball fans that's a literal "on the Bay"; across the wall is water), and it was freezing. As per the recommendation of The New York Times, I got the hot crab sandwich (available only at one stand behind the scoreboard), which is two pieces of sourdough buttered and grill on the flat grill, then slathered with hot crab meat, a tiny bit of mayo, some tomato slices and served with a lemon wedge. Worth $15? Why, fuck yes.
At AT&T they have cultural nights and the night I went it was "India Independence" night. My section was full of folks in formal, traditional Indian dress. One of the men had a drum and at random times during the game, would start up a beat and inspire an impromptu Indian Dance Party in the stands. There was also a whole crew of soccer hooligans in the section who got really into the dancing, so pretty soon it was a British Soccer League/Indian Dance Party. I never got involved, mainly because the eating of that crab sandwich really dulled me to other sensations, but I was jealous of the hats given to the Indian folks: a regular black baseball cap with "San Francisco Giants" in orange Hindi script on the front. I came really close to tripping a little girl in her own sari and jacking her hat. Lucky for her, the crab really slowed me down. It's like a drug.
3. San Francisco has some amazing history and is really fun.
The last time that I went to SF was for a day trip with my friend Brooke (see below), when she was living in Davis, CA. It was a fun trip, but one day isn't really enough to experience a city like San Francisco. Honestly, in what city is one day enough?
Sue, one of our colleagues from Stanford University, took us on a tour of SF labor and civil rights sites, as well as defunct speakeasies. She works with the local "living history" group and has lived in SF for 30 years, so she is well informed. Also, her partner runs Bolerium Books, a used book store in the Mission District that specializes, among other things, in labor history.We didn't ride a streetcar, but we did ride the bus! To round out the night, Sue took us to a new speakeasy, where you have to have a password to get it. Yes, it's a gimmick, but the atmosphere was great and the drinks were delicious. A cucumber gimlet? But of course!
4. Indian pizza is awesome.
Friday afternoon my friend Brooke (graduate school at Ole Miss) picked me up at the hotel for a too quick visit. It's nice to have friends that you can fall into the same routine with, even after not seeing them for four years, which was the last time that I made it out to California. We went to the W Hotel, where her husband Will works, for drinks until he was off. Then to a micro-brewery (okay, but not enough watery-ass lager to please my white-trash ass), and off to their house by the ocean. Literally, by the ocean; it's like two blocks to the beach. It was really nice to go out there, as I've been to the Bay in CA but not the coast.
We ordered dinner from there favorite Indian pizza place, which involves regular pizza crust (not naan, as I thought it would), and meat or vegetables, curry and cheese. Delightful! After eating and chatting until 11:30, we realized that the cab I called for at 10:30 was not coming, so Brooke checked the bus schedule and sent me down to the corner to wait for the bus; the line that they live on goes directly from the beach and into downtown, stopping only one block from the Hilton. So I waited, in the dark, in the thick fog (the first I'd seen in San Francisco), with my back to the strip of woods between the street and the beach, a foghorn blaring in the distance, and a homeless man fighting with himself in two different voices to my left. I missed one bus and the second was out of service, but the midnight bus showed up on time, warm, clean and pleasant. I blessed Brooke for loaning my a book (it kept me sane during through the foghorn and the schizophrenia), and had a great ride back to town, enjoying a microcosm of SF along the way. My co-riders included a gang of teenage Asian skate-punks, people on their way to work, a bunch of Mexican men in their 20's snapping on each other's mommas, the homeless, a few white couples clearly headed to the club and two aging leather daddies sporting gray crew cuts and matching vests and jewelry. Nutshell.
It was a good trip and the conference was great. I have to thank the fine people at RWWL for paying for it and for hopefully paying next year when SAA is in Austin. So far for work I have gone to California twice, Boston once, New York once and Columbus, GA, once; I could get used to this jet set lifestyle.
Hoopleheaded Cocksuckers Unite!
Can we just all agree that Ian McShane should narrate everything from now on?
That is all.
That is all.
The Revolution Begins!
Mickey Rourke's new film took top honors at the Venice Film Festival! It just goes to show that the old Hollywood adage is true: aging wrestler (Mickey Rourke) + aging stripper + director of Requiem for a Dream=awards catnip.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
A Musical Interlude
Did we all know that the Cure was still together and recording? Is it just me? Am I the last to know? Anyway, I think the new single, "Sleep When I'm Dead" is pretty fuckin' bitchin'. To wit:
Also, how fucking awesome is Nas? The first single off of, uh, Untitled (I'll just assume all y'all know that story), is titled "Hero" and it's pretty damn good. I had to drop in the taped-off-BET version 'cause the record company is preventing embedding for some reason. Doesn't it behoove them to have more and more people listen to the single?
And finally, who signed off on this fuckery? I've never liked Pretty Ricky to begin with, and this is pushing me over the edge this morning. One, we do not need a remake of "Knockin' Da Boots". Ever. Two, how much do they want to do each other in this video?
I vote "No".
Also, how fucking awesome is Nas? The first single off of, uh, Untitled (I'll just assume all y'all know that story), is titled "Hero" and it's pretty damn good. I had to drop in the taped-off-BET version 'cause the record company is preventing embedding for some reason. Doesn't it behoove them to have more and more people listen to the single?
And finally, who signed off on this fuckery? I've never liked Pretty Ricky to begin with, and this is pushing me over the edge this morning. One, we do not need a remake of "Knockin' Da Boots". Ever. Two, how much do they want to do each other in this video?
I vote "No".
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Metamprphosis
This is fucking awesome and you must watch it. I love this man! And turn the music off. This is set to something called a "Hilary Duff" and it ain't pretty.
F your various eyes, but I started ANOTHER blog today, called Never Get Involved In A Land War in Asia. It's a blog for good advice from film and television. Please visit, or I'll get beaten and locked in a closet again.
F your various eyes, but I started ANOTHER blog today, called Never Get Involved In A Land War in Asia. It's a blog for good advice from film and television. Please visit, or I'll get beaten and locked in a closet again.
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