So after enjoying a nice, relaxing Christmas with Alison's family on the 25th and taking a few days to recover (which meant enjoying a bottle of Dogfishead 120 IPA and eating a lot of bacon while watching Pineapple Express and Superbad on Blu-ray), tomorrow I head back to Canada to catch up with some friends and family who I didn't get to see a few weeks back. These are the benefits of your office closing down between Christmas and New Years, you can do these things. Jet Blue had a decent price so I'll be flying out of JFK tomorrow afternoon and coming back on 12/31 to spend New Years Eve with my gal, which is as it should be.
If you're looking for something to do over the Holidays, why not watch Battle Wizard? It's seasonal fun for the whole fighting monkey loving family!
Anyone reading this from NYC, hit Kim's on St. Mark's before they close the store at the end of the month. There are deals to be had if you don't mind looking around a bit and while a lot of the good stuff is gone already, it's not so picked over that it isn't worth checking out. Between the soon to be closed location and the new one at 1st Ave. and 8th St. I dropped a good chunk of change but I found a bunch of out of print Something Weird Video titles (hooray for Chesty Morgan and Mexican wrestlers!) and Anchor Bay Hammer Horror titles for less than $10 a pop. Money well spent.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
An Early Canadian Christmas Trip
So last week Alison and I braved the snowstorm that beat the living snot out of the Northeast part of this country called America to travel across the border to visit my family. We drove as far as we could in the nasty weather on Thursday night and grabbed a hotel room in the small town of Johnston, NY, not too far north of Albany. At 6am the alarm went off and it was time to hit the road again and we drove straight through to make an appointment I'd scheduled at 11am on Friday.
With that out of the way, we finished a quick bit of Christmas shopping before heading to my mother's place and then moving on to my dad's, Swiss Chalet for dinner, and then my grandparents' apartment. Friday was busy, but it was great to see everyone on that side of the family again.
Saturday morning we went for breakfast with mom and my stepdad and then drove up to Toronto to see my mother's side of the family after checking out my Grandmother's swanky new digs in Niagara Falls. We all crammed into my uncle and aunt's house and enjoyed a nice dinner. Once that was over, Alison and I went to Young and Dundas downtown. I hadn't been there in over eight years and was amazed at how much like Times Square it has become. We drove down Queen West only to find that almost everything had closed at 8pm before heading up Bathhurst and parking near Honest Ed's. We peeked inside Suspect Video, I was relieved to see it was still there as it played a huge part in my movie watching habits while I lived in Toronto, and then spent a good hour combing the CD bins at Sonic Boom before hitting the hotel in Yorkville. We ordered some BBQ from a place that delivered, watched TV, and crashed.
During all of this, I accumulated some pretty rad Canadian content in the form of:
The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein DVD Collection Vol. 2
The Hanson Brothers - Sudden Death CD
Stompin' Tom - The Ballad Of Stompin' Tom CD
Stompin' Tom - Bud The Spud CD
Stompin' Tom - Kic' Along With Stompin' Tom CD
The Gruesomes - Live From Hell CD
The Forgotten Rebels - In Love With The System CD
Thor - Keep The Dogs Away 30th Anniversary Edition CD
I was disappointed to see that no one was stalking the new Hanson Brothers 2-CD set called It's A Living, but I'll snag it online sooner rather than later.
Sunday we woke up and drove back to Niagara Falls to visit with my sister, her husband, and their two super cool kids but once noon hit, it was time to drive back to NY. We made it back late Sunday night and as rushed as the trip was and as exhausted as I was from it, I'm glad we did it.
With that out of the way, we finished a quick bit of Christmas shopping before heading to my mother's place and then moving on to my dad's, Swiss Chalet for dinner, and then my grandparents' apartment. Friday was busy, but it was great to see everyone on that side of the family again.
Saturday morning we went for breakfast with mom and my stepdad and then drove up to Toronto to see my mother's side of the family after checking out my Grandmother's swanky new digs in Niagara Falls. We all crammed into my uncle and aunt's house and enjoyed a nice dinner. Once that was over, Alison and I went to Young and Dundas downtown. I hadn't been there in over eight years and was amazed at how much like Times Square it has become. We drove down Queen West only to find that almost everything had closed at 8pm before heading up Bathhurst and parking near Honest Ed's. We peeked inside Suspect Video, I was relieved to see it was still there as it played a huge part in my movie watching habits while I lived in Toronto, and then spent a good hour combing the CD bins at Sonic Boom before hitting the hotel in Yorkville. We ordered some BBQ from a place that delivered, watched TV, and crashed.
During all of this, I accumulated some pretty rad Canadian content in the form of:
The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein DVD Collection Vol. 2
The Hanson Brothers - Sudden Death CD
Stompin' Tom - The Ballad Of Stompin' Tom CD
Stompin' Tom - Bud The Spud CD
Stompin' Tom - Kic' Along With Stompin' Tom CD
The Gruesomes - Live From Hell CD
The Forgotten Rebels - In Love With The System CD
Thor - Keep The Dogs Away 30th Anniversary Edition CD
I was disappointed to see that no one was stalking the new Hanson Brothers 2-CD set called It's A Living, but I'll snag it online sooner rather than later.
Sunday we woke up and drove back to Niagara Falls to visit with my sister, her husband, and their two super cool kids but once noon hit, it was time to drive back to NY. We made it back late Sunday night and as rushed as the trip was and as exhausted as I was from it, I'm glad we did it.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
My education finally pays off.
Made over a decade after graduating....
Made after spending $1500 on A/V hardware...
Edited in about 20 minutes....
The Amazing Super RadDog Sitting Video! (notes: the background music has some naughty words in it. Blame Prince, not me).
My first short film. I bet my parents are so proud right now they're shedding tears of joy.
Made after spending $1500 on A/V hardware...
Edited in about 20 minutes....
The Amazing Super RadDog Sitting Video! (notes: the background music has some naughty words in it. Blame Prince, not me).
My first short film. I bet my parents are so proud right now they're shedding tears of joy.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Twisted Sister's Twisted Christmas Spectacular!
So in honor of Alison's birthday yesterday, we went and saw Twisted Sister at the Nokia Theater in Times Square for thier 'Twisted Christmas' spectacular, which is a fun sort of metal goofy holiday thing that they've been doing for a few years now.
I'll admit, I wasn't sure about this and I splurged on the VIP tickets for her sake and was a bit skeptical about whether or not this show would deliver or not. Before the show we eat some tasty Indian food and I was also worried that I might poop my pants later in the evening. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
At any rate, we got to the venue and didn't really care about the opening acts so we sat at a table and people watched. I drank some beers and we saw a dude who look a bit like Mark Tolch wearing a Manowar shirt on top of another Manowar shirt. He would periodically switch them throughout the night. I thought that was pretty metal and for once felt out-Manowared. Now I have something to aspire to.
After people watching, we wandered into the auditorium where Eddie Trunk was on stage getting people stoked to see the band. Mick Foley was also wandering around, which was pretty rad. Once Trunk was done, the lights went down and the music started up. Once the curtain went down and the lights came back up, the band came out, one at a time... everyone except Dee. A few seconds later, Mini-Kiss came out carrying Dee on a sled of some sort, he was dressed like Santa.
The stage was pretty rad. It had a machine up top where good Santa dolls would go in and 'metal' Santa dolls would come out. On the left there was a thing that looked like the pod from The Fly and periodically people would pop out of it, but more on that in a bit. The stage hands were all dressed like elves and would throw inflatable balls shaped like Christmas ornaments into the crowd throughout the show.
The Santa suit came off and the band went back and forth between doing heavy metal Christmas tracks and older actual Twisted Sister tracks. Remember that Fly pod I mentioned earlier? Well it opened up and Lita Ford came out dressed in red pleather cat suit thing. I don't know how she fit into it. I was hoping she'd sing a Lita Ford song or two, or maybe bust out a Runaways tune but no. She and Dee did a duet to I'll Be Home For Christmas though, and that was kinda cool. Once Lita was done, Mick Foley came out on stage and asked everyone what they wanted for Christmas. Eddie wanted some wine and a smoke, AJ wanted to be tall, The Animals wanted a twelve car garage, some tools and a tank to drive around NYC, and I forget what Jay Jay French wanted, something about not having to use lipator, which I think is cholesterol medication. Dee wasn't sure what he wanted... he thought about it for a minute, and then, surprising nobody but pleasing everyone, he screamed out, I WANNA ROCK! at which point, they played that song. Which made perfect sense. They finished up and then came out for the expected encore where they did the whole twelve days of Christmas thing before closing with We're Not Gonna Take it, at which point Lita Ford and Mini-Kiss came back out again.
All in all, it was one of the most fun shows I've seen in ages. I had my doubts, but they were definitely put to rest about 2 minutes into the show. These guys may be getting on in years but they still deliver live and Dee's still got amazing energy up on stage. They sounded great, really tight and super heavy and they had the crowd eating it up. What a killer show.
But the night was not over!
After the show, cause we had the fancy VIP tickets, we got to go backstage and do a meet and greet with the band. They were all pretty friendly and Dee made me do one of those 'respect knuckle punch' things when he noticed I had a Warriors t-shirt on. He also wished Alison a happy birthday. We also got rad Christmas cards from the band, that they signed, which was kinda funny. After that Mark Mendoza yelled at everyone and told them to get out of the room, so we went home. Alison fell asleep on the subway. When we got home we drank Snapple and I ate a Twix bar.
I'll admit, I wasn't sure about this and I splurged on the VIP tickets for her sake and was a bit skeptical about whether or not this show would deliver or not. Before the show we eat some tasty Indian food and I was also worried that I might poop my pants later in the evening. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
At any rate, we got to the venue and didn't really care about the opening acts so we sat at a table and people watched. I drank some beers and we saw a dude who look a bit like Mark Tolch wearing a Manowar shirt on top of another Manowar shirt. He would periodically switch them throughout the night. I thought that was pretty metal and for once felt out-Manowared. Now I have something to aspire to.
After people watching, we wandered into the auditorium where Eddie Trunk was on stage getting people stoked to see the band. Mick Foley was also wandering around, which was pretty rad. Once Trunk was done, the lights went down and the music started up. Once the curtain went down and the lights came back up, the band came out, one at a time... everyone except Dee. A few seconds later, Mini-Kiss came out carrying Dee on a sled of some sort, he was dressed like Santa.
The stage was pretty rad. It had a machine up top where good Santa dolls would go in and 'metal' Santa dolls would come out. On the left there was a thing that looked like the pod from The Fly and periodically people would pop out of it, but more on that in a bit. The stage hands were all dressed like elves and would throw inflatable balls shaped like Christmas ornaments into the crowd throughout the show.
The Santa suit came off and the band went back and forth between doing heavy metal Christmas tracks and older actual Twisted Sister tracks. Remember that Fly pod I mentioned earlier? Well it opened up and Lita Ford came out dressed in red pleather cat suit thing. I don't know how she fit into it. I was hoping she'd sing a Lita Ford song or two, or maybe bust out a Runaways tune but no. She and Dee did a duet to I'll Be Home For Christmas though, and that was kinda cool. Once Lita was done, Mick Foley came out on stage and asked everyone what they wanted for Christmas. Eddie wanted some wine and a smoke, AJ wanted to be tall, The Animals wanted a twelve car garage, some tools and a tank to drive around NYC, and I forget what Jay Jay French wanted, something about not having to use lipator, which I think is cholesterol medication. Dee wasn't sure what he wanted... he thought about it for a minute, and then, surprising nobody but pleasing everyone, he screamed out, I WANNA ROCK! at which point, they played that song. Which made perfect sense. They finished up and then came out for the expected encore where they did the whole twelve days of Christmas thing before closing with We're Not Gonna Take it, at which point Lita Ford and Mini-Kiss came back out again.
All in all, it was one of the most fun shows I've seen in ages. I had my doubts, but they were definitely put to rest about 2 minutes into the show. These guys may be getting on in years but they still deliver live and Dee's still got amazing energy up on stage. They sounded great, really tight and super heavy and they had the crowd eating it up. What a killer show.
But the night was not over!
After the show, cause we had the fancy VIP tickets, we got to go backstage and do a meet and greet with the band. They were all pretty friendly and Dee made me do one of those 'respect knuckle punch' things when he noticed I had a Warriors t-shirt on. He also wished Alison a happy birthday. We also got rad Christmas cards from the band, that they signed, which was kinda funny. After that Mark Mendoza yelled at everyone and told them to get out of the room, so we went home. Alison fell asleep on the subway. When we got home we drank Snapple and I ate a Twix bar.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thanksgiving
It's Thanksgiving! Here's what I'm thankful for this year:
-Family, friends, and people I can trust.
-A job, even though it drives me nuts, that allows me to pay my bills and leave a little bit left over.
-A car that's paid for and that is a reliable mode of transporation.
-My writing gigs and the interesting side projects that they've opened up for me over the last year.
-Living somewhere interesting despite insansity that NYC brings with it.
-Good health.
-Brooklyn Lager (cause I can't get Bridgeport IPA here and everyone needs a vice).
-A girlfriend who I love beyond words and who loves me just as much in return and who, for the first time ever, really and truly understands why I am the way I am and why I do the things I do and not only accepts me despite those qualities but genuinely appreciates them and encourages them allowing me to finally feel comfortable in my own skin.
-Genuine happiness.
The years not over, but it's been an eventful one and a good one so far. Here's hoping the trend continues.
-Family, friends, and people I can trust.
-A job, even though it drives me nuts, that allows me to pay my bills and leave a little bit left over.
-A car that's paid for and that is a reliable mode of transporation.
-My writing gigs and the interesting side projects that they've opened up for me over the last year.
-Living somewhere interesting despite insansity that NYC brings with it.
-Good health.
-Brooklyn Lager (cause I can't get Bridgeport IPA here and everyone needs a vice).
-A girlfriend who I love beyond words and who loves me just as much in return and who, for the first time ever, really and truly understands why I am the way I am and why I do the things I do and not only accepts me despite those qualities but genuinely appreciates them and encourages them allowing me to finally feel comfortable in my own skin.
-Genuine happiness.
The years not over, but it's been an eventful one and a good one so far. Here's hoping the trend continues.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Mystery Vacation Round Up!
So last Friday we drove to Salem and hung out there for the morning. It was a neat town with a weird creepy history to it. It's also a bit of a tourist trap. The old burial ground is eerie enough to be interesting and wandering around there in the fall rain added a certain atmosphere and ambience to the whole weird vibe that was there to begin with. I'm glad I went and got to check the place out for myself, particularly because that wasn't our final destination, simply a neat stopping point along the way.
Saturday afternoon, after Salem-ing ourselves out, we got back into the Adventure-Mobile and drove further north to New Hampshire, stopping in the White Mountains area in a small town called North Conway, which lead to my making many a Conway Twitty joke. Alison loves Conway Twitty jokes. She just can't get enough of them. At any rate, she got us a room at this rad hotel that was more or less attached to an outlet mall (which was odd but also rather convenient as there were bargains on Judas Priest CDs and Midnight Movie DVDs to be had!). We had a huge room with a jacuzzi in it and the staff there were all really nice. The first night we were there we met up with some friends who had driven up from Maine to have dinner with us. We wound up at a local steakhouse for a really nice meal before heading back to the hotel bar and befriending a waiter named Bamtu from South Africa who decided that rather than bring me the bourbon and lemonade I'd ordered he'd bring me a bourbon and ginger ale - that tasted weird. It was promptly replaced. Anyway, good times.
Sunday morning we woke up and checked out the town for an hour or so before getting on this neat old train that wound its way up through the mountains before stopping at a cider house on the way back. A great way to kill two hours and enjoy some gorgeous scenery, it was well worth the price of the ticket and I got some neat pictures and some good footage. We drove around the mountains for a while that after noon and then did a bit of shopping before heading back to the hotel for dinner. Our waiter? Good ol' South African Bamtu again.
That night I also went swimming outside. There was a heated outdoor pool that I took advantage of - had the place to myself - and it was neat swimming around in nice, warm water while snow fell around me. Monday morning we took our time driving home bringing an all to prompt ending to one of the most relaxing weekends of my life. I think I want to move up there, it was so pretty and peaceful but not so far removed from civilization that it was dull. It reminded me of a cross between Oregon and the Muskoka region in Ontario.
At any rate, a few random pictures...
Saturday afternoon, after Salem-ing ourselves out, we got back into the Adventure-Mobile and drove further north to New Hampshire, stopping in the White Mountains area in a small town called North Conway, which lead to my making many a Conway Twitty joke. Alison loves Conway Twitty jokes. She just can't get enough of them. At any rate, she got us a room at this rad hotel that was more or less attached to an outlet mall (which was odd but also rather convenient as there were bargains on Judas Priest CDs and Midnight Movie DVDs to be had!). We had a huge room with a jacuzzi in it and the staff there were all really nice. The first night we were there we met up with some friends who had driven up from Maine to have dinner with us. We wound up at a local steakhouse for a really nice meal before heading back to the hotel bar and befriending a waiter named Bamtu from South Africa who decided that rather than bring me the bourbon and lemonade I'd ordered he'd bring me a bourbon and ginger ale - that tasted weird. It was promptly replaced. Anyway, good times.
Sunday morning we woke up and checked out the town for an hour or so before getting on this neat old train that wound its way up through the mountains before stopping at a cider house on the way back. A great way to kill two hours and enjoy some gorgeous scenery, it was well worth the price of the ticket and I got some neat pictures and some good footage. We drove around the mountains for a while that after noon and then did a bit of shopping before heading back to the hotel for dinner. Our waiter? Good ol' South African Bamtu again.
That night I also went swimming outside. There was a heated outdoor pool that I took advantage of - had the place to myself - and it was neat swimming around in nice, warm water while snow fell around me. Monday morning we took our time driving home bringing an all to prompt ending to one of the most relaxing weekends of my life. I think I want to move up there, it was so pretty and peaceful but not so far removed from civilization that it was dull. It reminded me of a cross between Oregon and the Muskoka region in Ontario.
At any rate, a few random pictures...
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Recent Excitement!
So with the election out of the way, what else is there to talk about? Financial turmoil is no fun. Howzabout what I've been up to? So last weekend I got together with a pair of friends who work for a DVD company and recorded a pair of commentaries in a slightly drunken state for two c-list films, The Killer Likes Candy and Run Like Hell (the later of which was directed by Eric 'Slain Wayne' Brummer and stars Robert Z'dar but appears on neither of their filmographies on the imdb - it's just that good!). The commentaries rarely stayed on topic but they were fun to participate in. Hopefully the finished product is marginally entertaining to listen to, at least in a 'hey listen to those kinda sloshed dudes talking about bad movies' kind of way.
I also bought an HD camcorder. Best Buy had 18 months, 0 interest on them last weekend and because Alison and I are going away on a 'mystery vacation' this weekend it made sense to buy one. The downside is that in order to edit anything, I need more ram and maybe a faster processor. Blah. The camera is a neat toy though and I'm looking forward to playing with it. Earlier this week I recorded our dog sitting on the floor. I used some editing software to loop Prince's 'Pussy Control' over top of it and the results are pretty amazing in a 'wow look at that potentially kinda sloshed guy making stupid home movies' kind of way. We'll see how things go once the ram we ordered from Dell shows up.
Today on the way home I got on the F train at the 35th St. stop I always leave from. I walked in to the train and notice a scruff looking man, possibly of Jewish origin, reading the paper. Hmmm... says I, he looks familiar. It was Handsome Dick Manitoba from the Dictators, sitting there reading the paper. I thanked him for the Dictators contributions to rock n roll and he told me that he was going to mention 'Ian from Queens' on his Sirius radio show tonight. Rad if he does, if not, still rad to run into a member of one of the city's greatest bands on the subway.
Friday night we leave for Salem, MA. Creepy! Should be neat though. We spend the night there and Saturday we head to... wherever it is we're heading to. Alison won't tell me. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Mystery vacation.... neat!
I also bought an HD camcorder. Best Buy had 18 months, 0 interest on them last weekend and because Alison and I are going away on a 'mystery vacation' this weekend it made sense to buy one. The downside is that in order to edit anything, I need more ram and maybe a faster processor. Blah. The camera is a neat toy though and I'm looking forward to playing with it. Earlier this week I recorded our dog sitting on the floor. I used some editing software to loop Prince's 'Pussy Control' over top of it and the results are pretty amazing in a 'wow look at that potentially kinda sloshed guy making stupid home movies' kind of way. We'll see how things go once the ram we ordered from Dell shows up.
Today on the way home I got on the F train at the 35th St. stop I always leave from. I walked in to the train and notice a scruff looking man, possibly of Jewish origin, reading the paper. Hmmm... says I, he looks familiar. It was Handsome Dick Manitoba from the Dictators, sitting there reading the paper. I thanked him for the Dictators contributions to rock n roll and he told me that he was going to mention 'Ian from Queens' on his Sirius radio show tonight. Rad if he does, if not, still rad to run into a member of one of the city's greatest bands on the subway.
Friday night we leave for Salem, MA. Creepy! Should be neat though. We spend the night there and Saturday we head to... wherever it is we're heading to. Alison won't tell me. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Mystery vacation.... neat!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Get Out And Vote.... Because I Can't.
If I were an American citizen (and I'm seriously toying with the idea because there ARE very definitely reasons I want to stay in this country even if I gripe a lot) I'd have voted today. We all know this has been an odd election. The influence of the media, from late night comedy shows to the internet, has been insane as has the back and forth between the two major parties. Right now it looks like Obama is going to take it and I'm happy about that. While in many ways I see him as a 'lesser of two evils' candidate and in other ways I actually think John McCain seems like a genuinely decent guy (unlike the current Asshole In Chief) I do want to see the Democrats take this one, much like I did in 2004.
The results aren't in and until they are, it's anyone's game (as Gore and Kerry found out the hard way) but things look good for Obama. Hopefully those pesky Neo-Nazi's will stay out of the way and let what's left of democracy happen. Scary that stuff like that still happens in America, that someone can be made a target for assassination based purely on skin color. That said, in a free country you can't force people to think logically and by the very nature of the beast I suppose you have to accept the ignorent as well as the intelligent.
Regardless, I'm looking forward to change I can believe in. Always a sucker for a good slogan (speaking of good Slogan's check out the French film Slogan starring the late, great Serge Gainsberg out now on DVD from our friends at Cult Epics - it's pretty rad) I think it's time that Washington started to care again. The last eight years... it hasn't felt that way. Having been in DC just last week for work I was reminded how great a city it is. It's a beautiful town with a rich history and a lot of good people living in it who really do want to do the good thing. It's also the epicenter of political corruption. A mixed bag to be sure, but I was there on the company dime and the food was good, so whatever.
The results aren't in and until they are, it's anyone's game (as Gore and Kerry found out the hard way) but things look good for Obama. Hopefully those pesky Neo-Nazi's will stay out of the way and let what's left of democracy happen. Scary that stuff like that still happens in America, that someone can be made a target for assassination based purely on skin color. That said, in a free country you can't force people to think logically and by the very nature of the beast I suppose you have to accept the ignorent as well as the intelligent.
Regardless, I'm looking forward to change I can believe in. Always a sucker for a good slogan (speaking of good Slogan's check out the French film Slogan starring the late, great Serge Gainsberg out now on DVD from our friends at Cult Epics - it's pretty rad) I think it's time that Washington started to care again. The last eight years... it hasn't felt that way. Having been in DC just last week for work I was reminded how great a city it is. It's a beautiful town with a rich history and a lot of good people living in it who really do want to do the good thing. It's also the epicenter of political corruption. A mixed bag to be sure, but I was there on the company dime and the food was good, so whatever.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Back from the Lou!
So Alison and I got back from St. Louis last night. We left Friday around 9pm and got a first class upgrade on the way there, which was pretty rad. I do enjoy free beers. We went straight to the hotel courtesy of this odd Polish cab driver who claimed that he was good personal friends of former NYC mayor, Ed Koch. This guy also claimed to have played hockey at the University of St. Petersberg in Russia at one point. I'm not sure how truthful his stories were, but they passed the time on the way to the hotel.
We crashed pretty hard upon arrival. We stayed at the Wyndam Mayfair, a neat old hotel built in 1925. It was a bit old fashioned but nice. Saturday our friend Jeremy came to pick us up after we played around at the newly constructed Lumiere Casino in downtown St. Louis. From there we had lunch at a place called Show-Me's, which was basically a low-rent version of Hooters. Surprsingly, they had Widmer beers on tap.
From there, it was off to the set. Once everyone was there I had some make up effects applied to my head. Then I stood around for a few hours. Once everyone else was ready, we did three takes of the opening scene of the movie. I play a corpse, but I do it well apparantly. It was interesting to see it all happen - the effects work (no CGI, all old school), the acting, the camerawork and all that stuff. It was also cold. And a long night. Alison was a good sport about it all and everyone was really friendly though and that made all the difference in the world.
Sunday was play day. Jeremy came and picked us up again and after lunch and beers at a great pub called Growler's, which much to my delight carried Bridgeport IPA, we went rollerskating at Rock Roll O Rena which doens't look like it's been touched since 1973. I'm terrible at rollerskating but I only fell one and I didn't hurt myself. It probably looked odd though as it was almost all kids there and they skated circles around me.
From there, back to the airport is where we went only to find out that our flight was delayed and that we might not make our connection in Chicago. Thankfully, our travel mojo was working well and we wound up on a direct to LGA which got us in a half an hour before we were supposed to have been there in the first place. All's well that ends well, right?
We crashed pretty hard upon arrival. We stayed at the Wyndam Mayfair, a neat old hotel built in 1925. It was a bit old fashioned but nice. Saturday our friend Jeremy came to pick us up after we played around at the newly constructed Lumiere Casino in downtown St. Louis. From there we had lunch at a place called Show-Me's, which was basically a low-rent version of Hooters. Surprsingly, they had Widmer beers on tap.
From there, it was off to the set. Once everyone was there I had some make up effects applied to my head. Then I stood around for a few hours. Once everyone else was ready, we did three takes of the opening scene of the movie. I play a corpse, but I do it well apparantly. It was interesting to see it all happen - the effects work (no CGI, all old school), the acting, the camerawork and all that stuff. It was also cold. And a long night. Alison was a good sport about it all and everyone was really friendly though and that made all the difference in the world.
Sunday was play day. Jeremy came and picked us up again and after lunch and beers at a great pub called Growler's, which much to my delight carried Bridgeport IPA, we went rollerskating at Rock Roll O Rena which doens't look like it's been touched since 1973. I'm terrible at rollerskating but I only fell one and I didn't hurt myself. It probably looked odd though as it was almost all kids there and they skated circles around me.
From there, back to the airport is where we went only to find out that our flight was delayed and that we might not make our connection in Chicago. Thankfully, our travel mojo was working well and we wound up on a direct to LGA which got us in a half an hour before we were supposed to have been there in the first place. All's well that ends well, right?
It was a great trip overall, if a bit exhausting. St. Louis is an alright town despite the fact that it is second only to Detroit in terms of crime rate. There's more culture there than you'd expect and some neat areas of town to bum around in that compensate nicely for the north and eastern parts of the city that look like they were bombed and left for dead. I was amazed to hear how cheap real estate there is and with how blue the skies were. After six years in Oregon and now living in NYC, I'm not so used to the blue open skies that they have in that area.
At any rate, good times. It was over too quickly, but we'll be back.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Escapism Rules.
Ok, so last weekend my mother was here. Overall, it was a great visit, really. We all had a blast and it was simply awesome to see her again and know she's doing well, and I know for a fact she felt the same way - she was a little worried about her first born living in NYC, etc., etc. and she I think it did her some good to see how and where I live first hand to realize that I honestly do have my feet grounded. Alison, ever the good sport, and I took her from Battery Park all the way up to Central Park with plenty of stops along the way and then surprised her with an early birthday present (1oth row orchestra seats for The 39 Steps which was fantastic and amazingly funny in the best Python-esque sort of way imaginable) her first day here. I think she was overwhelmed but had a great time. Day two was a trip to Staten Island before a 'meeting of the moms' where Ali's mom came over and the four of us all had dinner. Her third and final day saw an off season trip to Coney because she wanted to see it before it is torn down (any day now.... The Warriors would be pissed and rightly so!).
As such, I'm still tired. It was three days of non-stop 'stuff' and while I was happy to do it and look forward to doing it again, it reminded me that I'm getting old. Couple that with more work related bullshit than I care for and it's been a long week. Add to that the completely unexpected death of a former co-worker from my last job and you can understand how I'm tired, and so I've opted to find solace in the finer things in life.
This week, what has occupied me?
-Shaw Brothers Kung Fu - definitely see Kiss Of Death if you dig Kill Bill style revenge films done right and House of Traps is fun if you like guys in bad outfits running around in houses filled with... traps.
-Deception - Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor star in this very mediocre and predictable film that features more naked ladies than you'd expect. That said, naked ladies can help but not save a film that lays all its cards on the table from the on set. If you have half a brain, you'll see the twist coming.
-Pieces - Juan Piquer's trash classic got a 2-disc release from Grindhouse Releasing. Just get it. It's awesome. And bloody. And it has a rad Bruce Lee dude in it.
The Jesus And Mary Chain: The Power of Negative Thinking - four discs of JAMC's demos, outtakes, covers and b-sides. I'm of the belief that feedback actually helps purge the bad stuff from your head when life beats up on you and this set definitely does the trick. It's worth getting just to hear their fuzzed out and dirty sounding wall of sound cover of Prince's Alphabet Street. Awesome stuff.
These things, coupled with a nice bottle of mid-priced Aussie merlot, are a good combination. That said, the next couple of months have a lot to look forward to. St. Louis/movie work is the weekend after this one and Alison is taking me on a secret vacation to an undisclosed location the second weeke in November. I've got the seed for a screenplay or story of some sort brewing in my brain and in December I'm hoping to take off to the great white north for a few days to see the whole fam damily. Life is good over all, really. I've little to complain about, but the little there is, I'll take full advantage of.
Without further ado, some odd pictures Alison took of me at the Coney Island aquarium earlier this week...
As such, I'm still tired. It was three days of non-stop 'stuff' and while I was happy to do it and look forward to doing it again, it reminded me that I'm getting old. Couple that with more work related bullshit than I care for and it's been a long week. Add to that the completely unexpected death of a former co-worker from my last job and you can understand how I'm tired, and so I've opted to find solace in the finer things in life.
This week, what has occupied me?
-Shaw Brothers Kung Fu - definitely see Kiss Of Death if you dig Kill Bill style revenge films done right and House of Traps is fun if you like guys in bad outfits running around in houses filled with... traps.
-Deception - Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor star in this very mediocre and predictable film that features more naked ladies than you'd expect. That said, naked ladies can help but not save a film that lays all its cards on the table from the on set. If you have half a brain, you'll see the twist coming.
-Pieces - Juan Piquer's trash classic got a 2-disc release from Grindhouse Releasing. Just get it. It's awesome. And bloody. And it has a rad Bruce Lee dude in it.
The Jesus And Mary Chain: The Power of Negative Thinking - four discs of JAMC's demos, outtakes, covers and b-sides. I'm of the belief that feedback actually helps purge the bad stuff from your head when life beats up on you and this set definitely does the trick. It's worth getting just to hear their fuzzed out and dirty sounding wall of sound cover of Prince's Alphabet Street. Awesome stuff.
These things, coupled with a nice bottle of mid-priced Aussie merlot, are a good combination. That said, the next couple of months have a lot to look forward to. St. Louis/movie work is the weekend after this one and Alison is taking me on a secret vacation to an undisclosed location the second weeke in November. I've got the seed for a screenplay or story of some sort brewing in my brain and in December I'm hoping to take off to the great white north for a few days to see the whole fam damily. Life is good over all, really. I've little to complain about, but the little there is, I'll take full advantage of.
Without further ado, some odd pictures Alison took of me at the Coney Island aquarium earlier this week...
Monday, October 6, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
I Want A Bail Out...
So if the government bails out Wall Street, are they going to bail us out? Us Joe Six Packs (or, in my case, Joe Twelve Pack, because I am that much more manlier than most everyone else - or I drink too much beer - you decide) screw up financially all the time - where's our golden parachute?
It infuriates me that the government would bail out an economy that has been brutally sodomized by greedy bankers and brokers at the expense of the American (or legally naturalized) tax payer.
What about health care? $700 billion dollars would help a lot of sick people get better. Let the greedy pricks on Wall Street tread water for a couple of years. Let the housing market tank. Let the economy recover naturally even if it takes some time. By voting in the bail out the government is essentially 'faking it' (interpret that comparison as you will) while the Democrats fling crap at the Republicans and the Republicans fling crap at the Democrats and the blame game goes on and on and on.
Bush urges the House and the Senate to pass the bill - but does he care or is he simply using a bucket to bail out the sinking ship that will likely be his political legacy so late in his undeniably assinine Presidential career?
It pisses me off that big business wins again while unemployment rates skyrocket (the highest in seven years as of today), small businesses fail, and hundreds of thousands if not millions of people in this country can't afford to see a doctor. The two party system in this country continues to fail and I sincerely believe that the founding fathers would be horribly, horribly embarassed by all of this, as everyone who has played a part in the economic downfall of the former superpower that was the United States of America should be.
It might sound ungrateful for an immigrant such as myself to bitch about things like this, but if I didn't truly care about the direction the country is taking I wouldn't be here in the first place. At least in Canada I could go to the hospital without having to sell an organ on the blackmarket to fund it. America is awesome in so many ways and it is such a truly great country on so many levels that it just adds insult to injury to see this happen....
It infuriates me that the government would bail out an economy that has been brutally sodomized by greedy bankers and brokers at the expense of the American (or legally naturalized) tax payer.
What about health care? $700 billion dollars would help a lot of sick people get better. Let the greedy pricks on Wall Street tread water for a couple of years. Let the housing market tank. Let the economy recover naturally even if it takes some time. By voting in the bail out the government is essentially 'faking it' (interpret that comparison as you will) while the Democrats fling crap at the Republicans and the Republicans fling crap at the Democrats and the blame game goes on and on and on.
Bush urges the House and the Senate to pass the bill - but does he care or is he simply using a bucket to bail out the sinking ship that will likely be his political legacy so late in his undeniably assinine Presidential career?
It pisses me off that big business wins again while unemployment rates skyrocket (the highest in seven years as of today), small businesses fail, and hundreds of thousands if not millions of people in this country can't afford to see a doctor. The two party system in this country continues to fail and I sincerely believe that the founding fathers would be horribly, horribly embarassed by all of this, as everyone who has played a part in the economic downfall of the former superpower that was the United States of America should be.
It might sound ungrateful for an immigrant such as myself to bitch about things like this, but if I didn't truly care about the direction the country is taking I wouldn't be here in the first place. At least in Canada I could go to the hospital without having to sell an organ on the blackmarket to fund it. America is awesome in so many ways and it is such a truly great country on so many levels that it just adds insult to injury to see this happen....
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Shipping Up To Boston...
I'm sailor peg
And I've lost my leg
A climbing up the topsails
I've lost my leg
I'm shipping up to Boston
Shipping off to Boston
Shipping out to Boston
To find my wooden leg
Hopefully I won't ever have a wooden leg but I am heading to Boston in half an hour for a company event. I'm back tomorrow evening. It's still really weird to me to be away from home and away from Alison, even if it is only for a single night. I'm sappy that way I guess. I mean, there are worse places to go and the reason I'm heading there is to oversee a company dinner at a very nice restaurant with a good group of people. Free food, free booze, and a nice hotel to crash at. Years ago this would have really appealed to me. I'm mellowing in my old age, as to be honest, I'd rather be at home watching TV with my girl.
In other complete unrelated news, we're heading to St. Louis in late Oct. to pitch in on a movie that I invested in. I'm apparantly going to have a brief cameo role and am also supposedly going to be a murder victim in the film! haha.
My mom's coming out to visit second weekend in October - that'll be fun. It's only for a couple of nights but I've already booked some fun activities to keep us all busy while she's here. It'll be good to see her again.
Other than that, just keeping on keeping on. This weekend some of us local yocals are planning to hit up a tiki bar in Brooklyn called the Zombie Hut. I'll bring my camera.
And I've lost my leg
A climbing up the topsails
I've lost my leg
I'm shipping up to Boston
Shipping off to Boston
Shipping out to Boston
To find my wooden leg
Hopefully I won't ever have a wooden leg but I am heading to Boston in half an hour for a company event. I'm back tomorrow evening. It's still really weird to me to be away from home and away from Alison, even if it is only for a single night. I'm sappy that way I guess. I mean, there are worse places to go and the reason I'm heading there is to oversee a company dinner at a very nice restaurant with a good group of people. Free food, free booze, and a nice hotel to crash at. Years ago this would have really appealed to me. I'm mellowing in my old age, as to be honest, I'd rather be at home watching TV with my girl.
In other complete unrelated news, we're heading to St. Louis in late Oct. to pitch in on a movie that I invested in. I'm apparantly going to have a brief cameo role and am also supposedly going to be a murder victim in the film! haha.
My mom's coming out to visit second weekend in October - that'll be fun. It's only for a couple of nights but I've already booked some fun activities to keep us all busy while she's here. It'll be good to see her again.
Other than that, just keeping on keeping on. This weekend some of us local yocals are planning to hit up a tiki bar in Brooklyn called the Zombie Hut. I'll bring my camera.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
A lot has changed in the last 7 years...
I was on another NYC boat cruise last night, unaware really of the date, and once we got to the south end of the island we saw this...
If that skyline doesn't look familiar, blame my lame camera phone, but those lights are shining out of where the World Trade Center towers used to be. They literally pierced the clouds, it was amazing. It just kinda hammered home how much has changed for so many people since September 11, 2001.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
A few random pictures from my hike in Boulder, Co. last week. I was there for work but we had enough time that some of us were able to manage a 7 mile hike to a height of 8800ft above sea level. It was weird, the altitude winds you pretty quickly, but once we got to the top it was well worth it. Plenty of drinking water and some energy/protein snacks helped keep us all moving. In all there were about twelve us in the group. The other sixty or so people went on the beginner or intermediate hikes, and probably felt much better after wards. Then again, we got this view and they didn't...
One of the coolest things about getting to the top of the peak was the random stuff that we were able to see. This lone squirrel was just going to town at the top of the tree that you can see in the first picture. I was able to zoom in on him a bit. What a cute little squirrel. Hooray!
Here's a peek at the peak. It was a good hike and man did I feel it the next day but it was definitely worth it. Why bother going all the way to a hippy town like Boulder if you're not at least going to get outside for a bit and see what makes it interesting in the first place? Sure there's a shopping strip and a lot of neat bars to hit but you can get that and more in NYC (and believe it or not, you'll spend a lot less doing it). You don't get big ass mountains in NYC though. We had them in Portland, and that was pretty rad, but work didn't fly me to Portland (yet - it's on the books for August of 2009 so Portlanders mark your calender now as Alison and I want to plan a vacation around it).
One of the coolest things about getting to the top of the peak was the random stuff that we were able to see. This lone squirrel was just going to town at the top of the tree that you can see in the first picture. I was able to zoom in on him a bit. What a cute little squirrel. Hooray!
As you come down the hill, you get a nice view of the mighty city of Boulder. I believe that was were Mork and Mindy was filmed, but don't hold that against it. It's a nice place, even if it is ripe with dirty hippies. Seriously. I saw guys dancing to the Grateful Dead while playing frisbee in the park and just about wanted to puke. Or at least steal their frisbee. That said, if you don't mind exlporing the city a bit you can find a couple of good record stores and score Jerry Reed LPs for your girlfriend at a fair price. If that's your thing.
Another thing to be aware of is that Boulder is definitely bear country! They make no qualms about letting you know this when you come into the park and warn you not to approach the bears. We didn't see any (I was hoping to see a mountain lion or a bear or something but we had to settle for squirrels, deer, and a frighteningly buff sixty year old dude who was doing push ups by himself at the top of the mountain) but the stickers on the garbage can prove that, yes, I was in bear country. Go me.
Here's a peek at the peak. It was a good hike and man did I feel it the next day but it was definitely worth it. Why bother going all the way to a hippy town like Boulder if you're not at least going to get outside for a bit and see what makes it interesting in the first place? Sure there's a shopping strip and a lot of neat bars to hit but you can get that and more in NYC (and believe it or not, you'll spend a lot less doing it). You don't get big ass mountains in NYC though. We had them in Portland, and that was pretty rad, but work didn't fly me to Portland (yet - it's on the books for August of 2009 so Portlanders mark your calender now as Alison and I want to plan a vacation around it).
On the way up and the way down you see some neat rocks and outcrops, formed by the movement of glaciers thousands of years ago. At least that's what the guide said. The guide was cool. He was in his sixties and his calves were like the size of my chest. He was in super rad shape and kept telling us about how when he was in college everyone would smoke weed on the front lawn of the campus.
So yeah, here's me. On a mountain. Looking rugged and in dire need of a haircut and sporting a couple of nice pimples. Since I got home, the pimples went away but I still have to get that haircut, lest I wind up smoking weed on the front lawn of a campus and developing freakishly large leg muscles.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Casa Bonita!
So since Friday I've been in Colorado for work. I flew into Denver and checked in at the hotel (after a SEVEN HOUR DELAY coming out of LGA because a bird hit and dented the plane I was supposed to get on causing a bunch of last minute repairs). My good friend Matt, who lives in the area, came to pick me up and we went to Casa Bonita (made famous by South Park!) for bad Mexican food and rad photo ops.
Here's the proof.... three floors of caves, mariachi bands, arcade games, and all around tackiness.
Here's the proof.... three floors of caves, mariachi bands, arcade games, and all around tackiness.
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