So it's been a busy few weeks. Not this past weekend but the one before was interesting. On Sat. I went to a Japanese book star in Manhattan to meet Tatsuya Nakadai, which was rad. If you don't know who he is, shame on you. He was in a bunch of Kurosawa films (he first appeared in The Seven Samurai but his roll is very brief) and he's a bit of a big deal in samurai film/Japanese cinema circles. He told me though a translater 'your height intimidates me and your sideburns remind me of Toshiro Mifune.' I took that as a compliment. The next day we did the Autism Benefit Walk, which was encouraging and very positive and a fair bit of fun too. I got to see Southside Seaport, an old part of town I'd never been to before.

This past weekend Alison and I went to Chicago where we hung out with some friends at a film convention. I officially invested in a film for the first time and we got to meet George Romero. How cool is that? I also drank some beers and bought some comic books, but that's really not all that interesting. Some would say it's par for the course.

Works been going well, even if I'm still leaning which makes it seem more hectic than it really is. Other than that, things are good. I'm happy, healthy (aside from the head cold) and enjoying life a lot more than I have in ages. There's a lot of neat stuff coming to a boil right now and the second half of this year should be a pretty interesting one.

Scream for me New York City!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it's been a busy week. I started my new job which is going quite well so far and I actually like it which is a nice change - the money isn't bad either and they're sending me to Colorado for a week in August and, get this, probably Portland for a couple of days in the fall. I hope to make a happy hour at the Lucky Lab if/when that happens and dammit, as big as NYC is, the record shops in PDX are way, way, way better.

Thursday Eddie and I spent the afternoon exploring Brooklyn and Friday we went to Six Flags in Jersey. I hate Jersey. Really. I fear it.

At any rate, Sunday night we went to see Iron Maiden play at Madison Square Gardens. I've been listening to Iron Maiden since I was eight. That's a quarter of a century's worth of cheesy (but remarkably intelligent) lyrics, galloping guitars, and bad fashion all culminating in one night's worth of heavy metal bliss. I'd never seen them before that night and the wait was completely worth it. They only played 80s era material which was nice as although I thought that the last album was okay, the few that preceeded it weren't very good. It was basically a greatest hits tour and they played for well over two hours straight. Lots of explosions and lighting tricks and Eddie (their mascot) came out as a mummy and in his 'Somewhere In Time/Stranger In A Strange Land' guise to make trouble. I was surprised how much pyro they used in the show and just how freakin' good they sounded live. At one point, about 2/3 of the way through Powerslave ironically enough, something blew on the soundboard. The band played soccer on stage while the techs fixed it. Aside from some dink accidentily pouring a frozen daquiri on Alison (who drinks a frozen daquiri at an Iron Maiden show????) it was a seriously good time. I'd go see them again in a heartbeat.

This week it's work, work, work. This weekend we have the Autism Walk on Saturday and will probably spend the rest of the weekend slacking. I have two free passes for The Hulk so we might go see that but really I'm just looking forward to being lazy and hanging out with my gal.

Next weekend, however, it's Flashback Weekend in Chicago. I'm gonna give George Romero a high five, buy bootleg movies and potentially drink a beer or two. I'm also gonna ink some paper that will officially allow me to invest in a movie that's slated to be made later this year. But more on that later.

Happy Birthday To Me!

So last week was busy, productive and fun all at the same time. I turned 33 on Thursday and Alison and her son decided to wake me up at a reasonable time in the morning and give me my gift (the Dirty Harry Collection on Blu-ray, huzzah!). When she got home from work we hit up this crazy Dominican restaurant near the airport. It was covered in thatched roof style grass and all the furniture was made out of bamboo. The interior was done up like the inside of a cave, it was pretty cool. The grill a mean steak and don't charge and unreasonable amount of money for it.

Saturday night we had a few friends over for a small party. Much beer was consumed, many hamburgers were eaten, and a fair amount of chicken, sausage, and chili-cheese dip filled people up. We yapped and argued about movies and other nonsense, enjoyed some Planet Earth in high def, and enjoyed some Thor videos. It was during the Thor video that Alison decided to bring out the Cookie Puss cake. Before anyone gets the wrong idea, click this link. This was a big deal to me because for whatever reason, I'd been obsessing over Cookie Puss lately. I remember the ads from when I was a kid. Growing up on a border town in Canada, we got no shortage of American television and the commercials were all over the Buffalo channels. I'd never actually seen a Cookie Puss before, though, let alone have someone give me one for my birthday. You can tell by the picture, I'm appropriately excited.

It was a nice night and people came out to Queens for once (instead of making us take the train into Manhattan, which is the norm). I also watched an episode of the Incredible Hulk where some jerk gave the Hulk acid by slipping some LSD into Dr. Banner's orange juice. I've been obsessing over that lately too.

In other, and likely more important, news the four job interviews I had last week bore fruit. I got an offer today that I accepted and I'm happy, excited, and relieved. I didn't want to piss away all my savings and now I don't have to. The money is good, and while there aren't any benefits yet, that will probably change soon as the company expands. The interviews went really well, and the office isn't too far at all from the DISTINGUISHED WAKAMBA LOUNGE! So if I get the craving for Spanairds, expensive booze and urine it'll only be two blocks away. So, hooray for me. I'm another year old but likely no wiser. At least I've got a job now.

Oh, and the new five disc Pogues boxed set that came out in the UK last week? Amazing and completely worth every penny.

So it looks like Obama will run for the Democrats...

....good.

In other news, I have a second job interview with a rad tech company based out of Manhattan on Thursday, which is also my birthday. Party at our place on Saturday, if you're in NYC and wanna show up, shoot Alison or myself an email for directions.