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  • Reward weekend

    Current mood:accomplished

    Well, 10 and a half months and two girlfriends later, I reached a significant milestone: I have lost 10 % of my bodyweight as of my start with Weight Watchers. The word here is that the 10% represents the significant change in a healthier life for myself, and measurable medically. We are encouraged to reward ourselves for this goal, as if the health benefits aren’t reward enough. Nonetheless, synchronicity does become serendipity today.

    The reward I had in mind was a Nintendo Wii. I thought this represented a good combination of frivolous but reinforcing the healthy path I have been on. Still, they are not all that easy to get without paying a premium on eBay or Amazon Marketplace. Well, I saw early this morning that Target had another supply of them. I got to bed around 4:30 this morning, but was back up just after 9. I was lying in bed thinking reading the Sunday paper when I spied the sales flyer. I was still pretty tired, but I had a nagging thought at the back of my head: the nearest Target to me is a whopping 2 minute drive away. I made myself get up, threw on some clothes, and drove over. I was fully expecting them to be sold out already.

    Well, even for the early hour they open on Sunday (8AM) to coerce the yuppie suburbanites who don’t worry about church until next weekend, I was met by a very quiet store. I walked over to their electronics area and saw they had two Wii’s locked up in a glass cabinet. I went over to the clerk and asked for one. Then I saw the 4 crates of them he had behind the counter, and he fished one with my name on it. $262.48 later, I was walking out with the consumer phenomena of the past year.

    So far, I have swung for the bleachers, bowled a few pins, knocked some tennis balls around, but the thing that really got my heart racing (really!) was boxing! I also had fun configuring the Opera browser for the web on my big screen. Looks like no excuse for no cardio everyday now ;-)

    Others have splurged a lot more with their 10% goal, but I think I did well by my own standards, if I do say so myself.

    Also, I did splurge a bit in the grocery store: I bought $10 in gourmet mustards. Yum!
     

    10:26 PM

  • The train wreck that was this past weekend

    Current mood:discontent

    This has been one hell of a rollercoaster of a weekend for me, counting Thursday eve. I had a nice date that went well, and ended on a nice, romantic note (yes, I do consider myself a gentleman, especially on a first date. The problem is, she is heading out of the country soon to man one of our embassies in Eastern Europe! What a quandary!

    Friday was a true life goal for me: I interviewed Canadian director David Cronenberg! Cronenberg is my favorite working director, and he was in town to promote his new film Eastern Promises. He was more charming and intelligent that I expected, and we seemed like good friends [note: I will let you know when the interview is posted online, for those of you who are interested]. I even got my picture with him, as you should see with my page here, as a die hard fan would want! 

    Early Sunday I received some terrible news. A good friend of mine, a local tech friend, dj, and burgeoning screenwriter, committed suicide. This was extremely unexpected, because my friend had so much to live for. He young, intelligent, and was one of those beautiful persons who never had to deal a lack of women. But he was a friend without reservation. We would always talk about film and music like the friendly culture snobs we could be. I visited him and his SO while they lived in London, back in January of 2005. They returned stateside about a year ago, and recently, their relationship turned rocky. Still, within the past couple of weeks I had seen and spoken with him, and nothing seemed untoward about him. I still can't understand this completely. I do know I will miss him dearly.

    So friends, I really wonder about the train wreck of emotional high and low experiences of this weekend. Should I marvel at the fact that a safer life is insulated from this, and I choose a life less safe? I don't have the travails of parenting in life yet, or even marriage, so maybe those of you do, or who have a more chamed life than I can currently perceive, know of different coaster rides than I, but I trust we all will feel rewarded overall in the end. Above all, lives worth living. If you don't think you do, talk to me. That is my wish now, and for the rest of my life...


    11:14 AM

  • Kid A and The Monster Squad

    I am rediscovering two entertainments from the past: Radiohead's critically acclaimed and publically derired Kid A and Fred Dekker's wonderful box office flop, The Monster Squad.

    Kid A      came out in 2000, in what I remember as a grand joke on the likes of  MTV, who were part of the hype machine that fortold of a  virtual OK, Computer 2. It  was such a great hupe, it debuted at 1 on the sal,es chart the week of it's release;  it quickly fell as an unsettling realization came about it. This was more cerebral electronica, not area-filling anthems.  You have to wonder how much pressure the labels put on the band to release a followup to it called Amnesiac. To me, it is an intriguing exercise in echoing inner space.

    The Monster Squad  is enjoying a second life of late, and after a myriad of bootlegs being sold on eBay, Lionsgate has released the first legitimate DVD release this week. Boasting a screenplay by the then unknown Shane Black (who would become better known that year with the relase of his other film he wrote, Lethal Weapon..For some reason, the film still resonates in a way that some people think does that a film like The Goonies fails. Still, this exercise in 'The Little Rascals meet The Universal Monsters' , clocking in at a mere 82 minutes, and featuring a vastly underappreciated Duncan Regehr as Dracula. So, first we got the long overdue release of Night of the Comet, and now we get the 'Squad. What a fine double feature that makes (and you can play Kid A in between the films) ;-) 
    9:54 PM

  • Broadway has never been so bad to me!

    Current mood:pissed off

    Broadway has never been so bad for me! I have just returned from attending a performance of Sondheim's Company, currently in revival on Broadway. I had only heard of the title in years past, but my host up here in NYC really recommended it to me. So, I went to TKTS and dropped $60 for a discounted ticket to this show.

    What a stupid mistake I made at that moment.

    What can I say about a production that successfully alienated me in the first 15 minutes? What can I say about a musical more dated in it's langueage and it's approach to the subject of marriage, with an unmarried character at the center? What can I say about a play that follows the folly of several famed productions, including Rent, that somehow thinks all of us are just so in love with New York that we all think it is the center of the Universe? What can I say about the gimmick of having the actors carrying around instruments, many who show how inept they are with them? What can I say about a production that fakes food and drinks onstage, but not smoking? What can I say being surrounded by blue hairs that made up 80% of the audience? One thing:

    The single, most awful, professional theatrical experience in my life!
    1:05 PM

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