Enjoy the sweet blasphemy

Stark, austere and minimal and it means the world

Now listening to: Four Tet

I'm feeling verbose today. I think I'm still awash in the excellence that is Pattern Recognition and it makes me want to try to write something good. Don't know if I'm there yet, but I should be writing more. I have no excuse other than my own lack of discipline.

So I think after I finish here I will make with the buckling down for a bit. Although I may get distracted by the William Gibson forums.

This Four Tet album I procured (!?!) is interesting. Four Tet is described as a laptop artist, meaning all he needs to compose an album or to set up a performance are two laptops. That's what the music is made on from start to finish. It's a deliciously punk concept (although the music is decidely not so). It's mellow electronic noise with a beat. If you like Air, check this out.

Odd that I prattle on so much about loving thick layered music that hits you like a wall and go bananas over these minimalistic sounds. I am nothing if not willing to change my mind.

Suck me raw with a breast pump

Now listening to: Nick Drake

So last night I finished reading what may be the best book I've read this year, William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. What's that? I knew one of you bastards were gonna throw The Half Blood Prince in my face and it's hard to deny the genius of Harry Potter, but Gibson really outdid himself. (Incidently Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down is also a candidate for this year's best read.)

But yeah, Pattern Recognition. It's a departure from Gibson's other stuff that basically invented the whole cyberpunk genre. It's a take on modern culture seen through an austere lens of marketing, the internet, obsessive fanboys, reverence for emergent technology. It's really brilliant and I was saddened when I finished it. It takes a really good book to make me wish it was longer. I say it's undoubtedly Filet Mignon, with potential to move into orgasmic territory. I recommend it to anyone with even a mild technology or pop culture fetish.

Hmm what else? I also read Must Love Dogs, the book they turned into the recent movie. It was ok, +1 chainmail, but nothing exceptional. I watched Surviving Christmas, which was ok (Meh. with shades of +1 chainmail). It seemed like they kinda rushed things plotwise, never really developed anything, just tossed it in your lap. Also I agree with Trip (that just feels odd to type) that casting Ben Affleck was a bad call. He was not good. Despite all that, there were some funny moments and it's worth seeing if you don't have to pay for it.

Just got a call from Nick and he's gonna hook me up with tickets to see the Steelers! Man is that awesome. It's only a preseason game, but it's as close to live NFL action as I've ever been and it's gonna kickass. I'm stoked. Now I can have fantastical dreams about Bill Cowher pulling me from the stands to give me a couple of carries. (Hey! I said fantastical.)

Last note, this Nick Drake is awesome. A nice folk feel with a solid chord of melancholy running through it (no surprise this guy committed suicide).

It hurts, but it's worth it

Now listening to: The Hold Steady

So I am now finally recovered from Saturday night. Kevin came over to Trip's and we hung out for a while, doing our thing. He had to go and play with his band, but convinced me to stay at Trip's until he was done. Soo Trip and I watched Sin City, man is that movie awesome. At some point I decided it would be a good idea to pull out the tequila and do a few shots. So five minutes and five shots later we had set the pace way too high. We backed off a bit, but it was too late at that point. I ended up getting slobbery drunk (along with Trip) and it was a good time. When Kev finally made it in, I'm sure he was thrilled to get to deal with two shitfaced assholes. Ehh, whatcha gonna do?

The next morning, however, was substantially less fun. I finally got home around 2 p.m. Sunday and didn't eat any solid food for quite a while. I finally had a club sandwich for dinner and have been slowly improving since then. I'm now back to relative normality. Sucks getting old and paying the real price for an evening of drinking. Used to bounce right back. Part of that may be I'm out of practice, but I don't plan on getting back into a regular drinking situation. I found it wanting overall.

I feel as if I am looking at the world from the bottom of a well

So last night my first fantasy football experience kicked off with the draft. I think I did ok, my inexperience showed at some points, but I got some solid picks. The big prize I got was Priest Holmes, who I hope has another amazing season. (I also picked his backup Larry Johnson in case he gets injured. I could run for 1,000 yards behind the KC O-Line... well probably not, but you get the point.)

Anyway it was fairly fun and I'm looking forward to all the junk talking that will sprout from this league. The only problem I had was that Mike and Christian weren't there for the draft. That leaves them a nigh-plausible excuse should they fail and I'd rather be able to rag on them unmercifully.

I did the actual draft from Trip's house, as I wanted to hang with him and Corb some. Sadly the draft stole most of my attention and I was mostly aloof. We did manage to play some Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros., which is some nice retro action.

Wait. What is that?

Can you smell that? It's the scent of sweaty men beating the hell out of each other and a pork product being thrown, tossed, dropped and kicked. That's right football season is afoot once again. Football, the pinnacle of all sports and joy to all who worship the divine god of the gridiron.

Tonight I watched the preseason Steelers vs. Eagles game on Monday Night Football and my yearning soul was soothed for that time. It is merely preseason action, which means both diddly and squat, but it symbolizes the changing of the season and that makes it great.

Anyway enough waxing philosophic on the pigskin. Hell I only watched half the game and then Trip and I watched Kenny vs. Spenny reruns. That show rules. The humiliation's are no doubt the height of comedy. Check it out if you can.

This weekend I stayed busy. Jeff and Melissa came in and we hung with them and had a good time. Went to see Wedding Crashers, which was as good as I hoped. Vince Vaughn is a genius. Also really, really hot women. They are always a plus. I'd give it a foot massage rating, pending more watchings. Some of these movies fizzle after seeing them a few times, while some keep getting funnier and funnier.

They call me Hard Corey

Been keeping a pretty low profile this week, gathering my strength after Gabe's visit. Trip and I did go to G-boro on Monday, in hopes of getting his comp. fixed. Of course, because of some tech. support misreporting that did not go as planned and we stood around in CompUSA for two and a half hours. Man that was fun. I, at least, got to sneak away and watch NFL Countdown at the TV kiosk. Trip was on the phone with Apple for most of the evening and, ultimately we left with nothing done. Huge stunner, even moreso for Trip than me.

Hmm, I've been listening to The Hold Steady's two albums a lot this week. Trip made me copies of their albums and they are very good. It's like a blues band with spoken word lyrics about drugs and parties and weird times in the midwest. Sorta. It comes out being good somehow and I wouldn't have thought so from my own description there. I've also been trying to get some more Finntroll, which is what Swedish pirates would sound like if they played metal. It's kinda cool, in a weird way.

Also football season is afoot and that always makes life a little better. I'm gonna do a fantasy football thing with Nick and the gang, but my only hope of succeeding there is if everyone else is as big a noob as I am, which I doubt. It'll still be fun I suppose. Must not draft all Steeler players...

Jojo the Idiot Circus Boy

Things are starting to get back to normal around here. Gabe left on Saturday morning and it's been pretty quiet. I had a great time with him in though and I hated to see him go. We hit up Chateau Morrisette and had a good time while he was in. Nice meal, good wine and beautiful scenery. That's a hard combo to beat.

Gabe had to be at the Raleigh airport early Saturday and I ended up not sleeping at all Friday night and riding down with him and mom. Sucked to see him go, but what can ya do? He's got a real life (which is a stunning contrast to my total lack of one). Mom and I rode back and hit K & W Cafeteria for breakfast. I won't be hurrying back for that. I've never been a huge fan of that place and my biscuits and gravy were quite horrid.

In other news, I watched Million Dollar Baby on Friday and it lived up to the hype. Good through and through. It's happy and sad and pretty much everything you could want. Also Morgan Freeman, man does that guy kickass or what. I'm giving it a filet mignon rating, with no reservations.

Saturday (after I had slept for a long while) I hooked up with Corb and Trip and we watched some Kenny vs. Spenny (a show I've only recently discovered) and some Pimp My Ride. We also watched a show that drove home the fact that I have outgrown the MTV demographic. It's called Trailor Fabulous and it's simply atrocious. It's a makeover show for people in trailors, with horrible, horrible people doing the making over. They have a token gay dude who was obnoxious. He's like Queer Eye's Carson if he was born in a trailor, forced to wear Levi's toughskins and molested by his uncle, Bo Duke.

Moving along, today Trip and I went to see March of the Penguins. It was really good. I love penguins anyway (note the name of the site afterall), but this was well done. Morgan Freeman narrated and again, he's the man. While I'm giving this movie a filet mignon rating, I have to note that I think Winged Migration was a little better film overall, it just lacked penguins.

Social interaction levels reaching dangerous levels

Man it's been a busy weekend. My bro rolls into town and EVERYBODY wants to hang. I've been social for the last 4 days and it's wearing thin. I'm tired, but I'm taking a day of rest. Hopefully that means I'll be more social going to the vineyard tomorrow.

But this weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Picked Gabe up on Friday in Raliegh with the fam. Saturday we hooked up with John, Tony, David and Ben and got a little drunk. Hodges showed up a little later. I managed to drop $20 in two poker tournaments. (I so hate the tourney format.) But it was a good time and good to see everyone.

Sunday we went to Trip's for some Halo 2 hijinks and Danny, Corb and Hodges showed up. After some early technical difficulties we got up and running and had a decent time. We finished the evening with some Robot Chicken, which Gabe appreciated.

Monday Hodges, Gabe and myself headed to the 'Noke and hooked up with David and Ben. We also managed to squeeze into Kevin's schedule and have a little Red Palace dinner with him. Mmm Red Palace. We ended up going all nostalgic and playing a booster draft with the new sets of Magic cards. That was fun and made me want to play again, but I really can't afford to get a new habit.

Well my plans of relaxing may have just come to a halt. Corb invited us to the pool, so we may end up doign that. Although at least that's a low pressure situation. Could be fun.

Nonentity

Now listening to: still more Modest Mouse

I managed to stay busy today. I mowed Trip's yard and did some weedeating in the insane heat. That was fun, but noone to blame but myself. I coulda waited for things to cool down in the evening, but I just wanted to get it done.

After that I came home, drank a gallon or two of water and cooled down. I then went to see a dress rehearsal of Corb's community theater production of Little Shop of Horrors. It was pretty much all I expected. The show was well put together and there were some talented folks in it, there were some technical problems, but it was a rehearsal and not an actual show, so I shan't over critique that. Corb did a really nice job putting it together, the sets look sharp and clearly a lot of work was put into getting everything just right. It did suffer from the same problem all plays in this area are going to suffer from, the target audience. But that really can't be helped. On the up side, there are a coupla cute chicks in the play, none in my age range, but it's nice to look nonetheless.

My biggest problem with going to the show was something I had foreseen, but there is no cure for it. There were loads of people I kinda, sorta know. Not people I wanna talk to, but people I'm obligated to speak to when I see them or I seem like an snob. So I get to have pedantic miserable faux conversation with them, when I'd rather be staring off into space.

I spy with my little eye...

So I actually left the house today. It was ever so exciting. Went to Trip's and then we went to Jerry's Pizza with the intent of dining there. They have been remodeling for what seems like forever and still are. The dining area is incredibly small because of this and so we decided to just take it back to his place as there were hordes of people milling about. Later we went for a Blizzard at DQ and it was also packed. The fun thing about going to places in Martinsville is the sites you see. I'm gonna give you a little list of things I saw that caught my attention.

• White trash family, including mom smoking in line (clear violation of Va. state law), eldest child wearing a t-shirt and filthy underwear and nothing else and younger child who decided that a shirt was too much and just sported a diaper. Altogether charming.
• Surly white girl who seems to wish everyone dead while taking their order.
  
• Surly black woman who seemed to wish everyone dead while making thier Blizzard.
• Annoying white guy who clearly wanted to use the N word on the surly black woman.
• Woman in her 40s wearing an outfit she didn't have the body for when in her 20s.
• Bald black man wearing a hairnet. Why was he wearing a hairnet without hair? Couldn't tell you.

After our adventures in the outside world Trip and I watched The Incredibles. I love that movie, seems to be as good as the first time each time I watch it.

New gig

well I have now started blogging about WoW at a new site. This will come as a relief to some of you who don't enjoy my WoW rambling. To those that do, you can check it out here. Just go to the MOG blogs and look for the WoW listing.

Anyway that's about all I got for now. I only halfwatched the WSOP broadcast last night and it wasn't what I expected really.

Today's the day they're handing out brains

So I've been watching a lot of tv the last coupla days. Sunday I watched the new Pauly Shore reality show. It was ok. I was always a but of a fan of Pauly, despite all the hate he gets. He's just goofy and became an easy target. I concede that his movies were stupid, but sometimes stupid can be good... not always, but sometimes. I do say that Biodome was excellent and will stand by that statement. Anyway that show was interesting, although I'm not sure I'm gonna be riveted by it always.

I watched Hell's Kitchen yesterday. It's entertaining, particularly when the head chef starts yelling. As far as the competition goes I'll be surprised if Ralph doesn't win. He's among the most capable and seems to have more of a traditional chef look and feel, moreso than the others anyway.

I also tuned into a couple of episodes of 30 days, the show done by the documentarian that did SuperSize Me, Morgan Spurlock. They had a marathon on FX and some of the episodes really didn't excite me. Two that did were Morgan and his girlfriend living 30 days on minimum wage. They did ok except that both of them had to go to the hospital for minor ailments. Of course, Morgan ended up working two jobs and they had no creature comforts at all. According to their budgets they would have needed to work three months to pay those bills off. Scary, but not really surprising.

The other episode was this West Va. native Christian going to live as a Muslim for a month in Michigan. That was interesting seeing this guy try to acclimate himself to living as a Muslim and watching how differently people reacted to him when he looks Islamic.

Tonight the 2005 World Series of Poker coverage starts on ESPN and I'm excited about that. I'm sure Nick will be Tivoing that up and watching it when Augustine allows a break in his schedule. I actually don't know who won this year and am eager to watch it without knowing in advance.

Electrons and unicorns

So I've kept a low profile this week, not leaving the house. I reread some Harry Potter books through the week and on Saturday read The Half Blood Prince. The new one is excellent. I'd give it a filet mignon rating, unreservedly so. It's one of the better Harry Potter books and they are all good.

I also finished the Gods of Aberdeen and would give that a definite +1 chainmail. It started out good, then the story crawled to a standstill and bored me.

Back to Potter I have a few thoughts on the book that have some serious spoilers, so I may wait til the end of the week to post them for the few readers I have to catch up with the reading.

I've also been listening to this song Astronaut by Luna, that I downloaded years ago. It's exceptionally good and I would like to get more of Luna's work. I have on of their albums that's not bad, but this song makes me want to hear more.

It's important to remember...

sometimes the bull does win. Anyway nothign going on. I'm preparing to apply for a bunch of jobs, so I got that going for me. I'm now going through and rereading the last coupla Harry Potter books in prep for the upcoming release of the next book. Woo, who's excited?

Well sadly that's about all I have to report. Been getting my nerd on with WoW and watching junk tv.

Sex and crap

Slow week on the posts, I know. What can I say, I'm depressed. Went to Trip's place one night and we watched both Kinsey and Aliens vs. Predator. Now there are two different experiences in movie watching.

I'll start with Aliens vs. Predator. It was horrid. Bad plot, sketchy acting and so not what I wanted to see when I heard the title. I mean I love the original Alien movies and I'm an apologist for the original predator film, but this was inexcusable. Not enough Alien on Predator violence. Somehow through the movie the predators become the "good guys' which seems odd. I'm saying this movie earned its mudbutt rating with a vengeance.

Kinsey was good, not the best movie ever, but good. I have always been fascinated by human sexuality (which is odd considering how little participation with it I have). It was a nice telling of how one man tried to banish ignorance and misinformation and replace it with scientific fact and how he was fought constantly. I find it amusing how his book on men was fairly well received, but when women's sexuality was discussed people balked and thought it was evil and dirty. Just an example of the patriarchal nature of our society. Anyway I'd give Kinsey a foot massage (no foot fetish involved).

I'm reading this book the Gods of Aberdeen and it's pretty good. It's about college life and studying medieval alchemical works. Kind of a Davinci Code vibe, except different.

I also continue giving entirely too much time to WoW. I'm a video game addict, maybe I should do a study of that. I could be the next Kinsey... cept I'd get laid a lot less... than Kinsey I couldn't possibly get...nevermind.

Anyway it's storming now, with some nice tornado warnings so I suppose I should go.

Stenches

Trip and I went to see Land of the Dead yesterday. I'm a big fan of zombie movies, even the silly ones. This, however, was not Romero's best work. I prefer movies where the zombies have just come to life and people are figuring out how to deal with them. This was an established zombie world and the living had created a city to live in and went so far as to use captured undead as entertainment. Really it was less about zombies and more about the abuse of power by man.

Another thing it seemed to be lacking was the cool zombie moment. One of the draws of these movies is seeing really disgusting things happen to the living or zombies with really bizarre deterioration. It had some of that, but not the depth of putrescence that I wanted.

On the up side, Asia Argento=hot. That's all I have to say about that. There was also a cool Tom Savini zombie cameo, but it seemed kinda tacked on. All in all I'd say this movie ranked about Meh. The Dawn of the Dead was soo much better, both the original and the remake.

Here is my brother and nephew in living color. Photo credit goes to my mom. This was an "action photo" compared to the sheer number of Stonehenge shots she took. 

Bombs bursting in air

My back pain seems to have subsided somewhat, which is a good thing. There is still an occasional twinge, but I don't have to ease my ass out of bed now. Three cheers for being relatively able bodied.

So the July 4 holiday is upon us and I'm actually gonna do some of the traditional activities I suppose. Trip is having a barbecue tonight and that should be fun. The speedway is doing it's fireworks (on July 1 not 4, who can understand why they do anything). Honestly I'm not that big on fireworks, they are nice but I can take em or leave em. But since I can watch from Trip's backyard and not have to rub elbows with every slackjawed idiot within 50 miles I can enjoy it.

Doctor says I need a backeotomy

I have to be the only person alive who can hurt his back sleeping. I've just got a knack I suppose. But yes, my lower back is the source of much pain and displeasure at the moment. I think it's a pulled muscle. No idea how I manage to do that while unconscious. The truly sad part is that it hurt some yesterday and is worse today. I'm unthrilled.

Anyway nothing else of note is happening. It's hot as a mofo outside, so I'm trying to pretend it's winter inside.

Mom has returned from England and all is well there. She seemed to have a good time, aside from the actual cost of everything British. She also confirmed what I've always heard about British food, i.e. it's disgusting.

I'm now rereading Stranger In a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. I've been on a Heinlein kick lately and some are better than others. This is probably his best work, certainly among them. Definitely my fav. I think it may fall just short of headcavingly orgasmic, but it's very close.