Friday night was a game night. As usual, it rocked. Lots of time spent having good discussions with good friends I don't do anywhere near enough with. That ran until about 4 a.m., when corpse_light mentioned that his brain was about melted and I realized that, having had a full day at work, mine was well on its way there, too. Headed home and finally got to sleep around 5:30 or 6 a.m.

Then the phone rang at 8:10 a.m. It was a wrong number. I surmise it was a collection agency, as they didn't respond right away when I picked up, asked for two different people, and never identified what the call was about. It took me another hour to really doze back off.

Next thing I knew it was nearly 3 p.m.

This severely cut into the time I had planned to do a lot of things. Like a handful of work on personal and freelance projects. Once subtracting showering and eating time and then removing the time spent fighting with the printer (and running out to get more paper for it and having to not let myself just buy a new printer), I had time to do next to nothing.

So, nothing checked off my To Do list, I made the trek out to bid farewell to enlightened77 who's heading off to the left coast. I'll miss her, even though I never worked quite hard enough to spend time with her. She holds the distinction of being one of the people I most certainly should have fallen for but never have. Always seen her as more of a sister. So, doubly good luck to her on her new adventure!

The party was good. I had a chance to reacquaint myself with some very spiritual people and meet some new ones. Hopefully our paths will cross again, even without B in the area.

This is especially true of the one lady who showed up shortly before I had to leave. She caught my attention as soon as she entered, but I was wrapped up in conversation with other people and watching the clock. On my way out, she caught me for a moment and told me she knew me. "From where?" I asked. "Not anywhere now," she said, "probably a past life." I affirmed that such a thing could very well be the case and that I very much would like it if she continued to find me again as I gave her my contact information and (now so much more reluctantly) rounded up the people who were heading to the next event with me and hit the road for Fairfax.

It was, of course, plans to see The Rock Horror Picture Show that pulled me away from a party I would have stayed at all night. (And if I hadn't committed to meeting people at the theater, I would have skipped the movie all together.) Things got off to a little bit of a late start, but I found the presentation and evening as a whole quite entertaining--again having good conversation with people I don't see anywhere near enough. Made for home earlier than I would have liked (though I don't know what other than standing in the parking lot talking would have happened otherwise) and finally dozed off at about 5 a.m.

Sunday was dedicated to D&D gaming, starting between noon and 1 p.m. I had made it a point to set my alarm before I went to sleep. I woke up wondering how long I had before the alarm was going to go off. Checking the time, I was annoyed to find that it should have gone off about thirty minutes earlier. Checking more, I discovered that the truth was actually that it was set to go off in about 11.5 hours. Stupid AM/PM setting....

Made it to the game on time. Kick much animated skin monster ass and avoided having to deal too much with the animated internal organs monster (ewww). Another bunch of hours of fun.

Of course, I managed to not be able to get to sleep Sunday until about 3 a.m. or so which made Monday's alarm (which did go off properly) so much more painful.

And now, here I am, up too late again. Mostly because I'm determined to get back into writing more. I've really let myself slide from most of my goals. (Granted, mostly for good reasons, but sliding none the less.)

The only thing that would have made the weekend better is if I had been able to coordinate plans with Cristina (she who I met randomly about a year ago and kind of accidentally asked on a date) so she could have been along for some of the ride. Haven't seen her in person in nearly a year now. Still kind of shooting for that third date... and doubting more each day that it'll happen before a full year of sporadic contact has elapsed.

Ah, well. Not dating just leaves that much more room in my schedule for other things. (And I'm very good at not dating.) :)

Just one final reminder:

9 p.m. show, tonight (Friday), Silver Spring Majestic.

I'll be there a little after 8 p.m.

Hope to see some of you out.

(And I hope the rest of you are going to Sanctuary or something else equally awesome.) :)

Haven't heard a lot back from the last post, not surprising what with the holiday weekend and all (and the really kind of bad thing we got as the last Terminator film). So, as it stands now, here's the plan:

Friday, 9 p.m. show, Majestic, Silver Spring. Not really expecting it to sell out, but I'll be stopping in on my way home to buy my ticket and then showing up at the theater a little after 8 p.m. to get a good seat.

If anyone wants anything different, speak up now. :)

After yet another week of not sleeping anywhere near as much as I should have, I stayed in on Friday, finally finished off the last episode of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles on the DVR and caught the latest episode of Dollhouse. One of those shows I'd like to see come back. The other, I really couldn't care less about at this point outside of vague curiosity as to what the heck the creator had planned for its ultimate endgame. I'll let you guess which is which.

Saturday I was up way earlier than I would have liked (especially after going to sleep way later than I should have) to head across town for another day of shooting with the Browncoats: Redemption crew. I wasn't there in any official capacity, rather, I was there to network a bit with another guy who's going to be helping out with the film's online presence (once it's all put together). The day was hot and featured the first major snafu of the production--our planned location fell through slightly after the last minute (we'd already schlepped all the equipment and supplies a good half-mile or so into the park) due to someone in the parks office being less than competent and less than honest when dealing with our request. Ultimately, the parks people came through and we shuttled everything to another PG County park and got the shots we needed. Overall, a good day.

Of course, all that moving heavy things and standing around in the fresh air, heat and sun left me crispy around the edges in every way possible. When I rolled into the apartment around 8 p.m. (the call time at the initial park was 8:30 a.m.), I had neither the physical constitution nor mental acuity to do much more than sit. So, apologies to the_udjat for not making it out to the housewarming as planned... I'm sure I missed an awesome time. While sitting on the couch, I did, however, dial up a fun little horror flick via the FearNet OnDemand. For anyone who's a fan of zombie movies, I can recommend Dance of the Dead. (More on that in it's own review.) Later it was all about GI Joe: Resolute on Cartoon Network. That was also pretty good. Interesting to see Warren Ellis take on a childhood favorite of mine.

Today, Sunday, I'm about to finally venture out into the bright and heat (holy crap, almost 90 degrees!) to do a very tightly planned bit of food shopping. Not any space for splurging right now... and not much more once the next paycheck comes in. It's times like this when I wish I did extravagant things so I'd have more to cut back on.

Yes, it's been a good weekend. But, really, I'm starting to really look forward to next weekend already... may finally get to that third date with Cristina. (Which, of course, means you should all be ready for the natural disaster that's going to try to keep that from happening.) :)

I seem to have more or less lost the week to sleep deprivation and work.

I'm about to head out to Ocean City again this weekend for more Browncoats: Redemption shooting. Last week was a total blast... met so many great people and have a whole lot to say about. Just haven't had the time/brain power to do it. Pictures here.

Managed to nearly kill a client's site last night by working on it when I should have been sleeping. That lead to a whole lot less sleeping than I had intended on. Which lead to working from home today and dozing/zoning copiously. Add to that clients getting in touch with necessary info at, oh, 5:30 pm and I feel very unproductive today. This will probably lead to crunching through things on Sunday that I wanted to get done today--both for the day job and for my personal projects.

*sigh* Some days I just can't win.

But... I am heading back out to Ocean City to do more work on a movie. So that's full of all sorts of win. :)

More when I get back.

Gah... three instances of Technology Fail! today.

First there was the whole remote log-in to work thing. Turns out the computer there was turned off. Must have done that on Friday instead of rebooting or logging off like I thought I had. Either that or the power went off over the weekend at some point.

Then, when corpse_light and I wandered down to Silver Spring proper to catch Gran Tourino (highly recommended!), I went and got my ticket from one of the electronic kiosks. On my way up the escalator, I checked it and it said it was for Defiance... which was distinctly not what the screen had said. I figure, OK, maybe I hit the wrong button, I'll eat that ticket price and just turn around and get the right one. Well, that second ticket comes out as one for Dog Hotel... and a child ticket, at that. Obviously, their machine is frakked. Up to guest services I go... and get in line behind a half dozen other people who've had the same thing happen. Behind me is at least another half dozen. Good news is, all straightened out right quick.

Now, about twenty minutes ago, I just noticed that, when moving The Searcher Journal the other day, I mis-keyed the URL on my new web hosting account... meaning that the site has been down for three days.

I only figured it out now because I went to crank out a Metaphysical Monday post and got... nowhere.

Site should be back up as soon as the IP gets directed correctly in the DNS... or something.

*sigh*

Technology fail, indeed.

There was also shopping failure as I was unsuccessful in my attempt to get new shoes. Couldn't find what I liked in my size and the right color (black). I could, at best, find something with two of those factors, but not all three.

This, of course, is the story of my life. ;)

Tomorrow is the inauguration. Going to be watching it online through Facebook/CNN.

Wednesday is back to work in the office.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army was a lot of fun. Quite a bit different, thematically from the first film... and a lot more quirky.

But, man, was the action action packed. :)

And there was a musical interlude. Not sure what was up with that, but it was damn funny. At least I thought it was. Of course, I'm a sucker for musicals. So, yeah...

Yes, there are some plot hole you can drive a garbage truck through and, yeah, there is a shark jumping moment (or two... or three). But I'm going to reserve judgment on that (potential) mess until after the third movie is all said and done. (And who knows when that's going to be.)

I say see it.

Maybe I'll get around to a more robust review later.

Now I should go to sleep.

Because I have a couch showing up tomorrow.

Some time.

I think.

Maybe.

Never did get the call I was expecting tonight from the delivery service. You know, the one that says "Yesh, we're gonna be by to drop off a couch sometime between x and y time. You're going to be there, right?"

I hope my couch shows up.

Like, seriously, really.

fractalwoman, blindtillnow, cellimachine, pakgwei, devolutionary and I hit Zombie Strippers at the E Street Cinema last night.

It was totally awful in the best possible ways.

I haven't seen such a positive reaction to a bad film since seeing Snakes on a Plane. There were applause at the end.

ZS was full of things that make those classic direct-to-video schlock horror films of the 80s so much fun. There was bad dialog, breasts, blood, breasts, stupid people, breasts, creepy old men, breasts and over-the-top action. Oh, and breasts. Looking at the audience, it most certainly catered perfectly to its target demographic--kind of dorky male between the ages of 18 and 35. :)

Robert Englud's Ian Essko, the owner of the totally illegal strip club, is delightfully greedy and sleazy. A far cry from his legendary Freddy character, but a perfect fit and flavor for a movie like this.

The other top name, well-known pron star Jenna Jameson, is more than a little fun as Kat, the star stripper with an interest in Nietzsche. When she becomes a zombie, things just get wild.

Among the strippers in the Rhino Club, there is in-fighting and most stripper cliches represented. There's also a completely surreal layer of philosophy slathered on the characters. That leads to a whole lot of near non-sequitur lines and situations that are completely hilarious.

Effect-wise, there was some pretty awesome makeup going on. The cadre of zombified strippers became progressively more rotten, all thanks to judicious application of full body makeup effect. Unfortunately, all of the effects weren't physical. The computer generated exploding heads and whatnot weren't awful, but were noticeable in their difference in quality from the physical effect.

I kind of dug the sound track. Turns out a bunch of the songs were done by one of the zombie strippers in the movie--the overly goth (especially after she was dead) Lilith (played by Roxy Saint). Looks like Saint's got a very interesting visual and sound style. One of those is a bit more original than the other, but anyone should be able to tell which is which.

It was a good night out and a hoot of a film. Definitely not for everyone, but for those who don't mind a complete lack of political correctness and a purposefully hokey stable of characters, it's a must-see. I know I'm looking forward to the inevitable unrated DVD release.

The scariest thing in the film happened right at the beginning, though. A news report that started out "President Bush was elected to his fourth term in office..." *shudder*

:)

OK, here's the deal:

Friday, E Street Cinema, 9:55 show.

Dinner before... at about 7-ish or so. Any preferences?

Movie's only 95 minutes long, means the night will still be relatively young when we get out. Any ideas on what to do after?

Also, feel free to round up more people.

See you then, if not sooner!

After getting home from Friday night revelry at about noon on Saturday, I whipped up some food and started in on laundry and recorded TV shows.

Somewhere between the start of the drying cycle and the next episode in the cue of a show about ghosts, I dozed off a bit.

That seriously got in the way of the original plan I had (which was to drop spirit_o_fire a line to see what he was up to) and left me with the ever-fun-and-useful option of hitting atlantis_dc.

Then I got a message from roomitpbt saying "Hey! Have you seen 28 Weeks Later yet?"

And, lo, a plan was hatched to catch the 7:45 showing of the movie here in Rockville and then hit Atlantis. The timing would be perfect.

I popped down the street to be sure we could get tickets. Not that I thought there was a chance it would sell out (and I was right... the theater didn't even come close to being a full house, and most people didn't even show up until just before the previews started--we had the perfect seats).

( There may be a little bit of a spoiler here, but not really because I think anyone with half a brain (or who has read the reviews) would know this is how it goes... )

It was a great evening. With the weather, food and conversation, I never did make it to Atlantis (so I hope everyone had a good time... sorry I missed you!).

And I came home to an apartment without power. Reading by flashlight and sleep ensued.

Thankfully, there was power when I woke up this morning.

Now it's time for breakfast and then out the door for the Call of Cthulhu gaming session.

It has been a damn fine weekend.

Oh... and Happy Mothers' Day to all you mothers out there.

Hey there, people!

Good to see there's some interest in catching The Number 23.

Looking at the listings, there's a 7:30 show and a 10:10 Friday show at AMC Georgetown 14.

I'm going to speak a preference for the 10:10 show (so I can run home after work and don't have to waste a long time wandering about bookstores that cry out for me to spend money on literature to add to my stack of "unread."). I'm also going to recommend buying tickets early, either online or in person.

Other ideas are welcome. If I hear no dissent, the plan goes as noted above (10:10 show at Georgetown).

Last night I was finally coherent enough to catch an airing of Syriana.

It is a very good thing I didn't try to watch it while not able to focus due to the recent cold. This is one dense movie. It plods along, half in subtitles the rest couched in the (often conflicting) agendas of a cast of characters who rarely actually cross paths. It is not a happy film, which, along with the complexity, adds to the feeling of realism.

There is no question the film, and the book it was based on, are important in the scheme of the current global political climate. The pull and power of oil--how the quest to control it can lead good men to kill and desperate men to mass murder--is the central theme of the film. That comes across clearly enough. It's also something we all understand.

Much more subtle are how the different characters slide along their own moral slippery-slopes, all the while trying to do what they think is best. Well, in most cases trying to do what they think is best.

There will have to be at least one more viewing before I can fully digest and regurgitate everything in the movie. But I look forward to that viewing. There are a number of understated, subtle performances to go with the complex plotting. Seeing them again will only serve to give me more respect for most of the actors involved.

Thanks to the lack of anything of my normal shows on TV tonight, I finally caught A History of Violence tonight.

It is quite the impressive movie. It has those little touches that make it unmistakably a David Cronenberg film, for sure, but it also has a much tamer side--it's nowhere near as twisted as some of his stuff has been (anyone else remember Dead Ringers or Videodrome?) so the themes are much more accessible to the general population.

The basic story is about man who has been living a quiet, normal life in a small mid-western town for a good many years. He's a cook at the local diner, everyone knows him and life is good. One night, two strangers roll into town and enter his diner just as he's closing up. At gunpoint, they demand money from him and the few remaining staff and lingering customers. Even though he's willing to hand them anything they want, they prepare to "make an example" out of a waitress, just to prove how serious they are.

Within a few seconds, the strangers are dead and our mild-mannered cook has his face plastered all over the media as a hero.

Unfortunately, the spurt of publicity dredges up some dark secrets from his past that he now has to deal with.

The film poses some very interesting questions regarding violence and passive resistance. Which do we actually prefer? Which is more effective? Where do we draw the line? And, perhaps most importantly, are we born predisposed to one or the other--and can we change which we use most?

All of the performances are top-notch, but that's not surprising with a cast that includes Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and William Hurt.

Seeing the movie really makes me want to get my hands on the graphic novel it was based on--this appears to be yet another one of the good "comic book" to film translations (along with Sin City and, from what I've heard, American Splendor).

If you haven't seen this movie yet, add it to your list of ones you should see. I'm kind of sorry it took me as long as it did to catch it. I've been missing out!

By sheer chance, I happened to glance at the regular ad for the E Street Theater in the commuter paper this morning. There, sandwiched between the logo and the first line of show times, in very tiny print was a note saying "Al Gore will be in the theater for a discussion after the 4:45 p.m. showing of An Inconvenient Truth."

At first I thought I was just hallucinating, it being morning and all. I mean, having the former Vice President drop by isn't something that just happens. It takes planning, right? And if it's in conjunction with a big-deal movie about him and this presentation he does, there has to be lots of advertising, right?

Apparently not. It just kind of happened. Based on some chatter I heard in the theater, it wasn't even confirmed until late Wednesday night. (Which, knowing how things go in the newspaper business, more than accounts for the very tiny text added into the regular ad.)

Al Gore takes questions from the audience at the E Street Theater.

So, I put ordered my ticket and put out a call. pakgwei answered. And I headed down to the theater immediately after work to secure seats. (We ran into laurieannhaus after the show... if I had known you were coming, I would have been on the lookout for you, too!)

The show was, of course, sold out. It seems to have spread mostly by word of mouth as I don't know anyone who saw it anyplace big and loud. This strikes me as a very good thing because, even though I would have loved a near private showing and discussion with Gore, something like this film needs to be seen by as many people as possible.

Anyone who still thinks global warming isn't a serious and very real threat either hasn't been paying attention or is willfully ignoring blatant facts. This is a position Gore has had for decades. The presentation he does that is featured in the film is the ultimate illustration of just how much he's put into his crusade to spread the word--all backed up by science and facts--and inspire some sort of positive action at the grass roots level.

The film takes footage from one of Gore's presentations and intercuts it with biographical information of the man himself and some additional supporting information. It works very well and is very persuasive.

In fact, it's persuasive in just about every way possible. The hard facts that Gore presents speak for themselves, but director Davis Guggenheim adds a much softer form of persuasion to them. Touching on the personal experiences that have driven Gore through his life of public service and out into the world to see first hand the effects the changing climate is having, Guggenheim pulls on emotional chords that really drive the reality of the situation--and of the man presenting the facts--home.

Having Gore there after the film was something very special. Anyone who remembers his presidential campaign would be hard pressed to reconcile the politician we all saw then with the scientific environmental evangelist he is now. For all the passion he has, I can only imagine how restrictive political life felt for him. Set free of the required political politeness and deferment, he shines like I've never him shine before.

He's also pretty upset at the state of politics in general. When asked if change is better made from within the system or from outside of it, he very pointedly commented that money is the main thing making policy decisions. For projects like his, he said, the only way to enact serious change is to start at the grass roots level.

If you haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth, see it as soon as you can. If you ever get the chance to see Gore speak in person, even if it is an off the cuff Q and A--perhaps especially if it is off the cuff--do it.

And if you still think global warming is just a theory, go check out the actual science behind it. Or, better yet, just find some photos of what the ice sheets were like 10 years ago an what they're like today.

Links:
ClimateCrisis.org-the main site for the film.
Some pictures I took of Gore.
CoolCities.us-What can you do to help stave off disaster?
The New Scientist Special Report on Climate Change.
Time Magazine Photo Essay on Global Warming.