Hey everyone! Sharon is NOT turning 40! Sorry for the short notice, but you should all come over and celebrate anyways! Feel free to extend the invitation to anyone you feel I have missed and join us for a fun time!
We will have some beverages, hot dogs and such but please bring something to share.
Also, birthday gifts are not needed but who can say no?
When? Friday, July 16 Where? Our house, 2922 N Kentucky Ave, Crystal MN What? Huh?
Below is a map to our house. Call if you have questions or problems. See you then! Rick's cell: 7six3 2one8 4thousand Home: 7six3 4one7 99three6
FYI, I got an iPhone through work (partially) and my phone number is changing because the old one was owned by BSci. So, in case it matters to you, my new number is Seven sikx 3 - too 1 ate - fore! thousand. Take that, Intertube Spiders!
In New York in a Super 8 in Jamaica. T-minus 9 hours to the beginning of the end. Already tired. Up at 2:30AM to get to the airport with kaldeth. Sigh. Will update when possible. Off to Manhattan!
Why happy? Well, because The Dark Knight doth truly rocketh the house, that's why! Foolishly went to the midnight show last night at the IMAX and...wow. Just wow. Got to bed at about 4AM and up at 6AM, but it was completely worth it.*
I want Heath Ledger back and it's completely selfish because it doesn't have anything to do with the untimeliness of his death, or that he has a daughter, or anything other than my own greed for more of his Joker. It's just how fucking perfectly malicious and menacing his Joker was.
Unbelievably deliciously good. Truly. Gave me shivers many times. I was gobsmacked after many scenes ended and then disappointed and sad to think we'd never see that again. This was the Joker of Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum and all my favorite really scary portrayals of him...and more.
And the rest of it lived up to Heath's stellar (but final) performance. Great story, good pacing, wonderful effects and atmosphere and most importantly, CHARACTERS! Yes! The Batman movies of the past had ranged from utterly insipid (Batman 4Evah) to entertaining (Batman) to weighty (Batman Begins), but they almost all suffered from having one or two main characters with just a whiff of substance and a bunch of garish cardboard cutouts with soundbite dialogging to accompany the stunts and effects that fill the time. Amusing and entertaining, but ultimately unfulfilling.
This was truly a tale, an adventure and an engaging one at that. However, even though Mr. Ledger's Joker pwned every scene he was in, he was still just a piece of the picture. A big, psycho, trenchant, menacing piece, but still part of the whole, rather than a centerpiece.
I am completely satisfied and at ease with knowing that Batman will kick Hellboy's ass this weekend. Even though Big Red's movie was completely stellar (more on that maybe when I'm not sleep deprived and buried in work) and I remain a staunch fan of 'ol Anung, Hellboy II: The Golden Army was a fantastic movie, Dark Knight is truly a film and a fine one at that.
I'm sure it sounds like I'm splitting esoteric hairs (most probably), but watch both and see if you don't agree. I'll eagerly buy both on Blu-Ray for posterity, but I have to give kudos where they're due. Nolan, Bale, Ledger, Eckhart, and Oldman, thank you all for such masterful work. Truly art, it was. However, at the end of the day HB, you're still my main man.**
And as to the Nicholson/Ledger debate? Like comparing apples and oranges. Nicholson's character would have been shallow and stupid in the gravitas and substance of this iteration, while Ledger would have faded into the background as an overwrought angsty schizoid amongst all the Prince-fueled day-glo neoprene exuberance of the original Batman movie. Maybe more like comparing candied apples and penicillin.***
Wow, so much for "just a line or two". You can imagine how sick my coworkers must be of how much I've been blathering on about it...
Scarily enough, I've actually got reams and reams more of pontificating in my head about this whole thing, but I'll spare you and try to get back to my work. ;D
****
* - All times CST. ** - Inescapable fanboy behavior. *** - Penicillin comes from oranges, see how I did that there? **** - Apologies to the Nibleys for stealing their idea of footnoting.
There's a lot of other things I would like to talk to y'all about at this moment: my wife's birthday (Happy candle day, hellziggy!), my previous 60 hour workweek, Hellboy II, etc.
However, one thing springs to mind ahead of anything else at this moment:
Tony Snow (former press secretary for Pres. Bush, Jr. and shill-at-large for the Republican/Conservative directive), has died from complications from and/or the direct effects of colon cancer.
Now, I always found him to be a heartless, oily bastard who viewed the truth and loyalty to it as a game that he felt more comfortable toying with than actually thinking about. Not many were as adept at parlaying a seemingly endlessly flexible morality into fame and fortune. However, regardless of how much dismay and disappointment I've ever had for someone like him and his obviously superior (but misdirected, I feel) intellect, he didn't deserve this fate as it was dealt to him.
No one does in situations like this.
Really. If you feel otherwise, I celebrate your ignorance because you have not seen this...scourge in action personally and I truly, truly pray in my recovering-Catholic heart that you won't. Ever.
I literally mean that. After watching my own mother and her father before her literally wither, dry up and blow away, I can say that no one, not Tony Snow, not Karl Rove, not anyoneever who has placed any value on human life (no matter how misguided), deserves something like this.
It is a vicious and horrible thing of evil on a level that can only be understood by direct witnesses. And their words will fail them. Utterly.
I feel compelled to say these things because there has been no small amount of animosity and condemnation in the wake of Mr. Snow's death. "Good riddance," and "Got what he deserved," seem to be popular and pervasive. Truthfully, comments like that hurt my heart but I don't fault the speakers beause they have a blissful ignorance of a sort.
He didn't deserve it.
You can't deserve it.
The other 6 billion people on this planet won't deserve it. Ever.
While it's possible some have deserved it, that's for better people than I to determine and I truly pity them and their ends...
Please, if you have a chance, hug your loved ones and take a second to devote just one moment of silence of prayer/contemplationion/consideration of the cold stastitical probabilities that you and those important to you might be spared this...evil.
Goddamit! So, I know I'm complaining about that my steak isn't big enough, but I got an email yesterday from TicketBastards that my section has suddenly been declared "behind the stage" (whatever that means) and that I'm being relocated and they'll let me know at some point where.
Fucking A. They better be as good or better seats or I'm raising holy hell with the fucking fan club I gave another $100 for apparently no reason.
So, I'm trying to console myself that I wasn't even going to go at all and then when I decided to, I was prepared to be in the attic. But that's a far cry from getting decent seats and then being told to go to the attic. Hopefully I'll find out soon and they may be great, but that's just not how my life works. It sounds mopey, but things just don't take good bounces in my life. I mean, good things happen and frequently, but if they go wrong, it stays wrong.
Still, I'll be there and I should be thankful to have the option to be there at all given all the people who won't/can't. It's better than not to be there at all, but I'd have appreciated knowing I wasn't cool enough to be that close to begin with. I mean, I was aware, but it seemed that I was going to sneak by. No such luck.
Bold means you've seen every episode (or nearly every episode), Italics mean you've seen the show at least once.
50. Quantum Leap 49. Prison Break 48. Veronica Mars 47. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 46. Sex & The City 45. Farscape 44. Cracker 43. Star Trek 42. Only Fools and Horses 41. Band of Brothers 40. Life on Mars 39. Monty Python's Flying Circus 38. Curb Your Enthusiasm 37. Star Trek: The Next Generation 36. Father Ted 35. Alias 34. Frasier 33. CSI: Las Vegas 32. Babylon5 31. Deadwood 30. Dexter 29. ER 28. Fawlty Towers 27. Six Feet Under 26. Red Dwarf 25. Futurama 24. Twin Peaks 23. The Office (US) 22. The Shield 21. Angel 20. Blackadder 19. Scrubs 18. Arrested Development 17. South Park 16. Doctor Who 15. Heroes 14. Firefly 13. Battlestar Galactica 12. Family Guy 11. Seinfeld 10. Spaced 09. The X-Files 08. The Wire 07. Friends 06. 24 05. Lost 04. The West Wing 03. The Sopranos 02. Buffy the Vampire Slayer 01. The Simpsons
I give most things at least one shot. What the heck is "Only Fools and Horses"?
Other news:
Hulk was surprisingly fantastic. M. Night should have called it Nothing's Happening Indy was a letdown. The Middleman is bundles of fun; don't be put off by it being on ABC Family. Firefox is only 2 days old and it's got its first vulnerability. Crysis is beautiful but has long periods of boredom and/or stupidity. Not getting Spore creature creator because I don't want to tease myself. Get Smart? Sure, probably.
Edit: Oh yeah, and Kung Fu Panda was not only amazingly pretty, it was a load of fun. I knew I was forgetting something. Thanks for reminding me, passaddhi!
chipper
exhausted
depressed