Monday, November 22, 2004

Peace on Earth Sells but who's buying

Man christmas is getting down. I don't want to be the only person who can take a wonderful time like christmas and turn it into a problem, but! Man I dont know what to get people, who really have everything. My parents where hard pressed to come up with any ideas. A few of us did that Amazon.com wish list thing but everyone else acts like it would be wrong to make a list. "I have so much already." Ok can I just give some cash to someone, and not have your feelings hurt when you don't have anything to open. Well we both know it's no, so just give me a fucking list.

Don't think this is one of those preachy give your money to charity episodes. I have worked at second harvest food bank and helped out. I guess I was trying to be a better person or something stupid. After I lost my kidneys the world started seeming constructed of random cruelty mixed with some structured kindness. I'm trying not to think that way, im sort of a bastard in person because of it. It's best to ignore me.

Any way It's like I'm running into the realities of christmas. Someone fucked it up along the road. Halmark, Coke, Disney! Maybe it was growing up, maybe its life. The time it takes to make christmas work leaves no time for enjoying christmas. No getting up the lights. No watching the christmas tree at night. I can remember just looking at the way all the strands of lights blinked in chaos and the patterns they made through the pine needles on the ceiling. I can remember going to see all the lights in around town. Now its rushing around and pressuring people for gift ideas.

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT?

Friday, November 19, 2004

poety process

Choke the birds from the sky
littered in abattior rot
Feather and bone festooned fence lines
though in the sky not

This bit im thinking about a road i drove on today that used to have a slaughter house on it. Also some freaky sculpture done out of animal bones.

Im looking for something to go into now but i dont feel anything nor do i have any images in my head. Perhaps a barn on some lonely rainy day. Decaying into the ground. Maybe on Marsh road in milpitas or something I will have to think about it a bit.

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Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Tales of Brave Ulysses

Shatter the window with hail and gail stalking outside Mired in deeps untold drowning void Calling though the maelstorm though the words drown from my lips Dwale drunk and fluid coughing as the embers slip away Pavement crack shards under waters weight And Its finally beginning to take shape And all the communication seems to wash away Foundations soon soaked and break Day whispers on the hillsides but what it holds I'm beginning to fear Denote, revile and hope smeared with an inner doubt Bleeding out the silvered sky


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Thursday, November 11, 2004

Donnie Darko / Strange Brew

This week i am going to take a look at a couple of movies i indeed own, so the reviews will be decidedly positive. This weeks its Donnie Darko and Strange Brew. Certainly different sorts of films but not so off.

I remember seeing a picture from Donnie Dark on aintitcoolnews.com and thinking hey i want to see that. Well kidney failure and transplant later i found it at BlockBuster soon after hitting DVD. My wife and I watch the film and just sat a while talking about it. Which is always a good sign because most of the time i go that was crap or something. I like a lot of whats going on in the movie, the pseudo science, the sound track factoring into jokes. Ill describe it as a horror thriller until all you spoiler free people stop reading. Just skip down to the Strange Brew part. Ok so really its a scifi love story. Donnie creates a pocket reality where a giant satanic bunny rabbit helps him get the girl and then to finish off the causality trap kill the person in the bunny suit so that he can become his advisor. A little confusing but totally worth a watch.



Strange Brew

I have always loved Canada, and im not sure why. Perhaps i am attracted just to North in a Glenn Gould sort of way. I like the bleekness and the harshness you see on cars or what not. I like the way time seem to not change things so much. Things seem fixed and immune to change of facade but maybe thats just my video. Like watching the model of Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood, those models never change. Strange brew is sort of a time capsule for 82 Toronto which i love. The story is both moronic and inspired at the same time, it is actually hamlet though few people know that. The jokes are often over the top and terribly stupid but they are delivered with the perfect touch that its hard not to love the movie. To even go into the plot is pointless its a movie of moments. But its got Beer, Doughnuts and toronto skunks what is not to love.

Friday, November 05, 2004

3d6 to large creatures

Another Thursday another game. Thats right after far too long a game came together. The chips were down but we pulled it off. My books and module were shanghai'd with my car, by a visiting relative. I had to buy a PDF off RPGNOW.com to play!

Little actually happened, our wayward fighter finally bowed out. Sort of for the best really. The party found a cache of items, totally Monty Hall old school games. I'm running the U3 final enemy which is certainly old school. They found some of it was water breathing stuff and made there way back to town for payment. They wanted more money to help but the town basically said they bled them dry and are off to war.

I guess they have the option of doing a last run into the stronghold or moving on. How they proceed will effect what happens pretty directly at the start of the next game night.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Slacker / Van Helsing

I got a chance to watch a couple of movies this weekend and figured here would be a good start for a series of movie reviews. I watch movies a bit and have had this idea running around my head for a awhile. I check out aintitcoolnews.com a bit and I am certainly not that sort of movie fan. I don't get excited about everything I see, gosh that Harry dude lists his video picks and it looks like every movie coming out. I rarely find more than a couple of DVD's a season. I guess I'm not a person who loves movies but rather a person who loves the movies I love.

Anyway I rented Van Hellsing and Slacker from the video store. Neither was a purchase nor do i feel a need to run out and buy either.

Lets start with Van Hellsing, I hated this fucking piece of crap. It was one of those non movies that Will Smith constantly comes out with. You know you see it and you don't really remember it 10 minutes later so you can watch it over and over. These turds usually have a bunch of goofy scenes and subplots that lead no where. I think this is to confuse your brain into instantly forgetting the film. Here the plot was sort of lame and then there was a useless thing about Van Hellsing being the arch angel Gabriel, WTF! The effects were terrible and just looked shitty. Mr. Hyde looked like a DIC cartoon.., Yeah like "you cant stop the littles cuz the littles don't stop"! Bomble from Rudolphs shiny new year looked better. What the hell David Wenham was doing in this after Lord of the Rings is beyond me. Stay the hell away from this!

Slacker was better but not great. I think there was a time in my life that I would have loved slacker and if those events had played out I would still like this movie. But my friends that remind me of characters in the movie have moved on. Im left somewhat nostalgic but mostly sad for the people in the film. It could be that I saw it at 30, but really I think its where I live. Idle youth just doesn't work here in the silicon valley where you have to work 60 hours a week to make rent. Anyway the film not having a plot wasn't to much of a problem for me, though i could see it being for other people. It sort of drifts from character to character moving exponentially into the cosmos and perhaps back in time. I say back in time because the last scene seemed like a 60's era home movie. I liked the parts that seemed more staged and had some comedy like the old lady getting hit or I should have stay at the bus station bit. As it moved I either saw something of my own pretensions in the peoples speeches or saw people that I recognized and didn't like. Their is a fellow who convinces some girls to go to a show with him claiming he has passes but actually didn't; he bugged the hell out of me. Maybe that's from my metal days, straight forward task execution mindedness. The guy seems too manipulative to me. I can see how people have liked the film though. I'm living in the reality where I rented Hal Hartleys Trust maybe elsewhere this is a universe where i rented Slacker and am waiting to buy Before Sunrise on DVD.

Until Later

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