Taken with one of my birthday presents (that arrived today!), a new digital camera that totally KILLS my old camera in quality and features at a third of the price. My old Kodak EasyShare DX4330 now goes for about $30 on eBay. Mine isn’t even worth that much though, as I think I’ve nearly killed it.

Of course, this new one almost too good. You can see all the little bits of cat food that Lish somehow manages to get everywhere and I’m a little slack about cleaning up.

Enjoy the cat picture now - there aren’t likely to be many more. I’ve had it for about 3 hours and Lish has already learned to hate this camera as much as my old one.

So has David:

Sadly, I am still waiting for the thing that I mentioned in the last post, so I am still dying to tell you about it but won’t. It will either be a really cool story or a sad lament. But you’ll just have to wait and see…

In the meantime, I’m starting to feel human again, finally. My humanity was in question last night. This weekend I ended up going 34 hours without sleep - the longest stretch I’ve ever pulled - and even after getting 10 hours of sleep Sunday morning / afternoon, the effects of sleep deprivation (combined with some junk food binging) had me feeling really funky. It was not a pretty sight. I’m still off kilter a bit - which is probably why I’m still awake at 4 AM - but I’m feeling better.

Long, boring story as short as I can make it: David and I had to go to his sister’s wedding at a location damn close to the coast of Virginia this weekend. We drove down for the wedding over Friday night and drove home Saturday evening. Staying overnight with his family wasn’t really an option, due to work commitments and financial considerations, but it had been made clear to us that our attendance was not optional. So despite the scant 2 weeks notice and encroachment on my birthday weekend (I turned 32 on Thursday!), we did what we could.

The drive was long and tedious - nearly 10 hours there and 11-plus to get home. Since most of our driving was done at night, there wasn’t much to look at, and David tried to nap for a notable portion of the trip (since he’d had to work Friday, he was operating on even less sleep than I was), so it was mainly just me and the 10 mixtape CDs I’d made for the trip. (Though I did giggle a little every time I saw the sign “Speed limit enforced by aircraft.” The phrasing just causes me to imagine low flying military craft circling overhead waiting to “enforce” the speed limit by launching a missile at the next red Mustang that goes racing by.)

There were a few things that really made the whole trip worthy. On the drive from the hotel where his family was staying to the wedding, I spotted a Food Lion (which is a prominent grocery chain in the Southeast), at which point I had an epiphany: I could stock up on Duke’s Mayonnaise at a normal price! (Ok, so as epiphanies go, not the most profound one ever, but you have to try and understand how important my Duke’s stock really is to me - when I order it online I pay $5 a jar.) We stopped on the way back to the reception and grabbed as much Duke’s as we could carry (along with some other assorted items, like a 6 pack of Sun-Drop for Marshall). Happiness temporarily replaced the dread of the drive still to come.

Of course, I had already planned another part of the trip that would make it a real success. The day before we were to leave, it dawned on me that there are Bojangles’¹ locations in Virginia. Though my initial excitement over this realization faded some when I noted that none of those locations was even close to our route, careful study of the list of their locations when compared to my Google maps travel plan led me to conclude that by going around the other side of Washington D.C. as we headed home, we could leave the freeways briefly, destined for a Maryland Bojangles’ location and grab a bunch of sausage biscuits, seasoned fries, and a half dozen Bo-berries. Though it proved to lengthen our trip by nearly an hour (partly because of traffic near D.C., partly because of the sloooooooow service at the Bojangles’), I’m still glad we did it. Our detour enabled me to at least glance at some D.C. landmarks as we drove past, where our original path would have been too far away from the actual city to see anything. And David - who has listened to me extol the virtues of the Bojangles’ sausage biscuit for 5 years now - after finally getting to taste one Saturday evening proclaimed that it was indeed well worth the extension to our drive. I fully agreed, seeing as it had been 4 years since the last time those buttery biscuits had graced my tastebuds. Plus they gave us a sweet potato pie for free since we had been gracious about the long wait for our order, and that was a most delectable freebie. (I don’t remember that being a menu item last time I was there either, but that could just be a faulty memory.)

Oh yeah, the wedding and the reception were nice too. And I do truly like David’s family, so it was nice to spend some time with them. But the mayonnaise and sausage biscuits were the stars for me.

Is that wrong?

 

 

¹ I shall endeavor to explain a little, as I know not all of you reading this will know what I’m yammering on about here. (Those of you who do know though I’ll bet can understand…) Bojangles’ is a fast food Cajun style chicken n’ biscuits restaurant that started in Charlotte, NC and now can be found throughout much of the Southeast U.S., but not in most of the rest of the country. (Stop before you say it! No, Popeye’s is NOT the same thing. Not by a long stretch.) Though there are other menu items worth mentioning, Bojangles’ has perfected the Southern specialty of the sausage biscuit, and delivers it fast food style. No other fast food outlet can even come close (though way back in the day - before Carl’s Jr. took over the chain - Hardee’s was a contender). The things that McDonald’s and Burger King market as such should not ever be referred to as sausage biscuits, as neither component is actually sausage or biscuit. (Though I’m guessing “grayish, gristle filled, formed meat patty sandwiched between layers of frozen-then-reheated flour paste” wouldn’t sell very well, it is a much more accurate description.) And then there’s the Bo-berry… a blueberry biscuit drizzled with icing… yum!

Whenever I’ve been back to North Carolina to visit, my first stop after leaving the rental car place has always been the Bojangles’ just outside the Charlotte Douglas airport, and I’ve always tried to make it the last place I visit before going back into the airport. When my dad returned to the States after living in Germany for 8 years, the first thing he wanted to do was go to Bojangles’. Yes, really. It is *that* good.

Today started off bad. I woke up late, there were issues with the water in our building (this is an all too common occurrence), and a lovely hairball was waiting on me in the living room when I made it in there. It only got worse from there…

Some twat apparently decided that Diverse Universe would look better with a brick through the window last night. I mean, the moron didn’t actually make it through the double paned glass, and it looks worse now, what with the duct tape and plywood to protect it, than it did after he had his little bit of fun, but he did manage to do enough damage that repair is going to cost more than I make in a month.

(I have never understood the need for destructive vandalism. As a teenager, I won’t deny that I left my mark in a few places with the aid of a Sharpie from time to time - though now I couldn’t for the life of me explain why I needed to do that - but I never felt the need to actually cause real damage to anything. What is it that drives people to do such stupid things?)

Then there was work to do, and customers in the stores, and busy, busy, busy. The people that technically own my leased car called to inquire as to why I had not yet made the March payment. (Um, because I don’t have the money at the moment?) And with the whole running late thing, I didn’t have a chance to grab something to take for lunch today and we were too busy for me to run over to the lovely Drug Mart across the street to grab a snack, so I didn’t have anything to eat from about 12:30 till closing. Not eating for more than 8 waking hours makes me a little grumpy.

What I mean to say is that today sucked.

But then, I got home. As soon as I walked in the door, I knew something was weird. The smell of garlic permeated the air… I looked at David and said “What did you try to cook?” (A. He RARELY cooks. B. I wouldn’t think he would cook with garlic if he was going to, since he’s always complaining that I use too much garlic in my cooking. C. When he does try to cook, it usually means a big mess in the kitchen for me to clean up.)

“Um. Dinner for you. Or at least I tried to… I don’t know if it’s any good… I think it might be too garlicky.”

Sweetie, I have tried to tell you before, there is no such thing!

Anyway.

Fearing the worst, I peered into the dish. Ok, it looked alright. I took a bite. I nearly drooled on myself.

“Yum! Honey, this is wonderful! Thank you!!”

After consuming a large serving of the most wonderful garlic/olive oil/red pepper pasta (low carb pasta of course) dish I’ve had in a while, I noticed he’d cleaned up the kitchen too.

“Yeah, I made a big mess when I was making that so I had to clean it up.”

Wow… I was speechless. (Knocking me speechless is a real feat, ladies and gentlemen.) Sometimes he can really be sweet. These are the days when I start to feel guilty about occasionally plotting his demise.

Stuffed, and feeling oh so much better, I went to change into my around-the-house-clothes, and noticed the mail. Why was there a letter from my dad there?

I opened it. Cute card, we miss you, letter inside. Unfolded the letter and a check fell out. A BIG check. No, like, nearly a month’s salary big check. I - and I mean this quite literally - fell to the floor where I had but a moment before been standing and began to hyperventilate a little bit.

The timing - for both my boyfriend and my father - couldn’t have been better.

Now, the real reason I’m telling you all this is really just that I wanted to share the letter my dad enclosed. (Which I read after I’d managed to start breathing normally again.)

Dear Grown Kid, [I’m guessing they sent one of these whoppers to my step brother too]

We just wanted to give each of you a little lift today. Not expecting eternal gratitude and not trying to buy love, but thought how nice it would have been when we were younger just to get a little unexpected prosperity once in a while.

Only thing we ask in return is that you read the following paragraph, and consider that you might be getting good advice from some older souls:

Only condition for cashing this check is that whatever you do with the money, you spend at least a little having a good time. We have all kinds of wants that sometimes feel like needs, but which we deny ourselves because of what seem to be more pressing needs. Don’t neglect to give yourself something you want, for no other reason than it’s good to be good to yourself - as in all things, with something like moderation.

Night on the town would be our advice, but your old thirtysomething heads might be somewhere else; so disregard that specific advice as much as you want to.

Also be moderate about being moderate. Any virtue taken to an extreme is a vice.

With love,

Reading something like that might give you a tiny bit of insight as to why my mind works the way it does. I was raised like that. (Though, I was NOT raised with extravagant gifts of large checks. This is a new development - as we were poorer than dirt when I was growing up. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.)

Just a few hours ago I was dead tired and dragging my ass home from work. Right now I’m so hyper and jazzed up with happiness and a good dinner that I didn’t have to cook, I don’t think I’ll sleep for a few more hours.

And of course, I’ve got some product research to do. Though I know that many of you will think me crazy for wanting to spend a windfall on such an item, I’ve been talking about buying one of these for over a year, and now, I really can. (Though I haven’t yet decided on the exact model, this is the one I like best so far.)

With this, I might be able to go from a roller coaster day to actually fitting my big ass into the roller coasters at Cedar Point comfortably. (Don’t ask, you don’t want to know.)

I just haven’t been feeling the inspiration lately… there’s been plenty that I’ve considered writing about, but, well, it just hasn’t happened.

Then tonight, inspiration struck. Ahem. In the form of a contest. A contest with a prize of a trip to Vegas. Which I would DEARLY love to win. And what is required to enter this contest? A link to Subnixus. That’s it. I love the simplicity of that.

Of course, now that I’ve told you about that, I’ve likely lowered my chances, as several of you will likely do the same thing.

While you’re there at his site though, poke around a bit. Not only does he have a number of really nice WordPress themes available (for those of you who might like such a thing), but he seems to be a smart cookie. Specifically, I dig his outlook on the idea of education vs. college. And if you’ve been with me a while, you’ll know why I dig that.

If I ever get back to reading blogs, his will be on the list of regular reads.

Along with all of yours, of course.

Tonight I had the pleasure of seeing an advance screening of Brokeback Mountain. (It opens here tomorrow.)

There’s really not much I can say about the movie that hasn’t been said already, many times, and more eloquently than I can manage. Though I will say that it wasn’t quite what I had expected, despite the fact that I have read oodles of the reviews and press which spelled out a good deal of the movie. I’m not sure what I expected really… but it just wasn’t quite whatever that was.

Yeah, I know that didn’t make much sense.

It was a very good movie. A bit longer than it really needs to be, and the broad strokes that are painted leave a few characters a little underdeveloped (of course, developing those would have only added to the already long 2 hours 14 minutes running time that I was complaining about just a second ago…), but all in all, a fine film. It’s definitely one of the most realistic portrayals (especially for the time period) that I’ve seen of lives hidden away in the closet and the tragic consequences for all parties involved. And it’s much closer to being an “important gay movie” than the over-hyped Latter Days managed to be.

I completely agree with the critical praise being heaped on Heath Ledger, who is finally living up to the potential promise that I thought I’d glimpsed in his performance in 10 Things I Hate About You. After quite a few misses, he seems to have finally found a role that worked. I truly forgot I was watching Heath Ledger play a part; he became Ennis Del Mar. Michelle Williams put forth just as masterful a performance as his tortured wife, and Jake Gyllenhaal… well, he’s totally cute until he starts to don that mustache. He didn’t do a bad job, per se, but I was never quite able to shake the actor playing the part. (At least he was nice to look at though.) Anne Hathaway’s ever evolving tacky hair stole the show from her really, but she was good enough I suppose. Kate Mara (in a small role as the older Alma Jr.) is a girl to watch I think. She’s really adorably cute, and she did as well as she could with what little script time she was given.

I also have to take back something I thought about Jake Gyllenhaal. Somewhere I caught a clip of him saying “It’s not a gay cowboy movie,” which kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I sort of took away that he was downplaying the importance of it being a story about gay cowboys, and maybe trying to downplay the fact that his character is gay. But I get what he was saying. It’s not a gay cowboy movie; it’s a love story between two men who are forced to hide their affections because they are planted firmly in the land of cowboys. The fact that they are - at least by today’s definitions and labels - gay men, while integral to the story, isn’t quite the point.

And yes, I cried a little at the end. I wouldn’t characterize it as a tearjerker in any way, but it’s certainly not a happily ever after sort of ending. Though Dan (who has confessed to crying at movies before) didn’t even shed a tear. Really, I cry far too easily while watching movies.

The showing was quite the gay event here in town - the lobby afterward resembled a holiday party more than a movie theater entranceway. (Though maybe a depressed holiday party as most of the crowd was a bit subdued after the viewing.) So many of our regular customers were in attendance, I felt like I should be ringing up the popcorn at the concession stand. (Of course, this might have been influenced by the fact that we were handing out the passes last week.) It was also possibly the most reverent audience I’ve been a part of for a free advanced screening; there were no talkers or cell phones going off (despite the fact that the Cedar Lee didn’t forewarn patrons to shut them off via a silly fake movie) and people seemed to be chuckling (there are quite a few funny tidbits) and sniffling at the right moments.

Not to skip too far into the future, but I’m really looking forward to the DVD release of the movie. Not only will that really be a HUGE seller at the store (though I doubt even its sales will manage to eclipse the record quantity of Madonna CD’s we’ve moved), but I’d like to see it again and I doubt I’ll get a chance to make it to the theaters before it’s gone. (It’s only showing in 3 theaters in the area, none of which are terribly convenient to me.)

Of course, the inevitable porno copycat will probably make it into the store first. (And no, I’m not even going to bother with telling you the name. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you’ve already heard it, and likely, it’s already ceased to be as amusing as titles like “Raiders of the Lost Arse.”)

I’ve always been a bit obsessive about the music I love, and I really do mean *always*. I can clearly remember being heartbroken at age 4 when my favorite 8-track tape broke while it was playing. (One of the major downfalls of the 8-track technology… along with many other things.) I don’t remember if my parents ever replaced it, but I can tell you what that tape was.

If that doesn’t look familiar to you at all, you’re not alone. There are very few people that I’ve come across in my life (save for searches on the Internet) who actually remember this rather obscure 1975 television special, despite the fact that it’s written by Maurice Sendak (better known for Where the Wild Things Are). I’m sure that I saw the actual television special at some point or another during my childhood (because when my dad sent me a copy of the video I recognized it all), but it’s Carole King’s music that sticks with me the most. I can well remember singing along with “Chicken Soup with Rice” over and over and OVER.

I’ve got the soundtrack now on vinyl, something I found at a little record store in LA a few years ago. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to it, since my record player is in semi-permanent storage at Marshall’s currently, as I have nowhere to put it in our too small apartment.

Still, it only took one verse for me to recognize the song “Pierre” when The Dresden Dolls played it live in Columbus Friday night. And that caused much jumping up and down and screeching in Dan’s ear “This is from Really Rosie!!! It’s a song from Really Rosie!!!”

Due to the screeching, I feel sure that wasn’t Dan’s high point of the evening, but it sure was a bright spot in mine.

Which brings me to my real point here… if you ever get a chance to see The Dresden Dolls live, take it. No really, take it. I don’t care if you’ve never heard their music, or if you have and didn’t really get into it. Seeing them live is a completely different experience, and one I can highly recommend. There’s a reason that specifically seeing them live again scored a mention in my list of seven things I wanted to do before I die.

When I saw them the first time, it was in a tiny little club (The Grog Shop for those of you familiar with the Cleveland area) as an opening act for Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. There were only about 15 people there to see The Dresden Dolls, yet it was one of the most enthralling and electrically charged shows I’ve ever seen. (Which is even more amazing when you consider that they’re a duo with just drums & piano.)

On Friday, they played The Newport Music Hall, which is about 5 times the size of the Grog Shop, and to a nearly full house. The electricity was pulsing through the crowd before they even took the stage, as they were following an opening act that wowed the crowd (DeVotchKa) and between set entertainment that was like watching a mini-Cirque Du Soleil performance. This just added to the whole experience… which was simply phenomenal.

I’ve tried before to describe the live show, but I can’t seem to capture it in words. (I wasn’t able to convince Dan of the brilliance before he saw the show - he wasn’t digging the CD so much and later confessed to semi-dreading the show - but he left a converted man.) So I’ll cop out completely and just say it’s something you have to see to understand. If you can’t make it to any of the tour dates, there is a DVD coming. I can’t testify to whether or not it will be the same as being there… but it’s better than never seeing them I suppose. (And “Pierre” will be on the DVD!!)

The show (and the accompanying road trip) was a great way to deplete the birthday money fund. If I’d gotten more money, I’d probably be on my way home from Buffalo at the moment, seeing as how they played there earlier this evening.

Anyone wanna fund a trip to NYC for me? I already have Fridays off…

Ok, I’ll finally admit it: I can no longer claim that I don’t watch a lot of TV. (Though I’m sure by now no one believed me on that anyway, since I seem to talk about TV a lot.) I never was really one to wear that claim as a badge of honor as many people do; I’m not an anti-TV evangelist. I’ve all along believed that there could be good TV; it was just a medium that wasn’t quite living up to its potential and I simply lost interest in the shows. Whenever I had to answer the question “what are your favorite TV shows?” the answers were always cartoons, a few pay network shows, and old comedy stuff like Kids In The Hall. It just seemed to me that so much of what was on was silly, pandering, and dumbed down.

A lot’s changed in the last few years apparently, and I somehow missed the revolution. I’m catching up though!

Battlestar Galactica was the first one to hook me. My boyfriend’s baffling ability to enjoy anything that has a sci-fi twist to it came in handy for once. Who knew?

Dan successfully hooked me to Alias and even though the first few epidodes of season 4 left me a little bummed, I’ve set up the DVR to record TNT’s airing of the 4th season, as well as the 5th season that starts tomorrow. I’ll be a month behind everyone else, but I’m going to catch up soon.

Then there was Lost. Though I’ll admit I’d dismissed all the people who told me it was great TV before, after getting hooked to Alias I decided to give it a chance, thanks in no small part to the fact that J.J. Abrams is the creator of both shows. Damned if the people weren’t dead on. I’m hooked, and all I can say is thank goodness for the DVR, since I don’t leave the store till 9 PM on Wednesdays. Though I really wish they’d just explain HOW THE HELL DESMOND GOT ON THE DAMN ISLAND ALREADY. Um, pardon me. Tonight’s episode was just a weeeee bit frustrating for me.

Then today I popped in disc 1 of the first season of Desperate Housewives to play at the store as I checked in the boxes of rainbow stuff the UPS man dumped off. I was completely against this show at the outset; I rolled my eyes whenever anyone mentioned it, almost as an automatic reaction. I have to break that habit now, because, dammit, count me in. It’s hysterically funny, smartly written, and never, ever, ever would I have thought a line like “Rex cries after he ejaculates” would have me in tears. I’m only through episode 4, and I’m not going to be able to catch up to the season that’s airing now (especially since the boyfriend’s reaction to my revelation of fandom was “Yeah… that’s one you’ll be watching by yourself. No interest whatsoever.”), but I’ve added it to my list of favorite shows at TV.com (which is a nearly seperate addiction of its own…).

As a personal challenge, I’m really going to try not to discuss my theories and frustrations with the high concept shows here - I do that enough with my friends who are also watching these show, and I’m sure it’s damn boring to anyone who hasn’t been following along. But - be warned - if next Wednesday’s episdode of Lost doesn’t give me at least a little bit more on the topic of HOW DESMOND CAME TO BE IN A FUCKING HOLE IN THE EARTH ON A (not-so)DESERTED ISLAND, I will most likely be bitching up a storm. This is information I clearly need to know to continue maintaining my calm, peaceful, and happy existence.

So if I disappear again for a little while, you can probably safely assume that my tube watching has completely engulfed my brain, thus making it so all I can think of to talk or write about is TV. I might need an intervention… just please, wait till the Desmond thing is worked out, will ya?

Ahh, the lure of the idiot box.

In reality, I’ve never been much of a slave to the television. It’s the one category of the pop culture edition of Trvial Pursuit that can snag me (but that is the only only category that trips me up - I still remain the champ among my crowd). I know the major points, but really that’s just what I’ve picked up in conversations or from the bits I’ve read while partaking of my ritual-like reading of Entertainment Weekly¹. The trivial details mostly escape me. I just don’t watch that much TV overall.

The reason why is hard to explain actually. I just find that TV shows rarely capture my attention. Cartoons, both kiddie and adult in nature, are the biggest exception to the rule. But occasionally a TV show featuring real people (or at least real people portraying characters) will snag me. This happened with Queer As Folk (even though the last season pretty much blew chunks, I watched it all the way through), Battlestar Galactica (the latest season isn’t quite as gripping as the first season was honestly, but it’s still a good show) and most recently - as I mentioned previously - Alias. (We’re watching it all on DVD though, as I’d never been able to catch up for the broadcast.)

Alias is just brilliant to me. Every time I think I’ve got something figured out the writers reach through the screen, smack me on the head, and say, “Silly girl! There’s no WAY you could have seen that coming!” The story line is complicated and complex, it’s twisty and turny, and the setting (that being the world of intelligence, via the CIA) is ripe with deceits and ulterior motives. The background story has mystery and a bit of a riff on the nature of religion. Even the underlying love story is decently written, and while it does get a little smoochy for me sometimes, even one as jaded and cynical as I can appreciate the soul mate nature of the relationship.

All of this praise has held true through the third season. (Well, except for one cheesy little gadget moment that broke all bounds of believability… but I’ll forgive them that for the rest of the brilliance.) But we’ve just started watching the fourth season (thanks to, um, tapes that someone made…) and I have to say that I’m getting a little disappointed. The underlying stories seem to have taken a back seat to the mission driven stories, and it seems dumbed down. It’s not as complicated, not as twisty, and well, boring. The episode we watched earlier this evening (that being season 4 episode 4), despite what I think was a bit of a reference to Cat’s Cradle (my absolute favorite book in the world), really left me cold. (Which is a pretty good pun if you’re familiar with the show. Ha, ha.)

This makes me sad. I don’t know if it’s that the writers have gotten bored with the story, or if they think it needs to be simplified to attract new viewers, or if this is really all part of the bigger story and we’re just not being shown why yet… but whatever the reason, it bums me out. I’ve actually decided to wait until the fourth season DVD is officially out to watch the rest of the season now (this is also partially due to the fact that the sound synch is off in the last 15 minutes of every episode on the copies I’ve got, and while that was amusing for the first few minutes, it makes it hard to concentrate on the show), which means I still won’t be up to speed with the broadcast. (Don’t even get me started on how ridiculous it is that they’re aren’t releasing season four on DVD until *after* season five has started airing…)

And why am I writing about all this when it’s clearly quite trivial in nature?

1. This - the fact that I’ve watched three seasons (that’s 66 45-minute episodes) of Alias in about a month - has been a major player in the lack of time to write. I shall have more time on my hands now, at least until November, when I hope to get up the guts to take part in NaNoWriMo (whose site is down as I’m writing this, sadly).
2. I am lacking any real creative thought at the moment, having spent the last few days’ spare time re-writing a friend’s resumé, building a pretty little MySpace page for another friend, dealing with a scary (but really great) number of orders from the DU website, and working on our latest little project from the store (which I’ll probably talk more about later). I’m in tech geek mode, and I just needed to take a break to write *something* even if it was about something as lame as TV.
3. Dan, bless his soul, has got to be very tired of hearing me ramble about Alias by this point. Even though while I was writing this I recieved a note from him that season four does get better in response to my earlier message about not liking the first episode, I feel like I’ve driven him nuts with my relentless Alias dissection over the last month, so I decided to vent some of my frustration here.

I promise to write of things that mean a little more soon. Or at least regale you with tales of debauchery from my youth.

¹ I religiously read nearly every word of Entertainment Weekly every week. I’ve had a subscription for about 5 years, barring a few weeks here and there when I’ve let it lapse due to lack of funds. And here’s where I reveal details of my ritual that only a few have been privvy to till now: I read it, cover to cover, in order (I don’t flip through - I read first page to last page, though I do occasionally skip over stories when it’s something I don’t care about the first time through but I do go back and read them eventually), leaving the magazine turned to the page I was on when I left it, and it stays in the bathroom until I’m done. I’m not normally very OCD about things, but this is one that I am. If the magazine is removed, or my boyfriend inadvertantly leaves it open to a page other than the one *I* left it one, I’m liable to explode. I really lose it when he reads ahead and tells me about something he read that I have gotten to yet. And no, I don’t know why I’m so psycho about this. I just am.

I usually shun the hype. I think some of it goes back to my need for individuality; I’ve always been one to go against the flow. Not in the extreme sense of pure rebellion (in fact the extremes turn me off just as much) but I just like to think for myself. Just because everyone else is doing something, I don’t feel the need to. I would definitely be one to skip jumping off the proverbial bridge.

If something is really popular, uber-hyped, I tend to avoid it, even if it might really be good. I can’t really explain why this is, or why I sometimes make exceptions that seem to make no sense. Like the fact that I was one of the millions who watched the original Joe Millionaire. I’m not proud of that honestly, and I think I was docked some IQ points for that guilty pleasure, but there you have it.

But sometimes my avoidance just makes me a little late to the party. I didn’t get hooked on the Harry Potter books until just before the fourth one was about to be released, and I’ll admit that I didn’t really get clued in to Family Guy’s brilliance until I started watching it on Cartoon Network. (Though in the latter case, I still blame Fox since I wanted to catch it but I could never figure out when it was on because they kept switching the night and time.) And The Mole. I just have to mention The Mole. Not that crappy celebrity version they ran with later, but the original Mole with Anderson Cooper hosting. I started watching in the second season due to my boyfriend’s insistence, and I’ve since caught the first season on Game Show Network. That was a brilliant, mind-fucking “reality” show. It was too smart to last though, and I still mourn its death at the hands of the celebrity invasion.

This time though, I sucked it up and went with the flow.

Batman Begins is pure brilliance.

Even if you think you don’t like superhero flicks, I would recommend you give this one a try. Christopher Nolan managed to create a wholly fictional world that was realistic at the same time. I don’t mean to slam Tim Burton’s Batman - believe me I love that movie for its own merits - but where Tim Burton brought us a pure fantasy, Christopher Nolan has given Batman some realistic footing. It helps that you’re seeing the beginning… the details of how he became Batman, and the early flubs that show him as a human first, superhero second. But there’s another level of realism given to us just in the sense that Gotham resembles, for the most part, a big U.S. city. Aside from a few touches here and there (like the train system), it wasn’t so much futuristic as it was rooted in modern day. This gives it a sense that Gotham could be our world, a feeling of there but for the grace of [insert your chosen protective entity here]…

The acting was brilliant as well, though whether that’s a triumph of the actors as a collective or the director that was able to pull out such stellar performances, I’m not sure. This was one of those rare films where I forgot who I was watching play the roles, and I was just completely sucked into the world of Gotham. When the credits rolled and I saw Gary Oldman’s name, I honestly couldn’t recall who Gary Oldman was playing… I mean, I think I knew, somewhere in the back of my mind. But while I was watching the film, he simply was Jim Gordon instead of being Gary Oldman playing Jim Gordon. Even Katie Holmes wasn’t enough to mar this beautiful piece of cinema, as she truly became Rachel Dawes for me; in fact, I gained a little respect for her. (Though that won’t last too long, I’m sure. Though I’m really trying to avoid it, the Tom/Katie thing is really just out there. Or at least, Tom is really out there and is dragging her along for the ride to outer space.) Considering we’re talking about several well known actors portraying familiar characters, I find this a wholly remarkable feat. Bravo.

The only exception to that was Cillian Murphy as Dr. Crane. Not that he wasn’t as brilliant as the others; he is a very talented actor (which was evident in 28 Days Later as well). He was just so strikingly beautiful… on his first appearance in the film I was taken aback by that and it took me out of the movie for a minute, because I had to figure out who he was. So this is my shallow side coming on strong here, but damn, that man is absolutely gorgeous.

Ahem. Anyway. Pardon me.

I only have one criticism of the movie overall: Some of the fight sequences are a little too stylized and they just become chaotic. You can’t really follow the action; you can’t tell who’s doing what. Those were the only real moments where I kind of wandered off mentally… I just sort of waited for the fights to be over. There are only a couple of these anyway, so it’s not like a huge blemish on an otherwise perfect film, it’s just a little flaw that I noticed.

Other than that little thing though, I can’t really find anything else bad to say about it. In reading reviews here and there, I find that I’m not the only one who feels this way, and even the audience we saw it with last night was spurred to applaud as the credits started. (This is something that happened frequently in LA, but I have only seen it once or twice here in Ohio.)

Sometimes I guess it’s good to believe the hype.

Why do I watch Queer As Folk? The show makes me groan out loud at least 5 times per show, and that’s not because of the gratuitous sex scenes and full frontal male nudity. (I’m not complaining about those, mind you, but I do think they make my boyfriend a tad uncomfortable when we’re watching it.) No, the groaning sounds are due to the fact that there’s so much cheese in the dialogue it makes me want some tortilla chips to go with it. Pour that cheese sauce on top of the most predictable story lines in the history of television and the one dimensional characters (or is that caricatures?), and really, what you have is the makings of the worst show on TV.

Yet, I still love it. I truly do. And I’m terribly sad this is the last season of the show. I will really miss it when it’s all over.

The new season started tonight, and there’s been no improvement, yet I was still glued to the TV for every second of it, both episodes. I can barely wait until next week to find out what’s going to happen to my boys and girls in Pittsburgh, even though I already know full well what’s coming. You know, that whole predictability thing.

As an aside though, someone get Lindsay (Thea Gill) a sandwich, will ya? She looks like she hasn’t eaten since filming stopped for the last season. What is it with these actresses that look perfectly fine suddenly losing a bunch of weight? She was perfectly gorgeous before… now she just looks gaunt.

Anyway, tonight was pure mindless entertainment night, since we went to see Revenge of the Sith earlier in the evening. I know you’re all dying to know what I thought of it, so here’s the official FruitFly review: Eh, it didn’t completely suck.

I definitely don’t think it was nearly as awful as Anthony Lane made it out to be in his scathing review in the New Yorker, but I do love this quote from it:

The general opinion of “Revenge of the Sith” seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones.” True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion.