Keep on Walken in the Free World

Well I got to make sure I write at least a few posts a month, so how about I use Christopher Walken's birthday as a jumping off point. He's certainly a great man and a great dancer like in that Fatboy Slim video. I've been getting more acquainted to some of Fatboy Slim's music lately... Well mostly just the song "Right Here, Right Now" due to it's awesome evolution music video. I also just got Peter, Bjorn and John's latest album so I can't wait to see how that turns out.

I once again start classes this Wednesday and am not looking forward to waking up at about 7:00 everyday, but I'll be done by like 10:30 everyday, aside from my one online class. I'm getting damn sick of buying all these expensive books but I'm planning on selling them back to BCC to get some dough, "Cha Ching! Money Cash!". Anyhow it'll be good to be on a normal schedule after this mostly lazy and uneventful break.

Paul and I have been dreaming up a lot of sketches lately, you know to film. Sean, Nancy and I started working on a video about "Shades" the blind detective but couldn't finish it the amount of time we had. Though I'm gonna try and finish it slowly through the next few weeks because what we did film turned out to be pretty funny. I've been inspired ever since so many people gave such positive feed back to "Losted!: With Badger Stevens" especially a lot of guys at V.N. Graphics (That's where my dad works) who have become real big fans of the Cat Fancy videos and "Losted" is what did it for em. "Losted" has been getting views at a pretty steady pace, so let's see where that goes (Paul and I have already started to brainstorm a Badger Stevens/Pacific Ocean episode.)

Entertainment wise I started watching Oz and Deadwood again after somewhat of a hiatus and most of my free time has been devoted to my latest X-Box purchase. It's a collection of 49 Sega games including; the Sonic games, Phantasy Star series, Streets of Rage trilogy, Golden Axes and more! So far I'm all about Golden Axe III and Comix Zone just because of how 90s it is. You can expect a review of that later this week at Cat Fancy.

Well I'll see you in the funny papers! Happy 66th birthday Christopher Walken!

Gene Rayburn, Go Gene Rayburn!

Apparently I saved this post awhile ago and didn't finish it, so let's see what's been cooking. I'm getting pretty tired of the school work I've been getting lately but I'm hanging in there. My classes have been pretty boring lately and I couldn't believe the lame exercise we did in my digital design/storytelling class. We did this "assignment" where we lined up our desks and wrote stories by passing back a sheet of paper, but the paper had to be folded before you passed it back. Therefore know one knew what the stories were about and the results were really bad stories. For my part I just did a bunch of B.S. character contemplation and stuff like that, I don't know what I was supposed to take away from this experience.


Literature
I finished reading No Country For Old Men last week and it was pretty good but I still prefer the film. It seems rare that the film counterpart to a good book is superior but I think this is one of those instances. Now I'm going back to finish a book about filmmaking of the 60s and 70s, which I originally acquired for a class (though we've yet to use it) but I've been enjoying reading it on my own time, especially all the stuff about Dennis Hopper (That guy is insane).






Family Affairs
Our family cat Junior recently went through somewhat of a health scare with a urine blockage a few weeks ago, but he's okay now. My dad and I had to take him to an animal hospital at midnight on a weeknight but he made through all the treatment. He's doing fine now but he's not completely out of the woods so he's been living mostly in Paul's room so we can keep a close eye on him (him and Paul are like the just like the odd couple).


Music
I've been casually listening to the latest U2 album, but I'm not really that crazy about it. There's definitely some songs on it I really like, like "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" and "No Line On the Horizon" but I'm just not that into U2 I guess. I like a few albums and have a lot of respect for them but sometimes they just seem kind of boring to me. Oh well, who knows what I'll think of it later in the year, these things take time.


Movies
I was all about Watchmen but I'm disappointed to see all the mixed opinions from critics. I'm probably in the minority of people who like it better than the source material but I was really impressed. I guess I find the graphic novel too sloppy sometimes with all the filler articles, the Black Freighter stuff, the need for excessive back story. Don't get me wrong I like the graphic novel, I just don't love it. The movie definitely has it's fair share of flashbacks and back story in keeping loyal to graphic novel, but I feel the characters can breathe more and come to life in a significantly more compelling way in the filmed adaptation. I really liked Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson and the art direction, cinematography and visual effects were out of this world. All in all it was a pretty impressive work and I respect that someone dared to take on such an ambitious project... Oh yeah and I saw Godzilla's Revenge on Canadian television, that was awful.


Television
I've recently taken a break from Oz. I'm one episode away from finishing the fourth season (there are six altogether) and it's been harder to find the time to watch Deadwood lately (I'm somewhere in the second season, but I've checking out some other weird stuff in the meantime. Occasionally I go over to my dads to watch Match Game 75" hosted by Gene Rayburn on some game show network. I'm all about old game shows (To Tell the Truth is my favorite) so it's been pretty entertaining. Somehow I also got roped into watching the Celebrity Apprentice which as dumb as it is, is strangely compelling. My family and are all rooting for Tom Green for his lack of a big ego, plus he seems to be the most hard working on the men's team. The women's team just seem to get into big cat fights every episode but they still manage to win every week, I don't imagine I'll be watching this show much longer.

That's all that comes to mind for now, I'll keep you posted if something else pops into my head that I forgot to mention.

Chicka Click, Click Booyah

Figure it's time for an update even if I don't have much to report. I had a pretty good three day weekend despite the fact that I was somewhat hampered by homework and online mid terms and what have you. I saw The Reader on Monday which was okay. It's always kind of fun to go to those movies where the audience is mostly middle aged people trying to explain the movie to each other and strangely enough Lincoln Square was like a ghost town, strange for a holiday if you ask me. I've been listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen since Working On a Dream came out and when out and bought Darkness on The Edge of Town and Born in the U.S.A. at half price I also downloaded Magic, good stuff, makes you proud to be an American.


I've been buying a lot of books at Half Price lately and have kind of been switching back and forth between a couple. Mostly I've been reading Bruce Campbell's "Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way" (A fictional story about Bruce Campbell being cast in a supporting role in a romantic comedy) and "No Country for Old Men" which has been pretty similar to it's cinematic counterpart thus far. After that I got a copy of "The Road" but I'll wait till after the movie (Whenever it comes out I have no idea) and I got Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven".




Regarding television my times been split between Deadwood and Oz. I watch Deadwood with my dad and brother, definitely a man's man show and but Oz is what I've been all about lately (I'm midway through the fourth season). I really enjoy it and highly recommend it, though I warn you it can get pretty graphic sometimes; male nudity, vulgarity, extreme violence and so on. It really pushes some boundaries but it's a great show.


Hmm what else? All this Griffey stuff has been driving me crazy, I swear I check like every five minutes to check out the scoop but still nothing. I guess I'd understand if he chooses the Braves but remember when he said "I owe it to the people of Seattle and to myself to retire as a Mariner." People don't forget things like that, don't let us down Junior.
(Pictured Left is a box of cereal that I still own to this day.)

Face the Music

I didn't want to upset the flow of "Top Movies of 2008" over at Cat Fancy, so I decided to post this random news tidbit here. I heard on the radio today that 70s rock/blues band Faces of which I am a fan, are reuniting! Not just for a few shows but for a brand spanking new album as well. It's been almost 36 years since the group's last album Ooh La La but word is that Ron Wood has already started writing material for a new album and I can't wait.

Unfortunately Faces bassist/co-songwriter Ronnie Lane died in 1997, so who will replace him? Well it's been announced that it will be none other than Red Hot Chili Peppers virtuoso bassist Flea. This is all very exciting and hopefully they'll be some swell rocking results. Perhaps I'll do a Faces retrospective on Cat Fancy whenever their new album comes out, it's all very exciting news.

If your not familiar with the Faces, here's a video of them playing "Stay With Me"

The Good, The Bad and The Stupid

Hey not much new but I like post here every now and then.. You know so people know that I'm alive and stuff. Any how I started winter quarter at BCC last week and it's been pretty swell. I got my cramped Math 099 class but what that means to you I don't know. Aside from that I have an online History of Film class where were assigned various films to see and then write papers about them, so far I've watched The General and The Kid for it and have rented The Lady Eve and Grapes of Wrath for next week, it's been pretty fun so far.

I'm also taking Digital Design/Storytelling where we do character and story analysis, watch stuff and have discussions. It's one of those classes that both video production and game production people need to take and man talk about a nerd fest. I've never seen so many hideous looking beards in one location and when were not discussing Joseph Campbell or myths everyone is talking about their PC's and X-box gamer scores. This guy in front of me just hooks up his laptop and plays "Finger Revolution" all day, whatever that is... Oh and get this his desktop is that movie The Crow. I'm not sure if I'm hearing the class role call correctly but I think that guys name is Christopher Walken, so that makes him okay in my book.

Most of the time where comparing classic figures to more contemporary characters and that's when all the nerdiness shines. People discussing in great detail Superman's origins and morals and what not, it's entertaining but sometimes I gets a little annoying. Lots of people seem to already know a vast amount of facts regarding our topics thus far... Except for one thing.



Okay so today the class needed to suggest ten heroes for us to analyze and thoroughly discuss. So you know people suggested characters like; Superman, Wolverine, uhh Xena for some reason (One guy said George W Bush, I don't usually laugh at stupid comments but that one really got me) a bunch of other guys and than one guy shouted out Dirty Harry. So we cut to about half an hour when we've made it down the list to Dirty Harry. "Okay so what do we know about Dirty Harry?" the teacher started, I assumed we'd be talking all about Harry Callahan, oh how wrong I was.

So who was Dirty Harry? Well the first comment went a little something like this "He's a cowboy and he shoots people." Say what? Cowboy? I was confused, our teacher proceeded with something around the lines of "Yes Dirty Harry was the title character in The Man With No Name Series." I'm sitting here thinking "What the hell are you talking about? Doesn't anyone here no who Dirty Harry is?" I tried to raise my hand but the conversation was moving so fast that I couldn't get a proper opening. He then went on to list the films "Let me see there was the first movie The Man With No Name" Which is wrong that movie doesn't exist. Others started shouting the actual ones followed by about four other unrelated films including; "The Outlaw Josey Whales", "Hang Em High" and basically any other film that had Clint Eastwood in it... I could of said Space Cowboys and nobody would of noticed. I mean for teacher that constantly references film does he have any idea what he's talking about? Does he not know what Dirty Harry is? I mean they call it the "MAN WITH NO NAME" series for a reason and I thought everyone knew that was a trilogy? This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but for me it was really annoying. There were probably some other stupid comments but they've slipped my mind.

That's all I got for now... Though I was reading up on Jared Hess' latest movie (You know the guy who directed "Nacho Libre" and "Napoleon Dynamite".) It's called "Gentleman Broncos" and it's about an aspiring teenage fantasy writer who's idea is stolen by some douchebag fantasy writer (Played by Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame) and I just noticed that a fake site for Clement's character "Ronald Chevalier" has been put online and I think it's pretty funny. There are some video clips of the character and I can't wait for this movie, you should check it out.
Here it is


"I'm Dr. Ronald Chevalier author of all ten Harpy Cyborg trilogies."

R.I.P Steve

Steve
(2002-2009)
I don't normally talk about my pets, but with the passing of Steve this week on January 7th I felt I should post a remembrance blog, Steve would of wanted it that way. Steve passed away in his sleep last Wednesday night from a heart related ailment. Everyone in the family was aware that Steve was getting old (he was 6 which is an average life span for a domesticated ferret) but it just happened so soon and unexpectedly. Steve had been so active and playful in his last days so it was quite a shock. Though I suppose it was good that he went in such a peaceful way, I mean most ferret's die painfully from cancer and we are yet to have a ferret die from that.

I'll have many fond memories of Steve, from the first day we got him and I thought he was rat, to the time he ran across the street ending up in some neighbors yard and all his other impressive accomplishments. Steve is probably on my short list of the best pets I've ever had which thus far only include my cat Junior, no one else has wowed me yet but Steve was something. He was a deaf, half blind, blue eyed (which is rare) american hero and his presence will be missed around the house.

Holiday Hijinks

I'd originally hoped for this to be posted the day after Christmas but I didn't feel like it. Therefore I'll include a little summary of New Years Eve along with Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Well I hope everyone had a merry little Christmas perhaps even enhanced by all the bizarre weather this december. My Christmas was pretty good so I though I'd take the time to fill you in.

Christmas Eve
It was at about six in the evening that everyone traversed through the winter sludge to our house. We were joined by my sister Tiana and her husband Ken, my sister Colleen and her boyfriend Casey and my Dad even stopped by, even though he usually spends Christmas Eve with his mom at some Church service. I was excited to see what goods I'd be hooked up with this year and perhaps what weird presents I would receive but first we would dine.

Naturally for the season we would have ham for dinner. I've never much been a fan of ham, I think it's kind of dry and I'd actually say I prefer it when it's been refrigerated for a day or two after the initial meal. There was also cheese covered broccoli, au gratin potatoes, rolls and more and it was pretty good. Unfortunately, our dinner conversations (especially Holiday ones) just about always make their way to the topic of vomit. My mom talking about how my sister Tiana used to projectile vomit all over the place quickly had me losing my appetite and I couldn't wait to move on. So we decided to unwrap some presents to the tune of Jose Feliciano music playing the background.

I played Santa for the most part handing out people's presents, but due to my mom and step dad always putting joke names on the tag, it was actually kind of complicated. How am I supposed to now that "Dimples" is my mom or "Daisy" is Paul? It was madness I tells ya! Anyhow it didn't take too long and I was soon to open my first present. Strangely enough it was a long tube and as people unwrapped present after present, I was still struggling to rip open this strange tube. Could it be a series of more tubes? No it was a Dark Knight poster of The Joker. Feels kind of juvenile to hang it in my room, but I like posters so I was grateful. After that I got some Dark Knight action figures for a gas (Which I proudly display on CD/DVD shelf), a copy of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, some new guitar gear (strings, a new strap, various picks), this sweet restored Godfather boxed set some little handheld guitar hero game that sucks... That's all I can think of for now. I was pretty satisfied with the evening and it seemed like everyone else was having fun as well. My sisters got iPods, Paul got Ken a 3 pound chocolate bar, People got CDs and DVDs, Paul got a chia herb garden, but one thing that really grabbed everyone's attention was Paul's remote control helicopter.

Not long after my mom and step dad went out to Wallgreens to buy more mini helicopters and soon enough, those little buggers were buzzing around everywhere... I was not amused. The night preceded with witty banter, at least to my recollection and soon came to an end, yet another successful Christmas Eve celebration


Christmas Day
The next day Paul and I awoke early to the sight of even more snowfall, though by this time it was quite wet and the temperature was rising it was quite a sight, a White Christmas indeed. So Paul and I proceeded to my dad's house where the three of us then exchange gifts. We were all pretty tired and actually waited quite awhile before we opened presents. I had some toast and watched A Christmas Story which was darn swell. A little bit after that we decided to get to it and open our gifts. Here I finally got a copy of The Dark Knight to go along with all my other Dark Knight stuff, new headphones, a copy of Knocked Up: Special Edition, a new portable notebook and my first Criterion DVD with the three disc Seven Samurai. My dad got a new blender from Paul along with some other kitchen stuff, I got him some dvds and what not which he seemed to enjoy. Paul got a really fancy remote control plane that I helped pick out (before we knew about the remote control helicopters) and then we all just kind of relaxed... I fell asleep on the couch.

After this we made our way to Marysville to celebrate Christmas at my aunt's house. We were the first to arrive and got some hot cider and soon enough the other's arrive. It consisted of my aunts, cousins and my grandma and though it may have been a little bland it's always nice to see the family. My cousin Drew who's is always inventing gadgets and gizmos (Such as helping my dad build this) brought his latest invention the "normalcy meter". It had metal case with a timer and two metal stubs to place your fingers upon. after you did this it would show you how normal you are on a meter. Though all it had was a "-", "normal" in the middle and then a "+" and everyone hit around the middle. It was a useless invention but it was hilarious and my dad came up with the idea that it could be a 50s communist detection toy.

So we had dinner (more ham) and then opened presents. I got a new wallet, I always get wallets from somebody and Paul got a pocket watch, which was fine and dandy. Blah blah people chatted and snacked and I headed home. I went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button that night on a whim (always wanted to go to a movie on Christmas and headed home)


New Years Eve
A lot happened between Christmas and New Years.. A lot of nothing! Oh! But seriously I saw some more movies like Doubt and Frost/Nixon (which was especially captivating) and watched plenty of Seinfeld. New Years was soon to come but nothing really took off until late that night. I went to Burger King with Paul and my dad (we just had to after watching The Terminal a few nights before) and then we came home and watched some Twilight Zone and Fight Club on G4 for some reason. It gave my dad a chance to see what everyone's been raving about all these years. I found some somewhat likable aspects near the beginning, but I still think that film digs itself into a pit of sloppy madness as it progresses and am really not impressed by it.

I eventually "Got the call" from Colin to come over to Sean's house why I was the last to be invited I'm not sure, but I think we all had a good time. I enjoyed all the festive activities and snacks, I got my text twist on and played some Virtua Tennis. Not to brag or anything but I really can't remember the last time I lost on a team or playing by myself against another person. I got home at 3 am, went to sleep, woke up at 10:40, went out and bought a birthday present for my mom (January 3rd) and saw Gran Torino which was really great... And now I'm here I go back to school on monday, so overall it was a pretty good winter break, pretty, pretty, good.