Monday, June 28
weekend was outstanding. drank beer, lost at poker, drank more beer, kicked ass at a board game, had some delicious pizza. here are some movie reviews:
fahrenheit 9/11 - 3 stars
i could attempt to be one of legions with a 'stance' on this film, but whatever. some thoughts of mine include: "lots of brutal imagery...was that necessary or would i just prefer not to face the consequences of war?", and "wow, even someone like myself who already dislikes bush and knows of his ties to major money-making interests can still learn about some new questionable relationships in my own government!". there was "right, so he wasn't fair and objective, but who the fuck expected him to be? get over it, please. use your own brain to filter here, people, just like you have to do with right-wing agenda news sources. duh." but most of all there were just a lot of "if i were george bush, i would be so embarrassed by this film." seriously, that guy just seems really really dim-witted to me. and i always vote the intellectual ticket.
but hey, it's worth seeing once as a point of discussion. love it or hate it, you should use it as an opportunity to examine some facts on your own and i don't know, maybe learn something before voting season.
napoleon dynamite - 4 stars
changing gears completely, this film won't make you learn at all! honestly, there's hardly even a plot!
what it will make you do though is laugh hysterically at some amazing characters. who needs a story when every scene is just an absurd caricature that gets you doubled over at dorky idaho residents with even dorkier relatives. i really really liked this movie, and those who i recommended it to after seeing it myself at a screening a month ago finally got a chance to take my advice and see how right i was. now you can too.
[now hearing this: new piebald still. it's not so bad.]
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 11:31 PM.
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Friday, June 25
infiltration of the LA film fest was a success... turns out it was free, and it was open to the public, and it wasn't full when i got there. plus the movie was really educational and pretty good. i'd say 3 stars for the hunting of the president. not 3 because it wasn't good, but 3 because it was a documentary after all. dry but great viewing, especially for those not politically aware enough during the whitewater/monicagate business to have been politically offended by it.
also, i do wonder why more hobos don't attend these free movie screening events. would it be that hard for them to pick up an LA weekly (also free), find out where some ticketless entertainment would be, then ramble on over and have something to do for a few hours? maybe hobos just aren't into movies as a rule. maybe i should talk to some hobos to find out, or invite one along next time i go to one.
but forget those sort of social dilemmas, who has the time when you could be watching this new sky captain trailer. that shit is HOT! if that movie were up against fahrenheit tonight it wouldn't even be a contest -- politics can bite my flying ace any day if we're talking about a movie that looks this cool. i can't wait for it.
as it is though, we'll be doing two nights of power-liberalism and check out moore's deal tonight i imagine. and have a beer. i really want to do that for sure.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 2:43 PM.
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Thursday, June 24
the LA film fest is going on around the city pretty much without me. sure, it would have been cool to catch before sunrise or garden state a month early, but all the good stuff is sold out anyway i think.
which makes me wary about trying to get into one that's been labelled a 'free screening' on their site. it could be because they don't expect the filmgoers will want to go to more than one strongly political documentary, and everyone cool already went to the michael moore screening tuesday. i hope that's the case, since i will be attempting to show up for the hunting of the president instead tonight at the regent showcase down la brea. let's see that right wing attack machine at work! how dare our (intelligent, capable) president have sexual indiscretions. who wouldn't much rather have an (inarticulate, damaging, fundamentalist) good ol' christian boy running the show?
it'd sure be a shame if it was already full; i'd have to walk the whole five blocks back to my apartment like a chump.
[now hearing this: air america.]
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 9:20 AM.
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Wednesday, June 23
last night was great for a tuesday. drove out to westwood to see my friend justin's band augustus play their first show as a full band now that they finally have a drummer. it was pretty damn good for a group of guys just starting to perform together. i'm not really into that 'new rock' sort of kroq genre and it was still really decent. it's great to see someone who's been your roommate and friend for years up on a stage slamming on a bass guitar and totally enjoying himself.
then i jetted back to mike's for a bit of a beer-tasting in preparation for the next keg for his kegbot. that was excellent too. some day when i'm older and have money to drink quality instead of quantity, i hope to be some sort of beer connoisseur who can use words like 'hoppy' and 'malty' when describing beers and actually know what that means. this was a decent first step. bring on the delicious dark porters!
also finished a book about a dragon the other night. i'll give you a piece of my mind on that later.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 4:49 PM.
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Sunday, June 20
speaking of focusing on the positive . . . who likes music?
piebald - all ears, all eyes, all the time - 3 stars
i'll be honest, when i first popped in this cd, i was pissed. after falling utterly in love with this band after hearing their previous cd we are the only friends we have a few years ago, and going to a half-dozen fantastic live shows since then, i expected more. where was the same poppy goodness? where was the fun? where were the great hooky riffs? where was that simple addictive pleasure in every song?
so i was let down. it hurt at first but i didn't give up on them. i listened over and over and started imagining them playing these songs during a live show. i'd always enjoyed what they did with their other material, how would it be to see them perform this stuff?
and so from there i decided the album was salvageable, because the 4 or 5 tracks that would work great live were actually pretty decent songs, even if the album isn't great start to finish like the last one. i even saw them last week, and they did what i thought they would do, which is play the highlights from this album alongside a string of unstoppable classics. the show at the troubadour gets 5 big bright stars then -- i haven't danced around that much at a concert in a long time. the album, however, would be best suited to those who already own their better titles and want to complete their collection and/or sing along to those great new songs they'll be playing at the shows. just means you get a few tracks you can do without.
for an example of what they did right, check out haven't tried it -- featuring travis on piano! i love this song even though certain people insist it sounds like carny music. sure was fun to sing along to, that's all i have to say.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 11:29 PM.
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the biggest event of this weekend will go without elaboration here, because i'm not like that. i prefer to focus on the positive; you could say i'm an optimist no matter how cynical i can be. sometimes things that are great for a long time just can't stay great forever. endings are unfortunate but inevitable, as we can probably all agree. this is why we remember the good times instead of dwelling on the fact that they've passed. and why i hope that no connections were permanently and completely broken, because cool people are hard to come by, plain and simple.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 11:13 PM.
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Wednesday, June 16
holy shit, over a week with no updates? that's not very prompt of me.
so in brian news: i spent the last week mostly broke and avoiding expenditures. lots of time at home reading away -- finished another book which i will tell you about soon. also watched a lot of sopranos i obtained by various unsavory means, and i think i'm addicted. watching 3 to 4 hour-long episodes of a single show in one day seems almost creepy for some reason.
but the easy highlight was going to see a show on friday put on by uncabaret called the other network. it's a series they're doing all through june and july at the knitting factory where they show great TV pilots that the geniuses of network television never saw fit to actually pick up and put on the air, with introductions by the writers. in the coming weeks there are various projects from the likes of bob odenkirk, robert smiegel, and conan o'brien, to name a few. what a great idea! maybe i'll see you at one of the future shows.
this past friday though, they showed the amazing heat vision and jack, which you may or may not have heard is the story of jack black as the super-intelligent astronaut (he gets his powers from the sun) and his talking motorcycle, voiced by owen wilson. oh how i wish this had been a real show, but just having the chance to see the single half-hour pilot was amazing. i strongly suggest you take to your favorite P2P network and try to track this down, it is well, well worth it. shouldn't be hard either, i had it myself for re-viewing the very next day. you, however, won't have the pleasure of hearing dan harmon's hilarious anecdotes, but you have to take what you can get.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 10:41 AM.
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Tuesday, June 8
a story from today. let's call it " the decision".
took a trip to the men's room like i probably do half a dozen times a day -- small capacity i guess. step up to the plate, as it were, and as i unzip there's a small pop. what?
so i look down into the urinal and see the button to my pants sitting there on top of the blue rubber urinal mat. apart from the fact that i've never really understood what those are for -- do they aid in stream dampening maybe? -- i stand there simultaneously very aware of three things. one, it's only two thirds of the way through the work day and i just lost my means of keeping my pants up. two, i still need to pee, but i also need that button back. and three. there's a guy next to me.
so my split second decision making may not be sound in this situation, but my first concern was saving face in front of the guy next to me. in typical male restroom fashion, i had already made the hundred percent conscious effort not to turn toward him in even the slightest way while approaching, and therefore had no idea who it was. could have been the president of the company for all i could tell. so the 'reach in and grab it quick!' option was out. but so was the 'pretend nothing happened' route, because of reasons 1 and 2a above. tricky.
in my wisdom and due to what i saw as the fortunate circumstance of the button being on the upper left of the sloping urinal bowl mat, i settled on a plan. aim far right and minimize button infection while maintaining composure next to the possibly-important fellow at work next to me. stall, maybe shake off a little longer than normal, and wait for him to finish before me. flush, rinsing away the contaminants and relying on the urinal mat to keep the button from going down the drain -- maybe that's why it's there? -- and hope upon hope that i can grab it and wash it and my hands very thoroughly and quickly, not to mention before anyone else comes in or my pants fall down.
proving myself a lucky and intelligent strategist, that phase of the plan went smoothly and according to my scheme. of course, i still had to walk back to my desk with my hands in my pockets to prop up my jeans, and with the button in my pocket to be dealt with later. not having a needle and thread handy back there either, which perhaps i should bring to keep in a drawer in readiness for the next trouser incident, i was forced into using a binder clip to fasten the waistband closed for the next few hours, and subsequently hoping my untucked shirt wouldn't drift up and give away the fact that my pants were being held together the same way as the monthly report i was carrying back from the copy room. thusly, i made it through the rest of the day. and with a few more washings of the hands, to be extra safe.
naturally, though, once home to my seamstress tools and the privacy needed to remedy the problem, i realize a small tragedy. the problem wasn't the threads coming undone as i had assumed, but the plastic center of the button itself having broken (hence the popping sound i gather), rendering it completely useless and my unsanitary misadventure completely unnecessary. not to mention i'll have to steal a button off some old coat from my closet before wearing these pants again.
good decision, brian. real good. plus, now i have a strange urge to look up the real purpose of urinal mats.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 10:52 PM.
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Saturday, June 5
it's a sweet afternoon here at my place. cubs are wailing on the pirates at the moment, there's a perfect breeze blowing through my apartment, and i'm thoroughly enjoying the next book i picked up, the big sleep by raymond chandler. and the day's just started.
the other night i got all political-geeky and stayed up late watching the al gore speech for moveon.org on my computer. i must have caught them at the right time because then they still had the full length video up, now it's just lots of clips (which you should still check out). i thought it was a really moving speech. i don't want to go on a diatribe or cover something that's already been covered to death already, but i will say this: how great would it be to have a president who could not only use but understand the phrase 'faustian bargain'? and we were so close. check out the page, it was a great speech.
the funny thing was i decided to watch it at around 1am wednesday night, when the apartment was all dead and quiet. i felt like a little kid staying up past his bedtime to watch scary movies -- only it was me at my computer watching an hour-long political oratory. how far we've come, eh?
oh, and saw the shins last night at the wiltern, which was pretty great. they seem like a fun bunch of guys, and they sounded dead-on. i think i'm just burned out on them after listening to chutes too narrow non-stop for basically all of april. and those goddamn fiery furnaces opened for them, which i will never understand. why do they get so much attention? their singer can't sing and their songs have no melody. as far as i know, that means your band sucks. except if you're just trying to make an art-rock statement or something, in which case your band still sucks, you're just trying to impress the staff at kcrw so some nerd can get up and rave about you while giving your intro. *coughbullshitcough*
ps: anyone know why the shins' website is 'darkcoupon.com'? that's creepy.
pps: CUBS WIN 6-1! EAT THAT PITTSBURGH!
[now hearing this: some hey mercedes mix madness.]
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 12:28 PM.
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Wednesday, June 2
underworld - don delillo - 4 stars
underworld, for me, was a bit of a glitch. normally i go crazy for books with great writing, but only when it's used to tell a great story. i'm a huge fan of style, but only when it's used substantially. or at least in a way that propels you forward through a good plot.
the thing about this book, though, is that it isn't exactly plot-driven at all. after the prologue, the point farthest back in time, the rest of the book is spent going back and back in time until you reach where you started. so it's less of a plot line than a gradual uncovering of memories and nostalgias. and while this factors heavily into the meaning of the work -- which i will refrain from writing a critical essay on here -- the story's theme wasn't a huge factor in my opinion of the book.
but while i wouldn't say the story was profound in any life-changing sense, i think the thing that made this 827 page paperback worth lugging around for a month was its truthfulness. no, it didn't reveal to me as a whole some hidden meaning of life. but in every passage delillo describes honest living details that make each individual page worth reading, and then turning in favor of the next. it's not so much a style of flourish and flashiness as it is a general skill at insight.
so if you asked me 'what was that book about?' it would take me a long time to craft a response, and even then it probably wouldn't really entice you. instead, i would probably ask to answer the question, 'what was that book like to read?' and i would say 'i'm not sure i fully get the big picture, but i enjoyed it all the way through.' and if you like long, challenging but rewarding books i would also say you should read it so we can decode it together.
brought to you by Brian Longtin and the number 1 at 8:08 PM.
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