The Night Fighter

Opening Day!

2008-03-31T03:12:31Z

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle[dove] is heard in our land."
~Song Of Solomon 2:12, spoken by Ernie Harwell on his first broadcast of every season.

Only a few more hours!

"The Day I Say "It's Good" Is The Day I Should Start Doing Something Else"

2008-01-23T05:22:06Z

By now you've probably heard that Heath Ledger was found dead today in an apartment. 28 years old. Only 3 years older than myself. Its a damn shame. The title of this post is a quote of his from an interview.

I first remember seeing him in the "teen" flick "10 Things I Hate About You". Its a pretty good flick. Nice take on Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew, with some good performances all around, by Ledger, Julia Stiles, Larisa Oleynik, and a bunch of other actors. "A Knight's Tale", while a "popcorn" flick, was a really enjoyable movie, with tons of rewatchablity. I like a lot of "popcorn" flicks; every movie does not need to make a grandious statement, need to comment on life. Let's all remember what flim was originally made for- to entertain.

Of course, he branched out. Didn't want to be typecast as a "teen hunk" or just a plain jane actor. "The Patriot" - Mel Gibson's American version of "Braveheart". He played Mel's son, and was pretty good. He gives a great performance in "Monster's Ball" as the son of Billy Bob Thorton's character, who tragically kills himself. Then there is "Brokeback Mountain". I never saw it. The clips I saw of his performance looked alright, but the whole hubbub of the flick turned me off of it. Trust me, its not the gay themes or whatever, I just wasn't too interested in seeing it, and the fawning all over it as a genius piece of cinema turned me off.

Now, postumously to be released, will be the next Batman. He played the Joker. All stills, posters, and other stuff I heard/seen of it looks like it will be incredible. Unfortunately, it looks like it was this role might have some bearing in his death. According to an interview I read, he had some trouble with the role, and couldn't sleep. He got some sleeping pills. One didn't work, so he'd take two. Even then he'd wake up after an hour or so, his mind racing, thinking about the film and the character.

I am tired of seeing talented people of my generation going too soon. We are inundated with reports of other stars, not as talented stars, in my opinion, but no one does anything. Here was someone with a fantasic resume, many more great gigs and performances I haven't listed here, who has been praised and rewarded for them. Also, he wasn't like the Britneys, the Lindseys, the Amy Winehouse type who paraded around. He led a private life. He had an 18 month old daughter as well. As sad as I get hearing about some actor who dies at 70 or 80 years old, a 28 year old guy with so much promise just depresses me to no end. The promise snuffed out so fast, because, if the reports of the pills and the connection to his dedication to his work are true, he might have messed up and taken one too many, or taken something that wasn't compatable with another medication {there are reports he had pnemonia at the time}. Its just a plain damn shame.

"I'm not good at future planning. I don't plan at all. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. I don't have a day planner and I don't have a diary. I completely live in the now, not in the past, not in the future." - Heath Ledger, 1979-2008

Confessions of A Political Junkie

2008-01-11T05:25:09Z

{All due regards to Hunter S. Thompson for the title of this post.} The Michigan Primary is 4 days away. This is one of the best times. See, I view politics like sports, and the primaries are sort of a bracket for who is going to face off in "The Big Game" of the election. Now, I could speculate, but as anyone can tell you, politics are a fickle beast. Look at the last presidential election. Howard Dean, who was doing pretty well, gives a speech and because of it ends up losing the primaries. I really couldn't see the problem of the speech. He was firing up his people, much like a coach would fire up his team during half time, or more appropriate to the Dean situation, after a loss. This year Hillary breaks down and cries and people say that that is the reason why she won New Hampshire.

I have big problems with that double standard. Hillary's boo hooing looked to be completely scripted, like most of the stuff she does. Either that or the result of no sleep over the past few days. She gains ground with it, while Dean's speech 4 years ago kills his campaign. I don't get it.

Another thing I don't get is how Obama and John Edwards took their names off the Michigan Primary ballot to "punish" Michigan for moving up their primary. First of all, I think Michigan is more of a representation of the U.S. There is a diverse amount of people, from immigrants to natural citizens; Blacks, Whites, Indians, Arabs and many other ethnic groups as well. There is a diverse economy with heavy manufactuing in the southeast, commercial business, agriculture, tech jobs, and many other. There are metropoli and rural communities. In short {too late} it is like the whole U.S. combined into one state. I look at Pennsylvania as the same type of deal, as well as many other states. So, I don't get the brew-ha-ha over Iowa and New Hampshire being first. They are too small and too specific. Really, the only thing they have going is that they are first.

But back to my original point, the "punishing" of Michigan for moving the primary. Aren't the really punishing themselves by not putting their names on the ballot? Unless they hope that "Unconfirmed" wins out and they get the majority of the nominations in other states, therefore making the Michigan delegates vote for them at the convention, they are pretty much conceding a state that could help them win the nomination and, possibly, the presidency. Actually, I hope "Uncomfirmed" wins the state, to both stick it to those too chicken to go outside the national party politics who are too pissed at Michigan for trying to make a change {the message most sent by all candidates this year} and to stick it to Hillary, who, if you could realize from the initial paragraphs, I am not a fan of. All I had to hear was a speech she gave about 4 years ago where she told wealthy supporters at a fund raiser, "we're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." Source here . Not a huge fan of socialism.

My vote is going to Ron Paul. Check out his page at www.ronpaul2008.com. His libertarian ideals are very close to my own {in fact I think there are only like 2 points that I don't completely agree with him, but I see his side of the argument}. He is also a big believer in sticking to the ideals and the rules set down by the Constitution, a document that I WHOLE HEARTEDLY, 100 PERCENT BELIEVE IN!!!

So, enjoy both the NFL playoffs {Go Pats!!}, and the political season!!!

New Year, New Drive

2008-01-04T05:48:33Z

So, its been a while. Hi! I'm back! Well, hopefully. Unfortunatly, when you get stuck in the doldrums it becomes easy to slack off, and not keep up with things. Add to that the unexcitement in my life and you get some pretty boring posts, if any. However, I'd like to come back here. Treat it like a newspaper column, update every few days with a topic, rather than just a journal of my life. Of course, my life will creep in, so be it. Look to Craig Ferguson's Late Late show monologues to see what I'm kinda going for. So, I have a few ideas to start. We'll get to them soon. Hopefully you all come back.

Ultimate Irony

2007-08-17T03:41:33Z

I was just watching a documentary on History Channel about the history of illegal drugs and how they became illegal that focused on marijuana and during a commercial break there was an ad for a hydroponic, artificial lit "herb" garden. It comes with seeds for Oregano, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme and whatever, but you know what people are really going to grow in it :)

I know I haven't posted here in 2 months, and I doubt there are any readers left, but I'll try to start posting again, because I have a lot to bitch about!

I Have A Great Recipe For Crow Fajitas

2007-06-08T14:22:13Z

A few years ago I wrote this post here where I chastised Braylon Edwards for being a cocky bastard going into the NFL Draft. I guess I have to recant my statements here, as I promised in the post, because of a column I just read on ESPN.com. You can read that article here .

Short summary- Braylon is donating a million bucks of his own money to fund 100 scholarships for kids in the Cleveland's Municipal School District. I guess he has matured from what I found to be over confident into someone who wants to use his good fortune to help out. Or maybe he was always this way and I just was out for some blood or whatever. Either way, I promised to eat crow if something like this happened. I'll tell you what, its very gamey and needs a lot more salt than you'd think. Try it with hot sauce.

The Crossroads

2007-05-07T16:57:56Z

Its been almost a month since I last wrote anything here. That post was written a month after the post before it. The writing here has become few and far between, with post ranging from the over long bitch session, to short, inane ramblings on nothingness. I find it hard to find topics I want to write about, or when I do think of something, its when I'm not around the computer. When I do end up getting to sit down and write, I've forgotten exactly what I wanted to say, so the post becomes muddled or just plain blown off. This isn't just the case for this bullshit "blog, " its also the case for any other writing I've wanted to do.

Yes, I've been attempting to write many things over the course of the last few years. I had a great idea for a novel, which I've worked on, on and off, for about a year or more now. I'm about 50 or so pages in and like any other writing I've ever done outside of assignments, I've pretty much given up. I have a few notebooks in my desk drawer with the beginnings of short stories or possibly longer books, that just plain end after 10 or so pages.

Of course, any tips and pointers written by actual, honest to God, published writers will always say somewhere to "sit down and write everyday", and "keep at it, even if it sucks." I always find a way to not sit down, even for 15 or 20 minutes, and focus on it. I just waste time doing nothing; nothing taking the place of actually trying. This is the case for a lot of other things in my life as well. I should probably be doing something more important than what I'm actually doing, but I trick myself into justifying whatever time wasting thing I'm doing. Of course, a lot of the time I AM doing something that should be done, like fixing something broke {usually I'm the reason why its broken}, or doing errands and housework, but it comes down to making some sort of schedule or prioritizing time better.

Does anyone even read these posts anymore? I know a few years ago I had most of my crew checking this stuff out, making coments, interacting. The last few posts, though, have had nothing. I realize many of them ARE bullshit, bullshit being easy to throw on here once in awhile, and who really wants to comment on dumbass stuff? If you're still reading, I'll continue to write, and I promise to try to create more writing in the vein of when I first started, my last year of school. I go back once in a while and read he old stuff. There is some good stuff there, along with some bullshit, of course, but I need to start doing something more with this.

"Grindhouse" Grinds Out Action, Thrills, Spills, & Lots Of Campy '70s Fun

2007-04-09T17:08:48Z

This past friday night, me and my homie G$ went to see the double feature "Grindhouse" at the local cinema. I've given a thought lately to trying to get into some film criticism, I figured this would be a good place to start.

If you haven't heard, Grindhouse is Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's homage to the '70s films that inspired them. Films that had toured the country and were played in small, sub par theaters that had seen better days, and ended up with scratches, hairs on the film, washed out coloring, and missing scenes by the time they reached your local theater. In between the films, 3 fake trailers, produced by Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, and Eli Roth, are shown, hyping other '70s insipired flicks. We'll get to those in a minute.

First up though is a fake trailer by Rodriguez for a flick called "Machete", with Danny Trejo, based on his character from the Spy Kids flicks. It fully sets up the whole 70's feel. A gravely voiced announcer, uses dialogue straight from old trailers to hype an ultra violent film about a Mexican assassin who gets double crossed and wants revenge. "If you hire Machete to kill the bad guy, make sure the bad guy isn't YOU!" It is the perfect way to get in the mood for what is to come. Then we get the first of the double feature, Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror."

"Planet Terror" starts out introducing us to down on her luck go-go dancer Cherry Darling, played by Rose McGowan. She meets up with an old fling, the mysterious Wray, played by Freddie Rodriguez, in a Texas Barbeque joint, and the two obviously have had a rocky past. Meanwhile, "Lost"'s Naveen Andrews character, a biochemist, is in a deal with a group of military types to sell them a nerve gas. Double crosses happen and the gas is leaked out, infecting people with a disease that turns them into pus oozing, human hungry zombies. A set of doctors, William and Dakota Block, played by Josh Brolin and Marlie Shelton repectively, are working the graveyard shift at the hospital, and Dakota is making a move behind William's back about something mysterious, which he finds out about. Quickly the hospital is overrun by Zombies and Cherry loses a leg to the zombies.

Now Wray, Cherry, Dakota and the Sheriff, as well as those others not infected must fight the zombie terror emerging around them. It is gory, campy fun, just on this side of cheese. For example, Cherry's missing leg is replaced by an M16 machine gun with grenade launcher. Rodriguez keeps the action moving throughout the 80 or 90 minutes the flick runs, although there is only so much zombie killing one can take in one time, and it gets slightly repetative. as well as being a zombie flick, it is also a great throwback to the '70s and '80s B action films in the vein of "Escape From New York". In fact, Wray seems to be a modern interpretation of said film's hero Snake Pilssken. Rodriguez does a great job of keeping with the grindhouse feel. Although he shot the flick with HD Video, he recreates scratches, color fade, the film jumping in the gate, and even a scene where the film is jambed in the projector and is melted, followed by a still saying "Reel Missing". It totally has the '70s B movie feel, as seen in a '70s B Movie Theater. All in all it is not just a great homage, but a great down and dirty, mindless zombie action flick.

Now, during intermission, we get a few old bumpers telling us of the coming attractions. These are great, old vintage clips, probably from Tarantino's collection. First up in the fake trailers is Rob Zombie's "Werewolf Women Of The SS", a funny send up of '70s monster and Nazi soft core, like the infamous "Ilsa, She-Wolf Of The SS". Its funny, campy and complete with the B movie budget saving techniques of combining multiple genres to make a film.

Next is Edgar Wright's, who did "Shaun Of The Dead", offering, "Don't"- a send up of haunted house and suspense horror flicks like "Phantasm", "House On Haunted Hill", and "The Shining". While the other directors try to recreate the old films, this trailer is a great parody. It's voice over starts with statements like, "If you're thinking of going in that house, Don't. If you're thinking of going through that door, Don't" which quickly morphs into a frantic, funny use of the word "Don't" over and over. The images are of freakish, ghoulish haunted house creatures and of frightened people, but due to the overuse of the word, it gets funnier and funnier as it goes on and on.

Finally, we get Eli Roth's tribute to the holiday themed horror flicks, like "Halloween", "April Fools Day", and "Black Christmas". His entry is "Thanksgiving", and it is the goriest of the three. We get images of a mad killer, dressed as a pilgrim, wreaking havoc on teenagers and house wives. A cheerleader is killed while doing a strip tease on a trampoline. Teenagers making out in a car get brutally killed. Roth aged his film and it definately looks like it is 30 years old complete with sctaches, over saturaton of color, and the classic use of a deep gravelly voice over and vintage titles help with the feel as well. It is a funny, shocking, and very violent trailer. It was probably my favorite of the 3 just becasue of the combination of camp and shock value, with Zombie's being a close second.

After a funny, vintage cartoon that states that the following film is restricted viewing, Tarantino's "Death Proof" begins. In it, a killer named Stuntman Mike, played by the great Kurt Russell, stalks two groups of girls and, using his suped up cars in place of the traditional knives of other movie killers, hunts them down. Late in the flick the theme shifts into classic car chase and women's revenge genres, and we get what is possibly one of the greatest car chases on film.

The car stuff in the flick is just great. The chase between the Dodge Challenger and the Dodge Charger, two of the baddest muscle cars ever made is incredible. It is done at real speed, with no CGI {save for removing some harness wires} and the cutting of it is not like an MTV music video. You really get a feel for the speed of it all and the immense amount of terrain the two cars cover. The stuff near the beginning with a Chevy Nova is also impressive stunt work, also done practically with CGI used for some things that I won't go into detail about to save some of the suprise.

I really wanted to like this film, especially after the great action of Planet Terror and the rousing trailers, but I feel Tarantino really dropped the ball. He stayed too true to the B movie tradition and the movie really drags due to too much pointless dialogue and slow pacing. I say he stayed too true in that back in the day, when the directors of B movies had such small budgets, they might have only had the money to do 20 or so minutes of pure unbrideled action. 20 minutes of action do not a movie make, and so they were forced to fill time with dialogue and other things to strech the movie.

Taratino falls into this trap and its hard to get out of. While I was into the first group of girls mindless gossip about guys they're sleeping with, where they will score drugs, catty talk about other girls and guys, when the second group of girls comes around and begin to enter the same types of conversations and arguements, it seems like the film is just a sequel to itself. In one scene that drags, the second group of girls, containing Rosario Dawson, and Stuntwoman Zoe Bell, talk in a diner, and Tarantino shoots it exactly like the opening scene of his "Reservoir Dogs". While that movie used the long, slow dialogue to introduce us to the robbers we will be following through the next 2 hours, the scene in "Death Proof" just drags, since we've already had 10 or 15 minutes of the same girls in a car talking too much. The scene almost seems like a fan boy's homage to his hero Tarantino. Even though the conversation in the diner turns to classic car chase movies, which I love and love talking about {I've seen all the movies the girls discuss}, I wanted to shout to the screen to get on with it. Of course after this conversation we go to a farm where the girls go to check out a classic 1970's Dodge Challenger, like the one in "Vanishing Point", and we get 15 or so more minutes of the girls arguing about taking the car out. I wanted to scream at the girls to get on with it. By the time we get to the incredible car chase with the girls and Stuntman Mike, I just wanted him to run the girls down, to stop their incessant arguing. But he doesn't and the girls ban together to get revenge on Mike for his attempted murder of them, which gives us more car chase scenes and a switch to the "Women's Revenge Film" genre too.

While Tarantino has been known for his "brilliant" dialogue for some time, this time it was way too much, like he was trying to out-Tarantino himself. Conversations drag, and try to be too hip. Too much alliteration and too much of a cocky attitude are used, and you may find yourself drumming your fingers on the armrest more that being tuned into what is being said. Tarantino should go back and look at his "Pulp Fiction" and "Jackie Brown" where the dialogue was a good mix of hip and plot related. Also, I may be biased because I only have girls in my family and have heard the same types of dialogue {minus the drug scoring stuff}, at every family get together, every drive up north, every sleep over, and every birthday since I could walk.

The flick also suffers because of the underutilized character of Stuntman Mike. After introducing him as a strangly charming, dare I say-likable, psycho killer, he disappears for almost 40 or so minutes, only to sweep back in when he's needed. While he interacted with the first set of girls before going after them, he never interacts with the second at all and it is missed. The first group of girls are only really there to set up Stuntman Mike for the second, who are more redeemable, i.e. the dichotomy of the carreer-slut, stoner chicks/vs the movie stunt/makeup chicks. Still, it could've been pared down, and used more of Stuntman Mike, and we would've "got it"{credit for these last 2 sentences goes to Toyko Slim, from a forum I belong to, who I discussed the film with}. While its not the worst movie I've ever seen, it was my least favorite Tarantino offering to date, save for the car chases, which saved it from totally failing.

All in all though, I really enjoyed the experience of it all, and it is an experience, not just a double feature. I really wish I could've been alive back in the glory days of the grindhouse/drive-in B flicks, instead of just experiencing them on late night TV, video and DVD. Plus, with movies being so expensive- my ticket cost 9 bucks- getting 2 flicks for the same price was nice, especially since I was not as happy with "Death Proof", and would've been disappointed with spending 9 bucks on it by itself. I still highly recommend checking it out.

That Was A Little Pitchy, Dog!

2007-03-09T20:23:00Z

Here's something you might not know about me- I watch American Idol. Now, before you start getting down on the kid here, and telling me I've gone soft, know this- the show combines a few things I love: Music, and ripping on people. I love all kinds of music. I adore old school R&B, I like rock and pop. I listen to country and jazz and blues and plain old vocal music. Plus, as you can easily see from the postings I make here, I enjoy ripping on people in a fun, sometimes nasty, way. So Simon is in the words of Randy Jackson, my dog.

So I wanted to discuss the controversy surronding the show. Actually the controversy should be over now as the main part of it was voted off last night. Well, better late than never. I'm talking of course about the controversy about Idol contestant Antonella Barba. I was a fan from the start, for one main reason- she's cute. Sue me, I'm a guy.

As you probably know, some, shall I say risque, pictures of her surfaced on the internet a few weeks ago. So, right away the media wants her head on a platter . They bring up the fact that a few seasons ago they kicked off a chick named Frenchie who was also in some risque pictures on the internet. Of course Rosie "The Riveter" O'Donnell had to open her big ass mouth and say that the Idol peopel are racist and sizist{is this actually a word?!} for not kicking Antonella off like Frenchie. Well here's the rub {no jokes!}: Frenchie was PAID to do her photos, and they were on a pay site. Antonella's pictures were private photos she took and sent to her boyfriend as a gift. The guy then went and put them on the internet when she got on the show. What class, guy!

There's the difference. She was never paid for them and they weren't supposed to be public. I don't think she should be kicked off for something that was done in private that leaked out later. And where does The Riveter get off saying the show is racist? Isn't one of the three judges black? What about the 2 best contestants this year, LaKisha and Melinda? And the fact that two winners of the competition in the past, Rubin and Fantasia, are black too? What a racist show! The View. What a joke.

Again, don't think I'm soft bringing up The View. When I was doing work in The Hatch I had nothing to pass the time and keep me from going insane except my iPod and my Walkman. The Walkman picks up TV audio, and the only station that came in clear in The Hatch was ABC. So, in the morning I listened to Good Morning America, Regis and Kelly, Martha {don't laugh! She has some good recipes!}, and The View. It passed the time.

Getting back to the controversy, there are people who also brought up that some of the Antonella pics were of her in a wet tee shirt in front of the WWII Memorial. How disrespectful to the veterans of that war!! Doesn't she have any respect! Wait a minute here! Weren't the guys in WWII the same ones who painted pictures of chicks on the front of bombers? Didn't they put up pictures of Betty Grable and Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow in their barracks? Didn't they love it when Bob Hope brought dancing girls to the USO shows? I don't think its disrespectful. She wasn't doing anything except play in the fountain and pose next to the granite. I think my grandfather, who fought in the Pacific, would probably dig it. My grandmother would probably yell at him though.

What do we need to tell the young kids coming up? Hey kids, don't...ever...do...anything. ANYTHING! One day you may be in the public eye and someone will spill it all to the world and you will be ridiculed by people you don't know and cause great controversy! It's like if someone found a video of one of Brad Pitt in a 3rd grade school play and he pissed his pants. I love media but I hate this new trend of the public building people up and then just smacking them down. We like you, we like you, we LOVE you...NOW WE HATE YOU!! HAHAHA!

So we have a young girl, she's 20, who did some stuff and now its everywhere. Its pretty sad. No wonder she didn't perform well. She wouldn't have won, Melinda and LaKisha are just too good, but she could've had a shot. I think she did poorly once the main show started because, like she said in her try-out, she has never really performed publicly and she hasn't been trained as a singer. She did much better performing in front of the three judges and then a small audience of the other singers, but once she got in front of a real audience and 33 million viewers, in my opinion, she just got too nervous. Plus, she picked some tough songs. Whatever. As I said, she was voted off last night so the controversy of the pictures should be dead now. But I know people will always bring it up. They always do.

Tomorrow's Just A Future Yesterday

2007-02-23T06:52:54Z

I make it no secret that my favorite late night talk show is "The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" {airs at 12:37 am, on CBS}. Craig takes the traditional monologue and tosses it away. Typically, in other late night shows {i.e Leno and Letterman}, the monologue is a collection of random jokes about stuff happening in the news. Craig typically starts out with something from the news and goes with it. The whole monologue is devoted to one topic, he makes many jokes, usually relates it to things in his life, and it is all improvised. They have an outline with a few jokes on the teleprompter and that's it. He vamps the whole thing. Even when the monologue is not that great, its still better than the other ones out there.

Well, the other night Craig's monologue was really poignient. I really can't describe it my self, outside of saying that it was inspiring and that it proves the man is a stand up guy who isn't a shill to the broadcasters and to demographics. Here it is {it is 12 minutes long, so don't have any plans}.

It seemed to ruffle a few feathers and he was interviewed the other day for CBS Evening news about it. That you can find Here .

Houston, We Have A Problem!

2007-02-07T04:55:03Z

Recently, there has been a story in the news that raises the bar of pissed off to a level I don't think anyone can ever reach.

Ok, here's the thing. There's this female astronaut, based in Houston, who actually went into space, who was involved in a relationship with a male astronaut. Well, apparently, there was another woman who was involved with said male astronaut. So what does the first chick I mentioned do? Does she get pissed and bitch at the girl? Does she send her hate mail? Does she spread vile rumors about her? NO!!! She drives from Houston to Orlando, Florida, almost 1000 miles to get even. THE CHICK WORE A DIAPER SO SHE WOULDN'T HAVE TO STOP ON THE WAY! When she got to Orlando, she put on a wig and attacked the other woman with pepper spray and a BB gun. When the cops busted her they found on her, in a bag, said BB gun, a steel mallet, a knife, and rubber tubing. Damn!

Now, I think we've all been a little pissed at one point. Maybe we'll say some shit we didn't really mean. Maybe we'll honk a horn and say some four letter words. Maybe a punch will be thrown. But I don't think anyone would be so pissed as to drive 1000 miles to accost someone, and then, in an attempt not to let the rage die down, wear a diaper so they wouln't have to stop. I mean, come on. I've been in the words of my former housemate David, Uber-Pissed, but usually the anger dies down within 10 or 15 minutes. Maybe it would take a day or so. But I would never drive 1000 miles, nor would I wear a diaper so I wouldn't have to stop to pee.

Like I said, this sets the bar of pissed off to astronamical levels {no pun intended}. Seriously, how can anyone ever outdo this? I don't really even want to concieve it, but I can't wait to see it.

nite_fighter @ 2007-02-06T01:09:00

2007-02-06T06:11:56Z

Just a quick hit here. Harry Connick Jr. will be on The Late Show With David Letterman tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 6th) promoting his new albums. I don't know if he will be interviewed or if he is just there to sing. As I said before, check it out if you are a fan of his, New Orleans, and/or Jazz.

Pointlessness (Is That A Real Word?)

2007-02-02T20:45:42Z

I realize I haven't posted anything here in awhile, but there hasn't been a whole lot of big stuff going down. I wish I had an update about my life or my career to post but there is nothing. I'd like to get enraged about something and use this space like I normally do to put out some socio-political commentary, or make some stupid celebrity the innocent victim of my pointless rage. There's not much I can add to the stupidity that happened in Boston with the Aqua Teen Hunger Force signs, or the fact that there is a very mediocre actress who is really not the hottest chick out there checking into rehab while she is underage. A few asides though.

If you are even remotely into cars check out Jay Leno's Garage . I know there is an eternal debate on who has the better show and act, Leno or Letterman, but there is one thing that the Leno haters have to agree on and that is that the guy knows a lot about cars. In the videos section Jay takes you on mini tours of various cars in his giant collection, and it is very informative. He does most of work himself, with his group of mechanics and there is a lot of cool stuff that he shows you. Other videos have car care tips, and other neat stuff. Be aware that the site is sponsored by GM so before all the videos you have to watch a GM commercial. Its not bad, but if you watch more than a few of the videos the commercial does get a little repetative. A small price to pay though, and the commercial that was running today was a Cadillac spot showing the evolution of their cars and I love old Caddies.

Also, Harry Connick Jr. released 2 new albums this past week: "Oh, My Nola" and "Chanson du Vieux Carre". Both are tributes to his hometown of New Orleans, the second one is an all instrumental album. Great Jazz all around. I only have Oh My Nola right now but I plan on picking up Chanson du Vieux Carre soon. Check 'em out if you like Harry, New Orleans, and/or Jazz

Eight More Hours...

2007-01-12T01:10:49Z

"As I approach the gates of heaven;
St. Peter I will tell;
One more punk reporting sir;
I've served my time in hell."
-Mark Anthony Gresswell {Adapted by me}.

"I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain..." - Morgan Freeman as Red, The Shawshank Redemption.

Time Of The Season

2007-01-02T03:58:17Z

So, the season is winding down. Really, unless you follow Eastern Orthodox or Greek Orthodox calendars, it is over, although the feast of the three kings is on the 6th. Man, this was not the best of seasons.

It came up too fast. Usually I'd relish in the time, because as i've said before here, the best part of Christmas is the month or so build up to it. I'd listen to the music, watch good flicks, get the decorations up. And The Tree. See, every decoration on our tree is handmade. We have stuff on there that was made by my great grand parents. Its all tradition and history.

This year, between the 10 and 1/2 hour days of pure mindless bullshit quote, unquote "work" at the job {which God willing is only going to last another week or 2}, as well as the lack of Christmas-y type programing aired, led to a really bad lead up. ABC Family typically has a good variety of flicks, specials, and old TV shows in their "25 days of Christmas" line up. This year they showed the first 3 Harry Potter movies like 3 times a piece. And the crappy Jim Carrey version of The Grinch about 3 times as well.

Some of the other channels wouldn't start their flicks until 9 p.m. I like to watch the news at 10 so I can see what's going on while I'm "working" in my hatch, and I can see what the weather will be like. And I try to get to bed at like 11 since 10 1/2 hours already makes me want to slice my veins open, let alone if I'm tired.

Man, I'm really disappointed I couldn't enjoy the season more. Looks like there might be a Christmas in January celebration, in which I watch the Christmas-y flicks I own when the sentence of mine ends, and before I start a job I really want to work at.

{I really want to appologize for bitching so much about this job, but I really don't like it. It is so mindless, boring and lonely that by about 10 or 11 o'clock every morning I just want to flip out, scream, cry and walk out. I have been able to leave after 8 hours recently, because I've gotten most of the big stuff done and now its looking like I'm just doing pick up on stuff that was missed- which leads me to the belief that there is only a littl bit more left. I'd rather be not working but be of sound mind, than be making money at something I hate and want to hang myself from the ceiling in my hatch everyday.}

Its Midnight & I'm Not Famous Yet

2006-12-23T20:25:16Z

One year ago today I walked out of the offices of The Agency at around 11 am. It was the last time I actually worked in the field of TV, video, and film. Here it is a year later, I haven't worked for 11 months and now I'm doing work at a job I really am not a fan of, for 10 and 1/2 hours a day, with no more leads on a job I'd love than I had last year. Things can be so complicated.

Of course, it's probably not a good thing to keep looking back at a couple of months of Glory Days. Like Jimmy Buffett says in "changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes" - "Oh, yesterdays are over my shoulder, so I can't look back for too long. There's just too much to see waiting in front of me, and I know that I just can't go wrong."

Dear Santa, bring me a good producing job or anything involving my background for Christmas. Ho Ho Ho! {Thats what a pimp says when he sees three of his employees}

Usually I'd talk about great christmas movies, but I think I covered all of them already in the past 2 years, so how about some Christmas music. I highly recommend these albums: "Boogie Woogie Christmas" and "Dig That Crazy Christmas" both by The Brian Setzer Orchestra,
"When My Heart Finds Christmas" and "Harry For The Holidays" by Harry Connick Jr.,
"A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra",
"A Dean Martin Christmas",
"Happy Holidays" by Bing Crosby,
"Winter Wonderland" by Ray Charles,
the song "This Christmas" by Donny Hathaway {not sure of what album its on},
Herb Alpert's Christmas album,
"Christmas Portrait" by The Carpenters.
A really good mix cd is Now That's What I Call Christmas, but only up until half way through disc 2, when they get into the more modern crap by nsync and crap.
I'm sure there's tons more, but I'm writing this kind of fast. By all means put more in the comments section.

Well, Happy Festivus everybody {I have my pole set up in the basement}. And have a great Christmas.

The Results Are In

2006-12-12T20:38:03Z

Just got off the phone with the woman from the job. My results came in from the second test and I passed {as I knew I would}. So, tomorrow I go back. Happy birthday.

I'm conflicted here. On one hand I'm so damn happy that the test came back good, and my name and character have been cleared. On the other hand, I'm pissed that I have to go back. I was kinda hoping for them to have hired someone else to do the job. As nice as it is to be earning some green, I don't know if its worth it if I hate ever second of existence doing it. Plus, I was getting pumped about possibly going to teh news with something and exposing some evil-doings by the testing place or whatever.

Well, yesterday I got an e-mail from a person I used to work with about a job posting. Its for a position at a post house. I sent my resume about 10 seconds after I read the e-mail to the person it said to forward them too. So, hopefully something comes from that.

At least my name has been cleared and I know that I am not getting screwed. But, like everything, it ends not with a bang but with a whimper.

The Agony & The...Further Agony

2006-12-11T04:52:31Z

Well, I think we need a little more clairification on the job situation that I presented here a week ago. Ready to dive in? Let's take the plunge.

I show up on the first day and meet the shop supervisor and he explains the job more throughly to me. Basically, my job is to use a glorified Excel program to put information such as circuit numbers, status of pressure cylinders {such as engaged, or disengaged}, where wires plug in or go to for this robotic assembly line that they are constucting, which upon completion will be shipped down to Mexico. When I get enough information in the system, I print them out in these little plastic tags using a small plotter.

For those of you who are not familiar with a plotter, it is a printer that uses a pen that a little hand like thing picks up, to ink a surface. Big plotters usually have 4 pens in them and they vary the colors. The one I use is a small one that only uses black. Also it is very loud when it prints on the plastic tags. It sounds like an old Western Union telegraph machine. However, I don't learn this until later, because when they go to teach me how to use the stuff the computer freezes up and it turns out the hard drive is corrupted. So they bring in a new computer after an hour {during which I'm going back and forth getting schematics and making copies, so I can make tags for the wiring...and the copy machine jams on every copy, so that takes forever to fix and work out}, and the new computer doesn't recognize its CD Rom drive, so they have to go and get another computer, then set up the program and the shit to make the plotter work, then configure the plotter to be square on all the tags.

So its about 1 o'clock when I finally start working, and within 15 minutes I'm bored as hell. Like the Gieco comercials, its so easy a caveman can do it. In one book of plans I get like 300 tags, of which 2 sets of 2 tags need to be made. The blanks for the tags have 4 trees, with 4 tags on each tree, which gives you 16 tags per blank, and you can put 10 blanks on the plotter. It takes about an hour to print out all ten blanks, and for the first book of schematics I needed 4 series of ten blanks. And this is where I learn about the noise the plotter makes. Everyone in the area around me comes around bitching about "whats all the tapping?!?!" So much so that the next day they move me and the equipment.

The place they move me a room about 3/4 the size of my bedroom. It has a huge printer for the designers who design robots and machine parts and whatever, and the servers for the network for the building. It is cramped, there are no windows and due to the equipment and the fact that I have to leave the door closed due to the plotter, it is hot.

I hate the job even more. I am able to bring my Ipod, but still it is more boring than my job as exit host in the cafeteria, and 2 and a half times as long. Whenever I have questions about the schematics, which I don't know how to read, I have to go into the shop and ask someone in the department that the plans go to. Of course, they act like I'm bothing them and I get almost no help from some people, who act like I'm some kind of leper because I'm not sure how to read the plans.

When I do the tagging for some hydrallic cylinders, I get 2 books that are priority and 2 that aren't so important right away. I do the priority ones after lunch and print out the 2 sets, then bag them up by the system they need to be and I go to get some more bags and to tell the head guy in that department that the tags are done. I'm there talking to the guy when another guy overhears our discussion. He goes, "you know those things have to be in Spanish". So, I have to junk an afternoon's worth of work and redo everything, because the head guy in the department didn't read the e-mail that the parts had to be in Spanish.

Then the big one comes along, on Friday afternoon. I get a call from the woman who hired me. She says, "There was a problem with your drug test." I say I don't see how there could've been. I may enjoy the occasional drink, as you all may know, as well as a cigar here or there, but I DO NOT do any illegal or illicit substances. I say i want to do another test right away, and I'll even pay for it, because something is wrong. She basically wants to fire me right away, but says go and take another test. So, I leave work an hour early and spend more than a half hour waiting to take another piss test.

I have time to think in that time and I realize that the "problem" had to be that she told me at the last second on the friday before I started to tell me about the job and to tell me to go take a drug test. Since it was so sudden and I had just went to the bathroom, I started drinking big cups of water, so that I could go when it came time for the test. I probably drank 3/4 of a gallon or more of water in the hour before the test, so the sample I gave them was probably not a good one, just water and some minor enzymes. I ask the nurse doing the test about this, and mention how I drank a lot of water. She say that it is more than likely the case, there was an inconclusive test, due to a bad sample. My sister, who worked in a hospital as a nursing assistant, has some experience with sample testing, and who is going to school to be an occupational therepist agreed when I talked to her later.

So I call the woman tonight to find out about tomorrow. She tells me they won't have the results of the test until at least tuesday, maybe longer, and I cannot report to work until after then. So I figure I probably won't be going back, because they'll have to get someone to do the job in my absense, or else the crap will pile up. Why would they want to mix up everything? Might as well get a replacement and keep them. Plus, I don't think they'll want to admit they were wrong about the test and have to apologize for basically accusing me of drug use. They'll come out looking like jerks if they have to admit they were wrong.

If they test comes back bad again, I WILL be calling the Fox 2 Problem Solvers and/or Channel 4 and 7's problem squads, becasue something is obivously awry at the drug testing place they use. I say again I DO NOT USE ANY ILLEGAL OR ILLICIT SUBSTANCES. Do not fire me over something I am completely innocent of. What if someone who needs a job to feed his family and keep his house gets screwed over by a "problem with a drug test" that is completetly false and he doesn't get the job?

All in all the past week has been shitacular. Everyday draged, every moment at "work" was drudgery, the drive home always sucked {my car actually stalled out in stop & go traffic one evening} , and I get accused of complete crap. I really need to get a job in advertising, television, video or whatever in my field as quick as possible, because I'm going nuts.

I Saw My Advantage & I Took It; That's What Heroes Do

2006-12-04T01:31:47Z

Well, starting tomorrow I am starting a job. It isn't any way involved in my dream and training in film and video studies. Apparently, I'll be putting some information into a computer system and the information will be engraved onto machine parts or something. Its a two month contract and the hours are 7am-5:30p.m. Hopefully something comes of the huge mass mailing of resumes I sent out last Thursday soon. As happy as I am to be making some money again, I'd rather be doing my film video and tv thing.

And the title of this entry is one of my favorite quotes from The SImpsons.

Need A Good Doctor?

2006-11-16T05:49:21Z

Here's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. May take the title for funniest thing I've ever seen. And probably the cutiest little kid I've ever seen {not counting The Kiddo!}

The Postman Always Rings Twice

2006-11-06T18:45:50Z

It started out simple enough. I had to mail a letter and a resume to a person that an old colleage of mine suggested I send it to. I was going to go to the post office near me, but I figured, hey I have some things I want to check out at Meijer, and they have postal capibilities. I'll justt go there, kill two birds with one stone. So I go to a Meijer's that I never really go to, but might have a different selection of stuff and whatever {classy prose, I know}. I go slightly out of my way to there.

This Meijer has 2 counters for customer service: one for mail and returns and the like, one for Lotto and smokes. However, they only have one person working both lines, and today is Get Out Of The Home day for senior citizens. There's like 7 old folks in line for the Lotto. I wait in the other line for about 15 minutes waiting for the teller. Finally she comes over. I say, "I have something to mail here." Without even stoping, she turns on a dime and makes her way back to the Lotto counter saying, "Our machine is down, we can't mail anything." No sorry for the wait, sorry we can't mail anything, nothing. And she walks back to the lotto. "Thanks a lot for making me wait 15 minutes to tell me" I say under my breath. So, my fuse getting shorter, I make my way around the store with my 8 1/2 x 11 mailing envelope tucked under my arm like a shmuck.

In my car I spot a Kroger, driving back. After carefully negotiating a tight parking lot full of people who can't drive I go in. I make my way to the customer service counter. I place the bright white envelope on the counter, with only an address and a return label, easily seen on it. This mutated strange woman comes to the counter. I say, "I need to mail this letter." She says, "The mailbox is outside." I gesture to the part of the envelope where the postages goes which is painfully, obviously empty. She is utterly confused. "Do you want a book of stamps or something." Frustrated, I just grimace and say, "whatever, I need postage for them to send it." She goes, "Oh, we don't do postage here," and steps back from the counter.

Now, a normal person would have seen right away that there was no postage, and a person with resonable intellegence would have immediately said, "Oh, sorry we don't have a post office here, but there is one at So And So street." But apparently this chick is not aware of how the mail system works. I mutter, "It would've been nice to know that right away" as I walk away.

I make my way towards home, and I pass the Meijer I normally go to. I stop in. There's no line for the mail/return/customer service desk, but one for Lotto. These are one counter, with 2 lines. And, THANK GOD!, they have two people working behind there. I walk up. The person for mail/returns/CS is a trainee. I say, "I need to mail this." She says, "I don't know how to do that, hang on a second." The other person finishes up Lotto, and the trainee grabs her quickly and explains. The other employee says, "Our machine is down." It is now apparent that the postal system for the entire Meijer chain is messed up, which would have been nice to know at the last one I went to, but the person there was too busy to stop and say that, or pretty much anything for that matter.

Down the street from that Meijer is a real, actual, honest to God, US Post Office. So I go there...like I was going to, to begin with...40 minutes after I was going to go there. There's a line out the door, and its hot inside and I'm pissed. But I wait my turn, and the line moves suprisingly quickly. 15 minutes later I pay for my postage, and "First Class" is stamped on the envelope. The price: 52 cents. I wasted almost and hour of my life and a gallon of gas for 52 damn cents.

My Fever Is Gone

2006-10-30T16:10:06Z

Recently, I have been sick, yet over the course of the past few days my fever has subsided. And another fever of mine has also gone away as well. The baseball season has come and gone. Like the line from "The Hollow Men" goes, "This is how the world ends, not with a scream but with a whimper". Yes, our Tigers faltered. We were held down by dumb plays, and bad errors. Still, we made it to the end. Only two can make it and one of them was Us.

Earlier this morning I tuned into The Sports Inferno, a great radio show on from 10 until 2 on 1270 am. They played some messages left on their answering machine from right after the game. Have I ever heard such haters in my life? Never. One guy even said that the team was a complete embarassment to the city and he would have rather not saw them even make it to the end. Is this a little extreme? You bet your ass it is. I'll admit to feeling a little embarassed In The Moment, when a stupid play occurs. However, that should subside when you think that this team was pretty much ruled out before the season even started. Most people were hoping for the team to even get a .500 season. Yet we won 95 games, we were number one for a majority of the season. So, I'm disappointed in the way we performed in the final series, especially since it was the first time many people may have seen the Tigers. Don't let the disapointing play effect the season as a whole.

Should we have played better? Yeah. Perhaps that week off before the series started doomed us. Idle hands are the devils playground. Should the pitching rotation been different? More than likely. But this team is not an embarassment to The City by any means. There is a certain football team that takes that title. It was an incredible season that was topped off by some slop. So, embarassed, no. Disappointed, yes.

I also heard on the show a quote which I agree with. One of the commentators said word to the effect that this season was the last one, for a while, where it is totally fresh. Young guys, no real hope from anyone to make it to even the playoffs, let alone the series, no expectations for anything, just guys going out to play. Now, there will be expectations. Things will be judged for some time against this past season. Games won, plays, etc.

Would I have liked to see them win? You bet your ass I would've. But just seeing the season itself was terrific. I used to be just a passive fan. The boys and I would decide at like 4 or 5 pm to go down and see a game, maybe I'd watch a couple on TV during the season, if there was nothing on. I'm not nor have I ever been a fairweather fan. I watched and followed them through all the hard times like a few seasons ago when we lost the 119 games. I was just passive. However, I rediscoverd my love of the game and the team, as well ans strengthing my love of The City, this season. I watched or listen to most games, I saw many in person. We'd plan ahead of time to go to games. They were Events, not just passive entertainment. Of course now my OCD takes over. I can never not watch ever again. I will always want to go to games. I will always follow the team. While I've always liked baseball, it has, over the course of the past few years, and fully developed over this year, into my favorite sport. Damn, Damn, Damn, how can I wait the next 154 days until the next season starts?

Its Party Time! P-A-R-T-Why? I Just Gotta!

2006-10-20T04:35:49Z

Earlier this evening I attended a party in Ferndale thrown by one of the post production houses I used to do agency work at. Its been 10 and a half months since I've actually had a full time gig. One of my colleages at The Agency, who was laid off in february himself, and who just recently found a new gig, suggested I should go. So I printed up a bunch of half assed business cards with my information on it and went. {actually, they're not half assed, I worked for a long time designing them}

Since its so close to Halloween, they got cute with the party and said everyone had to have a beard. Either grow your own or they had the fake ones that tape on. I haven't shaved in a week. Well, to the doorman, that wasn't good enough, so I went with the Brandon Inge soul patch... which fell off 5 seconds after putting it on, since it didn't stick to my week old stubble. Damn You Doorman!!!

So I spent the next 3 hours smoozing. I talked with people I knew from when I did my work there, and some people I didn't even know. With the people that I "knew" it could be tough. I haven't seen them in over 10 months so recalling names could be tough. Plus the stupid beards didn't help. I talked with one guy for about 5 minutes before figuring out that it was a guy I worked with for a week straight on a project. Everyone was in disguises. It was a good time though, even if I felt out of place some times.

I tried to sell myself a lot, and we'll see where this goes. Hopefully someone I gave my card to will remember me and hook me up with something. My buddy from The Agency told me to go to every get together like this one and just get exposure. Paris Hilton I'm not, but I'll do whatever it takes. This lack of enployment is killing me.

Sweet Dude!

2006-10-05T05:09:20Z

I just took the South Park Personality Quiz on Comedy Central's website. Suprisingly, I'm not Cartman. I'm Kyle.

One Hundred

2006-09-28T04:13:00Z

About seven months ago, in february or march, I was sitting around The Pussycat Lounge with Hombre and Daddy, catching the end of the Fox 2 10 o'clock news. We caught the Sports Works segment, in which they were sizing up the Detroit Tigers for this season. Listening to "experts" speak of the Tigers we discussed how they would do this year. Maybe it was the hope the folks they interviewed gave, maybe it was items from newspapers and magazines, maybe it was hope for the city of Detroit, maybe it was a feeling deep inside, or maybe it was just the hootch, but I had a preminition. I threw it out there. "The Tigers will win 100 games this season! At least!" Of course at the time everyone I talked to about it said I was full of bullshit.

Of course, we had a dynamite season. Some great play by the boys and great managing. Soon, many of the haters who previously said I was full of crap were rooting for the at least 100 games. Maybe it was a premonition, and not just me talking out of my ass. Sweet!

After the bad slump we had recently, it came down to the last 3 series of the season, 2 with KC, 1 with Toronto. After this past weekend's spanking of KC and clinching a playoff spot it came down to the last 2 series. If we won all 6 games the total wins for the season would be 100. I had already secured a ticket for the last game of the season. The possible 100th win. It seemed like destiny.

That is, until tonight. Nate Robertson got spanked by the Blue Jays, having 6 runs get in in 4 & 2/3 innings. The final score was 7 to 4. Any hope of 100 wins went down the shitter with the final strike on the Tigers. I am now disappointed.