Today, after visiting with my family, I went downtown with my camera. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent time walking around our many urban green spaces.
On my way home, I dropped by Steph and Stephanie’s house in the Old Northside. My friend Jonathan was there with his two dogs, Jackson and Jefferson, having a cookout with them. Not too long after my arrival, Dan and Doug showed up to pay a visit, too.
As it was getting dark, Stephanie decided to make some brownies. Have I ever talked about how much I love chocolate?
Anyway, at about that time, Steph and I started obsessing over history, architecture, etc. It turns out she has an historic postcard collection of Indianapolis just like me! Sometime soon she and I will have to do some card trading. Nothing fancy — just your average nerd fun.
After getting home tonight, I watched the Darjeeling Limited. I’m definitely a fan of little esoteric films like that. Have you seen it? What did you think?
Tonight I met up with Daniel up on the north side for dinner and a movie.
Dinner was at Thai Taste up in Castleton. We both had curry dishes (me the panang; Daniel the red) and loved them, followed by mango ice cream and rum cake. Mmm!
Afterwards, we went to see The Mist at the movie theatre. All I’m going to say is that it’s a very, very well-written movie, but I feel messed up after seeing it. It reminds me of when I saw Se7en back years ago.
Anyway, if you like Stephen King, you’ll love this movie. If you don’t like him, well, you should see it anyway since it’s a good film none-the-less.
At work, we’ve been very busy preparing to move our data center here in Indianapolis to a newer, bigger location (not far from the old one, either). I’ve been extremely involved on the networking side of things, especially our load balancers.
We had a big maintenance outage Friday night that had me working until 4:30 AM. I worked a full day and then came back at 9:30 PM. Whew! It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of those days, but I made it through just fine. On bad note, it’s thrown off my sleep schedule this weekend, so I need to get myself to sleep on time tonight or I’ll be all kinds of messed up tomorrow at work.
In other news, Thursday night I went out with Chris M. for Mexican food and a movie. The food wasn’t all that great, but the movie was fun. I scored some free tickets from work to for the Heartland Film Festival, so we went and saw Lars and the Real Girl.
I really loved the movie, though one thing bothered me and it wasn’t the movie itself, but the audience. You know when there’s something happening on the screen that isn’t funny, but some people laugh anyway? There are some scenes closer to the end of the movie that are actually serious and emotional, but they laugh. Maybe they don’t get it? Maybe laughing is just their way of dealing with the serious nature of the subject matter? Hmm. I don’t know, but I do think it says a lot about the person.
This afternoon I’m visiting my family. Haven’t seen them in a while. Bad son!
Friday night was the opening of my friend Tony’s one-man show: Lies My Parents Told Me. We all really enjoyed the show, especially me, and I’m proud that Tony was finally able to pull it off. It’s been in the works for a couple of years. Check out the review linked below.
Saturday afternoon was spent with Andy and Laura. Another friend of theirs threw a wedding shower (gender inclusive) in Craig Park down in Greenwood.
It’s a fiesta!
Afterwards, we went and had some drinks and hit the movie theatre. We ended up seeing Bourne Ultimatum, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I wouldn’t call it amazing, but it was fun and kept me drawn into the story.
On Sunday, I went with my family to a fish fry put on by some old friends of the family. They lived a few houses down from where I grew up. Their sons and I were very good friends when we were younger, especially Eric.
Saw The Simpsons Movie tonight with Andy P. and had a fantastic time. Check it out!
We went over to the United Artists Theatre at Eagle Highlands, which is a great place for movies since they’re never as busy as the other venues. I highly recommend it.
I don’t mean to be negative and all, but I don’t want to see World Trade Center.
I remember that day vividly; just watching the trailer freaks me out, so I’m not sure I could sit there for 125 minutes and relive the whole experience on the big screen.
Maybe some day I’ll rent it on video? In ten years? Something like that.
I caught up on watching a few Netflix movies this weekend.
The first one is called Bear Cub, which is actually the English title for the film. It’s actually called Cachorro, which translates, according to Google, to puppy in Spanish. I’ve known a few guys like that. Awww.
Anyway, it isn’t your typical gay movie, to say the least. I highly recommend it if you want to see a movie that is not about coming out, AIDS, or skinny, feminine men.
The other movie I watched was Ghost in the Shell, which is this Japanese animated film. It seems to be one of the popular animes out there (and I haven’t seen many in my life) and rightfully so. It’s very cyberpunk and complex. If you dig that kind of thing, check it out.
The only other movie I have out from Netflix is Alfred Hitcock’s Notorious, which I should watch sometime today and send back so I can all fresh DVDs this coming week.
I did like the movie; however, I wouldn’t give it the groundbreaking attention that it has been receiving, as of late, in the media. I’m unsure what exactly is new here outside of the fact that you have a lot of straight people going to see it.
I don’t view Brokeback as a tool to further the gay rights cause or necessarily as a means of hurting it either. It’s a heartbreaking story: bits of which relate to moments in my past and this film will have meaning because of that. I would say that if there is any positive message, to be taken from this movie, it is to not fear being yourself. I think it is as sample as that.
Well, another Christmas has come and gone — another year about to beat the doors down.
I had a nice time with my family on Christmas. It was a little odd this year because we normally open presents on Christmas Eve, but my sister Lisa was on her way back with her husband from a vacation in Honduras. So, we ended up opening gifts Christmas Eve without her, but then did another round on Christmas Day when she was in town.
Ended up seeing King Kong last night and enjoyed it a lot.
Tony, Jason, and I are hosting a little gathering of friends tonight for games and good times. Not sure all who is coming, but I look forward to it. Unfortunately, I have a lot of cleaning to get done and it isn’t getting any better with me sitting here writing this blog entry. So, I’m off!
I wouldn’t call this a great movie (or even a good movie, for that matter), but it wasn’t terrible and it kept me entertained for a few hours.
I definitely understand why people claim it to be a Christian allegory. It’s all over the film, really, especially with references to Adam and Eve, as well as the resurrection. Don’t get me wrong — it wasn’t religious, in my opinion. It didn’t even speak of God, as far as I can recall.
What really bugged me about the movie is that it wasn’t quite fantasy enough, for me. The fact that the fawn (who’s name I can’t remember) invited the little girl for tea and spoke of breaking out the good sardines made the whole thing too British.
So, if you love the books, go see the movie. You might like it — or, on second thought, you may really hate it.
