Thieves Like Us">

First off, lets get this out of the way. It is not a date movie. I should know. The last date movie I watched was “No Country For Old Men” and she gave me the heave ho less than 36 hours later. She may claim that in this case correlation does not imply causation, but I have my suspicions. It was a bad movie. This coming from someone who owns a Fargo snowglobe, no less.

So, this movie was totally under my radar. Apparently, there were nominations involved with it. I was only clued into its existence by looking at recent DVD releases and cross referencing them to my local private bittorrent server. And I am really glad it bubbled up.

Funny thing about “depressing” movies, or movies that tackle depressing topics (like the dementia and death of your parents). I think they they work best when you are in a funk as well. Now, the funk cant be caused by the same topic of the movie. Thats just piling on. But if you’re blue for other reasons, a well-scripted black comedy movie can do wonders for you.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman (or was it John C. Reilly… I get them confused) and Laura Linney were spot on in this. The pacing and the dialogue were perfect. Although not a true sequel to Slums of Beverly Hills, it was a great “continuation” of that story. I think the quote of the movie has to be “If you ever want to engage in compromising self destructive behavior, you know who to call.”

(and a bonus treat – a shady cell phone pic of my fargo snowglobe!)

Last week I was lamenting the fact that The Jesus And Mary Chain were only hitting Seattle and it was on a Wednesday night.

Now word comes down that they are in fact coming to Portland the very next night!

I saw them last year at their reunion gig at Coachella and was ecstatic. Now, to see them in a proper club venue – it will be like 1990 Los Angeles all over again!

Who’s in?

via funk master friendly

Last night, we (April, Colin, and I) attended PetAid 2008 with Spoon, The Presidents of The United States, and Nada Surf. It was held out at Edgefield on the lawn, and with the sudden improvement to our weather yesterday, turned out to be an awesome show.

<rant on>

My main complaint with the show was timing. Apparently Edgefield has noise issues with their neighbors. This forces them to start and end the shows early. No big deal. Info said gates open at 5 and show starts at 6. We rolled into the parking lot at 5:50 and the first band, Nada Surf, had already started playing?! We must have been the only ones not to get the memo as the grounds were fairly full already and the prime blanket spots were nabbed already. Nonetheless we found a decent spot and camped out. I thought, maybe since they had three bands they had to start a bit early to finish by a certain time. Ok. No big deal. Until the first intermission came. There must have been 20 – 25 minutes between the two bands. Sure, it was nice to get up, walk around, get some drinks, but had they been able to tighten that up, we may not have had to miss the beginning of the show.

<rant off>

I was never that big into Nada Surf, really only remembering that one hit way back when “Popular”. Was really surprised by their new sound. Found myself really enjoying it.

POTUS was great. They played their big hits from back in the day (Lump, Kitty, Peaches) and mixed them with tracks from their new album.

Spoon. Spoon Spoon Spoon. I love seeing them in concert. Which is odd, because I really dont enjoy listening to them on the ipod. Maybe its the pacing of the albums, maybe its the extra oomph in the live shows – I don’t know. But last night was no exception. Even with Britt forgetting/missing some of the lines, I thoroughly enjoyed it. They had a horn section as well for some of the songs. Our crew gave that a mixed reception, but I liked it.

All in all it was a good time. My first time at Edgefield for a concert (the last time I was there was for a wedding where shenanigans went down…) and I really liked the venue.

click to enlarge:

from the cartoon chronicles of my life: achewood

via christopher575

Do you use Google Reader? If so, enter the Konami code ( up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A ) while on the site for a little visual easter egg.

(Edit: I had a typo in the code. I know it with a controller in my hand, but not typing it out – heres a screencap tho…  30 lives yeah!)

via LA Times:

Colin and I played in a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was held at Olea, and by all accounts was pretty fun.

Colin came in 5th, and I took 2nd. Went out with pocket twos and a pair of tens on the board. The other guy had a hole 10 and took me down. Alas.

And yes, Sparkle Motion did not go to trivia, opting for this instead.

By all accounts this is a good day.

Germany beat Poland 2-0 in their first round Euro 2008 game. Lakers are the (slight) favorite in tonight’s game 2. The sun is shining. Rode/walked my bike down on the waterfront. Watched some dragonboat races.

And yet, altogether, its a pretty crappy day.

(edit: nope lakers lost which pretty much sealed the deal on crappiness)