May 5
We had some people over for sushi Saturday night and the conversation, as it so often does, turned to the subject of Boonville. So just so everyone's aware, the Beerfest is MAY 05, 2007.
Plan accordingly.
= December 2006 = Main = February 2007 =
January 22, 2007
January 16, 2007
Let's Get One Thing Clear
Always a useful depository of musical knowledge, Charles turned me onto this band Psapp over winter break. I'm really digging their new(ish) album, but I have a small problem. You see, the first track of this CD is featured as the theme music to Grey's Anatomy, which I think is about the worst television show in the universe. (Yup, the whole universe.) So I don't want people to think my endorsement of this CD is in any way a tacit approval of Grey's Anatomy. Let it be known.
That grapefruit vodka commercial, however - that's something I can really get behind.
January 14, 2007
Horrible Person Diaries
A stray cat came to our door late last night, meowing and trying to paw its way into our apartment. What do we do? Naturally, we went straight to the internet. Apparently there's an after-hour animal drop off, though I can't imagine it's as cute as the image of a puppy in a mailbox makes it out to be.
After much hemming and hawing, Marie and decided to... do nothing. Ignore it. But boy, did we feel guilty about it. It's cold out there! Are we horrible people?
January 10, 2007
A Good Movie, Finally
I finally snapped out of my my horrible movie streak this evening. (Did I mention I saw Miami Vice a few days ago? The english language has not the words to describe such badness.) But anyway - you should go see Children of Men. It's solid. I'm a huge sucker for long, complex shots, even if they are doctored up with a little cgi... and that one where they're all in the car and all that stuff happens? Nice.......
January 09, 2007
That Fog That Turns People Inside-Out?
This story about the NY mystery gas is somewhat surprising - not that there was an industrial accident in New Jersey but that they still can't identify the specific chemical in question. In my experience, old organic chemistry professors are amazingly adept at classifying all sorts of noxious fumes by smell alone, so can't they just throw a few bucks to some Columbia faculty member and get this magical mystery gas figured out?
And what of the CSI's New York? Come on!
January 08, 2007
The Clean Plate Club: Not As Glamorous As I Thought
Marie and I made good on Mrs. Gray's far-too-nice Christmas gift card tonight, and enjoyed a fine meal at Chez Panisse. We had both been to the upstairs cafe before, but this was our first experience getting reservations for (sneaking into?) the real-deal downstairs restaurant.
We enjoyed quite a tasty meal - there were three kinds of pork in one dish! I definitely became a member of the clean plate club. So much so, it would seem, that the girl bussing our plates says to me, "looks like someone enjoyed their dinner!" And then I kind of felt like a six-year-old. Thanks, lady. More wine, please.
January 07, 2007
Plantsitting
Marie and I agreed to house one of Bill's houseplants while he's away on his multi-continent winter vacation (SF to Chicago to London to Tunis back to SF). We have a few plants of our own, and our place gets a good amount of sun, so we figured it's a no brainer. But Bill failed to make clear the size of the plant he'd be bringing over...
Look at that thing! We can barely get it through the door, much less find an out-of-the-way place to stash it. Our 1bed/1bath apartment isn't ready for this sort of thing.
The whole situation has our several smaller houseplants feeling a little inadequate. Would it be too appalling of a pun to say that they're green with envy?
(P.S. Did you notice my hott new pajama pants? Thanks, Santa.)
Oops!
I committed one of the cardinal sins of travel this week... I left my cell phone charger back in Virginia. So on the incredibly small (but nonzero, I hope) chance that you want to get ahold of me in the next few days, you should probably just send me and email. Or call Marie. Or send me a letter - that'd be fun.
January 05, 2007
Winter Break Mediocre Movie Marathon
A couple people have asked me if I saw any good movies over winter break. The answer is a resounding "no", but I thought it might be fun to write up a few months-late movie reviews of the flicks I actually did see:
*** Beerfest. I downloaded this one of the first nights I was home. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the movie was a big letdown. Sure, sure, drinking is funny - drinking games hilarious, yet once again Broken Lizard left me wondering, this is all it takes to call yourself a comedy troupe? I feel like I could have written this movie, which isn't saying much. A character gets too drunk and sleeps with a fat woman? In a movie about drinking? Is that the best you've got?
Aside: it seems like it should be a slam-dunk, but making drunk talk funny is, actually, quite difficult. The one success that stands out in my mind is when intoxicated Milhouse puts his arm around Bart and says, "This guy... he's the guy."
*** High School Musical. (Spoilers ahead!) The phenomenon! It's not really in our age group's wheelhouse, but I guarantee you've heard songs from this made-for-tv movie and just didn't know/care where they came from. It's ostensibly a high-school movie, but is clearly geared more towards the younger, tweener crowd. Case in point, my 10-year-old sister insisting we watch it. As you can probably guess, it's not very entertaining. The songs are boring, the plot saccharine, and Zac Efron totally wants to be Justin Timberlake but isn't. Plus, the musical they're producing at East High already seems fraught with directorial missteps. I mean, the piano phenom girl is the only person in school who has any idea what the plot of this musical is supposed to be. Wouldn't the safer move be to go with something from Broadway? Something people can relate to and sing along with? And why relegate Sharpay - clealry the second best singer in school - to being an understudy? Isn't there, like, another female role should could play? I'm not holding out much hope. (It reminds me somehow of the time my own high school drama production of Much Ado About Nothing was mysteriously re-set in colonial Virginia. Only, none of the characters' names were changed to reflect that. And they didn't even change the lines where they say the word "Italy") The one thing I'll say for this movie, is that it reminded me of how good of a job Joss Whedon did.
*** The DaVinci Code. See here. The sound of my mom snoring was, kind of, an improvement.
January 03, 2007
Back Back to Cali Cali
Marie and I are back in Berkeley, safe and sound, for all who care.
I was wondering on the airplane this morning... 2006 saw a great deal of hubbub about gender equity in the physical sciences, but what about aviation? I don't think I've ever been on or witnessed a commercial flight that had a woman in the flight deck. What's the deal here? Does anyone care?
January 01, 2007
Pictures?
Marie and I had a lovely time at Tommy and Charles' new years eve party last night - and we were able to get Jon and Vita to their 4am airport shuttle just in the nick of time. Go 2007.
This is where I would normally say something to the tune of, "I'll post pictures soon", but I foolishly left my camera sitting in my mom's living room in Maryland. So I am saddly pictureless. Hopefully other party attendees will help me out on that front.