Guerilla Signage
Someone had put up a large (5′ square, approximately) along McLoughlin Boulevard. I saw it from the city bus on my way in to work. It read:
Cat Stevens – In. George W. Bush – Out
The campaign is coming down to the wire…
Month: October 2004
Not all shallow culture
I think I’ve noticed something and I’m not sure if it’s just me.
How is it that it seems our culture (Western culture in general, USAian in specific) keeps on getting more and more shallow… but there seems to be a steady stream of very deep philosophical movies coming out?
For instance, everything that Charlie Kaufman has had a hand in: “Being John Malkovich”, “Adaptation”, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”… and others.
Or, the move I just got out of seeing: “I [Heart] Huckabees”, directed by David O. Russell. Just the boldness of putting out a movie based on existentialism and philosophy, amidst the shallowness of a government awash in juvenilia and a complete lack of introspection, astounds me.
The concept owes a lot to Douglas Adams’ character of Dirk Gently, the holistic detective. I would go so far as to guess that there may be a bit of homage in the idea. But the execution is just as chaotic as Mr. Adams’ prose, but a bit more tender towards its cast.
A movie well worth seeing several times.
Mentioned today
Darby mentioned my kitten’s namesake in today’s Get Fuzzy.
Yes, I named my kitten after a fictional cat’s stuffed bear. No, really.
Race for the Cure 2004 Results
They finally posted the results for the Race for the Cure 5K…
…and I’ve posted my personal results on my Trophy Page.
The time includes the at least two full minutes it took me to reach the starting line after the starting gun went off…
Links to external rants
Unenergy
Haven’t posted in the blog since Tuesday, but I did update my running log yesterday. Ran to work, did OK, going running up the side of a freakin’ moutain tonight (up to the highest point in Portland, Council Crest). Running is one of the bright spots in my life (others including Smacky, my new kitten, and delicious Clif Bars).
I keep trying to work up the energy for a rant, but then I think, “meh” and nothing happens. I am in the process of brain-dumping everything I can remember about two recent trips (one to Coachella Music Festival in March, and one to Vegas), with the intent of writing them up as either mildly-fictionalized novels or as actual memoirs-slash-travelogues. That should be fun. Both trips were full of drama and comedy, much like a “dramedy” would have been.
Anyway, maybe if I start taking my vitamins again I’ll have the energy for a rant. I was thinking about one on customer service crushes (you know, feeling an attraction for that cute girl down at the bank) but Salon.com beat me to it. (Target link opens in new window. Salon requires paid registration or a “Day Pass” to read the article.)
So… no promises.
Sister time
The next-to-last time I spoke to my sister was over a month ago. Probably close to two months. I spoke to her on the phone. I was trying to find out where she was, since she was over a half-hour late for lunch, a lunch which had been rescheduled twice before to accommodate her schedule. She finally figured that since she couldn’t find a parking space, she would have to cancel. I ended the call, since I was not going to reschedule again. If she wanted to have lunch with me, she would have to contact me.
The last time I spoke to my sister, I was calling her back. Well, technically, I was calling my nephew, her son, back. My nephew had called me because he was selling magazine subscriptions as a fund-raiser for his school and he wanted to sell me some. I called back to arrange a time, and got my sister. We chatted and she told me that my niece’s birthday was this coming weekend, and we made plans to show up at her in-laws’ house for the party and for the magazine subscriptions. 4 PM, Sunday (today), at her in-laws’ house. Got it. I’ll be there.
Only today, around 2 PM, I got a call from a strange number (I don’t answer when I don’t recognize the number), and after I got the notification that I had a voice mail, I listened to it. Found out that my sister was moving the time up by two hours because my nephew had to be somewhere at 5 PM today, oops, sorry, hope you can make it.
Since I was in the middle of something else, and still had to go pick up a Flex Car to get to where I needed to be, I was unable to make it two hours early. I was so mad about my sister’s habit of disrespecting my time in favor of her own, I didn’t call her back. So sue me.
How is it that my time is less important than her own? Argh.
Post-run Smacky
I went for a run this morning. Needed at least 4.2 miles to reach my goal of 16 miles for the week. Not sure how many I actually did, but I added at least 1/2 mile to my “Four Parks Run”, by running along the Springwater Corridor trail at least a quarter-mile past where the trail goes into Oaks Bottom and then back again.
I was slow today; ran the 4.4 miles in about the same time I ran over 5 miles on Friday, but the course I did today was a bit tougher; more hills, including a very steep trail that connects Oaks Bottom and Sellwood Park, so I’m happy with my time.
When I got back home, though, I collapsed on the couch, unable to move much at all. Smacky, my kitten, came over and started to attack me as he normally does (maybe I was just setting myself up when I named him “Smacky” ’cause that’s all he seems to do), but as soon as he started to play-bite me, he stopped… sniffed me a lot… smelled my sweat, still drying on my skin… and then started licking the sweat off my arm. Cats are strange strange creatures.
He’s grown so much since I got him. I need more pictures of him, if only he’d sit still long enough for me to take them. He enjoys getting up on the bathtub ledge, between the shower curtain and transparent liner, when I’m taking a shower. It’s hilarious when he slips and falls in the tub. Well, hilarious as long as he doesn’t attack my feet or legs.
We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2004)
Went to see a movie tonight. Saw “We Don’t Live Here Anymore”, with Mark Ruffalo and Naomi Watts. It’s a little faux-art-house flick about two couples dealing with infidelity.
One sentence review: It wasn’t sad enough.
One side comment: It was released by “Warner Independent Pictures” (Warning! That link uses Flash!). That’s “Warner”, as in “AOL Time Warner”, the gianormous media conglomerate that controls most of what we see, hear, and read. But they’ve created a little spin-off that’s supposedly “independent”? How? Just because they put the actual word “independent” in their name?
I hate the fact that Newspeak is alive and well. Orwell created the idea as parody, for Pete’s sake.
Don’t dream it’s over
My dreams are just the weirdest.
Last night I dreamed that I was a member of the US Olympic basketball team. The gold-medal-winning US Olympic basketball team.
And that I was dating Reese Witherspoon. Which would only make sense, if I was actually on the gold-medal-winning US Olympic basketball team.
Man, was she hot for me.
And then I woke up. Heh.