all i need's a fast machine

I find most of the acting in movies from the 1970s dull. No, perhaps that's not the best word. Lacking is more accurate.

I'm currently watching "Bullitt" with Steve McQueen (can't help but hum the Sheryl Crow song when I think of him) and while the famous speeding car scenes through San Francisco city streets rock, the rest of it leaves something to be desired. The dialogue is pretty much nonexistent and what little is said is done so with mediocre emotion at best. I can certainly see why the ladies of the day, including my mother, liked McQueen so much--those blue eyes are something else! Maybe the actual acting came second to the actor.

I wonder how kind the future will be to some of my favorites. Perhaps I'll look back and cringe at actually liking, say, "The Thomas Crown Affair" (coincidentally, Steve McQueen starred in the original). Surely the working world will continue to appreciate "Office Space."

Or will they?

bugger off*

That's to the jackass(es) who stole my debit card information and took all kinds of money out of my account today. I wasn't in Vegas*, but whoever took my money was.


*It wasn't Vegas, like the idiot at the bank told me. It was LATVIA, as I'm now discovering because now I'm being charged for out of the country ATM withdrawals and non-bank affiliated withdrawals. Latvia?! Wtf?!

I'm coming after you, fucker(s).

photo friday: delicate

wannabes.

Omg.


There are no words to describe this.

drop it like it's hot

Q: Why does Snoop Dogg (or his dood with the bowtie) carry an umbrella?

A: Fo drizzle.

Some things never stop being funny no matter how many times you hear them.

oxford collapse

weekend was f-u-n. shouldn't they all be?

friday, after a hectic day at work, it was off to the sheryl crow concert at the greek theater in berkeley. it was my first visit to this venue, and i'm looking forward to going back. jack johnson has been doing a couple of shows there for the past few summers, perhaps if he comes back this way i'll venture to see him.

before the show we stopped at the north face outlet in berkeley, but alas, i didn't find anything. and i had been wanting to go there for so long! the one that used to be in san jose (and the one in sf, too, come to think of it) was so much nicer.

sheryl crow put on a awesome show, she was onstage for over two hours, with an appropriate mix of old and new songs.

saturday found me exhausted from a long workweek, and brunch and a tar-jay run with one of my favorite homies was a perfect way to spend the day.

i was looking forward to sleeping in and riding the couch sunday, but i got talked into heading here for some shopping. after traveling an hour and a half each way, i was hoping for some rad items, and i found some!

This was my 'big purchase'--yipee! (this from the person that bitches and moans that she has no money--hello, savings!)


i was looking forward to the restoration hardware outlet, but nothing there caught my eye, it was mostly furniture.

and now, another week ahead. this weekend brings yet another concert--i loves me some a) dave, and b) concerts.

photo friday: retro

celebrity lookalikes

In a discussion last night, the thought that this guy:


looked like this guy:



came up. It's not the best picture, but I can see a bit of a resemblance...

a case of the mondays on wednesday

It's Wednesday and I'm just getting around to posting pix of the wedding on Saturday. This should give you some kind of idea of what kind of week it's been.

The wedding was, in a word, rad. I had such a good time! Lots of laughing and picture taking (edited for content, of course!) took place and I can confidently say a good time was had by all.






(They're not reets, they're signing to the music. I apparently don't know the words.)

funnies

Y'know things are bad when my Republican parents are telling jokes like this:

Dubya's adviser: We just killed 10 Brazilian terrorists.
Dubya: How many zeros are in a Brazilian?

never left the ground

Last weddings of the year today. Yes, weddingS. Because they overlap, I'm obviously only able to go to one. It's raining this morning, though, and I'm holding my breath that it'll clear up before The Big Day for two different friends. I do have to say, however, that I enjoyed taking a short walk this morning while it was drizzling. Something about enjoying the chill in the air of fall's arrival made me stop and just really appreciate the moment.

On to more fun stuff...movies! 'The Girl in the Cafe' earned a coveted and rare five stars from me. 'Kicking and Screaming'...not so much. I've decided I'm not a big Will Ferrell fan, except if he's portraying Dubya. I've been waiting for 'Me and You and Everyone We Know' to come out on DVD and it's pretty damn good. I've been a fan of Miranda July since discovering her reader contribution-driven website.

I'm co-hosting a Halloween party with J and her hubby and am still trying to decide what to be. Because what would a Halloween party be without costumes?!

And now...I have a confession to make. I am following the public breakup and humiliation of two people on a friend's myspace. They've been hashing it out on public comments and now their friends have chimed in. In an odd related occurrence of events (aka the world really is too small) I discovered the profile of a guy I was once minorly interested in on the 'friends list' of the female half of this couple (awkward sentence much?). Odd. He's 34 and she's 22 and they're from different areas, so it makes it even more strange.

And! In the course of writing this entry, the sun came out. :)

joan rivers is talking about group showers...

why can't they all look like that?!

watching: crazy/beautiful

i'm happy to report that i'm feeling much better.

i crashed hard last night--i went into my room to get something and decided to lay (or is it lie?!) down and read for a bit. next thing i know it's two-and-a-half hours later and i'm all groggy. i decided to go with it, and got up to turn off the lights around the house and crawled back into bed. long story short (too late) i ended up sleeping for almost twelve hours in total. sheesh! i know 'they' say you can't make a dent in sleep debt, but i sure feel so much better after a restful night. my mother always said the cure for what ails you is a good night's sleep, perhaps she was right... :)

as a result of getting up early (going to bed super early'll do that to you) i've done lots of stuff around the house and am waiting on the next load of laundry to be done. then i'm off to the goodwill and to run various other errands before i have to work this evening. hopefully it won't be too painful, just a few hours of supervising a maintenance group.

as much as i cannot stand kirsten dunst, i really like the movie crazy/beautiful. i suspect my reasons for liking the movie have nothing to do with her, though--have you seen jay hernandez?! mmmm. at any rate, it's on tbs right now and i'm tuning in. i may have just realized why my sister likes this movie so much, and i think it doesn't have as much to do with jay as she claims it does...

no new stuff on the tivo means i've resorted to poor, neglected netflix. the remake of 'the longest yard' was decent, but i didn't find it as stellar as some folks did. i do, however, highly recommend 'crash.' the boy in the biz said it was one of the best movies of the year, and he was dead on. i have high hopes for 'the girl in the cafe,' which i'll probably watch tomorrow.

i got a bug in my bonnet this morning about going to santa cruz, but now i'm feeling like it'll have to wait for another day...maybe tomorrow...

outta my head

After five months, I've finally sold my sister's Integra. Why the hell I volunteered to do so is now beyond me, but I sure as hell am not signing up for something like that in the near future.

At some point I'll recount the mess that today was with the buyer and how I just got home after spending four hours with her doing various checks and then RUNNING HER ERRANDS WITH HER. Yeah.

Goodbye, little car, you've served us well. :)

cold as ice

Sarah's bachelorette party this weekend had us cruising all over the city on a party bus. We went here, here, here (where there were male strippers!), and here. It was a loooong night, capped off by some guys on the party bus (not in our group) getting into a fight (alcohol+testosterone=%!^#@&^#).

I started to feel like I was getting sick while we were out to dinner Saturday night, and sure enough, I didn't get but an hour and a half of sleep post-clubbing. I tossed and turned and sniffled while the five others in the room sawed logs. Now I have such a sinus headache and my eyes won't stop watering. Oh, and my throat and ears hurt, too.

---

Friday night Julia and I hit the mall so she could buy some wedding presents for upcoming shindigs. I browsed Pottery Barn and came away with:

The smaller two are sitting on my dresser, but with simpler candles.


The blue pillow is now sitting on this chair:

wtf?

wtf?!

---

Alabama State Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, recently called Hurricane Katrina a punishment from God, saying New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast "have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness. It is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God."

foundation

It was the spring of 1983, the year my sister was born. Although I had been there several times before, it would be the last visit as an only child to my favorite Hawaiian island. My maternal grandparents went, too, and I can still remember the banana-macadamia nut pancakes we ate for breakfast at the poolside restaurant. It was some eighteen years later that my mother finally showed me the breakfast spot that I remembered from all those years before, and the distinct smell of a pungent tropical flower reminded me how I used to swim and unintentionally bake in the sun until my little body was a deep brown.

Some of the memories I have of my grandfather are fading, he died when I was nine, but that spring remains clear in my mind for the most part. Perhaps it's the pictures we have of that vacation that allow me to recall in such vivid detail...

When my grandmother passed away nearly seven months ago (today would have been her 83rd birthday) and the discussion of how her possessions would be divided began, I said I only wanted one thing, a small toy that I had given my grandfather that spring twenty-two years ago. I can look back now and say it was perhaps the only truly selfless act of my lifetime, only a child could show how much they love someone by giving them a favorite toy. Only the most loving grandfather would keep the plastic figure on his dresser until he died, and only the most loving grandmother would continue to keep it there until her death, even after moving into a retirement home.

This little guy now graces my dresser: