This Should Work

We’ve never dressed up our dogs in costumes. However, for Halloween, my wife and I are tempted to dress up our older dog Yoda in this:

Have you ever tried to explain your dreams to someone? If so it may go something like this:

I had this weird dream last night where (CHOOSE THE NAME OF SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE) was at my house, but it wasn’t really my house. We were talking about (CHOOSE A RANDOM SUBJECT) when they got up and walked into what should have been the kitchen, but it turned into (CHOOSE THE NAME OF SIGNIFICANT PLACE YOU KNOW). And there were some other things, but I can’t remember the whole thing, I just remember feeling (PICK AN EMOTION).

That’s kinda how I would describe Michel Gondry’s new movie The Science of Sleep: I had trouble following the narrative, but the emotional feelings stayed with me. The story is relatively simple: A man, Stephane played by Gael Garica Bernal, tries to court a woman, Stephanie played by Charlotte Gainsburg. But Stephane -as his mother puts it- confuses his dreams with reality which lead to some mis-steps in his courtship of Stephanie.

This blurring of real and dream life is what make it hard to follow the narrative thread of the film. Characters quickly switch between speaking English, Spanish, and French-sometimes in mid-sentence. Sometimes Stephane will walk through a door and go from the real-world into the dream-world.

Early in the film Stephane says “in dreams, emotions are overwhelming” and it’s the emotions in that fill every frame in this film. It seems that Gondry and company are less worried about the audience following the narrative thread and more concerned with us following the emotional thread of the characters. In fact the emotions that this film stirs up were so overwhelming for me that I would have cried on my way out of the theater if not for the scene that awaited me in the theater lobby.

Stephane says that dreams are made up of many things: randomness, things from your past, events from your day, “friendships, relationship, and all those ships.” The scene that awaited me in the lobby was very random, had elements of my childhood, and reminded me of something I was reading about earlier in the day.

I opened the door to the lobby and saw a packed room people with TV cameras and photographers gathered around an Asian woman with a rolled up poster in one hand. The some people in the crowd had their cellphone cameras ready for some big unveiling. The woman unrolled the poster and the crowd cheered. I moved around to try and see what the woman was holding up; it was a movie poster for Transformers: The Movie -not the new one coming out next year, but the 1986 animated movie. I then noticed that pretty much every person in the crowd was a white guy, between the ages of 25 and 35, slightly overwieght, wearing leather jackets and Optimus Prime T-shirts. I then remembered reading something in our school paper about a conference going on in town, BotCon, a Transformers convention.

There were some other Transformer things happening in the lobby, but I don’t remember exactly what they were. I just remember feeling uncomfortable.

image from imdb.com

I’ve debated putting this post up for a week, and I finally broken down. This was inspired by a recent Sound Opinions podcast in which they revealed some of their guilty pleasures and a few listeners bore their souls as well. Here’s a brief sampling of Sound Opinions guilty pleasures:

• Black Eyed Peas, “My Humps”
• Naughty By Nature, “OPP”
• Hilary Duff, “Why Not”
• Bel Biv DeVoe, “Poison”

I decided that if two rock critics were brave enough to let people know that they like Hilary Duff, than I should brave enough to share some of mine:

• Journey, “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” - While working as a DJ in North Carolina I would pray for this song to be in my rotation to break up the Celine Dion, N’Sync, Sugar Ray crap. Yes, working for an Adult Top 40’s station was so bad that Journey became “good music.”
• Shakira with Wyclef Jean, “Hips don’t lie” -I don’t know what it is about this song, I don’t care for Shakira’s voice and Wyclef is okay I guess, but when the two come together I can’t switch the channel/station.
• Poison, “Something to Believe in” -So many monster ballads, so little time. This was one of the very first singles I bought on tape with my own money.

Alright this is getting a embarrassing. I’m stopping now.

If you’re in a hurry or have ADD, here’s my one sentence review of DePalma’s The Black Dahlia:

Not even gratuitous shots of Hillary Swank’s and Josh Harnett’s asses could save this debacle of a movie.

Here’s the longer review:
I was looking forward to seeing this film because the script was based on a James Ellroy novel (who wrote LA Confidential) and was directed by Brian DePalma (Scarface and Carlito’s Way), the cast was okay (which included Harnett, Swank, Scarlett Johansson, and Aaron Eckhart) but I thought the writer and director could still make magic with this crew.

I was wrong. This film about a gruesome Hollywood murder in 1947 meanders so much that at one point I forgot that I was watching a mystery movie about a murdered woman, worse yet some of the side stories and sub-plots were more interesting than the mystery of the Black Dahlia.

And the actors in this film were trying too hard make this a noir film which only ended up making lines that should have been snappy Dasheill Hammett-like dialog came across as forced and contrived.

Early in the film Scarlett Johansson has a line about an upcoming charity that her boyfriend Blanchard (played by Eckhart) is in where she says:

For the union’s sake I hope it’s a good fight.
For everyone’s sake I hope you two look good with your shirts off.

This snappy line should have sounded smart and witty- instead one can see Johansson working up to this line trying to sound saucy and when she delivers it, it falls flat. I kept thinking of the dialog in the film Brick which has the snappy dialog and the actors pull off the lines.

Also the mystery of the Dahlia (which was never solved in real life) is revealed not by detective working on the case, but by a crazed wife who spews a long veiled monologue before she kills herself. I know that many mysteries need a good wrap up so that the audience have a concise understanding of what happened, but this line should be delivered by one of main characters the audience has been following through the film and not a minor character who we’ve only seen once before.

This film had potential, but is hardly worth seeing (unless you’re into seeing rear-ends of Swank and Harnett).

image from washingtonpost.com

[tags]The Black Dahlia[/tags]

On Thursday I went to the doctor for the first time in a year and a half, because well… it seemed about time to get a physical and my wife was on me about going to the doctor.

After recording my height and weight, the nursing assistant showed me to the exam and asked me to take a seat while she got the blood pressure machine. She rolled the machine into the room, strapped up my arm and started the machine. While it was working she continued to take some more vitals and we also had a nice conversation about something forgetable until the machine beeped and the arm cuff released, at which time she looked at the results and said “Oooo.”

She turned the machine around to show me the results: 149/94.

“I take it that’s bad, right?”

“You should be at 130/80- that’s normal. You’re too young to be having blood pressure that high. How old are you?”

“Thirty.”

“Ooooh yeah, that way too high for your age. You don’t have White Coat Fever do you?”

“I don’t think so?” I say, but I could feel my heart racing.

A while later the medical resident came in and took a look at the vitals the nursing assistant wrote down. “That’s seems high for your blood pressure, do you mind if we try it again? This time we’ll use the pressure cuff”

So he puts on the cuff and pumps it up and listens to my arm through is stethoscope. “Hmmm” he says “Well, I got a very different result 112/84. That seems right; sometimes the machines aren’t as accurate as they should be.”

‘Hell Yes’ I thought ‘there’s no way I have that I high blood pressure’

We go through the regular check up and the resident says I’m okay and just needs his boss to sign off on the chart, as soon as he does that I’ll be free to go. He leaves the room and I take a seat and wait and wait and wait and….

Finally, the attending comes and introduces herself and says “I just want to make sure about your blood pressure, so I’d like to check it myself.”

Now my hearts pounding. I’m thinking ‘Um, can’t we just go with the other guy’s results. I like those results.’ But instead I say “Sure” and start to roll up my sleeve.

So she goes through the same steps as the resident and says “Hmm, I got 146/90. Let’s try your left arm”

Alright now this is getting a little uncomfortable and a little old, but I roll up my left sleeve and allow her to check it there.

“Nope, I got 153/96 on this one. Have you been drinking lately?” she asks me.

“No. Not since last week and I only had one drink then.”

“Well these results are a little alarming. Here’s what I want you to do: have one of the nurses in your clinic take your BP once or twice a week at different times of the day-morning, midday, afternoon. Then come back in a month with those results.”

So I walk out thinking about the idea about having high blood pressure and can just feel my heart pounding. When I return to my office, I hit the web and start looking up all sorts of things on high blood pressure. All the websites are in consensus about four things that lead to high blood pressure:

1. Weight
2. Lack of exercise
3. Salt intake
4. Stress

The ironic thing is the number one stress in my life right now is the thought that I have high blood pressure! So I’ve got a month to bring it down before I go back to the doctor.

I spent a few hours at the driving range this weekend hoping to improve my golf swing. The first ten or twelve shots were all over the place-slicing to the left, hooking right, swing and miss, dribbling off the tee and going 10 yard, etc.

I paused for moment to watch what others at the driving range were doing and tried to mimic what I saw-that didn’t help. I tried the Ricky Bobby thing-no good. I getting frustrated, my hands were starting to hurt, and my swing was moving more grass and dirt than golf ball.

Then I hit one far and straight (about 175yds), then another, and another. I started to realize one consistent thing with all my good shots-nothing. Not nothing like ‘not one thing was the same,’ but nothing like ‘every good swing felt like nothing.’ Which reminded me a line from Shakespeare’s MacBeth:

it is a tale/
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/
Signifying nothing.

Well… truth be told I actual thought of ESPN’s Kenny Mayne who during baseball highlights would use this line on strikeouts.

ANYWAYS, I think that this phrase applies to golfing (or at least my golf swing). The “tale” is the game of golf, “[t]old by an idiot” refer to those who play the game (like myself), “full of sound and fury” breaks down like this: the “sound” is the club head hitting the golf ball; the “fury” is the golf swing.

And the question “what does it mean to signify nothing?” The answer: it means a perfect golf swing.

Now you’ve got an idea of what it’s like to be married to an English scholar- it all comes back to close interpertation of the text, even in golf.

And yes, I know this line is said by MacBeth after he’s told about his wife’s death, but isn’t great literature supposed reach beyond it’s own context? So if anyone wants to take a crack at how Faulkner’s Quentin in The Sound and The Fury is a metaphor for a beautiful golf shot ending up in a water hazard, be my guest.

Once again I’ve changed the look of my blog and added a few more things to checkout.

First the splash image at the top is now “interactive.” Move your mouse cursor from left to right over the image; as you do the bike rider will move across the frame. This technique was developed by Stu Nicholls and he created a tutorial it you want to try it out. It’s all CSS!

Also, I’ve removed the “iListen to…” page from the top navigation bar for now and will put it back up when I find a better solution to feed the iTunes info to my site. I have placed link to my Tech blog in it’s place. I plan on updating my tech blog soon with new posts, but I’ve misplaced the password (it’s around my house somewhere).

I’ve add another sidebar to the right which contains new personal RSS feeds. The first is “Stories I’m Digging” which will show the titles of news stories I’ve found interesting from digg.com. Also, you can also see our some of our Netflix queue. The “Currently Showing” are the movies we have at home while the “Coming Attractions” list the next 4 movies in our queue with a very brief description. And I’ll keep showing the last five tunes played through iTunes using free and easy to install software from last.fm

And finally, I’ve added a few links to a few blogs: My brother-in-law’s personal blog at alwaysaskwhy.com and my friend here in Lexington Lorilyn. Check out their blogs as well.

Someone in my office encouraged me to join their Fantasy Football league this season on Yahoo! Sports. No money to play, no money if you win-just bragging rights. But the thing that sold me was the Auto-draft; I didn’t want to sit in front of my computer for two-three hours and pick players so this sounded good to me.

Last night the auto-draft occurred and now I have this roster:

Starting QB: Eli Manning (NYG)
Starting WRs: Santana Moss (WAS), Javon Walker (DEN), and Muhsin Muhammad (CHI)
Starting TE: Todd Heap (BAL)
Starting RBs: Ronnie Brown (MIA), and Rudi Johnson (CIN)
Starting K: Nick Keading (SD)
Starting DEF: New York Giants Defense

The backups:
QB: Chad Pennington (NYJ)
RB: Deuce McAllister (NO)
WRs: Drew Bennett (TEN), Michael Clayton (TB)
TE: Marcedes Lewis (JAX)
DEF: Buffalo Bills Defense

It’s an alright team; the wideouts are a pretty good group (Moss had a big year last year, and Muhammad is the only good receiver in Chicago) and I think both runningbacks could have great seasons.

The backups are another story; Bennett may have a good year, but it’s going to depend on who’s the Titans quarterback, and Marcedes Lewis had a good year at UCLA last year, but we’ll see how he does in the NFL.

So we’ll see how I do in my first Fantasy Football league which starts on Thursday.

This fall I’ve joined an Ultimate Frisbee league at the local YMCA as a way to get some exercise and socialize with folks. My friend encouraged me to join and saying “It’s totally non-competitive. Everyone’s there to have a good time and get some exercise.” Sold.

So I went to the Y to sign up for the league and filled out all the paperwork with the final question being:

Choose one of the following:
I can run like the wind, even when winded. _____
I’m in pretty good shape and competitive.______
I’m the energizer bunny, slow but steady.______
I’m out of shape, but have a lot of heart.______

I thought for a moment and decided on checking B-pretty good shape and competitive. I figure I’ve been going to the gym and stay pretty active-that sounds about right. Wrong. After one night of Ultimate frisbee I’ve learn that I probably should have answered D-out of shape.

When I heard words like “non-competitive” and “good times” and “frisbee” I pictured a league of hippies in tie-dye T-shirts, stoners from college, and a few people from California driving hybrid cars sprinkled in here or there. So yesterday when I arrived at the soccer field for our first day I found the hippies in tie-dye, but there are a lot athletic people too.

After about twenty minutes of meeting, greeting, and rules explaining we had the chance to scrimmage. Here’s the basic premise of Ultimate Frisbee: On offense run around and try to get open so a teammate can pass the frisbee to you; if the frisbee goes to another teammate keep running and try to get open. On defense chase a person who’s running around to try and get open. In other words run, run, run. It’s actually more complicated than that, but you get the idea.

I’m out on this soccer field and I’m running and running and running and … for ten minutes I barely stop moving. When I finally stop, my hands are on my knees, I’m gasping for air, and I’m starting to feel slightly dizzy; but I pressed on. At one point I found myself thinking ‘I…can’t…believe…I’m…not….keeping….up….with….the….fat…guy…in…a…kneebrace!’ This guy was on the field as long as I was and he’s running around like Carl Lewis while just I try to keep up and hold the puke down.

Today my back is sore in places I didn’t know I had muscle, and my legs are pretty cramped as well. But I know that through this league I’ll probably lose weight, gain stamina, and maybe make some friends along the way.

This time my old friend KOM tagged me with this little meme. From what I’ve gathered, I’m supposed to give three answers to each question-so here we go:

Things that scare me
Being buried alive
The thought of losing my wife
Head Cheese

People who make me laugh
Jon Stewart
Mitch Hedberg (may he rest in peace)
Me

Things I hate the most
arrogance
ignorance
stuborness

Things I don’t understand
String Theory
Linux commands
My dogs

Things I’m doing right now
Drinking a cappuccino
Blogging at work
Wiping hard drives with DBAN

Things I want to do before I die
Get out of debt
Travel to Europe (Spain mainly)
Dunk a Basketball on a regulation hoop

Things I can do
Play Xbox while a dog is licking my face
Cook spicy food (sometimes it comes out too spicy)
Build an entire website (including css and scripting) with just notepad

Ways to describe my personality
self-loathing
selfless
In try not to think about myself too much

Things I can’t do
Keep a beat
Sing in key
Hit a golf ball straight

Things I think you should listen to
Sound Opinions
Filmspotting
The Pixies (Doolittle may be the best album ever)

Things you should never listen to
Barry Manilow
Bette Midler
Pat Robertson

Things I’d like to learn
A decent golf swing
rhythm
speed-read

Favorite foods
Chicken Vindaloo (spicy)
Chimichanga
Fresh Fruit Salad (without the yogurt/mayo crap. Just give me the fruit damn it)

Beverages I drink regularly
Tall, Vanilla, non-fat cappuccino (from Starbucks)
Gin and Tonic
Water

Shows I watched as a kid
Transformers
The Cosby Show
The A-Team

People I’m taggin’ to do this meme
My Brother
My Brother-in-law
LL