Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Purse First, Ass Last




Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

This weekend was pretty fun… though I didn’t really do much. Saturday, I ran errands in the morning, cleaned up a bit around the house, checked out the YMCA, got a nice tour from a cute girl, may start going there later this week once I get schedules figured out. Right now, I could either go early in the morning (not going to happen) or right after work (more likely, but will still require some willpower). There are a few classes that seem interesting, but because of the schedule, may just have to settle for working out & playing basketball, but overall looks pretty good & the price is okay by comparison.

As for the rest of the day, I wandered around the Presidio a bit, made some fantastic chicken curry, and then finished reading my birthday present from the Wingmans. Did I even tell you about the cool birthday presents that I got? Well, allow me to share then. Filly got me a cool handbag & novelty pin with dinosaurs on them. The Wingmans got me two books. The first was a cute little children’s book about Pandas… which was about four pages & nothing really spectacular from a literary standpoint, but nice. Can’t wait to read it to Kairi & Vinny someday. The second book… was entitled “Pimpology: 48 Laws of the Game” by Pimpin’ Ken Ivy (who you may remember from the Hughes brothers flick “American Pimp”). Basically, it is the equivalent of books like those of Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins & Stephen Covey… but with a certified pimp telling the tale. For example, right off the bat, Law number one – “Purse First, Ass Last” is basically telling you how when you’re in a business, you have to be about the money. There ain’t no Love in business. It’s full of life-learned lessons, stories, examples, and truisms that can be applied to nearly every enterprise… and even comes with a handy Pimptionary for all you squares out there who don’t know the terminology in the book. It’s a great read (and pretty easy, like a hundred pages or so) for anybody who’s tired of the same old self-help book but wants to get that mother f**king money. I highly recommend it… but remember, the Game is to be sold, not told.

Also on Saturday, I watched a few scary movies… because I could. The first one was “Devil” which apparently is the first chapter of the M. Night Shyamalan trilogy called the Night Chronicles. You’ve probably all seen the previews, where it’s five people stuck in an elevator (typical mix of old lady, white lady, white guy, black guy & Indian guy) and then craziness happens… as the Devil himself is in the elevator with them… and of course, as with all M. Night movies, there are no such things as coincidences… as everybody seems to know each other somehow and be intertwined. Can they figure out who the Devil is before it’s too late? Or is it the Devil & they’re all f**ked anyway? Well, I had this one picked from the preview unfortunately, but I had to watch it to make sure that I was right. The scariest thing about this movie really… is how long it takes maintenance crew to get to you on an elevator in a skyscraper. Thank God there was only five people in that elevator because any more & you wouldn’t have needed the Devil to start some killings up in there. Anyway, check it out if you’d like… but it was pretty average at best. Sigh… poor M. Night started off so high with “Sixth Sense” and it seems the movies are getting worse with each one. Well, that’s night true… “The Village” is still by far the worst… and “The Happening” is pretty close… and I refuse to watch “The Last Airbender.” I can say it’s because of the lack of Asian actors… but it’s really because I don’t care. Period.

Next up was “My Soul to Take” by writer / director Wes Craven (“Nightmare on Elm Street”). There’s a serial killer with multiple personality disorder who allegedly dies in a fiery explosion… or so they think. Fifteen years later, these seven kids miraculously born in this small town (Riverton, CA just west of Lake Tahoe) on the eve of the killer’s death start dying… and many think it’s the killer’s soul coming back to get them… or maybe the killer himself. The story centers around this kid who… I don’t know if he’s slow or what… but you later found out that he has multiple personalities… and you can tell it’s a Wes Craven flick because of his obsession with condors (giant death eaters) and that’s how his chi works (Nightmare on Elm Street was based off a story where in Asia people were dying in violent dreams). So… the movie itself was pretty good as far as horror flicks go. With these kinds, you have to step away from reality just a bit & that makes anything possible, but the movies that really scare me, are the ones that could really happen. This one kind of straddles that border… making you think it may be with souls… but then it may just be about mental illness & how that can destroy a person or community... so though it’s not an incredible movie, I would recommend it for a scary flick. Even if the story is somewhat predictable… don’t be so sure. You never know when another twist might be thrown in. Anyway, slept like a baby that night… and a little wine helped.

Sunday morning, I awoke and watched some Three Stooges… because I could. Then I met up with Carmen to wander around her neighborhood of Inner Sunset (also Bubbles’ new hood) and we had lunch at Art’s Café, which was pretty good. I had a beef teriyaki cheese steak. Mmm… then we wandered over to Golden Gate Park a block away and checked out an Antique Paper Show. What’s Antique Paper? That’s exactly what we asked… and so we checked it out… and it’s a lot of posters & postcards from back in the day. There were postcards of my hometown of Ogden, Utah in the 1940’s to old movie posters to letters & certifications. It was pretty interesting… but nothing too special. So then we wandered to listen to some free classical music next to the Academy of Science… and considered crashing a wedding at the Shakespearean Park. Good times.

That night, I watched a movie simply because it was a favorite of one of my favorite directors, Martin Scorsese (“Goodfellas”, “Gangs of New York”, etc). The movie is called “The Red Shoes” and is from 1948 and based loosely on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. It’s also similar to recent award winner “The Black Swan” in a lot of ways. It’s about a ballerina who joins a production company, probably the best in the world. While with the company, she becomes a star & falls in love with a young, talented composer. Then the producer founds out, becomes jealous & fires the composer, forcing the ballerina to make a decision – to stay with the producer & become one of the greatest dancers the world has ever known… or to follow love and go with the composer. The answer may surprise you… it certainly did me. Besides all that, the sweeping scale & choreography along with the imagery throughout the movie was actually quite amazing, especially for a movie from the 40’s. Set in Monte Carlo for the most part, the grandeur was there… and there are a few dance numbers throughout the number that I was honestly impressed with. The love story & fairy tale crossovers were even pretty good. I would highly recommend this movie to anybody who is a fan of classics. Good pick, Marty!!!

Monday after work, I was invited to a preview of “The Hangover Part 2” at a nearby theatre… but when I got to meet up with Carmen, there was a line around the block, two hours prior to arrival, and they all had tickets whereas the message I was given never had any instructions for picking them up so… yeah, we bailed on that. A little disappointed… but hey, it was for a free show. I’m sure the movie sucked anyway. Okay, probably not… but I’m sure that I’ll see it soon enough. It’s not like I was going to be Bradley Cooper’s wingman or have a few pints with Zach Galafinikas or anything. So I basically went back to my apartment & watched a few episodes of “The Tudors” with my roommate Nurse. I think I got her addicted to the show… but I had to catch her up on what was happening. He’s now on to wife number six… and the last episode I saw with her last week was wife number two I think. A lot can happen in eight episodes. So yeah… no Hangover today…

That’ll pretty much do it for today. Still really excited about my mom coming to visit in a few weeks… and I hope Chick ‘n’ Wing starts feeling better from her surgery… and my brother starts feeling better from his facial infection. Poor guy sent me a picture on my cell yesterday… looked like f**king Elephant Man… and he said that it was just a zit two days earlier. It really freaked me out because I had a little zit in the same spot. Is THIS how the Rapture comes? I guess not. I’m fine & handsome as ever. Anyway, have a great night everybody!!!

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