I crashed hard last night after a long day and night before. I didn't go to bed the night before til about 4:30 in the morning. This one little flash game ive been working on has been fun, but when it gets down to the end i really gotta put the hours in.
well flashing back to saturday. Anne (Dehaene) and Richard came out to see his family for thanksgiving, so they were hanging out before they drove back up to SF. We hung out all day with them starting off with a late breakfast. We originally wanted to go to the pasadena bakery, but its closed and under construction, so we headed over to marstian's. Then we walked around the Huntington library for a couple hours. We were all dead tired after hiking, so we went down to crown city brewery for a drink. It was really good to see both of them.
Then if we hadn't had enough of the Huntington, we went back on sunday for Tea with Jen's parents. Well i really am just wasting time now... i gotta get back to work.
Happy Birthday Will (belated)!!!
The Nick Luca Trio will be coming back through LA on Dec 20, mark your calendars, it'll be fun!
Saturday Dec 20
Zen Sushi
2601 Hyperion Blvd.
9:00 - 10:30 in the downstairs lounge
If you didn't watch the game, its Malone's elbow smashing Steve Nash's face.
When we got back Will hung out at our place where we watched a DVD he brought over, then went to dinner. I made it an early night and crashed early.
I've played a good deal of Tony Hawk Underground today, and have finally gotten a lot further in the game. I'm finally on Pro status and am in the Vancouver level looking to get a Shoe Sponsor. The game is actually very funny and a lot of fun to play.
Well i guess i should get back to blogvote. I'm gonna roll out a few new features tomorrow and keep working on the display functions. I think there can be a lot of little things done in the next few days and i need to stay focused.
So none of it really matters cause today is the geek-fest. Yup thats right.... 12 hours of Lord of the Rings. Well there are a couple 45 minute breaks in there, but you get the point. Fellowship starts at 1:30PM Two towers at 5:30 and Return of the King at i think 9:30.
The day started off good, with the chance to sleep in as usual. I finally rolled out of bed and gave Will a call to see what the deal was for lunch. I got off the phone, and with no lunch plans at all i made my way over to his house where we would decide. The choice was really based on two things... what we felt like eating, and what we knew would not encourage a hasty exit during any of the marathon. So our final decision was much better than i thought it would be when we set out.
Greenblats in Hollywood.
Now just a few little things about greenblats. 1) They always have parking.... even on a Friday night on the Sunset Strip. 2) They have a great selection of wine. 3) They have some of the best Deli sandwiches in all of the Los Angeles area.
So that was it. We ate upstairs in an almost empty dinning room and just sat and shot the shit. We still had a good deal of time before the Fellowship of the Ring started when we did get to the archlight. We tracked down Jason and Bob and Bob's gfriend in the cafe and started to run up the bar tab. Oh, well i started to run up the tab, Will had a coke. After a few more Guinness we made a few cell phone calls, tracked down Brian and Wendy and headed into the theater.
First and big line of the night was to get your Trilogy Tuesday Pass. Your ticket was exchanged for a pass on a lanyard that would also get you the "free gift" at the end of the night.
Ok enough lead-in.
Fellowship of the Ring. Now i've seen the extended version of this movie so many times now i can't count. The little changes to the movie (and the HUGE changes) make it all that much better. I remember sitting in some of the first scenes reciting the words to myself (geek) and thinking through all of the plot points for this and the next movie.
Now the only complaint that i will have about anything all night long was the fact that the Ring Wraiths scream is ear shattering. From the front row you have to cringe and almost put your fingers in your ears its so loud.
After the Fellowship I made a mad dash outside to get something to eat and hit the bathroom. I was surprised at how many people sat to watch the credits when they knew we had a schedule to keep. Well in the rush I lot everybody else and headed for the Hot Dog line which was already growing. Will tracked me down and we made a simple deal, He gets a drink for me, and i'll get a dog for him. Well the drink line was almost non existent so he was back to hang out with me in line in about 1 minute. Scarfed down a dog and a coke, hit the bathroom and back into the movies.
Now when we got back inside everybody sat down. All i said was... I'm not sitting down now if i gotta have my ass in that seat for 3 hours soon. Everybody was on their feet a few seconds later. But then we had to avoid the fuckin camera crews that we're working the crowd like vultures. The little dipshit kid from Jimmy Kimel live showed up to tease the crowd before the Two Towers. I guess they're hoping that this kid might be able to get enough footage that eventually might be edited into something that might compete with Triumph's incredible bit at the last opening of LOTR in new your city. Anyway, it was fuckin boring and he generally sucked.
Now for the Two Towers. I had not yet seen the extended version, and had no idea how much it would add to the movie. I'm always impressed at how much you can improve on a movie that you think is already great. Aragorn speaking to the horse in Rohan. Duh, well the explains why the horse comes to save his life later. And the fact that he's 87 years old, that might be something that should be included. I'm going to have to watch this version a few hundred times now. Just little points make it that much better
So then the next break i bailed at the first chance i could. I knew Will was heading for MacDonald's and i was thinking Baja Fresh. I got outside the theater and was one of the first people to sprint across Sunset to the restaurant. I got cut off at the door by about 5 people that ran a little faster and we're a little more pushy that I. But in all i was in and out in a few minutes.
back to the movies
The Return of the King was far and away the most majestic of all the movies. Entire sequences really should just be titled... "LOOK HOW DAMN BEAUTIFUL NEW ZELAND IS!!" The story has progressed to the point where there are a large number of subplots that take your attention. The Fellowship had been very linear in story, with a few flashbacks, but this was a whole new ballgame. I really don't want to write any kind of spoiler at all so i won't go into any great detail. The characters in some cases are on their own quest and have not seen others for months. When the stories cross paths and intertwine i think that is the best part of the movie.
Special effects are seemless, and the sheer magnitude of the effects shots is astounding. This movie was planned to be exactly what it needed to be... a climax and resolution of the entire story.
This has been the movie that we've been waiting for.
So i have a little bit to say about artists and artistic musicians. If you're into performance artwork of any kind, and your friends tell you that you're good... Either A) you're good and your friends have good taste, or B) your friends are lying to you and you SUCK. Now... i'm going to save all you people that suck a whole lot of time. (not meaning that you suck a whole lot of time. Instead that i am going to save you time, those of you who suck) You can tell you suck when only your friends show up and that the people who are already there (that are not your friends) LEAVE. Am i making any sense? Cause this guy who took the stage after Nick Luca, REALLY SUCKED.
Now the only thing he had going for him was that he had two Macs. He set them up and as Chris said, "looked like he was sitting doing his homework" He had a old G3 portable, which everybody knows has a built in microphone in the top of the monitor. But the design was a little weird, so every time you touch the monitor it would affect the microphone input. This guy sat there rubbing the monitor and feeding the input of the microphone into another effects processor then fed it into the other mac. Well after all that fuckin work all it sounded like was feedback. Really loud feedback. Then also on the other mac he was playing with reason. So the entire performance was feedback and techno beats. Needless to say we left and sat in the bar and had more drinks in peace.
All in all everything went well. Not too much of the xmas stress. Now all we've been dealing with is the hordes of people that are descending upon Pasadena. The population swells around the new years time and every place you go is fuckin packed. I'm sure business in all the malls has been great.
We went to Paseo yesterday to go see something's got to give. We met my parents there and fought the crowds to get into the theater. Movie: hmmm, well it was good, but i'll bitch about Nancy Meyers's writing some other time. We got out of the movie and somebody suggested the Yard House. My comment at this time was "its not wether we'll get into the yard house or not, its wether we'll have to wait 2 hours or 3 hours. the wait was 2 hours, and my father just laughed. So after a little brawl we ended up at Mijares where we had a good time as always.
In other news. Michelle Francis (Andersen) is due to have a child in about 5 months. She's having a baby shower today before she takes off again for home on the east coast. Jen's going (and getting ready as i write). Tonight we're going to a party at the home of the Woods. So there will be a good time had with much discussion of California wines (and drinking of them too)
Finally one last note. Did all the fuckin spammers of the world get really smart in the last two days? I've gotten nothing but base64 encoded spam AND ALL OF IT GETS THROUGH. I've already configured my spam filter a little better, and added a couple more steps of checking, but i've gotta wonder if there will be a point release of Mac Mail in the next few weeks because of this. Its an obvious hole.
#1 I am going to read more. FAILED! I think i read two books for fun all year long. The 15 O'Reilly books that i read cover to cover DO NOT COUNT. This one stays on the list for another year.
#2 I am going to paint more. FAILED! I painted one decent painting this year, and its not even finished. This one stays too.
#3 I am going to do more art/construction projects. PASS! This one is evident every time you walk into my office. I've got about 50 little stupid things that i've built. This one stays on the list, but i'm adding a little clause. "more art/constructions projects, that can be displayed in a gallery".
#4 I am going to get a job. FAILED! Nuf said.
#5 I am going to expand my programming knowledge. PASS! This one is too easy. I love learning new programming languages, so i just picked up a few books (the ones that don't count for reading) and bingo, i'm developing stupid little c apps. I also really dove into areas of PHP, XML, ActionScript (yuck) and even ASP (double yuck).
So overall 3 failures and 2 passes. So this year its just the same 5 and a couple more little ones.
