I N T H E N I G H T K I T C H E N 1.20.2001
No more Wednesdays! What a week. Yesterday was a flurry of activity starting early in the morning with a slew of emails in my inbox that needed to be answered, collated and flagged. I then threw together a few changes to this comp design after the client had already approved. Apparently, the logo color just would not do, it turned out, so I had to throw the new color in there and change some other colors which now clashed horribly. Then I jumped in some clothes and dodged out the door to mail Stephanie's Christmas present... yes, Christmas. T. just decided at one point that he was not going to do it. That was irritating. I went out and took the time and got the gifts. We also gave her a gift certificate for clothes right at Christmas but wanted to get her a few other things. So, anyway, I finally got that sent which is good for her but I'm still irked at T. Afterwards, I went to the grocery store for a major spree. I was truckin' up and down those aisles somethin' fierce. Shopping at 11 a.m. on a weekday doesn't seem to be so bad. There aren't many people and as long as you deftly dodge the shelf-stockers, you're pretty much in the clear. I was in and out in 45 minutes! Then I had to speedy home and it was about noon and I hadn't eaten a thing yet and I was soooo hungry. I was smart enough to grab a candy bar in the grocery and gobbled up that. I carried up all the perishable groceries. Put them away and sat down at my computer. I sent another flurry of emails. Then I grabbed my coat, my cell, my wallet and my smokes and jumped in the car to race over the Morrison bridge to get to the Horse Brass Pub on Belmont to meet D. for lunch and brainstorming. D. and I are going to be working on some Flash animations together. He is the talent. I am the monkey. Basically, he's an awesome illustrator and has a wicked sense of humor. He used to work for a big animation company and has been floundering a bit since he left "to pursue other opportunities." D. wants to learn Flash and I want to learn more about character animation. I'm going to be doing most of the grunt work at the outset with scanning and getting his characters into Flash. Then we're going to do regular critique sessions where he shows me how to do the motion and activity better and I show him how the movie is put together. I think it's going to be good. We were at the Horse Brass for about 2 and a half hours. I had two beers and some lunch and felt a little weird stepping out into the semi-bright afternoon sun when we were finally finished. I raced back home, the whole was cursing myself for not using the restroom before I left. Could there be anything more agonizing than driving when you have to pee so bad? Ran up to the house. Used the facilities and then I was back on email. More flurry. Then I did a conference call for a project that I'm working on to nail down the schedule and what I could realistically commit to by when. Then, I had to clean the house. T. comes home and I had him help me out by bringing up the rest of the groceries from the car which consisted primarily of beer and more beer. Then I lay on the couch and tried to sleep... for ten minutes. Then a bunch of my girlfriends came over for Poker Night II and we had a grand time. I may have broken even but I suspect I actually lost some money. It was fun, anyway. Don't even talk to me about Thursday which was a day just like Friday. What we should talk about is that layabout, good-fer-nothing, self-indulgent, ansty, whiny, pajama-wearing, pathetic pile of unwashed hair that was Wednesday. I knew I was going to regret Wednesday and regret it I did. I vow to have no more Wednesday's like that. If Wednesday wants to act like that -- all indignant about sloth -- well, it's just not gonna happen. If we can't get up enough oomph to do the things that we need to do then we should at least get up enough oomph to get out of the damn house. Just get out. Fuckin' Wednesday. 1.14.2001
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Oz just had a very bothered reaction to Kraftwerk's Airwaves coming out of my computer speakers. He's obviously not to keen on Flash Gordon-esque synth. But then could you blame him? + + + T. and I went out last night to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It's playing one week only at the Cinema 21 in Northwest. The Portland market was slated to open it on Jan. 22 so I was mighty pleased to see this early run. (All you people out there who live in L.A. and New York can just shut up about these great films, okay? It's frustrating to not get them here for months.) We decided to get our tickets and then eat dinner beforehand. We showed up at the theater around 4:30 and there was a line around the corner to buy tickets for the 7 p.m. show! I had T. park the car while I got in line. We had no clue that we were going to be waiting so long in the chilly drizzle so we weren't really dressed for the occasion. It was not too cold outside until the wind blew and everyone started chattering their teeth. By the time we bought our tickets there was another line starting to get into the 7 o'clock movie. That was just ludicrous. We opted not to wait and went across the street to The Gypsy for dinner so that we could keep an eye on the line. Dinner was pretty good. I've only eaten there once before but I've been there for drinks more than a couple times. It's all high space-themed kitsch and it seems like sort of a trendy place but I've always found their servers to be friendly, their drinks tasty and loaded, and their food good and well-priced. As the line to get in the theater started wrapping around the other corner, we went out and stood in it. I bought two hot chocolates from a very surly convenience-store clerk (Him, whining: "You people just keep coming in. When will I get to sit down?" Me, sarcastic: "Buck up, little camper."). Finally, we got in and got great seats and the theater was quite full. When the lights went down, people applauded. This is one thing I like about Cinema 21 -- people are always more than willing to participate. It's a loud crowd but in a good way. The movie was excellent and completely unexpected. There's a point in the movie where you are asked to suspend disbelief and you very willingly do and keep doing it, happily, until the end. It's a beautiful movie in many different ways. Go see it. I think this is a great movie for the big screen. I don't know about standing in the cold for an hour but go see it. 
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