Cold one today! It was delightful to be walking to the el in my arctic parka, snow swirling around. High of 28 here today. The bedroom seemed plenty warm last night while we slept. I’d rather have things a little too warm than a little too cold.

On Saturday we braved the downtown crowds and went to the movies. We saw “Looney Tunes: Back In Action.” We were the only two 20somethings in the theater. Seeing the lines at the theatre for “Cat In The Hat” nearly made me puke. There’s a whole generation of kids who are being fed this crap by their parents and will probably grow up largely devoid of any measurements of what constitutes good taste. When I was a kid, I had “Flash Gordon,” “Time Bandits,” “Dragonslayer,” and “Clash of the Titans.” All of those movies are classics compared to the putrid gaudy chunk that is “The Cat In The Hat.” I think one film critic put it best: “If they had taken his body and hung it from a tree, the filmmakers could not have defiled the memory of Dr. Seuss any worse than they did than by making ths piece of trash.”

But I digress. Loney Tunes was pretty fun. The main problem is that it was too plotty. The old shorts were so funny because the concentration was on gags; the plot was just an excuse to string the gags together. And the plot of the film was pretty banal. Still, every scene had delightful throwaway bits, tons of in-jokes courtesy of Joe Dante, delightful gratuitious cameos (Kevin McCarthy, Roger Corman, Michael Jordan, etc.) and … Brendan Frasier was HOT. He pretty much wore these tight t-shirts the whole movie and umm I had no problem with that. A shirtless wrestling scene would have been great but shoehorning that into the film might have been a tall order. I swear that I really have to rent “George of the Jungle” now. I don’t care any longer about what social stigma is attached to that action.

Last night Andy & I lazed around and watched “Jungle Fever.” It’s a great improvement over “Mo’ Better Blues,” and the performances are absolutely top notch. But in the last 45 minutes, Spike Lee overplays his hand and pumps things up into needless melodrama. I don’t think he had quite learned to trust his story and characters to maintain interest. Still, a very good film. Next Andy chose “School Daze” from greencine.com; one by one he’s going through all the Spike Lee films (doing a bit of a backtrack before moving on to “Malcolm X” because he accidentally skipped “School Daze”).

Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast was especially odd last night, with Dennis Miller the only guest. Sealab 2021 was also hilarious. Lots of bleeping out of rude dialogue. It’s worth missing a little sleep to watch Adult Swim every Sunday night.

The big boss will be out of the office all day today, so we can all relax a bit. I’m wondering if things are going to be a busy here before Thanksgiving or a bit slow. Will people hurry up to finish putting in their orders before the holiday or will they just put it off till afterwards? Hard to say. I’m just glad it’s a 3-day week. Heading to the airport directly from work on Wednesday. My aunt and uncle are meeting me at DIA in Denver; spending the night in Arvada with them, and then Thanksgiving morning we’re driving up to Mom and Dad’s in Estes Park. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen the new house. I’m sure there will be plenty of snow on the ground.

Terence was in town from NYC this weekend. He got to Quimby’s just as I was reading the first story. The reading went well, and I even sold a copy to a complete stranger. That’s a mark of something. I wish there had been a larger turnout, but Brian at Quimby’s said that most likely they will sell some more copies over the course of the week due to the Reader article. Here’s hoping. They gave ,e a $20 gift certificate for doing the reading! I was stunned. That was just great. It gave me a much-needed boost after reading to an audience of 12. Those folks are so nice.

The book is listed on amazon now, front cover image and everything. We’ll see what happens there. I ought to do more promo stuff this week but I think I’m gonna hold off on everything till after Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Because it’s just about EATING. No presents, no big commercialism. You just eat, spent time with people you are close to, savor the appreciation of contentment. It’s a minimalist holiday that’s about maximization. It’s hedonistic and wholesome at the same time. And damn it, turkey and mashed potatoes and GRAVY are just tops. I have to go to the gym at least once before I leave town, hehe.