RandomCha

It’s looking like the absolute cheapest ticket I can find for Chicago/London roundtrip in early April is $591. Should I spring for it or keep looking?

For the second day this week, I’ve called in sick to work. I have a nasty cold. Probably the same one which Andy had a few weeks ago, and definitely the same one that people in my office had last week. It’s been more annoying and uncomfortable than painful. My sinuses alternate between being a concrete factory and a mucus factory (if you really want to know). So I will putter around the apartment today and rest.

Now that Proust is over I’m devouring books. Not necessarily speedwise, just satisfactionwise. First it was the Wanda Sykes book, very fun, and now it’s John Dos Passos’ semi-memoir The Best Times. To me he really is one of the most underappreciated writers of the 20th century. And he just isn’t read enough. His writing is very vivid but not fussy or purply; it’s witty and earthy and casually sophisticated. I’m having a great time with this book. I’ve never read any of his books without enjoying myself.

I think I will catch the matinee of INLAND EMPIRE tomorrow.

Don’t get me started on the stupidity of the whole “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” marketing fiasco. I cannot believe the climate of fear in this country. The board looks like a LITE BRITE for folk’s sake! How could anyone be paranoid enough to think of it as something bomb-like? You don’t see Chicago’s Finest shutting down the ‘jumbotron’ at Diversey/Clark/Broadway ’cause it might an explosive device. And as Andy suggested to me yesterday, all these law enforcement people are trying to cover up their embarrassment by filing lawsuits and asking for damages. Seems like that’s what powerful people do when it’s time to throw a temper tantrum: hire a lawyer.

Meanwhile you’ve got world scientists meeting in Paris and unanimously declaring that they are 90% certain that global warming is a substantially manmade phenomenon. And the Bush  administration issues a statement declaring that this new document is “a valuable tool.”

These are both good arguments that collective human intelligence is evolutionary regressive.

My MeTV Interview.

Some of my Impressions of INLAND EMPIRE

You just drift along with it for three hours, unable to really process any of it. And then the movie’s over and you can’t stop thinking about it. Can’t wait to see it again. It’s not one of those movies that’s a problem to be solved. It just IS. Like Lynch has said, you live inside of it.

I’m off to Lynchland! Bye!

When you mail something USPS Priority from Chicago to Michigan and it takes FOUR DAYS to get there instead of the 2-3 days it’s SUPPOSED  to take, something is really screwy. Why does the Post Office hafta make me so angry all the time?!

That’s what I’m talking about!

Rosenbaum just gave INLAND EMPIRE a four-star review. It’s a peculiar review, a bit too brainy for its own good, but fairly illuminating too. And it really whips up my level of anticipation for tomorrow night’s screening. I’m going to get to the Music Box at 6 and stake out a place in line, I don’t care how cold it is. Man, I’m excited. 

O: and the new TV is SWEET. At the risk of sounding completely materialistic. It’s good thing I had some classes on this stuff in college; it took me three hours-plus to set it up, and there’s still more tweaking that needs to be done to get the color/sound precisely calibrated. But I’m happy.

Once again, I see now why people happy have lucrative, crappy jobs. In order to buy toys. 

The new TV gets delivered today, to my office, and then I’ll take it home on the bus. Although it’s almost twice as large as the old one it only weighs HALF as much. I wrestled with the decision whether or not to actually buy a new TV for a long time, and then I did a lot of research to find the right one. In the end it mostly came down to these factors:

#1 Andy and I watch two or three DVDs a week, so it will get used and enjoyed often.
#2 In 2009 broadcasting is switching over to HD anyway (a weak justification, to be sure).
#3 The TV I decided on was about 45% off the regular price.
#4 I have enough savings to cover the whole thing, so there was no need to buy it on credit.
#5 It’s going to be really cool to have a new 32″ HD-TV for Oscar Night.

So I went for it. Here’s what I got. I read online that it’s the only HD-TV actually manufactured in the U.S.

I can’t wait to try it out tonight! It’s gonna be so awesome to watch Ben-Hur on this baby.

Remember how I couldn’t find anyone who really wanted/was able to go to INLAND EMPIRE with Andy and I? My eBay auction for the extra ticket just ended. Final bid? $68.