the last blog

poking intellectual holes in the lid of your simplicity

Saturday, January 08, 2005

This Title Is A Harbinger Of Nothings To Come

It's almost ten a.m. here, been up since around 2a.m. or so. Went out for a nice walk, picked up a paper, took in the bad news. It's below freezing, cold and gray. The soup I had for lunch contained enough sodium to kill an elephant. Well, maybe not a healthy elephant. Let's just say one that has a history of smoking and a pre-existing heart condition. That elephant should avoid soup entirely. Today I may finally get to see the film Life Aquatic. I love Andersons previous work, so I'm looking forward to it. On Thursday I am meeting with the editor from a local newspaper and will be pitching ideas for a new column. I am hoping to get a side job doing book reviews, so hopefully that will go well. I already do reviews for Too Much Coffee Man, but that's independently published and there's really no money involved (just free books every now and then), and I need some way to make a tiny bit of extra cash while working my quiet overnight shift. It will be something new, anyway.

So, yesterday I drank beer and watched Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. It was silly and extremely low-brow stuff, meaning that it was perfect. I'm not sure if I would have liked it had I not been tipsy, but that's really what beer is for....it's a movie vitamin. Magically all things are better with booze. Yes.

Have you ever listened to AM radio in the midde of the night?
Thanks.

posted by Samwick @ 9:52 AM  

13 Comments:

  • At 4:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    FM yes, AM no. Those middle of the night chat shows can be mesmeric when I'm in the mood to tune in.

    Best of luck with meeting the editor of your local paper, my friend! You deserve something nice to happen this early on in 2005. Me, I'm working on sorting out some long-standing annoyances today and things I've been putting off for a while. I'm really hoping to be out of London by the time Spring rears its head. New year, new place to live, new things to do.

    I've been smoke-free for coming up to about four months now. I've lost count, can you believe that? I thought I'd keep the day I quit as an anniversary but nope. Gone. Mind like Swiss cheese, I guess. Full of holes.

     

  • At 6:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Pop over to my blog again when you can. I'd really like to see your reaction to my Jerry Springer The Opera post. I'm hoping it's going to wake up those hornets from their wintry slumber...

     

  • At 7:02 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It's Thursday. No idea what the time difference is but it's 1pm here in the UK, so I'm reasonably safe in asking: how'd it go with the editor?

     

  • At 12:29 PM, Blogger Samwick said…

    Hey Andy! I actually just walked in the door from it. As far as I know everything went pretty well. It will be a few days before I hear anything about the job; her boss (the main editor) will have to make the decision, but I'm pretty sure that I did well. It was an informal setting, we basically just met for coffee, and she asked a handful of job interview type questions. I suck at job interview questions, but for the most part we talked about books, so...I don't know. I'm more nervous now than I was before the interview, I hate waiting for these sorts of things, you know? Grr.

     

  • At 10:22 AM, Blogger Tonto said…

    I know you are having a tiff with Ric on the TheHounds but wanted to stop by and tell you I saw "Life Aquatic" and loved it.

    Did you see it yet? Wes Anderson is getting better or Bill Murray is?...I do not know, but it was great and even Jeff Goldblum was fun. I think it was little more like "Bottle Rocket" than "Tennenbaums" but I loved those too.

     

  • At 5:07 PM, Blogger Samwick said…

    You know, I really think you are right on both counts: Wes Anderson is getting better AND Bill Murray is getting better. I'm glad you liked it because most of my friends did not like it at all and I think it's my new favorite Anderson film. It was really smart and mature and...I don't know, funny. I loved it. Murry has develoved so many suble facial expressions that he was a lot of fun to watch. He's become the kind of actor who can say more with a look than most actors say with pages of dialogue, you know? You're right, the tone of Aquatic was much more similar to Bottle Rocket. It had that same melancholy undercurrent. Anyway, it was really a unique film, I haven't seen anything like it in a while. The sets! When Murray and Wilson strolled through he complete ship in one uninterrupted shot? That was nice.

    Well, I hope you have an extremely nice weekend Georgina. Do you have a nice wine picked out?

     

  • At 7:17 PM, Blogger Tonto said…

    I am so glad you liked it too...Those sets were amazing... you are right...as a matter of fact I found on Yahoo movies under the title of the movie if you click on "production stills" and you can actualy see how that ship with all the rooms was a real whole set and they have great photos. The set was made whole just so they could film that one continuous scene. It was the best.

    Wine sounds good...you will have to give me one of your recommendations of a good bottle sometime. I am always looking for the next one to try. By the way speaking of wine you must see "Sideways"...another great one and all about wine!...so it couldn't be too bad. I loved it.

     

  • At 8:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hi Matt! Just to let you know, still sending you wholesomely heathen witchy vibes to get the job...

    David bought me the CD of Jerry Springer The Opera today. Man, you are highly unlikely to ever see it Stateside so do try to download a copy via one of those peer-to-peer programs. I know the likes of eMule carry it, recorded from BBC2. You'd love it. If you can't get to download it, beg it from somewhere. You must see this show!

    I also got my new phone today, a nice piece of boy's toy tech. A 3G flip phone, so I can walk around all classic Trek tricorder with it. Now if only people'd call me... :-)

    I did set it up with some MP3 ringtones. One of them being a song from the opera, wonderfully entitled 'Mama gimmee smack on the asshole'. That'll get 'em blinking when they hear it go off on the tube...

    In other news, I am now locked in another hardcore political debate on my own blog. I go from writing poems to becoming embroiled in a debate over Islamophobia, gay rights and Hitler... don't ask, haven't got a bloody clue... Why i can't just settle down and write poems all day on some silky cushions while drinking meths or absinthe, I'll never know...

    They don't make poets like they used to.

    Which is a great line for a poem, eh?

     

  • At 8:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It is done. Go see.

     

  • At 1:50 AM, Blogger Samwick said…

    Andy, thank you for the witchy job vibes...I'm really, in retrospect, not feeling very confident about it. It was sort of a long-shot, I have virtually no publishing experience, but it's worth the try. Maybe with your optimist vibes things will work out.

    Georgina, hey there. I'm never sure what wine to get. I love just strolling past all of the beautiful bottles and picking them out based on nice designs, the shapes, just the overall look of the bottle. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I shop for wine, I just go for whatever strikes me. I do, almost always, love any wine by Louis Jadot. They rock. Their Pinot Noir...hoo, nice.

    What have you been drinking lately? Any good Georgina suggestions?
    I live in a very small town where movies that are actually good rarely come. Life Aquatic made it here, but so far Sideways has not. If you liked it I'll have to check it out, I'm hoping it will reach here soon. Take care!

     

  • At 7:02 AM, Blogger Samwick said…

    By the way Georgina, I wanted to ask you a question. At the recent new years party a person apologized to me for pouring red wine in a white wine glass. I thought, what?! Are you familiar with what the difference is between a red and white wine glass? I had no idea such distinctions existed.

     

  • At 5:59 PM, Blogger Tonto said…

    Hi Matt...yep I do know the distinction but to be perfectly honest who really cares...although wine afficionados would have me stoned for that statement.

    When you see the movie "Sideways" [a wine lovers movie and by the way in the movie the wine lover's favorite wine is Pinot Noir just like you] you will understand why your friend apologized because it is offensive to wine people...it's a big deal to them.

    I do own both kinds of glasses in order also not to offend as well, and actually after a couple of trips to Napa I concede why it is probably somewhat important.

    The usually taller, larger, deeper balloon is for reds and the lengthier stem, but shorter, shallower balloon, and smaller version glass is for whites. I guess the idea is the whites stay cold better in those kinds of glasses and the reds stay warm better in the bigger balloon glass...also better for swirling.

    You see this is the problem with wine now. It became so popular and is now selling better than beer in many places because they made it cheap and appear less pretentious...so "anyone now can drink wine type of thing" and now that it is popular we are all now becoming experts and getting into the pretentious side of wine again.

    One of my favorite lines in "Sideways" is when the wine idiot Thomas Haden Church [remember him from 'Wings'] says, "when do we get to drink it," after watching the wine afficionado Paul Giammati swirl, sniff, view and swirl again this ounce of wine in a glass...which is what I say just to tick the wine expert off in whatever group I am in too.

     

  • At 3:52 AM, Blogger Samwick said…

    Thank you so much, Georgina! That's very good to know. At the party I did think it was some sort of pretentious distinction but the way you describe it, it does make sense. Had I talked to you about this sooner, I could have set my glass down at the party and yelled "This is an outrage!!". I then could have stormed out of the house dramatically. Well, maybe not, but it sounds fun. Anyway, I may actually buy a set of white wine glasses now. Do you have a preference between red and white wine? Since I am new to this, I have not yet cultivated a taste for whites. I would like to go on a bit of a spree and learn which ones are interesting. Now when I drink one it just tastes sort of odd, but I'm looking forward to experimenting. Anyway, take care Georgina, hope you are having a nice weekend.

     

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