Bears

I have been incredibly insulted by Hollywood lately and have become more of a movie snob over the past couple years. The moves we have seen have all been so contrived and predictable and this new wave of remakes just proves my point. The Sundance Channel and IFC have become my favorites movie channels on TV. Rob and I stumbled upon "Greg the bunny" a few months ago and I can't say enough about these 15 minute indie film spoofs they do. Each one is more amusing then the next. It's my new favorite show, the best was the spoof of Pulp Fiction, Dead Puppet Storage.

I must admit I am a sucker for any kind of wildlife documentary so last weekend we watched Grizzly Man and I am speechless. That documentary creates so much dialog it's ridiculous. It addresses conservationists, homosexuality, manic personalities, bears and more, what a list. This poor manic fella finds peace in Alaska and gets his adrenaline rush from living among the grizzlies, eventually (but almost predicably) the bears see him as food and eat him. The way he talks about his love for the bears, it's kind of creepy, especially when he stumbles upon bear poop and lovingly pets it while excitedly saying "this was inside her (the bear), this was just insider her, I can feel the heat! It's her energy".

Part of it is filmed in Kodiak, where we spent a summer when I was 12. I wish I remembered more of that summer. Sadly enough, living in the moment is not something I am good at, so I often miss the things that are right in front of me. I remember the kids who were my age. They were so much more experienced then me, they drank, smoked and kissed, I recall thinking it was because they had nothing else to do up there. There was a stuffed Kodiak bear in the town center that was huge, I was scared of meeting a bear every second I was in Alaska. We traveled around the mountains and went fishing but where ever we went, I was on bear watch. I also had some of the most horrifying nightmares of my life when we were up there. Kodiak was a very weird place, very beautiful but filled with very weird energy. Of course my crazy father loved the place and wanted to move there and run for mayor. Sheesh.

I had such a pleasant surprise this weekend! Every single one of Rob's work parties has had music HOWEVER it is never music that I am fond of. It's usually very skilled guitar players doing very skilled (and self indulgent) guitar stuff and it's simply too refined for my musical palate. For the party over the weekend I was expecting the same, the big hoopla was that Johnny Hiland was performing. I have no idea who this musician is however I would feign interest in watching him play and the same went for the other bands.

The first band was just as expected - probably great musicians but I just don't get it. The second band started up and I was thinking that they were really good and I overheard somebody say it was Chuck Brown. I almost jumped out of my skin! It was Chuck Brown and the Soul Seekers, I got to see the godfather of DC go-go play all the songs that I loved. It was so awesome! He even did a cover of gold digger! Apparently he has played at other company events however Rob and I have a habit of leaving early so we missed him at a party a few years back.

Johnny Hiland came on next and he was good but it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that go go swing
Do wa
do wa
do wa
do wa
do wa
do wow

I should have quit when I was ahead

Addendum to yesterday's post.

When I got home from work, Zippy and I went for a run and somehow I tripped, on my feet or on the dog, who knows but I hit the ground HARD, right in front of a bus stop. There was a college student waiting for the bus who witnessed the entire fall and as he helped me to my feet he said "Oh, that looked like it hurt".

AND IT DID HURT. There was blood and bruises and ripped gloves, ugh. Rob bandaged me up pretty well but I feel like I was hit by a truck.

I woke up this morning with a stiff neck again. Even bending my head back to get my hair wet in the shower was painful.

I took the trash out and managed to step in the only patch of ice surrounding the house. Full knee and elbow contact with the ground.

I am on the highway and traffic comes to a crawl, I'm in the slow lane so I put the car in 1st gear and creep along. I kept about 3 car lengths between me and the car in front of me so I don't have to stop and go, I cruse along at a steady 5-10 mph pace. The lady in the dodge neon behind me starts tailgating me an honking her horn! She does it 3 times! Like riding the car in front of me is going to make the traffic move any faster. I was very proud of myself that I ignored her the first 2 times she honked the horn but the third time earned her an obscene hand gesture.
The ironic thing is ... before traffic came to a stop she was the car in the slow lane going 10 mph BELOW the speed limit causing a small back up of her own.

I had a horrible morning! My knee has a strawberry on it and I am totally irritated. Bah Humbug. I want to go back home and start the day over. I want it to be 7:00 and Rob is giving me a kiss good morning while I am insisting the thermometer must be broken because my temprature HAS to spike soon. I want it to be back to when I was laying in bed with warm coffee and a dog curnled up next to me breathing his soft dog breath on my arm.

SnowSnowSnow

What a fun weekend - it did snow on Saturday night. We went to sleep with a small dusting on the ground and when we woke up it was like Christmas morning. There was somewhere around 8 inches of snow on the ground!

We froliced with the dog, we shoveled snow, we shoveled the neighbor's snow, we threw snowballs at the neighborhood kids and I made a snow angel.

Mom's power was out for a good 24 hours so she and the dog spent the night last night. Of course, at 3:30 one of the dogs went on a frantic barking spree. At 5:30 another one had a barking fit. My guess is that melting snow hitting the roof or landing on the ground spurred the ruckus. Rob got up super early and Zippy was whining because he was stuck in the bedroom. Roib let him out and then more ruckus for no reason...... needless to say, I did not get much un-interrupted sleep. I think I'm going to keep waking Zippy up tonight as he tries to lamp out on the sofa.

SNOW

They are predicting show for this weekend and I feel like a 3rd grader, I am so excited for it. It's Feb and we have not had any snow yet this season. Last year I bought myself show boots and I loooooooove them. I have always sided with fashion vs. functionality so I have never really had good snow boots and I have chronically cold feet all winter. Now that I have the right equipment for keeping my feet warm and dry I enjoy the snow much more then I have in the past years. The dog, on the other hand, is not equipped for the snow. He loves to prance and eat snow but winds up lower his core temp and shivers like a Chihuahua. Last year we got him a coat and he wore it when he went outside but I left it out while I was at work and he ripped it apart. Hm, maybe he didn't really like the coat.

Oh happy day, wedding photo's have arrived!

Grammys and Superbowl Music - what a sad state of affairs

In the immortal words of Henry Rollins regarding U2
"I just think are hilarious. Hack drummer, hack bass player, one-note guitar player and then there’s the singer. It’s basically music for people who’ve lost the will to fight."
On the boxed life cd (one of the finest pieces of spoken word every created) he goes on a rant, while in Ireland, of how U2 has been spitting out the same song over and over and over again and the world just eats it up.
I totally agree.
How on earth do they win Grammy's? And what are they putting in the water to dope people into buying their music. Isn't everybody tired of being force fed this tripe? Argh, I could go on for days but there are more to bash.

Mariah. I was totally suckered in by her. I heard 2 songs from her new album that I thought were catchy and almost good but I can't bear to watch her perform with all that vocal athletics that she and Christina Agulera revel in. Ugh.

Enough rants - how bout a rave. I loved that Gorillaz opened the show and thought everything about that was awesome. I loved the animation of the characters and the visual when Madonna came up through the floor with the back light - she looked like a superhero. That was a great intro.

Baby I'm amazed at the way Paul McCartney can sing. Helter Skelter was one of the best and it makes me sad to think what could have been if there were more Beatles on the planet. His duet with Jayz and Linkin Park was just kind of weird, like it was too unscripted for him or he didn't have enough time to practice. He just looked awkward.

Jamie Fox should be ashamed of himself. He's a great actor and singer, yet he's prancing around like Flava Flav to Kanye West. So he did the hook to Gold digger, doesn't he have an album of something of substance to contribute?

Did anybody notice how much the Stones sucked for the Super bowl? The mix was atrocious, but I wonder if they would sound any better if the mix were done well. It's sad to say but I think the first time they retired they were on to something and all the subsequent retirements after that were just putting off the inevitable.
Although, seeing Keith Richards tell Rich Eisen that he was there for the cheerleaders and then looking to his fingers like he was searching for a missing cigarette was priceless.

Diamonds

My belated birthday came with diamonds. Lots of sparkly diamonds that wrap around my wrist. Wow, he got me a very nice bracelet, it's a lot nicer then the one I had looked at the last time we were at Zachary's. Like my engagement ring, I will never take it off. In fact, when I run with the dog I wear gloves, not to keep my hands warm, but to cover up my engagement ring and now... to cover up the bracelet as well. Last summer I had to take of the ring to run and I hated to see it sitting in the jewel box but at the same time my wedding band is so damn tiny it made the simplicity of it really stand out. Hm, hope that made sense.

I am so bored at my job. I should be looking for engineers, doing phone interviews and the like but I am just so bored with it I could scream. Listening to music at work takes the tediousness out of the day, maybe I should find a good station to listen to. I loved the AOL XM stations but since I am getting rid of AOL I have to find a new station and not only am I bored, but I am lazy.

G is at Mavericks watching the surfers today - how much fun would that be? I imagine Zippy and I going and sitting on the cliffs but the reality is probably no dogs allowed and no bathrooms.

bored bored bored. I am even bored at home, if I have to look at the TV for another second I may throw something at it. I'm reading The Other Boleyn Girl and it's ok but it's not great. I run with the dog, I do exercises on the ball, I do crosswords, I soduku but I am still bored. Bored at work. Bored at home. Bored.