and the race is off due to rain

well people might actually run in the rain but i'm not.

my socks might get wet.

oh snap 5k bitches

it might be on. there might be a break in the rain tomorrow during the race.

we'll see. i didn't plan on running tomorrow. i mean, it is 2:41 am and i did just get back from dave and busters after a few drinks.

no 5k run

due to inclement weather tomorrow morning.

this sucks.

i was hoping to run too. i'll have to find another 5k to try.

snake handlers

i'm watching this "dancing with the devil" special on dateline nbc. exorcisms and snake handling.

yes, snake handling. and drinking poison. because it's in the bible. to test your faith. and if you die, it's god's will.

where? only in the south.

listen, if you're stupid enough to dance around with a poisonous snake, you deserve to get bit in order to expedite your removal from the gene pool.

TO on the INTERNETS

TO posted this on his web site:

WELL, U KNO I'M NT GONNA B THERE THIS WKEND OR THE NEXT IF THIS SITUATION DOESN'T GET RESOLVED BUT I'M PRAYIN IT DOES!... I KNO I'LL PROB C U N CAMP (HOPEFULLY) BUT CAMP IS THE WORST!!!

it makes my head hurt.

hahaha internet!

don't click if you're my sister.

new halo 2 maps

awesome four new maps. 2 large maps and 2 smaller maps. battle rifles everywhere!

can't wait to play against my friends.

BATTLE RIFLE TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD!

season 4 of 24 just delivered

into my pants.

gg.

omgxbox

SO FREAKING HOT! WANT TO TOUCH THE HINEY.

P.S. I'M BUYING ONE. EDDIE, DEREK, YOU BETTER BUY ONE TOO.

edit: updated link

judge judy

what is up with this impeaching judge shit?

i can't watch the news these days without tom delay threatening to impeach "activist" judges that are "unaccountable" and can "snub" the president and congress.

let me break this down for you. these people are basically bitching because they're not getting court decisions that are in their favor. it's as easy as that. fucking player haters. don't hate the player, hate the game.


dear tom delay,

checks and balances is wut we do, motherfucker.


OH SNAP AND A SWIRL,
the judiciary branch

Needles and Threats
Activist Legislators

almost like live journal

did you ever have an awful dream where you wake up in the middle of the night? you kind of wake up, turn over, and then fall back asleep. sometimes, you fall back into the same dream that woke you up.

but me? no.

i go back to sleep and i'm like "ok, this dream is now about... the beach." and there i am at the beach. sometimes elements from my first dream creep over into this new dream though. like the lifeguard is a zombie with red shorts and a zinc nose. it's interesting.

i've never had a night before though where i would be chased from dream to dream. like eternal sunshine or something.

ok, this dream is now about... playing football.

ok, this dream is now about... friends from college.

ok, this dream is now about... sitting in the park on a sunday.

ok, this dream is now about... me dreaming about falling asleep.

ok, this dream is now about... me dreaming about me dreaming about falling asleep.

war on spam

since i've put the anti-spam hack into the code, there's been zero spam feedbacks. which is totally :dance:

the only spam that remains is trackback spam. unfortunately, i don't think i can fight this without disabling the trackback system (which nobody uses).

yup.

free music downloads from amazon

there's some good stuff on there from bright eyes, arcade fire, interpol, and elliott smith... make sure to grab a few of those.

current album on repeat: yankee hotel foxtrot by wilco.

favorite tracks:

• I am Trying to Break Your Heart
• Radio Cure
• Jesus, etc.
• Ashes of American Flags
• Pot Kettle Black
• Poor Places

i'm listing more or less the entire album because it is so good.

the new pope

'new' is an inaccurate word here. a 78 year old 'new' pope.

looks like we'll be choosing another 'new' pope in 5 years.

septa...

the reason why purell is available in pocket sizes.

film festival: kontroll

copy and paste:

An award-winning festival favorite, this surreal Hungarian odyssey through Budapest's sinister subway system is a thrillingly fast-paced black comedy delight.

Rapidly becoming The Little Cult Movie That Could, the Hungarian black comedy Kontroll has amazed festival audiences from Toronto to Cannes, where it won the Prix de la Jeunesse award (the film has also won awards at fests in Copenhagen, Warsaw and Chicago!). How does an independent directorial debut set entirely within the bowels of Budapest's subway system become such an international sensation? For starters, by being one of the most exciting and ingenious genre hybrids to come along in quite some time: imagine a seedy but pulse-pounding fusion of Jim Jarmusch and Run Lola Run infused with a peculiarly Eastern European mordant wit, and you would be about halfway there. Writer-director Nimrod Antal's film unfolds exclusively in Budapest's subways and subterranean stations, focusing on a group of ragged ticket attendants routinely assigned the city's worst routes. Weary Bulcsu (Sandor Csanyi) leads the group, as they patrol the underground and routinely battle with belligerent passengers . . . though Bulcsu is more interested in the beautiful, enigmatic young woman who rides the rails clad in a bear suit. But soon Bulcsu has more grave concerns: a hooded killer is stalking the subway lines, murdering passengers by pushing them in front of trains. A feast of pure heady cinematic energy and pokerfaced humor, Kontroll's reputation as an international crowd-pleaser is only bound to expand with its screenings here. (Hungarian with English subtitles) -- Travis Crawford

it's like good will hunting but not as good. it's like clerks sorta but not as good. it's like an overhyped movie but not as good. very disappointingly boring.

it's just blah and unremarkable. maybe i don't get hungarian humor. or filmmaking. 7.1/10.0.

film festival: oldboy

copy and paste:

This jaw-dropping revenge thriller from the director of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance took home the Cannes festival's Grand Prix award.

Oldboy is the ultimate Danger After Dark film. Astonishing in its inventive visual approach and merciless in its shocking narrative trajectory, this new film from Park Chan-wook (whose previous work Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance took this festival's Jury Award for Best Film two years ago) is the pinnacle of international genre cinema. Apparently Quentin Tarantino and his Cannes fest jury agreed: they gave Oldboy the Grand Prix award. Every scene in Park's film contains surprises, yet they are integrated into a fully conceptualized whole, and one is left floored by the degree of creativity on display. Adapted from a Japanese manga, the story is a neo-noir revenge thriller that plays like Prisoner of Zenda filtered through post-Fight Club sensibilities: family man Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is abducted and imprisoned by unknown forces, held captive without explanation for fifteen years. Upon his eventual release, Dae-su must reintegrate into a world now unfamiliar to him and learn why he was mysteriously incarcerated for so many years. With the help of a young woman he meets, Mido (Gang Hye-jung), Dae-su traces his torment to the wealthy Woo-jin (Yoo Ji-tae) but Dae-su can't recall ever wronging, or even knowing, Woo-jin. Yet there is a connection between the two men and the worst is yet to come. Park is at the peak of his game with Oldboy, and the results are unparalleled. To paraphrase an old Tarantino statement: to just say that Park knows how to make a good thriller is like saying Michelangelo knows how to paint a ceiling. Essential. (Korean with English subtitles) -- Travis Crawford

awesomeness++. this was one fucked up movie that stays with you long after you leave the theater. very gruelsome not for the faint hearted. a lot of omgwtf.

wonderful direction and cinematography. the 'hammer fight' scene stands out because it was one long amazing continous panning shot. just awesome.

anyway, this is a must see. 4.8/5.0.

film festival: arahan

copy+paste:

Adrenaline-pumping contemporary urban martial arts eye-candy from Korea, as a bullied young cop discovers he is actually a secret ch'i master.

With a slam-bang visual style that's every bit as exciting and hyper-kinetic as the movie's gravity-defying martial arts sequences, Arahan is action cinema as pure adrenaline rush yet the film is also quite clever and funny, lending it a degree of warmth and wit that elevates it above similar turbo-charged genre offerings. Director Ryoo Seung-wan always finds the humor within the film's non-stop barrage of impressive action setpieces, and this gives Arahan an additional layer of charm amidst the admittedly stellar fights and special effects on display. Bullied and frustrated Seoul beat cop Sang-hwan falls for the beautiful, mysterious Eui-jin, who seems to possess extraordinary martial arts abilities. Soon Eui-jin's mentors, the elderly Seven Masters, inform Sang-hwan that he too is actually a destined ch'i master with hidden abilities that can be brought out through training. Partially to get closer to Eui-jin, Sang-hwan takes up training with them and, after initial setbacks, he soon finds himself able to leap great heights, shoot ch'i energy from his palms, and perform other astonishing feats that confirm his position as a new master . . . and just in time, as a renegade exiled master has returned to wreak evil havoc unless Sang-hwan and Eui-jin can stop him. Old-school purists be damned: Arahan is a wirework and CGI effects spectacle all the way, but the results are exhilarating fun. Asiaphile critic Tony Rayns compared director Ryoo's style on Arahan to Evil Dead-turned-Spiderman auteur Sam Raimi, and the analogy is apt: both keep the action moving at breakneck speed, and both are driven to deliver maximum entertainment for your moviegoing buck. (Korean with English subtitles) -- Travis Crawford

a big bag of meh. cool fighting. cliche plot. koreans yelling at each other. 6.4/10.0.

i'm so sick

i'm dying! XX(

i hate you so much, electronic arts

this looks interesting enough to make me buy madden 2006.

i need to dump madden 2005... and 2004...

football season never ends

it's like christmas!


Date Opponent Time Network
Aug. 15 @ Steelers 8 PM ESPN*
Aug. 20 @ Ravens TBA ETN
Aug. 26 Bengals 7:30 PM ETN
Sept. 1 NY Jets 7:30 PM ETN

2005 Regular Season
Date Opponent Time Network
Sept. 12 @Falcons 9 p.m. ABC*
Sept. 18 49ers 1 p.m. FOX
Sept. 25 Raiders 1 p.m. CBS
Oct. 2 @Chiefs 1 p.m. FOX
Oct. 9 @Cowboys 4:15 p.m. FOX*
Oct. 16 BYE
Oct. 23 Chargers 1 p.m. CBS
Oct. 30 @Broncos 4:15 p.m. FOX*
Nov. 6 @Redskins 8:30 p.m. ESPN*
Nov. 14 Cowboys 9 p.m. ABC*
Nov. 20 @Giants 1 p.m. FOX
Nov. 27 Packers 4:15 p.m. FOX*
Dec. 5 Seahawks 9 p.m. ABC*
Dec. 11 Giants 4:05 p.m. FOX
Dec. 18 @Rams 4:15 p.m. FOX*
Dec. 24 @Cardinals 4:05 p.m. FOX
Jan. 1 Redskins 4:15 p.m. FOX


edit: 148 days until season kickoff.

tilex is so awesome

after taking a shower, just spray some on the shower tile, tub, and curtain. it has a mild alcohol solution/disinfectant that keeps stuff from growing on surfaces. that means you don't have to scrub the shower so often.

:D

this stuff works great. i'm on my second bottle (one bottle lasts about a month or so).

cameron, don't leave!

:'(

YOU SHOULD'VE STOPPED HER FROM LEAVING, HOUSE.

film festival: spider forest

film festival text:

An enigmatic mystery that follows a tormented car accident survivor haunted by visions of murder, this dreamlike thriller is a challenging audience puzzle.

You may be completely seduced by it, or you may be completely confounded (or, more than likely, both), but at the very least, it's unlikely you've seen anything quite like the boldly experimental thriller Spider Forest. Director Song Il-gon follows up his acclaimed 2001 debut Flower Island with this strange, mesmerizing mystery that presents the fragmented remnants of one man's violent, tragic past as puzzle pieces that each audience member must collate and interpret. The result is a complex meditation on memory and grief that plays like an Asian ghost story as filtered through Alain Robbe-Grillet. Regaining consciousness following an auto accident, television news producer Min (Kam Woo-sung) tells his police detective friend that a couple was murdered in the forest where Min's crash occurred. There are indeed two bodies there . . . but what else does Min's disjointed memory recall? As his recollections gradually come back, Min reflects back on why he originally journeyed to that cottage in the woods, and how this relates to his wife's earlier death, a demise that Min foresaw in a vision. Are these events of a supernatural origin, or just psychological torment located entirely within Min's mind? Or both? As the mystery unravels, writer-director Song layers on additional narrative density and possible interpretations; Korean shockers like A Tale of Two Sisters look positively linear by comparison. This visually arresting thriller explores how loss and grief can shape one's consciousness, and its intricacies will leave you discussing and debating for days. (Korean with English subtitles) -- Travis Crawford


[23:45] will: what the fuck man
[23:46] will: i'm buying you a plane ticket to seoul
[23:46] will: and you're going to tell the director of 'spider forest' to write a fucking ending
[23:46] korean dave: lol
[23:46] will: what the fuck. the ending was nothing but frustration.
[23:47] will: there was no "ending"
[23:52] dave: so other than ending
[23:52] dave: how as it
[23:54] will: it was a good movie
[23:54] will: it's just that the plot became recursive as it went on. revealing more and more of the truth and hints.
[23:55] will: but the problem was that the truth and hints pointed back towards itself
[23:55] dave: lol
[23:55] will: i'm not quite sure what i saw
[23:58] will: i'm using part of this conversation for my spider forest blog


it was a good movie. like mulholland drive. excellent direction and production. kinda predictable from the start. lots of plot twists, turns, and little details make this really enjoyable to solve and piece together as the movie went on.

for my first time at the festival, there was no clapping at the end of the movie. just a lot of omgwtf$10lolwtf.

seriously, i need director notes or commentary or screenplay or cliffnotes or something. I NEED SOMEBODY SMARTER THAN ME TO INTERPRET THE MOVIE AND TELL ME WHAT THE DEAL IS. 3.92/5.0

quick film festival thoughts

i wish i had an all access badge. this waiting in line business is not for me. i got to murderball twenty minutes before it started and there was a huge half-block line.

i ended up walking from 2nd to 19th street last night after survive style 5+ at 12:30am or so because the 21 bus decided to stop running. it wasn't that bad. not really dangerous.

the film festival crowd is mostly college students, old people, hipsters, japanophiles, and movie nerds. interesting blend.

i got some looks from people when i wore my iron chef shirt to the survive style movie. i was not trying to make a statement. this was purely a laundry and clothing availability logistics situation. unlike those battle royale tshirt losers.

film festival: murderball

stolen copy from philly fests:

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at this year's Sundance Film Festival, this gripping film spends two years following the highly successful U.S. Paralympics rugby team on the road to the games in Athens.

Murderball, the former name given to quad rugby, is a highly competitive sport, played by men with keen minds and healthy egos, in supreme physical shape. They are all quadriplegics. All have lost the use of their legs and have limited use of their arms due to traumatic accidents and illnesses, but what they can control works perfectly. The testimony given by these guys is as frank as it gets: they relish talking about their prolific sex lives and enjoy comparing innovative lovemaking techniques. They play the game like gladiators in awesome, Mad Max-styled custom wheelchairs. Players get slammed hard, bounce out of their chairs, and quickly get righted and strapped back in. There is no time to feel sorry for oneself. This documentary has everything: thrilling competitions, grueling practices, hot romances, family melodrama, complicated lifelong friendships, hilarious moments and some of the most memorable characters in this year's festival. The rivalry that ensues between top-ranked Team USA (and its Captain, the scrappy Mark Zupan) and former team star Joe Soares, now the uber-demanding Coach of Team Canada, is exquisitely suspenseful. The matches are breathtaking, with exhilarating point-of-view shots filmed by cameras mounted on the chairs, and the material is expertly assembled by stylish, award-winning editing from Geoffrey Richman (formerly of Elkins Park) and Conor O'Neill. (English and Swedish with English subtitles) -- Jennifer Steinberg

awesome movie. this is a movie that everybody should watch and they'll be better for it. very entertaining and satisfying. the core of the movie was the stories of how these players lost the use of their legs and coped and adapted. i was expecting more murderball and less documentary but this still worked out very well. very funny at times and a little heart-breaking at the end. must watch. 5.0/5.0.

edit: one of the directors, the editor, and keith from the movie was there for q&a afterwards. very cool.

film festival: survival style 5+

stolen from festival copy:

Five fantastical tales of crime and mayhem intersect in this absurdist Japanese comedy that has more inventive storytelling and surreal imagery than a dozen Miike movies.

Wow. Cynics who think that cinematic storytelling has reached a dead end should sit themselves down in front of the mind-blowing and imaginative Survive Style 5+, a Japanese crime comedy that despite some post-Tarantino story elements actually has more in common with the inventive American comedies of the Kaufman/Gondry/Jonze camp. Initially the five paralleling storylines seem disparate, yet watching them ultimately intersect in inspired ways is one of the film's innumerable pleasures: a husband (the ubiquitous Tadanobu Asano) tries to repeatedly kill and bury his wife, but she keeps returning, even more indestructible; three young burglars break into houses and get into trouble; a London hitman travels through Japan with his interpreter/employer, continually asking people what function they serve in life; attending a hypnotist's performance with his family, a salaryman becomes permanently convinced he's actually a bird; and a driven advertising director has to reexamine her life after her increasingly hysterical ideas for television commercials are rejected. First-time feature director Gen Sekiguchi actually was Japan's leading (and award-winning) director of commercials, and he brings a stunning visual style to the film (the production design makes Wes Anderson's films look like social realism) as well as a completely boundless, anarchic approach to cinema's possibilities: you never have any idea where Survive Style 5+ is headed from minute to minute, and the trip is as riotously funny as it is unpredictable. Like most wholly original films, Survive is a bit difficult to summarize, so just take our word for it and see it, OK? (Japanese with English subtitles) -- Travis Crawford

this was a great movie. very weird and unpredictable, let me tell you. very funny, a lot of wtflol moments. the art style and vision was wonderful, excellent camera work. it dragged on a little bit with slow pacing, i guess that's the japanese directing style, but it moved crisply between the storylines. i wish they tied up some of the storylines a little better though. highly recommended, 4.5/5.0.

<3 sa tard water <3

re: sin city

neat.

not work safe: bewbs.

sin city

sin city was crazy. crazy good.

very twisted. it felt like it ran too long though.

seems like castration was one of its central themes though. a very unhealthy fixation.

also <3 alba <3

you know what's awesome

when you're watching the news and they're live at the crime scene downtown or at the court house or something, and you're like "damn, let me get my shoes on and dance live behind dan quasar on the 11 o'clock news."

my good friends

at shyturtle.net have a nifty new design. i wish i was talented.

just to let the three of you readers know.

edit: there's a one armed teenage girl surfing on abc now. shark attack survivor. a+.

i am so smart

:idea:

to counter the feedback spam, i've coded in a new required field you have to fill in. just put in 1234 or whatever and your feedback will be posted.

i'm guessing that the automated spam programs won't know what to do with the spam text field. it being required and all.

muhahahahaha.

:idea:

film festival

Survive Style 5+ -- 2005-04-09 22:00:00 -- Ritz East Theater 1


Murderball -- 2005-04-10 16:45:00 -- Ritz at the Bourse


Spider Forest -- 2005-04-11 21:30:00 -- Prince Music Theater


Arahan -- 2005-04-15 22:00:00 -- Ritz East Theater 1


Oldboy -- 2005-04-16 16:45:00 -- The Bridge


Kontroll -- 2005-04-18 21:30:00 -- The Bridge

spam

i'm getting tons of spam in the comments.

i need to fix this.

i like these shoes

maybe i'll get around to ordering them

kmart

do you know who is at kmart at 11am on a sunday? the unemployed and the unemployable. (and me, i guess.)

&lt;3 sa &lt;3

i haven't laughed this hard in ages.

wut

Traditional Vatican turns to e-mail to announce pope's death

The pope's death marks the beginning of a carefully scripted ritual that culminates in the election of a new leader for the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics.

It starts with a formal deathbed pronouncement in Latin, that the pope is "truly" dead.

The Vatican's chamberlain, now Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo of Spain, verifies the papal death -- which in the past was done by striking the pope's forehead with a silver hammer. The chamberlain, or camerlengo, then calls out to the pope three times by his baptismal name. When the pope does not respond, the camerlengo then announces "the pope is dead."

He destroys the symbols of the pope's authority: the fisherman's ring and the dies used to make lead seals for apostolic letters. He seals off the pope's bedroom and study, takes charge of the Holy See's property and arranges the funeral and the conclave at which the College of Cardinals will elect a new pope.

*shrug* |-| well who am i to judge?

it is sad to see the pope go. being only 24 years old, he was my first pope. seemed like a nice guy. didn't agree with everything though. wouldn't have minded playing some mario kart with him. his 1979 1 million person mass did take place a block from my apt which is kinda interesting. he'll be alright.

start grabbing two of each animals

why am i posting so much today?

because it's raining and i have nowhere to go!

so what do i like on my ipod? i've been into indie rock lately.

• Arcade Fire "Funeral"
• Wilco "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
• Elliot Smith "Elliot Smith"
• The Shins "Chutes Too Narrow"
• William Shatner "Has Been"
• Franz Ferdinand "Franz Ferdinand"
• Mars Volta "Frances the Mute"
• Jack Johnson "In Between Dreams"
• Pavement "Terror Twilight"

edit

just finished splinter cell 2. omg. the ending cutscene, or lack thereof, sucked though. back to half.com you go.

also my previous post forgot the new zelda game. go gamecube go!

some videogame odds and ends

the sony psp is indeed hot portable game eyeball sex. dynasty warriors psp is poop though.

nintendo: i will buy your ds if you can get me mario kart and advance wars. like now. kthx.

splinter cell 2: pandora tomorrow is pretty awesome. it's like an excellent ten hour action movie. too bad it's kind of short. can't wait to pick up splinter cell 3.

madden 2006 is set for august 9th. i'm not sure i want to spend $50 on an updated roster. plz justify your existence, madden 2006.

i'm planning to get a new cellphone this summer. tmobile, i'll require a successor to my nokia 8390.

i'm excited about the new halo 2 map downloads. specifically, more rifle butt to the back of the head. XX(

the omega strawberry

i just made a smoothie out of a strawberry so big, it could only be described as a large abnormal cancerous growth of strawberriness. i think it had teeth.